The Editorial Page: The good news is lower-income states are catching up 10 FRiDAy, DeCeMBeR 26, 2025 JouRnAlISM of CouRAge koLkATA, LATE CITy, 16 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 rouSing welCoMe aS KhaleDa Son reTurnS To DhaKa Tarique back: I have a plan... an inclusive and safe Bangladesh lThe Delhi high CourT will hear a PIL seeking a GST cut on air purifiers by classifying them as ‘medical devices’ in view of the Capital’s worsening air quality. Air purifiers are currently taxed at 18 per cent. lThe fifTh naTional conference of chief secretaries begins. The conference, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will conclude on December 28. Time for all of us to build the country together, says BNP leader lCJi Surya KanT will lead an awareness walk in Panaji to promote mediation as a people-centric and efficient dispute resolution mechanism. The CJI will later take part in a conference on the subject. lBoxing Day TeST: The Ashes urn will remain in Australia as England have been hammered in all three Tests already, but Ben Stokes’ men have some serious damage control to do, to salvage some pride at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Match starts at 5 am. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com inside anisur rahman Dhaka, December 25 Pm narendra modi at the cathedral church of the redemption in new delhi, Thursday. ANI Page 6 BJP is proud our govt tore down wall of Art 370: PM Attacks Cong over ‘one family’, says his govt has ensured respect for Babasaheb, Rao, Pranab Maulshree Seth Plea in sc against sengar jail terM susPension P 7 udaiPur firM ceo aMong 3 held for ‘gangraPe’ P 7 high nuMber of ‘absent voters’ in Matua seats Page 3 Lucknow, December 25 PAying TRiBUTE to the dreams and principles of the founding fathers of the Jan sangh-BJP, Prime Minister narendra Modi Thursday said “the BJP is proud that our governmentgottheopportunityto tear down the wall of Article 370” in Jammu and Kashmir where “the Constitution of india is in full force” now. speakinginlucknowwhere he inaugurated the Rashtra statues of a b Vajpayee, syama Prasad mookerjee and deen dayal upadhyay at the rashtra Prerna sthal in lucknow, Thursday. PTI Prerna sthal and its giant statues of dr syama Prasad Mookerjee, Pandit deen dayal Upadhyay and Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the former Prime Minister’s birth anniversary, Modi also took a swipe at the Congress and the nehru-gandhi family when he said that while these statues will infuse Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, December 25 Sukrita Baruah Guwahati, December 25 A gRoUP of Bajrang dal and VishvaHinduParishadactivists stormed a diocese school in Assam’s nalbari town on Wednesday, Christmas Eve, and destroyed Christmas decorations there. The same group had also destroyedChristmasornaments beingsoldinashopinthetown. The incident at nalbari was the latestinaseriesofChristmasdisruptionsreportedfromdifferent parts of the country, including Madhya Pradesh and Chhattis- editorial page goons can’t hijack Merry christMas Page 10 garh, over the past week. nalbari senior superintendentofPolice,Bibekananda das, said that they have received a complaint from the authoritiesofst.Mary’sEnglish school, Panigaon, in connection with the incident. »ConTinueD on Page 2 Jewel sheikh hailed from chakbahadurpur village and was working in odisha. ExPRESS ravik Bhattacharya & atri Mitra Bongaon, Thakurnagar, Duttapukur, December 25 Holding His papers and sitting on a plastic chair inside a help centre set up at the Matua headquarters of Thakurbari in Thakurnagar,75-year-oldMotilal Haldar asks how much time it would take for a person to get citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). a ‘caa help centre’ run by all india matua mahasabha at Thakurbari, in Thakurnagar in north 24 Parganas district. RAvIk BhATTAChARyA Haldar says he crossed over from Bangladesh to West Bengal in 1997 and, with his name not being in the 2002 electoral rolls, the current round of specialintensiveRevision(siR) frontrunner for PM post in feb polls Tarique Rahman’s return is politically significant ahead of the February 12 elections — widely seen as crucial to restoring political stability after nearly two years of turmoil. With the Awami League being barred from contesting the elections, the BNP is the frontrunner, and Rahman has emerged as a leading contender for prime ministership. »ConTinueD on Page 2 »ConTinueD on Page 2 express interview SaugaTa BhaTTaCharya MEMBER of RBI’S MPC Page 13 Begin with Systematic Plan (SIP). eveningwhenJewelwasreturningfromwork. “Wewereatatea stall.Agroupofpeopleaskedfor a bidi from Jewel. Then they startedaskingforAadhaarcards and wanted to know where we werefrom.WeshowedourAadhaar cards. suddenly, the group, armed with bamboo sticks, started beating us. Jewel was hit on the head. »ConTinueD on Page 2 ‘Will I be pushed out?’: Matuas turn to CAA amid rising anxiety over SIR page 1 explained THE gRoss domestic Product (gdP)growthprojectionislikely to moderate with inflation expectedtograduallymovecloser to the target in the coming quarters, and this is in line with the forecasts of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) resolution, said saugata Bhattacharya,oneofthethreeexternal membersoftheReserveBankof india’s rate-setting panel. Consumer Price index (CPi) inflation is projected at 2 per cent for Fy26. For 2026-27, CPi inflation is expected at 3.9 per cent in Q1 and 4 per cent in Q2. Under the flexible inflation targetingregime,RBiismandated to keep inflation at 4 per cent with a band of +/- 2 per cent. “now that inflation is forecast to gradually normalise towards the target over the next Investment l The communiTy has been key To bJP’s bengal forTunes anchor E. “it is time for us all to build the country together. We want to build a safe Bangladesh. in Bangladesh, no matter who a woman, man, or child is, they should be able to leave their homes safely and return safely,” he said. The homecoming of the BnPheirapparentcomesamid a fresh wave of unrest and political instability gripping Bangladesh following the killing of youth leader sharif osmanHadi,whowasaprominentfaceinlastyear’smassprotests that forced the collapse of thesheikhHasinagovernment. invoking Martin luther King Jr’s “i have a dream” Mumbai, December 25 »ConTinueD on Page 2 ravik Bhattacharya & Sujit Bisoyi A 19-yEAR-old labourer from WestBengal’sMurshidabadwas lynched in odisha’s sambalpur districtonWednesdaynight.Policehavearrestedsixaccusedin connection with the incident. The victim, Jewel sheikh, hailed from Chakbahadurpur villageundersutipolicestation limits and was working in odisha. His co-workers and familymembersallegedhewas assaulted on suspicion of being an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant. odisha police, however, deniedthisandclaimedthevictim and the accused knew each other. According to police, the incidentoccurredintheshantinagar area late Wednesday bnP’s acting chairman Tarique rahman at the dhaka airport after returning from london, Thursday. AP anoTher lynching, P 12 hitesh Vyas & george Mathew newenergy,oneshouldnotforget that after independence, every good work in the country was linked to just one family. Be it books, government schemes, institutions, roads and lanes, everything carried the name and glory of only one family, he said. The Congress Bajrang Dal and VHP ‘They asked for our Aadhaar cards’: Bengal activists vandalise school in Assam over man lynched in Odisha Christmas celebration Latest in series of disruptions in states, including MP and Chhattisgarh BAnglAdEsHnATionAlisT Party (BnP) acting chairman Tarique Rahman returned to dhaka to a rousing welcome by thousands of his supporters on Thursday after over 17 years in self-exile—ahomecomingthat is expected to energise the party ahead of the February 12 parliamentary elections. shortly after landing at the Hazrat shahjalal international Airport, Rahman, the leading contender to be the country’s next prime minister, stood barefoot on Bangladeshi soil in a symbolic gesture to mark his return to the country’s politics. Addressing his supporters at the July 36 Expressway in dhaka hours later, the 60-yearold son of ailing former prime minister Khaleda Zia gave a clarion call to maintain peace andstabilityinthecountryand presented a broad plan to build an “inclusive Bangladesh”. gDPgrowthlikely tomoderatewith inflationnearing 4%,saysrBi panelmember of the voters’ list has him deeply concerned. And Haldar is not alone. like him, thousands of Matuas inandaroundtheMatuaheartland of Thakurnagar in north 24 Parganas district, about 90 km from Kolkata and close to the Bangladesh border, are spending their days in uncertainty over the siR exercise. And so are Muslims, who have been wary ever since the Election Commission (EC) said it would focus on the border districts in the claims and objections phase, citing abundant The key to harnessing the power of compounding is to remain invested for a longer tenure, allowing the Investment to compound. The longer you stay invested, the greater the compounding effect can be. Starting early and consistently adding to your investments may further amplifies the benefits of compounding. Mutual Fund investors need to complete the Know Your Customer (KYC) process, which can be done by submitting completed KYC Form along with the required documents at any AMC's branch Office or Official Points of Acceptance. Please refer https://www.licmf.com/kyc-redressal to know about KYC documentary requirement, procedure for change of address, phone number, bank details etc. The investors are cautioned to invest only with SEBI registered Mutual Funds, the details of which can be verified on SEBI's website under 'Intermediaries/Market Infrastructure Institutions’(https://www.sebi.gov.in/intermediaries.html.) For any complaints and grievance redressal, investors can contact the Investor Relations Officer of the respective AMC and if not satisfied with the resolution given by the AMC, he/she can approach SEBI by registering the complaint on SEBI SCORES Portal (https://scores.sebi.gov.in/) and/or escalate the compliant through Online Dispute Resolution Portal (https://smartodr.in/login). »ConTinueD on Page 2 Kolkata