DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2024, LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES OPP’S NO-TRUST NOTICE AGAINST V-P DHANKHAR REJECTED PAGE 8 OPP-TREASURY DIVIDE HARDENS AFTER CHARGES OF ASSAULT IN PARLIAMENT In Ambedkar’s name Sambhal MP Barq booked for power theft, second FIR in three weeks Left: NDA and INDIA bloc members protest on Parliament premises; Above: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi with BJP MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi who was injured on Thursday. PTI MOREREPORTS,PAGE8 AMIT SHARMA MEERUT, DECEMBER 19 SAMAJWADI PARTY MP from Sambhal, Ziaur Rahman Barq, was on Thursday booked for alleged theft of electricity. This is the second FIR registered against him in the last three weeks. Following the November 24 violence during the court-ordered survey of Shahi Jama Masjid, the Lok Sabha member was booked for instigating people. Four persons were killed in the violence. “The MP has been booked under Section 135 of the Indian Electricity Act, 1948, for power theft.Heresidesinathree-storey houseintheDeepaSarailocality. Upon inspecting the property, wefoundonlytwo2-kilowattcapacity electricity meters, whereasahouseof thatsizetypicallyrequiresatleast8to10kilowatts to run its appliances. We have removed both meters and served a notice to the MP,” Santosh Tripathi, Sub Divisional CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Day-long faceoff: Two BJP MPs injured, police lodge FIR against Rahul LIZ MATHEW, MANOJ C G, ASAD REHMAN & PRAGYNESH NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 19 ACTING ON a complaint from the BJP after two of its MPs were injured in a scuffle Thursday between members of the ruling NDA and Opposition INDIA bloc on the premises of Parliament House, Delhi Police booked Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita including those on voluntarily causing grievous hurt, use of criminal force and criminal intimidation. Police were still to act on a Congress complaint against BJP MPs who it said had pushed CongresspresidentandLeaderof Opposition in Rajya Sabha MallikarjunKhargetotheground and caused injuries to him. The two parties complained to police soon after Parliament descended into chaos on the penultimate day of the winter session when their members, accusing each other of denigrating the name of Dr B R Ambedkar,shovedandjostledat the Makar Dwar, the main entrance to the building, resulting in injuries to two BJP MPs, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY CHAMPIONS TROPHY & LATER India, Pak won’t play at each other’s grounds, TMC to Left, SP to BSP, ICC for neutral venues split Opp finds common EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE Terror cause with Congress shadow NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 19 MANOJ C G NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 19 THE EDITORIAL PAGE OVER BABASAHEB Debating Ambedkar’s legacy does him proud — not the push and shove, sound-byte tokenism PAGE10 DISCARDING HIS usual white T-shirt for a blue-coloured one (the colour associated with B R Ambedkar), Rahul Gandhi, who was leading a protest of INDIA blocMPsinParliamentThursday demandingthesackingof Home Minister Amit Shah over his remarks on Ambedkar in the House, walked up to a group of Samajwadi Party MPs. The SP MPs, including Ram Gopal Yadav, in their trademark redcaps,werestagingaseparate protest on the Parliament prem- EXPLAINED POLITICS AMBEDKAR AND THE RSS-BJP PAGE 14 ises on the issue. Gandhi shook hands with the SP MPs, and the two protests soon merged. Around the same time, the TrinamoolCongress(TMC)posted on one of its WhatsApp groups a tweet by Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi leader and Ambedkar’s grandson Prakash Ambedkar CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AFTER MUCH delay, the International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced that India's matches at next year's Champions Trophy would be held at a neutral venue insteadof Pakistan,thedesignated host for the tournament. As part of thesolution,Pakistanwillalso not visit India for any ICC tournament until 2028, with its matches scheduled on neutral turf instead. While the Champions Trophy is set to be held between February 19 and March 9, the schedule had not been announcedduetotheimpasseover this issue. The PCB had categorically opposed the hybrid model E EXPLAINED IN PARLIAMENT `6.00 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 ● THERE WAS talk of India and Pakistan resuming cricket ties after External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar’s talks in Islamabad. But a string of terror attacks in Jammu and Kashmir since then have dashed those hopes. The ICC timetable only confirms this. but eventually agreed to it on reciprocal grounds. Thisisthefirstmajordecision since former BCCI Secretary CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow