The Editorial Page: In war on Iran, Israel knows what it wants — US does not 8 TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2026 Journalism of Courage MUMBAI, LATE CITY, 16 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 REg.NO. MCS/067/2018 - 20 RNI REgN. NO. 1543/57 CONTEST FOR 11 RAJYA SABHA SEATS ACROSS THREE STATES 134 162 202 63 Happening today lA NINE-JUDGE Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to commence the hearing on the contentious issue of defining the word “industry” under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. TRACk THIS AND MORE ON www.INDIANExPrESS.cOm Business as Usual Setback for Opp: No-shows, cross-vote in Bihar, Odisha Opp accuses BJP of threatening its legislators l NUmBErSGAmE Santosh Singh, Sujit Bisoyi & Manoj C G THE KEENLY watched elections on Monday for 11 vacant Rajya Sabha seats — five in Bihar, four in Odisha and two in Haryana—dealtasetbacktothe Opposition,whichfailedtokeep its flock together in two states. Abstention and cross-votinghelpedtheBJP-ledNDAsecure one additional seat each from Bihar and Odisha. The Vallabh Ozarkar 5 5 0 * NO-SHOW BY 3 CONg MLAS, 1 RJD MLA DENIES OPP A SEAT Patna, Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, March 16 HArYANA SEATS 2 COUNTINg AffECTED BY OBJECTIONS fROM BJP, CONg; RESULTS DELAYED MLAs wait to cast their votes in the Rajya Sabha polls, at the Bihar Vidhan Sabha in Patna on Monday. ANI RELATED REPORT, PAgE 7 Opposition later accused the BJPofindulgingin“horsetrading” and “influencing and threatening” its MLAs. In Haryana, the counting of votes for two seats was put on hold for over five hours after both the ruling BJP and Opposition Congress lodged complaints alleging violation of vote secrecy. The counting ODISHA SEATS BJP BJD Independent (BJP backed) Sena (UBT) backs Bill; NCP(SP), SP & Cong oppose Mumbai, March 16 BIHAr Seats NDA Mahagathbandhan Maharashtra House passes Freedom of Religion Bill amid protests by Opp 4 2 1 1 EXPOSING A rare dissonance within the Opposition parties, the Maharashtra Freedom of Religion Bill, 2026 was passed in the state Assembly on Monday, backed by the ruling Mahayuti and Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)partnerShivSena(UBT). The Congress, NCP (SP), Samajwadi Party and CPI (M) opposed the Bill. The Bill will now be tabled intheLegislativeCouncillikely on Tuesday. MAHARASHTRA assembly Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis introduced the Bill in the Assembly, saying the proposed law seeks to prevent religious conversions carried out throughcoercion,inducement, fraudordeceptionandisnotdirectedagainstanyparticularreligion. Duringthediscussioninthe CM Devendra fadnavis arrives at the Maharashtra Assembly on Monday. GANESH SHIRSEKAR House, Sena (UBT) MLA Bhaskar Jadhav supported and welcomed the Bill, while suggesting a correction in one of its clauses pertaining to notice. Outside the House, Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray said freedom of religion must exist for everyone, but conversions carried out through force »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 * CROSS-VOTE BY 8 BJD MLAS, 3 CONg MLAs HELPS INDEPENDENT »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 By EP UNNY MALAYSIA DECLARES U.S. TRADE DEAL VOID, EU PUTS IT ON HOLD India seeks safeguards as US works on new tariff structure No standoff, signing of deal after Delhi assured of comparative edge: Official Ravi Dutta Mishra New Delhi, March 16 Sunetra Pawar at the Maharashtra Assembly on Monday. GANESH SHIRSEKAR BARAMATI BYPOLL SupriyaSule rulesout candidate againstSunetra Manoj More Pune, March 16 A DAY after the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcedthebypolltotheBaramatiAssemblyseatonApril23, NCP (SP) MP Supriya Sule on Monday said there was no questionoffieldingacandidate »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 THE INDIA-US framework trade agreement, which was agreed upon just days before the US Supreme Court declared President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) illegal, would be signed after Washington puts in place a new tariff architecture which safeguards India’s comparative advantage in the US market, a senior government official said on Monday. This comes after a number of US trade partners have begun expressing doubts over their trade deals after the IEEPA ruling. While Malaysia on Monday declared its trade deal with the US null and void, citing the collapse of the legal basis for the tariffs that supported it, the European Union E. ExPlAINED New Delhi, March 16 While India has signalled it would stick to the pact that had been finalised before the US Supreme Court’s IEEPA order, it is conditional to Washington ensuring a comparative tariff advantage for Indian products. THE NATIONAL Investigation Agency(NIA)hasarrestedseven foreign nationals — six Ukrainian nationals and one from the United States — on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India. The arrests, made in a coordinated operation by multiple NIA teams last week, were made under Section 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with other relevant sections. An FIR in the case was registered on Friday evening. The US national was detained by the Bureau of Immigration at Kolkata airport, and three Ukrainians each were detained at airports in Lucknow and Delhi. A source said that the accused had entered India on valid visas, but had proceeded to Mizoram without the mandatory Restricted Area Permit. “From there, they crossed into Myanmar, where they reportedly met ethnic groups hostile to India. Investigations also uncovered that multiple consignments of drones from Europeweredeliveredbythem in Mizoram,” the source said. The suspects were brought to Delhi and produced before the duty Magistrate on Saturday, who remanded them in had also put the EU-US trade deal on hold. “The US deal was to be »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Structure, language, bond amount similar across bail orders by Justice Pankaj Bhatia between Oct and Dec 2025 Amaal Sheikh THE ALLAHABAD High Court judge who requested the Chief Justice not to assign him the bail roster recently — after one of his bail orders was described as “most shocking and disap- ExPrESS investigation pointing” by the Supreme Court — has overwhelmingly orderedbailinthedowrydeath cases heard by his Bench. Nirbhay Thakur & Mahender Singh Manral Behind the deal SC rap to Allahabad HC judge over bail in dowry death: In 3 months, he gave bail in 508 of 510 such cases New Delhi, March 16 NIAarrestssix Ukrainians,one fromUSfor plottingterror activitiesinIndia An analysis by The Indian Express of the 510 publicly available regular bail orders in dowry death cases passed by the single-judge Bench headed by him between October and December2025showsthatJustice Pankaj Bhatia gave bail in »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Mumbai