Thursday, February 12, 2026 | Vol. 69 No. 110 | 29 Pages THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL Reg.No MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 400001 INDIA EDITION | www.freepressjournal.in ● Leader in E-paper circulation l E-paper edition is not a replica of the print edition GAMES NATION Congress alliance intact but no scope for power-sharing: Chief Minister MK Stalin India look to register their second victory of T20 WC against Namibia in Delhi today Kalpesh Mhamunkar In a major reform aimed at easing land development and cutting bureaucratic red tape, the Maharashtra government has amended the state’s land revenue law to abolish the requirement of obtaining separate Non-Agricultural (NA) permission from district collectors for converting agricultural land to non-farming use. Under the amended provisions, approval of a building plan by the town planning department or the relevant local planning authority will now be treated as deemed NA per- ‘BHARAT MATA SOLD’ For converting agricultural land to non-farming use Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI The Union Home Ministry has directed that all six stanzas of the National Song Vande Mataram, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, shall be sung first when the National Song and the National Anthem Jan Gana Man are to be played together. On January 28, the ministry issued the first set of protocols for singing the National Song. It said the six stanzas, with a MUMBAI This is a complete surrender of the future of Indian population. PM Modi has done this because he wants to protect the BJP’s financial architecture. Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on the Centre over the interim trade deal with the United States, alleging that the government had surrendered India’s interests and “sold Bharat Mata”. Speaking during the discussion on the Union Budget, Gandhi said the deal was “onesided” and had hurt Indian farmers and several sectors, including textiles, which he claimed was “finished”. “You have sold India, you have sold our mother Bharat Mata,” he said in the House. Gandhi got an opportunity to deliver a complete speech after a week of protests during which the Opposition stalled mission. Landowners will no longer be required to approach district collectors for a separate NA certificate once the proposed land use is permitted under the sanctioned development plan. The decision was taken by Revenue Minister Chandrashekhar Bavankule, and the amendment has been notified through an official government gazette. 4Contd on | nation proceedings. The protests were held to decry his being stopped from speaking on India-China relations while reading from a memoir of former Army chief General MM Naravane. He alleged that through the India-US trade deal, the government had buckled on tar- Ashwin Ahmad Washington has updated the India-US FTA factsheet. In the new version Washington has removed the mention of “certain pulses” as goods on which India would remove or entirely eliminate tariffs. The other notable change to the factsheet was the changing of wording from “commit” to “intends,” a significant change since it referred to the $500 billion purchase commitment that India had agreed to. The third major change was with regard to “digital taxes.” In the All six stanzas to be sung before National Anthem at official functions Shefali Parab-Pandit MUMBAI duration of 3 minutes and 10 seconds, shall be sung at official functions such as the arrival of the President, unfurling of the tricolour and speeches of governors. In a politically charged showdown marked by Congress protests and walkouts by the Shiv Sena (UBT), BJP’s Ritu Tawde was elected unopposed as Mumbai’s 78th mayor on Wednesday, while Shiv Sena’s 4Contd on | nation initial factsheet, the US said India would remove its “digital services taxes.” The updated version now says that “India committed to negotiate a robust set of bilateral digital trade rules.” Much media and public speculation has viewed the US’s change in language as a key victory for India in pushing back against what many saw as worrying concessions to the United States. However, trade experts say such language is common when negotiating a bilateral trade deal. Map removed The Office of the United States Trade Representative (OSTR) has deleted a social media post that featured a map depicting the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir—including Pakistan-occuU.S. Tree Nuts and Red Sorghum pied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin—as part of India. The U.S. Dried graphic, shared on the USTR’s Distillers’ Grains official X (formerly Twitter) U.S. Fresh handle on February 7, was and Processed posted to highlight progress Fruit U.S. Wine and Spirits on a U.S.-India trade framework. It drew attention for aligning with India’s official cartographic position by showing Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh in full as Indian territory, without marking PoK or Aksai Chin as disputed—an approach that departs from the customary U.S. government practice. 4Contd on | nation FPJ News Service NEW DELHI The Delhi Police’s Special Cell has issued a notice to Penguin Random House India seeking clarifications over the circulation of the unpublished book of former Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane on social media, an official said on Wednesday. The notice served as competing claims over the status of the book, and the alleged circulation of unauthorised versions intensified, drawing the publisher, the former Army chief and senior political figures into a widening public dispute. According to police, the Special Cell has formally approached the publishing house through a notice, posing multiple queries and seeking detailed responses. “Delhi Police Special Cell has issued a notice to Penguin India. Through the notice, several questions have been asked, and responses have been sought,” a senior police officer said. 4Contd on | nation 4Contd on | nation 4See also | nation Talk to us like equals, not like we are your servants. Now the US will decide who we will buy our oil from. Rahul Gandhi Ritu Tawde elected mayor Delhi Police sends Speaker gives OK notice to Penguin to tweak notice PTI iffs, handed over India’s data to the United States, and given a 20-year tax holiday to foreign companies, while leaving Indian farmers at the mercy of mechanised American farms. Congress Leader US issues softer version of ‘fact sheet’ NEW DELHI Indian shipping baron behind Iran oil ops? Ashish Singh NEW DELHI New directive on Vande Mataram PTI Edit SEBI’s ‘fit and proper’ reboot towards course correction RAHUL GANDHI’S CHARGE | Leader of opposition finds the India-US FTA to be lopsided, says farmers will be the worst sufferers and that India’s energy security has been compromised NA permission clause scrapped MUMBAI Cinema Salman, Ajay & others extend financial support to Rajpal Yadav MUMBAI The move by opposition parties to initiate the removal of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla ran into an early procedural hurdle after flaws were detected in the notice submitted to the Lok Sabha Secretariat. Parliamentary sources said the notice could have been rejected outright under the rules, but Birla chose instead to have the defects corrected so that the matter could be taken up at the earliest. As many as 118 opposition Members of Parliament had signed the notice, which was submitted on Tuesday afternoon to Lok Sabha Secretary General Utpal Kumar Singh. However, later in the day, the opposition withdrew the notice and submitted a revised version after it emerged that the original document contained multiple errors related to dates. 4Contd on | nation Operation Sindoor Trump now counts 10 planes downed PTI NEW YORK/WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump has once again raised his estimate of the number of planes downed during Operation Sindoor to 10, while reiterating his claim, possibly for the 80th time, that he stopped the war. The figure marks an increase from the five aircraft he had cited on July 19, 2025, to 10 planes on Tuesday.  He repeated the claim that he stopped the war between India and Pakistan last year, which he said could have turned nuclear, through tariffs. “I settled eight wars. Of the eight wars, at least six were settled because of tariffs. In other words, I said, ‘if you don’t settle this war, I’m going to charge you tariffs, because I don’t want to see people getting killed,” Trump said in an interview to Fox Business Tuesday. 4Contd on | nation Sanjay Ghadi assumed office as deputy mayor. Tawde becomes the eighth woman to occupy the mayor’s chair and only the second BJP leader to do so in 44 years. Her elevation signals a decisive shift in the balance of power at the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), ending nearly three decades of dominance by the Thackeray-led Shiv Sena over India’s richest civic body. The run-up to the mayoral election turned the BMC House at the civic headquarters into a theatre of political brinkmanship. 4See also | city Indian security agencies have identified a common Indian operational link among the three vessels seized by the Indian Coast Guard on February 5 in the coast off Mumbai dealing in smuggled Iranian crude oil. The common link is through shared ownership and management structures connected to Jugwinder Singh Brar, an Indian national and UAE-based shipping operator. In April 2025, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned Brar and his companies, including Glory International FZ-LLC and Elite Shipping & Trading, for allegedly transporting hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of Iranian petroleum in violation of international sanctions. Brar could not be contacted for his comment. Officials said Brar-linked entities, including Prime Tankers LLC and Glory International FZ-LLC, operate a fleet of nearly 30 vessels involved in high-risk STS transfers of Iranian oil in waters off Iraq, Iran, the UAE, and the Gulf of Oman. Officials allege that Brar-linked “shadow fleet” tankers deployed smaller Han- dysize tankers to conduct highrisk STS transfers in international waters. Such transfers were allegedly used to blend Iranian crude with cargo from other origins, thereby falsifying documentation and masking the oil’s sanctioned status. A major maritime interdiction operation in the Arabian Sea, the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) seized approximately 140 tonnes of suspected smuggled illicit crude oil during the interception of three United States-sanctioned, Iranlinked “shadow fleet” tankers, central investigating agency sources confirmed. 4See also | city