The Editorial Page: The Bengal puzzle — social gains have not transformed into higher incomes 8 MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2026 JOURNALISM of COURAGE AHMEDABAD, LATE CITY, 18 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 l LOK SABHA IS ScHEDULED to take up discussion on the Government’s efforts to end left-wing extremism. Union Home Minister Amit Shah has set March 2026 as the deadline to free the country of Maoist violence. l PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi will interact virtually with BJP/NDA workers in pollbound Assam and Puducherry as part of the party’s outreach initiative ‘Mera Booth Sabse Mazboot Samvaad’. l GUWAHATI'S AcA STADIUM will be the battleground as five-time champions Chennai Super Kings open their IPL campaign against inaugural winners Rajasthan Royals. Match starts at 7.30 pm. TRACK THESE AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPRESS.cOm Business as Usual By EP UNNY ISLAMABAD HOLDS REGIONAL TALKS AS STRIKES INcREASE ‘Waiting’: Iran warns US against ground ops, more Marines arrive US sending us messages about talks, secretly planning assault by troops: Qalibaf The War DAY 30 lTop diplomats from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey were in Islamabad for talks with Pakistani leaders to find an end to the West Asia conflict lTehranthreatenedtotarget Israeli andUS educational facilitiesunlessUScondemns bombingofIranianvarsities Islamabad, Tel Aviv, March 29 »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 At the funeral of three Lebanese journalists who were killed in Israeli strikes, in Beirut on Sunday. AP STRATEGIc ASSETS MORE VULNERABLE War lessons for military: Rethinking air defence, countering drones to targets Amrita Nayak Dutta New Delhi, March 29 DRAWING LESSONS from the ongoing war in West Asia, the Indian military brass have begun discussions focused on the need for procurement of anti-drone systems and their large-scale integration with existing legacy air defence weaponsystemstocreateanef- E. DRONES AND WARFARE PAGE 6 fective umbrella against small enemy drones, The Indian Express has learnt. Acquisition of high-quality swarm drones and robotic capability to disrupt enemy logis- tics and supply chains while targeting the adversary’s manufacturing capacity are among the first lessons drawn from the month-old war. Senior military officers said Indiawillalsohavetoundertake passive measures such as dispersion, concealment, camouflage,forcepreservation,underground infrastructure, and »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 7 foreigners held: Court agrees with NIA, says need to probe drone objective, rebel link betargeted.UAE,Saudiand Kuwaitsaidtheyresponded tomissileanddroneattacks MORE REPORTS, PAGE 15 ‘Can’t imagine Netanyahu bucking Trump if Trump lays the law. He may turn and twist but he will listen’ VIVEK KATJU VETERAN INDIAN DIPLOMAT PAGE 14 TARGETING cONGRESS, Modi said Gulf nations are giving ‘high priority’ to safety of Indians amid the conflict while the Opp party was making ‘dangerous’ remarks PM Narendra Modi tries his hand at the ‘chenda’, a percussion instrument, during a rally in Palakkad, Sunday. PTI PAGE 12 New Delhi, March 29 Six Ukrainians and an American were held on March 13 and booked in an alleged terror conspiracy case. FILE Myanmar? What was their objective,inusingdrones?Didaccused persons use drones for imparting training to any person?WhetheranyIndianorany member of rebel ethnic group in India, is linked with accused persons,directlyorindirectly?” »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 NATION, PAGE 12 TELANGANA BILL TO DEDUCT PAY FOR NEGLECTING PARENTS PASSED l Gulfnationscontinuedto Poll beat in Kerala Nirbhay Thakur WHY DID they come to India? What was the objective behind using drones? Was any rebel ethnic group linked to them? A special court in Delhi has saidthatthesearethekeyquestions that the NIA needs to investigate as it proceeds against seven foreign nationals — six UkrainiansandanAmerican— arrested on March 13 and bookedinanallegedterrorconspiracy case. In an order extending the custody of the accused by 10 days after hearing arguments last Friday at the NIA headquarters, Additional Sessions Judge Prashant Sharma said, “...facts of this case, have to be appreciated,intotality.Whyaccused persons had come to India? Why they travelled to BjD’S PATRA qUITS HOUSE PANEL OVER DUBEY REMARKS ON BIjU PATNAIK More trauma for Kharat’s victims: Viral videos, WhatsApp forwards Vallabh Ozarkar Nashik, March 29 FOR FAMILIES caught in the Nashik sexual exploitation case, the ordeal has not ended with the arrest of ‘godman’ AshokKumarEknathKharat.It continuesintheformofexplicit videos of the crime being shared rapidly through WhatsApp and social media — and the constant fear that someone they know will spot them. “We never thought something like this would happen,” the relative of a victim, visibly Ashok Kumar Eknath Kharat’s office in Nashik, where the women were allegedly assaulted, has been sealed by police. DEEPAK JOSHI distressed,toldthisnewspaper. “Our condition is not good. We are not even able to work properly. Our lives are at stake now.” Thesevideosarealsosilencing potential witnesses, actively obstructing the police investigation in the case. Family members of at least three victims told The Indian Express that their daily lives have been upendedwithconstantanxiety. Police say the two challenges, pursuing justice and containing the fallout, are now inseparable. “Some victims are »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 lWORKERS WEIGH LOSS IN WAGES AND HIGH FARES AGAINST ANXIETY ABOUT LOSING vOTING RIGHTS Amid SIR fears, Bengal migrants strive to return home for a vote that feels vital: ‘Might be problems in future’ Ishika Gupta, Atiya Firdos, Kamal Saiyed & Brendan Dabhi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Surat, Ahmedabad, March 29 THE WEST Bengal Assembly elections might be just less than a month away, but amid concerns created by the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process, migrantsfromBengalacrossthe countryaretryingtomaketheir way to the state. From a constructionworkerinMumbaiand a banker in Pune to a cook in BengaluruandworkersinGujarat, TheIndianExpressspoke to mIGRANTS FROmBENGAL l DEcISION 2026 24.06 lakh across India TOP 5 STATES MORE REP0RTS, PAGE 10 Jharkhand over a dozen such migrants. In Mumbai’s busy Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus, people from Bengal waiting to catchatraincomplainedabout thelackofspecialtrainstomeet the high demand during the election season. Many like Asif Ashraf, a domestic helper on ExPRESS Divya A Ariba Shahid & Alexander cornwell IRAN SAID it was ready to respond to any US ground attack, accusingWashingtonofpreparingalandassaultwhileseeking talks, as regional powers met in Pakistan Sunday to try to bring the two sides together. Iran’s parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf accused the US of sending messagesaboutpossiblenegotiations whileatthesametimeplanning to send in troops, adding that Tehran was ready to respond if US soldiers were deployed. “As long as the Americans seek Iran’s surrender, our response is that we will never accept humiliation,” he said in a message to the nation. (Iranian forces “are waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their ‘New normal (in India-Canada ties) does not erase what has happened’ 4.94 lakh Maharashtra 3.09 lakh Uttar Pradesh PeoplewaittoboardtheHowrah MailinMumbai. SANKHADEEP BANERJEE his way to Kolkata, are banking on unreserved tickets. “I tried 2.34 lakh Bihar 2.27 lakh Delhi 1.82 lakh SOURCE: CENSUS 2011 booking tickets a month in advance, but to no avail. Now, I hope to get a seat with an unreserved general ticket,” he said. Thelackoftrainticketsand, in some cases, inflated costs, is proving to be an obstacle for many in other parts of the country, too. Bengaluru resident Reema, who works as a cook, said the “unrelenting electoral process” — she went toBengallastmonthfortheSIR — was proving to be a financial challenge. All India Shramik Swaraj Kendra’snationalvice-president R Kaleem Ullah said more than three lakh workers from »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Ahmedabad New Delhi, March 29 HIS BELONGINGS packed in cartons at his Delhi residence, ready to be shipped to his hometown Patna, former IndianHighCommissionertoCanada Sanjay Verma recalls another shift that took place in the twilight of his 37 years in foreign service — one that was abrupt and “tense”. That was in October 2024, when Verma was declared persona non grata, along with five otherIndianofficials,bytheJustin Trudeau government in Canada over the Hardeep Singh Nijjarassassinationcase—India had denied any involvement in thekilling.Today,Vermasayshe is happy that ties have mended between the two countries, and a“newnormal”isbeingworked out. Edited excerpts from an exclusive interview: interview SANJAY VERMA FORMER INDIAN HIGH COMMISSIONER TO CANADA Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney visited India this month. There has been a turnaround in IndiaCanada ties. You were in Ottawa when ties were frozen, what do you think necessitated this (turnaround)? Whateverwashappeningin Canada when I was there was politically motivated. »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Canada audit flags high approval rates for Indian student visas amid fraud concerns Jay Mazoomdaar New Delhi, March 29 THE AUDITOR General of Canada has flagged in a report placedbeforethecountry’sParliament last week that nations at high risk of submitting fraudulentstudentapplications also had correspondingly low visa approval rates, with “one important exception” — India. According to Auditor GeneralKarenHogan’sreport,even as the total number of visas »cONTINUED ON PAGE 2 lYearlyforeignstudent arrivalsincanada(in%) REGION Europe 2023 2024 2025 3 8 21.2 China 4.8 10.3 18.9 Americas & Caribbean 6.4 8.5 13.7 India Indo-Pacific 51.6 33.6 14 8.1 15.9 19.4 Africa 17.4 20.4 15.4 West Asia 2.8 3.4 3.3