DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, JULY 22, 2024, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 AT ALL-PARTY MEET, RAJNATH URGES OPP TO AVOID HOUSE DISRUPTIONS Budgetsessionbegins:BJPfaceskanwar rowheat,allies’specialstatusdemands SC to hear plea against kanwar route order today EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, J P Nadda and Kiren Rijiju; Opposition MPs, including Jairam Ramesh, at the meet. Amit Mehra AsOppdemandsdebateonkeyissues, PaswanjoinsJDUspecialstatuschorus VENKI RAMAKRISHNAN BIOLOGIST PAGE 10 Kerala teen who tested positive for Nipah dies SHAJU PHILIP & ANONNA DUTT THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, NEW DELHI, JULY 21 A 14-YEAR-OLD boy from Kerala’s Malappuram, who had tested positive for the Nipah virus, died at the government Medical College Hospital in Kozhikode on Sunday. According to state Health Department officials, he had developed a fever 10 days ago, and on Friday, was put on ventilator support at a private hospital in Kozhikode. On Saturday, after the National Institute of Virology in Puneconfirmedthattheboyhad tested positive for the Nipah virus, he was moved to the Medical College Hospital. Health Minister Veena CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK 3 DEAD, 8 INJURED IN KEDARNATH LANDSLIDE PAGE 5 PAGE 1 ANCHOR LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, JULY 21 AT THE all-party meeting convened by the BJP-led NDA government on the eve of the Budget session of Parliament, the BJP appeared to have got a tasteof thecoalitionpoliticswith its allies as well as erstwhile friendly parties raising various demands and a resurgent Opposition asking the government to adopt “a new approach” in both the Houses. The crucial three-week CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED ‘Many things that cause ageing may have evolved as mechanisms to prevent cancer’ The task ● ahead WITH KEY ally JD(U) and fence-sitters YSRCP and BJD — who are crucial for government in Rajya Sabha — reiterating their special status demands, the Budget will generate huge political interest. NDA’s floor managers will have to ensure allies are happy and fence-sitters content. FIRST U.S. PRESIDENT IN 56 YRS TO OPT OUT Kanwar order: Jayant says not well thought out, Praful calls for its withdrawal ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, JULY 21 TWO DAYS after LJP (Ram Vilas) leader and Union minister Chirag Paswan opposed the police order in Uttar Pradesh asking eateries along the Kanwar Yatra route to display names of their owners, another Union minister, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, on Sunday said the police move was unnecessary and the decision was “not taken after a lot of thought”. Kanwar yatrisdon’tcheckreligionof peoplebeforeaccepting“sewa”from them, he said. This came even as another BJP ally — Ajit Pawar’s NCP — joinedthechorusagainstthepolice order and said it should be withdrawn. Speaking to reporters after the all-party meeting, Chaudhary, who is the Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Skill Development and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, JULY 21 THESUPREMECourtwilltakeup for hearing on Monday a plea challenging the orders in BJPruled Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhandaskingeateriesand stalls on the Kanwar Yatra route todisplaynamesof theirowners. The plea filed by NGO Association of Protection of Civil Rights(APCR)hasbeenlistedbefore a bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and S V N Bhatti. Twomorepetitionshavealso been filed in the apex court challenging the move in the two states.Whilethepleabypolitical commentator Apoorvanand and activist Aakar Patel sought the court’s intervention to ask the statestowithdrawtheorders,the petition filed by TMC MP Mahua MoitraaccusedtheUttarPradesh government of “targeting CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SANDEEP SINGH MUMBAI, JULY 21 PETER BAKER WASHINGTON, JULY 21 US PRESIDENT Joe Biden on Sunday abruptly abandoned his campaign for a second term under intense pressure from fellow Democratsandthrewhissupport to Vice President Kamala Harris to lead their party in a dramatic last-minute bid to stop former President Donald J Trump from returning to the White House. “It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President,” he said in a letter posted on social media. “And while it has been my intention to seek re-election, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.” Biden then posted a subse- FINANCIAL MARKET regulators Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) are worried that the surging volumes in futures and options have started impinging on capital formation and thus pose a systemic risk to India’s economic growth. “Two years ago, when retail investors flooded the F&O segment,weworriedaboutlossesto them,andrestrictedouractionto educating them, warning them. Indeed, nine out of 10 investors were losing money as we subsequently found out. From a micro concern of retail investor losses, it has grown to be a macro problem in just two years; household savingsarefindingtheirwayinto F&Os,itisthreateningtohurtcap- ital formation, investment and growth,” said a source close to regulatorydecisionmaking,who did not wish to be named. Futures and options are derivative contracts that derive their value from underlying assets that include stocks, commodities, currencies etc. Based on their expectation of future pricemovement,investorsenter into a contract to buy or sell the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FIR filed in Bidhannagar against CEO of firm for ‘molesting’ woman on flight EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, JULY 21 ‘It’stimetocometogether andbeatTrump’:Biden quentonlinemessageendorsing Harris. “My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORTS THE WORLD, PAGE 11 MARTYRS’ DAY RALLY Mamata, Akhilesh say NDA govt ‘may fall any day’ RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & ATRI MITRA KOLKATA, JULY 21 FLANKED BY Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while addressing the Martyrs’DayrallyinKolkata,targeted the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, saying it will not complete its five-year term and might “fall any day”. Yadav said the BJP government’s “fall” would usher in “happy days”. Launching an attack on the NDA government, Yadav said, “Yeh sarkar kutch din ke mehman hain.YehDillikisarkarchalnewali nahi, girnewali hain (this government is a guest of few days. This government in Delhi won't fall, it will fall)”. EchoingYadav,Banerjeesaid, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FULL COVERAGE PAGE 3 TURNOVER UP 4 TIMES IN 2 YEARS F&Os surge hurt capital formation, Biden drops out growth; a major concern: SEBI, RBI of White House race, endorses V-P Kamala Harris Move under pressure from Democrats after debate disaster against Trump West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and SP Party chief Akhilesh Yadav at Martyrs’ Day rally in Kolkata on Sunday. Partha Paul THE BIDHANNAGAR Police in West Bengal on Sunday registered an FIR against a top executive of a firm with links to NaveenJindal-promotedentities forallegedlymolestingawoman on a flight from Kolkata to Abu Dhabi on July 16. “We have received a complaint via email. On the basis of the email, an investigation has been initiated... The email is beingtreatedastheFIR,”Aishwarya Sagar, DC (Airport Division) of BidhannagarCityPolicetoldThe IndianExpress,adding,“Wehave assured the woman of a thorough investigation.” The investigators will speak with the woman through video conference on Monday, sources said. The accused is most likely to be summoned soon, they added. Thecasehasbeenfiledunder BNSsections74(assaultoruseof criminalforcewithintenttooutrage modesty), 75 (uttering words or making gestures or exhibiting any object in any form insulting the modesty of a woman)and79(modestyof any woman, utters any words, makes any sound or gesture, or exhibits any object in any form). The 28-year-old woman, whose social media profile describes her as the co-chair of the India Conference at Harvard, identified the accused as Dinesh Kumar Saraogi, the CEO of Oman-basedVulcanGreenSteel. In her social media posts, the woman had written that after asking if she likes to watch movies, the accused allegedly CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Police frisk commuters during a curfew in Dhaka, Sunday. AP Bangladesh SC scales back jobs quota that led to protests, killings Veterans’ quota cut from 30% to 5% JULHAS ALAM & SHEIKH SAALIQ DHAKA, NEW DELHI, JULY 21 BANGLADESH'S TOP court on Sunday scaled back a controversial quota system for government job applicants, in a partial victory for student protesters after days of nationwide unrest and deadly clashes between policeanddemonstratorsthathave killed scores of people. Students,frustratedbyshortages of good jobs, have been demanding an end to a quota that reserved 30% of government jobsforrelativesof veteranswho foughtinBangladesh'swarof in- RELATED REPORT WILL GIVE SHELTER TO THOSE WHO ASK FOR IT, SAYS MAMATA PAGE 3 dependencein1971.Thegovernmentpreviouslyhalteditin2018 followingmassstudentprotests, but in June, Bangladesh's High Court reinstated the quotas and set off a new round of protests. Ruling on an appeal, the Supreme Court ordered that the veterans'quotabecutto5%,with 93% of jobs to be allocated on CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Over 2 yrs after Pune man goes missing, his family see reunion hopes CHANDAN HAYGUNDE & ATIKH RASHID PUNE, JULY 21 DNYANESHWAR VISHNU Tambe’s family have not seen or heardofhimsincethe63-year-old left his home in Pune’s Shirur taluka in December 2021. Two days ago, their hopes of meeting him again were rekindled after, accordingtothem,heappearedin an advertisement on the Instagram account of the ruling Shiv Sena. The ‘Mahayuti’ government in Maharashtra, which, apart from Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’sShivSena,comprisesthe BJPandtheNCP(AjitPawar),last week launched the “Mukhyamantri Teerth Darshan Yojana”, which provides a subsidy of up to Rs 30,000 to senior citizensforpilgrimagetoprominentreligiousdestinationsinthe stateandoutside.WithAssembly elections due later this year, the state government and CM Shinde’spartyhavebeenaggressively publicising the scheme. It was one such advertisement that took Tambe’s son, Bharat, by surprise on Thursday. He says a friend sent him a screenshotof aWhatsAppstatus someone on his contacts list had posted.“Isawthescreenshotand couldn't believe it. It was my father in the ad of the Teerth Darshan Yojana,” said Bharat, who runs an eatery in Shikrapur, about25kilometresfromVarude village, where he lives. Saying his family had grown sceptical of Tambe’s well-being after he remained untraceable for three years, Bharat urged CM Shinde “to oblige me by finding my father and reuniting him withus.”“Nowweknowforsure that he is alive and is well. Our hopes of a reunion are high now,” he said. The police have already begun searching for Tambe. Bharat Dnyaneshwar Tambe and (right) the ad with his photo, according to his family. lodged a missing complaint on Saturdaynight afterthecopsapproached him, said Inspector DeepratanGaikwadof Shikrapur police station. “The family had never lodged a missing report about Dnyaneshwar Tambe in the past," Gaikwad said. Deputy Superintendent of Police Prashant Dhole said, “When we interacted with the family members, they told us that Dnyaneshwar Tambe has left home multiple times in the past and he used to return home on his own. Last time he left home during the Covid-19 outbreak in December 2021.Butthe family members believed that he would return again. So they did not inform the police or lodged any missing report about him before.” “(Tambe’s) family members said that after leaving home, he oftenvisitedplacesof pilgrimage. Theysuspecthenowwenttothe wari procession where his photograph may have been clicked. Wehaveformedteamstosearch for him now,” Dhole added. According to Bharat, his father had a habit of leaving home withoutinforminghisfamilybut would always return “within a fortnight or sometimes a couple of months”. The last time, however, when Tambe did not come back for several months, Bharat started looking for him, contacting friends and relatives, but in vain. After the advertisement, traced to the Shiv Sena’s Instagram handle, Bharat contacted a local journalist and the news soon went viral, even drawing in the Opposition Congress, which criticised the state government. Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar, in an X post, said it was“acrimetouseaphotograph of a citizen in this manner illegally on the advertisement, without seeking their permission”. Slamming the Mahayuti government,hesaiditsschemes as well as advertisements were “hollow”. Thestategovernmentdenied it issued the advertisement featuring the missing man. “The stategovernmenthasnotposted this ad on any of its social media accounts. It has also not been CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata