eye MCS/204/2020-22RNINO.MAHENG2002/21899 THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE On Top of His Game Swanky flat, 5 mn subscribers, earnings of up to a crore a month: A 21-yr-old and the rise of esports in India MUMBAI,LATECITY OCTOBER1,2023 16+4PAGES,`6.00 ` 108 per kilo India win squash gold in thriller with Pak, stun China in table tennis doubles ` 136 per kilo EXPRESSAT ASIANGAMES ` 168 per kilo ` 74 per Dozen MIHIR VASVADA HANGZHOU, SEPTEMBER 30 OPINION PAGE 11 BY RAHUL GANDHI Satyam Shivam Sundaram Hinduism is how we mitigate and understand our relationship with our fears. It is a path towards the realisation of truth... open to anyone who chooses to walk on it “12-10INthefifth,inthedecider of the Asian Games gold medal match,IndiavsPakistan,howdo you write it!” gasped Abhay Singh. “How do you write it?” India’s man of the moment, whonearlyquitthesporttwoyears ago,capturedtheemotionsbest. Where to even begin to describe the relentless drama, the unbearable tension and the astonishing fightback that ultimately led to a squash gold medal with a 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 119,12-10victory?Withthebickeringstarttowhatturnedouttobe one of the all-time classic IndiaPakistan matches? Or the coldblooded,thoroughlyprofessional exhibition by veteran Sourav Ghosal,whichbroughtIndiaback into the mix? CONTINUEDONPAGE2 INDIA’S MEDAL HAUL ON SATURDAY GOLD: 2 ■ Squash (Men’s Team) ■ Tennis (Mixed Doubles) SILVER: 2 THE WORLD MALDIVES:PRO-CHINA CANDIDATESETTO WIN PRESIDENCY PAGE 12 ■ Shooting (Mixed team 10m Air Pistol) ■ Athletics (Men’s 10,000m) BRONZE: 1 ■ Athletics (Men’s 10,000m) FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA INCIDENT DISGRACEFUL: DELHI Envoy stopped from entering gurdwara: India takes up with UK Jaishankar on Canada: ‘Let’s not normalise... freedom of speech can’t extend to incitement, violence’ SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 30 Indian squash players after winning gold at the Asian Games. PTI FULLASIANGAMESCOVERAGE,PAGES15,16 How childhood friends outplayed champions on way to medal-sealing win MIHIR VASAVDA HANGZHOU, SEPTEMBER 30 THEY SAY, half-jokingly, around these parts that the egg-shaped table tennis arena is plated in gold because the fans here settle for nothing less. Everyday, before the action begins, they even project a minute-long movie on the show courts, celebrating China’s unparalleled history in Asian Gamestabletennis.Themessage of that short clip is simple: You can’t beat China in this sport. It’s not hollow nationalism and chest-thumping. In every edition since 1974 Asiad, China has topped the TT medals tally; its gold count of 66 is nearly twice more than the combined tally of everyone else. And the last time they hosted the Asian Games, China had a clean sweep of gold medals. CONTINUEDONPAGE2 AMID THE Delhi-Ottawa standoff over the killing of a Canadabased Khalistan separatist, Indian High Commissioner to theUK,VikramDoraiswami,was stopped by three persons from entering a gurdwara in Glasgow while on a visit to Scotland. Calling the incident “disgraceful”, the Indian High Commissionhastakenitupwith the UK Foreign Office. In a statement Saturday, the Indian High Commission in London said three persons from outside Scotland “deliberately disrupted” the visit Friday eveningandoneevenattempted toviolentlyforceopenthediplomatic vehicle as senior diplomats arrived at the Glasgow Gurdwara GuruGranthSahibon Albert Drive. As they hurled threats and abuses, the High Commissioner and Consul General of India de- High Commissioner Vikram Doraiswami was stopped by three persons in Glasgow cided to leave the premises to avert an altercation. “On September 29, 2023, three persons – all from areas outside Scotland – disrupted a plannedinteractionorganisedby theGurdwaraCommitteeforthe community, the High Commissioner (HC) and the ConsulGeneralof India(CG),”the Indian High Commission said. “This interaction was to discusscommunityandconsularissues. The organisers included senior community leaders, CONTINUEDONPAGE2 Sutirtha Mukherjee (right) and Ayhika Mukherjee after winning the women’s doubles quarterfinal against China. PTI In Chhattisgarh, PM Plugging the gap: EV Two years after its launch, IIT Bombay’s says Cong abuses sales surge, start-ups blended arts-science degree yet to take off Modi to abuse OBCs launch on-demand, Tells BJP workers: Focus on party’s symbol, not leadership or candidate BS vs BTech:Brand equity doorstep charging FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND OFFERING BY AN IIT NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 30 AGGAM WALIA NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 30 WHEN DHEERAJ SINGH bought aTataNexonEV(electricvehicle) earlierthisyear,hedidnotinstall thechargingkitsinceheplanned to move out of his Noida apartmentwithinmonths.Instead,he discovered Hopcharge, a Gurgaon-based start-up that provides door-to-door EV fast charging services. With a Hopcharge subscription, Singh can order a van equipped with lithium-ion power banks at an hour's notice and get his EV charged anywhere in the National Capital Region. In India, where there is just one charging point for 164 EVs (compared to the global average of 15.9 EVs), a handful of startups suchas Hopcharge are vying to plug themselves in by providing door-to-door fast charging services and similar solutions. Noida-based Mobec, which launcheditsdoor-to-doorcharging service to beta users two months ago, is also coming up with a mobile fast-charging station for commercial parking POWER POINTS Region Vehicle-charging pointratio India 164:1 Delhi 72:1 Maharashtra 72:1 Karnataka 148:1 UttarPradesh 675:1 Rajasthan 287:1 USA 18:1 Germany 26:1 China 7:1 ON JUNE 28, 2021, IIT Bombay had announced a “completely new and novel type of undergraduate programme,” focused on “student choice and interdisciplinary studies.” The Liberal Arts-Sciences-Engineering (LASE) programme, with 30 seats, would provide students the opportunity to customise their coursework according to theirinterestsandgraduatewith a Bachelor of Sciences or BS de- P7 (Ratio shows the number of vehicles per charging point) spaces.Itraised$1millionearlier this year from Purple Stone Consulting, a Singapore-based firm. GoFuel, a pan-India doorstep diesel delivery company, is in the final stages of R&D for its planned door-to-door EV chargingservicesandhastiedup with an oil marketing company tosetuppublicchargingstations. Hopcharge, which started commercial operations in April 2022,offersaconvenientsolution for EV owners who do not have home chargers installed or face CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW ‘NITISH WAS IN TOUCH WITH ME... WE WERE PLANNING A JANATA FEDERAL FRONT’ H D DEVE GOWDA JANATA DAL (SECULAR) CHIEF E E X P L A I NE D RAUNAQ SARASWAT ● NUDGED BY the Union government and the emphasis on interdisciplinarity laid out in the National Education Policy 2020, IIT Bombay launched a liberal arts-science undergraduate programme, a first by any IIT, in 2021. Two years later, the insititute has realised the considerable distance to cover in terms of gaining acceptance for such flexibility. gree.Itwasa“liberalartsstyleoffering in STEM” — a first in India. Two years later, it hasn't started — it couldn’t get even the minimum requirement of 10 students of a class of over 1,000 to sign up. Behind this disinterest is a “lack of acceptance” and warinessoversecuringadegreeother than the tried and tested IIT B.Tech, say faculty and students. Traditionally,IITstudents,regardless of their engineering branch,takecourses fromdifferent departments, including Humanities and Social Sciences, during their four years at the institute. However, the number of non-corecoursesisoftenlimited by their core branch's curriculum requirements. In contrast, LASE promises students the flexibility to select CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RJD’s Abdul Bari kicks up a row: Quota only for women with ‘lipstick, bob-cut’ SANTOSH SINGH PATNA, SEPTEMBER 30 DAYS AFTER the RJD joined all parties in Parliament’s unanimous approval of the Bill granting33%reservation to women in seats of Lok Sabha and state Assemblies — only two members of the AIMIM in Lok Sabha opposed the Bill which received Presidential assent Friday — RJD senior leader and former Bihar Former Bihar minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui has kicked up a row with his remark that the quota, in its present form, would only benefit women with “lipstick and bobcut” hairstyle. Speaking at an awareness programmeorganisedbytheEBC wing of the RJD in Muzaffarpur Friday, Siddiqui said, “If benefits ofwomen’sreservationgotoEBC andOBCwomen,itwillworkfine. Otherwise, women with lipstick and bob-cut hair will take quota away.” He said there was a need for greater awareness on women’s quota. As the remarks drew criticism fromdifferent quarters, the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 VIKAS PATHAK BILASPUR, SEPTEMBER 30 LAUNCHING A fierce attack on Congress, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday said it hatedhimbecausedespitebeing an OBC (Other Backward Class) he became the Prime Minister, a post the Opposition party thought was reserved for it. “They abuse Modi, using it as anexcusetoabuseallOBCs.They hate OBCs,” Modi told a large crowd at the ‘Parivartan Mahasankalp’ rallyinBilaspurto marktheconclusionof BJP’soutreach campaign in the pollbound state. “They cannot tolerate the rise of the poor, Dalits, Adivasis and OBCs. In the Congress, only those who bow before a family rise,” he said. Modi said theCongress party had opposed the candidature of Ram Nath Kovind, a Dalit, for the post of President of India, and also opposed the candidature of the first tribal woman President. He claimed this wasn't an ideological opposition to the BJP, sincetheyhadfieldedan“oldBJP leader” — referring to Yashwant Sinha — for the post. PM Narendra Modi in Bilaspur on Saturday. PTI Claiming credit for the passage of the Constitutional (Amendment) Bill to pave the way for women's reservation in the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, he said, the Opposition supported the law reluctantlyonlyoutof fearof angeringwomenvoters.“Nowthey areplayinganewgame.Theyare trying to divide women on the basis of caste,” Modi said, referring to the Congress demand for CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Behind tin sheets, three sculptors in secretive race for ‘best Ram Lalla idol’ PAGE 1 ANCHOR LALMANI VERMA AYODHYA, SEPTEMBER 30 SEVERAL TIMES over the past month, a snowy-haired octogenarian has made rounds of a tinsheet structure in Ayodhya's Ramsevak Puram, about 1.5 km from the Ram temple site. Drawn to the structure by the “khat-khataurmachinekiawaaz (the sound of chisels and machines)”,ShantiSingh’sattempts to sneak a peek at the Ram Lalla idol which she has heard is being sculpted inside have so far come to naught. Turned away by the armed UP Police personnel and the private security guard deployed at the site, the Ghazipur resident rued, “Maine kaha ek baar darshan kar lene do, pata nahi dobara aana ho paye ya nahin, magar police wale bole gupt hai (I requested the security to let me get one glimpse of the statue since I don’t know if I will be able to come back again, but they turned me away saying it was a secret).” Sources said three Ram Lalla idols are currently being made in three workshops, each by a different sculptor, and that the “best of the three” idols would beinstalledinthetemple’ssanctum sanctorum during the pran pratistha (consecration) ceremony, which is expected to be held in January 2024 in the presenceof PrimeMinisterNarendra Modi.Templeconstructioncommittee chairperson Nripendra Mishrahadsaidearlierthisweek thattheconsecrationisexpected on January 22 and a final date is yet to be communicated by the Prime Minister’s Office. While the Shri Ram Janmbhoomi Teerth Kshetra Trust, set up by the Centre to One of three reported workshops in Ayodhya where a statue of Ram Lalla is being carved. Lalmani Verma buildtheRamtemple,refusedto share information on the sculptors or the three workshops, sources confirmed that three tin structures, metres apart in RamsevakPuramandeachidentical to the one outside which Shanti Singh stood, is where the idols are being sculpted. All the three workshops, set up on land under the control of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), are rectangular structures, their nearly 15-foot-high walls and roof made of corrugated tin sheets and with a wrap-around grill between the wall and the ceiling for ventilation.Theworkshopsareguarded 24/7 by armed personnel belonging to the state police and private security guards. In an earlier interview to The Indian Express, Misra had said a 51-inchidol, depictingLordRam as a child – a 4- to 5-year-old Ram Lalla – standing on a lotus, would be installed. Misrahadsaid,“Thesanctum sanctorum or the garbha griha is on the ground floor. This is where the Lord will be in standing pose, 51 inches, roughly 4-5 years in age, on a lotus, with something in a manner that attainstheheightof 8feet...workis being done to bring the light being funnelled such that it falls on the Lord’s forehead on Ram Navmi day. So, experts are (working out the parameters) factoringinthemovementof the Earth around the Sun for 19 years. This will ensure that we can modulate, manually, so that on Ram Navmi day, the sunlight actually falls on the Lord’s forehead at 12 noon. This is being workedoutbyexpertsatCentral Building Research Institute and the astronautical institute in Pune.” Sources at Ramsevak Puram said that the idols are “taking time” since the sculptors are aiming for perfection. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2