Daily Briefing: India, China agree to disengage at key patrol point in Ladakh; Nitish Kumar calls for Pegasus probe

From the time 47-year-old Sjoerd Marijne, the Dutch coach of the women’s hockey team, took up the role in 2017, he has been working hard to make the players fitter, tougher, faster and fearless. He started with a largely disjointed unit, and has brought them, four-and-a-half-years later, to a historic win to enter the Tokyo Olympics semi-finals. 

The Big Story 

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, an important ally and coalition partner of the BJP, has thrown his weight behind the Opposition’s demand for a debate in Parliament on the Pegasus surveillance controversy. He also said should the Centre continue to reject the JD(U)’s demand for a caste census, the state government “would always have the option” of carrying out its own exercise.

From the Front Page 

India and China have agreed in principle to disengage at Gogra Post, a key patrol point in eastern Ladakh, government sources said. However, sources added, China is “not inclined” to move back from the Hot Springs area as it “continues to insist that it is holding its own side of the Line of Actual Control.” The movement from Gogra Post is expected to start in the next few days.

Two cellphones recovered from Tehseen Akhtar, the alleged chief of the Indian Mujahideen who is lodged in Tihar Jail, have been seized by the NIA in connection with its probe into the bomb scare outside Mukesh Ambani’s house. Akhtar admits the phones are his, but denies sending the messages which claim responsibility for planting explosives outside the industrialist’s house. 

Must Read 

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the telecommunications company Vi, has written to the central government that he is “more than willing to hand over” his stake in the company to any public sector, government, or domestic financial entity or to any other firm that the government may think fit, in order to keep Vi (formerly known as Vodafone Idea) going. 

As India celebrates the entry of the men’s and women’s hockey teams in the Olympics semi-finals, the success holds a special significance for Odisha, which has been at the forefront of supporting the sport. Not only are the current vice-captains of the men’s and women’s teams from Odisha, but the state has over the years produced several national-level hockey players and stepped up to develop infrastructure and sponsor national teams. 

On July 28, his son, Dhanbad Additional Sessions Judge Uttam Anand, 50, was killed by an auto-rickshaw that visibly veered sharply towards him on an empty road. About a week later, his father, who is a practicing lawyer, speaks of how his son struggled like him and worked his way up to become a judge. 

And Finally…

In what might have been the “first instance for China to operate politically in Indian domestic politics”, China used its “close connections” with Left parties in India to “build domestic opposition” to the Indo-US nuclear deal between 2007 and 2008, former foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale writes in his new book, The Long Game: How the Chinese Negotiate with India.