The editorial Page: eCI’s belated u-turn doesn’t undo injustice of mass exclusion 8 TUESDAY, NOvEMBEr 10, 2026 JOuRnalIsM of COuRage Pune, laTe cITy, 16 Pages ₹7.00 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 DEsPITE rEsTrICTIONs ON sALE, UsE Of fIrECrACKErs, VIOLATIONs ACrOss CAPITAL ON DIwALI DAy 112 140 174 92 We are closed today and tomorrow. There will be no edition of the newspaper on Wednesday and Thursday, november 11 and 12, 2026. Our coverage and news updates 24x7 will be available on indianExprEss.com Business as Usual By EP UNNY politics paGe 6 Hasina seeks fresH passport as DHaka insists on extraDition Delhi logs most polluted Diwali in 5 years, little respite day after sophiya Mathew New Delhi, November 9 deLhI ReCoRded its worst diwali-day air since 2021, with the average air Quality Index (aQI) touching 376 sunday, according to data maintained by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB). This was higher thanthecorrespondingdiwaliday readings in the past four years: 345 in 2025, 328 in 2024, 218 in 2023 and 312 in 2022. Thepollutionbuild-upcontinued into Monday, with the city’s average aQI showing 370 at 9.05 am, with eight monitoring stations recording readings above 400, in the ‘severe’ category. Real-time station data from the delhi Pollution Control Committee (dPCC) showed that the highest hourly PM 2.5 (fine particulate matter) reading on sunday was recorded at Jahangirpuri: 4,985 µg/m³ between7pmand8pm—over83 times the national 24-hour safe limit of 60 µg/m³ and more than 330 times the Who’s 24hour guideline of 15 µg/m³. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 India ready to help set up food corridors, says Zelenskyy after phone call with Modi Jaishankar and Lavrov also discuss conflict, ongoing diplomatic initiatives shubhajit roy New Delhi, November 9 Excerpts from Sonia Gandhi’s book, Belonging, on the days leading up to her momentous decision in 2004 to not become Prime Minister The book published by HarperCollins India is releasing in India today Chairman election today, milk farmers protest in Kolhapur PM 2.5 reading at one station over 83 times the national 24-hour safe limit ON EVE Of rUssIA-UKrAINE PEACE TALKs ahead of the us-brokered two-day peace talks between Russia and ukraine in abu dhabi starting Tuesday, India on Monday reached out to the top political leadership in Kyiv and Moscow. Prime Minister narendra Modi spoke to ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy while external affairs Minister s Jaishankar spoke to Russian foreign Minister sergey Lavrov. InapostonXafterhisphone call with Modi, Zelenskyy said they discussed “Russia’s blockingofgrainexportsviatheBlack sea” and added that India was ready to “mediate in establishing food corridors”. This is the first time Zelenskyy has spoken out on the Indianproposaltobrokeraceasefire in the Black sea, which has GOKUL DAIry rOw Thousands of farmers joined the protest in Kolhapur on Monday. PTI Alok Deshpande, Omkar Gokhale, Kalyani Lad & Manoj More Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur, November 9 A smoggy Monday morning in Delhi’s Bhajanpura area. Praveen Khanna ExplainEd Challenges remain With the national capital’s AQI the worst since 2021 on Diwali day, it underlines the immense challenges that authorities face: firecracker restrictions were widely violated, with at least 430 FIRs registered in 10 police districts. Meanwhile, a 10-yearold boy lost his life after a firecracker burst in his hands. ‘Can’t breathe air anymore’: Pune chokes as AQI hits 432 after Diwali Anuradha Mascarenhas Pune, November 9 Pune ReCoRded a severe air pollution episode in the early hours of Monday following widespread bursting of firecrackersduringdiwalicelebrations, with the citywide air Quality Index (aQI) touching 432. Peak PM2.5 concentrations at select monitoring sta- tions approached 1,000 micrograms per cubic metre (µg/m³), while the citywide average surged to around 800 µg/m³. The pollution spike was among the most extreme recorded in Pune, exceeding last year's peak PM2.5 concentration of around 600 µg/m³. The air quality forecasting system developed by the Indian Institute of Tropical Me- witnessedattacksonukrainian grain exports. In a