FOLLOW US: @TheStatesmanLtd @thestatesmanltd thestatesman1875 www.thestatesman.com People’s Parliament, Always in Session India’s National Newspaper since 1818 | Pages 14 | ` 5.00 | KOLKATA LC | NEW DELHI | MUMBAI | BHUBANESWAR | LUCKNOW | SILIGURI | Friday, 21 August 2026 SPORTS PERSPECTIVE Controlled politics in the meme age EDITORIAL WORLD Authority tested Trump threatens Iran with economic pressure as talks stall Page 7 Page 12 Page 6 BRIEFLY Clashes erupt at Jadavpur University: Kolkata: Clashes took place on Wednesday night and into Thursday at Jadavpur University in the city between supporters of rival student organisations, causing police and central forces to deployed on the campus and adjoining areas. Supporters of both the Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) took out rival marches in the afternoon, and were stopped by police. Members of the student organisations staged demonstrations on the road, breaking police barricades and stopping school buses. The confrontation followed violence late on Wednesday night during a general body meeting of the Faculty of Engineering and Technology Students’ Union (FETSU). Several students were injured in the clashes. Page 3 Vande Mataram: Shah asks people to unite against Cong VIBHA SHARMA New Delhi, 20 August T he political slugfest over Vande Mataram intensified on Thursday with Union Home Minister Amit Shah leading the BJP’s attack against the Congress over its decision to recite only the first two stanzas of the national song at party events. Quoting the Congress Working Committee’s (CWC) decision, Mr Shah accused the Congress of taking an “anti-national decision” and appealed to people to unite against its “politics of appeasement”. The BJP would take the issue to the streets, he said. On Wednesday, the Congress’s highest decision-making body cited a 1937 CWC resolution to argue that great leaders of the freedom movement, such as Mahatma Gandhi, had backed limiting the public rendition of Vande Mataram to the first two stanzas. With the Congress taking this stance and Mr Shah stepping in, the issue surrounding the national song is all set to become a major flashpoint between the BJP and Congress, say observers. The Congress has sought to frame the BJP’s campaign as the politicisation of national symbols with senior Congress leader K C Venugopal accusing the BJP of turning Vande Mataram and the National Anthem into political issues to divert people’s attention from issues bothering the BJP such as the students unrest and the Ram Mandir donation theft. Mr Shah, meanwhile, warned of the consequences of the Congress’ earlier decision to “divide the national song” and accused the party of insulting not only its writer, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, but also “lakhs of martyrs who laid down their lives, and went to the gallows raising the slogan of Vande Mataram” during the freedom struggle. “In 1937, it was the Congress itself that split Vande Mataram into two parts for the sake of appeasement. That move strengthened the two-nation theory and eventually contributed to the partition of the country,” Mr Shah said. He said that the Modi government had “corrected this historic mistake” on the 150th anniversary of Vande Mataram by giving the complete song legal status, accusing the Congress, under Rahul Gandhi’s leadership, of once again following the path of appeasement for electoral gains. The BJP’s attack escalated following allegations that senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had objected to the full rendition of Vande Mataram at the party’s Independence Day event. A video showed Mrs Gandhi gesturing and speaking to a party worker while the song was being played. It was not clear what she was saying, but the BJP alleged that she was attempting to stop the full rendition. The CWC meeting that followed resolved that the Congress would sing only the first two stanzas of the National Song at its function. • Related report: Page 5 10-day preparation time definitely helped a lot: Manav Suthar after Galle win Page 14 Former SC judge to lead Jantar Mantar clashes probe panel PARMOD KUMAR New Delhi, 20 August Former Supreme Court judge Justice R Subhash Reddy will head a five-member HighPowered Enquiry Committee (HPEC) set up by the top court to investigate allegations of police excesses during the march by protesting students from Jantar Mantar towards Parliament on 20 July. The other members of the panel include former Punjab & Haryana High Court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, former Delhi High Court judge Justice Shalinder Kaur, former Central Bureau of Investigation Director Rishi Kumar Shukla, and former Meghalaya DGP, Dr L R Bishnoi. A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V Mohana had on Tuesday stated that an independent committee comprising judges, a former CBI Director and a former DGP of outstanding credentials would be constituted to probe allegations of police excesses during the 20 July crackdown on protesters at Jantar Mantar and other parts of the country. The court asked the HPEC to “address certain issues on a priority basis, foremost amongst which is the matter relating to the alleged incidents of targeted violence, harassment, and molestation of female protestors…, bearing in mind the sensitivity attendant upon the issues contained therein.” Similarly, the court asked the committee to “assess the grievous harm and injury allegedly caused to protestors by police authorities and security personnel… and investigate aspects such as the chain of command resulting in such excesses, those responsible for such actions and whether there were any breaches of any of the existing laws, rules or norms in exercising such force.” The order also recorded the issues raised by the petitioners, including allegations of excessive and disproportionate use of force by police and security personnel, including personnel allegedly operating in plain clothes, and the need to balance the maintenance of public order with the constitutional right to peaceful dissent. Other issues flagged by the petitioners included the use of pellet guns and other coercive measures, accountability of police personnel, surveillance of protesters, alleged targeted violence against women, and medical assistance and compensation for victims. The order also noted the issues raised by the government, seeking an impartial examination of the conduct of protesters, including alleged violence against police and security personnel, damage caused to public and private property, and injuries suffered by police personnel.