No 13764, Tuesday 17 Jan 2023, Vidwan

Solution to 20A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular / novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS

8   May yet save Taj with a revolutionary national motto (8,6) SATYAMEV JAYATE {MAY+YET+SAVE+TAJ+A}*

9   'Eve' is top part and fits Angelina Jolie and Madonna, say (8,7) ADOPTIVE PARENTS {EVE+IS+TOP+PART+AND}*

10 Diffusion of some of skins regularly (7) OSMOSIS {Of+SoMe+Of+SkInS}

12 No men complain outright (7) UTTER mUTTER

15 Sleuths of big cases? (3) FBI [T]

16 Require or need about a couple of royals (7) WARRANT {W{A}{RR}ANT}

17 Coming from behind we quietly find a seat (3) PEW {WE}{P}<=

20 Misrepresent faith mainly (5) ?E?I? (Addendum - BELIE BELIEf - See comments)

21 Charities built around 'love' saint, somethings that quite didn't make it! (7) ALMOSTS {ALM{0}{ST}S}

24 Long and complicated calculations burn me! (6,9) NUMBER CRUNCHING {BURN+ME}* [RA]

26 Angry Serbs burn icons of those who are not in support (14) NONSUBSCRIBERS*

DOWN

1   Returns two-fold praise (4) LAUD<=

2   50% harmonious cat sign (7) SYMPTOM {SYMPathy}{TOM}

3   English legislator starts to insult Rishi incisively, citing abject lack of real ground experience! (9) EMPIRICAL {E}{MP}{In...t}{Ri..i}{In...y}{Ci...g}{Ab...t}{Lack}

4   One struggled, being surrounded by creepers (5) IVIED {1}{VIED}

5   Revolutionary married to a traitor (5) MARAT {M}{A}{RAT}

6   Men had a good time before starting of arguments between Red & Blue (7) MAGENTA {M{A}{G}EN}{T}{Ar...s}

7   Gold, for example, despatched by Spooner for colonisation (10) SETTLEMENT (~metal sent to settlement)

11 Queen's bust carved later (10) SUBSEQUENT*

13 So, almost a place where sand dunes shift? (3) ERG ERGo

14 Most of cryptic clues are kind of jokes (3-5) ONE-LINERS [DD]

18 Amitabh Bachchan - a new generation symbol of impactful begining (3,4) BIG BANG {BIG B}{A}{N}{G}

19 Lots of work for this famous founder of a business house (7) SOTHEBY [C&DD] Sotheby was not the founder.

22 Set and develop without work (5) GROUP {GROw UP}

23 Shocking lies about Schutzstaffel or Gestapo leader (5) GROSS {SS}{OR}{Ge...o}<=

25 If this geek could become friend... (4) NERD {NERD+IF}*={FRIEND}

Reference List

Men = M, Royal = R, Quietly = P, Saint = ST, English = E, Legislator = MP, Married = M, Good = G, Time = T, New = N, Generation = G, Work = W