post on X, Modi said he “reiterated India’s firm commitment to contributing in every possible way towards a peaceful resolution”. “Glad to have had a productive telephone conversation with President Zelenskyy. We »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Nvidia CEO admits affair, company opens probe into his relationship with ‘China spy’ Trump defends Jensen Huang: ‘Honorable guy... think he probably has an excuse for it’ Tripp Mickle, Maggie Haberman, Jonathan swan, Julian E Barnes & Ana swanson San Francisco, November 9 nVIdIa saId sunday that it was opening an investigation into Jensen huang, its chief executiveandco-founder,after he acknowledged to the company’s board that he had been intimatewithabusinessexecutive who us intelligence determined was a Chinese spy. huang’s relationship with the woman, who goes by alice huang, became a us government concern after surveillance revealed that she was feeding information directly to Beijing. The revelation raised troubling possibilities because »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang with Alice Huang at a restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan on May 22 last year. reuTers rUBio warneD offiCials aBoUt Ceo’s ties witH spy 6 of family die in fire at Dharashiv home, diya suspected to be cause PM Narendra Modi last met President Zelenskyy at the G7 summit in France in June. FIle teorology (IITM), Pune, had predicted the sharp deterioration, forecasting PM2.5 levels above 400 µg/m³ ahead of the festival. dr sachin Ghude, scientist andin-chargeoftheairQuality Warning and Integrated decision support system for emissions (aIRWIse) at IITM, warned that continued fire Express News service Pune, November 9 sIXMeMBeRsofafamilywere killed when a fire broke out at their home in Yedshi village in Maharashtra’s dharashiv district after midnight on sunday. a diwali diya is suspected to have started the fire. officials identified the deceased as uttam Trimbak Karande, 75, Chandrakala uttam Karande, 70, Govind uttam Karande, 47, Jyoti Govind Kar- Govind and Jyoti Karande. ande, 42, Gayatri Govind Karande, 16, and siddhi Govind Karande 15. Mostofthefamilymembers died of suffocation in the thick smoke that quickly engulfed the building, villagers said. They alerted the fire brigade and made frantic efforts to extinguish the blaze. dharashivMPomrajenimbalkar said a teenager from the family survived the fire. "Thefamilylivedonthefirst floor and ran a grocery shop on the ground floor. The shop owner Govind Karande and his wifehadapparentlysleptinthe »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Thousands of milk farmers protested in Kolhapur on Monday,daysaftertheMaharashtra government gave voting rights tofourgovernment-nominated directors on the Gokul dairy board. The decision — upheld on Monday by the Bombay highCourt(hC),whichrefused to stay the government ordinance — could overturn the outcome of last month’s elections and hand control of the state’slargestmilkcooperative, Kolhapur Zilla sahakari dudh utpadak sangh Maryadit, to the ruling Mahayuti alliance. In last month’s elections, a panel led by Congress MLC satej Patil won 13 of the 25 electeddirectorseats,defeating the Mahayuti-backed panel, which secured 12. shortly after, the Mahayuti- led government decided to appointfourdirectorswithvoting rights, turning around the arithmetic and potentially shiftingthecontrolofthecooperative. If the four nominees vote with the Mahayuti-backed directors, the ruling alliance will have 16 votes against Patil’s 13. The chairman’s election is scheduled to be held in Kolhapur on Tuesday with all 29 directors, including the four government nominees, eligible to vote. The government has decided to apply the ordinance to the existing board despite opposition to its retrospective implementation. While declaring the ordinance nominating five directors to Gokul, the government had,however,kepttheirnames under wraps. Patil however publicly revealed the names of four of them directly from the stage at the protest in Kolhapur on Monday. »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 1.27 cr Hindu voters missing from UP rolls… have filed plea before EC: Yogi CHina Dismisses spy plot, Calls it smear CampaiGn paGe 13 Number of minority voters has risen 1.65%, says UP CM insidE Lalmani Verma tiGress slips oUt of BUxa aGain, is now movinG towarDs assam p 2 BenGalUrU CaBBie wHo killeD wife was BaileD oUt in DaCoity Case p 7 Lucknow, November 9 aMId The opposition’s campaignagainstthespecialIntensive Revision (sIR), uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi adityanath has claimed that 1.27crorehindushavebeenexcluded from the electoral rolls in uttar Pradesh, while the number of Muslim voters has increased by 1.65%. TheCMsaidtheBJPhadappealed to the poll body to include those who had been left out despite there being evidence of them being voters, and asked how the names of these hindu voters had gone missingandwhowasbehindit. False propaganda on SIR by Opposition: CM Yogi speakingattheaajTakPanchayat news programme sunday, the uP CM hit out at the opposition over “false propaganda” on sIR and dared samajwadi Party (sP) president akhilesh Yadav to demand the rollback of sIR. “uP ki sacchai kya hai? akhilesh Yadav ko bolo na ki maang kare ki sIR wapas liya jaye.Womaangnahikarega.Isliye nahi maang karega kyuki »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 ‘One part of me rejected being PM outright… another spoke about duty… I longed for Rajiv’s presence’ soMe MonThs before the election, my children and I had discussed the issue of my possible prime ministership. one of them asked me straight out whether I would accept the post… “absolutely not!” I’d said… “are you sure?” they pressed me. “I’m very clear,” I said emphatically. neither Rahul nor Priyanka felt that I shouldbecomeprimeminister. They’d lived through the trauma of their grandmother’s assassination and the brutal murder of their father… They looked relieved and I, too, felt lighter, having said my views outloudonthequestionforthe first time. and there the matter rested.Ineverspokeofittoanyone else. Throughout the election, I’d give a noncommittal answer whenever I was asked this question… We were in a battle for our survival and I had to keep my party together… It wasn’t an option to allow a leadership struggle to arise… I just knew instinctively that the persontocarryforwardthelegacy of past Congress governments would have to be someone with long experience in government and an impeccable record of integrity… Years ago, when I took the firststepofthejourneythathad broughtmetothispoint,Iknew who’dgivenustheirvote…one in my heart what my husband minute I was clear, the next, I and my mother-in-law would was torn. have expected of me. I had felt a meeting had been fixed an inner call of duty towards with the leaders of the althem and all that they had liance… “We’ll convince her,” fought for they’dassuredmy throughout their colleagues… Like ExprEss lives. But now I a movie in slow was at sea; I had to motion, the search within my scenesIwitnessed troubled self for move through my an answer. one part of me re- mind’s eye. a meeting is going jected the idea completely, the on with some of the leaders of other part was calling on my the alliance in Rajiv’s confersense of obligation — towards ence room at the far end of my thepartyworkerswho’dbehurt house. They’ve been talking in and disappointed by my re- turns for over an hour, urging fusal, but also to the people me to agree to their proposal, special whileIlistensilently.asthediscussion comes to an end, they looktowardsmeforaresponse. Imusterupasmuchcourageas I can and I say my piece. There is an uproar amongst them, they stand up and move towards me. I, too, stand up. They physically surround me. “Wewillnotacceptthis,”oneof them says. “You cannot take this decision, Madam,” says another. Their tone is forceful, almost aggressive. “We will not take no for an answer.” I am shaken. I feel overpowered. “Theek hai,” (“all right,”), I mumble… The assembled leaders don’t even wait for me Sonia Gandhi announcing that she will not take the Prime Minister’s post and recommending Manmohan Singh’s name in 2004. archIve to finish my sentence, they begin to congratulate me, one byone.“shehasagreed,shehas agreed,” someone says. I just stand there, numb… I hadn’t noticed that the windows of the conference »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Pune