NEW DELHI 21 DECEMBER 2025 SUNDAY `12 PAGES 24  facebook/TheMorningStandard  X.com/TheMornStandard The dark underbelly of the sunshine state https://epaper.morningstandard.in As You Like Eat PLUS: 12 PAGES MAGAZINE The Remains of the Day EXCLUSIVE VOICES GO GOA GONE Devdutt Pattanaik Prabhu Chawla Ravi Shankar Santwana Bhattacharya Neha Sinha Shankkar Aiyar Shampa Dhar-Kamath The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind Not the Usual PR Story Faith can Conquer Fear ‘Maha jungle raj’ in NEW BALANCE AS GILL DROPPED, KISHAN IN Bengal, says Modi @ Chennai IT was a story of two players. Ishan Kishan until Thursday was playing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy scoring runs for Jharkhand including a hundred in the final. Closer to the India team, Shubman Gill, who has had a forgettable T20I season, was the vice captain. Little did the two know that their fortunes would take different course on Saturday when the India team for the all-important T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka was announced. Kishan, who was out of favour for two years found his way back into the team. Of course, it was all because of his tremendous form in recent months. On the other hand, contrary to belief, newly-appointed captain of the Test and One-day teams, did not find a place in the 15 despite he being with the India set-up during the South Africa T20I series until Friday . If Kishan was a natural selection, there were murmurs about Gill’s exclusion. There were multiple indications that suggested Gill was not informed of the decision until Saturday. With pressure piling on Gill and captain Suryakumar Yadav for their lack of runs, team management seem to have decided to take the harsh decision for the World Cup. Chief selector Ajit Agarkar said that the call was taken to accommodate keeper-batter at the toporder. “At the end of the day , you are looking to see what are the best combinations or different options that you can get as a squad to give you the best chance of doing well in the World Cup. Whether it is decided today, yesterday, one week earlier, it doesn’t really matter. Hopefully, we get it right come the World Cup,” Agarkar said in Mumbai. For Kishan, even he could be back up for Sanju, call-up comes as a timely boost. After being dropped rather unceremoniously in late 2023 when he asked for a break due to mental fatigue, Kishan lost the central contract before going back to domestic cricket. He learnt to remain patient and calm. “Before every match in the SMAT, we used to have a video chat. It was more about mental things. Before the tournament started, I told him that this is his chance to impress the selectors. He not only did that but forced them to include him in the team,” Kish a n’s c o a c h U t t a m P11 Mazumdar said. He’s a terrific player. It’s just that the situation is such that we need a keeper to back up the order — Captain Suryakumar Yadav on Gill 22 weather stations in ‘severe’ zone, first cold wave day in city I F R A H M U F T I @ New Delhi B’DESH 10 HELD FOR HINDU MAN’S LYNCHING Ten people have been arrested in connection with the lynching of Dipu Chandra Das (25) in Mymensingh, said government officials | P9 DELHI continued to grapple with severe air pollution and dense fog on Saturday as well, with more than half of the city’s air quality monitoring stations recording alarming levels. At the same time, the city experienced its first cold wave of the season, with two of its five monitoring stations— Safdarjung and Palam—recording cold wave conditions. Out of 39 monitoring stations, 22 reported an air quality index (AQI) above 400, placing them in the “severe” category . Areas such as Chandni Chowk with an AQI reading of 465, Rohini at 462, Wazirpur at 455, Anand Vihar at 451, and Punjabi Bagh at 440 were reported to be the worst affected, highlighting that “severe” pollution was a city-wide phenomenon. The average AQI of the past 24 hours on Saturday was 398. Along with severe air pollution, weather condition became bad on Saturday The minimum . temperature dipped to 6.10 Celsius. The foggy conditions, combined with patches of cloud cover, continued to persist until afternoon. The India Meteoro- People listening to Narendra Modi speaking virtually in Nadia district | PTI S U B H E N D U M A I T I & P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Kolkata/ Guwahati PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal, likening it to Bihar’s past lawlessness and calling it a “maha jungle raj”. Virtually addressing a gathering at Taherpur in Nadia district, one of the Matua-dominated belts in the state, over phone from the Kolkata airport as his helicopter could not land there due to dense fog, Modi hit out at the alleged corruption, nepotism and politics of appeasement by the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state. “Because of the state government’s cut-money and commission culture, people of Bengal are being deprived of development schemes worth thousands of crores,” he alleged. Positive development in the state can happen if the BJP gets to form a double-engine government. “Give us chance to do so,” he urged the gathering. Citing the recent elections in Bihar, he said the massive win of the BJP-led NDA in the state will open the road for victory of the BJP in Bengal in the coming assembly polls, adding, “Maha jungle raj will come to an end with formation of BJP government in the state.” Modi was scheduled to inaugurate the 66.7-km four-laning of the Barajaguli–Krishnanagar section of NH-34 in Nadia district and lay the foundation stone for a 17.6-km four-laning of the Barasat–Barajaguli section in North 24-Parganas. In Guwahati, Modi launched a scathing attack on the Congress for speaking up in defence of the “infiltrators” (illegal migrants) by criticising the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls. Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the new terminal building of Lokpriya Gopinath Bardoloi International Airport in Guwahati, he said the government was working to stop infiltration and identify the infiltrators but the Congress and INDIA bloc parties openly adopt “anti-national agendas”. “The Supreme Court also spoke about removing the infiltrators but they (Opposition) are giving statements in defence of the infiltrators,” he alleged. “Such people will not protect Assamese interests. They will allow others to occupy your land a n d fo re s t s, ” Modi warned. Infiltrators are blessed by the TMC. The ruling party is opposing SIR to save the infiltrators. You (TMC) give go back slogans against the infiltrators not against me Narendra Modi Will serve Matuas, says PM “I assure every Matua and Namasudra family that we will always serve them. They are not here at the mercy of TMC,” Modi said. A section of the Matuas are upset as their names do not figure in West Bengal’s draft electoral rolls after SIR Sonia Gandhi vows to fight against the ‘black law’ | PTI Govt bulldozed MGNREGA, says Sonia Gandhi P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi ACCUSING the Narendra Modi government of bulldozing the MGNREGA, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday asserted that the party would fight against the “black law” that seeks to repeal the job guarantee scheme. Both Houses of Parliament passed the VB–G Ram G Bill on Thursday that seeks to replace the two-decades-old MGNREGA. The Opposition has urged the government to send the new bill to a standing committee, saying that it’s a “conditional, centrally controlled scheme stacked against states and workers”. In a video message, Gandhi said that the Centre has altered the structure of MGNREGA without any consultation, discussion or taking the Opposition into confidence, and even removed Mahatma Gandhi’s name, undermining the spirit and intent of the landmark legislation. “Twenty years ago, I fought to secure the right to employment for the poor. Today too, I am fully committed to this struggle,” she said. She alleged that decisions on who will get employment, where and how, will now be taken centrally from Delhi, ignoring ground realities and weakening the role of the gram panchayats. By weakening MGNREGA, the Modi government had attacked the interests of millions of farmers, labourers, and landless people, she said. “It is a matter of great regret that just recently, the government ran a bulldozer over MGNREGA,” the Congress leader said. Asserting that MGNREGA was never a party-centric initiative but a programme rooted in national and public interest, she said that diluting the law amounts to an assault on crores of farmers, workers and landless rural poor. Speeding Rajdhani mows down herd of seven elephants in Assam district A man walks amid dense fog while visibility plunges across several parts of Delhi on Saturday morning | PTI | P3 logical Department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for fog for Sunday and Monday indicating , continued adverse weather. Dense fog induced low visibility significantly impacted air travel, with the IGIA seeing 129 cancellations on Saturday . The Delhi International Airport Ltd said it banked on low visibility procedures for landings and advised travelers to check with their respective airlines for scheduling changes. P R E E T H A N A I R @ New Delhi THIS NEWSPAPER REPORTED ON DECEMBER 20, 2025 os in the Lok Sabha on ‘X’, Rijiju said, “See this! How many times will you keep lying in the name of Jawaharlal Nehru ji? Keep quiet if you are not aware STRUGGLE TO CONTINUE Slams Congress in Guwahati for ‘defending infiltrators’ P R A S A N TA M A Z U M D A R @ Guwahati THE Sairang-New Delhi Rajdhani Express rammed into a herd of wild elephants in Assam in the early hours of Saturday, killing seven and injuring a calf in Assam’s Hojai district early Saturday . Five coaches of the train got derailed, but there were no human casualties. The accident occurred near a paddy field in the JamunamukhKampur section under Lumding Division of Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), about 126 km east of Guwahati. The train connects Mizo- Political slugfest over pollution debate continues THE political sparring over air pollution in Delhi escalated on Saturday after a proposed parliamentary debate on the issue was dropped, sparking a fresh war of words between the government and the Opposition. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju blamed the Congress for the cancellation by sharing a video of disruptions in the Lok Sabha during the passage of the VB-RAM-G Bill, the Opposition accused the government of lacking the intent to hold the discussion, arguing it could have been scheduled for December 19. Posting the video clip of cha- AMMA SPEAKS Philadelphia’s Mosaic Magic T20 WORLD CUP TEAM FIROZ MIRZA/GOMESH S ‘I will Not Shut Up... I’ll Convince You’ of Parliament rules. The Speaker adjourned the House due to unruly conduct of Congress MPs. He called the House again only for Vande Mataram.” Countering Rijiju, Congress MP Manickam Tagore called it a “lie” and said that the government lacked the “intent to run the House”. In a post on ‘X’, he said that if the government was serious about conducting the debate, they would have ensured the House functioned smoothly to allow the debate. Tagore wrote: “Please see the timestamp in the video—it is 1:22 PM on 18 December. The VBGRA Bill was passed in the LS when the House was not in order. Air pollution was listed next. If you were sincere, you should have allowed the pollution debate after lunch or on 19 December at 11 AM. The intention was clearly not there...” A dead jumbo at the accident site in Hojai district of Assam | PTI ram’s Sairang (near Aizawl) to the Anand Vihar Terminal in Delhi. NFR said passengers from affected coaches were shifted to vacant berths in other coaches. After detaching the affected coaches, the train proceeded to Guwahati. “The incident was outside an elephant corridor. The loco pilot applied emergency brakes, but the elephants collided with the train,” NFR said. Helpline numbers (03612731621/2731622/2731623) were activated as senior officials rushed to the site. Restoration work was underway, with several trains cancelled or shortterminated. Locals said one dead elephant was pregnant. Dulu Borah of Hati Bondhu, an NGO, said an early warning system could have averted the tragedy . EXPRESS READ Lt Col held in bribery case, over `2 cr seized The CBI on Saturday arrested Lt Col Deepak Kumar Sharma, posted in the Department of Defence Production under the Ministry of Defence, for allegedly taking `3 lakh in bribe from a Bengaluru-based company, officials said. During searches at the premises of Sharma, the CBI seized `2.23 crore cash. | P7 Court orders Michel’s release in ED case A Delhi court on Saturday ordered the release of Christian James Michel from custody in a money laundering case filed by the ED related to the alleged AgustaWestland VVIP chopper scam. He, however, will remain in jail as he is also an accused in a separate corruption case filed by the CBI in the matter. | P3 PMO issues directives to revamp PhD programmes The PMO has issued directives to the secretaries to re-examine selection of guides for doctoral degree and start commercialisation of defence sector innovations. Outlining a restructuring of research protocols, the directives said: “The method of selection of guides for doctoral degree may be re-examined and possibilities of selection through identified parameters may be explored.” | P7 5 convicted in ’16 Bulandshahr gang-rape case E X P R E SS N E WS S E R V I C E @ New Delhi NEARLY a decade after a horrific crime of gang-rape and dacoity shook the nation, a Bulandshahr court convicted all the five accused in the case on Saturday . The case involved six members of a Noida family, who were travelling to Shahjahanpur in UP through the national highway that passes through Bulandshahr. Their car was stopped by the accused near Dostpur village. They had dragged out a 13-year-old girl and her mother from the car at gunpoint and gang-raped them in a nearby field. The accused had also looted cash and jewellery from the family . The special judge at the Bulandshahr court held all five accused—identified as Juber, Sajid, Dharamvir, Naresh, and Sunil Kumar—guilty of gangrape. The court will pronounce the sentence on Monday . The case was investigated by the CBI after the Allahabad High Court transferred it to the agency from police. The CBI filed the first chargesheet in the case in November 2016 and supplemented it with another one in April 2018. The gang-rape survivors and other family members identified the accused after they were shown 50 photographs of criminals operating in the area. One accused had died in judicial custody during the pendency of the trial.