Vol. 67 No. 192 | MONDAY | MAY 13, 2024 | 24 Pages | `5 & for Pune `6 only Quality at Value www.freepressjournal.in MEMBER: AUDIT BUREAU OF CIRCULATION JANUARY TO DECEMBER 2023 EDITIONS: MUMBAI*, Pune, Nashik, Konkan, Indore, Bhopal, E-paper IS KRITI SANON DATING KABIR BAHIA? Actress talks about what she wants in an ideal partner EDIT CLOUD OVER EVMs MUST BE CLEARED ‘WITH NEIGHBOUR LIKE CHINA, WE HAVE TO LEARN TO COMPETE’ Jaishankar says boosting India’s manufacturing will help in expanding its influence globally 0 0 34 c. 30 c. Sunrise : 06:05 am Sunset : 07:05 pm CRITICAL ROUND FOR CONGRESS FPJ NEWS SERVICE / NEW DELHI It is all set for the fourth round of polling in 96 Lok Sabha constituencies across 10 states and Union Territories. According to a political analyst, it is a critical round for the Congress. One, because the BJP is not riding roughshod over the Opposition in this round; two, more seats are at stake where the BJP was a close second in 2019; also, a little over a quarter of the seats are swing seats; interestingly, out of the 21 swing seats, 11 were won by less than 1 per F or three decades, Archana Sharma has been on a mission to eliminate cervical cancer and create awareness on menstrual health and hygiene. Turn to the Mumbai page to read how she does this. THE FP BULLETIN BRIJ BHUSHAN NO TO BULLDOZERS B JP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh voiced his opposition against the Uttar Pradesh government’s “bulldozer policy” during a rally in Gonda district of the state. “I am against the bulldozer policy. It is very difficult to build a home,” he said while seeking support for his son, Karan Bhushan Singh, who is contesting on a BJP ticket from Kaiserganj. Earlier also he opposed the policy of the government and had once given a memorandum to Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Yogi Adityanath. Brij Bhushan also appealed to the Muslim community for their votes, claiming that “Muslims have also made up their minds” to support the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. ”The BJP has given the country a governance model. The country has seen the Congress model, the Left model, the coalition model and the BJPled NDA with complete majority. This is a dynamic, decisive and risk-taking government, and we are marching ahead on that. – PM Modi cent of the votes cast; three, out of the 20 strongholds (seats not lost by a party since 2009) or a fifth of the seats slated to go to polls in the fourth phase, the BJP and the opposition won 10 each. In other words, the BJP and the opposition are on an even keel. Fourth, if the Congress has to improve its national tally , it needs to win big in Telangana, which goes to poll in this round. The Congress will surely fancy its chances having swept the assembly election just six months ago. The round will seal the fate of several prominent candidates like Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Union minister Giriraj Singh, TMC’s firebrand leader Mohua Moitra and AIMIM’s Asaduddin Owaisi. Under the lens are all 17 Lok Sabha seats in Telangana, all 25 seats in Andhra Pradesh, 13 in Uttar Pradesh, five in Bihar, four in Jharkhand, eight in Madhya Pradesh, 11 in Maharashtra, four in Odisha, eight in West Bengal and one in Jammu and Kashmir. CONTD. ON NATION ANOTHER PRESTIGE FIGHT FOR PAWARS Iran gives a nuke warning to Israel FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI Another prime battle is on the cards – in Shirur, where sitting MP Amol Kolhe of the NCP (Sharad Pawar) is pitted against Shivajirao Adhalrao Patil, who is a nominee of the NCP led by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar. After Baramati, Shirur has become a sticking point beAdhalrao who contested on tween uncle and nephew undivided Shiv Sena ticket. with Ajit Pawar publicly statThe constituency comprising that he wants to ensure ing rural and urban areas the defeat of with three maHOT SEAT / SHIRUR jor Maharashactor-turned politician Kolhe. tra Industrial Development Both candidates had conCorporations (MIDC) — fronted each other in 2019 too Chakan, Ranjangaon and when Kolhe, then candidate Bhosari — houses major of undivided NCP defeated , automobile and electronic Kejriwal positions self with ‘national’ vision Says choice between “Modi ki Guarantee” and “Kejriwal ki guarantee” FPJ NEWS SERVICE / NEW DELHI Even as he denied that he is in the running for the Prime Minister’s post, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal positioned himself as a harbinger of ‘ten guarantees’ that will be taken up on warfooting, if the INDIA bloc forms government at the Centre. Significantly the guaran, tees are not just about schools and health infrastructure and providing 24&7 power supply – areas where his party has focussed in the National capital and Punjab. Rather, projecting a ‘national’ vision of a new India he has pledged to reclaim territory occupied by China – a prickly issue for the BJP which has denied it has ceded any territory to the PLA -and also promised to end the Agniveer scheme for recruit- I have to go back to jail after 20 days. If you choose ‘jhadu’ (AAP’s symbol), I won’t have to go back to jail. – Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal during a roadshow ing solders and ensure that farmers get a Minimum Support Price for their crops in line with the recommendations of the Swaminathan Commission. Addressing a press conference on Sunday the AAP , leader said people will have to choose between “Modi ki Guarantee” and “Kejriwal ki guarantee”. ‘’People have to decide whether they want to believe Modi’s or Kejriwal’s guarantees. “We have fufilled all guarantees we announced ahead of earlier elections. CONTD. ON NATION companies. Historically Shirur has , special importance as it includes places like Shivneri, the birthplace of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj; Vadhu-Tulapur, the burial place of Chhatrapati Sambhaji Maharaj; Alandi, where Dnyaneshwar Maharaj took a samadhi; CONTD. ON NATION Nijjar case: 4th arrest in Canada FPJ NEWS SERVICE / OTTAWA Canadian authorities have arrested a fourth Indian national in connection with the killing of Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a week after police arrested three Indians linked with the high-profile case that has severely strained relations between the two countries. The 45-year-old Nijjar, a Khalistani separatist who was wanted in India on various terror charges, was killed outside Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara in Surrey , British Columbia on June 18, 2023. Amandeep Singh, 22, a resident of Brampton, Surrey , and Abbotsford areas of Canada, was arrested on May 11 and has been charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Singh was already in the custody of the Peel Regional Police for unrelated firearms charges, RCMP said. CONTD. ON NATION GROUND ZERO/ANANTNAG-RAJOURI: SEAT OF DISCORD Revanna case woman says Tough going for Mehbooba Mufti she was ‘never abducted’ RASHME SEHGAL / SPECIAL TO FPJ The Anantnag-Rajouri constituency has emerged as the most crucial seat in the ongoing Jammu and Kashmir Lok Sabha elections. For one, delimitation has resulted in the bringing together of two disparate regions, the Pir Panjal Valley in the Jammu region and the Chenab Valley in the Anantnag belt. Both these regions remain cut off from each other in the winter months. Anantnag in south Kashmir is a sizeable constituency with 14 , lakh voters along with the eight lakh voters from Jammu. The majority of voters in both these regions are tribals. This is the seat responsible for creating schisms in the Gupkar Alliance because both the National Conference and the People’s Democratic Alliance insisted on putting up a candidate from here. The NC stuck to its guns and insisted on nominating its veteran tribal leader Mian Altaf Ahmed, who has never lost OUR CORRESPONDENT BENGALURU an assembly election in his entire career. Former CM Mehbooba Mufti, leader of the PDP is , from south Kashmir and for her, winning this seat is a must because she is fighting for her political survival. This battle is taking place against the backdrop of the abrogation of Article 370, followed by a major delimitation exercise which most Kashmiris believe was undertaken to favour BJP’s core constituency of Jammu. CONTD. ON NATION In a fresh turn of events to the Prajwal Revanna sex tapes, a video of a kidnapped woman has surfaced saying that she was never kidnapped by anyone. The 2-minute 31second video, which was selectively leaked to media, is said to have been shot when the victim was in the custody of ‘kidnappers’ at a farmhouse in Kalenahalli in Hunsur taluk in Mysuru. But the woman never mentions where she is staying or stayed when the video was shot. In the videos, shot in the backdrop of a bed sheet shown as a curtain, the woman says that she came on her own. ``I came here on my own. No one, Revanna, Bhavani or Satish Babanna (the one who is accused of taking her from her home in KR Nagar) did anything. I came here on my own. We are simple people making our living by working as farmhand. Revanna and others have always taken care of us. I don’t know anything about Prajwal’s videos. CONTD. ON NATION LAST WORD Harry slips into a transgender row again ONLINE REPORT / LONDON Harry Potter author JK Rowling has climbed down after taking potshots at a transgender football manager, Lucy Clarke. Responding to LGBTQ+ charity Pride on X, which was hailing Clarke’s achievement of becoming the first transgender manager in the top five divisions of English Women’s football, Rowling had initially said: “When I was young all the football managers were straight, white, middle-aged blokes, so it’s fantastic to see how much things have changed”. Upon receiving brickbats, the author said that she did not liken the football manager to a “straight, white, middle-aged bloke”, but that “he IS one”. She further defended her remarks. “Calling a man a man is not ‘bullying.’ Rowling was at the receiving end in 2018, too, after she ‘liked’ a tweet describing trans women as ‘men in dresses’. Her spokesperson at the time said the ‘like’ was a ‘mistake’, calling it a ‘clumsy middle-aged moment’. The writer has since become a campaigner of what she de- Lucy Clark, the world’s first transgender referee, has become first transgender manager in women’s football scribes as women’s rights - fuelled by her own experiences of domestic abuse - in the face of pro-trans causes. So, she has opposed a new legislation in Scotland seeking to make it easier for trans people to change their legal gender. She has also insisted biologically male trans women should not be allowed in women’s spaces nor allowed to take part in women’s sports. Rowling has, however, denied accusations she is ‘transphobic’. Her views have also brought her into conflict with some of the stars of the Harry Potter films based on her books - including Daniel Radcliffe, who played Harry and Emma Wat, son who appeared in the CONTD. ON NATION movies as FPJ NEWS SERVICE / MUMBAI Iran could change its nuclear doctrine if Israel threatens its existence, Kamal Kharrazi, the adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said. “We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kharrazi said. The comment has raised concern about escalation of tension in the Middle East amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. Iran has always said it has no plans to obtain nuclear weapons though Western governments have long suspected that Tehran wants to obtain a nuclear bomb. Khamenei, who has the final say in Tehran’s nuclear program, banned the development of nuclear weapons by a fatwa, or religious edict, in the early 2000s. However, Kharrazi said, “In the case of an attack on our nuclear facilities by the Zionist regime, our deterrence will change.” In April, during a tense stand-off with Israel, a senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards said that threats from Israel might lead Iran to reconsider its nuclear doctrine. In 2022, the adviser said Iran had the technical capability to build a nuclear bomb but had not come to a decision on whether or not to proceed with it. CONTD. ON NATION TAILPIECE EX-PACER ON ‘RACIAL SWIPE’ HE HAS FACED F ormer India cricketer S Sreesanth, member of India’s 2007 T20 World Cup and 2011 ODI World Cupwinning teams, has made a big revelation on racial undertones in cricket. The ex-India pacer, whose place of birth is Kerala, revealed that he was called a ‘Madrasi’ all his life. It is worth noting that ‘Madrasi’ is an ethnic swipe for the natives of south India, mainly Tamil Nadu. “ my All life I have been.... I can say it. I have been hearing it from the time I was playing Under-13 to Under-14 to Under-16 to Under-19. Then we had the Kochi (Tuskers Kerala) team and it was like playing for the country again,” said Sreesanth on ‘The Ranveer Show.’ PoK veering out of Pak control? FPJ NEWS SERVICE ISLAMABAD In a clear indication that Pakistan could be losing its grip on the territory it has illegally occupied for decades, one police officer was killed and more than 100 others, mostly policemen, injured in violent clashes between security forces and protesters in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, media reports said on Sunday . The protests, which were initially against high prices of wheat flour and electricity , have fanned out and turned into a human rights issue with the death of two minor girls. The two girls died after being baton-charged and exposed to tear gas. The ham-handed manner in which the agitation has been handled by the district administration has fuelled it further; the wrath of the locals in the ten districts of PoK has turned on the local officials, CONTD. ON P11