The Editorial Page: The good news is lower-income states are catching up 6 FRIDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2025 JOURNALISM of COURAGE JAIPUR, LATE CITY, 12 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 POSTAL REGN. NO. JAIPUR CITY/001/2024-26 Happening today ROUSING WELCOME AS KHALEDA SON RETURNS TO DHAKA Tarique back: I have a plan... an inclusive and safe Bangladesh lTHE DELHI HIGH COURT will hear a PIL seeking a GST cut on air purifiers by classifying them as ‘medical devices’ in view of the Capital’s worsening air quality. Air purifiers are currently taxed at 18 per cent. lTHE fIfTH NATIONAL conference of chief secretaries begins. The conference, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will conclude on December 28. Time for all of us to build the country together, says BNP leader lCJI SURYA KANT will lead an awareness walk in Panaji to promote mediation as a people-centric and efficient dispute resolution mechanism. The CJI will later take part in a conference on the subject. lBOXING DAY TEST: The Ashes urn will remain in Australia as England have been hammered in all three Tests already, but Ben Stokes’ men have some serious damage control to do, to salvage some pride at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground. Match starts at 5 am. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm NATION BJP is proud our govt tore down wall of Art 370: PM Attacks Cong over ‘one family’, says his govt has ensured respect for Babasaheb, Rao, Pranab Lucknow, December 25 UdaIPUR FIRM cEO aMONG 3 hELd FOR‘GaNGRaPE’ P 3 SMaRTPhONE BaN ON wOMEN IN jaLORE NIxEd P 3 PAYING TRIBUTE to the dreams and principles of the founding fathers of the Jan Sangh-BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday said “the BJP is proud that our governmentgottheopportunityto tear down the wall of Article 370” in Jammu and Kashmir where “the Constitution of India is in full force” now. SpeakinginLucknowwhere he inaugurated the Rashtra Bajrang Dal and VHP activists vandalise school in Assam over Christmas celebration Latest in series of disruptions in states, including MP and Chhattisgarh Sukrita Baruah Guwahati, December 25 A GROUP of Bajrang Dal and VishvaHinduParishadactivists stormed a diocese school in Assam’s Nalbari town on Wednesday, Christmas Eve, and destroyed Christmas decorations there. The same group had also destroyedChristmasornaments beingsoldinashopinthetown. The incident at Nalbari was the latestinaseriesofChristmasdisruptionsreportedfromdifferent parts of the country, including Madhya Pradesh and Chhattis- EDITOrIAl PAGE GOONS caN’T hIjack MERRy chRISTMaS PaGE 6 garh, over the past week. Nalbari Senior SuperintendentofPolice,Bibekananda Das, said that they have received a complaint from the authoritiesofSt.Mary’sEnglish School, Panigaon, in connection with the incident. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Statues of A B Vajpayee, Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Deen Dayal Upadhyay at the Rashtra Prerna Sthal in Lucknow, Thursday. PTI Prerna Sthal and its giant statues of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay and Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the former Prime Minister’s birth anniversary, Modi also took a swipe at the Congress and the Nehru-Gandhi family when he said that while these statues will infuse Hyderabad, December 25 BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman at the Dhaka airport after returning from London on Thursday. AP E. ExPlAINED Frontrunner for PM post in Feb polls Tarique Rahman’s return is politically significant ahead of the February 12 elections — widely seen as crucial to restoring political stability after nearly two years of turmoil. With the Awami League being barred from contesting the elections, the BNP is the frontrunner, and Rahman has emerged as a leading contender for prime ministership. GDP growth likely to moderate with inflation nearing 4%: RBI panel member Hitesh Vyas & George Mathew Mumbai, December 25 THE GROSS Domestic Product (GDP)growthprojectionislikely to moderate with inflation expectedtograduallymovecloser to the target in the coming quarters, and this is in line with the forecasts of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) resolution, said Saugata Bhattacharya,oneofthethreeexternal membersoftheReserveBankof India’s rate-setting panel. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is projected at 2 per cent for FY26. For 2026-27, CPI inflation is expected at 3.9 per cent in Q1 and 4 per cent in Q2. Under the flexible inflation tar- PAGE 1 anchor Ritu Sarin New Delhi, December 25 Receipts of money paid by the petitioners for booking air tickets to Israel. These have been attached with the petition. ABHINAV SAHA who cleared the interview and tests after me, left in 2024-end. I still have not got my work “It is time for us all to build the country together. We want to build a safe Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, no matter who a woman, man, or child is, they should be able to leave their homes safely and return safely,” he said. The homecoming of the BNPheirapparentcomesamid a fresh wave of unrest and political instability gripping Bangladesh following the killing of youth leader Sharif OsmanHadi,whowasaprominentfaceinlastyear’smassprotests that forced the collapse of theSheikhHasinagovernment. Invoking Martin Luther King Jr’s “I have a dream” »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Begin with Systematic ExPrEss interview Investment Plan (SIP). SAUGATA BHATTACHARYA MEMBER OF RBI’S MPC PaGE 9 getingregime,RBIismandated to keep inflation at 4 per cent with a band of +/- 2 per cent. “Now that inflation is forecast to gradually normalise »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Workers left out of Israel jobs flight take legal route: ‘Mortgaged land, jewellery’ wife’s jewellery for the same amount, and reason. “Several otherworkersfrommydistrict, BANGLADESHNATIONALIST Party (BNP) acting chairman Tarique Rahman returned to Dhaka to a rousing welcome by thousands of his supporters on Thursday after over 17 years in self-exile—ahomecomingthat is expected to energise the party ahead of the February 12 parliamentary elections. Shortly after landing at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Rahman, the leading contender to be the country’s next prime minister, stood barefoot on Bangladeshi soil in a symbolic gesture to mark his return to the country’s politics. Addressing his supporters at the July 36 Expressway in Dhaka hours later, the 60-yearold son of ailing former prime minister Khaleda Zia gave a clarion call to maintain peace andstabilityinthecountryand presented a broad plan to build an “inclusive Bangladesh”. TOP MAOIST leader Paka Hanumanthu, alias Ganesh alias Chamru,andfiveotherMaoists were killed in an encounter in Odisha in the early hours of Thursday, a development the Centre hailed as a significant breakthrough. Ganesh, 67, from Telangana’s Nalgonda district, was a Central Committee member of theoutlawedCommunistParty of India (Maoist), a member of the Central Regional Bureau, and the only member of the Southern Regional Bureau. He carried a reward of Rs 1 crore and went by several aliases, including Rupa, Rajesh Tiwari, Chamru, Pakka Hanumantu, Ganeshanna and Somar. Those killed alongside him are yet to be identified. In a statement, the Union HomeMinistrycalledthedevelopmenta“significantmilestone towards Naxal-free Bharat”. “Withthismajorbreakthrough, Odisha stands at the threshold newenergy,oneshouldnotforget that after Independence, every good work in the country was linked to just one family. Be it books, government schemes, institutions, roads and lanes, everything carried the name and glory of only one family, he said. The Congress l DISCRIMINATION, SAYS PETITION IN ALLAHABAD HC AGAINST NATIONAL SKILL DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION ■ EIGHTEEN MONTHS ago, GautamChauhan(28),amason from Azamgarh, pawned his sister’sgoldjewelleryandmortgaged his family’s half-acre land to put together Rs 68,800 for his journey to Israel to work as a labourer. He is yet to get on that flight. ■ Chhedi Lal (45), a foreman from Fatehpur, pawned his Sreenivas Janyala Dhaka, December 25 Maulshree Seth PLEa IN Sc aGaINST SENGaR jaIL TERM SUSPENSION P 5 Paka Hanumanthu alias Ganesh, 67, was a Central Committee member of CPI (Maoist) Anisur Rahman PM Narendra Modi at the Cathedral Church of the Redemption in New Delhi, Thursday. ANI PAGE 3 TopMaoistwith Rs1-crbounty amongsix killedinOdisha visa,” he says. ChauhanandLalareamong the over 2,700 candidates selectedfromUP,whoweredrawn byadvertisementsissuedbythe National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) over the past two years, for a showpiece Government scheme to send skilled labourers to Israel. Today, the two are among 376 candidates who were allegedlyoverlookeddespitehaving paid money for the air tickets while others, selected in subsequent batches, were sent to Tel Aviv. 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