DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 FIRST VISIT TO INDIA BY UKRAINE FOREIGN MINISTER India and Ukraine talk war and peace; summit in Switzerland on table as well 144 179 60 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Delhi says yes to joining but given polls, unsure of commitment on participation level SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, MARCH 29 IN HIS first visit to India, Foreign Minister of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, met External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar Friday and held “sincere and comprehensive”talksonthepeaceprocessto end the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, including India’s participa- External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in New Delhi, Friday. ANI tion at the peace summit being organised by Switzerland. Neitherthedatesof thesummit — slated for this summer — nor the level of participation has been announcedbySwitzerland yet posing a challenge for New Delhi since India is in election mode until June 4 when the results will be in. Committing to participation — and specifying the level in the government’s hierarchy — is tricky under these circumstances. But New Delhi has conveyed the message that it is willing and ready to participate in the Swiss summit at an “appropriate level”, The Indian Express has learned. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D 116 Kyiv to Delhi: The ● long arc FROM CRITICISING India for buying Russian oil to Friday’s meeting, Kyiv has travelled a distance in its outreach to Delhi. Zelenskyy met Modi for the first time in May last year. Visits by two Dy Ministers followed; in January, Foreign Ministers spoke, as did PM and Zelenskyy this month. The ball is in Delhi’s court on the Swiss summit. Day after Mukhtar’s death, son for autopsy by AIIMS panel, Opp for high-level probe ASAD REHMAN, MANISH SAHU & LALMANI VERMA GHAZIPUR, LUCKNOW, NEW DELHI, MARCH 29 A DAY after jailed gangsterpolitician Mukhtar Ansari died of cardiac arrest in Banda prison of Uttar Pradesh, his son Umar Ansari Friday alleged foul play and sought an autopsy by a panel of doctors from AIIMS, New Delhi even as Opposition parties in the state demanded a high-level inquiry. Accordingtothepost-mortem examination conducted by doctors at Banda Medical College on Friday,the“causeofdeathisheart attack/myocardialinfarction”,officialssaid.Followingtheautopsy, Mukhtar’s body was sent in an ambulance — accompanied by a police convoy — to his home in MohammadabadinGhazipurfor last rites. The body was expected to reach Mohammadabad in the early hours of Saturday. As mandated under procedure,achief judicialmagistrate's courtFridayorderedajudicialinquiryintothedeath.BandaChief JudicialMagistrateBhagwanDas Gupta appointed Garima Singh, Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (MP-MLA Court Banda),toconducttheprobeand submit a report within a month. Separately, under the jail manual rules, a magisterial inquiry was ordered by Banda Umar Ansari in Banda to take his father’s body home. PTI District Magistrate Durga Shakti Nagpal. The inquiry will be conducted by Additional District Magistrate Rajesh Kumar. In a letter to the Banda District Magistrate seeking autopsy by an AIIMS panel, Umar claimedthathisfatherwasavictim of an orchestrated plan. He said he has little faith in getting justice from the local administration or medical team. Inhisletter,Umarsaidthaton March21boththeBarabankiand Banda courts were apprised through lawyers that his father was being administered slow poison in food. He alleged a similar poisoning incident had occurred40daysago,whichsignificantlyaffectedMukhtar’shealth. The situation escalated on March 26, he said, when Mukhtar’s condition deteriorated rapidly and he had to be CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CHAT & MESSAGE Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates at the PM’s residence in New Delhi. They discussed issues ranging from AI to climate change to empowerment of women. PTI REPORT,PAGE5 On rule of law, Dhankhar counters Germany, US: Look within, India doesn’t need lessons DIVYA A ‘Challenges mostly come from within, supported from outside’ NEW DELHI, MARCH 29 COUNTERING RECENT comments by Germany and the US on the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, VicePresident Jagdeep Dhankhar said Friday that India has a robustjudicialsystemanddoesnot need lessons from any country on the rule of law. “Recently, people are telling us about the rule of law. One country in Europe, a developed democracy, they need to think within. They need to attend to theirownaffairs,”Dhankharsaid in his address at the 70th Founders’ Day celebrations of the Indian Institute of Public Administration in New Delhi. LastFriday,SebastianFischer, spokespersonforGermany’sforeignoffice,respondingtoaquestion on Kejriwal’s arrest, had said: “We assume and expect that the standards relating to independence of judiciary and basic democratic principles will also be applied in this case.” Two days later, Reuters reported that the US State Department spokesperson, respondingtoanemailedquery,had said: “We encourage a fair, transparentandtimelylegalprocessfor Chief Minister Kejriwal.” The Ministry of External Affairs had issued a strongly CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 UN ON INDIA: HOPE EVERYONE’S RIGHTS ARE PROTECTED PAGE 5 India a potential superpower, will Father of approver in Delhi excise seal FTAs on our terms: Goyal case gets NDA ticket in Andhra EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE SREENIVAS JANYALA INDIA IS a potential superpower and would not rush into closing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) unless these are on New Delhi’s own terms, said Piyush Goyal, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs and Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles. Responding to a question at The Indian Express’s Idea Exchange (a detailed transcript will be published Monday) on MAGUNTASRINIVASULUReddy, whose son Raghava Magunta Reddy is an accused-turned-approver in the Delhi excise policy case that has led to the arrest of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Friday got a Lok Sabha ticket from the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), a key BJP ally in Andhra Pradesh. As reported by The Indian Express,eversincethefather-son duo switched from the YSR MUMBAI, MARCH 29 PAGE 1 ANCHOR HYDERABAD, MARCH 29 India now is not the India of 2009 or 2010: Goyal FTA talks between India and the UK, and the failure of the two countries to reach a consensus ahead of 2024 Lok Sabha elections, Goyal said, “India now is not the India of 2009 or 2010… The Modi government goes aboutFTAnegotiationsverycautiously,withagreatdealof stakeholder consultations, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Magunta Srinivasulu Reddy, who got a TDP ticket, with son Raghava Magunta Reddy Congress Party to the TDP on February 28, they have been busy campaigning. And though Srinivasulu — a four-time MP from Ongole — wanted his son togettheticketthistime,sources said the excise case shadow overthelatterpromptedtheTDP decision. Overall, the NDA in Andhra Pradesh,comprisingtheTDP,the Jana Sena Party and the BJP, announced candidates for four constituencies. Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Tax terrorism, says Cong, as it gets an I-T notice to pay Rs 1,823 cr By this logic, BJP violated tax laws, should pay Rs 4,600 crore: Kharge EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, MARCH 29 WITH LESS than three weeks to go before the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party Friday said it had received fresh notices for five years (1994-95 and 2017- 2018 to 2020-21) from the IncomeTax department, asking it to pay Rs 1,823 crore. The demand for the previous three financial years (2014-15 to 2016-17) was still awaited, party leaders said. While the party has received the demand notices for a whopping Rs 1,823 crore, no detailed orders (the nature of alleged undeclared income for each financial year) has yet been served on them. Rajya Sabha member V K Tankha,whowashandlingsome of the tax litigation for the party, told The Indian Express, “The Congresscertainlydoesnothave such funds to pay the tax demanded and penalties applied. Whatwedoknowisthatnotices have come for around Rs 1,800 crore and that more demands from the Income Tax are to follow. But we are prepared to take up the challenge and it is the peoplewhowillhavetofightour battles now.” Congress leader Ajay Maken briefs the press in Delhi. PTI Calling it “tax terrorism” to “financially cripple” the party in the run-up to the elections, the Congress said it will move the Supreme Court against the ongoingI-Taction.“Whoispressuring the Income Tax Department to act in this unjustified manner only against the Opposition? Why is the I-T department being allowed to be used as a weapon to harass the principal oppositionparty,theCongress.Theyare misusing institutions like IT, ED, CBI to subvert Democracy and belittle the Constitution,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said. “TheI-Tdepartmenthasnow given a notice of a total of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Three days before SC scrapped scheme, Govt cleared printing of Rs 10,000-cr bonds 13 days after apex court order, SBI was told to ‘immediately put a hold’ RITU SARIN NEW DELHI, MARCH 29 THREEDAYSbeforetheSupreme Court struck down the electoral bonds as unconstitutional, the Finance Ministry had given final approval for the printing of 10,000electoralbondseachof Rs 1 crore by the SPMCIL (the Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India). And it was on February 28, a fortnight after the Supreme Court order, that the Finance Ministry told State Bank of India to “immediately put a hold” on printing of the bonds. This has been revealed in file notings of correspondence and emails exchanged between the FinanceMinistryandSBIobtained by The Indian Express under the Right to Information Act. These records also reveal that the SPMCILhadalreadyprinted—anddispatchedtotheSBI—8,350bonds. In all, 22,217 electoral bonds YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW E AN XPRESS RTI APPLICATION were redeemed since the inception of the scheme. The BJP redeemedRs8,451crore;Congress Rs 1,950 crore; Trinamool Congress Rs 1,707.81 crore and BRS Rs 1,407.30 crore. The instructions to stop the printing went out in a trail-mail titled “Hold on Printing of ElectoralBonds—ElectoralBond Scheme 2018” dated February 28 from SBI to SPMCIL. The SBI’s Assistant General Manager of its Transaction Banking Department wrote: “We have acknowledged the receiptof 4boxesof Securityforms of Electoral Bondscontaining total 8350 Bonds email dated 23.02.2024…. As in the light of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK 10 DEAD AS VEHICLE FALLS INTO GORGE AMID HEAVY RAIN IN JAMMU & KASHMIR CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RELATED REPORTS PAGE 5 PAGE 2 In first week of poll code, surrogate ads on Meta give BJP early start SOUMYARENDRA BARIK NEW DELHI, MARCH 29 BETWEENMARCH17andMarch 23, the first week after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced poll dates for the Lok Sabha elections, a string of advertisers on Facebook and InstagramspentmorethanRs85 lakh and placed pro-BJP ads. Separately, the BJP and its units in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, togetherspentRs32lakhduring the week. ing the week. Of the top 20 advertisers on ApartfromthoseplacingsurFacebook and Instagram rogate ads for the ruling during March 17-23, party,theBJPitselfspent seven accounts ran ads more than Rs 23 lakh favourable to the BJP — (number 4 in the top 20 no other account in the list) to run its promotop20spendersransurtions; the party’s state rogate ads for any other unitsinAndhraPradesh political party — an and Odisha, ran ads DECISION worth over Rs 9 lakh. analysis of Meta’s ads li2024 brary by The Indian The Trinamool Express showed. Congress (TMC) was Thetop20advertiserscumu- the sixth highest political adverlatively spent Rs 1.38 crore dur- tiser having spent more than Rs WHO SPENT WHAT Surrogate Advertisers 7 Accounts all pro-BJP, amount spent `85 lakh MemeXpress: `28.1 lakh Mudde Ki Baat: `20.2 lakh Sidha Chashma: `9.5 lakh `1.38cr Political Parties BJP `23 lakh TMC `14 lakh BJP (Andhra & Odisha) ` 9 lakh INC `5 lakh Source: Meta Money spent by top 20 political advertisers on FB, Insta (Mar 17-23) 14lakhacrosstwopages,andthe Congress came in at number 13, spending a little over Rs 5 lakh to run ads from Rahul Gandhi’s Facebook page. Surrogate political advertisers employ a variety of content genres, ranging from memes, cartoonstrips, toclips, whichare edited at times to convey information that may be misleading. The top surrogate advertisers made no disclosures on their owners linked to the party they promoted. Calls made to the telephone numbers mentioned on their Facebook pages did not yield a response. Collectively, these advertisements garnered millions of eyeballs across Meta platforms, and despite some of these advertisements carrying communal undertones, Meta let them pass. In response to a questionnaire, a Meta spokesperson said surrogate advertisers attempting to circumvent its policies by not disclosing party affiliations are “subject to strict enforce- ment measures”. “We are committed to promoting transparency, accountability, and authenticity in advertising, particularly regarding social issues, elections, and politics. We require all advertisers running such ads to complete theauthorisationprocessandinclude a verified ‘Paid for by’ disclaimer to indicate the entity or person responsible for the ad… Ads found to be violating will be disapproved during review, and CONTINUED ON PAGE 2