DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2025, PUNE, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `6.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 6-POINT RESOLUTION PASSED AT ALL-PARTY MEETING CALLED BY STALIN 102 124 62 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY TN parties oppose delimitation: Freeze 1971 Census as basis for 30 more yrs Polls ahead, Stalin takes lead as anti-BJP voice Call for Joint Action Committee with members from other southern states ARUN JANARDHANAN & NIKHILA HENRY CHENNAI, HYDERABAD, MARCH 5 IN A rare display of unity, most political parties across Tamil Nadu came together for an allparty meeting called by Chief Minister M K Stalin at the State SecretariatonWednesdaytooppose the delimitation of Parliamentary constituencies, which is due in 2026. In a six-point resolution, the partiesaskedtheCentretoextend the 1971 Census-based delimitation framework for another 30 years beyond 2026, to ensure fair representationforstatesthathave effectivelycontrolledtheirpopulation. It is unjust to reduce Tamil Nadu’s parliamentary representation only because it has effectively implemented population control measures in the national CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Maharashtra govt to set up centre to monitor media at Rs 10 crore SHUBHAJIT ROY THE MAHARASHTRA government will set up a media monitoring centre at an estimated cost of Rs 10 crore that will monitor news coverage related to the state government in print, electronic, social and digital mediums. It will also prepare a report by analysing the coverage and bring to the notice and take action on the spread of negative or misleading news related to the state government. “Government schemes and policies are publicised through various print, electronic, social and digital mediums. The state government was considering to initiate a media monitoring centre where these news items will be monitored and analysed under one roof,” said a Government Resolution (GR) issued on Wednesday. The government will set up the cell as an independent project, under which a system will be set up to analyse positive and negative news published on all print and digital platforms, including news applications and online news websites. The system will activate a mechanism thatwilltakereal-timeactionon negative or misleading news being published. The centre will use Artifical Intelligence (AI) to keep a tab on fake or misleading news as that could create unrest in the state. A professional and private consulting agency will compile and analyse the news items, which include PDF files of paper cuttings on important developments. It will be classified as DAYS AFTER he hosted an emergency meeting of European leaders in support of Ukraine and its President Volodymyr Zelenskyy — after the latter’s public showdown with US President Donald Trump and Vice-President J D Vance at the White House — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer “shared UK’s perspective” on the conflict with External Affairs Minister S JaishankarinLondononTuesday night. Besides bilateral ties, including on trade and technology, Jaishankar, who is on a six-day visit to the UK and Ireland, also discussed the Ukraine conflict in a meeting with his counterpart, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy. CHENNAI, MARCH 5 IN HIS determined campaign to emerge as the voice of the South, and as the face of the Opposition to the largely North-centric BJP, DMKchief andTamilNadu Chief Minister M K Stalin will count Wednesday as a success. Stalin, who has been taking E CM M K Stalin arrives for the all-party meet in Chennai. PTI CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Focus on trade, tech, Ukraine conflict at Jaishankar meeting with UK PM Starmer ALOK DESHPANDE ARUN JANARDHANAN on the Centre over its all-India projects such as NEET for admission to medical colleges and the National Education Policy (NEP), managed to get parties across the divisive political spectrum in Tamil Nadu to join him in opposing any delimitation based on new ● population data. A delimitation leading to a change in the number of MUMBAI, MARCH 5 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE CITY HIGH-RISES SURGE IN PIMPRI-CHINCHWAD AND PUNE PAGE 4 NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 “Delighted to call on Prime Minister @Keir_Starmer at @10DowningStreet today. Conveyedthewarmgreetingsof PM @narendramodi. Discussed takingforwardourbilateral,economic cooperation and enhancingpeople-to-peopleexchanges. PMStarmeralsosharedUK'sperspectiveontheUkraineconflict,” Jaishankar said in a post on X. “Heldwide-rangingandproductive talks with Foreign Secretary @DavidLammy over past two days at the Chevening House. We discussed the entire gamutof bilateralties,especially our focus on strategic coordination, political cooperation, trade deal negotiation, education, technology, mobility and people-to-people exchanges. Agreed to formulate the next steps to further strengthen and structurethem,”Jaishankarsaid. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy with their spouses Kyoko Jaishankar and Nicola Green at the Chevening House in London. PTI SCHEME FOR WOMEN AGED BELOW 60 5 yrs before tunnel collapse, report Rs 2,500 pm payout red-flagged ‘fault zone’, weak rocks for Delhi women: Collapse took Annual income cap place near fault fixed at Rs 3 lakh zone: Rescuers GAYATHRI MANI NIKHILA HENRY NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 HYDERABAD, MARCH 5 Rescue operation underway to trace the workers trapped inside the tunnel in Nagarkurnool, Wednesday. PTI and 13.91 km (13,914 m) from the mouth of the tunnel. The reportalsofoundadecreaseinrock strengthinthisstretchandhighlightedthatthestretchwasawater-bearing zone. When contacted, Jaiprakash Associates Ltd confirmed the report but refused to elaborate, saying, “We have no comments onthis.”Ambergalsodeclinedto comment,statingthatthereport Trump: High tariffs by India and others unfair, reciprocal tariffs from April 2 India auto tariffs over 100%... will tax them what they tax us: US President 12 DAYS ON, 8 STILL TRAPPED IN TELANGANA TUNNEL FIVE YEARS before a part of the SLBC Tunnel in Telangana collapsed, trapping eight men on February 22 this year, a report commissioned by Jaiprakash Associates Ltd warned of a possible “fault zone” in the tunnel — stretches where the possibility of collapse is high. Jaiprakash Associates Ltd is the Noida-based company that wasawardedthetunnellingcontract in 2005. The report, Tunnel Seismic Prediction (TSP) - 303 Plus, was prepared in January 2020 by AmbergTechAG,acompanythat surveys tunnelling. According to the report, the fault zone existed between 13.88 km (13,882 m) US President Donald Trump addresses a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday. AP and its data are confidential. The company calculated the risk by transmitting seismic waves into the rock mass and recording and evaluating the portionswithanomalies.Theremarks in the report read, “Decrease in rock stiffness”, “possible jointed sheared rock mass”,and“possiblewaterbearing zone”. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WOMEN WHOSE household income is less than Rs 3 lakh per year, and those who do not pay taxwillbeeligiblefortheRs2,500 grantfromtheDelhigovernment, The Indian Express has learnt. Only those aged between 18 and 60, who do not hold government jobs and are not receiving any other government financial assistance, will get the grant undertheBJPgovernment’sMahila SamriddhiScheme,officialssaid. The scheme was one of the top poll promises made by the BJP in the run-up to the Delhi Assembly elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised that it will be implemented by March 8, International Women’s Day. CRITICISING THE high tariffs imposed by India and other countries as “not fair”, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced reciprocal tariffs from April 2. Trump's remarks, in an address to the Joint Session of the US Congress, signalled that negotiations for a trade deal may not yield concessions for New Delhi on sweeping duties. He singled out the auto sector, where,hesaid,Indiachargestariffs of over 100 per cent. “Other countries have used tariffs against us for decades and now it's our turn to start using them against those other countries. On average, the European Union, China, Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada — have you heard of them? And countless other nations charge us tremendously higher tariffs than we charge them,” Trump said. “It's veryunfair.Indiachargesusauto tariffs higher than 100 per cent.” “Indiachargesus100percent CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED 74 EXPLAINED 06/03/2025 ● Great uncertainty DONALD TRUMP has announced reciprocal tariffs on all countries from April 2, even though India and the US have planned a Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA). The tariffs against Canada and Mexico that came into effect on Tuesday violate a North American deal that Trump himself negotiated in his first term. The US 2025 Trade Policy says the WTO has “lost its way” and requires reform. BTA or not, India cannot rest easy on trade with the US. THE WORLD U.S. SUPREME COURT PUSHES BACK ON USAID FUNDING PAGE 18 SP MLA suspended from Maharashtra House for remarks on emperor Aurangzeb Wadettiwar seeks action against 2 more for ‘insulting Shivaji Maharaj’ ALOK DESHPANDE MUMBAI, MARCH 5 Delhi CM Rekha Gupta at a meeting in Vidhan Sabha on Wednesday. Tashi Tobgyal According to sources, the government has estimated that around 15-20 lakh women will meet the criteria. “Several rounds of meetings have taken place to finalise the modalities of the scheme. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SAMAJWADI PARTY MLA Abu Azmi was suspended on Wednesday from the Maharashtra legislative Assembly till March 26, whentheongoingbudgetsession ends, over his remarks praising Mughal emperor Aurangzeb. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaderandMinisterChandrakant Patil on Wednesday moved the resolution of suspension in the House saying that Aurangzeb’s praise amounted to insult of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and his son Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj.Itfurtheraddedthatthe statements harmed the honour of the House. Samajwadi Party MLA Abu Azmi outside the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly on Wednesday. PTI RELATEDREPORTS,PAGE5 The motion of suspension was passed unanimously. “Azmi’s comments praising Aurangzeb and criticising SambhajiMaharajdonotsuitthe stature of a member of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘An ordinary criminal’: When SC defined equality in union worker’s case In this series, The Indian Express tracks down the women and men who reshaped the Republic ADRIJA ROYCHOWDHURY & APURVA VISHWANATH NEW DELHI, MARCH 5 WHO WAS Anwar Ali Sarkar? A freedom fighter? A member of a mob? A union worker? While therearefewreferencestohimin courtrecordsorhistorybooks,it’s anamethatisimmortalisedasthe respondentinAppealNo.297ina landmark Supreme Court ruling of 1952 on the right to equality. While striking down a law which fast-tracked his case and tried him in a special court, the apexcourtsaidthatthemovefell foul of the right to equality underArticle14of theConstitution. The court also for the first time spelt out the nature of the right and how it works. On February 26, 1949, Sarkar was part of a mob of 50 young men who attacked the Jessop factory,anengineeringcompany in Dum Dum, killing three 75 YEARS ON RESHAPING THE REPUBLIC CASE BY LANDMARK CASE AN EXPRESS SERIES European supervisory staff. Court records show that the victimswere“batteredtodeathand their corpses were thrown into blazing furnaces.” In what was a coordinated attack led by the Revolutionary CommunistPartyof India(RCPI), a breakaway group of the Communist Party of India (CPI), mobs also captured the Dum Dum airport, where they set a plane on fire, and attacked an ammunition factory and shot the sentry. Some of the raiders fled to Basirhat, where they attackedapolicestation,killedtwo guards and looted about 26 rifles. The “most regrettable incident” led to a diplomatic row and was discussed in the House of Lords in London. Acting swiftly to mitigate in- 1952 STATEOFWESTBENGALVANWARALISARKAR CASE: In1949,AnwarAli Sarkar,amemberof the RevolutionaryCommunist Partyof India,and49others killedthreeEuropeansat JessopfactoryinKolkata wherehewasaunion worker.Sarkarwastriedina SpecialCourtforspeedy disposal.Hearguedthatthis violatedhisrighttoequality astheSpecialCourtsAct, 1950,allowedthestate governmenttobypassthe ordinarytrialprocedure withoutareasonable justification.TheSupreme CourtstruckdowntheAct. RELEVANCE TODAY: This ruling is the first to establish the “reasonable classification” test, which dictates that a law can provide an exception to the right to equality and apply to a specific class of people. ternational tensions, the West Bengal government on August 17, 1949, promulgated the Special Courts Ordinance, a law that called for swift trials in special cases. Special courts set up underthislawcouldconductthe trial without the presence of the accusedandevenrefusetosummon key witnesses. Sarkar was arrested on October 11. On January 25, 1950, just a day before the new Constitution came into force, it was notified that King v Anwar Ali Sarkar would be heard under the Special Courts law. Court records show that the prosecution alleged that Sarkar was a member of the Executive Committee of the Union of workersof Jessop&Co.,andtook aleadingpartintheworkers’agitationagainstretrenchmentand for Puja bonus. The defence, however, argued that he wasn't present at the spot. On March 31, 1950, S N Guha Roy, then Sessions Judge of Alipore, awarded Ali and 49 othersasentenceof “transportation for life”, a punishment that involved sending a convict to exile or banishment. Under colonial laws,dissidentsof theStatewere routinely given punishments that included sending them to CONTINUED ON PAGE 2