DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA No stay on CAA Rules, SC tells Govt to respond to pleas by April 2 POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES 236 PLEAS CHALLENGING CAA, 20 ON RULES ● `5.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 17TH RAMNATH GOENKA AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE IN JOURNALISM On way to being economic power, our ideals, convictions also key in a democracy: Gadkari Court fixes next hearing on April 9 ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, MARCH 19 WHILE IT refused to stay the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment)ActRulesnotified earlier this month, the Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Centre, asking it to respond to petitions challenging the Rules. A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachudalsoissuednotices to the Centre on petitions challenging the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. “Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submits that four weeks time may be granted to file response to the applications for stay at this stage. The request of four weeks time is opposed on the ground that in the meantime, if citizenship were to be granted, that process would become irreversible. Bearing in mind all the facts and circumstances, we direct that the pro- ceedingsbelistedonApril9,”the bench, which included Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said. The bench asked the Centre to file its reply by April 2, after which the petitioners would have to respond by April 8. Appearing for the Centre, Mehta said there were 236 petitions challenging the Act, and 20 applications challenging the Rules. He urged the court to grant him time to reply. Mehta also sought to clarify thattheCAA“doesnottakeaway the citizenship of any person”. “No new person is also being given (citizenship) and only those(who)enteredbefore2014 are being considered,” he said. Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, who appeared for a petitioner, urged the court to issue directions barring grant of citizenship until final adjudication of the matter, or to specify in the order that any citizenship granted under the Rules would Winners of the Ramnath Goenka Excellence In Journalism Awards for 2021 (left) and 2022 with Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways; Viveck Goenka, Chairman, The Indian Express Group; Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Express Group; and Justice B N Srikrishna, jury member, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Praveen Khanna FULLLIST,PAGE11 Politics to investigation, sports to economy, 44 felicitated for works of excellence across print, digital and broadcast during 2021 and 2022 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, MARCH 19 UNION MINISTER for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said Tuesday that India is powering its way to become the third largest economy, but economic progress apart, convictions and principles are CONTINUEDONPAGE2 On the ground in Assam, no clear answer yet: ‘Will wait and watch’ BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY equally important to live by in a democracy. Presentingthe17thRamnath GoenkaAwardsforExcellencein Journalism for the years 2021 and2022atawell-attendedceremony in New Delhi, Gadkari said, “Weare thefastestgrowing economyintheworldandworking towards becoming the third largest economy in the world. ASSAULT AT GUJARAT UNIVERSITY Foreign students made to sign undertaking not to use public space for ‘religious’ activity RITU SHARMA AHMEDABAD, MARCH 19 Desperate to clear my name, says Ajit Das, who runs a shop in Amraghat Bazaar, around 30 km from Silchar. Express SUKRITA BARUAH SILCHAR, MARCH 19 AJIT DAS’S ordeal began in 2014 when he first received a notice that his citizenship was under investigation. Over the last 10 years, his struggle to prove his Indian citizenship has included three months of detention, and culminated in an order by the Foreigners Tribunal in 2021 declaring him a foreigner. Das says his father and grandfather fled from East Pakistan in 1956 and spent a few months in a refugee camp in Monacherra in Assam’s Hailakandi district. Here, he was given a refugee certificate, the only document of his father’s that Das possesses. This crucial document failed to convince the Foreigners Tribunal No. 6 in Silchar, which stated that there was no corresponding record available with the government. Das has heard that the process of registering for the Citizenship Amendment Act has begun, and is supposed to benefit families