DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA 152 189 78 Will expedite decision to extradite Gupta to US, says Czech official Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. File DIVYA A & RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, MAY 23 A DAY after the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic rejected Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta’s plea against being sent totheUStofacetrialforallegedly plotting to kill Khalistan separatistGurpatwantSinghPannun atthebehestof anIndiangovernmentofficial,aspokespersonfor theCzechMinistryof Justicetold TheIndianExpresshisextradition will now be decided “expeditiously, without undue delay”. On Wednesday, the Czech Republic’s top court upheld the decisions of the District Court in Prague and the Municipal Court in Prague that Gupta, an Indian citizen, can be extradited to the US. In an emailed response to this newspaper, spokesperson Kamila Abbasi said that “the 8 killed, 60 injured in boiler blast at Thane chemical unit VIJAY KUMAR YADAV & NAYONIKA BOSE FOR THE first time this election, the turnout of women voters was higher than the turnout of men voters in the fifth phase on May 20, when polling was held in 49 Lok Sabha constituencies acrosseightstatesandUnionterritories (UTs), according to data released by the Election Commission on Thursday. Reversing past trends, the overall turnout of women voters (67.18 per cent) was marginally higher as compared to men MUMBAI, MAY 23 EIGHT PEOPLE were killed and around 60 were injured in a boiler blast at a chemical company in Dombivli East of Thane districtinMaharashtraThursday afternoon. Officials of the Kalyan DombivliMunicipalCorporation (KDMC)saidtheboilerexplosion at AmudanChemicalsPvtLtd.locatedinPhase2ofDombivliMIDC areaaround1.40pm,affectedadjacent factories and houses. Thenumberof casualtiesand injuries may go up as several workers and residents are still feared trapped in the factory, they said. The injured have been rushed to Neptune Hospital, Global Hospital and AIMS Hospital in MIDC. The bodies of the deceased weretakentoShashtriNagarhospital, Dombivli (West) and RukmanihospitalinKalyan.Police werefindingitdifficulttoidentify the deceased as their faces and body parts were disfigured. Only two deceased have been identified yet — Riddhi Khanvilkar, 36 and Rohini Kadam, 26. The explosion was heard in a radiusof two kilometresandthe window panes of nearby houses in the building in 500-metre radius were shattered in the impact. A smoke cloud could be seen billowing from the factory, a resident said. Afirebrigadeofficialsaidthat theAmudancompany —owned CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D BENCHMARK STOCK market indicesSensexandNiftysurged1.6 per cent to end at record high Thursday after the RBI announced a record surplus transfer of Rs 2.11 lakh crore and on heavyinflowsfromforeignportfolio investors (FPIs). The BSE’s Sensex scaled 1196.98 points, or 1.61 per cent to end at a record high of 75,418.04. The Nifty climbed 369.85 points, or 1.64 per cent, to close at an all-time high of 22,967.65. According to some market analysts, the higher dividend payout by the RBI to the government is also because of the confidence that the ruling BJP will again come to power. “The interest rate in the US has gone up from 0 per cent to 5.25-5.5 per cent. With the forex reserves holding of $645 billion, the rise in the RBI’s earnings is substantive. The timing and the amount (of the surplus to the government) are definitely part The explosion could be heard in a radius of two kilometres, officials said. Deepak Joshi ‘Identified wife’s body by ring’ VIJAY KUMAR YADAV MUMBAI, MAY 23 AMIT KHANVILKAR, 42, a residentof Manpadawhoworksina Palghar-based pathology lab, wasathomeduetoaholiday. He heard a massive blast from the MIDC side in the afternoon and panickedashiswife,RiddhiAmit Khanvilkar,38,wasalsoworking inacompanythere.Hetriedcalling her but couldn’t get through and later informed his friends. By then the news of the blast at Amudan Chemicals Pvt Ltd had spread and Khanvilkar’s friends circulated her photos in WhatsApp groups, along with conveying the message to people working in local hospitals. Few hours later, Khanvilkar's family friend Amit Mhabdi received a call from a doctor who toldhimtocheckatthetwohospitalswherethebodiesofthevicitms were taken. The doctor also told that four bodies including those of two women have been taken to Shashtri Nagar hospital in Dombivli (West). Mhabdi reachedthehospitalwithfriends andfoundthatthebodiesof two womenwereunrecognisable.He theninformedKhanvilkartovisit the hospital and check. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The market ● message A SECTION of market analysts are reading into the higher dividend payout by the RBI as an expression of the confidence that the ruling BJP is coming back to power. The market’s message of political stability after the elections is seen as having prompted Thursday’s rally, which was led by large caps and banking stocks. of a well thought-out plan. It indicates that the present government will continue,” said a market analyst, who did not want to be identified. The RBI’s earnings have been robust in recent times. It has been earning around 3 per cent on its forex reserves. The central bank has been lending in the PALLAVI SMART MUMBAI, MAY 23 ENGLISHLANGUAGEwillbecategorised as a “foreign language” and will no longer be compulsory at the Junior College (JC) level (Classes 11 and 12), deviatingfromthelong-standingpractice in Maharashtra. This is one of the recommendations put forth by the draft State CurriculumFramework(SCF)for SchoolEducation(SE)fromClass 3 to Class 12, released by the Maharashtra State Council for Educational Research and Training(SCERT)onWednesday. Under the proposed subject scheme for Classes 11 and 12, students can select eight subjects — two languages, environmental and physical education, and four subjects of their choice. The SCF aims to eliminate the stream-specific (Arts, Commerce, Science) learning eventually. One of the languages must be of Indian origin, as per the SCF’s language chart, which lists 17 native Indian languages andnineforeignlanguages,with English topping the list. Vasant Kalpande, a renowned educationist, asked, “How can English be considered a foreign language?” Pointing out its significance in official CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD RISHI SUNAK, STARMER HIT CAMPAIGN TRAIL AFTER SHOCK ELECTION CALL PAGE 12 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Battle for Allahabad is BJP scion vs SP-Congress scion, no holds barred PAGE 1 ANCHOR SHYAMLAL YADAV PRAYAGRAJ, MAY 23 IN AN election where the BJP leadershiphasconsistently used the term “do shehzade (two princes)” to attack Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, the battle for the Allahabad Lok Sabha seat is between two scions as well – the BJP’s Neeraj Tripathi and Ujjwal Raman Singh contesting on the Congress symbol. Neeraj is the son of former state Assembly Speaker and exWest Bengal Governor Kesari Of 24 seats which saw higher women polling, 22 saw same trend in 2019 DAMINI NATH MAHARASHTRA Sensex, Nifty at new English DRAFT CURRICULUM not a must highs after decision in Class 11, 12; to be on dividend payout ‘foreign language’ MUMBAI, MAY 23 Women voter turnout higher than men in Phase 5, says EC Numberof casualties,injuriesmaygoupasseveralpeoplearefearedtrapped CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HITESH VYAS `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 AMUDAN CHEMICALS PVT LTD IN DOMBIVLI EAST 124 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, MAY 24, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES 24/05/2024 ● VOTE SHARE (%) IN ALLAHABAD Party 2014 2019 BJP 35.19 55.62 SP 28.24 34.89 BSP 18.18 — Cong 11.49 3.59 Note: SP and BSP were allies in 2019; Source: Election Commission Nath Tripathi, who passed away last year, while Ujjwal’s father Kunwar Rewati Raman Singh of the SP represented Allahabad in theLokSabhabetween2004and 2014. The third candidate in the seat, which votes on May 25, is Ramesh Kumar Patel of the BSP. While his father’s legacy and RSS organisational muscle are Neeraj’s best bet, the BJP candidate who is making his political debut is struggling with the fact that he was not seen around in the area before being pitchforked into the fight. Ujjwal, on the other hand, is a familiar face, being a three-time MLA and former minister in the Mulayam Singh Yadav government. TheAllahabadLokSabhaseat is currently represented by the BJP’s Rita Bahuguna Joshi, and the party also holds four of the five Assembly segments falling under it (Allahabad South, Karachhana, Koraon and Bara). The fifth segment, Meja, is held by the SP. In the past, the constituency has been represented by stalwarts like ‘Bharat Ratna’ Purushottam Das Tandon, former PMs Lal Bahadur Shashtri and V P Singh, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, former UP CM Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna,andfilmstarAmitabh Bachchan. While Neeraj is a Brahmin,Congress-SPcandidate Ujjwal is a Bhumihar. Neeraj is believed to have wardedoff competitionfromsitting MP Rita Bahuguna Joshi and stateministerNandGopalGupta to get the seat, and his prospects dependonhowthetwo,andformer MLA Neelam Karwaria, also CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Riddhi Khanvilkar who died; (right) Vivek Rajput looks for his brother NEW DELHI, MAY 23 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY 2024 ■ Men ■ Women PHASE1:(66.14%*) 66.22% 66.07% PHASE2:(66.71%*) 66.99% 66.42% PHASE3:(65.68%*) 66.89% 64.41% PHASE4:(69.16%*) 69.58% 68.73% PHASE5:(62.20%*) 61.48% 63.00% Overall (67.02 per cent) in the 2019 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 2019 Men Women 67.4% 67.02% 67.18% Source: EC *Overall turnout Kejriwal: If I resign, Mamata, Pinarayi govts will be toppled P7 MALLICA JOSHI & RAHUL SABHARWAL NEW DELHI, MAY 23 RESIGNING AS Chief Minister of Delhiwillsetadangerousprecedent that will allow the BJP to topple governments in states where they are not in power, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said Thursday. In an interview to The Indian Express, Kejriwal, responding to a question on why he hadn’t resigned as Chief Minister despite his arrest in the Delhi excise policy case, said, “Let me explain why I am not resigning. People accuse me of being stuck to my chair. I have never been greedy for a chair or a post. When I was Income Tax commissioner, I quit THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW ‘ONLY PM CAN ANSWER HOW LONG HE WANTS TO KEEP ME IN JAIL’ ARVIND KEJRIWAL DELHI CHIEF MINISTER to work in slums for 10 years. WhenIbecameCM,Iresignedin 49dayswithoutanyprovocation. I did it for my principles. This time I am not resigning because itispartof mystruggle.They(the BJP)understandthey cannot defeat the AAP in Delhi, so they frameKejriwalinafalsecaseand topple his government. This is dangerous for democracy.” “If I resign today, then they will topple Mamata Banerjee’s, Pinarayi Vijayan’s governments tomorrow. Wherever the BJP loses,theCMcanbearrestedand hisgovernmenttoppled.Thisbattle will have to be fought. If they put democracy in jail, democracywillberunfromjail.Wewill fight this tooth and nail — in courts, wherever else,” he said. Spelling out how he hopes to “run democracy from jail”, he said, “The Supreme Court and High Court have already heard CONTINUED ON PAGE 2