DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 WHAT IS THE POINT NOW? THE FEAR THAT HE LIVED UNDER, OF BEING TAKEN AWAY, DIED WITH HIM: WIFE Last week, SC declared Rahim Ali a citizen; what nobody knew: he died over two years ago branded ‘foreigner’ Foryears,familyof Assammanranfromcourttoforeigners’ tribunaltofightforjusticeafterpolicecalledhimillegal SUKRITA BARUAH NALBARI, JULY 17 Chandipura virus: Gujarat confirms first death; two fresh ‘fatalities’ in Panchmahal ADITI RAJA Hajera Bibi shows a photo of her husband Rahim Ali, who died on Dec 28, 2021. Sukrita Baruah VADODARA, JULY 17 A FOUR-YEAR-OLD girl from Aravallidistrict’sMotaKanthariya village, who died at a civil hospitalinSabarkantha,testedpositive forChandipuravirus(CHPV),said theNationalInstituteof Virology (NIV) on Wednesday, making it the first such fatality confirmed in Gujarat. OnWednesday,thestategovernment said that out of the total 29 suspected CHPV patients reportedsofar,14havealreadydied. “The sample of a four-yearold girl from Aravalli, who died at the Himatnagar civil hospital in Sabarkantha district (earlier this month), tested positive for Chandipura virus. This was the first death (confirmed) due to Chandipuravirusinfectioninthe state. Three other samples of suspected victims tested along hersare,however,negative,”said Raj Sutariya, chief district health officer (CDHO) of Sabarkantha. An 18-month-old baby also diedof suspectedCHPVinfection CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 IN A landmark judgment delivered last week, the Supreme Court declared Assam resident Rahim Ali an Indian citizen — bringing to a close a 12-year chapter which began with a Foreigners’ Tribunal in the state labelling him a foreigner. Only, The Indian Express has found that Ali died over twoand-a-half years before the verdict, carrying the heavy tag of a “foreigner” and “illegal immigrant from Bangladesh” to his grave. Ali, a resident of Kashimpur village in Assam’s Nalbari district, died in his village on December 28, 2021 at the age of 58, even as the apex court continued to hear his case. This was after the Tribunal had delivered an ex-parte order in2012declaringhimaforeigner sincehehadnotappearedbefore it, stating that he “had failed to discharge his burden” under Section 9 of the Foreigners Act. When he appealed against thisintheGauhatiHighCourton the ground that he was unable toappearbeforetheTribunalbe- causeof amedical condition, the petition wasdismissed.Then,he had approached the Supreme Court,whichdirectedthecaseto a Foreigners’ Tribunal in 2017 to again decide whether he was a foreigner or not. This time too, the Tribunal declared him a foreigner, pointing to discrepancies in spellings and dates in some of the documents he had produced. AdvocateKaushikChoudhury, who represented Ali in the Supreme Court, said he had been doing so pro bono after the case was handed to him by a lower CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Doda attack: Jaish suspects In some years, Indians may be playing infiltrated six months ago, each other for world title: Anand ‘stayed off grid’ in Jammu EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Recruited from Pak’s Punjab, North-West DEEPTIMAN TIWARY NEW DELHI, JULY 17 THE RECENT attacks that have rocked the Jammu region are suspected to have been perpetratedbya“freshbatchof terrorists” who infiltrated in the past six months and comprise fighters from Pakistan's Punjab as wellasKhyberPakhtunkhwaregions,saidsources.Mostof them are suspected to be Jaish-eMohammed (JeM) recruits. According to sources, while the ‘People’s Anti-Fascist Front’ claimed credit for the attacks in Poonch-Rajouri earlier, the ‘Kashmir Tigers’ took responsibility for the more recent attacks in Doda-Kathua. Both these groups are suspected to be JeM fronts, said sources. Thegroupsarehighlytrained, motivated and those from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region may also have battle experience, including in Afghanistan, said sources in the security establishment.FormerPakistanArmysoldiers may also be among them, added sources. So far, 11 Armed Forces personnel have been killed by such groups, usually comprising three tofivemen,insixseparateattacks CONTINUEDONPAGE2 CHENNAI, JULY 17 THE RAPID strides made by Indian prodigies on the battlefield of the 64 squares makes five-time world champion ViswanathanAnandbelievethat there may soon be a situation where two Indians are playing against each other for the world champion’s crown. “They could easily be each other’srivals(attheWorldChess Championship) in some years,” Anand predicted at the Express Adda in Chennai on Tuesday, where he was the guest of honour with wife, Aruna, and India’s top-ranked chess player, Arjun Erigaisi.Thetriowasinconversation with Anant Goenka, Executive Director, The Indian Chess legend Viswanathan Anand, wife Aruna and top player Arjun Erigaisi at Express Adda in Chennai. Amit Chakravarty Express Group, and Amit Kamath, Assistant Editor, The Indian Express. “This current Indian generation of chess players is so close to the top that they’re sniffing most things.Obviously,playingwiththe higheststakes(attheworldchampionship) is an experience you have to encounter in a very raw fashion to figure (out what the pressure there is like),” he said. Anand, the country’s first grandmaster, spearheaded a chess revolution in the country CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DAY AFTER CABINET NOD Afterbacklash, KarnatakaGovt putspvtsector quotaBillonhold Bill in preparation stage, discussion at next Cabinet meeting: Siddaramaiah AKRAM M BENGALURU, JULY 17 AFTER TOP CEOs and industry bodies warned the Karnataka government that the proposed lawonjobreservationintheprivate sector would drive away companiesandsettheclockback on progress, the state leadership on Wednesday said the Bill has been withheld and the Cabinet would discuss it comprehensively in the next meeting. The state Cabinet had on Tuesday approved ‘The Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other EstablishmentsBill,2024’,which mandates 75 per cent reservation in non-management jobs and 50 per cent in management jobs for “local candidates”. While Biocon founder Kiran Mazumdar Shaw said the proposedlawshould“exempthighly skilledrecruitmentfromthispolicy”, Nasscom, an industry body that represents software and service companies, unequivocallysaidthattheBill’sprovisions would“stiflestartups”and“force companies to relocate as local skilled talent becomes scarce”. CONTINUEDONPAGE2 E EXPLAINED THURSDAY, JULY 18, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES ● Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Politics of job quota KARNATAKA HAS joined states such as Andhra Pradesh and Haryana in proposing job quotas in the private sector. In Haryana, the Supreme Court struck down the law calling it unconstitutional, whereas Andhra never implemented it on the ground. THE EDITORIAL PAGE DROP THIS BILL Karnataka’s proposed law on quota for locals in the private sector is bad law, economics and politics PAGE8 Ahmedabad