Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR WHY SOUTH KOREA’S DEMOCRATS MUST WORRY FM REJECTS K’TAKA GOVT CHARGE OF FISCAL BIAS FORMER IAF CHIEF RKS BHADAURIA JOINS BJP P7 P4 P5 INDIA bloc to hold huge rally on 31 Mar in Delhi RR DEFEAT LSG BY 20 RUNS ON HOME TURF P12 CELEBRATION OF COLOURS Leaders urge citizens to unite & amplify their voices in defense of democracy STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 24 MARCH T WEATHER Partly cloudy sky. Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 34 °C and 26 °C respectively. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 91 % TEMPERATURE Max: 33.6°C (-1) SUN RISES 05:37 hrs MOON RISES 17:8 hrs he INDIA bloc will hold a "massive" rally at the Ramlila Maidan here on 31st March for “the protection of democracy and democratic institutions, which are being crushed and subjugated by the BJP government at the Centre, through authoritarian methods", said senior leaders of AAP and Delhi unit of Congress on Sunday. They also called upon citizens to "unite and amplify their voices in defense of democracy". The announcement comes in the wake of the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Delhi liquor policy case. Addressing a joint Press conference along with the top leaders of the Delhi Con- Min. 37 % Min: 25.5°C (+1) SUN SETS 17:49 hrs MOON SETS 05:4 hrs Full Moon on 25 March 35 Somalian pirates apprehended by Navy remanded to 10-day police custody: A Mumd bai court has remanded the 35 Somalian pirates apprehended by the Indian Navy to 10 days of police custody on Sunday. Indian Navy's warship INS Kolkata nabbed the pirates after a 40-hour-long operation that commenced on 15 March. Delhi ministers and AAP leaders Atishi Singh, Gopal Rai and Saurabh Bharadwaj with Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh Lovely and others during a Press conference of INDIA leaders, in the Capital on Sunday.  SNS gress, Delhi minister and senior AAP leader Gopal Rai said: “The way the Prime Minister of the country, employing full authoritarianism, has killed democracy in this country, by arresting Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, the anger within all the people who love the Constitution, love democracy, who love the constitutional institutions of this country, is palpable." Attacking Prime Minister Modi, Mr Rai, who is also the AAP Delhi state convenor said: “It's not just about Arvind Kejriwal. The way the Prime Minister is misusing agencies, conspiring, trading MLAs, intimidating people, either buying off or threatening the entire opposition with money or by threatening them with the ED and the CBI to join their party, is enraging everyone. Against all those opposition leaders who are neither ready to be sold nor ready to bow down, nor stop, there is a conspiracy to arrest them by fabricating false cases." Mr Rai further said: "Before the arrest of CM Kejriwal, we have seen how the CM of Jharkhand was arrested there." “If this country remains silent, then today if a CM can be arrested publicly, who will raise their voice after the elections? If the account of such an old party like Congress can be frozen, then every business person who does not donate to them (BJP) will have their accounts seized forcibly. They (BJP) will seize the account of every citizen of this country. Anyone who dares to speak against them will be thrown into jail. It is necessary to raise voice against this dictatorship,” he said. ‘Certain that PoK will itself merge with India' AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 24 MARCH Defence minister Rajnath Singh said that the people of PakistanOccupied Kashmir (PoK) are themselves raising the demand for a merger with India and expressed confidence that eventually, the people of PoK will merge with India. He made the remarks during a programme on a television news channel. Asked about Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's recent remarks about Kashmir, Mr Singh said, "Can they ever take Defence Minister Rajnath Singh celebrates the Holi festival with Armed Forces personnel, at Leh Military Station.  SNS Kashmir? They should be worried about Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. I had said almost one and a half years ago that there will be no need for us to attack and occupy, because a situation is developing there that people of PoK themselves are demanding merger with India." Asked whether the government was making any plan, he responded, "I will not say anything more, I should not. We are not going to attack any country. India has a character of never attacking any country in the world, nor has it occupied an inch of other's territory. But PoK was ours, PoK is ours, and I am confident that PoK will itself merge with India." Asked what if China attacks India, Rajnath Singh said, "God should give them the good sense not to commit such mistakes. India has a character of never attacking any country, but if any country attacks us, we do not spare them. But the truth is that if anyone asks us, we have good relations with all our neighbours."On Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's allegation that China has occupied nearly 2,000 square kilometres of India's territory, he expressed sadness over his remarks and stated that he does not want to remind him about the activities China did in 1962. Mr Singh on Sunday celebrated Holi with Indian troops in Leh. The minister applied ‘tika’ on the forehead of soldiers at the military station. He was accompanied by the Army chief, General Manoj Pande and GOC of the Fire and Fury Corps, Lt. General Rashim Bali. Mr Singh was scheduled to celebrate Holi with soldiers at the world’s highest battlefield, Siachen, but due to bad weather he was unable to proceed beyond Leh. ‘Pak seriously considering reviving trade with India’ AGENCIES LONDON, 24 MARCH Pakistan's newly elected Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has expressed "serious intent" of his government to reconsider trade relations with India, a move that would be a pivotal change of policy and position since August 2019, when Islamabad suspended its trade relations in response to New Delhi's decision to abrogate Articles 370 and 35A and revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistani Foreign Minister's significant statement regarding relations with India came during a press conference in London, where he is present to attend the Nuclear Energy Summit. Mr Dar highlighted the keen interest of Pakistan's business community in the revival of trade with India, hinting towards Islamabad's potential and major shift of diplomatic policy and stance towards its arch-rival and neighbour India. "We will seriously look into matters of trade with India," he said while answering a question on Pakistan-India relations. Mr Dar's statement seems to be part of the newly formed government's five-year road map focused on opening economic corridors of trade and business with neighbouring countries including India and paving the way towards economic revival for Pakistan. Chandrayaan-3landing site now officially ‘Shiva Shakti’ AGENCIES BENGALURU, 24 MARCH The International Astronomical Union (IAU) has approved 'Shiva Shakti' as the name of the Chandrayaan3 landing site on the moon. The approval came on 19 March after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement following the success of the mission on 26 August 2023. “IAU working group for Planetary System Nomenclature has approved the name station 'Shiv Shakti' for the landing site of Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander,” the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature, which provides detailed information about planetary names by International Astronomical Union, said. The announcement defined the origin of the name as a “compound word from Indian mythology that depicts masculine (Shiva) and feminine (Shakti) duality of nature; Landing site of Chandrayaan-3's Vikram Lander.” On 28 August 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at ISRO announced that the landing point of the Chandrayaan3 Mission would be known as “Shiv Shakti Point”. CMYK Women dance during Basanta Utsav celebrations ahead of the Holi festival, in Kolkata on Sunday.  ANI Kangana Ranaut, Arun Govil, Naveen Jindal in BJP’s fifth LS list STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 24 MARCH Actors Kangana Ranaut and Arun Govil, industrialist Naveen Jindal, and BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra figure in the fifth list of 111 candidates announced by the BJP on Sunday evening for the Lok Sabha elections. The list was released after a meeting of the BJP's Central Election Committee (CEC) on Saturday. The BJP today named its candidates for the Lok Sabha seats from 17 states ~ Uttar Pradesh (13), Bihar (17), Odisha (18), Rajasthan (7), Haryana (4), Maharashtra (3), West Bengal (39), Kerala (4), Karnataka (4), Goa (1), Gujarat (6), Himachal Pradesh (2), Jharkhand (3), Mizoram (1), Sikkim (1),Telangana (2), and Andhra Pradesh (6). Actor Kangana Ranaut has been fielded from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi. Former Calcutta HC judge Abhijit Gangopadhyay, who quit the Bench recently and joined the BJP, has been fielded from Tamluk seat. Arun Govil, who played the character of Lord Ram in Ramanand Sagar's Ramayan has been fielded from Uttar Pradesh's Meerut. Maneka Gandhi will contest from UP's Sultanpur, but her son, sitting MP Varun Gandhi, has been denied a ticket from Pilibhit and Jitin Prasad fielded in his place. Former Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal, who joined the BJP on Sunday, will contest from Haryana's Kurukshetra. Sambit Patra will contest from Puri of Odisha. Former Calcutta High Court judge Abhijit Gangopa- dhyay, who quit the Bench recently and joined the BJP , has been fielded from West Bengal's Tamluk seat. Other candidates include Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Odisha's Sambalpur, former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar, Andhra Pradesh unit chief D Purandeswari from Rajahmundry, and former Andhra CM Kiran Kumar Reddy, who quit the Congress, from Rajampet. In Bihar, the BJP has fielded Union ministers R.K Singh from Arrah, Nityanand Rai from Ujiarpur, and Giriraj Singh from Begusarai. Former Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad from Patna Sahib, Rajiv Pratap Rudy from Saran, Radha Mohan Singh from Purvi Champaran, and Ram Kripal Yadav from Pataliputra also figure in the list. JMM's Sita Soren, who recently joined the BJP , has been fielded from Dumka.