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E fforts to unite the Opposition have gained momentum. NCP president Sharad Pawar is likely to meet Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday to discuss both Congress-NCP alliance in Maharashtra and overall Opposition unity. The Opposition is working on a strategy to ensure one-and-one contest on at least 400 seats. As part of this exercise, Rahul recently met RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, and Samajwadi party chief Akhilesh Yadav, going extra miles to seal pact with the BSP. Pawar, who is actively engaged in unifying the Opposition, has spoken with all major regional leaders like Akhilesh, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechuri and others. He has also made efforts to reach out to BJD chief and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, Andhra Pradesh CM and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana CM and TRS chief Chandrashekhar Rao, National Conference chief Omar Abdullah and others. Naidu has already broken ranks with the NDA and has not made his mind clear on future politics. On the other hand, the Congress is also in touch with the SP and Mayawati’s BSP for an alliance in Madhya Pradesh as also with the AAP for an adjustment in Delhi. Uttar Pradesh (80), Maharashtra (48) and Bihar (40) have the most number of Lok Sabha seats totaling 168. Rahul’s meeting with Pawar comes against the back- drop of the NCP supremo’s willingness to take the lead uni- fying the Oppositions. “I would be happy to be instrumental in bringing together like-minded parties before the Lok Sabha elections,” said Pawar after the BJP fared badly in the recent bypolls. Sources said the former Union Minister has been work- ing to take advantage of a pos- sible split in the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance in Maharashtra by reviving the NCP-Congress alliance and reinforcing it by roping in smaller parties like Raj Thackeray’s MNS and Raju Shetti’s Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana. Pawar has also asked Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray to join the anti-BJP bandwag- on. Although there has been no official response from Shiv Sena to Pawar’s invitation, his move has sparked a raging debate in Maharashtra’s polit- ical circles. “If Shiv Sena joins the anti- BJP camp, it won’t take long to change the political scenario in Maharashtra. The latest exam- ple of that is the Palghar by- election, where the BJP won, but combined votes polled for Shiv Sena, BVA and Left were more than what the BJP,” said a Maharashtra State Congress leader. Meanwhile, Akhilesh’s readiness to sacrifice some seats to forge an alliance with the BSP is being seen as an interesting development against the anti-BJP unity. The SP chief ’s statement follows some unconfirmed reports that BSP chief Mayawati was more inter- ested in an alliance with the Congress than the SP. Mayawati has stated that she is for an alliance in UP only if her party gets a respectable number of seats. The BSP is said to have staked its claims on 40 Lok Sabha seats out of a total of 80 seats in UP. SP sources said after extending support to party candidates for Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha bypolls, Mayawati developed cold feet and her party remained neutral during the Kairana Lok Sabha bypoll. The change in BSP stance forced the SP to rejig its political strategy. “BSP is eyeing the 2022 Assembly elections and if she forges an alliance with the SP for 2019 Lok Sabha polls then it might come in the way of the party’s plan for the 2022 Assembly poll,” said a senior SP leader. He pointed out Mayawati has already forged a political understanding with the Congress to contest Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. She is also like- ly to strike a deal for Assembly poll in Rajasthan. An Iftar party hosted by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday has also attract- ed a great deal of interest. The invitees include all those who were called for Sonia’s dinner earlier this year which was seen as an attempt to stitch together a “grand alliance” to take on the Narendra Modi juggernaut. All the political parties who have been invited have been asked to send in their representatives if they cannot send top leaders considering that the invitations have gone out at the last minute. Incidentally, former President Pranab Mukherjee has not been invited at the Congress’ Iftar this year so is former Vice President Hamid Ansari. T he Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) decision to shift the pre-Iron Age artifacts, including chariots reportedly belonging to the Mahabharat- era, recently unearthed from Sanauli village at Uttar Pradesh’s Baghpat district to the Delhi’s Red Fort museum for further investigation, has not gone down well with the villagers. Several Sanuali villagers told The Pioneer that they want a museum to be e constructed at the site itself, showcasing the recovered artifacts which would help boost tourism in the region. They also felt that the museum will enable the future generation of the region to have a glimpse of their rich history. However, the ASI feels that setting up a museum needs long-term planning and it will be too early to give a thought to their demand. The site at Sanauli was accidentally discovered early this year by Satender Kumar Maan, village Pradhan, while he was levelling his agricultur- al land. “We informed the dis- trict officers who in turn inti- mated the ASI,” he said. In the three-month long excavation, which started in March this year, the ASI, a pre- mier archaeological agency under the Union Culture Ministry, unearthed eight bur- ial sites and several artifacts, including three coffins, anten- na swords, daggers, copper pots, steatite beads, combs, and ornaments, among others. The ASI has now started shifting the artifacts and items recovered from the site to the museum of the ASI’s institute of Archaeology Museum locat- ed in the Red Fort for further investigation. Mahabharat-era Chariots and coffins which are in a dilapidated State are yet to be lifted from the site as they are very fragile and need spe- cial handling. However, the villagers are not happy at the ASI move. Maan said, “We want these arti- facts should be kept here for the tourists. We don’t want that the artifacts to be tempered by shifting to other sites.” Most of the locals here are engaged in land cultivation. The ASI has found the region, which is used for cultivating crops like maize and sugarcane, archaeologically rich. In 2005, the ASI, just 120 metres from the Sanauli site, had found 116 burials along with antenna swords and pot- tery. The excavation has been touted as one of its own kind where the ASI found physical evidence of the chariots in the sub-continent dating back to 2,000 BC - 1,800 BC. “The region is historically rich. If a museum is set up here showcasing these excavated archaeological items, we hope to see our revenue soaring as tourists will come to visit the site,” said Shri Ram Sharma, another villager who had offered his five-acre land to the ASI for the digging purpose. Land owner Prabhat Sharma feels showcasing a his- torical treasure at the site itself will enhance its value. However, Director of the Institute of Archaeology SK Manjul said the artifacts will be further investigated in details in Delhi to probe the speculation that the burial pits might be “royal” ones or the weapons might belong to warrior class. “Site museum needs a long-term planning. These are very fragile items and cannot be kept at the site in the open,” he added. The ASI feels that the recovery is set to give new dimension to our history and date of the Mahabharata peri- od, and further into the origins of chariots and horses in the Harappan age. F ormer Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on Monday admitted to AIIMS following complaints of “lower respiratory tract infection. In a statement issued at 10.45 pm on Monday, AIIMS said Vajpayee, who was admitted to the hospital following com- plaints of a lower respiratory tract infection and kidney issues, was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. “He is in the ICU,” said sources. Earlier, AIIMS had said 93-year-old Vajpayee, who has been ailing for long, was admit- ted for routine check-up. A team of doctors under the supervision of AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria are attending to Vajpayee, a statement from the hospital said. A host of leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, visited the BJP patriarch at the hospital. Modi enquired about the well-being of Vajpayee and met his family members, offi- cial sources said. BJP veteran LK Advani, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, BJP president Amit Shah, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, Health Minister JP Nadda were among those who paid a visit to the ailing BJP leader. Vajpayee was three-time Prime Minister between 1998 and 2004. As his health deteri- orated, he slowly withdrew from public life and has been confined to his residence for many years. O ver the past few years, the Supreme Court is admit- ting nearly 5,000 cases fewer annually for hearing. The sharp reduction is on the account of the SC implementing stricter scrutiny of petitions and weed- ing out the frivolous ones. In 2013, the SC admitted 38,000 cases. The figure come down to 31,500 by May 2018. This has impacted the pen- dency figures also. From 67,275 pending cases in May 2013, the number has come down to 54,013 last month. The reduction has come as a welcome relief to the apex court, which is performing at a reduced strength with seven vacancies. While it is surpris- ing that with an average vacan- cy of over five judges across the past years, the apex court man- aged to reduce pendency, a look at the number of admis- sion matters will indicate that judges have been circumspect in admitting cases for hearing. In 2013, where the new cases stood at 38,099, the fig- ure substantially decreased within a year as in 2014 an average of about 34,000 cases got the nod for hearing. By 2016, there was a slight upward trend in admission of cases (touching 36,105 by December 2016), but again reduced sharply to 32,160 within a year (by November 2017). This trend is visible in the latest sta- tistics put out on the penden- cy figures on the Supreme Court website showing how the admission cases till May 2018 is at a steady 31,502. Continued on Page 4 P itching his demand for the full Statehood status to Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal went a step further and declared that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will cam- paign for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2019 general elections if Delhi is granted full Statehood. However, he warned the Modi Government that in the event of Delhi not being granted full Statehood, the AAP would conduct a “BJP, quit Delhi” campaign. “I want to say to the BJP, give full-Statehood status to Delhi before the Lok Sabha polls, every vote of people will go in favour of the BJP and we (AAP) will campaign for them in the Lok Sabha election,” Kejriwal said in the Assembly on Monday. “But, if they (BJP) do not give full Statehood to Delhi, people here will say that BJP walon, Delhi chhodo (BJP, quit Delhi),” he added. Speaking on his Government’s resolution adopted in the Assembly seek- ing full Statehood status to Delhi, Kejriwal sought to know from Prime Minister Narendra Modi whether his promise to give full Statehood to Delhi during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections was just a “jumla” (election rhetoric). Kejriwal alleged that the people of Delhi were being “harassed” by the Centre at a scale the British had not done during their rule. Equating the Lieutenant Governor with viceroy during the British rules, Kejriwal said Delhi was being ruled by “Kings” since 1556, adding that in 1947, India got Independence, but Delhi is yet to get “freedom” as they (Centre) have appointed the L-G in place of viceroy to rule the national Capital. “There is no people’s rule in Delhi. King L-G is running Delhi...I want to ask why we (Delhiites) have not got free- dom yet. Our ancestors had also fought for India’s free- dom...” Kejriwal said in the Delhi Assembly. Giving a call for “freedom of Delhi”, he said the time has come for the people of Delhi to “fight for their freedom” and implement the “people’s rule” in Delhi, and “throw away L-G’s rule”. Continued on Page 4 B ihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday strongly refuted any fissures in the BJP-led NDA and said the reports of differences were brainchild of the social media. At a Press conference on the sidelines of his Lok Samwad programme, when Nitish was asked about seat sharing, he said, “No talks on seats and related issues have been held yet. When elections will be round the corner there will be talks on seat sharing.” This was Nitish’s first reac- tion on the ongoing debate on the differences among NDA partners over seat sharing. Continued on Page 4 T he US on Monday offered “unique” security guaran- tees to North Korea if it accepts a “complete, verifiable and irre- versible” denuclearisation as the two sides made progress in their talks ahead of a much- publicised historic summit between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un here. On the eve of the summit at the Capella Hotel on Sentosa island, Trump hoped that a “nice” outcome could be reached from what he said would be a “very interesting meeting” with Kim on Monday. Later, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the preparatory talks were “moving quite rapidly” and he expected them to reach what he called “a logical conclusion” even earli- er than the US anticipated. “A complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearisation of North Korea is the only out- come that the US will accept at the summit,” Pompeo told reporters at a press conference. He said the US is willing to offer North Korea “unique” security guarantees that are “fundamentally different from before” to achieve denucleari- sation. “We will take actions to provide them sufficient cer- tainty that they can be com- fortable that denuclearisation is not something that ends badly for them,” Pompeo said. However, sanctions on North Korea will remain until that has been achieved, he said. “President Trump believes that Kim has an unprecedent- ed opportunity to change the trajectory of our relationship and bring peace and prosper- ity to his country,” the US Secretary of State said. “The fact that our two leaders are sitting down face- to-face is a sign of the enor- mous potential to accomplish something that will immense- ly benefit both of our peoples and the entire world,” he said. Pompeo said previous American administrations have been duped by North Korea but the Trump Administration has got experts on non-prolif- eration and Weapons of Mass Destruction on the ground to verify Pyongyang’s willingness to denuclearise. Pompeo said President Trump is fully prepared for the meeting with Kim. National Security Council spokesman Robert Palladino said President Trump intends to meet one on one with Kim. “We can expect a one on one at the beginning,” Palladino said. The diplomats from the two sides are engaged in hec- tic parleys behind closed doors to narrow their differences. Sung Kim, a former US ambassador to South Korea who has been leading the US in talks with North Korean Vice- Foreign Minister Choe Son Hui since last month, is said to be continuing the discussions with his counterpart. The summit could lay the groundwork for ending a nuclear stand-off between the two countries and see Pyongyang dismantle its arse- nal in return for economic help and security guarantees. A peace treaty ending the 1950-53 Korean War may also be on the table. North and South Koreas remain techni- cally at war as the conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. Continued on Page 4 Raipur: BJP president Amit Shah on Monday asserted that the Opposition has a key role in a democracy and said his party’s slogan of “Congress-free India” means freeing the country of that party’s “culture”. He also said some of his remarks on Congress presi- dent Rahul Gandhi should not be taken as a personal attack as he had only replied to cer- tain questions posed by the Opposition party leader. “‘Congress-mukt Bharat’ means getting rid of the ‘Congress culture’. Democracy is not possible without the Opposition. It is a different thing that the Congress has been shrinking in the coun- try,” he said. Detailed report on Page 4 C ongress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the country has become slave to a handful BJP-RSS leaders but the entire Opposition will unite in six months to a year to make them realise that India will be run by its people and not just three persons. “Today, our nation has become slave to two-three lead- ers of the BJP and the RSS. The entire Opposition is getting together in six months to a year and Narendra Modi, Amit Shah and Mohan Bhagwat will see the strength of India,” Rahul said addressing an OBC con- vention, aimed at wooing the community that comprises over half country’s population. Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: ( ˆˆ ’ ˝ .&%0ˇ˙.ˆ 1 23 ˙˜$!$˙!/ ,˙)-˘+. ˘ ˇˆ ˙˝ 4˘43:=> …...Pradesh’s Baghpat district to the Delhi’s Red Fort museum for further investigation,

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Efforts to unite theOpposition have gained

momentum. NCP presidentSharad Pawar is likely to meetCongress president RahulGandhi on Tuesday to discussboth Congress-NCP alliance inMaharashtra and overallOpposition unity. TheOpposition is working on astrategy to ensure one-and-onecontest on at least 400 seats. Aspart of this exercise, Rahulrecently met RJD leaderTejashwi Yadav, andSamajwadi party chiefAkhilesh Yadav, going extramiles to seal pact with the BSP.

Pawar, who is activelyengaged in unifying theOpposition, has spoken withall major regional leaders likeAkhilesh, Trinamool Congresschief Mamata Banerjee, CPMgeneral secretary SitaramYechuri and others.

He has also made efforts toreach out to BJD chief andOdisha CM Naveen Patnaik,Andhra Pradesh CM and TDPchief N Chandrababu Naidu,Telangana CM and TRS chiefChandrashekhar Rao, NationalConference chief OmarAbdullah and others. Naidu hasalready broken ranks with theNDA and has not made hismind clear on future politics.

On the other hand, theCongress is also in touch withthe SP and Mayawati’s BSP foran alliance in Madhya Pradeshas also with the AAP for anadjustment in Delhi. UttarPradesh (80), Maharashtra (48)and Bihar (40) have the mostnumber of Lok Sabha seatstotaling 168.

Rahul’s meeting with

Pawar comes against the back-drop of the NCP supremo’swillingness to take the lead uni-fying the Oppositions. “I wouldbe happy to be instrumental inbringing together like-mindedparties before the Lok Sabhaelections,” said Pawar after theBJP fared badly in the recentbypolls.

Sources said the formerUnion Minister has been work-ing to take advantage of a pos-sible split in the BJP-Shiv Senaalliance in Maharashtra byreviving the NCP-Congressalliance and reinforcing it byroping in smaller parties likeRaj Thackeray’s MNS andRaju Shetti’s SwabhimaniShetkari Sanghatana.

Pawar has also asked ShivSena chief Uddhav Thackerayto join the anti-BJP bandwag-on. Although there has been noofficial response from ShivSena to Pawar’s invitation, hismove has sparked a ragingdebate in Maharashtra’s polit-ical circles.

“If Shiv Sena joins the anti-BJP camp, it won’t take long tochange the political scenario inMaharashtra. The latest exam-ple of that is the Palghar by-election, where the BJP won,but combined votes polled forShiv Sena, BVA and Left weremore than what the BJP,” saida Maharashtra State Congressleader.

Meanwhile, Akhilesh’sreadiness to sacrifice someseats to forge an alliance withthe BSP is being seen as aninteresting development againstthe anti-BJP unity. The SPchief ’s statement follows someunconfirmed reports that BSPchief Mayawati was more inter-ested in an alliance with theCongress than the SP.

Mayawati has stated that

she is for an alliance in UP onlyif her party gets a respectablenumber of seats. The BSP issaid to have staked its claims on40 Lok Sabha seats out of a totalof 80 seats in UP.

SP sources said afterextending support to partycandidates for Gorakhpur andPhulpur Lok Sabha bypolls,

Mayawati developed cold feetand her party remained neutralduring the Kairana Lok Sabhabypoll. The change in BSPstance forced the SP to rejig itspolitical strategy.

“BSP is eyeing the 2022Assembly elections and if sheforges an alliance with the SPfor 2019 Lok Sabha polls thenit might come in the way of theparty’s plan for the 2022Assembly poll,” said a senior SPleader.

He pointed out Mayawatihas already forged a politicalunderstanding with theCongress to contest Assemblypolls in Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh. She is also like-ly to strike a deal for Assembly

poll in Rajasthan. An Iftar party hosted by

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhion Wednesday has also attract-ed a great deal of interest. Theinvitees include all those whowere called for Sonia’s dinnerearlier this year which wasseen as an attempt to stitchtogether a “grand alliance” totake on the Narendra Modijuggernaut. All the politicalparties who have been invitedhave been asked to send in theirrepresentatives if they cannotsend top leaders consideringthat the invitations have goneout at the last minute.

Incidentally, formerPresident Pranab Mukherjeehas not been invited at theCongress’ Iftar this year so isformer Vice President HamidAnsari.

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The Archaeological Surveyof India’s (ASI) decision to

shift the pre-Iron Age artifacts,including chariots reportedlybelonging to the Mahabharat-era, recently unearthed fromSanauli village at UttarPradesh’s Baghpat district to theDelhi’s Red Fort museum forfurther investigation, has not gone down well with thevillagers.

Several Sanuali villagerstold The Pioneer that they wanta museum to be e constructedat the site itself, showcasing therecovered artifacts whichwould help boost tourism inthe region. They also felt thatthe museum will enable the

future generation of the regionto have a glimpse of their richhistory. However, the ASI feelsthat setting up a museum needslong-term planning and it willbe too early to give a thoughtto their demand.

The site at Sanauli wasaccidentally discovered earlythis year by Satender KumarMaan, village Pradhan, whilehe was levelling his agricultur-al land. “We informed the dis-trict officers who in turn inti-mated the ASI,” he said.

In the three-month longexcavation, which started inMarch this year, the ASI, a pre-mier archaeological agencyunder the Union CultureMinistry, unearthed eight bur-ial sites and several artifacts,

including three coffins, anten-na swords, daggers, copperpots, steatite beads, combs,and ornaments, among others.

The ASI has now startedshifting the artifacts and itemsrecovered from the site to the

museum of the ASI’s instituteof Archaeology Museum locat-ed in the Red Fort for furtherinvestigation. Mahabharat-eraChariots and coffins which arein a dilapidated State are yet tobe lifted from the site as they

are very fragile and need spe-cial handling.

However, the villagers arenot happy at the ASI move.Maan said, “We want these arti-facts should be kept here for thetourists. We don’t want that the

artifacts to be tempered byshifting to other sites.”

Most of the locals here areengaged in land cultivation.The ASI has found the region,which is used for cultivatingcrops like maize and sugarcane,archaeologically rich.

In 2005, the ASI, just 120metres from the Sanauli site,had found 116 burials alongwith antenna swords and pot-tery. The excavation has beentouted as one of its own kindwhere the ASI found physicalevidence of the chariots in thesub-continent dating back to2,000 BC - 1,800 BC.

“The region is historicallyrich. If a museum is set up hereshowcasing these excavatedarchaeological items, we hopeto see our revenue soaring astourists will come to visit thesite,” said Shri Ram Sharma,another villager who had

offered his five-acre land to theASI for the digging purpose.

Land owner PrabhatSharma feels showcasing a his-torical treasure at the site itselfwill enhance its value.

However, Director of theInstitute of Archaeology SKManjul said the artifacts will befurther investigated in details inDelhi to probe the speculationthat the burial pits might be“royal” ones or the weaponsmight belong to warrior class.

“Site museum needs along-term planning. These arevery fragile items and cannotbe kept at the site in the open,”he added.

The ASI feels that therecovery is set to give newdimension to our history anddate of the Mahabharata peri-od, and further into the originsof chariots and horses in theHarappan age.

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Former Prime Minister AtalBihari Vajpayee was on

Monday admitted to AIIMSfollowing complaints of “lowerrespiratory tract infection. In astatement issued at 10.45 pmon Monday, AIIMS saidVajpayee, who was admitted tothe hospital following com-plaints of a lower respiratorytract infection and kidneyissues, was diagnosed with aurinary tract infection. “He isin the ICU,” said sources.

Earlier, AIIMS had said93-year-old Vajpayee, who hasbeen ailing for long, was admit-ted for routine check-up. Ateam of doctors under thesupervision of AIIMS DirectorRandeep Guleria are attendingto Vajpayee, a statement fromthe hospital said.

A host of leaders, includingPrime Minister NarendraModi, visited the BJP patriarchat the hospital.

Modi enquired about the

well-being of Vajpayee andmet his family members, offi-cial sources said. BJP veteranLK Advani, Home MinisterRajnath Singh, BJP presidentAmit Shah, Congress chiefRahul Gandhi, Health MinisterJP Nadda were among thosewho paid a visit to the ailingBJP leader.

Vajpayee was three-timePrime Minister between 1998and 2004. As his health deteri-orated, he slowly withdrewfrom public life and has beenconfined to his residence formany years.

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Over the past few years, theSupreme Court is admit-

ting nearly 5,000 cases fewerannually for hearing. The sharpreduction is on the account ofthe SC implementing stricterscrutiny of petitions and weed-ing out the frivolous ones. In2013, the SC admitted 38,000cases. The figure come down to31,500 by May 2018.

This has impacted the pen-dency figures also. From 67,275pending cases in May 2013, thenumber has come down to54,013 last month.

The reduction has come asa welcome relief to the apexcourt, which is performing ata reduced strength with sevenvacancies. While it is surpris-ing that with an average vacan-cy of over five judges across the

past years, the apex court man-aged to reduce pendency, alook at the number of admis-sion matters will indicate thatjudges have been circumspectin admitting cases for hearing.

In 2013, where the newcases stood at 38,099, the fig-ure substantially decreasedwithin a year as in 2014 anaverage of about 34,000 casesgot the nod for hearing. By2016, there was a slight upwardtrend in admission of cases(touching 36,105 by December2016), but again reducedsharply to 32,160 within a year(by November 2017). Thistrend is visible in the latest sta-tistics put out on the penden-cy figures on the SupremeCourt website showing how theadmission cases till May 2018is at a steady 31,502.

Continued on Page 4

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Pitching his demand for thefull Statehood status to

Delhi, Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal went a step furtherand declared that the AamAadmi Party (AAP) will cam-paign for the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) in 2019 generalelections if Delhi is granted fullStatehood. However, he warnedthe Modi Government that inthe event of Delhi not beinggranted full Statehood, theAAP would conduct a “BJP,quit Delhi” campaign.

“I want to say to the BJP,give full-Statehood status toDelhi before the Lok Sabhapolls, every vote of people willgo in favour of the BJP and we(AAP) will campaign for themin the Lok Sabha election,”Kejriwal said in the Assemblyon Monday. “But, if they (BJP)do not give full Statehood toDelhi, people here will saythat BJP walon, Delhi chhodo(BJP, quit Delhi),” he added.

Speaking on hisGovernment’s resolutionadopted in the Assembly seek-ing full Statehood status toDelhi, Kejriwal sought to knowfrom Prime Minister NarendraModi whether his promise togive full Statehood to Delhiduring the 2014 Lok Sabhaelections was just a “jumla”(election rhetoric).

Kejriwal alleged that thepeople of Delhi were being

“harassed” by the Centre at ascale the British had not doneduring their rule.

Equating the LieutenantGovernor with viceroy duringthe British rules, Kejriwal saidDelhi was being ruled by“Kings” since 1556, addingthat in 1947, India gotIndependence, but Delhi is yetto get “freedom” as they(Centre) have appointed the L-G in place of viceroy to rulethe national Capital.

“There is no people’s rulein Delhi. King L-G is runningDelhi...I want to ask why we(Delhiites) have not got free-dom yet. Our ancestors hadalso fought for India’s free-dom...” Kejriwal said in theDelhi Assembly.

Giving a call for “freedomof Delhi”, he said the time hascome for the people of Delhi to“fight for their freedom” andimplement the “people’s rule” inDelhi, and “throw away L-G’srule”.

Continued on Page 4

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Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar on Monday

strongly refuted any fissures inthe BJP-led NDA and said thereports of differences werebrainchild of the social media.

At a Press conference onthe sidelines of his LokSamwad programme, whenNitish was asked about seatsharing, he said, “No talks onseats and related issues havebeen held yet. When electionswill be round the corner therewill be talks on seat sharing.”

This was Nitish’s first reac-tion on the ongoing debate onthe differences among NDApartners over seat sharing.

Continued on Page 4

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The US on Monday offered“unique” security guaran-

tees to North Korea if it acceptsa “complete, verifiable and irre-versible” denuclearisation asthe two sides made progress intheir talks ahead of a much-publicised historic summitbetween US President DonaldTrump and North Koreanleader Kim Jong-un here.

On the eve of the summitat the Capella Hotel on Sentosaisland, Trump hoped that a“nice” outcome could bereached from what he saidwould be a “very interestingmeeting” with Kim on Monday.

Later, Secretary of StateMike Pompeo said that thepreparatory talks were “movingquite rapidly” and he expectedthem to reach what he called “alogical conclusion” even earli-er than the US anticipated.

“A complete, verifiable, andirreversible denuclearisationof North Korea is the only out-come that the US will accept atthe summit,” Pompeo toldreporters at a press conference.

He said the US is willing tooffer North Korea “unique”security guarantees that are“fundamentally different frombefore” to achieve denucleari-sation. “We will take actions toprovide them sufficient cer-tainty that they can be com-fortable that denuclearisation isnot something that ends badlyfor them,” Pompeo said.

However, sanctions onNorth Korea will remain untilthat has been achieved, hesaid. “President Trump believesthat Kim has an unprecedent-ed opportunity to change thetrajectory of our relationshipand bring peace and prosper-ity to his country,” the USSecretary of State said.

“The fact that our twoleaders are sitting down face-to-face is a sign of the enor-mous potential to accomplishsomething that will immense-ly benefit both of our peoplesand the entire world,” he said.

Pompeo said previousAmerican administrations havebeen duped by North Koreabut the Trump Administrationhas got experts on non-prolif-eration and Weapons of MassDestruction on the ground toverify Pyongyang’s willingnessto denuclearise.

Pompeo said PresidentTrump is fully prepared for themeeting with Kim. NationalSecurity Council spokesmanRobert Palladino said PresidentTrump intends to meet one onone with Kim. “We can expecta one on one at the beginning,”Palladino said.

The diplomats from the

two sides are engaged in hec-tic parleys behind closed doorsto narrow their differences.

Sung Kim, a former USambassador to South Koreawho has been leading the US intalks with North Korean Vice-Foreign Minister Choe SonHui since last month, is said tobe continuing the discussionswith his counterpart.

The summit could lay thegroundwork for ending anuclear stand-off between thetwo countries and seePyongyang dismantle its arse-nal in return for economichelp and security guarantees.

A peace treaty ending the1950-53 Korean War may alsobe on the table. North andSouth Koreas remain techni-cally at war as the conflictended with an armistice, not apeace treaty.

Continued on Page 4

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Raipur: BJP president AmitShah on Monday assertedthat the Opposition has a keyrole in a democracy and saidhis party’s slogan of“Congress-free India” meansfreeing the country of thatparty’s “culture”.

He also said some of hisremarks on Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi should notbe taken as a personal attackas he had only replied to cer-tain questions posed by theOpposition party leader.

“‘Congress-mukt Bharat’means getting rid of the‘Congress culture’. Democracyis not possible without theOpposition. It is a differentthing that the Congress hasbeen shrinking in the coun-try,” he said.

Detailed report on Page 4

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Congress president RahulGandhi on Monday said

the country has become slaveto a handful BJP-RSS leadersbut the entire Opposition willunite in six months to a year tomake them realise that Indiawill be run by its people andnot just three persons.

“Today, our nation hasbecome slave to two-three lead-ers of the BJP and the RSS. Theentire Opposition is gettingtogether in six months to a yearand Narendra Modi, AmitShah and Mohan Bhagwat willsee the strength of India,” Rahulsaid addressing an OBC con-vention, aimed at wooing thecommunity that comprisesover half country’s population.

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Page 2: ( ˆˆ ’ ˝ .&%0ˇ˙.ˆ 1 23 ˙˜$!$˙!/ ,˙)-˘+. ˘ ˇˆ ˙˝ 4˘43:=> …...Pradesh’s Baghpat district to the Delhi’s Red Fort museum for further investigation,

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The Bharatiya Janta Party(BJP) youth wing Bharatiya

Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM)has filed a complaint with thepolice against former vice-president of Jawaharlal NehruUniversity Students Union(JNUSU) Shehla Rashid Shorafor making “unpleasantremarks” against UnionMinister Nitin Gadkari.

Rashid in her tweet on 9June said : “Looks likeRSS/Gadkari is planning toassassinate Modi, then blame iton Muslims/Communists andthen lynch Muslims #RajivGandhiStyle”. Her remarkscame after the Pune policeclaimed to unearth a Maoistplot to execute a “RajivGandhi-type incident” againstModi. Former Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi was assassinatedin 1991.

Gadkari took offence toRashid's tweet and said, “Iwould be taking legal action onanti-social elements who havemade bizarre comments;attributing personal motives tome, regarding the assassinationthreat to PM @narendramodi.”

In response to Gadkari'stweet, Rashid had clarified thather “tweet was a sarcastic ref-erence to the baseless mediacampaign being run at primetime in which photos of JNUstudent, Mr. Umar Khalid and

his father, Mr. S Q R Ilyas werebeing flashed alongside news ofthe purported Modi assassina-tion plot”.

The Bharatiya Janata YuvaMorcha's representatives onMonday submitted a complaintat the Parliament Street policestation.

“The message is totallyfalse, unfounded, concoctedand without any basis. Themessage also promotes inse-curity and uncertainty in thecountry by levelling unfound-ed allegations that RSS/Gadkariis planning to assassinate PMModi,” the complaint said.Police said that they havereceived a complaint but noFIR has been lodged. They areinquiring in the matter.

“This is a plot by her anddivisive communist forces toruin and spoil the peace andharmony of nation. She mustprove on what basis she has lev-eled such allegation,” said RohitChahal, national mediaincharge , BJYM.

“After carefully constitut-

ing and concocted said mes-sage Ms. Shehla Rashid malafi-dely, wantonly tweeted thesaid message giving provoca-tion with the complete knowl-edge , intention and under-standing that the provocationcaused by this ill will messagewill cause people of certainsections to commit riotsagainst people of some othersections,” said BJYM in thecomplaint.

“Further by tweeting thesaid message on the socialmedia Ms Rashid is promotingenmity between differentgroups of the society on theground of their religion as wellas on the ground of their affil-iations to a particular politicaland social ideology such ascommunism and others and bycirculating and tweeting thesaid message she has causedenmity, disharmony , hatredand ill-will between differentsections of citizens on the basisof their religion and their affil-iations to different ideologies,”stated the complaint.

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Two persons have ben arrest-ed for trying to extort

�50 lakh from a businessmanin Gurugram's Farrukhnagararea, the police said onMonday. Crime InvestigationAgency (CIA) Bilaspur arrest-ed both the accused fromGurugram on Sunday.

Three members of the gangwere arrested earlier in May.The arrested accused was pro-duced before the district courton Monday and has been sentfor police remand for furtherprobe.

The culprits have beenidentified as Sandeep aliasDuma (28) a gangster andPraveen alias Kala (28), bothare the residents of Gurugram'sFarrukhnagar area.

According to the police aFarrukhnagar businessmanRadheshyam, who is theowner of a sweet shop andrestaurant, approached thepolice on April 26 and filed acomplaint that he had receivedan extortion call demandingRs 50 lakh from an unidenti-fied number.

He told the police that onApril 17 his restaurant was

attacked by a few unknownmen. The accused had alleged-ly opened fire at his sweetshop.

Later a man, who identifiedhimself as Sandeep of Dumavillage, called him up on April24 and demanded Rs 50 lakh,threatening to eliminate himand his entire family if hefailed to give the amount.

A case had been registeredin this regard withFarrukhnagar police stationunder sections 387 (extortion)and 506 (criminal intimida-tion) of the Indian Penal Code(IPC).

“Following on secret infor-mation the culprits have beenarrested from Farrukhnagararea on Sunday. They hadjoined the crime world in2009 and want to earn quickmoney. The duo were involvedin two dozen cases of murder,attempt to murder, dacoity.They granted bail a year ago,”DCP (crime) Sumit Kuhar,said.

During questioning,Sandeep Duma revealed that hehad hatched the plan to attackand extort money from thebusinessman. They used to dorekey before committing thecrime the police said.

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The highest number of appli-cations i.e. more than 90

per cent of total applicationsreceived for the Undergraduate(UG) programme of DelhiUniversity (DU) for the acad-emic session 2018-19 is fromthe Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE).

As per the official datareleased by DU on Monday, outof 2,78,574 applicants whohave successfully submittedtheir UG application, 2,49,694are from CBSE followed byBoard of High School andIntermediate Education UttarPradesh, from which 22,266students have applied. Next infray is Haryana Board of SchoolEducation and Council for theIndian School CertificateExamination with 10,858 and9,681 applicants respectively.

On the other hand therewere 7,573 applicants fromBihar School ExaminationBoard followed by Board ofSecondary Education Rajasthanfrom which 4,440 applicantswere received. A total of 3,856

students registered from theNational Institute of OpenSchooling. 2,369 applicants arefrom Board of SecondaryEducation Madhya Pradeshfollowed by 2317 applicationsfrom other boards.

While on the other handlowest number of applicants i.e.245 are from Mizoram Boardof School Education with nexthighest being Aligarh MuslimUniversity Board from which277 applications were receivedsuccessfully. Among otherboards, there are 2000 appli-cations from Kerala Board ofHigher Secondary Education,1484 from Telangana State

Board of IntermediateEducation, 1434 from J & KState Board of SchoolEducation.

The online registrationprocess for the Undergraduateprogram of DU started on 15May and lasted till 7 June. Theadmission process will kick-start with the announcement offirst cut-off on 19 June and sub-sequent cut-offs later on. Aboutthree days time will be givenafter the announcement ofeach cut-off for verification ofdocuments and admission.

The DU has planned tocome off with only five cut-offsthis year in its bid to cut-short

the lengthy admission processand unrealistic cut-offs. Anapplicant can take admissiononly in one course and in onecollege at any given time.

In case an admitted studentwishes to obtain admission ina different college or course (forwhich she/he has applied at thetime of registration) the studentshall withdraw/cancel theadmission in the existingcourse/college, by approachingthat college to cancel theadmission. Only after the col-lege approves the cancellationof the admission and returnsthe original certificates to thestudent, the student can pro-ceed to take admission in theother programme/college.Admission fee will be adjustedautomatically and the studentwill pay only the balance fee, ifit is more than already paid feein the previous college. In casethe fee is lesser than alreadypaid, the balance shall berefunded to the applicant'saccount or to an accountdeclared by the applicant as perthe College/University rulesafter the admissions are closed.

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Continuing their ongoingdrive against squatters,

all three corporations onMonday removed many illegalstructures, impounded 55vehicles and seized 228 dif-ferent articles.

The drive conductedagainst encroachers in sever-al areas including Peera GarhiChowk to Paschim Vihar EastMetro Station, Wazirpurindustrial area, New MultanNagar, Hari Singh Park(Rohtak Road), Punjabi Bastito main road, Nangloi,Mangolpuri petrol pump topolice station, Rithala - Ricemill to Vijay Vihar road toGoga Peer Mandir, RoshnaraRoad, Clock Tower, Budhpurto Alipur, New RajenderNagar, Shankar Road, MoriGate, New Delhi MetroStat ion, Kamla Market ,Bhagirath Place, Deewan HallRoad, Old Lajpat Rai Market,Chirag Delhi Road Nallah ,Sadhna Enclave, PancheelRoad, Saket PVR complex,Lado Sarai, Amar Colonypolice station to Garhi Neemchowk, Ring Road Moolchand metro station, Vikramhotel and surrounding areas.

A senior corporation offi-cial also said that the trafficpolice issued challans to 10vehicles in Dwarka.

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The trade tax employees, after taking mass leaveon Monday, protested against not filling

vacant posts in the department. They took out theprocession in Ghaziabad and warned theGovernment that if their demand is not fulfilled,they will protest in a much bigger way at State head-quarters at Lucknow on coming June 20th, 2018.

Under the banner of “trade tax ministerial staffassociation”, the trade tax employees went on massleave and took out the procession from Trade TaxOffice to Collectorate and presented a memoran-dum to the district magistrate.

The state level secretary of ministerial staffassociation Vipin Rathi said 1900 posts of seniorassistant are still lying vacant since the elevationprocess has been put stand still from several years.951 posts of principal assistant and 512 posts ofjunior assistants are still lying vacant despite clear-ance has been given by the state cabinet. But thenotification has not been issued by the concern sec-retary of the UP government despite cabinet clear-ance. Due to the shortage on different posts in min-isterial staff category the tremendous workload hasbeen put on limited manpower in the trade taxdepartment throughout the state.

Newly introduced GST system has not beenadopted thoroughly and is beyond the under-standing of the ministerial staff since no properallocation has been granted to the working staff.It has put the limited manpower in further stressadded Rathi. “We are forced to adopt the harshmethod if our demands are not met by the gov-ernment and we will go Lucknow on coming June20th if the deaf and dump officers ignore our gen-uine demands” added the union leader Rathi.

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Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) onMonday examined the records related to

the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government’sMohalla Clinics project based on a complaintof irregularities, Several doctors and mid-ranking officials of the Health Departmenthave been questioned so far.

CBI official saidthat the investigationwas part of a prelimi-nary enquiry registeredby it on the charges ofalleged irregularities insanctioning of MohallaClinics (primary health-care centres) in variouscolonies.

The CBI has recently questioned a chiefmedical officer (CMO) and some doctors whoare in-charge of clinics, they said.

The preliminary enquiry was registeredon the recommendation of former LieutenantGovernor of Delhi, Najeeb Jung, in 2016, theysaid.The agency officials denied Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal's claim that it hadcollected three lakh documents related toMohalla Clinics. They said they were exam-ining records and statement of suspects whowere asked to join the probe. The agency offi-cials said it cannot force someone for ques-tioning during the preliminary enquiry stage.

Kejriwal has alleged that the CBI hadstarted investigating Mohalla Clinics, sum-moning various officials. He also alleged thatthe Delhi government's officials were being“harassed”and “abused openly” for workingin the AAP government.

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Three fresh cases of malariahave been reported in the

past week in the nationalCapital, taking the total num-ber of people affected by thevector-borne disease this sea-son to 24, one more than thetotal number of dengue casesrecorded in Delhi, according tothe latest municipal reportreleased on Monday.

This is the first time thisseason when more malariacases have been reported in thecity than dengue. 14 cases ofchikungunya have also beenrecorded till June 9. Of the 24cases of malaria, 17 wererecorded last month, three inJune, two each in April andMarch and one in February.

Of the 23 dengue cases, sixwere recorded in January, threein February, one in March, twoin April and 10 last month andone in June, according to thereport.

The cases of vector-bornediseases are usually reportedbetween mid-July andNovember-end, but this periodmay stretch up to mid-December. There were no cases

of any vector-borne diseasetill January 13.

Meanwhile, domesticbreeding checkers have foundmosquito-breeding at 28,491households in the city till June9, the report said. It said34,291 legal notices have beenserved for various violationsand “2,332 prosecutions havebeen initiated”.

Delhi Lt Governor AnilBaijal had last month directedofficials

to work on spreadingawareness and public sensiti-

sation on a war footing to pre-vent vector-borne diseases inthe national capital.

He had directed that crispmessages, particularly in ver-nacular languages, must bedisseminated, besides involvingschool students in the aware-ness-generation drive.

Baijal had instructed localbodies to regularly monitor thework done by the domesticbreeding checkers and fix theiraccountability.The LG had alsoemphasised that top prioritymust be assigned by the local

bodies to the areas identified bythe Health Department as mostvulnerable to mosquito-breed-ing.

At least 10 people died inDelhi due to dengue last year,according to the South DelhiMunicipal Corporation(SDMC), which tabulates datafor the entire city. Five of the10 victims were not Delhi res-idents, but had died in thenational capital.

Overall, the vector-bornedisease had affected 9,271 peo-ple in the city last year. The offi-cial toll maintained by theDelhi municipal authorities tillDecember 26 had stood atfour, even though some hospi-tals had reported a few moredeaths due to dengue.

The mosquito-borne trop-ical disease had claimed its firstvictim in the city last year onAugust 1 when a 12-year-oldboy died of

dengue shock syndromeat the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital(SGRH). Three more deathswere reported in October bythe SDMC. The numbers ofmalaria and chikungunya casesrecorded last year stood at1,142 and 940, respectively.

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Afour-month-old girl fromNepal diagnosed with

bilateral retinoblastoma, a formof eye cancer that causes loss ofvision due to abnormal growthin retina, can now see theworld, thanks to treatment atthe Indraprastha ApolloHospitals here.

The girl, Sampada, is fullycured now, but still visits theDelhi facility on a regularbasis for check-ups, the hos-pital said in a statement onMonday.

The girl was diagnosedwith the disease when she wasbarely a month old and wasreferred to the city after doctorsfrom her hometown Pokhhararealised the severity.

Her mother too lost hervision due to this eye cancerand her father was visuallyimpaired since birth.

“Retinoblastoma is a typeof eye cancer which affectsthe retina of the eye. It is themost sensitive lining of theeye having photosensitivecells and receives the lightand sends the signal to thebrain via optic nerve, wherethey are interpreted asimages,” said Amita Mahajanfrom Apollo Hospitals.

“In rare cases, pediatricretinoblastoma can be fatal,though the success rate oftreatment is 90 per cent,” sheadded.Sampada was four-month-old when she wasadmitted for chemotherapy atthe Delhi hospital under thecare of Mahajan.

The disease affects childrenmore and rarely occurs amongadults, Mahajan said.

“The total income of thefamily was Rs 5,000 per month.It was a brave decision ontheir part to seek treatment fortheir daughter despite so manyhurdles in their way,” Mahajansaid.

“We registered Sampada'sfamily with a non-profit organ-isation and after the discussionwith an advisory body, westarted providing to-and-frotravel conveyance to the fam-ily,” Mahajan said.

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A25-year-old woman was allegedly raped by a self-styled god-man and his disciples several times, the Delhi Police said on

Monday.The woman approached

police with a complaint againstDaati Maharaj, a self-styled godman at Fatehpur Beri police sta-tion in south Delhi on Sunday.

She told police that she wasa disciple of the godman for adecade but after being raped byhim and his two disciples, shereturned to her native place inRajasthan, they added.

She also alleged that awoman disciple would forceher to the godman's room andif she refused, the woman wouldtell her that other disciples tooslept with the godman, thepolice said.

The woman also said thatshe was sexually abused inDelhi and Rajasthan ashrams and also named two male dis-ciples of Daati Maharaj. She fled from the ashram two eyarsago and was in depression for a long time.

After she recovered, she narrated her ordeal to her parentsand they approached police who registered a case.

Delhi Commission For Women chairperson met the victimand said that she should be provided police protection.

“Met girl who alleged rape by Dati Maharaj in his ashram.The girls story is simply horrifying and it appears that she hasgone through the utmost torture. She has a threat to her life. Issuednotice to Delhi Police to imm provide her protection. DatiMaharaj shud b imm arrested!” she tweeted.

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In tune with Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP)'s outreach to

eminent people of the society,Union Minister MukhtarAbbas Naqvi visited BanglaSahib Gurudwara on Monday,seeking support for the BJPunder the 'contact for support'campaign launched by theparty in the run-up to the LokSabha election next year.

Naqvi met the headGranthi, Ranjeet Singh, andother office-bearers of theDelhi Sikh GurudwaraManagement Committee(DSGMC) and presented a

booklet on the achievements ofthe Modi government.

“I have come to apprise youabout the inclusive growth andachievements of the Modi gov-ernment and seek your blessingsand support,” Naqvi said. Underthe 'Sampark se Samarthan'campaign, BJP leaders meeteminent personalities to seektheir support for the party.Singh said that Naqvi was vis-iting a place of worship and likeeveryone else, his wishes wouldalso be fulfilled. The ministerwas greeted with traditionalSaropa. DSGMC presidentManjeet Singh GK was presenton the occasion.

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Terming officers' refusal toprovide answers to ques-

tions asked by MLAs despitehis warning to them as aninsult to the House, theConstitution and people ofDelhi, Speaker Ram NiwasGoel on Monday also referredthe matter to the PrivilegeCommittee and directed it tosubmit the report in a month.

Soon after the House pro-ceedings commenced onMonday, the Speaker askedlegislators to read out their

questions that have not beenanswered. Replying to theSpeaker, the concernedMinisters told the Speaker thatthey have not provided answersto them yet.

The MLAs also told theAssembly that officers had notanswered questions pertainingto reserved subjects such asland, law and order, and services.

The Speaker on Thursdayhad warned PrincipalSecretaries of revenue, educa-tion and another department ofstrict action as per rules if theyfailed to provide response toMLAs' queries by Monday.

Addressing the Assembly,Goel said that the conduct ofofficers (not providing answersto questions asked by MLAs)will be written in black word inthe history of democracy andDelhi's politics.

"I am referring the matterto the Privilege Committee forfurther action. The committeeis directed to submit its reportwithin a month," he added

During the Budget Session

in March this year, in a com-munication sent by LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal asked himnot to admit questions onreserved subjects, including lawand order, services and land.Miffed at a communication,Goel wrote a letter to Lok SabhaSpeaker Sumitra Mahajan alleg-ing that the power of legislationis being encroached upon byLieutenant Governor.

Goel and Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia, cab-inet ministers and all MLAs ofthe Aam Aadmi Party alsoprotested the move by puttingon black bands during theHouse proceedings against thedirective. The three-day sessionwas extended till June 11to passthe resolution on full statehood.

������$���� � ,:;�6:�<=

Lieutenant Governor AnilBaijal on Monday told Chief

Minister Arvind Kejriwal thatthere is no strike by the bureau-crats of Government ofNational Capital Territory ofDelhi (GNCTD). LG's responsecame after the Chief Ministeralong with Ministers of hisCabinet sat on the allegedprotest inside LG's house anddemanded strict action againstDelhi Government employeesand senior IAS officers whowere allegedly on strike for thepast four months

"The L-G was threatenedby CM who demanded that theofficers should be immediate-ly summoned at Raj Niwas anddirections should be given toend the so-called 'Strike'," anofficial statement from RajNiwas stated.

Meanwhile, the L-G in hisrebuttal to the CM said, "Theatmosphere of mistrust andfear continues and no sincereattempts to resolve the differ-ences have been made so far.The L-G continued to advisethe Chief Minister to build theconfidence of the employees atall levels and to work out ways

of addressing their genuineconcerns."

Clarifying the issue ofdoorstep delivery, the L-G said,"Attention of the CM was alsodrawn to the fact that the fileon doorstep delivery of rationsis still lying with the MinisterCivil Supplies for nearly threemonths."

"Hence, it will only beappropriate to expedite thematter of taking up the pro-posal with the Government ofIndia at the earliest as pointedout by the Law Department,GNCTD that such a schemerequires prior approval ofCentral Govt. under NationalFood Security Act, 2013," itsaid.

The L-G further clarifiedthat it is already in publicdomain that since the allegedassault on Chief Secretary, theChief Minister individuallyand along with his Cabinet col-leagues, has met him (LG) afew times, seeking his help toresolve the problem.

Reacted on the issue ofnon-cooperation from DelhiGovernment employees, theL-G said it is a matter of recordthat the Budget Session 2018 ofGNCTD was held and Budget

was passed with active coop-eration of the officers con-cerned.

"All statutory meetings inGNCTD are being held andCabinet meetings are takingplace. Officers are also attend-ing the meetings of urgentpublic importance. TheSecretariat is working as alsothe field officers and organiza-tions," stated as mentioned inLG office's Press statement.

On the tussle betweenbureaucrats and the CM andhis Cabinet, the L-G officesaid. "Unfortunately, theimpression that the L-G stillgets from his interaction withthe officers is that no sincereefforts have been made toassure the officers that theirrespect and dignity will beprotected and they will not beintimidated, physically or ver-bally assaulted and threat-ened."

"Even today, three seniorofficers have approached theHigh Court of Delhi seekingrelief against coercive action byLegislative Assembly for fol-lowing instructions of theGovernment of India on mat-ters related to 'ReservedSubjects'," the L-G office said.

������$���� � ,:;�6:�<=

Criticising Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) Government's full

Statehood demand, Delhi BJPpresident Manoj Tiwari said the"rhetoric" of Arvind Kejriwal andhis party was an effort to divertpublic attention from its "poorgovernance" and water crisisfaced by the people.

Though he admitted thatthe local Government needed "alittle more power", Tiwari saidthe present federal structurewas flexible enough to cater tothe developmental needs of thecity.

"The rhetoric of AAP overfull statehood of Delhi is aneffort to divert public attentionfrom corrupt administration,poor governance, failure in waterand electricity supply under its

Government," Tiwari said.People of Delhi will not get

swayed by their drama, heasserted. The Delhi Assemblydominated by the AAP onMonday passed a resolution infavour of full Statehood status toDelhi.

"The Kejriwal Governmenthas no real intention to get fullStatehood for Delhi. It is fight-ing to obtain unchecked powerfor itself," the BJP chief charged.

He added that the AAP andthe Congress were desperate forpower and were "hobnobbing"for an "unprincipled alliance for2019". "Both the AAP and theCongress are desperate for powerand this desperation and frus-tration is compelling them torepeat the unprincipled coalitionwhich they first formed in 2013,"Tiwari said.

������$���� � ,:;�6:�<=

After his combative speechin the Delhi Assembly

demanding full statehood sta-tus to the national Capital,Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal and his Cabinet col-leagues met the LieutenantGovernor Anil Baijal onMonday evening at Raj Niwas.

Kejriwal and his Cabinetcolleagues decided to stay putat Raj Niwas indefinitely, tilltheir three demands wereaccepted, including a directionto IAS officers to end their"strike" and action against offi-cers who have struck work for"four months".

Kejriwal along with DeputyChief Minister Manish Sisodia,Health Minister Satyender Jainand Labour Minister Gopal Raimet Lieutenant Governor AnilBiajal and requested him to endup the strike of Delhi employ-ees and senior bureaucrats.

When asked about it,Sisodia said, "We are here torequest the LG to summonsenior bureaucrats and repri-mand them for their non-cooperation and stubbornbehaviour. We want it to end sothat people of Delhi are notmade to suffer and all theirworks are done".

Kejriwal tweeted at 6 pm

from the waiting room of theLG office that a letter washanded over to Baijal but herefused to take action. "Handedhim this letter. LG refuses totake action. LG is under con-stitutional duty to act. Leftwid no option, we have polite-ly told LG that we will not leavetill he acts on all points. We hvcome out of his chamber n sit-ting in his waiting room (sic),"he tweeted.

After meeting the L-G,Kejriwal further tweeted: metL-G with following demands-IAS officers on strike in Del for4 months. Direct them to

return to work. Punish thoseIAS who struck work for last 4months. Approve doorstepdelivery of rations.

He also asked the L-G toapprove his Government's pro-posal on doorstep delivery ofrations scheme.

"In the history of indepen-dent India, this is the firsttime that IAS officers on strikefor four months. Why?" hequestioned.

He also asserted that thescheme on doorstep deliver ofrations should be implement-ed as it will help people andremove corruption. "We have

been urging the Hon'ble L-Gfor last many months but herefused," he said.

The AAP dispensationclaimed that several effortswere made to end the "strike"by IAS officers due to whichGovernment work has beensuffering in past four months.

Sisodia said that he met andwrote to the L-G five times aboutthe strike but he did "nothing"to end it. "How can elected govtwork, if Hon LG supports IASofficers strike like this," he tweet-ed from Raj Niwas.

Marking LG chhodo withhashtag twitter, the official

page of Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) tweeted, "I have met andwritten to Hon LG five times -how IAS officers are on unlaw-ful strike since last 3 months.He has done nothing to end thestrike so far. How can electedgovt work, if Hon LG supportsIAS officers strike like this. -Sisodia."

It may be noted that AAPGovernment and the bureau-cracy have been at loggerheadssince the alleged assault onChief Secretary Anshu Prakashby AAP MLAs at Kejriwal's res-idence on the intervening nightof February 19-20.

������$���� � ,:;�6:�<=

Terming the demand of full Statehood to Delhi by ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal as "political brinkmanship",

Leader of Opposition (LOP) in the Delhi Assembly VijenderGupta said that if Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was seri-ous on this matter, he would have raised this issue in theParliament through his Member of Parliament (MP).

Attacking on the AAP Government, he said Kejriwal's realintent behind bringing it up on completion of three years andfour months is to divert public attention from his miss-gov-ernance, incompetence and failures.

On Assembly's resolution on full Statehood status in the,Gupta said he (Kejriwal) has laid foundation for building thelarge structure of falsehood, lies and deceit for the remain-ing period of his rule.

"The CM has failed to do what he could do with the givenpower. After all the system is working well for many years,"he said.

It may be noted that the MLAs in opposition were mar-shaled out from the Assembly on raising the issues of cor-ruption in DJB and Jan Lokpal Bill.

Carrying the placards and banners, Gupta with otherMLAs in Opposition sat outside Kejriwal's residence in VidhanSabha.

The Leader of Opposition has demanded White Paperon the functioning of Delhi Jal Board to bring forth true pic-ture of unprecedented water crises, corruption and failure toimplement schemes.

Condemning the CM for raining the issue of CBI raidson account of DJB matters, Gupta said Kejriwal is trying tocover-up corruption in Jal Board.

Gupta said, "Asian Development Bank approved Rs 2,200crore projects of water improvement pertaining to Wazirabadwater treatment plant. Japan International Co-operationAgency also approved Rs 2,000 crore projects of waterimprovement pertaining to Chandrawal water treatmentplant." "But the Government failed to implement both andDelhi government could not set up 14 decentralized sewagetreatment plants for which 50 percent funds were providedby Central Government," the BJP leader said.

������$���� � ,:;�6:�<=

Hardening his stand againstthe alleged non-cooperation

by the bureaucrats, Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal onMonday launched all-out attackagainst the Prime Minister'sOffice (PMO) and the Centre of"unleashing" the LieutenantGovernor, IAS officials and agen-cies such as the CBI, ED, I-TDepartment and the Delhi Policeon the AAP Government to stallits functioning.

Addressing the media,Kejriwal alleged that the IAS

officers' association in Delhiwas on a strike for the past four

months which he dubbed as"illegal"."As per the law, the IAS

officers cannot go on strike.There is no reason for thestrike, they don't have anydemand," he said. "The strike isbeing orchestrated by the PMOand coordinated by L-G AnilBaijal," he added

Kejriwal went on to saythat the officials he spoke to,have told him that they wereunder "pressure from the L-G'soffice" not to do any work. "IASofficers are being forced by theL-G at the behest of the PMOto stay on strike because theydon't want the AAPGovernment to work. The

common man is also affectedby this strike."

The Chief Minister alsoalleged Delhi Government offi-cials, who have been boy-cotting meetings with theMinisters for four months afterthe alleged assault on ChiefSecretary Anshu Prakash, arebeing "threatened" into con-tinuing their strike.

Kejriwal said the CBI andthe Anti-Corruption Branchhave registered 14 cases againstAAP Ministers and their rela-tives since February 2015 whenthe AAP Government was

formed, but there hasn't beenan arrest in even one case.

"Cases have been regis-tered against me, (deputy chiefminister) Manish Sisodia,(minister) Satyender Jain. Iwant to know what happenedto all these cases. No one hasbeen arrested in these cases.Why don't central agenciesfirst arrest us in such cases? Theonly motive is to stall the AAPgovernment's work," he said.

He alleged that there wasan attempt to "defame" andimplicate AAP leaders in the"wrong cases". "... Every day a

new case is being registeredagainst us," Kejriwal claimed.

"The PMO and the Centreare unleashing the LieutenantGovernor, IAS officials andagencies like the CBI, ED, theIncome Tax Department andthe Delhi Police on us to stall theGovernment's work," he said.

Listing the AAPGovernment's achievements,he said people had started ask-ing BJP-led Governments inother States why they were notimproving the condition ofschools and hospitals as theDelhi Government was doing

"great work" in these sectors.The Chief Minister alleged

that the CBI had started inves-tigating mohalla clinics, sum-moning various officials. Healso alleged that DelhiGovernment's officials werebeing "harassed" and "abusedopenly" for working in theAAP Government.

On June 9, Kejriwal allegedthe CBI and the ACB hadstarted randomly picking filesfrom the Delhi Jal Board (DJB),of which he is the minister-in-charge, to "somehow framehim in something".

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Page 4: ( ˆˆ ’ ˝ .&%0ˇ˙.ˆ 1 23 ˙˜$!$˙!/ ,˙)-˘+. ˘ ˇˆ ˙˝ 4˘43:=> …...Pradesh’s Baghpat district to the Delhi’s Red Fort museum for further investigation,

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BJP chief Amit Shah onMonday asserted that the

Opposition has a key role in ademocracy and said his party’sslogan of “Congress-free India”means freeing the country ofthat party’s “culture”.

He also said his some of theremarks on Congress presidentRahul Gandhi should not betaken as a personal attack as hehad only replied to certainquestions posed by the oppo-sition party leader.

‘Congressmukt Bharat’means getting rid of the‘Congress culture’. Democracyis not possible without theopposition. It is a differentthing that the Congress hasbeen shrinking in the country,”he said. “But it is the responsi-bility of Rahul Gandhi to keepthe Congress alive, not mine,”Shah said, when asked if theBJP wanted to wipe out theopposition from the country.

He was addressing a pressconference at Ambikapur townin Chhattisgarh’s Surguja dis-trict before leaving for NewDelhi after his two-day visit tothe city.

To a query on constantlytargeting Gandhi in his speech-es, Shah said, “It should not beconsidered as a personnelattack. He (Rahul) put forthsome questions to which Ianswered.” The BJP has donegood work and therefore, it isgetting support of the people.“If we continue doing goodwork, people will continue tosupport us,” he said.

He said Gandhi was askedto give an account of the four-generation rule of his family asit was in power for 55 years.

“Being the present partychief, Rahul Gandhi had toanswer about the Congresslegacy and I have to answer onthe BJP’s legacy. It should hap-pen in a democracy and thereshould be no objection over it,”the BJP president said.

To a question on the mid-dle class apparently distancingitself from the Modi govern-ment, he said the Centre hasbeen working while keeping inmind benefits of all sections ofsociety and a propaganda wasbeing spread that the middleclass has turned away from theBJP. “The party won electionswith the support of the middleclass in 14 states,” he noted.

Shah also highlighted thebenefits and achievements ofvarious schemes launched dur-ing the four-year rule of theNDA government at the Centreled by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

He said maximum numberof terrorists were killed in thelast four years while (interna-tional) borders were protected.

The government has a bet-ter Kashmir policy and hasbeen keeping an eye on the sit-uation in the valley, he said.

Shah took a jibe at formerPrime Minister ManmohanSingh, saying when he used togo on foreign tours, nobodyknew about it but when PMModi goes abroad, “he is wel-comed” by people of thosecountries and Indians based

there. Hailing Chief MinisterRaman Singh-led BJP govern-ment in Chhattisgarh, Shahsaid it has transformed a back-ward state into a developedone.

Chhattisgarh was part ofthe erstwhile Madhya Pradesh.In 1980s, Madhya Pradesh wasrecognised as a ‘Bimaru’ stateas a result of long rule of theCongress. When Chhattisgarhwas formed and the BJP cameto power in 2003, it rapidlyheaded on the path of devel-opment and made its way intothe list of developed states,Shah said. Chhattisgarh hasnow become a power surplusstate, Naxalism has been con-trolled, road network is beinglaid, agriculture productionincreased, and transport andcommunication servicesexpanded in remote areas, hementioned.

Naya Raipur - the upcom-ing capital of the state - is beingbuilt and many more develop-ment works have been done bythe Raman Singh government,he said, claiming that severalstate governments were takinglessons from Chhattisgarh.

The senior BJP leaderexuded confidence that hisparty would retain power forthe fourth straight term in thestate, in the Assembly electionsdue later this year.

Shah said after witnessinga huge response during his pro-gramme in Ambikapur yester-day, he was confident that theBJP will achieve the target ofclinching 65 out of 90 seats inthe state Assembly polls.

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The highest cut-off of StStephen’s College of Delhi

University (DU) is for BA(Honours) Economics at 98.75per cent for general categorystudents of commerce stream.Economics is closely followedby BA (Honours) English at98.50 per cent. Last year bothEnglish and Economics were at98.50 per cent. Further, thisyear the Stephen’s cut-off sawa marginal increase of 0.25 percent to over that of last year. Forboth the BA programme andBA (Honours) History the cut-off is 98 per cent for generalstudents of commerce stream.

St Stephen’s has a separateadmission process because it isa religious minority college. Aspart of the separate process, thecollege conducts its own writ-ten test and an interview

schedule for candidates whoclear the cut-off marks. Thecut-offs for each course isannounced separately for stu-dents of commerce, humanitiesand sciences according to thecombination of Best FourSubjects (BFS).

For the Philosophy streamthe cut-off is 97 per cent forCommerce category and 95 per

cent for Humanities stream.However the lowest cut-off isfor the Sanskrit at 65 per centfor general category students ofcommerce stream. Being a reli-gious minority instituteStephens gives some relaxationin cut-offs to ChristianScheduled Tribes, Church ofNorth India, CNI DelhiDiocese and other categories.

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Freedom fighter NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose’s

remains should be broughtback to India from Japan so asto give a closure to the matter,his daughter Anita Bose Pfaffhas said.

She was speaking here atthe launch of a book "Laid toRest" by journalist Ashis Raywhich collates the findings of11 different investigations andconcludes that he died onAugust 18, 1945 in a planecrash in Taipei.

Many have refused tobelieve that Bose died in theplane crash. Ray's book lays outhis investigations into the inci-dent. Bose-Pfaff said sheunderstood why so many peo-ple - both relatives and admir-ers - had been reluctant toaccept this tragic account ofevents, pointing out that thedifficulties in communicatinginternationally at the timemeant nobody could be imme-diately certain of the facts.

"People like mysteries," sheadded, "and my father was a

romantic and tragic hero andso somehow it was not so sur-prising".

"I hope that we get closureon this matter and that we getthe remains returned and Ihope we can do this withoutcontroversy because that wouldbe the worst thing we could dofor Netaji's memory," saidBose-Pfaff, an economist basedin Germany.

Ray echoed her messageabout Bose's remains. "It'sabout time India did somethingto bring the ashes to India."

Bose-Pfaff also talkedabout the impact on her ownlife of being related to such asignificant political figure,explaining that living outsideIndia meant she did not feel thepressure experienced by thechildren of other leaders of thefreedom movement to assumepolitical responsibilities.

"I owe it to my mother thatthe legacy was not too difficult.She said, 'your father was agreat man but that doesn'tmake you a great anything'. Itried to educate me to be hum-ble," she added.

$��� 5��,�

Bihar Chief Minister NitishKumar on Monday assert-

ed that the liquor ban wouldremain in force and he wouldwant all kinds of intoxicants tobe banned in the State, thoughhis Government was planningto amend the excise law in viewof complaints about misuse ofits stringent provisions.

Kumar said that the pro-hibition was part of a largersocial reform which wouldinclude banning consumptionof all forms of intoxicantsincluding khaini, anunprocessed form of tobacco,which is immensely popularwith a section of the masseshere though care would betaken to protect the interests ofthose whose livelihood getsaffected because of these dras-tic steps.

“If you ask me whether wewish to amend the prohibitionlaw, my answer is yes. However,I cannot speak about the detailswhich are being worked out byour legal experts. When wecame up with our excise law onOctober 02, 2016, it was saidthat some of the provisionswere too harsh. Thereafter wehave been hearing complaintsof its misuse,” he told reporters

here.“It is because of our inten-

tion to bring in suitable amend-ments that we submitted anapplication before the SupremeCourt as the matter is sub-judice. We have been told thatwe can bring amendments tominimize misuse of the law.That we will do. But prohibi-tion must remain in force.People do not realize theimpact it has had on the livesof the people, especially thepoor,” Kumar said.

The CM was talking toreporters on sidelines of LokSamvad - a public interactionprogramme in presence ofDeputy Chief Minister SushilKumar Modi among others.

Opposition leaders, mostnotably former Chief Ministerand Hindustani Awam Morchapresident Jitan Ram Manjhi,have been attacking Kumarover prohibition, alleging thosebeing caught and punished forviolating the law were primar-ily dalits from very poor back-grounds and the governmentwas unable to catch the big fish.

Replying to a query abouthis government requesting theCentre to get khaini includedamong FSSAI’s list of foodproducts, so that it could bebanned in the state, the Chief

Minister said we want to makeour society nasha-mukt (freefrom consumption of any typesof intoxicants.

“We realize that a largenumber of people in the statedepend upon cultivation oftobacco for their livelihood. Weare undertaking a drive todivert them towards alternativecrops. We would not allowthem to suffer on account of ameasure that aims at reformingthe society,” he said.

He said for example therewere many communities whichwere involved in manufactureof toddy and country-madeliquor. We have introducedschemes to provide them withalternative sources of liveli-hood. Asked about BJP-ruledstates baulking at enforcing aban on liquor though he is anally of the party, the JD(U)leader said “taking such a stepis not easy”.

Kumar recounted, “I wasridiculed and criticized when Ifirst came up with the propos-al. But I chose to go aheadwithout worrying about criti-cism. But many may not wishto get embroiled in controver-sy by taking a radical step. Youneed to feel very deeply andstrongly about an issue to takesuch a step.

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From Page 1If one takes a mean average

of the last five years, it can beseen that each year, the apexcourt judges heard 4,700 lesscases, which works out to beover 390 cases less each month(now that the court is func-tional even during vacations).

The concern over penden-cy of cases has been an irritantin the administration of justicesystem and the trend over thepast five years set by the apexcourt is a combination of theefforts taken to constitute spe-cial benches for disposing oldmatters, batch matters and set-ting up of vacation benches,even during the winter break inthe past few years.

But the judicial system,which includes the 24 HighCourts and subordinate courts,is still reeling under the heavyburden of pendency. The High

Courts did show a marginalimprovement over the pastthree years with pendencycoming down from 41.52 lakhin December 2014 to 38.70lakh by December 2015 andsettling at 40.16 lakh by the endof 2016.

Although subordinatecourts failed to create magicwith the ever-increasing pen-dency figures which climbedfrom 2.64crore (2014)to 2.74 crore(2016), thec o n s o l i n gfactor hasbeen the dis-posal ofc a s e s .According tos t a t i s t i c sreleased byMinistry ofLaw and

Justice, the district courtsbucked the trend by producinga disposal figure of 1.93 crorein the year 2014 as against 1.92crore cases admitted. This waspossible despite a reducedworkforce.

The Government hadrecently informed the LokSabha about a shortfall of 5,925judicial officers in the districtand subordinate courts.

������������ �������������������������

From Page 1“Wide-ranging and pro-

found views on the issue ofestablishing new DPRK-USrelations, the issue of buildinga permanent and durablepeace-keeping mechanism onthe Korean peninsula, the issueof realising the denuclearisation

of the Korean peninsula andother issues of mutual concern,as required by the changed era,will be exchanged at the DPRK-US summit talks,” the state-runKorean Central News Agency(KCNA) reported in English.

Both Trump and Kim sep-arately met Singapore Prime

Minister Lee Hsien Loong andthanked him for hosting thesummit as if it was “their ownfamily affair”. “If the summitproduces positive outcomes,then the Singaporean govern-ment’s effort will be recorded inhistory forever,” Kim said. Thesummit — the first between asitting US president and theNorth Korean leader — willmark a turnaround of rela-tions between Trump andKim after a long-runningexchange of furious threatsand insults. The two leadershave had an extraordinaryup-and-down relationshipover the past 18 months.

Trump had called Kim“Little Rocket Man” and threat-ened to unleash “fire and furylike the world has never seen”on North Korea as it conduct-ed several ballistic missile testsin defiance of internationalwarnings. In return, Kim calledTrump “mentally deranged”and a “dotard”. North Koreahad also threatened to strike

Guam, an American territory inthe Pacific Ocean. The NorthKorean leadership, includingVice Minister of Foreign AffairsChoe Son Hui has also tauntedWashington, calling VicePresident Mike Pence a “polit-ical dummy.”

In March, Trump surprisedthe world by accepting an invi-tation from Kim to meet in per-son. But last month, Trumpabruptly cancelled the Singaporesummit, citing the “tremendousanger and open hostility” byPyongyang. However, he took aU-turn soon and said the WhiteHouse was proceeding with thepreparations for the summit.

Ahead of his much-antic-ipated meeting with Kim, theUS president sounded opti-mistic and said the meetingwould be a “one-time shot” atpeace. “I feel that Kim Jong Unwants to do something great forhis people. And he has thatopportunity, and he won’t havethat opportunity again,” Trumpsaid.

������������� �������� ��� ������+++

From Page 1There was also some talks

about who will be the poll facein 2019 Lok Sabha electionwith JD(U) leaders sayingNitish would be the face andother allies including BJP say-ing the only face would be thatof Narendra Modi.

Nitish said all these gossipsand fake news were cooked upby the social media which, hesaid, he did not see.

“We are working herejointly and running theGovernment. There is absolute-ly no problem anybody can see.Some people are in habit ofmaking statements (for theirpublicity) regularly,” the CMreacted.

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From Page 1Invoking Bal Gangahar

Tilak, Kejriwal said, “Swarajmera Janam sidh adikar hai(Swaraj is my birthright)...Wewill implement swaraj in Delhias the L-G is only accountableto the Prime Minister, and notthe people of Delhi.”

He said in 1992, theCentral Government had madea system to hold elections inDelhi as the British had donethe same in 1935 under whichelections used to be held, but“viceroys had power”.

“The Centre had made abad joke with Delhi in 1992. I

want to ask why Delhiites aretreated as second class citizens.Why are we half citizens? Whythe cost of Delhiites’ vote iszero?” he asked. In Delhi,“BJP’s L-G” doesn’t allow theGovernment to work, he said,adding that “King L-G” createshurdles in the Government’swork.

Lok Sabha elections arescheduled to be held in 2019.Ahead of polls, the Kejriwal-ledAAP has decided to stronglyraise the issue of full Statehoodamong people in Delhi.

Under its campaign, AAPhas given workers a slogan -“LG, quit Delhi” In the 2014Lok Sabha polls, the BJP hadwon all seven seats in Delhi.

Eyeing Lok Sabha elec-tions, the AAP on Sundaydecided to hold meeting at 300locations across Delhi on theissue of full Statehood. Underthe plan, the AAP will also holdworkers’ convention on July 1where Kejriwal will addressthem on the issue.

From Page 1“They will understand that

India cannot be run by onlythree people. India will be runby people of the country,” hesaid, drawing applause fromthe crowd.

He alleged that everyone,including MPs in the BJP, wereafraid to speak out as they werenot allowed to speak. “Only theRSS is heard,” he said.

Congress party recognisesthe strength of the backwardclasses and wants to empowerthem by bringing them forwardin politics, Rahul said, in a bidto win over the community ofOther Backward Classes ahead

of the Lok Sabha electionsnext year.

Promising to give “space”to the community, he said, “...The Congress party will bringyou in Vidhan Sabhas, LokSabha and Rajya Sabha. Wewish to empower you. We willnot put you in a bus with a ‘donot disturb’ board, but willhand over the keys of the busto you.”

Taking a swipe at the primeminister, he said there was nodearth of skills in the countryand those from the backwardclasses are endowed with skillsbut not given an opportunity tomove forward. “People who

really work are confined to theback room, but the profit oftheir labour is enjoyed by oth-ers. India’s prime minister saysthere is dearth of skills in thecountry. This is not true. Thereis no dearth of skills in the OBCcommunity, as they areendowed with skills,” he said.

Attacking the BJP, he saidthe party had adopted a strat-egy to help only 15-20 rich cap-italists, who will spend thou-sands of crores to market theprime minister. In turn, the PMwill run the Government forthem and all benefits will go tothem, the Congress presidentadded.

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Five naxals were arrestedfrom two districts in

Chhattisgarh’s Bastar division,police said on Monday.

While three of them wereapprehended today by a jointteam of security forces fromDantewada district, the othertwo were nabbed in Sukma dis-trict yesterday, a senior policeofficial told PTI.

The ultras arrested inDantewada district were iden-tified as Pojja Sodhi (24),Baman Muchaki (38) andHirma alias Korrem Sodhi(37), he said.

The arrests were made bya combined squad of the CRPFand the local police fromKankipara village duringpatrolling, the official said.

In August 2016, PojjaSodhi was injured in anencounter with security forcesin Jihakorta-Kunna village ofthe district but managed toescape, he said.

Four Maoists were killed inthat encounter.

Baman Muchaki andKorrem Sodhi were allegedlyinvolved in abducting andkilling a villager after holdinga ‘janadalat’ (kangaroo court)in the Kuakonda area on May22, he said.

The duo was also involvedin incidents of torching vehiclesand machines engaged in roadconstruction works in the area,he added.

The rebels apprehended inSukma district were identifedas Madvi Handa (35) andSodhi Ganga (42).

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Popular Indian dishes likePulao and Chicken Curry,

are among 45 other varietiesbeing served to nearly 3,000journalists from across theworld who are here to cover thethe historic summit betweenUS President Donald Trumpand North Korea leader KimJong-un.

Trump and Kim will sitdown for talks at 9 am (6:30 amIST) tomorrow at the CapellaHotel on the resort island ofSentosa. The first-ever summitbetween the two leaders willkick-start a process that couldsee North Korea giving up itsnuclear weapons.

Local and overseas jour-nalists will have no lack of foodwhile covering the summitbetween the US and NorthKorea, with a menu that willoffer 45 dishes across 15cuisines to suit all palates, the

Strait Times reported.On offer will be Indian,

Singaporean, Malaysian,Vietnamese, Thai, Korean,Japanese, Chinese, French,American, Italian, English,Australian, Brazilian andMiddle Eastern food, Sats,Airport ground handler andfood firm, which will be pro-viding the lunches and dinnerswas quoted as saying by thereport.

Indian dishes like Pulao,Fish Curry, Chicken Curryand Papad will be served at theF1 Pit Building — the officialmedia centre for the summit -in downtown Singapore.

There are quintessentialSingaporean dishes, such aslaksa and chicken rice whichwill be served hot at mannedstations. Several caterers havebeen roped in to help feed thejournalists meals from break-fast to lunch, tea to dinner, thereport said.

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As Former Finance MinisterP Chidambaram on

Monday said country’s econo-my is in bad shape due to thewrong policies of the NDAGovernment and that three ofthe four wheels on which theeconomy rides were punc-tured, BJP hit back sayingIndia registered bigger growthrate of 7.7 per cent than whatwas left to the ModiGovernment by him and

claimed that the present bank-ing woes were sins of theCongress dispensations.

Taking on the ModiGovernment, Chidambaramsaid a flawed road to GSTcontinues to haunt trade andbusiness, and the adverse effectof demonetisation has beenestablished ‘beyond doubt’.

Addressing a Press confer-ence here, Chidambaramalleged that there was distressin various sections of society,including farmers, who were

not getting remunerative pricesof their produce, and theyouth due to joblessness.

“The tyres of three of thefour wheels on which the econ-omy rides are punctured.Firstly exports: the growth ratein the last four years has beennegative. Secondly, privateinvestment: it is in the dol-drums, if not dead. Gross fixedcapital formation is stuck at28.5 per cent for three years.Thirdly, private consumption:it was limping until a fewmonths ago, there is a mild up-pick, and we keep our fingerscrossed”.

He leader claimed that job-lessness was rampant and therewas a great ferment in cam-puses across the countrybecause young men andwomen knew that there wouldbe no job when they graduate.“So far nobody has bought theinnovative idea that ‘fryingpakoras is also a job’,” hequipped

In a quick response, UnionMinister Prakash Javadekarsaid once Congress leadersinsulted a ‘Chai wala’ and gota resounding response andnow they are ridiculing the‘Pakorawalas’ who earn by thesweat of their brow.

On Chidambaram’s 10points of criticism, he said

though Chidambaram talksabout inflation, it was duringthe Congress regime that price-rise was at 10 per cent andgrowth was much less.Javadekar said thoughCongress has the cheek toblame the BJP Government, itwas Prime MinisterManmohan Singh who made aderisive comment saying, “Pedpar paise nahin ugte” ( Moneydoes not grow on trees).

On the charge that banking

NPAs (Non performing assets)are on the rise, he said, “Today’sNPA s are the legacy of theUPA who looted banks withthe blessings of big people”.

On the food-security front, Javedakar said 70 percent ofthe people were covered underfood-security with the deliveryof �2 per kg wheat and �3 perkg rice.

The Minister said while itwas the Congress whichbrought food security Bill, it isduring the BJP regime that itwas actually implemented onthe ground.

Rejecting the charge thatthere was no social security forpoor, the senior BJP leader said12 crore people under theModi Government werebrought under accident insur-ance of �2 lakh with a premi-um of only �12. He said fivecrore people were broughtunder the life insurance witha premium of �302.

Rubbishing former FinanceMinister’s description of BJP’spromise on Minimum SupportPrice to farmers as ‘chunavijumla’, he said the ModiGovernment was offering pro-duction cost plus 50 per cent tofarmers as per SwaminathanCommission recommendation.“Farmers’ suicide is a Congresslegacy”, he claimed.

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Union Health Minister JPNadda on Monday said

India will achieve SustainableDevelopment Goal (SDG) tar-get in maternal mortality muchahead of 2030 while asserting

that the Government’sAyushman Bharat is not aimedat garnering political divi-dends, but to change thenation’s healthcare landscape.

