TAXMEN RAID RESIDENCEOF DMK LEADER IN TNChennai/Vellore: Income Taxsleuths on Saturday conductedsearches at the premises of DMKleader Duraimurugan in Velloredistrict over suspected use ofunaccounted money forelectioneering and seized `10lakh of alleged “excess” cash.

PULWAMA ATTACK A GIFTTO BJP: EX-RAW CHIEFHyderabad: The Pulwama terrorattack was a gift to the BJPahead of the elections and it was“alright” to carry out surgicalstrikes on terror camp, formerchief of RAW AS Dulat said.

MODI BLAMES CONGFOR INFILTRATIONMoran/Gohpur: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Saturday saidAssam and the rest of theNortheast were suffering from infiltration due to thepolicies of the Congress.

CAPSULE

MOHIT KANDHARI n JAMMU

With fear of terror attackslurking in the air, the

State police has issued a secu-rity advisory asking cam-paigners and contestants ofthe Lok Sabha polls to avoidholding roadshows, public ral-lies without taking proper secu-rity clearance.

The advisory comes as thecampaign is gathering momen-tum in Jammu & Kashmir andpolitical parties have startedcarpet bombing to woo theelectorate. The advisory wasissued to candidates and differ-ent political parties on the basisof recent assessment reportsprepared by various intelligenceagencies.

According to these reports,three terror outfits Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) and Al-Badr areplanning attacks to disruptongoing poll process in thestate. The objective behindadvisory is to prevent any ter-rorist strike on any contestingcandidate during election ral-lies. In a span of last 10 days,more than fifteen terroristshave been eliminated acrossSouth Kashmir and NorthKashmir districts by the jointteams of security forces.

Despite eliminating largenumber of terrorists in SouthKashmir districts, the situationremains grim on ground zero.

Senior State police offi-cers are not taking any chanceseither. They are regularly mon-itoring the ground situation,especially in areas prone to ter-rorist strikes, and issuingadvance warnings to politicalparties whether to go aheadwith their crowd mobilisationactivities on account of elec-tioneering or not in the wakeof prevailing security situa-tion. Political parties have beenadvised to inform concernedDeputy Commissioners andSenior Superintendents ofPolice before embarking on aroad journey or choosing aplace for a public convention.

Meanwhile, security forcesremained on tenterhooks onSaturday as incidents of violencewere reported from three dif-ferent places of valley. First of all,a car blast was reported alongthe Jammu-Srinagar NationalHighway, 8 kms from Banihalnear Tethar around 10.40 am. ACRPF vehicle was also movingon the highway when the blasttook place. The rear windshieldof the CRPF vehicle was dam-aged in the explosion.

Turn to Page 6

Terror shadow over

J&K poll campaign

RAHUL DATTA n NEW DELHI

With the proscribed ter-rorist group Jaish-e-

Mohammad (JeM) flexing itsmuscles in Jammu & Kashmirin the past few months and car-rying out suicide attack inPulwama on February 14killing 44 Central Reserve Police Force

(CRPF), the security forces aregoing all out to neutralise thefighting capabilities of thisgroup.

The determined action hasseen at least 17 JeM cadreskilled in encounters sincePulwama incident. The overallfigure of terrorists killed sincethen stands at 21.

Turn to Page 6

PTI n NEW DELHI

The EnforcementDirectorate on Saturday

attached hotel Holiday Inn,valued at ̀ 120 crore, located inthe upscale Aerocity area in thenational Capital, in connectionwith a money laundering caseagainst alleged aviation lobby-ist Deepak Talwar.

Talwar, who was deportedfrom Dubai in January this yearand arrested by the agency,“beneficially owned” a compa-ny, Wave Hospitality PrivateLimited, that, the ED alleged,used tainted money to con-struct the hotel, next to theIndira Gandhi InternationalAirport. The multi-storeyedplush hotel boasts of some ofthe most expensive boardingand dining facilities in theAerocity complex that wasconstructed few years ago forinternational and domestic airpassengers coming to Delhi.

The agency said a provi-sional order for attaching theproperty was issued by it underthe Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA).

The ED is probing Talwarin a criminal case of moneylaundering.

Turn to Page 6

GOVIND CHOUDHARY n NEW DELHI

Ahead of the Lok Sabhaelections, the Aam Aadmi

Party (AAP) is all set to launch“Metro campaign” fromSunday for full DelhiStatehood.

AAP Delhi convenerGopal Rai said the MahilaMorcha will launch the cam-paign at Rajiv Chowk MetroStation. “Sixteen teams, com-prising four women in each,will be at all eight gates of thestation. These workers willdistribute the letters on fullStatehood to passengers,” saidRai, referring to the AAP’sStatehood campaign for gen-eral elections.

Accusing his opponent,Delhi BJP unit president ManojTiwari, of allegedly lying aboutfull Statehood, Rai said, “Tiwariused apex institution’s name formisguiding the people onTwitter in “#Twitterchaupal.”

Referring to Tiwari’s recentstatement on Supreme Court’sverdict about full Statehood,Rai questioned the BJP forgiving false and misleadingstatements. “It could only bedone by amendment of theConstitution in Parliament”,added Rai quoting the verdictof the court. Challenging BJPon full Statehood, Rai said theAAP will not allow the BJP tomislead Delhiites.

Turn to Page 6

KUMAR CHELLAPPAN n CHENNAI

Voters in Tamil Nadu havebeen surprised by the

aggressive campaigninglaunched by Chief MinisterEdappadi K Palaniswami whois known for his reticent natureand little public exposure.Palaniswamy, who hit the cam-paign trail from Chennai sinceWednesday, has taken the warto the enemy camp by openlychallenging Leader of theOpposition MK Stalin, whoheads the DMK, for an opendebate.

Palaniswamy has takenover from where Jayalalithaaleft. Though he is miles awayfrom the charisma and exu-berance of the late leader,Palaniswamy minces no wordswhile attacking the Opposition.

“Let Stalin and the DMKtell who got the Cauvery WaterDispute Tribunal award incor-

porated in India Gazette.Though the Tribunal deliv-ered the award in 2007, it wasour Amma who got it pub-lished in the India GovernmentGazette. The DMK which was

enjoying the fruits of power inNew Delhi from 1998 to 2013did nothing for getting the tri-bunal award gazetted. Theparty was squabbling formoney spinning ministries at

the Centre,” thunderedPalaniswamy.

At Villupuram where hecampaigned for the PMK can-didate, Palaniswamy was at hisbest interacting with the crowd

asking them questions. “Pleasetell me an instance where thisGovernment has failed in pro-tecting and preserving therights of the people of TamilNadu. Do you think there isany material in the allegationslevelled against us by theDMK?” asked the ChiefMinister to which the crowdroared back with a big no.

Edappadi Palaniswamyhails from Salem and was aMinister in the JayalalithaaCabinet for long before hebecame the Chief Minister fol-lowing the Supreme Courtupholding the conviction andsentencing of Sasikala in thedisproportionate assets case.

Since then he has come ofage and has consolidated hisposition, said author and com-mentator T Ramakrishnan, whohas been watching his perfor-mance for the last three days.

Turn to Page 6

BJP national president Amit Shah, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and other leaders during a roadshow for Shah’snomination filing from Gandhinagar constituency, ahead of Lok Sabha Elections in Ahmedabad on Saturday PTI

Noose tightens on JeM ultras,17 killed since Pulwama attack

Mahila Morcha to launchAAP’s Metro campaignfor full Statehood today

ED attaches

`120-cr Holiday

Inn built by

aviation lobbyist

EPS aggressive poll pitch surprises all

USUALSUSPECTSSWAPAN DASGUPTA

N

o Indian election, at least in these days of intensely

competitive politics, is ever really won until the last vote

is counted. Yet it is commentary on the state of play, some

two weeks before the first round of voting, that some

Opposition leaders are actually claiming that this will be last

democratic election in India in the event Prime Minister

Narendra Modi is re-elected to power.

The suggestion is, needless to say, quite preposterous. It

implies that India’s democratic Constitution is on the verge of

being junked. Strangely, overhauling the Constitution hasn’t

been an issue in this campaign so far and so far as I can

make out, it is unlikely to be raised by anyone in either the

Government and the Opposition. What the ridiculous

alarmism about 2019 being the last time people vote for a

Government actually means is that a section of the

Opposition has, in effect, conceded the election to Modi.

If that is so, it amounts to a dramatic turnaround. Even as

late as January 19, the day Mamata Banerjee used a mass

meeting in Kolkata to showcase the unity of the anti-BJP

forces, it appeared that Modi and the BJP had hell of a fight

on its hands. Indeed, there was a distinct impression in

some circles that a combination of the SP-BSP alliance in

Uttar Pradesh, the strength of the DMK-led alliance in Tamil

Nadu and the overwhelming dominance of Mamata

Banerjee in West Bengal would ensure that Modi would be

deprived of a clear majority in the Lok Sabha.

Today, after Balakot and Operation Shakti and the

relatively smooth seat-sharing arrangement involving the BJP

and its other NDA partners, there is a definite impression

that Modi is on his way back for a second term. The

Opposition certainly seems to sense this tilt in favour of the

incumbent, a possible reason why its rhetoric is getting more

and more shrill with each passing day. First there were all

those expressions of

puerile insolence over the

Balakot airstrikes that made

it seem that the Opposition

leaders were somehow out

to rubbish the Indian Air

Force and bat for Pakistan.

And last week, by trying to

undermine the significance

of India’s ASAT advance,

the Opposition just

appeared churlish and

petulant. A more gracious

response to both these

incidents centred on

national security would

have made the Opposition

— and at least the

Congress that has a rich

experience of being in

Government — look

responsible. Now, Modi’s

taunts about the anti-BJP

forces being more

obsessed with its hatred of

the Prime Minister than with

national security appears

all too relevant. The

Opposition may have

bolstered its anti-Modi

credentials handsomely but

its credentials for giving

India a responsible

Government has suffered a

body blow. Whether it is

able to recover from the

consequences of needless

negative posturing will be

worth monitoring.

The Opposition’s

unending negativism, even

at the cost of national

sentiment, has given Modi

the ammunition for

aggressive campaigning.

Modi’s campaigning can broadly be divided into two parts.

The first, which covered some 150 constituencies and

happened before the election schedule was announced,

focussed principally on the achievements of his first term

and only tangentially on the shortcomings of the Opposition.

The present round, which began in Western Uttar Pradesh,

and is expected to cover another 150 constituencies, will be

more focussed on enthusing his support base and will be

more aggressive. However, what seems interesting in both

phases is that Modi exudes total confidence. He is not

defensive, not even remotely, and the tone is that of a Prime

Minister who expects to be re-elected.

Whether this high level of confidence is warranted or not

is not the point. What matters is that the optimism and the

expectation of victory should be transmitted to his

supporters on the ground. This is where the aggression is

important. Modi could have chosen to be prime ministerial

and exuded quiet confidence. The danger of this approach

is that it could breed complacency among the NDA

supporters, lead to a fall in turnout and cost the ruling side

some marginal seats. It was this over-confidence that was a

factor in the NDA’s loss in urban areas in 2004, a loss that

cost Atal Bihari Vajpayee his prime ministership. Both the

BJP and Modi have learnt from this experience.

However, the issues are not merely tactical. One of the

reasons Modi exudes confidence is not merely because the

alternative looks grim and Indians are loath to experiment

with instability. There is a very high measure of satisfaction,

both within the party and among its support base, at

performance of the Modi Government. There has been a

conscious attempt to create a network of beneficiaries of

schemes such as Mudra, Ujala and Swachchh Bharat. In

particular, there is a belief that there is silent support for the

schemes from women. If this happens, the outcome could

be quite dramatically in favour of Modi.

These are the imponderables. What is relevant at this

stage is that Modi has a coherent narrative that appeals to

his faithful supporters. A couple of regional parties apart, the

Opposition is still trying to weave together its story line.

Whether this high level ofconfidence is warranted ornot is not the point. Whatmatters is that the optimismand the expectation of victoryshould be transmitted to hissupporters on the ground.This is where the aggressionis important. Modi couldhave chosen to be primeministerial and exuded quietconfidence. The danger ofthis approach is that it couldbreed complacency amongthe NDA supporters, lead toa fall in turnout and cost theruling side some marginalseats. It was this over-confidence that was a factorin the NDA’s loss in urbanareas in 2004, a loss thatcost Atal Bihari Vajpayee hisprime ministership. Both theBJP and Modi have learntfrom this experience

‘Confident’ Modi allset for second term

Delhi AAP convener Gopal Rai addresses a Press conference in New Delhi PTI

Policeissuesecurityadvisoryto parties

Security personnel inspect the mangled remains of a car which exploded near aCRPF convoy on the Jammu-Srinagar highway at Banihal, in Ramban district ofJammu & Kashmir on Saturday PTI

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Moran/Gohpur (Assam):Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday said Assamand the rest of the Northeastwere suffering from infiltra-tion due to the policies of theCongress and asserted that he,as the 'chowkidar', was com-mitted to resolve the issue.

He also said it was theerstwhile Jana Sangh and tallleaders such as Atal BihariVajpayee, who had raisedtheir voice in support ofBangladesh during the neigh-bouring country's indepen-dence movement, and not asthe Opposition usually por-trayed it.

"Congress has alwayscheated the people of Assamand if Sardar (Vallabhbhai)Patel and (first Assam chiefminister) Gopinath Bordoloihad not taken a strong standat the time of Partition, thenAssam's identity would nothave been what it is today,"Modi said while addressingthe second of the two electionrallies at Gohpur in Assam.

Indirectly referring to theChinese aggression of 1962,Modi said the Congress pol-icy was such that it was onlydue to the brave people ofTezpur and the armed forcesthat the state could be saved.

"This chowkidar is com-

mitted to f ight againstAssam's problems of infiltra-tion, terrorism and corrup-tion and ensure the dignity ofthe people of the State," hesaid. He urged the people toremember on polling day thatAssam and the country canbecome free from illegalmigrants and terrorists only ifthe BJP-led NDA is voted ason one side is the 'dumdaarchowkidar' (strong watch-man) and on the other''mahamilawat wala parivar''(adulterated family).

Modi has targeted theopposit ion al l iance as''mahamilawat".

He highlighted the roleplayed by the right-wing JanaSangh, which was recreated asthe BJP in 1980, and AtalBihari Vajpayee in supportingBangladesh liberation move-ment. Indira Gandhi, whowas prime minister of thecountry during creation ofBangladesh in 1971, is usual-ly credited for its liberationfrom Pakistan.

Modi had in 2015received award of BangladeshLiberation War Honour onbehalf of Vajpayee for his"active role" in the country'sindependence struggle andconsolidating India's friend-ship with the nation. PTI

Modi blames Cong

for infiltration

problems in NE

city 02LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

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Be it known to all concern that theoriginal sale deed dt. 19.02.1999 bearingDocument No. 1240, alongwith originalAllotment Letter executed by LucknowDevelopment Authority, Lucknow favouringSmt. Neera Garg wife of Late RatanPrakash Garg resident of 10/10, SarojaniNaidu Marg, Lucknow in respect of House5/140, measuring 112.50 sqmt situated atViram Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow hasbeen lost any where and not traceable.

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PUBLIC NOTICE

PNS n LUCKNOW

Hitting out at the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the state,Uttar Pradesh Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath askedhow could ‘ker’ (banana) and‘ber’ (Indian plum) exist togeth-er.

“It is an alliance of strangebedfellows and the parties in themahagathbandan are inherent-ly opposed to each other in theircharacter, ideology, orientationand social support base. Thisalliance can never be successfulas people won’t accept them,” hesaid.

Yogi said that people wereaware of the conduct and per-formance of the previous gov-ernments headed by SamajwadiParty and Bahujan Samaj Partyand the electorate would givethem a befitting lesson to the“mahamilavati and corruptalliance” in the Lok Sabha elec-tions.

Exuding confidence thatthe BJP was strong and front-runner in UP, Yogi said, “In the2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJPhad won 73 seats along with itsallies and in the 2017 UP assem-bly election it had won 325 seatswith its allies and later in themunicipal polls, the party hadwon 14 out of the total 16municipal corporations. We areconfident of achieving the tar-get of winning 74 plus seats in2019 Lok Sabha elections.”

Talking to media persons atthe BJP state headquarters hereon Saturday during the joiningof SP MLC ChoudhuryVirendra Singh, Yogi said thatBJP was never weak and itwould win at least 74 seats in UP.

Yogi said the aspirations ofthe electorate of India, particu-larly the youths, for a strong andprosperous India would seethem rally behind the BJP to givea second term to NarendraModi as Prime Minister.

“During the five-year tenureof the Narendra Modi govern-ment, India has achieved spec-tacular success in domestic aswell as global fronts and thecountry has emerged as thefastest growing economy of theworld,” the Chief Minister said.

Yogi said the BJP was cruis-ing ahead on its ideology of‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ and

the opposition was destined fora crushing defeat. He also

claimed that the joining ofGujjar leader Chowdhury

Virendra Singh would strength-en BJP in western UP.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party(Lohia) founder Shivpal

Singh Yadav on Saturday filedhis nomination papers fromFirozabad Lok Sabha con-stituency.

The Firozabad constituen-cy is set to witness an interest-ing battle of ballots within theYadav family for the first time,as ‘Chacha’ Shivpal is pittedagainst his ‘Bhatija’ AkshayYadav, the son of SP generalsecretary Ram Gopal Yadav.

Shivpal reached his partyoffice in Firozabad at 11 amand after performing pooja atthe Balaji temple atShikohabad, proceeded to thedistrict collectorate to file hisnomination papers. He wasaccompanied by the leaders ofhis party and also of SamajwadiParty.

Shivpal is still the SP MLAas he has neither resigned fromthe part nor from the mem-bership of the state assembly.He represents Jaswantnagarseat in Etawah district in theassembly.

SP president AkhileshYadav has initiated proceedingsfor his disqualification from themembership of the assemblyunder the anti-defection law.

Addressing a public meet-ing after filing the nominationpapers, Shivpal dismissed thechallenge from the SP candi-date. “My party is fightingagainst the Bharatiya JanataParty in the entire state and willdefeat them and in Firozabad,”he said, adding that his directcontest was with the BJP.

“The people of Firozabadconstituency are fighting on mybehalf and SP candidateAkshay Yadav is nowhere in thecontest,” Shivpal claimed.

Claiming that he had theblessings of SP patriarchMulayam Singh Yadav, Shivpalsaid Netaji would win by alandslide margin fromMainpuri seat.

PNS n LUCKNOW

An office-bearer ofRashtriya Swayamsevak

Sangh was sprayed with bulletsin Sonebhadra on Saturdaywhile the body of a man miss-ing since the last four days wasrecovered in Muzaffarnagaron Friday evening.

According to a report fromSonebhadra, RSS office-bear-er Suresh Yadav (62), whowas principal of a local college,was returning home aftermorning walk when someunknown persons interceptedhim in front of Forest depart-ment office on Saturday morn-

ing and opened indiscriminatefire on him and escaped.

The injured Yadav wastaken to hospital where thedoctors pronounced him deadupon arrival. Surprisingly, themurder took place near theDistrict Magistrate’s office butno one challenged theassailants who escaped freely.Police claimed to have regis-tered a case and sent the bodyfor post-mortem.

In Muzaffarnagar, a 28-year-old man who was missingsince last Tuesday was foundmurdered in a secluded place.

The body of Jogender wasfound in Nayagaon village

under Ramraj police station inthe district on Friday evening.

Jogender, a DJ, had gone toan event with his partner Nitinon March 26 but did notreturn. Nitin and two others —Shivkumar and Kapil — wereheld on suspicion of complic-ity in the crime. During inter-rogation, they confessed thatthey had strangulated Jogenderto death over a money disputeand dumped his body in adrain, circle officer SomenderNegi disclosed.

Meanwhile, angry villagersheld a protest at the Delhi-Pauri highway and gheraoedthe police station. Shops in the

village remained closed.Security has been tightened inthe area.

Meanwhile, a woman wasallegedly burnt alive by her in-laws in Muzaffarnagar dis-trict. The incident tookplace in Haibatpur villageunder Charthawal police sta-tion area of Muzaffarnagar.

The woman, identified asSonia, was married to ArvindKumar. A case has been regis-tered against Kumar, his fatherMageram, mother Mandri andsister Suman. All of them areabsconding.

The body was sent forpost-mortem.

Lucknow (PNS): Hittingout at Nishad Party chiefSanjay Nishad for walking outof the grand alliance in UP,vice-president of RashtriyaLok Dal’s Lucknow unit,Aditya Vikram Singh, said itwould hardly have any impacton SP-BSP-RLD alliance inthe election.

“During the election, it isa common phenomena andleaders leave alliance or theirparties for political gains.Nishad was with us and hadpromised to campaign forthe alliance candidates. Helater chose to switch over toBJP,” Singh said.

Singh said their alliancewould defeat the BJP. “We area powerful combination andwill stop the BJP juggernautin UP, “ he said, adding thatthe BJP leaders were tryingevery trick to weaken thegrand alliance as it was a for-midable force and the saffronbrigade was now scared.

PNS n LUCKNOW

The senior Congress leaders‘missing’ from the cam-

paigning in Uttar Pradesh dueto their prior engagements orbecause they themselves are inthe fray is affecting the pollprospects of the party in thisbiggest state which sends 80members to the Lok Sabha.

Though Congress generalsecretary and incharge of east-ern Uttar Pradesh, PriyankaGandhi Vadra, has been takinga lot of pains by covering sev-eral constituencies by herGanga yatra and road showsduring the past fortnight, othersenior leaders figuring in theparty’s list of star campaignerhave been conspicuous by theirabsence.

Besides, asking the rankand file to be prepared for the2022 assembly polls in the statehas also affected the party in theongoing Lok Sabha polls.

The biggest surprise for

the local leaders is that newlyappointed AICC general secre-tary and UP west inchargeJyotriditya Scindia, who alongwith Priyanka, has beenentrusted with the task to revivethe Party in UP, ha been miss-ing from the campaign scene,especially in western UP wherepolling will be held in the firstphase on April 11.

Interestingly, after takingpart in the roadshow along withPriyanka and Rahul Gandhi inLucknow, Scindia has beencamping in New Delhi to mon-itor the candidates’ election-eering and not making any legwork to strengthen the party atthe ground level or to garnersupport of the voters.

As Jyotiraditya is himselfcontesting from Gawalior seatin Madhya Pradesh and his wifeis also contesting from GunaLok Sabha seat, his focus is nowon his and his wife’s con-stituencies rather than in westUP.

UP Congress leaders saidhere on Saturday thatJyotiraditya along with partyleaders, including Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi, wouldcampaign rigorously in UP.

“Every leader has beengiven his responsibility andthey are doing it as per the strat-egy,” the leader said.

However, some Congressleaders said that with just10 days left for the first phasepoll campaigning to end in westUP, Jyotiraditya had not yetfixed a plan to visit west UP.

Congress media committeein-charge for the Lok Sabhapolls, Rajiv Shukla, is also miss-ing from the scene in the state.He is only seen at the IPLmatches across the countryevery day. UP Congress pres-ident Raj Babbar is also busy inFatehpur Sikri, from where heis contesting the polls and hasno time for other candidates tillpolling ends in his own constituency.

PNS n LUCKNOW

After Nishad Party on Fridaysevered ties with the SP-

BSP-RLD alliance, theSamajwadi Party on Saturdayannounced Ram BhuwalNishad as its candidate fromthe high-profile GorakhpurLok Sabha constituency ofUttar Pradesh.

The SP also fielded RamKumar from Kanpur and STHasan from Moradabad,replacing Nasir Qureshi.

Ram Bhuwal Nishad, whowas earlier with the BahujanSamaj Party, is a two-timeMLA from KaudiramAssembly constituency whichhe lost in 2012. He was also aminister in the Mayawati gov-ernment and headed theFisheries department. Nishadcomes from Badhalganj inGorakhpur and wields consid-erable influence in the Nishadcommunity.

The Nishad Party is nowin talks with the BharatiyaJanata Party for an alliance andits chief, Sanjay Nishad, metChief Minister YogiAdityanath in Lucknow onFriday.

Ironically, Sanjay Nishad’sson Pravin Nishad isSamajwadi Party’s incumbentMP from Gorakhpur after hedefeated the BJP candidate inthe 2018 by-election toGorakhpur seat by 21,000votes.

Gorakhpur has been thehome turf of UP Chief Ministerand since 1989, the party hasbeen winning the Gorakhpurparliamentary seat.

“Nishad Party is now amember of the NationalDemocratic Alliance but tech-nically, I am still the MP ofSamajwadi Party,” PravinNishad said and added, “So farnothing is final and decisionabout my candidature fromGorakhpur Lok Sabha seat willbe taken shortly.”

The Nishad Party hadjoined the SP-BSP-RLD allianceon March 25 and it wasbelieved that Pravin Nishadwould once again be thealliance candidate fromGorakhpur.

Pravin Nishad had con-tested the March 2018 by-elec-tion to Gorakhpur Lok Sabha

Parties in mahagathbandan

inherently opposed: Yogi

Gujjar leaders join BJPPNS n LUCKNOW

In yet another setback to theSamajwadi Party and anti-

BJP alliance in western UttarPradesh, a prominent Gujjarcommunity leader, ChowdharyVirendra Singh, joined theBharatiya Janata Party in thepresence of Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath and party statepresident Mahendra NathPandey here on Saturday.

Virendra Singh is a native ofShamli district in western UP.He is Samajwadi Party MLCand was Cabinet minister in theprevious Mulayam Singh Yadavgovernment.

Samajwadi Party is animportant constituent of theanti-BJP alliance that also hasBahujan Samaj Party, RashtriyaLok Dal and some small polit-ical outfits. The term ofVirendra Singh as member ofthe Vidhan Parishad ends onJanuary 30, 2021.

Virendra Singh’s joining theBJP has dealt a big blow to thegrand alliance in west UP, which

goes to polls in the first twophases.

The BJP gain is significantas one of the ruling party’sGujjar community leader andMuzaffarnagar MLA AvtarSingh Bhadana had quit theparty and joined the Congressrecently. Moreover, anotherGujjar community leader,Mriganka Singh, daughter ofsenior Gujjar leader late HukumSingh, is also sulking after beingdenied ticket from Kairana LokSabha seat. She had unsuccess-fully contested the bypoll toKairana Lok Sabha seat in May2018, losing to TabassumHasan, the SP candidate sup-ported by Rashtriya Lok Daland Bahujan Samaj Party.

Virendra Singh, in his briefspeech, said that there was nocondition on his joining the BJPand his main effort would be tosupport to party to win all the16 seats of west UP going topolls in the first two phases.

Virendra Singh, a six-timeMLA and minister in theMulayam Singh Yadav govern-

ment, joined the BJP alongwith his close associates andShamli district panchayat chair-man Manish Chauhan andKandhla block pramukhHarminder Chauhan.

Singh is nephew of veteranGujjar leader ChowdharyYashpal Singh, who wasCongress MP from Saharanpurand served as minister inCongress governments headedby Vishwanath Pratap Singh andSripati Mishra.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, welcoming the SPleader in the BJP fold, said thejoining of Virendra Singh wouldboost the party’s prospect inwestern UP.

When asked if Nishad Partywas also joining the BJP, theYogi said with a smile, “Wait, theBJP is not weak and will fulfilthe target of winning 74 seats inUP.”

BJP state presidentMahendra Nath Pandey alsowelcomed the Gujjar leader inthe party and gave him the partymembership slip.

Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and BJP state chief Mahendra Nath Pandey withChowdhary Virendra Singh, Manish Chauhan and Harminder Chauhan who joined BJP in Lucknow on Saturday Pioneer

seat on SP ticket and his victo-ry had sent shock waves in theBJP as the saffron party hadwon this seat eight consecutivetimes since 1989.

Gorakhpur is a known bas-tion of Chief Minister YogiAdityanath, who representedthe Lok Sabha constituency forfive times. The earlier threeelections were won by his guru

Mahant Avaidyanath. SP sources said the discord

between the SP and the NishadParty was over the number ofseats demanded by SanjayNishad. Besides Gorakhpur,Nishad Party wantedMaharajganj and Jaunpur LokSabha seats but this demandwas rejected by SP chiefAkhilesh Yadav.

Ram Bhuwal Nishad is SP candidate in Gorakhpur

RSS leader shot dead in Sonebhadra

Shivpal filespapers fromFirozabad

Stars ‘missing’ in Congress

poll campaign in UP

RLD leader slamsNishad Party chief for leaving alliance

LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019city 03

PNS n LUCKNOW

The valedictory function ofthe day 2 of the national

conference on Violence AgainstWomen held at the departmentof Social Work, LucknowUniversity, began with aKulgeet by students of SocialWork followed by a floral wel-come to all members on thedais including Dr KK Singh,Professor MN Parmar, ProfRBS Verma, Prof GurnamSingh and Dr. Rohit Mishra.

The welcome address wasdelivered by Professor GurnamSingh, head, Department ofSocial Work, and convenor ofthe national conference.

The next speech was deliv-ered by Dr Rohit Mishra, sec-retary of Pandit Govind MohanMishra Sansthan, Lucknow.He talked about his Sansthanand the issues they dealt withlike HIV awareness, need ofblood donation. He also start-ed a campaign of distributionof old clothes to people. Heconcluded by giving his viewson the topic “Violence AgainstWomen”.

The conference proceed-ings were given by Dr AnoopKumar Bhartiya, organisingsecretary of the national con-ference.

The next dignitary whoaddressed the session wasProfessor MN Parmar, formerdean, Faculty of Social Work

and Director, High PaymentProgramme, MS University,Vadodara. He gave a few wayouts which were educationof women, promote genderequality and women empow-erment.

The next address was givenby Dr KK Singh, guest of hon-

our, former director, NIPCCD,New Delhi.

Professor RBS Verma, for-mer head, department of SocialWork gave suggestion regard-ing police, government,recruitment of women in civilareas, judges should visit policestations for knowing the prop-er functioning of the institu-tions.

After the speech, the prizedistribution ceremony washeld. The prizes wereannounced by Dr Rohit Mishraand were distributed by ProfRR Singh.

A vote of thanks was pro-posed by Dr Rakesh Dwivedi,assistant professor, departmentof Social Work and coordina-tor, National Service Scheme,University of Lucknow, whothanked the entire team of thenational conference includingthe professors, students,research scholars and all thestaff.

The valedictory functionended with a group photographof all the participants andawardees followed by thenational anthem.

Polytechnic

crossing to have

smooth traffic

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

The Traffic department is focusing onclearing congestion at the

Polytechnic crossing. ASP, Traffic,Abhishek Verma said that this wasimportant in view of the UPSRTC busestaking the eastern UP route from thecrossing which made it necessary fordecongesting the crossing.

He said that they had made autotempo stands on all sides of thecrossings. “We have made these standsin the service lane in front of theWave Mall, on the Faizabad road andon the road which goes up to theMunshipulia. We have set up signagesand boards that mark the space fromwhere the passengers can be picked upand dropped from the stands. The con-gestion occurs when the tempos and theautos wait for the passengers instead ofpicking them up and moving,” said theofficial.

