KOLKATA: The Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) onTuesday arrested TrinamoolCongress MP and party’sleader in the Lok SabhaSudip Bandyopadhyay inconnection with the ongoinginvestigation in the Rose Val-ley Group chit fund scamcase.

Chief Minister MamataBanerjee called the arrest“political vendetta” and tar-geted Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and BJP presidentAmit Shah.

Within hours of the arrest,TMC cadres gathered beforethe State BJP headquartersand indulged in sloganeer-ing. Soon stones were hurledfrom either side and severalvehicles were damaged.Some workers were injuredin the violence.

After several summonses,Mr. Bandyopadhyay ap-peared before the CBI earlierin the day in connection withthe probe against the RoseValley Group. After hours ofquestioning, he was arrested.

“He [Mr. Bandyopadhyay]was involved in promotingthe business of the Rose Val-ley Group and he benefitedfrom the proceeds of busi-ness both in cash and inkind,” a senior CBI oicialtold The Hindu.

The oicer said that the in-vestigation against the RoseValley Group was started asper the Supreme Court orderin the chit fund scam datingto May 2014. The TMC MPwill be produced before a“competent court,” he said.He is likely to be taken toBhubaneswar where theagency has registered thecase.

Mr. Bandyopadhyay is the

second TMC MP to be arres-ted in the case.

Earlier on December 30,the CBI arrested MP and filmactor Tapas Paul, allegingthat he had benefited fromthe Rose Valley Group.

On reaching the CBI oiceon Tuesday, Mr. Bandyopad-hyay told journalists that hewas aware of the chargesagainst him and had come toface interrogation.

TMC MPs and State lead-ers later met Mr. Bandyopad-hyay at the CGO complex inSalt Lake area where the CBIoice is located.

Mamata terms it vendetta;clashes break out outside BJP office

Trinamool Lok Sabha leaderheld in Rose Valley chit scam

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

IN THE NET: Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyayarrives for interrogation by the CBI in the Rose Valley chit fund scam case in Kolkata on Tuesday. — PHOTO: PTI

� PARTY FULLY BEHIND MPS:TRINAMOOL LEADER | PAGE 12

CMYK

Delhi

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www.thehindu.in ● Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 ● RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 7 ● No. 3 ● CITY EDITION ● 20 Pages ● Rs. 8.00

wednesday, january 4, 2017

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Ra-jnath Singh has hinted thatthe Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) will fight the comingAssembly elections in UttarPradesh without a “chiefministerial” face.

Mr. Singh, a former ChiefMinister of U.P. and one ofthe prominent faces from theState in the NDA govern-ment, told a press conferenceon Tuesday, “many a time wehave contested electionswithout a CM face. There isno challenge to the BJP in theState.”

“We don’t want to winelections by harming any-one,” he said.

Asked whether he wouldbe projected as the chief min-isterial candidate, he said,“Don’t I look good at theCentre? Who is a strongleader and who is not, it is for

the people to decide.” He said the party will pro-

ject the work done by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inthe past two-and-a-halfyears.

On the ongoing familyfeud in the ruling SamajwadiParty, Mr. Singh said, “we donot like feud in any family butif the entire family is inpower, then it is a matter ofconcern.”

“If any discord happensamong the people who are inpower, then it’s the citizenswho sufer. But whatever losshad to happen has happened.It will be compensated by thenext government.”

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

‘BJP may not name CM candidate for U.P. polls’

Home Minister Rajnath Singh interacting with the media inNew Delhi on Tuesday. PHOTO: PTI

“We don’t want towin elections byharming anyone”,says Home MinisterRajnath Singh

EMPOWERPage 7

Mayawati releasescaste break-up ofcandidates for pollsPage 12

Ram Madhav criticisesManipur CM’s handlingof blockade by Nagas Page 12

Nawaz Sharif says Pak. wants strong tieswith all neighbours Page 14

Ganguly says he is not the front-runnerfor top BCCI post Page 17

NEW DELHI: Union Minister ofState for Home Kiren Rijiju hascriticised Karnataka HomeMinister G. Parameshwara forhis comments that “these kindsof things do happen,” withreference to the incident ofmass molestation in Bengaluruon New Year’s Eve. “I condemnthe irresponsible commentmade by the Karnataka homeminister,” he said on Twitter.

Rijiju condemns remarkof Karnataka Minister

� NATION | PAGE 9

MEERUT: A court in Aligarh hasaccepted a complaint from anRSS worker against historianIrfan Habib for his remarks thatthe RSS had no role in thefreedom struggle.

U.P. court to hear pleaagainst Irfan Habib

� NATION | PAGE 9

MUMBAI: Tata Sons is planningto remove Cyrus Mistry, theousted chairman, from its boardas director. The move is aimedat divesting Mr. Mistry of allroles in the board.

Tata Sons plans to dropMistry from board

� BUSINESS | PAGE 15

BRIEFLY

KOLKATA: Backing SudipBandyopadhyay, arrestedby the CBI here onTuesday, West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee said the people ofthe State were with him.

“Like note bandi [ban]this is an attempt atTrinamool-bandi [ban].From tomorrow[Wednesday], Trinamoolwill launch protests anddharnas all over the Stateand in Delhi, Tripura,Assam, Jharkhand, Biharand Manipur,” she said.

She indicated that shewas asked to keep quiet ondemonetisation, which sherefused. “I have beenasked to keep mum, but Ihave always raised myvoice for the people. Icannot keep quiet even ifall the MPs and MLAs [ofTMC] are arrested ... evenif I am arrested, my familyis arrested,” she said.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Party to launchprotests in Delhi,West Bengal

� MAMATA BLAMES PMOFOR ARRESTS | PAGE 12

Falling catch

RUNNING DRY: Workers unload clams, collected from the Vembanad Lake, in Vaikom nearKochi. The lake has been facing erosion in fish wealth, with experts attributing it tooverexploitation of resources, wrong practices and pollution. — PHOTO: THULASI KAKKAT

LUCKNOW: Even as the two fac-tions of the Samajwadi Partyhave laid claim to the partysymbol — the bicycle, therewas a series of parleysbetween them on Tuesdayamid speculation of a pos-sible truce.

However, the talks madelittle headway with theAkhilesh camp asserting thatthere would be no comprom-ise on “core issues.” TheChief Minister met his fatherand SP supremo MulayamSingh twice during the day,after they spoke on the tele-phone in the morning.

Expelled SP general sec-retary Ramgopal Yadav, whoscripted Mr. Akhilesh Ya-

dav’s takeover as party pres-ident on Sunday, said in NewDelhi that there would be“no compromise” betweenthe two factions.

Case before EC

He said the two groupshad presented their case tothe Election Commission.

Mr. Ramgopal Yadav said“90 per cent” of the MLAsstood behind Mr. Akhilesh

Yadav, and his faction shouldbe considered the SP.

This statement came evenas senior party leaders wereholding talks in Lucknowamid speculation of a trucebeing worked out.

The talks started with Mr.Akhilesh Yadav and Mr. Mu-layam Singh exchanging aphone call, after which theformer went to his father’sresidence on VikramadityaMarg.

Two-hour-long meeting

The meeting between thetwo lasted for over two hourseven as anxious SP support-ers waited outside.

Mr. Mulayam Singh’sbrother, Shivpal Yadav, alsojoined the meeting.

Efforts for truce make

little headway despite

marathon meetings

Mulayam-Akhilesh stand-ofcontinues, no headway in talks

OMAR RASHID

Ramgopal Yadav addressingthe media after meeting theElection Commission onTuesday. — PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

� POLL PANEL CAUGHT INTUSSLE FOR ‘CYCLE’ | PAGE 12

� NO DEAL, SAYS TEAMAKHILESH | PAGE 12

AGARTALA: A moderate intensityearthquake, measuring 5.7 onthe Richter scale and with itsepicentre in Tripura, jolted theNortheast on Tuesdayafternoon, triggering landslidesin the State and leaving awoman dead and four injured.

One dead in Tripura as quake jolts Northeast

� NATION | PAGE 9

NEW DELHI: The snag-proneBlue Line of the Delhi Metroonce again left thousands ofcommuters in the lurch astrains crawled through theday because of a technicalsnag.

A fault in the Over HeadElectrification (OHE) sys-tem led to trains runningslow on the corridor from11.20 am on Tuesday. Theproblem was rectified only at2.46 pm and normal opera-tions resumed much later.

“A speed restriction of 15kmph was imposed from11.20 am between PragatiMaidan and Mandi HouseMetro Stations on up-line to-wards Dwarka for attendingto an OHE problem in thissection,” a Delhi Metro RailCorporation spokespersonsaid.

“On Line 3, flashing of pan-tograph was reported from atrain approaching MandiHouse from Pragati Maidan,which afected the OHEwire,” the spokesperson said.

“Repair work of the af-fected OHE portion was car-ried out in of peak hoursfrom 2:28 to 2:46 pm, duringwhich train movement wasregulated on Line 3. There-after, trains started runningas per normal schedule onLine 3,” the spokesperson

claimed.Passengers had a harrow-

ing time as the snag led notonly to trains running slowbut also longer waiting time.

“I started from home at 12noon. However, it is 12:40and I am still at Kaushambi.Oicials said a 10 minutedelay is taking place, but thisdoes not seem like a 10minute delay to me,” said Ni-harika Sharma, a resident ofVaishali.

“I was going to YamunaBank for my class but I havereached only Anand ViharISBT in half an hour. I havealready missed my classes sothere is no use of going therenow,” said Deeksha Geri, adaily commuter fromVaishali.

A lot of people decided toleave the metro and go backto their homes. “It took mehalf an hour to cross threestations. I had to go to Con-naught Place but it is too latenow. I will have to head backhome and apologize toeveryone I had to meet,” saidHarshul Bhanaria, a residentof Ghaziabad.

Commuters hitas Metro crawlsSTAFF REPORTER A fault in the over

head electrificationsystem led to trainsrunning slow,affecting operations

NEW DELHI: Anxious over the risein bad loans, the Supreme Courton Tuesday ordered thegovernment to provide“empirical data” on casespending in Debt RecoveryTribunals (DRTs) for over 10years and the list of corporateentities with debts in excess of₨500 crore

SC asks list of firmswith debts over 500 cr.

� NEWS PAGE 13

2 |THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

CITYDense fog delays 250 flights, 132 trains

Nearly 250 flights were delayed by several hours as IGIAwitnessed zero visibility conditions due to dense fog in theearly hours of Tuesday Page 4

430 acres allotted to Patanjali

The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority(YEIDA) approved 12 proposals, including allotment of landto yoga guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Page 5

Calling all readers to connect with us for all things Delhi at

twitter - @DelhiConnect www.facebook.com/NewDelhiConnect

DELHICONNECT

Setting the stage

GREEN LIGHT: Preparations for the Republic Day celebrations in full swing at Rajpath on Tuesday. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

NEW DELHI: Students and teach-ers of Jawaharlal Nehru Uni-versity (JNU) on Tuesdayheld a protest outside thevenue of the Executive Coun-cil meeting that was beingconducted to pass a numberof decisions taken at the142nd Academic Council(AC) meeting held onDecember 26.

The teachers’ and students’representatives said the de-cisions taken at the AC meet-ing were passed “undemo-cratically” and could changethe character of the univer-sity. They added that Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Ku-mar had declared that all de-cisions had been passedwithout any discussion tak-ing place.

The executive council-meeting concluded late onTuesday and although therewas no oicial communica-tion from the university orthe members, sources saidthe executive council hadpassed all decisions taken atthe 142nd AC meeting.

Weightage of interview

These decisions include achange in the admission pro-cess following a UGC circularissued on May 5, 2016 thatmakes the entrance examina-tion for M.Phil/Ph.D pro-grammes only a qualificationexam, making the interviewthe sole criteria for admis-sion. This decision comesdespite a struggle since 2012to reduce the weightage ofthe interview in the entranceprocess, after university-ap-pointed Prof. Abdul NafelCommittee found rampantdiscrimination against stu-dents from marginalisedcommunities at interviews.

The other decisions in-clude hiking the fee for the

JNU entrance exam, chan-ging the constitution of thefaculty selection committeeto give the V-C completepower over selection, and in-troducing certificate courseson Yoga Philosophy.

Venue moved

The drama on the campusstarted at 2 p.m. As protestsbegan outside the JNU Con-vention Centre where the ex-ecutive council meeting wasto be held, the administrationmoved the venue to the Aca-demic Block. This allowed allmembers to reach the venuewithout facing any resistance.Protests continued through-out the five-hour-long meet-ing at Freedom Square withteachers and students speak-ing about the implications ofthe AC’s decisions, if passedby the executive council.

In a letter to the V-C theteachers said: “No adminis-tration in JNU's four decade-long history has held such acontinuous record of un-

democratic and authoritarianfunctioning, as has beenachieved in the 11 monthssince your takeover.” Theyalso said there has been a“public misinterpretation” ofwhat transpired at the ACmeeting in the oicial state-ments of the administration.

‘Meeting illegal’

Nivedita Menon, Professorat the School of InternationalStudies, said: “We have tofight this V-C and and theanti-social justice agenda ofthe administration. The ECmeeting being held today isillegal as the minutes of theprevious AC meeting havenot been passed by its mem-

bers and therefore the 142nd

AC meeting was illegal.” “

Car surrounded

Once the executive councilmeeting ended, studentsformed a human chainaround the exit route of theV-C and sought to hand overto him a memorandum andspeak to him about his de-cisions. When the V-C re-fused to speak amidst theshouting of slogans and allthe commotion and got intohis car, students surroundedthe car and prevented himfrom leaving. After a stand-of, the driver of the car man-aged to whisk the V-C awayfrom the protesting students.

Teachers, students say decisions made undemocratically, will change university

Another meet ends in protests JAIDEEPDEO BHANJ

TENSE SCENES: Protesterssurround the V-C’s car toblock his exit. (right)students and teachersoutside the conventioncentre. PHOTOS: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

NEW DELHI: Former St. Steph-en’s principal ValsonThampu, who was at logger-heads with the institution’salumni during his tenure, haskicked up a fresh controversyby blaming the college’s poorranking on “mediocreteachers”.

Claim responsibility

A group of alumni have hitback, saying Mr. Thampushould claim responsibility ifany “damage” has been doneto the college, afecting itsspot in the recently-releasedNational and Accreditationand Assessment (NAAC)rankings.

Despite being among themost sought after colleges inthe country, the NAAC rank-ing of St. Stephen’s College

has fallen below that of ZakirHusain College and AcharyaNarendra Dev College.

“Over the years, St. Steph-en’s has allowed its nativestrengths to weaken. The fac-ulty, barring a handful, arereally mediocre. In sayingthis, I keep in mind my profes-sional knowledge of the col-lege over four decades.

“I have to say, many of the

initiatives during my tenurewere smothered by the fac-ulty, who are so stuck in thebirdlime of professional in-security that they do not wantto be exposed to academicchallenges,” Mr. Thampu saidin a Facebook post.

‘Dishonest, misleading’

The Association of OldStephanians, an alumni groupsaid: “Thampu was principalfor eight years. How can hewash his hands of responsib-ility? His statement is dishon-est and misleading. It is pre-posterous that a formerprincipal blames former col-leagues — not just seniorsand his contemporaries, butalso younger ones he re-cruited,” a statement issuedby the alumni group said. PTI

‘Mediocre’ teachers reason forpoor Stephen’s ranking: Thampu

Valson Thampu

NEW DELHI: Delhi Deputy ChiefMinister Manish Sisodia onTuesday announced thatAamir Khan-starrer ‘Dangal’would be tax-free in the Cap-ital. Announcing the govern-ment's decision, Sisodia,who also heads the Enter-tainment department, saidan order has been issued inthis regard.

‘Inspiring movie’

The Deputy Chief Minis-ter also said that it is an “in-spiring movie” to promotespirit of sportsmanship.“Dangal movie would be tax-free in Delhi cinemas. Or-ders issued. It’s an inspiringmovie to promote sports-spirit by @aamir_khan(sic),” Sisodia tweeted.

Haryana and Uttar Pra-desh had recently made themovie tax-free. PTI

Dangal to be tax-free in Delhi

PUSHBACK AT JNU

CITY | 3THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

Disclaimer: Readers are requested to verify &make appropriate enquiries to satisfythemselves about the veracity of an adver-tisement before responding to any published inthis newspaper. Kasturi & Sons Limited, thePublisher & Owner of this newspaper, does notvouch for the authenticity of any advertisementor advertiser or for any of the advertiser’s pro-ducts and/or services. In no event can theOwner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Director/s,Employees of this newspaper/company be heldresponsible/liable in any manner whatsoever forany claims and/or damages for advertisementsin this newspaper.

D E L H I

Jan 04, Wed Jan 05, Thu Jan 06, Fri

RISE 07 15 SET 17 38 RISE 07 15 SET 17 39 RISE 07 15 SET 17 40

RISE 11 15 SET 23 26 RISE 11 54 SET 00 00 RISE 12 34 SET 00 25

NEW DELHI: A 17-year-old boyallegedly stabbed the hus-band of his ex-girlfriend todeath in east Delhi’s Kalyan-puri on Sunday.

The incident happenedaround noon, when the vic-tim, Sumit, and his wife Lal-ita (24) were returning homeon their motorcycle after cel-ebrating New Year at his in-laws’ residence. Barely 100metres away from theKalyanpuri police station,they found the juvenile sig-nalling at them to stop.

Caught of guard

“When we halted, the boy

took out his phone andshowed a picture of both ofus to my husband. He said ‘Lalita and I are in a relation-ship’ and immediately at-tacked him with a knife. Wefell of our bike, and my hus-band ran to save himself. Theboy, however, chased himdown and repeatedlystabbed him. I couldn’t movebecause my leg had beentrapped under the bike,” saidthe 24-year-old woman.

The accused then sped

away on the motorcycle. Lal-ita took her husband to LalBahadur Shastri Hospitalwhere he was declaredbrought dead.

Accused persistent

The woman told the policethat she and the boy hadended their relationship be-fore her marriage on Novem-ber 19 last year. At the time,

Lalita had conveyed it to theboy that it was over betweenthem but he was persistent inhis eforts to woo her backand even asked her to elopewith him, she claimed.

“Even after my marriage,he visited my maternal homewhenever I visited there. Hewould say that if I couldn’t behis, he would not let me bewith anyone else,” Lalita told

the police. The police, however, have

not given a clean chit to Lal-ita. They are interrogatingher and her in-laws, who, thepolice claimed, were makingcontradictory claims aboutthe love afair.

A case of murder has beenregistered at the Kalyanpuripolice station, and the juven-ile apprehended.

Victim chased down, murdered in broad daylight in east Delhi’s Kalyanpuri; boy apprehended

17-year-old kills husband of ex-loverSHUBHOMOY SIKDAR

Sumit and Lalita got marriedin November last year. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

NEW DELHI: Three personswere killed in two separateincidents of hit-and-run re-ported from southern andeastern parts of the Capitalon Monday.

The first accidenthappened around 3.30 pm onMonday. Passers-by noticedtwo men lying injured on theroad next to a damagedmotorbike.

No eyewitness

The police were called and

the two men were rushed to ahospital, but could not besaved.

The deceased are believedto be in their early 30s. A casehas been registered, but thepolice have not been able toidentify the vehicle that hitthe motorcycle.

In the Shakarpur hit-and-run case, a man was founddead next to his motorcycle.While there were no eyewit-nesses in this accident too,the police found somebroken parts of a Santro carnear the accident spot.

3 killed in two separatehit-and-run incidentsSTAFF REPORTER

SHOCK AND HORROR

NEW DELHI: Trying to mediatebetween two quarrellinggroups led to a policeman’sson being stabbed in his legin east Delhi’s Shakarpur onSunday.

The victim has been iden-tified as Himanshu Tomar, aresident of south Delhi’sHauz Khas.

The problem began whenTomar’s friend, Dinesh Ya-dav, got into an altercationwith a man in his residentialbuilding on Saturday.

Though the fight was re-solved, Tomar and Yadav de-cided to meet the man, Dhar-mender, and end the issueamicably. However, oncethey met Dharmender, heand his friends — Rajkumarand Guddu — asked Tomarto keep out of the matter.That soon snowballed into aquarrel, during which Rajku-mar allegedly attacked To-mar with a knife.

Victim framed

The trio then called thepolice alleging that Tomarhad tried to rob Dharmend-er’s house. The accused alsoallegedly planted a country-made pistol to frame thevictim.

“When we reached thespot, the knife was still in To-mar’s leg,” said a police of-ficer. The victim was rushedto a hospital where the knifewas pulled out of his leg. To-mar claimed his innocencein front of the police team,leading the investigators tosuspect what the accusedhad claimed.

Once the police were con-vinced that Tomar was beingframed, they arrested thetrio.

Cop’s son tries to settlefight, stabbedSTAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: A court here hasupheld a judgment to keepa juvenile at a specialhome for two years forsodomising a 10-year-oldboy, despite the fact thatthe prosecution failed tocollect forensic evidence(lifting of semen to matchit with the DNA of thejuvenile).

“Forensic evidence insexual assault cases isonly a piece ofcorroborative evidence,and if the testimony ofvictim is found truthfuland trustworthy even inthe absence of any

medical evidence, theaccused can be convicted.In the present case aswell, the testimony of thevictim has been foundtruthful, and the lack offorensic evidence doesnot dent the testimoniesof the witnesses,’’Additional Sessions JudgeGautam Manan said.

The juvenile along withan adult accused hadsodomised the boy in anopen field in outer Delhi’sBawana in 2014.

Appeal dismissed

The court, whiledismissing the appeal ofthe juvenile, against a

Juvenile Justice Board’sorder by which he wassent to a special home fortwo years, relied on thevictim’s testimony.

“The court has over theyears attributed thetestimonies of childwitnesses to the samekind of credibility that itattaches to the statementsof any other witnesses. Inthe present case, thevictim is consistent on thematerial particulars withregard to the incident ofsexual assault on him,’’the judge said.

“Accordingly, the orderconvicting the appellant isupheld,’’ the judge added.

Sodomy case: court upholdsJJB order convicting juvenileSTAFF REPORTER

Talk: Panel discussion on “Noiseand Health – How Sound?”; keynotespeaker: Dr. Naresh Gupta, Director-Professor, Maulana Azad MedicalCollege; panelists: Dr. M.P. George,Scientist ‘D’, Pollution Control Com-mittee; Dr. A.K. Agarwal, formerDean, MAMC; Dr. Roopa Vajpeyi,Academic and Consumer Activist;and Dr. A.K. Tewari, Ministry of Rail-

ways, at Conference Room I, IIC,6:30 p.m.Music Talk: “Listen, share, dis-cuss”, a music session curated forchildren by Dr. Sudeep Rai, atAmaltas Hall, IHC, 7 p.m.Dance: “Karna: Destiny’s Child”,Bharatanatyam recital by BaladeviChandrashekhar, at The Stein Audit-orium, IHC, 7 p.m.

Exhibition: A group painting andsculpture exhibition, at Open PalmCourt Gallery, IHC, 11 a.m.– 7 p.m.Culture: Tirumala Tirupati Dev-asthanam: Thirupavai Upanyasamby Dr. K. Ananthachariar, at LakshmiNrisimha Mandir, Karol Bagh, 6:30p.m. (Mail your listings for this columnat cityeditordelhi@thehindu.co.in)

DELHI TODAY

NEW DELHI: Accusing Lalita ofconspiring to kill her hus-band, her in-laws said shehad lied to them about the ju-venile, whose visits at theirhome had raised questions.

They also accused her ofcontinuing her relationswith the juvenile after hermarriage. “The boy had at-tended Sumit and Lalita’swedding and the very nextday he had showed up tomeet her. When we asked herabout him, she claimed thathe was her cousin,” saidSumit’s uncle.

Woman claims innocence

Lalita, however, claimedthat her appeals to the boy tonot visit her fell on deaf ears.Sumit’s sister Preeti said thecouple had had an argumenton the day of the incident aswell.

“Before they left for Lal-ita’s parents’ house, thingswere back to normal. I re-member her saying that shewould give Sumit a NewYear’s present that he wouldnever forget,” said Preeti.

Sumit’s family has nowlodged a complaint with thepolice to probe Lalita’s role.

Wife accused of conspiring in attackSTAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: Sumit’s widowLalita is facing the wrathof both her parents andin-laws.

Her in-laws accuse herof having continued herafair with the juvenilewhile her parents believein the claim. “She has noplace in the house. Wewill not accept her. Ourson died because of her,even if she was involvedor not. How can we forgetthat,” said Sumit’s uncle.

Kept in the dark

Her father Mangeram

said he had never heardabout the boy till the dayof Sumit’s murder.

He said Lalita had neverbrought up the issue andhad she told him about it,he would have not goneahead with her wedding.

But today, he has nosympathy left for her, hesaid. Mangeram furthersaid he did not “want to

see her face”. He said hecould even kill hisdaughter for “bringing abad name to the family”.

‘Misinterpretation’

Mangeram, however,contested the woman’sin-laws’ claim that he hadconfirmed to them thatthe boy was her cousin.

“The query was madeover phone and the namegiven to me was that of aboy who is actuallyrelated to me. So I saidthat I had a nephew by thesame name. Maybe theyinterpreted it wrongly,”said Mangeram.

Won’t accept her, say parentsSTAFF REPORTER

Even after mymarriage, the boyvisited my maternalhome whenever Ivisited there. Hewould say that if Icouldn’t be his, hewould not let me bewith anyone else

The victim’s wifehas been accusedof having continuedher affair with

the juvenile

CMYK

ND-ND

CITY4 |THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW DELHI: Thousands of airand train passengers had aharrowing time on Tuesdaymorning as Delhi was en-gulfed in dense fog.

Nearly 250 flights, includ-ing arrivals and departures,were delayed by severalhours as Indira Gandhi Inter-national Airport (IGIA) wit-nessed zero visibility condi-tions in the early hours.

Two arrival flights, oneeach of Air India and Spice-Jet, had to be diverted tonearby airports as theycouldn’t land in Delhi.

Train schedules, alreadyreeling under a huge backlogof delays from December,went further of track with 85Delhi-bound trains runninglate by several hours and 47trains rescheduled.

Low visibility

Visibility at the airportplummeted to below 50metres from 2.30 a.m. onTuesday and started improv-ing slowly only after 9 a.m.,low visibility conditions sub-sided only after 11.30 am.

The MeT department saidthat Tuesday saw this sea-son’s third worst dense fogspell after December 2 andDecember 14, with CAT IIIA/B visibility conditionsprevailing.

Passengers had a toughtime as they spent hourswaiting inside aircraft for thefog cover to lift.

“Our Delhi-Agartala In-diGo flight (6E 861) wasscheduled to take of at 6.10a.m. but got delayed due tofog. We were stranded at theairport and then had to sufersitting inside the aircraft,

waiting for the fog to lift, formore than four hours,” saidDolonchapa Bhattacharya, aDelhi resident.

