kollam l Sunday l february 09, 2025 l `12.00 l PAGES 24 l city edition as rupee’s fall continues, RBI guv says No level for currency in mind focus is on long-term value, says Malhotra “There is no change in RBI’s approach. It does not look at any price level or band,” Sanjay Malhotra said, adding the central bank focuses on the value of the rupee in the medium to long term and not on its daily movement. His comment comes a day after the rupee recovered 9 paise from its all-time low level to close at 87.50 against the US dollar Market forces decide the value of rupee and the central bank is not worried about day-to-day movement of the currency value, he said ‘Depreciation due to global uncertainties’ ■ ■ About 5% depreciation impacts inflation to the extent of 30-35 bps, Malhotra said, adding the RBI weighed the current rupee-dollar rate while working out the growth and inflation projections for the next FY He said most of the depreciation in the Indian currency is driven by the global uncertainties caused by Donald Trump’s trade wars 613th meet of the central board of directors of the RBI was held on Saturday 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 How the electoral map of the National capital territory of Delhi changed in 10 years from 2015 to 2025 Swing Factor +7.05% 2020 2025 PARTY SEATS 2015 VOTES% PARTY SEATS VOTES% PARTY SEATS VOTES% 53.3 AAP 22 43.57 AAP 62 53.8 AAP 67 +2.08% BJP 48 45.56 BJP 8 38.7 BJP 3 32.3 Cong Cong 0 0 Cong 0 4.26 Cong 0 9.65 NOTA 0 0.57 NOTA 0 0.5 NOTA 0 0.5 BJP AAP -10% AAP BJP AAP BJP(NDA) AAP BJP(NDA) DELHI AAM AADMI TURNS TO BJP @ New Delhi The BJP wrested power in Delhi after 27 years, delivering a decisive blow to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the 70-member assembly, with Saturday’s results establishing its dominance in the national capital and giving the divided opposition enough points to ponder over. The BJP’s massive victory saw Arvind Kejriwal and most of his party’s biggies, including Manish Sisodia, lose, while the Congress was decimated, failing to open its account for the third consecutive time. After the BJP stormed back to power with 48 seats, more than double that of AAP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the party’s performance, calling it a triumph of “development, vision, and trust (Vikas, Vision, Vishwas)”. He said that the BJP would make Yamuna river as the identity of the capital. During the last leg of the campaign, Kejriwal had alleged that the BJP-led Haryana government had been poisoning the Yamuna, adding had the Delhi Jal Board not stopped its water from coming into the city, it would have triggered genocide. It fueled a major uproar with the Election Commission getting into the act, issuing a notice to Kejriwal. Reactions We accept the mandate of the people with great humility. I congratulate the BJP for this victory and I hope they will fulfil all the promises for which people have voted for them Arvind Kejriwal, AAP convenor We humbly accept the mandate. Heartfelt thanks to all the Congress workers and voters for their dedication. Our fight for the progress of Delhi and the rights of its people will continue Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader The results, which ended Kejriwal’s more than a decadelong rule, sent a clear message that Delhi would not tolerate “corruption and lies in politics”, Modi said, addressing jubilant BJP workers at the party headquarters. He added that the capital seeks governance, not theatrics, in a sharp jab at the outgoing AAP government. Home to over 3.3 crore people, Delhi’s assembly eluded the BJP for over 25 years despite its meteoric rise under Modi since 2014. However, the party’s persistence finally paid off. Its strategy focused on addressing critical issues impacting daily life, especially corruption charges against AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, along with Yamuna and air pollution, and the excise police scam. The BJP gained from RSS’s efforts, which organised more than 1,000 meetings. The major income tax relief announced in the Union Budget acted as a force multiplier and substantially shifted the middle class away from the AAP. As for AAP, allegations of corruption, lack of civic amenities and development, and the absence of fresh ideas to captivate the public imagination proved to be a major setback, resulting in its worst performance since its electoral debut in 2013. “We accept the mandate of the people,” Kejriwal said. There is relief of liberating Delhi from ‘AAP-da’. I thank all Delhiites for putting their faith in ‘Modi ki guarantee’ - Narendra Modi, PM Will clean up Yamuna: Modi R A J E S H T H A K U R @ New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said people of Delhi have rejected the politics of appeasement and put their faith in Modi ka guarantee. Addressing party workers after the BJP’s victory in the Delhi Assembly elections, Modi stated that the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) ‘politics of shortcuts’ had been short-circuited. “This is a historic win, not a usual victory, as the people of Delhi have shown the door to ‘AAP-da’. Delhi has become Aapda-mukt,” he said, adding the BJP’s double-engine government would now ensure Delhi’s development at double speed. During his address, Modi promised to clean up the Yamuna and accused the AAP government of neglecting the river. “I had pledged during the election campaign that we will make Yamunaji the identity of Delhi. No matter how much time is spent or how much energy is used, we will make every effort to serve the Yamuna,” Modi said. He also promised that the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report, which revealed a revenue loss of `2,026 crore due to the Delhi government’s excise policy, would be tabled in the first sitting of the Delhi Assembly a f t e r t h e B J P fo r m s t h e government. “The AAP left no stone unturned to create various conspiracies every day to win the Assembly elections, but I guarantee that the CAG report will be presented in the first Assembly session, and whoever has looted Delhi will have to answer,” he said. Tur ning his attention to the Congress, Modi said the fact that the party had not won a single seat in Delhi in the last three elections indicated that the people had little trust in its leadership. He accused Congress leaders of speaking the language of urban Naxals. focus shifts to BJP’s CM pick A nup ver m a @ New Delhi The BJP fought the Delhi elections without a chief ministerial face. Now that it has won a two-thirds majority, the big question is: who will head the party’s first government in the capital in 27 years? Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the Central leadership will take the CM call. Several names have been doing the rounds in recent days, including Bansuri Swaraj, Virendra Sachdeva, Pravesh Verma, Vijender Gupta, Manoj Tiwari, Satish Upadhyay, Manjinder Singh Sirsa and Rekha Gupta. Bansuri Swaraj, the daughter of the late Sushma Swaraj, has a strong Rekha Gupta and Virendra Sachdeva reputation among the party’s state and central leadership. Her mother was the last BJP chief minister of Delhi. Sachdeva, as the party’s Delhi president, enjoys support of the central leadership. Pravesh Verma could be the choice if the BJP opts for a Jat leader. Manoj Tiwari is a popular figure among Purvanchali voters in Delhi and enjoys significant support due to his career as a Bhojpuri film star. Satish Upadhyay a former Delhi BJP , president, has held various party positions since the 1990s. Vijender Gupta, a three-time MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the assembly, could be considered because of his extensive experience. Manjinder Singh Sirsa is a prominent Punjabi face in Delhi politics. Rekha Gupta has public service experience. She was a councillor in the past. Rekha defeated AAP’s Vandana Kumari at Shalimar Bagh. If the trend in Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan are anything to go by, the BJP may consider someone from the OBC or Jat communities as CM. NAAC bars tainted team; new system to grade HEIs E x press N e w s S erv i c e @ Bengaluru Following a CBI probe and arrest of three top officials of Koneru Lakshmaiah Educational Foundation (KLEF) in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, in an alleged bribery case to acquire higher grade accreditation, the National Assessment & Accreditation Council’s (NAAC’s) Executive Committee (EC) has debarred all seven members of its peer review team from assessment or any activities of NAAC “with immediate effect”. NAAC, in a press statement on Saturday said it has also been decided to review all recent review visits by these seven members to any of the higher education institutions (HEIs), whose accreditation grading results have not been declared. The EC also decided to not only summarily cancel KLEF’s accreditation process but also debar it from applying for accreditation for five years. The CBI had arrested three top officials of KLEF over allegations that they had offered bribes to NAAC’s peer review team member to secure A++ accreditation rating. NAAC evaluates the quality of education and infrastructure in institutions on a cumulative grade point average (CGPA) from 1.51 to 4.00 and grades them for five years from ‘A++’ to ‘C’. HEIs without accreditation are graded ‘D’. Walayar sisters died by suicide: CBI investigation P R A M D A S @ Kochi With modi’s guarantees rivalling kejriwal’s handouts, bjp wrests power after 27 years; graft, poor governance, pollution, going solo hurt aap E x press N e w s S erv i c e ‘mental trauma’ cited Following the case, NAAC has proposed to launch the Basic (Binary) Accreditation in April/May 2025, followed by Maturity-based Graded Levels (MBGL). Special committees are working on the preparation of framework and methodology for MBGL, the NAAC release said. The newly proposed frameworks will be backed by the use of advanced IT-based features to infuse objectivity in assessment and eliminate any unfair practices, NAAC said. The CBI investigation into the 2017 death of two sisters in Walayar claimed that the girls — aged 12 and 9 — died by suicide. “The opinion of the Medical Board indicated that the possibility of the children committing suicide cannot be ruled out, considering the traumatic conditions they were in. The forensic expert, after examining the room’s measurements and assessing the postmortem findings, opined that the possibility of homicide does not exist,” said the CBI chargesheet accessed by TNIE. The chargesheet was submitted to the CBI special court, Ernakulam, after the agency carried out further investigation in the case. “After analysing the crime scene, inquest photographs, postmortem findings, and ancillary investigation reports, I am also of the opinion that the postmortem findings were consistent with death due to hanging,” said Homicide the forensic expert in the Medical possibility Board. The CBI pointed out that ruled out based on the Medical Board’s find- According to the ings and other evidence, it conclud- CBI chargesheet, ed that girls died by suicide. the forensic The prosecution case was that expert, after the two sisters were found hanging examining from a raft of their house on differ- the room’s ent dates. While the elder girl was measurements found hanging on January 13, 2017, and assessing the her sister was found dead in the postmortem same manner on March 4, 2017. findings, opined There were allegations that the that the girls were raped and murdered. possibility of The Kerala High Court, while or- homicide does dering a further probe in the case in not exist 2021, had observed that despite major findings in the postmortem report of the victims, none of the responsible persons bestowed any attention to find out what could have been the root cause for the girls’ suicide. The investigation was in cold storage until the unnatural death of the younger girl, it had stated. According to the CBI, death due to hanging in a suicidal manner cannot be ruled out. “Even though the younger girl was only nine years old and had a height of 129 cm, she could maneuver the ligature material around the point of suspension (rafter) and ● More on P2 carry out the act of hanging,” it said.  EXPRESS READ Sasthrapuraskaram for S Somanath Thrissur: S Somanath, former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation, has been honoured with the prestigious Kerala Sasthrapuraskaram award for 2023. Somanath, who led ISRO’s successful Chandrayan-3 mission, was recognised for his outstanding contributions to science. P2 WITH THIS ISSUE Lost and Found PLUS 12 PAGES