The Editorial Page: Party-state is marching into public universities. There is no one to say no 12 FRIDaY, DECEMBER 12, 2025 Journalism of Courage KOLKATA, LATE CITy, 22 PAGES ₹6.00 (₹12 in North East states, ₹20 in Andaman) 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 Happening today ● ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation to release Consumer Price Index inflation data for November at 4 pm. Economists expect CPI inflation to have risen to around 0.7% from October’s record-low of 0.25%. This would be the 10th month in a row of inflation being lower than the RBI’s mediumterm target of 4%. former telangana Special Intelligence Bureau chief T Prabhakar Rao has been asked by the SC to surrender by 11 am for further investigation in the phone-tapping case. ● President drouPadi Murmu, who is on a visit to Manipur, will pay floral tributes at the Nupi Lan Memorial Complex. Nupi Lan (women's war) refers to two movements in 1904 and 1939 led by women, protesting British economic policies. ● Kerala Cm Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the sixth edition of Kochi-Muziris Biennale art festival. “The 110-day international exhibition features works by 66 artists/ collectives from 25 countries," Kochi Biennale Foundation said. ● Track These and more on www.indianexPress.Com business as usual By EP UNNY if ustr satisfied with offer, should sign on dotted lines: goyal Amid trade talks, PM speaks to Trump, says will work together Discuss importance of sustaining momentum in bid to enhance trade ravi dutta mishra & shubhajit roy New Delhi, December 11 aS ThE two-day talks between the Indian and US trade teams in new Delhi drew to a close Thursday, Prime Minister narendra Modi announced in the evening that he spoke with US President Donald Trump and they reviewed the progress of the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership and discussed, among other is- pak court SendS ex-iSi chief to jail for 14 yearS u.S. clearS Sale of tech and Support for f-16 jetS to pak administrationimposed50per cent tariffs on India – they last spoke on October 22 when ThE naTIOnal human Rights Commission (nhRC) has ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to pay Rs 10 lakh as compensation within four weeks and submit proof of paymenttothe familyofZiauddin, a 36-year-old man who died in March 2021 after he was allegedly tortured in police custody in ambedkar nagar. The Commission also criticised the UP police for “deliberatelyconcealingfacts”andfailing to provide a credible explanation for multiple injuries found on the deceased. Initsorderwhichwasmade public Wednesday, the nhRC notedtherewasnodoubtabout the issue that the man was brought by the police to the police station and as per the postmortem report, there were eight injury marks on his body. “however,thereportissilentas to how and when the deceased would have sustained the said injury marks, more particu- »Continued on Page 2 Pavneet singh Chadha & nirbhay thakur actor-BJP mP hema malini held a prayer meeting in new delhi on Thursday in memory of her husband, dharmendra, who died last month. also seen are daughters esha deol, ahana deol. ANIL ShARMA Page 9 Plea for Passive euthanasia ‘Have to do something’: SC wants board to examine man comatose for 13 years SaURaBh lUThRa and Gaurav luthra, who ran the north Goa nightclub Birch by Romeo lane where a fire killed 25 people on December 6, were detainedinThailandThursday, based on a request from Indian ThE SUPREME Court has asked the Director of aIIMS, new Delhi, to set up a secondarymedicalboardtoexaminea 32-year-old man who has been in a vegetative state for the last 13 years so that the court can take a decision on his father’s New Delhi, December 11 gaurav and saurabh Luthra in Thai police custody in Phuket. ANI Sc callS for Speedy trialS in uapa caSeS n Enumeration form submission deadline n Draft roll publication date states/uts Goa, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, Dec 11 Dec 16 Rajasthan and West Bengal Tamil Nadu, Gujarat Dec 14 Dec 19 Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Dec 18 Dec 23 Andaman & Nicobar, Kerala Uttar Pradesh E. Dec 26 Dec 31 ExplainEd What voter has to do Electors have to trace themselves or any adult relative to the roll of the last intensive revision done in the early 2000s. Those unable to provide the extract will get a notice after the draft roll is published. They will be asked to submit documents to establish eligibility. plea to allow passive euthanasia for his son. a Bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K V Viswanathan asked for the report to be submitted by December 17, and fixed the next hearing for December 18. “We will have to do something now. We can’t allow him to live like this. That’s for sure,” Justice Pardiwala said Thursday. On november 26, the court had asked the noida Sector 39 district hospital to constitute a primary medical board to examine the patient, harish Rana, to decide on his father ashok Rana’s plea for permission to withdraw the »Continued on Page 2 sweety Kumari Kolkata, December 11 OnadaytheElectionCommission extended the deadline for theSpecialIntensiveRevisionof electoral rolls in five states and one UT, excluding West Bengal, ChiefMinisterMamataBanerjee on Thursday escalated her confrontation with the poll panel and the BJP, urging women to “come out with kitchen tools” if theirnamesaredeletedfromthe revised voters’ list. Speaking at a rally in Krishnanagar in nadia district after launching road projects, the chief minister framed the SIR as a targeted political exercise, alleging that the review was being conducted selectively in Opposition-held areas. “SIR-er naam kore maa bone-derodhikarkorbe..Delhi police niye eshe maa bone-der bhoy dekhabe? Ki maa bone ra naam katle bari te shob jinis potro ache to? Je gulo diye ranna koren. Moner shokti aache to... mey ra samne lodai korbe aar chele ra pechone thakbe… Aami dekhte chai, maa boner der shokti boro na BJP-er shokti boro. .amra dekhtechaiBangladekhtechai (You will snatch the rights of mothers and sisters in the name of SIR? Will they bring police from Delhi during the election and intimidate mothers and sisters? Mothers and sisters, if your names are struck off, you have the tools, right? The tools you use for cooking. You have strength, right? You won’t let it pass if »Continued on Page 2 Father’s ‘role’ casts cloud over 3-year-old youngest rated chess player nents who lost to the boy were coaches from the academy wherehetrains."Itappearsthat a WEEK after a three-year-old the rating was achieved boy from Sagar in Madhya Pra- through unfair means, involdesh became the youngest ving clear violations of FIDE’s rated chess player ever, ques- fair play principles by the tions are being raised over his coaches or individuals supervising the games,” the comachievement. a complaint filed with plaint states. FIDE,stickingtoitspolicyof FIDE, the international chess secrecy over such body, has alleged matters, didn't conthat there were pagE 1 firm or deny the “clear violations of complaint. FIDEʼs fair play prinhowever, the ciples by coaches", and that helped the boy enter boy’s father, Siddharth Singh Kushwaha,andhiscoach,nitin the elite club of chess players. The complaint further Chaurasiya, said they were claims that all the three oppo- awareofthecomplaint.Dismis- Mumbai, December 11 Student raped by prof: puniSh him So otherS don’t Suffer FOR ThE second time since Octoberwhenitannouncedthe schedule for the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, the Election Commission Thursday extended the deadline for electors in five states — Tamil nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and UttarPradesh—andtheUnion Territory of andaman and nicobar Islands to submit enumeration forms in the ongoing exercise by three to 14 days. Thursday was scheduled to be the last day of enumeration of electors in the SIR for eight states and three UTs, while Kerala had earlier been given an extension until December 18. The draft electoral roll for all states and UTs, except for Kerala, was scheduled to be publishedonDecember16.Kerala’s draft roll will be published on December 23. In a statement, the EC said it had revised the schedule “basedontherequestsreceived from the Chief Electoral Officers of the 6 states/UT”. however, in another statement Thursday, EC data showed that in five of the six states/UT, enumeration work l theschedule l comPLainT aLLeging ‘VioLaTions of fair PLay PrinciPLes’ fiLed WiTh fide; faTher, coach deny charges amit Kamath 14 killed aS truck fallS into gorge in arunachal New Delhi, December 11 West Bengal chief minister with Tmc rajya sabha member mamata Bala Thakur in krishnanagar, nadia, on Thursday. PTI Remembering Dharmendra express news service pageS 10, 11 damini nath ‘If your names are struck off, come out with your kitchen tools’: Mamata to women as SIR wraps up Panaji, New Delhi, December 11 nation »Continued on Page 2 Poll panel extends SIR deadline in five states and one UT »Continued on Page 2 larly, no justification about the nature of injuries while he was in custody of the police,” it stated. The order came after the Commission dismissed the state government’s reply to a show-cause notice and upheld itsearlierfindingthatZiauddin had died in police custody. “In absence of any material before this commission, this commission cannot come to a conclusive conclusion that the death of the deceased did not occur while in the police custody and now to save the skin, the police have given such a report to cover the mischief done by it while endorsing the reply byDeputySecretary,homeDepartment, Government of UP,” the order stated. according to the complaint filed by Ziauddin’s brother, Shahabuddin, his brother was picked up by a police SWaT team headed by Sub-Inspector DevendraPalonMarch25,2021 while he was on his way to a relative’shome.hourslater,the Goa club owners who fled hours after deadly blaze held in Thailand »Continued on Page 2 TrumpcalledModitogreethim on Diwali. “We talked about trade... he’s very interested in Pay Rs 10 lakh to kin of man who died in police custody: NHRC to UP Govt Noida, December 11 page 14 Very warm and engaging conversation with Trump: modi. FILE 36-yr-old died in marCh 2021 neetika Jha world sues,theimportanceofsustainingmomentumintheeffortsto enhance bilateral trade. “had a very warm and engagingconversationwithPresident Trump. We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments. India and the US will continue to work together for globalpeace,stabilityandprosperity,” Modi said on X. This was their third phone conversation since the Trump that,” Trump had said then. Following the phone conversation Thursday, a statementfromthePrimeMinister’s Office said “both leaders reviewed the steady progress in India-USbilateralrelationsand exchanged views on key regional and global developments”. The two leaders, according tothestatement,reiteratedthat India and the US will continue to work closely together to advance global peace, stability and prosperity. Government sources said the leaders expressed satisfaction at the steady revision of eleCtoral rolls anchor sing the allegations, they claimed that the boy was being targeted due to factional politics in Madhya Pradesh’s chess federation, which is beingrunbyanadhoccommittee for the last few years. “In Sagar, there are two factions in the local chess body. One faction is trying to target the other by trying to prove my son’s record came by unfair means,”KushwahatoldTheIndian Express. The boy hit the national headlines in the last few months by registering wins over older and better-ranked players. he defeated abhijeet awasthi (Rating 1,542), Shub- complaint says boy’s opponents, who he defeated, were coaches at same academy where he trains ham Chourasiya (Rating 1,559), Yogesh namdev (Rating 1,696) in tournaments hosted at Khandwa,Indore,Chhindwara and Mangaluru. But the complaint states that Chourasiya, namdev and awasthi are coaches at the same academy where the boy trainsinSagar.Counteringthis, the boy's father and coach have calling it a coincidence. “Just because these people are from Sagar and we know them,itcannotprovethatthere was anything unfair. I know these three people by face, as someone who also runs a chess academy. They are like our competitors,” said Kushwaha, who runs a chess academy in Sagar called Olympio Chess Club. The complaint alleges that atoneofthetournaments,both the boy and namdev entered theeventafterthedrawwasdecided by FIDE’s electronic sys- tem. as is the norm, the names ofthetwolate-entrantswereinserted manually in the draw and were also paired to play against each other. The boy ended up defeating namdev. In the same tournament, the complaint claims, namdev lost out on time because he went to the washroom for the final minutes of a 10-minute rapid game. The boy’s coach, however, denied that the loss was because of namdev going to the washroom. “It's not just my son, there were other children, too, who reached late and were manually paired off,” said Kushwaha. Kolkata