www.INDIANExPRESS.COM Virtually A Winner Esports is no longer a fad. It’s here to stay and do the victory lap with scores of fans behind it — as seen in Paris during the Esports World Cup JaIPur, sePTemBer 6, 2026 sCreen Actor-dancer Shobana on making Bharatanatyam accessible by adapting the classical dance to newer formats LATE CITy 12+4 PAGES ₹6.00 D A I L y F R O M : A H M E D A B A D , C H A N D I G A R H , D E L H I , j A I P U R , k O L k A T A , L U C k N O w , M U M B A I , N A G P U R , P A T N A , P U N E , v A D O D A R A JHirAm GHAti AttACK KiLLeD 27 PeoPLe moDi BACK in srCC AFter His ‘GLAss FULL oF WAter AnD Air’ AnALoGY BeFore 2014 PoLLs Opp can’t digest India growth, look 13 yrs after Maoist ambush at 2013 and now, PM tells students killed top Cong leaders in FrAmes PAst Vs Present AnD FUtUre Promises another ‘upswing’, attacks critics for being ‘negative’ on road to development Gen Z nod: OG, naaraaz fufa (angry uncle), Dhurandhar, ‘your seniors couldn’t dream’ Vikas Pathak & Gayathri mani Vikas Pathak & Gayathri mani New Delhi, September 5 New Delhi, September 5 reTurnInG To the Shri ram College of Commerce in new Delhi Saturday, 13 years after his “glass full of water and air” analogy delivered a strong message of optimism and possibilitiesintherun-uptothe 2014 lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister narendra Modi targetedtheopposition,calling itthe“naaraazfufa”(thesullen, Pm narendra modi interacts with children on the metro while on his way to shri ram college of commerce in new delhi, saturday. PTI angry uncle) with a negative mindset. he said the opposition was in the habit of questioning every government move to take the country forward, even the growth numbers. In 2013, Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat and the prospective BJP candidate for Prime Minister. »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 In FeBruary 2013, this was thevenuewherehespokeasthe challenger, foreshadowing the “Modi wave” at the tail end of a sputtering uPa government. almost 13 years later, narendra ModireturnedtoShriramCollegeofCommerceSaturdayasa third-term Prime Minister in thewakeofunprecedentedstudent protests in the capital that forced his government’s hand Channi-Warring feud: Pilot replaces Baghel as Congress in-charge of poll-bound Punjab »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 Honouring teachers PresiDent DroUPADi Murmu felicitated 82 teachers and educators at the National Teachers’ Award ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Saturday. Asad rehman & man Aman singh Chhina tHese inCLUDeD 48 teachers from the Department of School Education and Literacy, 21 teachers or faculty members from higher educational institutions and polytechnics, and 13 trainers from the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. New Delhi, Chandigarh, September 5 aFTer weekS ofinfightingin Punjab Congress, the party highcommandonSaturdayreplaced Bhupesh Baghel as the allIndiaCongressCommittee’s (aICC) state in-charge and brought in Sachin Pilot. Sources in the party claimed that former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Baghel’s standing in the state unit was damagedbyallegationsthathe was “favouring” state Congress PresidentamrinderSinghraja warring who is locked in a feud with former CM and Jalandhar MP Charanjit Singh Channi. Channi wants to replace warring as the Punjab Congress andledtotheresignationofthe union education Minister. his framing, therefore, was clear.hewasreachingouttostudentsatSrCC,ahighlyselective college,agenerationthatwillbe first-time lok Sabha voters in 2029butwerebarelyinschoolin 2013.hewasalsoaddressingthe disgruntledyoungwho,through their protests, have put under a cloud his party’s dominance over all rivals for the first time since he won in 2014. Modiunderlinedthis:hetold Bhupesh Baghel; sachin Pilot president in the run-up to next year’s assembly elections and has rebuffed Baghel’s attempts to mediate a truce. “The state unit will be pleased with this change as a neutralperson,SachinPilot,has been given the responsibility now. he can start work from scratch and listen to all sides,” said a senior Congress MP from Punjab. Baghel who has been President droupadi murmu pays tribute to former President dr sarvepalli radhakrishnan, whose birth anniversary is celebrated as Teachers’ day, at rashtrapati Bhavan, saturday. PTI rePorTs, PaGe 4 »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 Chhattisgarh, 10 convicted Sentencing on Sept 16; some top Maoists listed as accused have since surrendered Jayprakash s naidu Raipur, September 5 ThIrTeen yearS after a Maoist attack in Bastar’s Jhiram Ghati killed 27 people and nearly wiped out the Chhattisgarh Congress leadership, a special national Investigation agency (nIa) court in Jagdalpur Saturday convicted 10 accused in the case. They will be sentenced on September 16. an eleventh accused died during trial while another 28, named in the chargesheet as accused, have been listed as wanted. The 10 who have been convicted are Pramila Modiyam, Chaitu lekam alias Munna, Sumita alias Punem Modiyam, Mukka Mandvi, kosa kavasi aliaskosaram,aayataMarkam, Madkami Deva, Joga Madkami, Banjami Sanna alias Chamru and Mahadev nag. among the prominent Maoists chargesheeted in the »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 inside EAM JAishAnkAr pAys tributE At MEMoriAls in wArsAw LICHFL alleged loss linked to two loan facilities granted in 2018 and allegedly secured by Chandra’s personal guarantees Ranchi, September 5 lAs tHe irAn war continues to disrupt oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz, seven core members of the oil-producing alliance OPEC+, including Saudi Arabia and Russia, will meet to discuss their output policy. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com a BooTh level agent (Bla) of the BJP in Jharkhand’s Godda districtwasarrestedfollowingan FIr accusing him of submitting around200Form7applications seeking deletion of voters’ names, as part of the Special Intensiverevision(SIr)exercisein thestate.TheBla,Vinaykumar Mandal, is now out on bail. The complainant and the Booth level officer (Blo), of Booth no. 231 of Pachrukhi village in Godda block, have both express news service New Delhi, September 5 The Express report dated sept 2 on submission of forms by BJP BLas against voters in Godda submitted that all the applications by Mandal were in the nameofvotersbelongingtothe minority community. among the voters whose names were »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 l Lenders’exposure The CenTral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered anFIragainstZeefounderand esselGroupchairmanSubhash Chandra, several companies andtheirdirectorsforallegedly inflating his net worth to avail of loans from life Insurance Corporation housing Finance ltd (lIChFl). The loans subse- HDFC Bank LIC Housing IndusInd Canara Bank ₹775 cr ₹1,322 cr ₹240 cr ₹348 cr Union Bank RBL Bank Franklin Templeton Edelweiss ₹164 cr ₹119 cr ₹729 cr ₹565 cr Deeptiman tiwary New Delhi, September 5 The MaSSaCre in Chhattisgarh’s Jhiram Ghati on May 25, 2013 was among the most audacious attacks carried out by Maoists. while there had been attacks withhighercasualties— the 2010 Tadmetla attack, for instance, killed 76 CrPF personnel — JhiramGhatihadadifferentimpact. For the first time, Maoists had virtually wiped out an entiregenerationofastate’spolitical leadership in one strike. among those killed were then Chhattisgarh Congress president nand kumar Patel and his son Dinesh, former leader of opposition Mahendra karma, former union Minister Vidya Charan ShuklaandformerMla uday Mudliyar. The attack came at a crucial E. »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 express special Letter sent AFter GsLV LAUnCH FriDAY l shubham tigga Jhiram Ghati attack, a turning point in battle inside Red Corridor pAGE 2 Happening Jharkhand: BJP BLA held After NCLT flip-flop, CBI books today over 200 forms to delete Chandra in Rs 1,322-cr LIC case Union Home Home Minister minority voters, gets bail Amit Shah, who is in Goa on a three-day visit, will chair a meeting to review matters related to the state across various divisions of the Ministry of Home Affairs. outside the nIa special court at Jagdalpur in chhattisgarh’s Bastar district on saturday. ANI vIDEO GRAB quently turned into defaults, causing a loss of over rs 1,322 croretothepublicsectorlender. The FIr, registered by the CBI’s Banking Securities Fraud Branch on august 31, is based on a written complaint by neetaMenghani,generalmanager of lIChFl. In the FIr, lIChFl has alleged wrongful loss of over rs 1,322 crore, plus interest and »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 isro staff question trajectory of space privatisation, want chief to clarify IN-SPACe head Pawan Goenka’s remarks that ISRO will not manufacture launch vehicles spark concerns, employees say Anonna Dutt New Delhi, September 5 key eMPloyee associations at the Indian Space research organisation have written to ISro chairperson V narayanan, questioning the direction of the agency’s privatisation drive and its implications for the existing workforce and the agency’s future role. The letter, obtained by The Indian Express, was sent Friday, just hours after ISro successfullylaunchedanearthobservation satellite aboard a GSlV rocket following a months-long hiatus. even as ISro continues to deliveronitscoremissions,the lettershowedthatquestionsare mounting within about what roleitwillplayasprivateplayers take on a growing share of the country’s space activities. at the centre of the controversy are remarks made on august 21, at a Business Today event,byPawanGoenka,chairperson of the Indian national Space Promotion and authorization Centre (In-SPaCe), the nodal body, under the Department of Space, announced by the Prime Minister in 2020 to openIndia’sspacesectortoprivate participation. Said Goenka, who also chairstheboardofgovernorsat IIT Madras: “eventually, ISro will not manufacture any launch vehicles, that will be »ContinUeD on PAGe 2 l currIcuLum deveLoPed In coLLaBoraTIon wITh nGo BreakThrouGh and The aBduL LaTIf JameeL PoverTy acTIon LaB Fighter jet as gift, Razia Sultan story: On gender bias, Punjab textbooks turn new page Divya Goyal Gopal fighter jet as a “gift”. The story, titled ‘a Gift for Sidhak’, is part of the Class 7 whaT SIDhak wants is a curriculum in Punjab governkitchenset.allherfriendshave mentschoolsandthestategovone, and when her “Daarji”, ernment’s campaign to buck who’s cooking in the kitchen, gender stereotypes and redeignores her, she gets petulant. fine gender roles. Five years “Daarji just doesn’t care,” she after the Punjab education Desays. Instead, her grandfather partmentcollaboratedwiththe asks her to watch the republic nGo Breakthrough and abdul latif Jameel Poverty Day parade. page 1 action lab South reluctantly, Sidasia (J-Pal) in 2021 hak watches it and to integrate ‘Gender seesawomanfighter pilot salute the national flag. Sensitisation’ into the regular “how big are these? Can I also curriculum, the change is visfly them?” Sidhak asks, just as ible on the pages. Fromexplaininghowgifting her grandfather intended. She forgets all about the kitchen set kitchen sets to girls and cars or and instead gets a miniature aeroplanes to boys can inLudhiana, September 5 anchor fluence gender roles to highlighting women previously relegatedtothemarginsofhistory, the new curriculum is aimed at one thing: understanding, questioning and countering gender biases from a very youngage.Thesechangeshave been made in phases for the past three years, most recently in this academic session. These efforts are particularly visible in the english and social studies curriculum — from stories such as ‘a Gift for Sidhak’ to viewing important historical figures such as razia Sultan and nur Jahan through a different lens. The efforts are not just for students but also for teachers, ticipate in household chores,” she says. Bucking gender norms a story in the class 7 english textbook talks about a girl who chooses a fighter jet as a gift instead of a kitchen set. ExPRESS Sunita Prabhakar, component head for the Gender Sensitisation curriculum of the Punjab education Department, tells The Indian Express. “The teaching material or books alone can’t bring the change. we have trained teachersonhowtoconveysuch lessons in the classrooms. The curriculum now also includes stories on how families should support women’s career ambitions and men should also par- Thebooksthatsawthemost changes belong to Classes 6 to 8,althoughsometopicsarealso covered in Classes 9 to 12. In the Class 6 english textbook, a chapter called ‘a Forgottenwish’explainshowmarriedwomentoocantakecareof their parents, and that they are not a “burden or a stranger”. In it,khwahish,amarriedwoman, is keen to care for her “bebe” (mother),althoughthelatterbelieves that married women belong in their husbands’ homes. Thatchangeswhenbebefallsill, and her son cannot travel back Jaipur from abroad. It’skhwahishwhotakesover — she’s the one who gets her mother’s eye surgery done, and she’s the one who cares for her. a chapter from the Class 8 english book helps students understand the opportunities some married women lose becauseofrigidsocialnorms.The chapter, called ‘Smashing the Glass Ceiling’, tells the story of Paramjeet, the daughter of a house help, and Geet, at whose house Paramjeet’s mother worked. By the time they meet again after 25 years, their lives havetakendiametricallyopposite courses: Geet, a well-qualified woman with a master’s degree, is a homemaker whose family doesn’t approve of her working, while the less-educated Paramjeet has her own computer business and is now a confident woman. The story, which ends with GeetseekingworkfromParamjeet, sets the tone right at the outset. “People generally think women can’t have their own businesses, but excellence and talent are not based on gender. evenifagirlishighlyeducated, sheisonlyexpectedtotakecare of family,” the chapter says. “They have to work harder to prove their worth.” Sunita Prabhakar of the Punjab education Department explains why lessons like this »ContinUeD on PAGe 2