I n a move being billed as a “first in the history of com- petitive examinations”, the Centre on Saturday announced that from 2019, aspirants can take the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE Main) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) twice in a year. “This gives a choice to the students, especially, if they fail to appear in a test due to unwarranted circumstances,” HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said. The other major examina- tion reforms announced by the Centre include the online conduct of NEET, JEE and National Eligibility Test (NET) exams by the newly-formed National Testing Agency (NTA) instead of the CBSE, which currently handles the responsibility but whose cred- ibility took a major hit after the secondary exams’ paper got leaked. This is the second major decision in recent times by the Javadekar-led HRD Ministry. It had last week announced the setting up of an overarching body Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) for higher educational institutions after scrapping decades old university watchdog University Grants Commission (UGC). “The exams will be more secure and at par with inter- national norms. There will be no issues of leakage and it would be more student-friend- ly, open, scientific and a leak- proof system,” Javadekar said. While NET would be con- ducted in December and JEE (Mains) twice a year, in January and April, NEET would be conducted in February and May. The NET, a qualifying test for admission in higher edu- cational institutions in the country, would be the first exam to be conducted by the newly formed body. On an average, every year about 11 lakh aspirants take the JEE and NET examinations and about 13 lakh appear for the NEET. The NTA would also con- duct NEET Management Admission Test (CMAT) and Graduate Pharmacy Aptitude Test (GPAT). “The students can appear both the times in NEET and the better of the two scores would be taken in account for admission,” Javadekar announced at a Press confer- ence. One of the features of exams to be conducted by the NTA is that it will give more chances to students thereby giving adequate opportunity to bring out his/her best and reducing stress which develops due to single exam conducted on one single day in the year. However, sitting in both the tests will not be compulsory. O n the eve of the second death anniversary of Burhan Wani on Sunday, a high alert has been sounded across different parts of Kashmir to prevent terrorists from carry- ing out any ‘revenge’ strike as the ‘poster boy’ of pro-Pakistan terrorist outfit Hijbul Mujahiddin continues to “inspire” more and more rad- icalised youth. Radicalisation of Kashmiri youth was top on the agenda of discussions during the securi- ty review meeting between Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Governor NN Vohra earlier this week in Srinagar. National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval had accompanied the Home Minister for the review of overall scenario since the Governor’s Rule was imposed last month. Against the backdrop of Wani’s anniversary, security forces as a preventive measure also decided not to allow Amarnath pilgrims to pro- ceed towards Kashmir-based base camps in Baltal and Pahalgam on Sunday. During the security review meeting chaired by Rajnath, senior Army and State police officers shared their serious concern over increasing num- ber of local youth joining the ranks of terror outfits. The issue of gullible youth made to join terror ranks during large- ly attended funeral proces- sions of slain terrorists also fig- ured during the meeting. T hree youngsters, including a 16-year-old girl, were killed when the Army alleged- ly resorted to firing upon a group of protesters at Hawoora village in south Kashmir’s Kulgam on Saturday afternoon. Reports said an Army patrolling party came under stone pelting by a huge mob near Hawoora Redwani area. The Army personnel retaliat- ed in which at least six young- sters sustained firearm injuries. Later, three critical- ly injured youths, including a teenage girl, succumbed. Other two slain youths are in the age group of 20 to 22 years. “An Area Domination Patrol (ADP) of the Army while moving in general area Hawoora, Kulgam came under heavy stone pelting. As the ADP tried to extricate, they were chased by an aggressive and menacing crowd of 400- 500 persons which kept build- ing up and coming danger- ously close,” said Srinagar- based Defence PRO Col Rajesh Kalia in a statement. S ounding the poll-bugle in Rajasthan, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday came out hard against the Congress saying the people have nowadays started calling the party as “bail gaadi” as some of their prominent lead- ers are out on bail. This even as Modi highlighted how his Government has put the Dalits, Backward Classes and women at the centre of its welfare schemes. Modi, who launched as many as 13 infrastructure pro- jects in the State, was appar- ently indicating at those like Shashi Tharoor and Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, who are on bail in cases related to Sunanda Pushkar murder case and the National Herald case respec- tively. Another senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has been grant- ed interim protection by the Delhi High Court from arrest in the INX Media case. “Several leaders who are called stalwarts of the Congress and former Ministers are out on bail these days,” Modi said at a public rally here where the Vasundhara Raje Government, facing a stiff political chal- lenge from the Congress in the coming Assembly elections, had tried to show-case the benefits accrued to the poor by the Central and her Government’s welfare projects and programmes. The Assembly polls are due by the year-end with the Congress accusing the BJP of non-per- formance and corruption in the State. The Prime Minister said the people were well aware of the “intentions” of the Congress and had started call- ing it a ‘bail gaadi’. He also appreciated Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and said she has changed the work culture in the State. The PM said, “Never for- get the tough circumstances in which Raje took oath in 2013. Systems were not working properly. She has changed the work culture in the State.” Reflecting on the work undertaken by the Central Government, Modi said, “The Central Government and the State Government are working together for the progress of Rajasthan. Humare kaamkaaj ke tarike mein cheezen na atakti hain, na latakti hain aur na hi bhatakti hai (In our way of working neither the work gets delayed, nor pending, nei- ther they get diverted).” Making an apparent refer- ence to the surgical strike into Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) in 2016, he criticised the Congress for questioning the capabilities of the Army. “It is unfortunate that political opponents also com- mitted a sin by raising ques- tions on the capabilities of the Army. This has never hap- pened before and the people will not forgive those who are doing this kind of politics,” he said. T he selfie craze has claimed yet another life in India. The victim, Shivani of Baraula village in Gautam Budh Nagar district, fell to death from the third floor of the famous Great India Mall (GIP) Mall in Noida, while capturing a selfie on Saturday with two of her friends. She tripped over from the building and before anybody could comprehend what was happening, she fell on the ground with a loud thud, said eyewitnesses. They said large number of people gathered on the spot with some of the shoppers even seen filming the girl who urgently needed medical attention. It was an elderly man who informed the mall security about the incident, said locals, adding that the security guards forcibly dispersed the swelling crowd and rushed the badly injured girl to the hospital where doctors declared her brought dead. Police said they are inves- tigating the incident to deter- mine whether it was an acci- dent or she committed suicide. Station House Officer of the Sector 39 Anil Kumar Shahi said, “We are scanning the CCTV grab to ascertain the cause of the death. We will be able to come to a conclusion only after we go through the entire CCCTV footage and question those present there at the time of the accident. We are also trying to reach to the par- ents of the girl.” Two of her male friends who were reportedly standing beside her at the time of the incident, reportedly ran away from the spot, said police. The body has been sent to the district hospital for autopsy. Cases of people commit- ting suicide by jumping from Noida mall buildings have been reported earlier too. In 2011, a BBA student had jumped to death from the roof of mall in sector 18. In anoth- er such case, a 55-year-old retired Army Colonel had com- mitted suicide by jumping from the third floor of a mall. A doc- tor had shot himself dead in the parking of sector 27 mall. Following these incidents, the district administration had asked mall owners to take pre- cautionary steps, like placing nets on the empty spaces on the ground floor so that lives could be saved. Initially, many complied with the orders but the nets were removed later as outer areas of the malls were not looking good to the patrons, said sources. “Shivani’s life could have been saved had these measures were at place” said an official. A 45-year-old city-based businessman has been arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting his daughter’s friend, who had come to his place for a sleepover, the police said on Saturday. On Thursday, the victim (18) had gone for a night stay at her friend’s place, where the accused offered her some drinks and later raped her in his bedroom, the police said. The victim had been invit- ed over by the accused’s daugh- ter, who studies abroad and had come home during her vaca- tion, Gurugram Police spokesman Subhash Bokan said. “The victim approached a women police station on Friday and registered a com- plaint of rape against the accused,” he added. The accused was arrested soon after the filing of the FIR. A principal of a private school and a teacher, who were arrested for allegedly rap- ing and blackmailing a Class IX student for seven months in Chhapra, were on Saturday produced before a POCSO court which sent them to jail for a fortnight. Four students of the school, who were also allegedly involved in the inci- dent, were sent to the remand home as they are juveniles. In her complaint, the girl alleged that she was first raped by 16 students of her school in a toilet there in December 2017. The girl claimed that the students also recorded a video of the act and threatened her to make it viral if she report- ed the matter to anyone, Superintendent of Police Har Kishore Rai said. When the victim com- plained to the school principal about the incident, he first convinced and persuaded her not to lodge a complaint as the matter would bring disrepute to her and the family and later along with two teachers raped and blackmailed her, he said. The six were produced before the court of Additional District and Sessions judge Uday Kumar Upadhyay, who is also in-charge of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) court. The court directed that the case of the four students be heard separately and sent to the Juvenile Justice Board which would verify their age.
In a move being billed as a“first in the history of com-
petitive examinations”, theCentre on Saturday announcedthat from 2019, aspirants cantake the Joint EntranceExaminations (JEE Main) andNational Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET) twice ina year. “This gives a choice tothe students, especially, if theyfail to appear in a test due tounwarranted circumstances,”HRD Minister PrakashJavadekar said.
The other major examina-tion reforms announced bythe Centre include the onlineconduct of NEET, JEE andNational Eligibility Test (NET)exams by the newly-formedNational Testing Agency(NTA) instead of the CBSE,which currently handles theresponsibility but whose cred-ibility took a major hit after thesecondary exams’ paper gotleaked.
This is the second majordecision in recent times by the
Javadekar-led HRD Ministry. Ithad last week announced thesetting up of an overarchingbody Higher EducationFinancing Agency (HEFA) forhigher educational institutionsafter scrapping decades olduniversity watchdog UniversityGrants Commission (UGC).
“The exams will be moresecure and at par with inter-national norms. There will be
no issues of leakage and itwould be more student-friend-ly, open, scientific and a leak-proof system,” Javadekar said.
While NET would be con-ducted in December and JEE(Mains) twice a year, inJanuary and April, NEETwould be conducted inFebruary and May.
The NET, a qualifying testfor admission in higher edu-
cational institutions in thecountry, would be the firstexam to be conducted by thenewly formed body.
On an average, every yearabout 11 lakh aspirants takethe JEE and NET examinationsand about 13 lakh appear forthe NEET.
The NTA would also con-duct NEET ManagementAdmission Test (CMAT) andGraduate Pharmacy AptitudeTest (GPAT).
“The students can appearboth the times in NEET andthe better of the two scoreswould be taken in account foradmission,” Javadekarannounced at a Press confer-ence.
One of the features ofexams to be conducted by theNTA is that it will give morechances to students therebygiving adequate opportunity tobring out his/her best andreducing stress which developsdue to single exam conductedon one single day in the year.However, sitting in both thetests will not be compulsory.
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On the eve of the seconddeath anniversary of
Burhan Wani on Sunday, a highalert has been sounded acrossdifferent parts of Kashmir toprevent terrorists from carry-ing out any ‘revenge’ strike asthe ‘poster boy’ of pro-Pakistanterrorist outfit HijbulMujahiddin continues to“inspire” more and more rad-icalised youth.
Radicalisation of Kashmiriyouth was top on the agenda ofdiscussions during the securi-ty review meeting betweenUnion Home Minister RajnathSingh and Governor NNVohra earlier this week inSrinagar. National SecurityAdviser (NSA) Ajit Doval hadaccompanied the HomeMinister for the review ofoverall scenario since theGovernor’s Rule was imposedlast month.
Against the backdrop ofWani’s anniversary, security
forces as a preventive measurealso decided not to allowAmarnath pilgrims to pro-ceed towards Kashmir-basedbase camps in Baltal andPahalgam on Sunday.
During the security reviewmeeting chaired by Rajnath,senior Army and State policeofficers shared their seriousconcern over increasing num-ber of local youth joining theranks of terror outfits. Theissue of gullible youth made tojoin terror ranks during large-ly attended funeral proces-sions of slain terrorists also fig-ured during the meeting.
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Three youngsters, includinga 16-year-old girl, were
killed when the Army alleged-ly resorted to firing upon agroup of protesters at Hawooravillage in south Kashmir’sKulgam on Saturday afternoon.
Reports said an Armypatrolling party came understone pelting by a huge mobnear Hawoora Redwani area.The Army personnel retaliat-ed in which at least six young-sters sustained f irearminjuries. Later, three critical-ly injured youths, including ateenage girl, succumbed.Other two slain youths are inthe age group of 20 to 22years.
“An Area DominationPatrol (ADP) of the Armywhile moving in general area
Hawoora, Kulgam came underheavy stone pelting. As theADP tried to extricate, theywere chased by an aggressiveand menacing crowd of 400-
500 persons which kept build-ing up and coming danger-ously close,” said Srinagar-based Defence PRO ColRajesh Kalia in a statement.
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Sounding the poll-bugle inRajasthan, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Saturdaycame out hard against theCongress saying the peoplehave nowadays started callingthe party as “bail gaadi” assome of their prominent lead-ers are out on bail. This even asModi highlighted how hisGovernment has put the Dalits,Backward Classes and womenat the centre of its welfareschemes.
Modi, who launched asmany as 13 infrastructure pro-jects in the State, was appar-ently indicating at those likeShashi Tharoor and Rahul andSonia Gandhi, who are on bailin cases related to SunandaPushkar murder case and theNational Herald case respec-tively. Another seniorCongress leader PChidambaram has been grant-ed interim protection by theDelhi High Court from arrestin the INX Media case.
“Several leaders who arecalled stalwarts of the Congressand former Ministers are outon bail these days,” Modi saidat a public rally here where theVasundhara Raje Government,facing a stiff political chal-lenge from the Congress in thecoming Assembly elections,had tried to show-case thebenefits accrued to the poor bythe Central and herGovernment’s welfare projectsand programmes. The
Assembly polls are due by theyear-end with the Congressaccusing the BJP of non-per-formance and corruption in theState.
The Prime Minister saidthe people were well aware ofthe “intentions” of theCongress and had started call-ing it a ‘bail gaadi’. He alsoappreciated Rajasthan ChiefMinister Vasundhara Raje andsaid she has changed the workculture in the State.
The PM said, “Never for-get the tough circumstances inwhich Raje took oath in 2013.Systems were not workingproperly. She has changed thework culture in the State.”
Reflecting on the workundertaken by the CentralGovernment, Modi said, “TheCentral Government and the
State Government are workingtogether for the progress ofRajasthan. Humare kaamkaajke tarike mein cheezen naatakti hain, na latakti hain aurna hi bhatakti hai (In our wayof working neither the workgets delayed, nor pending, nei-ther they get diverted).”
Making an apparent refer-ence to the surgical strike intoPakistan-occupied Kashmir(PoK) in 2016, he criticised theCongress for questioning thecapabilities of the Army.
“It is unfortunate thatpolitical opponents also com-mitted a sin by raising ques-tions on the capabilities of theArmy. This has never hap-pened before and the peoplewill not forgive those who aredoing this kind of politics,” hesaid.
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The selfie craze has claimedyet another life in India. The
victim, Shivani of Baraula villagein Gautam Budh Nagar district,fell to death from the third floorof the famous Great India Mall(GIP) Mall in Noida, whilecapturing a selfie on Saturdaywith two of her friends.
She tripped over from thebuilding and before anybodycould comprehend what washappening, she fell on theground with a loud thud, saideyewitnesses.
They said large number ofpeople gathered on the spot withsome of the shoppers even seenfilming the girl who urgently
needed medical attention. It was an elderly man who
informed the mall securityabout the incident, said locals,adding that the security guardsforcibly dispersed the swellingcrowd and rushed the badlyinjured girl to the hospitalwhere doctors declared herbrought dead.
Police said they are inves-tigating the incident to deter-mine whether it was an acci-dent or she committed suicide.
Station House Officer ofthe Sector 39 Anil Kumar
Shahi said, “We are scanningthe CCTV grab to ascertain thecause of the death. We will beable to come to a conclusiononly after we go through theentire CCCTV footage andquestion those present there atthe time of the accident. We arealso trying to reach to the par-ents of the girl.”
Two of her male friendswho were reportedly standingbeside her at the time of theincident, reportedly ran awayfrom the spot, said police.
The body has been sent to
the district hospital for autopsy.Cases of people commit-
ting suicide by jumping fromNoida mall buildings have beenreported earlier too.
In 2011, a BBA student hadjumped to death from the roofof mall in sector 18. In anoth-er such case, a 55-year-oldretired Army Colonel had com-mitted suicide by jumping fromthe third floor of a mall. A doc-tor had shot himself dead in theparking of sector 27 mall.
Following these incidents,the district administration hadasked mall owners to take pre-cautionary steps, like placingnets on the empty spaces on theground floor so that lives couldbe saved.
Initially, many compliedwith the orders but the netswere removed later as outerareas of the malls were notlooking good to the patrons,said sources. “Shivani’s lifecould have been saved hadthese measures were at place”said an official.
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A45-year-old city-basedbusinessman has been
arrested for allegedly sexuallyassaulting his daughter’s friend,who had come to his place fora sleepover, the police said onSaturday.
On Thursday, the victim(18) had gone for a night stayat her friend’s place, where theaccused offered her somedrinks and later raped her in
his bedroom, the police said.The victim had been invit-
ed over by the accused’s daugh-ter, who studies abroad and hadcome home during her vaca-tion, Gurugram Policespokesman Subhash Bokansaid. “The victim approacheda women police station onFriday and registered a com-plaint of rape against theaccused,” he added.
The accused was arrestedsoon after the filing of the FIR.
were arrested for allegedly rap-ing and blackmailing a Class IXstudent for seven months inChhapra, were on Saturdayproduced before a POCSOcourt which sent them to jailfor a fortnight. Four studentsof the school, who were alsoallegedly involved in the inci-dent, were sent to the remandhome as they are juveniles.
In her complaint, the girlalleged that she was first rapedby 16 students of her school ina toilet there in December2017. The girl claimed that thestudents also recorded a videoof the act and threatened herto make it viral if she report-ed the matter to anyone,
Superintendent of Police HarKishore Rai said.
When the victim com-plained to the school principalabout the incident, he firstconvinced and persuaded hernot to lodge a complaint as thematter would bring disreputeto her and the family and lateralong with two teachers rapedand blackmailed her, he said.
The six were producedbefore the court of AdditionalDistrict and Sessions judgeUday Kumar Upadhyay, whois also in-charge of theProtection of Children fromSexual Offences (POCSO)court.
The court directed that thecase of the four students beheard separately and sent tothe Juvenile Justice Boardwhich would verify their age.
This sequel to the widely appreciated Sicario, comes with amajor pressure point — that it has to live up to the greatexpectations of its parental mount which, incidentally was
a surprisingly high grosser in the action-thriller segment.To tackle this back-puller, ...Saldado clothes itself in constant
violence, mostly of the extreme kind, and only after that takes therefuge of the storyline which is competent and tight enough to takeyou through the wild, bloody terrain on which the plot unfolds.
...Saldado is a new chapter in the no-rules drug war with cartelsswitching to trafficking terrorists across the American border. So,the mysterious Alejandro Gillick (played to the hilt by Benicio DelToro), whose family was murdered by a cartel kingpin, escalatesthe war on behalf of FBI and kidnaps the kingpin’s daughter.
A whole lot happens on the way with the girl (the admiringlyexpressive Isabella Moner) turning into a symbol of introspectionbetween the two enigmatic men who question what they are reallyfighting for, both right and wrong.
The best thing about this stylish and often engaging thriller isthe commanding performances of all its characters. Del Toro isundertoned but smouldering in a killingly silent kind of way whileMoner comes of the screen with speaking eyes and burstingemotions without too much verbal ado. The futility of violence isprogressively shown in this blooded film through her journey frombeing a kickass girl in school to someone who has been deadenedby all the blood around her by the end of the film.
On the whole, ...Saldado may not touch the same heights asthe 2013 original but on its own, and even though the end is a bitfuddled and muddled, it has the power of drawing eyeballs, especiallyof action junkies.
The only thing that struck me throughout this roughlyanimated dog film was that how different and oftenstrangely compelling the movie is. Though in the
animation segment, it comes across as the first draft of drawingsby a Disney or Marvel artist, without any fine-tuning, justthoughts around the characters, the story compels youinexorably.
Set on a cold Japanese island, where dog hating is anadministrative compulsion, propelled by mean exterminationscientists, wicked gangsters, dog haters and an army of caninesaturators, the poor animals are incarcerated on a cold trashisland from where there is only one escape and that's slow,horrible, dog-flu infected death.
A teen Samaritan, indeed, turns up on the grim island insearch of his bodyguard dog Spots, but a lot has happened inthe interregnum which unfolds with a lot of twists and turnseven as the mayoral army and "dogs you can't smell" run in hotpursuit to annihilate the entire population and the boy in tow.
Isle of Dogs is a differently enabled, differently sketched,differently told and differently shown canine film which bringsout all the emotions in favour of the four-legged besiegedpopulation which is systematically been hunted down to noparticular reason other than a centuries old revenge plan by aJapanese clan.
It is quite a special film for dog lovers.
)���������$���������������
����!�����#�$�&401�*�0>�-*(&���������� �������������������������-����+���0�������%����-(&�*$1��1$-0 �������������������� �����$�,���>�����������������What made you leave yourhometown and come to Delhi?
I moved from Shimla tostudy theatre from NationalSchool of Drama in 1986. Myplan was to professionally adopttheatre because it involves strongand professional acting. I didmany stage plays and thoroughlyenjoyed those days. �Why did you venture intoTV?
Since Hindi theatre doesn’tpay well, I was forced to do TVand films in order to make aliving. I made my TV debut asMukundi Lal in Lapataganj forwhich I got ITA Award for BestActor in a Comic Role (2010). �The experience to playTewariji.
It has been an amazing
experience so far. It feels good tobe known as Tewariji. I think thatI have put life into the character.It’s actually funny how peoplestop me for autographs andphotos by calling me Tewarijiand not by my real name. Thisis the biggest honour for me. Theshow has been on air for threeyears. I won two awards —Best Actor in a Comic Role in2015 and 2017 by ITA Award.�What’s the difference inworking for TV and theatre?
Theatre is different fromTV. I strongly believe that beingnatural is the best way to give agood performance.�Coming from NSD, did thatgive you an upper hand?
Yes, I do have an upper handin some ways as I received
proper training before I startedworking. I also got noticed bydirectors and got to meet severalof them including Kundan Shah,who made classic comedy filmJaane Bhi Do Yaaro and TVseries Nukkad.
�What has been yourmilestone?
In terms of popularity,Lapataganj was the milestone.Playing the character ofMukundi Lal got me recognitionin the eyes of people like RajKumar Hirani. I enjoyed playingthat role a lot because it wasactually a comedy-satire on thesystem.�What has been your favouriteproject?
Bhabhi Ji Ghar Par Hai willalways be my favourite for severalreasons. First, the character I playis different from my realpersonality. Second, the writingis interesting. Third, the cast anddirection has been fantastic.�What does your twodaughters say after watchingyou on screen as Tewariji?
My daughters really enjoywatching me on screen. Theyfind the show ‘mazedaar’. Theyask lots of questions since one ofthem is studying theatre inschool.�What inspired you to doMatrubhoomi— A NationWithout Women?
Matrubhoomi was for acause. It spoke about femalefoeticide and infanticide andgender imbalance in society. Itreceived a standing ovationabroad. But our audience didn’tappreciate it all that much. Thatis because of the acceptancethey have towards content.
said about 82 per cent of thedevelopment works announcedtill 2017 have been completedand work on the remaining 18per cent announcements is inprogress and would be com-pleted soon.
He also inaugurated anddedicated five projects costingRs 27.70 crore to the people ofSirsa district. Besides, he laidfoundation stone of eight devel-opment projects on which overRs 57.69 crore would be spent.
Talking to reporters afterinaugurating the projects inSirsa, he said soon after the pre-sent government took over thereins in 2014, a model of equi-table development throughoutthe state was prepared, anddevelopment works were beingcarried out accordingly in everyregion.
He said workers constitutethe backbone of the party andduring ‘Chai pe Charcha’ dis-cussions related to develop-ment of regions, elections andorganisation are held withthem.
Manohar Lal said in thelast three-and-a-half years,development and welfare workswas done according to theexpectations of the people.Now, under various pro-grammes, communicationwould be directly held with thepeople to get informationregarding the works.
“We have done qualitative
development works in a sys-tematic manner so that theyremain useful to people for alonger period,” he said. Citizen-centric services have beenmade online through e-Governance and for its imple-mentation, Atal Seva Kendras,Gram Sachivalayas, e-DishaKendras and Antyodaya SevaKendras have been set up.Setting up of these centres hasbenefitted the general public asthey now need not go to gov-ernment offices again andagain.
Manohar Lal said for res-olution of problems, peoplecould also reach CM Window.So far four lakh complaintshave been received through thismedium. These have come dueto the wrong policies and dis-organized work system of pre-vious governments.
The Chief Minister inau-gurated five projects in Sirsa,which includes new vegetablemarket at Dabwali, tehsil build-ing at Rania, augmentation ofthe sewerage system andsewage treatment plant at Raniaand Kalanwali and indepen-dent canal-based waterworks atPhullo. In addition to this,canal-based waterworks wouldbe constructed in the villages ofSikanderpur, Mallekan,Jhorarnali, Bahiya andHaripura and Bani, he said.
Earlier, he redressed thegrievances of people at PWDRest House and issued direc-tions to the officers concernedto immediately resolve theirgrievances.
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Panjab University (PU) onSaturday dedicated its state-
of-the-art indoor shooting rangeto Kargil War hero CaptainVikram Batra, an alumnus ofthe varsity.
Captain Batra had diedfighting Pakistani forces duringthe Kargil war in 1999 at the ageof 24. He was awarded thehighest wartime gallantry awardParam Vir Chakra posthu-mously.
Punjab Finance MinisterManpreet Singh Badal unveiledthe plaque of Captain Batra atthe shooting range in the uni-versity.
Referring to the sacrifice ofCaptain Batra, Badal said manypeople come and go in thisworld but some people comebut never leave, they becomeimmortal. He urged youth totake the pledge for fightingagainst drug addiction, bribery,poverty and unemployment.
Earlier, PU Vice ChancellorArun Grover said it is a greathonour for the university toname the shooting range as'Capt. Vikram Batra, PVC
Shooting Range'.The VC said Capt Batra was
an alumnus of the universitywho stayed in the hostel num-ber one in the PU campuswhile pursuing MA English in1995-96 session after complet-ing his BSc from DAV College,Chandigarh.
Colonel Rajiv Kapoor,Commanding Officer of the 13battalion of the Jammu andKashmir Rifles, the Army unitin which Capt Batra had served,
complemented the Punjab gov-ernment and PU for the nobledeed of naming the shootingrange after the war hero.
Capt Batra was one in a bil-lion having three characteristics- passion for country, compas-sion for subordinates and com-mon public, and bravery of thehighest level, he said. Thecolonel shared the journey ofCapt Batra from the "baby of theBattalion to a hero of thenation". "His bravery, sacrifice,charm, and infectious smilestill nests all hearts," the coloneladded.
Vishal Batra, twin brotherof Capt Batra, said he was a greatinspiration for youngsters.
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Haryana Government hasdecided to enroll the fam-
ily members of nomadic tribesalso so that no person living inthe State remain deprive ofAadhaar card in the State.
In this connection, a specialAadhaar Enrolment Campaignfor Nomadic Tribes is beingconducted till July 10 in all 22districts of the state, an officialspokesman said here onSaturday.
Under the campaign, 20Aadhaar enrolment kits wouldbe provided in the three subdivisions of Gurugram to allnomadic tribes bastis to coverpending enrolment of anymember of nomadic families.
Satpal Moyal would coor-dinate with each nomadic bastiand Aadhaar team for facilitat-ing Aadhaar enrolment. Hewould also ensure the avail-ability of necessary documen-tation with nomadic families,required for enrolment.
The Municipal Corporation
Gurugram would take assis-tance of Municipal Councillorsfor enrolment of family mem-bers of nomadic tribes living ineach ward. Similarly, theCouncillors and Secretaries ofmunicipality and municipalcouncil of respective areaswould cooperate in this work.
The Gram Panchayats andBlock Development andPanchayats Officers of areasconcerned would help inenrolling people of nomadictribes like Gadia Lohar, living inrural areas and the districtadministration has entrustedthis responsibility to their con-cerned Sub DivisionalMagistrate (SDM). SDM wouldtime to time review the enrol-ment campaign in their respec-tive areas.
Any requirement of logis-tics for this campaign would beprovided by MunicipalCorporation in Gurugram city.A Whatsapp group of all stake-holders of this campaign hasbeen created for better coordi-nation.
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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on
Saturday ridiculed ShiromaniAkali Dal President SukhbirSingh Badal’s call for de-politi-cising the drugs and sacrilegeissue as nothing but a politicalgimmick to divert public atten-tion from his own role inshamelessly allowing both toflourish during his party’s 10-year misrule.
Deriding Sukhbir Badaland his wife Harsimrat KaurBadal’s desperate attempt totake the high moral ground onthe issue of drugs – a problemperpetrated and perpetuated bythe Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD), the Chief Ministerdescribed it as a last-ditcheffort by them to live down theappalling legacy they had leftbehind.
"After ruining a whole gen-eration of youth, Sukhbir Badalwas now talking about fightingthe menace together," said theChief Minister, challenging the
SAD president to cite even oneinstance during their regimewhen they had sought politicalconsensus or taken help fromthe Congress on any issue,including the drug menace,which had assumed giganticproportions under their rule.
His government did notneed the advice of a party orleadership which had beenresponsible, in the first place,for the mess which Punjabwas struggling to tackle, saidthe Chief Minister, adding thathe was more than capable ofhandling the situation on hisown, with the help of his ablecabinet colleagues and offi-cers.
“We have successfullybrought the state out of the fis-cal chaos into which it hadbeen plunged by the erstwhileSAD-BJP regime. We have suc-ceeded in eliminating some ofthe top gangsters who had afree run under your rule. Wehave been able to stabilise thelaw and order situation and putan effective check on the sac-
rilege cases that were wide-spread during your mis-gover-nance. And we have done allthis without your advice orhelp..., ” the Chief Minister saidin a hard-hitting statement inresponse to Sukhbir’soffer of joining handswith the governmentto fight drugs.
D i s m i s s i n gSukhbir’s suggestion oftaking other partiesinto confidence overthe steps being takenby his government tocombat the drug prob-lem, the Chief Minister saidthat going by the precedent setby the Akalis, as well as AAP,in the state Assembly, he wouldprefer not to waste his time andenergies in talking to them. Headded that he believed inensuring on-ground action,which his entire government,ably supported by the STF, thePunjab Police and other agen-cies, had already unleashed towipe out drugs from Punjab.
Ridiculing Sukhbir’s state-
ment that during their rule, theAkalis fought the problemtooth and nail, the ChiefMinister said the situation pre-vailing on the ground clearlynailed his lies. “You cannot fool
the people ofPunjab withyour fabrica-tions anylonger,” he toldSukhbir Badaland HarsmiratKaur.
Agreeingwith SukhbirBadal that no
sensible politician would everpromote narcotics, the ChiefMinister said that, unfortu-nately, for 10 years, the statewas under the control of politi-cians who were far from sen-sible.
It was laughable that thevery leadership which had leftno stone unturned in destroy-ing the state for 10 years wasnow trying to push the blamefor its shocking failures on theCongress government, said
Capt Amarinder.On Sukhbir’s question if
any Akali had been caught fordrugs in the past year and ahalf, the Chief Minister saidunlike the SAD and its ally BJP,the Congress had neverbelieved in following a policyof vendetta against its oppo-nents. But the moment the STF,or any of the other agenciesinvestigating drug cases, findevidence of complicity of anyAkali leader, he would per-sonally ensure that the accusedis thrown behind bars and thecase against him is taken to itslogical conclusion under thelaw, said the Chief Minister.
Capt Amarinder Singhscorned at Harsimrat’s state-ment that he was a `non-seri-ous Chief Minister who does-n’t go to office.” Had she spentas much time in Delhi, whereshe should be considering thatshe was a Union Minister, asshe seemed to be doing intracking his schedule,Harsimrat might have beenable to get some of the much-
needed support for Punjabfrom the Centre, he added.From debt waiver to GST waiv-er on Langar, the Centre, ofwhich Harsimrat herself is apart, had failed to deliver onany count, and it was left to hisgovernment to provide relief tothe people of Punjab despite theserious financial constraints ithad inherited from the erst-while SAD-BJP regime, said theChief Minister.
The Chief Minister wel-comed Harsimrat to visit himin his office at his residence,from where he preferred tooperate in order to get moreconstructive work done, sothat she could see for herselfhow well-equipped it was tohandle his demanding sched-ule. It was this myopic vision ofthe Badals, who could not seebeyond the corridors of powerwhich they loved to flaunt, that
had contributed to the total fail-ure of the SAD-BJP govern-ment, he quipped.
Aam Aadmi Party MLAfrom Sunam, Aman Arora onSaturday appealed to Punjabchief Minister Capt. AmarinderSingh to make the names ofdrug dealers public whoaccording to him were active indrug trade in state and havenow fled to foreign countries.
In a statement, Arora saidthat Capt. Amarinder had toldthe AAP delegation met himon July 3 that the govt. hasidentified 3 kingpins of drugtrade in state but all of themhave left the country in thepast.
Arora said that the CM
must reveal the names of thosealleged accused and take strictaction against them as per thelaw of the land. He said that theCM can not shy away from tak-ing action against them by justsaying that they are not in thejurisdiction of the countrynow. Doubting the intentionsof Capt. Amarinder Singh,Arora said that as per the pastrecord of last one and half yearof Congress govt. in state, itseems doubtful that theCongress govt. will do anyfruitful efforts to weed outdrugs in state in days to come.
Arora said that those whoare responsible for ruining theyouth of state have no right tolive peacefully in any corner ofthe world and by making theirnames public it will be difficultfor them to put themselves outof sight for long time in the for-eign countries as well.
said that no individual or soci-ety could grow alone anddependency on each otherplays an important role in thegrowth of society and promo-tion of social harmony.
Speaking after laying thefoundation stone of rehabilita-tion of all displaced families ofMirchpur in Dhandur village,he said, “Since rehabilitation ofthese families is aligned withthe vision of Pt. Deen Dayal
Upadhyaya, I suggest the thisplace should be named DeenDayal Puram.
A park should also bedeveloped here, and it shouldbe named Pt. Deen DayalUpadhyaya Park.”
He said the 258 displacedfamilies of Mirchpur villagewould be accommodated oneight acres in Dhandur village.A sum of Rs 4.56 crore wouldbe spent on this project.
As a social being, ourresponsibility is to work togeth-er to strengthen social harmo-ny.
Manohar Lal saidMirchpur was struck with thisunfortunate tragedy in 2010 butthe then government couldnot find any solution in thenext four years. Then we werein opposition but we continuedour efforts to solve the prob-lem. For this, we interactedwith both sides. The only solu-tion was to rehabilitate thedisplaced families. And thepresent government has decid-ed to rehabilitate them in vil-lage Dhandur.
Finance Minister, Capt.Abhimanyu, said the present
government was working in thespirit of Haryana Ek-HaryanaviEk. It is first such governmentwhich has worked for thedevelopment of the state by ris-ing above the considerations ofregion and caste.
Minister of State for SocialJustice and Empowerment,Krishan Kumar Bedi, said thepresent government hadresolved problems lying pend-ing for over eight years. TheINLD and CongressGovernments only shed croc-odile tears for political gains, headded.
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Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)president Sukhbir Singh
Badal on Saturday said theparty would hold a thanksgiv-ing rally on July 11 to mark thehistoric increase in minimumsupport price (MSP) of Kharifcrops which would be presidedover by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.
The SAD president, whopresided over a meeting ofparty legislators, party candi-dates and district presidents at
the head office here, said therally, which would be held atMalout, would be attended byfarmers of Punjab, Haryanaand Rajasthan.
Badal said the party rankand file as well as the farmersof Punjab were waiting anx-iously to give a rousing wel-come to the Prime Minister forhis bold and decisive step toimplement the SwaminathanCommission report whichcalled for 50 per cent profit oninput cost.
Badal said the rally, which
was being jointly hosted by theBJP, would also witness atten-dance of thousands of farmersfrom the two neighbouringStates. "We are confident thiswill be a historic occasion onwhich the entire farming com-munity will come together onone platform to thankNarendra Modi for the largesseextended to the farming com-munity", he added.
Earlier, SAD presidentSukhbir Singh Badal askedPunjab chief minister CaptAmarinder Singh not to playpolitics over the increase inMSP of paddy and other cropsand show grace and acknowl-edge the immense benefitgiven to Punjab farmers byPrime Minister NarenderModi.
In a statement, Sukhbirsaid it did not behove a chiefminister to deny the largessemeted out to farmers of hisState. He said the Rs 200 per
quintal increase in paddy hadresulted in an individualincrease of Rs 6,000 per acre toevery farmer. Badal said farm-ers would accrue additionalrevenue of Rs 4,500 per acredue to the MSP hike in thisseason alone. He said the Stateagricultural marketing boardwould net additional revenueof around Rs 200 crore by wayof market fee and rural devel-opment fund. "Arhatiyas willearn Rs 100 crore" .
Badal said all these factsproved that the recent hike in
MSP would boost Punjab'seconomy. He said besidespaddy, farmers growing cottonwould get an additional incomeof around Rs 10,000 per acre."All this is as per theSwaminathan Commissionreport ensuring 50 per centincrease on input costs. EvenDr Swaminathan, who sub-mitted his report to the UPAgovernment in 2006 only tohave it put in the cold storage,has welcomed the NDAGovernment's decision toimplement it finally "
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AAP leader Sukhpal SinghKhaira on Saturday urged
Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh to review hisorder mandating dope teston all Government employees,saying this move has divertedattention from the issue ofalleged police-drug mafianexus.
In a letter written to CaptAmarinder, the Leader ofOpposition in the PunjabAssembly said the "blanketdope test order", has addedconfusion to the issue andmisdirected the actual debate.
"I urge you (CM) toreview the controversial dopetest order that has shifted thepolitical discourse from theburning issue of police-drug
mafia nexus," he said.The Punjab government
had ordered mandatory dopetest on all governmentemployees, including policepersonnel, from the time oftheir recruitment throughevery stage of their service.
"Of course feeling thepinch, many governmentemployee unions havedemanded dope test on thepolitical class of the state aswell. In order to avoid socialstigma, many political leadersincluding ministers, MLAshave made a beeline to gettheir dope tests done. As suchthe focus of debate has shift-ed from the real issue of drugmafia having deep connec-tions with the police officers ofthe state, to a non-issue ofdope test," he said.
The Bholath MLA saideven if the dope test is requiredthen it should be conductedon senior officers and not theentire police constabulary orthe lower ranks.
"The government can askthose enforcing law in the fieldbeginning from Assistant SubInspector to the DGP level, toundergo dope test. The dopetests should be conductedrandomly with a surprise ele-ment, as it is highly impossi-ble to get a positive result byvoluntary methods," he said.
"What is the point in hav-ing all the approximately theelakh government employees toundertake the dope test?Particularly woman employ-ees, clerks etc., who have noconnection with the drug traf-ficking menace," he said.
Senior INLD leader Dushyant Chautala hasfiled a defamation suit against Haryana
Health Minister Anil Vij for claiming that theHisar MP had started taking drugs.
Chautala in his criminal complaint filed inthe court of the chief judicial magistrate, Hisar,said the allegations made by the Minister were
false and baseless.In his complaint, he said he had never
taken drugs in his life.The INLD leader said he has a good edu-
cational background and the area of Hisar,which he represented, has no such reputationof being an area of drug addicts.
He said in his complaint that the allega-tions were blatant lies with mala-fide intentionsto mislead the public and malign his reputa-tion.
The allegations were made by the statehealth minister to deflect the attention of the
general public from the alleged irregularitiesin his department, Chautala claimed.
The Hisar MP had claimed that HealthMinister Anil Vij, in a statement on April 3,had stated before media that the INLD leaderhad "started taking drugs and he should go tosome rehabilitation centre".
The court has fixed August 14, the nexthearing date in this case.
said the state government isworking on a comprehensivewater conservation plan underwhich daily drinking wateravailability in the rural areaswould be raised to 130 litres perperson from 70 litres.
Addressing a public func-tion organized in Hisar, hesaid 2,600 cusecs of water wasnever released into theJawaharlal Nehru Canal con-structed with capacity of 2,600cusecs in 1976, because of the
danger of breach in the canal.But after appropriate man-
agement and cleaning of thecanal, the present governmentincreased its capacity andreleased 3,000 cusecs of wateryesterday. The target is toincrease it to 4,000 cusecs. Thiswould help in utilization ofmaximum of rain water andwould also raise the under-ground water table and makemore water available for agri-cultural land.
Manohar Lal said the stategovernment had constitutedPonds Authority for restorationof 14,000 ponds in 6,500 vil-
lages of the state. There arethree types of ponds. First, theponds are overflowing and havedirty water and villagers aredemanding drainage of water.Second, ponds have becomedry, and third. neither theponds are dry nor are they over-flowing but the water hasbecome dirty.
To improve the conditionof these ponds, overflowingponds would be used for irri-gation of fields. With this,ponds would remain clean andthere would be no dearth ofwater for cleaning bathing ofcattle, he added.
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Following the recent case ofillegal trade of children at a
shelter home, owned and man-aged by Missionaries of Charityhere, the State Commission forProtection for Child Rights(SCPCR) is gearing up tolaunch a massive assessmentdrive for checking the func-tioning of all shelter homes.
The nodal agency for pro-tection of child rights hadwritten to Chief Secretary,Sudhir Tripathi to conductraids covering all shelterhomes, NGOs (Private andGovernment) operating acrossthe State for collecting firsthand inputs about its nature ofoperation.
“The letter was sent to theChief Secretary on July 5. Inorder to bust the vicious cycleof child trafficking, it hasbecome mandatory to con-duct raids, covering all shelterhomes of Jharkhand. TheCommission will ensure thatwithin a stimulated time, theassessment of all shelter homesget complete,” said, SCPCRChairperson, Arti Kujur.
Meanwhile, the ChildWelfare Committee (CWC),Ranchi Unit Head, RupaVerma on Saturday said thatthe investigation is on in theNirmal Hriday child sale case.“After vacating the two shelterhomes – Nirmal Hriday andShishu Sadan, the children, atpresent are in the custody ofCWC. As of now, we are justconducting raids; none of theshelter homes have been sealed.At present, our priority is toprovide safe place to the res-cued children,” added Verma.
In addition, the districtadministration has constitutedan eight-member team toinvestigate the case. SoonRanchi DC, Rai MahimapatRay will review the report.According to the sources, thecommittee has prepared adetailed report of shelter homescovering basic facilities avail-able at the homes to the grantat present being given to theseshelter homes here.
As per the record, in theCapital City alone as many as18 registered shelter homesare operating, of which, fourshelter homes namely –
Balashray ITI Campus,Premashray, ST Sewa Mandalincluding Nari Niketan receivesgrant from the State govern-ment.
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Consensus eluded the all-party meeting over the con-
duct of one nation one election. The meeting, skipped by
the Left, saw the TrinamoolCongress vehemently opposingit even as NDA ally ShiromaniAkali Dal supported it. TheAIADMK said it was notagainst the concept but want-ed it to be implemented from2024. The Congress, mean-while, said it will consult otheropposition parties on the issuebefore deciding its course ofaction. The BJP, which hasvoiced its support to the pro-posal, has sought more timefrom the Commission to pre-sent its views on the issue. It hasbeen told to do so by July 31 asthe term of the present panelends in August end.
The one nation one electiontheory has been advocated byPrime Minister Narendra Modion the ground that it will notonly help save huge taxpayers'money but also enable smoothgovernance as the netas wouldnot be perennially in poll mode.
Most political parties
including included TrinamoolCongress, CPI, IUML,AIADMK, which is perceivedto be close to the BJP, and BJPally, Goa Forward Party,opposed it. Shiromani AkaliDal (SAD), a part of BJP-ledNational Democratic Alliance,supported the proposal, whichhas been strongly articulatedmany times by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.
SAD leader Naresh Gujralsaid elections have becomevery expensive and it was innational interest not to spend somuch money. . "So if there iselection one time only it'll be incountry's interest," he said.Gujral also said that impositionof Election Code of Conductahead of elections impacts deci-sion making and almost oneyear of five-year term of a gov-ernment goes in preparing forvarious elections.
CPI's national secretaryAtul Anjan told theCommission it had no juris-diction over the issue, becausethe proposition involved a con-stitutional amendment-a sub-ject that came strictly inParliament's domain. In a reply
to the commission, CPI(M)General Secretary SitaramYechury listed the party's objec-tions to the proposal stating thatit goes beyond the ambit of lawreform entailing major amend-ments to Constitution, andwould run against both the "let-ter and spirit of ourConstitution". "The aspects ofour Constitution, we believe,cannot be undermined, ortweaked. We believe that sucha proposal is inherently anti-democratic and negates theprinciples of federalism whichis a fundamental feature of ourConstitution," he wrote.
Trinamool Congress MPKalyan Banerjee, who put for-ward party's views before theLaw Commission, later said thatModi's concept of simultaneouselections in the country is"impractical and unconstitu-tional." "The basic structure ofthe constitution cannot bechanged. We are against theconcept of the simultaneouselection because it is against theconstitution. it should not bedone. "It is impractical, not pos-sible and contrary to theConstitution. Democracy and
government should be givenpriority. The financial issue issecondary, first priority is theConstitution and democracy.Constitution has to be upheld,"Trinamool Congress leadersaid. "I have given reason toLaw Commission. It is contraryto Article 83(2) and Article172(1). It is contrary to both,"Banerjee said.
GFP president VijaySardesai, a minister in Goa'scabinet, said after his meetingwith the law panel that his rejec-tion was because regional andstate-specific issues would berelegated to secondary positionin simultaneous elections. "Theproposal is impractical,"Sardesai said.
The AIADMK had sup-ported the idea of simultaneouspolls in 2015-2016, is skepticalabout the proposal as it may"affect the tenure" of the stategovernment. AIADMK MThambidurai said that it wasnot possible to hold simulta-neous elections in 2019." "It isnot possible in 2019 becausepeople of states like Gujarat,Punjab, Himachal, Tamil Naduand others have voted a gov-
ernment for five years. Letthese assemblies complete theirfull "term," he said.
Indian Union MuslimLeague opposed the proposalwith its secretary Khorrum AOmer saying the Commissionthat it will not make any sig-nificant improvement in theelectoral process.
Reacting on the one nationone election issue, formerUnion Minister and Congressleader RPN Singh said that theCongress is in touch with otheropposition parties "We are intalks with all the oppositionparties and we shall be takinga joint decision on that. We arenot going to boycott. We aregoing to talk to the oppositionleaders and come up with ourown suggestion," he said.
The Commission had lastmonth reached out to allrecognised national andregional parties seeking theirviews on the issue and invitedthem for one-to-one meetingin the national capital on July7, 8 and 11. The Commissionwrote to the seven recognisednational and 59 state parties toattend the meet.
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Sleuths of the Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) charge-
sheeted BJP MLA from Unnao,Kuldeep Sengar’s brother AtulSengar and his four aides in con-nection with the murder of theUnnao rape victim’s father.
The charge-sheet was sub-mitted at the designated CBIcourt in Lucknow on Saturday,a day ahead of the completion of90-days of arrest of the accused.
As per reports, Anil Kumarinvestigating the case, filedcharge-sheet against Atul Sengar,Vinay Mishra aka Vineet,Virendra Singh aka Babuwa andShashi Pratap Singh aka SumanSingh and Sonu. However,Kumar did not mention thename of another accused, Shailuin the chargesheet. The abovewere were found guilty of bru-tally assaulting the victim’s father
leading to his death later in a hos-pital.
In her FIR lodged withMakhi police station, the rapevictim’s mother accused AtulSingh Sengar of dragging her
husband from their house tillthe MLA’s house, 100 metreaway and later brutally beatenhim with sticks and rods tyinghim with a tree. The family alsohanded over the victim’s bloodsoaked clothes to the CBI teamwhich was sported by the vic-tim during the time of attack.Interestingly, MLA KuldeepSingh Sengar, who was arrest-ed in the rape case, along withfour others were also foundguilty of planting a countrymade revolver in possession ofthe rape victim’s father, who later
died. Besides, Kuldeep Singh
Sengar, his aides Ram SaranSingh, Vinay Mishra aka Vineet,Virendra Singh aka Babuwaand Shashi Pratap Singh akaSuman Singh (also arrested inthe rape case as well as in mur-der case) were chargesheeted.The above got a fake case reg-istered against the rape victim’sfather and showed recovery ofarms from his possession.
Tinku Singh was alsoarrested along with then StationOfficer of Makhi police station(Unnao) Ashok SinghBhadauriya and sub-inspectorKamta Prasad Singh. Someaudio tapes of a conversationbetween the MLA and the vic-tim’s uncle also revealed how theMLA was threatening him withdire consequences if the casesagainst him and his brotherwere not withdrawn.
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Trouble is again brewing forSamajwadi Party leader
Azam Khan as the StateGovernment has ordered aprobe by Special InvestigationTeam (SIT) into the allot-ment of Government landand buildings to JauharUniversity promoted by Khan.
The SIT has already com-pleted investigations andlodged an FIR in April againstAzam Khan for irregularitiesin recruitment scam in UP JalNigam. However, the arrest ofKhan and other accused wasstayed by Lucknow bench ofthe Allahabad High Court onMay 24.
Official sources said thatfresh trouble were in the off-ing for the former UrbanDevelopment minister as thestate government has direct-ed the SIT to carry out aninquiry against the allotmentof Maulana Mohammed AliJauhar Research Centre build-ing to Khan’s Jauhar Trust bythe department of MinoritiesWelfare during the previousSamajwadi Party regime.
The state government hasalso directed the SIT toenquire into construction of atwo-kilometer flyover con-necting Jauhar University to atrisection, a VIP guest housewithin the varsity campus,roads worth crores on thecampus and a four-kilometerwall constructed in front ofthe varsity to block nearby vil-lagers from using these roads.
The role of senior PWD
officials, who supervised theconstruction inside the varsi-ty, was also under the scanner.Sources said that AdditionalSP (SIT), Lucknow, has sum-moned all records from officeof the Executive Engineer(PWD), Rampur.
A PWD official said theyhave received a communica-tion from the SIT and beenasked to join the probe andplace all documents andrecords related to the con-struction of guest house androads inside Jauhar Universityand the four-kilometer wallbefore.
The SIT is also probinginto allotment of MohammadAli Jauhar Research InstituteBuilding to Jauhar Trustwhich controls the varsity.The Research Institute wasconstructed on a 200 bighagovernment property inRampur in 2005-06 whenMulayam Singh was the CM.. In 2015, the SP governmentallotted the building housingthe Research Institute to atrust of Azam Khan on alease of Rs 100 per annum for99 years.
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The Congress on Saturdaysaid it would investigate
allegations of corruptionagainst BJP Ministers andleaders and even punish themonce it comes to power as itaccused Prime MinisterNarendra Modi of shieldinghis party men by not orderingany probe against them.
Congress spokespersonRPN Singh told reporters thathis party has been raisingissues of corruption againstseveral Ministers as well as theson of BJP president AmitShah, but the Prime Ministerhas always maintained silenceon the matters.
“We have raised variouscases of corruption against BJPMinisters and even the son ofBJP president but no reports,no CBI inquiry not even
income tax investigation hasbeen initiated,” Singh saidadding “when the PM was theChief Minister of Gujarat, theGSPC scandal of �20 lakhcrore happened. I want to tellyou that the day ourGovernment will come topower, we would investigate allthese matters. And all thesepeople will not get bail but putbehind bars. When they are inpower they do not investigatesuch matters,” he said.
Singh alleged that theRajasthan government did not
allow farmers to attend the rallyfor which crores of rupeeswere spent. The prime minis-ter did not want to hear thefarmers who were raising theirissues before him; so they werestopped from attending therally in Jaipur, he said.
He alleged that privatebodies had been pressured bythe Rajasthan government tobring people to the rally."Private players, including theLPG distribution federation,have written to the chief sec-retary, complaining that alldistributors have been asked tobring people who had benefit-ted from Ujjawala scheme.
They have said they arebeing threatened that if theydon't bring people to the rallytheir distributorship would becancelled and cases will befiled against them," Singhalleged.
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Two criminals carryingrewards of Rs 50,000 each
for their arrest, were gunneddown in an encounter with thepolice in Ramnagar area ofBarabanki early Saturdaymorning.
The police said that thepolice intercepted two motor-bike-borne suspects duringroutine patrolling near Chirotabridge in Ramnagar around2:30 am on Saturday. Insteadof identifyingthemselvesbefore the police, the criminalsopened fire and tried toescape. SHO of Tikaitnagarpolice KK Misra, a sub-inspec-tor and a constable were
injured in the firing. In retaliatory firing both
criminals were injured andwerelater rushed to RamnagarPrimary Health Center wherethey succumbed to theirinjuries.
The slain criminals wereidentified as Bawariya gangmembers, Mushir of Bareillyand Ibahim. They had 18criminal cases of loot, dacoityand murder registered againstthem in several police stations.Rewards of Rs 50,000 werealso announced for theirarrest.
Injured policemen wereshifted to the district hospitalwhere their condition wasstated to be out of danger.
waterfall at Chincholi in Vasaitaluka of Palghar district wererescued by personnel fromvarious agencies, even as tor-rential rains battered Mumbaiand the adjoining districts ofThane, Palghar and Raigad incoastal Konkan region, dis-rupting normal life for thesecond day during the currentweek.
On a day when rain-relat-ed mishaps were reports fromdifferent pars of the metropo-lis, a 40-year old woman–identified as one UshaSawant--was electrocuted,while her five-year old daugh-ter Kumari was injured in ashort-circuit at Mankhurd innorth-east Mumbai.
After reports reachedPalghar that more than 75persons were stranded at theChincholi waterfalls in Vasai
taluka, the district adminis-tration embarked upon a mas-sive rescue operation whichwas continuing till late in theevening.
“Initially, local fire brigadepersonnel and revenue depart-ment officials rescued a maxi-mum number of persons fromamong those stranded. At onestage, we requisitioned the helpof Indian Air Force (IAF) torescue five persons who werestruck atop trees. An IAF heli-copter airlifted them safely,”Palghar District CollectorPrashant Narnaware t4old“The Pioneer” in the evening.
Dr Narnaware, who waspersonally supervising the res-cue operations, said:
“Another 8 to 10 personsare stil l stranded at theChincholi waterfalls. We haveestablished communicationwith them. Since the area isremote and the water levels arevery high there, we have req-uisitioned the help of National
Disaster Response Force(NDRF). The NDRF personnelare already on the spot. Therescue operation is on”.
The suburban services onthe mainline of the CentralRailway bore the maximumbrunt of the heavy rains thatlashed the city and its suburbsincessantly since Friday night.What made matters difficultwas the fact that three signalpoles fell down in the rains.
While its suburban trainservices ran behind the sched-ule, the Central Railway can-celled three trains Mumbai-bound Deccan Express leavingPune on Saturday, Pune-boundleaving Mumbai on Sundayand and Karjat-Pune-KarjatPassenger scheduled for oper-ation Sunday.
The Central Railwaydiverted Bhusaval-PuneExpress leaving on Sunday viaManmad-Daund and Pune-Bhusaval Express leaving onSunday via Daund-Manmad.
However, the WesternRailway operated its suburbanand long distances trains nor-mally.
Heavy water logging wasreported from Mumbai’s satel-lite towns of Palghar, Boisar,Dahanu, Saphale, Virar, Vasai,Kalyan, Ambernath, Badlapur,Bhiwandi, Ulhasnagar, Karjatand Pali where the road traf-fic was badly affected.
Landslides and tree fallscaused by the heavy rainsblocked the busy Mumbai-Goa Highway more than threehours resulting in massive traf-fic jams for distances lasting forseveral kilometres.
Reports reaching the stateheadquarters said that manybig and small rivers in westernand in coastal Konkan region,including the Savitri river,were in spate with overflowingwater inundating the sur-rounding villages.
The picturesque hill sta-tions of Matheran in Raigad
district and Mahabaleshwarin Satara district and Khandalain Pune district received veryheavy rains, while more than10,000 people made beeline tothe Bhushi Dam located inneighbouring twin-hill stationof Lonavala which received 160mm rains.
Matheran and Karjart inRaigad received around 190mm and 150 mm respectively,while the hill stations ofMahabaleshwar and Panchgani160 mm, the gateway placeslike in Thane district andWada in Palghar districtreceived 220 mm and 230 mmof rain respectively.
Meanwhile, the RegionalMeteorological Centre of IMDhas forecast “heavy to veryheavy rains” in Mumbai andadjoining districts over thenext 24 to 48 hours.
Heavy rains are expectedin cities and tows like Nagpur,Aurangabad, Nanded, Akola,Wardha and Chandrapur.
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Resting deep inside his ‘grave’the poster boy of pro-
Pakistan terrorist outfit, BurhanWani, continues to inspire moreand more radicalised youth tojoin the ranks of different ter-ror outfits.
Rough estimates suggest-ed after Burhan Wani waskilled by a joint team of secu-rity forces on July 8, 2016around 300 local youth havepicked up guns.
According to the securityforces, the majority of youthhailing from South Kashmirdistricts of Kulgam, Shopian,Pulwama and Anantnag havejoined the jehad against thesecurity forces.
The gruesome killing ofpolice constable Javed AhmedDar in Shopian is a recentexample of revenge killing bythe local cadre of militants.
Before this half a dozenlocal officers of state police andarmy personnel have been elim-inated by the terrorists to spreadpanic among the local popula-
tion.During the recent security
review meeting chaired by theUnion Home Minister RajnathSingh along with the NationalSecurity Advior Ajit Doval inSrinagar senior army and statepolice officers have also sharedtheir serious concern overincreasing number of localyouth joining the ranks of mil-itant outfits and .
To flush out these terroristswhen joint teams of securityforces launched 'operation allout' large number of these localmilitants were neutralised buttheir funeral processions helpedmilitant handlers coerced vul-nerable youth to join the ranksof militant outfits.
A total of 206 terroristswere killed by security forces inJammu and Kashmir and 75others were persuaded to shunviolence in 2017.
Till June end this yeararound 105 militants have beenneutralised by the securityforces and the army authoritieshave also released a 'hit list' oftop 22 commanders.
In majority of cases policeinvestigations have revealedthat majority of youth weremotivated by their close friendsor some turn of events relatedto killing of hardcore militantsin the close vicinity of their vil-lages provoked these youth totake up guns.
According to officialsources, after the killing ofBurhan Wani on July 8, 2016more than 50 youth joinedmilitancy and in 2017 at least126 youth joined ranks of mil-itancy.
According to officialsources in the first six month of2018 more than 50 locals havealready joined militancy.Security forces apprehend if thesame trend continued thenumber of local militants thisyear could cross mark of 100this year as well.
In 2016 a total number of88 Kashmiri youth had joinedmilitant ranks in 2016 and 66in 2015.Similarly, 53 Kashmiriyouth had joined militancy in2014, 16 in 2013, 21 in 2012, 23in 2011, 54 in 2010.
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Social media is all set to bean important tool in the
electoral strategy of the BJP forthe 2019 Lok Sabha electionsin UP. The party has decidedto deploy at least two ‘cyberwarriors’ on each of the 1.3lakh polling booths across 80Lok Sabha seats of the State.
Around 2.6 lakh ‘cyberwarriors’ were likely to bemobilised by the BJP in thenext two months. Out of a totalof 1.47 lakh polling booths inUP , the BJP has so far set upbooth committees on 1.30 lakhbooths. These committees willhave 21 members includingpresident, vice-president andgeneral secretary.
Each ‘cyber warrior’ will bearmed with smart phone and
would be imparted training inInformation technology.
For the 2019 Lok Sabhapoll, the BJP has set a target ofwinning 74 seats with a voteshare of 51%. In the 2014 LokSabha elections, the BJP hadwon 73 seats while two seatswere bagged by its ally ApnaDal (Sonelal).
During his visit toVaranasi on July 4, BJP presi-dent Amit Shah held a longmeeting with social mediavolunteers drawn from acrossthe state.
A BJP leader said, “Thereis a dark zone in UP which isbeyond the reach of TV andnewspaper. The party canreach out to the electoratesthere only through socialmedia and our cyber warriorswould be the medium to reach
out to these 30 per cent boothsand apprise people about theachievements of the Centraland state governments.”
The recent two-day visit ofthe BJP chief to UP has boost-ed the state party organisationto prepare itself for the crucial2019 general elections. Shahhad met party leaders of all sixregions during his interactivesessions in Mirzapur and Agraon July 4 and 5. Shah presidentinstructed that all 46 cells, 17departments and 9 morchas ofthe party at the district levelshould gear up by July end.
As the BJP was planningto launch the Lok Sabha pollcampaign by September-October, the party brass wantsthat the entire organisation atthe ground level was func-tional by that time.
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Amid reports that BJP maygive yet another shot at
Government making in Jammu& Kashmir with the help of rebelPDP MLAs, BJP general secretaryRam Madhav on Saturdaydenied such reports saying theparty was for continuation ofGovernor's Rule in the State in theinterest of peace, governance anddevelopment.
The BJP had last monthpulled out of the coalitionGovernment in J&K saying itscontinuation in the coalitionGovernment had become “unten-able” which subsequently broughtthe state under Governor’s rule.
BJP leader’s comments onTwitter followed after former
State Chief Minister andNational Conference leaderOmar Abdullah tweeted a newsreport that claimed that a "bigchunk of PDP MLAs are intouch with the BJP high com-mand" and the saffron party waslooking to form government.
Contrary to Madhav's asser-tions, the State BJP unit con-fesses to being party to theefforts to break the PDP . Powerat any cost would seem to be theguiding philosophy," Abdullahtweeted, tagging the BJP leader.
Madhav, the BJP's points-man for the state, replied: "Nottrue. I will certainly check withthe state unit and ensure that BJPkeeps itself scrupulously out ofwhatever is happening in otherparties in the Valley.
Conditions are “perfect” toevacuate a young football
team from a flooded Thai cavein the coming days beforefresh rains and a possible risein carbon dioxide furtherimperil the group, the rescuemission chief said on Saturday.
The plight of 12 Thai boysand their coach from the “WildBoar” football team has trans-fixed Thailand since they gottrapped in a cramped chamberof the Tham Luang cave com-plex on June 23.
Rescuers have concededthat evacuating the boys is arace against time with mon-soon rains expected to undodays of round-the-clockdrainage of the deluged cave.
“Now and in the next threeor four days, the conditions areperfect (for evacuation) interms of the water, the weath-er and the boys’ health,”Narongsak Osottanakorn thechief of the rescue operationtold reporters.
“We have to make a cleardecision on what we can do.”
While the oxygen level hadstabilised he warned levels of“carbon dioxide are anotherfactor” in considering when tomove the group — in additionto impending rains whichcould cover much of themuddy ledge on which thegroup are sheltering.
“The water level may rise
to the area where the childrenare sitting and make the arealess than 10 square meters,” hesaid, citing estimates from cavedivers and experts.
In the early hours ofSaturday morning he said theboys were not yet ready to diveout of the cave, a complex anddangerous task through twist-ing and jagged submerged pas-sageways. But his comments 12hours later suggest the think-ing has changed, with waterlevels inside the cave current-ly managed to their lowestpoint by constant drainage.
Earlier in the day, ThaiNavy SEALS published touch-ing notes scrawled by thetrapped footballers to theirfamilies, who are waiting forthem agonisingly close-by out-side the cave entrance.
The children urged rela-
tives “not to worry” and askedfor their favourite food oncethey are safely evacuated.
In one Pheerapat, nick-named “Night”, whose 16thbirthday the group were cele-brating in the cave when theybecame stuck on June 23 said:“I love you, Dad, Mum and mysister. You don’t need to be wor-ried about me.”
Meanwhile the 25-year-old Ekkapol Chantawongcoach, the only adult to accom-pany the boys into the cave,sent his”apologies” to theirparents.
“To all the parents, all thekids are still fine. I promise totake the very best care of thekids,” he said in a note given todivers on Friday.
“Thank you for all themoral support and I apologiseto the parents.”
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The 12 Thai boys trapped ina cave are not yet ready to
make the complex dive out, thecommander of the rescue mis-sion said on Saturday, althoughforecast of downpour couldspeed up their extraction bid.
“The boys are not suit-able...(they) cannot dive at thistime,” NarongsakOsottanakorn, who is leadingthe operation, told reportersjust after midnight in English.
“Now the problem is thechildren’s readiness to dive.”Narongsak, a former governorof northern Chiang Raiprovince where the cave islocated, said there were noplans to pull the boys andtheir coach out overnight butif monsoon rains fell and water
rose in the Tham Luang caveover the coming days theycould change their plans.
Thailand’s Navy SEALcommander earlier said res-cuers may have “limited time”to attempt the tricky job of get-ting the group out, the first offi-cial admission waiting out themonsoon period in the cavemay not be possible.
But the path to freedom ishugely dangerous for the boys,some of whom are unable toswim and have no scuba expe-rience in an environment withlow visibility that confoundseven the most skilled.
An experienced formerThai Navy Seal assisting withthe rescue died after runningout of oxygen, raising fears thatit was far from safe for the kidsto make the attempt.
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More than 100 chimneysare being drilled into
the mountainside in a franticbid to reach a Thai youth foot-ball team trapped in a cavecomplex below, the head ofthe rescue mission said onSaturday.
The unprecedented rescueeffort is attempting to estab-lish new ways to extract theboys from above, if the under-ground chambers flood and itis deemed too risky to evacu-ate the team by diving outthrough the submerged pas-sageways.
“Some (of the chimneys)are as deep as 400 metres...But they still cannot find theirlocation yet,” NarongsakOsottanakorn told reporters,adding the mission lacked thetechnology “to pinpoint wherethey are staying”.
“We estimate that (they)are 600 metres down, but wedon’t know the (exact) target,”he said.
Iran said on Saturday it exe-cuted eight people convicted
in the 2017 Islamic State groupattack on parliament and theshrine of Ayatollah RuhollahKhomeini in Tehran.
The June 7, 2017 attack hasso far been the only assault bythe Sunni extremists inside ofShiite Iran, which has beendeeply involved in the wars inIraq and Syria where the mili-tants once held vast territory.
The judiciary’s officialMizan news agency and semi-official news agencies inIran acknowledged the execu-tions Saturday, but did not saywhen they took place.Executions in Iran are carriedout by hangings.
on Saturday to keep the energyexporter plugged into the glob-al economy despite the USwithdrawal and sanctions threat.
Tehran’s top diplomatMohammad Javad Zarif praisedthem for their “will to resist” USpressure, two months afterPresident Donald Trumpwalked away from the landmarkaccord.
Britain, France andGermany along with Russiaand China met with Iran inVienna to offer economic ben-efits and assurances that wouldlessen the blow of sweeping USsanctions announced by Trump.
They said they remained
committed to the accord and tobuilding up trade and invest-ment links with Iran, including“the continuation of Iran’sexport of oil and gas” and otherenergy products.
“All the members, even thethree allies, have committedand have the political will to takeaction and resist the UnitedStates,” Iran’s Foreign MinisterZarif told a Vienna news con-ference broadcast by the Farsnews agency.
“This is the first time theyhave shown this level of com-mitment, but we will have to seein the future what they reallywant to do and what they cando,” Zarif said.
“If they continue to demon-strate the political will theyshowed today, they will get
things done without any prob-lem.” Iranian President HassanRouhani had Tuesday labelledthe US push to cut Iran’s oil pro-duction to zero “a baseless fan-tasy” and an attempt to drive“imperialist policy in flagrantviolation of international law”.
The foreign ministers todayagreed on an 11-point list ofjoint goals in the Austrian cap-ital, where the accord wassigned with the aim of stoppingIran from building the atomicbomb in return for sanctionsrelief.
In the joint statement, theyreconfirmed their commitmentto the deal and its “economicdividends” for Iran, which hassuffered worsening financialturbulence since Trump aban-doned the accord.
The Philippine president,who recently sparked out-
rage for calling God stupid, hascourted new controversy inhis largely Roman Catholiccountry by saying he will resignif anybody can prove that Godexists.
President Rodrigo Duterte,who has had a thorny rela-tionship with the church, ques-tioned anew in a speech lateFriday some of the basic tenetsof the Catholic faith, includingthe concept of original sin,which he said taints even inno-cent infants and can only beremoved through baptism in a
church for a fee.“Where is the logic of God
there?” Duterte asked in aspeech at the opening of a sci-ence and technology event insouthern Davao city.
The 73-year-old leader saidthat if there’s “one single wit-ness” who can prove, perhapswith a picture or a selfie that ahuman was “able to talk and tosee God,” he will immediatelyresign.
Duterte, however, suggest-ed that there must be a God ora supreme being that preventsbillions of stars and celestialbodies from colliding in a fre-quency that could have longthreatened the human race.
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North Korea slammed theUnited States for making
“rapacious” demands duringcritical denuclearisation talkson Saturday, after US Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo had ear-lier described them as “pro-ductive”.
The North’s foreign min-istry said the “extremely regret-table” US attitude during themeeting violated the spirit ofthe agreement reached betweenleader Kim Jong Un andPresident Donald Trump lastmonth at their historic summitin Singapore.
“The US attitude and posi-tions at the high-level talks onFriday and Saturday wereextremely regrettable,” theNorth’s Foreign Ministry said ina statement, according to SouthKorea’s Yonhap news agency.
It lashed out at the US forits “unilateral and rapaciousdemands for denuclearisation”.
This came just hours afterPompeo had characterised themeeting as a success, but criti-cally without giving many newdetails as to how North Koreawould honour its commitmentto “denuclearise” in exchangefor US security guarantees.
“These are complicatedissues, but we made progress onalmost all of the central issues,some places a great deal ofprogress, other places there’sstill more work to be done,” hesaid.
Tokyo: Torrents of rainfall andflooding battered a widespreadarea in southwestern Japan onSaturday, with local mediacasualty reports climbingquickly. Public broadcasterNHK said 38 people were dead,four were injured seriouslyand 47 were missing. AP
Aviation Suresh Prabhu onSaturday said the existence ofmultilateral trading platformWTO is now “under threat”,but India strongly supports itsneed for regulating tradenorms. Some WTO membercountries are now questioningthe accepted trading norms,and this has manifested in theform of the “most challengingperiod in the last 70 years” ofglobal trade, he said.
Speaking to exporters at aFIEO event here, Prabhu said,“The very existence of WTO isnow under threat. But, if thereis no WTO, all countries willface problems. There will bechaos.”
India strongly feels thatWTO is a must as it guaranteesrules and regulations of glob-
al trade, the Minister said,adding, that reforms within theglobal trade body was alsoneeded.
“There is need to keep theWTO alive and strong forwhich an initiative was taken toarrange a mini-ministerialmeeting in Delhi, after thefailure of ministerial talks atBuenos Aires (Argentina),” hesaid.
India is also trying to forgea number of bilateral tradingagreements with Latam, Africa,ASEAN, Europe, Great Britain,
central Asia, GCC, Far East,and China, Prabhu said. On thetrade dispute with the US, hesaid India is trying to resolvethe matter.
With China, India wasmaking efforts to reduce thehuge trade deficit, the formerRailway Minister said.
The Commerce Ministry,in association with exporters’bodies, is in the process ofpreparing a product-marketmatrix for realisation of addi-tional exports to the tune of$100 billion in the next fewyears. He also pitched for grant-ing priority lending sector sta-tus to exports to facilitatefinancing.
“We also must have agen-cies like Japan’s Jetro, Australia’sAustrade, and are working onthose lines,” he said. RegardingGST refund to exporters, hesaid the issue has beenaddressed to a great extent.
Aviation Suresh Prabhu onSaturday said his Ministrywill work closely with theGovernment of West Bengal,which has a “great potential”to become an economic hubin future.
“We want the state toachieve progress. We will
work together to ensure that,”Prabhu said at an IndianChamber of Commerce meethere.
The Minister said theCentral Government wasworking towards ease ofdoing business across thecountry.
“Modernisation of exist-ing business is the key ele-ment of the new industrialpolicy,” Prabhu added.
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IndiGo and GoAir have car-ried out “visual inspections”
of a total of 50 Pratt & Whitneyengines powering their A320neo aircraft in the last fortnightbut no abnormalities weredetected, a senior official saidobn Saturday.
The visual inspections weredone after US regulator FAAissued an airworthiness direc-tive on June 26 to check forpossible engine fan hub dam-age of certain P&W engines.
IndiGo and GoAir, oper-ating A320 neo fleet with P&Wengines, have been facingengine issues in these aircraftthat even forced grounding ofmany planes. A senior officialat the Directorate General of
Civil Aviation (DGCA) said noabnormalities were found dur-ing visual inspection of a totalof 50 affected P&W engines.
“In compliance with AD(Airworthiness Directive),IndiGo has carried out onetime inspection of 34 affectedengines and GoAir carried outinspection on 16 affectedengines. “No abnormality hasbeen observed with theseengines fitted on A320 neosbeing operated by Indigo andGoAir,” the official told PTI.
A GoAir spokesperson saidit completed the requiredinspections in response to theFAA directive immediatelyupon receiving the informationand that “there were no find-ings”. Queries sent in relationto FAA directive to IndiGoremained unanswered.
On June 26, the FederalAviation Administration (FAA)issued a directive for PW1100engines fitted on A320 neos.
Starting next year, India hasplanned to bring down
emission levels of all old powerplants to national standards by2022, a top EnvironmentMinistry official has said.
Union EnvironmentSecretary CK Mishra also said
that “very old” plants in thecountry might be closed down.
“When it comes toaddressing climate changeissues, the first thing that oneneeds to do is to acknowledgethat there is an issue... In thebackdrop of the Paris agree-ment, the NDCs (NationallyDetermined Contributions)
announced by India, so far,according to me, is alreadyambitious.
“But, there are develop-ment imperatives, and India isone of the fastest growingeconomies, so as growth takesplace, emissions levels arebound to rise.
So, the story of India and
the narrative is that of respon-sible growth,” he said.
Mishra said this onWednesday during the inau-gural edition of ‘The EarthDialogues’, hosted by a publicadvocacy firm here.
He also discussed the roadahead for the Government inthe clean energy sector.
New Delhi: Shareholders ofReliance Industries haveapproved giving MukeshAmbani another five years asthe Chairman and ManagingDirector of the company.Ambani, 61, has been on theboard of Reliance Industries Ltd(RIL) since 1977 and was ele-vated as Chairman of the com-pany after the death of hisfather and group patriarchDhirubhai Ambani in July 2002.
The company put a reso-lution to re-appoint Ambani“for a period of five years, onexpiry of his present term ofoffice, i e with effect from April19, 2019” at the 41st AnnualGeneral Meeting held on July5 in Mumbai.
As many as 50,818 croreshares out of a total share baseof 616.45 crore voted on theresolution, RIL said in a regu-latory filing. Of the votespolled, 98.5 per cent were infavour of the resolution while1.48 voted against it.
According to the resolu-tion, Ambani will be paid anannual salary of �4.17 croreand �59 lakh of perquisites andallowances. Retirement benefitsare not included in the overallceiling of remuneration. PTI
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New Delhi: Union MinisterRam Vilas Paswan will attendthe UNCTAD meeting of thirdinter-Governmental group ofexperts on consumer protec-tion on July 9-10 in Geneva, anofficial statement said onSaturday. This group has beenset up under the revised UNGuidelines on ConsumerProtection.
UNCTAD is the UN bodylooking after consumer issuesand is headquartered inGeneva. Paswan is the UnionMinister for Consumer Affairs,Food and Public Distribution.
The UN body is lookinginto the implementation ofrevised UN Guidelines acrossthe different countries in theworld, the statement said.
The two-day session willfocus on consumer protectionin financial services, capacitybuilding and technical assis-tance on consumer protectionlaw, dispute resolution andredress, it said. PTI
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GVK Group on Saturdaysaid it has achieved finan-
cial closure for construction ofthe first phase of the NaviMumbai International Airport(NMIA).
“I am extremely happy thatwe have achieved the financialclosure on schedule. This willnow enable us to focus on thenext steps, which is the con-struction and completion of thefirst phase of yet another land-mark airport in India,” saidNavi Mumbai InternationalAirport Executive chairman GVK Reddy in a statement here.
The infrastructure majorhad bagged the financial bid tobuild and operate the secondinternational airport in theMumbai metropolitan region -Navi Mumbai - at an invest-ment of �16,000 crore thisyear, beating rival GMR group.
The airport is a public-pri-vate partnership venture inwhich the GVK-led MumbaiInternational Airport Pvt Ltdhas a 74 per cent stake withCIDCO, the Maharashtra gov-ernment's nodal agency forthe project, holding theremaining 26 per cent.
Rendered ineffective in the previous match,India's wrist spinners Kuldeep Yadav and
Yuzvendra Chahal would look to bounce backagainst 'well-prepared' England batsmen as thetwo teams clash in the series-deciding thirdTwenty20 International, here on Sunday.
The Indian spin duo faces its first real chal-lenge in more than a year with England batsmenbiting back immediately after drubbing inManchetser. From Sri Lanka, to Australia, to NewZealand, and to South Africa, none of the oppo-nents could easily contend with Chahal-Kuldeepin such quick time.
With Kuldeep returning wicket-less inCardiff after a sensational five-wicket show in theseries-opener and Chahal too taken for runs lastnight, they need to find ways to trouble the oppo-nents.
India missed injured Jasprit Bumrah's serviceson Friday during the deathovers as England hit threesixes. His replacement UmeshYadav has provided wickets(four in two matches) in thepowerplays, but he has alsobeen taken for runs at the same time.
Despite the disappointment on Friday, the vis-itors are still in contention for their sixth con-secutive T20I series' win.
Wrist spin continues to be a deciding factorin the current series as well. Kuldeep brought theshock-value to the mix of things at Manchesterand duly bamboozled England. The hosts, in turn,prepared well for the second game, despite theshort turn-around time, and with a little aid fromthe pitch, played more selectively against bothwrist spinners.
A little change in the England batting line-up also worked wonders. Joe Root was sent upat number four, with skipper Eoin Morgan drop-ping down to allow the former more time at thecrease. While it didn't help Root in particular as
he failed to read the googly for a second matchrunning, it did allow Alex Hales to build part-nerships and anchor their win.
Hales was included in the side in place ofinjured all-rounder Ben Stokes, but on currentform, it will be tough to leave him out. Stokesreturns to the England squad for the third matchand bolsters their confidence being yet anotherkey member to have played in the IPL.
In the current scenario, he could walk intothe playing eleven in place of the struggling Root,based alone on the fact that he has played enoughagainst both Chahal and Kuldeep in the last twoIPL seasons.
The conditions concern India as well. Thanksto the last layer of grass remaining on the sur-face, England used the short ball tactic againstthe top-order. Both Rohit Sharma and KL Rahulstruggled to get going against the short deliver-ies, while Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Rainalooked ill at ease. Even Virat Kohli was out caught
pulling a short one straight tofine leg, albeit in the deathovers.
Morgan outlined that theshort-ball ploy was more to dowith conditions than anything
else, but it is tough to see the hosts abandoninga plan that worked so well. The shorter bound-aries will only re-affirm such a plan once again.
Victory on Friday would have allowed Indiato experiment in the third game. The same is truefor England as well, particularly regarding theirbatting order. With the series pegged at 1-1, it isdifficult to envisage either team playing aroundwith combinations as a lot is at stake.
If Pakistan beat Australia on Sunday, Indiacould climb to number two in the ICC T20I rank-ings with a series' win, relegating England to num-ber seven. Even so, this is about more than justrankings at this juncture. At the start of whatpromises to be an intensely fought summer ofcricket, this is now about bragging rights and car-rying winning momentum into the ODI series.
England skipper Eoin Morgan said thedifference in conditions from the first
game in Manchester worked to theiradvantage as they levelled the three-match Twenty20 series against India 1-1 after winning the second game.
Thanks to a quicker and bouncierpitch, India were restricted to 148 for five.Despite a poor start, the hosts were ableto chase it down with two balls to spare.
Kuldeep Yadav returned 0-34 fromhis four overs and was rendered inef-fective, after England's pacers hadreduced India to 22-3 with a short ballplan.
"Conditions were different today.Kuldeep's a very good bowler and he'llbowl well the majority of the time. ButI thought conditions at Old Trafford suit-ed him more than conditions today. Withthe pace and bounce of the wicket thatthe seamers might have dominated a bitmore, but I thought our plans were a lotclearer. We played him well," Morganexplained.
"When David Willey had bowledthree balls and three of them flew
through, I was quite surprised that theball carried through so much. And whenit did, with the big square boundaries, itis naturally a plan that we do bowl intothe wicket. But that's a plan because it'stwo-paced, not a plan because it fliesthrough. Inevitably it ended up stayingthe same. That was the reason behind it(bowling short)," said Morgan.
India used the conditions to goodeffect as well, and reduced England to 44-3 but Alex Hales anchored the innings
with a sedate half-century and took themhome when things got tight in the end.
He was also helped with a 18-ball 28-run cameo from Jonny Bairstow.
"Alex really did play brilliantly. He'splayed a lot of T20 International crick-et, and he's obviously played a lotaround the world and he certainly usedthat tonight. Having the composure toplay quite a mature innings, as he did,and then towards the end, he's notknown as a big hitter but anybody whowatched the game at Trent Bridge willrealize he hits the ball quite a long way,even yorkers. We had quite a lot of con-fidence in him, but it is very nice to getover the line," said Morgan.
"If we'd had a bigger partnership upfront, we might have maybe pushed it inthe 16th or 17th over. But we didn't, soit was always going to be a cagey affairwhen we continued to lose wickets. Weplayed better than we did at Old Trafford.Certainly the plans we had, we com-mitted to them a lot more. There was alot more clarity in the shots we played Ithought," he added.
Morgan was in full praise of hisbowling line-up's performance and
hoped for similar conditions in Bristol.At the same time, he said that there couldbe changes for the series' finale onSunday with all-rounder Ben Stokesreturning from injury.
"I thought they bowled brilliantly.Certainly conditions out there surprisedme quite a bit. The bounce was a lot morethan we thought it was going to be. DavidWilley set the tone. Jake Ball on his debutbowled three really good overs. Whenthere's bounce like that it always presentsopportunities to take wickets, or at leasthave chances. They did that well, andobviously Adil (Rashid) bowled well too,"said the skipper.
"Ben comes into the squad for thenext game. He's obviously a fantasticplayer, and there will be a difficult deci-sion to make. We've made calls like thisin the past, but we hope we'll make it forthe betterment of the team and put outour strongest XI. Alex always makes itdifficult, particularly in T20 cricket. He'splayed a lot for us. He's one of our high-est run-scorer, a very experienced cam-paigner, and an innings like that tonightmakes him a pretty strong case for thenext game," he signed off.
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World number one and French Openchampion Simona Halep was knockedout of Wimbledon on Saturday, losing
to Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 in the thirdround as the All England Club seeds' carnageclaimed another victim.
Defeat for Halep means that KarolinaPliskova, at number
seven, is the onlywomen's top
10 seed toreach thef o u r t hround.
It alsof u r t h e r
b o o s t e dS e r e n a
Wi l l i ams ' schances of
becoming ane i g h t - t i m e
Wimbledon cham-pion.
Hsieh, the worldnumber 48, battled back
from 2-5 down in the final setand saved a match point when the
Romanian served for the match at 5-3 in the decider.It will be Hsieh's first appearance in the last
16 of a Slam where she will face DominikaCibulkova of Slovakia for a place in the
quarter-finals."It's my first win against a world
number one," said 26-year-oldHsieh.
"It's amazing. I was 2-5 down inthe final set but the crowd pushed me
to fight."Two-time champion Rafael Nadal
reached the last 16 for the eighth time and madesure of keeping the world number one ranking.
The second seed comfortably defeatedAustralian teenager Alex De Minaur 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
Nadal, the 11-time French Open championand bidding for an 18th career major, will faceeither Italy's Fabio Fognini or Jiri Vesely of theCzech Republic for a place in the quarter-finals.
"It was a positive match against a player witha lot of energy," said Nadal, the 2008 and 2010champion.
"I am just happy to be in the fourth roundagain."
Nadal, with Spain out of the World Cup, washeading to watch England play Sweden.
He had obviously captured the nationalmood.
"I'll go and watch some football -- England,it's coming home or not?" he said in reference
to a football song which is currently being sung,hummed and whistled on almost every street andin every pub.
Juan Martin del Potro made the last 16 forthe first time in five years when the Argentinefifth seed defeated France's Benoît Paire 6-4, 7-
Djokovic plays his first match this year on CentreCourt against Britain's Kyle Edmund.
Djokovic, the champion in 2011, 2014 and2015, faces the home country's last remaining sin-
gles player looking to snatch another landmark.Victory would see him reach the last 16 of
a major for the 44th time to take him second onthe all-time list.
German fourth seed Alexander Zverev,who almost quit his second round matchthrough illness, faces Latvian qualifier ErnestsGulbis.
Gulbis, now ranked at 138, reached theRoland Garros semi-finals in 2014 famouslydemolishing Roger Federer on the way.
Explosive Nick Kyrgios, fresh from a socialmedia row with former women's championMarion Bartoli after she accused him of squan-dering his talents, plays Japan's Kei Nishikori.
Kyrgios, the Australian 15th seed, is biddingto reach the fourth round for the fourth time.
Nishikori, seeded 24, bids to make the last16 for a third time and record his 350th careerwin.
Other early winners on Saturday includedBelgium's Alison Van Uytvanck who followed herupset of defending champion Garbine Muguruzaby beating Anett Kontaveit, the 28th seededEstonian, 6-2, 6-3.
Van Uytvanck will meet fellow last-16 debu-tant Russian 14th seed Daria Kasatkina, whodefeated Ashleigh Barty of Australia 7-5, 6-3.
�� ���������������Serena Williams is so focused on winning
an eighth Wimbledon title that she missed babydaughter Olympia's first steps.
Williams has travelled to the All EnglandClub with Olympia, but her parental duties haveto be put on hold while she prepares for hermatches.
That means sometimes being away whileOlympia is taking major steps in her growth -including walking for the first time.
Williams, who gave birth in September,advanced to the Wimbledon fourth round witha win over Kristina Mladenovic on Friday.
And just hours later, the 36-year-old said shehad been in training when Olympia took her firststeps.
"She took her first steps... I was training andmissed it. I cried," Williams wrote on Twitter.
The American star last week posted on theOlympia's Instagram account showing her on oneof Wimbledon's grass courts.
Williams was asked at Wimbledon why shehas given her daughter such a public profile, givensome fellow players keep their families out of thespotlight.
"I mean, it's 2018. I'm so modern," Williamssaid.
"For me, it was so natural. She's so fun. I justwant to share those moments with everyone.
"We don't share a lot on her page, but we doshare enough. It's just so cool." Williams, chas-ing a 24th Grand Slam title, faces Russian qual-ifier Evgeniya Rodina in the last 16 on Monday.
In another of many policy reversals of theprevious administrations, US PresidentDonald Trump withdrew from thenuclear deal with Iran that was signed byhis predecessor, Barack Obama. The
immediate impact of such a decision was thatIran was squeezed of foreign investment asinvestors, particularly the Europeans, are
frightened to take therisks. Further, theTrump administrationhas issued a diktat thatall oil imports fromIran, including that byIndia, must be stopped fromNovember 4 andcountries failing tomeet this deadlineshall face the prospectof US sanctions. Indiais unwilling to acceptsuch a diktat. Iran, aregional power, is not
only key to oil supplies to India but also itsgateway to Eurasia and Afghanistan.
In May 2018, when Trump announcedthat US would withdraw from the JointComprehensive Plan of Action, the multilat-eral agreement constraining Iran’s nuclearprogramme in exchange for sanctions relief,little was perceived about the consequencesthe decision would entail. Trump called theIran deal “decaying and rotten” but did notoffer any specifics of how he would replace itor how he would restrain Iran from rebuild-ing its nuclear infrastructure should itchoose to do so. Trump’s main aim was totarget Iran’s energy, petrochemical, andfinancial sectors, which effectively took theUS out of the agreement. But the Europeanstakeholders — including French PresidentEmmanuel Macron, German ChancellorAngela Merkel, and British Foreign MinisterBoris Johnson — sensed the fallout of such a decision and rushed to Washington urgingTrump to remain in the deal, but to no avail. This was despite the fact that theInternational Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA),the organisation responsible for monitoringIran’s compliance with the agreement, consis-tently found that it had abided by the dealsince it entered into force in 2016.
What is most disturbing after the tensionin the Korean Peninsula is Trump’s annulmentof the nuclear deal with Iran signed by his pre-decessor in cooperation with other Europeanallies. The US diktat to world companies to cutoil imports from Iran to zero by November 4or face US sanctions is a new element in worlddiplomacy. This is worrying the Europeanallies, who were part of the Iran nuclear deal.The US decision has already started adverselyimpacting some European companies. Forexample, French automaker Peugeot now hasstarted viewing Iran as too risky a place to dobusiness. For the US, the window betweenMay 8 and November 4 deadline is the draw-down period when countries importing oilfrom Iran should start reducing immediatelyand bring to zero by November 4 deadline.
The move applies not only to Europe but
also to India, China, and Turkey. Followingthis announcement, oil prices rose sharply, anddepressed currencies of many countries (inIndia, rupee breached 69 a dollar mark), mak-ing imports of critical products more expen-sive. Iran is OPEC’s third largest oil producer,exporting two million barrels a day.
Britain, France, Germany, and theEuropean Union as a whole strongly protestedTrump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear dealand vowed to protect their companies from“secondary sanctions”, which punish companiesfrom other countries that engage in businesswith sanctioned sectors of the Iranian economy.The US, however, says that secondary sanctionsare in place in Iran since 1996.
Trump seems to be needlessly interferingin Iran as his policy on the nuclear issue andsanctions have created domestic turmoil,leading to increasing street protests. The USState Department argues that “Iranians arebasically fed up with the regime’s squander-ing of the nation’s wealth on not particularlyproductive or enriching ventures abroad”.While the rial collapsed in foreign exchangemarkets and the country’s economic woesworsened, Iranian President Hassan Rouhanicalled for unity to cope with the new chal-lenge the nation faces now.
The US Ambassador to the UN, NikkiHaley, was in India and in her meeting withPrime Minister Narendra Modi urged on cut-ting oil imports, but was politely told that itwould be difficult for India to make any signifi-cant cut. India shall be unwilling to bend under
the US pressure, as its relations with Iran rangefrom the energy trade to connectivity projects,particularly the development of Chabahar Port,and cutting trade between the two countriescould hurt India’s long-term interests.
Given that the Indo-US ties havewarmed, it is unclear if Trump will unilater-ally impose sanctions on India if the latterdoes not cut oil imports from Iran or givesome waiver. There is a view in some quar-ters in the policy-making circles in India thatthe US is not threatening India over purchaseof crude oil from Tehran. The US is alreadyaware that India had already cut down its oilintake from the Islamic Republic to 6 percent of the total oil it imports before thesanctions were lifted when Iran signed thedeal with the US when Obama was in power.
Despite the fact that Iran is experiencingdomestic turmoil over governance issue,Iranian leaders are seeking ways to defend thenation’s economy from the US sanctions.After Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal,which lifted most sanctions in 2015, the rialcurrency dropped up to 40 per cent in value.This prompted protests by bazaar traders usu-ally loyal to the Islamist rulers. Iran’s supremeleader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has rightlysaid that the US sanctions were aimed at turn-ing Iranians against the Government. Apartfrom the severe economic situation at home tothe extent of even shortages of drinking water,Iran is increasingly finding it difficult toaccess the global financial system. It is notclear if President Rouhani’s counter-measures
to withstand the sanctions can bring any suc-cour and help bail out the nation from thenegative impact of the sanctions.
Among the counter-measures that Iran isthinking is to attain self-sufficiency in gasolineproduction, look for potential buyers and waysof repatriating income in conformity withinternational law after the US sanctions takeeffect. Khamenei suspects that the US is actingwith Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states that regardShi’ite Muslim Iran as their main regional foeto destabilise the Government in Tehran.
Iran’s fears seem to be genuine. For exam-ple, Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of NewYork City and an ally of Trump, said in aspeech he delivered at the National Councilof Resistance of Iran in Paris on June 30 thatTrump’s move will suffocate Iran’s “dictatorialayatollahs”, suggesting the decision to reim-pose sanctions was aimed squarely at regimechange. It appears that with the increased fearof sanctions, major European companies havestarted leaving the country despite Europe’svows to save the nuclear accord. Even the USNational Security Advisor John Bolton hadmade similar observations in the same forumin May 2016 before he assumed the currentoffice. However, Britain, France, andGermany — which signed the nuclear accordalong with the US, Russia, and China —opine that the agreement prevents Iran fromdeveloping weapons-grade nuclear fuel.
As with Iran, Trump alsohas a problematic rela-tionship with Russian
President Vladimir Putin, butdespite that, a summit withhim is scheduled for July 16in Helsinki. Russia, too, facessanctions over its annexationof Crimea some time ago.The truism, however, is thatthe US sanctions againstRussia and Iran are backedneither by the UN nor theworld community. Seen fromthis perspective, drawingIndia into this battle andcoercing it to cut oil importsis neither justified nor legallyvalid. If India bends, it wouldrisk breaking ties with its tra-ditional allies. On its part, itwould be against America’sinterest to displease India as itneeds it now more than everbefore. Indian investments inAfghanistan assist the US inits effort to develop thenation. Secondly, India is theonly country in Asia with themilitary and economic powerto cope with the Chinesechallenge and check its effortsto establish hegemony in theregion, which is why militarycooperation with India by the
US could be of its interest.India should be careful not toallow itself to be used by theUS against its traditionalallies Russia and Iran.
If India bends to Trump’sdiktat, it would be against itsnational interests. Russia is atime-tested friend of India,and has always stood by itsside. Over 60 per cent of itsmilitary equipment is ofRussian origin. With theexample of the way Trumphandled North Korea afterexchanging diatribes againstKim Jong-un before meetinghim in Singapore on June 12and then praising him, Indianeeds to be circumspect if itdecides to review its decisionto purchase S-400 fromRussia, lest Trump’s change indirection could result inIndia spoiling its own rela-tions with Russia and unableto restore the ties.
India’s economic andstrategic interests areenmeshed with that of Iran’s.Seen to be a counter toChina’s port developmentactivities across Asia, such asin Sri Lanka, Maldives,Pakistan, and recently in
Djibouti, Indian interests andparticipation in the develop-ment of Chabahar Port inIran provides India with mul-tiple strategic benefits.Moreover, India signed anagreement with Iran afterRouhani’s visit to India whenit agreed to increase its oilpurchases from Iran.Supporting Trump’s call tostop this shall not only vio-late that agreement but couldpush Iran away from Indiaand would damage its agree-ment on the Chabahar Port.China is in multiple conflictswith the US and the largestpurchaser of oil from Iran isunlikely to accede to the USrequests. If India succumbsto Trump’s demands, it wouldalmost mean gifting theChabahar Port to China.
So, what are then India’soptions? Despite its growingproximity with the US, Indianeeds to, as before, continuepursuing an independent for-eign policy and not compro-mise with its national interests.As a first step, India should notsign the Communication,Compatibility, SecurityAgreement, underlining its
disagreement with America’sunilateral policies.
In the meantime, withthe announcement of the USsanctions against Iran, oilprices rose as significant vol-umes of crude oil from worldmarkets were taken awaycoinciding with the increasein demand worldwide.Trump was quick to lash outat OPEC and warned that itis manipulating oil markets.The US put pressure on allySaudi Arabia to raise suppliesto compensate for lowerexports from Iran. Saudi
Arabia pumps around 10million bpd and could raiseoutput to 11 million bpd, butTrump wants Riyadh toincrease production to 12million bpd, something thekingdom has never done inthe past. Rising gasolineprices could create a politicalheadache for Trump. Itremains to be seen if SaudiArabia bails out Trump as itis the biggest producer of oilin the Middle East.
But the disturbing newsis that India’s Oil Ministryhas asked refiners to prepare
for a “drastic reduction orzero” imports of Iranian oilfrom November as demand-ed by Trump. Does it meanthat New Delhi is respondingto a push by the US to cuttrade ties with Iran and sur-rendering its autonomy totake policy decisions in con-formity with its nationalinterests? It is perplexing thatwhile at the one hand, Indiasays it does not recogniseunilateral restrictionsimposed by the US and onlyfollows UN sanctions, itadvises its oil refineries to
prepare for a cut in importsand bring close to zero by thedeadline given by Trump andlook for alternatives.
India is the biggest buyerof Iranian oil after China andif India is forced to takeaction to protect its exposureto the US financial system, itcould have huge implicationsfor the region, besides jeop-ardising its ties with Iran.
It may be recalled thatduring the previous round ofsanctions, India was one ofthe few countries that contin-ued to buy Iranian oil,although it had to reduceimports as shipping, insur-ance, and banking channelswere choked due to theEuropean and US sanctions.But this time, the situation isnot the same. Now whileIndia, China, and Europe areon one side, the US alonestands alone on the other.
The question that arisesis how effective is Trump’sdiktat? On the surface, itseems to be working.Reliance Industries Ltd, theoperator of the world’sbiggest refining complex,decided to halt imports.Nayara Energy, an Indiancompany promoted byRussian oil major Rosneft, isalso preparing to haltimports of oil from Iran from
November. The company hasalready started cutting its oilimports from June.
This leaves open the ques-tion if there are options tofind replacements to Iranianoil. Though Saudi Arabia isexpected to boost oil produc-tion, as it has pledged a “mea-surable” supply boost, itremains unclear if that is thebest alternative to outcast Iranfrom the oil market.
Iran is not done yet and isunlikely to give in so quickly.In honouring its ties withIndia, it has offered virtuallyfree shipping and an extend-ed credit period of 60 days.India does have the option ofbuying oil from Saudi Arabiaor Kuwait to replace Iran, butit has to consider what eco-nomic values such choicesoffer. India would be happywith the assurance given byHaley in New Delhi that atrade war with India “wasn’tan option” for the Trumpadministration.
India, therefore, needs tocraft its Iran policy carefully; apolicy that protects its impor-tant strategic and economicinterests with Iran, while atthe same time, does not dis-please other stakeholders.
It is a sad fact that higher edu-cation in India begins with adisadvantage. That being thekind of curriculum followed atschool and more significant-
ly, the pedagogic methods employedto disseminate information atschools — they do not really preparea student for higher education. Tobe precise, the student has no ideawhy s/he is entering the portals ofa higher educational institution orengaging with higher education atall. One is tutored to believe that ifone needs a job, one needs to be agraduate, even a post-graduate. Soafter school, there is an exodus to ahigher education institution suitableto the choice of subject made by thestudent and, of course, her/his abil-ity to ‘make it’ to the institution.Often, in fact, the choice of subjectis dependent entirely on the marksachieved in a subject, regardless ofthe student’s interest in that subjector his/her ability to engage with itmore intensively.
Now, the student enters the high-er educational institution and is con-fronted with a host of belief systems:If the choice is humanities, the beliefeven today is (though perhaps not soovertly voiced), that the studentmust not be bright. In no time, thestudent realises that the so-called pur-pose for higher education that s/hewas led to believe in, was nowhere insight, as the curriculum in college andthe ‘placements’ were completelydelinked. The case is more acutewhen it comes to the liberal arts andhumanities where the light at the endof the tunnel (read, employment)appears bleak. When one joins anengineering college or a medicalschool, one knows that sooner orlater, one will be an engineer or doc-tor. Unsure about why s/he joined col-lege in the first place, shamed by thelabels put upon the choice of subject(for humanities students), unable tosee the connect between the curricu-lum and the end result, the haplessstudent, a byproduct of a hugely util-itarian society, has all the forcesgeared to making him/her feel asdemotivated as possible.
This is the first and biggest chal-lenge faced by teachers in a highereducational institution: A confused,discouraged, disillusioned studentneeds time, patience, strategic teach-ing and counselling. So, one may askwhat is the problem with providingall of these? Let me address theseindividually. Time. Does one haveit? Two decades ago, when I start-ed teaching, there were annual uni-versity exams. An academic sessionwas for a year. In those days, I wasoften at my wit’s end as to how tomeet the needs of syllabus comple-tion and the cognitive variables ofa highly diversified classroom,which most teachers of the univer-sity and perhaps elsewhere (thoughDelhi really is a melting pot at a hugescale) are confronted with. Notonly do students within one class-room come from different strata ofsociety, many are first generation
college goers, and many are not pro-ficient in even one language, certain-ly not in the language of instruction.
In my early years as an EnglishLiterature faculty, I made time tobuild language skills in students,develop their interest in genres thatthey were perhaps not very familiarwith, and cultivate their interest inthe subject at hand. Yes, it was tougheven then to ensure that one success-fully completed the syllabus, but notsurprisingly, with increased profi-ciency in the language and greaterinsight into the subject, the teaching-learning process actually workedfairly quickly. At the end of each aca-demic session, it was possible to seea qualitative and quantitativeimprovement in every student,reflected in the levels of understand-ing and the results of the student.
That was then. Today, with thesemester system, the academic ses-sion is split into two semesters ofteaching, and there are about threeand a half months to each semester.In those months, the teachers andthe taught have to deal with syllabuscompletion, assignments includingprojects, mid-semester exams, andfinally the end semester examina-tions, which in some courses alsomean practical examinations. That’sas far as the academic sphere is con-cerned. Then, there are extracurric-ular activities which students partic-ipate in both in terms of competitiveevents as well as the intra collegeevents hosted by every college inwhich students perform for the cul-tural segment. Classes get disrupt-ed due to various earmarked ‘days’that the college must observe —Founders Day, Inter-College FestivalDays, Seminars, et al. All of these areessential for the well-being of the stu-dents and the college. But the pointthat emerges is where is the time forthat extra attention that one couldgive to those students who need thepush to understand, in the first place,as to why they are studying a partic-ular course? Where is the time totake on problematic issues like lan-guage skills that one needs to workupon as often the school system hasproved to be woefully inadequate inhoning language skills? Where is thetime to awaken students to issuesbeyond the curriculum which mayhelp them build a career? Theanswer is clear: There isn’t.
And now for patience. Given thegrim scenario when it comes tobeing employed in the first placewhere the conditions that decide aca-demic merit change by the minute(API scores, PhD, publications etc),by the time one is employed as fac-ulty in a college, one has already beentried enough for patience. Pay com-missions that defer pay revisions asfar as higher education faculty isconcerned, procrastination in termsof promotions, research work thatbecomes pending as the institution-al demands swamp time complete-ly, all these ‘p’ words put patience totest. In the classroom, the impatiencejoins hands with lack of training and
the result is that teaching and learn-ing become a chore, a dismalmechanical act performed perfunc-torily. It is important to note thepoint being made about lack of train-ing. Research abilities, publicationsetc may make a fine scholar out ofa person, but to think that scholar-ly skills are synonymous with talent-ed teaching is completely erroneous.And it is a fact that higher education-al institutions do not ask for or pro-vide teacher training. There aremandatory refresher and orientationcourses that college teachers have tocomplete, but these are not evenremotely connected to enhancingteaching skills. For that, one has torely on experience. Experience is notalways the best teacher. And it isgained over time. A novice, whoenters the classroom to teach, invari-ably becomes disillusioned if con-fronted with students who are unableto respond at the same wavelengthas the newly recruited teacher.Inevitably, the teacher curses fate oropts to teach something else (in thehope that the experience of teachingthat would be better). Rarely does ateacher in a higher educationalinstitution introspect and self-assessin a way in which s/he is account-able for the lack of interest/under-standing on the part of the students.The fault is either with the stars orwith the students, never with thescholar teacher! There is completelack of awareness about pedagogicmethods, which is ironic as all aca-demics are trained in researchmethodology. Hence, the fact that a‘method’ is essential for teaching,that teaching is as strategic as mak-ing policies, remains ignored.
So what does one mean bystrategic teaching or strategies ofteaching? And why should there be
a need for strategic teaching? Theneed arises primarily due to the factthat the classroom in an education-al institution, including for highereducation, is a highly diversifiedone. The students have to deal withdisparities arising from class, caste,region, urban/rural backgrounds,varying levels of linguistic skills, andin a higher educational institution,even things like whether one hasstudied in a private or public schooland what was the medium ofinstruction in that school, and ofcourse, appearances! This hetero-geneity obviously implies that a sen-sitive teacher would have to addressthe different needs of the classroom.This is where emerges a need forstrategic teaching. I have often feltthat a teacher is like a master jug-gler. There’s so much deftnessrequired so that there are no excess-es, everything is well balanced andall the pieces come together neat-ly, nothing falls, and when it does,it falls into place. So, the teacher hasto ensure a balance between syl-labus completion and special needsof students; cater to the varied stu-dents; heed the fact that any exclu-sive attention to a particular studentmay lead to resentment and at thesame time, the problems of that stu-dent be solved; make workers outof the shirkers; concentrate on textbut make the students aware of thecontext — it certainly means dex-terity in the way the teacher handlesthe classroom situation. Hence,what must the teacher do? Let’sexamine a few probables.
If required, the teacher mustspeak in more than one language toensure that students, whose profi-ciency in the medium of instructionis low, do not miss the bus. So, theteacher must be a bit of a polyglot!
Sounds difficult but the fact is thatthe teacher should be able to trans-late. Students may find historicalbackgrounds boring at times; thetrick is to find a funny YouTubevideo and show that in class so thatthe dead past comes alive. And if it’sreally funny, the students will get agrip over the subject in no time. Fornothing succeeds like humour whenthe class is listless. Well, does thatmean that the teacher must be a bitof a stand-up comedian? That does-n’t sound too bad, considering howwell-paid the latter are! But certain-ly, a teacher must retain her/hissense of humour. It is perhaps theonly weapon a teacher may beallowed. And, of course, the teachermust be adept at using audio visu-als, documentaries, in other wordsbe tech savvy. A huge amount ofcommitment is required as theteacher must, for example, read andresearch every possible entryagainst a particular topic so thats/he is quick to note emergentchanges, updates on informationand of course, catch those who haveplagiarised. Yes, the teacher mustalways remain a rigorous scholar;respect from all will truly come onlyif one has the passion to read andabsorb knowledge. So the teachermust be like a sponge, soaking invast quantities of information anddisseminating that knowledge in awell-balanced manner. The extrasharp child is as much deserving ofspecial care as the not-so-sharp one.The teacher must be skilled inrecognising the difference andensuring that no child is left boredor frustrated. There has to be a fineline between information overloadand inadequate information thattakes care of the varying cognitivelevels of all students.
One could examine a few prob-ables regarding strategic teaching, butthis is already sounding like a tallorder. Is it any small wonder that ateacher in a higher educational insti-tution — who has to cope not justwith the academic requirements ofthe students, contribute to the corpo-rate life of the college, as well as con-stantly look into her/his personal aca-demic evolution, including publish-ing and presenting research work —fails to juggle cleverly enough?
Nonetheless, while underlin-ing the predicament of the teacher,it is important to also look at anoth-er strategic aspect, that being coun-selling. Many people dismiss theidea of values and ethics as com-monplace and middle class. It issneered upon as an anachronisticidea and intellectualised as ‘space’,‘private and professional life’, ‘priva-cy’, ‘moral policing’ and what not.My contention is different. I am con-vinced that if a teacher enters a class-room and uses racist language ormakes sexist remarks and then goeson to teach apartheid and feminism,there is likely to be a disjunction asyoung impressionable minds are ledonly by example. It is highly unlike-ly that one can counsel students toavoid gender discrimination ormind their language by teachingthem a ‘text’. In the classroom, theteacher is as much a text as the onesin the syllabus. It is the responsibil-ity of the teacher to be a text worthemulating. One cannot use cusswords, show disrespect to students,treat them without dignity andthen expect that they will heed anyadvice or mentoring. Practice whatyou preach is no cliché, it is a real-ity. By ignoring this aspect, teach-ers today are doing themselves andtheir students a great disservice. The
need of the hour is a change of atti-tude, a self-reflexivity, and therecognition of accountability at alllevels in providing holistic educationto all. The world lacks good leaders,let the space in the classroom be oneway to show the youth what lead-ership should be. The teacher is, ofcourse, the leader here.
Having explained the difficul-ties involved in providing time,patience, strategic teaching, andcounselling, one could shift thefocus to a growing trend that hasthe potential to destabilise thefunctioning of a higher education-al institution. This being the stancetaken by teachers towards what theyperceive as the ‘establishment’ withwhom, they believe, it is essential tohave a conflictual relationship. Foras long as the authorities/establish-ment give in to every whim andfancy of the teachers, it’s smoothsailing. But the moment rules areenforced, every possible attempt tooust the rules — by using terminol-ogy, such as draconian and regres-sive — comes into play. Attempts ata dialogue are lopsided as theteachers begin the ‘dialogue’ withthe firm conviction that come whatmay, they will not be overcome byany persuasion, any logic, any fact.Authorities, too, are sometimesblind and deaf to anomalies andinconsistencies in rules. They arealso imperfect in communicatingvarious administrative practicesand the subsequent lack of claritythat thus shrouds the truth.
If ever one were to see whatstereotyping can do, one need onlyobserve this relationship betweenteachers and authorities. The fact ofthe matter is that if teachers andauthorities today could retrieve therelationship of trust that tradition-ally existed, or ideally, should exist,between the two entities, then col-lectively a more concerted effortcould be made towards providingquality education. Till such a timethat each perceives the other asenemy, the educational institutioncannot progress.
The idea of the teacher in ahigher educational institution isthat of a detached scholar, erudite,immersed in books, always calmand serene and totally devoted to thecause of higher education. Thereality is that the teachers of suchinstitutions are strugglers againsttime and tide. They may have thebest intent but are constrained inseveral ways from realising thatintent. Remaining impervious tothis widening gap between the idealand ground reality is an invitationto disaster for institutions. An insti-tution in itself is just bricks and mor-tar; it is the teachers and studentswho make it a temple of high learn-ing. If a temple needs maintenance,including repairs and renovation,then so does the teaching-learningprocess and its primary stakehold-ers, the teachers and students.
Iheard a clap-clap-clap and wonderedif the moorings that anchored mymind to my mortal skull had finally
snapped. Then I realized Medea was giv-ing me a polite round of applause.”(p.154) This speaker is the Greek godApollo, turned by Zeus into an awkwardteenaged mortal named LesterPapadopoulos. Pathetically hunched onall fours, terrified of the enchantressMedea — the same whom Euripides pop-ularized, he is a stark contrast to his for-mer immortal self, known for his physicalstrength, besides many other attributes.
Charged with freeing ancient Oraclesas part of his penance in The Trials ofApollo series by the bestselling writerRick Riordan, Apollo is compelled to facegrave dangers without his godly powers,but with the support of young demigods— in particular, Demeter’s daughter Megto whom he’s bound, satyrs, and dryads.The demigods, thankfully, hold somesway over the domains which theirimmortal parents rule — Meg, forinstance, can magically grow plants, whilesatyrs and dryads too have their powers.In The Burning Maze, the third and thelatest in the series, Apollo moves forth asper the ‘Dark Prophecy’ revealed in theprevious book; battles the vicious Medea— whose powerful grandfather, the TitanHelios, Apollo had once replaced; facesthe cruelty of an ancient heartlessEmperor; and strives to save his friendsand the larger world.
One of the most popular and one ofthe most represented Greek gods in artand literature, Apollo turns into a whim-pering, stammering-in-dangerous-situa-
tions, wetting-his-pants-in-terror boy. Itis to Riordan’s great credit that Apolloremains as interesting despite. As Apollodons the role of the narrator, he laughs athimself, makes ironic remarks, dots eventhe grimmest of sequences with humour,engages in word play, and comes up withunlikely, fresh comparisons. His ‘asides’and comments directed at the readerreveal the continuation of some of hisqualities as put forth in legends — hislove for music, for beauty, and for others’appreciation of his “awesomeness”!
Riordan, as in his other tales involv-ing gods, seamlessly blends the contem-porary, the historical, and the mythologi-cal to create a novel and gripping adven-ture. As Apollo reveals the “secrets” andjealousies of other gods, the words of theancient critic Longinus come to mind -“...Homer...has done his best to make themen of the Trojan War gods, and thegods men”. In this book, Apollo revealshis discomfort with sacrifice as a mark ofheroism; he says, “I made a much bettergod than a hero.” (p.317) He weaves leg-ends about himself into the narrative,presenting them as his memories. Heeven relates historical occurrences asmemories, and at times, comments —Apollo, after all, is also associated withvirtues — on what should have beendone. For instance, he comments onbehaviours that should be but remainunchecked: “I could still remember howcute little Caligula had looked in hisminiature legionnaire’s outfit when heaccompanied his father, Germanicus, onmilitary campaigns. Why were sociopathsalways so adorable as children?” (p.87)
The contemporary world hasimpacted the gods too — they use mod-ern amenities, even employing them toredesign Mount Olympus! Hades pos-sesses an elevator in Los Angeles thatled to the Underworld, gods keep upwith Hollywood gossip, magic gets amodern dimension — for instance,strawberries grow magically throughplaying the Beatles’ ‘Strawberry FieldsForever’, and dryads love enchiladas,though modern weapons prove inade-quate in fighting ancient forces. Apollosays that the magical Arrow of Dodonawas also more apt at providing relevantinformation in areas with free Wi-Fi —such a comment reveals a possiblesource of information that Riordan hasrelied on, indicates that he has done his‘homework’ well, and stresses thatmythology has been used.
Human progress has negativelyimpacted gods too. The Greek god of thewild, Pan, went into oblivion as humansdestroyed most of the wilderness for civi-lization. The Burning Maze emphasizeson the value of nature — its healing pow-ers are strongly indicated, and the crueltyof caging animals in zoos discussed.
Various aspects of the nature of mor-tals and mortal life find place in the nar-
rative: the rich were always the last to suf-fer in difficult times; people took toomuch for granted — including, theweather; the fear of the powerful couldnot be equated to loyalty; justice waswanting in how and when people mettheir deaths; good people had little likeli-hood of rising to power; and many oth-ers. As Apollo complains against theproblems, pains, and fears of mortal life,he also realizes the extreme capacity forresilience in humans.
Apollo points to how, despite thefact that he no longer drove the sunchariot, the Sun rose each day. This is acomment on the human attribution ofpower to gods, on the immutable — atleast within knowable time spans —aspects of existence, and on the laws ofthe universe - therefore, a remark on sci-ence versus religious belief. Apollo alsocomments on the human-developediconography — the gold humans depict-ed him in, he felt, detracted from his“naturally amazing looks” (p.261), andon the celebrations in different citiesthat all demanded his presence at thesame time, making him feel like he wasabout to split into pieces. Riordan, thus,imaginatively projects the perspective ofa god on how he views human beliefs.
Agruesome accidentinvolving a canal boatcolliding with a ferryleaves a lot of peopledead, mostly children
and a few adults. The prima facieevidence points at a cruel anddeliberate murder conspiracy, andDetective Chief Superintendent ofthe Denmark HomicideDepartment Konrad Simonsenand his team is baffled to find oneof their own officers in the casual-ty. What follows is a gripping taleof wading through several layersof intrigues, an extra-maritalaffair gone horribly wrong, elabo-rate cover-ups, and uncomfort-able diplomatic secrets that lie atthe bottom of the vicious cycle ofdeaths and killings.
Lotte and Søren Hammer aresiblings who joined hands towrite crime thrillers based intheir home country Denmarksince 2010. The Night Ferry isthe fifth novel of the KonradSimonsen investigation series,the previous four being TheHanging, The Vanished, The Girlin the Ice and The Lake. The sib-lings have written three morenovels in the series which areyet to be translated into English,and two more are planned,informs their website. The sisterLotte trained as a nurse and sub-sequently worked in severalcountries, while the brotherSøren works as a programmeand lecturer at CopenhagenUniversity College ofEngineering. Apart from thecentral character of Konrad“Simon” Simonsen, the charac-ters of Nathalie von Rosen “TheCountess”, Arne Pedersen,Pauline Berg, Poul Troulsen andMalte Borup are repeatedthrough the investigative serieswith variations. Their novels aresteeped in the machinery of theDanish Homicide Departmentof Police and their exhaustiveinvestigations in solving difficultcases, which often brings theminto conflict or coordinationwith other agencies of Denmarkor countries, as in this novel, theHomicide Department’s investi-gations effectively pit it againstthe Danish Army IntelligenceAgency, FE.
The Night Ferry contains sev-enty-four chapters and an epi-logue, adding up to three hun-dred and forty seven pages. Theyare divided into four parts eachtitled “The Canal Boat Tour”,“The Man in the Wood”, “TheTrial” and “The House inBosnia”containing sixteen, nine-
teen, nineteen and twenty chap-ters respectively. The actual timeperiod covered in the plot isroughly three months, beginning22nd August 2010 to 1stDecember 2010 which is the dateof the tautly executed epilogue.The first part opens with the clin-ical execution of the killings onboard the Canal Boat in CentralCopenhagen and the neat escapeof the military-trained assassin.This tragedy draws in theHomicide Department to beginits investigation into the death offive adults, including Homicideofficer Pauline Berg, and sixteenchildren who were on board. Thefourth chapter also briefly dwellsupon another older crime, com-mitted by the same assassin,seemingly commissioned by thesame person, where things did
not go by the plan. It is this oldercrime, the death of a youngwoman named Juli Denissenreferred to derisively as the “Juli-non-case” in the HomicideDepartment inner circles whichPauline Berg was relentlessly fol-lowing; and now it seems to holdthe key to the canal boat killings.Hence, the entire departmentplunges all its resources in unrav-elling a case they had given up onlong ago. The next part “TheMan in the wood” spurs theinvestigations moving in the rightdirection as the name of theassassin Bjørn Lauritzen crops upunexpectedly in a war veteransbar, where amidst heart-wrench-ing tales of veterans forgotten bythe country and its people alike,Konrad finds to his great discom-fort that he is equally guilty of
erasing the endless miseries ofthe long-suffering veterans. Whatfollows is little short of a wildgoose chase because Bjørn haslong been declared dead, with allhis records missing from theTotal Defence Archive, andanother name connected to Bjørncropping up, of the high rankingArmy specialist, Irene Gallagher.A connection between the deathsof Juli Dennisen and Pauline Bergwith Irene is established and inthe next part of the novel, andshe is put on trial. The third andthe fourth parts of the novel caneasily be termed the most excit-ing ones as the narrative racesthrough the shocking outcome ofthe trial and the switching sidesof the maverick lawyerChristoffer Brinch. The final partbrings out the direct conflict
between the HomicideDepartment and the Army FE,culminating in the unravelling ofa complex series of events duringthe Bosnia war operation involv-ing both Denmark and USA, theevents riddled with rank corrup-tion, mishandling of war situa-tions, a complete and damningneglect of the emotional andphysical needs of the war veter-ans, as well as a chronic diplo-matic and bureaucratic incompe-tence. It is revealed how all thesecombined to spiral out of control,the canal boat tragedy being onefacet of the massive cover-upoperation of denial of justice.
The plot of The Night Ferry isintricate, tightly woven and thelanguage in translation is quitecrisp, barring a few typos hereand there. All the threads of the
plot are firmly in place while newtwists and turns unravel pageafter page, keeping the readerhanging on to each detail. Thedetailing is impeccable, whetherit is the description of a postmortem or standard interrogationprocedures while investigating,though it does seem inconse-quentially dragging after a while.The plot is marked by theabsence of the sensational: thereis a steady build-up of the actionwhich unravels gradually, in frag-ments strewn across the fourparts. The characters are memo-rable, etched with masterfulstrokes and full control. Minorbut vital characters like the juniorofficer Anica Buch, the muchwronged Jelena Khrobic, and theenigmatic American Jake Tylerare also allowed to grow andleave a mark.
Interestingly, for a novel suf-fused with criminal intrigues andinvestigative procedures, love andhealing also find some space, inan understated, natural way. Thethree significant sets of couplesoperate within different parame-ters and understandings: whilethe Countess and Konrad Simoncomplement each other well bothprofessionally and personally,Arne Pederson finds a miracu-lous second chance in Pauline’stwin sister Louise who acceptshim fully and effortlessly weaveshis sons within their intimate cir-cle; Irene and Bjørn’s love isdestructive in all its forms, bothfor themselves and for the peoplearound them. The final and themost vital cover-up of the novelis a bit of a let-down and howIrene manages to evade theAmericans for so long is a tad toounbelievable. However, theHammer siblings manage to rulethe reader’s attention throughtheir cleverly spun thriller andeffective portrayal of the centralcharacters: the themes of delayedjustice, heinous war crimes, clas-sified army information andshady cover-ups, upright investi-gators versus corrupt bureaucra-cy, and the acutely humanitarianaspect of tragedy and losswhether in the case of the killingsor in the sad, neglected state ofpermanently scarred soldiersfrom war postings is sure totouch a chord with the readers.The thrill of racing alongside thecustodians of law to ensure jus-tice is intoxicating and one eager-ly awaits the next KonradSiomnsen novel in English.
If South Korean PresidentMoon Jae-In’s “new north-ern policy” is intended to
build consensus on how tobring peace and stability innortheast Asia while promot-ing Seoul’s economic interestsin the Greater Eurasia region,his “new southern policy” isflagged to build a partnershipof economic interests in Indo-Pacific.
Moon’s visit to India fromJuly 8-11 and then to Singa-pore from July 11-13 ratio-nalises the “newness” of hisnew southern policy. Thisnewness is more about offer-ing a new context to Seoul’sforeign relations approach tothe countries in Asia, primar-ily focusing on ASEAN andIndia. The new southern pol-icy is a compound and com-plex foreign policy approachthat India needs to compre-hend appropriately. First, it isabout expanding Seoul’s eco-nomic outreach in ASEANand India, which are physical-ly more in South Korea’ssouthernmost part in Asia.Second, it emphasises thevitality of ASEAN and Indiain Korean foreign and eco-nomic diplomacy whichexplains the comfort factorthat South Korea enjoystowards the most importantregional mechanism and thesecond-largest economy inAsia respectively. Third, itillustrates a “no conflicting”approach that Seoul enjoyswith both ASEAN and Indialargely, compared with its
relationship with China andJapan. Fourth, it explains alimited but expanded regionalvision linking to Indo-Pacific.On the whole, this policyapproach is aimed to positionSouth Korea’s interests moreintently in the SoutheastAsian region, including inSouth Asia.
Officially, Seoul mighthave shown restrain in openlyendorsing the concept “Indo-Pacific”. It has been carefullytreading its foreign policybetween a China-led and US-led regional environment.This has, however, not dis-couraged the Moon adminis-tration from positioningSouth Korean interests moreintently in the Indo-Pacificregion. In fact, South Koreahas always shown a keeninterest to engage withASEAN, the core of Indo-Pacific. But the aim to engagewith India under the NewSouthern Policy is a carefullyorchestrated and an “exclu-sive” foreign policy strategythat Seoul has brought toexpand its economic outreachin South Asia. South Korea’searlier foreign policyapproaches such as “SunshinePolicy”, “New Asia Initiative”and “Northeast Asia PeaceInitiative” (NAPCI) hadalways factored New Delhi asan important factor but didnot engage purposefully,pointing out that New Delhidid not have the arc to influ-ence politics in Asia. SouthKorea visualised engaging
with India more bilaterallythan regionally. New Delhitoo did not factor SouthKorea prominently in itsLook East policy, which wasmore limited to ASEAN untilrecently.
South Korea’s relationshipwith ASEAN has witnessedsteady progress in the last twodecades. In 1989, Seoulbecame ASEAN’s sectoral dia-logue partner and in 1991 afull dialogue partner. FreeTrade Area (FTA) betweenASEAN and South Korea wascompleted in 2010. As a result,ASEAN has become SouthKorea’s second-largest tradingpartner, with trade worthmore than $120 billion. More-over, despite its overarchingproblems, Seoul has continu-ously been expanding its eco-nomic outreach relationshipwith China and Japan, whichare ASEAN’s two prominentdialogue partners.
Why has Seoul factoredIndia exclusively in its NewSouthern Policy? Undoubted-ly, it is New Delhi’s growingimportance and influence inEast Asia and also in Asian aswell as global affairs. Butthere are more shades to thisapproach.
First, South Korea’s cau-tious but consciously expand-ing foreign policy contextexplains this stance. The“Northeast Asia Plus Com-munity” foreign policyapproach is intended to havea pragmatic and balancedoutreach programme in both
the northern and southernaspects of Asia, which areSouth Korea’s two criticalgeographic ends. In the NewNorthern Policy, Seoul putspeace and security ahead ofeconomic diplomacy; where-as in the New Southern Policyit emphasises more on theeconomic diplomacy. BothASEAN and India enhanceSeoul’s Indo-Pacific presencein some ways. Besides, thenew policy approach allowsSouth Korea to reposition itsAsia policy more prominentlythan before.
Second, India’s impor-tance has grown substantiallyin South Korea’s foreign poli-cy prism as a key player in theIndo-Pacific region. Seoul isaware of India’s centrality inJapan’s “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” strategy and the Unit-ed States’ importance of Indiain its Indo-Pacific strategy.South Korea does not reallywant to openly endorse Indiaas a partner in this Indo-Pacific configuration. At thesame time, it does not want toput forward an impressionthat it underrates India as apower in the region, henceseeking a strategic partner-ship, though more bilaterally.Taiwan’s “New Southboundpolicy”, which equally factorsboth ASEAN and India as twocentral components, encour-ages South Korea to focus onIndia. ASEAN maintains agrowing relationship patternwith India in Asia, making acommon ground for South
Korea’s foreign policy. Third, China’s rising
influence in Asian and globalaffairs has encouraged Seoulto search for new partners.After the THAAD deploy-ment, Seoul’s potentialtourism industry suffered dueto China’s decision to put acheck on Chinese visitingSouth Korea. China’s age-oldpartnership with North Koreahas also encouraged Seoul tosearch for alternative partnerswithout abandoning Beijingas an economic partner.China’s rising economic andstrategic influence in Asia andthe world has posed a greaterchallenge to Korea’s economicinterests and investments.Japan too poses a challenge toSouth Korea’s economicinvestment opportunities inAsia and beyond. GivenIndia’s “cold-peace” relation-ship with China, Seoul haspositioned India as a prospec-tive and exclusive partner inthe longer term in its bilateralframework in Asia if not inthe global framework.
Fourth, Seoul wants torecapture the potential Indianmarket which is the mostimportant aspect of its NewSouthern Policy. South Kore-an automobile, technologicaland consumer productsmaybe a regular householdfeature in India, but theseindustrial products are facingan enormous challenge fromChinese and Japanese prod-ucts. Besides, trade and eco-nomic contacts between India
and South Korea remainbelow their potential eventhough the two sides havesigned the ComprehensiveEconomic CooperationAgreement (CEPA). Seoulwould also wish to havestronger defence ties withIndia to eye to export poten-tial small-scale defenceequipment and instrumentsto Indian market. A goodmomentum is already visiblein the shipyard sectorbetween India and SouthKorea. But Seoul’s eventualaim is to transform this goodmomentum to other potentialDefence sectors.
In strategic terms, Seoul’sexpectations are specific.Seoul not only wants to buildstronger economic contactswith India but also wants tofigure out if India will accordSouth Korea ahead of Japan inits foreign policy engagement.Moon’s visit to India mustencourage New Delhi to seri-ously read the new contextarriving in India-South Korearelations.
(The writer is a Fellow andCentre Head for East Asia atIDSA, New Delhi. This paper ispartially based on the author’sspeech at the Korea-IndiaStrategic Partnership Confer-ence organised jointly by theObserver Research Foundation(ORF), New Delhi and YonseiUniversity, South Korea, inNew Delhi on June 20, 2018)
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The USA is known acrossthe international polity as
a multitudinous melting pot.Since the last two millennia,America has witnessed Asianand European exodus by the“other” to seek shelter in theAmerican homeland in the face of exploitation,penury, and religious-ethnicrepression.
Since the campaign trailand the Presidential declara-tions to stymie the entry ofpopulation from seven Mus-lim nations and South Amer-ica, it no longer remains aconvenient task for the fastid-ious fortune seekers to milkthe land of Oregon trail andthe North Eastern seaboard.
In the contemporary con-text, the sequestration of fam-ilies with the parents stayingaway excommunicated fromtheir progeny in Americandetention centres remains afar cry from the notion of anall welcoming and embracingAmerica. Apart from that, theTrump Administration hasrescinded from its “iron doorwith spikes policy” byannouncing that the progenyof adult aliens would not beseparated from their parentsin detention centres. Thus,the all-pervading notion ofPresident Donald Trumpbeing an inhuman and cruelcapitalist amounts to thegenre of over simplification,as quite generally speakingthe idiom of national securityalong with the tenet of humansecurity of the Americanhomeland is the primary pre-rogative of any AmericanPresident and its executivedespite even seasoned Repub-licans opposing PresidentTrump’s separation plan inthe US Congress.
Thus, here one can wit-ness the anti-establishmentand the overtly true blueAmerican strain of thoughton “National Security First”approach towards policymaking in general and immi-gration policy in particular.
It can be argued that plac-ing American interests on theforefront amounts to a deftimplementation of the themeand practice of economicnationalism. It is in thisdomain that President Trumpintends to assuage the con-
cerns of the American work-ers and industry. Trump hasrepudiated the DACA lawpromulgated by PresidentObama which amounts to“Deferred action for child-hood arrivals”. The schemataon immigration proposed byTrump as part of a factualinterlude proposes to initiatea 12 years procedure foraround 1.8 million immi-grants who are aliens as theyarrived as undocumentedentrants when they were intheir toddlerhood. The visalottery along with green cardsfor distant relatives anddelimiting the provision ofgreen cards only for childrenand spouses are the key con-stituents of Trump’s immigra-tion plan. The US SupremeCourt has ruled the aliensunder the DACA cannot bedeported until the matter hasnot been pondered over bycourts. The courts haveplaced a dragnet over theDepartment of Homelandsecurity in the context of theDACA deportations.
A Trump tweet explainsthe Presidential positioningwhich is no more a posturing.Trump tweeted, as this issourced from one of his pre-sent tweets, “When we havean ‘infestation’ of MS-13GANGS in certain parts ofour country, who do we sendto get them out? ICE! They
are tougher and smarter thanthese rough criminal (ele-ments) that bad immigrationlaws allow into our country.Dems do not appreciate thegreat job they do!”
Thus, the “infestation”rhetoric back on the trackswith the establishmentexpressing concern about theundocumented aliens being asecurity threat to the home-land security. And, why not? Ithas been observed that radi-calisation of youth becomes amuch easier pathway forestablishing the peacenikapple cart of the US despitestrivings being on by the edu-cation policy wonks in the US.
President John F Kennedyof the yore used to explicaterather honestly that Americais the land of immigrants. Inthe light of a literacy testbeing imposed on the immi-grants by the US Congress in1897, the melting pot heydaysof the American homelandwere obstructed to a certainextent. President WoodrowWilson, President Clevelandand Taft vetoed the legislationand but President Kennedytoo tempered down his“America: The land ofNations” argument and his1960 campaign document inthe light of some reservationsabout the “new arrivals”. ELDoctrow in his seminal andpopular novella Ragtime also
picturises the sub-humanstate and toil of the immi-grants during this Americanepoch. EL Doctrow clinicallycreates a telling imagery ofthe squatter dwellings, dirtridden and squalid room-mates in the underbelly of thecity of New York. The dreamwas not so bountiful for manybut the caveat before we dwellupon the failings of theAmerican dream is that thepopulations were saved fromthe threats of genocides andhad prospects to rise up theladder as the national indus-try and strength graduallyaugmented.
A Senate Press Release in1960 informs us about Presi-dent Kennedy’s pledge thathigh priority would be givenby the Democrat Administra-tion to make amendments inthe immigration and natural-isation laws in order to rid theland of discrimination basedon national origin. In theEuropean context, too, theGerman Chancellor is underthe threat of her ruling coali-tion being destabilised on thefractious issue of immigrantrefuge and shelter and neigh-bourly responsibility torespond to the surge of immi-grants.
President Reagan was nottoo much confrontationistabout the theme of receivingimmigrants. It was his com-
mitments to keep the tradeand immigrants free in hisnation. President Reagan wasa conservative by politicaltexture but he opposed thelegislations and the activismby the likes of Lou Dobbs, BillO’ Reilly, Pat Buchanan andTom Tancredo of Coloradowho bore the anti-immigra-tion whip during the eighties.President Reagan too believedthat the immigrants pos-sessed a determination ofhard work and steadfastgrowth had been registeredby them.
President Trump on theother hand is an iconoclastand a renegade from theestablishment for the bluecollar America. The actualsentiment of being driven bythe sentient of “America First”is a hard reality of the core ofthe denizens in the homeland.As an instance, the largerpopulation is also tired of theusurpation of employmentopportunities and the realisa-tion of the “American Dream”by the immigrants who workhard and have attainedprominent stations in theAmerican-scape. Thus, apartfrom the imminent homelandsecurity threat, an ingrainedcultural bias pervades underthe much hyped and political-ly correct lore of multicultur-alism and integration. TheReagan-era Immigration andControl Act of 1986 redefinedthe scenario in the conglom-eration that the United Statesactually is. The Act made it arequirement for the Ameri-can employers to desist fromhiring workers without per-mits and papers.
Thus, economicallyspeaking also, the immigrantsmatter a great deal for theAmerican economy and someobservers have gone on tocontend that the domesticAmerican economy runs onthe immigrants. Phantas-magorically speaking, the con-struct of “mutants” from outerspace getting hold on politicalpower and all Americanresources very well explainsthe American anxiety.
(The writer teaches Inter-national Relations at IndianInstitute of Public Administra-tion, Delhi)
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In 2017, India jumped to the100th position on the World
Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business”(EoDB) list. The upsurge fromthe 130th ranking is an incredi-ble feat pertaining to the eco-nomic reforms in the country.
Recalling what Ease ofDoing Business is, it is anindex published by the WorldBank which measures the reg-ulatory environment availableto initiate, operate, control andeventually sustain any busi-ness. It is calculated as an aver-age of 11 sub-indices, the firstand foremost amongst them isthe ‘Ease of Starting Business’.This particular index is signifi-cant as any business can sur-vive only if it can be startedwith the same ease. It becomeseven more necessary to focuson this particular indexbecause India still ranks 156for the index Ease of StartingBusiness (EoSB). Althoughreforms like merging theapplications for the Permanent
Account Number (PAN) and the Tax Account Number(TAN) have been made in context of EoSB and improve-ments have also been seen in the online application and filingsystem, there is still a necessity to emphasise on improvingthe sub-index discretely.
Now, since EoDB is measured as an average of its sub-indices, any index that has a low ranking has a tendency topull the mean towards the lower extreme. Similar is the fateof EoSB index. Since it has a low ranking, it has the capacityto pull the rating of EoDB towards the weaker edge.
Putting forth an instance of starting up of a new restau-rant in the Indian capital, Delhi, let’s find out, how ‘easy’ aprocedure it is. The reason to choose the restaurant businessis based on the facts that the Indian food and beverage ser-vice industry is growing at an unprecedented rate and isexpected to contribute about 2.1 per cent of the total GDP ofIndia by 2021.
Furthermore, as per the findings of the 2018-19 editionof India Food Report, the food service retail market in Indiais estimated to be worth �3,40,201 crore in 2017 and is grow-ing at a compound annual growth rate of 10 per cent. By2020, the market is estimated to reach the size of �4,52,733crore. The organised share of the market is valued at�1,17,307 crore while the unorganised market share is esti-mated to reach 59 per cent in 2021 from 67 per cent in 2016.
The large metro-cities of Delhi and Mumbai are estimat-ed to have over one-fifth of the organised FS market, eachcontributing equally.
In the light of the above mentioned statistics showcasingahead the permissions required to open a restaurant in Delhi:
1) FSSAI-Food Safety and Standards Authority Licence:It’s a 14-digit registration number obtained from the authori-ty certifying the safety standards.
2) Liquor licence: From local Excise Commissioner. Itrequires a NOC from the State Fire Service and location playsa decisive role in obtaining this licence.
3) Health/Trade Licence: This licence is provided by thelocal municipal authorities or the Health Department.
4) Eating House Licence: Police Commissioner autho-rised. This licence ensures necessities like CCTV cameras,site plan, NOC from the landlord.
5) Shop and Establishment Act; 6) GST registration; 7) Fire Department; 8) Lift licence: Electricity Department.
9) Music Licence: This license is obtained fromPhonographic Performance Limited. One can apply on theirwebsite for the authorisation.
10) Certificate of Environmental Clearance: FromMinistry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
11) Signage Licence: In order to advertise the restaurant,the licence is obtained from the local civic authorities.
Now, let us compare the procedure of opening a restau-rant in Delhi with that of Auckland (New Zealand). (NewZealand ranking first on the EoDB list as well as on EoSBlists makes it an obvious and ideal choice for comparison.)
The first and principal finding is that the above list oflicences and permissions has not been obtained from aGovernment web portal or information centre. In fact, it hasbeen procured from a private website that promotes thegrowth of food business and shares relevant information per-taining to it.
On the other hand, the website of Auckland council hascomprehensive information on every possible business irre-spective of the scale of the food business. It comprisesdetailed guides and stepwise procedures about permissions,fees and timeline. The website is also equipped with the readyto use templates of business plans. One can choose a suitableplan based on a business model, and follow the steps there-after. The council is also open to customisation of businessplans for some extra cost and time. Even the primary busi-nesses, purely agriculture-based food business liked dairy andmeat follow a business plan. It gives a sense of how organisedthe entire food sector is. Additionally, these plans are avail-able on the website in multiple languages, including Hindi!This focuses on ease and availability of documents to all. Thewebsite and documents are self-explanatory and depict theprocedures pictorially in the form of flowcharts and time dia-grams.
Given the number of licences and permissions requiredto open a restaurant in Delhi it can be concluded that thesafety and regulatory measures are kept under the check andare well placed but they are multifarious in nature. They donot follow a single window mechanism.
Taking into account the federal system that India follows,an absolute comparison between Auckland and Delhi onEoDB is difficult but other notions like having a single pointof information over the internet and the availability of hand-books of the same at Government offices can certainly beadopted irrespective of the form of Government (federal orunitary) and thus making restaurant business an easy affair.
It will be beneficial if there is only one portal from wherean individual can apply for the business and from there theapplication travels to the respective departments following asequential order. The individual should be able to track hisapplication and the system should be time bound. It willunquestionably be an upswing for the food businesses to betransparent and simplified. The use of this portal will surelyease the way food business is kicked off in India.
(The writer is a software engineer currently working as anexecutive at JIRICO, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat)
US President Donald Trump willmeet the Queen and go toChequers when he visits Britain,
with golf and a trip to Scotland also onthe cards. It is rumoured that his wifeMelania will join him on the visit andthat the couple may be honoured by theColdstream Guards when they meet theQueen at Windsor Castle.
This would be the First Lady’s firsttrip abroad since her hospitalisation fora kidney procedure last month. Melaniawas unable to accompany her husbandto the G7 summit in Canada or to theSingapore summit with North Koreanleader Kim Jong-un, both of whichtook place earlier this month. Read onto find out when the trip is happening,who he’ll be meeting, reactions to theannouncement, and a summary ofTrump’s relationship with Theresa May.
����������'��(������������ DThe US leader’s long-delayed trip willbegin on July 13 and will include talkswith Theresa May and an overnight stay.While it was originally due to last just 24hours, it may be extended to up to threedays. The White House press secretarylet slip the date of Trump’s trip in Aprilin a press conference for journalists’children to mark America’s ‘Take OurDaughters and Sons to Work Day’.
Friday, July 13, has been chosen asthe date because Trump, who is knownnot to enjoy long-distance travel, is inBrussels for a Nato meeting on July 11and 12. A Downing Street spokesmansaid: “He will hold bilateral talks with thePrime Minister during his visit. Furtherdetails will be set out in due course.”
Trump is understood to have per-sonally approved the visit after weeks ofcareful negotiations between his staff,Number 10 and the UK embassy inWashington. The visit offers a chancefor May to improve her personal rela-
tionship with the US President, whichfigures close to both leaders privatelyacknowledge is not especially warm. Yetit also triggered renewed fears of massprotests — one of the reasons Trumphas delayed coming to Britain for solong according to US and UK sources.
While the exact details of the tripremain under discussion, Trump isexpected to hold talks with May atChequers, her countryside residence.UK aides believe that pomp and cere-mony will help foster a warmer rela-tionship with the US President.
��������'��������9���DThe US President is likely to meet theQueen and the Duke of Edinburghbefore heading to Scotland, havingrepeatedly said how much his Scottishmother admired Her Majesty. USAmbassador Woody Johnson has saidTrump will meet the Queen during hisvisit, telling Sky News the President’steam was currently working on “variousscenarios” for the visit. Asked by inter-viewer Kay Burley if that involved ameeting with the Queen, he said: “Yes, Imean he has to see the head of state.Putting his foot on the ground ofBritish soil is job one — very, veryimportant, very symbolic. Meeting HerMajesty is the most important thing,because she is head of state.”
It is expected that the President willmeet the Queen at Windsor Castle,which is reportedly closed to the publicon the day of his arrival. It is alsounderstood that Trump is expected toplay a hole of golf with Prince Andrewat his family’s Turnberry course. BothTrump and the Duke of York areknown for their love of golf. The USPresident has reportedly spent morethan 100 days of his presidency at golfclubs, and has used the sport to bondwith other world leaders.
�������'��(����������DTrump is expected largely to avoid theCapital — in a move that would min-imise his exposure to the protests thatare expected. He will not be invited toaddress both Houses of Parliament — anhonour that has been accorded to previ-ous US Presidents because of oppositionfrom John Bercow, the Commons speak-
er. Last November, Bercow said address-ing the Commons was “an earned hon-our and in my view he (Trump) has notearned that honour”.
A spokesman for the Speaker’sOffice told The Daily Telegraph:“Speaker’s views on this subject are amatter of public record. In any case, norequest to address both Houses of
Parliament has been received.”The trip will not be the full state
visit offered to Trump just days after hisinauguration, for which a date has yetto be set. Instead, it will be a “workingvisit”. A Downing Street source hasmade it clear that the US President“must not meet Farage” in the talksover the itinerary. Nigel Farage, the for-mer UK Independence Party leader,added that he had been told that theUK Government had made it clear thatit did not want Trump to meet himduring his visit “through the normalprotocol channels”. He said: “I under-stand that through the normal protocolchannels established between [thecountries] ahead of a visit that they arevery keen — almost paranoid I was told— that he [Trump] doesn’t meet me.”
The US President will not havetime to meet Jeremy Corbyn during hisvisit. The Labour leader previously saidhe wanted to talk to Trump about his“problems with Mexicans and Muslims”when he visits the UK. Ed Miliband,Corbyn’s predecessor as Labour leader,met President Barack Obama when hemade a state visit to the UK in 2011.
�� ��������������(����Scotland Yard said: “We are preparingfor a multi-faceted policing and securi-ty operation, involving the protectionand movement of the President. “Therequirements of this complex operationneed to be balanced with the right ofindividuals to a freedom of speech.”
��� �������������� �'���Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary,said the news was “fantastic”, but seniorLabour figures warned that critics willnot hold their tongues during the trip.Sadiq Khan, Labour’s London Mayor,said following the announcement: “If hecomes to London, President Trump will
experience an open and diverse city thathas always chosen unity over divisionand hope over fear. He will also no doubtsee that Londoners hold their liberal val-ues of freedom of speech very dear.”
The pair have previously clashedpublicly, with Trump tweeting criticismof Khan’s comments after the LondonBridge terror attack. Trump unexpect-edly pulled out of a ‘working visit’ inFebruary to open the new US embassyin London, saying he was not a “bigfan” of the deal Obama struck for thebuilding. However, US and UK sourceshave suggested concerns over protestsin London and continued hostility to avisit from the Labour leadership was abigger reason for the cancellation.Johnson tweeted: “Fantastic news thatPresident Donald Trump will at lastcome to Britain on 13 July. Looking for-ward to seeing our closest ally andfriend on the greatest visit ever.”
��'�@���������������'��Emmanuel Macron’s three-day state visitto the US in April, where the French andUS leaders heralded a new “special rela-tionship”, has cast the May-Trump rela-tionship in a harsh light. There are con-cerns in Government that May’s clasheswith Trump have helped the FrenchPresident develop a closer relationshipwith the US President. A Cabinet sourcesaid: “There is genuine concern that Mayhas mishandled the special relationshipand allowed Macron to get ahead of us.We are trying to play catch up.” Farage,the Ukip leader, told The Daily Telegraph:“One of the reasons that we are waybehind the French is because we have gotsenior Labour figures who want to havemass street protests in London. We shotourselves in the foot with Sadiq Khanand sent a message that the President isnot welcome here.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modihas started the campaign forthe next Lok Sabha Elections.Dialogue with the beneficiariesof different schemes of the
Central Government through the NaMoApp is part of the campaign. Along withthat, his rallies and programmes for dif-ferent States have been fixed. It is beingsaid that PM Modi will visit UttarPradesh almost every month and addressa big rally in some part of the State.
It was, after all, UP that had pushedthe BJP into power with full majority.This time, the party’s greatest challenge isto save its 73 seats. Of the 73, the BJP has71 of its own and two seats belong to itsalliance partner, Apna Dal. That is whyUP is the first priority in the BJP’s electionstrategy. Hence, the BJP and RSS havedecided to give it their all in the State.
Recently, there was a coordinationmeeting between the RSS and BJP in UP,which was attended by Yogi Adityanathand other senior leaders of the party. Itis possible that the RSS chief could havedirected Yogi to hold the Kumbh Melaon a grand scale next year. The Centraland State Governments are also gearingup for the event, which is expected toreap political benefits for the BJP.
Meanwhile, preparations are on forthe rallies of PM Modi. In the last weekof June, the PM went to Maghar wherehe inaugurated the Kabir Academy andaddressed a rally. His next rally might beheld on July 15. Modi is going to his ownconstituency, Varanasi, for two days,where he will address a gathering andannounce sops for his constituency.
Some say Modi’s next rally will beheld in Azamgarh — the old bastion ofSamajwadi Party, and from whereMulayam Singh Yadav is presently anMP. Though he would probably not fightfrom here this time. This place is alsosignificant for the politics of Purvanchal.So, in July, the PM might address a rallyin Azamgarh. After that, Modi will go toSiddharthnagar in August. Till the elec-tions are announced, Modi is expected toaddress a rally in UP every month.
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The Congress is playing pressure poli-tics with the RJD in the same way the
JDU is playing politics with its alliancepartner, the BJP. In this game, leaders ofthe Congress and JDU are helping eachother. It started when the Congress in-charge, Shaktisinh Gohil, invited NitishKumar to join the Mahagathbandhan.
Nitish used this opportunity to put pressure on the BJP, but Tejashwi Yadavis well aware of this game and exposed it by directly opposing Nitish.
After that, the Congress leadersopenly put pressure on the RJD. Formerpresident of Bihar Congress, ShakeelAhmad, advised Tejashwi not to use suchwords for Nitish. He also said that if theCongress leaders had given any state-ment about him, he must not retaliate byusing harsh words against Nitish.
The real motive behind Ahmad’sstatement was to tell the RJD that it hadthe option of Nitish also. In fact, theRJD leaders are using alliance partnersother than the Congress as well. It hasbrought in Jitan Ram Manjhi’s party,Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM), butthey are asking for five Lok Sabha seats.Meanwhile, the RJD is also in talks withthe CPI and CPM. The RJD will leave atleast three seats for them, and in thisscenario, there is a chance that theCongress will get very few seats.
On the other hand, if the Congress
goes with the RJD, Shakeel Ahmad’sticket from Madhubani is also in dan-ger. The last time, he was not able tofight from this seat. The Congress isputting pressure to get more seats thanthe RJD. In the last Lok Sabha Elections,the Congress had fought on 15 seats,and this time, the party is eyeing at least12 seats. In this pressure game, theCongress has also included Gujarat’sPatidar leader, Hardik Patel.
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The alliance between the Congressand NCP is almost decided in
Maharashtra, and both parties willfight together. This time, the NCPleaders are demanding a change in theold formula; they are not ready for the26 and 22 seats formula. They say thatthe NCP had won more seats in the lastelections, so this time, it must be givenat least equal number of seats, if notmore than the Congress.
In the last Lok Sabha Elections, theCongress was almost finished. Only two
of its leaders — Rajeev Satav and AshokChavan — were able to make an entryinto the Lok Sabha. On the other hand,four NCP leaders had emerged victori-ous in the LS polls. Recently, the NCPwon the Bhandara-Gondiya seat in thebyelections. Now, the NCP has fiveMPs, while the Congress has only two.That is why the NCP leaders aredemanding equal seats.
The NCP wants both parties to get 24 seats of the total 48. And if anynew partner joins in, both parties willshare their seats in equal ratio. The leader of Swabhimani ShetkariSanghatana, Raju Shetti, has left the partnership of the BJP. The last timearound, he had fought along with theBJP and Shiv Sena and had won. He isthe leader of farmers and had left thehand of the BJP on the issue of farm-ers. Now, he will go with the Congressand NCP. The NCP might leave oneseat for him from its own quota. If theBSP also comes along, the Congresscould leave one seat from its quota.
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Sushil Kumar Modi, the BJP leader andDeputy CM of Bihar, is on the offensive
against Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi.The moment Nitish seemed to be inchingtowards the Mahagathbandhan again,Sushil Modi sharpened his attack on Lalu’sfamily. This must be noted that whenNitish was in the Mahagathbandhan,Sushil Modi exposed the hidden proper-ties of Lalu, Rabri, Tejashwi, and Misa, andNitish had made this the basis to leaveLalu’s side. When the BJP and JDUformed the Government, Sushil Modiwent quiet. When the Congress leadersare trying to take Nitish into theMahagathbandhan again and tension isrising between the JDU and BJP, SushilModi is targeting the Lalu family again.He has said that Lalu is the biggestzamindar of Bihar, giving details of theproperties which were bought by theGovernment and later transferred onlease to Tejashwi. It is being said thatsuch exposés are being done only to stop Nitish from changing his mind.
Susan Sarandon was among 575 women arrested inWashington on Thursday after
they staged a sit-in protest againstDonald Trump’s zero-tolerance immi-gration policy inside a Senate office at the Department of Justice.
The actor tweeted extensively fromthe rally, at which she and fellow pro-testers held aloft placards demandingan end to immigration camps anddeclaring, “We care” — a reference tothe controversial jacket worn by firstlady Melania Trump when visiting adetainment centre last week.
There were chants of “What do we want? Free families!” and “This is what democracy looks like” beforethe women were arrested, charged and then released.
Organisers the Women’s Marchand the Center for PopularDemocracy sported foil blankets likethose worn by children separated fromtheir parents at the US-Mexico border.
Sarandon has encountered hostil-ity since Trump’s election, with manyblaming her for suggesting people
vote for a third-party candidate,Green party nominee Jill Stein,potentially reducing the number ofballots cast for Democratic partycandidate Hillary Clinton.
Speaking to the Guardian last year,Sarandon, 71, confirmed that she stillfelt Clinton was in some ways moredangerous than Trump.
“I did think she was very, verydangerous. We would still be fracking,we would be at war [if she was presi-dent]. It wouldn’t be much smoother.Look what happened under Obamathat we didn’t notice.”
Acontroversial film based on thereal-life case of abortion clinicdoctor and convicted murderer
Kermit Gosnell will now be releasedin US cinemas, after the conclusion oflegal action against it by the judgeinvolved in Gosnell’s 2013 trial.Variety magazine reports that themakers of Gosnell: The Trial ofAmerica’s Biggest Serial Killer, are freeto release their film after they settledwith Judge Jeffrey P Minehart, whoobjected to his portrayal in the film.
Gosnell’s case became a lightningrod in the battle over abortion rights inthe US. Having owned and operatedclinics in Pennsylvania since the early70s, Gosnell was repeatedly accused ofperforming illegal late-term abortionsin unsafe and grotesquely unhygienicconditions, and in 2011 was arrestedand charged with killing seven infantswho had survived the initial termina-tion procedure. In 2013 he was convict-ed on three counts of murder and theinvoluntary manslaughter in 2009 ofKarnamaya Mongar, one of his patients.
Gosnell: The Trial of America’s
Biggest Serial Killer stars Dean Cain as adetective investigating the case, andEarl Billings as Gosnell. Among theteam behind the camera are executiveproducer John Sullivan, who previouslyshared directing credit with Dineshd’Souza on America: Imagine the WorldWithout Her and 2016: Obama’sAmerica; writer-producers PhelimMcAleer and Ann McElhinney whopreviously collaborated on anti-envi-ronmentalist documentaries Not EvilJust Wrong and Mine Your OwnBusiness; and conservative politicalcolumnist and novelist Andrew Klavan,who is credited for the “teleplay”.
Hollywood is breaking newground with its first plus-sized superhero, as a film fea-
turing Faith Herbert, AKA Zephyr,from Valiant Comics’ Harbinger sto-ries gets underway. According toDeadline, Sony have hired writerMaria Melnik (American Gods) towork on the project. The film is partof a 2015 deal the studio made withValiant to develop movies from thepublisher’s stable of characters. (Sonycurrently has the Vin Diesel starrerBloodshot in development.) Faith isdescribed as “a jubilant, comics-and-
science-fiction loving geek who alsohappens to have telekinetic super-powers”. She first appeared in 1992,as one of the Harbingers, teenagesuperhero outcasts, and went on tofound the Harbinger Resistance tooppose the world-conqueringintentions of powerful HarbingerToyo Harada. No details have yetbeen released as to casting or plotdetails. The project joins the bur-geoning list of superheroes cateringfor a new demand for diversity, inthe wake of Black Panther’s record-breaking box office success.
Some drug traffickers appear to beusing US President Donald Trump’s
image to brand their illegal wares. AnIndiana State Police news releaseabout 129 arrests in aseries of drug busts innorthern Indianaincludes a photo of whatpolice describe as “Trump-shaped ecstasy pills.”
