KOCHI l monday l august 04, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE city EDITION pm modi, Amit Shah meet President separately meeting amid logjam in parliament on s.i.r. This was the first meeting of the PM with the President after his recent visit to the United Kingdom and the Maldives manipur president’s rule extension The meetings came against the backdrop of the logjam in Parliament over the Opposition’s demand for a discussion on the poll roll revision exercise in Bihar ahead of assembly elections. Except discussions in both Houses on Operation Sindoor, Parliament has seen no business since Monsoon session started on July 21 ■ Sources said Shah’s meeting could be regarding a resolution on President’s rule extension in Manipur, which the Lok Sabha passed last week but the Rajya Sabha is yet to discuss it ■ Shah’s meeting with the President could also be related to the likely Cabinet reshuffle, sources said | P7 July 21 Meetings come 2 weeks after jagdeep dhankar resigned as vice president 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 BJP faces Sangh parivar heat over release of nuns from C’garh jail E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @Kozhikode In a major embarrassment to the BJP leadership, strong reactions are pouring in from senior Sangh parivar leaders against the way the party handled the issue related to Chhattisgarh police’s arrest of two Malayali nuns for alleged forcible conversion and human trafficking. What irked them is Kerala BJP leadership’s posture that their intervention had helped the nuns get bail. The nuns were arrested on July 25 after the intervention of Bajrang Dal workers and were granted bail by the NIA court in Bilaspur on Saturday . BJP state president Rajeev Chandrasekhar was active in the efforts to get them released from jail. “We don’t need police and courts. Political leaders who anticipate votes will decide as to who the culprits are,” Swami Chidananda Puri, founder of the Advaita Ashram in Kolathur, near Kozhikode, said in a Facebook post. Expressing dismay, Hindu Aikya Vedi leader K P Sasikala said withdrawing cases and concluding legal procedure amounted to insulting the legal system. Taking to Facebook, she said there were no godfathers when cases were slapped on leaders including her during the Sabarimala agitations. People like S J R Kumar, T P Senkumar, K Surendran and K S Radhakrishnan faced around one thousand cases at the time, she said. “We didn’t approach anyone to withdraw the cases and will not do so in future too,” Sasikala said. Senkumar, a former state police chief, was more sarcastic in his remark. “It was the Herculean task of Kerala BJP president Rajeev Chandrasekhar and his team that fetched bail for the nuns. We can expect their help in getting the case quashed,” he wrote on Face● More on P4 book. DEFICIenT RAINFALL IN A THIRD OF DISTRICTS About a third of districts across India have reported weak monsoon, a cause for concern, with Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Telangana, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and TN among them | P7 EC issues notice to Tejashwi on voter card slur To RJD leader’s claims of fraud in poll roll, EC asks him to submit his EPIC card tion suggests that the EPIC number you mentioned at @ Patna/New Delhi the press conference on August 2 was not issued offiA day after leader of Opposi- cially. You are therefore retion in Bihar assembly Tejas- quested to hand over the hwi Prasad Yadav claimed EPIC card in original for dethat his name was missing tailed investigation.” from the draft electoral roll, The RJD leader, thereafElection Commister, alleged that sion of India (ECI) his EPIC number on Sunday issued h a d b e e n a notice to him “changed”, but asking him to District Magis‘hand over for intrate Thiyagaraja vestigation’ a votS M repudiated his er ID card that he claim.“The EPIC claimed to be in number in the possession of deelectoral rolls is spite the EC not isthe one that was EC says PC’s suing it officially . submitted by the views false Tejashwi on Satleader of the oppoFormer Union urday had demonsition in his affidaminister P strated an online vit in 2020 assemquery, with the Chidambaram on X bly polls. If he has said 6.5 lakh EPIC number, to another EPIC card migrants were cl a i m t h at h i s with another name was missing being registered as number as well, it voters in Tamil in the draft elecis a matter of intoral rolls pub- Nadu after 65 lakh vestigation,” the were lished as part of DM said. special intensive disenfranchised in In Patna, spokesBihar. The EC revision (SIR) and, persons Ajay Alok dismissed his upon rebuttal from (BJP), Neeraj Kuclaims as false authorities conmar (JDU) and cer ned, alle ged Rajesh Bhatt (LJP) that his voter ID card demanded that a case be regnumber was ‘changed’. istered against the RJD leadIn a letter addressed to the er. At a press conference in former deputy CM, the Sub New Delhi on Sunday, BJP Divisional Magistrate of spokesperson Sambit Patra Patna Sadar-cum-electoral asked,“If a senior party registration officer for Digha leader like Yadav carries assembly constituency said, two voter IDs, what will the “Our preliminary investiga- party workers be doing?” r a m a s h a n k a r & RA J E SH KUMAR THAKUR ‘Train SC filmmakers’: Adoor remark sparks row E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ T’Puram D i r ect o r Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s remarks over extending financial support to Scheduled Caste (SC) and women filmmakers sparked a controversy at the closing ceremony of the Kerala Film Policy Conclave in Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday . Speaking at the event, Adoor criticised the Kerala State Film Development Corporation (KSFDC) for providing what he termed excessive funding to directors from the SC community . “Those from SC backgrounds should be given at least three months of training under experienced filmmakers before being supported. The `1.5-crore grant should be split among Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Finance Minister K N Balagopal, lyricistdirector Sreekumaran Thampi and Cultural Affairs Minister Saji Cherian during the valedictory of Kerala Film Policy Conclave in Thiruvananthapuram | B P Deepu three people, rather than funding one project. Government money shouldn’t be used just because the film has a superstar or simply because the director is a woman,” Adoor said. Further, he claimed that many Senior Army officer booked for assaulting SpiceJet staff F aya z W a n i @ Srinagar THE Jammu and Kashmir police have booked a senior officer of the Indian Army for allegedly assaulting four SpiceJet staff at the Srinagar airport last week, causing a spinal fracture to an airline staff. The Army has pledged full cooperation in the investigation while the airline has started the process to place the army officer on the no-fly list. The incident took place on July 26 when Lt Colonel Ritesh Kumar Singh, posted at High Altitude Warfare School in Gulmargm, was trying to board SpiceJet flight SG-386 from Srinagar to Delhi allegedly with excess cabin baggage. “The passenger was carrying two pieces of cabin baggage Videograb of the passenger assaulting a SpiceJet employee at the Srinagar airport on July 26 | Express weighing a total of 16 kg, more than double the permitted limit of 7 kg,” read a SpiceJet statement. It said the passenger became aggressive when the airline staff flagged the excess baggage and asked him to pay the applicable charges. The army officer refused and forcefully entered the aerobridge Series on ice: Fitting final day awaits TNIE in England Firoz Mirza @london THE weather Gods didn’t want this series to end. Not yet anyway And, so, this . mind-bending, narrative-shattering, finger-nail chewing fivematch Test series will go into a 25th bum-squelching day. And who would blame them? It’s been that kind of a series. A man with a broken finger came out to bowl. A man with a broken foot came out to bat. And, late on Sunday, a man with a dislocated shoulder, arm very much in a sling—Chris Woakes—was prepared to come out and bat. In the middle, the Jamies, Smith and Overton, were involved in a dogfight against, really a trio of heroic pacers who , kept going and going and going. At least one of them had to take a painkilling injection. At least one of them wore a knee brace before discarding it because it was affecting their run-up. What’s a couple of dodgy ligaments when a potential trade off is a famous come-from-behind win to level the series. India go to bed needing four more wickets to ensure there is something tangible to show from Shubman Gill’s first assignment as captain. England go to bed needing 35 more runs. And boy was Sunday a right old , scrap between two flawed sides giving it their all, their wounded bodies and tired minds ig- noring the pain threshold. Harr y B r o o k a n d Jo e Ro o t coruscating 195-run, thrill-aminute stand had seemingly sucked out all the oxygen from the Indian team. But after they fell, India roared back. It’s what has kept them alive going into the final day of a series that will long be remembered irrespective of the result. India’s Prasidh Krishna and Mohammed Siraj (C) celebrate Joe Root’s wicket with teammates on Sunday | ap healing touch ‘2-rupee doc’ who dedicated his life to serving humanity J i t h u l N a r aya n a n @ Kannur Dr Ryru Gopal was more than just a healer. He touched hearts with his genuineness and ethical approach to what he saw as his calling. In an era when the medical profession has come to be viewed as a money-spinning machine, it would do well to understand the beliefs and values that Kannur’s ‘two-rupee doctor’ espoused. Marking the end of an era defined by selfless service and humility Dr Ryru passed away at , his home in Thana, Kannur, in the early hours of Sunday. He was 80. Dr Ryru, who did his MBBS from Kozhikode Medical College, worked briefly in a hospi- Dr Ryru Gopal tal in Kannur, and thereafter opened a clinic in Talap, where he served the community for 35 years before moving to Thana. Patients used to line up at his Talap clinic where Dr Ryru would start his regular 12-hour workdays at 4am. On most days, he would see more than 200 patients. He charged just `2 as consultation fee for nearly half a century before he increased it , to `10. Narayanan K, a resident of Kakkad, recounted how he would take the first bus to the clinic to get a token. “He used to prescribe quality medicine that was also pocket-friendly It . was perhaps his vast experience that made his very consultation feel like a form of healing in itself,” he said.Legend has it that bus services added a stop at Dr Ryru’s clinic, near the police ground in Kannur town, to facilitate patients. “Father always gave importance to the ethics of his profession, which he believed was a service and not a money-making business. He used to say that if you want to make money of the films funded under the initiative lacked quality and artistic value. Minister for Cultural Affairs Saji Cherian, while presenting a report on the two-day conclave, rebutted Adoor’s state- do some other business,” said Bala Gopal, his son. Dr Ryru is also survived by his wife, Sakuntala, and daughter, Vidhya Bharath. Beyond his medical profession, Ryru was a passionate animal lover who kept several pets, including dogs and cows. He personally tended to the cows, often milking them himself in the early morning hours. “Many people visited his clinic solely to consult with him, believing that just speaking with him brought them a sense of comfort and reassurance. It was never his intention to make money and he dedicated himself to the service of humanity,” said Indira P, deputy mayor of Kannur. For half a century, he (Dr Ryru Gopal) charged only L2 for consultation. His willingness to serve people was a great relief to poor patients Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister without completing the boarding process in violation of aviation security protocols. The officer was escorted back to the gate by a CISF official. “At the gate, the passenger grew aggressive and physically assaulted members of the SpiceJet ground staff,” the SpiceJet said, adding the officer kicked, punched and beat its employees with a queue stand. Visuals of the assault, which went viral on social, showed the officer charging at the ground staff. A SpiceJet employee could be seen bleeding from his face while another injured staff member was seen crying in pain. An FIR was filed at Budgam police station under Sections 115(2), 126(2), 351(2), and 131 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. ments. He said the filmmakers were selected by an expert committee based on merit and their work reflects deep social and creative commitment. “The fact is that people from the SC communities were kept out of mainstream cinema for nearly a century. The government’s decision to support them is both timely and essential. This is the first time many of them are getting to direct a film. We have also taken steps to empower women and recognise transgender artists,” the minister said. The government will not backtrack on its inclusive film policy he stressed. , “This is a conscious decision to correct historical imbalances. We will continue to provide support,” he said.  ● More on P4 express read Guv asks govt to start VC selection process T’Puram: Ruling out a rethink on his appointment of temporary vice-chancellors in APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) and Digital University Kerala (DUK), Governor Rajendra Arlekar has informed the government that the process of selecting permanent VCs in all universities could commence at the earliest. P5 Green hydrogen ferry set for Varanasi ‘voyage’ Kochi: The first-ever green hydrogen ferry in the country, built by the Cochin Shipyard Ltd, has received the Indian Register of Shipping (IRS) approval, paving the way for the deployment of the 50-passenger capacity vessel that boasts of zero pollution, in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh. It has completed the sixmonth trial runs in Varanasi. P5