DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, JULY 6, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 London Labour Landslide Govt, NTA oppose NEET AFFIDAVITS FILED AHEAD OF JULY 8 HEARING retest, tell SC honest candidates will be hit Absence of any large-scale breach of confidentiality: Education Ministry Metrics for reforms, easing compliance burden: PM’s plan to Secys HARIKISHAN SHARMA & AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA ANANTHAKRISHNAN G & RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, JULY 5 NEW DELHI, JULY 5 Britain’s new Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria outside 10, Downing Street in London on Friday. Reuters FROM DEVELOPING metrics to encourage competition among states in governance reforms to identifying one impactful project that needs to be commissionedandonegroundedduring thefirst 100days;fromreducing the citizen’s compliance burden and pushing women-led development to revamping Ministry websites to make them more user-friendly — Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a 16point"directive"toSecretariesat theCentre,TheIndianExpresshas learnt. These directions came during the PM’s interaction with SecretariesonJune29,hisfirst in the NDA’s third term. Two days later, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba wrote to all Secretaries to “initiate immediate action” based on these. Among the directions, the Prime Minister has asked the Secretaries to provide adequate opportunities to youth in “nation-building” by synergizing initiatives like National Service Starmer is UK’s new PM: Past chill, Delhi cautious as it warms to Labour Will deliver change... rebuild faith in politics realism, push on FTA CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BIG PICTURE PAGE 14 BABA’S BUSINESS THE GODMAN & HIS EMPIRE WHO IS SURAJ PAL ALIAS BHOLEY BABA EXPRESS NETWORK BSP’S TAMIL NADU CHIEF HACKED TO DEATH PAGE 6 BIHAR SUSPENDS 11 ENGINEERS OVER COLLAPSE OF BRIDGES PAGE 8 PAGE 1 ANCHOR LONDON, JULY 5 BRITAIN'S NEW Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged on Friday to use his massive electoral majoritytorebuildthecountry,saying he wanted to take the heat out of politics after years of upheaval and strife. Standing outside his new office and residence at Number 10 Downing Street, Starmer acknowledged the scale of the challenge after his party's landslide victory in a parliamentary election that ended 14 years of often tumultuous Conservative government. He warned that any improvements would take time, and he would need to first rebuild faith in politics. “This lack of trust canonly be healed by actions,notwords.Iknowthat,”he said.“WhetheryouvotedLabour CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FULL COVERAGE PAGE 12 Modi congratulates Starmer on victory, praises Sunak for deepening ties SHUBHAJIT ROY & RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, JULY 5 the newly elected leader on the “remarkablevictory”andsaidhe looked forward to “positive and constructive collaboration” to further strengthen bilateral ties. “Heartiestcongratulations and best wishes to ● @Keir_Starmer on the remarkable victory in the UK general elections. I look forward to our positive and E WITHIN HOURS of the Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, sweeping the polls in the United Kingdom ending 14 years of Conservative Party-ruled government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated EXPLAINED KYLIE MACLELLAN, WILLIAM JAMES & SARAH YOUNG EXPRESSINGITSunwillingnessto conduct the NEET-UG examinationagain,theCentrehastoldthe Supreme Court that “scrapping the exam in entirety would seriouslyjeopardisethelakhsofhonest candidates who attempted the question paper in 2024”. In an affidavit filed Thursday in the top court — it is set to take up on July 8 a clutch of petitions alleging exam paper leak and irregularities in the conduct of the NEET-UG on May 5 and demands for a retest — the Education Ministry makes no mention of a paper leak, only acknowledgingthat “somealleged instancesof irregularities/cheating/ impersonation/ malpractices during the conduct of NEET(UG) 2024 Examination have been reported”. In a separate affidavit, also filed Thursday, the National Testing Agency echoed the Ministry stand. It said the NEETUG examination process “is not vitiated and the results do not deserve to be set aside as career prospects of lakhs of students who performed well on their own merits, cannot be jeopardisedonaccountof fewsporadic At a protest over alleged irregularities in NEET in Lucknow. PTI file and scattered instances of unfair means attempted by an identifiable number of persons at identifiedplaceswhichareminiscule and insignificant in the context of very large number of meritorious candidates who have performed well”. The Ministry, in its affidavit, statedthat“intheabsenceof any proof of any large-scale breach of confidentiality in a pan-India examination, it would not be rational to scrap the entire examination”. “It is submitted that in any examination there are competingrightsthathavebeencreated whereby the interests of a large number of students who have taken the examination without adopting any alleged unfair means must not also be jeopardised,” it said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Change in NEET-PG: Two shifts on Aug 11, only at TCS centres ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, JULY 5 THE NATIONAL Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences announced Friday that NEET-PG2024,thequalifyingexamination for postgraduate medical courses which was postponed last month, will be conductedonAugust11.Thetest, the NBEMS said, will be conducted in two shifts and the scores of the candidates will be normalised. As the NBEMS announced the date of the examination, officials said it will be conducted only at TCS iON centres and not outsourced centres. This is the first time that the test will be conducted in two batches. Sources said this will ensure that the examination is conducted in fewer centres. “There has been an increase in the number of students appearing for the paper over the years. To ensure that the examination is completely secure and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Rahul meets Hathras FOUR KILLED, 10 INJURED IN 13 INCIDENTS SINCE JUNE 19 CPM poll review for victims’ families, flags Bengal hit by lynchings linked to Kerala flags cadres’ rumours of phone, child ‘thefts’ arrogance, BJP rise ‘mistakes’ by admin Over 50 held so far, state launches awareness campaigns EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JULY 5 LEADER OF Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Friday met thefamiliesof theHathrasstampede victims, holding the administration responsible for the incident and appealing to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to ensure swift compensation. Speaking in Hathras after his meeting with the families, the Congress MP said: “It is very tragic. Many families have lost a lot. Many have died. I don’t want to say anything through a political prism. But, there are shortcomings of the administration and there have been some mistakes.Itshouldbefoundout.The most important thing is that the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Central Committee also takes note of ‘growing instances of corruption’ MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, JULY 5 RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & JOYPRAKASH DAS KOLKATA, NORTH 24 PARGANAS, JULY 5 Congress leader Rahul Gandhi with families of the victims of Hathras incident, in Aligarh. PTI WHEN 75-YEAR-OLD Bhagabati Mondal first saw her grandson Prasen (26) tied to a tree close to the local primary health centre at Polenite in West Bengal’s Bidhannagar, she hardly recognisedhim.Bloodiedandbruised, he was slumped over. Around him stood four local residents, allegedly still beating him up. “I begged them to stop Bhagabati Mondal’s grandson was allegedly lynched. Partha Paul and spare him, but they continued to whip him with a tree branch. I rushed to call neighbours. When I returned, he was dead,” she says. Prasenwasoneof thevictims of a spate of recent mob lynch- ings in Bengal — all occurring after rumours of possible childnabbing (bachha chor), or — as in Prasen’s case—phone snatching (mobile chor). Four people have been killed and 10 injured in 13 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A MONTH after the CPI(M)-led LDF suffered a severe drubbing in the Lok Sabha elections in Kerala, the party’s central leadership has identified the “erosion” of a section of its vote base in favour of the BJP as one of the most serious issues facing it. The Left failed to pay “sufficient attention” to this, a review of the LokSabharesultsbytheCPI(M)’s Central Committee says. Thereportalsoblames“arrogant behaviour” of cadres from “top to bottom” as well as corruption at all levels, saying these THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW ‘LOST IN 2019 TOO, BUT THIS TIME BJP HAS GROWN IN KERALA…’ BINOY VISWAM, CPI LEADER WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM were “alienating” the people from the organisation. The CONTINUED ON PAGE 6 Gujarat’s curious case of a ‘bootlegger’, Instagram cop, car chase GOPAL KATESHIYA RAJKOT, JULY 5 IN A photograph clicked at Bhachau police station in Gujarat’s Kutch in the early hours of July 1, the arrested duo stoodstaringatthecamera,their hands folded behind them. The alleged bootlegger, in a blue button-down shirt, and his ‘accomplice’, Head Constable Nita Chaudhary, 34, wearing a white T-shirt and yellow pants, and witha hintof a smileon herface. The events that followed the dramatic chase and arrest of Chaudhary, Head Constable of Gujarat’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID), and YuvrajsinhJadeja,30,whohas15 cases of alleged bootlegging and one attempt to murder case registered against him at Bhachau police station, have kept the Gujarat Police busy. Allthis,whileitgrappleswith a new problem: Chaudhary’s popularity on social media. “Since her arrest, her Instagram followers have more than doubled and gone past 1 lakh,” says a police officer. Chaudhary’s bio on Instagramdescribes her asan “artist” and has reels of her lip- syncingtopopularnumbers.The reels also feature an SUV, which the police say was the one she and Jadeja were in when they were intercepted on June 30. According to an FIR registered that night, a joint team from the Bhachau police station and the Kutch East police crime branch received a tip-off that Jadeja, wanted in four cases registered under Gujarat Prohibition Act, was in an SUV headed towards Gandhidham town. The team started tailing the car around 6.30 pm near Samakhiari, a village on NH 41. Minutes later, they intercepted A still from a reel posted on Instagram account of Head Constable Nita Chaudhary. Instagram/Chaudharinita the SUV under a railway overbridge, some 22 km from Samakhiari. At the wheel, the policesay,wasJadeja,whiletheir colleague Chaudhary, attached to the Gandhidham CID (crime), was in the passenger seat. The police say more drama ensued since Jadeja, despite repeated directions from the police, neither came out of the car nor did he lower the SUV’s window.Thepoliceeventuallybroke the window and detained him, adds the FIR. The police arrested the duo and, based on Bhachau police sub-inspector Dineshkumar Zala’s complaint, filed a case under IPC sections related to attempt to murder, among others. The police also recovered from the SUV 16 bottles of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL)andtwobeercans,cumulatively worth Rs 1,880. They filed another case, under the Gujarat Prohibition Act, against the two. On July 2, a local Bhachau court rejected the police plea seeking the duo’s remand in the attempt to murder case andsent them to judicialcustody instead. The next day, the magisterial court granted Chaudhary bail in that case. Before she could walk outof jail,thepolicetookherinto custody after securing a transfer warrant on July 3, and arrested her and Jadeja in the prohibition case. The duo are now lodged in police custody. The Home Department has since suspendedChaudharyfromservice. The police said the vehicle in which Chaudhary and Jadeja weretravellingdidn’thavearegistration plate and was registered in the name of a local journalist. OnhowaCID(crime)constable ended up in a car being driven by an alleged bootlegger, the officer said, “During interrogation, Chaudhary said that she and Jadeja came in contact via Instagram and Facebook around six months ago and became friends.” JadejaisaresidentofJuniMoti Chirai,avillageontheoutskirtsof Bhachautown,whileChaudhary belongs to Moriya village in Banaskantha district bordering Rajasthan.Chaudharyismarried to Virsang Bhutadiya, the former sarpanchofBadarpura(Bhutedi), a village adjoining Moriya. The eldestoffoursiblings,herfatheris a farmer in Moriya. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow