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 WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 THREE WEEKS AFTER HIS ‘MANGALSUTRA’ SPEECH IN BANSWARA PM:ThedayIdoHindu-Muslim,Iwillbe unworthyofpubliclife…Iwillnotdoit PM speeches justified, act against Cong for being anti-Hindu: BJP to poll panel Leaders of NDA parties gather in Varanasi as Modi files nomination VIKAS PATHAK & ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, VARANASI, MAY 14 LIZ MATHEW MAINTAININGTHAThebelieves “people of my country will vote for me”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Tuesday “the day I do Hindu-Muslim, I will be unworthy of public life” and “it is my resolve” that “I will not do Hindu-Muslim”. Modi made these remarks in an interview to TV channel News18 India — he posted clips of the interview on X — in Varanasi on the day he filed his nomination papers, seeking a third consecutive Lok Sabha term from the constituency. His remarks came days after his April 21 speech in Banswara in Rajasthan where, while attacking the Congress, he said, “Pehle jab unki sarkar thi, unhone kaha tha ki desh ki sampatti par pehla adhikar Musalmanon ka hai. Iska matlab, ye sampatti ikhatti karke kisko baatenge? Jinke zyada bachche hain unko baatenge, ghuspaithiyon ko baatenge. Kya aapke mehnat ki kamayikapaisa ghuspaithiyonko diya jayega? Aapko manzoor hai REBUTTING THE Congress and Leftparties’complaintthatPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s speechesweredivisive,BJPpresidentJP Nadda,inhisreplytotheElection Commission, has not only defended all of Modi's statements but also urged the EC to take action against the party for its alleged denigrationofHinduismwhichit called India's foundational religion,TheIndianExpresshaslearnt. In his reply to the EC sent Monday,Nadda,referringtoModi's statementthattheCongressmanifesto bears the stamp of the MuslimLeague,isreportedtohave saidthatCongress,liketheMuslim League, has tried to divide the country. He has also said that by staying away from the inaugurationoftheRamtempleceremony, thepartyhadcommittedasin. Nadda claimed that just as the Muslim League sowed the seeds of India’s Partition, Congress has attempted to divide the country’s south from its NEW DELHI, MAY 14 PM Narendra Modi with Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP chief J P Nadda, CM Yogi Adityanath and other NDA leaders after filing his nomination papers in Varanasi on Tuesday. ANI yeh? (Earlier, when they were in power, they had said Muslims have the first right to the wealth of the nation. That means, who will they distribute this wealth to?Theywillgiveittothosewho have more children, to infiltrators. Should your hard-earned money be given to infiltrators? Do you agree with this?).” In that speech, he had also said, “The Congress manifesto says they will take stock of the gold of mothers and daughters, andthentheywilldistributethat wealth.Andtheywilldistributeit amongthosewhomManmohan Singh’s government had said: Muslims have the first right to wealth. Brothers and sisters, this Urban Naxal thinking will not spare even the mangalsutras of my mothers and sisters.” His Banswara speech was DELHI EXCISE POLICY CASE 116 144 179 78 MALAVIKA PRASAD NEW DELHI, MAY 14 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY DECISION 2024 ● Phase4turnout higherthan2019:EC OPPOSING THE bail plea of Manish Sisodia, senior AAP leader and former Deputy Chief Ministerwhowasarrestedmore than a year ago in the Delhi excisepolicycase,theEnforcement Directorate told the Delhi High Court Tuesday that it will be making Aam Aadmi Party an accusedinthecaseinitsnextprosecution complaint regarding alleged money laundering. On October 4 last year, the Supreme Court, while hearing Sisodia’s bail petition, had asked the ED as well as the CBI why it had not made the party that allegedly received the proceeds of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, MAY 14 ● In Haryana, why BJP is pitching for a Mewat king’s legacy PAGES 7, 10 Why this will bea ● first THE ED’S allegation is that AAP was the recipient of the proceeds of crime in the excise case which presents a ground for naming the party as an accused in the money laundering case. While political parties are booked for tax violations, if AAP is named an accused under PMLA, it would be the first instance of a political party being accused of money laundering. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Retired Army officer killed in attack on UN vehicle in Gaza’s Rafah AMRITA NAYAK DUTTA NEW DELHI, MAY 14 COLONEL WAIBHAV Anil Kale, a retired Indian Army officer working with the United Nations, was killed Monday when hisvehicle came underattack in Rafah, marking the first casualty among the organisation's international staff in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas conflict began in October last year. Colonel Kale, 46, died in the attack whichtookplacewhenhe was travelling to the European Hospital in Rafah in a United Nations vehicle. A staff member oftheUnitedNationsDepartment of Safety and Security (DSS), he is survived by his wife and two daughters. Another DSS staffer, who was with Kale, was injured in the incident. Worked with UN Department of Safety and Security After retiring from the Army in 2022, Kale joined the UNDSS asaSecurityCoordinationOfficer two months ago and reached Gaza about a month ago. The United Nations has called for a full investigation while Israel has ordered a separateinvestigationintotheattack. Officers here told The Indian Express that Kale had a distinguishedmilitarycareerspanning more than two decades. He was commissioned into the Jammu and Kashmir Rifles in June 2000 and earned the reputation of a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Trial unlikely to end soon’: SC grants bail to Navlakha EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE ● Chirag the favourite in Hajipur poll race E E X P L A I NE D 15/05/2024 Will make AAP an accused in our next complaint: ED to HC flagged by the Congress, CPI and CPI (M-L) in their complaints to the Election Commission that ledtoanoticebeingissuedtothe BJP president. In the interview Tuesday, the Prime Minister said, “I have neithersaidHinduorMuslim.Ihave said you should have as many children as you can support. Don’t create a situation where THE SUPREME Court Tuesday granted bail to activist Gautam Navlakha, an accused in the Bhima Koregaon violence case, noting that the trial in the case was not likely to conclude any time soon. A bench of Justices M M Sundresh and S V N Bhatti de- Was arrested in 2020 in the Bhima Koregaon violence case clined to continue the stay imposedbytheBombayHighCourt in December 2023 on its bail orderandaddedthatNavlakhawill have to pay Rs 20 lakh towards theexpensesforhissecurityduring house arrest. Navlakha was arrested on April 14, 2020 for his alleged involvement in the violence that erupted in Bhima Koregaon village in Pune district on January 1, 2018, a day after alleged inflammatory speeches were made at the Elgar Parishad conclave in Pune. The bench noted that Navlakha has been in custody for more than four years and that the trial would take a long time to complete as there are 370 witnesses in the case, that six of his co-accused have already been released on bail andthatthechargeshadalsonot been framed yet. “Prima facie we are of the view that there is no need to extend the interim order of bail. The appellant has been in incarcerationformorethanfouryears CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In battle for Amethi, Modi factor keeps Smriti Irani afloat, Gandhi hand steadies aide’s boat VOTE SHARE (%) MAULSHREE SETH AMETHI, MAY 14 “AMETHI KA vikassekyavasta, aur yahan pratyashi se kya lena dena (What DECISION has Amethi got 2024 todowithdevelopment or who the candidate is)?” Raj Murti Singh, 68, an LIC agent, is not being ironic. The constituencywhichbecomesthe cynosure of all eyes come electionsisawareof its“VVIP”status, Amethi UTTAR PRADESH Party 2014 BJP 34.39 2019 49.71 Cong 46.72 43.86 Source: ECI Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at a ‘Seva Sankalp Sabha’, in Amethi on Tuesday. ANI rightattheheartof the2024poll contest.Thereisasenseof disappointment that the fireworks which a repeat Rahul Gandhi vs Smriti Irani contest would have ensured are missing. But there is also resignation that once AmethivotesonMay20,andthe cameras turn away, it will return to its state of gentle decay. At the same time,the contest has a new edge this time: of a fight between a so-called “chaprasi (peon)” and a Union minister. Where K L Sharma is the faceless Congress poll manager who has spent 40 years managing the Gandhis’ poll campaigns here, and thus been dubbed CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Rescue work at the site of the billboard collapse in Mumbai’s Ghatkopar, Tuesday. Deepak Joshi Mumbai billboard collapse: First red flag 14 months ago, no action PRATIP ACHARYA & NAYONIKA BOSE MUMBAI, MAY 14 FROMNON-PAYMENTof licence feetotreedamageandlackof required permissions. For more than a year, civic authorities in Mumbai red-marked the giant billboard that collapsed on Monday evening in Ghatkopar, killing 14 people and injuring 75 others. And yet, records investigated by The Indian Express and interviewswithkeyofficialsshow,no action was taken during this period other than three notices being issued. The first notice was issued in March 2023 over licence fee, the second on May 2 this year over damagetotrees,andthethirdon May 13, the day the structure collapsed due to heavy winds, about “unauthorised advertisement panels”. ThenoticeswereissuedtoEgo Media PrivateLimited, which set upthe120x120ftmetalbillboard, and Government Railway Police (GRP), which is responsible for the plot’s maintenance. The land on which the billboard was erected is currently held by the Maharashtragovernment'sPolice Housing Welfare Corporation. “The unauthorised advertisement panels were erected without obtaining any permission CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The mortuary where the bodies of hoarding collapse victims were kept in Mumbai on Tuesday. Sankhadeep Banerjee Owner fined 21 times for illegal billboards, booked in rape case MOHAMED THAVER MUMBAI, MAY 14 THE OWNER of the illegal billboard, which collapsed on a petrol pump in Ghatkopar area of MumbaionMondayfollowing gusty winds and rain, had been booked in a rape case by the Mumbai police earlier this year. Meanwhile, the death toll in the incident went up to 14 on Tuesday morning, with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) involved in rescue work along with the Mumbai Bhavesh Prabhudas Bhinde, 51, director of Ego Media Pvt Ltd Fire Brigage and Mumbai Police. The Pant Nagar police, under whose jurisdiction the Mumbai hoarding collapse incident took place,onMondaynightregistered a First Information Report (FIR) against Bhavesh Prabhudas Bhinde, 51, the director of Ego Media CONTINUED ON PAGE 2