eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE P. S. I love you FEBRUARY11,2024 12+4PAGES,`6.00 DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA Pained, ashamed, says Dhankhar as Opp questions RLD chief’s speech on Bharat Ratna DEEPTIMAN TIWARY & AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 10 RAJYASABHAChairmanJagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday said he was “pained” and “ashamed”, and even felt like resigning, after members of Congress and other oppositionpartiesquestionedhis decisiontoallowRLDchiefJayant ChaudharytospeakontheBharat Ratna conferred on his grandfather and former Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh. Dhankhar also accused Leaderof OppositionMallikarjun Khargeof insultingCharanSingh and his legacy. As soon as Rajya Sabha proceedings began in the morning, Chaudharywasallowedtospeak by the Chair. In his short speech, he praised the BJP government foritsdecisiontohonour Charan Singh, and rued that it is being seen through a political prism and is being linked to elections Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Saturday. ANI and political alliances. “I admit I was with the Opposition for 10 years. I started sitting here (treasury benches) just a while ago. I have seen glimpsesof CharanSingh'sideals in the working of this government in the last 10 years,” he said. “Only a government which is rooted in ground realities, understands the voices from the ground and strengthens them canhonour'Dhartiputra'Charan Singh with Bharat Ratna.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM RAM TEMPLE DISCUSSION IN LAST SITTING OF 17TH LOK SABHA Modi played unparalleled role in uniting nation: House chairs Cong plays safe, extols Ram’s values to slam govt The resolution will give constitutional powers to future generations to take pride in their heritage: Modi MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 10 HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 10 THE CHAIRS of both Houses of Parliament Saturday praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi forplayingan“unparalleledrole” in uniting the entire nation on the “auspicious occasion” of the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Addressing the Lok Sabha after a discussion on Ram temple in which 26 members including HomeMinisterAmitShahspoke, Speaker Om Birla said, “January Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Lok Sabha on Saturday. PTI 22, 2024, has filled every corner of the country with amazing joy and enthusiasm... It has become a national festival, about which our generations will continue to be enthralled for ages... Our Honourable Prime Minister has played an unparalleled role in uniting the entire nation on this auspicious occasion associated with Lord Ram... We all are very proud to pass this resolution relatedtothegrandtempleof Lord Shri Ram, which has become a symbol of the sentiment of the people in Ayodhya.” The same address was read out in Rajya Sabha by its ex-officio ChairmanJagdeep Dhankhar CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FORCED TO join a debate in Parliamentontheopeningof the Ram Temple, the Congress and a handful of other opposition parties — many from the INDIA bloc did not participate in the discussions in both Lok Sabha and RajyaSabha—accusedthe BJP of spreading hatred and animosity inthenameof Ramandusingreligion to secure power but skirted the issue of thinning of thelinethatdemarcates religion and state. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Declarations of love are not just for Valentine’s Day. From WhatsApp chats to notes on the fridge, from calls to emails, love letters are part of our everyday lives FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT EPFO recommends 8.25% for 2023-24, highest in 3 years AANCHAL MAGAZINE NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 10 THE CENTRAL Board of Trustees oftheEmployees’ProvidentFund Organisation (EPFO) Saturday recommended a higher interest rate of 8.25 per cent for financial year2023-24foritsover29crore total subscribers. This will be the highest rate of interest for EPF subscribersinthelastthreeyears and comes ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. After maintaining the interest rate at 8.5 per cent in 201920 and 2020-21, the EPFO had cut it in 2021-22 to 8.1 per cent, the lowest in four decades. It hiked it marginally to 8.15 per cent in 2022-23, and further to 8.25 per cent for the current financial year. The Ministry of Labour and Employment will now send the interestraterecommendationof 8.25 per cent for 2023-24 to the Ministry of Finance for ratification.Aftertheministry'sconsent, theEPFOwouldcredittherateof E E X P L A I NE D AHMEDABAD,LATECITY Record income, ● highersurplus THE HIGHER 8.25% interest rate for this year is mainly because EPFO expects to retain a higher surplus. This could probably be because of record high incomes due to lower-than-expected claims. interest for this fiscal to the EPF subscribers. With the 8.25 per cent payout to subscribers, the EPFO is expectedtoretainasurplusof Rs 278 crore in FY24 (2023-24), a source said. “These are provisional estimates as the financial yearisyetto end.Butthesurplus is seen higher than last year,” EPFO’s Central Provident Fund Commissioner Neelam Shami Rao said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Inside Gujarat’s ‘disturbed areas’: How the Act shrunk housing options for minorities ADITI RAJA VADODARA, FEBRUARY 10 SITTING IN his shop in the Chopdar Faliya neighbourhood of old Vadodara, Siraj Pathan (52), a trader of embroidery materials, recalls how in the 1980s andtillthelate1990s,boysinthe neighbourhood would play cricket together, have friendly fights but never over their faith. But things changed after the communalriotsthatfollowedthe GodhratrainburningofFebruary 27, 2002, when “a lot of people THE WORLD PAK ARMY CHIEF BACKS NAWAZ CALL FOR UNITY GOVT AS PTI THREATENS STIR PALESTINE BRACES FOR RAFAH ASSAULT AS ISRAEL PROMISES EVACUATION PLAN PAGE 10 Chopdar Faliya in Old City of Vadodara is one of the many neighbourhoods that come under the Act. Bhupendra Rana frombothcommunitiesstopped looking each other in the eye... slowly, our neighbourhood turned into ghettoised lanes”. Whataidedthisexclusion,he says, was the 1991 Gujarat Prohibition of Transfer of Immovable Property and Provision for Protection of Tenants from Premises in Disturbed Areas Act. The law, which empowers the administration to declare parts of the territorial jurisdictionas“disturbed”inthecontext of communal clashes, prohibits CONTINUEDONPAGE2 ‘Mandatory registration of live-ins under UCC violative of SC orders’ MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 10 IN FIRST comments by a senior Congress leader on the Uniform Civil Code Bill passed by the BJP government in Uttarakhand, Congress Working Committee member and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi Saturday said 80percentoftheBillwas“unilateralimposition”fromHindulaws governing “divorce, succession P7 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW and guardianship” and argued thattheprovisionformandatory registration of live-in relationships was “directly violative” of Supreme Court judgments on privacy,autonomyandArticle21. He said the Bill, which was passed by Uttarakhand Assembly last week, was clearly a “political and symbolic gesture” unleashed just before Lok Sabha elections. “If the UCC is to have any meaning, it has to be the product of all-India consensus in a single national law. The CONTINUEDONPAGE2 In U-19 cricketers’ journey to WC final, meet those who laid the ground for them PAGE 1 ANCHOR PRATYUSH RAJ NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 10 THE FLIGHT from Mumbai to SouthAfrica forIndia’sUnder-19 cricketers was long and tiring. The trek to the final, where they will meet Australia on Sunday in a repeat of the senior men’s World Cup final, was tough as well. Their real journey, though, was several years in the making. Many of these young cricketers left the comforts of their hometown, and the warmth of their relativesandfriends,sothatthey could realise their cricketing dreams. Uday Saharan, the captain, was only 12 when he shifted from his home in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar district to Punjab’s Fazilka district, 80 km away, so that he could get better training facilities. Vice captain Saumy Pandey and his parents moved from Bharatpur in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district to a rentedaccommodationinRewa, 40kmaway,sothatSaumycould stay close to his cricketing acad- A 7-year-old Sachin Dhas with his father Sanjay emy. Arshin Kulkarni made the 250-kmjourneyfromSolapurto Pune. Pacer Raj Limbani undertook a 550-km journey from Dayapar, a village near the PakistanborderinRannof Kutch, to Baroda. Behindallof themhasbeena supportive family or a cricket tragic father, nursing their own shattered cricketing dreams. Saharan’s father, Sanjeev, was called the Gavaskar of Sri Ganganagar. Unable to forge a cricketing career, he cleared BCCI’s Level 1 coaching and startedhisacademy.Evenbefore CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad