The Editorial Page: PK’s holier-than-thou politics has a challenge — and an opportunity 10 SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 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 happening today l PRESIDENT DROUPADI MURMU begins a six-day state visit to Angola and Botswana, with the aim to further India’s partnership in areas including defence, trade and energy security. This will be the firstever state visit by an Indian Head of State to both countries. lCAPTAIN SURYAKUMAR YADAV takes on the Aussies in the final of the T20 cricket series with an eye on keeping his captaincy slate clean. Since becoming T20 captain in July 2024, he has a 100% win record. Leading 2-1 in the series, India is favourite to beat the Aussies. FADNAVIS SAYS NO ONE WILL BE SPARED; SALE DEED CANCELLED: PAWAR Botanical garden to IT park to sale: Land linked to Ajit Pawar son was govt property Power of attorney holder cannot sell the land: Registration Joint IG Alok Deshpande Mumbai, November 7 RAJENDRA MUTHE, Maharashtra’s Joint Inspector General of Registration, said Friday that the 40-acre land in Pune, at the centre of a probe into allegedirregularitiesinvolvingits sale, belonged to the state government and could not be sold at any cost. Muthe is assisting an inquiry committee, announced by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, probing the sale of land by Pune resident and power of attorney holder Sheetal Tejwani to a li- mited liability partnership owned by Parth Pawar, son of stateDeputyChiefMinisterAjit Pawar, and Digvijay Patil. “The 7/12 document (land ownership document) showed Mumbai Sarkar (erstwhile Bombay government) as the owner. The property card issued after 2018 showed the same. The person holding power of attorney cannot sell thelandatanycost.Weareprobing everything and will sub- mit the report in seven days to the state government,” Muthe told TheIndianExpress. His office is responsible for registration of property documents and collection of stamp duty. The chronology of how the 40-acre land changed hands shows that in less than 13 months after the Pawar-Patil partnership Amadea Enterprises LLP secured a Letter of Intent from Pune’s District »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FULL REPORT ON WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM 08/11/2025 97 125 154 82 Business as Usual By EP UNNY CRPF personnel guard a strong room in Patna on Friday, a day after the first phase of polling in Bihar. The second and final phase of voting in the Assembly elections is scheduled to be held on November 11. PTI ThE wOrlD PAGE 15 ChINA’S ThIRD AND moST ADvANCED CARRIER ENTERS mILITARY SERvICE ‘Noglamourin crime’:Haryana DGPwantsto unmasklifeof gangstersinjail Varinder Bhatia Chandigarh, November 7 TIRED OF gangsters trying to glamouriselifebehindbars,the Haryana Police is seeking to puncture the macho persona they have cultivated on social media and reveal the drudgery of prison life. Haryana DGP O P Singh has directed top officers to unmask these “gangsters” and show the public what life behind bars really looks like. As Singh bluntly put it, “Jailon mein sadne vaale chirkhut reels se logon ko bewakoof bana rahe hain (petty crooks rotting in jail are busy conning people with »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l On Rahul’s yatra route, few takers for ‘vote chori’ pitch: ‘Those raising it must explain’ Even among minorities who are at centre of disenfranchisement fears Deeptiman Tiwary Champaran, Darbhanga, Gopalganj, Siwan, November 7 AGAINSTTHEbackdropofthe SpecialIntensiveRevision(SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi set offonhis“VoterAdhikarYatra” from Sasaram on August 17. In a whirlwind campaign covering 1,300 km across 20 districts and culminating in a massive rally at Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on September 1, Gandhi, often joined by RJD chief and Mahagathbandhan’s CM face Tejashwi Yadav, accused the ruling party of “vote chori (theft)”. DECISION 2025 BIHAR REP0RTS, PAGE 7 The yatra drew huge crowds and, buoyed by the turnout, the Congress demanded a greater share of seats within the Mahagathbandhan,oneofthereasons that delayed the alliance’s seatsharing deal. Yet, on the ground innorthBihar,partsofwhichthe yatra passed through in its last week, “vote chori” appears to have failed to strike a chord. In fact,fewtalkaboutitunlessspecifically asked, even as Gandhi andotherCongressleaderscontinuetoraiseitintheircampaign stops across the state. In East Champaran’s Chiraiya constituency, mechanic Mahesh Yadav and ration »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Shouldn’t carry burden of son being accused, SC tells AI-171 pilot’s father Express News Service New Delhi, November 7 EXPRESSING GRAVE concern over the “nasty reporting” in the foreign press blaming the Air India flight 171 crash in Ahmedabad on pilot error, the Supreme Court Friday issued noticetotheCentreonapleaby one of the deceased pilots seeking an independent probe into the June 12 accident in which 260 people were killed. A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi issuednoticetotheCentreonthe pleabyPushkarRajSabharwal, the father of Commander Sumeet Sabharwal. “It’s extremely unfortunate that this accident took place, andthisgentlemanlosthisson. But he should not carry this burden that his son is being accused or blamed or anything... Report also, that language, if at all it is creating this kind of wrong impression, we will clarify. Nobody can blame him for anything. There is no question,” Justice Kant told Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan,whoappearedfor the father. Sankaranarayanan referred the bench to Rule 12 of the Aircraft (Investigation of AccidentsandIncidents)Rules,and »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SAYS INDIA HAS LARGELY STOPPED BUYING RUSSIAN OIL Trump hints at India visit next year, Quad summit has to wait Calls Modi great man and friend: Wants me to visit, I’ll go Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, November 7 IN THE first confirmation of the Quad leaders’ summit, whichwastobehostedbyIndia this year, being pushed to 2026, US President Donald Trump has said he could travel to the country next year. Responding to questions at the Oval Office, Trump said Prime Minister Narendra Modi “wants” him to visit. He called Modi a “great man” and a friend. “He’s a friend of mine, and we speak... He wants me to go there. We’ll figure that out. I’ll go. I will have a great trip there with Prime Minister Modi, he’s a great man. And I’ll be going,” Trump said. Asked if he is planning to go to India next year, he said, “It could be, yes.” InNewDelhi,respondingto questions on Trump’s visit to India,RandhirJaiswal,spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, said, “I do not have anything on this to share. IwillletyouknowwhenIhave.” After Modi’s visit to the White House this February, the twosideshadagreedtoholdthe Quad leaders’ summit in India Remove stray dogs from public places, shift them to shelters: SC Ananthakrishnan G New Delhi, November 7 NOTING THAT “incidents of dog-bite attacks continue to be reported with alarming frequency”,theSupremeCourtdirected Friday that stray dogs be removed “forthwith” from the premises of educational institutions, hospitals, sports complexes, bus stands and depots, and railway stations to “a designated shelter, after due sterilization and vaccination in accordance with the animal birth control rules”. Stating that its directions be “implemented uniformly acrossIndia”with “statuscompliance certificates within a period of eight weeks”, a threejudgebenchofJusticesVikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria said “the stray dogs so picked up shall not be released back to the same location from which they were picked up”. “We have consciously directed the non-release of such stray dogs to the same location from which they were picked up as permitting the same would frustrate the very effect of the directions issued to »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. REUTERS E. ExPlAINED Trade deal talks key All eyes are now on the ongoing talks for a trade deal between India and the US. It will also resolve the issue of US penalty tariffs over India’s of Russian oil. If a deal is sealed later this year or early next year, then the scheduling of Trump’s visit to India can be planned. later in the year. But ties dived after Trump imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, including 25 per cent overitspurchaseofRussianoil, and bilateral talks for a trade deal were also derailed. Now, the trade negotiations have revived and teams are working overtime to bridge the gap. New Delhi feels that the trade deal will be key to resolving the issue of tariffs since Indiahasalsobeenreducingoil imports from Russia. New Delhi believes that this »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Akola clashes: SC gives split verdict on plea against SIT comprising Hindu and Muslim cops Ananthakrishnan G New Delhi, November 7 THE SUPREME Court on Friday delivered a split verdict on a plea seeking review of its orderdirectingtheconstitution of an SIT comprising Hindu and Muslim police officers to probe an alleged murder during communal clashes in Akola, Maharashtra, in 2023. While Justice Sanjay Kumar, who authored the earlier verdict delivered on September 11, dismissed the plea for review, Justice S C Sharma said the question of constitution of SIT on the basis of religious identity “requires consideration”. The matter is likely to be placed before the Chief Justice of India to decide further proceedings. On September 11, allowing an appeal by petitioner Mohammad Afzal Mohammad Sharif, the bench of Justices Kumar and Sharma ordered that “in these circumstances, weareoftheopinionthatthisis a fit case to direct the Secretary, HomeMinistry,Governmentof Maharashtra, to constitute a special investigation team, comprising senior police officers of both Hindu and Muslimcommunities,toundertake aninvestigationintoalltheallegations made by the appellant, byregisteringanFIRinconnection with the assault upon him on 13.05.2023, and take appropriate action thereon as warranted.” Decidingthereviewpetition against the court order, Justice Kumar dismissed it saying, “on merits, no ground is made out to review the order…” Justice Kumar wrote, “The main contention sought to be urged in the review petition is that the direction… would impinge upon the principle of institutional secularism and amounts to prejudging communalbiasonthepartofpublic servants. This contention loses sight of the fact that this court specificallynotedthatthequestionthataroseintheappealwas as to what extent the police had »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 REWARDS POUR IN FOR WOMEN’S CRICKET TEAM For World Cup stars, cash, brands, jobs — and promise to lift a father’s suspension Nihal Koshie & Nitin Sharma New Delhi, Chandigarh November 7 CASH AWARDS, cars, land, government jobs, endorsements and a million new followers. These are the rewards that have come the way of India's World Cup-winning women's teamafterliftingthetrophylast Sunday. But there’s more — in a first, the Madhya Pradesh government has promised the team’s new-ball bowler, Kranti Gaud, that it is revoking her father's decade-and-a-half-old suspensionfromthepostofpolice constable. MP Sports Minister Vishvas Some of the others in the Kailash Sarang told TheIndian team, too, have been taken by Express: “Kranti has spoken surprise with the response of about the need for a cricket sta- their achievement. dium in Chhatarpur (her home In a smart move two days district) and we will develop after batter Harleen Deol asked one with the best facilities. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi forKranti’sfather’ssuspension, about his skincare routine there will be an official appeal when the team called on him, a to reinstate him.” cosmetic company signed her Overwhelmed by the ges- as brand ambassador. ture,Kranti'sbrother Hours after landPAGE 1 Mayank said: “My ing in Chandigarh sister has not only airport, Harleen was made the country at a photo shoot. proudbuthasrestoredthehon- “She has a brand endorsement our of our family.” In 2011, shoot today. We are glad that Karnti's father had faced an in- her passion for cricket has got quiry on charges of negligence her endorsements,” Dr Manjot ofduty,anallegationhedenied. Singh, Harleen's brother, said. anchor Sree Charani (left), a member of the Indian World Cup-winning cricket team, with Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu, former cricketer Mithali Raj and state minister Nara Lokesh. X/@NCBN But then, it’s not only Harleen whose brand value is set to gothroughtheroof.Divyanshu Singh, the CEO of JSW Sports, the firm that manages Jemimah Rodrigues and Shafali Verma, the star performers in the semifinal and final, has the numbers. “The Women’s World Cup didn’tjustcreatechampionson the field, it created India’s next generation of sporting icons. JemimahandShafalihaveseen theirbrandvalueandinfluence grow exponentially, making thempowerfulcommercialfigures,” Singh said. “Jemimah’s Instagram following has more than doubled from 1.5 million to 3.3 million, while Shafali’s has grown by over50percent.Theirendorsementvalueshavealsosurged— Jemimah from Rs 60 lakh to Rs 1.5crore,andShafalifromRs40 lakh to over Rs 1 crore in under a year. Jemimah today represents Nike, Red Bull, and Hyundai, and her Surf Excel moment marketing campaign post the World Cup became a cultural touchpoint — celebratingeffort,resilience,andauthenticity,” he said. The detergent brand was quick on the ball. Tapping into their “Daag acche hai (Stains are good)” punchline, they urgedJemimahnottowashbut frame the mud-soaked jersey from the World Cup semifinals against Australia — a match in which she scored an unbeaten century. Singh sees women’s cricketers as “true anchors of change”. “Beyond numbers, these athletes are expanding the paradigm of influence; showing how sport can drive societal change. Whether it’s Jemimah speaking openly about mental health and anxiety, or the broader inspiration they offer to young girls, theyrepresentamoreinclusive and empowered generation,” he said. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2