The Ideas Page: US and Israel don’t get Iran. Their prospects of a military victory are weak 13 TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2026 JOuRNALISM of COuRAGE NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 24 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 lA NINE-JUDGE SC bench will commence the final hearing on petitions relating to discrimination against women at religious places, including Sabarimala. STRIKES ON ENERGY INFRA ACROSS WEST ASIA CONTINUE ON EVE OF HORMUz ULTIMATUM Can take out Iran, may be tomorrow, says Trump; Tehran rejects ceasefire BOOST FOR NUCLEAR PROGRAMME Kalpakkam fast breeder reactor attains criticality; Shoe soles to apparels, input costs defining step: PM lIN 8TH ROUND of Chess Candidates, R Vaishali will try to get to top of the table by taking on Bibisara Assaubayeva. surge, labour shortage hurting now TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrEss.cOm INsIDE India to be second country after Russia to have a commercial operating FBR WAR IN GULF DAY 38 toll AT HOme AN ExPRESS SERIES Emergency personnel outside a residential building hit by a barrage of Iranian missiles in central Israel on Monday. REUTERS pAGES 16-17 Checkgovt contractssince 2015forlinksto ArunachalCM’s kin,SCtellsCBI Ananthakrishnan G & Vineet Bhalla New Delhi, April 6 THE SUPREME Court on MondaydirectedtheCBItoconduct apreliminaryenquiryintoallegations that government contracts in Arunachal Pradesh were arbitrarily awarded to companies linked to the family members of Chief Minister Pema Khandu. A three-judge bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath, Sandeep Mehta and N V Anjaria gave the probe agency 16 weeks to submit a status report after looking into the contracts andtwo weeks to registera preliminary enquiry. The court specified that the enquiryandanyconsequential investigation must cover the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Business as Usual By EP UNNY Iran seeks full end to war, lifting of sanctions; Trump firm on deadline EDITOrIAl PAGE Nandita Bose & Steve Holland scribed in detail the operation to recover a downed American airman over the weekend from Iranian territory. Upping the ante at the briefing, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the largest volume of strikes, since day one of the operation, against Iran would take place on Monday and Tuesday. Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war, even as Israel attacked a major gas field. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Washington, April 6 USPRESIDENTDonaldTrump on Monday told reporters that Iran could be taken out in one night, and that could be “tomorrow night” — warning Tehran it had to make a deal by Tuesday or face the consequences. “The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night,” he said at a White House press conference on Monday. Trump, joined by senior national security officials, de- WhEN TrUmp mAkES AmErICA GrATE AGAIN p 12 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Pratyush Deep & Ravi Dutta Mishra New Delhi, April 6 AN EERIE silence reverberates on the factory floor where nearly a dozen workers are Workers at a footwear manufacturing facility in Noida. EXPRESS huddled around an octopusshaped machine slowly rotating on its iron clamps. This sole moulding machine, the size of a mid-size shuttle, is the nerve centre of a footwear manufac- Shubhajit Roy New Delhi, April 6 INTHEfirsthigh-levelpolitical outreach to Delhi by the new government in Dhaka, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman will travel to India Tuesday on a two-day visit. The BNP led by Tarique Rahman, now Prime Minister, wasswepttopowerinFebruary this year, 18 months after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina government. Khalilur Rahman, who was NSAintheinterimgovernment led by Muhammad Yunus, will reach Delhi Tuesday afternoon and meet NSA Ajit Doval in the evening — the two had met last November when Rahman visited Delhi as NSA. Heisscheduledtoholdtalks Wednesday with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and isalsolikelytomeetCommerce »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Sandeep Singh New Delhi, April 6 ASTHEWestAsiawarcontinues torattleequitymarketsandsectors across the economy, PrashantJain,FounderandCIO,3P Investment Managers, said India’s vulnerability to oil has moderated and hence the impact of US/Israel-Iran conflict wouldbemarginalandtransient for India. While sectors such as autos, airlines, real estate, and cement would be among the ExPrEss mostdirectlyaffected,thesharp decline in the Nifty in March, combined with an 18-month time correction, has led to a meaningfulmoderationinvaluations.Thereisclearvalueinthe market for long-term investors. Even in a challenging environment,hesaid,thedownsiderisk is limited. Edited Excerpts: PRASHANT JAIN How do you see the war and its impact on the markets? The first three months of interview FOUNDER AND CIO OF 3P INVESTMENT MANAGERS »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 No reason given; Opposition says BJP ‘mocking’ Parliament Express News Service New Delhi, April 6 THE RAJYA Sabha Chairman and Lok Sabha Speaker on Monday rejected the impeachment motions submitted in both Houses by the Opposition over three weeks ago to remove Chief Election Commissioner l KERALA CHIEF MINISTER HAS REPRESENTED DHARMADAM CONSTITUENCY AS LEGISLATOR NATION AP FILE Kalpakkam houses India’s first fully indigenous fast-breeder reactor Anil Sasi New Delhi, April 6 Downside risk limited, impact of war transient: Top fund manager Dhaka reaches out to Rajya Sabha Chair, Lok Delhi, Foreign Minister Sabha Speaker reject arrives today for talks Opp bid to impeach CEC Fuel supplies to Bangladesh, staring at energy crisis due to war, on agenda turing unit in Noida, one of 11,000 plants in the city, capable of producing nearly 3,000-4,000 footwear soles a day. pAGE 9 NINE TN COpS hANDED DEATh pENALTY fOr CUSTODY kILLINGS THE VITAL second stage of India’s three-stage nuclear programme got a boost Monday withthecountry’sfirstindigenous Fast Breeder Reactor (FBR) at Kalpakkam in Tamil Nadu attaining criticality — the initiation of a self-sustaining nuclear fission reaction that will eventually lead to the generation of power by the 500megawatt electric (MWe) FBR. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on X, called it a “defining step” in advancing the country’s civil nuclear programme and said the indigenously designed and built reactor reflects “the depth of our scientific capability and the strength ofourengineering enterprise”which,hesaid,isakey steptowardsharnessingIndia’s thorium reserves under the third stage of the programme. Attaining criticality is a key milestone before full power E. ExPlAINED key second stage The FBR is the vital second stage in the DAE’s threestage power programme which envisages a pathway to utilising India’s abundant thorium reserves – found in coastal and inland placer sands on the beaches of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat, and in the inland riverine sands of Jharkhand and West Bengal — to generate electricity. generation, indicating that the reactor core is functioning as designed and that each fission event in the core now releases a sufficient number of neutrons to sustain an ongoing series of reactions. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Recusal plea: Kejriwal appears in HC, SG says court no forum for ‘theatrics’ Sohini Ghosh New Delhi, April 6 CEC Gyanesh Kumar Gyanesh Kumar from office. Both the presiding officers did not assign any reason for their decisions. The move triggered a sharp response from the Opposition, with TMC Rajya Sabha MP »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 FORMER DELHI Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took centre stage among a battery of lawyersintheDelhiHighCourt on Monday and said he will be arguing in person his application seeking recusal of Justice Swarana Kanta Sharma from hearing the CBI’s revision plea in the excise policy case. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Arvind Kejriwal, wife Sunita arrive at the Delhi HC, Monday. AMIT MEHRA SINCE 2016 Eye on ‘third coming’, Pinarayi spends last stretch of campaign in his own seat Shaju Philip stituency in Kerala’s Kannur district, has him seated in a chair — in a carefully AT MYLULLIMOTTA village, composed frame that seeks to election posters hanging from convey power and control. coconut trunks and plastered At around 5 pm on Monday, onto roadside walls all say one people started making their thing: “Moonnam varavu (the waytothevillagesquare,where third coming).” The posters Vijayan would soon address an carry the image of election rally. AroPAGE 1 the man who wants und one kilometre tomakeathirdterm, away, party workers for both him and the were marching to ruling Left Democratic Front, a the village — men wearing reality: Chief Minister Pinarayi shirts with Vijayan’s face Vijayan. printed on them, and women The image on the posters at clutching short cut-outs of the Mylullimotta, as at other parts CPI(M) stalwart with his of Vijayan’s Dharmadam con- clenched fist in the air. Dharmadam, April 6 anchor with the Chief Minister. His security staff quickly ushered him onto the stage. DECISION 2026 Short address KERALA mOrE rEp0rTS, pAGE 6 At the village square, TV actor Jayakrishnan was speaking about the achievements of the LDF government with regard to the development of roads and in the health sector, when an announcement echoed from a distance: “Our beloved candidate, Comrade Vijayan, is coming.” The crowd CM Pinarayi Vijayan at a campaign event in Dharmadam. EXPRESS began shouting slogans, welcoming Vijayan, and the actor abruptly ended his speech. Vijayan arrived in an SUV, and as he stepped out, party workers, still raising slogans, jostledaroundthevehicle,with many trying to capture selfies After being garlanded by a localleader,Vijayangotdirectly down to business, addressing the crowd plainly: “Brothers and sisters.” “We are in the last hours of the election campaign. People are looking forward to seeing Kerala surge ahead with development,alongwiththemodern world. We know that 2011-2016 (when the Congress-led United DemocraticFront,orUDF,ruled the state) was a dark period for Kerala. Kerala had collapsed then.In2016,afterpeoplevoted LDF to power, the state underwent a massive change. The LDF and the government went ahead with development and welfare. We went on to make great progress…,” he said. He went on to speak of how the LDF government steered Kerala through crises. There was little variation in tone, no pauses for effect, and yet the crowd seemed to listen with rapt attention. He accused the Congress of supporting what he claimed was the BJP-ruled Centre’s stanceoffinanciallystiflingKe- New Delhi rala and not providing the necessary assistance. “In the 2021 elections (the lastAssemblypolls),peoplehad decidedthatthereshouldnotbe a gap in their journey with the LDF. If the UDF came to power, thisjourneywouldhavebeeninterrupted…,” he said. Expressing confidence of winning a third term, he went on, “The LDF has no worries about this election.Thepeoplearewithus, andwearegoingtowintheelections with a big majority.” He ended the short address by urging party workers to carry the campaign forward. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2