
Surjewala will take stock of internal issues: DGR
Mangaluru/Karwar/Belagavi: Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala arrived on a three-day visit to Karnataka, during which he will meet party MLAs and senior leaders to take stock of internal issues and gather feedback, said minister for health and family welfare Dinesh Gundu Rao.
His visit comes amid growing murmurs within the party and a few controversial statements by some party members.
Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters here on Monday that Surjewala's visit aims to resolve internal matters through dialogue. "This is a big party with many leaders, and differences of opinion are natural. Through discussions, all issues will be addressed," he said. Rao confirmed that he, too, would meet Surjewala during the visit.
"Internal matters will be sorted out," he said.
Siddaramaiah
's govt stable, says Deshpande
Chairman of the administrative reforms commission, RV Deshpande, on Monday said that the state govt under the leadership of CM Siddaramaiah is stable and will complete its term.
Deshpande told reporters that the change of the CM in Karnataka was created by the media. The party has repeatedly said that the govt would complete its tenure under the leadership of the present CM, he said.
by Taboola
by Taboola
Sponsored Links
Sponsored Links
Promoted Links
Promoted Links
You May Like
Trade Bitcoin & Ethereum – No Wallet Needed!
IC Markets
Start Now
Undo
"Some ministers and MLAs might have grievances, but the AICC has Surjewala to listen to all grievances of the elected representatives. It will be resolved soon," he added.
No rift over transfers with MLAs, clarifies Jarkiholi
Public works minister Satish Jarkiholi on Monday clarified that there are no disagreements between him and local MLAs regarding the ongoing process of official transfers in the district.
"There is no conflict between us and the MLAs. Transfers are a routine administrative process. It's our goal that officers serve full terms of four years wherever possible. We are not in the habit of transferring officers within a year," Jarkiholi told reporters here on Monday. He also dismissed speculation about discussions in Delhi regarding officer transfers during his recent visit, calling it baseless.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


The Hindu
15 minutes ago
- The Hindu
‘Super premium frequent flier PM' off on 5-nation jaunt: Congress jabs Modi ahead of visit
Taking a swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of his visit abroad, the Congress on Tuesday (July 1, 2025) said the "frequent flier PM" is off on a 5-nation "jaunt" and alleged that he is running away from four issues, including the Manipur situation and US President Donald Trump's claims about bringing about a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh also alleged that the Prime Minister is running away from the "revelations by defence officials that India suffered reverses in the first two days of Operation Sindoor because of the PM's decisions". Prime Minister Modi will embark on a five-nation tour beginning July 2 to participate in the BRICS Summit in Brazil and expand India's ties with several key nations of the Global South. When the going gets tough, the self-styled toughs get going. The Super Premium Frequent Flier PM is off on a 5-nation, 8-day jaunt. He is running away from at least 4 issues that are agitating the nation - 1. Manipur, which he has not visited ever since the double engine in… — Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) July 1, 2025 "When the going gets tough, the self-styled toughs get going. The Super Premium Frequent Flier PM is off on a 5-nation, 8-day jaunt," Mr. Ramesh said in a post on X. He is running away from at least four issues that are agitating the nation, Mr. Ramesh said. Mr. Ramesh alleged that the PM is running away from Manipur, "which he has not visited ever since the double engine in the state got derailed and ever since normal life in the state has got totally destroyed". The Congress leader claimed that PM Modi is also running away from revelations by defence officials that India suffered reverses in the first two days of Operation Sindoor "because of the PM's decisions". His remarks were an apparent reference to the reported comments of India's defence attache to Indonesia. However, the Indian embassy in Indonesia, in a post on X on Sunday, had said that the defence attache's remarks have been "quoted out of context and the media reports are a misrepresentation of the intention and thrust of the presentation made by the speaker". Mr. Ramesh also claimed that the PM is running away from the continued claims by President Trump that he effected a ceasefire between India and Pakistan using the trade deal as a carrot and stick. He further alleged that the PM is running away from "the continued failure to bring the Pahalgam terrorists to justice even after 70 days". "The failure is all the more glaring given they may have been earlier involved in terror attacks in Poonch (Dec 2023) and Gagangir & Gulmarg (Oct 2024)," Mr. Ramesh said. Besides Brazil, Modi will visit Ghana, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina, Brazil, and Namibia during the eight-day trip, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). In the first leg of the visit, Mr. Modi will undertake a visit to Ghana from July 2 to 3. From Ghana, Mr. Modi will travel to Trinidad and Tobago on a two-day visit from July 3 to 4. In the third leg of his visit, Mr. Modi will visit Argentina from July 4 to 5. In the fourth leg of his visit, Mr. Modi will travel to Brazil at the invitation of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. The Prime Minister will visit Brazil from July 5 to 8 to attend the 17th BRICS Summit followed by a state visit. In the final leg of his visit, Mr. Modi will travel to Namibia.

