The Ideas Page: What those who celebrate Bihar verdict, and those who lament it, get wrong 11 TUeSDay, NOveMBeR 18, 2025 Journalism of Courage kOlkaTa, laTE CITy, 18 PagES ₹6.00 (₹12 in North East states, ₹20 in andaman) l www.indianexpress.com da I ly f R O M : a h M E da B a d , C h a N d I ga R h , d E l h I , J a I P U R , kO l k aTa , lU C k N O w , M U M B a I , N ag P U R , PaT N a , P U N E , va d O da R a prime miniSTer nArendrA modi deliverS SixTh rAmnATh GoenkA lecTure PM urges 10-year pledge to shed ‘colonial mindset’ rooted in Macaulay’s 200-year legacy WhetheRundeRtheBritish Raj or during the emergency, Ramnath goenka, founder of the express group, embodied the people’s resistance to attempts at “enslavement” and affirmed the power of dissent. Itwasthisspirit,PrimeMinister narendra Modi said Monday, that should guide a national pledge to “put the locks on” the Western mindset embedded in India since 1835 through thomas Macaulay’s project of reshaping Indian thought by dismantling indigenous knowledge systems and enforcing colonial education. delivering the sixth Ramnath goenka lecture, the Prime Minister set a 10-year timeframe — leading up to the 200th year of Macaulay’s campaign — to reverse that legacy. Macaulay’s crime, Modi said, was to create Indians who “are Indiansbyappearancebut British at heart.” India “paid a heavyprice”forthis,heargued, as the belief that the Western or foreign was superior took deep root. Macaulay, the PM said, broke India’s “self-confidence and instilled asense ofinferiority. In one stroke, he discarded happening today l The SecuriTieS AppellATe Tribunal will hear the ongoing case involving Jane Street and SEBI. The matter is related to alleged manipulative trading practices by the quantitative trading firm in Indian market. lAmid The BihAr poll debacle and its “vote chori” pitch, Congress will hold a meeting of top ofice-bearers of 12 states/ UTs where the SIR of electoral rolls is underway. lFinAnce miniSTer Nirmala Sitharaman will hold pre-Budget consultations with capital market participants, startups and representatives from the manufacturing sector. TrAck TheSe And more on www.indiAnexpreSS.com thousands of years of India’s knowledge, science, art, culture, and entire way of life.” that imprint persisted after Independence, Modi continued, as India’s “education, economy, and societal aspirations became increasingly aligned with foreign models.” Whenanationdoesnothonour itself, he said, “it ends up rejecting its indigenous ecosystem.” as an illustration, he pointed to tourism: countries thathavebuiltflourishingtourism industries do so by taking pride in their heritage, he said, whereas post-Independence India often sought to distance itself from its own legacy. “Without pride in heritage, there is no motivation for its preservation,andwithoutpreservation, such heritage is reduced to mere ruins of brick and stone,” he said. Modi noted that nations such as Japan and south Korea did adopt Western ideas but remainedrootedintheirownlanguages. this was a balance India’s new education policy also seeks to encourage, he said, stressing that he was not opposedtoenglishbutsupportive of Indian languages. turning to politics, he re- { PaRT II } mahender Singh manral & Jay mazoomdaar New Delhi, November 17 at least 27 cryptocurrency exchanges, or Virtual (digital) asset service Providers (VasPs), have been flagged by the Ministry of home affairs (Mha) as conduits used by cyber criminals for laundering at least Rs 623.63 crore, si- New Delhi, November 17 ravi dutta mishra New Delhi, November 17 IndIa’s goods exports to the us fell nine per cent year-onyear in october, on top of a 12 per cent y-o-y decline the previous month, owing to us President donald trump’s for imports of around 2.2 million tonnesper annum(MtPa) of lPg, close to 10% of India’s annual imports. It comes at a time when India is looking to shrink its trade surplus with the us — one of the issues flagged by Presidentdonaldtrumpwhen heslapped the50 percenttariff on incoming Indian goods. government data released Monday showed that India’s trade surplus with