8 The Editorial Page: Likely below-normal monsoon is a warning: India must heed water stress FRIdAY, MAY 1, 2026 Journalism of Courage kolkaTa, laTe CiTy, 16 pages ₹6.00 (₹12 in north east states, ₹20 in andaman) 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 , l u 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 We are Closed Today on The oCCasion of Labour day There Will be no ediTion of The indian express on saTurday, May 2 happening today lIndIa, aImIng to stay on course for a second title, face Japan in quarterfinals of the Thomas Cup. Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as usual By EP UNNY ‘gOlI maaRO’ REmaRk In 2020 nohatespeech offencemade out:Topcourt cleanchitto Thakur,Parvesh BJp leader anurag Thakur; (right) delhi deputy chief minister parvesh sahib singh ananthakrishnan g New Delhi, April 30 agreeing With the conclusion that “no cognizable offence is made out” against former Union Minister anurag thakuranddelhideputyChief Minister Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma, the Supreme Court has cleared the two BJP leaders in acomplaintthattheydelivered allegedhatespeechestargeting those protesting the Citizenship(amendment)actindelhi in January 2020. dealing with a plea by CPM leaders Brinda Karat and K M tiwari, the bench of Justices Vikram nath and Sandeep Mehta upheld the findings of the delhi high Court which said the remarks of the BJP leaders did not incite communal violence or public disorder. “Upon a careful consideration of the material placed on record, including the alleged speeches,thestatusreportdated February 26, 2020, submitted »COnTInUEd On PagE 2 WEST BEngal Cm TaRgETS BJP ThE day aFTER POllS BREnT CRUdE PRICES hIT $126/BaRREl Guard EVM strong rooms, exit polls fixed, Mamata tells party In Bengal, 48 seats showed dip in voter numbers, account for 28% of SIR deletions If attacked, do not retaliate now... we will cross 226 seats: CM to TMC dECISIOn 2026 l 10seatswithmaximumdeletionsins.i.r. W E ST B E n ga l Ravik Bhattacharya Kolkata, April 30 a day after polling concluded in West Bengal and most exit polls gave the Opposition BJP the edge, tMC chief and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urgedpartyworkersandpeople of the state to guard strong rooms where electronic Voting Machines (eVMs) are stored, sayingshetoowouldstandvigil. in a video message posted on social media, Banerjee rejected the exit poll projections, saying they had been aired on the “instruction of the BJP” to “demoralise”tMCworkersand said her party would cross 226 seats in the house of 294. asking tMC workers to remain calm, she said they must not “retaliate right now” if attacked. “i am asking our workers and the general public to guard the strong rooms and »COnTInUEd On PagE 2 votes polled in 2021 seats chief minister mamata Banerjee outside a school in kolkata which serves as a strong room, Thursday. express High drama in Kolkata: TMC claims tampering of EVMs, poll officials reject charge Ravik Bhattacharya & atri mitra Kolkata, April 30 hOUrS aFter Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged her party to guard the eVM strong rooms,therewashighdramain Kolkata thursday night as tMC candidates Kunal ghosh and Shashi Panja and workers allegedeVMtamperingandsat on a dharna at the Khudiram anushilan Kendra near netaji indoor Stadium. BJP candidates too rushed to the spot. Banerjee, meanwhile, reached the Sakhawat Memorial girls high School, a strong room for eVMs from her constituency Bhabanipur, at 8.15 pm and remained there until midnight. Workers of both the tMC and BJP gathered outside the school and there was heavy police deployment there. Banerjee later said: “i have requested that candidates and electionagentsbegivenproper facilities. i was here for four hours.iwasheretokeepavigil. Our eVMs are here. at the »COnTInUEd On PagE 2 samserganj lalgola bhagabangola raghunathganj Metiaburuz farakka suti Mothabari Jangipur ratua 1,88,579 1,90,437 2,25,990 1,90,478 1,96,582 1,86,423 2,16,328 1,63,143 1,98,261 2,19,147 Sandeep Singh & Jatin anand New Delhi, April 30 the West Bengal elections stoodoutfortworeasons:one,a newcriterionof‘logicaldiscrepancies’ that deleted 27.16 lakh names from electoral roll, and two, a record turnout of 92.95% which saw 31 lakh more votes polled compared with 2021. ananalysisofthetwosetsof data throws up 96 seats, which display a telling pattern. in 48 seats, the number of voters this Jammuto srinagarin Lessthan5hrs votes polled change in % in 2026 1,55,042 1,79,554 2,17,767 1,94,238 1,79,640 1,74,411 2,20,200 1,60,981 2,11,406 2,31,606 -17.8 -5.7 -3.6 2 -8.6 -6.4 1.8 -1.3 6.6 5.7 74,775 55,420 47,493 46,100 39,579 38,222 37,965 37,255 36,581 35,573 time was lower than in 2021. these48accountfor28%ofthe total 27.16 lakh deletions. this suggests that the Special intensive revision (Sir) could have had an impact on the number of voters who turned out. BJP had won 15 of these 48 seats in 2021. Of the remaining 246 seats where the number of voters is higher than in 2021, 48 seats polled at least 20,000 more votes. these 48 accounted 42% of the total additional votes »COnTInUEd On PagE 2 nation ThE TRaIn’S design, said railways Minister ashwini Vaishnaw, is significantly different as it can operate even at -10°C. a single train has more than 3,000 semiconductor chips and is “highly computerised”. deletions in adjudication Page 6 ruchir sharma on BJP: no rival on right, oPP divided Rupee breaches 95-mark amid fresh war concerns, spike in oil prices akash mandal Mumbai, April 30 l4%fallsinceFeb-end the rUPee fell past the 95per-dollar mark thursday on its way to hitting a new all-time low of 95.34-per-dollar as fresh concerns about the war in West asia propelled global crude oil prices to a four-year high. having closed at 94.85 Wednesday, therupeeendedthursdayonly slightly weaker at 94.92. domesticstockmarketsalso behaved similarly, with nifty and Sensex falling as much as 1.6%duringthedaybeforeclosing 0.75% lower. however, for aprilasawhole,thetwobenchmark indices were up 7-8% — the biggest monthly gain in over two years — after falling more than 11% in March. investor apprehension weighed heavy thursday as Brent crude oil prices surged to $126 per barrel, with worries mounting that the conflict in West asia could escalate after american news website axios reported that US President donald trump would be briefed on “new plans for potential military action” in iran. Market sentiment was also weighed down by cautious commentary by the US Federal reserve,whichlateWednesday leftthefederalfundsratetarget range unchanged at 3.5-3.75%. “the Fed’s messaging has certainly turned more hawkish,” Madhavi arora, Chief economist at emkay global Financial Services, said. it is unlikely the central bank “will move on rates until there is greater clarity” on the conflict and evidence that effects of the UStariffsarefading,arorasaid. the rupee is now down more than 4% since the US and israel attacked iran on February 28, with Foreign Portfolio investors (FPis) continuing to leave indian financial markets 90 91 93 90.99 94 95 96 94.92 26 feb 30 april figures are daily Closing leVels of rupee's us dollar exChange raTe. sourCe: inVesTing.CoM the worLd iran threatens ‘Painful’ resPonse if u.s. attacks Page 10 due to concerns about how exposedthecountry'seconomyis to higher energy prices. according to Barclays analysts, the rupee is “one of the more vulnerable currencies to an energy price shock”. “after breaking through the key psychologically important level of 95.0, risks of further inr weakness remain, with potential to hit our 2026 year-end forecast of96.80soonerthanexpected,” Barclays said thursday. after selling $12.7 billion of stocks in March, april has seen FPis pull out to the tune of $6.5 billion. So far in 2026, FPis’ net equity sales have totalled $20.7 billion — more than the $18.9 billion they withdrew in all of 2025. Several foreign brokerages,includinghSBCandMorgan Stanley, have downgraded their view on indian equities in recent weeks. “...what we are witnessing is a textbook reflexive trade — »COnTInUEd On PagE 2 ThE day’S first train service starts from Jammu Tawi at 6.20 am and after 3 stops will reach srinagar at 11.10 am. at 2 pm, it will leave srinagar and reach Jammu Tawi by 6.50 pm. The pair will run 6 days a week. 21 SECURITy personnel, including rpf commandos, to provide security. reporTs: paGes 5, 13 LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI a vande Bharat express crosses the chenab Bridge for the first time, Thursday after railways minister ashwini vaishnaw flagged off the 20-coach train service between Jammu and srinagar. services for the public will commence on may 2. pTi AIIMS can’t choose for parents: SC refuses to hear plea against ending minor’s pregnancy ananthakrishnan g New Delhi, April 30 Underlining that an unwanted pregnancy cannot be thrust on anyone, the Supreme Court on thursday refused to entertain a curative petition filedbytheallindiainstituteof Medical Sciences (aiiMS), contesting the court’s earlier decision to allow a 15-year-old rape survivor to terminate her 30weekpregnancy.thecourtsaid it “will not allow the institution to choose for the parents”. “this is a case of child rape. the victim will have a lifelong scar and trauma. it is now a fight between the foetus and the child. the child must survive, and she must have a dignified life,” observed Chief Justice of india Surya Kant, heading a two-Judge bench which included Justice Joymalya Bagchi. theCJialsosaidtheMedical termination of Pregnancy (MtP) act should be amended toremovethetimelimitforlegal terminationofpregnanciesarising out of rape of minor girls. On april 24, another twoJudgebenchofJusticesBVnagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had allowed the medical termination of pregnancy. aiiMS had then filed a review petition, which was dismissed by the bench on Wednesday. aiiMS then filed a curative petition against the dismissal of the review petition. appearing for aiiMS on thursday, additional Solicitor general aishwarya Bhati said INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, DELHI Chairman and Members of the Board of Governors cordially invite you to the th 29 CONVOCATION Saturday May 02, 2026 Chief Guest »COnTInUEd On PagE 2 Dr. Alok Kumar Rai Director, IIM Calcutta From Haryana to Tanzania: With a little help from state govt, farmers look to bridge the gap page 1 anchor Sukhbir Siwach Chandigarh, April 30 Yogesh sharma (above), a ca from haryana, has acquired 160 acres in morogoro, Tanzania; his mother inspecting the fields express Express that after identifying landthatcanbeacquiredbythe state’s farmers, “we will verify documentation with the auth- oritiessothattheydon’tfacedifficulties”. “We also plan to sign an MoU with the tanzanian government to formalise this cooperation,” the official said, marking the haryana government’s first overseas initiative undertakenatsuchalargescale. On Wednesday, haryana Foreign Cooperation Minister rao narbir Singh chaired a meeting with potential investors keen to explore opportunities in tanzania and other african countries. the fertile soil and climatic conditions in tanzania, as well LBSIM Auditorium 05:00 PM l somveer Ghasola from Bhiwani disTricT has acquired 65 acres on a 99-Year lease for an equivalenT of rs 1.5 cr in Tanzania, three yearS after haryana began a push for investment opportunitiesintanzania,with regular visits by officials and private delegations, the state government has started identifying nearly one lakh acres in the east african country for its farmers to pursue agricultural ventures. a senior haryana government official told The Indian 92 will deliver the Convocation Address https://Ytube.Lbsim.ac.in Watch Live R.S.V.P. Tel : 011-25307700 Mob. : +91-9958137595, +91-9811320320 Dr. Praveen Gupta Director, LBSIM Delhi NATIONAL BOARD (3 PGDM PROGRAMMES) »COnTInUEd On PagE 2 Kolkata RANKING 2025 RANK BAND 101-125 OF ACCREDITATION (3 PGDM PROGRAMMES)