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The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) is looking forsix men who have gone offthe radar after their namessurfaced for receiving andsending funds on behalf ofthe Islamic State (IS) to es-tablish its presence here.

An official said the ac-cused had helped a dozenpeople leave for Syria andIraq by mobilising funds forthem.

The Hindu has accessedthe details of eight suspectsfrom Tamil Nadu who havebeen named in an FIR filedby the NIA. They are HajaFakkrudeen (Cuddalore),Khaja Moideen (Cuddalore),Shakul Hameed (Chennai),Ansar Meeran (Chennai),Masood Asarudeen(Tirunelveli), Sadiq Basha(Nagapattinam), Mo-hammad Sayed Abu Thahir

(Karur) and MohammedThabraze (Chennai).

The ninth suspect Nou-man Jaleel is from Telan-gana.

Fakkrudeen, Thahir andHameed are said to be inSyria, but they have alsobeen named in the present

case. Their names had sur-faced during the interroga-tion of Adnan HassanDamoodi, 36, a resident ofBhatkal in Karnataka and aformer Indian Mujahideenoperative, who was depor-ted from the UAE last yearfor propagating the ideologyof the IS on social mediaplatforms.

“It was during Damoodi’sinterrogation that thesenames surfaced, but as soonas we registered a case inJanuary this year, the ninemen went off the radar. Wehad been keeping a watchon them for the past oneyear,” said a senior intelli-gence official.

Nouman Jaleel, a civil en-gineer from Hyderabad, waspicked up by agencies lastyear and was released afterbeing counselled.

NIA hunts for 5 men fromT.N. who received IS fundsThey are alleged to have helped people leave for Syria, Iraq

Vijaita Singh

New Delhi

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

Suspense over who wouldbe the next chief minister ofUttar Pradesh and Ut-tarakhand prevailed evenfive days after the poll res-ults were announced.

A meeting of the BJP legis-lature party in Uttar Pra-desh, scheduled to be heldon Thursday, is not going to

take place, with senior lead-ers maintaining that “itwasn’t supposed to takeplace then in any case.”

‘Decision rests with PM’Top sources in the BharatiyaJanata Party say the decisionon who would be chief min-isters in the two States has tobe taken by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and party

president Amit Shah alone.Home Minister Rajnath

Singh, considered the front-runner for the CM’s post inU.P., when asked whetherhe had been offered the job,retorted: “Kya faltu baat hai,sab anaavashyak hai (whatuseless talk is this, com-pletely unnecessary).”

Nistula Hebbar

New Delhi

Suspense over U.P., Uttarakhand CMs

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

Three Lashkar-e-Taiba milit-ants and a civilian werekilled during an encounterin north Kashmir’s Kupwaraon Wednesday.

A police official said milit-ants fired upon a searchparty during an anti-milit-ancy operation launched inJugtiyal, Hyhama, Kupwara,over 90 km north of Srin-agar.

“Security forces returnedfire, leading to the en-counter. Three LeT militantswere killed. Their identity isbeing ascertained,” said theofficial.

Weapons recoveredThe operation was jointlycarried out by the Army’s 41Rashtriya Rifles and theCRPF’s 98 Battalion. Three

weapons were also re-covered from the slain milit-ants. An 11-year-old girl,Kaneeza, and a boy, Faisal,were injured “as stray bulletshit them.”

The minors were injured

more than 100 metres awayfrom the encounter site, ac-cording to the official.

“Later, the girl suc-cumbed to her injuries. Theboy has been referred toSrinagar and his condition is

stable so far,” he said.The Kashmir Valley has

witnessed more than 30 en-counters this year.

As protests near the en-counter sites grow more fre-quent, five civilians have losttheir lives so far, fuellingmore anger. Thirty-onepeople, including nine se-curity personnel and 22 mil-itants, lost their lives sinceJanuary this year.

‘Example of state terror’Condemning the killing of

the girl in Kupwara, Hurriyatfaction chairman MirwaizUmar Farooq said: “The in-cident is yet another worstexample of state terrorism. Itindicates how the govern-ment forces enjoy impunityto kill Kashmiris under thegarb of combatinginsurgents.”

3 ultras die in J&K encounter,stray bullet kills 11-year-oldSearch party engaged in anti-militancy operation was ired upon in Kupwara

Fiery end: Flames rise from a house, wheremilitants werehiding, after an encounter in Kupwara onWednesday. PTI

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

Set of Sanjay Leela

Bhansali’s ilm

Padmavati vandalised

page 4

Biren Singh sworn in as

Manipur CM, allies get

lion’s share in Cabinet

page 10

Fed raises interest rates,

driven by steady

economic growth

page 13

Shashank Manohar quits as

chairman of International

Cricket Council

page 15

NEARBY

DELHI METRO � 6 PAGES

A 36-year-old woman fromUzbekistan was allegedlygangraped by her formerboyfriend and four of hisfriends at her rented accom-modation in South Delhi’sMasoodpur Village.

Her former boyfriend,Anubhav Yadav, has beenarrested.

According to the police,

Anubhav and his friendswent to the woman’s housearound 2 a.m. on Friday.They forcibly entered thehouse and beat her up fornot taking Anubhav’s phonecall.

Fell semi-unconscious“I thought they had come totalk to me. But when Iopened the door, he and hisfriends started assaulting me

for not taking their calls. Ifell semi-unconscious afterthey thrashed me brutally,”the woman told the police inher complaint.

When she gained con-sciousness, she found her-self with nothing on herlower body. Traumatised,she went to a hospital butleft without much medicalhelp as she could not gatherthe courage to speak to

anyone.On Tuesday, she spoke to

a friend who guided her toreport the matter to the po-lice. Based on her com-plaint, the five were bookedfor gang-rape and causinghurt.

In her statement, the wo-man said she and Anubhavwere together for the pastfour years but broke up re-cently.

Staff Reporter

New Delhi

Uzbek woman gangraped in south Delhi

Cop probing Ramjasclash transferredNEW DELHI

The Delhi Police oicerprobing the alleged “high-handedness” of policepersonnel during the recentclashes outside RamjasCollege has been transferred.Additional DCP-I (North)Esha Pandey has beentransferred to the specialpolice unit for women andchildren as its DCP.DELHI METRO � PAGE 1

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Absconding Prajapatinabbed in LucknowLUCKNOW

Absconding for almost amonth, controversialSamajwadi Party leader andformer minister GayatriPrasad Prajapati was onWednesday nabbed by theUttar Pradesh police. Mr.Prajapati and six others areaccused of gang-raping awoman and attempting torape her minor daughter. Hewas sent to 14 days judicialcustody after being producedbefore a POSCO court.

NATION � PAGE 6

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CMYK

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NOIDA/DELHI THE HINDU

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NORTH

DELHI Timings

Thursday, March 16

RISE 06:30 SET 18:30

RISE 21:56 SET 08:46

Friday, March 17

RISE 06:29 SET 18:31

RISE 22:48 SET 09:23

Saturday, March 18

RISE 06:27 SET 18:31

RISE 23:40 SET 10:02

‘Chouhan not movingto the Centre’BHOPAL

Scotching speculations thatChief Minister Shivraj SinghChouhan Chouhan couldmove to the Centre, a seniormember of the State Cabinetsaid the party had alreadydecided that next Assemblyelections would be contestedunder his leadership.

IN BRIEF

Unclaimed bag createsscare at airportAMRITSAR

An unclaimed bag, apparentlyforgotten behind by apassenger, created a scare atthe Sri Guru RamdassInternational Airport here onThursday. However, when thebag was opened onlymedicines and some clotheswere found inside it. - PTI

The Bharatiya Janata Partycandidate Shobharani Kush-wah, wife of former MLAand murder convict B.L.Kushwah, filed her nomina-tion papers for the April 9Assembly by-election inDholpur constituency of Ra-jasthan on Wednesday. Theseat fell vacant three monthsago following Kushwah’s dis-qualification upon hisconviction.

Co-accused in fraud caseMs. Kushwah is also an ac-cused, along with her hus-band, in a chit fund fraudcase registered against theirfinancial company. A largenumber of complainantshad alleged that the com-pany had cheated gullible in-vestors by promising exor-bitant returns on fixed andrecurring deposits.

B.L. Kushwah was electedto the State Assembly on theBahujan Samaj Party ticket.The ruling BJP inducted Ms.Kushwah along with her sup-porters into the party in Feb-ruary this year with an eyeon her community whichhas a significant strength

among the 1.82 lakh voters inthe constituency.

Though Dholpur is thehome turf of Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje, as she wasmarried to Hemant Singh ofthe erstwhile ruling family,the BJP had won only one ofthe four seats in the districtin the 2013 Assembly elec-tion. BJP could only winfrom the reserved constitu-ency of Baseri, whileDholpur went to BSP, andBari and Rajakhera toCongress.

BJP State president AshokParnami, Jhalawar-Baran MPDushyant Singh, who is Ms.Raje's son, and a large num-ber of supporters accompan-ied Ms. Kushwah when shefiled her nomination papersbefore Deputy District Elec-tion Officer Manish Faujdar.Both the BJP and the Opposi-tion Congress are treatingthe Dholpur by-poll as a mat-ter of prestige in view of theAssembly election due nextyear.

In fielding Ms. Kushwah,the BJP is banking on hercommunity's support, as herhusband continues to be apopular leader despite hisconviction.

After filing the nomina-tion, Ms. Kushwah ad-dressed a huge public rallyoutside the Dholpur Muni-cipal Council office in thepresence of three Ministersand a large number of seniorBJP leaders.

Promise of developmentMs. Kushwah soughtpeople’s support whilepromising that she wouldwork hard for developmentof villages in theconstituency.

While Mr. Parnami said atthe rally that the Chamballift project was the ChiefMinister's gift to Dholpur,Mr. Dushyant Singh said thepeople of Dholpur were likeMs. Raje’s family members.Health Minister KalicharanSaraf, Rural DevelopmentMinister Rajendra Rathoreand Transport MinisterYunus Khan also addressedthe rally.

B.L. Kushwah's member-ship of the State Assemblywas terminated after he wasconvicted and sentenced tolife imprisonment onDecember 8 last year in a2012 case of “honourkilling”.

Kushwah’s wife iles papersfor Dholpur by-electionSeat fell vacant after her husband’s conviction for murder

Special Correspondent

JAIPUR

Five people were killed andeight injured on Wednesday,while several others arefeared trapped, after a gasleak at a cold storage in Shiv-rajpur area here caused anexplosion in which parts ofthe structure collapsed.

According to SP (Rural)Rajesh Kumar, the gas leakstarted at the Katiyar ColdStorage in the afternoon. Inthe resulting explosion, theroof of the structurecollapsed.

Several people are fearedtrapped in the debris, andfire brigade personnel alongwith NDRF and Army teamsare carrying out rescue andrelief operations, Mr Kumarsaid.

Brought deadChief Medical Officer DrRamayan Prasad said the fiveseriously injured labourers,who were rescued between4 pm and 6 pm, were de-clared brought dead by doc-tors at the medical college-cum-hospital here.

Eleven labourers havebeen rescued and those withminor injuries have been re-leased from the hospitalafter treatment, he said.

Doctors at the hospitalhave been put on alert as thenumber of those injured isexpected to rise, Mr Prasadsaid.

Kanpur District MagistrateKaushal Raj Sharma said

around two dozen labourerswere having their lunchwhen the incidenthappened.

More labourers could bestill trapped under thedebris, district administra-

tion officials said.The DM said rescue work-

ers have been given protect-ive gear, including masks.The district administrationwill also check if the coldstorage had a license.

Five killed, 8 hurt in Kanpurcold storage explosionMany feared trapped in the debris; Army, NDRF carrying out rescue operations

The aftermath: Rescue and relief work under way after a cold storage building collapsed dueto an explosion in Kanpur onWednesday. PTI

Press trust of India

KANPUR

Two leopards escaped fromthe Gopalpur Zoo, 20 kmfrom, here on Tuesday nighttriggering panic among res-idents in the area.

The administration hassounded an alert in sur-rounding areas and parents

have been asked not to senttheir children alone toschool.

A control room has beenset up at Gopalpur and thesituation was being closelymonitored, officials said.

The leopards escapedfrom the zoo after somemiscreants allegedly cut the

nab the culprits, DFO (wild-life) Nitin Patil said, addingthat all out efforts are beingmade to capture theleopards.

There are 12 leopards inthe zoo and when attendantsenter the enclosures in themorning, three leopardswere found missing.

wire fence.A third leopard, which

was injured, had also es-caped but was capturedwhile two others ran into theforests.

Case registeredA case has been registeredand investigation is on to

Panic after two leopards escape from zooPress trust of india

Palampur

Heated exchanges were wit-nessed in the Himachal Pra-desh Assembly on Wednes-day on the issue of allotmentof 22 acres to Baba Ramdev’sPatanjali Yogpeeth atSadhupul in Solan district in2009.

State Revenue MinisterKaul Singh Thakur revealedthat the Cabinet had on Feb-ruary 17 given its nod to re-consider the lease of land tothe Yogpeeth that wasearlier cancelled by it in Feb-ruary 2013.

The Congress govern-ment after coming to powerin December 2012 had takenback the land given to theYogpeeth on a 99 years leaseby the previous BJP govern-ment because of certain an-omalies and undue favoursgiven to the Yog Guru, hesaid.

Necessary formalitiesThe incumbent governmentwould remove all irregularit-ies and carry out the neces-sary formalities before final-ising the land deal with theYogpeeth, he added.

Mr. Thakur claimed thatthe lease deed was signed inhaste during the previousgovernment and it had thesignatures of someone elseand not that of AcharyaBalkrishan of the Yogpeethwho had further given thepower of attorney tosomeone else.

Some multi-storey build-ings and hospitality unitswere being constructedthere when the governmenttook repossession of theland, he said.

The Minister also main-tained that if the Yogpeethtakes back its writ in theHigh Court against the gov-ernment for illegally cancel-ling its lease deed, the in-

cumbent government wouldtake a relook at the matterand again register the leasein its name after carryingout the necessarypreconditions.

Some of the CongressMLAs also requested thegovernment to not renewthe lease deed with the Yog-peeth since it had openly vi-olated the conditions in thememorandum and insteadan orphanage or shelter forstray cattle should be con-structed on the let out land.

‘Unnecessary move’The BJP members blamedthe government for unne-cessarily cancelling the leaseto the Yogpeeth earlierwhich was constructing aherbal garden and a branchof the Patanjali Yog Centreon behalf of its Trust.

Leader of the OppositionPrem Kumar Dhumal andother BJP members wantedto know why the govern-ment was now planning toreinstate the lease deed infavour of Baba Ramdev whois close to the upper echel-ons of the Union govern-ment.

Heated exchanges in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly

Staff Correspondent

Shimla

Baba Ramdev

Congress, BJP accuse each otherover Baba Ramdev’s land deal

The Bihar Chief Minister Nit-ish Kumar on Thursday em-phasised linking beneficiar-ies of all kinds ofgovernment assistance withAadhaar card for which theState is making continuousefforts.

Mr Kumar informed theState Legislative Council thatafter completion of Aadhaarseeding, all anomalies in listof beneficiaries would be re-

moved. The State govern-ment is making continuousefforts to prepare Aadhaarcard for every citizen and forthis several centres havebeen opened. The Chif Minis-ter exhorted public repres-entatives to help in publicityfor this purpose.

EPSmachinesEarlier, in reply to a questionof BJP’s Mangal Pandey, Foodand Civil Supplies MinisterMadan Sahni said that the

State government is installingElectronic Point of Sale ma-chines in 59 Public Distribu-tion System (PDS) outlets inNoorsarai block in Nalandadistrict as part of a pilot pro-ject. Later, this facility wouldbe extended in all PDS out-lets across Bihar, he said.

The Minister said that asper 2011 census, a total num-ber of 55,312 PDS outlets areneeded in Bihar out of which41,725 are functioning atpresent.

Nitish stresses Aadhaar cardfor availing of govt beneits‘All anomalies in list of beneiciaries would be removed’Press trust of india

PATNA

Published by N. Ram at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S. Ramanujam at HT Media Ltd. Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. 201306, on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 ● RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 7 ● No. 64


THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI

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CMYK

EAST

Arunachal passes Budgetfor 2017-18ITANAGAR

The Arunachal PradeshAssembly passed the Budgetfor 2017-18 by voice vote onWednesday. Chief MinisterPema Khandu reiterated hisgovernment’s commitment totreat all constituenciesequally while giving thrust onagri-horti sectors. PTI

IN BRIEF

CBI arrests two in ponziscam caseKOLKATA

The Special Crime Branch ofthe CBI on Wednesdayarrested Prayag Group CMDBasudeb Bagchi and his sonAvik Bagchi after theirinterrogation at the CGOcomplex here. The firm hadmobilised over ₹1,900 crorefrom the public. PTI

Bodo groups call offhunger strikeKOKRAJHAR (ASSAM)

The All-Bodo Students Unionand other groups called offtheir indefinite hunger strikeon Wednesday, its sixth day,demanding a separateBodoland after the AssamHome and PoliticalDepartment assured them ofholding tripartite talks on theissue. PTI

A Central Committee mem-ber of the Communist Partyof India (Marxist Leninist)Red Star (CPI-ML [Red Star])along with a leader of theMazdoor Kisan Parishad(MKP) has been arrested inconnection with the agita-tion in Bhangar.

The CPI-ML [Red Star] hasbeen at the forefront of theagitation in South 24Paraganas district againstthe setting up of a powergrid in the area. A CentralCommittee member of the

party, Sankar Das, and aleader of the MKP, KushalDebnath, were arrested onTuesday afternoon.

10 days police custodySpeaking to The Hindu theircounsel Rangta Munshi saidthe two were arrested by theCriminal Investigation De-partment (CID) fromBaruipur in South 24Paraganas on Tuesday andhave been charged underSections 353 (assault or crim-inal force to deter public ser-vant from discharge of his orher duty), 147 (rioting) and

148 (rioting armed withdeadly weapons). They wereremanded in 10 days policecustody by a district court.

Calls to Nishat Parvez,DIG, CID (Operations) wentunanswered.

Addressing the media atBhubaneswar in Odisha onTuesday, party national gen-eral secretary K. N.Ramachandran accused theTrinamool Congress (TMC)government of “resorting toterror tactics” and said theywill not get intimidated.

“We want to tell theMamata government that we

will not be cowed down bysuch terror tactics,” said Mr.Ramachandran.

In January, two more lead-ers of the party -- CentralCommittee memberSarmistha Chowdhury andState secretary PradeepSingh Thakur -- were arres-ted by the CID. Mr.Ramachandran was alsopicked up by the State policein January after he arrived atthe Kolkata railway station.After resurfacing in Delhiwithin a couple of days, hesaid that the police put himon a Delhi-bound train.

Leftist leader held for Bhangar stirCPI-ML [Red Star] has been at the forefront of the agitation against power grid

Staff Reporter

Kolkata

Union Health Minister J. P.Nadda on Wednesday as-sured Chief Minister NaveenPatnaik of releasing the bal-ance Central share of ₹397crore at the earliest for thefive new medical colleges atBaripada, Koraput, Balas-ore, Bolangir and Puri.

Mr. Nadda’s assurancecame when Mr. Patnaik methim in New Delhi.

Mr. Patnaik informed Mr.Nadda that works relating tofive medical colleges arecontinuing in full swing andtwo medical colleges at Bari-pada and Koraput wereready to start their firstbatch admission from theensuing 2017-18 session.

The State had already re-ceived ₹170 crore as againstthe committed Central shareof ₹567 crore for thesecolleges.

Permission soughtThe Chief Minister furtherurged the Union Health Min-ister to give letters of per-mission to the two medicalcolleges at Baripada andKoraput to enable them to

start their admissions from2017-18.

Highlighting the initiat-ives being taken by the Stategovernment for strengthen-ing cancer care, Mr. Patnaikurged the Union Health Min-ister to approve the four ter-tiary cancer care centres atCapital Hospital,Bhubaneswar; VSS MedicalCollege and Hospital, Burla;MKCG Medical College andHospital, Berhampur andDistrict Headquarter Hos-pital, Kalahandi.

Mr. Nadda said that finan-cial assistance of ₹45 croreeach will be provided forthree tertiary cancer centresat Burla, Berhampur and Ka-

lahandi. As regards thefourth at Bhubaneswar, heassured to consider itfavourably.

Cancer-care centreThe Union Minister men-tioned that the Central gov-ernment has already ap-proved a State-level cancercare centre at Cuttack at anestimated cost of ₹120 crore.

Mr. Nadda also agreed tolook into the proposal for es-tablishment of Regional In-stitute of Paramedical Sci-ences at Bhubaneswar, anddoing away with the restric-tion on number of attemptsfor students appearing inthe NEET-UG.

Funds for medicalcolleges soon: NaddaOdisha has got ₹170 crore of Central share of ₹567 crore

Inside Capital:Odisha CMNaveen Patnaik talking to themedia at Parliament House onWednesday. PTI


Bhubaneswar

Odisha School and Mass Educa-tion Minister Debi Prasad Mishraon Wednesday asked the Control-ler of Examinations of the CHSEto probe into irregularities duringthe annual Plus-II mathematicspaper.

Mr Mishra said that questionson chemistry were found in themathematics question paperpackets when they were openedfor distribution among examineesyesterday.

Chemistry question papers inmathematics question paperpackets were found at least in 14examination centres, he saidadding that the press, where thequestion papers were printed,would come under the purview ofprobe.

“The government would not

hesitate to black-list the printingpress if it was found guilty,” MrMishra said adding that the Con-troller of Examinations of theCouncil of Higher Secondary Ex-amination (CHSE) will probe un-der which circumstances thechemistry questions entered intothe mathematics question paper

packets.“The Controller of Examina-

tions will also investigate whetherthere was any conspiracy,” MrMishra said.

He said the Controller of Exam-inations has been asked to submita report within two weeks. Theofficial will visit the press wherethe question papers were printedand packed, he said.

The irregularities which weredetected across 14 examinationcentres had delayed the examina-tion. However, the centres man-aged to conduct the examinationafter providing photo copies ofthe mathematics questions to thestudents.

Mr Mishra said that the chem-istry examination which wasearlier scheduled for March 16 af-ternoon will now be conductedbetween 2 pm and 5 pm onMarch30.

Chemistry questions were found in maths paper packets for Plus-II

Press Trust of India

Bhubaneswar

Debi PrasadMishra

Probe into exam irregularities ordered

A day after two persons, in-cluding a woman, were ar-rested for allegedly stealing anewborn boy from the gov-ernment-run Calcutta Med-ical College and Hospital, thepolice on Wednesday saidthey were not ruling out theinvolvement of the hospitalstaff in the matter.

The accused, ChinmayeeBej, and her husband,Prashanta, were arrested

late on Tuesday night fromBaghmari in North Kolkata.The baby has been returnedto its mother, SaraswatiNaskar.

Asked whether they aresuspecting the involvementof some hospital staff in the

case, Joint Commissioner ofPolice (Crime) Vishal Gargsaid: “We are looking into it.”He said so far they have notgot any evidence to suggest achild trafficking angle to thecase.

Earlier in the day, locals ofBaghmari said one ofPrashanta’s relatives workedat the hospital and hence hiswife was able to get easy ac-cess to the premises.

On Tuesday afternoon,Bej allegedly fled with the

child on the pretext of takinghim to the doctor for acheck-up.

The police released CCTVfootage in a bid to identifythe accused.

“The accused were pro-duced in court on Wednes-day and were remanded inpolice custody till March 24,”said Mr. Garg. A senior po-lice official said that duringinterrogation Ms. Bej has“admitted” to stealing thechild.

Two arrested in child theft case in KolkataHospital staf may be involved, no evidence of traicking angle yet: police

Staff Reporter

Kolkata <> The accused

remanded in

police custody till

March 24

Vishal Garg

Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime)




WEST

The set of director-producerSanjay Leela Bhansali’s his-torical pageant Padmavatiwas torched in the earlyhours of Wednesday by anunidentified group inKolhapur district of Maha-rashtra. In January, Mr.Bhansali was assaulted whilefilming at the Nahargarh Fortin Jaipur by a Rajput outfitnamed Karni Sena. There-after, the production wasshifted out of Rajasthan.

Reports said the props andcostumes were damaged, butthere was no injury to thecrew. The incident is said tohave occurred between 1 and1.30 a.m. at the picturesqueMasai Pathar, 10 km fromPanhala, when a gang of 20set fire to the props so as togut the set spread on 50,000sq. ft., the police said. A casewas yet to be registered, theysaid.

Following the incident, thefilm’s crew has beenprovided police protection,Maharashtra’s Minister ofState for Home DeepakKesarkar said.

The designer duo ofRimple and Harpreet Narula,who worked on the ornateperiod costumes, said theywere “broken sentimentally”over something unfortunate

that happened because of“the illiteracy in the coun-try”. Filmmakers took toTwitter to condemn theattack.

Padmavati is based on thefictionalised epic poem, writ-ten in 1540 C.E. by MalikMuhammad Jayasi. The poemdeals with the 1303 C.E. siegeof Chittorgarh by Delhi Sul-tan Ala-u-din Khilji, who wasallegedly motivated by his de-sire for Queen Padmini.

Outfits opposing the film

accuse the director of mis-representing Padmini, who isbelieved to have committedjauhar (self-immolation) in-stead of falling in the handsof the Sultan after Chittor-garh fell to the invaders. Theopposition is based on ru-mours that Mr. Bhansali hasallegedly implied a romanticconnection between Padmini(played by DeepikaPadukone) and Ala-ud-dinKhilji (Ranveer Singh), in adream and song sequence.

The director has denied thecharge.

Mr. Bhansali’s Bajirao-Mastani also ran into troubleafter the descendants of thePeshwa Baji Rao I criticisedthe liberties taken by the dir-ector in the name of artisticlicence. BJP workers pro-tested its screening, takingumbrage at the song PingaaPingaa and the portrayal ofKashibai, which they saidwas offensive to the Marathiculture. (With PTI inputs)

Padmavati set vandalised inKolhapur; costumes burntUnidentiied group sets ire to Bhansali ilm’s props and costumes in Kolhapur

Charred: A gang of 20 reportedly set ire to the props to gut the 50,000 sq. ft set at MasaiPathar in Kolhapur district onWednesday. ANIL VELHAL

Shoumojit Banerjee

Pune

Congress seeks RahulGandhi’s interventionPANAJI

Upset with the Congress’sinability to form agovernment in Goa despitebeing the single largestparty, the CongressLegislative Party’s seniorlegislator Vishwajit Rane onWednesday urged party vicepresident Rahul Gandhi tointervene. SPECIALCORRESPONDENT

IN BRIEF

Budget session to beginfrom March 22PANAJI

The Budget session of theGoa Assembly will begin fromMarch 22, State Legislaturesources said on Wednesday.They added that the electionof the Speaker will be held onthe same day, the Governor’saddress to the members willbe held on March 23, and thebudget presentation will beheld on March 24. SPECIALCORRESPONDENT

Goa Nautical Conferenceto be held on SaturdayPANAJI

The CII will hold the secondGoa Nautical Conference onSaturday at a resort at DonaPaula to promote sustainabledevelopment of nauticaltourism. It will also educateState authorities and theindustry on ‘New PleasureCraft Regulations’ notified bythe Directorate of GeneralShipping. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) leader Mukta Tilak wasformally elected as themayor of Pune MunicipalCorporation (PMC) on Wed-nesday, making it the firstinstance of a BJP member’selection as the mayor of thecivic body.

Along with Ms. Tilak, Re-publican Party of India (Ath-awale) leader NavnathKamble was elected as thedeputy mayor. The RPI (A)had supported the BJP in thePMC polls.

Moments after her ap-pointment, the 51-year-oldMs. Tilak — a scion of BalGangadhar ‘Lokmanya’Tilak’s family — said, “myobjective is to oversee thePune’s transformation into aSmart City, even if it in-volved some toughdecisions.”

“The need of the hour isto effect a change in thecity’s traffic [problems] andenhance the bus transportsystem. Affordable housingis another area which willreceive top priority,” Ms.Tilak said.

Ms. Tilak, wife of Lok-manya Tilak’s great-grand-son Shailesh Tilak, and anMBA with a specialisation inmarketing, won her fourthsuccessive civic election ona BJP ticket from old Pune’s

Narayan Peth-Sadashiv Petharea, where she lives withher family.

While members of herfamily, like her nephew Ro-hit Tilak, contested on Con-gress tickets, she chose toside with the BJP.

With the BJP sweepingthe PMC with an unpreced-ented landslide, snaring 98of the 162 seats, Ms. Tilak’svictory was a foregone con-clusion, as was Mr.Kamble’s.

Despite this, the BJP’s saf-fron ally, the Shiv Sena,along with the oppositionNCP and the Congress hadstepped in to queer the BJP’spitch by propping up can-didates for the mayoralelections.

The Sena, despite win-ning only 10 seats in thePMC, had fielded SangeetaThosar for the mayor’s postand Vishal Dhanawade forthe deputy mayor’s post.The NCP had fielded NandaLonkar for the mayoral postwhile the Congress hadfielded Lata Rajguru for thedeputy mayor’s post.

However, the Sena’s can-didates withdrew their nom-inations on Wednesdaymorning, before the com-mencement of the mayoralpoll.

Ms. Rajguru, who wasbacked by the Congress andthe NCP, secured 52 votes,but was beaten by the BJP’ssuperior numbers, all ofwhom voted for Mr. Kamble.

Mukta Tilak, MBA, is Pune’sirst BJPmayorSena candidates withdraw before the commencement of polls

Shoumojit Banerjee

Pune

After her appointment onWednesdayMukta Tilak said her aim isto oversee Pune’s transformation into a Smart City. MANDAR TANNU

Vikat Bhagat, an accused fromCanacona in south Goa, was ar-rested on Tuesday evening forthe murder of a 25-year-old Ir-ish woman. Vikat was re-manded in police custody tillMarch 21 by a local court onWednesday.

Inspector Filomeno Costatold The Hindu that though

there was a possible sexual ex-ploitation angle in the case, thepolice have yet not pressedcharges of rape. The body ofthe victim was found in a field,around 150 metres from themain road at Devbag inCanacona on Tuesday morn-ing.

