DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 2025, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 20 PAGES `7.00 (`8 RAIPUR, `15 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 TRUMP DECLARED CEASEFIRE THIS DAY, 1975 Fragile truce in A 4 am call, colleagues in jail, West Asia: Iran 21-month nightmare — and and Israel trade an enduring reminder strikes, charges Thegovtpushed,andanewsroompushedback.I&BMinisterVCShuklawanted totakecontrolof The Indian Express.ButfounderRamnathGoenkafoughtback Fighting so long they don’t know what the f*** they’re doing: US President JON GAMBRELL, DAVID RISING & MELANIE LIDMAN PROOF OF PARENTS D.O.B MUST FOR SOME DUBAI, JUNE 24 US President Trump at the White House Tuesday. AP heard two loud blasts. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office acknowledged that Israel had bombed a radar site near Tehran. It said Israel had decided to refrain from further attacks following a call between Netanyahu and Trump, but did not explicitly say whether the strikeontheradarsitetookplace before or after they spoke. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FULL COVERAGE PAGE 12 People board a C-17 aircraft of the Indian Air Force, which launched evacuation missions from Jordan and Egypt to extricate Indians and citizens of friendly countries. PTI ‘Trapped between fear of war, hope that it will end dictatorship’ SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS Mohsen Makhmalbaf AS AN Iranian filmmaker, I have always tried to be a voice for peace. In my films, I have expressed my firm opposition to war. Wars come to an end, but the innocent children who were killed will never return to life. They will never have the chance to participate in the celebration of peace. But war is not the only enemy of freedom. I always stood against dictatorship as strongly asIopposedwar.Thefreedomof human beings — regardless of geography, religion, or ethnicity —hasalways beenacentralconcern for me as an artist. Unfortunately, the people of Iran today are living under the crushing weight of two simultaneous pressures: on one hand, the escalating threat of war between Israel and Iran; on the other, the ongoing, systematic repression by the Islamic Republic’s authoritarian regime. This situation has placed the Iranian people in a difficult and deeply complex position. ManyIranians fearthat awar wouldbringmassivedestruction to their country and result in the deathof countlessinnocentcivilians. Yet, at the same time, a part of society — despite their anxiety — holds a fragile hope that this crisis might finally lead to the downfall of a regime that has, for more than 40 years, stripped people of their fundamental freedom, especially women, and dragged Iran into Starting with Bihar, fresh electoral rolls: Proof of birth date for those not in 2003 list The blank editorial in The Indian Express after the Proclamation THEEMERGENCY 50YEARSON Itsshadow—andlight AN EXPRESS SERIES COOMI KAPOOR NEW DELHI, JUNE 24 I NEVER kept a diary during the Emergency, though our editor KuldipNayaradvisedreportersto make daily notes for posterity, evenifthecensorswouldnotpermit us to write of the travesty of democracy we were witnessing firsthand.Butsomeeventsareso indeliblyetchedinyourmemory, that you can recall them half a centurylaterwithgreatprecision without the help of notes. On June 26, around 4 am, I was woken by a phone call from my sister Roxna informing me that Jayaprakash Narayan, known universally as JP, and many other Opposition leaders had been arrested. Jana Sangh leader Nanaji Deshmukh, who had managed to escape thanks to a tip-off, had alerted Roxna’s husband Subramanian Swamy to leave the house. My husband Virendra Kapoor, also a journalist, rushed to the UNI news agencyofficenextdoortogetthe latest information and the names of those arrested. Hours later, Roxna rang again to tell me CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Express Archive Indira Gandhi addressing the nation from the Doordarshan studio during the Emergency Durga, dictator, democrat. How the 3 veins ran parallel in Indira Her instinct was to ‘choose order above democracy’ in situations that spelt instability. In 1959, she persuaded Nehru to dismiss the Kerala govt on similar grounds NEERJA CHOWDHURY NEW DELHI, JUNE 24 FIFTYYEARSaftertheEmergency, as fresh material and new books throwmorelightonadarkchapter in India’s history, it is still tantalising how Indira Gandhi, the central character around whom the events of the 1970s revolved, could be a “Durga” in 1971, a dictatorin1975—andevenasadictator,callforelectionsin1977,displayingademocraticstreakinher —allwithinatimespanoffive-six years. Mrs Gandhi’s opponent Atal BihariVajpayeehadhailedheras “Durga” after she helped split Pakistan to create Bangladesh, changing geo-political realities. PAGE 10 THE EDITORIAL PAGE WHEN WE REMEMBER 1975 Suhas Palshikar PAGE 11 THE IDEAS PAGE THE NEW THREATS TO DEMOCRACY John Keane PAGE 7 THE RESISTANCE How a semi-retired Jayaprakash Narayan stirred student protests into a storm PAGE 9 EXPLAINED EMERGENCY & ITS LESSONS CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Express Archive Jayaprakash Narayan’s call for Sampoorna Kranti united the Opposition in the run-up to the Proclamation of Emergency In a preemptive move, she signed a Treaty of Friendship withthethenSovietUnion(now Russia), to counter the new Pakistan-China-America axis CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 BOOK BY PM TO BE RELEASED TODAY Shah: Must keep alive Emergency memories, challenge to democracy VIKAS PATHAK NEW DELHI, JUNE 24 TARGETING THE Congress and its allies for “raising questions about democracy and the Constitution”, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, speaking in New Delhi Tuesday on the eve of 50 years of the imposition of Emergency, said it is necessary thatmemoriesof theEmergency do not fade away, so that the youth are able to recall this challenge to democracy. He said a book by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the theme would be released Home Minister Amit Shah at a programme organised on the eve of 50th anniversary of the Emergency, in New Delhi, Tuesday. PTI Wednesday. Recalling that 1.1 lakhpeople were imprisoned during the CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI, JUNE 24 PAVING THE way for a nationwide exercise, the Election Commission announced Tuesdaya“specialintensiverevision” of the electoral roll in pollbound Bihar, where all existing electors who were not on the rolls in 2003 will have to again provide documentation proving their eligibility. The enumeration form will require those electors born beforeJuly1,1987toprovideadocument establishing date and/or place of birth. Apart from that, for those born between July 1, 1987 and December 2, 2004, a date of birth and/or place proof of the mother or father will be required and for those born after December 2, 2004, date of birth proof and/or place of both parents will be needed. These categories, EC sources said, have been devised in line with the Citizenship Act, 1955. In its order issued Tuesday, theECsaiditwasempoweredby theRepresentationof thePeople E E X P L A I NE D AFRAGILEceasefirebetweenIran and Israel appeared to hold Tuesday after initially faltering, and US President Donald Trump expressed frustration with both sides,sayingtheyhavefought“for so long and so hard” that they don't know what they are doing. IsraelhadearlieraccusedIran of launching missiles into its airspace after the truce was supposed to take effect, and the Israeli finance minister vowed that “Tehran will tremble”. The Iranian military denied firing on Israel, state media reported, but explosions boomed and sirens sounded across northern Israel in the morning; an Israeli militaryofficialsaidtwoIranianmissiles were intercepted. (Reuters adds: Two witnesses reached by telephone in the Iranian capital said they Toensure integrity ● of rolls THE EC move to revise the electoral rolls in Bihar, where Assembly polls are due later this year, comes at a time when the Opposition, especially the Congress, has been raising questions about the purity of the electoral rolls in some states. The revision, the EC says, will ensure transparency and the integrity of electoral rolls. GOVT & POLITICS ECINVITES RAHUL TO DISCUSS ‘ISSUES’ LINKED TO POLLSIN MAHARASHTRA PAGE 6 Act, 1950 to direct a special intensive revision of the electoral CONTINUED ON PAGE 8 After delays, Axiom-4 with India’s Shukla set for launch today ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, JUNE 24 AFTER MULTIPLE delays, the Axiom-4 mission is now slated for launch Wednesday, according to US space agency NASA. CarryingIndia’sShubhanshu Shukla and three other astronauts, the mission is scheduled to take off from Kennedy Space Centre's Complex 39A around noonIST.Aftera28-hourjourney, thespacecraftisexpectedtodock with the International Space Station (ISS) at around 4:30 pm (IST) Thursday. The astronauts are slated to spend around 14 days on the ISS. The announcement of the new launch slot came Tuesday morning, just a day before the mission that was previously scheduled for June 22. The mission has been delayed several times since its ini- Shubhanshu Shukla with the rest of the crew. X/ SpaceX tial schedule of May 29 due to various reasons, ranging from problems in the launch vehicle and changes in pressure on ISS’ Zvezda module. The leak in Zvezdawasfirstdetectedin2019 and space agencies have been workingforyearstofixit.Repairs were carried out ahead of the Axiom-4 mission. “Because of the space station’s interconnected and interdependentsystems,NASAwants CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 The many wrong turns that led to Bhopal’s infamous right-angle bridge PAGE 1 ANCHOR ANAND MOHAN J BHOPAL, JUNE 24 A NEWLY constructed rail overbridge (ROB) in Bhopal, which made headlines for its almost 90-degreeturn,hasquicklygone frombeingthesubjectof memes tothesubjectof aninvestigation. And, as an enquiry gets underway to figure out what led to the peculiar construction, officials fromtheMadhyaPradeshPublic Works Department (PWD) and the Indian Railways appeartobe shifting blame. The 648-metre bridge in the Aishbagh area, which cost Rs 18 crore to build, was meant to eliminate long delays at railway crossings and shorten the commute for nearly three lakh people daily. KPS Rana, the engineer-inchief of the PWD, told The Indian Express that the bridge’s design was sanctioned in 2018 and was executed by a team originally from the bridge engineering department,comprisingofficialsat the assistant engineer, superintendent engineer, executive engineer, and chief engineer levels. “We have formed a committee to look into the role of these officials,” he said. Rana emphasised that the General Arrangement Drawing (GAD), a comprehensive layout plan necessary for all ROB projects, was prepared in collaboration with the Indian Railways and supervised within the PWD by the Chief Engineer (Bridges). G P Verma, the Chief Engineer (Bridges), refused to comment on the matter. Ranasaidthe"finalapproval” remained within the department of the Chief Engineer (Bridges),and“thedesigndidnot escalate to higher authorities." The rail overbridge in Bhopal with an almost 90-degree turn is now the subject of a probe. File "It was the bridge engineering departmentwhich had dealt with the design. The GAD was formulated with the help of railway officials and PWD officers. A private contractor was engaged to execute the work, and they also have a final role to execute the design in the later stages. If there had been better communication, we could have rectified the design or made an underbridge. The railway built its own ROB considering the space crunch,” he said. Rana said the project faced spatial constraints, and the issue of alignment should have been flagged earlier in the GAD for- mulation phase. “There was a lackof communication between different departments over this. If we could have got this at the reception stage itself, the Railways could have denied giving approval to the project. Then we could have worked on a redesign,” he said. Andso,thedepartmentsproceeded with the existing design, and alternatives such as an underground crossing or different alignment were not explored, Rana said. RailwaysspokespersonNaval Agarwalacknowledgedthatboth departments had coordinated duringthedesignphaseandthat Railways had raised early concerns about the alignment. “We had done our job and built our portion of the ROB as per the GAD. We had communicated to the PWD through a letter some timeagoonthedesignflaws.We did our job." Anupam Awasthi, the Chief Project Manager, declined to comment in detail, stating only that he was not involved when the GAD was prepared and suggesting that any design flaws could have been addressed via a revisionproposalat thattime."If there was an approach problem, then there could have been a CONTINUED ON PAGE 2