DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2024, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY DISENGAGEMENT AT TWO FRICTION POINTS ALONG LAC PatrollingresumesinLadakh’sDemchok, willcommencesooninDepsangPlains E FASHION DESIGNER ROHIT BAL DIES AT 63 PAGE 7 SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 1 MOVING SWIFTLY after completingtheprocessof disengagement at the friction points of Demchok and Depsang Plains along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh, Indian troops have resumed patrolling in the Demchok area. Indian Army sources con- TUNNEL BORING MACHINES Machines for India delayed, German firm flags bottleneck at Chinese customs Herrenknecht says ‘extraordinary circumstances’ in customs clearance SUKALP SHARMA NEW DELHI, NOVEMBER 1 GERMAN MECHANISED tunnelling major Herrenknecht, which was at the centre of a recent conversation between Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and Germany’s Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, has said it has been facing “extraordinary circumstances” with Chinese customs clearances in delivery of tunnel boring machines (TBMs) to India from China. This, the company said, is hampering its efforts to deliver theTBMstoitsIndiancustomers. “For several months now, we have been observing extraordinary circumstances in the customs clearance processes for machines to be delivered from China to India. These are hindering us from fulfilling our delivery obligations as expected and, in some cases, entirely,” a spokesperson for Herrenknecht BIG PICTURE PAGE 10 said in a statement in response to queries from The Indian Express. Recently, in a video of an interaction between Goyal and HabeckduringaMetrotrainride inDelhi,theCommerceMinister was heard telling Habeck that IndiawastogetsomeTBMsfrom Herrenknecht that the company was making in China, but China was not allowing the sale of thosemachinestoIndia.Habeck, whoisalsoGermany’seconomic affairs minister, was in Delhi as part of a high-level delegation led by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. An independent familyowned company, Herrenknecht isseenasaglobalmajorinmechanised tunnelling and manufacturing of TBMs. These large machines are used to excavate tunnels for infrastructure projects. The company has been involvedwithanumberof projects in India, where it operates CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 firmed that “coordinated patrolling” began Friday in the Demchok area and would soon commenceintheDepsangPlains. This is in line with the agreement between India and China, announced on October 21, two days before Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping held talks on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Russia to repair bilateral ties. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPLAINED ECONOMICS CONSUMPTIONAND FOOD INFLATION PAGE 13 First step taken THE DISENGAGEMENT and restoration of patrolling rights in Demchok and Depsang Plains mark the first step in what is likely to be a long three-step process – disengagement, de-escalation and de-induction of troops massed at the LAC. ANAND MOHAN J BHOPAL, NOVEMBER 1 THE FUNERAL was interrupted by the powerful trumpet of a lone elephant, flapping its ears, stomping its feet, and charging at wildlife officials who were burying its family. Days after 10 elephants died, ostensibly after eating large amounts of kodo millets, the 20year-oldlonesurvivingmalefrom the herd of 13 elephants is struggling to reconcile with the loss. At the Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, where the deaths took place, a JCB machine poured sand and salt into an open pit, while wildlife officers placed flowers inside the grave, bidding farewell to the gentle giants. Adjacenttotheburialpitsisa makeshift post-mortem facility, whereveterinarianscanhearthe loneelephant’ssorrowfulmourn. A veterinarian, exhausted from conductingautopsiesof thedead tuskers for the past two days, chokedwithemotion:“Everyone is heartbroken. We could not conductthepost-mortemsproperly as the elephant would charge at us, thinking it can still save its family. We had to chase it away with JCB machines.” Pushpendra Nath Dwivedi, a former wildlife warden who has worked closely with the elephants since they arrived in Bandhavgarh in 2018, has been TWO MIGRANT workers were shot at by suspected militants in the Magam area of Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam district Friday evening. Both are undergoingtreatmentatanearbyhospital and are in stable condition. The two workers were identified as 20-year-old Usman Malik and 25-year-old Sofiyan, both from Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Sources said the Magam area, in central Kashmir, has been cordoned off. ChiefMinisterOmarAbdullah and National Conference presi- supervising villagers to set up guard posts, and advising them to burn chilli smoke to chase away the lone elephant. “Elephants came to this area in2018…calfs,mothersandlone bulls, everyone called Bandhavgarh their home. They were a closeknitfamily and aremourning the loss. The bull keeps returningtothepitswheretheelephants are buried, hoping to see its family one last time. It should leave for food in some time,” MUMBAI, NOVEMBER 1 dent Farooq Abdullah expressed deep sorrow over the attack and stronglycondemnedtheactofviolence, the party said. The Valley has seen a number of attacks against migrant CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Karnataka free bus travel scheme sparks row: PM vs Kharge on ‘fake’ promises After Kharge snubs Shivakumar on ‘relook’ at scheme, PM targets Cong EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE BENGALURU, NOVEMBER 1 A DAY after Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge pulled up KarnatakaDeputyChief Minister D K Shivakumar for sending a “wrong message” ahead of the Maharashtra elections by allegedly suggesting that the state government’sflagshipschemeof free bus travel for women might be revised, Prime Minister NarendraModionFridaysaidthe Congress was realising the “hard waythatmakingunrealpromises is easy but implementing them properly is tough or impossible”. At a Congress meeting in Bengaluru on Thursday, Kharge said, “Looking at your five guarantees I have announced five in Maharashtra. You (Shivakumar) have said we will dump one of the guarantee schemes. You do not read the newspapers and I am talking about what has been reported. By saying you will revise the scheme you have createddoubts.Ithasbenefittedthe PM Narendra Modi; Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge Opposition (in the state).” Kharge said the Congress’s central leadership had asked its Maharashtra unit to consider financialviabilitybeforeannouncing guarantees in its manifesto for the November 20 polls. “I have said they should not announce multiple guarantees but they should announce based on the available budget. Going beyond the budget will lead to financial problems, If there are no funds for roads people will be angry,” Kharge said, adding that the party was keen on ensuring that guarantees announced before the polls were “realistic”. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 In Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, the 20-year-old lone surviving male tusker from the herd of 13 is struggling to reconcile with the loss. Express MOHAMED THAVER One of the injured migrants in a Srinagar hospital. Express MODI FLAGS HIMACHAL, TELANGANA Violence on Hindus, other minorities in Bangladesh barbaric, total chaos: Trump Dwivedi said. The other survivors are a 10year-old female elephant and a two-year-old calf. They are being closely tracked by the wildlife department, which has nowbegundestroyingkodomillets and promised to compensate the farmers. According to experts, elephants roamed freely across Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradeshcenturiesago,whenthey wouldbecapturedbytheMughal army for use in battle. According to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, “a smallpopulationofelephantsmigrated from Jharkhand and Odisha into what was then Madhya Pradesh” due to habitat destruction by mining, logging and industrialisation. This explains why elephants in this corridor had to undertake long-distance migrations seeking refuge in small patches of forest. IN A boost to efforts to curb activities of the Lawrence Bishnoi gang,USauthoritieshavealerted Mumbai Police about the presence of Anmol Bishnoi (25), younger brother of Lawrence, in their country. Following this, the Mumbai Police have begun the process of seeking his extradition and, to this effect, the Crime Branch approached a special court here last month. On October 16, the Mumbai Police submitted before the court that they intend to initiate Anmol’s extradition in connec- tion with the Salman Khan housefiringcase,aseniorofficial told The Indian Express. With Lawrence behind bars, major operations, including the firing outside Khan’s house in April, was alleged to have been carried out by Anmol. Anmol’s name also cropped up in the recent murder of NCP (Ajit Pawar) leader and former MLA Baba Siddique with allegations that Anmol had spoken to the accused who fired at the leader. Last week, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had announced a reward of Rs 10 lakh on Anmol. The agency said thatthefugitivehas18casesregistered against him, including onewhereheallegedlyprovided Donald Trump at a Tucker Carlson Live Tour show in Glendale, Arizona. AP CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Militants open fire at two US alerts India on Bishnoi’s brother, migrants from UP in J&K; Mumbai cops move for extradition fifth attack in a fortnight SADAF MODAK & SRINAGAR, NOVEMBER 1 Foster parenting in India Chinese soldiers watch as Union Minister Kiren Rijiju visits Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. PTI ● 10 of its herd dead, lone tusker guards a mass burial in Bandhavgarh reserve EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE BRINGING A CHILD HOME E X P L A I NE D In line with agreement between two sides, patrols are being coordinated EXPRESS NETWORK `7.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 weaponsandlogisticssupportto the accused who killed Punjabi singerSidhuMoosewalain2022. An official told The Indian Express that in the Khan chargesheet, Anmol was identified as a wanted accused following which a Red Corner Notice (RCN) was issued. “Based on the RCN, US authorities reached out to us a few months ago alerting us about Anmol’s presence in the US,” the official added. Officials said that there was no clarity on whether Anmol is currentlydetainedbyUSauthorities but his possible location within the country may have been traced. Following the miscellaneous LALIT K JHA WASHINGTON, NOVEMBER 1 US REPUBLICAN presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump in his Diwali greetings on Thursday strongly “condemned the barbaric violence against Hindus, Christians, and other minorities in Bangladesh”, which he said remains in a “total state of chaos.” “It would have never happened on my watch. Kamala and Joe have ignored Hindus across the world and in America. They have been a disaster from Israel to Ukraine to our own Southern Border,butwewillMakeAmerica Strong Again and bring back PeacethroughStrength,”hesaid. “We will also protect Hindu Americans against the anti-religion agenda of the radical left. We will fight for your freedom. Under my administration, we will also strengthen our great partnership with India and my good friend, Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi,” Trump said. Hindu American groups applauded Trump for promising to protect the human rights of Hindus across the world. Utsav Sanduja, founder and chairman of Hindus for America CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD DAY AFTER U.S. TRUCE PUSH, ISRAEL STRIKES LEBANON, GAZA STRIP PAGE 12 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 He wrote his obit: There’s a world outside... what if I am not there? Scholar-economist Bibek Debroy, who headed the PM’s economic council, passed away Friday. A columnist for The Indian Express, he sent this piece on October 28 AFTER MORE than a month in thecardiaccarecentre(CCU)and aprivateroominAIIMS,Iamdischarged. My wife, Suparna, has performed a modern-day Savitri-Satyavan, aided by the skillsof thedoctors.Astimegoes, a month is fleeting. But being virtuallywipedoff thefaceof the earth is not. I manage to get the daily limericks going from the hospital. So people don’t necessarily notice.Myfrequent co-au- thor,AdityaSinha,keepssomeof the columns going. More people don’t notice. For me, the external world is restricted to a thin sliver of a window (in the room). I can see a pipe in the building outside. A monkey religiously clambers up every morning. It is restricted to counting the IV drops as they pass through the cannula. Drip, drip. It is restricted to requesting Harish to bring the urinal or commode. Sometimes, the bed gets soiled. Just a lump of flesh stretchedout,strippedof normal norms of shame and modesty. Sometimes, in a wheelchair or a hospital trolley, I am carted from one building to another, passing through the melee, through the sun shining, through the birds chirping on the green trees. There is a world outside that exists. What if I am not there? What indeed? BIBEK DEBROY 1955 - 2024 ‘Dr Bibek Debroy Ji was a towering scholar, well-versed in diverse domains like economics, history, culture, politics, spirituality... Beyond his contributions to public policy, he enjoyed working on our ancient texts, making them accessible to the youth’ PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI RELATED REPORT PAGE 6 “A new book has arrived. Would you like to read it?” asks Suparna.Thebookhappenstobe “100 places to see after you die,” by Ken Jennings. We smile at each other. How singularlyinappropriate! I don’t feel like reading, even when I can. I don’t feel like watching TV, even when I can. The same boring news, the same boring high-decibel debates. It all seems so transient and puerile. But so am I, transient and puerile, a dot that might have been wiped off. In that event, what would have happened? A few condolences, perhaps even from important people. “Irreparable loss.” Perhaps a posthumous Padma Bhushan or Padma Vibhushan. A few obituaries. What will they mention? Trade work of 1980s,lawreformof 1990s,State work of 2000s, railway reforms of 2015, even resignation from Rajiv Gandhi Institute in 2005? Who remembers? Nothing seminal about such work. Had a role in the rat race, was temporarily read and passed into oblivion, buried in journal archives. Perhaps the Purana Project, left incomplete. Manmatha Nath Dutt was reborn, to finish the Purana work. I will be reborn. But I hope not for this. Irreparable loss at the age of 70, when life’s productivity is as good as over? In another ten years, what social value will I bring? Can it be measured, quantified, imputed for? I give upthethought,toocomplicated. There are lives my life has touched, improved, even bruised. If theygettoknow,they may remember, with fondness CONTINUED ON PAGE 2