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 harassment 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 FormerWFI chief andBJP ex-MPBrij Bhushan SharanSingh elected from the family seat of 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 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 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 Policechargesheet,twowrestlers had alleged that incidents of in- appropriate touch and groping occurredattheWFIofficelocated atSingh’sofficialMPresidenceat 21, Ashoka Road. Foreign borrowings PM to visit Paris Feb 10-11 to turn dearer for India co-chair AI action summit Inc as Rupee falls Accepts French 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. This development is likely to FY24 49.209 1,221 FY23 26.629 1,102 FY22 39.886 1,104 FY21 35.255 1,076 FY20 52.932 1,333 MUMBAI, JANUARY 24 GUJARAT VISHWAMITRI PROJECT: STANDING COMMITTEE REJECTS MUNICIPAL COMMISSIONER’S CHOICE, DIRECTS RETENDERING AT HALF THE PRICE P4 NEW FIR ACCUSES LANGA OF EXTORTION WORTH RS 40 L P4 Amount* Number *In US dollar billion Source:RBI 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 andexplorewaystomitigatethe impact of the currency’s decline. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Police: Probing if accused in Saif stabbing had any accomplice SAGAR RAJPUT MUMBAI, JANUARY 24 MUMBAIPOLICEtoldacitycourt on Friday that it is probing the possibilityof anaccomplicehavingfacilitatedSharifulIslam,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 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Within weeks of the action against them by the ministry in 2023, the WFI had moved to a one-room premises in Hari Nagar. In fact, on the homepage of WFI’s official website, the address is still listed as 101, Hari Nagar, Ashram Chowk, New Delhi–110014. When The Indian Express visited this address last July, the nameplate at the building entrance and the door of the small room had WFI written on it. However, the door was locked. Theowneroftheofficespacesaid that WFI had vacated the place. Returning to the bustling commercialbuildingWednesday, TheIndianExpressfoundthat101, HariNagarhasanewtenantwho said WFI had moved out “many BY UNNY MirwaizUmarFarooqandotherreligiousleadersfrom KashmirwithBJPMPJagdambikaPal,whoheadsthejoint ParliamentarypanelonWaqf Bill,inNewDelhi. X@mirwaizmanzil EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, JANUARY 24 NEW DELHI, JANUARY 24 INDONESIA PRESIDENT TO MEET PM TODAY P14 From Delhi, UP to Mumbai, FIITJEE shuts several centres 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 ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND, SOPHIYA MATHEW & PALLAVI SMART too,attendstheAIsummit.India will also hold bilateral engage- ments with President Macron CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Eight workers killed in blast at ordnance factory in Maharashtra SIDDHANT KONDUSKAR MUMBAI, JANUARY 24 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Chairman suspends them for a day for ‘disruption’; MPs allege partisan conduct BUSINESS AS USUAL SHUBHAJIT ROY 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 Waqf panel: 10 Opp MPs suspended for protesting CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 President Macron invitation, may meet Trump PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi will travel to Paris on February 10 and 11 to co-chair the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit hosted by France. 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, MIRWAIZ OPPOSES BILL Rescue operations at the ordnance factory in Bhandara district of Maharashtra, Friday. PTI 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 CONTINUEDONPAGE2 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 Jawed; DMK’s A Raja and M M Abdulla; SP’s Mohibbullah Nadvi; Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Arvind Sawant and AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi. The development coincided with Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz E EXPLAINED SATURDAY, JANUARY 25, 2025, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 24 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. Umar Farooq arriving to make a representationtothecommittee on the concerns of the Muslim community in J&K. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 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 in 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 Yellow smoke in the Lok Sabha on Dec 13, 2023. File andManoranjanDfromMysuru had allegedly jumped into the CONTINUEDONPAGE2 To prevent e-auction of land, Dang ‘king’ has a suggestion for bank: ‘Sell our trees instead’ PAGE 1 ANCHOR KAMAAL SAIYED SURAT, JANUARY 24 EARLIER THIS week, the district collector of Gujarat’s Dang received an unusual visitor. Dhanrajsinh Suryavanshi – the titularkingof theerstwhilestate of Vasurna in the district – had personally come to meet him with a memorandum. Addressed to Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, the memorandumsoughttheirhelp in stopping the e-auction of his agricultural land by a bank after he defaulted on a loan. For good measure, the king had a suggestion for the bank to recover the amount – chop the trees on the premises and sell them. Dhanrajsinh (69) told The Indian Express, “We have requested the government to intervene in the matter. The bank officials are not listening to us. Wewantthegovernmenttostop the e-auction of the land and help us. I am not sound enough financially to repay the amount. We want the bank officials to come up with some settlement formulathatisfeasibleforus.We don’t want our land to be sold to any private person.” Dhanrajsinh said the property, belonging to his deceased wife, is protected under section 73 AA of the Gujarat Land Revenue Code according to which a land owned by a tribal person cannot be transferred to anon-tribalwithoutthepermission of the collector. Inhismemorandumsubmitted to District Collector Mahesh Patel on Wednesday, Dhanrajsinh expressed apprehension that the auction of his land could lead to all the tribal rights being “snatched away.” Dang, Gujarat's only 100% tribaldistrict,hasarichbiodiver- Dhanrajsinh Suryavanshi is the titular king of erstwhile state of Vasurna in Dang. sity and is home to a section of the Purna Wildlife Sanctuary. Due to a British-era agreement, its five Bhil kings, including Dhanrajsinh, are recognised by the government and continue to get a privy purse even as it was abolished for other princely states. Dhanrajsinh's agricultural land,measuringaroundonelakh square kilometres, according to the documents attached with the memorandum, is situated in Moti Kasad village of Subir taluka. In the memorandum, Dhanrajsinh said that his wife Subhadra, who passed away five years ago, and her brothers had taken a loan from Bank of Baroda’sAhwabranchonAugust 31, 2009. “Due to our poor financial condition, we could not repay the loan. Bank officials have issued us a notice of recovery of theloanamountof Rs29.31lakh. We showed our financial situation to the bank authorities and requestedthemtocomeupwith a settlement formula but they did not listen. The bank officials had, in the first week of January, published an e-auction notice in the vernacular papers and invited bidders online...The e-auction will be done on January 31, 2025,” he wrote. Unique status of five tribal kings Dhanrajsinh pointed out in the memorandum that he was “still getting a political pension fromthegovernmentastheerstwhile king of Vasurna”. Dhanrajsinh is entitled to receive a monthly pension of Rs 19,400. He, like the other kings of Dang – Gaadhvi state's Kiransinh Yashwantrao Pawar, Linga's Chhatrasingh Suryavanshi, Daher's Tapatrao Pawar and Pimpri's Trimakrao SahebraoPawar–receivetheentire year's pension in one go around Holi. The event is celebrated as Dang Darbar. He said, “If our land (of the tribals) is e-auctioned to any other private person (who is non-tribal), then other agricultural lands in Dang district, which are protected under 73AA, will also be sold. We don’t know if the bank officials had taken permission from the Revenue Department of the state government before doing the e-auction of the 73AA agricultural land. If this is done in Dang district, then all the tribal rights will be snatched away.” Dhanrajsinh stated that the agricultural land in question is with the undivided family and has many legal heirs. “The mortgaged agricultural land has several teak wood and other trees. The bank officials should cut such trees, collect their due paymentandhandovertheremaining amount to us,” he wrote CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Ahmedabad