Notification demanding journalists’ character certificate for Modi's event in HP withdrawn
After journalists express anger, DGP welcomes scribes to cover Modi’s rally
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New Delhi: Following an outrage from various fronts towards the notification on Tuesday demanding journalists covering Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s day-long visit to Himachal Pradesh to produce character certificates, the order has been withdrawn.
Modi will be visiting and addressing a rally in Himachal Pradesh’s Bilaspur district on Wednesday prior to the elections in November. The visit, to be held in Mandi in Himachal Pradesh on September 24, was postponed due to bad weather.
The order, passed by the district administration, however, had given rise to a controversy, since journalists from not merely private media houses but also the state-run All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan are required to bring ‘character verification certificates’.
The Police Department had passed a similar notification on September 29. The District Public Relations Officer (DPRO) was asked for a list of all the correspondents, photographers, videographers and teams of media houses, including Doordarshan and AIR, along with certificates of character verification. The notification added that the certificates had to be handed over at the office of the deputy superintendent of police, CID, Bilaspur, by October 1. The permission of entry to the events of the day would be granted by the office, it said.
On Tuesday, however, Sanjay Kundu, director general of police, Himachal Pradesh, said in a Twitter post that journalists were welcome to cover the event and their coverage would be facilitated by the state police force.
The Bilaspur SP wrote to the DPRO stating that the order of September 29 was withdrawn, and had been issued inadvertently.
Journalists and the Opposition, along with other citizens, had expressed ire over the notification. Many had even called it an attempt to curb freedom of the press and differentiate between what the saffron party would call ‘good’ and ‘bad’ journalists. Some had also called the order bizarre and was the sort of notification never witnessed in decades of experience in the media field.
While some journalists had tweeted on the authoritarian attitude displayed by the ruling party prior to the elections in Himachal Pradesh, Opposition party members and spokespersons called the notification an insult to journalists.
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NEET student hangs self in Rajasthan's Sikar
Jaipur (PTI): A student preparing for the NEET examination allegedly committed suicide by hanging himself in a rented room in Rajasthan's Sikar on Friday, police said.
According to the police, the student allegedly hanged himself from a ceiling fan using his sister's scarf while one sister was attending coaching classes and the other was in the bathroom.
He had appeared in the NEET UG exam 2026, which was cancelled due to paper leak, they said.
Udyog Nagar SHO Rajesh Kumar said that the deceased, identified as Pradeep Meghwal, was a resident of Kanika ki Dhani village in Jhunjhunu's Gudha Gaudji area.
He had been living in a rented room in Sikar's Jaldhari Nagar area with his two sisters while preparing for NEET over the last three years.
His elder sister later found him hanging and informed the landlord and police after bringing him down, officials said.
The SHO said the body was kept at SK Hospital mortuary, and a postmortem had not been conducted.
The student's father, Rajesh Kumar Meghwal, told police that Pradeep's NEET examination had gone well and the family was expecting him to score around 650 marks.
Former Rajasthan deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot expressed grief over the incident and linked it to anxiety among students after reports of irregularities and paper leaks in NEET 2026.
Pilot said repeated paper leak incidents and cancellation of examinations were affecting students' mental health and demanded a time-bound investigation and strict action against those responsible.
