Saturday, October 25, 2025 Reg.No MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 1541/1957 M.p.c.s office Mumbai. PIN 400001 THE FREE PRESS JOURNAL INDIA EDITION | www.freepressjournal.in ● Leader in E-paper circulation The first time I met Piyush Modi rakes up Sitaram Kesri insult Dheeraj Kumar PATNA By invitation Prahlad Kakkar T he first time I actually met Piyush Pandey properly was when he was coming to an editing room on the same floor as my office to edit some stuff that he wanted to present to his clients. Both of us faced the same problems at that time: whatever we wrote on paper and was slightly original and out of the box, very few clients would actually take the risk of buying into the idea. Piyush found out that if he did some animatics, giving them an idea of what the ad would actually look like, it would be easier to actually sell it to them. I also used to face the same problem because I had to shoot most of my films twice. I would make it once the client way and one my way, because I didn't want to sit and argue with them and waste time trying 1955-2025 to explain what I was talking about. I'd rather invest that same time in the exercise and just do it twice. Hindi mei bolo Piyush was very good in Hindi, even though he was from St. Stephens. As I got to know him, I realized that there was a lot of depth to the man because he had experienced a lot of things in his life- he had been a Ranji Trophy player for Rajasthan and had also joined the tea gardens as a tea taster. As a matter of fact, when I was running the tea centre in Churchgate, I invited him as a tea taster to introduce some of my patrons to some of the finest Darjeeling tea. As told to Kabir Singh Bhandari 4Contd on | nation Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday launched a sharp political offensive in Bihar, blending emotional appeals, caste symbolism, and blistering attacks on the Congress and RJD. Addressing massive rallies in Samastipur and Begusarai, Modi invoked the legacy of socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, accused the Congress of humiliating Dalit leader Sitaram Kesri, and claimed the NDA under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s leadership would win a record mandate in the upcoming Assembly elections. Modi began his campaign at Doodhpura in Samastipur, declaring that the “winds of change” were already blowing across Bihar. “I can now say with full confidence that under Nitish Kumar’s leadership, the NDA will break its own record in Bihar and secure the biggest mandate ever,” Modi said. Although he avoided explicitly naming Nitish as the CM face, his remarks were widely interpreted as an endorsement. 4Contd on | nation Trump ends trade talks with Canada over advert Agencies WASHINGTON Xi-Trump meet on Oct 30 US President Donald Trump has announced an immediate end to all trade negotiations with Canada after an advert released by the Ontario government used former President Ronald Reagan’s voice criticising tariffs. Trump called the advert “FAKE” and “egregious”, writing on social media that “ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED.” He said the video was designed to “interfere with” the US Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on whether China confirmed that President Xi Jinping will visit South Korea to attend the APEC Summit, during which he is expected to hold talks with Donald Trump to ease trade tensions. The October 30 meeting will take place at the end of a three-nation Asia trip to Malaysia, Japan and South Korea by the US president in Busan. Washington’s tariffs are legal, a ruling that could determine the fate of billions of dollars collected under his trade policies. Shortly after, Trump posted a strongly worded statement on Truth Social, accusing Canada of manipulation and fraud. “CANADA CHEATED AND GOT CAUGHT!!! They fraudulently took a big buy ad saying that Ronald Reagan did not like Tariffs, when actually he LOVED TARIFFS FOR OUR COUNTRY, AND ITS NATIONAL SECURITY.” 4Contd on | nation Haridev Pushparaj India-Pakistan tensions have now spilled over to the hockey arena as the Pakistan team has decided to boycott the Junior Hockey World Cup to be held in Chennai and Madurai from November 28 to December 28. As per reports, the International Hockey Federation (FIH) received a notification from the Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) that the Pakistan team which had qualified for the FIH Hockey Men’s Junior Junior Hockey World Cup will be held in Chennai and Madurai from November 28 to December 28 World Cup Tamil Nadu 2025 would not be participating. The FIH also stated that Pakistan’s replacement team would also be announced soon. Pakistan were clubbed in Group B alongside India, Chile 20 BURNT ALIVE IN BUS INFERNO Trade deal with US ‘nearly done’ PTI NEW DELHI torcycle from behind, dragging it for several metres before the motorbike’s petrol A late-night inferno on Na- tank exploded, setting off a tional Highway 44 turned a blaze that consumed the enroutine journey into horror tire vehicle within minutes. when a Hyderabad–Benga“The fire spread rapidly luru sleeper bus caught fire due to the synthetic interiors near Chinna Tekur village in and sealed air-conditioning,” Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool said Kurnool District Collecdistrict early on Friday, killing tor A. Siri, who oversaw the 20 people, including two rescue operation. “Passengers children, and injuring 21 had little time to react as most others. were asleep.” The private AC sleeper Survivors described scenes coach, operated by of chaos and desperVemuri Kaveri SCAN & WATCH ation. Harika, an IT Travels, was carrying professional from 43 passengers when Nellore, recalled it met with a fatal acwaking up to the cident around 3 a.m. smell of burning Police said the bus plastic. “The aisle was collided with a moalready filled with FPJ News Service AMARAVATI Af plans dams to choke Pak’s water flow FPJ News Service MUMBAI and Switzerland and the new team to be announced would take up a spot there. After the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22nd and India’s Operation Sindoor, sporting relations between India and Pakistan have nosedived. Earlier this year, Pakistan had pulled out of the Men’s Asia Cup hockey tournament which was held from August 29 to September 7 in Rajgir in Bihar as a fallout of the politico-military hostilities. Afghanistan has announced an ambitious plan to construct dams on the Kunar River to curb the flow of water into Pakistan, in what observers describe as a move inspired by India’s hardening stance on water diplomacy. The decision, confirmed by the Taliban government’s Information Ministry, signals a new flashpoint between Kabul and Islamabad amid rising border hostilities and refugee expulsions. Supreme Leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada has directed the Ministry of Water and Energy to accelerate dam-building projects on the Kunar River and finalise contracts with domestic firms. 4Contd on | nation 4Contd on | nation Pak colts pull out of hockey WC MUMBAI FATAL COLLISION | Bike’s fuel tank explodes after hitting Hyd-B’luru AC coach in Kurnool Children’s Booker Prize announced Agencies LONDON The Booker prize foundation has launched a major new literary award, the Children’s Booker prize, offering 50,000 pounds (Rs 58,45,205) for the best fiction written for readers aged between eight to 12. The prize will celebrate contemporary children’s fiction written in or translated into English and published in the UK or Ireland. As with the adult Booker and International Booker prizes, shortlisted authors will each receive £2,500 (Rs 2,92,153) It will launch in 2026, and the first winner announced in early 2027. It will be decided by a mixed panel of adult and child judges, a first for a Booker award. The inaugural chair of judges will be Frank Cottrell-Boyce, the children’s author and current children’s laureate. Two other judges, both adult, will help shortlist eight books before three child judges are recruited to help decide the winner. In another initiative, the Booker prize foundation will also gift 30,000 copies of shortlisted and winning books to children each year, working with partners including the National Literacy Trust, The Reading Agency, Bookbanks and the Children’s Book Project. PTI HAPPY CHHATH PUJA | Vol. 69 No. 17 | 36 Pages The Guardian reports that the move comes when the reading habit among children is at the lowest in two decades and that the move has been met enthusiasm and widespread support from leading children’s authors. Former children’s laureates Malorie Blackman, Jacqueline Wilson, Michael Morpurgo, Cressida Cowell, Anne Fine and Joseph Coelho all have welcomed the prize. 4Contd on | nation flames. Someone broke the rear window and we jumped. I have burns on my arm, but I’m alive only because of that window,” she said. Another survivor, Surya, who was travelling to Bengaluru for a job interview, said he leapt from the bus in panic. “The smoke was suffocating. I jumped through a broken window and fractured both my legs,” he said from his hospital bed. Fire tenders from Kurnool and Nandyal rushed to the scene but by the time the blaze was controlled, the vehicle had been reduced to a skeletal shell. 4Contd on | nation 4See also | nation India and the US are "very near" to concluding the proposed bilateral trade agreement, as both sides are converging on most issues, an official said on Friday. He said that the two countries are sorting out the language of the agreement. "We are very near as far as deal is concerned," the official said, adding that not much differences are there now for resolution. Talks are progressing on the agreement and no new issues are acting as hurdle in the negotiations. "We are converging on most of the issues," the official added. Five rounds of talks have been completed so far for the first phase of the bilateral trade agreement between the US and India. Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Thurs- ‘India scaling back oil buys’ The White House on Thursday said India has started “scaling back” its oil purchases from Russia at the “request” of US President Trump. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “I saw some international news that suggests China is scaling back oil purchases from Russia; we know that India has done the same at the request of the President.” day said that talks between India and the US for the proposed trade agreement are progressing, and expressed hope that both sides would work towards a fair and equitable agreement in the near future. 4Contd on | nation