The editorial Page: lost and found — an ‘a’ for India’s long game 8 MONDAy, SEPTEMBER 7, 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 Happening today lThe Supreme CourT is scheduled to hear a plea seeking regulatory guidelines to control the ‘unpredictable fluctuations’ in airfares and ancillary charges imposed by private airlines in India. lJ&K’S firST international film festival begins in Srinagar. Over 130 films from 40 countries will be screened during the fourday event. Among the unique experiences will be a floating screen installed on Dal Lake for audiences seated on shikaras. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com business as usual By EP UNNy Hardlook pm, LG, rAhuL expreSS Grief; Cm SAyS No oNe wiLL be SpAreD ‘Hostel’ collapse near DU: Five dead, students feared trapped 7 of 10 pulled out of rubble critical; rescue ops on Commander of Spear Corps meets China counterpart at Wacha-Damai Alok Singh, Drishti Jain, Sakshi Chand, Sophiya mathew & Tabshir Shams Amrita Nayak Dutta New Delhi, September 6 New Delhi, September 6 At leAst five people were killed after a five-storey building used as a private hostel for students collapsed in satya niketan opposite sri VenkateswaraCollegeinDhaulaKuanon sundayafternoon,officialssaid. tenotherswerepulledoutof the rubble and admitted to Aiims trauma Centre, police said.sevenofthemwereincritical condition. Past midnight, rescueteamswerecontinuingto search for survivors at the site. thebuilding,whichhoused an establishment called Hostel Daze, was allegedly owned by a resident of gurgaon named Hari ram, police said. Hari ram, along with his brothers AnandBansalandAzadBansal, owns several plots and buildings around the building that »CoNTiNueD oN pAGe 2 rescue operations underway at the site of the incident in satya niketan, sunday. AbhInAv SAhA Page 4 A 10-sec video, a scramble to save Bengal teen has narrow stranger: ‘He’s alive, get him out’ escape: No water supply, so went to friend’s house Drishti Jain & pragynesh New Delhi, September 6 Why ‘Made in Surat’ garMentS could be 30% coStlier thiS diWali nation Page 11 cctv in india to handlerS in Pak: Punjab buSt Part oF groWing SPy trail DArKness All around, a shaking camera, debris pressing down. On sunday evening, at least seven people showed up at the site of the building collapse at satya niketan in south Delhi, drawn by a 10-second clip shot by a student trapped inside. All ofthemwantedtopullhimout. Among the first to reach the spot was Adi nain, an nsui »CoNTiNueD oN pAGe 2 First such meeting in recent months This is the first senior military commander-level talks between India and China in recent months amid tensions along the LAC in Arunachal Pradesh. Tensions between Indian and Chinese troops along the LAC are typically resolved through meetings between the local commanders. manders of the two sides in recent weeks to resolve issues. According to sources, indian troops continue to remain deployed in large numbers in the area to prevent any escalation. Whatmakesthetalkssignificant is that it is the first senior militarycommander-leveltalks between india and China in recent months amid tensions alongthelACinArunachalPradesh. these talks follow a meeting in Beijing on August 25 betweennationalsecurityAdvisor Ajit Doval and Chinese Foreign minister Wang yi who are the »CoNTiNueD oN pAGe 2 FiFteenminutesbeforethe buildingturnedtorubble,sana Varash, a first-year BA student of motilal nehru College, was inside it. the 18-year-old, from Falakata in Alipurduar district of West Bengal, was among the many students living in the building.Hewassharinga“tworoom set” on the third floor. ChriSTopher CooTer, CAnADIAn hIgh COmmISSIOner P 15 New Delhi, September 6 a student who was pulled out of the debris. PTI sana Varash, a first-year Ba student of motilal nehru college sitting on a footpath outside theAiimsmetrostation,waiting »CoNTiNueD oN pAGe 2 New Delhi, September 6 DEvANSH TASHI MITTAl TOBGyAl express in Nepal The Indian Express report published on sept 6 Rasuwa (Nepal), September 6 agency’s future role. in a statement on sunday, the isrO said that the opening up of the space sector, the indian space Policy 2023, along with progressive FDi policy, is aimed at creating a larger, in tHe corridors of the light yellow-coloured building sit dozens of local residents, some waiting for their monthly vaccine, one waiting to get a knee injury looked at, another to get the dentist’s help with an aching tooth. Welcome to Jibjibe rural The Jibjibe rural hospital in nepal’s rasuwa district was among the healthcare facilities that received critical medical equipment bought from donations to The Indian express citizens’ relief Fund in the aftermath of the april 2015 earthquake. TAShI TObgyAL Hospital, situated on a hilltop in rasuwa, a district in nepal on the border with China that was among the hardest hit in explained ‘Working together, combining resources, talent, scale, we think India and Canada can be world beaters’ Anonna Dutt »CoNTiNueD oN pAGe 2 inDiA AnD China were conducting Corps CommanderleveltalksinArunachalPradesh sunday amid reports of recent tensions in the taksing area of the upper subansiri district. ltgeneralgirishKalia,commander of the Army’s iii Corps, alsocalledthespearCorps,with itsheadquartersatrangapahar nearDimapurinnagaland,was meeting his Chinese counterpart and other officers. the talks were being held at theWacha-Damaibordermeeting point on the indian side to address ongoing issues along the lAC in the area. Wacha is india’seasternmostborderpersonnel meeting point, located in the Kibithoo sector in Arunachal Pradesh. The Indian Express first reported on saturday about the holding of Corps Commanderlevel talks folllowing multiple meetings between local com- E. Tabshir Shams express special ISRO responds to staff questions: Ecosystem hospital in nepal heals flood injured with expanding, pvt sector a helping hand — from Express readers won’t shrink our role tHe inDiAn space research Organisation (isrO) on sunday said that it will continue to remain india’s principal institution for advanced space research, and that the participation of the private sector is not about reducing its role. this comes a day after The Indian Express reported that key employee associations of the space agency have written to its chairperson V narayanan questioningthedirectionofthe organisation’s privatisation driveanditsimplicationforthe existing workforce, and the India, China Corps Commanders hold talks at lAC meeting point in Arunachal the devastating flash floods that swept through the region late last month. this neighbourhood pri- mary medical centre generally acts as the first pitstop for nearbyresidentswitheveryday »CoNTiNueD oN pAGe 2 State consent not taken, put HC Chief Justice appointment on hold: Punjab Govt Kanchan Vasdev & Apurva Vishwanath Chandigarh, New Delhi, September 6 sAying tHAt the Centre appointed Justice Ashwani Kumar mishra as the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court without awaiting thestategovernment’sviewsas required under the memorandumofProcedure(moP)forappointment of High Court Judges, the Punjab Cabinet on sunday passed a resolution demanding that his “appointment and administration of oath... be put on hold”. the resolution was passed at an emergency meeting chairedbyChiefministerBhagwant singh mann, a day after theCentrenotifiedtheappointment. the state government said the appointment was “yet anotherinstance”oftheCentre “bypassing Punjab’s constitutional rights and established Justice ashwani kumar mishra inside Page 11 next on collegiuM agenda: Filling vacancieS in Sc procedure”. “this appointment has been madewithoutobtainingtheconsent of the state government, thereby bypassing all Constitutional norms and set procedures,” it said in a statement. “the Cabinet resolved that the appointment and administrationofoathshouldbeputonhold untilPunjab’sviewsareobtained »CoNTiNueD oN pAGe 2 l she dIed aT 97 In duBlIn on augusT 31 Indu Mitha’s love story carried Bharatanatyam across Partition, kept it alive in Pak Suanshu Khurana Delhi from lahore after Partition,decidedtomovetoKarachi against her parents’ wishes and tHe liFe and times of Bhara- married a Pakistani army oftanatyam exponent indu ficer, Aboobaker Osman mitha. mitha, who passed away in the two had met at her uncle’s Dublin at 97 last week after a house party shortly after Partibrief illness, came with numer- tion.Afewdayslater,hesawher ous twists and turns. the kind again. “i took one look, and my that seem as though lifted off a heart turned over… i knew this page-turner. except that indu’s wasthegirlimustmarry,”wrote story isn’t fiction. mitha in his memoir page 1 in1951,fouryears years later. after the bloody Parmitha’s family tition, a 22-year-old was as opposed to indu, daughter of a Bengali- the match as indu’s, on Christianphilosophyprofessor, groundsofcultureandreligion, gyanesh Chandra Chatterjee, especially amid the divisive whose family had moved to space that the subcontinent New Delhi, September 6 anchor had become then. indu’s older sister, uma Chatterjee, was married to director Chetan Anand then, which was also not comforting for mitha’s family, who considered a life around films hardly respectable. But despite all odds, indu crossedoverandmarriedmitha, andthetwohadthreedaughters in the following years. WheninducametoKarachi from Delhi, she brought an unlikely inheritance: Bharatanatyam, the dance form she had imbibed in Delhi and Chennai. induhadstudiedphilosophyat Delhi university while training Indu moved back to karachi in 1951 and married a Pakistani army officer, aboobaker osman mitha. InSTAgrAm/ TehreemA_mIThA in Bharatanatyam under lalitha shastry. shastry was from the first batch of Kalakshetra and had learned under the aegis of Bharatanatyam icon rukmini Devi Arundale. Alongside, indu also studied modern and creative dance with actor and dancer Zohrasehgalandherhusband, Kameshwarsehgal,attheirZoresh institute in lahore while her family still lived there. mitha,fromawealthyBombay family, had joined the British indian Army in 1942 after graduating from the indian military Academy, Dehradun, and served with the Parachute Ahmedabad regiment in myanmar (Burma then) during the second World War. After his family moved to Pakistan, mitha was, in 1954, tasked with setting up the special service group (ssg) of the Army, with help from us specialForces.Heisstillknown as the ‘Father of the ssg’. But Bharatanatyam, the art formfromtamilnadu,wasnot an obvious choice for a woman making a life in Pakistan, particularlywhenthecountry’scultural ideas became only more conservative with time, mainly inthe1980s.Butindupersisted, and for the next seven decades taught generations of students an art form whose cultural home was far away in the temples and courts of south india — first in Karachi, then in lahore and later in islamabad. shetaughtover2,000students. some of her noted disciples includeAmnamawazKhan,iftikhar masih and her daughter tehreema, who now runs a dance academy in the us. “to me, her greatest contribution was teaching young girls in schools in lahore, who gotexposuretoBharatanatyam and later teaching students at her academy, even though therewereveryfew,”saysnoted »CoNTiNueD oN pAGe 2