The editorial Page: starlink episode points to tightropes in changing political economy 8 MoNDAY, oCToBER 26, 2026 JournAlism of CourAge ahmedabad, 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 Happening today lLeader of opposition Rahul Gandhi is expected to appear before a special court in Sultanpur, UP, which is due to pronounce its verdict in a defamation case against him. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Business as Usual By EP UNNY inaUGUration of rBi’s data centre and cYBersecUritY traininG institUte in odisha Wars target economies, must protect India’s banking from cyber terror: PM nation Says Cong policies pushed banking system to brink of collapse, led to mounting NPAs PM watcheS aS IaF jetS rOar acrOSS SkIeS In varanaSI sujit Bisoyi Bhubaneswar, October 25 WaRNINgThaTmodernwars are not fought with weapons alone but also by targeting economies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday underlined the need to protect India’s banking system from “cyber terrorists”. Modiwasspeakingatthein- Page 7 Prime minister narendra modi with Finance minister nirmala sitharaman, rBI Governor sanjay malhotra and odisha chief minister mohan charan majhi in Bhubaneswar, sunday. PTI augurationoftheReserveBank of India’s data Centre and Cybersecurity Training Institute here. “We all understand that modern warfare is not waged solely with weapons. Weakening a country can also be attempted by striking at its economy. as India gains financial strength, safeguarding our banking system against cyber criminalsandcyberterroristsis congress chief mallikarjun kharge with party’s Bihar unit chief rajesh ram and mP akhilesh Prasad singh in Patna on sunday. anI ‘Modi ka baap bhi jayega’: Kharge’s remark triggers row, BJP calls for protest express special Shah says Cong chief breached ‘all norms of decorum’ fLat Markets for tWo Years a concern Patna, New Delhi, October 25 »continUed on paGe 2 express news service On FM table: Slashing capital gains tax rate, dollar-based taxation for foreign investors aanchal Magazine & anil sasi l stockindices New Delhi, October 25 aS INveSTORS grapple with a flat stock market trajectory for more than two years now, discussions within the government in the run-up to Budget 2027-28 include lowering the long-term capital gains tax from 12.5% now for both domestic and foreign investors, and letting foreign investors pay this tax on capital gains made in dollar terms as opposed to in rupee terms, to boost market sentiments. Officials say the urgency to act fast is due to two key concerns. One, zero returns or lossesinstockmarketsoverthe last two years come on top of poor wage growth, and this is a big sentiment dampener. It is felt across a larger spectrum of change YTd in%* change# Sensex -7.9 -14.2 nifty 50 -6.5 -13.6 S&P 500 (US) nasdaq composite (US) FTSe 100 (Uk) hang Seng (hong kong) bovespa (brazil) kospi (S korea) 31.3 11.2 40.2 11.7 29.3 7.4 12.2 -12.3 57.9 27.7 114.9 28.8 *% chanGe oveR laST Two YeaRS #YeaR-To-daTe chanGe SInce jan 2, 2026 middleclasswithsurgingretail participation in markets now. Post-Covid,stockmarketinvestmentswitnessedasharprise in participation by retail inves- explained Stock market challenge For the government, it has been a challenge to explain the robust 7.8 per cent growth rate in April-June this year, especially when stock market indices actually dropped over the last two years, and poor wages growth in the private sector. The Budget may hence explore moves to boost the market. tors (those holding up to Rs 2 lakh in shares) looking to diversify and supplement their regular income streams. according »continUed on paGe 2 Fertiliser sales see sharp dip as El Nino dries up farm demand Tractor sales also down 18.1% in Sept amid festival calendar shift harish damodaran New Delhi, October 25 IN WhaT could be a real indicator of deficient rains and the el Nino effect on farms, domestic sales of all fertilisers, including urea, are down compared to last year. ThesalesdropduringaprilSeptember 2026 over aprilSeptember 2025 — roughly co- lproduction,import,saleoffertilisers moP comPlexes (lakh tonnes) prodUction Urea daP apr-Sep 2025 apr-Sep 2026 import apr-Sep 2025 144.44 150.64 20.01 19.94 0 0 59.29 38.22 29.36 26.32 ssP 39.79 38.26 11.91 20.19 0 apr-Sep 2026 sale apr-Sep 2025 apr-Sep 2026 55.89 33.99 16.79 13.86 43.89 43.64 10.94 9.66 77.27 60.08 at a special Intensive revision camp inside an mcd-run school in east delhi’s chilla Village, sunday. It was the last day of such camps held by the election commission across the capital to enrol voters left out of the rolls in the sIr. abhInav Saha New Delhi, October 25 Mohamed thaver & Manish kumar pathak Mumbai, October 25 The alleged shooters behind the attack on actor Tiger Shroff were initially told to target aamir Khan, police sources toldTheIndianExpress,adding that this was “in line with” the threats that Khan had received in July, allegedly from the lawrence Bishnoi gang. according to sources, during their nearly month-long stay in Mumbai, the alleged shooters conducted a recce of the area where Khan lives at leastthreetimes,butfoundthat he was mostly away on film shoots or did not step out of his The 11th accused in the shooting case in mumbai Police custody, sunday. SankhadeeP baneRjee 28.68 28.29 daP (dI-ammonIUm PhoSPhaTe), moP (mURIaTe oF PoTaSh), SSP (SInGle SUPeR PhoSPhaTe). SoURce: The FeRTIlISeR aSSocIaTIon oF IndIa. inciding with the kharif (monsoon) planting season — has been the sharpest at 22.2% for complex fertilisers containing nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), »continUed on paGe 2 »continUed on paGe 2 Target was Aamir Khan, As Siang dam protests turn violent, lack of access prompted NHPC’s Rs 11-cr PR push faces test shift to Tiger Shroff: Probe Jay Mazoomdaar & shinjini Ghosh proposedproject 0 193.08 185.22 Last day of Delhi SIR camps a ReMaRK by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge — “Modi ka baap bhi jayega” (evenModi’sfatherwillhaveto go) — at a Patna event on Sunday triggered a political row, with the BJP and its allies condemningthelanguageas“abusive”. The BJP announced a nationwide protest against the remarkonMonday,withUnion home Minister amit Shah accusing Kharge of breaching “all norms of decorum”. Kharge was speaking at Patna’s Bapu Sabhagar during a programme marking the 139th birth anniversary of Bihar’s first Chief Minister, Shri Krishna Singh, popularly known as Shri Babu. Before he wasinterruptedbyamaninthe crowd, Kharge said the Congress would send those involved in alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process to jail. an audience member, Santosh Kumar from Chhapra, then shouted, “Modi nahin jayenga (Modi will not go).” Kharge responded, “Modi ka baap bhi jayega, baap bhi jayega. Modi ka baap bhi jayega (even Modi’s father will have to go).” Kumar later identified himself as a “dedicated Congress worker” and alleged that party workers had mistaken him for a BJP supporter and assaultedhimwhileescortinghim out. “My remarks were taken out of context. I want to see Modi removed from power, but my statement was cut short, leading to the misunderstanding,”Kumarsaid,addingthathe meant to say that unless there house for days. The target then shiftedtoShroff,whowasfound to be more accessible, turning upforfootballonmostSundays »continUed on paGe 2 ‘It’s important to engage in political debate but exploitation of political issues has no place in democracies’ Jasper Wieck, GeRman ambaSSadoR Page 13 a heavy security deployment maintained an uneasy calm at Pasighat in arunachal Pradesh’s east Siang district after protests against the proposed Siang dam turned violent late on Friday and continued into the early hours of Saturday. district Magistrate Jayanti Pertin told The Indian Express on Sunday afternoon that the l Yarlung Tsangpo Siang Subansiri river aRUnachal PRadeSh brahmaputra assam 11,200-mw siang Upper multipurpose Project law and order situation was under control. “It is too early to assess the damage. The restrictionsonpublicgatheringunder tions on public gathering under section 163 of the BNSS in Pasighat, Mebo and Ruksin will continue until further orders,” she said. The simmering unrest underscorestheresistanceconunderscores the resistance confronting the proposed 11,200MW Siang Upper Multipurpose MWSiangUpperMultipurpose Project (SUMP) being undertaken by NhPC limited. »continUed on paGe 2 Didn’t go to school, but took officials to SC over husband’s ‘custodial death’ Jayprakash s naidu Raipur, October 25 lehRa BaI, 