The Editorial Page: Washington-Tehran MoU is a relief, but flashpoints remain 8 FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 2026 Journalism of Courage ahMeDaBaD, laTe CITY, 18 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 aHeaD OF sePtemBer sUmmit China, Russia, Iran in Delhi next week for huddle of BRICS NSAs interim PaCt reOPens HOrmUZ, enDs BlOCkaDe Deal ending war gives Iran critical economic lifeline 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 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 Happening Rs 600-cr as of last yr: today War within, TMC leader lPrime minister Narendra Modi will disburse Rs 2,400 crore through direct benefit transfer to more than 15 lakh beneficiaries under PM Viksit Bharat Rojgar Yojana. lkerala Cm V D Satheesan, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will present the first Budget of the UDF government amid a difficult fiscal situation. track these and more on www.indianexpress.com economy finmin ratifies ePf rate at 8.25%; UPi withdrawal by month-end Page 16 seeks account freeze sweety kumari & Damini nath Kolkata, New Delhi, June 18 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 collectionsfromthe35-odddonation boxes fixed across the shrine premises are brought and counted. Witharoundonelakhdevotees visiting the temple daily, the counting is done in two shifts — roughly 8 am to 2 pm, and2pmto8pm—byabout20 tellers each. Daily donations are esti- the building which houses the counting centre. ShYaMlal YaDaV related report, Page 13 mated to be rs 8 to rs 13 lakh. But, as per an employee of the ram Janmabhoomi Kshetra teerth trust, deployed in the countingroom,“therearedays when it reaches rs 50 to rs 60 lakh.” the employee is among thosewhohasbeenquestioned by a three-member special investigation team (sit) appointed by the Uttar Pradesh government to probe allegations that gold, silver and diamond ornaments donated by devotees have been replaced withfakeitems,besidesmoney »COntinUeD On PaGe 12 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, 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 inside Page 16 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 andthe profiles ofmanyit has come to benefit. the successful candidates include those whose presence affirms the scheme’s effectiveness as a stepping stone for the poor—fromthesonofasecurity guard to the daughter of a railway porter and the son of a bus conductor. however, there are also those on the list whose »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.” the key eligibility criteria are: gross annual income must be below rs 8 lakh; the family must not own 5 acres of agriculturallandormore;mustnotown a residential flat of 1,000 sq ft or more; must not own a residential plot of 100 sq yards or more in a notified municipality; and must not own a residential plot E. »COntinUeD On PaGe 2 Ahmedabad 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 business as Usual By EP UNNY politics as eknath shinde strikes one more time, will nda eqUations shift again? Page 13 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 left party denied the accusation and asked it to “look within”. Jharkhand mukti morcha (Jmm) candidate and former minister Baidyanath ram won while the second seat went to nDa-backed independent Parimal nathwani, who is the nda-backed nominee parimal nathwani after his victory. PTI DirectorofCorporateaffairsfor reliance industries. he defeated the Congress’s Pranav Jha, who is the all india Congress Committee (aiCC) secretaryattachedtopartypresident »COntinUeD On PaGe 2