DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 22 PAGES Voters gave a message to all, right from the top to bottom, says Venkaiah Win or lose, working for poor, values bigger issues, he tells IRMA graduates RITU SHARMA AHMEDABAD, JUNE 7 FORMER VICE-PRESIDENT M Venkaiah Naidu said Friday that millions who voted in the Lok Sabha elections “gave a message to all, right from the top to bottom”. Addressing graduating students of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) as chief guest at its 43rd convocation, Naidu said, “We have seen that India proved to be a great democracyintherecentelection. Millions of people voted peacefully. Whatever change they wanted to make, they have brought it peacefully. They gave a message to all, right from the toptobottom.Thereisamessage in the election, and I hope that peopleunderstandthemessage.” “Political parties, at times, may win or lose — that is not the issue. The values, work for the downtrodden, taking care of the oppressed, suppressed and depressed people, Gandhiji’s Antyodaya, Ambedkarji’s Antyodaya — taking care of the poorest of the poor — that should be top of our mind,” he said. Speaking about Prime NAIDUFLAGSREGIONAL at Rashtrapati Bhavan and national interests ALLWILLWORKTOGETHER, says Nitish Kumar Modi stakes claim to form govt, says consensus needed to run the country He is appointed PM-designate by President after NDA unanimously elects him leader High food inflation, RBI retains rate at 6.5%; ups FY25 GDP forecast to 7.2% LIZ MATHEW & VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, JUNE 7 AFTER THE NDA Parliamentary Party unanimously elected him as its leader, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Droupadi Murmu Friday and staked claim to form the government. Heading a coalition in which theBJP,forthefirsttimeunderhis leadership, lacks majority, Modi, who will be sworn in as Prime Minister for a third consecutive termataceremonyinRashtrapati Bhavan at 7.15 pm Sunday, said, “We need a majority to form the government,butthereshouldbe consensus to run the country.” DescribingtheNDAasan“organic alliance” for which “the seed was sown” by its leaders threedecadesagoand“nurtured by people with trust”, he said it will strive to ensure unanimity in all decisions of the next government. AddressingtheNDAmeeting before leaders headed to Rashtrapati Bhavan, Modi said, “I assure the people of the country that the majority they gave us to run the government, it will be our effort that we will strive towards consensus and leave no stone unturned towards taking the country forward.” Later, emerging from Rashtrapati Bhavan, he told reporters: “There was an NDA meeting this morning. NDA members have chosen me once again. They have supported me again. The President called me today. I have told her that the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HITESH VYAS MUMBAI, JUNE 7 Prime Minister-designate Narendra Modi pays respects to the Constitution at the NDA meeting in New Delhi on Friday. PTI Before the oath, the reachout — to allies, states, Opposition VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, JUNE 7 SHORT OF a majority and needing the support of his allies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Friday framed the mandate and the road ahead in terms that were conciliatory signalling a reaching out to states and to parties across the aisle. Addressing the elected MPs of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Friday, including BJP Chief Ministers and Deputy CMs, Modi described theNDAas a “30-year-old”, “organic” alliance,andunderlinedthatithad run successful governments for three terms during this period. He also stressed that ● the NDA mirrored “India’s diversity”, mentioning different social groups, E CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Muizzu likely to attend swearing-in, first trip since slide in relations SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, JUNE 7 ONTHEfirstdayof histhirdterm in office on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to meet visiting foreign leaders who will come for the swearing-in ceremony Sunday. The most significant among them will be Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu if he chooses to attend the ceremony, despite Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu the setback in bilateral ties. A Maldives government official told The Indian Express that President Muizzu is expected to attend Prime Minister Modi’s CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 Alert after man tries to register Mauritius mission’s Rs 200-cr Delhi plot in his name DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, JUNE 7 APLOT estimated to beworthRs 200 crore-plus in Delhi’s posh diplomatic enclave of Chanakyapuri, allotted to the Mauritius High Commission decades agobut never used, was almost illegally registered in the name of a man who walked into theNewDelhi sub-registrar’s office last month. Except for quick-thinking officials who caught the potential scam. The simply-dressed elderly man, who called himself Tilak Singh,walkedintothesub-registrar’s office last month, armed with a conveyance deed from the Land and Development PAGE 1 ANCHOR Office (L&DO). But something was off — the man didn’t dress the part, nor could he give consistent responses to questions posed by officials there. At 1,354.16 square yards, the plotof landisestimatedtobebetween Rs 200 crore and Rs 300 crore. A similarly-sized property in the Lutyens’ Bungalow Zone is on the market for Rs 290 crore, as per the price listed by Sotheby’s International Realty. Government sources suspect that getting the conveyance deed registered may have been the first step to sell the land and pocket the proceeds. The deed, dated April 29, bore the signature of a Deputy Land and Development Officer. The sub-registrar’s officer wrote CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das along with Deputy Governors T Rabi Shankar, Michael Debabrata Patra, M Rajeshwar Rao and Swaminathan Janakiraman in Mumbai, Friday. PTI BIG PICTURE PAGE 8 THE NEW NAIDU Less than a year ago, Chandrababu Naidu had his back to the wall. He is back now THE WORLD BIDEN’S GAZA TRUCE PLAN: CHINA, RUSSIA SAY NO CONDITIONS PAGE 14 Amid allegations of sabotage, UP debacle sends shocked BJP back to drawing board E ● Rate cut ornot THERE IS growing divergence within the RBI monetary policy committee on the need for lowering interest rates. Two of the six MPC members sought a 25 basis point cut, and also a change in policy stance from ‘withdrawal of accommodation’ to ‘neutral’. SENSEX, NIFTY TOUCH RECORD HIGHS, SURGE OVER 2% PAGE 15 icyreporateby25basispoints.In the previous two monetary policies, Varma was the only MPC member to vote for a 25 basis CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Fearful, BJP workers in Bengal take shelter away from home: ‘It’s that season every poll’ Chhattisgarh: 2 transporting cattle found dead, family claims lynched JAYPRAKASH S NAIDU BHUPENDRA PANDEY & LALMANI VERMA RAIPUR, JUNE 7 LUCKNOW, NEW DELHI, JUNE 7 THE DEBACLE in UP which shocked theBJPandcontributed to its loss of majority in Lok Sabha has sent the party and its leaders,includingChief Minister Yogi Adityanath, back to the drawing board. The roles of BJP stateandcentralleaderswillalso be under the scanner as the party undertakes an exercise to review the results. Murmurshavebeengrowing within the BJP ranks ever since the party managed just 33 seats in the state out of 80, down from 62lasttimeandfinishingbehind the SP’s 37. Adityanath is learnt to have THE RESERVE Bank of India Friday left the repo rate — the rate at which it lends to banks — unchanged at 6.5 per cent on concerns over rise in food inflation, and revised upwards the real gross domestic product (GDP) growth projection for 2024-25 to 7.2 per cent. Thecentralbankretainedthe FY25 consumer price index based inflation (CPI) projection at 4.5 per cent but indicated that it will fall below 4 per cent during the July-September quarter. The members of the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee which met over the last three daysdecidedtoleavethekeypolicyrateat6.5percentfortheeight consecutive time. However, a growing divergence in views within the MPC was visible this time,withtwoexternalmembers — Ashima Goyal and Jayanth R Varma—votingtoreducethepol- E X P L A I NE D BY UNNY SWEARING-IN7.15PMSUNDAY EXPLAINED BUSINESS AS USUAL `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 CM Yogi Adityanath at the NDA meet in New Delhi. PTI got the go-ahead for the review from the leadership during his two-day trip to New Delhi. He reached the Capital Thursday evening and had a meeting with senior leaders including party president J P Nadda. After attending the NDA Parliamentary Party meeting Friday, Adityanath was said to CONTINUED ON PAGE 5 TWO MEN transporting cattle were found dead after allegedly beingchasedbyunidentifiedpeople in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur districtearlyFriday,policesaid.While police said the men were found lyingonrocksbelowabridge,the family of one of the victims alleged they had been lynched. A third personwho was with them was found with injuries andhasbeenhospitalised,police said. The dead have been identified as Guddu Khan, 35, and ChandMiyaKhan,23,andtheinjured as Saddam Qureshi, 23. QureshiandChandwerecousins and residents of Saharanpur district in Uttar Pradesh, while CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BJP workers at the party office at Baruipur. Partha Paul RAVIK BHATTACHARYA & ATRI MITRA SOUTH 24 PARGANAS, KOLKATA, JUNE 7 SITTING ON one of a dozen beds laid out on the third floor of the BJP office in West Bengal’s Baruipur town, 38-year-old Prasanta Haldar says, “Election seasonmaneamaderghorchharar season (Election season means season of leaving home for us).” Haldar, a BJP worker from the Vidyadhar Palli area of Baruipur, under the Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency, left his house with his wife and children a day after casting his vote on June 1. While the wife and children were sent to a relative’s house, Haldar and around 50 others like him took shelter at the party office. Amidallegationsof post-poll violence in West Bengal, hundreds of BJP workers have left theirhomesandvillagesafterthe election,andformany,thisisnot thefirsttime—theydidthesame after the 2021 Assembly polls, and the 2023 panchayat polls. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Pak thought it was playing USA, turned out to be Team India H-1B SANDIP G NEW DELHI, JUNE 7 THIS WASN'T Pakistan losing to India B, it was Pakistan losing to India H1-B. That was the populartakeonFridayatDallaswhere USA shocked one-time world championsPakistaninanail-biting Super Over finish in a group game of the World T20. With as many as six cricketers of Indian descent, most of them on temporary H1-B visas that allow companies to hire overseas employees, featuring in the historic win, the joke would be a hit in the immigrant community. Almost everyone had a role in scripting a historic day for American cricket. The ripples of joy spilled as far as Delhi and Mumbai, Anand in Gujarat and Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka. Their stories are diverse. The Super Over hero, SaurabhNetravalkar,hadpacked his bags from Mumbai to San Francisco for higher studies. Player of the Match and batting hero Monank Patel (50 off 38 balls) had left Anand in 2016 for New Jersey to start a restaurant after he realised his cricket career was going nowhere. Threewicket hero Nosthush Kenjige, born in Alabama but raised in Nilgiris and Bengaluru, returned to the US to work as a biological technician. Milind Kumar, who took a blinding catch in the Super Over, had represented a clutch of domestic sides before quitting his job in ONGC and flying to Houston, where he had been playing league cricket. Nitish Kumar, whose last-ball four tied the game, was born in Ontario, Canada, but shifted to theUSduringatorridphaseduringthepandemic.Left-armspinner Harmeet Singh, whose action was likened to Bishan Singh Bedi, left India as a shattered manaftersetbacksandrejection, including an alleged match-fix- Nosthush Kenjige (left) celebrates with Saurabh Netravalkar during the T20 World Cup match against Pakistan. PTI ing scandal although the board eventually cleared him. Jasdeep Singhspent most of his life shuttling between New Jersey and Chandigarh, before settling down in the US. Their sweat and dreams wererewardedonasparklingafternoon in Dallas, and past midnight in India. But the Netravalkar household in Malad was wide awake. Saurabh’s father Naresh was all nervous before and during the game. More so, as his wife had flown to the US. “I was in full tension, it was the day when he was about to become hero or zero. I was confident but Pakistan is a good side,” he told The Indian Express. Theleft-armseamer,though, seized the moment, producing a magnificentSuperOverwiththe ease of coding a difficult programme in his Oracle office. Earlier, he had bowled magnificently, conceding 18 runs and nabbing two wickets. Saurabh had almost quit cricket, but as he wrote on Facebook once: “Even if you leave cricket, it has found a way back into your life.” When he left home, his fathersaid,hehadnotevencarried his bowling spikes. “He saw a few people playing cricket where he used to stay, which was near his university. He began to play cricket as a timepass. Look at his destiny — USA got a chance to play this World Cup becausetheyarethehostnation, and Saurabh got a chance to represent them,” he said. Every weekday, Saurabh is at theofficefrom9amto9pm.“His office has all the facilities, so he uses his gym there. He does his netsandeveryweekendhetravels around for different tournaments,”saidhisfather.Hecredits his son’s clear plans for his success. “He told me papa, if I don't get enough chances, I will move to the US to do my masters.” CONTINUED ON PAGE 2