The Editorial Page: Washington-Tehran MoU is a relief, but flashpoints remain 10 FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2026 Journalism of Courage lUCkNoW, laTe CITY, 20 PageS ₹6.00 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 Nation First The Core Policy Freedom from the colonial mindset – Rajpath becomes Kartavya Path, and a new Naval Ensign in honour of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vishwas ke, Vikas ke, Jan-Kalyan ke aHead OF SePTeMBer SUMMIT China, Russia, Iran in Delhi next week for huddle of BRICS NSAs Shubhajit roy New Delhi, June 18 ChinEsE ForEign minister Wang Yi, russian nsa sergei shoigu and iranian supreme nationalsecurityCouncilDeputy secretary nezamipour will beinnewDelhiforthemeeting of the BriCs nsas on June 22-23, which will set the stage for the summit of BriCs leaders in india in september. india holds the rotating presidency of the BriCs bloc this year. its members include Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, india, indonesia, iran, russia, saudi arabia, south africa and the United arab Emirates. Wang, who is also Beijing’s special representative on the india-China boundary issue, is expected to hold bilateral talks doval and Wang are also India and china’s representatives for boundary talks. PTI FIle with nsa ajit Doval during the visit. Doval will host the meeting of the nsas. Wang was unable to attend the meeting of BriCs Foreign ministerslastmonthbecausehe had to be in Beijing for the visit of Us President Donald trump. sources said Wang’s visit is »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 INTerIM PaCT reOPeNS HOrMUZ, eNdS BlOCkade Deal ending war gives Iran critical economic lifeline Tehran can sell oil freely, will get rich incentives if it agrees to new nuclear pact lee keath Cairo, June 18 thE intErim deal reached by theUsandirantoendtheirwar will reopen the strait of hormuz and bring the two adversaries back to the negotiating tableovertehran’snuclearprogramme, according to details released by both countries. it will also give iran an immediate benefit, allowing it to Rs 600-cr as of last yr: War within, TMC leader seeks account freeze Sweety kumari & damini Nath Kolkata, New Delhi, June 18 Happening today lkerala CM V D Satheesan will present the first Budget of the UDF government. lPM NareNdra Modi will dis- burse Rs 2,400 crore under PM Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana. track these and more on www.indianexpress.com With trinamool Congress (tmC)leaderaroopBiswasasking a private bank to freeze the party’s accounts amid a “serious dispute” going on within the organisation, the party on thursday claimed he had been removed as its treasurer on June5.theparty’slatestdisclosures to the Election Commission (EC) show it had over rs 676.11 crore in cash, bank balance,andcheques-in-hand. in a letter to the branch manager of a leading private bank in Kolkata, dated June 12, Biswas requested immediate suspensionoftransactionsand expressed the apprehension of aroop Biswas is no longer the treasurer, says trinamool misuse of the signed cheques kept at the party office. “at present, rival groups are claiming to be the legitimate representatives and office bearersofthetmC,resultingin uncertainty regarding the authority of persons who may seek to operate the bank accountsmaintainedinthename »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 35 donation boxes, 2 shifts: As SIT probes Ram Mandir ‘fund theft’, how count is kept Shyamlal Yadav Ayodhya, June 18 an innoCUoUslY named ‘Pilgrim Facilitation Centre’ is at the heart of the row brewing over ram temple donation funds in ayodhya. located 200 metres from the main temple, and bearing its architectural imprint, the building holds a counting room in the basement. it is to this room that »CONTINUed ON PaGe 9 inside the building which houses the counting centre. ShYaMlal YaDaV related report, page 5 finmin ratifies epf rate at 8.25%; upi withdrawal By month-end page 15 sell its oil freely again. Besides the new oil revenue for iran, the two sides are more or less back where they were three-and-half months ago — before israel and the Us launched their war, which has left thousands dead across the region, triggered a global energy crisis and shaken the american economy. iran and the Us will enter a 60-day period of negotiations, »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 economy page 15 emergenCy fuel supply to Be rolled BaCk onCe west asia situation staBilises expressinvestigation private schools, pricey coaching, family business, mnC jobs: they also cracked ews list in upsC exam Daughter of railway porter to son of security guard to IIT graduate, MNC employee: Rs 8-lakh income bar raises questions of fairness in eligibility Whytopcourt hadquestioned rs8-lakhlimit Shyamlal Yadav New Delhi, June 18 For EvErY candidate who cracked india’s civil services this year under the EconomicallyWeakersectionquota,the son of a security guard or the daughter of a railway porter, there are many others on the same quota list whose backgrounds tell a different story: sons and daughters of businessmen, iit graduates, alumniofprivateschoolsinthe city charging over a lakh a year in fees. there were 104 candidates selected in the Civil services Examination2025underthe10 per cent quota for the EconomicallyWeakersection(EWs) — those from general category families with an annual income of less than rs 8 lakh. an investigation by The Indian Express has found a gap between the scheme’s stated purpose and the profiles of many it has come to benefit. »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 the Upsc office on delhi’s shahjahan road. TaShI ToBgYal l theQuotadata 104 eWS candidates selected in 2025 civil services exam. 67 attended well-known coaching institutes, annual fees up to Rs 2.65 lakh. 28 candidates’ parents have businesses — shops and trading to steel fabrication, cloth and confectionery. 