The Ideas Page: India has demonstrated strategic autonomy, but its record is not perfect 7 TuESDAy, MAy 12, 2026 Journalism of Courage AHMEDABAD, LATE CiTy, 18 PAgES ₹5.00 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 Happening today lDays after the NDa swept the Assam polls, Himanta Biswa Sarma will take oath as Chief Minister for a second consecutive term. PM Narendra Modi and other top NDA leaders are expected to attend the event. lChiNese ViCe-Premier he Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will begin the final round of negotiations in South Korea before US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing. la Delhi Court will continue to hear actor Jacqueline Fernandez’s plea seeking to turn approver in a Rs 200-crore money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekar. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com 5fromGujarat among6dead assuVplunges intogorgein himachal's Chamba saurabh Parashar Shimla, May 11 Six people, including five tourists from Gujarat, were killedandfourotherssustained serious injuries when the SUV they were travelling in plunged into a deep gorge at Kakira in Himachal pradesh's Chamba district in the early hours of Monday, police said. The Toyota innova vehicle, with 10 people onboard, was on its way from Manali to Dalhousie when the incident occurred on the lahru-Tunnuhatti road at around 3 am, police said, adding so severe was the impact that parts of the vehicle were scattered all around. The deceased tourists were identified as lalit Bhai Fatnani, his wife Mamta Ben Fatnani, priyank Kanihya lal Bhopani, his wife Kajal Bhopani, and theirsonDivyanshBhopani.All wereresidentsofSindhiColony, Ghogha Circle, in Bhavnagar, Gujarat. The other deceased was driver Jaswant Kumar, a resident of Mandi district in Himachal pradesh. of the four passengers who survived the crash, three are reported to be in critical condition. The injured have been identified as Mayank lalit Bhai Fatnani, Forem Ben Mayank Fatnani, and two children: Jiyansh Fatnani and priyanshi Bhopani. The injured were rushed to Dr Rajendra prasad Government Medical College and Hospital (RpGMC), Tanda, in Kangra. The police said the region was experiencing severe weather, including heavy rain, at the time of the accident. it is likely that the vehicle lost traction on the narrow, single-lane road and tumbled approximately 150 meters down the hillside. »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 Calls West asia CoNfliCt ‘BiGGest Crisis of this DeCaDe’ Second day, PM makes austerity push, invokes Covid-era habits Hold online classes, work from home, cut gold purchase, foreign travel, fuel consumption: Modi aditi raja Behind PM’s call, dipping foreign exchange reserves, rising gold imports Vadodara, May 11 WiTH no signs of an immediate end to the conflict in West Asia, prime Minister narendra Modi Monday again urged government and private offices to revertto‘Covid-era’habitssuch aswork-from-homeandvirtual meetings, and asked citizens to opt for car pooling and reduce fuel consumption. “if the coronavirus pandemic was the biggest crisis of thiscentury,thentheconflictin West Asia is among the biggest crisesofthisdecade,”Modisaid addressing a gathering to inauguratethepatidarcommunity’s Sardardham in Vadodara. The sharp depletion of foreign exchange reserves since the beginning of the conflict, and the prospects of a worsening current account deficit are becoming big worry points for policymakers now. in Q3 last year i.e., october-December 2025, the deficit had increased to $13.2 billion or 1.3 per cent of GDp compared with $11.3 billion or 1.1 per cent of GDp. But since the onset of the conflict, forex reserves have plummeted by $38 billion, and therupeehasbreachedthe95to aUSdollarmark.Asharplylower rupee can potentially erode investor confidence, and further exacerbate the capital account, »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 George mathew & aanchal magazine Mumbai, New Delhi, May 11 Prime minister narendra modi at the somnath temple in Gujarat, monday. PTi In Somnath, PM invokes Pokhran: ‘No power can make India bow’ express News service Ahmedabad, May 11 editorial page MARKinG THe day india conductednucleartestsatpokhran in 1998, prime Minister narendra Modi on Monday invoked the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the “political will under his leadership” and said that the country will hold firm PM FraMeS Severity oF energy Challenge govt, oil CoMPanieS Can’t abSorb energy ShoCk indeFinitely Page 6 TMC, Congress criticise move: ‘Outrageous and brazen’ Kolkata, May 11 »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 business as Usual By EP uNNy ED arrests ex-minister in municipality jobs case sweety Kumari FoRMeR WeST Bengal minister and TMC leader Sujit Bose was arrested by the enforcementDirectorate(eD)inKolkata on Monday after more than 10 hoursofquestioninginconnectionwithallegedirregularitiesin municipality recruitment. eD sources alleged Sujit Bose had “illegally recommended 150 candidates for different posts in the South Dum Dum Municipality”. “eD has traced direct pro- sujitBosewasFire& emergency servicesministerintheTmcgovt ceeds of crime in the form of flats acquired by him in lieu of providing municipality jobs to various persons. Further, eD hasalsotracedhugedepositsof »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 THe WeST Bengal CiD and Madhyamgram police have arrested three suspects in connection with the murder of Chandranath Rath, the personalassistantofnewlyelected Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, following a pursuit across statelinesthatledinvestigators to Bihar and Uttar pradesh. Acting on specific intelligence, a specialised team detained Mayank Raj Mishra and Vicky Maurya from Buxar, Bihar, while a third suspect, Raj Singh,wasapprehendedinBallia, Uttar pradesh. After interrogationbyCiDofficialsonMay 10, all three were formally arrested by the Madhyamgram police.investigatorssuspectthe trio were out-of-state hitmen hired to carry out the killing, though who commissioned the hit and why is still under investigation. “All three have been remandedtopolicecustodyfor13 days,” said DiG (Cyber) Ajay »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 Tamil nadu chief minister c Joseph Vijay with his predecessor and dmk chief m k stalin at the latter’s residence in chennai, monday. PTi AIADMK stares at split as rebel bloc of 30 pro-Vijay MLAs turns on Palaniswami 17 of party’s 47 MLAs back EPS, rest for Velumani as floor leader arun Janardhanan Chennai, May 11 Kolkata, Lucknow, May 11 Kolkata, May 11 THe BJp government in West Bengal on Monday appointed the state’s Chief electoral officer (Ceo) Manoj Agarwal as the next Chief Secretary. Agarwal succeeds Dushyant nariala, an iAS officer of the 1993 batch, who has been moved to newDelhiastheprincipalResident Commissioner. Agarwal, who is set to retire inJuly,hadfacedcriticismfrom the Trinamool Congress (TMC) during the Special intensive suvenduaide’s killing:tollplaza CCtV,uPilead to3suspects inBiharanduP E. sweety Kumari & manish sahu West Bengal cm suvendu adhikari with his cabinet ministers at the secretariat, monday. PARTHA PAUL relaTed rePorT, PaGe 9 ravik Bhattacharya & atri mitra amid global pressures and “no power on earth” can make it “bow down”. Speaking at the Somnath Amrut Mahotsav, to mark the 75th anniversary of the reconstruction of the Somnath temple,healsospokeaboutthe politics of “appeasement over national self-respect” during »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 Officer who oversaw Bengal SIR appointed Chief Secy in BJP govt West Bengal ceo manoj agarwal more PIcTUres P 4 RiSinG pReSSURe on india’s external sector with forex reserves plummeting by $38 billion in just two months since the onset of the West Asia conflict, and crude oil prices continuingtohoverover$100abarrel,havestartedtoworrypolicy makers. BehindprimeMinisternarendra Modi's call for austerity measures by citizens are substantial foreign exchange outflows linked to higher gold imports and spending on overseas travel under the liberalised Remittance Scheme (lRS).Whilethegoldimportbill has almost doubled to $72 billionin2025-26intwoyears,outflow under lRS for foreign travel accounted for $15 billion or 57 per cent of the total politics Page 9 SC to tMC: File FreSh Plea on deletionS, aSSeMbly PollS DAyS AFTeR the collapse of backchannel discussions around a possible DMKAiADMK understanding — an idea that ended in political embarrassment for Tamil nadu’s two Dravidian majors — the AiADMK now appears headed toward a potentially historic split, with a large section of partyleadersandnewlyelected MlAs openly challenging the leadership of edappadi K palaniswamiorepSandpushingfor alignment with the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay. What “Delhi” had long hoped for after the death of JJayalalithaa—aweakenedand internallyfracturedAiADMK— now appears closer than ever, withpowerfulleaderswithinthe partyquestioningepS’spolitical future after successive electoral setbacks and accusing him of isolating the party from emerging power equations. At the centre of the crisis is the question of whether AiADMK should support Vijay’s newly formed TVK government, which crossed the majority mark Saturday after intense post-poll negotiations and support from allies. According to reliable sources in AiADMK, at least 30 MlAs and several senior »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 WFI a dictatorship... they afraid I will win medals again: Vinesh in Gonda Nihal Koshie Gonda (UP), May 11 VineSH pHoGAT credits her 10-month-old son Kridhav for bringing joy to her life after the 2024 paris heartbreak, fuelling her with the energy to fight the systemandgivingherthecourage to dream of watching him cheer her at the next olympics. She said this hours after a meeting with Wrestling Federation of india (WFi) president Sanjay Singh, who blocked her »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 Wrestler Vinesh Phogat speaks to reporters after meeting WFI chief sanjay singh in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, monday. ViJAy KUMAR/ iE HiNDi l BUIlT In 2001, ITs Poor condITIon Was raIsed aT leasT seVen TImes In InTernal corresPondence BeTWeen aUGUsT 2024 and aPrIl 2026 Before Bihar bridge collapsed, multiple inspections, several red flags — all ignored santosh singh ported. The collapse led to a major disruption of traffic between a in THe two years leading up to large part of Jharkhand and the partial collapse of the Vik- south Bihar on one end, and ramshila bridge in Bihar last north and northeastern Bihar, week, multiple inspection as well as West Bengal, on the teams and officials raised red other. Traffic from both sides flags that were not acted upon, has now been diverted to a The Indian Express has learnt. much longer route, making the According to officials, the distance between Munger and partial collapse hapKhagaria 161 km via page 1 pened in two stages, theGangabridge,up beginning with a from 14 km over the structural failure in Vikramshila Setu. pillar 133 at around 11.55 pm on engineers and experts from May 3, followed by a total span the Border Road organisation collapse at 1.07 am on May 4, (BRo),theindianArmyandiiT which split the 4.7-kilometre- patna, as well as officers from longbridgeovertheGangainto the state Road Construction two. no casualties were re- Department (RCD) and the Patna, May 11 anchor Bihar Rajya pul nirman nigam limited (BRpnnl), have been at the site to plan the repair efforts, expected to take up to three months. The BRpnn carries the onus of coordinating with the RCDtoensurethestructuralintegrity of any bridge in the state. Both the BRpnn and the RCD had been made aware of the “precarious condition” of the bridge on multiple occasionsoverthepasttwomonths, sources said. Following the collapse, RCD’s nH division executive engineer,SaketKumarRoshan, was suspended for alleged dereliction of duty. His suspension letter, is- a portion of the Vikramshila bridge collapsed last week. ExPRESS sued on May 4, said, “The responsibility of maintenance of the bridge rested with RCD's nHdivision(Bhagalpur)execu- tive engineer Saket Kumar Roshan. prima facie, he has been found guilty of being lax and disinterested about his duty and is being suspended with immediate effect.” RCDsourcestoldTheIndian Express that between August 2024 and April 2026, there had been at least seven internal correspondences regarding the poor condition of the bridge, which was built in 2001. over the years, the passage of overloaded trucks and the resultant weakeningofthebearingsatthe joints have been the main reasons for its deteriorating condition, according to officials. An RCD source said: “in August 2024, an inspection of the bridge by RCD superintending engineershowedgapsinsixout of 60-odd expansion joints. in January 2025, RCD head- Ahmedabad quarters were reminded about the inspection. in March 2025, Bhagalpur District Magistrate nawal Kishore Choudhary reminded visiting state government officials about widening cracks in the bridge. However, later that month, a joint team from iiT patna and BRpnnl inspected the bridge and said the structure was safe.” “in April 2025, the national Highways division, Bhagalpur, reported to RCD headquarters about four new cracks in the bridge. in April 2026, visiting RCD officials were told about the damage to the bearings in the bridge. That same month, a detailed report on the bridge’s poorconditionwassenttoRCD headquarters,” the source said. less than a month later, the partial collapse occurred. Before these red flags were raised,therehadbeentwomajor repairs of the bridge between 2020and2024,withofficialssayingthissuggestedthatitneeded overall better maintenance. An RCDofficialsaid,“Between2020 and 2022, several expansion joints had been repaired with partial closure of the bridge. in 2024, surface and structural reinforcementwasdonewithnew bituminous layers to cover the cracks appearing near the pillars.Thiswascompletedwithlimited success.” An expert, who visited the »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2