DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, MAY 10, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES RAHUL GANDHI VS NARENDRA MODI: SHAH Shah frames poll as vikas vs jihad; Rahul says it’s slipping from PM’s hands SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, MAY 9 UNION HOME Minister Amit ShahThursdaysaidinTelangana that the 2024 Lok Sabha poll is a “Rahul Gandhi versus Narendra Modi election”, and that it was a fightbetween‘voteforjihad’and ‘vote for vikas’. RahulGandhi,whoalsohelda rally in Telangana the same day, saidtheelectionpittedtheINDIA bloc against “those who want to change or destroy the Constitution”.Inavideopostedon social media, Rahul also said the electionwas“slippingaway”from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Shah, speaking at a public meeting in Telangana’s Bhongir Lok Sabha constituency, said, “2024 ka jo chunav hai, yeh ‘Rahul Gandhi versus Narendra Modi’ ka chunav hai. Yeh chunav ‘vote for jihad’ ke against ‘vote for vikas’ ka chunav hai. (The 2024 election is a Rahul Gandhi versus Narendra Modi election. It is an election that pits ‘vote for jihad’ against CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DECISION 2024 ● Beant Singh’s family on opposite sides in Punjab ● JJP, INLD seek floor test in Haryana, Cong wants to meet Governor today ●InRajahmundry,stateBJP chief runsintoJagan’s ‘Navaratnalu’ ● Cong builds campaign around Nehru-Gandhi family’s ‘100-year link’ to Rae Bareli PAGES 12, 13 ‘75 GUJARATI PASSENGERS ONBOARD’ Flight from Dubai grounded in Jamaica on suspicion of carrying illegal immigrants EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, AHMEDABAD, MAY 9 A CHARTERED flight from Dubai with several Indian passengers, including around 75 from Gujarat, was sent back from the Jamaican capital of Kingston, as local authorities were not satisfied with the documents the passengers were carrying. The official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Randhir Jaiswal, said the flight leftKingstononMay 7forDubai. "We understand that a Germany-registered chartered flight with Indians on board landed in Kingston from Dubai BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY on May 2 for tourism purposes. They had prior hotel bookings," Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing. "The local authorities were not satisfied with them being tourists. The flight and passengers were ordered to return to place of origin, Dubai. The passengers left Kingston on May 7," he said. A report in the Jamaica Observer said the flight had 253 foreignersandtheywererefused entry by immigration officials in view of security concerns. Jamaica's Ministry of National Securitystatedthatlocalauthorities routinely screen passenger flights for security threats, and CONTINUEDONPAGE2 VISIT OF MALDIVES FOREIGN MINISTER MOOSA ZAMEER COURT DECISION LIKELY TODAY ED opposes interim bail to Kejriwal, tells SC campaigning not even a legal right AAP: Disregard of legal procedures, complaint lodged with SC Registry ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, MAY 9 External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Maldives Foreign Minister Moosa Zameer in New Delhi, Thursday, PTI First Maldives-India meet amid Muizzu chill flags ‘reciprocity’ On Muizzu deadline-eve, Delhi says Indian military personnel have returned SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, MAY 9 IN A veiled reference to the proChinatiltof theMaldivesgovernmentledbyPresidentMohamed Muizzu,ExternalAffairsMinister S Jaishankar told his Maldivian counterpart Moosa Zameer Thursday that the development of India-Maldivestieswasbased on“mutualinterests”and“reciprocal sensitivity” given that they are “close and proximate neighbours”. The Maldives Foreign Minister and Jaishankar met in New Delhi a day ahead of the May10deadlinesetbyPresident Muizzu for India to withdraw its military personnel from the island nation. Zameer’s visit is the first high-level visitto India after Muizzu came to power last November. Jaishankar and Zameer held “extensive discussions” on the “bilateral relationship” and “regional security issues”. On the withdrawal of the Indian military personnel from Why this visit matters THIS VISIT is the first signal by the government of President Muizzu, who rode to power on an ‘India Out’ poll plank, that it wants to ease tensions with Delhi. That he chose to visit China ahead of India, asked the Indian military team to leave did not help ties. the Maldives, Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for theMinistryof External Affairs, confirmed that they have returned and have been replaced by “competent Indian technical personnel”. Riding to power last