The editorial Page: Court dismantles unconstitutional buffer zone between detention & arrest 8 WEdNESdAY, NovEMBEr 11, 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 lPresident drouPadi Murmu will confer the Swachh Survekshan 2025-26 awards. Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com business as Usual By EP UNNY russia, uKraine at u.s.-broKered talKs in abu dhabi Ukraine talks begin, India pushes for safe Black Sea, quick end to war In touch with both sides to contribute towards return of peace in region: MEA shubhajit roy New Delhi, November 10 as Us-BrOkErED talks between russia and Ukraine beganinabuDhabiTuesdayto tryandendthenearlyfive-year war, India said it was “in touch with both sides” and other “interestedparties”to“contribute” towardsthe“returnofpeace”to the region. ahead of the talks, which were last held in February this the ideas page at abU Dhabi,new DiploMaticpUsh on Ukraine. stakes hiGh for inDia anD worlD year, Prime Minister narendra Modi spoke to Ukrainian President volodymyr Zelenskyy who said India was ready to “mediate in establishing food »Continued on PaGe 2 bookcourts babrivotebank, papersover bofors,family wrongs:bJP asad rehman New Delhi, November 10 outside a bookstore in khan market in new delhi, Tuesday. ANIl ShArMA ritu sarin New Delhi, November 10 THE LaTE Pranab Mukherjee, former President and a Congress veteran, once dropped a big hint about his Prime Ministerial ambitions and suggested a “change at the top” during a chat with then-UPa chairperson sonia Gandhi. This was in 2010,withPrimeMinisterManmohan singh firmly in the saddle in the UPa government’s second term. Gandhi has written about this conver- inside paGe 5 ‘My rajiv was DeaD. he was Gone... i DiDn’t want to live withoUt hiM’ sation in her memoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, published by HarperCollins India. Mukherjee, Gandhi has written,haddeveloped“serious differences” with then Finance Minister P Chidambaram. »Continued on PaGe 2 CrITICIsInG COnGrEss Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairpersonsoniaGandhi’smemoir, Belonging: A Journey of Love, the BJP on Tuesday said the “underlying thinking throughout the book revolves around the Babri (Masjid) vote bank”. accusing her of trying to “justify” the Emergency, being “silent” on the Bofors scam, and making “claims completely contrary to the actual facts” on the 1984 anti-sikh riots, the party said the book seeksto“sugar-coatthehistorical wrongs perpetrated by the nehru-Gandhi family”. “sonia Gandhi's book has made it clear that the underlying thinking throughout the bookrevolvesaroundtheBabri vote bank. she has revealed that vote-bank politics associatedwithBabriisdeeplyrooted in her thinking,” said BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari. “she says she cried for Babri Masjid. Did sonia Gandhi shed »Continued on PaGe 2 At Barefoot College, social activist gave ‘cop-outs, dropouts, washouts’ new life hamza Khan Jaipur, November 10 sOCIaL aCTIvIsT and rural development pioneer Bunker roy, who set up the renowned BarefootCollegeteachingbasic engineering,medicineandarts to villagers, died Tuesday at the age of 81. His last rites were held Tuesday evening in ajmer’s Tilonia, the village he had made his home over half a century ago. In a statement, his family { bunker roy } 1945-2026 members and fellow activists said that “Bunker roy passed vital to trade and security p9 ‘unsPoKen division of resPonsibility’: sonia on ManMohan Pranab’s desire to be PM shocked me, says Sonia; his daughter asks is ambition crime explained away peacefully at 6.15 am with aruna (wife and activist aruna roy) and others around him. He went as he wanted to, in his own home in Tilonia, surrounded by some of the countless people who loved and cared for him deeply and admired him for his lifelong contribution to people, society, India, and the planet.” Bornsanjitroyin1945inan upper-middle-class Bengali family,roywaseducatedatthe »Continued on PaGe 2 Uae Foreign minister sheikh abdullah bin Zayed al nahyan (centre) during trilateral talks between russia and Ukraine mediated by the Us, in abu dhabi, Tuesday. AP The larger Black Sea region is key to trade and security interests of both Ukraine and Russia. It is the grain export hub of Ukraine, a major agricultural exporter. Russia too exports significant volumes of grain through the Azov-Black Sea region, an area it considers vital for military power projection. Govt nominee votes tilt Gokul result in Mahayuti favour, Cong-led panel loses shubham Kurale & Manoj More Kolhapur, Pune, November 10 WEEks aFTEr losing the election to the board of Maharashtra’s largest dairy, Gokul, the candidate of the BJP-led Mahayuti alliance was elected the cooperative’s chairman Tuesday. This came a day after the BombayHighCourtupheldthe Maharashtra government’s decision to give voting rights to four government-nominated directors on the Gokul dairy board. nationalist Congress Party newly elected chairman of Gokul dairy rajesh Patil in kolhapur, Tuesday. PTI (nCP) leader and former Chandgad MLa rajesh Patil was elected the dairy’s chairman after the governmentnominated directors tilted the contest in his favour. This triggered backlash from the Opposition, which accused the ruling alliance of “usurping power”, and some farmer leaders in kolhapur, where the cooperative is located. In the October 19 election to the dairy’s board, the rajarshi shahushetkarisamvichariaghadi panel, led by Congress MLCsatejPatil,won13ofthe25 »Continued on PaGe 2 West Bengal chief minister suvendu adhikari at iskcon mecheda in Purba medinipur during annakut celebrations on Tuesday. ANI Suvendu slams Left but praises Buddhadeb: ‘He was a very honest man’ Says TMC had no role in Nandigram land movement: ‘Won’t be seen for next 100 years’ atri Mitra Kolkata, November 10 EvEn as he reiterated his promisetoreopencasesagainst the Left Front leaders in connection with the 2007 nandigram land agitation, West Bengal Chief Minister suvendu adhikari on Tuesday praised Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the the biG pictUre the GanGa takes a paUse paGe 7 thenchiefminister,callinghim “a very honest man”. addressing an event at Gokulnagar in nandigram in Purba Medinipur district to mark the 19th anniversary of police firing that left 11 people dead, the BJP chief minister said, “after november 10, 2007, there was a bloody sunrise. I pay my respects... I will not name him. He has passed away – the then chief minister. standing at the Writers' Building, he had said, “They have been paid back in their own coin”. However, the late chief ministerwasaveryhonestman in his personal life. The party was bad.” »Continued on PaGe 2 inside DU history facUlty says kept oUt of pG syllabUs review, writes to v-c paGe 6 yearafter hisacquittal, rampurterror attackaccused shotdead Manish sahu Lucknow, November 10 a yEar after his release from jail following his acquittal by the allahabad High Court in the 2007 terror attack on a CrPF camp that claimed eight lives, 52-year-old Mohammad shareef was shot dead by unidentified men in rampur Tuesday. shareef was riding pillion, behind his 21-year-old son, on a motorcycle when the assailants, also on a motorcycle, opened fire in the khajuria area. Police said the assailants had covered their faces. shareef ’s son abu Wais khan told police that they were returning home when two youths,onanothermotorcycle, approachedthemnearthePanwaria village crossing, opened fire at his father and fled. arearesidentsalertedpolice who took shareef to a hospital where doctors declared him dead. His son escaped unhurt. Police said two bullet wounds were visible on shareef’s body. “The picture »Continued on PaGe 2 l TheY saY TiTLe aLone does noT GUaranTee sPonsors, eLiTe inViTes amit Kamath Mumbai, November 10 On sUnDay, India crossed an enviable milestone in chess: 38 yearsafterviswanathananand became India’s first grandmaster, the nation now has 100 GMs. ashok shrivatri, the 22year-oldfromMadhyaPradesh, will go down in chess history as the one to take India’s GM count to triple figures. There are many more in the frantic race to become the next GM, the sport’s most prestigious honorific prefix and the topofficialtitleofferedbyFIDE. Butunlikeotherlifepaths,such Pranav V became india’s 75th grandmaster in 2022 at the age of 16. his current rating is 2679. leNNArT OOTeS/FIDe as pursuing an educational degree and a cushy job, becoming a grandmaster comes with no guarantees. ICA/D1728(23)/2026 100 grandmasters for India but for most, real test of wits begins after the title The “super grandmasters”, who have crossed an Elo rating of 2,700, are usually invited to elite tournaments like norway Chess, Tata steel in Wijk aan Zee and Prague Masters — and India currently has five of them: r Praggnanandhaa, arjunErigaisi,DGukesh,nihal sarin and anand. But for most of the rest, just travelling to the next tier of tournaments, even if they get an invite, can burn a hole in the pocket. “Becoming a grandmaster by itself does not lead to your life changing drastically. I became a grandmaster a few »Continued on PaGe 2 Kolkata