The ideas Page: i was asked to sing with an ai band — here’s why i said no 9 SATURdAY, JULY 25, 2026 JournaliSm of Courage AhMEdABAd, 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 lA CentrAl government team will visit flood-hit Assam to review the rapidly deteriorating situation. The deluge has so far killed 47 people and affected over 7.21 lakh people across 11 districts in the state. lthe West BengAl govern- ment will table all pending Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports in the state Assembly and recommend registration of FIRs wherever the audit findings establish corruption. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com sCbarscourt hearingclips onsocialmedia withoutnod directions by three-judge bench led by cji surya kant Ananthakrishnan g New Delhi, July 24 INANinterimorderFriday,the Supreme Court barred the recording and circulation of courtroom proceedings without prior permission of the court concerned. It concerns over alleged misuse on social mediabutclarifiedthatthecurb will not affect news reporting. A three-judge bench, led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, said, “As an interim measure, we direct that there shall be no posting, reposting, extraction, modification, dissemination, monetisation, recording or review of the livestreamed proceedings of this court on social media or any other digital platform without thepriorpermissionoftheconcerned registrar and the secretary general of this court and registrar general of high courts.” directing the secretary general of the Supreme Court and registrar general of high courts to display this order on their court websites, the bench said, “This order shall have no bearing on news reporting.” The bench, also comprising Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana, was hearing a PIL by journalist Harshita Grover highlighting “increasing misuse of audiovisual recordings of judicial proceedingsthroughselectiveclipping, editing, decontextualised CABinet ApprovAl of drAft Bill dAy After pm AnnounCement Jail up to 10 yrs, Rs 10-cr fine for exam leak: Nod for tough new law Using leftover wrappers, police trace outlets sending food to Jantar Mantar Likely to go to Parliament Monday, will amend 2024 Act press trust of india New Delhi, July 24 THE UNIoN Cabinet Friday approved a draft Bill to ensure stricter punishments for paper leaks, including a fine up to Rs 10crore,hoursafterPrimeMinister Narendra Modi made an announcement to this effect, official sources said. The Cabinet meeting chaired by the Prime Minister at the Parliament House complex approved the draft Bill to hand stricter punishments to thoseinvolvedinpaperleaksas compared to the existing law, they said. The Bill will amend The Public Examinations (PreventionofUnfairMeans)Act,2024, proposing a minimum punishment of five years’ imprisonment for individuals involved in paper leaks and/or a fine. Itproposesajailtermofupto 10yearsandamaximumfineof Rs 10 crore in case of organised paper leaks, the sources said. The present law has provisions for three to five years’ imprisonment for individuals, and five to 10 years’ imprisonment and a minimum fine of Rs 1 crore for those involved in theorganisedcrimeofcheating »Continued on pAge 2 Business as Usual By EP UNNY Aanchal magazine & soumyarendra Barik New Delhi, July 24 union ministers j P nadda and jitendra singh with cjP’s saurav das and ashutosh ranka, Friday. ANI Pradhan resignation non-negotiable, says CJP; more talks today: Centre sophiya mathew New Delhi, July 24 REPRESENTATIVES oF the Cockroach Janta Party, spearheading the protest at Jantar Mantar over examination paperleaks,toldtheCentreFriday that their key demands for the resignation of Union Education Minister dharmendra Pradhan,compensationforthe familiesofstudentswhoended their lives following the NEET paper leak, and no legal action against the protesters were not negotiable. Union Minister J P Nadda, whoalongwithhiscolleagueJitendraSinghmetCJPspokespersons Ashutosh Ranka and Saurav das for nearly two hours at the Constitution Club of India, notfarfromtheprotestsite,told deeptiman tiwary New Delhi, July 24 THREE dAyS of negotiations, persuasion by leaders from Ladakh, the government softeningitsstand,andaCongressMP facilitating the process. That’s whatittooktogetclimateactivist Sonam Wangchuk, the face of the ongoing Jantar Mantar protests,tobreakhisfastlateon Thursday night. Sources said the govern- ment began making attempts to reach out to Wangchuk by the evening of July 20 when the protests ran into lathicharges and tear gas fired by the police during the march to Parliament. It is learnt that Congress MP Vivek Tankha who was among the lawyers who fought Wangchuk’s National Security Act (NSA) case in the Supreme Court — and is said to be close to the activist — played a significant role in the »Continued on pAge 2 sonam Wangchuk ended his fast Thursday night. pTI negotiations between the government and Wangchuk and helped both find a middle ground. “Governmentwasnotready to commit to an assurance on Education Minister dharmendra Pradhan’s resignation, which had been the principal demand of the ongoing agitation.Butitwasalsokeentoconvince Wangchuk to end his fast and find a resolution to the »Continued on pAge 2 Rivers rising, Punjab BLOs take boats to meet SIR deadline Kanchan vasdev Chandigarh, July 24 PAge 3 NIA fIles chArgesheet AgAINst tAIlor held IN NAvsArI »Continued on pAge 2 Record rainfall brings Ahmedabad city to its knees; 4 killed as car falls into drain in Kheda ritu sharma Ahmedabad, July 24 A dAy after Ahmedabad recorded its highest continuous rainfall of 24 hours in six years on Thursday, several parts of the city remained under water. Eventhetonyneighbourhoods of the South West zone at Ambli-Bopal, Sindhu Bhavan Road, Mumatpura, Thaltej, remained under at least two-feet deep water for the second consecutive day. The affected areas, some of which Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel visited on Friday, included the Sentossa Park on Ambli Road, Iscon Greens and Hariom Villa areas — all of these being luxurious apartment and bungalow schemes in the Bopal area. Bopal receivedover10inchesofrainfall, thesecondhighestinthecityin a day, on Thursday. The CM interacted with the affected people, offering them assurance and assistance. CM Patel was accompanied by Cabinet Minister Rushikesh Patel and Ahmedabad City Mayor Hitesh Barot. At least 25 housing societies across the city remained under water for the second consecu- Gujarat cm Bhupendra Patel interacts with people in ahmedabad on Friday. ExpREss Full coveraGe, PaGe 4 tive day, many of them falling in the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha area.ResidentialareaslikeShrinanandnagar, Vejalpur, Maktampura, in Sarkhej, which get floodedeveryyear,wereamong thoseaffected.Peoplewererescued by Army boats, JCB backhoes and tractors, and such hard terrain vehicles. With the IMd predicting heavy to very heavy rainfall in Ahmedabad city and the current flood situation, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation »Continued on pAge 2 A Cong MP, 3 days of negotiations: How Govt seCtion 301 forCed lABour proBe India attracts 10% convinced Wangchuk to end hunger strike »Continued on pAge 2 gujarat reportersthattheCJPdemands andsuggestionshadbeennoted and there would be another meeting Saturday afternoon. The meeting took place hours after activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had backed the CJP demands, ended his 26-day hunger strike Thursday night at the Medanta Hospital in Gurgaon in the presence of USING WRAPPERS left behind at the Jantar Mantar protest site, delhi Police is allegedly tracking down eateries and enquiring about their orders over thelastfewdays.Somerestaurants and cafes claimed they were summoned to police stations and told to desist from servicing deliveries to the protest venue. The owners of several cafes andrestaurantstoldTheIndian Express that delhi Police officers visited them and asked them to refrain from sending free food in bulk to the protest site. Police are also learnt to have gone through records of the orders and deliveries by these restaurants over the last few days, with some eateries being asked to furnish proof of thepaidorders,bulkordersand those delivered for free. The owner of a restaurant, which has supplied hundreds of food items to the protest site, said delhi Police officials severAl pArts of City suBmerged Blos Pushpa Grover, darshan singh on a boat to reach kaluwala village in Punjab’s Ferozepur. ExpREss FoR MoST Booth Level officers (BLos), revising electoral rolls means walking from one house to another with forms in hand. For some in Punjab’s remote border belt, it has meant rowing across rivers, waiting out floodwaters and, on occasion, relying on Army boats to return home. As the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls gathers pace, BLos posted in some of Punjab’s most inaccessible villages have been navigating swollen rivers and flood-prone terrain to ensure that even the state’s last voters, living on the edge of the IndiaPakistanborder,arenotleftout. In Gurdaspur district, Vikram Singh’s workday begins not on a road but on the Ravi. To reach Bharyal village, he »Continued on pAge 2 US tariff, lower rate after policy shift 12.5 per cent for Vietnam, China: Trump administration redraws tariff architecture ravi dutta mishra New Delhi, July 24 THE US Friday imposed 10% tariffs on India, lower than the 12.5% rate proposed in March when the United States Trade Representative (USTR) identified 60 countries under Section301oftheUSTradeAct,citing import of goods produced with forced labour. This comes weeks after the directorate General of Foreign Trade (dGFT) announced prohibitionofimportofgoodsproduced using forced labour, alongwithparallelnegotiations for a trade deal with the US. In the new tariff regime enforced Friday, the European UnionandTaiwanreceivedthe most favourable rates — the Section 301 tariff is applied on goods from these two economies only if the product’s existing most favoured nation (MFN) tariff is less than 10%. If E. explained Bar on goods made by forced labour Ahead of the US tariffs, India barred the import of goods made using forced labour. On July 13, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade had inserted a new paragraph in the Foreign Trade Policy regarding ‘forced labour’, stating that import of goods produced or manufactured, ‘wholly or in part’, through the use of forced labour is ‘prohibited’. the product from the EU or Taiwan already has an MFN tariff of 10% or higher, the Section 301 tariff is zero. India has been placed in the »Continued on pAge 2 l one oF The convicTs, a juvenile aT The Time oF The 1999 aTTack, has emBraced chrisTianiTy, says ‘iT BrouGhT me inner Peace’ Village where Staines was killed lives with regret, fears Dara Singh’s return sujit Bisoyi lage that, on the face of it, is a long way from that night of January 22-23, 1999 — dotted by pucca houses and roads; MANoHARPUR LIVES with marked by a police station that regret — regret of the fire that came up after the Staines killkilled Australian Christian ings,andhasnotseenanycommissionary Graham Staines munal violence since; and and his two minor sons on a home now to many more winter night 27 years tribals who have empage 1 ago in this Santhal braced Christianity, village of odisha. among them a juThe possibility now venile who was conthat the main accused, Ravin- victed in the murders. dra Pal alias dara Singh, a Laxmi Hansdah, who is in former Bajrang dal member her 60s, remembers that night who is serving a life term, may well. Her voice trembling, she get premature release has pullstheendofhersarioverher brought the memories back. face, saying: “That night will Alongwithapprehensionof staywithmeuntilIdie.Whyare what it might mean for the vil- you asking about it now?” Manoharpur (Keonjhar), July 24 anchor dara, who is lodged in Keonjhar district Jail, moved theSupremeCourtinJuly2024 seeking remission, appealing that he had spent over 24 years inprisonalreadyandthatherepented acting as he did, in “a fit ofyouthfulrage”.TheSupreme Court has directed the odisha governmenttotakeacallonthe matter within a month. dara, who was 37 when arrested, belongs to Auraiya district in Uttar Pradesh, and it is not clear where he will choose to settle down if released. Anotheraccusedinthecase who was also serving life, MahendraHembram,cameouton parole last year. A villager, who does not l inodisha’sKeonjhar Mayurbhanj odishA Keonjhar Mahanadi River Cuttack Bhubaneswar at manoharpur village, where Graham staines and his two minor sons were killed in 1999 want to be named, says he was a child in 1999 but remembers what happened enough to dreadarepeat.“Wearelivingin harmony… Whether dara is released or not is up to the government and court, but it should not trigger problems in the village.” ojen Hansdah, who was convictedfortheStaineskilling andspentsixyearsinjailbefore being acquitted in 2005, is also repentant,thoughheclaimshe was framed. Partially paralysed, and not sure of his age (“I have lost count”), Hansdah says:“Idon’tknowwhatexactly happened. It shouldn’t have happened at all.” Hansdah’s nephew was the onlyjuvenileconvictinthecase andspentnineyearsinajuvenile home before being freed in 2008. Now 38 and a father of two, he talks of “regret” too, while asserting that he was an unwitting participant in the attack. “A mob came and started Ahmedabad attacking the vehicles.” Earningalivingfromasmall patch of farm, he converted to Christianity around two years ago. “It brought me inner peace,”saysthe38-year-old,adding: “Nobody influenced or pressured me. It was my own decision, stemming from grief and introspection… I join prayerseverySundayforpeace.” Asked about allegations of forcible conversion, including by Staines, Chetan Murmu, the pastor at a newly built churchcum-prayerhouseinthevillage who knew the missionary well, suggests the numbers say it all. only seven of the over 250households in the village were Christian when Staines and his sons were killed. “Now 41 families follow Christianity,” Murmu says. Talking about how Staines, who ran a centre for leprosy afflicted, helped his daughter, Murmu,60,saysreleasingdara would set a wrong precedent. “Staines was a victim of hate crimeandhiskillersshouldnot be allowed to walk free… And why did they kill his two innocent children? What was their mistake?” While he was in the opposition, Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, who represents the Keonjhar Assembly constituency, had supported the demand for dara’s release. »Continued on pAge 2