DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, AUGUST 9, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 NEERAJ CHOPRA FIRST INDIAN TO WIN OLYMPIC GOLD AND SILVER Silver and bronze GREETS INTERIM GOVT CHIEF Ensuresafetyof Hindus,allother minorities:PMto Bangla’sYunus Jaishankar, UK’s Lammy holds talks as ousted Sheikh Hasina waits in Delhi Harmanpreet Singh carries P R Sreejesh after India’s 2-1 win over Spain Thursday. AP Neeraj Chopra’s best attempt of 89.45-m clinched the silver in the men’s javelin throw final in Paris on Thursday. PTI EXPRESSAT OLYMPICS MIHIR VASAVDA PARIS, AUGUST 8 APAKISTANIandanIndianstood on the top two steps of the podium, arm on each other and the world watched in awe. Things like these don’t happen at the Olympics track and field. They shatter the stereotypes, spoil the narrative. Then again, Arshad Nadeem and NeerajChopraareborntodothat for their respective countries. They were not just spearthrowers. Chopra and Nadeem were launching India and Pakistan to places the countries had never been before. Nadeem, with an Olympic record throw of 92.97 m, won Pakistan’s first medal at the Olympics – of any colour, in any sport – since 1992. It was a dominant gold. Chopra’s best effort of 89.45 m fetched him a silver, making him the first Indian to wingoldandsilvermedalsatthe Olympics. The scenes that unfolded Thursday night here were in sharp contrast to the ones that followed the Tokyo Olympics. Back then, Nadeem was accused of “moving around” Chopra’s javelin during the final. As Nadeemgottrolledand targeted relentlessly, Chopra came to the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Harmanpreet strikes twice, Sreejesh holds fort for podium finish Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem after his 92.97-m throw set an Olympic record. PTI See how far my son’s gone, says Nadeem father — Gold, 92.97m NITIN SHARMA CHANDIGARH, AUGUST 8 AS THE phone call connects, MuhammadAshraf isbusyoverseeing the installation of an LCD television in his three-room home in the Mian Chanu village CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MIHIR VASAVDA PARIS, AUGUST 8 HARRY POTTER had his wand. Craig Fulton has Harmanpreet Singh. Beforepenaltycorners,India’s coachwouldwhispersomething in the ear of his captain, who wouldthensprinttothetopofthe Spanish ‘D’. From there, he’d wield his stick in a semi-circular motion to find a hole in the defence and slot the ball into the goal — twice in three minutes. Harmanpreet’s twin strikes, which made him the Paris Olympics’ highest scorer with 10 goals, helped India script a confidentcomebacktobeatSpain2-1 and record their second-straight podium finish at the Olympics. The bronze — won after be- KEY REPO RATE LEFT UNCHANGED Govt decides to send Waqf Bill to House panel Das differs from Survey idea: Cannot ignore LIZ MATHEW food inflation pressures NEW DELHI, AUGUST 8 WITH THE Opposition opposing TheWaqf (Amendment)Billand its own allies wary about the widespread changes proposed by it, the government Thursday sent the legislation to a Joint Committee of Parliament. Union Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju’s introduction of the Bill was met with noisy protests, with Opposition MPs calling it “an attack on the IndianConstitution,thereligious freedom it guarantees and a violation of the federal structure”. The joint committee will be constituted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and include members from both Houses, across parties. Rijiju said he was ready to hold consultations with the stakeholders within the panel once it was formed. The Opposition's main grouse against the Modi governmenthasbeenitsrefusaltosend legislation to panels for consideration, and pushing them through instead. Presenting the Bill, Rijiju denied any intention to interfere with the freedom of any religious body or violation of any CONTINUEDONPAGE2 HITESH VYAS MUMBAI, AUGUST 8 IN THE Economic Survey for 2023-24, its author Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran made a case for excluding food prices from headline inflation, since food prices were keeping the CPI-based (ConsumerPriceIndex)inflation high and delaying a cut in interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India. But RBI Governor ing made to work very hard under a harsh Parisian sun by a resilient Spanish side that defended tight and kept coming at them — was celebrated with wild scenes on the pitch. Defender Sumit, who blocked everything that came down the left flank, leapt in the air and punched the air. As a young hockey player, the 27year-old dreamt of sitting on an airplane. But he supplemented his family's income by washing utensils at a dhaba in Murthal, Haryana. He never gave up and made a promise to himself: his first flight would be when he travels to play for India. Domestically, his teammates would fly to different cities; Sumitspentnightsonatrain.His maiden flight came in 2014. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SPORT Bangladesh President Mohammed Shahabuddin administers oath to Muhammad Yunus in Dhaka. Reuters SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, AUGUST 8 MY COURAGE IS SHATTERED... I DON’T HAVE ANY MORE STRENGTH: VINESH RETIRES ‘FORLAST20YEARS WEHAVESEENHIM ONTV,NOWWECAN FINALLYSPENDTIME WITHHIM’ PAGES21,22 Decks clear for faster access to new drugs with global nod ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, AUGUST 8 Shaktikanta Das differed Thursday and said food inflation pressures cannot be ignored given the high share of food in the consumption basket. Without mentioning the Survey proposal — or the CEA's remark that monetary policy cannotmanagesupply-sidefood shocks—Dassaid,“Firstandforemost is the fact that our target is the headline inflation wherein food inflation has a weight of about 46 per cent. The public at CONTINUEDONPAGE2 NEW DRUGS for weight loss, Alzheimer’s, or cancer that have beenapprovedbytopregulatory authoritiesabroadbutareawaiting approval in India will no longer be required to undergo clinical trials in the country. Pharma companies can now obtain regulatory clearance to sell theirproductsinIndiaif theycan demonstrate that their new drugs offer a "significant therapeutic advance over the current standard of care," and have been CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D For Chopra, might not have been a gold — but it was history ● Fast-track process AT PRESENT, a company must conduct a clinical trial in India even if the drug has been approved globally. The trial must be approved by a committee under the drug regulator. The new rules ease access and will benefit patients with rare diseases or cancers with specific genetic markers. AS NOBEL laureate Professor MuhammadYunuswasswornin as the head of the interim government in Bangladesh Thursday, Prime Minister NarendraModiextendedhisbest wishes to Yunus and urged him toensure“thesafetyandprotection of Hindus and all other minority communities” who have comeunderattackfollowingthe ouster of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on August 5. This direct reference to the safety of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh underlines Delhi’s expectations from CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SIX ARRESTED 2 tribal youths beaten to death at museum near SoU on suspicion of theft AAP calls bandh at Ekta Nagar today EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE VADODARA, AUGUST 8 TWO TRIBAL youths were beaten to death allegedly by a group of six persons on the suspicion of theft at an under-construction tribal museum near the Statue of Unity in Narmada district. The six accused — all workersof theagencyconstructing the tribal museum — were arrested on Wednesday. Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader and Dediapada MLA Chaitar Vasava has called for bandh in Ekta Nagar on Friday, which is also the World Tribal Day, in the aftermath of the double murders. The incident occurred on August 6 night when Jayesh Tadvi (34) and Sanjay Tadvi (35) allegedly entered the premises of the tribal museum. Thesix accused accosted the Tadvis, tied them up and assaulted them on thesuspicionof theft,policesaid. "The accused confined the youth to a cabin at the site, where they were assaulted by metal pipes and iron rods... When Jayesh Tadvi collapsed from the assault, he was rushed to the Garudeshwar hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival on Wednesday. Sanjay Tadvi breathed his last at the Rajpipla Civil hospital on Thursday. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, Ekta Nagar,isinvestigatingthecaseof CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Bengal’s last CPI(M) CM, reformer-politician who tried to change Left’s face RAVIK BHATTACHARYA KOLKATA, AUGUST 8 THE FACE of “reformist” Left, the Chief Minister who hoped to haul WestBengalintothe industrialisationagewith“theworld’s cheapest car”, the writer-politician who failed to take own party along, and the leader who ultimately fell to one almost completely unlike him, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee passed away on Thursday at his residence in Kolkata after a long illness. He was 80. It was an end that was as far away from the beginning as it gets. For, it was in a burst of glory that Bhattacharjee hit the national limelight in 2000, picked asthesuccessortothelegendary Jyoti Basu, who was at the time India’s longest-serving CM. The ruling CPI(M)-led Left Front won the 2001 Assembly seatsthatfollowed(winning199 out of 294 Assembly seats), and increased its tally further under Bhattacharjee in the 2006 elections (to 235). During his tenure, Bhattacharjeelaunchedanindustrialisation drive, including huge investmentsinITandITES(infor- mationtechnologyenabledservices) sectors, a plan to build the country’s largest integrated steel plantinSalboni,achemicalhubin Nayachar, an SEZ in Nandigram andtheNanoplantinSingur.The lattertwo,however,wouldprove Bhattacharjee’s undoing, as the acquisition of land in Singur, Hooghly district, for Tata Motors tobuildNanoin2006,andforthe SEZinNandigramin2007,raninto huge protests from farmers. These eventually took the shape of an anti-government movement led primarily by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. The fiery, BUDDHADEB BHATTACHARJEE 1944 - 2024 scrappy politician who had been fighting the CPI(M) singlehandedly in the state seized her moment to strike at the Left, by then in power for 34 years in Bengal andfacinghugeanti-incumbency. In the 2011 Assembly elections, the TMC ended the Left reign, and Mamata became the CM. Bhattacharjee lost from his own seat, Jadavpur, to the TMC’s Manish Gupta. Bhattacharjee started out as a primarymemberoftheCPI(M)in 1966andtookanactivepartinthe party’s food movement against thefamine-likeconditionsunder a Congress government. He took overastheCMforthefirsttimeon November 2, 2000, after Basu stepped down. In 2002, he was elected to the Politburo. Even as Bhattacharjee occupied the top position in the state, his wife Meera and daughter Suchetana lived in a two-room apartment in Ballygunge in Kolkata, the residence they continue to live in. His incorruptible image was oneof Bhattacharjee’sbiggestassets. To weed out corruption in school recruitments, he made a rule that all such hiring would be done through a school service commission (SSC) exam. Behind this political persona, there was another facet to Bhattacharjee — of a man steepeddeeplyincultureandliterature.Hehadaspecialrelationshipwith'Nandan',thestategovernment-runcultureandcinema hub. Since 1995, Nandan has hosted the Kolkata Film Festival. Even after he became the CM, Bhattacharjee could be found most evenings at Nandan, interacting with Bengali literary personalities,inaroomkeptforhim. He authored about eight books, including translations of the works of Colombian writer CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Ahmedabad