The Ideas Page: Pm modi needs a Kamaraj Plan. Will he bite the bullet? 11 FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 2026 JournaLIsm of Courage LuCKNow, LATE CITY, 18 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 AYodHYA trUSt member comPlAinAnt After A neArlY tWo-YeAr SUSPenSion FIR against 8 over theft of donations at Ram temple From Sunday, India will resume tourist visas for Bangladesh nationals: Trivedi Envoy presents credentials in Dhaka, Delhi grants him Cabinet Minister status divya A New Delhi, June 25 MoVing To improve bilateral relations, india Thursday announced the resumption of tourist visas for Bangladeshi nationals after a nearly twoyear suspension. The announcement was made by the newly appointed indian high Commissioner to Bangladesh, Dinesh Trivedi, during a visit to the indian Visa Application Centre (iVAC) in Dhaka. Delhi suspended tourist visas for Bangladeshi nationals inAugust2024followingpolitical unrest and the ouster of the sheikhhasina-ledgovernment. Trivedi announced that touristvisaapplicationswillresume on June 28, at five visa centres, including the one in Dhaka. Thiswashisfirstannouncement after presenting his credentials to the President of Bangladesh, Mohammed shahabuddin, Thursday after- happening today lUnion Home Minister Amit Shah will chair the 10th apex-level meeting of the Narco-Coordination Centre with focus on tackling the challenges posed by synthetic drugs, darknet-enabled trafficking and expanding the reach of rehabilitation centres. l AccommodAting Ex-driver of Trust gen secy among those named; action after SIT report goes to CM rescue workers search through the rubble after powerful earthquakes in caracas, venezuela on wednesday. Ap more reporTs, page 12 indian envoy to bangladesh dinesh Trivedi with president mohammed shahabuddin in dhaka. @IhCdhAKA The ediTorial page Thousands feared killed as twin quakes rock Venezuela, many trapped under rubble My absence is not silence. i will return through the strength of the people Official toll 188 so far, USGS says may cross 10,000 SHeikH HASinA WAzed, Vivian Sequera, mayela Armas & deisy buitrago ForMEr bANgLAdESh pM page 10 La Guaira, Caracas, June 25 noon, signalling that he has been tasked with repairing ties between the two countries. »continUed on PAge 2 ThoUsAnDs of Venezuelans were feared dead on Thursday after two powerful earthquakes,includingthecountry’s ‘Aligns with democratising access to AI, digitising small businesses, creating jobs’ Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com page 6 pm narendra modi with amazon ceo andy Jassy on Thursday. pTI george mathew Mumbai, June 25 not Me in video, actor wearing Mask with My face, says Mann explained if passport is not proof of citizenship, what is? paGe 9 explained page 9 behind earthquake devastation: rare ‘seisMic doublet’, vulnerable location years of economic turmoil that had left much of its infrastructure fragile, complicating rescue and recovery efforts. in some areas, emergency workersscrambledoverthedebris of collapsed buildings through the evening and into Thursday. in others, residents decried a lack of help. Jorgerodriguez,whoheads Venezuela's national assembly and is the brother of interim President Delcy rodriguez, said at least 188 people were confirmed dead and 200 were trapped. he said 1,520 people were injured and at least 250 buildingshadbeendamagedor destroyed. The worst-affected area, »continUed on PAge 2 Amazon ramps up AI, BJP defends MP CM, silent on his firm cloud infra investment buying land, 4-fold jump since 2021 in India, takes total to Firm where Mohan Yadav, wife Seema hold 73% bought at least 2.6 acres for Rs 1.43 cr after he became Chief Minister $48 billion by 2030 VAibHAVSooryavanshi in the team will be the toughest riddle for the management when India step into a new T20 era under Shreyas Iyer in the first of a twomatch series against Ireland. poliTics strongest in over a century, wreaked havoc in and around the capital Caracas, trapping people beneath the rubble of collapsedbuildingsandsetting off powerful aftershocks. Amagnitude7.2earthquake hit about 160 km west of CaracasonWednesdayevening,followed less than a minute later by a magnitude 7.5 tremor, according to the Us geological survey (Usgs). The disaster struck a countryalreadygrapplingwith sTePPing UP its investment plans in india, Us e-commerce giant Amazon has proposed to invest an additional $13 billion to expand artificial intelligence (Ai) and cloud infrastructure in india, taking its total investment in the country to $48 billion between 2026 and 2030. in 2025, Amazon announced a $35-billion investmentacrossallitsbusinessesin india. This additional $13 billion, the company said, will expand AWs data centre capacity in Mumbai and hyderabad, givingstartups,enterprisesand government organisations access to custom Ai chips, managed Ai services, secure and reliable cloud technologies, and developer tools to innovate faster, scale further and serve customers globally. The announcement came after Amazon Ceo Andy Jassy met Prime Minister narendra Modi in new Delhi Thursday. Jassy highlighted the growing importance of india, where Amazon operates several businesses including e-commerce, Ai and cloud, and entertainment among others, in his »continUed on PAge 2 express news Service New Delhi, Bhopal, June 25 As The Congress stepped up its attack on Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan yadav over The Indian Express investigation on land purchases by his family and their real estate firms, national convener of the BJP’s iT cell Amit Malviya, BJP state president hemant Khandelwal and ministers of the Madhya Pradesh government dismissed the allegations as “baseless…bereftofsubstance” and “politically motivated.” however, the party is silent on the investigation’s key findings that the yadav family’s land holdings doubled between 2021 and 2023, when Mohan yadav was a Minister, and doubled again between 2024 and 2025 after he became Chief Minister. in a post on X Thursday, Malviya said: “The entire edi- fice of allegations built around TheIndianExpressreport rests on the insinuation that Mohan yadav or his family benefitted from privileged access to information after he became Chief Minister. But even a cursory examination of the facts exposes how baseless and bereftofsubstancethiscampaign really is.” As “the most crucial fact,” Malviya claimed that “the land »continUed on PAge 2 Govt expands QR code-tracking to curb fake cancer drugs, vaccines Anonna dutt New Delhi, June 25 in A move to check the circulation of counterfeit medicines, the Union Ministry of health and family Welfare has expanded the ambit of the ‘Qr code-based track-and-trace framework’ to include all vaccines, antimicrobials, anticancer medicines and narcotic and psychotropic drugs. The ministry has notified amendments to the Drugs rules, 1945, bringing these categories of medicines under schedule h2, which mandates theuseofbarcodesorQuickresponse (Qr) codes for product identification and verification. This means manufacturers ofallsuchmedicinesmustaffix aQrcodeeitherontheprimary packaging,oronthesecondary packaging in case of space constraints, that can identify each individualunit—therebyhelping regulators trace its journey fromthemanufacturingunitto the market. “The enhanced traceability mechanismwillfacilitateauthentication of medicines at vari- ous stages of the supply chain and enable improved tracking and verification of drug products. The measure is expected to strengthen regulatory oversight and support efforts to curb the distribution of spurious medicines in the market. it will also contribute to the nationalfightagainstAnti-Microbial resistance (AMr) by enablingbetteridentificationand monitoring of counterfeit and substandard antimicrobial products,” the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. »continUed on PAge 2 bhupendra Pandey & Shyamlal Yadav Lucknow, New Delhi, June 25 PoLiCe in Ayodhya registered an fir Thursday against eight individuals and unidentified others on a complaint alleging theft,misappropriationofcash, embezzlement of funds and valuables donated to the ram temple. The fir was lodged at Kotwali ramjanmabhoomi police station on a complaint by Krishna Mohan, a member of the shri ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, two days after a special investigation Team (siT), probing the allegations,submitteditspreliminary findingstotheUPgovernment. The eight individuals named in the fir are Avinash shukla, Lavkush Mishra, Anukalp Mishra, Manish Kumar yadav, Karunesh Pandey, ramashankarMishra,ramshankar yadav alias Tinnu yadav and subhash srivastav. Late Thursday, all eight were brought to the police stationforquestioning.Mostwere involvedinthedonationcounting work. The building which houses the counting centre. ShYAMLAL YAdAv lTheroleoftheeight SUbHASH SriVAStAV: A retired bank employee, he was in-charge of the donation counting shifts at the pilgrim Facility Centre. rAm SHAnkAr YAdAV AliAS tinnU YAdAV: Ex-driver of Trust general secretary Champat rai, looked after temple functioning. coUnting StAff: Avinash Shukla, Lavkush Mishra, Anukalp Mishra, Manish Kumar Yadav, Karunesh pandey, ramashankar Mishra. Tinnu yadav used to work as a driver for Champat rai, »continUed on PAge 2 NCERT’s new Social Science textbook for Class 9 has SIR, more details on Emergency Abhinaya Harigovind New Delhi, June 25 AyeAraftertheelectionCommission (eC) ordered a special intensiverevision(sir)ofelectoralrolls,startingwithBiharas Assembly elections were due there, the exercise has found a mention in the nCerT’s new social science textbook for Class 9. Through sir, the eC “ensuresthatnoeligiblecitizen is left out and no ineligible person is included in the electoral roll,” it says. The book — ‘Understanding society india and Beyond: Part 1’ — released Thursday, also features a section on the emergency, as part of the topic, ‘Challengestodemocraticpracticesinindia’,inachaptertitled ‘Democracy’. “one of the major challenges to democracy in india was recorded when an emergencywasimposedin1975-77.in business as usual By EP UNNY the early 1970s, public dissatisfaction with the government led by indira gandhi was growing. rising unemployment, inflation, and allegations of misgovernance led to widespread protests,” it says. “in June 1975, a national »continUed on PAge 2 l an empLoyee aT head hoppers, 28-year-oLd JayanT GUpTa said he and oThers saw a smaLL venT in prodUcTion room and he decided To Take a chance by JUmpinG ThroUGh iT — ‘There was no oTher way’ ‘Lucky I survived’: He jumped to escape Lucknow blaze, fall left him paralysed maulshree Seth thatiamluckytohavesurvived that horror.” he added that he would have to recover to look As horrifying visuals of the after his family. A doctor treating him said it fire in Lucknow’s Aliganj flashed on TV screens and so- is difficult to predict when he cial media on Monday, a man would recover from his current wasseenjumpingfromthesec- condition, and to what degree. Dr Zia Arshad, who is atond floor of the building to escape the flames. Jayant gupta, tendingtoJayantatthetrauma 28, survived the blaze, but has centre of King george Medical University, told The suffered serious page 1 Indian Express, “Beback injuries that cause of the injuries have left him paraand a fracture in his lysed waist down. The spine may have taken a lower spine, his lower body is hit, but the spirit has not. Cur- paralysed. he has 10 per cent rently under treatment at the burn injuries, which will heal. iCU of Lucknow’s King heisunabletoholdhisbladder george’s Medical University, and stool. We are not making Jayant said with a smile, “i feel any surgical interventions at Lucknow, June 25 anchor present.” The building where the fire broke out housed an art production company and other business units. All 15 victims died of suffocation. The investigation into the cause of the fire revealed that the lack of an emergency exit and other safetymeasureshadturnedthe building into a death trap. Jayant had been working at the art production company, headhoppers,asajuniorcharacter artist for the past four years.hisfamilymemberssaid he had received many offers from outside Lucknow, including one from Dubai, but stayed back for his parents and aunt. speaking to The Indian Jayant Gupta is undergoing treatment at Lucknow’s king George medical University. ExprESS Express, Jayant recounted the horrors of that day and what pushed him to jump from the second floor. he said that soon after lunch, there was a commotion about a fire in the building, but no one took it seriously. “We initially took it casually, trying to save our stuff. But in no time, thelightsstartedflickering,and we realised we needed to escape,” Jayant said. he recalled that there were about 15 people in the produc- tion room. “We tried to rush out, but the biometric gate was locked. smoke was filling the room. We started throwing whatever we could towards the glassgate–bottles,chairs–and it broke.” The young man said that as the fire and the smoke spread, he and his colleagues struggled to breathe. “When we tried to escape, we realised that the only staircase down was not just filled with smoke, but the flames made it impossible to cross. so we rushed upstairs to go to the roof, but the door was locked,” he said. Jayantsaidthatbythistime, many of his colleagues had started collapsing. “When we found the door to the roof locked, the only option was to go back to the room and find some way out.” “some of our colleagues, who were in the canteen area, had escaped by climbing down the wire, but it was no longer possible by the time we tried exiting through the main gate ortheroof,”hesaid.“Therewas smoke, heat and darkness everywhere. i could feel the flames; we were struggling to breathe.” Jayant said they saw a small vent in the production room that was used for light during power cuts, and he decided to take a chance by jumping »continUed on PAge 2 Lucknow