FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms FREE PRESS Vol. XLII No. 246 | INDORE | THURSDAY | FEBRUARY 12, 2026 | Pages 14 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. 38281/83 www.freepressjournal.in iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: INDORE UJJAIN MONEY Sports It’s David vs Goliath story P.12 US NOW ISSUES SOFTER VERSION OF ‘FACT SHEET’ ESTD-1983 PUNE BHOPAL NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper Edit Digital arrests need swift action P.6 SME IPO boom meets stricter regulatory scrutiny, disclosures Cinema Salman, Ajay back Rajpal Yadav P.14 RAHUL GANDHI’S CHARGE | Leader of opposition finds the India-US FTA to be lopsided, says farmers will be the worst sufferers and that India’s energy security has been compromised ‘BHARAT MATA SOLD’ NEW DELHI NEW DELHI 4Continued on | P8 Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on the Centre over the interim trade deal with the United States, alleging that the government had surrendered India’s interests and “sold Bharat Mata”. Speaking during the discussion on the Union Budget, Gandhi said the deal was “onesided” and had hurt Indian farmers and several sectors, including textiles, which he claimed was “finished”. “You have sold India, you have sold our mother Bharat Mata,” he said in the House. Gandhi got an opportunity to deliver a complete speech after a week of protests during which the Opposition stalled proceedings. The protests were Map removed The Office of the United States Trade Representative (OSTR) has deleted a social media post that featured a map depicting the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir—including Pakistanoccupied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin—as part of India. The graphic, shared on the USTR’s official X (formerly Twitter) handle on February 7, was posted to highlight progress on a U.S.-India trade framework. It drew attention for aligning with India’s official cartographic position by showing Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh in full as Indian territory, without marking PoK or Aksai Chin as disputed—an approach that departs from the customary U.S. government practice. HC raps 4-yr delay in civil judge recruitment Our Staff Reporter PTI Abhishek Sharma's stomach infection poses a bigger threat to India than their World Cup opponents Namibia. The Delhi Police’s Special Cell has issued a notice to Penguin Random House India seeking clarifications over the circulation of the unpublished book of former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on social media, an official said on Wednesday. The notice served as competing claims over the status of the book, and the alleged circulation of unauthorised versions intensified, drawing the publisher, the former Army chief and senior political figures into a widening public dispute. According to police, the Special Cell has formally approached the publishing house through a notice, posing multiple queries and seeking detailed responses. “Delhi Police Special Cell has issued a notice to Penguin India. Through the notice, several questions have been asked, and responses have been sought,” a senior police officer said. 4Continued on | P8 year tax holiday to foreign companies, while leaving Indian farmers at the mercy of mechanised American farms. Gandhi said India’s energy security had also been compromised. “Now the US will decide who we will buy our oil from,” he said. 4Continued on | P8 Talk to us like equals, not like we are your servants. Now the US will decide who we will buy our oil from. Rahul Gandhi Congress Leader ment, accusing the previous regime of diluting India's position on sovereignty and security in its engagement with Pakistan. Stressing that those who want to negotiate with Pakistan at Sharm-al-Sheikh are now giving us suggestions on negotiations, Sitharaman said, "it is the Congress which sold the government, farmers, the poor and the nation. It was you who hyphenated India with Pakistan." "Kiren Rijiju said it rightly not a single person has been born till date who can sell India.” 4Continued on | P8 U NEW DELHI Abhishek sick held to decry his being stopped from speaking on India-China relations while reading from a memoir of former Army chief General MM Naravane. He alleged that through the India-US trade deal, the government had buckled on tariffs, handed over India’s data to the United States, and given a 20- F nion Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju on Wednesday said that Bharatiya Janata Party members in Lok Sabha will give a privilege notice against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi "for misleading the House and also making baseless statements". He said Rahul Gandhi, who is the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, has made useless and false allegations against the government and against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Delhi Police sends notice to Penguin NEW DELHI This is a complete surrender of the future of Indian population. PM Modi has done this because he wants to protect the BJP’s financial architecture. inance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday launched a blistering attack on Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, saying that it was the Congress-led UPA government which surrendered India's interest before international organisations including the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and "sold" the interest of poor and farmers. She said it was the Congress which not only sold the interest of the poor and farmer of this country but the country itself. Echoing sentiments of her Cabinet colleague Kiren Rijiju, the finance minister said, "Koi mai ka laal paida nahi hua jo humare desh ko bech de ya kharid le (no one has the audacity to sell or buy out India)." Sitharaman also referred to the Sharm el-Sheikh Joint State- WILL MOVE PRIVILEGE NOTICE AGAINST RAHUL, SAYS RIJIJU BHOPAL As part of 10-day ‘Shiv-Navratri Festival’ at Mahakaleshwar Temple, the presiding deity was adorned in 'Holkar Mughota' form on the sixth day in Ujjain on Wednesday FP Photo Agencies NEW DELHI Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar Ashwin Ahmad Washington has updated the India-US FTA factsheet. In the new version Washington has removed the mention of “certain pulses” as goods on which India would remove or entirely eliminate tariffs. The other notable change to the factsheet was the changing of wording from “commit” to “intends,” a significant change since it referred to the $500 billion purchase commitment that India had agreed to. The third major change was with regard to “digital taxes.” In the initial factsheet, the US said India would remove its “digital services taxes.” The updated version now says that “India committed to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules.” Much media and public speculation has viewed the US’s change in language as a key victory for India in pushing back against what many saw as worrying concessions to the United States. However, trade experts say such language is common when negotiating a bilateral trade deal. Cong sold country, not Modi: Nirmala The High Court, principal bench of Jabalpur, on Wednesday expressed disappointment over a four-year delay in civil judge recruitment in Madhya Pradesh. The court said that it has initiated coaching for SC and ST candidates at its own expense, with over 1,000 candidates already registered. It expressed regret that civil judge recruitment is running four years late despite Supreme Court directives to conduct the exams on time every year. The 2022 recruitment exam is currently embroiled in controversy. Preparations are being made for the upcoming recruitment to fill all reserved category positions. The High Court clarified that reserved vacancies will not be filled from the general category and asked the petitioner to withdraw his petition. However, the petitioner’s lawyers requested that the court issue a decision on the merits of the issues raised. The High Court directed its Examination Cell to conduct the upcoming recruitment process regularly. Senior advocates Rameshwar Singh Thakur, representing PIL petitioners, argued that due to flawed rules, not a single candidate from the Scheduled Tribe category was selected in the 2022 exam. 4Continued on | P8 ‘US used Pak worse than toilet roll’ IANS ISLAMABAD Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has made a striking admission regarding the country’s historical alignment with the United States, accusing Washington of exploiting Islamabad for its strategic interests before abandoning it once its objectives were achieved. Highlighting the fallout of the post-September 11, 2001, geopolitical shift, Asif said the price Pakistan paid for supporting the United States in its global war on terror was enormous. 4Continued on | P8 New directive on Vande Mataram PTI NEW DELHI The Union Home Ministry has directed that all six stanzas of the National Song Vande Mataram, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, shall be sung first when the National Song and the National Anthem Jan Gana Man are to be played together. On January 28, the ministry issued the first set of protocols for singing the National Song. It said the six stanzas, with a duration of 3 minutes and 10 All six stanzas to be sung before National Anthem at official functions seconds, shall be sung at official functions such as the arrival of the President, unfurling of the tricolour and speeches of governors."When the National Song and the National Anthem are sung or played, the National Song will be sung or played first," the order read. The ministry said the as- sembly where the National Song is sung shall stand in attention. "Whenever the official version of the National Song is sung or played, the audience shall stand to attention. However, when in the course of a newsreel or documentary the National Song is played as a part of the film, it is not expected of the audience to stand as standing is bound to interrupt the exhibition of the film.” 4Continued on | P8 Operation Sindoor Trump now counts 10 fighter planes downed PTI NEW YORK/WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump has once again raised his estimate of the number of planes downed during Operation Sindoor to 10, while reiterating his claim, possibly for the 80th time, that he stopped the war. The figure marks an increase from the five aircraft he had cited on July 19, 2025, to 10 planes on Tuesday. He repeated the claim that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan last year, which he said could have turned nuclear, through tariffs. “I settled eight wars. Of the eight wars, at least six were settled because of tariffs. In other words, I said, ‘if you don’t settle this war, I’m going to charge you tariffs, because I don’t want to see people getting killed,” Trump said in an interview to Fox Business Tuesday. “And they said, ‘Well, what does this have to do?’ I said, ‘you’re going to be charged’. Like India and Pakistan. It would have been a nuclear war, in my opinion. They were really going at it, 10 planes were shot down. They were going at it,” Trump said. 4Continued on | P8 MINING SANS GREEN NOD ACC Cement slapped Rs 2.30 cr penalty Our Staff Reporter BHOPAL Madhya Pradesh State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) has imposed a penalty of Rs 2,30,20,000 on ACC Cement Company for conducting excavation without obtaining environment clearance in Katni district. The penalty covers the period from 2014 to 2018. SEIAA took this decision after detailed discussion. An officer of SEIAA said the case had earlier gone to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which clarified that SEIAA had the power to impose a penalty. ACC Cement violated environmental law by mining without the required clearance. Following the NGT order, the regional office of environment, forest and climate change formed a joint committee to assess environmental damage. The committee observed that documents submitted by the project proponent (PP) showed no communication with SEIAA regarding the transfer of environment clearance until 2018, indicating negligence on the part of PP. According to available documents, the project proponent began mining at Badari mine on 31.12.2014. The 5.82-hectare mine is located among other ACC Kymore mines spanning approximately 1561.874 hectares. Mining operations were carried out for the entire area, but the smaller Badari mine was not formally amalgamated with adjoining mines. The committee also noted that six-monthly compliance reports submitted by the project proponent were incomplete, lacking information or updates on several conditions of the environment clearance. Birla steps in to fix flawed bid to oust him FP News Service MUMBAI The move by opposition parties to initiate the removal of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla ran into an early procedural hurdle after flaws were detected in the notice submitted to the Lok Sabha Secretariat. Parliamentary sources said the notice could have been rejected outright under the rules, but Birla chose instead to have the defects corrected so that the matter could be taken up at the earliest. As many as 118 opposition Members of Parliament had signed the notice, which was submitted on Tuesday afternoon to Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh. However, later in the day, the opposition withdrew the notice and submitted a revised version after it emerged that the original document contained multiple errors related to dates. 4Continued on | P19 Indian shipping baron behind Iran oil ops? Ashish Singh MUMBAI Indian security agencies have identified a common Indian operational link among the three vessels seized by the Indian Coast Guard on February 5 in the coast off Mumbai dealing in smuggled Iranian crude oil. The common link is through shared ownership and management structures connected to Jugwinder Singh Brar, an Indian national and UAE-based shipping operator. In April 2025, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Brar and his companies, including Glory International FZ-LLC and Elite Shipping & Trading, for allegedly transporting hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petroleum in violation of international sanctions. Brar could not be contacted for his comment. Officials said Brar-linked entities, including Prime Tankers LLC and Glory International FZ-LLC, operate a fleet of nearly 30 vessels involved in high-risk STS transfers of Iranian oil in waters off Iraq, Iran, the UAE, and the Gulf of Oman. Officials allege that Brar-linked “shadow fleet” tankers deployed smaller Handysize tankers to conduct high-risk STS transfers in international waters. Such transfers were allegedly used to blend Iranian crude with cargo from other origins, thereby falsifying documentation and masking the oil’s sanctioned status. A major maritime interdiction operation in the Arabian Sea, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) seized approximately 140 tonnes of suspected smuggled illicit crude oil during the interception of three United States-sanctioned, Iran-linked “shadow fleet” tankers, central investigating agency sources confirmed. 4Continued on | P8