DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 WON'T DISCUSS WRESTLING, SAYS SINGH; WORK CAN HAPPEN FROM WHERE ITS PEOPLE ARE, SAYS TREASURER Wrestling federation office is back to its old address — home of sexual harassment accused Brij Bhushan Singh Office moved out after WFI suspended in 2023 but now new tenant at that address NIHAL KOSHIE NEW DELHI, JANUARY 24 THE WRESTLING Federation of India(WFI)officeisbacktofunctioning at its old address — the long-time home of its former chief and five-time BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at 21, Ashoka Road. Though Singh didn't contest last year's Lok Sabha elections amid accusations of sexual ha- FormerWFI chief andBJP ex-MPBrij Bhushan SharanSingh rassment by some of the country's top women wrestlers against him, he continues to live here when in New Delhi. His son Karan Bhushan Singh was elected from the family seat of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s residence at 21, Ashoka Road. Abhinav Saha; (right) the WFI office in Hari Nagar a few months ago. The WFI board has since been removed. Express Foreign borrowings PM to visit Paris Feb 10-11 to turn dearer for India co-chair AI action summit Accepts French Inc as Rupee falls GEORGE MATHEW ECB REGISTRATIONS THE FALL in the rupee’s value is expected to increase the financialburdenonIndiancompanies that have borrowed funds from overseaslenders.Withtherupee depreciating, these companies that benefited from the Reserve Bank’s then borrower-friendly foreign exchange management and the resultant strong rupee, will now have to shell out more money to repay their foreign debts. Furthermore, companies that have not hedged their overseas borrowings to compensate for the rupee’s decline could incur significant losses. The ongoingdepreciationof therupeewill erode the value of their repayments, leaving them with a substantial financial shortfall. FY24 49.209 1,221 FY23 26.629 1,102 MUMBAI, JANUARY 24 Amount* Number FY22 39.886 1,104 FY21 35.255 1,076 FY20 52.932 1,333 *In US dollar billion Source:RBI This development is likely to have far-reaching implications for Indian companies that have relied heavily on external commercial borrowings (ECBs) to fund their operations. As the rupee continues to weaken, these companies, which raised funds when the rupee was stable at around 82-83, will be forced to reassesstheirfinancialstrategies CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Chairman suspends them for a day for ‘disruption’; MPs allege partisan conduct BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other religious leaders from Kashmir with BJP MP Jagdambika Pal, who heads the joint Parliamentary panel on Waqf Bill, in New Delhi. X@mirwaizmanzil SHUBHAJIT ROY EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi will travel to Paris on February 10 and 11 to co-chair the Artificial Intelligence (AI) ActionSummithostedbyFrance. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said Friday that the Prime Minister has accepted the invitationtotraveltoFrance,andwill co-chair the summit at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron. This will be Modi’s first visit to France in his third term, and a possible opportunity to meet US President Donald Trump if he, MONTHSAFTERTMCMPKalyan Banerjee was suspended from the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill for allegedly smashingabottle,10Opposition membersinthepanelof 31were suspendedforadayonFridayby chairman Jagdambika Pal following a ruckus over the scheduling of the clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill. The 10 suspended MPs are: TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee and Mohammed Nadimul Haque; Congress’s Syed Naseer Husain, Imran Masood and Mohammad NEW DELHI, JANUARY 24 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, JANUARY 24 From Delhi, UP to Mumbai, FIITJEE shuts several centres INDONESIA PRESIDENT TO MEET PM TODAY P6 Indonesia President Prabowo Subianto, the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day celebrations, with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New Delhi on Friday. The visiting President will meet PM Narendra Modi on Saturday. PTI SIDDHANT KONDUSKAR MUMBAI, JANUARY 24 SAGAR RAJPUT MUMBAI, JANUARY 24 Rescue operations at the ordnance factory in Bhandara district of Maharashtra, Friday. PTI Sanjay Kolte and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) officials involved in the rescue Waqf panel: 10 Opp MPs suspended for protesting CONTINUEDONPAGE2 President Macron invitation, may meet Trump Eight workers killed in blast at Probing if accused in ordnance factory in Maharashtra Saif stabbing had any accomplice: Police A MASSIVE explosion on Friday morning at the ordnancefactory in Jawahar Nagar, in Maharashtra’sBhandaradistrict, killed eight factory workers and left five injured, officials said. Theblast,whichtookplaceat around 10.45 am, was felt in nearby villages and heard up to five km away. The cause of the explosion was not yet determined, officials said.Aspecialinvestigationteam will probe the incident. According to initial reports, the blastoccurredattheRDXmanufacturing section of the factory. Bhandara District Collector Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh. Even as the sexual harassment trial against Singh goes on in a Delhi court and charges against him have been framed, the WFI, it is evident, hasn't snapped ties with the politicianturned-sports administrator. This, despite the Sports Ministry, while suspending WFI in December 2023, mentioning thatrunningthefederationfrom within "premises controlled by former officer bearers" was one of the reasons for their action. Also, according to a Delhi Police chargesheet, two MIRWAIZ OPPOSES BILL operationsaideightbodieswere recovered from the rubble after CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MUMBAIPOLICEtoldacitycourt on Friday that it is probing the possibilityof anaccomplicehaving facilitated Shariful Islam, who has been arrested for allegedly stabbing Saif Ali Khan during a failed robbery attempt at the actor's residence on January 16. “During investigation, it has beenstronglysuspectedthatthe arrested accused may have additional accomplices, and an inquiryregardingthisisunderway with the arrested accused,” po- Police custody of Shariful extended until Jan 29 lice said in its remand application filed in the Bandra court. Shariful, a Bangladeshi national, was presented again before the court, which extended his police custody until January 29. He was arrested from Thane early Sunday. Seeking custody of Shariful for seven more days, public CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND, SOPHIYA MATHEW & PALLAVI SMART NEW DELHI, MUMBAI, JANUARY 24 FIITJEE, A coaching institute chain that prepares students for competitive exams such as Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), has shutdownseveralcentresacross Delhi-NCR, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh over the past few weeks, leaving students and parents in a limbo. The institute, which has 73 studycentresacrossthecountry, has been facing a financial crisis, with staff at many branches resigning en masse. The centres closed include those situated in Delhi’s Laxmi Nagar and Noida Sector 62, as well as branches in Uttar Pradesh’s Meerut, Ghaziabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Bhopal and Andheri, Kandivali, Thane and Navi Mumbai in Maharashtra. The coaching institute at Ghaziabad’s Raj Nagar was shut around 10 days ago after parents filed an FIR, accusing the institute of abruptly halting operationsandjeopardizingtheirchildren’s academic preparations. The first phase of the JEE (Main) CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 2025, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES Stormy session ● ahead THE FACEOFF comes just days ahead of the Budget Session of Parliament and Delhi Assembly elections. The Opposition claims the panel deliberations are being fast-tracked with an eye on the polls — to bring Waqf into the poll discourse — a charge denied by BJP. Clearly, there is a lack of consensus on the legislation. The next showdown is expected during the Budget Session. 2023 Parliament breach chargesheet: Chemicals used in smoke canisters may act as explosives MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, JANUARY 24 CHEMICALS FOUND in coloured smoke canisters, which were used by the accused in the security breach at Parliament on December 13, 2023, “may act as explosives”,DelhiPoliceislearnt to have said in a supplementary chargesheet filed earlier this month. Sagar Sharma from Lucknow andManoranjanDfromMysuru had allegedly jumped into the LokSabhachamberfromthevisitors’ gallery, raised slogans and opened canisters that emitted yellow smoke, triggering panic among those present. Two others, Neelam Azad and Amol Shinde, allegedly opened smoke canisters outside the new Parliament building. Police say the intruders had modified their shoes to hide the canisters — the soles were CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 For Delhi election, BJP turns to UP Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak PAGE 1 ANCHOR BHUPENDRAPANDEY LUCKNOW, JANUARY 24 WHILE UTTAR Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya do their bit for the party by addressing select public meetings for the February 5 Delhi Assembly polls, the other Deputy CM, Brajesh Pathak, has been tasked with staying put in the National Capital till the elections are over and participate in campaigns in 10 Assembly segments of the Chandni Chowk Lok Sabha constituency. Pathak who is the BJP’s Brahmin face in UP arrived in Delhi on January 19 accompanied by a team of 25 party workers from different parts of UP chosen by him. A BJP insider said Pathak went to Prayagraj on Wednesday to attend the state Cabinet meeting and take a dip in the Sangam but travelled back to Delhi the same evening. The BJP had included Pathak in its list of star campaigners and was planning to use him for election rallies in certain pock- ets. But the party quickly deployed him round-the-clock in the National Capital as it dealt with blowback over comments that spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla made last week. The comments were regarded as offensive to Purvanchalis (people from east UP and Bihar). During a television debate, Poonawalla and AAP spokesperson Rituraj Jha had traded barbs over their surnames, with the BJP leader’s remarks seen as derogatory to the Purvanchali community that is estimated to make up about a third of Delhi’s electorate. BJP leaders said the party’s Brajesh Pathak addresses a public meeting in Delhi’s Burari constituency on Thursday. Facebook top brass initially decided to use Pathak to counter the AAP after former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced a monthly honorarium of Rs 18,000 for temple priests. According to the BJP, about 30% of people in Chandni Chowk are Purvanchalis, with an estimated 20% of them from east UP. Pathak and his team have been tasked with covering each pocket where these people with roots in UP live. They have been told to look after the management of booths, screen voter lists, and hold meetings with booth-level workers of the party and members of various communities and institutions in each Assembly constituency in Chandni Chowk. Pathak and his team have also been handed a list of all temples in these constituencies and asked to visit these places of worship and meet the priests to discuss the development of temples and religious clusters and point out the facilities given to their peers in UP by the Adityanath government. On Thursday, Pathak held a meeting in Burari where the chairperson of the Akhil Bharatiya Pujari Sangh (All India Priests’ Association), Dinesh Chandra Sharma, was among those present. Pandit Vaibhav Sharma who is the priest of Delhi's famous “Marghat Waale Baba Hanuman Mandir” accompanies the UP Deputy CM in his daily meetings, said BJP insiders. A BJP leader said members of Pathak's team had the experience of working in elections. After joining the BJP in 2016 following a long stint with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Pathak gradually replaced Dinesh Sharma who had been made Deputy CM after the party came to power in UP in 2017. He holds the Health and Medical Education portfolios. Lucknow