eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE The Theatre Wallah JAIPUR,LATECITY MAY19,2024 A new biography of Ebrahim Alkazi offers an intimate look 12+4PAGES,`6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA P5 FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT BIBHAV HELD WHILE BAIL PLEA BEING HEARD His aide held for assault, Kejriwal says INTERVIEW will march to BJP headquarters today THE EXPRESS BJP PRESIDENT PoK will be in India within 6 months of Modi as PM again: Yogi UP CM Yogi Adityanath with BJP's LS candidate Ujjwal Nikam, in Mumbai. PTI VALLABH OZARKAR MUMBAI, MAY 18 UTTAR PRADESH Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said Saturday that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK)willbeapartofIndiawithin sixmonthsofNarendraModibecoming “Prime Minister for the third time after the elections”. Addressing an election rally in Vasai in Palghar district of Maharashtra, Adityanath said, “Wewillnotworshipourenemy if they attack us. If someone kills our people, we will not worship them but give them an answer theydeserve.Now,ithasbecome difficultforPakistantosavePoK.” “Once Modi Ji becomes PrimeMinisterforthethirdtime after the elections, you will see CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Other AAP leaders will be held soon, says CM; party steps up attack on Maliwal PM attacks AAP, Cong: Medical report says Maliwal has bruises on cheek, thigh PM Narendra Modi with Delhi BJP chief Virendra Sachdeva and party’s LS candidate Manoj Tiwari in Delhi. Tashi Tobgyal NIRBHAY THAKUR & ANKITA UPADHYAY E EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, MAY 18 NEW DELHI, MAY 18 TWO DAYS after he was booked on the charge of assaulting AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal atthe Chief Minister’sresidence, Bibhav Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal’s aide,wasarrestedbyDelhiPolice Saturday afternoon while his plea for anticipatory bail plea wasbeingheardattheTisHazari Courts. Informed about Bibhav’s arrest, Additional Sessions Judge EXPLAINED ‘THIS ELECTION, BJP WILL BREAK CERTAIN MYTHS THAT WILL SURPRISE ALL’ J P NADDA Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar at the Tis Hazari court complex on Saturday. Sushil Anuj Tyagi said the plea had become infructuous. Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Kumar Srivastava informed the court via video conference that Bibhav was arrested at 4:15 pm. He had been detained from theChief Minister’sresidencefor questioning around noon. Late in the evening, Bibhav was produced before the court CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SHORTLY AFTER his aide Bibhav Kumarwasarrestedforallegedly assaulting AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal at the CM residence on May 13, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Saturday that he and AAP senior leaders, MPs and MLAs would court arrestoutsidetheBJPheadquarters in New Delhi on Sunday. Claiming that his party leaderswerebeingtargeted,Kejriwal, AAPin uncharted ● territory WITH ED naming AAP as accused in the PMLA case, there can be larger implications — from holding “every person” of the party involved in decision-making liable, attachment of property to larger issues of a level playing field in a democracy. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DAYS AFTER RECORD SRINAGAR TURNOUT Ex-sarpanch gunned down, Jaipur couple shot at in Valley NAVEED IQBAL SRINAGAR, MAY 18 ON THEdaycampaigning ended for the Lok Sabha polls in Baramulla constituency, militants shot dead a former sarpanch who was with the BJP and injured a couple from Jaipur in separate attacks in south Kashmir. The attacks come days after Srinagar saw the highest polling in almost three decades, at 38%. Traditionally, both Baramulla, which votes on May 20, and ‘CBI, ED should be shut… will propose it to INDIA bloc parties’: Akhilesh adversaries of the BJP. “They are used agar sarkar banaani hai, ya giraani hai (to formgovernments,orbreakgovernments),” Akhilesh said, asking why hadn’t the agencies, for example, investigated “what DEPARTMENTS LIKE the Enfo- went wrong during demonetircement Directorate and CBI are sation”.“Howdidpeopleconvert not needed and should be shut their black money into white?” down, Samajwadi Party chief But would an INDIA governAkhilesh Yadav has said, mentbereadytotakesuch adding that he would proa far-reaching step if it pose the same to the INcame to power? “This is DIA bloc. my proposal and I will put “CBI aur ED band hone DECISION this before the INDIA al2024 chahiye (The CBI and ED liance,” Akhilesh said. should be shut)... If you Speaking to The Indian have cheated, there is the Express while travelling from Income Tax department to deal Lucknow to Amethi and Rae with it. Why do you need the Bareli, the two constituencies CBI? Every state has an Anti- with the highest stakes for the Corruption Department, use it if Congress,theSPchief saidthealneeded,” Akhilesh said in an in- liance between the two parties terview to The Indian Express, will continue even after the Lok adding that the agencies are be- Sabha elections are over, ing used only against political CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Anantnag (now renamed Anantnag-Rajouri), which votes on May 25, have seen even higher voting than the Srinagar Lok Sabha seat. According to the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the couple from Jaipur were targeted in the first attack in Anantnag. “Terrorists fired upon and injured a lady, Farha, resident of Jaipur, and spouse Tabrez at Yannar, Anantnag. Injured evacuated to hospital for treatment,” the police said in a statement. In Shopian district, a former CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 After Kharge’s snub, Adhir says: Can’t welcome one who wants to finish Cong THE NEERJA CHOWDHURY COLUMN PHASE 5 CAMPAIGNING ENDS At an EVM distribution centre in Ladakh as campaigning for the 5th phase of polls ended Saturday. Voting is on May 20. DECISION2024,PAGE4 BUNDELKHAND, UTTAR PRADESH Safety net in place, labharthis want more: jobs, exams on time UTTAR PRADESH HARIKISHAN SHARMA JHANSI, MAHOBA, BANDA, CHITRAKOOT, MAY 18 Mallikarjun Kharge; Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. File RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & MANOJ CG KOLKATA, NEW DELHI, MAY 18 HOURS AFTER Congress presidentMallikarjunKhargesaidthe party’s West Bengal unit chief Adhir Chowdhury is “nobody to make decisions” on the alliance with TMC chief Mamata Banerjee, Chowdhury said he cannot“welcome”apersonwho “will try to finish the Congress”. The development comes against the backdrop of a statementbyBanerjeethatshewould CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 OVER THE past 10 years, the Narendra Modi government has knit a net of welfare schemes that, at their widest, provide a cushion to around 22 crore families. This “labharthi varg” has paid rich dividends for the BJP in successive elections, prompting Opposition parties to promise and implement their own basket of schemes. In the latest such move, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge promised this week to double the free rations available to the poor to 10 per kg per month if the INDIA bloc was voted to power — thus “bettering” one of the Modi government’s more popular schemes, Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan VOTE SHARES % 2019 JHANSI BANDA BJP 46.18 BJP 58.59 SP Jalaun 40.49 SP 32.12 Banda JALAUN HAMIRPUR BJP Jhansi 51.45 BJP 52.76 BSP 37.44 BSP 29.95 Hamirpur Anna Yojana (PMGKY). The Indian Express met beneficiaries of various Central government schemes across a stretchof about 400km through UttarPradesh’sBundelkhandregionandfoundacategoricalconsensus on the safety net the schemes provide. At the same time, however, there’s hardly a conversation where the issue of jobs does not come up. Almost asif ajobistheprimary“benefit” the young are waiting for. Incidentally, it was in Bundelkhand in July 2022, soon aftertheUttarPradeshAssembly elections, that PM Modi first denounced “freebies” — as offered by the Opposition — as “revdi culture”. The Bundelkhand region has four parliamentary constituencies — Banda, Jalaun, Jhansi and Hamirpur. All have been held by CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 World is watching how one corrupt person is covering the other Says INDIA bloc out to destroy Delhi with ‘politics of appeasement’ JATIN ANAND NEW DELHI, MAY 18 TAKING A swipe at the AAP and theCongressovercorruptionand blaming the “opportunistic” INDIA bloc for “inciting violence for thesakeof appeasement,endangeringcommunalharmony”duringtheanti-CAAprotestsand the Northeast Delhi riots, Prime MinisterNarendraModiaskedthe citizens of Delhi to keep in mind the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’ when they go out to vote on May 25. Addressing a public meeting in Ghonda in Northeast Delhi – this was his first campaign rally intheCapital– ModisaidtheINDIA bloc was “bent upon destroying Delhi” with its “appeasement politics” while he was working “24x7 for 2047”. He met refugee families who have been granted Indian citizenshipfollowingnotificationof CAA rules. As many as 25 diplomats from 13 countries including the UK, Australia and Russia were part of the gathering as ‘Observersof IndianDemocracy’. Although he did not name the AAP, Modi attacked its alliancewiththeCongressinDelhi and Haryana. “Earlier, the Congress used to claim credit for exposing the excisescaminpressconferenceafter press conference. Then, at the ordersoftheShahiParivar,theyembraced the same corrupt leader...Dilli, Haryana mein dosti aurPunjabmeinkushti...yehdhong kab tak chalega? Duniya dekh rahi haikikaiseekbhrashtacharidoosre bhrashtachari ko cover de raha hai (InDelhi,Haryana,youarefriends but in Punjab you are wrestling with each other. How long will this hypocrisy last? The world is watchinghowonecorruptperson is covering the other),” he said. Without naming the AAP or its convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Modi attacked the party for “betraying the trust of millions” by emerging as a force against the issue of corruption but now being discovered to be behind “corruption worth crores” which was sending its leaders behind bars. “There was a time when the Congress ruled the country, but nowstrugglestoevencompeteon four (Lok Sabha) seats in Delhi. They cannot field a candidate in the constituency where its Shahi ParivarlivesbutstilltheCongress’s arrogance remains,” he said. CONTINUED ON PAGE 3 Ready to debate with Modi, but he will not come, says Rahul GAYATHRI MANI NEW DELHI, MAY 18 CONGRESS LEADER Rahul Gandhi on Saturday challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a publicdebate even as he targeted him again over his “links” with “22-25 rich businessmen”. Speaking at his first rally in Delhi ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Rahul made a string of promises — including Rs 1 lakh to unemployed youth, 10-kg ration,besidesRs1 lakhto women in poor households. “Pehlinaukri yojana...we will make a list of graduates, postgraduates,diplomaholders...and will give them first right to permanent jobs… They’ll have a year-long job. And the unemployed youth will have Rs 1 lakh in their accounts… Rs 8,000 per month taka tak,” Rahul told the rally at Ramlila Ground in the Chandini Chowk constituency. Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Saturday. Abhinav Saha He also urged the workers of bothCongressandAAP—thetwo parties are jointly contesting the pollsinDelhi—toworktoensure victory in all seven Lok Sabha seats in the national capital. Holding a copy of the Constitution, Rahul said the Congress and AAP had come together in Delhi “to save the Constitution” from the BJP. “The Constitution of Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Mahatma CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 As a mural comes up in Panaji, the muse, now 100, looks on from her home PAGE 1 ANCHOR PAVNEET SINGH CHADHA PANAJI, MAY 18 “REJOICE BROTHERS and sisters, Rejoice! Today,after 451yearsof alien rule, Goa is free and united withtheMotherland.Ourbrothers are there to protect you.” Onthemorningof December 19,1961—thedayGoawasliberated from Portuguese rule — Libia Lobo Sardesai and her colleagueVamanSardesaiflewover Panaji and other parts of Goa in an Indian Air Force (IAF) plane with a radio transmitter aboard and a loudspeaker fitted on the plane’s belly, dropping leaflets and announcing in Portuguese andKonkanithatthePortuguese had surrendered. “That was the last broadcast by our secret radio station,” recalls 99-year-old Libia at her house in Panaji. The underground voice of Goa’s liberation struggle, Libia turns 100 on May 25. To commemorate her pivotal role in the coastal state’s liberation struggle, Israel-based street artist and painter Solomon Souza, the grandson of pioneering modernist painter from Goa Francis Newton Souza, has painted her mural on a wall across the road fromherhouse.“Itoldhimtoput more light in my eyes,” she says, looking on from her balcony. For six years from 1955 to 1961 — when Goan nationalist movement gained momentum and in the backdrop of suspension of all civil liberties under a Portuguese dictatorship in Goa — Libia and Vaman set up an underground radio station in the junglesontheoutskirtsof Goato counterPortuguesepropaganda, The mural has been painted on a wall across the road from 99-year-old Libia Lobo Sardesai’s house. Pavneet Singh Chadha broadcasting news, speeches of IndianleadersinParliament,updates on nationalist movement and anti-colonial struggle in their broadcasts. On the eve of their final broadcast, Libia says she was informed by Lieutenant General J N Chaudhuri, then General OfficerCommanding-in-Chief of Southern Command, at an army camp in Sambra in Belgaum, around 120 km from Panaji, that Portuguese forces were surrendering. “The General asked me, ‘KumariLobo.Whatdoyouwant to do now?’. Impulsively, I said I Jaipur would like to go into the skies and announce that Goa is free. He took me seriously…We were warned that the plane could be shot down since Portuguese guns were still hidden somewhere, but we were not scared. I told them that it did not matter because if the plane is shot down, we will fall and die in a free Goa,” she told The Indian Express. In 1954, after the Portuguese attacked and killed several Satyagrahis who had entered Goa to demand the end of colonial rule, India closed its borders with the state and imposed an economic blockade, curtailing freemovementandtrade.“Road, sea and rail links were snapped, and all communication could onlybeclandestine.InGoa,complete censorship was in force. Not even an invitation card or a calendar could be printed or circulated without the seal of the ‘censors’. People lived under a cloak of strict vigilance and suspicion. No outside papers or printed material were allowed to come in. A couple of local newspapers and the official Goa radio toed the Portuguese line, instilling fear and feeding false CONTINUED ON PAGE 2