DAILY FROM: AHMEDABAD, CHANDIGARH, DELHI, JAIPUR, KOLKATA, LUCKNOW, MUMBAI, NAGPUR, PUNE, PATNA, VADODARA 132 82 BUSINESS AS USUAL BY UNNY Cooperate to bring Pahalgam terrorists, organisers to justice: Quad joint statement NEW DELHI, JULY 2 IN THEIR first meeting post Operation Sindoor, Foreign Ministers of the Quad grouping have condemned “in the strongest terms” the Pahalgam terror attack and called for the “perpetrators, organisers and financiers of this reprehensible act to be broughtto justice without any delay”. In a joint statement, they have urged all UN member countries to “cooperate actively withallrelevantauthorities” under international law. MeetinginWashingtonDCfor the second time this year, the Quad Foreign Ministers — External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian Foreign MinisterPennyWongandJapan’s Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya – also launched the Quad Critical Minerals Initiative, and an- MUMBAI, JULY 2 GMLR TWIN TUNNEL: FINAL NOD GRANTED FOR DIVERSION OF SGNP FOREST LAND TO BMC PAGE 4 SHUBHAJIT ROY NEW DELHI, JULY 2 External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar with US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, in Washington DC. PTI nounced plans to host the first Quad Indo-Pacific Logistics Network field training exercise this year. The Quad Ports of the Future Partnership will also be launchedinMumbaithisyear.The nextsummitofQuadleadersisto be hosted by India later this year. The joint statement after the meetingof theForeignMinisters did not mention the Russia- CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INDIA AND the United States have agreed to sign a new 10yeardefencepartnershipframework when Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and his US counterpart, Pete Hegseth, meet later this year, a Pentagon spokesperson has said. This was decided in a phone conversationbetweenSinghand Hegseth on Tuesday, senior US Defence spokesman Colonel Chris Devinesaid in a statement. Hegseth also met External CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 MNS workers assault 4 red lines in India-US Thane shopowner for not trade talks: Corn, dairy, speaking Marathi, booked ethanol & soyabean VALLABH OZARKAR THE CITY India and US to sign defence framework when Rajnath and Hegseth meet next SHUBHAJIT ROY A DAY after the video of a 48year-old sweet shopowner in Mumbai’s Mira Road being assaulted allegedly by a group of men affiliated to the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for not speaking Marathi went viral, senior MNS leaders on Wednesdaydefendedtheaction of the party workers. The police on Tuesday registered an FIR against seven persons on a com- plaint by the shopowner and issued notices to three of them. Meanwhile, Minister of State for Home Yogesh Kadam, while condemning the incident and urgingpeoplenottotakethelaw into their hands, said, “The government will not tolerate disrespect towards Marathi language.” According to the FIR registeredattheKashimirapolicestation in Mira-Bhayander on Tuesday, the incident occurred around 10:35 pm on June 29 at CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 HARISH DAMODARAN NEW DELHI, JULY 2 UNITEDSTATESPresidentDonald Trump has said his administration is going to sign “a very big” trade deal “to open up India”, “where we are able to go in and compete(with)muchlesstariffs”. India has maintained that agriculture and dairy are its “red lines”initsongoingnegotiations with the US. “There’s no way we could do anything that would CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 E ● The challenge OPENING UP imports of the four farm products is politically fraught: it involves farmers across several states, and calls for a relook at key policies regarding regulation around genetically modified crops. SPECIAL INTENSIVE REVISION BEFORE POLLS Bihar rolls revision will disenfranchise 2 crore voters: INDIA bloc to EC ‘It is too short a notice, people will struggle to produce papers’ ASAD REHMAN NEW DELHI, JULY 2 AMID OPPOSITION concerns over the ‘special intensive revision’ of the electoral roll in pollbound Bihar, 10 INDIA bloc parties told the Election Commission Wednesday that people will struggle to produce documents being sought for the exerciseatsuchshortnotice,and “it will disenfranchise 2-3 crore voters in the state”. The INDIA bloc delegation met Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, ElectionCommissionersSukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi in New Delhi. Briefing the media after the meeting, Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Abhishek Manu Singhvi asked whether the elections held since the last revision of voter lists in 2003 were “faulty”. “Firstly, we said the last revision was in 2003. For 22 years, four or five Bihar elections have happened. Were all those elections faulty or imperfect or unreliable?” he said, pointing out thatthe2003SIRwasheldayear before the Lok Sabha elections CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 INDIAblocleadersoutsidetheElectionCommission’sofficein NewDelhiWednesday. Amit Mehra BJP’s Bihar allies also uneasy, fear genuine voters will be left out DEEPTIMAN TIWARY NEW DELHI, JULY 2 THE BJP’S NDA allies in Bihar have publicly backed the Election Commission’s (EC) Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in the poll-bound state in the face of Opposition criticism, but there is concern among some in the ruling coalition about the exercise. Several leaders of the BJP, JD(U), and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) The Indian Express spoke to expressed doubts if the EC could complete the exercise in the short time it has on its hands without leaving out genuine voters. The revision drive began on June 25 and is set to conclude on July 25. Pointing to the levels of literacy and poverty, and a lack of access to administrative remedies in the state, the leaders said manypeople,especiallythepoor and those from marginalised CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 DGIPR/2025-26/1480 108 `5.00 ● WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM SINCE 1932 E X P L A I NE D 80 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 JOURNALISM OF COURAGE THURSDAY, JULY 3, 2025, MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES 03/07/2025 ●