ˆ(ˇ + ,-./ ˇ / ˛ 2ˆ %7)0: )319;4 0;ˇ) 03 97 4˙ ˙90: ˙:ˇ3 ... · sapa, rld, baspa, ye...

16
P rime Minister Narendra Modi invented a contro- versial acronym — sarab — for the Opposition coalition in Uttar Pradesh at his election rally in Meerut to launch a scathing attack on the Samajwadi Party, the RLD and the BSP that have come togeth- er to take on the BJP. A furious Congress demanded his apology and accused him of stooping to a new low. “Sapa (Samajwadi Party) ka ‘sa’, RLD ka ‘Ra’ aur Baspa (BSP) ka ‘ba’, matlab ‘sarab’. (Take the ‘Sa’ of Samajwadi Party, ‘Ra’ or Rashtriya Lok Dal and ‘Ba’ of Bahujan Samaj Party),” PM Modi said to a large public gathering as he launched his campaign in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha election. “For UP’s good health and for India’s future, should you not stay away from sarab? Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’ aapko barbaad kar degi (this sarab will destroy you),” the Prime Minister said. Barely had he finished speaking, the Congress addressed a Press conference condemning Modi for likening three political parties to “sharab” or liquor. “Does this kind of talk befit a Prime Minister? You are calling three political parties sarab? Is this the way a PM talks? Can the people accept this,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said. “Take back your words and apologise to 130 crore people, or the nation and Uttar Pradesh will never forgive you,” he added. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, however, tweeted that the PM confused “sarab (mirage)” and “sharab (liquor)” because of the teleprompter. “Teleprompters exposed how those who pro- mote hate don’t know differ- ence between ‘sarab’ and ‘sharab’; ‘Sarab’ means mirage which the BJP has been show- ing for the last five years,” Akhilesh said. Describing the PM as “drama king” and “flop film actor”, Surjewala said despite his party’s differences with Mayawati, he addressed her as “ji” and this is “Indian cul- ture”. Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi’s theatre jibe over PM Modi’s address to the nation after India’s successful testing of anti-satellite missile on Wednesday, Modi said , “When I was speaking about A-SAT (anti-satellite missile), some intelligent people got confused. They thought that I was speak- ing about sets used in theatres.” “They got confused A-SAT with set used in theatres. Whether we should cry or laugh at their intellect for con- fusing space mission with the- atre,” Modi said. In a veiled attack to the Opposition, Modi said he will give clear “hisaab” of all that his Government did. He said, Chowkidar hoon bhai, hisaab hoga, sabka hoga, baari baari se hoga.” Lambasting the Opposition while keeping the focus on a strong Government, Modi said that his Government had shown the courage to conduct a surgical strike in all spheres — land, sky and space. The contest is between a “a decisive Government and an indecisive past,” Modi said a day after announcing that India had demonstrated anti-satellite mis- sile capability by shooting down a live satellite. D ays after a unanimous announcement by all the stakeholders of Bihar Mahagathbandhan, the RJD and the Congress on Thursday entered into a fresh round of sparring over two Lok Sabha seats. The development forced RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and HAM leader Jitam Ram Manjhi to cancel their election cam- paigns in the State and rush to Patna, while Bihar Congress leaders flew to Delhi to brief party high command of the “arm-twisting” by the RJD. In the centre of the row is Congress’ insistence on fielding from Darbhanga sitting local MP and former test cricketer Kirti Azad, who recently joined the Congress after resigning from the BJP. The two parties are also at loggerheads over RJD’s threat not to back Congress MP Ranjeeta Ranjan from Supaul after her husband, Pappu Yadav, filed nomination from Madhepura as an Independent candidate against veteran Sharad Yadav, who is contest- ing on a RJD ticket. The RJD has staked claim to both the Darbhanga and Madhepura seats due to size- able numbers of Muslims and Yadav votes. Sources said the matter may be resolved amicably by Friday morning and Kirti may be fielded from either Valmiki Nagar or West Champaran. However, it is not cear what could both the parties do to persuade Pappu Yadav to with- draw from the race. While the RJD has been playing the master in the grand alliance, several Congress lead- ers of Bihar claimed the party was “not getting a fair deal” in the seat-sharing arrangement and urged the high command to step in before it was too late. Congress sources said the crisis aggravated to a level that the RJD and the Congress almost decided to part ways, however, a communication was established between Congress leaders with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad currently serving a jail term to defuse the situation. C ongress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the “Nyay” scheme will remon- etise what the Prime Minister demonetised and asserted that his party’s anti-poverty pro- gramme has thrown the BJP into total disarray. In an exclusive interview to PTI ahead of the 17th general election beginning April 11, Rahul said the Nyay scheme has the twin objectives of giv- ing money to the 20 per cent poorest families in India and remonetising the economy “damaged” by demonetisation. “What the PM has done over the past five years is to remove all money from the economy with failed policies like demonetisation and a poorly executed Gabbar Singh Tax (GST). Informal sectors have been badly hit. “The aim of the ‘Nyay’ scheme is two-fold. First is to guarantee a minimum income to the bottom 20 per cent fam- ilies. The second is to remon- etise the economy that has been demonetised by Modiji,” Rahul said. The Congress chief said there is a reason why the party christened the scheme Nyay, which translates to justice in Hindi. “There is another aspect to calling the scheme ‘Nyay’. Why have we chosen to call this scheme ‘Justice’? Because over the last five years, Mr Narendra Modi has simply snatched from poor and given nothing back. “He has taken away from the farmers, he has snatched from the small and medium businesses, he’s taken away from the unemployed youth, he has extinguished the savings of mothers and sisters of this country. We want to return to India’s deprived sections what Modiji has snatched from them,” he said. Terming Nyay (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) a “game changer” and a “final assault” on pover- ty, Gandhi said the scheme is “fiscally perfectly doable” and will not be implemented “rash- ly like demonetisation and GST of the BJP”. Asked about apprehen- sions of some economists that “Nyay”, which entails an expen- diture of 3.6 lakh crore annu- ally, could aggravate India’s fiscal deficit position, Rahul said, “No, that’s not right.” He said the party consult- ed a large number of econo- mists and experts, studied numerous papers and other research material on this sub- ject and run an extensive finan- cial modelling exercise before deciding to include the plan in its Lok Sabha manifesto. A s the BJP leadership is brainstorming to select candidates for seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, the leadership is in two minds whether to give ticket to incumbent Member of Parliament Meenakashi Lekhi or to field new candidate from the New Delhi Lok Sabha con- stituency. Among the frontrunner for ticket, former cricketer Gautam Gambhir has emerged as a popular contender with backing of senior party leaders for the New Delhi constituen- cy, a seat having political sig- nificance as it was represented by BJP veterans like Lal Krishna Advani and late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the past. According to reliable party insiders, Gambhir’s entry into the BJP has further changed the equation. BJP vice president and Delhi BJP in-charge Shayam Jaju and Monika Arora are other contenders. The cricketer reportedly has been meeting various Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the New Delhi constituency to strengthen his case. BJP watchers said Gambhir chance of getting ticket has brightened after his name was included in the fresh list of 31 probable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections by the Delhi BJP. Sources in BJP said the party workers have expressed displeasure with the functioning of Lekhi. Also, with the AAP and the Congress attacking the BJP for the sealing drive, sources said, the BJP leadership might replace Lekhi with a new face in order to beat anti-incum- bency and woo local traders as well as party workers who have accused the sitting BJP MP of being inaccessible. Various trading bodies are upset with Lekhi citing unre- solved problems like conges- tion and parking issue. Sealing drive by the Municipal Corporations on the order of Supreme Court appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority have only added to woes of the traders in Hauz Khas, Greater Kailash, Defence Colony, Lajpat Nagar, Green Park and South Extension. Popular markets like Khan Market, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar come under New Delhi constituency and party fears that the issue of sealing could upset their applecart. S tepping up the internation- al pressure to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global ter- rorist, the US, supported by France and the UK, has direct- ly moved a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to blacklist the Pakistan-based terror group’s chief. Two weeks after China put a hold on a proposal to list Azhar under the 1267 al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council, the US circulated the draft resolution to the power- ful 15-nation Council to black- list the leader of the terror group and subject him to a travel ban, an assets freeze and an arms embargo. UN sources told PTI that this is the “first time” the US, the UK and France have moved a draft resolution directly in the Security Council to designate Azhar as terrorist. Unlike a list- ing proposal, which is generally under a 10-day no objection period, the draft resolution is not under any no-objection provision. Reacting to Washington’s move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang in Beijing said, “This is not in line with resolution of the issue through dialogue and negotiations. This has reduced the authority of the Committee as a main anti-terrorism body of the UNSC and this is not conducive to the solidarity and only complicates the issue.” “We urge the US to act cau- tiously and avoid forcefully moving forward this draft res- olution,” Geng said. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an apparent reference to China blocking the proposal when he said Wednesday that China abuses over a million Muslims at home, but “protects” violent Islamic terror groups from UN sanctions. Sources in New York said that the draft resolution will be discussed informally and then it goes to the Council. However, it is not yet decided by when a vote would be held on the draft resolution, during when it could again face a veto by China, which has in the past blocked bids to blacklist Azhar. Sources said the draft res- olution would condemn “in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing” on February 14 in Jammu & Kashmir’s Pulwama district that killed 40 CRPF personnel. In New Delhi, sources said, they were aware that a draft has been initiated for consideration of Council members to list Azhar in the sanctions regime as part of global efforts to fight against terrorism.

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Page 1: ˆ(ˇ + ,-./ ˇ / ˛ 2ˆ %7)0: )319;4 0;ˇ) 03 97 4˙ ˙90: ˙:ˇ3 ... · Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’ aapko ... Market, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar come under New Delhi

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Prime Minister NarendraModi invented a contro-

versial acronym — sarab — forthe Opposition coalition inUttar Pradesh at his electionrally in Meerut to launch ascathing attack on theSamajwadi Party, the RLD andthe BSP that have come togeth-er to take on the BJP.

A furious Congressdemanded his apology andaccused him of stooping to anew low.

“Sapa (Samajwadi Party) ka‘sa’, RLD ka ‘Ra’ aur Baspa(BSP) ka ‘ba’, matlab ‘sarab’.(Take the ‘Sa’ of SamajwadiParty, ‘Ra’ or Rashtriya Lok Daland ‘Ba’ of Bahujan SamajParty),” PM Modi said to a largepublic gathering as he launchedhis campaign in Uttar Pradeshfor the Lok Sabha election.

“For UP’s good health andfor India’s future, should younot stay away from sarab?Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’aapko barbaad kar degi (thissarab will destroy you),” the

Prime Minister said.Barely had he finished

speaking, the Congressaddressed a Press conference

condemning Modi for likeningthree political parties to“sharab” or liquor. “Does thiskind of talk befit a Prime

Minister? You are calling threepolitical parties sarab? Is thisthe way a PM talks? Can thepeople accept this,” Congress

spokesperson Randeep SinghSurjewala said. “Take backyour words and apologise to130 crore people, or the nationand Uttar Pradesh will neverforgive you,” he added.

Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav, however,tweeted that the PM confused“sarab (mirage)” and “sharab(liquor)” because of theteleprompter. “Telepromptersexposed how those who pro-mote hate don’t know differ-ence between ‘sarab’ and‘sharab’; ‘Sarab’ means miragewhich the BJP has been show-ing for the last five years,”Akhilesh said.

Describing the PM as“drama king” and “flop filmactor”, Surjewala said despitehis party’s differences withMayawati, he addressed her as“ji” and this is “Indian cul-ture”.

Hitting out at RahulGandhi’s theatre jibe over PMModi’s address to the nationafter India’s successful testing ofanti-satellite missile onWednesday, Modi said , “When

I was speaking about A-SAT(anti-satellite missile), someintelligent people got confused.They thought that I was speak-ing about sets used in theatres.”“They got confused A-SATwith set used in theatres.Whether we should cry orlaugh at their intellect for con-fusing space mission with the-atre,” Modi said.

In a veiled attack to theOpposition, Modi said he willgive clear “hisaab” of all that hisGovernment did. He said,“Chowkidar hoon bhai, hisaabhoga, sabka hoga, baari baari sehoga.”

Lambasting the Oppositionwhile keeping the focus on astrong Government, Modi saidthat his Government hadshown the courage to conducta surgical strike in all spheres— land, sky and space. Thecontest is between a “a decisiveGovernment and an indecisivepast,” Modi said a day afterannouncing that India haddemonstrated anti-satellite mis-sile capability by shootingdown a live satellite.

���� ��� ��� �974�%7)0:8���9�

Days after a unanimousannouncement by all the

stakeholders of BiharMahagathbandhan, the RJDand the Congress on Thursdayentered into a fresh round ofsparring over two Lok Sabhaseats. The development forcedRJD leader Tejashwi Yadav andHAM leader Jitam Ram Manjhito cancel their election cam-paigns in the State and rush toPatna, while Bihar Congressleaders flew to Delhi to briefparty high command of the“arm-twisting” by the RJD.

In the centre of the row isCongress’ insistence on fieldingfrom Darbhanga sitting localMP and former test cricketerKirti Azad, who recently joinedthe Congress after resigningfrom the BJP.

The two parties are also atloggerheads over RJD’s threat

not to back Congress MPRanjeeta Ranjan from Supaulafter her husband, PappuYadav, filed nomination fromMadhepura as an Independentcandidate against veteranSharad Yadav, who is contest-ing on a RJD ticket.

The RJD has staked claimto both the Darbhanga andMadhepura seats due to size-able numbers of Muslims andYadav votes.

Sources said the mattermay be resolved amicably byFriday morning and Kirti maybe fielded from either ValmikiNagar or West Champaran.However, it is not cear whatcould both the parties do topersuade Pappu Yadav to with-draw from the race.

While the RJD has beenplaying the master in the grandalliance, several Congress lead-ers of Bihar claimed the partywas “not getting a fair deal” inthe seat-sharing arrangementand urged the high commandto step in before it was too late.

Congress sources said thecrisis aggravated to a level thatthe RJD and the Congressalmost decided to part ways,however, a communication wasestablished between Congressleaders with RJD supremo LaluPrasad currently serving a jailterm to defuse the situation.

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Congress president RahulGandhi on Thursday said

the “Nyay” scheme will remon-etise what the Prime Ministerdemonetised and asserted thathis party’s anti-poverty pro-gramme has thrown the BJPinto total disarray.

In an exclusive interview toPTI ahead of the 17th generalelection beginning April 11,Rahul said the Nyay schemehas the twin objectives of giv-ing money to the 20 per centpoorest families in India andremonetising the economy“damaged” by demonetisation.

“What the PM has doneover the past five years is toremove all money from theeconomy with failed policieslike demonetisation and a

poorly executed Gabbar SinghTax (GST). Informal sectorshave been badly hit.

“The aim of the ‘Nyay’scheme is two-fold. First is toguarantee a minimum incometo the bottom 20 per cent fam-ilies. The second is to remon-etise the economy that hasbeen demonetised by Modiji,”Rahul said.

The Congress chief saidthere is a reason why the partychristened the scheme Nyay,which translates to justice inHindi. “There is another aspectto calling the scheme ‘Nyay’.Why have we chosen to callthis scheme ‘Justice’? Becauseover the last five years, MrNarendra Modi has simplysnatched from poor and givennothing back.

“He has taken away from

the farmers, he has snatchedfrom the small and mediumbusinesses, he’s taken awayfrom the unemployed youth, hehas extinguished the savings of

mothers and sisters of thiscountry. We want to return toIndia’s deprived sections whatModiji has snatched fromthem,” he said.

Terming Nyay (NyuntamAay Yojana) a “game changer”and a “final assault” on pover-ty, Gandhi said the scheme is“fiscally perfectly doable” andwill not be implemented “rash-ly like demonetisation andGST of the BJP”.

Asked about apprehen-sions of some economists that“Nyay”, which entails an expen-diture of �3.6 lakh crore annu-ally, could aggravate India’sfiscal deficit position, Rahulsaid, “No, that’s not right.”

He said the party consult-ed a large number of econo-mists and experts, studiednumerous papers and otherresearch material on this sub-ject and run an extensive finan-cial modelling exercise beforedeciding to include the plan inits Lok Sabha manifesto.

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As the BJP leadership isbrainstorming to select

candidates for seven Lok Sabhaseats in Delhi, the leadership isin two minds whether to giveticket to incumbent Member ofParliament Meenakashi Lekhior to field new candidate fromthe New Delhi Lok Sabha con-stituency.

Among the frontrunnerfor ticket, former cricketerGautam Gambhir has emergedas a popular contender withbacking of senior party leadersfor the New Delhi constituen-

cy, a seat having political sig-nificance as it was representedby BJP veterans like LalKrishna Advani and late PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeein the past.

According to reliable partyinsiders, Gambhir’s entry intothe BJP has further changed theequation. BJP vice presidentand Delhi BJP in-chargeShayam Jaju and Monika Aroraare other contenders.

The cricketer reportedly

has been meeting variousResidential WelfareAssociations (RWAs) in theNew Delhi constituency tostrengthen his case.

BJP watchers said Gambhirchance of getting ticket hasbrightened after his name wasincluded in the fresh list of 31probable candidates for theLok Sabha elections by theDelhi BJP. Sources in BJP saidthe party workers haveexpressed displeasure with the

functioning of Lekhi. Also, with the AAP and the

Congress attacking the BJP forthe sealing drive, sources said,the BJP leadership mightreplace Lekhi with a new facein order to beat anti-incum-bency and woo local traders aswell as party workers who haveaccused the sitting BJP MP ofbeing inaccessible.

Various trading bodies areupset with Lekhi citing unre-solved problems like conges-tion and parking issue. Sealingdrive by the MunicipalCorporations on the order ofSupreme Court appointedEnvironment Pollution ControlAuthority have only added towoes of the traders in HauzKhas, Greater Kailash, DefenceColony, Lajpat Nagar, GreenPark and South Extension.

Popular markets like KhanMarket, Lajpat Nagar, SarojiniNagar come under New Delhiconstituency and party fearsthat the issue of sealing couldupset their applecart.

���� 39:�7%�9��:;9 84� 0:9��;9�

Stepping up the internation-al pressure to designate

Jaish-e-Mohammed chiefMasood Azhar as a global ter-rorist, the US, supported byFrance and the UK, has direct-ly moved a draft resolution inthe UN Security Council toblacklist the Pakistan-basedterror group’s chief.

Two weeks after China puta hold on a proposal to listAzhar under the 1267 al-QaedaSanctions Committee of theCouncil, the US circulated thedraft resolution to the power-ful 15-nation Council to black-list the leader of the terrorgroup and subject him to atravel ban, an assets freeze and

an arms embargo.UN sources told PTI that

this is the “first time” the US,the UK and France have moveda draft resolution directly in theSecurity Council to designateAzhar as terrorist. Unlike a list-ing proposal, which is generallyunder a 10-day no objectionperiod, the draft resolution isnot under any no-objectionprovision.

Reacting to Washington’smove, Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman GengShuang in Beijing said, “This isnot in line with resolution ofthe issue through dialogue andnegotiations. This has reducedthe authority of the Committeeas a main anti-terrorism bodyof the UNSC and this is notconducive to the solidarity and

only complicates the issue.”“We urge the US to act cau-

tiously and avoid forcefullymoving forward this draft res-olution,” Geng said.

Meanwhile, US Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo made anapparent reference to China

blocking the proposal when hesaid Wednesday that Chinaabuses over a million Muslimsat home, but “protects” violentIslamic terror groups from UNsanctions.

Sources in New York saidthat the draft resolution will be

discussed informally and thenit goes to the Council. However,it is not yet decided by when avote would be held on the draftresolution, during when itcould again face a veto byChina, which has in the pastblocked bids to blacklist Azhar.

Sources said the draft res-olution would condemn “inthe strongest terms theheinous and cowardly suicidebombing” on February 14 inJammu & Kashmir’s Pulwamadistrict that killed 40 CRPFpersonnel.

In New Delhi, sources said,they were aware that a draft hasbeen initiated for considerationof Council members to listAzhar in the sanctions regimeas part of global efforts tofight against terrorism.

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The high courtof Uttarakhand

has directed thestate governmentto appoint 600pharmacists oncontract in a peri-od of threemonths. Hearingon the petitionfiled in the matter,the single bench ofjustice ManojTiwari directed theState Governmentto hold talks withthe CentralGovernment andcompleting thea p p o i n t m e n tprocess in the next threemonths, ascertain appointmentletters to the pharmacists.

During the previous hear-ing on the petition, the highcourt had directed the State toclarify the position regardingappointment of pharmacistson contract. In response, theState submitted on Thursdaythat the recruitment advertise-ment regarding the pharmacistshad not been cancelled by thestate. Talks were being held withthe Centre regarding the ful-fillment of recruitment proce-dure standards.

According to the casedetails, Pauri resident ManojTripathi had filed a petition in

2017 stating that during 2016,the state government hadissued a recruitment adver-tisement for 600 posts of phar-macists on contract. Thousandsof candidates eligible for theposts had applied in responseto the advertisement. In thepast, the State Governmenthad told the court that theselection process would becompleted soon. On this basis,the court had disposed of thepetition. However, as the StateGovernment did not moveahead with the selectionprocess, Roshan Kumar fromPauri had filed a second peti-tion in the case. In his petition,Kumar had stated that the

Government was going to can-cel the recruitment advertise-ment and not take the recruit-ment process forward. Thepetitioner state that this wasakin to playing with the futureof the applicants. During thehearing, the counsel for thepetitioner also informed thecourt that in the past the Stategovernment had stated in thepast that it was proceeding withthe recruitment process but thiswas not done. Taking seriouscognisance of the matter, thehigh court single bench gavethe State Government threemonth time to expedite theprocedure for appointment ofpharmacists on contract.

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Ordering a stay onthe tender

process for helicopterservice to Badrinathand Kedarnath till fur-ther orders, the highcourt of Uttarakhandhas given the Stategovernment to sub-mit its response with-in two weeks.

According to thecase details, RDGroup fromDehradun had filed apetition stating thatafter disaster experienced in thestate, the government hadgranted permission to 14 heli-copter service provider enter-prises to build helipads inorder to facilitate transporta-tion to Badrinath andKedarnath. These companiesbuilt 14 helipads while thegovernment also constructedfour helipads. During 2016 theState had issued a governmentorder prohibiting the operationof more than six helicopters ata time in the Mandakini valleyfrom the safety point of view.

It had also been decided

that permission would not begranted for construction ofnew helipad in the future.However, after the issuance ofthis order, four companies pur-portedly built four new heli-pads. The district magistratehad complained to the gov-ernment regarding this but noaction was taken by the gov-ernment, the petitioner alleged.Further, on February 5, 2019,the state government invitedtenders from companies foroperation of helicopter ser-vices to Badrinath andKedarnath.

However, on February 16,the civil aviation secretary pur-portedly made amendmentsto provide backdoor entry inthe process to the four compa-nies which had reportedly con-structed helipads after the gov-ernment order against it. Thetender process has been chal-lenged by the petitioner in thehigh court. After hearing thepetition, the single bench ofjustice Alok Singh ordered astay on the tender process andsought a response from theState Government within twoweeks.

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Even aspeople

continuedto throngthe JhandaM e l a ,groups ofd e v o t e e s(Sangats)began toreturn tot h e i rrespectiveh o m e -t o w n s .After celebrating the raisingof the new flag (Jhanda) at theDurbar Sahib followed by theNagar Parikrama, the Sangatsstarted departing onThursday. The groups ofdevotees met the MahantDevendra Das, seeking hisblessing before departingfrom Dehradun.

A number of people fromDehradun also visited theholy place and the JhandaMela on Thursday.Expressing his views on theoccasion, the MahantDevendra Das said, “Sangatexpressed affinity and lovetowards the cit izens of

Dehradun. Every year devo-tees not only from India butfrom all around the worldreach Dehradun to attendthis auspicious occasion.

It is the love of the peo-ple of the city who welcomethe Sangat in such a way thatdevotees reach Dehradunevery year. I thank the peo-ple of the city as it is due totheir cooperation that theevent was held successfully. Ialso want to thank all the cit-izens again for welcomingthe Sangats with so muchlove. I wish that Shri GuruRam Rai ji blesses us all,” headded.

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The Uttarakhand GovernorBaby Rani Maurya partic-

ipated in the seventh convoca-tion of Indian Institute ofManagement (IIM) at Kashipuron Thursday. Congratulatingthe students on the occasion,the governor said that educa-tion has many purposes. But,simply ensuring a good careeror working in multi nationalcompanies should not be theonly purpose of education.Institutes like IIM should pro-mote the research work for thewelfare of the society also, sheadded. The governor also pre-sented medals and degrees tothe students on the occasion.

Expressing her views onthe occasion, Maurya said thatUttarakhand is a land of oppor-tunities. Educational insti-tutes of international reputealong with qualitative humanresources are available in thestate. The state also has a goodgrowth rate. She further said

t h a tUttarakhandcan achievebig targets ofdevelopmentwith the helpof expertiseof the insti-tutes like theIIM.

Maur yaalso stressedon the needfor jointe f f o r t sinvolving thet e c h n i c a lexpertise ofGB PantUniversity of Agriculture andTechnology along with themanagement expertise of IIMKashipur to develop a newbusiness model for the agri-culture sector in the state.Elaborating the importance ofmedicinal herbs and horticul-ture products in the moun-tainous regions of the State, thegovernor said that scientific

farming and integrated man-agement of international levelis needed in this context. Shefurther said that equal oppor-tunity for women in campusplacement is first step towardsgender equality. Later compa-nies should provide them withopportunities to grow alongwith equal rights in decisionmaking process. There should

not be any sort of discrimina-tion between male and femalepersonnel. The governor saidthat a happy and prosperousIndia should be the aim ofevery student. The nationneeds not only smart andcapable managers but alsoleadership dedicated toprogress of the nation, addedMaurya.

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With leaders and support-ers of various parties

shifting sides, the Congresssuffered another setback when-its former party president fromRoorkee rural, Satyapal joinedBharatiya Janata Party.

Speaking to The Pioneer,Satyapal said, “I like the nation-alistic spirit of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and I liked hispolicies so I joined the BJP.” Headded that Congress had nopolicy for the country and thenationalism of BJP is praise-worthy so from today “even Iam Chowkidar”.

The local Mahila wing headof the Congress, Kiran Singh alsojoined BJP along with Desh RajPradhan, Ram Kumar, SatendraVerma, Saurabh Choudhary andothers. They were greeted by thesitting MP and BJP candidatefrom Haridwar constituency,Ramesh Pokhariyal ‘Nishank’,cabinet minister Madan Kaushik

and MLA SwamiYateeshwaranand at a hotel here.

Meanwhile, local Congressleader Sanjay Agarwal saidthat Satyapal had joined BJPwithout any information tothe Congress leadership. Thereason for him changing overto the BJP was not known to

the Congress, added Agarwal.Later, at the inauguration

of his election office, Nishanksaid that the Congress rebelshad held various senior posi-tions in their political careerhad now chosen to be‘Chowkidars’ of the country byjoining BJP. He said that BJP

will surely win on all five LokSabha seats in the state includ-ing Haridwar seat and thevision to make Narendra Modithe PM again shall be materi-alised. He opined that Modiwas messiah for the poor peo-ple and was working to makeIndia a super power.

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As per the directives laiddown by the Election

Commission of India, for anypolitical advertisement on theprint, electronic or social media,prior permission will be need-ed from district level media cer-tification and monitoring com-mittee. Any such advertise-ment or promotional materialneeds to be verified by the com-mittee before making it public.

In a statement issued by theHaridwar district election offi-cer it was stated that during theLok Sabha elections, mediacertification and monitoringcommittee (MCMC) has beenformed for verification andauthorisation before final pub-lishing and telecast of anypolitical advertisement in tele-vision, radio channels, audiovisual networks, cinema halls,social media, e-papers.

Giving a detailed briefing,

district electionofficer and districtmagistrate DeepakRawat said that allindependent can-didates and regis-tered political par-ties are informedthat for all adver-tisements and pro-motional news,they must take prior consentcertificate. This directive forthis consent has been given asper the directives of SupremeCourt of India that any cabletelevision operator or TV chan-nel will not display any pro-motional material which is notas per the Constitutional lawsand which is likely to hurt thesentiments of someone. Anysuch material which instigatesto crime, or is anti-social, tar-geting any particular caste,race or creed shall not beallowed. The advertisementmust be as per model code of

conduct.Rawat further said, “Those

media enterprises having headoffice in Uttarakhand mustsubmit two copies of adver-tisement in Hindi and Englishin digital (CD) form to theoffice. The advertisement canbe printed or broadcast onlyafter due consent within 24hours. If the media certificationand monitoring committeeraises an objection, that wouldbe full and final. Any violationin implementation of the deci-sion by MCMC will be liable toface action.”

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The temperature is set to risein the state from the end of

this month. Though there isalso the possibility of light rainin various parts of the state dur-ing this time, the average tem-perature in Uttarakhand isexpected to start rising notice-ably from April 1.

As per data provided by theState Meteorological Centre, inthe middle of March, the tem-perature recorded indicated arise. The average maximumtemperature recorded fromMarch 21 till now is 31.5 degreeCelsius and the minimum tem-perature recorded was 16degree Celsius.

Explaining further, thedirector of the StateMeteorological Centre, BikramSingh said, “Yes, we haverecorded a rise in temperatureafter March 21 in the state. Itis a start and as per our obser-vations, the temperature willrise more by March 29 and 30.However, there is also the pos-sibility of light rainfall in a

majority ofplaces ofUttarakhandby March 30 or31. This maylower the tem-perature a littlebit.”

The mete-orological cen-tre director fur-ther said,“From April 1the tempera-ture will risethree or fourdegree Celsiusabove normalin the state. Inthe plain areas,the tempera-ture will risethree to fourdegrees while in the mountainsthe temperature will rise byfour to five degrees.”

Asked whether the rise intemperature can be viewed asthe advent of summer he said,“No it cannot be said that it thismarks the arrival of summer.The rise in the temperature in

the middle week of March andApril is normal. One or two-degree rise does not signifythis. We are still recordingmaximum temperature whichis around 30 degree Celsiuswhile after April 1 or 2 the tem-perature is likely to increaseand touch nearly 33 to 34

degree Celsius. When the max-imum temperature will berecorded near 35 degree Celsiusthen only can we say that thetemperature has actually risenconsiderably compared to therecent past. The possibility ofrecording such temperaturerise is likely by May.”

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The State MeteorologicalCentre has forecast a clear

sky for Dehradun and rest ofthe state on Friday. The sky isto remain mainly clear to part-ly cloudy. Dry weather is like-ly to prevail in the state.

The maximum and mini-mum temperature forDehradun are likely to bearound 32 degree Celsius and16 degree Celsius.

Meanwhile, the maximumand minimum temperaturesrecorded at various places ofthe state on Thursday were 31.4degree Celsius and 15.6 degreeCelsius in Dehradun, 31.5degree Celsius and 14.9 degreeCelsius in Pantnagar, 21.5degree Celsius and nine degreeCelsius in Mukteshwar and21.4 degree Celsius and 11degree Celsius in New Tehrirespectively.

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An eight member delegationfrom the African Asian

Rural DevelopmentOrganisation (AARDO) visit-ed the Uttarakhand SpaceApplication Centre here onThursday. Delegation mem-bers from countries includingPalestine, Oman, Morocco,Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Taiwanand Malaysia visited USAC aspart of an ongoing training

programme facilitated by theIndian Agricultural StatisticsResearch Institute. OnThursday, the delegation wasinformed about the uses ofremote sensing and geograph-ic information system (GIS).

The USAC director pro-fessor MPS Bisht made a pre-sentation of the various worksbeing undertaken by the cen-tre. He informed them aboutthe use of remote sensing andGIS in agriculture, horticulture, disaster management, land-

use, land-coverand otheraspects. Healso informedthe visitorsabout the usesof space tech-nology in var-ious spheres.

USAC sci-e n t i s t sPr iy a d arsh iUpadhyay and

Divya Uniyal informed the

AARDO delegation about themethod used by USAC to cal-culate crop area and forecastyield before harvest throughthe use of remote sensing andGIS. They informed thatpresently the centre is using thismethod to provide the saidinformation related to six dif-ferent crops. In addition to this,the area covered by horticulturein seven districts of the statehas also been calculated by thecentre.

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Page 3: ˆ(ˇ + ,-./ ˇ / ˛ 2ˆ %7)0: )319;4 0;ˇ) 03 97 4˙ ˙90: ˙:ˇ3 ... · Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’ aapko ... Market, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar come under New Delhi

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Prime Minister NarendraModi launched a scathing

attack on the Congress partycalling it a party of liars whichhas duped various sections ofsociety for decades.

Addressing thousands ofpeople gathered at Rudrapur inUdham Singh Nagar here onThursday, the prime ministerconnected with the masses andaddressed specific issues tostate how the nation andUttarakhand had progressedduring the five years of theBharatiya Janata Party-ledNational Democratic Alliancegovernment at the centre.

Greeting the public in theKumaoni language while start-ing his address, he said that theresults of the 2019 elections areclearly visible in this “mini-India”. He said, “Uttarakhand islike a beautiful definition ofIndia. It has the Ganga-Yamuna rivers and includingBadrinath and Kedarnath, theChar Dham shrines. I add afifth Dham- Sainik Dham indescription of this state whichalso has Indian MilitaryAcademy, Rashtriya IndianMilitary College, Garhwal,Kumaon and Gorkha regi-ments.”

Engaging the public in histrademark style, he askedwhether it was right to questionthe courage of the brave armymen after the surgical strike. Hefurther said, “The oppositionsays I should not talk of air-strikes but shouldn’t nationalsecurity be an issue? I am notafraid of the terrorists becausesuch fear is the culture of theCongress. Was it right to ques-tion the air-force after we wentthe killed terrorists in their ownhome? Will you forgive thosewho disrespect our armedforces? The servicemen had forlong been demanding OneRank One Pension and theCongress claimed it had madea provision of Rs 500 crore forthis. We have already providedRs 35,000 crore for this. Forfour generations the Congresshad been using the slogan of

Garibi Hatao and now againthey are using it. This shows thementality, lies and failure of theCongress.”

Earlier, he said that the BJPis moving ahead on the issue ofdevelopment.

He said that when theCongress was in power in

Uttarakhand there was a spateof scams. “Who forced theyouth to migrate from themountains? In seven decades,who kept most of the villageshere without roads? During thefirst three years of our govern-ment at the Centre, theCongress hampered our devel-

opmental efforts in this state. The then chief minister

was busy attending the DelhiDurbar where the focus was onensuring employment for theberozgar of one particular fam-ily. They were not botheredabout the state. The culture ofthe Congress deteriorated con-

dition in the state. But now, thestate is moving ahead on thedevelopmental path in variousspheres including industry,tourism, spiritualism and infra-structure.” Stressing that thevarious developments facili-tated by the CentralGovernment were not becauseof him but due to the votes castby the public, he said thatevery vote to the BJP candidatefrom Nainital-Udham SinghNagar constituency- Ajay Bhattis a vote for Modi. The primeminister addressed the gather-

ing for about 35 minutes.Earlier, CM Trivendra

Singh Rawat said that the pre-vious CM and Congress can-didate from the constituency-Harish Rawat was one of themost corrupt CMs of the state.On the other hand, the BJP hadfielded Bhatt who had risenfrom poverty through hard-work and was taintless. Healso appreciated the CentralGovernment for providingdevelopmental package of morethan �1,00,000 crore to theState.

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In an apparent eye on thevoters of armed forces per-

sonnel, ex-servicemen andtheir family members, PrimeMinister Narendra Modireferred to Uttarakhand as ‘Sainik Dham’. Amid thunder-ing applause of the big crowdwhich had gathered, the PMsaid that apart from fourDhams, I add fifth Dham inUttarakhand which is ‘ SainikDham’. Experts believe thatModi has played a masterstroke by this statement and itwould surely sway the ex ser-vicemen voters in the favourof BJP. It is pertinent tomention here that CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi dur-ing his recent Dehradun visithad visited the families ofthree martyrs who sacrificedtheir l ives in and afterPulwama attack.

Similarly, defence MinisterNirmala Sitharaman whileattending a programme to felic-itate war widows made it apoint to touch feet of the warwidows.

Political observers link theModi’s ‘Fifth Dham’ statementas an extension of the raceamong the political parties towoo the ex servicemen voters.In its election campaign inUttarakhand, the BJP leadersare highlighting the surgicalstrike and recent air strikes on

the targets inside Pakistan asmajor achievements of Modigovernment. Its leaders arealso reminding that it was BJPwhich fulfilled long standingdemand of One Rank OnePension ( OROP) of ex ser-vicemen. Meanwhile theOpposition Congress partyhas reacted sharply to Modi’s‘ Fifth Dham’ statement. Thespokesperson of the state con-

gress Garima Dasauni askedthat if PM has so much respectfor the army personnel thenwhy Major General B CKhanduri ( rtd) was uncere-moniously removed from thepost of Chairperson of par-liamentary committee ondefence. She said that bannersand posters of Khanduri werenowhere to seen during rallyof Modi in Rudrapur.

�����������(���#)���%�������*'����!�%�40&�10�9%3�:�4� �7.;=7%�2�;.���):�.79���&";..:��77�;9%7279"7���9��&";9��7 ��7�;�� � Uttarakhand has rich tradi-

tion of sending its youth toserve in the armed forces of thecountry.

A rough estimate put thenumber of armed forces veter-ans and Veer Naris (widows ofarmed forces personnel) at 1.70lakhs similarly the state is hometo about thirty thousand retiredparamilitary forces personnel.

Similarly, an estimated 1.50 lakhpersonnel belonging to the stateare serving in different wings ofarmed forces of the country.

The inclination to serve inarmed forces of the country is so high in this pre-dominately mountainous statethat almost every family hassomeone who is in armed forces.

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Taking exception to thePrime Minister’s Narendra

Modi’s jibe on Congress duringhis rally at Rudrapur in UdhamSingh Nagar on Thursday inwhich he termed it as a partyof scams, the state unit ofCongress party has said thatPM should also have men-tioned the string of scamswhich occurred during theBJP regime in state.

The spokesperson of thestate Congress GarimaDassauni said that PM shouldhave thrown light onKedarnath reconstructionscam, liquor scam, miningscam, Siturgia, mango orchardscam, Selaqui IT Park landallotment scam, hydropowerproject scam, zinger seed scam,

polyhouse scam, NH- 74 scam,rice scam, SIIDCUL andStamps scam during his speech.She said that the people of thestate have made up their mindfor a change and it would getreflected when the results of theelections of are declared.Continuing her assault on BJP,Dasauni said that thankfullyPrime Minister Narendra Modididn’t forgot the name of theBJP candidate while addressingpeople in Rudrapur like BJPleader Thaawar Chand Gehlotdid while addressing a publicmeeting at Karanpur inDehradun recently.

She claimed that in thismeeting Gehlot said thatthough he doesn’t rememberthe name of BJP candidateyou should vote for NarendraModi.

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The Youth Congress hascharged the state govern-

ment for trying to suppress its‘ Mai Bhi Berozgar’ ( I am alsounemployed) programmewhich was to launch fromThursday under the directionof BJP.

The chief spokesperson ofYouth Congress Vikas Negisaid that a permission was

sought from the state admin-istration to organise the protestprogramme but it was notgranted.

He alleged that the admin-istration acted under the pres-sure of BJP to suppress democ-racy. Negi said that the YouthCongress would not get boggeddown by such tactics andwould continue its programme.

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-$�.$��-$�.��A cursory look on the declaration of assets made by our belovedNetas during filing of nomination papers for the forthcomingLok Sabha elections shows that there could be a doubt or twoabout their willingness and capacity to serve society, a pledgethey repeat with monotonous regularity. However, when it comesto their personal fortunes they appear to have a ‘Midas touch’in everything they do. The affidavit of the State president of theruling outfit submitted with the election commission shows thathis personal wealth has swelled by more than Rs one crore inthe last two years; a feat which could send any professional finan-cial planner worth his salt scurrying for cover. Not to be leftbehind, the assets of the state chief of the opposition party surgedby more than Rs 1.25 crore though his annual income showedsome downfall. The other contestants of major political partieswhich included two former chief ministers and a serving mem-ber of upper house of parliament are also very affluent. It wouldbe prudent if our Netas could add another dimension in theirenterprise to serve the nation by narrating their inspirational ‘ragsto riches’ story to the students of business schools.

$�������������$ &Though both the major political parties of Uttarakhand have field-ed the presidents of their state units, two former chief ministers,sitting members of Lok Sabha and one Rajya Sabha MP as can-didates for the Lok Sabha elections, it is depressing to note thatbasic issues of public interests are gravely missing from politi-cal discourse. The election campaign which is growing shrilleras the April 11-- the voting day in the Himalayan state is draw-ing near-- is solely revolving around persona of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. It appears that Congress has fallen to the gameplan of BJP to make these elections Modi centric as its leadersare busy attacking Prime Minister and responding to the pro Modicrescendo generated by the saffron party. With statements like‘Forget who the candidate is, Vote for Modi’ and ‘Modi is con-testing in all the seats’ forming the crux of BJP’s game plan whichat the moment appears electorally correct for the party, theCongress should strive hard to shift focus on issues of commonman.

.$/.� &�.�0���As the crucial Lok Sabha elections are coming closer, the Babuswho are part of the gargantuan election machinery are busy por-traying themselves as all spruced up for ensuring free and fairelections. These officials are consistently claiming that they arekeeping a close watch on the flow of cash, liquor and suspiciousbank transactions. Targets are given from top to the departmentslike police and excise for making catches of cash and liquor tohammer home the point that the election machinery is smooth-ly functioning. However barring few cases involving pettyamounts- when compared with the magnitude of moneyinvolved in elections- these agencies have failed miserably. It iscommon knowledge that parallel systems of money transfer likeHawala and not banks are used by the politicians to make trans-actions in their endeavour to win elections and the fact remainsthat the officials seldom make a crackdown on this trade to cleansethe electoral system, which is the case this time too.

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Launching an attack on allfive sitting BJP Members of

Parliament ( MP) fromUttarakhand, the ChiefSpokesperson of the PradeshCongress Committee (PCC),Mathura Dut Joshi has said thatthey have failed miserably inraising the issues related toUttarakhand in the parliament.Addressing media persons atthe state party office onThursday, he said that peopleof the state had sent BJP can-didates to parliament from allthe five Lok Sabha seats but allof them have failed complete-ly. Joshi said that the MP fromNainital- Udham Singh Nagarconstituency, Bhagat SinghKoshyari raised only 10 ques-tions during five years in par-liament while the Tehri MP,Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah asked33 questions. Similarly Almora-Pithoragarh MP Ajay Tamtaasked 69 questions, GarhwalMP Major General B CKhanduri ( Rtd) raised 104questions and Haridwar MPRamesh Pokhariyal ‘ Nishank’asked 389 questions in parlia-ment during their entire termof five years. He said that topBJP leaders of the state are now

trying to mislead the people ofUttarakhand again by using thename of Modi. Terming thefive year tenure of NarendraModi at centre as lacklustre, theCongress leader said that pricerise and unemployment hasreached to its peak. He said thatthe decisions like implementa-tion of GST and enforcementof demonetization has givenhardship to the people. Joshisaid that recent incident inwhich mining mafia assaultedpolice personnel in a policepost under the patronage pro-vided by the education minis-ter of state underlies the con-dition of law and order inUttarakhand. He said that theboth the union and state gov-ernments have done nothingbut to mislead the people butthe people of the state haveunderstood the game plan ofthe BJP and are determined toteach it a lesson this time.

Joshi said that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inhis speech at Rudrapur onThursday didn’t touch even asingle burning issue ofUttarakhand. “ His speechtoday reminded people thefalse promises he made duringthe campaign for the Lok Sabhaelections of 2014,’’ he said.

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Voters in the State’s provisional statecapital Dehradun have mixed opin-

ion about None Of The Above (NOTA)option. Some voters state that NOTA isa powerful expression of disagreementwith the parties contesting for power. Onthe other hand, some voters believe thatusing this option is a waste of vote.

This correspondent asked variousvoters about their opinions and theimportance of NOTA for them.

The voters had a mixed opinionregarding the use and importance ofNOTA.

While some opined that the optionprovides the power to their opinion ofcandidates, others stated that NOTA isa waste of vote because in any conditionone political party is going to be inpower. Rather than using NOTA oneshould choose the best among the con-testing candidates, they said.

College student Jyoti Rautela said, “Ithink NOTA gives us the power toexpress the opinion that any of the can-didates fielded by any political party isnot worthy of getting elected to office.It is of major importance which gives us

the power to tell the truth as we see it.”Another vote, Rahul Patwal opined,

“In my opinion, NOTA is an opportunityto show my disappointment towardspolitical parties or the candidate gettingnominated to contest the poll.

I strongly disagree with the opinionthat it amounts to wating a vote becauseit is our right. Also, NOTA should betaken seriously by the election machin-

ery and the political parties as it is notjust a ‘no’ but an expression that meansmore work and development is neededin our country.”

Parul said, “I think NOTA gives methe power to say that I don’t find poten-tial in any of the candidates contestingin the election. I think it is very impor-tant that the real value of the NOTAoption is taken seriously by the political

parties. This should be considered aspressure by the parties to grow more anddevelop more like a party and govern thecountry in a better way.”

Rajendra Singh a shopkeeper said, “Ithink NOTA is a waste of vote. You votefor any party or not, one political partyand their candidates will be elected. Theparty that secures maximum votes in theelections will be elected to office. It is

better to choose the best party and votefor it so that the better option is elect-ed to office,” he opined.

Anshu Khetan said, “I think NOTAis a waste of a precisious vote. I agreewith the point that this option express-es the disappointment of the voters withthe polit ical part ies . However, in any case, one politicalparty will be elected. Everyone should

analyse before deciding to vote likeresearching about past manifesto of theparty in power and whether they were able to ful-fill their promises or not, achievementsof the party and other aspects. If anyoneis voting for a candidate then voters canresearch more about work done by theleader who has filed nomination in theelections.”

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SN DISTRICT NUMBER

1 PAURI 301042 DEHRADUN 286893 PITHORAGARH 246904 NAINITAL 140755 CHAMOLI 147456 BAGESHWAR 114407 TEHRI 65928 HARIDWAR 53669 CHAMPAWAT 466910 RUDRAPRAYAG 489911 UDHAM SINGH NAGAR 923812 UTTARKASHI 103313 CHAMPAWAT 4669

TOTAL 169519

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The Gania UnnayanCommittee, Nayagarh in

association with the DistrictHealth Committee organiseda district-level event ‘Our girl,our prided’ here onWednesday.

Gania UnnayanCommittee president andsocial activist Usha Patnaikpresiding over the programmeexpressed concern over thedecreasing ratio of girls in thedistrict. There were 851females compared to 1,000males in the district.

Nayagarh CDMO DrShwetakumar Mahapatra, DrSuresh Chandra Mishra, LalitaMishra, Swadesh Mishra andArun Kumar Mohanty attend-ed as guests.

The speakers mentionedthat in 2006 the female infan-ticide rate in the district washighest in the State and boththe Government and non-government organisationstook many steps to check it.But it is highly unfortunatethat the situation is still alarm-ing.

On the occasion, thespeakers and participants tookoath to sensitise the public tocheck female infanticide andminor girl marriage.

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The Indian Red CrossSociety Odisha State

branch participated in thenational Youth Red Cross train-ing camp held at Hampi inKarnataka from March 23 to 27under the guidance of Statebranch secretary Major DrKalpana Das.

The Odisha branch baggedfirst prizes in four of six eventswhich first AID practical per-formance, cultural perfor-mance, ethnic wear perfor-mance and power point pre-sentation of different activitiesheld in the State.

The branch was awarded as

champion in the camp. LaxmanSwain, Kishore Ghadei, RashmiRanjan Swain, Jasobanta Patra,Khambeswar Ghadai,Trilochan Dandasena, JitendraNaik, Deepak Kumar Patra,Dibya Ranjan Thakur,Hemanta Naik and RajuKumar were the participants.

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Dhauli College of Art andCrafts Principal Chandan

Kumar Samal and artist JayaJena have been conferred withthe Jatiya Lalitakala Akademiawards for the stone sculpturetitled “The Construction”.

They received the awardsfrom Goa Governor DrudulaSinha at a special programmeheld in the Sir JJ School of Artpremises in Mumbai recently.

Samal’s sculpture “HumanThinking’ made of granitestone was highly lauded.Earlier, Samal and Jen hadreceived the award for thesculpture titled “Prakruti” in2007.

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Former Jajpur MP MohanJena on Thursday quit the

BJD expressing resentmentover ticket allotment for theforthcoming polls.

Jena resigned from the pri-mary membership of the BJDby sending a letter to partysupremo and Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik.

“I have been ignored by theparty and they have not includ-ed me in any events or activi-ties organised in these years. Infact, I have not even beenoffered a mere chair at CM’sevents. The party is being con-trolled by an IAS officer andhas no concern for the State,”Jena told reporters, who wasdenied a ticket this year.

Notably, the BJD has nom-inated Sharmistha Sethi as itscandidate for the Jajpur LokSabha seat this time.

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Amega mock exercise onthe radiological emergency

was conducted at the EsplanadeMall, Rasulgarh Square here onThursday.

Following an explosion atthe entrance of Esplanade, fireand police control room wereinformed immediately by themall authorities. Shortly PCRVan/MRDS (Mobile RadiationDetection System) arrived anddeclared the presence of radi-ation at the incident site.Accordingly the informationpassed to State EmergencyOperation Control Room(SEOC). The service of NDRFwas requisitioned. In the mean-time, teams of Odisha FireServices, ODRAF, CivilDefence, Red Cross and NGOsreached the site. On reachingthe spot, the NDRF demarcat-ed the area into hot and warmzones. Victims on the incidentsite were removed and sent forhigher medical care after firstaid. Thereafter, the area wasdecontaminated and declaredsafe. The mock exercise wasconducted from 9.30 am till10.20 am.

Senior Commandant JacobKispotta, DeputyCommandant BK Das,Assistant Commandant GSPatel, of the 03 Bn NDRFMundali and OSDMA CGMPK Nayak participated, amongothers.

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���� "0�9%:���0 Aam Aadmi Party’s “sus-pended” MP from

Fatehgarh Sahib Harinder

Singh Khalsa on Thursdaybecame the part of the saffronbrigade. Struggling to find a

suitable candidate for the cru-cial Amritsar Lok Sabha seat,the BJP may field its new Sikhface from the holy city.

Khalsa, who won theFatehgarh Sahib seat in 2014general elections routing tra-ditional parties, was suspend-ed from the party’s primarymembership by AAP in 2015for “anti-party activities”, andinitiated disciplinary proceed-ings against him.

He joined the saffron partyin the presence of UnionMinisters Arun Jaitley, HardeepPuri and the party’s general sec-retary (organisation) Ram Lal.

Notably, BJP is considering

to add star power to its electioncampaign in Amritsar by field-ing actress Poonam Dhillon orIndian cricketer HarbhajanSingh. However, after receivingadverse reports, BJP has report-edly dropped Dhillon’s namefrom the list.

Besides, name of UnionMinister and party’s Sikh MPHardip Puri was also doingrounds for the seat.

As the cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhuwas winning the prestigiousAmritsar seat for BJP, the partyis finding it tough to find hisreplacement. During previousgeneral polls, BJP laid its bet on

the party stalwart Arun Jaitleybut lost to Congress veteranCapt Amarinder Singh.

In 2017 bye-election, BJPfielded its Sikh leader RajinderMohan Singh Chhina, whoalso lost to Congress’ GurjitSingh Aujla.

Now, to win back the seat,BJP is looking for a strong pan-thic leader to represent the con-stituency, and Khalsa fits theprerequisites for the same.

A former Indian ForeignService (IFS) officer, Khalsaresigned in protest against the1984 Operation Blue Star. Atthat time, he was posted inNorway.

As the Congress govern-ment filed some cases againsthim, he stayed in Norway,running an eating joint andworking as a postman there.

He returned to India in1990, after being assured thatthe cases against him would bedropped.

Later, he served as thechairman of Punjab HumanRights Organisation, an NGOthat highlighted the “excessescommitted by the state gov-ernment during the anti-insur-gency operations”, and as sec-retary of the ShiromaniGurdwara PrabhandakCommittee (SGPC).

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Aletter writing completionis being organized in

Haryana to encourage theyouth to get their names reg-istered in the electoral rollsahead of polling day on May12 in Haryana.

The winners of the compe-tition will get Rs 31,000 as firstprize and Rs 21,000 as secondprize. Similarly, two prizes of Rs11,000 each will be given underthe third prize. Apart from this,30 prizes of Rs 500-500 will begiven as consolation prizes.

“The last date for sendingletters for the competition isApril 30. The last date for get-ting the name registered in vot-ers' list is April 12,” said aspokesman of the office of chiefelectoral officer, Haryana.

The spokesman said thatthe youth who are in the agegroup of 18 to 25 years as onJanuary 1, 2019 and who havegot registered their names in theelectoral rolls before sending theletter, can participate in thecompetition.

The letter have to beaddressed to the chief electoralofficer, Haryana and will haveto express his or her opinionregarding the importance of get-ting registered in the voting listand also, the importance ofexercising their franchise inLok Sabha and Assembly elec-tions.

The participants would alsohave to take a pledge that theywill cast their vote in Lok Sabhaand Assembly elections, whichshould reflect in their letter. Theletter should be brief and well-documented. The contestanthas to write his letter on a post-card or on inland letter, andbelow it, the contestant will haveto mention his name, address,name of the assembly con-stituency, number, part numberof voter list and voter number,the spokesman added.

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Haryana Chief ElectoralOfficer, Rajeev Ranjan onThursday reiterated that theelectronic voting machine(EVM) is technically complete-ly secure and nobody couldhack or temper it.

“There is a doubt in theminds of the people that soft-ware of EVM could be changedor hacked. But it is completelyimpossible to do this as there isno connectivity of any kind inthe EVM.” he said adding thatconnectivity is required to hackany device.

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Former Haryana DeputyChief Minister Chander

Mohan, who hogged the lime-light for giving up his politicalcareer, family and religion forlove in 2008, is keen on con-testing the ensuing Lok Sabhapolls on a Congress ticket fromKarnal parliamentary seat.

Once known as ChandMohammad, husband of lateFiza Mohammad aliasAnuradha Bali, ChanderMohan is looking to make astrong comeback in the statepolitics by entering the electoralfray in Lok Sabha polls.

“If the Congress partyreposes its faith in me, I aminterested in contesting fromKarnal Lok Sabha constituen-

cy,” says Chander Mohan, whiletalking to The Pioneer.

Chander Mohan, the elderson of three-time formerHaryana CM Bhajan Lal, hadserved as Deputy ChiefMinister during BhupinderSingh Hooda’s first term asChief Minister of Haryana.

In his last election outing,Chander Mohan had lost in2014 assembly polls fromNalwa assembly constituency,which was his first politicalventure outside Kalka. He wasearlier elected to the HaryanaAssembly from Kalka con-stituency, adjoiningChandigarh, in a 1993 by-elec-tion and again in 1996, 2000and 2005.

Reacting to the reportsthat he has staked his claim onCongress’ ticket from Hisarparliamentary seat, from wherehis younger brother KuldeepBishnoi is seen as a frontrun-ner as party candidate,Chander Mohan says, “No,this is not true. I am interest-ed to contest from Karnal.”

Karnal being Chief MinisterManohar Lal’s home turf islikely to witness a prestige polit-ical battle in the parliamentarypolls. Karnal is represented byManohar Lal in the StateAssembly and BJP is likely tofield a political heavyweight toretain this seat won by BJP’sAshwini Kumar Chopra in 2014polls.

In Congress, formerSpeaker and Ganaur MLAKuldeep Sharma is learnt tohave sought a ticket for his sonfrom Karnal seat.

Caste equations have alwaysplayed a key role in this con-stituency with Brahmin com-munity playing the predomi-nant role and electing nineBrahmin candidates out of 12elections in Karnal since 1976.

Chander Mohan, aBrahmin himself had attempt-ed to contest from Karnal in2014 Lok Sabha polls but had towithdraw his candidature, onlya day after he was nominated asHaryana Janhit Congress can-didate for the constituency.

Interestingly, the Karnalseat was left by the BJP for itsalliance partner HJC in 2014Lok Sabha polls but after thecontroversy surrounding

Chander Mohan, the HJC hadopted to take the Sirsa LokSabha seat instead and theBJP had immediatelyannounced Ashwini Chopra asits candidate for Karnal. HJChad in 2016 merged into theCongress.

Chander Mohan’s fatherBhajan Lal had won the Karnalseat in 1998 elections and hadalso faced defeat for the firsttime in his political career in1999 elections from the sameseat.

As the Congress gears upto take on BJP and other polit-ical parties on 10 Lok Sabhaseats in Haryana, ChanderMohan says that the party is ina strong position and will winon all seats in the state.

He also hits out at BJPGovernment at the Centreand in Haryana for their poorperformance during theirtenure.

“The BJP has done noth-ing during its tenure inHaryana and at the Centre.They (BJP) were zero,” the for-mer Deputy CM says.

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Bollywood actor VivekOberoi and producer of

film “PM Narendra Modi”,Sandeep Singh on Thursdaymet the Election Commission(EC) after complaints werefiled over the release of theupcoming movie “PrimeMinister Narendra Modi” thebiopic on the life of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andban of its trailer in light of theModel Code of Code (MCC)being in force ahead of the LokSabha election. The duo haddiscussions with the poll offi-cials on the release date of theModi’s biopic which is set torelease on April 5, merely aweek before the first phase ofLok Sabha elections on April 11.

Accompanied with hislawyer Hitesh Jain, actor VivekOberoi met officials of the ECand responded to all queriesraised by the Commission.Speaking to the media, Oberoi’slawyer, Hitesh Jain said thatthat they have filed a detailedresponse to the notice receivedfrom the EC. “We have sub-mitted that biopic PMNarendra Modi is not in vio-lation of Model Code ofConduct.”

When asked, whether themovie would be released as onits scheduled date, Oberai’slawyer said: “ We have alreadyannounced the release date.However we will wait andwatch”. The EC has earlier senta notice to four producers ofthe upcoming film ‘PMNarendra Modi”. EC had ear-lier sent notices to two news-papers on 20 March over pub-lishing ‘PM Narendra Modi’film’s poster for promotions.

Meanwhile, the DelhiChief Electoral Office sent a

notice to the makers of thebiopic after it felt that the filmwas allegedly violating theModel Code of Conduct. On20 March, East DelhiReturning Officer K Mahesh,suo motu, issued notices to theproduction house and musiccompany behind the film, andtwo leading newspapers forpublishing advertisements ofthe biopic.

Congress and the CPMhad complained to the com-mission about the film’s release,saying it’s being done withpolitical intent. SeniorCongress leaders includingKapil Sibal had held a meetingwith the Election Commissionon Monday demanding topostpone the release of the film“PM Narendra Modi” — the

biopic on PM Modi starringVivek Oberoi and produced bySandip Ssingh — alleging thatthe film violates the modelcode of conduct ahead of theLok Sabha 2019 elections.

Speaking to reporters afterthe meeting with the ElectionCommission officers in NewDelhi, senior Congress leaderKapil Sibal not only targetedthe BJP party, but also the mak-ers (Producer Sandip Ssingh)and actors (Vivek Oberoi) ofthe PM Modi biopic saying thatthe film is a “corrupt practice”and “launch of the film ismotivated” ahead of theGeneral Elections.

A delegation of the CPIand the CPI(M) on Tuesdaymet Election Commission offi-cials and demanded that releaseof the film based on the life ofPrime Minister Narendra Modibe deferred, claiming it to be a“propaganda material”.

CPI’s D Raja and CPI(M)Polit Bureau member NilotpalBasu met the poll panel officialson March 25 and also pointedout serious law and order sit-uations in Tripura and WestBengal.

The Model Code ofConduct came into effect fromMarch 10 across the State onthe day when the ElectionCommission announced thedates for elections which arescheduled to begin from April11, while the results are to beannounced on May 23.

Directed by OmungKumar, the biopic on India’sincumbent Prime Minister -Narendra Modi - features VivekOberoi and Boman Irani inpivotal roles. Prior, it wasexpected to release on April 12,but given the elections weredue to begin a day earlier, therelease was preponed to April 5.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyon Thursday said Article

35A, which restricts non-per-manent residents and thoseoutside the Jammu & Kashmirto buy property in the State ,was “surreptitiously” includedby a presidential notification inthe Constitution in 1954 and is“constitutionally vulnerable”.

The BJP leader who is alsochairman of party’s campaigncommittee said the article wasalso hampering economicdevelopment of the State.

The Jammu & Kashmir iscurrently under President’s ruleafter BJP pulled the plug on thecoalition Government in themilitancy infected border State.

In a blog, Jaitley said theseven-decade history of theState of Jammu & Kashmir

confronts changing India withseveral questions.

“Was the Nehruviancourse, which the State hadembarked, a historical blunderor was it the correct course tofollow? Most Indians todaybelieve that it is the former.

“Does our policy todayhave to be guided by that erro-neous vision or an out of boxthinking which is in conso-nance with ground reality?”Jaitley wondered .

The senior BJP leader andin-charge of the party’s cam-paign committee for generalelections said Article 35A was“surreptitiously” included by apresidential notification in theConstitution in 1954.

Article 35A, he said, wasneither a part of the originalConstitution framed by theConstituent Assembly, nor did

it come as a ConstitutionalAmendment under Article 368of the Constitution whichrequires an approval by two-

third majority of both Housesof Parliament. “It came as apresidential notification and isa surreptitious executive inser-

tion in the Constitution.” Jaitley further said the

Article gives the right to theState Government to discrim-

inate between two State citizensliving in the State on the basisof declaring some as perma-nent residents while leaving out

the others. It also discriminates

between permanent residentsof the State and all other Indiancitizens living elsewhere, headded.

“Lakhs of Indian citizens inJammu & Kashmir vote in LokSabha elections but not inAssembly, municipal orPanchayat polls. Their childrencannot get Government jobs.They cannot own propertyand their children cannot getadmitted to Governmentalinstitutions.

“The same applies to thosewho live elsewhere in the coun-try. The heirs of ladies marry-ing outside the state are disin-herited from owing or inherit-ing property,” the Ministeradded.

He said the State does nothave adequate financial

resources and its ability toraise more has been crippled byArticle 35A.

No investor is willing to setup an industry, hotel, privateeducational institutions or pri-vate hospitals since he can nei-ther buy land or property norcan his executives do so, hesaid.

“Article 35A, which is con-stitutionally vulnerable, is usedas a political shield by many butit hurt the common citizen ofthe State the most. It deniedthem a booming economy,economic activity and jobs,”Jaitley said.

The Minister added thatthe present Government hasdecided that the rule of law inthe interest of the people ofKashmir valley and the largerinterest of India must equallyapply to Jammu & Kashmir.

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The process of filing nomi-nations for the third phase

of Lok Sabha election involvingfive out of 40 seats scheduledon April 23 in 115 seats spreadacross 14 States. The ElectionCommission (EC) on Thursdayissued a notification for phasethree Lok Sabha polls.

All seats in Goa, Gujarat,Kerala, Dadra and NagarHaveli, Daman and Diu, andPuducherry will go for pollingin this phase. Uttar Pradesh,Bihar and West Bengal willhead for voting in all the sevenphases of the general elections.

According to the ElectionCommission, the parliamen-tary constituencies going topolls in the third phase inUttar Pradesh includeMoradabad, Rampur, Sambhal,Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah,Badaun, Aonla, Bareilly andPilibhit.

Jhanjharpur, Supaul Araria, Madhepura Khagaria in Biharand Surguja (ST), Raigarh (ST)

Janjgir-Champa (SC), Korba,Bilaspur, Durg and Raipur inChhattisgarh will head for vot-ing in the third phase.

The Anantnag seat inJammu & Kashmir will also gofor polls in this phase. Whilethe nominations begin onThursday, the last date for fil-ing of filing papers is April 4and scrutiny of nominationswill be held on April 5. The lastdate for withdrawal of candi-dature is April 8, the notifica-tion said.

The election will pit theBJP-led National DemocraticAlliance against mostly differ-ent Opposition groupings invarious States, including ofCongress, the Left and region-al forces who are continuing towork out a grand alliance tominimise a division of votesagainst the saffron party.

The BJP has worked out aseat-sharing formula with somenew allies and several old part-ners. However, the Oppositionparties are yet to do so in sev-eral States.

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At least 83 per cent of 521sitting MPs are “crorepatis”

and 33 per cent of them havecriminal cases against them.The Association forDemocratic Reforms (ADR),has compiled the report afteranalysing self-sworn affidavitsof the 521 MPs out of 543members elected to the LokSabha in the 2014 elections.“Out of the 521 Sitting MPsanalysed, 430 (83 pc) are

crorepatis. While 227 of themare from BJP, 37 are fromCongress, 29 from AIADMK,among others,” the report said.The average assets per sittingMP for Lok Sabha 2014 elec-tions are �14.72 crore.

While 32 sitting MPs havedeclared more than �50 croreworth of assets, only two sittingMPs have declared assets lessthan worth �5 lakh. At least 33per cent sitting MPs havedeclared criminal cases againstthem in the affidavits.

“While 106 of them havedeclared serious criminal casesincluding cases related to mur-der, attempt to murder, com-munal disharmony, kidnap-

ping and crimes againstwomen, 10 sitting MPs havedeclared cases related to mur-der. Out of these, 4 sitting MPsare from BJP, 1 MP from INC,NCP, LJP, RJD, SwabhimaniPaksha each and one MP is anIndependent,” the report said.

“14 sitting MPs havedeclared cases of attempt tomurder. Out of these, eight sit-ting MPs are from BJP and oneMP each from INC, AITC,NCP, RJD, Shiv Sena andSwabhimani Paksha. 14 sit-ting MPs declared cases relat-ed to causing communaldisharmony. Out of them, 10sitting MPs are from BJP and1 MP from TRS, PMK, All

India Majlis-E-IttehadulMuslimeen and AIUDF each,”it added.

In another report on per-formances of the MPs, theADR said that seven MPs fromDelhi had the highest averageattendance and on an average,they attended 289 out of the312 sittings. On an average,MPs asked 251 questions andattended 221 out of the 312 sit-tings. Two MPs from Nagalandattended 88 sittings on an aver-age, the lowest in the last fiveyears. Among political par-ties, the maximum number ofquestions were asked by 18 ShivSena MPs, each of them on anaverage asking 639 questions.

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ACentral Health Ministryprobe panel set up to audit

the country’s top Sports InjuryCentre at Safdarjung Hospitalin Delhi has found huge irreg-ularities in its functioning —ranging from violation in pro-curement of equipments andfacilities, financial mis-man-agement to serious discrepan-cies in appointments of health-care professionals.

The panel after submittingan interim report to the UnionHealth Ministry on October2018 which said that “availablerecords and evidence, prima-facie, indicate collusion of SICwith some suppliers thereby

causing loss to the patients andpublic exchequer,” has recent-ly submitted yet another exten-sive 62 pages report in the mat-ter.

The Ministry in Septemberlast year had set up a seven-member panel, headed by JointSecretary Rajeev Manjhi, totake up the special audit ofSIC’s functioning in variousareas ranging from equipmentsand facilities for operation the-atres to their procurement andmaintenance.

Both the reports have rec-ommended a detailed probeinto the matter in view of “bla-tant violation of CVCs instruc-tions and has sought immedi-ate action against those respon-

sible for irregularities”. Thematter is now under the scan-ner of Union Health MinisterJP Nadda. When contacted,Union Health Secretary PreetiSudan said appropriate actionwill be taken in the matter.

The huge gross irregulari-ties have also pointed needle ofsuspicion towards the thendirector of the SIC, Dr DeepakChaudhary.

Intriguingly, the Ministryin December 2018 had issueda notice to Dr Chaudhary toofor “taking up a commercialassignment with a private hos-pital without prior permissionfrom the Government”. Sourcessaid that pending reply, theMinistry has put on hold his

request for voluntary retire-ment from Dr RML Hospitalwhich he had joined after serv-ing several years in the SIC. Theprobe panel in its interimreport said “On scrutiny of thefiles pertaining to procure-ment of equipments and facil-ities for operation theatre andphysiotherapy units of the SIC,it has been observed that thereare blatant violations of gener-al financial rules (GFRs) andthe procedures adopted arerepugnant to CVC instruc-tions.

“With regard to usefulnessand usability of the equipmentwith almost similar functionshave been proposed to be pro-cured twice by furnishing a cer-

tificate that the said equipmentsare being procured not asreplacement or additional butas a first-time procurement.Frequent purchases have beenresorted to for certain equip-ments such as arthroscope 30and 70 degrees, and camera etc.

“It is surprising that theseequipments have been con-demned even during the man-ufacturers’ warranty period.…many equipments are not inworking conditions. There isno clarity with regard toCAMC/AMC….. It has alsobeen observed that Director,SIC indented some expensiveequipments for procurementprojecting quite high usability,whereas the same are being uti-

lized much below the project-ed usability of the equipment ieeven less than 10 per cent, thussuggesting infructuous expen-diture for extraneous consid-erations,” further said thereport.

The panel has also sus-pected nexus between SIC,SFH and M/S MahajanImaging, a private diagnosticplayer. “The centre (SIC) maderecommendations by conceal-ing some vital informationwhich resulted in extendingfavour to M/Mahajan Imagingby relaxing the terms of agree-ment and to neutralize sub-stantial amount of penaltyaccruing to the Government,which could have been

imposed because of violation ofthe terms of the contract andthe decision in this regard hasbeen taken at the level ofDirector (SIC) and MSSafdarjung Hospital. Besidesthere is no system in place tomonitor the free cases asagreed…” notes the report.

Also, “….. there is no ratio-nalized purchase procedurefollowed by procurement ofimplants in SIC. Documentsmade available to the panel evi-dently indicate of a nexusbetween SIC and a particularsupplier who has been supply-ing almost 90 per cent ofimplants at exorbitant rates.

“The records suggests thatthe provisions of the GFRs have

been twisted …while a closescrutiny of the operation the-atre records reveal that dispro-portionately large number ofsurgeries were performed byusing implants of certain makes(Depuy and Arthrex).

The final 62 pages reporttoo has recommended furtherdetailed investigation in view of“blatant violations ofGFRs/CVCs instructions” andlarge scale irregularities.

“The Indenting officer(HOD) may be made person-ally accountable for submittingfalse indents,” said the reporteven as it has sought annualaudit of the high-value equip-ments and devices among others.

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Two years after giving nodto the conversion of the

Akola-Khandawa railway line,passing through the heart ofMaharashtra’s Melghat TigerReserve, from metre gauge tobroad gauge, the StandingCommittee of the NationalBoard of Wildlife (NBWL)has recently asked the railwaysto look for alternate route.

The move follows afterthe National TigerConservation Authority(NTCA) as well as theDehradun based WildlifeInstitute of India (WII) in ameeting in February 2019 ofthe high-lavel wildlife panelheaded by Union EnvironmentMinister dr Harsh Vardhanwhich is responsible for fram-ing India’s policy and strategyfor wildlife conservation,opposed the proposal.

They asserted that theupgradation of the track willfragment the tiger habitat giventhat of the 35 km long railwaylines which falls inside theTiger Reserve and proposed tobe upgraded, 18 km passthrough the core area, thushaving serious impact on therich flora and fauna of theregion.

The NTCA recommendedthat the only feasible mitiga-tion is ‘avoidance’ of the broad-ening of gauge through the

area of tiger reserve andoptions for the alternateroutes/alignments bypassingthe tiger reserve should betaken up by the railway author-ities.

As per the minutes of theStanding Committee of theNBWL, NTCA MemberSecretary Anup Nayak point-ed out that “alternate align-ment surveyed by the railwayswhich bypasses the tigerreserve can facilitate greatereconomic development of theregion by connecting the near-by 29 villages and large popu-lation living in the area.

“After discussions, theStanding Committee recom-mended to return the propos-al to the MaharashtraGovernment with request toreview the proposal in thelight of the recommendationsof the NTCA and WII,” saidthe minutes of the meeting.

The members also noted thattwo applications were filedbefore the Central EmpoweredCommittee against theapproval of the upgradation ofthe track.

Spread over an area of1,673 sq km, the Melghat TigerReserve, which is home toabout 50 tigers is connectednorthwards to Satpuda forests.

In 2017, the Standing com-mittee of the NBWL hadapproved the proposal subjectto the mitigation measuresrecommended by the NTCAand WII.

However, wildlife activistshad slammed the move withsome of them even approach-ing the Supreme Court ledCentrally Empowered com-mittee (CEC) against the rail-way plan arguing that it shouldbe shot down as it will endan-ger the tigers besides otherwildlife in the region.

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Lok Sabha MP ShatrughanSinha on Thursday ended

speculation over his joining theCongress after meeting partypresident Rahul Gandhi andboth sides announced that theBJP rebel will induct himself inCongress next week. Sourcessaid that the joining which wasto happen on Thursday itselfhad to be delayed due to revivalof the tension within the RJDand Congress in the Biharmahagathbandhan.

After meeting RahulGandhi, Sinha announced hewill join the Congress. “Joiningwill happen soon, we will giveyou a positive news duringNavaratri. I will join Congressnow,” Sinha said talking tomedia later. AICC incharge ofBihar Shaktisinh Gohil tweet-ed that Sinha will join theparty on April 6.

Sources said that Sinha’sjoining was marred by theimmediate friction betweenthe two major grand alliancepartners while RJD complain-ing that Sinha could have beeneven RJD’s bet. Sinha, Congressand RJD finally decided toabort the move to join and buypeace for sometime.

“RJD was said to be keenon having Sinha as its candidatefrom Patna Sahib constituency.Sinha and RJD supremo LaluPrasad share a cordial relation.But the Congress has alwayscontested the Patna Sahib seatwhenever it allied with theRJD in Bihar.

So, the party wanted tofield Sinha on its own symbol.This tug-of-war had apparent-ly caused the delay in decisionof Sinha joining the grand oldparty,” said a senior Congressleader.

Sinha is a two-time sittingBJP MP from Patna Lok Sabha

seat and has been critical of theNarendra Modi Governmentfor past couple of years. He hasbeen sidelined in the BJP,which replaced him withUnion Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad as the Lok Sabha can-didate from Patna Sahib con-stituency.

On Wednesday, BiharCongress election campaigncommittee chairman AkhileshPrasad Singh had said that

Shatrughan Sinha would jointhe party “in New Delhi onMarch 28 at 11.30 am”. Singhhad also announced that Sinhawill be the Congress candidatefrom Patna Sahib.

On his part, Sinha praisedRahul Gandhi after hepromised to implement a min-imum income guaranteescheme if the Congress is votedto power in the Lok Sabhapolls.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Thursday said it would hearon April 8 a batch of petitionschallenging the Centre’s decisionto grant 10 per cent reservationin jobs as well as admissions toeducational institutions to eco-nomically weaker sectionsacross all classes.

A Bench comprisingJustices SA Bobde and SANazeer said it would also dealwith the contentions raised bysome of the petitioners whohave said that the matter wasrequired to be adjudicatedupon by a Constitution Bench.

At the outset, SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta, appear-ing for the Centre, sought anadjournment saying he andAttorney General KKVenugopal were appearing in amatter on Thursday before aConstitution Bench headed byChief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

“I am on my legs before theConstitution Bench. Pleaseaccommodate me,” he told theBench.

Senior advocate RajeevDhavan, appearing for one ofthe petitioners, referred to theapex court’s last order passed inthe matter on March 11 andsaid the issue of whether thesepleas should be referred to aConstitution Bench should beconsidered. PTI

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Rae Bareli: Congress generalsecretary Priyanka Gandhi onThursday said she has beengiven the key task of strength-ening her party in the UttarPradesh — even beyond theLok Sabha elections — andensure it comes back to powerin the 2022 Assembly polls.

Hitting out at the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP), Priyanka,who is the Congress’ easternUttar Pradesh in charge, alsosaid her party which fought forfreedom does not need a “cer-tificate of patriotism” fromthose who sought to apologise

to the then British rulers.Addressing block presidents,

booth workers and the membersof gram panchayat and zila pan-chayat of the party in Rae Bareli,the constituency of her motherand UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi, she said: “I have beengiven the task to strengthen theparty in the state. And I willensure that the party comes topower in the State in 2022.

“And once the Governmentis formed in Uttar Pradesh, Ican ensure that we are not

going to be defeated for next10-15 years on the basis of thedevelopment works.”

Priyanka Gandhi hadmade the same point at herprogramme near Gauriganj inAmethi — the constituency ofher brother and CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi — onWednesday night.

“Are you preparing for theelections? I am not talkingabout 2019, but 2022,” sheasked the workers, indicatingthe reason for her appointment

in the party’s long-term strat-egy in the State.

“And we do not need cer-tificate of nationalism fromanyone who never participat-ed in the freedom struggleand who wrote letter to theBritishers seeking apology,” shesaid. IANS

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Bolstering Bharatiya JanataParty’s (BJP) election cam-

paign on two Lok Sabha seatsfrom Jammu region, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onThursday launched a ‘blister-ing’ attack on three rival polit-ical parties — the Congress, theNational Conference (NC) andthe Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and held them respon-sible for the current situation inJammu & Kashmir.

Prime Minister accusedthe Congress and its policymakers for not according toppriority to the issues ofNational Security and striking‘discordant’ notes against thewishes of the countrymen at acrucial juncture.

He also pointed fingerstowards the Congress partyfor taking support of twoKashmir-based regional partiesfor its own survival in the

electoral fray in Jammu ignor-ing the statements and standtaken by the leaders of theseparties in Kashmir valley .

The Congress had earlierfielded joint candidates, fromJammu-Poonch andUdhampur-Doda Lok Sabhaseat, after stitching a tacticalalliance with the NC to defeatthe BJP. The PDP has alsoextended support to the twoCongress candidates in Jammuprovince.

Before kick-starting hiselection campaign, PrimeMinister Modi rememberedparty stalwart Prem NathDogra and saluted members ofthe Dogra community. He alsogreeted them in chaste ‘Dogri’language amid thunderingapplause.

“I am happy that when Ihave set out to reach out to thepeople of this country ahead ofthe Lok Sabha polls, I came toJammu first”, Modi said.

Addressing a mammoth

election rally in the border beltof Akhnoor Prime Ministersaid, “Congress, NC & PDP areresponsible for the problemsJammu & Kashmir faces today.It is because of them thatKashmiri Pandits faced so muchtrouble. Terrorism took roots inthe State. Sadly, national secu-rity is not a priority for them,they only care about powerand their dynastic politics”.

He said “leaders of thesethree political parties in thestate are losing their sleep fol-lowing complete crackdownby the security agencies on ter-rorist organisations and theirsympathisers in the State.

Referring to Balakotestrikes on terror factories activein Pakistan, Modi said, “eversince India demonstrated itscapacity to destroy terror infra-structure deep inside Pakistanone after the other senior con-gress leaders are speakingagainst the national interest andgiving clean chits to terrorists

and Pakistan”.He said even those parties

who ruled the State of Jammu& Kashmir for many years aredoing the same. Commentingon the language of opposition,Modi said that Pakistanapplauds such voice.

“The whole country is talk-ing in one voice and theseCongress people are talking ina different voice. Do you acceptthis language of Congress? OfPDP? of NC? Pakistan applaudstheir language,” said Modi.

Further escalating its sharpattack on the Opposition, Modisaid, “What is beyond compre-hension is Congress’ attitude. Isit the same Congress that SardarPatel was a part of? Is it thesame Congress that NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose was apart of, and fought for India’sindependence,” Modi asked.

Modi said, if you monitorsocial media and TV channelsin Pakistan, terrorists and theirhandlers are all praying to getrid of ‘Chowkidar’ and victoryof ‘mahamilavati alliace’ in LokSabha polls. In his 35 minutespeech Prime Minister also pre-sented a comprehensive reportcard of his government beforethe electorate and sought anoth-er term to carry forward thejourney on road to prosperity.

Lucknow: With electioneeringfor the 2019 Lok Sabha pollsgaining steam in Uttar Pradesh,political leaders are increasing-ly resorting to personal attackson their adversaries. If the mav-erick BJP MLA from Bairia,Surendra Singh hit the headlinesfor his remarks against BSPsupremo Mayawati, UttarPradesh Cabinet MinisterShrikant Sharma hit a new lowby making indecent commentson Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

The Bairia MLA had saidMayawati gets facials done andher hair coloured even thoughshe is 60-years-old. He alsoreportedly made offensiveremarks against UPA chair-

person Sonia Gandhi andHaryanvi singer-dancer SapnaChaudhary, evoking wide-spread criticism from politicalparties and social media users.

A media agency quoted himas saying that both Sonia Gandhiand Sapna Chaudhary used towork as dancers. “Rahul’s moth-er (Sonia Gandhi) was also in thesame profession in Italy and hisfather made her his own. He(Rahul Gandhi) should also takethe family tradition forward andmake Sapna his own,” the MLAsaid. The BJP legislator, who isknown for his controversial

statements, had earlier termedRahul and his sister Priyanka“Ravana and Shurpanakha”, andaccused Mayawati of “murder-ing” a woman’s dignity by join-

ing hands with one-time archrival SP. UP Power MinisterShrikant Sharma stirred up ahornet’s nest with his tweetterming the Congress president

a “coward and impotent”.The comments triggered a

war of words between the twoparties as well as on socialmedia platform. PTI

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In an apparent bid to hit theBJP where it hurts the most

Mamata Banerjee onWednesday questioned the saf-fron outfit’s failure to keep itspromises particularly the oneon Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

Mounting a blisteringattack on the BJP for dividingIndia in the name of religionand in the name of Lord Rambut failing to proceed a singlestep towards constructing theRam Temple in Ayodhya theBengal Chief Minister onWednesday said “when theelection comes you (BJP) goabout selling Ram’s name forvotes. But after the electionsyou forget your promises.”

Comparing her achieve-ments in restoring places ofworships to their lost gloriesBanerjee said “Despite makingtall promises before the electionsyou (BJP) have failed to constructa Ram Temple in five years buthere. I have renovated a whole lotof places of worship — provid-ing added facilities in —Dakshineshwar, Belur Math,Tara Peeth Furfura Sharief.”

Taking an apparent dig atPrime Minister Narendra Modithe Chief Minister said “thecondition of Ganga in Varanasi— from where Modi was elect-ed — remains the same as itwas five years ago but go toGanga Sagar and you will seehow we have made it a livingparadise.” The Chief Ministerwas attending a Holi Milangathering attended by people of

all communities. Citing howthe people of Bihar, UP,Rajasthan, Gujarat and otherplaces feel “more than at homein Bengal,” she said the situa-tion in those places were notthe same.

“You will not find lynchingin Bengal like it happens inother places,” she said attackingthe BJP leaders for accusing ofstopping Durga Puja celebra-

tions in her State. “Can thesepeople say anything about thereal symbolism behind Durgaor Kali or do they rememberthe mantras (of the MotherGoddess)? I am sure they don’t.But I do though I do not sellabout my religion.”

Banerjee who once againassured the nation that GSTwill be reviewed and demon-etisation will be investigatedsaid how the BJP was drivinga wedge in the Indian societyby setting one communityagainst the other and how theyare dividing India to rule thecountry.

“We will not divide thecountry but we will reviewGST, probe demonetisation”and double MNREGA days toensure increased employment,Banerjee said.

The Chief Minister whohad earlier disapproved of thePrime Minister’s announcementof India’s path-breaking progressin the anti-satellite warfareinstead of the DRDO chief said,“the BJP is adopting all kinds ofmean ways to gain votes.”

She had earlier attackedFinance Minister Arun Jaitleywho accused her of demeaningIndia’s Defence programmes.“Jaitley ji is an educated man,a good looking man but howcan he say like that? He saidthat I am criticising India’snuclear and other programmes.Why should I do so? I onlyobjected to the announcementmade by the Prime Minister.This should have been done bythe DRDO chief,” she said.

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Amethi: Congress generalsecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra wriggled herself out ofher party workers demand toget herself weighed in ‘lad-doos’, making the local leaderwho had planned the eventto sit on the scales instead.After day-long meetings withpartymen in her brotherRahul Gandhi’sParliamentary constituencyon Wednesday, PriyankaGandhi arrived at the resi-dence of local leader FatehBahadur around midnight,where the host had theweighing scales ready.

She, however, turneddown the request by herparty workers to sit on themagainst ‘laddoos’ and insteadgot the host to sit on them,much to the amusement ofonlookers.

She also got a promisefrom the partymen to workharder not just for theupcoming Lok Sabha elec-tions but also for the 2022Assembly polls in UttarPradesh. PTI

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Bihar BJP presidentNityanand Rai was on

Thursday mobbed and heckledby supporters of a party rebel,who has filed his nominationas an Independent candidatefrom Katihar Lok Sabha con-stituency notwithstanding theseat going to alliance partnerJD(U) headed by ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar.

Rai called on BJP MLCAshok Kumar Agarwal at hisresidence and spent over twohours trying to persuade himto withdraw his nomination infavor of the JD(U) candidateDulal Chandra Goswami, who would seek to wrest theseat for NDA from TariqAnwar of the Congress.

The BJP had won the seatthree times on the trot in 1999,2004 and 2009 with support ofthe JD(U). In 2014, whenNitish Kumar went it alone, thethree-time BJP MP NikhilKumar Choudhary finishedthe runner-up while Anwarthen with Sharad Pawars NCPand a several-term MP fromKatihar, won after a gap ofmore than a decade.

The JD(U)s Ram PrakashMahto had finished third withjust over one lakh votes, waybehind the BJP candidate, whopolled nearly 3.16 lakhs.However, the seat went to theJD(U) this time after the par-tys return to the NDA as thealliance had to make manyadjustments to accommodatethe Chief Ministers party.

However, when Raiemerged from Agarwals househere, he found himself sur-rounded by hundreds of theMLCs supporters who hadkept shouting slogans outsideduring the period the state unitchief remained inside.

As Rai tried to get insidehis vehicle, he had to jostle withthe agitators who were quelled

by the police before he coulddepart. Later, Agarwal made hisintentions clear when he defi-antly said roothne manaane kadaur khatm hua (the time forsulking and cajoling is over).Besides Katihar, the BJP is alsofaced with the embarrassmentof rebellion by its leader inanother constituency Bankawhere former MP PutulKumari has filed her nomina-tion as an Independent.

On Wednesday, State vice-president and in-charge of partyheadquarters Davesh Kumarhad shot off missives to therebel candidates to withdrawtheir nominations and warnedthem of disciplinary action.

Putul Kumari had madeher electoral debut in 2010 asan Independent candidate andwon in the bypoll that wasnecessitated by the death of herhusband Digvijay Singh, whohad served as a minister in gov-ernments headed by VP Singhand Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Singh had pulled off astunning victory in the 2009Lok Sabha polls when the for-mer JD(U) leader won the seatfighting as an Independentafter falling out with NitishKumar even though the elec-tions were swept by the NDAwhich bagged 32 out of 40 seatsin the State.

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Thiruvananthapuram: BJPKerala unit chief PS SreedharanPillai on Thursday said theparty will raise the Sabarimalaissue over women’s entry andthe alleged harassment sufferedby the Lord Ayyappa devoteesduring the campaign in theupcoming Lok Sabha polls.

If the law permits theCentre to intervene in the mat-ter, the BJP would take all pos-sible steps to bring a new leg-islation to protect the temple’scustoms and traditions, theleader said in a statement here.

“Each BJP candidate hasthe right to raise the issue ofassault on Lord Ayyappa devo-tees in Sabarimala and theattempts to destroy their faithduring the campaign in apeaceful manner,” he said.Pillai’s statement came hoursafter his reported remarks thatthe BJP will not use Sabarimalaas campaign issue in the LSpolls triggered a controversy.

A section of the mediareported that his statementwas contradictory to the standtaken by K Surendran, theBJP-NDA’s candidate inPathanamthitta (where theSabarimala temple is located),who had made it clear that theSabarimala row would be oneof the major campaign issues.

“I have never said any-where that Sabarimala issuewould not be raised during ourelection campaigns. The NDAcandidate in Pathanamthittaand the party cadre there haveevery right to raise the issue dur-ing campaigns in accordancewith the law,” he said. PTI

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Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadavdirected party workers not to make indecent com-ments against women after the NationalCommission for Women pulled up a party leaderfor allegedly making sexist remarks against actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada. SP Sambhal district

president Firoz Khan had allegedly said Jaya Pradawould “enthral the people of Rampur with herghungaroos and thumkas”. In a short video clip,Khan is heard saying “Rampur ki shaameinrangeen ho jaayengi ab jab chunavi mahual chale-ga (Rampur’s evenings will turn colourful this elec-tion season)”, seemingly referring to Jaya Prada,who recently joined the BJP. PTI

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Page 7: ˆ(ˇ + ,-./ ˇ / ˛ 2ˆ %7)0: )319;4 0;ˇ) 03 97 4˙ ˙90: ˙:ˇ3 ... · Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’ aapko ... Market, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar come under New Delhi

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Aday after Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee

questioned propriety of appoint-ing a Special Police Observer forBengal who had earlier been seenattending an RSS programme inuniform, the ElectionCommission of India onWednesday replaced the seniorIPS officer with a new one.

Though the ECI would notprovide reasons it removed for-mer Director General of BSF KKSharma as the Special PoliceObserver for Bengal. VivekDubey 1981 batch IPS officer willsupervise the Lok Sabha electionin the State in place of Sharma,Additional Chief ElectoralOfficer Sanjay Basu said.

He quoted “specific orders”from the ECI but said no spe-

cific reason had been offered forthe new move. Banerjee had onWednesday cited photographsshowing how in 2018 Sharmahad joined an RSS-sponsoredprogramme in police uniform.

Apart from policeobservers the ECI has alsoappointed 44 expenditureobservers to monitor thespending of various politicalparties, sources said.

Meanwhile, the KolkataPolice on Thursday recoveredRs 35 lakh from a person atBrabourne Road in NorthKolkata. Identified as PKSharma from Odisha theaccused was taken into custody.The Thursday’s recovery takesthe total recovery of unex-plained cash to about 11 coreinthe past two weeks: highest everin Bengal, sources said.

Kaliabor/Teok: BJP chief AmitShah on Thursday accused theprevious Congress Governmentin Assam of settling illegalimmigrants in the State, as heapplauded the Narendra ModiGovernment for securing thecountry’s frontiers and aveng-ing Indian soldiers killed byPakistan-backed terror groups.

Addressing election ralliesin the state, Shah asserted, letalone infiltrators “not even abird” will be allowed to enterAssam illegally if the BJP secures

a second term at the Centre.He said only Prime

Minister Narendra Modi andthe BJP can ensure security ofthe country and not theCongress or its president RahulGandhi. “In his five years inoffice, Modi brought in a lot ofdevelopment. But most of all heensured the security of thecountry and its borders. Underhis leadership, India avengedthe blood of our soldiers killedin Uri and Pulwama attacks byPakistan-based terror ele-ments,” Shah told election ral-lies in Kaliabor and Teok.

The BJP president claimedthe way the world viewed Indiaunderwent a drastic changeunder Modi. Shah insisted thatIndia under Modi was only thethird nation after the US andIsrael to take swift revenge forthe spilling of their soldiers’blood by enemies. He criti-cised the Congress party fordemanding proof of the damagecaused by the Indian Air Force’sBalakot air strike inside Pakistanin the wake of the killing of 44CRPF personnel in Pulwama.

“Should we avenge our fall-en soldiers or not? The Congressparty cannot protect the coun-try’s borders. If we want to pro-tect India’s borders, then onlyNarendra Modi and BJP can dothat,” Shah said. PTI

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Having decided to fight allthe 48 Lok Sabha polls in

Maharashtra as a third front,the Bahujan Samaj Party andthe Samajwadi Party will con-test 44 seats and four seatsrespectively in the State.

Thirteen days ahead of thefirst phase of the four-phasedpolls in the state, the BSP andSP on Thursday announced theseat-sharing pact betweenthem. Under the pact, theSamajwadi Party will contestMumbai north-west, Dhule,Nanded and Beed seats.

Of the 44 seats that it iscontesting in the State, theBSP will release its first list of19 seats.

The seats for which theBSP it has named candidatesinclude: Bhandara-Gondia,Chandrapur, Ramtek, Nagpur,Washim, Amravati, Buldhana,Hingoli, Akolam, Parbhani,Osmanabad, Latur and Solapur.

Mayawati will launch theBSP-SP launch in Maharashtraat a rally in Nagpur on April 4.SP chief Akhilesh Yadav isexpected to attend the rally.

Both the BSP and SP donot have the following inMaharashtra that they caninfluence the Lok Sabha polloutcome. For instance, the BSPhad contested all the 48 lokSabha polls in the state. TheMayawati-led party polled apathetic 2.61 per cent – which2.22 per cent votes less than thevotes it had polled in the 2009Lok Sabha polls.

Mumbai: The BJP is bankingon the popularity of some ofBhojpuri film industry’s biggeststars to see it through a clutchof Lok Sabha seats in easternUttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The saffron outfit is tap-ping film stars Ravi Kishan,singer-actor Dinesh Lal Yadavalias ‘Nirahua’ and PawanSingh and they are expected tocontest elections from seats ineastern UP and West Bengal,which have Bhojpuri voters,party insiders said.

Singh is already in the BJP,while Yadav joined the party onWednesday in Lucknow in thepresence of Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath.

PTI

Patna: Upset over being side-lined in the party and the fam-ily, Tej Pratap Yadav, elder sonof RJD chief Lalu Prasad, onThursday resigned as patron ofthe RJD student wing ahead ofthe Lok Sabha polls, dealing ablow to Bihar’s mainOpposition party.

“I am resigning as patronof RJD student wing. Thosewho think I am naive are mis-taken,” tweeted Tej PratapYadav, a former Bihar HealthMinister who has been havingsimmering disputes with hisyounger brother and the moreactive Tejashwi Yadav.

Tej Pratap Yadav addedthat he knew who wields whatkind of influence in partyaffairs. The resignation comesin the absence of Lalu Prasad,who is undergoing treatment ata Government hospital inRanchi after being convicted infodder scam cases.

Tej Pratap Yadav hasreportedly told his aides that hewas pained because his requestto accommodate two of hissupporters as candidates inthe Sheohar and JehanabadLok Sabha seats was rejected.

RJD leaders close to himsay he is not happy the wayTejashwi Yadav has been givencommand of the party and withthe latter’s style of functioning.Tejashwi Yadav is the Leader ofOpposition in the BiharAssembly.

“In last six months, TejPratap had time and againpointed out how he was side-lined in the party” by TejashwiYadav, a former Deputy ChiefMinister. IANS

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The Samajwadi Party onThursday declared five

more candidates for Lok Sabhapolls in Uttar Pradesh, takingthe total number of it candi-dates declared so far to 27.

The list includes the namesof former MLA Puja Pal fromUnnao and one candidate forMadhya Pradesh. The partyhad earlier declared a list of 23candidates, including one from

Madhya Pradesh. Beside Pal, former SP

Minister Bhagwat SharanGangwar was been given tick-et from Bareilly, Nasir Quereshifrom Moradabad, ShyamSunder Singh Yadav fromJhansi and Nathuni PrasadKushwaha from Kushinagar.

The surprise inclusion inthe list is Bahujan Samaj Partyleader Raju Pal’s widow PujaPal. Raju Pal was shot dead indaylight by Atiq Ahmad inAllahabad. Later the BSP field-ed Puja Pal and she won the2012 Assembly poll comfort-ably but lost in the 2017

Assembly election. This time,Puja has been pitted againstSakshi Maharaj, the sitting MPof Bharatiya Janata Party fromUnnao, and former CongressMP Annu Tandon.

“Puja Pal is ‘Gaderia’ bycaste and since Unnao has asizeable population of Lodhiand Mallah, she seems to be agood bet,” a senior SP leadersaid. On the other hand, formerMLA from Nawabganj(Bareilly) and a minister inAkhilesh Yadav government,Bhagwat Sharan Singh Gangwarhas been fielded from Bareilly.

The inclusion of NathuniPrasad Kushwaha’s name in theSP list also came as a surprise.Kushwaha, a veteran SP leader,contested five elections — threeAssembly and two parliamen-tary — but lost all. He will bepitted against RPN Singh ofCongress and Vijay Dubey ofBJP from Kushinagar in east UP.

The BJP has denied ticket

to its sitting MP Rajesh Pandeyfrom Kushinagar this time andhas replaced him with VijayDubey.

The SP has also fieldedturncoat Naseer Quereshi fromMoradabad. He contested twoAssembly elections on BSPticket in 2012 (MoradabadDehat) and 2017 (Kaanth) butlost both. In 2018, he joined theSP and was selected as alliancecandidate from Moradabad.

In Jhansi, the SP has field-ed Shyam Sundar Singh Yadav,who had joined the SP afterleaving the BJP.

The SP is contesting thegeneral election in alliancewith BSP and would contest on37 seats, while the BSP wouldfield candidates from 38 seats.Rashtriya Lok Dal, the thirdpartner of the alliance, hasbeen given three seats.

SP patron Mulayam SinghYadav is contesting fromMainpuri, SP chief AkhileshYadav from Azamgarh, his wifeDimple Yadav from Kannauj,Dharmendra Yadav fromBudaun, Akshay Yadav fromFerozabad and MohammadAzam Khan from Rampur.

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Even as suspense continuesover the name of Congress

candidate from Lucknow LokSabha constituency, formerUnion Minister and party can-didate from Dhaurahra parlia-mentary seat, Jitin Prasada,has hinted at contesting fromLucknow instead of Dhaurahra.

Prasada, who was on hisway to the state capital viaSitapur on Thursday, wasstopped by Congress workerswho wanted him to contestfrom Dhaurahra. “My bodymay be present in Lucknow butmy soul will always be inDhaurahra. Give me sometime, I am standing at a polit-ical cross-roads. I am going toLucknow and will decide whatI have to do,” said Prasada as headdressed Congress workers atKanshiram Colony in Sitapur.

Jitin Prasada reached hisLawrence Terrace house inLucknow in the evening andheld a meeting with his sup-porters over the future strategy.

Earlier, there were rumoursthat Jitin Prasada was joiningthe BJP after reports emergedof his being unhappy withalleged pressure from the partyleadership to change his seatfrom Dhaurahra to Lucknow.However, he rubbished thespeculation.

Prasada was a UnionMinister in the UPAGovernment and is presentlyan invitee member of theCongress Working Committee.

As per sources, theCongress is likely to field himfrom Lucknow for a directfight with Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh. Thesources said Congress generalsecretary incharge of easternUP, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra,came up with the idea of shift-ing Prasada from his presentconstituency after the former

Minister reportedly conveyedhis reservation over fightingfrom Dhaurahra.

Prasada, a Brahmin, hailsfrom a prominent politicalfamily of Shahjahanpur. Hisfather, late Jitendra Prasada,was a Congress stalwart andhad even contested the partypresidential election againstSonia Gandhi.

Jitin Prasada son won hisfirst Lok Sabha election fromShahjahanpur in 2004. In 2009,he shifted to the newly-formedDhaurahra constituency andwon but in 2014, he lost to theBJP. Dhaurahra is one of the 80Lok Sabha constituencies in UPthat will go to polls in the fourthphase. While the Congress hasdeclared Prasada as its officialcandidate from Dhaurahra, reli-able sources close to the leadersaid the party now wanted toshift him to Lucknow.

New Delhi: The CPI(M) onThursday proposed curbing ofmass surveillance, statutoryminimum wage of not lessthan �18,000 per month andchecking monopolies over tele-com and internet service plat-forms in its manifesto for thecoming Lok Sabha elections.

This is the first time whenthe Left party has mentioneddigital rights of citizens in itsmanifesto. The CPI(M) said itwould recognise digital infra-structure as public infrastruc-ture and stop mass surveillanceby State agencies under section69 of the IT Act.

“There should be clearprovisions and judicial super-vision of any surveillance thatviolates citizens privacy. Enactdata privacy laws that protectthe people against appropria-

tion/misuse of users privatedata for commercial use,” saidCPI(M) General SecretarySitaram Yechury while releas-ing the manifesto along withPolit Bureau members BrindaKarat, Prakash Karat and

Nilotpal Basu.He said the party would

curb monopoly of some tele-com majors. The manifestoalso proposed the scrapping ofthe use of Aadhaar and bio-metrics for all social welfare

measures, repeal/amend theNational Security Act, section499 of IPC (relating to defama-tion) and Armed Forces(Special Powers) Act (AFSPA).

In the declaration, the partyalso proposed alternative poli-cy platform under which itcalled for protection of the sec-ular principle and democraticrights enshrined in theConstitution and enforcementof farmers’ right to sell their pro-duce at minimum support price.

“Our main aim is to defeatthe BJP, increase the strength ofthe CPI(M) and the Left inParliament and form an alter-native secular Government,”Yechury said.

The left party said the pen-sion system would enablesenior citizens to live with dig-nity. PTI

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The Samajwadi Party is like-ly to release its manifesto

for the Lok Sabha polls,promising jobs and setting upof a youth commission, in thefirst week of April. As SP’salliance partner Bahujan SamajParty does not have a traditionto release a manifesto, AkhileshYadav will be free to announcehis party’s poll promises. TheBJP and Congress will alsorelease their manifestos soon.

The SP manifesto is like-ly to be pro-youth, with thepromise to bring a nationalyouth employment job guar-antee bill, compulsory job forevery youth and setting up ofa youth commission.

The manifesto will alsofocus on larger role to beplayed by regional parties inthe country, particularly in the

post-poll scenario.A senior SP leader said in

Lucknow on Thursday that ata time when rising unemploy-ment was a big issue, the partyplanned to catch the imagina-tion of youths, specially in thestate, by promising to enact leg-islation on national youthemployment job guarantee.

“In this legislation, theparty will make the promise ofproviding jobs to all thoseyouths who are registered inemployment exchanges with-in six months time,” he said.

Besides, the youth com-mission will be constituted onlines of the existing minorityor women’s commissions. Butthis commission will com-prise youths from universitiesand civil societies. It will advisethe government on formulat-ing policies for the youths,” theleader said.

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Kolkata: Lok Sabha candidatesin West Bengal’s Birbhum dis-trict are seeking to exploit allmodes of transport to attractattention. While one candidatechose bullock cart, anotherdecided to drive an e-rickshaw.

Actor-turned-politicianSatabdi Roy, seeking to retainthe Birbhum Lok Sabha seatshe had won for the TrinamoolCongress in 2009 and 2014,was seen riding an e-rickshawall by herself while campaign-ing in villages of the

Rampurhaat locality.Roy, clad in a pink saree

and donning sunglasses, alsoparticipated in a tribal dancewith the women folk of thelocality. Not to be outdone, herBJP rival Dudh Kumar Mondalrode a bullock cart to interactwith the people of anotherPanchayat area. The Birbhumconstituency will go to polls onApril 29 in the fourth of theseven-phased Lok Sabha elec-tion in the State. IANS

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Page 8: ˆ(ˇ + ,-./ ˇ / ˛ 2ˆ %7)0: )319;4 0;ˇ) 03 97 4˙ ˙90: ˙:ˇ3 ... · Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’ aapko ... Market, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar come under New Delhi

The Indian sub-continent is a wound-ed region that has been subjected todangerous contextualising of terror

that is ultimately tantamount to “justifica-tion of terrorism.” The adage, “One man’sterrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”has been used and abused by both terrorgroups and roguish states, whose stated pol-icy distinguishes between “good” and“bad” terrorists. Repeated warnings todesist from such categorisation — as thesame inevitably backfires — is personifiedby Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’sroutine posting of the figure of 75,000Pakistani casualties and an economic costof $123 billion to the state, owing to itsostensible fight against terrorism.

Obviously, the Pakistani state has notcome clean on its own track record of duplic-itousness and insincerity on terror, with thethen Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’sprophetic warning that “snakes in the back-yard would not just bite the neighbours.” Thetact of selectively legitimising and deliber-ately contextualising some terror organisa-tions as “freedom fighters” or “defenders ofthe faith” comes with accompanying risks ofthese morphing and mutating intoFrankenstein monsters and turning upon itsprogenitors. The fact is that Pakistan is wit-nessing a breakdown in its social structures,economic health and political future by pan-dering to regressive “contexts” to justify itsinterferences across the Durand Line in theAfghan region, across the Line of Control inIndia as also across its Iranian border.

An unwarranted and insensitive contex-tualising of a terror act was recently madeby an Australian Senator, Fraser Anning, fol-lowing the horrific massacre of at least 50lives at Christchurch in New Zealand,which literally resulted with an egg on hisface. The Senator had incredulously stated,“The real cause of bloodshed on NewZealand streets today is the immigration pro-gramme, which allowed Muslim fanatics tomigrate to the country in the first place.”While his statement was squarely lambast-ed by the political leadership in specific andsociety in general, in both his nativeAustralia and New Zealand — the age-oldpractice of “contextualising” terror, that fur-ther divides and polarises societies, was infull display. In stark contrast was the deftstatesmanship, empathy and sensitivityshown by New Zealand Prime MinisterJacinda Ardern in handling the post-attacknarrative by unambiguously designating theincident as a “terrorist attack”, resulting in amore corrective and reformative step asopposed to the vacuous “contextualising”, aswas done by the Australian Senator.

In India, too, expected apologists of ter-ror across the border and some within, lendimmediate “context” and “credence” to anyterror attack by willy-nilly justifying the sameon the pretext of the need to “introspect whyit happened?” Terrorism is a multi-dimen-sional phenomenon that breeds and survives

on popular legitimacy of itsactions among the aggrievedcommunities and the otherstakeholders — this psychoso-cial “oxygen” is the key determi-nant for its sustenance. It is thisspirit of unequivocal delegitimi-sation that was invoked byArdern when she spoke aboutthe terrorist in a deliberatelynameless way by stating, “Hemay have sought notoriety butwe in New Zealand will give himnothing. Not even his name.”

This handling was verydifferent from the terror attackin Pulwama in India, wherespotlight on the “perpetrator”was ensured by the cynicalpolitical manipulation of thesame, a 24-hour mediablitzkrieg covering the sublime-to-the-ridiculous theories andthe unashamed “sharing” oftrue and manufactured contenton the social media.

Somehow, under the garbof various “contexts”, thePulwama terror act did notunite the entirety of populacefor its sheer brutality andinhumanity but deflected theissue into unnecessary dividesof political positions, pro-and-anti-nationalism andended up polarising the mass-es even more.

A similar frenzy was instru-mental in elevating BurhanWani into a cult-like phenom-enon with a complex process ofcognitive accommodation,

claims-and-counter-claims andsocietal assimilations.

It is important to recognisethat the maximum “context- set-ting” of terrorism is done by for-eign powers who have vestedinterest in the disruption ofnormalcy, national politicianswith a hovering electoral calcu-lator and finally the TRP-drivenmedia (mainstream and social)that ignites popular passions toensure that the requisite ‘fuel’ forterror justifications persists.

China’s patent realpolitikapproach in defending Pakistan,and by that extent, JeM chiefMasood Azhar on the floor ofthe United Nations, is a classiccase of a foreign power afford-ing a context of “technicality” invetoing the symbolic step thatcould have named and shamedIslamabad, which brazenlychooses to side with those whouse violence in the name of faith.

Even fringe support,applause or “context” is suffi-cient for the terror industry —it is imperative that no platformfor contextualising of terror isallowed in the aftermath of anyterror attack. Speaking aboutPakistan’s support for terror-ism, UN Secretary-GeneralAntónio Guterres had specifi-cally said that “no political rea-son…no cause, no grievance”could justify it. Former USPresident George Bush in hisaddress to the joint session ofCongress on September 20,

2001, had famously exhortedon the double-speak on terror-ism, “Every nation in everyregion now has a decision tomake: Either you are with us oryou are with the terrorists.”This nudge had led to sometemporary course-correctionin Islamabad — with Pakistanpurportedly joining the glob-al “war on terror” — but thesubsequent reversal to itspatent contextual support tothe terror industry led to itscoming under the internation-al scanner — take for examplethe ongoing Financial ActionTask Force (FATF) proceedings— and reached its pinnacle ofopprobrium when Osama binLaden was “taken out” from themilitary garrison town ofAbbottabad.

Similarly, Pakistan refusesto abandon its basic instinct ofcontextualising and interferingin the affairs of its neighbours,much to the chagrin of Kabul,Tehran and Delhi. Proverbialchickens are coming home toroost as the Pakistani establish-ment now plays the “martyrcard” on terrorism after yearsof contextual support based ona flawed interpretation of his-tory, co-religionist and “free-dom struggle” as it expectedlybackfired, giving an invaluablelesson to all apologists of ter-ror-contextualising.

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Space superpower” (March29). Having successfully test-fired an anti-satellite missile,India has joined the elite spaceleague comprising the US, Russiaand China. Mission Shakti is theresult of nine years of hard workby our scientists. By shootingdown a low earth orbit satellite,the mission has been declaredsuccessful. India has rightlyassured the international commu-nity that it would not misuse thisnew capability.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Between spirit and rules”(March 28). R Ashwin’s“Mankading” of Jos Buttler dur-ing an Indian Premier Leaguematch between Punjab andRajasthan has stirred up a contro-versy. The cricket fraternity andfans stand divided on the“Mankading” incident. However,it must be understood thatAshwin just followed the rule

book of cricket and his call wascompletely legal. He did not doanything wrong. If experts are somuch depressed by his action,then the rule of “Mankad” shouldbe removed from the law books.But until the removal of theclause, all must enjoy one of themost watched sports around theworld with passion.

Navneet SethDhuri

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Sir — This refers to the article,“The fatal game of opportunisticpolitics” (March27) by KalyaniShankar. Impartially speaking,both the BJP-led NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA) andthe Congress-led UnitedProgressive Alliance are set for ahigh-octane political battle, come

May 2019. The writer’s compar-ative analysis between theCongress and the BJP holds good.For the latter, issues like anti-incumbency, agrarian crisis,demonetisation blues and mostimportantly, non-delivery of pollpromises, including jobs for theyouth, will matter.

As a united Opposition wasleaving no stone untuned to posea grave challenge to the ruling

regime, the Pulwama terror attackand the subsequent air strike inBalakot gave the latter a chanceto uplift its sagging image.Further, while the BJP hasannounced a slew of pre-pollalliances, the grand alliance hasbeen more interested in formingstate-specific partnerships. In theend, it is the electorate who willplay the role of a king-maker.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Between spirit and rules”(March 28). After Ashwin’s“Mankaded” dismissal of JosButtler, much talk has eruptedabout the true spirit of the game.If the rule is against the game’strue spirit then why was it includ-ed at all? Nowadays, batsmen takeadvantage of being out of thecrease even before a ball is deliv-ered. It’s time to include“Mankaded” as the 11th type ofdismissal in ICC laws.

PK Suresh Via email

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In times of rapid globalisation, open mar-ket, technological advancements and cli-mate change, the world is getting more andmore complex day-by-day. The situationis accentuated by insecurity, apprehen-

sions, distrust and violence that confront prac-tically every nation. Further, there was never somuch competition among nations as it is at pre-sent. Indians understand these issues very wellin the context of the perpetual state of aggres-sion created by Pakistan against it.

Our country has done astonishingly well increating global goodwill during the last five yearsas was evident from the support we got for thegenuine and effective response to the Pulwamamassacre, which was a massive and unprecedent-ed act in the history of post-independent India.The strategy of renewing and refreshing past rela-tionships has proved its worth beyond doubt.However, this cannot be an occasion to becomesluggish. Instead, we must realise that much moreneeds to be done to sustain the international good-will we earned and seriously delineate the elementsrequired to further strengthen this bond. Thereare several areas of cooperation like trade andcommerce, investment and production, collabo-rations in technology, transfer and the like butthere are also long-term strategic imperatives thatremain unmatched in giving soft-power dividends.

For ages, India has gone through this expe-rience from its Asian neighbours, particular-ly the Southeast Asian segment. Indeed, we areproud of our past glory and its acceptancebeyond sea shores. To cultivate new interna-tional relationships even with old friendlynations, one must realise the importance ofacquaintance with history, culture and heritageon both sides. These play a significant role infurthering mutual understanding and refresh-ing cultural and emotional bonds. This famil-iarity is an essential support to comprehendthe current situation and visualise its importin the emerging context. Strategic readiness incurrent times requires comprehension of ‘thepace of change’ in pragmatic terms. Commonwisdom will be to learn from history, drawinspiration from it, know the present, andreshape it for a better future for the genera-tions to come.

India is fortunate to have an unimpeachableand exemplary legacy of mutual relationships withthe East Asian region. What has sustained thismutuality for ages? It cannot just be trade andcommerce alone; though they remain a very strongcementing factor. We have to only delineate theessence of mutually constructive partnerships bothin the past and the present. Initiatives like the ‘ActEast’ policy deserve appreciation and strengthen-ing, besides a constant vigil on elements who maybe apprehensive about these developments.

Rabindranath Tagore had mentioned in oneof his lectures that “it was often alleged that Asiawill never progress as it has turned its face back-ward.” This acquisition has been proved wrong byJapan, China and India. Equally, if not more effec-tively, the South-East Asia region has proved itwrong. All nations have moved ahead withouteither disregard for their past or ignoring newknowledge. People of this region are not perpet-ually lost in the sweet slumber of the glory of the

past; oblivious to the need to move ahead in timesand with times. Probably realising this, MahatmaGandhi had indicated that he would keep the win-dows and doors of his house open for fresh air— of ideas and knowledge — but refused to beblown off his feet by any. It is one thing to be proudof one’s history, culture, tradition of knowledge,growth, scriptures and literature but it is also nec-essary to examine whether all of this alone is suf-ficient for the times ahead?

Present international relationships requirea very sensitive recall of the past and a realisa-tion that these are the times of “equality of part-nerships”, which must be dexterously har-monised and sustained. There are unique fea-tures in every culture, region, religion and civil-isation. When dealing with Asian countries, oneis often tempted to recall how Indian influencehas reached far and beyond the sea shores, with-out any bloodshed and coercion. It was not partof any conquest or converting people to one pre-ferred religion or “salvaging the souls of the sav-ages” but an organised, respectful and mutual-ly beneficial interaction and exchange of ideasand knowledge among equals. Trade and com-merce featured prominently and strengthenedbonds with the international community.Knowledge exchange brought people togetherin rather close bonds that went beyond the mun-dane requirements of human existence.

This makes one understand how scholarship,knowledge and wisdom can be exchanged to ben-efit both the interacting parties, lead to better andhigher comprehension of humanity, happiness andharnessing respectfully the bounties of nature. Inknowledge exchange, one can benefit only whenboth sides are respectful to each other, none isobsessed with being the giver, but are ready toaccept knowledge and wisdom from the other sideas well. The wisdom of the East does not belongjust to one country of the region ie, India. Onewould be uncomfortable if in any reference to theglorious past of ours and its vast spread beyondthe Indian borders, it is presented as everything

flowing from “us” and being received by “them.”Take for example, Indonesia or Thailand.

One can say that these nations have far bettercomprehension of the need to sustain culturalcontinuity than we Indians. In Thailand, Ram,Ram Lila and Ayodhya enjoy respect at a levelas is not — repeat not — being extended by alarge number of Indians. The manner in whichIndonesians have sustained and refined their cul-ture presents much to be learnt by Indians. TheGita and Yoga could earn respect all around theglobe but in India, one cannot include even acouple of shlokas — fully and totally secular —in the school text books.

Who are culturally more advanced? Are weready to learn from others? Or are we too happywith our dream of becoming a Vishwa Guru again?In recollecting, refreshing and re-envisioningIndia’s relationship with Asian countries, the firstcaution is to forget the psyche of being the giver,being the Vishwa Guru. This concept — whendevoid of the connected responsibility to set ourown house in order — can create negative vibesamong other people. We must now accept thatknowledge, both secular and temporal, has beencreated and discovered in all parts of the globe —time, measure and magnitude can differ. AncientIndians had really toiled hard on the terrain ofknowledge quest and earned respect from all over.Are we doing the same now? This aspect shouldbe paramount in present-day considerations.

A strife-torn world today must be lookingtowards India, conscious of its unique historicalstanding as a nation that had learnt to live togeth-er with every conceivable diversity, like that of eth-nicity, language, religion and culture. The Westis now facing problems arising out of a necessityto learn to live together with diversities. These havereached their doorsteps because of globalisation,ease of mobility in seeking greener pastures andhave also forced migrations in search of securityand livelihood. If India was still high on its recordof social cohesion and religious amity, on adher-ence to joint family systems and social security,

on basing its democracy on values defined byGandhi and the spirit of freedom struggle, thesenations would have flocked to India to learn more.

Deeply satisfied, they declare India as theirguru without the latter itself making a claim. Ifwe were a learning hub and had ancient higherlearning institutions like Nalanda, Taxila andVikramshila among others, the continuity of ourgurudom would have been unchallenged. Indianeeds to become a great global learning hub.Swami Vivekananda presented India’s past gloryto the world, the values it had adhered to in thepast and the concern it had shown towards thewelfare of all without any discrimination.Vivekananda received global acclaim and admi-ration. He knew that this alone was not sufficient.He established the Ramakrishna Mission world-wide. Yes, you have to create institutions that pre-pare the people and give them true education. Letthem comprehend that “education is the perfec-tion already in man.”

Tagore had predicted that “India is destinedto be the teacher of the world.” He did not trav-el the globe to declare that India would be theVishwa Guru. Instead, he established institutionsthat had all the ingredients of a gurukula andevery feature of a modern-day internationalknowledge hub. Similarly, this aspect was elab-orated by Sri Aurobindo. He predicted that“India will be the moral leader of the world.”He established the Auroville Ashram inPondicherry. All of these examples must giveus an idea of how international relationships canindeed be given a sound cultural knowledge andspiritual base, to strengthen the moral basis ofrelationships. It was the continuity of this moraltradition that Gandhi included “commerce with-out morality” and “wealth without work”among the seven social sins that he publishedin 1925. Incidentally, it also included “knowl-edge without character.” India needs to relearn,and create knowledge hubs of its own.

(The writer is the Indian Representative on theExecutive Board of UNESCO)

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During my last trip to the USin 2018, I noticed that thecurrent affairs sections of

almost all major book stores in theAmerican cities that I visited car-ried quite a few titles on ‘Whitepower populism.’ Most of thesebooks were alarming in their con-tent and tone. This was a stark con-trast to what one often found on thesame shelves some five years ago.Most of them used to be stackedwith books on ‘Islamic’ fundamen-talism and terrorism. The contentof these books, too, had been large-ly alarming in nature, written aswarnings about a phenomenonwhich was already tearing manyMuslim countries apart and threat-ening Western societies.

After facing numerous terrorist

attacks, death tolls and socio-polit-ical fissures triggered by extremistassaults on civilians and securitypersonnel, most Muslim countrieseventually came round to chal-lenge the grave existentialist threatand attacks posed by extremists.These states did this through someunprecedented military operationsand related political and judicialmanoeuvres. But whereas the situ-ation in the most affected countries— such as Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey,Saudi Arabia and Algeria — wasgradually brought under control andmajor extremist outfits were takenout, the situation in other affectedcountries such as Afghanistan,Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria and,to a certain extent, Mauritania, isstill somewhat precarious.

In his 1992 book, The Failure ofPolitical Islam, the French politicalscientist and author Olivier Roywrote that the more coherent ide-ologies formed from the 1940sonwards and derived from thewritings of radical Islamic scholarssuch as Rashid Rida, Hassan Al-Banna, Abul Ala Maududi, SayyidQutb, Ruholla Khomeini and Hasan

Al-Tarabi all peaked in the late1970s and across the 1980s.

They contributed in the engi-neering of what came to be knownas “political Islam”, which advocat-ed the formation of “Islamic states”through both conventional as wellas revolutionary political means.But according to Roy, as this strandof political Islam reached a crescen-do — especially during the ‘Afghanjihad’ against Soviet forces inAfghanistan — there was also itsfragmentation and eventual decline.Roy wrote that after the Sovietforces were forced to pull out ofAfghanistan, emboldened ‘Islamists’,who had fought in Afghanistan,then attempted to create ‘Islamic’revolutions in their own countries.

As the State in their respectivecountries pushed back, however, theIslamists retaliated with violencethrough terrorism. Roy wrote thatfrom being a coherently definedideology, political Islam took amore anarchic and even nihilisticturn. Roy predicted that this forcewould burn out in its own fire andfury. Interestingly, he was writingthis in 1992, nine years before the

tragic 9/11 attacks in New York. Butif we trace the rise and relativedecline of extremist terror in coun-tries such as Pakistan, Algeria,Turkey and Egypt, we can seemuch of Roy’s thesis coming true.

The outfits behind extremistterror in these countries wereentirely nihilistic. They enforcedtheir presence through three mainstratagems: (1) seeding fear throughextreme terror; (2) using variouscriminal activities to financiallysupplement themselves; and (3)manipulating non-militant person-nel in the media, religious circlesand even within the State andGovernment so that they couldrationalise this terror in the main-stream as an outcome of econom-ic issues and ‘lack of Islam’ in theworkings of the State.

But as German academicMarkus Daechsel wrote in his book,The Politics of Self-Expression, thepost-9/11 terror groups had lostinterest in the theory of 20th cen-tury political Islam and were moreinterested in filling a personal emo-tional void; even though theyexplained their acts (and their

nihilistic violence) as a global waragainst ‘infidels.’ Indeed, once theybegan to become engulfed by theirown fires and nihilistic impulses, thestate moved in to push them out.

It is remarkable how similar thetrajectories of White power pop-ulism and the terrorism that it isinspiring, and of ‘Islamic’ extrem-ism are. The narratives of ‘Islamic’extremists are a combination of asuperiority complex derived froman imagined (and largely a histor-ical) Utopian past, and a besiegedmindset — which explains theMuslims as victims of Westernmodernity and immorality. Thenarratives used by White suprema-cists, too, hark back to a past inwhich violent and destructiveevents, such as slavery in the US,apartheid in South Africa and riseof Nazism in Germany, are seen asUtopian epochs which were over-thrown by the Jews, liberals andcommunists. The supremacistsbelieve this status quo was nowbeing maintained by allowing non-White immigrants to settle on“White lands.” So this narrative, too,combines a mythical and Utopian

memory of a past with a sense ofmodern-day victimhood.

Recently, many media andpolitical commentators in the UShave been urging theirGovernment (and those in variousEuropean countries) to start treat-ing violence by individual or col-lective White supremacists just asthey have been doing the violencecoming from ‘jihadists.’ ElenaPokalova, a professor of interna-tional security studies, wrote inForeign Policy in Focus (November2, 2018) that White far-right rad-icalisation needed to be addressedat the same level as Islamist radi-calisation. In a 2018 article for theNew York Times, author and socio-political commentator JanetReitman wrote that despite the ris-ing number of hate crimes andgroups in the US, the country’slaw-enforcement agencies failed todetect their rise and influence. Shewrote that this allowed the prolif-eration of extreme White suprema-cist ideas and related violence.

It can be said that the stage thisstrand of extremism is in the West(or the stage Hindu extremism is in

India) is what ‘jihadist’ extremismwas in Pakistan some 15 years ago.It’s a confusing stage in whichmany sections of society and eventhe intelligentsia are willing to buyinto the victimhood claims of theextremist groups and even act astheir apologists. As a result, the Stateand society spiral down in a flux ofconfusion and inaction, especiallywhen politicians and influencers —who were once on the fringes ofsociety — begin to cultivate andorganise the growing extremistsentiments as a constituency.

Indeed, as Olivier Roy pre-dicted, extreme ideas and groupseventually get engulfed by their ownfires. But Western countries, nowfacing the spectre of White far-rightviolence, should not wait to addressthe problem. Before extremist ideasburn out, they leave behind a trailof death and destruction. Because,remember, before the State andGovernment of Pakistan finallydecided to act against major terrorgroups, over 70,000 Pakistanis hadalready been killed in the nihilisticflames of the extremists.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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Five State-owned banks,including PNB, Bank of

Baroda and Union Bank, onThursday received sharehold-ers' approval for capital infu-sion to the tune of �21,428crore in lieu of preferentialallotment of shares to theGovernment.

This capital infusion is forthe current fiscal ending March31, 2019.

Punjab National Bank(PNB) in a regulatory filingsaid that an extraordinary gen-eral meeting of shareholderswas held on March 28 forobtaining shareholders'approval to issue and allot80,20,63,535 equity shares at apremium of �71.66 per shareamounting up to �5,908 croreon preferential basis to theGovernment.

Bank of Baroda said theFinance Ministry informedabout its decision to infuse cap-ital of �5,042 crore in the bank.

"The capital infusion willbe by way of preferential allot-ment of equity shares (specialsecurities/bonds) of the bankduring 2018-19, asGovernment's investment,"Bank of Baroda said.

Union Bank said: "TheCommittee of Directors forRaising of Capital Funds(CDRCF) of the bank at itsmeeting held on Thursdayconsidered and approved theallotment of 52,15,62,658 equi-ty shares at an issue price of�78.84 aggregating to �4,111.99to Government in accordancewith the applicable provisions."

The board of the Chennai-headquartered Indian OverseasBank (IOB) in an extraordinary

general meeting decided to toallot preferential shares toGovernment to get capital infu-sion of �3,806 crore.

"The Board for Issue ofEquity Share Capital at itsmeeting held today has issuedand allotted 269,54,67,422equity shares at an issue priceof Rs 14.12 per equity share(including premium of �4.12per equity share) toGovernment by way of prefer-ential allotment," IOB said.

With this allotment, theGovernment holding hasincreased from 89.39 per centto 92.52 per cent in the bank,it added.

"This capital infusion willhelp the bank to shore up itscapital adequacy requirementsand enable the bank to build arobust loan book," RSubramaniakumar, MD & CEO,Indian Overseas Bank told PTI.

He also said that variousinitiatives have been taken bythe bank for turnaround andthere was a visible improve-ment in the bank's perfor-

mance as seen in the thirdquarter results.

Subramaniakumar hopedthat the bank will be able toreturn to the black in the nextfiscal year beginning April 1,2019.

Earlier, the bank raised�261 crore to its share capitalin January under EmployeeStock Purchase Scheme (ESPS)in which as much as 92 per centof the employees participatedwhich resulted into over-sub-scription of bank stock.

"With this capital infusionand taking into account thecapital raised through ESPS aswell as sale of non core assets,CRAR (capital to risky assetratio) will improve consider-ably," he said.

Central Bank of India allot-ted 68,72,48,322 equity sharesat �37.25 aggregating upto�2,560 crore.

With this allotment, share-holding of Government hasincreased from 89.40 per centto 91.20, Central Bank of Indiasaid.

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Former NITI Aayog vicechairman Arvind

Panagariya has said the imple-mentation of the CongressParty's ambitious 'Nyay' schemenot only poses a "fiscal chal-lenge" to India's economy butalso has a "serious incentiveproblem".

Congress president RahulGandhi on Tuesday said that itsminimum income guaranteescheme, Nyuntam Aay Yojana(Nyay) assures up to �72,000 ayear or �6,000 a month incometo 20 per cent of India's poor-est families if the party is votedback to power in the Lok Sabhaelections next month.

Panagariya, who served asthe first vice chairman of NITIAayog for two years from 2015to 2017, told PTI that 'Nyay' isdifficult to implement andunlikely to achieve its intend-ed objective.

"It raises three major ques-tions - the incentive compati-bility issue, the fairness issueand fiscal challenge,"Panagariya, an eminent Indian-American economist, said.

But Gandhi said the ‘Nyay’scheme has the twin objectivesof giving money to the 20 percent poorest families andremonetising the economydamaged by the demonetisa-tion in 2016.

Its aim is two-fold. First isto guarantee a minimumincome to the bottom 20 percent families. The second is toremonetise the economy thathas been demonetised byPrime Minister NarendraModi, Gandhi told PTI.

Senior Congress leader andformer finance minister P

Chidambaram on Wednesdaysaid 'enough' economists andexperts had been consultedand they broadly agreed thatIndia has the capacity to imple-ment the scheme.

Former RBI GovernorRaghuram Rajan has said theimplementation of the schemeis possible, Chidambaram said.

"Our calculation showsthat it will not cross 2 per centof the GDP, it will be 1.8 percent of the GDP at any givenpoint of time," he said.

Commenting on thescheme, Panagariya said thetransfer is meant to be �6,000per month per family to 50 mil-lion families and at the sametime, it also guarantees anincome of �12,000 per monthto these families.

"What happens if one fam-ily has an income of only�4,000 and another �8,000 permonth? Will the former thenreceive �8,000 and the latter�4,000 per month? If so, whyshould anyone with incomebelow 12,000 do any work at allsince their incomes will be�12,000 regardless of what theyearn?" he asked.

Interpreted this way, "thereis a serious incentive problemwith the scheme", Panagariyaasserted.

"If the scheme is meant totransfer flat �6,000 per monthto identified families regardlessof the family's earned income,you cannot deliver �12,000per month to families earningless than �6,000," he asserted.

The programme, asannounced by the Congress,guarantees �12,000 per monthin income to the poor, which is�144,000 per year, he said,explaining the fairness issue.

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The rupee slumped 42 paiseto end at 69.30 against the

US dollar on Thursday, itssecond straight session ofdecline, in line with otherAsian currencies amidstrengthening of the green-back.

Most Asian currenciesstruggled amid expectations ofdovish monetary policy stanceby central banks following adeteriorating global economicoutlook.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex) market, therupee opened weak at 69.04and fell further to touch theday's low of 69.35.

It finally finished at 69.30per dollar, down by 42 paiseagainst its previous close.

On Wednesday, the rupeehad weakened marginally by 2paise to end at 68.88 against

the US dollar.Foreign institutional

investors (FIIs) remained netbuyers in the capital markets,putting in �1,481.11 croreWednesday, as per provision-al data.

Meanwhile, brent crudefutures, the global oil bench-mark, fell 1.08 per cent to tradeat $67.10 per barrel.

BSE benchmark Sensexzoomed over 400 points whilethe NSE Nifty reclaimed the11,500 mark Thursday onrobust buying in banking,finance, telecom and ITstocks.

The Financial BenchmarkIndia Private Ltd (FBIL) set thereference rate for therupee/dollar at 69.0038 and forrupee/euro at 77.6868. Thereference rate for rupee/Britishpound was fixed at 91.0280and for rupee/100 Japanese yenat 62.69.

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Private sector ICICI Bank onThursday said it has

launched two instant homeloan products for up to �1crore.

The instantaneous homeloan facilitiy enables cus-tomers to get final sanctionletter for new home loans aswell as for a top up loan in afully-digital way, the banksaid in a release.

'Instant Home Loan'enables pre-approved salariedcustomers of the bank to availloans up to �1 crore for a tenureof up to 30 years (based on theage of the customer) usinginternet banking facility, ICICIBank said.

'Insta Top Up Loan' helpsexisting home loan customersof the bank to avail the facili-ty of topping up loan instanta-neously upto �20 lakh for atenure of up to 10 years in apaperless manner.

The facility helps the cus-tomers get the top up amountdisbursed immediately in theiraccount as compared to theindustry practice of approvingand disbursing a top up homeloan in a few working days, thebank said.

"As a result of our con-tinued endeavour, we havethe largest mortgage portfo-lio among private sectorbanks in the country with thelowest delinquency levels.Instant home loan facilitiesare extensions of this sameendeavour. These facilitieswill help new home buyers aswell as the existing cus-tomers , " ICICI BankExecutive Director AnupBagchi said.

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Markets regulator Sebi hasslapped a total fine of �30

lakh on three directors of SyblyIndustries in a matter related tomanipulation in issuance of glob-al depository receipts (GDRs).

The directors — SatyaPrakash Mittal, MahendraKumar Gupta and SubodhKumar Goel — have been finedfor acting as party to the fraud-ulent scheme, Sebi said in threeseparate orders on Wednesday.

The orders came followinga probe conducted by the reg-ulator to investigate irregular-ities in the company's allotmentof 1.51 million GDR amount-ing to $6.99 million on theLuxembourg Stock Exchangein June 2008.

The entire 1.51 millionGDR were subscribed by onlyone entity, Vintage FZE (nowknown as Alta VistaInternational FZE) uponobtaining loan from EuropeanAmerican Investment Bank(EURAM).

Sebi noted that the threedirectors of the firm along withother directors in its boardmeeting in March 2008 passeda board resolution that autho-rised EURAM Bank to useSybly's GDR proceeds as secu-

rity in connection with the loan.The board also authorised

the firm's managing directorand director Umesh KumarMittal, to sign any application,agreement, etc., as may berequired by EURAM Bank.

Subsequently, a pledgeagreement was signed betweenSybly and EURAM Bankwhereby Sybly pledged theGDR proceeds against the loanavailed by Vintage FZE for sub-scribing to Sybly's GDR.

Sebi noted that Vintagewould not have been able to sub-scribe the GDR issue had Syblynot given such security towardsthe loan taken by Vintage.

The orders further notethat "the arrangement of loanand pledge agreement, whichresulted in the subscription ofGDR issue of Sybly was not dis-closed to the stock exchange ina true and complete mannerbut was reported as misleadingnews to the stock exchange."

In similarly worded sepa-rate orders, Sebi said: "theNoticee by approving the afore-said board resolution in theboard meeting held on March31, 2008, and which subse-quently led to execution of thepledge agreement ... Has actedas a party to the fraudulentscheme."

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The Commerce Ministry hasrecommended imposition

of countervailing duty onChinese tyres for buses and lor-ries, a move aimed at guardingdomestic players from importsthat are subsidised by theneighbouring country.

The Ministry's investiga-tion arm Directorate General ofTrade Remedies (DGTR) in itsfindings after a probe has stat-ed that imposition of definitivecountervailing duty is requiredto offset subsidisation.

"The authority considers itnecessary to recommendimposition of definitive coun-tervailing duty on the importsof the subject goods (NewPneumatic Tyres for Buses andLorries) from China," theDGTR has said in a notifica-tion.

It said since the productalready attracts anti-dumpingduty from China, the amountof countervailing duty to beimposed would be the differ-ence between the quantum ofspecified countervailing andanti-dumping duty payable.

The finance ministry takesfinal call for imposition of theduty.

The direc-torate carriedout the probefollowing com-plaints fromt h eAutomot iveT y r eManufacturer'sAssociation.They have fileda petition onbehalf ofdomestic pro-ducers for

imposition of the duty on theseimports.

The DGTR said thedomestic industry has con-tended that China is providingcountervailable subsidies tothe producers and exporters ofthese tyres.

According to the petitionof the association, subsidies byChina are being provided by

them under different pro-grammes such as grants, taxincentives, preferential lending,export financing and exportcredit, and equity support.

Imports of these tyres fromChina increased to 81,896tonne in 2016-17 from 30,665tonne in 2014-15.

Countervailing duty is acountry-specific duty which isimposed to safeguard thedomestic industry againstunfair trade subsidies provid-ed by the local governments ofthe exporting nations.

India has already imposedcountervailing duty as well asanti-dumping duties on variouskinds of products from China,with which India has a hugetrade deficit.

Trade deficit with Chinaincreased to $63.12 billion in2017-18 from $51.11 billion in2016-17.

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India's merchandise and ser-vices export would touch

$540-billion mark this fiscal,Commerce Minister SureshPrabhu said Thursday.

He said exports are grow-ing at a healthy pace and ship-ments of goods would reachover $330 billion.

Similarly, services exportswould touch about $200 billion,according to Prabhu.

In total, both "merchandiseand services exports puttogether will reach about $540

billion" by the end of this fis-cal, the minister said here at afunction.

During April-February2018-19, the goods exportsgrew by 8.85 per cent to$298.47 billion.

Talking about the stallednegotiations for a free tradeagreement between India andEuropean Union, the ministersaid India is keen to resume thetalks.

"We are really keen to havethis FTA with EU. India willwork to find a workable deal,"he said.

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NTPC Limited (NTPC),the largest power gener-

ating company in India,priced US$ 450 million 5Year bond offering in theinternational markets underits USD 6 billion MediumTerm Note (MTN)Programme on 26th March2019. NTPC’s US$ 6 billionMTN Programme was setup in 2006 and this issuancewas the tenth offering underthe Programme taking thecumulative amount raisedunder the MTN Programmeto US $ 4.30 billion.

Having updated theMTN Programme inDecember 2018, NTPC was

wel l posit ioned to takeadvantage of a supportiveprimary credit market andconducted comprehensivedeal roadshow covering inSingapore, HongKong andLondon from 21st – 25thMarch 2019 to reach out to awide range of fixed incomeglobal investors and toappraise them about compa-nies’ financials and its futureplans. Based on the investorsfeedback, NTPC launched aUSD 450 million senior,unsecured, fixed rate Reg-S 5year bond transaction withan initial price guidance ofCurrent 5Y US Treasuriesyields (CT5) plus 185 bpsarea on 26th March 2019(Asia open).

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Page 11: ˆ(ˇ + ,-./ ˇ / ˛ 2ˆ %7)0: )319;4 0;ˇ) 03 97 4˙ ˙90: ˙:ˇ3 ... · Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’ aapko ... Market, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar come under New Delhi

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India’s second largest IT ser-vices firm Infosys on

Thursday said it would acquire75% stake in ABN AMROBank’s wholly-owned subsidiary,Stater,, for 127.5 million euros(about �989 crore). Both thecompanies have signed anagreement to this effect.Founded in 1997, Stater providesend-to-end mortgage adminis-tration services in theNetherlands, Belgium andGermany.

As part of the deal, Infosyswill acquire 75% of the share-holding in Stater, while ABNAMRO will continue to hold theremaining 25%, Infosys said ina statement. Infosys said thepartnership was in alignmentwith its strategy to strengthen itsmortgage servicing capabilitiesin Continental Europe.

The transaction is expectedto close during the first quarterof fiscal 2020, subject to cus-tomary closing conditions, itadded. “This transactionstrengthens our approach tooffer clients digital platforms andindustry focused solutions. Itbrings together our comple-mentary capabilities to enhancethe value we offer to our finan-cial services clients,” Infosys

president Mohit Joshi said.The current management

team of Stater will continue tosteer the company, Infosysadded. “While mortgages are akey product for ABN AMRO,providing administrative mort-gage services is not a core activ-ity. That’s why we are verypleased with Infosys as Stater’snew majority shareholder.

“ABN AMRO will keep astrategic interest of 25% and willcontinue to be an importantclient to Stater,” said ChristianBornfeld, member of the exec-utive board of ABN AMRO.Infosys said mortgage serviceswas a focus area for large cor-porations in the financial sec-tor, given the importance of theasset on a bank’s balance sheet.

In a regulatory filing,Infosys said it would have therights of a majority sharehold-er as part of the terms of theshareholders’ agreement. Thisincludes the right to appointmajority of directors in thesupervisory board, right to sub-scribe to new shares, right offirst refusal in the event oftransfer of shares, right torestrict amendment of articles,issuance, redemption and repur-chase of shares, merger, demerg-er, bankruptcy or Liquidationamong others, it added.

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State-owned Power FinanceCorporation (PFC) on

Thursday completed the acqui-sition of majority stake in RECLtd. by transferring �14,500crore to the government, anofficial said. The transactionhas helped the governmentmeet its disinvestment target of

�80,000 crore for the currentfinancial year.

“The entire considerationof �14,500 crore for acquiring52.63% equity of the Govern-ment of India in REC is paid byPFC through RTGS (real-timegross settlement) mode thismorning,” the official told PTI.The official said PFC chairmanand managing director Rajeev

Sharma handed over the RTGSadvice to Power Secretary AKBhalla on Thursday to com-plete the acquisition. Themoney has been transferredinto the government’s accountonline.

The official further said thegovernment’s 52.63% equity inREC would be transferred inthe name of the PFC by the

closing of the stock market onThursday. PFC has raisedmoney from Bank of Baroda,Life Insurance Corporationand State Bank of India, amongothers, to make the payment.

Earlier on March 20, PFChad inked a share purchaseagreement to acquire 103.94crore equity shares of �10 eachof REC Ltd.

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Benchmark indices ratch-eted higher on Thursdayas banking, finance and

IT stocks surged amid expiry ofMarch series derivatives con-tracts.

The BSE Sensex vaulted412.84 points, or 1.08%, toclose at 38,545.72, while thebroader NSE Nifty settled at11,570, higher by 124.95 pointsor 1.09%.

Rate-sensitive banking,realty and auto counters spurt-ed on expectations of a rate cutby RBI next week, brokers said.

Heavy short-covering onexpiry of March series futuresand options (F&O) contractsalso buoyed investor senti-ment, they added.

Global equities were mixedamid a fall in bond yields,underscoring recession fears.

The 30-share Sensex, aftera positive start at 38,208.30,stayed in the green throughoutthe session, with buying pacegathering momentum towardsthe end.

In the Sensex pack, gainersincluded HCL Tech, SBI, ITC,Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, YesBank, Axis Bank, TCS, AsianPaints, ICICI Bank, TCS, BajajFinance and Infosys, jumpingup to 3.84%.

On the other hand, TataSteel, ONGC, Bajaj Auto,PowerGrid, M&M and HeroMotoCorp fell up to 1.73%.

“Benchmark indices out-performed the broader indiceson the expiry day supported by

banks and IT. Bank Nifty pro-pelled to a new high in expec-tation of rate cut from RBI nextweek and recapitalisation ofbanks. Besides, the slide inIndia’s 10-year bond yield fur-ther raised the possibility ofrate cut.

“Global economic growthconcerns and Fed’s dovish viewon rates will give a positiveimpetus to emerging marketslike India,” said Vinod Nair,head of research at GeojitFinancial Services.

Except metal and power, allBSE sectoral indices finishedwith gains, led by realty, teck,IT, bank and finance.

On a net basis, foreignportfolio investors (FPIs)bought shares worth �1,481.11crore on Wednesday, and

domestic institutional investors(DIIs) were net buyers to thetune of �134.92 crore, provi-sional data available with theBSE showed.

The rupee, meanwhile,depreciated 11 paise against theUS dollar to 68.99 (intra-day).

Elsewhere in Asia, HongKong’s Hang Seng climbed0.16% while Japan’s Nikkei fell1.61%, Shanghai CompositeIndex declined 0.92%, andKorea’s Kospi slipped 0.82%.

In the Eurozone, Frankfurt’sDAX gained 0.50% and ParisCAC 40 was up 0.35% in morn-ing trade. London’s FTSE toojumped 0.73%.

The benchmark Brentcrude futures were tradinglower by 0.37% at USD 67.58per barrel.

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New Delhi (PTI): S&P Global Ratings has downgraded thecredit rating of Tata Motors and its wholly-owned subsidiaryJaguar Land Rover (JLR), citing weak profitability, Tata Motorssaid on Thursday. “We would like to inform that based on S&PGlobal Ratings, the credit rating of the company and Jaguar LandRover Automotive Plc has been downgraded,” the company saidin a regulatory filing. The rating agency cited weakness in prof-itability of JLR as the main reason for downgrading credit rat-ing of Tata Motors and its British arm. S&P cut its rating on seniorunsecured notes of JLR and Tata Motors to ‘B+’ from ‘BB-’.

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New Delhi (PTI): Apparelbrand W, a part of TCNSClothing Co Ltd, is eyeing upto 20% of its revenue from saleof products made from sus-tainable fabrics in the next 18-24 months.

“Sustainability in fashion isa relatively newer concept. We areexperimenting with differentkind of sustainable fabrics. Weexpect revenue from productsmade from sustainable fabrics todouble in the 18-24 months to10-20% from about 5-10% at pre-sent,” TCNS Clothing Co man-aging director Anant Daga toldPTI. The company on Thursdayannounced an exclusive part-nership with Aditya Birla Group’sLivaeco brand. Last year W hadlaunched a new line of HaritKhadi products styled by thecompany. “These sustainableproducts are priced at a premi-

um, but we have seen greatresponse from customers forHarit Khadi products. We wantto give the customers the choiceabout the kind of fabric they wantto buy,” Daga added.

Aditya Birla Group seniorpresident Manohar Samuel said:“We are launching our newestoffering Livaeco exclusively withW, which has created a collectionthat embodies our focus on sus-tainability and high fashion todelight the customers”. TCNSClothing sells its productsthrough 521 exclusive brandoutlets across 1,598 large formatstores across Shoppers Stop,Pantaloons, Lifestyle, Central,among others and 1,496 multi-brand outlets as of December 31,2018. The company plans to open70-80 exclusive brand outlets inthe next fiscal for its brand W andAurelia, Daga said.

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Script Open High Low LTPSUZLON 6.65 6.75 6.43 6.50DHFL 137.50 155.00 137.40 149.40RPOWER 10.45 10.75 10.42 10.67JPASSOCIAT 5.42 5.58 5.23 5.33YESBANK 270.00 276.90 268.40 275.20IBULHSGFIN 755.00 824.00 755.00 814.95SBIN 310.00 319.90 309.15 318.40SPICEJET 96.75 100.00 95.65 99.60RCOM 4.35 4.35 4.35 4.35GRUH 270.75 275.25 259.85 272.50JUBILANT 651.10 676.00 650.00 654.60IBVENTURES 289.00 323.90 289.00 314.50GRAPHITE 418.00 456.30 418.00 444.90RELIANCE 1350.00 1369.90 1343.35 1360.55JETAIRWAYS 276.00 276.00 267.55 269.35HEG 1999.00 2164.05 1990.00 2121.05BANKBARODA 121.95 130.40 121.55 129.60IDEA 28.60 29.90 28.25 29.00INFY* 730.00 745.00 730.00 738.50RELCAPITAL 203.45 208.00 200.10 201.50ITC 294.95 301.50 293.15 300.00ICICIPRULI 336.10 354.75 336.10 351.85L&TFH 155.00 155.45 151.70 153.50PNB 93.50 95.70 93.45 95.35IDBI 42.35 45.05 42.35 44.50AXISBANK 762.15 788.55 757.50 780.20RELINFRA 132.75 135.90 131.15 135.15TATAMOTORS 169.70 171.45 167.50 170.60JUSTDIAL 597.10 621.10 597.10 612.40ASHOKLEY 85.90 89.20 85.35 88.50ANDHRABANK 28.00 28.00 27.30 27.80MARUTI 6564.00 6618.00 6507.00 6585.70SUNPHARMA 467.80 479.90 465.05 475.75DABUR 411.35 417.15 407.50 412.05TATASTEEL 514.85 516.50 505.60 507.00ZEEL 426.00 444.35 426.00 441.90ICICIBANK 392.80 401.25 392.80 400.00RAIN 97.25 104.25 96.60 101.80TCS 1978.00 2010.95 1972.40 2000.45M&M 660.10 663.30 653.60 656.90CANBK 285.00 298.35 283.80 295.10IFCI 13.19 13.75 13.10 13.65BAJAJ-AUTO 2985.00 3020.00 2911.00 2941.15PETRONET 235.40 245.60 235.35 244.20NBCC 65.70 65.70 64.10 65.00VEDL 177.80 178.95 175.75 178.05MUTHOOTFIN 602.65 613.55 597.00 609.00IDFCFIRSTB 53.55 54.85 53.00 54.45BHEL 71.80 72.30 71.00 71.50LT 1368.00 1390.00 1365.00 1384.05INDUSINDBK 1819.90 1835.00 1778.00 1819.95BOMDYEING 137.60 141.70 136.60 138.15AVANTI 424.00 437.00 417.00 421.30DLF 191.00 197.70 191.00 193.95WIPRO 255.95 257.90 253.80 254.60HDFCBANK 2300.20 2327.00 2285.75 2300.55HCLTECH 1044.95 1090.00 1044.95 1082.25HEROMOTOCO 2589.00 2589.00 2517.20 2532.05ALBK 53.45 55.40 52.00 54.65ADANIPORTS 369.95 383.00 368.30 380.90BAJFINANCE 2943.00 2996.00 2942.00 2989.65ESCORTS 819.00 820.00 790.20 794.25NTPC 137.00 139.00 135.30 135.85PHILIPCARB 173.00 181.50 172.75 177.45HDFCLIFE 371.10 373.25 368.45 371.05BANKINDIA 103.10 106.30 102.90 105.60UNIONBANK 93.80 97.00 93.00 96.55KOTAKBANK 1334.00 1352.50 1329.95 1341.00ONGC 160.25 160.95 156.25 157.60TECHM 770.00 782.10 769.10 771.85GMRINFRA 19.90 20.40 19.40 20.00BANDHANBNK 498.00 530.00 496.00 521.25INOXLEISUR 324.00 334.90 322.00 328.00LUPIN 726.00 730.00 720.40 724.70PCJEWELLER 80.95 82.80 80.25 82.30BEML 966.50 997.20 966.00 991.25EDELWEISS 192.00 196.55 189.10 193.70HINDPETRO 269.70 279.55 269.70 276.05WOCKPHARMA 429.35 437.20 426.70 432.55IOC 161.60 164.00 160.60 161.65INDIGO 1400.40 1448.45 1390.00 1441.35TAKE 134.00 145.55 134.00 143.45RECLTD 149.00 151.15 147.00 149.30GODREJPROP 889.00 889.00 855.05 866.60BIOCON 600.00 608.00 592.15 606.45DISHTV 36.45 39.70 36.30 39.00RBLBANK 672.05 686.70 671.65 684.20DELTACORP 258.00 263.05 258.00 261.05SIEMENS 1074.00 1093.00 1065.20 1087.50WELCORP 135.00 136.55 130.10 131.90BATAINDIA 1375.50 1425.65 1369.00 1412.60JAICORPLTD 113.55 117.70 113.55 116.75VGUARD 224.40 230.80 221.50 224.00ORIENTBANK 114.30 115.45 112.30 114.90DCAL 209.00 210.00 203.00 210.00BALKRISIND 963.80 990.95 960.65 981.65ABCAPITAL 101.20 101.85 98.00 99.00FEDERALBNK 92.70 94.00 91.40 93.55TITAN 1115.00 1135.00 1112.15 1134.00HINDUNILVR 1684.90 1690.00 1675.00 1684.30BHARTIARTL 323.00 333.15 318.25 330.45IBREALEST 90.00 92.70 89.85 91.40EXIDEIND 225.75 228.90 220.00 221.20GAIL 355.00 363.00 345.35 358.30ISGEC 553.10 580.00 553.10 569.15BAJAJFINSV 7008.00 7020.00 6864.75 6953.05JINDALSTEL 167.90 168.55 164.00 164.85HDFC 1922.50 1950.35 1915.00 1941.40

SOUTHBANK 16.00 16.60 15.90 16.49PEL 2660.00 2708.00 2620.00 2698.00GODREJCP 695.00 700.00 691.00 693.70PFC 117.10 119.50 116.60 117.55MOTHERSUMI 142.90 146.30 142.65 145.80LTI 1671.05 1697.00 1655.75 1683.85JSWSTEEL 286.50 290.00 284.05 287.70INDIACEM 101.75 103.15 101.50 102.35BLISSGVS 167.20 183.00 166.00 178.05SRTRANSFIN 1258.40 1292.75 1253.80 1276.80MPHASIS 948.05 975.90 941.15 961.65TATAMTRDVR 85.00 85.55 84.10 85.25SAIL 50.50 51.00 50.15 50.55MGL 1021.10 1044.00 1014.00 1039.60INDIANB 263.80 280.00 261.55 276.45COALINDIA 233.60 237.25 232.90 235.55SYNDIBANK 40.85 43.30 40.45 42.85STAR 463.95 469.45 458.50 464.95GNFC 306.20 314.30 305.35 312.25FORCEMOT 1680.00 1728.00 1675.00 1706.60MANAPPURAM 121.75 126.60 121.75 126.55ASIANPAINT 1482.00 1505.00 1473.70 1501.00NCC 113.45 113.95 111.00 111.45HINDALCO 208.00 208.10 202.10 202.90OBEROIRLTY 524.00 541.25 524.00 533.80PIDILITIND 1228.00 1244.25 1219.00 1223.15ICICIGI 996.15 1010.10 996.00 998.75HEXAWARE 335.50 339.50 335.50 337.20BRITANNIA 3100.00 3113.95 3029.90 3087.85TATAPOWER 71.95 72.60 71.05 71.40STRTECH 219.10 222.50 218.80 219.60SPARC 192.10 198.40 192.10 194.45AMBUJACEM 232.00 234.60 227.90 231.75RCF 59.80 60.20 58.80 59.15SUNTECK 459.95 464.50 454.65 459.50CENTRALBK 32.05 36.05 32.05 34.70BEL 92.95 93.20 91.80 92.45M&MFIN 433.00 435.30 425.45 428.50BHARATFORG 494.70 497.00 488.10 494.60BPCL 379.90 388.85 378.70 385.35OIL 181.65 186.00 180.65 184.75FSL 48.90 49.35 47.75 47.95ADANIGREEN 35.15 37.55 35.00 35.80TATAELXSI 954.45 964.80 949.05 959.80UPL 907.90 936.00 896.60 927.05VIPIND 484.00 485.75 472.75 482.25SUNTV 592.00 607.90 589.00 606.00KTKBANK 131.50 134.45 131.50 133.55TRIDENT 68.55 70.45 68.00 68.50APOLLOHOSP 1155.00 1191.95 1154.50 1190.00

NMDC 103.05 103.90 100.80 101.50WESTLIFE 427.00 441.00 422.95 439.80INTELLECT 205.00 213.40 205.00 208.85LICHSGFIN 535.00 536.75 527.30 535.10PVR 1609.25 1658.10 1609.00 1636.65GSFC 101.00 103.60 100.80 102.10UBL 1370.00 1385.20 1337.35 1370.50INFIBEAM 41.55 42.60 41.50 42.40NATIONALUM 53.25 53.75 53.00 53.00FRETAIL 467.00 467.00 451.00 455.00JISLJALEQS 56.85 58.85 56.55 58.40ACC 1599.00 1624.00 1587.55 1620.00JMFINANCIL 94.00 95.35 93.55 94.10EICHERMOT 21039.50 21288.80 20793.85 20881.60DIVISLAB 1674.30 1678.65 1642.00 1663.00AMARAJABAT 725.20 731.75 713.10 717.30DRREDDY 2765.00 2765.00 2710.00 2716.80CGPOWER 43.25 44.10 42.50 43.80POWERGRID 199.45 199.95 196.50 197.90ADANIPOWER 46.95 47.55 46.60 46.95ASHOKA 132.20 132.90 128.00 129.70RADICO 397.80 406.00 395.00 400.65HINDZINC 271.50 278.00 268.40 276.40IDFC 46.50 47.30 45.85 46.90CEATLTD 1080.05 1095.00 1070.80 1087.20HFCL 23.15 23.50 22.60 22.90DBL 670.00 673.80 645.00 646.95ASTERDM 156.20 156.20 150.55 152.50OMAXE 208.95 208.95 205.00 205.95REPCOHOME 470.00 481.40 461.25 469.45AUROPHARMA 774.50 777.30 766.05 770.10JUBLFOOD 1444.10 1465.00 1437.80 1459.35PHOENIXLTD 638.85 680.85 638.85 645.20RNAM 197.20 204.80 197.20 202.95IPCALAB 919.75 970.00 914.85 970.00HAVELLS 753.65 763.50 747.95 759.50

IRB 142.00 145.00 141.35 143.80VOLTAS 626.65 633.50 622.80 623.40TVSMOTOR 460.00 475.00 459.80 474.00SFL 1230.10 1262.25 1206.00 1254.35CANFINHOME 338.55 347.00 337.20 347.00UJJIVAN 340.00 340.40 336.00 336.60VENKYS 2340.05 2362.00 2312.65 2316.95J&KBANK 48.45 54.05 48.10 52.95LTTS 1460.00 1549.90 1460.00 1540.05MERCK 3500.00 3618.00 3475.00 3558.15MINDTREE 947.45 950.10 935.60 941.15BAJAJELEC 569.90 572.00 561.00 566.40IGL 305.00 310.90 305.00 307.55MAGMA 117.95 121.80 116.95 119.50MEGH 61.65 63.10 61.50 61.80CIPLA 526.95 530.00 522.75 526.80MCX 785.20 813.45 784.55 806.75CHOLAFIN 1428.15 1454.50 1418.05 1447.00NIITTECH 1310.00 1338.00 1310.00 1324.00AJANTPHARM 1025.00 1029.15 990.95 1022.25GRANULES 118.00 119.90 115.10 116.50APOLLOTYRE 212.00 218.45 212.00 217.70MANPASAND 121.80 123.45 119.00 119.25HIMATSEIDE 222.80 223.00 213.00 213.15ULTRACEMCO 3900.00 3970.00 3899.25 3911.60DMART 1480.00 1483.00 1465.65 1469.00GRASIM 829.00 840.60 824.50 830.50NESTLEIND 10900.00 11100.00 10813.25 11027.90CORPBANK 28.00 29.25 28.00 28.75NOCIL 147.00 149.00 145.55 146.70ISEC 245.00 251.70 240.90 242.65THOMASCOOK 241.95 247.00 239.00 247.00GUJGAS 145.00 145.00 143.10 144.30MFSL 451.90 452.50 435.00 438.65AARTIIND 1585.00 1587.50 1538.00 1548.40GICHSGFIN 275.00 278.00 267.25 270.35BBTC 1290.00 1311.00 1278.00 1283.00GUJFLUORO 1062.95 1085.05 1062.95 1082.10CENTURYTEX 902.00 913.00 898.00 909.00TATACHEM 584.35 589.00 579.00 589.00ADANITRANS 209.70 219.45 209.70 217.65AUBANK 574.05 588.80 570.60 588.00SHANKARA 408.00 418.35 407.00 408.00TATAGLOBAL 198.10 200.45 197.00 199.70PAGEIND 24730.05 24802.50 23793.30 24800.00KEC 299.95 306.00 295.65 304.80BAJAJHLDNG 3268.35 3750.00 3254.40 3553.00TATAMETALI 622.25 636.60 618.10 627.30KANSAINER 455.00 455.00 446.60 449.00ENGINERSIN 116.10 117.30 115.00 115.90KEI 425.10 428.10 412.50 423.50NIACL 192.15 198.85 187.10 191.80PNBHOUSING 826.35 835.00 824.35 825.75GODREJIND 542.40 545.25 535.85 541.50WELSPUNIND 60.60 61.45 59.20 59.45DCMSHRIRAM 415.00 419.00 409.55 414.95MINDAIND 340.00 343.00 333.50 334.95RAYMOND 800.00 806.15 792.00 797.90BHARATFIN 1144.00 1146.30 1117.00 1135.35EQUITAS 135.95 136.00 134.00 135.60KALPATPOWR 476.00 489.00 470.20 473.25DCBBANK 204.00 205.40 202.45 204.95TORNTPOWER 252.40 253.95 248.50 249.50INDOSTAR 368.95 389.00 367.25 382.30TV18BRDCST 34.70 35.15 34.50 35.00NLCINDIA 69.45 71.50 67.85 69.55MOTILALOFS 600.00 601.00 591.75 595.05KSCL 453.00 461.80 450.65 456.50GHCL 247.00 247.00 240.80 241.45FORTIS 137.45 139.05 135.45 136.25SRF 2430.15 2465.55 2430.15 2454.15CASTROLIND 164.45 165.50 162.70 164.20NAVKARCORP 40.90 42.00 39.80 40.15CUMMINSIND 740.30 749.75 735.45 742.75ABB 1327.00 1330.00 1307.05 1315.00HUDCO 43.20 44.85 43.20 44.60COLPAL 1262.00 1270.50 1250.10 1253.65APLLTD 528.10 530.15 517.35 520.05CHAMBLFERT 172.00 173.50 167.80 168.15GSPL 177.05 184.85 176.60 183.35GODREJAGRO 514.25 517.50 508.15 509.00JSWENERGY 69.80 69.80 68.05 68.80SREINFRA 28.90 29.80 28.35 29.45SHK 153.00 154.00 147.80 151.65PRESTIGE 249.10 255.90 249.00 250.00BERGEPAINT 321.80 327.45 321.80 325.00HSCL 114.00 117.95 114.00 116.10HINDCOPPER 48.80 49.10 48.30 48.40LEMONTREE 80.35 82.45 80.05 81.75TORNTPHARM 1895.45 1937.25 1894.00 1931.05UCOBANK 19.00 19.35 18.80 19.05DEEPAKFERT 134.05 137.70 134.05 136.50SOBHA 473.05 485.00 472.70 478.50SWANENERGY 106.85 110.80 106.85 108.00CADILAHC 332.50 338.00 330.80 335.75GODFRYPHLP 1120.55 1143.70 1120.55 1137.10LAURUSLABS 401.00 405.00 400.00 403.10PERSISTENT* 630.00 649.65 627.20 635.05JBCHEPHARM 359.90 363.15 351.20 355.00MOIL 153.55 158.00 153.45 157.55MARICO 335.50 340.95 334.25 338.35SONATSOFTW 339.00 345.00 334.05 335.90KRBL 354.05 358.00 336.35 341.25ITI 94.25 95.80 94.05 94.50CHENNPETRO 260.50 267.60 258.25 267.20WHIRLPOOL 1518.00 1542.10 1477.40 1494.35SBILIFE 621.50 623.55 614.05 616.65APLAPOLLO 1381.20 1470.75 1381.20 1450.00GUJALKALI 497.00 511.50 494.50 496.80

TATACOMM 603.30 613.25 595.95 607.40CONCOR 519.00 519.00 501.30 511.10ASTRAL 1160.30 1163.45 1134.00 1134.10DEEPAKNI 275.00 278.65 273.15 273.15TIMETECHNO 104.65 107.25 102.20 103.45SYNGENE 585.35 599.05 568.40 590.75EIDPARRY 200.00 205.70 200.00 205.00ALLCARGO 114.10 119.00 114.10 117.40JKTYRE 90.50 90.50 89.40 90.00JSL 39.10 39.35 38.40 38.75JINDALSAW 85.00 86.75 84.70 84.90LAKSHVILAS 64.25 64.50 63.25 64.10FDC 169.95 173.80 164.40 164.60GSKCONS 6930.15 7295.00 6921.95 7181.00ABFRL 223.15 225.50 220.00 221.05NBVENTURES 103.25 104.00 101.75 102.40HAL 738.00 738.00 715.00 720.15AIAENG 1766.00 1855.10 1766.00 1832.75MAXINDIA 68.50 69.40 68.30 69.00EMAMILTD 399.25 405.20 394.00 394.00KAJARIACER 575.00 578.25 566.75 572.00NATCOPHARM* 561.95 570.00 560.00 565.75GICRE 244.75 244.85 237.40 239.55QUESS 769.35 769.35 734.30 745.05PTC 73.50 74.15 73.40 73.65INDHOTEL 151.55 152.50 149.60 150.50HERITGFOOD 524.05 549.00 517.85 533.70INFRATEL 317.80 319.50 314.25 317.60SUVEN 265.90 267.90 260.80 262.05HSIL 252.00 255.30 247.00 248.35COCHINSHIP 391.85 398.20 385.05 394.85CENTURYPLY 199.95 203.95 199.35 203.00BAJAJCON 316.95 318.00 312.00 312.00NAVINFLUOR 716.00 727.00 709.10 710.10SYMPHONY 1390.00 1415.00 1385.15 1392.75PRSMJOHNSN 91.90 94.50 91.70 93.55BASF 1444.75 1494.90 1405.70 1489.50GREAVESCOT 141.95 143.60 139.25 139.50ADVENZYMES 177.00 177.00 168.50 168.85FCONSUMER 44.95 45.60 44.75 45.05UFLEX 215.15 218.00 213.40 215.45RAJESHEXPO 670.00 675.00 665.25 672.65TIINDIA 381.00 386.80 362.65 380.00SCHNEIDER 102.95 104.20 101.00 101.90MRPL 73.55 74.95 72.30 73.15TTKPRESTIG 8390.00 8592.00 8380.00 8591.00NHPC 24.60 24.80 24.50 24.60CROMPTON 214.15 222.35 214.15 219.10MMTC 27.85 28.25 27.85 28.00IOB 13.90 14.31 13.90 14.27PFIZER 3250.00 3310.00 3229.75 3260.00GLENMARK 642.50 651.00 637.45 650.00WABAG 326.00 328.05 323.85 327.85CAPPL 411.90 411.90 400.40 401.00HEIDELBERG 177.25 180.00 174.80 178.75TEJASNET 170.50 173.55 167.00 173.55GREENPLY 154.50 155.75 151.00 151.00JAMNAAUTO 59.40 60.50 59.00 59.70SADBHAV 251.90 254.40 241.10 246.00BIRLACORPN 524.00 525.00 512.00 525.00SUPREMEIND 1114.95 1114.95 1075.05 1097.00SCI 37.45 37.75 37.10 37.70COROMANDEL 499.95 500.00 486.50 494.25CARBORUNIV 388.75 391.00 380.20 391.00CRISIL 1459.55 1475.00 1444.00 1448.10EVEREADY 194.00 198.00 193.25 194.85TRENT 371.05 383.00 364.00 366.95RAMCOCEM 711.00 713.65 702.10 712.00LINDEINDIA 479.55 494.00 479.55 485.00UNITEDBNK 10.99 11.38 10.85 11.21COFFEEDAY 289.00 296.05 284.20 296.05MAHABANK 13.28 13.69 13.28 13.63LALPATHLAB 1070.00 1085.00 1060.00 1060.00PGHH 10750.00 10825.00 10350.25 10610.10AEGISLOG 202.50 204.10 199.55 200.25PARAGMILK 255.00 258.00 255.00 255.55ALKEM 1756.60 1770.00 1748.00 1755.40FORBESCO 2175.00 2235.00 2175.00 2187.15TATACOFFEE 89.90 91.15 89.65 90.20ATUL 3486.00 3553.40 3472.00 3511.20IBULISL 273.45 293.00 273.45 293.00GPPL 101.50 102.00 100.25 100.80SJVN 24.15 24.15 23.70 24.15ENDURANCE 1142.70 1157.20 1142.70 1148.00PIIND 1030.90 1034.40 1018.00 1034.40CUB 202.00 202.95 200.75 201.20NESCO 470.00 494.00 468.00 486.65JSLHISAR 91.70 91.70 89.35 91.30PNCINFRA 148.35 152.55 147.10 148.35

JAGRAN 118.00 119.20 116.55 119.00NAUKRI 1886.00 1901.90 1861.00 1861.00SHREECEM 17900.00 18484.05 17696.75 18249.00BDL 282.05 285.75 281.00 281.65BOSCHLTD 18000.00 18025.25 17850.05 17921.15DHANUKA 407.70 407.70 391.50 392.60EIHOTEL 193.40 202.85 193.00 199.20INOXWIND 63.90 66.75 63.90 66.10SUNDRMFAST 558.00 558.00 549.75 558.00LAXMIMACH 6098.00 6098.00 5998.00 6028.80SUDARSCHEM 338.90 350.00 338.90 350.00ECLERX 1138.00 1150.00 1133.00 1150.00SUNCLAYLTD 2870.00 2900.00 2750.00 2900.00CENTRUM 31.00 33.15 31.00 32.60MAHINDCIE 233.00 240.30 230.00 233.40KNRCON 262.45 263.00 258.00 258.00NETWORK18 34.65 35.25 34.35 34.75REDINGTON 95.45 96.20 95.10 95.90IEX 160.25 164.95 159.95 164.95MAHLOG 509.00 515.00 503.55 509.30OFSS 3374.90 3400.00 3359.35 3363.55VINATIORGA 1645.65 1646.80 1617.40 1639.80CYIENT* 669.00 674.00 650.25 654.95FINCABLES 489.70 491.10 480.00 480.00TIMKEN 583.95 584.30 565.00 566.00SHILPAMED 342.00 347.45 340.00 344.40MINDACORP 140.00 140.00 136.20 137.50GLAXO 1300.00 1300.00 1289.60 1299.80RALLIS 161.55 163.40 160.60 161.70JKCEMENT 836.00 841.90 820.00 841.00MRF 56374.45 56837.25 56000.00 56009.00NILKAMAL 1432.25 1433.00 1411.50 1420.00JKLAKSHMI 355.80 355.80 347.40 347.40JCHAC 1930.00 2045.00 1930.00 2009.60GDL 127.10 131.25 125.00 128.75FINOLEXIND 496.00 501.00 485.80 500.00GILLETTE 6482.00 6650.00 6482.00 6613.85THERMAX 996.30 996.30 982.80 986.90BAYERCROP 4349.70 4350.00 4329.95 4338.20ZYDUSWELL 1316.15 1327.00 1279.05 1289.50BALMLAWRIE 186.80 187.00 184.50 186.00SKFINDIA 1915.60 1979.00 1915.60 1959.55TNPL 209.75 210.65 204.10 205.25STARCEMENT 97.00 100.90 97.00 99.20ZENSARTECH 234.85 235.35 224.40 234.50IFBIND 949.65 971.00 947.00 970.00GRINDWELL 591.10 592.00 570.30 578.95MAHSCOOTER 3450.40 3499.00 3450.40 3483.00ABBOTINDIA 7200.05 7322.60 7200.05 7299.00VBL 815.75 817.90 807.05 810.50GEPIL 812.40 814.90 790.00 810.00SANOFI 5688.90 5847.30 5688.90 5780.00BLUEDART 3421.90 3620.00 3416.50 3537.25GAYAPROJ 153.00 162.50 151.65 159.40NAVNETEDUL 108.75 110.20 108.35 108.85GET&D 261.00 276.25 261.00 274.05DBCORP 187.55 191.45 185.90 188.50SOMANYCERA 410.00 421.50 404.00 421.00SUPPETRO 225.95 232.70 220.20 230.00GMDCLTD 81.75 82.00 81.00 81.00ITDC 280.05 284.70 277.55 281.70CERA 2682.85 2770.00 2680.00 2770.00GULFOILLUB 840.00 840.00 827.00 831.10KPRMILL 549.00 576.65 549.00 567.60LUXIND 1341.30 1355.00 1335.05 1335.05LAOPALA 212.90 218.70 210.95 217.85TATAINVEST 827.85 827.85 824.00 825.60HONAUT 22552.70 22589.00 22251.00 22535.00HATSUN 722.50 722.50 706.95 710.15SOLARINDS 1033.05 1059.00 1023.65 1030.00GESHIP 281.00 286.00 281.00 284.25THYROCARE 515.10 526.15 515.10 524.35ASTRAZEN 1972.75 1972.75 1938.60 1966.00MHRIL 250.00 250.00 243.95 244.65VTL 1066.60 1093.00 1066.60 1092.25SHOPERSTOP 465.05 469.35 462.80 463.05JYOTHYLAB 185.00 185.50 183.35 184.40BLUESTARCO 660.10 672.00 660.10 671.80ITDCEM 130.00 132.00 128.90 132.00ORIENTCEM 82.85 83.20 81.20 82.40CCL 290.35 292.70 285.05 285.20TVTODAY 319.70 320.70 316.30 318.00TVSSRICHAK 2218.95 2240.00 2186.60 2235.00RELAXO 765.00 769.80 760.00 769.80CARERATING 992.00 993.00 989.00 993.00ERIS 623.00 641.00 621.50 640.00SCHAEFFLER 5392.15 5428.50 5345.00 5345.00FLFL 482.30 487.10 480.00 485.00ESSELPRO 114.95 114.95 112.70 114.803MINDIA 23685.05 24073.60 23685.05 23950.65VMART 2685.00 2701.60 2675.00 2675.00MAHLIFE 364.85 364.85 361.40 361.40SHRIRAMCIT 1802.25 1809.50 1789.50 1809.50SUPRAJIT 238.00 240.95 237.00 240.10SHARDACROP 364.00 386.95 358.50 386.00ASAHIINDIA 260.00 263.50 256.40 256.75GALAXYSURF 1051.00 1065.00 1051.00 1065.00APARINDS 665.90 672.00 661.85 672.00TEAMLEASE 3028.20 3028.20 2977.40 2988.30TRITURBINE 107.10 109.00 107.00 107.00TIFHL 483.80 485.75 472.00 472.00WABCOINDIA 6256.05 6395.70 6256.05 6345.00MONSANTO 2585.00 2598.00 2582.00 2598.00SIS 866.60 870.00 855.50 870.00KIOCL 137.05 140.50 136.80 140.50RATNAMANI 886.00 890.00 885.05 890.00NH 215.05 218.40 213.90 217.10AKZOINDIA 1769.70 1789.00 1769.70 1788.80ELGIEQUIP 244.45 245.00 244.00 244.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11463.65 11588.50 11452.45 11570.00 124.95IBULHSGFIN 753.00 823.35 753.00 818.00 67.60ZEEL 426.85 445.00 426.30 443.50 20.45ADANIPORTS 368.85 382.65 366.30 381.00 14.70HCLTECH 1051.40 1088.35 1050.00 1085.00 41.85UPL 905.90 935.95 896.40 934.00 32.10SBIN 310.10 339.65 309.05 319.20 10.40ITC 294.10 302.00 293.00 301.00 7.90HINDPETRO 269.15 279.45 269.15 276.25 7.05BHARTIARTL 322.60 333.00 317.75 330.80 8.30YESBANK 270.65 277.70 268.30 275.10 6.65SUNPHARMA 465.00 479.80 465.00 475.45 10.60BPCL 379.55 389.05 378.35 387.30 8.35AXISBANK 761.10 787.65 757.15 775.80 16.50ASIANPAINT 1473.50 1508.95 1473.50 1500.15 28.10TCS 1980.00 2014.60 1972.80 2004.45 36.55TITAN 1120.00 1139.55 1111.45 1135.00 18.50BAJFINANCE 2940.10 3000.00 2940.05 2993.00 47.75LT 1371.00 1392.50 1364.00 1388.00 21.55ICICIBANK 392.75 401.90 392.75 399.05 5.85VEDL 177.00 178.95 175.65 177.95 2.50MARUTI 6535.00 6625.00 6501.20 6609.80 91.80INFY 730.00 745.00 730.00 739.10 9.40HDFC 1917.00 1950.00 1912.05 1942.10 22.20TECHM 770.00 782.00 768.05 772.85 7.90RELIANCE 1350.25 1369.80 1342.80 1362.00 12.75KOTAKBANK 1338.00 1352.00 1328.90 1344.95 12.10COALINDIA 234.40 237.65 232.75 236.30 1.85TATAMOTORS 169.00 171.40 167.55 170.90 1.05GAIL 354.55 363.00 354.30 358.00 2.15GRASIM 828.60 841.45 823.70 833.50 4.90WIPRO 255.90 257.90 254.10 256.00 1.45HINDUNILVR 1685.00 1692.00 1673.40 1689.85 9.05IOC 162.00 164.10 160.35 162.25 0.80INDUSINDBK 1812.50 1834.40 1777.15 1813.00 8.75HDFCBANK 2298.80 2325.00 2287.85 2308.00 8.55NTPC 137.50 139.35 135.10 137.10 0.10CIPLA 525.30 527.35 522.30 525.60 0.10ULTRACEMCO 3920.00 3968.00 3894.45 3900.00 -1.95INFRATEL 317.45 319.65 313.45 316.00 -0.20BAJAJFINSV 6994.00 7022.70 6857.50 6970.00 -10.35JSWSTEEL 286.00 290.00 284.00 286.85 -0.65EICHERMOT 21024.00 21300.00 20781.05 20924.75 -49.40HEROMOTOCO 2550.00 2558.00 2515.00 2530.00 -13.20M&M 659.05 662.75 653.60 655.20 -4.85BAJAJ-AUTO 2989.00 3020.45 2915.00 2954.00 -26.10POWERGRID 200.00 200.00 196.45 197.50 -2.70DRREDDY 2774.70 2774.70 2708.00 2723.00 -42.05ONGC 160.00 160.25 155.20 156.75 -3.35TATASTEEL 514.40 516.45 504.80 505.00 -10.80HINDALCO 206.95 208.30 201.55 203.10 -4.55

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27664.65 27915.30 27648.75 27873.05 249.85BANKBARODA 121.75 131.40 121.55 129.75 8.20BANDHANBNK 496.80 532.40 495.00 518.00 25.30ASHOKLEY 85.60 89.70 85.30 89.10 3.65PETRONET 235.05 246.00 234.35 244.50 8.45SUNTV 587.40 610.00 587.40 609.00 19.75INDIGO 1396.00 1447.90 1388.10 1442.00 40.70SRTRANSFIN 1254.00 1294.00 1254.00 1280.20 34.50PEL 2641.00 2708.00 2620.00 2698.00 66.70SIEMENS 1065.30 1094.40 1064.75 1091.00 26.25CADILAHC 332.00 337.80 330.50 337.70 7.70MOTHERSUMI 143.05 146.30 142.50 145.50 3.05DLF 191.90 197.80 191.60 194.30 3.90HAVELLS 753.00 765.00 747.60 764.60 15.30SHREECEM 17914.00 18449.00 17657.45 18234.85 349.25OIL 182.00 186.50 180.65 184.65 3.25IDEA 28.55 30.00 28.25 29.00 0.50ACC 1604.00 1629.40 1587.00 1629.00 26.45ICICIGI 997.40 1011.00 990.00 1004.95 14.80CONCOR 502.95 514.20 502.95 510.00 7.50L&TFH 154.95 155.15 151.65 153.65 2.15HINDZINC 271.10 277.75 268.10 275.50 3.65SAIL 50.30 51.10 50.10 50.85 0.60BIOCON 600.00 608.75 592.10 608.00 5.70BEL 92.90 93.20 91.65 92.70 0.60LUPIN 728.80 733.00 719.80 728.00 4.30GODREJCP 693.00 697.75 690.00 694.00 3.90ICICIPRULI 337.55 355.00 336.55 351.05 1.85AMBUJACEM 232.30 234.90 227.50 233.20 0.95MARICO 336.40 341.00 334.05 338.20 1.20NMDC 101.50 104.00 100.60 102.00 0.35OFSS 3387.00 3408.95 3350.00 3378.00 7.70DABUR 410.00 417.30 407.45 412.00 0.75LICHSGFIN 536.05 537.70 527.15 533.75 0.40PGHH 10701.00 10974.00 10586.95 10706.00 5.00NHPC 24.60 24.85 24.55 24.65 0.00PIDILITIND 1225.00 1243.50 1217.00 1224.00 0.00BOSCHLTD 17915.15 18000.00 17817.60 17920.00 -39.30HDFCLIFE 371.95 373.20 368.10 370.20 -1.50BHEL 72.10 72.40 70.85 71.00 -0.30SBILIFE 620.00 624.80 613.60 616.00 -2.70DMART 1485.00 1485.00 1468.00 1471.80 -7.60GICRE 244.40 245.00 236.80 238.80 -1.45AUROPHARMA 779.90 779.90 765.75 770.25 -4.80COLPAL 1259.00 1271.80 1250.00 1256.90 -7.90MRF 56740.00 56849.90 56100.05 56161.00 -424.15BRITANNIA 3092.00 3118.50 3028.00 3066.50 -30.40ABB 1321.10 1331.70 1308.45 1312.30 -14.15MCDOWELL-N 539.00 543.55 530.30 533.00 -6.95ABCAPITAL 101.50 101.80 97.60 98.20 -2.70NIACL 192.70 199.90 186.50 188.50 -5.75

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Russia said on Thursday itstroops will stay in

Venezuela “for as long as needed”, rejecting US President Donald Trump’sdemand that Russia remove itsmilitary from the crisis-strick-en country.

Russia’s weekend deployment of troops andequipment to bolster PresidentNicolas Maduro has ratchetedup already high internationaltensions over Venezuela where the Trump administra-tion is pushing for regimechange.

The Russian ForeignMinistry insisted Thursday the presence of its troops there did not pose a threat toanyone.

“They are involved in theimplementation of agreementsin the sphere of military andtechnical cooperation,” saidministry spokeswoman MariaZakharova, adding they wouldremain in the country “for aslong as needed.” “Russia isnot changing the balance ofpower in the region, Russia isnot threatening anyone unlikecitizens in Washington whomI have just quoted,” she toldreporters.

She was referring toTrump’s comments that “Russiahas to get out” of Venezuela aswell as to statements by USSecretary of State MikePompeo that Washington doesnot plan to negotiate withMaduro and wants to endRussia and Cuba’s influence onCaracas.

The United States andmore than 50 other countriesrecognise Venezuelan opposi-tion leader Juan Guaido asinterim president while Russia,along with China, backsMaduro.

“Neither Russia norVenezuela are provinces of theUnited States,” Zakharova said.

Russian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov has accusedWashington of trying to“organise a coup d’etat” in theoil-producing nation.

Venezuela’s military attachein Moscow also said Thursdaythat Russian troops were in thecountry under an agreementon military and technical coop-eration and not to carry out amilitary operation.

A Russian air forceAntonov-124 cargo plane anda smaller Ilyushin Il-62 landedat the main airport outsideCaracas on Saturday andoffloaded around 100 troops

and tonnes of equipment.“As for the presence

of Russian specialists, we aretalking about cooperation, mil-itary and technical coopera-tion,” the attache, Jose RafaelTorrealba Perez, was quoted assaying in translated commentsby RIA Novosti state newsagency.

“We are absolutely not talk-ing about Russia’s military pres-ence to carry out military oper-ations,” he added.

Venezuela’s DefenceMinister Vladimir PadrinoLopez is expected to visitMoscow in April as part of thecooperation between the twocountries, the attache said.

On Tuesday, Zakharovadeclared that Russia was “devel-oping cooperation withVenezuela in strict accordancewith the constitution of thatcountry and with full respectfor its legal norms”.

“The presence of Russianspecialists on Venezuelan ter-ritory is regulated by an agree-ment between the Russian andVenezuelan governments onmilitary and technical cooper-ation that was signed in May,2001,” she said.

In 2011, Russia gaveVenezuela a $4 billion loan tobuy Russian armaments.

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Britain’s Government said itintended to hold a third

parliamentary vote on PrimeMinister Theresa May’s Brexitdeal on Friday but was await-ing the go-ahead from Houseof Commons speaker.

“We recognise that anymotion brought forwardtomorrow will need to be com-pliant with the speaker’s rulingand that discussion is ongoing,”Andrea Leadsom, who repre-sents the government in par-liament, told MPs.

“A motion will be tabledjust as soon as possible andobviously by later today,”Leadsom said Thursday.

Commons Speaker JohnBercow has previously blockeda third vote on the deal, invok-ing a 17th-century statute thatprevents parliament from vot-ing on the same thing againand again.

“The only way we ensurewe leave in good time on May22 is by approving the with-drawal agreement by 11:00 pmon March 29,” she said.

Leadsom pointed out thatEU leaders had granted an ext-ension until May 22 “providedthat the withdrawal agreementis approved by the House ofCommons this week”.

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At least 30 indigenousGuatemalans were killed

on Wednesday night whenthey were struck on a highwayby a semi-trailer truck in thetown of Nahuala in the coun-try’s west, rescue workers said.

“Personnel from theDepartmental MunicipalFirefighters have counted atleast 30 dead people at thispoint,” spokesman CecilioChacaj told reporters.

The group had congregat-ed at the site of a hit-and-runaccident that had killed a res-ident of their neighborhoodwhen they in turn were hit bythe truck, Chacaj added.

Guatemala, a CentralAmerican country of some16.5 million people, has a poorroad safety record and trafficrules are frequently ignored.

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A44-year-old man who shotand killed five people in

northern China earlier thisweek was motivated by revengeover “trivial matters” and tar-geted specific individuals,authorities said on Thursday.

The suspect was the deputydirector of a local water plant,said the Kailu county govern-ment from Tongliao city in theInner Mongolia region.

Citing local police, officialssaid the shooter, surnamedLiang, was driven by “con-flicts created by trivial mattersin work and life”, without offer-ing more details.

Police have seized the smallcalibre rifle used in the crime,said authorities on their officialWeChat social media account.

The suspect was in policecustody and an investigationwas underway, they added.

Kailu county policedeclined to comment.

The shooting, which tookplace on Monday, was a rarecase of gun violence in China,where the Government tightlyrestricts ownership of firearms.

There are no official sta-tistics on gun-related deaths.

In November 2017, threepeople were shot dead and sixothers wounded in southernGuangdong province.

In January that same year,a high-ranking city official inthe southwestern province ofSichuan burst into a govern-ment meeting and shot andwounded the mayor and cityparty secretary before killinghimself.

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Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu said on

Thursday Israel is prepared fora widespread military cam-paign in Gaza as tensions sim-mered following the latest flare-up -- but only after all otheroptions were exhausted.

Netanyahu has been seek-ing to head off political pressureover Gaza ahead of April 9 elec-tions, in which he faces a strongchallenge from former mili-tary chief Benny Gantz.

“In recent days I gave

instructions to fortify forces, toadd vehicles, to be prepared fora comprehensive campaign,” hesaid during the inauguration ofa new road in northern Israel.

The premier, who wasspeaking after visiting militaryforces on the Gaza border,noted however that a war wouldbe the last option.

“All Israelis should knowthat if a comprehensive cam-paign is required, we will enterit strong and safe, after we haveexhausted all other possibilities,”said Netanyahu, who also servesas defence minister.

Palestinian militants hadon Monday fired a long-dis-tance rocket from the GazaStrip, hitting a house north ofTel Aviv and wounding sevenIsraelis, triggering Israeli airstrikes and further Palestinianfire at southern Israel.

Netanyahu beefed up themilitary presence near Gaza, butby Wednesday the fighting hadabated after Hamas announceda ceasefire brokered by Egypt.

Israel has been carefullymonitoring the situation onthe Gaza border ahead ofSaturday, which will mark a year

since mass protests and deadlyclashes began there.

A demonstration on the day of the anniversary is expect-ed to draw thousands ofPalestinians.

A Hamas official said anEgyptian delegation met withthe Islamist movement’s leaderIsmail Haniya in Gaza City onWednesday night in furtherefforts to calm tensions.

The official said the dele-gation informed Hamas and itsallies in Gaza that Israel hadagreed to measures such asimproving the electricity supplyin the strip, which suffers fromsevere power shortages.

In exchange, Hamas wouldbe expected to maintain calm atthe weekly protests along theGaza border, including duringSaturday’s anniversary.

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The EU on Thursday urgedLondon to provide a way

forward on Brexit, taking notethat the British Parliament hadfailed to agree a fresh solutionto the UK’s divorce from thebloc.

“The EuropeanCommission takes note of theindicative votes in the Houseof Commons last night. Thisis part of an ongoing politicalprocess in the UK, which wefully respect,” EU spokesmanMargaritis Schinas said.

“We counted eight ‘no’slast night, now we need a ‘yes’on the way forward,” he added.

Schinas was referring tothe parliament’s unprecedent-ed step on Tuesday of votinga choice of alternate solutionsto the near-dead divorce dealMay reached with Brusselsafter 17 months of talks.

But none of the eightoptions secured a majorityand another vote has been setfor Monday on some of theproposals. A proposal to holda second referendum -- a pop-ular idea with EU supporters-- came second while thosepromoting a cleaner breakfinished near the bottom.

Belgian Prime Minister

Charles Michel told journalistsin Brussels that without asolution from Britain, EUleaders would meet again onApril 10 or 11 to discuss nextsteps.

EU leaders last weekoffered Britain a Brexit exten-sion until May 22, but only oncondition that parliamentvotes through the deal byFriday, the day Britain wasoriginally scheduled to leave

the European Union.The May Government

said Wednesday it wanted athird vote on the EU deal onFriday, but the outcomeremained uncertain.

If the vote fails a thirdtime, May will have to spell outto EU leaders what steps Britainwill take by a deadline of April12, or risk crashing out of thebloc without any arrangementsin place.

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Amassive fire engulfed a 22-storey building in Dhaka’s

posh Banani area on Thursday,killing at least 19 people, includ-ing a Sri Lankan national, andinjuring 70 others, in the sec-ond major blaze to hit theBangladeshi capital since lastmonth.

The incident, which hap-pened on Thursday afternoonin a building that houses severalgarment shops and internetservice providers, left severalpeople trapped inside as theblaze spread to two adjacentbuildings.

“Until now we can tell youthat the inferno killed 19 peo-ple, one of them being a SriLankan national. Seventy oth-

ers are wounded,” a senior fireofficial told PTI.

At least six of the killed,including the Sri Lankannational, died after they jumpedoff from various floors of thehigh-rise building for safety.

“A Sri Lankan citizen iden-tified as Niras Chandra, wasdeclared dead at KurmitolaGeneral Hospital. He fell off thebuilding while trying to escapethe fire,” Kazi Shahan Haque,officer-in-charge (OC) ofCantonment police station, wasquoted as saying by the DhakaTribune.

Another person, who wasyet to be identified by theauthorities, was declared deadat Kurmitola General Hospitalafter he fell off the buildingwhile trying to escape the fire.

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President Donald Trumprenewed on Thursday his

threat to close the vital US-Mexico border, claimingAmerica’s southern neighbourwas doing “NOTHING” to slowthe flow of illegal immigrants tothe United States.

In a flurry of early morningtweets, Trump warned: “Mayclose the Southern Border!”

“Mexico is doing NOTH-ING to help stop the flow of ille-gal immigrants to our Country.They are all talk and no action,”he added.

“Likewise, Honduras,Guatemala and El Salvadorhave taken our money for years,and do Nothing. The Demsdon’t care, such BAD laws.”

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Amilitary helicopter hascrashed in southwestern

Kazakhstan, killing all 13 ser-vicemen on board, the defenceministry said Thursday.

The crash involving theRussian-made Mi-8 aircraftoccurred on Wednesday, theministry said in a statement.

“13 servicemen werekilled... While performing theirmilitary duty,” it said.

Kazakhstan’s new presidentKassym-Jomart Tokayev tweet-ed that he had ordered aninvestigation into the crash.

A Soviet-era workhorse firstbuilt in the 1960s, the Mi-8 heli-copter is widely used to trans-port passengers and supplies toremote sites.

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At least 15 people died whena bomb exploded on a

busy street and ripped into anearby restaurant in Somalia’scapital on Thursday, medicssaid.

Security officials and wit-nesses reported bodies strewnon the ground as plumes ofsmoke rose high into the airafter the bomb detonated onMogadishu’s Maka Al-Mukarama road, one of theseaside capital’s main thor-oughfares, an area busy withbusinesses and travellers.

It struck as people wereeating lunch.

Abdulkadir AbdirahmanAdan, director of the AaminAmbulance service, said that 15 people had been killed, aswell as several more wounded

by the ferocious blast.Witnesses described scenes ofdevastation.

“The car bomb struck arestaurant along the road,” saidAbdulahi Osman, who wasnearby to the explosion. “Thisreally was a disaster.”

Vehicles were tossed intothe air by the blast, which alsodamaged surrounding build-ings. Witnesses said severalcars and three-wheeler motor-bikes were destroyed by theforce of the explosion.

“I saw 16 people carried

from the blast scene — andmore than 10 of them werealready dead,” Osman added.

Ambulance workersrushed in to help take thewounded to hospital.

“I don’t know whether theywere dead or wounded, but Icould see several people strewnin the street — some of themwere motionless,” said SuadoAhmed, another witness whowas at the scene moments afterthe blast.

Teams of ambulance work-ers carried away those killedand wounded on stretchers,while volunteers also helped byusing plastic sheeting to lift thebodies away.

The bombing is the latestin a recent string of blasts inMogadishu, which has been hitregularly by Al- Shabaabattacks.

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Israeli cave explorers saidThursday that a salt cave with

striking stalactites near the DeadSea is the world’s longest, beat-ing the previous record-holderin Iran. The cave namedMalham, stretching over 10kilometres, runs through MountSodom, Israel’s largest mountain,and spills out to the southwestcorner of the adjacent Dead Sea.

Pale salt stalactites hangfrom the ceilings, and some ofthe walls sparkle with salt crys-tals. Drops of salty water are vis-ible at the tips of some of the sta-lactites.

Malham became known toresearchers through the work of

Amos Frumkin, founder anddirector of the HebrewUniversity’s Cave ResearchCentre, who in the 1980smapped around five kilometresof it. But in 2006, researchersmapped over six kilometres ofthe N3 cave in southern Iran’sQeshm island, granting it thewidely recognised status of theworld’s longest salt cave.

Two years ago, Israeli spe-lunker Yoav Negev decided tocomplete Frumkin’s work, reach-ing out to Bulgarian cave explor-ers for reinforcements with thepromise of a warm winteradventure. Negev, founder of theIsrael Cave Explorers Club,joined forces with BoazLangford, a researcher at the

university’s research centre, toorganise a delegation of eightEuropean spelunkers and anoth-er 20 locals.

They spent some 10 daysmapping the cave in 2018.

A second 10-day expeditionthis year with 80 local andinternational spelunkers com-pleted the measuring and map-ping of the cave with lasers,determining its length at morethan 10 kilometres.

Mount Sodom is essential-ly a huge salt block covered bya thin but \resilient layer of caprock. The rare desert rains findtheir way through cracks in thecap rock and dissolve the salt toform small caves that flow downtoward the Dead Sea.

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Ocean heat hit a record highin 2018, the United

Nations said Thursday, raisingurgent new concerns aboutthe threat global warming isposing to marine life.

In its latest State of theClimate overview, the WorldMeteorological Organization(WMO) reaffirmed that the lastfour years had been the hotteston record — figures previous-ly announced in provisionaldrafts of the flagship report.

But the final version of thereport highlighted worryingdevelopments in other climateindicators beyond surface tem-perature. "2018 saw newrecords for ocean heat contentin the upper 700 metres," aWMO statement said.

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They say ‘literature isthe voice of humanheart.’ As the JCB

Prize for Literature jurycomes back this year, RanaDasgupta, literary director,said, “The Jury is con-ceived to reflect a widevariety of backgrounds andexperiences. This is howwe ensure the verdicts arefresh and interesting to alarge number of readers.The members of the 2019jury are passionate readers,and eminent within theirrespective fields. They willhave fascinating debatesabout the books we send intheir direction.”

Pradip Krishen, Jurychairman, said, “I’m hon-oured and immenselypleased at this opportuni-ty to peer deeply into ayear’s worth of Indian fic-tion. It is especially grati-fying that the prize goes

out of its way to includeIndian fiction in languagesother than English, bring-ing it to the attention of awider audience. It’s goingto be intense and togetherwith a set of wonderfulcolleagues on the jury. I’mlooking forward to play mypart in this year’s selec-tion.”

The jury comprisesAnjum Hasan (author andcritic), Pradip Krishen(filmmaker and environ-mentalist), K R Meera(author), Parvati Sharma(author), and Ar vindSubramanian (economistand former chief econom-

ic adviser to theGovernment of India).

The entries for the

prize will close on April 30.The jury will announcethe list of ten titles on

September 4, followed bythe short list of five titles onOctober 4. The winner ofthe �25 lakh prize will beannounced at the awardsdinner on November 2. Ifthe winning work is atranslation, the translatorwill be awarded an addi-tional �10 lakh. Each of thefive shortlisted authors willreceive �1 lakh; if a short-listed work is a translation,the translator will receive�50,000.

The 2018 prize wasawarded to Jasmine Daysby Benyamin, translatedfrom the Malayalam byShahnaz Habib.

Comedy series Sex and theCity, is getting a follow-up, which examines love

and dating after 50. In a com-petitive situation, ParamountTelevision has land-ed the rights to itsfollow-up novel — IsThere Still Sex in theCity? which is set tobe released by GrovePress on August 6,hails from Sex andthe City authorCandace Bushnell.

The book is a take on sex,dating, and friendship in NewYork city after 50. Set betweenthe Upper East Side ofManhattan and a countryenclave known as the village,

the book looks at love and life,marriage and children, divorceand bereavement, as well as thereal pressures on women tomaintain their youth.

Bushnell will writethe pilot script andserve as an executiveproducer on the projectalong with Liza Chasinfrom 3dot Productionsand Robyn Meisinger.

“The original Sexand the City book andseries served as a

ground-breaking touchstonefor an entire generation ofwomen, myself included,” saidNicole Clemens, president ofParamount TV.

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Actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh on Thursdayunveiled his Madame Tussauds’ wax statue. Adie-hard fan of reality TV star Kylie Jenner,

Diljit wants her wax figure too, should find a spot inthe iconic Regal Building at Connaught Place.

The Udta Punjab star has said in the past, he want-ed to visit Madame Tussauds in London, but couldnot. “There was a long line. I was in London for a dayso couldn’t find the time. I tried again but the attemptswere not successful. Then I thought, I will go in likethis only,” hesaid. And nowthe singer’s waxreplica hasindeed enteredthe museum.

He actedsurprised by thestrong resem-blance betweenhim and his waxfigure, whichsports black andred casuals witha huge neckpiece and ablack turban. Itis the first tur-baned figure inM a d a m eTussauds Delhi.“Forget abouthaving a wax figure here, I had almost given up hopeof even entering Madame Tussauds,” said the artiste,who took a selfie with the figure.

Asked which actress’ statue he would like to havehere, he laughed and said, ‘Kylie Jenner.’ Diljit, whoturned up at the event all suited up, has often expressedhis “love” for the reality TV star on social media. Hisfans gathered outside the Regal building to get aglimpse of him. One of them said, “It’s an honour forall the Sikhs to have his wax figure as he is the firstSikh celebrity to get a wax statue at MadameTussauds.”

Diljit wasn’t seen interacting with his fans, but hehad a message. “First of all, there is no need to be likeme. I am just doing my job. I am working for myselfand family. Keep working hard, you will get what youwant,” he said.

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The automobile hasbeen around for a125 years now, andever since BerthaBenz, the pioneer-

ing wife of the car’s inventorKarl Benz demonstrated thata vehicle could be used overlong distances, humanity hasnot been the same because thetyranny of distance was sud-denly removed. The internalcombustion engine may beloathed by misguided envi-ronmentalists but without itwe cannot imagine modernsociety. Even if we considerthat the real boom in automo-bile ownership really started acentury ago at the end of theFirst World War and the sub-sequent economic boom, thecar of those days werenowhere near the cars oftoday, even something as ele-mentary as the layout of thepedals and self-startingengines were not around.Forget a hundred years, Ihave been driving cars since Iwas just under 18, working myway up to a license at a drivingschool.

And back then, about togive my twelfth boards, I hada rather different vision for mylife, even thought that I wouldgive my IIT entrance exams.The last thing I imagined wasthat I would end up travelling

around India and the worlddriving and writing aboutcars for a living, so thingsturned out fairly alright I’d say.But back in the late-1990’s,while the Maruti 800 andZen had made their way ontoour roads and the first of thecars from the new breed ofmanufacturers like Ford, Opeland Hyundai were just com-ing in, many folks still drovethe Ambassador and thePadmini. And if you did youwould remember that chang-ing gears was a bit of a skill.Today, many cars have a rev-counter and while that issomething that you wouldmiss in a car if it was not there,unless you are out and outgunning the car, do you real-ly need it? Because in anautomatic car, the computersare so smart that they knowexactly how you are drivingand what gear you need tochange to, and even if youoverride the system, the gearschange seamlessly. That was-n’t the case in old cars, you hadto listen to the note of theengine and know just when toslot the cogs in. But synchro-mesh gears are not new, sothat is not a rabbit hole that wewill go down. But from the2000’s to today, in cars that Ihave been driving for a livingso many things have changed.

So I asked a couple of mypeers what feature of the lasttwenty-odd years in automo-tive development that theycould not live without today.Now these features are neces-sarily brand-new but havebecome far more common inthe past twenty years. MuraliSwaminadhan of the HinduBusinessLine told me that itwould be modern ClimateControl systems, whichaccording to him are nowessential thanks to hot weath-er conditions and rising dustand pollution, as well as soadvanced that you don’t real-ly need to keep on fiddlingwith them like you needed towith the sliders on the Maruti

800 for example.Adil Jal Darukhanawala,

automotive expert and histo-rian and my driving compan-ion over the past few days dri-ving a new luxury car told methat it would be the dual-clutch gearbox. This is aremarkable feature that allowsfor near instantaneous gearchanges with the car keepingthe next gear in the sequenceselected by having two clutch-es, one for odd gears and onefor even gears. Of course thatis a very simplistic way ofdescribing this but essential-ly that is what it is. While theseDCT gearboxes are standardon luxury cars, you can findthem on the Volkswagen Polo

GT TSI and Automaticoptions on the Vento, and theVW Group calls their DCTgearboxes a DSG and thetechnology was developed byPorsche for sporty versions ofthe 911. Ford had such agearbox on the earlierEcoSport and Fiesta.

For me, the feature I can’treally live without are revers-ing and even all-round 360cameras. Particularly withmodern car safety featuresironically leading to a rash ofblind spots, it is impossible tooften reverse without these,and occasionally even maketight turns. The 360 cameraon the new Nissan Kicksmight feel like a gimmick butis very useful. As I wrote in anearlier column, I have becomeso used to this that my basicreversing skills are not asgood as they used to be.

The fact is that cars todayare very advanced, very fuelefficient and very safe. Andnot only are they a worldremoved from cars of a cen-tury ago, they are a worldremoved from cars from justtwenty years ago. I like drivingclassic cars occasionally, butanyone who says that the ‘olddays’ were better has no ideaof what they are talking about.Nothing like the present andI can’t wait for the future!

Health sensibility andconsciousness hasbeen on the rise atan exponential ratein the country.

Taking the stairs instead of theescalator, accounting a trainerafter or before work hours, replac-ing soft drinks and other pack-aged drinks with health andimmunity-boosters — these aresome of the ways a fit routine andthe need for a healthy body is tak-ing over the Indian minds.

There is yet another side toIndia’s growing health conscious-ness. Actress and fitness enthusi-ast Jacqueline Fernandez saidthat the trend blazer has beenpointing upwards for people read-ing food labels and understand-ing nutrition charts before mak-ing a decision. She said that thechange has surely come in andpeople are taking their health asthe “most important factor.”

Well, it’s also one the majorreasons why ‘Delhi Gets Raw’ wasorganised in the city recently bythe Raw Pressery.

She said that cold-pressedjuices are more helpful in main-taining health as compared toother packaged drinks or every-day juices in the market, whichare made with concentrate, sta-bilisers and extra-added sugarand preservatives. “Cold-pressedjuices are never heated and con-sist 100 per cent fruit. They

retain more nutrition and livingenzymes in the juicing process. Itbasically makes your food workharder to gain more nutrition, vit-amins and enzymes to lead ahealthy lifestyle,” said she.

The actress is an extremelyavid follower of yoga, purelybecause of its “holistic health ben-efits.” She said, “I’m really glad wehosted Yoga Rise in Delhi, as thecity is now leaning towards mak-ing healthy the new sexy. Nothinglooks as good as a healthy bodyand vibe. Our aim is to go outthere and help people make theright choices. I’m grateful thatyoga has become that channel forus. The energy in Delhi is surre-al and we hope to do more of suchwellness events.”

Jacqueline, who was initiallynot so inclined towards it, now

fully embraces yoga. It is rooteddeep in her workout and fitnessregime. She not only follows itreligiously, but also suggests herfriends and family to practice it.She said, “To achieve flexibility,yoga is the best exercise. It alsoslows down your stress level.”

Talking about her fitnessmantra, Jacqueline said, “It isquite simple — one should eatright, must get adequate sleep,and exercise regularly because it’snever too early or too late to worktowards being the healthiest you.I ensure that I maintain a healthydiet, stay positive and relaxed.Being healthy is the need of thehour.” No matter how one keepsin mind the fitness mantras, shesays, there are certain things thatneed to be worked upon like “sta-mina and flexibility.”

She recalls that she discussedabout how there was a need ofcold-pressed juices with no addedpreservatives with her friendbefore the beverage brand waseven launched. “At the same time,such juices should also be conve-nient and a seamless fit in ourcurrent fast-paced life withoutmaking any compromise in qual-ity. The juices are easy to carryand can be home-deliveredwhenever required,” she suggest-ed.

Some of her fitness tips:- Always set an aim for every

week, keep tracking yourprogress.

- Have sufficient quantity ofwater, it keeps the body hydrat-ed.

- Don't push yourself beyondlimit especially after a long tiring

day. Never punish your body.- Always read the label before

buying food items.- Eat fresh, healthy and nutri-

ent-enriched foods.It’s no wonder that more

than half of us open a supplementbottle to get the nutrition weneed. Many of us take supple-ments not just to make up forwhat we’re missing, but also togive ourselves a boost. Jacquelinefeels that getting nutrients straightfrom a pill sounds easy, but sup-plements don’t necessarily deliv-er on the promise of better health.She said, “I believe in eatinghealthy and having a natural dietas that is best for the body. Whilethis might take some time toadapt, it will surely pay off in thelong run and help lead a morebalanced life.”

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Our contemporarycivilization and all the

civilizations to come must besaturated with happiness.Happiness is an attribute of anenvironment that builds up withseven sources. These sourcesgenerate positive energies andcombat entropy of the biosphereand evolve happiness, morehappiness, and more happiness -putting the civilization on thepath to an everlasting joy.Everlasting joy is conditioned bysustainable happiness. We cancall these sources as Seven Starsof Happiness (figure 1). Theseare:

1. Knowledge2. Beauty3. Institutions4. Spirituality5. Democracy6. Freedom7. Creativity

Knowledge is a source ofenlightenment. And any sourceof enlightenment brings infinitehappiness to life. Knowledgecharges your mind with an

amazing lure to unfold mysteriesof the universe. And when yourmind is creatively engaged inunfolding mysteries of theuniverse, you are immersed ininfinite joy.

Happiness flowers in all itsbright and enchanting coloursamidst beauty. Happiness itself isan imperative for synthesizingbeauty. As Lady Blessington says,there is no cosmetic for beautylike happiness.

Many institutions - such asmarriage, family, schools,universities, etc. - developed andevolved by human societyprepared a fertile base tomultiply and enhance happinessthrough the promotion ofselflessness, unity, integrity,solidarity, learning, peace,tranquility, humility, andintellectualization. Theseinstitutions are vital for passinghappiness-cultivating values onto future generations.

Spirituality breaks downdormancy of all human facultiesand activates them to unleashtheir potential of physical,intellectual, ethical and aestheticdevelopment to help individualsilluminate the self and thesociety they are part of withhappiness.

Democracy has its nationaland global role in consolidatinghuman freedom and givingfreedom its valuable dimensionsof deeper responsibility andcommitments. Blooming inluxuriant premises ofdemocracy, freedom nurtures

happiness for one and all. Wecannot imagine any lastinghappiness without freedom.Dictatorship rules are curse tohuman freedom. A hell ofdemocracy is much better than aheaven of dictatorship. Fordemocracy keeps the seeds ofhappiness viable, which atcertain point of time grow intobumper crop of happiness, but a'heaven' of dictatorial regimecrushes human dignity anderases hope of happiness.

Creativity evolves fromhappiness. And creativity alsogives happiness its true meaning.The both are complimentary toeach other. A happy environmentexplodes potential of superbcreativity. Creativity evolves to itsclimax forms amidst anenvironment of happiness.Creativity itself transcendshuman happiness. The higher theforms of creativity the morevibrant the faculties of happiness.Development of art, philosophyand cosmology has emerged asinexhaustible sources ofhappiness. Happiness sought newdimensions of its expression. Andconditioned by happiness, ourscholars evolved moreilluminating forms of art andphilosophy.

Philosophy elevated itsinterest from Earth to the cosmosand cosmology continuouslyserved to nourish human intellectto unfold cosmic mysteries givinghuman happiness a newdimension of its own vastness.Happiness, indeed, finds deeper

roots with creativity. The higherthe form of creativity the moreintensive the happiness.Creativity keeps youreverberating with fullness of life.With creativity one canbeautifully link oneself with thepast and happiness can be fetchedeven from the times which aregone. Happiness is dynamic; ittravels across ages. Creativeachievements and glory of thepast trigger happiness in thepresent times. Happiness of thepresent helps create happyfutures.

What should be the motto ofa civilization? It must beHappyism. Pursuance ofhappyism must be the centraltheme of every concept, everyperspective, every project, everyart, every philosophy, every plan,every policy, every law, everygovernance. Happyism wouldhelp cultivate peace and beautyin a civilization. A happycivilization is a highly creativecivilization. A happy civilizationis a vibrant civilization. A happycivilization is a life-enhancingcivilization. A happy civilizationis a true civilization. Happiness,in essence, is a gist of acivilization. Happyism wouldserve as a foundation ofsustainably happy civilization.

(The writer is a Professor ofEnvironmental Science at GB PantUniversity of Agriculture and Technology.He is author of numerous books on envi-ronmental, agroecological and eco-philo-sophical issues).

It is but natural to enquire about the name,village, address, etc. of a person with whom

one has to travel or whom one has to accom-pany for some time. This acquaintance givesfreedom from worry and at the same timepaves the way for depending on mutual helpin emergencies. A total stranger looks suspi-cious.

One's own entity always remains with one-self. Its physical and mental aspects are so closethat they remain with the self round the clockwhether one is awake or asleep. Wife is calledby many epithets like life partner, better halfof the husband, two bodies-one consciousness-es, etc. but, she too remains with the husbandfor a few hours that too at some distance fromhim. Children come near once in a while forspecific purposes but they are considered one'svery own and one has to share their pleasuresand pains. A person is always worried aboutthe future of his children and, as far as possi-ble, plans ahead for it. It is strange that ourinseparable instruments of expression like thebody and the mind, which are always therewith us, are neglected by us. Seldom oneenquires about their purpose.

The soul has embodied itself in the mate-rial plane with some purpose. Do we under-stand the purpose and consciously and res-olutely pursue it? Whenever a bungalow or avehicle is given to an officer, he is told thatthese are to be used for official purposes andnot for personal work. If any officer defaultsand rents out a portion of his bungalow or useshis vehicle for private purposes, it would beconsidered immoral and willful infringe-

ment of the rules for personal gain and willattract suitable punishment.

Human life is precious. It is a unique, artis-tic creation of the Creator. Such a boon is notavailable to any other creature on the earth.No other creature is endowed with the facul-ty like the human intellect, or with two handswith ten fingers that can be creatively and dex-terously used? Which other creatures have theability to stand erect and walk on two feet?Who is capable of earning their livelihood andaccumulating the surplus for later use? Whichother creature uses clothes and houses? Whoelse other than man possesses the wisdom todevelop an organized family and social order?Whose senses possess such sensitivity? Who

possesses the intricately fashioned living gar-ment like the human body? The fact that ahuman being has been blessed with special fac-ulties sets him apart from other creatures. Thusit becomes evident that human life has beengiven to us for some specific purpose willedby God. We must concentrate on clearlyunderstanding this purpose and then live lifein the light of our true identity as a spark ofDivinity. If appropriate efforts are not madeto know our true selves through the special fac-ulties and instruments gifted to us for thissearch by our Creator and we squander awaythese divine gifts in sense-gratification, itwould be a betrayal of our spiritual inheritanceleading to endless suffering and pain.

In order to get started on this pilgrimageof self-discovery, we will have to wake up outof the stupor of self-forgetfulness - Maya. Hereis what Mahayogi Sri Aurobindo has said aboutself-effort in the path of self-discovery in hismarvelously inspiring words:

"In all that is done in the universe, theDivine through his Shakti is behind all actionbut he is veiled by his Yoga Maya and worksthrough the ego of the jiva in the lower nature.

In yoga also it is the Divine who is the sad-hak and the sadhana; It is his Shakti with herlight, power, knowledge, consciousness, Anand,acting upon the adhara and, when it is openedto her, pouring into it with these divine forcesthat makes the sadhana possible. But, so long

as the lower nature is active the personal effortof the sadhak remains necessary.

The personal effort required is a triplelabor of aspiration, rejection and surrender-

an aspiration, vigilant, constant, unceas-ing- the mind's will, the heart's seeking, theassent of the vital being, the will to open andmake plastic the physical consciousness andnature; rejection of the movements of thelower nature- rejection of the mind's idea's,opinions, preferences, habits, constructions, sothat the true knowledge may find free roomin a silent mind,- rejection of the vital nature'sdesires, demands, cravings, sensations, pas-sions, selfishness, pride, arrogance, lust, greed,jealousy, envy, hostility to the Truth, so thatthe true power and joy may pour from aboveinto a calm, large, strong and consecrated vitalbeing, - rejection of the physical nature's stu-pidity, doubt , disbelief, obscurity, obstinacy,pettiness, laziness, unwillingness to change,tamas, so that the true stability of Light, Power,Anand may establish itself in a body growingalways more divine; surrender of oneself andall one is and has and every plane of the con-sciousness and every movement of the Divineand the Shakti.

In proportion as the surrender and selfconsecration progress the sadhak becomesconscious of the divine shakti doing the sad-hana, pouring into him more and more of her-self, founding in him the freedom and perfec-tion of the divine nature. The more this con-scious process replaces his own effort the morerapid and true becomes his progress but it can-not completely replace the necessity of person-al effort until the surrender and consecrationare pure and complete from top to bottom.

Note that a tamasic surrender refusing tofulfill the condition and calling on God to doeverything and save one all the trouble andstruggle is a deception and does not lead tofreedom and perfection."

(Pranav Pandya is the head of theWorld Gayatri Pariwar, Chancellor ofDev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya and direc-tor of Brahmavarchas Research Institute.Besides, he is the editor of Akhand Jyotiand president of Swami VivekanandaYogvidya Mahapeetham)

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Pranav Pandya

Vir Singh

Ihave heard and readabout many famous

international personal-ities such asSteveJobs(co-founder ofApple) and MarkZuckerberg(Chairmanand CEO ofFacebook).They wentto the Himalayas inUttarakhand to learnspirituality under thepatronage of ashram

gurus and yogis, soon after which they became verysuccessful, renowned and wealthy personalities. I wasembarrassed to know that foreigners understood theimportance of the spiritual powers of gurus and yogisin the Himalayas, but despite being a native ofUttarakhand, I never understood their role and sig-nificance.

For around fifteen years, I conducted extensivestudies, research, investigation, and interacted withmany Himalayan yogis and ashram gurus. Duringmy stay at the ashrams in Rishikesh, Haridwar andhills of Himalayas, I interacted with some renownedinternational personalities and came to know abouttheir real-life experiences. On the condition ofanonymity, they agreed to share their enlighteningexperiences for the benefit of global readers and cit-izens. Finally, I found secrets to spiritual peace andmaterial wealth, ways to inculcate virtues and val-ues, and methods to eradicate vices such as greed,lust, and addiction.

The materialistic way of life is that of enjoyingthe pleasures of the five senses,and ignoring spirit,intellect, and virtue. Materialism considers enjoymentas the final objective of human existence. It believesneither heaven nor hell. It does not seek liberation,and doesn't believe in reincarnation.

As per Charvaka, the illusion of the soul is dueto a particular combination offour elements-earth,water, fire, and air. Maybe through a chemical processgenerating wild thoughts and dreams in the mind,humans were led to believe that they were special onearth and needed values and ethics, which, indeed,are mere phantoms created by a diseased mind.

Charvaka's philosophy declared that religionwas a means of livelihood for the priests, propa-gated by kings and politicians to fool and rule overthe innocent.

Sage Charvaka, said to be one of the chief disci-ples of sage Brihaspati, was impressed with the mate-rialism philosophy. He promoted and spread it amongDevils. As it is easier to be addicted to vice than virtue,addiction to vice spread like fire in a jungle and reachedordinary people; it became their lifestyle. People whoused to earlier worship natureor deities soon inherit-ed vices which still exist in modern society.

Marketing experts, public relations (PR) agen-cies, event management companies and psychoanaly-sis expertsencash the consumerist mindset. They killour intellect and reason with the help of glamourisedevents and celebrity advertisements. People thusbecome slaves to harmful products. Once addicted,the person suffers in in terms of health and money.On the contrary, MNCs selling such productsbecome richer and treathumans as mere productswho consume their products.

In mythology, sage Brihaspati, the teacher ofDevtas or Deities, propagated the materialism phi-losophy, that is, 'eat, drink and be merry' among theAsuras or Devils so that they may spend their livesin material pursuits and ruin themselves without giv-ing any trouble to deities.

To lead a virtuous and peaceful life, the beingmust avoid jealousy, anger, hatred, selfishness, gos-sip, expectation from others, comparison with oth-ers, and criticism of others. It is important to haveempathy and sense of brotherhood to live in harmo-ny with other beings. Such mental and spiritual devel-opment can occur through practice of Indian spir-itual principles.

India must consider including principles of spir-ituality from ashrams in Himalayas in degree cours-es and MBAs, given that stressed executives frominternational corporations have sought solace in theseholy spots.

A spiritual immersion course may be made partof higher education, degree courses and MBAs as stu-dents, from this point forth, head towards a verystressful materialistic world. It is important to pre-pare future leaders with a spiritual mindset so thatgenerations to come don’t lose sight of what is essen-tial during material pursuits.

(Based in Uttarakhand , the author has been acommodity trader for over two decades.The article isbased on his latest launched book ‘Greed LustAddiction’ in English and “LaalachVaasana Lath” inHindi)

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Roger Federer is preparinghimself for a barrage of

Kevin Anderson big serves afterthe Swiss superstar sealed hisplace in the ATP and WTAMiami Open quarter-finals injust 61 minutes on Wednesday.

Federer is celebrating 20years at this tournament andedged closer to his fourth title inSouth Florida as the up andcoming Russian DaniilMedvedev was swatted aside 6-4 6-2.

Next up for the 20-timeGrand Slam-winning legend isthe South African world num-ber seven who famously beat the37-year-old at Wimbledon in2018 over five dramatic sets.

That triumph wasAnderson's only win overFederer in six attempts — andthe only time he's won a set.

But having classily dealtwith Medvedev, the formerworld number one knows itwon't be as straightforward withthe 6 ft 8 in Anderson at theother end of the Hard RockStadium's center court.

"I think if you beat me atWimbledon, you've got myattention," smiled Federer.

"He's got a great serve andI'm happy he's playing againafter his injury.

"So from that standpoint, Iknow what I'm about to expecttomorrow. The matches I haveplayed against him I know canbe extremely close always."

Defending champion JohnIsner, meanwhile, powered hisway to the semi-finals asRoberto Bautista Agut, whosent world number one Novak

Djokovic crashing out in theprevious round, was seen off 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 ,(7-5).

"I was pretty fortunate outthere," confessed the American,who smashed down 24 acescompared to the Spaniard's tallyof just three and will play thewinner of Croatia's Borna Coricand Felix Auger-Aliassime, the18-year-old from Canada.

In the women's draw,Simona Halep moved closer to

reclaiming her world numberone crown after a well-execut-ed 6-4 7-5 triumph over China'sWang Qiang.

Following Petra Kvitova'sexit on Tuesday, Halep needsonly to reach Saturday's final toknock Naomi Osaka off the topof women's tennis after beingdeposed following the Japanese'ssecond major win at theAustralian Open earlier thisyear.

Halep's recovery from 1-5down in the second set showedthe kind of mental toughness

displayed by only the very bestand the Romanian is looking ingood shape to land her firstMiami title, even if she's notoverly consumed about theprospect of reclaiming the num-ber one tag.

"It doesn't mean everythingto get back to number one. It'smore important to finish theyear in that position," said thenumber two seed, who will faceeither Karolina Pliskova orVondrousova in the last four.

"But if I do it, I will be veryproud."

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he is"beyond excited" to be handed theManchester United manager's job

on a full-time basis as the club announcedon Thursday he had signed a three-yeardeal.

The Norwegian, 46, has inspired a dra-matic revival of United's fortunes since tak-ing over from the sacked Jose Mourinhoin December, winning 14 of his 19 gamesand leading the Red Devils to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Solskjaer, who scored 126 goals in 366appearances for United, was already a heroto fans as the man who scored the stop-page-time winner in the 1999 ChampionsLeague final to complete a historic treble.

In his short spell in charge he has lift-ed United back into contention for a top-four finish in the Premier League and ispreparing for a mouthwatering ChampionsLeague clash against Barcelona nextmonth.

"This is the job that I always dreamedof doing and I'm beyond excited to havethe chance to lead the club long-term andhopefully deliver the continued successthat our amazing fans deserve," he said ina statement on manutd.com.

Solskjaer told MUTV he had relishedthe support from the fans since he replacedMourinho.

"I've always had it but I have to say thelast few months have been absolutely crazywith the way they've taken to the players,to me and to the coaching staff. We've real-ly appreciated that support and hopeful-ly we can pay them back now."

After Mourinho was sacked followinga 3-1 loss to Liverpool on December 16,Molde boss Solskjaer was given the task ofreviving United's flagging fortunes but wasexpected to return to the Norwegian clubfollowing his caretaker spell.

���# �� ��$����At that stage Tottenham manager

Mauricio Pochettino was the firm favouritefor the permanent Old Trafford hotseatafter an impressive few years at the helmat Spurs.

But Solskjaer forced the hand ofManchester United hierarchy by sheerweight of results, becoming the firstUnited manager to win his first six leaguegames.

The Norwegian also helped cleanse thetoxic atmosphere at United, whereMourinho had fallen out with a numberof key players.

France World Cup winner Paul Pogbaand Marcus Rashford in particular havethrived under Solskjaer, who has beencredited with restoring an attacking vervemissing under a succession of managers.

United's executive vice-chairman EdWoodward said: "More than just perfor-

mances and results, Ole brings a wealth ofexperience, both as a player and as a coach,coupled with a desire to give young play-ers their chance and a deep understand-ing of the culture of the club."

Rashford on Thursday posted animage of himself and Solskjaer onInstagram with the caption: "Congratsboss."

$��������$$���Solskjaer spent 11 seasons at Old

Trafford as a player under Alex Ferguson,winning six Premier League titles and the1999 Champions League trophy.

On the pitch, the Norwegian, nick-named the "Baby-faced Assassin", becamean embodiment of United's never-say-diespirit, often scoring late goals when pointsor trophies looked to have been lost.

Solskjaer lost his battle with per-sistent knee problems in 2007 beforebecoming the United's reserve-team manager.

He won two league titlesduring a first managerialspell at Molde, but strug-gled badly during abrief stint at Cardiff in2014.

When he tookover as interim boss at OldTrafford, the club were lan-guishing in sixth place in the PremierLeague, 11 points off the top four.

But they have lost just once in theleague since then and are now in fifthplace, just two points behind fourth-placed Arsenal, with eight games remain-ing in the season.

The highlight of his reign so far wasa dramatic 3-1 victory over Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16 in the ChampionsLeague, with United overturning a 2-0first-leg defeat to reach the quarter-finalson away goals.

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Defending champion LewisHamilton has warned his

Mercedes team "to stay ontheir toes" at this weekend'sBahrain Grand Prix whereFerrari will be seeking tobounce back after being beat-en at the season-openingAustralian Grand Prix.

Hamilton, who camehome second in a damagedcar behind in-form team-mate Valtteri Bottas, said hewas delighted, but surprisedby Mercedes' comprehensivemaximum points showing inMelbourne.

"I think everyone wassurprised by our showing inAustralia," he said.

"No-one was expecting tosee a gap like that with Ferrari.They were ahead — that iswhat we saw in testing — but

it wasn't the case that week-end.

"We just did our normaljob, but I am sure they willcome back strong. So, wehave to be ready and we haveto stay on our toes."

Ferrari's four-time worldchampion Sebastian Vettel,who finished fourth behindRed Bull's Max Verstappen inAustralia, will be seeking histhird straight victory in

Bahrain in Sunday's race.The 5.4km Sakhir circuit

is expected to be kinder toFerrari than the semi-streettrack in Melbourne.

The Italian outfit will alsobe boosted by their record inBahrain where they are themost successful team withsix wins, including last year'ssuccess for Vettel which fol-lowed a front row lockout ofthe grid.

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Australia have received a boostwith injured fast bowling spear-

heads Josh Hazlewood and MitchellStarc resuming bowling this weekand on track to be fit for their WorldCup defence.

Hazlewood has been sidelinedsince January with a back injury,while Starc pulled out of Australia'sTwenty20 and one-day tour of Indialast month with a "substantial" mus-cle tear.

The pair's return to the nets istimely after Jhye Richardson returnedhome this week from Australia's one-day series against Pakistan with a dis-located shoulder.

"When the squad getsannounced I'll probably be 65-70 per-cent and I've still got a good four orfive weeks from that date to get readyto play one-day cricket," Hazlewoodsaid in a Cricket Australia podcast.

Australia's World Cup squad

must be named by April 23 with thetournament starting on May 30 inEngland.

Starc, the 2015 World Cup play-er of the tournament, is also faringwell in his comeback since picking upthe injury during the Sri Lanka Test.

"He (Starc) looks fine, he start-ed bowling as well this week,"Hazlewood said.

"He's coming off not as big abreak as me so won't take him longto get up and running. He seems tobe heading in the right direction."

���������Former India centreforward Shivendra Singh is setto be appointed assistant coachof the national men's hockeyteam and will start working withthe side next month.

A livewire during his play-ing days, Shivendra will exclu-sively work with the strikers andform an integral part of theIndian coaching staff set to be

headed by Australian GrahamReid.

Reid's appointment is just aformality now after HockeyIndia and Sports Authority ofIndia recommended his name tothe Sports Ministry.

Besides Shivendra, formerAustralian drag-flicker ChrisCiriello, who is the current ana-lytical coach, will be the other

assistant coach in new set-up."Shivendra Singh will join

the Indian team soon as an assis-tant coach soon. He will workwith the forwards under the newchief coach," a source close to thedevelopment said.

Shivendra was part of theIndian team that won a Silvermedal in the 2010 DelhiCommonwealth Games,

besides being a member of theBronze medal-winning sideof 2010 Guangzhou AsianGames.

The coaching set-up willalso have SAI coach PiyushKumar Dubey, who is alreadywith the team at the ongoingAzlan Shah Cup in Ipoh,Malaysia. He will exclusivelywork with the goalkeepers.

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India has pumped in 14 goals in fourmatches in the ongoing Sultan Azlan Shah

Cup and young striker Mandeep Singh onThursday said the team is focussed on fre-quent circle penetrations, which in turn willlead to more shots at goal.

The 24-year-old Mandeep scored a hat-trick in India's 7-3 win over Canada in theirfourth round-robin league match onWednesday to seal the five-time winnersplace in the summit clash against Korea.

"We have tried to improve as a unit.Being a part of the forward-line, I feel wehave focused on making more circle pen-etrations, getting more shots on target, andregaining possession quickly. If we can exe-cute these things in the next two matches,I am sure we can finish with Gold medal,"Mandeep said.

"We have had a good tournament so faras we have 10 points from four matches, butof course we would have liked to get all 12points on the board," he said ahead of India'sfinal league match against Poland onFriday.

India and Korea, the top two teams inthe league tables with 10 points each, have

qualified for Saturday's final with a matchin hand.

Both India and Korea are unbeaten inthe tournament so far, with three wins anda draw, and they had played out a 1-1 drawin their league match on March 24.

"We know Korea are a strong side, butwe are doing everything to minimise any

errors in our game. It is going to be our firstfinal of 2019, and we are very well preparedto face them in the final," said the playerfrom Punjab.

"We have learned a lot about Korea fromthe 1-1 draw in pool stages, and I feel Friday'smatch against Poland will also give us achance to prepare well for the final."

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Indian shooters on Thursday clinched oneGold and two Silver on the second day

of competitions to remain on top of thestandings in the 12th Asian AirgunChampionships in Taoyuan, Taipei.

Ravi Kumar and Elavenil Valarivan wona Silver in the senior 10m air rifle mixedteam event while India made it a 1-2 in thecorresponding junior event on yet anoth-er profitable day.

Ravi and Elavenil topped the qualifica-tion rounds with a score of 837.1 but werebeaten in the five-team final by the Koreanpair of Park Sunmin and Shin Minki.

In the junior 10m air rifle mixed teamevent, two Indian teams made it to the finalround. The pair of Mehuli Ghosh and KevalPrajapati topped the qualification, whileShreya and Yash Vardhan finished second.

Shreya and Yash, however, turned thetables on their compatriots in the final, pip-ing them by a margin of 0.4 points.

The pair of Shreya and Yash overturnedthe early deficit, finishing with 497.3 toMehuli and Keval's 496.9.

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Mankaded' in theiropening match,

Rajasthan Royalswould look to resur-rect their fortunes inFriday's IPL clashagainst SunrisersHyderabad, whowould also be aimingto put behind a disap-pointing first-day show.

Rajasthan's campaign started on a controver-sial note when Jos Buttler became the first crick-eter in the IPL to be 'Mankaded'. The incidentraked up a storm but Rajasthan will have to getover the episode to ensure that their campaignremains on track.

Buttler looked in great touch in their open-er but he would look for more support from thelikes of Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, SteveSmith and Ben Stokes in the batting department.

In particular Smith, who returned to the IPLafter missing the last edition following the ball-tampering scandal, would be eyeing more timeat the crease ahead of the upcoming World Cup.

Dhawal Kulkarni and spinner KrishnappaGowtham were brilliant upfront with the ballagainst Kings XI, but Stokes and Jaydev Unadkatleaked runs. Pacer Jofra Archer, who gave awayjust 17 runs in his four overs, looked threateningbut wickets eluded him. Just like Rajasthan,Sunrisers too didn't have a dream start to theircampaign, losing by six wickets to KolkataKnight Riders.

While the David Warner-led Sunrisers' bat-ting looked solid, the death bowling performancespoiled their chances against KKR.

Warner, who is in imperious form afterreturning to competitive cricket following the one-year ban for ball-tampering, played true to his rep-utation, smashing 85 off 53 balls against KKR theother day.

And Sunrisers' know their chances heavilydepend on Warner's success even though they alsohave the likes of skipper Kane Williamson,Jonny Bairstow, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey,Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan in their ranks.

Williamson wasn't available in the first gamedue to injury but head coach Tom Moody indi-cated that he in all likelihood "will be fit for Friday'sgame and lead the side".

Sunrisers' bowling unit, led by BhuvneshwarKumar, had a good outing for most part of thematch on Sunday before the Andre Russellstorm blew them away in the last three overs.

And come on Friday, Bhuvneshwar and therest of the attack, which also includes Rashid Khan,will be eyeing a much-improved death bowlingshow.

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Consecutive fifties in different battingpositions ought to be a confi-

dence-builder but Kolkata KnightRiders batsman Nitish Rana says he isoccupied by the concern of maintain-ing his form that usually "fizzles" outearly in the IPL.

As a makeshift opener in theabsence of Sunil Narine, Rana struck afine 68 in KKR's first match againstSunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday.

Back at No 4 in their secondmatch, Rana scored a 34-ball 63 againstKings XI Punjab on Wednesday to over-take Delhi Capitals' Rishabh Pant (103runs in two matches) in the earlyOrange Cap race.

"I haven't thought too far ahead. Butfor the last couple of seasons, I start wellbut my form fizzles out towards the laterhalf of the tournament," Rana said afterKKR's 28-run win.

"So this time around, I want to workon this. I want to continue the kind ofform I have started in till the end of thetournament."

Having impressed at different bat-ting positions, Rana said, "That's thesign of a good team. My plan was clear— to hit a loose ball and then, let DK(Dinesh Karthik) or (Andre) Russelltake over for the last four-five overs."

Four of his seven sixes came againstIndia's top off-spinner RavichandranAshwin but Rana said the attack was notpre-planned.

"I was just trying to build myinnings. I was taking it ball by ball at thestart and then when I thought I couldcharge, I did that.

"It doesn't matter for me who thebowler is. My game plan was simple. Ithought that was the time to attack andI did. That was the plan for the two overs— of Ashiwn and South African pacer(Hardus Viljoen)."

Rana also hailed Andre Russell's 17-ball 48 and said the lifeline, when theJamaican survived owing to a no ball,gave them 20-25 runs extra.

"Having 218/4 definitely worked inour favour, how Russell got a lifeline andthat probably gave us those 20-25 runsextra.

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Hardik Pandya's muscled acouple into the stands andone out of sight as

Mumbai Indians recovered froma middle-order collapse to post adecent 187 for 8 against RoyalChallengers Bangalore in an IPL

match on Thursday.Pandya hit three sixes and

two fours in his unbeaten 32 off14 balls after Yuzvendra Chahal(4/38 in 4 overs) reduced MI froma comfortable 124 for 2 to 147 for7. MI lost five wickets in a spaceof 3.3 overs for only 23 runs.

This was after a vintage

Yuvraj Singh was raising visionsof a six sixes over with three max-imums in Chahal's 14th over.However he wasn't fourth time

lucky as Chahal's courage tomaintain flighting the ball yield-ed results.

Chahal then removed

Suryakumar Yadav (38 off 24balls) and Kieron Pollard in quicksuccession to bring RCB rightback in the match.

It was then left to HardikPandya to score the bulk of the 30runs in the final two overs to takeMI to a fighting total on a placidbatting track.

In fact, Hardik's third andfinal six went out of the stadiumas he gestured to the dressingrooms pointing his bulgingbiceps.

However at the beginning itlooked like MI would cross the200-run mark as Rohit Sharma(48 off 33 balls) and Quinton deKock (23 off 20) added 54 for theopening stand but it was foiled byChahal's lion-hearted bowling.

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Kings XI Punjab coachMike Hesson said

"game-changer" AndreRussell completelysnatched the match awayfrom his team in the IPLclash against KolkataKnight Riders and ruedthe no ball that let off theswashbuckler before hewent on a rampage.

Russell was on threeoff five balls when he wasbowled by MohammedShami with an inch-per-fect yorker on off-stumpbut it was declared a noball because the side hadthree fielders, instead ofthe mandatory four,inside the circle in the17th over.

Russell then smashedeight boundaries in arow to add 44 runs in thenext 12 balls to pushKKR to a record 218/4 atthe Eden Gardens.

"It's a fine line whenyou're bowling to AndreRussell. He's agamechanger," Hessonsaid as Russell returnedwith a second man-of-the-match award inKKR's 28-run win.

"The game changedin the 17th over.Obviously we had a planfor Russell that we exe-

cuted well, but we weren'tquite alert enough in thefield, and that's where thegame changed."

"We had that littlebit of jubilation andthen things turned pret-ty quickly (with the noball) and we weren'tquite able to turn thelast few overs for 12 or14 runs. Instead weended up giving givingaway 22 or 24 runs, andit probably changed thegame."

Skipper Ashwin'sdecision to bring ontheir �8.4 crore buyVarun Chakravarthy tobowl the second overbackfired spectacular-ly. Sunil Narine ham-mered the uncappedmystery spinner forthree sixes and a four ina 25-run over.

Defending the ploy,Hesson said: "It wasn't

so much Narine. Lynnwas on strike at the startof that second over. Thatwas the match-up wewere looking for. Andthen Narine came onstrike and you know hewas able to take a toll."

Hesson also backedChakravarthy and saidhe was nervous like any-one else playing theirfirst game.

"The way he cameback in the second andthird over was excellent.And it will give him andus a lot of confidence.You know, playing yourfirst game in front of acrowd like this is diffi-cult.

"Narine's obviouslygoing to hit you fromball one. I think he willlearn to settle down a bitquicker. But I'm stillvery pleased the wayhow he came back."

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Rajasthan Royals as ateam has moved on

from the Jos Buttler'Mankading' incident andthe focus will strictly be onwinning their next IPLencounter against SunrisersHyderabad on Friday, saidseamer Jaydev Unadkat.

Asked if the team wasaffected by 'Mankading' controversy,Unadkat said: "We haven't even men-tioned it once after that day. We havemoved on from that incident. It's timethat we focus on the game coming up.

"Every game is going to be crucialin a tournament like this. Mankading(controversy) has not really made anykind of impact on us and we are look-ing for what we can do to win the game

on Friday."Buttler looked a cut

above rest when it came toattacking the KXIP bowl-ing and Unadkat said thatthe Englishman alonecan't win the franchisegames as he would alsorequire support fromother batsmen.

"It (Buttler's form)actually adds to that con-

fidence. If someone starts like that, peo-ple can take confidence and can learnfrom the way he has been approachingthe game. He has been tremendous forus throughout the last season.

"However, there need to be others,who can also contribute as Buttleralone can't win you games. Yes, himbeing in prime form is an advantage forus."

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Martin Guptill is notamong the four first-

choice overseas players forSunrisers Hyderabad but thesenior New Zealand batsmanwants to utilise his time fac-ing Rashid Khan at the netsto prepare for the WorldCup game againstAfghanistan on June 8.

With David Warner,Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khanand Shakib Al Hasan beingthe first choice foreignersand regular captain KaneWilliamson waiting to get fit,Guptill will have to bide histime but he wants to makeoptimal use of it.

For Guptill, Rashid is abowler he has not facedmuch save a few games in anearlier Caribbean PremierLeague edition.

"I played with him inCPL a couple of years back.He is an amazing bowler. Heis very hard to face becausehe is quick," Guptill saidduring a media interaction.

"I will be getting into thenets to figure out how to playhim because our secondgame at the World Cup thisyear is against Afghanistan.Obviously, if I can face himat the nets, may be I can putsome plans in place for the

corrected it againstBangladesh," he said.

Asked what exactly theproblem was, Guptill said:"My balance was not correct.I was not loading up well inmy set up that caused meplaying to different linesthan I would have liked to.But I did work hard with mylongtime coach at Aucklandwith whom I share a goodworking relationship."

Guptill has never been asought after player in IPLlike some of his other NewZealand team-mates but heactually has no qualms.

"I go into auctions withreasonably low expectations.If I get picked, it's good andif not can't do anythingabout it. It's my third seasonwith a third team. So I amdoing the rounds. SRH isquite a tight-knit unit andthey have had the same coreof players for a number ofyears now. I know I can't getinto the XI straightaway," hesaid.

He might get a chance inthe second half whenBairstow returns to Englandbut Guptill does not want tolook that far ahead.

"I try not to get tooahead. Cricket is a funnygame. I take each net sessionas it comes and work hard.

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Cricket's lawmakers MCC appeared tobacktrack on the Ravichandran Ashwin

'Mankad' controversy on Wednesday whenthey said that the Indian's running out of JosButtler in an IPL game was "not within thespirit of the game".

Earlier this week, the MCC insisted thatthe rule governing the 'Mankad' was essentialto avoid unrestrained backing-up.

On Wednesday, the MCC's manager of theLaws Fraser Stewart told British media in theUAE that they had now reviewed their orig-inal statement.

"Having extensively reviewed the incidentagain and after further reflection we don'tthink it was within the spirit of the game,"Stewart said.

"We believe the pause was too longbetween the time Ashwin reached the creaseand the moment it was reasonable to expectthe ball would be delivered.

"When Buttler could have reasonablyexpected the ball to be delivered, he was in hisground."

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World Cup," said the32-year-old, who hasplayed 47 Tests, 169ODIs and 76 T20Internationals.

Guptill is hopefulof making full use ofhis chances at

Sunrisers, havingworked on his tech-nique after an indiffer-ent home series againstIndia.

"During the Indiaseries, I had some tech-nical problem and I

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