FOLLOW US: @TheStatesmanLtd @thestatesmanltd thestatesman1875 www.thestatesman.com People’s Parliament, Always in Session India’s National Newspaper since 1818 | Pages 12 | ` 5.00 | KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | MUMBAI | BHUBANESWAR | LUCKNOW | SILIGURI 5 elusive Maoist leaders hold key to meeting 31 Mar target Sri Lanka v Oman Nepal v Italy India v Namibia BRIEFLY Ritu Tawde is Mumbai Mayor: Mumbai: BJP's three-time corporator Ritu Tawde from Ghatkopar West was elected unopposed as the Mayor of Mumbai's civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), on Wednesday, ending the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena's 25-year reign over the richest civic body in India since 1997. The Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena's Sanjay Ghadi was also elected unopposed as Deputy Mayor. Page 5 Page 4 Centre committed to fiscal Centre ‘sold Bharat Mata’, federalism, job creation: FM Rahul Gandhi alleges STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE New Delhi, 11 February U nion Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday responded to the discussion on the Union Budget 2026, stressing the Centre’s commitment to fiscal federalism, infrastructure expansion, employment generation and support for emerging sectors. Citing the 16th Finance Commission, Mrs Sitharaman said the Commission had analysed the devolution of funds from 2018 to 2023 and concluded that the Centre’s transfers to states during each of those years exactly matched the Commission’s recommendations. She also said that a 41 per cent share of taxes is devolved to the states. In the coming year, the states’ share is estimated at Rs 25.44 lakh crore, an increase of Rs 2.7 lakh crore from last year. “On White House revises key terms in India trade deal fact sheet STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE New Delhi, 11 February A day after the White House released an official ‘fact sheet’ on the India-US trade deal, Washington has quietly revised the wording and certain terms, altering key language on market access and purchase commitments. Among the key changes, the phrase stating that India “commits” to buy over US 500 billion worth of US products has been softened to “intends to buy”, removing any binding implication. Days after India and the USA unveiled a framework for a mutually beneficial trade agreement, the White House on Tuesday released a factsheet outlining the key terms of the pact. The document stated that India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a broad range of Page 12 NATION Action prevents tragedy To ay’s Today’sMatches T20 WC: South Africa survive Afghan scare in double Super-Over thriller Page 5 Stalin dismisses power-sharing talk, denies rift with Congress Page 6 Thursday, 12 February 2026 SPORTS NATION EDITORIAL PAGE | American food and agricultural products. In its initial version, the fact sheet stated: “India committed to buy more American products and purchase over $500 billion of US energy, information and communication technology, agricultural, coal, and other products." The updated version says India “intends” to buy more American products. It also omits the term “agricultural” from the list of product categories. The earlier version also stated: “India will eliminate or reduce tariffs on all US industrial goods and a wide range of US food and agricultural products, including dried distillers’ grains (DDGs), red sorghum, tree nuts, fresh and processed fruit, certain pulses, soybean oil, wine and spirits, and additional products”. The revised version drops the reference to “certain pulses” from the list. the recommendation of state Finance Ministers, capital expenditure loans for 50 years are increased to Rs 2 lakh crore for SASKI. While the Centre’s capex stands at Rs 12 lakh crore, in effect, with States and UTs, it rises to Rs 17.1 lakh crore,” the Finance Minister said. “We are willing to work with states for mega textile parks, particularly looking at industrial textiles, which are going to be 'new age', which are now becoming a part of manufacturing sector,” she said. Mrs Sitharaman also reiterated that the Budget places strong emphasis on animal husbandry, farming and fisheries, stressing the government's commitment to strengthening rural and agricultural sectors. Speaking about new employment opportunities for the youth, the Finance Minister said that five Regional Medical Hubs will be developed to promote medical tourism, VIBHA SHARMA New Delhi, 11 February which alone is expected to generate one lakh jobs over the next five years. She also said five large Textile-to-Leather Parks will be established. On infrastructure development, Mrs Sitharaman said: “It's not just roads, it's not just national highways. We are also looking at waterways, so that the cost of logistics may come down and states which are not connected to sea ports will have advantage of moving goods faster at a lesser cost.” In her reply to the debate, Mrs Sitharaman also launched a sharp counterattack on Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who had claimed that the government had sold out India through the trade agreement with the USA, alleging that the then Congress government had “sold out farmers” through its 2013 agreement at the World Trade Organization (WTO). PM condoles deaths in shooting incident at school in Canada’s British Columbia STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE New Delhi, 11 February Expressing grief over the shooting incident at a school in Canada's British Columbia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday offered his condolences to the families who lost their loved ones while wishing speedy recovery to those who were injured. Mr Modi conveyed his heartfelt condolences to his Canadian counterpart Mark Carney following the mass shooting in the Nor th American country's Tumbler Ridge area in British Columbia that left 10 dead, including the suspect. In a post on X, PM Modi said: “Deeply shocked by the horrendous shooting in Canada. I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families who have lost their loved ones and wish a speedy recovery to the injured. India stands in solidarity with the people of Canada in this moment of profound grief.” According to a release by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), a total of nine people were killed by the suspect, who was found dead in "what appears to be a self-inflicted injury." The police stated that the incident took place on Tuesday afternoon at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. Authorities confirmed that six victims were found dead inside the school, while another succumbed to injuries during transport. The police stated that during the course of the investigation, a second site was found, suspected to be linked to the incident, where two more victims were found dead. Two victims with serious or life-threatening injuries were airlifted to the hospital, while a total of 25 people were being evaluated and treated at the local medical centre for injuries that are not considered life-threatening. • Related report: Page 9 Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on the BJP-led NDA government, accusing it of compromising India’s sovereignty through the trade agreement with the United States. Participating in a discussion on the Union Budget, Mr Gandhi alleged the government “sold Bharat Mata” by surrendering India’s strategic and economic interests to Washington. Describing the agreement as a “wholesale surrender,” he also argued that India’s energy security had effectively been handed over to the USA and domestic agricultural interests had been jeopardised. Mr Gandhi claimed the deal would open Indian markets to heavily mechanised American farms, placing pressure on Indian farmers. “You have sold India. Are you not ashamed of selling our mother, Bharat Mata?” he asked amid protests from the Treasury benches. “You have allowed the US to weaponise our energy and finance,” he also said. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju, who told him in the House that ‘aaj tak koi mai ka lal paida nhi hua jo Bharat ko khareed sake’ (there is no one in the world who can buy India), later said the government will move a privilege notice against Mr Gandhi for “misleading the House and making baseless allegations.” “Rahul Gandhi has made useless and false allegations against the government, against the Prime Minister, saying that he sold India and Indian interests. On what basis? He has made a serious allegation against Union Minister Hardeep Puri without giving any notice,” Mr Rijiju said. “There are clear rules and procedures for the conduct of business in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. When a member intends to make serious charges against Hardeep Puri rubbishes Gandhi’s ‘Epstein’ claims, says 3-4 interactions as part of delegation: New Delhi: Union Minister Hardeep S Puri on Wednesday personally addressed charges levelled by Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi linking him to the Epstein Files, clarifying that his “three-four” meetings with the infamous American sex offender were entirely professional. “My boss at IPI knew Epstein, and I met him only on a few occasions, three or at max four times to be precise, as part of a delegation. Our interactions had nothing to do (with the crimes he is accused of),” he said, adding, “We talked about Make in India.” Addressing media at the BJP party headquarters, Mr Puri hit back at Mr Gandhi for mentioning his name in connection with the Epstein Files in the Lok Sabha, repeatedly referring to him as ‘yuva neta’. “Epstein Files, the Yuva Neta should know, are about wrongdoing, criminal offences. The Epstein Files are about charges that he had an island where he used to take people to indulge their sexual fantasies, charges of pedophilia; there are victims of this. Those victims have brought cases against people in authority. My interaction had nothing to do with that,” he said. He also referred to Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal’s dismissal of references to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2017 visit to Israel in an email purportedly part of the Epstein Files, dubbing them “trashy ruminations of a convicted criminal”. another member, then you have to give notice and also substantiate the allegation,” he added. While Mr Gandhi asserted in the House that he was ready to authenticate his claims, Mr Rijiju maintained that Mr Gandhi made allegations without evidence, arguments, or procedural notice. In his speech, Mr Gandhi also referred to “Epstein files” and named Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and businessman Anil Ambani, alleging their names appeared in documents held by the US Department of Justice. When Mr Rijiju objected, saying that serious charges were being levelled without substantiation and must be authenticated, Mr Gandhi responded that he was prepared to provide evidence and that the material was available with US authorities. India and the Bangladesh election: Managing risk in a volatile neighbourhood JAYANTA ROY CHOWDHURY New Delhi, 11 February Bangladesh’s tryst with elections slated for Thursday is not merely a test for the South Asian nation’s democratic will, but also a test of how things will evolve on the larger South Asian canvas. Along with a choice between two parties ~ the centrist Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Islamist Jamaat-i-Islami party, citizens of Bangladesh will also choose their nation’s ideological orientation, institutional coherence, and capacity to govern amid deepening disorder. For New Delhi, the stakes are high, given Bangladesh’s position within its own body politic, yet the choices on offer are uncomfortably narrow. Since the dramatic collapse of Sheikh Hasina’s government in August 2024, Bangladesh has been governed more by a volatile mix of street mobilisation, bureaucratic reshuffling, and ideological assertion. Violence, labour unrest, and intimidation have ceased to be episodic disruptions and have instead become the background condition of politics. In this unstable aftermath, Indian officials have privately acknowledged a hard truth ~ almost any elected government is preferable to a prolonged interim arrangement whose authority is diffuse, contested, and vulnerable to capture by hostile forces. The mandate will at best be a flawed one, given that one major party has been barred from the elections and voters are witnessing a combination of intimidation and pre-poll violence, which will certainly influence voting patterns. The impact of the state itself campaigning for a ‘Yes’ in a referendum being held along with the vote for a government is also expected to tilt heavily in favour of the Islamist parties, which are backing the referendum, despite misgivings from constitutionalists. However, for Bangladesh and India, that flawed vote may still be better than a situation where there is no mandate at all and an unelected government presides over chaos and disorder, which threatens to spill over across our common borders. The choices for Bangladesh, in the absence of Awami League, which, according to analysts including Western think tanks, still commands between 27-35 per cent of the popular vote, boil down to three: a BNP-dominated government, a mix of BNP and Jamaat, and a Jamaat-dominated regime. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, formed by the former freedom fighter-turned dictator-turned President Zia Ur-Rahman, had attracted the remnants of the old Pakistan-era Muslim League and those who broke with the Awami League. Its politics have been anti-India, pro-US, but at the same time practical and supporting right-of-centre economic policies. The New York Editorial, a respected substack by top journalists, has analysed two sets of opinion polls in Bangladesh by Innovision Consulting which gives BNP a headstart with a 52.8 per cent vote share and gap with Jamaat of nearly 22 per cent and NarratiV/IILD survey, which narrows the gap to just 1.1 per cent. Everyone recognises that the difference will lie with the Awami League’s former voters. Which way will they swing? If the majority of the 40 million voters who would have voted Awami decide to transfer their allegiance to BNP, Tarique Rahman, its leader who came back from a self-imposed 17-year-long exile, will laugh his way to a swearing-in. If that vote goes the Jamaat way, the cheers may come from his rival Shafiqur Rahman’s camp. South Bloc believes it can do business with BNP’s new princeling Tarique Rahman, despite the fact that Bangladesh took a pro-Islamic fundamentalist groups and pro-Pakistani turn during the two stints when his mother Begum Khaleda Zia ruled and when he loomed large as an “extra-constitutional authority”. Even though representatives of the Jamaat have met Indian diplomats both in Delhi and Dhaka to press their case as trustworthy partners, and a notable absence on their part of the usual pre-election anti-India tirade, prior experience of doing business with them hasn’t exactly been happy. However, one has to understand that Jamaat has, during the 18 months of unelected rule, moved to consolidate influence within the state apparatus. One of its earliest actions after Hasina’s ouster was a sweeping reshuffle of lower-level administrators, particularly in education. In a country where elections are often administered by schoolteachers and college lecturers, this institutional leverage could translate into electoral advantage. Links which many Jamaat leaders still have with Pakistan’s intelligence agency, their insistence on wooing China, talk of giving Beijing access to Sylhet and other airports haven’t gone down well with Indian policy makers. However, if push comes to shove, India will live with the Jamaat provided it minds its “ps” and qs”. In the words of one policymaker at South Bloc, “For India, the choice sometimes feels not like between workable and less workable but between the devil and the deep sea”. The memory of events in the 1990s and the 2000s – when BNP-led governments enabled Pakistan’s intelligence services to foment insurgency in India’s Northeast, while Jamaat and allied Islamist networks facilitated the training and funding of militant groups responsible for attacks inside India are still fresh. Also worrying is the fact that militants arrested during Hasina’s tenure were released after the 2024 upheaval, and Indian security officials believe many have since regrouped in dormant but operationally ready formations. India’s strategic instinct has long been pragmatic rather than ideological. It has dealt with governments in Dhaka across the spectrum, recognising that neighbourhood diplomacy requires engagement with whoever holds power. Yet pragmatism has limits, and patience, which has been shown in great measure over the last 18 months, can feel tested.