On being asked that most of theUPSRTC (Uttar Pradesh State RoadTransport Corporation) buses werecausing traffic snarls near theKaiserbagh bus station, he said that theyhad asked the UPSRTC officials to seethat the buses did not create clutter bypicking up passengers from the roadsand instead they should pick up pas-sengers from the bus stations. Headmitted that when they began issuingchallans to the UPSRTC buses, therewas objection raised by the Corporationthat one government department couldnot challan another government depart-ment and hence they had informed theUPSRTC officials.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

The district administration carried out thefirst randomisation of EVMs on Saturday

at the Collectorate in front of members of thevarious political parties.

Officials said that randomisation was aprocess in which EVMs were randomly allo-cated by the administration to variousAssembly constituencies so that it could beensured that no tampering was done with themachine.

Chief development officer Manish Bansalthat the second randomisation would take placeon April 24 after the nominations in which theEVMs would be allocated to particular boothsof various polling constituencies. He said thatthey had carried out the randomisation of over3900 EVMs which was 12 per cent more thanthe EVMs required for the 3561 polling

booths. He said that they carried out the ran-domisation of 2200 VVPATS which was 22 percent extra VVPATs. “There are some EVMs andVVPATS which are still in the field for the pur-pose of demonstration and have to be ran-domised,” he added.

Meanwhile, in a separate meeting,Divisional Commissioner Anil Garg reviewedpreparations for the general elections. DistrictMagistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said that twonodal officers had been selected in two areasof the Assembly constituency. He said that therewere 3561 polling booths in 1451 polling sta-tions.

“The polling booths of 1200 voters havealready been identified and 26000 differently-abled voters have also been identified and pro-visions have been made of volunteers, wheel-chairs and e-rickshaws for the differently-abled,”he said.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation(LMRC) managing director said that

they would be running the trains in theAutomatic Train Operation mode at peakhours and in the Automatic Train Protectionmode at non-peak hours in the comingdays. This, he said, would be done when thetrains are in the fully automatic train oper-ation mode.

Talking to “The Pioneer”, he said thatit was always good to run the trains in theAutomatic Train Operation mode becausethe trains stopped at the correct place andthey followed the proper speed. “When dri-vers are running the train, sometimesthere is a problem in deceleration and thetrain does not stop at the right place,” hesaid

He said that the Automatic TrainProtection mode was when the drivers wererunning the train. “Although all my trains

are automatic yet I want that the skills of thedrivers are used and hence they are run onthe Automatic Protection mode wherein thedriver is present. There is also a supervisorpresent to counsel the driver so that theycarry out the work properly,” he said.

Citing the recent case when the doorsdid not open at the Hazratganj Metro sta-tion, he said that the driver had forgottento open the doors for which he was coun-selled.

The managing director said that theywere trying to sort out the minor signallingissues currently even as they tried toincrease the ridership.

“We are collecting a lot of data and wewill be doing the analysis of this data afterone month’s time. Currently, we have foundthat the rush is more on the weekendsinstead of the weekdays. Also we have foundthat the rush is more in the morning andthe evening on week days and from after-noon onwards on Sundays,” he added.

City getting

hotter

PNS n LUCKNOW

The maximum tempera-ture touched a 38.7

degree Celsius which was 4degrees above normal onSaturday.

The local forecast forLucknow and neighbour-hood is mainly clear sky. Themaximum and minimumtemperature will be around39 degree Celsius and 20degree Celsius respectively.The state forecast is that theweather is most likely to bedry.

For the denizens, itwas a hot day and most ofthem preferred to stay putin their air-conditionedrooms.

PNS n LUCKNOW

The recovery of three bodiesof men in different inci-

dents in the city sent theLucknow police in a tizzy onSaturday. Police heaved a sighof relief after the families of thevictims identified the bodies.Police sent the bodies forautopsy and further investiga-tions were underway.

As per reports, some com-muters spotted the body of aman floating in Indira Canal inChinhat. The news spread likewild fire and a huge number ofresidents flocked to the scene.Later, a police team reached thescene.

While police were trying toascertain the identity of theman, some villagers reachedthe scene and informed thepolice about another bodywhich was floating in the canaland was stuck against a rock inthe canal.

The police team passedthe information to their seniorsand another police team wassent to investigate the matter inwhich another body was recov-ered.

During the investigation, afamily of Barabanki reachedthe scene and identified thebody to be of Shiv Kumar (25)of Kurshi police station area ofBarabanki.

“Shiv Kumar was mental-ly deranged and was missingfor the last 4-5 days. His fam-ily was searching for him sincethe day he went missing. Theyreached Chinhat Kotwali toseek details of recovery ofunidentified bodies from thecanal. They were shown thebody and they identified him,”police spokesman AK Dwivedisaid. He said the body bore nomarks of injuries and it seemedthat the victim died fromdrowning. “The autopsy reportwill confirm the cause of

death,” he said.He added that another

body recovered from IndiraCanal was also identified dur-ing the investigation.

“The deceased was identi-fied as Pawan Kumar Mishra ofKothi police station area ofBarabanki. The police recov-ered a diary in which the cellnumber of one of Pawan’s rel-atives was written. The policecontacted the number and thefamily was summoned at theKotwali. They later identifiedthe body,” he said.

The spokesman said Pawanworked as a cook and had vis-ited the city last Tuesday insearch of work. “He later wentmissing and his family lodgeda case with Barabanki police,”he said.

Meanwhile, a 37-year-oldmissing railway employee wasfound dead and his body wasrecovered from GomtiRiverfront in Gomti Nagar

police station area on Saturday.The body was identified by hisfamily who reached the scenewhile searching for him.

The police spokesman saidthe deceased was identified asDinesh Chand Yadav of NaiBasti in Husainganj police sta-tion area of Lucknow. “Dineshwas employed as a train driverand was missing from hishouse two days back. “Dineshreached the Gomti Riverfronton a bike and parked the bikea few distance away from thescene.

He walked to the river andthen jumped into it. Those pre-sent at the scene raised analarm and the divers jumpedinto river to save him. He waspulled out and was rushed to ahospital where he was declaredbrought dead,” the policespokesman said.

He said Dinesh had got thejob on compensatory ground in2006.

PNS n LUCKNOW

The embezzlement of Rs 10lakh from Maalkhana (a

police’s office which deals withthe forfeited property/cash incrime cases) of HazratganjKotwali is giving the top brassof UP police sleepless night.The incharge was arrested andall the money was recovered.

On Friday, during aninspection, the aforesaid cashwas found short at Maalkhanafollowing which a case forcriminal breach of trust wasregistered against Maalkhanaincharge Ashok Kumar Singh.Later, the SSP, Lucknow, sus-pended the incharge andassigned ASP, East, SureshChand Rawat to probe into thecase.

“The probe into the casewas undergoing and we are col-lecting evidence against theculprit policeman,” the ASP(East) said. He declined tocomment if the police recov-

ered the cash from the accused.Sources said the police

recovered Rs 1.5 lakh in cashfrom the accused after he wasinterrogated by the police offi-

cers. “The police officersseemed sympathetic to theerrant policeman and gave himtime to return the cash insteadof pursuing a criminal caseagainst him,’ the source said.

They said the cash was partof the recovery which thepolice made three months backin two different cases. “The

errant policeman used to thecash to purchase propertyworth Rs 8 lakh in Budeshwar,Para, hoping he would adjustthe cash after he got the same

from one of his acquaintances.But he failed to get help fromhis acquaintance and in themeanwhile his malpracticecame to the fore,” they said.

They further disclosed thata man, whose cash was seizedby the Hazratganj police sometime back, was pursuing hiscase hotly and he moved the

court for the release of hismoney. “But Ashok had invest-ed the cash in property by then.When the pursuer of the casepetitioned his case to seniorofficials, Ashok returned himthe cash. He took cash from therecovery of Rs 70 lakh byHazratganj police a couple ofdays back. The cash was recov-ered from the employee of acompany owner,” the sourcesdisclosed while explaining howthe malpractice of theMallkhana incharge wasexposed. Police spokesmansaid Hazratganj SHO lodged acase against Ashok for thefraud under section 406 ofIPC. “Ashok could not explainthe shortage of the cash whenthe total cash recovered wascounted amid the presence ofsenior police officials, includ-ing ASP, East. He was detainedand was being interrogated,” hesaid. He said the police were yetto recover cash from theaccused policeman.

PIONEER NEWS SSERVICE n LUCKNOW

The smart driving licences from theTransport department will now

reach the general public in a period of10 days in a new design format undera new centralised arrangement whichcommenced from Friday.

This information was given byRTO, Headquarters, Sanjay Jha who saidthat the main aim of implementing itwas that they had been receiving sev-eral complaints regarding the non-receipt of smart driving licences in theearlier system and hence the new pro-cedure would ensure transparency andalso see that the people got the licenceson time because delay of any sort wouldresult in the penalty to vendors who hadbeen selected for the delivery of thelicence. Talking to The Pioneer, he said

that so far all driving licences wereprinted at the RTO but later the workwould be carried out at the TransportCommissioner’s Office. “People used toapply at the RTO and then receivelicences from the RTO. Under the newarrangement, the process of the print-

ing had been shifted to the Transportdepartment which would access a cen-tral system for sharing the data whichit received from the RTO,” he said. “Justas your pan card or your ATM card getprinted under one centralised author-ity, similar case will prevail with the newsystem. People will be applying online

from their respective districts but afterit is approved by the licensing author-ity, the printing of the data will be doneat the Transport Commissioner’s Officeby the same agency. Similarly, theagency will also dispatch and deliver thesmart card through the India Post,” hesaid.

Smart driving licences to be delivered in 10 days“PEOPLE USED TO APPLY AT THE RTO AND THENRECEIVE LICENCES FROM THE RTO. UNDER THENEW ARRANGEMENT, THE PROCESS OF THEPRINTING HAD BEEN SHIFTED TO THE TRANSPORTDEPARTMENT WHICH WOULD ACCESS A CENTRALSYSTEM FOR SHARING THE DATA WHICH ITRECEIVED FROM THE RTO”

Three bodies recovered

LU meet on women concludes

EVMs’ demo conducted by dist admin

Maalkhana scam befoxes cops

“The errant policeman used to thecash to purchase property worth Rs8 lakh in Budeshwar, Para, hopinghe would adjust the cash after he gotthe same from one of hisacquaintances. But he failed to gethelp from his acquaintance and inthe meanwhile his malpractice cameto the fore”

Fire department personnel dousing flames after a blaze broke out in a paint godown in Mawaiyya on Saturday Pioneer

Metro services to be improved

Straying aninals ceating a nuisance for those living in Khajua Ramlila Maidan Pioneer

city/nation 04LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

PNS n LUCKNOW

The workshop on sciencecommunication and film-

making being held at theNational Botanical Research(NBRI) concluded on Saturdaywith a valedictory function. Dr.Sanjay Mishra, advisor andhead, Knowledge Involvementin Research Advancementthrough Nurturing (KIRAN)Division, DST, was the chiefguest of the valedictory func-tion and distributed the cer-tificate to the participants.

Earlier in different ses-sions held on Saturday, DrCM Nautiyal, famous sciencecommunicator, discussed aboutthe writing skills for scientificfilms. In his lecture on dilutionwithout distortion, hedescribed the art of script writ-ing for a science film. He saidthat words had enormous

power hence selection ofappropriate words should bedone with utmost care. Headded one single word could

kill the entire story. He discussed many possi-

ble genres like documentary,drama, docu-drama, biopic,

science films and explainedhow writing for films was dif-ferent from writing for radio orprint media.

He discussed a range oftopics that could form thetheme for science films andadded that topical issues wouldattract more people.

He informed studentsabout possible opportunitiesarising out of DD Sciencechannel.

He said that science had aclose relations with the society.“If science develops capabilityto predict vulnerability to dis-eases, this is bound to affectinsurance, employability andmarriage prospects. On onehand, science and technologyhave led to development, on theother it has meant changes infamily structure and relation-ships. Over medication has ledto immunity to drugs” he said.

He advised the partici-pants to look for success storiesof Indian science and writescripts for them.

NBRI holds workshop on science comm

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Amity School of Fashion Technology organ-ised a fashion show titled “Graduation

Design Collection – 2019” to showcase the fash-ion works of final year students on Friday.

The fashion show was organised for finalyear students of fashion technology as a plat-form of a final trial before taking a lap ofprofessional world and exposing their creativ-ity.

The Graduation Design Collection startedas a process of market study, studying the fore-casts of market, to come up with a concept,deciding a client, coming with a mother boardwhich comprises the theme, mood, colour, fab-rics, textures, silhouettes, styling, trims andother details, with each and every garmentdesigning. This was followed by accessoriationfrom tip to toe for the entire ensemble collec-tion.

The show began with the presentation ofthe clothes under the theme Swarnkatha,Insectious Art, Essence of Terracotta, PricelessEmotion, Not a Feminist just a Realistic,Knockout Knits, The chronicles of Warli,Shades of Nature, The beauty of Spain –Flamenco, This time for Africa, The Flames ofChikankari, Railway runway, Hidden Magic ofButtons, Saga of Stripes, After hours, Sugar Sinand Mothers Pearl.

The fashion show was followed by anawards ceremony in which Vani Anand got theMost Innovative award, and Sonal Wadhawa gotthe Most Dramatic Concept award.

Best Portfolio Award went to Sonali.Alpana Chauhan was awarded the Best FabricOrnamentation Award. Priyanshi got the BestDesign Collection award while Most FuturisticConcept went to Riya Srivastava and best photoshoot award was given to Saloni Arya.

Director, ASFT, Prof Pooja Verma con-gratulated every student for their hard work and

efforts. On the occasion, officiating Pro V-C,Amity University, Dr Sunil Dhaneshwar,Chairman, Amity, Maj Gen KK Ohri (AVSM)and director, Projects, Naresh Chandra werepresent.

Students showcase design collection

DIVINE EDUCATION CONFERENCE

City Montessori School, Anand NagarCampus organised a grand 'Divine EducationConference' on Saturday. Mayor SanyuktaBhatia inaugurated the function by lighting thelamp of learning. She stressed on inculcatingcharacter building qualities in children. Sheappreciated the school's initiative in organiz-ing 'Divine Education Conferences' and its sin-cere efforts to allow students to cultivate char-acter building virtues, moral and divine qual-ities through these conferences.

SCHOOLSCAN

PTI n MATHURA

BJP MP Hema Malini hassaid it will be dangerous for

the country if Prime MinisterNarendra Modi doesn’t returnto power as he alone has thecourage to do what is right forthe country.

The actor-turned-politi-cian, who is recontesting fromthe Mathura Lok Sabha con-stituency in Uttar Pradesh onceagain this year, also hit out atthe Opposition, saying that it is“desperate” as Modi hasensured that there is no cor-ruption in the country.

“There is no other choice.Modiji has to come back. It willbe dangerous for the country ifsomeone else wins. That’s whywe all (BJP members) are work-ing hard to bring him back,”Hema Malini told PTI Bhashain an interview.

Referring to the variousschemes and initiativeslaunched by the central gov-ernment, she claimed that theprevious dispensations did nothave the courage to do whatModi has done.

“It’s sad to see the way theOpposition ridicules every-thing the prime minister does.Whatever he felt was right forthe country, he did it bravely,”

the BJP lawmaker said.Asked why she, unlike

most BJP leaders and cadres,had not added the ‘chowkidar’(watchman) prefix to her nameon Twitter, Hema Malini saidshe is also a ‘chowkidarni’.

“Of course I am also a‘chowkidarni’. Our prime min-ister is a ‘chowkidar’ and we allare assisting him. He is taking

care that there is no corruptionin the country and that’s whythe Opposition is clueless anddesperate,” she said.

Asked whether people willvote for her or Modi in LordKrishna’s city, she said, “Peoplewill vote for me in Mathurabecause Modiji is our leader. Ihave worked hard to bringhim back and every MP of our

party has been working hard.”“It’s not that people will

vote for me only because I ama Bollywood star. I want to bewith the people and tell themwhat Modiji has done, likeintroducing Ujjawala scheme,Ayushmaan Bharat Yojana,building toilets and muchmore,” she added.

The Mathura MP dodgeda direct response when asked ifPriyanka Gandhi’s entry intopolitics would benefit theCongress.

“I don’t want to commenton that. You ask those whohave felt that there is anymagic. In my constituency,everyone loves Modiji and itwill convert into votes,” sheasserted.

Hema Malini filed hernomination papers fromMathura earlier this week. TheBJP MP, who has announcedthat this election will be herlast, is pitted against theRashtriya Lok Dal’s (RLD)Kunwar Narendra Singh.

She had defeated the RLD’ssitting MP Jayant Chaudhary inthe 2014 Lok Sabha polls by ahuge margin of 3,30,743 votes.

Voting will be held inMathura in the second roundof seven-phase Lok Sabha pollson April 18. Results will beannounced on May 23.

PTI n BADAUN

Union minister Smriti Iranisaid Saturday those who

do not have the courage to bowbefore Ram Lalla in Ayodhyawould not be able get the votesof the devout followers of LordRam.

Irani’s comments come aday after Congress general sec-retary Priyanka Gandhi Vadraprayed at the popularHanuman Garhi temple inAyodhya, but kept away fromthe makeshift Ram Lalla shrineat the disputed RamJanmabhoomi-Babri Masjidsite. “See the politics of thesepeople. They went to Ayodhya,but did not bow before RamLalla (infant Ram).... Thosewho do not have the courage to

pay obeisance to Ram Lalla forfear of vote-bank (politics) willnot be able to get the votes ofthe Ram ‘bhakts’ (devout fol-lowers),” Irani said at a rally inUttar Pradesh’s Badaun district.

“On polling day, Ram‘bhakts’ will go to the pollingbooths and cast their votes for

development,” the textiles min-ister said.

In an apparent attack onVadra’s recent boat rides on theGanga, the Bharatiya JanataParty leader said those whoused to take “foreign trips”were out to have Ganga ‘dar-shan’ due to election.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Two children were charredto death in a fire in

Muzaffarnagar while in a sep-arate incident in Pilibhit, fivepersons were burnt alive aftertheir four-wheeler caught fireafter colliding with a tourist busin the wee hours of Saturday.

Chief Minister YogiAdityanath expressed grief atthe deaths in Muzaffarnagarand directed the local admin-istration to do the needful.

He also asked the officialsto ensure proper treatment ofthose injured in the roadmishap. Reports said that a firebroke out in a shanty inShukrateerath jungles underBhopa police station inMuzaffarnagar on Saturdaymorning in which two littlegirls were trapped.

The villagers and familymembers tried to rescue thegirls but both were charred todeath in the fire.

A case was registered andthe bodies were sent for post-mortem.

In the second incident, thedriver of a speeding tourist busof Nepal lost control over thewheel and the bus collidedhead-on with a car comingfrom the opposite direction inthe wee hours of Saturday. Theincident took place on Pilibhit-Bareilly road near Khamariyavillage under KotwaliJehanabad police station.

All five occupants of thecar were killed after the carcaught fire, police said.

The police said efforts wereon to nab the driver of the buswho abandoned the vehicleand escaped.

PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief MinisterDinesh Sharma on Saturday described the

Congress’ NYAY (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) as“anyaay (injustice) yojana”, saying that thescheme is “laughable” when compared to thewelfare schemes implemented by the BharatiyaJanata Party.

The public is able to see all the anyaay doneby them (Congress) in their NYAY scheme.This is a type of anyaay yojana, as in the peri-od of more than 70 years of Independence, you(Congress) ruled the country for almostthree-fourths of the period but never thoughtabout the betterment of the people, especial-ly the poor,” Sharma said here on Saturday.

“The worst impact of the anyaay yojanawill be visible in Amethi (Rahul Gandhi’s con-stituency), where the raj gharana (royal fam-ily) will lose the Lok Sabha election this timeby a margin of few lakh votes for the first time,and the flag of the BJP will fly high,” the DeputyChief Minister said.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi had onMonday announced that ̀ 72,000 per year willbe given as minimum income to five crorepoor families if his party is voted to power inLok Sabha polls, asserting that it will be a “finalassault” on poverty.

Pointing out that the Congress had been

saying garibi hatao (eradicate poverty) for thepast five decades, Sharma wondered what thegrand old party had done to achieve the goal.

In 72 years, since Independence theBharatiya Janata Party leader said, the Congresswas not able to give even `72 and only raisedgaribi hatao slogans. “The Congress is tryingto misguide the people of the country by show-ing dreams of giving `72,000 per year.”

“This only shows their disappointment anddesperation vis-à-vis the various develop-mental works carried out by the BJP govern-ment in the last five years,” Sharma said, addingthat the people of the country would now say“Rahul bhagao”.

Sharma said the NYAY scheme seemed“laughable” when compared to the welfareschemes implemented by the NationalDemocratic Alliance for the poor.

Two children charred to death

Bowing before Ram Lalla

a must for votes: Irani

Dinesh Sharma describes NYAY as anyaay yojana

It will be dangerous for country ifModi isn’t re-elected: Hema

landmark 05LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

PNS n NEW DELHI

The Aligarh district magis-trate has submitted "evi-

dence" to the ElectionCommission regardingRajasthan Governor KalyanSingh's reported remarks sup-porting the return of NarendraModi as Prime Minister.

The Election Commissionis examining his reportedremarks in the light of possibleviolation of the Model Code ofConduct, as holding a consti-tutional post makes the gover-nor "apolitical".

The sources said detailsand clip of the comments weresubmitted to the Uttar Pradeshchief electoral officer Friday.

Addressing BJP workers athis Aligarh residence on March23, Singh had reportedly said,"All of us are BJP workers andwe want the party to win. Wewant Modiji to become theprime minister."

Singh, a former UttarPradesh Chief Minister, report-edly made these remarks to pla-cate some agitated BJP mem-bers who had gathered outsidehis house over ticket distribu-tion.

In the 1990s, the ElectionCommission had expresseddispleasure over HimachalPradesh Governor GulsherAhmed campaigning for his son in elections. He hadlater quit.

PNS n NEW DELHI

Congress on Saturdayalleged mismanagement

of the economy by theGovernment and that it hassuffered due to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi's "reckless"decisions. The party also hitout at for announcing thatIndia had demonstrated anti-satellite missile capability, say-ing only a "foolishGovernment" would makesuch a disclosure and "betray"a defence secret.

Congress claimed thatModi has to be held account-able for destroying tens of mil-lions of jobs by demonetisation.While former Union MinisterAnand Sharma said that in thepast five years, India's econo-my is "gasping" instead of "gal-loping", former FinanceMinister P Chidambaramsought answers from the primeminister on high unemploy-ment rate and job losses, citingdata from the National SampleSurvey Office (NSSO).

"The government isdestroying the credibility ofIndian data by embellishing thedata, fudging numbers andinflating figures. The fact is thatthere has been an monumen-tal mismanagement of Indianeconomy under his watch. It isnot galloping economy but a

gasping economy, a strugglingeconomy which has also suf-fered because of the recklessdecision of Prime MinisterModi," he said at AICC brief-ing.

Sharma said the fourengines of the Indian economy— investment, manufactur-ing, exports and capital for-mation — were down. "He hasto answer for a hasty imposi-tion of a flawed GST modelwhich he claimed to be 'onenation, one tax', but it is onenation, f ive taxes whichexcludes 45 per cent of the rev-enue, making Indian GST themost burdensome most com-plex," he said.

Sharma also alleged thatthe country has played with thecredibility of the country's data."Fudging of the data is notgoing to help. NITI Aayog's jobis not meant to embellish num-bers and fudge the country'sdata. The prime minister andhis government has playedwith the credibility of the coun-try's data. They have dented thecredibility," he said.

Senior Congress leader PChidambaram hit out at PrimeMinister for announcing thatIndia had demonstrated anti-satellite missile capability, say-ing only a "foolish govern-ment" would make such a dis-closure and "betray" a defencesecret.

Slamming the announce-ment by of A-SAT by primeminister, senior Congressleader P Chidambaram questioned the motive of thegovernment in making theannouncement. "The capabili-ty to shoot down a satellite hasexisted for many years. A wisegovernment will keep the capa-bility secret. Only a foolish gov-ernment will disclose it andbetray a defence secret. Besides,why was it done now in themiddle of an election cam-paign? Only to boost the sag-ging fortunes of the BJP,"Chidambaram claimed.

Following the prime min-ister's speech, severalOpposition parties had com-plained to the ElectionCommission alleging violationof the model code of conduct.The Election Commission,however, said on Friday nightthat Modi's address to thenation on the successful test-firing of an anti-satellite missiledid not violate the model codeof conduct.

PNS n NEW DELHI

An analysis of self-declaredaffidavits of outgoing Lok

Sabha MPs shows that 19 fromAndhra Pradesh have an aver-age annual self-income of`1.05 crore, the highest amongall MPs in the country. The fig-ures also reveal an inverserelationship between educa-tional qualification and income— 106 or 22 per cent of MPswho are graduates have anaverage annual self income of`41.28 lakh while six MPswho have declared their edu-cational qualification as Class5 pass have an average annualself-income of `1.41 crore.The analysis by the Associationof Democratic Rights (ADR)and National Election Watch(NEW) of the affidavits of 479Lok Sabha MPs submittedbefore the 2014 general elec-tions also reveals that Odisha,one of the poorest States, sendssome of the richest MPs toParliament.

The ADR-NEW figuresshow that after AndhraPradesh, the State's 15 MPshave the second highest aver-age annual self-income of `68.8lakh. Other States and MPswho figure in the top 10 in thiscategory comprising states andunion territories are Gujarat's

24 MPs (`59.5 lakh), Punjab's13 MPs (`51.4 lakh), Haryana's10 MPs (`42.6 lakh),Jharkhand's 14 MPs (`39.07lakh), Assam's 13 MPs (`32.7lakh), Uttar Pradesh's 72 MPs(`32.03 lakh), Rajasthan's 20MPs (`30.7 lakh) andTelangana's 14 MPs (`30.6lakh). BJP's Kirron Kher, thelone MP from Chandigarh,declared an annual self-incomeof `1.72 crore.

The ADR and NEW haveanalysed the self-declared affi-davits of 479 out of the 521 sit-ting Lok Sabha MPs, whichwere submitted in 2014, priorto the general elections. 42MPs did not declare theirincome and hence have notbeen included in the report.

According to report,98(20%) out of 479 MPs havedeclared business as their pro-fession, and 91(19%) MPs as anagriculturist/ farmer. 16(3%)MPs who have declared theirprofession asActor/Filmmaker/ Singer havethe highest average annual self-income of `106.81 lakh.

As far as the other south-ern states are concerned,Telangana's 14 MPs have aver-age annual income of `30.6lakh, Karnataka's 27 MPs have`26.4 lakh, Kerala's 17 MPshave `10.6 lakh and Tamil

Nadu's 33 MPs have annualaverage income of `7.2 lakh.Two MPs analysed of Goahave the lowest average annu-al self-income of ̀ 5.3 lakh, fol-lowed by 33 MPs analysed ofTamil Nadu with average annu-al self-income of `7.2 lakh.

Out of 479 MPs analysed,5 (2%) MPs have not giventheir profession in their affi-davit. The report said that 40(8%) MPs who have declaredtheir profession as agricultureand business, have the secondhighest average annual self-income of `75.24 lakh. Asmany as 106 (22%) MPs havedeclared their educational qual-ification as graduate. The aver-age annual self-income of theseMPs is ̀ 41.28 lakh.There are 6MPs who have declared theireducational qualification as5th pass. The average annualself-income of these 6 MPs is`1.41 crore.

It further stated that asmany as 150 MPs aged between46-55 years, have average annu-al self-income of `40.54 lakhwhereas 54 MPs aged 66-75years, have average annual selfincome of ̀ 16.72 lakh.Only 58(12%) MPs are women. On anaverage a male MP's annualself- income is `30.54 lakh,whereas for a female MP, it is`28.46 lakh.

PNS n NEW DELHI

In a first of its kind initiative,the Election Commission

(EC) has reached out to over150 Community Radio stationsfrom across the country to helpeducate and inform the voters.According to EC, the commu-nity radio is one the best medi-um to reach the last voter ofthe country.

Addressing an eventorganised by IndiaInternational Institute forDemocracy and ElectoralManagement (IIIDEM), inpartnership with SeekingModern Applications for RealTransformation (SMART), atIIIDEM, Dwarka, DeputyElection CommissionerUmesh Sinha saidCommunity Radio can play avital role in motivating andmobilising the voters, enlistingthe underserved voters into theelectoral roll, mobilising themto go to the polling booth, edu-cating them about their rightsand responsibilities, and mak-ing them an informed andeducated voter.

He emphasised that everyvoter is the first representativeof the country, they are the sol-

diers and play an importantrole in protecting democracy.

" Elections provide a levelplaying field as each vote hasthe same power, no matter whocasts it -the richest of the richor the poorest of the poor.Community Radio can play animportant role in strengthen-ing democracy by developingcontent in their local dialectsand deepening the process ofvoter education and awarenessupto the grass root levels. Heassured that CommunityRadio Stations will nowbecome an integral part of thevoter education programme.

The workshop was inau-gurated by Mr ChandraBhushan Kumar, DeputyElection Commissioner & DG,IIIDEM on March 25, whoiterated that CommunityRadios can play a pivotal rolein increasing voter enrolmentand participation in the"Festival of Democracy". Hesaid that the tag line of 'Novoter to be left behind' was toensure that each and every eli-gible voter irrespective of his orher economic status, class,caste or profession under-stands the importance of his orher vote.

RAJESH KUMAR n NEW DELHI

For those downing a peg ortwo daily, it is sure to be a

dampener due to dry daysdeclared by the ElectionCommission (EC) prior 48hours on polling day across thecountry. During 48 hoursbefore the end of polling in anyconstituency, sale and distrib-ution of spirit based liquor;intoxicant or any substance ofthe same nature will be pro-hibited in hotels, restaurants,bars, clubs, shops and anyother public and private placeon dry days declared by thecommission. Even, non pro-prietary clubs, star hotels,restaurants should also not bepermitted to serve liquor onthese days even if they areissued different categories oflicenses for possession andsupply of liquor.

Besides, storage of liquorby individuals should be cur-tailed during dry days.Interestingly, more dry daysand stringent checks on carry-ing liquor have left revelersdispirited. In fact Uttar

Pradesh, Bihar and WestBengal will go for voting in allseven phase which means moredry day for tipplers. As per ECdata, 61.29 lakh litre liquorworth `129.86 crore has beenseized across the country tillMarch 30 after the impositionof model code of conduct.

Officials said that in Delhi,there will be seven dry days tillMay 23. In April, there arethree official dry days — RamNavami (on April 14), MahavirJayanti (April 17) and GoodFriday (April 19) during whichthe sale of liquor will be pro-hibited. The sale of liquor willbe banned 48 hours before thenational capital goes to poll andso, no liquor shop will be openfrom 6 pm onwards on May 10and the ban will go on till 6 pm

on May 12. Besides, May 23(the counting day of Lok Sabhapolls) will be also observed asdry day.

Officials of excise depart-ment said that there are 800liquor shops in Delhi and anaverage per day sale is esti-mated over `10-14 crore. TheState Government has set up 14excise team to keep a close eyeon the sale of liquor.

Due to polls, there will befive dry days In Maharashtra.Maharashtra will go to poll infour phases, which means thatdifferent cities in the state willobserve dry days on differentdates. According to EC officials.the rules state that alcohol saleshould be banned in 5 kmperiphery if the elections arebeing held in the neighbouringstate. However, no such rule isapplicable if a neighbouringdistrict is going to poll.

Liquor shops in Mumbaiwill be shut on April 27 (6 pmonwards), on April 28th thesale of alcohol will be bannedfor the whole day due to elec-tions. April 29th will see aliquor sale ban till 6 pm

approximately. The first day ofMay will be a dry day as it'll bea state holiday due toMaharashtra Diwas.Additionally, May 23, electioncounting day, will also beobserved as a dry day.

There will be three drydays in Goa as the state will goon poll on April 23 which willbe observed as a dry day whilethere April 21 and 22 will bedry days. The liquor shopswill be closed on May 23rd asthe election results will beannounced.

"The EC has directed forstrict compliance of legal pro-visions. This system will also befollowed on counting day as itis also declared dry day underthe laws. During the countingday, sale and serving of liquorwill not be permitted in shops,hotels, restaurants and clubs,"the EC said in its directive tostates.

Punjab will go on poll onMay 19 and there will be com-plete ban on sale of liquor onMay 17 and 18. However, thishas already hit the big, fatwedding plans in the State.

PNS n NEW DELHI

The EnforcementDirectorate on Saturday

attached hotel Holiday Inn,valued at `120 crore, locatedin the upscale Aerocity area inthe national Capital, in con-nection with a money laun-dering case against allegedaviation lobbyist DeepakTalwar. Talwar, who wasdeported from Dubai inJanuary this year and arrest-ed by the agency, "beneficial-ly owned" a company, WaveHospitality Private Limited,that, the ED alleged, usedtainted money to constructthe hotel, next to the IndiraGandhi International Airport.

The multi-storeyed plushhotel boasts of some of the

most expensive boarding anddining facil it ies in theAerocity complex that wasconstructed few years ago forinternational and domesticair passengers coming to

Delhi.The agency said a provi-

sional order for attaching theproperty was issued by itunder the Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA). The ED is probingTalwar in a criminal case ofmoney laundering. Theagency alleged that he "ille-gally engaged inliasoning/lobbying with politi-cians, ministers and otherpublic servants and officials ofthe Ministry of Civil Aviationfor airlines such as Emirates,Air Arabia and Qatar Airwaysfor securing undue benefitsfor them" during the tenure ofthe UPA Government.

"He (Talwar) illegallymanaged to secure favourabletraffic rights for these airlines

during 2008-09 at the cost ofnational carrier, Air India," theagency said in a statement.Investigation revealed that inlieu of securing favourabletraffic rights, these airlinesmade payments to the tune ofRs 272 crore to Talwar during2008-09, it said.

"It has been revealed thatTalwar created a web of entities owned by him and his family members in Indiaand international offshorehavens to launder proceeds ofcrime of `272 crore receivedfrom foreign airlines," thestatement said. "Part of thesepayments were made to anaccount in Bank of Singapore,belonging to a companyAsiafield Limited registered inthe British Virgin Islands and

beneficially owned by DeepakTalwar," it added.

These proceeds were "layered" through a series ofinternational money trans-fers, to finally integrate inIndia in Wave HospitalityPrivate Limited, a companybeneficially owned and con-trolled by Talwar and his fam-ily members, in the name ofhis son, Aditya Talwar, the EDalleged. "These crime pro-ceeds were then utilised in theconstruction of hotel HolidayInn in Aerocity, New Delhi,"it said.

Talwar is in judicial cus-tody at present and the agencyis expected to file its firstcharge sheet against himbefore a special PMLA courton Saturday.

PNS n NEW DELHI

IEEE, the world's largest pro-fessional organisation

advancing technologyforhumanity, signed an agreementwith the Common ServicesCenters (CSC), an initiative ofthe Ministry of Electronics andIT (MeitY) to help upskill awider base of learners across thecountry in core technologiesthrough its Blended LearningProgram (BLP) certificate pro-grams.

Under this agreement,IEEE will work through CSCsacross the country to train theyoung professionals in skillsthat align with the Digital Indiainitiative of the Government ofIndia, which in turn will createjobs in the emerging fields ofbuilding/managing data net-

works, Internet of Things (IoT)and help connect the nationdigitally. "The aim of this agree-ment is to jointly create jobs andbridge the digital divide", saidHarish Mysore, Senior DirectorIEEE India Operations.

CEO, CSC Dr. DineshTyagi said, "Through this part-nership with IEEE we look tostrengthen our offering in theeLearning space for learnersacross the country, who will allbenefit from our last mile reach.With the skills attained throughthese programs we expect thatthe learners will be able toimprove their chances of gettinghired in the respective new agedomains of technology."Common Services Centers(CSCs) are a strategic corner-stone of the Digital India pro-gramme.

Andhra, Odisha top list

of richest MPs: ADR

‘Economy suffered due toModi's reckless decisions’

150 communityradios attendEC workshop

Dry Day declared on poll days

New Delhi: Slamming RahulGandhi for his remarks that theCongress, if voted to power,would scrap the NITI Aayog,senior BJP leader MukhtarAbbas Naqvi alleged onSaturday that the Oppositionparty was "threatening anddefaming" constitutional insti-tutions.

The Union MinorityAffairs Minister's remarkscame a day after Congresspresident Gandhi said his partywould replace NITI Aayogwith a "lean" PlanningCommission.

The "shehzada" is speakingunder the influence of his"arrogance of feudal mentality",

Naqvi said in an apparent ref-erence to Gandhi.

When the Congress was inpower, "the anarchy and arro-gance of the feudal family"was at its peak in "criminal mis-use" of constitutional institu-tions and now in theOpposition, they are "threat-ening and defaming" theseconstitutional institutions, healleged.

For the past five years, theCongress has tried to threatenand defame various constitu-tional institutions such as theElection Commission, theCentral Vigilance Commissionand now the NITI Aayog, hetold reporters. PTI

New Delhi: CPI(M) GeneralSecretary Sitaram Yechury onSaturday wrote to the ElectionCommission insisting PrimeMinister Narendra Modi'saddress to nation over the ASATlaunch was "a gross violation" ofthe MCC because after hisspeech the PM claimed he wasa "chowkidar not only on landand air but also in outer space".

Yechury's letter to the ChiefElection Commissioner comesa day after an election commis-sion team declared that Modi'saddress on the successful test-fir-ing of an anti-satellite missile didnot violate provisions of themodel code of conduct.

The poll panel had consti-tuted the committee to look intothe PM's speech upon complaintby Yechury and other opposition

parties. A copy of the EC'sFriday report was also sent toYechury.

In his Saturday letter,Yechury said the EC made a"narrow interpretation" of hiscomplaint.

"Since the ECI has confineditself exclusively to the issue of'misuse of official media' I wouldrequest the ECI to direct the offi-cial media to treatspeeches/statements made byleaders of recognized nationalparties in a similar manner asthey have treated this speech ofthe Prime Minister," he said.

The larger issue, he said, wasthat the PM as a candidate in theelections is "using" the office ofthe Prime Minister to convey adevelopment achieved by sci-entists. "This constitutes a gross

misuse of the office for further-ing electoral objectives," Yechuryargued.

He said that soon after thespeech, the Prime Minister is onrecord to claim that he is a"chowkidar (watchman) notonly on land and air but also inouter space". The Prime Ministerhas often called himself achowkidar (watchman) to high-light his fight against corruptionand his strong stand on nation-al security. "The Prime Ministerand other leaders of the BJP areactively campaigning saying thatthis Government has shownthe guts which previous gov-ernments did not. What elsedoes this mean but a gross mis-use of the office of the PrimeMinister for seeking electoralgains," Yechury said. PTI

CSC, IEEE tie-up to provideupskill courses

Aligarh DM submits evidence toEC on Kalyan Singh's remarkson return of Modi as PM

The agency alleged that he

"illegally engaged in

liasoning/lobbying with

politicians, ministers and

other public servants and

officials of the Ministry of

Civil Aviation for airlines

such as Emirates, Air

Arabia and Qatar Airways

for securing undue benefits

for them" during the tenure

of the UPA Government

ED attaches Deepak Talwar’s Hotel in PMLA case

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu addresses the gathering at the 3rd Convocation of IIM, Visakhapatnam, in Visakhapatnam onSaturday PIB

Congress threateninginstitutions: Naqvi onRahul's NITI Aayog remarks

Despite EC's clean chit, Yechuryinsists PM violated model code

Passerby walks in front of the cutouts of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Partychief Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, BJP National president Amit Shah and BJP parliamentary candidateVK Singh in Ghaziabad on Saturday PTI

nation 06LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

MOHIT KANDHARI n JAMMU

The state unit of theCongress party in Jammu

and Kashmir suffered a bigblow as one of its senior mostleaders from Jammu, ShamLal Sharma, a former cabinetminister, revolted against theparty before joining BharatiyaJanta Party (BJP).

Sharma was tipped to joinBJP in the presence of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi duringhis election rally in Akhnoor butlast minute hiccups preventedhim from doing so.

Sharma was accordedwarm welcome here in theBJP headquarters in Jammu ashe arrived there along withlarge number of supporters.

Labelling Congress as‘party of sycophants’, formerCongress MLA from AkhnoorAssembly segment, Sham LalSharma said, “he decided toswitch over to the BJP as he nolonger wanted to continue as‘bonded labourer’ in the party”.

Mounting a scathing attackon the leaders of the Congressparty for joining hands with theNational Conference, Sharmasaid, “it is an unnatural allianceand it is not at all in theNational Interest”.

Chiding Congress leaders,Sharma said on one hand theyclaim to protect national inter-est and on the other hand theyhave joined hands withKashmir centric, NationalConference and the PeoplesDemocratic Party, whose lead-ers are openly shouting pro-Pakistan and anti-India slogansin election meetings.

Soon after joining BJP, here

in the presence of senior BJPleaders Avinash Rai Khanna,former Deputy Chief MinisterKavinder Gupta, state unitChief Ravinder Raina, DrNirmal Singh, Sharma said, “ihave always fought for politicalempowerment of Jammuregion and BJP, even whileremaining in the opposition,played significant role in rais-ing voice of people of Jammuregion”. He appealed to the vot-ers across Jammu region to‘unitedly’ vote for BJP candi-dates in the Lok Sabha pollsand defeat forces who arebehaving as sympathisers of theseparatists and terror groups.

PTI n GANDHINAGAR

The affidavit filed Saturdayby BJP chief Amit Shah

while submitting his nomina-tion papers for theGandhinagar Lok Sabha seatshowed that his assets hadgrown over three times in thelast seven years.

According to the affidavit,the movable and immovableproperties of Shah and his wifestood at `38.81 crore, up from

`11.79 crore in 2012.The `38.81 crore figure

included inherited property,both movable and immovable,of `23.45 crore, the affidavitstates.

While Shah had `20,633cash in hand at the time of fil-ing the papers, his wife pos-sessed `72,578.

As per the affidavit, Shahand his wife had ̀ 27.80 lakh inseveral savings accounts, andfixed deposits of `9.80 lakh.

Shah and his wife have acumulative income of `2.84crore as per their latest IncomeTax Returns (ITR).

Shah’s affidavit mentions

his sources of income as salaryreceived as Rajya Sabha MP,rent on properties and incomefrom agricultural activity.

In 2017, when Shah con-tested the Rajya Sabha pollsfrom Gujarat, he had declaredassets worth ̀ 34.31 crore. Thelatest affidavit, thus, puts therise in his assets at `4.5 croresince 2017.

While fighting the 2012Assembly polls, Shah haddeclared that he along with hisfamily, including wife Sonalbenand son Jay (who was a depen-dent at the time), owned mov-able and immovable assetsworth `11.79 crore.

In Saturday’s affidavit, Shahhas mentioned that he and hiswife’s annual incomes, as perITR of 2017-18, stood at `2.84crore, which comprised ̀ 53.90lakh for Shah and `2.30 crorefor Sonalben.

The income of Shah’s wifemore than doubled in a year asher 2016-17 ITR placed herannual income at `1.05 crore.

Shah’s income as per his2016-17 ITR was `43.68 lakh.The affidavit goes on to informthat the BJP chief and his wifedo not own a car.It also statedthat Shah had not pursued hisBachelor of Commerce degreebeyond the second year.

Kollam: A 27-year-old womanwas reduced to a “bag of askeleton” and has died alleged-ly due to starvation enforced byher husband and mother-in-law for dowry, police saidSaturday, in a case that hascaused a public outrage.

Thushara, a native ofKarunagappally near here, wasdenied proper food for daysand survived only on soakedrice and sugar syrup before shebreathed her last at a govern-ment hospital here, police said,quoting the postmortem reportand neighbours.

At the time of her death onthe midnight of March 21 dueto illness and uneasiness, thewoman weighed just 20 kg,they said.

Thushara’s husbandChandulal and his motherGeetha Lal were arrested andremanded Friday, police said.

PTI

PTI n HYDERABAD

The Pulwama terror attackwas a gift to the BJP ahead

of the elections and it was ‘alright’to carry out surgical strikes onterror camp in Pakistan, formerchief of Research and AnalysisWing (RAW) AS Dulat said onSaturday.

“I think it is, I mentionedthis before, I think it was giftfrom the Jaish to the BJP or toModiji. Because of elections. Itwas inevitable that somethingwould happen. Somethingwould be done. So, the surgicalstrike deep inside Pakistan wasalright,” he told reporters here.

He was asked how heassessed the present govern-ment’s handling of thePulwama terror attack andabout the way ahead.

Dulat said nationalism isalright if it is looked at broad-ly but it may not be good if itis seen narrowly.

“The larger point I ammaking is that what is sufficientis patriotism. We need notstress on nationalism. Because,the indications worldwide are,in the past also, that national-ism can lead to war,” he said.

Dulat, who was speaking on

the sidelines of the annual AsianArab Awards 2019 organisedhere by the Indian EconomicTrade Organisation, was askedabout his comments that nation-alism is unbalancing the world.

Dulat quoted a formerpresident of France as sayingthat “we should shed our prej-udices. Otherwise, it leads tonationalism and nationalismmeans war.”

Another foreign leader hadsaid, “nationalism is wreckingmy patriotism.”

“The point I am trying tomake is that if you look atnationalism broadly, it isalright. If you start looking atit narrowly, then it starts affect-ing people,” he said.

In his speech earlier, Dulatstressed the need for promot-ing peace.

He praised New ZealandPrime Minister Jacinda Ardernfor her “they are us” commentsin the aftermath of attacks atmosques in that country.

Referring to the “they areus” comment, he said the wordsshould set an example for theworld, that ultimately every-body is one and the “wholebusiness of nationalism is goingto take this world nowhere”

PTI n GAYA

Proscribed naxal outfit CPI(Maoist) has given a call for

Magadh Bandh on April 2when Prime Minister NarendraModi will address a rally atGayas Gandhi Maidan.

People of Gaya, the LokSabha constituency, which fallsin the Magadh division, wouldvote on April 11 in the firstphase along with three otherconstituencies of Aurangabad,Nawada and Jamui.

Aurangabad, Nawada,Jehanabad and Arwal are alsopart of the division. The bandhcall has been given to united-ly oppose the Operation GreenHunt and Mission Samadhan,CPI(Maoist) spokesman Manassaid in a leaflet.

When asked about the nax-alites announcement of bandh,Gaya Senior Superintendentof Police, Rajiv Mishra said thatall the guidelines have beenstrictly followed for PrimeMinister’s election rally andalso for ensuring free, fair andpeaceful voting.

The naxal outfitsspokesman also claimed

responsibility for blowing upBJP leader and ex-MLC AnujKumar Singhs house atBodhibigaha under the juris-diction of Dumaria police sta-tion area on Wednesday night,police sources said.

The naxalites had called forthe boycott of Lok Sabha elec-tion and threatened the vil-lagers (of Bodhibigaha) withdire consequences if they failedto ensure a complete boycott ofthe general election in themagadh region.

PM RALLY IN GAYA ON APRIL 2

Naxals give call for

bandh on Modi visit

Shah’s assets grow 3 times in 7 yrs: Affidavit

Poll affidavit shows hisassets worth `38.81 cr

WOMAN STARVED TO

DEATH FOR DOWRY IN

KERALA; HUSBAND,

MOTHER-IN-LAW HELD

Senior J&K Cong leader joins BJP

The bandh callhas been given tounitedly opposethe Operation

Green Hunt andMission

Samadhan People participate during Earth Hour 2019 by holding placards in the backdrop of historic Charminar in the old city ofHyderabad on Saturday. Millions will unite across the world to celebrate WWF's Earth Hour and take a stand againstbiodiversity loss PTI

TMC launchesweb series‘Pradhan MantriHisab do’

Pulwama attack a

gift to BJP, says

former RAW chief

From Page 1Taking a jibe on Tiwari’s

statement on full Statehood,the AAP leader said that it isnot possible that a Member ofParliament (MP) does notknow the process of howDelhi will attain Statehood,particularly when his ownparty kept promising it to thepeople of Delhi for decades.

Citing the#Twitterchaupal, a virtualinteraction with masses by theBJP leader two days before,Rai questioned Tiwari toshow which case regardingfull Statehood for Delhi wasfiled in the Supreme Courtand when? “Who filed thecase and what was theSupreme Court judgementin the Delhi Statehood case?He should put that judgementin public domain, Raidemanded.

From Page 1The main objective of the concert-

ed anti-terrorist operations against JeMcomprising mostly foreign terrorists isto reduce the fighting capabilities of thegroup and force them to either lie lowor flee.

Moreover, all the encounters tookplace based on hard intelligence there-by indicating vastly improved informa-tion flow about the ultras by the localpolice and intelligence agencies andefforts are on to further increase thetempo of anti-terrorist operations.

Elaborating upon this aspect,sources in the security establishmentsaid here on Saturday the operations aretaking place all over Kashmir, includingSouth, Central and North Kashmirthereby indicating that the JeM is try-ing to having its footprints in all the dis-tricts instead of only South Kashmir.This district, so far, is the most restiveand the JeM is desperate to increase itsreach to other two districts.

Given this fact, the anti-terrorist gridincluding the Army, para-military forcesand police are refining their strategy todeny space and time to the JeM to fanout. In fact, last week at least seven JeMultras were killed in three operations inall the three districts indicating theeffectiveness of intelligence inflow andtimely response by the security force,they said.

Moreover, the focus is now people

friendly operations in order to causeminimum inconvenience to innocentand also avoid collateral damage duringfirefight with terrorists, they said. Infact, the last encounters have taken placewithin first 20 to 30 minutes of receiv-ing hard intelligence about the presenceof terrorists in particular vicinity.

Also, in an effort to retain the ele-ment of surprise, the security forces areavoiding cordon and search drive andsurround the particular house where theterrorists are hiding with small teamsinstead of encircling the entire hamletthereby alerting the holed up militants,they said.

This change in tactics resulted in ter-rorists opening fire and making it eas-ier for the security forces to pin pointthe location of the ultras hide-out andthen take him out. However, the firstvolley fired by terrorists result in casu-alties as it happened in Shopian onFriday wherein five soldiers wereinjured. Fortunately, there were no fatalfatalities, they added. Incidentally, 13Army men have so far died in Kashmirthis year as compared to 61 in 2018.

Coupled with this change in tactics,the Central Armed police forces havefanned out in urban and semi urbanpockets in all the sensitive districts ofSouth, Central and North Kashmir withthe aim of restricting the movement ofterrorists, they said.

Continuous pressure has now forced

the terrorists to commit mistakes bycoming out and timely hard intelligencehelped the anti-terrorist units to zero inand either capture or neutralise theultras, they said.

The other objective of increasing thestrength of para-military forces in sen-sitive areas is to provide collectivesecurity to peace loving people and letthe law of land prevail, officials said.

As regards the situation on the Lineof Control (LOC), they said the Armyhas adopted a pro-active approach as thePakistan Army continues to violateceasefire. At least 660 violations havetaken place to far this year as comparedto 1,630 for the entire last year and theIndian Army is retaliating with effectivefire assaults.

The other aim of this robust stanceis to maintain pressure on terroristlaunch pads located in PakistanOccupied Kashmir(POK) located closeto the LOC on the other side. Most thelaunch pads are located close to the armyposts there and Pakistan pushes in ter-rorists into Kashmir by firing at Indianposts to provide covering fire to theultras.

With the summer about to com-mence and infiltration likely to pick upas the ingress routes open up after snowmelts, the Army does not want to takeany chances and has strengthened itscounter-infiltration grid all along the750-km long LOC, they said.

From Page 1“He is aggressive now whereas in the

Assembly he remains silent and eco-nomical with words,” saidRamakrishnan.

Stalin, who was elevated to the postof DMK chief in August 2018 followingthe death of his father M Karunanidhi,is in his usual style during the campaigndays. He wakes up at 5 am and hit thepublic places whether it is Thurchirapallior Madurai or Chennai. During the briskmorning walks , the DMK chiefexchanges pleasantries with the peopleout on the road and accepts small cupsof tea offered by vendors. Vegetable ven-dors approach him with complaints thattheir income has fallen over the last fouryears.

“Amma, let the elections be over andI’ll do something for you,” said Stalinwho was in jeans and T-shirt and look-ing much younger than his 66 years age.

His rallies resemble musical galawith Stalin himself crooning with oldpopular numbers immortalised by theMS Viswanathan-TM Sounderarajanteam. Once he takes the mike, thewhole audience falls silent and then itis Stalin all the way.

“The country has to be saved fromthe dictatorial regime led by NarendraModi and Amit Shah. They are tryingto saffronise the country so that the RSScould make it a Hindu Rashtra. Thesanatana dharma is the biggest threatfaced by India and it is our duty to savethe country from Modi, Shah and the

RSS,” he said while speaking in a pub-lic rally to solicit votes for the SecularProgressive Alliance (SPA) candidate atMadurai.

Though both Edappadi Palaniswamyand Stalin may focus on national poli-tics, what bothers both the leaders arethe by-election to the 18 Assemblyconstituencies which are being heldsimultaneously with the Lok Sabhaelection. If the AIADMK fails to win atleast 10 seats, Tamil Nadu would be fora period of uncertainty. The DMK haslevelled a series of allegations against theruling AIADMK. The onus of provingthem wrong lies with the ruling partywhile the Opposition can relax andwatch the embarrassment of theGovernment with glee.

Noose tightens on JeM ultras...Mahila Morcha

to launch AAP’s

Metro campaign

today

EPS aggressive poll pitch...

ED attaches `120-cr

Holiday Inn built by

aviation lobbyist

Terror

shadow...

From Page 1The explosion is believed

to be a cylinder blast. Nocasualties were reported inthe blast,police said.

The blast took place in acar moving towards Jammufrom Srinagar around 10.40am.

A CRPF vehicle was alsomoving on the highway whenthe blast took place. The rearwindshield of the CRPF vehi-cle was damaged in the explo-sion. The explosion isbelieved to be a cylinderblast. No casualties werereported in the blast,policesaid.

In Baramulla district,unidenti f ied terror istsopened fire on a civilian inthe market and killed him onthe spot . Bul lets werepumped in from a close rangeinside his shop by the sus-pected terrorists before flee-ing the spot. In the third inci-dent of the day, a CRPF jawanreceived injuries in grenadethrowing on a CRPF bunkerlocated inside the bankpremises in Pulwama.

From Page 1The agency alleged that he

“illegally engaged in liason-ing/lobbying with politicians,ministers and other public ser-vants and officials of theMinistry of Civil Aviation forairlines such as Emirates, AirArabia and Qatar Airways forsecuring undue benefits forthem” during the tenure of theUPA government.

“He (Talwar) illegally man-aged to secure favourable trafficrights for these airlines during2008-09 at the cost of nationalcarrier, Air India,” the agencysaid in a statement.

Investigation revealed thatin lieu of securing favourabletraffic \rights, these airlinesmade payments to the tune of Rs272 crore to Talwar during2008-09, it said.

“It has been revealed thatTalwar created a web of entitiesowned by him and his familymembers in India and interna-tional offshore havens to laun-

der proceeds of crime of Rs 272crore received from foreign air-lines,” the statement said.

“Part of these paymentswere made to an account inBank of Singapore, belonging toa company Asiafield Limitedregistered in the British VirginIslands and beneficially ownedby Deepak Talwar,” it added.

These proceeds were “lay-ered” through a series of inter-national money transfers, tofinally integrate in India inWave Hospitality PrivateLimited, a company beneficial-ly owned and controlled byTalwar and his family members,in the name of his son, AdityaTalwar, the ED alleged.

“These crime proceeds werethen utilised in the constructionof hotel Holiday Inn in Aerocity,New Delhi,” it said. Talwar is injudicial custody at present andthe agency is expected to file itsfirst charge sheet against himbefore a special PMLA courthere Saturday.

PTI n KOLKATA

Ahead of Lok Sabha poll inthe State, the Trinamool

Congress on Friday launched aweb series christened ‘PradhanMantri Hisab Do’ comparingvarious welfare schemes of theNarendra Modi Government atthe Centre with that of theTMC Government in WestBengal.

The first episode of the webseries began with a short filmcomparing two schemesBengal governments SaboojSathi and the CentralGovernments Beti Bachao BetiPadhao. Under the Sabooj Sathischeme of West Bengal bicyclesare given to girl students ofclass 9 to 12 studying in gov-ernment run and Governmentaided schools and madrashas ofthe State.

The video shows two girlsone living in Rewari, Haryanaand the other in Hoogly districtof West Bengal.

world 07LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

India, US seek irreversible

action from Pak on terror

PTI n WASHINGTON

India and the US have under-lined the need for Pakistan to

take “meaningful, irreversibleand verifiable” action againstterrorists and terror groupsoperating from its soil asWashington backed the peopleand Government of India inthe fight against terrorism.The two countries exchangedviews on threats posed byinternational terrorist organi-sations during the US-IndiaCounter-terrorism JointWorking Group andDesignations Dialogue thatconcluded here Friday, weeksafter the Pulwama terror attackcarried out by Pakistan-basedJaish-e-Mohammad terrorgroup that killed 40 CRPFpersonnel, prompting the inter-national community to askIslamabad to rein-in all terrorgroups on its soil. While the USdelegation was led by StateDepartment Coordinator forC o u n t e r - t e r r o r i s mAmbassador Nathan Sales, theIndian side was headed byJoint Secretary, Ministry of

External Affairs, MahaveerSinghvi.

“Both sides underlinedthe urgent need for Pakistan totake meaningful, irreversible,and verifiable action againstterrorists and terrorist groups,”according to a joint statement.It said the two sides discussedcounter-terrorism cooperationbetween them and resolved tocontinue close coordinationon this important element ofthe bilateral relationship.Sales, according to the jointstatement, emphasised the US

support for the people and gov-ernment of India in the fightagainst terrorism. There wasalso discussion of strengthen-ing cooperation on informationsharing and other steps to dis-rupt the ability of terrorists totravel, consistent with theimportant provisions andobligations outlined in theUnited Nations SecurityCouncil Resolution 2396.

Indian and Americanofficials also highlighted theirefforts on some of the world’smost pressing counter-terror-

ism challenges, including coun-tering the financing and oper-ations of terrorist organisa-tions, terrorist use of the inter-net, and prosecuting, rehabil-itating, and reintegratingreturning foreign terroristfighters, said the statement.The US, it said, welcomedIndia’s participation in inter-national efforts to counter ter-rorism finance The two sidesalso shared information abouttheir priorities and proceduresfor pursuing sanctions desig-nations against terrorist groupsand individuals, the joint state-ment said, in an apparent ref-erence to the latest US effortsat the UN Security Council todesignate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad chief MasoodAzhar as a global terrorist.

After China for the fourthtime blocked a proposal todesignate Azhar a global ter-rorist by the 1267 Al-QaidaSanctions Committee of theUN Security Council, the US,backed by the UK and France,moved a resolution directly tothe Security Council, to black-list the JeM chief.

File photo of Donald Trump with Narendra Modi

PTI n SUCRE (BOLIVIA)

India has offered USD 100million credit to Bolivia after

President Ram Nath Kovindheld productive and extensivetalks with his Bolivian coun-terpart Evo Morales here.Kovind is on a three-day visit toBolivia, the first high-level visitfrom India to the LatinAmerican country since theestablishment of diplomatic ties.President Kovind held wide-ranging talks with his Boliviancounterpart Morales on a num-ber of bilateral issues such aseconomy, space and IT.The twoleaders also reaffirmed theircommitment to strengthenpolitical and economic engage-ment.“India offered 100 millionUS Dollar Line of Credit toBolivia for financing develop-ment projects,” according to anofficial statement.

Both countries also agreedon the need for reform of theUN Security Council to make itreflective of contemporary real-ities, the statement said.

The two sides also signedeight MoUs in various fields,including academics, space andmedicine .“We are happy tohave Bolivia as a partner in the

International Solar Alliance andwelcome the signing of theframework agreement estab-lishing the bond,” Kovind saidin a statement.

In addition, the two coun-tries signed MoUs in the fieldsof culture, visa waiver arrange-ment for diplomats, theexchange between diplomatic

academies, mining, tradition-al medicine, establishment ofcentre of excellence in IT and bi-oceanic railway project, accord-ing to an official statement.“The two countries agreed tofurther expand business ties inpharmaceuticals and healthcare; automobiles and engi-neering; machinery and textile;

and metals and minerals,” itsaid.

President Kovind alsoaddressed the India-BoliviaBusiness Forum on Friday andsaid that the two countries havetheir own economic strengthsand they can complement eachother in the mutual quest forgrowth and prosperity.

India offers USD 100 mn credit toBolivia for development projects

Santa Cruz: President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurates the Plaque: Mahatma Gandhi Hall at Universidad Autonoma Gabriel ReneMoreno, Santa Cruz, in Bolivia, Friday. AP

Will Nirav Modi& Mallya sharesame jail cell ifextradited, judgeasks prosecutor

Nirav’s team even uses his pet dog to win bailUS didn’t spy on India’s ASAT test: PentagonPTI nWASHINGTON

The Pentagon has stronglydenied the reports that the US

spied on India’s anti-satellite(ASAT) missile test by sending areconnaissance aircraft from itsbase in Diego Garcia in theIndian Ocean to monitor thedevelopment. It, however, said theUnited States was aware aboutIndia’s first test-fire of an anti-satellite missile. “No US assetswere spying on India. In fact, theUS continues to expand its endur-ing partnership with India, result-ing in enhanced interoperabilityand stronger economic ties,” USDefense Department spokesper-son Lt Col David W Eastburntold PTI.

