New Delhi, Aug 19: The Union Home minister Amit Shah has written to the secretary-general of Lok Sabha Utpal Kumar Singh on Tuesday, August 19, 2025, notifying him that he intends to move a Union Territory Administration (Amendment) Bill, 2025 in the ongoing monsoon session of the parliament, The Wire has reported.

According to report, the Union Home Minister has marked the letter to the Union Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Kiren Rijiju, the legislative department of the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Lok Sabha Secretariat, and the legislative office of the Lok Sabha.

Along with the primary proposal, Shah also wrote the Lok Sabha’s secretary-general to move an associated 130th Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2025.

Shah requested in a separate letter urging the secretary-general to show some leniency in rules of the house for him to move both the amendment bills in the current session. Shah is said to have cited “paucity of time” to urge the secretary-general to go easy on the procedures and rules of the Lok Sabha mentioned in Rule 19 (A) and 19 (B) to facilitate the proposal in the current session that is supposed to end on August 21, 2025.

Rule 19 (A) requires a government minister to give prior notice to introduce a bill in the Lok Sabha, while Rule 19(B) says that government bills should be circulated to all members of the Lok Sabha before they are formally introduced to facilitate review and preparation of the concerned bill.

The Wire could not confirm the content of the bills, but the bill comes on the heels of the Union government’s counsel Tushar Mehta reassuring the Supreme Court that the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir would be restored “at the earliest” after considering all factors. Mehta has told the Supreme Court that the Union government fulfilled its promise of conducting assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, and assured that its statehood would also be restored soon.

At the same time, Ladakh has seen protests by a large section of its population to demand a legislative assembly. The Narendra Modi government has said that it will consider the demand positively.

New Delhi, Aug 19: The Editors Guild of India (EGI) has come out strongly in defence of senior journalists Siddharth Varadarajan, Founding Editor of The Wire, and Karan Thapar, Consulting Editor of The Wire, after the Assam Police registered FIRs accusing them of “endangering the sovereignty of India.” The Guild demanded immediate withdrawal of FIRs against Thapar and Varadarajan.

The Guild in a statement expressed deep concern over media reports that the Assam Police have summoned two senior journalists – Siddhart Varadarajan, Founding Editor of The Wire, and Karan Thapar, Consulting Editor of The Wire – to Guwahati following the registration of a First Information Report (FIR) against them for allegedly endangering the sovereignty of India.

The summons to these two journalists to appear before the Crime Branch office in Guwahati’s Panbazar on August 22, 2025, comes just days after the Supreme Court granted Varadarajan and others protection against any “coercive action” by the Assam Police in connection with another FIR lodged over an article published by The Wire, the statement said.

It is not yet clear whether the latest FIR is also linked to the same article, which critiqued the government over Operation Sindoor, it said.

It also said that as with the earlier FIR registered at Morigaon Police Station, the latest case also invokes Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), which pertains to acts endangering the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India. In addition to Section 152, the FIRs invoke several other provisions: Section 196 (communal enmity), Section 197 (1)(d)/3(6) (false propaganda), Section 353 (public mischief), Section 45 (abetment), and Section 61 (criminal conspiracy).

The Guild is extremely disturbed by this continuing trend of law enforcement agencies across states registering FIRs against journalists by invoking multiple provisions of the criminal code. This practice effectively muzzles independent journalism, as the very process of responding to notices, summons and prolonged judicial proceedings becomes a form of punishment, the statement highlighted.

It added that the invocation of Section 152 of the BNS is particularly troubling, since it is widely regarded as a repackaged versions of the draconian sedition law (Section 124A of the IPC), which the Supreme Court ordered to be kept in abeyance in May 2022 in response to petitions filed by the Guild and others challenging its constitutionality. Rather than meaningfully engage with the concerns raised by the Court, the government reintroduced the provision in broader form under the new law. Section 152 of the BNS now extends beyond speech acts (written or oral) to also include the alleged use of financial means to pursue certain objectives.

The Guild had written to the Home Ministry in July 2024 highlighting these concerns, specifically regarding Section 152 and other provisions that pose a serious risk of misuse against free speech. It had also urged the introduction of procedural safeguards to prevent the arbitrary application of such laws against journalists in the course of their professional work, it added.

While laws must always be respected and upheld, they must not be misused to suppress journalism. The Editors Guild urges the Assam Police to refrain from actions that could cast even the slightest doubt on their true intent. The Guild also takes the opportunity to remind fellow journalists about the importance of pursuing their profession without fear or favour. Honest journalism can never be a crime, the statement held.

New Delhi, Aug 19: There has been an “upward trend” in India-China relations in the past nine months as peace and tranquillity prevailed along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), National Security Adviser Ajit Doval said on Tuesday during his talks on the boundary issue with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Doval and Wang held the talks under the framework of Special Representatives (SR) mechanism that came ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s planned visit to China to attend the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

In his televised opening remarks, the NSA recalled his visit to Beijing in December last for the previous round of SR talks and said there has been an “upward trend” in the ties between the two sides since then.

“Borders have been quiet, there has been peace and tranquillity, our bilateral engagements have been more substantial,” he said.

Doval also formally announced that Modi will visit China to attend the SCO Summit, to be held in Tianjin on August 31 and September 1 and noted that the Special Representatives talks have assumed a “very special importance” in view of the trip.

The NSA also made a mention of the talks between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the margins of a multilateral event in the Russian city of Kazan in October last year, adding that both sides benefited a lot since then.

“The new environment that has been created has helped us in moving ahead in the various areas that we were working on,” Doval said.

The Modi-Xi meeting took place two days after India and China firmed up a disengagement pact for the remaining two friction points of Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh.

The two leaders had decided to revive several mechanisms, including talks between the Special Representatives, to normalise bilateral ties.

In his remarks, the Chinese foreign minister said the two sides should “increase mutual trust through strategic communication, expand common interest through exchanges and cooperation, and properly settle the specific issues” along the borders. “We are heartened to see the stability that is now restored in the borders,” he said.

“Now the bilateral relationship is facing an important opportunity of improvement and growth. The Chinese side attaches great importance to the prime minister’s visit to China to attend the SCO Summit at our invitation,” he said.

The Chinese foreign minister landed in Delhi on Monday on a two-day visit. Wang’s visit is largely seen as part of ongoing efforts by the two neighbours to rebuild their relationship after it came under severe strain following the deadly Galwan Valley clashes in 2020.

In the SR talks, both sides were expected to deliberate on new confidence-building measures besides reviewing the overall situation along the LAC. Though the two sides disengaged troops from the friction points, they are yet to de-escalate the situation by pulling back the frontline forces from the border.

Each side currently has around 50,000 to 60,000 troops along the LAC in the eastern Ladakh region.

The military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020 and the clashes at the Galwan Valley in June that year resulted in a severe strain in bilateral ties.

The face-off effectively ended following completion of the disengagement process from the last two friction points of Demchok and Depsang under an agreement finalised on October 21 last year.

In the last few months, the two sides also initiated a number of initiatives to rebuild the ties that included resumption of Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and New Delhi restarting issuance of tourist visas to Chinese nationals.