BEYOND MODI 21 JULY 2024 ARROGANCE EVEN AFTER BEING DEFEATED: SHAH SLAMS RAHUL www.thestatesman.com PAGE 6 Twitter.com/TheStatesmanLtd Facebook.com/thestatesman PAGE 13 NAYAR & DOESCHATE LIKELY TO JOIN INDIAN TEAM AS ASSISTANT COACHES PAGE 12 India’s National Newspaper since 1818 PAGES 12 | `5.00 | LC KOLKATA | NEW DELHI | SILIGURI | BHUBANESWAR Trinamul may outline its strategy at today’s rally CM Mamata Banerjee recalls brutal killings ahead of Ma-Mati-Manush Divas SUBHENDU MAITI KOLKATA, 20 JULY he Trinamul Congress, a major partner of the national opposition alliance INDIA bloc, may outline its political strategy for the national stage during its Martyrs’ Day rally at Esplanade on Sunday. The ruling party in Bengal, bagging a lion’s share of 29 LS seats out of 42 in the state, is now rejuvenated and all set to establish itself a crucial partner in the INDIA bloc. The BJP managed to win only 12 Lok Sabha seats, six down from its phenomenal performance in the 2019 general elections in 2019 when it had won 18 seats. According to Trinamul Congress sources, the party leadership, led by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, aims to strengthen the unity in the national opposition bloc. Akhilesh Yadav, former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh and president of the Samajwadi Party (SP), one of the major partners of the INDIA bloc, is expected to attend tomor- T row’s rally. Abhishek Banerjee, national general secretary of Trinamul Congress, who has returned after his eye treatment in the USA, will also attend the annual mega show of the party. Earlier, Miss Banerjee had announced that her party would dedicate its thumping victory in the LS polls and byelections in six Assembly seats ~ Baranagar, Bhagbangola in Murshidabad, Raiganj in North Dinajpur, Ranaghat Dakshin in Nadia, Bagdah in North 24-Parganas and Maniktala in Kolkata ~ to the people on the Martyrs’ Day rally on 21 July. “ Tomorrow marks another 21st July! This day holds deep significance in Bengal's history. On this day in 1993, the repressive CPI(M) regime brutally took the lives of 13 of our comrades. It remains a poignant milestone for us, celebrated annually as part of Bengal's public ethos. We honour these martyrs with love and respect, along with all who sacrificed their lives for our nation and humanity,” the Trinamul Congress chairperson posted on X on Saturday. “We also observe this day as 'Ma-Mati-Manush Divas,' dedicating our democratic victories to the people of West Bengal. I invite all Bengalis to join us at Esplanade tomorrow for this Martyrs' Day-cum'Ma-Mati-Manush Divas'event. Your participation will enrich UPSC chairman Manoj Soni resigns citing ‘personal reasons’ 5 years before term ends AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 20 JULY In a surprising turn of events, UPSC Chairman Manoj Soni has put in his papers, citing "personal reasons" nearly five years before the end of his tenure. Sources at the Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT) told ANI news agency that his resignation has not yet been accepted. Mr Soni's term was originally set to conclude in 2029. (Photo) “UPSC chairman Manoj Soni has put in his papers due to personal reasons. His resignation has not been accepted yet. It is a long procedure,” sources at DOPT told ANI over the phone. ANI attempt- ed to contact Manoj Soni, but he did not respond to calls or texts. Mr Soni, who began working with the UPSC as a member in 2017, was sworn in as the chairperson of the commission on 16 May 2023. His tenure was supposed to end in 2029.The sources emphasised that Mr Soni's decision to step down is not related to the recent controversy involv- ing an UPSC candidate accused of submitting fraudulent certificates to secure placement in the Indian Administrative Service. According to the sources, he submitted his resignation "long back".The UPSC has been embroiled in controversy following allegations against trainee IAS officer Puja Khedkar, who allegedly forged identity papers to gain entry into the civil service. Before joining UPSC, Mr Soni served two terms as ViceChancellor of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University from August 2009 to July 2015, and one term as Vice-Chancellor of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda from April 2005 to April 2008. NEET: NTA publishes centre-wise data for medical entrance exam AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 20 JULY The National Testing Agency (NTA) on Saturday declared the state-wise and centrewise data of the results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) 2024 on the official website. The Supreme Court on 18 July directed the NTA to announce the results of the NEET UG by 20 July. The applicants will be able to check and download their results on the official website, that is https://neet.ntaonline.in/frontend/web/common-scorecard/indexby entering their login credentials. A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra ordered that result should be published separately, city-wide and centre-wise, by 12 noon on Saturday. The apex court passed the direction to the NTA to publish the results, after the petitioners-students urged it to direct the testing agency to publish the result of all students to bring in some trans- parency. The top court in its order stated: "The petitioners have submitted that it would be appropriate if the results of the NEET-UG 24 exam is published on the website so as to bring about some transparency on the centre-wise marks obtained by candidates. We direct the NTA to publish the marks obtained by students in the NEET-UG 2024 exam while at the same time ensuring that the identity of the students is masked. The results should be declared in relation to each centre and city separately."The bench said it will continue the hearing of pleas alleging paper leak and malpractice in NEET-UG 2024 exams, on 22 July. our collective homage to the martyrs,” Miss Banerjee added. Several BJP leaders, including two newly elected Members of Parliament, are likely to join the TMC during the rally, according to party sources. Sovan Chatterjee, former TMC MLA and Kolkata mayor, along with his companion Baisakhi Bandopadhyay may also join the ruling party in the state on Sunday. Both of them had joined BJP more than five years ago and left the saffron camp in 2021 over some differences with the party leadership and had been keeping in contact with Miss Banerjee for the past couple of years. During tomorrow’s rally, all eyes will be on Miss Banerjee, who is expected to outline the party’s strategy for the national stage to intensify the movement against the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. Miss Banerjee is expected to raise the issue of the BJPled Central government using central investigating agencies against opposition leaders in non-BJP-ruled states. M (Pg 2) (PHOTO-MOUL MONDOL) ‘Airport systems working normally’ AGENCIES NEW DELHI, 20 JULY The Civil Aviation Ministry said on Saturday that airline systems across airports in India have resumed operations normally after a mega Microsoft Windows outage hit systems globally. According to the Ministry, travel adjustments and refund processes are being taken care of, as it constantly monitors the situation at the airports. “Since 3 a.m, Airline systems across airports have started working normally. Flight operations are going smoothly now,” the Ministry said in an update. “There is a backlog because of disruptions yesterday, and it is getting cleared gradually. By noon today, we expect all issues to be resolved,” the statement read. However, passengers at airports across the country continued to face problems for the second day on Saturday with many flights delayed and several cancelled due to the backlog and knock-on effects of yesterday’s massive outage. Long queues and delayed flights were reported at Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai airports. A passenger at Delhi airport said that most of the flights are delayed. The IGI Airport faced significant disruptions on Saturday morning as the Digi Yatra system remained non-operational. Long queues were observed at the departure terminals as passengers struggled to check in manually. ‘Reports of excess mortality during 2020 misleading’ STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE NEW DELHI, 20 JULY The Union Health Ministry on Saturday said the media reports highlighting the findings from a paper published in an academic journal claiming excess mortality in 2020 is misleading. In a statement, the Ministry said: “Some media reports have highlighted the findings from a paper published today in an academic journal Science Advances on life expectancy during the Covid19 pandemic in India in 2020. These are based on untenable and unacceptable estimates.” While the authors claim to follow standard methodology of analysing National Family Health Survey, there are critical flaws in methodology, it said. “The most important flaw is that the authors have taken a subset of households included in the NFHS survey between January and April 2021, compared mortality in these households in 2020 with 2019, and extrapolated the results to the entire country,” the Ministry said. Stating that the NFHS sample is representative of the country only when it is considered as a whole, it said: “The 23 per cent of households included in this analysis from part of 14 states cannot be considered representative of the country. The other critical flaw is related to possible selection and reporting biases in the included sample due to the time in which these data were collected, at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.” “It is strongly asserted that an excess mortality of about 11.9 lakh deaths reported in the Science Advances paper in 2020 over the previous year is a gross and misleading overestimate. It is noteworthy that excess mortality during the pandemic means an increase in deaths due to all causes, and cannot be equated with deaths that were directly caused by Covid-19,” it added. The Ministry further said: “The paper reports results on age and sex that are contrary to research and programme data on Covid-19 in India. The paper claims that excess mortality was greater in females and in younger age groups (particularly 0-19 year old children). Data on about 5.3 lakh recorded deaths due to Covid-19, as well as research data from cohorts and registries consistently shows higher mortality due to Covid-19 in males than females (2:1). These inconsistent and unexplainable results in the published paper further reduce any confidence in its claims.” “The all-cause excess mortality in 2020 compared with the previous year in India is markedly less than the 11.9 lakh deaths reported in the Science Advances paper. The paper published today is methodologically flawed and shows results that are untenable and unacceptable,” it added.
The Statesman is one of India's oldest English newspapers. It was founded in Kolkata in 1875 and is directly descended from The Friend of India (founded 1818). The Englishman (founded 1821) was merged with The Statesman in 1934. The Delhi edition of The Statesman began publication in 1931. The Statesman Weekly is a compendium of news and views from the Kolkata and Delhi editions. Printed on airmail paper, it is popular with readers outside India. The Statesman (average weekday circulation approximately 180,000) is a leading English newspaper in West Bengal. The Sunday Statesman has a circulation of 230,000.