Aircraft Spots, which moni-tors military air movements, hadsaid that a US Air Force’s recon-naissance aircraft from its base inDiego Garcia went “for a missionin the Bay of Bengal to monitorIndia’s anti-satellite missile test”.This was interpreted by many thatthe US spied on Indian ASAT test.

“I don’t think that it impliescoordination between India andthe US,” astronomer JonathanMcDowell from the prestigiousHarvard-Smithsonian Center forAstrophysics told PTI on theAircraft Spots report. “Thisimplies that the US intelligence

community were aware of the testin advance because to someextent they’re spying on India,” healleged.

“Everybody spies on theirfriends as well as their enemies.That’s the way the world worksthese days. It would be surprisingif the US were not detecting orobserving the launch site andaware of activities preparing forthe test. So one assumes that theyknew it was coming,” he claimed.McDowell, who is a staff mem-ber at the Chandra X-ray Centerand author and editor ofJonathan’s Space Report, an e-mail-distributed newsletter doc-umenting satellite launches, saidhe has not looked into the issueof the aircraft, but it is certainlynot surprising that the US wouldfly a sensor aircraft to try and

observe the test. The Pentagon,however, strongly denied thespying allegation.

“It’s a relationship so strongthat no topic is off limits,”Eastburn said. “Both nationsenjoy shared principles regardingour respect of sovereignty, freeand fair trade, adherence to inter-national norms, and peacefulresolution of disputes,” he said.

Air Force Space CommandCommander Lt Gen David DThompson told lawmakersThursday that the US was awarethat India’s ASAT test was com-ing.

“First of all, we knew it wascoming because of flight bans thatIndia had announced and infor-mation they published previous-ly. The launch occurred at 1.39AM EST,” he told members of thepowerful Senate Armed ServicesSubcommittee on Strategic Forcesduring a Congressional hearing.

“First of all, it was detected,characterised and reported by AirForce Missile Warning systemsand Airmen at Buckley AFB.Immediately after the test (itstruck the target vehicle), the JointSpace Ops Center and USAF 18Space control Squadron begancollecting information about thebreakup of the vehicle,”Thompson said.

US tracking 250-270 objectsfrom Indian ASAT test debris;ISS not at risk: PentagonWashington (PTI): The US is

tracking 250-270 objects ofdebris in the space generateddue to India’s anti-satellite(ASAT) missile test in lowerearth orbit, but the InternationalSpace Station or ISS is not at risk,the Pentagon said Friday. USStrategic Command’s Joint ForceSpace Component Command(JFSCC) said 250 pieces ofdebris associated with an IndianASAT launch that occurred onWednesday are being activelytracked.

“Debris from the event isbeing actively monitored by theJFSCC, and conjunction notifi-cations are being issued to satel-lite owners/operators in accor-dance with standard notificationprocesses through theDepartment of Defense’s publicspace situational awareness shar-ing website HYPERLINK“http://www.space-track.org,” itsaid. The JFSCC said it will con-tinue to actively track debrisassociated with the event andissue close approach notifica-

tions as required until the debrisenters the earth’s atmosphere.US Air Force Space CommandCommander Lt Gen David DThompson told lawmakers dur-ing a Congressional hearing onThursday that the JFSCC andAir Force’s 18 space controlSquadron are currently “track-ing about 270 different objectsin the debris” field.

Responding to questionsfrom members of the SenateArmed Services Subcommitteeon Strategic Forces, he said thenumber is going to grow as thedebris field spreads out as the UScollects more sensor informa-tion.

Thompson, however,refrained from giving any fur-ther details of the debris.

“But we do know the alti-tude at which it occurred. Weimmediately started providingpublic notice on our space trackwebsite and will provide directnotification to satellite operators,if those satellites are underthreat,” he said.

FB to tighten live stream access after mosque attacksAP n SAN FRANCISCO

Facebook on Friday said it istightening live video stream-

ing rules in response to the ser-vice being used to broadcastdeadly attacks on mosques inNew Zealand. The Christchurchattacks — carried out by a self-avowed white supremacist whoopened fire on worshippers attwo mosques — claimed 50lives.

Many people have“rightly questioned how onlineplatforms such as Facebookwere used to circulate horrificvideos of the attack,” chief oper-

ating officer Sheryl Sandbergsaid in an online post.

“In the wake of the terror-ist attack, we are taking threesteps: strengthening therules for usingFacebook Live, tak-ing further steps toaddress hate onour platforms, andsupporting theNew Zealand com-munity,” she added.Facebook is lookinginto barring peoplewho have previously vio-lated the social network’s com-munity standards from

livestreaming on its platform,according to Sandberg. Thesocial network is also investingin improving software to quick-

ly identify edited versionsof violent video or

images to preventthem from beshared or re-posted.

“While theoriginal NewZealand attack

video was sharedLive, we know that

this video spread main-ly through people re-shar-

ing it and re-editing it to makeit harder for our systems to block

it,” Sandberg said. “People withbad intentions will always try toget around our security mea-sures.” Facebook identified morethan 900 different videos show-ing portions of the streamed vio-lence. The social network isusing artificial intelligence toolsto identify and remove hategroups in Australia and NewZealand, according to Sandberg.Those groups will be bannedfrom Facebook services, shesaid.

Facebook this weekannounce it would ban praise orsupport for white nationalismand white separatism as part of

a stepped-up crackdown onhate speech.

The ban will be enforcedstarting next week on the lead-ing online social network and itsimage-centric messaging ser-vice Instagram. “It’s clear thatthese concepts are deeply linkedto organized hate groups andhave no place on our services,”the social network said in a state-ment. Facebook policies alreadybanned posts endorsing whitesupremacy as part of its prohi-bition against spewing hate atpeople based on characteristicssuch as race, ethnicity or reli-gion.

PTI n BEIJING

Shanghai claimed on Saturdaythat it has become the world’s

first district using both 5G cov-erage and broadband gigabitnetwork as China seeks to estab-lish lead over the US and othercountries in the race to developnext generation cellular mobilecommunications. 5G is thenext generation of cellular tech-nology with download speedsthat are 10 to 100 times fasterthan 4G LTE networks.

Shanghai has developedwhat it claims to be the first dis-trict boasting both 5G coverageand a broadband gigabit net-work, the state-run China Dailyreported.Trial runs of the 5Gnetwork, backed by state-runtelecom carrier China Mobile,officially started the service inShanghai’s Hongkou onSaturday, where 5G base stationshad been deployed over the lastthree months to ensure fullcoverage, the report said. Duringa launch ceremony, Shanghaivice-mayor Wu Qing made thenetwork’s first 5G video call on

an Huawei Mate X, the world’sfirst 5G foldable, AI phone, itsaid.

When fully operational,subscribers stand to avail of thesame service without having toupgrade their SIM cards, it said.Huawei, China’s telecom tech-

nology giant, whose revenue in2018 crossed USD 100 billion, isbattling a wave of opposition toits 5G trials from the US and dif-ferent countries.

The 5G stations are beinginstalled in different parts ofChina, including Tibet, as part

of Huawei’s plans to lead the 5Gtrials despite the opposition.

The US has been pressuris-ing countries it has closer ties toban Huawei and other Chinesetelecom firms from providinggear used to build 5G wirelessnetworks.

Huawei has denied officiallinks with the Chinese gov-ernment.China has alsoprotested to the US about itsefforts to extradite Huawei’sCFO, Meng Wanzhou, whohas been arrested in Canada toface prosecution for violationsof US sanctions against Iran.Meng, daughter of Huaweiowner Ren Zhengfei has beenaccused of allegedly misleadingbanks about the company’sbusiness dealings there.

Zhang Jianming, deputydirector of the ShanghaiMunicipal Economic andInformatisation Commission,the local telecom and industryregulator, said Shanghai cityaims to build over 10,000 5Gbase stations by the end of thisyear, and that figure is expectedto surpass 30,000 in 2021. A

comprehensive deployment ofthe network, which transmits atleast 10 times faster than 4G atpeak rates, will help developindustrial manufacturing, inter-net-connected cars, healthcareand smart city management,Zhang said. Zhang further saidthat these are all strategically crit-ical industries for both Shanghaiand China.

“Shanghai also targets tonurture over 100 innovativecompanies specialised in explor-ing 5G-related application sce-narios, whose industrial outputis expected to reach 100 billionyuan (USD14.9 billion) by 2021,”he said.

Jian Qin, vice-president ofChina Mobile, said it has invest-ed the most in Shanghai to dateto help the city expand its 5Gtrial network and related appli-cations. “China Mobile hasinvested the most in Shanghai todate to help the city expand its5G trial network and relatedapplications, because it is themost developed city in Chinawith rather solid infrastructurein many aspects,” he said.

Shanghai world’s first district with 5G coverage

In this Sept. 26, 2018 file photo, a staff member uses a laptop at a display for 5Gwireless technology from Chinese technology firm Huawei at the PT Expo in Beijing.The European Commission recommends member countries share information aspart of new cybersecurity measures for next-generation mobile networks. However,the commission is ducking U.S. calls to ban Chinese tech supplier Huawei. Theexecutive Commission on Tuesday, March 26, 2019 released its roadmap forsecuring new ultrafast fifth-generation, or 5G, telecom systems that European Unioncountries will soon start rolling out. AP

London (PTI): Fugitive diamond merchantNirav Modi failed in his second attempt to getbail in his extradition case at the WestminsterMagistrates’ Court here despite his defence teamtrying hard to establish his close ties to the UK,including having to care for a pet dog. Chief

Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot on Friday declinedthe bail application of the 48-year-old primeaccused in the USD 1-2 billion Punjab NationalBank (PNB) fraud case on the grounds that hedid pose a “substantial” flight risk and that helacked “community ties” with the UK.

PTI n LONDON

There were some light-hearted moments during

the second bail plea hearingof Nirav Modi at the UKcourt when Judge EmmaArbuthnot asked the prose-cution whether the fugitivediamond trader would belodged in the same jail cellalong with liquor baron VijayMallya if he is also extradit-ed to India.

At the very start of thehear ing on Fr iday,Westminster MagistratesCourt Chief MagistrateArbuthnot said she was get-ting a sense of “deja vu”, inreference to her havingordered the extradition ofMallya in December lastyear.“Do we know which partof India he (Modi) is beingsought in,” the judge asked, totry and establish which jailModi is likely to be held in.

She was told by theCrown Prosecution Service(CPS), arguing on behalf ofthe Indian government, thatit would be an extradition toMumbai and that he may infact be held in the sameArthur Road Jail as that pre-pared for l iquor tycoonMallya, to which the judgesaid in a light-hearted veinthat it could even be thesame cell as we know “thereis space” from the previousvideo submitted during theMallya extradition trial.

LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019 films & tv 08

SHOW TIME

JUNGLEE

*ing: Vidyut Jammwal, Pooja

Sawant, Asha Bhat

Rated: 5/10

Let’s start with the good.The idea and the concept— protecting the giants

from being poached for theirtusks is fantastic. What is notflawed are the cute babyelephants or for that matter thefully grown zones too. What isnot flawed is the action.

What is great is themessage that the movie issending across — loud andclear to every person whowants to buy ivory products.What is great is how there arepeople who will go to anylengths to protect thesejumbos so that the cominggenerations can see them inthe wild.

There is no hiding the badguys or what they are after.There is no hiding how theyintend to kill the jumbos andwhen. Director Chuck Russelleven goes to the extend ofjustifying the killing and wherethe money goes — to feed thepoor when there are floodsand entire villages need to be

rebuilt. How in a bid tosurvive it is the animal whohas to pay a heavy price — it’slife. The man-animal conflictis ageold. Why else would thetiger population from 100,000in the turn of the 19th Centurydwindle down to less than2000 today?

What is flawed withJunglee is the execution. Thenarration is poor. The dialoguedelivery is just as bad as is therather stilted performance. Butthen Jammwal is known for hisaction rather than actingabilities. But this movieneeded emotions which ismissing. Then there is thekilling of the elephants itself.Russell may have wanted to gofor shock value and it is stark,brutal and sad. Though thescene where the goon issawing the tusk from the deadelephant with the chainsaw isfor exactly two seconds, thesheer violence of the act makesyou cringe.

Even though the movieleaves a lot to be desired, theheart is in the right place. Seethis film for the love of theelephants.

— Shalini Saksena

Great idea, poor

execution

‘Struggle is constant’

nHow did Kumkum Bhagyahappen?

It was pure luck. I had noclue that it is going to be happen.I gave an audition for BalajiProductions and then I went onfor Roadies Real Heroes. One dayI got a message saying ‘Will yoube interested in KumkumBhagya’ and that time I couldn’trespond because I was already apart of the Roadies journey.

Fortunately or unfortunatelyI got eliminated from Roadies.Then, I responded to themessage and my timing wasjust right. They told me that theywere just about to cast someoneelse for the role because theythought that I was doing Roadiesand it would take time. But myrejection came at the right time,I suppose. This is how I got theshow.nTell us about your character.

I play Ranbir. A youngcollege goer. He is a charming,confident and has attitude. He has got alot of energy around him. He is good atalmost everything and that gives him anedge over others. He is not a love themleave them kind of a person but enjoyshealthy flirting.nWhat all preparations did you do tobecome an actor?

I always wanted to be an actor. I usedto take part in all of my school plays. WhenI was in Class XII, I started doing ads.During my college, I joined a theatre group— Shri Ram in Delhi. I did it for a coupleof months. Then, after my college, I shiftedto Mumbai and I started giving auditionseverywhere. I got selected for a webseries—Puncch Beat and that is how it all began.nHow supportive were your parents?

My parents wanted me to become anengineer. When I told them that I want tobe an actor they thought that I was drunk.(laughs). They never thought that there isa profession in acting for normal people.But they never forced me to do anything.They were sceptical about acting as acareer, like any other parent. It is obviousfor them to be anxious about me and mycareer. Because acting is not a secure fieldwhen it comes to your future. nWhat challenges did you face?

When you are in college you feel youare the best. But it is like you are justandhon mein kaana raja. The moment youstep out of that world and come toMumbai you realise that you are not theonly one. Noida mein jaisey Krishna haitoh Mumbai mein aesey hazaron Krishnahain. Then, you realise where do you standand what this realisation does to you,depends on you. Whether you decide towork harder or get demotivated and giveup. This is the time when you need to jointhe dots and find out where are youlacking. Once you start understandingwhere are you lacking, then you need tostart working on it. In Mumbai, there is

a lot of competition and people are veryhardworking and good at their job.

Second, you should be open torejections. I have been rejected so manytimes. Kabhi kabhi lagta hai ki arey ismeytoh selection ho jayega ismey toh mere jaisahi character chahaiye par aisa nahin hotahai. You will go for an audition and giveyour best, but they will not even call youback. So, I made up mind to be ready toface rejections. You need to make sure thatyou give an audition and forget about it.Don’t wait for it, if it has to happen, it willhappen and if not, then it’s not just meantto happen. Third, you can’t relax. Life isfast-paced here, if you stop even for asecond, there are hundred others who arewaiting for that role. The struggle isconstant and it does not end. Even if youhave got a role then you have to struggleto understand the character. nDid you ever think of quitting?

Yes, there was a time when in a monthI got rejected many times. I thought of

giving up because nothing was crackingand nothing was working out for me. Butthen I got selected to play a negative leadin Puncch Beat and then I realised thatthere is some potential in me. nAs a newcomer, do you have to workharder to prove yourself?

Yes. I have to work hard because I amsharing the screen with people who aremuch more experienced than me — SritiJha and Shabir Ahluwalia. But, they arevery welcoming and very supporting. Theywon’t make you feel uncomfortable ornervous. On day one of my shoot, theymade me so comfortable — that whateverI was doing is good. They create a verypositive and pleasant environment for mewhich helps a lot. nHow were your two shows different?

Both Puncch Beat and Roadies RealHeroes, were very different and meant fora particular set of audience. But, now Ihave got a wider audience. People whowatch TV are very attached to the showand the character they like. I have theresponsibility that people who watchRanbir like him. They have to feelconnected to him. It puts me into asituation, where I have to understand thecharacter even more and learn how toportray him correctly.nWho has been your inspiration?When I grew up, I realised that there is somuch nepotism in the industry and it ishard for a normal boy like me to make aplace for myself. During this time, I gotinspired by Shah Rukh Khan.

I realised that this boy was also fromDelhi. He also had a dream, he also hadno one in the industry to look after himand eventually he went there, struggledand today he has reached where hewanted to be. This inspired me a lot. Ithought may be there are fewer chancesfor me to get into the industry but thereare chances and I can try my luck.

Delhi boy KRISHNA KAUL, who struggled all the way to Mumbai, tells MUSBA HASHMI

about his role in Kumkum Bhagya, how he got there and challenges ahead

Ever since Jadoo ruled the big screen,the concept of aliens is no longer an

alienated subject including those on TV.Shows like Badi Door Se Aaye Hain wasthe first one to introduce aliens on thesmall screen. The concept was muchappreciated and accepted by theaudience. Then came robots —Karishma Kaa Karishma — which againwas a fresh serve for the audience.

Taking this legacy further &tv islaunching its new show Shaadi KeSiyape which showcases alien turnedhumans in a new light. The weekenddramedy series will go on air fromMarch 16, 2019. The story revolvesaround all the siyapas that happen in atypical Indian shaadi because indianweddings are incomplete withoutsiyapas.

The show stars Alka Badola Kaushalas Fancy Aunty who owns a marriagehallalong with her uniquely gifted squadof alien turned humans. Tarak Mehta KaOoltah Chashma fame Bhavya Gandhiwill play Nanku — a techno expert chef,the role of Bijli — a gossip lovingnachaniya cum make-up artist will beessayed by Sheen Dass, the role of aclassy DJ — DJ Virat will be played byMishkat Varma and actor Rahul Singhwill play a pandit in the show.

Kaushal says that her characterhails from Delhi. “Her husband is ascientist but Fancy Aunty is anindependent woman who runs herbusiness. She is fun loving, organised,disciplined and a good hearted personThe character is full of differentemotions. She pretends to be strong, butthere are moments when she getsanxious and worried about things andthen cries in a corner. Sab ke saamneytoh voh bolti hai ki haanji sab ho jayegaji par akele mein sochti hai ki vaha tohbol aayi ki ho jayega par sab kuch hogakese.”

Kaushal says that it has been ages

since she is getting to play a positivecharacter on small screen. “It’s been agessince I am getting to play a positivecharacter on television. Though infilms I played those sweet mummyjiwale characters but on TV even if I gota positive role eventually show kekhatam hotey hotey it used to become agrey character. So, I am veryxcited toplay Fancy Aunty,” she tells you addingthat the show is situational comedyalong with some real life inspired shaadike siyape that occur in almost everywedding.

She tells you that it is very difficultto shoot for the show since it is the firsttime she is being part of such a show.“It was very difficult to shoot for theshow because maine kabhi aisey showskiye nahin hain jahan VFX involvedhain.

It is difficult both in terms of costand time and it is difficult for a produceralso to take up this job,” Kaushal tellsyou who is an actor turned producer.

Kaushal feels it is not very difficultto bring connectivity with the audiencethrough such shows. “Audience willconnect to such shows and it is not thatdifficult because agar hum dinosaurdikha kar audience ko impress karsaktey hain jo ki kisiney nahin dekhe kivoh exist kartey they ya nahin toh alienske sath bhi same hai.

The first thing is just to convinceyour audience in the right way that it ispossible and aliens do exist and onceyou have successfully convinced youraudience then they will be able torelate and connect with it.

“As far as I am concerned, I amconvinced and I believe that there is lifeon other planets too. The other reasonwhy people will be able to connect morewith the show is each one of us hasexperience some siyaapa in a weddingkahin phupaji naraaz ho jatey to kahintaya ji, har koi khush nahin reh sakta and

we have shown same stories in the show.In my own wedding a siyapa happened,the electricity got cut off but thankfullywe had a generator so my shaadi tookplace with the generator running,” shetells you.

Sonali Jaffer who is the producer ofthe show, says that the reason theyintroduced this concept in the show wasbecause it is believed that variousplanets are involved in a shaadi.

“For me this a l ien conceptconnected because in Indian culture webelieve that the planets are responsiblefor a shaadi and plays a key role in allthe siyapas that happen. So, that is whywe came up with the concept of alienscoming from a different planet andtrying to help Fancy aunty in resolvingthe problems,” she tells you.

Jaffer said that VFX is a challenge inmaking these type of shows. “Thechallenge in such shows is to addspecial effects and play with it. The otherchallenge is to make it smooth and makeit look real. Also shooting also becomesa bit difficult because say you first youshoot a plate and then you add specialeffects and put food on the plate, so yesit is both time consuming and a tediousprocess. Also since it is a week ender sowe have to shoot everything in a limitedtime and that just adds to the list ofchallenges,” she tells you adding that thetheme of the show is even when all theplanets come together will they be ableto make the shaadi happen in a smoothway and this is the reason why theaudience will be able to connect with theshow more.

To keep the interest factor alive theshow is weekly. “We are giving it in avery limited and balanced quantity.Also there will not be a single storyline,every episode will showcase a differentstory of a different marriage so that theaudience will not get bored of it,” Jaffersays.

The concept of

alien-based shows is not

new on the small screen.

The makers of &tv’s

Shaadi Ke Siyaape tell

MUSBA HASHMI the

challenges that come with

such projects

LOT OF

FUN

&

SIYAPE(L-R) Sheen Das, Bhavya Gandhi, Alka Badola Kaushal, Mishkat Varma, Rahul Singh and Ankita Bahuguna

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PlanYour

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‘Any role can be life-changing’

nWhat attracted you to play Kalyani?What attracted me the most was that there

are a lot of different shades to Kalyani. She goesthrough a lot of different situations and the wayshe handles them inspired me. The way shechanges because of the circumstance is thereason I fell in love with the character.nIs there anything you don’t likeabout your character?

The thing I dislike the most isshe is very aggressive andimpulsive. She takes decisionswithout thinking too much. Inreal life, I am just opposite. Itake my decisions afterweighing the pros and cons.nWhich role was themost challenging foryou?

I would say playingKalyani is the mostchallenging one. I haveto understand thedepth of the characterto bring that to realitywhen I perform onscreen. Since, thereare a lot of differentshades of Kalyani, itbecomes a bitdifficult to portraythem the right waybut I will always givemy best to each rolethat I have played.Kalyani will be nodifferent.n From Devi toTujhse Hai Raabta,how has yourjourney been?

It has been awonderful and amemorable one. Ihave learnt a lotand there is moreto learn in life. It’sall because of theblessings of myparents and theaudience, who

have constantly given me their love. I hope theykeep on loving me. All the co-actors I haveworked with, have been very supportive and verynice to me. I remember each one of them. FromDeepali Pansare, who played my mother’s role in

Neer Bhare Tere Naina Devi to Purva Gokhale,who is at present playing my mother in

Tujhse Hai Raabta, to Sehban Azim(playing her husband) and Shagun Pandey,they all have been a part of my journey.nA role that you would say no to.

I would not say no to any until I haveunderstood it completely. I feel any rolecan prove to be life-changing for you.nWhat about doing a reality show?

Yes. I would love to be a part of JhalakDikhlaa Jaa. Though I am a terrible

dancer, but I like dancing. (laughs)nWhat is the new rule of

channel pricing all about.How will it benefit the

audience?The new pricing

regime by TRAI givesthe consumers the

power to choosethe channelsthey wish towatch. It is af lexible andfamily-friendlyoption. You getto opt forchannels andbouquets thatyou love and payonly for thoseand not wastemoney on others.It has beencreated to ensurea uniform pricingmodel.

It will bring inu n i f o r m i t y ,transparency andpricing parityacross all serviceproviders for thebenefit of ourconsumers.

MUSBA HASHMI chats up REEM SHEIKHabout her journey and experiences as an actress inserials like Devi and now Tujhse Hai Raabta

YOU NEED TO MAKE

SURE THAT YOU GIVE

AN AUDITION AND

FORGET ABOUT IT.

DON’T WAIT FOR IT, IF

IT HAS TO HAPPEN, IT

WILL HAPPEN AND IF

NOT, THEN IT’S NOT

JUST MEANT TO

HAPPEN

IPL fever at The Irish HouseVenue: The Irish House — Nehru Place, NewDelhi and DLF Mall of India, Sector 18, NoidaDate: Till May 19, 2019Time: 12pm to 12am

This IPL season catch all the excitementlive on the big screens with incredible

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special 09LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

The founding father of white tigers inIndia was Mohan who was capturedas a cub by the Maharaja of Rewa in1951. Since then his progenies haveproduced several white tigers which

were not only given away to the zoos in Indiabut abroad too. To continue Mohan’s legacy, theMadhya Pradesh Government inaugurated theworld’s first white tiger safari in Mukundpur,Rewa. The safari was named after the iconic rulerof Rewa — Raja Martand Singh.

Sanjay Rai Khare, Director, MukundpurSafari, tells you that the safari which covers 25hectares was inaugurated on April 3, 2016 andis is divided into two parts — one is the openarea and the other one is an enclosed zoo. “Inthe open area there are two white tigers —Vindya, who is 13 and Raghu, who is five-and-a-half years old. In the zoo there are two — Gopi,who is five old and his partner Sonam, theyoungest of the lot, aged three,” Khare tells you.Unfortunately, Radha, the third white tigress inthe open area died as a result of a fight with theother tiger.

The good part is that the tourists get to seethe tigers even during monsoon. “When we taketourists for a safari, we make sure that they getto see the tiger. If they can’t see it in one round,then we will repeat the rounds until one is spot-ted,” he tells you. However, if the tourist is shorton time, they can visit the zoo to see the tigers.

Khare tells you that the lifespan of tigers onan average is 10 to 12 years in wild. This dou-bles when they are in the zoo. “In the wild youit is survival of the fittest. They have to hunt andfight for their survival. In an enclosed area thesefactors are eliminated. Everything is given tothem on a platter,” he says and tells you that theyget a traffic of 700-800 people daily. This figuresrises to 1500 on weekends.

Khare says that Mohan, after being kept incaptivity for 19 years was finally released into thewild where he died at almost 20. Mohan was lastspotted in this area before the safari was opened.

In the zoo, which is spread over 75 hectares,there are 17 enclosures. The entry is `20. Apartfrom the two white tigers, the zoo also has threeorange tigers. There are a couple of lions, leop-ards, sloth bears, sambhar deer, black bucks, nil-gai, cheetal to name a few,” Khare tells you.

Though many people think that all whitetigers are albinos, this is incorrect. The argue-ment put up in favour of the albino theory fallsflat when they are questioned on why they havestripes.

“if the tiger is albino, they have to be com-pletely white, even their eyebrows are white. “Butwhite tigers are a different species. They have acombination of white skin and black strips. Thisis due to a genetic mutation. There are two genesin a male tiger and two in female — yellow andred respectively, which are responsible for thestripe colour of the tiger. During mating, whenthe gene for yellow colour is unable to express

itself and remains suppressed, it results in the dis-colouration. But the chances of this happeningis rare. Therefore, white tigers are rare. No onecan guess the probability of a white cub in thelitter. It all depends on the genes. Maybe one inthe litter can be white, or maybe in the first gen-eration we can have one or maybe none at all.We cannot guess it,” Khare explains.

However, there are problems with the pop-ulation of the white tigers the world over. Theyare all progeneies of Mohan and his daughterRadha who was also white. This has led toinbreeding. This one is told is not good for whitetigers.

“It results in a number of defects andabnormalities, thereby reducing the life of whitetigers. Some of the side-effects of inbreeding arecross-eyed, short height, absence of a tail,abnormality in the limbs, kidney problems,arched or crooked backbone and twisted neck.It can also lead to inbreeding depression, whichmeans reduced biological fitness (lesser abilityto survive),” Khare shares.

The inbreeding programme stopped a fewyears back. The tiger tigeress are mated with anorange tiger naturally. The down side is that thisreduces the chances of a white cub. One is toldthat all over the world there are around 200 to250 white tigers left. All of them are Mohan’s orthat of his progenies.

“The problem, he tells you that in order toget a white cub, one will have to mate the whitetigress with a white tiger. This will automaticallylead to inbreeding. There is no way that one canget a white cub without getting some genes ofMohan’s,” Khare tells you.

The only hope is that they continue a breed-ing programme where Vindhya is mated with anorange tiger. So far, the attempts have beenunsuccessful.

“Vindya has been pushed to mate with anorange tiger many times, but she was not ableto conceive even once. Maybe, it is because sheis 13. To continue the process, now we are try-ing to mate Sonam with an orange tiger.

This is not an easy task. It is a long process.The first step is to make the animal comfortable.This takes time. “To begin with, an orange tigeris left in the enclosure of the white tigeress foronly a few hours. This continues for a few daysuntil the animals start feeling comfortable witheach other.

“The next step is to let them have their foodtogether. We give both tigers their share of foodand let them have it in the same space. This con-tinues for a while until their fear is gone and theircomfort level has increased. Then the next stepis when we make them eat from the same shareof food. Once this stage is reached, it means thatthey have become comfortable with each otherand can stay together in the same enclosure. Bythis time the tigers are ready for mating,” Kharesays.

Hans Dalal, Wildlife Conservationist feels

that conservation of white tigers has become dif-ficult. “Even in inbreeding there is no guaran-tee of getting a pure white cub. We can onlyexpect this, but there is no surity. Same goes withbreeding them with an orange tiger. There is nosurity. They are tigers, they need to be in the wild.Protecting them is a challenge. The chances ofthem being killed is high. Tigers are beautiful ani-mals. A white will stands out because of itscolour. They can’t hide,” Dalal tells you. Sadly,most white tigers in the world are living in cap-tivity. Therefore, one has to be more careful whenit comes to wildlife.

His interest in wildlife conservation beganafter his his visit to Ghana. “I was in Ghana in2007. When I came back, I realised that this iswhere my passion lay. The feeling of being in thejungle is indescribable. I fell in love with theNature and the wildlife,” he explains.

“Access to wildlife through National Parksand safaris need to be restricted. We need tounderstand that in order to live, we need otherliving beings as well. The wildlife can’t just beignored. We can’t survive on our own. We haveto preserve nature and wild animals,” Dalal says.

With only 200 white tigers in the world and just four in India, this fair big cat stares extinction. Though people disregard them as albinos,there is more to the tale of their slim existence. MUSBA HASHMI speaks to wildlife experts to bring you a report on Rewa’s pride

In 1951, when the Maharaja of Rewa had gonefor a hunting party in Bandhavgarh, he found atigress with four nine-month-old cubs. One of

them was white. All of them were shot except forthe white cub who ran away. The maharajaordered his men to search for the cub and bring itto him.

During the capture process, the white cubmauled a man and was clubbed on the head. Thecub fell unconscious and wasn't expected to wakeup. But after sometime, it came back into itssenses and was taken to the Maharaja. The cubwas named Mohan, which means ‘enchanter'. It isalso one of the names of Lord Krishna.

The tiger was housed in his unused palace atGovindgarh. Mohan stayed with the Maharaja for19 years. During this period he produced as manyas 34 cubs, including both white and orange. Outof which 21 cubs were white, a result of

inbreeding. His cubs were donated to the zoos inIndia and abroad to protect them from inbreedingand thereby reducing the risks associated with it.Six zoos acquired white tigers from the Maharajaof Rewa including Bristol Zoo in England andCrandon Park Zoo in Miami. Mohan died in theyear 1970, aged almost 20.

THE LEGACY

in stock4Only in stock4Only

LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

10

}RUNS 159 Andre Russel (KKR)

WICKETS 5 Yuzvendra Chahal (RCB)

6S 297

4S 131{LEADERBOARD

There are some areas we want totouch up on. We needed manyparts to fire to chase near 200.— KANE WILLIAMSON

Up Next

PTI n MOHALI

KL Rahul played the roleof a sheet anchor to per-fection as Kings XI

Punjab returned to winningways with a comfortable eight-wicket victory over MumbaiIndians in an IPL encounterhere on Saturday.

The talented Rahul wasunbeaten on 71 off 57 balls withKXIP reaching the 177-runtarget in only 18.4 overs. Thiswas KXIP's second win in threegames while MI lost their sec-ond game.

The India international hitsix fours and a six but whatstood out was the manner inwhich he paced his innings.

He played second fiddle toperfection till the dashing ChrisGayle and the flamboyantMayank Agarwal were at thecrease but upped the ante whenit was required.

The 15th over bowled byHardik Pandya swung thematch decisively in KXIP'sfavour with 19 runs coming offit.

Once the pressure was off,Rahul hit the ever-dependableJasprit Bumrah for successivefours to literally close thematch.

Gayle (40, 24 balls) battedin a manner only he can as hecleared his front leg and hitthose towering sixes beforePandya brothers joined handsto send him back to the dug-outafter an opening stand of 53.

Gayle failed to get requiredelevation off a Krunal deliveryand Hardik caught him in thedeep. Rahul was barely intodouble figures when Gayle gotout.

The next partnership wasequally interesting as Agarwal(43, 21 balls) was in great nickduring the 64 runs that headded with his close buddy

Rahul in only 6.1 overs.Pandya brothers had a dis-

mal day with the ball as Krunalgave away 43 runs in his fourovers and Hardik 39 runs inthree overs.

While he was a disappoint-ment with the ball, Hardikonce again provided the finalflourish after yet another mid-

dle-order collapse as MumbaiIndians managed 176 for 7 afterbeing put into bat.

Quinton de Kock with a 39-ball-60 created a platform whichthe middle-order unfortunatelydidn't make full use of beforeHardik smashed 31 off 19 balls toenable MI get past 175-run mark.

While De Kock hit six

boundaries and two sixes in hisinnings, Pandya hit three bound-aries and a six off MohammedShami.

Skipper Rohit Sharma alsolooked good during his briefstay at the crease, scoring 32 off18 balls with five fours. He added51 for the opening stand with DeKock.

For the home team, it was thelesser known Ashwin —Murugan, who emerged as themost successful bowler with fig-ures of 2 for 25 from his fourovers.

Skipper RavichandranAshwin didn't get any wickets butgave away only 26 runs in his fourovers.

The pace troika of Shami(2/40 in 4 overs), Andrew Tye(1/40 in 4 overs) and HardusViljoen (2/40 in 4 overs) wereamong wickets but bowled a lotof loose deliveries, giving away 13fours and three sixes.

MI were off to a great startafter Shami was hit for a coupleof boundaries by Rohit and onefrom De Kock in the very secondover.

In the fifth over, Rohit hitAndrew Tye for three more foursbut Viljoen dismissed him in thevery next over when he tried toplay across the line.

Suryakumar Yadav (11) wascaught plumb in-front byMurugan but De Kock found hisways to get boundaries off boththe Ashwins.

For a good measure he pulledShami for a six behind square andbrought up his fifty with a bound-ary off Murugan.

In between Yuvraj Singhbecame Murugan's second victimand once De Kock was trappedleg before by Shami, MI were ina spot of bother.

Once Pollard was gone, MIslumped to 146 for five from 120for two but Hardik ensured a safetotal for the visitors.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Capitals pippedKolkata Knight Riders in a thrilling superover affair at Feroz Shah Kotla stadiumon Saturday.

Chasing the stiff target of 185 runs,Delhi led by Prithvi Shaw, who fell to aglory shot on 99, too managed 185 runsin their quota of overs. Kuldeep Yadavbowled a brilliant last over to give histeam a winning chance in super over.

In the super over Delhi scored 10 oftheir over. Rabada bowled brillantly tohand Delhi a win.

Earlier, Andre Russell's third consec-utive quick and impactful innings underpressure helps Kolkata Knight Ridersovercome poor start and post 185 runs .

Batting first after losing toss, Kolkatalost half his side for just 61 runs in 9.1overs but then 95 runs partnershipbetween Andre Russell (62 of 28 balls,4 fours and 6 sixes) and skipper DineshKarthik (50 of 36 balls, 5 fours and 2sixes) completely changed the com-plexion of the game and help KnightRiders ride on Delhi bowlers to takeKKR to a match winning total at slowtrack of Kotla.

Especially Russell was once again thestar for Kolkata for the third consecutivetime and the West Indian all rounder sin-gle handedly fought against Delhi to giveKKR an upper hand.

He was ably supported by Karthik,who played a role of the anchor whileRussell took the opposition bowlers intocleaners hitting huge sixes and entertain-ing thousands of fans gathered atKotla.

This came after Delhi Capitals skip-per Shreyas Iyer won the toss and elect-ed to field first. Delhi made four changesin the line up bringing Chris Morris,Hanuma Vihari, Sandeep Lamichhaneand Harshal Patel in place of KeemoPaul, Rahul Tewatia, Axar Patel andIshant Sharma. While, Kolkata Knightinclude Nikhil Naik in place of injuredSunil Narine.

Coming to bat first, debutantNikhil Naik started his IndianPremier League campaign with a four onthe very first ball he faced of KKRinnings. And his opening partner ChrisLynn also didn't took long to open hisaccount, he smashed Rabada for fourand KKR compiled 12 runs of the firstover. But in the next two overs the bats-men struggled to find runs and just man-aged three runs which build on the pres-sure, and Sandeep Lamichhane got thebenefit of it, as the 18-year old fromNepal dismissed Nikhil (7 of 16 balls)lbw.

After an early setback at the start ofthe innings, Robin Uthappa comes to batat three and the veteran started his

innings with a four of the very first ballhe faced. But he also couldn't last for longand was sent back to the pavilion byHarshal Patel for just 11 runs in the lastball of sixth over.

He was also out lbw. And by the endof first power play, KKR scoreboard wasreading 36-2.

KKR's problem continue to rollafter power play too, as first KagisoRabada got rid of big hitting Chris Lynn(20 of 18 balls) in the second last ball ofseventh over. He was out after RishabhPant took a terrific catch.

And two balls later, Harshal Patel gotthe price wicket of in-form Nitish Rana

(1 of 2 balls). The local Delhi lad play-ing for Kolkata could not continue hisrich form and was out after Rabada's bril-liant catch near the boundary line. At thetime of Rana's dismissal, KKR wasstruggling at 44-4 in 7.1 overs.

Next up at 6 was Shubman Gill (4 of5 balls) but the next generation super-star also couldn't do much he was runout in the first ball after strategic time-out. And when it was looking like Delhiwill get successful in restricting KnightRiders for a low total Andre Russell cameinto the picture and the giant Jamaicanchanged the entire scenario of the gameby his superb hitting.

PTI n HYDERABAD

David Warner will be keen tocontinue the good show on his

road to redemption when a confi-dent Sunrisers Hyderabad take ona struggling Royal ChallengersBangalore (RCB) in an IPL gamehere on Sunday.

Despite Sanju Samson scoringan unbeaten 102 not out, Warner(69 off 37 balls) helped Sunriserschase down a mammoth 199-runtarget for an impressive five-wick-et win, their first of the season, hereon Friday night in a high-scoringcontest against Rajasthan Royals.

After the match, Warnerclaimed that it wasn't the easiest ofwickets to bat on and praisedSamson for his efforts. He, howev-er, said the conditions could be dif-ferent on Sunday as it would be an

afternoon start.The Aussie opener would be

looking to make the most of theearly start and put runs on theboard again.

Besides Warner, JonnyBairstow (45 off 28) and VijayShankar (35 off 15) batted well too.After Warner and Bairstow set upan ideal platform by adding 110 in

the first 10 overs, Shankar contin-ued in the same vein, not letting themomentum slip even once duringthe run chase. In the end, RashidKhan hit a four and a six off JofraArcher's successive balls to takeSunrisers home in 19 overs.

And come Sunday, Sunrisersbatting unit would like to repeat theshow against a low on confidenceRCB. RCB are yet to register a winfrom their two outings so far andthey would be desperate to turn

things around. But it won't be easyfor them as the Sunrisers will havethe home advantage.

While RCB were all out for 70in the first game against ChennaiSuper Kings, they failed to chasedown 187 against Mumbai Indiansat home. And if they want to dowell, the RCB would need to lookbeyond captain Virat Kohli and ABde Villiers.

De Villiers single-handedlykept the game alive till the last overagainst Mumbai Indians, scoring abrilliant 70 off 41 balls, but lack ofsupport at the other end hamperedthe team's chances.

After Kohli's dismissal for 46,no other batsmen chipped in tosupport de Villers.

RCB must click as a battingunit if they want to post their firstwin of the season on Sunday.

PTI n HYDERABAD

Sanju Samson's magnificent ton was over-shadowed by David Warner's blistering half-

century and the Indian batsman conceded thatthe Aussie spoilt his party.

Samson's (102 not out) ton went in vain asWarner (69 off 37 balls) helped SunrisersHyderabad chase down a mammoth 199-runtarget to beat Rajasthan Royals by five wicketsin an IPL match here on Friday night.

After the match, Warner interviewedSamson, who said probably a total of 250 mighthave saved the Royals from losing the game.

"You destroyed my day. My 100 was notenough because of the way you batted. The wayyou started the innings we lost the game in thepowerplay. We needed some 250 on the boardwith someone like you in the opposition. It wasspecial," Samson told Warner.

The 32-year-old Australian cricketer wasall praise for Samson, saying he showed the wayto bat on a tricky surface.

"We didn't get off to a good start, a seri-ous innings from Sanju and full credit to him.He came out and played really well. Heallowed himself time and the wicket got bet-ter. Actually, I didn't think it was a 200 wick-et. We have played on similar wickets where ifyou bowl that hard length it is tough to getunder. He showed us how to go about it," saidWarner.

Warner and Jonny Bairstow (45 off 28) setup the platform for the Sunrisers as they added110 in the first 10 overs for the opening wick-et.

"We know this ground pretty well. Weknow the dimensions well. There has been abreeze from one side for the last two days buttonight it wasn't there. You have to be calcu-lative with your batting," he said.

KINGS ROARLOUD IN MOHALIMurugan, Mayank, Rahul and Gayle shine as Punjab begin home legwith 8-wicket win

DC pip KKR in super over

You destroyed my day,Sanju tells Warner

Warner looks to continue run riot as Sunrisers face RCB

LAST YEAR’S MATCHES

* Royal Challengers Bangaloredefeated Sunrisers Hyderabadby 14 runs at Bangalore* Sunrisers Hyderabaddefeated Royal ChallengersBangalore by 5 runs atHyderabadFOR THE RECORD

* David Warner’s 41 fifty plusknocks in 116 innings of asmany matches is the most inIPL.* Virat Kohli is the fastest tocomplete 5000 runs in IPL. Hereached this milestone in the157 innings. Suresh Raina whocompleted 5000 runs in 173innings was the first to score5000 runs in this T-20tournament.

Faisel Features

Live on Star Sports 1& 2

HYDERABAD

SRH vs RCB

SUNDAY | 4:00 PM

HEADTO

HEADM 12

SRH 6

RCB 5

Match After

PTI n CHENNAI

The focus will be on the pitch, whichcame in for severe criticism after the

IPL opener, when Chennai Super Kingstake on Rajasthan Royals in their secondhome game here on Sunday.

The tournament opener saw RoyalChallengers Bangalore being shot out for70, a target that CSK achieved in the 18thover to win by seven wickets. But the slow-

ness of the track drew criticism from boththe captains — Mahendra Singh Dhoniand Virat Kohli.

It will interesting to see how the pitchbehaves tomorrow.

Meanwhile, CSK has started the sea-son with two straight wins and will lookto keep the momentum going.

After beating Bangalore, they rode ona team effort to prevail over Delhi Capitalsin their second outing.

Not known to make too manychanges to the playing XI, it remains tobe seen if CSK continue to play with just

three overseas players, therebykeeping South Africa captainFaf du Plessis in the reserves.

The Super Kings bowlershave delivered on both the

occasions so far but same can't be saidabout the batting line-up and skipperDhoni, who shone with the bat againstDC, will hope that the rest of the batsmenstep up.

Veterans Harbhajan Singh, ImranTahir and Dwayne Bravo came up withimpressive performances and will look todo continue the good work.

In contrast, the Rajasthan have lostboth their matches so far and would needto step up if they aim to breach the reign-ing champions' fortress.

Rajasthan skipper Ajinkya Rahane

would be happy with the batting butexpect his bowlers to up the ante. The onuswould be on the bowlers to find ways tocontain a mighty CSK batting unit if theRoyals want to see a reversal of fortunes.

It will be a contest between Rajasthan'sformidable batting line-up comprisingRahane, Buttler, Steve Smith, Ben Stokesand Samson versus a spin-heavy CSKbowling.

CSK ready to take on Rajasthan RoyalsLive on Star Sports 1& 2

CHENNAI

CSK vs RR

SUNDAY | 8:00 PM

HEADTO

HEADM 19

CSK 12

RR 7

LAST YEAR’S MATCHES

* Rajasthan Royals defeatedChennai Super Kings by 4 wickets atJaipur

*Chennai Super Kings defeatedRajasthan Royals by 64 runs at Pune

FOR THE RECORD

* Dwayne Bravo who took 97wickets at 21.73 in 76 innings of 79matches, needs just three wickets tobecome the first Chennai SuperKings bowler to complete a centuryof wickets in IPL.

*Sanju Samson is the first batsmanto score a century in 12th edition ofIPL. He scored an unbeaten 102 off55 in the previous match.

Faisel Features

CHENNAI: Defending champions ChennaiSuper Kings on Saturday named New Zealandall-rounder Scott Kuggeleijn as a replacementfor injured pacer Lungi Ngidi for theremainder of the Indian Premier League.Speaking to reporters on the eve of the matchagainst Rajasthan Royals at the M AChidambaram stadium here, CSK head coachStephen Fleming said they had gone in forKuggeleijn, who bowls quick and bats welland added that he would be joining the squadnext week."For Lungi we've been a little bit moreselective. It's obviously a different level ofreplacement player (required for him) basedon price. We've gone with Scott Kuggeleijn,who's a New Zealand international, who bowlsquick and bats well. So we've gone for an all-rounder who has good pace and good

variations. He'll be joining us next week,"Fleming said.Ngidi has been ruled out of the ongoing IPLeven before its start after the South Africanpacer felt discomfort while bowling during thelast ODI against Sri Lanka at Newlandsrecently.Talking about England all-rounder DavidWilley, who pulled out owing to personalreasons, Fleming said he can't be replaced."We can't replace David Willey. David's got apersonal issue at home that he's dealing withand we're supporting him and we'll continueto support him," he said.Willey, who played three matches for the CSKin 2018, was quoted by Yorkshire CountyCricket Club website as saying that"unfortunately due to some family reasons,I've had to pull out of the IPL". PTI

KUGGELEIJN TO REPLACE INJURED NGIDI

Delhi Capitals (DC) batsman Prithvi Shaw plays a shot during the Indian Premier League 2019 (IPL T20)cricket match between Delhi Capital (DC) and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Feroz Shah Kotla Stadium,New Delhi on Saturday

sport 11LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

CHIKKA BEST INDIAN IN 6TH PLACEGurugram: Chikkarangappa S kept Indian hopesalive with a brilliant third round effort of six-under-66 on the third day of the Hero Indian Open 2019at the demanding DLF Golf & Country Club. The25-year-old Chikka, an Asian Tour regular andtwo-time winner on the Asian Development Tour(ADT), is now placed tied sixth at six-under-210,five behind the joint leaders Julian Suri of theUnited States and Callum Shinkwin of England.Chikka's third round exploits lifted him 35 placesfrom his overnight tied 41st. Two-time EuropeanTour winner Shubhankar Sharma produced ahard-fought one-under-71 to move up four placesto tied 15th at three-under-213 at the US$ 1.75million event. Chikka was five shots behindovernight leader Julian Suri who put his tee shoton the 18th into a hazard and found terrible lieswith both his third and fifth shots to record adouble bogey seven and fall back into a share ofthe lead with Callum Shinkwin of England, who islooking for his first win on the European Tour.Two-time European Tour winner ShubhankarSharma grinded out a hard-fought one-under-71to move up four places to tied 15th at three-under-213 and he was the next best Indian after Chikka.

FC GOA BEAT INDIAN ARROWS 3-0Bhubaneswar: FC Goa advanced to the quarter-finals of the Super Cup football tournament after acomfortable 3-0 victory over Indian Arrows hereon Saturday. Delhi Dynamos also made it to thequarterfinals after they were handed walkoveragainst East Bengal. The Kolkata giants havealready taken the decision not to field their team,expressing solidarity with the revolting I-Leaguesides. Ferran Corominas (18th minute) and HugoBoumous (60th) struck for FC Goa while IndianArrows' Deepak Tangri scored an own-goal in the80th minute. FC Goa were on the front foot fromthe start, dominating possession in the middle ofthe park and pulling the strings. The likes of ZaidKrouch, Hugo Boumous and Jackichand Singhwere causing problems for the Arrows defencewith their pace and trickery. Soon enough, Krouchwon a penalty for FC Goa inside the opening 20minutes when his attempted volley was handledinside the box. With one minute into the secondhalf, C Goa got their second goal. A two-goaldeficit was always going to be hard for the Arrowsto overcome, despite the best efforts of BorisSingh and Amarjit Singh. With 10 minutes to go,FC Goa scored their third goal.

FCB ANNOUNCES TRIALS DATES New Delhi: Ferit Cricket Bash, India's firstindependent cricket league for amateur players,on Friday announced the dates of its preliminarytrials for Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. Delhi trials willtake place from April 4 to 8 at Karnail SinghStadium, Railway Colony, Paharganj, Noida trialswill take place from April 5 to 7 at JBM GlobalSchool, Sector 132, Noida and Lucknow trials willtake place from April 5 to 7 at Paarth Republic,Lucknow Kanpur Highway Darogha Kheda. A jurycomprising renowned Ranji players and certifiedcoaches will select the best players among theparticipants. The selected players will furthercompete in the next round (Phase 2 clinics) toensure their place in the badge team of theirrespective state. FCB is all set to offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to amateur cricketers abovethe age of 15 years. After rigorous sessions oftrials and short-listing processes, the selectedcandidates will become member of one of the 16teams.

DELHI HORSE SHOW GETS UNDERWAYNew Delhi:Over 500 competitors would displaytheir skills in four different categories at the DelhiHorse Show which is being held here till April 7.Over 400 horses are participating in the eventwhich got underway on Friday. Competitors aregrouped in four categories - senior, young rider,junior and children. Participating teams andcontingents include those from the Army,paramilitary, police forces, riding clubs, institutes,schools and colleges, press release by theorganisers stated. The events will be conducted inthe early morning and late in the evening underfloodlights.

Agencies

SINGLES

PTI n NEW DELHI

Former champion Kidambi Srikanthreached title round after a 17-month drought but P V Sindhu

bowed out after losing a close semifinalcontest at the USD 350,000 India Openhere on Saturday.

Olympic Silver medallist Sindhu,who had won the event in 2017, blew fourgame points in the opening game to godown fighting 21-23 18-21 to China's HeBingjiao.

The third seed will face two-timechampion Ratchanok Inthanon ofThailand in the finals on Sunday.

"I think I need to be more patient, Ishould have taken the first set, it was cru-cial for me but after losing it, I becamea bit nervous. I made crucial mistakes inthe second game," Sindhu said.

"I did change strategies. She also gotlucky with net cords in the first game. Icame back and could have maintained theled but I couldn't. She played well."

Srikanth had entered the finals ofCommonwealth Games last year but hefailed to reach the summit clash in anyBWF Superseries or BWF World Tourtournament since his French Open winin October, 2017.

The 26-year-old from Guntur onSaturday eked out a 14-21 21-16 21-19triumph over China's Huang Yuxiang inan engrossing semi-final encounter.

He will face second seed ViktorAxelsen, who beat India's ParupalliKashyap 21-11 21-17, in the final.

"It's been really long since I reacheda final. I'm just happy to be here, play-

ing the final again," Srikanth said."I was trailing in the decided and I

am happy to pull it off. I'm happy to comeback in the second. It was about keepingthe shuttle in. The crowd kept me goingin."

In the women's semi-final, Sindhumanaged to hold a 11-8 lead at the break.She kept the shuttle in play, mixing herstrokes to push Bingjiao to commiterrors to lead 20-16. But Indian commit-

ted a heap of unforced errors to allow theChinese level score.

At 21-21, a lucky net chord putBingjiao on lead leaving Sindhu frustrat-ed, who sent another one at the net tolose the opening game.

The second game begun on an evenkeel as the duo rode on each other'serrors to move 8-8 before Sindhu grabbeda 11-9 advantage at the break.

The Indian stayed a step ahead,despite Bingjiao constant threat. At 16-13, a few weak returns from Sindhuallowed the Chinese to level scores.

Bingjiao quickly grabbed two points

to take two match points. Sindhu thensent the next shuttler to the net to bowout.

In the men's singles semi-finals,Srikanth used his flat tosses and deep liftsto engage his rival into rallies but Huangwas also up to the task before the Indianmanaged to held a 11-10 lead at the firstbreak.

The duel continued before theChinese moved to a 18-14 lead after theIndian lost a few points at the net.Srikanth saved two game points with across court smash and a precise net shotbefore hitting wide to lose the firstgame.

In the second game, Srikanth cameon his own, opening up a 8-4 lead afterplaying some exceptional strokes. Acouple of smashes took him closer to the11-mark at the interval.

The Indian continued to dominatethe proceedings after the breather androared back into the contest when theChinese hit the net.

In the decider, Srikanth was a stepahead initially but a wrong line call, asmash going wide and a net error allowedthe Chinese to make it 8-7. The Indian,however, ensured a slender 11-10 lead atthe break.

After the change of sides, Srikanthconstructed the rallies but ended up hit-ting wide and long to fall 15-17.

A precise on-the-line smash helpedhim to draw parity 18-18. He pouncedon to a weak return and then grabbedtwo match points after Huang hit wide.The Chinese saved one before hitting thenet.

AFP n MIAMI

Roger Federer is gearing up for a MiamiOpen final shootout with John Isner

on Sunday after blowing away young-gunDenis Shapovalov in straight sets.

Federer produced a 6-2, 6-4 master-class at Hard Rock Stadium to leave up-and-coming star Shapovalov, who grew upidolizing the Swiss, chasing shadows dur-ing a difficult first set.

The Swiss was superb in dismantlingthe 19 year-old's game, but knows withhuge serving Isner lying in wait in whatwill be the former world number one's50th ATP Masters final, the key will be todefuse the reigning Miami Open champi-on's monster service game.

Isner used it to great effect in his 7-6(7/3), 7-6 (7/4) win over Shapovalov'sfriend and compatriot Felix Auger-Aliassime earlier in the day, smashingdown 21 aces. He'll be looking for moreof the same against 20 time Grand Slamchampion Federer.

"Playing a big server like John is likebeing in a penalty shootout in soccer, butI enjoy it," said number four seed Federerwho coped brilliantly with KevinAnderson's dangerous serve in the quar-

ter-finals, winning the first set to love."Sometimes you go with momen-

tum. Sometimes you go with feel.Sometimes you guess maybe a little bitand sometimes you see it. It's a combi-nation of all sort of things.

"You just hope that the stars align,that you pick the right side, that he picksthe wrong side, that maybe he misses aserve, that you can put him in uncom-fortable situations time and time again,and at the end somehow you find a way."

Federer had no such challenge fromShapovalov, playing his fifth ATP Toursemi-final. Even though the Swiss wasstanding in his way of a first final, the19 year-old stressed beforehand that itwas a "dream" to take on Federer.

It quickly, however, turned into anightmare.

The Canadian displayed under-standable nerves early on, a struggle withhis first serve proving as much in a 10minute opening game which he eventu-ally won.

Yet it didn't settle him down andwhen another horribly loose backhandflew long, Federer pocketed a vitalearly break and stayed in the driver's seat.

Shapovalov, who will jump to a

career best 20th in the world thanks tothis impressive run, enjoyed some muchbetter moments in the second set andlooked more relaxed, although thematch was never in his hands.

He hit just eight winners in responseto Federer's 30 but will learn from this.

"It's kind of surreal, being on thecourt against Roger,"admitted theCanadian who joked the only enjoyablemoment for him was the warm up.

"Obviously I wasn't trying to focuson the fact that it's him on the other side.

"I was just trying to play as good asI can, but he played an excellent match.I wasn't able stay at his level. I'm justgoing to try to learn from this and moveforward."

Federer, assessing his own perfor-mance, said he played "very well".

"I had to because when you let Denisplay, he's got some serious power and hegets rhythm going. He can really put youin uncomfortable situations."

This was the first time since 2007that two teenagers have reached an ATPMasters semi-finals and although bothsuffered disappointing defeats, theyleave South Florida with their heads heldhigh.

AFP n FULHAM

Manchester City cruised back to the top ofthe Premier League as relegation-bound

Fulham were swatted aside by the champions2-0 at Craven Cottage on Saturday.

Bernardo Silva and Sergio Aguero ensuredthe game was won in the first 27 minutes, butthe final margin of victory could have been fargreater had City chosen to click through thegears.

Pep Guardiola's men now lead Liverpool bya point with seven games remaining for bothsides, but Jurgen Klopp's side can retake top spotwith victory over third-placed Tottenham onSunday.

Fulham, by contrast, remain 13 points adriftof safety with just 18 left to play for.

City remain on course for an unprecedent-ed quadruple of Premier League, ChampionsLeague, FA Cup and League Cup, which theyretained last month.

A potential 14 games now stand betweenthem and history, but there will be far toughertests in wait than a dispirited and dishevelledFulham, who played a huge part in their down-fall.

Aguero had already seen an effort clearedoff the line before Silva opened the scoring justfive minutes in.

Kevin de Bruyne, on his return from amonth-long injury absence, intercepted a loosepass deep inside the Fulham half and fedAguero, who in turn played the ball to Silva tocurl into the far corner on his favoured left foot.

De Bruyne should have scored for just thesecond time in an injury-plagued PremierLeague season when he fired too close to SergioRico with just the Fulham goalkeeper to beat,while the Spaniard also parried IlkayGundogan's effort from the edge of the box.

A second City goal seemed only a matterof time, though, and again Fulham made it easyfor their visitors by coughing up possessionclose to their own goal.

This time the roles were reversed as Silvaslipped in Aguero who expertly found the topcorner for his 29th goal of the season.

City were happy to canter through the sec-ond period without expending too much ener-gy with eight games in a 25-day period to comein April.

Kyle Walker came closest to adding to theiradvantage with a thumping shot off the outsideof the post.

An otherwise comfortable afternoon mayhave come at a cost, though, as Agueroappeared to be carrying an injury as he wasreplaced by Gabriel Jesus just before the hourmark.

PTI n IPOH

South Korea stunnedfavourites India 4-2 in

the shoot-out to lift theAzlan Shah Cup hockeytitle after the five-timechampions conceded anequaliser in the final quar-ter of the summit clashhere on Saturday.

Going into the titleclash, World No 5 Indiawere clear favourites to lifttheir sixth Azlan Shah titleagainst the 17th rankedKoreans.

And the Indians start-ed in the right earnest, tak-ing the lead early throughSimranjeet Singh's fieldstrike in the ninth minute.

The Koreans, there-after, kept the Indian for-ward line under tight vigil,while also pressing hard insearch of the equaliser.

Korea's efforts finallypaid dividend in the 47th

minute when they wereawarded a penalty stroke.The Indians went for thevideo referral but the penal-

ty decision stayed and JangJong Hyun made no mis-take in drawing parity forhis side.

Two minutes from thehooter, India earned apenalty corner but to noavail as the match went intoshoot-out.

In the shoot-out, theIndians missed their first,fourth and fifth attemptsand converted just two,while the Koreans justmissed their third strike towin the thrilling contest 4-2 and lift the crown for thethird time in the history ofthe invitational tourna-ment.

For India, MandeepSingh, Sumit Kumar Juniorand Sumit missed from theone-on-one penalty shoot-out situation, while experi-enced Birendra Lakra andVarun Kumar, convertedtheir chances.

Defending the goal inthe shoot-out for India wasyoung Kishan B Pathak inplace of experienced P RSreejesh.

Srikanth seals final spot, Sindhu crashes out

Kidambi ends 17-month drought to reach summit clash; Pusarla, Kashyap topple in semis

SRIKANTH HADENTERED THE FINALSOF COMMONWEALTHGAMES LAST YEARBUT HE FAILED TO

REACH THE SUMMITCLASH IN ANY BWF

SUPERSERIES OR BWFWORLD TOUR

TOURNAMENT SINCEHIS FRENCH OPEN WIN

IN OCTOBER, 2017

FEDERER READY FOR FINAL SHOOTOUT

PTI n NEW DELHI

Sarabjot Singh and Esha Singhwon the 10m Air Pistol men's

and women's juniors eventsrespectively, to bolster India's over-all Gold haul to eight at the end ofday four of the 12th Asian AirgunChampionships in Taoyuan,Taipei.

Sarabjot also partnered ArjunCheema and Vijayveer Sidhu towin the junior team Gold.

India have so far won eightGold, four Silver and two Bronzemedals with two days of competi-

tion left.Sarabjot topped the qualifier

with a score of 579 and then shot237.8 in the final to beat KoreanKim Woojong, who shot 236.6.

Vijayveer won Bronze with ascore of 217.5, while ArjunCheema, the third Indian in thefinal, finished fourth.

The Indian trio's combinedqualification total of 1718 was wayahead of Taipei's 1699.

Esha also topped her qualify-ing round with a score of 576 in thejunior women's event and thenshot 240.1 to win with consum-

mate ease.Korea's Yun Seonjeong won

Silver with a score of 235, 5.1behind Esha.

Other Indian women shootersalso made it to the final butHarshada Nithave and DevanshiDhama managed fifth and eighthplaces respectively.

However, the three combinedto win the team Silver, behindKorea.

It will be back to the seniorshooters on Sunday as the Rifleexponents in the men and womencategories line-up.

Sarabjot, Esha add to India’s Gold haul

India lose to Korea in AzlanShah Cup final

Man City stun Fulham 2-0

backpack 12LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MARCH 31, 2019

nDid you always want to be a musician?I used to be a management consultant. I had this job for five

years before I turned to music and took it up professionally. ButI have been singing since I was four. I did my first show whenI was eight. I learnt Hindustani Classical from Sriram BharatiyaKala Kendra for four years in Delhi. Once I quit, I took five yearsof professional training in mainstream music. I am trying to upthe Kashmiri folk. I collaborate with other artists as well. I writemy songs too.nHow did the transition from doing a job to singing happen?

I was in fourth year of my job when I decided to quit. I wasgetting frustrated with what I was doing. But passion alone isnot enough to make you realise your potential. You need more.It was the passion that capitulated me into singing.nWould you say you are a singer first and then a songwriter?

Songwriting was always dominant in me. I was always writ-ing. There were melodies inside my head even as a little girl. ButI didn’t know that there were words in them. I discovered it muchlater and gave it a name when I started writing for Nucleya.nHow did you manage to bring in Kashmiri song into a Telugufilm?

I am a rooted Kashmiri and believe in carrying forward thetraditions. There is a lot of negative connotations. When the musiccomposer Joy Baruah, who was part of this film, approached meto write the lyrics, I wanted to do so in Kashmiri language sincethe language comes naturally to me. They loved what I had done.This song is perhaps the only Kashmiri song in any Dravidianfilm.nYou have come out with a few singles reinterpreting the folkmusic from the Valley. How did that happen?

My first single was Harmokh Bartal. It was a folk song, I gaveit my interpretation so I would not give myself credit. But throughvarious collaborations I want Kashmir to be heard. There is astory to tell not because there is a sound to songs but to tell peo-ple what the words mean. There is a lot of sufism to Kashmirisongs. People, listen to them but don’t understand the words. Iwant to change this.nWhat was your collaboration with Nucleya about?

There is an interesting story here. I was in Hyderabad per-forming with Ehsaan-Loy. On the way back, I got chatting withtwo young singers who wanted to meet Nucleya who was alsoat the airport. I initiated a conversation with him and exchangednumbers. He felt that I could write songs. He sent a melody overWhatsApp, a basic melody. I added the words. He loved it. I wentin to write three songs for him. nIs it tough to reinterpret folk?

It is a balance that needs to be achieved. We all need our breadand butter but we also need something for our souls. That is whyI broke away from the corporate world. I am grateful to all mycollaborations but some contribution needs to come from with-in. nYou have also sung for Bollywood. What do you enjoy more— creating your own songs or playback?

I have been fortunate that I have lent for voice in a spacethat I have been casted correctly. Yes, there is a sense of owner-ship when you do your own work as you out in so much of your-self into it. nWhat made you say yes to be part of the HCL concert?

I like the way it has been hash-tagged — through your roots.I am very rooted into traditions. I have known Indranil for a verylong time. Second, college is such a vibrant place and love to bepart of the energy.nWhat next?

There are a few projects as a singer. I am also open to writ-ing songs as well.

VIBHA SARAF, singer-songwriterfrom the Valley, speaks withSHALINI SAKSENA about how shecame to write a Kashmiri song for aTelugu film, among other things

‘Want to carry

forward traditions’

nFilms, TV and now theatre. Doesthis mean you are diversifying?

Definitely. This is my third playand I will be performing for the sec-ond time with Kaise Karenge.nHow does it feel to be part of liveperformances?

It is a feeling that I can’t express.To see the live audience connect with

you and react, there is lighthearted humour in this

play, when you see theaudience enjoying

themselves, theyare taking some-thing away fromwhat you aregiving to themthe vibe thatyou get isamazing.Second, I get to

learn from the-atre. The real

method acting andto grasp your char-

acter is found in the-atre. It sharpens your

skills. It is a two way thing — I amlearning and enjoying.nWhat is your role?

The play is about two brothers.The younger is one —me — is agenius and on his way to MIT. Theelder brother is anything but a genius.Due to certain tragedy that strikesthem, the elder brother starts show-ing signs of multiple personality dis-order. This causes a ripple in theirlives. How best they deal with the sit-uation is what Kaise Karenge? about.Life threw lemons at them, theydecided to make lemonade. This isdone so in a light heart manner.nHas it been a conscious decision tostay away from films?

In some way yes. I saw a lot ofgrowth in theatre for me. I have seena lot changes in me since the time Ihave started doing theatre. What Iwas doing before theatre and what Iam doing now, is way different.Theatre changes and influences yourlifestyle I took a break from films.Now, I can approach films because Ican see them in a different manner.

nAre you tired of being asked ques-tions about Taare Zameen Par?

Not at all. The film can be 100years old I will always be happy toanswer any question related to it. Iam Pician and cling to memories. Westarted shouting in 2006. I stillremember the place where we shot. Istill remember the school. I remem-ber the place where I would sit quiet-ly. I remember the crew. I wasattached to the film. I will never grow

tired.nHow do you shoulder the famethat came after the movie?

I really don’t know and under-stand the concept of handling fame.My family and friends never changed.This influenced me the way I amtoday. I enjoy that people like what Iam doing today. This makes mehappy. Handling fame was nevertough. Family and friends have keptme grounded.nDo you hate anything about beingfamous?

Not hate, it does have its advan-tages but I am an introvert. I love tokeep things to myself. I don’t sharethings but people want to knowthings because you are famous. Thisis something that I have to work on. Iam too darsheel for me to share. Myfriends and family wants me to sharemore.nIs there a role that you are lookingfor?

If I do that then I will have towrite the character myself. I am readyto take on what leaves an impact. As

an actor you want to look at thingslike how long the role is, what yourare showing, etc. But I want to takeon a role on a story basis. If I can dothat people will remember it forlonger. I want people to say that themovie was amazing and Darsheel wasgood, not the movie was not bad butDarsheel is good. A role that standsout.nIf acting had not happened whatwould have been your career path?

I have never thought about this.Just the other day I got a message —the one decision that changed yourlife and what would you do withoutit. That was deep. I knew that I wouldbe part of something creative. To nar-rate a story. I have written a shortfilm and shot it as well last year. nDo you still dance?

I had been dancing since four. Iused to take Shamak Davar classes. Igot discovered because of it.nIs there a medium that makes youcomfortable?

Without giving a cliched answerwhat makes me comfortable is acting.

Talktime

DARSHEEL SAFARY

He was all of 10 when people fell in love with

his character Ishaan Awasthi. Today, at 22 the

boy wonder is set to be part of his third stage

show Kaise Karenge? Safary tells Shalini

Saksena that it is family and friends who

keep him grounded

‘I’ll never tire of being quizzed about Taare Zameen Par’

Armed forces of adventure

Adventure tourism in India hasjust got a big Armed Forces push.A group of soldiers who recent-

ly retired from the Indian Army, Navyand Air Force have set up an adventuresports company not just for the youngadrenaline buffs, but also for paraplegics,disabled and terminally ill people hav-ing their own bucket list of extremesports.

This company will be the first of itskind to service ailing people not just inIndia but throughout the world if allplans go the way they have beendevised by Major Vivek Jacob (retd.) andhis band of other ex-servicemen.

“Our dream is to set up a compa-ny which will fulfill the dreams of a gen-eration of ailing people. But for now, weare raising funds to work on this mis-sion. And to raise funds for our ultimateproject, we will be taking normal peo-ple on adventure trips around theworld,” says Jacob.

“We are doing this for normal peo-ple so as to establish a big networkbecause it is really expensive. If a per-son on a wheelchair wants to do scubadiving, it will cost about four times morethan it would for a normal person,” hepoints out.

It is not just another adventure com-pany out to exploit the rising adventurefever among the youth in India. TheSpecial Forces Adventures (SFA) as it hasbeen titled, draws its spirit from theintense commando training capsulesthat the owners have gone through intheir life with the forces.

“We will be bringing this extra edgeto our clients by imparting to them thespecial mores of what we got trained in,”Jacob says.

His colleague Rajrshi Paul whospent 15 years in the Navy as an ex-marine commando with the elite groupMarco, would be training the clients inadventure sports of scuba diving, skydiving and para jumping. "I have beena Navy SEAL. I know the sea, air andland. That is why I would be giving thatspecial extra bit in sea, air and land activ-ities by using my experience in the Navyto make it more exciting and safer,” Paultells you.

So how is this adventure companydifferent from others plying in India?First and foremost, the training and thecapsule are devised more on survival inextreme circumstances, like in a jungleor under the sea. "The SFA focuses onteaching people drills which will help

them get through any situation in lifeand not just getting to know how to havefun,” explains Jacob.

For now, the SFA is all set to fly toThailand which, for adventure enthu-siasts, is a great opportunity. Whichleads to the next question, why notIndia? “There are places for scuba-div-ing in Goa and Pondicherry or othercoastal regions. But Indian water is notthat clear and we don't have much gooddiving sites. And until and unless youget to see the real beauty, people won'tunderstand the nature under-water,”Paul explains.

Speaking of adventure tourism,India is yet to arrive on the firmament.Adventure is at its nascent stage. Theland activities are restricted to trekkingand camping and aerial ones preferParagliding and Parasailing. For waterit is rafting and boat safaris.

However, there are not enoughoperators which makes enthusiaststurn to opportunities outside India. “Wewill not only work wonders in India butour USP is that as opposed to any otheradventure tourism company we have amuch broader base activities,” Jacobinsists.

The SFA will be engaging in other

activities besides scuba-diving and thatincludes sky-diving, mountain trekking,combat shooting, unarmed combat,rock climbing, white water rafting, ski-ing and snow craft, jungle survival andbiking.

“We do not go there for a day ortwo, we travel for a much longer peri-od, in which life skills come to you whileyou are having fun,” he adds.

The trend of package tours is highin India and generates a revenue of 73per cent in this segment whereas indi-vidual/spot bookings account for therest 27 per cent, according to a 2015

Nielsen report.With travelling preferences of peo-

ple evolving around the world, excitingand sometimes risky experiences arebecoming popular. Adventure tripshave become a trend for youngsters.

Adventure trips are also popular asa revenue generation avenue for youthwho earn money by blogging, travelphotography and making travel series-for online consumption.

There is also a rise in the preferenceof offbeat travel among people agedabove 50. Still, most adventure travellerswere in the age group of 20-30 years in2017, a study by Thrillophilia states.Whereas, leisure travel, to a large extent,is not as popular as before.

The SFA sees this as an opportuni-ty. The company has opened its wingsto this new and growing sector in anattempt to tell people what's more to thisthing called 'adventure.' High peaks andmountains, challenging rivers and get-ting close to wild animals, that fasci-nating. But safety is equally importantand this isn't something to prepare youfor the battle or war. So, SFA ensures thatthe training will be a softer version thatof a military and gives a picture ofadventure, Jacob explains.

"We are qualified rescue divers asalso on the surface, or under-water orany kind of situation. So, we will be thefirst responder to any emergency. In caseof severe injuries, doctors will be onstandby,” Paul says.

Jacob, 39, is an ex-army mantrained in sky diving, scuba diving andhigh-altitude trekking and is profes-sionally certified for it. He also spe-cialises in precision shooting, unarmedcombat and outdoor rescue. He wasinfluenced by his military experiencesand the people he met outside. Theywere learning these skills to the nextlevel and had a big impact on him.

As for the 33-year-old Paul, his forteis combat underwater diving with 15-years of experience in the Marco, Navy.

Raised in the mountains of Sikkim,Paul had an interesting childhood. Nothaving phones led him outdoors. Hewith his friends started exploring thingsand did trekking as a recreationalactivity. That’s how he got his ‘adventurequotient.’

“With the Navy, I had the oppor-tunity to learn scuba-diving, sky-divingas special forces activities. This has givenme the opportunity to pursue thiscareer,” says Paul.

People might think this as danger-ous and risk-taking but for the SFA, itis where their peace lies. "The best andcalmest place for me right now is underthe water. Life is simple in air when I'mflying. Same is for when I'm on land. So,do you feel danger when you are doingyour simplest and calmest thing, wher-ever you are?” asks Paul .

Every story has two sides as thereare two sides to every coin. This tour issupposed to be fun. “But it’s time-con-suming and requires quite a lot ofmoney,” he adds.

Jacob though has a differentapproach. "I like to balance between thetwo worlds, both my family life and trav-elling. For me it's about networking andbringing the prices down. Also there'sno insurance, which is a drawback inthis field,” he adds.

A group of ex-servicemen has launched a unique adventure tourism initiative forparaplegics and terminally ill patients. SMRITI NEGI tells you more

SHALINI SAKSENA n NEW DELHI

Her latest book is a memoirabout growing up as anIndian Foreign Service

child in the 70s and 80s, against thebackdrop of tumultuous politicaldevelopments that were churningthe world- the Cold War in the 60,the integration of Sikkim intoIndia in the 70s, the student-leddemocracy movement in SouthKorea in the 80s. She would play‘game of names with her sister —guessing which country they wereheaded to.

“At 15, I came to live in mygrandmother’s house in Pune andjoined school in Class IX. I wastotally unprepared for the brutalacademic rigour of Indian schools.As a teenager, all you want is to fitin. Yet, here I was, a new girl allover again. For too long I tamperedwith my identity to suit the habi-tat I was in, becoming a chameleonso I wouldn’t stick out,” AshwiniDevare, author of Lost at 15, Foundat 50, says.

She tells you how at 50, it is arelief that the restless longing forbelonging that marked my earlyyears has finally receded. “Enteringthe 50s is like listening to Indianclassical music in reverse. The 30sand 40s were the medium-tempo

dhrut, with 50 the beginning of vil-ambit, a measured rhythm, a formof meditation,” Devare says. Herfirst book was Batik Rain was a col-lection of short stories, set in Bali,Pune, Hyderabad, Cambodia andBoston.

She tells you how she was thelast one to join the list if familymembers to be a writer. Her mater-nal grandmother wrote poetry,her paternal grandfather and fatherhave published books. Her moth-er wrote fiction and non-fiction inMarathi and her sister too is a pub-lished author.

“I always knew I would even-tually write a book, it just took mea lot longer than the rest of the clan.Ever since I was a child, I was writ-ing. I wrote a mini novel when Iwas 11. Since we are always bounc-ing ideas off each other, I was shar-ing my book ideas with the fami-ly for several years before I actu-ally sat down to write. We alwaysdiscuss plots, characters, themestogether. Everyone is very sup-portive of each other’s literaryventures. Having their approval formy books is very important to me,”

Devare shares who started off as ajournalist. She was the first anchorto host Inside India with AneeshTrivedi before working with BBCas a correspondent for five years.

She opines that sky is the limitfor Indian fiction today.

“I love the confidence inIndian writing. It is honest and theuniversality of themes Indian fic-tion embraces, gives it a globalappeal.

The writing is fresh and full ofverve. I mean writers like AnujaChauhan, who are reflective of thenew, youthful, confident India.After all, we have one of theworld’s youngest populations, andthe fresh talent coming out of thatpool, the voices of the 20-30-somethings is what an ageingworld will be likely drawn to.There is no doubt the contempo-rary, commercial fiction that youngIndia is lapping up, is resonatingwith youth around the world,”Devare tells you.

She explains the importance ofliterature festivals since they exposepeople to the world of books.“You walk past tents full of books,

listen to authors reading from theirbooks, you imbibe a literary atmos-phere. Even if people don’t actual-ly read the books, the literature fes-tivals generate interest and at leastraise awareness of what types ofbooks are being written. It is equal-ly important for authors to attendlit fests, because it allows them toengage with the audience,” Devaresays.

Her advice for budding writ-ers — the more riyaaz you do, thebetter you will sing.

“The same thing applies towriting. The more you write, thebetter you will write. There are noshort-cuts to writing. It requiresdiscipline. It requires routine. Itrequires reading, because to be agood writer, you have to be areader too. Try to write somethingeveryday, a few lines, a pageeven. Don’t wait for inspi-ration to strike, becausewriting is like any job,you just have to sit downand do it even if youdon’t feel like it,”D e v a r esays.

Life starts at 50

I WANT TO TAKE ON A ROLEON A STORY BASIS. IF I

CAN DO THAT PEOPLE WILLREMEMBER IT FOR

LONGER. I WANT PEOPLETO SAY THAT THE MOVIE

WAS AMAZING ANDDARSHEEL WAS GOOD, NOTTHE MOVIE WAS NOT BADBUT DARSHEEL IS GOOD

(Clockwise from above) Gaurav Sharma (Veteran) Chief Petty Officer of the Indian Navy gives an underwater training session to an adventure enthusiast;Maj (Veteran) Vivek Jacob, Para SF, Indian Army; Rajrishi Paul, MARCO (SF-IN) Indian Navy; Sharma with his pet

On May 26, 1877, SurendranathBanerjea embarked upon a railtour of northern India. He wasthe first Indian political leader totake advantage of an expanding

railway network. His tour revealed how a newpublic life was unfolding in North-WesternProvinces (the present day Uttar Pradesh),two decades after the 1857 uprising hadmauled its plains. His immediate objectivewas to popularise the protest against loweringof maximum age limit in civil services exami-nation. The Secretary of State’s decision wasaimed at practically excluding Indian aspi-rants from the civil services. A resolutionagainst the move had been adopted at a largepublic meeting of Indian Association at TownHall of Calcutta on March 24, 1877. Banerjeawas selected to represent the cause in north-ern India. It was his idea to take the civil ser-vices agitation beyond Bengal. He felt thecause had potential to unite Indians political-ly. The tour vindicated his expectations.

Banerjea’s journey over the spine of theEast Indian Railways took him till Lahore, theCapital of undivided Punjab. He addressed atleast two crowded public meetings there. Healso helped establish a Lahore IndianAssociation. It was closely modelled upon theoriginal Indian Association, founded byBanerjea and Ananda Mohan Bose in 1876.Downstream, he halted at Amritsar, Meerut,Delhi, Aligarh, Lucknow, Kanpur, Allahabad,and Varanasi. Wherever he went, he addressedcrowded public meetings and interacted withthe budding intelligentsia. He also catalysedthe formation of several political groups onthe lines of the Indian Association. The civilservice memorandum was endorsed every-where. But, more importantly, the tourrevealed possibilities of civilian politics.

Banerjea’s tour was path-breaking. It pre-saged the synergy between the railways andthe civilian leadership. The railways liberatedthe orators from their provincial limits, andcatapulted them on the national stage. The

railroads facilitated the civilian leadership tocome together and exchange notes. In 1878,Banerjea travelled to Bombay and Madraspresidencies in pursuit of civil service memo-randum. He met Vishwanath Mandlik, KTTelang, and Pherozeshah Mehta in Bombay. InPoona, he was the guest of Justice MGRanade. In Madras, he met Dr DhanaketuRaju, Chensal Rao, and Humayan Jan Bahaduretc. He met the leading men of the city atPacheappa Hall in a conclave. The nucleus ofIndian leadership was thus being created.

The railroads also took the leaders to newaudiences. A Bengali could find an avid listen-er in Punjab; a Parsi could enthrall the audi-ence in Calcutta; an orator from Andhra couldcharm the audience in Amraoti. This was hownew national heroes emerged towards the endof the 19th century. The heroes of this era didnot come on horseback with flaming swords.They travelled mainly by train and wielded themicrophone, figuratively speaking.

The Indian National Congress could nothave materialised without the benefit of therailways. In the circular notifying the firstCongress at Poona between December 25 and31, 1885, the delegates were advised to reachPoona railway station. The Poona SarvajanikSabha, organiser of the Congress, madearrangements from the railway station to thevenue, Peshwa’s garden near Parbati Hill. Thesudden outbreak of cholera, however, pre-vented the gathering in Poona. The Congresshad to be shifted to Bombay.

The railway, by its very nature, promoted acivil society. In the pre-railway era, horse wasthe fastest means of travelling. But the bulk ofthose beasts were employed in aristocraticoccupations like warfare, pageantry, riding,and hunting. The demand was so great thatMughals had to import Arab and Persian hors-es from the Middle East. The animal was hard-ly open to regular civilian or commercial use.

The Turks had subjugated India rapidly ondint of cavalry. Conversant with the use ofstirrup, they unleashed the true potential of

cavalry warfare in India. From being anassault wing of the army, horses had become aconstituent of the power structure. The powerpyramid of the Mughal Empire was built onthe horses. The rank and pay of commanderswas consummate with the number of horsesthey commanded. Bernier speaks of Omrahs— or power elites — holding titles like hazary,douhazary, dehhazary, which meant lord of1,000, 2,000, and 10,000 horses respectively.

Cavalry predominated in the Marathaarmy under the Peshwas. From Shivaji, who employed mostly infantry, the composi-tion tilted heavily in favour of cavalry (withsupportive artillery) under the Peshwas inthe 18th century. It was a definite sign of theMarathas going expansionists. No wonderthey rapidly conquered territories from theMughals, who were in terminal decline. Thegreat era of cavalry was put to an end by theBritish in the Third-Anglo Martha War in1818. The British crushed the freebooterscalled Pindaris, who acted as the irregularcavalry of the Marathas.

The horse-borne empires in India hadretained speed as an exclusive domain of themilitary. Public life, consequently, was crip-pled and stunted throughout the medieval age.A commoner in India was largely a pedestrian.He might occasionally ride the bullock cart orpalanquin. Both were symbols of tardiness.Planned journeys over longer distance werenot possible. Travellers often sojourned forweeks, months and even years together at alocation. The normal business of their life thusremained suspended for that long.

The railway came as Promethean Fire forthe lesser mortals. It delivered speed to thecivilian population. The poor were found lin-ing up for cheap tickets of third class. Thetrains ran as per a notified time table. Thismade planned travels the new norm. Postand telegraph services aided the process. Let’s say Banerjea, sitting in Calcutta, couldapprise his hosts in Lucknow or Poona aboutthe date and time of his arrival there. The

schedule of his speech could thus be con-firmed accordingly. He could leave the sta-tion on the morrow of addressing a publicspeech there. Perhaps in 10 days altogether,he could return to Calcutta from another endof India after addressing a few public meet-ings. One could travel without seriously dis-turbing the normal business of life.

The year-on-year growth in human andcargo traffic was phenomenal since the mid-1850s when the railway began its operations.By the late 1870s, the network had attaineda critical mass. By the end of 1879, or 25years after the railways being introduced inIndia, some 6,128 miles of railway trackshad been constructed by the companies atan expense of nearly £97,872,000.

Banerjea was fully conscious of the impor-tance of the railways in unifying India. Hearticulated it in a speech at Calcutta’s TownHall in March, 1878. “The distance betweenCalcutta and Delhi is not 1,400 miles but onlya question of 44 hours. The distance betweenCalcutta and Lahore is not 1,600 miles butonly a question 52 hours. The distancebetween Calcutta and Bombay is not 1,900miles, only a question of 61 hours.” Naturally,with the advent of diesel and electricityengines, the duration of travel reduced. ButBanerjea could still cover enormous politicalground with the aid of steam engines. Ithelped consolidate the Indian public life.

Statistics was another factor that enrichedoratory. Figures invaded the domain of factsin the speeches and writings by Indians inthe 1870s. Dadabhai Naoroji was the pioneerin the field. In his paper titled ‘England’sDuties to India’ read before a predominantlyBritish audience at East India Association,London, on May 2, 1867, he accused Britainof exploiting India economically. He built hiscase on a wealth of data. An excerpt from thepaper illustrates the point.

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In the shape of ‘home charges’alone, there has been a trans-fer of about 100 millions of

pounds sterling, exclusive ofinterest on public debt, from thewealth of India to that ofEngland since 1829, during thelast 36 years only. The total terri-torial charges in India since 1829have been about 820 millions.Supposing that out of the lattersum, only one-eighth representsthe sum remitted to England byEuropeans in Government ser-vice for maintenance of relativesand families, for education ofchildren, for savings made at thetime of retiring, the sumsexpended by them for purchasesof English articles for their ownconsumption, and also sumspaid in India for Governmentstores of English produce andmanufacturers — there is thenanother 100 millions added tothe wealth of England. In princi-pal alone, therefore, there is 200millions, which at the ordinaryinterest of 5 per cent, will now

make above 450 millions, not tosay anything of the far betteraccount to which an energeticpeople like the English haveturned this tide of wealth. Thisin addition to the wealth ofEngland of 450 millions is onlythat of the last 37 years. Nowwith regard to the long period ofBritish Connexion before 1829,the total territorial charges inIndia from 1787 to 1829amounts to about 600 million.Taking only one-tenth of thisremittance for the purpose men-tioned above, there is about 60million in principal, which withinterest to the present day, addedto the acquisitions previous to1787, may fairly be put down for1,150 millions.”

Did it sound like a mathe-

matical dissertation to his audi-ence? They should have knownthat Dadabhai was previously aprofessor of mathematics. Heturned trade, economics, andfinance into important factors ofpolitical discourse. But where-from he might have sourcedthese figures? Actually, he left theanswer in the speech itself. Heattached four appendices of tabu-lated data to his paper. Thesewere based on ParliamentaryReturns of Indian Accounts. Healso relied upon the SecondCustoms Report, 1858.

In his speech at the BombayPresidency Association held onSeptember 29, 1885, Dadabhaisaid: “Here are a few figureswhich will tell their tale. Theincome of the United Kingdom

may be roughly taken at£1,200,000,000 and its gross rev-enue about £87,000,000 giving aproportion of 7½ per cent of theincome. Of British India, theincome is hardly £400,000,000and its gross revenue about£70,000,000 giving 17½ per centof the income, and yet Sir Jamestells the English people that thepeople of India are not heavilytaxed, though paying out thiswretched income, gross revenueof more than double the propor-tion of what the people of theenormously rich England pay fortheir gross revenue.

“They do not understand yetthat their greatest interest is inincreasing the ability of theIndians to buy their manufactur-ers. That if India were to buy apound worth their cotton manu-facturers per head per annum,that would given then a trade of£250,000,000 a year instead ofthe present poor imports intoIndia of £25,000,000 of cottonyarn and manufacturers from all

foreign countries of the world.”Dadabhai was gifted in the

matter of figures. He leavenedhis speeches with statistics. Butthey were not classroom lectures.They were actually lucent withhis political humanism. Hisessays and correspondences,however, were heavily statistical.This was perhaps done con-sciously. A listener might loseinterest in a heavily statisticalspeech, but a reader could revisitand re-examine the statistics atleisure. Dadabhai turned pricerise, wages, taxation, tariff, rents,lending rates, agricultural out-put, industrial production data,import and export figures, andcurrency exchange rates intopolitical talking points. Hisexposure to British politicaldebates, besides his pedagogicalbackground, made him ideallysuited for the purpose.

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Sleep is the most crucial part of the day.Many factors play an important role inmaking you sleep better. Humans have an‘internal body clock’ that controls whenyou are awake and when you are ready

to sleep. This clock typically has a 24-hour repeat-ing rhythm. For every hour that you are a awake,the need to sleep builds. This drive reaches a peakin the late evening when you feel exhausted andwant to sleep. The second process involves aninternal body process. This clock is in sync withother external factors, such as light, darkness andother environmental cues that determine whenyou feel awake and when you feel drowsy. To elab-orate, light signals received through eyes tell yourbrain that it is daytime. This area of your brainsignals your body with periods of day and night.Your body releases chemicals in a rhythm,which your body clock controls.

This can be disturbed with a change inlifestyle or external cues. One should be carefulabout environmental factors such as lights, tem-perature, noises, etc. Humans spend about a thirdof their lives sleeping. It is incredibly importantfor us to sleep properly in order to functionsmoothly. Peaceful sleep is extremely necessary forhealthy minds. The Journal of Neuroscience foundthat 24 hours of sleep deprivation can cause hal-lucinations and Schizophrenia-like symptoms inhumans. It is imperative to understand what helpspeople sleep peacefully and properly. A right mat-tress and pillow play an important role with respectto the quality of sleep you receive.

The market is loaded with various types ofmattresses like memory foam, spring, coir, cotton,latex etc. Buying a mattress can be stressful becausethey play a vital role in getting a decent sleep, butsince they are purchased once a decade, we don’treally think much about them. As a result, oncewe do need a new mattress, we are overwhelmedwith a plethora of choices and decisions, none ofwhich we are an expert on. Once the right mat-tress is bought, we can continue living our lives,with hopes of better sleep for the next 8-12 years.

On the other hand, a bad mattress can leave youdissatisfied and may increase the stress levels andcause further health problems.

Let’s break down the different kinds of mat-tresses and the materials they are made of.Memory foam is soft and enveloping that makesyour body sink into the mattress. This means thatonce you are settled, it is hard to move. This is nota good option for people who prefer a little bit offreedom at night. A big drawback of memory foammattresses is that it retains body heat, due to itsclosed cellular structure. So all the sweat and heathave no escape; this can especially effect those ofus sleeping in warmer climates. Sleeping hot canbe uncomfortable as it is associated with disturbedsleep. Also, the mattresses could have a bad odour,which can cause headaches.

Spring mattresses push back against thebody with the same force as the weight is apply-ing to the mattress. It lacks the proper supportbecause the body weight does not push downevenly, meaning areas that carry more weight willpush down into the mattress more than others.This results in uneven support which does notrelease the pressure points. These pressure pointslead to poor blood circulation, tossing and turn-ing, aches and pain in the joints. Spring mattressloses about 16 per cent of the support in the firstyear alone and also do not provide proper backsupport. The spring mattress makes a firm sur-face that does not contour around the body anddoes not give us enough rest. Additionally, thefluffy polyester top and the empty space betweenthe springs creates a perfect home for dust, mite,and molds. Spring mattresses are a good choiceonly for the most price conscious of us.

Coir mattresses are obtained by processingcoconut fiber. They do not provide high resilienceas coir does not have the ability to conform to thebody. It is highly firm compared to any other mat-tress. The material has the tendency to sag easi-ly, which results in short lifespan of the mattress.Since the natural material is used in the mattress,extra care needs to be taken. Once a mattress is

wet in any way, it results in permanent damageto the mattress. Additionally, the mattress doesnot conform around the body to provide rest tothe muscles and keep the spine aligned as peo-ple lie down on it. The mattress has low ventila-tion as the moisture gets absorbed in the mattressand the less spacing available in the mattress doesnot let the air pass out. The increased humiditylevel inside the mattress results in dust, mite, andmold. The mattress has low resilience ie it makesit really hard to toss and turn it around.

Talalay latex, on the other hand, is made withthe natural material ie sap of the rubber tree. Itcontours around the body by taking the shape ofthe natural curve, all the while allowing freedomof movement while we sleep. This helps the bodyrelax and rest properly. Talalay latex has an opencellular structure that increases the ventilation andbreathability in the mattress. This porous struc-ture of the mattress is essential for its hygienic char-acteristics. The lower the moisture, the less suit-able the environment is for bacteria and dust mites.Additionally, the mattress is recognised for its pres-sure-relieving quality. It contours around the bodyby distributing the weight evenly and contouringitself to your body, resulting in a healthy and com-fortable sleep that allows your spine to be straight.

