The Ideas Page: India has demonstrated strategic autonomy, but its record is not perfect 11 TuESDAy, MAy 12, 2026 Journalism of Courage NEw DELHi, LATE CiTy, 20 PAgES ₹7.00 (₹8 RAiPUR, ₹15 SRiNAgAR) 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 lDays after the NDa swept the Assam polls, Himanta Biswa Sarma will take oath as Chief Minister for a second consecutive term. PM Narendra Modi and other top NDA leaders are expected to attend the event. Calls West asia CoNfliCt ‘BiGGest Crisis of this DeCaDe’ Second day, PM makes austerity push, invokes Covid-era habits Behind PM’s call, dipping foreign exchange reserves, rising gold imports lChiNese ViCe-Premier he Lifeng and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will begin the final round of negotiations in South Korea before US President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing. la Delhi Court will continue to hear actor Jacqueline Fernandez’s plea seeking to turn approver in a Rs 200-crore money laundering case involving alleged conman Sukesh Chandrashekar. Gold import bill doubles in two years to $72 billion, foreign travel spend under LRS $15 billion in Apr-Feb 2026 Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com George mathew & aanchal magazine Prime minister narendra modi at the somnath temple in Gujarat, monday. relaTed rePorT, PaGe 7 sujansingh Parkleaseterms Hold online classes, work from home, cut gold purchase, flouted,says foreign travel, fuel and cooking oil consumption: Modi Govt,asksfirm aditi raja addressing a gathering to inautopayrs940cr Vadodara, May 11 editorial page guratethePatidarcommunity’s sardardham in Vadodara. PTi Damini Nath New Delhi, May 11 the Union Ministry of housing and Urban affairs last month issued a demand notice of around Rs 940 crore to sir sobha singh and sons — the real estate company that built, andstillruns,theupscalesujan singh Park in Central Delhi in the1940s—forbreachinglease conditions,TheIndianExpress has learnt. thenoticeseekingpayment for alleged breaches found during inspections over the years came just days after the supremeCourt,onapril22,gaveits judgment on the fundamental dispute between the government and the company. the court set aside a Delhi high Court verdict asking the Centre tovacateresidentialpremisesat sujan singh Park, near Khan Market, holding that the property was a “government grant” under the government grants act, 1895, which did not attract provisions of the Delhi Rent Control act, 1958. theLandandDevelopment officeislearnttohaveissuedthe demand notice on april 30, revising the amount from its earlierdemandofoverRs700crore that was issued in March and april 2022. the two notices of 2022 had been challenged by the company and the matter was adjourned by the district court in view of the pending petition in the supreme Court. afterthesupremeCourt’sjudgment last month, the Land and Development office is learnt to haveissuedthereviseddemand notice. the property includes apartments as well as the ambassador hotel nearby. When reached for comment, shaunak Kashyap, the advocate for sir sobha singh and sons, said: “the case is sub-judice, and we are pursuing our legal remedies, so it »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 With no signs of an immediate end to the conflict in West asia, Prime Minister narendra ModiMonday again urgedgovernment and private offices to revertto‘Covid-era’habitssuch aswork-from-homeandvirtual meetings, and asked citizens to opt for car pooling and reduce fuel consumption. “if the coronavirus pandemic was the biggest crisis of PM FraMeS Severity oF energy Challenge govt, oil CoMPanieS Can’t abSorb energy ShoCk indeFinitely Page 10 thiscentury,thentheconflictin West asia is among the biggest crisesofthisdecade,”Modisaid the sharp depletion of foreignexchangereservessincethe beginning of the conflict, and the prospects of a worsening current account deficit are becoming big worry points for policymakers now. in Q3 last year i.e.,october-December2025,the deficithadincreasedto$13.2billion or 1.3 per cent of gDP compared with $11.3 billion or »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 Officer who oversaw Bengal SIR appointed Chief Secy in BJP govt TMC, Congress criticise move: ‘Outrageous and brazen’ ravik Bhattacharya & atri mitra Kolkata, May 11 the BJP government in West Bengal on Monday appointed the state’s Chief electoral officer (Ceo) Manoj agarwal as the next Chief secretary. agarwal succeeds Dushyant nariala, an ias officer of the 1993 batch, who has been moved to newDelhiasthePrincipalResident Commissioner. agarwal, who is set to retire inJuly,hadfacedcriticismfrom the trinamool Congress (tMC) during the special intensive »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 Rising PRessURe on india’s external sector with forex reserves plummeting by $38 billion injusttwomonthssincethe onset of the West asia conflict, and crude oil prices continuing to hover over $100 a barrel, havestartedtoworrypolicy makers. Behind Prime Minister narendra Modi's call for austerity measures by citizens are substantial foreign exchange outflows linked to higher gold importsandspendingonoverseas travel under the Liberalised Remittance scheme (LRs). While the gold import bill has almost doubledto$72billionin2025-26 intwoyears,outflowunderLRs E. suvenduaide’s killing:tollplaza CCtV,uPilead to3suspects inBiharanduP Unlock value through Gold Monetisation Scheme goldimportsrose24percent to a record $71.98 billion in »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 business as Usual By EP uNNy ED arrests ex-minister in municipality jobs case sweety Kumari Kolkata, May 11 FoRMeR West Bengal minister and tMC leader sujit Bose was arrested by the enforcementDirectorate(eD)inKolkata on Monday after more than 10 hoursofquestioninginconnectionwithallegedirregularitiesin municipality recruitment. eD sources alleged sujit Bose had “illegally recommended 150 candidates for different posts in the south Dum Dum Municipality”. “eD has traced direct pro- sujitBosewasFire& emergency servicesministerintheTmcgovt ceeds of crime in the form of flats acquired by him in lieu of providing municipality jobs to various persons. Further, eD hasalsotracedhugedepositsof »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 AIADMK stares at split as rebel bloc of 30 pro-Vijay MLAs turns on Palaniswami 17 of party’s 47 MLAs back EPS, rest for Velumani as floor leader arun Janardhanan Kolkata, Lucknow, May 11 the West Bengal CiD and Madhyamgram police have arrested three suspects in connection with the murder of Chandranath Rath, the personalassistantofnewlyelected Chief Minister suvendu adhikari, following a pursuit across statelinesthatledinvestigators to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. acting on specific intelligence, a specialised team detained Mayank Raj Mishra and Vicky Maurya from Buxar, Bihar, while a third suspect, Raj singh,wasapprehendedinBallia, Uttar Pradesh. after interrogationbyCiDofficialsonMay 10, all three were formally arrested by the Madhyamgram police.investigatorssuspectthe trio were out-of-state hitmen hired to carry out the killing, though who commissioned the hit and why is still under investigation. “all three have been remandedtopolicecustodyfor13 days,” said Dig (Cyber) ajay Tamil nadu chief minister c Joseph Vijay with his predecessor and dmk chief m k stalin at the latter’s residence in chennai, monday. PTi Chennai, May 11 sweety Kumari & manish sahu West Bengal cm suvendu adhikari with his cabinet ministers at the secretariat, monday. PARTHA PAUL relaTed rePorT, PaGe 6 West Bengal ceo manoj agarwal Mumbai, New Delhi, May 11 for foreign travel accounted for $15 billion or 57 per cent of the total $26.34 billion LRs in the first 11 months of 2025-26. the fall in reserves to $691 billion has also been driven by sustained capital outflows from foreign institutional investors (Fiis) amid heightened global uncertainty. Fii outflowsinJanuary-May period were Rs 1.97 lakh croreasforeigninvestors continued their sell-off in the stock markets. the rupee also dropped below the 95 level to 95.21 against the Us dollar. politics Page 6 SC to tMC: File FreSh Plea on deletionS, aSSeMbly PollS Days aFteR the collapse of backchannel discussions around a possible DMKaiaDMK understanding — an idea that ended in political embarrassment for tamil nadu’s two Dravidian majors — the aiaDMK now appears headed toward a potentially historic split, with a large section of partyleadersandnewlyelected MLas openly challenging the leadership of edappadi K PalaniswamiorePsandpushingfor alignment with the tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (tVK) led by Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay. What “Delhi” had long hoped for after the death of JJayalalithaa—aweakenedand internallyfracturedaiaDMK— now appears closer than ever, withpowerfulleaderswithinthe partyquestioningePs’spolitical future after successive electoral setbacks and accusing him of isolating the party from emerging power equations. at the centre of the crisis is the question of whether aiaDMK should support Vijay’s newly formed tVK government, which crossed the majority mark saturday after intense post-poll negotiations and support from allies. according to reliable sources in aiaDMK, at least 30 MLas and several senior »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 WFI a dictatorship... they afraid I will win medals again: Vinesh in Gonda Nihal Koshie Gonda (UP), May 11 Vinesh Phogat credits her 10-month-old son Kridhav for bringing joy to her life after the 2024 Paris heartbreak, fuelling her with the energy to fight the systemandgivingherthecourage to dream of watching him cheer her at the next olympics. she said this hours after a meeting with Wrestling Federation of india (WFi) president sanjay singh, who blocked her »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2 Wrestler Vinesh Phogat speaks to reporters after meeting WFI chief sanjay singh in Gonda, Uttar Pradesh, monday. ViJAy KUMAR/ iE HiNDi l BUIlT In 2001, ITs Poor condITIon Was raIsed aT leasT seVen TImes In InTernal corresPondence BeTWeen aUGUsT 2024 and aPrIl 2026 Before Bihar bridge collapsed, multiple inspections, several red flags — all ignored santosh singh ported. the collapse led to a major disruption of traffic between a in the two years leading up to large part of Jharkhand and the partial collapse of the Vik- south Bihar on one end, and ramshila bridge in Bihar last north and northeastern Bihar, week, multiple inspection as well as West Bengal, on the teams and officials raised red other. traffic from both sides flags that were not acted upon, has now been diverted to a The Indian Express has learnt. much longer route, making the according to officials, the distance between Munger and partial collapse hapKhagaria 161 km via page 1 pened in two stages, thegangabridge,up beginning with a from 14 km over the structural failure in Vikramshila setu. pillar 133 at around 11.55 pm on engineers and experts from May 3, followed by a total span the Border Road organisation collapse at 1.07 am on May 4, (BRo),theindianarmyandiit which split the 4.7-kilometre- Patna, as well as officers from longbridgeoverthegangainto the state Road Construction two. no casualties were re- Department (RCD) and the Patna, May 11 anchor Bihar Rajya Pul nirman nigam Limited (BRPnnL), have been at the site to plan the repair efforts, expected to take up to three months. the BRPnn carries the onus of coordinating with the RCDtoensurethestructuralintegrity of any bridge in the state. Both the BRPnn and the RCD had been made aware of the “precarious condition” of the bridge on multiple occasionsoverthepasttwomonths, sources said. Following the collapse, RCD’s nh division executive engineer,saketKumarRoshan, was suspended for alleged dereliction of duty. his suspension letter, is- a portion of the Vikramshila bridge collapsed last week. ExPRESS sued on May 4, said, “the responsibility of maintenance of the bridge rested with RCD's nhdivision(Bhagalpur)execu- tive engineer saket Kumar Roshan. Prima facie, he has been found guilty of being lax and disinterested about his duty and is being suspended with immediate effect.” RCDsourcestoldTheIndian Express that between august 2024 and april 2026, there had been at least seven internal correspondences regarding the poor condition of the bridge, which was built in 2001. over the years, the passage of overloaded trucks and the resultant weakeningofthebearingsatthe joints have been the main reasons for its deteriorating condition, according to officials. an RCD source said: “in august 2024, an inspection of the bridge by RCD superintending engineershowedgapsinsixout of 60-odd expansion joints. in January 2025, RCD head- quarters were reminded about the inspection. in March 2025, Bhagalpur District Magistrate nawal Kishore Choudhary reminded visiting state government officials about widening cracks in the bridge. however, later that month, a joint team from iit Patna and BRPnnL inspected the bridge and said the structure was safe.” “in april 2025, the national highways division, Bhagalpur, reported to RCD headquarters about four new cracks in the bridge. in april 2026, visiting RCD officials were told about the damage to the bearings in the bridge.thatsame month, a detailed report on the bridge’s poorconditionwassenttoRCD New Delhi headquarters,” the source said. Less than a month later, the partial collapse occurred. Before these red flags were raised,therehadbeentwomajor repairs of the bridge between 2020and2024,withofficialssayingthissuggestedthatitneeded overall better maintenance. an RCDofficialsaid,“Between2020 and 2022, several expansion joints had been repaired with partial closure of the bridge. in 2024, surface and structural reinforcementwasdonewithnew bituminous layers to cover the cracks appearing near the pillars.thiswascompletedwithlimited success.” an expert, who visited the »CoNtiNueD oN PaGe 2