The editorial Page: To ease energy transition, ramp up storage, strengthen transmission 8 TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2026 JournAlism of CourAge aHMEdaBad, laTE ciTy, 20 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 s.I.r. oF eleCtoral rolls leGal, Its ProCess jUstIFIeD: Poll PaNel EC papers over objections within, presents united front in SC affidavit Happening today Says no change in Form 6; observations and questions by ECs not decisions of Commission, ECINet team obligated to ensure EROs function smoothly lIsraelIs wIll vote to elect the Knesset. The first poll since the Hamas attack in Oct 2023, and the subsequent Gaza war, it will decide whether Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s longest-serving PM, stays in power. Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com The Indian Express report published on september 23 ananthakrishnan G worLd PAGE 17 lulA DA silvA wins rEcorD fourth tErm As BrAzil PrEsiDEnt New Delhi, October 26 IN AN affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, the Election Commission of India (ECI) sought to clarify that observations, suggestions and questions by individual commissioners were just that, and not the ECI’s decisions. It said the Special Intensive Revision of the electoral rolls is legal, its process justified, and that the petitioners’allegationsrelating to changes in voter registration procedures and decision-making process are misconceived. The EC’s affidavit, filed in response to a petition by social activist Rakesh Kumar Singh, said it “has been approved for filing… by a unanimous decision of the three members of the Election Commission, i.e., two Election Commissioners and the Chief Election Commissioner.” Singh’s petition and the ECI affidavitcomeinthewakeofthe September 23 report in The Indian Express which pointed to several file noting by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh SandhuandVivekJoshiraising questions on the ECI’s Special Intensive Revision process, observations that access to the electoral roll was getting restricted for officers statutorily responsibleforthevoterlist,and thatchangestoForm6(formfor registration of first-time voters) »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 2 EC says decisions unanimous, silent on why 2 members were not informed ritika Chopra Mumbai, October 26 THEElECTIONCommissionof India’s affidavit in the Supreme Court is, in one sense, a defence of unanimity. Approved for filing by a unanimous decision of allthreemembers,itinsiststhat the Commission’s major decisions on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls weretakencollectively.Notesrecording suggestions, observations or queries by individual Commissioners,itargues,donot themselvesconstitutedecisions of the Commission and are part of the consultative process. That distinction would answer an objection raisedbeforeadecision. Most of the 14 notes recorded over 10 months by Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, objecting to decisions taken in the Commission’s namewithouttheirknowledge, were written after the fact — about decisions already taken, systemsalreadybuilt,ordersalready issued and cases already filed, and what they recorded was that the two had not been told.Theissuetheinvestigation by The Indian Express raised was not whether the Commission eventually approved the decisions. It was whether two of its members were being consulted and informed about actions carried out in the Commission’s name. A petition filed on the strength of that report asked the court to examine how the »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 2 For UPloaDING orDers oN s.I.r. aPPeals Judges of Bengal tribunals ask EC to fix portal, drop Aadhaar authentication Damini Nath New Delhi, October 26 JUDGES OF Tribunals appointed by the orders of the Supreme Court to decide appeals of those affected by the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls in West Bengal have flagged at least twice in the last four weeks that the Election Commission requirement for Aadhaar authentication in its portal is holding them back from issuing final orders. Official records accessed by The Indian Express show that the judges had taken exception to the introduction of the Aadhaar authentication required for them to issue orders on the appeals in September, and again less than two weeks ago. Just three days after the Aadhaar-authenticationscreenwas introduced on September 21, the judges sought its removal, in writing, on September 24. As recently as October 13, the incharge of the tribunals once again asked the EC to “fix the issue” to ensure proper functioning of the tribunals such that final orders can be uploaded, the records show. The judges also separately raised concerns with the Election Commission and the »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 2 Press trust of India MICROSOFT ON Monday announced a voluntary exit programme for eligible employees inIndia,theUS,theUKandCanada, offering financial support and career planning resources to those opting to leave the company, according to a blog post by the tech giant. Microsoft has about 23,000 employees in India, although thereisnoimmediateclarityon how many of them would be eligible for the voluntary exit programme. Globally, around 60,000 employees are eligible. It is learnt that eligible employees in India will have until December 1 to decide on the voluntary exit offer. The package is understood to be similar to a standard severance arrangement, including one month's base salary for every completed year of service, along with health insurance and career transition services. Microsoft's Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Amy Coleman informed in her blog post that the voluntaryexitoffer(VEO),whichwill be available to employees at level 70 and below (internal job grades that span various levels ofseniorityatMicrosoft)inparticipatingteamsacrossthefour countries, is a time-limited initiative aimed at providing greater flexibility to employees considering opportunities outside the company. The offer will be available to »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 2 Censorship, gag on investigations: Publishers move SC against privacy law Digital News Publishers Association includes The Indian Express, Network18, NDTV aditya Kalra New Delhi, October 26 AGROUPof21newspublishers has challenged India’s privacy law in court, arguing it would trampleinvestigativeworkand let New Delhi identify journalists’ sources, documents show. The government last year announced implementation of a privacy law to protect digital personal data of users, raising compliance requirements for platforms like Meta and Google. The publishers have said that since media outlets were not exempt, the law was an invasion of press freedom. Media companies received assurances in an August meeting with the government that the law would protect press freedom, but not having a written carve-out for journalistslikeintheEuropeanUnion, Singapore and Britain was alarming, India's Digital News Publishers Association (DNPA) said in a confidential filing at the Supreme Court, reviewed by Reuters. The October 6 lawsuit, beingreportedforthefirsttime and due to be heard on Tues- Business as usual Microsoft offers buyouts to 60,000 workers in India, US, UK, Canada New Delhi, October 26 HearING toDay By EP UNNY Manish sahu ACOURTinUttarPradesh’sSultanpur on Monday acquitted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case filed in connection with his remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2018, ruling that the BJP leader who filed the complaintwasnotanaggrieved person and that the comments were not defamatory. Gandhi appeared before the courtamidtightsecurity,accompanied by party workers and supporters. “The court has acquitted Rahul Gandhi in the case,” his lawyer, Kashi Prasad Shukla, confirmed. After the courtpronouncedthejudgment, the leader of the Opposition in lokSabhaleftthepremises. The complainant, Vijay Mishra, is a former vice-president of the BJP’s Sultanpur »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 2 DNPA’s members include »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 2 CalcuttaHC ordersremoval ofPM-adani videoacross socialmedia Press trust of India BRICS Parliamentary Forum opens inside Pm narendra modi, Lok sabha speaker om Birla and rajya sabha deputy chairman harivansh with delegates attending the 12th Brics Parliamentary forum, at the Parliament complex, monday. PTi P 14 DEnGuEcAsEsclouD EktAPArADEin GujArAt Ahmedabad, October 26 THE GUJARAT government on Monday declared four districts — Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Jamnagar and Kutch — as drought-affected and announced relief measures to be implemented in those areas. Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel made the announcement in Gandhinagar in the presence of Agriculture Minister Jitu Vaghani. The deci- Concerns over consent Kolkata, October 26 PAGE 4 Court acquits Rahul in Rainfall insufficient, Gujarat govt After VHP letter to CM, defamation case linked declares 4 districts as drought-hit Gujarat govt drops poem from Diwali magazine to 2018 remarks on Shah express News service Lucknow, October 26 day, is the most high-profile challenge to the privacy law. Until now, only free speech activists and a group of smaller news outlets had challenged it. DNPAandthemediagroups did not respond to requests for comment from Reuters, and neither did India's information technology ministry. Thepublishersaredemanding that most of the law’s contentiousprovisions,whichkick in from May 2027, should be quashed. They are arguing the law could force a journalist to get prior consent from a person they want to investigate and forcepublisherstoerasestories. They also say powers granted by the law to demand information could expose reporters’ sources. The law would “render investigativejournalismabenign and neutered recorder of events,” the 698-page filing said.Theprovisions“constitute pre-censorship which is anathema to any democracy worth its name”. relief measures will come into force from november 1 in devbhumi dwarka, Porbandar, kutch and Jamnagar. ExPrEss filE sion and ensuing relief measures will come into force from November 1. CM Patel said, “This season, the state overall received around 89 per cent (%) rainfall. However, Devbhumi Dwarka, Porbandar, Kutch and Jamnagar districts witnessed lower rainfall. In light of the situation created due to low rainfall across these four districts, the state government has taken a generous decision to stand »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 16 express News service Ahmedabad, October 26 THE GUJARAT government has replaced a poem by the well-known ghazal writer and journalist, Aziz Tankarvi, from its annual festive publication issued ahead of Diwali, followingobjectionsfromtheVishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). Sources confirmed to The Indian Express that the poem, ‘Prem Ma Na Hoy Kain Evi Sharat’ (There can be no such conditions in love) by Bharuch-based writer Tankarvi was dropped from ‘Gujarat Deepotsavi Ank’, the literary publicationthatChiefMinister Bhupendra Patel released on October 21, after the objection. Sources confirmed that at least50copies,whichhadbeen readied for distribution, were “withdrawn” by the government. Additional fresh copies »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 16 THE CAlCUTTA High Court on Monday barred the publication, uploading and sharing of a documentary on Prime MinisterNarendraModiandindustrialist Gautam Adani until January 31 next year. The injunction followed a plea by Adani Enterprises limited before the High Court's vacation bench against tech entrepreneur Sabeer Bhatia, whoisallegedtohavemadethe video,andothers,seekingaban on its circulation and damages for defamation. JusticeAryakDuttrestrained the respondents, including the ownersandoperatorsofX,YouTube and Instagram, their agentsandallactingundertheir authority, from publishing, republishing,uploadingandsharingthevideooranyclip,excerpt, ormateriallyidenticalreproduction of it, through any medium or platform. The court directed that the interim injunction will remain inforceuntilJanuary31,2027,or until further orders, whichever is earlier. It said the matter will come up for hearing before the »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 2 l in 10-odd secTors and counTLess ParTy roLes, famiLiar names from deLhi PuLL The sTrings Backrooms to seats at the table: Delhi imprint in AAP’s Punjab govt Kanchan vasdev vestigation into alleged irregularities in the affairs of the Greater Mohali Area DevelopAS THE Aam Aadmi Party ment Authority (GMADA). (AAP) government nears the Jain was not present at the completion of its first term in bungalow,whichisofficiallyalPunjab, it bears a striking re- lotted to AAP leader Sunny semblance to a past govern- Singh Ahluwalia, Chairman of ment run by it: that in Delhi. the Punjab Water Supply and A fresh reminder came Sewerage Board. when the Enforcement DirecApart from Jain, the ED torate (ED) raided a has named in the page 1 bungalow in Sector case Jain’s OSD 39, Chandigarh, ocAmarender Jha and cupiedbyseniorAAP Manish Sisodia. The leader and former AAP Punjab inDelhi minister Satyendar Jain. charge, Sisodia, was the The ED carried out a 50-hour party’s Deputy Chief Minister, search,fromSeptember22to24, Delhi. of the premises as part of its inThe AAP has rejected the Chandigarh, October 26 anchor Punjab chief minister Bhagwant singh mann with delhi’s former deputy cm manish sisodia and party leader aman arora in Ludhiana on september 18. GurMEET siNGH allegations against Sisodia and Jain as “completely false, baseless and politically motivated”, adding that they had no role in the GMADA, and that their role in Punjab was purely political. Besides handling AAP affairs in Punjab as the state incharge, Sisodia also fronts the BhagwantManngovernment’s education push (just as he did in the Delhi government). Jain,co-in-chargeofPunjab withSisodiaandalinkbetween theAAPleadershipandPunjab bureaucracy, is credited with having been the brain behind the state land pooling policy thatwasscrappedafterprotests byfarmers.Hehasalsobeenas- sociatedwiththeManngovernment’sflagshipwomenwelfare scheme, Mawan Dhiyan Satkar Yojana. Sisodia and Jain could not be reached despite multiple attempts by The Indian Express. Apart from the political faces, including Adil Ahmad Khan,theAAP’sDelhibattalion includes advisers and professionals in Punjab’s administrativestructure.JasmineShah and Bibhav Kumar, prominent aides of ex-Delhi CM and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal, head this list, with others spreadacrossatleast10sectors, fromagricultureandeducation to power and finance, as ad- Ahmedabad visers and research officers. Several others are in statutory bodies, government boards and committees. The General Administration Department refused to share information about how many of these posts are salaried, or the pay given to them. The AAP’s argument is that “expertise is not confined by geography”. While Finance Minister Harpal Cheema and Governance Reforms Minister Aman Arora were not available for comment, AAP spokesperson and Anandpur Sahib MP Malvinder Singh Kang said: “A government needs experts. All previous governments too had such experts. There should be no issue.” The Capital connections When Satyendar Jain was arrested a month ago over allegedirregularitiesintendering for sewage treatment plants in Delhi — 27 months after the registration of an FIR — Jasmine Shah stepped in to coordinatewithseniorbureaucrats. A part of the Kejriwal government’s policy-making structure, Jasmine has been a key figure in Punjab since September 2025. Government circles underline Jasmine’s role »CoNtINUeD oN PaGe 2