The Editorial Page: In war on Iran, Israel knows what it wants — US does not 10 TUESDAY, MARCH 17, 2026 JournALiSm of CourAgE LUCKNOW, LATE CITY, 16 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 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 By EP UNNY CONTEST FOR 11 RAJYA SABHA SEATS ACROSS THREE STATES Setback for Opp: No-shows, cross-vote in Bihar, Odisha Opp accuses BJP of threatening its legislators BIHAr Santosh Singh, Sujit Bisoyi & Manoj C G HArYANA SEATS MLAs wait to cast their votes in the Rajya Sabha polls, at the Bihar Vidhan Sabha in Patna on Monday. ANI RELATED REPORT, PAgE 6 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 AN EARLY-MORNING fire at one of Odisha’s largest government-runhospitalskilled10patients admitted to the ICU and left several others fighting for their lives. A preliminary probe into the fire, which broke out a little after 2:30 am on Monday, indicatesthatasuspectedelectrical short circuit was the cause. Officials probing the blaze saidthataprimafacieprobeindicated several gaps in the hospital’s preparedness to tackle such an incident — from a defunct fire safety system to a delayedcalltothefirebrigade.The stategovernmenthasordereda judicial probe into the matter. “The fire sprinkler system didn’t work as the tap (control valve) was closed. Also, the fire warning system didn’t go off as the switch had been off for the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 LATEST l WE DON’T KNOW... IF HE’S DEAD OR NOT: TRUMP ON MOJTABA KHAMENEI l OvER 200 IRANIAN CHILDREN KILLED IN BOMBINGS: ARAGHCHI MORE REPORTS, PAGES 9, 13 No standoff, signing of deal after Delhi assured of comparative edge: Official Ravi Dutta Mishra New Delhi, March 16 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 Ravik Bhattacharya & Sweety Kumari Kolkata, March 16 IN LESS than 24 hours of announcing the dates for the Assembly elections in West Bengal, the Election Commission (EC) removed top adminis- CM Mamata Banerjee at a rally in Kolkata, Monday. PARTHA PAUL SEATS BJP BJD Independent (BJP backed) 4 2 1 1 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 disappointing” by the Supreme Court — has overwhelmingly orderedbailinthedowrydeath cases heard by his Bench. An analysis by The Indian Expressofthe510publiclyavail- ableregularbailordersindowry circumstancesofdeathdiffered. While setting aside a bail death cases passed by the single-judge Bench headed by order by Justice Bhatia on Febhim between October and De- ruary9,aSupremeCourtBench of Justices J B cember 2025 Pardiwalaand shows that ExPrESS K V VishwaJusticePankaj nathan obBhatia gave served: “We bail in 508 — fail to understand on plain or 99.61% of the total cases. Moreover, the structure and reading of the impugned order language of the bail orders, as as to what the High Court is well as the bond amount or- trying to convey… what dered by Justice Bhatia, were weighedwiththeHighCourtin »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 similaracrosscases,thoughthe investigation * CROSS-VOTE BY 8 BJD MLAS, 3 CONg MLAs HELPS INDEPENDENT NIAarrestssix Ukrainians,one fromUSfor plottingterror activitiesinIndia Nirbhay Thakur & Mahender Singh Manral Behind the deal 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 In less than 24 hours, EC replaces Mamata top officers — CS to DGP Bengal CM says reshuffle done at behest of BJP ODISHA Amaal Sheikh New Delhi, March 16 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 India seeks safeguards as US works on new tariff structure Cuttack, March 16 2 COuNTINg AffECTED BY OBJECTIONS fROM BJP, CONg; RESuLTS DELAYED OdishaICUblaze MALAYSIA DECLARES U.S. TRADE DEAL VOID, EU PUTS IT ON HOLD kills10,probe pointstodelayed firecall,defunct sprinklers Sujit Bisoyi 5 5 0 * NO-SHOW BY 3 CONg MLAS, 1 RJD MLA DENIES OPP A SEAT Patna, Bhubaneswar, New Delhi, March 16 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 Structure, language, bond amount similar across bail orders by Justice Pankaj Bhatia between Oct and Dec 2025 l NUmBErSGAmE Seats NDA Mahagathbandhan SC rap to Allahabad HC judge over bail in dowry death: In 3 months, he gave bail in 508 of 510 such cases trativeandpoliceofficersinthe state,triggeringasharpreaction from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The reshuffle began late Sunday night as the EC sent a lettertoChiefSecretaryNandini Chakraborty,informingherthat she and state Home Secretary Jagdish Prasad Meena have beensubstitutedwithDushyant Nariala and Sanghamitra Ghosh, respectively. In a letter sent to the chief secretary, the EC said “the »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 »CONTINUED ON PAGE 2 Lucknow