Morning Digest: MEA calls Canada’s claims against India ‘absurd’; Three militants, LeT ‘commander’, killed in Kashmir, and more 

The Hindu Morning Digest gives a select list of stories to start the day. Read the top news today on November 03, 2024

Canada’s allegations against Union Home Minister Amit Shah were “absurd and baseless”, said an official of the Ministry of External Affairs on Saturday (November 2, 2024). The Official Spokesperson of the Ministry, Randhir Jaiswal, said Chargé d’Affaires of the High Commission of Canada Jennifer Daubeny was summoned on Friday (November 1, 2024) and conveyed that Ottawa’s charges will have “serious consequences” for bilateral relations.

Three militants, including wanted Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) ‘commander’ Usman Lashkari, were killed in two separate anti-militancy operations in Kashmir on Saturday (November 2, 2024). Two policemen and two CRPF jawans were also injured in the operations.

Three cleaning workers hired by the Railways were mowed down by a train on the Bharathapuzha bridge at Shoranur in Palakkad district of Kerala on Saturday (November 2, 2024). A search is on for another person, who reportedly was thrown into the river after being hit by the train.

New Delhi may be looking east, at Indonesia’s new President Prabowo Subianto, as chief guest for its Republic Day 2025 celebrations, sources said. A number of high-level interactions with the new Indonesian government and defence deals are on the anvil, besides a possible invitation to the Indonesian military to participate in the parade.

Faculty and staff members from across 24 Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) institutions have written to Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan expressing concern over the delay in implementation of the 7th Central Pay Commission revised pay scales, eight years after the announcement by the Centre. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has “destroyed” the dignity of the highest post of the country by repeatedly making “hollow promises” to 140 crore Indians, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Saturday (November 2, 2024). 

Economic insecurity and cultural anxieties triggering white nativism is the familiar explanation for the sustained popularity of Donald Trump in the United States, but that may not be the whole story. Segments of Hindu and Muslim immigrants in the key swing State of Michigan also support the Republican for the same reasons, as they begin to view the Democratic Party’s cultural agenda disorienting and its soft border policy threatening their interests.