INTERNATIONAL Tuesday, August 12, 2025 | Vol. 68 No. 266 | 30 Pages YOUTH DAY Reg.No MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 400001 THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL INDIA EDITION | www.freepressjournal.in ● Leader in E-paper circulation GAMES NATION Shashi Tharoor indicates softening of US stance on imposition of 25% additional tariff on India Harmanpreet Kaur wants India to break its ICC trophy drought during women’s ODI WC Cinema ‘Will slit his throat’: Kamal Haasan gets death threat Edit Indian election circus: Alas! If only Seshan was around VOTE-THEFT PROTEST | Several MPs detained; some faint as cops block march to Parliament citing lack of permission Drama as Opposition marches against SIR Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI Briefs Police guard Kapil Sharma Mumbai Police have deployed security for comedian-actor Kapil Sharma after repeated firing incidents at his Canada café. On August 8, shots were fired at Kap’s Café in Surrey for the second time since July 10. An audio clip claiming Lawrence Bishnoi gang involvement is under verification, with police stressing that over half of such social media posts may be fake or AI-generated. Authorities visited Sharma’s Oshiwara home earlier and declined to reveal if his family is under protection. The café, which opened on July 4, remains operational, with police assuring precautions are in place to prevent any untoward incidents. Maharashtra grants DA hike The Devendra Fadnavis govern-ment has approved a 3% Dear-ness Allowance hike for Maharashtra’s 1.6 million em-ployees, effective July 1, 2024. The increase raises DA from 50% to 53%, with arrears for July 2024–January 2025 to be paid in February, costing over ₹1,200 crore. Employee unions had threatened to protest on March 6 if demands weren’t met. In a separate move, the state sanc-tioned an additional 2% DA for employees and pensioners, tak-ing the total to 55%, effective Ja-nuary 2025. While welcome news for workers, the combined hikes will significantly strain the state’s annual salary and pension bill of ₹2.5 lakh crore. The 2% DA hike will burden the state with ₹1,700 crore between January 2025 and March 2026. 55% of Indian exports hit About 55% of India’s merchandise exports to the US will face the steep tariff imposed by the Trump administration, the government said. Minister of state for finance Pankaj Chaudhary said the estimate factored in Trump’s earlier tariff, adding that the Commerce Department was consulting exporters and industry on the impact. SEE MONEY The Delhi Police on Monday detained a large number of Opposition MPs as they staged a protest march from Parliament to the Election Commission of India (ECI) office—about a kilometre away—against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar and alleged discrepancies and “voter fraud” in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and subsequent Assembly polls. The march began around noon, with Opposition members—who have been protesting against the SIR since the start of the Monsoon Session on July 21— walking from Parliament towards the EC office while raising slogans and holding placards. Placards bore messages such as “Vote chori nahin chalegi, nahin chalegi” (vote theft will not be allowed), “Gareeb ke vote ko hatana hai, SIR to bahana hai” (deleting the poor’s vote is the aim, SIR is just the excuse) and “Why is EC destroying video evidence?” 4Contd on | nation 4See also | nation Minister’s remarks cost him his job Vinay Madhava Gowda BENGALURU In what appears to be sweet revenge for Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, Karnataka Cooperation Minister K N Rajanna was forced to resign following directions from the Congress high command. Rajanna’s reported loose remarks on the #Votechori protest, led by the Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi, proved costly for the outspoken Scheduled Tribe (ST) leader. Over the past two years, Rajanna had repeatedly embarrassed the party, particularly Shivakumar. PIGEON FEEDING SC dismisses plea against HC order FPJ News Service NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea challenging a Bombay High Court order that stopped the feeding of pigeons at Mumbai’s traditional ‘kabutarkhanas’ and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file criminal cases against those violating its directives, Live Law reports. A bench of Justices J K Maheshwari and Vijay Bishnoi said it would not intervene in the matter, observing that “parallel indulgence” by the apex court was improper. The court told the petitioners they could approach the High Court to seek a modification of its order. The case began after animal lovers and activists challenged the BMC’s demolition of decades-old kabutarkha- nas, or pigeon feeding spots, starting July 3. The petitioners Pallavi Patil, Sneha Visaria and Savita Mahajan argued that the civic body’s actions violated the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Initially, the High Court had restrained the BMC from demolishing any heritage kabutarkhanas. However, it refused to allow the feeding of pigeons, citing the grave health hazards posed by large congregations of the birds. 4Contd on | nation 4See also | city MP court typo leads to murder-accused mixup FPJ News Service MUMBAI In the legal world, where every word is weighed with care, a single typo can topple more than just grammar. This week, the Madhya Pradesh High Court found itself in a judicial blooper reel after an “oops” moment led to a murder accused being granted bail instead of being firmly told to stay put behind bars. The mix-up emerged on August 8, when a lawyer for one of the co-accused sheepishly informed the Court that the outcomes of two connected bail pleas had been… well, swapped. The accused who was supposed to get bail had been refused, while the one who was meant to be refused had been given the green light to freedom. Think of it as accidentally serving dessert to the A bail order mixup leaves Madhya Pradesh High Court red-faced after swapping ‘yes’ and ‘no’ for murder suspects wrong table—except the “dessert” here was temporary liberty for someone accused of murder reported Bar and Bench. The incident traces back to a July 2024 assault in which three men allegedly attacked another man, causing his death. Two accused, Halke and Dharmendra, allegedly used sticks, while a third, Ashok, reportedly landed a fatal stone blow to the victim’s chest. Both Halke and Ashok applied for bail, and their petitions were listed together. On August 7, the Court, in all earnestness, granted Halke bail, stating the usual legal disclaimer of “no opinion on merits.” Meanwhile, in a separate order, Ashok’s bail plea was dismissed on account of “gravity of the offence” and “nature of allegations.” So far, so good. Except, not so good. The very next day, Ashok’s lawyer dropped the plot twist: the bail orders had been switched. Halke’s granted bail was meant to be denied, and Ashok’s denied bail was meant to be granted. This was less “justice is blind” and more “justice accidentally swapped her spectacles.” Justice Rajesh Kumar Gupta quickly hit the judicial ‘undo’ button, recalling both orders. 4Contd on | nation He is the second minister from the Siddaramaiah cabinet to step down, both from the ST community. Earlier, Tribal Development and Youth Empowerment Minister B Nagendra resigned after being arrested for the illegal transfer of funds from the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribe De- SC ORDERS STRAYS OFF DELHI ROADS FPJ News Service NEW DELHI The Supreme Court on Monday calling the stray dog menace in the national capital “extremely grim,” directed the Delhi government, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), and civic bodies in Noida, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad to immediately start removing stray dogs from all localities and shift them to shelters. The court made it clear that no captured dog should be released back onto the streets. The court ordered that dog shelters be set up within eight weeks to initially house around 5,000 dogs. The suo motu case was initiated on July 28 after the court took note of a media report on rising dog bite incidents in Delhi, some leading to rabies deaths. 4Contd on | nation velopment Corporation to a private bank in Andhra Pradesh and then to an account in Hyderabad. On Friday, the Congress had organised a rally led by Rahul Gandhi against the Karnataka Election Commission, alleging #Votechori. 4Contd on | nation STALIN ADDS VOICE TO ‘VOTE CHORI’ N Chithra CHENNAI Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin on Monday charged the BJP has turned the Election Commission into its poll rigging machinery. Citing Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s claim on “vote theft”, Stalin in a post on X said what happened in Bengaluru’s Mahadevapura is not an administrative lapse, “it is a calculated conspiracy to steal the people’s mandate.” According to him, the “vote theft” proof presented by Gandhi exposes the scale of this fraud. “We demand the immediate release of complete machine readable voter roll for every state; an end to politically driven deletions; and an independent probe into this subversion of our democracy,” he said, adding DMK “stands shoulder to shoulder in this fight.” Six months before the elections, the provisional voter list will be with us, and we must verify if the list is proper or not. We have failed in our duty. K N Rajanna, Cooperation Minister, Karnataka ‘N sabre-rattling is Pak stock-in-trade’ REGRETTABLE | MEA slams Pak Army chief’s threats to India, rues remarks made from American soil Ashwin Ahmad NEW DELHI India on Monday issued a sharp rebuttal to remarks made by Pakistan’s Army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir. Munir, who is on his second visit to the US in less than two months, was reported to have issued a nuclear threat against India a day earlier. In a strong statement, the Ministry of External Affairs said that “nuclear sabre-rattling is Pakistan's stock-intrade,” and added that it was regrettable that “these remarks should have been made from the soil of a friendly third country.” According to an exclusive report in the Print, Munir said Islamabad would take “half the world down” if confronted with a threat from India. “We are a nuclear nation. If we think we are going down, we’ll take half the world down with us.” Munir made the remarks at a black-tie dinner in Tampa, Florida, hosted by Pakistan’s honorary consul Adnan Asad. 4Contd on | nation 4See also | city US done funding Kyiv: Vance Washington AGENCIES Days before a highstakes Alaska summit between the US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, US Vice President JD Vance has made clear that Washington is stepping back from directly funding Ukraine’s war effort, urging Europe to shoulder more of the financial burden. “We’re done with the fund- ing of the Ukraine war business. We want to bring about a peaceful settlement to this thing. We want to stop the killing.” Vance told Fox News’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures, as reported by The Hill. “Americans, I think, are sick of continuing to send their money, their tax dollars, to this particular conflict. 4Contd on | nation 4See also | world Modi speaks to Zelenskyy PM Modi on Monday spoke to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and conveyed to him India's commitment to making every possible contribution for a peaceful solution to the conflict. Modi said he conveyed India's consistent position on the need for an early resolution of the conflict. Canberra Australia will formally recognise a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly in September, with New Zealand signalling it may also follow suit. The move aligns Australia with countries such as the UK, France and Ca- nada that have recently made similar announcements. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the decision came after securing commitments from the Palestinian Authority (PA) to demilitarise, hold general elections and continue to recognise Israel’s right to exist. “A two-state solution is humanity’s best hope to break the Media reports suggested that Indian diplomats in Pakistan are being denied basic amenities. Quoting government sources, the reports claim that gas facilities are being withheld from Indian officials. Why Munir chose US? Indian diplomats believe Pakistan Army chief Munir’s remarks were done for a specific reason. Former Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad believes the remarks were deliberately made to reach out to US President Trump. “Munir’s bid was to emphasise the threat that India’s aggressiveness poses to not just Pakistan but global security. Therefore, he is emphasising that there is every need for the US to confront Indian aggressiveness,” he said. Version war after AI flight diverted N Chithra CHENNAI cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza,” Albanese said on Monday. He added that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas had assured him Hamas would play no role in any future state. Congress MP from Kerala K C Venugopal on Sunday midnight said an Air India flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi (AI 2455) carrying him, several MPs, and other passengers “came frighteningly close to tragedy” before making a safe landing in Chennai after circling for two hours. According to Venugopal, the incident occurred late Sunday night. In a post on X around midnight, he said what began as a delayed departure turned into a “harrowing journey.” Shortly after take-off, the flight encountered “unprecedented turbulence.” About an hour later, the captain announced a flight signal fault and diverted the aircraft to Chennai. 4Contd on | nation 4Contd on | nation Oz set to recognise Palestine AGENCIES Diplomats targeted?