DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA PORSCHE CRASH Pune minor’s blood sample replaced with his mother’s sample: Probe Two persons were killed when the vehicle hit a motorcycle. Express file Curtains on Campaign 2024 In final poll speech, Modi attacks Opp, says Guru Ravidas is his govt’s inspiration ANJU AGNIHOTRI CHABA & VIKAS PATHAK JALANDHAR, NEW DELHI, MAY 30 HOURS BEFORE the curtain came down Thursday on campaigning DECISION for the Lok Sabha polls, 2024 PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, launchingafrontalassaultonthe Opposition INDIA bloc and the ruling AAP in Punjab one final time this election, invoked Guru Ravidasandsaidhisgovernment had worked in line with the teachings and principles of the Bhakti poet-saint. Addressing a rally in HoshiarpurinPunjabwhichwill voteSaturdayintheseventhand finalphaseof theelections,Modi referred to Hoshiarpur, home to a sizeable number from the Ravidassia and Valmiki communities, as “chhoti Kashi”. “This is the land of Guru Ravidasji. Just as I am a Member of Parliament from Kashi, Guru Ravidas was born there. It is my great fortune that the election campaign is ending in Hoshiarpur,” he said. “GuruRavidasjisaid‘Idesirea state where everyone gets food’. Inthepast10years,wehaveprovided free food and treatmentto the poorest of the poor… illnesses are not hidden anymore. People have ration cards and Ayushman cards,” he said. “Guru Ravidasji wanted a society where there is no discrimination. The benefits of Modi government schemes are CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PUNE, MAY 30 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK START-UP CARRIES OUT TEST FLIGHT OF AGNIBAAN ROCKET PAGE 3 PAGE 1 ANCHOR APPEAL TO PUNJAB Manmohan breaks silence: Modi made divisive hate speeches ‘Lowered dignity of office’ MANOJ CG NEW DELHI, MAY 30 BEGINS 45-HOUR MEDITATION Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers prayers at the Sri Bhagavathi Amman Temple in Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, before beginning his 45-hour meditation at the Vivekananda Memorial on Thursday. PTI REPORT,PAGE3 PM campaign about himself, abusing Cong; INDIA will form govt: Kharge ANURADHA MASCARENHAS & CHANDAN HAYGUNDE THEBLOODsampleof theminor, who was allegedly driving the Porsche that crashed into and killed two people in Pune on May 19, was replaced at Sassoon General Hospital with a sample given by his mother, sources in the Maharashtra government said, citing an inquiry report. While the minor was taken into custody after the accident, and his father and grandfather were subsequently arrested, focus soon shifted to the involvement of two doctors and a class IV staffer – from B J Government Medical College and Sassoon General Hospital – who are accused of throwing away the bloodsample collected from the minor and replacing it with another. The two doctors and the staffer have also been arrested. On Tuesday, a special investigation team was sent to Sassoon hospital, where they questioned a series of officials and viewed the CCTV footage. Sources in the government told The Indian Express that the team submitted an inquiry report saying that it was the boy’s motherwhohadgivenherblood sample to replace her son’s. According to the sources, the inquiryalsofoundthattheblood samples collectedfrom twoothers who were in the Porsche had also been replaced by the `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, MAY 30 West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a roadshow in Kolkata on Thursday. Partha Paul EXPRESSING CONFIDENCE the INDIA bloc will form a government with absolute majority after June 4, Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge said Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the BJP campaign all about himself while hurling abuses at the Congress and the INDIA bloc. Addressing a press conferenceatthepartyheadquartersin Delhi on Thursday, the Congress chief said, “I will tell you a sample.In15days,hetookCongress’s name 232 times, he used ‘Modi’ 758 times… He named the INDIAalliance573times…Hedidn’t say anything about unemployment and inflation…” In Punjab, acid test for Mann as AAP rides on free power, clinics MANRAJ GREWAL SHARMA CHANDIGARH, MAY 30 “Mission AAP: 13-0”. Call it an ambitiousorunrealisticgoal,but this is the target Punjab Chief Minister and AAP leader Bhagwant Singh Mann has set for the party in the Lok Sabha elections in the state. Last month, Mann told The IndianExpressthatheviewedthe parliamentary polls as a reality check for his over two-year-old government. And that is what he has been telling voters as he criss-crosses the state to spearhead the campaign: “Vote for AAP if you think we have delivered on our promises.Voteformycandidate,kaam di guarantee main dinda haan (I AAP VOTE SHARE IN PUNJAB (%) 42.01 24.4 23.72 7.38 2014 2019 2017 2022 Lok Sabha Assembly guarantee development).” At Patiala’s Mehraj, the ancestralvillageof formerCongress CM Captain Amarinder Singh, who is now with the BJP, Mann reminds the locals of their “misplaced” loyalty to Amarinder who, he says, has joined a party that “forced” the protesting farmers to sit on the Delhi border for over a year (2020-21). At another rally in support of actor Karamjit Anmol, AAP candidate from Faridkot, Mann highlights how both he and Anmol left successful careers in the entertainment field to serve the people and create jobs. In Bathinda, Mann, a former comedian, performs a “kikli"” (spoof) on Harsimrat Badal, the SADcandidateandformerUnion minister, much to the crowd’s amusement. With Punjab’s 13 seats going to polls in the seventh and final phase on June 1, Mann warns voters against returning to the old parties. “Are you ready for June 1? Bahut dookhi kita ehna Congress leader Rahul Gandhi addresses a public meeting in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Punjab, on Thursday. ANI “The PM spoke about temples-mosques, Muslim and other religions 421 times. He spoke about dividing society. He DECISION 2024 spoke about Muslim, Pakistan and minorities 224 times,” Kharge said. He also said they CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED BY UNNY POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2024, JAIPUR, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL ● Only the second ● time THE SEVENTH and final phase of polling concludes Saturday and the results will be declared on June 4. This is only the second time that Lok Sabha elections have extended into June. The 44-day election period, necessitated by a combination of factors, is the secondlongest after the first Lok Sabha election in 1951-52. INSIDE DECLARE HEAT WAVE NATIONAL CALAMITY: HIGH COURT PAGE 3 BHUBANESWAR, MAY 30 HIMACHAL PRADESH CM ● In last Bengal phase, both TMC and BJP see a common threat: CPM ● Shah, senior BJP leaders hold fort for PM Modi in Varanasi PAGE 6 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Naveen hits back at BJP: Pandian not my successor, all falsehood SUJIT BISOYI EXPRESSINTERVIEW ‘FightnotBJPvsCongress, butBJPvspeople...no threattoCongressgovt’ SUKHVINDER SINGH SUKHU AS CAMPAIGNING for the Lok Sabha elections came to a close Thursday,formerPrimeMinister Manmohan Singh accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of havingdeliveredthe“mostvicious” form of “purely divisive” “hate speeches” during his electioneering, lowering the dignity of public discourse and gravity of his office. “No Prime Minister in the pasthasutteredsuchhateful,unparliamentaryandcoarseterms, meant to target either a specific section of the society or the opposition ….People of India are seeing through all of this. This narrativeof dehumanizationhas now reached its peak. It is now our duty to save our beloved nationfromtheseforcesof discord,” Singhsaidinanappeal,meantfor the people of Punjab, which is votinginthelastphaseonJune1. The rare intervention by the 91-year-old former Prime Minister, who headed the UPA government from 2004 to 2014, came at the end of the bitter and gruelling campaign which had seen Modi repeatedly targeting Singh’s UPA government claiming that the Congress wanted to allocate15%of thegovernment’s budgetary allocations for minorities during its tenure. In one of his speeches in Rajasthan, Modi referred to Singh’s December 2006 speech at the meeting of the National Development Council to argue that the Congress government wantedMuslimstohavethefirst WITH THE BJP turning up the heat on the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD over the growing influence of his aide and former bureaucrat V K Pandian, the Odisha Chief Minister on Thursday sought to make it clear that Pandian was not his “successor”, and speculation suggesting this was “an exaggeration”. "I can’t understand these exaggerations. You may have noticed that he is not even standing for elections,” said Patnaik while speaking to ANI in Bhubaneswar, when asked whether Pandian was being groomed to take over from him. Asked whether Pandian was his successor, he said, “He is not CM Naveen Patnaik; V K Pandian my successor. AndI see all of this as exaggerations and falsehoods.” On whether his party has a successionplan,Patnaikreiterated thatthesuccessor“willbedecided by the people of the state; that is thenaturalresultinthesethings” — comments that echo what his father and former chief minister Biju Patnaik once said. The former CM had never promoted anyone from his family in politics, and Naveen and a few other loyalists had formed the Biju Janata Dal following his deathtocarryforwardhislegacy. Responding to allegations made by his opponents that Pandian was now taking all key decisionsonPatnaik’sbehalf,the Odisha CM said this was “ridiculous” and an “old allegation that holds no weight”. Patnaik’s remarks on Pandian assume significance since the BJP’s campaign in Odisha has evolved around the Tamil Nadu-born IAS officerturned-politician. The BJP top brass, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home MinisterAmitShah,haverepeatedlyquestionedhis“growinginfluence”. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘A time when women want to cheer for each other more than ever’ DEVYANI ONIAL NEW DELHI, MAY 30 THE ELEGANT and pastel interiors of the Indian Navy's Kota House in Delhi have a pop of colour and glamour today. Anasuya Sengupta, fresh from Cannes where she won the award for the Best Actress in the Un Certain Regards category at theCannesFilmFestival,thefirst Indian to bag the honour, has madeastopintheCapital,where her husband, Lt Cdr Yashdeep Sharma, is posted. "I was just happy that meri picture Cannes jaa rahi hai (My film is going to Cannes). I didn’t want anything more. That was myexcitementandjoy,andthen came the reception to my film. People loved the film, they would come up to me on the streets and were appreciative of my performance. But I felt that something more was at play, something deeper was resonating and I think it’s because this is a film where women are at the forefront. It’s giving people a sense of hope. My film has an almostangryfeminismbutPayal’s (Kapadia) film is gentle and beautifulbuttheyarebothabout feminism,” she says. Kapadia’sfilm,AllWeImagine AsLight,thatwontheGrandPrix, the second highest award at Cannes, too, has women at its centre. “It’s a time when we, more than ever, want to support each other,it’satimeforfriendship,of cheering each other on loudly, being there for each other. It is going even beyond cinema. Honestly, I am seeing it everywhere. We want women at the forefront. There is deep value in it.” she says. In Bulgarian director Konstantin Bojanov’s The Shameless, a film in Hindi, Sengupta plays Renuka who runs away from a brothel in Anasuya Sengupta in New Delhi on Thursday. Tashi Tobgyal Delhi after killing a policeman and gets involved with a young girl, a sex worker. For Sengupta, justgoingtoCanneswasenough, getting the best actress award was overwhelming. It was all that she imagined and more. It was about cinema and glamour, about being next to legendary filmmakers,abouttheredcarpet andbuyinga25-Eurodressfrom the flea market to wear at the ceremony. But, as she emphasises, it’s not just about the yachts and glamour, love of cinema is at the core of Cannes. The film also marks Sengupta’s transition from working behind the camera as a Jaipur production designer to facing it. It came more than 10 years after she first acted in Anjan Dutt's Madly Bangalee (2009), a film about a rock band which featuredmanymembersof TinCan, thetheatregroup inKolkata that Sengupta was part of. "Acting in Madly Bangalee was, of course, very different from now. I was fresh out of college and working on that film was like hanging out with friends. It didn’t feel like acting," saysSengupta,whograduatedin English from Jadavpur University.Herfirstjobwaswith a magazine called Kindle and within three months, she quit to work as a director’s assistant to Claire McCarthy in the IndoAustralian production The Waiting City that was being shot in Kolkata. That was her first foray in films and soon she moved to Mumbai where her brother,afilmmaker,lived.“Ihad just these two experiences but I thoughtthatwasenoughammo to move to Mumbai,” she says. There, she did theatre and a few ads, worked as an assistant director and went on to become a production designer for films andseriessuchasSaatUchakkey, Ray, Chippa and the first season of Masaba Masaba, among CONTINUED ON PAGE 2