First set OF 14 to get Indian citizenship Citizenship certificates were handed over to 14 people by Union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla at a special function in Delhi. Digitally signed certificates are also being sent to a few hundred other applicants through email. It comes nearly two months after the rules under the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) were notified | P7 MADURAI l thursday l may 16, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE CITY EDITION CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI u.p. Diaries A tryst with destiny that wasn’t to be has shifted to adjoining Rae Bareli, he looms large even in his absence. Mostly beSantwana Bhattacharya cause his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is quite visiEditor bly there. Even though the Congress has appointed Rampur MLA Aradhana Amethi: Amethi is wait- Mishra ‘Mona’ as the party ing for Godot. Or for a Gan- poll in-charge for Amethi, dhi. Not just for a 53-year- Priyanka is managing the old with that name, but electioneering here along something inclusive of that with Rae Bareli, like a safe— and more than that. A keeper of the legacy vote. Nehru-Gandhi did not get All around the constituinto a direct contest here, ency the pockmarked narra, but had long-time aide K L tive of Indian democracy reSharma stand in. Those veals itself. Amethi moves within and outside through its village dirtwho had betted big on tracks and peri-urban a re-run of 2019 are roadways at a groandisappointed. The ing pace, as if caught gladiatorial fight in a time zone of that was to be is now struggle all its own. substantially downBut also representathird of A scaled. But a fight is Four-part series tive, at once, of the on, albeit by proxy, cracks in the India and reduced to a scrimmage story. Despite its seeming of competitive accusations. mundaneness, the Amethi Even while abandoning Ra- electorate stands witness to hul in 2019, it’s as if Amethi history Its creation, in 1967, . kept up its love for high-pro- was coeval with the unfoldfile contests, as if to keep ing of the crucial post-Nehru itself in the reckoning by phase in modern Indian polidefault, its own little tryst tics. Since then, it has in a with destiny . way reflected the mood of They are getting one, even the nation at all the cusp moif in an abridged version. ments. Electing a Congress Smriti Irani, Union minis- candidate, Vidya Dhar Bater and the BJP’s prime jpai, as its first MP, going commentator-critic on all with the Janata Party candithings Nehru-Gandhi, has date in 1977 and a BJP candistayed put to defend her date in 1998 and 2019. turf. Though Rahul Gandhi  Continued on: P7 NewsClick editor gets bail at last Purkayastha out of Tihar after SC declares his arrest and remand under UAPA null and void S u c h i t r a M o h a n t y @ New Delhi NewsClick founder and chief editor Prabir Purkayastha was released from Tihar Jail on Wednesday after the Supreme Court invalidated his arrest and subsequent remand in the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) case. Purkayastha was arrested in October last year under antiterror UAPA for allegedly receiving money to spread proChina propaganda in India. Observing that the right to life and personal liberty was the most sacrosanct fundamental right guaranteed under the Constitution, the court said any Delhi court issues Gag order A Delhi court while issuing bail to NewsClick founder and editor-in-chief Prabir Purkayastha directed him not to comment on the merits of the case or tamper with the evidence. He must not contact any witnesses or approver in the case person arrested under UAPA or other offences has a fundamental and a statutory right to be informed about the grounds of arrest in writing. “There is no hesitation in the mind of the court to reach a conclusion that the copy of the remand application in the purported exercise of communica- tion of the grounds of arrest in writing was not provided to the accused appellant (Purkayastha) or his counsel before passing of the order of remand dated October 4, 2023 which vitiates the arrest and subsequent remand of the appellant,” a two-judge bench comprising justices B R Gavai and Sandeep Mehta said. “Any other interpretation would tantamount to diluting the sanctity of the fundamental right guaranteed under Article 22(1) of the Constitution of India,” it said. The bench said the right to be informed about the grounds of arrest flows from Article 22(1) of the Constitution. Soon after the verdict, a Delhi court issued the release order for Purkayastha. According to the FIR against him, the news portal he runs allegedly received huge amounts of money from China to “disrupt the sovereignty of India” and cause disaffection against the country . Will give outside support to INDIA bloc, says Mamata S u l a g n a S e n g u p ta @ Kolkata man with midas touch Olympic champ Neeraj Chopra at the Federation Cup on Wednesday. Neeraj, who won gold, was competing in India for the first time since March 2021 | Shamim qureshy West Bengal Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday claimed she will provide outside support to the Opposition’s INDIA bloc if it comes to power at the Centre, but redefined the contours of the alliance to exclude the CPM and the Bengal chapter of the Congress from it. Addressing a rally at Hooghly Mamata said, “We will pro, vide leadership to the INDIA alliance, and help them in every way from outside. We will form a government so that in Bengal our mothers and sisters never face a problem and those who work in the 100-days-job scheme do not face problems.” Her antipathy for the CPM and the state Congress led by Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is well known. According to political analyst Snigdhendu Bhattacharya, Mamata seems to be trying to keep the triangular contest between the TMC, the BJP and the Left-Congress alliance alive so that the antiTMC votes do not polarise in favour of the BJP. She doesn’t want the BJP’s charge that the TMC, Congress and the Left are together, to find any credence. The car was completely damaged in the impact of the collision | Express 4 die as car rams lorry from behind on GST Road E x p r e ss N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai Four people, including a woman and her two sons, were killed in a road accident near Madurantakam early on Wednesday just hours after five young men died in a car crash on the outskirts of Chennai late on Tuesday A Jai Binisha (40), her . two sons A Mishal (20) and A Faizal (16), and car driver Saravanan (50) were killed on the spot after their vehicle rammed a truck from behind on GST Road. The family was returning to their hometown, Melpattampakkam in Cuddalore district, after dropping the woman’s husband at Chennai international airport. The couple’s third son, 16year-old A Afzal, who was grievously injured in the accident, has been admitted to the government hospital in Chengalpattu. “He sustained severe injuries, but doctors are hopeful about his recovery a police of,” ficer told TNIE. According to the Madurantakam police, the family went to see off Abdul Ameer, who was flying to Dubai for work, at the Chennai airport.  P5