DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 20, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES BY UNNY EXPRESS NETWORK 3NEWMECHANISMSON border; talks on de-escalation INDIAFLAGSCONCERNS over terror, Brahmaputra dam BOUNDARYFRAMEWORK to be in line with 2005 pact LookforwardtomeetingXi,saysPMas India,Chinamoveonborder,trade,flights Jaishankar said Taiwan part of China: Beijing; Delhi says Taipei ties unchanged Wang Yi meets Modi who calls for stable and constructive ties SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19 AMARAVATI PROJECT: SINGAPORE MAY BE BACK ON BOARD WHAT IS RECOURSE IF GOVERNOR KEEPS BILLS PENDING: SC PAGES 12, 8 SPORT GILL IN T20I TEAM AS VICE-CAPTAIN, SURYAKUMAR LEADS PAK WON’T TRAVEL TO INDIA FOR HOCKEY ASIA CUP PAGES 21, 22 UNDERLINING THAT “stable, predictable,constructivetiesbetween India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity”,PrimeMinisterNarendra Modi said Tuesday he was looking forward to meeting Chinese President XiJinping in Tianjin on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation leaders’ summit on August 31September 1. His remarks came as Delhi and Beijing agreed on resumption of direct flights, border trade, facilitating trade and investments, and at least three border-related new mechanisms,signallingheadwaymade in rebuilding ties after five years SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19 Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI of a tense border standoff. AftervisitingChineseForeign Minister Wang Yi called on him in New Delhi, Modi, in a post on X, said, “Glad to meet Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Since my meeting with President Xi in Kazan last year, India-China relations have made steady progress guided by respect for each other’s interests and sensitivities.Ilookforwardtoournext meeting in Tianjin on the sidelines of the SCO Summit. Stable, predictable,constructivetiesbetween India and China will contribute significantly to regional as well as global peace and prosperity.” The Prime Minister’s Office said, “Prime Minister emphasised the importance of maintainingpeaceandtranquillityon CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SERIES OF STEPS THREE new mechanismsto manageborder AGREE to discuss de-escalation at LAC FACILITATE trade and investment flows BORDER tradevia designatedpoints RESUMPTION of direct flightsatearliest BEIJING SAID Tuesday External Affairs Minister S Jaishankartold visitingChineseForeignMinister Wang Yi that “Taiwan is part of China” and National Security AdvisorAjitDovalconveyedthat India “consistently adhered to the one-China policy”. Respondingtotheseremarks intheChinesereadoutof Wang’s meetings in New Delhi, official sources said there has been “no change” in India’s position on Taiwan and its ties with Taipei are focused on economy, technology and culture. The Chinese Foreign Ministry, in an English version of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SEPTEMBER 1 DEADLINE FOR SIR PHASE 2 No objections filed by political parties: EC; on ground, workers say raised red flags NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19 THE INDIAN Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) on Tuesday said it will issue a show causenoticetotheCentreforthe Study of Developing Societies over an erroneous claim made by Sanjay Kumar — professor and co-director of Lokniti, a re- NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19 UNION HOME Minister Amit Shah is expected to move in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday the Constitution (130th Amendment) Bill, 2025, which seeks to remove a Central or State Minister who is facing allegations of corruption or serious offencesandhasbeendetainedfor at least 30 days. TheBillwillamendArticle75 of the Constitution, which primarily deals with the appointment and responsibilities of the Council of Ministers, including the Prime Minister. “A Minister, who for any period of 30 consecutive days during holding the office as such, is arrestedanddetainedincustody, on allegation of committing an offence under any law for the time being in force, which is punishable with imprisonment Madan Prasad (right) has been struck off the draft rolls as ‘dead’. Rahul Sharma EUROPE AT TRUMP TABLE WHAT WILL NOT COUNTINBIHAR search programme at the CSDS — in asocial media post that two constituencies in Maharashtra had shown a significant fall in the numbers of voters between the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls last year. The ICSSR, which operates under the aegis of the Ministry of Education, is the government’s apex body for research in CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 IN PARLIAMENT BILL TO BOOST EXPLORATION OF CRITICAL MINERALS CLEARS RS PAGE 6 for a term which may extend to five years or more, shall be removed from his office by the President on the advice of the PrimeMinistertobetenderedby the 31st day after being taken in such custody,” the Bill states. The move comes against the backdropof thecontroversythat surrounded the arrest in 2023 of V Senthil Balaji, a minister in Tamil Nadu’s DMK government. Tamil Nadu Governor R N Ravi had dismissed Balaji following his arrest in an alleged money laundering case. Chief Minister M K Stalin had then reinstated Balaji after the Supreme Court granted him bail. But after the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Centre set to ban online real money gaming, Bill likely in Parliament today NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19 ICSSR to issue notice to CSDS over ‘manipulation’ of Maharashtra poll data EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE LIZ MATHEW & APURVA VISHWANATH SOUMYARENDRA BARIK DARBHANGA, ARA, AURANGABAD, AUGUST 19 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Govt to bring Bill to remove ministers detained for 30 days on serious charges Seekstopromotecompetitivee-sports, gamedevelopmentviaproposedlaw DAMINI NATH, SANTOSH SINGH & ASAD REHMAN IN ITS daily statements since August 1, the Election Commission of India has been maintaining that none of the 1.6 lakhbooth-levelagents(BLAs)appointed by political parties has filedanyclaimsandobjectionsto therecentlypublisheddraftelectoralrollaspartofBihar’songoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR). Yet, on the ground, the BLAs — political workers meant to be theeyesandearsof partiesatthe levelof Assemblyconstituencies andbooths—saytheyhavebeen actively raising objections: from alleged duplication of voters to the presence of ‘fake voters’ and CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT BILL Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Chancellor of Germany Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finland President Alexander Stubb, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, NATO Secy General Mark Rutte during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the Oval Office on Monday. x/@WhiteHouse I N S I D E RUSSIA MAY NOT WANT TO MAKE DEAL: TRUMP P 18 THE GREAT TRUMP RESET BY C RAJA MOHAN P 11 THEMINISTRYof Electronicsand InformationTechnology(MeitY) has drafted a legislation which could place a blanket ban on all online real money gaming services — where users can play gamesafterdepositingmoneyin the form of a stake or a wager — owing to growing concerns aboutallegedmoneylaundering through these services and their harmful societal impact, The Indian Express has learnt. The proposed law, learnt to be titled ‘The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill, 2025’, has been cleared by Cabinet and is likely to be tabled in Parliament on Wednesday. TheBillhasbeendraftedover E E X P L A I NE D BUSINESS AS USUAL `7.00 (`8 RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 Gamingvs ● e-sports THE PROPOSAL to ban real money gaming has been made keeping in view growing concerns around socio-economic and national security risks that such platforms could pose. The government, meanwhile, is keen to promote esports as a legitimate competitive sport. national security concerns related to online gaming platforms, including the use of CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 Centre lists ‘ineligible’ ration card Opp banks on ‘social justice’ card, holders, asks states to remove them picks ex-SC judge as V-P nominee Details matched with databases of taxpayers, car owners HARIKISHAN SHARMA NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19 THE CENTRAL government has for the first time prepared a list of ration card holders who may not qualify for benefits such as free food grains since they are either taxpayers, owners of fourwheelers or even directors in companies. The Centre’s Department of Food and Public Distribution has arrived at such a list by matching FOUND HAVING RATION CARDS 5.31 lakh Director Identification Number holders 17.51 lakh four-wheeler owners 94.71 lakh Income Tax payers the details of ration card holders with databases of government entities such as the Income-Tax department (taxpayers), Ministry of Corporate Affairs (directors) and Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (fourwheeler owners). In this exercise of cross-verification, the department found that 94.71 lakh ration card holders are taxpayers, 17.51 lakh are owners of four-wheelers and another 5.31 lakh ration card CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MANOJ C G & JATIN ANAND NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19 PITCHING THE forthcoming Vice-Presidential elections as an “ideological battle”, the Opposition parties Wednesday named former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) B Sudershan Reddy as their candidate against NDA nominee C P Radhakrishnan. Reddy, who retired from the Supreme Court in 2011, most CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Former SC judge B Sudershan Reddy with Opposition MPs in New Delhi on Tuesday. PTI RELATEDREPORTS,PAGE6 How CBI case against Kejriwal ex-aide hit a wall in approver’s bank locker PAGE 1 ANCHOR NIRBHAY THAKUR NEW DELHI, AUGUST 19 IT STARTED with a raid nearly a decade ago. On December 15, 2015, sleuths from the CBI searched the office and residence of former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’sex-PrincipalSecretary Rajendra Kumar inacaserelated to the award of contracts worth Rs 9.5 crore between 2007 and 2014 to a private company in al- leged violation of rules. The CBI alsosearched14locationslinked to eight other accused in this case. Among the accused was A K Duggal, whowasamanagingdirector at the time of Intelligent Communication Systems India Limited (ICSIL), a PSU through whichthecontractsunderprobe were allegedly awarded to Endeavour Systems Pvt Ltd (ESPL). While Duggal was initiallyanaccused,hewas granted a pardon by a Delhi Court in November 2016 after the CBI named him an approver. Along with the houses and offices raided, the CBI also searched the bank lockers of all the accused. While the contents of the lockers of all accused persons were eventually made known to the court and to the other accused, what was found inside Duggal’s locker still remains a mystery. “What was in the locker?” Special Judge Manisha Khurana Kakkar, who is hearing the corruption case at Rouse Avenue Court, asked the CBI on July 22 — close to a decade after the case was lodged. “We don’t know, your honour,” came the response of the CBI’s counsel. The judge asked the CBI to clarify whether the missing ma- The approver was an accused in the corruption case against Rajendra Kumar (above), who was Principal Secretary to former Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. File terial was “untraceable”. “Otherwise, the matter won’t proceed further,” she said. Issuing notice for the Investigating Officer to appear, the judge listed the matter for August 26. Courtrecordstracethelocker mystery back to 2015 when the CBI submitted a compliance report before the court mentioning thatthey had seized a “stainless locker key of a locker maintained at SBI Civil Lines” from the accused Kumar’s residence. A similar search conducted at Duggal’s residence resulted in two locker keys being found:“oneLockerKeyof Canara Bank, Vikas Puri” and another “Locker Key No. 20756 of State Bank of Patiala, near Janak Cinema Hall, Janak Puri”, the agency said. Records show that the mystery unfolded in a series of court hearings: SEPTEMBER 2018: The CBI told the court that they were preparing a list of “un-relied” documents — ie, records not used by the prosecution to build its case but can be accessed by the accused. JULY 2019: Advocates Rahul TyagiandMathewMPhilip,who represented Kumar, asked for a list of “un-relied” documents and a list of all witnesses whose statements were recorded during investigation. APRIL 2022: The court directed the CBI to supply a list of “un-relied” documents, holding that the accused were “entitled for the same”. AUGUST 2022: The court took on record the list of “un-relied” documents. In Duggal’s case, this included printouts of emails, a debit card intimation, a vehicle insurance certificate, bank documents, receipts of purchaseof jewellery,suchasdiamonds, and a duplicate vehicle registration. What was allegedly CONTINUED ON PAGE 12