The editorial Page: seven years after august 5 — delaying J&K statehood undermines gains 8 WEdNESdAY, AUGUST 5, 2026 Journalism of Courage MUMbAI, LAtE CIty, 18 PAgES ₹5.00 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 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 OvEr rEmArkS ON ACTOr lINkED TO Cm Udhayanidhi arrest sparks row, TN House meets today eXPRess special gen Z loud and clear on the street but invisible in parliament, assemblies Only 6 MPs & 20 MLAs from GenZ, given eligibility age is 25 for candidates, but population share is nearly 26% Anjishnu Das New Delhi, August 4 Arun Janardhanan On thE streets, Gen Z’s voice rings loud and clear, but in Parliament and the state legislatures, it remains a faint echo. the reason: Gen Z accounts for over a quarter of the country's population, yet its Chennai, August 4 thE arrESt of dMK leader UdhayanidhiStalin,theLeader of the Opposition (LoP) in the tamil nadu assembly, on tuesday over his alleged sexually coloured remarks at a public meeting on the ties between chief Minister c Joseph Vijay and a tamil actor escalatedintoashowdownbetween the tVK-led government and the dMK in the state. the row triggered a war of words between the Vijay-led tVK and the dMK on the eve of theassembly’sBudgetSession, setting off statewide protests and a legal battle in the Madras TN Leader of Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin after being questioned in Thanjavur. PtI high court. hours after the policetook Udhayanidhi to thanjavur, he was questioned at the Sengipatti police station before beingreleasedonbailasperthe high court’s order. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 inside 98 126 155 76 847mangRovetReeS tobeCUtfoRbUllet tRain-linkeDwoRk p3 govt to SC: 2-Stage Jee foRmat planneD foR neet-Ug page 7 RS paSSeS bill on RegiStRation of biRthS, DeathS p 10 Educationist DYPatildiesat 90inkolhapur Express News Service Pune, August 4 FOrMEr GOVErnOr and education pioneer d Y Patil died in Kolhapur tuesday. he was 90. Widely recognised in Maharashtra as “Shikshanmaharshi”,orvisionaryeducationist,Patil,whoservedastheGovernor of tripura and Bihar, left an enduring legacy across the fields of education, healthcare, and sports. dnyandeo Yashwantrao Patil began his political career with the congress party, but later stepped away from active politics to focus on education. he served as the mayor of »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 representation in politics is restricted to just 26 legislators across the country — six Lok Sabha MPs and 20 MLas, a low number even though the minimum age to contest elections is 25, which rules out a chunk of this demographic. defined as those born »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 l Party-wiseGenZMPsandMLAs AIADMK: 1 inC BJP Total Gen Z legislators 7 5 DMK: 1 HSPDP: 1 Independent: 1 TVK 3 JanaSena Party: 1 26 SP: 2 NPP: 1 NCP(SP): 1 LJP(RV): 1 JD(U): 1 SoURCE: LoK SAbHA, StAtE ASSEMbLIES, ADR ‘India can reach AI frontier in one year with $10-billion push’ business as Usual By EP UNNY Siddhivinayak Temple theft claim began with probe into a VVIP darshan queue ‘racket’ Apoorva Agashe & Alok Deshpande Mumbai, August 4 Co-presented by Sarvam AI’s Pratyush Kumar and tech investor Rajan Anandan Celebration Partner Experience Partner ENS Economic Bureau Mumbai, August 4 IndIacancatchupwithfrontier artificial intelligence models developed in the West withinayear,withthecountry’s aI ecosystem currently only a $10-billion investment away from competing with global players, according to Pratyush Kumar, co-founder and cEO of »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 the big piCtURe inDia to Japan, via noRth eaSt page 11 aSMaharaShtraisroiledby itsowntempletheftallegations, itmayhaveallbegunwithsomething far smaller – a probe into complaintsthatsomestaffersof Mumbai’s Siddhivinayak temple were taking money from devotees to slip them into the “VVIP darshan” queue. the sum involved in the alleged scandal has since been climbing, as the Opposition spotsanopportunityagainstthe BJP,whichisalreadyontheback foot over the ayodhya temple The Siddhivinayak temple at Prabhadevi Mumbai. AKASH PAtIL donation theft. MnS chief raj thackeray, who has taken the lead,putsthefiguresiphonedoff at “rs 18 crore every year”. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2