CMYK MONDAY www.thestatesman.com 05 DECEMBER 2022 FIND US ONLINE Scan this with your smartphone twitter.com/TheStatesmanLtd facebook.com/thestatesman1875 Pages 12 |` 5.00|LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR TROUBLE ERUPTS AGAIN IN KERALA CONGRESS NEW DEAL P6 WEATHER Mainly clear sky. Temperature likely to be in the range of 28-16 degrees Celsius. RAINFALL: NIL RELATIVE HUMIDITY Max.89% TEMPERATURE Max: 27.9 °C (0) SUN RISES 06:02 hrs MOON RISES 14:16 hrs Min. 36% Min: 15.9 °C (0) SUN SETS 16:52 hrs MOON SETS 02:21 hrs Full moon on 08 December THUMBNAILS Artists dressed up in traditional attire take part in an awareness rally on Thalassaemia and AIDS, in Kolkata on Sunday.  ANI CBI arrests main accused Lalan Sheikh in Bogtui massacre: After over eight months of searching, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) nabbed Lalan Sheikh, the principal accused behind the massacre at the Bogtui village in West Bengal's Birbhum district.Eight persons were killed in the PG3 carnage that happened on March 21. P4 P10 NIKHI VYAS NEW DELHI, 4 DECEMBER A Prime Minister Narendra Modi meets his mother Heeraben Modi in Gandhinagar on Sunday.  ANI Webcasting will be done in 13,319 polling booths in the second phase.“Total of 2,51,58,730 voters will vote, of which 1,29,26,501 are men, 1,22,31,335 are women and 894 are from the third gender," Ms Bharathi said. The 93 poll-bound seats in the second phase are spread across Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Mehsana, Patan, Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Aravali, Mahisagar, Panchmahal, Dahod, Vadodara, Anand, Kheda and Chhota Udaipur districts.Among the key constituencies in the final phase are Ghatlodia, which will determine the poll fate of Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel; Viramgam where Patidar leader Hardik Patel will contest as a BJP candidate, and Gandhinagar South where the saffron party has fielded Alpesh Thakor. The Leader of the Opposition, Congress’s Sukhram Rathava will contest from Chhota Udaipur, while Lakhabhai Bharwad, Jignesh Mevani and Amee Yajnik are some other prominent Congress names from Viramgam, Vadgam and Ghatlodia seats. From the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Bharat Vakhala from Devgadhbaria, Bheema Chaudhary from Deodar, Dolat Patel from Gandhinagar South, Kunwarji Thakor from Viramgam and Vijay Patel from Ghatlodia will test their electoral fortunes in the second and final phase on Monday. TUG OF WAR NEW DELHI, 4 DECEMBER 2.51 crore voters to decide fate of 833 candidates for 93 seats SNS & AGENCIES P12 Around 50 pc voter turnout till 5.30 pm in Delhi civic polls Guj gears up for 2nd phase voting today fter weeks of highvoltage campaigning, the countdown has begun for the high-stakes political battle to conclude in Gujarat, with the final phase of polling for the ongoing Assembly elections to be held on Monday. Polling in the second and final phase will be conducted for 93 Assembly constituencies across 14 districts of north and central Gujarat. As many as 833 candidates from 61 parties are in the fray in the second phase of the Gujarat elections whose fate will be decided by over 2.51 crore voters. The Election Commission has established 26,409 polling booths and nearly 36,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used for the purpose. Around 29,000 presiding officers and over 84,000 polling officers have been deployed in 14 districts to facilitate the polls. According to Gujarat's Chief Electoral Officer P Bharathi, of the total 26,409 polling stations, 93 are model polling booths, 93 are eco-friendly booths, another 93 are managed by Divyang and 14 are managed by youth. ARGENTINA DOWN AUSTRALIA TO REACH QUARTERS US INTELLIGENCE CHIEF THINKING ‘OPTIMISTICALLY’ FOR UKRAINE FORCES The high-octane campaigning for the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections came to an end on Saturday evening, which saw big shots across parties trying to woo voters. Prime Minister Narendra Modi held his last election rally in his native state, at Ahmedabad, on Friday, which was followed by roadshows, over consecutive days on December 1 and 2. Among prominent names who will cast their votes in final phase in Gujarat are PM Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh governor Anandiben Patel, Isudan Gadhvi, Gujarat Congress president Jagdish Thakor and cricketers Irfan Pathan, Hardik Pandya and Krunal Pandya. During the first phase of polling on December 1, Gujarat saw an overall turnout of 63.14 per cent. The voting began at 8 am in 89 constituencies spread across 19 districts of Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat regions. The first phase of voting for 89 seats in Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat ended on 1 December, with an overall turnout of 63.31 per cent.The results of the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh Assembly election will be announced on 8 December. The overall voter turnout at the end of polling in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections on Sunday stood at 50 per cent (approximately) at 5.30 pm, the State Election Commission said.The state poll panel further said that polling continued beyond the scheduled closing time of 5.30 pm, at many booths across the national capital.Voter turnout in the 2017 municipal polls was 53 per cent. The incumbent BJP the , Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress are locked in a keen three-cornered contest for the 250 MCD wards this year.The polling process kicked off amid tight security arrangements on a chilly Sunday morning in the national capital.Polling began at 8 am and queues of voters were seen at the polling centres since morning. The commission said polling for the 250 seats were held peacefully. The results of the polls will be declared on 7 December. Over 1.45 crore people were eligible to cast their votes in the civic polls, the state poll panel had informed earlier, adding that a total of 1,349 candidates, across parties, were in the fray this year. The state poll panel had further informed that it had set up 13,638 polling stations for civic elections, adding that a sizeable workforce of election functionaries and security agencies had put in a lot of effort in making the necessary poll preparations. Earlier in the day, promi- (L) Women voters at a polling booth; a first time voter at a poling booth in the Capital on Sunday.SUBRATA DUTTA  The State Election panel said polling for the 250 seats were held peacefully. will be declared on 7 Dec. Over 1.45 crore people  The results of the polls were eligible to cast their votes in the civic polls. nent political leaders including AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Union Ministers~Hardeep Singh Puri and Meenakshi Lekhi, Delhi BJP president Adesh Gupta, Congress leader Ajay Maken, former Union Health Minister Dr HarshVardhan and BJP MP Parvesh Verma cast their votes for the MCD polls. Mr Kejriwal along with his family members on Sunday morning exercised his franchise for the MCD polls at a polling booth in the Civil lines area.After casting his vote, Mr Kejriwal told the media that this was an opportunity to clean Delhi. He urged the people to vote for an honest party and not for those who are dishonest. "I appeal to people to vote in large numbers. This is an opportunity to clean the capital city. Vote for those who work and are honest, not for those who are dishonest," Mr Kejriwal told the media after casting his vote.After casting his vote for the MCD elections, Mr Puri said the polls are a wake-up call for Delhi. “These polls are a wake-up call for Delhi. We have to make India a developed country by 2047...Recently a report has predicted that we will become number 3 (economy) in the next four-five years. So people have to choose which brand of politics they want to follow," Puri said.Meanwhile, Ms Lekhi accused the AAP of not fulfilling promises made to masses and appealed to the people to vote for the party which worked for them. In the Delhi MCD polls, vote for the party which fulfilled its promises and not the one which just made fake promises, she said.Congress leader Ajay Maken cast his vote at a polling booth in Rajouri Garden for the MCD elections and urged people to see the candidates and vote accordingly. PM hails contribution of Cong to hold three-day plenary in Feb Indian Navy on Navy Day STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 4 DECEMBER STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 4 DECEMBER Prime Minister Narendra Modi today hailed the contribution made by the Indian Navy in protecting the nation. In a message, he greeted all Navy personnel and their families on the occasion of Navy Day. Taking to Twitter, the PM wrote: “Best wishes on Navy Day to all navy personnel and their families. We in India are proud of our rich maritime history. The Indian Navy has steadfastly protected our nation and has distinguished itself with its humanitarian spirit during challenging times.” Defence minister Rajnath Singh also extended his greetings to the Navy personnel and said the Indian Navy was at the forefront of keeping the country safe by ensuring impeccable maritime security. The nation, he said, was proud of the Indian Navy’s val- Trust my friend Narendra Modi to bring us together, says Macron: After India took over G20 Presidency, French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday tweeted a photo of himself with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and expressed confidence that the Indian PM will bring the two countries to build peace and a sustainable world. "One Earth. One Family. One Future. India has taken over the presidency of #G20India! I trust my friend @NarendraModi to bring us together in order to build peace and a more sustainable world,” Macron wrote in a tweet. our, courage, commitment and professionalism. On the occasion of the Indian Navy Day 2022, Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral R Hari Kumar recalled and paid tributes to the bravehearts of India for the supreme sacrifice they made in protecting the nation.The Indian Navy quoted Naval chief, Admiral R Hari Kumar as saying “We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to preserve, protect and promote our National Fate of 8 ex-Indian Navy men in Qatar hangs in the balance AGENCIES KOLKATA, 4 DECEMBER While all eyes are on the ongoing football World Cup in Qatar, little is known of the fate of eight ex-Indian Navy personnel imprisoned in that country for over 90 days now. The Indian Ex Servicemen Movement (IESM) has now written to India's External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar, seeking his intervention. Copies of the letter have been forwarded to the Prime Minister, Defence Minister and three services chiefs. According to Major Gen. Satbir Singh (retd), chairman, IESM and advisor, United Front of Ex Servicemen, the Ex-Indian Navy personnel were working for Dahra Global Technologies and Consultancy Services in Doha, as per a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Qatar. Their job was to train Qatar Navy personnel. “The families of the Ex-Indian Navy personnel lost contact with them on August 30. From their office in Doha, the families came to know that they were picked up around midnight from their homes by the State Security Bureau, Ministry of Interior, Qatar. One wonders how this could have happened when the eight were working under a policy to train personnel of friendly navies. This has been endorsed by Indian Ambassadors to Qatar,” Maj Gen Singh (retd) tweeted. Consular access was granted to the eight only once on 3 October, when it came to be known that they are in solitary confinement. Interests and to remain a CombatReady, Credible, Cohesive & FutureProof Force. We pay homage to supreme sacrifices of our Bravehearts & gratitude to our veterans.” Navy Day is celebrated across the country every year on 4 December to acknowledge the role of the Indian Navy in safeguarding the country's maritime waters and commemorate its achievements in ‘Operation Trident’ during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. The Congress party will hold a 3-day plenary session in Raipur, Chhattisgarh in the second half of February next year, party General Secretary K C Venugopal announced today. Key national issues will be discussed at the plenary, followed by a grand public meeting to be addressed by the top leader, he said at a press conference. The party also announced that as a follow-up to the Bharat Jodo Yatra, it will run a massive campaign 'Haath se haath jodo abhiyaan' from 26 January for two months as part of which padyatras will be taken out and a letter from senior leader Rahul Gandhi talking about the core message of the yatra will be distributed among the people along with a 'charge sheet' against the Narendra Modi government. The decisions were taken at the first meeting of the Congress steering committee Congress leader Rahul Gandhi poses with Madhya Pradesh party chief Kamal Nath at a public meeting as the party's Bharat Jodo Yatra enters Rajasthan, in Jhalawar on Sunday.  ANI constituted by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge.In a statement, the party said the committee noted the "overwhelming success" of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the wide participation of lakhs of people. At the meeting, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge strongly pitched for organisational accountability from top to bottom in the party, and said those unable to fulfil their responsibilities will have to make way for their colleagues.In his opening remarks at the first meeting of the Congress steering committee constituted by him, Kharge also asked state in-charges to submit a roadmap for holding mass movements on people's issues over a period of 30 to 90 days, and called for a schedule of plans of the party in states where elections are due before 2024. “I believe that the biggest part of our responsibility towards the party and the country is ~ organisational accountability from top to bottom. If the Congress organisation is strong, accountable, lives up to the expectations of the people, then only we will be able to win elections and serve the people of the country," the Congress chief said.In a stern message to office-bearers, Mr Kharge also said that while there are very responsible people in the party who were doing their duty, some people had assumed that lack of responsibility will be ignored. France's Olivier Giroud celebrates after scoring his side's first goal with France's Kylian Mbappe during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between France and Poland, at the Al Thumama Stadium in Doha on Sunday. France beat Poland 3-1 in a record-smashing World Cup last-16 clash on Sunday that saw Olivier Giroud become France's outright all-time top scorer and Kylian Mbappe score a magnificent double.  AP WORLD CUP 2022: TODAY’S MATCHES JAPAN VS CROATIA 8:30 PM BRAZIL VS SOUTH KOREA 12:30 AM Iran scraps morality police after months of protests sparked by Amini’s death AGENCIES The hijab became mandatory in 1983. Morality police officers initially issued warnings before starting to crack down and arrest women 15 years ago. TEHERAN, 4 DECEMBER Iran has scrapped its morality police after more than two months of protests triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly violating the country's strict female dress code, local media said Sunday. Women-led protests, labelled “riots” by the authorities, have swept Iran since the 22-year-old Iranian of Kurdish origin died in custody on 16 September, three days after her arrest by the morality police in Teheran. Demonstrators have burned their mandatory hijab head coverings and shouted anti-government slogans, and since Amini's death, a growing number of women have failed to wear the hijab, particularly in parts of Tehran. “Morality police have noth- The units were set up by Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, which is headed by President Ebrahim Raisi Saudi Arabia also employed morality police to enforce female dress codes and other rules of behaviour. Since 2016 the force there has been sidelined in a push by the Sunni Muslim kingdom to shake off its austere image ing to do with the judiciary and have been abolished,” Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. His comment came at a religious conference where he responded to a participant who asked “why the morality police were being shut down”, the report said. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that overthrew Iran's US-backed monarchy, there has been some kind of official monitoring of the strict dress code for both men and women. But under hardline presi- CMYK dent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the morality police ~ known formally as the Gasht-e Ershad or “Guidance Patrol” ~ was established to "spread the culture of modesty and hijab". The units were set up by Iran's Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, which is today headed by President Ebrahim Raisi.They began their patrols in 2006 to enforce the dress code which also requires women to wear long clothes and forbids shorts, ripped jeans and other clothes deemed immodest. The announcement of the units' abolition came a day after Montazeri said "both parliament and the judiciary are working" on the issue of whether the law requiring women to cover their heads needs to be changed. Raisi said in televised comments Saturday that Iran's republican and Islamic foundations were constitutionally entrenched "but there are methods of implementing the constitution that can be flexible".The hijab became mandatory in 1983.Morality police officers initially issued warnings before starting to crack down and arrest women 15 years ago.The squads were usually made up of men in green uniforms and women clad in black chadors, garments that cover their heads and upper bodies.The role of the units evolved, but has always been controversial even among candidates running for the presidency. Clothing norms gradually changed, especially under former moderate president Hassan Rouhani, when it became commonplace to see women in tight jeans with loose, colourful headscarves. But in July this year his successor, the ultra-conservative Raisi, called for the mobilisation of "all state institutions to enforce the headscarf law". Raisi at the time charged that "the enemies of Iran and Islam have targeted the cultural and religious values of society by spreading corruption".