DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PATNA, PUNE, VADODARA JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 2025, KOLKATA, LATE CITY, 16 PAGES `6.00 (`12 IN NORTH EAST STATES, `20 IN ANDAMAN) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 AN INDIAN RETURNS TO SPACE AFTER 41 YEARS: ‘TIRANGA ON MY SHOULDER, ALL OF YOU WITH ME’ ‘WHAT A RIDE’ They looked and looked for answers. 42 yrs later, got a postmortem report Autopsy showed Chanderwati, of village Pipli in Haryana, was shot in head on Dec 2, 1976, when police cracked down on sterilisation protests. She does not figure in any records ABHIMANYU HAZARIKA PIPLI (SONIPAT), JUNE 25 Shubhanshu Shukla (second from left) with (from left) Hungary’s Tibor Kapu, US’s Peggy Whitson and Poland's Slawosz Uznanski-Wisniewski aboard the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft bound for the International Space Station, on Wednesday. @SpaceX via PTI Dragon carrying Shukla, 3 others to dock with ISS around 4.30 pm today AMITABH SINHA & ANONNA DUTT NEW DELHI, JUNE 25 GROUP CAPTAIN Shubhanshu Shukla embarked on the most consequential flight of his life Wednesday, taking off, along with three others, in the Axiom4 mission to the International Space Station. This makes him only the second Indian to travel to space. A fighter pilot and test pilot with the Indian Air Force, with more than 2,000 hours of flying experience, Shukla is the designated pilot for the Crew Dragon spacecraft that took off from NASA’sKennedySpaceCenterin Cape Canaveral, Florida exactly at noon India time. After a 28-hour journey throughspace,theDragonspacecraft will dock with the International Space Station around 4.30 pm India time Thursday,allowingthefourastronauts to transfer to the only permanent research laboratory in space where they will spend the nexttwoweeks,carryingoutscientificexperimentsandengaging in science outreach events. THE EDITORIAL PAGE EXPLAINED SECOND VOYAGER INDIA’S SPACE PROGRAMME:A NEW PHASE BEGINS Shukla's experience will provide critical inputs to the country's space missions, especially Gaganyaan PAGE8 EXPRESS NETWORK PAGE12 MANISH SAHU PAGE 6 BY UNNY The blank editorial in The Indian Express after the Proclamation THEEMERGENCY 50YEARSON Itsshadow—andlight AN EXPRESS SERIES INSIDE CABINET PASSES RESOLUTION TO MARK 50 YEARS OF EMERGENCY PAGE 4 THE WORLD Zohran Mamdani with parents Mahmood Mamdani and Mira Nair, and wife Rama Duwaji, in New York City. Reuters INDIAN-ORIGIN ZOHRAN MAMDANI SET TO WIN NYC’S DEMOCRATIC MAYORAL PRIMARY U.S. STRIKES FAILED TO DESTROY IRAN’S N-SITES, SAYS REPORT PAGE 10 HOURS BEFORE he became only the second Indian to go to space, Group Captain Shubhanshu Shukla had a brief conversation with his parents, who, like any parent on their child’s big day, were a mix of excitement and anxiousness. His father, Shambhu, and mother, Asha, woke up around CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Shubhanshu Shukla’s parents Shambhu Shukla and Asha Shukla in Lucknow on Wednesday. Vishal Srivastav Delhi CM Rekha Gupta is guest at Adda today NEW DELHI, JUNE 25 PAGES 5,7 MORE REPORTS BUSINESS AS USUAL LUCKNOW, JUNE 25 EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE PUNJAB VIGILANCE BUREAU ARRESTS AKALI LEADER BIKRAM MAJITHIA TWO BOARD EXAMS FOR CLASS 10 FROM NEXT YEAR, SECOND OPTIONAL: CBSE CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Raghbir Singh with his family in Pipli village. Anil Sharma CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘Papa, kar ke aata hoon, chinta na karo’: Shukla to parents before liftoff A Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Axiom-4 crew lifts off from Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A, on a mission to the International Space Station, in Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Wednesday. Reuters THE POSTMORTEM report describes a “well-built dead body”, dressed in a green shirt, yellow salwar and red dupatta, leather juttis on her feet, and a white metal kada (bracelet) each on her two wrists, with two additional glass bangles on the right. It also mentions a fracture in the skull, left by a metallic bullet. That is all that the family of Chanderwati has to go on as to what happened to the 30-yearold mother of four when police, trying to rein in protests against the Indira Gandhi government’s forced sterilisation drive, surrounded their village Pipli in Sonipat district of Haryana on December 2, 1976. For42years,thefamilydidn’t have even that, or any other record of Chanderwati’s death, only acquiring the autopsy report in 2018 after running pillar to post. Says Chanderwati’s nephew Surender Singh, 38: “We had to make several rounds of Chandigarh, put multiple complaints on the Chief Minister’s portal, and keep pushing.” FOUR MONTHS ago, Rekha Gupta was picked to lead the BJP government in Delhi, marking a return to power for the party after 27 years in the city. A threetime councillor and a first-time MLA, she is now the face of a government that has promised to make Delhi the capital that India can be proud of. On Thursday, the Chief Minister will be the guest at Express Adda in Delhi. No stranger to the city's pol- Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta itics, Gupta started out as a student leader with the ABVP in the early1990sandwentontoserve as president of the Delhi University Students’ Union in 1996-97. The Shalimar Bagh MLA entered the city’s electoral politics in2007,whenshewaselectedas a councillor in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD). She made it to MCD House twice again before being chosen as Chief Minister. In March, she announced several schemes as part of an ambitious budget estimate of Rs 1 lakh crore for the first time, big ticket announcements ranging fromacleanYamunatopotholefree roads, and more recently, regulationonprivateschoolfees. Gupta’s tenure so far has also seen an emphasis on improving road and health infrastructure, and on adopting Central schemes. With emphasis on AssociatePartners CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Bengal school scraps ‘separate’ midday meals for students of 2 communities after admin orders probe RAVIK BHATTACHARYA KOLKATA, JUNE 25 HOURSAFTERthedistrictadministration ordered a probe to look into claims that “separate” middaymealswerebeingcookedand served to students of different communitiesataprimaryschool in Purba Bardhaman district for over two decades, the school authorities ended the practice on Wednesday. Kishoriganj Manmohanpur Primary School, located in PurbasthaliIblock,nearly150km from Kolkata, has 72 students — 29 Muslims and 43 Hindus. The school has, since 2000, maintained separate kitchens and utensilsforpreparingmeals,with two cooks as well. Although mealshavebeencookedonasinglegasconnection,foodhasbeen served to students in separate classrooms on the basis of their religion. Outside the school in Purbha Bardhaman, Wednesday. Express Once the district administration learnt about the issue, a probe was ordered. “We sent an inquiryteamtotheschool.Action will be taken on the basis of the report,”saidAyeshaRani,District Magistrate, Purba Bardhaman. To address the situation, the headmaster on Wednesday held an over two-hour long meeting attheschool,whichwasattended by teachers, villagers, panchayat members, representatives of CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Kolkata