“Going by the pace ofprogress we made in maternalmortality, I am sure the coun-

try will achieve the SDG targetof 70 maternal deaths per lakh(100,000) live births muchbefore the 2030 target,” Naddasaid at a press conference heldto highlight the achievementsof Modi Government in thehealth sector in the last four

years.The country reduced its

Maternal Mortality Ratio(MMR) by 37 points from 167in 2011-2013 to 130 in 2014-16with an annual compound ratefall of eight per cent, due tostrategic changes including

focus on life cycle approach andmulti-sectoral approach, theMinister said.

Among the states, UttarPradesh with 30 per centdecline has topped the chart inthe reduction of maternaldeaths. Three States havealready met the SDG target forMMR of 70 per 1,00,000.

These are Kerala,Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu,said Nadda.

Talking about AyushmanBharat, which has two compo-nents — medical coverage for10 crore families and conver-sion of 1.5 lakh primary healthcentres to Health and WellnessCentres, he said “On June 14,at least 12 states will be signingMemorandums ofUnderstanding (MoU).

Some of the States in northIndia have already signed theMoUs. We have completed thetalks with IT institutions whowill lay the platform for paper-less, cashless and portable ser-vice.

“By second-third week ofJuly, we will be ready with theIT platform. Identification ofbeneficiaries in rural areas isdone 80 per cent. We want toprovide a glitch-free systemfrom the start. So, once the ITtesting is done, the PrimeMinister will launch the pro-gramme,” he said.

The National HealthProtection Scheme (NHPS),under the Ayushman Bharatprogramme, provides medicalcover of �5 lakh per family peryear for 10 crore poor and vul-nerable families, which is about50 crore individuals or 40 percent of the country’s popula-tion.

Four states — Delhi,Odisha, Punjab and WestBengal — have not yet givenany positive response towardsadopting the programme, hesaid, adding that discussionswith these States are on.

Prime Minister NarendraModi is expected to roll out thescheme on August 15.

“Modicare is the world’slargest healthcare programme.Its objective is not political. Itis for changing the face of thecountry. Obamacare may besomething else but Modicare isabout the need to change theface of the country.

We will solve all problemsthat will come our way,” saidNadda.

Regarding private hospi-tals, he said discussions are onto bring them on board.

The expansion of primarycare through 1.5 lakh healthand wellness centres, which isanother pillar of AyushmanBharat, will provide screeningfor tuberculosis and leprosyalong with diabetes, hyperten-sion, breast, oral and cervixcancers among others, he said.

Nadda said 19,000 wellnesscentres have already beenapproved by the Cabinet and by2022 1.5 lakh sub-centres willbe converted into wellness cen-tres which will focus on pro-motive and preventive health.

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The Centre’s decision toallow lateral entry of expe-

rienced professionals as jointsecretaries pitched the rulingdispensation and its alliesagainst the Opposition onMonday.

While the Opposition par-ties said there were “seriousmisgivings” about the inten-tions and that it was a result ofModi Government’s “adminis-trative failure”, Union Ministerof State for Human ResourceDevelopment Satyapal Singhfavoured the extension of thescheme to Government-runeducational institutions tooeven as he said the issue shouldnot be politicised.

Key BJP ally and BiharChief Minister Nitish Kumaralso defended the move, assert-ing the scheme was an “exper-iment” the need for whicharose because of the paucity ofIAS and IPS officers across thecountry.

Addressing a Press confer-ence in Delhi, Chidambaramsaid it needs more details onthe issue and will raise itsquestions separately in detail.

“We need to have moredetails...We will raise a numberof questions. Let us see whatthe Government’s answer isbefore we come to a final con-clusion.

“There are serious misgiv-ings about their advertisementthat has appeared but there area number of questions thatdeserve to be asked and we willin the next couple of days askthose questions,” he said whenasked about the issue.

The Minister said thescheme would improve theefficiency of educational insti-

tutions.BSP chief Mayawati feared

the move may increase theinfluence of capitalists in pol-icy making.

“Opening senior-levelbureaucratic posts in 10 depart-ments to private people, whohave not cleared UPSC, appearsto be the result of administra-tive failure of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi,” the formerUttar Pradesh Chief Ministersaid in a party release issued inLucknow.

RJD’s Manoj Jha saw themove as an attempt to have a“committed bureaucracy”.Former BJP leader YashwantSinha said he had no issue withthe lateral entry of talentedpeople in Government andthat it has been happeningover the years but objectedstrongly to the way it is beingdone. “Where are the recruit-ment rules for the post? Whyis UPSC not doing it? All thismakes it suspicious,” Sinha, aformer bureaucrat, tweeted.

Nitish, who has been anNDA ally since the 1990s, bar-ring a four-year phase from2013 to 2017, blamed “succes-sive Congress Governments”for downsising of the civil ser-vices, which has “left us in aposition where we find it dif-ficult to meet many of ourGovernance requirements”.

Nitish said we are facing asituation wherein one IAS offi-cer, of secretary rank, is hold-ing charge of many depart-ments. “Despite having com-mitted ourselves to carvingout of new districts, we are hes-itant to proceed as we may nothave IAS and IPS officers formanning these administrativeunits as DMs and SPs,” he toldreporters in Patna.

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Railway Minister PiyushGoyal on Monday

launched two mobile applica-tions — ‘Rail Madad’ to helpcustomers with complaints and‘Menu On Rails’ through whichpassengers can see meals onoffer on-board trains.

Goyal said Rail Madad appis aimed at expediting andstreamlining passenger griev-ance redressal while the ‘Menuon Rails’ app will allow pas-sengers to check the list ofmeals and beverages served onall type of trains and theirprices.

The ‘Rail Madad’ (MobileApplication for DesiredAssistance During travel) appallows passengers to lodgecomplaints through mobileapp/web platform and enablesthem to check real-time feed-back on the status of redressalof their complaints. RailMADAD registers a complaint

with minimum inputs andissues unique ID. It relays thecomplaint online to relevantofficials for immediate action.The action taken on the com-plaint is then relayed to the pas-senger through SMS.

The app also displays var-ious helpline numbers (e.g.,Security, Child helpline etc)and provides direct callingfacility for immediate assis-tance. “All modes of filing ofcomplaints including offlineand online modes are beingintegrated into a single plat-form,” Goyal addressing a pressconference on the achieve-ments of his ministry (Railway)in the past four years.

Minister of State forRailways Manoj Sinha, RailwayBoard Chairman AshwaniLohani and top officers ofRailway Board and CoalMinistry. Goyal is also Ministerfor Coal. While ‘Menu on Rails’app displays menu served on alltype of trains. For Mail/Exp

trains, food items are coveredin 4 categories namely :Beverages, Breakfast, Mealsand A-La-Carte. Rates (inclu-sive of taxes) for standard fooditems are given both for trainas well as stations (ExcludingFood Plazas and Fast FoodUnits).

A-La-Carte includes a list of96 items under the categories ofBreakfast, Light Meals, ComboMeals, Non Veg, Jain Food,Sweets, Diabetic foods etc. Theapp also displays the menu to beserved in Rajdhani/ Shatabdi/Duronto group of trains.

According to railways thedata collected through ‘RailMadad’ app will be analysedand would generate trends onvarious performance parame-ters like cleanliness, amenitiesetc thus making managerialdecision more precise andeffective. Listing the achieve-ments of his ministry, Goyalsaid that there had been anincrease of 59 per cent in the

average pace of commissioningof new lines from 4.1 km perday between 2009 and 2014 to6.53 km per day during 2014-2018.

“The bullet train project ison track. In this country thereare always issues linked to anydevelopmental project and newideas. But we have to findsolutions and move forward,”Goyal said.

Goyal also set aside theapprehensions that there are noplans to privatise the railwaysand that there were no pro-posals for such a move and itwould not happen in the futureas well. “Let me make it veryclear that there are no plans toprivatise railways, either now orever,” he said.

The railways seeking for-eign investment in areas suchas technological upgradationand modernisation had raisedconcerns over the nationaltransporter being handed overto private entities.

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Against the backdrop ofreports of an Maoists plan-

ning to assassinate PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, theCentre on Monday decided tostrengthen his security.

Home Minister RajnathSingh held a high-level meet-ing in this regard with NationalSecurity Adviser Ajit Doval,Union Home Secretary RajivGauba and DirectorIntelligence Bureau Rajiv Jainto review the Prime Minister’ssecurity.

The Home Minister direct-ed that all necessary measuresbe taken in consultation withother agencies to suitablystrengthen the securityarrangements for the primeminister, an official statementsaid.

The Home Ministry is inreceipt of a report fromMaharashtra Police regardingcertain communicationsamongst individuals havinglinks to Maoists organisationscontaining references to tar-geting the Prime Minister, itsaid.

The police in Pune told acourt on June 7 that they hadseized a “letter” from the Delhiresidence of one of the five peo-ple arrested for having alleged“links” with the banned CPI(Maoist).

The purported letterallegedly mentioned of a planto “assassinate” Modi in “anoth-er Rajiv Gandhi-type incident”,the police had told the court.

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Congress president RahulGandhi on Monday cited

the examples of successfulinternational business ventureslike Coca Cola, Ford, McDonalds, Mercedes and Hondato attack Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on the groundthat his Government ignoredskills and talent and did notprovide the right opportunitiesto backward classes with entre-preneurial drive.

He used the analogies bydescribing the founder ofCoca-Cola as a ‘shinkanji sell-

er’ and that of McDonald’s a‘dhaba wala’. While addressinga convention of OBC workersof the Congress, party, he alsosaid the founders of Ford,Mercedes and Honda were‘mechanics’ whose skills wererecognised by the meritocrat-ic system in their countries andallowed them to prosper.

However his remarksfailed to achieve the desiredresults, at least on social media,with the hashtag“#AccordingToRahulGandhi”becoming an immediate hitand one of the top India Twittertrends, as thousands mocked

him in various creative ways,using pictures, cartoons andgraphics.

“Everyone must have heardabout the Coca-Cola company.

Who started this company.Who was he, does anyoneknow? I will tell you who hewas. The person who startedthe Coca-Cola company was

one who sold ‘shikanji’. Heused to sell ‘shikanji’ inAmerica. He used to mix sugarin water. His experience andtalent was honoured and he gotmoney and started the Coca-Cola company. You must haveheard about McDonald’s com-pany, which is seen every-where. Who started it andwhat did he do? He used to runa ‘dhaba’ (roadside restaurant).You show me that ‘dhaba-walla’ in India who has creat-ed a company like Coca-Cola.Where is it?”, Rahul saidaddressing his party workers ata convention.

“It was a mechanic. Fordand Honda were mechanics.You show me an automobilecompany in India that wasstarted by a mechanic.

Where is it? It is not thatour people, our ‘dhaba-wallahs’do not have sense and strength.It is not that India’s mechanicsdid not have the potential asthat of Ford or Mercedes.

It is that if the doors ofbank are open for Ford,Mercedes, then the doors ofbanks and politics are shut forour ‘dhabawalas’, mechanicsand ‘dhobis’ and other back-wards,” he said.

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In order to completely stopillegal lion shows in and

around Gir Sanctuary andNational Park — the onlyabode of Asiatic Lions in theworld, Gujarat Governmenthas decided to involve SpecialOperation Group (SOG) ofthe State police force.

The decision of SOG’sinvolvement was taken after thevisit of Gujarat’s Environmentand Forest Minister GanpatVasava to Gir Sanctuary in viewof ongoing controversy overillegal lion shows in Gir area.

On his visit Vasava alsoheld high level meeting ofpolice, revenue and forest toaddress the issue of illegal lionshows. During the meeting itwas also decided to make itmandatory to put sign boardsrelated to ban on private lionshows near the receptions ofhotels in Gir area. The Ministerhas also instructed to put bar-riers on the approach roadsleading to Gir forest in coordination with revenue

department.The state forest depart-

ment has appointed over 300Vanya Prani Mitro (friends ofwild animals) for the purposeof lion conservation and pay-ing �1000 to each of themevery month. Now it has beendecided to double the amountto encourage them to enhancevigil on those who are involvedin arrangement of illegal lionshows. These friends of wildanimals are serving in nearly300 villages near the GirSanctuary.

At present 90 Gypsy cars(Each having maximum capac-ity of six tourists) are allowedto enter inside the GirSanctuary except Saturdaysand Sundays. On week-endsthe limit is 150 Gypsy cars.However in the meeting it hasbeen decided to increase dailypermits so that more numberof tourists can be accommo-dated and automatically theywould not go for illegal lionshows.

More over it was alsodecided to increase involve-

ment of Non GovernmentalOrganizations (NGOs) to cre-ate awareness about lion con-servation and other environ-ment related issues pertainingto Gir forest.

It is worth mentioning thatin the last lion census conduct-ed in the year 2015, total 523Asiatic Lions were reported.For the purpose 252 sq km areaof Gir National Park, 1153 sqkm of Gir Sanctuary, 39 sq kmof Mitiyala Sanctuary, 19 km ofPania Sanctuary and 480 sq kmof protected forest surroundingMount Girnar covered apartfrom over 20,000 sq km of rev-enue areas where lions are stray-ing. The census covered over1500 revenue villages in eightdistricts including Junagadh,Gir Somnath, Amreli, Botad,Bhavnagar, Porbandar,Jamnagar and Rajkot based onthe visitation records includingthe occasional visits of lions innewer areas.

International Union forConservation of Nature(IUCN) has put Asiatic Lion inendangered category.

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The Shiv Sena had a sarcas-tic dig at the ruling BJP on

Monday, as it dubbed the“assassination plots” againstPrime Minister Narendra Modiand Chief Minister DevendraFadnavis as a “thrilling horrorstory” and expressed surprisethat such conspiracies alwayssurfaced ahead of elections.

A day after NCP chiefSharad Pawar accused BJP ofusing the purported letterrecovered by the police thatcarried an alleged plot by theMaoists to assassinate Modi to“garner sympathy”, the Senacharged that there were quite afew loopholes in the “assassi-nation plot” against the PrimeMinister which had lent cre-dence to the Opposition’s crit-icism of the Government.

“All the persons that thePune police arrested for theirrole in the Bhima-Koregaonriots are maxalites withdestructive ideology. But, whenthe riots took place at Bhima-Koregaon, the Maharashtragovernment hardly did any-thing. These were the samepeople who were conspiring toassassinate Modi and Fadnavis.The entire conspiracy is a

thrilling horror story. There areloopholes in the story. As aresult, the Opposition’s criti-cism of the assassination the-ory has gained currency,” theSena stated.

In an editorial published inits official mouth-piece“Saamana”, the Sena stated:“Normally we get to see sus-pected terrorists being arrest-ed on the eve of theIndependence and Republicdays, the authorities claiming tohave busted terror conspiracyand tightening the security.That being the case what theterrorists do in the remaining11 months”.

“We always get to see ter-ror plots being busted ahead ofelections. That being the case,the impending elections inMaharashtra and across thecountry provide an opportunityfor saboteurs. Hence, we havereason to be concerned,” theSena mouth-piece stated.

Taking a pot shot at Modiand Fadnavis, the Sena edito-rial stated: “The Prime Minister has the tightest secu-rity cover. We have to see if thePM’s security cover can bestrengthened further and thereis need to consider if Fadnavisis accorded Mossad-like high

security. This is because it is okay if lakhs of people are killed, but the guardians of the lakhs of people have tolive”.

Through its sarcastic barbat the BJP for the manner inwhich the Amit Shah-led partyis cashing in on the “Modi-Fadnavis” assassination plot,the Shiv Sena has joined theranks of the Congress andNCP in questioning theauthenticity of the “PM deaththreat” letter recovered by thePune police from one of thearrested accused in the Bhima-

Koregaon riots.Speaking at a function

organised in Pune to mark the19th anniversary of the NCP,Pawar alleged that the letterwith the plot to assassinatePrime Minister Narendra Modiis being used to “garner people’ssympathy” and said that thepeople would not fall prey tothe BJP’s attempts to generatesympathy.

“They say there was athreatening letter. I spoke to aretired police officer, who hadworked for CID. He said thereis no substance in the letter.The letter is being used to gar-ner people’s sympathy,” Pawarsaid.

“The BJP has realised thatit is losing the popular support. In order to gain sym-pathy, the BJP is now playingthe threat letter card. However,I am sure that the people willnot fall prey to such tactics,”Pawar said.

Castigating the ruling BJPfor its “selective leaks” aboutthreats to life faced byNarendra Modi, MumbaiCongress chief Sanjay Nirupamhad on Friday last demandedan inquiry into whether “falseinformation” was being fed tothe media about assassination

threat faced by the PrimeMinister.

Reacting to an incrimi-nating letter recovered by thePune police about the Maoists’plans to assassinate Modi,Nirupam had said:“Information is being leakedselectively. I do not know as tohow much truth is there in it.We have been witnessing atrend ever since NarendraModi was the chief minister ofGujarat. Whenever his popu-larity takes a dent, news getsplanted in the media that hefaces a threat to his life. Today,Modi’s popularity has gonedown markedly and the popu-larity of Congress presidentRahul Gandhi has shot up bythree folds”.

“An atmosphere has builtup in all sections of the societyagainst against the BJP andModi. That being the case, itneeds to be investigated if theBJP — as parts of its strategy —is feeding false information about threats facedby the Prime Minister.. I amnot saying that everything iswrong. But we cannot ignorethe fact that Modi has in thepast spread planted storiesabout threats faced to his life,”Nirupam had said.

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In a shocking incident, a BJPworker and four members of

his family, including twominors and a senior citizen,were found murdered at theirAradhana Nagar residence inNagpur on Monday morning.

Identifying five members ofthe slain family as KamlakarPawankar (52), his wifeArchana (45), mother Meerabai(73), daughter Vedanti (12)and nephew Krishna (5), theNagpur police said that the fivewere attacked and killed by theassailant using a sharp weapon.The gruesome murder isbelieved to have taken placewhen the five members ofKamlakar’s family were asleep.

Apart from being a small-time businessman dealing inproperty and mobile phonerepairing business, Kamlakarwas a local BJP leader.

Kamlakar’s brother-in-lawVivek Palatkar is a prime sus-

pect in the case. A motorcyclebelonging to Palatkar wasfound near the slain Kamlakar’sresidence. Nagpur’s JointCommissioner of Police, ShivajiBodkhe said that Palatkar wasreleased on bail two days agoin the murder case of his wife.

The multiple murders,which sent the orange city intoa tizzy, came to light after oneof Kamlakar’s neighboursreceived no response made toseveral telephonic callsPawankar’s residence Afterbeing alerted, the police bargedinto Kamlakar’s residence andfound him and four of his fam-ily members in a pool of blood.

Meanwhile, the Nagpurpolice constituted five teams toinvestigate the incident. “Thebodies have been sent for post-mortem. While one team is try-ing to track down the culprit(s)behind the incident, four otherteams are looking into fourother angles of investigation,” asenior police official said.

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ABhiwandi court is likely toframe charges against

Congress president RahulGandhi when he appears beforeit on Tuesday, in connectionwith a defamation case filedagainst him by an activist foralleging that the RSS wasbehind the assassination ofMahatma Gandhi.

Rahul will appear before aSessions court at Bhiwandi inthe neighbouring Thane dis-trict, at 11 am.

The charges were to havebeen framed by the courtagainst Rahul a long ago. But,the court had not been able todo so, owing to his non-appear-ances in the court. “We expectthe court to frame the chargesagainst Rahul Gandhi tomor-row,” sources close to the com-

plainant said.The Bhiwandi court has

since 2014 been hearing acriminal complaint filed byRajesh Kunte, who is the sec-retary RSS’ Bhiwandi unit,against Rahul for the statementmade by the latter at an electionon May 6 2014. At that rally,Rahul had said: “RSS ke logonne Gandhiji ko goli maari”.

Rahul — who had inSeptember 2016 withdrawn hispetition before the SupremeCourt seeking the dismissal ofa defamation case filed Kunteand told the apex court that heready to tried on charges ofdefaming the RSS — had ear-lier appeared before the courtof Judge Tushar Waze atBhiwandi on January 30, 2017.Owing to his preoccupationwith his political activites,Rahul did not make it to the

court on the subsequent dates.At the hearing held on

November 16, 2016, theBhiwandi court had grantedbail to Rahul in the defamationcase on the basis of surety givenby former Union MinisterShivraj Patil.

After attending the hearingat the Bhiwandi court, Rahulwill travel to Mumbai where hewill interact with Congress’booth-level workers at an event

to be held at the BombayExhibition Centre at Goregaonin north Mumbai.

At the function, Rahul willlaunch ‘Project Shakti’, anational initiative undertakenby the Congress to facilitate theparty leadership establish directcommunication with the grass-roots workers across the coun-try.

“Under this project, partyworkers will be enrolled usingtheir basic details and con-

firming that those enrolling areactually Congressmen. Thesefiltered people will then needto send an SMS on a contactnumber which will be provid-ed to them by the party offi-cials,” Mumbai Congress pres-ident Sanjay Nirupam said.

“The project will enable theground-level workers to sharetheir ideas and views with thecentral leadership of the partywhich will boost their moraleensuring a proper flow ofcommunication internally,”Nirupam said.

Tuesday’s will be Rahul’sfirst public engagement inMumbai after taking over asCongress President inDecember 2017.

During his visit toMumbai, Rahul is also likely tomeet NCP President SharadPawar.

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The Madras High Court onMonday directed the Tamil

Nadu Government to issueorders enhancing the monthlysalary of contract nurses from�7,700 to �14,000 with anannual increment of �500 with-in two weeks.

The first bench of ChiefJustice Indira Banerjee andJustice PT Asha passed theinterim orders on a PIL filed byN Ganesh, seeking to restrainthe nurses from resorting tostrikes demanding regularisa-tion of their services.

It then posted the matter toJuly 2 and asked the govern-ment to submit the compliancereport on that date.

Referring to the counteraffidavit filed by AdditionalSecretary, Health and Family Welfare, U Anbu, thebench said, “We are informed that a proposal wassent to the Government of

India for the revision of salary of the contract staff nurses and theGovernment of India hasapproved the same.

“Orders enhancing thesalary from �7,700 to �14,000,with an annual increment of�500, will be issued shortly.Necessary orders shall bepassed within a period of twoweeks.”

The matter relates to thedemand of the contract nurs-es to fix their minimum wageat �22,000 per month.

Alluding to the formationof a core committee, headed bythe Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfaredepartment, to improve theworking conditions of the con-tract nurses, the bench said,“The core committee shall givethe nurses concerned and theassociations an opportunity ofhearing and decide on a case-to-case basis.

“In the case of the nurses

performing same duties, equalremuneration will have to bepaid.

The total exercise has to becompleted by the core com-mittee within a period of sixmonths from today.”

The court was informed inthe counter affidavit that as onApril 19, 2014, the contractnurses absorbed into the regular stream would be paidthe regular time-scale of pay and that steps were beingtaken to bring the remainingcontract nurses into the regu-lar stream as and when vacan-cies arose.

It was further stated thatthe contract nurses would beeligible for the EmployeesProvident Fund (EPF) benefitson their individual subscriptionof 12 per cent and 1.75 per centon the basic pay with theemployer’s contribution of13.15 per cent EPF and 4.75 percent Employees’ StateInsurance every month.

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BJP national general secre-tary Bhupendra Yadav on

Monday asserted that parties“flocking together” out of fearof NDA’s expansion will not beable to stop Narendra Modi’srath and exhorted party work-ers to work hard so that coali-tion wins all 40 Lok Sabha seatsof Bihar.

Yadav, a Rajya Sabha mem-ber and in-charge of partyaffairs in Bihar, not only show-ered praise Chief MinisterNitish Kumar for his workdone during NDA’s 10 years ofregime in Bihar but also com-pared his work with that ofPrime Minister NarendraModi’s ‘Sushashan’ (good gov-ernance).

“After 2014 general elec-tions, NDA has found its newallies in Jammu and Kashmir,UP, Meghalaya, Manipur,Tripura, Maharashtra, Goa.NDA is expanding and partiesapprehensive of NDA are flock-

ing together but they will notbe able to stop Narendra Modi’srath (winning streak),” Yadavsaid.

Yadav, who was addressinga party’s day long meeting ofstate level office-bearers of various Manch and Morchashere, was accompanied byBihar BJP chief Nityanand Rai,Deputy CM Sushil KumarModi, Bihar Ministers NandKishore Yadav, Mangal Pandey,Prem Kumar, Binod NarayanJha and party’s state generalsecretary (organisation)Nagendra jee.

He asked party workers toapprise people about the workdone by both the Central andstate governments as part of itspreparations for 2019 generalelections.

“Its not that only we tookforward the politics ofSushashan but NDA govern-ment also took forward the pol-itics of Sushashan in Biharafter 2005...We took Bihar outof morass in 2005 and since

then NDA is working smooth-ly and efficiently under theleadership of Chief MinisterNitish Kumar in Bihar,” hesaid.

Yadav praised Bihar gov-ernment’s decision to imple-ment prohibition as it has notonly increased the sale of edible items such as milk,Sudha dairy products, lassi but has also helped in con-taining crime graph post pro-hibition.

“I was going through theBihar government’s EconomicSurvey which has been pre-pared by two independentorganisations. The report saidthat figures of rape, crimeagainst women, crime againstSC and ST, dacoity, loot havecome down when comapred with the figures of2015-16,” Yadav said whileadding that Congress is oppos-ing every decision of theCentral Government whereasRJD is playing the same trickhere.

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Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on

Monday said Congress had insisted that he becomeChief Minister, though hisfather and JD(S) supreme H DDeve Gowda asked someonefrom that party take up the toppost.

“When Congress leaderssaid they want to make meChief Minister, he (DeveGowda) said his(Kumaraswamy) health is not-good... He has twice undergonetreatment... Let someone fromamong you become the chiefminister,” Kumaraswamy said.

The Congress leaders didnot agree and pressurised himto become Chief Minister “andhave given it to me.”

Earlier Gowda had alsosaid he had offered to support a Congress-ledGovernment in Karnataka afterthefractured verdict in theAssembly polls, but the latterinsisted on Kumaraswamy becoming theChief Minister.

