eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE Born to Shine NEWDELHI,LATECITY APRIL7,2024 Singer-actor Diljit Dosanjh has travelled a long way 16+4PAGES,`7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR,` 12SRINAGAR) DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT TARGETS OPPOSITION PARTY’S PROMISES TO MINORITIES Cong manifesto has stamp of Muslim League, each page reeks of breaking the nation: Modi VIKAS PATHAK & HAMZA KHAN NEW DELHI, JAIPUR, APRIL 6 BJPTARGETSKHARGE FOR ASKING WHAT RAJASTHAN HAS TO DO WITH KASHMIR P 7 ATTACKING THE Congress over its Lok Sabha election manifesto released a day earlier, Prime He said: “Today the country Minister Narendra Modi is saying in one voice said Saturday that the that the Congress that manifesto “has the stamp fought for freedom died of the Muslim League” — decades ago”. the party blamed for the Addressing BJP elecPartition — and “every DECISION tion rallies in Saharanpur 2024 page reeks of breaking in western UP and Ajmer India into pieces” (har in Rajasthan, Modi also panne par Bharat ke tukde karne criticisedtheCongressforstaying ki boo aa rahi hai). CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HAMZA KHAN JAIPUR, APRIL 6 Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Saharanpur and Congress leader Sonia Gandhi in Jaipur, on Saturday. PTI, Rohit Jain Paras FORMER CONGRESS president Sonia Gandhi Saturday attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government, statingthatthecountryisundera dictatorship,thatdemocracyisin dangerandthatthelightof independence has dimmed. Addressingararepublicrally, a dayafter the party launchedits CONG’S MANIFESTO SOULOF INDIA: RAHUL IN HYDERABAD DECISION 2024: PAGES 9, 10 manifesto, Sonia Gandhi said, “There was a time when, through their struggle, our great ancestorssearchedforandfound the light of independence from undertheyokeof darkness.After CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Nitish exit setback, INDIA bloc needs common agenda, says Sanjay Singh AAM AADMI Party Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh, who was granted bail by the Supreme Court in the Delhi excise case, Saturday said the departure of Nitish Kumar from the INDIA blocwasamajorsetback,adding thathistorywouldnotjudgehim kindly. In an interview with the The Indian Express, he also said the Opposition alliance must prepare a common minimum programme ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. Singh was a key member in alliancediscussionsbeforehisarrest in October last year. At that timetheJanataDal(United)president and Bihar Chief Minister was a vocal anti-BJP leader. Asked what the biggest setback faced by the INDIA bloc so far was, Singh said: “Nitish Kumar ji’s departure was completely unexpected. He was going from one place to another to bring opposition parties together and he then joined NDA. Switching positions in this manner impacts your image. You may be able to get power and some benefits in the short term, I don’t deny that. But if you switchsidesoverandoveragain, WEST BENGAL Chief Minister and TMC leader Mamata Banerjee and the Opposition BJP were locked in a new blame game Saturday after a team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was attacked by a crowd while arresting two men who it said were “key conspirators” in the Bhupatinagar blast case in which three persons were killed in December 2022. In a statement, the NIA said one of its team members sustained a minor injury and its official vehicle was damaged as it arrested “two key conspirators amidstiff resistancefrom an unruly crowd” in Purba Medinipur district. “The aggressive crowd tried to stop the NIA team and its security component from moving THE EXPRESS INTERVIEW THE BOOTH, AT HOME SANJAY SINGH RAJYA SABHA MP, AAM AADMI PARTY historywillnotjudgeyoukindly. You can be remembered either as a coward or as courageous.” “We have to decide what we want to be remembered as. I don’tthinkthosewhooncespoke outagainsttheBJPandhavenow bowed down before it will be remembered well,” he said. Asked about the breakdown of talks between the bloc and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, he said there was a “world of a difference” between the Trinamool Congress chief and Nitish Kumar. “Sheisdoingeverythingpossible to stand against BJP. She is CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD EGYPT TO HOST GAZA TALKS; HAMAS TO SEND TEAM, ISRAEL UNDECIDED U.S., AUSTRALIA, JAPAN, PHILIPPINES TO STAGE MILITARY DRILLS IN SCS PAGE 12 Officer injured, vehicle damaged as agency arrests 2 in 2022 blast case KOLKATA, COOCH BEHAR, APRIL 6 P4 NEW DELHI, APRIL 6 NIA team attacked in West Bengal, Mamata & BJP in new war of words SWEETY KUMARI & ATRI MITRA ‘Congress should declare candidates in Delhi soon so that campaign can start’ MALLICA JOSHI At Bhupatinagar in Purba Medinipur district on Saturday. PTI Senior citizens cast postal ballots for Lok Sabha elections from their residence in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, on Saturday. The poll panel, in a first for LS polls, has rolled out the vote-from-home option to people above 85 and those with over 40% disability. PTI From Odisha to Cambodia via Vietnam: How agents duped Indian job-seekers SUJIT BISOYI & KIRAN PARASHAR BHUBANESWAR, BENGALURU, APRIL 6 WITH HIS job as a computer operator in Hyderabad barely enough to make ends meet, Dinabandhu Sahu nurtured a dream like many other youths from his locality in Odisha’s Ganjam district — to migrate overseas, earn enough, and return to his village to start something on his own. His ambition led him to Cambodia where, far from his dream being realised, he lost everything, including his wife’s jewellery. To support his family of four, Sahu now works at a local fuel station. Sahu, a resident of Biswanathpur village who was among Express Indians trapped in Cambodia have been forced into cyber crime; and (right) The Indian Express report on the issue an estimated 5,000 Indians trapped in Cambodia and forced into cyber crime, returned after his case was taken up by Union EducationMinisterDharmendra PradhanwiththeExternalAffairs Ministry. He was in the country for a month-and-a-half, and returned in September last year. After a report by The Indian Express flagging the circumstances of the 5,000-plus Indians, the MEA last week said the Centre is collaborating with Cambodian authorities and has rescued and repatriated about 250 Indians so far. Apart from Sahu, The Indian Express spoke to two men from Karnataka who managed to return. All of them had similar storiestotell—lackof opportunities at home, agents who exploited their desperation, a job that turned out to be nothing more CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MHA to file CBI complaint for action against agents MAHENDER SINGH MANRAL NEW DELHI, APRIL 6 DAYS AFTER the Ministry of External Affairs said they have rescued 250 Indians from Cambodia,theMinistryof Home Affairs is planning to file a complaint with the CBI asking the agency to take legal action against recruitment agents, The Indian Express has learnt. As reported by The Indian Express, over 5,000 people are suspected CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E E X P L A I NE D Sonia: Intimidating Opp, making them join BJP... democracy is in danger Slams Congress for skipping Ayodhya temple ceremony: Is it appropriate? 3 months after ED ● attacked THE ATTACK on the central agency team brought back memories of Sandeshkhali where an Enforcement Directorate team was assaulted while conducting a search at the house of TMC strongman Shahjahan Sheikh. The new incident will deepen the fault lines in Bengal where the TMC and BJP are in a bitter contest for Lok Sabha seats. towards Bhupatinagar police station to complete the arrest formalities. NIA has lodged a complaint at the local police station in this regard. Manorama CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 After tax searches, FDI questions, BBC hives off newsroom in India as separate company BBC applies for 26% stake in Collective Newsroom, a first in its global ops RITIKA CHOPRA NEW DELHI, APRIL 6 LESS THAN a year after being questioned by Income Tax authorities for alleged violations, the BBC has hived off its newsroom in India, handing over its publishing license to a private limited company established by its Indian employees — a first for the public service broadcaster's global operations anywhere in the world. Under this new arrangement, starting next week, a private limited company called the “CollectiveNewsroom”hasbeen set up by four former BBC employees.Its India offices will produce all of the India content in seven languages for the BBC's digitalservicesinHindi,Gujarati, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, and Telugu. The BBC is learnt to have applied to the Indian government fora26%stakeinthisprivatelimited company. SpeakingtoTheIndianExpress, Rupa Jha, Chief Executive Officer of theCollectiveNewsroom,said, "It'sunprecedentedfortheBBCto grant their license to publish to another entity…We will not compromise our journalism and the BBC is solidly behind us." Jha,whowastheseniornews editor at BBC India, is one of the four founding shareholders of Collective Newsroom. The restructuring of the BBC's India operations was prompted by the new Foreign CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Overrun by invasive chital, a tiny Andaman island counts the cost PAGE 1 ANCHOR NIKHIL GHANEKAR NEW DELHI, APRIL 6 INTRODUCED TO the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for game huntingintheearly1900sbythe British, a herbivore that multiplied unchecked for years in the absence of large predators has becomeanexpensiveandan“invasive” problem for the Union Territory’s authorities. For years, the chital (spotted deer) — the staple food for large predators in forests of mainland India—sustainedthemselveson localgroundvegetationonNetaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island, which lies east of Port Blair and doesnothaveanymajorresidential enclaves. But now, with the nearly500chitalhavingdepleted muchof thelow-groundvegetation, the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Department has been spending`15-20lakhpermonth sincethepastfewmonthstofeed them on the island, a source told The Indian Express. “There is negligible ground vegetationleftonBoseIsland(for- merly Ross Island) because the chital population has stretched beyond the carrying capacity of the place,” said the source. To deal with the “invasive species”, the department has been seeking solutions — to either rehabilitate the chital or relocate them elsewhere. Under theWildlifeProtectionAct,1972, an officer of the rank of Chief Wildlife Warden can permit translocation for the purpose of scientific management. The law mandates that such translocation should cause minimum trauma to animals. On February 13, the Chital (spotted deer) at Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Getty Andaman and Nicobar Forest Department reached out to the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India (WII), seeking itshelpindevisingsafestrategies to manage the deer population. The forest department told WII thatit“intendstorehabilitate/relocatearound500nos.of spotted deer presently located at Netaji SubhashChandraBoseDweepto Biological Park, Chidiyatapu (a mini zoo in Port Blair)”. In its response in late March, WII suggested that consultative meetings should be held with “select officials” to develop strategies in handling the chital population. The institute also shared a list of officials, including officers from Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh forest departments, a retired forest official from West Bengal, WII scientistsandindependent experts from the Wildlife Trust of India, a non-profit organisation. Besides this, WII told the Union Territory administration that capturing ungulates (hooved animals) was a “complex process” that required knowledge of the species, the diseases they suffer from, their behavioural ecology and appropriate restraint procedures. Elaborating on the different methods available for capturing ungulates, WII said the “passive Boma capture technique has gainedrelevanceovertheyears”. As per this technique, WII stated, a funnel-like fencing is used to lure herds into an enclosure that tapersintoaloadingchute,which helpsloadanimalsintothetransport vehicle. This technique has been used to capture chital and hardgroundswampdeer(barasingha) in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal; nilgais in Madhya Pradesh and swamp deer in Assam. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2