www.freepressjournal.in | twitter.com/fpjindia Reg. No. Mcs/048/2018-20; RNI No. 1541/1957 I M.p.c.s office Mumbai-400001 FMCG FIRMS TO HIKE PRICES TO OFFSET INPUT COST SPIKE Pg 9 RISE ABOVE DIFFERENCES TO MAKE VACCINATION DRIVE A SUCCESS PRANUTAN BAHL TALKS ABOUT NEPOTISM, GRANDMOTHER NUTAN, AND MORE... Pg 14 310c. 220c. Sunrise: 07:14 am Sunset: 06:19 pm Vol. 64 No. 217 | MONDAY | JANUARY 11, 2021 | 12 Pages | EDITIONS: Mumbai*, Pune, Indore, Bhopal, E-Paper BETWEEN THE LINES PLOT TO SHOOT NANCY PELOSI A die-hard Donald Trump buff, who allegedly told his friends that he wanted to shoot and run over House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been arrested on federal charges accruing from the riot at the Capitol Hill last week. According to CNN. Cleveland Grover Meredith Jr travelled to Washington last Tuesday with hundreds of rounds of ammunition and an assault rifle. Authorities also said Meredith had texted his friends that he wanted to shoot or run over Pelosi. In one text, Meredith allegedly wrote that he was thinking of ‘‘putting a bullet in [Pelosi's] noggin on Live TV.’’ Meredith is one of 13 people who have been charged with federal crimes. The others include Lonnie Coffman, whose vehicle contained 11 Molotov cocktails, and Richard Barnett, who was photographed sitting at Pelosi's desk. SURINAME HEAD IS R-DAY GUEST President of the Republic of Suriname, Chandrikapersad Santokhi, will be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade on January 26, sources in the central government told News18 on Sunday, days after UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancelled his visit to India. Earlier this week, Santokhi was the chief guest at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention, held by the Ministry of External Affairs and delivered the keynote address. India had initially invited Boris Johnson to be the chief guest but the British PM had to cancel his visit in view of the grim coronavirus situation back home. SC’S VERDICT ON AADHAAR TODAY The Supreme Court is scheduled to pronounce on Monday its verdict on pleas seeking review of a verdict upholding the Centre's flagship Aadhaar scheme as constitutionally valid but striking down some of its provisions, including linking with bank accounts, mobile phones and school admissions. A five-judge bench, comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan, S A Nazeer and B R Gavai, will take up in chambers a batch of review pleas challenging the September 26, 2018 verdict. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by then Chief Justice Dipak Misra had held that while Aadhaar would remain mandatory for filing of Income Tax Return and allotment of permanent account number (PAN), it would not be mandatory to link Aadhaar number to bank accounts and telecom service providers cannot seek its linking for mobile connections. EDIT Real education is not just superimposing all kind of date upon our brains from outside sources. Real education is to bring out what is within us. FADNAVIS, RAJ, PATIL: Haryana's CM Khattar gets SECURITY SCALED DOWN a taste of farmers’ wrath Pg 8 SANJAY JOG Mumbai The two tools Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray handily wields against the barrage of attacks against him and his Maha Vikas Aghadi government are old-fashioned instinct and sophisticated calculation. These were once again in evidence as the state government slashed the security cover of the leader of the opposition in the assembly Devendra Fadnavis and his family former UP governor , Ram Naik, MNS president Raj Thackeray state BJP , chief Chandrakant Patil, another former CM and BJP MP Narayan Rane, Union Minister Raosaheb Danve. Rane had ‘Y-plus’ security . As per a government notification issued on January 8, Fadnavis will now get ‘Y-plus security with escort’, instead of the ‘Z-plus’ cover. Security for his wife Amruta Fadnavis and daughter Divija has been downgraded from ‘Y-plus with escort’ to ‘X’ category . Former Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik will now get ‘Y’ cover instead of ‘Y-plus’. MNS chief Raj Thackeray’s security cover has been downgraded from ‘Z’ to ‘Y plus with escort’. The govt has also reduced the security cover of Union Minister Ramdas Athawale, BJP legislator Ashish Shelar, who has been vocal against MVA government policies, former Lok Ayukta ML Tahaliyani and former minister Deepak Kesarkar. CONTD. ON P6 FPJ NEWS SERVICE Karnal At the end of their tether, the tipping point came as protesting farmers on Sunday took matters in their own hands, ransacking the venue of the ‘kisan mahapanchayat' programme in Haryana's Karnal district where Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar was to address a gathering and enumerate the benefits of the three contentious agriculture laws. Since Karnal is CM Khattar’s constituency the Har, yana Police was not inclined to brook any nonsense and used water cannons and lobbed teargas shells to dis- Corona no excuse for lapses: Uddhav 6-member panel led by Nagpur divisional commissioner to probe Bhandara fire tragedy SANJAY JOG / Mumbai A day after the heart-wrenching tragedy in which 10 newborns died in the fire at the Bhandara district general hospital, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Sunday warned that even though the health infrastructure was under pressure due to the present coronavirus pandemic, it could not become an excuse for safety and security lapses in hospitals. Thackeray said US impeach push becoming a shove FPJ NEWS SERVICE / Washington US House Democrats are about to introduce an article of impeachment against outgoing President Donald Trump over the deadly January 6 Capitol unrest. California Congressman Ted Lieu, a Democratic member of the House Judiciary Committee, tweeted on Saturday that the article of impeachment, which has so far had 180 co-sponsors, is likely to be brought forward during Monday's pro forma session in the lower chamber. The lower chamber could then vote as soon as Tuesday on the article charging President Trump with inciting a violent mob that attacked the Capitol Hill; however, it may delay sending it to the Senate for trial. Though top leaders are determined to punish Trump, they want to do so without shackling the first days of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s presidency with an all-consuming Indians subjected to abusive chant for second consecutive day Senate trial. They recognize it would be impossible to impeach and hold a trial before Trump leaves office in 10 days, reports the New York Times. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has publicly expressed support for initiating proceedings to impeach Trump for a second time in just over a year. The House, led by Democrats, had impeached Trump in 2019 as well after an inquiry triggered by a whistleblower complaint that raised concerns about the White House's interactions with Ukraine. The Republicanled Senate later acquitted the President, allowing him to continue holding office. CONTD. ON P6 the state government would not compromise on fire safety which was paramount. , Thackeray who visited the , hospital and met the families of infants, announced that a 6-member committee headed by the Nagpur divisional commissioner, would conduct a thorough probe into the incident and submit a report to the government within a month. The committee would include fire safety experts and former Mumbai 3 killed, 4 hurt in US shootings ASSOCIATED PRESS / Chicago A man killed three people and wounded four others in a series of shootings over roughly four hours that started on Chicago's South Side and ended with his death in a shootout with police in a parking lot just north of the city . Investigators are trying to determine a motive for the attacks, which began Saturday afternoon with the killing of a 30-year-old University of Chicago student who was shot in the head while sitting in his car in a parking garage in the Hyde Park neighborhood, Chicago police Superintendent David Brown told reporters. He didn't release any of the victims' names. The shooter, 32-year-old Jason Nightengale, then "just randomly" walked into an apartment building a block away where he shot a 46, year-old security guard who CONTD. ON P6 S for Sydney, slur I FPJ NEWS SERVICE/PTI / Sydney/New Delhi ndian cricketers, especially pacer Mohammed Siraj, endured racist slurs from the crowd for the second successive day in the third Test against Australia in Sydney leading to play being held up for ten minutes and six , spectators being thrown out of the Sydney Cricket Ground. The abusive chant did not cease even as the six spectators were led out of the stadium; no legal charges were pressed and they were let off with a token fine. Siraj, still grieving the death of his father a little over a month ago, was called a "Brown Dog" and "Big Monkey", BCCI sources said. The 26-year-old, on his maiden tour Down Under, followed the protocol and promptly went up to his skipper Ajinkya Rahane and the on-field umpires, who halted play for about 10 minutes and called in the security . CONTD. ON P6 Captain staged encounter with eye on `20L LAST WORD SUMIR KAUL / Shopian (Kashmir) The Army Captain involved in the alleged fake encounter in Shopian in July last year in which three youths were killed, had hatched a conspiracy along with two civilians with the motive of "grabbing" the reward money of Rs 20 lakh and had fired at the victims even before his men could cordon off the area, according to a police charge sheet. Captain Bhoopinder Singh is currently in the custody of the Army with in, formed sources saying he may face court-martial proceedings. The case relates to the July 18, 2020 encounter at Amshipura here, in which three youths of Rajouri district -Imtiyaz Ahmed, Abrar Ahmed and Mohammed Ibrar -- were killed and branded as terrorists. The charge sheet submitted before the chief judicial magistrate of this district also details the role of the two civilians -- Tabish Nazir and Bilal Ahmed Lone -in the case. CONTD. ON P6 Fire Brigade Chief PS Rahangdale. The CM clarified that the government would not spare the guilty . “Last year, our health infrastructure was under a lot of stress due to Covid-19. A probe will determine if there was negligence. Investigation will be held under the chairmanship of the divisional commissioner. I have directed fire audits of all government hospitals,’’ he said. CONTD. ON P6 perse the miscreants. However, the police action seemed to precipitate matters with the protesters climbing onto the dais, throwing chairs flower pots and tearing up banners and posters. Result: Khattar's meeting had to be cancelled as his chopper was unable to land at the venue. The Haryana farmers, at their wits’ end, with one ‘baithak’ (meeting) after another not yielding any tangible outcome, were in no mood to listen to the chief minister. By noon, hundreds of them had converged at a toll plaza, where they were stopped by the police. CONTD. ON P6 His Holiness Radhanath Swami Maharaj POLICE PERSONNEL disperse the protesting farmers after they ran amok at the venue of Haryana CM Manohar Lal Khattar’s Kisan Mahapanchayat, at Kaimla village, in Karnal on Sunday.Pic: ANI VACCINE UPDATE Will Moderna land on Indian shelves? The buzz is that Moderna's novel coronavirus vaccine may join the other two candidates on Indian shelves. The speculation has been ignited by indications that Hyderabadbased vaccine manufacturer Indian Immunologicals Limited (IIL) is hobnobbing with the US pharma giant. Asked about the possibility of this happening, sources within the Centre For Cellular And Molecular Biology told India Today’s news portal that the "matter is merely at the level of exploring whether getting Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine to India could even be a possibility". "Talks are at a very initial stage. The  price of vaccines like that of Moderna and Pfizer  would be much less if they are produced in India in collaboration with a company. In this case, Moderna is not the only company that talks are on with, there are other companies, too," sources told the news magazine. In addition, sources within the CSIR-CCMB added that it is easier to produce  vaccines based on mRNA technology  in India, reports India Today. Didi hints at free jabs Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday wrote an open letter to the police and state health care officials stating that the TMC government is looking at free distribution of the COVID 19 vaccine. The vaccination in West Bengal is to start from January 16. Chief Ministers of several other states have also pressed the BJP government for free distribution of the vaccine. Incidentally, PM Modi is scheduled to address all the Chief Ministers on Monday, where the matter may come up for discussion. The Congress and the BJP have dismissed Mamata’s open letter as a gimmick. "She is trying to turn it into a poll sop," said West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh.