DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA BY UNNY INDIAN-ORIGIN KASH PATEL IS TRUMP’S PICK FOR FBI CHIEF RUSSIAN JETS BOMB SYRIA’S REBEL-HELD NORTHWEST PAGE 8 `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ALL EYES ON POLICY MEETING DECEMBER 4-6 Amid slowdown, RBI-Govt gulf widens, from growth estimate to holding rates Inflation versus growth debate comes to fore as FY25 Q2 growth slumps to 5.4% THE WORLD POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE MONDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2024, JAIPUR, LATE CITY, 14 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL ● AANCHAL MAGAZINE & P VAIDYANATHAN IYER NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 1 MUCH BEFORE data released on November 29 showed that India’s economic growth had slumped to a seven-quarter low of 5.4percentinJuly-September, discussions within the government had questioned RBI’s upward revision of growth estimatesto7.2percentfor2024-25 and flagged worries about the cumulativeimpactof itsprudential measures, The Indian Express has learnt. There were apprehensions that these had begun hurting India’s growth prospects and the RBI’sdecisiontokeeppolicyrates static because of food and gold/silverinflation,hasmadethe effective real rate of interest for thenon-foodpartoftheeconomy very high now, top officials said. TheRBIwouldnotagreewith this assessment, said some analysts and experts tracking the central bank’s regulatory and monetary policy actions. They said housing loans are at 8.5 per cent, MSME loans are at 10-11 per cent, and if you net out CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Trump warns BRICS: Give up idea of replacing dollar or face 100% tariffs RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 1 SETTINGTHEstagetocounterany challenge to the dollar’s domination in global trade, US Presidentelect Donald Trump has threatened the BRICS grouping, which hasIndia,RussiaandChinaamong its key members, with “100 per cent tariffs” if they moved to create a new currency or back any otheroptionastheworld’sreserve. “The idea that the BRICS countries are trying to move ‘Requirea commitment theywon’t createanew currency’ away from the dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER,” Trump wrote in a social media post early Sunday. “We require a commitment from these countries that they will neither create a new BRICS CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ANY PROPOSED BRICS currency is an extension of existing alternatives to facilitate trade and reduce reliance on one currency. The yen, euro and pound are also integral to global commerce — and the US has not objected to their use. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at the ‘Kathale Kulsammelan' programme in Nagpur on Sunday. PTI SHUBHANGI KHAPRE MUMBAI, DECEMBER 1 RSS CHIEF Mohan Bhagwat on Sundayexpressedconcernabout India’s falling fertility rate and said couples should have at least three children to ensure that India's population does not decline. Addressing the Kathale Kul SammelaninNagpuronSunday, the RSS sarsanghchalak said in Marathi, “Loksankhya shashtra asa sangta ki 2.1 cha khali jayla lagla tar to samaaj nasht hoto. Prithvi cha pathi kuthech rahat nahi. Tyala koni marat nahi. To apopap nashta hoto. 2.1 cha khali yeta kama nahi. Jansankhya policy 1998 ki 2002 te hi asa sagtat ki 2.1 cha khali … 0.1 manus tar janmat nahi ... tar don peksha jasta pahije teen tari kamit kami asa shashtra sangtat (According to population science, when the populationgrowthisbelow2.1,a society perishes on its own. Nobody destroys it. It no longer exists anywhere in the world. Reiterates Sena will back Modi, Shah call SHUBHAM TIGGA & MANOJ MORE SATARA, PUNE, DECEMBER 1 A DAY after the state BJP announced that the new Maharashtra government will be sworn in on December 5 at Mumbai’s Azad Maidan, caretaker Chief Minister and Shiv SenapresidentEknathShindeon Sunday made a strong pitch for his return to the top post, assertingthatheworkedasacommon man, so the common man feels he should be back in the saddle. He also sought to remind the BJP central leadership that Assembly elections were successfully fought under his leadership although he reiterated INSIDE that his party will support the decisiontakenbyPrimeMinister NarendraModiandUnionHome Minister Amit Shah. “I was the people's Chief Minister. ...Actually, I used to say that I was not just the Chief Minister but the Common Man. As a common man, I understood problemsandpainsufferedbythe peopleandtriedtoaddressthem. SinceIworkedasacommonman, obviouslypeoplefeelthatIshould become the Chief Minister,” Shindesaidinresponsetoaquestion regarding the demand in somesectionsinthestatethathe should hold the post again. Shinde was speaking to reporters in his native village of Dare in Satara district, where he CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FENGAL AFTERMATH Army personnel rescue people from a flooded area in Puducherry on Sunday, a day after Cyclone Fengal made landfall. PTI Terror up, security agencies grapple with solving the Kishtwar puzzle BASHAARAT MASOOD KISHTWAR, DECEMBER 1 SEPTEMBER 13: Two soldiers killed, two injured in exchange of fire with militants in Chatroo forests, Kishtwar SEPTEMBER 22: Gunfight in Chatroo,militantsmanagetoescape. SEPTEMBER 23: Another gunfight in Chatroo, militants again give security forces the slip. OCTOBER 3: Gunfight in Chatroo, militants flee site. NOVEMBER 7: Two village defence committee members killed. NOVEMBER 11: Special forces JCO killed, three soldiers injured in a gunfight. WHEN ONE enters Kishtwar town nowadays, a flex banner is displayedattheentry,withthree pictures and an announcement that any information leading to them will fetch a reward of Rs 30 lakh.Thepicturesarethatofthree militants including Mohammad Amin,thelongestsurvivingmilitant of Jammu and Kashmir. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 As Cong sticks to Adani row, murmurs of unease within over stalling of Parliament LIZ MATHEW & MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 1 A LOOK AT AJMER DARGAH’S ENDURING POLITICAL, CULTURAL RESONANCE OVER 10,500 URLs WITH KHALISTAN LINKS BLOCKED P 3, 4 WITH THE standoff in Parliament, triggered by the Congress's insistence on a thorough discussion on the Adani bribery allegations and the government’s reluctance to accept it, showing no signs of ending, there is unease among a section of the party's Lok Sabha MPs as When population growth is below 2.1, a society perishes on its own: Bhagwat BRICS vision Shinde: Worked as common man, so people want me back as Maharashtra CM Maharashtra caretaker CM Eknath Shinde arrives in Thane from his native Dare village in Satara, Sunday. Deepak Joshi RSS chief calls for 3-child norm to avoid decline in population Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan, Sunday. Abhinav Saha well as some other Opposition parties over the continued stalling of the two Houses. As it is, it is largely the Congress MPs who have been demanding a discussion on the Adani issue — leading to a washout of the first week of the Winter Session. The notices by other Opposition MPs were over other issues, including the Manipur situation and the Sambhal violence. Parties such as the Trinamool Congress and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) are not keen to raise the Adani issue. The Adani issue is a pet theme of Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi and hence the Congress MPs have no option but to give notices demanding suspension of allbusinessfortakingupadiscussion on the issue. But a sectionof itsMPs,particularlythose CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 1 SENIOR BJP LEADER FROM MAHARASHTRA PAGE 10 GOVT & POLITICS NO DIFFERENCE IN BANGLADESH, INDIA SITUATION: MUFTI PAGE 4 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 After Andhra Pradesh, Telangana likely to scrap two-child policy amid population debate NIKHILA HENRY ‘We will raise Ladki Bahin grant to `2,100. If we don’t, we will be criticised across the nation’ SUDHIR MUNGANTIWAR Therefore,itshouldnotcomebelow 2.1 at any cost. As per the population policy of 1998 or 2002, I don't exactly remember, it was said that the population growthrateshouldnotgo below 2.1. Now a human is not born in the 0.1 fraction ... So, it should be a minimum of three).” Bhagwat went on to say, “We countthefamilyasavitalunitthat makes up a society. The culture and values are inherited and passedfromonegenerationtoanother, thus preserving the core systemsandvaluesthataretimeless and relevant not just to Indians but also globally.” Bhagwat was referring to the total fertility rate (TFR), or the number of babies an average woman aged 15-49 bears over her lifetime. Between 1992-93 and 2019-21, India's TFR came down from 3.4 to 2, with the fall especially significant in rural areas. A TFR of 2.1 is considered “replacement-level fertility”. That means a woman having two children replaces herself AMID THE debate over population control and weeks after Andhra Pradesh did away with its “two-child policy”, which barred people with more than twochildren from contestinglocal body polls, neighbouring Telangana is likely to follow suit. A part of undivided Andhra Pradesh till 2014, Telangana, like Andhra Pradesh, will have to amend its Panchayat Raj Act, 2018, for the policy to be scrapped and a file in this regard willsoonbepresentedbeforethe state Cabinet, a top government source told The Indian Express. “There is enough evidence that shows we are moving towards a time when the populationof thestatewillage.Itisnow time to reverse a few family planning measures which were implementedearlier,”thesenior government official said and Telangana willbecome the6thstate torescind thepolicy added that by 2047, Telangana would“needmoreyoungstersor children to be around”. “Telangana too thinks it should be equipped to deal with an increase in the state’s elderly population,” the official said. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu earlier said his government would provide incentives to thosewhohavemorechildren,a policy adopted by several European nations. Andhra Pradesh,whilescrappingthepolicy,hadalsocitedconcernsabout lowfertilityratesandageingpopulation. State Information and Public Relations Minister, K Parthasarathy last month said CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Its land given to hospital, inmates of India’s largest open-air jail await verdict PAGE 1 ANCHOR PARUL KULSHRESTHA & SADAF MODAK JAIPUR, MUMBAI, DECEMBER 1 IFITweren’tforthered-and-blue board outside, Sanganer’s Shri Sampurnanand Khula Bandi Shivir open-air prison might look like your average government colony. There are no highsecurity walls, prison cells and jail uniforms. Instead, rickshaws and twowheelersareparkedoutsideres- idential areas, while kids play outside the local primary school andonopengrounds.Withinthe prison, inmates are free to move around as they please. “Prison inmates renovate their own houses as they want,” a 52-year-old inmate tells The Indian Express as she sits crosslegged on a dari (mat) in a large white shed that serves as a visitor's hall. The inmate, who's serving a life sentence for murdering her first husband, now lives in the open-air prison with her second husband, whom she met in jail,and their six-year-old son. “It takes years for the new ones to adjust and make money for renovations." NamedafterSampurnanand, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and ex-governor of Rajasthan, the prison, located 15 km from Jaipur and spread over four hectares of land, currently houses 422 prisoners — including 14women —andtheir families. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a petition challenging an April 26 order of the Jaipur Development Authority (JDA)allocatingtwoplotsof land — totaling 0.41 hectare — from the jail for the construction of a satellite hospital. However, activists claim that The Shri Sampurnanand Khula Bandi Shivir open-air prison in Sanganer, Jaipur district. Parul Kulshrestha thegovernment’splanwillaffect a one-of-its-kind experiment of anopenjailinthecountry.Inher petition challenging the move, social worker Prasun Goswami, whohadworkedontheopening a primary school at the open-air camp, said the JDA order was in contempt of the SC order. The petition, filed in September, states that the revisedallotmentgrants21,948sq. m of land, integral to the functioning of the jail, for the hospital, in addition to the earlier 0.41 hectares. Such a move will be an “imminent threat” to dispossess the prison of the land under its active use and occupation and Jaipur stands in contempt of the Supreme Court’s May 17 order that the areas of open jails should not be reduced, the petition argues. InahearingonNovember25, a Supreme Court DivisionBench of Justices BR Gavai and Justice KV Vishwanathan appointed a "court commissioner" toinspect the site and submit a report. The court said that the report, to be submitted within four weeks, would have to look into the structures that stand on the area of the proposed hospital, and whether there can be a suitable relocation for those inmates residing in that area. "Wearealsooftheconsidered viewthattherehastobeabalance between the needs of having the OpenCorrectionalHomeandalso aHospital,whichshallcatertothe needs of the citizens residing in the vicinity," the court said. Institution for ‘reform, rehabilitation’ Open jails are used to house convicted prisoners who are selected after completing a certain term of their sentence, based on parameters such as good conduct. Unlike many high security prisons, these jails have minimum security and convicts are CONTINUED ON PAGE 2