SATURDAY 14 SEPTEMBER 2024 www.thestatesman.com X.com/thestatesmanltd. Fb/thestatesman1875 INDIA’S NATIONAL NEWSPAPER SINCE 1818 Pages 14 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR ASSAM CM BLAMES CONG FOR VIOLENCE DURING EVICTION DRIVE SPECULATION RIFE ON YECHURY’S SUCCESSOR AS CPM GENERAL SECY P4 SENSEX 82,890.94�71.77 WEATHER Rain likely. Storms could contain frequent lightning. Maximum and minimum temperatures likely to be around 27 °C and 26 °C respectively. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max. 93 % Min: 26.3˚C SUN SETS 17:40 hrs MOON SETS 00:57 hrs TEMPERATURE P8 25,356.50�32.40 ` vs $ 83.88 THUMBNAILS A view of one arm of the bow-string arch bridge connecting the Mumbai Coastal Road to the Bandra Worli Sea Link, which will enable commuters to travel from Marine Drive to Bandra in 10 minutes, in Mumbai on Thursday. � ANI Centre decides to rename Port Blair as Sri Vijaya Puram: The Union Government on Friday decided to rename the capital of Andaman & Nicobar Islands Port Blair as "Sri Vijaya Puram”. Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Amit Shah announced this decision. In a post on ‘X’, Mr Shah said, "Inspired by the vision of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji, to free the nation from the colonial imprints, today we have decided to rename Port Blair as "Sri Vijaya Puram." s the Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in the 2021-22 Delhi excise policy case, Justice Ujjal Bhuyan in an stern message to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) said that it should not be perceived as having made the arrest in a high-handed manner and must dispel the impression that it is a ‘caged parrot’. Telling the CBI to change its perception in the public mind, Justice Bhuyan said: “In a functional democracy governed by rule of law, perception matters. Like Caesar’s wife, an investigating agency should be above board. Not so long ago, this court had castigated the CBI comparing it to a caged parrot. It is imperative that CBI dispel the notion of its being a caged parrot. Rather the perception should be that of an uncaged parrot.” Describing as “suspect”, the timing of the CBI in Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) National Convener Arvind Kejriwal waves to party workers after being released from Tihar Jail as the Supreme Court granted him bail in a corruption case registered by the CBI in the alleged excise policy scam, at the party office, in New Delhi on Friday. � ANI arresting Mr Kejriwal when he was on the verge of being released in the linked Enforcement Directorate case, Justice Bhuyan said: “When the CBI did not feel the necessity to arrest the appellant (Mr Kejriwal) for 22 long months, I fail to understand the great hurry and urgency on the part of the CBI to arrest the appellant when he was on the cusp of release in the ED case… (the) timing of the arrest of the appellant by the CBI is quite suspect.” “Every effort must be made to remove any perception that investigation was not carried out fairly and that the arrest was made in a high-handed and biased manner,” Justice Bhuyan said. While holding that Mr Kejriwal’s arrest by the CBI was legal, the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan granted him bail with conditions that include that he will not go to the Chief Minister’s office, nor go to Delhi secretariat nor sign official files. Mr Kejriwal was asked to furnish a bail bond of ‘Discovered that my father PM to attend Quad Summit being hosted was on hijacked flight in 1984,’ says S Jaishankar by Biden next week STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 13 SEPTEMBER NEW DELHI, 13 SEPTEMBER US President Joe Biden will host the fourth in-person Quad Leaders Summit in Wilmington, Delaware, on 21 September which will be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio, the White House has announced. “This will be President Biden’s first time hosting foreign leaders in Wilmington as president - a reflection of his deep personal relationships with each of the Quad Leaders, and the importance of the Quad to all of our countries,'' a press statement said. The Biden-Harris Administration has made elevating and institutionalising the Quad a top priority, from the first-ever Quad Leaders Summit at the White House in 2021 to annual Summits since then. In recent years, Quad External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday revealed that he was a very young officer who was part of the team that handled the crisis during the hijacking of an passenger aircraft in 1984, adding that his father was a passenger on that flight. Mr Jaishankar's remarks came while he was interacting with the Indian community in Geneva. Speaking about the 'IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack' Netflix web series, the External Affairs Minister said, "I haven't seen the film, so I don't want to comment. But I tell you something interesting which you may remember. In 1984, there was a hijack... I was a very young officer. I was part of the team that was dealing with it. After 3-4 hours of the hijacking, Foreign Ministers have met eight times, and Quad governments continue to meet and coordinate at all levels. The Quad Leaders Summit will focus on bolstering the strategic convergence among the four member countries, advancing their shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific region, and delivering concrete benefits for partners in the Indo-Pacific in key areas. These include health security, natural disaster response, maritime security, high-quality infrastructure, critical and emerging technology, climate and clean energy, and cybersecurity. India will host the next Quad Summit. I rang up my mother to tell her that I can't come, there's a hijacking. I discovered that my father was on that flight. The flight ended up in Dubai. Fortunately, nobody got killed but it could have ended up wrongly." He further called the incident "interesting," and said that on the one hand, he was part of the official team working to resolve the crisis, while on the other hand, he was also part of the affected families who were pressing the government for action. Rationalising GST: Popular hotelier’s apology puts FM, BJP in dock MC RAJAN CHENNAI, 13 SEPTEMBER A video, in which a popular hotelierofTamilNaduapologises to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for raising the issue of rationalising Goods and Services Tax (GST) with her at a business forum in Coimbatore, had created a political storm with parties across the spectrum castigating the BJP and the Finance Minister. Leading the charge against Mrs Sitharaman after the video was leaked on social media is Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who slammed her for humiliating the hotelier. Others followed suit, with DMK MP Ms Kanimozhi, demanding an apology from Mrs Sitharaman. The AIADMK has termed the apology as an instance of the BJP’s arrogance. The CPI, CPI (M) and VCK also targeted the finance minister. “When the owner of a small business like Annapoorna Restaurant in Coimbatore, asks our public servants for a simplified GST regime, his request is met with arrogance and disrespect. Yet, when a billionaire friend seeks to bend the rules, change the law, or acquire national assets, Modi Ji rolls out the red carpet,” Rahul Gandhi said in a post on microblogging site ‘X’. At the business forum chaired by Mrs Sitharaman on Wednesday, hotelier D Srinivasan, pleading for rationalising the GST, said: “Bun and bread have no GST, but there is 18 per cent on the cream. Customers tell us to give bun and jam separately. In Tamil Nadu, it is Sweet, Karam (hot snacks) and Coffee. While sweets and food have 5 per cent, it is 12 per cent for hot snacks. When a family comes, even the computer gets confused to bill the different rates. Even your party legislator Vanathi Srinivasan is a customer and she too has questioned it. If you increase the GST, let it be uniform across all things. It has become very difficult to run the business, madam, so please rationalise the GST.” But Mr Srinivasan, chairman of the famed Annapoorna chain of hotels, later apologised to Mrs Sitharaman, a video of which was leaked online, putting the BJP in a corner. “I do not belong to any political party. My speech had been misunderstood. Please pardon me,” the hotelier is heard saying. Clarifying about it, Vanathi Srinivasan, also BJP Mahila Morcha national president, said it was Mr Srinivasan who had sought the appointment. While she maintained that the video was not taken by the BJP, the party’s state president K Annamalai has apologised for the leak, accepting the blame. “On behalf of @BJP4TamilNadu, I sincerely apologise for the actions of our functionaries who shared a private conversation between a respected business owner and our Hon. FM,” he said on ‘X’. Rs 10,00,000 with two sureties of the like amount, to the satisfaction of the trial courts. The court also directed that he shall not make any public comments on the case, shall appear before the trial court on every date of hearing, unless granted exemption, and fully cooperate with the trial court for expeditious conclusion of the trial proceedings. Mr Kejriwal was arrested by the ED on 21 March 2024 in connection with a money laundering probe relating to alleged irregularities in the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy 2021-22. On 26 June, Mr Kejriwal was arrested by CBI in a corruption case stemming from the alleged excise policy scam while he was in judicial custody in the ED case. Mr Kejriwal had approached the apex court seeking bail and challenging a Delhi High Court order upholding his arrest by the CBI. On 12 July, the top court granted Mr Kejriwal interim bail in the ED case. But he continued to remain in custody due to his arrest by the CBI. P14 SILVER 95,000 GOLD 75,255.00 SC grants bail to Arvind Kejriwal, says arrest to frustrate bail in ED case A Full Moon on 18 September P7 ‘CBI must dispel notion of being a caged parrot’ STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 13 SEPTEMBER Min. 95 % Max: 27.8˚C SUN RISES 05:23 hrs MOON RISES 15:03 hrs NIFTY ‘INDIA WILL WIN BOTH MEN’S, WOMEN’S TITLES AT CHESS OLYMPIAD’ ‘HAR GHAR JAL WELL ON COURSE’ BRENT CRUDE (IN $) 72.26�0.83 State govt to pay ex-gratia to kin of patients who died amid docs’ strike STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE Agitating docs approach Prez Murmu KOLKATA, 13 SEPTEMBER The state government will pay Rs 2 lakh each to the families of 29 patients who died in state-run hospitals due to disruption of healthcare services owing to the strike by junior doctors. The junior doctors are on cease work demanding justice for their colleague who was raped and murdered at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on 9 August. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote in a post on microblogging site ‘X’: “It is sad and unfortunate that we have lost 29 precious lives due to disruption in health services because of long drawn cease work by junior doctors. In order to extend a helping hand to the bereaved families, state government announces a token financial relief of Rs 2 lakh to family members of each deceased person." The state government had invited the agitating junior doctors for talks to discuss their demands and bring a resolution thrice over the last three days, but the doctors have been insisting on certain preconditions that the government is not willing to meet. On Thursday evening, STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA, 13 SEPTEMBER Miss Banerjee had waited for the agitating junior doctors at Nabanna for more than two hours, but, although the doctors sent a delegation, they turned back after the state government refused to allow live-streaming of the proposed meeting. Miss Banerjee had said as the matter is lying before the Supreme Court, the discussion cannot be livestreamed. On Tuesday and Wednesday as well she had waited for them in vain. On Monday, the Supreme Court had requested the junior doctors to resume work by Tuesday, but the latter have refused to comply. Meanwhile, Trinamul Congress spokesperson Mr Kunal Ghosh alleged that the CPIM and the ultra-Left are fanning the agitation of the junior doctors. As their impasse with the state government continues, agitating junior doctors have approached President Droupadi Murmu, seeking justice over the rape and murder of a PGT doctor at RG Kar Medical College last month. The junior doctors have sent an email to Mrs Murmu in ths regard. A copy of the email has also been sent to the Vice President. A proposed meeting between the junior doctors and the state government on Thursday fell through due to disagreements over conditions including live streaming of the meeting, leaving the resolution elusive. Speculation is rife about what steps the protesting doctors will take next. The demands of the agitating doctors include the resignation of several top officials ~PoliceCommissioner Vineet Goyal, Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam, and other health department officials. (See Page 3)