The editorial Page: In trade deal with US, India needs to secure terms harder to reverse 8 MoNDAY, oCToBER 5, 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 says inDia’s age-olD ties With rUssia refresheD 135 163 204 A little more involved: Jaishankar on ending Russia-Ukraine war Disenfranchisement of millions arbitrary, no whataboutery can Russia drones hit pharma justify it, says SC judge ‘We have now gone beyond advocacy, in happening today conversations with both countries’ lChief negotiators of India 76 and Canada will begin the fifth round of five-day negotiations for the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in Ottawa. business as usual By EP UNNY warehouse owned by Indians, 1 killed: Ukraine shubhajit roy shubhajit roy New Delhi, October 4 New Delhi, October 4 discLosinG ThAT india has gone “beyond advocacy” to be a“littlemoreinvolved”intheefforts to end the Russia-ukraine warragingsinceFebruary2022, external Affairs Minister s Jaishankar said sunday that delhi has been in conversations with both Moscow and kyiv, trying to be “helpful” on the safety of shippingintheBlacksea,grain and energy exports and on “non-attack possibilities”. his remarks, at the Munich Leaders’Meetinginnewdelhi, came days after ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii sybiha said india had put forward a “comprehensive” and “broad” proposal to end the war for the ukRAine’s PResidenT VolodymyrZelenskyysaidsunday that Russia attacked a pharmaceutical warehouse in sumy with drones. The ukrainian embassy in delhi identified it as belonging to indian owners. A report in ukrainian news outlet, kyiv independent, said, “in sumy oblast, at least three peoplewerekilledand16others injuredinaseriesofRussianattacks, according to local authorities. on october 4, a Russian drone attack on a warehouse storing medical supplies in sumy killed a 52-year-old employee and injured three others, local authorities said.” Zelenskyy, in a post on X, condemned the “Russian at- external Affairs Minister S Jaishankar meets US Indo-Pacific Command Commander, Admiral Samuel J Paparo, and US Ambassador Sergio Gor in New delhi, Sunday. PtI first time. Jaishankar said, “We are seeing today an unfortunate conflict. our position on that conflict has been very clear, which is that we would like to see an end to this conflict, and we believe that this will require dialogue and diplomacy. There hastobenegotiationsinthisregard. We have been advocating »ContinUeD on Page 2 E. eXPlaIneD autonomy over ties Jaishankar’s remarks on the age-old India-Russia ties underline Delhi’s resolve to maintain strategic autonomy despite Western scrutiny and US tariff threats over Indian purchase of Russian energy. the worlD P 16 Merz unveils new Military aid for ukraine: ‘will not be intiMidated’ tack” and offered condolences to the family of the person who was killed. “Thismorning,theRussians onceagainstruckthePivnichnyi »ContinUeD on Page 2 Top court will hear today matter on relocating 135-yr-old government library TAkinGsuomotucognizance ofaseptember30reportinThe Indian Express, the supreme court will hear Monday the matter relating to the relocation of the 135-year-old central secretariat Library (csL) in shastri Bhavan which is set to betorndownaspartofthecentral Vista revamp plan. TheIndianExpressreported that the Ministry of housing and urban Affairs and central Public Works department are yet to find space for the library which houses more than 8.5 lakh books. The matter, registered under the title ‘in Re: 135-Yrold Library 8.5 Lakh Books – AndnoRoominThenewcentral Vista Plan’, will be heard Monday by a bench of Justice sanjay kumar and Justice sanjeev sachdeva. Followingthepublicationof the report, the Ministry, in a post, said “it is clarified that spaceforthecentralsecretariat Library has been provided for inthekartavyaPathredevelopment plan. The necessary process for construction of the library is underway.” spread over four floors and covering nearly 5,500 square metres in shastri Bhavan, the csLcontainsmorethan8.5lakh The Indian contingent during the Asian Games closing ceremony in Nagoya, Japan, Sunday. AP MuMbai’s sluM rehab scheMe is Moving More PeoPle into other sluMs than into hoMes, finds study sically arbitrary. no amount of whatabouterycanjustifyit.”“it strikes at the very heart of the constitution and i would go to the extent of saying that it is a negation of the constitutional order, which we have adopted under the constitution of india,” he said. speaking on the significance of universal adult suffrage, especially in the context of india, Justice Bhuyan said, “From the persona of an indian citizen, the right to vote or right to be included in the voters' list cannot be detached. it will be like taking out the soul from the body.” hesaidtheearliestarticulation of adult franchise in india »ContinUeD on Page 2 reLATed rePOrTS, Page 17 Team depth to individual gaps: India’s Asian Games report card for LA 2028 eXPreSS at AsiAn GAmes Mihir Vasavda Page 4 Supreme Court Judge Justice Ujjal Bhuyan Held in Ethiopia on ‘dunki’ route to US, cousins freed as police reach out to ‘kidnapper’ »ContinUeD on Page 2 the cIty AMid The row over the siR of electoral rolls against which petitions have been filed in the supreme court, Justice ujjal Bhuyan, a judge of the top court, said sunday that any process that leads to wholesale disenfranchisement of indian citizens, making them citizens withoutvotingrights,wouldbe violative of the constitution. no amount of whataboutery can justify it, he said. JusticeBhuyansaiddetaching an indian citizen from the right to vote would be akin to “taking out the soul from the body.” speaking at the valedictory ceremony of Justice Bodh Raj sawhneyMemorialMootcourt competition at nalsar universityofLaw,hyderabad,hesaid, “if any process results in disenfranchising millions and millionsofindiancitizens,making them second-class citizens in their own country, in the sense ofbeingcitizenswithoutvoting rights, such a process is intrin- raMaChanDra gUha, HIstORIAn, Page 13 The Indian Express report published on September 30 express news service nikhila henry Hyderabad, October 4 ‘Maybe it’s a new generation that will find their own Gandhi, which will be different from mine and yours’ Takes suo motu cognizance of Express report on lack of space for CSL’s 8.5 lakh books New Delhi, October 4 aDDress at nalsar, hyDeraBaD Nagoya, October 4 lBeTWeen The 2022 Asian Games in china’s hangzhou and the latest edition that wound up sunday in Japan’s nagoya,theGovernmentspent Rs 97.84 crore under the Target olympic Podium scheme Talent spotting, investment under lens; officials say performance ‘encouraging’ (ToPs). only two per cent of it, approximately, translated to gold medals this time. lTeenagerkumkumMohod won arguably india’s biggest individual gold despite not being intheflagshipscheme; suruchi singh, the shooter, was added only recently, while her mixed teampartner,kamaljeetsingh, isn’t on the list; neeru dhanda, whowonatrapgoldinshooting, remains outside the ToPs core group,too. lThirteenofindia’s21golds came in team events, some of which aren’t in the olympics, while 19 of its 27 silvers came in individual events. These numbers present different stories from nagoya: the firstabouttalentidentification, thesecondonallocationofconsiderable investment in elite sport,andthethirdofferingencouragement and a warning — there is growing depth in team events but athletes are struggling in individual events to make that final push from silver to gold. india finished fourth at the Asian Games with 21 gold, 27 silver and 37 bronze medals, 85 in all. it fell short of the 100medal target and finished 21 medals behind its record haul in hangzhou. “We may have lost a few medals compared to (hangzhou) but individual performancesweresatisfying,” Adille sumariwala, the »ContinUeD on Page 2 PolicestationinLanghnaj,Mehsana,wherethereleasewasnegotiated Brendan Dabhi Ahmedabad, October 4 When cousins Mamta (30), Rutvik (23), and Mayuri (27) reached Langhnaj in Gujarat’s Mehsana district on october 1, theirfirststop,evenbeforethey wenthome,wasthelocalpolice station. This was a procedural requirement — but the cousins alsowantedtomeettheofficers whose“remarkablenegotiating skills” over phone had extricatedthemfromtheclutchesof agangofabductorsinethiopia. Thecousins,fromafarming family in Vadasma village in north Gujarat, had hoped to travel to the united states. however, given the severe restrictions on migration by the Trump administration, they had allegedly chosen to take an illegal,circuitous“dunki”route. They never made it. The cousins were allegedly waylaid in ethiopia, in eastern Africa, not far from the theatre of hostilities between the us »ContinUeD on Page 2 lMAdHyA PrAdeSH GOvT HAS APPrOved 128 PrOJeCTS — frOM New HIGHwAyS TO BrIdGeS, GHATS TO fIve-STAr HOTeLS Hotels, roads and the race against time: Inside Ujjain’s Simhastha 2028 makeover anand Mohan J the portion of the mosque withintheproposedroadalignment, as protests raged over uJJAin hAs always resisted road-widening projects in ujthe march of time, clinging to jain ahead of the 2028 simhasits ancient city of temples, tha. hours later, chief Minister ghats, bazaars and British-era MohanYadavtookanaxetohis offices. now, as ujjain prepares grandfather’s ancestral home for simhastha 2028, its maps in Abdalpura. The demolitions are being redrawn, Page 1 came as the adminhurtling the sleepy istration raced temple town toagainst time for the wards a new modernity — carved through its simhastha Mela 2028, for old streets with bulldozers, which the government has approved 128 projects worth widened roads and concrete. on september 27, a crowd about Rs 13,851 crore across 10 gathered outside the shahi departments. For Yadav, Masjid, where the administra- simhasthahasbecomehisgovtion was preparing to remove ernment’s defining project, Ujjain, October 4 anchor with the administration effectively mobilised around a single task: transforming the ancienttempletownbeforepilgrims arrive. on the ground, the transformation is unfolding on a scale rarely seen in ujjain’s modern history. highways are being carved into the city’s approaches, railway lines and bypasses are being built, roads and bridges widened, kilometres of new ghats taking shape along the shipra, and water and sewerage networks being laid underground. What is taking shape is not simplyacitypreparingforafestival,butacenturies-oldtemple l KeySIMhaSthaProJectS Jaora Delhi-Mumbai highway Existing Road 98.73 km Ujjain-Jaora corridor: ₹5,017 cr Projects in Ujjain Shipra river UJJaIn Shipra riverfront: 29.2 km of new ghats, ₹778 cr Kanh diversion: 30.15 km pipeline, ₹919.94 cr Indore-Ujjain greenfield corridor: ₹2,935 cr, four lanes Ujjain-Indore six-laning: ₹1,692 cr InDore Map not to scale Officials inspect construction of an underpass at Hari Phatak, aimed at providing an alternative route to Mahakal Lok. ExPREss town being physically remade into a modern pilgrimage city. simhastha Mela Authority directorJagdishAggarwal’soffice in kothi Road, a leafy neigh- bourhood, is less a conventional government chamber these days than a control room for one of Madhya Pradesh’s biggest infrastructure exercises. Project officers come in with updates, meetings are held with swamis and other stakeholders, and meetings with the chief minister are woven into a schedule dominated by simhastha. every Thursday, Aggarwal sits with the collector and deputy collector for a review devoted to the same question: how to get ujjain ready for 2028? “We are preparing keeping in mind the possibility of around40crorepeoplecoming to ujjain,” Aggarwal said, explaining why projects that would otherwise appear excessive for ujjain are being taken up simultaneously. But there’s also a human cost involved: the eroding trust among residents. Yasin khan, a local, welcomed the roadwidening project but frowned uponthespeedatwhichtheadministration proceeded. “When the houses were marked in my neighbourhood, both hindu and Muslim families came out and demolishedportionsofthehousesourselves. But the administration »ContinUeD on Page 2