the us had »conTinued on pAGe 2 steep 50 per cent tariffs that took effect in august. exports from labour-intensive sectors, such as engineering goods and textiles, slowed sharply in october as the us tariffs, the highest globally, left Indian goods uncompetitive »conTinued on pAGe 2 l goodstradesurpluswithu.s.halves Exports pM Narendra Modi delivers the Sixth Ramnath goenka Lecture in New Delhi on Monday. TaShI TOBgyal called the nda’s recent victoryinBiharandadvisedstate governments that their politics today will shape their parties’ future, whether of the “left, right or centre.” he said lalu Prasad had 15 years in power and could have driven development, but instead 10 8.41 Imports 8.83 Trade balance 8.29 8 6 4 2 (all numbers in $ bn) 8.01 6.86 3.18 5.46 3.62 april* May 3.99 June 4.55 July 3.60 august 3.98 Sheikh Hasina fled to India in August 2024. pAge 12 Bangla ex-PM Hasinasentenced to death, says tribunal ‘rigged’ Sweety kumari Kolkata, November 17 West Bengal governor CV ananda Bose on Monday abruptly cut short his visit to north Bengal to lead a search operation inside the Raj Bhavan in Kolkataamidlivebroadcast following trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee's ruma paul & krishna n das Bomb and dog squads were also deployed during the search at Raj Bhavan in Kolkata on Monday. PaRTha PaUl allegations that “BJP’s criminals were being sheltered” on the premises. the move marks a fresh es- calation in the long-standing tension between the Raj Bhavan and nabanna (the state »conTinued on pAGe 2 Officials say just tip of iceberg, Indian virtual asset industry battles real-world challenges phoned from 2,872 victims in just 21 months between January 2024 and september 2025. In comparison, crime proceeds of Rs 25.3 crore reported in 769 complaints were transferred via 12 foreign crypto exchanges through credit/debit cards during 2024-2025, accordingtorecordsoftheMha's Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C). these revelations, based on data compiled from the nationalCybercrimeReportingPortal(nCRP), point to what investigators call the most sophisticated financial laundering model yet to emergefromIndia’scybercrime ecosystem. “the victims had primarily 4.84 September October Bengal Gov leads search in Raj Bhavan after TMC MP’s charge of ‘sheltering BJP’s criminals’ Search broadcast live after Bose cut short his visit to North Bengal 6.30 1.45 5.24 »conTinued on pAGe 2 27 crypto exchanges under Govt lens: 2,872 victims, Rs 600 crore investigation Sukalp Sharma Trump’s tariffs drag down Indian exports to US by 9% in October wiTh inTernATionAl conSorTium oF inveSTiGATive JournAliSTS eXpress Move comes as New Delhi looks to shrink trade surplus with Washington (in billion $) New Delhi, November 17 ‘Historic first’: India to source 10% LPG imports from US as IndIa looks to increase its energy trade with the us amid trade pact negotiations, Indian public sector refiners have signed a one-year deal for american liquefied petroleum gas(lPg) imports,marking the first structured contract of us lPg for the domestic market. the term deal, which Petroleum Minister hardeep singh Puri called a “historic first”, is India isn’t emerging market, it is emerging as a confident new model, says Modi; recalls Ramnath Goenka’s mission of journalism to articulate people’s voice of protest vikas pathak Amid BilATerAl TrAde TAlkS Dhaka, November 17 Bangladesh’s ousted prime minister sheikh hasina was sentenced to death in her absence on Monday at the end of a months-long trial that found her guilty of ordering a deadly crackdown on a student-led uprising last year. People in the packed courtroom — including families of victims—cheeredandclapped, andsomeinthecrowdsoutside sank to their knees and offered up prayers after the verdict, the harshest against a leader in the country’s history. »conTinued on pAGe 2 Business as Usual By eP UNNy invested through fake trading or investment apps, unaware that theirfundswerebeing converted into digital assets and layered through dozens of wallets,” an official »conTinued on pAGe 2 hall of shame, PaGe 6 Kolkata