The ideas Page: Why i envy abdul el-sayed and his freedom to be himself 7 TUESDAy, NOvEMbEr 10, 2026 JOuRnalisM of COuRage AhmedAbAd, lATe cITy, 12 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 the inDian exPress wishes its reaDers a very happy Diwali & Gujarati New year There will be no edition of the newspaper on November 11, 12 & 13, 2026. Our coverage and news updates 24x7 will be available on indianexpress.com Happening today lCentral seCurity agencies have tightened vigilance nationwide, backed by a fortified counterterror set up and a sweeping crackdown on cross-border terror syndicates over the past year on the first anniversary of the Red Fort blast anniversary. Track This and more on www.indianexpress.com sMOG alOnG with fOG: iMD Delhi logs most polluted Diwali in 5 years, no respite day after 14 of 51 monitoring stations record ‘severe’ AQI; ‘very poor’ day after UNION MINISTER for Home and Cooperation and Lok Sabha MP from Gandhinagar Amit Shah on Monday appealed to the people of Gujarat to take the lead in making Gujarat “drug free” by 2028. He emphasisedthatdrugsweaken the young generation of the country and money received through this menace is being misused to spread terrorism in the country. Shah was addressing a public meeting in the Ranip area of lalmani Verma New Delhi, November 9 Lucknow, November 9 DELHI RECORDED its most polluted Diwali in five years with average Air Quality Index at 376 and the morning after was only marginally better at 371 recorded at 10 am on Monday when a blanket of smog and fog blanketed the city. The overallAQIstoodat371at10am on Monday, also the highest for a post-Diwali day since 2021. Of the 51 monitoring stations that recorded data, 14 were in the “severe” category, four in the “poor” category and the remaining 33 in the “very poor” category. Delhi Technological University (DTU) recorded the worst reading of 439. Earlier in the morning, the overallAQIstoodat370at8am. According to Central PollutionControlBoard(CPCB)data, the Diwali-day AQI of 376 was alsothehighestrecordedonthe day of the festival since 2021, whenitwasrecordedat382.Diwali was on November 8 this year, on October 20 in 2025, October 31 in 2024, November 12 AMID THE Opposition’s campaignagainsttheSpecialIntensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has claimed that 1.27 crore Hindus have been excluded from the electoral rolls in Uttar Pradesh, while the number of Muslim voters has increased by 1.65%. The CM said the BJP had appealed to the poll body to include those who had been left out of the rolls despite there being evidence of them being voters, and asked how the names of these Hindu voters had gone missing and who was behind it. SpeakingattheAajTakPanchayat news programme, the UPCMhitoutattheOpposition 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 UP ke andar SIR ke pehle jitne MuslimmatdatatheyunnMuslim matdataon main 1.65% ki In push for drug-free Gujarat by 2028, Amit Shah calls for combined public effort : ‘Flag sale & use of narcotics’ Ahmedabad, November 9 Minority voter number has risen 1.65%, says UP CM ens & Pti »COntinueD On PaGe 2 express news service 1.27 cr Hindu voters missing from UP rolls … plea before EC: Adityanath Ahmedabad to inaugurate or laythefoundationstoneofprojects worth over Rs 1,024 crore. Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated a flyover worth Rs 464 crore on the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway. Addressing the gathering, Shah referred to a high-level meeting convened on Saturday in which, among other things, the most important issue discussed was to make Gujarat drug Free. In the context, Shah underlined that people can provide tip-offs about any illegal sale of drugs »COntinueD On PaGe 2 a smoggy monday morning at delhi’s Bhajanpura. PRAveeN KhANNA explained different readings While the CPCB recorded Delhi’s 24-hour average AQI at 370 on Monday morning, private monitoring platforms reported it 787. India’s official AQI uses a scale that stops at 500, while some international platforms use different thresholds for pollutant concentrations and allow readings to exceed 500. 7-fold rise in Punjab farm fires on Diwali, Delhi minister claims plot anju agnihotri Chaba, Kanchan Vasdev & Devansh Mittal Jalandhar, Chandigarh, New Delhi, November 9 PUNJAB’S EFFORTS to curb paddystubbleburningsuffered a major setback on Diwali day, with the state recording 1,152 active farm fire events Sunday — the highest single-day spike ber 8, against 3,622 on the corresponding date in 2025 -- an increase of 23.1 per cent. The tally,however,remainedbelow the 6,029 recorded on the same date in 2024. The numbers are based on district-wise satellite data for active fire events during the kharif paddy season, with the monitoring period beginning »COntinueD On PaGe 2 vriddhi hui hai SIR ke baad. Aur Hindu matdataon ki mainebatayanakyasthitihai. (What is the reality in UP? Ask Akhilesh Yadav to demand the rollback of SIR. He will not demand because the number of Muslimvotershasincreasedby 1.65% in UP after SIR. And I have spoken about the situationofHinduvoters),”Adityanath said. “That is why we have given our memorandum to the Election Commission, asking why this happened,” the CM said, adding, “I am speaking about those 1.27 crore Hindu voters who have their names in the electoral list of UP panchayat polls, but their names do not exist in the electoral rolls of the Election Commission of India. How have these names gone missing? Who was behind this? There are 66 lakh such voters; 55 lakh are those Hindus voters who are getting benefits of the government’swelfareschemes, »COntinueD On PaGe 2 Nvidia CEO admits affair, company opens probe into his relationship with ‘China spy’ Ahead of hearing in SC, Govt sets aside Trump defends Jensen Huang: ‘Honorable guy... think he probably has an excuse for it’ space for Central Secretariat Library 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, 2025. ReuTeRs rubio Warned offiCials about Ceo’s ties With spy Climate meet begins, report says 2026 among warmest years ever amitabh sinha New Delhi, November 9 Union home minister amit shah and Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel in ahmedabad on monday. PTI of the ongoing season. The farm fires detected on November 8 marked a sevenfold rise over the 163 recorded on November 7. The number was also almost double the previous highest single-day count of 584 this season, on November 3. TheDiwalicasespushedthe cumulative count of farm fires in Punjab to 4,459 on Novem- false propaganda on sir by opposition: cm yogi THEANNUALyear-endingclimate meeting opened in the TurkishcityofAntalyaonMondaywithanothersoberingreminder from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) about the steadily worsening climate situation. In its latest State of the Climate Report, released on the opening day of COP31 climate meeting, the outside the coP31 venue in antalya, Turkey, monday. AP China dismisses spy plot, Calls it smear Campaign page 10 business as usual by EP UNNy WMO said the year 2026 could end up as one of the warmest ever,almostcertainlyasamong the top four warmest years. The average global temperature between January and September this year was 1.47 degree Celsius higher than preindustrial times (the average of 1850-1900period),theWMOreport said. It is higher than the full-year averages in 2025 and 2023, and only slightly lower »COntinueD On PaGe 2 The indian express report published on september 30 Damini nath New Delhi, November 9 THE UNION Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) has allocated space for the Central Secretariat Library — currently housed in Shastri Bhawan, which is set to be demolished as part of the Central Vista redevelopment plan — at the government office complex in Netaji Nagar, The Indian Express has learnt. On September 30, The Indian Express had reported that while all ministries and departments had been asked by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to vacate Shastri Bhawan by the end of Septem- ber so that construction work could start, the library was yet to be allocated adequate space. Taking suo motu cognizance of The Indian Express report,theSupremeCourt,onOctober 4, had asked the governmenttofileadetailedaffidavit on its plans to relocate thelibrary,includingtheareato be allocated and “actual layout plans”. The court is set to hear the matter on November 16. In an office memorandum issued on November 6, the Directorate of Estates, under MoHUA, said space had been allocated for the library at the Government Pool Office Accommodation (GPOA)-2, »COntinueD On PaGe 2 l excerPTs from sonia Gandhi’s Book, belonging, on The days leadinG UP To her momenToUs 2004 decision To noT Become Pm ‘One part of me rejected being PM… another spoke about duty… longed for Rajiv presence’ SOME MONTHS before the question for the first time. And election, my children and I had there the matter rested. I never discussed the issue of my poss- spoke of it to anyone else. ible prime ministership. One of Throughout the election, I’d them asked me straight out give a noncommittal answer whether I would accept the wheneverIwasaskedthisquespost… “Absolutely not!” I’d tion… We were in a battle for said… “Are you sure?” they our survival and I had to keep pressed me. “I’m my party tovery clear,” I said gether… It wasn’t express emphatically. an option to allow Neither Rahul nor a leadership PriyankafeltthatI struggle to arise… should become I just knew inprime minister. They’d lived stinctively that the person to through the trauma of their carryforwardthelegacyofpast grandmother’s assassination Congress governments would and the brutal murder of their have to be someone with long father… They looked relieved experience in government and and I, too, felt lighter, having an impeccable record of integsaid my views out loud on the rity… special Years ago, when I took the firststepofthejourneythathad broughtmetothispoint,Iknew in my heart what my husband and my mother-in-law would have expected of me. I had felt an inner call of duty towards them and all that they had fought for throughout their lives. But now I was at sea; I had to search within my troubled self for an answer. One part of me rejected the idea completely, the other part was callingonmysenseofobligation– towards the party workers who’d be hurt and disappointed by my refusal, but also to the people who’d given us their vote… One minute I was clear, the next, I was torn. A meeting had been fixed with the leaders of the alliance…“We’ll convince her,” they’dassured my colleagues… Like a movie in slow motion, the scenes I witnessed movethrough my mind’s The book eye. A meet- is being ing is going on released by with some of harpercollins the leaders of india today the alliance in Rajiv’s conference room at the far end of my house. They’ve been talking in sonia Gandhi announces manmohan singh’s name as Prime minister in 2004. ARchIve turns for over an hour, urging me to agree to their proposal, 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 Ahmedabad 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 room were open, and Priyanka was standing outside one of them. She told me later that she’d stood there the whole time. As the men in the room surrounded me, it struck her that I was being browbeaten into acceptance. She tore into the house to look for Rahul, tears running down her face… “What’s happened?” he asked, disturbed at seeing his sister so distraught. “She’s said yes to them! They’re all around her, she’s said yes!” “What has she done! Where is she?” he said, andbothofthemcamestriding towards me with perturbed expressions… : my two children whosawthemselvesasmyprotectors after the death of their father. I was already exhausted by the vehemence of the allianceleaders;nowIhadtoface them. “You said yes?” thundered Rahul.“Theywouldn’tlistento me,” I replied, “I don’t want to do it, you know I don’t. I was being pressurised.” “Pressurised? You are being pressurised?” he demanded. “What about us?” He stormed off… “Look, Ma, you’ve always been »COntinueD On PaGe 2