DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2024, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES ● REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 263 VOTE FOR, 198 AGAINST INTRODUCTION OF PROPOSED LEGISLATION 18/12/2024 86 114 140 85 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY One nation, one poll Bills introduced in Lok Sabha, will go to House panel Most Opp parties oppose the Bills, DMK and NCP (SP) say can be sent to joint panel Need to deliver on understandings between our leaders, says Beijing SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 17 DIVYA A & LIZ MATHEW NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 17 HC judge was called by Collegium over his remarks at a VHP event EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 17 THE SUPREME Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna, held a meeting Tuesday with Allahabad High Court’s Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav and told him that his controversial remarks at a Vishwa Hindu Parishad event recently were avoidable, The Indian Express has learnt. Details of what exactly transpired at the meeting, which lasted nearly 30 minutes, were notimmediatelyknown.Alleyes arenowontheChairmanofRajya Sabha where the Opposition has made an impeachment bid against Justice Yadav, accusing himof “hatespeech”and“incitementtocommunaldisharmony”. Speaking at an event organisedonDecember8bytheVHP’s legal cell on the premises of the Allahabad High Court, Justice YadavhadtargetedMuslimsand framedtheUniformCivilCodeas a Hindu versus Muslim debate wheretheformerhadbroughtin reforms while the latter had not. “You have a misconception that if a law (UCC) is brought in, it will be against your Shariyat, your Islam and your Quran,” Justice Yadav said. “But I want to say one more thing… whether it is your personal law, our Hindu law, your Quran or whether it is our Gita, as I said we have addressedtheills(buraaiyan)inour practices… kamiyan thi, durust kar liye hain (the shortcomings have been addressed) …untouchability… sati, jauhar… female foeticide…we have addressed all those issues… Then CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 EXPRESS NETWORK IIT-MADRAS TO SET ASIDE UG SEATS FOR ‘FINE ARTS, CULTURE EXCELLENCE’PAGE 10 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E EXPLAINED Avoidable: SC Collegium to Justice Yadav on his remarks against Muslims THE GOVERNMENT introduced two Bills in the Lok Sabha Tuesdayaspartof itsplansforsimultaneous elections across the country, countering the Opposition’s charge of the move being “anti-constitutional” and “underminingfederalstructure”. The Constitution (One Hundred andTwenty-NinthAmendment) Bill and Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill were approved by the Cabinet last week. However, while most of the Oppositionparties,includingthe Congress, Trinamool Congress, ShivSena(UBT),SamajwadiParty, Revolutionary Socialist Party, IUML and AIMIM, “vehemently” opposed the introduction of the Kovind panel & ● parties OF THE 47 parties that submitted their opinion on joint polls to the panel headed by former President Kovind, 32 were in favour of the idea and 15 against it. Members of the Treasury bench during the introduction of the Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The two Bills have to be passed for simultaneous elections. PTI All BJP-ruled states to have UCC, Cong wants to give quota to Muslims by raising limit: Shah VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 17 TRAINING HIS guns on the Congress on issues ranging from the Uniform Civil Code to Constitution amendments to its stand on reservation, Union Home Minister Amit Shah told Rajya Sabha Tuesday that every state with a BJP government would bring in the UCC the way it was done in Uttarakhand. Replying to the two-day discussion in the House on the ‘Glorious Journey of 75 Years of the Constitution of India’, Shah accused the Congress of “appeasement” politics: “Under Article 44, our Constitution talks about the Uniform Civil Code. It did not become a reality because (Jawaharlal)Nehrubroughtinthe Muslim Personal Law. I ask the Congress: In a secular state, shouldn’t there be one law for all communities?TheygaveMuslim PersonalLawtoMuslims,therest thatwascommonlawcametobe known as Hindu Code Bill.” The Congress, he said, chose Disgruntled Bhujbal hits out: ‘I am not a toy in anyone’s hand’ VALLABH OZARKAR MUMBAI, DECEMBER 17 MIFFED OVER being denied a ministerial berth, senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal lashed out at party chief Ajit Pawar on Tuesday, voicing his dissatisfactionwiththewaythepartyisbeingrun.Hintingatpursuinganindependent path, Bhujbal said, “Jahan nahi chaina, wahan nahi rehna (Where peace is absent, thereisnoreasontoremain)”and alleged that he was not inducted into the Cabinet even though ChiefMinisterDevendraFadnavis was keen on his inclusion. Speaking to reporters in Nashik on Tuesday, Bhujbal said, “Iamnotatoyinyourhandswho will follow blindly everything... Chhagan Bhujbal is not that kind of man... The chief minister (Devendra Fadnavis) wanted me to be in the cabinet. I also verified itandIlearntthathewasinsistent onmyinductionintothecabinet. But I was dropped. Now, I will have to find out who rejected it.” Before leaving Nagpur on the first day of the Winter Session of the Maharashtra Assembly on Monday,hetoldreportersthathe didnotgetaCabinetberthfortaking on Maratha social activist Manoj Jarange-Patil, and for CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Doval-Wang talks today, China says ready to work with India, enhance trust IN PARLIAMENT BAD LOT INTERFERED WITH CONSTITUTION, SAYS NADDA; OPP HITS BACK AT GOVT PAGE 7 DEC 12 GUNBATTLE Anti-Maoist op: Girl who has ‘foreign object’ in neck among 4 children injured JAYPRAKASH S NAIDU RAIPUR, DECEMBER 17 Senior NCP leader Chhagan Bhujbal at a meeting with party workers in Yeola on Tuesday. Express INTERVIEW,PAGE4 Ajit Pawar skips winter session for second day ALOK DESHPANDE NAGPUR, DECEMBER 17 AMID THE delay in cabinet portfolio allocation and discontent among MLAs who were denied ministerial berths, Deputy Chief Minister and NCP chief Ajit Pawar skipped the first two days of the winter session of the Maharashtra legislature. Pawarhadreportedlygoneto New Delhi on Monday. On Tuesday, Pawar skipped the proceedingsofthelegislatureanddid not attend any of the meetings. “I cannot comment on whether he hasgonetoDelhioronwhyhehas not come to the legislature,” said NCP MLA Anil Patil. Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray took jibe at Pawar stating that he has a habit of being unreachable. “Should we wait for the early morning to see what is happening?,”Thackerayasked,referring totheearlymorningswearingin ceremony of Ajit Pawar with Devendra Fadnavis in 2019. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FOURCHILDRENwereinjuredin the encounter last week between Maoists and security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Abujhmadregion,policesources told The Indian Express. According to security forces, the encounter had broken out at around 3 am on December 12 and left seven Maoists dead. There was, however, no information provided onanyinjuries to civilians. Late on Monday night, a minor girl was brought to a multispeciality hospital in Raipur after being referred there from another city hospital that said she had an “accidental gunshot injury” and that a foreign object was seen in her neck. A senior police officer from Narayanpur district, where the December 12 encounter took place, told The Indian Express: “Fourminorshavesufferedsplinter injuries in the encounter. The injuries are from splinters in the Barrel Grenade Launcher (BGL) CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 differentpersonallawsbutacommon criminal code. “If you really want Muslim Personal Law, then haveitinfull.WhyistheSharianot applicable in criminal law? Will you chop off the hands of someonewhocommitstheft?”hesaid. The Congress, he said, was talking about increasing the quantum of reservation not for theSCs,STsandOBCs,buttogive theincreasedquotastoMuslims, and it had done so in two states. “They have called for reservation beyond 50 per cent. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE WORLD AS NATIONAL Security Advisor Ajit Doval reached Beijing for talks Wednesday between the Special Representatives of the two countries, China said Tuesday it is ready to work with India to “deliver on important common understandings reached between our two leaders” and “enhance mutual trust and mutual confidence”. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi will represent Beijing at the Special Representativelevel talks. Respondingtoaqueryonthe talks, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian told the media: “China stands ready to workwithIndiatodeliveronimportant common understandings reached between our two leaders, enhance mutual trust and mutual confidence through dialogue and communication, honour our commitments and promote our bilateral relations to go back to the sound and steady growth.” TheChineseForeignMinistry NSA Ajit Doval with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. File statementsdidnotmakeanyreference to the military standoff along the Line of Actual Control ineasternLadakh,nowinitsfifth year, but focused on “important common understandings” and “honour commitments” — a reference to the border patrolling arrangement announced on October 21 and the subsequent meetingbetweenPrimeMinister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia on October 23. DovalandWangwillholdthe 23rd round of talks between the SpecialRepresentatives.Theyare expected to discuss a range of issues to rebuild bilateral ties CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 RECOMMENDS ‘DIGI-EXAM’ SYSTEM Panel proposes LS polls template for national entrance tests: Involve states and seal centres ABHINAYA HARIGOVIND NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 17 UKRAINE KILLS RUSSIAN CHEMICAL WEAPONS CHIEF IN MOSCOW BLAST TRUMP LOSES BID TO TOSS HUSH MONEY CONVICTION PAGE 12 DRAWING PARALLELS with the conduct of general elections, a high-level committee — set up by the Education Ministry and chaired by former ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan — has proposed a similar framework for holding important national entrance tests like the NEET, CUET and UGC-NET in order to ensure transparency and efficiency. While the seven-member committee of experts, set up in June this year after the National Testing Agency (NTA) came under fire following the NEET-UG Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at a press meet, Tuesday. ANI (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Undergraduate) paperleak,submitteditsrecommendations to the Ministry of EducationinOctober,thesewere CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Meet Vijaya Vasave, the first trans woman forest guard in Maharashtra PARTHA SARATHI BISWAS PUNE, DECEMBER 17 AS VIJAYA Vasave goes about her duty as a forest guard in the remote Akkalkuwa taluka of Nandurbar district in Maharashtra, she crosses the very paths she dreaded earlier. Vasave made history last month by being the first transgender woman to be appointed by the Maharashtra government’s forestdepartmentasaforestguard. In 2023, when the state gov- Vijaya Vasave belongs to a tribal family. Express ernment had advertised for the vacancies, Vijaya was perhaps the only trans woman to apply forthepost.Whiletechnicalhurdles kept coming, Vijaya kept up her fight, not hesitating to move the High Courtif necessary. “Our recruitmentwasunderthetribal category and it went through onlyafterthetribalMLAsstarted agitating,” she said. Government recruitments were not new to her, but the present one included both physical as well as a written test. “Jalgaon-based Deepstambh CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 A last phone call from Georgia: ‘Papa spoke of a snowstorm, blackout’ PAGE 1 ANCHOR JAGDEEP SINGH DEEP, ANJU AGNIHOTRI CHABA, DIVYA GOYAL GOPAL & KAMALDEEP SINGH BRAR MOHALI, JALANDHAR, LUDHIANA, AMRITSAR, DEC 17 A 26-YEAR-OLD whose last contact with his family was at the strokeof midnightonDecember 13-14, when his mother made a video call to wish him on his birthday. A couple who were daysawayfromcelebratingtheir first wedding anniversary. A 45year-old who left home seven years ago and died without ever meeting the youngest of his three children. The 11 Indians — three of them women — who died in a restaurantintheGeorgianskiresortof Gudaurisharedanall-toofamiliar Punjab story: of hardscrabblelivesinaforeignland,of families yearning to meet them. Police in Georgia said bodies of the 11 were found on the second floor ‘sleeping area’ of a building housing Haveli, an IndianrestaurantinGudauri,120 km from Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi and a popular tourist des- tination for skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts. Reports indicate that a generator,placedintheclosed room occupied by the 11 Indians, was turnedonwhenthepowerwent out, causing a buildup of carbon monoxide. On Monday, the Indian Embassy in Tbilisi issued a statement confirming the deaths and saiditwas“workingcloselywith local authorities to facilitate the prompt repatriation of the mortal remains to India”. At Khanna town in Ludhiana district, Sameer Kumar’s father Rajesh Kumar, 54, says his 26year-old son left for Georgia Ravinder Singh and Gurwinder Kaur, a couple from Punjab’s Sunam, were among 11 Indians found dead in the restaurant around five months ago to work at the restaurant. “It was Sameer’s birthday on December 14 and his mother spoke to him at midnight on December 13 and wished him. He told her there was a heavy snowstorm and a power outage inGudauri,sotheyhadtoarrange gensets. All of them were sleepinginahallandhadshutthedoor due to the storm,” he says. Sameer’s brother Gurdeep Kumar, who works at a private firm,saidthatallof December14, they kept waiting for his reply to their messages wishing him on his birthday, but it never came. “Calls, messages... we did every- thing but all the messages remained unread. The entire day and the night passed, so on December 15, we searched online for the restaurant owner’s number — that’s how we got to knowaboutthetragedy,”hesays, adding that the family has contactedthedistrictadministration andtheembassyofficialsforhelp tobringbackSameer’sbody.“The situation at our home is extremely bad. My mother is in shock. We urge the Government of India to help us so that we can perform my brother's last rites.” Over 150 km away, at Mehma village in Punjab’s Patiala district, Amrinder Kaur’s familyismourningadoubleloss. Amrinder Kaur, 32, and her sister-in-law Maninder Kaur both died in the tragedy. Amrinder’s cousin Sukhwinder Singh told The IndianExpressthatshewouldcall herfatheronphonealmostevery day.“ShelastcalledonDecember 12. She told her father that there wasasnowstormintheareaand a power outage,” he says. Amrinder, who dropped out after Class 12, went to Georgia in 2015 to support her father, a small farmer who sold his land to arrange formoneytosendher abroad. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2