eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE FINDING THE RAGA NEWDELHI,LATECITY MAY15,2022 Pandit Shivkumar Sharma established the santoor as a classical instrument of heft 18PAGES,`6.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, ` 12SRINAGAR) DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM WINDOW OPEN FOR NEIGHBOURS, VULNERABLE COUNTRIES: COMMERCE SECRETARY Govt bans wheat exports after new low output estimate, says need to ensure food availability Internal govt production estimate at 98 million tonnes, from earlier projected ‘record’ 111.3 million tonne crop HARISH DAMODARAN & HARIKISHAN SHARMA WHEAT EXPORTS NEW DELHI, MAY 14 2019-20 2.17 LMT 2020-21 21.55 LMT A DAY after announcing that trade delegations were being sent to nine countries “for exploring possibilities of boosting wheat exports from India”, the governmentSaturdaybannedall shipmentsof thecerealwithimmediate effect. Export of all wheat, includ- 2021-22 72.15 LMT 2022-23 14.63 LMT* *Exported in April 2022. LMT: Lakh metric tonnes Source: Food Ministry inghigh-proteindurumandnormal soft bread varieties, have been moved from “free” to the “prohibited” category. Only two kinds of shipments will henceforth be allowed: exports based on permission granted by the Centre to other countries “to meet their food security needs” and “on the requestof theirgovernments”;and contracted exports against which irrevocable letters of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Why ban is knee-jerk reaction, hits farmers and dents policy credibility Govt could have announced a bonus, put a minimum price on exports ASHOK GULATI & SANCHIT GUPTA SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS IN A knee-jerk reaction, the Government has banned wheat exports witheffectfromMay13, withsomeminorexceptionsforthosewhohave irrevocable letters of credit or where the governments of importing countries request the Indian government for food security purposes. This comes as a shock because only a month ago, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said to US President Joe Biden, in his inaugural address at the 2+2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Match-fixing DAY AFTER DELHI FIRE, BUILDING OWNER AND WIFE ABSCONDING in 2019 IPL: 21 of 27 dead so far are CBI books 7, women, many started says probing work post-pandemic Pak hand JIGNASA SINHA, PAVNEET SINGH CHADHA & ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND DEEPTIMAN TIWARY NEW DELHI, MAY 14 THE CBI Saturday conducted searches at seven locations across Delhi, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Jodhpur in a suspected case of betting and match-fixing in the 2019 edition of the Indian PremierLeague(IPL).Theagency said it has booked seven people in two separate FIRs which have been registered based on information from Pakistan. According to the CBI, at least one module of the betting syndicate was in touch with a person from Pakistan, identified as Waqas Malik. Those booked by the CBI are Sajjan Singh from Jodhpur, and Prabhu Lal Meena, Ram Avtar and Amit Kumar Sharma from Jaipur (part of the Rajasthan module); and Dileep Kumar from Delhi, and Gurram Vasu and Gurram Satish from Hyderabad (part of the DelhiHyderabad module). “This network is influencing the outcome of IPL matches based on inputs received from Pakistan. In the garb of betting related to IPL matches, they are cheating the general public by inducing them for betting,” the CBI FIR said. The agency has not specified how the syndicates influenced CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 SUNDAY STORY PAGE 9 The hand of the Rajapaksas They were the most powerful political clan in Lanka until the crisis spiralled. But it’s hard to keep the Rajapaksas down for too long. NEW DELHI, MAY 14 MOST OF those killed in the fire atafour-storeyofficecomplexin Mundka, West Delhi, on Friday were young women who had taken up jobs to support their families, particularly after the pandemic. Of the 27 confirmed deaths so far, 21 were women. While only eight victims, including five women, have been identified so far, 24 of the 29 in the missing persons’ list prepared by police – who are feared to be among the dead — are women. The building housed a company which manufactured, assembled and sold CCTVs and WiFirouters.Mostof thewomen worked in the assembling unit or as helpers, earning a monthly salary of Rs 6,500-7,500, but were happy to be “independent”, their families said. Among them was Pooja, 19, who started working around three months ago. Her mother, Gayathri Devi, and sister, Moni, spent all of Friday night at the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 No fire NOC, MCD nod, one exit for all, owners escaped from top floor MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL & MALLICA JOSHI NEW DELHI, MAY 14 Sunita Devi waits at the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital for details of her daughter, Sonam, 20, who worked at the Mundka building. Sonam took up the job a little after her father died of Covid in May last year. Till Saturday afternoon, the family was not able to identify her among the dead. Praveen Khanna FULLCOVERAGE,PAGE4 THE OWNER of the Mundka building that caught fire on Friday lived with his family on the top floor, and escaped by jumping to the terrace of the adjoining building, police told The Sunday Express. Police said two brothers, Harish Goel and Varun Goel, had takenthreefloorsof thebuilding onrentfortheircompany,which primarilymanufactured,assembled and sold CCTVs and WiFi routers. The building had only one exit and police found that cartons were kept on the staircase, which hindered people from getting out when the blaze started on the first floor. While the Goel brothers were arrested on Friday night, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 PAGES 13, 14, 15 ‘HOPE’ FOR UTTARAKHAND MODEL Year to polls, shock change in Tripura: BJP replaces CM Deb State unit chief Manik Saha new CM; central leadership ‘unhappy’ with Deb DEBRAJ DEB & LIZ MATHEW AGARTALA, NEW DELHI, MAY 14 EFFECTING A change of guard in Tripura where Assembly elections are due early next year, the BJP got Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb to resign from the post Saturday and, hours later, elected state party president Manik Saha, who is also a Rajya Sabha member, as the new Leader of the House. Sahawaselectedleaderofthe legislature party — and thereby the new CM — at a meeting held in the official residence of the Chief Minister. There was high drama immediately thereafter when Fire and Cooperative Minister Ramprasad Paul, who had opposed Deb before he joinedhiscabinetlastyear,burst into tears. “I will die, I will not (haveanythingto)do(with)such a party,” he wailed. In February this year, Paul and 14 others had accused Saha, considered by many as close to Deb, of running the state unit to the ground. Video clips that made the rounds later showed Paul lifting a chair to try and hurl it in the direction of one of the BJP leaders from Delhi who had come as observers — Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, party general secretary Vinod Tawde, secretary Vinod Kumar Sonkar — for the legislature party meeting. Union Minister Pratima Bhoumik, DeputyChief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma, Cabinet Minister Sushanta Chowdhury, Deb'sOSDSanjayMishratriedto calm Paul. BJP workers tried to stop the media from filming the incidentbycoveringthewindow panes of the room where the incident took place. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CHINTAN SHIVIR ENDS TODAY Hindutva debate in Cong, party ducks hard talk on defeat On Gyanvapi survey, Chidambaram flags law: don’t change status quo MANOJ C G UDAIPUR, MAY 14 ON THE videography survey of the Kashi Vishwanath templeGyanvapi mosque complex, the Congress took a categorial stand Saturdaythatnoattemptshould be made to “change the status of anyplaceof worship.”Butonthe larger question of how to counter the BJP’s Hindutva, its way ahead wasn’t so clear at the three-day chintan shivir underway here. The CWC will finalise the Udaipur declaration Sunday basedoninputsfromsixcommittees which discussed: political challenges,organisationalissues, economic issues, social justice, youth and empowerment; and farmers and agriculture. The elephant in the room was Hindutva. Deliberations at the political challenges committee were frank, at times even heated. There was a lot of back and forth even on whether to mention Hindu or Hindutva in the committee’s report. At the meeting, headed by Mallikarjun Kharge, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel underlined the party should not shy away from celebrating Hindu festivals as he’sdoinginhisstate.Butformer Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan pressed for more ideological clarity. Another member said Muslims are deserting the party because of its confused stand. Another said the party trying to respond to the Hindutva is like “trying to bat on the BJP's pitch." Yet another leader reportedly said:"Wehavetorespondasthis is where the debate has gone." CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In Khargone, a tale of two PMAY houses: Maharashtra actor, student arrested one bulldozed, other vandalised by mob over posts on Sharad Pawar: Police HARIKISHAN SHARMA KHARGONE (MP), NEW DELHI, MAY 14 Yah makan bikau hai (This house is for sale.) Inblueink,thisisscrawledon the wall of the single-storey house at Towerwali Gali at Sanjay Nagar in Khargone. The house, built under the Prime Minister Awas Yojana-Urban, belongstoLeelaBaiChhaganLal, Leela Bai at her PMAY-U house in Sanjay Nagar, Khargone. The house, damaged by a mob, is now up for sale. Harikishan Sharma 60, who works as a labourer and lives here with close relatives. If Hasina Fakhroo’s PMAY house was demolished by the administration April 11, Leela Bai's was vandalised and damaged by a mob a day earlier. In violence that erupted during Ram Navami procession in which at least 10 houses of her neighbours were set ablaze. Her main door’s a gaping hole, so is the window; a lifetime’s assets, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE MUMBAI, PUNE, MAY 14 AMARATHIactorandapharmaceutical student in Maharashtra were arrested Saturday for posting derogatory comments allegedly aimed at Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on social media. The actor, Ketaki Chitale, 29, had posted a Marathi poem on her Facebook profile, attributed toanotherperson,thatmentions Actor Ketaki Chitale only a surname (Pawar) and an age (80). But it also refers to the physical ailments the 81-yearold NCP leader suffers from. The 21-year-old student, Nikhil Bhamre, is a resident of Nashik district and a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker, said police. Bhamre, too, did not directly name Pawar, tweeting in Marathi: “Time has comeforBaramati'sGandhi......to create Nathuram Godse of Baramati.” Baramati town, in Pune district, is Pawar’s home turf. The two posts sparked massive outrage among NCP workers in Maharashtra, with leaders rushingtoseveralpolicestations in the state to lodge complaints. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Our life revolves around few hundred metres... can’t get more miserable’ PAGE 1 ANCHOR NAVEED IQBAL & BASHAARAT MASOOD SHEIKHPORA (BUDGAM), MAY 14 OFF THE main road in Sheikhpora, a narrow stretch leads to a cluster of pink and yellow buildings. Armoured vehicles of the J&K Police and paramilitary forces line the lane and guard the gate to the colony. Policemen ask for the identity of every passerby, allowing one in onlyafterscrutiny.Justinsidethe gate, about a hundred residents sit under a tent with a picture of Rahul Bhat. Two days after Bhat was killed inside the tehsil office not farfromthisresidentialcomplex, the anger among the residentsis palpable. “Paani sar ke upar se ja chuka hai (We have reached the end of our tether),” says one of the residents, a government schoolteacher, refusing to give his name. OnSaturday,noonefromthe colony, meant to accommodate Kashmiri Pandit migrants who tookupworkintheValleyunder a Prime Minister's employment package, went to work. Neither did their children attend school, otherthanthosewhohadexams. The demand is unanimous: “If the government cannot provide us a safe environment, it shouldmoveustowherewefeel safe.” For most, that location is Jammu. The residents also said that while much gets said about Kashmiri Pandits under every dispensation, “very little gets done”. Hoping to soothe tempers, Lieutenant Governor Manoj The housing complex for Kashmiri Pandits in Budgam district’s Sheikhpora area. Shuaib Masudi Sinha Friday met Bhat's family and accepted the demand to provide a job to his wife, and beartheeducationalexpensesof his five-year-old daughter. But on Saturday, the protest seemed ready for the long haul - not far from where Bhat's car is still parked in the colony, where he lived for close to a decade. A register went around the tent where people put signs against theirnamesforfundcollectionto acquire a public address system. The residents explained that many had lost their voices from over two days of sloganeering. About 300 families live in two-room flats in the Sheikhpora'transitaccommodation', many of them sharing a flat. In many families, more than one person is in government service, and several travel for work to different districts, up to 70 km away. Most of them work in the Education, Rural Development and Revenue Departments. “Somepeoplestartasearlyas 6 am, take the train or bus to faroff places and come back after dark,” says Roshan Lal, whose daughter is a schoolteacher at Anantnag in South Kashmir. ColonieslikeSheikhporawere built exclusively for migrant PanditsmovingbacktotheValley, tolivein'transit'beforetheirreintegrationintosociety.Sheikhpora, amongthefirst,wasbuilt14years ago and remains the largest such colony,surroundedbyaconcrete wall topped by concertina wire. When the initial response was poor,thegovernmenthadmoved in over 30 Pandit families from Budgam, who hadn't migrated from Kashmir, to inspire trust. The other such fenced coloniesareinVessuinQazigund, Haal in Pulwama, Mattan in Anantnag,VeervaninBaramulla, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2