Stating that SringeriJagadguru (pontiff) asked himto stop corruption during hisrecent visit to the mutt,Kumaraswamy said he hasbeen thinking of how to goabout it, looking at the situation at VidhanaSoudha(state secretariat)He said he hadtold the pontiff he could tryand stop it at his level and tryhis best to do it, but it was noteasy to bring about a com-pletely corruption free admin-stration.

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Chinese Consul General inKolkata Ma Zhanwu on

Monday advocated greaterexchanges in the fields of cul-ture, education and other areasto promote mutual under-standing.

Cultural exchangesbetween India and China havehuge potential and it will pavethe way for more mutuallybeneficial treaties and cooper-ation, Zhanwu said whileaddressing a cultural pro-gramme ‘China-India JointArtistic Performance’ here,“This cultural potential shouldbe tapped to further developthe mutual understanding,friendship and mutually bene-ficial cooperation between twogreat nations,” he said.

There is a lot of commonground between Chinese andIndian cultures as projected intoday’s programme whichshowed how the Chinese

appreciated Indian culture andvice-versa, the diplomat said.

“Tonight we are very happywe have the artistes groupfrom Yunnan province.Yunnan is a province just twohours away in air travel fromKolkata. It has a rich culturehaving many ethnic minoritygroups living there,” he said.

The dance group fromYunnan presented a beautiful-ly choreographed flower-themed show in the eveningbefore an audience of locals,Chinese guests and represen-tatives from a number of con-sulates in Kolkata.

Indian singer Usha Uthupalso performed at the pro-gramme. Later talking toreporters, Zhanwu said in thecoming weeks the Chineseconsulate will hold a Chinese film festival in theeastern region where sevenpopular films from Chinawould be screened with sub-titles.

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The Assam police have alert-ed all the districts against

any misuse of social media withregard to the incident of moblynching of two youths atDokmoka in Karbi Anglongdistrict of Assam even as thepolice have arrested 26 peoplesince last night for postingobjectionable substances onsocial media.

The social networking siteslike Facebook and WhatsApphave gone abuzz with hate mes-sages against the culpritsinvolved in the lynching andagainst a particular communi-ty after the Friday’s incidentforcing the security agencies togo for strict monitoring ofsocial media and stop hate mes-sages from being circulation.

It may be mentioned herethat while police have arrested23 persons so far fromDokmoka and adjoining areasfor their involvement in grue-some killing of the two youthson Friday, 26 others have beendetained from different areas ofthe State including Nagaon,Dibrugarh, Sonitpur,Mangaldai and Kamrup for

circulating hate messages overthe Friday’s incident.

“Our investigation is on infull steam. So far we havenabbed 23 for their involve-ment in the crime and 26 oth-ers on charges of circulatinghate messages on social media,”said Additional DirectorGeneral of Police (Law andOrder) Mukesh Agarwala.

“It is shocking to know thatsome young people are involvedin circulating hate messagesregarding the incident,” he saidadding that the number ofsuch hate messages circulationhave reduced soon after policestarted the crackdown onoffenders on social media.

Agarwala said that the sit-uation is well under control andthat adequate security has beenarranged as and when requiredto ensure safety to all as well asto ensure that there is no retal-iatory violence against theFriday’s incident. It may bementioned here that somepeople have been spreading arumour about presence of childsnatcher on social media in dif-ferent parts of the State. The vil-lagers in and around Dokmokawere also been living under fear

of child snatcher for past fewdays and lynched to death thetwo youth mistaking them tobe child snatchers on Friday.

The Assam police havealso instituted a separate cell tomonitor the social media andstrengthen the cyber patrolling

so that the hate campaignsthat goes viral on social mediacould be curtailed and stoppedright on time.

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Mamata Banerjee has helpedBJP strengthen its base in

Bengal, so as to divide theOpposition vote and multiplyTrinamool Congress’ invinci-bility, a report prepared by theCongress Party says. The reportprepared by the Youth Congressis likely to be presented beforethe State committee. It saysthat the Trinamool Congresshas intentionally helped theBJP to expand base in parts ofBengal where the Congress hadits area of dominance.

These districts are Malda,Murshidabad, two Dinajpursand even parts of Jalpaiguri andDarjeeling. The Congress cur-rently has two MPs each fromMalda and Murshidabad. InNorth Dinajpur its candidateDeepa Dasmunshi lost out tothe Left Front’s MuhammadSalim in 2014 by a mere 1,400votes. The Congress had itsMLA in Jalpaiguri town.

According to State YouthCongress president Al Berunithe BJP’s meteoric rise as theprincipal Opposition outfit inthese districts — particularlyMalda, Murshidabad and thetwo Dinajpurs — can only beexplained in terms of a “tacticalhelp” from the ruling party. TheCongress leader said in 2016 theBJP won two seats with the helpof BJP. While in Kharagpur theTMC workers directly workedand voted for the BJP in North24 Parganas the Trinamool cre-ated a situation to polarize votein favour of the BJP.

“Considering the fact thatBJP can never win even in ahighly polarized atmospherebecause the Left will nevershed its vote below 17-18 per-cent and the Congress below 10percent — jointly making theirvote share to some 28 percent— it is safe for the Trinamoolto prop BJP in minority dom-inated areas so as to create acommunally charged atmos-

phere where the Congress losesits minority votes to theTrinamool,” says another PCCleader. Congress’ ManojBhattacharya says MamataBanerjee’s public speeches fora common platform are allhoax. “BJP’s existence in Bengalis in her interest so that she canconsolidate the minority votebank of about 30 per cent.”

CPI(M)’s SujanChakrabarty says MamataBanerjee has communally bro-ken Bengal by propping theBJP. His party colleague andMLA Tanmoy Bhattacharyasays during the Left regimethere were few Shakhas of RSSin Bengal. But during Mamatarule those Shakhas had multi-plied in number.

“This has been done tohelp the BJP’s rise and scare theminorities into collectingbehind her he says adding “thereal issues of wages, labour,employment, farming etc havebeen forgotten.”

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The scorching summer ofTamil Nadu and monsoon

rain in Kerala have not damp-ened the spirits of footballlovers in the two southernStates. Both the States areunder a grip of football feverwith Kerala staying well aheadof their neighbours.

A drive along the NationalHighway connecting Kannurand Thiruvananthapuram inKerala and from Kanyakumarito Chennai along the EastCoast Road would make trav-eller ask the question whetherIndia figures in the list ofnations playing in the WorldCup Football Championshipbeginning in Russia in twoday’s time. All along the high-ways and alleys, there are fes-toons, posters, l;arger than lifesize cut outs of teams, playersand individuals. What is real-ly surprising is the slogansprinted along with the posters,hailing the players and theteams. Most of the slogans (inTamil as well as in Malayalam)

would eclipse the prowess ofthe best of the copy writers.“Brazil is not our heart, she isour heart beat”, says one of theslogans in Kerala.

It may take decades forIndia to figure in the ultimatetournament in the world. Nota single person The Pioneerspoke to expressed any disap-pointment or sorrow overIndia’s absence in the world’sgreatest sporting event whichhad encouraged authorDesmond Morris to study theintricacies of the game and

come out with a best seller byname “The Soccer Tribe”.

“We are least worried overthe absence of India in thistournament. What we are goingto see for the next 30 days ishigh quality poetry in motionspiced with strength, stamina,skill and style,” said Afzal, anardent Argentina fan fromMalappuram.

It is not known whetherAfzal or his friends couldanswer if they are asked whatthey know about Argentina,Brazil or Peru or Uruguay

which are some of the promi-nent Latin American teamsfighting it out in Russia for theworld crown. But they are allfamiliar with the names of theplayers, their uniqueness, andeven strength and weakness.People in Belgium Germany,Egypt or England or Francemay be surprised to know thatthere are fans praying round-the-clock for the success oftheir favourite teams.

Most of the flex boards andposters dotting the MainCentral Road in Kerala gotdamaged because of heavywinds and rains. But the fansare working overtime to restorethe flex boards and festoons..The enthusiasm and celebra-tions outsmart the festivitiesassociated with Onam,Deepavali and even Pongal. InVallam in Kerala, the name ofa suburb has been changedfrom Kochangadi to BrazilAngadi (Angadi is Malayalamfor large market)

Even as these fans watch allthe matches in community TVsets/LED screens installed bythe fans at vantage locations,

there are some Indian players,long forgotten by the fans andthe media alike, who are real-ly pained by the state of affairsof Indian football. Inder Singh,popularly known as India’sBullet Train, had enthralled thestadiums in 1960s and 1970s.“ We may have won theContinental Cup beatingKenya, But where is Indianfootball compared to otherneighbours like Sri Lanka,Bangladesh and even Male,”asked Inder Singh over tele-phone from Phagwara inPunjab. He pointed out thatthere are no Indian playersworth mentioning other thanSunil Chetri. “Football is downand out in most of the IndianStates except Kerala andBengal.

There are no tournamentsanywhere in the country bar-ring the ISL. But he number ofplayers who can graduate intothe ISL are limited,” said Inder,who played top class footballfor 25 years before hanging hisboots. He pointed out thatKerala was home to seven all-India tournaments.

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Patna: Police resorted to mildlathi charge on the workers ofLoktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) onMonday when they under partypresident Sharad Yadav took outa procession to oppose the ris-ing prices of petrol and otherissues. Sharad and other leadersof the party including RamaiRam rode a bullock cart to pro-ceed the Raj Bhavan.

The workers clashed withthe police when they were triedto be stopped before reachingthe Raj Bhavan. A few of themwere hurt and seen taken away.

Sharad said there weremany issues like unemploy-ment and price rise, GST anddemonetisation but the “Akrosh March” was beingorganised to protest the everincreasing prices of petroleumproducts. However when theprocession started from KargilChowk, Sharad was not thereand he joined it near a poshhotel where he was sitting insidehis air-conditioned car. PNS

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To mark the 71st birthday ofRJD chief Lalu Prasad,

his both sons Tej Pratap andTejashwi Prasad Yadav held aclosed door event at 5, Circular Road, the official residence of the former Deputy CM, and cut a 71pounds cake. They were injovial mood.

Later on the two brothersshared front seats of the SUVwith elder brother on the steer-ing. “He is Arjun and I am hisSarthi,” declared a beaming Tej Pratap as he askedthe driver to move, broughtyounger brother on the frontfrom the rear seat, put a greencap on his head and drovetowards 10, Circular Road, theofficial residence of their moth-er Rabri Devi where theirfather lives.

“Tej Pratap is not only myelder brother he is also myphilosopher and guide,”declared Tejashwi, wearing a

broad smile with his armaround Tej’s shoulders.

“The canard of rift in thefamily and party is being spreadby Nagpurias. They want dif-ferences between the brothers but they will neversucceed in their nefariousdesigns,” said Tej Pratap accusing Sangh Parivar of try-ing to create rift in the familyand RJD.

He went on to claim thatcertain BJP leaders were in thetouch of RJD leadership.

Tej who had bitterly criti-cised State RJD chief RamChandra Purbe only a day ear-lier before the cameras said onMonday that Purbe ji was hisuncle.

After cutting a slice of thecake he gave the first bite toPurbe and then to Tejashwi.His mother Rabri clappedapprovingly as sounds of happybirthday and greetings rentedthe venue. “There is no khat-pat either in the family or in theparty,” said Rabri.

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The 84-km long-Mughalroad, frequented by

Mughal emperors Akbar,Jahangir, Shahjahan andAurangzeb to reach Kashmirvalley, is now being used as analternate route by the newlyrecruited terrorists to smuggle‘’looted’ weapons to Kashmirvalley.

In the wee hours ofMonday a joint team of secu-rity forces captured two newlyrecruited militants after theyopened fire on security forcesnear Thannamandi securitycheck post in frontier Rajouridistrict.

The militants were escap-ing along with the ‘looted’weapons from one of the bar-racks of State police guardsdeployed at Shahadra Shariefshrine.

The new strategy was ‘pos-sibly’ adopted by the militanthandlers after several failedattempts to snatch weapons

from the armed security guardsin different parts of kashmirvalley.

According to initial reportsthe militants looted theweapons when the securityguards were offering prayers inthe Shahadra Sharief shrine.

Security forces also recov-ered an INSAS rifle, threemagazines and 49 live car-tridges from the spot.

SSP Rajouri YougalManhas while addressing apress conference in Rajouritold reporters, “ a joint team ofthe security forces were check-ing vehicles at the check-postnear Thannamandi in the weehours of Monday when the twomen, riding a motorcycle,were signalled to stop. Insteadof stopping at the check postthey tried to escape takingadvantage of the darkness”.

SSP said, while escapingthey even abandoned theirmotorcycle at some distanceand fired at least two roundsof fire on the security person-

nel, who were chasing them.According to SSP Rajouri,

Yougal Manhas, the weaponswere stolen by the duo from apolice barrack at ShahadraSharief shrine in Rajouri.

Manhas said the two mil-itants identified as MukhtarAhmed of Zainapura and AijazAhmed Parray of Chitragamain Shopian, came via Shopianto loot weapons from securityforces.

As per preliminary inves-tigations the duo had donerecce of the area. SSP Rajourialso claimed they were in con-stant touch with self-styledHizbul commander Zeenat-ul-Islam, active in SouthKashmir.

A case has been registeredagainst them under RanbirPenal Code, arms act andunlawful activities act atThannamandi police station.Meanwhile, district police hasalso initiated action againstthe policeman whose INSASrifle was looted by the militants.

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Stressing the importance ofdevelopment, Chief Minister

Yogi Adityanath said there is nosubstitute to development andcollective thinking could gen-erate positive vibes which inturn could help in transform-ing a city.

Yogi was speaking atGorakhpur after laying thefoundation of 66 projects andalso inaugurated sevenschemes. All these projectscost around �59 crore.

“Gorakhpur was earliertreated as a backward district.But the fact is that at one time,it was one of the most developed districts of the state. Because of political negligence and apathy, thisdistrict lagged behind in allaspects. But things are chang-ing now. Gorakhpur is pro-gressing on the path of devel-opment,” the CM said whileaddressing a public meeting onMonday.

Yogi further said that there

was no substitute for develop-ment and hard work. “This isa known fact that developmentnot only improves the qualityof life of residents but alsobrings investments, which inturn helps youth to getemployment at door steps,” hesaid

A five-time MP fromGorakhpur, Yogi said thatwater-logging was a perennialproblem of this area and workhas been started to get rid of themenace.

“Work is on to widenroads, provide uninterruptedpower supply and drinkingwater as was commited by thegovernment. This can only beachieved with participation ofmasses.

Corporators should takeup the challenge and work onthis line. This is not difficult.We only need determination todo it. You should also plantsaplings in your wards. A littlebit of awareness can keep thecity clean,” the Chief Ministerasserted.

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After obtaining legal opin-ion, UP Estate department

has ordered a probe into allbungalow vacated by formerChief Ministers in Lucknowrecently.

The move of the Estatedepartment came after it wasreported that the bungalowvacated by Samajwadi Partychief Akhilesh Yadav was plun-dered and many costly itemswere taken away.

Rajya Sampatti Adhikari(Estate Officer) Yogesh Shuklasaid in Lucknow on Mondaythat the staff has been prepar-ing a list of items and otherfacilities provided by thedepartment in these bungalowsand the missing items. “Assoon as this is completed,notices will be sent to formeroccupants of these bungalowsabout missing properties,” hesaid.

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Railway Minister PiyushGoel has said the ‘decadal

negligence’ of the railways dur-ing the decade long Congress-led United Progressive AllianceGovernment compromised onthe rail safety and the NDAGovernment has acceleratedthe maintenance and upgrad-ing of the rail network acrossthe country during the last fouryears of the BJP led NDAGovernment at the Center.The minister claimed that thetransformational change in therailways would be visible to thepeople in 2018. Addressingthe media through video con-ferencing on the completion ofthe four years of the NDA gov-ernment, rail minister said in2013-14, the last year of theUPA regime, the annual trackrenewal was only 2,900 kmwhile the same was 4,400 kmduring the last fiscal 2017-18.

Goel said during the lastfour years the NDAGovernment has changed themindset of the railway man-agement where special empha-sis was laid on safety whichresulted in 62 percent drop inrail accidents. “The biggestchallenge before us was to fillthe backlog in safety system ofthe railway and we met it byfocussing on safety, outcomeoriented action and speed, skilland scale’’, said Goel. The min-ister said “we plan to bring the

positive change for the com-mon rail passenger through theapplication of technology likeinstalling the CCTV camera ateach railway station and eachcoach of the train’’.

“The last fiscal 2017-18was the best year for the railwaysafety as there were less than 100rail accidents. During the lastfour years as 5,469 unmannedlevel crossings were abolishedand by 2020 all level crossingson broad gauze rail tracks wouldbe abolished’’, said the minister.

“We have maximised theuse of the railway rakes byextending the route as manytrains used to run for 8 hoursin a day. The Gatiman expresswhich used to run betweenDelhi- Agra, was extended toGwalior and later to Jhansi,thus linking the fast train withthe Bundelkhand region’’, saidPiyush goel.

Piyush Goel howeveradmitted the slowing down ofthe speed of train in North andeast India due to the trackrenewal, strengthening of theinfrastructure. “There was verylittle capital expenditure on railsafety during the UPA rule yetthe number of trains has dou-bled and the rail network ishandling trains which are 150percent of its installed capaci-ty. The problem of late runningof trains would be addressed assoon as the track renewal workis completed’’, said the railminister.

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Page 8: ( ˆˆ ’ ˝ .&%0ˇ˙.ˆ 1 23 ˙˜$!$˙!/ ,˙)-˘+. ˘ ˇˆ ˙˝ 4˘43:=> …...Pradesh’s Baghpat district to the Delhi’s Red Fort museum for further investigation,

The reverberations of formerPresident Pranab Mukherjee’saddress at the valedictory ses-sion of the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS)

Tritiya Varsh Varg (Third Year Course) inNagpur will doubtless resonate for a longtime. Whatever one’s ideological persua-sion, there is no denying that Pranabda hasmade a significant intervention in ourpolitical discourse.

After running around like headlesschickens in the run-up to the function,Congress leaders heaved a sigh of relief atthe largely bland presentation and skirt-ed the potentially explosive bits. The for-mer President had ruffled feathers the pre-vious day by writing in the visitor’s bookat Dr KB Hedgewar’s birthplace, ‘Today Icame here to pay my respect and homageto a great son of Mother India’. ‘Respect’is a formal term, ‘homage’ goes deeper; thewords are broadly synonymous, the devilis in the context.

Pranabda nixed decades of calumnyheaped upon the RSS and subtly includ-ed it among the venerable national insti-tutions. This could, but need not, hamperefforts to forge opposition unity against theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the run-upto the Parliamentary elections. ButPranabda, reputedly in the thick of theexercise, will now be excused. It would beunfair to say that he has “positioned” him-self as a possible candidate for PrimeMinistership if BJP’s tally falls below 200,as some suggest. But he has gently stirredthe political cauldron and we can only waitto see the broth.

Mukherjee said India was always anopen and globally connected society; hementioned the Silk and Spice Routes.Scholars now increasingly talk of theCotton/Linen Route and the ManuscriptRoute by which Buddhist pilgrims tookscriptures back to their own lands.Indian merchants and sages took Indiangoods and knowledge abroad; goods werein high demand in West Asia and Europe;culture, knowledge and faith in CentralAsia, China and Southeast Asia.Alexander’s ambitions created some ofthe earliest foreign accounts of ancientIndia; later Fa Hien and Hiuen Tsangwrote about the efficient administrativesystems, planned settlements, good infra-structure, and famed universities.Mukherjee’s reference to Arthashastracould be a hint to look at native wisdomand traditions of governance.

Pranabda punched a hole in theWestphalian model of nationhood, assert-ing that India was a state long before theEuropean Nation State rose after 1648,based on the notion of a defined territo-ry, single language, shared religion and acommon enemy. Indian nationhood rests

on the universal philosophy of VasudhaivaKutumbakam (world is family) and SarveBhavantu Sukhinah, Sarve SantuNiramayah (may all be healthy and happy).We may highlight here the differencebetween Indian and Western notions of‘universal’. The Hindu meaning is thatwhich is applicable or can be adopted vol-untarily by all (e.g. Yoga, mutual coexis-tence without strife, etc). The monotheistconcept is that which should be imposedupon all (religion, culture, thinking, et al).

Simply put, Hindus celebrate multiplic-ity in culture, faith, language, everything.In fact, contrary to the popular slogan, wedo not believe in ‘unity in diversity’ as thatintrinsically suggests potential strife. Webelieve in ‘Diversity in Unity’, becauseeverything emerges from Oneness. Indianpluralism, or ‘sarv dharma sambhav’ (allfaiths are harmonious) and ‘ekam sat, viprabahuda vadanti’ (truth is one, the wise callit by many names) is rooted in this aware-ness. Mukherjee cited Vincent Smith,“India beyond all doubt possesses a deepunderlying fundamental unity, far moreprofound than that produced either by geo-graphical isolation or by political superi-ority. That unity transcends the innumer-able diversities of blood, colour, language,dress, manners, and sect”.

It must have riled the Marxists and sec-ular fundamentalists that the former pres-ident observed that large parts of India fellto Muslim invaders from the twelfth cen-tury onwards, till the East India Companywon the Battle of Plassey in 1757 andquickly brought large tracts under its con-

trol; the British Crown took charge in 1858.Throughout this political and culturalupheaval, however, India’s “civilisationalcontinuity remained unbroken”. To Indiansof my generation, this is probably the firsttime such an exalted public figure hasopenly stated that Delhi was captured byMuslim invaders. It could pave the way fora more honest articulation of historicalfacts and their cultural impact, in future.

British rule compelled Indian nation-alists to articulate the concept of theModern Indian State; all CongressPresidents upheld a Nation comprisingthe territorial areas of British India andthe territories of 565 princely states.When Bal Gangadhar Tilak said, “Swarajis my Birthright and I shall have it”, hemeant the Indian People, encompassingvarious castes, creeds, and religions,across British India and the PrincelyStates. Pranabda made special mentionof Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel’s statesman-ship in securing the merger of thePrincely States and thus ensuring the con-solidation of India. Is there an unstatedadmonition regarding the continuingproblems in Jammu & Kashmir?

Mani Shankar Aiyar has lamented thatPranabda had lent respectability to the RSS,which represents the anti-thesis of theIndian tradition of “welcoming to newideas and thoughts, absorbing, assimilat-ing and synthesizing what comes our way,whatever its provenance and howeverassociated in historical memory withassault, invasion and political turbulence”.This is preposterous. It bears stating that

Mukherjee did not exonerate any ‘assault’related with ‘invasion’; he would be awareof contemporary realities in Assam, WestBengal, and many other Indian States. Nordid he touch upon “Islam and evangelicalChristianity”. Readers may note that Aiyaremphasised ‘evangelical Christianity’, indi-cating overt support for the conversionagenda. Obviously, he regards Hindus whoresent or resist as intolerant.

Critics have rightly concluded thatthe former President’s presence (and therage of the all-India Lutyens Brigade) cat-apulted a routine function into “a nation-al event and the message of the Sanghreached all corners of India thanks to ourcuriosity over what India’s former pres-ident was going to do there”. Some havenoted the Sarsanghachalak’s assertion thatthe RSS works for the whole society(often first responder during naturalcalamities), but resented his contentionthat “Hindus are answerable to questionsabout India’s fortunes” (uttardayi).

This is a fundamental truth, under-lined by Mukherjee’s reference to foreigninvasions. Non-Hindus should explainwhy they cannot accept the nation’scivilisational and foundational ethos. Apolitical party and an intelligentsia thatdo not blink when a former VicePresident of India attends a function ofthe terror-linked Popular Front of Indiacannot baulk at Hindus who are comfort-able in their own skins.

(The writer is Senior Fellow, NehruMemorial Museum and Library; the viewsexpressed are personal)�

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Pranab triggers political football”(June 9). Pranab Mukerjee has donea great service to the country at atime when the political climate is fullof hatred and intolerance, by firstaccepting the invitation fromRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) and then talking like a states-man on its platform. His remarksabout the concepts of nation, nation-alism, patriotism, pluralism andinclusiveness have been meaningfuland will go a long way in applyinga balm on the wounds created by thefierce controversy related to theirinterpretation of the way Indiashould be.

Another aspect was the mentionof the Indian civilisation and its pastglory, along with its age-old charac-teristic of assimilation of ideas andfaiths. Unfortunately, any mentionabout it has been a taboo in theIndian political wisdom in thename of not hurting the sensibilitiesof minorities, in particular of thelargest one. By doing so, we have cre-ated the concept of ‘we and they’amongst the people born and bredin the country and in the process losta portion of the country. PranabMukerjee also, in his wisdom, choseto skip this aspect of history in hisaddress, keeping in mind, the fragili-ty of the occasion.

In sum, Pranab Mukerjee hasdone a yeomen service to the nationby his very well-considered initiative.Let us hope that a cordial politicalatmosphere is created as a result andhelps in taking the country to greatits deserved heights .

B P SrivastavaNoida

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Sir — Rafael Nadal’s 11th victory atthe Roland Garros in Paris is a phe-nomenal achievement. To win 11Grand Slam titles at a single venueis simply outstanding and extreme-ly difficult to surpass. AlthoughNadal may not be as graceful assome of the players of yesteryearssuch as Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker,John McEnroe, Pete Sampras andJimmy Connors, his steely resolve,determination and hunger to winmakes him one of the all-timegreats of tennis.

Rafael Nadal has now won 17Grand Slam titles but going by theway he plays, one can easily makeout that he is not much worried thatRoger Federer is on the top of thelist with 20 Grand Slam titles.

Devendra Khurana Bhopal

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Sir — This refers to the article, “Seasof trouble: We need to act now”(June 9) by Hiranmay Karlekar. Theban on plastic though belated is wel-come. If the Government chooses tobe elastic in implementation of theban on plastic, it will remain onpaper only.

Propaganda against use of plas-tic should start right from primaryschools. Believing and trusting thatthe ban will be stringent and with-out any loopholes, let us take stepsto rid our surroundings of existingplastic wastes.

M R AnandChennai

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Page 9: ( ˆˆ ’ ˝ .&%0ˇ˙.ˆ 1 23 ˙˜$!$˙!/ ,˙)-˘+. ˘ ˇˆ ˙˝ 4˘43:=> …...Pradesh’s Baghpat district to the Delhi’s Red Fort museum for further investigation,

From the Ceausescus (over-thrown and shot 1989) to theMugabes (removed in a non-

violent military coup 2017), hus-band-and-wife teams runningauthoritarian regimes seem to havea particularly high casualty rate. Andnow it may be the turn of theNicaraguan team: President DanielOrtega and his wife, Vice-PresidentRosario Murillo.

The protests that have convulsedNicaragua for the past two monthswere initially triggered by a new fiveper cent tax on pensions and anequally modest increase in socialsecurity contributions. It was an ill-judged attempt to balance thebooks on a fairly generous welfaresystem, and the Government

quickly cancelled the changes oncethe demos started.

Yet the protests continued, and bynow there are 90 people dead andalmost a thousand injured. The greatmajority of the victims are studentsand others who have been shot by thepolice, or by gangs linked to the rul-ing Sandinista party that killed peo-ple while the security forces stoodback and did not intervene.

It really is about the survival of theOrtega-Murillo regime now — and it isappropriate to call it that, although thereare still more or less free elections inNicaragua. Ortega is now in his thirdconsecutive term, having removed thetwo-term limit in the Constitution,and the electoral law has been changedto let a presidential candidate win withas little as 35 per cent of the vote (in amulti-candidate race).

Indeed, many Nicaraguans believethat Ortega and his wife are now inthe process of founding an actualdynasty. “She’s not the vice president;she’s the co-president,” said AgustínJarquín, who was once a close politi-cal ally of Ortega’s, and it’s true that

Murillo is more likely to make state-ments on Government policy thanOrtega himself.

Meanwhile, powerful opponentsof the Ortega-Murillo family within theSandinista party have been systematical-ly weeded out of the Government. TheSupreme Court is now stuffed withappointees loyal to the regime. And theOrtegas and their allies have large butill-defined interests in television stations,fuel companies, and the proposed trans-Nicaragua rival to the Panama Canal.

It’s a strange place for once-radicalyoung revolutionaries like Ortega andMurillo to have ended up. They met inexile in Costa Rica when the ruthlessSomoza regime still ruled Nicaragua, androse to prominence together after theSandinista revolution overthrew theSomozas in 1979.

They served the revolution loyallyduring the 1980s while the ReaganAdministration in Washington tried todestroy it using the CIA-backed ‘contra’rebels in a war that killed 30,000 peo-ple. Daniel Ortega was even elected pres-ident in 1984, but then lost the 1990 elec-tion to a coalition of opposition parties.

He ran for president again in 1995and in 2000, and lost to the more orless the same conservative coalitionboth times. It was during this longspell in the wilderness that he grad-ually realised that his more extremeideas frightened a lot of people andbegan to tone them down. It may havebeen a purely tactical change at first,but if you say something often enoughyou may start to believe it.

By the time Ortega returned topower in the 2006 election, he was achanged man. No more Marxist rhetoric,and he was now presenting himself asa devout Catholic. After having five chil-dren together, he and Murillo finally gotmarried in 2005 — in a Catholic church.And the truth is that he won that elec-tion largely thanks to a deal with thepowerful Catholic Church that bannedabortion in Nicaragua.

He has won two more electionssince then, and would now be clas-sified as a man of the centre-left inmost Western countries: Pro-welfarestate, but pro-capitalist too. Manyleading figures in the SandinistaParty have made the same journey

with him, and Rosario Murillo wasprobably already there.

Many hardcore Sandinistas arescandalised by these developments,but it’s a perfectly normal pattern inthe aftermath of a revolution. Majoradvances in human rights may be pre-served, but the ideology is steadilyundermined by the stubborn realitiesof ordinary life. What is remarkableabout Ortega and Murillo is that theyhave been able to work both sides ofthe street for so long.

The social welfare measures intro-duced by the Sandinistas in the 1980ssurvive, but Ortega and Murillo are farto the right of where they once were.The suspicion has grown that they areexploiting their political power tobuild their own business empire. Theprotests against them certainly haveright-wing support, but it is actuallyleft-wing students who dominate thedemonstrations in the streets.

So the Ortegas have probablyreached the end of the road.Nicaragua has not.

(The writer is an independent journalist)

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Since the senior secondaryresults of the CBSE weredeclared, the debate onschooling has taken the cen-tre-stage. One angle of analy-

sis of Board results has been thatchildren who were provided extracoaching, performed better thanthose who did not attend extraclasses, beyond school hours. Theseclasses are known as ‘coaching class-es’, ‘home tuition’ and so on.

Private schools have alwaysencouraged their children to go forcoaching classes but the menace hascaught on to Government schools aswell. The Kendriya VidyalayaSangathan and the NavodayaVidyalaya Sangathan which performed best as a chain of schools,in the CBSE examinations, havearranged for extra classes for eitherthe ‘weaker’ children or the ‘gifted’children.

It is now common knowledgethat schools organise extra helpduring vacations for students toperform better. This has two aspects— one, that we are not teaching wellenough in our classrooms; and two,that parents have a notion that theyhave to spend extra for kids to per-form well in the Board exams and get

admission to a good college. Here Iwish to highlight the second aspect— the ‘coaching’ phenomenon.

During the 1970’s, students whotook private coaching were lookeddown upon as ‘unintelligent’. But bythe end of the last century it becamea status symbol to opt for privatecoaching.

Peer pressure on those who didnot go for coaching classes slowlygrew. Parents also preferred to sendtheir children to these classes andalso mention in private gatheringsthat their child goes to a coaching.The pinnacle of coaching can be seenin the rise of Kota (in Rajasthan) asthe coaching city of India. Parentsgot their children admitted to thesecoaching centres and children fromall parts of the country flocked toKota to attend these centres.

They paid more fees here thanthey paid in schools. As a result,peripheral industries like accommo-dation, tiffin supply etc grew.

Kota which had been an indus-trial town of Rajasthan was witness-ing a slump during the late 1990’sbecause of the failure of industriesand had a large number of technicalstaff including engineers who werelaid off. They started visiting homesto provide personal tuition initiallyfor a small fee but later some of themstarted charging as much as four tofive thousands an hour for home vis-its. Some of the less successful onesbecame evaluators for the industri-alised coaching institutes. Today, itis told, a few of the teachers are paidas high as �1,00,000 a day because

students want to attend their classand learn from them.

Kota was replicated in a numberof other towns like Hyderabad,Bengaluru and of late in Chennai,Jaipur and others.

One positive feedback is thatthere is an equal number, if not more,of girls participating in these coach-ing classes. Their success at thecompetit ive exams has alsoimproved, may be perhaps becauseof the coaching they received.

Coaching is primarily a middleclass phenomenon. The middle classis ready to spend a fortune on theirchild’s education as this is the onlyway for them to succeed. As the sizeof the middle class swells, the coach-ing industry also expands. Thisindustry has grown at a much fasterrate than most other industries.

Another major reason, accordingto research, for learners joiningcoaching, is that teachers in schoolsare involved in arranging co-curric-ular activities and are not able to payfull attention to academics. Thereseems to be a function every weekand as a result, teachers are oftenbusy organising these events.

More ambitious children andparents fail to understand the rele-vance of such events in schools andthe growth of the learners, so theyput their children into coachingclasses. There needs to be a thoroughexamination as to the number ofteaching days in schools.

With the increased availability ofadvanced video conferencing, onlinecoaching is also witnessing a rapid

growth. Indian teachers and house-makers now provide online coach-ing to learners not only to theIndian diaspora but also to foreignnationals.

A large number of housemakersprovide personalised coaching andare at times earning as much, ormore than their partners. Time willprove whether this form of educationwill die or will schools finally surren-der to private education. The coach-ing phenomenon needs to be paidattention to for a number of reasons.If a teacher needs be trained as perthe National Council For TeacherEducation (NCTE) norms, why arethe untrained teachers in these insti-tutes more successful and why is theGovernment permitting students toattend these classes even if it decreas-es their chance of success in variousexaminations?

Why are Government schoolsarranging coaching for some and notall of their students during holidays?Vacations have a scientific relevancein the growth of a child and also re-energising teachers for the next ses-sion. Due to this, more and moreteachers are getting burned out.Should this not be stopped? Or, is thecoaching mafia so strong that theycan manipulate the Government’sdecisions, thereby leaving it helpless?This needs serious thought and leg-islation because it involves the livesof all our children.

(The writer is Professor ofEducation at Indira Gandhi NationalOpen University, New Delhi. Viewsexpressed are personal)

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India’s fuel demand rose by3.8 per cent in May as fre-

quent price increases dentedauto fuel consumption.

Fuel consumption in Maytotalled 18.71 million tonnes ascompared to 18.1 milliontonnes in the same month lastyear, data from the PetroleumPlanning and Analysis Cell(PPAC) of the oil ministryshowed.

The rise was lower than 4.4per cent increase witnessed inApril, 2018. During May, petrolsales was up by a meagre 2 percent at 2.45 million tonneswhile diesel consumption wasflat at 7.54 million tonnes.

The primary reason forthis small growth was the

increase in retail selling priceafter state-owned oil firms lift-ed pre-Karnataka poll hiatus toresume daily price revisionsfrom May 14.

In the following fortnight,petrol price was raised by �3.8a litre and diesel by �3.38 a litre.Prices started to fall towards themonth-end and are off-recordhighs now.

Petrol price hit an all-timehigh of �78.43 a litre and dieselpeaked to �69.31 on May 29 inDelhi. Today, petrol costs�76.58 a litre and diesel �67.95.

In April, petrol sales hadrisen 9.2 per cent while diesel,which makes up for roughly 40per cent of all the petroleumproduct consumed in the coun-try, posted a 2.6 per centgrowth in consumption.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi will dedicate to the

nation the modernised andexpanded plant of state-runsteel maker SAIL at Bhilai, onThursday.

Bhilai is Steel Authority ofIndia Ltd’s (SAIL) largest plantand major producer and sup-plier of rails for Indian Railwaysincluding 260 metre long rails.

“Prime Minister of IndiaNarendra Modi to dedicateSAIL’s modernised andexpanded Bhilai Steel Plant,Bhilai Chhattisgarh” to thenation on June 14, a SAILofficial said.

This would be the thirdplant of SAIL which the primeminister will dedicate to thenation.

In 2015, he had dedicatedRourkela and IISCO steelplants.SAIL had undertakenabout Rs 70,000 crore mod-ernisation and expansion of itsintegrated steel plants.

The capacity to producerails at Bhilai steel plant hasreached 2 MTPA from 0.8MTPA after modernisation.

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The NSE Nifty erased mostof its morning gains and

ended marginally higher by 19points to 10,786.95 amid gainsin global stocks ahead of a sum-mit between US PresidentDonald Trump and NorthKorea’s Kim Jong-un.

Investors sentiment got aboost amid hopes that the US-North Korea summit will easeregional tensions.

Traders and investors areclosely awaiting a series ofdomestic and global eventsthis week. Consumer priceindex (CPI)-inflation dataindustrial output numbers aredue tomorrow, while thewholesale price index (WPI)inflation data will be

announced on Thursday.Overseas, European shares

were trading higher ahead of ahistoric meeting between theUS President and the NorthKorean leader. Asian marketsended mostly higher even asinvestors looked to shrug offtrade tensions as well as thelandmark meet betweenTrump and Kim Jong-un.

The Nifty 50 index rose19.30 points or 0.18 per cent to

end at 10,786.95, its highest clos-ing level since May 15, 2018.The index rose 82.90 points, or0.77 per cent, at the day’s highof 10,850.55. The index rose9.40 points, or 0.09 per cent, atthe day’s low of 10,777.05.

It saw an intra-day move-ment of about 73.50 points.

On the sectoral front,media rose by 1.03 per cent fol-lowed by pharma 0.50 percent, FMCG 0.32 per cent,PSU bank 0.33 per cent, auto0.12 per cent and finance ser-vice 0.10 per cent. On theother hand, realty fell by 0.62per cent, metal 0.38 per centand energy 0.12 per cent.

Major index gainers wereBharti Airtel, Bajaj Finance,Ultratech Cement, Grasim andZeel.

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Indian billionaire Nirav Modi,who is at the centre of a

money laundering case linkedto over $2 billion PunjabNational Bank fraud, has fledto the UK where the abscond-ing diamantaire sought asylumclaiming “political persecu-tion” back home, according toa media report on Monday.

Nirav Modi and his uncleMehul Choksi are being inves-tigated by the EnforcementDirectorate for allegedly cheat-ing the PNB, the country’s sec-ond largest lender, to the tuneof more than $2 billion.

The duo and others arealso being probed by other cen-tral agencies after the fraudcame to light this year follow-ing a complaint by the PNBthat they allegedly cheated thenationalised bank to the tune

of over �13,000 crore, with thepurported involvement of a fewemployees of the bank.

Both Nirav Modi andChoski are said to have left thecountry before criminal caseswere lodged against them.

“Officials in India and theUK say he (Nirav Modi) is inLondon, where his companyhas one store, and is trying toclaim asylum from what he saidwas political persecution,” The

Financial Times reported.“There are always a num-

ber of complicated cases thatadd a little tension and spice toour relationship with India. Butthere is also an appreciationfrom both sides that we have alegal process that has to be gonethrough and that we are ofcourse governed by humanrights legislation,” a senior UKForeign Office official wasquoted as saying by the report.

When contacted by PTI,the Home Office said that “weare not commenting on indi-vidual cases”.

The CBI had in May filedtwo charge sheets in the casebefore a Mumbai court. TheED has also filed its chargesheet in the case involvingNirav Modi, who is in his late40s, and his associates, officialsin New Delhi said.

They said the about 12,000page charge sheet or the prose-cution complaint has been filedbefore a special court here undervarious sections of thePrevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA). Indiais also pushing for the extraditionof liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya,who is on trial for the UK courtto rule if he can be extradited toIndia to face charges of fraud andmoney laundering amounting toaround �9,000 crores.

���������� ������������The United Kingdom has

confirmed that Indiandiamantaire Nirav Modi, whois at the centre of a moneylaundering case linked to theover �13,000 crore PunjabNational Bank (PNB) fraud,is currently in that country,top officials said on Monday.

UK Minister BaronessWilliams has also assuredUnion Minister of State forHome Kiren Rijiju, at a meet-ing here, Britain’s full cooper-ation in the Government ofIndia’s efforts to expedite NiravModi, liquor baron VijayMallya and others extradition.

“UK authorities haveconfirmed Nirav Modi’s pres-ence in Britain,” an officialprivy to the meeting said.

Modi, who is absconding

and has not joined the EDprobe in the case till now, andothers are being probedunder various criminal lawsafter the fraud came to lightthis year following a com-plaint by PNB that theyallegedly cheated the nation-alised bank to the tune of over�13,000 crore, with the pur-ported involvement of a fewemployees of the bank.

“I had a very useful meet-ing with UK MinisterBaroness Williams. We dis-cussed about India-UK jointefforts to deal with terrorismand extremism. We alsoagreed to cooperate in thematters of extradition andsharing of information,” Rijijutold reporters after the hour-long meeting. PTI

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President Donald Trump hastaken a swipe at India along

with the world’s other topeconomies and accused NewDelhi of charging 100 per centtariff on some of the US’ goods,as he threatened to cut tradeties with countries who are rob-bing America.

Trump made the remarksin Canada’s Quebec City wherehe was attending the G7 sum-mit that ended in farce after heabruptly rejected the text of aconsensus statement and bit-terly insulted the host.

“We’re like the piggybankthat everybody is robbing,”Trump said while addressing apress conference on Saturday.

He also made a reference toIndia, indicating that his griev-ances on tariffs was not restrict-ed to the developed economiesalone.

“This isn’t just G7. I mean,we have India, where some ofthe tariffs are 100 per cent. Ahundred per cent. And wecharge nothing. We can’t dothat. And so we are talking tomany countries,” Trump said.

Trump has repeatedlyraked up the issue of Indiaimposing high import duty onthe iconic Harley-Davidsonmotorcycles and threatened toincrease the import tariff on“thousands and thousands” ofIndian motorcycles to the US.

“We’re talking to all coun-tries. And it’s going to stop. Orwe’ll stop trading with them.And that’s a very profitable

answer, if we have to do it,”Trump warned before leavingCanada for Singapore where heis scheduled to hold a muchpublicised summit with NorthKorean Leader Kim Jong Untoday.

His remarks came at atime when the India-US rela-tionship has been on a positivetrajectory for years. For exam-ple, bilateral trade expanded by$11 billion last year to morethan $125 billion, a new record.

Trump called for a tariff-free G-7.

“That’s the way it shouldbe. No tariffs, no barriers.That’s the way it should be,” hesaid. “And no subsidies. Ieven said no tariffs,” he said.

Trump, who is pushing his‘America First’ policy, said hisultimate goal was the elimina-tion of all trade duties.

“Ultimately that’s what youwant,” he said. “You want a tar-iff free. You want no barriers.And you want no subsidies.Because you have some caseswhere countries are subsidizingindustries and that’s not fair.”

China and the US haveaverted a trade war by reach-ing an agreement last monthunder which Beijing has agreedto “significantly increase” itspurchases of American goodsand services to reduce $375 bil-lion trade deficit withWashington.

The top trading partners ofthe US are upset over recentimposition of a 25 per cent tar-iff on import of steel and 15 percent on aluminum.

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The Reserve Bank of India isexpected to raise $30-35 bil-

lion through NRI bonds tosupport the rupee and offset theslowdown in FPI flows amidrising oil prices, says a report.

The FPI inflows to Indiawill be impacted by Chinesefirms listing in global bench-mark indicies like MSCI, it said.

According to a Bank ofAmerica Merrill Lynch(BofAML) report, the listing inbenchmark indices will shift upto $100 billion to China mar-ket by 2019.

“Our China strategists esti-mate that possible entry intobenchmark indices could pushup to $100 billion into theChina markets by end-2019,”BofAML said in a research note.

It further said that FPIequity flows to India may slowamid political uncertainty inthe run up to the general elec-tions, given rich valuations.

“We grow more confidentthat the RBI will issue a fourthtranche of NRI bonds to raise,

say, $30-35 billion, to offsetslowdown in FPI flows on list-ing of China paper in variousbenchmark indices at a time ofhigher oil prices,” the reportnoted.

NRI bonds are forexdeposits raised from non-resi-dent Indians at attractive ratesfor 3-5 years, with some lock-inand an implicit RBI guarantee.

As per the report, RBI willissue NRI bonds if the global oilprices persist at $70/bbl.

BofAML oil strategists fore-cast $71.8/bbl for 2018-19 and$75.3/bbl for 2019-20 andaccordingly the current accountdeficit will widen to 2.4 per centof GDP this fiscal from 0.7 percent in 2016-17, it noted.

“We think that there is arising case for issuing NRIbonds. Every NRI bondissuance has been effective incurbing INR volatility,” thereport noted. The report furthernoted that the RBI is expected tofollow an asymmetrical policy ofbuying forex when the $ weak-ens and defending �66/$ whenit strengthens.

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RBI Governor Urjit Patel islikely to face tough ques-

tions from a parliamentarypanel on Tuesday on a range ofissues including the amount ofcash returned post demoneti-sation, the PNB fraud and themounting bad loans of banks.

Patel is scheduled toappear before the Parliament’sStanding Committee onFinance headed by Congressleader Veerappa Moily. It hasmembers from various politicalparties, including former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singh.

“It’s been long time and theRBI has still to come out with

amount of the cash returned intosystem post demonetisation.And the Governor must sharethese details with the panel andI hope he will do it today” saidTMC MP and member of thepanel Dinesh Trivedi.

The panel, he said, wouldalso ask questions about themounting non performingassets (NPAs) or bad loans inthe banking system and the�13,000 crore PNB fraud,which raises doubts about themonitoring system of the RBI.

In his last appearancebefore the panel, Patel was alsoquestioned on loan restructur-ing programmes, which lead toever greening of loans.

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Traders’ body CAIT onMonday said it will hold

protests at 1,000 places acrossthe country on July 2 againstUS retail giant Walmart’s pro-posed acquisition of 77 per centstake in home-grown retailerFlipkart in a $16 billion deal.

The Confederation of AllIndia Traders (CAIT) took thedecision on Monday at its two-day National GoverningCouncil meeting atAhmedabad.

The traders’ body passed aresolution at the conference ask-ing the Government to reject thedeal.

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The All India BankEmployees Association

(AIBEA) has urged RBIGovernor Urjit Patel to revokelending restrictions on DenaBank, claiming the move willdeteriorate its financial healthfurther.

In view of high non-per-forming assets (NPAs), theReserve Bank of India (RBI)last month had initiatedprompt corrective action(PCA) against Dena Bank,restricting the lender from giv-ing fresh credit and conductingnew hirings.

“We regret that ReserveBank of India has made a vir-tual embargo on any lending inDena Bank. Chocking thebank’s lending operations willfurther deteriorate its health,”AIBEA general secretary CHVenkatachalam said in a letterdated June 10 addressed to theRBI governor.

“The step has createdundue panic in the minds ofthe bank’s customers andemployees,” AIBEA generalsecretary CHVenkatachalamadded.

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�Why choose radio as a platform to promotefitness?

It is not a reality show neither it is abouttwo people fighting. It is a genuine attempt toeducate people about fitness by telling them thatthey just need to focus on the small things —to bring about a change in their habits. We aretelling people to simplify exercising by indulgingin basic activities like cycling, brisk walking andusing stairs instead of elevators.�What is the target audience?

We are aiming to target everyone from chil-dren, who are of two to three years of age toadults. Today, I am 57 years old therefore, I amaware of the problems that people my age face— they drag their feet instead of walking prop-erly that is because they have never really exer-cised. We are trying to tell people out there tosit at home and just follow us.�Do you think 120 days is enough? What hap-pens once the programme is over?

The content will always remain impactfulfrom the point of view of education even after120 days end. Through this season we areencouraging the general public to come forwardand be a part of the sena (Suniel Ki sena), so thatwe can take the mission forward to the next level,soon after that, we might start Season 2. �People say they don’t have time to exercise.What’s your take on that?

People need to understand that excuses won’thelp them in any way. I am an actor, nobody isas busy as we actors are but if I don’t take myhealth seriously and make excuses how will I beable to stay healthy and fit?�How do films impact people’s attitudetowards fitness?

Films do influence people’s mind to a verylarge extent. They motivate people to stay fit butfilms are like a double-edged sword. A lot of peo-ple who are seeking instant results start usingsteroids and become dependent on it. We don’twant people to aim for such things. They mustunderstand fitness is not a destination to reachbut a journey to be cherished, forever.�A lot of people are opting for gyminginstead of yoga. Do you think it is an intelli-gent choice?

I think it is a fantastic choice if they aregyming not to achieve short-term goals but tomake it a lifelong goal, to make it a part of theirlifestyle. If people are gyming and they stillbelieve that they don’t need artificial supplementsto support their exercise, then nothing can bebetter than that.�What is your fitness mantra?

I wake up at 5 every morning and set analarm by putting aside at least two hours for exer-cising. I engage myself in yoga and pranayamain the first hour and then I spend 40-45 min-utes in the gym. My mantra is — Breakfast likea king and dinner like an indigent. I avoid anykind of bread and instead opt for rotis made outof quinoa flour to cut out gluten. I live on fruitsthrough the day and for dinner, it is usually asoup and simple meat preparations. With somecare and a minimal lifestyle changes, it is fairlyeasy to keep fit.

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Did you know that more than 500 new patients are diagnosedworldwide per day with a brain tumour? It is expected that80,000-1,50,000 patients are annually detected to be of new

cases of brain tumours in India. Proper knowledge and awarenesscan help fight the disease.

What is a brain tumour?The brain cells undergo uncontrolled growth (due to vari-

ous reasons) and form an abnormal mass of tissue. This tissueis called brain tumour. It can also spread from other parts of thebody (like lung, breast and kidney) which is known as metas-tasis.

Common symptomsThe most common symptoms are a headache (more seri-

ous in the morning); nausea or vomiting; seizures or convul-sions (fits/epilepsy); difficulty in thinking, speaking, listening,eating, chewing, swallowing; changes in personality; weaknessor paralysis; loss of balance; changes in vision; confusion anddisorientation; memory loss and many others. Symptoms varydepending on the tumour location. Although these are commonsymptoms of a brain tumour, it can indicate other diseases as

well; so it is best to consult adoctor.

Children have difficulty inexplaining their problems.The common symptoms areexcessive crying; vomiting(usually in the morning andwithout nausea); headaches;unsteadiness; convulsion/fits;double vision or vision prob-lems; lack of coordination;easy fatigue; weakness on oneside of the body (paralysis);abnormal increase in the sizeof the head; irritability ;changes in behaviour. Thebrain tumour is common inchildren, therefore, it should

be a serious concern to the society. Are brain tumours cancers?According to the WHO, there are 120-plus different types

of brain tumours but not all are cancerous. Benign brain tumorsgrow slowly and are non-cancer. Malignant (cancerous) braintumours grow rapidly and destroy normal brain rapidly.Benign tumours, if present in an inaccessible or critical area ofthe brain; that can be dangerous. In contrast, some malignanttumours can also be successfully treated. Overall, benign tumourshave better success rate than malignant tumours.

CausesVirus like Epstein Barr Virus; hormones; pesticides; radia-

tion; electromagnetic waves; abnormality of genes — mutation;certain other unknown factors and familial genetic disorder.

DiagnosesNormally a brain tumour is diagnosed by a neurosurgeon

or a neurologist. But the diagnosis can be even made by otherdoctors like oncologist, physician, surgeon, ENT and eye spe-cialist. CT/MRI are the investigations done to confirm the diag-nosis and the pathologist confirms the diagnosis by the tissueexam of the removed brain tumour after surgery.

TreatmentThe neurosurgeon removes the tumour by surgery. The

advancement in technology has to lead to a better outcome nowa-days. The tumour in the brain is reached by cutting the skin andbone. The malignant tumour needs radiotherapy and chemother-apy after the surgery. Certain medicines may be needed to betaken for few days depending upon the specific need of thepatient.

The advancementThe technological advancement (microscope, navigation sys-

tem, endoscopes and others) and better drugs with newer diag-nostic modalities (functional MRI, tractography and infrareddetection) can’t only prolong the survival but can also improvethe quality of life. The centres equipped with such facilities playan important role in the proper updated treatment of such adreaded disease.

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TAKE CARE OF YOUR BODY

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$����$$����It is one of the favourite summer fruits as it is lowin calorie and rich in fibre. Besides being beneficial for the

skin due to its anti-oxidants, the fruit is rich in Vitamin C andbromelain, which helps fight microbial infections and boostsimmunity. If you are someone who suffers from cold even insummers, eating pineapples will help you.

Pineapple also has anti-inflammatory qualities. Do includeit in your diet, more so if yousuffer from arthritis. It also canhelp improve the overallcondition by strengtheningyour bones.

There may not be acure for cancer yet, buteating pineapple can helpprevent it. The fruit is full of anti-oxidants, it helps fight againstfree radicals. Anti-oxidants prevent free radicals from damagingyour body.

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Alcohol: What is the most common side-effect ofalcohol that you have experienced or heard of? Theshort-term issues are bloating, increased thirst levelsand belly pouches. The reason for the same is thatalcoholic beverages are loaded with calories and makeus feel dehydrated. They also develop a risk for highblood pressure, diabetes, obesity and kidney disease inthe long run. So it is best to avoid alcohol or limittheir intake in summers.

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Only about 20% ofyoungsters diag-nosed with anxi-

ety will stay well over thelong term irrespective ofthe kind of treatment theyreceive, indicates a recent research.[1]About half the patients relapse at leastonce, and 30% remain chronically anx-ious, meeting the diagnostic criteria foran anxiety disorder at every follow-up.This probability is higher in females.

Anxiety disorders refer to a group ofmental illnesses. The distress they causecan prevent a person from leading a nor-mal life. The worry of the future and thefear of the past that accompanies this con-dition can prove quite overwhelming andbecome disabling over time. There aresome common symptoms in all anxietydisorders. These include panic, fear, anduneasiness; sleeplessness; being restless;cold, sweaty, numb or tingling hands orfeet; shortness of breath; palpitations; drymouth; nausea and tense muscles.

SOME TIPS�Avoid foods rich in caffeine includ-

ing coffee, tea, cola, energy drinks, andchocolate. Caffeine is a mood-alteringdrug, and it may make symptoms of anx-iety disorders worse.

�Eat right and exercise. Brisk aero-bic exercises can help release brain chem-icals which can further cut out stress.

�Sleep problems and anxiety disor-der often go hand in hand. It is importantto get adequate rest.

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Earache like a toothachecan be very painful and allthat one wants is a solu-

tion that will relieve the ache.There are some things that onecan do or follow to bring yourespite from the pain.

Like peopleuse a cold com-press to relievepain in otherparts of thebody like theknee, one canuse the sametechnique forthe ear.

Use an icepack or warm com-press over the ear andalternate between warm andcold after 10 minutes.

While doctors will say thatthere is no proof that olive oilis good for an earache, folklorehas it that it works wonders. Mymother used to put coconut oil

when we were small and had anearache. One can use castor oreven lavender oil. But today, onecan use olive oil. Put a few dropsof lukewarm olive oil in the ear.But it is advisable to consult an

ENT specialist before youdo this.

Most homeshave ginger intheir vegetablebasket. Gratefresh ginger root(1 teaspoon) andadd it to two

tablespoon oliveoil. Let the ginger

sit in the oil for about10 minutes. With the

help of a dropper put twodrops of this into the ear canal.Do this twice daily.

One can even use garlic.Crush 5 garlic cloves and heatit with half cup olive oil and 20drops eucalyptus oil. Do thistwice daily.

Has it ever happened that youhave woken up in the morning

with an earache and all you wantis a quick fix? Here are a fewhome remedies that one can

follow to get rid of that pain, saysROSHANI DEVI

In India, more women are now deliver-ing babies in hospitals, which hasbrought down the number of women

dying during childbirth in the country. Asper recently released data by the office ofthe Registrar General of India, the mater-nal mortality rate (MMR) declinedto 130 in 2014/16 from 167 in2011/13.

MMR is defined as the num-ber of maternal deaths per100,000 live births. The causesrange from excessive blood loss(post-partum hemorrhage) to infec-tions, primarily because women do not givebirth in a hospital or health centre. Themajor cause, post-partum hemorrhage isusually defined as the loss of more than 500-1,000 ml of blood within the first 24 hoursfollowing childbirth.

Speaking about this, Dr KK Aggarwal,former president, Indian MedicalAssociation , said: “Death during childbirth

is very common in the absence of accessi-bility to adequate and quality healthcare.This is truer in case of rural women.Immediate medical attention is crucial forsaving lives of women and preventing com-plications in newborns. Anemia in pregnan-

cy is one of the top causes of maternalmortality in India and an issue thatneeds urgent action.There are threetypes of anemia that can develop ina pregnant woman: iron-deficiency,folate deficiency, and Vitamin B 12

deficiency anemia. While it is normalto have mild anemia during pregnancy,

more serious symptoms can indicate trou-ble and should be addressed at the earliest.”

Some of the symptoms of pregnancy-related anemia include pale skin and nails;tiredness; shortness of breath; rapid heart-beat; and trouble in concentrating. Many ofthese symptoms are also normal in anypregnancy and only a routine blood test willbe able to clarify whether one has anemia.

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SPORTS DRINKS: Full ofsugar and empty calories,sports drinks may give yourelief for a few minutes butharm you more than yourealise. Though they areeasily available and packedvery attractively, becomingthe first choice of all, theyare a big no as they containa high amount of sodium,artificial flavours and foodcolouring which leads tovarious health problemslike allergic reactions,hyperactivity, decreased IQin children and numerousforms of cancer. As it ishigh in citric acid it harmsour tooth enamel also.

JUNK FOOD: French fries,burgers, patties, samosas,

papad, pakoras are rich intrans- fat and high insalt. Oily fried foodsheat up our body andlower digestion andcan also lead to foodpoisoning in the sum-mer. Fried foods can

make our skin more oilyand difficult to manage insummers.

COLD COFFEE: Coffee ispacked with caffeine and hasdiuretic properties. A glassof cold coffee has thepower to create havoc inyour digestive system,triggering bloating andindigestion. It will alsoraise LDL cholesterol levels.It also causes insomnia andrestlessness. Opt for a glassof lassi instead.

ICE-CREAMS AND COLD DRINKS: It is a myth thathaving cool things in summers keeps the body cool.Believe it or not, both ice-creams and cold drinks are bodywarming foods. They can make our stomach feel hotterinstead of providing relief from the heat.

SALAD DRESSINGS ANDSAUCES: Sauces contains too

much of MSG(Monosodium

Glutamate) and salt.They are high incalories, whichmakes us feel slug-gish and bloated.

Instead, make freshdips and dressings using

tomatoes, curd and mint.TEA: While this maybe a little difficult toavoid since forIndians the daystarts with a cup.Instead of drink-ing your regularmilk tea in sum-mers opt for icetea or lemon teassince your regu-lar tea generatesmore heat in the bodyand can cause dehydra-tion, making our face dulland low.

AVOID NUTS: Though nuts are verygood health food, one should aovid eat-ing them in summers. This is because theytake longer to digest and generate more heatin the body which can make you uncomfort-able. Instead, opt for soaked dried fruits insummers.

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NON-VEGETARIANFOOD: They are diffi-cult to digest in sum-mers and has a lotof heat, which isnot good for ourbody. It canmake a personsweat more andcause digestiveproblems. Avoid cur-ries, cream- based chick-en, meat and fish dishes.It is best to go vegetarianto stay healthy.

NO TO SPICE: Spice powdersmake our dishes more palat-

able. When we planourmeals during summer,always try to use less ofspices as they are difficult

to digest. Light, fresh foodshould be your first choice

during summers.

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Two Indian-origin Ministersin Singapore, Vivian

Balakrishnan and KShanmugam, are playing a keyrole in facilitating a hassle-freesummit between US PresidentDonald Trump and NorthKorean leader Kim Jong-unhere on Tuesday.

Balakrishnan, Singapore’sForeign Minister, made impor-tant visits to Washington,Pyongyang and Beijing inrecent days to ensure that therewould be no last-minute spoil-ers for the historic meetinghosted by the city-state.Balakrishnan, 57, is fromthe ruling People’s Action Party.He studied medicine and laterpursued postgraduate educa-tion in ophthalmology.Shanmugam is Singapore’sMinister for Law and HomeAffairs and he has the respon-sibility to make sure that thesummit, the first between a sit-ting US president and a NorthKorean top leader, goes with-out a hitch from the securitypoint of view. A lawyer by pro-fession, 59-year-oldShanmugam also belongs to the

ruling People’s ActionParty.Singapore is one of thefew countries that have diplo-matic relations with both theUS and North Korea.

Balakrishnan, whoreceived Kim, the Chairman ofNorth Korea’s State AffairsCommission, yesterday atChangi Airport, said the sum-mit comes after 70 years ofsuspicion, war and diplomat-ic failures.

“This is not the way con-ventional diplomacy wouldhave been conducted, but per-haps you need two very

unconventional leaders to havebrought us to this stage,” hetold the BBC.

“They may be able to pullrabbits out of a hat that the restof us conventional diplomatswould not have been able todo,” he said.

Still, he noted that decadesof tension cannot be resolvedin one meeting, although,based on his interactions withtheir staff and meeting thempersonally, “both are supreme-ly confident, both are hopeful”.

Balakrishnan also said thatthe Singapore government was

footing the hotel bill for Kimand his delegation who arestaying at the plush St Regishotel here.

He added that the expen-diture forms part of the 20million Singapore dollars(USD 15 million) thatSingapore is spending on thesummit in all.

Of this, half is on securi-ty, Prime Minister Lee Hsien

Loong said yesterday. Meanwhile, Law and

Home Affairs MinisterShanmugam is confident thatsecurity is in place for theTrump-Kim summit.

“The fact that we pre-pared this in two weeks, thisadds to logistics demands byofficers who worked aroundthe clock,” Shanmugam said ata security briefing on Sunday.

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South Korean PresidentMoon Jae-in and US

President Donald Trump onMonday held a telephonic con-versation ahead of the summitbetween North Korea and theUS.

Moon’s spokesman KimEui-kyeom told the media thatMoon and Trump spoke forabout 40 minutes, reportsXinhua news agency.

Moon told Trump that theSouth Korean leader and peo-

ple would wholeheartedly prayfor a successful summitbetween Trump and NorthKorean leader Kim Jong-un.

If Trump and Kim sitdown face-to-face and franklytalk to find a common groundbetween the two sides, thetwo leaders could gain a bigachievement, Moon andTrump agreed.

After the summit, Trumpwill send US Secretary of StateMike Pompeo to South Koreaand China to explain the out-come of the meeting.

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The strong personalities ofUS President Donald

Trump and North Koreanleader Kim Jong-un havedrawn some 3,000 interna-tional journalists for their first-ever historic meeting to be heldhere on Tuesday.

It is the largest journalistgathering ever seen in an Asianevent, surpassing the Aprilsummit between the twoKoreas.

“The two leaders are veryinteresting personalities andspeak out what they like, whichmakes it very good for televi-sion coverage,” said Peter Wangfrom Taiwan’s EasternBroadcasting Co Ltd.

“The two leaders make itvery interesting for TV news,”he said at the InternationalMedia Centre hosting some3,000 journalists from aroundthe world.

The successful conclusionof Tuesday’s summit will begood for the Pacific Region and

could play a key role in defusing tensions between thetwo Koreas as well as betweenthe US and North Korea, Wangsaid.

Kim has taken on a “softimage” and wants the US-imposed sanctions lifted witheconomic development sup-port in exchange for denu-clearisation, said OliverHotham, managing editor of the

Seoul-headquartered N K News.Kim has changed his hard

and tough stance, he added.Trump, on the other hand,

is looking for political anddiplomatic victories from thesummit by reaching out a peacepact with the North Koreans,he said.

The North Koreans arelooking for investments fordevelopment, Hotham said.

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Right-wing French leadershave condemned as “sacri-

lege” a decision to allow aprovocative Muslim rapper toplay the Bataclan concert hallin Paris where jihadists mas-sacred 90 people three yearsago.

Medine — who caused anoutcry when he attacked hard-line secularists in a controver-sial 2015 song, “Don’t Laik”, aweek before the Charlie Hebdokillings — is to play theBataclan for two nights inOctober.

French Opposition leaderLaurent Wauquiez said he wasshocked that “someone whosings about ‘crucifying secu-ralists’ and calls himself‘Islamo-scum’” should appearat the venue “less than threeyears after Islamist barbarismcost the lives of 90 of our com-patriots.

“It is sacrilege and dis-honours France,” the leader ofthe Republicans party tweeted.

Far-right leader Marine LePen said that “no French per-son can accept that this guyspew out his rubbish at theBataclan.

“We have had enough ofcomplacency and worse, ofthis incitement to Islamist fun-damentalism,” she added in a

tweet.An online petition organ-

ised by her National Frontparty calling for the concerts tobe banned had over 15,000 sig-natures by today morning.

Neither the Bataclan’s co-director Jules Frutos nor therapper responded to AFPrequests for comment.

But a former leader of oneof the Bataclan’s victims’

groups, Emmanuel Domenach,sent stinging replies to bothWauquiez and Le Pen’s tweets:“It’s crazy as you use the victimsof terrorism for your sterilecontroversy.

“What level of dishonourdoes that put you in?” heasked.

The bearded Medine, whocomes from the northern portof Le Havre and is of Algeriandescent, has denied that he wasan Islamist.

But he became the betenoire of hardline secularistsafter 11 people were killed inthe jihadist attack on theCharlie Hebdo satirical maga-zine in January 2015 only aweek after his “Don’t Laik”song was released, a play on theFrench word for secular.

In it he said, “Let’s crucifythe secularists like at Calvary...Put fatwas on the heads ofthese idiots.” Medine said laterthat the song was to “secular

fundamentalists what CharlieHebdo cartoons were to reli-gious fundamentalists.” Therapper has also admitted that“he went too far” in the song.

“Provocation is only usefulwhen it provokes a debate, notwhen it triggers an iron cur-tain,” he told an academicconference on rap, the musicmagazine Les Inrocks reported.

However, Aurore Berge,an MP from French PresidentEmmanuel Macron’s rulingRepublic on the Move party,said having him headline aconcert at the Bataclan was an“insult” to the victims of theslaughter. Bruno Retailleau,the leader of the oppositionRepublicans in the FrenchSenate called on the govern-ment to prosecute the rapperin the same way a firebrandcomedian Dieudonne was con-victed of glorifying terrorismin 2015.

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The Shanghai CooperationOrganisation (SCO) could

serve as a “great vehicle” toimprove ties between Indiaand Pakistan as the groupingprovides a better platform andopportunities for building theirbilateral relations, ChineseForeign Minister Wang Yi hassaid.

The remarks by Wang, whohas been appointed as theSpecial Representative of theIndia-China boundary talks,came as the SCO summit con-cluded at Qingdao on Sunday,the first summit after theadmission of India and Pakistaninto the eight-member group-ing last year.

“We know there are exist-ing and historical, unresolvedissues and conflicts between

Pakistan and India. But I thinkafter their joining of the SCO,maybe we can say that theirrelationship might be better asthe grouping provides a betterplatform and opportunities forbuilding the relations betweenthem,” Wang said in an inter-view to state-run CGTN.

“Because when joining theSCO, a series of agreements hadto be signed and pledges had tobe made. One of the key pillars(of joining the SCO) is to keepgood and friendly relationsand they should not see eachother as opponents, much lessenemies,” said Wang, who wasrecently promoted as the StateCouncillor, a top diplomaticposting in China.

“Because they have signedthese agreements, they shouldera responsibility for implement-ing them. I feel that the SCO

serves as a great vehicle for bet-tering the two nations’ rela-tions,” he said, the first detailedcomments on the entry ofIndia, Pakistan into the group-ing in which China plays aninfluential role.

“As a result, it will bettersafeguard the peace and stabil-ity of the region. We seealthough their relations haveseen their ups and downs, if welook at the bigger picture, theyare progressing nevertheless,”Wang said.

At the end of the SCO sum-mit, Prime Minister NarendraModi and Pakistani PresidentMamnoon Hussain exchangedpleasantries after a press con-ference by the leaders of thegrouping. Pakistan delegationhad a low key presence at themeeting as country is poised forgeneral elections on July 25.

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Asuicide attacker blew himself up on Monday as Governmentworkers queued for an early bus home during the holy month

of Ramadan, killing at least 13 people and wounding 31, officialsand hospital staff said.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the latestattack in the Afghan capital, a day before the government’s sepa-rate ceasefire with the Taliban is due to start.

The blast happened at the main gate of the Ministry of RuralRehabilitation and Development, police and health ministry spokes-men told AFP.

Employees were gathered at the entrance of the compound wait-ing for a bus to take them home when the bomber blew himselfup in the crowd, said rural ministry spokesman Faridoon Azhand,who was inside the building at the time.

“I was in my office when I heard a big blast,” another employ-ee told AFP. “Most of my colleagues were leaving for the day to gohome. I am worried about my colleagues. We are told to stay insidefor now.” Police spokesman Hashmat Stanikzai confirmed the attack-er had targeted the employees as they waited for the bus at around1:00 pm (local time).

They were leaving early due to the holy month of Ramadan,when most Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.

The attack, which IS claimed via their Amaq propaganda agency,killed 13 people and wounded 31, Azhand told AFP. A doctor ata hospital treating many of the victims confirmed the death toll.

Police and health officials said earlier that 12 people were killedand 31 wounded.

The attack was just one of several around AfghanistanMonday. Militants raided a government building in the eastern cityof Jalalabad in Nangarhar province, prompting terrified employ-ees to jump out of the windows, officials said.

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the entrance to the edu-cation department, triggering a fierce battle between gunmen andAfghan security forces, Nangarhar provincial governor spokesmanAttaullah Khogyani told AFP. At least 10 people were wounded,city health department director Najibullah Kamawal told AFP.

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Panamanian former presidentRicardo Martinelli was extradited

to his home country on Monday toface charges of spying on journalistsand political opponents.

Martinelli, President 2009-2014,was transferred from the federal prisonin Miami to the Opa Locka ExecutiveAirport, where he was placed on aflight to Panama City around 6:20 am(local time).

A handcuffed Martinelli, wearing atan suit and escorted by US Mashals,greeted reporters gathered to see him atthe airport.

“I’m ready to watch the WorldCup!” he said, giving a thumbs-up.

Panama qualified for the tournament,which begins on Thursday.

Martinelli, 66, is accused of spyingon the telephone calls of more than 150people, including journalists and politi-cians.

He is under investigation in Panamain about 20 other cases of corruption,but those are not referred to in the extra-dition request. Under a 1905 extraditiontreaty, he can only be tried in Panamafor the crimes alleged in the request.

Martinelli was detained in June2017 and had been incarcerated inMiami since then.

The ex-president claims that he isthe victim of a “vendetta” byPanamanian President Juan CarlosVarela, his former vice president.

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Singapore: Singapore Prime MinisterLee Hsien Loong on Monday surprisedDonald Trump with a big birthdaycake, ahead of the US President’s his-toric summit with North Koreanleader Kim Jong-un here tomorrow.

Trump celebrated his 72nd birth-day during his lunch with Loong at thepresidential palace Istana after theirbilateral meeting during which the twoleaders discussed everything from

the summit preparations tothe US’ tariff threats. A pictureof Trump smiling at the cake,decorated with fresh fruit, wasshared on Twitter bySingapore’s Foreign MinisterVivian Balakrishnan with themessage saying “Celebratingbirthday, a bit early”. PTI

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After Gupt, there have not been many films or TV seriesthat have had female serial killers as the protagonist.

Or perhaps Kajol’s act was too tough a benchmark to emu-late. With their first web series, production companyHungama has attempted just that, a psychological crimedrama with a female lead. Called Damaged, it is beinghelmed by Amruta Khanvilkar, fresh from her subtle actin Meghna Gulzar’s Raazi.

“The platform which I have got for my role is huge.I have never played the role of a serial killer before andit was extremely challenging for me as an actor. I haveto convince my audience because people have seen mein a different role, that of a quiet counterfoil in Raazi,”said the actress.

Instead of a whodunit, the show is formatted inreverse, beginning with the revelation of the killer andthen tracking her motive and backstory. It is more aboutthe character’s twisted psychology and has some violentscenes as well. “The role was very challenging for me. Idid my first intimate scene, first killing, that too brutal-ly with a hammer, on screen. Nobody teaches you rawemotions and it depends entirely howthe actor processes baser emotions tomake it look convincing and notfake,” said Khanvilkar.

“It was not at all easy for meto smoke. In fact, I hate smok-ers. I didn’t even know how tohold a cigarette. Working onthese little nuances was verychallenging,” she added.

The entire series is abouta cat and mouse chasebetween the serial killer andinspector Abhay, played byAmit Sial.

The actor believes she isblessed to be kept at the centreof the plot and praised her co-

star for pushing herself to do better. “Thecharacter is so twisted and insidious thatit affected my personal life and I start-ed feeling lonely. But I am thankful to my

husband and friends for helping me out,”she added.

The entire show was released on thesame day unlike other web series for peo-ple to binge on.

On a humid and rainyweekend in Lutyen’sDelhi, top Bollywood

directors put their weightbehind the launch of some-thing close to their hearts: theDelhi edition of the MumbaiAcademy of Moving Images’(MAMI), a platform for film-makers that has alreadyreceived appreciation for itswork in Mumbai in bringingworld cinema to the doorstep.And give us a perfect reasonfor indoor binge-watching onrain-washed days. In theprocess, they want to engagewith curious minds on freshideas and content, forceswhich are gradually changingthe contours of our films aswe know it. So there are goingto be workshops, discussions,open houses and masterclass-es.

“The festival is a boonbecause these are films thatmany people don’t have accessto theatrically. It’s a com-pletely different experience towatch a film that was releasedsomewhere else but not inIndia on the big screen uncen-sored. For long, ours has beena staple diet. Slowly, there’s ashift in film fandom aboutabsorbing a point of viewfrom other cultures and con-texts,” said director ZoyaAkhtar, during the launch.

Other filmmakers likeVishal Bhardwaj, AnuragKashyap along with festivaldirector Anupama Chopra,singer Rekha Bhardwaj, andMAMI creative directorSmriti Kiran were also presentat the launch at PVR ECX,Chanakya. The launch partywas organised by ManagingDirector, PVR Ltd, Ajay Bijli,and Joint Managing Director,PVR Ltd. Sanjeev Bijli.

The festival is also a plat-form for independent film-makers to showcase theirwork and reach out to agreater audience. But Akhtarobjected to the term “inde-pendent” because she saidthat the lines had now blurredbetween mainstream and art-house films. “There is no linenow, there is no commercialand parallel cinema.Independent films were calledso because they were notfunded by the studio system.Now big producers are back-ing creative projects. So thoselines are dissolving. Thesame people have expandedtheir bandwidth. So aDharma Production can funda Kalank alongside Raazi, oran Ae Dil Hai Mushkil withKapoor and Sons,” she added.“Stars are also cross-pollinat-

ing. This is s good time forIndian cinema though wemay not realise it,” she said.

Continuing on the samestrain, she said that whileeverybody in the countryknows about the Hindi filmindustry, the perception thatit only held good in thenorth than the south isalso changing. “For longwe had been condi-tioned into thinkingthat the south has itsown syntax, glam-our, stars and thestar system, butBahubali showedhow everythingand cross overinto national rel-evance.”

Akhtar feltfilmmakers arealways ques-tioned aboutthe messagethey’re sendingin their moviesand sometimesabout the lackof one, butclarified thatthey werestory-tellersfirst and thatit was moreimportantto engagethe audience thathad bought a ticket andgiven them 2.5 hours oftheir lives. “A filmmaker’smorality, value system,politics and point of viewcome out in the methodof story-telling. You seea filmmaker’s work andwill be able to tell howthey think about women orother issues but there is norule that we have to give amessage. Engage an audience.

That you must do. Hold theirattention in whatever way,”she said.

Akhtar has broken com-partments in the course of hercareer, offering an unpretty,inside view of the film

industry and the shelf lifeof its characters inLuck By Chance, ormale bonding inZindagi Na MilegiDobara and a dys-functional familybehind the riches

in Dil DhadakneDo. She hasc ons c i ou s l ynot drivenhome thewomen orien-

tation whilepresent ingp o w e r f u l

women char-acters. Askedif she wouldwork in a filmon femalecamaraderie inthe future, shesaid, “If I havea good idea, Iwould work onit. I don’tdecide justlike that. Idecide a pro-ject on thebasis of a

script because ittakes a long time

to make a movie. Ittakes a long time to

write the script,decide a cast...it’s a longprocess and the

script must beso spectacular to hold you thatlong and keep yourself invest-ed,” she said.

Before she begins wrap-

ping up her next big project,Gully Boy, on street rappers,her short film called LustStories, in collaboration withdirectors Anurag Kashyap,Karan Johar and DibakarBanerjee, will be releasedonline. A candid look at urbanrelationships, Akhtar believesthat Indians have indeedcome of age when it comes totheir depiction in the popularspace and are comfortableabout being themselves, wartsand all, without referencingthemselves against any popu-lar culture.

What makes the Delhiedition of MAMI even morespecial is that it will happen atthe newly launched PVRECX, Chanakyapuri. Theproperty holds great nostalgicvalue for Delhiites as it is thebrand new avatar of the icon-ic Chanakya cinema showcas-ing a wide spectrum of greatcontent. As both the PVRbrothers, Ajay and SanjeevBijli, said, “We have alwaysencouraged and facilitatedpeople to build a relationshipwith a broad range of films,ensuring that film culturecan be accessed and enjoyedby everyone across. We aspireto bring together distin-guished industry specialistsand discerning movie loversthrough accessible screen-ings, panels, workshops andshowcasing cinema thatembraces diversity, innovationand unique perspectives.Aimed at featuring criticallyacclaimed filmmakers, indus-try professionals, and award-winning talent around theworld, this programme is richwith opportunity – to stayinformed, be challenged, feelthe pleasure of escape and seethe world differently.”

Janhvi Kapoor misses her motherwhile taking her first step towards a

career in Bollywood. During the trail-er launch of her debut movie Dhadak,she reflected the excitement and ner-vousness of a Bollywood debutante butwas emotional for her mother, the lateSridevi, on this special occasion.

“I definitely miss her today. Thebiggest and most helpful tip she hasgiven me is to work hard and to feelevery emotion,” Janhvi said.

The 21-year-old was accompaniedby her father, producer Boney Kapoor,who has been her constant support afterthe sudden demise of Sridevi earlier thisyear in Dubai. “Papa did not give me anyacting tips, but love, encouragement anda lot of support. So I think that is morethan enough,” she said.

Before the trailer launch, her stepbrother Arjun Kapoor — Boney’s sonwith the late Mona Kapoor — alsoshared words of encouragement forJanhvi. “Tomorrow you will be part ofthe audience forever Janhvi Kapoorcause your trailer comes out... Firstly,sorry I’m not there in Mumbai but I’mby your side, don’t worry,” Arjun tweet-ed late on Sunday. “I just wanted you toknow this profession is amazing if youwork hard, be honest, learn to take theaccolades with the brickbats, respectopinions, yet follow your own path andinstinct. It’s not gonna be easy but Iknow you are ready for all the madnessthat will ensue,” he added.

The trailer launch of Dhadak wasattended by the film’s producer KaranJohar, director Shashank Khaitan andlead actor Ishaan Khatter, who too ismaking his Bollywood debut with theproject.

Karan said that the talented young-sters — irrespective of their family name— work hard to be where they are.Asked what are the things he has to keepin mind when he makes films withdebutantes who come with a film back-ground, he said: “That they growbeyond their name and make their ownidentity. I think that is our responsibil-ity and their responsibility. These dayspeople focus more on names rather thanthe talent, but they tend to forget thatone puts a lot of hard work, heart, ded-ication, discipline and mental prepara-tion to face the camera, the audience andthe media... It is not easy, really. It is dif-ficult.”

Without mentioning the term“nepotism,” which had become widely

used when actress Kangana Ranautaccused Karan of being a “flagbearer ofnepotism” two years ago, he said, “Wealways use a tag... Like a word of the sea-son. I know that word (nepotism) wasdoing around for last two years and I amagain perhaps encouraging the sameconcept... But I will not utter the word.But I want to say, they are not herebecause of that word, but because oftheir hard work.”

Asked what made him chooseJanhvi and Ishaan for the film, a remakeof the hit Marathi film Sairat, Karan said:“The story is about an innocent lovestory. To bring such innocence onscreen,I needed first-time talent.” He saidIshaan first struck him while judging aTV show with Ishaan’s step brotherShahid Kapoor. “I was judging a showwith Shahid where Ishaan happened tomeet him on the set. So I just got aglimpse of a certain body language,expression and personality. I instinctive-ly decided on him,” he said.

Karan has launched a slew ofcelebrity children in Bollywood —from Alia Bhatt to Varun Dhawan andnow Janhvi to Ananya Pandey.

“I think Manish Malhotra is thefashion father of Janhvi. He knows herfor a long time. He used to keep talk-ing about her so much that I felt like Iknew her even before meeting her. ThenI went to meet her family where I sawher. Then later when I met her person-ally, I saw her potential to be on screenand saw that spark and excitement,” saidKaran.

At the launch, Janhvi said the firstday shoot of the film was a lot of fun.“We were not that nervous becauseShashank had already created a verycomfortable family environment. Wehad done a lot of reading and rehearsalsbefore the shot, so things were easy andfun,” she said.

Researchers have demonstrated that a pro-gramme aimed at helping people modi-

fy lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise isas effective as medication at reducing bloodpressure. The study, presented at the Nutrition2018 meeting in Boston, suggested that theparticipants saw their blood pressure drop 19points, on average, after tak-ing part in a lifestyle pro-gramme for just 14 days.

“By adapting selectedlifestyle health principles,half of the people in ourstudy achieved normal bloodpressure within two weekswhile avoiding the sideeffects and costs associatedwith blood pressure medica-tions,” said lead researcher M.Alfredo Mejia, AssociateProfessor at AndrewsUniversity.

The researchers foundthat the reduction in bloodpressure accomplished bythe programme was equivalent to what canbe achieved using three half-dose standardmedications for blood pressure.

In addition, 93 per cent of the participantswere able to either reduce the dose (24 percent) or eliminate their blood pressure med-ications (69 per cent).

For the study, the researchers evaluateddata from 117 people with high blood pres-sure who had participated in the lifestyle pro-

gramme. The participants followed a vegandiet, walked outside daily, drank substantialquantities of water, got adequate daily sleepand participated in optional spiritual activi-ties.

At the end of the programme, half of theparticipants achieved a systolic blood pressure

below the recommended 120 mmHg, theresearcher said.

The programme was effective at loweringblood pressure in varying types of individu-als, including otherwise healthy men andwomen and people with diabetes or who wereobese and those with high cholesterol levels,they noted. Traditional medicine has alwaysmaintained that drug use can only just reinin blood pressure temporarily.

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Pablo Picasso was alwayskeen to make art a form

of dialogue between inspi-ration and reality andbelieved in engaging thecommunity in the inter-pretation of free expres-sions at his many studiosand centres. That’s how thePicasso Pupils Art commu-nity came up, which is aplatform that uses art as alanguage between diversecultures.

So it is that painters andartists from different coun-tries came together as partof this project to form theirimpressions of the north-eastern state of Meghalaya.It was a big challenge for themostly Slovak and Czechartists to overcome draw-backs like language, cul-ture and staying in an alienland but they have puttogether their version ofthe “abode of the clouds” asMeghalaya is called.

One of the artists as wellas the curator of the exhi-bition, Jana Bednárová, saysshe is inspired by artists likeJulian Schnabel and leg-ends like Goya and Picasso.Coming to India for aninternship, she just fell inlove with the Northeast, its

natural sweep, its biosphereand its micro-culture. “Wegot to interact with localsand students and were ableto layer our perspectiveswith this understanding,”Bednárová tells us. Everyartist works in a distinctmanner, so each depictedMeghalaya through his/hercore strengths. Some adopt-ed a geometric style ofpainting, some worked withtextiles and the othersdepicted the lay of the landas their personal, intimatespace. “There are times theartists may not have manythings in common with thecontext as part of the col-lective but in the end, theyevolve a communicativetool based on exchange withand the exposure to thelocal scenario. We wentaround market places, talk-ing to people, venturinginto the forests, formingideas of how tribals lived insync with their environ-ment and then put out ourtakeaways. From forests,animals, destroyed housesto churches and graveyards,everything has been show-cased as part of the artist’spersonal space. Some gotfixated by the places that

amazed them, some tried todepict the spirit of a place,bringing out small nuanceson the canvas,” saysBednárová.

Gabriela Valls Schorr, aprofessional musician, ven-turing into a comparativelynew artform that is a hybridof the ancient and the mod-ern times, presented a col-lage of the Maharajas andpresent time, linking his-torical context with preva-lent socio-political situa-tions. She says she has beeninspired by life-size stonesand the ritual of worshipingthem, feeling like the enor-mous rocks are alive. Sheshares the excitement ofpainting on the spot andhow passers-by wereamused seeing her standunder a double-deckerbridge to finish her piece.

Moinuddin Moni show-

cased destroyed houses co-existing with their ever-changing scenarios, a relicof beauty amid the chaos.Other paintings includedaerial views of agriculturalland and forests, done most-ly in blue and green. JuhiDevi Bhanjdeo used textilesto depict the grass of theplace. Her “textile sculp-tures”, as she calls them,were done by stitching andusing textiles in differentmanners.

Michaela Vrbkováshowcased her geometricalpieces, depicting the win-dows of the church and thegates, using a language oflines and symmetry andreflecting on an architec-tural tradition.

All the paintings werecurated in a circle where thefirst and last pieces com-plement each other. Theexhibition has already beenshowcased in Shillong,Meghalaya.

On an end note,Bednárová says that Indiahas taught her to havepatience and says thatsearching for the new in thesame place keeps her going.

(The exhibition is on tillJune 18 at IIC)

Imagine being locked in a room withseveral other people to decide thefate of a man’s life; how tense the

milieu would be if you were a jurortasked with the dispensation of thatvaluable commodity called justice andmade responsible for his future?

This is what the play, 12 AngryMen, performed at Akshara Theatre onSaturday, premised itself on, raisingquestions in a context where a balancedview finds it difficult to make itselfheard, torn between extreme polarities.

A boy, who had supposedly killedhis father with a knife, was sentencedto death by the court on the basis ofcircumstantial evidence and then it wasup to the jury of 12 members to decidewhether the boy was guilty or not. Thedecision made by the jury was to beunanimous which meant they had toconvince each other to arrive at a deci-sion.

During preliminary voting, every-body voted for the guilty verdict,except one juror. Now his task was toeither convince others to change theirvote or get convinced himself. Afterhours of discussion and consideringthe facts over and over again, every-body began to develop a reasonabledoubt and they all revised their finalverdict to “not guilty.”

One of the best things about theplay was that all the 12 characters hadlayers in their personality which werepeeled off at twists and turns, reveal-ing who actually each of them wasunderneath. The play also displayedthat those who have the courage tostand strong with their opinions, evenwhen the masses want them to acceptwhat they think is right, are rare. Suchpeople don’t just stand true to theiropinions but also convince others to

speak up if they have similar doubts intheir minds. The play suggests thateven facts can be overlooked by someignorant people who simply choose tobelieve the picture as it appears.

The play, originally written in1954 by Reginald Rose, has beenadapted into several films and radioprogrammes. One of the reasons for itspopularity is that it is relatable in everycontext. Second, it harps on the needfor rational thinking as despite beingtold to base their decision solely on the

evidence, jurors end up drawing ontheir personal knowledge and experi-ences. One of the jurors even producesa duplicate knife similar to the oneused by the defendant, to harp on theidea of planted evidence. Then thereis a class bias in the very process of per-suasion.

It is rightly said that “you cannotjudge a man by his coat”; a personshould try to look beyond what is obvi-ous. Also, ignorant people sometimeschange or mould the facts accordingto their perception of the event thattook place.

The adaptation of the play byAkshara theatre had its own twist.Everyone was able to form a bond withevery single character despite a smalltime-frame of 65 minutes. Every actorcompressed the complexities withtautness and had a consistency of pitchthat had the audience spellbound.

Also, unlike other adaptations ofthe play, this one had a strong elementof humour in it, which kept the audi-ence well-entertained and invested.Compliments, therefore, are in orderfor the actor playing Juror #7.

Most of the actors presented arefined set of skills, especially whenthey displayed anger or irritation.Juror #3 wove in anger, pain and sad-ness in his final few lines that were notscreamers but potent. The lighting andsound effects enhanced the overallimpact of tension and suspense.

“It is the first play directed by meand it took hard work of around threemonths to create it. The play is beyondjust the theme of serving justice, it isabout the evolution of every characteras they pave the way for justice,” saidVikalp Mudgal, the director, on hisindividual interpretation.

One of the most recognisableopenings in television his-

tory blares on a video screen:“I’m Oprah Winfrey and wel-come to The Oprah WinfreyShow!” The crowd goes wild. Atthe centre of it all is a dancingyoung Oprah.

This moment, televisedmore than 30 years ago, is nowpart of a year-long exhibitionthat opened Friday at theSmithsonian National Museumof African American Historyand Culture.

Watching Oprah: The OprahWinfrey Show and AmericanCulture chronicles the socialevents in the United States fromWinfrey’s birth in 1954 throughher childhood and her rise inmedia to her time as the nation’sfirst self-made Black woman bil-lionaire.

Winfrey toured the exhibiton Wednesday and told CBSThis Morning that she was hon-oured by the exhibit and the

response to it. “I do believe thatwe had a big impact on the cul-ture, and I continue to feel thatfrom people every day,” she said.

The television personalityhas donated $21 million to themuseum. But museum directorLonnie Bunch said the donationdid not influence the creation ofthe showcase. “This is not ashow for Oprah or by Oprah,”he said. “This is a show aboutother issues using the lens ofOprah.”

Among the first objectsthat visitors see is a yellowedpennant from the 1963 Marchon Washington and the diplo-ma of Carlotta Walls, one of thenine Black students who inte-grated Central High School inLittle Rock, Arkansas, in 1957.

“This exhibition is really anopportunity to explore the cul-tural impact of The OprahWinfrey Show,” said exhibitioncurator Kathleen Kendricks.“This is a chance to really put

Oprah in this broader contextof African-American historyand culture and unpack her

popularity and significance.”On her walkthrough,

Winfrey watched one of the

exhibit’s televisions displaysshowing the Supremes singingand dancing on The Ed SullivanShow. “It was the first time Irealised you could be a beauti-ful Black woman on television,”she said.

Winfrey’s headshot popsout of magazine covers stretch-ing across the wall: Fortune,EBONY, Mediaweek, NationalReview, Newsweek. Her firstname is used as a verb, alongwith new words like“Oprahfication” and“Oprahliferative.”

HARPO Productions, Inc.,which Winfrey founded in1986, provided many items forthe exhibit from her personallife and career. A diary isopened to September 8, 1986,where Winfrey said, “Exactlyeight hours before the national1st show. I keep wonderinghow my life will change.”

Throughout the gallery,Winfrey’s personal effects —

evening gowns, designer cloth-ing and shoes, her drinkingglass, the Golden Globe she wasawarded earlier this year — arejuxtaposed alongside video clipsfrom The Oprah Winfrey Show.There are also blue cue cards,green room photos with celebri-ty guests and keys from a vehi-cle that was a prize in Winfrey’sfamous “You get a car!” give-away.

Winfrey’s highly populardaytime talk show aired for 25years and 4,561 episodes, end-ing in 2011. Winfrey discussedtopics ranging from sexual ori-entation, body image, health,and, as featured in the museum,the idea of woman empower-ment, especially for women ofcolour. “In many ways, werealise that this is a fascinatingstory, not just about an indi-vidual, but about a change inour culture, about the changingnotions of the power in mediain the role of race,” Bunch said.

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Page 15: ( ˆˆ ’ ˝ .&%0ˇ˙.ˆ 1 23 ˙˜$!$˙!/ ,˙)-˘+. ˘ ˇˆ ˙˝ 4˘43:=> …...Pradesh’s Baghpat district to the Delhi’s Red Fort museum for further investigation,

After recent struggles at majortournaments, the remaining

stars of Spain's golden generationcould be facing a last stand at theWorld Cup.

Winning two EuropeanChampionships and a first WorldCup, the Spanish were unstoppablefrom 2008 to 2012.

But they began to falter at the2014 World Cup, failing to advancefrom the group stage, and were elim-inated from Euro 2016 in the roundof 16. There were doubts new coachJulen Lopetegui could even securequalification for this year's WorldCup before Spain cruised througha group that included Italy.

Lopetegui successfully blendedemerging talent with the experienceprovided by veterans to qualify foran 11th straight World Cup.

COACHLopetegui was chosen as

Vicente Del Bosque's successor in2016 after winning trophies of hisown with Spain - at the under-19and under-21 editions of theEuropean Championships.

But the former goalkeeper's expe-rience coaching at the top level waslimited to a couple of lackluster sea-sons with Porto.

The critics who questionedLopetegui's credentials were silencedwhen the mild-mannered coach tookSpain on a 19-game unbeaten run.

GOALKEEPERSCalls for the return of Iker

Casillas were quickly subdued asDavid de Gea impressed withManchester United and the nation-al team.

Casillas was relegated to thebench for the first time at Euro 2016and was left out of the squad alto-gether for Russia.

Lopetegui picked AthleticBilbao's Kepa Arrizabalaga andNapoli's Pepe Reina as the reservegoalkeepers.

DEFENDERSThis is likely to be the last World

Cup for Sergio Ramos and GerardPique, whose central defensive part-nership formed the bedrock of suc-cesses in major tournaments.

The 31-year-old Pique plans tostop playing for Spain after theWorld Cup, and there is a chance the32-year-old Ramos will join him ininternational retirement.

They have been playing togeth-er in Spain's defense since the 2010World Cup, when Ramos still playedat right back.

Completing the back line will beJordi Alba, Pique's teammate atBarcelona, on the left and DaniCarvajal, Ramos' teammate atMadrid, on the right.

MIDFIELDERSAndres Iniesta will be 34 when

the World Cup starts and it's likely tomark the masterful playmaker'sfarewell to the international stage.

With impeccable passes andsmart ball control, Iniesta continuesto control the midfield just as he didwhile winning three major tourna-ments. Only his physical condition isa concern as age catches up with theplayer who scored the winning goalin the 2010 World Cup final againstthe Netherlands.

Sergio Busquets, ThiagoAlcantara and Jorge "Koke"Resurreccion are assured of places inthe squad for Russia, and the attack-ing midfielders will include Francisco"Isco" Alarcon, Marco Asensio, SaulNiguez and David Silva.

FORWARDSLopetegui had doubts over his

strikers, calling up 10 different play-ers in the position in two years.

Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa,Celta Vigo's Iago Aspas and Valencia'sRodrigo made the 23-man squad,while Chelsea's Alvaro Morata wasdropped.

Napoli's Jose Callejon andAtletico's Victor "Vitolo" Machinalso won't make it to Russia. AP

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���A��The gloom that engulfed

Brazil after the 7-1 debacleagainst Germany in the 2014World Cup has lifted.

Brazil was the first team toclinch qualification for Russiaand had memorable wins on theway, including a 3-0 success overArgentina in the same Mineiraostadium of the 2014 semifinalhumiliation.

It took the appointment ofTite in September 2016 to reviveBrazil. Under his helm, therehave been 13 wins, three drawsand only one loss - in a friend-ly against Argentina.KEY PLAYER- Neymar Jr

!�A������Now is the time for

Switzerland to be more than thesum of its talented parts. Thequarterfinals are a realistic goal.

Don't call it a golden gen-eration, but the Swiss have a core ofplayers from the 2009 Under-17 worldchampion team and a depth of tour-nament experience.

However, those World Cup andEuropean Championship adventuresended, at best, in the Round of 16.Switzerland last won a World Cupknockout game in 1954, and that wasjust in a group playoff as host nation.

Critics can pick holes in how theSwiss qualified: Nine straight wins in aweak group, and a playoff againstNorthern Ireland decided by a dubiouspenalty call.

A well-balanced team has seemedto need a high-class central defenderand reliable scorer. In Basel's ManuelAkanji, it might have found that defend-er.KEY PLAYER- Valon Behrami

����� �The tiny Central American coun-

try reached the quarterfinals of theWorld Cup four years ago, losing to theNetherlands on a penalty shootout.

This will be Costa Rica's fifthWorld Cup appearance, impressive fora country with a population just under5 million. Bryan Ruiz is the main attack-ing threat, while Celso Borges of is amidfield linchpin.

Still, November friendlies werehardly encouraging, with a 5-0 thrash-ing by Spain and a 1-0 loss to Hungary.KEY PLAYER- Keylor Navas

�����Serbia cruised through its qualify-

ing group to return to the World Cupfinal tournament after eight years, thesecond time since becoming an inde-pendent nation in 2006.

The skillful squad scored the mostgoals - 20 - in the group withAleksandar Mitrovic the best scorerwith six goals, leaving behind Ireland,

Wales and Austria.Just their fans traveling to Russia to

support their team should behave,after FIFA fined the Serbian soccer fed-eration 160,000 Swiss francs ($160,000)for incidents involving fans at WorldCup qualifying games.

Slavoljub Muslin was removed ascoach despite the successful qualifyingcampaign, with Mladen Krstajic placedin temporary command.KEY PLAYER- Branislav Ivanovic

� ��� �

$�����It's the first World Cup since 2006

for Poland, whose fans are likely to trav-el to Russia in large numbers. It couldbe the last chance to play on thebiggest stage for strikers RobertLewandowski and JakubBlaszczykowski, who will be 29 and 32

respectively by the finals.Poland is largely unchanged

from the team which reached Euro2016 quarterfinals where it lost onpenalties to eventual championPortugal. One concern in qualify-ing was a 4-0 thrashing by Denmarkin September that raised concernsabout the defense.KEY PLAYER- RobertLewandowski

���)��Senegal is back at the World

Cup for the first time since its stun-ning debut in 2002, when it beatdefending champion France on theway to the quarterfinals, then onlythe second African team to makethe last eight.

This qualification has beencontentious, with Senegal benefit-ing from an unprecedented decisionby FIFA to order a replay of its 2-1loss in South Africa because ofmatch-fixing by the referee. Senegaltook advantage to win the replay,changing the dynamic of the group.KEY PLAYER- Sadio Mane

���#���Reached the quarterfinals four

years ago in Brazil and has the talent todo it again.

This will be Colombia's secondstraight appearance after sitting out for16 years. Qualifying was a struggle thistime. Colombia waited until the lastmatch to make it to Russia. KEY PLAYER- James Rodriguez

+�$��While the squad lacks the star

power of many other World Cup teams,Japan can count on a group of reliableplayers with plenty of European expe-rience. Shinji Kagawa of BorussiaDortmund and Shinji Okazaki ofLeicester should play key roles.

Japan finished first in Group B inAsian qualifying, ahead of Saudi Arabiaand Australia.KEY PLAYER- Shinji Kagawa AP

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Back in 2014, Joachim Loew lost hisdriver's license for six months on

account of reckless driving, whichincluded overspeeding and operating thephone behind the wheel. The same year,Loew won the World Cup in Brazil andthe way he drove the German nationalteam to glory might not be reckless at all,but it did have that element of speedingthat makes other drivers gasp in horrorand struggle to avoid the incomingspeedster. Moreover, with themethodology he implemented within DieMannschaft won him the FIFA WorldCoach of the Year 2014. That, and threeyears later a FIFA Confederations Cup titlewith a sprouting legion of young Germansbattling against line-ups boasting of agreater experience; throw in a UEFAEuropean Championship runner-up'smedal from 2008 and a couple of semi-final finishes in the same tournament fortwo successive years in 2012 and 2016 andyou have a set of honours that dulycombine to make Loew’s Germany one ofthe most consistent teams in footballhistory. The defending World Champions'58-year old gaffer has worked with his ladsright from the goalkeeper at the back tothe ultimate target man up front. TheGerman machine — with its swifttransition from 4-2-3-1 in defence to a 2-4-3-1 in attack — will once again instilldread among the opponents’ ranks on thefield and their bosses in the dugout asLoew’s men arrive, adamant in their willto not give away their precious crown.

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“Under Martinez, I have only put ingood performances.” These were the

words of Belgian forward Romelu Lukakuwhen he was quizzed on Les Diables Rouges’new boss, Roberto Martinez. The 25-year oldstriker then went on to suggest that he couldsay the same about a lot of other players inthe national team — including Eden Hazardand Kevin de Bruyne among others. For acoach, who at Everton was generally on thereceiving end of much criticism, a positiveremark from his present team’s prime goal-getter is the ultimate ode that sums up theamount of work that Martinex has put upthere and with him in the Belgian dugoutand a variety of talent on the field, Belgiumhave been dubbed as one of the mostpromising sides for this summer in Russia.

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“Overpriced Argentine,” wasone of the best known

denominations that were bestowed upon JosePekerman when he agreed to take the boss’job for the Colombian national team back in2012. Two years later, the South Americannation was hailing Pekerman for puttingColombia back amongst the game’s big boys

as Los Cafeteros put up their best performancetill date at the World Cup in Brazil, attaining alast-eight finish. At times criticised for hischoices regarding certain lineups, Pekermanhas been instrumental in giving theColombian population a sense ofrevitalisation, which people have touted as therenewal of the nation’s golden generation ofthe 1990s. With his strange ways ofoperating, which include wild and bafflingchanges even in successful strategies andlineups, Pekerman can either dominateagainst an opponent with an element ofunpredictability or simply fall out, much tothe collective annoyance of his fans.

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As a player, Lopetegui appeared in the Spanish PrimeraDivision (La Liga) as a goalkeeper across eleven seasons for

Castilla, Las Palmas, Logrones and Rayo Vallecano besidespartaking in a single game for Real Madrid and in five games

for FC Barcelona. Starting his managerial career in 2003 withRayo Vallecano, Lopetegui went through a topsy-turvy phasewhich included a sacking after just ten matches of his initialseason as head coach and a sports commentator's job, afterwhich he took back coaching which saw him lead theSpanish U-19 and U-21 sides to European glory in 2012and '13 respectively before eventually landing up with La

Roja in ‘16. Here, at the top level, Lopetegui has been thecustodian in the Spanish dugout, a guardian of the

Seleccion's legacy which was written during the summer of2010. He took up the reins at a time when successive failures in

two major tournaments had got all of Spain quite disgruntledover their predicament. And even as the Spanish media shifteduncomfortably on their seats, Lopetegui restored the naturalorder within the team. Spain are now on an unbeaten streak of19 games since the former keeper of goals took over. It happensto be their second best run after Luis Aragones' side wentwithout a loss through 25 fixtures in 2006. But that is secondary.The best news is that Spain look like their old self again.

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Tite (pronounced‘Cheechee’) — as peculiaras the name may sound, it

has eventually become popular inBrazil. Even more so after the 56-

year old took up the job as Brazil’s headcoach in June 2016. He has since revitalised the canary-yellow-clad Selecao much to the relief of the nation’s foot-ball-minded folks who are in no way a population that canbe branded as ‘easy to please’. The Brazilians are the kindof people who will rue even a World Cup win if it is notdone their way — the Brazilian way, that is, with all its beau-ty and the element of joga bonito at the heart of the entireaffair. But Tite — or Adenor Bacchi, as he would more for-mally be called — seems to have won over his compatriots’hearts, which means that he has made a good show of hiscanary brigade and has indeed done alright. First, he seemsto have solved Brazil’s over-dependence on Neymar — some-thing that had gradually become a disconcerting virtue forthe side under Carlos Dunga, Tite’s predecessor who, it issaid, is still trying to save face after Brazil — sans Neymar —were flung out of the World Cup in their own backyard byJoachim Loew’s Germany. A national shame back then in 2014,Tite’s methodology, as it appears, has sent the hurtful memo-ry of the humiliating 7-1 loss to the far off lands of oblivion.The men in canary have now once again started to look up andcast glances towards the coveted golden head of the World Cuptrophy, and it’s Tite who is pointing it out to them. The formerCorinthians gaffer has assembled a group astir with vibrant tal-ent under the principles of unity and creative flair. His men lookorganised and it would be no surprise if a majority of themunleash their most fearsome forms during this summer in Russia.This organised creativity, this systemised vibrancethat has come to define Brazil under the tutelageof Tite might just prove to be the driving force atthe heart of a side that looks to add a sixth WorldCup title to their trophy cabinet. The rout by theGermans four years ago had been the scar-let letter for a nation that breathes foot-ball — a mark of shame thatbemoaned the apparent downfall ofthe Canarinha. But this summer,Brazil seem to be smiling again.

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