06082026-TTC-01.qxd 8/6/2026 12:27 AM 13 WILL HIRE YOU: MP BACKS TROLLED CREATOR NATION /thetribunechd Page 1 CHANDIGARH | GURUGRAM | JALANDHAR | BATHINDA | VOL. 146 NO. 216 | 16 PAGES | ~5.00 | REGD. NO. CHD/0006/2024-2026 ESTABLISHED IN 1881 SOMEONE HAS TO PAY COST: RBI GUV ON UPI BUSINESS thursday | 6 august 2026 /thetribunechd www.tribuneindia.com Zuckerberg says sorry for Meta removing At first presser since ouster, Modi video, hosting child abuse content Hasina sticks to Dec return Apology comes after govt issues ultimatum to social media giant on losing safe harbour Aditi Tandon & Rinku Behera Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 5 Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday apologised to the government for temporary removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s July 23 exam reform video from Facebook and presence of child sexual abuse content in advertisements on Instagram. Speaking for Zuckerberg, Meta’s global affairs chief Joel Kaplan said he had “apologised to the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology (Ashwini Vaishnaw) on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi’s Facebook post”. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg; and (R) firm’s global team arrives to meet minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in New Delhi. Officials said Meta leaders Kaplan and Rafael Frankel, head, Asia Public Policy, who represented the firm at the meeting, admitted to failures on regulating child sexual abuse content and deepfakes, and acknowledged that a lot of money was paid for boosting a certain type of content. Meta representatives didn’t make any formal comments on the meeting or its proceedings. Earlier today, Meta execu- NEW DELHI: Cabinet Secretary TV Somanathan and Home Secretary Govind Mohan were on Wednesday granted oneyear extensions in service. Somanathan’s tenure has been extended for one year beyond August 30, 2026, while Mohan will retain the post till August 22, 2027. This is the second extension for Mohan. TNS Bhartesh Singh Thakur Tribune News Service Ex-chief of Ethiopian AirlinesisAirIndiaCEO Opposition MPs protest at Parliament on Wednesday demanding statehood for Jammu & Kashmir on the seventh anniversary of the abrogation of Article 370 in the erstwhile state. PTI MORE ON J&K PAGE Rijiju meets Rahul as govt revisits delimitation, women quota agenda the current monsoon session would not be extended and there was no plan for a special session either. The current session is to end on August 13. Rijiju, however, admitted that he met Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi today to assess the Congress’ position on key pending Bills, including the Foreign Contributions Regulation Act amendments and the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, 2026, that seeks to reserve 33 per cent seats for women in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies in time for the 2029 General Election. Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was also present at this meeting which KC Venugopal and Gaurav Gogoi also joined. Rahul is said to have declined the agenda reiterating the stated Congress position that the reservation for women should happen on the existing strength of 543-member Lok Sabha. The government Bill defeated earlier had continued on page 6 Security forces must exercise restraint even if protesting youth hurl stones: SC Will act as pressure group: Dipke backs Jharkhand protest Satya Prakash NEW DELHI: Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke on Wednesday announced support for protesting students in Jharkhand, stating that the youth movement will operate as a “pressure group” to demand institutional accountability. Dipke said the CJP members would travel to Jharkhand to back job aspirants. The latter have been staging an indefinite sit-in in Ranchi since July 29, demanding that the alleged irregularities in the JPSC and other recruitment examinations be probed by an independent panel. INSIDE Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service Shotsfiredatwitnessin caseagainstAmritpal ROPAR: A complainant-cumwitness in a case against Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, currently lodged in Dibrugarh jail, escaped unhurt after shots were allegedly fired at him near Morinda around 2 am. Ropar SSP Maninder Singh claimed that the incident was the result of road rage. INSIDE Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 5 Emphasising the need for listening to protesting youngsters, the Supreme Court on Wednesday said law enforcement agencies should exercise restraint while dealing with them even if some “misguided elements” indulge in stone-pelting. “We need to tread carefully so that these youngsters do not indulge in violence. The better course is to counsel them and pacify them. The most powerful tool is listening. Listen to them and understand why they NewDelhi, August5 The government today revisited the pending agenda of women’s reservation and delimitation, with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju engaging the Congress on the issue to assess its position. Although sections in the ruling dispensation indicated a possible convening of a special session to take up the women’s quota Bill, Rijiju denied any such plans. He said Stresses need for pacifying and listening to them Student leader Devendra Nath Mahato and others on a hunger strike against alleged Jharkhand paper leaks, in Ranchi on Wednesday. PTI are shouting,” a Bench led by Chief Justice Surya Kant said. “Any aggressive action in the name of the ‘mighty state’ can unnecessarily aggravate the continued on page 6 Cash reward for liquor-free weddings in Mandi Dipender Manta Tribune News Service Mandi, August 5 Block Development Committee (BDC) member Dalip Singh of the Main Bharola panchayat of Mandi district has announced a cash incentive of Rs 11,000 from his personal funds for families organising alcohol-free weddings, in an effort to discourage the practice of serving Ujwal Jalali Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 5 Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday claimed that the July-August 2024 uprising that ousted her from power was “not merely a spontaneous student protest” but a meticulously orchestrated campaign for regime change. She also strongly defended the actions of law enforcement agencies, saying the state had a duty to protect lives, public property and security personnel amid widespread violence. The former PM reiterated returning to her homeland in December, asserting that she was prepared to face any Sheikh Hasina, B’desh ex-PM consequences, including arrest, imprisonment or threats to her life. In an audio-only virtual address to the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in the national capital, Hasina rejected the widely held narrative that the movement was an organic student-led agitation. Instead, she alleged that organised groups had exploited the quota reform protests to engineer the fall of her government. “A great falsehood has been repeated before the world: that the movement was only a peaceful student movement. Behind the language of reform, organised groups were working to turn students’ demands into a violent political instrument,” Hasina said. She said her government had already abolished the quota system in 2018 in response to student demands and appealed the high court’s 2024 decision after it reinstated the quota system. According to Hasina, she personally initiated dialogue with protesting students and invited them to the continued on page 6 Call girls, luxury cars, trips, properties: How funds embezzled in IDFC scam were spent Cabinet, Home Secys get 1-year extension NEW DELHI: Air India on Wednesday appointed former Ethiopian Airlines Group chief Tewolde Gebremariam as the CEO and MD, marking another change of guard at the airline after the takeover by the Tata Group four years ago. Gebremariam will replace Campbell Wilson, who resigned in April. INSIDE tives also met Ministry Secretary S Krishnan for 45 minutes. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has been in the eye of a storm since July 23 when a Facebook video of PM Modi disappeared from the platform for five hours in an error which the firm initially described as operational. Dissatisfied with the response, Vaishnaw summoned Meta’s global officials and the parliamentary committee for IT issued an ultimatum to the company to either apologise or lose safe harbour immunity under Section 79 (3) of the Information Technology Act, 2000. continued on page 6 Says 2024 uprising not student stir, plot to uproot govt liquor at marriage functions. The announcement was made during a gram sabha meeting chaired by panchayat pradhan Sanjay Jamwal and attended by the BDC member and a large number of residents. Jamwal said the incentive was not a panchayat scheme or gram sabha resolution, but Dalip Singh’s personal initiative to promote alcohol-free weddings. According to the pradhan, the announcement was well received, with many appreciating the initiative as a positive step towards promoting healthier social practices. Speaking on the occasion, Dalip Singh said his objective was to encourage people to voluntarily shun the practice of serving liquor at weddings. “This is an effort to inspire families to celebrate wed- dings without alcohol and strengthen positive social values in our villages,” he said. A former Army man, Dalip Singh said he wanted to use part of his pension for a social cause. He also announced that the honorarium he receives from the state government during his tenure as a BDC member would be spent entirely on continued on page 6 c m y b Chandigarh, August 5 The investigating agencies probing the Rs 657-crore IDFC First Bank-AU Small Finance Bank scam have found that bank officials and government officers spent the embezzled government funds on call girls, parties, dancers, visits to Dubai, Thailand and Goa, luxury vehicles and properties in Chandigarh, SAS Nagar and Panchkula. Funds were siphoned off from the bank accounts of eight departments of the Haryana Government and two of the Chandigarh Administration. Amounts from the accounts of two private schools were also embezzled. The Tribune has learnt that Ribhav Rishi, the mastermind of the scam and former branch manager of IDFC First Bank in Sector 32, Chandigarh, used to organise lavish parties at Jade Manor, Zirakpur, for government servants and others involved in the scam. According to the ED, Jade Manor used to be rented out for Rs 1 lakh per day for the parties. Rishi admitted before the ED that arrangements for DJs, dancers, entertainment activities and call girls were made for such parties. An expenditure of Rs 20-25 lakh was made on each such event. Rishi also organised multiple foreign and domestic trips for his associates, bank officials, intermediaries, family members and other individuals linked with the scam. The destinations were Thailand, Dubai and Goa during 2025. The expenditure incurred on such trips included flight bookings, luxury continued on page 6