THE SUNDAY Vol. 37 No. 18 | Sunday, January 25, 2026 34 Pages | `5 & for Pune `7 | Reg. No. MCS/048/2021-23; RNI No. 46955/1988 M.p.c.s. office Mumbai-400001 FREE PRESS JOURNAL N AT I O N A L TO U R I S M DAY N AT I O N A L V OT E R S ’ DAY INDIA EDITION | www.freepressjournal.in ● Leader in E-paper circulation l E-paper edition is not a replica of the print edition Weekend Masters who honoured Hindu traditions and stood tall for inclusive spirit WEEKEND Travel Gen Z’s Insta-inspired travel choices A distinctive rise in private spirituality in an otherwise loud world Sunday Read Tannishtha on battling cancer, and more Mumbai mayoral poll set for delay Mahayuti’s lag in registering corporators pushes Mumbai mayoral election to early February Oshiwara firing case KRK arrested Megha Kuchik egory, clearing the way for Mumbai to have a woman Mayor once the election process is completed. However, the administrative hold-up has exposed deeper political fissures within the ruling Mahayuti alliance, comprising the BJP and the Shiv Sena led by Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. More than a week after the BMC election results were declared, the alliance partners are yet to arrive at a consensus on who should occupy the city’s top civic post. During the recently concluded BMC elections, the Mahayuti had promised stable governance and administrative efficiency. Yet, behind the scenes, negotiations over power-sharing have remained inconclusive. Both alliance partners are staking claim to the mayoralty, with neither willing to yield ground. TRADE PACTS FUEL JOBS, SAYS PM ‘B’desh out, Scotland in’ Shefali Parab-Pandit MUMBAI The election of Mumbai’s next Mayor is set to be delayed, with both the BJP and Shinde Sena yet to complete a crucial statutory requirement—registration of its corporators and political groups with the Konkan Divisional Commissioner’s office at Konkan Bhavan. The delay has effectively pushed the mayoral election to the first week of Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar NEW DELHI Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said India’s expanding trade and mobility agreements with multiple countries are opening up fresh employment and career opportunities for the country’s youth, both at home and abroad, as the government pushes job creation in “mission mode”. Addressing the 18th Rozgar Mela via video conferencing from New Delhi, Modi electronically handed over more than 61,000 appointment letters to newly recruited candidates across central government departments and organisations. The Rozgar Mela was held simultaneously at 45 locations across the country. “India is signing trade and mobility agreements with several nations. These agree- February, instead of the earlier tentative date of January 28. Confirming the development, municipal secretary Manjiri Deshpande said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) administration is still awaiting registration receipts from major political parties. “We are yet to receive the registration documents of all the newly elected corporators from the major political parties. As this pro- ments are bringing new opportunities for the youth of the country,” the Prime Minister said, underlining that India has the world’s largest population of young people and that harnessing this demographic advantage remained a key priority of his government. Calling the appointment letters an “invitation to nation-building”, Modi urged the new recruits to see their roles as part of a larger constitutional responsibility. The event, he said, has also empowered women as “over 8,000 daughters have received appointment letters”. Modi also said that in the last 11 years, the participation of women in the workforce has nearly doubled. He said schemes like Mudra and Startup India have also benefited women and their self-employment has risen by about 15 percent. The Prime Minister linked the occasion to the spirit of the Republic and recent national commemorations, saying the start of government service marked a new chapter not just in individual lives but also in the country’s development journey. 4Contd on | Nation MURKY IN SOLAPUR A proposal to unite rival Shiv Sena factions at a rally in Solapur district ahead of the local body elections triggered a political storm on Saturday. The idea, floated by Shiv Sena (UBT) MLA Dilip Sopal to invite the Eknath Shinde-led faction, was opposed by his own party and criticised by the BJP. See P2 cess may take some time, the mayoral election is now expected to be held in the first week of February,” she said. The procedural delay comes Kallas begins India visit European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas arrived in New Delhi on Saturday on her first official visit to India, as both sides seek to deepen strategic ties. The visit follows talks between External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and EU ambassadors, and comes ahead of the State Visit of European Council President Antonio Luis Santos da Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who will attend India’s Republic Day celebrations and co-chair the India-EU Summit. even as the lottery for reservation of the Mayor’s post has already been conducted. The post has been reserved for a woman from the general cat- Path exists to roll back India tariffs: Bessent ANI US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent known for making anti India remarks on Friday, hinted that the additional 25 per cent tariffs imposed on India over its purchase of Russian oil could be rolled back, after Indian refinery purchases of Russian crude dropped sharply following the tariff move. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos during a conversation with Politico, Bessent described the impact of the tariffs as a “huge success” and suggested that a diplomatic path exists to remove them, even as they remain in force for now. Haridev Pushparaj MUMBAI “We put a 25 per cent tariff on India for buying Russian oil, and the Indian purchases by their refineries of Russian oil have collapsed. So that is a success. The tariffs are still on. I would imagine there is a path to take them off, so that’s a check and a huge success,” Bessent told Politico. His remarks come amid growing geopolitical tensions around Indian oil imports, US trade measures and European Union trade ambitions. They also follow discussions in the US Congress on a proposed bill that could impose duties of up to 500 per cent on countries buying Russian oil. It is now official: Bangladesh are out of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026, and Scotland are in. The International Cricket Council (International Cricket Council) has dropped Bangladesh from the tournament starting next month after the Bangladesh Cricket Board (Bangladesh Cricket Board) refused to travel to India, citing security concerns. Scotland have been named as their replacement. The decision followed an ultimatum issued by the ICC, giving the BCB 24 hours to clarify its position. When Bangladesh stood firm, the global body moved swiftly. An email circulated to ICC board members on Saturday confirmed the call. “The BCB is not agreeable to playing the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 as per the match schedule with their matches in India. We are therefore going ahead with the Board decision to replace Bangladesh in the tournament,” the communication stated. 4Contd on | Nation 4Contd on | Nation Bessent suggests EU avoided imposing tariffs on India to protect negotiations for an upcoming EUIndia Free Trade Agreement. DAVOS 4See also | Mumbai Trump threatens to clobber Govt has no say in transfer of Canada with 100% tariffs judges, says Justice Ujjal Bhuyan Agencies FPJ News Service WASHINGTON PUNE US President Donald Trump has threatened to “immediately” hit Canada with a 100% tariff on all goods and products, should they make a deal with China. “If Governor Carney thinks he is going to make Canada a “Drop Off Port” for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post on Saturday morning. “China will eat Canada alive, completely devour it, including the destruction of their businesses, social fabric, and general way of life. If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the USA.” China and Canada made a deal recently expanding trade and mutual investment in agriculture, agrifood, energy, and finance. 4Contd on | Nation ‘Embrace the Penguin’ he White House shared an AI generated image of Trump walking with a penguin toward icy mountains. The penguin holds a US flag, while the mountains show Greenland’s flag, with the caption: “Embrace The Penguin.” The meme comes from a Werner Herzog documentary from 2007 Encounters at the End of the World where the Nihilist Penguin, walks away from its colony in a suggestion of defiance or derangement, into the icy Antarctic mountains where it will not find food. T Merz & Meloni: We can’t join Agencies ROME German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday insisted they would have been ready to join US President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” but were prevented by BOARD OF PEACE constitutional barriers. Their rejection of Trump’s controversial Board of Peace — an integral part of his plan for post-conflict governance in Gaza — appeared to be a tactical way of not getting on Trump’s wrong side. U.S. president. Meloni and Merz are considered two of Trump’s closest allies in the EU and are at the forefront of trying to defuse transatlantic tensions, Politico reports. 4Contd on | Nation Supreme Court judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan on Saturday said that the transfer and posting of judges is an exclusive domain of the judiciary and that any role of the Central Government in the process compromises judicial independence and the integrity of the collegium system. Delivering the Principal G.V. Pandit Memorial Lecture on “Constitutional Morality and Democratic Governance” at ILS Law College in Pune, Justice Bhuyan expressed serious concern over collegium resolutions that record judicial transfers as being made at the request of the government. He said such disclosures reveal a “striking intru- Why should a judge be transferred from one High Court to another just because he had passed certain inconvenient orders against the government? Does it not affect the independence of the judiciary? – Justice Ujjal Bhuyan sion of executive influence” into a process that is constitutionally meant to be independent, Live Law and Bar & Bench report. “By the very nature of things, the Central Government can have no say in the matter of transfer and posting of High Court judges. It cannot say that such and such a judge should or should not be transferred. It is within the exclusive domain of the judiciary,” he said. Justice Bhuyan was referring to the Supreme Court collegium’s decision in October last year to modify its proposal to transfer Justice Atul Sreedharan from the Madhya Pradesh High Court to the Chhattisgarh High Court, and instead recommend his transfer to the Allahabad High Court. 4Contd on | Nation MUMBAI In a breakthrough in the puzzling Oshiwara firing case, the Oshiwara police late on Friday arrested actor and filmmaker Kamaal Rashid Khan, popularly known as KRK. A Bandra metropolitan magistrate remanded Khan to police custody till January 27. Police said the motive behind the firing remains unclear and the probe is ongoing. The incident occurred on January 18 around 12.15 pm at Nalanda Apartment in the Lokhandwala complex, Andheri West. Two projectiles were later found inside two flats — one on the second floor, occupied by model Parteek Baid, and another on the fourth floor, where writer-director Neeraj Kumar Mishra resides. At the time, Baid was walking in his hall with a window open, while Mishra was seated inside his flat. Both heard a loud sound resembling a gunshot and subsequently discovered bullet-like objects inside their homes. A few hours later, they recovered the projectiles and alerted the police. Damage was also noticed on the exterior wall of the building, where the coating had eroded due to impact. 4Contd on | Nation NM prof murdered after train altercation Megha Kuchik MUMBAI A 33-year-old professor from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics was allegedly stabbed to death by an unidentified man aboard a Churchgate-Borivali local train late on Saturday night, triggering panic among commuters and a manhunt by the police. The deceased has been identified as Alok Singh, who was travelling from Vile Parle to Malad when an altercation reportedly broke out inside the crowded train shortly before it reached Malad station. According to witnesses, the dispute began over getting off the train and escalated between 6.30 pm and 6.45 pm. Officials from the Government Railway Police (GRP) said the incident occurred near Malad railway station. Both Singh and the accused alighted at Platform No. 1, where the confrontation turned violent. 4Contd on | Nation India votes against UNHRC resolution Ashwin Ahmad NEW DELHI India on Friday cast a vote in Geneva at a Special Session, convened by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to protest the violence used by the Iranian state against protesters, where New Delhi along with China and Pakistan voted against the resolution. Despite this, the 47member body of the UNHRC saw 25 nations vote in favour of the resolution, seven against and 14 abstentions. Iran’s Ambassador to India Mohammed Fathali responded to India’s vote on X stating. “I extend my sincere gratitude to the Govt. of India for its principled and firm support of I.R. of Iran at the UN_HRC, including opposing an unjust and politically motivated resolution. This stance reflects India’s commitment to justice, multilateralism, and Resolution condemns Iran crackdown. Delhi votes with Pakistan and China. Tehran thanks India national sovereignty.” Experts say that India’s vote against UN resolutions targeting Iran on human rights is a long-held policy by the Indian government. Former foreign secretary Nirupama Rao decoded India’s stance post the vote. Writing on X, she said. “India explained its vote against the Iran resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in familiar terms: the text was selective, politicised, and unlikely to foster constructive engagement.” She added. 4Contd on | Nation Indians most abandoned seafarers globally FPJ News Service MUMBAI Indians remained the most abandoned seafarers in the world for the second consecutive year, with cases rising a sharp 25 per cent in 2025, according to new data released by the UK-headquartered International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). A total of 1,125 Indian seafarers were abandoned by shipowners in 2025, up from 899 in 2024. The figure marks a steep escalation from 401 cases recorded in 2023, making Indian nationals the worst affected globally for the third year running. The ITF said seafarer abandonment worldwide hit record levels last year, with 6,223 seafarers left stranded across 410 vessels. It welcomed the Indian government’s move to “blacklist” ships linked to repeat abandonments and other exploitative practices, calling it a step towards accountability. Calling the trend a “disgrace”, Seafarers were owed a total of $25.8 million in unpaid wages and dues in 2025, of which the ITF said it had recovered $16.5 million ITF Seafarers’ Section Chair David Heindel said seafarers continued to face grave violations of their human and labour rights as unscrupulous shipowners chased profits. He described abandonment as a systemic industry failure requiring collective action to end the crisis. Under definitions laid down by the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO), abandonment includes failure to repatriate seafarers, denial of maintenance and support, or non-payment of contractual wages for at least two months. The ITF identified the Middle East as the worst region for abandonments, followed by Europe. Turkiye (61 vessels) and the United Arab Emirates (54) recorded the highest number of abandoned ships. Seafarers were owed a total of $25.8 million in unpaid wages and dues in 2025, of which the ITF said it had recovered $16.5 million. The union reiterated its demand for stronger powers for the IMO and tighter regulation of ‘Flags of Convenience’, noting that 82 per cent of abandoned vessels last year flew FOC flags.