eye THE SUNDAY EXPRESS MAGAZINE ‘I’d been hiding 35 years’ LUCKNOW,LATECITY Filmmaker Neeraj Ghaywan on navigating his identity & how empathy, kindness are what the world needs FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT JUNE1,2025 12+4PAGES,`6.00 DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, VADODARA WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM PENETRATED PAK AIR DEFENCES WITH IMPUNITY: CDS IN SINGAPORE MEET Rajeev Krishna is a 1991-batch IPS officer Rajeev Krishna takes over as officiating DGP of Uttar Pradesh EXPRESSNEWSSERVICE LUCKNOW,MAY31 THEUTTARPradeshgovernment on Saturday appointed Rajeev Krishna, a 1991-batch IPS officer, as the new officiating Director GeneralofPolice(DGP).Withthis appointment, Krishna becomes thefifthconsecutiveofficertohold the state’s top police post in an acting capacity. Hereplaces1990-batchIPSofficerPrashantKumar,whoserved as officiating DGP since February last year. Kumar retired on Saturday. Krishna, who hails from Gautam Buddh Nagar, was Director of Vigilance Establishment in the UP Police,withtheadditionalcharge of Chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh Police Recruitment and Chief of Defence Staff admits to losing aircraft, ‘rectifying’ plan to hit Pak deep ‘NO SIGN OF ANY ACTUAL HELP TO PAKISTAN FROM CHINA DURING CONFLICT’ IAF ‘FLEW ALL TYPES OF AIRCRAFT WITH ALL TYPES OF ORDNANCES ON (MAY) 10TH’ Three weeks later, CDS sheds new light on ops during hostilities RAJU GOPALAKRISHNAN & XINGHUI KOK SINGAPORE, MAY 31 INDIA SWITCHED tactics after suffering losses in the air on the firstdayof conflictwithPakistan earlier this month and established a decisive advantage before the neighbours announced a ceasefire three days later, India’s highest ranking General said Saturday. General Anil Chauhan, Chief of Defence Staff, said in an interview that India suffered initial losses in the air, but declined to give details. “Whatwasimportantis,why did these losses occur, and what we’ll do after that,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue security foruminSingapore,referringtothe Pakistani claim of downing jets. “So we rectified tactics and then went back on the 7th, 8th and 10th in large numbers to hit AMRITANAYAKDUTTA NEWDELHI,MAY31 CDSGenAnilChauhanwithCommanderof theUSIndo-Pacific Command,Admiral Samuel J Paparo, inSingapore. PTI PM: INDIA WON’T TOLERATE PROXY WARS, BULLETS WILL BE ANSWERED WITH SHELLS P5 air bases deep inside Pakistan, penetrated all their air defences with impunity, carried out precision strikes.” The Indian Air Force “flew all types of aircraft with all types of ordnances on the 10th”, he said. India’sDirectorGeneralof Air Operations, Air Marshal A K Bharti, had told a press conference earlier in the month that CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CHIEF OF Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan’s interviews to news agencies Reuters and Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue securityforuminSingapore shed new light on combat operations during OperationSindoor,going beyond the media briefingsbytheIndianArmed Forces during the hostilities. First, General Chauhan’s remark about initial losses in the air, without going into details or giving a count of aircraft lost, is the first official admission of fighter jets being downed in combat operations. Asked by Bloomberg if the Pakistani claim of downing six Indian jets was correct, the CDS said: “Absolutely incorrect.” The remarks came exactly three weeks after India and Pakistan agreed on cessation of military strikesagainsteachother. To be clear, at no point, duringandafterthehostilities, did the IAF ever deny losing any aircraft. OnMay11,adayafterthetwo militaries reached a truce, Air MarshalAKBharti,DirectorofAir CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 TO TAKE EFFECT JUNE 4 Trump doubles steel and aluminium tariffs to 50%, exporters say ‘complicates trade talks’ RAVI DUTTA MISHRA NEW DELHI, MAY 31 US PRESIDENT Donald Trump Friday announced he would double import tariffs on steel to 50 per cent, a move that was termed “unfortunate” by India’s exporters, who said this made trade talks “much more difficult and complicated”. Addressing a rally at a US steel plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania,TrumpsaidFriday, the sharp hike in tariffs on steel from 25 per cent to 50 per cent will “even further secure the steel industry in the United States”. “Nobody’s going to get ‘Will further secure steel industry in US... nobody going to get around