www.indiAneXPreSS.coM The Chutney Chronicles How a little chutney on the plate holds stories of region, season, thrift and memory ahMedaBad, SePTeMBeR 20, 2026 bOOkS With The Actor,, journalist and The Indian Express columnist Tavleen Singh turns to fiction to chart the journey of a nation lAte city 12+4 PAgeS ₹6.00 d A i l y F r o M : A h M e d A b A d , Happening today lAAP will lAunch a door-to- door campaign in Punjab and highlight the work of the Mann government ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections. FiR FilEd dayafteriiT-b studentdiesby suicide,parents allegecastebias Sahil Wakode was a Second Year student RelaTed RePoRT, P 7 Pallavi Smart, Purnima Sah & Apoorva Agashe Mumbai, September 19 A DAy after Sahil wakode (20), a Second year reserved category student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)Bombay, died by suicide, his parents have alleged that he was subjected to caste-based discrimination. Theinstitutehasdeniedthe allegation and said no such complaint was submitted by the student, either to its SC-ST cell or to the administration. Based on a complaint filed by Sahil’s father, Ravindra, the Mumbai Police on Saturday »cOnTinuEd On PAGE 2 c h A n d i g A r h , d e l h i , j A i P u r , K o l K A t A , l u c K n o w , M u M b A i , n A g P u r , Not feasible to replace Russian oil given West Asia chokehold due to Iran war, India expected to push for waivers, say experts Pratyush deep, Ravi dutta mishra & Sukalp Sharma New Delhi, September 19 USPReSIDenTDonaldTrump FridaysignedintolawtheLindsey O. Graham Sanctioning RussiaandIranActof2026,giving himself the authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on countries, including India and China, that continue buying Russian oil and gas. The law “authorizes and expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia and extends existing sanctions lIndia’soilimportsfromRussiathisyear month january February March April May june july August Oil imports from Total oil imports Share of Russia (mn bPd) (mn bPd) Russian oil (%) 1.21 5.19 23.3 1.08 5.25 20.6 2.08 4.44 46.8 1.72 4.56 37.7 2.08 4.92 42.3 2.71 5.06 53.6 2.82 5.04 56 2.08 4.62 45 on Iran,” the white house said in a statement. The Act is named to honour a veteran Re- Of 27 lakh deleted in Bengal SIR adjudication, 22 lakh have filed appeals: EC to SC damini nath New Delhi, September 19 FORThefirsttime,theelection Commission (eC) has informed the Supreme Court that of the over38lakhappealsfiledagainst inclusions and exclusions from the west Bengal electoral rolls duringtheadjudicationprocess oftheSpecialIntensiveRevision (SIR), over 22 lakh appeals were »cOnTinuEd On PAGE 2 l SIRInBengal ltotal appeals filed: 38,31,429 Against deletions: 22,21,118 Against inclusions: 16,10,311 lAppeals disposed of until Sept 16: 1,26,194 lvoters added back to rolls: 1,13,943* lvoters deleted from rolls: 8,649* * AS on SePteMber 10, 2026 Source: KPler publican Senator and a Russia hawk who died in July. »cOnTinuEd On PAGE 2 View in Delhi: Another tool of leverage, double standards on uranium Pratyush deep & Ravi dutta mishra New Delhi, September 19 The new US law that empowers President Donald Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100% on buyers of Russian oil and gas is being seen in new Delhi asanotherinstrumentof leverage in washington's arsenal even as the two countriesnegotiateatradedeal. The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 puts major buyers of Russian crude, including India and China, at risk. The timing is delicate. India-US bilateral trade agreement talks are in their final leg, the ongoing war has severely disrupted energy markets, and Chinese President Xi Jinping’sfirstwhitehousevisit E. »cOnTinuEd On PAGE 2 eXpReSS investigation Part II tensionelectricitytransmission lines across their farms by halvad Transmission Limited, a special purpose vehicle of Adani energy Solutions Ltd (AeSL). The FIR was registered on Friday evening on the basis of a complaint by Inspector nilesh S Ghetiya of Morbi Taluka police station on behalf of the State. Inspector Ghetiya said that he was out patrolling on September 17 night when he received a video of the effigies of ModiandShahbeingburnt.he stated that he had learned that the alleged incident had taken place in Jetpar village. September17,thedayPrime Minister Modi turned 76, saw celebrations by the BJP around the country. Special prayers were said in Varanasi, his constituency, and in Vadnagar, where Modi was born in 1950, home Minister Shah made a speech describing him as a “lotus in the middle of a swamp”. In his complaint, Ghetiya said: “Since this village (Jetpar) is in my jurisdiction, I investigated and found that since it was the birthday of PM narendraModi,theresidentsofJetpar village had raised slogans After troubled build-up, Japan welcomes Asia with tradition and tech What BJP & Cong ignored in Karnataka: ‘Bribes, withholding marks, leaking papers’ for government jobs Jay mazoomdaar Bengaluru, September 19 MARKS wIThheLD and top scorers targeted for bribes; interview panels manipulated; tabulation records altered; answer sheets tampered with; and question papers leaked to select candidates. These were some of the alleged irregularities flagged by job aspirants and, most significantly, officials within the KarnatakaPublicServiceCommission (KPSC) in internal notes and complaints alleging serious manipulation in the recruitment process going back at least five years. These warnings were buried, first under a BJP government and later under the Congress dispensationthatsucceededit,aninvestigation by The Indian Express shows. This newspaper spoke to severalformerKPSCmembers, officials and candidates, and reviewed their complaints, FIRs and court documents, tracing how these practices were refined over the years, The Express report dated Sept 19 on irregularities in KPSC under Shivashankarappa Sahukar stayingastepaheadofsporadic attempts at reform. Theseirregularitiesarenow the focus of investigations by the state police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and cases being heard in the Karnataka high Court. These also led to the suspension last month of KPSC chief Shivashankarappa S Sahukar over therecruitmentofhisdaughter in the state government and the arrest of IAS officer GyanendraKumarGangwaroverthe selectionofveterinarianswhen he was controller of examinations from 2024 to March 2026. On Saturday, The Indian Expressreportedthefindingsof its investigation into how these scandals were part of a larger pattern of irregularities during the tenure of Sahukar who was handpicked by the BJP for the KPSC in 2019 and shielded by the Congress that came to power in Karnataka in 2023. when contacted by The Indian Express, KPSC's interim chairman Dr B Prabhudev listed a slew of reforms that are now on the anvil (see box). “we are adopting the UPSC model and taking every precaution to ensure that no injustice is caused to meritorious candidates, eliminating any suspicion or mistrust in future recruitment processes,” he said. Withhold marks, target for bribes These reforms assume significance in the wake of the alleged irregularities that have »cOnTinuEd On PAGE 2 In Gujarat, 21 farmers booked for burning effigies of PM, Amit Shah The MORBI Police registered an FIR against 21 persons and unknown others on a host of charges including unlawful assembly and criminal conspiracy on Friday (September 18), the day after effigies of Prime Minister narendra Modi and homeMinisterAmitShahwere burnt in Jetpar village on the Prime Minister’s birthday. Jetpar,inMorbidistrict,has been roiled by an agitation of farmersforseveralmonths.The farmers have been protesting against the installation of high- v A d o d A r A Trump signs Russia sanction bill giving him power to levy 100% tariffs on India Sensor-based robots help during rituals performed as part of Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations at a pandal on Speedwell Chowk in Rajkot, Gujarat, on Saturday. chirAg chotAliyA brendan dabhi P u n e , lindSEY O GRAhAm SAncTiOninG RuSSiA And iRAn AcT 2026 Tech Support Ahmedabad, September 19 P A t n A , and burnt their (the PM’s and Shah’s) effigies to protest the same.” According to the FIR, 21 named accused and unknown others had “set up an illegal domeinthemaincrossroadsof Jetparvillage,insuchawaythat ithamperedtransportofessentialservicesandgoods,entered into a criminal conspiracy, and without any permissions from theadministration,hadformed an unlawful assembly and had violatednotificationsissuedby the competent authority. They had also poured inflammable liquid on effigies and set fire to them, creating an atmosphere of fear, hit the effigies of the PrimeMinisterandhomeMinister with washing paddles and raisedinsultingslogansagainst them”. Protesters, mainly Patidar farmers,hadledahungerstrike foralmosttwoweeksfromJune 17 onward, demanding higher compensation for their land, which they said would become agriculturally unusable once the transmission towers came up. Protests had been ongoing since June 9 at several places across the state, but they had been concentrated in Morbi, which the farmers said would be the “worst affected”. Among thefastingprotestersattheUpwaasChhavniinJetparwere57year-old Rakeshbhai Shivlal Amrutiya and 51-year-old Bharatbhai Amrutiya, brothers of Kantilal Amrutiya, the multiterm BJP MLA from Morbi and Minister of State for Labour, Skill Development and employment in the Gujarat government. On July 3, the government hadagreedtoseveraloftheprotesters’demands,buthadfailed to satisfy the farmers, who had said they would continue with their “satyagraha”. »cOnTinuEd On PAGE 2 Manu Bhaker, Pawan Sehrawat lead the india contingent in nagoya, Saturday. Pti eXpReSS aT AsiAn GAmes mihir Vasavda Nagoya, September 19 The nAGOyA Castle began to float. Slowly at first, the goldenroofed castle emerged above the stage, suspended in midair. Then nakamura Kankuro, a Japanese actor, appeared alongside it, before the music exploded and he launched into Renjishi, the traditional Kabuki dance. For a city that has spent generations making things — andlastweek,battlingchaos— the Asian Games opening ceremony was an exercise in turning craftsmanship into theatre. Toyota,Lexus,Denso,Aisin, Mitsubishi heavy Industries, Brother, noritake: the names associated with Aichi stretch from automobiles and aerospacetomachinery,electronics and traditional crafts. The Japanese idea of monozukuri -making things with precision, skill and obsessive attention to detail -- runs deep here. It was ironic, then, that this should be the epicentre of the logisticalchaosthathasmarred the Games’ build-up. On Saturday, though, that instinct for precision was on display as nagoya hosted the Asian Games opening ceremony, Japan’s third after Tokyo in 1958 and hiroshima in 1994. The ceremony was not gaudy. It was, in many ways, like Japan itself: restrained, meticulousandquietlytheatrical. Geishas, Kabuki, traditionaldanceandJapanesefolklore were folded into a modern productionoflights,musicand movement. The old and the futuristic shared the stage, without either trying to overwhelm the other. And then there was the castle, hovering above it all. Perhaps that was the most fitting image for nagoya. Long before Toyota transformed the region, Aichi was a land of craftsmen, castles and warlords. Oda nobunaga, ToyotomihideyoshiandTokugawa Ieyasu -- three men most closely associated with the unification of Japan -- all had deepconnectionstothispartof the country. The samurai are gone. The instinct to make things remains. Then it was time for the athletes to walk in. One by one, the flags of Asia moved around the track, the mood shifting from theatre to sport. And when India appeared, Olympic shooting medallistManuBhakerandkabaddi captain Pawan Sehrawat walked out together, jointly carrying the Indian flag. Sehrawat was not supposed »cOnTinuEd On PAGE 2 l BuilT aT an inVeSTMenT of RS 278 CRoRe, The ‘faSTeST’ RiVeR BRidGe To CoMe uP in The STaTe iS MoRe duRaBle, SaY offiCialS Year after Vadodara bridge collapse killed 22, new link on Mahi River opens today bridgewillrestoreadirectroute between Vadodara's Padra taVadodara, September 19 luka and Anklav in Anand district, an official of the Roads MORe ThAn a year after the and Buildings Department Gambhira-Mujpur bridge col- (R&B) told this newspaper. lapsethatkilled22peopleinVaAccording to the R&B dedodara district, a new bridge partment, the bridge construcalongside the remains of the tion began on August 14, 2025, broken structure is ready and was completed on August for launch. 13,2026—makingitthe'fastest' Chief Minister river bridge to be Bhupendra Patel is constructed in the page 1 expectedtoinaugurstate. ate the new 868.75Alongside the metre bridge, which new bridge, the has epoxy-coated steel for steel-girder span of the old betterdurability,onSunday,of- structure, which was built in ficials said. 1985, still stands on the Mahi Built in 12 months with 23 river, also called Mahisagar lospans and 21 piers, the new cally. On July 9 last year, a slab Aditi Raja anchor between two piers of the concrete bridge gave way during peak morning traffic hours, plungingmultiplevehiclesinto the river. The bridge would see anaverageofonelakhvehicles, mostlyheavy-dutyones,plying it daily. Monitored by CMO The new bridge has been constructed at an estimated overall expenditure of Rs 278 crore, according to the project details shared by the R&B department.Althoughtheproject had an "administrative sanction"ofRs212croreanda"technical sanction" of Rs 244.16 crores.Theconstructiontender was awarded to the Patan- The new Gambhira-Mujpur bridge stands alongside the old structure on the Mahi River in Vadodara district. gujArAt governMent based Shree Manglam Buildcon Pvt Ltd for Rs 173.56 crore. The state government attributed the pace of the project partly to "close monitoring by the Chief Minister's Office", in a statement on Saturday. The note stated that the Chief Minister reviewed the progress of the bridge with the R&B Department secretary every fortnight over the past year, sought progress reports and intervened to prevent delays, after granting “administrative approval” to the new bridge within a fortnight of the July 2025 collapse. The collapse also left studentsandemployeestravelling between Padra and Anklav re- Ahmedabad eling. As an interim measure, the government sanctioned Rs 9 crore for a steel structure on the old bridge to allow twowheelers to cross. After the temporary arrangement, the old bridge was opened in April this year. ‘280-tonne load test for each span’ The R&B officials said the new bridge presented its own construction challenges, particularly fluctuations in the Mahisagar's water level and flow. Despite these conditions, the 23 piers were erected, and the structure was completed within the prescribed period. They said that 300 workers were deployed on the project round the clock. The bridge incorporates epoxy-coated steel to reduce the risk of corrosion andimprovedurability.Theofficial also stated that precast elements were used to accelerate construction. Inspection platforms have been provided at each pier to facilitate checks of the structure. Its foundations have been designed to withstand the river environment. A precast sacrificial concrete plate was placed before the piers were erected to protect the foundation from the direct impact of flowing water, erosion caused by »cOnTinuEd On PAGE 2