Author Archives: TARIQ ABDULLAH

PTI

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, EAM S Jaishankar, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio during a joint press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.

(PTI)AGARTALA, May 26: A division bench of the Tripura High Court on Tuesday acquitted two persons, who were sentenced by a lower court to life term imprisonment for murdering a bank manager in 2019. Bodhisatwa Das, the then branch manager of a nationalised bank in North Tripura, was stabbed to death on August 3, 2019, following a brawl between the bank official and four persons, who were having a drinking session on the roadside. The District and Session court, West Tripura, found the four persons – Sumit Chowdhury, Sumit Banik, Sukanta Biswas and Omar Sharif – guilty and sentenced them to life term rigorous imprisonment in 2023. Challenging the lower court’s order, Sumit Chowdhury and Sumit Banik had approached the High Court of Tripura seeking reversal of the life sentence. “The division bench headed by Justice T Amarnath Goud on Tuesday acquitted both petitioners of the murder charge on the ground that the provision of common intention for the crime did not match this particular incident,” senior advocate Subrata Sarkar told reporters after the verdict. The high court rejected the review petition of Omar Sharif earlier, Sunakta Das has not yet approached the high court challenging the lower court’s verdict.

(PTI) CHENNAI, May 26: A fourth AIADMK MLA, again from the rebel camp led by C Ve Shanmugam-SP Velumani duo, on Tuesday resigned from the Tamil Nadu Assembly, bringing down the strength of the opposition party in the 234-member House to 43 from 47.In a significant development, some senior functionaries, including former ministers Viswanathan and Thangamani, from the rebel camp arrived at the residence of AIADMK chief Palaniswami here. It was immediately not known why they came to meet the party chief as speculations were abound about a possible rapprochement between the two groups. Another MLA from the rebel camp, Balakrishna Reddy, returned to the Palaniswami fold.

Ambasamudram MLA Esakki Subaya met Speaker Prabhakar and submitted his resignation letter, shortly after the Palaniswami-led faction called on the latter with a plea to not to accept the resignation of three AIADMK legislators who had stepped down on May 25.Prabhakar later said the resignation of Subaya was accepted.

‘NOT HEALTHY’: TVK ALLIES

TVK’s allies, the CPI and VCK, on Tuesday criticised the AIADMK members for resigning as MLAs and joining the ruling party, saying this was “not healthy politics”.CPI state secretary Shanmugam said the AIADMK MLAs resigning and joining the TVK is not conducive to healthy politics.”Although the resigned MLAs say that they joined the TVK on their own volition, it cannot be considered a natural act without expecting any repercussions. We point out that such a trend is not conducive to healthy politics,” Shanmugam said in a statement here.

PTI

BENGALURU, May 26: The Congress on Tuesday termed as “mere speculation” the talk about any leadership change in Karnataka and asserted that the day-long discussions between the central and state top brass were solely focused on the upcoming elections to the Rajya Sabha and the state’s Legislative Council.

Though Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had convened a meeting to decide party candidates for two elections, the point of interest remained the protracted leadership tussle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar, who were summoned to Delhi, and whether there would be any resolution.

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had arrived in the national capital accompanied by the MLAs supporting them.

At the core of the leadership tangle in the southern state is Shivakumar’s demand that he be elevated to the chief minister’s post in accordance with a “promise” which his supporters claim was made to him during state assembly elections in 2023.

The Congress’s central leadership held deliberations for several hours with its Karnataka state leaders, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who is also the state party chief, at the Indira Bhawan headquarters.

The party leaders, however, insisted that the issue of any leadership change was not discussed at the meeting attended by Congress president Kharge.

Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, AICC general secretary, Organisation, K C Venugopal and AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala, among others.

“Today, the entire discussion was only concentrated on the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections and (Legislative) Council elections of Karnataka.

“Whatever speculation you people are doing, that is only speculation, no reality at all.

Today we discussed about the Rajya Sabha seats and the Council seats of Karnataka,” Venugopal told the media after the meeting.

He was flanked by Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.

He said the candidates of the Rajya Sabha and Council seats of Karnataka will be announced along with the other seats like Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

“This is what we have decided today, and nothing else was discussed,” he asserted.