Superintendent of Police,Crime, Umesh Gaonkar toldThe Hindu that the police

rounded up several personsand zeroed in on Vikat, a localpetty thief and an ex-convict.

Bruises on bodyA case of murder has been re-gistered against Vikat underSection 302 of the IPC. The po-lice said they were awaiting thepost-mortem report beforepressing charges of sexual as-sault.

The body bore bruises andthe face had cuts inflicted by ablunt object, the police said.

Man held for murder of Irish womanSpecial Correspondent

Panaji

The Goa State Human RightsCommission (GSHRC) directedthe Goa Chief Secretary onWednesday to conduct an in-dependent investigation andfix responsibility on the de-faulting officers in the alleged₹51 lakh food scam at theBRICS summit last year.

Activist and lawyer Aires

Rodrigues, in his complaint tothe GSHRC, had submittedthat the contract of food sup-ply to police personnel postedat the summit was given to alocal caterer, but was sub-letto another contractor whoclandestinely prepared thesubstandard food in an openplace in Verna, South Goa.

The complaint said thatroad side labourers were en-

gaged for cooking the foodand insects were also found init.

The GSHRC directed theChief Secretary to submit adetailed report within 30days. It also noted that theChief Secretary had not con-ducted an independent in-quiry as directed by the com-mission on October 18 lastyear. The GSHRC also said the

reply filed by the Chief Secret-ary was a mere replica of theinquiry report submitted bythe Director General of Policeto the State Home Depart-ment. The commission hasdirected the government notto make any payment to thefood contractors till the probeis completed.

The hearing was adjournedto April 18.

‘Submit report on BRICS food scam in 30 days’Prakash Kamat

Panaji

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Mani completes 50 yearsas MLA, House lauds himTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The Kerala Assembly onWednesday paid glowingtributes to veteran politicianK.M. Mani who completed 50years as legislator. Cuttingacross party lines, membersof the House joined SpeakerP. Sreeramakrishnan inhighlighting Mr. Mani’sdiligence and prowess as alegislator and politician.

IN BRIEF

KIA ranked best regionalairport againBENGALURU

Bengaluru’s KempegowdaInternational Airport (KIA)became the ‘Best RegionalAirport in India and CentralAsia’ for the second time bybagging the SKYTRAX Awardon Tuesday. The airport,which saw 22.18 millionpassengers in 2016, receivedthe award at the WorldAirport Awards in Amsterdam.The award covered 550airports worldwide.

Kunhalikutty is UDF’sMalappuram candidateMALAPPURAM

Indian Union Muslim Leaguegeneral secretary P.K.Kunhalikutty will be theUnited Democratic Frontcandidate for theMalappuram Lok Sabhaby-election to be held onApril 12. IUML State presidentSyed Hyderali Shihab Thangalannounced his candidature atPanakkad on Wednesday.

Student kills self overcharge of copyingVARKALA

A 16-year-old boy herecommitted suicide, allegedlyafter being harassed byschool authorities over anincident of copying during theannual examinations. Theparents of Arjun, a plus onestudent, were summoned tothe school. The authoritiesinsulted him in front of hisparents. On Tuesday, the boywas found hanging in hishouse. PTI

With the Karnataka As-sembly polls a year away anda slowdown in the State’seconomic growth, Chief Min-ister Siddaramaiah presen-ted a “welfare-oriented andtax-free” budget on Wednes-day. He attempted to reachout to the weaker sectionsfor the establishment ofwhat he called “Ramarajya”.

Largely focussing onstrengthening and expand-ing the scope of flagshipschemes he had rolled out inhis earlier four budgets, theChief Minister announced anincrease in the quantity offood grains distributed un-der the Anna Bhagya schemefrom 5 kg to 7 kg per unit,and free electricity underthe Bhagya Jyothi scheme(up to 40 units).

Sops for weaker sectionsAmong other announce-ments were free laptops forstudents of government andaided colleges, increase in

the honorarium for ASHAworkers, members of rurallocal bodies and anganwadiworkers, Namma Canteen onthe lines of Amma canteensin Tamil Nadu in all thewards of the BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Pal-ike, and free supply of pot-able water in slums. He alsooffered many incentives for

SC/ST/BPL families, includ-ing free LPG connections.

Despite the agrarian crisisand drought situation in theState, there was little in thebudget to boost agriculture.The absence of crop loanwaiver came as a huge disap-pointment to farmers.

Mr. Siddaramaiah usedthe issue to target the Centre

when he said: “I am ready towaive 50 per cent of the croploans if the Centre waivesloans borrowed from nation-alised and commercial banks(₹42,000 crore).”

No new taxesOther major proposals in-cluded the formation of 49new taluks, developmentcorporations for the OBCcommunities, one-time in-centive of ₹2 lakh each tostudents of the OBC andminority community whoget admission in the IIM, theIIT and the IISc, construc-tion of seven lakh houses,and hike in old age pensions.

Presenting the fifth Statebudget of the ruling Con-gress, overall his 12th, Mr.Siddaramaiah refrained fromannouncing new taxes.

Noting that the budgetwas aimed at ensuring socialjustice and inclusive growth,he said: “Ramarajya cannotbe built by those who op-pose the concept of socialjustice.”

Siddaramaiah focusses on welfareKarnataka CM rolls out measures to establish ‘Ramarajya’ but leaves farmers out

Reaching out: Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah being greeted byMinister for Tourism R.V. Deshpande. V SREENIVASAMURTHY

Nagesh Prabhu

Bengaluru

Close to completion of threeyears in office, the AndhraPradesh government hasgiven a push to welfare, edu-cation and rural develop-ment in its annual budget of₹1.56 lakh crore for the year2017-18.

Presenting the budget inthe Assembly on Wednes-day, Finance MinisterYanamala Ramakrishnudusaid the outlay marked anincrease of 15.77% comparedto the previous year.

The budget had a bagfulof goodies as the govern-ment focussed on job cre-ation, housing, and revivalof sick industries.

New conceptThe TDP’s poll promise ofproviding unemployment al-lowance found place in thebudget with the governmentearmarking ₹500 crore.

It has also proposed tospend ₹695 crore, for thefirst time, to support the

Economically BackwardClasses.

The Finance Minister saidcomprehensive actionwould be taken during thefiscal and beyond to im-prove the lives of women.The government came upwith a new concept, out-come budget, to ensure clar-

ity on goals, strategies aswell as physical and finan-cial targets.

Doing away with plan andnon-plan expenditure classi-fication, the governmentswitched to the system of ex-penditure as revenue andcapital, in line with theCentre’s move.

Government lays stress on job creation, housing

G.V.R. Subba Rao

VIJAYAWADA

Good to go: A.P. FinanceMinister Yanamala Ramakrishnudubefore presenting the Budget in Vijayawada. CH.VIJAYA BHASKAR

Please-all budget in A.P.

The Bengaluru police havearrested a Congress Bom-manhalli Town MunicipalCouncil member, Saro-jamma, for allegedly mur-dering BJP CouncillorSrinivas Prasad.

Prasad was hacked todeath on Tuesday on HosurRoad. Sarojamma’s son,Manju, who is also a primeaccused in the case, is onthe run.

Four more arrestsFour other men, believed tobe friends of Manju, were ar-rested by the Hebbagodi po-lice for allegedly carrying

out the murder on the or-ders of Sarojamma and herson. The police are yet to de-termine whether Manju waspart of the gang that killedPrasad.

Personal enmity: policeThe police are yet to confirmwhether the murder waspolitically motivated or wascarried out for personalreasons.

“We are yet to ascertainthe motive for the murder.Initial inquiries have re-vealed that there was someenmity between the twocouncillors,” Superintend-ent of Police Amith Singhtold the media.

Her son, a prime accused, is on the run


Bengaluru

BJP leader’s murder:Cong. councillor held

Space4Life, a student teamfrom Naples in Italy, has wonthe contest to send an exper-iment to the moon on theTeamIndus spacecraft inDecember this year.

A second experimentfrom the Central Universityat Thiruvarur has also beenchosen. It will be sponsoredby Bengaluru-based bio-pharmaceuticals companyBiocon Ltd., TeamIndus an-nounced on Wednesday.

TeamIndus is itself takingpart in the $20-millionGoogle Lunar X Prize con-test along with four other

global teams. Its lander isscheduled to take off on theIndian PSLV rocket tentat-ively on December 28 andland on the moon on Janu-ary 26 next year, carrying itsown cameras and these ex-periments.

The GLXP contest is forthe first private-fundedspacecraft that will land onthe moon, briefly roam itssurface and send picturesand videos.

Announcing the results ofthe contest that was openedlast year, Sheelika Rav-ishankar, a senior Tea-mIndus official, said sixmore teams can be accom-

modated if sponsored. Theyinclude three Indian, a Per-uvian, a British and a U.S.proposal.

‘Great potential’Former ISRO Chairman andmember of the three-personjury, K. Kasturirangan, wasquoted as saying: “The dataresults from [Space4Life’s]experiment have the poten-tial to dramatically impactmankind.”

Dr. Natarajan called thempotentially transformationalexperiments, some of whichhad been tested only closerto earth, as on the Interna-tional Space Station.

TeamIndus picks Italian,Indian experiments for moon‘Six more teams can be accommodated, if sponsored’


BENGALURU

Demonetisation has madedigital wallets and e-bankingpart of the popular lexicon.As lakhs of people acrossBengaluru rely on cashlesstransactions, several well-known mandalis, samitisand sabhas have introduced‘e-hundis’ for this year’sRamothsava celebrations,slated to begin in the firstweek of April.

For a month, mandaliswill hold live concertsshowcasing the best ofIndian classical music.Organisers believe thate-hundis will be a hit aspeople can easily donatemoney with the click of abutton or via a swipe ontheir smart phones. “For ourRamanavami music fest thisyear, we will display 50prominent cutouts with

PayTM QR Codes at ourpandal in the Fort HighSchool, which has a seatingcapacity of 10,000,” saidAbhijith Varadaraj of theChamarajpet RamasevaMandali, one of the oldest inthe city founded by S.V.Narayanaswamy Rao nearlyeight decades ago.

In the traditional set-up,

people have to walk nearly300 ft to reach the hundis,which are placed on thefront row, to give theirofferings. “Now, they candonate at theirconvenience,” Abhijith said.He is hopeful that donationswill increase this year as themandal is expecting footfallsof up to 1.5 lakh people

during the month-longfestival. “We will have 300artists performing for 32days from April 5. We arealso requesting our canteenorganisers to put up QRCodes for e-wallets” saidAbhijith who decided on thismove after thousands ofrequests on the website.

‘Cash still popular’Other manadalis and samitisare also planning tointroduce e-hundis.However, most artists prefercash payments, sayorganisers. TheSeshadripuram RamasevaSamiti has decided to pay allthe artists by cheque thisyear. The Vani Kala Kendraat Basaveshwaranagar isconsidering the introductionof e-wallets.

“This time, we will makepayments with cashless

transfers. This will beextended to people as we areconsidering Paytm’s too,”said Lakshmi Keshava who,along with his committeemembers, is zeroing in onthe choices before the musicfest.

The Karanji Sri Rama SevaTrust at Basavanagudi has aweek-long Ramanavamimusic programme, atradition that has been onfor six decades. “We too areconsidering the inclusion ofe-wallets to make it easier forthe public,” said K.R.Anantharaman, ManagingTrustee.

The Jayarama SevaMandali in Jayanagar and theSri Rama Bhaktha Sabha atMalleswaram have alsodecided to bring in cashlesspayment options at theirvenues this year forRamanavami.

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Cashless Ramanavami fest on cards in BengaluruMandalis & sabhas have introduced e-hundis and e-wallets for annual celebrations beginning next month

Music bonanza: A ile photo of Ramanavami celebrations inBengaluru. V. SREENIVASAMURTHY

Ranjani Govind

Bengaluru

Huge task:Workers removing silt as part of the repair andmaintenance work at Yeleru canal, one of themajor sources of watersupply to Visakhapatnam. About 14 earth-movingmachines and 1,000men have been deployed for the work. C.V.SUBRAHMANYAM

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Reviving a precious resource

In a post-U.P. Assembly elec-tion bonanza to Andhra Pra-desh on Wednesday, theUnion Cabinet, chaired byPrime Minister NarendraModi, approved ‘special as-sistance measure’ for thesuccessor State of A.P. Thiswas done by way of specialdispensation in funding Ex-ternally Aided Projects(EAPs) and the irrigationcomponent of the Polav-aram project.

In a statement here, theCentre spelt out the modal-ities for implementation.

The Centre will providespecial assistance measure

to A.P., which would makeup for the additional Centralshare the State might havereceived during 2015-16 to2019-20. The assistance willbe provided by way of re-payment of loans and in-terest for the EAPs signedand disbursed during 2015-2016 to 2019-20 by the State.

On the Polvaram project,it said the Centre wouldprovide 100% funding forthe irrigation component.The A.P. government wouldexecute the project.

However, the overall co-ordination, design issues,etc., are to be dealt with bythe Polavaram ProjectAuthority.

Centre clears specialassistance to A.P.

Spells out modalities of implementation


NEW DELHI

Telangana Chief Minister K.Chandrasekhar Rao onWednesday ruled out earlyelections to the Assembly.

“I am not playing anytricks with a view to advan-cing polls,” Mr. Rao said inthe Legislative Councilwhile reacting to Congressleader N. Uttam KumarReddy’s charge that theTRS government appearedto be getting ready for mid-term polls, going by theconcessions offered to vari-ous sections of the peoplein the budget. Mr. Rao wasreplying to the debate onthe motion of thanks to theGovernor’s address to bothHouses of Legislature.

Terming the Opposi-tion’s criticism as hollow,he said the parties wouldnot get any opportunity totarget the governmentonce ‘Mission Bhagiratha’,meant to provide drinkingwater, was completed.

KCR rulesout earlyelectionsSpecial Correspondent

HYDERABAD

Buzdil hai voh jo jeetey jimarney sey dar gaya

Mayich tha jo kaam kuchaur kar gaya.

Jab maut aako karney lagimujhko salaam.

My valeykum salaam bolaaur mar gaya.

(It is a coward, he whofears death when still alive;It was but me who did some-thing else; When deathcame to me and did a sa-laam; I said valeykum sa-laam and promptly died.)

The audience roars withlaughter and wah-wah asGhouse Mohiuddin Ahmed,known by his takhallus (penname) Khamakha, deliversthe lines with dead-pan ex-pression. Then, a mandressed like a king, with bor-rowed costumes, drives hisputtering Vespa scooter to-wards Charminar fromGulzar Houz. And we are inthe midst of an engrossingfare promised by A Tongue

Untied, a documentary onDakhani by GautamPemmaraju.

90-minute filmBeginning with that archaicimage, Mr. Pemmarajufleshes out the story of a lan-guage that has been reducedto a ‘spoken vernacular’. Us-ing interviews, poetry read-ing sessions called mazihiyashayri and just plain conver-sations across the sub-con-tinent, including Karachiand other places in India,Mr. Pemmaraju has docu-

mented the journey of thelanguage that has the smelland freshness of the earth.

“The 90-minute docu-mentary is nearly ready andwill be released by the endof March,” says Mr.Pemmaraju.

Why does he call it a‘spoken vernacular’ and nota full-fledged language?“Earlier, there was literat-ure, there was poetry, butnow the language survivesonly in some pockets. Newliterature or poetry is not be-ing written or created.”

Pemmaraju’s documentary traces the journey of Dakhani

Serish Nanisetti

Hyderabad

’Spoken vernacular’: A scene in which aman dressed like a kingdrives his scooter towards Charminar. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

A language that ‘smells like earth’

Five-year-old city archerCherukuri Dolly Shivani is allset to take the world bystorm next month, not dueto her shooting expertise,but for her acting skills, as abiopic made by a U.S. crewwill hit the screens at theFull Frame DocumentaryFilm festival in Durham(England), which begins onApril 6.

Vijayawada-based Shivanidrew the attention of theworld when she created anational record in archery asa 35-month-old kid by haul-ing 200 points in five andseven-metre distances in thecompound segment in 2015.

Her parents, who took thesurrogacy route for herbirth, believe she is the rein-

carnation of their only son,Cherukuri Lenin, an interna-tional archer and coach,who died in a road accidentin 2010 while returning toVijayawada from Hyderabadafter attending a felicitationfunction for Delhi Common-wealth Games medallistsand coaches.

Shattered by their son’sdeath, CherukuriSatyanarayana and KrishnaKumari wanted the next gen-eration to take forward thelegacy of the Vijayawada-based Volga ArcheryAcademy and took the helpof advanced medical meth-ods to bring Shivani to thisworld.

U.S-based directorThe biopic took shape due tothe interest of Jamie Dobie,the film’s director from NewYork, who came to Vijay-awada make a short film onShivani in 2015.

Satyanarayana hastrained several archers whowon medals at the Asian andCommonwealth Games, buthe has a bigger plan for Shiv-ani – the Olympics.

Short ilm on child archerto be screened in DurhamDolly Shivani set a national record before she turned 3

J.R. Shridharan

VIJAYAWADA

A ile photo of 5-year-oldDolly Shivani. V. RAJU




CMYK

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NATION

New Patna High CourtChief Justice sworn inPATNA

Justice Rajendra Menon wason Wednesday sworn in asthe Chief Justice of the PatnaHigh Court by Bihar GovernorRamnath Kovind at a functionhere in Raj Bhawan. PatnaHigh Court Acting ChiefJustice Hemant Gupta hasbeen appointed as the ChiefJustice of the MadhyaPradesh High Court.Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,his Deputy Tejashwi PrasadYadav and others werepresent on the occasion. PTI

IN BRIEF

27 hurt in inter-casteclashes over poll resultBALLIA (UP)

Twenty-seven people wereinjured on Wednesday duringan inter-caste clash over theresult of the Assemblyelection in village Middha inFefna area here, police said.They said 22 Dalits and fiveThakurs were injured in theclash following which cross-FIRs were registered. A hutand a four-wheeler was alsoset afire. The police areprobing the matter and noarrest has yet been made. TheFefna Assembly constituencywas won by Upendra Tiwari ofthe BJP, who defeatedAmbika Chaudhary of BSP. PTI

Haryana DSP attemptssuicide, criticalPANCHKULA

A Deputy Superintendent(DSP) of the Haryana Policeon Wednesday tried toallegedly commit suicide byshooting himself with arevolver after he was namedas an accused in a case oftriple murder in Hisar district.“DSP Bhagwan Dass shothimself in the head from agun and was critically injured.The incident took place at thepolice guest house inPanchkula where he wasstaying. Later, he wasadmitted to a hospital inPanchkula,” DCP Panchkula,Anil Dhawan said.PTI

Absconding for almost amonth, controversial Sama-jwadi Party leader andformer Minister GayatriPrasad Prajapati was onWednesday nabbed by theUttar Pradesh police.

Mr. Prajapati and six oth-ers are accused of gangrap-ing a woman and attemptingto rape her minor daughter.He was sent to 14 days judi-cial custody after being pro-duced before a POSCO court.

The leader was “arrestedaround 7.00 am from a loca-tion in central Lucknow,” aspokesperson for UP DGPJaveed Ahmed said.

The police had last monthfiled a non-bailable warrantagainst the former Ministerand six others, including hissecurity guard, Chandrapal,in connection with the caseon the orders of the Su-preme Court.

A look out notice was also

issued against him while theauthorities impounded hispassport to prevent himfrom fleeing the country.

The six other accused inthe case have already in po-lice custody. While the UPSpecial Task Force nabbedtwo Ashish Shukla andAshok Tiwari from Noida onMarch 6, Mr. Prajapati’s se-curity guard Chandrapal was

also arrested soon after.On Tuesday, the police ar-

rested the three others in thecase -- Rupeshwar, VikasVerma and Amrendra Singh-- after a raid in Lucknow.

Planning to surrenderSSP Lucknow Manzil Sainisaid the police interceptedMr. Prajapati after a tip-offthat he planning to

surrender.Mr. Prajapati’s arrest

brings to an end a high-pitched drama, which alsobecame a part of the UP elec-tion campaign.

To the embarrassment ofthe SP, allegations againstMr. Prajapati surfaced in themiddle of the campaigning,with the BJP using it to targetChief Minister AkhileshYadav.

The BJP had accused theSP of shielding the leaderand not taking him into cus-tody despite a court order.

Prime Minister NarendraModi even used the phrase“Gayatri Prajapati Mantra” toaccuse Mr. Yadav’s govern-ment of providing patronageto the tainted leader.

Mr. Prajapati claimedthere was a “conspiracy” tomalign him and that he waseven willing to go through aNARCO test in the matter. Hesaid he was planning to sur-render but was arrested.

Ex-Minister Prajapati inallynabbed in central LucknowOn the run for almost a month, SP leader and six others are accused in a rape case

In police net:Gayatri Prajapati in police custody in LucknowonWednesday. PTI

Omar Rashid

Lucknow After steering the Congressto a stupendous victory inPunjab, Amarinder Singhwill take oath as Chief Minis-ter here on Thursday, a cere-mony which will be atten-ded by former PrimeMinister Manmohan Singhand Rahul Gandhi.

Capt. Singh, who turned75 on March 11 when As-sembly results were de-clared, will be sworn in asthe State’s 26th chief minis-ter along with nine Cabinetministers. The ceremonywill take place at Punjab RajBhavan at 10 a.m. and theoath will be administered byPunjab Governor V. P. SinghBadnore.

The State can have a max-imum of 18 ministers. TheCongress has 77 MLAs in theAssembly.

“Besides ManmohanSingh and Rahul Gandhi, Hi-machal Pradesh Chief Minis-ter Virbhadra Singh and Na-

tional Conference leadersFarooq Abdullah and his sonOmar Abdullah and formerUP Chief Minister AkhileshYadav will attend the swear-ing-in,” a party release said.

Capt Singh said his gov-ernment’s priority would beto bring the State’s eco-nomy, “which has beencompletely devastated un-der the SAD-BJP regime,back on the rails through

every possible measure andinnovative, out-of-the-boxinitiatives“.

Several newly electedMLAs including Navjot SinghSidhu, Manpreet SinghBadal, Brahm Mohindra,Tript Rajinder Singh Bajwa,Rana Gurjit Singh, PargatSingh, Razia Sultana, O. P.Soni are in the race for be-coming ministers, partysources said.

Manmohan Singh, Rahul to attend ceremony


Chandigarh

Amarinder to take oathas Punjab CM today

For those visiting the NuhMini-Secretariat, the suddentransformation over the pastcouple of months is hard tomiss. Motivational quotes,display boards, properlymanaged records, heritagegallery, reading zone, lushgreen lawns, clean corridorsand forthcoming staff marksthe new identity of the sec-retariat building situated inone of the most backwarddistricts of Haryana.

In a major image overhaul,the Nuh Mini-Secretariat,plagued by poor public ser-vices, bad management anduncleanliness till a few

months ago, has now be-come the first secretariat inthe State to earn an ISO9001: 2015 certificate adher-ing to the priniciples of qual-ity management and improv-ing the efficiency ofprocesses.

“I have been to Gurugramand Faridabad on a few occa-sions, but the Nuh secretariatbuilding is far more cleanerand the services here aremore prompt compared tothose two cities. Stinking toi-lets, broken window glasses,unkempt lawns and beggarsroaming inside the premisesare common sights in Guru-gram Mini-Secretariat, butnot anymore in Nuh,” said

Feroze Khan, a local residentvisiting the NunMini-Secretariat.

But the turnaround was

easier said than done.“When I took over almost ayear ago, it was unthinkablefor the secretariat to earn the

coveted certificate. Let alonethe quality of servicesrendered to the public, thebuilding did not even havedrinking water facility forvisitors. The toilets weredirty and the elevators weredysfunctional. When citymagistrate Pradeep Ahlawatmooted the idea of an ISOcertificate for the building, Isuggested to him to get thebasic issues addressed beforeaiming so high. But we havenow achieved it with the sup-port and dedication of thestaff,” said Deputy Commis-sioner, Nuh, Mani RamSharma.

Additional Deputy Com-missioner Naresh Narwal

said effective delivery of pub-lic services and citizen satis-faction was one of the majorpre-requisites for the certific-ate, besides clean premises.“We hired a consultancyagency for the purpose andthe agency representativesmet the secretariat officialsto collect their feedback,gave power-point presenta-tions to make them awareabout the certificate condi-tions and explored the reas-ons for the poor public ser-vices. The agency evenconducted a pre-audit beforethe International Certifica-tion Services (ICS) team vis-ited for inspection and gaveuseful tips to officials on how

to deliver better services,”said Mr. Narwal, one of theforces behind the change.

Similar certificateAfter three days of continu-ous assessment, and reviewsacross a wide range of de-partments, the ICS, an inde-pendent certification and in-spection body, finallyapproved the certification ofthe building. The certificateholds good for three years.

Encouraged by the suc-cess, Mr. Sharma has nowdecided to bid for a similarcertificate for the two hospit-als in the district to ensurebetter services to patientsand visitors.

Nuhmini-secretariat gets makeover with display boards, heritage galleryPlagued by poor public services, it has now become the irst secretariat in Haryana to earn the coveted ISO 9001: 2015 certiication

Ashok Kumar

NUH

New identity: Clean corridor of the building.

Senior Supreme Court ad-vocate H. S .Phoolka willbe Leader of the Opposi-tion in the Punjab As-sembly with the AamAadmi Party MLAs elect-ing him as leader of the

legislature party.Sukhpal Singh Khaira

was appointed the party’schief whip.

“We will fight for therights of the people inPunjab and highlight theplight of farmers,” Mr.Phoolka said.

Phoolka to be Leaderof the OppositionPress Trust of India

New Delhi




CMYK

A ND-ND

NATION

IN BRIEF

EPF scheme to enablemembers buy homesNEW DELHI

The Government will amendthe EPF scheme to enablearound 4 crore members ofthe retirement fund bodyEPFO to withdraw up to 90%of their fund for makingdown payments while buyinghomes, Parliament wasinformed on Wednesday. Theamendment will also allowthe EPFO subscribers to usetheir EPF accounts to pay(EMIs) of home loans. PTI

Elderly man, son foundmurderedJAIPUR

A 73-year-old man and hisson were found murdered intheir house in Mansarovararea here, the police said onThursday.Their decomposed bodieswere discovered last nightafter neighbours complainedof a foul smell, SHOMansarover police stationSurendra Singh said.- PTI

A leaflet, described as a‘fatwa’, issued by 46 Muslimclerics in Assam against bud-ding singer Nahid Afrin hastriggered a controversy.

The 15-year-old girl, a run-ner-up in a reality televisionshow, was taken aback fol-lowing the issue of the leaf-let which has argued againsther performing in a musicalshow later in the month.However, a member of theMuslim Personal Law Boardof Assam said it is not a‘Fatwa’ but “an appeal”given in the form of a notice.

The leaflet, a copy ofwhich is with The Hindu,neither mentioned the nameof the girl, nor threatenedher as was projected by themedia. The girl’s motherFatima Ansari said they hadnot seen the ‘fatwa’ or thenotice.

“We heard that such aleaflet was issued asking ourdaughter not to perform inthe college. Nahid is

shattered,” Ms. Ansari said.

‘Tough time’“We had a tough time whenshe performed well in In-dian Idol show in 2015.Many people called usBangladeshis and anothersection, the Maulanas, saidwe are not doing the rightthing by engaging with suchthings as music; ‘it is a sin,’they said. And now this hasoccurred —Nahid has been

crying since she heard aboutthe incident,” said Ms. An-sari, who hails from UttarPradesh.

Since Tuesday, the issuehas snowballed into a majortalking point in Assam,while many of State’s Minis-ters and MLAs have visitedthe family. “Even Chief Min-ister Sarbananda Sonowalcalled up to say that the gov-ernment is with us,” said Ms.Ansari.

It’s not a fatwa but an appeal, says Muslim Law Board

Suvojit Bagchi

Kolkata

On song:Nahid Afrin (right) is greeted by students on herarrival in Guwahati onMonday. PTI

Clerics ‘warn’ buddingsinger against show

Court’s poser to BMC onKapil Sharma matterMUMBAI

The Bombay High Court onWednesday asked theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation whether or notthey wanted to pursuecomedian Kapil Sharma’salleged illegal construction inhis house or wanted the civilcourt to look into it. A divisionbench was hearing a petitionfiled by the 35-year-oldcomedian who moved courtaggrieved by an order datedApril 28, 2016 issued by theBMC.

Out of control: Indian Air Force personnel inspect a Chetak helicopter that crashed while attempting to land in a village nearBamrauli Air Base in Allahabad onWednesday. Reports said the crew escaped unhurt. AFP


Chopper down

A Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraftof the Indian Air Force(IAF) crashed near Barmerin Rajasthan on Wednes-day. Three civilians on theground were injured in theincident but both the pilotsmanaged to eject safely.

This is the seventh crashof a Su-30MKI aircraft sincetheir induction in 1997. Itwas on a routine sortiewhen it crashed near theUtarlai air base, a seniorIAF official said.

The injured civilians areNarayan Ram, his daugh-ter-in-law and grandson.The incident occurred nearShivkar village in the Sadarpolice station area, policesaid.

Sukhoi jetcrashes, 3civilians hurtSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Union Minister NirmalaSitharaman told the RajyaSabha on Wednesday thatthe government had askedthe Delhi police to file FIRsunder the SC/ST Act andabetment to suicide —against unknown persons —in relation to the alleged sui-cide of a Dalit student atJawaharlal Nehru University.She told the Upper Housethat she had visited the fam-ily of MuthukrishananJeevanantham, a resident ofJhelum hostel, who had al-legedly hanged himself out-side the campus.

“It is true that, within 48hours, the FIR which was tobe filed had not been filed.But, now, after we all satthere and heard every-body’s voice — father, guard-ian, student leaders andfriends of the boy — veryclearly directed the police,as per instructions from thehon. Home Minister, that by

12 o’ clock the FIR should befiled and a copy should begiven to father, guardianand to any number of stu-dents who would want acopy of it,” Ms. Sitharamansaid.

She also said that theHome Minister would con-sider the demand of the stu-dent’s father that the de-ceased’s two sisters – one anurse and the other aprivate school teacher – begiven jobs. The elaboratestatement came in responseto Opposition members rais-ing the matter in the RajyaSabha in Zero Hour.

JNU suicide: Centreorders swift action

Jobs for sisters to be considered


New Delhi

Nirmala Sitharaman

There is no fair play with ter-rorists and a country has touse all its tools to crackdown on terrorists to avoidcasualties on the part of se-curity forces, said Avi Di-chter, Chairman of the For-eign Affairs and DefenceCommittee and a Member ofParliament in Israel, justify-ing the disproportionate useof force in fighting terror.

“If it is needed, it is au-thorised to use an F-16fighter jet against a terroristarmed with an M-16 rifle.That is the only way. Be-cause, otherwise if you areseeking fair play, may be intrying to catch the terroristyou are going to lose yourown people…,” Mr. Dichtersaid in his address at the

Counter Terrorism Confer-ence 2017 in the Capital.

The quantum of force infighting terrorists has beenan issue of much debate inIndia.

The Indian Army has ahigh attrition rate in itscounter-terror operationswhich has gone up steadilyin recent times.

Initial firingMost causalities on the partof security forces tend to oc-cur in the initial firing byterrorists.

Mr. Dichter referred tosuch instances and sugges-ted use of heavy force aslong as civilians were notaround. However, he cau-tioned on the need to stickto rules.

Countries will always win

the war against terrorists, hestated, if they connected ascountries, cooperating andgenerous in sharing informa-tion and at the same timeare fully convinced that theyare obeying the law as it iswritten.

“Because when you arestarting to cross lines and tobypass laws you are gettinginto trouble, you are losingyour values…,” he saidspeaking to The Hindu.

With both India and Israelbeing victims of terrorism,Mr. Dichter said cooperationhas increased over time butadded there was scope to ex-pand it further.

With the threat of the Is-lamic State going up sharplyin India, there is emphasison both sides to expand thecooperation.

Israeli MP justiies disproportionate use of force

Dinakar Peri

NEW DELHI

‘No fair play in ighting terrorists’

To ensure that militants’ donot derail the election pro-cess in Jammu and Kashmir,an additional 54 companiesof paramilitary forces willbe deployed for the smoothconduct of by-polls to theLok Sabha constituencies of

Srinagar and Anantnag.As the parties, including

the National Conferenceand the Congress, have ex-pressed apprehension overthe security scenario, J&KDirector General of PoliceS.P. Vaid said: “The policeare fully geared to hold viol-ence-free elections.”

54 additional companiesfor Kashmir LS by-pollsSpecial Correspondent

Srinagar

The Congress has allegedthat ₹1,000 crore had beenspent by the BJP to lure non-Congress legislators to forma coalition government inGoa.

Addressing a press confer-ence late on Wednesdayevening, AICC secretary Gir-ish Chodankar alleged thatthe BJP’s general secretary inGoa, Sadanand Shet Tanavde“knew the details of thehorse-trading and pay-offsmade to MLAs.”

‘Congress frustrated’When contacted for his re-sponse, Mr. Tanavde said,“This is an outburst of frus-tration by Mr. Chodankarand his party. The MGP, GFPand independents have allcome to BJP on their own.”

He asserted that there was“not a single paisa transac-tion in this” and added thatthe BJP does not indulge insuch horse-trading.

On his part Mr.Chodankar also objected tothe appointment of two-timePanaji MLA SidharthKunkolienkar as the pro-temSpeaker of the Assembly andquestioned his neutrality.

“A pro-tem Speaker has tobe the senior-most memberof the Assembly. Mr.

Kunkolienkar has alsoworked as a political assist-ant to Manohar Parrikarwhen he was the Chief Minis-ter from 2012 to 2014. Howcan he be fair as pro-temSpeaker?” asked Mr.Chodankar.

Mr. Parrikar was sworn inas the CM on Tuesday with

the backing of 22 MLAs com-prising 13 BJP MLAs, threeMLAs each from the Goa For-ward Party and the Maha-rashtrawadi Gomantak Partyand three independentMLAs.

He has to prove his major-ity in the House onThursday.

Congress alleges ₹1000 crpayof to lure MLAs in GoaBJP denies charge, says it does not indulge in horse-trading

Hot seat:Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on his irst day in oice onWednesday. PTI

Prakash Kamat

Panaji

The Enforcement Director-ate has attached assetsworth over ₹414 crore ofLakshmi Energy & FoodsLimited in connection withthe money launderingprobe into the NationalSpot Exchange Limited(NSEL) scam, in which13,000 investors werecheated of ₹5,600 crore.

The agency had re-gistered a case under thePrevention of Money Laun-dering Act, on the basis ofan FIR lodged by the Eco-nomic Offences Wing inOctober 2013.

It is alleged that the ac-cused persons induced theinvestors to trade on theNSEL platform.

They created documentslike bogus warehouse re-ceipts and falsified the ac-counts to deceive the in-vestors.

“Of the ₹5,600 croreswindled by the accusedpersons, total liability ofLOIL group of companies —consisting three defaulters:LOIL Health Foods Lim-ited, LOIL Overseas FoodsLimited and LOIL Contin-ental Foods Limited — was₹720.30 crore,” said an EDstatement.

ED attachesassets worth₹414 crore inNSEL scamSpecial Correspondent

New Delhi

Team formed to nabnotorious gangsterMUZAFFARNAGAR

The police on Wednesday saida special team has beenconstituted to arrest anotorious gangster whoescaped from Mainpuri jailrecently.Several raids were conductedat the whereabouts ofMurshad Ali, including hishouse at Khan Daali village inthe district yesterday, theysaid. - PTI




CMYK

A ND-ND

EDITORIAL

It would be tempting, but dangerous, to see the

deadly ambush by Maoists in Chhattisgarh’s Sukma

district on Saturday as just a desperate act of a fading

insurgent group. It must, instead, serve as a wake-up

call for the security forces to beef up their standard op-

erating procedures, especially intelligence-gathering

capabilities, in the Maoist heartland in central India.

Twelve personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force

were killed in Sunday’s attack, and four others sus-

tained injuries. A road-opening party of the CRPF’s 219

battalion was ambushed about 450 km from the State

capital Raipur. The insurgents used improvised explos-

ive devices, country-made mortars and arrows moun-

ted with explosive heads, and made of with some

weapons and radio sets of the force. HomeMinister Ra-

jnath Singh told the Lok Sabha that extremist groups

were restless because of the “unprecedented success of

the forces against them” in 2016, especially in Chhattis-

garh where there was a 15% drop in left-wing extremist

incidents. However, the precision and scale of the at-

tack are an indication that the Maoists continue to hold

formidable sway in Sukma, their long-time stronghold.

In 2013 they ambushed a convoy of Congress leaders in

Sukma district, killing more than 25 persons, including

former UnionMinister V.C. Shukla.

There have been periodic Maoist attacks in the re-

gion. It is estimated that over the last two decades at

least 15,000 people have been killed in Maoist-related

violence. More than 3,000 of them were security per-

sonnel. And while violence is down from its peak in

2009-10, in 2016 oicial estimates put the toll at 213 ci-

vilians, 65 security force personnel and 89Maoists. The

governmenthas over thepast decade takenapatchy ap-

proach to bringing the so-called “red corridor” under

its writ. The only presence of the state consistently vis-

ible across the region has been of the security forces,

not of the civil administration. Counter-insurgency op-

erations by the security forces have often been under-

mined by poor intelligence, lagging alertness of the se-

curity forces and the absence of a multi-layered

political strategy. TheMaoists do not survivemerely on

ideology; they have a well-oiled machinery providing

protection to various interest groups in the absence of a

robust state responsive to the security and welfare

needs of the civilian population. Ultimately, any ight

against non-state actors will be efective only when the

state puts forward its combinedmight to exhibit what it

can — and indeedmust — provide to the people.

Gauntlet at SukmaThe Maoist ambush suggests that the state

has a lot more to do to establish its writ

Until Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

started a high-voltage campaign for next

month’s referendum on constitutional reforms

that give him more powers, relations between Ankara

and the European Union were relatively stable, though

not without glitches. Trouble started when Mr. Er-

dogan’s allies drew up plans to organise campaign ral-

lies in European cities to mobilise support among the

tens of thousands of Turks living in Europe who are eli-

gible to vote in the April 16 referendum. Several

European countries, including Austria, Switzerland

and theNetherlands, and someGerman towns, banned

such rallies, raising security concerns as well as fear of

domestic political repercussions. Mr. Erdogan, how-

ever, turned this into a Turkey versus West spat. When

German townsblocked the rallies,Mr. Erdoganaccused

the country of “Nazi practices”. When the Netherlands

refused landing rights to a plane carrying Turkish For-

eign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was on his way to

address a referendum rally, Mr. Erdogan called the

country “fascist” and “a Nazi remnant”. Ties between

theNetherlands and Turkey deteriorated rapidly there-

after, with Ankara efectively removing the Dutch am-

bassador. The Turkish government has also hinted that

it would scrap an agreement reached with Europe last

year to curb the passage of migrants through Turkey in

return for inancial help from the EU.

The referendum is crucial for Mr. Erdogan’s ambi-

tious plans to overhaul Turkey’s political system. If he

gets the reforms approved by a majority of voters, Tur-

key would move towards a presidential system. He

would then handpick his own cabinet and his Justice

andDevelopment Party’sMPs and gain at least two ive-

year terms uncontested. It is therefore unsurprising

that Mr. Erdogan is turning the diplomatic crisis into a

political battle to appeal to nationalist sections of the

electorate. But the crisis could have undesirable out-

comes. European leaders fear that Mr. Erdogan’s out-

reach could help the anti-Muslim far-right parties in the

continent. In the Netherlands, which went to the polls

on Wednesday, the far-right candidate, Geert Wilders,

has already questioned the “loyalty” of Dutch Muslims

ofTurkishorigin andcalled for a tough response toAnk-

ara. Mr. Erdogan might win short-term political di-

vidends from this ongoing spat, but in the longer runhe

is endangering both Turkey’s ties with Europe and the

prospects of the hundreds of thousands of Turks living

in the continent. European countries could also have

avoided extreme reactions, such as refusing to give

landing rights to a plane carrying Turkey’s ForeignMin-

ister. Such escalation is politically unwise, given the

context in which Mr. Erdogan is running his campaign.

Instead, the Netherlands and other countries could

have opted for direct engagement with Ankara to avoid

a showdown. After all, Turkey and Europe need each

other. The EU is Turkey’s largest trading partner. And

Turkey is a NATOmember. Both sides will be tested on

whether they can turn the focus to more positive as-

pects of this complicated relationship.

It’s complicatedTurkey and the EU nations can’t aford to wait

till the referendum to de-escalate tensions

The big verdict in the big Stateis out. It highlights several im-portant trends, which though

speciic to Uttar Pradesh, have im-plications far beyond it. The spec-tacular political triumph of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is thestrongest evidence yet of the tec-tonic shift in progress since the2014 Lok Sabha election; to all in-tents and purposes, the BJP’s re-surgence in U.P. consolidates therightward shift in Indian politicsand alters the balance of power toits advantage ahead of the 2019general election.

Nationalisation of electionsAt a broader level, the historic out-come represents the nationalisa-tion of State elections which is akey element of the BJP’s strategy toestablish its electoral dominanceacross the country. The similarityin the national and State electionoutcomes indicates the re-nation-alisation of elections. What under-pins nationalisation? Mr. Modi wasfront and centre in the campaign;thanks to him, the party won amassivemajority in a State electionwithout a local face. People votedforMr.Modi in the State election asthough they were voting in a gen-eral election. This knocked out theearlier trend of regionalisationwhen people voted in the generalelection as though they were vot-ing in State elections.

Also, people voted for Mr. Modieven though he has not donemuchto deliver on the promises of devel-opment, and moreover has notdone much for U.P. But the publicdissatisfaction with the incumbentState government was enough topersuade voters to believe thePrime Minister’s promise of devel-opment rather than either of thetwo State-based alternatives on of-

fer. Polarisation was activelyfuelledby communal appeals,withMr. Modi taking the lead in stokingthe feeling of discriminationagainst Hindus, pushing in the pro-cess a shift towards majoritarianconsolidation. The election cam-paign which started on the highnote of development then began totraverse the proverbial ground ofpolarisation. Not a single Muslimwas given a BJP ticket. This sent aclear message that the BJP wouldnot ‘appease minorities’, and thatMuslims would be shown theirplace. Muslims have indeed beenshown their place in this election.

As in 2014, it was not overt com-munalism or straightforward de-velopment rhetoric; it was a headycocktail of both elements couchedwithin a discourse of ‘communal-ised development’. This mix wasdressed up in the political lan-guage of ‘nationalism’ which ap-peals to large parts of U.P.’s elector-ate. The secular parties wereunable to ofer an efectivecounter-narrative to thisdiscourse.

In a surcharged political cli-mate, the critical issue is not theproject of ‘development for all’,but the prospect of developmentfor certain groups cleverly articu-lated in the rhetoric of discrimina-tion against none. The odious com-munal reference to graveyards andcrematoriums in Mr. Modi’sFatehpur speech repeated by BJP

president Amit Shah immediatelyafterwards and laced with ‘KASAB’left no scope formisunderstandingwhich way the politics of develop-ment was going. The mordant dis-course split U.P., which was oncedeined by cultural syncretism andGanga-Jumni culture, alongHindu-Muslim lines.

MarginalisingMuslimsIn the event, many voters werewilling tobuy into theBJP’s chargesof minority appeasement.Muslims, on the other hand, wereexpected to vote en masse for theSamajwadi Party (SP)-Congress al-liance in order to check the BJP’sadvance but it seems this didn’tquite happen because manyMuslims reportedly voted for theBahujan Samaj Party. Nonetheless,the prospect of Muslim consolida-tion behind the SP was used as arallying cry for the polarisation ofHindu votes.

While the BJP leadership waspropagating itsmantra of ‘develop-ment for all’, it lost no opportunityto indulge in ‘community-orienteddevelopmentalism’ of its own. It re-peatedly attacked the SP govern-ment for discriminating betweenHindus and Muslims even at thelevel of providing basic facilitieslike electricity. The SP governmentreleaseddetaileddata of electricityprovisions during Eid and Diwalifestivals, but it certainly didn’t stopthe BJP from continuing to make

wild charges of discrimination andgiving the impression that it is theonly party to challenge the patron-age system practised by the SP andCongress. Undeterred by facts, itwent on to complain that Muslimswere the only ones to beneit fromthe Kanya Vidya Dhan Yojana, un-der which the U.P. governmentprovides assistance of ₹30,000 toeach girl student who has passedthe 12th board examinations withdistinction. It is evident that post-truth is having a ield day in U.P. Ablithedisregard for facts character-ised the political campaign of theBJP in this election.

U.P. has been the epicentre ofidentity politics for over two dec-ades but this election exposed thelimits of the politics of socialjustice. The OBC and Dalit move-ment, which started of as a polit-ical voiceof themarginalised socialgroups giving thema sense of parti-cipation in political afairs, hadbeen reduced to the politics of re-servations with beneits corneredby particular segments of thesecastes which alienated sub-groupswithin the wider category. The BJPwas quick to take advantage of thediscontent of large social segmentswith old style identity politics.Turning the politics of socialjustice on its head, the RashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS)/BJPcrafted a broad-based identitypolitics on the ruinsof theoldpolit-ical order which had outlived itsutility for a critical mass of OBCs. Itmobilised a new bloc of voters byshowering attention on the mostbackward among them — the non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dalits —that blunted the politics of BSP andSP in one stroke. The terms of en-gagement were unmistakablydriven by identity and motivatedby resentment towards Yadav-Muslim domination under SP rule.The BJP’s idea of community polit-ics gained new traction as a largenumber of Hindu voters saw it as amore capacious identity whichaligns them to a larger narrativethan the fragmentation inherent incaste politics.

The strategy of reverse social en-gineering that Mr. Shah scripted

was clearly aimed atmobilising themost backward castes, notablynon-YadavOBCs andnon-JatavDal-its, to capture the heartland State.In pursuit of this agenda, he dis-tributed tickets copiously to non-YadavOBCs and to non-Jatavs in re-served seats. Mr. Modi’s assiduouswooing of non-Yadav OBCs andDalits convinced large sections ofthem to desert the SP and BSP inthe 2014 Lok Sabha election andagain in the 2017 Assemblyelections.

The power of propagandaFinally, the stunning victory em-phasises the importance of propa-ganda and messaging. No one canmatch up to the appeal and the en-ergy of Mr. Modi when it comes tonon-stop election campaigning,and the organisational capacity oftheRSSwhen it comes to relentlesspropaganda and booth manage-ment executed in this election by1.4 lakh booth samitis. Demonet-isation is a good illustration of thepower of propaganda. Voters inU.P. seem to connect to Mr. Modi’spolitical messaging andweremorethan willing to forgive the hard-ships inlicted on them by note-bandi.

In the end, a fractured opposi-tion too helped the BJP. In a three-cornered contest, the BJP had astrong advantage. The party’s voteshare jumped from just 15% in 2012to 39.6% in 2017, which was largeenough to win more than a three-fourths majority against a dividedopposition. The combined voteshare of the BSP (22.2%) and theSP-Congress alliance (28.2%) addsup to over 50%. The Opposition’sonly hope of taking on Mr. Modiand the ruling party is to unite on acommon platform and ensure thatthe vote is not split since 50% ofvoters have not been swayed byBJP’s ideology of ‘communaliseddevelopment’, which is an essen-tial part of its growth strategy.

Zoya Hasan is Professor Emerita, Centrefor Political Studies, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity and Distinguished Professor,Council for Social Development, NewDelhi

Safron storm in Uttar PradeshU.P. has been the epicentre of identity politics, but this election exposed the limits of the politics of social justice

zoya hasan

GETTYIM

AGES

Apartheid is a powerful word,and the United Nations doesnot use it loosely. But now, in

a report released on March 15 inBeirut, Lebanon, the UN has pro-claimed that Israel ‘is guilty of thecrime of apartheid’. This is a verysigniicant judgment, one with im-portant ramiications for theUN, forthe International Court of Justiceand for the internationalcommunity.

In 2015, the UN Economic andSocial Commission forWesternAsia(ESCWA) was charged by its mem-ber-states to study whether Israelhas established an apartheid re-gime. ESCWA asked two Americanacademics — Richard Falk and Vir-ginia Tilley — to undertake thestudy. The report that they havenow produced makes the ‘gravecharge’ that Israel is guilty ofapartheid not only in the WestBank, Gaza and East Jerusalem —the Occupied Territory — but alsowithin its own boundaries andagainst the Palestinian refugees.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin

Netanyahu was in Washington, DCrecently tomeetU.S. PresidentDon-ald Trump. At that meeting, Mr.Trump seemed to disregard the in-ternational consensus towards thecreationof two states. In fact, as thisreport and others show, the two-state solution has been long viti-ated. The Israeli government’s il-legal Jewish settlement project intheWest Bank and its virtual annex-ation of East Jerusalemmakes it im-possible to imagine the establish-ment of Palestine in that region.What exists is one state with anapartheid system, with Israeli Jewsin a dominant position over thePalestinians. The new UN reportspeaks to this disturbing apartheidsituation not only in the OccupiedTerritory of the West Bank and EastJerusalem, but in all of Israel.

A ‘demographic threat’One reason why the Israeli govern-ment is unwilling to consider a one-state solution with equal rights forall Israelis and Palestinians is whatthey call a ‘demographic threat’. Ifthe 12 million Palestinians — exilesand refugees included — would becitizens of this one state, then theywould dwarf the six million Jews inthe country. The UN report arguesthat Israel is a ‘racial regime’ be-cause its institutions are premisedon maintaining a Jewish nation by

techniques of suppression andexpulsion.

Palestinians who have Israeli cit-izenship (ezrahut) do not have theright to nationality (le’um), whichmeans that they can only access in-ferior social services, face restrict-ive zoning laws, and ind them-selves unable to freely buy land. AllPalestinians — whether those wholive in Haifa (Israel) or in Ain al-Hil-weh (Lebanon) — sufer the con-sequences of Israeli apartheid. Thisindignity is punctuated with lawsthat humiliate the Palestinians. Thelatest law — the Muezzin Bill — im-poses limits on the Muslim call to

prayer in Israel and East Jerusalem.Matters would be less grave if the

Israeli political system allowedPalestinians rights to make theircase against apartheid-like condi-tions. Article 7(a) of the Basic Lawprohibits any political party fromconsidering a challenge to thestate’s Jewish character. Since thisdescription of the Israeli staterenders Palestinians as second-class citizens, their voting rights arereduced to merely an airmation oftheir subordination.

Since most of the world’s stateshave signed the Convention AgainstApartheid, they are now obliged toact to punish instances ofapartheid. Two recommendationsfrom the report stand out. First, theauthors ask that the InternationalCriminal Court (ICC) investigate thesituation in Israel. The ICC’s Prosec-utor Fatou Bensouda opened an in-vestigation on Israel’s 2014 bomb-ing of Gaza and on the illegalsettlements in the West Bank.Second, the report asks that mem-ber states allow ‘criminal prosecu-tions of Israeli oicials demon-strably connected with thepractices of apartheid against thePalestinian people’.

When the UN Security Councildeclared late last year that Israel’ssettlements in the Occupied Territ-ory were illegal, there was worry in

Israel that Ms. Bensouda would ac-celerate her work. Others in Israelsaid that there was nothing new inthe resolution, which neither usedtheword ‘grave’ todescribe the situ-ation nor considered Israeli actionsto be a war crime. But the new re-port doesboth. If it is acknowledgedthat Israel is an apartheid state,then this is tantamount to warcrime (in the 1977 Protocol Addi-tional to the Geneva Conventions)and to a crime against humanity (inthe 1973 Apartheid Convention andthe 1998 Rome Statute of the ICC).

India’s reactionTo prepare the ground for PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s trip to Is-rael later this year, Foreign Secret-ary S. Jaishankar will soon go to Is-rael. Word comes from the Ministryof External Afairs that it is likelythatMr.Modiwill not visit theOccu-pied Territory, which will be a snubto Palestine. India’s overall reactionto this report will deine Mr. Modi’sattitude towards Israel. The appear-ance of this report — and its strongconclusions — should give Mr. Modipause before he shreds decades ofconsensus for Palestine from India.

Vijay Prashad, Professor of InternationalStudies at Trinity College, is the author of‘The Death of the Nation and the Future ofthe Arab Revolution’

Crimes of apartheidA new UN report should strengthen the global consensus against Israeli policy

vijay prashad

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Largely olineAccording to Census 2011,close to 69% of India’spopulation lives in ruralareas. A lack of accessibilityto efective digitalinfrastructure andcomputing abilities is whatposes amajor impedimentin creating a Digital India(“On computing ability,rural India lost in thewoods”, March 15). Mostrural schools do not teachcomputer education in thecurriculum. It is time thegovernmentmade basiccomputer educationmandatory and provided acomputer in every villageschool. Even though thepenetration of smartphonesis on the rise, most peopleare still ignorant about theuse of digital transactionsand e-governance in rural aswell as urban India. Theprogramme to provide allgram panchayats withoptical ibre connections

still remains a pipe dream.In short, Digital Indiacannot become a realitywithout providing digitalfacilities and enablinge-literacy in every village.Gagan Pratap Singh,

Noida, Uttar Pradesh

■ The use of a personalcomputer, irrespective of itbeing in a rural or urbansetting, primarily dependson one’s interest andattitude and is not related tothe knowledge or capabilityof a user. Another reason forlow digitalisation is thatmost Indians are habituatedto interacting with peoplerather thanmachines,which is in completecontrast to what it is in theWest.Kshirasagara Balaji Rao,

Hyderabad

VaccinemisconceptionsSoon after themeaslesrubella vaccination

campaign was announcedby the government, strangemessages began to becirculated on social media. Ifoundmost of them to bebaling givenmybackground — I am an internfrom amedical college inMangaluru whowas sent toa few schools on theoutskirts of the city toeducate parents about MR.For instance, wewalkedinto a classroom to tellparents all they needed toknow but found that thosein the room had alreadymade up their minds aboutwhat to tell us. They saw usas agents of the governmenttrying to reduce thepopulation in the name ofanMR campaign. In theend, we could convince afew parents about the needto vaccinate their children.There are no side efects,but a fewmay develop feverwhich is self-limiting. FortheMR vaccine campaign to

be a success, we need tocommunicate the rightmessage.Prasanth G. Narahari

Attavar, Mangaluru

Prejudice and learningThere is an urgent need toenlist experts to revamp theexisting education system(“JNU student from TN endslife”, March 14). The systemis impoverished and cannotensure the holisticdevelopment of children,which leaves especiallystudents from anunderprivilegedbackground vulnerable.Children with educatedparents generally have arobust internal defencemechanism and learn toweather the inadequaciesembedded in the system.Children who do not inheritsuch amechanism fall preyto variousmaladies.Nagarajamani M.V.,

Hyderabad

■ Maternity beneitsThe Central government’sdecision to increase paidmaternity leave for womenin the organised sector to 26weeks is a progressive step(Editorial – “Partial cover”,March 11).In this connection, onemust note that theWorldHealth Organisation hadalso recommendedexclusive breastfeeding ofchildren for the irst 24weeks.Themove should beexpanded to theunorganised sectors as amajority of the workingwomen force is here.Besidesmaternity leave,mothers need nutritiousfood andmedical facilities,either free or at subsidedrates. The governmentshould ensure these.Bobbili Sridhara Rao,

Hyderabad

■ I would also suggest that

facilities to enhanceopportunities for self-employment throughhousehold industries suchas easy credit, free skilltraining in themaking ofmarketable products andservices, help in acquiringmobility through the use ofcycles or scooters and babycare centres near theirhomes would helpmarginalised women retaintheir jobs after childbirth.Women labourers in theunorganised sector alreadyface obstacles in the form ofdiscriminatory wages, lackof job security and denial ofgovernment facilities.Hence, if the governmentresorts to inclusiveness inrendering labour rights tothese womenworkers, theywould continue tocontribute to GNP.Rameeza A. Rasheed,

Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to [email protected] must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

more letters online:

www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/

CMYK

A ND-ND

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DATA POINT

The meeting which the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi,had with the leaders of the Opposition parties on the eve ofthe Fourth Lok Sabha failed to reach any agreement on severalissues, particularly on the choice of the Speaker. It is learntthat the Communist Party (Marxist), the Praja Socialist Party,the Jan Sangh and the Samyukta Socialist Party whose leadersattended this morning’s [March 15, New Delhi] meeting haveinformally agreed to the choice of Mr. Tenneti Viswanatham,who has been elected to the Lok Sabha from Andhra, as thecandidate for Speakership. The Swatantra Party, whose leader,Mr. Masani, attended the meeting, seems to be in favour of Mr.Kunte, former Speaker of the Bombay Assembly, who hasbeen elected as an Independent candidate from Maharashtra.But it is expected that the Swatantra may not object to Mr. Ten-neti Viswanatham since all other Opposition parties seem tobe agreed on him.

FIFTY YEARS AGO MARCH 16, 1967

P.M.’s talks with Opposition leaders

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FROM ARCHIVES

The Ninth Session of the Nambudiri Yogashema Sabha, therepresentative association of the Nambudiris of Malabar,Cochin and Travancore was held at Trichur on Sunday andMonday last in a huge pavilion put up for the occasion. Thesession was attended by about five hundred Nambudiris fromthe different parts of Kerala. There were also a number of visit-ors. Mr. Cherumukku Vaideekar Vasudevan Somayachipadpresided.

Mr. Karur Damodaram Nambuduripad, the President of theReception Committee, in an interesting speech welcomed theassembly.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO MARCH 16, 1917

A successful session

OnMarch 9, a day after Interna-tional Women’s Day, Parlia-ment cleared the Maternity Be-neit (Amendment) Bill. UnionLabour Minister Bandaru Dat-tatreya called it his “humble giftto women.”The Bill extends the period of

paidmaternity leave forwomenworking in the organised sectorto 26weeks from the current 12.

This is applicable to all organisations that employ 10 or morepeople. Although on the face of it this is a Bill that will beneitwomen employees, in its implementation it is likely to ad-versely impact women in the workplace. The gender ratio incorporate India is already highly lopsided. In 2015, women ac-counted foronly 21%of the jobs at theentry level tomanagerialposition, according to a report, From Intention to Impact,published by Catalyst, a non-proit organisation. Even as HRmanagers strive to increase the genderdiversity in their organ-isations, they are wary about the added costs of hiring young,fertilewomen. This extension ofmaternity leave to sixmonthswill efectively double these costs and this is likely to result inmuch fewer women being employed in the corporate sector.In progressive countries, at least a part of the maternity

costs are borne by the government. In India, this is entirelypassed on to companies. There is both a direct as well as an in-direct cost to longmaternity leaves. “We have to also considerthat, especially when teams are small, the cost of the absenteeemployee is bornebyother employees, not somuch inmoney,but in termsofworking additional hours tomakeup for the ab-sence,” the HR head of a large organisation said. “Therefore,when we make a hiring decision, we have to think about theimpact that having several young women in a team will haveon the overall productivity of the team and the hidden coststhat the organisation has to bear.”Also, India’s leaking pipeline – the number of women who

quit their jobs between junior andmiddle levels – is 50%, com-pared to the average of 29% in Asia. This also implies that thenumber of women who avail their maternity beneits and yetdo not resume their jobs is rather high, adding to the cost con-cerns of their recruiters.That said, someof theotherprovisions in theBill are encour-

aging and if implementedwell,will help youngmothers stay inthe workplace. For example, organisations which employmore than 30 women (or 50 people, whichever is less) willnow have to provide a crèche. The mother is allowed to visitthe crèche four times during the day. Also,motherswho adoptbabies are entitled to 12 weeks of paidmaternity leave.

Forgotten fathersWhere the Bill fails utterly though, is in its complete negli-gence of the roles of fathers. Not only is this a lost opportunityto make some provisions for gender parity, it also works as adouble whammy against women, by heaping all parental re-sponsibilities exclusively on her. It further pushes the argu-ments of both comparative costs of hiringwomen versusmen,as well as ties women down to the primary role of being child-care providers and not professionals in the workplace.

