The Editorial Page: In workers’ protests, a test of labour reforms 10 ThUrSDaY, aPrIL 16, 2026 JournAlism of CourAge new Delhi, laTe CiTy, 20 pageS ₹7.00 (₹8 raipUr, ₹15 Srinagar) 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 , lU 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 stARting toDAy, tHRee-DAy sitting of PARliAMent on Constitution AMenDMent Bills Govt plan: Keep south share unchanged in LS, list each state’s new count in ‘schedule’ Delimitation exercise to demarcate constituencies based on 2011 Census, LS seats for all states to go up 50% Vikas Pathak & Jatin Anand New Delhi, April 15 thegOVeRNMeNtwillmost likely bring on thursday a ‘schedule’ in Parliament to clearly specify the number of Lok Sabha seats for each state, and this will show that the percentage share of each state in theLokSabha’stotalstrengthis the same as it is now, top sources said. a ‘schedule’ isanadditional section to alegislation that providesdetailedinformationsupporting its text. Stating that the three Bills cleared by the Cabinet to facilitate women’s reservation and »ContinueD on PAge 2 E. Opp chorus: We back women’s quota, but delimitation a devious agenda, tool of BJP Asad Rehman New Delhi, April 15 EXPlainEd centre’s move, challenge to opp Opposition parties have primarily criticised the government’s move to link women’s reservation to the increase in the Lok Sabha strength and the delimitation exercise. With the government keen to maintain a pro-rata distribution of the increased seats in the Lok Sabha, the Opposition, including states in the midst of Assembly polls, will find it challenging to push its case. EXPRESSinvestigation congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and loP rahul gandhi with MP Kapil sibal, ncP-sP’s supriya sule, tMc’s sagarika ghose, shiv sena (uBt)’s sanjay raut and other InDIa bloc leaders in new Delhi. ani In assocIatIon wIth IcIj 7 Indian firms in race, experts eye cheaper Keytruda version in 2 yrs Anonna Dutt New Delhi, April 15 With at least seven indian manufacturersintheracetodevelop generic versions of Merck &Co’sbest-sellingcancerimmunotherapy drug Keytruda, doctors and researchers say a far cheaper alternative could be availablewithintwoyearswhen thedrug’spatentexpiresinJune 2028 — offering hope at a time when each mandated 200mg dose costs more to invest in develthan Rs 3 lakh. oping its own “We have seen therapies,”saidDr thiswithotherimtarun Durga, asmunotherapies. sociate director of the entry of biotHe CAnCeR medicaloncology, similars leads to a Medanta-Noida. significantdropin the lack of acprices, sometimes cess to Keytruda is parT-iv by as much as one of the key 70%.thisisthesimplestwayto findings of an investigation by make cancer drugs more af- The Indian Express in associfordable and accessible. in the ation with the international long run, however, india needs »ContinueD on PAge 2 calculus happening VeDAntA PlAnt toll Rises to 20 today Day after boiler steam lHouselisting phase of Census begins in eight States and UTs, including Delhi. Business as usual By EP UNNY deaths, kin despair: ‘Took this job for better wages’ Jayprakash s naidu Raigarh, April 15 “he WaS saving money to build our family home. Now, who will do it?” asked a distraughtyoungman,seatedoutside the postmortem centre of the government medical college hospital in Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district. his eyes red and swollen, 32-year-old Santosh Kumar was still in shock a day after his »ContinueD on PAge 2 l BjP ‘Dosa,idli’track atRCBhome groundnotin goodtaste:CsK writestoBCCi Venkata Krishna B Chennai, April 15 iNDiaN PReMieR League franchise Chennai Super Kings has complained to the BCCi overtheDJ’schoiceofsongand comments at their april 5 away gameagainstRoyalChallengers Bengaluru at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru. according to the CSK, the playing of the track ‘Dosa, idli, sambar, chutney, chutney’ — a popular background score to memes about South indian stereotypes — before their innings was not in good taste. Confirming the development, a top iPL official said the governing council would look into the matter. “We have received a complaint from CSK and are looking into it,” the official said. CSKmanagingdirectorKasi Viswanathan told The Indian Express: “the DJs are usually around to support the home team. But at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, it was different. »ContinueD on PAge 2 thE city Brijesh Kumar, 28, is survived by his 22-year-old wife (left) and two sons aged three and one Page 4 in recusal Plea affidavit, Kejriwal cites ties of judge’s family to govt ProMIses ‘BengalI-sPeaKIng, state-Born leaDer as cM’, tMc sPeaKs of ‘fIsh curBs’ In BjP states Why fish, among other things Bangla, is the meat of Assembly poll battle in West Bengal Ravik Bhattacharya & Atri Mitra Kolkata, April 15 iN the middle of the election Commission’sSpecialintensive Revision exercise, guess who is fighting the hardest to not be seenasthe“outsider”inBengal? Maach,dhaki,Chhaudance and,also,SatyajitRay.PoilaBaishakh, the Bengali New year, saw the BJP roll out all things DeCision 2026 West B engA l Bangla Wednesday in an electioncontestwiththetrinamool Congress that is as much about arithmetic as asmita (pride). Near the Firingi Kalibari templeinBowbazar,hundreds a BjP tableau on Poila Baishakh, the Bengali new Year, in Kolkata, wednesday. parTha paUl of BJP supporters hit the roads with three tableaux, featuring dances to Rabindra Sangeet, as well as the dhunuchi (traditional Bengali incense burner), the dhaki (drum), and Chhau dancers. hoardings featured, apart from Ray, Rabindranath tagore and Swami Vivekananda. as three BJP candidates joined the procession — »ContinueD on PAge 2 SettiNgthestageforaturbulent three-day session of Parliamentwhichwillmeetthursday, OppositionpartiessaidWednesday that they will vote against the Constitution amendment Bill provisions on delimitation, some among them calling the delimitation plan “a devious agenda”and“atooltowinamajority for the ruling party”. the Opposition parties underlined that they are not against reservation of seats for womeninParliamentandstate assemblies, but are opposed to the manner in which the related Bill is being brought. »ContinueD on PAge 2 ‘India was not built through arithmetic, but on trust’ EXPRESS interview M K stAlin Chief MiniSTer, TaMil naDU Arun Janardhanan Chennai, April 15 a Day after issuing a “final warning” to the Union government over delimitation, tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin moved swiftly from rhetoric to mobilisation,convening an urgent meeting of DMK district secretaries on Wednesday and calling for statewide black flag protests on thursday. invoking tamil Nadu’s history of political assertion, Stalin suggestedthatifinstitutionalresponsesfailed,publicexpression would follow. excerpts from an interview on Wednesday after the DMK’s latest escalation: You have described delimitation not just as a political issue but as a chief Minister M K stalin campaigns in tamil nadu’s Dharmapuri, wednesday. pTi question of fairness and federal balance. What, in your view, is the principle that should guide India at this moment? india was not constructed througharithmetic;itwasbuilt on trust, restraint,anda shared constitutional vision. the Constitution did not ask states to compete in a demographic race;itaskedthemtogovernresponsibly. States that invested »ContinueD on PAge 2