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Indian shot dead in U.S. hate crime

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Allahabad

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Mumbai

Kanpur train accident cross-border plot: PM

Gunman, a 51-year-old Navy veteran, shouted ‘get out of my country’ before opening ire in a bar

A brilliant career felled by bullets, says relative

Varghese K. George Washington

Shivratri brings Muslims, Pandits together SRINAGAR

Muslims have cleaned up and organised a puja at a temple and a 1,000 speciallydesigned ‘Herath’ greeting cards have been produced: this shivratri, Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims are bonding strongly, and social media is providing the platform to relive the past memories. NORTH

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BSF kills ‘female intruder’ in Jammu SRINAGAR

The Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday said it killed a female intruder and arrested a man on the International Border (IB) at two separate places in the Jammu region. The woman was identifed as Rashida Begum, a Pakistani national. The body of the woman, was lying near the fence, the spokesman said. She was aged around 50. NEWS

An apparent act of racial hatred left an Indian engineer dead and another injured in Olathe city in Kansas in midwestern U.S. on Wednesday night. Srinivas Kuchibhotla (32) had gone to a bar with his friend Alok Madasani after the day’s work. He was shot allegedly by a 51-year-old Navy veteran who shouted, “get out of my country,” before the act. Kuchibhotla died later, while Mr. Madasani, who was also hit, has recovered and has been discharged from hospital. Ian Grillot, a 24-year-old white man who took a bullet on his chest trying to stop the shooter, has emerged the hero in the tragic episode that snuffed out the dreams of the Hyderabad-born Kuchibhotla, whose wife is five months pregnant. The police arrested attacker

R.Avadhani Ravi Reddy Sangareddy/Hyderabad

The parents of Srinivas Kuchibhotla (inset) mourn in Hyderabad on Friday. PTI Adam Purinton on murder charges, and the case is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

Out of danger “I was just doing what anyone should have done,” Mr. Grillot told Kansas City Star from his hospital bed. “It’s not about where he’s from, or ethnicity. We’re all hu-

mans.” He is out of danger. The shooter told a bartender, 80 miles away from Olathe, that he had shot two “Middle Easterners.” He wanted a place to hide, but the bartender reported him to the police. CONTINUED ON 쑺 PAGE 8 THE HERO WHO TRIED TO STOP THE SHOOTER 쑺 PAGE 8

A pall of gloom descended on the Praneet Nature Bounty gated community, under the Mallampet gram panchayat of Medchal district, on Friday as news broke of the tragic killing of Srinivas. Relatives and locals hurried to the two-storied house of Kuchibhotla Madhusudhana Rao, father of Srinivas. “A brilliant career has been felled by bullets. Such tragedy should not strike any parents,” said Krishnamohan Sharma, a close relative. The parents were inconsolable. “Srinivas used to

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talk to the parents daily. His lively nature is what every one loved,” Mr. Sharma said. At one stage, relatives of Srinivas had to step in to keep away television journalists from family members. “Thank God, my son survived the firing. But I feel sorry for Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was close to my son,” Jaganmohan Reddy, father of Alok Madasani and Chief Engineer in the Rural Water Supply department of the Government of Telangana, told The Hindu on Friday. “After the shooting, I wonder if we really need to go and work in the U.S.,” asked Mr. Reddy. CONTINUED ON 쑺 PAGE 8

Modi says perpetrators were in Nepal Press Trust of India Gonda

The Kanpur train accident in which 150 people were killed was a “conspiracy” and the perpetrators carried it out “sitting across the border” in Nepal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday. Addressing an election meeting in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh, which is close to the India-Nepal border, he touched upon the derailment of 14 coaches of the Indore-Patna Express, near Pukhraya in Kanpur Dehat district on November 20, and said the probe findings showed it was a “conspiracy.” “The Kanpur rail accident, in which hundreds of people were killed was a conspiracy and the conspirators carried it out sitting across the border... Gonda is adjoining Nepal,” he said. “If the cross-border foes

Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in Gonda district on Friday. PTI want to carry out their work, is it not necessary that more vigil is maintained in Gonda?” he asked the people, urging them to vote for the BJP. “Gonda needs to elect only those who are full of patriotism. Only then can we do anything good for Gonda,” he said. ‘COMMITTED TO FIGHTING CORRUPTION’ 쑺 PAGE 8

Plan to allow larger irms to shut shop sans govt. nod

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Swine lu alert in Jaipur after doctor’s death

Labour Ministry to discuss revised guidelines at GoM

JAIPUR

SOMESH JHA

After the death of a retired government doctor due to swine lu here, the Rajasthan government's Medical and Health Department has geared up to check the spread of the disease and issued alert in the State capital. All government dispensaries, satellite hospitals and other government health centres were asked to pay special attention to patients with swine lu-like symptoms.

NEW DELHI

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The Labour Ministry has proposed that factories with up to 500 workers be allowed to lay off workers or shut shop without seeking government permission, in a bid to give firms flexibility in hiring and firing employees. The Ministry is set to discuss the proposed Labour Code on Industrial Relations

at the next meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM), scheduled for March 8, a senior Ministry official said. The GoM is headed by Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. At present, factories with up to 100 workers are allowed to go in for retrenchment, lay-off or closure without seeking government permission, according to the

Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. “There has been demand from the industry to increase the threshold limit for factories to seek permission for retrenchment from 100 workers to 500 workers. We need to discuss the proposal with the GoM before taking a final call,” the official said. CONTINUED ON 쑺 PAGE 8

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Soldiers wait at a camp in Panjpora, near Srinagar, on Friday to receive the body of their colleague Ghulam Mohi-ud Din Rather, who was killed in Shopian on Thursday. Three soldiers and a woman were killed in an ambush by militants. (See also page 3) AP

IAS oicer held for paper leak Delhi allows Dhaka Bihar Police claim his nephew admitted their involvement Special Correspondent Patna

Senior IAS officer and the chairman of the Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC), Sudhir Kumar, was arrested on Friday by the Special Investigating Team of the police in the question paper leak scam. Mr Kumar, 1987 batch IAS officer, was arrested along with four of his family members from Hazaribagh in neighbouring Jharkhand. Earlier, BSSC secretary Parmeshwar Ram was arrested and sent to jail in the same case. During his interrogation,

Mr Ram had allegedly named several ministers, MLAs and bureaucrats of the state. The SIT led by Patna Senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj has so far arrested over two dozen persons. “Many more arrests can be made as the investigation is still going on,” Mr Maharaj said.

Viral on social media The question paper for the examination to appoint government clerks and assistants on January 29 and February 5 were leaked and had gone viral on social media. The next day examinees

staged a violent protest outside the gate of the BSSC and even had thrashed its secretary, Mr Ram. Later, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar ordered the cancellation of the examination and a thorough investigation into the question paper leak. An SIT of the Patna police was formed to probe it. Mr Kumar, known as an upright and honest officer, had earlier told journalists that “favouritism and recommendations” have been norm in the BSSC and that he used to get recommendations and request phone calls from politicians.

use of border roads Move will aid construction of outposts Vijaita Singh New Delhi

In a rare gesture, India has decided to throw open its border roads to help Bangladesh construct border outposts in Chittagong hill tracts, known for its inhospitable terrain. Some areas in Chittagong, bordering Tripura and Mizoram, have no motorable roads and India has decided to allow the Border Guard Bangladesh to construct 13 border outposts using the road connectivity available in the two States.

The Border Security Force, deployed along the Bangladesh border, will monitor the construction activities. India has on multiple occasions handed over details of insurgent camps operating from the Bangladesh soil, particularly in the dense Chittagong Hill Tract area. Following the leads, the neighbouring country has acted against these camps and demolished them. CONTINUED ON 쑺 PAGE 8

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India building a supercomputer juggernaut The as-yet-unnamed giant could win a spot in the top ten global list, and improve weather forecasting Jacob Koshy NEW DELHI

Come June, India will likely unveil its most powerful supercomputer. If its processors operate at the full capacity of 10 petaflops (1 followed by 15 zeroes of floating point operations per second), a clock speed a million times faster than the fastest consumer laptops, it could earn a place among the world’s top 10 fastest supercomputers. Though India has built or hosted supercomputers since the 1990s, it held a ‘top 10’ spot only once, in 2007, CM YK

Power drive: India is working to enter the big league of supercomputing. The picture shows China’s fastest supercomputer, ‘Tianhe.’ XINHUA

thanks to the EKA built by the Computational Research Laboratories, which is part of the Tata group. This position was lost, though several ultra-fast machines

exist in Indian academic institutions: they feature in the 100s or 200s in global rankings. The as-yet-unnamed machine will be jointly

hosted at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune and the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting at Noida in Uttar Pradesh. For the first time, colleges and other research institutions can log in and harness its power to address problems, ranging from weather modelling to understanding how proteins fold. “The tender [to select the company that will build the machine] is ready and we hope to have it [the computer] by June” Madhavan Rajeevan,

Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, told The Hindu.

₹400 crore sanctioned The government has sanctioned ₹400 crore for the project this year. Most of the machine’s computing power will help in monsoon forecasting, using a dynamical model. This requires simulating the weather for a given month — say March — and letting a custom-built model calculate how the actual weather will play out over June, July, August and September. ND-ND

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DELHI

Timings

Saturday, February 25

RISE 06:50 SET 18:18 RISE 05:48 SET 17:09

Hurdles hurting adoption of infants

Sunday, February 26

RISE 06:49 SET 18:19 RISE 06:31 SET 18:09 Monday, February 27

Financial gains from smuggling babies more than that from legal adoption, says NCPCR chairperson Shiv Sahay Singh

RISE 06:48 SET 18:20 RISE 07:13 SET 19:10

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Kolkata

Taking cognisance of the fresh instances of infant smuggling in West Bengal, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and its State counterpart have emphasised that the slow rate of adoption along with hurdles in the formal adoption system could lead to a rise in such cases.

Second incident This is the second time in the past two months that instances of baby smuggling have surfaced in the State. While about a dozen babies were recovered by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the West Bengal police in south Bengal towards 2016 end, now a fresh racket in infant smuggling has come to light in Jalpaiguri district of north Bengal. “Why are the babies not being put up for adoption in the formal adoption scheme?” NCPCR chairper-

Jaundice scare grips Cuttack city again Correspondent

Supply of contaminated drinking water in most parts of the city through broken pipes has once again brought the city under the grip of jaundice. Tulasipur area covering at least three municipal wards of the civic body is the worst affected as over 75 persons here have been hospitalised for jaundice in last

‘Market and demand’ Ananya Chakraborti, chairperson of State Child Rights Commission, also spoke along similar lines. Though she highlighted the criminality of smuggling, Ms. Chakraborti said “there cannot be a market without demand”, indicated that hurdles in the formal adoption system result in parents adopting babies through other means.

In the net: Police escort Chandana Chakraborty in Jalpaiguri district. son Stuti Kacker asked. Reports about sale of babies do come up often in the country, said Ms. Kacker, adding that the financial

gains from smuggling babies were probably more than putting babies for adoption through the Specialised Adoption Agency (SAA).

FILE PHOTO AFP

On the recent smuggling racket, Ms. Kacker said the NCPCR has asked for a report from the West Bengal Commission for Protection

CPM cautions ostentatious MP Party to come up with guidelines on use of social media

75 people hospitalised in Tulasipur CUTTACK

of Child Rights. “We are waiting for the State Commission report. After the report, we will send members to West Bengal,” Ms Thacker said.

Special Correspondent Kolkata

few days. District Collector N. C. Mishra on Friday visited the affected areas and ordered for random sample collection of all water sources to ascertain the cause and source of jaundice. Most households here entirely depend upon PHD pipelines for potable water and the pipelines have broken at many places.

The controversy over the ‘costly accessories’ of party MP Ritabrata Banerjee has pushed the Communist Party of India-Marxist [CPI (M)] to formulate guidelines on use of social media by workers on matters relating to the party. At a press conference here on Thursday, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury said the party will soon come up with guidelines on the use of social media both at the State and national level.

New rules As per the new rules, party members can propagate decision taken by the party on social media, but cannot make comments on issues that the party has not taken

Ritabrata Banerjee.

a decision on. On the issue of lodging complaints or airing grievances against any other comrade, Mr. Yechury said such complaints should be made within the party and not on social media. “For some months now we have been discussing (the issue) in the central committee. The social media does not provide licence to any party member to violate party disciplinary principles or the party’s principles of democratic centralism. This

is not allowed,” the general secretary said. Pointing out that social media was a public forum, Mr. Yechury said airing grievances there was not “the party norm”. “Anyone in the party has the right to make complaints against anyone up to the general secretary. Such complaints should be made within the party and all such complaints will be dealt with in a time-bound manner as per our constitution,” he added. On personal issues “like the dress anyone is wearing”, the party member was free to post on social media platforms, Mr. Yechury said.

Banerjee criticised Meanwhile, the West Bengal State Committee of CPI-M on Thursday “criticised” the MP’s behaviour and “cautioned him”.

To visit Jalpaiguri Ms Chakraborti said she will soon visit Jalpaiguri to ascertain the situation. Three persons, including Chandana Chakraborty who ran Specialised Adoption Agency homes in Jalpaiguri, have been arrested by the CID for allegedly smuggling babies from adoption homes.

Roopa’s social media post exposes faultlines Her comments anger State BJP chief Staff Reporter Kolkata

In a major embarrassment to the West Bengal BJP, its women’s wing president Roopa Ganguly has alleged that it was party president Dilip Ghosh who “advised” her to make Juhi Chowdhury the general secretary of the women’s wing. Ms Ganguly made the remarks in a Whatsapp group of the party’s women’s wing earlier this week. Ms. Chowdhury, an accused in the child trafficking case, is yet to be traced by the CID. Three persons have been arrested so far. “And you all will be surprised to know that Dilip da (Dilip Ghosh) called me in his room and advised me to make her ( Juhi Chowdhury) GS (general secretary),” Ms. Ganguly said in the post.

Letter from leader Ms. Ganguly also said that she came to know about Ms. Chowdhury through a letter signed by senior BJP leader

Rupa Ganguly.

and general secretary, Pratap Bandyopadhyay, where he has referred to Ms. Chowdhury as the general secretary. “Pratap da (Pratap Bandyopadhyay) has signed a doc (document) where he had written Juhi’s name as gs (general secretary) and that’s how I have come to know Juhi and now I know her for five to six months,” stated Ms. Ganguly. On his part, Mr Ghosh said, “such apolitical people (Ms. Ganguly)” do not know how to speak about party affairs. “They do not have the sense about what to say and what not to say,” he said.

Hectic lobbying to form zilla parishads in Odisha No party may get majority in at least ive districts Special Correspondent Bhubaneswar

Hectic lobbying and horsetrading have commenced ahead of the formation of zilla parishads as no party is sure of getting a majority in at least five districts of Odisha. The cat and mouse game has already begun between the ruling Biju Janata Dal and the BJP, which has emerged as the principal opposition in the rural elections.

Bid to win support Both parties have started making efforts to win over the support of independents as well as Congress winners to form the zilla parishads in the districts where they are

short of majority. As per the initial outcome of the polls, the BJD seems to be in a comfortable position in at least 16 out of the 30 districts, while the BJP has got majority in eight districts. The Congress has secured a majority in one district. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has already hinted that the BJP will try to form the zilla parishads in more districts. The three parties have also started lobbying to get their candidates elected as the chairman of panchayat samitis at the block level. While the results of the elections for the posts of sarpanches and ward members were announced by the

State Election Commission on Thursday, results for the election of panchayat samitis and zilla parishad members are to be announced on Saturday. In the just-concluded three-tier panchayat elections, party symbols were used for elections to the zilla parishads, while no party symbol was used for the posts of sarpanches, ward members and panchayat samiti members.

Half posts for women Elections for 91,833 ward members, 6783 sarpanches and samiti members each, and 851 zilla parishad members were held in 315 blocks of the State in five phases. Fifty % of all these posts were reserved for women.

Two devotees killed in bus accident Staff Reporter BERHAMPUR

Pilgrimage trip to Gupteswar shrine in Koraput district of Odisha for Shivaratri turned fatal for two persons, including a woman, on Friday. A bus carrying them met with an accident near Siribeda in Koraput district. Six persons were also seriously injured when the driver lost control over the bus, hit the fence of the ghat road and overturned, the police sources said. CM Naveen Patnaik declared ex-gratia payment of ₹2 lakh for the families of the dead.

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. 48 ●

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IN BRIEF

Tearful farewell to martyr in Kashmir BIJBEHARA (KASHMIR)

In a rare outpouring of grief for a fallen soldier in strifetorn Kashmir, thousands of civilians on Friday bid a tearful adieu to Lance Naik Ghulam Mohiuddin Rather, who was killed in an ambush by militants on Thursday. Two other soldiers and a civilian woman were also killed in the encounter, which took place barely 25 kilometres from his home.

Computer training for girls in Haryana CHANDIGARH

The Haryana government on Friday said it will provide computer training to 840 girls in urban and semi-urban villages in the State. Under the scheme, the Haryana Women Development Corporation (HWDC) along with the Technical Education Department would provide computer training for six months, an official spokesperson said here.PTI

Day temperatures rise across north NEW DELHI

Day temperatures across northern States rose slightly on a clear day on Friday, while the higher reaches of Himachal Pradesh were still in the grip of biting cold. Biting cold conditions continued unabated in higher hills and tribal areas of Himachal Pradesh, while the minimum temperature plummeted in mid and lower hills and stayed below 5 degree Celsius.PTI

On Shivratri, J&K Muslims wash temple, organise puja ‘We want them to perform puja with all reverence and without any sense of insecurity’ Srinagar

From Muslims cleaning up and organising puja at a temple to 1,000 specially-designed ‘Herath’ greeting cards, this Shivratri Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims bonded and reached out to each other, with social media providing a rare platform to relive past memories.

HP budget session likely to be stormy Parties to chalk out strategy on Feb 28 SHIMLA

The last budget session of the Congress government is going to be a stormy affair in view of the latest round of allegations and counter allegations on the issue of corruption and mafia rule in the hill State. Both the government and the Opposition are planning to have their legislature party meetings on February 28 to chalk out their strategies. The BJP legislature party meeting will be addressed by Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Prem Kumar Dhumal at the State Guest House in Peterhoff. The party will focus mainly on the issue of corruption and raise the charges levelled against the various Ministers and MLAs in past four years. The party had

CM YK

recently submitted a detailed chargesheet on the Congress government’s misdemeanours, during the present tenure, to Governor Acharya Dev Vrat.

Forest mafia The BJP is already running a campaign against the Congress government and Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for 'patronising' various drug peddlers, mining and forest mafias in the State. The Chief Secretary and Director General of Police admitted a few days ago that there had been a sharp increase in the number of drug and narcotic seizures in the State. Though the police have denied any political patronage to the drug mafia, the manifold increase in its trade has raised many eyebrows.

Special Correspondent JAIPUR

Flu-like symptoms All government dispensaries, satellite hospitals and other government health centres were asked to pay special attention to patients with swine flu-like symptoms. V.D. Bohra, who retired from Sawai Man Singh Government Hospital here, had visited Hyderabad and some other cities in the southern States, where he felt unwell. His condition deteriorated when he came back to Jaipur last week. Holy day: Devotees ofering prayers on the occasion of Shivratri at the Hanuman Mandir in Srinagar on Friday. PHOTO: NISSAR AHMAD Muslim netizens greeted Pandits on the occasion as social media provided a rare platform to recall old memories. “I miss water-soaked walnuts that Pandits would offer to Muslims in neighbourhood. For ‘salam’, I would visit Pandits the next day after herath,” recalled Ashraf Kishoo on Facebook.

The tradition Those Pandits who stayed back followed the tradition of keeping water-soaked walnuts for Muslim neighbours. More than 3,000 families decided to stay back despite the militancy.

Two babus shifted over boat tragedy Press Trust of India Patna

Staff Correspondent

He recently visited southern States After the death of a retired government doctor due to swine flu here, the Rajasthan government's Medical and Health Department has geared up to check the spread of the disease and issued alert in the State capital.

Peerzada Ashiq

Pandits’ migration For perhaps the first time since hundreds of Pandit families migrated outside the Valley in the face of raging militancy in the 1990s, villagers, young and old, of Sumbal village in Bandipora, 30 km away from Srinagar, converged on the Nand Kishore temple, located under the shade of mighty chinar trees early in the morning. They were carrying brooms and water containers in hand. “We have decided to clean up the premises of the temple for the Pandits. We want them to perform puja with all reverence and without any sense of insecurity,” said Rashid Dar, a local. Several locals were seen carrying placards. “Let’s celebrate next Herath (a term used by Kashmiri Pandits for shivratri) together in the valley,” the placards read, an apparent reference to the return of Pandits to their native places. The Sumbal area has witnessed growing militancy this year, with around six encounters already reported. Scores of Valley-based

Swine lu alert in Jaipur after doctor's death

The Bihar government on Friday transferred two senior IAS officers of the Tourism Department, apparently a fallout of the tragic boat mishap in Patna last month in which 25 people lost their lives. While Harjot Kumar Bamhara has been transferred to the Mines Department, Uma Shankar Prasad has been shifted to the Animal Husbandry and Fishery Department.

The Kashmiri Pandits’ herath is different from the rest of the country. Unlike Hindus elsewhere, Pandits here would cook both fish and meat dishes on the occasion. “For the first time in my living memory, I heard that some Kashmiri Pandits elsewhere will not celebrate it a day before. I am not sure whether this is about the lunar calendar being uniquely erratic this year or about the reinvention of tradition to eventually erase the differences between Kashmiri Pandits and Indian Hindus,” said Nitasha Kaul, a Pandit novelist who au-

thored Residue. In another gesture, the government mailed through post offices specially-designed herath greeting cards.

Missing Kashmiri student traced Special Correspondent Srinagar

Greeting cards “Around 1,000 greeting cards were delivered to Pandit families. The card highlights the poetry of Lal Ded, equally revered by Muslims and Pandits. It carries the picture of a stone temple of Mansbal that was restored with the help of locals. The idea is highlight the rich culture the State has nurtured for centuries,” Works Minister and government spokesman Nayeem Akhtar said.

Dr. Bohra was admitted to a private hospital, which sent his swab samples to Ahmedabad for swine flu test. After he tested positive, he suffered multiple organ failure and was declared dead on Wednesday. Medical and Health Minister Kali Charan Saraf has instructed doctors and para-medical staff to remain alert to the symptoms of swine flu among the patients of cough, cold, catarrh and high fever and immediately start their treatment. According to the official sources, the Minister asked the Chief Medical and Health Officers in all districts to ensure collection of samples, availability of medicines, referral to specialists and prompt services of intensive care units and isolation wards

The police on Friday traced the missing Kashmir University law student from the outskirts of the city. Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Hazratbal, Sajad Bukhari said Aqib Mushtaq Malik was found in the house of Mohammad Rafiq Bhat, a resident of Habak, Nigeen, “where he was staying as a tenant.” “The student revealed that he was under stress for

unknown reasons. He spent three nights in city hospitals. After proper counselling, the student was handed over to the chief proctor, Kashmir University, in the presence of his relatives and friends,” Mr. Bukhari said. A third semester student and a resident of Shopian, Mr Malik was missing since February 21. His disappearance sparked protests on the university campus on Thursday.

OBITUARY & REMEMBRANCE DEATH R.Chellammal(chellaku),(102) W/O (Late) Vishnupuram Ramaiah sastrigal, Harithagothram passed away 23.2.2017.Dasasthu on 04.03.2017 at kumbakonam. Adopted Son: Konerirajapuram V.Varadharajan Mrudangam Artist. Ph:9840675632 Daughter:Mohambal viswanathan.

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IN BRIEF

Youth laying down lives for their rights, says Farooq

Canine trouble dogs Valley Fed 30 lakh kg of ofal annually, dogs becoming ferocious Peerzada Ashiq SRINAGAR

“They are saying this is our land and we are its rightful owners” Peerzada Ashiq

Two smugglers arrested with leopard skin JALPAIGURI

Two smugglers were arrested from Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal with a 10-footlong leopard skin, forest department officers said. The two, who are inhabitants of Jaigaon in Bhutan border, were apprehended from a dhaba in Odlabari area on Thursday night during a raid, they said. The leopard skin was being smuggled to Siliguri from Assam via Bhutan. - PTI

Man killed in celebratory firing BIJNOR

A 44-year-old man was killed during celebratory firing at a wedding ceremony in Lindarpur village in the district, the police said on Friday. The incident took place on Thursday night after the baraat began its journey and some revellers opened fire in air, they said. A bullet hit Chandrapal Saini killing him on the spot, the police said. A case has been registered and efforts are on to arrest the accused, they said, adding the body has been sent for post-mortem. - PTI

2 killed, 30 hurt as tractor trolley overturns

Srinagar

National Conference (NC) president and former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah on Friday said the “youth of Kashmir were laying down their lives for their rights.” Apparently referring to militants and youth who disrupt anti-militancy operations, Dr. Abdullah said, “These boys are rendering sacrifices not to become MLAs, MPs or ministers. They are giving sacrifices to demand their right. They are saying ‘this is our land and we are its rightful owners’.” Addressing party workers at the NC headquarters here, he said there was growing anger in J&K because the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had “joined hands with the communal forces.”

Full of resentment “These young men we see out on the roads today don’t care about their lives, their livelihood or about their personal grievances but are full of resentment and hostility because of how New Delhi has always and continues to see and define them through the narrow, conventional

Making a point: National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah addressing party workers at a meeting in Srinagar on Friday. PTI prism of law and order,” Mr Abdullah said. “Statesmanship and sagacity demanded that New Delhi should initiate political engagement with the alienated youth of the State rather than resorting to a confrontational and aggressive approach by issuing threats of harsh measures,” he said. Calling for New Delhi’s engagement with the “alienated and anguished youth”, Dr. Abdullah said, “We are

not condoning violence or turmoil, nor are we supporting strife. We are seeking that the root cause of alienation be addressed rather than a continuing with the policy of treating the symptoms through operational and administrative mechanisms”. He also asked New Delhi “to read contemporary history of the State with objectivity, then only will it realise that the simmering

political issue in the State is the outcome of New Delhi’s overt and covert acts of constitutional impropriety and injustice”. Mr Abdullah said the boys joining militant ranks were “sacrificing their lives for freedom of the nation.”

Pakistan slammed He said Pakistan “did no justice with Kashmiris.” “We are asking both the countries to do justice with us.”

Kashmir is finding its stray dogs too ferocious to tame. Bred on an estimated “30 lakh kg of offal” or chicken waste annually, these canines are attacking the residents when not able to find their food. The incidents of dog bites have increased in the winter months forcing the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) to start a fresh animal birth control programme for stray dogs. Dr. Muhammad Salim Khan, the Head of Department of the Community Medicine at Srinagar’s premiere Shri Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital (SMHS), told The Hindu, “It's (dog attack) increasing. The SMHS has treated 5,262 cases of dog bites in the last 10 months.”

‘City outskirts worst hit’ The situation is worse in the outskirts where the municipal corporation is not that active is checking the menace. The peripheral hospitals of Directorate of Health Services Kashmir receive around 25,000 cases of dog bites every year, said Dr. Salim Khan. “In comparison, the SMHS has received only 10-15% cases,” he added. According to Dr. Khan,

New trouble: Scores of dog bite cases are registered every month during winters when food gets scarce. - FILE PHOTO

the reason behind the ferocity of the dogs is the highprotein offal they are fed regularly because of the dietary habits of residents of Kashmir, where mutton and chicken are a staple diet. According to official figures, Kashmir imports approximately 5.5 crore chickens from Haryana and Punjab, while around 36 lakh birds are produced locally. “In a chicken weighing 1.5 kg, almost half (750 grams) is thrown as offal. Based on this calculation, Kashmiris annually feed 30 lakh kg of chicken waste to stray dogs,” said Dr. Khan. Alarmed by the rising number of dog bite cases, SMC Commissioner Dr. Shafqat Khan has launched a fresh animal-birth control exercise in the city.

The SMC has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Unemployed Veterinary Doctors’ Association to “sterilise 200 dogs a week”.

Sterilisation “The move will not only tackle the growing menace of dog bites, but also provide employment to the youths of the State. Scores of dog bite cases are registered every month, especially in winter as the food grows scarce,” said Dr. Shafqat Khan. Dr. Salim Khan, however, is not very convinced with the measures adopted by the SMC. “Our dog sterilisation programme is grossly inadequate as by the time 50 dogs are sterilised, 1,000 more are born,” he said.

In Odisha district, women ofer sarees at shrine to shut out evil eye Rumours of harm in the coming months are driving mothers in Berhampur to pray for the well-being of their eldest sons

PRATAPGARH

A woman and a girl were killed and 30 others injured after a tractor trolley overturned in Kunda here on Friday, the police said. The incident took place when a group of devotees was returning after paying obeisance at Haudeshwar Nath dham on Mahashivratri and the vehicle overturned, they said. While two Gudia Devi (35) and Madhuri (12) died on the spot, other injured were rushed to the hospital. - PTI

CM YK

Staff Reporter BERHAMPUR

Blinded by superstition, thousands of mothers, whose firstborn is a boy, are rushing to Tara Tarini hill shrine in Ganjam district of Odisha on Tuesdays. These women are offering new sarees among other things to the deity, praying for the well-being of their eldest sons. The reason behind this superstition is a rumour that in the coming

months some great harm, maybe death, is going to happen to eldest male child of any family and through this special puja at Tara Tarini temple with new saree on Tuesday this ill fate can be averted.

16 weeks and counting It’s been 16 weeks since the rumour started in the rural areas of Ganjam, and now it has spread to the slums of Berhampur city and other

urban centres of the district. As a result, thousands of mothers are thronging the temple ofTuesdays with a new saree and food material to be offered as ‘chhancha’ (offering) to the temple. Interestingly, the cost of the saree and the offerings has to be borne by the parents of the women, according to the rumour which has now become a belief among the people. After offering the saree to the deity, the moth-

ers have to wear it at the shrine and then return home.

Crowd management On last Tuesday (February 21) around 25,000 visitors reached this famous hill shrine of south Odisha and most of them were married women with children, said the secretary of Tara Tarini Development Board (TTDB), Pramod Panda. On the Tuesday before

that (February 14), the number of visitors had gone above 50,000, he added. According to Mr. Panda, February 21 was the 16th Tuesday and the number of visitors on all Tuesdays have been as high as the crowd seen at the temple on the four Tuesdays of the Hindu month of Chaitra (between March and April), when the major festivals of the shrine are held. The majority of the women who have fallen prey to

this rumour are from the economically backward families. As most of them are uneducated or semi-literate, they do not use their logic and easily believe these stories, said J. Suresh, an activist with Humanist and Rationalist Organisation (HRO). Such superstition spreads through word of mouth among the downtrodden, who fail to use their analytical skill to know the truth behind it, he added.

Beeline for darshan at the Tara Tarini shrine in Odisha. LINGARAJ PANDA

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THE HINDU

NATION 5

NOIDA/DELHI

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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IN BRIEF

BJP, Sena have to come together: Gadkari He says the parties have no other option if they want to control Mumbai civic body Press Trust of India Mumbai

Azam Khan’s chopper develops snag BARABANKI

Senior Uttar Pradesh Minister Azam Khan on Friday had a narrow escape as his helicopter had to make an emergency landing in Karand village, near Jahangirabad here, due to technical snag, police said. Mr. Khan later left for Lucknow by road. PTI

5.2 magnitude quake rocks Manipur NEW DELHI

A medium intensity earthquake of 5.2 magnitude hit Manipur on Friday. The epicenter was in Churachandpur district. It struck at 5.32 p.m. at a depth of 20 km, according to the National Centre for Seismology. There were no immediate reports of loss of life or damage to property. Another earthquake with a magnitude of 3.5 struck Sikkim around 3.09 a.m. PTI

A day after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections threw up a fractured verdict, senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari on Friday said there was “no option” for his party and the Shiv Sena other than joining hands for control of the Mumbai civic body. “The situation now is that both parties have no option but to come together again,” Mr. Gadkari said. “The final decision on this issue has to be taken by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray. Both are mature and I am sure they will take the right decision,” he said.

‘Understanding needed’ “I feel leaders of both parties have to take a decision, showing ‘sujh bujh’ (under-

Winners all: Newly elected corporators of the municipal corporation with Maharashtra CM in Nagpur. S. SUDARSHAN standing) and maturity,” Mr. Gadkari told a Marathi TV channel. He singled out Sena mouthpiece Saamna for targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah. “If there has to be a

friendship with us (BJP), then there has to be a check on the writings in Saamna. How will there be friendship when Saamna, on a daily basis, writes insulting things about the Prime Minister and our party president?” he said.

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Deep devotion

Jats to intensify quota protest in Haryana

“I feel that had these things been avoided, there would not have been so much bitterness between BJP and Sena,” Mr. Gadkari said. Shiv Sena should take care that relations between the two parties should not deteriorate because of Saamna. Mr. Gadkari’s remarks came a day after the BJP scored an emphatic win in the Maharashtra civic polls, emerging as the largest party in eight of the 10 municipal corporations, while finishing a close second to the Shiv Sena in BMC elections. The BJP improved its 2012 BMC poll performance by leaps and bounds, winning 82 seats, just two less than the Sena. Both the parties are short of the magic figure of 114 needed to control the civic body.

ROHTAK

Syed Sajjad Ali Agartala

SEONI

Carcass of a three-year-old leopard was found in Wahidabad forest area under Seoni range in Madhya Pradesh on Friday, an oicial said. “The carcass was spotted by a patrolling team last night. No injury marks were found on the feline,” the oicial said. PTI

Moment of piety: Devotees taking a bath in the Sangam in Allahabad on Friday on the occasion of Maha Sivaratri. RAJEEV BHATT

Press Trust of India Mumbai

An Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) leader, celebrating victory in the civic poll, and eight party workers were injured when they were allegedly attacked by a mob in Kurla, police said on Friday. MNS candidate Sanjay Turde was returning home after celebrations when around 100 people armed with rods and sticks arrived at his office in Kurla around 10.30 p.m. on Thursday. The mob apparently comprised persons from rival parties, a police official said.

Devraj was on hunger strike for quota Press Trust of India Jaipur

The site of an indefinite hunger strike for Special Backward Class quota turned into the marriage venue for 26-year-old Devraj Gujjar, who tied the nuptial knot here, as he chose not to leave the protest. Gujjar is one of the 10 men who are protesting since February 16 against the scrapping of quota for Special Backward Classes in Rajasthan by the High Court in December last year.

Selected as lecturers The men were selected as lecturers by the Rajasthan Public Service Commission. But after the High Court struck down the SBC quota, they, like several others, did not get appointment letters.

They are now on an “indefinite hunger strike” in Sikandara area of Dausa district. Gujjar said his marriage was fixed eight months ago and because he did not want to delay it, he decided to marry Mamta at the protest site. He said his family made all arrangements for the wedding. “Both marriage and job are important in a person’s life. After Mamta agreed to it, we decided to tie the nuptial knot at the spot. I will continue my fast unto death. I cannot betray my fellows,” he said. Mamta said “I am with my husband in his fight. I am proud of him and if our demands are not met, I will also join the protest”.

Survey for Tripura rail line gets nod

The Jat organisation spearheading the stir in Haryana for quota in government jobs and educational institutions for them on Friday decided against talking to the government for setting up a panel to resolve their grievances. The All-India Jat Aarakshan Sangarsh Samiti president Yashpal Malik vowed to intensify the stir. PTI

Leopard carcass found in Madhya Pradesh

MNS victor injured in attack

For him, a dharna site turns marriage venue

The Ministry of Railways sanctioned a proposal to conduct a survey to connect Belonia in south Tripura through an alternative route from Dharmanagar in north Tripura. It also approved a fund of ₹43 lakh towards expenditure involved in the survey, and research issues. The Office of the General Manager, Construction, of the Northeastern Frontier Railway (NFR), with its headquarters in Maligaon received the sanctioned letters from the Ministry and Railway Board, a railway official said in Agartala on Friday. He envisaged commencement of construction work this year after completion of the survey.

Nine men acquitted in Noida gang-rape case Court pulls up police for not following proper procedure while investigating Press Trust Of India New Delhi

A Noida police officer left “no stone unturned” to botch up investigation in a 2009 case of gang-rape of a 24-year-old MBA student that has led to the acquittal of nine persons by a Delhi court on the grounds that the identity of the real culprits could not be proved. The court pulled up the police for not following proper procedure of law while investigating the mat-

ter and said no judicial Test Identification Parade (TIP) of the accused was conducted by the investigating officer (IO).

Action against IO The court held that the IO had left “no stone unturned for making this case impossible to be proved” and directed Noida Senior Superintendent of Police to take appropriate action against IO, inspector Anil Samaniya, for his improper probe in

the case. “These factors clearly show that due to the negligent, casual and unprofessional investigation conducted by the IO, real culprits of the case could not be identified/arrested or subjected to administration of justice,” Additional Sessions Judge Shail Jain said, adding that this was “a classic case” of botched up investigation by the IO. However, the judge was all praise for Special Public Pro-

secutor Neelam Narang, saying she provided valuable, substantial and useful help in explaining the lengthy case in a summarised manner. Though the girl had identified all the accused before the court during the recording of her testimony, the judge said their identification by her was “doubtful” as the alleged crime was committed in the night in a forest area where there was no source of light.

ED notice to Thampi, 3 Holiday Group irms FEMA violation of ₹288 crore alleged Special Correspondent New Delhi

The Enforcement Directorate has served show-cause notices on NRI C.C. Thampi of the Holiday Group and three of his companies for alleged violation of the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA), involving transactions of ₹288 crore. According to the ED, the notices have been served on Mr. Thampi, Holiday City Centre Pvt. Ltd., Holiday Properties Pvt. Ltd. and Holiday Bekal Resorts Pvt. Ltd. The NRI entrepreneur had acquired agricultural land in the name of his company Holiday City Centre Pvt. Ltd allegedly in violation of the FEMA provisions.

According to the agency, Mr. Thampi — as a person residing outside India — had advanced unsecured loans to his three companies, which were later on converted into equity in his name and in the name of his family members in these companies.

Land around NCR “By using the said funds, he had acquired huge agricultural land in Palwal, the NCR and Gautam Buddha Nagar in UP, through these companies, which he could not have otherwise purchased as he resided outside India. The agricultural land has also been proposed for confiscation,” said an official.

Raje sends State BJP chief, Minister to Kota Press Trust of India Kota

Rajasthan BJP chief Ashok Parnami reached Kota on Friday to probe into the scuffle between party MLA Chandra Kanta Meghwal and her supporters with the police early this week here. Mr. Parnami arrived with State Agricultural Minister Prabhu Lal Saini, the minisCM YK

ter-in-charge of the district’s political affairs and met the party MLAs and workers in a bid to ascertain facts about the row that embarrassed government. The two leaders reached Kota on instructions of CM Vasundhra Raj Scindia to apprise her of their findings. The issue of brawl had also been raised in the State Assembly. ND-ND

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6 EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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Moral economy of a university Its role as a nursery for the availability of eccentricity, and for dissenting imaginations, is under threat

A signiicant victory

Shining bright India can do much more to increase solar power capacity and meet its renewables target

ndians do not have the patience to focus on a problem for an extended period of time. We do not think of institutions in the long run. We panic when there is a crisis but when a crisis dims, we lose our focus. As a result, we are poor at institution-building. We treat institutions cosmetically, applying the latest management gloss or creating a fetish of numbers like the ritual of rankings. Today an institution such as the university is in crisis and yet there is no systematic response, no relexivity, no sense of loss. The university relects both a failure of sociological analysis and of storytelling. In fact, in the tired eyes of many of my colleagues, dedicated teachers, many who have nursed little undergraduate departments, one already senses the obituary of the institution. Death by neglect, death by illiteracy seems to be the quiet chorus.

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Like a plaything True we have a report on education, virtually shelved before it appeared. As a colleague put it, “The T.S.R. Subramanian Committee report is a modest efort with a lot to be modest about.” It is more an effort to understand the university as a bureaucracy. It has no sense of the university as a knowledge system, or as a community of scholars producing ideas. The university has become a plaything, either in the hands of politicians who see in it a reservoir of electoral politics or in the hands of bureaucrats who draw their Kafkaesque songlines around it. What we need today is a report of the university by university teachers, people who nurture students, people who understand what it means to be a Third World academic in a populist era where the Indian university is expected to be instantly world class on a zerocost system. One has to begin by challenging

CM YK

An element of craft One has to emphasise the community, the craft element in such institutions. Teaching and research have a craft element, where the ritual of learning has to be internalised in tacit ways emphasising that the university is a rite of passage, an initiation into a way of learning. The experts of today do not understand the care, the nurturance, the rigour and the gestation period this requires: Writing a research paper is literally rewriting a research paper many times. Learning a craft is not a downloaded act. It requires a sense of heuristics, of alternatives. Acquir-

ing a skill is an art form, not a job for prefabricated educationists. Craft needs a face-to-face encounter, a sense of love, a skill, technique that demands time. The university is the last of the craft systems and to destroy teaching and research as crafts is to destroy a university. The Gurukul and the Gharana will be parts of its conscious.

Questions of renewal There is a further banalisation that we are not able to articulate. Knowledge should be free but education is not and our politicians with their populism think education is zero cost, where hostels are treated as langars. No one talks about maintenance, the renewal, the sustainability of the university. Its richness as a commons demands that we sustain it as a commons, and no commons can survive without diversity, dissent and marginality. A university is a nursery for the availability of eccentricity, for dissenting imaginations. To punish it for what it naturally produces is an act of political misunderstanding the future will not condone. I wrote this essay because I see an institution I grew up in sufer through assault and neglect. One realises that the Indian state, after hiring a quick consultant reproducing the latest fad abroad, has little interest in education. Its understanding of values as something ancient or revivalist is even more lethal. I do not deny the dependence of the university on state funds, but I think one must insist that the university as an institution of civil society, as a deining core of craft and professionalism must now produce its own report, a restatement of its charging condition and its changing self. One cannot let state and the party or even industry deine the core vision of the future. This work is the urgent task before the academe today, to deine the values, emphasise the craft and specify the diference that makes a university a deining institution of a pluralistic society. Shiv Visvanathan is Professor, Jindal Global Law School and Director, Centre of Study of Knowledge System, O.P Jindal Global University

Mumbai waits to exhale The BJP and Shiv Sena must ind a way to getting the city back on track

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he clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Afairs for a plan to double the capacity of solar power installed in dedicated solar parks to 40 gigawatts by 2020, with partial government iscal assistance, is in line with the goal of creating a base of 100 gigawatts by 2022. Expansion of solar power capacity is among the more eicient means to meet the commitment to keep carbon emissions in check under the Paris Agreement on climate change, and it can provide the multiplier efect of creating additional employment, with overall economic dividends. As the International Renewable Energy Agency notes in its report titled REthinking Energy 2017: Accelerating the global energy transformation, globally, jobs in solar energy have witnessed the fastest growth since 2011 among various renewable energy sectors. Asia has harnessed the potential the most, providing 60% of all renewable energy employment, while China enjoys the bulk of this with a thriving solar photovoltaic and thermal manufacturing industry, besides installations. Apart from measures to scale up generating capacity, India should take a close look at competitive manufacturing of the full chain of photovoltaics and open training facilities to produce the human resources the industry will need in the years ahead. Renewables and new energy storage technologies are on course to overshadow traditional fossil fuelbased sources of power as the costs decline. Low-cost inancing channels hold the key to quick augmentation of solar generating capacity. The trend in some emerging economies, including India, has been a reduction in public inancing of renewable energy projects over the last ive years. This has implications for equity in the long run, and electricity regulators should ix tarifs taking into account the reduction in the levelised cost of electricity (the average break-even price over a project’s lifetime). Yet, recourse to other funding options, including regulated debt instruments such as green bonds, would be necessary to achieve early, ambitious targets. Without realistic purchase prices, utilities could resort to curtailment of renewable power sources on non-technical considerations, afecting investments. Tamil Nadu, a solar leader in the country, resorted to curtailments last year, a phenomenon that has perhaps muted industry interest in its recent 500 MW tender. The funding mix for renewables, therefore, should give climate inancing an important role. At the Paris UN Climate Change Conference, developed countries pledged to raise $100 billion a year by 2020 for mitigation, and more in later years, a promise that needs to be vigorously pursued. Besides promoting phase two of the solar parks plan, and powering public facilities such as railway stations and stadia using solar power, the Centre should put in place arrangements that make it easier for every citizen and small business to adopt rooftop solar. This is crucial to achieving the overall goal of 100 GW from this plentiful source of energy by 2022, and to raise the share of renewables in the total energy mix to 40 per cent in the next decade.

knowledge, each lived an almost ascetic life. They remained legends, exemplars of what a university should and could be. Each showed that one could create a world of knowledge the college was proud of. Bearers, sweepers, laboratory assistants were proud of these teachers as any student was. They all understood that excellence was a mix of integrity and creativity. As a nostalgic friend put it, they were characters but they also had character. They were rarely rule-bound or procedural. Yet they had a sense of the normative. They doted on classics, treated Marx or Shakespeare as an entire ecology. They taught you the pleasure of reading a book, and they reminded you that democracy needed a sense of the classic, as an everyday benchmark of standards. One still remembers the feast of ideas, the playfulness of scholarship as one recollects a J.P.S. Uberoi literally compering the Friday seminars at Delhi School of Economics or Rajender Kumar Gupta’s colloquium called the Philosoc where a Ramu Gandhi ine-tuned his erratic genius. Knowledge became a gift, and it was gratefully received. Each of these groups was a ‘commons’ where books, memories and insights were shared, a hospitality downed happily with teacups. Small, simple, sparse but cheerily conident, it is these panchayats

the current assault on the university. In fact, one has to rewrite the contract between the university and society. The recent battles at Jawaharlal Nehru University, the talk fests, the debates showed that the public university has the resilience to ight back, to defend the moral economy of the university. What was impressive about the JNU struggle was the solidarity between faculty and students, a shared vision of the university as a critical space for the democratic imagination. Yet, the JNU struggle opened the raw wounds of the university. Today, the state believes that the universities should be starved, and in that impoverished status, it encourages a few acts to be conspicuous consumption. One does not deny that accounting is important, but more so are accountability and responsibility. The broader vision of a modern university is lost as we convert them to tutorial colleges of the mind. Such a vision was kept alive by everyday practitioners. In fact, if one goes to Delhi University, for example, one inds the real heroes are a few legendary undergraduate teachers. It is around them that legends are built and values transmitted. Delhi over the last few decades produced a Frank Thakurdas, a Rajender Kumar Gupta, a Randhir Singh, a Dilip Simeon. Each created a small panchayat of

Sachin Kalbag

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here is an apocryphal story of an army general who was asked about an improbable victory in battle. He thought for a while and responded, “I did not win because I was strong; I won because my enemy was weak.” So it is with Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, as the results of elections to 10 municipalities, 25 zilla parishads and 283 panchayat samitis come in. The Bharatiya Janata Party, to which he belongs, was faced with a remarkably weak opposition— a Congress party bufeted by inighting, a Nationalist Congress Party that’s lost its punch, a narrow-agenda-driven Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). In fact, the BJP’s strongest opposition was the Shiv Sena, its alliance partner in the State and Central governments, and with which it had an acrimonious split for the civic elections. The biggest battle was for the Bri-

hanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), where both parties were locked in a bitter exchange of words. In the end, the Sena won 84 of the 227 seats. The BJP bagged 82. The BMC is important not only because of the sheer size of its budget — last year, it crossed the ₹37,000 crore mark, a igure greater than the GDP of 10 States and four Union Territories — but also because of the clout it ensures in the country’s inancial capital. Nonetheless, the BMC can be described in three words — an absolute mess.

Crumbling infrastructure The two reasons why the BMC has this reputation is due to the poor quality of roads in the city and the complete apathy of the town planning department. In the irst case, the BMC has a genuine excuse — not all roads in Mumbai are built or maintained by it. There is also the Public Works Department and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation Limited, which build lyovers and the inner-city highways which eventually connect to the national highways. These are maintained by a Central agency, the National Highways Authority of India. The lack of coordination among these agencies is the real problem.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Maharashtra verdict The municipal election results in Maharashtra reveal the BJP’s impressive performance in the State despite the rift with the Shiv Sena and the impact of demonetisation. The results are a reminder to the Sena chief that overconidence does not pay at times. The state of the Congress reveals its poor organisational ability to counter the BJP. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis should now seize this opportunity and work towards development. The defeat should jolt the Congress into action. It must revamp the party structure rather than depend on allies. K.R. Srinivasan, Secunderabad

Mental health Good mental health is an important aspect of life

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here could not have been a clearer mandate in the 2017 civic polls in Maharashtra. Except for Thane, where the Shiv Sena managed a comfortable victory, and Mumbai, where it squeaked ahead of the BJP by two seats, the BJP won every city corporation easily. Of the 1,268 municipal seats, the party won 628, more than tripling its 2012 tally. There could not be a better afirmation of support for the party in power at the State as well as its Chief Minister, who staked his political reputation on the polls. Besides ielding competitive candidates in places where the party had a strong base, the BJP’s strategy to woo viable contestants from other parties in places where it was weak yielded strong returns. The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party were reduced to minor players in most of the corporations. In Mumbai, the Shiv Sena has, for the irst time since it came to power nearly 25 years ago, seen a close competitor in the BJP; there is now a chance that the mayor could be elected from outside the Sena. While the Marathi-dominated areas of the city helped the regionalist party consolidate support, its reduced win ratio, of only 37% of the seats contested as opposed to over 50% in previous civic polls, suggests that it can no longer count Mumbai as an undisputed stronghold. The politics of regional identity and patronage may have helped the Sena become the single largest party in India’s richest municipal corporation. But its reduced win ratio is a relection of its dismal performance in ensuring civic works, with sanitation, infrastructure, public health and education in poor shape in the city. The BJP will be content with its strong performance, which has followed civic poll victories in Chandigarh and Madhya Pradesh and in some Legislative Council elections in Uttar Pradesh. This may not relect a popular endorsement of the demonetisation move, as its supporters argue, but at the very least it suggests that ‘notebandi’ is highly unlikely to hurt the BJP’s prospects in the ongoing Assembly elections. It is impossible to not contrast the BJP’s success with the performance of the Congress in the recent civic polls. Clearly, the BJP has become the central pole of Indian politics, a position the Congress occupied for a long time. This is not only due to the BJP-run Central government’s record. The party has an able corps of regional leaders, Devendra Fadnavis and Shivraj Singh Chouhan among them, which allows for it to compete efectively at the regional level. The Congress, on the other hand, seems lacking not just in a strategy to regain national relevance but also in its ability to revive itself regionally due to the absence of a cache of regional leaders.

Shiv Visvanathan

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The BJP’s facile win in the Maharashtra civic polls marks the continuation of a trend

of ideas that sustained the sanity and creativity of a university. None of these groups would it into a rankings evaluation because many of them were part of an oral rather than a written imagination with its dogma of publish or perish. Such a creativity was not restricted to the humanities or social science alone. The role the Department of Physics at Delhi University played in developing and anchoring the Hoshangabad science project was enormous. Such eforts rarely get mentioned in theories of institution-building. In all of them, the normative and the creative were enacted everyday. The playful power of these intellectual eforts still recharges many a new imagination. Both teachers and students inevitably know such a community of understanding cannot be created by mercenaries. Love of scholarship went with a love of the university as a community, a way of life. It is a pity that these groups have become the stuf of nostalgia because they represented the everyday genius of the university. Because one does not understand the ecology for exemplars, one fetishes management theories which commoditise education, turning the teacher-student relationship into one of an arid clientelism, a paisa-vasool model, good for bargaining in second-hand shops but a misit for a world of values. It is the values the university created that upheld the university. Values to a university were a guarantee of competence.

Added to this are haphazard real estate development and rampant rent-seeking, leading to a prohibitive cost of living and a changing social fabric which relects in ghettos along business, religious and caste lines. Burdened by such pressures, Mumbai has spread itself so thin that a Mumbai resident’s trust in the mu-

nicipal corporation often stands completely eroded. Regaining this trust will be a gargantuan efort. The advantage that the Sena and the BJP have is that they run both the civic and the State governments. Yet, both parties have turned a blind eye towards rampant corruption, among their members as well as the bureaucracy, and have remained silent while civic institutions continue to crumble around them. For instance, public transport in Mumbai needs a complete overhaul. The shrill promises at election rallies have not changed much. The Brihanmumbai Electric Supply & Transport Undertaking, which runs the city’s bus services and electricity supply in some parts, has not modernised its leet in decades. Water supply continues to be diverted from lower and middle-income group localities to skyscrapers. Instead of investing in public transport, thus reducing the density of private vehicles, almost every new transport policy at the city and State levels encourages private ownership. Mumbai’s parking charges have remained constant for years, thus incentivising the use of cars rather than public transport. Not surprisingly, Delhi, and not Mumbai, is the most competitive

city in India. In a recent World Competitive Cities report, the World Bank singled out Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu for its stellar growth in job creation, attracting world-class companies, and in turn progress and prosperity. Not long back, Mumbai, which continues to attract skilled and unskilled migrants in huge numbers every year, would have been the beacon of growth for the country.

Mandate for change If there is one message the Shiv Sena and the BJP need to take away from this week’s election results, it is this: We have been given a mandate for change, and that change should happen quickly to transform the city into a global destination for business and talent. It is pretty clear what the irst point of dispute is going to be for the Shiv Sena and BJP — a ierce tussle over the mayor’s post. Ever since the commissioner was made the de facto CEO of the city some years ago, the mayor’s post and the post of chairperson of the all-powerful standing committee have been bitterly contested. This year is not going to be any diferent. [email protected]

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

which we in India hardly pay attention to (“Basic income and mental health gains”, Feb.24). Hardly any funds are allocated in the Budget for this very important aspect of human wealth. In a country such as India, with a high rate of suicides, most of the problems that drive people to despair can be prevented with counselling. Visiting a psychiatrist is taboo, which is why people sufer in silence. The Finance and Health ministries should come up with a solution. Veena Shenoy, Thane, Maharashtra

While most of us lean towards progress, it is Muslim clerics who have the power of ‘interpretation’. Introducing judicial proceedings will diminish their signiicance. Finally, triple talaq is the violation of the principle of natural justice. The Koran has always talked about the need to respect women, children and elders. It is time that the government goes in for a uniform civil code where regressive practices of every religion are eliminated. The judiciary can play a much greater role in this exercise. Manful Khan, Jaipur

Level playing ield The debate over triple talaq has gripped most of us (‘Left, Right, Centre’ — “Should triple talaq be outlawed?” Feb.24). There are several perspectives.

Earth calling It is odd that we should now be neglecting the diamond in search of pebbles (Editorial — “Life elsewhere”, Feb.24).

Humans have caused unprecedented damage to the Earth’s ecosystem and there need to be drastic steps to save our planet. These must include concerted eforts to combat climate change. The mission should be to try to make Earth, the only known planet so far to host life, stable and safe. Pouring money into projects on extraterrestrial explorations is not the need of the hour.

Footboard travel It is not uncommon to see youngsters ‘riding the footboard’ and performing deadly stunts while alighting from the local trains in an attempt to appear ‘cool’ before their peers. Checking inspectors at railway stations should act instantly and impose stringent punishments to avert such tragedies (Some editions, “Three killed in

freak accident in Chennai” and “A footboard journey that waved the green lag for death”, both Feb.24). The respective Railway zones should organise safety awareness campaigns to drive home the point that people travelling on footboards are only jeopardising their lives. Ramkrishna T.E., Chennai

more letters online: www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/

Dinathej G., Chennai

■ How exhilarating it would be if other living forms are found on these newly discovered Earth-like planets. We should not rest till such a search is taken to its logical end. An exciting era of exploration has begun.

R. Sampath, Chennai

corrections & clarifications: The photograph accompanying the story headlined “Rare butterly varieties spotted in Srivilliputhur sanctuary” (some editions, Feb. 24, 2017) erroneously identiied the species as Silver Royal. The full form of IAI was erroneously given as Israel Aircraft Industries in the report, “India, Israel to jointly develop missile for Army” (Feb. 24, 2017). The correct expansion is Israel Aerospace Industries. It is the policy of The Hindu to correct signiicant errors as soon as possible. Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page. The Readers’ Editor’s office can be contacted by Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Friday); Fax: +91-44-28552963; E-mail:[email protected]; Mail: Readers’ Editor, The Hindu, Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860 Anna Salai, Chennai 600 002, India. All communication must carry the full postal address and telephone number. No personal visits. The Terms of Reference for the Readers’ Editor are on www.thehindu.com

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THE HINDU

GROUND ZERO 7

NOIDA/DELHI

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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ILLUSTRATION: DEEPAK HARICHANDAN

Betraying the oath The Medical Council of India recently barred 32 colleges across the country. Vidya Krishnan reconstructs how one of those, a Bhopal institute, marshalled doctors on hire, fake patients and life-saving equipment on rent for inspection day The coffee is bad and the desserts are drier than you’d expect, but the Amer Bakery Hut is nonetheless one of Bhopal’s popular haunts. Sudhir Singh (name changed) has strategically taken a table at the far end that faces the door opening to the kitchen. No one is likely to spot him there, and he’s not even from Bhopal, but Singh is fidgety, looking around every few minutes to check on other patrons before leaning forward to speak in hushed tones. A professor at a medical college affiliated to a Raipur university, Singh was in town in time for an inspection by the Medical Council of India (MCI), the regulatory body for medical education in India. On the MCI team’s inspection list were the RKDF Medical College Hospital and Research Centre, and the Advanced Institute of Medical Science and Research Centre which is on the outskirts of Bhopal. Both have been debarred. The night before this January 11 meeting at the cafe, Singh had called saying “ghost professors”, a euphemism for academics who materialise at inspections conducted by the MCI for money, had checked into the Rajhans hotel. “Shehar mein sabko pata hai inspection week chal raha hai (Everyone in the city knows it’s inspection week),” he said by way of explaining him being so guarded. After all, the Raipur professor claims to have been among those approached to pose as Advanced Institute faculty when the MCI team came calling. Every medical college is associated with a ‘teaching hospital’ — where patients are admitted and students learn while treating them. A medical college must pass a benchmark in terms of infrastructure, faculty strength and patient inflow at the hospital to be recognised by the MCI, upon which it admits a prescribed number of students. The Advanced Institute had sought recognition to enrol 150 students and start a teaching hospital. On January 13, 2017, a damning report on ‘ghost’ doctors, fake patients, life-saving equipment on loan by dubious vendors in 32 medical colleges across India, authored by the MCI, was submitted to the Health Ministry. The report, which runs into 215 pages, blows the lid off a well-oiled operation which kicks in almost as soon as an entrepreneur dreams of opening a private medical college. The two Bhopal colleges figure among the blacklisted 32.

The modus operandi On January 4 and 5, four inspectors were in Bhopal. They visited Advanced Institute on those two days. News travels fast in the Madhya Pradesh capital. Days ahead of the inspections, the Advanced Institute administration sent out buses to round up nearby villagers from Vidisha and Betul, saying they would conduct a medical camp, claims Singh. “Once admitted, these people were passed off as genuine patients to meet bed occupancy standards.” The villagers bussed in were promised free food and transport during the medical camp. “They were stuck in the hospital till the MCI team visited (on January 4-5) and got restless as none of CM YK

(page 69).” Further, in violation of MCI norms for ventilators/patient ratio, Advanced Institute had just one ventilator for Intensive Coronary Care Unit, Medical Intensive Care Unit and Surgical Intensive Care Unit, the report notes.

them had any serious ailments,” adds Singh. The inspectors recorded this exercise in great detail for the Health Ministry’s benefit: “Out of 25.66% indoor patients, many patients did not appear genuine. It seems that some workers/ staff members without any medical illness were lying on the beds. No personal belongings, attendant, or medicines were there… (page 70 of the MCI inspection report).” However, Shailendra Bhadoriya, a businessman who owns the daily National Duniya and is the man behind Advanced Institute, says: “It is for the doctors to decide which patient is sick or healthy. That’s not the job of MCI inspectors.” The professor’s account, over coffee, only corroborates what the Health Ministry and court documents have meticulously recorded over the years — that vendors stage-manage medical college inspections in India, ‘ghost’ professors pass off as faculty, and fake patients are rounded up ahead of an inspection. Over the years, a cottage industry has thrived with a cast of characters that includes vendors, academics, patients, promoters, and the MCI which for decades had turned a blind eye to the practice.

Enter the entrepreneur Last year, Bhadoriya decided to set up the Advanced Institute spread across 25 acres in Bhopal’s Kolar Road area. Around the same time, the Supreme Court, in May 2016, appointed a committee under former Chief Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha with the mandate to oversee the functioning of the scamtainted MCI. This year, the committee (and not MCI) was responsible for recognising medical colleges in India. The MCI had been in the eye of the storm for its failure to rein in malpractices in medical education and for allowing private hospitals and medical colleges flourish under political patronage. The former chief of MCI, Ketan Desai, is under in-

of the inspections, the < > Ahead Advanced Institute administration sent out buses to round up nearby villagers, saying they would conduct a medical camp. Once admitted, these people were passed of as genuine patients to meet bed occupancy standards. Sudhir Singh, claims to have posed as 'ghost' professor at Advanced Institute

vestigation for corruption and criminal conspiracy in a 2010 case for allegedly taking a bribe of ₹20 million from a medical college in exchange for an MCI nod, allowing the college to add more students. The permission Bhadoriya’s college received — in August 2016 — from the Lodha committee to admit students was conditional on a second physical inspection. Earlier this month, newspapers in Bhopal reported that a part of Bhadoriya’s college had been attached by the Union Bank of India for defaulting on a ₹39 lakh payment. Just before this, on January 24, 2017, all of Bhadoriya’s 150 first-year students went on strike against an abrupt fee hike. The fee, which had been set at ₹5 lakh per year, was suddenly increased to ₹10 lakh. The agitating students were allegedly roughed up by college administration. “Why did MCI recognise them? The college building was incomplete. There was no faculty. To top that, the administration hiked our fees by ₹5 lakh. I’d say the college exists only on paper,” says Anuj Tiwari of Advanced Institute’s first batch. (The MCI inspection report says about Advanced Institute, “Deficiency of faculty is 29.23%.”) Students maintain that there has been no action by the Directorate of Medical Education and Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC), Madhya Pradesh, which had fixed the annual fee at ₹5 lakh per year, despite complaints being made as early as July 2016. In his defence, Bhadoriya says, “The college administration wanted fee recovery from students who hadn’t paid their fee. The AFRC can only decide the tuition fee. The rest of the fees is up to the college to fix.” While the college fee was fixed by the AFRC, Advanced Institute charged a further ₹1.5 lakh for a book bank, ₹1.5 lakh as hostel fee, ₹1 lakh as caution money and another ₹1 lakh as miscellaneous charges.

The fee hike hasn’t resulted in any improvement in facilities, claim students. “The hostel doesn’t have almirahs. Books aren’t available either. And I don’t understand what miscellaneous expenses are,” says Tiwari. The MCI report is telling: “Common rooms for boys and girls: Designated area is a single big hall without partition and without furniture (page 71).” “Colleges cannot increase their fee midway through the year. We are aware that students are protesting and will be taking action against the college management,” says T.R. Thapak, the AFRC Chairman.

Virtual colleges? The Lodha committee’s grant of recognition to 34 medical colleges without physical verification — of which Advanced Institute was a beneficiary — was based on “snapshots” uploaded on college websites. “Out of abundant caution, we granted approvals after putting a condition for bank guarantees of ₹2 crore. We also took an undertaking (from the colleges) that all these things are in place. Further, they were to be inspected again by MCI. This is how conditional approvals were given,” explains Justice Lodha. The claims on the college websites, the committee reasoned, could be inspected later but students had to be immediately admitted so as to not waste an academic year. In the case of Advanced Institute, the MCI inspection report pointed out 20 deficiencies ranging from “no blood bank” to “non-genuine” patients admitted across the hospital — in “General Medicine, General Surgery, Orthopaedics and ENT wards”. It further notes: “In case of Dr Rajesh of General Surgery, Preeti Gattani of Obstretics and Gynecology and Vikas Trehan of Anaesthesiology, it was observed that there was false signature in attendance sheet. They were absent during headcounting

Ticking the right boxes So, how do colleges get permission to admit students? Singh offers an experiential account. In his case, it began with a phone call. “Kya aap inspection mein appear hone ke liye available hain? Package achcha hai (Are you available to appear in an inspection? The package is good)” said the voice at the other end. It was from an agent who provides ‘ghost’ faculty to private medical colleges. Such faculty have to appear once or twice a year when inspectors from the MCI are scheduled to visit. There is a rate card for different specialities, Singh says. “At a minimum, a doctor can make ₹6 lakh a year for one inspection. The college shows us as faculty, with a salary of ₹50,000 per month. For doctors with super-specialities like neurosurgery, oncology etc. the rate goes up to ₹12-14 lakh,” he claims. The phenomenon of ‘ghost’ faculty is Indian medical education’s worst-kept secret. Over interviews, doctors, professors, Health Ministry officials, MCI officials and Justice Lodha himself confirm that they were aware of the menace. “I hope the setting up of a new medical commission will reform the sector. We need not for-profit teaching hospitals rather than corporate setups,” says Dr. Samiran Nundy, Dean of Ganga Ram Institute of Postgraduate

tell you that you need X < > They number of teachers, staf and equipment if you want to teach Y number of students. If we need ive ventilators for a 300-bed hospital, we will buy 2 and rent the rest for the day. A liaison agent

Medical Education and Research, who has taken part in MCI inspections. “Sometimes, ‘ghost’ faculty are on the same flight I take to inspect hospitals.” In fact, the ‘rot’ within MCI made it all the way to the highest echelons of power when the 92nd report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare was released in August 2016. The committee argued for dismantling the MCI stating that it was “a matter of surprise that despite the worst kind of gross unethical practices happening by way of ghost faculty, fake patients and hired instruments and substantial amount of money (not white, of course) reportedly changing hands at the time of inspections, there is little proactive action on the part of the MCI to deal with this malady”. While ‘ghost’ faculties were documented, the scale of “gross unethical practices” was “shocking” to Dr. Jayshree Mehta, the MCI President. “There have been times when our inspectors visit the colleges two days after the in-

spection and find nothing at the medical college/hospital,” she says. Each year, private medical colleges across the nation submit themselves to MCI inspections — a necessity before they can admit students for five years and turn them into doctors. The acute scarcity of doctors has led the government to floor the accelerator on medical education reforms. The country has 80 doctors per 1 lakh population — a shortage of nearly 5,00,000 doctors. The Hindu tracked down an employee at Advanced Institute who worked as a ‘liaison agent’. His responsibilities involved everything between breaking up a strike by students, working as a spokesperson, handling logistics and/or getting the college recognised. “They tell you that you need X number of teachers, staff and equipment if you want to teach Y number of students,” he says. “It is fairly straightforward. If we need five ventilators for a 300-bed hospital, we will buy two and rent the rest for the day,” he adds, drawing a flowchart of how he went around fixing the inspection. “Even our photocopier was rented,” he adds. The Hindu further tracked down a vendor who had supplied medical equipment to Advanced Institute ahead of the MCI inspection. One of them, Pradeep Tandon, claims he had stopped supplying to the college due to non-payment. “They won’t be able to run their college in this city any more,” he says, adding, “If all the vendors in Bhopal get together, we will be able to run a medical college better than how it is currently done.” Tandon brags that he could rent or sell any medical equipment on a two-week notice. Bhadoriya, however, dismisses the claims. “All of these are baseless allegations. It is not just our college. Over 30 colleges across the country have been debarred. The matter is still pending and we have presented our position to the Health Ministry,” he says.

Medical education reforms? For the academic year 2016-17, the MCI had received 109 applications, of which 18 had been approved at the time the Lodha panel was appointed. The panel invited compliance reports from the rest of the applications (colleges) that were denied permission. Of them, 34 colleges submitted their compliance reports, which were basically some affidavits and information from their own websites. Only two made the grade. “The court-appointed committee has taken sweeping decisions without proper verification and we are now challenging those in court as well,” says Anand Rai, whistleblower in the infamous Vyapam medical education scam in Madhya Pradesh, who also challenged the Lodha panel’s recommendations to MCI in Supreme Court. The MCI has forwarded its report to the Health Ministry. The Lodha panel’s tenure, meanwhile, winds up on May 1. But as official processes take their own sweet time, it’s the 5,000-odd students of the 32 colleges for whom time is ticking. ND-ND

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8 NEWS

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THE HINDU

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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FROM PAGE ONE

Indian engineer shot dead in Kansas According to officials tracking the case and emerging news reports, the shooter was asked by the bar manager to leave the place when he started racial slurs against the Indians. He went out, but returned after 15 minutes, with a gun this time. The shooter fled the scene after shooting at Mr. Grillot who tried to stop him. Kuchibhotla is possibly the first fatal victim of racial tensions that appear to be on the rise in the U.S. since November 2016, when Donald Trump won the presidential election. “Srini was the kindest person you would meet, full of love, care and compassion for everyone. He never uttered a word of hatred, a simple gossip, or a careless comment. He was brilliant, well-mannered and simply an outstanding human be-

ing. His wife Sunayana and his family are now faced with incredible grief and a multitude of expenses,” said a GoFundMe page started to raise money for the family of the deceased. Two other campaigns are raising money for Mr. Madasani and Mr. Grillot. Mr. Madasani is from Warangal and both have been on H-1B visas. Originally from Hyderabad, Kuchibhotla was a B. Tech in electrical and electronics engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. He had a master’s degree from the University of Texas El Paso. Mr. Madasani graduated from Vasavi College of Engineering and came to the U.S. as a Master’s student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Both worked for Garmin, a communications device company.

‘A brilliant career felled by bullets’ Narrating his conversation with his injured son, Mr. Reddy said: “My son and Srinivas, along with their American friend, Ian Grillot, were at the bar. The heavily drunk would-be assailant started yelling, ‘get out of my country’. Mr. Grillot alerted the bar owner, who sent him away. But he returned with a gun.” The American shot dead Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was sitting alone. “Alok was holding a plate to have his dinner, saw the shooting and tried to escape. Three rounds were fired at him but two whizzed past him and the third one hit a wall and pierced his thigh,” Mr. Reddy said, quoting his elder son Madasani Surender Reddy, who works in Dallas. Mr. Grillot, then tried to stop the assailant from creating mayhem. In the process, he also sustained injuries, Mr. Reddy said. Mr. Alok and Mr. Grillot tried to pacify the assailant that the two Indians were

Adam Purinton who attacked the Indians in a Kansas bar. REUTERS

legal immigrants and had all the permission to work in the U.S. Mr. Reddy, who resides in Telephone Colony of Kothapet in Hyderabad, said his son had obtained his passport in Warangal and hence it was initially believed that they hailed from that city. “The information from my elder son and conversation with Alok says that he is safe. We are shocked by the incident and so are they in the U.S.,” Mr. Reddy said, adding that he was trying to go to the U.S.

Plan to allow larger irms to shut shop In May 2015, the Labour Ministry had proposed integrating three labour laws — the Trade Unions Act, the Industrial Disputes Act and the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act — into a single code for industrial relations. It had then also proposed allowing factories with up to 300 workers to retrench workers or close down without seeking official sanction. However, the Centre had put the proposals on the back-burner after series of protests from the central trade unions on the proposed labour law reforms. The Labour Ministry may back its latest proposal to increase the threshold limit for applicability of chapter V-B of the

Industrial Disputes Act, citing hard data from Sixth Economic Census released in 2016. The data shows that around 99% of a total of 4.53 crore non-agricultural establishments employed less than 100 workers in 2013-14 and were allowed to retrench workers or close without government permission. “Most of the establishments in India needn’t take government permission to retrench workers or close their set up. So, the amendments will only impact a very small proportion of the total establishments. But a political call needs to be taken on increasing the threshold limit for the I-D Act,” the official added.

The hero who tried to stop Kansas shooter ‘We’re all humans, so I just did what was right to do and I didn’t want him to potentially go after somebody else’ Press Trust of India Houston

A 24-year-old American, who is being hailed as a hero for trying to stop a shooter who killed an Indian in Kansas City, said it was “actually the right thing to do”.

The saviour: Ian Grillot was injured when he tried to stop the man who opened ire in a Kansas bar. UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

Help pours in for victims of shooting

Hid behind a table Ian Grillot hid behind a table when the 51-year-old gunman, Adam Purinton, started shooting, while hurling racial slurs following an altercation at Austins Bar and Grill, killing an Indian techie and critically injuring another. He counted the gunshots and when he thought

the shooter was out of bullets, he jumped up to stop him but Purinton still had one round left, which he used to shoot him. The bullet went through Mr. Grillot’s hand and into his chest. “I guess I miscounted,” Mr. Grillot said in an interview from his hospital room, in a video released by the University of Kansas Health System. “I got up and proceeded to chase him down, try to subdue him... I got behind him and he turned around and fired a round at me,” he said. “I was doing what I should have done for an-

other human being. It’s not about where he [victim] was from or his ethnicity. We’re all humans, so I just did what was right to do and I didn’t want the gentleman to potentially go after somebody else,” Mr. Grillot said.

Alok’s wife pregnant Mr. Grillot said he had learnt that the wife of Alok Madasani, the other Indian is five months pregnant and that he considers the engineer his new best friend, according to a Kansas City Star report. “He came in here today and it was the greatest thing. I can’t even describe

Centre reaches out to family We will be in touch with the police to monitor follow-up action: MEA

“The BGB will be criss-crossing over 100 km of road distance in India to ferry construction material from Bangladesh to Chittagong area. There are no roads here and since India has a good road network, they will use it,” said a senior BSF official. The proposal was first mooted during the annual Home Secretary-level talks last year. A 19-member Indian delegation, mainly comprising BSF officials, which concluded its Dhaka visit last week informed the BGB that the proposal had been approved. While six BOPs would come across the Tripura border, another seven would be along the Mizoram border. “The proposal has initially been accepted for a CM YK

year and if the need arises then the time-frame might be extended,” said the official. During talks in Dhaka last week, the BSF is learnt to have handed over a list of 21 insurgent camps. But the latter denied the presence of any such camp. A press statement issued by the BSF after the meet said: “DG BSF sought further cooperation from BGB for destruction of reported hideouts of Indian Insurgent Groups in Bangladesh and safe release of Indian Nationals whenever abducted by the insurgents. DG BGB stated that there are no insurgent camps/ hideout in Bangladesh and that it does not allow her soil to be used by any entity or element hostile to any country.”

Happy to see him He said he hopes the two can spend some time together when he gets out of hospital. “I don’t think it’s going to be at the bar, though,” he said. “It just put the biggest smile on my face,” Mr. Grillot said when he saw Mr. Madasani earlier in the day.

‘Good at academics and sport’

Rohit P.S.

Kallol Bhattacherjee

Staff reporter

HYDERABAD

New Delhi

HYDERABAD

Families of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, Ian Grillot and Alok Reddy Madasani saw an outpouring of financial support online to meet expenses foisted on them by an alleged racial attack in Kansas City. A campaign for Mr. Kuchibhotla on the fundraiser website GoFundMe, organised by his friend Kavipriya Muthuramalingam, saw over 8,000 people raise more than $290,000 in just 19 hours. Many, including those who did not know him, blamed hate and racism for the incident. A second campaign was started by Maggie Grillot, sister of Ian Grillot, who was shot at when he went after the shooter. Many Indians contributed to his campaign. The initiative saw over 3,500 people contributing $128,444 against the target of $150,000. The third fundraiser campaign by Brian Eric Ford, a friend of Ms. Muthuramalingam, said the proceeds would be split between the families of Mr. Kuchibhotla and Mr. Madasani. The campaign raised nearly $44,000.

The Centre on Friday reached out to the family of the NRI engineer who was shot dead in an apparent hate crime in the U.S. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said the government would provide all possible support to the family of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, who was killed in an attack that left another Indian injured. External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj took to social media soon after Mr. Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani were shot at a bar in Olathe, Kansas.

News of Srinivas Kuchibhotla’s death following an alleged hate attack in the U.S. left teachers at his alma mater shocked. The Vidya Jyothi Institute of Technology located on the city outskirts has decided to hold a condolence gathering in memory of its student on Monday. “We fondly remember him as ‘Seenu’ of room number 245. He was a calm person,” said B.G. Reddy, one of Mr. Kuchibhotla’s teachers at the engineering college from where he graduated in 2005 as an Electronics and Electrical Engineer. “He was among the bright lot and enjoyed sport.”

Shocked, says Sushma “I am shocked at the shooting incident in Kansas in which Srinivas Kuchibhotla has been killed. My hearfelt condolences to bereaved family,” Ms. Swaraj said on Twitter. She also spoke to the Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Navtej Sarna, regarding the case and asked diplomats to reach out to nationals in Kansas. Subsequently, Consul R.D. Joshi based in Houston reached Kansas to provide assistance and held consultations with the Indian

Sad turn: Srinivas Kuchibhotla and his wife Sunayana Dumala stayed at Overland Park in Kansas City. At right is Alok Madasani who sustained bullet injuries. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT & K.V.S. GIRI

community in the city. Mr. Madasani, who was released after treatment, met Mr. Joshi at home. Vice-Consul Harpal Singh has also reached Kansas from Dallas to provide support. “During the incident a third person, an American, who tried to intervene also received injuries,” MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup confirmed. News reports from Kansas revealed that 24-year-old Ian Grillot chased the shooter. Mr. Grillot is currently stable

Rawat for united eforts to curb stone-throwing Army chief had warned of tough action against protesters

but hospitalised with serious injuries. The MEA later tweeted the photograph of Mr. Joshi meeting with the Indian representatives in Kansas on Friday. “They will facilitate in bringing the mortal remains of the deceased and will be in touch with local police officials to ascertain more details of the incident and monitor follow-up action,” said Mr. Swarup explaining the public outreach. The U.S. Embassy said that American officials are

BSF kills ‘female intruder’ in Jammu Rashida’s body handed over to Pak.

Srinagar

Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Friday called for coordinated efforts by security forces to deal with the problem of stone-throwing. A week after warning of tough action against those impeding counterinsurgency operations in Kashmir, Gen Rawat asked security agencies to synergise efforts to effectively deal with the problem of stonepelting during operations, an Army official said. Gen. Rawat was speaking at a security review meeting at the headquarters of counterinsurgency units — Kilo Force and Victor Force —

General Bipin Rawat

here, an Army official said. He also underlined the need to maintain high vigil. On February 15, the Army chief, while paying tributes to soldiers killed during two

encounters a day earlier in Kashmir, warned of tough action against those civilians who were impeding the counterinsurgency operations in the Valley by resorting to stone-pelting. His statement evoked sharp reactions from both mainstream parties, including National Conference and Congress, and separatists who insisted the Kashmir problem cannot be addressed militarily. Despite the Army chief ’s warning, there has been no let-up in stone-pelting against forces during their operations and three such incidents have taken place since February 15.

Srinagar

The Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday said it killed a female intruder and arrested a man on the International Border (IB) at two separate places in the Jammu region. The woman was identifed as Rashida Begum, a Pakistani national. A Jammu-based BSF spokesman said that around 9 p.m. on Thursday, troops of the 33 Battalion spotted a person moving near the IB at Chag Phagwari in Pargwal sector of Akhnoor. “The alert troops challenged the person who tried to sneak this side. The troops fired five to six burst, resulting in the death of the intruder.”

The body of the woman, identified as Rashida Begam, was lying near the fence, the spokesman said. She was aged around 50. The BSF later contacted its counterpart and a meeting was held at Pargwal sector. “The body was handed over to the Pakistani Rangers on their request,” said the spokesman. Another intruder was arrested in Kathua after he was “moving in the area suspiciously”, the BSF said.

Tributes paid to jawans Army chief General Bipin Rawat on Friday paid rich tributes to the three soldiers killed in the Shopian ambush.

Aga Khan Trust to restore Telangi’s tomb in Delhi Poor access, crowded surroundings make the restoration challenging but the process is slowly under way Serish Nanisetti New Delhi

P.V. Narasimha Rao was not the first Prime Minister of India from Telangana. There was another vazir from Warangal, and he lies buried in not-so-sepulchral silence in a warren of houses in the Nizamuddin Basti in Delhi. After a 10-minute walk in the inner lanes of the road leading to the Nizamuddin Auliya Dargah, beside the Baoli gate road, is a low blue door. Inside the small doorway, about 20 feet away, is the sole entrance to the grave of Maqbul Khan or, as he was known, Khan-i-Jehan Telangi. Born Nagayya Ganna Vibhudu, he changed his name to Maqbul Khan after changing his religion. The tomb was built

History beckons:: The Dome of Khan-i-Jehan Telangi at Nizamuddin Basti in Delhi. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

sometime around 1388 by his son Junan Shah, nine years after Maqbul Khan passed away. At his death, he was at the height of his power as the counsellor and minister of Firuz Shah Tughlaq’s

tottering empire. “People were living here till a few days ago. Then Mukhtiar Nizam asked us to restore this place as pieces of the dome were flaking off. We began clearing and

Never missed classes Dr. Reddy said Mr. Kuchibhotla rode his bike to college and never missed his classes. “He knew how to balance education with his passion for sport. He was not the kind to argue with his teachers or pick up fights.” The college would hold a condolence gathering on Monday in memory of its student, college’s director P. Venugopal Reddy said.

Firm on ending graft, says PM Press Trust of India Gonda (U.P.)

Special correspondent Press Trust of India

supporting Indian diplomats as they reach out to the victims of the attack. Charge d’Affaires MaryKay Carlson said, “We are deeply saddened by this tragic and senseless act. Our deepest sympathies are with the victims and their families. The United States is a nation of immigrants and welcomes people from across the world to visit, work, study, and live,” and promised that the U.S. authorities would conduct necessary investigations and prosecute the case.

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Delhi allows Dhaka use of border roads

it, coming to find his wife is five months pregnant. Something was guiding me to do what I did. Somebody was watching over me. I’m just very grateful that one of the gentlemen is fine and alive. It’s terrible what happened to his friend. But I think he was watching over us last night,” Mr. Grillot said.

cleaning it up only a month back,” says Ratish Nanda of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). The AKTC, which has restored the Humayun’s Tomb complex as well as the Jamaat Khana Masjid, one of the oldest in Delhi and built during Alauddin Khilji’s time, has been entrusted the task of conserving the monument. The outer facade is octagonal, and features a ring of eight smaller domes covered with a shell of red sandstone. “We found that there is sandstone flooring six feet below the surface,” explains Neetipal Brar of AKTC. Three other doorways have been plastered shut over centuries by the occupants; even the windows

on the first floor were walled up as neighbourhood families coveted the real estate on the ceiling. A 2014 photograph shows a dish antenna as well as a water tank on the ceiling. The Delhi quartzite arches still retain inscriptions from the Quran carved on them. “The task of restoration of the monument will be tough and time-consuming as we cannot bring in heavy equipment. The narrow street does not allow vehicles to pass, making the removal of waste material or bringing in construction material difficult,” says Mr. Brar. How the monument came to be constructed here and how Khan-e-Jahan Telangi came to be buried here is not a mystery

Buoyed by the success of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in local body elections in Maharashtra and other States after demonetisation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said at an election rally here that he was committed to rooting out corruption. “Odisha, where there is so much poverty, starvation and unemployment and where the BJP did not even have a foothold to place its flag, people have given so much support that everyone is taken aback... even the poor of Odisha have come with the BJP,” Mr. Modi said at an election meeting here. “Yesterday, Maharashtra gave its verdict and the Congress has been wiped off. Be it civic body polls in Odisha, Maharashtra and Chandigarh or panchayat polls in Gujarat, in three months, wherever there were polls, whether the BJP had any presence or not, people used their third eye and ensured its victory. This means that my responsibility has increased,” he said. The BJP scored an emphatic win in the Maharashtra civic polls, emerging as the largest party in eight of the 10 municipal corporations, while finishing a close second to the Shiv Sena in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation. Mr. Modi invoked Lord Shiva on Mahashivratri and said people, with their third eye, could see what was good for them and what is bad. “We do not get intoxicated by power. It gives us inspiration to work for the people with full dedication,” he said. ND-ND

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THE HINDU

NEWS 9

NOIDA/DELHI

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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IN BRIEF

U.P.’s erstwhile dacoit den waits to board the development bus Amidst polls, the mood is calm and lazy in Chitrakoot’s Sidhupur village where people never shy away from discussions on caste and basic needs Omar Rashid CHITRAKOOT

Modi’s voice feebler than that of a mouse: Rahul BAHRAICH

Stung by barbs from BJP leaders at former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Friday said in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, that the voice of PM Narendra Modi was “feebler even than that of a mouse.” “The voice of the PM is not of a roaring lion, but even feebler than that of a mouse,” he said. PTI

Shah quotes Sheila’s remark on Rahul

Potholes and open drains lead you to the village square in Sidhupur in Manikpur Assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh’s Chitrakoot district. A group of Kurmi (dominant backward caste) men, young and old, have gathered after voting on Thursday in the fourth phase of the Assembly elections. The mood is calm and lazy but rural Uttar Pradesh is never shy of a discussion on development and caste. “Did you not see the potholes when you came in?

When monsoons arrive, our children stop going to school as the school bus cannot enter the village,” says retired teacher Rajendra Singh. The Kurmis here are unhappy with the local BSP MLA Chandrabhan Patel, blaming him for neglecting the area’s infrastructure. They say they have voted for the BJP’s R. K. Patel, a former BSP minister. Both R.K. and Chandrabhan are Kurmis. In this part of the village, which has over a 1,000 voters, young Kurmis praise

A dalit family from Sidhupur constructs its house after casting their votes at Manikpur constituency. RAJEEV BHATT

the Modi government for demonetisation while lambasting the SP and the BSP for “casteism.”

The debate seems to reflect a healthy democratic and political awareness. But less than a decade ago, elec-

‘I enjoyed challenging term’

AZAMGARH

BJP president Amit Shah quoted former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit’s statement on Rahul Gandhi that the latter “is still not mature and needs some time”. “If he is not mature, then why has he been forced upon Uttar Pradesh? Is this a political laboratory or learning ground for someone?” Mr. Shah asked at an election rally here. PTI

EC wants action against candidates on TV sting NEW DELHI

Taking cognisance of a sting operation by India Today news channel, allegedly showing candidates in Uttar Pradesh and Manipur claiming to have spent much more than the statutory limit, the Election Commission on Friday ordered legal action against them and directed that notices be served on them.

Ansari, whose term as V-P ends this August, says it’s been a learning experience Nistula Hebbar NEW DELHI

“Everyday is a new day,” Hamid Ansari said about his nine-and-half years as VicePresident (two successive terms). However, they came with challenges that he has “enjoyed immensely.” Mr. Ansari made these remarks to The Hindu at an onboard press conference on Friday as he was returning from a four-day visit to Rwanda and Uganda. His current term is to end in August 2017 and, after the ongoing set of Assembly elections, elections to the post of President and VicePresident are the biggest events in India’s political calendar this year. “Everyday is a new day, so you live in this kind of a re-

Yeddyurappa dares CM on diary furore Asks him to go before ‘people’s court’

Looking back: Hamid Ansari interacts with the media on board his light while returning from Rwanda and Uganda. PTI sponsibility and you live with the challenges of the day. It has been a learning experience, a challenging nine-and-a-half years, and I have enjoyed it immensely,” he said. One of his main challenges has been the con-

duct of the Rajya Sabha, of which he is the Chairman by virtue of his position as the Vice-President. It was his role as the presiding officer of the Upper House of Parliament that came into particular play

during his visit to the two African countries. In both countries, Rwanda and Uganda, the governments asked for more interactions between members of Parliament, a demand that he concurred with. “Members of Parliament play an important role in shaping and conveying the intent of policy to the people. If the government’s policy is to promote IndiaAfrica friendship, then MPs need to convey this to the people,” he said. “In both countries, a demand for more parliament to parliament interaction came up. We were told that there was not enough of it, a view that I am in agreement with,” Mr. Ansari said.

tions here were determined by diktats — firmans issued by Dadua, a notorious dacoit. A Kurmi by caste, Shiv Kumar Patel alias Dadua and his gang operated in the ravines along the U.P.-MP border for almost three decades. In that time, Dadua called the shots in parts of Bundelkhand, impacting elections in Chitrakoot, Banda, Fatehpur, Rae Bareli and Kaushambi. He was patronised by all political parties, especially the SP and the BSP. However, his end came under Ms. Mayawati’s regime in 2007, when the State STF

gunned him down along with his associates in an encounter.

Diktats on voting During elections, Dadua’s gang was known to issue diktats on voting for a particular candidate. Veer Singh, Dadua’s son and present SP MLA from Chitrakoot, was elected to the zila panchayat unopposed as a result of the terror his father inspired. However, today, things are different, the villagers say, and across the region, Dadua elicits nothing more than nostalgia. As Chitrakoot and

Manikpur voted on February 23 — both recorded little over 60% turnout — no poll firmans were reported. However, in a section of the village, where the Jatavs and most backward castes live, Dadua still sends a shiver of dread, representing dominant caste oppression. “He was not a good man. Anybody who dared to complain against him would be beaten up or even killed,” says Bhondi, a Jatav labourer. For many of these Dalits, though Dadua is long gone, his caste brethren continue to be a source of oppression.

Ibobi will go to jail for crimes against Manipur: Javadekar Union Minister says CM kept the State backward for 15 years Vikas Pathak IMPHAL

Raising the pitch against the Congress government in Manipur, Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar said here on Friday Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh would “go to jail” for having “committed crimes against the State”. “A BJP government will be formed here and Ibobi Singh will go to jail because he has committed crimes against Manipur. For 15 years, he has kept the State backward. There has been no development here, only corruption,” Mr. Javadekar, who is also the BJP’s election in-charge for the State, said at a rally at Wangoi here.

Prakash Javadekar leaves the rally venue at Wangoi, Manipur. VIKAS PATHAK

Accusing the State government of large-scale corruption, he alleged that huge bribes were routinely demanded for appointments to posts in the State police.

Manipur goes to the polls in two phases on March 4 and March 8 respectively. Prime Minister Narendra Modi too was set to address a rally here on Saturday even as the BJP, buoyed by recent civic poll victories and success in the Assam Assembly elections last year, is trying to topple the Ibobi Singh government. Blaming Mr. Ibobi Singh for the ongoing economic blockade by the United Naga Council (UNC) after the Chief Minister announced the creation of seven new districts, Mr. Javadekar said the Centre had worked hard to ensure supplies of essential commodities like diesel and petrol.

NIA team quizzes Nepal businessman Hoda Probe into alleged conspiracy behind six train accidents Vijaita Singh New Delhi

Facing heat: Members of the BJP Yuva Morcha staging a protest against Siddaramaiah on Friday. V. SREENIVASA MURTHY Special Correspondent BENGALURU

Bharatiya Janata Party State president B.S. Yeddyurappa has challenged Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to go before the “people’s court” on allegations that the diary seized from Congress MLC K. Govindaraj’s residence during a raid by Income Tax authorities contains details of pay-offs made to the Congress central leadership.

‘I stand vindicated’ “Let the Chief Minister dissolve the Assembly. Let us go before the people’s court to decide the issue,” Mr. Yeddyurappa told reporters here on Friday. Referring to a private TV channel airing the alleged contents of the diary, Mr.

Yeddyurappa, who had first made charges of pay-offs to the Congress central leadership, said, “I stand vindicated”. Sources in the BJP said more “exposes” of similar nature related to I-T raids conducted on some of the serving and retired officials who are close to Congress leaders would come out in the public domain in the months to come. Sources said the BJP leaders would not resort to any legal action to take the diary episode to its logical end. Instead, the party was getting ready to launch public campaigns to take on the Congress government in the State. The national unit of the BJP is also keen on targeting the Congress central leadership on the matter.

A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday questioned Nepalese businessman Shamshul Hoda alleged to be a prime suspect in recruiting Indians to plant explosives on railway tracks at the behest of Pakistan’s ISI. A two-member NIA team visited Nepal and quizzed Hoda, who was arrested at the Kathmandu international airport on his return from Dubai on February 2 in connection with a double murder. A source said that while Hoda admitted that he was asked by a Pakistani man, identified as Shafi Sheikh, to plant explosives on railway tracks in Ghorasahan and Nakardehi, both in Bihar, he did not admit to planting explosives at Pukhrayan, near Kanpur, and at Kuneru in Andhra Pradesh. Over 140 people died when the Indore-Patna Express derailed at Pukhrayan on November 20 last year and 41 persons were killed when the JagadalpurBhubaneswar Hirakhund Express derailed at Kuneru in Andhra Pradesh on January 21. While an IED, packed in a pressure cooker, which was planted at Ghorasahan on

Sabotage suspected: The Indore-Patna Express derailed near Kanpur on November 20 last year. RAJEEV BHATT

October 1 was defused, a low intensity explosion took place at Nakardehi without inflicting any damage.

‘No role in derailments’ “Hoda admits to knowing of a plan to plant IEDs at Ghorasahan and Nakardehi but feigned ignorance over Kanpur and Kuneru accidents. He said Shafi Sheikh, whom he met in Dubai, had only asked him to conduct a spectacular incident in India and send him newspaper clippings as proof,” said a source. The NIA is yet to complete its investigation into three rail accidents — Ghorasan, Kanpur and Kuneru. As re-

Unfair to see yoga as a set of exercises: PM Inaugurates 112-foot bust of ‘Adi Yogi’ at Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore Staff Reporter Coimbatore

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said it was unfair to see yoga as just a set of exercises, that it brought about inner peace and helped one live in harmony with nature. Speaking at the Mahashivaratri celebrations after inaugurating the 112-foot bust of the ‘Adi Yogi’ at the Isha Yoga Centre near here, he said that yoga helped one live in peace with himself or herself, for it ushered harmony in body, mind and intellect. “Yoga is a journey from me to we,” the PM said. “There is ample evidence to suggest that yoga helps combat stress. It is a passport to health assurance. More than CM YK

Larger than life: The 112-foot bust of ‘Adiyogi’ statue inaugurated in Coimbatore on Friday. M. PERIASAMY

a cure, it is a means to wellness.” “The people of this country, who worship trees and animals along with gods, lived in harmony with nature,” Mr. Modi said,

adding. “Another Indian virtue is to accept truth from whichever direction it comes, and being open to ideas. These are the virtues that hold India together. But a select few tend to reject

ideas only because they are ancient. They should have the openness to analyse and then accept those ideas if there was truth in them.” Isha Yoga’s founder Jaggi Vasudev said that man, in his pursuit of happiness, was looking everywhere but not within. “Pain and pleasure, agony and ecstasy etc., are all within man,” he said. Mr. Vasudev complimented the PM for “taking to the street to promote the ancient science [of yoga].” Tamil Nadu Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Puducherry Lt. Governor Kiran Bedi, and Union Ministers Vijay Goel, Bandaru Dattatreya and Pon. Radhakrishnan were among the VIPs present.

ported earlier, the Nepal police have been sceptical of claims by Indian agencies on Hoda’s links to the train derailments in Kanpur and Andhra Pradesh. The investigation was handed over to the NIA after Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu shot off a letter to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, alleging sabotage in at least six train accidents. The Nepal police had told The Hindu that they were not sure of Indian agencies’ claims that Hoda was working on ISI’s behalf but they confirmed that the accused regularly met a Pakistani person Shafi Sheikh in Dubai.

Actor assault accused remanded Staff Reporter KOCHI

Sunil Kumar Surendran alias ‘Pulsar’ Suni, prime accused in the case of sexual assault on an actor, and co-accused Vijesh were remanded in 14 days judicial custody by the Aluva First Class Judicial Magistrate on Friday. The court will consider the SIT application for 10day police custody of the accused on Saturday. Since the court remained closed on Friday, the two were produced before the magistrate at his residence amidst tight security at 2.40 p.m. Both were sent to the Kakkanad district jail after the police reportedly requested that they not be sent to the Aluva sub-jail. ND-ND

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10 WORLD

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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ELSEWHERE

‘VX nerve agent killed Kim Jong-nam’ Malaysian police say they are probing how the lethal chemical weapon was brought into the country Agence France-Presse Kuala Lumpur

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman on rare Asia tour RIYADH

Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will on Sunday begin a threeweek Asian tour likely to seek investment and technical expertise as the world's biggest oil exporter looks to diversify its economy. King Salman will visit those countries as well as Malaysia, China, and the Maldives. AFP

A pledge to prevent famine in Africa COPENHAGEN

A group of countries pledged at least $672 million at an international donor conference on Friday to prevent a famine in the African countries around the Lake Chad Basin. “We have now started an important process,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Borge Brende, whose country pledged 1.6 billion kroner ($192 million) over a threeyear period to tackle “a serious humanitarian situation” in the region encompassing Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Norway co-hosted the conference with Germany, Nigeria and the UN. AP

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s half brother was assassinated with a lethal nerve agent manufactured for chemical warfare and listed by the UN as a weapon of mass destruction, the Malaysian police said on Friday. Releasing a preliminary toxicology report on Kim Jong-nam’s murder at Kuala Lumpur airport, the police revealed the poison used by the assassins was the odourless, tasteless and highly toxic VX. The news brought condemnation from South Korea, which slammed the use of the nerve agent as a “blatant violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and other international norms.” Experts in the South said on Friday that North Korea has up to 5,000 tonnes of chemical weapons stockpiled, including a supply of VX. Kim died on February 13 after being attacked at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by two women, who are seen on CCTV footage shov-

PRETORIA

Police ired stun grenades, rubber bullets and water cannon on Friday as the latest wave of anti-immigrant protests broke out here, while President Jacob Zuma condemned anti-foreigner violence and appealed for calm. “We don’t have hate! We don’t have hate!” one foreign man shouted in video posted by local broadcaster eNCA. The police tried to keep protesters apart from foreigners who gathered to express alarm about recent attacks. Police Commissioner Khomotso Phalane said 136 people had been arrested in the past 24 hours. Unemployment in South Africa is above 25%. AP

London

One of the key voices demanding Balochistan’s freedom has said that he would approach friends like India to seek help for their cause. Amir Ahmed Suleman Daud, officially known as His Highness the Khan of Kalat, welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in favour of Balochistan during his Independence Day address from the Red Fort last year. “India is one of the powers of the region, the biggest democracy in the world. The Prime Minister’s [Modi’s] was the only voice we heard in a long time coming out of the neighbourhood and appreciated the intervention. We know

we have got a friend,” Mr. Daud said in London on Thursday.

Policy shift Pakistan had criticised Modi for his comments on Balochistan in his address, seen as indirect support to the freedom struggle. “In the last few days, people of Balochistan, Gilgit, Pakistan—occupied Kashmir have thanked me, have expressed gratitude, and expressed good wishes for me,” Mr. Modi had said, in a significant policy shift on the region. Mr. Daud, who has been living in exile in Wales in the U.K. for the last few years, indicated that he plans to approach India and other friendly countries like the

IS car bombing kills over 50 in northwest Syrian village

Right-wing populist party loses by-elections in two constituencies Vidya Ram London

Baloch leader says he’ll seek India’s help Press Trust of India

Anti-immigrant protests erupt in Pretoria

ing something in his face. He suffered a seizure and was dead before he reached hospital. An autopsy revealed traces of VX — a fastacting toxin that sparks respiratory collapse and heart failure — on the dead man’s face and in his eyes. Tiny amounts of the poison are enough to kill an adult, whether it is inhaled or absorbed through the skin. “I am outraged that the criminals used such a dangerous chemical in a public area,” said Environment Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar. It “could have caused mass injuries or even death to other people.” One of the two women arrested after the attack fell ill in custody, the police said, adding she had been vomiting. National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said on Friday experts would sweep the busy airport terminal where the Cold War-era attack took place for traces of the toxin as well as other locations the women had visited. “We are investigating how [the VX] entered the country,” he told reporters.

UKIP falters, Labour struggles in bypolls

U.S. to seek help for the cause of Balochistan’s independence. “We are confident we will get help from a lot of friends, especially from the West and India. We are happy the Republicans are in power in the U.S.; Maybe also China can become a friend. We would like to say to them that they are coming through the wrong actor in this game [Pakistan],” he added. Earlier on Thursday, Mr. Daud addressed a seminar entitled ‘Balochistan Re-visited’ within the British Parliament complex, organised by the U.K.—based Democracy Forum, during which he accused Pakistan of “colonising” the sovereign state of Kalat.

Israel bans Human Rights Watch worker Reuters Jerusalem

Israel has denied a work permit to a Human Rights Watch researcher, accusing the group of doing the work of Palestinian propagandists, a move the U.S.-based organisation called unprecedented and an “ominous turn”. Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon said the decision had been taken because of HRW’s “extreme, hostile anti-Israel agenda which was working at the service of Palestinian propaganda... in a totally biased manner.” The U.S. State Department said it strongly disagreed with Israel’s charac-

terisation of HRW which it considers a credible human rights organisation. “Even though we do not agree with all of their assertions or conclusions, given the seriousness of their efforts, we support the importance of the work they do,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said. HRW said it had been granted access to Israel and the West Bank for three decades and it was “disappointing that the Israeli government seems unable or unwilling to distinguish between justified criticisms of its actions and hostile political propaganda.”

Britain’s right-wing populist U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) suffered a setback as it failed to win a closelywatched by-election, in a development that observers say highlights the difficulties it faces in gaining more seats in Parliament. UKIP, which was instrumental in the campaign to leave the EU last year, was easily defeated by the Labour Party in the by-election in the northern English constituency of Stoke-onTrent-Central. Labour’s Gareth Snell beat Paul Nuttall, leader of the UKIP, by 2,620 votes, with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats coming in third and fourth, respectively. The UKIP campaign was riddled with problems — Mr. Nuttall himself was involved in several controversies, first over the validity of his home address in Stoke registered for the election, and second over comments that he made about having lost “close personal friends” in a 1989 disaster, where 96 Liverpool fans were killed. He later admitted that no close friends had been involved.

Significant blow Still, the loss is a significant blow for a party in a constituency that had seen strong support for leaving the EU with 69.4% of the population voting to leave in the June referendum. The defeat was a failure by UKIP to realise that rather than focusing on the Labour working class vote, it needed to draw voters from the Conservative party too, John Curtice, professor of politics at the University of Strathclyde and a respected pollster, told The Hindu. “They seem to have been naïve about the election and taken the view that to defeat Labour all you need to do is

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The next supermodel

Attack comes a day after the jihadists lost the town of al-Bab

Paul Nuttal win Labour votes.” He added they had struggled to win Conservative votes, not only because of their focus on the working class Labour vote, but because the Conservative Party was “delivering a sufficiently hard Brexit that voters are asking: do we need to vote UKIP?,” he said.

Vote share falls While UKIP’s vote rose in Stoke, it failed to make headway in another by-election in Copeland (its share of the vote fell by 9%), as it lost votes to the Conservative Party, he added. “The Stoke result indicates that what the opinion polls are telling us are correct, and that it is difficult for UKIP to expand beyond 12% of the electorate into a broader constituency.” The Copeland by-election saw the Conservatives swing a dramatic victory in a major upset for the Labour party, which has held the seat for decades. The Conservatives defeated Labour by 2,147 votes. After the result, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn said they would go further to “reconnect with voters and break with the failed political consensus.” “Both constituencies, like so many, have been let down by the political establishment.”

Boko Haram leader kills spokesman Agence France-Presse Kano

Reuters Beirut/Istanbul

An Islamic State car bomb killed more than 50 people on Friday in a Syrian village held by rebels, a war monitor said, a day after the jihadist group was driven from its last stronghold in the area. The blast in the village of Sousian hit a security checkpoint controlled by rebels fighting under the Free Syrian Army (FSA) banner. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor of the war based in Britain, said more than 50 people died, including over 30 civilians. Two rebels contacted by Reuters put the total death toll at at least 40. One of the two, a fighter with the Sultan Murad Brigade near al-Bab, said: “It was done on a checkpoint but there were a lot of families there gathered and wait-

A Syrian man wounded in the blast being wheeled into a hospital in Kilis, Turkey. AP

ing to get back to al-Bab. Therefore we have many civilian casualties.” The Turkey-backed rebels drove Islamic State from the town of al-Bab on Thursday, following weeks of street battles near where Ankara wants to establish a safe zone for civilians.

Turkey’s military said on Friday that Syrian rebels had taken full control of all of the town, and that work to clear mines and unexploded ordnance was under way. Sousian is behind rebel lines about 8 km north-west of alBab, around which Ankara has long supported the formation of a security zone it says would help to stem a wave of migration via Turkey into Europe. A second blast took place 2 km south of Sousian later on Friday, but it was unclear whether it was from a vehicle bomb or a planted device such as a mine. There were reports of casualties but no immediate details, the Observatory said. Later, the Islamic State said in a social media post that it was behind the Sousian attack. The group said on Thursday that it had lost control of al-Bab.

All in a day’s work: A cow gets ready to be photographed during a dairy cow beauty pageant in Verden an der Aller in northwestern Germany on Thursday. About 200 bovines competed in 18 diferent categories. AFP

Deconstruction of state is on, says Bannon President’s adviser tells Conservatives that inside White House everything is going according to plan

President Trump renews attack on media outlets Glenn Thrush

Jeremy W. Peters OXON HILL

In an administration hardly five weeks old, Stephen Bannon’s reputation has taken on almost mythic proportion as a fire-breathing populist, emerging power centre, man of mystery. When Mr. Bannon, President Donald Trump’s chief strategist, appeared in public on Thursday for the first time since the President was sworn in, it was to deliver, in his own combative way, a message of soothing reassurance to the conservative activists gathered here for their annual assessment known as the Conservative Political Action Conference. Do not believe the “corporatist globalist media” that was “crying and weeping” CM YK

Power centre: Stephen Bannon (left) with White House Chief of Staf Reince Priebus in Maryland on Thursday.

on election night and is still “dead wrong” about what the Trump administration is doing. Inside the White House, Mr. Bannon said, everything is going accord-

REUTERS

ing to plan. The “deconstruction of the administrative state” has just begun. Appearing with Reince Priebus, the President’s chief of staff, he joked about how

well the two get along despite the friction that had always existed between them. “I can run a little hot on occasion,” Mr. Bannon said, complimenting Mr. Priebus’ equanimity. And he urged a ballroom full of activists to stick together against the forces that were trying to tear them apart. “Whether you’re a populist, whether you’re a limited-government conservative, whether you’re a libertarian, whether you’re an economic nationalist, we want you to have our back.” Despite Mr. Bannon’s assurances, a simmering unease remains among conservatives over whether Mr. Trump will honour his promises, given that he was not part of their movement

until very recently. Not too many years ago CPAC almost denied Trump a speaking slot because it feared he only wanted to promote himself. As for Bannon, he was essentially banished from the premises when he was running Breitbart News. So Bannon started a rival conference at a hotel down the street and called it The Uninvited. Kellyanne Conway, the White House counselor, acknowledged the discomfort that comes with any hostile party takeover when she addressed the meeting. Mr. Trump, she said, had to uproot the political system. “Every great movement ends up being a little bit sclerotic and dusty after a time,” she said. NYT

Oxon Hill

U.S. President Donald Trump intensified his slashing attack on the news media during an appearance before the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday, reiterating his charge that “fake news” outlets are “the enemy of the people”. The opening portion of the President’s free-range, campaign-style speech centred on a declaration of war on the press — a new foil to replace vanquished political opponents such as Hillary Clinton. “They are very smart, they are very cunning, they are very dishonest,” Mr. Trump said to the delight of the crowd. “It doesn’t represent the

people, it never will represent the people.” Mr. Trump, who suggested revisiting First Amendment protections for the press during the campaign, refined that attack on Friday, urging his supporters to use their free-speech rights to counter hostile press accounts from outlets like CNN, which he called the “Clinton News Network”. The President followed his attack on the press with a far-ranging preview of Tuesday’s address before Congress, offering an unspecified plan to improve the health care law, ratchetedup enforcement of immigration laws and a request for increases in spending that will result in “one of the greatest military buildups in all of history.” NYT

The leader of Boko Haram’s main faction, Abubakar Shekau, has admitted killing the group’s purported spokesman over an apparent plot to oust him, he said in an audio recording obtained by AFP. In the 50-minute tape of a meeting with the inner circle of his militant Islamist group, Shekau said he killed “Tasiu” — also known as Abu Zinnira — who appeared in several video messages. “You should hear me: I killed Tasiu, hear me well,” he told the gathering in Hausa, which is widely spoken across northeast Nigeria. Shekau states the date of the meeting — December 18 — and said it had been called to discuss “those elements grumbling over the killing of Tasiu.” AFP received a copy of the recording earlier this month. The tape appears to have been meant for circulation only within the armed Islamist movement. Shekau’s claim appears to lend weight to reports of infighting within Boko Haram, whose insurgency has killed at least 20,000 in northeast Nigeria since 2009 and left 2.6 million homeless.

Leadership plot Shekau has been the most visible face of Boko Haram over the years, claiming attacks and launching rambling, often barely coherent tirades against the government in a series of videos. But Abu Zinnira has acted on occasion as de facto spokesman and appeared in video recordings, including those about the more than 200 schoolgirls kidnapped from the town of Chibok in April 2014. He was always shown in military camouflage, wearing a turban and with his face covered. ND-ND

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THE HINDU

BUSINESS 11

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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Wind tarifs at a low of ₹3.46 per unit

IN BRIEF

The price realised at the maiden auction for wind projects follows the historically low solar tarifs 25-year power purchase agreement period. “The level of participation in the recent solar and wind auctions points to the coming of age of the industry,” Vikram Kailas, MD & CEO of Mytrah Energy, one of the bid winners, said.

Special Correspondent NEW DELHI

Tata Steel Haldia coke plant gets green nod NEW DELHI

Tata Steel has received environment clearance (EC) for expansion of its Haldia coke plant in West Bengal, from 1.6 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 2.2 MTPA, entailing investment of ₹769.45 crore. The company has to ensure that the coke oven plant meets visible emission standards notiied by the ministry and all eluents should be treated and used for dust suppression and green belt development. It has also been asked to use maximum water from rain harvesting sources. PTI

TCS for ‘level playing ield’ amid visa row

Wind power tariffs closed at ₹3.46 per kWh in India's firstever auction for wind energy projects as the country aims to tap renewable energy to overcome its power shortages. The bid was called by government-owned Solar Energy Corporation of India for 1 GW of wind capacity.

Mytrah Energy Mytrah Energy, Green Infra, Inox and Ostro Energy each won the rights to set up 250 MW of wind capacity in a location of their choice and to sell the energy generated to state-run Power Trading Corporation. Sources say that the two states under consideration for these projects are Tamil Nadu and Gujarat. Such low tariffs in wind energy come on the back of

Renewable push: Low tarifs may be a problem for developers as they have to ensure low cost. AFP historically low solar tariffs achieved in a recent auction of a total capacity of 750 MW. The reverse auction com-

pleted in Rewa in Madhya Pradesh saw solar tariffs fall to ₹2.97 per unit and ₹3.3 per unit when levelised over the

‘Hard-fought auction’ “The auctions have been hard fought and have led to tighter pricing than one would have foreseen even a few months earlier. This speaks to the growing confidence of the players in their ability to deliver projects on terms that are globally competitive. Ultimately, this will pave the way for the secular growth of the Indian renewable energy sector.” “After solar cost reduction below ₹3 per unit, wind power cost down to ₹3.46 per unit through transparent auction. A green future awaits In-

Note ban sucked cash like vacuum cleaner: IMF

NEW DELHI

TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinathan is not “overtly perturbed” by the proposed overhaul of visa regime in the U.S. but has sought a “level playing ield” with similar policies for everyone. Mr. Gopinathan, who took charge as CEO this week, said there are political ramiications that need to be dealt with given the shift in demographics and political elements. “All that we can ask for is a levelplaying ield. As long as the rules of the game are similar, we are conident in our competitiveness,” Mr. Gopinathan said. PTI

IndiGo ropes in former United Airlines oicial NEW DELHI

Budget carrier IndiGo has roped in former United Airlines executive Cindy Szadokierski as a consultant for its airport operations. Szadokierski would be the third executive from United Airlines to be on board with IndiGo after Greg Taylor and Rohit Philip in the recent past. One of the promoters of InterGlobe Aviation– the parent of IndiGo –Rakesh Gangwal has also served at United Airlines. Sources said Szadokierski was roped in by IndiGo as a consultant for airport operations. An Indigo spokesperson declined to comment. PTI

Icra downgrades IDBI Bank debt instruments MUMBAI

Rating agency Icra on Friday downgraded various debt instruments of IDBI Bank owing to a signiicant erosion of its common equity tier I (CET 1), following weak inancial performance of the bank in the quarter ended December. Icra has downgraded ratings for the bank’s ₹8,000 crore infrastructure bonds programme, ₹ 230.50 crore lexi bonds series and ₹25,742.72 crore senior and lower tier II bonds programme. ICRA also downgraded the rating for few other insturments. PTI BULLION RATES

CHENNAI

February 24 rates in rupees with previous rates in parentheses

Bar Silver (1 kg) . . . . . .. . . . 43,910. . . . (43,055) Retail (1 g) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 47.00. . . . . . (46.10) 24 ct gold (10 g) . . . . .. . . . 30,000. . . . (29,730) 22 ct gold (1 g) . . . . . . .. . . . . . 2,850. . . . . . (2,824)

Fund cautions authorities on potential build up in banks’ non-performing assets PRESS TRUST OF INDIA WASHINGTON

India’s demonetisation led to huge cash shortages that have “adversely affected” consumption and like a “vacuum cleaner” it sucked in cash and then was slowly replacing the currency, a senior IMF official has said. “You’ve heard about socalled ‘helicopter drops’ of money with unconventional monetary policies, so one way to characterise this demonetisation initiative is as a vacuum cleaner,” Paul A Cashin, Assistant Director in the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department, and mission chief of India, told PTI. “It’s sucking in cash, withdrawing it from the economy, and then the vacuum cleaner is going in reverse, slowly replacing cash but as I said, at a fairly modest pace. That’s led to a lot of cash

Cash out: The IMF urged the Centre to continue supply of new currency notes. AFP

shortages that have adversely affected consumption,” Mr. Cashin said in response to a question as the IMF released its annual country-report on India.

Old banknotes Given the shortage of cash in the market, IMF in its report urged the Indian government to continue to enhance

the supply of new banknotes, and if needed consider extending or expanding targeted temporary exemptions, including on use of old banknotes, particularly for rural and remote areas. “While the financial system is expected to weather the currency exchange-induced temporary growth

slowdown, the authorities should remain vigilant given the potential further buildup of NPAs and elevated corporate sector vulnerabilities, and ensure prudent support to the economic sectors affected by the currency exchange initiative,” the IMF said. IMF said the repercussions from India’s currency exchange initiative will likely persist through the first quarter of 2017. Real GDP growth is projected to slow to 6.6% in FY2016/17 and then rebound to 7.2% in FY2017/18, due to temporary disruptions (primarily to private consumption) caused by cash shortages accompanying the currency exchange initiative. “These effects are expected to gradually dissipate by March 2017 as cash shortages ease,” it said.

dia,” Minister of New and Renewable Energy Piyush Goyal tweeted following the auction, which started on Thursday and was completed on Friday. However low tariffs could prove to be a problem for developers since the focus will now have to shift to ensuring low costs. “Prima facie, the viability would depend on the plant load factors, capital costs, and getting long-term debt at competitive rates,” Girish Kadam, vice president at ICRA said. “The choice of location is with the bidder so that they can choose to locate the project where there is enough wind resource.” “Wind is a gift to mankind by environment & the historic low cost of ₹3.46 per unit wind power shows our commitment to leverage clean energy,” Mr. Goyal said in a subsequent tweet.

IFCI may sell stakes in four units PRESS TRUST OF INDIA NEW DELHI

State-owned IFCI plans to sell stakes in four associate units, including Tourism Finance Corporation of India, as part of a strategy to focus on its core business of term lending. “We don’t have problem with associates...we have submitted divestment plan to the government,” IFCI Deputy Managing Director Sanjeev Kaushik told PTI. “Once we get approval, we will go ahead with the sale in a gradual manner,” Mr. Kaushik said. The Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) board has already approved divesting the entire 45.5% stake in associate firm Hardicon as per its plan to exit from non-core business activities.

Valley start-up Rover bought by Revcontent Indians from Chennai founded Rover KARTHIK SUBRAMANIAN CHENNAI

A start-up founded by two Indians in Silicon Valley has struck gold in a multimillion dollar deal. Rover, a machine learningbased content discovery engine founded by Stanford University graduates Jonathan Siddharth and Vijay Krishnan, has been acquired by content discovery network Revcontent. Technology website Techcruch cited RevContent CEO John Lemp as saying the deal was valued “north of $30 million” in cash and in stock. Speaking from their Palo Alto apartment through Skype, Mr. Siddharth and Mr. Krishnan said they were very excited with the major milestone in the journey of the company that they co-founded as students of Stanford University. “At this point, we are in the process of onboarding our technology to Revcontent, which would reach out

to such reputed publications like Forbes and Atlantic,” Mr. Siddharth said. “Maybe it will sink in a few weeks later when I am by the beach, relaxing.” Rover’s content discovery engine, Mr. Vijay said, was very granular. The engine studies traits and behavioural patterns of users and by virtue of that would recommend superior content to what was available. Revcontent’s rivals include Outbrain and Taboola. The duo also see their technology providing succour to quality journalism. “We always worked on the principle of making Rover to discovery what Google is to search,” Mr. Siddharth said. The acquisition will mean they will reach out to a large cross-section of the online media in U.S. Mr. Siddharth, a graduate of Sri Venkateswara College of Engineering, and Mr. Krishnan, an IIT Bombay alumnus, are from Chennai.

‘Bad bank’ to help speed up stressed-assets resolution: Fitch It may simultaneously require a bank recapitalisation plan PRESS TRUST OF INDIA MUMBAI

The creation of a ‘bad bank’ will speed up resolution of stressed assets in the banking system, but it will also require significant capital infusion in the state-run banks to meet any shortfall, says a report. The recent economic survey mentioned about formation of a bad bank that will purchase stressed assets and take them to resolution. “The creation of a ‘bad bank’ could accelerate the resolution of stressed assets in country’s banking sector, but it may face significant logistical difficulties and would simultaneously require a credible bank recapitalisation programme to address the capital shortfalls at state-owned banks,” international agency Fitch Ratings said in a report. It said the country’s banks have significant asset quality problems that are putting pressure on profitability and capital, as well as constrain-

Centre may have to provide over $10.4 billion to banks.

ing their ability to lend. It expects the stressed-asset ratio to rise over the coming year from the 12.3% as at end-September 2016, with the ratio significantly higher among state-owned banks.

More capital The rating agency said the banking sector will require around $90 billion in new total capital by financial year 2018-19 to meet Basel III standard and ongoing busi-

ness needs. This estimate is unlikely to be significantly reduced by the adoption of a bad-bank approach, and could even rise if banks are forced to crystallise more losses from stressed assets than currently expected, the rating agency said. “We believe that the government will eventually be required to provide more than the $10.4 billion that it has earmarked for capital injections by the financial year 2018-19 — be it directly to state-owned banks or indirectly through a bad bank,” the rating agency said.

Centralised ARC It said bad bank’s most likely form would be that of a centralised asset-restructuring company (ARC). Bad bank’s proponents believe it could take charge of the largest, most complex cases, make politically tough decisions to reduce debt, and allow banks to refocus on their normal lending activities, it said.

Porsche delivers Limited Edition 911 R in India A customer based in Bengaluru bought the car priced at about ₹3 crore PRESS TRUST OF INDIA MUMBAI

Porsche said it has delivered the first Limited Edition 911 R, making it one of the 991 units produced globally. The new 911 R is a purist sports car with naturally aspirated engine and manual transmission, a statement from the company said, adding there is no unit available for sale in the near future. It did not announce the price saying it’s not available for sale, but market sources said the buyer has shelled out close to ₹3 crore excluding taxes. Advanced over the past five decades, the Porsche 911 is a heritage model. The new 911 R pays tribute to the road-homologated racing car CM YK

Privileged class: The company said there will be no unit of the heritage model available for sale in the near future.

from 1967. Porsche India director Pavan Shetty said the 911 R epitomises the Porsche brand with the design DNA of a classic 911 while performing as a racing car

should. The car has set the standard for generations after the model was first introduced in the 1960s. He said the two-door sports car, which features a

500 hp naturally aspirated engine and six-speed sports transmission mounted on a six-cylinder, 4-liter engine, was delivered to a Bengaluru customer. ND-ND

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12 BUSINESS

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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IN BRIEF

The best start-ups are formed during a bust

Hyundai aims for double-digit growth

We are going to provide commercial services so that businesses can talk to consumers

Plans to unveil cars in 3 new segments

INTERVIEW| BRIAN ACTON

Thomas K Thomas Mumbai

Rasna makes foray into baked snack segment MUMBAI

Rasna, one of the largest manufacturers of instant fruit-based concentrate, has entered the baked sweet snack category by introducing Rasna Vitos. According to market researcher Euromonitor, sweet and savoury snacks have grown by 26% between 2010 and 2015, the fastest in the packaged food segment. Rasna plans to focus the sweet snacks segment on kids. Special Correspondent

‘FDI inlows zoom 18% to $46 billion in 2016’ NEW DELHI

Foreign direct investment in India grew 18% during 2016 to touch $46 billion, data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion showed. The country attracted FDI of $39.32 billion in 2015. The main sectors which attracted the highest inlows were services, telecom, trading, computer hardware and software and automobile. Bulk of the FDI came in from Singapore, Mauritius, the Netherlands and Japan. PTI

India, ADB ink pact for industrial corridor NEW DELHI

India and Asian Development Bank have signed a $375 million pact for loans and grants to develop 800-km Visakhapatnam-Chennai Industrial Corridor, which is the irst phase of a planned 2,500-km East Coast Economic Corridor. ADB had last September approved $631 million in loans and grants for the corridor. The ADB said in a statement that it approved loans comprising a $500 million multitranche facility. PTI

Exactly 8 years after WhatsApp started its services on February 24, 2009, it now has 200 million active users in India, making it the Silicon Valley-based firm’s largest market. WhatsApp is now exploring how it can play in the digital payments and e-commerce segments. In an interview, Brian Acton, CoFounder, WhatsApp, shared his views on the future roadmap and India’s start-up ecosystem. Edited Excerpts: When you started out in 2009, did you imagine that India could be your largest market one day? ■ We saw the potential. What we didn’t foresee was the enthusiasm. We saw that we could build a product that has global potential. But its an eye opening surprise that it has become such an integral part of people’s daily life.

How do you use this user base to monetise WhatsApp? ■ We are going to provide commercial services so that businesses can talk to consumers. We are having two different thought lines. One is – what do large companies need when they talk to consumers? Typically, that means that they need some sort of API to have the conversation. On the other side are small businesses that, need pre-built solutions, probably something in mobile space, that they can use for things like customer support. We still don’t know the business model. What we don’t want to build is an advertisment supported product where businesses are sending offers or unsolicited messages and really creating negative experience for users.

limited based on my ability to do due diligence being in U.S. I don’t have the luxury of flying to India and vetting companies. So I do it on personal network basis. But larger firms and individuals are investing in India and they should. There are some great businesses being built out of India.

Do you see WhatsApp going beyond messaging to things like digital payments in India? ■ I had a great meeting with the Indian IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad where we discussed a number of things including how WhatsApp can be used for civic engagements, how WhatsApp could be used for e-commerce and digital transactions and payments. All these are in the space of opportunity for WhatsApp. We want to blend that to our core mission of connecting users and creating a great communications experience that’s simple, reliable, trusted and safe. We would continue to research, evaluate and figure out what we can build that best serves the people of India.

You have grown five times from 40 million in 2014 to 200 million now. Will you reach a billion users in India in 2 years?

I think it’s achievable. But the limiting factors are smartphone adoption and low cost affordable data plan. Without these I don’t think we will hit a billion in India in 2 years. Also, whenever you look at growth you look at the economic S curve where at a certain point you hit a saturation point. We have not hit saturation point, we are still at the sweet spot of the curve. ■

There is a debate going on about fake news. One sees a lot of fake stuff being circulated around on WhatsApp. How are you dealing with this?

It’s a tough question. We are trying to understand it and develop the right tools to tackle it. We are an encrypted platform and we don’t have any means of examining content. We have to ■

Founders usually move out and do something else once they sell out. You have continued to stay on at WhatsApp even after Facebook acquired it. Why?

Shifting gears: Hyundai’s existing SUV ‘Creta’ is a key volume driver for the company currently. SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHENNAI

I really truly believe in the mission, we want to connect the world. We have made tremendous progress but there is work to do in connecting the world. The other thing is that it’s one thing to build a product and another to create a business. I want to see this through till it becomes a strong sustainable business.

■

time, an enterprise might want to build < > Over some sort of customer service using Artiical Intelligence (AI). If you want to talk to that AI service, WhatsApp could be the conduit Brian Acton Co-founder, WhatsApp

rely on users telling us. We have to rely on teaching users to have good judgment so that we can provide them with tools with which they can report things. Some of these tools are already built in and as we get more mature in our understanding we may add more capabilities. How do you see the concern around H1B visas under the new U.S. administration? ■ We are in the position of caution. We are observing the actions the President is taking and reconciling that with our goals. Our goal is to hire the best and brightest and for us the H1B programme is important. Lot of

tech interest revolves around more H1B visas because that’s really important to build the best products with the best talent. You have personally invested in Indian startups. Do you see the next Google or Facebook coming from here? Are you worried about the bubble bursting?

I am terribly excited about what’s happening in India. Booms and busts are part of cycles. Some of the best start-ups are formed during a bust. I absolutely believe that the next Facebook or Google could come from somewhere in India. I myself have invested in companies in India. I am predominantly

■

There’s a lot of buzz around Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. Are you using these technologies on WhatsApp? ■ We think ourselves as a conduit. Over time, you can expect that an enterprise might want to build some sort of customer service using Artifical Intelligence (AI). So if you want to talk to that AI service, WhatsApp could be the conduit.

So you wouldn’t do what Google is doing with Allo, where it offers assistance and information to users?

We wouldn’t yet jump into a conversation between you and someone important. We don’t want to examine your conversation and ‘oh you are talking about a restaurant so let me recommend one’.

■

Hyundai Motor India Ltd., (HMIL) plans to introduce cars in three new segments and is eyeing a double-digit growth in 2017, a top official said. “These three will be in new segments — family, Sports Utility Vehicle and hybrid,” said Y.K. Koo, Managing Director, HMIL. As part of its strategy of rolling out at least two new cars per year, HMIL announced 10 new products over the next four years (2017-2020) to accelerate its domestic growth. The proposed plan includes roll-out of new segments, new models and upgrades of the existing models. In January 2017, HMIL launched the Grand i10 facelift and this will be followed by the introduction of all new compact segment and the mid-segment sedan car. Next year, Hyundai will showcase its iconic hybrid model at the Auto Expo 2018 in New Delhi and select models would be unveiled in the future. The second half of 2018 will see the rollout of family concept and designed car that will be positioned above its existing model Eon. Select models will be unveiled in the hybrid model.

In 2019, the company plans to launch a sub-4 metre sports utility vehicle (SUV). Hyundai had showcased Carlino in 2016 and the new SUV will be based on this concept. Hyundai’s existing SUV ‘Creta’ is a key volume driver for the company currently.

‘Bullish on India’ “We are bullish about the growth in India. India is a very important market for Hyundai and is the third largest market for Hyundai Motor in global sales after China and the U.S. Last year, HMIL’s contribution was 13.6% and in January 2017, it rose to 15%,” Mr. Koo said. On the export front, he said their market share has come down to around 2530% from around 40% due to a slowdown in the South Africa and Middle East markets. The company was utilising its capacity to cater the domestic demand, he said. “During 2016, HMIL produced 6.65 lakh cars and this year, we will produce 6.70 lakh cars. The existing capacity at Sriperumbudur near Chennai will be sufficient for the next 3-4 years,” he said. HMIL is planning to register 17-18% growth this year, even as the industry would be logging a single digit growth, he said.

Motherson’s Sehgal is EY Entrepreneur of 2016 Nandan Nilekani gets Lifetime award K.T. JAGANNATHAN CHENNAI

Vivek Chaand Sehgal, chairman of Motherson Sumi Systems Limited (MSSL), the flagship company of Samvardhana Motherson Group (SMG), has been chosen as the ‘EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2016.’ Mr. Sehgal will represent India at the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award ceremony at Monte Carlo in June. The EOY is a global business award programme, now in its 18th year in India.

CM YK

Co-Founder of Infosys Nandan Nilekani gets the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the Unique Identification Authority of India – the Aadhaar initiative, which is a pioneering citizen identification programme. R. Dinesh, managing director, TVS Logistics Services, gets the award in the services category. Rajiv Memani, chairman, EY India, lauded the awardees for their role towards a better working world.

ND-ND

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THE HINDU

SPORT 13

NOIDA/DELHI

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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IN BRIEF

Careless India paints itself into a corner Calculated risk of opting for a turner set to backire on India

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The host capitulates in the face of disciplined Aussie bowling ■

Steve O’Keefe leads the way with a six-wicket haul

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O’Keefe, Starc posed questions with his raw pace and ability to pitch the ball in the right corridor in a fiery threeover spell.

Amol Karhadkar

Morne Morkel back for Tests in New Zealand Johannesburg

Fast bowler Morne Morkel has been included in South Africa’s squad for three Test matches in New Zealand starting on March 8. Morkel, 32, last played in an international match in June and since then has struggled with a persistent back injury which threatened to end his career. AFP

Miamiatiali pulls out of bout against Vijender KOLKATA

WBO Oriental super middleweight champion Zulpikar Miamiatiali, who was set to fight Asia Pacific super middleweight champion Vijender Singh on April 1, has backed out of the bout. The talks between promoters of the two boxers have fallen flat. Vijender’s promoters are now negotiating with other boxers to stage a fight.

CoA meeting to be held at Cricket Centre today PUNE

The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has scheduled a day-long meeting at the Cricket Centre, Mumbai, on Saturday. The CoA will be briefed about the financial aspects of BCCI’s purchase of land in Bengaluru at a cost of ₹50 crore plus for developing its own National Cricket Academy (NCA). Meanwhile, it is understood that another initiative has been taken by a current office-bearer and another representative of a full member from the South Zone to convene an informal meeting.

PUNE

The calculated risk of opting for a turner in the seriesopener against Australia is set to backfire on India, thus putting the host in danger of seeing its 19-match unbeaten streak come to an end. India’s capitulation to Australia’s disciplined attack — unexpectedly led by left-arm spinner Steve O’Keefe — first let the visitors snatch the advantage in the afternoon. Captain Steve Smith, let off in the field thrice, then ensured Australia firm grip on the opening Test, ending the day with a 298-run advantage at the end of the second day’s play. With the pitch deteriorating as rapidly as the speed of zooming cars just behind the Maharashtra Cricket Association stadium at Gahunje, it will be a gargantuan task for Virat Kohli’s men to maintain their unbeaten run. India, however, would have only itself to blame if Australia moves to Bengaluru with a 1-0 lead. After all, in a matter of just eight balls, India lost four wickets for just one run to the Australia spinners to change the course of the game. India folded up for just 105, losing its last seven wickets for a meagre 11 runs. O’Keefe, the weaker of the two Australia spinners, was rewarded for his consistency with a rich six-wicket haul.

Moment of madness Three of those came in the same over, O’Keefe’s first after changing ends post lunch. K.L. Rahul undid his innings full of flair by inexplicably heaving one up in the air. Not only did the stroke

The good work paved the way for M. Vijay to nick Josh Hazlewood in his opening over after replacing Starc, who got his rewards in his second spell. In trying conditions and having lost Vijay early, the onus was on Cheteshwar Pujara to anchor India’s innings. But Starc bowled a snorter that rose sharply off good length and kissed Pujara’s gloves on the way to the ’keeper. Two balls later, in an attempt to stamp his authority over Starc, Kohli attempted a drive off a wide one. It turned to be too wide and too quick for Kohli to time it, instead offering Handscomb a regulation catch in the cordon.

Dropped chances

Wrecker-in-chief: Steve O’Keefe is all pumped after claiming the scalp of Ajinkya Rahane on Friday. K. MURALI KUMAR

dent India’s innings — which Rahul had resurrected along with Ajinkya Rahane after Mitchell Starc’s double blow in an over in the morning — but it also hurt his shoulder. Two balls later, Rahane closed his bat too soon to one that held its line and Peter Handscomb lunged forward

at second slip to hold an outstanding one-handed catch. Off the last ball of the over, Wriddhiman Saha was caught in no man’s land, offering Smith catching practice at first slip. From 94 for three, India crumbled to 95 for six. And the tail couldn’t resist the on-

‘We played and missed, they nicked, we caught’ Special Correspondent Pune

HYDERABAD

Indian shuttler P.V. Sindhu, who is the first Indian woman athlete to win a silver medal at the Olympics, has accepted a government job which was offered by the Andhra Pradesh Govt. following her Rio de Janeiro triumph. Sindhu’s mother Vijaya confirmed the news about her daughter’s willingness to take up the offer of a Deputy Collector’s job. ANI

Steve O’Keefe may have already played the matchwinner’s role in the first Test. The 32-year-old left-arm spinner’s haul of six for 35 in 13.1 overs, taking just 24 balls between his first wicket [K.L. Rahul] and sixth [Umesh Yadav] has put India on the back foot, and O’Keefe was thrilled about it. “It’s amazing how things can quickly change over here. I was none for 30 off nine [overs], probably didn’t bowl very well at all in my first six overs,” said O’Keefe. “And then, it all just happened really quickly, and I guess that’s the sort of wicket it is. “We played and missed at a lot of balls, and — fortunately for us — they nicked

O’Keefe all praise for coach Sriram G. Viswanath Pune

There was a massive Chennai connect to Steve O’Keefe’s success; he made it a point to single out former Tamil Nadu and India left-arm spinner Sridharan Sriram’s contribution. “Sri has been a big influence. I worked with him in Chennai in the ‘A’ series. He knows the conditions. I get to spend lunch time bowling with him. “And, he knows how to bowl in these conditions. How the (Indian) batters think. He has been the biggest help along with the other coaching staff,” said O’Keefe. Later, at his media conference, he said: “I think, Sri is an excellent spin-bowling coach. I've a good coach who tapped me on the head in between sessions; he's not afraid to tell it to your face and tell it straight, which is excellent. “The first six overs, I think I went back to my comfort zone, which is what I bowl in Australia. You don't see it on camera, but it was just going a CM YK

Had India held any of those chances, Ashwin — who had struck twice with the new ball — and Ravindra Jadeja could well have run through the side. Instead, India is staring down the barrel just two days into the five-day match.

1st Test, Day 2, MCA Stadium, Pune AUSTRALIA — 1ST INNINGS RUNS Matt Renshaw c Vijay b Ashwin dddddddd ddd 68 David Warner b Umesh ddddddddddddddddd ddd 38 Steve Smith c Kohli b Ashwin ddddddddddd ddd 27 Shaun Marsh c Kohli b Jayant dddddddddd ddd 16 Peter Handscomb lbw b Jadeja ddddddddd ddd 22 Mitchell Marsh lbw b Jadeja dddddddddddd ddddd4 Matthew Wade lbw b Umesh ddddddddddd ddddd8 Mitchell Starc c Jadeja b Ashwin dddddddd ddd 61 Steve O’Keefe c Saha b Umesh ddddddddd ddddd0 Nathan Lyon lbw b Umesh dddddddddddddd ddddd0 Josh Hazlewood (not out) dddddddddddddd ddddd1 Extras (lb-6, nb-9) dddddddddddddddddddddd ddd 15 Total (in 94.5 overs) dddddddddddddddddddd dd 260

< >

I’ve a good coach who’s not afraid to tell it to your face and tell it straight

bit over the top and whenever I was trying to bowl quick. “It was ordinary bowling in the first six overs. I'd been working in the nets with some other variations, just changing the seam and arm angles. You probably don't notice it, but for me it made all the difference. “Sri is like ‘let's go out and bowl till you feel comfortable with it and then hit it on... let's start up with it in the next innings’. It worked this time.” O’Keefe was quite sympathetic towards Abhinav Mukund who dropped Steve Smith. “I’m sure we'll go through periods where we don't field as well as we would like to. I know Abhinav pretty well, I’ve spent some time at the academy with him. “Unfortunately, it just didn't go his way. It's tough when you're 12th man. “Fortunately for us, we held our chances.”

what I can < > Ido,know what I’ve got and how to go about using what I’ve got and we caught them.” O’Keefe acknowledged his captain’s role in the success. “I think the important thing is I’ve been well backed up by Steve Smith; I think he’s a brilliant captain. “When you play under a captain who shows a lot of belief in you, it’s amazing what can happen,” he said. “I think one thing is that you’ve just got to be comfortable in your own skin. I know what I can do, I know what I’ve got and how to go about using what I’ve got.” On Peter Handscomb’s two remarkable catches, the spinner said: “You have to say that we’ve had a bit of

luck, but knowing Pete and how good he is as a fielder, it’s no surprise to us he takes those great grabs.” Touching upon the change of ends, O’Keefe said: “We were debating it in the changing rooms. Mitchell Starc and I didn’t really care which end we bowled at. “The idea was Mitch would create some footmarks for Nathan [Lyon] outside the off stump at that end. “I think the move was just to bowl Nathan from that end because that’s the end that Ashwin bowled his overs from. So if the Indians are doing it why not fall in tow. “Jadeja probably bowled most of his overs at [my] end, so it was just good fortune I guess.”

BALLS ddddd156 dddddd 77 dddddd 95 dddddd 55 dddddd 45 dddddd 18 dddddd 20 dddddd 63 dddddd 13 dddddddd1 dddddd 31

4s dddddd 10 dddddddd6 dddddddd2 dddddddd3 dddddddd3 ddddddddd dddddddd1 dddddddd6 ddddddddd ddddddddd ddddddddd

6s dddddddd1 ddddddddd ddddddddd ddddddddd ddddddddd ddddddddd ddddddddd dddddddd3 ddddddddd ddddddddd ddddddddd

Fall of wickets: 1-82 (Warner, 27.2 overs), 2-119 (S. Marsh, 46.4), 3-149 (Handscomb, 59.2), 4-149 (Smith, 60.1), 5-166 (M. Marsh, 67.4), 6-190 (Wade, 75.4), 7-196 (Renshaw, 78.3), 8-205 (O’Keefe, 81.4), 9-205 (Lyon, 81.5). INDIA BOWLING: Ishant 11-0-27-0, Ashwin 34.5-10-63-3, Jayant 13-1-58-1, Jadeja 24-4-74-2, Umesh 12-3-32-4. INDIA — 1ST INNINGS RUNS BALLS 4s 6s M. Vijay c Wade b Hazlewood ddddddddddd ddd 10 dddddd 19 dddddddd1 ddddddddd K.L. Rahul c Warner b O’Keefe dddddddddd ddd 64 dddddd 97 dddddd 10 dddddddd1 Cheteshwar Pujara c Wade b Starc ddddd ddddd6 dddddd 23 dddddddd1 ddddddddd Virat Kohli c Handscomb b Starc dddddddd ddddd0 dddddddd2 ddddddddd ddddddddd Ajinkya Rahane c Handscomb b O’Keefe ddd 13 dddddd 55 dddddddd1 ddddddddd R. Ashwin c Handscomb b Lyon ddddddddd ddddd1 dddddddd4 ddddddddd ddddddddd Wriddhiman Saha c Smith b O’Keefe ddd ddddd0 dddddddd2 ddddddddd ddddddddd Ravindra Jadeja c Starc b O’Keefe dddddd ddddd2 dddddd 10 ddddddddd ddddddddd Jayant Yadav st. Wade b O’Keefe ddddddd ddddd2 dddddd 10 ddddddddd ddddddddd Umesh Yadav c Smith b O’Keefe dddddddd ddddd4 dddddd 11 ddddddddd ddddddddd Ishant Sharma (not out) dddddddddddddddd ddddd2 dddddddd5 ddddddddd ddddddddd Extras (nb-1) ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddd1 Total (in 40.1 overs) dddddddddddddddddddd dd 105 Fall of wickets: 1-26 (Vijay, 6.5 overs), 2-44 (Pujara, 14.2), 3-44 (Kohli, 14.4), 4-94 (Rahul, 32.2), 5-95 (Rahane, 32.4), 6-95 (Saha, 32.6), 7-95 (Ashwin, 33.3), 8-98 (Jayant, 36.3), 9-101 (Jadeja, 38.2).

AUSTRALIA BOWLING: Starc 9-2-38-2, O’Keefe 13.1-2-35-6, Hazlewood 7-3-11-1, Lyon 11-2-21-1. AUSTRALIA — 2nd INNINGS RUNS BALLS 4s 6s David Warner lbw b Ashwin dddddddddddd ddd 10 dddddddd6 dddddddd2 ddddddddd Shaun Marsh lbw b Ashwin ddddddddddddd ddddd0 dddddd 21 ddddddddd ddddddddd Steve Smith (batting)ddddddddddddddddddd ddd 59 ddddd117 dddddddd7 ddddddddd Peter Handscomb c Vijay b Ashwin ddddd ddd 19 dddddd 34 dddddddd3 ddddddddd Matt Renshaw c Ishant b Jayant dddddddd ddd 31 dddddd 50 dddddddd5 ddddddddd Mitchell Marsh (batting)dddddddddddddddd ddd 21 dddddd 48 dddddddd2 ddddddddd Extras (lb-3) dddddddddddddddddddddddddddd ddddd3 Total (for four wkts. in 46 overs) dddddddd dd 143 Fall of wickets: 1-10 (Warner, 0.6 overs), 2-23 (S. Marsh, 6.6), 3-61 (Handscomb, 20.6), 4-113 (Renshaw, 34.1).

INDIA BOWLING: Ashwin 16-3-68-3, Jadeja 17-6-26-0, Umesh 5-0-13-0, Jayant 5-0-27-1, Ishant 3-0-6-0.

Bound to have a bad day: Kumble We seemed to lose the bearing after Rahul’s dismissal, says the India coach Special Correspondent

I guess that’s the sort of wicket it is, says O’Keefe

Sindhu accepts Deputy Collector job

slaught, with O’Keefe eventually winding up the Indian innings with Umesh Yadav’s dismissal in the slips. His magical third spell had figures of 4.1-1-5-6. While O’Keefe hogged the limelight, Starc lived up to his billing by striking at the top. Opening the innings with

As if the mistakes while batting, which resulted in India conceding a 155-run lead, were not enough, India dropped three catches — all off the willow of Smith. While Vijay spilled one at leg-slip off Ashwin with Smith on 23, Abhinav Mukund failed to snatch a one-handed diving chance at mid-on off Jadeja on 29 and a simple chance at forward short-leg off Ashwin with the batsman on 37.

Australia ends day 298 ahead with six second innings wickets in hand

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PUNE

The Law of Averages evens out the events of the past. The Murphy’s Law ensures if anything has to go wrong, it will. When both these collide on a sporting field, it results in a kind of position India found itself in after the second day’s play of the opening Test against Australia: hoping against hope for a dramatic turnaround. “You are bound to have a bad day. This pitch was certainly challenging, so we needed a lot more restraint and showed that if you put your head down, you could make those runs. “It was unfortunate that once (K.L.) Rahul got out, we seemed to lose the bearing,” said Anil Kumble, India’s head coach. “We dropped a few catches. It has hurt us in the past; especially in this game, you need to hold your

Down for the count: K.L. Rahul injured his left shoulder, playing an audacious shot that cost him his wicket. K. MURALI KUMAR

chances even if [they are] half chances.

the pressure back on them.”

“We dropped Steve Smith on couple of occasions, that has certainly pushed us back. Hopefully, tomorrow morning, we can pick up a few early wickets and then put

Shift of balance Rahul’s reckless shot off Steve O’Keefe shifted the balance of the game in Australia’s favour. Besides, it also injured the

batsman’s left shoulder, adding misery to the opener who had overcome his dehydration issues during a scintillating innings of 64. When asked if an earlier injury was the cause for Rahul playing the audacious shot, Kumble smiled and said, “I don’t think so. I think the shot created the injury not just to him but even to the team. “He should be okay tomorrow morning,” he said. Kumble declined to blame the turning strip for the collapse. “It is a challenging surface which requires application, aggression and a bit of caution as well. “You need a mix out of that. And today was not our day,” he said. “We have to give credit to the Australian bowlers as well. It was one of those days when you go back and start, ‘Okay, how do we come back and pick those six wickets?’”

‘I don’t worry about selection’

Important we continue the momentum: Mithali Raj

Dabang, Wizards look to make maiden inals

Special Correspondent

India women’s captain wants team to regroup before WC

CHANDIGARH

Uthra Ganesan

HIL

Chennai

Parthiv Patel said that he was mentally ready for India duty whenever the call comes. Parthiv, who replaced an injured Wriddhiman Saha as the wicketkeeperbatsman for the last three Tests against England and made a successful comeback, said, “Saha has been doing a good job, but I am always there if the team needs me. I had a good series against England and I know I have to be on my toes.” Leading the Gujarat team here in the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament, Parthiv said, “Keeping against (R.) Ashwin and (Ravindra) Jadeja on turning wickets is challenging. Ashwin has so many variations, and Jadeja has pace. “I have worked hard both as a wicketkeeper and a batsman. I am at the peak of my game. I don’t worry about selection,” Parthiv said. He added, “Opening comes naturally to me and that is an advantage.”

our strong middle-order which invariably rose to the occasion. Yes, we need to post bigger totals in an event like the World Cup to win consistently against stronger teams,” Mithali said.

V.V. Subrahmanyam Hyderabad

Mithali Raj, captain of the Indian team which has qualified for the women’s World Cup to be held in England in June-July, is just hoping that the team doesn’t burn out before the mega event. “If you remember, the build-up has always been very good for us in the last couple of World Cups. This time too, we had a very good home series against the West Indies, won the Asia Cup and now the World Cup qualifiers in Colombo. “It is important that we continue the momentum and sustain the same kind of focus,” said the 34-year-old Mithali in an exclusive chat with The Hindu. “It will be great if we regroup before the World Cup to sort out a few issues like doing better in the first PowerPlay and build a strong opening partnership. The run-rate of about three was fine in the qualifiers. But, against good sides like England and Australia in

Mithali Raj.

FILE PHOTO

the World Cup, you need to change gears,” Mithali said. “I am glad that the different combinations we tried in the World Cup qualifiers worked well. Especially, in bowling I had my own apprehensions before the start as we were without Jhulan Goswami and Smriti Mandhana. I didn’t expect our bowlers to do so well,” said Mithali, who will be playing her fifth World Cup. “I am pleased with the way Mona Meshram, Deepti Sharma, Devika Vaidya and Mansi Joshi performed in Sri Lanka,” she said. “I must give full credit to

High on confidence “Definitely, we hope to have the same bunch of players who figured in the World Cup qualifiers as they are fresh from the victory and high on confidence too,” Mithali added. Mithali said that she was definitely disappointed to miss the final because of a muscle strain, but was delighted that the team showed great spirit and nerves to win the final. “Personally, I would just like to continue my good form with the bat into the World Cup,” said Mithali, who has 5614 runs from 172 matches. “Right now I am enjoying the game and will keep playing as long as I do that. There are no second thoughts in this regard as of now,” she concluded.

When Dabang Mumbai takes the field against Delhi Waveriders in the Hockey India League here on Saturday evening, it will hope to carry its form from the league stage. Delhi will bank on all its experience of the big stage even though it has struggled this season, knowing well that the league results do not matter now. Cedric D’Souza’s boys will hope to find their rhythm against the one team that has destroyed every opposition over the last month. For that, they have to make sure the defence remains compact, and Mandeep Singh, often left alone in the attack, has enough support. A return to form for captain Rupinderpal Singh in penalty corners will be a bonus. “We can’t afford to make the kind of mistakes we did in the league stage. We need to make sure we don’t miss out on the chances we create,” Rupinderpal said. Mumbai has never

reached this stage earlier, but became the first team to book a semifinal spot this time. In the other semifinal, Uttar Pradesh Wizards takes on Kalinga Lancers in a battle between two of the best defensive sides. Wizards will look to its drag-flick battery of V.R. Raghunath and Gonzalo Peillat to score, and the attack of Akashdeep Singh, Ramandeep Singh and Ajay Yadav has been impressive in recent games. But the team’s biggest strength is its goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh, who has singlehandedly kept them in the competition. Last year’s runner-up Kalinga too is raring to go a step further. Built around Moritz Fuerste, Glenn Turner and Billy Bakker, Kalinga has conceded the maximum goals but also scored the second-highest. The schedule: Semifinals: Kalinga Lancers vs Uttar Pradesh Wizards (4.30 p.m.), Dabang Mumbai vs Delhi Waveriders (7 p.m.). ND-ND

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14 SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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A run-feast seems to be on the cards

IN BRIEF

POLO

Delhi takes on Tamil Nadu in a much-awaited contest on the opening day Vijay Lokapally

VIJAY HAZARE TROPHY

Cuttack

Rishabh Pant is packing his kit bag. Two precious possessions with messages from two iconic cricketers make it a treasure. “Always give your best,” signed by Sachin Tendulkar at the back of one bat and “Back yourself ” from Virat Kohli makes the other bat a piece of great motivation for the 19-year-old Delhi captain. In the other camp, Vijay Shankar, a talent worthy of investment for the future, is preparing for an engrossing journey.

I’m staying at Man United, says Rooney LONDON

Wayne Rooney said on Thursday he was staying with Manchester United following persistent speculation he could make a lucrative move to the Chinese Super League. “Despite the interest which has been shown from other clubs, I want to end recent speculation”. AFP

Lahiri gets off to best start of the season

Big opportunity Saddled with the responsibility of guiding a young Tamil Nadu side in the Vijay Hazare Trophy tournament here, he says, “It’s a big opportunity. I just want the team to go out and do well. The team will get to experience new things and do well collectively.” Delhi and Tamil Nadu

PALM BEACH (USA)

Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri registered his best start of the season with a five-under 65 that put him in tied-third place at the end of the first round at the Honda Classic here. The Indian, who has been giving himself good starts, but none better than this one. PTI

Rathore shines in Cavalry’s triumph Special Correspondent

tance,” said Delhi coach K.P. Bhaskar. Tamil Nadu will miss the services of M. Vijay and R. Ashwin, but the absence of left-arm seamer T. Natarajan and K. Vignesh due to injuries should hurt the team no less. “Things will happen if you perform,” was a realistic assessment of the situation by Vijay Shankar, who has the wily run-getter Dinesh Karthik to assist him in troubled times.

Plainspeak: Delhi skipper Rishabh Pant feels that team’s victory carries more weightage than individual performances. FILE PHOTO

commence the tournament with one of the most awaited contest of this tournament at the Barabati Stadium here. The pitch promises a run-

feast, but the weather may demand the best of fitness, especially from the bowlers, on a big field. Pant remains the trigger

point for Delhi to achieve its goal — a title to sign off the season. “We excel in this format and have the youth and experience to go the dis-

Team win is important Pant looked at the upcoming match pragmatically. “More than the rigours of captaincy and wicketkeeping, I am keen on seeing the team win. It’s not about an individual’s excellence.” The teams (from): Delhi: Rishabh Pant (capt.), Shikhar Dhawan, Gautam Gambhir, Manan Sharma, Milind Kumar,

Ashish Nehra, Pradeep Sangwan, Pulkit Narang, Vikas Tokas, Navdeep Saini, Sarthak Ranjan, Himmat Singh, Dhruv Shorey, Nitish Rana, Pawan Negi and Kulwant Khajroliya. Tamil Nadu: Vijay Shankar (capt.), Dinesh Karthik, B. Aparajith, B. Indrajith, M. Kaushik, N. Jagadeesan, G.S. Raju, Aswin Crist, M. Mohammad, Antony Das, R. Rohit, Rahil Shah, M. Ashwin, Sai Kishore, Washington Sundar and S. Radhakrishnan. The schedule: Group A (New Delhi): Baroda vs Railways; Haryana vs Odisha; Punjab vs Vidarbha. Group B: At Cuttack: Himachal vs Maharashtra. At Bhubaneshwar: Kerala vs Tripura. Group C (Chennai): Andhra vs Bengal; Gujarat vs Mumbai; Madhya Pradesh vs Rajasthan. Group D: At Kolkata: Hyderabad vs J & K; Jharkhand vs Karnataka. At Kalyani: Saurashtra vs Services.

