The Ideas Page: In time of distrust, Constitution’s promise of fraternity matters more than ever 11 MONDAY, JUNE 22, 2026 Journalism of Courage KolKaTa, laTe cITy, 16 PaGeS ₹6.00 (₹12 in north east states, ₹20 in andaman) 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 PM leads Yoga Day celebrations Prime miniSter narendra modi takes part in a yoga session at kolkata’s red road on sunday on the occasion of International Yoga day. He emPHaSiSed this year’s theme for the celebrations, ‘Yoga for healthy ageing’, and said, “Yoga is not just physical exercise, not restricted to any age group; it is an expression of human spirit.” By EP UNNY express news Service New Delhi, June 21 lUnited StateS trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer will arrive in Delhi to give final touches to the IndiaUS interim trade agreement. Track These and more on www.indianexpress.com aMID HeIGHTeneD security measures, the neeT-UG retest was conducted for over 20 lakh candidates Sunday, over a monthafter itwascancelled on May 12 on the grounds of an alleged paper leak. The national Testing agency (nTa), in a statement, saidtheretest,apen-and-paper exam, was conducted at 5,440 centres nationwide, and 14 centres abroad, through a “whole-of-government effort”, with the involvement of over 7 lakh officials including police New Delhi, June 21 RUSSIan ambaSSaDoR To InDIa Some nervous, most relieved: For students and parents, end of an ordeal express news Service Mumbai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Jaipur, New Delhi, Ahmedabad, June 21 candidates at neeT retest centre in kolkata. PaRTha PaUl and security personnel, and exam staff. Sources in the nTa said changes were necessitated in the agency’s processes to ensure that preparation for the examwascompletedin37days, »COntinUed On PaGe 2 THe Re-exaMInaTIOn for the national eligibility cum entranceTest(Undergraduate) was held across the country on Sunday, with those who took the test expressing a mix of anxiety and relief at the culmination of a tumultuous period following the cancellation of the exam held on May 3. On Sunday, the father of a medical aspirant appearing for theexaminMumbaiexpressed relief regarding the stricter security arrangements in place. “There are police personnel deployed on the campus. We are hopeful she will perform better this time and no hiccups will occur,” said retired postman Mohan Chavan, 65, waiting outside the Sardar Patel College of engineering examination centre for hisdaughter, aditi Chavan. Candidates were asked to »COntinUed On PaGe 2 Govt prepares to notify Western Ghats eco sensitive areas in at least three states nikhil Ghanekar & amitabh Sinha ‘We will never allow China to affect our ties with India, which remains a high priority in our foreign policy’ deniS aliPOv TWeLve yeaRS after it issued the first draft notification, the Centreisfinallyreadytofinalise and notify the demarcation of ecologically Sensitive areas (eSa) in the Western Ghats region, at least in the three states in which contentious issues havemoreorlessbeenresolved, The Indian Express has learnt. Over 56,000 square km of land in six states are proposed l proposedesas maharashtra gujarat Village-level Ecologically Sensitive Unit Gujarat Goa ESAs in Western Ghats region of goa Maharashtra maharashtra KaSTURIRanGan Panel RePoRT tobedemarcatedaseSa,based on the 2013 recommendations of a high-level working group led by former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan. The Centre’s original draft notification had come in 2014, and has undergone five revisions since then, but disagreements with the state governments on the areas earmarked for declaration as eSas within their jurisdictions have not been fully resolved. even now, the states of Kerala and »COntinUed On PaGe 2 PaGe 14 Andhra IT Minister Nara Lokesh is guest at Express Adda today express news Service NSDC crackdown continues: Current, former staffers get notices for PMKVY ‘lapses’ ritu Sarin Hyderabad, June 21 New Delhi, June 21 THe anDHRa Pradesh government has been strongly pushing for global IT companies to invest in the state, especially positioning visakhapatnam as an IT hub. Leading the push is nara Lokesh, national Working President of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), who is in his second stint as the state’s IT Minister. Lokesh will be the guest at Iran links progress to Lebanon, US focus on Tehran n-plan Over 20 lakh take NEET retest IAF to Central forces, all step in for smooth exams at over 5,400 centres Happening today ‘Can we turn over a new leaf?’: Vance, Ghalibaf lead talks report, page 3 PTI business as Usual neGOtiatOrS in SWitZerland, trUmP WarnS iran MORe THan a year after it cut short the tenure of its CeO, and months after it filed a police complaintallegingthatsomeof its top officials indulged in “misappropriation” of funds, thenationalSkillDevelopment Corporation (nSDC) has cracked down on its own employees again. Inthelatestmovethatpoint TdP leader nara Lokesh the express adda in new Delhi on Monday. He will be in conversation with vandita Mishra, national Opinion editor, »COntinUed On PaGe 2 The Express report of last year to systemic failures within the organisation, The Indian Express has learnt that nSDC, »COntinUed On PaGe 2 Us Vice President J d Vance with President donald Trump’s envoys steve Witkoff and Jared kushner; (right) Iran Foreign minister seyyed abbas araghchi with Parliament speaker mohammed Bagher Ghalibaf at the Qatari-owned mountaintop resort of Buergenstock in switzerland, sunday. aP & ReUTeRS aamer madhani, Seung min Kim & Jamey Keaten Obbuergen (Switzerland), June 21 US vICe President JD vance said Sunday there was an opportunity to “turn over a new leaf” with Iran as the sides held talks aimed at building out the interim deal to end the war in Iran reached by the two sides last week. vance and US negotiators met with Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, and Foreign Minister E. expLained interim deal The interim deal between the US and Iran is meant to stop fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon. It also gives negotiators 60 days to reach a nuclear agreement, but that can be extended. abbas araghchi at a Swiss mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne. Kolkata’s Suhrawardy Avenue renamed. But has BJP govt confused Hassan with Huseyn? Sweety Kumari Kolkata, June 21 In a first since the BJP came to powerinWestBengal,Kolkata’s Suhrawardy avenue, a prominent arterial road in the city’s heart,hasbeenrenamedGopal Mukherjee Road, after “Gopal Patha”, a polarising figure associatedwiththe1946communal riots preceding India's partition in 1947. WelcomingtheKolkataMunicipal Corporation's move, Chief Minister Suvendu adhikari called it a “historic decision” towards “rectifying a historical wrong”. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which is being run by IaS officer Smita Pandey after the resignation of TMC mayor FirhadHakim,renamedSuhrawardy avenue on Saturday on the occasion of Paschimbanga Divas.Inapostonsocialmedia, the chief minister wrote, “For suhrawardy avenue has been renamed Gopal mukherjee road, after “Gopal Patha”. FIle decades, a major artery of our city bore the name of someone who wilfully misused state power as a weapon, orchestrating the massacre of innocent citizensforsheerpoliticalgain.” although adhikari did not specify which Suhrawardy he was talking about in his post, it appeared to referred to Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, a Muslim League leader who was the Prime Minister of Bengal duringthe1946riotsandlaterwent »COntinUed On PaGe 2 Mediators from Pakistan andQatarwerealsointheroom for the direct engagement that, according to Iranian state media, lasted about 80 minutes. The US and Iranian negotiating teams also held separate private talks with Pakistani and Qatari officials. The US is looking to get Iran locked into negotiations over its nuclear programme amid concerns it may be used for military purposes, which Iran denies. vance also wants to push Tehran to commit to »COntinUed On PaGe 2 7dead,9critical afterammonia leakatseafood exportunitintn arun Janardhanan Chennai, June 21 Seven MIGRanT workers died and more than 40 were hospitalised after an ammonia gas leak at a private seafood exportunitnearPeriyapalayamin Tiruvallur district of Tamil nadu on Sunday, officials and police sources said. The leak occurred at St Peter’s Paul Seafoods exports PrivateLimitedatKannigaipair, near Periyapalayam, where about 120 migrant workers, mostly women labourers from assam,OdishaandJharkhand, were staying on the factory premises. The company had provided accommodation for theworkerswithinthecampus. Sunday was the unit’s weekly »COntinUed On PaGe 2 poLitics PaGe 5 Nimbalkar to joiN ShiNde-led Shiv SeNa l LosT TheIr docUmenTs as TheIr VesseL came Under aTTack oFF oman coasT In earLY daYs oF WesT asIa conFLIcT 3 months after missile strike, 8 sailors still struggling — for identities, job papers Purnima Sah spending nearly 45 minutes aboard the burning vessel and then in the sea. HailingfromRajasthan,HaWHeneIGHTIndianseafarers jumped into the waters off ryana, West Bengal, andhra Oman on the morning of Pradesh and Puducherry, the March 1, after a missile struck eight men reached Mumbai on their oil tanker MV Sky Light in March 18 believing their ordeal the early days of the West asia was over. Instead, they now conflict, they struggled to sur- find themselves facing another vive. Three months later, sur- nightmare — red tape and unemployment. vival remains the page 1 after vowing central struggle of their lives. nevertoreturntothe sea, all of them now Following the attack near Khasab port that want to sail again, saying they killed the vessel’s captain, as- have “no other option”. But all hish Kumar of Bihar, and left the work documents and IDs anothercrewmembermissing, they had were destroyed or lost the eight sailors were rescued that day: passports, service recby the Omani military after ords in the form of Continuous Mumbai, June 21 anchor Discharge Certificates (CDCs), Seafarers’ Identity Documents (SIDs),educationalcertificates, vaccination records, aadhaar cards,voterIDs,andPancards. Back home, without identity abdur Rahaman Mondal, 27, from Mirjapur village in West Bengal’s nadia, is a farmer’s son and the first in his family to work abroad. after spending two years pursuing a Ba course, he trained for six months at a marine institute in naviMumbai.Heenteredshipping in 2024, completed two voyages, and joined Sky Light asan“ableseaman”inJanuary. “I lost everything in the fire The eight sailors srinu donkani, Pagalvan haridas, Bikram Ghosh, sunil Puniya, abdur rahaman mondal, kaushal sorout, Bhumesh and Pramod kumar Yadav. PURnIma Sah — my passport, educational certificates and all other docu- ments. Back home, I also discovered that my name had been deleted from the voters’ list in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR),” he said. Mondal has since applied for a fresh voter card, aadhaar andPancards,approachedthe panchayat for a birth certificate, and sought duplicate Class 10 and 12 certificates. But he still needs a passport, CDC, SIDandyellowFevercertificate to sail again. He now farms with his father on about seven bighas, growing jute, paddy and seasonal vegetables, and is considering factory work in Pune, where his cousin lives. March 1 still returns in nightmares, he says. “But one bad experience cannot define my entire life,” Kolkata he said. Global waters to village farms Bhumesh, 23, of Chhithroli villageinHaryana’sMahendragarh, holds a Ba in english and is the sole earner for his ageing parents and sister. He trained for six months at a Delhi instituteandtookcomputercourses before signing up as an “able seaman”. “Officials keep asking me to comelaterorsendmefromone departmenttoanother,”hesaid about his lost documents, adding that he has no soft copies eitherbecausehelosthisphone. according to him, there has been no communication since he returned home with the Recruitment and Placement Services Licence (RPSL) company, SKS Krishi Marine Services, which hired and placed him on MVSkyLight,with“nocompensation” or “clarity on salary”. “I have returned to farming and occasionally drive trucks. I want to go back to sailing,” he said. First voyage, almost last Sunil Puniya, 26, of Bamna Kalan village in Rajasthan, says he lost belongings worth over Rs 2 lakh, including a laptop and phones, apart from his documentsonMarch1.Hesays »COntinUed On PaGe 2