Daily Briefing: Bangladesh goes to first parliamentary polls after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster

With that, let’s move on to the top stories from today’s edition:

• RaGa attacks govt over India-US trade deal
• Bangladesh elections
• India’s first bioterrorism plot

🚨 Big Story

In a sharp attack on the government over the India-United States interim deal, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi Wednesday said the Centre was compromising the country’s energy security and farm interests. Underlining that Indian people and data were its greatest asset in such turbulent times, Gandhi said, “You are telling us that energy and finance are being weaponised, and then you are having it done to you; you are having it done to our farmers; you are having it done to our youngsters. You are handing over our data.” His remarks led Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju to declare that a privilege notice would be moved against Gandhi.

Following Gandhi’s remarks in the Lok Sabha, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, defended the provisions of the Union Budget, and said it was the UPA that had “surrendered” India’s interests at the WTO in Bali in 2013, and put farmers and the food security system at risk. She said this would have severely constrained procurement and the public distribution system. Hailing the PM Modi-led government at the centre, Sitharaman said, “We fought for it and brought a peace clause into it in 2017. That is how we were able to provide ration during Covid and are procuring from farmers… The Leader of Opposition has no moral authority to make the allegations he did.”

Gandhi, in his speech, further alleged that Indian businessman Anil Ambani was linked to the Epstein files, questioning why he wasn’t in jail. “I would also like to ask Hardeep Puri, who introduced him to Epstein?,” Gandhi claimed. Soon after his remarks, Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri dismissed the allegations as “baseless”, “buffoonery”, “innuendo” and a “smear campaign”. He said that after two emails bearing his name emerged in the public domain, Congress spokespersons inquired who had introduced him to Epstein. Here’s what Puri said in response.

⚡ Only in Express

“We would appreciate bilateral relations based on mutual trust, mutual interest — a reciprocal relation where we can serve both nations with equality, fairness and justice.”

As Bangladesh votes today, the BNP has emerged as a frontrunner, led by the son of party founder and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, Tarique Rahman. One of Rahman’s closest advisors, Mahdi Amin, said that if the BNP came to power, “there are great opportunities to work together” with India. Amin, the spokesperson for the BNP’s election steering committee, speaks to my colleague Shubhajit Roy, who is in Dhaka these days, on a range of issues — on expectations from a BNP government, Awami League’s exclusion and the situation of Hindu minorities. Here’s the full interview.

📰 From the Front Page

A tough year: 2025 proved to be a disastrous year for Madhya Pradesh. Besides the water contamination deaths in Indore, children in Chhindwara district also began falling ill after consuming contaminated cough syrup. According to our latest report, the chargesheet filed by the MP police in the latter case revealed that the deaths of over 20 children then were not the result of a single catastrophic error, but “the outcome of a continuous and interconnected chain of events, extending from sourcing of raw material to medical use”. A total of 11 persons have been named as accused, and a district and sessions court has taken cognisance of the chargesheet.

Central Vista upgrade: A tender floated by the Central Public Works Department for the redevelopment of Krishi Bhawan and Shastri Bhawan in the Central Vista area, has now put a question mark over one of the six mosques: the Qadeemi Masjid, that dates over 100 years. While there were no plans to affect the mosques earlier, in detailed drawings attached to the tender, the mosque now does not appear at its site on the map of the proposed new building. The Qadeemi Masjid is used primarily by Central government employees to offer prayers, and figures in a list of Waqf properties published in the Delhi Administration’s gazette of 1970.

📌 Must Read

‘Bioterrorism’: In January, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) handed over what it describes as a bioterrorism case to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). The development came two months after Saiyed and two other men — Azad Suleman Sheikh, 20, and Mohammad Suhail Mohammad Saleem Khan, 23 — were arrested in what is being seen as India’s first bioterrorism plot involving the deadly ricin toxin. For investigators, the handover marks another turn in a case that took them across four states and led to the uncovering of an alleged ‘bioterrorism’ plot with a Hyderabad doctor at its centre.

‘Too Harvard-oriented’: In a potential shift in the ways in which the judiciary approaches gender sensitivity, the Supreme Court Tuesday decided to move beyond the text of the “Handbook on Combating Gender Stereotypes” – a guide issued in 2023 during the tenure of former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud. While it was designed to help judges identify and avoid patriarchal language, the current CJI, Surya Kant, has found the text to be overly academic and disconnected from the ground realities faced by litigants. CJI Kant remarked that the handbook was “too Harvard-oriented”, suggesting it was too elite or theoretical for the Indian context. He has now emphasised the need for practical training in this regard. Read our explainer here.

In our Opinion section today, Sanjaya Baru calls out the US trade deal with India, as “capitulated,” and a part of President Donald Trump’s quest to reassert American power through tariffs. Baru writes: “It is most unfortunate that the Modi government has fudged the issue on the final agreement with the US, with Trump making claims about a Russian oil conditionality that India has neither rejected nor accepted. It was left to the foreign secretary, Vikram Misri, to make a typically diplomatic statement that can be interpreted in various ways. Some have claimed that this was Indian tact and cleverness in the face of Trump’s cowboy bravado. Unfortunately, it has come across as Indian duplicity and sophistry masquerading as Chanakyan cleverness.”

⏳ And Finally…

Express@T20 World Cup: The way the Australian batsmen batted against Ireland at the Premadasa stadium, without rushing into shots and waiting for the ball to come to them is worth keeping in mind for Team India, as it gears up to play against Pakistan this weekend. The Australia vs Ireland match serves well as a blueprint to succeed in these slow conditions and the huge outfield. Here’s why India should study Aussies batting template at Premadasa – the venue for its highly-anticipated match against Pakistan.

🎧 Lastly, don’t forget to tune in to today’s episode of our 3 Things podcast, where we discuss how a new political front in Bengal is threatening TMC’s voter base; Indian farmers’ strike against India-US interim trade deal; as well as Rahul Gandhi’s sharp critique of the deal.

That’s all for today. Have a wonderful day!

Until next time,
Ariba

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