The editorial Page: Public servants must act in favour of the weak, and in fear of their conscience 8 MoNDay, SEPTEMbEr 28, 2026 Journalism of Courage MuMbAi, 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 REG.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REGN. NO. 1543/57 ahead Of PM's lIkely vIsIt In dec EXpRESS special 123 151 188 74 Jay Mazoomdaar twomendie duetochemical fumesinside publictoiletin Mumbai Bhavik Desai and Prabhakar Dhivar who died in the incident. related rePorts, P 4 apoorva agashe Mumbai, September 27 tWo men who had gone to use a public toilet Saturday night died after allegedly being exposed to a strong chemical smell inside a public toilet at goregaon early on Sunday. Police said the chemicals were dumped from a small industrial unit located next to the toilet and arrested its owner. According to BmC officials, the incident occurred near the Parsi Panchayat gate, close to mrunaltai Bridge in ram mandir (east) when Prabhakar »cOntInUed On PaGe 2 Trade in focus, India, Canada push to up ties elephant smuggled from nepal, trail points to ngo in leopard poaching probe New Delhi, September 27 fIrSt, It was alleged leopard poaching. now, it is the alleged purchase of an elephant from nepal. the ngo Wildlife SoS, whose two functionaries are in the custody of madhya Pradesh’s forest department in a leopard poaching case with its Ceo Kartick Satyanarayan due to join the probe, is also allegedly linked to a case of live elephant trade from four years ago, Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) records show. In march 2022, the WCCB arrested three men with 30 kg ofivoryinJaipur.oneoftheaccused told investigators that a “mathura resident Suraj Pal”, whois“associatedwithanAgra ngo”,hadboughtafemaleelephant smuggled from nepal, it is learnt. the mobile phone of another accused contained chats with a contact saved as “SoS.Baigo.Agra” — the chats referred to “Suraj Pal’s elephant”, and the contact wrote he had kept “Kartick sir” informed, records show. What’s missing in the »cOntInUed On PaGe 2 Citizenship not ECI’s job: Former SC judge Dhulia During protests by students of the Lovely Professional University in Phagwara, Punjab, Sunday. pTi Violence over sexual assault claim in LPU, university denies incident anju agnihotri chaba Jalandhar, September 27 StudentS of Lovely Professional university (LPu) in Punjab’s Phagwara staged a violent protest early on Sunday, damaging property, vandalising shops, setting vehicles on fire INSIDE Page 10 Clash at KolKata film institute and blocking a national highway, alleging that a girl student had been sexually assaulted by an “outsider” on campus. the university denied the allegation, describing it as “baseless and fabricated rumours”. following the violence, LPu suspended classes for 10 days with effect from September 28. Inacommunicationtostudents, »cOntInUed On PaGe 2 divya a New Delhi, September 27 SIgnALLIng further moves to improve ties between new delhi and ottawa, Canada’s foreign minister Anita Anand underlined attempts to build “renewed partnerships” withlargeeconomieslikeIndia and China, while external Affairs minister S Jaishankar said the two sides are preparing to take their relationship “to a higher level”. »cOntInUed On PaGe 2 EAM S Jaishankar with his Canadian counterpart Anita Anand in New York. Ani business as usual by EP UNNy New Delhi, September 27 as fungal disease hits sugar output in UP, new cane variety holds hope polItIcS harish damodaran express news service former SuPreme Court judge Sudhanshu dhulia has said that the apex court has laid down the law in several judgmentsoncitizenshipand it “is not the election Commission of InPage 13 dia’s job”. Justice dhulia, who retired from the Supreme Court in August 2025, also described as “a serious matter” the two elec- To take ties to higher level, says Jaishankar; building renewed partnerships with large economies like India, China: Canada minister by PM NarENDra MoDI New Delhi, September 27 renukA puri Justice (retd) Sudhanshu Dhulia was at the Idea Exchange Friday tion Commissioners objecting onrecord14timesin10months tostepstakenbytheChiefelectionCommissioner,asreported »cOntInUed On PaGe 2 uttAr PrAdeSh, India’s top cane growing state, has seen its sugar output plummet from 126.4 lakh tonnes (lt) to 89.5 lt between 2019-20 and 2025-26 (october-September production years). the primary reason has been the susceptibility of the widely-cultivated sugarcane variety, Co-0238 (also called Karan 4), to red rot fungal disease. the resultant yield losses have led to the total quantity of cane crushed by the 120-odd sugar mills in uttar Pradesh, where Assembly elections are set to be held in februarymarch 2027, falling by over a fifth in the last six years. A new variety of hope theindustryisnowpinning itshopesonanewvarietydeveloped by the Indian Council of Agricultural research’s Sugarcane Breeding Institute (ICArSBI)atCoimbatore.thisvariety, Co-20016(Karan20),hasalready been picked as a potential replacementforCo-0238byaVarietal Identification Committee »cOntInUed On PaGe 2 Page 7 ashoK singhal: a life dediCated to nation-building Happening today lIndIa’s crIcket campaign in the Japan Asian Games starts, while Avinash Sable and Sreeshankar Murali will carry medal hopes in Athletics.