November on an ‘India Out’ poll plank, one of Muizzu’s first acts was to demand the withdrawal of around80IndianmilitarypersonnelbyMay10–theyhadbeen stationed there to operate two helicoptersandaDornieraircraft. “Both sides have been CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 OPPOSINGANYmovetograntinterim bail to Delhi Chief Minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal to let him campaign in the Lok Sabhaelections,theEnforcement Directorate (ED) has told the Supreme Court that “any special concession”tohimwill“amount to anathema to the rule of law and equality… thereby creating twoseparateclassesinthecountry viz. ordinary people, who are bound by the rule of law as well as the laws of the country, and politicianswhocanseekexemption from the laws”. In an affidavit filed Thursday – a day after the Supreme Court said it “may” pronounce an order on the interim bail Friday – the ED, which arrested Kejriwal on March 21 in the Delhi excise policy case, said any such bail will “violate the cherished values of the Constitution which upholds theruleof law as abasic feature meaning thereby that howsoever high you might be, you are not above the law”. “Therighttocampaign for an election is neither a fundamentalrightnoraconstitutionalright and not even a legal right,” the ED said, maintaining that to its knowledge, “no political leader hasbeengrantedinterimbailfor campaigning even though he is Pradhan: Secys, ministers can’t meet REPORT NOT MADE PUBLIC YET Naveen... How is Odisha being run? Niti Aayog report P 12 LIZ MATHEW SAMBALPUR (ODISHA), MAY 9 TAKING AIM at Odisha Chief MinisterNaveenPatnaikandthe Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Union EducationMinisterDharmendra Pradhanhasquestionedthestate government’s track record and askedwhowasrunningthestate and the ruling party in the state. THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW DHARMENDRA PRADHAN UNION MINISTER, BJP LEADER “What did Odisha get under Naveen babu’s leadership? The stateislagginginbasicsectors… The state chief secretary and the DGP may not have met the Chief Minister for a year. Neither the secretaries nor the ministers are allowed to meet him (Patnaik). How is the state run?” Pradhan asked during an interview to The Indian Express at the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Disquiet in LSG over not-so-happy chat in public between owner & captain after crushing defeat DEVENDRA PANDEY MUMBAI, MAY 9 THERE IS disquiet in the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) camp after visuals of team owner Sanjiv Goenka in what appeared to be a not-so-happy animated discussion with captain K L Rahul did the rounds of `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Sanjiv Goenka and K L Rahul on Wednesday. Videograb social media following the team’s 10-wicket thrashing by Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the IPL match Wednesday. Speculation was rife about Rahul’slong-termfuturewiththe Lucknow franchise that is now placedsixthinthe10-teampoints table and has two more league matches to play this season. After the game, as cameras on the ground zoomed in on Goenka and Rahul, commentator and former South Africa captain Graeme Smith suggested that the “emotions are all over”. “You always feel that these conversations should happen behind closed doors. There are so many cameras around, they miss nothing. Rahul is not gonna CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 finds ‘huge gap’ in cancer screening at Ayushman centres Centres meant to screen over-30s for oral, breast, cervical cancer annually HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, MAY 9 BESIDES THE Rs 5-lakh insurance cover, the flagship Ayushman Bharat Scheme envisaged the upgrade of primary health centres to Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs). These would, among a range of services, offer annual screening for those 30 years or older for Non CommunicableDiseases:hypertension, diabetes, and three of the most common cancers in India – oral, breast and cervical. Sixyearssincethelaunch,the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme has been availed of by morethan5.76croreusersacross the country – making it the world’slargestmedicalinsurance scheme. But when it comes to cancer screening at the HWCs, thereisa“hugegap,”accordingto a report from 13 states prepared by NITI Aayog, the government’s premier policy think tank, The Indian Express has learnt. This report was prepared by Niti Aayog’s Health and Family Welfare vertical in June last year. It has not been made public yet. It is learnt that its findings have beensharedwiththeMinistryof CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kejriwal