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 ■ ■ SAMBALPUR l thursday l may 16, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 14 l CITY EDITION 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.  Continued on: P9 turf. Though Rahul Gandhi NewsClick editor gets bail at last 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 anti-terror UAPA for allegedly receiving money to spread pro-China 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 person arrested under UAPA Delhi court or other offences has a fundaissues Gag mental and a statutory right to order be informed about the grounds of arrest in writing. A Delhi court while “There is no hesitation in the issuing bail to mind of the court to reach a conNewsClick founder clusion that the copy of the reand editor-in-chief mand application in the purportPrabir Purkayastha ed exercise of communication of directed him not to the grounds of arrest in writing comment on the was not provided to the accused merits of the case or appellant (Purkayastha) or his tamper with the counsel before passing of the orevidence. He must der of remand dated October 4, not contact any witnesses or approver 2023 which vitiates the arrest and subsequent remand of the in the case 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. As per the FIR, his news portal allegedly received huge amounts of money from China to “disrupt the sovereignty of India”. Will give outside support to INDIA bloc, says Mamata S u l a g n a S e n g u p ta @ Kolkata 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 provide lead- ership 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. express read Will open 4 doors of Srimandir in six hours: Amit Shah Cuttack: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday made two big promises to the people if the BJP government is elected in the state. The first would be opening all the four doors of Shree Jagannath temple at Puri for devotees within six hours of the party chief minister taking oath and the second ensuring that all the people who fell victim to the chit fund scam get back their lost deposits within one-andhalf year | P3 Vote for Congress candidates to save Constitution: Rahul PROTECTING JAGANNATH CULTURE FIND THE MISSING KEY TO RATNA BHANDAR RESTORE EVICTED MATHAS AND EXTEND FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE OPEN ALL FOUR GATES OF SHRI MANDIR FOR DEVOTEES Bhubaneswar/Balangir: Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday cautioned people of the state on BJP’s attempts to amend the Constitution of India and end reservation. “BJP leaders are stating they will amend the Constitution. But I want to tell the BJP leaders that no force in the world can touch this book (Constitution),” he said | P6 Published by: Bhartiya Janta Party, 6A Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi Citizenship certificates were handed over to 14 people by Union home secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla at a special function in Delhi | P9