NEW DELHI

Ravi Rathore scored six goals in powering 61st Cavalry to a 10 goals to 2 1/2 victory over Army Service Corps (ASC) in the final of the Army polo championship at the Army Equestrian Centre, Delhi Cantonment here on Friday.

Best player Ravi Rathore was adjudged the ‘best player’ of the tournament. He scored 20 goals in three matches. The Quarter Master General, Lt. Gen. R.V. Kanitkar, presented the trophies to the winners. The results (final): 61st Cavalry 10 (Ravi Rathore 6, Navjit Sandhu 2, Anand Rajpurohit 2) bt ASC 2 1/2 (Prithvi Singh Rathore, handicap 1 1/2).

Punjab takes on Vidarbha

Apache Sunrise may score an encore

The team is bolstered by the presence of Harbhajan, Yuvraj

BENGALURU: Apache Sunrise, who won two races in a facile manner, may score an encore in the Governor’s Trophy (1,600m), the chief event of the races to be held here on Saturday (Feb. 25). False rails will be declared on the race day.

Rakesh Rao NEW DELHI

Baroda, Punjab and Haryana appear to be the front-runners in the seven-team league, in Group A, of the Vijay Hazare (50-over) cricket tournament that commences at three venues on Saturday. With the IPL not so far away, many well-known players will be keen to get their limited-over skills right in the coming days. Unlike the preceding domestic seasons when the Mushtaq Ali Trophy (T20)

was the prelude to the IPL, this year the players will be required to make minor adjustments when they slip into slam-bang action beginning from the first week of April. The Champions Trophy is scheduled soon after the IPL and the performances here could count for National selection, if the selectors deem it fit.

Form of players It is also likely that the form of the players in the IPL could become a factor when

the selectors pick the team for the Champions Trophy. While Assam has a day off, the Punjab-Vidarbha, Haryana-Odisha and Baroda-Railways games are scheduled for the opening day.

Toss, a factor Punjab, headed by Harbhajan Singh and having the services of Yuvraj Singh and Mandeep Singh, looks stronger. Though things are getting warmer in this part of the country, the toss could still be a factor, the nip in the

air making the new ball bowlers more hopeful in the first hour. Punjab has some exciting talent, with players like Gurkeerat Singh Mann and medium-pacer Sandeep Sharma adding to the team’s strength. Vidarbha, under Faiz Fazal, clearly begins as the underdog. Ambati Rayudu is a proven performer and the experience of Ganesh Satish, former Karnataka batsman, could come in handy. Match begins at 9 a.m.

New home-and-away league likely next year, says CEO of FIH Special Correspondent

Jason McCracken took charge as the CEO of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) at the same time as Narinder Batra became its president and the New Zealander, who has been an elite umpire, technical official and an administrator for more than 20 years, believed world hockey is in a good place right now. One of the ideas close to his heart is the new Homeand-Away league that is expected to kick off next year. The new league would have 7-9 teams playing each other at, as the name suggests, each other’s home over a period of 3-4 months. McCracken insisted the new competition has been conceptualised to “clean the slate” and do away with confusion around too many toptier tournaments. “We had the Champions Trophy, Champions Chal-

Jason McCracken. lenge, the Hockey World League, World Cup, the Olympics — basically so many different events and it was very confusing for the public. “We are now left with two products, the Olympics and the World Cup, a major event every two years. Now we are going to put this new programme. In effect, you get three major events running every year over a two-

three month period,” he said in an interaction here. The new league would also signal the end of the Champions Trophy and the Hockey World League that began only in 2012. All of it, however, would not affect the importance of the Hockey India League (HIL) in the annual calendar, he was quick to add, while agreeing that the schedule might have to be tweaked a bit. “We are in discussions with Hockey India and there is some talk of moving it to the end of the calendar year. We haven’t yet talked to the Europeans because their competitions are also at that time. “Having said that, the HIL has been a great event and attracts the best from all over the world and will continue to have the FIH backing with a clear window in the calendar,” McCracken said.

GADAG PLATE (Div. II), (1,100m), rated 15 to 35, 2.15 p.m.: 1. Rock Steady (9) Noornabi 60, 2. Wind Striker (5) Janardhan P 60, 3. Early Bird (8) I. Chisty 59.5, 4. Brunesco (2) Anjar Alam 59, 5. Fine Barristor (7) K. Mukesh 59, 6. Loveisintheair (10) Rajesh Kumar 58.5, 7. Repsol (6) M. Naveen 58, 8. Regency Girl (1) S. John 57.5, 9. Bold Runner (4) B. Nayak 55 and 10. Spectre (3) Adarsh 54.5. 1. BRUNESCO, 2. FINE BARRISTOR, 3. REGENCY GIRL

2

RAMANAGAR PLATE (1,200m), rated 00 to 20, 2.45: 1. Incitatus (1) A. Ramu 60, 2. Red Admiral (6) Rajesh Kumar 60, 3. Slightly Blonde (2) Darshah 59, 4. Al Faaris (4) Arshad Alam 58, 5. Angelic Love (7) Syed Imran 57.5, 6. Cashmere (5) Rayan Ahmed 57.5, 7. Miss Wonder (3) Md. Hesnain 57, 8. Kiraathaka (8) S. John 56.5, 9. Apollo

3

ALTENBURG PLATE (1,600m), rated 15 to 35, 5-y-o & over, 3.15: 1. Fractals (5) S. Shiva Kumar 60, 2. Attractive Bay (3) I. Chisty 59.5, 3. Danburite (4) R. Pradeep 59.5, 4. Karod Pati (7) Srinath 57.5, 5. One To Note (1) Arshad Alam 56, 6. Tree Lounge (6) S. John 55.5 and 7. Elegant Star (2) K. Mukesh 54.5. 1. TREE LOUNGE, 2. ATTRACTIVE BAY, 3. ELEGANT STAR

4

K. VENKATESH NAYAK MEMORIAL TROPHY (1,200m), rated 30 to 50, 3.45: 1. Papadokia (12) Chetan Gowda 60, 2. Tax Free (3) Janardhan P 60, 2. Neymar (6) Ashok Kumar 59, 4. Birchwood (4) T.M. Prashant 58.5, 5. Perfect Legacy (1) Md. Hesnain 58.5, 6. Dont Trust Anyone (7) Rajesh Kumar 58, 7. Arizona (8) Vinod Shinde 56.5, 8. Romantic Helen (11) Rayan Ahmed 56.5, 9. Storm (5) Srinath 56.5, 10. Dagobert (9) Arshad Alam 56, 11. Tamara (2) P. Surya 55.5 and 12. Strong Conviction (10) Jaykumar 54. 1. STORM, 2. DAGOBERT, 3. RO-

MANTIC HELEN

5

GOVERNOR’S TROPHY (1,600m), 3-y-o, (Terms), 4.15: 1. Apache Sunrise (1) Suraj Narredu 57, 2. Lycurgus (4) P.P. Dhebe 54, 3. Nicaragua (2) I. Chisty 54, 4. Noble Splendor (5) Arshad Alam 54 and 5. Track Striker (3) K. Mukesh 54. 1. APACHE SUNRISE, 2. NICARAGUA

6

TUMKUR PLATE (1,400m), rated 30 to 50, 5-y-o & over, 4.45: 1. Frenemee (11) Rajesh Kumar 60, 2. Desert Gilt (10) R. Manjunath 57, 3. Odyssey (5) M. Naveen 56.5, 4. Firing Line (6) Nazerul Alam 56, 5. Rapid Advance (4) P. Surya 56, 6. Leon (1) R. Pradeep 55.5, 7. Wild Wild Angels (9) P.P. Dhebe 55, 8. Cherie Amour (3) Arshad Alam 54, 9. Ravelnation (7) Srinath 53.5, 10. Internal Affair (12) I. Chisty 53, 11. Tea Wid Me (2) Irvan Singh 53 and 12. Able Master (8) Jagadeesh 52.5. 1. RAVELNATION, 2. TEA WID ME, 3. FRENMEE

7

HURRICANE STUD PLATE (1,600m), rated 45 to 65, 5.15: 1. Secret Dimension (7) Suraj

Life Awaits claims Saptharishi Cup

Creative solutions may have to be worked out for Pakistan matches CHANDIGARH

1

Creed (10) Adarsh 53.5 and 10. Flying Prince (9) Irvan Singh 53.5. 1. KIRAATHAKA, 2. AL FAARIS, 3. SLIGHTLY BLONDE

Logistical challenge Given that the HIL would expand to seven teams from 2018 and is eventually looking to be an eight-team event, it would be quite a logistical challenge for both HI and the FIH. Asked about Pakistan being one of the shortlisted countries for the men’s competition in the new league — 18 have been selected so far — McCracken admitted “creative solutions” may have to be worked out. “We have to look at the bigger picture for teams who don’t want to travel to Pakistan. There could be neutral venues or some other country as host for Pakistan. Cricket has successfully managed to do that. We want to have an open mind. As an ex-international umpire I have umpired India-Pakistan games and it’s one of the best things, we do not want to miss out on that,” he said.

BENGALURU: Life Awaits (Srinath up) won the Saptharishi Cup, the main event of the races here on Friday (Feb. 24). The winner is owned by Mr. Ramesh Chandra Mehta & Mr. Rakshith Shetty and trained by Sriram Komandur. THE RESULTS: MUDABIDRI PLATE (1,400m), rated 00 to 20, 5-y-o & over: CHICAGO (M. Naveen) 1, Campfire (S. Shareef ) 2, Fioroloco (Darshan) 3 and Crazy Pineapple (Sunil Samson) 4. 6-1/4, 1/2 and 1-3/4. 1m 29.13s. Rs. 61 (w), 20, 26 and 19 (p), SHP: Rs. 78, FP: Rs. 436, Q: Rs. 268, Trinella: Rs. 1,410 and Rs. 615, Exacta: Rs. 15,263 and Rs. 32,707. Favourite: Moher. Owners: Mr. Naresh Kumar Pawar & Mr. R.M. Ramaswamy. Trainer: Sharat Kumar. MANDYA PLATE (1,600m), rated 30 to 50: SUPER SMART (Suraj Narredu) 1, Tinderella (David Allan) 2, Fiorenzo (P. Trevor) 3 and Intrepid Warrior (Rayan Ahmed) 4. Nk, 4-1/2 and Nk. 1m 40.34s. Rs. 49 (w), 26 and 36 (p), SHP: Rs. 59, FP: Rs. 177, Q: Rs. 142, Trinella: Rs. 481 and Rs. 155, Exacta: Rs. 4,108 and Rs. 3,326. Favourite: Tanoura. Owner & Trainer: Mr. Rajesh Narredu. BUGS BUNNY TROPHY (1,200m), 3-y-o only, (Terms): SETAGLOW (P. Trevor) 1, Malana (David Allan) 2, Starry Wind (I. Chisty) 3 and Depth Charge (P.P. Dhebe) 4. Not run: Indian Rocket. 3/4, 7-1/2 and Lnk. 1m 15.30s. Rs. 20 (w), 12, 14 and 37 (p),

1

2

3

SHP: Rs. 36, FP: Rs. 60, Q: Rs. 25, Trinella: Rs. 364 and Rs. 209, Exacta: Rs. 934 and Rs. 485. Favourite: Setaglow. Owners: United Racing & Bloodstock Breeders Ltd rep by. Mr & Mrs. Vijay Mallya. Trainer: Arjun Mangalorkar.

4

DEVARAYANADURGA PLATE (Div. I), (1,400m), rated 45 to 65: TOPAZ (Darshan) 1, Splendid Splasher (P. Surya) 2, El Fenix ( Jagadeesh) 3 and Thomas More (N.S. Parmar) 4. 1-1/2, 3/4 and Snk. 1m 26.59s. Rs. 301 (w), 69, 22 and 30 (p), SHP: Rs. 78, FP: Rs. 2,521, Q: Rs. 756, Trinella: Rs. 14,245 and Rs. 4,579, Exacta: Rs. 1,11,803 (carried over). Favourite: Summerhill. Owners: M/s. Girish Baliga, Sharath M. Narayana & Ramesh G. Patel. Trainer: V. Lokanath.

5

SAPTHARISHI CUP (1,200m), rated 60 & above: LIFE AWAITS (Srinath) 1, Goldberg (S. John) 2, Saladin (David Allan) 3 and Super Success (Suraj Narredu) 4. Not run: Topspot. 1/2, Snk and 1-1/4. 1m 13.28s. Rs. 33 (w), 16, 23 and 23 (p), SHP: Rs. 65, FP: Rs. 138, Q: Rs. 78, Trinella: Rs. 389 and Rs. 235, Exacta: Rs. 1,818 and Rs. 648. Favourite: Life Awaits. Owners: Mr. Ramesh Chandra Mehta & Mr. Rakshith Shetty. Trainer: Sriram Komandur. 6 STAR OF WINDSOR PLATE (1,400m), rated 15 to 35: ERDEMIR (Srinath) 1, Mission Blue (I. Chisty) 2, Calico King (K. Mukesh) 3 and Perfect Prince (A. Ramu) 4. Not

run: Candice. 2-1/4, Nose and 21/4. 1m 27.71s. Rs. 18 (w), 12, 12 and 25 (p), SHP: Rs. 26, FP: Rs. 22, Q: Rs. 16, Trinella: Rs. 123 and 88, Exacta: Rs. 228 and Rs. 101. Favourite: Erdemir. Owners: Mr. Rajan Aggarwal & Mr. Gautam Aggarwal. Trainer: G. Sandhu.

7

ALCHEMY PLATE (1,200m), rated 15 to 35, 6-y-o & over: CARDUCCI ( Janardhan P) 1, Breaking Away (A. Ramu) 2, Scorching (Rayan Ahmed) 3 and Game Guy (Raja Rao) 4. Snk, 3/4 and 1. 1m 15.93s. Rs. 517 (w), 102, 23 and 44 (p), SHP: Rs. 68, FP: Rs. 4,548, Q: Rs. 1,722, Trinella: Rs. 41,764 and Rs. 35,798, Exacta: Rs. 1,06,074 (carried over). Favourite: Real Generous. Owner: Mrs. Sangita Vashisth. Trainer: Imtiaz Khan.

8

DEVARAYANADURGA PLATE (Div. II), (1,400m), rated 45 to 65: RACING FIRE (Suraj Narredu) 1, Hector ( Jagadeesh) 2, Zafran (P. Trevor) 3 and Possimpossible (Rayan Ahmed) 4. 1-3/4, Lnk and 1-1/4. 1m 26.10s. Rs. 92 (w), 24, 21 and 22 (p), SHP: Rs. 59, FP: Rs. 740, Q: Rs. 278, Trinella: Rs. 1,441 and Rs. 561, Exacta: Rs. 17,414 and Rs. 9,951. Favourite: War Envoy. Owner: Mr. H. Thambuswamy. Trainer: S. Dominic. Jackpot: Rs. 2,78,507 (carried over); Runner up: Rs. 39,787 (three tkts.); Treble (i): Rs. 1,123 (19 tkts.); (ii): Rs. 4,022 (10 tkts.).

Narredu 60, 2. Sagrada (8) A. Ramu 58.5, 3. Star Cracker (3) A. Imran Khan 58, 4. Afore (4) Arshad Alam 57.5, 5. J Gatsby (2) Nazerul Alam 57, 6. Czar Rule (5) R. Manish 54.5, 7. Reference (6) Srinath 54.5 and 8. Into The Spotlight (-) (-) 52. 1. STAR CRACKER, 2. REFERENCE, 3. AFORE

8

GADAG PLATE (Div. I), (1,100m), rated 15 to 35, 5.45: 1. Alaina (2) Antony Raj 60, 2. Island Pearl (5) Rajesh Kumar 60, 3. Country’s Bloom (8) A. Imran Khan 59.5, 4. Duke Of Norfolk (9) Arshad Alam 57.5, 5. Ramon (7) A. Ramu 57.5, 6. Varsha (11) Srinath 57.5, 7. Zafrina (3) Suraj Narredu 57.5, 8. Roaring Thunder (1) Irvan Singh 57, 9. Admiral Hatsu (6) R. Manjunath 56.5, 10. Bellerophon (10) Jagadeesh 55 and 11. Perfectgoldenera (4) M. Kumar 53.5. 1. ZAFRINA, 2. VARSHA, 3. ADMIRAL HATSU Day’s best: APACHE SUNRISE Double: RAVELNATION - ZAFRINA Jkt: 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8; Tr (i): 3, 4 and 5; (ii): 6, 7 and 8.

RhythmAman inal Special Correspondent Kolkata

Top-seeded Rhythm Malhotra rallied to record a hardfought 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(3) win over unseeded Udit Gogoi and reach the under-16 boys’ final of the Sunfeast AITA Super Series junior tennis tournament on Friday. The results: Boys: Semifinals: Under-16: Aman Dahiya bt Kabir Hans 7-5, 6-3; Rhythm Malhotra bt Udit Gogoi 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(3). Under-14: Udit Gogoi bt Girish Chougule 6-3, 7-6(5); Aman Dahiya bt Rudra Kapoor 6-4, 6-2. Under-14 doubles (final): Yashraj Dalvi & Abhishek Mahapatra bt Hasith Srujan & Aman Dahiya 6-1, 6-2. Girls: Semifinals: Under-16: Rutuparna Chowdhury bt Ishita Singh 6-3, 6-0; Sunskrithi Damera bt Joshika Premkumar 6-0, 6-0. Under-14: Sunskrithi Damera bt Mekhala Manna 6-0, 6-2; Joshika Premkumar bt Saniya Masand 7-5, 7-6(5).

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11940 1

2

3

4

9

5

6

7

8

10 11

12

(set by Arden)

13 Lives reviewed, solicitor will recuse (3,3)

5 ... over promoting anti-terror law (4)

15 Calls for internal resistance, watches scene from the top (5,3,4)

6 Keeps supporting the mass as they provide the gas (7,8)

18 Mountaineers correct tallies (12)

7 See very big tapes (6)

21 Not for keeping empty vase in the back (6)

8 Try air force, once in a while (6)

FAITH

SUDOKU

Essence of karma yoga

13 14

15 16

17

18

22 Chemicals in a liquid state (8) 19

20

21

24 21 in other words — a port for a womaniser (8)

22

11 Make out without relying regularly on preaching the Gospel (7)

23 24

25

25 It's novel to see tail wagging (6)

14 Ordering caviare is sin (7)

26

27

26 After many years, not only absent but effete (8)

16 It's dearer because pound is deposited in bank (8)

Solution to puzzle 11939 ■ ACROSS

27 Hey Presto! — the missing cuckoo bird (6)

17 Geological equilibrium is zero, stays in order (8)

1 Tense, in agony under a coat (6) 4 Skip the feast (8) 9 My hand breaks a banker (4,2) 10 After college, two choices which allow free passage (8) 12 Understood stock market involvement — it could be cosmetic (8)

CM YK

■ DOWN 1 Go up half way with basic transport — rickshaws (8)

19 Given about two lakhs initially — all white (6)

2 Betrayer damaged a plant (8)

20 Doctor inspected endlessly — it's infected (6)

3 Saw man on Indian lass, panting... (2,3,2,2,6)

23 Strange to give up a right (4)

S U L T R R B O U A M N A P E E T E C A N A I S O L H G P A I

B S C L R A C L A P T R A P N A R A S F L D E R P A N A C H E I L G A R H T H A T H E O R E M T A N I O N S I L L I T I S A N I A A A S T A S L E I G H T C M N A O V E N T A B D OM E N N O N U O A S T R AM I R U R A L D C E E

Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

Krishna’s classic statement on karma yoga runs thus: “To action alone you have a right and never at all to its fruits. Let not the fruits of action be the motive for your action. Neither let there be any inclination to refrain from action.” It is not renunciation of action, but renunciation of the fruits of action that is the essence of the karma yoga taught by Krishna in the Gita, pointed out Srimati Rukmini Ramamurthy in a lecture. But one could also argue that if one does not desire the fruits of a particular act, why not refrain from the act itself? The answer to this involves two issues. First of all, none can stay idle without acting in life and all are compelled to act. Secondly, there is no guarantee for the results of our acts. So the only way to be peaceful and free is to remain detached from the fruits of one’s actions, whatever they may turn out to be. The greater the ego, the greater is the expectation; the greater the fall, the greater is the sense of disappointment. A farmer ploughs the land, sows the seeds and does everything necessary for a promising harvest. But the result of his act, the nature of the actual harvest, is not in his control. Other factors are also operative, such as timely rains. If the farmer pins all his hopes on the harvest and does not factor in the impediments to his attainments, he is bound to be disappointed if the rains fail. When one merely does what is expected of him, that is engage in work for work’s sake alone, with sincerity to achieve perfection and not expect any selfish gains, his work becomes karma yoga. It is widely held that even daily duties performed in this spirit can lead one to moksha. ND-ND

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THE HINDU

SPORT 15

NOIDA/DELHI

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2017

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IN BRIEF

‘I think the best way to beat stress is to run, sweat a bit’ Running teaches you patience and gives you strength, says Haile Gebrselassie RAKESH RAO NEW DELHI

Parvez climbs to the second spot BENGALURU

Parvez Ahmed of Karnataka climbed to the second spot, at the end of the fourth block of six games, in the second round of the Amoeba National Tenpin bowling championship on Friday. Parvez scored 1,267 pins at an average of 211.17. Shabbir Dhankot stayed on top of the leaderboard. In the women’s category, Sabeena Athica (total pinfall 2121) consolidated her lead over her nearest rival Sumathi Nallabantu (total pinfall 1995). SPORTS BUREAU

Warriors roar past Clippers LOS ANGELES

Golden State Warriors exploded for 50 points in the third quarter on Thursday to roar past Los Angeles Clippers 123-113. The results: Golden State Warriors 123 bt Los Angeles Clippers 113; Sacramento Kings 116 bt Denver Nuggets 100; Houston Rockets 129 bt New Orleans Pelicans 99; Cleveland Cavaliers 119 bt New York Knicks 104; Detroit Pistons 114 bt Charlotte Bobcats 108; Portland Trail Blazers 112 bt Orlando Magic 103. AGENCIES

Colts ‘Test’ ends in a draw NAGPUR

England Under-19 batted out the final day in making 255, to draw the second ‘Test’ against the Indian colts. The series ended 0-0. The scores: England 375 & 255 (Bartlett 76, Rawlins 49, Beard 34 n.o., Harsh Tyagi four for 67) drew with India 388 for nine declared.

CM YK

It is said that children walk to school and run back home. In the case of Haile Gebrselassie, it was a 10-km run to school and back. Every day. The diminutive Ethiopian distance runner would go on to have a glittering career stretching two decades during the course of which he became a two-time Olympic 10,000m gold medallist, won four world titles, four world indoor titles and had 27 world-record times. Having retired in 2015, Gebrselassie, 43, remains an inspiration for runners, from amateurs to marathoners everywhere. “I don’t see myself as a successful athlete,” he says. “From the beginning, I always wanted to do something new. Most of it that I wanted to achieve, I achieved. “If you say, these achievements make a successful athlete, then, yes… I have done

A true icon: Two-time Olympic champion Haile Gebrselassie remains an inspiration for runners everywhere.

what I had planned.” Speaking to The Hindu on at the launch of the New Delhi Marathon as brand ambassador for adidas, Gebrselassie, who now heads the Ethiopian Athletics Federation, reflects on his passion for setting records. “I knew people came to see me run. It was not enough for them to see me

win. They came from far off places, covering many kilometres only to watch me running. That’s why I always thought of doing something special for them,” he says. On what fascinated him about running, the legendary runner says: “Once you start, the joy of running remains with you. It teaches you a lot. You learn to be patient, gives

you strength. When the body is moving, the mind is doing other things. During my twohour training, my mind would finish most of my office-work. It was almost like doing yoga to keep your mind free of stress. “Even today, I think the best way to beat stress is to run a bit, sweat a bit and enjoy it.” For all his achievements, is it difficult to pick the three best moments? Gebrselassie says: “My 10,000m gold at the Sydney Olympics (becoming the third man, after Emil Zatopek and Lasse Viren, to defend the Olympic 10,000m title) was the best. Second, would the triumph at the 2008 Berlin Marathon (with a world record time of 2:03:59) and thirdly, the world record run (of 12:44.39) in the 5,000m in Zurich in 1995 when I broke the previous record by nearly 11 seconds (10.91 to be precise)!”

Leicester sacks Ranieri Decision stuns the football world Agence France-Presse London

Claudio Ranieri has been sacked as manager of Leicester City just months after leading the club to a remarkable Premier League title triumph, the Midlands side has announced. The Italian’s position had come under intense scrutiny this season during a slump that has left the Foxes just a point above the relegation zone. That follows their startling title triumph, with Leicester 5,000/1 no-hopers before the start of the 2015/16 season. “Leicester City Football Club has tonight (Thursday) parted company with its first-team manager, Claudio Ranieri,” said the statement. “Claudio, appointed City manager in July 2015, led the Foxes to the greatest triumph in the club’s 133—year history last season, as we were crowned champions of England for the first time. His status as the most successful Leicester City manager of all time is without question.” The sacking stunned the football world and brought widespread condemnation on the owners.

SPORTS BUREAU TEHRAN

Claudio Ranieri.

AFP

Players, managers and commentators expressed dismay at the move and nearly all backed Ranieri, who only last month was named FIFA’s coach of the year for scripting one of the most unbelievable stories in football. British media aimed criticism at Leicester’s Thai owners, King Power, who said they had no choice but to oust Ranieri. The owners were “snakes”, “brutal”, “cruel”, commentators said. “I shed a tear last night — I shed a tear for Claudio, I shed a tear for football and I shed a tear for my club,” former Leicester and England striker Gary Lineker, now a television commentator, said on BBC radio.

Shooting World Cup: Song Buhan, Shi Mengyao and Laetisha Scanlan set World records Kamesh Srinivasan

Pooja Ghatkar gave India a robust start, winning the women’s air rifle bronze in the shooting World Cup at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Friday. On a day when three World records were set — two by China’s Song Buhan and Shi Mengyao, and one by Laetisha Scanlan of Australia — it was difficult to ignore the manner in which Pooja tackled the Chinese in the climax after having qualified in second place with a total of 418.0. Mentored by Gagan

Narang for the last few months, Pooja was ready for the challenge. However, she was not prepared for a torn ‘blinder’ midway through the final, which forced her to physically close her non-focusing eye during the shots. The former Asian champion, however, put up a brave fight, with shots of 10.6, 10.8 and 10.7. “I am happy, but, not that happy,” said Pooja, as she acknowledged the fact that she could have fared better. She also acknowledged Gagan Narang’s role in tuning her, both technically and

mentally. “She used to struggle in matches. Today, she handled the match well, both in qualification and the final,” said Narang. The gold was a foregone conclusion as Shing Mengyao ran away with it with a World record 252.1. In men’s air rifle, Deepak Kumar stumbled at the business end after a spectacular performance, while Ravi Kumar slipped early and finished eighth. Song Buhan of China pipped the versatile Peter Sidi of Hungary to the gold by 0.4 point. In women’s trap, the stiff

young Penny Smith of Australia clinched the gold two points ahead of London Olympics gold medallist and three-time World champion Jessica Rossi of Italy, in a 50shot final. The results: Men: 10m air rifle: 1. Song Buhan (Chn) 249.5 (WR) 624.4; 2. Peter Sidi (Hun) 249.1 (623.7); 3. Atsushi Shimada (Jpn) 227.4 (628.2).

Time to smile: Pooja Ghatkar along with Shi Mengyao, centre, and Dong Lijie.

winds took it away as Rajeshwari Kumari slipped from a perfect 25 in the first round to 21 and 18 thereafter, miss-

ing the final by two points. The final was very demanding with gusty winds and a delayed start, but

Ind v Aus: 1st Test, STAR 1, 3 & HD1, 3, 9.30 a.m. La Liga: Sony Six & Six HD, 5.30 p.m., 8.40 p.m., 11 p.m. & 1.10 a.m. (Sunday) NBA: Sony Six & Six HD, 6.30 a.m. (Sunday). I-League: BFC vs East Bengal, TEN 2, 7 p.m.

Harika forces tie-break

Pooja Ghatkar gives India a good start with air rile bronze NEW DELHI

TV PICKS

Women: 10m air rifle: 1. Shi Mengyao (Chn) 252.1 (WR) 418.6; 2. Dong Lijie (Chn) 248.9 (417.7); 3. Pooja Ghatkar 228.8 (418.0). Trap: 1. Penny Smith (Aus) 40 (WR) 68; 2. Jessica Rossi (Ita) 38 (66); 3. Mopsi Veromaa (Fin) 27 (68).

A nervous D. Harika, facing a must-win situation, got her act together in a 162move marathon to draw level with China’s Tan Zhongyi 1-1 in their women’s world chess championship semifinal to force rapid tie-break games on Saturday. After struggling to make good of the chances Zhongyi offered in this sixhour game, Harika did well to reach a position where she had to checkmate her rival with a bishop and a knight in 50 moves, beginning from the 117th move when the last pawn was captured. Amid mounting tension, Harika got back to the basics of checkmating with a bishop and a knight. When Harika came within one move of delivering a checkmate, Zhongyi resigned.

Sriram Balaji meets Vishnu Sports Bureau JORHAT

The top two seeds Sriram Balaji and Vishnu Vardhan set up the title clash in the $15,000 ITF Futures tennis tournament on Friday. The results (semifinals): Sriram Balaji bt Vijay Sundar Prashanth 6-3, 6-4; Vishnu Vardhan bt Sasi Kumar Mukund 7-6(4), 6-1. Doubles: Sriram Balaji & Vishnu Vardhan bt Primin Haenle (Ger) & Shane Vinsant (USA) 6-2, 7-5; Mohit Mayur & Vijay Sundar Prashanth bt Rishab Agarwal & Niki Poonacha 6-2, 6-3.

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‘Genetic test to avoid cancer’

Upinder’s book in Hindi

Rangoon: Not so engaging

In conversation with Huma

Mary-Claire King thanks Angelina Jolie for raising awareness about early genetic test to avoid cancer Page 2

Upinder Singh, historian and daughter of Dr.Manmohan Singh, releases Hindi edition of 2008 book Page 3

The ilm’s many stories just don’t come together as a whole with much of it remaining a blur Page 4

From a brash Pushpa to a shy Alia, Huma Qureshi is busy portraying shades of Indian women Page 6

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IN BRIEF

2 iremen killed in Vikaspuri

A ireighter par excellence

Two others injured after cylinder blast rips through eatery on Friday morning

Hari Om went beyond call of duty, say family and colleagues Shubhomoy Sikdar

400 academicians write to JNU V-C NEW DELHI

Over 400 academicians from global universities have written to the JNU V-C saying the ‘academic culture and context is under serious threat’. CITY

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Minor raped, killed in Narela NEW DELHI

A four-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and murdered allegedly by her 16-year-old neighbour in Narela on Thursday. The juvenile has been detained.The accused had allegedly took the girl into a bathroom of an underconstruction building. CITY

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AAP’s irst list for civic polls released NEW DELHI

The Aam Aadmi Party has released its irst list of 109 candidates, which includes 49 women, for the upcoming municipal polls. The list was inalised by the AAP’s Political Afairs Committee. The party claims it has given tickets to 64 youths. CITY

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Fire breaks out in east Delhi cardboard factory NEW DELHI

A ire broke out on Friday at a cardboard factory near Harsh Vihar police station in east Delhi. However, there were no casualties, the Fire department said. Ten ire tenders were dispatched to the site. The ire was brought under control but was still burning at 10.15 p.m. PTI

Staff Reporter

New Delhi

New Delhi

Fireman Hari Om’s family was waiting for him to celebrate Mahashivratri and discuss arrangements for his niece’s upcoming wedding when news of his death came in. Stationed at the Janakpuri fire station, Hari Om, 49, was to return home after his 24-hour shift ended at 10.30 a.m. But just hours before, the Vikaspuri fire broke out, which claimed his life along with a colleague – Hari Meena. “We will never be able to celebrate the festival. It will remind us of him,” said a relative at their residence in south-west Delhi’s Kakrola village. Hari Om’s colleagues and seniors were all praise for him when they described him as an excellent fireman

Two firemen were killed while two others were injured after a cylinder blew up during their attempt to enter a shop in west Delhi’s Vikaspuri where a fire was reported on Friday morning.

Deceased in their 40s Hari Singh Meena and Hari Om, both in their 40s, were thrown aside after one of the four cylinders in the shop went up in flames, said senior fire officers. Their colleagues, Navin and Ravinder Singh, also suffered burns. They are said to be out of danger. The Fire Department received a call about a small fire in an eatery called Chatkora in Lal Market of Vikapuri’s H-Block around 5.30 a.m., said Atul Garg, Additional Director (Delhi Fire Service). Fire started from a fridge “Three fire tenders and around six to seven men were attending to the call. The fire had started from a refrigerator. The firemen needed to enter and spray water,” said Mr. Garg. Hari Om and Hari Meena, along with Navin and Ravinder, managed to open the lock of the shutter. They had barely started rolling it up when the cylinder blew up. “All four were injured. Hari Om and Hari Meena’s burns were critical,” Mr. Garg added. The owner of the eatery or other shopkeepers were not around considering the time. Despite his injuries, Ravinder managed to help Navin and pull him away

Fiery trail : The Fire Department had received a call about a small ire at a food joint called Chatkora in Vikapuri’s H-Block. SANDEEP SAXENA

In memoriam: Hari Om is survived by his wife and two teenaged children. SANDEEP SAXENA

who went beyond the call of duty in all operations, the latest turning out to be his last. He had received several commendation letters in the past two decades that he had been a part of the Delhi Fire Service. Among his most noted fire-fighting operations was the BSF aircraft crash in 2015.

He is survived by his wife and two children — engineering student Ankita (19) and Tushar (17) who is still in school. Tushar was one of the last people to speak to Hari Om on Thursday. “He asked about our well being and hung up. That was the last time we heard from him,” said Tushar.

Oicials rue lack of facilities Firemen in city brave burning buildings with just boots, helmets

from the flames. The police, who were informed meanwhile, rushed the four firemen to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital where one was declared brought dead while another died during treatment. Two others were referred to BLK Super Speciality Hospital in Central Delhi.

Shubhomoy Sikdar Soumya Pillai NEW DELHI

“Had the firefighters know that there was a cylinder inside, they would have never tried to enter from the front, or enter at all. They would have first created a hole to let a water pipe in and ensured a continuous flow to make the place more conducive for entering,” said a senior fire official speaking about the Vikaspuri blaze.

Case registered The eatery is owned by one Satpal who has taken the shop on rent. He had shifted here six months ago. The police have registered a case of causing death by negligence. A senior officer said that the cause of the fire was being probed.

No layout plans available In countries like the US and Canada, even a minor change in building plan — along with

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The nip is back

a complete layout and list of combustible substances — is to be notified with the Fire Department. In India, most buildings do not even seek fire clearances, let alone submitting alterations. This includes small eateries like the one in Vikaspuri, where the layout plan is not available with either the Fire Department or other civic agencies.

Improper safety gear “In western countries, before entering a building, a firefighter knows the layout. He knows where the staircases and exits are. This increases efficiency and re-

duces time spent inside,” said another official. Less equipped that their counterparts elsewhere, firefighters in the Capital dodge death almost every day. Compared to safety gear and facilities available in other countries, firemen here enter burning buildings with just rubber boots and helmets. “Most people join the Delhi Fire Service because they are passionate about their job. We jump into fires to save the lives of strangers,” said the official.

‘Court can’t decide shampoo quality’ HC says it would become a lab if it began probing correctness of claims in ads Akanksha Jain New Delhi

Evening sparkle: People warm themselves near a ire on Friday. The Capital witnessed strong winds throughout the day with the maximum temperature settling at 25.1 degrees Celsius, a notch below normal. SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

The Delhi High Court has dismissed a series of suits filed by Proctor & Gamble Home Products Private Limited (P&G) and Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) against each other’s shampoo advertisements, which they claimed were disparaging in nature and hurting their reputations. Stating that the court would become a laboratory if it began investigating the correctness of the claims made by the firms, Justice Rajiv Sahai Endlaw noted: “Neither are the courts equipped for such a probe nor is that the role of the courts. If the court commences investigating the

correctness of the claims, the courts would be converted into labs determining the comparative merits of rival products.”

used by < > Taglines irms are mere

Disparagement claimed P&G had contended that HUL, in a TV ad for its shampoo sachet, had disparaged its goods as being ineffective compared to its own products — though without naming any P&G product. HUL retaliated with a cross suit against a series of P&G ads, which allegedly showed the superior dandruff effectiveness of its product in comparison to sachets with blue and dark blue curves — typical of HUL’s product.

Delhi High Court

statements of opinions and not statements of fact

The High Court, however, said there was nothing disparaging about the ads. “It was held that if a product is good, adverse advertising may temporarily damage its market acceptability, but certainly not in the long run. The result of a lab test, relied on in the ads to claim their own products to be superior, are in my opinion not treated by the ordinary consumer

as authoritative,” said the court. “The ads inform consumers about how different brands can have different impact, leading to an informed consumer,” Justice Endlaw said. The court stated that the tag lines used by the firms in their ads were “mere statements of opinions and not statements of fact,” Justice Endlaw said. “Disparagement claimed is with respect to shampoo sold in sachets. Each sachet is for one-time use. A consumer of sachets is more likely to experiment than a consumer of shampoo in bottles. Market forces will prevail ultimately,” the court said.

Event cancelled: Khalsa College ‘I cannot lecture students...they have to take a stand’ principal denies ABVP pressure CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Professor attacked outside Ramjas College speaks about the hostile campus life at Delhi University Jaideep Deo Bhanj NEW DELHI

Prasanta Chakravarty, who is an Associate Professor with the English Department at the Arts Faculty (Delhi University), was attacked by students allegedly belonging to the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) outside Ramjas College on Wednesday. Professor Chakravarty said he visited the venue to show solidarity with the students when he was beaten up. He added that someone also tried to strangulate him with the muffler he was wearing. Following are excepts from an interview he gave to The Hindu. Does it hurt, more mentally that physically, to be attacked by students of the university where you teach? Some of them might not CM YK

be from DU, but most of them are students. This shows the climate in Delhi University. It is not about studying or constructive engagement, but about coming to college and looking for an excuse to create trouble. If there is a debate or a discussion or a play going on, they try to mark it as anti-national. Most students are not interested in academics. Those who are not politically inclined come to class and leave immediately. They would rather visit a mall because they are afraid of the climate on campus. Campus life has become hostile. How rapidly do you feel this climate has changed? Quite rapidly. I have seen a major change in the past two or three years. You feel that you are under siege all the time. At any event, you have

the police and “muscle” moving around. It is no longer a place where you can relax and talk about academics, something that is normal for any university. DU was never like this. What do you feel about every event organiser being forced to take a ‘no-objection certificate’ from the DUSU-led ABVP? The student union tries to create a legal situation of sorts, by which they can come down on an event and not allow certain programmes. This is formalisation or legalisation of authoritarianism. Nobody needs to seek permission from anyone. This is just to create tension. When you go back to class on Monday, what will you tell your students? Do you feel this crackdown on dissent exists in

classrooms too? I cannot lecture my students on what happened to me. It is they who have to take a stand and decide what they want. Some of them have also suffered, girls have been attacked. There are many neutral students in my classes who have to take a stand. There is nothing called neutrality. Do you feel there is polarisation in the classrooms? There is a silent polarisation in class, mostly because of the backgrounds people come from. They listen to my lecture, but don’t need to politically or socially agree with me. The Arts Faculty enjoys a more liberal atmosphere. But, there are students who want to be progressive and liberal, yet do not want to take a stand.

Anti-national content can create alarming situation: DUSU Jaideep Deo Bhanj NEW DELHI

Prasanta Chakravarty said he had visited the venue to show solidarity with the students when he was beaten up. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

On Thursday, SGTB Khalsa College postponed a street play competition after Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) members allegedly told the principal that they could not guarantee security for the event if the script had anti-national content. The principal, however, denied that the event was postponed under pressure from the ABVP. “Why do we need a stamp from the DUSU that our event does not contain “antinational” content? Why can’t theatre groups have the freedom to choose their script without fear,” said Arpita, a 3rd year student.

‘Can’t guarantee security’ DUSU president Amit Tanwar, meanwhile, said that he

had asked the college principal to go through the scripts before they are allowed to be staged. “I have said that any objectionable and anti-national content can create an alarming situation and security for the event cannot be guaranteed,” said Mr. Tanwar. However, this does not seem to be the first time that the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)-led has targeted events for allegedly being “anti-national”. The most recent instance is that of a seminar at Ramjas College, which fuelled protests and violence on the streets of Delhi University.

Organisers speak up Some members from the organising committee confirmed the DUSU threat.

They added that the police had also asked them to postpone the event until the situation returned to normal on the campus. Earlier, the ABVP had stopped a screening of documentary Muzaffarnagar Abhi Baki Hai at DU’s Kirori Mal College. Recently a debate on “Idea of a University” organised by the AISA was attacked at the Faculty of Arts. Activists from Pinjra Tod, a group working towards women’s rights on campus, have complained about harassment while organising protests. As the elected body, DUSU, which has been represented by members of the ABVP for the past few years, enjoys the backing of a majority of students. It is not often that college administrations challenge them. ND-ND

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IN BRIEF

‘Fight breast cancer with genetic test’ Mary-Claire King thanks Angelina Jolie for raising awareness about early genetic tests to avoid cancer Special Correspondent

SDMC to lodge four separate FIRs

New Delhi

Charge revision at AIIMS put on hold NEW DELHI

Facing stiff opposition from faculty members, AIIMS has put on hold the proposal to revise treatment charges. The faculty opposed the move saying the concept of equity and access to healthcare will be compromised as mostly poor patients come to AIIMS for treatment. PTI

PWD to start re-laying roads from Sunday NEW DELHI

The PWD will undertake a massive exercise to re-lay and strengthen some roads in the Capital from Sunday onwards. The department has set aside a budget of around ₹150 crore for the exercise, which will continue till March 31. PTI

Show-cause notice to Mirambika school NEW DELHI

A show-cause notice has been issued by the governemnt to the management of the Mirambika Free Progress School in connection over shutting down of classes without permission. The school has been asked to reply in three days. STAFF REPORTER

PTM for Class XII students at govt schools NEW DELHI

The Delhi government will organise a parent-teacher meeting for Class XII students on Saturday at all its schools. For morning shift schools, the PTM will start from 8 a.m. and at from 5 p.m. for evening shift schools. STAFF REPORTER

St. Stephen’s governing body meet

It isn’t everyday that scientists thank Hollywood for helping science. However, Professor of Genome Sciences at Washington University MaryClaire King, who identified a suit of genes that can help ascertain one’s likelihood of breast and ovarian cancer, said in a lecture here that actor Angelina Jolie had contributed immensely towards raising awareness about how an early genetic test can help some women avoid cancer.

Faulty gene Ms. Jolie had revealed in a New York Times article in 2013 that she’d undergone prophylactic mastectomy (elective removal of breasts) after being told that she had an 87% chance of getting breast cancer. Ms. Jolie carried a faulty version of a set of genes called BRCA genes (breast cancer 1 and 2 genes). Her mother had died due to breast cancer at 56. Ms. Jolie later had her ovaries excised as well. Cancer mutation Dr. King was speaking at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) as part of a multi-city tour for the Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series, 2017. She said the global phenomena of women increasingly hitting puberty early (on account of improved access to nutrition) and delaying pregnancy meant they were at an increased risk of cancer mutation. Dr. King is one of the pioneers in arguing for a genetic link to cancer. Early in her

Damini Nath New Delhi

Hundreds of spots across south Delhi have gone dark after LED streetlights that illuminated them were stolen recently. At least 300 LED lights have been stolen from poles, forcing the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) to lodge four separate FIRs, Chief Engineer (Electrical) Firoz Ahmed said.

Big ight : Mary-Claire King speaking during the Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series, 2017, in New Delhi.

career, she found that chimpanzees and humans shared 99% of their genes and the differences between them lay in the manner and sequence in which they were expressed.

BRCA genes When working well, the BRCA 1 and 2 genes help repair damaged DNA. However, if someone inherits the faulty versions of these genes, the protective shield is dented and the woman is highly likely to get breast or ovarian cancer, sometimes even both, Dr. King said, citing work from “thousands of studies” beginning from 1990s. Only 15% to 20% of wo-

men with ovarian or breast cancer have BRCA and other mutations that are definitely known to cause cancer, said Dr. King. While several genes are suspected to be linked to cancer, the BRCA family is but one of them.

‘Undertake study’ Dr. King added that it would be well worth a national effort in India to undertake a study of women afflicted by breast and ovarian cancers and see how many of them have the mutated dangerous versions of the BRCA genes. The genetic test to determine the presence of BR CA genes costs about ₹15,000 in India. Were women to take the test in their

30s, it would help them with decisions such as mastectomy in case they possess the errant genes. Family history would also help determine the risk to one’s sisters and daughters.

Cost of tests “I’m sure that ingenuity, efficiency and ability to reduce the cost of tests exists in India,” she added. Her hour-long talk invited several questions from students, physicians and veteran scientists ranging from whether women in a largely poor country such as India could afford such a test and the extent to which physicians ought to trust test results before recommending

400 academicians express concern over recent events unfolding at university

Staff Reporter

Press Trust of India New Delhi

The Governing Body of St. Stephen’s College here has called a meeting to discuss the autonomous status of the college on Saturday. The move comes after the Centre announced in the 2017-18 Budget provisions for granting more autonomy to educational institutions. However, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) has called for a protest outside the college during the meeting. DUTA’s Nandita Narain said: “Autonomy means financial autonomy, which will lead to increase in cost of education. How will people send their children to these colleges if they are granted autonomy? The timing of the meeting is questionable since they know the varsity community will be busy recovering from the aftermath of the campus violence.” DU had earlier this month formed a panel for colleges seeking autonomy or university status. Colleges like Ramjas, Shri Ram College of Commerce and Hans Raj had approached the HRD Ministry for greater autonomy.

Over 400 academicians from universities including Harvard, Cambridge, London School of Economics, Yale and New York University have written to Jawaharlal Nehru University Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar voicing concerns over recent events unfolding at the university.

“Under serious threat” The scholars from across the globe have signed an open letter to Prof. Kumar saying the “academic culture and context that has formed the basis of cooperation with international institutions is under serious threat”. “We are deeply concerned and shocked at the events unfolding on your campus and we urge the responsible authorities to act decisively to protect the future of JNU as an internationally-renowned university of academic excellence, which has produced generations of excellent researchers, scholars and other professionals,” the letter said. The letter said it was “shocking” that the university, known for its academic freedom and autonomy that

PHOTO:

V. V. KRISHNAN

Global scholars write to JNU V-C

New Delhi

300 LED streetlights stolen in south Delhi

that has formed the very basis of our cooperation with JNU is under serious threat. We request you to restore the institutional autonomy and provide assurance to the international community that JNU will maintain its commitment to an academic and intellectual, vision of a university that champions academic freedoms, teaching and research, keeping social and gender justice, and civil liberties intact,” it added. Issue raised: A delegation led by Congress leader Digvijaya Singh (centre) met President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi on Friday. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

fosters debate, discussion and dissent, was now being “wilfully destroyed”.

At loggerheads JNU has been in the limelight for over an year after its students were arrested in a sedition case last February. Since then, the Students’ Union and Teachers’ Association have been at loggerheads with the administration over denial of permission to protest on campus, disappearance of a student after a brawl, deduction of salaries of teachers’ raising voices and showcause notices to them, and

the latest confrontation on amendments in the admission policy leading to massive seat cuts in MPhil and PhD courses. “We also feel that such an attack on public education in universities like JNU disables opportunities for historically marginalised communities of India. It is essential that an enabling admission policy, like the one in place in JNU must be retained, other than abiding by the constitutionally mandated policies for affirmative action,” the letter said. “Now, however, the academic culture and context

Admission policy issue In another development, Congress leader Digvijaya Singh, along with a group of JNU students, met President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday over the issue of recent amendments to the university’s admission policy. The students submitted a memorandum to the President, who is also the Visitor of the university. “UGC notification on admission rules for PhD and MPhil programme has been imposed on the JNU community in the most undemocratic manner, systematically violating all norms of Academic Council (AC) and other decision-making bodies,” the memorandum said.

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SDMC to get second waste-to-energy plant soon

surgical removal of breasts and the ovarian tubes.

“Matter of time” Dr. King said making women more aware of the necessity for such a test and getting them to be comfortable with the idea was a “matter of time”. She gave the example of one her friends who died from ovarian cancer but could’ve possibly been saved had she known about the risk. It’s not only women who must be wary of BRCA genes. A notable but still small percentage of men with mutations in these genes are known to have an increased risk of prostate cancer.

Drug addicts A senior police officer said drug addicts in the area usually target poles when police presence is low or fewer people are around, especially late at night or in the early hours of the day. The SDMC will file more police complaints as and when the thefts are discovered, said Mr. Ahmed, adding that the police have already made arrests in the earlier cases. The SDMC had started replacing sodium-vapour lamps that lit up 1.98 lakh streetlight poles with LEDs in 2014. It launched the second phase of the project in January 2017 and installed 75,000 LED lights at dark spots, parks and other neglected areas. While it has been lauded by Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal for completing the “world’s largest” LED replacement project, the civic body has been less successful in maintaining the

new infrastructure. Councillors have repeatedly complained of frequent breakdowns and poor service of LEDs by the company that installed them — Energy Efficiency Services Limited (EESL). The problems had been resolved for the time being, when cases of theft started emerging.

Costly light SDMC Standing Committee Chairperson Shailender Singh said the civic body had already taken action and that an FIR had been filed in his ward Safdarjung Enclave too. BJP councillor from Khanpur ward Satender Prakash told the Committee that lights had been stolen from his ward too, but an FIR had not been filed. With each light costing ₹8,000, as per SDMC Commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel, councillors are now concerned about how long it would take to replace the stolenlights, which are covered under an insurance policy. Insurance Leader of the Opposition Farhad Suri said filing FIRs alone would not be enough. “The insurance company may stop paying to replace the lights since the thefts are happening with increasing frequency. In the larger scheme of things, these incidents show the level of law and order in Delhi,” Mr. Suri said.

Never made commitment to fulil driver demands: Uber Transport Minister, representatives of Ola, Uber met drivers Soumya Pillai New Delhi

A day after drivers called off their strike against cab aggregator services Ola and Uber, the latter said it hadn’t made any commitment towards fulfilling the demands made by the drivers.

Thursday meeting The drivers from Sarvodaya Driver Association, the union which led the strike for 13 days, had met Delhi Transport Minister Satyendra Jain and representatives from Uber and Ola on Thursday. The drivers had claimed they had been assured that their demands would be met. Uber statment However, an Uber spokesperson said on Friday: “We participated at a meeting convened by the Delhi government and reiterated that individual drivers can come to us at any time to raise concerns. We condemn the violent protests carried out by striking unions, which not only harassed driver

the meeting < > During with the Delhi government, representatives from Uber and Ola behaved like obedient children....As soon as they stepped out, they started showing their true colours Ravi Rathore Sarvodaya Driver Association vice-president

partners but also kept them away from earning an honest living,” an Uber spokesperson said. Ola, however, refused to comment on the issue. However, an Ola official told The Hindu:“We will take a decision after the Delhi High Court hearing on February 28.”

Drivers upset This enraged the drivers, who threatened that the strike will resume with greater strength if their demands are taken for granted.

“During the meeting with the Delhi government, representatives from Uber and Ola behaved like obedient children — nodding on every demand we put before them. As soon as they stepped out, they started showing their true colours,” said association vice-president Ravi Rathore. He said they will wait for the hearing before deciding on the future course of action. “We are hoping that the court and the government will understand the plight of drivers. These corporate giants should not be allowed to ruin our livelihoods,” added Mr. Rathore. Commuters, meanwhile, are dreading another strike. “I waited for the strike to get over because getting a cab had become a huge problem. The surge prices made the situation worse. The government should find a solution to this issue so that commuters don’t suffer,” said Uma Maheshwari, a resident of Vasant Vihar in south Delhi.

Upinder Singh’s book now in Hindi Former PM releases latest edition based on her 2008 book Staff Reporter New Delhi

It will signiicantly reduce the amount of garbage that has collected at the Okhla landill over the years South Delhi may soon get its second waste-to-energy plant that would significantly reduce the amount of garbage that has collected at the Okhla landfill over the years.

other stakeholders to transfer the land to the SDMC. The SDMC already has a waste-to-energy plant at Okhla-Timarpur that has the capacity of 1,950 TPD. That leaves the SDMC with about 1,600 TPD of unprocessed waste, Mr. Singh said.

Process of approving The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has begun the process of approving the project, with the Standing Committee on Thursday giving a nod to the 15 megawatt (MW) plant to be set up at Tekhand. The House is expected to pass the plan at a meeting on Monday, as per officials. According to the plan, the SDMC would set up a wasteto-energy plant that would 1,200 tonnes per day (TPD)

Schemes for segregation Taking into account new schemes for segregation at source and secondary collection of garbage, Mr. Singh said the amount of unprocessed garbage would decrease. The additional processing capacity of 1,200 TPD at the Tekhand plant would really reduce the mountain of trash at the landfill, said Commissioner Puneet Kumar Goel. The Okhla landfill, which was started in 1996 and is

Staff Reporter New Delhi

CM YK

of garbage to produce 15MW of electricity. Standing Committee chairperson Shailender Singh said the SDMC was likely to be given 14.2 acres of land that is currently used by

the Cement Corporation of India as well as another plot of 35.33 acres that is vacant for the project. He added that the Centre had instructed the Delhi Development Authority and

spread over 32 acres, gets about 1,800 TPD of garbage. So far, 60 lakh tonnes of garbage has collected at the site, which has risen to 160 feet in height against the permissible limit of 90 feet, said the Commissioner.

PPP model The Tekhand plant, which will cost ₹351.10 crore, would be financed as per the private-public-partnership model. The Union Urban Development Ministry would contribute ₹122.88 crore under the Swachh Bharat Mission and the Power Ministry would give ₹52.66 crore, said Mr. Goel. The SDMC would have to bring in ₹175.46 crore, but is also expected to earn ₹57.81 crore by selling power every year.

Upinder Singh, renowned historian and daughter of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, on Friday released the Hindi edition of her 2008 book on ancient and medieval history. The book, titled Pracheen Evam Poorv Madhyakaleen Bharat ka Itihaas — Pashaan Kaal Se 12th Shatabdi Tak, was released by the former Prime Minister, former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi. The book has been published by Pearson India. Also present at the launch was Nayanjot Lahiri, history professor at Ashoka University.

“Apprehensive initially” “I was apprehensive when approached with the idea of launching the book in Hindi. I realise now that it will reach new audience, thus making it a new launch for

Proud father: Dr. Manmohan Singh congratulating his daughter, historian Upinder Singh, after the release of her book in New Delhi on Friday. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

the book and the author,” Dr. Upinder Singh said. “I’d never understood why an interesting subject like history is considered dull by students. I know now that it’s teachers who make history boring. We teach students what historians think of our history, but never ask

them what they think about it. Through this book, I wanted to depict the beauty of the subject and the culture of our country.” The book has over 350 photographs, maps and line drawings to explain the subject better. ND-ND

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THE HINDU

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IN BRIEF

Minor raped, killed in Narela

Six held for online fraud

Man shot in south Delhi Staff Reporter New Delhi

16-year-old boy detained for sexually assaulting and murdering four-year-old girl Staff Reporter New Delhi

DU clashes: Crime Branch begins investigation NEW DELHI

The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch has begun its probe into clashes between ABVP and AISA members in Delhi University’s Ramjas College. “Police will begin recording the statements of students from Saturday and will collect all the video evidences in the matter," said a senior police officer. PTI

‘Freedom 251’ fraud: hunt on for other directors GHAZIABAD

After arresting Mohit Goel, the director of Noida-based Ringing Bells Pvt. Ltd, the police said they were searching for four more directors of the company that launched the world’s cheapest smarphone. Goel was detained late on Thursday after an FIR was filed by Ghaziabad-based Ayam Enterprises, alleging that Ringing Bells defrauded it of ₹16 lakh. IANS

A four-year-old girl was sexually assaulted and then murdered allegedly by her 16-year-old neighbour in Narela on Thursday afternoon. The juvenile has been detained The police said that the disappearance of the girl would have remained a mystery had the matter not come to light because of another boy’s presence at the site where the juvenile was allegedly planning to bury the girl’s body. The other boy, also from the same locality, spotted the accused and raised an alarm. The locals caught the teenager and thrashed him before handing him over to the police.

Two minor girls raped in Greater Noida GREATER NOIDA

Two minors, including a differently-abled girl, were allegedly raped in two separate incidents on Thursday. The differently— abled girl was allegedly raped by a saloon owner on Thursday evening in an area under Ecotech 3 police station. The man is absconding. Meanwhile, in Jewar, a 13-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her neighbour on Thursday night, police said. A case has been registered. PTI

A senior police officer told The Hindu that a case of murder and rape under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and protec-

tion of children from sexual offences (POCSO) Act was registered against the teenager at the Narela police station. The boy was apprehended and produced before the juvenile justice board.

Left alone The officer said that the victim lived with her parents and one-year-old brother in Narela. Her parents work as labourers at a building construction site in the locality. On Thursday morning, the parents left for work, leaving their two children at home. In their absence, the girl went out to play with her friends around noon. The juvenile noticed her playing and lured her on the pretext of giving her a chocolate. The accused allegedly

took the girl into a bathroom of an under-construction building and sexually assaulted her.

In panic However when she started crying and screaming, the teenager got scared. In a state of panic, the juvenile allegedly strangulated her. It is also alleged that the juvenile smashed the victim;s face with a brick in order hide her identity. The juvenile was allegedly planning to bury her body outside the under-construction building. “The juvenile been sent to a correction home for boys. The investigation is going on,” said the officer. The girl’s body was handed over to her family after autopsy.

Ashok Kumar GURUGRAM

Six persons, including five women, have been arrested for allegedly committing online fraud. A complaint had been registered by Pankaj Kumar, a resident of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh, with the Gurugram Police saying that some persons had fraudulently withdrawn ₹45,000 from his bank account by using his State Bank of India credit card. The complainant said he had received phone calls from different numbers and the callers convinced him to share his card details saying that according to the Reserve Bank of India guidelines, it was necessary to update his card. The five women who have been arrested are under-graduates from Delhi.

A 24-year-old man was gunned down and his two friends suffered injuries following an alleged clash with another group in south Delhi’s Dakshinpuri late Thursday night. The police said at least six bullets were fired by the rival gang using

country-made weapons. Three men from the first group suffered gunshot injuries, one died on the spot. The deceased was identified as Shekhar Yadav. A murder case has been registered at the Ambedkar Nagar police station and three persons were detained by the police.

Minor girl rescued, couple arrested for traicking Questions raised over functioning of police

Gangrape accused attacked in Bhondsi Jail GURUGRAM

Three persons arrested on charges of abduction and gangrape of a 10-year-old girl earlier this month were beaten up by the inmates inside Bhondsi Jail here. Kept in a cell along with 40-odd inmates, the trio -Mukhtar, Aizad and Jalil -were attacked on Wednesday by a couple of fellow prisoners. STAFF REPORTER

HC denies bail to drug lord's wife NEW DELHI

Alleged drug lord Sharafat Sheikh’s wife, who is in judicial custody since June 2006 on charges of being part of an organised crime syndicate, has been denied bail by the Delhi High Court. Observing that Zohra Sheikh has been “roped in” on very serious charges, including possessing unaccounted wealth on behalf of the crime syndicate, the High Court said if let out on bail, “she may tamper with the witnesses and the evidence”. PTI

Ashok Kumar GURUGRAM

A minor girl trafficked from West Bengal has been rescued at DLF Phase-III here. An FIR has been registered. The 16-year-old girl, a resident of Murshidabad in West Bengal, was allegedly abducted by Abu Shufian and his wife Shahima from her village earlier this month and brought to Gurugram. The couple tried to place her as a domestic help at a house in DLF Phase-III saying she was 20 years old, but the girl confided in her employer that she had been abducted and was a minor. The employer, Iqbal Amin, then approached the local police seeking registration of a case against the accused.

Activists come to rescue Instead of registering the case, the police officer allegedly called up the accused couple and directed them to send the girl back to her parents. Not satisfied with the response of the police, Mr. Amin then called up Bachpan Bachao Andolan and the girl was produced before the Child Welfare Committee in Gurugram.

During counselling the girl revealed that the accused couple first tried to persuade her to come to Delhi promising her a good job, but when she refused, the duo abducted her and brought her to Gurugram. The girl further said that Abu repeatedly raped her and also administered her some medicine. He first tried to sell her off for ₹40,000 and then place her as a domestic help with Mr. Amin. The BBA activists also raised question over the functioning of the police for not registering a case under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act. The FIR was registered at Women Police Station on Thursday after CWC chairperson Shakuntala Dhull intervened and wrote a letter to the Gurugram Police Commissioner seeking registration of the case. However, the case has been registered under Section 370 (trafficking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. Investigation Officer Sub-Inspector Raj Bala said that victim did not mention about sexual assault in her statement to the police.

Chargesheet names four in US tourist gang-rape case Men were identiied with the help of call records Nirnimesh Kumar New Delhi

The Delhi Police have charge-sheeted four persons for allegedly gang-raping and committing unnatural sex with a 25-five-year old American tourist at a five-star hotel in Connaught Place last year. The chargesheet against the four accused -- Anirudh Singh, a tour guide, Vivek, a hotel employee, Om Prakash, a driver of a tourist bus, and Maqsood Khan, the cleaner of the bus -- has been filed in a Patila Houses court. The police had identified the accused -- aged between 25 and 40 years -- with the help of call records available with the hotel.

Victim threatened The accused persons had made a video of the act and threatened the woman tourist to make it public if she dared to lodge a complaint, the chargesheet alleged. The four men have been chargesheeted them under Sections 376 D (gang rape), 377 (unnatural sex), 328

(causing hurt by means of poison) and 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 506 (criminal intimidation) read with Section 34 (common intention) of the IPC. They were after the victim made public her displeasure on the progress of the investigation. The police later got her statement recorded before a Metropolitan Magistrate under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The police said the victim had come to India with her friends on a trip. They had booked the services of a Delhi based-travel agency which had sent the accused tourist guide to them. Soon, the guide befriended the victim. One night, he entered her hotel room with his friends on the pretext of discussing their next day’s journey. They allegedly beat her up and took turns to rape her. After she regained consciousness, they threatened her with dire consequences if she approached the police. She then went back to her country.

Woman’s body ished out of Hauz Khas lake Staff Reporter NEW DELHI

A 62-year-old woman was found dead in a lake at a park in south Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village on Friday morning. The police said prima facie it did not seem to be a case of foul play. A senior police officer said that a PCR call was received around 10.40 am about a body being spotted in the District Park Lake. A team Safdarjung Enclave police station reached the spot and pulled out the body. The woman was identified as Veermati, wife of late Attar Singh, a resident of Hauz Khas Village. Her son Ashok Kumar and brother-in-law Ramesh identified her. Veermati used to go to the park for a walk and was seen there around 9 a.m. on Friday. “The woman seems to have drowned,” said the officer. “It could be a suicide or an accident. A probe has been initiated to find out the cause of death. Guards and morning strollers will be questioned,” he added. The body has been shifted to Safdarjung hospital mortuary and postmortem will be conducted on Saturday. CM YK

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Face facts: police sketches not reliable AAP releases irst list of Accuracy of the sketches can be as low as 5%, but police say the illustrations can sometimes be helpful Soumya Pillai New Delhi

Post-graduate student Mohammad Rafiq Shah lost 12 years of his life trying to prove his innocence in the 2005 DTC bus blast case because he was wrongly identified by one of the passengers. Two sketches were made based on the description by two bus passengers. One of them later identified Mr. Rafiq as the person that he saw on the bus. All the counter evidence such as the letter of verification from the vice-chancellor of Kashmir University was completely ignored, said Rebecca John, Mr. Rafiq’s lawyer. Sketches of suspects made by the police based on information given by eyewitnesses or victims can be notoriously unreliable. Out of the 36 sketches released by the Delhi Police last year — made for crimes such as murder, rape and robbery — only five culprits were caught on the basis of the renditions.

Low accuracy A research conducted by the US Philadelphia Police Department in 2015 found that hand-drawn composites were accurate 9% of the time in producing a recognisable likeness to a suspect, while computer-generated composites had an accuracy of 5%. There are several instances of innocent people being picked up by the police simply because their features matched the police sketches. Innocent get caught A 38-year-old resident of north Delh’s Jahangirpuri was picked up after Radhika Tanwar, a 21-year-old Delhi University student, was shot dead in 2011. “I was in my factory when I got a call from my wife that the police had come to my house. I went to the police station immediately and they put me in the cell for the rest of the day for

Rare match: The sketch of a suspect released by the police in connection with the murder of a DU student, Radhika Tanwar, in 2011; the accused who was ultimately caught. FILE PHOTOS

Sometimes helpful: The sketch of a suspect for the 2011 Delhi High Court blast and the accused who was arrested. FILE PHOTOS

Mistaken identity: A Kerala resident was abused on social media due to his resemblance to the sketch of the accused in the 2016 Jisha murder case. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

questioning,” the man said, requesting anonymity. The father of two daughters did not want to be identified as his trip to the police station has affected his reputation. “Though I was let out the next day, people still talk about the time that the police came to my house. It has brought a bad name to my family. I just wish this doesn’t

become a issue when my daughters reach marriageable age,” he said.

‘Sketches are helpful’ The police, however, say that though the sketches might not always be 100% accurate, in certain cases it does help them nab the real culprits. “The sketches only give a direction to our line of invest-

igation,” said Taj Hassan, Delhi Police spokesperson. “It often does not fix an identity, but there are cases where it has helped. We have had instances where people have immediately recognised the sketches of people from their neighbourhoods and workplace.” “Even if in a few cases people are able to spot the person in the sketch, it becomes useful,” Mr. Hassan said. The Delhi Police has about 20 officials that make sketches by using computer software. They started creating computerised sketches a decade ago. Other artists are also brought on board on contract. The freelancers include students, full-time artists and independent investigators. Payment varies according to the hours put in, and the complexity of the case.

Jisha murder case Last year, Thaslik, a salesman and an actor, started receiving abusive and threatening calls after his photo was paired with the suspect in the Jisha murder case in Kerala. Mr. Thaslik’s photo was circulated on social media for ‘looking similar’ to the suspect. On a Facebook video, Mr. Thaslik requested people not to defame him based on false information. Local newspaper reports also said that the man lost his job because of the negative publicity. ‘Process needs patience’ The whole process of getting information out of victims and eyewitnesses requires a lot of patience and perseverance, said Harminder Singh, an artist who has worked with the Delhi Police in many high-profile cases such as the murders of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan, and Delhi University student Radhika Tanwar.

FILM REVIEWS

Lacks a cohesive narrative The ilm’s many stories just don’t come together as a whole

“You have to make sure that you extract maximum information without exerting the person too much. The rule is to stop questioning the moment the person is getting uncomfortable or stressed. One base model is prepared and as and when any new information is received the sketch is improved,” said Mr. Singh, who also runs a private detective agency.

Too many options He said that although the police prefer computerised sketches, for being relatively quick, there are certain software constrains. The software has over a 1,000 varieties of features— eyes, nose, and the shape of the face—which is shown to the witness to pick from. The range of options, however, often creates confusion. For example, the description of “small eyes” leads to at least 50 varieties. “I start with the shape of the head and then move to the eyes. These are the two most important aspects of a person’s features. I also constantly ask eyewitnesses if they have noticed any visible scars, tattoo or birth marks because these immediately jump out to a passerby,” Mr. Singh said. He has also helped the department visually reconstruct faces of victims with severely marred faces. Mahesh Yadav, another artist who draws on paper, said the trick of getting a portrait closest to the suspect is to get eyewitnesses to describe the suspect within a few days of the crime. “As time passes, the memory of what they saw is not as accurate as it would be immediately after the crime. Violence, stress and experience of trauma also affect memory. After 48 hours of the incident, you very rarely get an accurate description,” said Mr. Yadav.

candidates for civic polls Party gives preference to volunteers, 49 women also on list The party has given preference to its volunteers and there are a few turncoats.

Staff Reporter New Delhi

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday released its first list of 109 candidates, which includes 49 women, for the upcoming municipal polls. The list was finalised after it was cleared by the AAP’s Political Affairs Committee, the top decision-making body headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The party claimed it has given tickets to 64 youths. Of the 49 seats alloted to female candidates, three are from the unreserved category while the rest are reserved for women. Among the prominent ones to find their names in the list is Ankush Narang, Delhi youth wing president of AAP. He will contest from West Patel Nagar.

A few turncoats Among them is former Congress councillor, Sanjay Puri, who will be contesting from Janakpuri. Kiran Chadha, who is the wife of BJP’s former councillor Sunil Chadha, will be contesting from Tagore Garden. BSP’s Krishan Kumar Koli, who earlier contested from Andrews Ganj, will fight on the AAP ticket from Kotla Mubarakpur. AAP Delhi Unit Convenor Dilip Pandey said work for selecting candidates for the remaining seats is still going on. “The BJP and the Congress have indulged in corruption in civic bodies for the last 20 years. It is the

Vishal Bhardwaj’s films are never simple and straightforward, however much they appear to be. So, behind his new film that’s set in the 40s love triangle, of an actor, a producer and a soldier, there’s also a germ of a bigger idea — of how cinema/art can’t entirely exist in a vacuum, how it will be taken over by the urgencies of the times. So, in Rangoon the reel-life calling of stunts queen Miss Julia (Kangana Ranaut) gets intertwined with a real mission she chooses to go on and a new role she envisages for herself. All of which is preceded by the goosepimply Azad Hind Fauj version of Rabindra Nath Tagore’s anthem Jaya Ho (sung by Bhardwaj himself ), there is an assertion, however unintended, feeble or clumsily executed, that art has to take an ideological lead. This “art as subversion” element is one of the few things about Bhardwaj’s fictionalised reimagining of film and political history in Rangoon that has stayed on with me, even though most may not pay much heed to it.

An overlong jumble: Kangana Ranaut swings between over the top and measured in “Rangoon”

Rangoon Vishal Bhardwaj Kangana Ranaut, Shahid Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan Run time: 167 minutes Director: Starring:

Much of the rest of the film remains a disappointing blur. Rangoon is an ambitious but overblown, overlong jumble because though Bhardwaj decides to take on too many strands, he doesn’t knit them well as a whole. At one level he doffs his hat to the filmmaking of the times — the references to Devika (Rani), Himanshu (Rai) and the import of raw stock from

Germany. Then he casts his eye on India’s fight for freedom — the Gandhi Bose divide — in the times of World War II and at yet another level, Rangoon is quite simply a tale of passion and betrayal. What you get in the end is an air of diffusion than cohesiveness. Things get scattered, stretched and heavy-handed instead of coming together in an engaging cinematic punch. Bhardwaj’s craft does shine through. In the intoxicating, lush song ‘Tippa’. Or in Julia’s interactions with a Japanese captive — the easy bonding with the so-called enemy, the shared food and

song, the Hindi-Japanese cross-talk and then letting him go, back to his mother with his dignity intact. It’s also in the persuasive comment, in jest and also in all seriousness, at the needless fissures that wars create. It’s these individual moments that reach out, their sum total, unfortunately, doesn’t. Ranaut swings between over the top and measured, Shahid Kapoor is dependable and Saif Ali Khan, a revelation despite his intermittent presence. At one level Bhardwaj casts interesting people in bit roles—Pooja Sarup and Atul Kumar as the Hitler bashing troupe artistes. But then, in embracing a more mainstream narrative he also falls prey to some of its most terrible elements. Like the cringing caricature that the British general (and his abominable sidekick) get reduced to—his grating Hindi/Urdu, the irritating love for poetry and the fate that he meets in the filmi finale. On the other hand there are some appealing characters like Julia’s Man Friday Zulfi who one would have wanted to see more of. Perhaps, there is another film in him alone.

Swaraj India Meanwhile, Swaraj India, the political outfit headed by Yogendra Yadav, announced its second list of 30 candidates on Friday. Early this week, it had announced candidates for 25 seats.

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Hold your nose

Mountain of ilth: Birds lock to a huge pile of garbage at the overloaded Bhalswa landill on Friday. By 2020, the Capital will need an additional area of 28 sqkm, more than the entire spread of Lutyens’ Zone, to dump 15,000 tonnes of garbage daily. SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

Trapped in a psychopath’s brain With an enrapturing performance by James McAvoy, Split will make you fear the possibilities of the human mind Kennith Rosario

Namrata Joshi

time for the broom (the AAP poll symbol) to wipe out corruption from the civic bodies,” Mr. Pandey said. The AAP has received over 10,000 applications from aspirants eying the 272 seats. The party plans to take on the BJP and the Congress by focusing on alleged financial irregularities and the poor sanitation condition in the city. Over the past few months, the AAP has been raising issues related to corruption in the corporations.

The human brain has never ceased to fascinate humanity, especially artists. Everything we know and comprehend ultimately rests with this organ, allowing mankind to mould its surrounding in its favour. But is the fear of what lies beyond the human understanding — the supernatural — an offspring of the brain’s imagination or a reminder of its limitations? Do we control the brain or does the brain control us? Posing these questions, M. Night Shyamalan’s Split dives right into its plot with merely a scene to set up the film. Shyamalan means business. There’s an abduction right at the beginning and the thrills begin even before you’re halfway through your bucket of popcorn. But the thrills aren’t cheap or gimmicky. They are confined to a series of close-ups and monologues. They make you imagine, trap you in your thoughts and take you on a flight of analysis. The movie tells the story of a lunatic, Kevin Wendell Crumb ( James McAvoy), who kidnaps three teenage girls: Claire (Haley Lu Richard-

Split M. Night Shyamalan Starring: James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, Betty Buckley, Haley Lu Richardson, Jessica Sula Runtime: 117 minutes Director:

Taking it up a notch: Every personality James McAvoy portrays is nuanced, relies little on costumes and is bereft of exaggeration. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

and hackneyed narrative. It’s almost as if Shyamalan himself got spooked out by the complexity of the human brain and decided to simplify it a little by adding the presence of a 24th ‘supernatural’ personality. Despite the lost opportunity, the film remains deeply claustrophobic. When not trapped in freakily long close-up shots, the struggle of the three teens to get out of the underground tunnel where they are kept, will make you feel breathless. While you want the girls to escape, each failed attempt is like a free fall: you know it won’t end well. Beyond all the usual tac-

son), Marcia ( Jessica Sula) and Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy). It is a go-to set-up for low budget thrillers, except this kidnapper isn’t just a whack job with an abusive childhood. He is grappling with dissociative identity disorder that renders him with 23 split personalities. Unaware of the malicious manifestations of his disorder, Kevin’s psychiatrist Dr. Karen Fletcher (Betty Buckley) delivers convincing and complex explanations, making us fear him further. But sadly, what starts off as a promising premise that keeps you guessing and examining Kevin closely soon becomes a straightforward

How to Google your way home after 25 years

tics of a thriller, some that work and several that don’t, the film eventually belongs to McAvoy. Despite the Scottish actor being given a role that is enviably meaty on paper itself, he takes it up 23 notches higher. Each personality is nuanced, relies little on costumes and is bereft of exaggeration. The teenage girls, on the flip side, make up for the lack of stoicism and over-dramatisation, barring Taylor-Joy, who plays the gritty and intuitive Casey. The movie is touted widely as Shyamalan’s big comeback, but there are only so many ways in which a filmmaker who has spent his entire career making thrillers can reinvent the genre. Fortunately, Split retains the delicate spookiness of The Sixth Sense (1999). But unfortunately, it’s ridden with the predictability that infested his other movies.

Lion Garth Davis Dev Patel, Nicole Kidman, Rooney Mara, Sunny Pawar, Abhishek Bharate, Priyanka Bose Runtime: 118 minutes Director: Starring:

Lion is a true story that has its heart and performances in the right place Kennith Rosario

Standout performances: Sunny Pawar and Nicole Kidman steal the show in Lion. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT CM YK

Saroo Brierley was effortlessly interacting with journalists and signing copies of his autobiography when I met him at a plush five star hotel in suburban Mumbai for an interview. He looked like an NRI, spoke like an Australian. By any stretch of imagination, you wouldn’t picture him to be the child of a daily wage labourer hailing from Madhya Pradesh, let alone guess that he successfully traced the way back to his

hometown from his adopted home in Australia after being separated with his family in 1987. Lion is based on this extraordinary true story. Spending time with the 36year-old made Lion a surreal viewing experience for me, not only because the retelling of his story comes vibrantly alive on screen, but also because the film’s earnestness matches that of Brierley’s. While the film may be sincere in its telling, it is not bereft of flaws. A key ‘charac-

ter’ in this success story is Google Earth, played by, well, Google Earth. What could’ve been a two-hourlong advertisement for the Internet giant is condensed in one scene. The adult Saroo (Dev Patel) hears about this “new technology” from a friend. All it takes is this glimmer of possibility for him to embark on a mission to find his mother and siblings. As much as it may be attributed it to the truth, it is too simple a trigger for such a complex character.

While Saroo dexterously uses Google Earth, director Garth Davis, who makes his feature début with Lion, uses the earth to enhance the film. The movie is peppered with breathtaking top-angle landscape shots, reminding us that we ultimately live on a finite planet, and our placement on it forms a large part of our identity. Immersed in these landscapes, you have the frightening image of a lost child, exposing the fragility of human life. Essayed tenderly

and effortlessly by Sunny Pawar, Saroo’s close shave with speeding vehicles or malicious people will make your heart skip a beat. But it’s the moments of equanimity and maturity that make him stand out as a performer. Dev Patel, on the flip side, takes forbearance and breakdowns to extreme ends. While not constantly sniffling, he is wearing a poker face. Rooney Mara seems to be stuck in the meek character mode of Carol (2015), while

playing Patel’s Indian-foodloving girlfriend. Essaying Patel’s mum is Nicole Kidman, who steals the show with the right amount of tears and adequate composure. Slumdog Millionaire (2008) was criticised for looking at India through an orientalist gaze. But in Lion, intentionally or unintentionally, the childlike wonder and fear of a lost five-yearold matches the creative innocence of a foreign filmmaker. Even as Saroo is shown fascinated by orange

kurta-clad saadhus at Howrah Bridge, you can almost imagine the crew going starry-eyed behind the lens. Much like Saroo, the film is torn between two worlds and looks like it is made keeping the interval in mind. While the ‘first half ’ is driven by nuanced performances and sensitive execution, the ‘second half ’ dodders under the weight of expectation. ND-ND

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IN BRIEF

‘You can’t undercook a female part any more’ From a brash Pushpa to a shy Alia, Delhi girl Huma Qureshi is busy portraying diferent shades of Indian women DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Anuj Kumar

Action packed event Combining best of music and motorcycles was a two-day long event “Rider’s Music Festival” that was held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium recently. Lucky Ali who was the star of the festival sang a range of songs which had the audience grooving. Added attraction were bike rallies. The two which were organised started started from South Extension and Mayapuri and concluded at the stadium.

Poetry session Doordarshan Delhi organized Vasanti Kavi Sammelan, a Hindi poetry recital carnival recently to spread the use of Rajbhasha Hindi. Many acclaimed poets including Leeladhar Mandloi, Kedarnath Singh, Ashok Chakradhar, Harish Naval, Lakshmi Shankar Vajpayee and Shri Ramdrash Mishr, Dr. Jai Prakash Kardam, Shri Bansilal Verma among others gathered on the occasion to present their poetic creations and enthralled the audience.

Spring festival The 43rd edition of IHGF Delhi Fair Spring 2017 was held at India Expo Centre & Mart in Greater Noida. This year’s exhibition saw participation of many exhibitors who went on to showcase thier products under 14 different product segments. The participants through their goods demonstrated their skill in handicrafts, lifestyle and fashion products and also in gifts and furniture.

In the audience verdict of Jolly LLB 2, there is a special mention for Pushpa, the one who hates tears. “She has a family but doesn’t have the middle class trappings. She could tell her husband that what he is doing is not right. She also steps up to the occasion when she finds that he is in a fix. She is not just somebody who is there for effect. It was a welcome challenge,” gushes Huma Qureshi, who made Pushpa absolutely believable. The challenge is fine but it is an Akshay Kumar vehicle where she is one of the passengers. Having started with strong characters in films that veered away from mainstream tropes, it seems Huma in now looking for mass appeal. “When I was doing theatre in Delhi, I was told I couldn’t do movies because a middle class Delhi girl can’t aspire to be a film actress. It was not considered to be a done thing. When I started doing movies, I was told that I could do only certain kind of films. Lot of films that I wanted to do, went to more ‘commercial’ people. So another challenge here was to prove that it was also something that I could do. And I had a blast dancing, lip syncing to songs and performing in emotional scenes.” Huma maintains there is nothing wrong in a creative person reaching out to more people. “When I was doing theatre, I wanted to reach out to 150 audience in the auditorium. When I started acting in films, I want to reach out to as many audience as possible. Also, the makers of the film have given ample space to the female character to do her bit. It is not a stereotypical husbandwife relationship. Now in mainstream films, the female character has much more to do than just making kheer

Kashmiri meets Mughlai Huma’s father Saleem Qureshi runs a chain of restaurants in Delhi. “It used to pay for our college fees. If not for an actor, I would have been a restaurateur. I do enjoy cooking but I only cook occasionally. We are big on hospitality. Perhaps that’s why we are blessed with a number of friends. My father is a proper Delhi Qureshi while my mother is a Kashmiri. One day, I would like to write a book on how Kashmiri meets Mughlai on our table.” DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Game for challenges: Huma Qureshi during a photocall for “Viceroy’s House” at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in Berlin

for the husband and say, aaj maine apne haathon se kuch banaya hai! Pushpa is brash, speaks her mind and likes her drink.” Huma feels there has been a “tectonic shift” in how female characters are being written and perceived. “You can’t undercook a female part any more. Even if it is a mother character in the film, if you are not going to add a nuance as to who she is, where she comes from, you lose out on audience. The cut copy paste sort of template

can’t work any more. It has happened because our society has evolved and a new set of writers and directors have emerged who are reflecting this change. There are many women who order drink in a bar and there are many men who cook at home without being reduced to wuss.”

Coy and controlled Cut to Gurinder Chadha’s Viceroy House, where we will get to see the coy, controlled side of Huma. “It is an

English film with ensemble cast drawn from all over the world. The last Viceroy comes to India before Independence and and he is given the task of cutting India into two. There is a Muslim girl in his house who is his translator. She is in love with a Hindu boy who works as his valet. I would call it a political epic romance. The backdrop is politics of course, but it is essentially a romance between these starcrossed lovers.” Huma is glad to be part of

PHOTO: AFP

a compelling story, which was showcased at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival recently. Does it remind us of lessons from Partition? “I think so. Few years ago, some documents were declassified by the British government, which shed light on what happened in those few months leading to Partition. How it impacted the life of so many Indians....Gurinder is in a special position because she is a woman and a British of Indian origin and she is a Punjabi.

She understands the complexity of the issue.” Does it show that the our leadership had feet of clay? “As an actor, it would have been against my conscience to be part of a film that took a stand like that. It is a balanced narrative,” she argues. A period film requires a different kind of homework and Huma says she would chew Chadha’s head. “From how my hair style is going to be to my diction, I had 1000 questions to ask her. I have been raised as a very vocal

person. My parents always believed: if you want to say something, say it. And Alia, my character, is a very quiet 1947 girl. I talk with my hands going all over, she is always in control. She has lot of passion inside, though. I would often ask Gurinder why can’t she be like me. I like that give and take with the director. But I always ask questions before going to the set. Once, I am on the set, the director is the boss. After all they have hired you for a purpose,” Huma chuckles. When Huma emerged on the scene we liked her spunk with a dash of old world charm. She seemed like in a unique space but, over the years, the industry hasn’t challenged her enough. “Industry hasn’t given me that many choices but I am sitting here today. I am educating myself in this journey. I often watch other actor’s films and think how I would have done it. Sometimes, you feel inspired, sometimes you feel humbled and sometimes you feel gosh! I should have done it.”

FOOD SPOT

Of taste, texture and translation Celebrating Urdu, Jashn-e-Rekhta festival was a lavourful experience in more ways than one RAHUL VERMA

Driven by passion: Harbhajan Singh

Making a point Harbhajan Singh on his assessment of the touring Australian side and his role in the new season of “Roadies” Anuj Kumar

Recently, Harbhajan Singh made a statement that this is the weakest Australian side to tour India. After India’s dismal batting performance in the first innings of the Pune Test, there is a question mark over Singh’s assessment of the visiting team. However, the off spinner says, he stands by his statement. “When you make a wicket like this, you make the conditions favourable for the opposition as well. The point I am making is that if we play on good wickets, we are a better side. With good wicket I mean where the Test match lasts for five days, where the ball shoots up only on fourth and fifth day,” says Singh during a telephonic conversation about his joining the new season of MTV Roadies as a mentor. “On tracks like these, toss becomes vital, which should not be the case,” adds the off spinner. Indian has successfully batted second this season. Singh says, it was against weaker opposition and the risk with this plot is that it could backfire. Singh admits that the present Australian side has quality players like Warner and Smith but argues that our spinners are definitely better than theirs. “But that’s on a good track. Here the track is so bowlerfriendly that a rather unknown bowler captured six wickets. There are only two possibilities. Either Steve O’ CM YK

Keefe has become a quality spinner overnight or the wicket helped him a lot.” Singh recalls the 2004 Test series against Australia where in the Mumbai Test, Michael Clarke captured six wickets in the second innings. “That haul didn’t make him a quality bowler.” On his association with Roadies, Singh says he likes to connect with the youth. “I felt I could give some advice to participants on mental and physical strength. I like the concept of the show. It is a show where there are no recordings. The tasks are live. It is not a cut-paste job as we see in many other reality shows. This time during selection if we had to select 50 contestants, 30 are those who are tailor-made for the show. The rest are completely novice, anari hain. They have come to the show because they are passionate about becoming Roadies. I identify with such guys as I can say from my personal experience that only those people succeed who are passionate about their dream. My job is to turn them from anaris to khiladis. Whatever I am, is because of my passion. Your hard work and luck can take you to a high but to stay there you got to be passionate about what you do.” After a break, the Turbanator is now gearing up for the domestic season. “My aim to is make it to the national side for the ICC Champions Trophy in June.”

Do you sometimes get the feeling with a good book that once you have finished reading it, you want to start with it all over again? I do – and I had the same feeling when a wonderful festival got over in the Capital on Sunday. It was held in the heart of the city and was filled with three days of music, talks, debate – and of course food. I am talking about Jashne-Rekhta, a festival celebrating Urdu, held at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) – the sprawling complex which sits between Janpath and Rajendra Prasad Road. I like the place for a great

tawey ke parathey. The haleem, a meat and wheat mash, had been lightly spiced and was smooth, yet nicely chewy. The kababs were superb – deliciously spiced, soft and literally melted in the mouth.

many reasons: they have a nice cafeteria and a crafts store and organise enjoyable music sessions. And every now and then they hold a festival that you remember. The festival is over, but I would like to tell you about it because, for one, I am sure it will be back next year, and, two, many of the food stalls there have their permanent eateries in the city and its suburbs. The food part of the festival was organisd by Delhi Food Walks, a group of food lovers led by my friend, Anubhav Sapra. There was a Peshawari counter (where there were jumbo-sized chapli kababs), Imli (a chaat corner), Afghan food, run by Afghani women refugees (who sold various

Celebrating life: Some of the dishes that were ofered at the festival

kinds of roast chicken and kababs) and a host of other food stalls. I went to three counters – stalls run by the Mrs Bagli of Parsi Anjuman, Rumi’s Kitchen, a Gurgaonbased home delivery and catering service, and a sweetseller of Old Delhi, Babu Ram. The sweet corner had Delhi’s Daulat ki chaat,

which, as you know, is the best dessert in the world –a heavenly concoction of milk foam and powdered sugar. I had another sweet there that I had never eaten before – a makkhan ka samosa. This is a cold dish, in which cold butter is rolled out on a cold surface, turned into a triangle and filled with dried

fruit. It was, in two words, simply delicious. I had Mrs Bagli’s caramelised rice with daal meat – in which the lamb had melted wondrously into the lentils, adding to the taste, colour and texture. The fare from Rumi’s was excellent. I had their galaouti and kakori kababs, haleem and ulte

Electrifying atmosphere It wasn’t just the food that wowed me; the ambience at the food court – indeed at the festival itself – was electrifying. The place was teeming with youngsters, and I love being with the young, who always energise me. There were also eager volunteers everywhere, offering help with a smile and a hand. There were lights hanging from the trees and colourful marquees, and music and laughter wafting in from all corners. There was not a glum face to be seen (though I must admit I didn’t see the festival organisers – I can well imagine what they were going through!). I sincerely hope the festival returns next year. And next time, I promise I will tell you about the food a bit in advance. The countdown begins. the writer is a seasoned food critic

4 EVENTS WORTH-YOUR-WHILE

RECITAL

THEATRE

MUSIC

THEATRE

Buddha, Universe In You

“Punarvivah Ek Punarjanam”

The Copycats

“I’m Your Venus”

Dr. Rekha Mehra with her group will be performing a Kathak dance recital and dance ballet. Mehra a trained classical dancer has acquired a unique style of her own by skilfully blending Indian mythology with traditional dance style along Jaipur and Lucknow Gharana. Venue: Scope auditorium, Core 8, 7, Lodhi Road Time: 6 p.m.

Bhavya Cultural Society presents the Hindi play written by Abhishek Singh and Manish Kumar and directed by Vikas Sharma. It revolves around a woman who has to fight alone and prove herself time and again. The society versus a woman is a never ending battle. Venue: Studio Safdar, 2254/2A, Shadi Khampur Time: 7 p.m.

At Piano Man Jazz Club the group CopyCats of Prabhtoj Singh and Aman Sagar will be performing. They have been playing live in New Delhi for the past six years with various bands and collectives that include different genres. Venue: B6 Commercial Complex, Safdarjung Enclave Time: 9 p.m.

Akshara Theatre will stage this English play directed by Anasuya Vaidya, based on David Ives’ stage adaptation of “Venus in Fur”, by Leopold Von Sacher Masoch. It revolves around a desperate actress and a sceptical playwright. Venue: The People and Co. Premises No. 5, Cyber City, Gurugram Time: 6 p.m. ND-ND