London, Aug 25 : Hitting out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said there is a monopoly of the PMO on the External Affairs Ministry and that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has no job except spending a lot of time working on people's visas.

Speaking at an event in London in the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS), Gandhi said: "You notice one thing, everybody says that it is a great thing that India's Foreign Minister spends a lot of her time working on visas.

"Do you realise what that statement means? It means the Foreign Minister has nothing better to do than get people visas. So, only there is the monopoly of the Foreign Ministry, and the PMO (Prime Minister's Office) has monopoly over the Foreign Ministry."

Sushma Swaraj really has nothing to do, though she is quite a capable lady, the Congress leader said. "If you actually give her the power to do something, she could probably break that monopoly (in the ministry)."

He maintained: "In India...if you're seeing something that is not scaling in India, just look at the monopoly that is not letting that happen.

"If you bring in new voices, if you bring in business, if you bring in other think tanks and give them actual power in the Foreign Ministry, it'll scale immediately."

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Bengaluru, Jul 25 (PTI): The Karnataka government has issued a notification reducing the pass percentage for SSLC exam from 35 to 33, effective from the academic year 2025-26

The draft Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board First Regulations (Amendment) 2025 was notified on Thursday.

According to the proposed guidelines, candidates must secure an average of 33 per cent marks, combining both internal assessment and external examination, to be declared pass.

This reduction was implemented through an amendment to the Karnataka School Examination and Assessment Board Act, 1966.

"Candidates shall secure an average of 33 per cent marks in internal assessment and external examination combined and shall be declared pass if they secure at least 206 marks out of a total of 625 marks, including at least 30 per cent marks in each subject out of the total marks of the respective subject," the notification issued by the Department of School Education & Literacy stated.

According to the notification, 15 days have been given to public to file objections to this new proposed rule.

Get all the latest, breaking news from Karnataka in a single click. CLICK HERE to get all the latest news from Karnataka.