was arrested on March 21 in Delhi excise policy case not the contesting candidate”. Itsaid“evenacontestingcandidateisnotgrantedinterimbail, if he is in custody, for his own campaigning”andthat“eventhe righttovotewhileinjudicialcustody, which is considered by this Court as a statutory/constitutional right, is curtailed by statutebyvirtueof section62(5) of the Representation of the People Act, and upheld” in the 1997 ruling in Anukul Chandra Pradhan v Union of India. After the ED filed itsaffidavit, the AAP, in a press release, said, “The legal team of Delhi Chief Minister and AAP National Convenor, Shri Arvind Kejriwal, hasraisedstrongobjectiontothe affidavit filed by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) opposing interim bail in the Supreme Court.” “A formal complaint has been lodged with the Supreme Court’s registry denouncing the ED’s affidavit as a blatant disregard of legal procedures, especially considering that the matter is already slated for a final decisionintheSCtomorrowand CONTINUEDONPAGE2 EC orders repoll tomorrow at polling booth from where man live-streamed voting in Dahod EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE AHMEDABAD, MAY 9 THE ELECTION Commission of India (EC) on Thursday ordered fresh voting on May 11 at Prathampur polling station under the Dahod Lok Sabha seat in Gujarat from where a man livestreamed voting on May 7, the video of which went viral. Two persons associated with the BJP have been arrested in the case. The presiding officer, assistantpresidingofficer,twopolling officers and a police constable deployed at polling station 220, where the incident took place, have been suspended. "As soon as the irregularities were reported, a report was sought from the returning officerregardingtheincident,which CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Power and paychecks: Polltime is boomtime for political consultancy PAGE 1 ANCHOR AISHWARYA KHOSLA NEW DELHI, MAY 9 WHEN SUHEL Pratap Singh, a political consultant, reached his politician client’s location in a “backward” constituency in Rajasthan, he was “flabbergasted”. He had been tasked to draftawinningstrategyandlead a “war room” for the candidate. “There was no hotel or building anywhere in sight, just a tabela (cow shed). I called the liaisons to check if I had been given the wrong address. A couple of minutes later, the client (party candidate) showed up at the spot. We had a brief chat about the constituency and started walking in the direction of the tabela,” recalls Singh, who works for Ground Zero, a political consultancy firm that’s currentlyrepresentingtheCongress in Maharashtra and Odisha. “As soon as we stepped in- side, I was stunned: it was indeedawarroom–abighallwith a sitting capacity of 70 people, equipped with laptops and PCs, and two dedicated conference rooms for internal meetings,” says Singh, who has in the past worked for the BJP, Shiromani Akali Dal and Telugu Desam Party, besides the Congress. He is among the many professionals — engineers, MBAs, lawyers, journalists and psephologists — who are part of the burgeoning business of political consultancy. A war room set up by Prajatantra, a non-profit, providing pro-bono consultancy to aspiring politicians. X/ @IndianPAC The industry has come a long way since 2014, when hundreds of professionalsfromtopschools andcompaniescametogetherto form Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), a non-profit that ran Narendra Modi’s Lok Sabha election campaign, MBAstyle, paving the way for more players to enter the field. Many members of the original CAG team went on to build their own teams—PrashantKishorformed I-PAC, Sunil Kanugolu started Mindshare Analytics and InclusiveMinds,HimanshuSingh set up the Association of Billion Minds, and Robbin Sharrma started Showtime Consulting. Now,manyoftheirassociatestoo have started their own political consulting ventures. “By the time of the 2014 national election, the industry was reportedtobeworth$40-$47million. Between 2014 and 2018, industry specialists approximated that the number of firms in this market had at least doubled,” wroteAnuradhaSajjanharin‘The EmergenceofPoliticalConsulting’, her2021paperforTheEconomic and Political Weekly. Abjit Singh, a political strategist who has worked with the Congress, AAP, YSRCP, Shiv Sena, besidessomeindependentleaders, says, “When I entered the fieldin2016,therewereveryfew consultants. Back then, I used to wonder what my Plan B would beshouldpoliticalconsultingnot work out as a profession. But I’m still here, and the consultancy business has only grown since then.Infact,itwasoneof thefew industriesthatcontinuedtogrow CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad