The Ideas Page: Row over Mamdani gets it wrong. Social democrats are actually good capitalists 10 MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2025 JOURNALISM of COURAGE LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES ₹6.00 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 Happening today PM MODI jOINS WORLD LEADERS IN CONDEMNING ATTACK 11 killed in terror attack on Jewish event in Sydney l PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi embarks on a threenation tour — he will first visit Jordan, then Ethiopia followed by Oman. ● MINISTRY Of Commerce and Industry will release the trade and Wholesale Price Index inflation data for November. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPRESS.COm One gunman shot down, another critical; act of evil, antisemitism, terrorism, says PM Albanese business as Usual By EP UNNY Soccer superstar Lionel Messi interacts with children who were part of Project Mahadeva, an initiative by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. SANKHADEEP BANERJEE Citing‘weather conditions’,SC askslawyersto appearonline Apurva Vishwanath New Delhi, December 14 IN AN unprecedented move, the Supreme Court issued a circular Sunday advising lawyers and litigants to appear virtually, citing “prevailing weather conditions”, a day after Delhi’s air quality plunged into the “severe plus” category triggering emergency measures across the National Capital Region (NCR). “In view of the prevailing weather conditions, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India has advised, if convenient, the Members of the Bar/Parties-inPerson to avail hybrid mode of appearancethroughvideoconferencing facility in their matters listed before the Hon’ble Courts,” the circular stated. The Supreme Court currently has a video-conferencing facility for lawyers. However,itislearntthattheneedfor a separate circular was felt to ensure uniformity across all courts.Thisisthelastweekthat the apex court will function before the 10-day winter break. On Saturday, the Commission for Air Quality Management’s sub-committee on the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) invoked Stage IV (Severe+) restrictions across Delhi-NCR. This is the highest level of emergency curbs as the Air Quality Index crossed the 450-mark. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NATION PAgE 5 RS 1,000-cR cybER FRAUd: 4 cHINESE AmONg 17 IN cbI cHARgE SHEET From Ballia to Aurangabad, fans flock to Wankhede for another No. 10 — Messi Tendulkar: Indeed a golden moment for Mumbai, Mumbaikars and India Mihir Vasavda Mumbai, December 14 FOR THREE hours on Sunday, the iconic cricket stadium here turnedintoafootballcoliseum. As is always the case on match days, Wankhede Stadium was blue, but today the shade was lighter, the one associated with Argentine footballers. Thousands in the stands wore No.10 — Sachin Tendulkar’s number intheseparts.Buttonightitwas for another No.10 — global sporting superstar Lionel Messi. ThefirstlegofMessi’sGOAT India Tour had descended into chaos in Kolkata on Saturday, SPORT PAgE 16 WHEN A 13-yR-OLd NUTmEggEd LUIS SUAREz with fans feeling cheated as most of them didn’t get to see the one-of-a-kind footballer. On Sunday, Mumbai got its fill of Messi. The World Cup winner stepped onto the red carpet laid out for him at 5:51 pm, and his grand entry brought the roof down. Beside him were his club teammates Rodrigo de Paul and Luis Suárez. But all eyes were on Messi ascameraskeptflashingwhere the star ventured. Shy as ever, the 5’7” icon smiled and waved. He would alsoenthusiasticallyparticipate inakick-aroundwithagroupof boys and girls, who were part of the Project Mahadeva, an initiative by Chief Minister »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kirsty Needham, Stella Qiu & Alasdair Pal Sydney, December 14 GUNMEN OPENED fire at a Jewish holiday celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday, killing at least 11 people in what Australian officials described as a targeted antisemitic terror attack. One of the suspected gunmen was also killed. A second was in critical condition and police were investigating whether a third gunman was involved, New South Wales PoliceCommissionerMalLanyon told a press conference. Two police officers were among 29 people taken to hospital with injuries, he said. Authorities said far more people would have been killed were it not for a bystander, identified by local media as fruit shop owner Ahmed al- Police cordon off an area at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Sunday. AP Sydney Bondi Beach Sydney Airport Australia THE wORLD bROWN UNIvERSITy SHOOTINg LEAvES TWO dEAd ANd NINE INjUREd Ahmed, 43, who was filmed charging a gunman from behind, grappling with him and wresting a rifle from his hands. “There are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery,”saidChrisMinns,premier of New South Wales state whereSydneyislocated,calling thebystander“agenuinehero”. A bomb-disposal unit was working on several suspected improvised explosive devices, Lanyonsaid.MikeBurgess,atop Australian intelligence official, said one of the suspected attackerswasknowntoauthorities »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 REPORTS, THE WORLd Bihar Minister Nitin Nabin is BJP’s new In first year of Sahyog, average working president, youngest to hold post of 6 content block orders a E. generational shift day, most in WhatsApp OCT 2024-25 INCLUDES OP SINDOOR Liz Mathew & Himanshu Harsh ExPLAINED New Delhi, Patna, December 14 YOuR RIGHT to know AN EXPRESS RTI APPLICATION Soumyarendra Barik New Delhi, December 14 MORE THAN 2,300 blocking orders were sent to 19 online platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, between October 2024andOctober2025through the Union Home Ministry’s Sahyog portal, according to data obtainedbyTheIndianExpress under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Theperiodcapturesthefirst full year since Sahyog has been inoperation—andthenumber of orders, for the first time, reveals how the contentious portalhasrapidlybecomeacentral toolinIndia’sexpandingonline censorship framework. These orderscoverawiderangeofonline links, including allegedly offensive or unlawful posts online, or entire accounts. ● Blockingorders WhatsApp Facebook YouTube Instagram Telegram Google Apple Amazon 11 others* 1,392 255 176 169 123 93 43 23 38 Data until October 2025 *Include Microsoft, LinkedIn and Snapchat AccordingtoRTIdatashared by the Home Ministry’s Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), which is responsible for the Sahyog portal, the Metafamilyofonlineservices— WhatsApp,FacebookandInstagram — accounted for over 78 per cent of the total 2,312 blockingordersthatweresentoverthe one-year period (seechart). WhatsApp received the highest number of blocking orders by a huge margin, with 1,392, followed by Facebook, which received 255, and Instagram with 169. In total, these platforms received 1,816 blocking orders. YouTube accounted for 176 blockingorders,andmessaging app Telegram was issued 123 blocking requests. Google received 93, Apple 43 and Amazon23.Afurther38orderswere distributed across 11 other online intermediaries, including Microsoft(10),LinkedIn(2)and Snapchat (1), among others. Each order can contain multiple links that platforms are expected to act on. The period covered under the RTI request also includes theflurryofcontenttakedowns that took place during Operation Sindoor in May, when the Government acted on content and accounts it believed originatedfromPakistantoneutralise online propaganda. For instance, Elon Musk-owned social media platform X had, at the time, said that it received orderstoblockmorethan8,000 accounts by the Government, including those belonging to »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE BJP’S Parliamentary Board on Sunday appointed Bihar Cabinet Minister and five-term MLA Nitin Nabin as the party’s national working president. While Union Health MinisterJPNaddaremainsthe BJP’s national president, party insiders said Nabin could be elected as his successor in January, marking a generational shift in the party’s leadership. The decision will then have to BJP’s new working president Nitin Nabin (second from right) with state party leaders in Patna on Sunday. RAHUL SHARMA be endorsed at the BJP’s National Council meeting. Navin,45,istheBJP’syoun- gest national working president.Ifelectedpartypresident, »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 While BJP has over the years appointed several young leaders to key positions in the party and government, at the Centre as well as in states, the choice of Nitin Nabin, 45, is the most significant. It appears to be the start of BJP’s attempt at bringing forward the next generation of leaders who are likely to shape its direction in the years to come. ‘Not here to rule, but to play my role’: New UP BJP chief stresses party unity Maulshree Seth Lucknow, December 14 ‘Scrutiny should not affect judges. They are answerable to their conscience...’ B R GAVAI, FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA PAgE 14 In his first address after being anointedthenewUPBJPpresident, Pankaj Chaudhary on Sunday laid emphasis on the party’s unity, saying as a leader he would take everyone along to find solutions and improve coordinationbetweentheparty and the government.Speaking at an event in Lucknow, where »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UP BJP chief Pankaj Chaudhary flanked by CM Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister Piyush Goyal in Lucknow on Sunday. VISHAL SRIVASTAV l REPRESENTATION OF REGIONAL LANGUAGES SPIKED OVER THE LAST DECADE Hindi & English to Santali & Mundari: Changing language of FTII student films Soham Shah sonal story of separation from his mother and one last meetingwithherwhilestayingathis DISCUSSING FILMS with his aunt’s house. “Despite having friendsasaClass12sciencestu- such a large population, very dent, Mansingh Baskey was few films were coming out (in disappointed at the quality of Santali). So as I was passing out of the institute, I felt cinema being prothat the cinema duced in his mother PAGE 1 should be made in tongue Santali. Basthis language. Bekey went on to comcause if outsiders plete a degree in mass communication and en- come and make our story then rolled in the TV wing of the it will have their perspective. If FilmandTelevisionInstituteof wetellthestoryofourlandourIndia (FTII) to study Direction. selves, it will be good for the He chose to make his “Course communityaswell.Andpeople outside will also get to watch a End” fiction film titled Where new kind of cinema,” said Basdo the trees go? in Santali. The film is a deeply per- key, who graduated in 2023. Pune, December 14 anchor Santali is spoken in and around Jharkhand by people from the Santal tribal community. And this change at FTII is reflective of a larger trend: an increasing number of student films being made in languages other than Hindi or English. “It’s a wonderful kind of a change. In some of the (languages), it is required that someone comes and makes goodfilms,”saidProfessorSandeepChatterjee,headoftheDirection department at FTII. According to the film catalogue available at the institute, only eight of the 82 student diploma films made at its film wing from 1988 to 1995 in- A still from Where do the trees go, a film by Mansingh Baskey, who graduated from the FTII in 2023 cluded a language other than Hindi or English. However, in the 2019 film wing batch, the last for which complete data is available, seven of the 10 films incorporatedlanguagessuchas Assamese,Ho,Malayalam,Marathi, Nagamese, Punjabi and Wancho. Similarly, in the TV wing 2023 batch, only one film was made solely in Hindi. Three films were made in Marathi, and one each in Malayalam, Gujarati, Haryanvi and Santali. One film was made using a combination of English, Marathi and Hindi while another wasmadeusingEnglish,Hindi, Mizo and Nagamese. WhileHindiandEnglishremainpopularasfilmlanguages at FTII, representation of languages like Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam, and tribal languages has spiked over the past two decades. Saurav Munda, a film wing 2023 graduate, made his film A River Colored Red in Mundari, spoken by the Munda tribes. His film is set in a mining-rich forested village in Jharkhand scarred by the tension between the state and Naxalites, with the indigenous community suffering the most. The film’s story unfolds through the eyes of Rimil, a 12-year-old boy, and includes real and mythical elements. “To me, language is the soul of this film. I cannot imagine telling this story in Hindi or English, because doing so would drain away the authen- ticityoftheland,itspeople,and their lived culture. The language of a film must rise from the soil it inhabits — from the voices,memory,andrhythmof the place it portrays. Choosing any dominant language would have stripped the story of its identity,” Munda said. Chirag Solanki, also from the TV Wing 2022 batch, made his film Through my eyes in his mother tongue Gujarati. “The great writer, Saadat Hasan Manto, said that every language gives a thought to itself. Meaning your mother tongue gives you thoughts you don’t even know. So while writing in »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow