Biden pardons his son Hunter US President Joe Biden issued ‘a full and unconditional pardon’ to Hunter Biden, arguing that he was singled out only because he was his son. Hunter was convicted early this year on federal gun and tax charges and was set to appear soon in Delon, California, where he faced the potential of prison sentences. Biden said the charges in his cases came about only after several of his political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack him and oppose his election | P12 bengaluru l tuesday l december 03, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 20 l late city EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Oppn, govt find common ground, Parl logjam ends Consensus emerges to hold discussions on Constitution in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha RA J E S H K U M AR T HA K UR @ New Delhi THE government and opposition parties on Monday agreed to break the week-long Parliament deadlock by holding a discussion on the Constitution to commemorate the 75th anniversary of its adoption. The breakthrough was achieved in a meeting of floor leaders of various parties with the Lok Sabha Speaker, where consensus emerged to let both Houses function smoothly from Tuesday onwards. It was also decided to hold debates on the Constitution in both Houses. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju later told reporters that the Lok Sabha would hold discussions on the Constitution on December 13 and 14, while the Rajya Sabha would conduct the debates on December 16 and 17. “The government has agreed to this,” Rijiju said, adding that he expected parliamentary proceedings to resume smoothly. Several opposition leaders who attended the meeting expressed similar optimism. Since the winter session started on November 25, both Houses have lost almost all working hours due to protests by opposition parties demanding discussions on various issues. The Congress has been particularly vocal about the indictment of Adani Group chairperson Gautam Adani and other company officials on charges of bribery and fraud by US prosecutors. In addition, intense opposition protests over issues such as the Sambhal violence and the unrest in Manipur have led to repeated adjournments in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. However, certain opposition parties, notably the Trinamool Congress, have prioritised other issues over the Adani controversy. They have called for debates on unemployment, price rises, and the Centre’s alleged bias against opposition-ruled states in fund allocation. Meanwhile, the BJP has accused the Congress of violating constitutional norms during its time in power. The BJP has also emphasised that the Narendra Modi government has upheld and strengthened constitutional principles during its tenure of over 10 years. Low food weightage in CPI under new base year Takht orders DI PA K M O NDA L @ New Delhi WITH the debate raging over weightage of food inflation in the Consumer Price Index (CPI), government sources said the weightage of food in the index would come down automatically once the new base year is adopted. The National Statistics Office is working on a new base year, which could be 202223 or 2023-24 and could kick in by late 2025 or early 2026. Currently, the government uses 2011-12 base year for inflation and GDP calculation. “The debate over the weightage of food items in CPI basket would be over once the new base year is adopted. The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey report of 2023-24 would be released in a few weeks. After that, we will decide on the base year,” said an official. According to the 2022-23 survey the share of food in house, hold consumption has fallen from 52.90% in 2011-12 to 46.4% in rural areas and from 46.62% to 39.17% in urban areas. The share of cereals from the consumption basket has fallen from 10.69% in 2011-12 to 4.89% in 2022-23 in rural areas and from 6.61% to 3.62% in urban. The 2023-24 survey saw further fall in the share of food items in the consumption basket. Currently food has a weight, age of 44.6% in the combined CPI. Cereals have a weightage of 10%. In October, the retail inflation crossed 6% after 14 months. On the question of why the real inflation for the common man feels much more than the official numbers released, an official said the government’s number is arrived at by taking price samples from over 2,500 urban and rural markets across all states, but the general perception of inflation is based on the experience of 4-5 metro cities. 13-year-old boy swallows balloon, dies near Haliyal E x p r ess Ne w s S e r v i c e @ Jogenkoppa (Uttara Kannada) Reading the ryot act Farmers from UP demanding compensation for their lands acquired by the government break through barricades, near Dalit Prerna Sthal in Noida on Monday | Parveen Negi A 13-year-old boy died of asphyxiation after he swallowed a balloon he was blowing at Jogenkoppa village in Haliyal taluk of Uttara Kannada district on Sunday night. The deceased has been identified as Naveen Narayan Belgaumkar. He was a Class VII stu- dent. The balloon got stuck in his throat when he was blowing it at his house in the evening. As he struggled to breathe, his parents and neighbours rushed him to the government hospital in Haliyal. Efforts of a team of doctors to save him went in vain. The boy died in the hospital a few hours after his admission. Haliyal police have registered a case. Ball set rolling for ‘election’ of Maha CM S u d h i r S u r ya w a n s h i @ Mumbai Setting the ball rolling to name its chief ministerial candidate, the BJP’s central parliamentary board on Monday appointed Union Finance Minister Nir mala Sitaraman and former chief minister of Gujarat Vijay Rupani as observers for the first legislative party meeting of the BJP in Maharashtra. The meeting expected on Wednesday would elect its leader, who would possibly take the oath of office as the new chief minister at a ceremony on Thursday at Azad Maidan here in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sources in the Shiv Sena said caretaker Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, NCP chief Ajit Pawar and BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis would get into a huddle in Mumbai on Monday and later fly to Delhi to finalise the power-sharing arrangement of the Mahayuti alliance with the BJP’s top leadership. However, no such meeting took place. Shinde, who had returned to Thane after a bout of infection from his native village, Daregaon, in Satara district, once again fell sick and reportedly did not meet even his party leaders on Monday . punishment for Sukhbir H a r p r eet B a j w a @ Chandigarh Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal was on Monday directed by the five high priests of the Akal Takht to perform as sewadar (guard) at the Golden Temple, wash utensils at the community kitchen and polish shoes of devotees there, as religious punishment for the ‘sins’ committed during his watch as party president between 2007 and 2017. His f at h e r Pa rk a s h Singh Badal was chief minister of a SAD-BJP coalition government during that period. The SAD was directed to accept Sukhbir’s resignation from presidentship of the party in three days and form a committee to hold fresh elections for SAD’s leadership within six months. The Takht set up a separate panel to oversee the whole process. express read Govt clears construction of 2 nuclear submarines New Delhi: The government has approved the construction of two indigenously designed nuclear attack submarines and is expected to ink contracts next month to procure 26 naval variant of Rafale jets and three Scorpene submarines, Navy Chief Admiral Dinesh Tripathi said on Monday.