Former Bengal CM Bhattacharjee no more VILLUPURAM l friday l august 09, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 16 l CITY EDITION 1 March 1944 - 8 August 2024 Communist stalwart Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed away on Thursday at the age of 80 in Kolkata. He was known for his efforts to bring industrialisation to West Bengal to create jobs. He was the chief minister of West Bengal for 11 years from 2000. Though CPI(M)’s prospects have declined in Bengal, he remained a revered figure, remembered for his ‘pragmatic approach’ | P9 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 Some people have captured Waqf boards and this Bill has been brought to give justice to ordinary Muslims Kiren Rijiju, BJP Indian players take a lap of honour to thank the crowd after beating Spain 2-1 in the bronze medal play-off on Thursday | PTI After pain, happiness I t was emotional, it was epochal. But above everything, it was cathartic. The pall of gloom that descended over India finally cleared on Thursday for some cheer. If it was wrestling that broke Indian hearts, it was hockey that lifted it. The azure astro turf gave India a fourth medal at the Paris Olympic Games, a week after Swapnil Kusale had won the third. After everything that had happened over the past couple of days, that bronze was worth its weight in gold. That last-minute goal at the end of the second quarter spurred the team on. They wanted to win for PR Sreejesh, the trusted custodian of TNIE @ olympics India’s fortunes and one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, who was playing his final game. They celebrated and will continue to do so until late at night. Soaking in the summer Parisian Indraneel Das sun, the XI rose together one last Paris time. As he did three years ago against Germany in Tokyo to help the team win their first Olympic medal after 41 years, Sreejesh again made the biggest saves of his life in dying seconds as India win the bronze beating Spain 2-1. The Yves du Manoir Stadium is part of Paris’s suburbian folklore. It is part of sporting history too. This is the only stadium that hosted events in the 1924 Paris Olympics. This was where Paavo Nurmi, the legendary Flying Finn, won four gold. On Thursday it added a new fable to its annals. The story of , India’s second bronze in successive Olympics. express read HM stripped over pic with minor student CM to launch ‘Tamil Pudhalvan’ today Cuddalore: A private school headmaster was stripped and forced to walk in just his underwear by the residents of a village in Cuddalore on Wednesday after a purported photo of him kissing a former student, a minor, of the school went viral on social media | P4 Chennai: CM MK Stalin will launch Tamil Pudhalvan Scheme in Coimbatore on Friday. Under the scheme, boys pursuing higher education after Classes 6 to 12 in government and aided schools will get `1,000 per month. A total of `360 crore has been allocated this year | P4 Yunus-led govt takes oath in Bangladesh Y E S H I S E L I @ New Delhi NOBEL laureate Muhammad Yunus was on Thursday sworn in as the head of the interim government in Bangladesh. The 84-year-old economist-turnedpolitician was administered the oath of office by President Mohammed Shahabuddin at a ceremony at the presidential palace ‘Bangabhaban’ in Dhaka in the evening. Yunus will lead a 16-member cabinet, whose members are titled advisers, not ministers. The ceremony was attended by the Indian High Commissioner in Dhaka, Pranay Verma. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Thursday that he received a call from his British counterpart David Lammy to discuss Bangladesh. Sources said the Indian government has urged Air India and IndiGo to operate the Bangladesh route so that Indian citizens can come back. RBI rate unchanged at 6.5% holds rate Repo Citing stubborn inflation, the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday kept the benchmark rate unchanged for the ninth time in a row | P14 It’s a draconian legistation. Next you will go for Christians, then Jains, then Parsis...we are Hindu but we respect other religions K C Venugopal, Cong Contentious Waqf bill sent to JPC as Oppn calls it draconian P r ee t h a N a i r @ New Delhi Facing stiff opposition from the united INDIA bloc, the government referred the contentious Waqf (Amendment) Bill to a joint parliamentary panel (JPC) for scrutiny after it was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday . The House witnessed a two-hour long heated debate with minority affairs minister Kiran Rijiju asserting that the proposed legislation is in tune with the recommendations of the Sachar Committee and the JPC instituted by the previous Congress governments, while the Opposition dubbed it as anti-Muslim, anti-Constitution and malicious. From giving the Centre the power to frame rules to providing representation for women to the inclusion of two non-Muslim members in Waqf boards and a separate Board of Auqaf for Boharas and Aghakhanis, the gover nment proposed 44 amendments to the Waqf Act 1995. Rijiju said the Waqf Act of 1995 did not serve its purpose and the amendments were necessitated as the Congress could not achieve the reform it should have. He added that the government has done extensive consultations with various stakeholders over the last 10 years to bring in the changes. Leading the Opposition offensive, Congress MP K C Venugopal accused the government of vio- lating the right to freedom of religion and argued that the legislation was brought with an eye on the upcoming assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana. He said the government wants to induct non-Muslims in the governing body of state Waqf boards and the Central Waqf Council through the amendments. “When the committee to build the Ram temple was constituted, were non-Hindus part of it? It is a direct attack on freedom of religion,” he said. Accusing the government of attempting to appease BJP’s hardcore supporters, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said, “What is the point of including non-Muslims in Waqf boards when this is not done in other religious bodies?” Ruling NDA allies on the same page NDA allies JD(U), TDP, Shiv Sena and LJP backed the bill saying it was aimed at bringing transparency. JD (U)’s Lalan Singh said, “How is the bill anti-Muslim?” Chirag too was on the same page. However, YSRCP MPs opposed it
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