DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA Such attacks can never break my spirit, resolve to serve people: CM `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 BILLS SENT TO JOINT COMMITTEE OF PARLIAMENT Lok Sabha erupts as Govt brings Bills to sack arrested ministers Copies of Bills torn, near scuffle; Shah targets Opp Panels will recommend actionable roadmaps with measurable outcomes ANIL SASI NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 DEEPTIMAN TIWARY & VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 Delhi CM Rekha Gupta; the accused, Rajeshbhai Sakriya SAKSHI CHAND & BRENDAN DABHI NEW DELHI, AHMEDABAD, AUGUST 20 DELHI CHIEF Minister Rekha Gupta was attacked Wednesday during a Jan Sunwai (public hearing) meeting at her Civil Lines Camp Office, adjacent to her official residence. Police said she fell to the ground headfirst. The accused, Rajeshbhai Khimjibhai Sakriya, 41, from Rajkot,Gujarat,allegedlyentered the office posing as a complainant.Thosepresentintheoffice at the time of the incident said Sakriya approached her with some papers in hand during the weekly public meeting and then attacked her around 8.30 am, barely 30 minutes after the meeting began. In Rajkot, Sakriya’s mother Bhanu Khimji Sakriya told reporters that her son was a dog lover and was upset over the Supreme Court order directing authorities in Delhi-NCR to pick up all stray dogs and put them in shelters. “He went to Delhi on Sunday... When his father asked him his whereabouts, Rajesh said he had gone to Delhi for the dogs... His mind is like that. He will hit anyone. He has hit me andhiswifeaswell.Hehasmental (issues) but is not on any medication. He got so angry upon learning about the dog issuethathealmostbrokethebed, hitting it in anger,” she said. Delhi Police sources said Sakriya’squestioningandmobile phone records revealed that he wasinUjjainforprayersatatemple before coming to Delhi. “On reaching Delhi, he saw Gupta’s posters...hewatchedareelwhere theCM istalkingaboutstraydogs. He had decided to attack her,” a senior police officer said. Rajkot police officers said Sakriya had five cases registered CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD 21/08/2025 74 102 124 68 FIRST STAGE OF PLANNED ASSAULT ON GAZA UNDERWAY: ISRAELI MILITARY P 14 MAHARASHTRA EX-VVMC CHIEF, AIDE GAVE NOD FOR OVER 550 LAKH SQFT: ED P 5 PRESIDENTIAL REFERENCE HEARING Can elected govt be at whims and fancies of Governor, asks CJI ANANTHAKRISHNAN G NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 THESUPREMECourtbenchhearing the Presidential reference asked the government Wednesdaywhetheranelectedgovernmentcanbeplacedat“thewhims and fancies of the Governor” by vesting him/her with the power to withhold a Bill forever. “But then would we not be giving total powers to the Governor to sit in appeals?… The government elected by majority will be at the whims and fancies of the Governor,” Chief Justice of India B R Gavai asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who appeared for the Centre. The bench said that to interpret that the Bill “dies” the first time the Governor withholds it “would be counterproductive to the power of the Governor and counterproductivetothelegislative process”. The five-judge Constitution bench is hearing President Droupadi Murmu’s reference on timelines fixed by a two-judge bench for the President and Governors to act on Bills sent by state legislatures. Delving into the contours of the Governor’s discretionary powers under Article 200 of the Constitution, Mehta told the bench:“Itisnotanasylumforretired politicians but has its own CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AMIDST STORMY scenes in Lok Sabha where ruling and Opposition MPs nearly entered into a scuffle Wednesday, Union HomeMinisterAmitShahtabled three Bills which seek to remove Central and state ministers, including the Prime Minister and Chief Ministers, who face allegations of corruption or serious offences and have been detained for at least 30 days. Followingtheruckus,theLok Sabha referred the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, the Governmentof UnionTerritories (Amendment) Bill, and the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill to a Joint Committee of Parliament. As soon as Shah rose to introduce the Bills, MPs of the TMC stormed the Well of the House, shouting slogans. While they were not joined by other Opposition members then, CongressMPsstoodupfromtheir CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE EDITORIAL PAGE DANGEROUS&WRONG Amit Shah, Rajnath to head panels for economy and social sector reforms Union Home Minister Amit Shah speaks as Opp members tear copies of the Bills in LS. PTI REMOVINGAMINISTER,PAGE13 Opp slams Bills: Open assault on federalism, it is draconian IN PARLIAMENT JATIN ANAND NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 A SLEW of leaders from the Opposition INDIA bloc, including Chief Ministers Mamata BanerjeeandMKStalin,accused the BJP-led NDA government of allegedly mounting a bid to undermine the country’s federal structure through the three Bills introduced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. LS PASSES BILL TO BAN ONLINE GAMES WITH MONETARY ENRICHMENT PAGE 10 TheCongressallegedthatthe Bills, which seek to remove Central and state ministers, including Chief Ministers and Prime Minister, who are facing allegations of corruption or seri- ous offences and have been detained for at least 30 days, were a “desperate attempt to divert” public attention from “vote chori” allegations levelled againsttheElectionCommission (EC) and the government by Rahul Gandhi, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. OtherOppositionpartiesalso called the proposed legislation an “open assault on the federal framework and parliamentary democratic system”. TWO NEW informal groups of ministers (iGoMs) have been formed by the Centre under Home Minister Amit Shah and DefenceMinisterRajnathSinghto prescribereformsintheeconomic and social sectors, respectively. Shah’s panel comprises 13 members, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, with Minister of Railways, I&B and Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw as the convener. This group will focus on laying out the legislative and policy reformagendainthetechnology and economic sectors, including finance, industry, commerce infrastructure, logistics, resources, scienceandtechnology,andgovernance. The second 18-member grouping on social, welfare and security sectors is headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh. This will examine the scope for reformsinsectorsincludingeducation, healthcare, defence, skilling, social welfare, housing, labour, public health etc. Others in this panel include Road E EXPLAINED Delhi CM Rekha Gupta attacked, assailant held for murder attempt REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, AUGUST 21, 2025, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES INCIDENT DURING PUBLIC HEARING ● Political heftfor ● fast action THE COMPOSITION of the two panels suggests the Prime Minister is keen to reflect the criticality of pushing through these small and big decisions that hold back progress both on the social and economic front. It includes many ministers so that quick actions can be taken on recommendations. TransportandHighwaysMinister Nitin Gadkari, Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, with Labour and Sports Minister MansukhMandaviyadesignated as its convener. The groups have beens set up following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address where he pressed home the need for next-generation reforms and announced the setting up of a task force. “Current rules, laws, policies, and procedures CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 WORST SCENARIO FOR THACKERAY COUSINS Sena UBT-MNS alliance fails to win Need to tap into full potential of trade and single seat in BEST credit society polls investment ties, Jaishankar tells Russia Yes, ministers arrested after due process may lose moral right to govern. But the Bills are bad faith, bad law PAGE8 SHUBHAJIT ROY BUSINESS AS USUAL NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 UNDERLINING THAT they were meeting in the backdrop of a “complexgeopoliticalsituation”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov Wednesday that they should tap into the “full potentialof tradeandinvestmentties”. On a two-day visit to Moscow at a time when India faces 50 per cent tariffs from the Trump administration, including 25 per cent for importing Russian oil, Jaishankar said, “We should not get stuck on a beaten BY UNNY Jaishankar with Russia’s First Deputy PM Denis Manturov in Moscow, Wednesday. PTI INDIA RESTARTS FREE TRADE TALKS P 11 track. Doing more and doing differently should be our mantras.” HewillmeetRussianForeign Minister Sergey Lavrov CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Thursday. Russian officials have indicated that they will develop a “special mechanism” to deal with the current situation. Jaishankar underlined the need for “addressing tariff and non-tariff trade barriers, removing bottlenecks in logistics, promotingconnectivitythroughthe International North-South TransportCorridor,theNorthern Sea Route and the ChennaiVladivostok Corridor, effecting paymentmechanismssmoothly, timelyfinalisationandexecution of the Programme of Economic Cooperation till 2030, the early conclusion of the India-Eurasian Economic Union FTA, whose CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Poll data row: 2 FIRs in Maharashtra against CSDS’s Sanjay Kumar, ICSSR sends notice ANKITA DESHKAR, VALLABH OZARKAR & VIKAS PATHAK NAGPUR, MUMBAI, NEW DELHI, AUGUST 20 ADAYafterSanjayKumar,co-director of Lokniti, a research programme at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), withdrew a post relating to the Maharashtra electionsciting data “error” and apologised Had cited data ‘error’, apologised for post on the platform X, police in Nagpur and Nashik registered FIRs against him on complaints from two Tehsildars. Also Wednesday, the Indian Council of Social Science Research(ICSSR),whichoperates undertheaegisof theMinistryof Education and supports the CSDS,issuedashowcausenotice to the CSDS, asking it to explain withinsevendayswhyitsgrantin-aid should not be withdrawn. The ICSSR flagged what it called multiple “irregularities”, including “manipulation” of data and sharing it with the media to malignthereputationof theElection Commission of India. On August 17, Kumar put out a post stating that Ramtek and Devlali in Maharashtra had shown a 36-38% decrease in the number of voters between the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Maharashtra. On Tuesday, he apologised for the post. “I sincerely apologize for the tweets posted regarding Maharashtra elections. Error occurred while comparing data of 2024 LS and 2024AS.ThedatainrowwasmisreadbyourDatateam.Thetweet CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Celebrations outside Wadala BEST depot in Mumbai after Shashank Rao panel’s victory in the union elections. Akash Patil VALLABH OZARKAR & SHUBHANGI KHAPRE MUMBAI, AUGUST 20 BILLEDBYtheThackeraycousins as the testing of waters for an alliance between their parties for the coming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections,theBESTcreditsociety results that came in Wednesday instead proved a rude shock. Despite Uddhav and Raj joiningforcesforthefirsttimeintwo decades, their Shiv Sena (UBT)Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS)combine,whichcontested the polls under the “Utkarsh” panel, failed to win even one of the 19 seats it contested. Worse fortheThackerays,thevoterbase of the election was largely Marathi speakers, seen to be a core support base of the family. The united Shiv Sena held control over the cooperative for nine years, and for Uddhav, who has already lost control of most of the party to the Eknath Shinde-led faction, this is yet another setback. For MNS chief Raj, it reinforces concerns regarding his party’s organisational weakness. The polls, which saw an impressive turnout of 83% with 12,656 of the 15,123 members voting,threwupadecisiveverdict, with transport union leader ShashankRao’spanelwinning14 of the 21 seats and the BJP-Shiv Sena combine, which contested under the “Sahakar Samruddhi” panel, winning seven. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘We did not even shut our doors...’: Kranti Nagar residents return home PAGE 1 ANCHOR NAYONIKA BOSE MUMBAI, AUGUST 20 FOR RESIDENTS of slums along thelow-lyinglandsofMithiRiver, the early hours of Tuesday was markedwithtrepidationandtension. As torrential rain lashed Mumbaiintheinterveningnight of Monday and Tuesday, Ashish Gautam(22),aresidentof Kurla’s Kranti Nagar, kept checking through the night whether the waterhadbreachedtheirhomes. “By 7 am, the water started entering our house and in a couple of hours, it reached waistlevel. Soon, the BMC (BrihanmumbaiMunicipalCorporation) started making announcements and we escaped our homes. Whilethisareaispronetoflooding, water generally recedes within a couple of hours. However, this time the situation was very bad,” said Gautam. Spurred by two consecutive daysof over200mmrainfall,water level in Mithi River rose to 3.9 metres on Tuesday morning, nearlybreachingthedangermark of4.2metres.Astheriverswelled and a major drain along Kranti Nagar overflowed, the streets of the low-lying area near airport landsinKurlawereleftinundated Tuesdaymorning.Inapreemptive move, the BMC and the Mumbai Policelaunchedanevacuationoperation and shifted over 350 residents of the slum to the nearby Magandas Nathuram School. Nanda Parmar, whose family of 12 members escaped in the nick of time, said it was by 8 am Tuesday that the water entered theirhome. “Humnegharkadarwaza takk band nahi kiya, bass jaanbachakarbhaage(Wedidnot even shut the doors of our houses.Wejustranforourlives).” “My granddaughter is only Residentsof KrantiNagaronWednesdaycleantheirhouses thatweresubmergedadayearlier. SankhadeepBanerjee PAGES3&4 two-and-a-half years old. For us, nothing mattered then except our safety. First, we ran to the market and later, we went to the BMC school,” she added. While the river level receded to 3.6 metres by Tuesday afternoon, the BMC and NDRF teams remainedonstandbyandresidents took refuge in the civic school Tuesday night where they were provided with food and water. OnWednesday,asfloodwater receded, the residents returned home to find their possessions damaged. The slum dwellers spent their day cleaning their homes,salvagingtheirbelongings andration.Parmar,whoreturned toherhomeWednesdayevening, said, “We had stocked over a month’s ration... But we had to throwitallawayasitwasalldirty... from rice to pulses and masalas.” Sunil Kumar (38), who has been residing in the locality for 15 years, said ration, clothes and furnitureinhishouseweredamagedasknee-deepwaterentered theplace.“Outsideourhome,the water had risen up to shoulderlevel, making it difficult to even escape. My children, being very young,wererescuedbytheBMC staff,”saidKumar,whoresidesin a house near Datta Mandir with his wife and three children. Another resident of the area added, “Nearly a month of our ration was damaged as water entered our home and even the furniture are destroyed.” Since the July 26 deluge in 2005, the BMC carries out annual desilting of Mithi River ahead of monsoon as a flood mitigation measure. However, this year, the civic body couldn’t complete the work due to the ongoing investigation into the MithiRiverdesiltingscambythe Enforcement Directorate (ED). According to BMC, only 75% of pre-monsoon desilting work was done at the Mithi River, while the post-monsoon desilting work is already under way.