that’ around that,” he said. Later in a social media post, Trump said, “It is my great honour to raise the tariffs on steel andaluminiumfrom25%to50%, effective Wednesday, June 4th. Our steel and aluminium industries are coming back like never before. This will be yet another BIG jolt of great news for our wonderful steel and aluminium CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 28 KILLED IN FLOODS, LANDSLIDES ACROSS N-E In Guwahati, Assam, on Saturday. At least 28 people have been killed across different states in the Northeast over the last two days as heavy rainfall battered the region with floods and landslides. PTI REPORT,PAGE7 Shift to new Central Secretariat buildings likely to start by August DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, MAY 31 ENDING A nearly-100-year stay in the case of North Block and some 60 years for Nirman Bhawan,theUnionministriesand departmentslocatedinthesetwo complexesarelikelytostartshifting to the new Common Central Secretariat (CCS) 1,2 and 3 buildingsbyAugust,TheIndianExpress has learnt. The timeline for the remaining projects is also likely to be “condensed”, with the central Krishi Bhawan is among several buildings set to be demolished. Praveen Khanna governmentworkingontenders for them, it has been learnt. The other CCS buildings are proposedtocomeupatthesiteof NirmanBhawan,ShastriBhawan, Krishi Bhawan, Udyog Bhawan andNationalMuseum,whichare expected to be demolished to make way for the new complex. Built as a part of the central government’s larger plan to redevelop the Central Vista area — which stretches from India Gate to Rashtrapati Bhavan — the CCS 1,2 and 3 buildings are nearing completion. According to governmentsources,about5%of the work is remaining in the new CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Eid on June 7, Maharashtra livestock panel calls for halt on animal markets ZEESHAN SHAIKH MUMBAI, MAY 31 WITH EID al-Adha, known commonly as Bakri Eid, just a week awayonJune7,theMaharashtra Goseva Ayog, a commission set up for welfare of indigenous cows,hasdirectedallAgriculture Produce Market Committees (APMCs)nottoholdanylivestock market from June 3 to June 8. The move has drawn flak from various quarters, including Muslim community members, who have questioned the intent No livestock market from June 3 to 8: Maharashtra Goseva Ayog. Ganesh Shirsekar behind stopping the sale of all animals, including lambs and sheep, in the whole week pre- ceding Eid. In a May 27 circular sent to all APMCs, the Goseva Ayog said in light of the upcoming Bakri Eid festival, when large-scale animal slaughter/ sacrifice is carried out, no livestock markets should be held in villages across districts fromJune3-8toensurethatnoillegal slaughter of bovines takes place. “Please stay vigilant in this matter,” it said, referencing the MaharashtraAnimalPreservation Act, which enforces a complete banontheslaughterofbovineanimals (cow progeny) in the state. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ASSAM CRACKDOWN ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS Woman ‘pushed into Bangladesh’, brought back after officials found ‘mismatch’ SUKRITA BARUAH GUWAHATI,MAY31 A WOMAN from Assam’s Golaghatdistrictwasdetainedby the police, allegedly taken to the Bangladesh border by security forces, and told to cross — before authorities realised there had been an error in her case and brought her back. RahimaBegum(50)isamong several people to have been detained in Assam in the past few weeks as part of an ongoing crackdown on people who have been declared foreigners by the state’sForeignersTribunals(FTs). According to her lawyer, a Foreigners Tribunal ruled last month that Begum’s family had entered India before March 25, 1971, the cut-off date for citizenship in Assam. On Friday, invoking a Supreme Court order, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had confirmed that the state is pushing declared foreigners Rahima Begum, 50, returned home Friday evening across the international border into Bangladesh. Begum, who returned home to her family in Golaghat’s 2 Padumoni village on Friday evening,allegedshewas“pushed into Bangladesh” with a group of people on Tuesday night. “On Sunday morning (May 25) at around 4 am, when we werestillsleeping,policecameto our home and told me to report to the police station to answer some questions. After spending the morning there, they took me to the Golaghat Superintendent of Police’s office with some others. I took my documents, and they collected our fingerprints. We were there the whole day. At night, they took us somewhere CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Law student arrested from Gurgaon home by Kolkata police over her social media post TANUSREE BOSE KOLKATA, MAY 31 THEKOLKATApoliceonFridayafternoon arrested a 22-year-old law student from her Gurgaon residenceoveranallegedlyobjectionable social media post. The woman, Sharmistha Panoli, is a student of Symbiosis International University, Pune, and has a sizeable social media following — almost 85,000 followers on X and 90,000 on Instagram. On May 14, the AIMIM’s national spokesperson, Waris Pathan, had shared a video purportedly posted by her and allegedthatshehadinsultedIslam and tried to spread communal disharmony. In his post, Pathan tagged the Home Minister and sought her arrest. On May 15, Patoli posted on X,“Idoherebytendermyunconditional apology. Whatever was putaremypersonalfeelingsand I never intentionally wanted to hurt anybody, so if anybody is hurt, I’m sorry for the same. I expect co-operation and understanding. Henceforth, I will be cautiousinmypublicpost.Again, please accept my apologies.” On Saturday, she was producedinacourtinAliporeandremanded in judicial custody until 13 June. While leaving the court, she said, “The way this harassment is being done in a democracy — this is not democracy.” According to the FIR, police received a complaint at Garden Reach police station on May 14 CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The man who secured the tiger and became its voice — with love and awe PAGE 1 ANCHOR JAYMAZOOMDAAR NEW DELHI, MAY 31 CONSERVATIONIST AND tiger chroniclerValmikThaparpassed away early this morning after a brave and tough fight with cancerathisKautilyaMargresidence in New Delhi, his family said. He wasdiagnosedwithcancerinhis digestive tract. Consideredoneoftheworld’s foremost authorities on tigers, Valmik Thapar inspired generations to rally for the cause of wildlife conservation. Averitableone-manarmy,he authored over two dozen books mostlyonbigcats,presentedseveral wildlife documentaries, including the seminal BBC series Land of the Tiger (1997), and remained the loudest — and most articulate — voice for conservation in India since the 1990s. With no formal training in wildlife biology or conservation, Thapar developed a deep understanding of tiger behaviour, as he put it, by watching wild tigers in Ranthambhoreoverfivedecades. In1976,itwasachanceencounter withFatehSinghRathore,thendirector of Ranthambhore tiger reserve,thathadhimhookedforlife. Both outspoken and often contrarian, Rathore and Thapar formedanindefatigablepartnership — until Rathore’s demise in 2011 — that influenced and, often, shaped India’s conservation efforts and policies over the decades. Thapar served in multiple apex bodies of the government, including the National Board for Wildlife and the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court. He was also a VALMIK THAPAR 1952 - 2025 member of the Tiger Task Force set up to prescribe reforms in the aftermath of the disappearance of tigers from Rajasthan’s Sariska in 2005. ThatwasalsotheyearIstarted learning the mercurial ways of India’s Tigerman. Thaparwaswarmlysupportive of my work in The Indian Express from the day I first reported the total loss of tigers in Rajasthan’s Sariska tiger reserve in January 2005. He offered me encouragement, insights and contacts, as the investigative series took me to parks across the country: Ranthambhore (Rajasthan), Panna, Kanha (Madhya Pradesh), Indrawati (Chhattisgarh), Valmiki (Bihar) andPalamu(Jharkhand)overthe next three months. In May 2005, I reported how Ranthambhore was in shambles despite attracting more money thanallothertigerreservescombined. Non-profits, including Thapar’s NGO Ranthambhore Foundation, had received a sizeable chunk of those funds. The report appeared in the morning then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Ranthambhore. Thapar was livid over what hesaidwouldbe his last phone call to me. It was a we-told-you-so moment for a couple of young conservationists who had flagged howoftenThaparusedtograndly bemoan how he failed to save “his”tigers.“Valmikisinlovewith his ego,” his critics would carp. Two months later, it was Thapar himself, back at what he loveddoing,whowouldalertme to what he perceived as a “propeople bias” in the Tiger Task Forcereportwhichobservedthat the tiger “issue is not about the tiger per se… but about rebuilding forest economies.’’ CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow