DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA SATURDAY, JANUARY 27, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES JOURNALISM OF COURAGE `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 RENU DEVI MAY RETURN AS DEPUTY CM NDA govt on the cards again in Bihar: Nitish all set to go with BJP He is likely to resign and then stake fresh claim to form govt with BJP on Sunday SANTOSH SINGH & LIZ MATHEW PATNA, NEW DELHI, JAN 26 SHOULDER TO SHOULDER Women personnel of the BSF camel contingent at the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on Friday. Praveen Khanna RELATEDREPORTS, PAGES4,6 REPUBLIC DAY VISIT: LEADERS HOLD TALKS THE WORLD Air and space to AI and sea: India, France adopt new roadmap of defence production Modi and Macron discuss Gaza, terror and aid; Red Sea and disruptions SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, JANUARY 26 ICJ TELLS ISRAEL TO PREVENT GENOCIDE IN GAZA, BUT DOES NOT CALL FOR TRUCE U.S. NSA TO MEET CHINA TOP DIPLOMAT AS BOTH COUNTRIES SEEK BETTER TIES PAGE 10 INDIA AND France Friday adopted a Roadmap on Defence Industrial Cooperation as Prime Minister Narendra Modi held talks with visiting French PresidentandRepublicDaychief guest Emmanuel Macron Thursday and Friday. The roadmap, said Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra, underlined that it will identify opportunities in co-design, co-development and co-production in President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron during the Republic Day parade in New Delhi on Friday. Praveen Khanna thedefenceindustrialsectorand it will cover a range of domains: air and space technology, maritime tech, underwater domain awareness, land warfare, robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles and cyber defence. Defence and security form oneofthekeypillarsofthestrategic partnership between India and France established on January 26, 1998. This year’s Republic Day celebrations also capthe25thanniversarycelebrations of the strategic partnership CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Window to conclude Uttarakhand Assembly will India-UK FTA by end hold special session on Feb 5 of March closing fast, to pass Uniform Civil Code officials in a huddle BJP-ruled Gujarat, Assam plan similar Bill; three states NEW DELHI, JANUARY 26 THE WINDOW to conclude talks with the United Kingdom on a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) before the end of thisfinancial year or March 31 is fast closing, and top government officials from both sides are making a final push to wrap up pending issues. A delegation from the UK arrived in India on January 22. “There have been several issues, but most chapters have been closed in the last three months. Over 90 per cent of the deal is one, only a handful of articles in a few chapters are remaining. It is a small basket,” a senior government official told The Indian Express. “For us, (India) the Model PAGE 1 ANCHOR Code of Conduct will be the cutoff date. Our UK counterpart understandsthisandthatisthereason their officials are here and meetings are ongoing with the highest level of the government across ministries — commerce, finance and external affairs,” the official said. The MCC will come into effect the day the Lok Sabha poll scheduleisannounced.Elections need to be held before June 16 when the term of the 17th Lok Sabha ends. The MCC contains general precepts for model behaviourduringelections,withan entire chapter on what the party in power can and cannot do. The India-UK FTA was originally slated to be signed by the Diwali of 2022, a deadline that wasannouncedearlierbytheUK CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 may have UCC in place before Lok Sabha polls are held LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, JANUARY 26 THE UTTARAKHAND Assembly has been convened for a special one-daysessiononFebruary5to discuss and pass the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) Bill. Sources said a five-member committee, led by former Supreme Court judge Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai and set up by the state in May 2022, is expected to hand over its report tothegovernmentonFebruary2 or February 3. The report is learnt to have placed emphasis on gender equality and equal rights for daughters in ancestral properties.Itdoesnot,however,suggest Last year, CM Pushkar Dhami said the UCC would be implemented soon raising the marriageable age of womento21years.Ithasrecommended retaining the marriageable age for women at 18 years. Sources also said once the Uttarakhand Legislative AssemblypassestheUCC,twootherBJP ruled states — Gujarat and Assam — will also introduce a UCCbillwhichismoreorlessthe same as Uttarakhand’s, in their Legislative Assembly. If everything goes as per plan, three CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D RAVI DUTTA MISHRA From states to ● Centre THE BJP’s political strategy is to ensure states ruled by the party first implement the Uniform Civil Code, with the focus largely on gender equality and equal rights for daughters in ancestral property, keeping out the more contentious issues. This will face less resistance, it hopes, setting the stage for a national law. WITH THE BJP dropping clear hints of being open to tying up with the Janata Dal (United) again, Nitish Kumar looks set to return as Chief Minister at the head of an NDA government in Bihar. Nitish may have two Deputy CMs from the BJP, on similar lines as the post-2020 Assembly polls formula. Nitish is most likely to tender his resignation and then stake a fresh claim to form the government with the NDA on Sunday. The BJP and JD(U) are likely to hold party meetings and then convene a meeting of the alliance to choose Nitish as its leader. Sources said that the BJP I am going to be a father in March: Punjab CM Mann in R-Day speech Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Tejashwi Yadav at a Republic Day event in Patna, Friday. PTI BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY WHY NITISH DUMPED BJP IN 2022,WHY HE MAY PATCH UP PAGE 5 would choose an Extremely Backward Class (EBC) leader for one of the Deputy CM posts, and thatislikelytobe RenuDevi.The Nonia leader was one of the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Calcutta HC judge accuses colleague of ‘acting for political party’, SC sitting today RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & ANANTHAKRISHNAN G KOLKATA, NEW DELHI, JANUARY 26 At the Republic Day event in Ludhiana. X/BhagwantMann DIVYA GOYAL LUDHIANA, JANUARY 26 TAKING THE audience by surpriseduringhisRepublicDayaddress in Ludhiana, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann announced Friday that he and his wife were expecting a baby in March. He said his wife, Dr Gurpreet Kaur, was seven months pregnant. Urging people not to get sex determination tests done, Mann said: “I am also expecting a bundle of joy in my home coming March. My wife is seven months pregnant. We have consciously chosen not to discover the gender and won’t do so in the future either. I urge everyone to avoid such practices. Let us refrain from discriminating between boysandgirls;instead, let’s wish for a healthy baby. Given the opportunity, there’s nothing that girls cannot achieve.” He said it was a matter of immense pride that the Pran Pratishtha of the Ram idol had taken place in Ayodhya, adding that everyone should go there to pay their obeisance. A FIVE-JUDGE bench of the Supreme Court will hold a special sitting Saturday to consider the developments in the Calcutta High Court, where a judge accused a fellow judge of “acting clearly for some political partyinthisState”andrequested the Chief Justice of India to look into the matter. CJI D Y Chandrachud set up the bench comprising himself and the four most senior judges of the court – Justices Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose – after taking suo motu cognisance of the developments on Friday. On Thursday, a single-judge bench of Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay of the Calcutta High Court had directed that a CBI investigation ordered into alleged irregularities in MBBS admissions in the state will continue, despite an order of a division bench to the contrary. In the written order, he levelled accusations against a fellow judge, Justice Soumen Sen. Calcutta High Court’s Justice Abhijit Gangopadhyay When contacted, Justice Sen declined to comment. Justice Gangopadhyay had Wednesday ordered a CBI probe into alleged irregularities in admission of MBBS candidates in state-run medical colleges and hospitals. However, the state government moved the division bench of Justices Sen and Uday Kumar, which ordered an interim stay on the single-bench order.Thestategovernmenthad made a verbal appeal before the division bench, which admitted the petition. In his written order, Justice Gangopadhyay wrote, “Now I have to do something which is CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK TMC GOVT NOT PERMITTING BHARAT JODO YATRA RALLIES IN BENGAL: ADHIR PAGE 5 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Chambers, carvings, decorations: ASI describes temple that was ASAD REHMAN VARANASI, JANUARY 26 A CENTRAL chamber “tastefully decorated with carvings of animals and birds”, pillars with “lotus medallion” and “flower bud chains”, a “large decorated entrance gateway” on the wall of one of the chambers – these, according to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), formed part of “a large Hindu temple” that existed at the site in Varanasi where the Gyanvapi mosque now stands. In a report on its scientific survey of the mosque complex – it’s in four volumes – the ASI, tasked by the Varanasi district court to ascertain whether the mosque was “constructed over a pre-existing structure of a Hindu temple”, has concluded just that, and describes a temple that existed before it “appears to have been destroyed in the 17th century, during the reign of Aurangzeb andpart of it…modified and reused in the existing structure”. Hindu litigants have claimed that the Gyanvapi mosque was built on the site of the earlier KashiVishwanathtempleafterits destruction in the 17th century. The ASI report, made public Thursday after its copies were handed over to Hindu and Muslim litigants by the court, in the section titled ‘Reply to Observations of the Court’, stated:“Basedonthestudiescarried out, observations made on the existing structures, exposed features, and artefacts studied, it can be concluded that there existed a large Hindu temple prior to the construction of the existing structure.” “This temple had a big central chamber and based on the study of the existing structures A Hindu temple existed at the site of the Gyanvapi mosque, the ASI has said in its survey report. EXPLAINED, PAGE7 and available evidence it can be concludedthatithadatleastone chambertothenorth,south,east and west respectively,” it stated. “Remains of three chambers to the north, south and west can still be seen but the remains of the chamber to the east and any further extension of it cannot be ascertained physically as the area to the east is covered under (a) solid functional platform with stone flooring,” it stated. “Entrance to the central chamberof thetemplewasfrom (the) west which has been blocked by stone masonry. Its western chamber was also con- nected with north and south chambers through a corridor accessiblefromitsnorthandsouth entrances respectively.” “Mainentrancetothecentral chamber was tastefully decorated with carvings of animals and birds and an ornamental torana. Figure carved on the lalatabimba has been chopped off and most of it is covered with stones, bricks and mortar which is used to block the entrance. Remains of a bird figure carved onthedoorsill,andpartof which survivedatthenorthernside,appears to be of a cock,” it stated. Concluding that the western wall of the Gyanvapi mosque wasthe“remainingpartof apreexisting Hindu temple”, the ASI said, “Art and architecture of any building not only indicates its date but also its nature. Karnaratha and prati-ratha of central chamber visible on either side of western chamber, a large decorated entrance gateway on the eastern wall of the western chamber,asmallerentranceand destroyedimageonlalatabimba, birds and animals carved for decoration suggest that the western wall is remaining part of a pre-existing Hindu temple.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2