They are orangeand stamped witha face. On theback are thewords “greatagain,” anapparent refer-ence to Trump’scampaign slogan,“Make AmericaGreat Again.”
Traffickers sometimes produceuniquely shaped or colored drugsas a marketing technique toencourage buyers to return formore. Friday’s release doesn’t pro-vide details, including how manyof the pills were seized. The six-
day operation in June involved trafficstops by state and city police, as well assheriff ’s departments. LSD, cocaine andother drugs were also seized.
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The New Arc AnimalRescue Centre in
Aberdeenshire, Scotland,has received a massive
hedgehog that they believemight be the heaviest ever
recorded in the country.The hedgehog, named
Arbuckle, was taken in bya well meaning individ-
ual last year due toseeming too light tosurvive the winter.
After caring for thehedgehog, the man
noticed that Arbuckledid not want to leavewhen spring had arrived.
“We believe we knowthe reason,” New Arc
said on Facebookalongside a photo of
the chubby hedge-hog who weighedin at 2.335 kilo-grams or about fivepounds. “Arbuckleweighed in at a mas-sive 2.335 kilos,which might well makehim Scotland’s heaviest everhedgehog, if not the UK’s. At roughly 4times the weight of an average hedgehogfor this time of year. Arbuckle can hard-ly walk and is unable to curl into adefensive ‘ball’ so needs to go on a dietif he is to have any chance of survivingin the wild,” New Arc continued. “Thiswill have to be a gradual process and wecan only hope that his internal organsand bone structure can adapt and thatany damage done is reversible.”
“He will be fed a restricted dietwhich is filling, and scatter his foodaround for exercise. It will be a long,gradual process,” Keith Marley of NewArc said to BBC about the diet Arbucklewill be placed on. “He will be grumpyfor a while but we’re being cruel to bekind. There is no way he would survivein the wild,” he continued.
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APolish environmental groupthat was using a mobile-
phone transmitter to trackmigratory movements of a stork
has received a phone bill of 10,000zlotys ($2,650) after the bird went
missing in Sudan and someone startedusing the chip to make calls.
Like many other storks who nest inPoland in the summer, Kajtek, an adultstork, began his southward migrationto Africa in August 2017. Thanks to aSIM-chip transmitter, the EcologicalGroup was able to track his GPS move-ments and post details about the jour-ney online. The bird’s last signal camefrom Sudan on April 26. But later, thegroup heard that some 20 hours of callshad been made using the SIM card inSudan. Ireneusz Kaluga, the associa-tion’s head, said Friday that Kajtek“probably isn’t alive.”
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Russian women wearing elaboratebridal dresses took to the pitch in
the World Cup host city of Kazan onSaturday for a friendly soccer matchintended to show their love for thesport. Wearing floor-length whitedresses and running shoes, thewomen split up into teams of fiveand played 15-minute halves ongravel in front of a small crowd.
“We had a nice appearancebut it wasn’t very comfortable,”said Gulnaz Sharipova, a playeron the winning team who hadnever played soccer before.
“It’s not only a man’s game,”said Maryana Raznogorskaya, theteam’s goalkeeper. “The mostimportant thing is friendshipand solidarity.”
The winning team wasawarded a replica of theWorld Cup trophy, madeout of flowers. This unusu-al match served as awarm-up for the WorldCup’s first action-filledknockout-stagematch in whichFrance beatArgentina 4-3in Kazan. Russia is
hosting the soccer World Cup for thefirst time, holding matches in 11 cities.
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Agroup of Kentucky police offi-cers came to the rescue of a
hapless raccoon that somehow gota peanut butter jar stuck on its
head. The Paducah PoliceDepartment posted photos toFacebook showing Sgt ShawnCraven, Officer Steve Thompsonand Sgt Matt Hopp coming to the
rescue of the raccoon Craven spot-ted while working the night shift.
The photos show the officersholding the raccoon still whilepulling on the jar, which was “stuck tight.” “Thompsonfinally managed to work
the jar loose, and the rac-coon’s head popped out.
Dressed in skin-tight blackbodysuit and red waistband,with biceps bulging andbrow furrowed in determi-nation, Serena Williams
only needed a cape to perfect herWonder Woman look. On the first dayof the French Open earlier this month,not only was she on winning form, shewas also back on court a mere eightmonths after giving birth. The 36-year-old, who revealed her daughter AlexisOlympia’s traumatic birth and resultingcomplications nearly killed the tennisstar and left her bed-bound for sixweeks, posted a defiant picture on herInstagram page, with the caption: “Forall the moms out there who had a toughrecovery from pregnancy — here yougo. If I can do it, so can you.” We’re notall racing round on the tennis court in abid for Grand Slam glory less than ayear after having a baby, but Williams ispart of a new wave of female athleteswho are not just returning to their fieldafter motherhood, but coming backstronger, faster, and more determined.
“Having a baby does not mean the end of an athlete’s career,” says Mark Buckingham, a physiotherapistwho treats elite athletes at hisNorthamptonshire-based practice Witty,Pask & Buckingham. With one caveat:“As long as proper care is taken at theright time.” While many brand newmums struggle to build up the energy toleave the house for a coffee date (I did),elite sportswomen who have babies are,of course, in a different league. PaulaRadcliffe, who admitted that “the athletein me doesn’t like being pregnant”, wonthe 2007 New York Marathon 10 monthsafter her daughter Isla was born.
Long-distance champion Jo Paveywon European 10,000m gold less than ayear after having her second child in2013. Meanwhile, Jessica Ennis-Hill won gold at the World AthleticsChampionships in Beijing in 2015, whenher little boy Reggie was 13 months old.
Now Williams — who began herWimbledon comeback recently as thenumber 25 seed — and four-timeOlympic champion cyclist Laura Kenny(née Trott), who was back on her saddlesix weeks after having baby Albert lastAugust, are following suit.
Toni Minichiello — who is Ennis-
Hill’s former coach (she retired in 2016and has since had a second baby, Olivia)— knows all about the motivation thatelite sportswomen who are also newmums develop. “Jess wanted to comeback and win an Olympic medal, some-thing that she could share with Reggie,”he says. “You have to remember that asports person’s entire identity is wrappedup with their performance. But havingchildren changes anyone’s motivations. Itcan serve to reinvigorate you.”
It’s not just a mental boost — certainphysiological aspects of pregnancy caneven help athletes. One is the amount ofblood pumping around the body, serv-ing oxygen to the muscles. “Due to theneeds of the foetus, blood volume andred blood cell mass increases duringpregnancy,” Buckingham explains.“Cardiac output increases by between 20and 50 per cent from week five, and allfour chambers of the heart becomeenlarged, particularly the left ventricle,which can be as much as 50 per centbigger in the third trimester. Left ven-tricular hypertrophy (muscle growth)can be seen as a result in training inhigh-level athletes, particularly inendurance sports such as running andswimming, as well as tennis players.”
It’s not permanent — effects begin toreverse from two weeks post-partum andcan take up to six months to get back tonormal — but Ennis-Hill found that itgave her an advantage when she neededit during training: “If I was doing 800m-related sessions, I could just do them. Icould go on a bit longer and it felt easier.”
Despite the sleepless nights andseemingly endless feeding/nappy-chang-ing routine, being a mother can alsoincrease athletes focus, Buckingham says.“Top-level athletes have to be driven andfocused, to the point of being obsessed,with their bodies, their training and theirperformance, which can often lead toovertraining and, thus, injuries. Naturally,looking after a baby is demanding andtime-consuming, and so training has tobecome more focused on what isabsolutely necessary. It gives more timefor rest and recovery.”
Minichiello agrees: “To be a topsports person, you have to be incrediblyselfish; to be a mum is the other end ofthe spectrum. We used to train five tosix hours a day, but after Reggie was
born, we lost 25 per cent training timebecause Jess was adamant that she need-ed to leave at midday to get him fromnursery.” In fact, unlike Radcliffe, whowas out running 12 days after givingbirth (she’s since admitted it was “toosoon”), Ennis-Hill took three months offentirely after Reggie was born. Whenshe was ready to start again, Minichiellosays they were cautious.
“The body releases a hormone calledrelaxin during pregnancy [to relax themuscles and tendons needed for child-birth], and it can stay in the body for upto a year. So we were careful and didn’t lether lift very heavy weights. She also haddiastasis recti [ab separation] from child-birth, so we had to wait for them to knitback together. It was all very gentle.”
Buckingham agrees this is the bestapproach, despite the fact that athletes areprogrammed to push themselves hard: “Ihave had patients over the years whohave tried to push themselves to return tosport before their body was ready andhave suffered either immediate or longerterm injury as a result,” he says. “Theeffects of the hormones on the skeletoncannot be underestimated, and too muchtoo soon on a weakened and poorly con-trolled skeleton will cause injury.”
Emma Brockwell, a specialistwomen’s health physiotherapist at HalosClinic in Oxfordshire, says that elitessuch as Ennis-Hill and Williams wouldprobably (or hopefully) be seeing spe-cialist women’s health physio to helprebuild their pelvic floors after pregnan-cy, especially if they compete in high-impact sports such as tennis, and don’twant any unintended accidents on court.“The implications of not addressingthese changes and trauma can causenumerous problems including urinaryincontinence,” she says.
Williams’ return to competitive ten-nis this summer has been meticulouslyplanned. She pulled out of theAustralian Open in January, saying:“Although I am super close, I’m notwhere I want to be.” Which was, simply,the best. Minichiello says her “attitude issmart. She’s someone who’s been playingtennis a long time. She has a uniqueability to step back and reflect objective-ly. She understand where her body is at,and understands that she’s on a journey.”
The Vedas say, man himself (aat-manah) is only half or incomplete(ardha), as long as (yaavat) he doesnot obtain (Vindate) a wife (jaayaa).According to the Vedic teachings
and ancient Aryan scriptures, women havebeen placed at a higher status than man. Shehas been given preference to man in everyfield, so much so that when giving a boy ajoint name of a god and goddess, the name ofthe goddess is always placed before the god.For example: In the name “Sita Rama”, Sita iswife of Rama. In “Radhe Shyama” Radha is thebeloved of Krishna. Again, in “Gori Shankar”,Gori is Shankar’s or Lord Shiva’s wife. We callour country motherland, mother is superior tofather. We are taught to be more indebted tomother than father — “Maat devobhava”before “Pita devobhava”.
In our country, there is a festival to wor-ship womanhood as early as when they are lit-tle girls, called “Kanya Poojan”, on the eighthday of the moon, or the Asthami. On this day,little boys call their sisters, cousin sisters, rela-tives and neighbouring girls, to their homes.The girls come with great affection to theirbrothers, properly dressed and bedecked. Theboys first wash the feet of the girls as a tokenof great respect and service. They feed themsweets and other food prepared by their moth-ers for the girls. The boys feel great privilegeand honour in serving the girls. The mothersguide the boys to perform their duty of servingtheir sisters and also tell them their dutiestowards their sisters in future life. Respect ofwomanhood starts at that age.
Woman stands paramount in Vedic culture.We go as far as saying that if one wants tounderstand culture and civilisation of a nation,one has only to observe how that nation treatsits women folk. She is the symbol of culture.
Lord Manu forcefully states, Whereverwomen (naaryah) are adored and regarded(Poojyante), believe i, there reside godly people(ramante tatra devataah). And where they arenot regarded or are neglected, there, all efforts(kriyaa) of men (aphalaa) will bear no fruit.
In the field of education, women weregiven equal opportunities. They had their ownGurukulas — covents — where they studiedand acquired knowledge of science and arts.There were highly educated and wise women.
There have been great women like ShilaBhattaarikaa, Maarutee, Morikaa andSubhadra etc. Vijayaanganaa is counted nextto Kalidasa as a dramatist.
The Gita says that a woman should have
the keen desire and capability to give shelterand support to others, have a good memory(smriti) to remember her duties, deep think-ing power and good intuition, the courageand boldness to face odd times, and the kind-ness to pardon others.
In Vedas, the bride-to-be, is called Kanyaand it is she who has the birth right of choiceand of obtaining a matrimonial partner. Theword Kanya is a derivative of root knee deep-tow which means “to shine” or be illustriousor to illuminate.”
The women at home are mahaabhaagaahor the source of great fortune. They are poo-jaarhaah or worthy to be worshiped, they arethe lights, who by their behaviour, brightenthe whole family atmosphere. It is they whoare gracefully good to give us our progeny.In the family or at home, there is no differ-ence between (shree) the wealth and fortuneof the family and (striyah) the ladies athome, that is, they are the emblem of pros-perity and good fortune.
It is also said that if a husband, in his fami-ly, protects and provides well his wife, actuallyhe protects his family prestige, traditions, hisprogeny and the social laws; much depends onthe wife. A man without a wife cannot evenperform any ritual or ceremony without hiswife, according to the Vedas.
Aristotle once said that “Republics decline into democra-cies and democracies degenerate into despotism”. Howprophetic? Something said more than two thousand
years ago is being debated these days globally and for validreasons. Democracy,the rule by the people is now transform-ing into authoritarianism. The system is in retreat in manyparts of the world. Is the wheel turning backwards? Seemingly,if the findings of a research conducted by a team of politicalscientists is anything to go by. The interesting part of thisfinding is that even the world’s most famous democracies arethere in the company of the likes of Russia and Turkey. Whathas happened? Why democracy, the best form of the govern-ment in the absence of better alternative is gradually slippingtowards authoritarianism? Why people are losing faith indemocracy. Particularly the young. The aversion is so highthat the millennials are open to trying something new likeabsolute dictatorship or government by military coup. Thestudy by a Harvard researcher and a university of Melbournepolitical scientist sound alarm bells for democracy. Based onhistorical data on analysis of attitudes towards government theresearch spans various generations in North America, WesternEurope, Australia and New Zealand. The findings suggest thatcitizens of stable democracies have got a sickening feelingabout their government. It is largely among the millennialsthat this loss of faith in legitimacy of democracy is high. Theentire set of findings point towards a crisis of faith of theyoung on the democratic system of governance and this is amatter of concern. The issue that needs to be discussed is thislack of trust. Has the system failed the people or it is the peo-ple at the helm who have failed the system. Difficult to resolvebut one conclusion that can be drawn is that there is a consid-erable degree of disillusionment in the young with the modelof the democratic governance that is in vogue. Powers-that-behave a tendency to usurp all power and run the show as pertheir whims and fancies. The representative form of govern-ment is suffering from a serious flaw. It centres around thecharismatic power of the leader who thrives on his rhetoricand personality rather than commitment and values. Theleader centric system that modern democracies have becomemakes those who get power, feel invincible and as such falterinto high-handedness. This results into some kind of a leader-ship style that does not fall into any one of the conventionalcategories suggested by popular leadership theories pro-pounded by management theorists. According to one, therewere the two autocratic styles namely Exploitative Autocratand the Benevolent Autocrat,whereas two Democratic styleswere Consultative Democrat and the Participative Democrat.The modern day leadership style seems to be a different cate-gory that can be explained by a new coinage ArbitraryDemocrat - one who acquires leadership through the democ-ratic process but once in power starts behaving in arbitrarily.Thus democracy decays into Fascism. If history is any indica-tion, both Hitler and Mussolini represent the class ofArbitrary Democrat. In the beginning Fascism shows a strongsocialist inspiration and many leaders had come to Fascismfrom Socialist and Syndicalist movements.However, they dif-ferentiated themselves by maintaining an aggressive national-istic position thus creating absolute statism. Will the historyrepeat itself? A theoretical question that needs practicalanswers if Democracy is to survive. Fascism and Narcissismare two sides of the same coin.
Contrary to what manymay believe, there aretwo sources of good
fortune not just one. We areaware that charity, social ser-vice, sacrifice, bathing in holyrivers, visiting dhams, etc. arepious acts, which bring richrewards in many forms in thepresent life and in the futureones too. Wealth is the mostsought after fortune because itis the medium, which gets usmany desirable materialobjects like comfortable living,assistance of all kinds likeexpert doctor’s consultation,funds for leisure travel, etc.Power is the next desirableobject whether it is in thepublic domain or even inoffices, homes, etc. Publicoffice even of a minor levelattracts greatly, one feelsimportant, superior to others.Same drive rules in officeswhere people try to gain posi-tions of importance. Even inhouses where there are not somany living together like in anuclear family one tries toestablish one’s superiority.
Fame is another form of
good fortune. Why do all filmstars not become famousbecause those who becomehave lots of pious deedsbehind them, which helpthem to climb the stairs ofsuccess where others not sofortunate flounder? Attentionis a close relative of fame.Don’t we all seek attention?Those who do get are consid-ered very fortunate. The mate-rial nature rewards these as itdoes by giving good looks,sound physique, etc. in futurebirths. However, the materialnature works very slow con-sidering the pace at which weseek results these days.
However, there is anothersource, which is not onlyfaster but also much bigger.
In the verse #18.78 of theGita, Sanjay states that wherethere is God and where thereis a devotee of God likeArjuna, there will be opu-lence, victory, wealth andmorality. Connection withGod can get us victory or suc-cess in life. Morality is a hugeasset, which makes one highlyrespected or even venerated.These are just a few examplesof good fortune that one getsentitled to when one doesspiritual acts like chantingmantras, meditation, studying
scriptures, discussing withlike-minded persons topicsabout God, etc. Lord Krishnahas spoken about many bene-fits accruing to those engagedin spiritual activities. One getsthe extremely precious wis-dom. The Lord states that anadvanced yogi achieves it byhimself in due course of time.(4.38) One is able to controlone’s mind, which is otherwisevery difficult. (6.35) Mindcontrol in turn gives peace –the most precious asset thatone can have. People, if theyso desire, get material siddhisalso, which help them to doextraordinary feats. And God
even grants liberation — free-dom from material suffering.
What, then, prevents usto tap the second and themore potent source? Egocomes in the way; I am theone who matters more thananyone even God’s instruc-tions. The second reason is‘maya’, which bemuses us tosuch an extent that we con-sider material objects aseverything ignoring thesource of all sources. Faithcomes from realizations,which are not easy to gainunless we practice what weknow, ie knowledge is notenough. Yes, God is subtle,whereas our experience ismostly based on gross objectsbut don’t we accept how inter-net, etc. work unseen by us.We should at least accept thatsaintly persons benefittedimmensely by putting theirfaith in God. If we are reallywise we will tap both thesources, ie God — the prima-ry source in addition to thesecondary source. 1���������������������0����������������
All human beings are born unique,each reflecting varying mind-trends. No wonder, each of us car-
ries individual-specific beliefs and desiretrends. Also, levels of intelligence, percep-tive and comprehensive abilities, likes anddislikes, prejudices and obsessions, habitsand attitudes, virtues and attributes varyfrom person-to-person. In fact, all of usare born with a preconditioned mind,which naturally finds reflection in ourusual conduct. Our Ahamkara (egotisticalmind) ignorantly takes our mental pre-disposition as a part of one’s identity andaccordingly makes them defining princi-ples of life. As no two persons could everbe born similar, not even twins, how werespond or react to a particular situationwill vary from person to person. Giventhis background, the world becomes anatural breeding ground of conflict ofthoughts and interests.
No wonder, conflict is in evidencewithin family and even in the society atlarge. Yet, we need to be in accord with allthose around, transgressing all individual-istic limitations. For, being an inseparablepart of a unified organism that the worldis, we can’t afford to live in isolation, if atall we wish to have a smooth run of life.The paradox, however, is that given the
sense of freedom ingrained in our minds,we usually wish to live exclusively on ourown terms, often not caring for others’sensibilities and concerns. Of late, as acad-emic awareness has been growing, evenone’s egos have been on the rise, as if onewould have become all-knowing.Ostensibly, therefore, people are becomingmore and more impatient and intolerantby the day. Consequently, marital separa-tions are on the rise, and even conflicts onthe world stage have been growingbeyond proportion.
The other day, someone came seekingmy counsel on when to file his divorcepetition, and whether it is worth going foranother marriage. “Well, when you havealready decided to seek divorce, what’s thepoint in looking for my advice? Do youjust wish to get your decision vetted byme?” I countered him. “She doesn’t haveany concern for value system and sense ofmorality is why it is difficult to get alongwith her.” He tried to justify himself.“Well, possibly the terms you have set forthe value system and sense of morality isyour perception, according as your pre-conditioned mind has guided you, whichcould be illusionary. Remember, nobodyis ever born a perfect, not even you. Thenwhat justifies being judgmental about oth-
ers and that too by your self-defined stan-dards?” I confronted him.
Elaborating further, I suggested thatmarriage is always convergence of twocorresponding opposites. Purposely soas to complement and supplement eachother’s voids, and together make awholesome life. This is the premise onwhich institution of marriage stands.Also, remember that if there are short-comings in a person, the positives inhim shall be certainly more. In our ego-tistical hang, however, we get stuck tofew negatives of others, when their posi-tives just get sidelined. I don’t knowwhat your partner’s personality traitsare. But looking at your personalitytrends, it is clear that your habits andattitudes have contributed enough toknock down marital stability. The worstto suffer in the process will be yourkids, and for no fault of theirs. Unlessyou address your own inherent weak-nesses, this marriage or any other laterwill not work. Look at the astrologicalpointers to your habit tendencies.
Born with Gemini lagna, with fieryMars posited there itself, implies that youwish to live exclusively on your ownterms, and would not care for others’sensibilities or concerns. “My way orhighway seems to be your attitude.” You
just wish to have yes persons around. Itbecomes difficult for you to digest any-body holding a view at variance withyours. In such situation you are suscepti-ble to become aggressive. Emotionallydriven Venus is not simply combust, butalso conjunct restive Rahu. It speaks loudof your volatile emotionality. You getover exercised even on trivial issues, takeit to your heart, and stretch on beyonddue. Lagna lord Mercury ill-disposed offto Uranus makes you eccentric, opinion-ated and tactless. Jupiter too lockinghorns with Uranus makes you head-strong and rebellious. You may exagger-ate even a trivial issue a lot. If that wouldnot be enough, mischievous Neptune isplaced adverse to mind-signifying Moonand Karmic Saturn.
That makes you self-deluding, inhib-itive, moody, and habitually suspicious ofeverybody and anybody. And the resultis there to see. You don’t deserve to findfault with others before addressing yourown self-deluding tendencies.
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