Asked about any leadership change, Siddaramaiah also said, “It is only a speculation”.

Asked if there was any discussion on leadership change, he replied emphatically with “No”.

On a possible cabinet reshuffle, the chief minister said, “It did not come up for discussion.”

Of the four Rajya Sabha seats getting vacant in Karnataka, the Congress can win three seats and the BJP one.

Kharge’s Rajya Sabha seat is getting vacant in June and he is likely to be re-elected from Karnataka.

The party may also field Shivakumar’s brother D K Suresh as one of the Rajya Sabha candidates, as well as a woman or an OBC nominee.

Suresh has been a former Rajya Sabha member from the state.

Besides, the Congress leaders are also learnt to have discussed the party candidates for the legislative council seats.

The Congress is likely to get four seats in the legislative council out of the seven vacancies, going by its present strength in the state assembly. (PTI)

(PTI) NEW DELHI, May 26: A parliamentary panel has summoned officials of the Union Education Ministry and the CBSE on June 2 to review the use of the On-Screen Marking (OSM) system and issues faced by students in the class 12 post-result process, according to a Rajya Sabha Secretariat notice.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports will also discuss the implementation of the three-language formula in classes 9 and 10, the notice issued on Monday said.

The committee, headed by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, has summoned School Education Secretary Sanjay Kumar and Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) Chairman Rahul Singh for a meeting on June 2.

The agenda of the meeting includes a review of the “use of On-Screen Marking (OSM) in Grade 12 Exams and issues faced by students consequent”.

The panel will also discuss the “application of 3-language formula in Class 9 and 10”, according to the notice.

The CBSE recently faced criticism from students and parents over technical glitches, payment failures and access-related issues during the verification and re-evaluation process for class 12 results.

It has also made the study of three languages, including at least two native Indian languages, compulsory for class 9 students beginning July 1.

The board said till the dedicated R3 (third language) textbooks are available, class 9 students shall use the class 6 R3 textbooks (2026-27 edition) of the chosen language.

The move is part of the CBSE’s alignment of its Scheme of Studies with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023.

Tamil Nadu has opposed the three-language formula, saying it places an unfair burden on non-Hindi-speaking states and undermines regional linguistic identity. The state has followed a two-language policy – Tamil and English.According to the notice, the committee will hold another meeting on June 1. On June 1, the panel will first meet at 10 am to consider and adopt the “381st Report on Action Taken by the Government on the Recommendations and Observations contained in the 364th Report on Demands for Grants (2025-26) of the department of higher education, Ministry of Education”.

At 11 am, the panel will meet secretaries of the department of higher education and the health ministry, the director general of the National Testing Agency (NTA), representatives of the United Doctors Front and Dr (Major) Gulshan Garg, former orthopaedic surgeon of the Indian Air Force.

CBSE RUBBISHES PORTAL HACKING CLAIM

CBSE) on Tuesday rejected claims circulating on social media regarding the alleged compromise of its On-Screen Marking (OSM) system, stating that the portal cited in the post is a testing site and not the operational evaluation platform.

“In a post made by a user on social media, it has been claimed that the CBSE On Screen Marking (OSM) bearing URL: cbse.onmarks.co.in was compromised by him on 26.02.2026. This has also formed the basis for a few news articles,” CBSE said on X.

“At the outset, it is clarified that the Portal used for evaluation of answer-books bore a different URL, which has neither been compromised nor does it have the vulnerabilities indicated in the said social media post.

“The URL: cbse.onmarks.co.in is the testing site only with sample data for internal testing and review purposes,” it added. The board said there are no actual evaluation data, marks or other data kept on that portal, and “no security breaches have come to light” with the portal.

On May 22, a user on social media claimed to have hacked into the CBSE’s “OSM” portal used for class 12 board exam evaluation and found critical vulnerabilities. The user ‘Nisarga’ described himself as a cybersecurity researcher by hobby in a blog on X and claimed that he gave his class 12 exams this year. (PTI)

From Our Special Correspondent

GUWAHATI, May 26: Assam chief secretary Ravi Kota on Tuesday approved the annual action plan for 2026-27 for watershed development with a proposed outlay exceeding Rs 102 cr, with focus on sustainable natural resource management, livelihood generation, and climate-resilient agriculture. Kota also approved the incentive framework under the Watershed Janbhagidari initiative to recognise high-performing watershed projects and encourage community participation and ownership. The approvals were given during the State Level Steering Committee (SLSC) meeting held under the Watershed Development Component of Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (WDC-PMKSY 2.0).

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India, US sign landmark pact to secure critical minerals supply chain amid China concerns

(PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 26:The Quad grouping on Tuesday expanded cooperation in critical minerals and energy while unveiling new measures to boost maritime surveillance and port infrastructure across the Indo-Pacific against the backdrop of China’s growing military posturing in the region.

The new measures were announced following a meeting of the grouping’s foreign ministers here, chaired by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and attended by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi.

We affirm our support for a free and open Indo-Pacific that allows countries to develop resilience and strengthen capacity to determine their own paths. To that end, we concur on further enhancing cooperation and advancing concrete initiatives to deliver tangible benefits to the region, the ministers said in a joint statement.

The Quad foreign ministers called for uninterrupted flow of global commerce through the Strait of Hormuz, criticised Iran’s imposition of tolls on commercial shipping in the region and voiced serious concern over the situation in the East China Sea and the South China Sea.

“We reiterate our strong opposition to any destabilising or unilateral actions, including by force or coercion, that threaten peace and stability in the region,” the ministers said in the statement, sending a message to China.

“We express our serious concerns regarding dangerous and coercive actions, including interference with offshore resource development, the repeated obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight, and the dangerous manoeuvres by military aircraft and coast guard and maritime militia vessels,” they said.

“We are seriously concerned by the militarisation of disputed features,” they said.

In his media statement, Jaishankar announced a critical minerals framework an Indo-Pacific energy security initiative under broader Quad agenda to confront major challenges facing the region.

“Much of the discussions and indeed the bilateral exchanges were devoted to the current state of the world,” Jaishankar said at the end of the meeting.

Naturally, the focus of the deliberations was on issues of relevance to the Indo-Pacific, he said.

“Because we are four maritime democracies located at different ends of the Indo-Pacific, the exchange of perspectives was an exercise of considerable value.

“We spent some time on the question of safe and unimpeded maritime commerce and reaffirmed the significance of scrupulously observing international law,” he said.Jaishankar said a free and open Indo-Pacific has many dimensions and facets and the Quad meeting took stock of the progress in many of them.

We believe strongly that economic resilience should be promoted and supply chains should be strengthened, he noted, adding the deliberations also touched upon current energy and fertiliser availability and that of critical minerals.

“In the coming days, whether it is economic activity, energy trade or maritime commerce, the Indo-Pacific will become even more important to the world. The responsibilities of the Quad will grow commensurate, and we must prepare for that,” he said.

The external affairs minister said countering common threat of terrorism also figured in the talks.

“There must be zero tolerance for terrorism, and nations subject to terrorist attacks have the right to defend themselves,” he said.

In his media statement, Rubio said the Quad meeting decided to launch an Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Cooperation Initiative It will leverage each of our country’s maritime surveillance capabilities in the Indo-Pacific, he said.

Rubio also announced the expansion of the Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative among the Quad nations.

The US Secretary of State also said the Quad has decided to roll out a new initiative to boost port infrastructure in the Pacific Islands.

He argued that it is a vital national interest not just to the four Quad countries, but to countless countries around the world.

“The second initiative: we’re going to be partnering on issues of port infrastructure, in response to insufficient port capacities in the Pacific Islands,” he said.

“We’re announcing plans to work with Fiji to advance that country’s port infrastructure. It’ll be the first time that the Quad partners work together on a port infrastructure project,” he said.

The Australian Foreign Minister said the Quad recognised efforts towards a diplomatic resolution to ensure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

We recognise the importance of maintaining the principle of freedom of navigation and our opposition to any tolling proposition, she said referring to Iran’s plan to demand fees for transiting the Strait.

We are working together to strengthen cooperation against scam centres, particularly in Southeast Asia, Wong said.

The Australian foreign minister said the Quad will coordinate on maritime surveillance efforts initially in the Indian Ocean.

PTI Members of the All Assam Students’ Union stage a protest against the hike in petroleum prices, in Guwahati, on Tuesday.

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