The Editorial Page: Our parched cities need to make every drop count, recycle water 8 Monday, June 15, 2026 Journalism of Courage AHmeDAbAD, 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 Happening today lNoida iNterNatioNal Airport (code DXN) begins its commercial flight operations. The first arrival will be an IndiGo flight from Lucknow. lSpecial iNteNSive Revision of electoral rolls begins in Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. Field officers will conduct doorto-door verification of voters and collect enumeration forms. lUNioN MiNiSter Nitin Gadkari will visit Shillong to participate in a regional infrastructure summit and launch a series of national highway projects. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com Mohenjo-daro’s nude In Bihar’s Samastipur, residents allege expressway ‘dancing Girl’ gets route altered to spare deputy CM aide’s land a cover-up in nCeRT new art textbook He denies using influence; CM, nHaI Samastipur officials promise to look into issue Santosh Singh Patna, June 14 A RoW is simmering in the sarairanjan block of Bihar’s samastipur district over the route alignment of the central government’s ambitious PatnaPurneagreenfieldexpressway, with local residents writing to the Union minister for Road Transport and Highways (moRTH), nitin gadkari, alleg- ingan“arbitraryandpolitically motivated” alteration to the expressway’s original track along a five-kilometre stretch. Thoughthepetitionershave not named anyone in their letter sent to gadkari, dated June 1, more than two dozen home and shop owners claim thattheJD(U)mlAfromsarairanjanandcurrentBiharDeputy Chief minister, Vijay Kumar Choudhary, influenced the revisedalignment ofproposedroad Land belonging to Deputy Cm’s aide Samastipur Patna bIHAR Sarairanjan Satan Pur Sarangpur east movetobenefitacloseassociate who is also a distant relative. Around 10.5 bighas of land be- proposed patnapurnea expressway longingtotheperson,Vinitishwar alias Bobby ishwar, and his family fell under the original alignment, records show. The route, if modified, could result in the demolition of over 150 homes and dozens of shops, as well as a section of the 65-year-old Kedar sant Ramashray College, where over 6,000 students study. When contacted, ChoudharytoldTheIndianExpress,“i have not used any political influence. All people from sarairanjanbelongtome.itisentirely uptothenHAi(nationalHighways Authority of india) to say if they have changed the alignment. it is not my domain.” »coNtiNUed oN paGe 2 Upi at Nice aNd pariS airportS: MiSri Trade to AI to innovation: India, France set new goals rebel Tmc mPs with speaker om Birla in new delhi, sunday TMC rebel MPs meet Birla, say have merged with a regional party Manoj c G & asad rehman New Delhi, June 14 ClAiming THe support of 20 of the Trinamool Congress’s (TmC) 28 lok sabha members, the party’s rebel mPs on sunday announced their merger withanoutfitcalledthenationalist Citizens Party of india (nCPi) and met lok sabha speakeromBirlaseekingaseparate seating arrangement in the House. This came moments after the TmC submitted to the speaker a letter by its ParliamentaryPartyleaderinthelok sabha,AbhishekBanerjee,urging him not to accord “any recognition, status, or facility to any purported separate group or faction of the AiTC (All india Trinamool Congress)”. business as usual By eP unny “We 20 mPs, who were elected from the AiTC, have met the speaker and given him »coNtiNUed oN paGe 2 related reportS, paGe 6 politics Modi-Macron meeting: Plan to double trade in 5 yrs, increase cooperation in defence, space PM: IndIa tech ProvIder, offers global solutIons Shubhajit roy New Delhi, June 14 A meCHAnism to double annual bilateral trade from the existing$16billioninfiveyears; an india-france innovation Roadmap2030;ajointworking group focussed on Ai (artificial intelligence) governance; an economicsecuritydialogue;increased cooperation on defence and space — these were among the key outcomes of the bilateral meeting between Prime minister narendra modi and french President emmanuel macron in nice, france, on sunday. modi, who arrived in nice on saturday, is scheduled to travel to slovakia from June 1416. He will be back in france for the g7 meeting in evian-lesBains on June 16-17, and is also Page 6 Prime minister narendra modi with French President emmanuel macron in nice, France, sunday. X/@eLySee scheduled to go to Paris. Addressing macron in a post on X, modi said: “nice to have met you in nice. A productive first leg indeed. The india-france partnership will keep scaling new heights. see you in evian and Paris.” This was their first meeting since the elevation of indiafrance ties to a ‘special global strategic partnership’ earlier this year. “The two leaders held extensivediscussionscoveringdiverse aspects of bilateral relations,” the ministry of external Affairs (meA) said in a statement. They shared ideas to strengthen and diversify bilateral ties in the fields of economic growth, technology and innovation,talentmobilityand people-to-people and cultural exchanges, it said. in this context, they noted the “steady growth in bilateral »coNtiNUed oN paGe 2 The photo with masked torso in the new class 9 arts textbook; (right) the photo in the new class 6 social science textbook ritika chopra Mumbai, June 14 An imAge of one of the most recognisable artefacts of the indus Valley Civilisation, the iconic “Dancing girl” of mohenjo-daro, appears in a new avatarinannCeRTtextbook— with the bare torso covered. This is despite the fact that at an earlier discussion related to the famous bronze figurine, one of the government’s own experts had pushed back, and prevailed,overobjectionsraised by some members of nCeRT over what they said was the nude depiction. The retouched photograph Page 4, 10 Yubaraj Ghimire & Himanshu Harsh Kathmandu, Patna, June 14 ‘Anybody can create a political party but don’t undermine and ridicule Indian democracy’ KireN rijijU uNIoN mINISTeR oF PARLIAmeNTARy AFFAIRS AND mINoRITy AFFAIRS Israel hits Beirut, Trump says deal CJP gets police nod for protest in close, ‘all sides should stand down’ Jaipur, participants capped at 800 parisa Hafezi & phil Stewart gujarat hardlook: a dIsaster recalled 7ladakh Pact hIts roadblock over ‘key oMIssIons’ Dubai, Washington, June 14 PResiDenT DonAlD Trump criticisedanisraelistrikeonlebanonthatcouldcomplicateattempts to finalise a framework deal between the United states and iran on sunday on ending theirwar,butsaidanagreement was nonetheless close. iranian negotiator mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said israel's sport Page 15 PlayIng today, Iran on u.s. soIl attack on the southern suburbs of Beirut, which israel said targeted iranian-backed Hezbollah militants, showed the Us lackedthewillorabilitytofulfil its commitments. Tehran warned of a “strong response”, with its top joint military command saying the “finger(is)onthetrigger”ready to fire at the “enemy’s heart”. in a post on his Truth social »coNtiNUed oN paGe 2 Hamza Khan Jaipur, June 14 AfTeR iniTiAlly rejecting the group’s request, Jaipur police on sunday granted permissiontotheCockroachJanta Party (CJP) to hold a protest in Jaipur on monday. The approval, however, has come with quite some riders, including an unusual cap »coNtiNUed oN paGe 2 cJP members address the media in Jaipur, sunday. PTI Ahmedabad »coNtiNUed oN paGe 2 KhanSircentre vandalismcase: accusedfound deadinNepal Page 11 inside now features in the opening chapter, “History of Arts”, of madhurima — the new arts education textbook for Class 9. intheimage,thefigurine’storso has been shaded over from the shouldersdown,obscuringanatomicaldetailsvisibleinphotographsoftheoriginalandgiving the impression that she is clothed. The depiction is significant because the “Dancing girl” has appeared in nCeRT textbooks for at least 25 years, including during the nDA government whenmurlimanoharJoshiwas in charge of education as An ACCUseD in the case linked to the June 2 attack and vandalism at educator and youTuber faisal Khan’s coaching institute in Patna has been found dead at a hotel in nepal on sunday morning. Thedeceased,Princeyadav, was the brother of gyan Bindu Academy director Raushan Anand, who has been jailed in connection with the June 2 incident. Prince(24)hadarrivedatthe eastern nepal town of Biratnagar, bordering Bihar's Jogbani, with four others a few days ago and checked into a hotel, local policesaid.Accordingtothepolice, he had complained of uneasiness, and on sunday morning, a local hospital declared him “brought dead”. Policeinnepalsaidtheyare investigating various possibilities.Theyhavetakenfourofhis companions into custody for questioning. They were identifiedasAnktyadav(28),Roshan yadav (27), latu yadav (21) and Jayaram yadav (30), all from »coNtiNUed oN paGe 2