Mcs/204/2020-22 RnI no. MAhEnG 2002/21899 www.IndIAnExPREss.coM Taking The line for a sPin How regional commentary is becoming a game changer for IPL mUmBai, may 24, 2026 sCreen Aamir Khan, guest at Screen Academy’s Masterclass, on the art of writing and why a film’s first-cut feedback is integral to his process lAtE cIty 16+4 PAGEs ₹6.00 d A I l y F R o M : A h M E d A B A d , c h A n d I G A R h , d E l h I , J A I P u R , k o l k A t A , l u c k n o w , M u M B A I , n A G P u R , P A t n A , P u n E , v A d o d A R A on trip MeAnt to repAir ties, He eXtends trUMp invite to Modi CoCkroACH JAntA pArty pLAtforM Trade, defence, critical tech discussed; India, US will work for global good: Modi Ally TDP refers to Vijay’s victory, says social media handle should be ‘left to exist’ if not ‘influenced by outsiders’ Rubio meets PM, says US can diversify India’s energy supply 115 143 178 77 happening today lA dAy before the President presents the Padma Awards, All India Radio will start a special radio series that will shed light on the lives and work of the awardees. lrepresentAtives of more than 550 tribal communities are expected to gather at the Red Fort grounds to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary year of tribal icon Birsa Munda. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com vineshcan enterAsiad trials,Wfibeing vindictive,says HighCourt sohini Ghosh New Delhi, May 23 aFTER iT pulled up the Wrestling Federation of india (WFi) for describing wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s exit from the 2024 Paris olympics as a “national shame”, the Delhi High Court has allowed her to participate intheselectiontrialsscheduled May 30-31 for this year’s asian games in Japan. in an order Friday which was made public saturday, the High Court said the WFi’s observations against Phogat were “retrograde” and showed that the wrestling body was “being vindictive”. Phogat had been rendered ineligible for participation owing to the criteria set by the WFi this year, a departure from the past eligibility criteria. she had also been served a showcause notice (sCn) by the WFi on May 9 that barred her from participating in any WFi event until June 26. on May 3, Phogat said she was one of the six women wrestlers who had alleged sexual harassment by former WFi chief Brij Bhushan sharan singh, a former MP. The division bench of Chief Justice D k upadhyaya and Justice Tejas karia said, “it is necessary that (Phogat) is permitted to participate in the selection Trials in the interest of sport and justice. in view of the peculiar facts and circumstances of this case, it is clear that except for (her) motherhood and the sCn issued by WFi, she would be entitled to participate in the selection »ContinUed on pAGe 2 shubhajit roy BJP calls it bid to ‘destabilise’, but voices within, allies say: Listen to young Liz Mathew New Delhi, May 23 New Delhi, May 23 signaLLing soME progress inrepairingtiesafterachallenging year in bilateral relations, us secretary of state Marco Rubio met Prime Minister narendraModiinnewDelhisaturday and they discussed “defence, strategic technologies, trade and investment, energy security, connectivity, educationandpeople-to-peopleties”. Rubio, who landed in kolkata in the morning before travelling to new Delhi, also “shared us perspective on various regional and global issues, including the situation in West asia,” according to a statement fromthePrimeMinister’soffice. us state Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said, “The secretary and Prime Ministerdiscussedthecurrentsituation in the Middle East. The secretary emphasized that the united states will not let iran hold the global energy market hostage and affirmed that us energy products have the potential to diversify india’s energy supply”. ThePrimeMinister,according to the PMo, reaffirmed india’s consistent support for “peaceeffortsandreiteratedthe call for peaceful resolution of the conflicts through dialogue and diplomacy”, the PMo. Rubio’s visit — he will be attending the May 26 meeting of QuadForeignMinisters–isimportant given that bilateral ties have been hit in the last THE RuLing BJP has moved swiftlytocriticisetheviralCockroach Janta Party (CJP) handle withseniorleadersallegingforeign backing behind the social media phenomenon in a bid to “destabilise” india. But even as the party’s official line holds firm, a section of voices within andamongtheparty’salliesare also urging the need to tread carefully, acknowledging that youth discontent — over economic distress and the nEET leak, for example — can’t be banned into silence. senior BJP MP and Chairman of the Parliamentary standing Committee on Communications and information Technology nishikant Dubey alleged that the movement could be a threat to national security and former union Min- Us secretary of state marco rubio with wife Jeanette and Us envoy sergio Gor at missionaries of charity in kolkata, saturday. x/ @usAMBIndIA the world page 10 New friction point: Return-home rule for Green Card applicants divya A & Anagha Jayakumar New Delhi, May 23 prOgress in talks, say u.s. and iran; trump tO speak tO gulf leaders Once trump’s cO-pilOt, bibi is nOw a mere passenger in WHaT could emerge as a new point of contention betweennewDelhiandWashington DC, the Donald Trump-led us administration has announced that those in the us temporarily must return to their home countries to apply for a green Card. a green Card (officially known as a Permanent Resident Card) allows a person to live and work perma- nently in the united states. The announcement by the us Citizenship and immigration services is a sweeping reversal of a practice in place for over half a century. it could potentially impact thousands of indians presently in the us in different stages of residence and seeking a green Card. The earlier policy allowed foreignworkerstochangefrom non-immigrant to immigrant by applying for “adjustment of status” from within the us. “From now on, an alien who is in the us temporarily and wants a green Card must return to their home country to apply, except in extraordinary circumstances,” usCis spokesperson Zach kahler said in a statement. While there are approximately1.5millionindiangreen Card holders in the us, an additional 1.2 million highly skilled indian nationals and theirdependentsareestimated to be presently stuck in the employment-based green Card express interview ‘It’s a cross-border influence operation… of course, many youths dissatisfied’ rAJeevCHAndrAsekHAr FoRMER unIon MInIstER page 8 isterandBJPkeralachiefRajeev Chandrasekharsawitasa“coordinated influence operation.” “This has many of the hallmarksofsomethingthatiscoordinatedandplannedratherthan something like spontaneous »ContinUed on pAGe 2 outside the delhi Gymkhana club in new delhi, saturday. PtI Centre tells Delhi Gymkhana to return SC takes up Twisha diGitAL detoX trend land for ‘strengthening’ case on its own, CJI-led Old iPods, off-grid holidays, Lego defence infrastructure bench to hear tomorrow bricks: Switching off the phone damini nath express news service E. explained is new and growing market »ContinUed on pAGe 2 »ContinUed on pAGe 2 New Delhi, May 23 New Delhi, May 23 Takingsuomotucognizance of the “unnatural death” of model and actor Twisha sharma, the supreme Court saturday decided to examine allegationsof“institutionalbias and procedural discrepancies” in connection with the case. Her husband samarth singh, a lawyer whose licence to practise has been suspended bytheBarCouncilofindia,and mother-in-law giribala singh, a retired judge, are accused in an alleged dowry death case. The supreme Court, which took suo motu cognizance of thecaseandregistereditunder the title ‘in RE: alleged institu- Anil sasi New Delhi, May 23 Twisha sharma, 33, was found dead at her matrimonial home in Bhopal on may 12 tional Bias and Procedural Discrepancies in The unnatural Death of a Young girl at Her Matrimonial Home’ also posted it for hearing before a three-judge bench. The bench, comprising Chief Justice of india surya »ContinUed on pAGe 2 as sCREEn time climbs and digital anxiety becomes an increasingly familiar complaint among parents, young professionals,andevenpolicymakers, aquietbutfast-growingmarket isemergingaroundtheproposition of helping people put their smartphones down. its offerings range from refurbished iPods flying off second-hand shelves to Lego’s most complicated brick sets selling out among adults and curated wilderness retreats where checking Whatsapp is, by design, not an option. Together, they form an unlikely but booming market: a break from the dopamine-laced tyr- anny of smartphones. Much of this feeds into a rising demand for keeping off »ContinUed on pAGe 2 THE union government on Friday started the process of taking back the land leased to the Delhi gymkhana Club 98 years ago, saying the 27.3 acreplot was required for “strengthening and securing Defence infrastructure”. TheLandandDevelopment office under the Ministry of Housing and urban affairs wrotetotheClub’ssecretaryon Friday initiating the “re-entry and resumption of premises comprising Delhi gymkhana Club, 2, safdarjung Road, new Delhi”. as per Clause 4 of the lease deed, the premises can be re-entered, which means that the government can take back security concerns, public interest Among the reasons cited by the government to take back the prime real estate near the Prime Minister’s residence are the need to secure and strengthen defence infra, and to “fulfil urgent institutional needs, governance infrastructure, and public-interest projects”. the leased property, if it or any part of it is required for a public purpose. »ContinUed on pAGe 2 l GUrindervir sinGh clocks 10.09 seconds aT FederaTion cUp in ranchi Punjab sprinter shatters national 100m record, first to go below 10.10 seconds pritish raj The performances of india’s fastest two men have raised the country’s hopes for an athletics guRinDERViR singH, 25, medal in the Commonwealth from Punjab, broke the men’s games (in scotland from July 100m national athletics record 23) as well as the asian games at the Federation Cup final in (in Japan from september 19), Ranchisaturday,clocking10.09 where they could go even faster seconds to become the first in- as they are expected to be in dian to run a subpeak form. To be page 1 10.10-second time. sure, gurindervir’s in fact, gurinder10.09s in Ranchi vir broke the record would have been twice in two days. in the first good enough to win him a semifinal on Friday, he ran silver in the last Common10.17s to better animesh wealth games in Birmingham kujur’s previous mark of 10.18s, in 2022. though in the second semifion saturday, when gurinnal, kujur sprinted back with a dervir snapped off his bib after faster 10.15s. crossing the finish line at the Ranchi, May 23 anchor Birsa Munda stadium, coach James Hillier had his eyes fixed on the screen. as it displayed ‘10.09s’, gasps and roars echoed around. gurindervir then showed the cameras the back of his bib and a message scribbled on it — “Task is not finished yet. 10.10. Wait. i am still standing.” it was perhaps directed at social media trolls who had taken potshots at him recently. “People say a lot of things on social media. This message was to remind myself that i am here to perform and improve,” the sprinter said after the race. “since i started 100m at the age of six or seven, people used to l fastestontrack 10:09 GuRIndERvIR sInGh's nEw nAtIonAl REcoRd 9:83 AsIAn REcoRd sEt In 2021 By chInA’s su BInGtIAn 9:58 JAMAIcAn usAIn Bolt's woRld REcoRd sEt In 2009 Gurindervir singh after breaking the national 100-metre record at the Birsa munda stadium in ranchi, Jharkhand. ExPREss say that there is no future in 100m, take up 400m or some- thing else. indians don’t have the genes for 100m, they said. i wanted to prove all of them wrong... that indians can do well in the 100m.” Coach Hillier said gurindervir had run a perfectly executed race. “i had told him if he executes what we have done in training, he would break the national record given the magnitude of the moment,” Hillier, the athletics director at the Reliance Foundation, said. according to Hillier, when animesh had snatched back the national record from gurindervir on Friday, he had told him to shun social media for a day. “The goal was to keep guri calm for the next 24 hours. i asked him to stay away from social media and his phone. i didn't want to hype anything and wanted to protect him for those 24 hours,” Hillier told the reporters. speaking to The Indian Express, gurindervir’s father, kamaljeet singh, a retired Punjab Police constable, recalled his son’s early sacrifices. “guri never shied away from training, whether it was in summer, winter or rain,” singh said from Patial village, about 30 km from Jalandhar. “He is now reaping the rewards of his hard work.” This is not the first time gurindervir has lowered the national record. He did it last year in March at the indian grand Prix with 10.20s. But after his national record, he didn’t run faster than 10.30s for the rest of the season. according to coach Hillier, gurindervir won’t stall this time. “The last time he clocked the national record, his mind wasn't conditioned to handle it as it came out of nowhere. He couldn't deal with it. This time, i can guarantee you that he will manage it well.” on saturday, the clock may have stopped at 10.09 — still short of sub-10 seconds — but for men’s sprinting in india, the time is here.