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Washington, Sep 27 (IANS) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent public rebuke of Russian President Vladimir Putin for invading Ukraine, saying the Indian leader spoke for the rest of world that this is not the "era for war".

However, Blinken also defended the Joe Biden administration's proposal to provide Pakistan with $450 million worth of "sustainment" package for its fleet of F-16 aircraft, ignoring Indian protests that Islamabad does not use these planes only for counter-terrorism operations, as stated by the US, but also against India.

Blinken also addressed the issue of long waiting period for visas and blamed it on Covid-related disruptions. He said the US has a plan for mitigating it for India and that it will be rolled out in a few months.

Blinken spoke to reporters along with India's External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar after their bilateral meeting, and a working dinner the night before.

The two officials had met last week on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings, most significantly for the first such meeting with counterparts from the Quad parter countries Australia and Japan -- the first Quad meeting at the UNGA, with plans to make it an annual affair deepening the institutionalisation of the platform that is witnessing a robust second-coming.

"I really want to emphasise what Prime Minister Modi said because he captured as well as anyone I've heard fundamentally what this moment is about as he said, 'This is not an era, this is not a time for war'," Blinken said, referring to Modi's comments to Putin in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

"We could not agree more," Blinken said, adding, "We saw the aggression, the threat of the aggression mounting from Russia against Ukraine last year. We warned the world about it, and we tried everything possible to avert it through diplomacy. Unfortunately, President Putin pursued his aggression nonetheless."

The Russian invasion of Ukraine had introduced a rare area of dissonance in the India-US relationship as New Delhi refused to condemn it as robustly as the US-led coalition of western nations wanted. India also stepped up its purchases of Russian oil, which, the west argued, mitigated the pain of western sanctions on Russia somewhat.

Modi's remarks to Putin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's (SCO) meeting in Samarkand not only erased all of the disquiet felt with the Indian position in Washington, but earned India a position potentially in a peace process; Mexico has also suggested Modi should be on a peace committee.

Meanwhile, the top US diplomat seemed less impressed by India's objections to the proposed $450 million worth of spares for Pakistan's F-16 aircraft, something which Jaishankar hit out against soon after arriving in Washington for this visit. His criticism of the deal followed "concerns" conveyed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to his US counterpart Lloyd Austin in a phone call earlier.

"To be very clear, and it's important, this is a sustainment programme for F-16s that Pakistan has long had. These are not new planes, new systems, new weapons. It's sustaining what they have," Blinken said, adding, "We have a responsibility and an obligation to deliver, we provide military equipment to make sure that it's maintained and sustained. That's our obligation."

He added that Pakistan's programme bolsters its capability to deal with terrorist threats emanating from Pakistan and the region.

India has dismissed this claim, which was made on the grounds provided by the administration to the US Congress as justification. Jaishankar said on Sunday that no one is fooled by these claims as Pakistan has used these aircraft for purposes other than for fighting terrorists. It was used against Indians in February 2109, he said.

The two officials were bullish about the relationship though.

"Today, the United States is very international, very much more open to engage with a country like India, which is actually thinking beyond traditional alliances, which has been very effective at finding common ground with potential or actual partners," Jaishankar said in response to a question about the trajectory of the bilateral relationship.

He added: "I think the more we work together, the more we engage each other. I think many more possibilities will emerge. So very frankly, that's a long way of saying that I'm very bullish."

Echoing these sentiments, Blinken said, "No two countries have a greater ability, and I think, opportunity and responsibility to try to shape the future of the century than the United States and India as the world's two largest democracies."

He added: "That doesn't mean that we don't have differences. We do and we will, but it also means that because of the depth and quality of the dialogues we have, we talk about everything."

Jaishankar then pointed to one area of potential irritation.

"We spoke over the last two days of our commitment to practising and furthering democracy, human rights and good governance," Jaishankar said, adding, "Each country approaches the set of issues from their history, tradition and societal context. Our yardstick for judgment are the integrity of the democratic processes, the respect and credibility to the command with the people and the non-discriminatory delivery of public goods and services.

"India does not believe that the efficacy or indeed the quality of democracy should be decided by vote banks. This is an area where we look forward to a healthy exchange of views. There will be convergence and best practices that we can both profit by and perhaps even share with third countries."

India bristles as being lectured by the US on human rights and democracy, something that Washington does through the various arms of the government and the legislature.

Jaishankar has made his mind known on this issue before -- that India will not be lectured, and if it is, it reserves the right to point out the flaws of the other side as well.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) The Federation of All India Medical Association on Tuesday wrote to the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, over the cancellation of INI-CET July 2022 open counselling and asked to conduct the same citing huge number of seats which will remain vacant in major clinical departments.

"This sudden decision has come as a shock to the residents of the INIs who have been eagerly waiting for new residents to join the departments to replace the residents who have passed out of the departments in the last six months. We also want to apprise you that this has led many first year junior residents to consider leaving the seat in our premier INIs and take up a seat in the ongoing NEET PG 2022 counselling so that they do not have to face the increased department workload on their own. If this happens, with the possibility of a fourth (Covid) wave in the next few months not completely ruled out, it may be catastrophic for our healthcare system," read the FAIMA letter addressed to AIIMS director.

The FAIMA said that those doctors who qualified the INICET PG entrance examination for July 2022 session were informed of the cancellation of open round of counselling for the current session through "NOTICE NO 136/2022" dated 19.09.2022 issued by AIIMS New Delhi.

It said that the decision has come as a shock to the residents of the Institute of National Importance (INI) who have been eagerly waiting for new residents to join the departments to replace the residents who have passed out in the last six months.

The FAIMA has written to the AIIMS director on behalf of residents working at various departments of INI of the country like AIIMS (New Delhi), JIPMER (Puducherry), NIMHANS (Bengaluru), PGIMER (Chandigarh), SCTIMST (Trivandrum) and 11 other AIIMS which are participating in the INI-CET 2022 counselling.

"We write to you sir, with the kind request to look into this matter urgently, as a huge number of seats are remaining vacant in major clinical departments and more than 50 per cent seats are vacant in multiple departments of various institutes. This will lead to an immense burden on the existing workforce, predominantly the junior residents who have already worked tremendously during the last three waves of the pandemic, to manage the regular clinical duties along with additional Covid duties," FAIMA said in the letter.

--IANS
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Patna, Sep 27 (IANS) Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said that the leaders of opposition parties will soon sit together in Delhi to make a strategy against the BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha electionS.

"We are regularly interacting with the leaders of the opposition parties of the country. We will sit together in Delhi and make a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha election," he said after distributing appointment letters to the persons selected in Animal Husbandry and Fisheries Department.

On his recent meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Nitish Kumar said that she was busy in the election in her own party. "After that election, we will set the agendas of opposition parties to defeat the BJP," he said.

To comments by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi on the meeting, Nitish Kumar said: "I don't mind the statement of Sushil Kumar Modi. If he gets some post in his party by targeting me, I will be highly pleased with it. I actually enjoyed his statements."

--IANS
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Jaipur, Sep 27 (IANS) Amid the ongoing political crisis in Rajasthan, around 20 MLAs and ministers reached Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's residence on Tuesday afternoon for a meeting.

The meeting came as the Congress leadership issued show cause notice to state ministers Shanti Dhariwal and Mahesh Joshi and RTDC Chairman Dharmendra Rathore.

Earlier, Congress Disciplinary Committee President A.K. Antony was called to Delhi.

Also, Sachin Pilot reached Delhi on Tuesday afternoon, and there is a possibility of him meeting the high command.

--IANS
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Ahmedabad, Sep 27 (IANS) The Ahmedabad Crime Branch has arrested a person for providing access to new Indian cellular numbers to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which the Pakistani spy agency was using to fetch sensitive defence information from retired personnel.

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Prem Vir Singh told media persons on Tuesday that Abdul Wahab Pathan of Ahmedabad is arrested for conspiring against the nation.

Pathan used to get local sim cards activated in his or his relatives' names and share the cellular numbers with Shafqat Jatoi, a former officer of Pakistani High Commission to India.

Jatoi was using these numbers to make fake profiles on Whatsapp and sharing them with ISI operartives.

Singh further said that ISI operatives using the fake Whatsapp profile reach out to retired defence officers and jawans and seek information from them illegally.

During primary investigation, police have found that ISI operatives have created fake websites in the name of www.ksboard.in, www.desw.in and www.kavach-apps.in, which was used to mislead retired officers and jawans to seek information from them.

Police have registered case against Pathan and others under various sections of Information and Technology act.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) In a big setback to Uddhav Thackeray's faction, the Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to stop the Election Commission from deciding the claim of Eknath Shinde group to be the real Shiv Sena.

After a day-long hearing, a constitution bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud dismissed the interlocutory application filed on behalf of Thackeray's faction. The apex court's decision is very significant in view of the impending Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections, where both Shinde and Thackeray factions would like to contest the poll.

The bench -- also comprising Justices M.R. Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and P.S. Narasimha -- said there would not be any stay on the proceedings before the Election Commission on intra party dispute and 'bow and arrow' symbol of the party. "We direct that there would be no stay of the proceedings before the Election Commission of India," it said.

Senior advocates Kapil Sibal, A.M. Singhvi and Devadatt Kamat represented the Thackeray's faction. Sibal submitted that Shinde cannot approach the EC once he has incurred disqualification, saying "I challenged the very locus of the person who moved the EC".

Sibal clarified that Shinde has incurred disqualification as his various acts amounted to "voluntarily giving up membership of the party" under the Tenth Schedule, and he also violated the party whip, which is also covered by the Tenth Schedule.

The Thackeray camp vociferously argued that since disqualification of Shinde and the MLAs supporting him was pending, therefore EC cannot consider their application over the party and the symbol. However, the top court declined to entertain this contention.

Senior advocates Maninder Singh, Neeraj Kishan Kaul, and Mahesh Jethmalani, assisted by advocate Abhikalp Pratap Singh, argued for the Shinde faction.

Senior advocate Arvind Datar represented the Election Commission.

Shinde's faction counsel argued that under Article 324 of the Constitution, the EC possesses plenty of powers to deal with any situation which arises in relation to political parties and several party members have sent their representations to the EC supporting the Shinde group.

Kaul submitted that the nature of enquiry under Tenth Schedule and the Symbols Order are different.

Shinde's faction counsel claimed a hopeless minority sought to remove him from the party, and contended that the Speaker, under the Tenth Schedule, has to exercise power to determine disqualification of a member and he cannot decide on the split or merger within a political party. Shinde faction counsel vehemently argued that a party member's right to move the EC cannot be taken away.

The EC counsel argued that it worked independently, and its functions are different when compared with the Speaker. The counsel added that it can decide who held the majority in the party.

Shinde and his faction had rebelled against Thackeray, which forced him to resign as Maharashtra Chief Minister.

Shiv Sena's General Secretary Subhash Desai had moved the apex court saying that Shinde and other MLAs, have purportedly initiated proceedings under para 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 (Symbols Order) seeking to be recognised as the "real Shiv Sena" by the EC. Desai added that they are also claiming the right to use the election symbol of "bow and arrow" allotted to Shiv Sena.

Thackeray faction claimed that since the disqualification matter is pending in the apex court, Shinde faction are trying to illegally cobble up numbers and fabricate an artificial majority in the organisation.

The apex court, on July 11, asked the newly appointed Maharashtra Assembly Speaker not to go ahead with proceedings on the disqualification petitions.

--IANS
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Lucknow, Sep 26 (IANS) At a time when India is celebrating 75 years of Independence and the hype over the Amrut Mahotsav is all permeating, nearly 1,000 students in the BA final semester in Lucknow University (LU) and associated colleges have failed in Rashtra Gaurav and environmental studies paper that tests general knowledge of India's glorious past, history, geography and general awareness.

According to the examination department of the university, 13,392 students appeared in the examination, while 440 remained absent.

In all, 1,041 students, mostly from affiliated colleges, failed to secure passing marks.

Rashtra Gaurav and environmental studies is a non-credit paper being conducted in LU since 2005.

All students (except for the new education policy) need to clear the exam once in three years to obtain a degree.

The paper consists of general awareness-related questions, including questions of history, geography, environmental education and general science.

Being a non-credit paper, the LU can only guide students, but cannot conduct its classes. Students, who had either failed or missed the examination, are supposed to appear as exempted students.

Lucknow University vice chancellor Prof Alok Kumar Rai said, "It is a non-credit course hence as per rules, LU can only guide students how to prepare for it. Since marks for this subject are not added to the final percentage of students, they do not pay attention to it. "

To get the degree students are required to pass the exam in three years, he added.

LU teachers said non-seriousness towards the subject, more focus on core subjects, lack of newspaper reading and poor general knowledge are reasons behind the students scoring low in the subject.

Rashtra Gaurav is a compulsory subject at the undergraduate level.

Meanwhile Lucknow University Associated College Teachers' president Prof Manoj Pandey said, "As there is no syllabus, there is no clarity amongst students regarding the subject matter. LU must have a clear vision about the paper and should make a syllabus for it."

--IANS
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By Sumi Khan
Dhaka, Sep 26 (IANS) At least 24 people have died after a boat capsized in the Koratoya river in Bangladesh's Panchagarh district with passengers to a temple on board on the Mahalaya festival ahead of Durga Puja.


The incident took place at Awlia ghat of Mareya bazar area of Boda upazila at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The toll is feared to rise further as at least 30 others went missing after the accident in the Madeya Ghat area on Sunday, police told IANS on Sunday evening.

The victims include 12 women, eight children and four men.

The deceased victims have been identified as one-year-old children Ushoshi, Tanushree and Shreyashi, 14-year-old Poly Rani , Lakshmi Rani (25), Amal Chandra (35), Shobha Rani (27), Dipankar (3), Priyanth (3), Khuki Rani (35), Pramila Rani (55), Tara Rani (24), Shoneka Rani (60), Falguni Rani (55), Pramila Rani (70), Dhano Bala (47), Sumitra Rani (57), Sophlat Rani (40), Shimla Rani (35) Hasan Ali, ( 52).

Among the 24 deceased victims, eight died after being taken to the hospital while the bodies of 16 were recovered from the river.

Md. Soleman Ali, Boda Upazila Nirbahi Officer, told IANS that an engine-run boat with nearly 70-80 passengers onboard started sailing for the Badeswari temple at Boroshashi union from Awlia ghat of Mareya bazar area of the district.

--IANS
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New Delhi, Sep 26 (IANS) After the action taken by the various central investigating agencies against the extremist organisation -- Popular Front of India (PFI), the demand for banning the latter has started growing louder with each passing day.

The Muslim Rashtriya Manch, an affiliate of the right wing organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), has demanded an immediate ban on the PFI from the Central government after holding a meeting with other nationalist organisations.

The RSS Muslim wing has asked the Union government: "If the PFI has become so dangerous, then why is it not being banned at the earliest? Why are the organisation's bank accounts not being frozen yet? Why are its properties not being attached? Why strict action is not being taken against the leaders, office-bearers and representatives of the PFI on the basis of their involvement in violence-related incidents?"

However, a few days ago the Union government told the Supreme Court that PFI is being banned in several states and it is going to impose a ban on the extremist organisation.

After a meeting with other nationalist organisations, Mohammad Afzal and Shahid Akhtar, the National Convenor of Muslim Rashtriya Manch, described PFI as a more dangerous terrorist organisation than SIMI and said that the evidences recovered during the raids conducted by the central investigating agencies are enough proof to ban this organisation. Hence, the government should immediately ban the PFI by taking strictest action against it.

The Rashtriya Muslim Manch Media In-charge Shahid Saeed said that all the evidences found against the PFI clearly shows that it is a terrorist organisation which receives funding from foreign countries and slogans of 'Pakistan Zindabad' are raised in the rallies conducted by it.

--IANS
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Jaipur, Sep 25 (IANS) The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting called on Sunday at Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's residence has been cancelled as more than 90 Congress MLAs loyal to the veteran party leader threatened to resign, while demanding the new CM face be picked from their group.

"The MLAs want either Gehlot or his pick to be Chief Minister instead of Sachin Pilot," Rajasthan minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas told the media.

Gehlot reportedly received a call from Rajya Sabha MP K.C. Venugopal who asked him to "handle the situation" but the Chief Minister told the Congress' central leadership that it was "not in his hands".

Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Pilot, meanwhile, is believed to be the central leaders' choice for the chief ministerial position.

A delegation from the Gehlot camp has went to meet senior Congress leader Ajay Maken who is in Jaipur as observer for the CLP meeting.

These include state Urban Development and Housing Minister Shanti Dhariwal, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas and Mahesh Joshi.

Maken, speaking to the media, said: "We are not going to Delhi as of now. We have been asked to take feedback from each and every single MLA."

Meanwhile, sources said that the Congress high command has called both Gehlot and Pilot to Delhi.

--IANS
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