MondAY After putting off India visit, Tesla CEO Musk lands in China 29 april, 2024 Elon Musk met Chinese Premier Li Qiang and discussed Tesla’s future expansion plans in the country during Sunday’s surprise visit to Beijing epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard 1.7 million gaza war Musk wants Self-driving cars in China qatar pushes for quicker ceasefire A senior Qatari official urged Israel and Hamas to show ‘more seriousness and commitment’ Page 11 A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS l New Delhi l J8.00 l Drugs worth L600 crore seized from Pak boat off Gujarat coast 14 crew members arrested, vessel seized in joint operation by Coast Guard, NCB, and ATS M AYA N K SI N G H & U J W A L J A L A L I Swift move by Rajratan supported by aircraft INDIAN security agencies have intercepted 86 kg of narcotics worth `600 crore from a Pakistani boat from Indian waters west of Porbandar off the Gujarat coast. Fourteen crew members were arrested and the vessel was seized during a coordinated joint sea operation by the Indian Coast Guard, Narcotics Control Bureau, and the Gujarat Anti-terrorism Squad, officials said on Sunday. The crew and boat were brought to Porbandar for further investigations. Sources said the operation was carried out following precise intelligence inputs provided by the Gujarat ATS about contraband being transported through Indian waters. Speaking to reporters in Gandhinagar, Gujarat DGP Vikas Sahay said the consignment was meant for Sri Lanka. “Such is the network of ATS that even if the receiver is not an Indian but out waters are being used, Coast Guard ship Rajratan carried a supporting aircraft. “The swift response by a fleet of ships and aircraft left no room for escape for the drug-laden vessel,” a defence ministry statement said. Tests by the NCB at the port showed the seized drugs, concealed in packets, were heroin and methamphetamine. It was the 3rd such action launched to intercept ships with contraband @ New Delhi Express read Supreme Court to hear Kejriwal’s plea today The Supreme Court will hear on Monday the appeal of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal challenging the Delhi High Court order, which dismissed his plea against the ‘illegal’ arrest and remand in Delhi liquor scam case. Earlier, the case was listed for hearing on May 6. The apex court decided to list the matter on Monday after senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kejriwal, on Friday sought urgency listing of the plea. P3 Village guard killed by militants in Udhampur A Village Defence Guard (VDG) member was killed in gunfight with militants in a remote village in Udhampur district of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday. Following a tip-off about the presence of militants in Basantgarh area in the district, a joint police party and VDG members had proceeded towards the area. In the ensuing exchange of fire, Mohammad Sharief (48) was fatally injured. He was taken to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. cars sold by Tesla in China since it entered that market in 2012 Indian Coast Guard personnel with 14 crew members of a Pakistani boat after apprehending them from Indian waters off the Gujarat coast on Sunday | PTI we get the exact information,” he said, adding that all 14 people on the Pakistani fishing boat, Al-Raza, are residents of Balochistan, Pakistan. The operation involved the Coast Guard ship Rajratan and supporting aircraft. “The swift response of the Rajratan, supported by a fleet of ships and aircraft on concurrent missions, left no room for escape for the drug-laden vessel,” a defence ministry statement said. Preliminary tests conducted by the NCB at the port showed the seized drugs, concealed in 78 packets, were heroin and methamphetamine. It was the third operation in the Sagarmanthan series which has been launched with an aim to interdict ships carrying narcotics contraband. The first operation was in February which led to the high, est offshore seizure of 3,300 kg of drugs. It also was a joint operation of the Indian Navy, NCB and Gujarat police. In March, 62 kg of narcotics was seized in another operation. PAGES 14 Reports had said Musk would discuss bringing Tesla’s autonomous driving technology to China during his meeting with Chinese officials. China’s electric vehicle (EV) sector has exploded in recent years. Tesla is facing stiff competition in the country from local brands including BYD, which beat out Tesla in last year’s fourth quarter to become the world’s top EV seller Blow to Cong as its Delhi unit chief quits over AAP alliance A s h i s h S r i v a s ta v a @ New Delhi In a jolt to the Congress, the party’s Delhi unit president Arvinder Singh Lovely quit the post on Sunday, which has been accepted by the party His . resignation comes less than a month ahead of the Lok Sabha elections in the city . In his four-page resignation letter to the Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, Lovely cited various reasons, including the party’s decision to ally with the AAP fielding outsiders , as candidates and the “undemocratic” behaviour of AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria. Lovely said several local leaders were against allying with AAP as the party was formed after leveling mala fide corruption charges against the Congress, which was the ruling party in Delhi and the Centre. “The Delhi Congress unit opposed an alliance with a party that was formed solely based on leveling false, fabricated, and mala fide corruption charges against the Congress, and whose half-cabinet minister is currently in jail on corruption charges. Despite that, the party decided to ally with AAP in Del- Letter exposes factionalism in Cong city unit Lovely’s resignation letter reveals factionalism in the Delhi unit. It talks about the “undemocratic” behaviour of the AICC Delhi in-charge Deepak Babaria. It says the party was opposed to the decision to ally with the AAP and fielding “outsiders” as candidates. hi,” he wrote in the letter. “We respected the party’s final decision. I publicly backed the decision and ensured that the full state unit fell in line with the high command’s final order. On instructions from the AICC general secretary (organisation), I visited Kejriwal’s residence on the night of his arrest along with Subash Chopra and Sandeep Dikshit,” the resignation letter added. The former DPCC chief expressed his displeasure with the seat-sharing formula under the Congress-AAP alliance where the former received only three of the seven seats. He said even in those seats, veteran leaders were denied the ticket. The party fielded Kanhaiya Kumar and Udit Raj, “strangers” to Delhi politics. | P3 RSS always supported reservation: Bhagwat SIT takes up case against Remarks counter charges by parties A a r t i K a s h ya p @ Hyderabad Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat on Sunday said the Sangh has always supported reservations and asserted it would continue to do so. Speaking at the inauguration of Vidya Bharati Vignana Kendra in Nadergul on the outskirts of Hyderabad, Bhagwat said, “The Sangh has unconditionally supported all reservations since they were introduced in the country as per constitutional provisions. It also holds the opinion that as long as social inequality exists, reservations must be continued.” Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy on Thursday alleged that t h e B J P a n d R SS h ave declared a war on the Constitution with the aim of scrapping reservations for SC, ST and OBC communities. “The RSS has a policy to abolish quotas by 2025,” the chief minister claimed at Gandhi Bhavan here. He reiterated the claim at a press conference here on Sat- “The Sangh has unconditionally supported all reservations since they were introduced in the country as per constitutional provisions. It also holds the opinion that as long as social inequality exists, reservations must be continued,” RSS chief Bhagwat said. His remarks came in the wake of allegations that BJP and RSS have “declared a war on the Constitution” with the aim of scrapping reservations for SC, ST and OBC communities urday and alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was planning a surgical strike on quotas. Speaking on Sunday the RSS , sarsanghchalak said the allegation that the Sangh was against reservations was baseless. “When I came to Hyderabad on Saturday, learnt that there was a video in circulation indicating that though the Sangh pretended to support the reservations publicly it strongly op, Silver lining (from left) Tarundeep Rai, Dhiraj Bommadevara, Ankita Bhakat, Sanjeeva Singh (high performance director, archery) and Pravin Jadhav | aai india show precision Indian archers finished on a high in the World Cup in Shanghai on Sunday. A look... Men shock Olympic champs India men’s recurve team of Dhiraj Bommadevara, Tarundeep Rai and Pravin Jadhav shocked reigning Olympic champions, South Korea, to return with a World Cup gold medal for the first time after 14 years. India won 5-1 (57-57, 57-55, 55-53) in the final. Two members from Korea — Kim Woojin and Kim Je Deok — were part of Tokyo Olympics gold-medal winning team shooting star Indian skeet shooter Maheshwari Chauhan took India’s quota tally in the sport to 21 with a silver-medal effort in the ISSF Final Olympic Qualification Championship in Doha on Sunday. Maheshwari had put up a strong show in the first four rounds of the qualification stage. In the final, she did well to stay in hunt for the top prize. She is understandably stoked after this effort. India will have women representation in skeet shooting for the first time in Olympics Former World No 1 Deepika Kumari, who missed 2023 after becoming a mother in December 2022, eliminated two Koreans in the quarterfinal and the semfinal of the women’s recurve individual section before losing to Asian Games gold medallist, Lim Sihyeon, in the final Bronze age Dhiraj also combined with Ankita Bhakat to return with a bronze medal in the mixed team event. The Indian pair beat Alejandra Valencia and Matias Grande of Mexico 6-0 Compound interest India finished with five gold, one silver and a bronze. Compound archers had swept the team events, winning the men’s, women’s and mixed team gold medals. Reigning Asian Games champion, Jyothi Surekha Vennam, added a fourth gold in women’s compound individual section | P11 posed them. There is absolutely no truth in this.” Dismissing the video showing him speaking against the reservations at a meeting as fake, Bhagwat denied that such an event was ever conducted by the RSS. He further emphasised that the Hindu religion believed that Lord Rama existed in every person and that this very belief was the foundation of unity in the country . RSS chief had opposed reservation policy in past, says Rahul Gandhi Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday said RSS chief Mohan Baghwat had expressed his opposition to quotas in the past. “RSS chief makes a statement that RSS is not against reservation. It was he (Mohan Bhagwat) who had made a statement that he was opposed to reservation,” Rahul said at a campaign rally in Daman in the Union Territory of Daman and Diu. He added that those who are against reservation are joining the BJP. “They welcome all those who are against reservation, and then he says he is not against reservation,” he said Gowda’s son, grandson over obscene videos e x p r e s s n e w s s e r v i c e @ Hassan A Special Investigation Team has taken up a case of sexual harassment against Holenarasipur MLA HD Revanna and his son, sitting Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna. The scandal broke out after one of the victims reportedly filed a complaint with the State Women’s Commission, and obscene videos of alleged sexual assault went viral. The SIT, led by ADGPCID Bijay Kumar Singh and comprising Additional Commissioner Suman D Pennekar and Mysuru SP Seema Latkar, began investigations into the case filed against the JDS leaders at Holenarasipur Town police station. Police filed a case under IPC Sections 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (embarrassing a woman), 506 (threat), 509 (in- sult to the modesty of a woman), and made Revanna Accused 1 and Prajwal Revanna Accused 2. As per the complaint, a woman who worked as a domestic help in the Revanna household has complained that both Revanna and Prajwal sexually harassed her when she alone in the house. An estimated 2,876 women were allegedly exploited by Prajwal, according to women’s commission chairperson Nagalakshmi Choudhary, who claimed to have received the complaint on her WhatsApp. In reaction, Prajwal filed an FIR against Naveen Gowda of Belur in Hassan district, refuting allegations over the obscene videos, which he claimed were morphed and were being circulated to tarnish his image and poison the minds of voters ahead of elections. Rajkot reverse swing to unite the Patidars D I L IP SI N G H K SH ATRIYA @ Ahmedabad A seemingly innocuous statement by Union minister Parshottam Rupala praising the Dalit community snowballed into an affront against the Rajput communities with the latter demanding that he be dropped as the BJP candidate for the Rajkot Lok Sabha seat. Multiple attempts to broker peace failed and the BJP refused to blink. Stirring the pot by design or otherwise seems to have united the Patidars who have a historic animosity with the Rajputs. Rupala had on March 22 lauded the Dalit community for not bowing down to the British when even “kings and royals” had started breaking bread with the Britishers. Since the rulers of the princely states during the British Raj were mostly Rajputs, they launched statewide protests against Rupala and gave a call to boycott him in the Rajkot polls. It had repercussions beyond the state as well. assembly If he can draw even . Till the controversy broke, 50% of the Leuva Patidars to Rajkot was among the safest of his side, he can make the going BJP seats in Gujarat. It has difficult for Rupala who is albeen with the BJP since 1989 except giving the Congress the mandate once in 2009. The BJP gave Rupala the ticket after dropping its sitting candidate Mohan Kundaria, who had also served as a Union minister of state for agriculture. The Rajput discontentment cannot be brushed away easily as they have an estimated 1.5 lakh votes out of about 20 lakh voters in the constituency The constituency is . dominated by Patidars whose vote share is 25%. While Rupala belongs to the Kadva sub caste of the Patidars, his Congress opponent Paresh Dhanani is a Leuva Patidar, another Patidar sub caste. Rajkot has 1.91 lakh Kadva voters as compared to 3.50 lakh Leuva Patidars. Illustration: Dhanani is a former leader Mandar of opposition in the Gujarat Pardikar ready facing Rajput unrest. After failing to mollify the Rajputs, BJP leader and former chief minister Vijay Rupani told the media, "If a few persons are unhappy and don't vote for the party candidate, it will not make much difference. Rupala will win the election by a big margin." For his part, Rupala exuded confidence in getting the Rajput votes, adding he would make it to the Lok Sabha by a good margin. But Dhanani claims the people are angry and want to defeat Rupala. Both Rupala and Dhanani are from Amreli district and in the past Dhan a n i h a s d e f e at e d Rupala in assembly elections. Among the major issues in Rajkot are unemployment, affordable crop insurance, ensuring fair prices for agricultural produce, industrial slowdown and water scarcity. But the overarching Narendra Modi factor in Gujarat is a no-brainer. How well it will play out in Rajkot remains to be seen.
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