DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, JUNE 27, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 PM HAILS BIRLA FOR MAINTAINING DIGNITY OF HOUSE Om Birla gets 2nd term as Lok Sabha Speaker after election by voice vote Allow Opp voice, it also represents the people: Rahul DIVYA A NEW DELHI, JUNE 26 IN PERHAPS the first indication of what the Indian inquiry commission, formed in the wake of an alleged plot to assassinate KhalistanseparatistGurpatwant Singh Pannun, could be looking at, US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said Wednesday his country believes “Indian colleagues are looking carefully at what potential institutional reformsmightbenecessaryinthewake of some of these allegations and reports”. The US, he said, has “consistently asked for updates” on the high-level committee set up by New Delhi. Responding to questions during an online press briefing, days after his India visit with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Campbell said, “We made clear that we seek accountability and we have held constructive dialoguewithIndia on this topic and they have been responsive towards our concerns. We have consistently asked for updates. The issue has been raised directly with the Indian government at the Arvind Kejriwal in New Delhi on Wednesday. PTI VIKAS PATHAK & ASAD REHMAN Kejriwal sent to CBI custody for 3 days, court backs when he rebuts agency claim NEW DELHI, JUNE 26 WITH THE numbers on the NDA's side, BJP MP Om Birla was elected Lok Sabha Speaker for a second consecutive term by a voice vote on Wednesday, after a rare contest which saw the Opposition proposing its own candidate for the post. WiththeOpposition—which had announced Congress MP KodikunnilSureshasitscandidate — not pressing for division of votes, pro-tem Speaker BhartruhariMahtabdeclaredBirla aselected,andsaidthemotionsto proposeandsecondSuresh'scandidaturehadbecomeinfructuous. Later, however, TMC's Kalyan Banerjee said there should have beenadivision,assoughtbysome members, to ascertain the number of votes for and against Birla. Following his election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi escorted Birla to the Speaker's chair. Congratulating Birla, Modi, who moved the motion for his election as Speaker, lauded him for maintaining the decorum of the House during his previous term. Gandhi, in his speech, underlined that the “voice of the Opposition” should be “allowed to be represented in the House”. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Denies he told agency that Sisodia was responsible for excise policy Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday. PTI Speaker invokes Indira The gloves are off: No division of votes, but and Emergency blot, Congress MPs protest sharply divided in House VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, JUNE 26 SPARKS FLEW between the governmentandtheCongressinthe Lok Sabha Wednesday soon after Speaker Om Birla took charge, as Birla read out a resolution condemning the imposition of Emergency on the night of June 25-26, 1975, calling out the Congress and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for its atrocities. Congress members rushed intothewellof theHouseasBirla read the statement, calling for a two-minutesilence after it, even asmembers of otherOpposition parties stood in their place. The House was adjourned in the din, and will meet again at 11 am Thursday. At a time when Congress leadershavecarriedcopiesof the Constitution to their oath-taking, the government and the BJP decided to sharpen their attack on the prime Opposition party over the Emergency as an attack LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, JUNE 26 WHEN PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi shook hands and ushered the newly-elected Speaker Om Birla to his chair, the Lok Sabha livened up to thespirit of consensual yetcompetitive politics. But within a couple of hours, the momentary bon homie gave way to both the Treasury benchesandtheOppositiondigging into their entrenched positions. All it took was for Om Birla to call upon the Congress to condemn the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi, and observe its 50th anniversary. The Opposition im● mediately termed it as a “divisive statement”, leading to the first disruption and abrupt adjournment in the newly-constituted 18th Lok E EXPLAINED Pannun plot: US says India looking at ‘institutional reforms’ ARRESTED IN CORRUPTION CASE NIRBHAY THAKUR NEW DELHI, JUNE 26 A DELHI court Wednesday sent Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal to CBI custody for three days, a day after he was questioned by the agency in Tihar Jail in the alleged corruption case involving the Delhi excise policy. Arrested on March 21 by the Enforcement Directorate in an alleged money laundering case linked to the excise policy, Kejriwal suffered a setback Tuesday when the Delhi High Court stayed a trial court order granting him bail in the ED case. On Wednesday, the CBI EXPLAINED LAW WHY CBIARRESTED KEJRIWAL PAGE 12 placedhimunder“formal”arrest in the corruption case and produced him before the Rouse Avenue court of Special Judge Amitabh Rawat. The agency sought his custodyforfivedaystoconfronthim with the evidence in the present case of conspiracy. Senior Advocate Vikram Chaudhari, appearing for Kejriwal, asked the court to hear CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2008 AHMEDABAD SERIAL BLAST CASE HC bench comprising Justice Trivedi not to UP: How ‘cop extortion, custodial Behind water ‘leakage’ at Ayodhya hear appealsaof convicts Judge worked with trial prosecutor IN PARLIAMENT PAGE 11 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 assault’ drove brothers to suicide temple, station: Work in progress VIDHEESHA KUNTAMALLA A SUB-INSPECTOR has been arrested, an SHO is on the run, the chief minister has intervened and an MP has paid a visit to the family – the ripples of suicides by two brothers are being felt in Agra’s Rupdhanu village and beyond as allegations emerge of extortion and custodial assault by the local police. On June 24, Pramodh Singh (50), a home guard, was found hanging from the branch of a mango tree at the family’s one bighafarm,akilometreandahalf away from his home in Rupdhanu. SIX MONTHS after the 'Pran Pratishtha’ (consecration ceremony)atAyodhya’sRamMandir, the Temple Trust as well as the Ayodhya administration are facing their first challenge -- drippingwateratthetempleandpotholesontheroadleadinguptoit. The city has been witnessing itsfirstheavyrainfallof themonsoon season since Tuesday. The showers have led to water drippinginthe'gudhmandap'orhall just outside the temple's sanctum sanctorum, and caused waterlogging and potholes on Ram Path and other areas. AHMEDABAD, JUNE 26 MAULSHREE SETH NEW DELHI, JUNE 26 AYODHYA, JUNE 26 At the house of the two brothers in Rupdhanu village. Express Sitting next to his portrait, Pramodh’s 19-year-old son Om Shanti, the eldest of four children, said, “On Monday morn- ing, papa came home in the afternoon, asked for a pen and a paper, and said he was going to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SOHINI GHOSH Maulshree Seth Repair work being carried out at Ram Path on Wednesday Waterlogging was also reported outside the newly renovated Ayodhya railway station. Authorities are now using heavy machinery to fill the potholes and drain the water. When The Indian Express CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THEGUJARATHighCourtsaidon Wednesday that the appeals of those convicted in the 2008 Ahmedabadserialblastcasewill be heard by a bench that did not have Justice Umesh Trivedi on it, ashehadearlierworkedwiththe officeof oneof thespecialprosecutors appointed in the trial. The decision came almost two weeks after Justice Trivedi, on June 12, suggested to the advocates of the accused to ask their clients if they have any objection to a bench comprising him hearing their appeals. The convicts, sentenced to death penalty and life sentence by a special trial court in Justice Umesh Trivedi recuses Ahmedabadin2022,objectedto a bench comprising Justice Trivedi hearing their various pleasseekingsuspensionof sentence and bail, among others. Following this, Justice Trivedi himself recused from the case. Followingtheirobjection,the division bench of Justice Trivedi and Justice Cheekati Manavendranath Roy on Wednesday directed that the matter be placed before an appropriate bench for hearing, CONTINUEDONPAGE2 ‘I, Nilesh Dyandev Lanke…’ Why floor belonged to this MP in Parliament PAGE 1 ANCHOR ALOK DESHPANDE MUMBAI, JUNE 26 NILESH LANKE won twice. The first time was on June 4, when the NCP (SP) leader defeated his heavyweight BJP rival, Sujay Vikhe-Patil, from Ahmednagar inMaharashtra.Thesecondtime was Tuesday, when the firsttimer MP stepped up to take the oath in Parliament and began with the words, “I, Nilesh Dyandev Lanke…”. All the way to Ahmednagar, the words rang loud and clear. During the poll campaign, Lanke’s BJP rival — belonging to the powerful Vikhe-Patil family –hadmocked him, saying Lanke did not know either English or Hindi. Throwing a challenge, Sujay Vikhe-Patil had shared a video clip with the media, and said: “If he (Lanke) manages to speak even this much Hindi and English(asinthevideo),Iwillnot file my nomination.” A day later, with Parliament having wrapped up the swearing-in and taken off to a tumultuous start, Lanke admits he is a contented man. Speaking in Marathi, he tells The Indian Express over the phone: “Nothing is impossible in this world. Nobody is born with special abilities, everybody learns to swim when thrown in the water. I am like that.” The44-year-oldsayshechose not to respond to Vikhe-Patil’s barbs during the campaign deliberately. “I did not reply to anybody then, rather I bypassed the topicaskingpeoplewhetherthey wantedanMPwhowillworkfor them or one who can speak English… People chose me over my opponent,” he says. InAhmednagar,fewdisagree thatLanke’sactionsspeaklouder Nilesh Lanke at Parliament, with BJP leader Nitin Gadkari. X than his words, one reason why the battle-seasoned Sharad Pawar trusted him to take on Vikhe-Patil. The rivalry between the Pawars and Vikhe-Patils dates back four decades, with Sujayafourth-generationpoliticianfromhisfamily.Earlierinthe Congress, the Vikhe-Patils, who have hitched their wagon to the BJPnow,commandAhmednagar through an empire that spreads fromcooperativestoeducational institutes. Sujay’s father Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil is Maharashtra’sRevenueMinister. Incontrast,Lankewasbornto aprimaryschoolteacher,withno political background. He was drawntopoliticsafterasmallhotel he ran in his native village ran aground,andjoinedtheShivSena (then united) at a very early age. After Lanke lost the first election he fought, to a panchayat samiti, he decided to hunker down and work among the public. Lanke’s focus area initially were the youth, and he earned much goodwill for getting many of them jobs in an industrial park coming up in Supa. In 2017, he contested again, and won in the Ahmednagar zilla parishad election by the highest margin in the district. A year later, Lanke quit the Sena, over internal infighting, but did not lose his touch with the people, setting up a Nilesh Lanke Pratishthan. In 2019, he joinedtheNCP(thenunited)and defeated an erstwhile Sena rival in the Assembly polls that year. It was during the Covid-19 pandemic that Lanke’s popularity really soared. Locals talk of him setting up Covid centers down to the village level and personally monitoring relief work and supplying medical aid as well as meal packets. Visuals emerged of him sleeping with relatives of patients on the floor at a time when people shunned contact with Covid patients. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2