☪️ 🕌 @Noon: Why Muslims Demolished A Madrassa Themselves

1. ☪️ 🕌 Assam's way of defeating Islamic radicalism

A rare sight of Muslims voluntarily tearing down a madrassa in Darogar Alga village in Pakhiuara area of Goalpara district was witnessed.

What led to this: The police had arrested Jalaluddin Sheikh, the administrator of the madrassa, a few days ago for his links with the Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT).

• Sheikh confessed that he had engaged two Bangladeshi nationals--Aminul Islam and Jahangir Alom--as teachers of the madrassa. The two are linked to the aQIS and absconded after Sheikh’s arrest.

• The police started interrogating all residents of the village to find out more about the two aQIS terrorists.

• After police action, villagers realised they would not have to go through all this if they kept tabs on the activities and reported police on time.

• Hence, they decided among themselves to tear down the madrassa and the living quarters of the two teachers adjacent to it.

Government actions: CM Himanta Biswa Sarma focused on rooting out Islamic radicalism and busting terror modules.

• He closed 800-odd government-run madrassas in the state and converted them into regular schools.

• The state also mounted a strict vigil on the 1,500-odd private madrassas.

• They were asked to register themselves, provide details of what they teach, their students and, most importantly, their teachers.

The changes: Private madrassas were asked to introduce subjects like science, mathematics, geography and social sciences into their curricula.

• State police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta met representatives of various Muslim organisations that run madrassas in the state and laid down certain guidelines.

• All the organisations running madrassas were asked to provide details of their sources of funds and their bank statements of the past few years.

• Muslim organisations and community leaders, as well as ordinary folks were asked to keep vigil and report anyone involved in suspicious activities.

Outreach to Muslims: A massive programme explained to Muslim organisations and community leaders that ordinary Muslims would be adversely affected if jihadis were found in their midst.

• They were asked to cooperate with the state authorities and report the presence of radicals, terrorists and any suspicious or unknown individuals in their midst.

• Jaideep Mazumdar reports the matter in detail here.

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3. ✋ What 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' means

What to expect: Verbose declarations about economic inequality, taxation, inflation, intolerance, capitalism, public welfare, loan write-offs, farmers’ protests, and democratic institutions can be expected.

• The Congress will try to prove that Rahul Gandhi is not a shoot and scoot leader.

• It is more about elevating Rahul Gandhi within the Congress than elevating Congress within the opposition or elevating the competition against the BJP.

Congress crisis: The party is in shambles with both seniors, loyalists of Sonia Gandhi, and many juniors, rumoured to be in the Rahul camp, calling it quits.

• The recent exit of Ghulam Nabi Azad, who minced no words in describing the autocratic ways of Rahul in running the party, has only added to the woes of the Gandhis.

• The electoral successes are a thing of the past. Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Goa should have been easy wins, but nothing worked.

• Even with the BJP being on the back foot in Bihar, West Bengal, and some pockets of Maharashtra and Karnataka, the Congress is no longer the nucleus.

• In Gujarat, a defeat looks imminent.

4. 👨‍⚖ 🧕 What SC said on Karnataka hijab row

Don't compare with Sikhism: The apex court observed the five Ks in Sikhism -- Kesh, Kara, Kanga, Kaccha and Kirpan -- are well established.

• It is 'not very fair' to compare the practices in Sikhism as they are well engrained in the culture of the country, the Supreme Court said.

Other observations: On the arguments that Hijab doesn't affect public order, the bench agreed that wearing it on the street does not affect anybody.

• However, it said, "But once you are talking about a school building, school premises, then the question is what kind of a public order the school want to be maintained there."

• The bench observed it is not a question of violating other's fundamental rights, "the question is what kind of fundamental right do you have which you want to exercise."

5. 📈 "Combating inflation a collective responsibilty"

Nirmala Sitharaman said that combating inflation cannot be the sole responsibility of the Centre and states must play a critical part in bringing down prices.

• The inflation levels in some states continuing to remain higher than the national average remains a cause for concern.

• She pointed out that inflation is higher in those states which haven't cut tax on fuel products.

States with highest inflation: Telangana: 8.32 per cent, West Bengal: 8.06 per cent and Sikkim 8.01 per cent.

• Between 7.5-8 per cent: Maharashtra and Haryana at 7.7 per cent and Madhya Pradesh at 7.52 per cent.

• Between 7-7.5 per cent: Assam at 7.37 per cent, Uttar Pradesh at 7.27 per cent, Gujarat and Jammu & Kashmir at 7.2 per cent and Rajasthan at 7.1 per cent.

6. 🚨 ⛽ Russia cuts gas supply to Europe

Nord Stream 1 deliveries were suspended by Russian energy giant Gazprom on 31 August.

• It was said that it would be three days of routine maintenance.

• However, citing a purported leak in a pump at a turbine, the flow has not been restarted.

The Kremlin has stated that 'the West' deciding to go ahead with a price cap is the reason behind this cut.

• President Vladimir Putin said that EU discussions of a possible price cap on Russian gas were "stupid."

Europe crisis: Electricity prices are soaring in Europe and there is a shortage of natural gas.

• The European economy is being hammered and there is a deep rooted concern about what this winter will look like in Europe.

7. 🏗️ Interview: Infrastructure woes of Bengaluru

Mohandas Pai cites three reasons for the current condition of Bengaluru's infrastructure:

• Highly corrupt city corporation which does not hold any accountability and lacks the capacity to manage a city with a GDP of $140 billion, a population of about 12 million people, and 10 million vehicles.

• While CMs and senior bureaucrats want to improve Bengaluru, the lower-rung officials fail to execute plan on the ground.

• He asks for proper urban reforms, empowerment of the city, a full-time Mayor, and smaller corporations.

How micro-corporations help: Smaller corporations are needed because one single corporation for 800 square kilometres and 12 million people is simply too much.

• You can read the full interview here.

8. 🔭 Obituary: An "extraterrestrial" astronomer

Francis Drake passed away aged 92 on 2 September 2022.

• He offered a formalist framework for facilitating the search of extraterrestrial with respect to our galaxy.

• You can read about him here.

The Drake Equation provided a mighty scientific push to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

• It helped the international scientific community to launch a coordinated human search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

• While the equation has its critics and it may have become irrelevant, makes us ponder deeply about our place in the cosmic canvas.

9. 📱 Made-in-India Apple iPhone 14

Apple is set to start the local production of iPhone 14 in India in the next two-three months.

• This will be the company's fastest-ever start of local production of the iPhones in the country.

• The move is part of Apple's strategy to reduce its reliance on China.

• The 'Made in India' iPhone units will be produced at Apple's contract manufacturer Foxconn's facility near Chennai

• They are likely to be commercially available by December.