The Wire
16 minutes ago
- The Wire
Trump's Extortionary Demands Recall the East India Company's Modus Operandi
US President Donald Trump is aiming for a trade agreement which can safely be called extortionary. It resembles the East India Company's success in turning India into a permanent colony for more than 200 years. Whether India will acquiesce – like Canada, which removed its 3% digital services tax on major tech firms on June 30 to restart trade talks with Washington – remains to be seen. Though the US Code refers to 'trade agreement ' 341 times, trade executive agreements or mini trade rent-seeking deals under American trade law jurisprudence require a prior authorisation or approval from Congress through the trade promotion authority (TPA). Regardless of the form of agreement, Congress must authorise the conclusion of a binding agreement so to enable requisite changes requisite legal changes. Of course, the Indian Vishwaguru went ahead into talks with the Trump administration after prime minister Narendra Modi held discussions with Trump on February 13. The Indian government even boasted of signing a $ 500-billion agreement with little or no preparation. Later, India's much-hyped 'big, good, beautiful ' trade agreement with the United States seemingly made halting progress when it now appears to be teetering following a sudden realisation in New Delhi about the potentially damaging implications of Washington's regulatory and market access demands. Chief among them – allowing unfettered entry of American genetically modified (GM) agricultural products into the Indian market and removal all regulatory barriers, India, with a population of 1.4 billion and over 700 million smallholding farmers (with farms less than three hectares), is understandably sensitive to these pressures. Yet, this "wake-up call" comes despite longstanding knowledge that the US would push aggressively to pry open India's markets – especially for its heavily subsidised, GM-laden agricultural exports, which have already been rebuffed by nations like Australia, the European Union, and China. Worryingly, institutions like NITI Aayog and some of its key agricultural advisors appear to be endorsing the American GMO agenda. This, despite clear evidence that such products, through cross-pollination and cultivation, could irreversibly damage India's diverse agricultural sector. Mexico, one of America's largest trading partners, has persistently cautioned against the use and import of GMO crops, emphasising the long-term risks. The current finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, who as commerce minister in 2015 did not defend India's demand for a permanent solution to public stockholding at the WTO's 10th Ministerial Conference in Nairobi now seems to recognise that trade negotiations cannot be initiated on the back of non-tariff issues. Yet, the damage may already be underway. Successive commerce ministers in the BJP-led government have struggled to secure substantial gains in trade negotiations and have often appeared to concede ground under pressure. India is already facing a slew of US tariffs: a universal 10% basic tariff, 25% tariffs on steel, aluminium, automobiles, and auto-components, and an upcoming tariff on pharmaceutical exports which is particularly damaging, given India's strength as a global supplier of generics. If India fails to comply with US demands by the July 9 deadline, it may face an additional 26% reciprocal tariff. Trump has stated that countries failing to finalise trade deals will receive formal letters outlining tariff penalties. Some of the tariffs already put in place by the Trump administration could rob off export revenue worth tens of billions of dollars, even though India's overall trade surplus is just about $ 44 billion. The only figment of hope is that the US will turn India into a major supplier of several items while breaking the Chinese domination of supply chains. NTBs a monster American commerce secretary Howard Lutnick has repeatedly labeled India's non-tariff barriers a ' monster,' insisting that high tariffs are just one part of India's complex regulatory web. As the pressure mounts, India is realising that contemporary trade negotiations are being broadened to include sustainability clauses, carbon taxes, government procurement rules, gender and labour standards – areas traditionally excluded from trade pacts. 'We just can't walk into it,' a senior Indian official commented. 'India is an emerging economy with specific domestic needs.' We had repeatedly raised these alarm bells. Today, it seems the chickens are indeed coming home to roost. A group of former senior commerce ministry officials recently issued a memorandum cautioning that if the US demands excessive concessions on India's core interests, 'India should take equally hard positions and resist – even at the cost of not securing a deal.' The memorandum, signed by former cabinet secretary K.M. Chandrasekhar, ex-commerce secretary Gopal Pillai and Ujal Singh Bhatia, who is the former WTO appellate body chair, among others, argued that the short-term costs of navigating a high-tariff US market may be less damaging than the long-term fallout of an unequal agreement. The statement emphasised that these negotiations are occurring in the shadow of an aggressive and unpredictable US trade policy. Trump's second term has been marked by indiscriminate use of tariffs and a deliberate redrawing of the global trade architecture. In recent bilateral discussions held in New Delhi, negotiators claimed progress on market access for industrial goods and some agricultural products, according to a June 10 Reuters report. But reports soon emerged suggesting talks were faltering, owing to several red lines from both sides. Complicating matters are Trump's seemingly dubious geopolitical claims – such as linking an India-Pakistan ceasefire to trade negotiations – statements that were denied by Indian officials but never directly countered by Modi or his cabinet. India has yet to publicly disclose the full extent of US demands, raising fears of quiet concessions under diplomatic or corporate pressure, including rumoured influence from large business conglomerates. Learning from China India could have taken a cue from China's tough approach. When Trump announced reciprocal tariffs in April 2018, Beijing responded measure-for-measure, refusing to be bullied. This strategy eventually led the US to seek a tariff truce. Admittedly, China has economic leverage – particularly in critical raw materials – that India currently lacks. However, India still had the option to adopt a firm, no-nonsense posture instead of rushing to accommodate US demands. Even a beleaguered nation like Iran has demonstrated its ability to stand its ground against dominant nuclear powers, maintaining control over more than 400kg of enriched uranium at 60% despite intense pressure. Today, India finds itself cornered. If it exits talks, it risks punitive tariffs like those faced by Canada and the EU. But capitulating could mean signing away sovereign policy space and inviting irreversible damage to its economy and agriculture – echoing the colonial entrapment of the East India Company era.


Time of India
21 minutes ago
- Time of India
No justice, no peace: Will Syrian war criminals be punished?
No justice, no peace (Image: AP) The gruesome video first made global headlines three years ago. At around six minutes long, the film clip, leaked by a former militiaman loyal to deposed Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, showed the massacre of at least 41 men. Blindfolded, they were coaxed, pushed, or forced into a mass grave, where they fell onto the corpses of those who'd been killed before them, before being shot themselves. The killings, filmed in 2013, took place in a suburb of Damascus called Tadamon and locals suspect many more could have been killed here in the same way by Assad regime forces. Thousands of Syrians are still missing after the war ended in late 2024. Earlier this June, the Tadamon massacre, as it is now known, was back in the news again. Syria's Committee for Civil Peace — set up to ease community divisions after violence directed at minorities in March — had released dozens of former Assad regime soldiers. Among them, a man called Fadi Saqr, who had previously led an Assad-loyalist paramilitary group known as the National Defence Forces in Tadamon. They were allegedly responsible for the massacre in the video. Released in 'interests of peace and reconciliation' Syrians who had hoped for justice were incensed about the release of Saqr and others, and called for protests. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 집에서 할수 있는 부업! 월 평균 148만원 부업 하실 분 찾습니다 메리츠파트너스 더 알아보기 Undo Saqr told the New York Times he'd only been appointed to led the paramilitary after the Tadamon massacre, and the head of the Committee for Civil Peace told local media the decision to free Saqr and others had been made in the interests of peace and reconciliation. Saqr is apparently trying to persuade other former Assad regime supporters to back the new Syrian government. "Achieving transitional justice in Syriais likely to take a long time," says Alaa Bitar, a teacher from Idlib who lost his brother in the Assad regime's prisons. But releasing such well known figures without some sort of clarification is only going to make victims upset and everyone else angry, he told DW. The controversy has raised further questions about the transitional justice process the new Syrian government has committed to. In May, the head of Syria's interim government, Ahmad al-Sharaa, issued two presidential decrees, number 19 and number 20, establishing two commissions: the National Commission for Transitional Justice, or NCTJ, and the National Commission for the Missing and Forcibly Disappeared, or NCM. The NCTJ came in for criticism almost immediately. The language of the decree seems to indicate the commission would mainly be going after Assad regime allies. They are responsible for the bulk of crimes committed during the civil war. "The [NCTJ's] mandate, as laid out in the decree, is troublingly narrow and excludes many victims," Alice Autin of Human Rights Watch's international justice program wrote shortly afterwards. Amnesty International and Syrian rights groups were similarly critical. "By anchoring its mandate solely to one perpetrator group, the decree forecloses the possibility of investigating atrocities committed by other actors, some of whom are still active and influential in transitional institutions today," Syrian human rights activist Mustafa Haid pointed out in a text for Justice Info, a Swiss-funded media outlet specializing in transitional justice issues, last week. Critics note that crimes were committed on all sides, including by the extremist "Islamic State" group and anti-Assad rebel groups. Al-Sharaa previously led one of these, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. "Some view the focus on the crimes of the Assad regime as fair and long overdue," Joumana Seif, a Syrian lawyer working with the Berlin-based European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, wrote recently. "Others, however, have strongly criticized the apparent discrimination among victims." Transitional justice committee: no trust Beyond problems with the objectives of the initial decree, since then there's been a troubling lack of transparency and progress, observers say. "In my opinion, the transitional justice process is not going well," Mohammad al-Abdallah, director of the Washington-based Syrian Justice and Accountability Centre, told DW. "The NCTJ is lagging behind. Just compare it to the missing persons commission, which was established by the same government on the same day. It's more public, they've started technical discussions and are drafting a plan to search for the missing. " Meanwhile the NCTJ is more secretive, al-Abdallah noted. "There's no comprehensive plan or understanding about why the arrest — or non-arrest — of certain people is happening. Basically nothing is transparent and there's very little trust." Of course, the mission to find missing Syrians is much easier for the state than achieving transitional justice, he argues. "The humanitarian nature of this mission [to find the missing], the vast majority of the responsibility is on Assad's security agencies, there's no trial and no headache for the government," al-Abdallah said. "It's a win-win situation for them, while transitional justice is much harder." Of course, nobody is saying that the interim government can achieve justice in a matter of months or that they should arrest everybody, al-Abdallah continued. And certainly, observers say, Syrians have different ideas of what justice could be. "People do not necessarily want their suffering retold," one participant at a recent workshop held in Damascus by the Syrians for Truth and Justice group pointed out. "Some seek material and moral compensation while others want to see executions in public squares.' B ut what's happening now could actually be making things worse. Increase in vigilante justice "The government's slow response to pursuing criminals, coupled with the release of individuals accused of serious crimes — often without trial or explanation — has severely eroded public trust," Haid Haid, a consulting fellow with the Middle East program at British think tank Chatham House wrote for London-based media outlet Al Majalla last week. "In the void left by these failures, many have turned to their own means of justice. " Haid described a wave of assassinations in the southwestern city of Daraa as "a form of vigilante justice — long-standing scores settled with bullets instead of due process." In May, the Syrian Network for Human Rights documented 157 extrajudicial killings in Syria and experts suggest that around 70 percent of them are the result of some kind of vigilante justice or targeted killing. Often these involve former Assad regime supporters. Al-Abdallah says he's heard the government may conduct three or four major trials soon, after which there will be more focus on national peace building. "Which is obviously important too," he argues. "But to put peace-building in confrontation with justice, that's a fake choice." Syrian lawyers have already argued that decisions about people like Fadi Saqr made by the Committee for Civil Peace infringe on the NCTJ's jurisdiction. "We want justice and peace, and we can do both," al-Abdallah says. "You will not have a lasting peace if you don't have some elements of justice. But the government doesn't seem to be willing to accept that."