The editorial Page: Count caste by all means. But abandon belief that counting settles anything 12 ThURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2026 JournalISm of Courage New DelhI, lATe CITy, 22 PAgeS ₹7.00 (₹8 RAIPuR, ₹15 SRINAgAR) 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 on His First Visit to VAlleY, enVoY sAYs ‘incredible stePs’ tAKen to mAKe Union territorY sAFe J&K important part of India, will relook at travel warnings: US envoy in Srinagar Post-Op Sindoor chill, congress leaders sonia gandhi, mallikarjun kharge and rahul gandhi at the cWc meeting in new delhi, Wednesday. message underlines Delhi Cong invokes Tagore, stand, signal to Pak too Conversation will be taken forward between Gor and Washington, and New Delhi and I, says Omar after meeting naveed iqbal Srinagar, August 19 IN a strong endorsement of New Delhi’s long-standing position on Jammu& Kashmir, Us ambassador sergio Gor, who was in srinagar Wednesday on his maiden visit to the Valley,describedJ&Kas“animportant part of India” and signalled that Washington would review the situation in the Union territory to downgrade and ease travel warnings for Us citizens. Gor met Chief Minister Omar abdullah at his Gupkar road residence, marking the first standalone visit to the ValleybyaservingUsambassador since the abrogation of article 370 in august 2019. In January 2020, Kenneth Juster, the then ambassador, had visited the Valley as part of a governmentfacilitateddelegationofforeign envoys. stating that he was “thrilled” to be in the Valley, Gor said, “this is an important part of India. I am here, visiting for the first time. It’s an incredibly beautiful place.” he is expected to travel to ladakh thursday. he said he had “a very »continUed on PAge 2 ANIl ShARMA shubhajit roy New Delhi, August 19 UsaMBassaDOrsergioGor’s declaration from srinagar that Jammu and Kashmir is “an important part of India” is not just Washington’s public affirmation of New Delhi’s long-standing position on J&K, but it is also being seen as a message to Islamabad and Beijing, especially postthePahalgamterrorattack and Operation sindoor. a close confidant of President Donald trump,Goris also E. Us ambassador sergio gor with Jammu and kashmir chief minister omar abdullah in srinagar on Wednesday. ANI express investigation lUnion Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 31st meeting of the Southern Zonal Council in Tamil Nadu’s Mamallapuram. lA nine-jUdge Constitution Bench will pronounce its verdict on reference against expansive definition given to “industry” in Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. lFinAnce minister Nirmala Sitharaman will lead a ministerial delegation for the fourth IndiaSingapore Ministerial Roundtable, a key platform for discussions on bilateral economic and strategic cooperation. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as usual By EP UNNY April protests in Noida met with police crackdown; courts granted relief in 84% bail pleas on FIRs with substantive allegations: ‘mere presence not enough to deny bail, specific evidence needed, can’t equate workers with instigators’ drishti jain & Kaunain sheriff m New Delhi, August 19 It’sataleoftwoprotests—and two very different outcomes. lastmonth,theJantarMantar protest demanding a leakproof exam system ended with theUnioneducationMinister’s resignationandanassuranceby the Centre and states that the police will not pursue any case against the protesters. In sharp contrast, the weeklong protest startingapril 10by factoryworkersinprivatefirms in neighbouring Noida, demanding higher wages, got no such assurance. Indeed, a police crackdown saw up to 200 people taken into custody, including two booked under the stringent Nationalsecurity act (Nsa), which allows detention without trialforuptoayear.On april 14, the UP government raisedthewages(seepage7)but it took the courts to grant relief to most of the jailed protesters. The Indian Express investigated 106 arrests with substantive allegations, ranging from rioting and arson to attempt to murder — the average period a protester spent in custody was 53 days. these arrests led to 222 bailorderslinkedtosevenfIrs. theinvestigationrevealed that reliefwasgrantedinasmanyas 188, or 84 per cent. significantly,theordershadaconsist- on bAil: 19-year-old says stepped out for food, was arrested; (right) 20-year-old says picked up from lane outside home. PRAveeN KhANNA l 106arrests,daysinjail Fir no max min Avg 151 74 8 32 149 81 25 36 164 118 49 89 165 105 34 71 169 120 25 54 172 81 27 35 DATA foR fIR No. 163/2026 NoT AvAIlABle ent pattern. Judges repeatedly found that the police case rests on treating a crowd as the accused, rather than establishing what any one worker actually did. »continUed on PAge 2 Parents now ring up six times a day, worrying the police would pick me up again” reporTs page 7 Where bail denied: Govt slapped NSA, cited book, library, articles and Gaza drishti jain & Kaunain sheriff m New Delhi, August 19 IN the Noida labour protests, where nearly eight of every 10 people arrested have got bail, those denied relief face a commonaccusation:anallegedrole in the conspiracy. Books read, Whatsapp texts,andparticipationin Gaza and NrC protests have all been cited as evidence, with police even using the term “andolan- »continUed on PAge 2 ‘conFlict oF interest’ workers protesting for higher wages got over 50 days on average in jail — until courts stepped in Happening today his special envoy to south and Central asia. his meeting with Chief Minister Omar abdullah signalsbothacknowledgement and engagement with J&K’s firstelectedgovernment post the 2019 constitutional changes. for New Delhi, this has significance given that the India-Us chill was precipitated by the India-Pak conflict amid trump’s repeated claims of brokering the ceasefire followingOperationsindoorlastyear. from srinagar, however, jeevi” in one case. those denied bail include activists, a former journalist and a Delhi University graduate — the latter two held under the draconian National security act (Nsa), which permits detention of up to a year without trial. On May 13, nearly a month after the protests turned violent, UP invoked the Nsa against satyam Verma, a 60year-oldformerjournalistfrom »continUed on PAge 2 canlookatmore safeguards: ministryon deeptechfund Amitabh sinha New Delhi, August 19 WhIle MaINtaINING that thesafeguardsonavoidingconflict of interest in the disbursement of research, Development and Innovation (rDI) fund were fairly robust, science and technology MinisterJitendrasinghonWednesday said the government was open to considering suggestionsforstrengtheningtheprocess further. singh’s remarks, made at the monthly meeting of secretaries of scientific departments under his charge, come in the wake of an investigative report by The Indian Express earlier this month that showed that 15 of the 22 private companies selected for the first round of fundingfromtherDIfundhad investment ties to seven membersoftheselectionpanel, raising questions of conflict of interest and propriety. though the panel members concerned had declared their interest and recused themselvesfromevaluatingthecompany they had a stake in, as per the guidelines, the matter underlined the need for additionalsafeguardsinthesystem. at Wednesday’s meeting, singhreviewedalltheprocedural safeguardsbeingadoptedto avoid a conflict of interest situation,andemphasisedthatdue diligence and verification »continUed on PAge 2 nation Page 8 Bangladeshis among 9 killed in kolkata hotel Blaze Mahatma: Will sing only first 2 stanzas of Vande Mataram Party firms up strategy to corner Govt over paper leaks, ‘theft’ at Ram temple Asad rehman New Delhi, August 19 DaysaftertheCongresswas embroiledinacontroversyover the rendition of the national song, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on Wednesday decided that the party will onlysingthefirsttwostanzasof Vande Mataram at its programmes. theCongress’shighestdecision-making body cited a 1937 CWC resolution to back its stand, arguing that the leading lights of the freedom movement, including Mahatma Gandhi and rabindranath tagore, had backed limiting the public rendition of Vande Mataram to its first two stanzas. following a CWC meeting convened by the all India Congress Committee (aICC) chief, MallikarjunKharge,attheparty inside Page 6 BjP hits Back: ‘cong new muslim league’ headquarters Indira Bhavan in Delhi,aICCgeneralsecretaryin charge of organisation K C Venugopaltoldapressconference that there was “no confusion” overtherenditionofVandeMataram within the Congress. “the Congress president (Kharge) categorically said it yesterday. It was clarified. But againtoday,itwasdiscussedby theCongressWorkingCommittee. Our stand is very clear. the CWC resolution of 1937... Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, rabindranath tagore, subhas Chandra Bose and sardar Patel. We will abide by the decision taken by them. »continUed on PAge 2 Institutionalise NTA reforms, says apex court, cites UPSC’s ‘vibrant’ example Seeks affidavit in three weeks on steps taken so far Ananthakrishnan g New Delhi, August 19 UNDerlINING the need to “institutionalise” the National testing agency (Nta) and its reforms, the supreme Court on WednesdayaskedtheCentreto file an affidavit, within three weeks, on the action taken to implement the recommendations of the earlier expert committee headed by former IsrO chairman K radhakrishnan and the recent task force under Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani. Citing the example of the Union Public service Commission (UPsC), Justice P s Narasimha, presiding over a twoJudgebench,saidtheNta,too, shouldbecome“avibrantinsti- inside Page 10 nta changes: short tenures for suBject exPerts, staggered information sPread tution like that”. “take the UPsC for example. Over a periodof time, regularly, they are conducting exam after exam foolproof, whichmeanstheyhaveinstitutional memory, institutional expertise. We want this institution (Nta), if it has to be entrusted with the obligation of conducting exams year after year, to ensure that it also upgrades itself and remains a vibrant institution like that,” he said. the bench, which included Justice alok aradhe, was hearing petitions seeking restructuringoftheNtainthewakeof the Neet-UG paper leak. “We are informed that the »continUed on PAge 2 l sonIpaT academY seT Up bY former IndIa plaYer prITam ranI sIWach sends foUr Women To ongoIng World cUp She captained Team India, now son in Hockey World Cup — via her academy mihir Vasavda ongoing hockey World Cup — defender Jyoti, midfielders Neha Goyal and shilpi Dabas, the1998hockeyWorldCupin and teenage forward sakshi the Netherlands gave former rana — from the academy that India captain Pritam rani si- she and her husband, Kuldeep, wach one of the fondest set up in haryana’s sonipat. chapters of her career. twentyfiveWorldCupplayers.One eight years later, the same tour- academy. One hockey family. nament and the same country “It’sabigtournament.yashhavegivenheranothermemory deep is playing in the same to cherish: watching country where I also page 1 her son, yashdeep, played my first make his World Cup World Cup. It is debut, making them special,” Pritam, 51, thefirstmother-sonduotoplay tellsTheIndianExpress.“Mazin the marquee event. door jab ghar banata hai, toh Pritam has another reason banata hi rehta hai (When lato cheer. Besides yashdeep, a bourers build a home, they just defender,thereare fourplayers keep building). that’s what I in India’swomen'ssquadat the am doing. Coaching is my Mumbai, August 19 anchor passion. I don’t see it as my son playing the tournament. My daughters are there, too. there’s no difference for me.” Over the years, Pritam and Kuldeep have quietly built one ofIndia’smostproductivetalent pipelinesforwomen'shockey— yashdeep, too, trained at the academy in his early years, beforemovingontoamen’sacademy. the Pritam siwach academy, which once stood on land used for grazing cattle, is now a breeding ground for elite players, producing internationals such as Neha Goyal, NishaWarsiandsharmilaDevi. the couple have relied less on infrastructure and more on persistence, providing young Yashdeep siwach with mother pritam, a former India captain, and father kuldeep, a hockey coach. players with coaching, equipment and, just as importantly, a space to train consistently. yet, for all the players she has helped shape, there was onewhoPritamneverintended to coach: her own son. OneofIndiansport’searliest supermoms, Pritam never stopped going to the hockey ground throughout her pregnancy — initially training lightly before coaching the players there. seven months after yashdeep was born, she was back chasingherowndream.shewas summoned for the Manchester Commonwealth Games selectiontrialsafterdecidingtomake a comeback to the national team. she shed 18 kg in three or fourmonthstoearnherplacein thesquadthatwentontowinIndia’s famous gold medal. Pritameventuallysetupthe academy in sonipat. But when it came to her son, she wanted a different path. yashdeep occasionally accompanied her to the training ground, but she encouraged himtotryothersports.shealso worried that if he made the nationalteam,hisselectionwould be viewed through the prism of his mother’s influence, even if he had earned it on merit. so, yashdeep turned to swimming. Given the sporting genesinthefamily—hisfather wasalsoahockeyplayerandhis sister, Kanika, currently plays for India — it was hardly surprising that he excelled. then, one winter, the swimming poolsshut.yashdeeppickedup a hockey stick to pass time, and soon found himself hooked. New Delhi yashdeep may have been late to structured hockey, but the sport itself was hardly new tohim.“sincechildhood,Ihave beensurrounded by hockey. at home, our dinner table conversations would revolve around the game and if I accompanied my parents to their work, it would be at a hockey field,” he had told The Indian Express in an earlier interview. “that atmosphere really helped me grasp the sport faster.” Meanwhile,PritamandKuldeep continued to scout and train players from across haryana, moulding them into India stars. Many like Neha, whose mother worked at a »continUed on PAge 2