The editorial Page: india can change what BriCs stands for — more choices, not more blocs 8 SAtURdAY, SEPtEMBER 12, 2026 JourNalism of Courage MuMBaI, laTe CITy, 20 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 reG.no. mcs/067/2018 - 20 rni reGn. no. 1543/57 leAders discUss fAlloUT of WesT AsiA WAr, sAfeTy of indiAn seAfArers in blAck seA Modi, Putin set BRICS stage: ‘Deep shifts’, new engines of growth, energy security India and EU close to sealing trade deal, await nod from top Council in Brussels E. ravi dutta Mishra New Delhi, September 11 Pm narendra modi with russian President vladimir Putin, iranian President masoud Pezeshkian, south african President cyril ramaphosa and Brazil’s Foreign minister mauro vieira in new delhi, Friday. anI PM flags secure sea lanes, Russian President for ‘reliable’ logistics routes shubhajit roy business as usual New Delhi, September 11 IN rEMArkS directed both at the West, opposed to his war in Ukraine, and countries with which russia continues to do business despite crippling Western sanctions, russian President Vladimir Putin said Fridaythat“theworldisundergoing structural, deep, profoundshifts”inwhich“newengines of growth” are replacing “the so-called old leaders”. Addressing the BrICS business forum in New delhi ahead of the summit Saturday, Putin said russia and its “partners” are “ready to contribute to worldenergyandfoodsecurity” and “building reliable logistics routessuchastheArcticTransport Corridor and the NorthSouth Transport Corridor”. His remarks on energy and food security and “reliable logistics routes” are a reminder that the crisis in West Asia, where the US continues to exchange strikes with Iran, a BrICS member country, has not been resolved. The partial By EP UNNY Brazil to Iran: Why you can’t put all of BRICS in the anti-West box Range of national aims: Accommodation with West, autonomy from it, parity within it, or direct confrontation c raja Mohan Kutaisi(Georgia),September11 AS IT presides over the BrICS summit in delhi Saturday, India’s challenge is two-fold: to ediTorial page p8 At brics, keep the difficult conversAtions Alive closure of the strategic Strait of Hormuz has disrupted supply chains, impacted economies and sent fuel prices soaring. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who held a bilateral meeting with the russian leader, told the BrICS business »conTinUed on PAge 2 convey the forum’s shared objective of democratizing the international system and to dispel the widespread impression that it seeks to overthrow the US-led order. E. The forum’s champions and detractors alike view it through an anti-Western lens. Its supporterscelebrateBrICSasavehicle for resisting Western dominance;itscriticswarnthat it is becoming a counter-bloc led by China and russia. Both »conTinUed on PAge 2 116 Goyal calls for linking payment systems siddharth Upasani New Delhi, September 11 AHEAd OF the BrICS Leaders’ Summit, member countries havecalledfor“pragmatic”and “efficient” cross-border pay- commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal at the opening ceremony of the Brics Business Forum in new delhi, Friday. PTI As india probes origin of 5 baby orangutans, indonesia prepares ground for repatriation nikhil ghanekar New Delhi, September 11 142 78 inside pAge 6 17 killed in sepArAte roAd Accidents in bhAndArA, nAnded PM Modi to meet President Xi MeMbers To hold closed session on ‘Inclusive Global Governance and Strengthening Multilateralism’ explained Why it is a win-win deal While European companies will get access to the Indian market and compete on a more level playing field, the pact will unlock high-value commitments in services and enable movement of skilled Indian professionals. India,” the European Union said in a statement. “With its proposals, the Commission is seeking the Council’s approval to sign the agreements, which will then require the European Parliament’s consent, before conclusion and entry into force. Authorities in India are in parallel going through their own internal ratification procedures,” the statement said. “The EU and India already trade over Euro 180 billion (1 Euro equals US $1.16) worth of goods and services per year, supporting close to 800,000 EU jobs. This deal will eliminate or reduce tariffs on 96% of »conTinUed on PAge 2 bhArAT innovATes exhibition to showcase India’s Deep-Tech innovations gAlA dinner hosted by PM more reports, p 11, 15 Grouping looks at pragmatic cross-border payment mechanism, local currency trade express special 88 l TodayaTbrics THE EUrOPEAN Commission on Friday forwarded its proposal for the conclusion of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union and India to the European Council (EC), a clear indication the deal could be officially signed soon. The European Council definesthegeneralpoliticaldirection and priorities of the European Union. While the European Commission, the EU’s main executive body, proposes the FTA legislation, the members of the European Council, comprising heads of state or government of the 27 EU member states, the EuropeanCouncilPresidentandthe President of the European Commission, take the final decision. “If authorised by the Council, this will be the largest trade agreement ever concluded by both the EU and India. Once adoptedandenteredintoforce, the agreement will improve market access, reduce tariffs, tackle unnecessary trade barriers,aswellasprovidepredictable rules for trade and investment between the EU and one of the five baby orangutans at the nandankanan Zoological Park near Bhubaneswar. VIDeo GRaB dAyS AFTEr five baby orangutans were rescued from a forest in Balasore district of Odisha,Indonesia’sMinistryof Forestry has reached out to Indian authorities and is learnt to be “preparing the technical requirements”fortheirrepatriation if investigations confirm they are from Indonesia. Based on preliminary assessment, the orangutans are suspected to be from Sumatra, an Indonesian government official told The Indian Express, saying that the possibility of an “organised transnational wildlife trafficking network” is being taken seriously. “We fully respect the judicial and statutory procedures applicable in India. Indonesia will therefore continue its government-to-government and CITES coordination while awaiting the completion of the »conTinUed on PAge 2 ment mechanisms, including promotion of local currencies fortradeandinvestments.Separately, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal urged the bloc to linkpaymentsystemsandtrade in each other’s currencies. Addressing the opening session of the BrICS Business Forum on Friday, Goyal spoke aboutIndia’sUnifiedPayments Interface (UPI). “I would urge the BrICS member countries »conTinUed on PAge 2 Happening today lThe elecTion Commission has invited former West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and TMC rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee for separate meetings regarding their dispute over control of the party. lA high-level TAsk force set up by the Maharashtra government to undertake a comprehensive review of recruitment examinations will begin its division-wise consultation. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com UP minister sanjay nishad protests in Gonda, Friday. @DRSanjayknIShaD UP trader’s killing: Minister on dharna, demands ‘encounter’ if accused roam free Maulshree seth Lucknow, September 11 A dAy after a trader from Uttar Pradesh’sGondadistrictdiedof injuries sustained during a dispute over social media posts, the matter snowballed into a political controversy on Friday as BJP ally and state minister Sanjay Nishad led a protest against his own government, with the Opposition joining in andbackinghiscallsforjustice. The incident, which comes months before Assembly electionsinUP,hastakenonacaste colour as the trader is from the Nishad community and three of the accused who have been arrested are from the “upper caste”, according to the police. Nishad on Friday reiterated that if the accused who remain absconding do not surrender, then “encounter becomes necessary” and any unauthorised property they own must be bulldozed. “A criminal does not have any caste. So, if one does not surrender, then encounter becomesnecessary.Otherwise,he will kill more people. It is similarly necessary that unauthorised property of the accused faces bulldozer action like in other cases,” Nishad told The Indian Express. “One must understand that in the districts there are hardly any officers from the most backward or the Scheduled Castes in prominent posts. Thus, there is always the pressure of caste and it is necessary for us to stand and raise our »conTinUed on PAge 2 l richie mehTa’s ‘Phoolan’ had iTs world Premiere aT ToronTo inTernaTional Film FesTival New film zooms into 48 hours of Phoolan Devi that made her ‘bandit queen’ Alaka sahani cause he is “a non-resident Indian, Punjabi and a male filmmaker”, he changed his mind IN 2019, soon after Canadian after reading the book. filmmaker richie Mehta fin“Phoolan devi's story goes ished working on the ac- ontoshowhowsheempowered claimed series ‘DelhiCrime’, he herself from nothing. I thought wasapproachedbyNamahPic- maybe it was time for the world tures, which had acto see this crucial page 1 quired the rights to story,” Mehta, who the brigand Phoolan made his feature devi’s autobiogradebut with the 2007 phy, ‘I,Phoolan:TheAutobiogmovie ‘Amal’, says. raphy of India’s Bandit Queen’. Instead of telling her entire The producers wanted to retell life story, he chose to focus on a her story in a modern context, specific moment in her life — and although the writer-direc- the chapter that recounts how tor was initially hesitant be- 2,000-armed men were deToronto, September 11 anchor ployed to capture the then 17year-old Phoolan in a siege that lasted 48 hours. That siege, the murder of her partner, and the subsequentgangrapeforgedher identity as the bandit queen. directedbyMehta,‘Phoolan’, whichtellsthestoryofthesiege, had its world premiere in the SpecialPresentationcategoryof the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Friday. “It’s[theincident]described matter-of-factly in her book, justoneofthemanyadversities she faced. This became a way (for him) to effectively convey to the world the odds against Filmmaker richie mehta; (right) a still from his film her,” he says. Phoolan devi was born in 1963 in Ghura ka Purwa, a small village in Uttar Pradesh. She would eventually go on to become a bandit in the Chambal Valley — and one of India’s most compelling figures. In 1983, she surrendered to authoritiesandserved11yearsin prison. Following her release in 1994,sheenteredpubliclifeand was elected twice as a Member of Parliament from Mirzapur, UttarPradesh.ShewasassassinatedonJuly25,2001,outsideher residence in New delhi. While retelling Phoolan devi's story on screen, Mehta wascarefulabouttheprotagonist’sagency.“It’simportantthat we didn't present Phoolan as a victim. She was an empowered agent of change. The fact remains that she was able to become that in the face of adversity,” says Mehta. The book gave him a clear understandingofhowPhoolan deviviewedherownlifeandin- terpreted the events she lived through. “I used her words as my foundation— nothing more,nothingless,”saysMehta. “Therearethemesshereturned torepeatedlyinherwriting,and those became my focus. The crucial one being the intersectionofpovertyandgender,and how that shaped the circumstances of her life. I tried to frame the film through that lens,stayingfaithfultowhatshe herself identified as the central reality of her experience.” For the filmmaker, this was critical, especially since »conTinUed on PAge 2