DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES Modi Guarantee Sarkar Government of India cbc 22201/13/0320/2324 Ki India to become world's third largest economy India improves from 11th to 5th place in 10 years Deeply shocked: NIA TEAM JOINS POLICE IN INVESTIGATING INCIDENT India on killing of over 100 Gazans during aid delivery SHUBHAJIT ROY Lunch-hour blast at Bengaluru restaurant leaves nine injured NEW DELHI, MARCH 1 THE WORLD CHORUS FOR ISRAELI FIRING PROBE P 17 A videograb of the explosion at Rameswaram Cafe in Bengaluru, Friday. PTI CCTV shows man left bag; IT employee among injured, in ICU with 40% burns JOHNSON T A, KIRAN PARASHAR & SANATH K PRASAD BENGALURU, MARCH 1 ASUSPECTEDimprovisedexplosive device (IED) went off at a popularrestaurantinBengaluru's WhitefieldareaFridayafternoon, injuring nine persons — mostly customers having lunch. A man caught on CCTV camera with his face partially concealed with a mask and cap is being treated as a suspect, police sources told The Indian Express. Theblastoccurredinthedining area of Rameshwaram Cafe, THE NEWS Broadcasting and Digital Standards Authority (NBDSA) has ordered television news channels News18 India, Times Now Navbharat and Aaj Tak to take down videos of several shows aired in the last two years for spreading hatred and communal disharmony by “violating the code of ethics and broadcasting standards and the specific guidelines covering reportage on racial and religious harmony”. It also imposed fines on the broadcasters in some cases. In its meeting held on February28,theregulatorybody – set up by TV news broadcast- PAGE 1 ANCHOR Viksit Bharat PM attacks Mamata: Shielded Sandeshkhali accused... for every wound, reply with vote Questions silence of INDIA bloc, says BJP pressure led to arrests a popular chain of vegetarian restaurants, when employees from nearby IT companies were having lunch. Karnataka DGP Alok Mohan, who visited the blast site, said: “It would be premature to speculate on the cause of the blast without a report from the Forensic Science Laboratory.” Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah, however,indicatedtheblastwas caused by an IED. “I have spoken to the Home Minister and senior police officers. What they told mewasthatanunknownperson carried a bag to the restaurant. He bought a token and had food. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATEDREPORT,PAGE10 Man wearing cap, mask a suspect; IED like one used in Mangaluru, 2022 JOHNSON T A BENGALURU, MARCH 1 A MAN wearing a cap, glasses and a mask, captured by CCTV cameras at Rameshwaram Cafe aroundanhourbeforeablastoccurredat12.56pmonFriday,has emerged as a key suspect. Police sources said efforts were being made to identify the man, who had partially concealed his face. The suspect entered the restaurant and had a snack be- fore leaving. A tiffin box bag kept inside a larger bag that was left near the hand-wash area of the restaurant contained the IED that caused the blast, the police sources said. Nine persons suffered injuries in the blast which was markedbyaloudsound,fireand smoke but was restricted to the areawherethebagwasplaced.A 45-year-old woman suffered nearly 40 per cent injuries and is in ICU while others suffered CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MOUNTINGAscathingattackon the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi saidFridaythatpeopleacrossthe country were “sad” and “enraged”overtheatrocitiesagainst the women of Sandeshkhali by local TMC leaders. Accusing the TMC government of making “all sorts of attempts to protect” its accused leaders, Modi, addressing a public meeting at Arambagh in Hooghlydistrict,alsoquestioned the silence of the Opposition INDIA bloc over the Sandeshkhali incidents and asked people to give a befitting reply to the TMC with their votes — “Har chot ka jawabvotesedenahai”(forevery wound, reply with your vote). The Prime Minister targeted Banerjee and her government a day after the arrest of TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh, accused of sexual abuse and land-grabbinginSandeshkhali— a small island in the Sunderban delta — along with his aides. Sheikh had been on the run for55daysafterhissupportersattacked Enforcement Directorate officers who had gone to search his house in Sandeshkhali on January 5 as part of their probe into the ration distribution case. Modi said, “The entire country is watching the current situation in Bengal and the conduct CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Take down shows that spread hate: Regulator to Aaj Tak, News18 India, Times Now Navbharat NEW DELHI, MARCH 1 Hamara Sankalp ARAMBAGH (WB), MARCH 1 NBDSA SLAPS FINE ON 3 CHANNELS DIVYA A Scan for more information SANTANU CHOWDHURY ers, and currently headed by Justice (retired) A K Sikri — passed seven decisions regarding complaints about programmes aired in the last two years. It took action against the news channels based on complaints received against them. In the case of News18 India, the NBDSA imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 for four shows it broadcast in 2022, hosted by Aman Chopra and Amish Devgan. On the shows, the anchors had said that the murder of Shraddha Walker by her live-in partner Aftab Poonawala in 2022 was connected to “love jihad”. The “NBDSA stated that the term ‘love jihad’ should not be used loosely and should be used with great introspection in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY GRASIM CONSOLIDATES GAIN How curbs on a key input for textiles helped one industry, and hurt several small players AGGAM WALIA NEW DELHI, MARCH 1 INSIDE GYANVAPI: SC TO HEAR MOSQUE PANEL PLEA BORDER CURBS: NAGALAND ASKS CENTRE TO RETHINK PAGES 10, 13 IN LESS than a year since India enforced a strict quality control order (QCO) in April on viscose staple fibre (VSF), a key raw materialinthetextilessupplychain, its imports dropped 65 per cent, helped Aditya Birla Groupowned Grasim Industries consolidate its market share to 95 per cent from 90 per cent, and has started hurting the operationsof smallandmediumsized spinning mills since it restricted access to cheaper raw material imports. AQCOisanon-tarifftradebarrier that bars manufacturers, importers, and distributors from storing or selling a product without a licence from BIS that certi- E EXPLAINED A DAY after more than 100 people were killed and over 700 injured when Israeli troops fired on Palestinians trying to pull food off an aid convoy in Gaza, India said Friday “deeply shocked at the loss of lives”. Thisisasignificantstatement from New Delhi, especially at a time when Israel’s ongoing military offensive in Gaza as part of its response to the Hamas attack onOctober7lastyear,hasdrawn criticismfrommanyintheinternational community. The Ministry of External Affairs, in a statement, said, “We are deeply shocked at the loss of lives in northern Gaza yesterday during delivery of humanitarian assistance.” “Suchlossof civilianlivesand thelargerhumanitariansituation in Gaza continues to be a cause for extreme concern,” it said. “We reiterate our call for safe and timely delivery of humanitarian aid and assistance,” the MEA said. It did not condemn or name Israel. India has been calling for deescalation of the situation and for creating conditions for talks towards a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine issue. `6.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Need for tariff ● re-balance BARRIERS TO imports — tariff or non-tariff — more often than not end up making domestic industry uncompetitive. In the case of viscose, it is also hurting small textile players including spinning mills who earlier had access to this raw material via cheaper imports, and could export yarn and fabric. fiesspecificqualitystandardsbeing met. Grasim Industries, the largestVSFproducer,hadabout18 months before the QCO, lobbied theMinistryofTextilescomplaining of substandard imports from Indonesia and China. Since the QCO was imposed, midstream VSF buyers like small- and medium-sized spinningmillshaverepeatedlyraised concerns with the textiles ministry that such orders have held them back from cheaper VSF, which otherwise, helped them competitively export spun yarn andfabric.ForMSMEmills,these challenges come at a time when the textiles industry is reeling from a prolonged period of economic distress due to weak global demand. They also allege that Grasim isdelayingtheproductionof certain specialty VSF variants unavailableinthedomesticmarket and engaging in unfair trade CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata, Friday. PTI Why Sandeshkhali row forced usually defiant TMC into a corner RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & ATRI MITRA SANDESHKHALI, MARCH 1 UNRESTTHATspreadfromanislandtothemainland,allegations of tribals’ land being taken away, a fear of alienating the women votebank,andarelentlessopposition are among factors that forced the Trinamool Congress government’s hand and led to the arrest of its leader Sheikh Shahjahan, leaders from the party and the opposition say. The final push, though, came from the Calcutta High Court which,onWednesday,ruledthat central agencies can arrest Shahjahan.Soonafter,theBengal Police picked up the TMC strongman who had been absconding for55dayssincehisfollowersassaulted an Enforcement Direct- orate team. This is a departure from previous cases, wherein central agenciesmadeanarrestoncethe High Court transferred the case into their hands. Take the example of: ■ Anubarata Mondal, TMC strongmanandBirbhumdistrict president.Mondalfacedcasesof intimidation and murder dating back to 2013, but was not questioned by the police. It was on August 11, 2022 that the CBI arrestedhimincases pertainingto alleged cattle smuggling and money laundering. Later, the ED tookhimintocustodyandhewas sent to Tihar jail. ■ParthaChatterjee,formereducation minister and industries minister. He was allegedly involved in the primary teachers recruitmentinschools.Whilehe CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Week before Singhvi fiasco, Cong had idea of what was coming MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, MARCH 1 THE DEFEAT of Abhishek Manu Singhvi in Rajya Sabha election in Himachal Pradesh may have come as a huge embarrassment to the Congress but the central leadership and Singhvi himself had prior information that a handful of MLAs who were upset with Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu were restive and could cross over, sources said. In fact, it was the scale of the defection which surprised the party. AstheCongresslooksbackat whatwentwronginHimachalto makesenseof thefiasco,thepicturethatisemergingisof miscalculation and overconfidence. Although the BJP’s decision to field Harsh Mahajan, a former Congress leader, was a clear sig- CM Sukhu after meeting the Speaker, Friday. PTI nal that it was trying to tap into the discontent in the Congress, sources said the central leadership got a whiff of the seriousness of what was brewing in the Himachal Congress at least a weekbeforeFebruary27,theday voting for the Rajya Sabha election took place. The leadership, sources said, zeroedinontheMLAswhowere restive and then used multiple CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Adopted son, murder for insurance: Gujarat wants UK couple extradited GOPAL KATESHIYA MALIA (JUNAGADH), MARCH 1 AS SOON as she cut the local journalist’scall,AlpaKardani,37, switched on the TV. A UK court had sentenced Indian-origin couple, Arti Dhir, 59, and her husbandKavaljitsinhRaijada,35, to33yearseachinjailonJanuary 30, 2024, for exporting drugs to Australia. With this news, Alpa, a resident of Malia village in Gujarat’s Junagadh district, hoped she too would get justice one day. A conspiracy allegedly hatched by the couple had cut short the lives of Alpa’s husband Harsukh Kardani, 47, and her youngerbrotherGopalSejani,11, in February 2017. All efforts so far to extradite the couple to India for the murder trial have failed. In April 2009, Alpa’s father, a landless labourer, died, leaving her responsible for her five younger siblings, including a nearly 3-year-old Gopal, besides her infant son Raju, husband Harsukh and his parents. However, the 10 bighas her in-laws owned just about sustained the family. Around 2014, the family got an offer through a relative:anNRIcouplewaslookingtoadoptachild.Ithelpedthat Kavaljitsinh’s father Mahendrasinh, from nearby Keshod, was known to the relative. Alpa recalls, “During our meeting in Keshod, Arti spoke to us through an interpreter. She Arti Dhir, 59, and Kavaljitsinh Raijada, 35, were sentenced for 33 years each by a UK court in a drug smuggling case on January 30. (Source: nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk) promised to take good care of Gopal. That’s why we agreed to the adoption.” Mahendrasinh’s statement tothepolicesaysKavaljitsinhleft for London in 2008 to do his MBA and that he married Arti, then 52, a Nairobi-born British citizen with roots in Punjab, around 2012-13. Mahendrasinh’sstatement,a part of the chargesheet filed in a Junagadh court, says the couple visited Keshod thrice after the wedding. He told the police that his son had told him about Arti’s desire to adopt a child. Around 2014, Mahendrasinh, then the manager at a cooperative bank’s Maliabranch,learntaboutAlpa’s sibling situation. Harsukh too frequented his bank branch for work. Things moved fast after that. A sessions court declared Alpa and Harsukh as Gopal’s legal guardians, following which they got a private adoption deed registeredonJuly23,2015.Thedocument mentions Arti as “Aarti Loknath Dhir”, but nothing on hermaritalstatus.ThoughGopal wasnowofficiallyArti’sadopted son,hestayedwithAlpasincehis travel papers were not ready. In February 2017, before he could even set foot in the UK, Gopal was killed. What went wrong? The chargesheet says the NRI couplehadalwaysplannedtoinsure their adopted child and kill him to claim the payout. Nitish Mund, 27, Arti’s paying guest in London, was also roped in to be CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad