DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA GDPgrowthrateslumps toneartwo-yearlow of5.4%inJuly-Sept THE WORLD AANCHAL MAGAZINE NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 29 UK MPs VOTE FOR BILL TO LEGALISE ASSISTED DYING Friday prayers were offered at the mosque in Sambhal amid tight security. PTI Legal matter between pvt party & US: Govt on Adani indictment DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 29 IN THE first official comment after the US indictment of industrialist Gautam Adani for his alleged role in a bribery scheme, the government on Friday termed it as a “legal matter involving private individuals and private entities and the US Department of Justice”. Responding to a question at the weekly briefing, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the Indian government was not informed in advance about the matter, nor had it received any request to serve a summons or arrest warrant. “Obviously, there are established procedures and legal avenues in such cases which we believe would be followed…We have not been informed in advance on the issue,” he said. Jaiswal added that there had been no “conversations” with the US on the matter. “Thisisamatterthatpertains toprivateindividualsandprivate entities. The Government of India, we are not part of it legally in any manner at this point in time.Weseeitasacasebetween the US Department of Justice and private individuals and entities,” he said. Saying that the government had not received any requests to serve summons or arrest CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 GUJARAT ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 29 UNDERLINING that “peace and harmony must prevail”, the Supreme Court on Friday directed a trial court in Uttar Pradesh — which had allowed a survey of the Mughal-era Shahi Jama Masjid in Sambhal which Hindus claim was built by de- stroying a Hindu temple — to temporarily halt proceedings in the matter. Asking the mosque management committee to approach theAllahabadHighCourtagainst the trial court order, it said further proceedings before the trial court would follow the directions of the High Court. The bench of Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and Justice HARIKISHAN SHARMA & NIKHIL GHANEKAR NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 29 OBSERVING THAT the benefits outweigh the potential drawbacks, a Supreme Court-appointedpanelhasbackedsetting up five hydroelectric projects (HEPs) on the Ganga and its tributariesinUttarakhand—evenas theMinistryof Environmentand Forest (MoEF) and Jal Shakti Ministry opposed the projects. The ministries had raised apprehensions ranging from impact onriversnotbeingtakenintoaccount to the projects falling in landslide or seismic zones. Thetopcourthasbeenexaminingthequestionofstartingnew HEPs on the Ganga since 2013, in asuomotucaseittookupfollowing the Kedarnath floods that killed over 5,000 people. Initially,thecourtputamoratoriumongrantingclearancesfor any new HEPs, and asked the MoEF to form a committee to first study the impact of such projects.Sincethen,theministry has formed three committees: ■ The first one, led by environmentalist Ravi Chopra, concluded in 2014 that HEPs exacerbated the disaster. It also recommended not going ahead with 24 proposed projects. ■ After six HEP proponents moved the Supreme Court for permissiontoresumetheirprojects, the ministry formed a secondcommitteein2015underIITKanpur’s Vinod Tare. This panel found that the six projects had prior clearances but would pose serious ecological impacts. ■ Then, a third committee CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAGE 21 Sanjay Kumar was hearing a SpecialLeavePetitionfiledbythe mosque management commit- mate arrived at through a poll of economists. Several factors added up to what Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran described 8.1 8.6 7.8 6.7 5.4 Source: NSO, MoSPI as a “disappointing but not alarming” lower growth rate in Q2. Going forward, he said, doubling down on deregulation, expanding state capacity for public investment, and improving hiring and compensation policies inthe privatesector,willimprovegrowthprospectsandturn thesecondquarternumbersinto a fading memory. “Bulk of the slowdown has been predominantly due to the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 defeats in Haryana, Maharashtra due to ‘malpractices’ Day after Delhi visit, Shinde leaves for his village; Mahayuti meeting put on hold SHUBHANGI KHAPRE & MANOJ MORE MUMBAI, PUNE, NOVEMBER 29 MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 29 AT A meeting of the Congress WorkingCommittee(CWC)held against the backdrop of back-tobackelectoraldefeatsinHaryana andMaharashtra,theOpposition partyonFridaydecidedtolaunch a “national movement” seeking “free and fair elections” and targeted the Election Commission (EC)forits“partisanfunctioning”. The party decided not to focus solely on the integrity of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) or the demand for a returntoballotpapers,andinstead agreed to widen the ambit of its A 5.4% growth rate in Q2 has set alarm bells ringing in the government. The key question going forward is, has India entered a cyclical growth slowdown phase. The CEA said in clear certain terms that deregulation, improving state capacities for public investment, and private sector compensation policies, will pave the path for higher growth in the coming quarters. GDP GROWTH RATES (%) Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge with party leader Rahul Gandhi during the CWC meeting in Delhi. Anil Sharma GOVT & POLITICS TILL WHEN WILL YOU DEPEND ON NATIONAL LEADERS: KHARGE PAGE 20 movement to the “entire electoral process”. DaysafterCongresspresident Mallikarjun Kharge called for a returntoballotpapers,thelarger consensusatthemeeting,which lastedfour-and-a-half hours,was to focus on what the party believes are “electoral malpractices”atalllevels.Asectionof the Congress leadership thinks it is not prudent to blame EVMs for the losses since the party does not yet have any solid evidence CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A DAY after meeting the BJP top brass, including Union Home MinisterAmitShah,inDelhi,Shiv Sena leader and Maharashtra’s caretaker Chief Minister Eknath ShindeleftforhisvillageinSatara on Friday, triggering speculation on his next move. With Shinde away, a Mahayuti meeting that was expected to be held in Mumbai to discuss government formation had to be put on hold. Sena spokesperson Uday Samant said Shinde was unwell, and denied that he was upset. “He is suffering from fever and cold...To say that he is upset will not be appropriate... We all feel that he should be a part of the Shinde visits village when he has to take big decision: Party leader government and guide us,” he said. Shinde, too, told reporters in his village of Daregaon that he had“throatpain”andwouldtalk to them later. Party leader Sanjay Shirsat, however, said that whenever Shinde has to “reflect on an importantmatter”ortakea“bigdecision”, he visits his village. “As he has gone today, he may take some big decision by tomorrow. Considering the ongoing political developments in Maharashtra,andwhatheneeds CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lothal death: Police, district admn Telangana govt schools for SCs, STs under seek explanation from 2 IITs, ASI scanner after girl’s death; toll 49 this year AHMEDABAD, NOVEMBER 29 PAGE 3 SAMBHAL COURT GRANTS SURVEY TEAM MORE TIME tee,whichsoughtanex-parteadinterim stay on the operation of theNovember19trialcourtorder. Appearing for the mosque managementcommittee,Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi urged the bench to stay the trial court orderbutthebenchdeclinedthe request. “No. We are saying that no further steps in the suit without the permission of the High MoEF, Jal Shakti said CWC RESOLUTION SILENT ON EVMs no, but panel tells SC Cong widens focus to ‘entire poll process’, targets ‘partisan’ EC 5 hydro projects on Calls for national Ganga are good to go movement, says BRENDAN DABHI ADOPTING NATURAL FARMING NEED OF THE HOUR, SAYS GOVERNOR PAGE4 VADODARA: CASE ORDERED AGAINST 5, INCLUDING EX-DCP EXPRESS NETWORK INDIA’S REAL Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth slumped to a seven-quarter low of 5.4 per cent in July-September 2024, pulled down by “sluggish growth” in manufacturing and a decelerationinminingandquarrying, data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Friday showed. The 5.4 per cent growth rate in Q2 is lower than 6.7 per cent in the April-June quarter and 8.1 percentinJuly-September2023. It is at least a percentage point lower than the consensus esti- E Beating cyclical ● slowdown Q2FY25 Deregulation, state capacity to spend, pvt hiring key to higher growth: CEA Q1FY25 CJI bench tells mosque management committee to approach High Court MANUFACTURING, MINING DRAG GROWTH Q4FY24 Sambhal mosque survey: SC halts trial court proceedings, says maintain peace Q3FY24 BY UNNY `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Q2FY24 BUSINESS AS USUAL JOURNALISM OF COURAGE E X P L A I NE D SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2024, AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 24 + 4 PAGES TWO DAYS after a 23-year-old Ph D scholardied while working in a trench at the Harappan site of Lothal, the Gujarat police and the district administration have sought explanations from IITDelhiandIIT-Gandhinagaralong with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) asking if due permissionsweretakenbythefourmember research team that visited the spot, and if the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was followed. Victim’s kin at the site of the mishap. Bhupendra Rana Surabhi Verma, a researcher at IIT Delhi, died after the excavation pit, from where she was collectingsoilsamples,collapsed on her on November 27. Assistant Professor Yama Dixit, 45, was also buried in the cave-in but was rescued by local residents and first responders. OnThursday,ateamfromASI visited the site of the mishap. Superintendent of Police, Ahmedabad Rural, Om Prakash Jat told The Indian Express on Friday,“Themembersof thedigging team told us in their statements that they had carried out CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SREENIVAS JANYALA HYDERABAD, NOVEMBER 29 A YOUNG girl with big dreams, who wanted to study for as long as the family could afford it — this is how 16-year-old Sailaja’s brother remembers her. “She made our father promise that he would not insist on her getting married until she completeshighereducation.She used to talk about science and engineering courses,” says C Navneet, her brother. Her dreams came crashing after she got food poisoning at the government-run residential school where she was studying — in Wankidi Mandal in Telangana’s Komaram Bheem Asifabad district. She was among 60 students to have fallen ill after lunch on October 28 at the ST Ashram School, run by the Telangana Social Welfare Residential Educational Institutions Society (TSWREIS). After a month of hospitalisation, she died on November 25. TSWREIS runs 268 residential educational institutions that catertostudentsfromScheduled Caste,ScheduledTribe,Backward Sailaja, 16, was among 60 students who fell ill after lunch at school on Oct 28 Classes,andminoritycommunities. The schools are under intensescrutinyafterthedeathsof 49 students over the course of this year — 30 from suicide, five duetofoodpoisoning,and14because of other illnesses. But it is Sailaja’s death that has perhaps shaken the system the most, with Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who also holds the education portfolio, pulling upDistrictCollectorsandeducation officers. Thestategovernmenthasordered the setting up of committees to address incidents of food CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 As India play PM’s XI today, an Aussie quick recalls Sachin wicket in ’91 EXPRESSINAUSTRALIA SRIRAM VEERA CANBERRA, NOVEMBER 29 “SACHIN TENDULKAR wasn’t such a big name then; Ravi Shastri was,” says the one-time Aussie first-class pace bowler Greg Rowell with a laugh. A successful lawyer and Cricket Australia official in his mid-50s now,heistalkingaboutthe1991 Prime Minister’s XI game at ManukaOval,wherethecurrent India team is set to play the warm-up game from Saturday. Rowell, 23 then, and looking tobreakintotheAustralianteam, finishedthegamewithflattering figures of 7 for 27, including the wicketsof TendulkarandShastri. Like now, India had played just oneTestbeforethatPM’sXIgame then and the 18-year old Tendulkar hadn’t yet scored much. But soon, hundreds at Perth and Sydney Tests would follow. “Oh, by the end of the series though, I would know who Tendulkar really was,” he says. The Prime Minister’s XI games were a big deal then in Australian cricket, with talented youngsters rubbing shoulders with seniors and having a crack at the national scene. “It was televisednationally,andforusfirstclass players, it was a game where the country saw and judged you,” Rowell recalls. In that game, apart from young Rowell, there was Shane Warne, Damien Martin, Matthew Hayden, Michael Bevan, Damien Fleming with his mullet hair style, Greg Blewett, Jamie Siddons and Tim Zoehrer. Rowell grew up in Canberra but Greg Rowell, who played in the 1991 PM’s XI match at Manuka Oval, is now a lawyer and Cricket Australia official played his cricket in Sydney as Canberracricketwasn’tbigthen. The Rohit Sharma-led Indian team, too, met with Australian PM Anthony Albanese ahead of their pink-ball practice game in the capital against PM’s XI. When the PM told Virat Kohli in jest that his Perth century kept adding to the grief of Baggy Greens, Kohli is reported to have retorted cheekily, “Always gotta add some spice”. But Albanese was only following a long-held tradition. The touring team playing PM’s XI dates back to the time when Australia had the crickettragic prime minister, Robert Menzies. That was 1951, when the vastly popular West Indies team was in the country and Menzies spotted a gap in the schedule when the visitors weren’t playing a game. So he called up the Australian cricket board head and said he would liketothrowagameatCanberra, Australia’s capital and home of its parliament and politicians. “I added that it was a personal proposition, not a government matter; that I would personally guarantee the expenses, including transport of players and if any profit resulted, it wouldgoto theCanberraLegacy Club,devotedtohelpingwidows andchildrenof fallencomrades,” he is reported to have said. In 1963, even Don Bradman played for PM’s XI, years after his retirement.Incidentally,hescored four runs, the exact number he needed in his last international game to get the average of 100; backthen,hewould,ofcourse,fall foraduck.Ongettingoutin1963, BradmanreportedlytoldMenzies, “Itwouldn’thappeninathousand years!Anyway,that’smyfinalappearance at the wicket.” These games stopped after Menzies’s tenure, but another popular prime minister, Bob Hawke,revivedthefixturein1983. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad