National News
JD-U yet to take a call on PFI ban despite BJP pressure
After a suspected terror module was busted in Patna’s Phulwari Sharif, there is disagreement between Bihar’s two ruling alliance partners – the BJP and the JD-U – over a ban on the Popular Front of India (PFI), which was allegedly involved.
BJP leaders like state minister Jivesh Mishra, Rajya Sabha MP and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, state President Sanjay Jaiswal and MLA Hari Bhushan Thakur and others are demanding a ban on the PFI while the Janata Dal-United’s leadership is yet to decide.
Minority Affairs Minister Jama Khan, of the JD-U, said: “The investigation is currently underway. There is no clarity over whether the organisation (PFI) is involved in anti- national activities or not. Hence, you can’t declare an organisation illegal. How could a ban be imposed on an organisation only on the basis of the assumption of some people. The action will be taken against the organisation only after its guilt would be proven by the authorities and courts.
“Any organisations like the RSS, the Bajrang Dal or PFI, they are connected with political parties. The probe should take place on this line too. If any organisation is involved in wrongdoing, the state government will take action against them. Ban cannot be imposed on the demand of some leaders of a political party,” Khan said.
On the other hand, BJP Minister Mishra demanded complete ban on PFI.
“The security agencies have busted PFI terror module of Phulwari Sharif… the NIA is investigating this case. If its operatives’ terror links will be proven in future, the Centre will ban it. We are already demanding a ban on such an organisation,” he said.
“I also appeal to the Central government to identify organisations like PFI and ban it immediately. When the Narendra Modi government came to power, it made every possible effort to destroy such organisations. They have given life threats to BJP leaders but they are not worried about it,” Mishra said.
Jaiswal alleged that a “large number of sleeper cells” were active in Bihar.
“The Popular Front of India Phulwari Sharif module developed in Patna. I am hoping that the security agencies will break the chain of terror modules developed in every district of Bihar. It is an international conspiracy against the country to destroy… it will be prevented….
“Whoever had taken the training under the PFI from 2016 to 2022 will be exposed and arrested,” he asserted.
“The BJP leaders are not the soft target of terrorists but their connection from Bihar is emerging before us. Wherever terrorist activities taking place in the country, it has some connection with Bihar. This is also indicating that a large number of sleeper cells are active in every district of Bihar,” Jaiswal said.
BJP leader Neeraj Kumar Bablu sought that security agencies should scan all madarsas existing in Bihar.
“There are many madarsas in Bihar having excellent education systems while some of them have a fishy atmosphere. Hence, those madrasas need investigation and should be kept under close watch of intelligence agencies,” he said.
Why the Nitish Kumar government is not imposing a ban on PFI?
Despite a strong demand for a ban on the PFI by BJP leaders, the JD-U believes otherwise. The party think tank believes that banning an organisation only on the basis of allegations may prove dangerous in upcoming polls.
The JD-U is on the driving seat in Bihar but it is only due to the bargain and not due to its political strength. The party performed poorly in the 2020 Assembly election and won only 43 seats. It managed to win two more seats in the by-elections to reach 45, and subsequently merged an LJP MLA and an independent MLA to reach at the figure of 47. Still, it is in the third position in the house, as the RJD has 80 and the BJP has 77 MLAs.
The JD-U leadership believed that the party had reached to the third position not due to opposition but the “lethal” political moves of the BJP. In the last 21 months, these two parties were often involved in mud-slinging on almost every single issue.
The PFI issue has emerged as another flashpoint.
In the past few weeks, BJP hardliners like Union Minister Giriraj Singh and Hari Bhushan Thakur have claimed that they have received threatg calls from militant organisations. Even a number of BJP leaders were attacked during the Agneepath protest. Following that, the Centre government has given Y-category security to 10 BJP leaders including Giriraj Singh, Thakur, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey, Tar Kishore Prasad, Renu Devi, Sanjiv Chaurasia, Ashwini Kumar Chaubey and others.
Despite all provocations, no communal tension or riots occurred in Bihar under the Nitish Kumar government, which is why a sizable part of the minority community reposes faith in him. The JD-U also knows that if the state government would impose a ban on the organisation like PFI, it would be a disaster for it in the next election as the minority community will entirely swing over to the RJD.
JD-U sources are claiming that the Union Home Ministry’s handing over the probe to the NIA is a part of ploy to declare it an anti-national and terrorist organisation and ban it.
As BJP leaders are citing the example of neighbouring Jharkhand, which has imposed a ban on the PFI, the JD-U notes that the Hemant Soren government took the decision as its “core constituency” is different.
Bihar Minister and former IPS officer Sunil Kumar said: “It is a decision of Jharkhand government to impose a ban on the PFI. Bihar government will take any such decision on the basis of the investigation report and legal observations.
As the ban on PFI is an extremely sensitive matter, officials of Bihar Police are tightlipped on it and avoiding recommendation to the state government for ban.
Meanwhile, the RJD questioned the updates in the investigation so far.
State RJD chief Jagadanand Singh said: “They (investigating agencies) are claiming that a person has a telephonic conversation with a Pakistani national. The investigators should release the transcript of the conversation in public domain. They should reveal what the act was done by youths of a particular community which turn threat for the nation. During Partition, a large number of Muslim families went to Pakistan and their relatives are living in both the countries. Can they clarify whether interacting with relatives in Pakistan is a crime?”
RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, while referring to Patna SSP M.S. Dhillon’s now controversial comments, said: “RJD is saying right from the beginning that the RSS is a threat to the country. At present, whatever the poisonous and hatred spread in the society is only due to the RSS. It is in the agenda of RSS to communalise the society.”
Patna police have arrested 8 persons so far in these two cases, including the PFI module. In the suspected terror module case, Athar Parvez, Mohammad Jalaluddin, and Arman Malik were arrested, and have revealed the names of Margoob alias Danis and Shabbir. Margoob was running a social networking group called Ghazwa-e-Hind and connected with the youths of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The investigators claimed that Parvez was attached with the banned Students’ Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and his brother Manzar Alam was involved in 2013 serial bomb blast in Gandhi Maidan rally of then PM candidate Narendra Modi. Jalaluddin also has some connection with the SIMI. During the raid, the joint team had recovered some objectionable documents which indicate that they were allegedly involved in brainwashing Muslim youths and working on “Mission 2047” to make India a Muslim country.
Crime
Senior citizen in Bengal’s Dinhata attempts suicide, fearing deletion of name from voters’ list

Kolkata, Oct 29: A 60-year old man, Khairul Sheikh, a resident of Dinhata in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal, allegedly tried to commit suicide by consuming poison on Wednesday reportedly out of the fear of getting his name deleted from the voters’ list following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state, the groundwork for which will start from November 4.
His family members have told the police and the media persons that, although the name of Sheikh was in the voters’ list of 2002, the year when the SIR was conducted in West Bengal for the last time, the spelling of his name was incorrect in that list.
According to Shaikh’s family members, he was scared that because of the mistake in the spelling of his name in the 2002 list, his name might be deleted from the voters’ list.
Confirming the development, the new District Police Superintendent, Sandip Karra, told media persons that as per the versions of Sheikh’s family members since the SIR was announced for West Bengal by the ECI earlier this week, he started panicking.
“The police have started an investigation into the matter. He is currently under treatment. We will investigate him after he recovers and get to know from him the reasons behind his act,” Karra said.
Trinamool Congress’ Cooch Behar district president, Avijit Dey, said that the incident is proof of what kind of panic is there among the common people over the SIR.
“What I heard is that some people told Sheikh that because of the mistake in the spelling of his name in the 2022 list, his name will be deleted from the voters’ list following the fresh SIR, and he will also be deported to Bangladesh. Out that fear he tried to commit suicide,” Dey added.
The BJP legislator from Cooch Behar (Uttar) constituency, Sukumar Roy, said that even if the fear factor prompted Sheikh to attempt suicide, Trinamool Congress is responsible for that since the party is responsible for spreading a false sense of fear among people about the SIR.
On Tuesday, a 57-year-old man, identified as Pradeep Kar, committed suicide at Panihati in North 24 Parganas district, reportedly out of fear of being affected by a possible National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal.
BJP had already raised doubts about whether the suicide note recovered from near his body was actually written by the deceased person and also demanded a proper investigation into the actual reason behind the suicide.
On Tuesday, both the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool Congress’s General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee accused the BJP and the Union government of spreading a sense of fear and division by using NRC as a tool, where people are often made to doubt their own right to existence, the reflection of which was felt in the suicide of Kar.
Since the beginning, Trinamool Congress leadership had been describing the SIR as an indirect ploy by the BJP and the Union government to impose the NRC in West Bengal.
National News
Tejashwi carries a mixed bag of Lalu legacy, where ‘jungle raaj’ is among burdens

New Delhi, Oct 29: When his estranged elder sibling Tej Pratap Yadav said that Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi was living in their father Lalu Prasad’s shadow, the younger brother could have nodded in agreement since his aspiration to be Bihar’s next Chief Minister lay through that path.
Early this year, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) national executive committee passed a resolution empowering Tejaswi to levels that equalled that of the founder and party President Lalu. It was thus clear who among the latter’s nine children would carry the legacy forward.
Four of Lalu-Rabri’s children exhibited interests in politics, with Misha Bharti standing by Tejashwi in the current family feud, seemingly content as a Lok Sabha member, while the younger Rohini Acharya has extended support to Tej Pratap.
Rohini, who unsuccessfully contested as an RJD candidate from Bihar’s Saran Lok Sabha constituency in 2024, makes no secret of her disappointment over their father’s endorsement of Tejashwi. She also makes it known that it was she who donated a kidney to Lalu earlier.
Tejashwi’s elevation in RJD was, therefore, through a family feud that is standing out more vividly with the elections. The resilience and determination that he has shown in his fights within the family and party reflected outside – in seat-sharing negotiations. Despite his age and experience being less than most of his allies, he handled them with elan, refusing to give in much to their demands.
He lacks the rustic sense of humour of his father, but that did not come in the way of making the partners smile, even if reluctantly. The exercise bore fruit in 2020 when the Mahagathbandhan fell short of a majority by only a dozen seats and the RJD emerged as the single largest party, winning 75 of Bihar’s 243 Assembly constituencies. He has thus lived by Lalu’s legacy of using alliance strength when facing a stronger opponent.
In 1999, when Sonia Gandhi was poised to stake a claim to form the government but Mulayam Singh Yadav refused to support, Lalu – despite being a political rival at times – was more amenable to working with the Congress. Though he had only seven seats in the Lok Sabha, the Bihar strongman played a role in trying to bridge gaps between regional leaders and Gandhi.
In the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, when the RJD won 24 Lok Sabha seats, giving Lalu substantial influence in forming the new government, he had famously said “I will play the role of queenmaker”, referring to his support for the Sonia-led Congress.
In the run-up to the 2025 polls, Tejashwi did upset a few parties – including the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) and national ally Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) – but he did not want RJD to either lose vote share or vote bank, accommodating more partners. He calculated that getting AIMIM onboard could paint a Muslim overreach and could affect Yadav votes. Bihar’s caste census report of 2022 shows the former at around 17.70 per cent and the latter at about 14.3 per cent. He is rather intending to somehow break into the Backward (OBC) and the Extremely Backward Class (EBC) votes, who together constitute some 63.1 per cent of Bihar’s population.
The RJD, which initially enjoyed their support, witnessed an erosion in OBC votes, being viewed as leaning further towards Muslim-Yadav support; while EBC votes shifted for Bihar’s ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United). He is thus trying to live Lalu’s legacy of using “Mandal” over “Kamandal”.
Lalu’s rise to prominence was rooted in the implementation and political mobilisation around the Mandal Commission’s recommendations. He used it as a tool against so-called Kamandal politics, said to be in favour of majoritarian, upper-caste-centred Hindutva projects. This consolidation also helped Lalu decimate the rising Communist forces, who stuck to “class struggle” over the state’s caste equations.
However, Tejashwi also carries the legacy of “jungle raaj” under the Lalu-Rabri regime that his critics have repeatedly raised with a slogan of “good governance” from Nitish Kumar. That is among the aspects of his father’s shadow that the young Yadav is trying hard to step out of.
Bollywood
Bollywood actor Mukesh Rishi watches J&K Assembly proceedings from Speaker’s Gallery

Srinagar, Oct 29: Bollywood actor Mukesh Rishi on Wednesday watched the proceedings of J&K Assembly from the Speaker’s Gallery as members cutting across party lines welcomed his presence.
The Assembly warmly welcomed Rishi, who was present in the Speaker’s Gallery during the ongoing session.
Members across party lines greeted the actor with applause as Speaker Abdul Rahim Rather announced his presence in the House.
Rishi belongs to J&K and was born on April 19, 1956, in a Gujjar Chaudhary family in Kathua district.
Growing up in Jammu, graduating from Government College, Sector 11, Chandigarh, and working for two years in Mumbai, Rishi moved to Fiji for work, where he met his future wife, who is of Indo-Fijian ancestry. Her family ran a traditional departmental store. He has a lucrative investment portfolio, including warehouse investments.
He later worked as a model in New Zealand before beginning his acting career in India.
An actor known for playing villainous and supporting roles and a film producer, he has worked in Hindi, Telugu, and other films. Among his better-known Bollywood movies are “Gunda” (1998), “Sarfarosh” (1999), and “Koi… Mil Gaya” (2003).
The Autumn Session of the J&K Assembly will end on October 31. With its conclusion, all the top offices of government, including those of the Chief Minister, his cabinet colleagues, the Chief Secretary, administrative secretaries and the Director General of Police (DGP) will move to the winter capital Jammu.
The move is called the “Dabar Move” and will see the offices functioning for six months from the winter capital, Jammu.
The over one and a half century old practice of shuttling offices between Srinagar and Jammu was stopped by the Lt Governor in 2021, but has been restored by the elected government headed by Omar Abdullah.
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