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Former Minority Affairs Minister and senior BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Thursday (July 7) said he will continue to work for the saffron party to ensure it has acceptability in all sections of the society. In an interview with a news agency, Naqvi said his tenure as a Parliamentarian has ended but his political and social journey will continue. "Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain, abhi waqt ke imtihan aur bhi hain (there are still many challenges ahead in life). The way I have been working with full commitment to the welfare of society, I will continue to do so. Getting a responsibility is not as important as feeling responsible and being aware of the responsibility on your shoulders," the former Union minister said a day after his resignation. 

Foreign minister S Jaishankar reiterated India’s call for an early resolution of all outstanding issues along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh in a meeting on Thursday with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi.

Recalling the disengagement already carried out in some friction areas, according to an Indian readout, Jaishankar underlined the need to sustain the “momentum” to complete disengagement from all remaining areas to restore peace and tranquility in the border areas.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in Bali. This was their first meeting since Wang’s visit to India in March, the first high-level bilateral visit by either side after the Galwan clashes in 2020. Significantly, Wang appreciated India’s support during China’s Brics chairship this year and assured China’s support for India’s upcoming G20 and SCO presidency.

The regular ‘band, bajaa, baraat’ were missing but the festivities seemed intact as Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann tied the knot with Dr Gurpreet Kaur from Pehowa in Kurukshetra in Haryana, here on Thursday.

It was a private ceremony without the usual crowds, so much a part of the big, fat Punjabi wedding. Though few details were available, visuals on television and Twitter showed Mann and his bride at the Anand Karaj ceremony.

Aam Aadmi Party colleague Raghav Chadha also shared some images on Twitter showing Mann, in his yellow turban with ‘kalgi’ and a gold coloured kurta-pyjama while Kaur donned a red coloured dress.

In one of the biggest congregation on higher education after the notification of the National Education Policy 2020, over 300 vice-chancellors and directors of higher educational institutions' (HEIs) and other educationists are to deliberate on how to take the policy further at the Akhil Bharatiya Shiksha Samagam in Varanasi from Thursday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate the summit which will also adopt the "Varanasi Declaration on India's extended vision and renewed commitment for higher education".

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra, who has been booked for her comment on Goddess Kali, on Wednesday dared the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to prove that whatever she said is wrong. "I do not want to live in an India where BJP's monolithic patriarchal brahminical view of Hinduism will prevail and the rest of us will tiptoe around religion. I will defend this till I die. File your FIRs - will see you in every court in the land," tweeted Moitra on Wednesday (July 6). "I challenge the BJP anywhere in the country to prove anything that I said is wrong," Moitra added.     

The TMC leader has been booked for allegedly hurting religious sentiments after her comment on Goddess Kali stirred a controversy. An FIR has been registered in Bhopal against Moitra under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for hurting religious sentiments. She had called Kali "meat-eating" and "alcohol-accepting". Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that Hindu religious sentiments have been hurt by Moitra's statement and that insult to Hindu deities will not be tolerated at any cost.