The editorial Page: midterms will play a part in the reset of us policy, at home and abroad 8 WEDNESDAy, NOvEMBER 4, 2026 JournaLism of Courage ahMedaBad, late cIty, 22 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 Gujarat sailor killed after projectile hits cargo vessel off Oman coast near Hormuz tWo ecs had oBJected, one Said it WaS ‘iLLegaL’ Poll panel fixes Form 6, deletes ‘illegal’ SIR para Brendan dabhi & Vikas Pathak Ahmedabad, New Delhi, November 3 A 25-yeAr-oLD indian sailor from Porbandar in Gujarat was killed after an explosive projectile hit an indian-flagged cargo vessel in omani waters near Limah in oman close to the mouth of the strait of Hormuz on Monday evening. thesailor,nahimAjijGandhar, is the fifteenth indian seafarer to have been killed at sea since the beginning of the war in iran and the Persian Gulf. the projectile, which is suspected to have been a drone or a missile, hit the port side of the mechanised sailing vessel (MsV) Al Jusufi (BDi1442) on the same day as the United states carried out new strikes on iranian targets in the strait. the port side is the left of a ship when an observer on board faces its bow. MsVs are a photograph posted by defence minister rajnath Singh on x shows indian navy personnel on board the rescued fishing vessel Azini and its iranian crew. @RajNathSINgh Navy rescues hijacked vessel with Iran crew, IAF lends helping hand (top) nahim ajij gandhar, 25, from porbandar; MSV Al Jusufi on fire before it sank Testament to friendship, cooperation between two countries: Iran Embassy traditional wooden-hull, diesel-run cargo vessels with carrying capacities of between 200 and 3,000 metric tonnes. the Al Jusufi left Hamriyah amrita nayak dutta »continUed on Page 2 New Delhi, November 3 tHe inDiAn navy said on tuesday that it carried out a successful operation to rescue a fishing vessel with 20 iranian crew members that was hijacked by armed pirates off the coast of somalia last month. theoperation,whichlasted over 48 hours and ended on Mondaynight,involvedthedeployment of Marine Commandosthroughaprecisionairdrop by an indian Air Force (iAF) C-17 aircraft, it said. inastatement,theiranembassy in new Delhi expressed its “sincere appreciation to the Government of india, the indian navy and the indian Air »continUed on Page 2 Happening today lForeign Secretary Vikram Misri will visit Nepal as part of preparations for the likely visit by Nepal Prime Minister Balen Shah to India later this month. lcongreSS will hold its ‘Insaaf Rally’ in Punjab's Sangrur. It has been positioning the rally as a show of strength ahead of polls. In five weeks since Express report, Commission has moved on every issue raised by the two ECs ritika chopra Mumbai, November 3 in tHe latest of a series of Uturns that have effectively undone almost every decision the two election Commissioners, sukhbir singh sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had objected to in 14 notes over 10 months, the election Commission of india (eCi)hasnowtakenthespecial intensiverevision(sir)declaration out of the online version of the statutory voter enrolment form, Form 6, on its eCinet portal in the states where the sir is still underway. What this means is that the declaration inserted between sections J and K of the online enrolment application for new voters is no longer part of Form 6. this declaration asked applicants to choose one of three statements: whether their name appeared in the electoral roll during the last sir held in »continUed on Page 2 Business as Usual By EP UNNy Is India not secular? Re-upload Diwali video: HC to BMC on Dia Mirza clip omkar gokhale Mumbai, November 3 stAtinGitwas“disturbed”by thedeletionofavideofeaturing actor Dia Mirza for a pollutionfreeDiwalicampaignfollowing objections by some political leaders, the Bombay High Court, while underlining the secular credentials of the country,tuesdayaskedtheBrihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to restore the clip. Hearing a suo motu PiL on noise and air pollution during festivals, the bench of Justice Girish s Kulkarni and Justice neela K Gokhale expressed its displeasure over the BMC pullingdownthevideoafterMayor ritu tawde and BJP Mumbai chief Ameet satam objected to Mirza’s inclusion. Calling it “unfortunate” that the issue had been given a “different colour”, the bench said it would be “ideal” if the the cam- actor dia mirza’s clip was taken down after bJp leaders objected paign content is put up again to “restoreconfidenceofpeoplein the Constitution”, noting that the city of Mumbai survives on thefeelingof“togetherness”and “thebalanceoughtnottobedisturbedbyanyloosecomments”. “Wewoulddesirethatinthe event any goodwill message of any celebrity was taken off from the corporation’s social media, it would be ideal if the same is put back, in the spirit of what the supreme Court has observed that the festival is for »continUed on Page 2 The Indian Express report published on September 23 Biometrics, voter IDs for beneficiary payments, not Aadhaar: Minister harikishan Sharma New Delhi, November 3 Union Minister rajiv ranjansingh,aliasLalansingh,has said payments to beneficiaries on the basis of their Aadhaar numbers will soon be replaced by a system processing payments using their biometrics and voter iD (ePiC) numbers. singh,whoistheUnionMinister of Panchayati raj, Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, made these remarks last Friday during the national Workshop on People’s Plan Campaign2026-27,organisedby gujarat p4 After3,000 forestdept stAffprotest forsevendAys, ministerstepsin Midterm test for Trump americans vote in the uS midterm elections, in South carolina, tuesday. the election is being seen as a referendum on president donald trump’s second term, with americans struggling with high prices and angry over an unpopular war with iran. ReuteRS report, page 20 Delhi cop suspended On Govt agenda: New Rs 2,800-cr for protests an IIT grad, capex scheme for critical minerals Pratyush deep was Dhankhar’s PSO New Delhi, November 3 Sakshi chand & Mahender Singh Manral New Delhi, November 3 HoUrs AFter he joined over 100 police officers in a protest outside the Delhi Police Headquarters, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Manasvi Vashishtha was suspended by the Ministry of Home Affairs. the MHA said departmental proceedings against him are contemplated;itdidnotspecify the grounds for the proposed proceedings. acp manasvi Vashishtha the development came after Vashistha protested transfer orders issued after a scuffle between lawyers and »continUed on Page 2 A neW scheme with a proposed outlay of about rs 2,800 crore to provide capital expenditure (capex) support for the processing of critical minerals such as lithium and nickel ores is likely to be taken up by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday, The Indian Express has learnt. According to sources aware of the development, the scheme, aimed at developing domestic critical mineral processing base, is likely to be focused on processing of lithium ExplainEd eye on China Currently, India has limited processing capacity and is almost completely importdependent for key critical minerals like cobalt, lithium, nickel, rare earth elements and silicon. On the other hand, China controls 90 per cent of global critical mineral processing. India, therefore, remains vulnerable to supply disruptions. and nickel ores and intermediary products into high-purity compounds.Cobaltisexpected to be recovered as a by-product of nickel production, the sources said. Lithium, nickel and cobalt are important components for Li-ion batteries that power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. sources said the scheme is likely to provide a capital subsidyof30percentofeligibleinvestment for setting up four processing plants — two lithium processing plants with a »continUed on Page 2 the Ministry of Panchayati raj. Addressing the workshop, singh said, “Ek baat aur kah denachahtehainkiabAadhaar labharthiyonkobhugtankarne ka jo aadhaar hai, woh Aadhaar card nahin rahega. Aadhaarcard,abAadhaarcardbanane wali jo sansthayen hain, wohhargalimeinuplabdhhain. Aapjiskakahiye,abhi5minute mein Aadhaar card banakar taiyyar kar denge (i would like toaddthattheAadhaarcardwill no longer serve as the basis for making payments to beneficiaries. Aadhaar-enrolment »continUed on Page 2 9-month-waitfor deathcertificate: 2gurugramcivic stafffaceaction Journalist usha rai’s article in The Indian Express on oct 31 Sukhbir Siwach Chandigarh, November 3 DAys AFter senior journalist Usha rai recounted her ninemonth ordeal in obtaining her sister’s death certificate, the Haryana government on tuesday said action has been taken against two employees of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) following an investigation which found “proceduralirregularitiesinthe processing of the application”. in her article published in The Indian Express on october 31, rai had alleged multiple demands for bribe before she finally got the certificate in september, nine months after her sister’s death in Gurugram. the state government said it is still investigating whether »continUed on Page 2 l two bodieS found, Search operationS Still on for Six miSSing trekkerS in uttarakhand ‘Loved mountains... saved money for tours’: 5 Bengal friends among missing trekkers ravik Bhattacharya & Vidheesha Kuntamalla lished so far. “they left on october 24. Kolkata, Dehradun, thelasttimeispoketohimwas November 3 on october 26. He said that he would be unreachable for a few sintU MonDoL last spoke to days,” said sintu. on Monday, a hisbrother,rintu,onoctober26, week after he last heard his twodaysafterrintuandhisfour brother’s voice, local adminisfriends left their homes in West trativeofficialsvisitedtheMonBengal’sBankuraforatrekinUt- dols and the four other families tarakhand’s Kedartal. the five and told them that their sons are among eight were missing. “We pagE 1 trekkers who went are worried sick,” missing after snowsaid sintu. fall and avalanches rintu Mondol hit the region, as rescue teams (40) and his friends, Uday race against time to look for Ghosh (30), ratan Ghosh (23), them. on tuesday, two bodies and tapas Bauri (30) from sal—thatofamanandawoman— bonivillageandMonojKhawas were recovered, though their (39) from Keshra village are identities have not been estab- mountain lovers, sintu said. anchor “this is the fifth year they visited Uttarakhand. they love the mountains. they save money for a tour every year. they also visited Darjeeling and nepal,” sintu told The Indian Express. their families said the five work in factories and make around rs 20,000 a month. With this income, setting aside moneyfortravelisnoteasy,but they loved the mountains too much to stay home. rintu lives with sintu, his wife, and their two children. “My brother is the leader of the group of five. He is a popular guy. He works in a local sponge iron factory like me and earns rs 19,000 per month. He saves besides the five from west bengal, the group of missing trekkers includes two women from uttar pradesh money for the tours. He is not interested in marriage and eagerlywaitsfortheannualtrip to the mountains,” said sintu. He said that the five friends hadsavedupandboughttrekk- ing jackets and boots that they took on tours. Uday Ghosh (30) works in a rubber factory in Bankura and earns around rs 20,000 a month.Likerintu,heisunmarried. “Before leaving home, my brother said they wanted to see Kedartal. in the past four years, theyvisitedvariousDhamsand places in Uttarakhand, but not Kedartal,”MoloyGhosh,Uday’s brother, told The Indian Express over the phone. Uday lives with his father, mother, brother and brother’s wife. “My brother used all his savings on this annual tour. He said he would marry after constructing our home. the first floor roof is up. He said he Ahmedabad would get the rest built gradually,” said Moloy. Uday’s father Dinesh said they believe he will return safely. “yesterday, officials visitedourhouseandinformed us that they are lost in snow. they said that rescue operations could not be conducted on Monday because of snowfall. they said they will update us soon, positive or negative. We believe he will return home alive,” he said. tapas Bauri lives with his parents and brother and works at a sponge iron factory, and ratan Ghosh and Monoj Khawas work in a land developer’s office. tuesday was the fifth day of the rescue operation. An update by the Uttarkashi District emergency operations Centre stated that a joint team of the state Disaster response Force and the nehru institute of Mountaineeringrecoveredtwo bodies during a search operation for the eight trekkers that began around 7:30 am “after considerable effort”. theoperationwas calledoff at around 3 pm, following which the rescue teams returned to base camp. the operation will resume Wednesday. the team has constructed an alternative helipad at the incident site, located at an altitude of 4,005 metres, to »continUed on Page 2