The Ideas Page: Amid Macaulay row, let’s not forget, India increasingly speaks in English to itself 9 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 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 AtCICselection meet,Rahul flagslackof backward, minoritynames INDIA-U.S. NEGOTIATORS BEGIN 2-DAY TRADE TALKS AS GREER FLAGS RESISTANCE IN AGRICULTURE Delhi’s offers best ever, but India hard nut to crack: US trade chief US Trade Representative: India viable alternative market... forward leaning Ravi Dutta Mishra New Delhi, December 10 AS US negotiators began their two-day trade talks in New Delhi on Wednesday, United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer said in Washington DC that the US has received the “best ever” offer from India. Citing New Delhi’s resistance to importing American agricultural products, he also said India has been a “difficult nut to crack”. “I have a team over there right now, as we speak, in New Delhi. There’s resistance in India to certain row crops and other meats and products. Like you said, they’re very difficult nut to crack. I agree with that 100 per cent, but they’ve been quiteforwardleaning…thetype of offers they’ve been talking to us about have been the best we’ve ever received, as a country. I think that (India) is a viable alternative market,” Greer said responding to a question before the US Senate Appropriations Committee. While the US has been pushingfordiversificationofits agricultural exports, particularly row crops like corn and soybeans, away from China, India has remained firm on protecting India’s small farmers from foreign competition. Differences over the agriculture trade had resulted in Union Home Minister Amit Shah with Union Ministers Kiren Rijiju, Piyush Goyal, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Pralhad Joshi, Ashwini Vaishnaw and other members in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. PTI US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer at the White House. REuTERS Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri meets US Deputy Trade Representative Rick Switzer in New Delhi. PTI the breakdown of trade talks between the two countries in August earlier this year. Earlier,onMonday,USPresidentDonaldTrumpthreatened fresh tariffs on Indian rice over concerns of dumping in the US market.Washingtonhasalready imposed 50 per cent tariffs on New Delhi, the highest on any countryglobally.Trump’scomments came after a LouisianabasedUSfarmerrepresentative, ataWhiteHouse-hostedroundtable, said they are struggling duetothedumpingofriceinthe US by countries such as India, China, and Thailand. Trump subsequently responded by saying countries should not be dumping rice in the US and that tariffs will solve the problem. Picking just India among the three countries named by the farmer representative, Trump asked US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent: “Why is India allowed to do that? They have to pay tariffs. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NON-ROTATING SWASHPLATE BEARING Key part to be fixed before Dhruvs with Navy, Coast Guard fly again 11/12/2025 106 134 166 90 ExpRESS exclusive Amrita Nayak Dutta Recommendation by panel which probed January crash in Porbandar New Delhi, December 10 business as Usual By EP UNNY THE ADVANCED Light Helicopter (ALH) Dhruv fleet of the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Indian Navy will soon receivemanufacturingmodifications to a key component, senior officials familiar with the developments have told The Indian Express. These modifications, officials said, will be implemented in batches before the helicoptersaredeliveredtotheICG andtheNavy,aboutsixmonths from now. ItislearntthattheDefectInvestigation Committee, probingthecrashofaCoastGuard- Manoj C G New Delhi, December 10 Dhruv, an indigenously developed ALH, is a twin-engine, multi-role helicopter in the 5.5 tonne weight class. INDIANCOASTguARD.gOV.IN operated ALH Dhruv on January 5, recommended a manufacturing process improvement of the Non-Rotating Swashplate Bearing (NRSB) for thechopperswiththeNavyand PUNE LAND DEAL Coast Guard to improve its fatigue life. Thesehelicoptersoperatein corrosive saline environments andhavetodealwiththemechanical stress of deck landings. E. ExplainEd The sea test Deck landing stress and exposure of mechanical components to the corrosive saline environment of the seas put naval helicopters through more gruelling tests, different from the choppers operated by landbased forces. The ALH naval variant awaits modification to a key component. Shah links vote chori to Nehru, Indira and Sonia; says Cong loss due to its leadership Vikas Pathak New Delhi, December 10 MOUNTING A sharp attack on theCongressoverthespecialintensiverevisionofelectoralrolls during a Lok Sabha discussion on electoral reforms where he hadanexchangewithLeaderof Opposition Rahul Gandhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah Wednesday accused the Nehru-Gandhi family of “vote chori” since Independence. He saidthereasonfortheCongress loss of power was its leadership and not EVMs, and “one day Congress workers themselves will ask you questions”. ShahsaidtheSIRwasaimed at cleaning electoral rolls and ensuring that “infiltrators” are detected, deleted from voter lists, and deported. Responding to Rahul Gan- dhi’s“votechori”allegations,he recalled that before Jawaharlal Nehru became Prime Minister, the votes from the states favoured Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel as the president of Congress. Yet, Nehru, he said, rose to the top through “vote chori”, eventually becoming the PM. And referring to the Allahabad High Court ruling that Indira Gandhi’s 1971 victory over Raj Narain in Rae Bareli was secured through unfair means, Shah said this was another instance of “vote chori”. “To cover it, a law was brought that there can be no caseagainstthePM.Youareasking about immunity to the EC, but what about the immunity »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 morE rEporTS, pAgE 11 ATAmeetingWednesdayofthe three-memberpanelheadedby Prime Minister Narendra Modi to choose the next Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners andaVigilanceCommissioner, Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi recorded his dissent while pointing out that the shortlists lacked names from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, OBC, EBC and minority communities. The third member of the panel is Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Sources said Gandhi had asked the government several weeks ago to provide him with the caste composition of the applicants. The details were provided Wednesday and sources said only seven per cent of the applicants and one shortlisted candidate were from the backward communities. Gandhi flagged this at the meeting and submitted a detailed dissent note. Gandhi, sources said, also said that the government was weakening the Right to Information Act, alleging that some of the shortlisted candidates had a record of not being transparent in their previous capacities. He claimed that there had been a “systematic pattern” of “exclusion”ofSC,ST,OBC,EBC and minority communities »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 An NRSB in a helicopter is a mechanical component that passesinputsviaflightcontrols into the movement of the main rotor blades. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PUNE PORSCHE CRASH HC asks if police are 2 cops dismissed for protecting Ajit’s son dereliction of duty Leopard attacks 7 in residential State says probe area in Nagpur, captured later Personnel shield themselves during rescue operation as the leopard jumps on to the terrace of a house in Nagpur on Wednesday. DhANANjAy khEDkAR is still going on Express News Service nation pAgE 13 dEEpAvALI Now oN UNESco HErITAgE LIST KArNATAKA TAbLES HATE SpEEcH bILL Mumbai, December 10 THE BOMBAY High Court Wednesday asked whether the Maharashtra Police were protectingParthPawar,sonofDeputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, and why he was not being investigated in connection with the alleged irregularities in a land deal involving a firm linked to Parth. A single-judge bench of Justice Madhav J Jamdar posed the question while hearing an anticipatory bail plea by Sheetal Kishanchand Tejwani, who has been booked in the case. AfterperusingthatParthwas not named in the FIR, Justice Jamdar asked whether the police were protecting the son of theDeputyCMandwereonlyinvestigatingorprosecutingothers. However,PublicProsecutor Mankunwar Deshmukh said the police are investigating the case and the probe was still on anditwilltakenecessaryaction »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Express News Service Pune, December 10 THE TWO police officers suspended for dereliction of duty intheinitialresponsetothePorsche crash case that killed two IT engineers in Pune on May 19 last year have been dismissed from the service. The officers, Inspector Rahul Jagdale and AssistantPoliceInspectorVishwanath Todkari, were attached to the Yerawada police station. Jagdale and Todkari were charged with lapses in the initial investigation and failing to inform the wireless control room about the incident in time, among other charges about their initial response. When contacted, Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar confirmed to The Indian Express that the two officers had beendismissedfromtheservice. A proposal to dismiss them had beensenttotheofficeoftheMaharashtradirector-generalofpoliceinMarchfollowingthefindings of an inquiry conducted against them, Kumar said. Aneesh Awadhiya and his friend Ashwini Koshta, both aged 24 and hailing from »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 AnkitaDeshkar Nagpur, December 10 A LEOPARD entered the densely populated Shiv Nagar area of Pardi in Maharashtra’s Nagpur district on Wednesday morningandinjuredsevenresidents,oneofwhomisincritical condition and has been admittedtotheintensivecareunit of a local hospital. The animal was later capturedbyofficialsfromtheTran- sit Treatment Centre (TTC), locatedintheSeminaryHillsarea, after a challenging operation. According to a senior forest department official, the TTC team received a distress call around 6.15 am. It is suspected that the leopard entered the locality during the night and attempted to escape after sunrise. In its effort to find an exit, it attacked several people. Eventually, the leopard took shelter in a narrow space near a cooler in a house. Two darts had to be fired by the team before the leopard could be sedated and captured. Theleopardhasbeenkeptatthe TTC for further treatment and observation. During the operation, the leopardtriedtoattackmembers of the TTC team, the senior official said. Further complications arosewhenthevehicletransporting the sedated leopard broke »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l FOUR REMOVED BY GOVERNOR, ONE RESIGNED AFTER PROTESTS; ABVP SAYS ‘NO VIEWPOINT’ ON GOVERNOR’S DECISION Behind ouster of five university Vice-Chancellors in Rajasthan, an ABVP nudge Hamza Khan regularities,includingfromthe ABVP. So far this year, the V-Cs of four state universities have IN THE second week of Oc- been removed by the Governor tober, students affiliated with inthismanner,whileafifthhas the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi resigned under pressure. Parishad(ABVP)burstcrackers In August, Dr Arun Kumar, after the Vice-Chancellor of a the V-C of Swami Keshwanand university in Jaipur's Jobner Rajasthan Agricultural Univerwas suspended by Governor sity, Bikaner, and the acting Haribhau Bagade following V-C of Agriculture University, “various serious Jodhpur, was repagE 1 moved. As per the complaints received Governor’s office, againsthim”,including from the ABVP. “severalseriouscomThis was not the first time plaintswerereceivedagainstDr that a V-C, or a Kulguru as they Kumar”, and the Divisional are called in the state, was sus- Commissioner, Jodhpur, was pended or removed in Rajas- directed to investigate. The inthanfollowingcomplaintsofir- quiry report found Kumar Jaipur, December 10 anchor guiltyof“willfulomissiontoimplement the provisions” of the University Act, as well as “misuse of powers vested in him, causing financial loss to the University, etc.” “We met the Governor three-four times to highlight the irregularities; the first such meeting was in November 2024. Then we held press conferences and a protest that lasted 23 days,” said Naveen Choudhary, a student at the university who was an ABVP prant sanyojak at the time. Dr Kumar did not respond to requests for a statement. On October 7, Dr Balraj Singh, V-C of Sri Karan Nar- ABVP members at a protest in Udaipur. ABVP/ INSTAgRAM endraAgricultureUniversityin Jaipur’sJobner,wassuspended bytheGovernorfor“takingpolicy decisions in the last three months of his tenure and variousseriouscomplaintsreceived againsthim.”TheGovernor’soffice said that Singh was responsible for “dismissal and transfer of personnel by going beyond hisrightsandjurisdictionmentioned in the University Act...” Singh's tenure was supposed to end just seven days later, on October 14. Students affiliated with the ABVP, who had been protesting against him for a long time, burst crackers and burned an effigy to celebrate his suspension. Singh told The Indian Express,“Whatishappeningisthe highest form of conspiracy and goondagardi (hooliganism). V-Cs can’t do in ten years what I did in three years.” On ABVP, he said that “I won’t call them ABVP, but goondas, badmash and criminals … there is a nexus which is doing this.” He said that he has been with the Sangh since 1990 and is principled, unlike some of those associated with the university now. “V-Cs who came from ‘outside’ are being forced to leave, beitinBikanerorUdaipur.Iam from Haryana, but I have spent 20 years in Rajasthan and 16- and-a-half years in Delhi. But they are still counting me as an outsider and removing those appointedbythepreviousGovernor(KalrajMishra),”Singhalleged. Singh approached the High Court against his suspension, where Justice Ashok Kumar Jain set aside his suspension — on the day of his retirement — saying,“Itisapparentonrecord that the Chancellor acted in haste in drawing a conclusion to place the present petitioner under suspension, and there is nobasisonrecordtojustifysuspension of the present petitioner…” »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mumbai