10 14 candidates held private jobs, including in MNCs. graduates or postgraduates from IITs, and at least three from NITs. Who qualifies under EWS? the Economically Weaker section (EWs) quota, notified in 2019, grants 10% reservation in government jobs and educational institutions to persons from the general category not covered under sC, st or oBC reservations. it covers applicants and their families. a 2019 office memorandum of the Centre’s ministry of Personnel, Public grievances and Pensions clarifies, “the term ‘Family’forthispurposewillinclude the person who seeks benefit of reservation, his/her parents and siblings below the age of 18 years as also his/her spouse and children below the age of 18 years.” E. »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 Uddhav Sena all but splits: Six of nine MPs skip key meeting, party issues notice Will urge Speaker Birla to disqualify absentee members, says Sanjay Raut Vikas Pathak, deeptiman Tiwary & Vallabh Ozarkar New Delhi, Mumbai, June 18 thE sPlit in shiv sena (UBt) became virtually official on thursday after six of the party’s nine lok sabha mPs skipped a parliamentary party meeting,promptingtheleadership to issue show-cause notices to the rebels. “We have issued showcause notices to the mPs who did not attend; they have been given seven days to respond. the process has been initiated, and we will seek their disqualification. if the speaker acts according to the law and rules, they will be disqualified. the fight will continue in Parliament, in court, and on the streets. the fight on the streets hasalreadybegun.thesecurity of these traitors has been »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 Business as usual By EP UNNY politics as eknath shinde strikes one more time, will nda equations shift again? page 8 Congress left red-faced as allies cross-vote, cost it RS seat in Jharkhand Manoj C G & Shubham Tigga New Delhi, Ranchi, June 18 in a blow to the Congress, the partylosttheelectionforoneof the two rajya sabha seats up forgrabsinJharkhandbecause of cross-voting by its inDia bloc allies. While the Congress alleged that rJD and CPi (m-l) liberation mlas voted for the nDa-backed candidate, the »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 nda-backed nominee parimal nathwani after his victory. PTI ‘Will not succumb to threats... bad guys are not allowed to win’ New Delhi, June 18 page 8 Us president donald trump in Versailles and Iranian president masoud pezeshkian in tehran sign the agreement to end the war. PTI, aNI related reports, pages 14, 16 l JUstIce gaUtam patel, retIred BomBay hIgh coUrt JUdge, speaks to The IndIan express on facIng threats oVer JUdgment, attack on daUghter In Uk aamir khan pm: in an era of disruption, teCh must deliver for all CBC 22201/13/0017/2627 Dream of a Naxal-free India becomes a reality, with a strong crackdown on terrorism DaYs BEForE he retired from theBombayhighCourtinapril 2024, Justice gautam Patel delivered a judgment on the Dawoodi Bohra succession dispute, upholding syedna mufaddalsaifuddinasthecommunity’srightfulspiritualhead. that judgment is at the centre of threats being faced by theretiredJudgeandhisfamily for nearly 10 months now — from mumbai to london, where his daughter, aditi, was solutelynotgoingtoallowthem toalterthetempoortenorofour lives, or to dictate to us what we can and can’t do, where we should work, how we should live,andwhereweshouldtravel. that’s not happening. We will continue, and we will not succumb to these threats. the familyandiaretogetheronthis. assaulted on april 22. the anonymous letters warned Justice Patel to leave india and topubliclyrecanthisjudgment in a Youtube video. Edited excerpts from an interview with Justice Patel: You were doubtful about returning from the UK to India. How is the family coping with the threats? i am back in mumbai. no question about that. We have to getonwithourlives.Wearetaking the necessary precautions andbeingcareful.Butweareab- express interview JUSTICe GaUTaM PaTel ReTIReD BoMBaY hIgh CoURT jUDge One of the threatening letters demanded that you leave India and record a YouTube video recanting your 2024 judgment. Have you ever encountered a campaign of this sort? neverheardofit,anditisabsolutelyunthinkable.itissomething unknown to law. it’s entirelyoutsidetherealmoflaw.in fact, the demand is to commit an illegality. let’s be very clear aboutit.notonlyisthedemand in itself illegal, but it asks that i make a false allegation against oneofthepartiestothedispute. i am essentially being asked to fabricate a statement, which i refuse to do. and i will look at it a different way. they have an allegation against me. they don’t want to prove it. talk is cheap. instead of proving it, they are trying to browbeat not just me, but browbeat me by browbeating my family and actually attacking my family, which has nothing to do with any of this, into committing a rank illegality. how can that be contemplated? there’s the judgment. i rendered it after thought and due deliberation. the appeal court will decide whether i was right or wrong. it’s really that simple. Whatever has to be arguedhastobearguedinappeal. »CONTINUed ON PaGe 2 Lucknow