FP The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms BHOPAL | TUESDAY | OCTOBER 21, 2025 | Pages 16 ` 3 | Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2024-2026 | RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 Happy Laxmi Puja Nation FREE www.freepressjournal.in Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar named in alleged ₹500-crore KIADB land scam ESTD-1983 iii QUALITY @ VALUE EDITIONS: BHOPAL UJJAIN GAMES PRESS PUNE INDORE NASHIK MUMBAI E-paper Edit Nitish puzzle has made Bihar election interesting Smriti Mandhana feels India’s shot selection against England could have been better Cinema Veteran actor Asrani passes away... TRUMP WARNS VIKRANT MOMENT | PM Modi credits India’s success to ‘fear of the Navy, precision of the Air Force and courage of the Army’ OF ‘MASSIVE’ TARIFFS OVER RUSSIAN OIL Bihar sees INDIA bloc in disarray FPJ News Service PATNA WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump has warned that India will continue to face “massive” tariffs if it does not stop buying oil from Russia, reiterating that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had assured him New Delhi would halt such purchases. Speaking on Sunday to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he's not going to be doing the Russian oil thing.” Asked about India’s statement that it was unaware of any such conversation, Trump replied, “If they want to say that, then they'll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don't want to do that.” Russian oil has been a key sticking point in the ongoing trade talks between the two countries. 4Continued on | Nation ‘Ended war’ claim again PTI WASHINGTON US President Trump has once again claimed that he resolved the war between India and Pakistan, saying seven planespwere shot down during Operation Sindoor, though he did not specify which country they belonged to. In an interview with Fox News aired on Sunday, Trump said his “threat of tariffs” stopped the two nuclear nations from escalating the conflict. He said he warned both countries of 200% tariffs, which would make trade “impossible”, and that “after 24 hours, I settled the war.” Trump has repeatedly claimed credit for mediating the May ceasefire. India, however, maintains that the understanding was reached through direct talks between the DGMOs of the two nations. ‘Op Sindoor forced Pakistan to its knees’ FPJ News Service MUMBAI PM Narendra Modi on Monday declared that India had “forced Pakistan to its knees” during Operation Sindoor through the sheer coordination and combined power of its armed forces — “the fear of the Navy, the precision of the Air Force, and the courage of the Army.” Speaking aboard INS Vikrant off the Goa coast, he said India’s growing military con- fidence mirrors its march towards self-reliance. “The fear instilled by the Navy, the extraordinary skill of the Air Force, and the bravery of the Indian Army, along with their exceptional coordination, brought Pakistan down swiftly during Operation Sindoor,” he said, calling the offensive “a shining example of joint warfare and technological strength.” He noted that the name BrahMos “strikes fear in some minds” and that many nations were now seeking to purchase the missile. Modi hailed INS Vikrant, India’s first indigenously built aircraft carrier, as “a powerful symbol of Aatmanirbhar Bharat” marking the end of India’s dependence on foreign defence platforms. “A few months ago, we saw how INS Vikrant gave Pakistan sleepless nights. The very name Vikrant crushes the enemy’s courage,” he said, adding that its commissioning represented the Navy’s renunciation of a co- OLA owner, CEO booked after suicide of employee Vinay Madhava Gowda BENGALURU The Bengaluru police have booked a criminal case against Ola company  CEO Subrath Kumar Das and its owner Bhavish Agarwal for abetting suicide of a company employee. Aravind K (38), the victim who was working as Homologation Engineer at Ola Electricals, Koramangala had left behind a 28-page suicide note, where he had written a detailed description of harassment meted out to Engineer Aravind K named Bhavish Aggarwal and CEO Subrath Kumar Das in his suicide note of 28 pages in which he detailed harassment he faced at work him in the company, leading to his suicide. Aravind named both Das and Agarwal in his suicide note, which his family members found a few days after he ended his life on September 28 at his house in Chikkalasandra, Bengaluru South. Initially the family members were not aware of  the  reason behind Aravind committing suicide. However, a few days after his death, the company had inexplicably transferred ₹17,46,313 to Aravind's account. FPJ News Service Snapchat, Robinhood, Fortnite were among those affected A major outage at Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Monday disrupted dozens of popular apps and websites across the world, including Snapchat, Robinhood, Roblox, Fortnite, Signal, and Coinbase. Amazon later said that its cloud computing services were gradually recovering after several hours of downtime. The problems began around 3:11 am Eastern Time when AWS reported “increased error rates and latencies” in its US-EAST-1 region — a key hub that handles much of the internet’s backend infrastructure. By 6 am, Amazon confirmed that most affected systems were “recovering,” and global services dependent on the region were stabilising. 4Continued on | Nation AYUSH AND ALLOPATHIC DOCTORS Larger SC bench to look into parity issues PTI NEW DELHI The disruption, which also impacted McDonald’s app and several university and corporate networks, highlighted the enormous global reliance on Amazon’s cloud platform. AWS powers critical digital infrastructure for governments, media outlets including the Associated Press, and countless businesses worldwide. The Supreme Court on Friday October 17 referred to a larger bench the question of whether doctors practising indigenous medical systems such as Ayurveda, Unani, and Homoeopathy can be treated on par with allopathic doctors for determining service conditions, retirement age, and pay scales. A bench of Chief Justice B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran had reserved its order on May 13 on a batch of petitions seeking to know whether there can be a different age of superannuation for doctors practising modern medicine and those practising AYUSH in government hospitals and clinics.The bench said there was “divergence of opinion” on the issue and that it required an authoritative pronouncement by a larger bench. 4Continued on | Nation 4Continued on | Nation 4Continued on | Nation Amazon cloud outage hits major apps MUMBAI lonial legacy. Arriving discreetly on Sunday evening, Modi spent the night aboard the 45,000-tonne warship — the largest ever built in India. The visit blended military solemnity with Diwali warmth: the Prime Minister watched MiG-29K fighter jets roar off the flight deck, joined sailors for Bara Khana, and witnessed cultural performances by naval officers. Trump meeting with Zelenskyy was a shouting match with much cursing FPJ News Service MUMBAI In a stormy, expletive-laden meeting at the White House on October 17, US President Trump reportedly pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to accept Russia’s conditions for ending the ongoing conflict, warning that otherwise “Putin will destroy you,” according to a Financial Times report citing European officials familiar with the discussion. The closed-door session after Trump’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier was described by multiple sources as a “shouting match” filled with “constant cursing” and repeated interruptions. European officials said Trump appeared impatient and irritable, dismissing Zelenskyy’s pleas for continued At one point, Trump reportedly flung aside maps showing Ukraine’s battlefronts. According to one European official quoted by FT, Trump told Zelenskyy bluntly: “You’re losing. If (Putin) wants to, he will destroy you” military support and instead echoing several of Moscow’s talking points. At one point, Trump reportedly flung aside maps showing Ukraine’s battlefronts. According to one European official quoted by FT, Trump told Zelenskyy bluntly: “You’re losing. If (Putin) wants to, he will destroy you”. The White House did not issue an official readout of the meeting, and neither Washington nor Kyiv responded to press queries. However, diplomatic observers said the tone of Trump’s remarks closely mir- rored Kremlin arguments that the West should accept the current lines of control in Ukraine as permanent. Zelenskyy, who had arrived in Washington seeking Tomahawk missiles and fresh assurances of US military support, reportedly left the meeting “in a very bad mood,” according to one European diplomat. The Ukrainian leader later said that while Trump did not explicitly refuse Kyiv’s request for the advanced weapons, he “didn’t say yes either.” “For today, it’s good again that he didn’t say no,” Zelen- skyy told NBC’s Meet the Press. “The Tomahawks are very sensitive for Russians. Putin is afraid the US will give them to us — and he should be.” Following the tense threehour meeting, Trump posted a statement on his social media platform, Truth Social, appearing to formalise his position. “Enough blood has been shed, with property lines being defined by War and Guts,” he wrote. “They should stop where they are. Let both claim Victory, let History decide! No more shooting, no more Death, no more vast and unsustainable sums of money spent.” However, according to Politico, Trump on Saturday denied reports that he had asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to surrender the Donbas region to Russia. Speaking to re- Let it be cut the way it is. It’s already divided. I think about 78% of the land is already taken by Russia. Leave it that way for now — they can negotiate something later down the line. Donald Trump US President porters, the US president insisted the two “never discussed” ceding territory. 4Continued on | Nation Dheeraj Kumar The opposition INDIA bloc is in disarray as the alliance failed to reach a compromise on seatsharing even as the last date for withdrawal of nominations ended on Monday. INDIA bloc’s main player in Bihar, RJD, released its list of 143 candidates hours before the filing of nominations for the second and final phase was to be over. It had contested 144 seats in the last assembly poll. On the other hand, Congress has announced names of its 61 seats in five lists. In the last assembly election, it contested 70 seats but could win only 19. The saving grace for the opposition alliance was that RJD did not field its candidates from Kutumba seat as earlier anticipated. From Kutumba seat, state Congress president Rajesh Kumar Ram has filed his nomination. INDIA bloc is already under NDA’s blistering attack after the former failed to hammer out a seat sharing deal, as the opposition alliance even could not hold the joint press conference for making the announcement about it. Prime Minister Narendra Modi kickstaring his poll campaign from October 24 is expected to give more teeth to the attack JMM OPTS OUT: ‘IT’S CONSPIRACY OF CONG & RJD’ FPJ News Service RANCHI Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Monday announced that it would not contest the assembly elections in Bihar, accusing its alliesRJD and Congress- of hatching a political conspiracy against it and depriving it of seats as part of the Mahagathbandhan. Senior JMM leader and minister Sudivya Kumar said his party would review the alliance in Jharkhand with the Congress and RJD, and give a befitting reply to the "snub".  The announcement came barely two days after JMM announced that it would go solo in Bihar and contest the elections in six assembly segments as the seat-sharing talks failed."RJD and the Congress are responsible for depriving on INDIA opposition for their failure to reach a consensus on seat-sharing. The INDIA bloc comprises RJD, Congress, CPI(ML), CPI, CPI(M) and Mukesh Sahani-led VIP. RJD and the Congress are likely to be having “friendly fights” in six seats where both partners have fielded their candidates. 4Continued on | Nation RK Singh fires salvo at Dy CM FPJ News Service PATNA JMM from contesting the election as part of a political conspiracy. JMM will give a befitting reply to this, and review its alliance with RJD and Congress," said Kumar, the state tourism minister.JMM on Saturday had announced that it will contest Chakai, Dhamdaha, Katoria, Manihari, Jamui and Pirpainti seats, which are slated to go to polls in the second phase on November 11.The deadline for submission of nomination papers in these seats was Monday. Former Union minister and BJP leader RK Singh, who had alleged “internal sabotage” for his defeat from Arrah in the last Lok Sabha election, has rattled his party by urging the people of Bihar not to vote for deputy CM Samrat Choudhary, contesting election from Tarapur. In a social media post, Singh urged people not to vote for candidates having criminal antecedents even if they belonged to their caste. He also appealed to people to opt for NOTA "if none of those in the fray is without a taint." Apart from BJP’s Choudhary, Singh also mentioned gangster-turned-politician Anant Singh, the JD(U) candidate from Mokama. 4Continued on | Nation 4Continued on | Nation Senior JMM leader Sudivya Kumar said his party would review the alliance in Jharkhand with Congress and RJD