Today's Big Stories Ashok Gehlot Opts for Trust Vote After Sachin Pilot Truce, Counters BJP’s No-Confidence Motion
The Ashok Gehlot-led government will move a confidence motion in the Rajasthan Assembly during the session beginning today as the Congress looks to counter the BJP’s plan of tabling a no-confidence motion in the assembly despite Sachin Pilot returning to the Congess fold with his flock of MLAs. According to sources, the Congress party will move the Confidence Motion when the house convenes around 11am.Congress has 107 MLAs in the 200-member assembly, which includes 19 dissident MLAs along with Sachin Pilot who returned to the Congress fold after a long-drawn rebellion and six Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) legislators who had jumped ship to join the ruling party.Follow live updates here‘Discipline Your Troops, Stop Provocative Acts’: China Tells India Onus of Galwan Clash is Not on Them
Sun Weidong, Chinese ambassador to India, has urged the Narendra Modi government to 'conduct a thorough investigation, hold the violators accountable, strictly discipline the frontline troops, and immediately stop all provocative acts to ensure such incidents will not occur again.' “If one analyses this incident carefully, it’s quite clear that the onus is not on China. The Indian side crossed the LAC for provocation and attacked the Chinese border troops. The Indian forces seriously violated agreements on border issues between the two countries and severely violated basic norms governing international relations,” Weidong wrote in the magazine.In Other NewsConcerning: The three journalists reporting for The Caravan magazine on the aftermath of the Delhi riots, in a media interaction held at the Press Club of India, said they were assaulted on Wednesday in the presence of police personnel who stood by as mute spectators.India COVID-19: India has recorded 64,553 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, taking its total to above 24.6 lakh. The pandemic has killed more than 7,50,000 people worldwide. Almost half of the deaths reported were in the four worst hit countries: US (1,66,038), Brazil (1,04,201), Mexico (54,666) and India (47,033). Follow coronavirus live updates hereContempt of court: The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce today its verdict in the suo motu contempt case against activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan for his two tweets allegedly derogatory against the judiciary. A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra will pronounce its verdicts in the matter.US elections: Donald Trump said he had heard rumors that Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, a Black woman and US-born citizen whose parents were immigrants, does not meet the requirement to serve in the White House. The president said he considered the rumors very serious.On Our SpecialsWeather woes: This year, the monsoon has been good in eastern India, along the western coast, south peninsular region and central India while it has been uneven in northeast so far. Nikhil Ghanekar writes that in north and northwest India though rains have been below par across eastern Rajasthan, Delhi, western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab and even in the hill states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, IMD data showed.Bengaluru riots: As an investigation progresses into the mob violence on the night of August 11 in Bengaluru, the spotlight has fallen on the Socialist Democratic Party of India (SDPI). Deepa Balakrishnan reports that several BJP leaders are calling for a ban on the SDPI now, after its suspected involvement not just in the Bengaluru riots but also in the Mangaluru violence six months ago over CAA as well as the riots in Padarayanapura in the state capital in April when it was declared a containment zone with rise in Covid-19 cases.