Saturday, January 24, 2026 | Vol. 69 No. 95 | 37 Pages 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 l E-paper edition is not a replica of the print edition NATION ‘Sulking’ Tharoor skips Rahul’s key meeting, Cong denies rift amid Kerala poll buzz GAMES Abhishek Sharma says he’s looking to follow Rohit Sharma’s T20 batting template Cinema Karan Johar expresses pride and support for Homebound Edit Is losing our forests the price we pay for development? Ahead of polls, ACTION IMMINENT? | US prez Trump hedges his bets as he says PM blitzkreig military assets are being deployed in Indian Ocean ‘just in case’ in Kerala & TN AMERICAN ARMADA BEARS DOWN ON IRAN Agencies ‘You need a dictator sometimes’ DUBAI FPJ News Service THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/CHENNAI Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday sharpened the Bharatiya Janata Party’s southern political push, mounting parallel offensives in Kerala and Tamil Nadu by reviving the “double engine” governance pitch, attacking incumbent governments over corruption and ideological obstruction, and projecting the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as the alternative ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections. In Kerala, addressing a public meeting and interacting with party workers in Thiruvananthapuram, Modi framed the forthcoming Assembly contest as a choice between developmentdriven governance and what he described as a State administration paralysed by political resistance to Central initiatives. 4Contd on | nation A day after announcing the creation of what he called a “Board of Peace,” Donald Trump said American military assets were being deployed toward Iran “just in case” he decided to act. The U.S. military has moved more forces into the region, including the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and its accompanying warships, which sailed from the South China Sea into the Indian Ocean. A U.S. Navy official confirmed Thursday that the Lincoln strike group is now positioned there. Speaking aboard Air Force One, Trump said the deploy- ment was precautionary. “We have a massive fleet heading in that direction and maybe we won’t have to use it,” he said. He later described the buildup as a “big flotilla” and an “armada.” The buildup is taking place days after Trump claimed to have prevented the hangings of over 800 Iranian protestors, a claim that seemed to have eased the situation. 4Contd on | nation HC warns of salary freeze AIR POLLUTION Urvi Mahajani MUMBAI The Bombay HC on Thursday came down heavily on the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) for what it termed a “belligerent disregard” of repeated court orders aimed at controlling air pollution, warning that the salaries of top civic officials could be stopped for non-compliance. Stressing the need to take immediate steps to improve air quality, it emphasised that the authorities themselves were not living in an alien world. “You are also not living in an alien world. We are all breathing the same air,” observed a bench of Chief Justice Shree Chandrashekhar and Justice Shyam Suman. In 2023, the court had taken suo motu cognisance of rising air pollution and issued a slew of directions to civic bodies and other authorities to mitigate the problem. 4Contd on | nation “We had a good speech, we got great reviews. I can't believe it, we got good reviews on that speech," Trump said on Wednesday. "Usually they say, 'He's a horrible dictator-type person,' I'm a dictator," he continued. "But sometimes you need a dictator! But they didn't say that in this case.... It's all based on common sense, it's not conservative or liberal, or anything else.” Piqued Trump takes back invite to Carney Agencies Voices grow against India joining BoP Ashwin Ahmad WASHINGTON NEW DELHI US President Donald Trump has withdrawn Canada’s invitation to join his newly created Board of Peace, escalating a public war of words with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. In a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening, Trump said the board was revoking its invitation to Canada. “Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining,” he wrote, without giving any reason for the decision, BBC reports. Carney’s office did not immediately respond. The prime minister had indicated last week that he would ac- cept Trump’s invitation on principle. However, Ottawa had made clear in recent days that Canada would not pay the $1 billion (£740 million) membership fee that Trump has said permanent members would be required to contribute to help fund the board. After the summit, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain had declined the invitation to join the body. As New Delhi mulls President Trump’s invitation to the Board of Peace (BoP), it has come under criticism among India's strategic community, with one senior diplomat calling it a “significant assault on the international order.” Designed to create a “New Gaza”, BoP has, according to a White House official, seen 35 confirmations from various nations so far. Member nations will work under US stewardship with Trump serving as the chair, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US envoy Steve Witkoff, and Trump’s son-inlaw Jared Kushner serving as executive members. 4Contd on | nation 4Contd on | nation Bhujbal cleared in money laundering case FPJ News Service MUMBAI A Mumbai court on Friday discharged Chhagan Bhujbal, a senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), in a money-laundering case linked to the construction of Maharashtra Sadan in New Delhi. The case stemmed from a 2005–06 contract awarded for the construction of Maharashtra Sadan when Bhujbal was Maharashtra’s Public Works Department minister. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had alleged that Bhujbal and his family members received kickbacks from construction firm K S Chamankar in return for the contract. According to the ED, the construction company had routed funds to firms in which Bhujbal’s son Pankaj and nephew Sameer Bhujbal were directors. The agency claimed that the original project cost of Rs 13.5 crore was subsequently escalated to nearly Rs 50 crore, and that Bhujbal received kickbacks amounting to Rs 13.5 crore. 4Contd on | nation