Rahul Gandhi’s car stoned in Gujarat, Aadhaar not compulsory for death certificates or booking railway tickets: Top stories

From Rahul Gandhi attacked in flood-hit Gujarat to Aadhaar not mandatory for death certificates and rail bookings, read the top stories of the day.

Rahul Gandhi attacked in flood-hit Gujarat, says he ‘won’t step back because of Modi slogans’, CM Rupani orders inquiry

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi arrives to visit the flood affected areas of Runi village in Banaskantha district on Friday.(PTI Photo)

A man from a hostile crowd attacked Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi’s car with a stone and broke a window on Friday during his visit to northern Gujarat’s flood-hit Banaskantha district. Political barbs flew after the attack in Dhanera town. Gandhi said he won’t be cowed down by the heckling and stones thrown at him, while the ruling BJP responded by calling his tour a “photo-op”. “We are not going to step back because of ‘Narendra Modi slogans’, black flags and stone pelting. We will do our best to help people,” the Congress leader tweeted. The stone attack is a serious breach of security as Gandhi is guarded by the Special Protection Group (SPG), an elite unit that protects eight dignitaries, including Prime Minister Modi. Read the story here.

Manmohan Singh condemns attack on Rahul Gandhi, says political violence has no place in democracy

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday night strongly condemned the attack on Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in Gujarat and said “political violence has no place in a functioning democracy”. A cement brick was hurled at Gandhi’s car by a man, suspected to be a BJP supporter, smashing a glass-pane at the rear end, during a tour of flood-hit Banaskantha district of Gujarat, police said. Read the story here.

Aadhaar not mandatory for death certificates, govt clarifies

The government on Friday made a strong pitch for the use of Aadhaar number to register deaths to prevent “identity fraud”, but stopped short of making it mandatory even as fears of privacy being compromised are yet to be put to rest. The Registrar General India (RGI), in a notification, stated that the Aadhaar-linked death registration will start from October 1. The government, however, clarified that it was not mandatory. If an applicant is not aware of the Aadhaar number or Enrolment ID Number (EID) of the deceased, he or she will be required to provide a certificate that the deceased person did not possess Aadhaar number to the best of their knowledge. Read the story here.

Aadhaar not mandatory for booking rail tickets: Govt

The Aadhaar number is not mandatory for booking rail tickets, the Centre told the Rajya Sabha on Friday. In a written reply in the Upper House of Parliament, Union minister of state for railways Rajen Gohain said as of now, his ministry had no plans to make the 12-digit unique identification number compulsory for booking rail tickets. “At present, there is no proposal to make the Aadhaar number compulsory for booking tickets for rail journey. However, with effect from January 1, 2017, the requirement of Aadhaar verification for getting concessional railway tickets for senior citizens has been introduced on a voluntary basis,” he said. Read the story here.

Pakistan’s new PM backs panel to probe allegations of sexual harassment against Imran Khan

Pakistan’s Parliament decided on Friday to form a special committee to probe allegations of sexual harassment against opposition leader Imran Khan by a woman lawmaker of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Ayesha Gulalai, elected to the National Assembly in 2013 from a reserved seat for women in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, stirred up a major row by accusing the cricketer-turned-politician of sending her “obscene” text messages and harassing other women leaders. Read the story here.

Harvard University biased against Indians, Asians in its admission process? US to probe

US President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing to probe a complaint by four Indian-American organisations and other Asian groups that Harvard University discriminates against students from the communities in its admission process. Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said on Wednesday the department wants to investigate the “administrative complaint filed by a coalition of 64 Asian-American associations in May 2015 that the prior Administration left unresolved”. Flores said: “The complaint alleges racial discrimination against Asian-Americans in a university’s admission policy and practices.” Read the story here.

Hair-chopping mystery: Delhi solves its first case, 14-yr-old was pranked by relatives

Delhi has officially solved its first case of the mysterious hair-choppings reported by women in the national capital. It turned out to be a “prank” by young relatives of the 14-year-old girl. The hair chopping was reported from the Sanjay Gandhi Jhuggi in south Delhi’s Dakshinpuri on Friday afternoon. A 14-year-old girl had claimed that she had found chopped hair on her clothes, but had not seen anyone do it. Read the story here.

SpiceJet’s pilot flying permit cancelled for failing alcohol

Licence of a Spicejet pilot was suspended by aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) after he failed the breathe analyser test for the third time. Breather analyser tests are conducted randomly by DGCA at airports to check whether pilots are drunk before flying. “Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL) of a Spicejet commander, who detected BA positive for the third time, has been cancelled by DGCA,” said an official. The pilot used to fly Boeing 737 and it was on July 11, when he was caught the last time at the Delhi airport. Spicejet’s comment is awaited. Read the story here.

Pakistan gets new cabinet, Khawaja Asif is foreign minister

The cabinet of Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi was sworn in on Friday, with veteran PML-N leader Khawaja Asif set to be the first full-time foreign minister since the party came to power in 2013. Khurram Dastgir Khan, who was labour minister during former premier Nawaz Sharif’s tenure, is to be defence minister while Ahsan Iqbal, a Sharif loyalist, is set to be the interior minister. President Mamnoon Hussain administered the oath to the ministers during a ceremony at the President House in Islamabad a week after Sharif was disqualified by the Supreme Court for dishonesty in declaring his assets. Read the story here.

White House vows crackdown on leaks of classified information, four charged

US attorney general Jeff Sessions went on the attack against a “culture of leaking” on Friday, saying such leaks were hampering the government’s ability to protect the country. The justice department has tripled the number of investigations into unauthorised leaks of classified information and four people have already been charged, he said. “We are taking a stand,” he told reporters as he announced administration efforts to battle what he called “the staggering number of leaks undermining the ability of our government to protect this country.” “This culture of leaking must stop,” he said. Read the story here.

China again blocks move to designate Masood Azhar as global terrorist

The government on Friday hoped that countries sharing its concerns over terrorism would cooperate in fighting all forms of terror, after China again stalled its efforts to bring Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) chief Masood Azhar under the sanctions list of the United Nations. “Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Azhar had been involved in carrying out terror activities against India and this was a well-known fact,” said external affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay. “We can only hope that all these countries which share our concerns regarding the menace of international terrorism will cooperate in fighting all forms of terrorism,” he said. China has repeatedly blocked India’s move to put a ban on the JeM leader under the al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council. JeM has already been in the banned list. Read the story here.

Game of Thrones: Episode 4, The Spoils of War leaked, Star India responsible

In a bizarre coincidence, hackers stole 1.5 terabytes of data from HBO, including material on fantasy series Game of Thrones, which they threatened to leak periodically, but someone else beat them to it. Before the hackers could carry out the threat, the unaired episode 4, titled The Spoils of War, was leaked online on Friday, three days before its official air date. The leak originated from Hotstar, the Indian streaming service where the show is aired ‘minutes after America’. Read the story here.