Talalay latex has no motion transfer, mean-ing it absorbs the motion and does not let it trav-el to the other side of the mattress. So if you liketo move about in your sleep, you will not disturbyour partner. The climate regulating propertiesmake it ideal for any sleeping environment. Yousleep warm in the winters and cool in the sum-mers. Talalay latex is recognised as one of the mostefficient technologies that aid good sleep. It is usedin the mattress to provide a delightful soft feelwhile relieving and supporting the entire body.It ensures maximum breathability and optimumsupport due to its open cellular structure.

To identify a good mattress, one should lookinto whether the mattress is supporting the bodyproperly and evenly. A hallmark of healthy sleepis if your spine remains straight, no matter the

position you sleep in. Sleeping on a less than idealmattress can cause more harm than good, sinceit can wreak havoc on your posture. It is impor-tant to have a pressure relieving mattress that issupportive and comfortable. While buying amattress, make sure that it has low hysteresis; itshould allow you to move freely at night withoutlowering down the blood circulation level.Additionally, the mattress should have highresilience, that means the mattress will alwaysspring back to its original shape. It stops the mat-tress from aging before time.

The material used in the mattress and pillowsshould have climate control. This ensures that thesleeping surface remains warm in the winters andcool in the summers. The mattress and pillowsshould be Oeko Tex Certified, meaning they aresafe for sensitive skin. It is important to use ortho-pedic mattresses and pillows because it is a long-term investment and we should not risk our back,shoulders, and postures. Hence, it is imperativeto do our research about the orthopedic mattress-es and not fall for any marketing gimmickspromised by many companies.

Usually, mattresses are made in bulk and soldto the customers. However, each body is differentand so are our sleeping positions. It is recommend-ed to get a mattress customised as per your weightand height. There are companies that sell mattress-es as per the requirements, so look up online tocheck if you can arrange a call back from a mat-tress company. It is incredibly important tochoose a mattress that is produced with comfort-able material, made with the right technology andfor your needs. The wrong mattress could leaveyou sleep deprived. It directly affects your phys-ical appearance and activities. Sleep deficiency cancause dark circles, may make you age faster anddull your glow. Similarly, it will make you feelexhausted, tired and hamper your productivity atwork or home. So make sure you inform yourselfand get a mattress that is exactly right for you,ensuring healthy sleep and a better life.

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Author Raamesh Koirala is arenowned cardiac surgeon inNepal. He successfully treated

Charles Sobhraj’s precarious heartcondition in 2017. This was 14 yearsafter Sobhraj was first arrested andjailed in Kathmandu in 2003. And ashe replaced a number of the valves inSobhraj’s heart, Koirala became fasci-nated enough with the master crimi-nal to write this book.

Much of what Koirala writes aboutSobhraj is on his “criminal psycholo-gy”, his utter lack of remorse, his nar-cissism as a psychopath. And the longtrail of alleged murders in severalcountries without apparent motive. Herevisits some of the alleged murdersand disappearances in other countriesto establish how Sobhraj sometimesstole both the passports and identitiesof his victims. He then believed that hewas whoever he became.

Sobhraj got away with many of hisalleged murders because of circum-stantial evidence, lack of witnesses, andhis clear-eyed and well-presented pro-fessions of innocence in court. Sobhrajalso took great interest in the lawwherever he was accused, reading upon it, and guided his lawyers on theconduct of his trials. However, inNepal, in the later days, he seems tohave met his match. The big questionthat Koirala asks Sobhraj in this book,however, is: Why did he return toNepal at all where murder chargesawaited him, even after three decades?It earned him a life sentence for a mur-der going back to 1975, and more caseswere framed as the time went on.

Koirala writes: “In 2003, there werenearly 190 countries in the world.Charles Sobhraj was free and living ahappy life in France. He was a celebrity,believed to be making a hefty sum ofmoney from interviews and photo ses-sions. He even had a million dollar con-tract with an Indian filmmaker whowanted to make his biopic. His jail termin India was over; the Thai police hadclosed the cases of the murders. Only

one country in the world had activecases of murder against him — Nepal.”

A would-be biopic on Sobhraj isprobably less interesting, despite thealleged multiple druggings, murders,and robberies on the hippie trail of theSeventies, in India, Thailand, Nepal —than what is revealed in this book.

Sobhraj tells all, quite casually, butKoirala frames the revelations in a

fantasy sequence that he calls a“dream” about a TV interview he con-ducts with the master criminal.Wisely perhaps, because what Sobhrajputs out is uncorroborated.

He says the real reason Sobhrajhad come to Nepal — he insisted forthe first time in 2003, in Sobhraj’s ownwords — was because: “I wanted toorganise an undercover business meet-

ing of some guys from the Taliban witha Chinese heroin producer in theGolden Triads. And second one was ameeting with top brass from India.”

He claims he knew Masood Azhar,the man much discussed today as themastermind of the JeM, from theirtime in Tihar together: “He introducedme to all the Taliban leaders. That’sactually why I visited Afghanistan sev-

eral times.” He further tells Koirala, “I had good relations with the Talibanand the Al Qaeda. You know, I evenhad a nuclear deal with SaddamHussein… Yes I had a business con-tract to supply red mercury to Iraq andhad already made a deal with a Russiangroup. But then 2003 happened.”

Koirala was hard-pressed to deter-mine if Sobhraj meant the “attack onIraq by the USA” or his own 2003arrest in Nepal. Sobhraj claimed tohave also been in touch with the CIA,warning them about the possibility of9/11. And that he was in Nepal tomeet with India’s Intelligence Bureau(IB), with which he was on goodterms since “it was me who facilitatedthe return of that hijacked IndianAirlines plane from Kandahar”.

And to heap more preposterous-ness on the gullible, Sobhraj says:“Advani escaped an assassination dueto my tip.” Koirala who mixes the talewith medical talk, a little politics, andhis love of trekking in the mountains,does not think Charles Sobhraj willever be released from jail in Nepal.

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Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisiis a book that is meant tobe savoured leisurely,much like its subject mat-ter — the ghazal. In spite

of being a popular form in its heydays,the ghazal has now become associatedwith connoisseurs of art and a nicheaudience and has consequently movedaway from the masses. The politickingaround languages, which were the cup-bearers of the poetic form, has done lit-tle to ameliorate the situation. Thisbook, however, has made the subjectaccessible for lay readers without com-promising on the nuances and complex-ities of the poetic form.

Prof Anisur Rahman, who I had thegood fortune of having as my teacher,has translated each ghazal into Englishwith an air of effortless ease that beliesthe meticulous attention to detailinvolved in such a task. The book hasbeen prefaced with a detailed introduc-tion which delineates the simultaneouslyexciting as well as turbulent historicaljourney of the ghazal all over Eurasia.

Originating in Arabia, the ghazalgained popularity in countries like Spain

and even Germany, where philosophersand writers, including Friedrich Schlegaland Wolfgang Goethe, wrote variousvolumes of German ghazals. The con-versational tone of the editor transportsthe reader across historical epochs,almost seamlessly. The book inculcatesan appreciation of the literary form inthe readers without being heavy-handedor launching into effusive praise aboutthe ghazal — as many other books onthe subject matter tend to do.

The book has been divided into var-ious sections, namely: ‘MetaphysicalBeginnings’, ‘Towards Enlightenment’,‘Advent of Modernism’ and ‘BeyondNew Poetics’, in order to elucidate thechanging dynamics at the socio-culturallevel and the corresponding shifts in thethematic preoccupations of the practi-tioners of the form. Thus, various poetshave appropriated the form according totheir own context and personal predilec-tions. Prof Rahman has maintained hislucid style even when explaining thetechnicalities of the ghazal such as itsrefrain (radeef), rhyming words (qaafia)and other structural details.

Rather than being an intensive

study of the form, as it flourished in oneage or under a particular poet,Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi gives abroad overview of the thematic and his-torical trajectory of the ghazal, begin-ning from the time of Muhammad QuliShah, a poet of the 5th century, to thelate 20th and early 21st century, where a‘New Poetics’ is being threshed by con-temporary poets, such as Farhat Ehsasand Ishrat Afreen, to name a few.

This means that the uninitiatedreader can appreciate the thematic flexi-bility and historical resilience of theghazal. The ghazal has persisted in spiteof political and/or religious hostilities,massive changes in power structures andeven formal innovations as well as intru-sions. But it has managed to consistentlyfind readers and listeners across theglobe from the time of its inception inArabia, in the early 8th century, till date.

Although today it is most common-ly identified with love poetry (after all,the word ‘ghazal’ means ‘talking to thelady love’), owing largely to its represen-tation in popular culture, especially cin-ema, the ghazal is far from being apolit-ical. The perception of ghazal gather-

ings as being only about the hobnob-bing of wine-drinking elitists is rathermisleading, if not entirely false. Theghazal has more to offer, the book tellsus, than just laments of lovelornbohemians. It can accommodate con-temporary and polemical subject mat-ters. The increasing resistance bywomen writers in developing societiesagainst the perennial problem of gen-dered violence born out of patriarchaloppression has been captured in theghazal, “Ladkiyaan maaon jaise muqad-dar kyu rakhti hain?” (“Why do girlsshare fates with their mothers?”) byAfreen. It is a poignant rendering of thesexual and physical violence womenhave to bear. The following sher is note-worthy: “Auratein apne dukh ki virasatkisko dengi/Sandook mein bund yezewar kyu rakhti hain?” (“Who wouldthese women make the lasting heirs oftheir pain/Why do they keep gems andjewels hidden in a vault?”)

It speaks to women across theglobe, irrespective of political bound-aries, and is as true of India as it mightbe of anywhere else in the world wherea large section of society has to battle on

an everyday basis in order to get equalopportunities. It is heartening to see awoman appropriate the ghazal — whichhas long been the purview of male poetslike Ghalib and Mir — to register herdissent against gender politics.

The English translation of each ofthe ghazals maintains the layered textureof the original. Prof Rahman hasretained the formal brevity and com-pactness of the ghazals while also beingable to maintain the multiple meaningsof each verse through the use of allu-sions and imagery. The titular sher, byAsadullah Khan Ghalib, is a perfectexample of the same: “Hazaaronkhwahishein aisi ke har khwahish pardam nikle/Bahut nikle mere armaan lekinphir bhi kam nikle.” Prof Rahman trans-lates it as: “Desires in thousands I had,for each I would die/With many I hadluck, for many I would sigh.”

The painstaking attention to detailmakes him a good translator and a com-mendable poet. Prof Rahman excelsboth as a translator and trans-creator.This is a book for all seasons and allmoods — be it pensive and ruminativeor effervescent and buoyant.

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The North Atlantic TreatyOrganization (NATO) that

was founded on April 4, 1949is completing 70 years nextmonth. Unlike many otherglobal alliances and treaties, theNATO’s coming of age needs tobe saluted despite all its inter-nal squabbles and externalthreats. The organisation has29 members as of today, butwith all the possibilities of theRepublic of North Macedoniaentering the bloc, its tally may rise up to 30. NATO’smembership is open to “anyother European State in a posi-tion to further the principles ofthis Treaty (i.e. North AtlanticTreaty) and to contribute to the security of the NorthAtlantic area”.

NATO’s primary aim is toprovide a guarantee of securi-ty which is considered the keyto the well-being of all themembers. Further, its purposeis to offer freedom and securi-ty of its members throughpolitical and military means.But then how to achieve suchpolitical means for guarantee-ing freedom to its constituentsis the moot point. When itcomes to political means,NATO promotes democraticvalues and enables members toconsult and cooperate ondefence and security relatedissues to solve problems, buildtrust, and in the long run pre-vent conflict. While offeringmilitary means, the organisa-tion’s basic premises say that itis committed to the peacefulresolution of disputes. If diplo-matic efforts fail, the alliancehas the consolidated militarypower to undertake crisis-management operations tosafeguard its member states. Inthe event of such emergencies,the operations are carried outunder the collective defenceclause of NATO’s foundingtreaty i.e. Article 5 of theWashington Treaty or under aUN mandate, alone or in coop-eration with other countriesand respective global organi-sations.

Now, when NATO is turn-ing 70, the Secretary-General ofthe NATO, Jens Stoltenberg,proudly proclaims, “NATO isthe strongest, most successfulalliance in history, because wehave been able to change.”

Though his pronounce-ments are too high, the alliancehas demonstrated its survivalskill since the post-World War

II through the breakdown ofthe USSR, the end of the ColdWar. Beyond the Cold War,NATO has been successful inprojecting the US, one of itsprime members, as the centreof the unipolar world. It hasexpanded from 12 membercountries to a tally of 29 as oftoday. Whereas, the Warsaw Pact, NATO’s primerival, showed its signs ofdemise too early.

In fact, seven of its eightfounding members eventuallyhave joined NATO after thebreakdown of the USSR. Thus,NATO has adjusted itself to thedemands of changing times.

A research study on “63prominent military alliances”over the last five centuriesconducted by the Washington-based Brookings Institution in2010 shows that only 10 ofthem survived beyond 40 years.And most importantly, theaverage lifespan of such col-lective defence alliances was amere one and a half decade. Inthat case, NATO has come ofage with its own capacity toreinvent itself through decades.

Precisely, today NATO’sbiggest single challenge is theabsence of a concerted leader-ship at the helm of affairs in theUS. With an unpredictableleader like Donald Trump, nosingle organisation whereinAmerica has its stake is safeunder him. He himself is high-ly confused as he is not beenable to steer the country ahead.Simply put, NATO leadershipdemands a fundamental shiftin its thinking to rework itsalignment with the rest of theworld, especially with the ris-ing powers such as India,China, and Brazil.

Currently, all big players atthe top of NATO leadership areplagued with their own domes-tic issues: an America largelydisturbed by Trump’s “makeAmerica great again” and avastly divided Republicans andDemocrats in the Congressand outside, Britain by itslooming Brexit crisis withPrime Minister Theresa Mayshortly leaving, France byGilets Janunes protests andEmmanuel Macron movingalmost nowhere with his grandvision of the remaking ofEurope, Germany with anaging and retiring AngelaMerkel, Italy by populists andeconomic showdown, andfinally, Turkey under the auto-

cratic strangleholds of RecepTayyip Erdogan.

Another catastrophe thatmay soon (already) influencethe strategic vision of theNATO is the resurgence ofVladimir Putin in Russia. Hisambitions and the grand pro-ject of reviving Russia mayobviously disturb NATO’salignments in the entireEurope. And also, a decayingISIS and Russia’s hyper-activewar game in the West Asianregion demands NATO’s newline of thinking both to offer asafety umbrella to its memberstates around and to redesignits geo-political skills to con-vince its allies that it’s a relevantforce and can strike back hardwhen required.

Much more than all these,there are other two criticalissues that currently deservesattention from NATO leader-ship: first is an ever-risingChina under Xi Jinping, andsecond is a fast emerging insti-tutional decay of global liber-al democracies and in publicdiscourse, a strong approval forauthoritarian populists acrossthe globe. With China stretch-

ing its economic leveragesaround, Washington has start-ed turning its attention towardsthe Pacific and to the East; cer-tainly its sincerity towards thetransatlantic alliance wouldsuffer in the days to come.Trump is too busy with a recal-citrant Kim in Pyongyang tosee that finally peace isachieved in the Korean penin-sula and war clouds of anuclear power comes to an end.But then, more than Trumpengaging with Kim, his entireadministration is busy in amega crisis borne out of a pro-tracted trade war with Beijing.It’s not only about pushingChina towards a sanctionregime, but also about alertingthe whole West about its secretgames around the far-reaching5G technology. Only time willtell, how to stop a rising Chinawith its imperial designs and toreadjust America’s prioritieswhile staying in on the NATO.

Are all its members hope-ful about a TrumpAdministration that mayrestore faith on the NATO andits constituents at this juncture?It seems problematic for prag-

matists, brushing aside thenew world of NATO painted bythe rest. Trump is the first USPresident who viewed the EUas an economic competitorrather than a critical partner ofAmerica and the NATO. Histroubling anti-NATO and theanti-Europe antics have forcedthe European nations to ques-tion the credibility of Americaas the pioneer of the West forthe first time since the SecondWorld War.

Today, the confidence levelof the European public over theUS leadership is at its historiclow. The reasons behind aresimple: earlier all AmericanPresidents used to encourage alongstanding relationship andbond of unity between the USand Europe. Only Trump hasdiverted from this historicjourney and as long as heremains in power, he may evendamage the alliance further. Hepublicly claims that the NATOallies are taking advantage ofthe US. But he must rememberthat these are the same oldallies that came up to thedefence of America after 9/11terror attack, lost thousands of

soldiers in the battlefields ofAfghanistan since 2003, arefighting the monstrous ISISand global terror around theworld together and in the pastshared the burden of bringingpeace in the Balkans. What dis-turbs most of the NATO alliesin Europe is Trump’s publicambivalence about NATO’svalue to the US and his ques-tioning of America’s commit-ment towards Article 5 of theoriginal charter of the alliance.But there are good reasons forwhich the NATO would sur-vive Trump. It has seen ups anddowns throughout its longspan of life.

What plagues the NATO isthat all its member countriesare not equally bothered byeither the rise of China, anuclear Pyongyang and adecaying ISIS. Hence, theremust come up a “new transat-lantic bargain” between theUS and NATO’s Europeanallies as Stephen Walt ofHarvard Kennedy School ofGovernment argues. And inthis, “America agrees to stay onin Europe, but at a reducedlevel of engagement; the

Europeans agree to up theirgame in their own region andtake on board America’s con-cerns over China on trade andintellectual property”. This kindof a grand resetting in alliancebetween America andEuropean allies within theNATO may indicate both senseand sensibility for a seven-decade old organisation.Though such possibilities aretoo dim, temptations for suchreorientations are not far off.Experts say that this septuage-narian is due for a metamor-phosis, looking at the changingpolitical, economic and culturalshocks brought by aninescapable wave of globalisa-tion in a “Flat World” and formaintaining its omnipotence ina world crucially influenced bythe new realities and horrors ofan Islamic jehad. Nevertheless,despite its intricacies withinand threats ranging from out-side, the international com-munity should not underesti-mate NATO’s ability to usher ina changed world.

(The writer is an expert oninternational affairs)

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The future standard of living,economic growth and soci-

etal progress are largely depen-dent on the ability to innovate.In the words of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, it is time toredefine research and devel-opment as “research for devel-opment” of the nation. ThePrime Minister has ubiqui-tously reaffirmed his beliefthat it is prudent and impera-tive to reach the lowest rung ofthe pyramid through scienceand technology.

Established in 1986, theDepartment of Biotechnologyhas been a catalyst in spear-heading innovative solutionsfor developmental challenges.Biotechnology as a field hasbeen defined in simple wordsas “The use of biologicalprocesses, organisms, or sys-tems to manufacture productsintended to improve the qual-ity of human life”. As the fieldhas progressed, theDepartment of Biotechnologyhas made significant stridesand aided in the economic andsocial growth of the country.

From research spanningprevention and cure for majordiseases, to addressing thechallenges of improved agri-culture productivity, to devel-oping innovative solutions for

national nutrition needs and aclean environment, theDepartment is leading the wayfor pathbreaking biotechno-logical research.

Over the last three decades,the Department ofBiotechnology has created avery strong research and trans-lation ecosystem across thecountry and built strong foun-dations, leveraging the strengthof national and internationalpartnerships. With more than15,000 scientists and 800 insti-tutes and laboratories sup-ported, today nearly 10,000biotechnology research fellowsand students are supportedannually. World-class state-of-the-art infrastructure has beencreated, which through theDepartment of Biotechnology’sSAHAJ scheme has now beenmade accessible to allresearchers and start-up totake research and innovation tothe furthest corner of the coun-try. Skill Vigyan Life Scienceand biotechnology centres helpbuild an employable skilledhuman resource base.

The Department has alsomade significant contributionsto the growth of the nation byaligning its work to the nation-al growth agenda and devel-oping innovative solutions for

the national missions of SwasthBharat, Ayushman Bharat,Swachchh Bharat, PoshanAbhiyan, Start-up India, Makein India, and Skill India.

Scientists from academiaand industry have successful-

ly delivered to the country cli-mate resilient and disease andpest resistant varieties of rice,wheat and maize. Otherachievement includes the firsttechnology for fortified rice,the first indigenous Rotavirus

vaccine which is now in theuniversal immunisation pro-gramme and the first technol-ogy for 2G Ethanol from agri-culture waste that is now beingscaled up in a commercialrefinery. More than 1,000 start-

ups and entrepreneurs underBIRAC and the Department ofBiotechnology’s SIB pro-gramme have developedaffordable products, includinglow cost devices, implants anddiagnostics for healthcare.

To take scientific researchfrom the laboratory to the enduser, the Department ofBiotechnology has built anecosystem which allows forseamless movement of researchthrough translation phase tocommercialisation. 16 institu-tions, 4 bio-clusters, 2 publicsector undertakings and over5,000 extramural research pro-jects contribute to this. We haveseen a growing transition overthese years moving from singleinvestigator to multi investiga-tor projects, from single insti-tute to multi institute projects,from only academia research toindustry-academia innovationresearch and translation. Newinstitutional partnership andgovernance models haveemerged.

Priority missions onantimicrobial resistance(AMR), clean energy, genomicsand big data, vaccines, bioticand abiotic stress resistant andnutritionally enriched cropvariety development and theNational Biopharma Missionare important initiatives, con-tributing to move the biotech-nology growth trajectory for-ward. Integration of new andemerging technologies, linkingbiological science with data sci-ence, with clinical research,

with engineering sciences, isthe way forward in preparationof meeting our ambitious tar-get of achieving a USD 100 bil-lion bio-economy by 2025.

The Department ofBiotechnology has also been akey in forging strategic inter-national alliances to promoteknowledge sharing and dis-covery, with more than 25active partnerships which bringin a commitment of scientificcollaboration, researchermobility and collective effortsto address common nationaland global challenges

As we move forward, ourchallenge is not just tostrengthen the research andtranslation base but to ensuresustainability and scalability.The Department has consis-tently brought to the fore theimportance of science in allwalks of life and has integrat-ed innovation with nationaldevelopment. The Departmentof Biotechnology has promot-ed science and technology as away of thinking and envisionsto continue to do so and be acritical part of India’s growthstory.

(The writer is Secretary,Department of Biotechnology,Government of India)

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Recently, five mosques inBirmingham wereattacked with sledgeham-

mers, the latest in a string ofanti-Muslim attacks over thepast several years. The UKHome Office data shows thatthere were 94,098 hate crimesrecorded in England and Walesin 2017-18, including a 40 percent surge in religiously aggra-vated hate crime. The Muslimcommunity bore much of this,with more than half of religious-ly aggravated hate crime direct-ed towards Muslims.

It’s this anti-Muslim preju-dice that is the new drivingforce behind far-Right growth inthe UK, according to the anti-racism advocacy group, Hopenot Hate. Aside from these vio-lent crimes, polling shows thatIslamophobia is now rooted inthe wider population as well,with a quarter of the Britishpublic saying they believe Islamis a dangerous religion thatincites violence.

#�$%��&�'(� ��)*+�*,*�%#��#�+#-�&'.�/#$*���/�0#�$��'(�$%*��' /$�!In the run-up to Brexit, we haveseen organisations and figure-heads from the far-Right capi-talising on divisions to spreadmessages of hate and prejudice.The ‘Brexit Betrayal’ demonstra-tion in December organised byStephen Yaxley-Lennon (akaTommy Robinson) and Ukipleader Gerard Batten attracted5,000 supporters, with many ofthe speeches focused on the“threat” of Islam and Muslims“taking over Britain”.

Recent polling shows thatthese messages of anti-Muslimsentiment are starting to seepinto the wider population,where previously they were iso-lated to the extremist fringes,according to Hope not Hate.

Rosie Carter, researcher at Hopenot Hate, writes: “Anti-Muslimhatred has become increasinglymainstreamed, with the confla-tion of cultural incompatibilityand global threat — a narrativepushed by the counter jihadmovement — no longer quaran-tined to the margins.” Whenasked, almost two in five Britonssaid they see Islam as a threat tothe British way of life, a figurewhich rises to over half ofConservative voters and 57 per cent of Leave voters.

Further, authors of the 2019State of Hate report from Hopenot Hate argue that: “The con-spiracy theory known as ‘thegreat replacement’, the idea thatMuslim immigration is part of abigger plan to make Muslimsthe majority of a country’s pop-ulation, has seeped into thepublic consciousness.”

Research shows that a thirdof Britons believe that there areno-go areas in Britain whereSharia law dominates and non-Muslims cannot enter. This fig-ure rises to 47 per cent forConservative voters and as highas 49 per cent for Leave voters.

There is also a widespreadfeeling among the general publicthat the Muslim community isnot successfully integrating intothe wider British society, whilemany even believe that most oreven all British Muslims don’twant to integrate. As of January2018, 30 per cent of Britons saidthey believe that most or allMuslims do not want to inte-grate, with this figure rising to 41per cent for Conservative votersand 46 per cent for Leave voters.

$'..!��')�/�'/�#/&0*�,#��,*�'/+�/*�%#$�*&The co-founder of the EnglishDefence League is now a house-hold name in the UK, with arecent YouGov poll revealing thatover half of the British public

have heard of Tommy Robinson.Well known for his role in

organising anti-Muslim demon-strations and posting vitriolicinternet videos, he has even startedto make inroads into mainstreampolitics — serving as a ‘political

adviser’ to Gerard Batten’s Ukipparty. In the same YouGov poll, 47per cent of Ukip voters and 30 percent of Leave voters, who hadheard of Robinson, said theybelieve he has had a positiveimpact on fighting extremism.

In the general public as awhole, almost one in five — some17 per cent — agreed that he has apositive impact in fighting extrem-ism. He has a significant onlinepresence with more than a millionFacebook followers and over 24million views on his YouTubechannel, although Twitter recentlybanned him after it was judgedthat he was in breach of its “hate-ful conduct” policy.

The internet has increasinglybecome a platform for Right-wing extremists like Robinson toshare and propagate their views,with much of their focus target-ed towards women and Muslims,according to research from Hope

not Hate. Analysis of tweets sentin the run up to the 2017 generalelection conducted by AmnestyInternational found an increasefrom 2.5 to five per cent in thenumber of abusive mentions offemale MPs. This was despite theshocking murder of Labour MPJo Cox just 12 months previous-ly, whose killer was screaming“Britain First” as he repeatedlyshot and stabbed her.

(#�1��"%$�*2$�*.��$�.#�*� 0�34�0*���*/$�'($*��'���.�0���'/*��Following the terror attacks inLondon and Manchester in 2017,there has been increased publicscrutiny of the government’s anti-radicalisation programme knownas the Prevent strategy. While 44per cent of individuals reportedto Prevent were for views relatedto Islamist extremism, almost onein five were reported for holdingviews related to Right-wingextremism and a further 11 percent were reported for otherforms of extremism.

Separately, there were 317arrests for terrorism related activ-ity in the year ending September2018. Of these, just 113 casesresulted in a charge and as ofSeptember 2018, there are cur-rently just 224 prisoners beingheld for terrorism relatedoffences. Some 13 per cent ofthose being held for terror relatedoffences were identified as hold-ing Right-wing ideologies, com-pared with 80 per cent who arebeing held for Islamist extremism.However, there were some high-profile convictions of Right-wingextremists in 2018, including 47-year-old Darren Osborne, whowas sentenced to life for killingone Muslim man and injuringseveral other people after plough-ing his van into a crowd ofMuslims at Finsbury Park.

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Eight-year-old Hamed cast acritical eye at the tent peg,raised a hammer above hishead and began thwacking itinto the hard, stony ground. It

is heavy work, and he would rather bein school. But he has little choice. “I getabout 2,000 lira for putting up onetent,” he said, using the popular termhere for Syrian pounds. “I can do threeor four a day, so that is 8,000.”

That, he said, is just about enoughto feed himself, his mother, and hernewborn baby twice a day. “But wecan’t eat all the time,” he said. “Mymother explained, we can’t spend somuch money on food because we needto buy stuff for the baby now.”

Hamed is one of about 41,000 chil-dren in al-Hol, the largest of threesprawling camps in north eastern Syriathat houses former members, children,and prisoners of the Islamic State ter-rorist group. The fate of the childrenwho emerged from Isil’s doomedcaliphate is a matter of humanitarianurgency and critical to internationalsecurity. And yet the lack of provisionmade by world governments, includingBritain’s, is striking.

The Telegraph has seen dozens ofmalnourished infants as Isil families leftBaghuz, Isil’s last bastion, in the pastfew weeks. At least 108 children havealready died en route to or soon afterarriving at the camp, mostly fromsevere acute malnutrition, pneumonia,and dehydration, according to theInternational Rescue Committee.

The vast majority of them wereunder five years old, and most of thosebabies younger than one. Many are alsocarrying serious injuries from shrapnel.The casualties included Jarrah Begum,Shamima Begum’s newborn son, whodied of a lung infection last month.Unicef has described the living condi-tions for those children who reach thecamp as “extremely dire”.

Hamed, who spoke to the Telegraphwith the permission of his Germanmother and on condition of anonymity,said he bitterly misses his old life inEurope. “If there was a school, I’d go toit,” he said, as he took a pause in histent work to speak to the Telegraph.“But there isn’t one here.”

“When I was in Germany, I waslearning, then in Doula I learnt nothing,”he said, using the Arabic word for“State” — the term many Isil families usefor the group. “They just teach theQuran... and they teach you that youhave to fight. But I said: ‘I don’t want tofight’. I don’t like to fight. I just want to

be a normal one, I just want to live in ahouse and make my job. I don’t wantto fight, I don’t want to be a warrior.”He said he had left Germany when hewas five years old, and only emergedfrom the Islamic State two months ago.The camp, he said, is a miserable andfilthy place. “Kids poop everywhere,”he said. “You have to watch where youwalk. You can’t just sit anywhere, likeyou can in Germany.”

It is not surprising. Adults in thesection of the camp where Hamed livestold the Telegraph many of the youngchildren have chronic diarrhoea. “Play”,if there is such a thing, involves pickingon one another or chucking rocks atmoving cars. “They call me a dog andthings. They think it is a joke,” saidHamed, when asked about his friends.

“My mother doesn’t like me to be likethe other children. She says maybe thereis a little baby there, like three years old,and maybe you’ll hit him. Even though Idon’t like to throw rocks,” he said. “It’snot a game. They come, they throw, theglass breaks,” he said. “In Germany, it isnot like this, you’re not hitting on cars.If you want to play you go to yourfriends, you have friends, they don’t callyou anything, you play a bit.” Most chil-dren have little time for that though.

Adults here told the Telegraph thatalmost every child from about the ageof eight upwards is a low-paid labourerin the camp’s grey economy. “They’realready entrepreneurs. I think theywake up and the first thing they thinkis: Who am I going to hit up for moneytoday?” said Lorna Henri, a 54-year-old

woman from the Seychelles, who hasbecome the de-facto guardian of twounaccompanied children in the camp.“I try to give them what I can.”

