The Evening Wrap: Sakshi Malik refutes rumours of wrestlers’ protest withdrawal

Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia on Monday said they will continue the fight for justice and asserted that none of the wrestlers have backed down from the protest and nor they will. “This news is completely wrong. In the fight for justice, none of us has backed down, nor will we. Along with Satyagraha, I am fulfilling my responsibility in Railways. Our fight continues till justice is served. Please don’t spread any wrong news,” Malik tweeted after reports of her distancing from the protest emerged. Even Bajrang tweeted in the same vein as his national team mate and termed reports of withdrawing the FIR as “completely false”. “The news of withdrawing the movement is just a rumour. Such news is being spread to harm us. We have neither retreated nor have we withdrawn the movement. The news of women wrestlers taking back the FIR is also false. The fight will continue till justice is served,” said Bajrang. Bajrang, Sakshi along with fellow Olympian and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat have been protesting against outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, demanding his arrest on allegations of sexual harassment charge against seven wrestlers, including one minor. It must also be mentioned that all three India internationals, have returned to work as Office on Special Duty (Northern Railways) since last week. Odisha train accident: NDRF ends operation, withdraws all nine teams The National Disaster Response Force on June 5 ended its rescue operation with the withdrawal of all its nine teams from the triple train accident site in Odisha’s Balasore district that has claimed at least 275 lives, officials said. The force rescued 44 victims and retrieved 121 bodies from the spot since the teams were deployed after the accident on June 2, they said. The operation has ended and all nine teams have now been withdrawn as there are no live or dead victims present at the accident site near the Bahanaga Bazar Railway Station. Eight teams were relieved on Sunday, while one was drawn out on Monday, they said. The nine teams had joined the personnel of state disaster forces and the local administration to undertake rescue and relief operations after they were sent in from Balasore, Mundali (Cuttack district) and Kolkata. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescuers carried heavy plasma and gas cutters, lifting pads, stretchers, canine teams and other equipment to undertake the operation. The Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express entered the wrong track and hit a stationary goods train on Friday. Its coaches got scattered all around, including on an adjoining track and another passenger train -- Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express -- coming at a high speed rammed into them and derailed. PM Modi driving Indian car looking into rearview mirror and it’s crashing: Rahul Gandhi Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said that the BJP and the RSS are “incapable” of looking at the future and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to drive the Indian car by only looking in the rear view mirror which will lead to “one accident after another”. Mr. Gandhi addressed a massive community event at the Javits Centre organised by the Indian Overseas Congress — USA on Sunday as he wrapped up his visit to the United States which included trips to San Francisco and Washington DC. “Back home we have a problem, and I will tell you the problem. BJP and the RSS are incapable of looking at the future. They’re incapable. Unse aap kuch bhi poocho, woh peeche ki aur dekhte hain [You ask anything they look into the past],” he said. He said that if you ask the BJP why a train accident happened, they will say the Congress Party did such and such thing 50 years ago, taking a swipe at the government following the Odisha train accident, one of the worst railway tragedies in the country. The accident involving three trains has left around 275 dead and brought into focus the issue of railway safety. There has been a demand for the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw from some quarters. Mr. Gandhi said that if you asked the BJP why they removed the periodic table from the textbooks, they would refer to what the Congress party did 60 years ago. “Their immediate response is to look back,” he said, adding that one cannot drive a car by looking only in the rearview mirror as that would only lead to “one accident after another.” “That is the phenomenon of Narendra Modi-ji. He is trying to drive the Indian car and he only looks in the rearview mirror. And then he does not understand why this car is crashing, not moving forward. And it’s the same idea with the BJP, with the RSS, all of them. “You listen to them. You listen to their ministers. You listen to the Prime Minister, you will never find them talking about the future. They will only talk about the past and they will always blame somebody else for the past,” he said, amidst applause from the Congress party members. He said that when a train accident happened when the Congress party was in power, it did not say “it is the fault of the British that the train has crashed. No. The Congress minister, remember, said it is my responsibility the train has crashed. I’m resigning,” Gandhi said. He said the fight going on in India was a fight between two ideologies in which on one side you have Mahatma Gandhi and on the other side there is Nathuram Godse. “There is a fight going on back home — a fight between two ideologies. One that we represent and the other of course that the BJP and the RSS represent. I think the simplest way to describe this fight is on one side you have Mahatma Gandhi and on the other side, you have Nathuram Godse,” the 52-year-old former Congress president said at the community event. Referring to Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress leader said that on one side there is a “brave man”, “NRI like you — in fact, probably the most impactful NRI that India has had in many, many years. Humble man, a simple man, but a man who believed in the future, who believed in India, propagated non-violence and search for the truth. That’s the ideology that we follow. That’s the ideology that all of you follow in this room. “And then on the other side, Nathuram Godse, violent, angry, unable to face the reality of his own life. The reason he shot Gandhi was that he could not face his own life. And so, he had to take his anger out on somebody, and he chose to take his anger out on the man who represented the essence of India,” Mr. Gandhi, the former MP, said. He said there is a new fashion which is that “to express Indianness, you have to be hateful. To express Indianness you have to be abusive, to express Indianness, you have to beat people. No, that’s not Indianness. That’s something else and we refuse to accept that as Indian.” As Mr. Gandhi was addressing the gathering, a man carrying a Khalistani flag stood up. Gandhi said, “Namaskar, have a nice day.” The people in the audience gestured for the man to go out of the convention centre hall but Gandhi said, “This is Congress party’s power. We’re not being violent. We’re not being aggressive. We’re not being nasty. That is our strength. Did we shout at him? No, we didn’t. We will not change our behaviour. Because you cannot cut hatred with hatred. It’s impossible.” He referred to his slogan made during the Bharat Jodo Yatra – ‘Nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukan”. Formation of low-pressure system may critically influence advance of monsoon to Kerala: IMD A cyclonic circulation which is set to develop into a low-pressure area over the southeast Arabian Sea and intensify in the next two days is expected to critically influence the advance of the monsoon towards the Kerala coast, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said on Monday. The weather department, however, did not give a tentative date for the arrival of the monsoon in Kerala. “Westerly winds over the south Arabian Sea continue to prevail up to 2.1 km above mean sea level. However, because of a cyclonic circulation over the southeast Arabian Sea, the cloud mass is more organised and concentrated over the same area and there has been some reduction of clouds off the Kerala coast in the last 24 hours. “Also, under the influence of this cyclonic circulation, a low-pressure area is very likely to form over the same region during the next 24 hours. It is likely to move nearly northwards and intensify into a depression over the southeast and adjoining east central Arabian Sea during the subsequent 48 hours,” the IMD said. The formation and intensification of this system and its near northward movement are likely to critically influence the advance of the southwest monsoon towards the Kerala coast, the IMD said. The southwest monsoon normally sets in over Kerala on June 1 with a standard deviation of about seven days. In mid-May, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said monsoon might arrive in Kerala by June 4. The southeast monsoon arrived in the southern state on May 29 last year, June 3 in 2021, June 1 in 2020, June 8 in 2019 and May 29 in 2018. India is expected to get normal rainfall during the southwest monsoon season despite the evolving El Nino conditions, the IMD had earlier said. Northwest India is expected to see normal to below-normal rainfall. East and northeast, central, and south peninsula are expected to receive normal rainfall at 94-106 per cent of the long-period average of 87 centimetres. Saudi Arabia welcomes Venezuelan leader Maduro; defying U.S. relations Saudi Arabia has welcomed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on an official visit, reaching out to yet another U.S. foe as the oil-rich kingdom engages in a flurry of diplomacy. Maduro arrived late on June 4 in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, where he was greeted by Saudi officials, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. It did not give a reason for the visit or elaborate on his schedule, but Saudi Arabia is hosting an international conference on combating extremism later this week in the capital, Riyadh. The gathering will be co-chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Saudi Arabia has been a close U.S. ally for decades, but relations have strained in recent years. Over the last few months, the Kingdom has restored relations with Iran’s theocracy and Syria’s President Bashar Assad — both seen as pariahs in the West. Last month, the Saudis welcomed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a close Western ally, to an Arab League summit. But days later, they also hosted a senior Russian official who is under Western sanctions. The Saudis argue that they are pursuing their own national interests in a world increasingly defined by great power competition. Experts say the diplomatic surge is aimed at shoring up regional stability and improving the Kingdom’s image as it seeks international investment for massive development projects. Maduro was re-elected in 2018 after judges banned his main opponents from competing, plunging the country into a severe political and economic crisis. Most opposition parties refused to recognise the election results and challenged Maduro’s rule by creating an interim government, a push for change that fizzled out over the past two years. Washington has continued to back the opposition and imposed heavy sanctions on Maduro’s autocratic government, hoping that would spark a change. However, Maduro’s government dug in and resisted the sanctions with support from Russia, Turkey and Iran. WHO to seek global certificate system, inspired by E.U.’s Covid pass The World Health Organization will use the European Union’s digital Covid pass as a basis for a global health certification system, according to a new partnership deal agreed on June 5. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and E.U. Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides signed what they described as a “landmark” agreement in Geneva. “The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the value of digital health solutions in facilitating access to health services,” Tedros said at the signing ceremony. He said the E.U.’s Covid certificate would now be transformed into “a global public good”, as a first step in the creation of a global digital health certification network. The network will expand to include things like digitised international routine vaccination cards, he said. It will be aimed to help protect people from health threats, including possible future pandemics, and facilitate global mobility, the WHO and the E.U. said in a statement. This “will be an important part of our efforts to strengthen health systems and to support our member states to prepare better for the next epidemic or pandemic,” Tedros said. “The network could also play a crucial role in cross-border humanitarian situations by ensuring people have access to their health records and credentials as they move across borders due to conflict, the climate crisis and other emergencies.” The E.U. Covid certificate, made available on paper or digitally, has been used by travellers moving around inside the bloc to show their Covid vaccination or test status. The most widely-used Covid certification system in the world is based on open-source technologies and standards and allowed for the connection of non-E.U. countries with certificates issued according to the E.U. specifications. The certificate “showed our citizens the light at the end of the tunnel and protected at the same time public health amid the uncertainty of the pandemic”, Kyriakides said at the signing ceremony. “And this E.U. success story quickly became a global standard,” she said, pointing out that nearly 80 countries had already adopted the E.U. Covid certificate framework. Tedros stressed that the new certificate system would be “based on the principles of equity, innovation, transparency and data protection and privacy”. In Brief: A Varanasi court on June 5 sentenced gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment in the murder of Awadhesh Rai, the brother of Congress leader Ajay Rai. The murder case dates back nearly 32 years ago, to August 3, 1991, when Awadhesh Rai was shot dead outside his house in Varanasi’s Lahurabir area. Speaking on the verdict, Congress leader Ajay Rai said the fight of 32 years paid off and family members kept their patience despite obstacles created due to the influence of Ansari. “We did not give up. I, parents, Awadhesh’s daughter and the whole family stood firm,” he told local mediapersons. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 05 June 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Sakshi Malik refutes rumours of wrestlers’ protest withdrawal, says ‘will continue fight till we get justice’ Olympic medallists [Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia on Monday said they will continue the fight for justice]( and asserted that none of the wrestlers have backed down from the protest and nor they will. “This news is completely wrong. In the fight for justice, none of us has backed down, nor will we. Along with Satyagraha, I am fulfilling my responsibility in Railways. Our fight continues till justice is served. Please don’t spread any wrong news,” Malik tweeted after reports of her distancing from the protest emerged. Even Bajrang tweeted in the same vein as his national team mate and termed reports of withdrawing the FIR as “completely false”. “The news of withdrawing the movement is just a rumour. Such news is being spread to harm us. We have neither retreated nor have we withdrawn the movement. The news of women wrestlers taking back the FIR is also false. The fight will continue till justice is served,” said Bajrang. Bajrang, Sakshi along with fellow Olympian and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat have been protesting against outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, demanding his arrest on allegations of sexual harassment charge against seven wrestlers, including one minor. It must also be mentioned that all three India internationals, have returned to work as Office on Special Duty (Northern Railways) since last week. Odisha train accident: NDRF ends operation, withdraws all nine teams The [National Disaster Response Force on June 5 ended its rescue operation with the withdrawal of all its nine teams from the triple train accident site in Odisha’s Balasore]( district that has claimed at least 275 lives, officials said. The force rescued 44 victims and retrieved 121 bodies from the spot since the teams were deployed after the accident on June 2, they said. The operation has ended and all nine teams have now been withdrawn as there are no live or dead victims present at the accident site near the Bahanaga Bazar Railway Station. Eight teams were relieved on Sunday, while one was drawn out on Monday, they said. The nine teams had joined the personnel of state disaster forces and the local administration to undertake rescue and relief operations after they were sent in from Balasore, Mundali (Cuttack district) and Kolkata. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) rescuers carried heavy plasma and gas cutters, lifting pads, stretchers, canine teams and other equipment to undertake the operation. The Shalimar-Chennai Central Coromandel Express entered the wrong track and hit a stationary goods train on Friday. Its coaches got scattered all around, including on an adjoining track and another passenger train -- Bengaluru-Howrah Superfast Express -- coming at a high speed rammed into them and derailed. PM Modi driving Indian car looking into rearview mirror and it’s crashing: Rahul Gandhi Congress leader [Rahul Gandhi has said that the BJP and the RSS are “incapable” of looking at the future and that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to drive the Indian car by only looking in the rear view mirror]( which will lead to “one accident after another”. Mr. Gandhi addressed a massive community event at the Javits Centre organised by the Indian Overseas Congress — USA on Sunday as he wrapped up his visit to the United States which included trips to San Francisco and Washington DC. “Back home we have a problem, and I will tell you the problem. BJP and the RSS are incapable of looking at the future. They’re incapable. Unse aap kuch bhi poocho, woh peeche ki aur dekhte hain [You ask anything they look into the past],” he said. He said that if you ask the BJP why a train accident happened, they will say the Congress Party did such and such thing 50 years ago, taking a swipe at the government following the Odisha train accident, one of the worst railway tragedies in the country. The accident involving three trains has left around 275 dead and brought into focus the issue of railway safety. There has been a demand for the resignation of Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw from some quarters. Mr. Gandhi said that if you asked the BJP why they removed the periodic table from the textbooks, they would refer to what the Congress party did 60 years ago. “Their immediate response is to look back,” he said, adding that one cannot drive a car by looking only in the rearview mirror as that would only lead to “one accident after another.” “That is the phenomenon of Narendra Modi-ji. He is trying to drive the Indian car and he only looks in the rearview mirror. And then he does not understand why this car is crashing, not moving forward. And it’s the same idea with the BJP, with the RSS, all of them. “You listen to them. You listen to their ministers. You listen to the Prime Minister, you will never find them talking about the future. They will only talk about the past and they will always blame somebody else for the past,” he said, amidst applause from the Congress party members. He said that when a train accident happened when the Congress party was in power, it did not say “it is the fault of the British that the train has crashed. No. The Congress minister, remember, said it is my responsibility the train has crashed. I’m resigning,” Gandhi said. He said the fight going on in India was a fight between two ideologies in which on one side you have Mahatma Gandhi and on the other side there is Nathuram Godse. “There is a fight going on back home — a fight between two ideologies. One that we represent and the other of course that the BJP and the RSS represent. I think the simplest way to describe this fight is on one side you have Mahatma Gandhi and on the other side, you have Nathuram Godse,” the 52-year-old former Congress president said at the community event. Referring to Mahatma Gandhi, the Congress leader said that on one side there is a “brave man”, “NRI like you — in fact, probably the most impactful NRI that India has had in many, many years. Humble man, a simple man, but a man who believed in the future, who believed in India, propagated non-violence and search for the truth. That’s the ideology that we follow. That’s the ideology that all of you follow in this room. “And then on the other side, Nathuram Godse, violent, angry, unable to face the reality of his own life. The reason he shot Gandhi was that he could not face his own life. And so, he had to take his anger out on somebody, and he chose to take his anger out on the man who represented the essence of India,” Mr. Gandhi, the former MP, said. He said there is a new fashion which is that “to express Indianness, you have to be hateful. To express Indianness you have to be abusive, to express Indianness, you have to beat people. No, that’s not Indianness. That’s something else and we refuse to accept that as Indian.” As Mr. Gandhi was addressing the gathering, a man carrying a Khalistani flag stood up. Gandhi said, “Namaskar, have a nice day.” The people in the audience gestured for the man to go out of the convention centre hall but Gandhi said, “This is Congress party’s power. We’re not being violent. We’re not being aggressive. We’re not being nasty. That is our strength. Did we shout at him? No, we didn’t. We will not change our behaviour. Because you cannot cut hatred with hatred. It’s impossible.” He referred to his slogan made during the Bharat Jodo Yatra – ‘Nafrat ke bazaar mein mohabbat ki dukan”. Formation of low-pressure system may critically influence advance of monsoon to Kerala: IMD A cyclonic circulation which is set to develop into a low-pressure area over the southeast Arabian Sea and intensify in the next two days is [expected to critically influence the advance of the monsoon towards the Kerala coast, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said]( on Monday. The weather department, however, did not give a tentative date for the arrival of the monsoon in Kerala. “Westerly winds over the south Arabian Sea continue to prevail up to 2.1 km above mean sea level. However, because of a cyclonic circulation over the southeast Arabian Sea, the cloud mass is more organised and concentrated over the same area and there has been some reduction of clouds off the Kerala coast in the last 24 hours. “Also, under the influence of this cyclonic circulation, a low-pressure area is very likely to form over the same region during the next 24 hours. It is likely to move nearly northwards and intensify into a depression over the southeast and adjoining east central Arabian Sea during the subsequent 48 hours,” the IMD said. The formation and intensification of this system and its near northward movement are likely to critically influence the advance of the southwest monsoon towards the Kerala coast, the IMD said. The southwest monsoon normally sets in over Kerala on June 1 with a standard deviation of about seven days. In mid-May, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said monsoon might arrive in Kerala by June 4. The southeast monsoon arrived in the southern state on May 29 last year, June 3 in 2021, June 1 in 2020, June 8 in 2019 and May 29 in 2018. India is expected to get normal rainfall during the southwest monsoon season despite the evolving El Nino conditions, the IMD had earlier said. Northwest India is expected to see normal to below-normal rainfall. East and northeast, central, and south peninsula are expected to receive normal rainfall at 94-106 per cent of the long-period average of 87 centimetres. Saudi Arabia welcomes Venezuelan leader Maduro; defying U.S. relations [Saudi Arabia has welcomed Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on an official visit]( reaching out to yet another U.S. foe as the oil-rich kingdom engages in a flurry of diplomacy. Maduro arrived late on June 4 in the Red Sea city of Jeddah, where he was greeted by Saudi officials, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. It did not give a reason for the visit or elaborate on his schedule, but Saudi Arabia is hosting an international conference on combating extremism later this week in the capital, Riyadh. The gathering will be co-chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Saudi Arabia has been a close U.S. ally for decades, but relations have strained in recent years. Over the last few months, the Kingdom has restored relations with Iran’s theocracy and Syria’s President Bashar Assad — both seen as pariahs in the West. Last month, the Saudis welcomed Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a close Western ally, to an Arab League summit. But days later, they also hosted a senior Russian official who is under Western sanctions. The Saudis argue that they are pursuing their own national interests in a world increasingly defined by great power competition. Experts say the diplomatic surge is aimed at shoring up regional stability and improving the Kingdom’s image as it seeks international investment for massive development projects. Maduro was re-elected in 2018 after judges banned his main opponents from competing, plunging the country into a severe political and economic crisis. Most opposition parties refused to recognise the election results and challenged Maduro’s rule by creating an interim government, a push for change that fizzled out over the past two years. Washington has continued to back the opposition and imposed heavy sanctions on Maduro’s autocratic government, hoping that would spark a change. However, Maduro’s government dug in and resisted the sanctions with support from Russia, Turkey and Iran. WHO to seek global certificate system, inspired by E.U.’s Covid pass The [World Health Organization will use the European Union’s digital Covid pass as a basis for a global health certification system]( according to a new partnership deal agreed on June 5. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and E.U. Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides signed what they described as a “landmark” agreement in Geneva. “The Covid-19 pandemic highlighted the value of digital health solutions in facilitating access to health services,” Tedros said at the signing ceremony. He said the E.U.’s Covid certificate would now be transformed into “a global public good”, as a first step in the creation of a global digital health certification network. The network will expand to include things like digitised international routine vaccination cards, he said. It will be aimed to help protect people from health threats, including possible future pandemics, and facilitate global mobility, the WHO and the E.U. said in a statement. This “will be an important part of our efforts to strengthen health systems and to support our member states to prepare better for the next epidemic or pandemic,” Tedros said. “The network could also play a crucial role in cross-border humanitarian situations by ensuring people have access to their health records and credentials as they move across borders due to conflict, the climate crisis and other emergencies.” The E.U. Covid certificate, made available on paper or digitally, has been used by travellers moving around inside the bloc to show their Covid vaccination or test status. The most widely-used Covid certification system in the world is based on open-source technologies and standards and allowed for the connection of non-E.U. countries with certificates issued according to the E.U. specifications. The certificate “showed our citizens the light at the end of the tunnel and protected at the same time public health amid the uncertainty of the pandemic”, Kyriakides said at the signing ceremony. “And this E.U. success story quickly became a global standard,” she said, pointing out that nearly 80 countries had already adopted the E.U. Covid certificate framework. Tedros stressed that the new certificate system would be “based on the principles of equity, innovation, transparency and data protection and privacy”. In Brief: A Varanasi court on June 5 sentenced [gangster-turned-politician Mukhtar Ansari to life imprisonment in the murder of Awadhesh Rai]( the brother of Congress leader Ajay Rai. The murder case dates back nearly 32 years ago, to August 3, 1991, when Awadhesh Rai was shot dead outside his house in Varanasi’s Lahurabir area. Speaking on the verdict, Congress leader Ajay Rai said the fight of 32 years paid off and family members kept their patience despite obstacles created due to the influence of Ansari. “We did not give up. I, parents, Awadhesh’s daughter and the whole family stood firm,” he told local mediapersons. 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