35, was not present in person when the Supreme Court came down hard on the Chhattisgarh dgP, director general (Prisons) and Principal Secretary (home) for their handling of her case, callingtheiractions“sacrilegious” and their claims “patently false and wholly reprehensible”. lehra and shravan Tamre. exPReSS It took a fight of more than two years, but the 35-year-old mother of two, who never went to school, had made her voice heard, ensuring that the death of her husband, allegedly in custody,didnotgounacknowledged. The Court directed the Chhattisgarh government to pay her interim compensation of Rs 25 lakh, ordered a CBI inquiry, and said that a criminal case be registered against the guilty officials. OnJanuary18,2024, Shravan »continUed on paGe 2 {Jogen Chowdhury • 1939-2026} ‘A true artist’: he blended traditional imagery with contemporary style trisha Mukherjee ingatRubygeneralhospitalin Kolkata after a 15-month-long battle with blood cancer. ThOSe WhO knew Jogen Sources at the hospital conChowdhuryrememberhimasa firmed that he had been battwelcoming presence in the ling myeloproliferative neootherwise intimidating art plasm, a rare form of blood world. For those who never met cancer, and was undergoing him, his understated chemotherapy. page 1 smile, which seemed “he fell ill and to curl up at one end, was admitted in a remains memorable critical condition,” from photographs. It was as if it one source said. “Following the drew its intensity, warmth and onsetofsepsisandaworsening depth from the bold lines on his of his condition due to several canvas,alwayssayingmorethan underlying ailments, he was what meets the eye. placed on the ventilator on Sata towering figure in mod- urday. he breathed his last at ern Indian art, Chowdhury 10:15 am.” passed away on Sunday mornChowdhury,whowasrepreNew Delhi, October 25 anchor sented by art exposure, graduated from Kolkata’s government College of art and Craft (1955-1960), followed by training in printmaking/painting at ÉcoleNationaleSupérieuredes Beaux-arts, Paris (1965–1967). he is best known for his fusion oftraditionaliconographywith a contemporary sensibility. Buthisartwasmorethanjust theblendingoftwostyles.“Inhis work the line work of the great Bengal tradition — Kalighat paintingsandartistslikeJamini Roy — merges with current socio-political realities to hold up a mirror to our current society,”saidwriterandcuratorKishore Singh, who remembered as a Tmc rajya sabha mP from 2014 to 2020, he sought to address the policy challenges facing the art community. coURTeSY RohIT chawla Chowdhury as an elegant man. What stood out in his art, for friends, critics and contemporaries alike, was his laborious cross-hatchingtechniquewhich, as fellow artist KS Radhakrishnan noted, “takes a lot of patienceandalotofcommitment.” “It looks simple, but it is really not, and with that he managed to express subtle and sophisticated ideas,” said curator and historian R Sivakumar. he first discovered Chowdhury’s work as a student visiting delhi in the ’70s, meeting the artist much later at the inaugurationofBharatBhavanin Bhopal in 1982. Chowdhury’s famous painting ‘Tiger in Moonlight’ captivated him instantly,makinghimrealisethat the artist was “entirely distinct from his peers”. Ahmedabad Singh agreed. “We have seen cross-hatching from FN Souza, but the brilliance with which Jogen da created depth with it, no other artist has been able to match.” Chowdhury was an artist not just in the way he thought of his own art, but in how he embraced all art. he refused to compartmentalise artists or movements into “insiders vs outsiders”. artist Sudhir Patwardhan described him as “generous”. “he viewed the artistic ecosystem as an expansive garden whereeveryuniqueexpression holds value. One of his statements, I remember, was ‘art is likeagardenwhereeachflower is beautiful on its own’.” Photographer Rohit Chawla, who photographed Chowdhury two years ago for his book, Portrait of an Artist, captured that same unpretentious nature from behind the lens, noting: “he was a true artist, minus the bombast.” “Mostartistsareuncomfortable in front of the camera becausetheywanttoprojectacertain image of themselves. But he was easy in his skin,” he added. Keeper of the Art Chowdhury served as the »continUed on paGe 2