Today’s Top News Headlines and Latest News at 10:30 am on 25 April 2024

In top national news: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reference to the construction of the Ram Temple in an election rally is not an appeal to vote in the name of religion. Mentioning the development of the Kartarpur Sahib Corridor, a route for Sikh pilgrimage, along with the government’s action of bringing back copies of the Guru Granth Sahib — the Sikh holy book — from Afghanistan in a constituency with a sizeable Sikh population, does not violate the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). This is the decision that the Election Commission (EC) is likely to communicate in its first disposal of a complaint against the Prime Minister alleging Model Code violations, The Indian Express has learned.

Meanwhile, triggering a political storm in the second phase of the elections with his remarks linking a nationwide caste census to an institutional survey, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi reaffirmed Wednesday that his party if voted to power, would take up the “revolutionary” task of a “national X-ray” — his description of a caste census — along with an economic and institutional survey to determine “in which direction the country should move forward.” Addressing a Samajik Nyay Sammelan, Gandhi targeted the Prime Minister, saying he had panicked after seeing the “revolutionary manifesto” of the Congress which talks about the “X-ray” and the prevailing income inequality.

Days before the model code of conduct (MCC) for the Lok Sabha elections kicked in on March 16, the Maharashtra government had in the first week of March agreed to be the guarantor for 21 cooperative sugar mills and recommended their names for loans from the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC). Of the 21 mills, 15 are managed by leaders from the ruling alliance or those who recently jumped ship. Two are managed by leaders who had sided with Eknath Shinde when the latter split the Shiv Sena in 2022, five with Ajit Pawar when he parted ways with Sharad Pawar, and one by a Congress leader who switched to the BJP ahead of elections.

In other news: The Supreme Court Wednesday said “It will be a little extreme to suggest that material resources with the community will only mean resources which do not have their origin in the private property of an individual”. The remarks came from Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud who is presiding over a nine-judge Constitution bench that is answering a reference to the question of whether the phrase “material resources of the community” in Article 39(b) of the Constitution covers what is privately owned. The bench also comprises Justices Hrishikesh Roy, B V Nagarathna, Sudhanshu Dhulia, J B Pardiwala, Manoj Misra, Rajesh Bindal, Satish Chandra Sharma, and Augustine George Masih.

Moving on to top international news: An Arizona grand jury has indicted former Donald Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Rudy Giuliani along with 16 others in an election interference case. The indictment released Wednesday names 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Donald Trump beat Joe Biden in Arizona in the 2020 presidential election. It shows seven other defendants whose names were not immediately released because they had not yet been served with the charges. The Associated Press was able to determine the identities of the unnamed defendants based on their descriptions in the indictment.

More news from the US: A Chinese music student was sentenced on Wednesday to nine months in a U.S. prison for harassing an activist who posted fliers at the Berklee College of Music in Boston supporting democracy in China and threatening to report her activities to Chinese law enforcement. Prosecutors had urged U.S. District Judge Denise Casper in Boston to sentence Xiaolei Wu, 26, to nearly three years in prison to send a message that the United States would not tolerate China’s attempts to silence people of Chinese descent who express views at odds with the government.

In news from Russia: Russia vetoed on Wednesday a U.S.-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that called on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space, a move that the United States says suggests Moscow might be “hiding something.” “It’s a joke of a resolution,” Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told reporters ahead of the vote. The vote came after Washington accused Moscow of developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon, an allegation that Russia has denied. Speaking ahead of the vote by the 15-member council, U.S. administration officials declined to share details of intelligence they had to back the allegation.

Lastly in news from Spain: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez denied corruption allegations against his wife but said he will consider resigning after a judicial investigation was launched Wednesday into accusations that she used her position to influence business deals. Sánchez said in a letter posted on his X account that while the allegations against his wife Begoña Gómez are false, he is cancelling his public agenda until Monday when he will announce whether he will continue or step down. “I need to stop and reflect,” Sánchez wrote.

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