DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2024, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES & ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 NAME SPELLS COURAGE: JANTAR MANTAR TO PARIS PODIUM Vinesh Phogat Defeats unbeaten Yui Susaki of Japan on way to historic final today EXPRESSAT OLYMPICS MIHIR VASAVDA PARIS, AUGUST 6 VINESHPHOGATstartedtheday byslayingagiantandendeditby breaking a barrier. By making it to Wednesday's final in the 50kg category, assured of at least a silver,sherosetoaheightthatno Indian woman wrestler has ever reached. Afterovercomingthedefendingchampion,theso-farunbeatableJapan’sYuiSusaki,inthefirst round, Phogat outclassed Cuba’s Vinesh Phogat after defeating Japan’s Yui Susaki at Champ-de-Mars Arena in Paris on Tuesday. PTI Rollback after criticism: Indexation benefit on sale of property before Budget brought back New 12.5 per cent tax on LTCG will apply to all property sales after July 23 AANCHAL MAGAZINE & SUKALP SHARMA NEW DELHI, AUGUST 6 FOLLOWINGOUTRAGEandconcerns from certain quarters over the Budget proposal to remove indexation benefits on longterm capital gains (LTCG), the government Tuesday decided to offertaxpayersachoicetopay20 per cent LTCG tax with indexation benefit on sale of property acquired before July 23, 2024. The other option introduced in the Budget to pay the tax on LTCGatareducedrateof 12.5per centwithoutindexationwillalso be available to taxpayers, as per the list of amendments moved bythegovernmentintheFinance Bill. Taxpayers can pay the lower tax amount of the two options. Theseamendmentsarebeing seen as a major rollback of the LTCG-related announcements pertaining to the real estate sector in the Budget. While the government had defended the new LTCG tax regime saying that the removalof indexationwasmore than made up for by the lower tax rate of 12.5 per cent in a vast majorityof transactions,theproposalshadledtoabacklashwith calls for relief coming from varioussections,includingrealestate investors and property owners. The amendment, however, makes it clear that for purchases of property after the cut-off date of July 23, 2024, only the new regime with LTCG tax at the rate of 12.5 per cent without indexation will be applicable. Indexation is the process of adjusting the original purchase priceof anassetorinvestment;it CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Sweeping terms in draft broadcast Bill raise red flags on free speech APURVA VISHWANATH & SOUMYARENDRA BARIK NEW DELHI, AUGUST 6 EXPANDING ITS remit from OTT content and digital news to include social media accounts and online video creators; defining a “digital news broadcaster” in sweeping terms; requiring prior registration with government to prescribing standards for content evaluation, the latest draft of the Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2024, raises several questions on the freedom of speech and expression and the government’s powers to regulate it. The Bill, which seeks to replace the 1995 Cable Television Networks(Regulation)Act,deals with television broadcasting. In November last year, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had invited comments on a new draftBillthatconsolidatesthele- Widening the ambit THE LATEST draft seeks to include individual creators of content on social media including those outside India, covering all kinds of speech. It also seeks to validate the Code of Ethics prescribed under the IT Rules, 2021, which has been stayed by two High Courts. galframeworkforthebroadcasting sector and extends it to OTT contentanddigitalnewsandcurrent affairs as well. However, it is learnt that the Ministry has revised the draft Bill, significantly altering its focus. The latest draft seeks to define “digital news broadcasters” to include “publisher of news CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Vinesh Phogat being dragged away by Delhi Police which detained her at Jantar Mantar on May 28, 2023. She became the face of the protests by wrestlers against the then WFI chief and former BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who they accused of sexual harassment. ANI file UNDER UK RULE, SHE CAN’T SEEK ASYLUM FROM OVERSEAS QuestionmarkoverherLondon plans,DelhireadytohostHasina SHUBHAJIT ROY THE EDITORIAL PAGE A FIGHTING CHANCE BY PRATAP BHANU MEHTA PAGE 14 EC TEAM ARRIVES TOMORROW On J&K street: Talk of elections with some fingers crossed ANISUR RAHMAN NEW DELHI, AUGUST 6 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Dhaka dissolves House, frees Khaleda, Yunus appointed head of interim govt Ousted Bangla PM wants refuge because she fears persecution if sent back home OUSTED BANGLADESH Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who landed in India Monday evening after fleeing Dhaka, is expected to remain here for “a while” because her plans to travel to the UK face a “technical roadblock,” The Indian Express has learnt. NewDelhiisdrawingupplans to host her in the country for “as long as it takes”, sources said. Hasinawasplanningtotravel to London as her sister Sheikh Rehana’s daughter Tulip Siddiq is a member of the British Parliament. Tulip is economic secretary to the Treasury and Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate. The “technical” challenge emanates from the UK’s Immigration rules which have Yusneylis Guzman Lopez 5-0 in the semifinal to be a win away from an Olympic gold. From the middle of the first round, when she got a point due to her opponent's passivity, Phogat was the more dominant wrestler in the bout,andsettledthematterwith two separate takedowns in the second period. Itwas,however,Phogat'swin over Susaki, one of the biggest upsets of these Games, that made the entire Olympic universestandupandacknowledge her.Anoutcomethathasshaken the wrestling world. There isn't a direct parallel that captures Susaki’s perceived invincibility on the wrestling mat.Theclosest,perhaps,would DHAKA, AUGUST 6 Official vehicles seen entering the Hindon air base near Delhi where ousted Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina landed on Monday after fleeing her country. PTI REPORTS,P9,16 India advised restraint, dialogue: Jaishankar on Bangladesh protests LIZ MATHEW & DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, AUGUST 6 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY SAYING THAT there was growing tension and polarisation in Bangladesh politics since the January elections, External AffairsMinisterSJaishankartold ParliamentonTuesdaythatIndia “repeatedly counselled restraint” and dialogue, but “various decisions and actions taken thereafter only exacerbated the situation”. BANGLADESH PRESIDENT Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, paving the way for fresh elections, and an interim government was taking shape, a day after Sheikh Hasina abruptly resigned as Prime Minister and fledthecountryfollowingweeks of violent anti-government protests. As the Army took charge on Monday and the death toll in the violence in which temples were also attacked rose to 440, the President appointed Nobel laureate Mohammad Yunus, 84, as the head of the interim government. The decision was taken at a meeting of Shahabuddin with chiefs of the three services and a 13-member delegation of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement at Bangabhaban, President's Press Secretary Md. Joynal Abedin said. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chief and ex-premierKhaledaZiawasfreed from house arrest, according to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Some Indians stay back by choice, compulsion VIDHEESHAKUNTAMALLA, RAVIKBHATTACHARYA, ATRIMITRA &SHAWANSARKAR NEW DELHI, KOLKATA, AUG 6 Students from Bangladesh at Petrapole border checkpost in West Bengal on Tuesday. Partha Paul IN THE riot-hit streets of Old Dhaka’s Kolta Bazar in Bangladesh, a 24-year-old medical intern from Surat, Gujarat, clutcheshisIDcardlikealifeline. “It’s our curfew pass,” he explains, as he makes his way to the hospital where he works. Explaining why he stayed backdespitethepoliticalturmoil and a potential threat to his well being, the intern at Dhaka National Medical College, who did not wish to be identified, said, “I am of course worried about my safety but I am doing my duty as promised. Serving the people is the need of the hour, which is why I decided to stay on.” At the moment, “Indians are mostly safe”. Since the unrest began last month, thousands of Indian students have crossed the borders At Lal Chowk in Srinagar on the fifth anniversary of abrogation of Article 370 on Monday. PTI BASHAARAT MASOOD, NAVEED IQBAL & ARUN SHARMA SRINAGAR, JAMMU, AUGUST 6 THE SUPREME Court has directed the government to conduct Assembly elections in Jammu&KashmirbySeptember and expedite the process of restoring statehood. J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinhahassaidthereshouldbeno doubtelectionswillbeheld.And indeed,theElectionCommission ofIndiacommencesitsthree-day visit to the Union Territory on August 8 to review the preparations for elections. But amid talks about imminent polls and an elected government, there are some fingers crossed in Jammu and Kashmir CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TOMORROW Laying down hard line 5 YEARS SINCE AUG 5 AN EXPRESS SERIES PART-3 POLITICS P12 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW OMAR ABDULLAH VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL CONFERENCE THE WORLD AFTER DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION, HARRIS PICKS TIM WALZ AS RUNNING MATE HEZBOLLAH SENDS ATTACK DRONES, ISRAEL WARJETS FLY OVER BEIRUT PAGE 16 CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 Forefathers made Wayanad their home, now dreams lie buried here PAGE 1 ANCHOR SHAJU PHILIP CHOORALMALA, AUGUST 6 ASHRAFHASN’Tknownalifebeyond the hills of Wayanad. He first came to Mundakkai village as a four-year-old, accompanying his parents who had moved from Nilambur in Malappuram district to work on the tea plantations. Like his parents before him,hefoundajobontheteaestateswhenheturned22.Butunlike them, he allowed himself to dream of a better life for himself and his four children. “I have always lived in the estatequarters—firstwithmyparents and later, my wife and children. But I always dreamt of owningapieceof land.Irecently bought 10 cents (around 4,355 sq ft), hoping I will some day build my own house,” he says. But the landslide of July 30, which tore through the hills of Wayanad, has washed away his dreams,ravagingMundakkaiand Chooralmala, two of the worstaffectedvillages.“Nowit’sallover. The landslide has rendered my land useless. That plot will have to be abandoned. Nobody will buy it either,” he says. Ashraf hadbeenstayingwith a relative in Kalpetta town for a week since the landslides. On Tuesday, he returned to Mundakkai and saw the quarters he used to live in reduced to rubble. Almost everyone in Mundakkai, Chooralmala and other parts of the landslide-hit At Chooralmala, one of the villages in Wayanad district worst hit by the July 30 landslides. Shaju Philip Wayanad hills trace their ancestry to people who were brought by the British from various parts of South India to work on the plantations. They talk proudly of how their fathers or grandfathers toiled on the land, turning the hills into verdant tea and coffee plantations. Though they stayed instuffyquarters,theydreamtof a better future for their children. The second and third generations from among these plantation workers went on to own houses and vehicles and sent theirchildrentoschools andcolleges in Kerala and beyond. Many of them also went abroad to work, especially to the Gulf, andtheirremittancesbroughtin a new affluence to the region. In the lower belts of the hillocks, they built new, fancier homes with courtyards and porches for their new cars. It’s this — the newer structuresbuiltthroughsheergritand toil — that the gushing waters washed away, while most of the dilapidatedworkerquartersand the old-fashioned estate bunga- lows on the upper areas of the hillocks, where their forefathers lived, remained untouched by the landslide. As the water receded, it left behindmangledremainsof cars, jeeps, two-wheelers and house appliances. At the relief camp, K Annayyan and his wife Shakunthala are unsure of what lies ahead.Annayyansayshisparents cametoChooralmalafromUdupi inKarnatakaasplantationworkers. “I don’t remember the year CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 Kolkata