The Ideas Page: US sanctions on Russia oil not about Ukraine, but its own shale industry 13 WEDNEsDAY, NOVEMBEr 5, 2025 JournAlIsm of CourAge nEW dElhI, lATE CITY, 26 PAgES ₹7.00 (₹8 RAIPuR, ₹15 SRInAgAR) l www.indianexpress.com dA I lY F R O M : A h M E dA b A d , C h A n d I gA R h , d E l h I , J A I P u R , kO l k ATA , lu C k n O W , M u M b A I , n Ag P u R , PAT n A , P u n E , vA d O dA R A Happening today lpriMe MiniSter nArenDrA MoDi has invited the Indian women’s cricket team for a meeting following their historic victory in the World Cup. lnew YorK citY iS voting for its new mayor, with all eyes on democrat Zohran Mamdani who, if elected, will become the city’s first Muslim and Indian-origin mayor. he faces former governor Andrew Cuomo, and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. Also watched will be the contests in virginia and new Jersey, whose outcomes could be bellwethers for next year's congressional midterm polls. ltroiKA of inDiAn cheSS stars — gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi — return to the board for the second round of FIdE World Cup in goa. A record 17 Indian players have made it to Round 2. Dear Reader, You have inspired this refresh, this redesign. It is your search for fairness, depth and nuance in an age of algorithm-driven noise that has guided us to refine The Indian Express to be cleaner and clearer, more poised and purposeful. This change is to better serve the curiosity and judgment you bring to the news every day. At the forefront remains what you expect from The Indian Express: original reporting from across the country, including places that lie just outside the camera frame, in social media’s shadow; investigative journalism that reveals, holds power to account; and explanatory journalism that translates headlines to the way we live and work. ‘precipitAting it couLD cAuSe irrepArAbLe hArM’ An expreSS inveStigAtion JNU’s fault lines move from campus to court: University fights students and faculty Over 600 cases since 2011 — from challenges to speech, fines; and a question from the bench on fair play vidheesha Kuntamalla & nirbhay thakur New Delhi, November 4 For DeCADeS, theJawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has beenattheforefrontofthegovernment’s national rankings, placedatNo.2overthepasttwo years alone. It has also been the crucibleofcampusactivism,its protests often spilling into national debates, its student leaders going on to become the faces and voices of political partiesofallhuesandthoughts. But today, JNU is an institution at the crossroads. one that sues its own, in case after case challenging the campus’s promise of free speech, betraying fraying relationships in the community, between the administration on one side and the faculty and students on the other. Nothing illustrates this better than JNU’s growing mountain of cases. An investigation by The Indian Express has found that since 2011, JNU featured in the Delhi High Court in over 600 cases filed by various stakeholders, including the admin- During the JnU student polls on tuesday. AbhInAv SAhA INSIDE page 17 istration, staff, faculty, students, cleaning personnel, etc., across the tenures of three vice-Chancellors. of these, this newspaper investigated 205 cases that were decided or disposed of by July this year involving students (158) and faculty (47) — including 118 under the tenure of one vice-Chancellor alone — which reveal how campus disagreements are increasingly playing outunderjudicialscrutiny rather than across the table. Consider this: l During v-C S K Sopory’s tenure (2011-2016), just 37 of such cases reached the Delhi HC — most linked to appointments,PhDsubmissions,hostel allotmentsorharassmentcomplaints. only five challenged wider institutional policy. l the litigation peaked under v-C M Jagadesh Kumar (2016-2022), when court cases more than tripled compared to his predecessor: 118. these included92bystudentsand26by faculty members — many tied to protests, disciplinary action and questions of free speech. l Under current v-C Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, new cases have fallen, but legal spending by JNU reached rs 28.4 lakh in 2024-25 alone — the highest annual legal bill in 14 years — largely due to cases inherited from Kumar’s term. »continueD on pAge 17 FULL REPORT On WWW.InDIAnEXPRESS.COM Our Editorial and Ideas pages have been rethought to bring you a wider range of perspectives: voices that rise above the echoes of many a chamber, compel us to listen, to learn and engage. The new design respects your time. It makes it easier to find and follow the journalism you value. The newspaper, its pages in your hand, or the e-paper on your screen, meets you where you are. We will walk with you. For almost a century, your trust in The Indian Express has been the bedrock upon which our journalism of courage stands. Today, that trust calls us to independence, accuracy, and humility, including the willingness to listen to those who question us and disagree with our assumptions. In the coming days and weeks, you will see more enhancements, in print and digital. Each will be guided by the same purpose: to deepen the value we offer, to justify the trust you place in us. And to give you one more reason to join the public conversation. Thank you. Chief Editor Business as Usual By EP UNNY people wait to board trains to Bihar, where the first phase of voting will be held thursday, and to West Bengal, where the siR of electoral rolls has begun, at new Delhi Railway station on tuesday. TAShI TObgYAl Two decades, a few flip-flops later, why Nitish remains NDA’s best bet Voting for first phase tomorrow DeciSion 2025 bihAr Liz Mathew Motihari, Bettiah, Patna, November 4 Not loNg ago, the BJP was not keen on projecting JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar as the NDA’s chief ministerial face. Fromitsstateunittothecentral more rep0rts, page 8 leadership, the message was calibrated: that Nitish would lead the coalition in the elections, but the choice of the new CM would be decided later. Butthesharpreactionbythe JD(U)—apartfromtheopposition—toUnionHomeMinister AmitShah’sremarkslayingthis out are just one reason BJP leaders are supporting Nitish wholeheartedlynow.theother istheoverwhelmingsupportfor theJD(U)leaderontheground, despite his 20 years in power and his allegedly fragile health. Sources admit the BJP was taken by surprise by this. »continueD on pAge 8 l oRganisERs flEE, playERs not paiD A match unmade in heaven: In J&K, a cricket league unravels Devendra pandey, bashaarat Masood & nihal Koshie Mumbai, Srinagar, New Delhi, November 4 oN NoveMBer 2, the tenth dayof‘theIndianHeaven’sPremier league’ cricket event in Srinagar, more than 50 players, Retired overseas stars such as includingbignameslikeformer Chris gayle featured in the India pacer Praveen Kumar, cricket league. ShuAIb MASOOdI were in for a rude shock. Not paid by rs 51 lakh. News had pagE 1 the organisers, the spread among the players wanted to players that a couple leave, but the hotel of retired overseas staff didn’t allow them to check starswhofeaturedintheleague out,citingunclearedbillsworth — Chris gayle and New Zeal- anchor and’s Jesse ryder – had already left the country that morning. the IHPl was a private cricket league organised by a group called Yuva Society Mohali in Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium, and its organisers allegedly left the city without making payments to players, match officials, commentators and the hotel. Praveen Kumar narrated the sequence of events to The Indian Express: “everything was normal, until suddenly there was panic that the organisers of the league were not responding to calls, and there »continueD on pAge 2 Mehli Mistry quits, defuses Tatas feud E. Move expected to ExplaINED bring calm and ratan tata’s stability to the invisible hand diversified group The shadow of Ratan Tata george Mathew Mumbai, November 4 MeHlI MIStrY, who was involved in a tussle with tata trustsChairmanNoeltataand other trustees, has parted ways with the tata group saying “precipitating matters would cause irreparable harm to the reputation of the tata trusts”. A close confidant of ratan tata, Mistry was voted out of tata trusts by other trustees loomed large in Mistry’s letter to trustees, in which he said he was guided by Ratan Tata who always put public interest before his own. His decision to put matters to rest will bring peace back in the group. It also puts noel Tata firmly in the saddle. last week when his renomination proposal came up. He was appointed a trustee three years ago in october 2022. In a letter addressed to Noel tata, and copied to trustees of Sirratantatatrust,SirDorabji tata trust and Bai Hirabai JN tataNavsariCharitableInstitution trust, Mistry said, “My commitment to ratan N tata’s vision includes a responsibility to ensure that the tata trusts are not plunged into controversy… I part ways with a quote that ratan tata used to say to me, ‘Nobody is bigger than the institution it serves’.” Mistry’s ceasefire has come days after he filed a caveat petition before the Maharashtra CharityCommissioner,requesting that he be given “a fair hearing” before any formal moveismadetoremovehimas a trustee of tata trusts. WithMistry’s exit,calmand »continueD on pAge 2 Building strategic ties with India, terror a threat to both: Israel FM Shubhajit roy New Delhi, November 4 AS DelHI reaffirmed its support for the gaza peace and underlined that “our two nationsfaceaparticularchallenge from terrorism”, visiting Israeli Foreign Minister gideon Sa’ar, who held talks with external AffairsMinisterSJaishankarin New Delhi tuesday, said Israel and India are “building a longterm strategic partnership”. Jaishankar,onhispart,said, “India and Israel have a strategic partnership and, particularly in our case, that term has a real meaning. We have stood together in testing times. And we have created a relationship with a high degree of trust and of reliability.” Besides counter-terrorism and security cooperation, the two ministers discussed enhancedcooperationincybersecurity and semiconductors, participation of Indian companies in rail, road and port infrastructure in Israel, renewable energy and health, Israeli innovation in agriculture in India, and more Indian skilled workers in Israel. »continueD on pAge 2 QS ASiA 2026 iitsslipbut indiaentries atrecordhigh; chinasurges Abhinaya harigovind New Delhi, November 4 tHe NUMBer of Indian institutions represented in the ‘QS World University rankings: Asia’for2026increasedbyover 80 per cent, from 163 last year to 294 this time, but nine of the top10Indianinstitutionsinthe listreleasedtuesday,including sevenIndianInstitutesoftechnology (IIts), saw a sharp fall in their rankings. Institutions in China, Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore outperformed them on research impact, faculty resources and international engagement. Five IIts among the top 10 Indian institutions — Delhi, Madras, Bombay, Kanpur and Kharagpur — recorded their »continueD on pAge 2 INSIDE the big picture Jamtara’s new play page 18