Henri said boys are generally sentby their mothers to run errands in thecamp market, which children canaccess more easily than adults, and putup tents. Girls clean or offer to cook.The market, in the larger and moreloosely regulated section of the campfor Syrian and Iraqi citizens, is crowdedwith small boys hauling hand carts for200 Syrian pounds per errand.

Such Dickensian scenes are notunusual amidst humanitarian crisis.And across the Middle East, childrenare generally expected to pull their ownweight at an earlier age than in theWest. But the prospects for these chil-

dren are bleak in more than one way.Radical Isil supporters continue to

exert influence inside al-Hol, includingby harassing women who want toremove their veils. There have beenreports of punishment tent burnings byan underground “religious police”, andseveral women from different countrieswho the Telegraph spoke to complainedabout being labelled “infidels” by theirfellow inmates. Without intervention,there is a good chance the children herewill be brought up in the same poiso-nous ideology that turned many oftheir fathers into terrorists.

The United Nations has expressed“alarm” at the situation. Henrietta Fore,the executive director of Unicef, urgedmember states “to take responsibilityfor children who are their citizens orborn to their nationals, and to takemeasures to prevent children frombecoming stateless”.

Some governments have heeded thecall. The French Government said ithad evacuated several children. ButKurdish officials have told the Telegraphthat Britain refused to take back BritishIsil members or their children in thecamps on the grounds, saying it has fullconfidence in the legal and administra-tive system of Rojava, the unrecognisedKurdish proto-state in northern Syria.

Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary,claimed that it would have been “toorisky” to send British officials to saveJarrah Begum, although he remained aBritish citizen after his mother wasstripped of her own citizenship.

However, the al-Hol camp is run bythe Syrian Democratic Forces, aKurdish-led Western-backed armedgroup that Britain is allied to.Journalists, including from theTelegraph, and aid workers visit thecamp on a regular basis, safely andwithout incident. Nor is it true, as Huntclaimed, that journalists are affordedspecial protection unavailable to theUK officials in Syria or in the camps.

In al-Hol, the foreign women con-stantly exchange rumours about whichgovernments might take Isil membersback. For their children, who commit-ted no crime, the only thing on thehorizon is more arduous work. “I’d liketo...sell stuff. Or you know, build hous-es,” shrugged Hamed, when askedwhat he would like to do when hegrows up. Those are the only careerson offer in al-Hol camp. He picked uphis hammer, and went back to hittingthe tent peg. His blows made littleimpact on the stony ground.

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Danny Boyle has confirmed thata dispute over the script was thereason he left the latest James

Bond movie. In a reply to a readerquestion in Empire magazine, Boylesaid that the screenplay he had beenworking on with regular writing part-ner John Hodge had not found favourwith producers, and that he quit theproject rather than jettison that scriptand work with another writer.

“I work in partnership with writ-ers and I am not prepared to break itup … We were working very, verywell, but they didn’t want to go downthat route with us. So we decided topart company.” He added: “WhatJohn Hodge and I were doing, Ithought, was really good. It wasn’tfinished, but it could have been reallygood … You have to believe in yourprocess and part of that is the part-nership I have with a writer.”

Boyle did not reveal any preciseareas of disagreement, saying it wouldbe “unfair” on his replacement, CaryFukunaga. Fukunaga, director ofBeasts of No Nation, was named as the

Bond 25 director in September.Rumours of contention included asuggestion that Boyle and Hodgewanted to kill off the Daniel Craig 007,and that Boyle wanted the little knownPolish actor Tomasz Kot, star of ColdWar, to play the villain.

Boyle’s exit last August played havocwith the film’s production schedule, asproducers hired new writers, includingNeal Purvis and Robert Wade and ScottZ Burns, to work on the screenplay. Asa result, the film’s release has beenpushed back to April 2020.

Disney has closed its $71bn(£54bn) acquisition of RupertMurdoch’s entertainment

business in a deal that unites fran-chises including Cinderella, TheSimpsons, and Star Wars under onecorporate roof to create a mediabehemoth of unprecedented scale.The Walt Disney Company closed itsacquisition of 21st Century Foxshortly after midnight New Yorktime on Wednesday.

As part of the deal, Disney willabsorb the Fox film and TV studios,the FX networks, NationalGeographic and the Indian TV giantStar India in a huge boost to its con-tent. It plans to launch its newstreaming service Disney Plus laterthis year as it challenges Netflix forfuture audience share.

Before the takeover, Disneyalready boasted a fearsome cata-logue of content, including its clas-sic cartoons, Star Wars and many ofthe Marvel characters.

After purchasing Fox, it will be

able to add the likes of X-Men andDeadpool to its portfolio and takeon Netflix and Amazon.

The deal also helps Disney fur-ther control TV shows and moviesfrom start to finish — from creatingthe programmes to distributingthem though television channels,cinemas, streaming services andother ways people watch entertain-ment. Disney would get valuabledata on customers and their enter-tainment-viewing habits, which itcan then use to sell advertising.

In Paris, it was Beyoncé and Jay-Z; inWashington, it was Barack andMichelle Obama; while, in London,

visitors queued to look at PabloPicasso’s erotic muse or Grayson Perry’ssummer picks. Last year the lustre ofcelebrity, whether garnered from fash-ion and entertainment or history,seemed to be the best way to attract vis-itors to museums and galleries.

The Art Newspaper’s annual inter-national survey Art’s Most Popular, tobe published later this week, confirmsthat the public are most curious aboutnames they already recognise. It also

reveals that Tate Modern has knockedthe British Museum off the top UKspot for the first time in nine years.This success is chiefly down to theappeal of its critically acclaimed exhi-bition, Picasso 1932: Love, Fame,Tragedy. The same effect was evidentat the Louvre, where a decision to dis-play Apeshit, Beyoncé and Jay-Z’smusic video, boosted annual visitornumbers by a quarter. At theSmithsonian’s National PortraitGallery in Washington a striking pairof portraits of the Obamas brought ina million more visitors.

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What if you were gover-nor of Illinois and did-

n’t have a thing to wear? Ifyou’re JB Pritzker, youlook at your daily sched-ule. During his first sixweeks in office, Pritzker’sappointment calendarincludes 70 “attire” recom-mendations for events as variedas bill signings, a state policeofficer’s funeral, a White House din-ner, surveying flood damage, andcocktails with legislators at the IllinoisGovernor’s Mansion.

Pritzker, among the nation’s 400richest people, needs sartorial sugges-tions? He’s not alone. JosephRosenfeld, a fashion and personal stylestrategist in New York who’s from theIllinois city of Buffalo Grove, maps outwardrobes with all his C-Suite execu-tives. “It comes back to one basicpremise: Relatability,” he said.

Pritzker spokeswoman JordanAbudayyeh said staff members get sug-gestions from organisers of the gover-nor’s events, but the governor ultimately

decides what to wear.Fifty-five of the recommendations

on the calendar, disclosed under theFreedom of Information Act, were sim-ply, “Business: Suit and tie.” Khakis,“button-down and pullover,” and “polo

with Columbia jacket” alsomake the mix. TheDemocrat was advised toforgo neckwear when hehosted dinner for union

leaders, but “Bringextra tie options” was

the note on Feb. 9,the day of hisofficial portrait.

Despite hisgirth, Pritzkerkeeps his ties at

a proper length,avoiding the longnecktie look that

President DonaldTrump favors.

While Pritzker oftenopts for a blazer andkhakis, they’re typicallycrisply pressed — no

disheveled “Mom jeans”like those for which for-

mer President Barack Obamawas excoriated at baseball’s2009 All-Star Game.

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Kodak says a new beer hitting themarket can be used to develop its

Super 8 movie film. Dogfish HeadCraft Brewery in Delaware created itsSuperEIGHT beer after a conversationwith people at Kodak, the upstate NewYork technology company mostfamous for its photographic roots.

Dogfish learned from Kodak thatheightened levels of acidity and vita-min C in certain beers could makethem a processing agent for film. Thatinspired the brewery to design such abeer. Kodak helped by testing it.

Dogfish founder Sam Calagionesays he’ll document his summer trav-els on Super 8 film that will be devel-oped in SuperEIGHT beer andturned into a short film. The beer,made with pear, mango, berries, kiwi,quinoa and salt, is set for nationaldistribution next month.

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Rosa Ferrigno’s new suit takesrecycling to an extreme — she

knitted it from more than 300 plas-tic grocery bags. The 75-year-old

woman from Greece in western NewYork whiled away the winter knitting askirt and jacket from filmy brown bagsscissored into thin strips that were tiedtogether to make yarn. She lined it withcotton fabric. The finished garment isquite chic, with a tweedy look fromgreen printing on the brown bags. Herdaughter, Fran Bertalli, tells theRochester Democrat and Chronicle thatFerrigno has been knitting and sewingsince her childhood in Sicily. Last sum-mer, Ferrigno saw someone’s pursemade from repurposed plastic bags andstarted her own bag projects, makingtwo purses before the suit.

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Anew challenge making waves onsocial media pokes fun at Flori-

da’s reputation for producing strangenews stories involving guns, drugs,

booze and reptiles — or some combi-nation of the four. The challengeinvites participants to run their birth-day and “Florida man” through asearch engine to find out which head-line pops up. Then they must post theresult on social media.

The “Florida Man” concept creptinto the nation’s consciousness with the@_FloridaMan Twitter account in2013. The account, with the tagline“Real-life stories of the world’sworst superhero,” has been home torecent headlines such as “FloridaMan Fire Bombs Garage ThatImpounded His Car, Hits HisOwn Vehicle” and “FloridaMan Tried to Pay forMcDonald’s With Weed.”

The less common, butno less noteworthy, “FloridaWoman” subgenre has pro-duced headlines such as “AFlorida woman was arrestedand charged with aggravatedassault without intent to killafter she reportedly ‘fartedloudly’ in a DollarStore and thenpulled a knife on a

man who complained.”“Once, it seemed as though all the

weird people and stories came fromCalifornia. But over the past decade, itshifted to Florida,” said Jim Clark, a lec-turer in the University of Central Flori-da’s history department.

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An extremely rare albino penguinhas made its debut at Gdansk

Zoo in northern Poland. The albinopenguin hatched in mid-Decem-ber and has been under veteri-nary care. In the wild, such anunusual-looking penguin wouldbe rejected by other penguinsand would have little chance ofsurvival. But in Gdansk, it has itsparents and two other friendlypenguins. The bird’s sex has notyet been determined. It weighs

over half a kg and stands 28 cmtall. Zoo director Michal Targowski

said Friday the albino penguin“would have become the very firstto be attacked by predators”.

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He’s not a man who hasever knowingly passed onan opportunity to bran-dish his socialist creden-tials. For Paul Mason, the

Left-wing commentator, broadcasterand all-round fuming ideologue, thereis no aspect of life, no object, inani-mate or otherwise, to which he canturn his attention without frothing atthe mouth. As a fog of steam shootsfrom his ears, you can usually makeout words such as “neoliberalism”,“broken economics”, “revolution”,“postcapitalism”. But as he attemptedto defend his dear leader JeremyCorbyn for walking out of a Brexit dis-cussion before it had even begun,Mason emitted an entirely differentword, not one normally associatedwith a revolutionary rant about thebourgeoisie: Cheese.

The benign foodstuff usually gets itin the neck from vegans, so how had ahumble morsel made from the pressedcurds of milk become a symbol of capi-talist oppression, a middle-classemblem of greed, a manifestation ofthe uncaring power of political elites?

By way of explanation forCorbyn’s flouncing-out of the meetingbecause of former colleague ChukaUmunna’s presence, Mason wrote onTwitter: “Finally, the elite are going torealise: Labour is an insurrectionagainst neoliberalism, not part ofyour cheese and biscuits circuit...”Because, clearly for Mason, that iswhat these appalling, privileged elitesdo. They sit in well-furnished rooms,with fascist central heating, in shinyimperialist shoes, wearing clotheswithout frays, sitting on well-uphol-stered chairs and into their smugfaces goes cheese and biscuits, thatsymbol of true oppression.

While Mason’s thinly veiled asser-tion that cheese and biscuits are poshmay surprise most sentient humans, heis also actually quite close to hitting anerve. Because while I would argue

that a generic cheese board representsneither end nor middle of the politicalspectrum, the kind of cheese that is onthe board — not to mention the bis-cuits and the accoutrements — canactually tell you a very great deal.

For, in as much as the suit or dressyou wear, the house you live in, thecar you drive and the accent you pos-sess can suggest your means and class,so the cheese you eat is a manifesta-tion of yourself. “Show me the cheese,and I will show you the man,” some-one once said. I’m not sure who. Itcould even have been me.

If cheese is political, then theTories seems happiest to trumpet theircredentials. When he wasn’t busypointing at fish counters, former PMDavid Cameron could often be foundsalivating over a cube of somethingoak-smoked in a constituency dairy, ortalking cheddar with Cotswoldscheesemaker and former Blur bassistAlex James. During the 2017 generalelection campaign, Theresa May head-ed for the British Cheese Awards inSomerset and was offered a cube ofunusually strong (and stable) cheddar— which she struggled to eat in frontof the cameras. The moment wasinevitably referred to as her “bacon-gate”. Former secretary of state forenvironment, food and rural affairs,Liz Truss made an utter internet sensa-tion of herself after she lamented, po-facedly, how Britain imports two-thirdsof its cheese: “This. Is. A. Disgrace!”

Before Mason reminded us thatcheese and biscuits equal class war, hemight have paused to consider howrenowned a cheese fan his boss is.Corbyn — a former member of the all-party Parliamentary group on cheese,no less — once confessed to being “pas-sionate” about the stuff: “The variety ofcheese in England is amazing,” he said.“It’s better than French cheese; it’ssharper, and there’s more variety. I likeSomerset Brie, it has a nice taste to it.And Shropshire Blue, the county where

I’m from. The sharper the better.” What may save Mason from being

first against the wall come the revolu-tion is how the class question becomesyet more pointed when cheese isbrought together with biscuits. For itis the cracker that changes everything.Especially today, if it’s a Bath Oliver,or a mortgage-threatening organicoatcake from Daylesford. I don’tbelieve Mason would have attackedthe concept of cheese with just bread,for that surely is one of the humblestmeals known to socialism.

Historically, cheese does have aposh edge on, say, potage; the latter,offered to the poorest as a means ofdealing with leftovers from the table ofa noble. While cheese must be manu-factured and stored, it gains a greaterprice point. But no one peering into atavern in 15th century Eastcheapwould castigate a hungry traveller andcall him a stuck-up toff because he waseating a piece of cheese with somecoarse crust and a pint of ale.

While its exact origins areunknown, it is likely to have been cre-ated by happy accident. There is evi-dence of cheesemaking in Egyptiantombs, but its creation might haveoccurred if we can imagine a nomadictraveller, sat atop his camel with milkstored by his saddle bags in a containermade of the stomach of an animal. Anenzyme in that stomach, rennet, wouldhave made the milk separate, intocurds and whey. So having left camp inthe morning with milk, he arrives athis destination with cheese, albeitsloshing around in whey.

By the time of the Roman Empire,cheese-making was rife. It was a bril-liant way of storing dairy and it couldtravel. And so cheese would have madeits way across the empire in the sameway as under-floor heating, straightroads and gladiators.

And while cheese became auniversal product for rich andpoor, the type of cheese you ate

signified your class. Analysis of fres-coes uncovered in Pompeii, that townfrozen in time by Vesuvius in AD 79,shows a humble family eating a chunkof hard-looking cheese among the likesof soup and raw beans. While on afeasting table of the rich — on rich,golden tablecloths and with slaves inattendance — is evidence of bread,honey, olives and a white cheese thatlooks a lot like a soft ricotta.

Today the proliferation of cheesemeans that the affineurs, the noses,among us can develop an obsessionwith cheese to match the finest winesnob. Cheese boards in the smartestrestaurants are as hard to fathom as thewine list. The board is wheeled up(before the pudding, by the way) andthe cheese sommelier talks throughtheir Bleu d’Auvergne, Brie de Melun,Maroilles, Crottin de Chavignol,Beaufort, Comté, Stinking Bishop,Stilton and Laguiole. And not wishingto look stupid you say, “Three of thesoft and two of the hard,” before thecheese along with a selection of delicatelittle biscuits, celery, grapes and somechutneys are presented with a flourish.

But if hard and simple is the cheesefor the humblest in society, then itmust be the seeping, gooey, stinkiestcheese that screams wealth. For surelyonly a rich, hedge-funded, capitalist-loving toff would dare brandish a pieceof taleggio on a train.

No one but a bruising Tory wouldsuggest eating a morsel of Brie deMaux, the best sort needing nerves ofsteel to cut off the thick white mouldbefore you find the cream cheesewithin, the acidity of which makesyou gag, so must be tempered with aglass of 1962 Pétrus. So cheese reallyis the new political hot potato. Andthus I present myself, your ever-so-’umble restaurant critic. None of thatposh Neufchâtel for me, guv’nor — I’ll

‘ave the cheddar. Extra mature.Straight up, no biscuits.

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Before you do that, you should beclear about the difference between agoal and a duty. Let me give the def-

initions of these two words. The word‘goal’ is defined as something you hope toachieve. And the word ‘duty’ has beendefined as something that you feel youhave to do because it is your moral orlegal responsibility. But the more appro-priate definition of the word duty will be:What is dictated by time, place, and cir-cumstances. Now an example will clarifythe difference between these two words.A student is preparing for his final examand is fully engrossed in it. However, hismother falls ill and needs a lot of atten-tion, which means spending time withher. Yes, the boy’s goal is to do well inexams in order to further his academiccareer, but his duty temporarily super-sedes his goal to a certain extent.Therefore, we can say that goal is long-term, while duty is what is required to betaken care of immediately.

As this article is about goals, let ussee what kind of goals people set forthemselves. A son of a rich man is study-ing hard to learn as much as he canbefore joining his father’s business. Hewishes to make a lot of money in life. Adaughter of a poor immigrant in theUSA is learning law. Her goal is to pur-sue legal profession in order to have both

sufficient money and respect in society.The third example is of a son of afamous cricketer. He is honing hisskills in order to become as goodand famous as his father, if not bet-ter. The last example is of an agingdoctor. Though he is making a lot ofmoney, he is not peaceful. He must,therefore, decide what his main goal is.There cannot be more than one maingoal because the main thrust can be onone only. He has to curtail his practicehours to do spiritual practices in casebecoming peaceful is paramount forhim. These must take precedence overhis professional duties. He must keep hisgoal of gaining peace uppermost in mindat all times while doing his duties. Inshort, the main goal has to be one only,while duties can be many.

Unfortunately, not everyone is clearabout his or her main goal. They pursuemany objectives. This is fine as long as

one knows whichhas the highest priority. Iwill cite my personalexample in this connec-tion. I am a businessmanbut I am not entirelypeaceful. I wish to enjoysukha or happiness, whichis possible only if I am peaceful.This enjoyment should not be entirelylimited to sense pleasures but also tomake me feel good. I am using theSanskrit word sukha, which adequatelydescribes what I am seeking. This wordhas been frequently used in the Gita.

Howam I going aboutseeking peace? Fromthe Gita, I have learned that peacecan only be obtained by having proper

consciousness. Such consciousness comesby having faith in God. So I had to devel-op faith in God, which comes by doingspiritual practices as instructed by God.In the Gita, Lord Krishna has set out ingreat detail what He expects us to do. Ibegan doing what the Lord expects andslowly realisations began to come.Meanwhile, I systematically reduced myinvolvement with my business. I madecommittees of senior employees to over-see different aspects of business and toinvolve me only when they were unableto agree upon something. This hasworked very well for me. I have plenty oftime now to pursue my spiritual goal. Mymind is gradually getting controlled. I ambeginning to become peaceful and thereare glimpses of sukha, which I treasurevery much. The key was to identify mymain goal and work on it.

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Afriend in need is a friend indeed” is an old say-ing that suggests that friends must come for-ward to help friends when the need arises. In

the same vein, can we not say that a brother in need isa brother indeed? Well, elder brother Mukesh Ambaniproved exactly this, and in no uncertain terms, bybailing out younger brother Anil Ambani. The latterwas in quite a bit of trouble after the Supreme Courthad ordered that he either pay the dues of Ericssonamounting to �580 crore, including the penalty, orface a jail sentence of three months. Senior Ambaniintervened just in time to save the younger siblingfrom the ignominy of a jail sentence. A noble gestureindeed, given the huge amount, which also proved apoint or two about the Indian tradition and value sys-tem where brothers have set examples of love andbonding time and again in history. True, there areinstances that prove otherwise but what the Ambanibrothers established was that sibling rivalry cannot begeneralised though they are to be found. Sibling rival-ry, for that matter, can be traced to the Biblical storyof Cain and Abel, the first brothers to appear on earth.From that story to the present times, sibling relation-ship has always been a mixed bag. There are cases ofenvy and hatred between brothers reaching up to adangerous level of animosity, sometimes leading to abloody feud. But there are heartening instances, too,like the present one that vindicate the spirit of thepopular and ancient proverb that blood is thicker thanwater. Familial bonds are quite strong and arouse thefeeling of being a part of the common descent. TheIndian family system has always been a subject ofcuriosity and intrigue for the Western scholars of soci-ology where deep individualism rules the roost. Ofcourse, the Indian family system has also been influ-enced by the cultural exchanges from the Westernworld, and is undergoing the disintegration owing tosocial and economic compulsions, but the emotionalbonding keeps rising at times. Intra-family rivalry,particularly between siblings, cannot be said to be amissing trait in these times but the bonding of theblood relations becomes evident in times of externalthreat. There is an interesting incident from theMahabharata when the Gandharvas attacked and cap-tured the Kauravas, including Duryodhana. ThePandavas are told of this and there was a view particu-larly from Arjun and Bhim to let them suffer. But theelder Pandava, Yudhisthira, intervened saying that it isthe question of family honour and even thoughKaurava brothers bore animosity to the Pandavas, itwas an imperative for the latter to come to the rescueof the former and fight the Gandharvas. Matters of thehead and heart, thus, are difficult to explain and emo-tions being an attribute of the heart may not be inter-preted or predicted with the help of ArtificialIntelligence. What a human being does or has beendoing, therefore, cannot be a sure shot predictor ofwhat he will do. Reasons of the heart are driven by acompletely different heuristic. The eleventh hour inter-vention of Mukesh Ambani for the younger brotherdemonstrated much more than what rationality couldexplain and showed the importance of the strength offamily values and relationships. More importantly, itmay have a lot more implications for Indian business.

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Every religion extols theimportance of giving ofone’s self for the good ofothers. There are anecdotesfrom different religions that

relate how someone has found favourwith the Lord because he or she hashelped one in need. Even if a personis not a saint or a holy one, his or herstatus is raised in the eyes of God dueto a noble gesture which leads to therelief of another’s suffering.

If we just think about our ownresponse to examples of service thatwe witness, we can get an inkling ofwhy it such an important quality. Weoften read accounts in the newspa-pers or magazines or watch stories ontelevision about people who havetaken heroic steps to help others. Weare often moved and inspired byreports of those who have risked theirlives to save someone else. We hon-our heroes who have died for theircountry. We raise to martyrdomthose who have tried to help humani-ty and have lost their lives in theprocess. Service is one of the greatacts one can do in this lifetime.

It is rare that the average personhas to face the choice of giving up hisor her life physically in order to savesomeone else. But there are numer-ous opportunities that offer them-selves to us daily in which we canhelp someone else. The sacrifice maybe of our time, of our money, of ourresources, or of our skills. But thereis no dearth of chances to give ofourselves for the good of humanity.

-%#$�����*+(+*����*�,��*7�The first question that arises deals

with what selfless service is. True self-less service is an expression of love.We know that the greatest love in thisworld is a mother’s love for a child.This feeling of affection is so greattowards the child that the mother willautomatically make all kinds of sacri-fices to see that the child is comfort-able. She will wake up at all hours ofthe night to feed the child. She willgive up many of her own activities tocare for the child. The mother willspend her money on the child’s needsrather than on her own. Nobody tellsthe mother to make these sacrifices.It comes spontaneously from herheart. She does not ask for anythingin return from the child. She givesout of an innate desire to do so.

True selfless service encompasseshelping more than our own physicalfamily — it includes all humanity. Itis a high quality to have feelings oflove for all people, both those weknow and those who are strangers. Itis one of the goals of spirituality forhumanity to develop the quality oflove and service to all. The Sufis saythat God made human beings to givelove and service to others. If Hewanted devotion alone, He hadangels. But human beings are the onlyform of creation who have the godlycapacity to love and serve others. Tobecome a complete human being, weneed to have this ability.

)*/*(�$��'(��*+(+*����*�,��*�Selfless service presents to us a para-dox. To truly perform selfless service,one must act without any desire for areward or recognition. It is givenfreely, motivated by an innate desire

to help another. At the time of giving,one forgets one’s own needs andwants, as well as one’s comfort andsafety, to help someone else. Thereare even those who give their ownlives to save others. Truly selfless peo-ple do not expect anything in returnfor their deeds. The underlying para-dox of selfless service lies in the factthat while wanting no reward, selflessservice elicits the highest reward —the pleasure of the Lord.

This benefit may seem to beintangible. But for those of us whoare interested in our spiritual devel-opment, it is the highest gift we canreceive in life. One reaps the benefitswhen one sits in the silence of one’sown self and finds the inner door oflight, love, and peace open with ease.These treasures flood selfless souls,filling them with an inner joy andfulfillment beyond any we can receivefrom worldly attainments. SantDarshan Singh used to say that thebenefit one receives by performingselfless service is as great as onereceives by putting in an equalamount of time in meditation.

Leading a life of non-violence,truthfulness, purity of heart, andhumility contributes to the equanimi-ty of mind required for fruitful medi-tation experiences. But selfless serviceprovides the ingredient of grace,which helps open the inner gates.

When we help someone, ourheart expands. It reaches out toembrace another as a member of onehuman family. This act alone opensup our soul. As our love for othersflows out, God’s love for us can pourin. As this exchange takes place, our

soul currents begin to rise up to thepoint at which we can experience thedivine light within us. Our medita-tions receive a boost, and our soul,filled with peace and joy, transcendsto higher states of consciousness.Thus, it is through selfless servicethat we speed up our progresstowards the attainment of innerpeace and ecstasy.

By serving selflessly, we expandour hearts from our own self to ourfamily, to the community, our coun-try, the world, and ultimately, thecosmos. Selfless service comes froman understanding that we are allmembers of one large family of God.True selfless service encompasseshelping more than our own physicalfamily; it includes all humanity. It isa noble quality to have feelings oflove for all people, both those weknow and those who are strangers. Itis one of the goals of spirituality tohelp all humanity develop the quali-ty of love and service to all.

People who have given of them-selves have helped improve the qual-ity of life on this planet. Throughoutthe ages, some have worked tireless-ly to cure diseases or to make dis-coveries and inventions to makepeople more comfortable and safer.Others have given their lives for thefreedom and rights of others. Somehave devoted their lives for thespiritual upliftment of others. Eachof us in our own sphere can use ourGod-given talents and our knowl-edge and skills selflessly to make acontribution to make the world abetter place for all life.

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Aworried mother of an errant soncame questioning the relevance ofastrology the other day. “Seeing my

son’s chart, most of the astrologers hadpredicted that he was destined to earn aposition of public eminence and make usproud. They banked their prediction onGajakeshari yoga being formed in thelagna — conjunction of benevolent Jupiterand mind signifying Moon. Citing furtherastrological dictum, they stated that if everJupiter occupies one of the angular houses— lagna 4th, 7th, or the 10th — no harmcan be caused by any other evil planet. Hedid very well till he completed his 10th.He then forced us send him abroad forfurther studies. Thereafter, he has goneastray. He did not complete his studies.He is now demanding money to set up abusiness. He gets violent when questionedwhat can he do without acquiringrequired skill-set? The events in my son’slife so far have created a sense of distrustagainst astrology itself. But recently some-body suggested that someone envious ofthe family could have used black magic toderail him. I wish to check whether it ispossible, and if so, what remedial measurewould you suggest,” the lady submitted.

“If you were in touch with charlatanshaving half-baked knowledge of astrolo-

gy, you had to go through such frustrat-ing experiences. No wonder, they conve-niently banked on one factor that couldhave pleased you, ignoring counterinfluences exercised by other planets.Remember, planets are not doers. Andno single planet, no matter how muchbeneficious they may be perceived as,can qualify to stand as final determinant.Planets reflect different energy streamsflowing through nature. And we needthe support of all these energies in theright proportion to enjoy a successfullife with ease and comfort. Energyimbalance, if any, as reflected in a chartmay indicate adversities. So, a holisticlook of the chart is required to figure outthe personality frame-up of a person andtheir related bearing on our future life. Afractioned look will be misleading. Theirony of the whole situation is that mostof the traditional astrologers don’t careto look at the implications of Uranus,Neptune, and Pluto, as if being far dis-tant planets may not exercise any influ-ence on our life. They seem to be igno-rant of the scientifically established factthat the universe is a unified organism,where every point of the space is inimmediate connect with the rest.Evidently, the reverberations of energy

excited anywhere in the universe shalltravel far and wide. So, we can’t afford toignore the implications of energystreams identified with those distantplanets. Also, let me make it clear, theevil is there in his own mind and psyche,which requires correction without fur-ther loss of time,” I responded.

Let us now look at astrological point-ers to the young man’s personality frame-up. Lagna lord Sun, occupying the 11thhouse identified with fulfilment ofdesires, seen in isolation presents a rosypicture. But its opposition to Uranusmakes out an unconventional, eccentric,self-willed person having rebellious ten-dencies. He may take pleasure in defyingestablished societal norms. Here again,the Sun opposite mischievous Neptunemakes him stuck to his self-delusions,distanced from ground realities.

Habitually an escapist, he may notacknowledge truth on its first appearance,and continue blindly pursuing his fanci-ful dream perceptions till pushed to thewall. If that would not be enough, evenmind-signifying Moon is placed adverseto both Uranus and Neptune. This com-bination not only negates the beneficenceof Jupiter and Moon conjunction, itrather makes him a daydreamer knownfor his mercurial temperament.

What further compounded his prob-lem is that Mars and Saturn are ill-dis-posed off to each other. That makes himbad tempered, quarrelsome, vindictive,revengeful, and suspicious of all. Marsill-disposed off to Mercury makes himrestless, argumentative, hypercritical ofthose who do not come to his terms. Italso accounts for his foul mouth andlying tendency. Mars opposite Plutoaccounts for his violent temper, makeshim brutal, vindictive and cruel.

Venus opposite Uranus and Neptunemakes him a perverse character. He maywaste money on pleasure pursuits andincur heavy loss through speculativedeals. The result is there to see. In fact, heseems to have reached a stage where heneeds medical intervention. The positivesin him are no less. But the negatives haveproved heavy over him, as involuntarilythey keep playing from the front. Thepositives, on the contrary, need to beidentified, acknowledged, optimised, andconsciously used. To be continued.

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