such as his. But the ever-smilingman,whoseappeal against the Foreigners Tribunal CONTINUEDONPAGE2 THE WORLD BLINKEN TO TRAVEL TO SAUDI, EGYPT AS GAZA CEASEFIRE TALKS BEGIN PAGE 13 PAGE 1 ANCHOR Economic progress is important butitcannotbetheultimateend of life. Those who have stayed with their conviction and ideals andworkedfordemocracysince 1947, we will remember them when we complete 100 years of independent India.” He also said that people are no longer interested in who said what, but in gaining knowledge. DAYS AFTER a mob allegedly assaulted foreign students for offering namaz at their hostel premise, the Gujarat University authorities Tuesday made the overseas students, who have been moved to a newly built NRI The platform where the foreign students offered namaz at GU. Nirmal Harindran hostel, sign an undertaking banning the use of public space for any "private, religious or outside activity". Therules,however,areapplicable to the Indian students as well,Vice-ChancellorProf Neerja A Gupta told The Indian Express. "Without hurting the sentiments of others, you can have CONTINUEDONPAGE2 “Only giving information is not the ultimate goal in this fastchanging world,” he said. “India is trying to be world class in the field of sports, culture, knowledge, agriculture and industry. In this fast-changing world, the media has an important role to play,”hesaid,adding,“Peopleare not interested in who said what, but in knowledge.” EXPRESS NETWORK CONG SAYS FULLY PREPARED FOR LOK SABHA POLLS PAGE 9 PATANJALI ADS: SC SUMMONS RAMDEV, BALKRISHNA PAGE 11 Soren’s daughter-in-law joins BJP: Ex-cop Pradeep Sharma ‘Isolated by JMM, family members’ gets life term in Mumbai Losing an insider ABHISHEK ANGAD RANCHI, MARCH 19 JHARKHAND MUKTI Morcha MLASitaSoren,daughter-in-law of JMM president Shibu Soren, resigned from the party on Tuesday and joined the BJP. In her resignation letter addressed to Shibu Soren, the MLA from Jama said that ever since the death of her husband Durga Soren — the JMM’s chief’s son and elder brother of former Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren — she had been “isolated by the party and family members”. “Since the demise of my late husband,DurgaSoren,whowasa leading warrior of the Jharkhand movement and a great revolutionary, I and my family have been victims of continuous neglect.Wehavebeenisolatedbythe Sita Soren at the BJP office in Delhi on Tuesday. Tashi Tobgyal party and family members, which has been extremely painful for me. I had hoped that thesituationwouldimprovewith time, but unfortunately it didn’t happen,” she wrote. Later on Tuesday, she joined the BJP in New Delhi in the pres- WITH HEMANT Soren’s wife Kalpana Soren emerging as a new star in JMM, Sita Soren felt increasingly sidelined. However, having been an insider in the party’s first family, Sita’s switch to the BJP comes as a major blow to JMM. ence of BJP national general secretary Vinod Tawde and Jharkhand election in-charge Laxmikant Bajpai. Sita Soren, who held the post of general secretary of JMM, also said in her resignation letter that CONTINUEDONPAGE2 fake encounter case OMKAR GOKHALE MUMBAI, MARCH 19 SETTING ASIDE his acquittal by a sessions court, the Bombay High Court on Tuesday convicted and sentencedformerMumbaipolice officerPradeepSharmatolifeimprisonment in the 2006 fake encounter killing of Ramnarayan Gupta alias Lakhan Bhaiya, an alleged member of the Chhota Rajan gang. The court directed Sharma, considered an “encounter specialist”,tosurrenderwithinthree weeks. Allowing the state government’s appeal against Sharma’s acquittal in July 2013, a bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Gauri V Godse in its 867-page HC set aside Sharma’s acquittal by a trial court in 2013 judgement held that the trial court’s finding was “perverse and unsustainable”. ConvictingSharmaof murder and other charges, it observed thattheprosecutionprovedthat LakhanBhaiya“waskilledbythe police,bytrigger-happycops,and thesamewasmadetolooklikea genuine encounter”. The bench also upheld the convictionof 12otherpolicemen and a civilian, Hitesh Solanki, in the case. However, it acquitted CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Gadkari recalled the days of the Emergency and how that phaseimpactedhislife.“OnJune 25, 1975, when the Emergency wasimposed,manypeoplefrom my family were arrested under the MISA,” he said. “Thosetwoyearswereavery painful phase. That’s when I decided I will work against the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2 boys hacked to death in UP, accused killed in encounter MANISH SAHU LUCKNOW, MARCH 19 IN AN incident which triggered tension in the area, two minor brothers, Ayush (13) and Honey (6), were killed by a local barber, Sajid (30), at their home in Badaun district of Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday night, police said. About two hours after the incident, Sajid was gunned down in an alleged police encounter. UP Director General of Police (DGP) Prashant Kumar told The IndianExpressthatSajidwasshot deadwhenheopenedfireonthe police team pursuing him. Inspector General of Police, Bareillyrange,RakeshSingh,said the motive behind the incident was yet to be determined. According to police, Sajid's shop is located near the boys' home in Baba Colony, Civil Line police station area, in Badaun. The boys' father, Vinod Singh, is a contractor, while their mother, Sangeeta, has a beauty parlour. Sajid went to Singh's house atabout7.45pmonTuesday,police said. At the time, Singh had reportedly gone to the market, while his wife was at her beauty parlour. The boys were at home with their paternal grandmother, police said. According to police, when Singh's mother went to make CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Young star gazers: Meet the astronomy ambassadors of Ladakh ANJALI MARAR BANGALORE, MARCH 19 GROWING UP in Buk-Shado hamlet of Ladakh’s Hanle, Rangdol Dorjey, 25, recalls spending several nights under the star-spangled astral skies in theearly2000s.Livinghisdream of becoming an astronomer, Rangdol is now a local celebrity who takes visitors on celestial journeys with his telescope. “As a child, I used to see the telescope (at the local observatory) and dream of becoming an astronomer. Now, I know the names of many constellations and I am proud to be an astronomy ambassador,” Rangdol, a computerscienceengineerfrom PunjabTechnicalUniversity,told The Indian Express recently. In October 2022, 24 ambassadors from Hanle village, including 18 women, were handpicked as astronomy ambassadors and trained in basic astronomy to boost India’s first-ever astronomy tourism promotioninLadakh.Eachof the ambassadorshasbeenequipped with an 8-inch telescope. Astronomy tourism is a joint initiativebytheLadakhunionterritory administration and Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA). Hanle offers one of the most pristine, breathtaking and darkest night skies in the country. In September2022,a22-kmradius around Hanle was declared as India’s — also South-East Asia’s — first Dark Sky Reserve. DesignatinganareaasaDark Sky Reserve or a Dark Sky Park — Maharashtra’s Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) was recently declared India’s first Dark Sky Park — is driven by the need to shield the night sky. Since a Dark Sky Reserve limits light pollution, similar restrictionscame into effect after the Hanle Dark Sky Reserve (HDSR) was notified in Amateur astronomers view the star-filled skies during the refresher course at Hanle in Ladakh in October 2023. Indian Institute of Astrophysics December 2022. This included all vehicle users dimming their headlights upon entering HDSR, requesting local homes to use soft lights, and supplying homes in Hanle with thick window screens and curtains. The IIA has been operating the Himalayan Chandra Telescope, a 2-metre optical-infrared telescope, named after Indian-American Nobellaureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, at its Indian Astronomical Observatory (IAO) here since 2001. Operating from atop Mount Saraswati, at an altitude of 4,500 metres above mean sea level,theobservatoryhashelped kindle an interest in astronomy among the local youth. According to Annapurni Subramaniam, director, IIA, one of the key components of HDSR’s ongoingeffortsisthe educational outreach. She said, “Collaborating with localschoolsanduniversities,the project aims to inspire the next generation of astronomers, conservationists and eco-conscious tourists. Through workshops, stargazingeventsandinteractive sessions with astronomers, studentsandvisitorsgainhands-on experience, thereby fostering a deeper appreciation for the cosmos and the importance of pre- serving dark skies.” Efforts are underway to introduce astronomy tourism in Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Lakshadweep, IIA officials said. As part of the week-long training course that astronomy ambassadors in Hanle undertook, they were first shown celestial objects on a screen and alsointroducedtotelescopes,including lens types, and how to operateandchangelensestoadjust and focus. Astronomy ambassador Rangdol said, "First, we use the 10mm lens to locate the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad