The Ideas Page: Pakistan’s double game with China and America is its ticket to disaster 9 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2025 JOURNALISM of COURAGE MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES ₹5.00 l www.indianexpress.com DA I LY F R O M : A H M E DA B A D , C H A N D I GA R H , D E L H I , J A I P U R , KO L K ATA , L U C K N O W , M U M B A I , N AG P U R , PAT N A , P U N E , VA D O DA R A REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 VOTE-THEFT ALLEgATIONS AgAIN Haryana vote chori, claims Rahul; BJP says he’s lost Bihar Congress leader cites example of Brazilian model with 22 votes at 10 booths Congratulations Asad Rehman New Delhi, November 5 Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the World Cup-winning Indian women's cricket team at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday. ANI Happening today l THE TWO-DAy LEADERS’ SUMMIT IN BELEM, BRAzIL, begins Thursday, ahead of the COP30 climate conference which starts next week. Fifty-seven heads of states or governments, and 39 ministers are expected to make country statements. India is scheduled to be represented by its Ambassador in Brazil. lTHE T20 SERIES BETWEEN INDIA AND AUSTRALIA, finely poised at 1-1, goes into the fourth game at Gold Coast on Thursday. With home stars — pacer Josh Hazlewood and opener Travis Head — being rested for the upcoming Ashes, India has a chance to take the lead before the fifth and final game at Brisbane on Saturday. NEHRU’S TRyST-WITH-DESTINy SPEECH FINDS ECHO IN VICTORy ADDRESS Mamdani takes New York, tells Trump: ‘You are watching... turn the volume up’ business as Usual Democrats take Virginia, New Jersey; Trump rails against election losses By EP UNNY Joseph Ax, Maria Tsvetkova & Tim Reid Washington, November 5 DEMOCRATS SWEPT a trio of races Tuesday (Wednesday morning India) in the first major US elections since Donald Trump regained the presidency, elevating a new generation of leaders and giving the Zohran Mamdani with his wife Rama Duwaji, mother Mira Nair and father Mahmood Mamdani after his victory. REUTERS beleagueredpartyashotofmomentum ahead of next year’s congressional elections. In New York City, Zohran Mamdani, a 34-year-old demo- cratic socialist, won the mayoralrace,cappingameteoricand unlikely rise from an anonymous state lawmaker to one of »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 MORE REPORTS PAgES 8, 14, 15, 16 STEPPING UP his “vote chori” offensive against the Election Commission and the BJP over alleged irregularities in electoral rolls, Leader of Opposition and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged Wednesday that the Assembly elections in Haryana last year in which his party was defeated had been “stolen”, and that 25 lakh fake votes had been cast in the state. Briefing the press at the Congress headquarters in New Delhi, Gandhi, who had earlier levelled allegations of “vote chori” in constituencies of Karnataka and Maharashtra, presented details of what he called the “H files”. Stating that there were a total of 2 crore voters in Haryana, he alleged that one in eight votes polled in the Haryana elections was fake. He said five methods were used: fake photographs; voters with affiliation to the BJP in UP voting in the Haryana elections;blurredphotographs;deletedvoters;andhousenumber zero shown as the address. Maintaining that his allegations were “100 per cent the »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 RELATED REPORT PAgE 13 102 130 161 Ritu Sarin 82 New Delhi, November 5 Chief Justice of India BR Gavai with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at a function to lay the foundation stone for the new high court complex in Mumbai on Wednesday. AMIT CHAKRAVARTY Musk-owned Starlink enters India, signs deal with Maharashtra to provide remote connectivity Judges no more feudal lords, no extravagance at new Bombay HC: CJI Express News Service Omkar gokhale MAHARASHTRA ON WednesdaybecamethefirstIndianstate to formally collaborate with billionaireElonMusk-ownedStarlinktodeliversatellite-basedinternet connectivity across remote and underserved regions. The Maharashtra government signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Starlink Satellite Communications Private Limited, to provide satellitebased internet services for government institutions, rural communities and critical public infrastructure. This will be subject to Starlink’s regulatory and compliance clearances from the Government of India. The LOI was signed by Lauren Dreyer, vice-president, Starlink, and Virendra Singh, secretary, Department of ChiefJusticeofIndia(CJI)Bhushan R Gavai on Wednesday saidthatthereshouldbe“noextravagance”atthenewBombay High Court building to be constructed at suburban Bandra (East) as “judges are no more »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 INSIDE PAGE 3 mUmbAI moNoRAIL RAKE dERAILS IN WAdALA TRIAL EC says no appeal filed; didn’t abuse poll panel after 2004 loss: Rijiju Express News Service New Delhi, November 5 THE BJP hit back at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi over his “vote chori” allegations in the Haryana Assembly elections last year, calling them “pointless” and said it was a bid to divert attention from Bihar where defeat of the Congress and its allies was certain. The Election Commission also responded to Gandhi’s allegations, saying no appeal was filed against the revision of electoral rolls in Haryana. Union Minister and BJP leader Kiren Rijiju accused Gandhi of insulting the country’s democratic frameworkandinstitutions,claiming E. ExPlAINED After Karnataka, maharashtra Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ allegations about the Haryana poll outcome follow similar charges he made in constituencies of Karnataka and Maharashtra. He has used this to target the EC and BJP, a charge both have rejected. it was being done as part of a conspiracy hatched with antinational forces operating from »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 PK frames an angry COMES AFTER CEO OUSTER, STAFF CLEAN-UP Bihari campaign but Corruption cloud: Skill Ministry on the ground, is aam blacklists 178 training partners aadmi that angry? 06/11/2025 Mumbai, November 5 Rahul Gandhi at the press conference on Wednesday. ANIL SHARMA Mumbai, November 5 feudal lords” and serve the citizensundertheConstitution. CJI Gavai, who served as a Bombay HC judge for nearly 16 years before his elevation to the SupremeCourtin2019,wasspeaking at the foundation stonelaying ceremony for the new HighCourtbuildinginBandra. »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 Gave content to politicians, now to voters, but many of them say let’s wait Vandita Mishra Purnea, Patna, November 5 ONE OF the main curiosities aboutthisBiharelection—voting for the first phase takes place Thursday — has a name that has newly entered conversations in this state of old and tangled challenges, across unequal and uneven political terrain: Prashant Kishor. The former poll strategist, who has worked with leaders of varied politicalhues,andhasbeendescribed and criticised as ideology-agnostic, has moved out of the backroom, climbed on to the political stage. He has been »CONTINUED ON PAgE 10 DECISION 2025 BIHAR Phase1today Results in 2020 Seats Voting PARTy SEATS RJD 42 Candidates BJP 32 JD(U) 23 Left 11 Reserved Cong 8 VIP 4 2020 Turnout LJP(RV) 1 Others 0 121 1,314 19 SC 55.81% SOURCE: EC Penalties imposed, FIRs being lodged, UP heads list of defaulting states, followed by Delhi, MP ABSENTEE STUDENTS, fake documentation, non-existent centres – these are among the glaring irregularities found in the execution of l THESPREADOfTHEIRREGUlARITIES Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), the flagshiptrainingprogrammeof the Ministry of Skill Developallocated on blacklist, partners states ment and Entrepreneurship 2024-25 and centres affected (MSDE). The scheme was launched KEy ALLEgATIONS: missing students, fake papers, in 2015 and under it, until June non-existent centres 2025,over1.64croreyouthhave received training and Rs 1,538 crorewasallocated for the year have been com- Training Centres (TCs). TrainExPRESS 2024-25. plaintsofinflated ing centres are where training Following the bills; absentee is imparted, training partners upgraded version students; fake areorganisationsorindividulas of the scheme (PMKVY 4.0) documentation and non-exist- who run these centres. commencing in 2022, there entTrainingPartners(TPs)and »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2 ` 1538 cr 178 18 exclusive FULL REPORT ON WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM l ‘WANTED TO TELL WORLD THAT DAUGHTERS EqUAL TO SONS... THAT IS WHY WE MADE HER WEAR THE SUIT AFTER SHE WAS BORN’ Harmanpreet story begins with message on boy’s suit: ‘Good Batting’ Nitin Sharma imprinted that now reads like a prophecy: “Good Batting.” Harmandar, a former clerk LIKE THEY do every year, Har- at a local court, recalled what mandar Bhullar and his wife madehimbuythesuitimmediSatwinder Kaur prayed at the ately after the birth of the first gurdwara in their of his three children. village in Punjab's “We wanted to tell PAGE 1 Moga to mark the the world that birth anniversary of daughters are equal Guru Nanak Dev. to sons. That is why Yet, for the parents of women's we made her wear the suit after World Cup-winning skipper she was born. Soon after that, Harampreet Kaur, this year's we took her to the gurdwara Gurpurab was extra special. sahib near our home. Maybe, it This time, Satwinder car- was the prophecy written on ried with her a yellow toddler- it...HarmanwontheWorldCup size “boy's suit”, which was on Sunday and became the bought on the day Harman- world's best captain. Today we preet was born. It has a slogan went to the gurdwara sahib to Moga, November 5 anchor Harmandar Bhullar and Satwinder Kaur hold the ‘boy’s suit’ bought on the day their daughter Harmanpreet Kaur was born. GURMEET SINGH seek Guru Nanak Dev ji’s blessings for Harman’s team. We felt we should take the suit with us,” Harmandar told The Indian Express. On Wednesday, there was a stream of visitors at Harmanpreet's home in Dunneke village along the Delhi-Ferozepur highway, 3 km outside Moga town. An Alto hatchback, the first car that Harmanpreet had bought, was parked near the gate.Evenasavillageelderproposed that the housing colony be named after the women's captain,Harmandarwasonthe phonespeakingtowell-wishers and relatives, many of them keen to know when Moga's most famous daughter was coming home. Then there was a group call with Harmanpreet'syoungersiblings—Adelaide-based Gurjinder Singh and Hemjit Kaur who is based in Canada's Calgary. For those who dropped in, thedrawingroomwasafavouritephotospotbecauseitislined with pictures of Harmanpreet with other cricketers. There is one with her and 1983 World Cup-winning captain Kapil Dev, another with Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan is also in the gallery. When she was younger, Harmanpreet was hooked to Sehwag’s batting style, Satwinder said. “She was a fan of Virender Sehwag. She would gethispostersaswellaspicture cards.Shewantedtoimitatehis battingstyle.Sheusedtocollect photographs of Kapil Dev with the 1983 World Cup trophy and SachinTendulkarwiththe2011 World Cup trophy. It was so touching to see Sachin Tendulkar clapping for Harman and her team (in the final on Sunday),” Satwinder said. The Bhullars “feel blessed” that they were able to experience the World Cup-winning moment when Harmanpreet took a catch and celebrated »CONTINUED ON PAgE 2