A lost opportunity

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Veena Venugopal

How the Maternity Beneit Bill fails toenable gender parity

In early March, British Prime Minis-ter Theresa May took to the stage inGlasgow to address a gathering ofScottish Conservatives as talk of a po-tential second Scottish referendumgathered pace. Mrs. May adopted astrategy of attack: lambasting theScottish National Party (SNP) for“tunnel vision nationalism”, includ-ing in its approach to the EU referen-dum.

The SNP had been highlighting thesignificance of retaining single mar-ket access to the EU, but this, shesaid, clouded the fact that the U.K.domestic market was worth “fourtimes more to Scottish firms” thanEurope. She then pointed to an ex-ample of what she believed could beachieved outside the EU. She notedthat Scottish whisky represented justa 1% share of the Indian market,thanks to a tariff of 150%. “I am de-termined we should do better thanthat for our key industries,” she said.“That’s why I led a major trade deleg-ation to India last year, and why I wasdelighted to take the Scottish WhiskyAssociation with me.”

That speech — delivered just over aweek before Scottish First MinisterNicola Sturgeon’s momentous an-nouncement that she would be seek-ing Scottish parliamentary approvalfor a second referendum on inde-pendence — highlighted one of thechallenges facing Scotland, whichwill have to weigh up EU and U.K.membership should a new referen-dum on independence go ahead.

More about market accessWhile Scotland voted decisively in fa-vour of remaining in the EU (62% ofScots voted to remain, against 55.8%of Northern Ireland, 47.5% of Wales,and 46.6% of England), Brexit was asdivisive of the “yes” and “no” campsof the 2014 Scottish referendum as itwas of communities across the U.K.,says John Curtice, professor of polit-ics at the University of Strathclydeand a noted pollster.

“Although a lot of people mayhave voted to remain in the EU, theyweren’t doing so with an enormousenthusiasm that says we must stayabove everything else,” he adds. It’sone reason why even after the Brexit

referendum took place last year,opinion on independence didn’tchange dramatically from where itwas in 2014, when just over 55% ofthe population said they wanted toremain within the U.K. in the inde-pendence referendum.

Could that be about to change? Re-cent polls have suggested a rise insupport for independence (to around50%), perhaps spurred by the an-nouncement of the U.K. governmentearlier this year that it would have noalternative but to leave the singlemarket and the customs union —seen as a kick in the teeth by theScottish government which inDecember published a White Papersetting out the case why it was essen-tial for Scotland to retain unfetteredaccess to it. Dubbing the Westmin-ster government’s unwillingness toengage on this issue as a “brick wallof intransigence”, Ms. Sturgeon thisweek set out the case for a secondreferendum.

Her focus on the single market —rather than E.U. membership — isperhaps indicative of her awarenessthat it is the risk of losing this ratherthan full-blown membership that islikely to rile voters.

Exactly what question voterscould face in a second referendumon independence remains to beseen. Ms. Sturgeon believes a refer-endum between autumn next yearand spring 2019 would be ideal: bythis stage the shape of the Brexit ne-gotiations is likely to be somewhatclearer, enabling voters to make amore informed choice. While theU.K. government has the power toblock the referendum from happen-ing under current legislation,

whether it would take the highly con-troversial step of doing so (particu-larly at a time it has emphasised tak-ing back control and parliamentarysovereignty) remains to be seen. It isthought more likely that it couldpush to hold the referendum afterBritain leaves the EU, though Ms.Sturgeon has warned that this wouldbe akin to puncturing a lifeboat aftersinking the ship. “I was elected as[First Minister] on a clear manifestocommitment…the [Prime Minister] isnot yet elected by anyone,” shenoted in a tweet earlier this week.

The factors at playThe biggest question going forwardwill be public appetite for independ-ence. Downing Street has insistedthat it does not exist, and there arecertainly factors that may make Scotscautious about leaving the union,such as the impact of the low oilprice environment on the Scottisheconomy. Leaving the union andjoining the EU would also be a logist-ical nightmare, calling the currentopen border between England andScotland into question. The West-minster government is likely to playon those concerns as well as high-light the potential for industries suchas the Scottish drinks industry withina U.K. unshackled by EU member-ship, with links to fast-growing Com-monwealth countries, and beyond.

However, winning that argumentmay prove tricky, given the alreadyexisting concerns about the future ofsectors such as banking in a Britainoutside the EU. An independencecampaign is likely to emphasise theopportunities that remaining withinthe single market could have to at-

tract investment from the financialservices sector, among others.

There are other factors at play too:while all political parties in Westmin-ster threw themselves into the “no”campaign in 2014, their ability to doso is likely to be more constrainedthis time round, particularly if Brexitnegotiations are under way. Alsogiven the electoral impact in 2014 forLabour of sharing a platform withthe Conservatives (essentially elect-oral oblivion in Scotland), it is ques-tionable whether they would do soagain, particularly under the leader-ship of Jeremy Corbyn.

According to Nighet Riaz, whoheaded “Scots Asians for Yes to an In-dependent Scotland” during the firstreferendum campaign and is cur-rently standing for election as acouncillor in Pollokshields, one ofthe most ethnically diverse wards ofGlasgow, while opinion on the EUreferendum was mixed within thelocal community, there is a real con-cern about the future. “On the door-step, we are hearing people asking,‘What does Brexit mean for us, ourjobs, our mortgages, and our day-to-day living?’” She believes the cam-paign for a second referendum islikely to gather momentum.“Everything we were promised [inthe first referendum] did not materi-alise: we were told we would belistened to, we were an importantpart of the union, but we have beendisregarded and ridiculed on thesame lines as before and during thereferendum… we voted againstBrexit and we are now gettingdragged out of the single market.”

[email protected]

A second independence referendum for Scotland would open up a new bunch of questions

In the puzzle: “Leaving the union and joining the EU could prove a logistical nightmare, calling the current open borderbetween England and Scotland into question.” GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

An exit from Brexit?

vidya ram

The writings on the wall had long been clearin Uttarakhand, with the Congress led byChief Minister Harish Rawat fighting a losingbattle. And so it did not come as too much ofa surprise when the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) romped home with the highest marginsince the formation of the State 17 years ago.Riding on the Modi wave, it bagged 57 of the70 Assembly seats in the State, with the Con-gress winning just 11. Mr. Rawat, who wageda lonely battle for his party, lost both theseats he contested. Even the president of theState unit of the party, Kishore Upadhyay,lost his election. A majority of Mr. Rawat’sCabinet colleagues also bit the dust.

Mr. Rawat had survived an attempt totopple his government last year after a sec-tion of Congress leaders joined hands withthe opposition BJP. His government survivedonly after the intervention of the courts butit was clear that he had lost popular support.The Rawat government faced several allega-tions of corruption and maladministration.Even during the attempted coup led by someof his colleagues last year, a sting operationhad allegedly exposed the Chief Ministerhimself offering to look the other way in ex-change of support to him. The issue is nowbeing investigated under a directive from thecourts.

Ploughing a lonely furrowHardly any senior Congress leader cam-paigned in Uttarakhand. Even party vice-president Rahul Gandhi addressed just acouple of election rallies, which too did notevoke much response. In an effort to woo thelarge number of youth in the State, Mr.Rawat announced an attractive but contro-versial ‘Berojgari bhatta’ (unemployment al-lowance) card promising one job per house-hold for those unemployed between the agesof 18 and 35, by 2020.

The scheme also provided for a monthlyallowance of ₹2,500 for one jobless memberof each family for 36 months to all such card-holders.

The Election Commission later directedthe State authorities to stop the distributionof cards although over 10,000 people had re-gistered within 48 hours of its launch.

However, such last-hour promises failedto cut much ice with the electorate, whichturned out in huge numbers at Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi’s three major public ral-lies in Uttarakhand. This, despite the factthat the State unit of the BJP was in badshape and facing internal rebellion. In fact,State BJP president Ajay Bhatt eventually lost

to his Congress rival by a margin of over49,000 votes in Ranikhet.

The rebellion within the State unit of theBJP resulted from the unsuccessful attemptlast year to topple the Rawat government.The party had to accommodate all nine Con-gress rebel MLAs, including former ChiefMinister Vijay Bahuguna. Those denied theparty ticket to make way for the Congressrebels joined the Congress. Interestingly, al-most 80% of the constituencies in the Statehad rebels contesting against their party’scandidates.

A targeted BJP campaignThe BJP had several factors going in its fa-vour. It pitched its campaign to target theyouth, who make up more than half theelectorate. The party announced severalschemes for them including unemploymentallowance and creation of jobs. It also an-nounced many developmental schemes forthe State.

Uttarakhand has the distinction of con-tributing a disproportionately large numberof personnel to the defence forces and otherparamilitary forces. It also has a large num-ber of retired personnel from these forcessettled in the State. The BJP’s campaign tar-geted the roughly 1.75 lakh such households,which makes up a substantial vote bank inthe small hill State. The party pitched thesuccessful surgical strikes and never failed tomention the contribution of the State to-wards the defence forces. The acceptance ofthe demand for ‘One Rank, One Pension’(OROP) also gained popular goodwill for theparty.

The performance of the BJP in Ut-tarakhand is likely to have an impact on theparty’s fortunes in the neighbouring hillState of Himachal Pradesh where electionsare due later this year.

Vipin Pubby is a Chandigarh-based journalist

A battle settled from the startLast-hour promises couldn’t stem anti-incumbency againstthe Congress in Uttarakhand. A BJP romp was inevitable

PTI

vipin pubby

Modernism/

Arts &

Literature

Modernism was the broadmovement in Western artsand literature that gatheredpace from around 1850 tolast some 40 years.It was marked by a deliber-ate rejection and question-ing of past styles and priorrepresentations of humanlife, emphasising insteadinnovation and experi-mentation in terms offorms, materials and tech-niques to create works thatbetter reflected modern so-ciety. Ezra Pound’s reitera-tion to ‘Make it New!’ wasthe standard of the move-ment’s approach towardswhat it saw as the cultureof the past. Those threewords are indeed assumedto sum up most of whatmodernism stands for.

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CONCEPTUAL

On South India and itsmanywomen Carnaticsingers

http://bit.ly/CarnaticMusicSouthIndia

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What is new about theChinese defence budget?

On March 6, China an-nounced its official defencebudget for 2017. With a riseof 7%, the official spendingon defence would be 1.044trillion yuan ($151.43 bil-lion, or about ₹10 lakhcrore) in 2017, a spokeswo-man for the NationalPeople’s Congress an-nounced in an effort to dis-pel global concerns aboutlack of transparency inChinese defence spending.The figure was omitted aday earlier from the annualbudget report released bythe Ministry of Finance.The modest budget in-crease was surprising, es-pecially since President XiJinping, who chairs theCentral Military Commis-sion, is undertaking a com-prehensive overhaul of themilitary to turn it into animble, modern force.

Is the figure reliable?The officially announcedfigure may not fully reflectthe Chinese spending in

beefing up its military cap-abilities in both conven-tional and unconventionalarenas. Most China observ-ers believe that the totalspending by the country issignificantly more than theofficial budget. It is wellknown that much of theChinese spending on dual-use capabilities is not ac-counted as militaryspending.

Would it be instructive tocompare China’s defencebudget to that of the U.S.?Observers were surprisedby the increase in defencespending, especially giventhat American PresidentDonald Trump proposes a10% increase in militaryspending, though the U.S.has wound up most of itsmajor foreign operations,and the growing tensionbetween the two countries.Pentagon’s budget, pro-posed in the last week ofFebruary, is $603 billion.While China inhabits a farmore complex neighbour-hood, it is nowhere nearthe U.S. in terms of militarycapabilities, expeditionary

operations and strategiccapabilities. However,China would also be draw-ing its lessons from the col-lapse of Soviet Union,which stretched its re-sources in an arms racewith the U.S.

What about India?For 2017-18, Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley has alloc-ated ₹3,59,854 crore(roughly $53.5 billion) tothe Ministry of Defence,which is a third of theChinese defence budget.Some part of the Indianbudget would be spent incatching up with the mod-ern infrastructure and mil-itary capabilities across theborder. However, much ofNew Delhi’s plans tocounter China’s growingmilitary strength is shelvedalready. India’s first Moun-tain Strike Corps, meantfor China operations, isnow scaled down, the IAFis struggling to meet thehuge shortage of fighters,and the Navy does not evenhave enough capital budgetto pay for committedliabilities.

Comparing budgets

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FAQ

China’s arms spending versus that of the U.S. and IndiaJosy Joseph

CMYK

A ND-ND




NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

The party’s parliamentaryboard had on Sunday even-ing passed a resolution leav-ing the choice of CMs inboth States to Mr. Shah.

“That is the reason whycentral observers [also ap-pointed during Sunday’smeeting of the parliament-ary board] Venkaiah Naiduand Bhupendra Yadav havenot been despatched to Luc-know yet to ascertain theviews of the MLAs on whoshould be their leader,” saida source.

Front runnersBesides Mr. Rajnath Singh,front runners for the CM’spost in U.P. include UnionMinister for Telecommunic-ations Manoj Sinha andState BJP chief KeshavPrasad Maurya.

Mr. Sinha is considered a

safe pair of hands in termsof administration and alsodoes not represent a numer-ically dominant social groupwhich could be an advant-age in a situation wherethere are competing com-munity interests to take careof.

Mr. Maurya, hailing froma non-Yadav OBC back-ground that came out inhuge numbers to supportthe BJP in these polls, hasthe advantage of a com-munity base that the partywould like to see attached toit beyond these polls.

“It is rather ironic thatStates where the mandatewas unclear like Goa andManipur, have already seenthe installation of a govern-ment, but not whereeverything is clear,” said aparty leader.

Suspense over U.P.,Uttarakhand CMs

Nongthombam Biren Singh,who on Wednesday wassworn in as the first Bhar-atiya Janata Party ( BJP) ChiefMinister of Manipur, is apolitician who has donnedmany hats.

A graduate from ManipurUniversity in Arts, Mr. Singhhails from LuwangsangbamMamang Leikai, a rural areain Imphal East district andhas been representingHeingang Assembly constitu-ency in the district since2002.

The 56-year-old politician,who has been a national-levelfootballer, served in the cent-ral paramilitary forces andalso worked as an editor of alocal newspaper.

Speaking to The Hindu,Mr. Singh said his foray intoactive politics began in June2001, when he along withother leaders started theDemocratic RevolutionaryPeople’s Party. Subsequentlyhe joined the Congress.

“After joining the Congressin 2003, I was Minister ofState for Vigilance. Later, I

was handed the portfolios ofIrrigation and Flood Controlalong with Youth Affairs andSports,” he said.

Served in BSFSpeaking about life beforepolitics, he talked about hislove for sports and journal-ism. “I got into the BSFthrough sports quota andsports, particularly football,remains my first love. Iserved the BSF from 1979 to

1993”, he said. From 1993 to2002, he said that he was as-sociated with the regionalnewspaper called NaharlogiThoudang (Responsibilities ofYouth).

During his stint as the ed-itor of the paper, he also hada brush with the law when hewas arrested for publishing astatement in April 2000which the police claimed was“anti-national and seditious”.

Once an aide of IbobiHe was once considered aclose aide of Okram IbobiSingh. He was the spokesper-son for the Manipur govern-ment between 2007 to 2012and later spokesperson forthe Congress.

However things startedchanging after 2012, when inthe last term of the Congressgovernment, he could notmake it into Mr. Ibobi Singh’sCabinet. Sources in the Con-gress say that in the lastquarter of 2016, he and cer-tain others lobbied for a Cab-inet reshuffle. In the re-shuffle, only three Cabinetministers could be dropped.When offered a Cabinet

berth he refused to accept it.He left the Congress to

join the BJP in October 2016,hardly five months beforethe 2017 Assembly polls.

Dark horse in the BJPThough relatively new in theparty, his elevation as theleader of the BJP legislatureparty on Monday has beenbecause of a host of factorsincluding the defeat of BJPheavyweights like Thounao-jam Chaoba Singh, a veteranpolitician and BJP State pres-ident. Just before the polls K.Joykishan, a prominent BJPleader switched sides andjoined the Congress.

Politicians and people cut-ting across party lines in Ma-nipur, describe Mr. BirenSingh as a very accessibleand friendly person.

“I assure the people thatour team will bring good gov-ernance to the people of Ma-nipur,” he told journalists.

His first task will be clear-ing the blockade on the Na-tional Highways which hascrippled the State for overfour months, following cre-ation of new districts.

From footballer to Chief MinisterA former Congressman, Biren Singh joined BJP just ive months before polls

Shiv Sahay Singh

Imphal

New role: Biren Singh wassworn in as theManipur CMonWednesday. PTI

N. Biren Singh was sworn inas the first BJP Chief Minis-ter of Manipur at Raj Bhavanin Imphal on Wednesday.

Having come to powerwith the support of three re-gional parties and a dissid-ent member from the Con-gress, the new governmenthas accommodated its dif-ferent allies in the Cabinet,even if it meant fewer berthsfor the BJP.

Two for BJPOf the nine Cabinet berthsincluding that of Chief Min-ister, BJP MLAs were givenonly two posts. The onlyother legislator from the BJPto get a Cabinet berth wasprominent party leader T.Biswajit Singh, an MLA fromThongu constituency.

The National People’sParty (NPP) which was setup by former Lok SabhaSpeaker P.A. Sangma, go-four berths in the Cabinet,with Yumnan Joykumar

Singh beingappointed asdeputy Chief Minister. Thelawmaker from Uripok con-stituency is the former Dir-ector General of Police, Ma-nipur. Three otherslegislators of NPP, L. Jay-antakumar, N. Koyisi and L.Haokip, have also been in-cluded in the Cabinet.

An important allyNaga People’s Front’s LosiDikho, an MLA from Mao,was given a Cabinet berth.The party has four membersin the House. Karan Shyam,the only MLA from Lok Jan-shakti Party and CongressMLA from Andro constitu-ency T. Shyamkumar whohas defected to the BJP,were also among the list ofMinisters. It was the defec-tion of Mr. Shyamkumar,who was expelled by theCongress during the day,that had tilted the balance infavour of the BJP.

In the 60-member House,the Congress won 28 seatsand the BJP 21.

In Manipur Cabinet,allies get lion’s shareCongress MLA’s defection helps BJP


Kolkata

Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Wednesdayjoined Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP) chief Mayawati in cast-ing doubts over the workingof Electronic Voting Ma-chines (EVMs) after hisparty’s poor show in Punjab.

Ms. Mayawati went a stepfurther and announced inLucknow that her partywould be taking the ElectionCommission of India (ECI) tocourt over alleged tamperingof EVMs and observe a“black day” every monthover what she termed the“murder of democracy.”

The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), headed by Mr Kejri-wal won 20 seats in the 117-member Assembly with avote share of 24.9%. Mr.

Kejriwal claimed that around20 to 25% of its votes mayhave been transferred to theSAD-BJP coalition as theEVMs were tampered with.

“The poll result is beyondunderstanding and raises abig question mark on the re-liability of EVMs as politicalanalysts across the spectrumhad predicted a landslidewin for AAP,” he said. Mr.Kejriwal refrained frommen-tioning Goa, where his partydrew a blank.

Raising suspicionMr. Kejriwal claimed that insome of the booths in Pun-jab, the number of votes AAPgot was even less than its vo-lunteers deployed there,adding that it has raised sus-picion of foul play. Askedwhat explains AAP’s stun-

ning victory in 2015 polls inDelhi, Mr. Kejriwal said thatit may have got to do withBJP’s ‘over-confidence’ thatit would clinch a victory. “Sothey may not have indulged

in tampering. The samewould explain the victory ofJD(U)-RJD in Bihar. Even thenBJP was very sure of winningthe State,” he said.

Ms. Mayawati in Lucknow

said that her party would behitting the streets in UttarPradesh to protest againstEVMs and their alleged tam-pering. She too had an ex-planation for why she wasn’tmentioning the results instates like Goa and Manipuror even Punjab in her (whereBJP didn’t fare well).

“Had they done the samein other States they wouldnot have been able to give aproper reply to questionsraised by people and wouldhave been caught easily,” shesaid, adding they did not in-dulge in tampering in smallerStates as they had to keepsomething for their defence.“They got this victorythrough tampering of EVMsand this win smacks of dis-honesty, fraud and murderof democracy,” she alleged.

Delhi CM claims 25% of AAP votes may have gone to SAD-BJP; BSP chief threatens to take EC to court

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW

Ballot battle:Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal and AAP leader SanjaySingh addressing themedia in NewDelhi. V. SUDERSHAN

Kejriwal, Mayawati up the ante against EVMs

The Rajya Sabha failed tofunction on Wednesday,after the Congress forcedthree adjournments, vocifer-ously protesting against the“stealing of the mandate” inManipur and Goa.

Its contention was that itwas not invited to form thegovernment even though ithad emerged as the singlelargest party in the twoStates, albeit short of a ma-jority.

Congress MPs, who raisedthe issue as soon as theHouse met for the day,stormed the well, shoutingslogans, even as Leader ofthe Opposition Ghulam NabiAzad stressed that despitethe Congress emerging as thesingle largest party in Goa

and Manipur, the BJP had in-stalled its governmentsthrough their Governors“after violating the Constitu-tion and the Supreme Courtjudgment.”

He, therefore, demanded“that the Governors of Goaand Manipur be removedand Congress Chief Ministersbe allowed to take oath inboth States.”

House adjournedWith the BJP not concedingany ground and the Congresssticking to its line, the Housewas adjourned finally for theday at around 3.10 p.m.

Earlier, citing rulings ofthe Supreme Court’s Consti-tution benches, the Congressstressed the Governor wasbound to invite the partywith the largest number of

MLAs to form the govern-ment and prove its majorityin the House. If it had failedto get the requisite numbers,then the BJP could have beencalled, the party said.

Raising the issue through

a Zero Hour mention afterhis notice under rule 267seeking the setting aside ofthe business was converted,Congress Deputy LeaderAnand Sharma said thepeople’s mandate through

the elections in a democracyshould be accepted and re-spected by all. He also de-manded that the House ad-opt a resolution against therole of the two Governors.

If the Congress protestedagainst the “undemocratic”manner in which the BJP hadformed governments in Goaand Manipur, the latter main-tained that all democraticnorms were followed.

Jaitley’s explanationFinance Minister and Leaderof the Rajya Sabha Arun Jait-ley, rejecting all allegationsof wrongdoing, pointed outthat the Governor had onlytwo options — that of invitingthe single largest party or thealternative coalition.

Citing the example ofJharkhand, he recalled that

some years back his party,despite getting 30 seats inthe 81-member Assembly,was not invited to form thegovernment; instead, theJMM with 17 seats hadformed the governmentalong with some otherparties.

In 1998 too, when the Va-jpayee government wasformed, he said, the thenPresident had also spelt outthe option of an alternativecoalition to be taken into ac-count in governmentformation.

“When the alternative co-alition has a clear majorityand they have written to andpresented themselves beforethe Governor, there is noscope of inviting a minorityin a democracy,” Mr. Jaitleyexplained.

Congress rocks RS over Goa, ManipurOpposition members raise voice against ‘stealing of mandate’ in both States, demand removal of Governors

Crying foul:Oppositionmembers protest in the well of theRajya Sabha in NewDelhi onWednesday. PTI/ TV GRAB


New Delhi

It is impossible to hack theElectronic Voting Machines(EVMs) used by the ElectionCommission, owing to thetechnology used and the ad-ministrative processes thathave been put in place fortheir secure handling, says C-DAC Director-General RajatMoona, who is part of theTechnical Expert Committeeon EVMs.

Dr. Moona says the allega-tions made by politicalparties are unsubstantiatedand the claims are beingmade only for publicity. “OurEVMs are the best in theworld. No other such devicecomes close to our machines.We have verified them sev-eral times,” he says.

Following similar allega-tions, the Election Commis-sion had in 2009 invitedthose who had expressed re-servations about the EVMs to

demonstrate how they canbe tampered with. One hun-dred EVM samples were ran-domly collected from 10States for the purpose. Noneof the claimants were able toprove that the machinescould be hacked.

Nomodification possibleMr. Moona says: “EVMs donot have any communicationdevice. They don’t have evenan antenna and therefore,any device from outside can-not be connected to themwirelessly. To say that theycan be modified is a com-pletely false claim.”

On the claims that someUniversity of Michigan re-searchers had demonstratedhow they had “hacked” theEVMs used in India, as repor-ted by the BBC in 2010, Mr.Moona says: “We had invitedthem, but they could notprove it. None of the allega-tions were provable at all.”

Devesh K. Pandey

New Delhi

Voting machines arefoolproof, says expert

The recent hate attacksagainst members of the In-dian community in the U.S.were isolated actions of afew individuals and do notrepresent the sentiment ofthe American people to-wards India, External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj saidon Wednesday.

Speaking in the LokSabha , Ms. Swaraj said thegovernment has discussedsuch attacks at the highestlevels of diplomacy with theU.S. and has been assured ofan investigation into thecauses behind the incidents.

“People-to-people con-tacts are the foundation onwhich the India-U.S. stra-tegic partnership has beenbuilt. Broad sections of theAmerican society have ex-pressed their deep sorrowover these incidents reas-sures us that despite theseindividual incidents, theAmerican society values thepeople-to-people engage-ment between our twocountries,” said Ms. Swarajin her statement.

AwarmwelcomeMs. Swaraj, who made herfirst appearance in Parlia-ment three months after sheunderwent a kidney trans-plant, was greeted by hercolleagues with a spontan-eous applause.

Ms. Swaraj said the U.S.had condemned these at-tacks at the highest levels.“The Government has takenup this issue with the U.S.Government at very highlevels and conveyed ourdeep concerns. We havecalled for necessary meas-ures to ensure the safety of[the] Indian diaspora andexpeditious investigationinto these incidents.”

The response came aftera series of attacks on Indi-ans in the U.S.. In the first at-tack in Kansas on February22, an IT professional,Srinivas Kuchibhotla, wasshot dead. It also left his col-league injured. On March 2,Harnish Patel, a U.S. na-tional of Indian origin wasshot dead in South Carolina.The third attack on March 4injured Deep Rai.

‘Attacks on Indiansisolated incidents’

Case discussed in detail, says Sushma


New Delhi

Sushma Swaraj arrives in theLok Sabha onWednesday,three months after a kidneytransplant. R.V. MOORTHY

Former Chief Election Com-missioner S.Y. Quraishi hasasked the Election Commis-sion of India (ECI) to “pro-actively and aggressively”counter the doubts raised byleaders of various politicalparties regarding tamperingof Electronic Voting Ma-chines (EVM).

Speaking exclusively toThe Hindu, Mr. Quraishi sayswhile there can be no doubtabout the integrity of theelections being held underthe aegis of the ECI, the mes-sage should be conveyed tothe people, more than thepolitical parties.

“The ECI should commu-nicate it to the people so thatthere is no doubt among thepeople. All political partiesat one time or another have

raised doubts over the EVMsbut kept quiet when theywon, instead of eating theirwords. It’s the voter whoneeds to be conveyed thefacts.”

He added that the ECI hadalso undertaken, before theSupreme Court, that the2019 general elections wouldbe held using Voter-VerifiedPaper Audit Trail (VVPAT)

machines. “That would re-quire two million machines,as of now one million shouldhave been manufactured. Itwould be good if subsequentelections be held withVVPAT machines,” says Mr.Quraishi, who has authoredthe book The UndocumentedWonder: The Great IndianElection.

Bahujan Samaj Party chiefMayawati and Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwalhave questioned the credib-ility of EVMs after massivelosses in the recent polls.

“When you win, EVMs areright. When you lose, EVMsare wrong. This shows thatthere are some defects inyou [Mayawati],” Union Min-ister M. Venkaiah Naidusaid. “You should gracefullyaccept the people’s man-date,” he added.

Clear all doubts on EVMs,Quraishi tells poll panel‘It will be good if subsequent elections have paper trail’

Nistula Hebbar

New Delhi

S.Y. Quraishi

He had alleged at a pressconference that the NIA wasforcing him to become a wit-ness against a few suspects,who were arrested from Hy-derabad in July for allegedactivities supporting the IS.

Fakkrudeen and his familybecame citizens of Singaporesix years ago.

In November 2013, he,along with his wife and threechildren, went to Syria, butcame back to India as hecould not establish any con-tact with IS operatives there.

In Syria, he is reported tohave stayed with someChechen Mujahideen.

Untraceable since 2014On January 22, 2014, he leftChennai for Syria throughTurkey and has been un-traceable since. Damoodi hadearlier funded three menfrom Hyderabad who had at-tempted twice to flee India.

They first tried to go toSyria through Bangladeshand Afghanistan. When theywere caught, a second at-tempt was made to go to the

Kashmir Valley but theywere caught at the Nagpurairport.

“All this while they wereavailable and evidence wasbeing collected againstthem. As soon as a casewas registered againstthem in January this year,all of them have slipped offthe radar. At least two leftthe country in the past twoyears,” said the official.

An FIR filed by the NIAsaid: “A group of nine per-sons — eight hailing fromTamil Nadu and one fromTelangana — and someother unknown persons,with the intention to fur-ther the activities of Daesh/Islamic State, a banned ter-rorist organisation in India,hatched a criminal conspir-acy in Chennai and otherparts of the country byforming a terrorist gangwhich raised and receivedfunds, organised camps,recruited and trained somepersons, and facilitatedtheir travel to Syria to jointhe IS.”

NIA hunts for 5 menfrom T.N. for IS links

The government on Wed-nesday approved the Na-tional Health Policy, whichproposes to provide “as-sured health services toall” in the country.

Government sourcessaid the Union Cabinet,chaired by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, gave itsnod to the policy whichhad been pending for thelast two years.

Minister to speak todayUnion Minister J.P. Naddais likely to make a suomotustatement in Parliament onThursday, elaborating onthe salient features of thepolicy.

Health Ministry sourcessaid that in a major shift,the policy increases thegambit of sectors coveredin the Primary HealthCentre (PHC) level and en-visages a comprehensiveapproach.

“For example, till now,the PHCs were only for im-munisation, ante-natalcheck-ups and others. Amajor policy shift is thatnow it will also includescreening for non-commu-nicable diseases and awhole lot of other aspects,”according to a seniorofficial.

Upgrade of hospitalsThe source said that underthe new policy, therewould also be a bigger fo-cus on upgrading of districthospitals.

The health policy, whichhas been pending for thepast two years, aims toprovide assured health ser-vices to people as an“entitlement”.

A Cabinet note, whichhad been given earlier,however, had not talkedabout making health a“fundamental right” as itwould have “legal con-sequences” but proposedassured health services.

Bigger rolefor PHCs inhealth policyPress Trust of India

New Delhi

CMYK

A ND-ND




NEWS

Kharge set to becomenext PAC ChairmanNEW DELHI

The Congress’s floor leader inLok Sabha, MallikarjunKharge, is all set to becomethe next chairman of thePublic Accounts Committee(PAC). Mr. Kharge willsucceed his party colleagueK.V. Thomas, who willcomplete his third term asChairman of PAC on April 30.The chair of the PAC, given toan MP of the main Oppositionparty, will also entitle Mr.Kharge to a Cabinet rank. PTI

7,059 Indian nationalslodged in foreign jailsNEW DELHI

As many as 7,059 Indiannationals are lodged inforeign jails, the Lok Sabhawas informed on Wednesday.In a written reply, Minister ofState for External AffairsV.K. Singh said that due tostrict provisions of privacylaws, the U.S., Canada,Australia and many countriesin Europe do not shareinformation about Indiannationals lodged in theirprisons. PTI

After months of “go-slow”due to the Assembly elec-tions, the government is pre-paring for a series of incom-ing and outgoing visits ofleaders in the next fewweeks, with Malaysian PrimeMinister Najib Razak,Bangladesh PM Sheikh Has-ina, and Australian PM Mal-colm Turnbull expected totravel to New Delhi in Marchand April.

Officials confirmed thatdiscussions are also beingheld for a possible visit ofSaudi King Salman bin AbdulAziz to India, but as he iscurrently wrapping up onetour to Asia this month, hemay not be able to carry outa visit again until “later thisyear”.

Sources said that the

Saudi government hadearlier proposed his visit toIndia at the end of February,at the beginning of his mega7-nation tour to Malaysia, In-donesia, Japan, China, etc.which will end in the Mal-dives, but New Delhi had notconfirmed dates due to theongoing Assembly polls infive States.

Tight scheduleWhile dates in April are nowbeing discussed, diplomatson both sides confirmed,they may be postponed toOctober, given both theSaudi King and Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi’s busyschedule for the next fewmonths.

Mr. Razak is expected tobe in Delhi for a visit fromMarch 30-April 4 that comestwo years after Mr. Modi vis-

ited Kuala Lumpur. TheMalaysian Prime Ministervisited India in January 2010when both countries signeda Strategic Partnershipagreement and then inDecember 2012 for anASEAN-India Summit.

Mr. Razak’s trip is expec-ted to see announcements

on trade and investment aswell as further enhancementof defence and strategic ties,sources said.

Water-sharing dealsBangladesh PM Sheikh Hasi-na’s visit, on April 7-10 hasbeen much anticipated aftershe put it off twice, inDecember 2016 and Febru-ary this year, due to“scheduling difficulties”, un-derstood to be because shehad wanted to have a “sub-stantive agreement” on wa-ter sharing.

While officials would notconfirm whether a break-through was expected oneither the Teesta wateragreement that has facedresistance from the WestBengal government or theGanga barrage agreementwhich the Bihar Chief Minis-

ter, Nitish Kumar, has op-posed.

Australian Prime MinisterTurnbull will make his firstvisit to India in the “firsthalf” of coming April, offi-cials on both sides told The

Hindu.The big ticket item both

countries have been pursu-ing is a free trade or Compre-hensive Economic Coopera-tion Agreement, that isalready more than a year be-hind the deadline set by Mr.Modi and former AustralianPM Tony Abbott.

Meanwhile, Mr. Modi’s“outgoing” calendar is alsofilling up, with visits plannedto Sri Lanka, followed by avisit to Germany and Russiafor Inter-governmental Com-mission meetings and the St.Petersburg forum respect-ively.

New Delhi gets busy with VIP visitsPrime Ministers of Malaysia, Bangladesh and Australia expected to travel in March and April

Sheikh Hasina

Suhasini Haidar

NEW DELHI

With a BJP government as-suming charge in Uttar Pra-desh soon, Bishahra villagein Dadri is again talking ofthe September 2016 killingof Mohammad Akhlaq.

Akhlaq was lynched overrumours of cow slaughter.The families of the murderaccused believe that a BJPgovernment will not opposebail for those lodged in jail.

“The Samajwadi Partygovernment was biasedagainst us in the way thecase of cow slaughter washandled by the investigativeagencies. That is why a falsecase has been filed againstour children for doing some-thing in which the entirecrowd took part. Cow is anemotional matter, and ifsomeone kills a cow, then itis bound to make a Hindu’sblood boil,” said Om Kumar,an electrician and father oftwo of the accused, Saurav

and Gaurav. Mr. Kumar ex-pressed hope that the “in-vestigative agencies will nowlook at the case in a freshway and not be biasedagainst the innocent chil-dren and oppose their bail.”

Sanjay Rana, a local BJPleader whose son andnephew are among the ac-cused, said people expectedthat the BJP’s victory would“lead to justice in both thecases”.

“Residents of Bishahravoted for the BJP in the hopethat their innocent children

would get justice and get bailand also that the cow, whichwe consider our mother,killed by Akhlaq would get‘justice’,” he said.

Cow slaughter caseLast year, the Greater Noidapolice registered a case of al-leged cow slaughter againstMohammad Akhlaq, hiswife, Ikraman, mother,Asghari, brother Jaan Mo-hammad, daughter,Shaishta, and son, Danish,under the U.P. Cow Protec-tion Act, 1955.

Later, the Allahabad HighCourt granted immunityfrom arrest to them till the“conclusion of police invest-igation” in the alleged cowslaughter case. The courthad refused to stay the ar-rest of Jaan Mohammad.

BJP leaders like SangeetSom and Yogi Adityanathhad raised the issue of cowslaughter and the SP’s al-leged bias towards “cowkillers”.

BJP win raises hope ofDadri murder accusedKin believe that new govt. will help them get ‘justice’

Mohammad Ali

Meerut

Mohammad Akhlaq

A petition has been filed inthe Supreme Court seekingto ban legislators from prac-tising other professions, in-cluding as advocates.

The petition, filed by ad-vocate Ashwini Kumar Upad-hyay, said the restriction im-posed on public servantsand judges against engagingin other jobs should apply to

lawmakers. Many legislatorswho double up as advocatesare even retainers of big cor-porate bodies entities, givingrise to a situation of conflictof interest between theirconstitutional duties as a le-gislator and a lawyer meantto vouchsafe client interests.

“We cannot curb corrup-tion without having a uni-form policy relating to con-flict of interest and

restricting our legislators topractice other professions assimilar to the restriction im-posed on public servantsand members of the judi-ciary... many lawmakershold corporate retainershipand defend their lawbreakerclients in courts. It is notonly immoral, unethical butalso violation of the Rule 49of the Bar Council of IndiaRules,” he said.

‘Disallow lawmakers frompractising other professions’

Petition in SC seeks to impose curbs on lawmakers

Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court Col-legium may have arrived at aconsensus with the Uniongovernment’s proposal to in-clude the contentious “na-tional security” clause in thedraft Memorandum of Pro-cedure (MoP) for appoint-ment of judges.

The clause, which givesveto power to the govern-ment to reject a name re-commended by the Col-legium, has been a bone ofcontention, delaying the fi-nalisation of the MoP.

The clause may find aplace in the new memor-andum, provided the gov-ernment revert to the Col-legium with specific anddetailed objections against aname under the national se-curity clause.

Little progressThe MoP draft was handedover to the collegium in Au-gust 2016. But no progresswas made in resolving thedifferences till J.S. Khehartook over as the Chief Justice

of India. Chief JusticeKhehar has repeatedly givenpositive signals — once inopen court and the other ata function last week — thathe would have the MoP final-ised soon.

Sources recently indic-ated that the national secur-ity clause was no longer aroadblock. Under ChiefJustice Khehar’s immediatepredecessor, Justice T.S.Thakur had time and againmade strong observationsagainst perceived govern-ment inaction.

Thaw in strained tiesHowever, in the past twomonths of Chief JusticeKhehar’s taking over, therehas been a perceptible thaw.

Though both the judiciaryand the government havemaintained that the pen-dency of the MoP would notstand in the way of judicialappointments, an amicableresolution in that issuewould clear the air on theprocedure for appointmentsof judges to the higherjudiciary.

MoPmay havesecurity clauseSC Collegium seems willing to add it

Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI

A delegation led by formerTamil Nadu Chief MinisterO. Panneerselvam called onChief Election Commis-sioner Nazim Zaidi here onWednesday, and stakedclaim for the AIADMK’s“two leaves” symbol.

His group had sought ameeting with the CEC toclaim that the appointmentof V.K. Sasikala as AIADMKgeneral secretary was illegaland in violation of the partyconstitution.

Addressing the mediaafter the meeting, Mr. Pan-neerselvam said, “Amma[ Jayalalithaa] had alwaysbeen against family rule.However, the Sasikala grouphas again established familyrule by nominating [hernephew] Dinakaran.”

“We asked the ElectionCommission to allow officer-bearers appointed by thethen AIADMK general sec-retary, Jayalalithaa, to con-tinue until a new person isappointed to the post. Weurged the panel to let presi-

dium chairmanMadhusudanan select theparty candidate and allot usthe ‘two leaves’ symbol,” hesaid.

April 12 byelectionThe R.K. Nagar seat fell va-cant after Jayalalithaa’sdeath on December 5.Sasikala has nominated theparty’s deputy general sec-retary and her nephew,T.T.V. Dinakaran, as candid-ate for the April 12 byelec-tion. Jayalalithaa’s nieceDeepa Jayakumar is also inthe fray.

Mr. Panneerselvam saidSasikala’s appointment asAIADMK general secretarywas invalid since she wasnot elected as per the partyconstitution.

“We want to explain tothe CEC why the symbolshould be granted to us be-fore the filing of nomina-tions for the R.K. Nagar con-stituency begins onThursday,” said a Mr. Pan-neerselvam loyalist.

The Panneerselvam fac-tion sent its reply as soughtby the CEC to the submis-sions made by Sasikala re-cently. AIADMK Rajya Sabhamember V. Maitreyan sent a61-page reply to the EC.

The EC had asked theOPS group to reply toSasikala’s submission senton March 10. The EC had re-turned the reply given byMr. Dinakaran stating that itshould rightfully be sent bySasikala.

The OPS faction has ex-plained in detail the devel-opments that precededSasikala’s appointment asgeneral secretary.

OPSmeets CEC to stakeclaim for AIADMK symbol‘Sasikala’s appointment as party general secretary invalid’

B. Muralidhar Reddy

NEW DELHI

O. Panneerselvam

The fishermen issuebetween India and SriLanka has a better chance ofresolution if left to the fish-erfolk on both sides, said R.Sampanthan, Leader of theOpposition in Sri LankanParliament, on Wednesday.He said the governmentsshould ensure an end to bot-tom trawling while leavingthe issues of daily import-ance to the fishermen.

“There is no space for vi-olence in dealing with thefishermen’s issue betweenthe two countries. As far asIndia is concerned, it mustensure that bottom trawlingis stopped as this has devast-ated Sri Lankan fishing com-munities, and fishermen onboth sides should hold dia-logue to resolve territorialand fishing issues of dailysignificance,” Mr.Sampanthan, Leader of theTamil National Alliance(TNA), said in a chat withThe Hindu.

Trawling BillMr. Sampanthan’s com-ments about the bottomtrawling comes in the back-drop of his party’s push toban the bottom trawlersfrom the waters around SriLanka which will be intro-duced in the Colombo’s Par-liament on March 17.

The Bill which was intro-duced by TNA MP M.A.

Sumanthiran has now be-come a government Bill inthe Sri Lankan Parliament.Various provinces of thecountry have given theirconsent to the Bill which islikely to be adopted by theend of the month.

“Fishing is an issue oflivelihood and issues relatedto this should be left to thefishermen on both sides.The governments has a rolein enforcing rules that willhelp in ensuring sustainablefishing practices,” Mr.Sampanthan said on thesidelines of a conference oncounter-terrorism that washeld in Delhi.

Sri Lanka also has hun-dreds of bottom trawlers,especially in the NorthernProvince, that will bebanned once Bill is passed.The issue is at the centre ofpolitical controversy in SriLanka as it is believed thatbanning the practice will in-crease pressure on India todo the same.

‘Put an end tobottom trawling’Sri Lankan leader for ishermen talks

Kallol Bhattacherjee

NEW DELHI

R. Sampanthan

Farooq to contest LSbypolls from SrinagarSRINAGAR

Formally announcing a pre-poll alliance, the NationalConference and the Congresson Wednesday decided tofield Farooq Abdullah fromSrinagar and Ghulam AhmadMir from Anantnag for theLok Sabha byelections. At ajoint press conference, NCworking president OmarAbdullah said, “The alliance isnot a compulsion but astrategy to emerge aswinners in the by-polls.”

IN BRIEF

The Enforcement Director-ate has served notices ontwo Kashmiri separatistleaders S.A.S. Geelani andYasin Malik in connectionwith separate cases of al-leged seizure of foreign cur-rency worth $1.1 lakh.

In both the cases, underthe Foreign Exchange Man-agement Act, most of thedocuments were pur-portedly damaged in the2014 floods in Jammu and

Kashmir. The case involvingMr. Malik was detected in2002 when the police seized$1 lakh from one MushtaqAhmed Dar and his wifeSahazia Rasool. They al-legedly disclosed that theyhad got the currencies inNepal, through one AltafQadri of All-Parties HurriyatConference.

The notice to Mr. Geelanipertains to the allegedseizure of $10,000 from hisresidence by the Income-Tax Department in 2002.

ED notices to Geelani,Malik on cash seizuresDevesh Pandey

New Delhi

Central govt. hikes DAby 2% from January 1NEW DELHI

The Centre on Wednesdayincreased dearness allowanceand dearness relief to 4%from existing 2% fromJanuary 1, 2017, benefiting48.85 employees and 55.51lakh pensioners. Thestatement said that thecombined impact on theexchequer would be₹5,857.28 crore per annumand ₹6,833.50 crore in theFinancial Year 2017-18. PTI

With the result of the Lo-haghat seat being an-nounced on Wednesday,the BJP’s tally in the Ut-tarakhand Assembly elec-tions rose to 57. Re-pollingwas held in the Karnk-arayat booth in the con-stituency as an EVM hadmalfunctioned on the ori-ginal day of polling. PuranSingh Fartyal won the seat,defeating the Congresscandidate by 834 votes.

In the final tally, the BJPhas 57 seats and the Con-gress 11. Two seats went toIndependents. The Con-gress has been left withouta leader in the State afterthe outgoing Chief Minis-ter, Harish Rawat, was de-feated in Haridwar Ruraland Kichha.

In the BJP, the currentchallenge is that of decid-ing a Chief Minister.Sources said Chaubat-takhal MLA Satpal Maharaj,Pithoragarh MLA PrakashPant and Doiwala MLATrivendra Singh Rawatwere being considered.

BJP wins onemore seat inUttarakhandStaff Reporter

Dehradun

Uttar Pradesh Congresschief Raj Babbar hasoffered to resign, takingmoral responsibility for thepoll debacle in the State,amid demands for struc-tural changes and fixing re-sponsibility in the party.Mr. Babbar also echoedRahul Gandhi on the needfor making structuralchanges to strengthen theparty, but defended theCongress vice-president.

Raj Babbarofers toresignPress Trust of India

New Delhi

CMYK

A ND-ND




WORLD

30 killed in Damascussuicide attackDAMASCUS

A suicide bomber detonatedhis explosives’ vest insideJustice Palace, the mainjudicial building in the Syriancapital on Wednesday, killingat least 30 people, statemedia said. The bombing wasthe latest in a spate of attackstargeting government-controlled areas in Syria andits capital. AP

‘Kim’s identity confirmedusing child’s DNA’KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia used a DNA samplefrom one of Kim Jong-nam’schildren to confirm theidentity of the assassinatedhalf-brother of North Korea’sleader Kim Jong-un, DeputyPrime Minister Ahmad ZahidHamidi said Wednesday.Investigators “confirmed theidentity of the body... basedon the sample obtained fromhis child”, he said. AFP

Mohammad Yunus suedover unpaid duesDHAKA

Staff at a Bangladeshicompany set up byMohammad Yunus are suingthe Nobel laureate overallegedly unpaid dues, theirlawyer said on Wednesday.They say Grameen Telecom(GT), which holds a roughlyone-third stake inBangladesh’s largest mobile-phone operator, had a legalobligation to share profitswith its employees. AFP

Fast-growing Pakistan, estim-ated to be the sixth-largestcountry by population,kicked off its first nationalcensus in 19 years onWednes-day, a delay caused by a lackof funds, political squabblingand too few available troopsto oversee security.

Around 1,18,000 “enumer-ators” in 63 districts beganthe 70-day data-gatheringcampaign, flanked by policeand soldiers, under the orderof the Supreme Court, whichhad set a March deadline. Thesecurity officials, including200,000 military personnel,will be present to protectcensus teams but also to en-sure households can enterdata without beingintimidated.

Electoral seats inPakistan’s Parliament are as-signed using population dens-ity data, and with rural popu-lations fluctuating due tourbanisation, powerful feudallandlords and political famil-ies fear losing influence. “Wemade all the arrangementsfor a smooth, safe and trans-parent process of populationcensus,” said Javed Iqbal atthe census department in Pe-shawar, the capital of thevolatile Khyber PakhtunkhwaProvince.

Count of transgendersThe census will for the firsttime also count Pakistan’stransgender community,though members in Peshawarwere surprised to be givenforms without a separatecolumn for transgenderpeople. “We have been wait-ing for the process to beginbut it hurt us as there is noseparate column in the form,”said Farzana Riaz, presidentof Trans Action, a trans rightsgroup. Parts of Peshawarwere cordoned off by police

as census teams visitedhomes. A counter gatheredthe census data inside build-ings while police and soldiersstood guard outside. “Todaywe are just asking for the IDcard of the head of the familyand marking the houses,” acounter told Reuters outsidea house in the port city ofKarachi, declining to benamed as he said counterswere strictly instructed not tospeak to the media. “A dayafter, we will visit again andget further details of famil-ies.”

Chief Statistician Asif Ba-jwa told local Dawn Newschannel that Afghan refugeeswould be counted in thecensus, confirming a movestrongly opposed by leadersof sparsely populated Ba-lochistan Province where theethnic Balochs fear beingturned into a minority.

Security high as Pakistanbegins irst census in 19 yrsAround 1,18,000 ‘enumerators’ will gather data from across the nation in 70 days

First since 1998: (Clockwise) Census oicials collect information from residents in Peshawar;and Quetta; an oicial in Lahoremarks a house after inishing the process. REUTERS, AFP

Reuters

Karachi/Peshawar

Pakistan is planning to de-clare the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region as its fifthProvince, a move that mayraise concerns in India as itborders the disputedPakistan-occupiedKashmir.

Pakistan’s Minister forinter-provincial coordina-tion Riaz Hussain Pirzadatold Geo TV on Tuesdaythat a committee headedby Advisor of Foreign Af-fairs Sartaj Aziz had pro-posed giving the status of aProvince to Gilgit-Baltistan.He also said that a constitu-

tional amendment wouldbe made to change thestatus of the region,through which the $46 bil-lion China-Pakistan Eco-nomic Corridor passes.

Gilgit-Baltistan is treatedas a separate geographicalentity by Pakistan. It has aregional Assembly and anelected Chief Minister. It isbelieved that China’s con-cerns about its unsettledstatus prompted the move,which could signal a his-toric shift in the country’sposition on the future ofthe wider Kashmir region,Dawn newspaper hadquoted experts as saying.

Gilgit-Baltistan to bedeclared a ProvincePress Trust of India

Islamabad

The spate of violence againstpeople of Asian descent inAmerica will pass, but theDonald Trump administra-tion must take a strongerand more vocal position onthis issue, said Lt. Col.Kamaljeet Singh Kalsi,whose campaign for allow-ing Sikh turban in U.S. milit-ary uniforms met with suc-cess recently.

In 2001, Mr. Kalsi was thefirst Sikh to join the U.S. mil-itary after new uniform re-strictions in early 1980sbarred turbans and beards.Mr. Kalsi’s petition for an ex-emption was granted after50 members of Congress, apetition signed by 15,000people and the White Housesupported him. The changesannounced recently allowsreligious accommodation tobe granted at the brigadelevel. “The process will besimpler and faster. Andthere is a presumption of ap-proval,” Mr. Kalsi told The

Hindu on the phone fromNew Jersey.

Overlapping with the U.S.military’s new accommoda-tion policy that will allowSikhs, Muslims, Jews andAfrican Americans to join itsranks has been the spate ofracial crimes against them inthe recent weeks. Mr. Kalsisaid the campaign ran byPresident Trump has con-tributed to this. “These vi-cious attacks are encouragedby the current political cli-mate in the country, runningthrough the entire electioncycle. The administrationneeds to speak out stronglyagainst this,” Mr. Kalsi said.

“I can guarantee you thatafter the changes in uniformpolicy, more Sikhs, moreMuslims will join the milit-ary,” Mr. Kalsi said. Whilethe proud Sikh is excitedabout the victory of the cam-

paign supported by the SikhCoalition and an array ofAmerican civil rights groups,the attacks on immigrantsand minorities disturbs him.“As a six year old, my grand-mother witnessed all herfamily members being killedin 1947, in Lahore. She cameto India as an orphan, as arefugee. I always rememberthat and I feel bad whenpeople are put down be-cause they are refugees. Therecent refugee ban by theTrump administration, andattacks on people of Indiandescent remind me of myown grandmother’s story,”Mr. Kalsi, who came to theU.S. as toddler, said. Hisfather was an Indian AirForce officer and he wasborn in the Kanpur AirForce Base.

Great military heritageMr. Kalsi said it was the“great military heritage” ofthe Sikh community andfaith that motivated him tojoin the U.S. Army in 2001.He went to the medicalschool and in the initialyears, turban and beard

didn’t bring any attention.“I went on medical rota-

tion at several militarybases, without any problem.When I was going to full-time active duty in 2008, Ihad to apply for accommod-ation. There began thewhole campaign,” Mr. Kalsisaid. His request was gran-ted by the U.S. Secretary ofDefence, and Mr. Kalsi wasdeployed in Helmand, Afgh-anistan, in 2011.

Four-star general of U.S.Marine Corps John R. Allenwas Mr. Kalsi’s commanderin Afghanistan. In July 2016,Mr. Allen was a specialspeaker at the DemocraticNational Convention, ques-tioning Mr. Trump’s policytowards minorities and hisstrategy for fighting the Is-lamic State. A group of veter-ans drawn from all ethnicand religious origins stoodbehind Mr. Allen, showcas-ing the U.S. military as thesymbol of the diverse Amer-ica. Mr. Kalsi stood right be-hind his former com-mander, in the frame.“These are the people whofight for America,” the gen-eral said.

The current turmoil willpass, believes Mr. Kalsi, whowas himself the target of aracial attack in 2001 afterthe 9/11 terrorist attack. “Iwas at a shopping mall inCalifornia and four men star-ted abusing me. They weremaking fun of my turbanand started hitting me. Butthankfully, the cops arrivedimmediately and they wereall arrested,” recalls Mr.Kalsi, who is now an activereserve in the U.S army. Mr.Kalsi is associated with theTruman National SecurityProject in Washington DC,combining his passion formatters related to nationalsecurity and civil rights — asoldier for America and theSikh faith.

Sikh soldier says attacks are encouraged by political climateVarghese K. George

Washington

Lt. Col. Kamaljeet SinghKalsi. AFP

‘Trump should speak upagainst racial crimes’

The Dutch tested their owntolerance for immigrationand Islam on Wednesday inan election magnified by afurious row with Turkey, thefirst of three polls in theEuropean Union (EU) thisyear where nationalistparties are seekingbreakthroughs.

The centre-right VVDparty of Prime MinisterMark Rutte (50) is vying withthe PVV (Party for Freedom)of anti-Islam and anti-EUfirebrand Geert Wilders (53)to form the biggest party inParliament. As many as 13million voters began castingballots at polling stationsacross the country that wasto close at 2000 GMT.

With as many as four outof 10 voters undecided a daybefore voting and a tightmargin of just 4% between

leading candidates, the out-come was unpredictable.

“Whatever the outcomeof the election today thegenie will not go back intothe bottle and this patrioticrevolution, whether today ortomorrow, will take place,”Mr. Wilders said after votingat a school in The Hague.

Mr. Rutte, who has calledthe Dutch vote a quarter-fi-nal before a French semi-fi-nal and German final said aWilders victory would be feltwell beyond theNetherlands.

20% threshold“I think the rest of the worldwill then see after Brexit,after the American electionsagain the wrong sort of pop-ulism has won the day,” hesaid.

Unlike the U.S. or Frenchpresidential elections, therewill be no outright Dutchwinner under its system ofproportional representation.Up to 15 parties could win aseat in Parliament and noneare set to reach even 20% ofthe vote.

Experts predict a coali-tion-building process thatwill take many months oncethe final tally is known.

The Dutch vote in electionsseen as a ‘tolerance test’Prologued coalition-building process likely after results

Reuters

The Hague

A child casts her mother’sballot paper in The Hague onWednesday.

Jurassic welcome: Japan’s second robot-run hotel ‘Henn na Hotel’ (’Strange Hotel’) opened onWednesday in Urayasu, near Tokyo.Picture shows dinosaur robots, acting as receptionists, greeting a hotel employee. REUTERS


How can I help you?

The White House has ac-knowledged that U.S. Pres-ident Donald Trump paid$38 million in taxes in2005, a rare peek into thePresident’s finances thatwas leaked to the U.S.media.

Mr. Trump reported anincome of $150 million 12years ago, and paid anoverall tax rate of around25%, according to a leakedsummary of part of his taxreturn.

The document alsoshows that he wrote offmore than $100 million inbusiness losses to reducehis tax burden. The WhiteHouse described it as a“large-scale depreciationfor construction”.

But the two-page partialreturn does not reveal thesource of Mr. Trump’s in-come, the key questionthat has fuelled demandsfor him to disclose his taxhistory in line with stand-ard practice for U.S.Presidents.

Leak to mediaThe White House con-firmed late on Tuesday thedetails of Mr. Trump’s2005 taxes just beforeDavid Cay Johnston, aPulitzer Prize-winning in-vestigative journalist, andMSNBC revealed the shortfiling. On Wednesday, Mr.Trump attacked the re-porter on Twitter, ques-tioning his account of howhe obtained the document.

“Does anybody reallybelieve that a reporter,who nobody ever heard of,‘went to his mailbox’ andfound my tax returns?@NBCNews FAKE NEWS!”

Appearing with MSNBChost Rachel Maddow, Mr.Johnston said he did notknow the source of theleaked return, which wasplaced in his mailbox.

But Johnston suggesteda member of Mr. Trump’sentourage — possibly even,he speculated, the Presid-ent himself — anonymouslydelivered the tax docu-ments to him.

‘Trumpwroteof $100mn.in 2005’

Agence France-Presse

Washington

An alliance of Madhes-basedpolitical parties on Wednes-day withdrew its support tothe Prachanda-led Nepalgovernment after it failed tomeet a seven-day ultimatumto fulfil their demands thatincluded endorsement forthe revised ConstitutionAmendment bill.

The United DemocraticMadhesi Front (UDMF),which has 39 lawmakers,withdrew support.

The government, how-ever, continues to enjoy amajority as it has the sup-port of more than 320 mem-bers in the 601-memberConstituent Assembly.

Meanwhile, in a meetingwith UDMF leaders, Prac-handa urged them to parti-cipate in the upcoming localpolls after amending the

Constitution, setting asidethe issue of State delin-eation for the time being. Hesaid the government wouldform a commission to final-ise the issues relating to pro-vincial demarcation beforeholding the provincialelections.

The UDMF on March 7had issued the ultimatum toaddress their concerns thatinclude re-demarcation ofthe provincial boundary andliberal citizenship policyamong others. It has beendemanding government’sendorsement for revisedConstitution Amendmentbill and withdrawal of thedecision to conduct localpolls in May. IT said that itcould not support the gov-ernment as it had been pre-paring to hold local levelpolls without addressing theissues raised by them.

Madhesi front UDMFtakes back support

It has 39 members in the House


Kathmandu

The U.S. government onWednesday unsealedcharges against two Rus-sian spies and two criminalhackers for allegedly pilfer-ing 500 million Yahoo useraccounts in 2014. The in-dictments, announced at anews conference in Wash-ington, represent the firsttime the U.S. governmenthas criminally chargedRussian officials forcyber-offences.

The contents of at least30 million accounts wereaccessed and at least 18million people who usedother service providerswere also victimised, thegovernment charged.

The officers of the FSBwere identified as DmitryDokuchaev and his super-ior, Igor Sushchin. Bothmen are in Russia, the gov-ernment said.

Russian spiesindicted overYahoo hackReuters

Washington

A UN agency published a re-port on Wednesday accusingIsrael of imposing an“apartheid regime” of racialdiscrimination on thePalestinian people, and saidit was the first time a UNbody had clearly made thecharge.

The report commissionedby the UN Economic and So-cial Commission for WesternAsia (ESCWA) concluded “Is-rael has established anapartheid regime that dom-inates the Palestinian peopleas a whole”.

UN Under-Secretary Gen-eral and ESCWA ExecutiveSecretary Rima Khalaf saidthe report was the “first ofits type” from a UN bodythat “clearly and frankly con-cludes that Israeli is a raciststate that has established anapartheid system that perse-cutes the Palestinian

people”. Israeli officials didnot immediately respond toa request for comment.

Mr. Khalaf was speaking atan event to launch the reportat ESCWA’s Beirut headquar-ters. ESCWA comprises 18Arab states in Western Asia,according to its website. Thereport was prepared at therequest of member states,Mr. Khalaf said.

The report said it had es-

tablished on the “basis ofscholarly inquiry and over-whelming evidence, that Is-rael is guilty of the crime ofapartheid”. “However, onlya ruling by an internationaltribunal in that sense wouldmake such an assessmenttruly authoritative,” it added.

The report said the “stra-tegic fragmentation of thePalestinian people” was themain method through which

Israel imposes apartheid,with Palestinians dividedinto four groups oppressedthrough “distinct laws,policies and practices”.

It identified the four setsof Palestinians as:Palestinian citizens of Israel;Palestinians in East Jerus-alem; Palestinians in theWest Bank and Gaza Strip;and Palestinians living asrefugees or in exile.

ESCWA hoped the reportwould inform further delib-erations on the root causesof the problem in the UnitedNations, among memberstates, and in society, Mr.Khalaf said. ESCWA alsohoped it would promptaction.

It was authored byRichard Falk, a former UNhuman rights investigator forthe Palestinian territories,and Virginia Tilley, professorof political science at South-ern Illinois University.

‘Israel has imposed an apartheid regime’UN agency’s report accuses nation of strategic fragmentation of the Palestinians

Reuters

Beirut

Institutionalised segregation: Palestinian children playing nearthe Israeli settlement of Sosya, near Hebron. AFP

‘Spirit of fascismrampant in Europe’ISTANBUL

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan onWednesday said the “spirit offascism” was rampant on thestreets of Europe, comparingthe treatment of non-Europeans there to that ofthe Jews inWorldWar II.“Turkophobia is mounting.Islamophobia is mounting.They are even scared ofmigrants who take shelter...”

he said. AFP

ELSEWHERE

CMYK

A ND-ND

BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



NIFTY 50

PRICE CHANGE

ACC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1420.40. . . . . . . . . 5.00

Adani Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310.30. . . . . . . . . 1.05

Ambuja Cements . . . . 233.00. . . . . . . -0.70

Asian Paints . . . . . . . . . . . . 1064.05. . . . . . . -7.35

Aurobindo Pharma . 678.00. . . . . . .15.80

Axis Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 511.70. . . . . . . . . 0.80

Bajaj Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2873.10. . . . . . . . . 6.40

Bank of Baroda . . . . . . . 166.50. . . . . . . . . 5.50

Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . . 363.20. . . . . . . . . 2.10

BHEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166.90. . . . . . . . . 5.55

Bosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22784.75. . . . .193.30

BPCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636.50. . . . . . . -0.20

Cipla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 600.20. . . . . . . . . 0.00

Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292.70. . . . . . . -2.25

Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . . 2739.60. . . . . . . -1.40

Eicher Motors . . . . . . . . . 24133.40. . . . .132.15

GAIL (India) . . . . . . . . . . . . 375.30. . . . . . . -0.50

Grasim Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1048.55. . . . . . .14.65

HCL Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 842.90. . . . . -10.70

HDFC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1426.10. . . . . . . . . 1.95

HDFC Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1416.60. . . . . . . . . 5.90

Hero MotoCorp. . . . . . . 3401.10. . . . . . .43.65

Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.85. . . . . . . . . 0.45

Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . . 900.50. . . . . -13.25

ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285.15. . . . . . . -2.10

Idea Cellular . . . . . . . . . . . 113.10. . . . . . .10.05

IndusInd Bank . . . . . . . . 1348.35. . . . . . . -5.85

Bharti Infratel . . . . . . . . 308.90. . . . . . . -1.15

Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011.95. . . . . -22.85

ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268.20. . . . . . . . . 1.10

Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844.15. . . . . . . . . 8.00

L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1548.90. . . . . . . -9.20

Lupin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1449.85. . . . . . . . . 2.90

M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1323.55. . . . . . . -2.45

Maurti Suzuki . . . . . . . . . 6137.35. . . . . . . . . 4.95

NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158.65. . . . . . . -0.95

ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190.70. . . . . . . -1.20

PowerGrid Corp . . . . . . 192.95. . . . . . . -0.70

Reliance Ind. . . . . . . . . . . . 1304.95. . . . . . .15.45

State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277.35. . . . . . . . . 2.70

Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . . 705.85. . . . . . . -2.35

Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . 473.45. . . . . . . . . 3.70

Tata Motors DVR . . . . 286.45. . . . . . . . . 4.35

Tata Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.05. . . . . . . . . 1.40

Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 479.05. . . . . . . . . 6.50

TCS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2498.30. . . . . -69.20

Tech Mahindra . . . . . . . . 479.65. . . . . . . -0.20

UltraTech Cement . . 4017.45. . . . . . .18.50

Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 494.80. . . . . . . -6.55

YES Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1529.05. . . . . . . -2.70

Zee Entertainment . 525.60. . . . . . . . . 2.95

EXCHANGE RATESIndicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at4 p.m. on March 15

CURRENCY TT BUY TT SELL

US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 65.50. . . . . . . 65.82

Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 69.58. . . . . . . 69.92

British Pound. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 79.84. . . . . . . 80.24

Japanese Yen (100) . . .. . 57.15. . . . . . . 57.43

Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .9.47. . . . . . . . . 9.52

Swiss Franc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 64.92. . . . . . . 65.24

Singapore Dollar . . . . . . . .. . 46.37. . . . . . . 46.60

Canadian Dollar . . . . . . . . . .. . 48.68. . . . . . . 48.92

Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . . .. . 14.70. . . . . . . 14.79

Source:Indian Bank

BULLION RATES CHENNAI

March 15 rates in rupees with previous rates inparentheses

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Retail Silver (1g). . . . . . . . . . 42.80. . . . (43.30)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

22 ct gold (1 g) . .. . . . . . . . . . 2,714. . . . (2,739)

market watch

15-03-2017 %

CHANGE

Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 29,398 dd -0.15

US Dollar dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd65.69 dddd0.20

Goldddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 28,650 dd -0.87

Brent oil ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd51.68 dddd1.86

Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley said the resolution ofbanks’ non performing as-sets (NPAs) remained a chal-lenge even though the rate ofincrease of such bad loanshad slowed in the lastquarter of the current finan-cial year.

The idea of a ‘bad bank’for such assets was still un-der discussion, Mr. Jaitleysaid, even as the Centre wasconsidering multiplication ofthe oversight committeemechanism set up by the Re-serve Bank of India (RBI) toprocess cases referred by dif-ferent banks.

Chief Economic Adviser(CEA) Arvind Subramanian,who had floated the idea of a‘bad bank’ to take overstressed assets in the Eco-nomic Survey for 2016-17,said earlier this week thatthe government must some-times consider bailing outlarge corporate borrowerseven at the risk of beingcharged of crony capitalismin order to surmount theNPA problem.

RBI Deputy GovernorViral Acharya has said that apiece-by-piece approachwon’t fix the NPA problemwhich needs an urgentsolution.

Public debate“Several possible alternat-ives exist and the issue is be-ing debated on public plat-forms,” Mr. Jaitley told MPsat a consultative committeemeeting on the NPAs, refer-ring to the ‘bad bank’proposal.

A few MPs said the Centremust ‘go ahead’ and estab-lish a Public Sector Asset Re-habilitation Agency (PARA)mooted by the CEA, but saidsuch an agency should onlyconsider those NPAs wheresector specific reforms donot help, and called for tak-ing tough action against wil-ful defaulters, includingnaming and shaming them.

“The core problem ofNPAs is with very large cor-

porates, though few in num-bers, predominantly in thesteel, power, infrastructureand textile sectors. They hadexpanded their capacity dur-ing the boom period (2003-08), but could not face theonslaught of global financialcrisis and consequent slow-

down thereafter,” the Fin-ance Minister said.

The government, Mr. Jait-ley said, is taking sector-spe-cific measures to deal withbad loans and the steel sec-tor is on the recovery path,while several decisions havebeen taken to help resolve

problems faced in the infra-structure, power and textilesectors.

A presentation was madeto the MPs on various meas-ures undertaken by the Gov-ernment and the ReserveBand for tackling NPAs.

‘Criminal action’“Apart from recovery pro-ceedings, criminal actionmust be taken against the bigwilful defaulters and theirphotographs may also bepublished. A member alsosuggested that under theSARFAESI (Securitisationand Reconstruction of Finan-cial Assets and Enforcementof Security Interest) Act, thefocus should be on catchingbig wilful defaulters,” ac-cording to an official state-ment, which listed some ofthe suggestions made by themembers of Parliament.

Taking cognisance of in-vestigative agencies’ actions

against bankers for some badloans, a few MPs stressed onthe need to restore the con-fidence of bankers and en-able them to take commer-cially viable as well asrational decisions.

“One of the members saidthat the Chief Vigilance Of-ficer of the Public SectorBank be made a part of thebank’s credit committee andthe Board of the bank shouldtake a call first about the de-cisions taken by their offi-cials rather than investigat-ing agencies directly actingon the basis of their own in-formation,” according to aFinance ministry statement.

Some members also sug-gested allowing state govern-ments to bid for stressed as-sets and keeping a close eyeon the functioning of privateasset reconstruction com-panies, whose performance‘is not up to the mark inmany cases.

‘Bad loans slowing, remain a challenge’The core problem of NPAs is with large corporates in steel, power, infra and textile sectors, says Jaitley


NEW DELHI

Uphill task: The government is taking sector-speciicmeasures to deal with bad loans, says Arun Jaitley.

Bankers plan to write to thefinance ministry voicing re-servations over possible im-plementation of a pre-pollpromise of the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) to waivefarm loans in Uttar Pradeshif voted to power.

The BJP, which won elec-tions in the State, hadpromised a waiver of loansgiven to small and marginalfarmers. BJP presidentAmit Shah said the partywould honour its promises.

According to bankers,the Indian Banks’ Associ-ation will take up the mat-ter with the department offinancial services in the fin-ance ministry.

The magnitude of theproblem, if the proposal isimplemented, can be seenfrom the fact that U.P.ranks third in India interms of agricultural credit

exposure, bankers said.The State has a 9.3%

market share in agriculturalcredit and about 45% of itstotal exposure is in therural areas. Bank of Barodais the leading bank at theState-level and its branchnetwork is as high as thecountry’s largest lenderState Bank of India (SBI).

Arundhati Bhattacharya,chairman, SBI, said suchschemes disturb credit dis-

cipline and raise hope formore waiver by otherStates.

“We feel that in case of a[farm] loan waiver there isalways a fall in credit dis-cipline because the peoplewho get the waiver have ex-pectations of future waiversas well. As such futureloans given often remainunpaid,” Ms. Bhattacharyasaid on the sidelines of anevent organised by the CII.

“Today, the loans willcome back as the govern-ment will pay for it butwhen we disburse loansagain then the farmers willwait for the next electionexpecting another waiver,”she said.

Ms. Bhattacharya, how-ever, said the bank had notreceived any proposal towaive off farm loans in Ut-tar Pradesh. She saidthough it is important tosupport farmers it has to be

done in a way which doesnot disrupt credit discip-line among them.

One-time settlementShe said SBI had an-nounced a one-time settle-ment (OTS) scheme worth₹6,000 crore in the tractorssegment to speed up loanrecovery. The bank hadalso announced such OTSschemes in education andSME segments.

“We do give OTS in re-spect of many loans whichare outstanding for a longtime and people may havehad some difficulties.” Shesaid the recovery due toOTS scheme in these seg-ments had been fairlygood.

In 2014, banks hadraised opposition to a sim-ilar scheme for Andhra Pra-desh and had written to thefinance ministry expressingtheir concerns.

Banks against farm loan waiver in U.P.MANOJIT SAHA

MUMBAI

Arundhati Bhattacharya

The U.S. Federal Reserveraised interest rates on Wed-nesday for the second timein three months, a movespurred by steady economicgrowth, strong job gains andconfidence that inflation isrising to the central bank’starget.

The decision to lift the tar-get overnight interest rate by25 basis points to a range of0.75% to 1% marked one ofthe Fed’s most convincingsteps yet in the effort to re-turn monetary policy to amore normal footing.

No accelerationHowever, the Fed did notflag any plan to acceleratethe pace of monetary tight-ening. Although inflation is“close” to the Fed’s 2% tar-get, it noted that goal was

“symmetric,” indicating apossible willingness to allowprices to rise at a slightlyfaster pace.

Further rate increaseswould only be “gradual,” theFed said in its policy state-ment, with officials stickingto their outlook for twomore rate hikes this year andthree more in 2018. The Fedlifted rates once in 2016.

Business investment “ap-pears to have firmed some-

what,” the Fed said in lan-guage that reflected astronger sense of the eco-nomy’s momentum. Fresheconomic forecasts releasedwith the statement showedlittle change from those ofthe December policy meet-ing and gave little indicationthe Fed has a clear view ofhow the policies of DonaldTrump’s administration mayimpact the economy in 2017and beyond.

“It relieves some of thefears we’ve had that perhapsthe Fed was going to raiserates faster in the future.They’ve chosen not to signalthat,” said Brad McMillan,Chief Investment Officer atCommonwealth Financial.

The Fed’s projectionsshowed the economy grow-ing by 2.1% in 2017, un-changed from the Decemberforecast.

Fed raises interest rates as jobgains, inlation spur conidence

U.S. central bank lifts target overnight rate by 25 basis points

Reuters

Washington

Janet Yellen

State Bank of India (SBI),the country’s largestlender, will raise ₹15,000crore equity capitalthrough a follow-on publicoffer, qualified institutionalplacement, global deposit-ory receipt or through onany other instrument, ac-cording to the bank.

The board cleared theproposal to raise ₹15,000crore on Wednesday, thebank said in a notificationto the exchanges.

“The central board ofthe bank at its meetingheld of 15.03.2017 has ac-corded approval for raisingequity capital upto ₹15,000crore during FY 2017-18 byway of FPO/ rights issue/QIP/ADR/GDR and anyother mode of combina-tion of these, as may be de-cided at the opportunetime subject to approval ofgovernment” and RBI.

SBI to raise₹15,000-cr.in equitySPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI

The BJP’s electoral wins inthe recent Assembly pollsare a credit positive for theIndian sovereign as theyshow broad-based popularsupport for the Centre’s eco-nomic and institutional re-form agenda, according toglobal credit rating agencyMoody’s Investors Service.

The BJP’s solid overallgains come despite the neg-ative economic hit from de-monetisation in late 2016and, although securing anUpper House majority inParliament may take time, apartnership between theCentre and the States underBJP could help circumventfederal hurdles to reforms inareas such as land and la-bour laws, Moody’s noted.

While Moody’s maintainsits lowest investment graderating of Baa3 for India with

a positive outlook, it said theState elections had yieldedsubstantial gains to the gov-ernment and reflect strongpopular support for PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s na-tional policy agenda.

“Unlike rival parties in Ut-tar Pradesh, the BJP did not

nominate a local chief minis-terial candidate to representthe party, but instead fo-cused on the leadership ofMr. Modi himself. By con-trast, the 2012 Uttar Pradeshelection outcome reflectedpopular support for indi-viduals in the SamajwadiParty and Bahujan SamajParty,” Moody’s said in an is-suer comment onWednesday.

No immediate gains“The ruling party will notimmediately benefit from itselectoral gains. The changesin the upper house will onlyoccur in 2018 when somemembers’ terms expire. Cur-rently, the National Demo-cratic Alliance led by the BJPand its allies hold about 30%of the total seats in the upperhouse. Therefore, the rulingparty will continue to rely onalliances with representat-

ives of other parties to pushthrough policy measures,”according to the note.

“Next year, 69 seats in theupper house, including 10from Uttar Pradesh and onefrom Uttarakhand, will comeup for re-election. If the BJP-led coalition increases itsseat tally to or closer to anoutright majority, passageand implementation of addi-tional reforms will be easier.”

“In addition, collabora-tion between the central gov-ernment and new BJP-ledstates could improve, par-tially circumventing impedi-ments to reform at the fed-eral level on politicallysensitive issues like land andlabor reform. This wouldsupport state-led reform mo-mentum — BJP-led States likeGujarat and Rajasthan havealready amended some landand labour laws,” accordingto Moody’s.

‘BJP poll wins credit positive for India’Party’s overall gains come despite economic hit from note ban, says Moody’s


NEW DELHI

The polls relect strongsupport for Modi’s nationalpolicy agenda.

India’s goods exports rosefor a sixth consecutivemonth in February even asthe trade deficit wideneddue to a jump in the value ofimports of gold and oil.

Exports, which grew17.5% year-on-year to $24.5billion, increased due tohigher shipments of engin-eering goods and petroleumproducts among others, ac-cording to data released bythe Commerce Ministry onWednesday.

Gold imports surgeImports went up 21.76% to$33.4 billion during themonth owing to a surge ingold and oil imports. Thisled to the trade deficitwidening to $8.9 billion lastmonth, from $6.5 billion inFebruary 2016. However,the trade shortfall was nar-rower than the $9.84 billionposted in January 2017.

Shipments of engineeringgoods shot up 47.3% to $6.6billion, while petroleumproducts’ exports jumped27.6% to $2.46 billion.Readymade garments rose5% to $1.6 billion, whilechemicals increased 11.3% to$1.3 billion and gems & jew-ellery shipments went up2.3% to $4 billion.

Drugs & pharmaceuticalsexports, however, shrank4.1% to $1.2 billion. Non-pet-roleum and non-gems &jewellery exports in Febru-ary rose 20.1% to $18 billion.

S.C. Ralhan, president ofthe country's apex body forexporters, Federation of In-dian Export Organisations,said continuous growth inexports for the last sixmonths was due to the com-mitment of the exportingcommunity to deliver evenduring such challengingtimes of global trade slow-down that has affected ex-ports of many countries in-cluding China.

He pointed out that 23

out of 30 major export itemsrecorded positive growth inFebruary, adding that goingby the current trend, India'sgoods exports for 2016-17could touch about $270 bil-lion. However, due to theprevailing uncertainty inglobal trade, exportersshould further diversify theproduct basket with morefocus on high–tech itemswhere India’s share in globaltrade is low, he said.

Gold imports in Februarysurged 147.6% to $3.48 bil-lion, and pearls & preciousstones imports increased9% to $2.2 billion. Oil im-ports jumped 60% to $7.68billion.

Incidentally, the globalBrent prices ($/bbl) andGold ($/troy oz) increasedby 67.14% and 2.89% re-spectively in February 2017vis-à-vis February 2016 asper World Bank commodityprice data.

Coal importsNon-oil imports during Feb-ruary were up 13.65% to$25.7 billion. Coal importswent up 33% to $1.6 billion,while chemicals importsrose 22.5% to $1.4 billion.Electronic goods importsrose 12.2% to $3.4 billion.Machinery imports contrac-ted 29% to $2.3 billion.

Exports during April-Feb-ruary 2016-17 went up by2.5% to $245.4 billion. Non-petroleum and non-gems &jewellery exports duringApril-February 2016-17 rose2.2% to $ 179.1 billion.

Exports climb for asixth straight month

Trade deicit widens to $8.9 bln. in Feb.Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Exports grew on highershipments of engineeringgoods.

CMYK

A ND-ND

BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



IN BRIEF

Jet Airways’ lyers canbook Uber on airline appMUMBAI

Jet Airways has entered intoa pact with ride-hailingservice provider Uber to helpthe airline’s passengers booka cab while reserving ticketson the Jet Airways app.Madhu Kannan, chiefbusiness oicer, Uber Indiaand Emerging markets said,‘Through this partnership,Jet Airways’ guests across 29cities will be able to requesttheir Uber when they booktheir light. That removesany last-minute hassles.”

WNS buys HealthHelpfor $95 millionMUMBAI

NYSE–listed Business ProcessManagement (BPM) irmWNS (Holdings), hasannounced the acquisition ofHouston, Texas basedHealthHelp, an industryleader in care management,for $95 million.“Consideration for thetransaction is $95 millionexcluding adjustments forcash, debt and workingcapital,” according to astatement from WNS, acompany which has itsheadquarters in Mumbai.

The Centre will aggressivelypush for labour reforms fol-lowing the recent state elec-tions, said Bandaru Dat-tatreya, Labour andEmployment Minister.

“After the state electionresults, all political partiesshould step forward to sup-port development, includinglabour reforms,” LabourMinister Bandaru Dattatreyatold The Hindu at the Inter-national Vision Zero Confer-ence on Occupational Safetyand Health organised here.

“It should be given prior-ity instead of playing polit-ics. Our government hasgiven top priority to labourreforms for employmentgeneration and safety andworking conditions for work-ers and we will keep pursu-ing them intensively.”

The recent election res-

ults in Uttar Pradesh, Ut-tarakhand, Goa, Punjab andManipur will help the Na-tional Democratic AllianceGovernment to increase itsshare of seats in the RajyaSabha. The NDA has a major-ity in Lok Sabha but lacksthe numbers for a majorityin the Rajya Sabha.

The NDA has 74 out of 245members in the Rajya Sabhaat present. Getting more rep-resentation in the UpperHouse following the stateelection results will help theNDA Government facilitatefurther reforms, Moody’s In-vestors Service had said.

Mr. Dattatreya said a

panel of Union Ministers ledby Finance Minister ArunJaitley will meet next week tofinalise the labour code onindustrial relations aimed ateasing retrenchment norms.

Wage code“The Ministers have clearedthe code on wages. The firstphase of discussions on in-dustrial relations code hasalready happened. We willagain meet next week to takeit forward,” Mr. Dattatreyasaid.

The proposed labour codeon wages aims to bring aboutuniformity in the definitionof wage in various labourlaws and make national min-imum wage mandatory forall establishments. The codeon industrial relations seeksto relax retrenchment normsfor companies and provideskills to retrenched workers,among other measures.

‘Post polls, all political partiesmust support labour reforms’Panel to inalise labour code for easing retrenchment norms, says Dattatreya

Poll illip:Getting higher numbers in the Rajya Sabha willfacilitate more labour reforms.

Somesh Jha

NEW DELHI

Greg Moran, CEO and co-founder of self-drive car-rental service start-up Zoom-car, said the Centre could at-tract investment to India “bytrying to make it easier forforeigners to invest in thecountry.”

“Prime Minister Modi hasdone a decent job of makingit easy to set up industryhere but things could be bet-ter,” he said while talking toThe Hindu after unveiling anew car-share facility forvehicle–owners.

He said the areas whereattention was needed to fa-cilitate foreign investorswere “visa, tax abatementsfor start-ups, and improvedfacility for setting up busi-ness. An investor also wantsa 3-5 year policy frameworkin place which provides clar-ity on certain infrastructureand taxation issues.”

He hinted that broadband

connectivity was a roadblockfor technology-based com-panies like Zoomcar.

In 2013, the U.S.–based,Greg Moran and his friendDavid Back founded India’sfirst self-driven car rentalcompany Zoomcar, allowingusers to rent cars.

While his partner left forthe U.S. later, Mr. Moran dughis heels in and has not onlytasted success but has hadseveral rounds of financing,the last being from an arm ofFord Motors. The firm is now

exploring opportunities insome South East Asian mar-kets like Vietnam, the Philip-pines and Indonesia and inAfrican countries like Nigeriaand Kenya.

The Bengaluru-basedcompany is now in 17 citieswith a fleet of 3,000 cars ofwhich 2,000 are its own. Ithas recently introduced a fa-cility ZAP, whereby a newcar owner can rent out his/her car on the Zoomcar plat-form when it is idling, withZoomcar managing all theformalities and helping theowner cut his vehicle owner-ship cost.

Utilisation rates“Utilisation rates for privatecars in India are very low ataround 10% and Zoomcarwill create a truly hyper localproduct,” he said, addingthere were 100 cars in thisasset-light model and thiswould be the future growthpath for the company.

Ease norms for foreigninvestors: Zoomcar CEO‘Exploring opportunities in South Asian markets’


KOLKATA

GregMoran

The Centre on Wednesdayunveiled a scheme to createexport-related infrastructureand boost the competitive-ness of India’s shipments.

The scheme would have abudgetary allocation of ₹600crore, with an annual outlayof ₹200 crore per year, and itwould be implemented fromFY’18 till FY’20, according toa Commerce Ministrystatement.

“The objective of the pro-posed scheme — Trade Infra-structure for Export Scheme(TIES) — is to enhance exportcompetitiveness by bridging

gaps in export infrastruc-ture, creating focused exportinfrastructure, first mile andlast mile connectivity for ex-port-oriented projects and

addressing quality and certi-fication measures.”

Replacing ASIDEThe scheme replaces a cent-rally sponsored scheme —Assistance to States for creat-ing Infrastructure for the De-velopment and growth of Ex-ports (ASIDE).

Commerce MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said:“The focus is not just to cre-ate infrastructure but tomake sure it is professionallyrun and sustained. Therewill be an (inter-ministerial)Empowered Committee(chaired by the CommerceSecretary) to periodically re-

view the progress of the ap-proved projects in theScheme and will take neces-sary steps to ensure achieve-ment of the objectives of theScheme.”

Commerce Secretary RitaTeaotia said the schemewould provide assistance forsetting up and upgrading in-frastructure projects withoverwhelming export link-ages — like border haats,land customs stations, qual-ity testing and certificationlabs and cold chains. Shesaid last and first mile con-nectivity projects related toexport logistics will also beconsidered.

Centre unveils plan for export infraThe ₹600 crore-scheme is aimed at strengthening India’s trade competitiveness


NEW DELHI

Nirmala Sitharaman

A Division Bench of theKarnataka High Court askedcounsel for Vijay Mallya’sUnited Breweries (Holdings)to seek instructions on howmuch UBHL could depositfor taking up its appealagainst an order for windingup the company for failingto pay liabilities to unse-cured and secured creditorsas per its corporate guaran-tee extended to KingfisherAirlines.

Chief Justice SubhroKamal Mukherjee and

Justice Budihal R.B. saidUBHL could make a “fairone-time settlement” offer,while hearing UBHL’s pleaagainst a February 7 single-judge order for winding upthe company on a petitionfiled by a consortium ofbanks, led by the State Bankof India.

“UBHL is a commerciallyinsolvent company and isunable to meet its admittedfinancial obligations andsquare up its admitted liabil-ity towards the petitioningcreditors,” the single-judgehad said in his ruling.

UBHL appeals againstwinding up verdict

‘Firm can make a settlement ofer’


Bengaluru

The ₹295 billion Mur-ugappa Group has an-nounced top-level changesin a couple of its leadingcompanies.

N. Srinivasan, Group Dir-ector (Finance), has beenappointed as the ExecutiveVice-Chairman and Man-aging Director ofCholamandalam Invest-ment and Finance Com-pany Ltd (CIFCL). His ap-pointment will take effectfrom August 19 when thecurrent Managing DirectorVellayan Subbiah com-pletes his term in office.

NewMD forMurugappaGroup armK.T. Jagannathan

Chennai

India Cements offersstock option for staffCHENNAI

India Cements Ltd. has comeout with a stock optionscheme for its employees byoffering 18.35 lakh shares tocertain selection gradeemployees. The scheme willcome into effect on April 1,2017, and the option will vestwith the employees on April1, 2018. Upon exercising thisoption, the employees will beallotted assigned equityshares at ₹50 a share on theface value of ₹10 (including apremium of ₹40).

CMYK

A ND-ND




SPORT

IN BRIEF

Players clash as Aussiegame turns uglySYDNEY

A cricket match in Australiahas turned ugly with abatsman shoulder-barging acelebrating bowler, knockinghim over and sparking anon-field clash.Footage from the incidentlast weekend shows apaceman for Yackandandah inVictoria State runningtowards the Eskdale batsmanafter bowling him out.The celebration wasn’tappreciated with thebatsman dropping hisshoulder into him, knockinghim to the ground.That prompted a fielder tocharge at the batsman andpush him over with fellowfielders rushing in to breakup the melee.

Australian cricketers visitcity-based NGORANCHI

Members of the Australiancricket team visited Yuwa, anNGO based in the city thatprovides a platform throughteam sport for young womento gain confidence to make achange in their world. Theplayers took time out fromtheir preparations for thethird Test to interact withsome young girl athletesfrom Jharkhand. PTI

Johri in Colombo to meetother board chiefs

MUMBAI

It’s understood that the BCCICEO Rahul Johri is inColombo for a meeting withthe cricket boards of SriLanka, Bangladesh andZimbabwe to discuss ICC’sproposed constitutional andfinancial changes that wouldbe placed before the ICCBoard at Dubai on April 26and 27. The BangladeshCricket Board is part of theICC’s Working Group alongwith England and WalesCricket Board, CricketAustralia, Imran Khawaja(Associate Member,Singapore) and hence itwould be difficult for it towithdraw its signature.Shashank Manohar was thefifth member of the WorkingGroup. G. VISWANATH

The BCCI has expressedsurprise at Shashank Man-ohar’s decision to stepdown as ICC chairman.

“Mr. Manohar’s contri-bution to Indian cricket isinvaluable.

“He is a man of fewwords, but excellent deeds.

The BCCI Committee of Ad-ministrators (CoA) waslooking forward to a long-term cooperation betweenthe ICC and BCCI with Mr.Manohar at the helm of af-fairs.

“The BCCI wishes himthe very best for his futureendeavours,” the Boardsaid in a statement.

‘Man of few words,but excellent deeds’Special Correspondent

Mumbai

On an emotional roller-coaster for most part, Indiaand Australia have faced offin two volatile matches thattested both nerve and skill.Pitches have been demand-ing, andduels fierce.

The low-scoring Tests,high on both intensity andverbal spats, have been ultracompetitive. And situationshave thrownupheroes.

This dramatic and ratherill-tempered Border-Gavas-kar series— rival captains andcelebrated batsmen ViratKohli and Steve Smith werecaught up in a behaviouralstorm — is on a razor’s edgegoing into the third Test be-ginninghere onThursday.

With the scores 1-1 in thefour-Test series, the stakesarehigh. Both teamswill seekto grab Ranchi’s first everTest by the scruff.

Much focus has been onthe surface. Smith andAussiecoachDarrenLehmannhada

rather close look at the pitchonWednesday.

MightplaybetterThe pitch might play betterthan it looks — images of thetrack have been doing therounds on Twitter — since itmay not be very dry. Spells ofrain in the city leading up tothe Test have meant the sur-face had to be periodicallykept under covers. The cur-ator, resultantly, hasn’t reallybeen able to prepare a bonedrywicket.

Showers have been fore-cast on day three and four ofthe Test. If it rains, then thiswill have a direct bearing onhow the surface plays.

Lack of adequate sunlightand the covering up of thesurface will slow down thebreakingupof thewicket.

Yet, as the match pro-gresses, spinners are increas-ingly likely to come into thepicture. There is a possibilitythat, like in Bengaluru, thebounceon this trackmight be

low. Both teamswill notwantto bat last here.

From a batting perspect-ive, use of feet and shot selec-tionwill be crucial to success.Judgement of length is vital asit is this attribute that guidesfootwork.

If the ball turns, then thebatsmen need to rememberthat the real game is squareofthe wicket. They need tokeep the good deliveriesaway andwait for opportun-ities to essay the cut, pull andthe sweep.

India will seek runs fromits skipper Virat Kohli. Hisduels with the Aussie spinduo of Nathan Lyon, whoseems to have recoveredwellfrom a sore spinning finger,and Steve O’Keefe should beengrossing. Kohli has to playhis natural, aggressive game,be decisive and look to playthan ‘leave’.

Opener Murali Vijay — hepractised on Wednesday —appears to have put his

shoulder injury behind and isset to play his 50thTest.

India could continue witha four-man attack unless itdecides to pick an additionalspinner in either Jayant Ya-dav or Kuldeep Yadav forKarunNair.

Maxwell has the edgeThe Aussies might choosebetween GlennMaxwell andMarcus Stoinis for the slot va-cated by the injuredMitchellMarsh.

Maxwell has the edge forhe brings with him the X-factor and has this ability todisrupt attacks. Left-handedspecialist batsman UsmanKhawaja is also in the frame.

And Pat Cummins shouldreplace the mercurialMitchell Starc. Cummins hasspeed and aggression andmay do some damage duringhis short bursts.

The Aussies will be upagainst the top bowling com-bination — in these condi-tions — of the contemporary

game with R. Ashwin andRavindra Jadeja holding thejointNo.1 ranking inTests.

Will the strangely subduedDavid Warner come out with adifferent game-plan againstAshwin? The action could begripping.

The teams (from):

India: Virat Kohli (capt.), M. Vijay,K.L. Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara,AjinkyaRahane, KarunNair, R. Ash-win, Wriddhiman Saha (wk), R.Jadeja, Umesh Yadav, IshantSharma, Jayant Yadav, AbhinavMukund, Kuldeep Yadav andBhuvneshwar Kumar.

Australia: Steve Smith (capt.),David Warner, Matt Renshaw,Shaun Marsh, Peter Handscomb,Glenn Maxwell, Mathew Wade(wk), Pat Cummins, Josh Hazle-wood, Nathan Lyon, Steve O’Keefe, Marcus Stoinis, UsmanKhawaja, Mitchell Swepson,AshtonAgar and JacksonBird.

Umpires: Ian Gould (England) andChris Gaffaney (New Zealand).Third umpire: Nigel Llong (Eng-land).

Match starts at9.30a.m.

An intense Test with high stakes in the oingShowers predicted on days three and four; spinners likely to come into the picture as match progresses

Spin twins:Nathan Lyon and Steve O’Keefe hold the key toAustralia’s fortunes in the third Test. K.R. DEEPAK

S. Dinakar

RANCHI

Shashank Manohar resignedas chairman of the Interna-tional Cricket Council (ICC)on Wednesday to bring to anend a long innings in cricketadministration. He had had ameeting with Committee ofAdministrators (CoA) chair-man Vinod Rai and memberVikram Limaye here on Tues-day evening.

Not specifying a reason forhis abrupt decision to vacatethe prestigious post, Mano-har told The Hindu, “Hon-estly, my resignation hasnothing to do with the ICC orits issues or the BCCI. It’spurely a personal decision.Personal reasons have to re-main personal. I told my wifeabout my decision onMonday evening.”

After being elected asBCCI president for thesecond time in October 2015,the Nagpur-based lawyerresigned from the post inMay 2016 to be subsequently

elected as the first independ-ent chairman of the ICC, fora two-year term, ín May2016.

“The ICC has confirmed ithas received an email fromchairman Shashank Manohartendering his resignation.

“The ICC Board will assessthe situation and next stepsbefore making a further an-nouncement,” said an ICCpress release.

Keeping CoA informed

Manohar sent an email to theICC onWednesday, but he in-formed Rai and Limaye of hisdecision to leave the ICC be-fore the start of the meeting.

The CoA chairman hadbeen keen to meet Manoharduring the first Test betweenIndia and Australia at Pune,but the latter had other en-gagements, which led to themeeting being put off forthree weeks. It is learnt fromsources privy to what wenton during the meetingbetween Rai, Limaye and

Manohar that the topic ofdiscussion was the “constitu-tional and financial changes”proposed by the ICC’s specialworking group that had re-ceived an overwhelming 7-2support during the ICCBoard meeting in Dubai inthe first week of February.

Inducted as an ICC Boardmember four days after he

was nominated to the CoAand therefore not in fullgrasp of the goings-on in theICC, Limaye had votedagainst the governance andrevenue-sharing model.

During the course of themeeting, Rai and Limayeconveyed categorically toManohar that “since the CoAis only a temporary body,”

they will not be able to sup-port the proposals workedaround the theme of ‘equity’.

Especially the prospect ofa heavy cut from a previouslyproposed net revenue of$445 million (gross revenueof $570 million less an ex-penditure of $125 million),over the 2016-2023 cycle, tothe proposed net revenue of

$290 million, was not accept-able to the CoA.

At their meeting on Febru-ary 25, the CoA had dis-cussed the ICC’s financialmodel with Rahul Johri (BCCICEO), R.P. Shah (former GM,Commercial, BCCI), Dr. M.V.Sridhar (GM, Cricket Opera-tions, BCCI) and Adarsh Sax-ena (Cyril AmarchandMangaldas, attorney, BCCI)and resolved that “the BCCIshould take all steps neces-sary to protect the interestsof BCCI, including engagingwith other ICC membercountries and garneringtheir support for the BCCI’sposition on the proposedchanges.”

Making it clear

The CoA gave clear hints thatit would not go with the pro-posed financial changes andthe Supreme Court’s obser-vations on March 6 on theICC’s revenue sharing modelhas only compelled it tostrike a better bargain.

The Supreme Court benchhad said: “Let us get the factsclear. We have nothing to dowith the ICC.

“We are also concernedthat India, as a country,should get the best deal, itshould get the money. Sup-posing there is a loss, a bigloss of money, that has to betaken care of.

“The issue is how it shouldbe taken care of in the bestpossible manner.”

Manohar’s resignation hassurprised many, especiallyafter he had initiated sweep-ing constitutional and finan-cial changes in late 2015.

“The Big Three (India,Australia and England)should not bully the ICC”was his famous statement.

It’s being speculated thatManohar resigned becausethe proposals may not re-ceive two-thirds support atthe next ICC Board meetingscheduled in Dubai on April26 and 27.

Manohar quits eight months into term as ICC chiefVeteran administrator cites personal reasons for resignation, says decision has ‘nothing to do with ICC issues or BCCI’G. Viswanath

Mumbai

ShashankManohar.JACK DABAGHIAN/GETTY IMAGES

Steve Smith and Virat Kohliwill meet match refereeRichie Richardson onThursday morning, beforethe start of the third Test,and the focus will be onplayer behaviour. Yet, Smithhas already termed Kohli’sallegations that the Aussiesdeliberately misuse DRS as“complete rubbish.”

Smith said: “Perhaps Imight be able to ask a fewquestions [to Kohli] tomor-row. We’ll see what themood is like at that time.Virat obviously stuck by hiscomments. From my pointof view I think they are com-pletely wrong.”

On Wednesday, Smithmet Richardson and the two

umpires. “What they basic-ally said was they wanted tosee cricket as the winner inthis Test match, that bothteams should play withinthe rules of the game,” theAustralian captain said.

Queried on the pitchhere, Smith said: “The pitchlooked a little bit drier thanit was yesterday. Only aquick look but I think it’llplay reasonably well on thefirst day. I don’t think therewill be a great deal ofbounce. I think it’ll shootquite low and then fromthere, it’ll break up as thegame wears on.”

He said off-spinnerNathan Lyon was set to play.“His finger has healed nicelyover the last week or so. I’msure he’ll be fine.”

Smith rubbishesKohli’s allegationsSpecial Correspondent

RANCHI

Virat Kohli was his feisty selfwhile answering questionsfrom the media here.

On what he had said dur-ing and after the BengaluruTest, the India captainnoted: “I think about what Isay. I don’t regret anything Ihave said. “But, at the sametime, it is very important notto be stupid and go on aboutthe same thing on a dailybasis because there is a lot ofcricket to be played. It’s timewe focused on the remainderof the series.”

Kohli said: “It is not thefirst time in my life thatpeople have spoken aboutme, certainly not the lasttime. I must have done a fewthings right in my career to

be given the opportunity tocaptain the side.

“As long as you are honestwith yourself, work hard ona daily basis, you are answer-able to no one.”

Asked whether he hadmade specific allegationsagainst his counterpart SteveSmith without adequateproof, Kohli replied: “If nocharges were pressed againstme, how are they allega-tions?” Kohli emphasisedthat the series was not aboutindividual battles but aboutteams facing one another.“Honestly, Ashwin didn’tlook at his second inningsperformance in Bengaluru asa reply to Lyon’s eight-wickethaul in the first. We don’tlook at any of these competi-tions,” he said.

The India captain laudedCheteshwar Pujara andAjinkya Rahane’s batting inthe second innings of thesecond Test. “I saw Pujaraopening up his stance whichwas an apt adjustment forhim to give himself morespace to play the ball.Ajinkya, again, getting insidethe line of the ball and notplaying through the covers,”Kohli said.

“But I think those twoguys stepped up their gameand found a way to scoreruns on a difficult wicket.”

Kohli refused to make pre-dictions about the surface inRanchi. “I have not comeacross a cricketer who canlook at the pitch and predictcorrectly as to what will hap-pen,” he said.

‘I think about what I say, don’t regret anything’It’s time we focused on the series, says the India captainSpecial Correspondent

RANCHI

Team theme: Virat Kohli emphasised that the series was not about individual battles but abouttwo sides facing each other. K.R. DEEPAK

There is a cricket revolutionhappening in Jharkhand.You can see it in the bill-boards across the city, ad-vertising the mushroomingcricket academies.

On them are not just theimages of the iconic Ma-hendra Singh Dhoni but alsoof lesser stars such as Saur-abh Tiwary.

It is fitting that Ranchi isstaging its inaugural Testwhen Jharkhand’s fortunesin the domestic arena are atan all time high. The side,bucking the odds, reachedthe semifinals of the RanjiTrophy and has progressedto the last four stage in theongoing Vijay Hazare one-day competition.

The boys from the smalltowns are staring at the big,bold lights of the city ascricket spreads its wings inthe country. We have come a

long way from the timewhen traditional powercentres ruled the cricketingscene in India.

Jharkhand is a wonderfulexample. And Dhoni hasbeen an inspiration.Ranchi’s cricket boom hasbeen triggered and sus-tained by his immenseachievements.

First name on lips

Dhoni might be far awayfrom Ranchi, captaining theState in the Hazare tourna-ment, but his presence canbe felt in different ways.From the taxi driver to theman in the hotel lobby,Dhoni bhaiya is the firstname on many lips.

Chanchal Bhattacharya,Dhoni’s first coach, who vis-ited the ground on Wednes-day, spoke about the wicket-keeper-batsman’s desire,commitment and immenseability that he was able to

harness. Dhoni’s story is thestuff of dreams; from being aticket collector who boardedone of the crowded trains inthese parts, he became In-dia’s legendary captain. Dur-ing his journey, the mancalled Mahi broke throughseveral barriers.

And his explosive wayswith the willow fired theimagination of many aspir-ing cricketers of his State.Today, Jharkhand has somany cricketers with poten-tial, from Ishan Kishan toIshank Jaggi, from RahulShukla to Shahbaz Nadeem.

Sense of belief

Not to speak of fast bowlerVarun Aaron, who becamethe second cricketer fromJharkhand to represent In-dia. “Dhoni gave us all asense of belief,” Aaron said.

Dhoni has been the torch-bearer for his State, itsbrightest shining star.

S. Dinakar

RANCHI

Dhoni — the catalyst for Jharkhand’s cricket revolution

“One M.S. Dhoni hashelped Jharkhand find aplace on the cricketmap. It’stime we bring out moreyoungsters to keep the mo-mentum going,” BanerjeetoldTheHindu.

The senior coachwill missRanchi’s debut, as he is inVellore with his ailing wife.Meanwhile, Bhattacharya,who will be present at thevenue on all the five days,said: “Now everyone wantsto emulateMahi. Butwe alsomust realise that blindly fol-lowing Mahi won’t makethings easy.”

On normal days, Banerjee,who is still associated withJawahar Vidya Mandir, re-ceives around 10 to 15 re-quests from parents. “Only

sending kids to me won’thelp. The parentsmust real-ise that to make a cricketer,strict discipline is necessary,”Banerjee said.

Bhattacharya admits thateven though quite a fewacademies have come up inRanchi, other parts of theState still need a lotmore.

The only major cricket fa-cility in Ranchi is the JSCA In-ternational Stadium. But oneneeds to be at least a first di-visionplayer to avail it.

“A lot of young cricketersare on the verge ofmaking itbig. But for most, it’s notpossible to spend heavily.The State board should en-sure that the game is spreadto different corners,” Baner-jee said.

There are many things thatdifferentiate Chanchal Bhat-tacharya and Keshav Baner-jee. But then, there is alsosomething that binds thetwo. And that isM.S. Dhoni.

The two senior coachesfromRanchi are theones thathelped Jharkhandget its firstinternational icon. WhileBanerjee was the first to in-spire Dhoni to take up cricketduring his days at the Jawa-har Vidya Mandir, Bhat-tacharya honed his skills atthe club andState level.

As the small town gearsup for its Test debut, Baner-jee and Bhattacharya feelthat the State’s real chal-lengehas just begun.

‘Blindly followingMahi isn’t the way to go’

CaptainMarvel: The talismanic M. S. Dhoni is a hiteverywhere, especially in his hometown Ranchi. PTI

Shayan Acharya

Chennai

CMYK

A ND-ND




SPORT

SUDOKU

S N A P U P T E R R I F I C

U L R I E N N

R O A R I N G P E T I T E

S C O H L E E

M E T E O R T R A I N I N G

B I R Y S T

A P P O R T I O N M E D I A

R Y P B O

T I B E T R E P R E S E N T

V N P W I L

W I S T E R I A G L A S S Y

L W O L H S U

T E D I U M K E T C H U P

G N P E E E E

D E F E C T O R R E S O R T

Solution to puzzle 11955 Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The great Vaishnava Acharya Ramanuja learnt from hisfather in his early years, and was later sent to YadavaPrakasa of Tirupputkuzhi, a village near Kanchipuram, forfurther lessons. Yadava Prakasa explained the Upanishadicstatement tasya yathaa kapyaasam pundareekam evam ak-shinee as a comparison of the Supreme One’s eyes to a mon-key’s behind. Ramanuja shed tears when he heard this inter-pretation. He was hurt by Yadava Prakasa’s disrespectfulcomparison, said Kidambi Narayanan, in a discourse. Andyet, ideal student that he was, he did not offer his alternateexplanation with pride, but explained humbly to his guruwhat he felt the correct interpretation was. Yadava Prakasahad taken the word kapi to mean monkey. But Ramanujasaid that there was an alternate meaning, which was the cor-rect one in this context. He said kapi also meant Sun. Whatthe statement from the Upanishadmeant was that the Lord’seyes were like lotuses that bloom when the Sun was up, saidRamanuja.

Ramanuja’s explanation of the Upanishadic statementsatyam, jnanam, anantam, Brahma was also different fromYadava Prakasa’s. Ramanuja said that satyam meant thatBrahman was there always. He is today as He was yesterday,and will be the same in future. Jnanam indicates that Brah-man does not change like the waxing and waning moon.Anantam means geographical boundaries do not limit Him.He is the same everywhere. These three qualities defineBrahman, said Ramanuja.

Thus it is clear that Ramanuja was an ideal student, onewho did not hesitate to come up with the right explanation,but one who did so without any pride. Yadava Prakasa, how-ever, was unhappy with his pupil contradicting him, andtried to kill Ramanuja, but the latter was saved by LordVaradaraja of Kanchipuram and His Consort Perundevi.

FAITH

Ideal studentrelationships (4)

6 Break into a new state (6)

7 Spinner was irst to retire with

a model (5)

8 A true mix-up between

partners' identities (7)

9 America rejected proposal

after commencement,

causing hurt (6)

14 Half-inished Indian politician

allowed leading ex-minister

to take over irm (10)

17 Adjacent member in hub

region broken (9)

18 A vehicle featuring in

animated Pixar ilm's trailers

(8)

19 Desperate trick to get under

foreigner's skin (7)

21 With end nowhere in sight,

Gay accelerated and breathed

heavily (6)

22 Really stylish act (6)

24 Looks for man captivated by

looks (5)

26 Endlessly uttered profanities,

raised ights (4)

12 Love affairs involving

extremely excitative emotions

(8)

13 At the end, singer to scream

head off? This might help

maintain pitch! (6)

15 Surplus gold managed by head

of the eatery (10)

16 Members of colony like to

drink a bit of neat tequila (4)

19 Movie initially felicitated in

ludicrous mix-up (4)

20 Enhancing programme code

before appraisal (10)

23 Sailor's net cast away (6)

25 Broadcasts special cricket

series played between

Australia and England (8)

27 Newspaper introduced

excellently detailed redesign,

gaining patronage ultimately,

as a result (9)

28 Desolate criminal taking drug

(5)

29 They deliver notes, send pics &

share moves with Snapchat,

primarily (4,10)

■ DOWN

2 International valuers jostling to

acquire upcoming home (9)

3 Cook feast with some Indian

vegetables at large fair (8)

4 Accountant attempts to gain

self-esteem in classes (10)

5 It's about preserving energy in

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9

10 11

12 13

14

15 16 17

18

19 20 21

22

23 24 25

26

27 28

29

(set by Spinner)

■ ACROSS

1 A gripping cryptic clue might

have this hint of surprise to

increase fun on cracking (7,7)

10 In return, Stanford University

admits Indian college

members (5)

11 Theatre at mental asylum for

surgery (9)

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11956

Man United charged withlack of player controlLONDON

Manchester United has beencharged with failing tocontrol its players duringMonday’s 1-0 FA Cupquarterfinal defeat atChelsea, the FA has said.The charge relates to anincident in the 35th minute ofthe match at StamfordBridge. United has untilFriday evening to respond tothe charge. REUTERS

German Cup: Dortmundsails into last fourBERLIN

Christian Pulisic set BorussiaDortmund on its way to acomfortable 3-0 win overthird-tier Sportfreunde Lotteon Tuesday that took it intothe semifinals of the GermanCup.The result (quarterfinals):Sportfreunde Lotte 0 lost toBorussia Dortmund 3 (Pulisic57, Schurrle 66, Schmelzer83). AFP

MUMBAI: Allora, who ran secondin her last start, should makeamends in the Kailashpat Sing-hania Trophy, the feature event ofthe races to be held here onThursday evening.Rails will be placed 2 metres awayfrom its original point from1400m to 1200m and 4 metresfrom 1000m upto the winningpost.

1 ASTRAL FLASH PLATE

(1,400m), Cl. III, rated 40 to66, 4-15 p.m: 1. Uncle Scrooge (6)Parmar 59, 2. Cezanne (7) Ajinkya57, 3. Chizzler (2) Sandesh 57, 4.Bounty Queen (3) Daman 56.5, 5.Merabella (5) S.Sunil 55, 6. WindCraft (4) K.Kadam 55, 7. DancingLord (1) Trevor 52.5 and 8. Saw-grass (8) C.S.Jodha 51.5.1. SAWGRASS, 2. CHIZZLER, 3. DAN-

CING LORD

2 MADRAS RACE CLUB CUP DI-V.II (1,200m), Maiden, 3-y-o

only, 4-45: 1. Art O War (10) Par-mar 55, 2. Baby Face (2) N.Rawal55, 3. Lord Commander (7)C.S.Jodha 55, 4. Morocco (5)Pereira 55, 5. Optimum (9)Sandesh 55, 6. Towering Storm(4) S.Sunil 55, 7. Imperial Beauty(3) Bhawani 53.5, 8. Manzanita (1)Dashrath 53.5, 9. Shamwari (8)J.Chinoy 53.5 and 10. TurningPoint (6) Trevor 53.5.1. LORD COMMANDER, 2. SHAM-

WARI, 3. OPTIMUM

3 MADRAS RACE CLUB CUP DIV.I(1,200m), Maiden, 3-y-o only,

5-15: 1. Alsace (1) Tograllu 55, 2.Kotor (8) Sandesh 55, 3. Lucky Lu-ciano (2) Nirmal Jodha 55, 4. Ser-eno (11) Trevor 55, 5. Artus (7)Parmar 53.5, 6. Daughterofthesun(10) J.Chinoy 53.5, 7. Gentillesse(6) Neeraj 53.5, 8. Loire (5)

Dashrath 53.5, 9. Mocassin (3)Ajinkya 53.5, 10. Nembe Greek (9)C.S.Jodha 53.5 and 11. Sassy Lass(4) Akshay 53.5.1. KOTOR, 2. DAUGHTER-

OFTHESUN, 3. GENTILLESSE

4 RUNNING STAR PLATE DIV.II(1,200m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to

46, 5-45: 1. Beneficial (13) Trevor59, 2. Knight’s Quest (1) Parmar54, 3. Slam Dunk (4) Hanumant54, 4. Ice Angel (6) C.S.Jodha53.5, 5. Arvan (2) Roushan 53, 6.Noble Chieftain (11) Ayyar 52, 7.Zabrok (10) Vishal 52, 8. Azeeza(3) K.Kadam 51.5, 9. Flower Dust(8) Nazil 51.5, 10. Panatela (7)Bhawani 51.5, 11. Shalom (12)Neeraj 51.5, 12. She’s A Tiger (9)Santosh 51.5 and 13. ImpossibleDream (5) Pradeep 51.1. SHALOM, 2. SLAM DUNK, 3. ICE

ANGEL

5 KAILASHPAT SINGHANIA

TROPHY (1,200m), Cl. II, rated60 to 86, 6-15: 1. Nascar (1)Raghuveer 60, 2. Valentino (3)Parmar 58, 3. Papakura (6)A.Gaikwad 54.5, 4. Incentio (7)Dashrath 53.5, 5. Ancient Glory(5) Neeraj 52.5, 6. Allora (4) Tre-vor 52, 7. Alishas Pet (2) C.S.Jodha51.5 and 8. Governor General (8)Sandesh 51.5.1. ALLORA, 2. NASCAR, 3. GOV-

ERNOR GENERAL

6 IBRAHIM A RAHIMTOOLA

TROPHY (1,000m), Cl. III,rated 40 to 66, 6-45: 1. FreeSpeech (6) Daman 62, 2. Rider OnThe Storm (4) Parbat 62, 3. TheCivilian (10) Joseph 59, 4. Arabelle(9) Jaykumar 58, 5. Cyclone (2)Neeraj 56, 6. Queen Credible (5)A.Gaikwad 55, 7. Hirohama (7)K.Kadam 54.5, 8. Lady Danehill(11) Trevor 53.5, 9. Quixotic (8)

Mosin 53, 10. Dancing Prince (12)N.Rawal 52.5, 11. Rock In Rio (1)Dashrath 50.5 and 12. Alpine Ex-press (3) Sandesh 50.1. ALPINE EXPRESS, 2. FREE

SPEECH, 3. CYCLONE

7 RUNNING STAR PLATE DIV.I(1,200m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to

46, 7-15: 1. Angel Girl (9) Trevor60, 2. Flag Flying (13) Raghuveer59.5, 3. Orla (2) Ajinkya 59, 4. TopWizard (4) Dashrath 56.5, 5. Furi-osa (1) S.Sunil 55, 6. Pacific Dunes(11) Santosh 55, 7. New England(5) C.S.Jodha 54.5, 8. Kings Baron(12) Bhawani 52.5, 9. ThunderDown Under (7) J.Chinoy 52.5, 10.Abbeyroad (8) S.J.Sunil 52, 11.Auroden (6) Sandesh 51.5, 12.Shape The Scape (3) Nazil 51.5and 13. Triple Threat (10) Pereira51.5.1. NEW ENGLAND, 2. ANGEL GIRL,

3. FLAG FLYING

8 P A D’AVOINE TROPHY

(1,400m), Cl. IV rated 20 to46, 7-45: 1. Rashun (8) C.S.Jodha59.5, 2. Arsenal (10) Zeeshan 58.5,3. Hunting Pleasure (2) Trevor57.5, 4. Marvel (14) Ajinkya 57, 5.Simona (6) S.J.Sunil 56.5, 6. Ven-tura (4) S.Kamble 56.5, 7. RoyalClassic (13) Neeraj 55.5, 8. Elsa (7)Bhawani 55, 9. Centaurus (12)Pereira 54.5, 10. Aeolus Maximus(11) Dashrath 54, 11. Jeena (9)Vishal 53.5, 12. Bay Of Love (3)K.Kadam 52, 13. Rapid Girl (1)Sandesh 52 and 14. Samurai (5)Parmar 52.1. HUNTING PLEASURE, 2.

SAMURAI, 3. RAPID GIRL

Day’s best: LORD COMMANDER

Double: SHALOM – NEW ENGLAND

Jackpot: 4, 5, 6, 7 & 8. Treble: (i)5, 6 & 7. (ii) 6, 7 & 8. Tanala: Allraces. Super Jackpot: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7& 8.

Allora should make amends

From heroes to zeros andback again, Leicester City’sremarkable roller-coasterride took another twist as asuperb 2-0 victory overSevilla put it in the quarterfi-nals of the ChampionsLeague on Tuesday.

Down 2-1 from the first-leglast month in Spain — whenit was also careering towardsrelegation — Leicester rolledback the clock to last sea-son’s Premier League titleheist as goals by skipper WesMorgan and Marc Albrightonput it in the last eight in itsfirst crack at Europe’s elitecompetition.

Europa League aristocratSevilla’s dream of a first ap-pearance in the ChampionsLeague quarterfinals turnedsour as Samir Nasri was sentoff shortly before StevenN’Zonzi’s 80th-minute pen-alty was saved by Leicesterkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.

The Dane, also saved apenalty in the first-leg inwhich a dominant Sevillacould have won by alandslide.

It can look forward to apotential clash with the likesof Barcelona or Real Madrid.

It looked ominous forChampions League debutantLeicester in the early ex-changes as Sevilla sought theaway goal that would haveput it in complete control ofthe tie.

Leicester keeperSchmeichel made a greatsave to keep out Nasri’s sting-ing shot, but Sevillastruggled to find the passingrhythm that had over-whelmed its opponent in thefirst-leg.

A well-organised Leicesterworked tirelessly and lookeddangerous from set pieces

and it was from a RiyadMahrez free kick that it tookthe lead with skipper Mor-gan bundling the ball intothe Sevilla net with his thighin the 27th minute.

Ahead on away goals thesituation played perfectlyinto Leicester’s hands as itsat deep and broke quicklywith Jamie Vardy’s pace al-ways a threat.

Sevilla upped the ante inthe second half and camewithin a coat of paint ofequalising in the 54thminute when Sergio Es-cudero’s swirling effort from30 metres beat Schmeichelbut struck the underside ofthe crossbar.

It proved a pivotal mo-ment as a minute later theball dropped kindly for MarcAlbrighton just inside thepenalty area and he was al-lowed time and space to dis-patch a left-foot shot past

Sevilla keeper Sergio Rico.Sevilla went desperately

in search of a goal but Nasrigot himself needlessly sentoff in the 74th minute aftersquaring up to Vardy andbumping foreheads.

Nasri received a secondyellow card while Vardy, anirritation all night to Sevilla,was cautioned.

Sevilla was handed a life-line almost immediatelythough when Schmeichelclattered into Vitolo and thereferee awarded a penalty.N’Zonzi was handed the taskof putting Sevilla back intothe tie but his weak kick wassaved by Schmeichel.

Dybala converts penaltyAt Turin, Juventus coastedinto the Champions Leaguequarterfinals as Paulo Dy-

bala’s penalty gave it a 1-0home win over Porto whichplayed the second half with10 men on Tuesday.

The Italians never lookedlike relinquishing its 2-0 leadfrom the first- leg of the last16 tie in Portugal despite al-lowing the visitor plenty ofpossession in the first half.

Porto’s lingering hopesended when MaximilianoPereira stopped Juve strikerGonzalo Higuain’s goal-bound shot with his handsand was sent off, leaving Dy-bala to dispatch the penaltywith aplomb three minutesbefore halftime.The results: Leicester City 2(Morgan 27, Albrighton 54) btSevilla 0 (Leicester won 3-2 onaggregate); Juventus 1 (Dybala42-pen) bt Porto 0 (Juventuswon 3-0 on aggregate).

Superb win for LeicesterBeats Sevilla 2-0; Juventus sails into the last eight, defeating Porto

AGENCIES

LEICESTER

Pumped up:WesMorgan celebrates after scoring Leicester’s irst goal. The English championstunned Sevilla to enter the quarterinals AP

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Shakespeare has asurprise packageLEICESTER

Leicester City manager CraigShakespeare believes histeam can become theChampions League’s surprisepackage after it eliminatedSevilla to reach thequarterfinals. “We have to bedelighted with theperformance in knockingSevilla out. But we’re in thereon merit. We might just bethe surprise team,”Shakespeare said. AFP

IN BRIEF

Rafael Nadal and Roger Fe-derer booked a mouthwater-ing fourth-round clash at theATP Indian Wells Masters onTuesday, where five-timechampion Novak Djokovicalso advanced from the“group of death”.

With the three superstarsdrawn in the same quarter,only one — at most — canmake it to the semifinals.

The weeding out will startin earnest when Federermeets Nadal in the round of16 in a reprise of the Aus-tralian Open final in Januarythat saw the Swiss star claiman 18th Grand Slam crown.

Three-time Indian Wellschampion Nadal was thefirst to go through, defeatingfellow Spaniard FernandoVerdasco 6-3, 7-5.

Federer edged AmericanSteve Johnson 7-6(3), 7-6(4)in a match in which neitherplayer was able to break.

Djokovic made it pastdangerous Argentine JuanMartin del Potro, whoshocked the Serb star in thefirst round of the Rio de

Janeiro Olympics last year enroute to singles silver.The results: Men: Third round:Malek Jaziri bt Taylor Fritz 6-4,3-6, 6-3; Jack Sock bt GrigorDimitrov 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(7); Don-ald Young bt Lucas Pouille 6-4,1-6, 6-3; Kei Nishikori bt GillesMuller 6-2, 6-2.

Rafael Nadal bt FernandoVerdasco 6-3, 7-5; Roger Fe-derer bt Steve Johnson 7-6(3),7-6(4); Nick Kyrgios bt Alexan-der Zverev 6-3, 6-4; NovakDjokovic bt Juan Martin del Po-tro 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

Women: Fourth round: Karo-lina Pliskova bt Timea Bacsin-szky 5-1 retd.; GarbineMuguruza bt Elina Svitolina 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-0; AnastasiaPavlyuchenkova bt DominikaCibulkova 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova bt Car-oline Garcia 6-1, 6-4; CarolineWozniacki bt Madison Keys 6-4,6-4; Kristina Mladenovic btLauren Davis 6-3, 6-3.

Venus Williams bt PengShuai 3-6, 6-1, 6-3; Elena Ves-nina bt Angelique Kerber 6-3,6-3.

Federer, Nadal set a dateDjokovic also advances from the ‘group of death’Agence France-Presse

Indian Wells

Mouthwatering clash: Roger Federer will take on Rafael Nadalin the round of 16 in a reprise of the Australian Open inal. AP

Prajnesh Gunneswaran andVishnu Vardhan broke littlesweat in reaching thequarterfinals of the $15,000ITF Futures tennis tourna-ment at the KSLTA here onWednesday.

Impressive winsPrajnesh trounced HongKong’s Hong Kit Wong 6-2,6-1 while Vishnu recordedan equally impressive 6-2,6-1 win over DakshineshwarSuresh.

Sriram Balaji had to over-come a stiff second set chal-lenge by Siddarth Vish-wakarma before goingthrough 6-2, 7-5.The results (second round):Singles: Vijay Sundar Prash-anth bt Mohit Mayur 6-2, 6-3;Prajnesh Gunneswaran bt Hong

Kit Wong (HK) 6-2, 6-1; VishnuVardhan bt DakshineshwarSuresh 6-2, 6-1; Sami Reinwein(Ger) bt Paramveer Singh Ba-jwa 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

Hadin Vava bt Rishab Agar-wal 6-4, 6-4.

Siddarth Rawat bt SurajPrabodh 7-6(4), 7-6(3); Kar-unaday Singh bt Mukund SasiKumar 7-6(4), 6-3; Sriram Bal-aji bt Siddarth Vishwakarma6-2, 7-5.

Doubles: Chandril Sood & Lak-shit Sood bt Vasisht Cheruku &S.D. Prajwal Dev 3-6, 6-3,[10-7]; Vishnu Vardhan & Sri-ram Balaji bt Jui Chen Hung(Tpe) & Hong Kit Wong 7-5,6-1.

Jeson Patrombon (Phi) & Vi-jay Sundar Prashanth bt TejasChaukulkar & N. KaliyandaPoonacha 6-7(2), 6-1, [10-4].

C. Alexander & R. Sami (Ger)bt C. Amorudh & P. Vignesh7-5, 6-3.

Prajnesh and Vishnuin cruise mode

Sriram Balaji overcomes Siddarth

Principal Correspondent

BENGALURU

Yuki Bhambri beat StefanoNapolitano of Italy 7-5, 6-2 inthe first round of the$75,000 Challenger tennistournament in China onWednesday.

In the pre-quarterfinals,Yuki will play Nikola Milo-jevic of Serbia. But Ramku-mar Ramanathan lost inthree sets in the third and fi-nal qualifying round of the$150,000 Challenger in theUS.

The Indian duo of DivijSharan and Purav Rajaknocked out the secondseeds Brian Baker and Nich-olas Monroe of the US for a

3-6, 7-6(3), [10-5] victory.

The results:

$150,000 Challenger: Irving(US): Qualifying singles (thirdand final round): AndreyRublev (Rus) bt RamkumarRamanathan 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Doubles (pre-quarterfinals):Purav Raja & Divij Sharan btBrian Baker & Nicholas Monroe(US) 3-6, 7-6(3), [10-5].

$75,000 Challenger: Shen-zhen (China): Singles (firstround): Yuki Bhambri btStefano Napolitano (Ita) 7-5,6-2.

$15,000 ITF women: Sharm ElSheikh (Egypt): Singles (firstround): Sai Samhitha bt LauraDeigman (GBr) 6-2, 6-4.

Bhambri advancesTo meet Nikola Milojevic

Sports Bureau

Shenzhen

New Zealand bowlingspearhead Trent Boult hasbeen ruled out of thesecond Test starting in Wel-lington on Thursday, liftingSouth Africa’s chances ofgoing one up in the series.

Boult pulled up lameduring South Africa’ssecond innings in the firstTest in Dunedin to be thesecond senior player to besidelined after Taylorsuffered a calf tear. Neitherside had finalised its line-up on Wednesday for whatshould be a seamer-friendly Basin Reservewicket, but South Africacaptain Faf du Plessis saidthe absence of Boult andTaylor would hurt NewZealand.

“If you lose two keyplayers like that you defin-itely feel you’re a little bitlight,” he said.

“For a new (batsman)coming in it’s important forus to put pressure on himand not make him feelcomfortable. From a bowl-ing perspective Boult is ahuge loss.”

With the first Testdrawn, Wellington is effect-ively the start of a two-Testseries which du Plessis saidheightened the need to geta result.

SA buoyedas Kiwislose BoultAgence France-Presse

Wellington

Pakistan on Wednesday re-called opener AhmedShehzad and Kamran Ak-mal in separate squads forthe four-match Twenty20and three-match ODI seriesin the West Indies startinglater this month.

Both batsmen earnedtheir recalls on the back ofsolid performances in therecently held Pakistan Su-per League (PSL) wherethey played for opposingsides in the final.

The squads will be ledby Sarfraz Ahmed, whowill also keep wickets, withthe first T20 in Barbadoson March 26. The remain-ing three matches will beplayed in Port of Spain onMarch 30, April 1 and 2.

The one-dayers arescheduled for April 7, 9 and11 in Guyana.

The limited-over serieswill be followed by threeTests for which a squad willbe announced later.The squads:T20: Sarfraz Ahmed (capt.),Ahmed Shehzad, Kamran Ak-mal, Mohammad Hafeez,Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik,Fakhar Zaman, Imad Wasim,Shadab Khan, MohammadNawaz, Hasan Ali, Sohail Tan-vir, Wahab Riaz, RummanRaees, and Usman Shinwari.ODI: Sarfraz (capt.), Shehzad,Akmal, Hafeez, Azam, Malik,Zaman, Asif Zakir, Wasim,Shadab, Mohammad Asghar,Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir,Riaz, Fahim Ashraf, and Jun-aid Khan. AFP

Shahzad andKamranrecalledPress Trust of India

Lahore

AAI finally adoptsSports CodeKOLKATA

After defying the NationalSports Development Code(NSDC) for years, the ArcheryAssociation of India (AAI) onWednesday adopted the codeand paved the way forregaining its recognition fromthe Government.“The amendments includedall the age and tenure relatedclauses — such as 70 years asthe upper age limit, 12 years’term, cooling off period etc.— relating to a candidate’seligibility to be an office-bearer,” said a key office-bearer of the AAI.

Brazil’s Marta takesSwedish nationalitySTOCKHOLM

Five-time World Player-of-the-Year Marta said onWednesday she wouldcontinue to play for Brazilinternationally after takingSwedish nationality.“I feel Swedish too, and I’msuper happy that’s donenow,” Marta told the mediawhile showing off her brandnew joint nationality papers.AFP

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It was a Dhoni show in theend!

The expectant crowdwhich waited all day, and en-dured Vidarbha’s slow bat-ting under the hot sun, wastreated to some magic as theformer India captain put thefinishing touches toJharkhand’s six-wicket vic-tory with a six over long-onin the Vijay Hazare Trophyquarterfinals at the Palamground on Wednesday.

It was a bonus, as the fanswere resigned to the possibil-ity of Jharkhand not requir-ing Dhoni’s services as abatsman.

Ravi Jangid’s 62 (87b, 8x4,1x6) provided substance toVidarbha’s challenge.Ganesh Satish (35) and Ra-jneesh Gurbani (22) were theother batsmen who ensuredthe fans could wait and hopeto catch a glimpse of Dhoni.

Pratyush Singh (33) andIshan Kishan (35) gaveJharkhand a robust start andonce they departed, thecrowd started appealingalong with the Vidarbha

team, in an attempt to bringDhoni to the middle!

Kumar Deobrat and Saur-abh Tiwary got out afterscoring 17 each, setting thestage for Dhoni, with 44 re-quired from just over 15overs.

Dhoni was watchful andhappy to push for thesingles, twos and the oddthree, giving Ishank Jaggi (41n.o., 61b, 4x4, 1x6) the strike.

When Satish came on tobowl, Dhoni, who hadscored 12 off 26 balls tillthen, launched into a rous-ing six to bring the curtainsdown on the match.

It was worth the wait forthe spectators, one of whommanaged to sneak to themiddle before the inningswas over, touched Dhoni’sfeet and managed to get anautograph as well!The scores: Vidarbha: Faiz Fazalc Dhoni v Aaron 2, JiteshSharma c Shukla b Monu 7,Ganesh Satish lbw b Kaushal 35,Siddesh Wath run out 0, AmbatiRayudu c Tiwary b Monu 2, Ab-hishek Chaurasia lbw b Shukla

8, Ravi Jangid run out 62, Ak-shay Karnewar lbw b Nadeem 4,Rajneesh Gurbani run out 22,AkshayWakhare (not out) 7; Ex-tras (w-10): 10; Total (for ninewkts. in 50 overs): 159.

Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-9, 3-9, 4-18, 5-42, 6-80, 7-87, 8-148,9-159.

Jharkhand bowling: Monu Ku-mar 9-1-27-2, Varun Aaron 10-1-41-1, Rahul Shukla 10-1-29-1,Pratyush Singh 3-0-15-0,Kaushal Singh 10-0-34-1, Shah-baz Nadeem 8-1-13-1.

Jharkhand: Pratyush Singh bThakur 33, Ishan Kishan bThakur 35, Kumar Deobrat c & bWakhare 17, Saurabh Tiwary bJangid 17, Ishank Jaggi (not out)41, M.S. Dhoni (not out) 18; Ex-tras (b-1, lb-2, w-1): 4; Total (forfour wkts. in 45.1 overs): 165.

Fall of wickets: 1-68, 2-73, 3-101, 4-116.

Vidarbha bowling: AkshayKarnewar 10-1-25-0, AkshayWakhare 10-1-43-1, RajneeshGurbani 3-0-11-0; Ravi Jangid9-0-39-1, Ravikumar Thakur10-3-25-2; Abhishek Chaurasia3-0-13-0, Ganesh Satish0.1-0-6-0.

Toss: Vidarbha.

Jharkhand won by six wicketsand 29 balls to spare.

Jharkhand in semisDhoni delights with a match-winning six

Customary inish:M.S. Dhoni smashes a six over long-on to take Jharkhand to a six-wicket winover Vidarbha onWednesday. KAMESH SRINIVASAN

Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHIHAZARE TROPHY

Putting mind over matter,Anustup Majumdar andSudip Chatterjee playedpivotal roles in Bengal’s dra-matic four-wicket over Maha-rashtra on way to the semi-finals of the Vijay Hazareone-day cricket tournamenthere.

The gritty Bengal sidechased down an imposingtarget of 319 in the final over.The effort was rewardedwith a place in Thursday’sclash against M.S. Dhoni-ledJharkhand here.

For the record, this wasthe highest run-chase at theFerozeshah Kotla ground,surpassing Mumbai’s effortin the 2007 edition of thecompetition.

Mumbai had scored 301for four in its chase of Delhi's297 for five.

After Maharashtra scored318 for six in 50 overs, madepossible by Rahul Tripathi’s

counter-attacking 74-ball 95and Nikhil Naik’s 52-ball 63,Bengal stayed on target des-pite losing an early wicket.

At one stage, Maharashtraappeared to have regainedsome control when skipperKedar Jadhav won leg-beforedecisions to send back thewell-set duo of openerShreevats Goswami and skip-per Manoj Tiwary. These set-backs left Bengal worried at187 for four in 32.5 overs.

But once Majumdar (66off 59 balls) joined Chatter-jee (60 not out off 50 balls),Bengal quickly moved tocruise mode.

Their 117-run fifth-wicketstand off 96 balls turned thematch on its head andbrought the team to thethreshold of victory.

Though Majumdar andnew-man Kanishk Seth fell inthe closing overs, AamirGani did not let Chatterjeedown and struck the win-ning boundary with a deliv-

ery to spare.Earlier, Maharashtra lifted

itself from a slow start withsome aggressive batting inthe second half of the in-nings. If the first 25 overssaw 108 runs for three wick-ets, the second 25 resulted in210 runs, with the last 10overs producing 109 runs.

Maharashtra’s rally re-volved around Tripathi’s 116-run fifth-wicket stand withNaik. But it came on a daywhen Bengal’s fifth-wicketpartnership proved decisive.The scores:Maharashtra: Ruturaj Gaikwad cChatterjee b Ghosh 43, AnkitBawne lbw b Ojha 14, NaushadShaikh run out 3, Kedar Jadhavb Gani 44, Rahul Tripathi cMajumdar b Ghosh 95, NikhilNaik c Majumdar b Gani 63,Shrikant Mundhe (not out) 20,Shamshuzama Kazi (not out)20; Extras (b-1, lb-3, nb-4,w-8): 16; Total (for six wkts. in50 overs): 318.Fall of wickets: 1-47, 2-56, 3-96, 4-148, 5-264, 6-288.

Bengal bowling: Ashoke Dinda10-0-56-0, Kanishk Seth 10-0-55-0, Pragyan Ojha 10-0-58-1,Sayan Ghosh 10-0-61-2, AamirGani 9-0-70-2, Manoj Tiwary 1-0-14-0.

Bengal: Shreevats Goswamilbw b Jadhav 74, AbhimanyuEaswaran c Naik b Mundhe 6,Agniv Pan b Kazi 47, ManojTiwary lbw b Jadhav 40, SudipChatterjee (not out) 60, Anus-tup Majumdar c Shaikh bMundhe 66, Kanishk Seth b Kazi2, Aamir Gani (not out) 6; Ex-tras (b-1, lb-7, w-11): 19; Total(for six wkts. in 49.5 overs):320.

Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-106, 3-162, 4-187, 5-304, 6-314.

Maharashtra bowling: NikitDhumal 7-1-47-0, ShrikantMundhe 8-0-51-2,Shamshuzama Kazi 7.5-0-47-2,Rahul Tripathi 3-0-15-0, Jag-dish Zope 8-0-61-0, SatyajeetBachhav 10-0-61-0, KedarJadhav 6-0-30-2.

Toss:Maharashtra.

Bengal won by four wickets,with one ball to spare.

Bengal gets past MaharashtraMajumdar and Chatterjee orchestrate a dramatic win after a sedate startRakesh Rao

NEW DELHI

Sri Lanka — 1st innings: D. Kar-unaratne c Mehedi b Mustafizur7, U. Tharanga c Soumya b Me-hedi 11, K.Mendis stMushfiqur bMehedi 5, D. Chandimal (bat-ting) 86, A. Gunaratne lbw bRoy 13, D. de Silva b Taijul 34, N.Dickwella b Shakib 34, D. Pererac Soumya b Mustafizur 9, R.Herath (batting) 18; Extras (b-1,lb-12, w-6, nb-2): 21; Total (forsevenwkts. in 83.1 overs): 238.Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-24, 3-35,4-70, 5-136, 6-180, 7-195.Bangladesh bowling:Mustafizur 15-5-32-2, Roy 15-2-47-1, Mehedi 15-2-58-2, Taijul14-2-34-1, Shakib 20.1-3-43-1,Mosaddek 4-0-11-0.Toss: Sri Lanka.

SCOREBOARD

IN BRIEF

Westbrook edges closerto Robertson’s recordNEW YORK

Russell Westbrook edgedcloser to Oscar Robertson’slong-standing triple-doublerecord after leadingOklahoma City Thunder to acomfortable 122-104 win overBrooklyn Nets on Tuesday.Westbrook brought up hisremarkable 33rd triple-double of the season with 25points, 19 assists and 12rebounds.Other results: Cavaliers 128bt Pistons 96; Pelicans 100 btTrail Blazers 77; Knicks 87 btPacers 81; Warriors 106 bt76ers 104. AGENCIES

India loses to Japan,bows outNEW DELHI

Japan inflicted a seconddefeat on India to knock it outof the race for qualification inthe Asia Oceania Junior(under-16) Davis Cup teamtennis tournament at theDLTA Complex on Wednesday.India, which had lost to HongKong and beaten NewZealand in earlier matches,will now play for the ninthplace, starting with a matchagainst Malaysia.The results (league): Japan btIndia 3-0 [Keisuke Saitoh btSashank Theertha 6-4, 6-3;Fumiya Yoshino bt SacchittSharma 6-2, 6-2; TomoyaIkeda & Fumiya Yoshino btRithvik Choudary & SashankTheertha 6-4, 6-2].

Jobby Justin’s hat-trick de-railed Railways in a group-Bmatch of the 71st SantoshTrophy football champion-ship at the GMC stadium,Bambolim onWednesday.

Kerala, which fell behindin the 17th minute, re-covered to post a 4-2 win.

Jobby was on target in the21st, 46th and 63rd minutes.

At Vasco, former champi-ons Punjab and Mizoramplayed out a goalless draw.

Kerala struggled initiallyto find its rhythm and thedefence looked shaky asRailways pressed forward.

An error by defender Lijo,who lost the ball toSoosanayakam, just outsidethe box resulted in the open-ing goal. Rajesh had no diffi-culty beating goalkeeperMidhun with a stiffgrounder.

The goal galvanised Ker-ala. It took just four minutesfor Kerala to find the equal-iser. Jobby headed in a welldirected floater from NishonXavier.

Railways conceded a free-kick when its captain RajibBoro handled the ball justoutside the circle. The res-ultant free-kick was bangedin by Jobby.

Kerala dominated the

proceedings in the secondhalf. Jobby headed in acorner from Sreesan to in-crease the lead in the 63rdminute. Usman underlinedKerala’s supremacy by nod-ding in a Jishnu Balakrish-nan cross from the right inthe 71st minute.

However, Kerala loweredits guard and allowed Rail-ways to claw back.

Rajesh, after messing upan easy chance in the 85th

minute, made amends in thenext minute when he scoredoff a free-kick by DeepakKachhap.

Though Railways pressedhard in the dying minutes,Kerala managed to hold on.

Kerala coach V.P. Shajisaid: “The team still has toimprove a lot, especially inthe defence. We concededtwo easy goals,” he said.The results: Kerala 4 (JobbyJustin 21, 46, 63; Usman 71) btRailways 2 (RajeshSoosanayakam 17, 86).Mizoram 0 drew with Punjab 0.

Hat-trick by Jobby; Punjab-Mizorammatch drawnM.R. Praveen Chandran

Panaji

Trump card: Jobby Justin, right, celebrates one of histhree goals.

Kerala downs Railways

SANTOSH TROPHY

The Zuari river’s estuary as itmerges with the Arabian Seapresents a picturesque set-ting for the second edition ofthe Goa International SailingWeek that gets underway onThursday. As though escort-ing it on its last leg are theCidade de Goa and DonaPaula beaches on the right.The lofty ridge on the leftserves as a shield of sorts,protecting this playgroundfrom the wrath of the sea.

So much so that the winds

pick up, mostly accompan-ied by the afternoon hightide, gusting to a modest 10knots.

“The beautiful, clean wa-ter not only provides forgood sailing, (showcasingthe sport closest to nature)but offers a panoramic viewto the public,” Principal RaceOfficer Col. Satish KumarKanwar told The Hindu.

“It will be a windward-lee-ward loop for the board surf-ing categories and Hobie 16,while it will be a trapezoidcourse for the Laser Stand-

ard, Radial, 4.7 and Topperclasses. Since so many sec-tions are in the fray, thestarts will be staggered butwhere the number of entriesis low, they may be com-bined,” said Col. Kanwar,also the Commanding Of-ficer of the Army YachtingNode (AYN), Mumbai.

The Yachting Associationof India’s (YAI) nationalcamp kicked off in Mumbaion Wednesday, in prepara-tion for next year’s AsianGames. The fortnight-longprogramme will be overseen

by chief National coach IanBunny Stewart of Australia.

Consequently, most of thecountry’s cream of yachts-men, who are with the AYN,will not be seen in actionhere.

This multi-class regattawill however provide theplatform for promising sail-ors such as Mohammad IsrajAli. The 25-year-old from theEME Sailing Association israring to have a go in coastalconditions, where wind, tideand current throw up somany more challenges.

The fortnight-long event will be overseen by chief National coachA. JOSEPH ANTONY

PANAJI

All set for Goa sailing week

Defending champion H.S.Prannoy, Sameer Vermaand Subhankar Dey ad-vanced to the secondround of the Swiss OpenGrand Prix Gold badmin-ton tournament here.The results:

H.S. Prannoy bt DavidPeng 21-15, 21-18; SameerVerma bt Gergely Krausz 21-10, 21-16; Subhankar Dey btAlexander Roovers 17-21, 21-17, 21-15; Sourabh Verma lostto Rasmus Gemke 21-14, 21-23, 12-21; Lakhanee Saranglost to Kanta 11-21, 5-21.

Prannoy,SameeradvancePress Trust of India

Basel

Saurav Ghosal, MaheshMangaonkar, and VikramMalhotra moved into thequarterfinals of theWimbledon Club SquashSquared Open, a $25,000PSA event on Tuesday.The results: Pre-quarterfi-nals: Saurav Ghosal bt OlliTuominen (Fin) 11-4, 11-9,11-8; Mahesh Mangaonkar btIvan Yuen (Mas) 11-6, 12-10,10-12, 10-12, 11-7; VikramMalhotra bt Mohamed Reda(Egy) 11-8, 11-4, 11-2.

Ghosal inquartersSports Bureau

LONDON

India vs Australia: 3rd Test,STAR Sports 1, 3 & HD 1, 3,9.30 a.m.Sri Lanka vs Bangladesh:2nd Test: TEN 3 & TEN 1 HD,10 a.m.Europa League: TEN 1, 2 &TEN 1 HD, 1.30 a.m. (Friday)NBA: Sony Six & Sony Six HD,5 a.m. (Friday)

TV PICKS

Dinesh Chandimal scored anunbeaten half-century for SriLanka against Bangladesh inColombo on Wednesdayafter the tourists made adream start to their 100thTest.

Recovering from 70 forfour, the home side reached238 for seven before badlight stopped the openingday’s play on a turning pitchat the P. Sara Oval, owingmainly to Chandimal’s pa-tient 86 not out.

Chandimal shared a 66-run stand with Dhananjayade Silva and then added 44and 43 runs with NiroshanDickwella and RanganaHerath to halt what had beena procession to the pavilion.

Chandimal, who faced 210balls and hit four fours, was

given out lbw on 38 off left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasanbut the decision was over-turned following a review.

He then top-edged TaijulIslam, also a left-arm spin-ner, to fine leg on 46 but wasgiven a benefit of the doubt

by the third umpire as TV re-plays on whether MehediHasan had caught himcleanly were inconclusive.

Gritty Chandimal lifts Sri LankaBangladesh had reduced the host to 70 for four at one stageAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Colombo

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SpongeBob creator hasLou Gehrig’s diseaseLOS ANGELES

The creator of Nickelodeon’sSpongeBob SquarePants sayshe has been diagnosed withLou Gehrig’s disease. StephenHillenburg told Variety hewould continue to work onthe show and his otherpassions for as long as he wasable. Lou Gehrig’s disease isalso known as amyotrophiclateral sclerosis, or ALS. It’s aprogressive disease thatattacks nerve cells thatcontrol the muscles. There isno known cure. AP

IN BRIEF

Scientists in India have un-covered a pair of 1.6 billion-year-old fossils that appearto contain red algae, whichmay be the oldest plant-likelife discovered on Earth.

Until now, the oldestknown red algae was 1.2 bil-lion years old, said the paperin the journal PLOS Biology.

Scientists often debate thequestion of when complexlife began on Earth, but theygenerally agree that largemulticellular organisms be-came common about 600million years ago.

This discovery could leadexperts to rewrite the tree oflife, said lead author StefanBengtson, Professor Emer-

itus of palaeo-zoology at theSwedish Museum of NaturalHistory.

No DNA remains“The ‘time of visible life’seems to have begun muchearlier than we thought,” he

said. No DNA remains in thefossils to be analysed but thematerial structurally re-sembles red algae, embed-ded in fossil mats of cy-anobacteria inside a 1.6billion-year-old phosphorite,a kind of sedimentary rock.

“You cannot be a hundredpercent sure about materialthis ancient, as there is noDNA remaining, but thecharacters agree quite wellwith the morphology andstructure of red algae,” saidProfessor Bengtson.

Advanced tools — such assynchrotron-based X-raytomographic microscopy —allowed scientists to observeregularly recurring plateletsin each cell, which they be-lieve are parts of chloro-plasts, the organelles withinplant cells where photosyn-thesis takes place.

Distinct structures at thecentre of each cell wall arealso apparent, and are typ-ical of red algae.

The fossils were dis-covered in sedimentaryrocks in the Chitrakoot re-gion of Uttar Pradesh andMadhya Pradesh. The earli-est traces of life on Earth — inthe form of single-celled or-ganisms — go back some 3.5billion years.

India hosts world’s oldest algae fossilNew ind in the Chitrakoot region of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh may rewrite evolution timeline


Miami

Salient discovery: An X-ray tomographic picture of fossil red algae, tinted to show detail,found in a 1.6-billion-year-old rock. STEFAN BENGTSON/REUTERS

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LIFE

Despicable Me 3introduces Gru’s twinLOS ANGELES

The new trailer of animatedcomedy film Despicable Me 3gives a sneak peek of thecharacter Gru’s twin brother.While the first trailerhighlights the film’s villainBalthazar Bratt (voiced byTrey Parker), the new sneakpeek reveals that Gru (voicedby Steve Carell) did not knowuntil now that he has anidentical twin named Druliving in a huge mansion. IANS

Netflix to finish lastOrson Welles movieLOS ANGELES

Internet streaming serviceNetflix has pledged to fundthe completion andrestoration of iconicfilmmaker Orson Welles’ lastmovie, the unfinished TheOther Side of the Wind. Thefilm was shot by Wellesbetween 1970 and 1976 froma screenplay he co-wrote withhis lover Oja Kodar, who alsostars in the film. AFP

Melanie Segard, a 21-year-oldwoman with Down Syn-drome, broke new groundfor the disabled on Tuesdayby presenting the weatherforecast on French nationaltelevision.

Ms. Segard provided asummary of the weekendweather on France 2, achiev-ing a personal goal that shehopes will also boost aware-ness for people with DownSyndrome.

She soared to prominenceafter an advocacy group, UN-APEI, launched a campaignahead of World Down Syn-drome Day on March 21, en-titled “Melanie can do it.”

On her Facebook page,Ms. Segard announced thather dream was to presentthe weather, and vowed todo it if she scored more than1,00,000 “likes”.

Within 10 days, she hadpicked up 2,00,000 “likes”

and drawn a following ofthousands on Twitter.France 2 TV heard of thebuzz and gave her a chance.

In the limelightBefore her broadcast, thechannel showed her re-hearsing her lines and beingmade up for the cameras.

Ms. Segard, shy andclearly moved by the event,was flanked by the channel’sforecaster, Anais Baydemir,

who paid tribute to her flaw-less delivery, as did her fanson Twitter.

“A magical television mo-ment,” said one. “Bravo,Melanie, we are all equal,”said another.

Ms. Segard tweeted,“That’s it, I’ve done it, I’m fi-nally a weather girl,” adding:“I am different, but I can dolots of things.”

Down syndrome is themost common genetic formof intellectual disability.

Also known as trisomy 21,the condition is caused bythe presence of an extra, orthird, copy of chromosomenumber 21. Humans nor-mally have 23 pairs of chro-mosomes, which togethercontain up to 25,000 pro-tein-coding genes.

Last month, Madeline Stu-art, a 20-year-old Australianmodel with Down Syn-drome, took part in a fash-ion show in New York anddebuted her own label.

Woman with Down Syndromepresents weather on French TVA Twitter fan described it as “a magical television moment”


Paris

Melanie Segard. UNAPIE/GLORYPARIS/AFP

The world’s spiders eat 400-800 million tonnes of in-sects every year — as muchmeat and fish as humansconsume over the sameperiod, a study has found.

In the first analysis of itskind, researchers used datafrom 65 previous studies toestimate that spiders onEarth weigh a total of 25 mil-lion tonnes.

Taking into account howmuch food spiders need tosurvive, the team then cal-culated the eight-leggedcreatures’ annual haul of in-sects and otherinvertebrates.

“Our estimates... suggestthat the annual prey kill ofthe global spider com-munity is in the range of400-800 million metrictonnes,” they wrote in thejournal The Science ofNature.

This showed just how big

a role spiders play in keep-ing pests and disease-carri-ers at bay — especially inforests and grasslandswhere most of them live.

“We hope that these es-timates and their significantmagnitude raise publicawareness and increase thelevel of appreciation for theimportant global role ofspiders,” the study authorswrote.

For context, the studypoints out that humans con-sume about 400 milliontonnes of meat and fishevery year, while whalesfeed on 280-500 tonnes andseabirds about 70 milliontonnes of seafood.

The arachnids are great at pest control


Paris

FILE PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

Science unravelsspiders’ giant appetite

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