eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE FOUR PAGE PULLOUT KOLKATA,LATECITY SEPTEMBER7,2025 Squelch and the mulch of rain 14+4PAGES,`7.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & `20 IN ANDAMAN) DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA,PUNE, VADODARA WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM JAISHANKAR WILL ADDRESS UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON SEPTEMBER 27 Ice-breaker? Trump says ‘will always be friends’; Modi replies: Fully reciprocate PM flags ‘positive Comprehensive and Global Strategic Partnership’ THE WORLD ISRAELI MILITARY TELLS GAZA CITY RESIDENTS TO LEAVE NEARLY 500 HELD IN RAID AT HYUNDAI’S U.S. FACILITY PAGE 8 GOVT & POLITICS EMBLEM ROW: J&K CM SEEKS WAQF BOARD APOLOGY P 5 SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 6 SINCE THE India-US bilateral chill set in on August 6, when US President Donald Trump announced an additional 25% tariff as a penalty for India’s purchase of Russian oil, the first tentative sign of a possible thaw came — exactly a month to date. In a turn that has, of late, come to characterise the policy see-saw in the White House, Trump said Friday in the Oval Office that India and the US have a “special relationship” and “thereisnothingtoworryabout.” Hours later on Saturday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he “deeply” appreciated and “fully” reciprocated “President Trump's sentiments and positive assessment CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 I’ll always be friends with Modi, he’s a great Prime Minister. India and US have a special relationship … there’s nothing to worry about. We just have moments on occasion PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP MODI HOLDS TALKS WITH MACRON PAGE 6 When it rains, sounds of the world change. The rains force us to become something more than ourselves MEETING ON SEPTEMBER 10 Pan-India SIR: EC to meet CEOs, seeks inputs on other Why the outstretched hand to DC, eligibility papers why all fingers are crossed in Delhi ‘Ourresponseis youhitus,we won’thityou back,norwillwe doyourbidding’ SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 6 PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi’s warm — and prompt — responsetoUSPresident Donald Trump’s remarks marks the first political effort at the highest level in New Delhi to try and reverse the downward spiral intowhichtheIndia-USrelation- President Droupadi Murmu with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday. PTI PAGE5 ship has fallen since Trump slapped the 25% Russian penalty tariff a month ago on top of the 25% reciprocal tariff. Of course, all fingers remain crossed given the flip- flops and the very public outbursts that have come to mark the Trump White House. But the latestTrump-Modiexchangehas brought some relief to an establishmentthatwastryingtowork CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 6 IN A step towards conducting a nationwide Special Intensive Revision(SIR)ofelectoralrolls,the ElectionCommissionissettohold a conference of Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) of all states and Union Territories on September 10 to review preparedness, The Indian Express has learnt. Significantly, the EC is learnt to have sought suggestions from CEOs on additional documents thatcanbesubmittedbyelectors to prove their eligibility, including citizenship. For the ongoing SIR in Bihar, the EC had given an indicative list of 11 documents which included passport, birth certificate and caste certificate, but left out Aadhaar, ration card and the EC's own Electors Photo Identity Card (EPIC). The EC’s SIR order has been challenged through a batch of petitions in the Supreme Court, wherethenexthearingisscheduledforSeptember8.Apartfrom challenging the EC’s authority to conduct a check of citizenship, the petitioners have also questioned the rationale behind ex- CEC Gyanesh Kumar clusionof thesecommonly-held documents. According to sources, the EC is likely to order the SIR for the rest of the country with January 1, 2026 set as the qualifying date — those who are 18 years old by January 1 next year can apply. In its June 24 order, the EC had said it would conduct the SIR for the entire country, but rolled out the exercise for Bihar first as Assembly elections are due in the state. For the remaining states and UTs, it had said orders would be issued in due course. Now, all CEOs have been asked to make presentations on September10withdetailsonthe numberofelectorsintheirstates/ UTs, the last intensive revision, and suggestions on additional documentsthatelectorscansubmit, sources said. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners GST 2.0: CabSec calls Mob lynches couple in Nadia village after meeting to resolve boy’s body found in pond near their house Cong to rejig its Kerala sectoral hurdles ahead social media team after of Sept 22 roll-out CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, SEPTEMBER 6 AANCHAL MAGAZINE & ANIL SASI NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 6 TO SORT OUT implementation issues across sectors, from auto to textiles and fertilisers, arising in the wake of the GST 2.0 rate rationalisation, the Cabinet Secretariat has called for an inter-ministerial meeting on Monday, according to senior government officials. Sourcessaidtheautosectoris grapplingwiththeproblemofadjusting the cess charged on vehicleswhichhavemovedoutofthe factory gates and have reached the dealerships, but will likely be sold only after September 22 whenthecessistechnicallydone awaywith.Themechanismtoadjustthecessalreadypaidisnowa festering issue. Representatives from the bi- cycles, tractors, and fertilisers industry have also reached out to thegovernmenttoaddressproblemsofinverteddutystructure— where the duty on inputs is higher than that on finished goods.Thetextileandapparelindustry representatives, for instance,haveflaggedthedistortion resultingfromdifferentGSTrates onunstitchedfabrics(5percent) andstitchedapparelexceedingRs 2,500 per piece (18 per cent). The government had consciously worked towards correcting the inverted duty structure anomalies while working out GST 2.0, especially for agriculturalitemsandtractors.Inthe tractor industry, the rate for machinery and parts has been cut to 5 per cent, but some parts are still in the 18 per cent slab alongside all other auto parts. Similarly, in bicycles, the GST on CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK WEST BENGAL SIX DEAD AFTER GUJARAT ROPEWAY CABLE SNAPS TEACHER HIRING EXAM TODAY, BUT SSC IS ON TEST HEADMASTER DIES BY SUICIDE, TMC LEADER HELD FOR DEMANDING `35 LAKH FROM HIM PAGE 6 PAGES 3,4 A COUPLE was dragged out of their house and beaten to death byvillagersatNischintapurinthe Tehatta area of Nadia district in West Bengal on Saturday morning after the body of an eightyear-old missing boy was found in a nearby pond, police said. According to police, the boy went missing on Friday afternoon after he had gone out to play. His body was found on Saturday morning from a small pond near his neighbour's house, leading to widespread outrage among villagers. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 row over ‘bidi, Bihar’ post SHAJU PHILIP Current in-charge, V T Balram, has offered to quit THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPTEMBER 6 The spot where the couple was lynched; the mother of the boy whose body was found in a nearby pond, at Nischintapur in Nadia district on Saturday. PTI A DAY after its now-deleted socialmediapostlinkingBiharand bidis created a political storm, drawing criticism from both opponents and allies, the Congress’s Kerala unit on Saturdaysaiditssocialmediacell would be reconstituted. The post on the Congress Kerala unit’s X handle had said, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 790-PAGE CHARGESHEET FILED Meghalaya honeymoon murder: Cops say wife present when victim killed ANAND MOHAN J & SUKRITA BARUAH BHOPAL, GUWAHATI, SEPTEMBER 6 IN A 790-page chargesheet filed on Saturday, the East Khasi Hills police in Meghalaya alleged that the honeymoon murder of Indore-based businessman Raja Raghuvanshi took place in the presence of his wife, Sonam Raghuvanshi, following a criminal conspiracy hatched by her and Raj Kushwaha, with whom she was in a relationship. The chargesheet, filed before the Judicial Magistrate First Sonam Raghuvanshi and her husband Raja Raghuvanshi, who was found dead in May Class, Sohra Sub-Division Court, details the alleged conspiracy behind,andtheexecutionof,the murder of 29-year-old Raja. Five people accused in the case, including Sonam and Raj, were arrested by Meghalaya Police from Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh on June 8 and 9, days after Raja’s body was recovered from a gorge below Wei Sawdong falls in Sohra. This came after widespread search operations were initiated when the couple went “missing” on May 23 while travelling in the area as part of their honeymoon. It was initially treated as a missing persons case, but turned into a murder investigation after Raja’s body was found with two sharp cuts on his head. According to police, the probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) revealed that Sonam CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 At IIT Jodhpur, reaching out has a new language: Classes in Hindi in first year PAGE 1 ANCHOR ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND JODHPUR, SEPTEMBER 6 A LITTLE over a year ago, when a freshfirst-yearbatchofengineering students walked into IIT Jodhpur, they were presented withanoptionthatwas,tillthen, unchartedterritoryforanIIT—in their first year, they could attend classes in a new Hindi section. Bhuvnesh Rajpurohit, now a second-year student in the chemical engineering branch, didn’twantto.Atleastnotatfirst. Students attend a math class in one of the Hindi sections at IIT Jodhpur. Abhinaya Harigovind “Attheorientation,whenthey tolduswecouldattendclassesin Hindi if we wanted to, I thought English-section students se peeche reh jaoonga (I would lag behind the students who were taughtinEnglish),”hesays.So,for a week, he sat in the classes that were taught in English. “Then I realised, agar yahan baitha toh peeche reh jaoonga (I realised that if I sat in the English section, I would lag behind),” says Bhuvnesh, who then switchedtotheclassesthatwere being taught in Hindi. Bhuvnesh,whoisfromBilara inJodhpurdistrict,didhisschooling in Hindi medium and wrote the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) — the gateway to his IIT admission — in Hindi. “IcameherethinkingIwould have to attend classes in English. I had heard from people from Hindi-medium backgrounds that their CGPA dropped becauseof thesuddenswitchinthe first year. There was a gap between the English I knew and what was taught in the classes. If I was distracted for two-three seconds in a class, I wouldn’t be abletoconnectagain,andwould remain lost for the rest of the class. I was more comfortable withHindi,”saysBhuvnesh,who completed the rest of his first year in the Hindi section. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata