The editorial Page: eCI’s belated u-turn doesn’t undo injustice of mass exclusion 8 TUESDAY, NOvEMbEr 10, 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 Happening today l Delegations from Ukraine, Russia and the United States are scheduled to begin US-mediated trilateral talks in UAE to discuss ending the war, de-escalation, and post-war security frameworks. lKerala Public service Commission chairman M R Baiju is scheduled to appear before a special investigation team probing alleged irregularities in examinations and appointments. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as usual by EP UNNY tmc mP slams suvenDu govt: ‘WHerever bJP is in PoWer, tHere is a culture of encounters’ Fourth in 4 months: Rape-murder accused killed in Bengal ‘encounter’ Under fire, CM says: If someone tries to kill police, will police throw rasgullas? Kolkata, November 9 a Man accused in the rapemurderofa12-year-oldgirlwas shot dead in an encounter near the West bengal-bihar border in uttar Dinajpur district on Monday morning, police said. this is the fourth such incidentsincethebjPgovernment came to power in bengal in which an accused in heinous crimes such as rape and murder has been killed in an encounter. the 12-year-old girl went missing in uttar Dinajpur district on november 3 after leaving home on her bicycle. two days later, her body was recovered from a forest area near Jaishankar and Lavrov also discuss conflict, ongoing diplomatic initiatives shubhajit roy New Delhi, November 9 Page 4 Hasina seeks fresH PassPort as dHaka insists on extradition Excerpts from Sonia Gandhi’s book, Belonging, on the days leading up to her momentous decision in 2004 to not become Prime Minister The book published by harpercollins India is releasing in India today lalmani verma Lucknow, November 9 India ready to help set up food corridors, says Zelenskyy after phone call with Modi politics Number of minority voters has risen 1.65%, says UP CM sweety Kumari on eve of russia-uKraine Peace talKs aheaD of the us-brokered two-day peace talks between russia and ukraine in abu Dhabi starting tuesday, india on Monday reached out to the top political leadership in Kyiv and Moscow. Prime Minister narendra Modi spoke to ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while external affairs Minister s jaishankar spoke to russian foreign Minister sergey lavrov. inapostonXafterhisphone call with Modi, Zelenskyy said they discussed “russia’s blockingofgrainexportsviatheblack sea” and added that india was ready to “mediate in establishing food corridors”. this is the first time Zelenskyy has spoken out on the indianproposaltobrokeraceasefire in the black sea, which has 1.27 cr Hindu voters missing from UP rolls… have filed plea before EC: Yogi Pm narendra modi last met President Zelenskyy at the G7 summit in France in June. FilE witnessedattacksonukrainian grain exports. in a post on X, Modi said he “reiterated india’s firm commitment to contributing in every possible way towards a peaceful resolution”. “Glad to have had a productive telephone conversation with President Zelenskyy. We »continueD on Page 2 inside Page 3 tigress sliPs out of Buxa again, Moving towards assaM The site of the encounter in Uttar dinajpur district, monday. ExpRESS the Kulik river. thegirl’sfamilyfiledacomplaint with police, alleging that she had been gang-raped and murdered. one of the accused was named as Dilip roy, who police tracked down after a four-day manhunt. senior police officers said teams closed in on roy around 3 am Monday as he was trying tocrossintobihar,andheallegedly opened fire at them. “he suffered critical injuries in the retaliatory firing and was rushed to raiganj Medical college and hospital, where doctors declared him dead,” said a police officer. hours after the encounter, chief Minister suvendu adhi- kari extended his complete support to bengal Police. “if someone tries to kill the police, will the police throw rasgullas? is the police supposed to keep guns in pockets? the police »continueD on Page 2 Nvidia CEO admits affair, company opens probe into his relationship with ‘China spy’ Trump defends Jensen Huang: ‘Honorable guy... think he probably has an excuse for it’ tripp mickle, maggie Haberman, Jonathan swan, Julian e barnes & ana swanson San Francisco, November 9 nViDia saiD sunday that it was opening an investigation into jensen huang, its chief executiveandco-founder,after he acknowledged to the company’s board that he had been intimatewithabusinessexecutive who us intelligence determined was a chinese spy. huang’s relationship with the woman, who goes by alice huang, became a us government concern after surveillance revealed that she was feeding information directly to beijing. the revelation raised troubling possibilities because »continueD on Page 2 nvidia ceo Jensen huang with alice huang at a restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan on may 22 last year. REUtERS ruBio warned offiCials aBout Ceo’s ties witH sPy Delhi logs most polluted Diwali in 5 years, little respite day after PM 2.5 reading at one station over 83 times the national 24-hour safe limit sophiya mathew New Delhi, November 9 Delhi recorDeD its worst Diwali-day air since 2021, with the average air Quality index (aQi) touching 376 sunday, according to data maintained by the central Pollution control board (cPcb). this was higher thanthecorrespondingDiwaliday readings in the past four years: 345 in 2025, 328 in 2024, 218 in 2023 and 312 in 2022. thepollutionbuild-upcontinued into Monday, with the city’s average aQi showing 370 at 9.05 am, with eight monitoring stations recording readings explained above 400, in the ‘severe’ category. real-time station data from the Delhi Pollution control committee (DPcc) showed that the highest hourly PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) reading on sunday was recorded at jahangirpuri: 4,985 µg/m³ between7pmand8pm—over83 timesthenational24-hoursafe limit of 60 µg/m³ and more than 330 times the Who’s 24hour guideline of 15 µg/m³. other key stations such as anand Vihar saw PM10 (particulate matter) peak at 3,450 µg/m³ during midnight, and »continueD on Page 2 Challenges remain With the national capital’s AQI the worst since 2021 on Diwali day, it underlines the immense challenges that authorities face: firecracker restrictions were widely violated, with at least 430 FIRs registered in 10 police districts. Meanwhile, a 10-yearold boy lost his life after a firecracker burst in his hands. Bengal CM BaCks Bursting of CraCkers: ‘sanatan Page 3 tradition’ CHina disMisses sPy Plot, Calls it sMear CaMPaign Page 10 7-fold rise in farm fires in Punjab, Delhi claims plot anju agnihotri chaba, Kanchan vasdev & Devansh mittal Jalandhar, Chandigarh, New Delhi, November 9 aMiD the opposition’s campaignagainstthespecialintensive revision (sir), uttar Pradesh chief Minister Yogi adityanath has claimed that 1.27crorehindushavebeenexcluded from the electoral rolls in uttar Pradesh, while the number of Muslim voters has increased by 1.65%. thecMsaidthebjPhadappealed to the poll body to include those who had been left out despite there being evidence of them being voters, and asked how the names of these hindu voters had gone missingandwhowasbehindit. speakingattheaajtakPanchayat news programme sunday, the uP cM hit out at the opposition over “false propaganda” on sir and dared samajwadi Party (sP) president akhilesh Yadav to demand the rollback of sir. “uP ki sacchai kya hai? akhilesh Yadav ko bolo na ki maang kare ki sir wapas liya jaye.Womaangnahikarega.Isliye nahi maang karega kyuki uP ke andar sir ke pehle jitne MuslimmatdatatheyunnMuslim matdataon main 1.65% ki »continueD on Page 2 vriddhi hui hai sir ke baad. Aurhindumatdataonkimaine bataya na kya sthiti hai. (What is the reality in uP? ask akhilesh Yadav to demand the rollbackofsir.hewillnotdemand because the number of Muslim votershasincreasedby1.65%in uPaftersir.andihavespoken about the situation of hindu voters),” adityanath said. “that is why we have given our memorandum to the election commission, asking why this happened,” the cM said, adding, “i am speaking about those 1.27 crore hindu voters who have their names in the electoral list of uP panchayat polls, but their names do not exist in the electoral rolls of the election commission of india. how have these names gone missing? Who was behind this? there are 66 lakh such voters; 55 lakh are those hindus voters who are getting benefits of the government’swelfareschemes, but their names are missing »continueD on Page 2 Ahead of hearing in SC, Govt sets aside space for Central Secretariat Library The sc had taken suo motu cognizance of The Indian Express report Damini nath New Delhi, November 9 Punjab’s efforts to curb paddystubbleburningsuffered a major setback on Diwali day, with the state recording 1,152 active farm fire events sunday — the highest single-day spike of the ongoing season. the farm fires detected on november 8 marked a sevenfoldriseoverthe163recordedon november 7. the number was alsoalmostdoubletheprevious highest single-day count of 584 this season, on november 3. the Diwali cases pushed the cumulative count of farm fires in Punjab to 4,459 on november 8, against 3,622 on the False propaganda on sIr by opposition: cm Yogi the union Ministry of housing and urban affairs (Mohua) has allocated space for the central secretariat library — currently housed in shastri bhawan, which is set to be demolished as part of the central Vista redevelopment plan — at the government office complex in netaji nagar, The Indian Express has learnt. on september 30, The Indian Express had reported that whileallministriesanddepartments had been asked by the central Public Works Department (cPWD) to vacate shastri bhawan by the end of septem- ber so that construction work could start, the library was yet to be allocated adequate space. taking suo motu cognizance of The Indian Express report,thesupremecourt,onoctober 5, had asked the governmenttofileadetailedaffidavit on its plans to relocate thelibrary,includingtheareato be allocated and “actual layout plans”. the court is set to hear the matter on november 16. in an office memorandum issued on november 6, the Directorate of estates, under Mohua, said space had been allocated for the library at the Government Pool office accommodation (GPoa)-2, »continueD on Page 2 ‘One part of me rejected being PM outright… another spoke about duty… I longed for Rajiv’s presence’ soMe Months before the election, my children and i had discussed the issue of my possible prime ministership. one of them asked me straight out whether i would accept the post… “absolutely not!” i’d said… “are you sure?” they pressed me. “i’m very clear,” i said emphatically. neither rahul nor Priyanka felt that i shouldbecomeprimeminister. they’d lived through the trauma of their grandmother’s assassination and the brutal murder of their father… they looked relieved and i, too, felt lighter, having said my views outloudonthequestionforthe first time. and there the matter rested.ineverspokeofittoanyone else. throughout the election, i’d give a noncommittal answer whenever i was asked this question… We were in a battle for our survival and i had to keep my party together… it wasn’t an option to allow a leadership struggle to arise… i just knew instinctively that the persontocarryforwardthelegacy of past congress governments would have to be someone with long experience in government and an impeccable record of integrity… Years ago, when i took the firststepofthejourneythathad broughtmetothispoint,iknew who’dgivenustheirvote…one in my heart what my husband minute i was clear, the next, i and my mother-in-law would was torn. a meeting had been fixed have expected of me. i had felt an inner call of duty towards with the leaders of the althem and all that they had liance… “We’ll convince her,” they’dassuredmy fought for colleagues… like throughout their express a movie in slow lives. but now i motion, the was at sea; i had to scenesiwitnessed search within my move through my troubled self for an answer. one part of me re- mind’s eye. a meeting is going jected the idea completely, the on with some of the leaders of other part was calling on my the alliance in rajiv’s confersense of obligation — towards ence room at the far end of my thepartyworkerswho’dbehurt house. they’ve been talking in and disappointed by my re- turns for over an hour, urging fusal, but also to the people me to agree to their proposal, special whileilistensilently.asthediscussion comes to an end, they looktowardsmeforaresponse. imusterupasmuchcourageas i can and i say my piece. there is an uproar amongst them, they stand up and move towards me. i, too, stand up. they physically surround me. “Wewillnotacceptthis,”oneof them says. “You cannot take this decision, Madam,” says another. their tone is forceful, almost aggressive. “We will not take no for an answer.” i am shaken. i feel overpowered. “Theek hai,” (“all right,”), i mumble… the assembled leaders don’t even wait for me Kolkata sonia Gandhi announcing that she will not take the Prime minister’s post and recommending manmohan singh’s name in 2004. ARChivE to finish my sentence, they begin to congratulate me, one byone.“shehasagreed,shehas agreed,” someone says. i just stand there, numb… i hadn’t noticed that the windows of the conference »continueD on Page 2