The Editorial Page: The Budget has delivered a googly — the retrospective tax 12 FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAgE KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 20 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 , L U 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 REPLY TO DISCUSSION ON THE MOTION OF THANKS ON PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS Can’t see me serving, so say ‘Modi teri kabr khudegi’: PM slams Cong Speaker:Asked PM nottocome, learntCongress MPswould createincident ‘World markets waiting for India, trade deals have opened them up’ vikas Pathak & Manoj CG New Delhi, February 5 PICKING ON the slogan ‘Modi teri kabr khudegi’ (Modi, your gravewillbedug)usedbysome opposed to his government’s actions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in one of his sharpest attacks on the Congress, said Thursday that those who thought the post of the Prime Minister was reserved for their family were bitter that he had not only made it to the office but continued to remain there and were, therefore, running down all his efforts to serve the country. Replying to the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address in Rajya Sabha — he could not speak in Lok Sabha Wednesday evening because the House was adjourned amid a Congress protest — Modi mentioned the slogan 21 times, linking it to the Congress opposition and questioning of his government’sactions,fromthe abrogationofArticle370inJ&K to ending insurgency in the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 happening today lA ‘TOTAL SHUTDOWN’ has been called from 6 am to 6 pm in Kuki Zo-dominated areas of Manipur, days after government formation. lRbI GOvERNOR Sanjay Mal- hotra will announce the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision on interest rate. The MPC is likely to maintain status quo. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm business as Usual By EP UNNY wEsT BENGAl CONgrESS DItCHES LEFt, tO gO ALONE IN ASSEmbLY POLLS PAgE 5 l Absolute lie, PM hiding behind Speaker: Priyanka PM Narendra Modi in Rajya Sabha Thursday. Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, J P Nadda, Kiren Rijiju were among those present. ANI E. ExPlAINED Divide deepens ahead of key polls The showdown inside and outside Parliament has deepened the divide, putting a question mark on the functioning of the House. It also sets the stage for bitter campaigns in the states where Assembly elections will be held this year. ThE EDITOrIAl PAGE Pm FrAmES tHE DEAL, COrNErS CONg P 12 We respect (Gen Naravane), Rahul using his name to mock Govt: FM Says Cong sending women MPs towards Treasury to act as ‘shield or deterrent’ Liz Mathew & P vaidyanathan Iyer New Delhi, February 5 FINANCE MINISTER Nirmala Sitharaman said Thursday that the government did not have any issues with former Army chief General MM Naravane, whose unpublished book Four Stars of Destiny was held aloft by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi to target the government over a military face-off with China in August 2020. In an interview to The IndianExpress, Sitharaman said, “When I had a short stint as Defence Minister, I knew General »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ExPrEss interview NIRMALA SITHARAMAN UNION FINANCE MINISTER PAgE 11 Jatin Anand & Asad Rehman New Delhi, February 5 AS THE Lok Sabha passed the Motion of Thanks on the President’s Address without the Prime Minister’s reply to the discussion on the address, Speaker Om Birla said Thursday he had “credible informationthatseveralmembersfrom the Congress” would create “an unprecedented incident after reaching the Honourable PrimeMinister’sseat”,andthat it was he who had “requested the Prime Minister not to come to the House” where he was scheduledtospeakWednesday. The Congress rejected the charge that its members wanted to cause any harm to the Prime Minister. On Wednesday evening, the Lok Sabha »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 bENGAL INTERIM bUDGET TMC govt doles out cash to women, jobless youths 4% DA hike for state employees; wages of ASHA, anganwadi workers also up Atri Mitra & Sweety Kumari Kolkata, February 5 LAYING OUT a Rs 4.06 lakh crore interim Budget, weeks ahead of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government has doled out cash sopstowomenandyouths,and also hiked Dearness Allowance (DA) for state government employees by another 4 per cent. The TMC’s core vote bank, women, received most of the government’s largesse – Rs 500 hikeinthemonthlygrantunder LakshmirBhandarscheme,and a Rs 1,000 increase in wages of ASHAandAnganwadiworkers. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Full cOvErAGE P 3,4 PARTHA PAUL West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata with MoS (Finance) Chandrima Bhattacharya at a post-Budget press meet in Kolkata, Thursday. Pay DA from 2008-2019 by March 6: SC to Bengal Press Trust of India New Delhi, February 5 INArelieftonearly20lakhgovernment employees, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the West Bengal government to pay dearness allowancetothemforthe2008to-2019 period, saying it is a legally-enforceable right. A bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra directed the state government to pay 25 per cent of the outstanding DA to its employees by March 6. The Supreme Court said once DA is defined by linking it »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GOVT AUDIT SHOWS 56% OF RAJASTHAN’S GOVT SCHOOLS ARE DILAPIDATED OR NEED MAJOR WORK As school where 7 died starts new chapter, many others ‘unsafe’, teachers pitch in Parul Kulshreshtha Jhalawar, February 5 IN REPLY to a question in the Assembly last week, the Rajasthan government said that a technical audit had shown that over56%ofallroomsingovernment schools in the state were either dilapidated, unusable or required major repair work. At Kheiadi Ka Pura Government School at Manoharthana tehsil in Jhalawar district, the teachers have found a solution. It was in this district’s Piplodi villagethatsevenstudentswere killed and 20 injured when the ceilingofaclassroomcollapsed Makeshift classrooms at Kheiadi Ka Pura Government School, at Manoharthana tehsil in Jhalawar district. PARUL KULSHRESTHA in July 2025. The construction of a new building for the school started on Wednesday, six months later. With the building of the Kheiadi Ka Pura Government School demolished for being unsafe — the debris is yet to be cleared — its two teachers have been holding classes in two makeshift classrooms they helped fund. Jagdish Meena, one of the two teachers, says that after the July incident, the district administration demolished a majority of the school buildings or classrooms deemed to be in a »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata High capex to sustain growth, pvt investment also coming: Sitharaman Aanchal Magazine, Sandeep Singh & Anil Sasi New Delhi, February 5 FINANCE MINISTER Nirmala Sitharaman said Thursday the government’s primary objective is to sustain growth, and even though the private sector is “moving out of the passive mode to invest”, her ministry has continued with the heavy liftingincapitalspendinginthe Budget for 2026-27. In an interview to The IndianExpress, Sitharaman said, “At the moment we are looking atsustaininggrowthandtherefore, we will have to do it, so we aredoingit.Thatwillbeourpri- mary object — sustaining growth.” The government has allocated Rs 12.22 lakh crore towards capex for next year, whichismorethan11.5percent compared with 2025-26. The Finance Minister, however, said that there is a clear sign that one is able to see the private sector coming out to invest. “Investments earning passiveincomearenowmoving toinvestmentsinexpandingcapacities or setting up new businesses. This may be happening more in partnerships with peopleinthenewer,frontiersectors, and probably less — this is a bit too early — in the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2