DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2025, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES BY UNNY NAAC bribery: JNU suspends prof, his tenure as Dean was cut short in 2023 VIDHEESHA KUNTAMALLA & ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 3 ARRESTED BY the CBI in a bribery case linked to the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Rajeev Sijariya, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship (ABVSME), is no stranger to controversy. In 2023, his two-year tenure asDeanofABVSMEwascutshort afterseveralfacultymembersaccused him of “undemocratic decision-making” and “instigating students against faculty members”, The Indian Express has learnt. “He never involved his school’s faculty in major decisions, which created discontent. Ultimately,hehadtostepdown,” said a colleague at JNU, speaking on condition of anonymity. Anotherprofessorandanofficial POLL SOPS TAKE CENTRE STAGE IN CAPITAL BATTLE Campaigningforhigh-stakesDelhi Assemblypollsends,votingtomorrow In Milkipur bypoll battle, SP faces heat as BJP goes all out to avenge Ayodhya blow Last lap: Shah reiterates graft charge, Kejriwal says BJP will stop AAP schemes EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 3 THE HIGH-PITCHED campaign for the Delhi Assembly elections — which saw the AAP, BJP and Congress raising the stakes with various pollsopsand schemes— drew to a close on Monday. The 70 Assembly constituencies in the Capital will vote on Wednesday, and the results will be declared on February 8. The AAP is seeking a third consecutive term while the BJP ishopingforacomebackafter27 years.TheCongress,whichdominatedDelhi’spoliticallandscape for a decade-and-a-half before the AAP burst on to the scene, is looking to regain its foothold. In the run-up to the polls, all three parties announced a slew of poll sops. Amidcriticismoverbasingits governance model on freebies, the AAP doubled down and announced an increase from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,100 per month in its promised Mukhyamantri MahilaSammanRaashi scheme, free treatment for all above the age of 60 years in empanelled private hospitals, and a monthly CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BHUPENDRA PANDEY MILKIPUR (AYODHYA), FEBRUARY 3 Union Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah at a rally in Jangpura on Monday. Abhinav Saha; AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal takes part in a roadshow in Kalkaji. Tashi Tobgyal DECISION 2025 DELHI TOTALSEATS:70 PARTY-WISESEATS WONIN2020 AAP BJP 62 8 Turnoutin2020:62.5% Votingon FEB5 Resultson FEB8 Source: EC RELATEDREPORT PAGE 4 BJP’s hope: 11 years on, AAP vehicle for change stuck — at the bottom VANDITA MISHRA NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 3 IN AN arena where Congress is relegatedtothestatusof a minor third wheel, on the other side from the 11-year incumbent AAP, is a Modi-BJP that has just returned for a third term at the Centreandischafingatbeingout of power for 27 years in Delhi. The BJP labels the AAP as a purveyor of “revdis” (or “freebies”) and, at the same time, as- sures voters it will not discontinue the existing schemes. It even tries to outdo the AAP with its own promises of cash transfersandsubsidies—forinstance, if AAP says it will give Rs 2,100 a month to women, the BJP pledges Rs 2,500 monthly. Unlike in many other states, however, the BJP’s USP may lie less in the commitments it makestoindividuallabharthis— in the national capital, the AAP hasbeattheBJPtoit.Itlies,more, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ON SUNDAY, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath wrapped up his extensive canvassing for the BJP's candidate in theFebruary5MilkipurAssembly bypollinAyodhyadistrict.Aspart of his extensive campaigning, Adityanath visited the Milkipur constituency more than eight timessinceOctober,inthecourse ofwhichheheldmultiplegovernmenteventsandpublicmeetings. On Monday, which marked the end of campaigning, Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav also hit the Milkipur trail to boost his party candidate's prospects. The by-election to the Scheduled Castes (SC)-reserved Milkipur constituency has clearly turned into a high-stakes battle between the two arch rivals, months after the SP's Awadhesh Prasad dealt a severe blow to the BJP by defeating its CONTINUED ON PAGE 4 In this series, The Indian Express tracks down the women and men who reshaped the Republic 75 YEARS ON AKGOPALANV STATEOFMADRAS RESHAPING THE REPUBLIC CASE BY LANDMARK CASE AN EXPRESS SERIES SHAJU PHILIP & APURVA VISHWANATH THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 3 MINUTES PAST midnight, on August 15, 1947, the echoes of Mahatma Gandhi ki jai and Bharat Mata ki jai reverberated through the Cannanore (now Kannur) jail where Communist leader A K Gopalan, then 43, was in solitary confinement. He had secretly kept a national flag with himfortheoccasion.Atdawn,he hoisted the Tricolour where other prisoners gathered to hear him speak. Barely four or five minutes into his speech, the jail PAGE 1 ANCHOR WHO’S HE: Born in 1904 in Kannur, A K Gopalan was a school teacher before he was drawn to the Independence struggle. He was held for the first time in 1930 for taking part in the civil disobedience movement. He joined Congress, became a AICC member before he joined the Communist Party. His political leanings meant frequent detentions and working underground. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Says Delhi sought PM invite to US; Jaishankar calls it falsehood NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 3 Case that expanded the scope of due process of law, redefined natural justice 1950 Rahul invokes China to attack Govt on jobs, border security MANOJ C G & ASAD REHMAN CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 authorities stopped him. Adaylater,accusedof stirring up the people “against His Majesty the Emperor”, Gopalan (or AKG, as is popularly known) wasproducedbeforeamagistrate in Calicut (now Kozhikode) and chargedwithsedition.Hewasreleased on October 12, 1947, but justoveramonthlater,hewasdetained again under the colonial lawsthatwerestillinplaceinthe newlyindependentnation.After India became a republic, the Preventive Detention Act, 1950 waspassedto‘regularise’ detentions of many including AKG. “I was a political prisoner from 1930 to 1945 in the eyes of a foreign government. Under today’s popular government, I am branded as a criminal,” he wrote inhisautobiographyIn the Cause of the People. In 1950, he moved the Supreme Court against his detention,perhapshoping that the freedoms guaranteed by the new Constitution that cameinto force in 1950 would ensure his release from jail. After all, Article 21 stated that “no person shall bedeprivedof hislifeorpersonal liberty except according to Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi in Lok Sabha Monday. PTI AMRIT SNAN CONCLUDES Sadhus arrive for amrit snan in the Sangam area on the occasion of Basant Panchami during the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj on Monday. Vishal Srivastav FULLCOVERAGE,PAGE3 EXPRESS NETWORK A FORTNIGHT after he announced the launch of a White T-shirts campaign — billed as a platform for youth, to unite workers across sectors — Rahul Gandhi focused on the youth and unemployment in his addressinParliamentMonday,this time in the context of the rise of China as a manufacturing giant. Incidentally, in his speech – which he described as the addressaPresidentunderanINDIA blocgovernmentwouldmaketo Parliament — Gandhi offered several backhanded compliments to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. While these were part of the argument Gandhi built against the Modi government’s job creation record, the Congress leader’s approach was a departure from previous Parliament Sessions marked with bitter acrimony. Even several Congress allies have been uncomfortable with Gandhi’s unrelenting combat- E E X P L A I NE D BUSINESS AS USUAL `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ● New foot forward? RAHUL GANDHI’S conciliatory noises seemed a departure from the acrimony of previous Parliament Sessions. The Congress leader also repeatedly projected INDIA bloc as an entity, amidst rising tensions within the alliance. IN PARLIAMENT P6 iveness in the House. Incidentally, the most divisive of those issues, Gautam Adani, hardly figured in Gandhi’s speech Monday. Gandhi’s 45-minute address essentiallycouldbesplitintotwo parts.If thefirstwashisnuanced attack on the government over unemployment, the second was on more expected lines – caste census, “threats” to Constitution and Constitutional institutions, and in the same thread, “irregularities” in the Maharashtra Assembly elections. The new point Gandhi made was the indication that the Opposition does not have faith CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Trump pauses tariffs on Mexico for a month after ‘very friendly conversation’, border deal JOSH BOAK RETIRED SOLDIER & FABIOLA SÁNCHEZ KILLED, WIFE & NIECE WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 3 INJURED IN KASHMIR US PRESIDENT Donald Trump MILITANT ATTACK and Mexican President Claudia MANIPUR VIOLENCE: Sheinbaum put their planned SC SEEKS REPORT ON tariffs on hold for a month on Monday to give time for further AUDIO TAPES PAGE 8 negotiations, and Mexico said it planned to deploy 10,000 members of its National Guard to address drug trafficking. Trump’s tariffs against Canada and China were still slated to go into effect Tuesday, but uncertainty remained about the durability of any deals and whether the tariffs were a harbinger of a broader trade war, as Trump has promised more im- US President Donald Trump, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum port taxes to come. The US and Mexican leaders announced the pause after what Trump described on social media as a “very friendly conversation”, and he said he looked forward to the upcoming talks. Trump said the talks would be headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Weddings to schools, elusive tiger gives 11 UP villages anxious days MANISH SAHU LUCKNOW, FEBRUARY 3 MANOJKUMARYadav,aresident of Rehman Khera village, is worriedaboutattendanceatafamily wedding in a nearby village next month. Shabeena Khatoon, a housewife at Meethenagar village, has started moving around in a group with other women from her village to collect firewoodfromthenearbyforestarea. Since the first week of December 2024, a “sugarcane tiger” on the prowl has meant terrorin11villages,spread1,000 acres, near the state capital of Lucknow. The big cat, which has killed 12 animals so far, continues to evade capture by the Uttar Pradeshforestdepartment.Renu Singh, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, Lucknow Division, said around 100 officials have been working 24/7 to capture the animal. The department has divided all the affected areasintothreezonestostreamline efforts. To determine the animal’s origin point, the department compared its photographs — focusing on its stripe pattern, unique to each tiger — against those of big cats in reserves across UP. With no match in the database, officials suspect that it is a “sugarcane tiger” — a big cat that is born, inhabits and moves around in sugarcane fields more comfortably than in forests, its natural habitat. An official says, “We believe the tiger arrived here from Lakhimpur Kheri in the Terai region, nearly 200 km away. Pugmarks found here recently suggest that it may be returning home. Efforts are on to provide a safe passage to the animal.” UP’s Terai region spans 15 districts, extending from Saharanpur in the west to Kushinagar in the east. Nearly 70% of land in this region is under sugarcane cultivation. A forest official says, “Sugarcane tigers grow up watching their mothers hunt in these fields and co-exist with A banner warning residents of one of the affected villages near Lucknow. Vishal Srivastav humans. They also observe how their mothers move to a different sugarcane patch during the harvestseasoninsteadof theforest since these fields are never harvested together.” Inthefirstweekof December 2024, there were whispers of a tiger lurking in the fields of Karjhan village, around 20 km from Lucknow. Initially dismissedas“rumours”,twodevelopmentsonDecember 12, 2024, confirm these claims: over 100 pugmarks were discovered over a 2-km stretch in the village and the tiger hunted a nilgai. On December 13, a forest team set up a base camp at the Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture in Rehman Khera village to monitor the tiger. Thoughjustoneofficialsofarhas caught a glimpse of the tiger, the team has determined that it is a young adult male aged around five years. With the tiger eluding all the traps laid by the team, over 20,000 residents in affected villages have been living under high alert since December. Besides putting banners on protocolsacrossvillages,officials have also asked residents to move around in groups. “They have been asked to avoid stepping outside from 5 pm to 7 am, and to make loud noises if they go out at night,” says an official. For the safety of residents returning late at night, the depart- menthasarrangedforvehiclesto takethemhome.“Twoteamsare on night duty to ensure their safety,” says Sitanshu Pandey, DivisionalForestOfficer,Lucknow. RavindraPrasadYadav,pradhan,Dugulivillage,saysresidents have also been told not to leave their animals outside at night. With the department restricting the entry of outsiders, The Indian Express was allowed to enter these villages under strict supervision. Localssaytheprohibitoryorders have revived memories of 2012 — when another tiger had entered the thickets of Rehman Khera village. They said the tiger was captured by the forest CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow