DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Modern farming, Prosperous farmers G Guarantee 3.5 fold increase in fertilizer subsidy in last 10 years; Increase from ₹ 71 thousand crore in 2014 to over ₹ 2.5 lakh crore now Hamara Sankalp Viksit Bharat Government of India cbc 22201/13/0272/2324 M Modi Sarkar ki Scan for more information SupremeCourtletsthesunlightin SECURING INTEGRITY OF POLLS NOT JUST EC DUTY, FALLS ON LEGISLATURE, EXECUTIVE, JUDICIARY TOO: 5-JUDGE BENCH Upholding citizen’s right to know, court strikes down electoral bonds scheme, secret funding of polls SC orders SBI to give details of bonds to EC, sets March 13 deadline NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 INAhistoricverdictbarelyweeks beforetheLokSabhapollsareset tobenotified,theSupremeCourt struck down Thursday the Narendra Modi government’s 2018 electoral bonds scheme of anonymous political funding. Highlighting that “the information about funding to a political party is essential for a voter to exercise their freedom to vote in an effective manner”, a fivejudge Constitution bench, headedbyChief Justiceof IndiaD Y Chandrachud, said that changes made in the laws to implement the scheme were unconstitutional. Holding the scheme “violative” of the constitutional right to freedom of speech and expression and right to information,thecourtdidnot agreewith the Centre’s contention that it BUSINESS AS USUAL NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 REACTINGtotheSupremeCourt orderstrikingdowntheelectoral bonds scheme, the BJP said the Centre was only attempting to move towards greater transparency in political funding. “This decision was undertaken with the laudable objective of transparency in electoral NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 The five-judge bench headed by CJI D Y Chandrachud (centre), including (from left) Justices J B Pardiwala, Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai and Manoj Misra, on Thursday. ANI All eyes on SBI, EC as wait begins for names of donors was meant to bring about transparency and curb black money in political funding. In its two separate but unanimous verdicts spanning 232 pages,thecourtalsodirectedthe SBI, the authorised financial institution under the scheme, to submit by March 6 the details of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 fundingandreducingcashinfluence...Thosewhogivedonations say it is good if some secrecy is maintained. This isn’t unnatural. If another government comes, it could go after them. So, if someone is honestly doing business, we thought let them do so,” BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said, addressing a press conference at the party headquarters. Off the record, party leaders said that while the Supreme CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 WILL THE names of electoral bond donors be known within a month from today? Officials in the Election Commission are confident that, following the specific order of the Supreme Court, that will be very much possible by March 13. “We haven’t yet had the opportunitytoreadtheorderinde- 6,566 tailbutit'sabundantlycleartous that SBI will have to share the names of those who purchased electoral bonds. So there's no doubt about it,” said an EC official who requested anonymity. What remains uncertain at thismomentiswhetherthedata shared by SBI will be presented inaformatthathelpsoneimmediately match the bond buyer to the political party that received the same bond. “Irrespective of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TOTAL VALUE OF ELECTORAL BONDS SOLD FROM 2017-18 TO 2022-23 Total Amount `11,450 cr BJPgot 57%funds Allfiguresin`crore 1,123 1,093 774 617 1,095 94 64 24 BJP Cong TMC BJD DMK AAP NCP JD(U) Others Others: BRS: 384, YSRCP: 382, TDP: 147, Shiv Sena: 101, JD(S): 49, SP: 14, SAD: 7, AIADMK: 6, RJD: 3, JMM: 1, MGP: 1, SDF: 1 Source: Supreme Court Speaker dismisses disqualification pleas: ‘Ajit Pawar faction is real NCP’ 96 124 153 76 In Maharashtra, pvt schools with a govt school in 1-km radius will not be under RTE PALLAVI SMART MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 15 PRIVATE SCHOOLS within onekilometre vicinity of a government or aided school in Maharashtrawillnotbeobligated to provide admissions under the Right to Education (RTE) quota for students from economically backwardsectionsof thesociety, according to amended rules for implementation of RTE in state. Sofar,itwasmandatoryforall CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OMKAR GOKHALE & ALOK DESHPANDE MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 15 IN A setback to the Nationalist Congress Party faction headed by Sharad Pawar, Maharashtra Assembly Speaker Rahul Narwekar on Thursday declared that the rival faction headed by DeputyChief MinisterAjitPawar MaharashtraSpeakerRahul Narwekargiveshisverdict. ANI is ‘the real political party’. The Speaker delivered his verdict on two petitions filed by both factions nearly six months after the party split into two groups. The Speaker held that Ajit Pawar’s assertions about vote shareand majority in legislature are not disputed by the Sharad Pawar faction. Narwekar also dismissed the pleas of Sharad CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Burden is off my shoulders now’: Father as Sarfaraz sizzles on debut PAGE 1 ANCHOR DEVENDRA PANDEY MUMBAI, FEBRUARY 15 SARFARAZ KHAN could not hold his tears back when the legendaryAnilKumblehandedhim his maiden Test cap, just before the start of the third Test between India and England in Rajkot on Thursday. Beside him was his wife, who too was over- THE EDITORIAL PAGE APURVA VISHWANATH BY UNNY Respect the court, says BJP, aim of the scheme was transparency LIZ MATHEW & VIKAS PATHAK SC draws new red line: burden is on state to be ‘least restrictive’ Sarfaraz Khan hugs his father Naushad after receiving his Test debut cap in Rajkot on Thursday. ANI come with emotions. He ran towards his father Naushad, the most influential figure of his life, and hugged him. “I will cry the whole day when I play for my country,” he had once told The Indian Express. As the day progressed, Sarfaraz pushed some of the English bowlers to the verge of tears too, as his robust 62 off 66 balls, brutally cut short by a run out, played a big role in helping his country post 326 for 5. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INSIDE STRIKING down the electoral bonds scheme, the Supreme Court has raised the bar for the state to justify its encroachment of a fundamental right even when its action is perceived to further acompetingright.Itheld that the state has to prove that its measure is the “least restrictive”andthatthere are no other “equally effective” methods to achieve its stated goal. So this ruling sets a precedent: the court has struck down a set of legislative amend- PAGES 5, 11 DEMOCRACY’S GUARDIANANGEL BY S Y QURAISHI AVITALVERDICT A landmark moment, affirms people’s right to know PAGE 8 E EXPLAINED ANANTHAKRISHNAN G BALANCING COMPETING RIGHTS ments on the grounds that the state could have used a method “less re● strictive”of fundamental rights. Essentially, the court did not CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Opp welcomes verdict, hopes to flag ‘quid pro quo’ as campaign point MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 15 THE SUPREME Court decision striking down the contentious electoralbondschemeofthegovernment as unconstitutional has giventhebeleagueredopposition INDIAbloc—rivenbyinternaldissension — an unexpected and much-needed political talking point, and an opportunity to aggressivelyaddcorruptiontoitsarmoury in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. TheSupremeCourtorderhas askedtheStateBankofIndia(SBI), CONTINUED ON PAGE 2