FREE PRESS The publishers permit sharing of the e-paper's pdf on WhatsApp and other social media platforms VOL. 13 NO. 327 | BHOPAL | THURSDAY | MAY 9, 2024 | PAGES 16 HAS CONG received tempo loads of black money from them, asks Modi AGENCIES Hyderabad/New Delhi Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday for the first time during the Lok Sabha elections accused the Congress of having a nexus with "Ambani and Adani", and asked if the party has received "tempo loads of black money" from the two businessmen for its leader Rahul Gandhi to stop "abusing" them. In what appeared to be changing the narrative on the issue that was until now used by the Congress to attack Modi and his government at the Centre, the Prime Minister also demanded that the party should explain to people why it has stopped raising the 'Ambani-Adani' issue as its 'Shehzada' used to do for the past five years and asked if it has struck a 'sauda' (deal). "Since his Rafale issue got grounded, he started chanting about 'five industrialists'. Then he started saying Ambani-Adani. CONTD. ON P7 NEWS BRIEF AstraZeneca drops Covishield LONDON: UK-based pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca has started global withdrawal of its COVID-19 vaccine, which was provided in India as 'Covishield' in partnership with Serum Institute of India, days after it admitted to rare side effects of blood clotting and low platelet counts. Elephant attack kills journalist PALAKKAD (KERALA): In a shocking incident, a cameraman of a leading Malayalam news channel was killed in a wild elephant attack while reporting in this north Kerala district on Wednesday. A V Mukesh (34), working with Mathrubhumi News, was seriously injured in the elephant attack when he and the reporter were capturing visuals of the movement of the strayed elephant herd, channel sources said. Send CBI, ED to probe, Rahul dares PM C ongress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold a probe by the CBI or ED into whether businessmen Adani and Ambani sent his party "money in a tempo". Taking a swipe at the Prime Minister, Gandhi in a video message asked whether Modi was speaking from his "personal experience" about money being sent by businessmen. he times are changing. TDostcompletion of dost na raha...! After the three phases of elections, today the Prime Minister has started attacking his own friends. It is becoming clear that Modiji's chair is shaking. This is the real trend of the results n CONGRESS PRESIDENT MALLIKARJUN KHARGE - ill the Wpeopleability of be decided in my country on the basis EDITIONS: INDORE, BHOPAL, UJJAIN, MUMBAI, PUNE NATION CORRUPTION, APPEASEMENT POLITICS LINK CONGRESS & BRS of skin colour." "Who gave the permission to 'shehzada' for this game of skin colour n PM NARENDRA MODI AGENCIES New Delhi Congress leader Sam Pitroda triggered another controversy on Wednesday with his "people of the east look like the Chinese and those of the south look like Africa" remarks, with the ruling BJP latching on to his "racist" comments and claiming that those have exposed the opposition party's "divisive" politics. The Congress, however, distanced itself from Pitroda's remarks, describing those as unfortunate and unacceptable, and saying the party "completely dissociates" itself from the A study by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) has revealed that the population share of the majority religion in India (Hindus) declined sharply by 7.8% between 1950 and 2015, while a number of neighbouring countries saw a jump in the popula- CINEMA SAM QUITS C e have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there. We could hold the country as diverse as India together. Where people in the east look like the Chinese, people in the west look like the Arabs, people in the north look like, maybe, white and people in the south look like Africans." "It does not matter. All of us are brothers and sisters. We respect different languages, different religions, different customs, different food n SAM PITRODA, CONGRESS LEADER MODI SPEWS FIRE Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday attacked the Congress over its party leader Sam Pitroda's comments over skin colour and asserted that the countrymen would not tolerate insults on the basis of skin colour. Hitting out at top Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Modi said he has now understood that the national party sought to defeat President Droupadi Murmu in the presidential poll as her "skin colour is dark". CONGRESS DISTANCES ITSELF Dissociating itself from Pitroda's remarks, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X: "The analogies drawn by Mr Sam Pitroda in a podcast to illustrate India's diversity are most unfortunate and unacceptable. The Indian National Congress completely dissociates itself from these analogies." comments. In a podcast, Pitroda, the head of the Indian Overseas Congress, said, "We have survived 75 years in a very happy environment where people could live together, leaving aside a few fights here and there." "We could hold the country as diverse as India together. Where people in the east remittances in 2022: UN OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in evinced keen interest in exercising their right to franchise braving the scorching heat. The female voter turnout in Betul was 72.08% as against 74.82% by male voters. Digvijaya Singh’s constituency Rajgarh reported second highest turnout of fairer sex voters with 71.82% of them casting their vote. The male voter turnout was 80.04 % which incidentally is the highest male voters turnout in the nine Lok Sabha seats. The female voter turnout in Bhopal was 61.40% against 66.59% by their male counterparts. CONTD. ON P7 UNITED NATIONS: India received over USD 111 billion in remittances in 2022, the largest in the world, becoming the first country to reach and even surpass the USD 100 billion mark, the United Nations migration agency has said. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in its World Migration Report 2024 launched Tuesday, said that in 2022, India, Mexico, China, the Philippines and France were the top five remittance recipient countries. "India was well above the rest, receiving more than USD 111 billion, the first country to reach and even surpass the USD 100 billion mark. Mexico was the second-largest remittance recipient in 2022, a position it also held in 2021 after overtaking China, which historically had been the second-biggest recipient after India," the report said. According to the report's data, India was the top country receiving remittances in 2010 (USD 53.48 billion), 2015 (USS 68.91 billion), and 2020 (USD 83.15 billion), with the remittances crossing the USD 100 billion mark to reach USD 111.22 billion in 2022. CONTD. ON P7 went up. However, the number of Jains and Parsis in the population mix decreased. Between 1950 and 2015, the Muslim population share in India surged by 43.15%, Christians saw a 5.38% increase, Sikhs a 6.58% rise, and Buddhists witnessed a slight increase. The share of Hindus in India's population saw a decrease from 84% in 1950 to 78% in 2015, while that of Muslims witnessed an increase from 9.84% to 14.09% in the same period (of 65 years), according to the EAC-PM study . CONTD. ON P7 QUALITY AT VALUE www.freepressjournal.in KAPOOR BAHU IN TROUBLE AGAIN look like the Chinese, people in the west look like the Arabs, people in the north look like, maybe, white and people in the south look like Africans. CONTD. ON P7 ongress leader Sam Pitroda on Wednesday resigned as the Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress after his controversial remarks spurred the BJP to label the party "racist".Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said on X that party chief Mallikarjun Kharge has accepted Pitroda's decision. "Mr Sam Pitroda has decided to step down as Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress of his own accord. The Congress President has accepted his decision," Ramesh said in his post. n Bhind reports lowest turnout of 51.36% n Tribal dominated Betul highest at 72.08% tion of their majority community . While the Hindu population shrunk in India, the share of minorities, including Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Sikhs, 40.50c. 27.00c Sunrise : 05.49 Sunset : 06.57 THE REMARK W Majority in danger: Share of Hindu population in country shrinks by 7.82% ONLINE REPORT r RNI No. mpeng/2010/35815 ...THIS TIME WITH RACIST COMMENTS to ever Women participation First countryfigure reach this in polling dips amid India received over $111bn in scorching heat Male voters out-numbered their woman counterparts in the third phase of Lok Sabha elections held on Tuesday . While, over-all male voting percentage stood at 69.69, only 63.52% women voters turned up at polling booths. Bhind recorded the lowest women voter turnout of 51.36% among the nine Lok Sabha seats that went to poll on Tuesday. The male voting per cent stood at 57.99. Morena women stood second from the bottom with only 55.86% of them turning up at polling stations in comparison to 61.88% polling by their male counterparts. Gwalior was placed third in terms of lowest female voter turnout with 59.36%. The male voting percentage was 64.61. The highest turnout of women voters was reported from tribal-dominated Betul. Tribal women r Regd. No. Indore MP/ICD 216/2021-2023; Pitroda embarrasses Congress once again... ‘IT TAKES BRAVERY TO CONNECT AND PLAY THROUGH’ SPORTS ‘Why Rahul stopped attacking Ambani-Adani overnight... ...Daal mein kuch kala hai’ `3 WEATHER FP Repolling at four booths after bus with EVMs catches fire Re-voting in Rajapur, Dudar Raiyat, Kunda Raiyat and Chikhlimal of Multai assembly seat tomorrow OUR STAFF REPORTER city.bhopal@fpj.co.in Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday ordered re-polling at four polling booths of Betul Lok Sabha seat on Friday . The decision came after Betul Collector informed the ECI about four out of six EVMs of six polling booths suffering minor damage after the bus carrying them caught fire near Goula village in Multai tehsil on Tuesday night. The ECI ordered repolling in Rajapur, Dudar Raiyat, Kunda Raiyat and Chikhlimal of Multai as- sembly segment on Friday . The polling would begin at 7 am and continue till 6 pm. Talking about the fire incident, Betul SP Nischal Jharia said, “The polling party left in a bus with EVMs of six polling booths. The fire broke out due to a mechanical fault. Four EVMs suffered a little damage to their parts. Two other EVMs are undamaged. There were 36 people on the bus. They jumped out of the bus after breaking window glass after doors got jammed. None was injured. They were later shifted to another bus. A case has been registered in this regard.” Betul Collector DM Narendra Kumar Suryavanshi said, “We had sent a report to Election Commission. All polling personnel were safe. CONTD. ON P7 HARYANA GOVT NOT IN ANY TROUBLE: CM SAINI CHANDIGARH: Haryana Blames Congress for Chief Minister Nayab Singh 'creating confusion' Saini on Wednesday said his government is not in any trouble and working strongly a day after three Independent , MLAs withdrew support to the BJP dispensation. He blamed the Congress for creating the confusion that his government is in trouble. "The government is not in any trouble, it is working strongly Saini told reporters at Sirsa when asked ," to comment on the withdrawal of support. CONTD. ON P7