This is the Catchup on 3 Things by The Indian Express and I'm Flora Swain.
Today is the 10th of September and here are the headlines.
A showpiece bilateral jobs scheme, under which Indians would be taken to Israel to work in the construction sector, after over 100,000 Palestinian workers were banned in the wake of the Hamas attack of October 7 last year, is threatening to unravel. An Indian Express investigation has revealed that the key reason is a glaring skill mismatch after an assessment process that over-promised and under-delivered when it came to workers’ abilities. Israel has since taken the unprecedented step of allowing these workers to be re-deployed in unskilled or industrial jobs in non-construction sectors to avoid “damage” to “important relations” between both countries.
Hundres of junior doctors today marched towards Swasthya Bhawan, the headquarters of the state health department, which is located in Salt Lake. After the Supreme Court’s direction to the agitating doctors to resume their work by 5 pm today, the medics set the same time as the deadline for the West Bengal government to accept their charter of demands. The doctors’ demands include the resignation of Kolkata Police Commissioner, state Health Secretary, Director of Health Education (DHE), and Director of Health Services (DHS).
During his ongoing visit to the US, Rahul Gandhi has kept up his attacks on the Narendra Modi government, accusing it of trying to undermine the Constitution and standing in the way of holding a nationwide caste census, themes that defined the Opposition’s campaign in the parliamentary elections. In his talks at universities abroad in the past few years, Gandhi, has accused the BJP government of stifling free speech; indulging in crony capitalism; attacking federalism; capturing Indian institutions, including the media; depriving the Opposition of a level playing field; and spreading communalism in an attempt to destroy India’s pluralism.
The Supreme Court today stayed the proceedings in the criminal defamation case filed by a BJP leader against Congress MP Shashi Tharoor over certain remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Tharoor had approached the top court challenging the August 29 Delhi High Court order dismissing his plea to quash the proceedings. Appearing for the senior Congress leader, Advocate Mohammed Ali Khan informed the court that he had only quoted from an article published by the Caravan Magazine in 2012 that contained an alleged remark by an unnamed RSS leader comparing Narendra Modi to “a scorpion sitting on a Shivling”. The counsel wondered how the remark became defamatory in 2018 when it was not so in 2012.
Israeli strikes in a supposedly safe zone of southern Gaza before dawn today, killed scores of people, according to Palestinian officials. Israel said it had struck a command centre for Hamas fighters whom it said had infiltrated the designated "humanitarian" area in al-Mawasi, a vast camp on sandy soil where the military has told hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to shelter since ordering them out of their homes. Hamas denied any fighters were present. The Gaza civil emergency service said it believed at least 65 people had been killed or wounded, but could not provide a breakdown of casualties.
This was the Catch Up on 3 Things by The Indian Express.