Packed Terminal 1-D

The domestic departureTerminal 1-D was bursting atthe seams as flight after flightgot delayed and the terminalgot crowded with passen-gers. Due to inadequate sit-

ting arrangements at the ter-minal, many passengers wereforced to sit on the floors.

“The Delhi Airport waslike a mismanaged fish mar-ket today,” Indrani Ray, a pas-senger tweeted.

The MeT department saidthat this season, particularlyDecember 2016, has wit-nessed one of longest densefog spells in the last many

years. “The normal for densefog occurrences at IGIA, forvisibility below 200 metres,is six days and 34 hours in themonth using period data of1981-2014, but in December2016, it was observed for 13days and 62 hours in total,”said R. K. Jenamani, Dir-ector-in-Charge of IGIAMeT unit.

“As per data for 1996-2016,

December 2016 had one ofthe top five highest dense fogoccurrences for the month inthe last 16 years,” he said.

Forecast

The minimum temperat-ure on Tuesday was recordedat 9.5 degree Celsius, twonotches above normal, whilethe maximum temperaturewas recorded at 24 degree

Celsius, four degrees abovenormal.

The MeT oice has pre-dicted mainly clear skies forWednesday with the likeli-hood of moderate to densefog in the morning. “Themaximum and minimumtemperatures are expected tohover at 25 and 10 degreesCelsius, respectively,” theweatherman said.

Tuesday saw this season’s third worst dense fog spell; some passengers forced to sit in aircraft for over four hours

Dense fog delays 250 flights, 132 trains STAFF REPORTER

WHITE BLANKET: A labourer makes his way across Rajpath as dense fog envelopes the Capital on Tuesday. PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

NEW DELHI: Leading womengroups came together onTuesday to express their an-ger over the attacks on theautonomy of the Delhi Com-mission of Women (DCW)and claimed that the wo-men’s body was not being al-lowed to function smoothly.

Representatives from AllIndia Democratic Women’sAssociation (AIDWA), AllIndia Progressive Women’sAssociation (AIPWA), ActNow for Harmony andDemocracy (ANHAD), JointWomen’s Programme(JWP), National Federationof Indian Women (NFIW),Nirantar and SwastikaMahila Samiti have lent theirsupport to the DCW and itschairperson Swati Maliwal.

Facing problems

The DCW has been facingproblems since August lastyear after the former Lieu-tenant-Governor NajeebJung appointed the MemberSecretary and all files wererouted to the Social WelfareDepartment of the Delhi gov-ernment.

“There has been a series ofattempt to disrupt the func-tioning of the DCW and thepolice have been used to stopMs. Maliwal from exercisingpowers. While the activefunctioning of the DCW hasgiven hope to women’s or-ganisations and women indistress, we understand thatit is also upsetting the highlypatriarchal mindset and thenexus between them and thepolitical administration,”said Annie Raja, general sec-retary of the NFIW.

Ms. Maliwal had allegedharassment by the Centrelast year on several instances

like naming her in an FIR forallegedly disclosing thename of a rape victim, al-leged irregularities in re-cruitment of contractualstaf and non-payment ofsalaries to the staf andothers.

‘Fight for women’s rights’

Shabnam Hashmi of AN-HAD said, “These attacks arenot just on the DCW but onthe fight for women’s rights.Our solidarity is not with anyparticular party but with abody that is working con-tinuously for women.”

Secretary of AIPWA,Kavita Krishnan said that ifthere is any credibility in thecomplaint of corruption thenit should definitely be invest-igated. “But the series ofraids at the DCW oice andother such attempts are anattack on the commission’sautonomy.”

The DCW staf wasn’t be-ing paid since August andtheir two-months salary wasreleased on December 29. Infact, Ms Maliwal had saidthat some of the commis-sion’s programmes may beshut down due to non-avail-ability of funds.

Anger over ‘attacks’ on DCW’s autonomySTAFF REPORTER

Activists said that the policehave been ‘used’ to stop DCWchief Swati Maliwal fromfulfilling her duties. FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI: In a bid tomodernise trade andbusiness in the Capital, theAam Aadmi Party (AAP)government on Tuesdaydecided to facilitate theconversion of existingmandis into e-mandis.

A proposal has also beenapproved to construct ane-mandi at Tikri Khampurin west Delhi at a cost of₨800 crore within two-and-a-half years.

Review meeting

Development MinisterGopal Rai announced thesteps following a reviewmeeting with the DelhiAgricultural MarketingBoard (DAMB).

The budget passed by theboard for 2017-18 stood at₨371.18 crore for theestimated income while theexpenditure proposed was₨434.19 crore.

“Our main objective is tousher in more transparencyand accountability in thisbusiness. We also want to

ensure that farmers get fairvalue for their goods,” theMinister said. Taking noteof “demonetisation blues”,Mr. Rai added said that theDelhi government hadinstalled 38 POS machinesin mandis to reducehardships faced by tradersand customers.

The conversion of the

mandis, the Minister said,was being done incollaboration with theNAM Group.

New market

The new mandi, thegovernment said, will bedeveloped over an area of70 acres and will beequipped with modern

facilities. A special consultant will

also be roped in to facilitatethe conversion of theAzadpur mandi to relievecongestion. Changes arealso in the oing for theGhazipur mandi where afour-storey building withmodern facilities is beingconstructed.

The flower market atGhazipur will also bemodernised. The budgetallocated for this makeoveris ₨140 crore, said a seniorgovernment oicial. Themarket will feature 432shops with cold storagefacilities

More revamps

A three-storey buildingwill be constructed at thepoultry market in Ghazipurat a cost of ₨120 crore. TheMongolpuri fodder marketis set to be replaced by asabzi mandi soon, addedthe oicial.

The Azadpur cementwarehouse area will alsosee some changes with thereconstruction of threesheds and an upgrade of theexisting drainage system ata cost of ₨20 crore.

Plan to convert mandis into e-markets clearedSTAFF REPORTER New wholesale

market to beconstructed at Tikri Khampur at acost of ₨800 crore

BIG PROJECT: A consultant will facilitate the conversion of the Azadpur mandi. FILE PHOTO: R.V. MOORTHY

NEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt on Tuesday said thatjhuggi jhopri (JJ) clusters arenormally “born out of need”and unauthorised coloniesare “born out of greed” whilerejecting the petition of acolony for regularisation.

The court observed thatlegalising unauthorisedcolonies in the past has em-boldened encroachers be-sides causing environmentaldegradation, traic bottle-necks and spread of diseasessuch as malaria due to lack ofdrainage facilities.

“It is pertinent to mentionthat people who have set upthese unauthorised colonieshave neither paid full devel-opment charges to the civicauthorities nor providedproper civic facilities likeroads, sewerage, drainage,water and electricity, and as aresult of this, diseases likemalaria, diarrhoea andtuberculosis are common inDelhi,” said JusticeManmohan.

‘Haphazard construction’

“It goes without sayingthat is extremely diicult ifnot impossible to provide ad-equate and proper sewage,drainage and roads after anunplanned colony has beenconstructed and occupied.After all, if the constructionhas been carried out in ahaphazard manner without

adhering to any scientificnorms like grid pattern, howcan a road with adequatewidth be subsequentlyprovided,” he added.

The court made the obser-vations while deciding innegative a petition filed byUtsav Vihar Residents Wel-fare Association seeking dir-ection to the DDA to not en-croach/ dispossess anymember of the colony fromits land.

Regularisation plea

Utsav Vihar is an unau-thorised colony which cameup in 1992 on a private agri-cultural land of Karala vil-lage. It is among the coloniesseeking regularisation by theDelhi government. Part ofthe colony falls within thealignment of the roads pro-posed by the Delhi Develop-ment Authority.

The Utsav Vihar RWA hadcome to the court with a pleanot to dispossess it from theland and also sought a direc-tion to the civic agency toproceed under the Right toFair Compensation andTransparency in Land Ac-quisition, Rehabilitation andResettlement Act, 2013, in

case any land forming part ofthe colony is required for anypublic purpose.

Land acquired by DDA

The DDA, on the otherhand, said it had acquired theland in 2007 after afectingdemolition and that the landfalling in the alignment of100 metre road has onlyabout nine properties andthe RWA cannot seek relieffor the entire colony on thatbasis.

The court was also in-formed that the colony's rep-resentation dated September22, 2012 for regularisationhad been rejected on theground that the land was re-quired for construction of apublic road.

The RWA was contendingthat the acquisition haslapsed with the DDA failingto take over the possession ofthe land.

The court, however, was ofthe view that afected per-sons would have to file indi-vidual writ petitions and “tillthe time the appropriatecourt does not declare thatthe acquisition proceedinghas lapsed, this court is of theview that the right of DDA tothe land cannot bequestioned”.

On regularisation, thecourt said since the colony'srepresentation stands rejec-ted and not challenged fortwo years, no relief can besought in relation to it.

HC: legalising unauthorisedcolonies creates problems AKANKSHA JAIN

OBSERVATION: The High Court said that JJ clusters are normally “born out of need” andunauthorised colonies are “born out of greed”. FILE PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

Regularisationemboldensencroachers anddestroys environment, observes court

NEW DELHI: Alleging that theAam Aadmi Party (AAP)government has failed totackle water and sanitationissues, the Delhi BJP haswritten a letter to Chief Min-ister Arvind Kejriwal askinghim to face “ground realit-ies” instead of resorting to“accusatory politics”.

Delhi BJP chief ManojTiwari also hit out at the gov-ernment over alleged delayin finalising the delimitationof the municipal wards.“This government is about tocomplete two years in oice,Mr. Kejriwal — wherever heis travelling, be it Goa orPunjab — must come and seethe civic condition of the

people in Delhi, especiallythe unauthorised colonieswhere people are living inhellish conditions,” Mr.Tiwari said at a press confer-ence on Tuesday.

“We are not asking for Mr.Kejriwal’s resignation, butjust want him to face the

ground realities and addressthem. I went to Indrapuriarea, where a communityspace has been lying lockedup for the last two years. Toi-lets are choked and the DJBwater supply line is dry andthe drains are in a bad shape,”Mr. Tiwari said.

Municipal polls

The move comes as themunicipal elections are duethis year and a sizeablechunk of voters reside in un-authorised colonies.

“We have written a letterto Mr. Kejriwal in this regard.I have also emphasised thatall agencies must work to-gether to bring relief topeople from such poor con-ditions,” the BJP leader said.

Face ground realities, BJP writes to CMSTAFF REPORTER

Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari.

NEW DELHI: A day after Lieuten-ant-Governor Anil Baijal’soice sought action againsthis imposters on Twitter, themicroblogging site has sus-pended five such accountswhile “legal action” has alsobeen initiated, police said.

Pre-emptive move

The police have also writ-ten to Twitter seeking log de-tails of these accounts. Thiswas done much before the L-G’s directions came, a seniorpolice oicial said.

“We had already askedTwitter to close the fake ac-counts operating in Mr.Baijal’s name before the dir-ections came from his of-fice,” he said.

Several of the fakehandles, active since Mr.Baijal was appointed as L-Gon December 28, were put-ting out misleading postscritical of Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal and hisgovernment.

Twitter debut

On January 1, the L-G’s of-fice made its Twitter debutwith the handle @LtGov-Delhi. Over 2,600 people arefollowing it as of now. — PTI

Five fake Twitteraccounts in L-G'sname suspended

Make Shunglu reportpublic: Gupta to Baijal

NEW DELHI: Delhi BJP legislators onTuesday met newly sworn-inLieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal andurged him to bring the ShungluCommittee report on the AAPgovernment’s files into the publicdomain and also sought hisintervention in delay indelimitation of wards. Leader of the Opposition in theDelhi Assembly Vijender Gupta,accompanied by two other MLAs,met Mr. Baijal and asked him toform a monitoring committee tofollow up his decisions on thereport. “The BJP delegation urgedthe LG to bring Shunglu CommitteeReport in public domain at theearliest in public interest,” Mr.Gupta said. — Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: FormerLieutenant-GovernorNajeeb Jung had referredseven cases related toalleged corruption in theDelhi government to theCBI before demittingoice.

Sources said the CBI hasregistered two FIRs on the

basis of referral and apreliminary probe in onecase, while four referralsare in various stages ofconsiderations at theagency. Sources said thecases were referred on thebasis of Shunglu panelobservations, which hadpointed out alleged

irregularities in thefunctioning of the Delhigovernment. The CBI hadrecently registered a caseinto the appointment ofNikunj Aggarwal as formerOSD to Health MinisterSatyendra Jain, besidesalleged irregularities in thefunctioning of Delhi Wakf

Board.Mr. Jung had formed a

three-member panel onAugust 30. The panel’smandate was to examine“irregularities” and“infirmities” in over 400files on decisions taken bythe AAP government.

— PTI

Jung had referred seven Delhi govt graft cases to CBI

NOD FOR PROPOSAL: Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority CEO Arun Vir Singhexplaining the location of land allotted to Patanjali. — PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

GREATER NOIDA: At its 58thboard meeting on Tuesday,the Yamuna Expressway In-dustrial Development Au-thority (YEIDA) approved 12proposals, including allot-ment of land to yoga guruBaba Ramdev’s Patanjali.

The authority has ap-proved the 430 acres projectin Sectors 24 and 24A alongthe Expressway. Of this, 50acres is yet to be acquired.

“We allotted 130 acres inSector 24 and 300 acres inSector 24A. The authorityapproved a proposal thatseeks to revise the layout ofSectors 24 and 24A,” saidYEIDA CEO Arun Vir Singh.

Authority chairman San-jay Agarawal, also the Prin-cipal Secretary (Power) andUP Power Corporation Lim-ited (UPPCL) chairman,chaired the board meetingthat took place at Noida Au-thority’s administrativebuilding in Sector 6.

25 acres more for varsity

“The UP government hadin November issued an allot-ment letter granting land toPatanjali Yogpeeth for indus-trial and institutional use,”Hem Singh, the YEIDA Of-ficer On Special Duty, toldThe Hindu.

“A total of 455 acres wassupposed to be given to thegroup. So far, we have allot-ted 430 acres for industrialuse. An additional 25 acreswill be given for institutional

use, where Baba Ramdevplans to set up a universityand research centre. Of 430acre, 380 acres is withYEIDA. We have started theprocess of buying the re-maining 50 acre from farm-ers. Construction work willstart by the end of thismonth,” he added

“Patanjali will have to pay20 per cent of the total cost[as land has been allocated]before commencement ofwork. The remaining 80 percent will be paid in instal-ments. So far, we have re-ceived ₨27 crore from the

group,” he said. Chief Minister Akhilesh

Yadav had laid the founda-tion for Baba Ramdev’s Pa-tanjali food park and univer-sity on November 30 fromLucknow, said YEIDA oi-cials. The authority, whichowns land along the 165-kmExpressway, said the allot-ment letter will be handedover to a Patanjali represent-ative in Lucknow. The landchosen by Patanjali is loc-ated nearly 4 km from BuddhInternational Circuit.

The project, with an in-vestment of Rs.1,666.80

crore, is expected to createdirect employment oppor-tunities for over 8,000people.

Initial round of talks

Baba Ramdev’s key aideAcharya Balkrishna had inMay met YEIDA oicials tohold the initial round oftalks, besides inspectingland for the proposed pro-ject. After the one in Harid-war, set up about 10 years agoand spread across 150 acres,this is expected to be thelargest project set up by Pa-tanjali in the country.

Yamuna Expressway authority approves UP govt.’s November allotment letter

430 acres allotted to PatanjaliPURUSHARTH ARADHAK

CMYK

CITY/STATE | 5THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW DELHI: Any event organ-iser, if using copyrighted mu-sic or songs in a party, wouldhave to inform the copyrightsocieties which will issue aninvoice for payment of roy-alty along with proof of theirrights as per an interim ar-rangement arrived at in theDelhi High Court between afirm and three suchsocieties.

To inform three societies

Under the arrangement,anyone who is going to holdan event will inform thethree societies — Indian Per-forming Right Society(IPRS), Phonographic Per-formance Ltd (PPL) andNovex Communications PvtLtd — about copyrightedwork to be used. One of thesethree, which hold the rights,will issue an invoice for roy-alty along with proof of own-ership of the copyright.

Organisers would have topay royalty prior to holdingthe event, Justice NajmiWaziri noted in his order,while directing the respond-ent societies to “upload ontheir respective websites the[copyright] assignment

deeds along with the list ofsongs pertaining to such as-signment deed”.

The order came after thesocieties claimed they were“legitimate assignees ofcopyrighted works or areotherwise duly authorisedagents of copyright owners”and sought to enforce theirrights under Sections 18 (as-signment of copyright) and30 (licences by owners ofcopyright) of the CopyrightAct.

They argued that as longas the owner of a copyrightexercises its rights underSections 18 and 30, read 19(mode of assignment ofcopyright) of the Act, “thereis no bar on the copyright

owner or his agent or an as-signee from monetising thecopyrighted works”.

The court was hearing aplea moved by the societiesagainst its December 23 de-cision restraining them fromgranting licence, as copy-right society under Section33 of the Act, to play musicand songs of various artistesin public. The December 23order had come on a plea byEvent and EntertainmentManagement Association(EEMA), which has claimedthat the registrations of IPRSand PPL expired in 2013 andNovex was never registered.

The court has listed thematter for further hearing onApril 24. — PTI

Event organisers to pay royaltyfor use of copyrighted songs: HC

MUSIC MATTERS: Organisers are required to pay royalty prior toholding the event, said the Delhi High Court. — FILE PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

NEW DELHI: A 14-year-old wasallegedly gangraped by twoteenagers inside a public toi-let at a transit camp in AnandParbat on December 31.

The girl had stopped touse the toilet on her wayback from a nearby shopwhen the youth entered thepremises and raped her.They also threatened herwith dire consequences ifshe revealed the incident toanyone. The girl, whose fam-ily relocated here from Kath-putli Colony after the recentdemolition, went back to hertent and stayed quiet.

Her mother came to knowabout the assault when thegirl complained of pain in theabdomen. She was taken formedical examination, whichconfirmed rape. Based onher statement, a case underSection 376D (gang rape) ofthe Indian Penal Code andrelevant sections of Protec-tion of Children from SexualOfences Act has been re-gistered at Anand Parbat po-lice station. The accusedhave been apprehended. Thepolice said they claimed tobe juveniles. Their claims arebeing verified.

Minor gangrapedin public toiletSTAFF REPORTER

GURUGRAM: More than 600 re-gistrations have been re-ceived for the two-day“Pravasi Harayana Divas” atKingdom of Dreams here onJanuary 10 and 11.

To be organised on thelines of last year’s “Happen-ing Haryana”, it will be thefirst-of-its-kind event whichwill provide the pravasiHaryanvis an opportunity toreconnect with their roots.

The objective

The objective of the“Pravasi Haryana Divas” is torecognise the achievementsof the NRIs and the PIOsfrom the State as well asthose Haryanvis who aresettled elsewhere in thecountry and to harness theirenergies in the future devel-opment of Haryana.

The State government isaiming at not only highlight-ing available avenues for in-vestments in various sectors,but also ofering opportunit-ies for meaningful contribu-tion towards improving thelives of the people ofHaryana.

Day-long road show

A day-long road show wasorganised in Delhi in the run

up to the event on Tuesday.Speaking on the occasion,State Industries and Com-merce Minister Vipul Goelsaid a cultural evening wouldmark the beginning of theevent and four parallel sec-toral sessions would be heldon the second day.

Significant contributions

Mr. Goel said pravasiHaryanvis who have madesignificant contributions inthe fields of trade and in-dustry, health and education,information technology, en-gineering and services, art,culture, entertainment, tour-ism and social serviceswould also be honoured with‘Haryana Gaurav Samman’during the event.

The “Pravasi Harayana Di-vas” was originally plannedto be held with the two-day“Happening Haryana” sum-mit last year, but it was post-poned at the eleventh hourdue to large-scale violence inthe State during the Jat reser-vation agitation.

Haryana to host pravasisfrom State on Jan 10, 11STAFF REPORTER Event will be

organised at Kingdomof Dreams on thelines of last year’sHappening Haryana

NEW DELHI: A 19-year-old waslooted by two women and ayouth with whom he sharedan auto-rickshaw ride fromAnand Vihar railway stationto Noida, the police said onTuesday.

The incident happened ineast Delhi’s Mayur Vihar onJanuary 1. Gautam boardedan auto-rickshaw thatalready had three passengers— the two women and theyouth. All four decided tosplit the fare on reachingNoida. The trio over-powered Gautam nearMayur Vihar Phase-1. Theysnatched his bag, Rs.2,000 incash and ATM card beforepushing him out of thevehicle, the police said. Acase has been registered andthe police are trying toidentify the accused.

8 held for robbery

In another case, eight boyshave been apprehended forallegedly robbing a man ofRs.3,000 in north-west Del-hi’s Subhash Place, the policesaid on Tuesday. ShakurpurJJ colony resident ShambhuKumar was dragged away,thrashed and looted by theboys, said Milind Dumbere,DCP (north west). — PTI

Women, youthloot man in auto-rickshaw

8 |THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

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SOUTH

VISAKHAPATNAM: Tocommunicate a strongmessage to people on roadsafety, the Visakhapatnampolice have not given anyleverage to their own men.In fact, 671 police personnelwere booked in 2016 forriding without wearinghelmet.

Those who were bookedinclude constables, headconstables, writers andassistant sub-inspectors.Even a case was bookedagainst an SI who was toldto pay the fine.

According to a survey bythe traic police, despitemaking the wearing ofhelmets compulsory fortwo-wheeler riders, 40 per

cent of the motorcyclistsdo not wear it.

“Being law enforcers, wecannot take rules forgranted and flout them. Wehave to lead by exampleand the Commissioner ofPolice has issued a noticethat no policeman riding atwo-wheeler can enter thepolice stations or theCommissioner’s oicewithout wearing a helmet,”said ADCP (Traic) K.Mahendra Patrudu.

“This action againstpolicemen should send astrong signal to the people,and we will be stepping upthe drive in the next fewdays,” he added.

Though cases againstthose not wearing a helmethave come down, the

number of fatal accidentshas increased.

While the number ofhelmet cases booked in2015 was 1,28,898, in 2016 itdropped to 76,304. At thesame time, the number offatal accidents hasincreased from 325 in 2015to 342 in 2016 and cases ofgrievous injuries went upfrom 701 to 795.

According to ACP(Traic) KinjarapuPrabhakar, 40 per cent ofthe accidents involvedtwo-wheelers and in 60 percent cases the victims whodied of head injuries werenot wearing helmets. “It isseen that the violators ofthe helmet rule are mostlyin the age group of 18 to 25years,” said Mr. Prabhakar.

Visakhapatnam shows the way in enforcing helmet rule To send strong signal, 671 police personnel have been booked in 2016 for flouting regulation

SAFETY FIRST: A policeman stopping a person without helmetfrom entering the police commissionerate inVisakhapatnam on Tuesday. — PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

SUMIT BHATTACHARJEE

MYSURU: Mysuru zoo will re-main closed for one monthfrom Tuesday as laboratoryreports confirmed that thecause of death of some mi-gratory birds on its premisesrecently was due to avian in-fluenza (H5N8). The zoo willbe shut till February 2 as aprecautionary measure.

This is perhaps for the firsttime in the history of the zoothat it will remain out ofbounds for tourists for manydays.

Zoo Executive DirectorKamala K. told The Hindu

that a Spot Billed Pelican andthree Greylag Goose died ina zoo pond on December 28.Another Spot Billed Pelicanand a Greylag Goose died inthe same pond on December30.

She said a report from theNational Institute of HighSecurity and Animal Dis-eases (NIHSAD) on Tuesdayconfirmed avian influenza as

cause for the death of birds.All the captive zoo anim-

als and birds have beenfound to be healthy and areunder observation, accord-ing to Ms. Kamala.

The management has,however, not closed downKaranji Lake Nature Park(KLNP), located next to thezoo and houses one of thecountry’s largest aviaries.

“We are closely monitoringthe situation and will decideaccordingly on shuttingdown KLNP,” she told The

Hindu.The entire zoo campus is

being sterilised and the entryto pond number 3, wheresome birds were found deadon December 28 and 30, hasbeen restricted.

There were no visitors to

the zoo on Tuesday, it being aholiday. The zoo is a touristdestination, and attractsabout 10,000 visitors dailyand more during the week-end.

Ms. Kamala said strict bio-security measures have beenput in place at entry and exitpoints of the zoo by provid-ing foot dips mixed with dis-infectant. Intersectionalmovement of zoo personnelhas been restricted and theyhave been sensitised on theprecautions to be taken.

Also, strict bio-securitymeasures have been ensuredfor the entry of vehicles, anddisinfectant sprayed on thetyres of incoming vehicles asa precautionary measure.

Foot dips with viricidaland hand sanitizers havebeen provided to the zoostaf at the entry of all animalenclosures.

The zoo’s aviary sectionhas been sprayed with adisinfectant.

Emptying of the water

from pond no. 3 (where thebirds were found dead) aftertreating it with sodium hydr-chloride is under way, shesaid.

The walk-through aviary,areas around Japan pond,and Pond no. 2 has also beensprayed with disinfectant.“All birds in ponds seem tobe normal and no ailing birdshave been noticed. Move-ment of staf has been re-stricted in the open aviaryand Japan ponds,” she said.

Health check-up

Meanwhile, the zoo de-cided to conduct a healthcheck-up for its employeesin coordination with the De-partment of Health and Fam-ily Welfare.

Prophylactic medicationhas been started for the em-ployees working closely withthe ponds.

Personal protective equip-ment (PPE) kits have beenprovided to the Rapid Re-sponse Team (RRT).

Laboratory tests confirm that some migratory birds died of avian influenza

Bird flu: Mysuru zoo to be shut till Feb. 2SHANKAR BENNUR

OUT OF BOUNDS: For the first time, the zoo will remain closed totourists for many days. — PHOTO: M.A.SRIRAM

HUBBALLI: Member of Parlia-ment from Uttara Kannada,Ananthkumar Hegde, al-legedly manhandled and as-saulted doctors at a privatehospital in Sirsi on Mondaynight, alleging negligencewhile treating his mother.

However, the episodeended in a compromise afterMr. Hegde apologised to thedoctors for his action. Twodoctors and a medical stafbore the brunt of his anger.CCTV footage of him as-saulting the doctors wasaired by TV channels.

Doctors of the TSS hos-pital clarified that there wasno negligence on their part.

Doctors stage protest

Following the assault, thedoctors staged a protest ur-ging the Assistant Commis-sioner of Sirsi to initiatesteps to prevent recurrenceof such episodes.

The doctors said such at-

tacks were condemnable anddemoralised them. Congressmembers too staged aprotest seeking actionagainst Mr. Hegde.

The incident happenedwhen the MP visited the hos-pital to see his mother, whowas there to receive treat-ment for hip fracture. TheCCTV footage that wentviral on social media andtelevision channels showed

Mr. Hegde pushing a doctor,trying to kick him, and alsoblowing punches. Duty doc-tor Balachandra Bhat, ortho-paedic surgeon Madhukesh-war, and medical staf Rahulsustained minor injuries.

After a meeting of doctorsand the Indian Medical As-sociation oice-bearers,where Mr. Hegde proferredan apology, the doctors andmedical staf decided not topursue the case.

The MP said he was angryafter seeing his mother’spain.

Speaking to The Hindu

over phone, Dr. Madhukesh-war said they decided not topursue the case as Mr. Hegdehad apologised for his ac-tion. “But we are deeply hurtas we were manhandled des-pite doing our duty. We onlyhope that such incidents donot recur,” he said.

Meanwhile, sources in thehospital said his mother wasbrought there nine days aftershe fell.

BJP MP manhandles doctorsin hospital, later apologisesSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The CCTV footage ofAnanthkumar Hegde, MPfrom Uttara Kannada,assaulting hospital staff hasgone viral.

HYDERABAD: About 190 minorsfrom Odisha working at dif-ferent brick kilns at PeddaKondur village were rescuedby the Pochampally police,Labour Department oicersand other oicials. Majorityof those who were rescuedwere below 13 years, said po-lice oicials.

“The raids were carriedout as part of OperationSmile (an initiative to tracemissing children) by us. Theminors, who came to the vil-lage along with their parentsfrom Odisha, were not beingsent to school. Instead, theywere put to work,” said Sne-hitha, Assistant Commis-sioner of Police (ACP),Chotuppal division,Rachakonda police.

“All those who were arres-ted for engaging minors atwork will be booked underrelevant sections of the IPCand Bonded Labour Act,”said Ms. Snehitha. Of thetotal number of minors whowere rescued, 155 were below13 years and 35 were between13 and 18 years.

The children were work-ing at about 11 brick kilns,said the ACP. She added thatapart from the brick kilnowners, the police wouldalso book traickers whobrokered the children intoworking at Pedda Kondurvillage, which was about 50kilometres from Hyderabad.

Rachakonda Police Com-missioner Mahesh Bhagwatsaid the Odisha governmenthad also been informedabout the rescue.

190 minors working inTelangana kilns rescued STAFF REPORTER

KOZHIKODE: A police jeep at-tached to the Nadapuramcontrol room in ruralKozhikode was attackedwith crude explosives byunidentified miscreants atPurameri grama panchayaton Monday night. Therewere no casualties.

The incident occurred atAroor Kottamukku when thepolice team was carrying outa routine vehicle check onthe Perumundassery Road.

Three police personnel,including an additional sub-inspector, were present atthe spot during the attack.

The glass of the police jeepwas destroyed in the explo-sion. A case has been re-gistered in this connection.

Explosives hurledat police jeep in NadapuramSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CMYK

NATION | 9THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW DELHI: Union Home Min-ister Rajnath Singh said onTuesday that the State gov-ernments should be seriousabout the safety of womenand it was not possible forthe Centre to seek reports onevery matter. He was re-sponding to questions aboutthe incident of mass mo-lestation in Bengaluru dur-ing New Year celebrations.

“Protecting the modestyof women is the duty of theState governments,” he said.

Minister of State for HomeKiren Rijiju criticisedKarnataka Home Minister G.Parameshwara for his com-ments that “these kinds ofthings do happen.” “I con-demn the irresponsible com-

ment made by the Karnatakahome minister. City policeshould catch all the identi-fied culprits and put thembehind the bar,” he said onTwitter. In another tweet, hesaid: “We cannot allow theshameful act of #massmo-lestation to go unpunished.Bengaluru is a vibrant cityand women’s safety is a mustin a civilised society.”

The National Commissionfor Women issued sum-monses to Mr. Paramesh-wara and Samajwadi Partyleader Abu Azmi for theirobjectionable remarks. “Wehave sent summonses toboth of them for their state-ments,” NCW chairpersonLalitha Kumaramangalamsaid. “It does not matterwhether Abu Azmi belongs

to one particular party or an-other. To be brutally frank,there are men across partieswho make these disgusting

statements. If men at thislevel say such things, wherethe nation is heading?” shesaid.

NCW issues summonses to Parameshwara, Abu Azmi for objectionable remarks

States duty-bound toprotect women: Rajnath SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Though national-ism and patriotism areevoked often in the nationaldiscourse today, the great-grandnephew of iconic re-volutionary Udham Singh isstruggling to secure the jobof a peon with the Punjabgovernment, which had beenpromised to him by formerChief Minister AmarinderSingh 10 years ago.

The promise of the Con-gress government did notmaterialise after the regimechanged. The repeated pleasof Jagga Singh, the great-grandson of Udham Singh’selder sister Aas Kaur, to theShiromani Akali Dal and BJPgovernment have not yiel-ded any results.

Udham Singh had avengedthe massacre of hundreds ofpeople in Jallianwala Bagh onApril 13, 1919 by General Re-ginald Edward Harry Dyerby killing Michael O’Dwyer,who was the Governor ofPunjab when the massacretook place, in London 21

years later. Charged withmurder, he was hanged todeath in 1940 in a prison inLondon.

Jagga Singh works at acloth merchant’s shop for ₨2,500 a month, to sustain afamily of six including his 60-year-old father, Jeet Singh.

Hoping to draw the atten-tion of Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi and Home Min-ister Rajnath Singh,30-year-old Mr. Singh has

been holding a dharna for thelast four days at the JantarMantar here.

But neither the BharatiyaJanata Party, which is rulingat the Centre, nor the Shiro-mani Akali Dal in the Statehave ofered anything con-crete. We are not beggingfrom the government to giveus money; we are just askingfor a job, which is our rightand not wrong demand,” hesaid. — PTI

No freedom from poverty for kin of martyr Udham Singh

SEEKING A RIGHT: Relatives of Udham Singh sitting on a dharnaat Jantar Mantar in New Delhi. — FILE PHOTO: PTI

MEERUT: A court in Aligarh hasaccepted a complaintagainst historian Irfan Habibfor his remark about theRashtriya SwayamsevakSangh’s role in freedomstruggle.

Hearing a petition by RSSactivist Gopal Baghel, thecourt, however, refused toorder an FIR under Section156/3 of the Cr. PC againstProf. Habib saying there wasno basis to do so.

The court fixed January 23as the next date of hearingand asked the complainantto submit evidence in sup-port of his allegation.

Mr. Baghel said he was amember of the RSS and was“hurt” by the statement ofProf. Habib that the RSS hadno role in the Indian free-dom struggle.

Role in freedom struggle

Prof. Habib had in Marchsaid at a function that theRSS should tell people whatwas its role in the Indianfreedom struggle against theBritish Raj.

Asked to comment aboutthe petition, Prof. Habib toldThe Hindu that he stood byhis statement that there wasno historical evidence toprove that the RSS particip-ated in the freedom struggle.

Court to hear pleaagainst historian for remarks on RSS

STAFF REPORTER

JAIPUR: Announcing thelaunch of a major agitationagainst Manuvaad andManusmriti, civil rights act-ivists here on Tuesday de-manded immediate removalof Manu’s statue from theJaipur Bench of RajasthanHigh Court. The agitationagainst Manu’s ideologywould be spread all over thecountry, said the activists.

At a convention markingthe birth anniversary of so-cial reformer and poetessSavitribai Phule, activists ofManuvaad Virodhi Abhiyansaid the stir would continuetill the birth anniversary ofJyoti Rao Phule on April 11with the demand for repla-cing Manuvaad with human-ism in all walks of life.

A delegation of the Ab-hiyan will shortly meet theChief Justice of RajasthanHigh Court to raise the de-

mand for expeditious hear-ing of a writ petition seekingremoval of Manu’s statuefrom the court premises.

‘Symbol of injustice’

Abhiyan's convener Bhan-war Meghwanshi said a pub-lic awareness programmewould generate conscious-ness about Manu as a ‘sym-bol of injustice’, who shouldhave no place in the booksand courts of law. The agita-tion against “everything giv-ing respectability to Manuand his ideology” would betaken to the tehsil level.

The participants at themeet said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, who had ex-pressed his government'scommitment to the socialjustice principles of B.R.Ambedkar, should take aninitiative to remove Manu’sstatue from the High Courtand install Ambedkar'sstatue in its place.

Activists want Manu’s statueremoved from Rajasthan HCMOHAMMED IQBAL

Art for a cause

NOTE THE POINT: An art work, showing the effect of demonetisation, at a dangerous pothole on Kensington Road, offUlsoor Lake, in Bengaluru on Tuesday. The work by Baadal Nanjundaswamy is his unique way of drawing the BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Palike’s attention to the neglected road. — PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR

NEW DELHI: The government onTuesday announced that theState-run oil marketing com-panies, namely Indian OilCorporation Limited(IOCL), Bharat PetroleumCorporation Limited (BPCL)and Hindustan PetroleumCorporation Limited(HPCL), will now ofer anupfront discount of ₨5 onevery refill of LPG cylinderto their LPG customers whobook and pay online.

“Customers can make pay-ment through existing onlinemodes like net banking,credit & debit cards at thetime of web-booking of theirrefills,” the oicial statementsaid. Customers will get thediscounted amount dis-played on their screens. Thenet discounted amount willalso be shown on the cashmemo at the the time ofhome-delivery of the LPGcylinder.

Discount foronline LPG refill bookings

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

BENGALURU: KarnatakaHome Minister G.Parameshwara onTuesday claimed he wasmisquoted by the media,which “twisted” hiscomments on the allegedmolestation of womenduring New Yearcelebrations here. “I ampained that a part of myinterview was twisted.

Being a responsibleHome Minister of theState, I won’t make suchsilly statements,” Dr.Parameshwara told The

Hindu.

FIR registered

Late on Tuesday night,city PoliceCommissioner PraveenSood told The Hindu anFIR has been registeredin the molestation case.

I was misquoted: Parameshwara

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Justice T.S. Thakur,considered one of the “mostpopular judges” in recenttimes, retired on Tuesday asthe 43rd Chief Justice of In-dia, saying he has “played hisrole.” In his farewell speechon the Supreme Court lawns,Justice Thakur exhorted thejudiciary to be ready to meetthe challenges of the futureas the country is on the “cuspof a great resurgence” and isemerging to be a super-power, both economicallyand militarily.

On the last day of his one-year tenure as Chief Justice,

during which he was a vocaladvocate of the “impossibleburdens” faced by the judi-ciary and led the criticism ofthe government in delayingappointments and transfersof High Court judges, JusticeThakur turned towards hisown brethren and askedthem to fortify themselves tothe greater challenges ahead.

Many problems

He said the problemsfaced by the judiciary in thepresent were many, rangingfrom the three crore pendingcases in courts to the abjectlack of judicialinfrastructure.

“But you will have greaterchallenges ahead and notvery far into the future. Youwill have to decide on casesconcerning cyberlaws,medico-legal cases, ques-tions of privacy and chal-lenges to India’s inclusive so-ciety. And you have to makesure that you perform yourrole. So get ready to do so,”Justice Thakur addressed the

judiciary. He said his prayerswould be for the judiciary tobe fearless and fair.

“You do not build a bridgelike an engineer, you do notbuild great hydel projects forthe nation. But your role willalways be critical for othersto build these bridges and hy-del projects. For these greatand wonderful construc-tions to happen, for us to ad-vance as a nation, thereshould be peace in the soci-ety. You provide the peacethrough the proper and fairadministration of justice,”Justice Thakur told the as-sembled members of thejudiciary.

CJI Thakur retires, says he has played his roleKRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL He exhorts the

judiciary to be readyto meet thechallenges ofthe future

AGARTALA: A moderate intens-ity earthquake measuring 5.7on the Richter scale and epi-centred in Tripura jolted thecountry’s Northeast onTuesday afternoon, trigger-ing landslides in the hill Stateand leaving a woman deadand four others injured.

According to the NationalCentre for Seismology, theepicentre of the quake whichoccurred at 2.39 p.m. was inDhalai district of Tripura at adepth of 28 km.

Panic-stricken people ranout of homes, oices andbuildings in the region.

Fifty-year-old KamaliniKanda died after sufering aheart attack at her residenceat Natunbagan in Kamalpursub-division of the district,local MLA Anjan Das said.“It was terrible as the quakelasted for about one-and-half-minutes,” a resident,Biswajit Bhattacharya, said.

At least 30 houses de-veloped cracks, oiciatingSub-divisional Magistrate ofKamalpur in Dhalai, AmitavaChakma, said.

The quake was traced to alocation in Ambassa area,about 59 km from Agartala,an oicial at the RegionalSeismological Centre said.

An oicial said landslidesoccurred at many placesalong the Chhamanu-Go-bindabari road. — PTI.

5.7 magnitudequake joltsNortheast; 1 dead

CHANDIGARH: Leaving no stoneunturned to ensure hisparty’s victory in the upcom-ing Assembly elections inPunjab, former Chief Minis-ter and State Congress pres-ident Captain AmarinderSingh on Tuesday invited Bi-har Chief Minister NitishKumar to Punjab to cam-paign for the Congress.

Capt. Amarinder, who wasin Patna to participate in thehistoric 350th birth an-niversary celebrations of10th Sikh Guru GobindSingh, met Nitish Kumar inan informal lunch meetingalong with Asha Kumari, theCongress leader in charge ofPunjab.

“I requested Nitish for

support in the Punjab as-sembly polls and was hope-ful of getting the same,”Capt.Amarinder said in a state-ment, adding that the Con-gress and Nitish Kumar’sJanata Dal (United) wereworking well together as analliance in Bihar and had a lotto learn from each other.

Both Capt. Amarinder andMs. Kumari formally invitedMr. Nitish to come to Punjaband campaign for the Con-gress in the coming As-sembly elections. “We justhad an informal chat overlunch. The informal discus-sions between us extendedover a wide range of subjectsand spoke about issues ofcommon interest to both thestates,” the State Congresspresident said.

Amarinder invites Nitishto campaign for Cong.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Bihar CM Nitish Kumar presents a memento toPunjab Congressleader Amarinder Singh in Patna on Tuesday.— PHOTO: PTI

PATNA: One of the five prison-ers who had escaped from thehigh-security Buxar centraljail last week was on Tuesdayarrested from Saran districtof the State.

After his arrest the convicteven attempted suicide butafter medical attention wastaken into custody. “GirdhariRai was arrested from MathiaMor under the Mufassil po-lice station today,” said policeoicer Shambhu Saran Singh.

are in the process of handinghim over to the Buxar police.”said Mr. Singh. On the nightof December 31, five convicts,including four serving lifeterms, had escaped from theBuxar central jail after scalingthe boundary wall.

He said that at the police sta-tion, the convict cut his wristwith a sharp object and wasimmediately taken to thetown hospital.

“After primary treatmentthe doctors allowed us to takehim into custody and now we

Buxar jailbreak: One prisoner arrestedSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CMYK

ND-ND

10 |THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

W E D N E S D A Y , J A N U A R Y 4 , 2 0 1 7

EDITORIAL

CARTOONSCAPE

The Supreme Court has grappled with thequestion whether a provision in electorallaw that makes it a corrupt practice to usereligion, race, caste or language as a

ground for canvassing votes in an election is a barlimited to the groups to which candidates or theirrivals belong, or whether it is a general prohibitionon sectarian appeals. Section 123(3) of the Repres-entation of the People Act, 1951, as amended in 1961,gave rise to this doubt. By a four-three majority, aseven-member Bench has ruled that it is a generalprohibition on the use of religion or any other com-munal or sectarian value in the electoral arena. Theminority favoured limiting the ambit of the sub-section to cover only candidates who sought voteson such grounds, or the rivals they wanted thevoters not to back on similar grounds. That secular-ism is the bedrock of our democracy is undisputed.That the electoral process ought not to permit ap-peals to the electorate on these narrow grounds isequally beyond doubt. Against this backdrop, it isonly logical that the Supreme Court should decidethat it is a “corrupt practice” for candidates to useany caste or communal parameters to canvass forvotes or to discredit a rival, regardless of whetherthe candidates themselves belong to such religious,communal or linguistic groups.

It is interesting that the dispute turned on asingle pronoun, ‘his’, that was introduced in the 1961amendment. The majority opinion favours a ‘pur-posive interpretation’, holding that it covered thecandidates as well as the voter. It finds support inlegislative history and our constitutional ethos.The purpose of the amendment was to widen thescope of the particular corrupt practice. Given thatsecularism is a basic feature of the Constitution, ithas been interpreted in the light of Parliament’s in-tention to prohibit any religious or sectarian appealfor votes. There is a justifiable worry that a widerinterpretation may lead to eliminating from the polldiscourse political issues that turn on religion,caste or language. After all, this is a country inwhich sections of society sufer deprivation andhistorical injustices based on religious or casteidentity. But the overall message is clear. It is left tothe wisdom of judges dealing with election cases todraw the line between what is permissible and whatis not, and look at the context in which some state-ments are made before deciding whether they con-stitute a corrupt practice. The majority verdict willfind resonance with all those who swear by theprimacy of secularism in the public domain. Theminority view nuances this with a reminder thatlegal issues need to be seen in their social context.

Secularising the election

The State Bank of India’s decision to cut itsmarginal cost of funds based lending rate(MCLR) by 90 basis points is a timelynudge to borrowers, especially given the

sharp slowdown in credit growth in the currentfiscal year. The timing of the cut is not surprising,given that the country’s largest commercial lenderis awash with funds held in current and savings ac-count (CASA) deposits following the Centre’s de-cision to withdraw high-value banknotes and im-pose withdrawal curbs on account-holders. Withdemand across sectors having taken a knock in thewake of the resultant cash crunch, the SBI’s de-cision to reduce borrowing costs is likely to spursome credit-fuelled buying including in sectorssuch as automobiles. Latest data from the ReserveBank of India show that growth in bank credit de-celerated to 1.2 per cent in the April 1-December 9,2016 period, compared with the 6.2 per cent pacewitnessed in the comparable period in 2015. De-posit growth, on the other hand, almost doubled inpace, accelerating from 7.1 per cent in the sameperiod in 2015 to 13.6 per cent in 2016. Banks havethus found themselves in an unenviable situationwhere their liabilities (the money they owe depos-itors) have jumped sharply, while their assets (theloans they give) have instead almost stagnated.This has added to their woes at a time when mount-ing bad loans have pushed most public sector banksto post record quarterly losses. The demonetisa-tion decision has willy-nilly ended up providingbanks with the windfall of low-cost deposits thatcould potentially serve as the launch pad to acredit-backed demand stimulus in the economy.

Other banks have also cut lending rates, andlenders are now vying with each other to innovat-ively structure credit products, including homeloans, in a bid to capitalise on what they hope willbe an enduring revival in the appetite for borrow-ing. Still, the constraint of needing to fund the sub-stantially higher interest commitments on depositsthat have swelled the bank’s liabilities have alsoforced the SBI to raise the spread it applies on homeloans — the additional markup interest it chargesover the benchmark one-year MCLR — to a min-imum of 50 basis points from 25 basis points earlier.The question is whether this reduction in borrow-ing costs will be enough to restore consumer con-fidence. With the Union budget less than a monthaway, the coming weeks could well serve to provideclear signals on the potential need for a fiscal stim-ulus to reinvigorate flagging economic growth, es-pecially if a revival in credit growth is going to beslower than anticipated.

A nudge to borrowers

Do fair elections require that certain kinds ofstatements — such as appeals to religion,caste, and language — be taken of the cam-paigning table altogether? Can the state pre-vent adult citizens from being exposed tocertain ideas before they vote? Can a courtdecide that only certain kinds of interestscount in a democracy? Does secularismmandate the complete exclusion of religionfrom the public sphere? And must identitiesbased upon religion, caste, and language al-ways be treated as evils to be fought anderadicated? Or can they sometimes becomesites of emancipation, markers aroundwhich citizens organise themselves and seekliberation through the attainment of politicalpower?

A landmark judgment

These questions, fundamental to under-standing the foundations of our republic,were answered by a divided Supreme Courton Monday. The seven judges hearing thecase split four to three, revealing the com-plexity of the issues involved, as well as aninevitable collision of constitutional values.And it all began with a disagreement over asingle word: “his”.

Section 123(3) of the Representation of thePeople Act, India’s omnibus election law,defines a corrupt electoral practice as fol-lows: “The appeal by a candidate or his agentor by any other person with the consent of acandidate or his election agent to vote or re-frain from voting for any person on theground of his religion, race, caste, com-munity....” The question before the SupremeCourt was deceptively simple: did the under-lined word “his” qualify only the electoralcandidate (and his agent, or persons speak-ing with his consent)? Or did it also qualifythe person to whom the appeal was ad-dressed (the elector)? A quick glance at thetext of the section will tell us that, althoughthe former reading is more plausible, lan-guage alone cannot answer the question: the

section does not specify whether “his” refersto the speaker seeking votes, or the audiencefrom whom votes are being sought. To selectone interpretation over the other, we mustask ourselves: what is this law trying toachieve?

The majority view

Four out of seven judges held that the lawwas trying to achieve the purity of elections,and that the purity of elections required thatappeals to caste, religion, language, and com-munity be kept out of the electoral process.In the view of the majority, an election thatwas fought and decided on these issues was adistortion of democracy. And it was distor-ted because of two reasons: one, that fordemocracy to survive, there must be agree-ment on certain basic essentials “whichcould unite and hold citizens together”. Reli-

gion, language, caste, etc were precisely thekind of divisive markers of identity thatthreatened this fragile consensus; and two,while democracy depended on voters exer-cising their franchise on the basis of rationalthought and action, appeals to religion, lan-guage, and caste were inherently emotiveand irrational in nature. To substantiate this,the majority also marshalled the legislativehistory behind the section, holding that itsbasic purpose was to “curb communal, fissi-parous and separatist tendencies”. There-fore, to restrict Section 123(3)’s prohibitiononly to electoral candidates would be con-trary to public interest.

Furthermore, in his separate, concurringopinion, Chief Justice T.S. Thakur added an-other string to this bow. The Chief Justiceheld that secularism required the completeexclusion of religion from public life: “Reli-gion can have no place in such [secular]activities for religion is a matter personal tothe individual with which neither the Statenor any other individual has anything to do.”

Consequently, according to the majority,the word “his” in Section 123(3) was to be un-derstood broadly, referring to both thespeaker as well as the audience. In efect, itprohibited appeals to the prohibited“grounds” (religion, caste etc) during theelectoral process.

At the heart of the majority’s vision of thedemocratic public sphere was the ideal ofabstract, universal personhood. To enter thepublic sphere as citizens, we must leave ourmessy markers of personal identity at thedoor, embracing our disembodied citizen-selves. And once in the public sphere, wemust participate as rational individuals, de-liberating about the public interest, unen-cumbered by the baggage of our religion,caste, language, or community. But becauseour markers of identity are a constanttemptation, the state must help us out. Itdoes this by passing laws that prohibit cer-tain kinds of election speech, speech that“appeals” to the prohibited markers of iden-tity.

In this way, the state prevents the distor-tion of democracy, and helps us to becometrue citizens. To some, this might sound likea noble and inspiring vision of democracy,

and of the Constitution.But it was not the vision that the dissent-

ing judges held. At the heart of the disagree-ment between the majority and the dissentwas a disagreement over the idea of citizen-ship, and the value of identity. Justice D.Y.Chandrachud, the author of the dissentingopinion, wrote: “The Constitution... recog-nises the position of religion, caste, languageand gender in the social life of the nation. In-dividual histories both of citizens and col-lective groups in our society are associatedthrough the ages with histories of discrimin-ation and injustice on the basis of these de-fining characteristics... [and] access to gov-ernance is a means of addressing socialdisparities. Social mobilisation is a powerfulinstrument of bringing marginalised groupsinto the mainstream. To hold that a personwho seeks to contest an election is prohib-ited from speaking of the legitimate con-cerns of citizens that the injustices faced bythem on the basis of traits having an origin inreligion, race, caste, community or languagewould be remedied is to reduce democracyto an abstraction.”

Universal citizen does not exist

The dissent’s answer to the majority’sconstruction of the universal citizen wasthat such an individual did not, and couldnot, exist. Human beings are always situatedwithin their social contexts, and in India,these contexts have been characterised byreligion, language, caste, and community.These are, and have been, the sites of inclu-sion and exclusion, privilege and oppres-sion, domination and resistance, power,pleasure, discrimination, and sufering. Inthe dissent’s view, constitutional law couldnot be oblivious to this history. It could notwrench the individual out of her context, andset her down, abstract and disembodied, todeliberate in the public sphere. And mostimportantly, it could not say to those who, forcenturies, had been denied dignity andrights on the very basis of their caste, reli-gion, language or community that they werenow precluded from organising aroundthose very markers to liberate themselves.

In the last analysis, the dissent’s crucial in-sight was this: after centuries of structuraland institutional discrimination, these mark-ers of identity had acquired a certain socialsalience — that is, a certain visible signific-ance. For all these years, this social saliencehad been used to arbitrarily exclude andmarginalise those who fell on the wrong sideof it. But now, with the advent of democracy,it was precisely this social salience that al-lowed the oppressed to organise around thesite of their prior oppression, and use that togain political power. It was that which al-lowed B.R. Ambedkar to form the All IndiaScheduled Castes Federation, a politicalparty exclusively devoted to Dalitemancipation.

For this reason, the dissent held that Sec-tion 123(3) had to be construed narrowly.The phrase “his religion” referred only to thereligion of an electoral candidate, and notthe religion of the voter. Section 123(3) pro-hibited statements like “I am a Hindu, votefor me”, or “My opponent is a Hindu, don’tvote for her”. Such a law was permissible, be-cause a candidate was supposed to representher entire constituency, and not just a subsetof it. But, the dissent held, this far and no fur-ther. The same logic could not be extendedto citizen-electors, when they participatedin the electoral process.

On Monday, the Supreme Court placed be-fore us two visions of the Constitution, ofdemocracy, of citizenship, and the publicsphere. As a matter of law, the majority car-ried the day; but it is for each of us to askourselves which vision we find more convin-cing, and truer to our uniquely plural and di-verse democracy, and to its eventful and tu-multuous history.

Gautam Bhatia is a Delhi-based lawyer.

Two takes on democracyThis week, a divided Supreme Court placed before us two visions of the public sphere, pitting the ideal of the universal citizen against citizen-electors situated within their social contexts

The dissent’s crucial insight wasthis: after centuries of structuraland institutional discrimination,markers of identity had acquired a certain social salience

GAUTAM BHATIA

No room for religion

The split ruling by the SupremeCourt bench has far-reachingconsequences as most politicalparties have been winning electionsby soliciting votes on the basis ofreligion, caste, creed and language(“Seeking votes on religious basis acorrupt act: SC”, Jan.3). However, itis a blow for parties which have beenfighting elections on thedevelopment plank. One needs tosee how far the ElectionCommission can efectivelyimplement the ruling consideringthe rough and tumble of Indianpolitics. How the forthcomingAssembly elections will be foughtneeds to be seen.

K.R. Srinivasan,Secunderabad

The ruling should have come a longtime ago keeping in mind generalwelfare, peace and harmony in thecountry. Elections need to be foughton the basis of the past performanceof the candidate/party and thestrategy, agenda and ideology of theparty concerned. Religion is sacredto every individual and personal.Mixing religion with politics will notonly divide the electorate, much tothe detriment of the country’ssecular fabric, but will also goagainst the fundamental right topractise, propagate and profess thereligion of one’s liking. The sanctityand significance of the electoralprocess to select a candidate without

any pressure or influence on thebasis of religion and caste cannot besidelined.

Prem K. Menon,Mumbai

This judgment has come at the righttime especially when elections tosome of the State assemblies areround the corner, re-emphasisingthat secularism and only secularismis the bedrock and hallmark ofdemocracy in India. Nowhere in theworld are politics and governancemixed with religion and caste exceptin our country, which seems to havelost its way as far as secularism andpeace are concerned. Mixingreligion with politics will only leadto hatred, hostility and violenceincluding communal and sectarianviolence, chaos and anarchy, andcause hurdles and impediments inthe smooth functioning of thegovernment. One hopes that sanerpolitical leaders will take the cuefrom the judgment.

M.Y. Shariff,Chennai

A diverse society such as India stilllags behind in terms of the real ethosof pluralism. However, this shouldnot be confused with theopportunists who exploit religioussentiments to gather votes and endup doing nothing to ameliorate theconditions of the minorities. In asociety where the socialconsciousness of people is stillbased on dogmatic religious

propaganda, conflict is bound toemerge. In this case, protecting theirinterests can be achieved if theintentions of political leadership arewell-communicated to the people.There needs to be a debate on thisimportant public issue which canbuild consensus among the people.

Abhinav Bhatt,Ludhiana, Punjab

Clean bowled

“Enough is enough” is the passionatereaction of an average cricket fan(“SC bowls out top BCCI leaders”,Jan.3). It is time the game of cricketis cut to size, stripped of itsdisproportionate power, pelf andlucre and shown its rightful place inthe league of other sports. Oneneeds to recall the step-motherlyattitude towards other sports.

Seshagiri Row Karry,Hyderabad

As the only sports body that isautonomous, the BCCI’s barons havesurpassed the great ideals of sport.Cricket, a high order game, has beenreduced to “cheerleader tamasha”.Even leading cricketers of yesteryearare reduced to playing second fiddleto these “rulers”. The respectiveState associations should abide bythe Lodha Committeerecommendations in toto.

S. Viswanathan,Tiruchi

Sports administration organisations

are almost all headed by politiciansor those who have politicalconnections despite their lack ofknowledge of sports and beingcompletely unconcerned about thewell-being of the sport orsportspersons. Although it may takea while to see qualified andexperienced people heading theseorganisations, a beginning has beenmade. Many a biopic onsportspersons shows the apatheticattitude of the administration andhow it is by individual efort thatsportspersons excel. Thedevelopment should also pave theway to nurture facilities for sports toflourish in the country.

Amanvir Singh Tiwana,Patiala, Punjab

Battle for the ‘bicycle’

While U.P.’s politics is wide open fornow, what is clear is that a newleader has emerged. In this stand-of,if the father, Mulayam Singh Yadav,was depicted as a prisoner of the oldorder, with its disreputableassociations and allegiances, the son,Akhilesh Yadav, was portrayed as apurveyor of “clean politics” and apractitioner of “vikas”. Mr. Akhileshmay have been U.P.’s Chief Ministerfor a while, but he is being touted asthe leader of the “youth”, eager to tapthe raw and restless energy of youngvoters while his father believes heneeds to be at the helm to ensure theold party faithful do not stray away.At the core is the father who is

unable to accept the inevitablegenerational transformation(“Mulayam stakes claim to SP’s‘bicycle’ symbol”, Jan.3).

J.S. Acharya,Hyderabad

It is very unfortunate that theSamajwadi Party, which called itselfa democratic socialist group, nowfinds itself in the midst of an uglyfamily war. What is intriguing is howMulayam Singh Yadav, a battle-scarred veteran with muchexperience in politics, could haveallowed things to spiral out ofcontrol. A free Akhilesh Yadav mayhave his way and tie up with theCongress, but the BSP and the BJPlook like they are running all the wayto the “vote bank”.

Ganapathi Bhat,Akola, Maharashtra

Service charge waiver

The Central government has saidthat the consumers (in hotels andrestaurants) need not pay servicecharges if they feel the service is notsatisfactory (“Hotel service chargeoptional, says govt.” Jan.3). How canthe government not be oblivious tothe fact that hotel owners can easilyincrease the prices of dishes theysupply and compensate the loss? In acountry such as India, where theconsumer awareness is low, sellersrule the roost.

S. Ramakrishnasayee,Ranipet, Tamil Nadu

LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

CMYK

ND-ND

PERSPECTIVE | 11THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

The Readers’ Editor’s oice can be contacted by Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Fri-

day); E-mail:readerseditor@thehindu.co.in The Terms of Reference for the Readers’ Editor are on www.thehindu.com

P.M.’s appeal toscientists

The Prime Minister, Mrs. IndiraGandhi, to-day [Jan. 3] asked thescientists in India to become theprincipal allies of theGovernment and the people in thebattle against poverty. Thescientist had to be in the forefront,working in partnership with thosewho moved the levers of theeconomy, she said whileinaugurating the 54th session ofthe Indian Science Congress atthe Osmania University campushere [Hyderabad]. She referred to

the problem of brain drain “whichis an international one”. ThePrime Minister said she wasfirmly against tackling thisquestion by resort to restrictions,legislation or executive fiat. “Wemust deal with this matter, byproviding more and more creativeopportunities for the scientistsand other specialists in India,” shesaid. “It is an absurd situation thata country like India strugglingwith the problems ofdevelopment should rendertechnical assistance, throughexport of brain power, to theadvanced nations of the West.”

(dated January 4, 1967)

FROM THE ARCHIVES

>>The story headlined “RTI query throws light on events surrounding Jaya’sdeath” (Jan. 3, 2017, some editions) cited a report that said the former TamilNadu Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, was admitted to the Apollo Hospitals to gettreatment for high fever and dehydration on December 22 [2016]. It shouldhave been September 22 [2016]. The error was corrected in the city editions.

>>Editing error (Jan. 2, 2016, some editions): “Sangita Kalanidhi for first wo-man violinist” — was the headline of the report that talked about a functionwhere Carnatic violinist A. Kanyakumari received the Music Academy’sSangita Kalanidhi award on Sunday in Chennai. The headline erroneously im-plied that Kanyakumari was the first woman violinist. She was not. It shouldhave been: “In a first, Sangita Kalanidhi for a woman violinist”.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

On January 2, in an order that surprised no one except per-haps the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), theSupreme Court set the record and the status of Indian crick-et’s governing body straight. Widely expected yet unpre-cedented, the court took the BCCI and its top leadership totask, removing the president, Anurag Thakur, and the sec-retary, Ajay Shirke, from their respective positions. Accept-ing the Justice Lodha Committee’s concerns set out in theearlier status reports, the court reairmed its July 18, 2016

verdict, signalling the end of cricket administration as we have known it.

Price of non-compliance

Efective immediately, any BCCI and State associations’ oicial must beeligible as per the Lodha Committee’s eligibility criteria. The senior-mosteligible vice-president will be the interim president of the BCCI, and thejoint secretary will be the interim secretary for the next two weeks. Thecourt also appointed two senior advocates to propose names for a commit-tee of administrators that will essentially govern cricket and simultan-eously ensure implementation of the Lodha Committee recommendations.In what is expected to be the final order on this matter, on January 19 the Su-preme Court will release the names of the committee of administrators, andthe transition to the court-appointed administration era will oiciallycommence.

For the BCCI, the conclusion to what has been a series of unfortunateevents laced with ill-advised moves and baling periods of silence couldnot have been more hard-hitting. Eligible oicials must provide a declara-tion that they will be in compliance with the Lodha Committee’s directives.For Mr. Thakur, things have become ratheruncomfortable. In its order, the court de-clared the leadership of Mr. Thakur (andMr. Shirke) inefectual basis his stated inab-ility to force the State associations to com-ply with the court’s orders. The court alsoimplied that Mr. Thakur could face con-tempt charges for obstructing the imple-mentation of the court’s orders, and — most troubling of all — it has recom-mended pursuing a perjury charge for lying under oath and allegedlyfalsifying the BCCI’s minutes from August 22 in which an account of Mr.Thakur’s version of his interaction with the International Cricket Councilis documented. However, with both Mr. Thakur and Mr. Shirke seeminglyhaving accepted their ouster, a more likely outcome is the court requiring awritten or oral apology from Mr. Thakur and putting an end to this once andfor all.

The BCCI and its State associations will probably rue the day the IndianPremier League (IPL) spot-fixing scandal began in 2013, but in all honesty,there have been so many opportunities for them to stem the rot that it is dif-ficult to pinpoint how it all went so wrong. Increasingly, the BCCI has be-come isolated and waged a battle that has seemed strategically unsound.There was a major disconnect between how far the Board really believedthe court would go and the ground reality. What may also have escaped theBCCI’s notice is the changing perception of governance in sport and notjust in India. The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA)has seen an invasive overhaul recently, and in India, the Sports Ministry’svocal chastising of the Indian Olympic Association’s controversial appoint-ments is a case in point.

So used to being left to its own devices, the BCCI may have lost perspect-ive and context. A little flexibility and the appearance of genuine reformwould have gone a very long way. Perceived arrogance and insularity aside,the Board has done what it is tasked to do unlike any other sports federationin the world, let alone India — develop and promote the sport itself. Itsbiggest achievement in many ways is its biggest downfall — success, cloutand profitability. The IPL is in serious limbo, and there’s no telling if there’sbeen an adverse impact on the media rights value.

The road from here

At some point there could be serious questions asked of this latest order.By replacing the Board with an unelected and subjectively appointed com-mittee, optically what would have changed is the nature of appointmentand the appointing authority. An interim committee tasked solely with theimplementation of the court’s verdict and to oversee a transparent and fairelection would have been ideal, and perhaps that is what will actuallyhappen.

There remain some unanswered questions, and now it appears that wemay never know whose names were mentioned in the sealed envelope sub-mitted by the Justice Mudgal Committee in its report on the spot-fixingscandal that triggered this entire stand-of. And despite the BCCI seem-ingly having accepted the verdict, there is a growing buzz that some Stateassociations may yet file appeals now that Justice T.S. Thakur would haveretired as Chief Justice of India. So, there may be some twists along the way,but in a legacy judgment, Justice Thakur has brought reform to cricket in away that few ever could have envisioned. An overhaul of this nature hasnever been attempted before, at least not successfully. This could turn outto be a template for sports governance globally, or just the opposite; it’s fartoo soon to know.

The Supreme Court and the Lodha Committee’s work here, as the sayinggoes, is done. But the real challenges and work towards ensuring not just asuccessful governance regimen but an equally successful on- and of-pitchtenure for the new leadership has just begun.

Desh Gaurav Sekhri is a sports attorney and author of ‘Not Out! The incredible story of the IndianPremier League’.

The Court reigns Supreme

The BCCI’s biggestachievement in manyways is its biggestdownfall — success,clout and profitability

SPORT

Say the word ‘thinking’, and the imageevoked is that of abstract ideas, facts,numbers and data. But what if I say thatthis is our first and most common errorabout the nature of thinking? As reli-gions have always known, human think-ing is conducted primarily in stories, notfacts or numbers.

Human beings might be the only liv-ing animals that can think in stories.Facts and information of some sort existfor a deer and a wolf too, but fiction, andthinking in fiction?

Now, stories are celebrated for manythings: as repositories of folk knowledgeor accumulated wisdom, as relief fromthe human condition, as entertainment,as enabling some cognitivist processes,even as the best way to get yourself andyour children to fall asleep! But all thismisses the main point about stories:they are the most common, most per-vasive, and probably the oldest way forhumans to think.

Problem of a fundamentalist reading

Having missed this point, we thenproceed to reduce stories — and theirmost complex enunciation, literature —to much less than what they are orshould be. For instance, a good story isnot just a narrative. It does not simplytake us from point A to point Z, with per-haps an easy moral appended. Religiousfundamentalists who see stories only inthose terms end up destroying the es-sence of their religions.

Let us take one example: the Book ofJob. The fundamentalist reading of theBook of Job stresses Job’s faith. In thisversion, the story is simple: Job is a pros-perous, God-fearing man, and God isvery proud of him. Satan, however, ar-gues that Job is such a good man only be-cause God has been kind to him. Givehim adversity and you will see his faithwaver, says Satan. God allows Satan totest Job, by depriving him of prosperity,family, health. But Job’s faith does notwaver, and finally all is restored to him.The fundamentalist reading — whichreduces the story to a narrative — issimple: this is a parable about true faith.

To leave the Book of Job there is tostop thinking about it. Because the nar-rative of Job is secondary to its problem-atic. One can even argue that the narrat-ive is misleading: in the restoration ofJob’s children, health and wealth, wehave a resolution that fails in our terms.We do not expect such miracles in reallife. Hence, it is not the narrative of Jobthat is significant.

What is significant and useful are theproblems of the story. For instance,when the righteous, believing Job is af-flicted with death and sufering, suchquestions are raised (in the story and byJob’s friends): Who is to be blamed? IsGod unjust or uncaring? Has Job sinnedin hiding (or ignorance) and is thereforebeing punished? Does it all make anysense?

Job adopts a diicult positionthroughout the story: among otherthings, he neither blames God, nor doeshe blame himself, but he demands an an-swer. When one thinks of this, onecomes to the kernel of the thought ofthis story: how does one live best in aworld where undeserved suferingsometimes befalls the good? It is not theunbelievable narrative which makes thisa significant story; it is the way Job’s re-actions, his friends’ prescriptions andthe problematic of the entire story makeus think. Moreover, as God’s incomplete‘answers’ to Job indicate, stories canmake us think in very complex ways.

Religions have always known that hu-man beings think best and most easily instories. That is why religions con-sciously think through stories: the ‘facts’and ‘details’ of these stories change withchanging human circumstances, butwhat does not change is the bid and abil-ity to make us contemplate, imagine,reason, induce, examine — in otherwords, think.

Strangely, politicians have also knownthis. All major political movements havedepended on the power of stories. In thedecades when the Left was on the as-cendency, it had a powerful story to tell— of human exploitation, human resist-ance and eventually human achieve-ment in the shape of a ‘classless’ society.In recent years, the Right has managedto tell us stories that, for various reas-ons, seem more convincing to many: in-evitable state-aided neo-liberalism, forinstance. Narendra Modi’s victory in In-dia, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s in Turkey,and Donald Trump’s in the U.S. — allthree are driven by powerful narrativesthat explain the ‘past’ and promise a‘future.’

Failure of academics

Unfortunately, the one area wherethinking in stories was taken seriously— and not just reduced to mechanisticexplanations — has lost confidence in it-self. The Humanities have been too busytrying to justify stories in all possibleterms — entertainment, discourse, nar-ratology, cognitivist structures, reader

response, etc. — instead of working onhow to best think in stories. The totalfailure of academics, publishers and ed-itors to talk of literature as literature —not just what sells, or a set of ‘reader re-sponses’, or a soporific, or passing polit-ics, or ageless ‘Darwinism,’ etc. — is anindex of this failure.

The so-called post-truth society is notprimarily the result of our inability to fo-cus on facts; it is due to our failure toread stories deeply. Just as there areways in which facts can be used posit-ively or negatively, there are ways inwhich stories can be read — to make usthink or to prevent us from thinking. Lit-erature — even in the days when it waswritten with a capital ‘L’ — was the onearea of the Humanities where this was aserious endeavour. This has changed atgreat cost to human civilisation.

Humans still think primarily in stor-ies. But the failure of standards in educa-tion and literary criticism has combinedwith the rise of fundamentalism (whichis not piety or religious thought), scient-ism (which is not science) and numer-ical neo-liberalism (which is not evencapitalism) to deprive more and morepeople of the ability to think critically,deeply and sensitively in stories. Thisexplains many of our current politicaland economic woes.

Tabish Khair is an Indian novelist and academic whoteaches in Denmark.

Thinking in storiesThe so-called post-truth society is not primarily the result of our inability to focus on facts; it isdue to our failure to read stories deeply

TABISH KHAIR

The Humanities have beentoo busy trying to justifystories in all possible termsinstead of working on how tobest think in stories

PROMISING NARRATIVES: “All major political movements have depended on the power of stories.” Turkey's Prime Minister RecepTayyip Erdogan waves to supporters during municipal elections outside a polling station in Istanbul. FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

Peter Jackson’s death last month in Eng-land after a prolonged and sad illnesswent virtually unnoticed in this country.This is a pity given his lifelong associ-ation with India and his two signal con-tributions to nature conservation, one inHaryana and the other in Gujarat.

Jackson came out to India in the earlyfifties as a correspondent for Reutersand was among the first to report the as-cent of Mount Everest by Edmund Hil-lary and Tenzing Norgay in May 1953.Subsequently he became Secretary ofthe Delhi Bird Watching Society, whichhad been established in May 1950 underthe chairmanship of Mahatma Gandhi’sclose associate Horace Alexander, withIndira Gandhi as one of the founder-members. She had got interested in bird-watching while jailed in Naini betweenSeptember 1942 and May 1943. Herfather, who was himself then in Ahmad-nagar Prison, had sent her the secondedition of Salim Ali’s The Book of In-dian Birds which she read and used bothin prison and after.

Protecting the Sultanpur jheel

In November-December 1969, the In-ternational Union for Conservation ofNature held its Tenth General Assemblyin New Delhi. Over 300 of the world’sbiggest names in conservation congreg-ated for the event. Indira Gandhi hadmade a forceful inaugural address onNovember 24, 1969. Thereafter, PeterJackson wrote to her on March 29, 1970:“During the IUCN Conference, I took anumber of distinguished wildlife ex-perts and ornithologists to the jheels atSultanpur in Gurgaon district, about 25miles from Delhi. They were astonishedat the wealth of wildlife and decided onthe spot that eforts should be made tohave the jheels protected...

“All of us interested in the Sultanpurjheels feel that your interest would addimmense impetus to the creation of thisNature Reserve of a kind which few, ifany, capitals in the world boast within ashort distance.

“We know the heavy demands onyour time, but, as you are a founder-member of the Delhi Bird Watching So-

ciety, we wondered if you would like toslip away for about three hours onemorning to see the Sultanpur jheels...”

Two days later, Indira Gandhi notedon his letter: “I could. How long will thebirds be there?”

On April 1, 1970, Moni Malhoutra, herundersecretary and aide on environ-mental matters, after speaking to Jack-son, informed her that the flamingos andpelicans would be around for a few moreweeks though the ducks were alreadybeginning to migrate. He suggested thatthe Prime Minister visit the Sultanpurjheel on Sunday, April 5, 1970, to whichshe responded the same day in her ownhand: “US [undersecretary] seems beinnocent so far as security arranged areconcerned. I am very much afraid thatthe sanctuary may be ruined.”

Subsequently, Indira Gandhi sentMalhoutra to visit Sultanpur and briefher. The papers that Jackson had sent

her were passed on to the Chief Ministerof Haryana, Bansi Lal, who wrote to heron September 25, 1970 that he had initi-ated action to develop the jheel into abird sanctuary and a tourist destination.Four days later, she complimented theChief Minister for the steps he hadtaken, adding: “I hope one day to visitthem [the jheels] myself, quietly andwithout fuss.”

The sanctuary was notified on April 2,1971 and the formal inauguration tookplace on February 6, 1972. Indira Gandhisent a message: “The development ofthe Sultanpur jheel as a bird sanctuary

will be widely welcomed by all lovers ofwildlife and conservationists. The po-tentiality of the jheel, which attracts alarge variety of birds, was first noticedduring the IUCN Conference in Delhi. Icongratulate the Government of Hary-ana for having acted so quickly to pre-serve and develop this great natural as-set. The proximity of the sanctuary toour capital city will make it an obvioustourist attraction for all who are inter-ested in our natural heritage. To thepeople of Delhi in particular, it will af-ford easy escape from the monotony ofurban life, and the joy of observing someof nature’s most beautiful creatures intheir own habitat.”

Abandoning the park plan

Peter Jackson left India in mid-1970and joined the World Wildlife Fund inSwitzerland. But he kept up with Indiaregularly. He visited Porbandar a decadelater. During that trip, according to hisown account, he “spotted a small lakewhere over 4,000 Lesser Flamingoswere gathered”. When he was told thatthat the lake’s days were numbered andit was soon going to be filled up to con-struct a park, he approached IndiraGandhi. The Prime Minister immedi-ately spoke to Madhavsinh Solanki, theGujarat Chief Minister, who assured herthat the park plan would be abandoned.This paved the way for the notificationof the bird sanctuary in the Mahatma’sbirthplace in November 1988.

Jackson was also closely associatedwith WWF’s Operation Tiger, whichwas launched to support India’s ownProject Tiger launched on April 1, 1973.It is generally believed that in the seven-ties, tiger conservation in India was dueto the WWF’s eforts. In part, Peter Jack-son’s communications skills helped cre-ate this impression. The WWF certainlyhelped raise the international profile ofIndia’s programme but in the first sixyears of Project Tiger covering nine re-serves, the total investment was aboutRs.6 crore, of which just about 13 percent came from WWF. That such anamount was set aside when the financesof the Centre were in a precarious posi-tion was entirely due to the Prime Min-ister herself.

Jairam Ramesh’s ‘Indira Gandhi: A Life inNature’ will be published by Simon andSchuster India in mid-2017.

Peter Jackson was instrumental in nature and tiger conservation in India

CAT EXPERT: “Peter Jackson was also closely associated with WWF’s OperationTiger, which was launched to support India’s Project Tiger.” PHOTO: PETER JACKSON

JAIRAM RAMESH

In part, Peter Jackson’scommunications skills helpedcreate the impression that inthe 1970s, tiger conservationin India was due to the WWF

Death of a naturalist

DESHGAURAVSEKHRI

CMYK

ND-ND

NEWS12 |THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW DELHI: A day after Mu-layam Singh staked claim tothe Samajwadi Party symbol“bicycle,” the Akhilesh Ya-dav camp representativeRamgopal Yadav met Elec-tion Commissioners andmaintained that a majority ofthe party members suppor-ted the Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister.

The Election Commission(EC) later received a writtenrepresentation on theAkhilesh camp’s claim, con-firming that it was contest-ing Mr. Mulayam Singh’s as-sertions.

Accompanied by loyalists

Mr. Yadav, who was ac-companied by Akhilesh loy-alists Naresh Agarwal andKiranmoy Nanda, submittedbefore the Commission that

the real Samajwadi Party wasthe one of which Akhileshhad been elected nationalpresident. He later told me-diapersons that 90 per centof the people supported theChief Minister.

Both the groups have

staked claim to the symboland therefore the Commis-sion will now ask them toproduce documentary evid-ence to prove their stand. Itwill also examine the party’sconstitution to determinewhether procedures were

followed. However, the finaltest will be the numbers inthe organisational and legis-lative structures. In the SadiqAli case, the Supreme Courthas held that the test of ma-jority applied by the EC tosettle a dispute of this natureis valid and relevant.

Defying his father’s direc-tions, Mr. Akhilesh Yadavhad issued a separate list ofcandidates for the comingAssembly elections. Theparty supremo then expelledhim and his supporters, in-cluding Mr. Ramgopal Yadav.The rival group then calledfor a national council meet-ing and declared Akhilesh asthe party’s national presid-ent, virtually staging a polit-ical coup.

Signatures taken

As claimed by theAkhilesh group, 220 of the

229 legislators have suppor-ted him. It is learnt that theirsignatures have also beentaken to be produced beforethe Commission.

As the EC is expected toannounce the poll schedulefor Uttar Pradesh and fourother States in a couple ofdays, it may not have enoughtime to decide the dispute.Thus, in all likelihood, theSamajwadi Party symbol willbe frozen till the issue issettled.

This move would put theMulayam and Akhilesh fac-tions on an equal footing,said an oicial quoting a sim-ilar case in 2011 when twofactions of the UttarakhandKranti Dal made representa-tions staking claim to theparty symbol — a “chair.”

The EC instead approvedtwo new symbols and partynames for the rival groups.

Election Commission to ask SP’s warring factions to produce evidence to support their claim

Poll panel caught in tussle for ‘cycle’DEVESH K. PANDEY

Samajwadi Party workers wait outside Mulayam Singh’sresidence in Lucknow on Tuesday. — PHOTO: PTI

KOLKATA: It is often said thatin the eastern and centralIndian States the biggest re-serve of private cash is in acompany which has mul-tiple identities, the RoseValley Group. According tothe estimates of the invest-igating agencies the grouphad collected upwards of₨17,000 crore from the mar-ket. The small depositorsassociation puts the figurearound ₨40.000 crore.

The organisation al-legedly violated guidelinesof the Reserve Bank of Indiaand other related financialfraud control acts, meant toregulate such companiesraising small investments.

However, a companyspokesperson told TheHindu in 2013 that the com-pany “does not have any in-vestment scheme [and]does not sell any financialproduct.”

The spokespersonclaimed that the Rose Val-ley Group is in the businessof “time share” of hotelsand had acquired about 50properties in the country. Ithad multiple other invest-ments especially in media,film and jewellery.

According to investigat-ing agencies the money,however, was primarily ac-cumulated by raising smallinvestments in the ruralareas of at least half a dozenStates. Interestingly, unlikethe other big chit fund com-pany, Saradha, the Rose Val-ley was not a defaulter inBengal as it was paying in-terest to its depositors.

SC’s instruction

But after the Saradhascam opened a Pandora’sBox, the Supreme Court in-structed the investigatingagencies, Enforcement Dir-ectorate (ED) and the Cent-ral Bureau of Investigation(CBI) to probe all the com-panies involved in raisingfunds from small deposit-

ors. As a part of that pro-cess, the Rose Valley Groupwas investigated.

A CBI release said onTuesday that the case wasregistered in June 2014 un-der Section 420 [cheating],408 [breach of trust], 409[criminal breach by publicservant], 120-B/34 [crim-inal conspiracy] of IPC andvarious sections [4, 5 and 6]of Prize Chits & Money Cir-culation Schemes (Ban-ning) Act, 1978, “on the or-ders of the HonourableSupreme Court dated09.05.2014.”

The order was passed ona writ petition “against thethen Chairman of a privateGroup of Companies andothers on the allegationsthat the said company hadcollected around ₨17,000crore illegally from the gen-eral public after enticingthem with the false promiseof paying higher rate of in-terest.”

Gautam Kundu, thechairman of the group, andother oicials were arres-ted in March 2015.

Presumably after inter-rogating the oicials of thegroup, TMC MPs TapasPaul and Sudip Bandyopad-hyay were arrested.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

After Saradha scam, RoseValley came under scrutiny

A Rose Valley office inKolkata that was raided in 2015. — FILE PHOTO

KOLKATA: West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeeon Tuesday alleged that thearrests of Trinamool leadershave been carried out at thebehest of the Prime Minis-ter’s Oice.

Ms. Banerjee claimed thatoicers of the Central Bur-eau of Investigation told herthat they are targeting seniorleaders of her party.

“They [the oicers] havebeen told by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi that ‘I wantAbhishek [Banerjee], I wantSudip Bandyopadhyay, Iwant Subhendu Adhikari, Iwant Moloy [Ghatak], I wantSovon [Chatterjee]...alright,arrest them all,’” she said.

She called Mr. Modi, “a bigdangabaaz [rioter]” and de-

manded that he, along withBJP president Amit Shah, bearrested.

Ms. Banerjee demandedthat leaders from otherparties who have taken “be-nefits” from the chit fundcompanies be also put be-hind bars.

“Why will SujanChakrabory [of CPI-M] notbe arrested. Babul Supriyoand Roopa Ganguly [bothBJP leaders] were regularlydoing programmes for RoseValley. Why will they not bearrested?” she asked.

The Chief Minister saidher government was the firstin the State to come up with alaw against chit funds andthat such companies were athing of the past. She alsoclaimed that the casesagainst the MPs were weak.

ON THE WARPATH: West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjeeaddressing the media in Howrah on Tuesday. — PHOTO: PTI

Mamata blasts PMOSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: After meeting SudipBandyopadhyay, arrested bythe CBI earlier in the day inconnection with the RoseValley Group chit fund scamcase, Trinamool nationalspokesperson and RajyaSabha MP Derek O’Briensaid the party was fully be-hind its MPs.

On December 30, the CBIarrested party MP and filmactor Tapas Paul, allegingthat he had benefited fromthe Rose Valley Group.

“We’ll fight to the finish.The tactics of intimidationwill not work,” Mr. O’Briensaid, adding that Mr. Bandy-opadhyay was “confidentand fine.”

Mr. O’Brien was accom-panied on his visit to the CBIoice by TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee,MP Kalyan Bandyopadhyay,Dola Sen, Sougata Roy, andseveral other senior partyleaders, including many min-isters of the State cabinet.

He also said that all theTMC MPs will hold a meet-ing in Delhi on Wednesdayand decide the next course ofaction.

The BJP’s national secret-ary Siddharth Nath Singh,meanwhile, accused ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjeeof “unleashing violence” onthe BJP workers in Bengal.

Party fully behindMPs, saysTrinamool leaderSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

LUCKNOW: Even as seniorSamajwadi Party leadersheld talks in an attempt toprevent a split, with party su-premo Mulayam Singh meet-ing Chief Minister AkhileshYadav twice on Tuesday, acompromise seemed out ofreach.

A confidante of Mr.Akhilesh Yadav said “noagreement” was reachedduring the meetings. “Thereis no chance of any agree-ment. If Netaji [MulayamSingh] calls the CM, he is ob-liged to go and meet him be-cause of their relationshipand his seniority. Their willbe no comprise on core is-sues,” the legislator said.

Shivpal attends meeting

Mr. Mulayam Singh’sbrother and senior partyleader Shivpal Singh Yadavand other leaders consideredclose to the party supremo

were present at the mara-thon forenoon meetingbetween father and son.

Later in the evening, Mr.Mulayam Singh and Mr. Ak-shilesh Yadav met again butneither side made any oi-cial announcement.

Meanwhile speculationmounted that the Chief Min-

ister was ready to give up thepost of party president if hegot a clear hand in candidateselection.

Senior Minister AzamKhan, who was instrumentalin the patch-up betweenfather and son last week,tried to broker peace againon Tuesday.

No deal, says Team AkhileshSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KEY PLAYER: Samajwadi Party leader Shivpal Singh Yadavarrives at Lucknow airport on Tuesday.— PHOTO: PTI

LUCKNOW: True to its objectiveof reaching out to Muslims inthe upcoming Uttar PradeshAssembly polls, the BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) has in-creased the number of seatsallotted to the community.

The party has finalised 97seats for Muslims as op-posed to 85 in 2012.

The decision is part of theparty’s strategy of stitchingtogether a Dalit-Muslimcombine — which accountsfor 40 per cent of the elector-ate. The caste identities ofthe candidates however, re-flects a rainbow coalition.

The BSP supremo re-vealed her caste distributionacross the 403 seats here onTuesday, putting to rest spec-ulations of an alliance in theupcoming polls. “We willfight on our own strength.Alliances are required by theweak,” she said.

However, the final list ofcandidates will be releaseonly after the polling dateswere announced and themodel code of conductcomes into force, Ms. May-awati said.

Lion’s share

In terms of the share oftickets, the upper castes stillretain the largest sharethough marginally lower that2012. The number of Dalitshas also fallen marginally —from 88 in 2012 to 87. In addi-tion to the 85 reserved seats,Ms. Mayawati has fieldedonly two more Dalits for gen-eral seats. In the final break-up, the party has nominated113 upper castes with 66Brahmins, 36 Kshatriyas and11 from the Vaishya, Kayasthaand Khatri communities.The share of Brahmins hasdecreased from 86 in 2007,when the party experi-

mented with its Dalit-Brah-min social engineering, to 74in 2012 to 66 in 2017. Brah-mins form just nine per centof the electorate but wielddisproportionate influenceover public opinion.

With Ms. Mayawati reach-ing out to Muslims, the shareof the Other BackwardClasses has also fallen to 106from the 113 fielded in 2012.OBCs represent more than40 per cent of the State'spopulation but do not vote asa block .

In sum, Ms Mayawati’s al-location fielded 21 per centDalits, 24 per cent Muslims,26 per cent OBCs and 28 percent upper castes.

Ms. Mayawati stressedthat the list was final and puttogether after “muchthought”. Banking on theconsolidation of Muslimvotes, she appealed the com-munity to unite with Dalitsto ensure the defeat of theBJP.

Referring to the infightingwithin the Samajwadi Party,the BSP chief predicted thatthe Yadav vote, the core ofthe party, would be splitbetween the factions led byAkhilesh Yadav and ShivpalYadav.

On her decision to an-nounce the caste break-up ofher candidates, Ms. May-awati said it was to counterallegations that the BSP wasa casteist party.

OMAR RASHID

BSP walks a tightropewith caste matrix

Mayawati

JAMMU: Former Jammu &Kashmir Chief Minister andNational Conference work-ing president Omar Abdul-lah on Tuesday accusedChief Minister MehboobaMufti of “mishandling” thesix-month unrest in the Val-ley in the summer of 2016.

J&K Assembly SpeakerKavinder Gupta had alloweda discussion on the unrestfollowing an uproar by theOpposition.

“There was confusionwhether Ms. Mufti wasaware of the [Hizbul Mu-jahideen commander]Burhan Wani encounter. Thegovernment completelyfailed in dealing with thesituation. Ms. Mufti shouldaccept responsibility for thekilling of civilians during theunrest,” Mr. Abdullah said.

Mr. Abdullah, whose partydisrupted the Assembly pro-ceeding earlier demandingan exclusive debate on the ci-vilian killings, said the 2010unrest could not be com-pared with the one in 2016.

“We did not blamePakistan or the Oppositionfor the situation then. I didnot blame my oicials in2010. We made mistakes andI admitted making mistakes.”

Mehboobamishandled 2016unrest: Omar

PEERZADA ASHIQ

NEW DELHI: Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) general secretaryin charge of northeasternStates, Ram Madhav, has ac-cused Manipur Chief Minis-ter Okram Ibobi Singh ofcausing the economic block-ade of the State by the UnitedNaga Council by announcingthe formation of seven newdistricts for purely politicalreasons.

In an exclusive interviewto The Hindu, Mr. RamMadhav said while ChiefMinister Singh was wellwithin his rights as the headof the government to carveout new districts, he had a“very political objective” be-hind the move, one that hascreated the crisis in Manipur.

“State governments havethe right to carve out newdistricts but in this case, theChief Minister had a verypolitical objective behindthis move. The Chief Minis-ter is simply not interested inthe other implications of hismove, as the sufering of theMeiteis suited him. It is a mo-bilising factor, politically forhim. By creating a dividebetween the hills and the val-ley, he wanted to benefitpolitically; in the process hehas created a volatile situ-

ation in the State and put thepeople of the valley throughutmost sufering,” Mr.Madhav said.

‘Pre-poll exercise’

“He was in power for 15years and it never occurredto him to declare the forma-tion of new districts, and hecomes up with it two monthsbefore the elections. Heshould have known the im-plications of the move andthe chain of events thiswould set of and exercisedcontrol. Now that the block-ade has happened, he throwsup his hands and asks that itbe handled by others,” hesaid.

On being asked whetherhe was in favour of Centralrule in the State, Mr. Ram

Madhav said it was a matterto be decided by the Stateand central governments butthat it was “of the utmost im-portance for normalcy to berestored in the state in orderfor the conduct of peacefulelections.”

“It is the responsibility ofIbobi Singh, having created asituation where his people inthe State, both in the Valleyand the hills are suferingdue to the blockade to takemeasures to have it lifted. Asthe head of the state govern-ment has to find a way to dothis. From day one, the gov-ernment of India has beenready to help, but it cannotdirectly intervene as law andorder is a State subject.”

The other northeasternState under his charge, Ar-

unachal Pradesh, recentlybecame the tenth State to beruled by the BJP after 33MLAs of the People’s Partyof Arunachal (PPA), includ-ing Chief Minister PemaKhandu crossed over to theBJP. Mr. Ram Madhav deniedthat there was “any induce-ment” for the cross over.

‘Unstable arrangement’

“For the last many monthsthere has been a sort of un-stable arrangement in theState. Initially a large num-ber of MLAs had desertedthe Congress and formed agovernment under [late] Mr.Kalikho Pul. A SupremeCourt [SC] judgement re-stored the previous govern-ment, under the Congress. Atthat time itself I had said thatthe SC judgement had leftmore questions than an-swers. So even after the SCjudgement, the instabilitycontinued. This group thenjoined a local party calledPeople’s Party of Arunachal(PPA), and formed a govern-ment with the BJP. Then ma-jority of the MLAs felt theyshould join BJP and the na-tional leadership gave thegreen signal. It’s completelyvoluntary and we made noeforts to influence thismove,” he said.

Manipur CM responsible forblockade, says Ram MadhavNISTULA HEBBAR

IMPHAL/NEW DELHI: Around 40Congress MLAs from Ma-nipur, led by Chief MinisterOkram Ibobi Singh, reachedDelhi on Tuesday evening tomeet President PranabMukherjee over reports of anattempt to postpone elec-tions in the State.

“We will meet the Presid-ent and other leaders to urgethem to hold elections onschedule along with fourother States,” Mr Ibobi Singhtold The Hindu over thephone. Elections to the Stateare due later this year.

Oicial sources said theManipur government haslearnt that the Ministry ofHome Afairs (MHA), in aletter on January 2, had sug-gested to the Election Com-mission that elections in theState be postponed in view ofthe ongoing economicblockade.

Following this, an emer-gency meeting of the Con-gress Legislature Party washeld on Tuesday morning, atwhich it was decided that adelegation would be sent toDelhi to meet the Presidentand the party high command.

Home Minister RajnathSingh told reporters that theCentre has “informed the

Election Commission aboutthe prevailing situation in theState and it is up to themnow.”

Mr. Singh dismissed ru-mours that President’s Rulewould be imposed in theState. “President’s Rule is im-posed in the rarest of rarecases,” he said.

“It will be politically sui-cidal if President’s Rule is im-posed in Manipur now. Wehave informed the EC and atthe most elections may be de-ferred. The Assembly com-pletes its term on March 18,” asenior oicial said.

Besides Mr Ibobi Singh,the team includes DeputyChief Minister Gaikhangamand senior Ministers. Ma-nipur Congress presidentT.N. Haokip, who was inKolkata, also rushed to Delhi.

Sources said State BJPleaders have also beensummoned to Delhi by theparty leadership while UnionMinister of State JitendraSingh discussed the situationwith Governor NajmaHeptulla.

IBOYAIMA LAITHANGBAM

VIJAITA SINGH

The Home Ministryhas recommendedthat polls bepostponed due to theeconomic blockade

Manipur CM, MLAsrush to meet Pranab

NEW DELHI: Departing fromconvention, the UnionBudget will be presented inParliament on February 1, amonth earlier than the usual,and the Economic Surveywill be tabled on January 31,the same day PresidentPranab Mukherjee addressesthe joint Houses ofParliament.

Presided over by HomeMinister Rajnath Singh, theCabinet Committee on Par-liamentary Afairs met onTuesday morning, and re-commended the decision tothe President. The first partof the Budget session willrun from January 31 to Febru-ary 9. The Union Cabinet hadearlier decided to end thepractice of a separate Rail-way budget.

Senior sources in the gov-ernment also said that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi willhold an all-party meetingjust before the session to dis-cuss poll reforms.

“In his address to the na-tion on December 31, Mr.Modi had said that partiesneeded to shed the ‘holierthan thou’ attitude when itcame to poll reforms and un-derstand the anger of thepeople with regard to pollfunding,” a source said.

Union Budget to be presented on February 1 SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH: The All IndiaKisan Sabha (AIKS) willstage a nationwide protestagainst the NDA governmenton January 19 to highlight theplight of farmers on accountof demonetisation thatbrought down the prices offarm products, especiallyfruits and vegetables.

“The 60-day interestwaiver announced by thePrime Minister NarendraModi for farm loans takenfrom district cooperativebanks and societies will nothelp to compensate thelosses sufered by farmers,”AIKS general secretary Han-nan Mollah said. “The delayin wheat sowing is bound toafect productivity in the

coming days. The govern-ment should assess the lossin income, wages and yieldand pay full compensation,”he said.

Mr. Mollah said that in thepast two months, the peas-ants lost their income be-cause of the poor returnswith a dip in the prices ofmost crops.

“The losses are going tocontinue... Farm workers losttheir jobs and wages as farm-ing slackened and wageswere not paid for the work

done,” he said, demandingfull waiver of the loans takenby agricultural workers.

The Right to Food Cam-paign has said the demonet-isation served no purposeand amounted to an attack onthe right to food and to life.

“The big damage has justbegun to unfold as recessionhits millions of vulnerablefamilies. It does not require aPh.D in economics to under-stand that when the bulk ofthe population is strappedfor cash, economic activityand employment take a dip.Farmers have been dumpingvegetables on the roads forwant of remunerative prices.Traders and vendors haveseen their sales dive,” saidRight to Food Campaign con-vener Kavita Srivastava.

Farmers’ body plans protest on Jan. 19SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT To highlight the

plight of farmers asdemonetisationbrought down pricesof farm products

CMYK

NEWS | 13THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

TIRUPATI: Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi has underlinedthe need to inculcate theconcept of ‘scientific socialresponsibility,’ akin to cor-porate social responsibility,to connect the leading insti-tutions with all stakeholders,including schools and col-leges.

The idea is to create an en-vironment for sharing ofideas and resources byproviding opportunity to thebrightest and best of brainsin every corner of India to ex-cel in science.

“This will ensure that ouryouth get high-end trainingand exposure to the best ofscience and technology tomake them job-ready in acompetitive world”.

Delivering the inauguraladdress at the 104th IndianScience Congress on SriVenkateswara Universitycampus here on Tuesday, onthe theme ‘Science and

Technology for national de-velopment’, Mr. Modi an-nounced all form of supportto the scientific and researchorganisations, and in turn,told scientists to leave nostone unturned in ensuringthat the fruits of sciencereached the marginalisedsections of society.

Pledging his government'ssupport to building a strongS&T infrastructure that isaccessible to academia, start-

ups, industry and R&D labs,the Prime Minister sought toaddress the problems of easeof access, maintenance, re-dundancy and duplication ofexpensive equipments.

In this connection, hemooted the idea of establish-ing professionally-managedcentres in Public PrivatePartnership (PPP) mode tohouse high-value scientificequipment.

Mr. Modi exhorted na-

tional laboratories to estab-lish a ‘connect’ with schoolsand colleges to develop ap-propriate training pro-grammes.

Hub and spoke model

“Laboratories, research in-stitutions and universities ineach major city and regionshould be interlinked tofunction on a hub and spokemodel. The hubs will sharemajor infrastructure, driveour national science mis-sions and be the engines thatlink discovery to applica-tion,” he said, while askinginstitutes to consider in-volving NRI Ph.D. studentsand outstanding scientistsfrom abroad for long-termresearch association.

Referring to the con-straints involved in securingand completing researchprojects, the Prime Ministerindicated the need to ensure‘ease of doing science’ as anempowering factor for sci-entific delivery.

PM inaugurates 104th Indian Science Congress, calls for best training to youth

A.D. RANGARAJAN

BRIGHT OPPORTUNITY: PM Narendra Modi greets BangladeshiNobel laureate Muhammad Yunus at the 104th Indian ScienceCongress in Tirupati on Tuesday. — PHOTO: K.V. POORNACHANDRA KUMAR

Modi for scientific ‘connect’

NEW DELHI: The CBI has filed acharge sheet against socialactivist Teesta Setalvad, herhusband Javed Anand and acompany run by them for al-leged violation of foreignfunding rules.

The charge sheet, whichhas listed the firm SabrangCommunications and Pub-lishing Private Limited and aman named Sushma Raman,was filed on Saturday in aMumbai court, CBI spokes-person R.K. Gaur said onTuesday.

The probe agency had inJuly 2015 registered a caseagainst Ms. Setalvad — whowas at the forefront of cam-paign for 2002 Gujarat riotvictims and others — for al-leged violation of the ForeignContribution Regulation Act(FCRA) in receiving fundsfrom abroad without takingprior permission from theHome Ministry. — PTI

CBI files chargesheet againstTeesta Setalvad

NEW DELHI: Deposits of morethan ₨1,600 crore by over adozen cooperative banks inthe vaults of some prominentbanks have come under thescanner of the EnforcementDirectorate (ED), which hasso far arrested 18 persons onmoney laundering charges.It has also registered 26 casesof alleged illegal exchange ofthe withdrawn notes.

During an audit of thebranch of a private bank, fin-ancial investigating agenciesfound that 13 cooperativebanks had deposited hugeamounts between November16 and 21.

Furthermore, a Surat co-operative bank, under scru-tiny for alleged irregularit-ies, had deposited ₨20 crorewith the Bank of Baroda. Theinformation has been sharedwith the ED.

The agencies also foundirregularities in the cash bal-ance records of the Mumbai-

based Shyamrao Vishal Co-operative Bank, involving₨196 crore. The cash depositsin 50 branches of 10 banks arebeing scrutinised by the ED.

The ED has received de-tails of the new accounts al-legedly opened to depositthe unaccounted-for cash inthe demonetised notes. At anAllahabad branch of a na-tionalised bank, over 200newly opened accounts wereused. A similar case has beendetected in Ranchi. Dormantaccounts in which huge sumswere deposited are also un-der investigation.

Third-party deposits

Numerous instances ofthird-party deposits, madewithout authorisation by ac-count-holders, have alsocome to the fore.

About a dozen cases werereported from a bank inJaipur, and in the samebranch, the agencies foundout that documents pertain-ing to cash deposits were not

available. In Ahmedabad, alarge number of depositforms had not been collectedby a bank. The Jan Dhan ac-counts in which deposits ofover ₨10 lakh were made arealso being investigated.

The ED also probed thesuspected role of 80 jew-ellers at 16 places nationwideand has registered a money-laundering case against onejeweller group, for transac-tions worth over ₨110 crore,on a complaint from the I-TDepartment.

While the role of shellcompanies in recycling thedemonetised notes is beingscrutinised, the Financial In-vestigation Unit has shareddetails of such entities andcooperative society ac-counts. The ED has launcheda foreign exchange rule viol-ation probe against the shellcompanies in Kolkata. Underthe Foreign Exchange Man-agement Act, two dozen in-stances of advance remit-tances are also being probed.

ED lens on ₨1,600 croredeposit by cooperatives DEVESH K. PANDEY

NEW DELHI: Anxious over therise in bad loans, the Su-preme Court on Tuesdayordered the government toprovide “empirical data” oncases pending in Debt Re-covery Tribunals (DRTs) forover 10 years and the list ofcorporate entities with debtsin excess of ₨500 crore.

A Bench led by ChiefJustice of India T.S. Thakuralso directed the govern-ment to provide a completeand detailed report onwhether DRTs and their ap-pellate bodies are well-equipped, as far as infra-structure and manpower, totake on defaulting corporateentities which have renegedon loans and render timelyjustice.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices A.M. Khanwilkarand D.Y. Chandrachud, dir-ected the government to filean aidavit in four weeks.

The court referred to how

the new Enforcement of Se-curity Interest and Recoveryof Debt Laws and Miscel-laneous Provisions (Amend-ment) Bill, 2016 was intro-duced in the Lok Sabha onMay 11, 2016 with the expresspurpose of combating pen-dency in bad loans cases.

The Bill was referred to aJoint Committee of bothHouses of Parliament. Thepanel presented its report tothe LS on July 22, 2016. Even-tually, a law has been enactedby Parliament and publishedon August 16 last year. Butthe SC expressed its scepti-cism on whether the new le-gislation by itself would beable to solve the rising pen-dency in bad loan cases inoverburdened DRTs.

SC asks list of firmswith debts over ₨500 cr. KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL Govt. asked to give

data on casespending in DebtRecovery Tribunalsfor over 10 years

NEW DELHI: The Indian mediaand certain prominentjournalists came under theSupreme Court scanner onTuesday for allegedly receiv-ing pay-ofs and favours fromthe Italian firm AgustaWest-land and its parent companyFinmeccanica to publish re-ports in favour of the VVIPchopper deal.

A Bench of Justices DipakMisra and Arun Mishraagreed to hear noted journal-ist and author Hari Jaisingh’splea that the top court shouldintervene in the ongoing in-vestigation by the CentralBureau of Investigation(CBI) and Enforcement Dir-ectorate (ED) and directthem to submit a status re-port on whether the mediaplayed a role in the deal.

The court asked Mr. Jais-ingh, represented by senioradvocate Geeta Luthra, toprovide the CBI and the EDcopies of his petition.

The CAG had, in a reportpresented in Parliament inAugust 2013, said significantdepartures were made fromthe Defence ProcurementProcedure Rules (DPPR)2006 to award the ₨3,727-crore contract for 12helicopters.

Mr. Jaisingh asked the Su-preme Court to set up a com-mission of inquiry under thestewardship of a retiredjudge of the apex court orany other eminent person toinvestigate “allegations ofcorruption and influence-peddling in the Indian me-

dia, and to suggest correctivemeasures to safeguardagainst such ills”.

Pointing to leakage of clas-sified documents dealingwith big-ticket procurementand plans from the DefenceMinistry, Mr. Jaisingh said:“...it is therefore crucial tonote that such active nexusbetween the so-called agentsof defence dealings withjournalists should be scru-tinised by this HonourableCourt.”

Mr. Jaisingh said a journal-ist is “akin” to a public ser-vant.

The former, consideringthe sacredness of his duty tothe public, should bear thesame responsibility andshow the same restraint asthe latter.

SC to hear journalist’splea in chopper case

NEW DELHI: The governmentwill initiate the process forselecting a new single enginefighter jet to be built in Indiawith extensive technologytransfer as soon as theguidelines for giving a biggerrole to the private sector indefence manufacturing is fi-nalised, Defence MinisterManohar Parrikar said onTuesday.

He said the guidelines forthe ‘strategic partnership’model, to be under theframework of the DefenceProcurement Procedure2016, were in the “final dis-cussion stage” and it couldbe approved by thismonth-end.

The Indian Air Force hascontracted with HindustanAeronautics Limited (HAL)for 123 indigenous LightCombat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas

jets and, to address the de-pleting fighter strength andreplace the MiG jets beingretired, intends to select an-other single engine fighterfrom the global market.

Protective agreement

He said the criteria for se-lection would be the cost andthe extent of technologytransfer. While the price dis-covery and selection of localpartner would be through

competitive process, the fi-nal deal would also have agovernment to governmentagreement.

“Government to govern-ment agreement will be aprotective umbrella agree-ment, while the actual deal-ing will be with the com-pany,” Mr. Parrikar said.

Detailed ofers

The government had re-cently asked diplomatic mis-sions in countries that manu-facture fighter aircraft to getinformation on their jets.

In anticipation of the ma-jor order for upwards of 100jets, U.S.-based Boeing andLockheed Martin and theSAAB of Sweden had alreadysubmitted detailed ofers ontheir F-18, F-16 and Gripenfighters. However, F-18 is atwin engine jet which rules itout of the competition.

Fighter jet selection willbegin soon, says ParrikarDINAKAR PERI

Manohar Parrikar

NEW DELHI: India’s relationswith the U.S. will not bebased on “optics” but on“real action” in the Trumpera, says Republican adviserand prominent NRI busi-nessman-politician ShalabhKumar, describing India’sties with the Obama admin-istration as “meresymbolism”.

“President Trump will nothave a relationship whereone day he lights diyas andcelebrates Diwali, but thenext day announce F-16s forPakistan,” Mr. Kumar said onTuesday.

“We had made good head-way in the relationship dur-ing President George W.Bush’s tenure, but therewasn’t time to implement it.The Obama administrationwas just optics, but we didn’tsee real action anywhere,”Mr. Kumar added.

In February 2016, theObama administration hadannounced its intention tosupply eight U.S.-madeF-16C fighter jets to Pakistanthat had led to an outcryfrom India. Mr. Kumar, whoheads the “RepublicanHindu Coalition” that re-portedly donated more thana million dollars to theTrump campaign, had beenamong lobby groups thatfought against the F-16 trans-fer which led to the U.S. gov-ernment dropping plans tofinance the planes.

“We won’t have that kindof relationship any more, Ican assure you,” Mr. Kumarsaid.

Meetings irrelevant

When asked how soonPresident Trump and PrimeMinister Narendra Modiwould meet, given the recordnumber of meetings Mr.Modi and Mr. Obama have

had, Mr Kumar said it was“irrelevant”.

“If trade ties can be im-proved, and we hope to gofrom $100 billion to $300 bil-lion; if jobs can be increasedand if defence trade is im-proved, then it won’t matterif the political leadershipmeets or not,” he said, speak-ing to The Hindu during avisit to India.

In Delhi, Mr. Kumar, whohas been a key interlocutorbetween the Modi govern-ment and the Trump trans-

ition team, said he met withHome Minister RajnathSingh, National Security Ad-visor Ajit Doval, FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley, andCommerce MinisterNirmala Seetharaman to dis-cuss bilateral ties. He alsotravelled to Mumbai alongwith his adopted daughterManasvi, a Bollywood act-ress and former Miss India,to organise a “Bollywoodperformance” for the Trumpinaugural concert on Janu-ary 19.

Bollywood at inaugural

“We met with the Trumpfamily, including Ivanka andEric Trump a few weeks agoand discussed our plans.Even though the diasporamakes up just two per cent ofthe population, all of themare keen to see our culturerepresented at the show,”Ms. Manasvi said.

Refuting reports that Na-

tional Security Advisor AjitDoval would attend the in-auguration or swearing-inceremony of Mr. Trump onJanuary 20, Mr. Kumar, whohas been appointed to theTransition Finance & Inaug-uration teams of the TrumpAdministration, said accord-ing to the protocol to be fol-lowed, only Ambassadorswould be invited and Indianenvoy to Washington NavtejSarna would attend.

Mr. Kumar also refused tocomment on speculationthat he could be Mr. Trump’schoice of the next Ambas-sador to India, when the cur-rent Ambassador RichardVerma, who is a political ap-pointee, demits oice. Whenasked about who the choicemay be, Mr. Shalabh Kumar,who is called “Shaili” said,“Mr. Trump likes business-men who are action ori-ented. He hasn’t appointedpoliticians so far.”

Trump adviser promises a fillip in India-U.S. ties SUHASINI HAIDAR

Shalabh Kumar

NEW DELHI: Home Minister Ra-jnath Singh said that India ishopeful that China will agreewith its position on gettingJaish-e-Mohammed chiefMasood Azhar designated asan international terrorist bythe United Nations.

During a press interactionhere, Mr. Singh said, “We stillexpect China to support ourstand.”

India’s submission againstAzhar was dropped by the1267 ISIS/Al Qaeda Sanc-tions committee on Decem-ber 30, after China convertedits “technical hold” into ablock or veto of the proposal.

Mr. Singh added, “We arepursuing China to declareAzhar an international ter-rorist but cannot share de-tails on how and who (on In-dian side) is doing it.”

India’s proposal was sub-mitted in February to the

1267 Sanctions Committee ofthe U.N. Security Council.

Fresh request

A fresh listing request willbe required for Azhar to bebanned by the U.N., oicialssaid.

However, India had said itwill continue to push for-ward with resolute determ-ination “through the use ofall options available with usto bring perpetrators of ter-rorist violence to justice.”

Expect China to supportour Masood stand: IndiaSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Masood Azhar

HC to hear CBI’s pleaagainst Tyagi’s bail

NEW DELHI: The CBI’s petitionchallenging the bail granted toformer IAF chief S.P. Tyagi in theAgustaWestland chopper scamcase, on the ground that hecould “hamper” the probe, willbe heard on January 9, the DelhiHigh Court said on Tuesday.The plea came up before JusticeI.S. Mehta, who posted it forhearing on Monday next afterMr. Tyagi’s counsel said they would file a reply to thepetition. Additional SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta,appearing for the CBI, told thecourt that their review pleachallenged the bail granted by atrial court to Mr. Tyagi onDecember 26. —PTI

LEGAL CORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI: “There is no sessionon ‘Science and Spirituality’at the 104th Indian ScienceCongress (ISC) to be held inTirupati from January 3-7,” D.Narayana Rao, the generalpresident of the ISC clarifiedto The Hindu.

Dr. Rao’s clarification wasin response to Dr. P.M. Bhar-gava’s remarks at a press con-ference in Hyderabad acouple of days ago.

Criticised organisers

Dr. Bhargava had criticisedthe organisers of the TirupatiIndian Science Congress andthe Centre for purportedlyplanning a session on ‘Sci-ence and Spirituality..

Later, Dr. Bhargava hadtold The Hindu that ‘scienceand spirituality’ was itselfthe ‘theme of the ISC’.

However, Dr. Rao said theactual theme of the IndianScience Congress is ‘Scienceand Technology for NationalDevelopment’.

‘No session onspirituality atscience meet’R. PRASAD

SRINAGAR: The much-awaitedsnowfall on Tuesday, notonly ended the prolongeddry spell in the KashmirValley but also came as ashot in the arm of Kashmirtourism as it is rolling outfresh winter sportscalendar.

A spell of rainfall in theplains and a moderatesnowfall in the upperreaches, including touristhotspots of Gulmarg, So-namarg, Pir Panchal roadand Qazigund areas, endedthe dry spell of over fivemonths, as Kashmir had re-ceived only 3.6 mm rainfallin October, November andDecember last year.

Fresh snowfall enforcedclosure of the Pir Ki Galiroad which connects theValley with Poonch, and theZojila Pass, connecting withLeh. “The traic has beensuspended as a precaution-ary measure,” a traic de-partment oicial said.

The meteorological de-

partment has predicted wetweather till January 8.“Light to moderate rainsand snowfall are likely tooccur across Kashmir onJanuary 4,” said Sonum Lo-tus, meteorological depart-ment director. “On January6-7, widespread rains and

snow would occur acrossthe Valley,” he added.

The much-awaited snow-fall has brought cheer forthe tourism department.“We were waiting for snow-fall to kickstart the winterfestival. Snow remains es-sential to our plans. We re-

ceived a good amount ofsnow at ski resort of Gul-marg on Tuesday,” deputydirector, tourism, PeerzadaZahoor told The Hindu. Thedepartment is planning a‘snow carnival’ from Janu-ary 21 to February 5 at Gul-marg.

Fresh snowfall brings cheer to Kashmir

A tourist enjoys a sleigh ride in snow-covered Gulmarg on Tuesday. PHOTO: AFP

PEERZADA ASHIQ

CMYK

ND-ND

WORLD14 |THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

JERUSALEM: Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu faces agraft probe some believecould force him from office.

Police questioned Mr.Netanyahu for some threehours at his official residencein Jerusalem on Mondaynight over tens of thousandsof dollars in gifts allegedlygiven to him by wealthysupporters.

While an inquiry has beenongoing for months, it hasnow been elevated to acriminal probe and news of

his questioning shook thepolitical scene in the country,setting off speculation overwhether it will lead to hisdownfall. — AFP

Police question Netanyahu in graft probe

LONDON: A wheelchair-boundAlgerian terror suspect linkedto Osama Bin Laden has wonhis 21-year legal battle to livein the U.K., with the judgesaying the threat of

deportation has affected hismental health, it emerged onTuesday.

The man, who can only bereferred to as ‘G’ due to legalreasons, has defeatedrepeated U.K. governmentattempts to deport him. He isaccused of helping to sendyoung British Muslims toterror training camps abroad,according to reports. — PTI

Terror suspect wins right to stay in U.K.

WASHINGTON: A former oicialin the Ronald Reagan admin-istration who believes thereis no essential conflictbetween conservative goalsand trade protectionism willbe the U.S. Trade Represent-ative (USTR) in the Trumpadministration.

Robert Lighthizer, whowas Deputy U.S. Trade Rep-resentative under PresidentReagan, will work with Sec-retary of Commerce-desig-nate Wilbur Ross and PeterNavarro, head of the newlycreated White House Na-tional Trade Council, to“strengthen our manufactur-ing base and help stop the ex-odus of jobs from ourshores”, a statement from theTrump transition team said.

The administration willinherit a host of trade-re-lated issues between the U.S.and India that have been adrag on the bilateral ties. Thecurrent USTR, Michael Fro-man, has been extremelycritical of India’s trade andintellectual property rightspolicies. He has also notbeen a supporter of India’smembership in the Asia Pa-

cific Economic Cooperation. Mr. Trump has said he

would not pursue multilat-eral trade agreements andwould renegotiate existingones. He prefers bilateraltrade treaties with individualpartners.

The statement said Mr.Lighthizer played a “majorrole in negotiating roughlytwo dozen bilateral interna-tional agreements on a vari-ety of topics from steel tograin” under Reagan. “Theseagreements were uniformlytough and frequently resul-ted in significant reductionsin the shipment of unfairlytraded imports into the U.S.”

Tremendous potential

Mukesh Aghi, President ofthe U.S.-India BusinessCouncil, welcomed the se-lection. “The trade potentialbetween India and the U.S. istremendous and it will growunder the new administra-tion. The USIBC looks for-ward to working with thenew team,” Mr. Aghi said.

“Mr. Lighthizer last servedin the U.S. government whentrade with India was relat-ively minuscule. So thebreadth and width of issues

will be far more expansivethan before. Certainly mar-ket access issues remain,particularly in sectors suchas insurance, retail trade andlegal services.

But now that U.S. businessrelations with India aredeeper, the trade agenda in-cludes more detailed issuesthan before — price controls,intellectual property protec-tion, mandatory local con-

tent rules, and localisedproduct standards,” saidRichard M. Rossow, Wadh-wani Chair in U.S.-IndiaPolicy Studies at the Centerfor Strategic and Interna-tional Studies.

USTR is the U.S. lead forthe U.S.-India Trade PolicyForum, a main venue to raisecommercial concerns. “Ifthis Forum is continued, Mr.Lighthizer will certainly

have regular engagementwith India on the completerange of commercial issues.We will also see if he is ableto restart the stalled talksover a Bilateral InvestmentTreaty, he added.

Mr. Lighthizer had comeout strongly in support forMr. Trump’s protectionist ar-guments much before he an-nounced his decision to runfor President.

In a newspaper article in2011, he wrote: “On a purelyintellectual level, how doesallowing China to constantlyrig trade in its favour ad-vance the core conservativegoal of making markets moreeicient? Markets do not runbetter when manufacturingshifts to China largely be-cause of the actions of itsgovernment. Nor do they be-come more eicient whenChinese companies aregiven special privileges inglobal markets...”

. He argued in the samepiece that Republican Pres-idents have historicallytaken measures to protectAmerican industries whileDemocrats have openedthem for unfair competitionfrom abroad.

Robert Lighthizer will inherit a host of trade-related issues between the United States and India

Trump picks China critic as trade headVARGHESE K. GEORGE

OLD HAND: President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect Mike Pence during a rally in Pennsylvania in December;(inset) Robert Lighthizer. — PHOTOS: AP

BERLIN: The first reprint of Ad-olf Hitler’s Mein Kampf inGermany since World War IIhas proved a surprise best-seller, heading for its sixthprint run, its publisher saidon Tuesday.

The Institute of Contem-porary History of Munich(IfZ) said around 85,000 cop-ies of the new annotated ver-sion of the Nazi leader’s anti-Semitic manifesto had flownof the shelves since its re-lease last January.

However, the respected in-stitute said far from promot-ing far-Right ideology, thepublication had enriched adebate on the renewed rise of“authoritarian politicalviews” in contemporaryWestern society. It had ini-tially planned to print only4,000 copies but boostedproduction immediatelybased on intense demand.The sixth print run will hitbookstores in late January.

The two-volume work hadfigured on the non-fictionbestseller list in weeklymagazine Der Spiegel overmuch of the last year, andeven topped the list for twoweeks in April.

The institute also organ-ised a successful series ofpresentations and debatesaround Mein Kampf acrossGermany and in otherEuropean cities, which it saidallowed it to measure the im-pact of the edition. — AFP

A German edition of ‘Mein Kampf’. — FILE PHOTO: AFP

Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ issurprise bestseller

ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: A Christ-mas message calling forprayers for those charged un-der Pakistan’s blasphemylaws has led to death threatsagainst Shaan Taseer, son ofSalmaan Taseer who waskilled five years ago for criti-cising the same laws.

The hardliners have calledfor mass protests if police donot charge Mr. Taseer withblasphemy, which is punish-able by death.

In a video message postedon his Facebook page, Mr.Taseer wished a happy holi-day to Christians in solidar-ity and also asked for prayersfor those victimised by whathe called “inhumane” blas-phemy laws. — AFP

Death threats afterChristmas messageby Taseer’s son

BEIRUT: Syrian governmentforces pressed ahead withtheir ofensive in the water-rich Barada Valley, northw-est of Damascus, on Tuesdayas 10 rebel groups said theywere suspending talks withthe regime.

A ceasefire, brokered byRussia and Turkey, is meantto be followed by talks laterthis month in the Kazakhcapital of Astana betweenmainstream rebel factionsand government represent-atives.

The U.N. Security Councilon Saturday unanimouslyadopted a resolution sup-porting eforts by Russia andTurkey, which support op-posing sides of the Syria war,to end the nearly six-yearconflict and jump-startpeace negotiations.

But the nationwide four-day-old truce is looking in-creasingly shaky, with op-position factions angered inparticular about the ongoingmilitary ofensive in the stra-

tegically-important BaradaValley.

The government and theopposition disagree aboutwhether the region is part ofthe ceasefire agreement,which excludes extremistfactions such as the IslamicState group and al-Qaeda’sailiate, known as Fatah al-

Sham Front. The text of thedocument was never re-leased to the public.

The Syrian governmentsays the mountainous regionis not part of the ceasefirebecause of the presence ofFatah al-Sham. Local activ-ists deny any militant pres-ence in the area.

Opposition activists onTuesday reported heavybombardment of villages inthe region. The opposition’sCivil Defense First respon-ders reported at least ninegovernment air strikes sinceSunday, as well as acuteshortages of medical sup-plies. Six people have beenkilled and 73 have beenwounded, it said.

Lives under threat

In a statement posted lateMonday, 10 rebel factionssaid they were “freezing alldiscussions regarding theAstana negotiations or anyother consultations regard-ing the ceasefire agreementuntil it is fully implemented”.They include the powerfulArmy of Islam group, whichoperates mainly outside theSyrian capital.

It said the violations in theBarada Valley are continuingand “threaten the lives ofhundreds of thousands ofpeople.” — AP

Syria rebels halt talks over ‘violations’

AMID THE RUBBLE: A damaged house in Doudyan village innorthern Aleppo governorate.— PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON: Influential British artcritic and prize-winning au-thor John Berger, a self-de-clared revolutionary whocontroversially backed thefar-Left Black Panthers, hasdied aged 90, his son toldAFP on Tuesday.

‘Ways of seeing’

Mr. Berger was bestknown for his art criticismessay “Ways of seeing”, writ-ten to accompany a BBC tele-vision series, which is cred-ited with changing the waypeople viewed art.

He also won the 1972Booker Prize for Fiction forhis experimental novel G.,set in pre-World War IEurope.

Mr. Berger died onMonday in the Paris suburbof Antony, his son Jacob said.

“He died peacefully athome, surrounded by hisfamily,” he said. He had livedin France since the 1970s.

Mr. Berger was born inLondon in 1926. After servingin the British Army, he en-rolled in the Chelsea Schoolof Art, becoming a painter.

He then taught drawingfrom 1948 to 1955, becoming anoted art critic from 1952 on-wards, according to hisFrench publishers, Les Edi-tions de l’Olivier.

He wrote about artists in-cluding Pablo Picasso,Titian, Paul Cezanne andGustave Courbet.

“Ways of Seeing”, a highlyinfluential criticism of West-ern cultural aesthetics, ori-ginally aired in 1972 as a four-part BBC television seriesand was subsequently pub-lished as a book.

A Marxist humanist whocalled himself a revolution-ary, he donated half of the£5,000 Booker Prize moneyto the U.K. branch of theBlack Panthers, the far-Leftblack nationalistorganisation.

Mr. Berger moved toFrance to escape the “ex-tremely anti-communist”Britain, his son said.

In France, “there was a bal-ance which tended muchmore towards support of, ifnot the Soviet Union, then ofMarxist and communistideals” — AFP

British art critic John Berger.— FILE PHOTO

British art critic, revolutionary,author John Berger dead

KARACHI: Pakistani Prime Min-ister Nawaz Sharif on Tues-day said he is looking for-ward to establishing strongand mutually beneficial rela-tions with all the countries inthe neighbourhood includ-ing India. In a rare display ofPakistan’s civil-militaryunity, Prime Minister Sharifheld a meeting with the newArmy Chief, General QamarBajwa, in Islamabad.

“Peaceful co-existence,mutual respect and econom-ically integrated region mustbe our shared objective. Thiscould be possible only whenwe demonstrate a commit-ment to our aspirations of

peace, progress and prosper-ity,” Mr. Sharif told the meet-ing convened at his resid-ence to review the currentstatus of Pakistan's relationswith its neighbours.

Troubled ties

Pakistan’s relations with

India and Afghanistan havebeen on the nosedive afterlast year’s attacks in Path-ankot and Uri and Kabul.Pakistan has repeatedlydenied its involvement andofered investigations intothe incidents.

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Twitter had wishedhis Pakistani counterpart onthe latter’s birthday onDecember 25. MaryamNawaz Sharif, daughter ofMr. Sharif, responded bythanking Mr. Modi on behalfof her father.

On Monday, General Ba-jwa also called Afghan Pres-ident Ashraf Ghani and in-vited him for a visit toPakistan.

Pakistan seeks strong ties withall neighbours, says Sharif

Nawaz Sharif. — FILE PHOTO: AFP

MUBASHIR ZAIDI

ISTANBUL:Turkish authoritieson Tuesday intensified ef-forts to identify a suspectedjihadist from Central Asiabehind the massacre of 39people at an Istanbulnightclub who had re-portedly fought in Syria forthe Islamic State (IS) group.

Police released pictures ofthe suspect who went on therampage at the plush Reinanightclub on New Year’snight, spraying about 120bullets at terrified party go-ers before slipping away intothe night.

So far, 16 people are beingheld over the attack, includ-ing two foreigners detainedby Turkish police at Istan-bul's main airport. But thekiller remains on the run.

There was frenzied specu-lation surrounding a 28-year-old Kyrgyz man with a strongfacial resemblance to the at-tacker but he was allowed tofly back home by the Turkishauthorities and later re-leased after questioning inKyrgyzstan. The IslamicState (IS) group on Mondayclaimed the massacre, thefirst time it has clearly statedbeing behind a major attackin Turkey.

The suspect — who hasnot been named but re-portedly may be fromKyrgyzstan or Uzbekistan —was staying in a rented flat inKonya before moving toIstanbul to carry out the at-tack, press reports said.

The Hurriyet daily saidthe attacker showed signs ofbeing well trained in the useof arms and had fought inSyria for IS jihadists.

Hurriyet’s AbdulkadirSelvi said the suspect hadbeen trained in street fight-ing in residential areas inSyria and used these tech-niques in the attack, shootingfrom the hip rather than as asniper. — AFP

Istanbul attackerfought for IS inSyria, says report

RIYADH: Dozens of foreignworkers have been sen-tenced to flogging and jail forunrest during protests overunpaid wages by Saudi Bin-ladin Group several monthsago, reports said on Tuesday.

Al-Watan newspaper andArab News did not give thenationalities of the 49 work-ers, and foreign embassystaf contacted by AFP couldnot immediately provide de-tails. Al-Watan, which hasfollowed the Binladin casesince early last year, said anunidentified number weresentenced to four months’jail and 300 lashes for des-troying public property andinciting unrest. Others werejailed for 45 days by the courtin Makkah.

Fall in oil prices

Construction sector work-ers, chiefly at the BinladinGroup and another firmSaudi Oger, were left waitingfor salaries after a collapse inoil revenues left the kingdomunable to pay private firms ithad contracted.

Arab News reported inMay that “unpaid workers”had torched several BinladinGroup buses in Makkah.

Authorities confirmed atthe time that seven buseswere burned but did not givethe cause. A Saudi BinladinGroup spokesman could notbe reached on Tuesday.

The company, which de-veloped landmark buildingsin Saudi Arabia, was foundedmore than 80 years ago bythe father of deceased al-Qaeda leader Osama binLaden. Binladin Group latelast year said it had com-pleted payment to 70,000laid-of employees.

Workers still with thecompany would get theirback pay as the governmentsettled its arrears, the com-pany said. Tens of thousandsof employees of Saudi Oger,led by Lebanon’s Prime Min-ister Saad Hariri, were alsowaiting for wages. One Ogerworker said in Decemberthat he had received part ofthe money but was still owedfive months’ salary. — AFP

Protestingworkers jailed inSaudi Arabia

LONDON: Britain’s Ambassadorto the European Union (EU),Ivan Rogers, has resignedless than three months be-fore the U.K. is due to triggerthe process to leave the bloc,a source told AFP.

Last month, he reportedlytold British Ministers thatother EU countries believedit could take up to 10 years tonegotiate a new trade ar-rangements with the depart-ing U.K. But Prime MinisterTheresa May’s spokesmaninsisted a deal could be donewithin two years that wouldallow Britain to trade withand operate within the singleEuropean market.

Mr. Rogers headed theUnited Kingdom PermanentRepresentation to theEuropean Union (UKRep),which represents Britain innegotiations that take placein the EU. “His resignation isnot a surprise for those whowork with him,” a Europeandiplomat told AFP.

“He was very competent,but not convinced by theBrexit decision and the Brit-ish government line, leadingthe U.K. into an area of dan-gerous uncertainty.”

Ms. May intends to triggerArticle 50 of the EU’s LisbonTreaty, giving formal notific-ation of Britain’s intention toleave the bloc, by the end ofMarch.

Mr. Rogers had been in hispost since November 2013,having previously served asDavid Cameron’s Europe ad-viser since 2011. — AFP

Britain’s Ambassadorto the EU resigns

Ivan Rogers. — FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

CMYK

BUSINESS | 15THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

BRIEFLY

NEW DELHI: Days after PrimeMinister Narendra Modi warnedthose who indulged inmalpractices during the 50-daydemonetisation drive, theFinance Ministry has askedpublic sector banks to submit areport on the involvement ofofficials illegally changingcurrency notes. Banks will givedetails of those officials whoviolated the law and the RBI’sdirection during thedemonetisation period, sourcesin the the Finance Ministry said.Although vigilance proceedingsagainst directors are carried outby the Finance Ministry, thedepartment proceedings orcriminal proceedings againstofficials are carried out by banksthemselves.— PTI

Banks asked to reportmalpractice by staff

NEW DELHI: ONGC Videsh Ltd, theoverseas arm of state-owned Oiland Natural Gas Corporation(ONGC), has won rights to bidfor oil and gas developmentprojects in Iran. OVL is amongthe 29 international oilcompanies from more than adozen countries that Iran haspre-qualified to bid in theupcoming tender for oil and gasprojects, according to the listput out by National Iranian OilCo (NIOC). Others on the listinclude Royal Dutch Shell Plc,China National Petroleum Corp(CNPC), Total SA of France,Russia’s Gazprom and Eni ofItaly. — PTI

OVL qualifies to bid forIran oil, gas projects

NEW DELHI: With parent Suzuki’sGujarat plant set forcommissioning later this month,Maruti Suzuki India (MSI)expects to cut the waitingperiod for its high selling modelsVitara Brezza and Baleno. Atpresent, the two models have awaiting period ranging between20-24 weeks. “Our majordifficulty in 2016 has beeninadequate manufacturingcapacity, which resulted in quitelarge waiting period for theBaleno and the Vitara Brezza.The commissioning of theGujarat plant this month shouldgive relief in 2017-18,” MSIChairman R C Bhargava told PTI.

Wait time to be cut forMaruti’s Baleno, Brezza

NEW DELHI: Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya saiddemonetisation would havesome impact on the economy inthe third and fourth quarter ofthis fiscal but the country wouldmake up for those losses in FY2017-18. “In the quarter in whichthe demonetisation decisionwas made and possibly even thequarter that follows which willbe the last quarter of the fiscal2016-17, we might see somedecline ,” Mr. Panagariya toldCNBC-TV18. “...the impact willbe small and as we get into thenext fiscal , we would make upfor what we lose in these twoquarters,” he said.— PTI

Next fiscal will make upfor losses: Panagariya

SENSEX

03-01-2017 26,643

02-01-2017 26,59548points

GOLD

03-01-2017 28,350

02-01-2017 28,30050

₨/10gms

RUPEE

03-01-2017 68.33

02-01-2017 68.220.11₨/$

BRENT OIL

03-01-2017 58.03

30-12-2016 56.611.42$/bbl

This year, our focus will be to keepfood inflation under check

Ram Vilas Paswan, Food Minister

Exchange RatesIndicative direct rates in rupees a unit

except yen at 4 p.m on January 03

TT TT

Currencies Buying Selling

U.S. Dollar 68.13 68.45

Euro 70.78 71.11

Pound Sterling 83.58 83.99

Jap Yen (100 Units) 57.57 57.85

Chinese Yuan 9.78 9.84

Swiss Franc 66.17 66.49

Singapore Dollar 46.93 47.18

Australian Dollar 49.05 49.28

Canadian Dollar 50.68 50.92

Swedish Kroner 7.43 7.46

Danish Kroner 9.52 9.57

New Zealand Dollar 47.06 47.29

Hongkong Dollar 8.78 8.83

Malaysian Ringgit 15.16 15.23

Kuwaiti Dinar 221.11 223.60

UAE Dirham 18.55 18.64

Bahraini Dinar 180.61 181.55

Qatari Riyal 18.76 18.77

Saudi Riyal 18.22 18.22

Omani Riyal 176.95 177.87

Source:Indian Bank

Bullion RatesJanuary 03 rates in rupees with

previous rates in brackets

Chennai

Bar Silver (1 kg) 39,355 (39,110)

Retail (1 g) 42.10 (41.80)

24 ct gold (10 g) 28,280 (28,280)

22 ct gold (1 g) 2,704 (2,704)

Delhi

Silver 39,600 (39,300)

Standard Gold 28,350 (28,300)

Sovereign 24,000 (24,000)

NEW DELHI: The CommerceMinistry does not favourgranting concessions to U.S.multinational technologymajor Apple, for establishinga manufacturing unit in Indiato make its products includ-ing iPhones and iPads, ac-cording to a senior govern-ment oicial.

This is because other com-panies have not sought sim-ilar concessions — includingthe relaxation of labellingand local sourcing norms aswell as excise and importduty reductions — for start-ing manufacturing in thecountry.

The Centre will not beable to relax rules only forApple, the oicial, who didnot wish to be identified,said.

More than 40 companiesare manufacturing mobilephones in the country. AppleIndia did not immediatelyrespond to The Hindu’s

queries on the issue.

Smartphone market

India is among the largestsmartphone markets in theworld, and the California-headquartered Apple is look-ing to expand its marketshare in the segment in thecountry from the currentlevel of about two per cent.

However, Apple only op-erates in the premium smart-phone category, where itsshare is much higher. Ac-cording to reports, theTaiwan-headquartered Wis-tron Corporation, an originaldesign manufacturer, has ini-tiated plans to establish amanufacturing unit forApple in Bengaluru.

While setting up a manu-facturing plant in India — tocater to the local market andeven for exports — will helpcut costs given the factors in-cluding relatively lower la-bour costs (than, say, inChina), duty and other con-cessions are expected topush up that advantage fur-ther for Apple.

The Centre is keen thatApple does substantial valueaddition in the country andensure that local supplychains grow as well —thereby generating employ-ment, increasing manufac-turing and exports, the oi-cial said.

Modified package

An inter-ministerial panelincluding oicials from thedepartment of industrialpolicy and promotion

(DIPP), commerce, revenue,electronics and informationtechnology and environ-ment & forests are lookinginto the issue.

Currently, there is theModified Special IncentivePackage Scheme to promotemanufacturing of electronicitems in India. There are in-centives for investments inSpecial Economic Zones.

Sourcing norms

The Centre is looking intoApple's proposal seeking ex-emption from 30 per centlocal sourcing norms on FDIin single brand retail. TheCommerce Ministry hadearlier said that it was not infavour of relaxing rules forApple to sell refurbishedsecond-hand phones inIndia.

Earlier, though a govern-

ment panel led by the DIPPsecretary had suggested thatApple could be exemptedfrom local sourcing rules as apre-condition to set upsingle brand retail stores inIndia since its proposal metthe definition of ‘cuttingedge technology’, the Fin-ance Ministry had turneddown the panel’s decision.

Apple is learnt to havesought the waiver on theground that it makes ‘cut-ting-edge technology’ itemsfor which it is not possible tosource as much from India.

Cutting-edge favour

The Centre is looking intowhether there is a need forseparate guidelines on localsourcing pertaining to thewaiver on ‘cutting edge tech-nology’ and what constitutessuch high-end technology.

Other companies have not sought similar concessions, says Centre

‘No concessions likely forApple’s manufacturing unit’SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHEW ON THIS: More than 40 firms are manufacturing mobile phones in India. — FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank ofIndia has directed banks toensure that at least 40 percent of the supply of bank-notes should reach ruralareas while currency chestsand automated teller ma-chines in such areas shouldhave ₨500 and ₨100 denomin-ation banknotes. The bank-ing regulator has observedthat “banknotes, being sup-plied to rural areas, atpresent, are not commensur-ate with the requirements ofrural population.”

In a circular, RBI saidbanks should advise theircurrency chests to step up is-suance of fresh notes to ruralbranches of Regional RuralBanks, District Central Co-operative Banks and com-mercial banks, white labelATMs in rural areas and postoices on a priority basis.

Of the 4,000-odd currencychests in the country, mostare managed by public sectorbanks. “Chests should issuebanknotes in denominationsof ₨500 and below. In particu-lar ATMs, including white la-bel, may be issued ₨500s and₨100s and among ATMs cat-egory, Of-site ATMs shouldbe allocated higher propor-tion of cash as against on siteATMs as they are more im-portant in last mile currencyconnectivity.”

The RBI added that chestsoperating in a district shouldmaintain the proportion on aweekly average basis.

‘Ensure 40% of

currency reaches

rural areas’SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI: Tata Sons, the hold-ing company of the $103 bil-lion salt-to-software con-glomerate, is planning toremove Cyrus Mistry, itsousted chairman, from thecompany’s board even as Mr.Mistry, through his invest-ment firms, has petitionedthe National Company LawTribunal (NCLT) seekingdissolution of the board.

The move is aimed at di-vesting all executive andnon-executive roles of Mr.Mistry in the Tata Sonsboard and Mr. Mistry’s fam-ily may only remain as apassive investor in Tata Sons.

“It’s happening and (is)just a matter of time. We arelikely to issue the noticeseeking his (Mr. Mistry’s) re-moval from the Tata Sonsboard soon,” a confidant ofinterim chairman Ratan Tatatold The Hindu.

Tata Sons is likely to takethe shareholder route seek-ing Mr. Mistry’s removal as adirector from the company’sboard even as the companyhad the option to remove Mr.Mistry from its board by wayof passing a board resolution,said sources in the know ofthe development.

“It’s a private limited com-pany so it will take 21 daysfrom the day of issuing a no-tice seeking his removal,”said the source.

‘No decision yet’

However, in an e-mailreply to queries, a Tata Sonsspokesperson said: “No suchdecision has been taken bythe Tata Sons Board.”

Since Tata Trusts hold amajority stake (66 per cent)in Tata Sons, the proposal tooust Mr. Mistry from itsboard is expected to sailthrough. Mr. Mistry’s familyholds 18.4 per cent stake in

Tata Sons through its invest-ment arms and is likely tovote against the resolution.However, the resolutionwould still be passed, ac-cording to legal experts.

Tata Sons is likely to citebreach of confidentiality asone of the reasons for Mr.Mistry’s removal as director.On December 27, Tata Sonsserved a legal notice to Mr.Mistry for violating confid-entiality undertakings givenby him as director to TataSons. “By passing confiden-tial and price-sensitive in-formation accessed by you inyour capacity as a director ofTata Sons to companiesowned and controlled byyour family, you have actedin complete violation of yourconfidentiality undertakingsto Tata Sons and your obliga-tions under the Tata Code ofConduct,” said the Decem-ber 27 legal notice adding,“please note that not onlyhave you breached your legalduties as a director, but youhave acted recklessly withthe sole intent to cause harmand loss to our client.”

On December 29, TataSons issued another noticedemanding Mr. Mistry re-turn all confidential inform-ation to Tata Sons.

Mr. Mistry's oice de-clined to comment.

In a recent interview toThe Hindu, Mr. Mistry hadsaid: “I will continue to be onTata Sons’ board.”

Tatas now planning tooust Mistry from boardof holding companyPIYUSH PANDEY

Cyrus Mistry

MUMBAI: Housing Finance andDevelopment Corp. (HDFC)has reduced home loan ratesby 40 bps (basis points) to 8.7per cent for loans up to ₨75lakh, while for loans above₨75 lakh, the rate will be 9.75per cent. The lender will of-fer additional 5 bps discountto women borrowers.

The new rate, which cameinto efect from January 3, isapplicable to new customers.

“Over the past couple ofmonths we have seen a dropin our marginal costs offunds and as always HDFChas ensured that benefit ispassed on to its customers,”said Ms. Renu Sud Karnad,Managing Director, HDFC ina statement. Another homefinancier, Indiabulls Finance

has also reduced its homeloan rate by 45 bps to 8.7 percent for loans up to ₨75 lakhand another 5 bps discount towomen borrowers.

HDFC, IndiaBulls cut home loan ratesSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: In an attempt tocounter free services oferedby new entrant Reliance Jio,country’s largest telecom op-erator Bharti Airtel on Tues-day announced 3GB freemonthly data for a year forusers switching to its net-work by February 28.

“Customers will get free3GB data every month tillDecember 31, 2017 with se-lect Prepaid and Postpaidpacks under this ofer. Thisfree data benefit will be overand above the pack/plan be-nefits,” the company said in astatement.

The ofer, company ex-plained, will be available toany customer with a 4G mo-bile handset that is currentlynot on the Airtel network.

Bharti Airtel

ofers 3GB free

monthly data SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: The deliberationsof the Goods and ServicesTax Council inched forwardon Tuesday with the criticalissue of cross empowermentnot being discussed and Fin-ance Ministers of severalStates voicing their doubtsabout meeting the April 1deadline for the rollout ofGST.

The first day of the two-day meeting saw severalministries and industry rep-resentatives, including theMinistry of Civil Aviation,Ministry of Commerce, Min-istry of Railways, Ministry ofElectronics and InformationTechnology, and industrybodies such as NASSCOM,making presentations to theCouncil on their expecta-tions from GST.

“Dual control was not dis-cussed in today's meeting. Idon't think the April 1 dead-line is doable,” Deputy ChiefMinister of Delhi ManishSisodia said after themeeting.

This was reiterated byKerala Finance Minister

Thomas Isaac, who said anApril 1 rollout of GST was“definitely not possible”.

Haryana Finance MinisterCaptain Abhimanyu said,“Many constitutional issuesof interstate GST were takenup at the GST Council meet-ing. Dual control may betaken up tomorrow.”

Cross empowerment

Following the previousmeeting of the GST Council,Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley had said the ma-jority of the issues surround-ing the other draft legisla-tions — the Central GST andState GST — had beensolved, and that the only is-sues remaining had to dowith cross empowerment.

The Civil Aviation Min-istry in its presentation tothe GST Council requested itto keep tax rates on air tick-ets at the present level to en-sure airfares do not rise, CivilAviation Secretary R.N.Choubey told The Hindu. Atpresent, airlines pay servicetax of nine per cent on busi-ness class tickets and six percent on economy class tick-

ets. The Ministry has furtherasked the Council to ensurethat there is no impact ofGST on import or leasing ofaircraft engine or spareparts, Mr. Choubey said.

Commerce MinisterNirmala Sitharaman said shehad sought complete exemp-tion for the leather sectorfrom GST.She added that thecurrent taxation for cementis very high, and that thisneeded a review under GST.

Regarding GST refunds,Ms. Sitharaman said that cal-culations showed GST re-funds could take up to eightmonths, and hence had re-quested that exporters be ex-empted from paying inputtax upfront.

“There are several open is-sues for the service sectorand the industry would hopethat these are addressed inthe final legislation,” PratikJain, Partner and Leader, In-direct Tax, PwC India said.“The key issue of ‘dual con-trol’ was not taken up whichis the crux of the contention.Any movement forwardwould be contingent uponthe agreement on this issue.”

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Prospects of April 1 GSTrollout diminish further

CMYK

BUSINESS16 |THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

SNIPPETS

NEW DELHI: InGovern Research Services, a proxy advisory firm, raised

questions over the sudden exit of Infosys’s Chief Compliance Officer

David Kennedy and his severance package and asked shareholders to

raise concerns and seek clarification on the issue. On January 1, Infosys

had informed stock exchanges that Mr. Kennedy had left the company

after a mutual separation agreement but had not divulged any reason for

the exit. InGovern noted that Mr. Kennedy’s departure is “surprising” as

it comes within two months of him being given a revision in pay. It said

in case an employee resigns voluntarily, he/she has to serve a notice

period and there is “no logic in paying a severance package.” — PTI

Proxy firm questions Infosys over CCO’s exit

NEW DELHI: Paving the way for BSE’s IPO, capital market regulator SEBI

has given its final go-ahead to the draft prospectus for the estimated

₨1,500–crore public offering by Asia’s oldest exchange. The much–

awaited public offer of BSE will see sale of 29,955,434 shares by the

existing shareholders through the offer for sale (OFS) route. This works

out to close to 30 per cent of the total holding. Among the existing

shareholders are Bajaj Holdings Investment, Caldwell India Holdings,

Acacia Banyan Partner, Singapore Exchange, Mauritius-based arms of

American investor George Soros’ Quantum Fund and foreign fund

Atticus. — PTI

BSE gets SEBI nod for IPO, may raise ₨1,500 crore

MUMBAI: Tata Motors announced the introduction of Tata Xenon Yodha,

a pick-up vehicle for the Indian market. The Xenon had been sold in

international markets for several years and this is the first time that it

has been made available in the domestic market, the company said in a

statement. The Xenon Yodha is suitable for a range of commercial uses

including transportation of fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish and milk. It

can also be used as a cash van and support vehicle at construction sites.

Tata Motors said the vehicle is available in eight variants and is

competitively priced, starting at ₨6.05 lakh. Actor Akshay Kumar will be

the company’s brand ambassador. — Special Correspondent

Tata Motors unveils Xenon Yodha pick-up vehicle

NEW DELHI: High call drop rate was registered on the network of telecom

operator Aircel both during normal and heavy traffic hours in the July-

September 2016 period as per the latest report of telecom regulator

TRAI. Call drops on Aircel network during non-peak hours breached set

benchmark in Assam, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, North East telecom

circles as per a report of TRAI. In Bihar, the call drop rate was close to 6

times higher compared to set parameter of 2 per cent in a month. As per

TRAI, not more than 2 per cent calls on a telecom operator’s network in

a month should get automatically disconnected during non–peak hours

and 3 per cent during heavy traffic load on networks. — PTI

Maximum call drops recorded on Aircel network

NEW DELHI: Paytm Payments Bank on Tuesday received the final

approval from the Reserve Bank of India to commence operations.

“Today, Reserve Bank of India gave permission to formally launch Paytm

Payments Bank,” Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, who is the

majority shareholder in Paytm Payments Bank, said in a blogpost. The

payments bank is expected to start operations next month with its first

branch in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. “At Paytm Payments Bank, our aim is to

build a new business model in banking industry, focussed on bringing

financial services to millions of un-served or underserved Indians,” he

said. More than ₨200 crore has been invested till now for the bank, with

Mr. Sharma putting in ₨112 crore. — Special Correspondent

Paytm Payments Bank gets final RBI approval

MUMBAI: India is all set to be-come the first country in theworld where polished dia-monds will be traded on acommodity exchange. TheIndian Commodity Ex-change Ltd (ICEX) is in thefinal stages of unveiling dia-mond contracts that will al-low even individuals to tradein the precious stone in atransparent manner.

According to senior ex-change oicials, the final ap-proval from the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India(SEBI) is expected soon anda formal start is likely byMarch. The exchange hasalready received the in-prin-ciple approval from the regu-latory body for the introduc-tion of diamond contracts.

The Reliance Capital-pro-moted exchange, which hasMMTC, Indiabulls HousingFinance and IDFC Bank asmajor shareholders, has beenable to get on board about 50members and has even con-ducted mock trading to testthe systems.

It has also tied up with In-ternational Institute of Dia-mond Grading and Research(IIDGR), a 100 per cent sub-sidiary of global major DeBeers, for grading and pack-ing of the diamonds.

“There are around 80 dia-mond site-owners globallyand we have got 20 of thoseon our exchange,” SanjitPrasad, MD and CEO ofICEX told The Hindu. Site-owners refer to entities thatsource rough diamonds fromDe Beers and resell them –rough or polished – to com-panies across the globe.

Investment option

“Our mock trading sawparticipation from around100 people. Once diamondcontracts start trading on an

exchange, it will become afinancial investmentproduct. Diamond has neverbeen able to become an in-vestment product due to lowtransparency in pricing,” headded.

There is no current globalbenchmark price for dia-mond, making the stone lessattractive than gold or silveras an investment option.While India is the third-largest consumer of diamondafter the U.S. and China, ithas the largest share in dia-mond-cutting and polishing.

India’s dominance

“Out of every 13 diamonds,12 are either cut or polishedin India. So, we should set thebenchmark price as well. Weimport prices of all commod-ities currently traded in In-dia. It is time we exported abenchmark price as well,”

said Mr. Prasad, who wasearlier with Multi Commod-ity Exchange of India (MCX)and Metropolitan Stock Ex-change of India (MSEI).

Interestingly, the exchangeis designing the diamondcontracts such that individu-als would be able to trade at avery low cost. While one lotsize representing one centwould cost ₨1,500, investorsefectively will be able totrade with just five per centmargin money.

The exchange has, how-ever, kept the minimumphysical delivery lot at onecarat (1 carat equals 100cents). It means that ifsomeone buys a contract fora 1-carat diamond, he or shewould get the physical deliv-ery of the stone too. Indi-viduals investing in smallerlot sizes would be able totrade in electronic units rep-resenting the value of thediamond. In September, theCentre added 6 new com-modities that were allowedto be traded on exchangeplatforms including dia-monds, tea, eggs, cocoa, pigiron and brass.

New exchange to allow individuals to trade in the stone

Diamond contracts setto debut soon in IndiaASHISH RUKHAIYAR

TRANSPARENCY BID: Once contracts trade on the exchange,diamond will become an investment product. — FILE PHOTO

Lack of a globalbenchmark price fordiamond makes thestone less attractivethan gold or silver

COIMBATORE: The output atfoundries in the country hasdeclined between 20 and 30per cent in the last twomonths following demonet-isation, industry oicialssaid.

The situation is expectedto improve in another threeto six months, they said.“The market is down for al-most all the sectors becauseof the demonetisation and itmight take three to sixmonths to improve,” C.R.Swaminathan, former pres-ident of the Institute of In-dian Foundrymen said.

For the last two years, thefoundries’ average capacityutilisation was just 60 percent. Last year, it went downto about 40 per cent becauseof the slowdown in automo-biles, a major client industryfor foundries.

Though the foundry in-dustry has installed capacityof about 15 million tonnes ayear, the production is only10 million tonnes of castings.

‘Profits hit’

Up to 30 per cent produc-tion could be afected be-cause of demonetisation.The overall turnover andprofitability might comedown this year, said Mr.Swaminathan.

On GST, the IIF had com-missioned a study on the im-pact on foundries. The totaltax paid by the foundries isclose to 25 per cent. The taxproposed under GST isbetween 14.5 per cent and 17.5per cent. “There is a beliefthat GST will create a levelplaying field. It depends onthe rate levied. We haveasked for 12.5 per cent,” saidNithyanandan Devaraaj, sec-retary, IIF. “We are not clearon what the ofset in the sup-ply chain would be. Thereshould be no single rate forthe foundries. Nearly 20 percent of our sales is to prioritysectors such as power anddefence that are not coveredunder GST,” he said.

Output atfoundries falls up to 30 per centSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KOLKATA: The Ministry of Coalwould continuously recalib-rate the sector’s output butthere was no question of re-turning to the era of short-ages, said Piyush Goyal, Min-ister for Coal, Power andRenewable Energy.

“We can’t go back to coalshortages,” he said, replyingto a question on the need toreview the one-billion-tonneproduction target set for CILor even the 598-million-tonne target for this fiscal.

He said that both the pro-duction and the of-take tar-gets were dynamic targets.Even as Coal India clocked agrowth rate of 1.1 per centagainst the 9 per cent projec-ted at the beginning of fiscal2017, coal stocks had risen to50 million tonnes which isnearly 45 days’ production.Much of this is attributed tosluggish demand frompower sector.

“Power demand and capa-

city are growing,” remarkedMr. Goyal saying that thiswas the reason why CIL can-not be allowed to return todays of coal shortages.

“Both power and coal arein surplus now.”

Safety review

A meeting of all the headsof the seven coal-producingsubsidiaries of CIL as well asCIL Chairman was held here.A detailed safety reviewmeeting was also conducted.

The meeting gained im-portance in the backdrop oflast week’s coal mine col-lapse in Jharkhand, whichhas claimed 18 lives so far.

To a query as to whethersuch a major accident willlead to a rethink on contrac-tual coal mining, the ministersaid while the governmentwould await results of the in-vestigation to see if there wasany lapse on part of the mineoperators, strong actionwould be taken to preventsuch mishaps.

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

‘Would not like to go backto era of coal shortages’

HYDERABAD: Online eyewearfirm Lenskart said it is plan-ning to set up manufacturingunits for lenses in seven toeight cities to help sharpenits focus on oline retailingas well as introduce apremium service to cutdown on delivery time lines.

Bengaluru, Hyderabad andChennai are among loca-tions where the companywants to have such satellite,small manufacturing facilit-ies over the next 2-3 years.Each of them will have a ca-pacity to handle 2,000 spec-tacles daily.

The combined investmentwill be in the $3-4 millionrange, co-founder and COOAmit Chaudhary said hereon Tuesday. Lenskart im-ports frames from China and

at present makes lenses at its10,000 spectacles a day plantin New Delhi.

A bigger facility that canmake 35,000 to 40,000 spec-tacles daily is coming up inGurugram, with an invest-ment of $10 million and is ex-pected to be ready in threemonths, he said.

Eventually, the companywanted to set up a manufac-turing facility for frames inIndia.

Lenskart eyes units forlenses in 7-8 Indian citiesN. RAVI KUMAR

KOLKATA: The “benefits” of de-monetisation and ways of re-viving investment spiritwere among the major issuesthat were discussed at ameeting of the National Ex-ecutive Council of the CIIwhich was attended byUnion Coal and Power Min-ister Piyush Goyal.

Addressing the press later,Mr Goyal said: “At the Na-tional Council of CII, a num-ber of important issues relat-ing to the Indian economyand diferent sectors of In-dian industry were dis-cussed.

And, of course, a lot of dis-cussions about the benefitsof the demonetisation tookplace.”

He said that steps neededto revive the investment-spirit and to address the dis-ruptions in a few sectorswere addressed. This wasdone “to restore growth ofthe Indian economy,” he said.The minister said that theentire assembly of leadershad unanimously welcomedthe move towards corrup-tion-free industry to pro-mote digital transactions andto have a black-money freeeconomy.

“ It will help widen taxbase and reduce inflation,”Mr. Goyal said.

Goyal discusses

steps to revive

investment SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: State–owned oilproducer ONGC and privatesector Cairn India haveasked the Centre to cut cesson crude oil saying theswitchover from fixed to advalorem rates had turnedthings from bad to worse.The producers want theCentre to cut the cess to 8 percent of the price they realiseon sale of domestically pro-duced crude oil. In the previ-ous Budget, Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley hadconverted ₨4,500 per tonnefixed cess on crude oil to 20per cent ad valorem. Thecess was levied at Rs 60 pertonne in July 1974 and revisedfrom time to time. — PTI

ONGC, CairnIndia want lowercess on crude

CMYK

ND-ND

SPORT | 17THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

���

Morris inductedFormer Australiacricketer Arthur Morriswas on Tuesdayposthumously inductedinto the ICC Hall of Fame

Pinki turns proCommonwealth Games bronze-medallist boxer Pinki Jangra, likeSarita Devi, has decided to turnprofessional but will not give up onher amateur career either.

Creating historyAustralia’s 16-year-oldDestanee Aiava on Tuesdaybecame the first player born inthe 2000s to win a main drawmatch on the WTA Tour.

Telecast scheduleRanji Trophy semifinals: Tamil Nadu vs Mumbai, STAR Sports 4 & HD 4, 9.30 a.m.;South Africa vs Sri Lanka: 2nd Test, TEN 3 & TEN 1 HD, 2 p.m.; Chennai Open: Sony Six& Sony Six HD, 5 p.m.; PBL: STAR Sports 1, 3 & HD 1, 3, 7 p.m.; PWL: Sony ESPN, 7 p.m.;EPL: SS Select HD 1 & 2, 1.20 a.m. (Thursday); Australia vs Pakistan: 3rd Test: STARSports 2 & HD 2, 5 a.m. (Thursday); NBA: Sony Six & Sony Six HD, 6.30 a.m. (Thursday)

South Africa—1st innings: S.Cook c Mendis b Lakmal 0, D. Elgar cMendis b Lakmal 129, H. Amla b Ku-mara 29, J-P. Duminy c Mendis b Ku-mara 0, F. du Plessis c Mathews bHerath 38, T. Bavuma c Tharanga bKumara 10, Q. de Kock c Chandimal bKumara 101, K. Abbott c Chandimal bHerath 16, V. Philander c Chandimal bKumara 20, K. Maharaj (not out) 32,K. Rabada c Chandimal b Kumara 8;Extras (lb-3, nb-1, w-5) 9; Total (in 116overs): 392.

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-66, 3-66, 4-142, 5-169, 6-272, 7-303, 8-336,9-378.

Sri Lanka bowling: Lakmal 27-4-93-2, Pradeep 15.4-3-46-0, Mathews17-3-41-0, Kumara 25-1-122-6, Herath23.2-4-57-2, de Silva 8-0-30-0

Sri Lanka — 1st innings: D. Kar-unaratne c Bavuma b Rabada 24, K.

SCOREBOARD

Silva b Rabada 11, K. Mendis c Duminyb Maharaj 11, D. de Silva lbw b Maha-raj 16, A. Mathews c du Plessis b Ra-bada 2, D. Chandimal c de Kock b Ra-bada 4, U. Tharanga (not out) 26, R.Herath lbw b Philander 1, S. Lakmal cAmla b Philander 0, L. Kumara b Phil-ander 4, N. Pradeep c du Plessis bPhilander 0; Extras (lb-5, nb-1, w-5):11; Total (in 43 overs): 110.

Fall of wickets: 1-31, 2-56, 3-56,4-60, 5-78, 6-78, 7-100, 8-100, 9-110.

South Africa bowling: Philander12-4-27-4, Abbott 8-3-9-0, Rabada12-2-37-4, Maharaj 11-1-32-2

South Africa — 2nd innings: S.Cook (batting) 15, D. Elgar (batting)19; Extras (w-1): 1, Total (for no loss in11 overs): 35.

Sri Lanka bowling: Lakmal 5-1-16-0, Pradeep 2-0-5-0, Kumara 4-0-14-0.

Australia — 1st innings: M. Ren-shaw (batting) 167, D. Warner c Sar-fraz b Wahab 113, U. Khawaja c Sar-fraz b Wahab 13, S. Smith c Sarfraz bYasir 24, P. Handscomb (batting) 40;Extras (b-2, lb-1, w-1, nb-4) 8; Total(for three wkts. in 88 overs): 365.

Fall of wickets: 1-151, 2-203,3-244.

Pakistan bowling: Amir 16-1-58-0, Imran 17-3-81-0, Wahab 19-4-63-2, Yasir 30-2-132-1, Azhar 4-0-16-0, Shafiq 2-0-12-0.

Toss: Australia.

SCOREBOARD

HYDERABAD: Former BCCI in-terim president N. Shivlal Ya-dav has said that the BCCIcould have avoided the “unfor-tunate scenario of its presidentand secretary being sacked bythe honourable SupremeCourt”.

The former India of-spin-ner felt that the BCCI shouldhave honoured the recom-mendations of the JusticeLodha panel straight away.

“In view of the attitude of theBCCI, these serious develop-ments were always on thecards. It is pretty simple. Oncethe Supreme Court order is outthere is no way but to accept it.Now, there is no alternativeeither for the BCCI or the StateAssociations but to implementthe fresh guidelines,” Shivlalsaid.

“It was sad that some formerpresidents did not even give

time to Justice Lodha when hewas seeking their opinion be-fore giving his recommenda-tions.

“They could have given theirclarifications and suggestions.Ibelieve it was a wasted oppor-tunity by many in the top brassof the BCCI. Mind you, they

were given time to make up,”he said.

Shivlal declined to speculatewhether the situation was theconsequence of an ego tussle,but suggested it could havebeen avoided.

“I cannot take names of indi-viduals but a better and morepractical approach could havebeen adopted on this criticalsubject,” he said.

Shivlal, for his part, submit-ted his views to the panel whenit visited Hyderabad. “Yes, Ifelt change was required andaccordingly gave my views be-fore the panel,” he said.

He also made it clear thatduring his tenure the focus wason alleged match-fixing andJustice Lodha was appointedlater on. “So, these issues nevercropped up in our meetings.”

He disagreed with a coupleof recommendations such asthe restriction on an adminis-trator’s age (70 years). “This is

purely my personal opinionthat age cannot be a bar in dis-charging the duties,” he said,but held that the SupremeCourt’s order will have to beobeyed in this regard too.

He also welcomed the ideaof a former cricketer, someonelike Sourav Ganguly, headingthe BCCI.

“This can be good for thegame. Whether they will besuccessful or not only time willtell. But, one must rememberhere that there is a wonderful,qualified staf in the BCCI whohave always been of great helpto the administrators over theyears,” he said.

“I look at this only as a tem-porary, critical phase and theBCCI will come out of this andthe game will go on as the hon-ourable Supreme Court’sprimary intention is to give theadministration a better andcleaner image,” Shivlalconcluded.

‘A situation that could have been avoided’ V.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

Shivlal Yadav.— PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: A body without ad-ministrators is what the Boardof Control for Cricket in Indiahas been reduced to followingthe Supreme Court ruling onMonday.

“This is an unprecedentedcrisis,” remarked a veterancricket oicial who has beenpart of the Board for close tothree decades.

“The experience factor hasbeen wiped out in one blow,and I would say the blame lieswith us.

“We should have known therepercussions after it had be-come clear that there was no es-caping the recommendations,”said the oicial.

The administrators face thehuge task of passing on the re-

sponsibility to a new set of of-fice-bearers.

Utter confusion“There is utter confusion on

the eligibility issue. Most asso-ciations have diferent sets ofconstitutions which now haveto be amended as per for the Su-preme Court ruling.

“It is a process that can’t becompleted overnight,” said theoicial.

The day-to-day working inthe ailiated units is likely to beimpacted.

“Each association is going tolose its top layer of administrat-ors. With the cream gone, onecan expect the new set of oice-bearers to struggle to handlethe cricket afairs. It is going tobe chaotic,” the oicial said.

“A vacuum has been createdby the current situation. Whowill take the vital decisions?Who will operate the accounts?Without anyone to operate theaccounts how does one get thefunds to run the daily afairs?

“Payments are to be made ona daily basis. I am sure each as-sociation will face these issues.My worry is that cricket maycome to a standstill withoutclear directions.

“We have to fulfil interna-tional engagements in the newfew months. There are do-mestic matches to be com-

pleted, and little is known onwho can conduct them andhow. We have a strange situ-ation where the least suitedperson is the front-runner tohead the Board,” the oicialnoted.

As he pointed out, there is anurgent need to realise the factthat the associations would beunder pressure to carry on withthe work.

“Their teams will be travel-ling to compete in domestictournaments, and arrange-ments would have to be madewithout losing much time.

“Barring Vidarbha andTripura, the rest face a hugechallenge of identifying thoseeligible to assume the respons-ibility. I hope the Board is ableto tide over this crisis,” said theoicial.

Oice-bearers worry about dailyfunctioning of ailiated units VIJAY LOKAPALLY There is a fear

valuable top-levelexperience has beenwiped out in a single blow

NAGPUR: The tenure rule, whichwas the major bone of conten-tion the BCCI and its membershad with the Justice LodhaCommittee’s recommenda-tions, is likely to unsettle sev-eral State associations.

Under the aptly titled ‘End ofthe innings’ report, the Com-mittee retained the three-yearterm for administrators. But itprescribed that any person, ir-respective of the post, can bean oice-bearer for no morethan nine years. It added arider, however: there must be acooling-of break of three yearsafter each term.

“Many individuals occupyvarious posts for multipleterms and on multiple occa-sions, without any ceiling,” theCommittee reasoned. “Therehas even been an instance of aformer president later becom-ing the treasurer.”

Even the three-year term ofoice came into efect only inSeptember 2014, the electionsfor which were actually held in

Chennai in March 2015. Notlong after Sharad Pawar waselected president in 2005, theBCCI realised the futility of aone-year term and amended itsby-laws for a two-year term forits principal oice-bearers(president, secretary, jt. sec-retary and treasurer).

The rationale was that a one-year term was too short tobring in qualitative change.The amended rule also al-lowed for an extension by ayear with the approval at theannual general body meeting.This was further amended to astraight three years. FormerBCCI chief N. Srinivasan wasin line to become the first manelected for a three-year post aspresident, but events related tothe IPL ruled him out.

With the BCCI following a

three-year term, its full mem-bers (voting members) andeven the associate and ailiatemembers should haveamended their by-laws for uni-formity, but clearly it has nothappened.

The Vidarbha Cricket Asso-ciation (VCA), which has com-plied with the Lodha Commit-tee recommendations, hasamended its by-laws for athree-year term of oice for itsoice-bearers and managingcommittee.

The Mumbai Cricket Asso-ciation (MCA) has its election-agenda once in two years. TheMCA’s vice-president AshishShelar and jt. secretary, Dr. Un-mesh Khanvilkar were electedfor the first time in June 2015and would be eligible for elec-tion this June, and should theyget elected again, will have todemit oice, because they willcomplete three years in charge.

In the circumstances, the as-sociations will probably opt forthree-year terms when theycomply with the SupremeCourt’s order.

G. VISWANATH The associations willprobably opt forthree-year termswhen they complywith the order

Board grapples with tenure-rule fallout

NEW DELHI: Wary of conflict ofinterest, senior advocate FaliNariman on Tuesday asked theSupreme Court to excuse himfrom the responsibility of find-ing suitable persons for theCommittee of Administratorsto run the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI).

Nariman said it would be“embarrassing” for him to getinvolved in the assignment ashe had been BCCI’s lawyer in2009.

The apex court had commis-sioned Nariman and seniorlawyer Gopal Subramaniam to

provide it “objective assist-ance” in selecting persons ofexperience and integrity forthe committee.

Formal order

In a formal order, a Bench ofChief Justice of India T.S.Thakur and Justices A.M.Khanwilkar and D.Y.Chandrachud accepted Narim-an’s recusal and appointedsenior advocate Anil Divan inhis place.

“We quite appreciate the dif-ficulty expressed by Narimanand accordingly discharge himof the role assigned to him.

“In his place, we request AnilB. Divan, learned senior coun-sel, to assist the Court and to re-commend suitable names forappointment as members ofthe committee of administrat-ors in consultation with theamicus, Gopal Subramaniam,”the order said.

The decision to form thecommittee was part of an orderpassed by a Bench of ChiefJustice of India T.S. Thakur andJustices A.M. Khanwilkar andD.Y. Chandrachud on January2, stripping BCCI presidentAnurag Thakur and secretaryAjay Shirke of their posts.

Divan appointed as Nariman recuseshimself from BCCI assignment KRISHNADAS RAJAGOPAL

CHENNAI: The Tamil NaduCricket Association (TNCA)will soon hold an executivecommittee meeting where theLodha panel recommenda-tions are likely to be accepted.

There was some ambiguityon Monday whether the Stateassociations also came underthe ambit of the SupremeCourt order on the nine-yearcumulative term, of each stintnot exceeding three years andthe cooling-of period of 36months.

But then, Justice Thakur cla-rified on Tuesday that theabove restrictions applied tothe State associations as well.

This would mark the end ofTNCA president N. Srinivas-an’s tenure in oice. It wouldbe the conclusion of an event-ful career that saw him becomeBCCI president and ICC chief.

TNCA secretary K.S.Viswanathan will also have tomake way since he has servedmore than nine years in oice.

Asked for his reaction, N.Srinivasan told The Hindu,“Please give some breathingspace to the TNCA to find away. We will find a way.”

There are already somenames doing the rounds for thepresident’s post. Among themare H.R. Srinivasan (TakeSolutions) and Srinivasa Raju(C.H. Robinson).

Srinivasan may have a con-flict of interest issue to copewith since Take Solutions has astake in the TNPL franchise,Dindigul Dragons. The others

in contention for the top postsare former India cricketers, L.Sivaramakrishnan and V.B.Chandrasekar.

However, Chandrasekar,too, could face a conflict of in-terest. He is a co-owner ofTNPL franchise VB TiruvallurVeerans. If he sells his stake,then Chandrasekar will beamong the leading candidates.

Former Tamil Nadu andSouth Zone all-rounder D.Vasu is among those in the frayfor the secretary’s post.

Once the executive commit-tee finalises the list of names,these will have to be ratified inthe TNCA’s special generalmeeting. Among the presentTNCA oice-bearers, vice-

Give us breathing space, we’ll find a way: SrinivasanS. DINAKAR

N. Srinivasan. — FILE PHOTO

presidents K. Murali and G.Bhaskaran and assistant sec-retary S. Martin Raj are wellplaced since they are only inthe first year of their maidenterm in oice.

TNCA joint secretary R.I.Palani, in his fourth year in of-fice, and treasurer V.P.Narasimham, in his eighth,could be allowed to completetheir terms that would con-clude at the AGM this year.The cooling-of period couldstart only after this.

Vice-presidents P.S. Ramanand Kalpathi Aghoram, in theirseventh years, could also bepermitted to serve till theAGM. After this, the cooling ofperiod would begin for them.

BENGALURU: A day after the Su-preme Court removed theBCCI’s president and secretaryfrom their posts, the top brass ofthe Karnataka State Cricket As-sociation (KSCA) relinquishedoice. President P.R. AshokAnand, secretary Brijesh Pateland treasurer P. Dayananda Paistepped down on Tuesday, inthe wake of the apex court’s or-der.

“In light of the SupremeCourt judgement dated January2 and as modified by today’s or-der, the KSCA president P.R.Ashok Anand, secretary BrijeshPatel and treasurer DayanandaPai have demited their oice,”

said Vinay Mruthyunjaya, theKSCA spokesman.

Brijesh has completed fivethree-year terms as secretary,exceeding the limit of nineyears for an oice-bearer.Ashok Anand (75) and Pai (71)are over the age cap of 70.

The KSCA has called for aManaging Committee meeting

on Thursday to elect fresh of-fice-bearers, all of whom willconform to the Lodha panel’srecommendations.

The KSCA, which was set toconduct elections last August,will now proceed step by step.“Calling for elections will re-quire us to change the bye-lawsof our constitution,” saidMruthyunjaya.

“For that, we have to call aspecial general body meeting,amend the bye-laws, and con-duct polls as per a constitutionthat conforms to the Lodha re-commendations. We will dothis once we are intimatedabout the procedures. There isno question of not implement-ing the recommendations.”

KSCA top brass relinquishes oiceSHREEDUTTA CHIDANANDA

� President Ashok Anand(75) and treasurer Pai (71)are over the age cap of 70

� Secretary Brijesh hascompleted five three-yearterms, exceeding the limit ofnine years

years ago to make a century inthe opening session on thefirst day of a Test, and the onlybatsman to achieve the feat inAustralia. —AFP

SYDNEY: David Warner joinedthe illustrious company ofDon Bradman and VictorTrumper with a Test centurybefore lunch as rookie partnerMatthew Renshaw flourishedfor his maiden hundredagainst Pakistan on Tuesday.

Warner smashed a whirl-wind 18th Test hundred of 78balls in just 117 minutes while20-year-old Renshaw blos-somed after claiming his cen-tury in 282 minutes in the thirdTest in Sydney.

At the close, after winningthe toss, Australia was 365 forthree with Renshaw taking hisscore to 167 and Peter Hand-scomb on 40.

Warner became the firstAustralian since Bradman 87

Contrasting hundreds from Warner, Renshaw

WORKING UP AN APPETITE: Warner became the fifth batsmanafter Australia’s Victor Trumper, Charlie Macartney, DonBradman and Pakistan’s Majid Khan to score a century beforelunch on the first day of a Test. — PHOTO: AP

NEW DELHI: The transitionphase for the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India (BCCI)will be dictated by the admin-istrators who will take oversoon.

The Hindu learnt on Tues-day that the process of trans-ferring power to the new setof oice-bearers is to be final-ised under the supervision ofthe administrators. “It is along way of,” said a sourcewhen asked who the nextpresident could be.

According to sources in theLodha Committee, the admin-istrators, to be picked bysenior advocate Gopal Sub-ramanium and Anil Divan,would run the cricket afairsin the country until things arein place for a new set of oice-bearers to take over.

“There is no need for an in-terim president if none quali-fies to be one.

“The administrators arecompetent enough to form apanel that will oversee theconduct of the game.

“The new oice-bearers areto be elected on the basis ofthe new constitution that willbe uniform and binding on allthe State associations,” saidthe source.

No disturbanceThe process would begin

with the appointment of ad-ministrators.

“Fresh elections will beheld for the oice-bearers un-der the supervision of theLodha panel. Cricket won’t be

disturbed because competentpeople would be in-charge be-fore the new set of oice-bearers take over the respons-

ibility,” the source confirmed. Speculation had been rife

that the senior-most vice-president of the Board would

replace Anurag Thakur as theinterim president.

“But it is understood that nosuch move was on the anvil asfar as the Lodha Panel wasconcerned.

“None of them (vice-pres-idents) meets the criteria setby the Supreme Court ruling,”asserted the source.

Even as Sourav Ganguly’sname cropped up, he wasquick to dismiss the sugges-tion that he was a frontrunnerfor the post of Board’s presid-ent even though he qualifies.

The former India captainsaid in Kolkata “my name iscoming up unnecessarily.

“I don’t consider myself asthe frontrunner. I have noteven thought about it.”

No option

Asked whether the CABwould implement the Com-mittee’s reforms, Gangulysaid the association had nooption but to obey the SC or-der.

“We are having an oice-bearers’ meeting on Wednes-day where we will decide onthe future.”

Ganguly said the CABwould hold its special generalmeeting only after the con-duct of the third One-Day In-ternational between India andEngland at the Eden Gardenson January 22.

The CAB chief said eventhough several of the presentoicials would be ineligible tocontest in the association’spolls, there would be others tofill the void.

Ganguly dismisses suggestionhe is front-runner for top jobSelect panel to run the show till office-bearers are ready

VIJAY LOKAPALLY

& Y.B. SARANGI

WHO, ME? Former India skipper Sourav Ganguly says his namehas been “coming up unnecessarily”. — FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI: Newcomer JaipurNinjas began its campaign inthe Pro Wrestling League witha 5-2 victory against PunjabRoyals here on Tuesday.

Nigerian Odunayo Ad-ekuoroye maintained her un-beaten record for Punjab inthe League, carrying on fromwhere she left of in the inaug-ural season. She beatVenezuela’s Betzabeth Ar-guello 16-0 in the 53kg cat-egory.

The biggest and most ex-pensive Indian name this sea-son — Ritu Phogat (48kg) —was blocked by Punjab cap-tain Vladimir Khinchegashvilibut even without her, Jaipurhad it easy. — UthraGanesan

Jaipur begins well CAPE TOWN: Vernon Philanderand Kagiso Rabada claimedfour wickets each as SouthAfrica ripped out Sri Lanka for110 on the second day of thesecond Test at Newlands onTuesday.

South Africa did not enforcethe follow-on and was 35without loss at the close, 317runs ahead and in a powerfulposition to claim the victory itneeds to clinch the series.

South Africa was all out be-fore lunch with Quinton deKock scoring 101 and teenagerKumara claiming six wicketsfor Sri Lanka in a career-bestperformance. Kumara claimeda first five-wicket haul in Testsand finished with figures of sixfor 122. — Reuters

Proteas in control

NEW DELHI: The Comptroller andAuditor General of India, which is setto have a significant role in theadministration of cash-rich cricketbodies in the wake of the LodhaCommittee recommendations, isgearing up to nominate itsrepresentatives to the BCCI and Stateassociations.

“The CAG is yet to receive aformal communication from theLodha Committee, or the SupremeCourt. We are awaiting that to beginthe process,” said a senior CAGsource.

As per the recommendations, theCAG will have a nominee in the ApexCouncil that would oversee theadministration of cricket in India.CAG would also have a nominee onthe IPL Governing Council. Besides,the CAG nominees are also expectedto find a place in the State bodies.

For the National-level ApexCouncil, an officer of the rank ofDeputy CAG or a retired senior officialof that rank could be nominated. Atthe State-level, officials junior to thatrank could be considered.

CAG gearing upfor role in BCCI

JOSY JOSEPH

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra CricketAssociation (ACA) wore a desertedlook on Tuesday with some keyadministrators not turning up todischarge their duties following theSupreme Court ruling on Monday.

As per the age-limit ruling, ACAsecretary Gokaraju Ganga Raju,vice-president Ramchand andtreasurer Raheem will cease to existas administrators, while ACApresident D.V.S.S. Somayajulu standsdisqualified as he had served theassociation for more than nine years.

Senior vice-president UmaMaheswar, who is in-charge of theACA-VDCA stadium inVisakhapatnam, has alreadysubmitted his resignation. — J.R.Shridharan

ACA wears adeserted look

CMYK

ND-ND

SPORT18 |THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

1 Cook special meal, finally addthis (8)

2 How long does it take to getahead, before you give up? (4,4)

3 Santa went to town spreadinggood message (5,3,4,3)

5 It may go down in the kitchen(4)

6 Manage six an over — are on a

will break easily (8)

17 Countries without trade unionlaws (8)

19 Novice goes for classy pet food(6)

20 Through true representation,lost a good thing (6)

23 German material, essentially (4)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10

11

12 13

14

15

16 17

18

19 20

21 22

23

24 25

26 27

fast depleting condition (8,7)

7 Fight till the end, it's great, theysay (6)

8 Diplomat perhaps has interest insister company (6)

11 Milling around the bar (7)

14 State not named over the yearsas a subject of study (7)

16 Push and she

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11895 (set by Arden)

F ACROSS

GDOWN

The Chandogya Upanishad explains how all sentient andnon-sentient objects came into existence. At first only Sat,the One and Only, that is the Paramatman existed. Sat thendecided to become many and created tejas (fire). The firethen thought, “Let me become many,” and thus Ap (water)was born. But how can water come from fire? When aperson grieves, tears are produced by the heat of thesorrow. In the same way did water come from fire,explained M.K. Srinivasan in a discourse. When the watersdecided to become many, earth was created, from whereanna (food) was produced, just as there is bountiful cropwhen it rains. These three, Tejas, Ap and food, are thethree basic elements and entering into Tejas and Ap, theSupreme Brahman continued with creation.

Since these elements are non-sentient, they could nothave become many on their own. It was the SupremeBrahman, who by entering Tejas and Ap made theirdivision into further entities possible. Portions from thethree — Tejas, Ap and anna — were combined when such adivision took place. Half of Agni for instance comes fromTejas, one quarter from water and one quarter from earth.The red colour of Agni is attributable to Tejas, while itswhite colour is attributable to water and its dark form toearth.

It was such a combination that resulted in Aditya and themoon too, the red aspect of Aditya and the moonbelonging to Tejas, the white aspect to water and the darkaspect to earth. All things in the Universe come fromcombinations of aspects of the three basic elements. Allindriyas, mind, pranas are also the results of combinationsof the three basic elements. Thus the Universe and thehuman body too owe their origin to these elements.

Three basic elements

FAITH

Sudoku is a mind game and apuzzle that you solve withreasoning and logic. Fill in the grid with digits in such amanner that every row, everycolumn and every 3x3 boxaccommodates the digits 1 to 9,without repeating any.

TODAY'S SOLUTIONS

ALLOWSASSASSIN

LEAINCU

LIAISEANDORRAN

SDTGKRAC

PATHETICDELPHI

IINNAXEO

COMPOSMENTIS

EETIAAES

WELFTHNIGHT

FVALOEGA

ORIENTSMARTSET

NRTOYVHU

DETONATECOGENT

UUOTSLE

ELECTRONNA PLES

T

VARIETY

SU | DO | KU

1 Lets boy to move slow (6)

4 Fools stay at home, he takesthem out (8)

9 Keep in touch when one isbreaking a story (6)

10 Gates say, managed one fromEurope (8)

12 Terrible way to reject quote (8)

transport in place (5,3)

24 Roger, come back at eight —first set off (8)

25 Compelling businessman (6)

26 Choose a boy, it's a very smallmatter (8)

27 No point being sleepless here inItaly (6)

13 Quiet in Indian city, voice heardhere in Greece (6)

15 Talk about returning bribe — isfit to stand trial (6,6)

18 Left with no interest in play —wrong thing for play (7,5)

21 For zero charge, takes one toChina (6)

22 Intelligent people reject public

HONG KONG: Karunuday Singhand Jui-Chen Hung lost 6-2,6-3 to Sora Fukuda and JumpeiYamasaki of Japan in the firstround of the $15,000 ITF Fu-tures tennis tournament inHong Kong on Tuesday.

Karunuday is in the secondround of the singles, and willplay seventh seed Cheng-YuYu of Chinese Taipei in thepre-quarterfinals. — SportsBureau

Karunuday loseshis doubles match

BENGALURU: Railways whippedMumbai by 10 wickets in thesenior women’s twenty20cricket league at Alur groundshere on Tuesday.

The scores:

Bengal 126 for four in 20 overs(Tanusree Sarkar 35, Jhulan Gos-wami 34) bt Maharashtra 99 forseven In 20 overs (Tejal Hasabnis29); Mumbai 30 in 14.4 overs (SoniYadav three for 11, Swagatika Raththree for two) lost to Railways 35 forno loss in 6.3 overs. — PrincipalCorrespondent

Railways routsMumbai

RAMANATHAPURAM: The sub-ju-nior National hockey tourna-ment for women organised byHockey Unit of Tamil Nadu(HUT) under the auspices ofHockey India will commenceat the SDAT Velu ManickamAstro Turf Stadium here fromWednesday.

The tournament will haveteams from both ‘A’ and ‘B’ di-vision.

The ‘B’ division takes placefrom January 4 to 13 while the‘A’ division is from January 11to 22.

Hockey Mizoram is the de-fending champion in the ‘B’ di-vision that was held at Nagaon,Assam while the ‘A’ divisionthat was held at Rohtak, Hary-ana, SAI was the winner. —Sports Reporter

Women’s sub-jr Nationalfrom today

CHANDIGARH: Sacchitt Sharmaknocked out fourth seedHazem Naow of Syria 7-6(7),6-3 in the boys’ first round ofthe ITF grade-3 junior tennistournament at the CLTAComplex here on Tuesday.

In the girls’ section, PrinkleSingh defeated seventh seedEstehr Adeshina of Britain 6-3,6-2.

The results: First round: Boys:Siddhant Banthia bt Olimjon Nabiev(Uzb) 6-4, 6-2; Nikit Reddy (USA) btRithvik Choudary Bollipalli 6-3, 6-1;Jack Draper (GBr) bt Kabir Manrai6-1, 6-0; Vasisht Cheruku bt RishabhSharda 6-1, 5-7, 6-3; Roko Savin (Cro)bt Shramay Dhawan 6-3, 6-0; SergeyFomin (Uzb) bt Atharva Sharma 6-2,6-1; Siddharth Thakran bt ShashikantRajput 6-4, 6-3; Sacchitt Sharma btHazem Naow (Syr) 7-6(7), 6-3..

Girls: Mahak Jain bt Sravya Shiv-ani 6-3, 6-0; Aesha Patel (USA) btYubarani Banerjee 6-2, 6-2; Thasa-porn Naklo (Tha) bt Harsha Sai Challa6-1, 6-3; Viktoria Kalaitzis (Bel) btPriyanka Jakhar 6-0, 6-0; PrinkleSingh bt Esther Adeshina (GBr) 6-3,6-2; Shivani Manjanna bt Gauri Bagia6-1, 6-2; Axana Mareen (Bel) bt Shiv-ani Ingle 6-1, 6-3; MananchayaSawankaew (Tha) bt Humera Shaik6-4, 6-2. .

Sacchitt Sharmapulls of an upset win

LOS ANGELES: Jimmy Butlerscored 52 points and theChicago Bulls started 2017 ofright with a 118-111 NBA vic-tory over Charlotte Hornetson Monday.

The results: LA Clippers 109 btPhoenix 98; Golden State 127 bt Den-ver 119; Chicago 118 bt Charlotte 111;Houston 101 bt Washington 91; Utah101 bt Brooklyn 89; Orlando 115 bt NYKnicks 103; Milwaukee 98 bt Ok-lahoma City 94; Cleveland 90 bt NewOrleans 82. — Agencies

Butler powersBulls pastHornets

Tare and veteran all-rounderAbhishek Nayar, the two mostsensible heads in the Mumbaibatting line-up, hardly lookedin trouble.

In such a scenario, mostfielding captains would havepounced on the new ball themoment it was available.However, Abhinav Mukundchose not to, instead letting hisspin duo of R. Aushik Srinivasand B. Aparajith bowl exten-ded spells. That made matterseasier for Mumbai as Tare andNayar milked the bowlingwith risk-free cricket.

By the time Abhinav optedfor the new ball — with just asolitary over remaining beforehe would have been com-pelled to take it after the 100th

RAJKOT: The combination of aflat deck, sensible batting,lower-order resistance and in-explicable tactics in the fieldby Tamil Nadu meant Mumbaihad a foot in the Ranji Trophyfinal. At the end of the thirdday’s play, Mumbai wasbowled out for 406 in its first

innings, with ahefty lead of 101runs.

With just twodays remaining ona track that’s stilltailor-made for bat-ting, Tamil Naduwill have to stage amiraculouscomeback if itwants to board the

plane for Indore.When Vijay Shankar lured

Shreyas Iyer into nicking oneto Dinesh Karthik behind thestumps in the fourth over,Mumbai was in a bit of a pre-dicament. At 190 for five, thefirst objective of overhaulingTamil Nadu’s first inningstotal of 305 looked some dis-tance away. But captain Aditya

over, as per the tournamentplaying conditions — Mumbaihad cruised to 289.

While T. Natarajan, despiteissues with overstepping, ranin hard with the new ball, Abh-inav stuck to Aparajith withthe hard ball. The move wouldhave paid of right away, butfor the oie’s twin, Indrajith,dropping a sharp chance in theslips of Nayar’s edge.

Not long afterwards, Apa-rajith was fortunate in trap-ping Nayar in front with onethat kept very low.

By then, however, Nayarand Tare’s 121-run associationhad taken Mumbai past TN’stotal. Even after Tare failed toconvert his fifth fifty of theseason into a hundred with afalse stroke that gave the left-arm pacer Natarajan a de-serving wicket, Tamil Nadupersisted with defensivefields.

That helped BalwinderSingh Sandhu Jr. and ShardulThakur — far from being re-ferred to as tailenders — anopportunity to build on thelead. While Sandhu poked atone from Vijay Shankar that

moved away after tea, Thakurnot only ensured Mumbaiplayed the day out but alsoraised a well-paced fifty be-fore being bowled by Aushikof what turned out to be thelast ball of the day.

The scores:Tamil Nadu — 1st innings: 305.

Mumbai — 1st innings: PrithviShaw c Karthik b Crist 4, Praful Wa-ghela run out 48, Suryakumar Yadavc Karthik b Vijay Shankar 73, AdityaTare c Raju b Natarajan 83, SiddheshLad c Abhinav b Aushik 0, ShreyasIyer c Karthik b Vijay Shankar 36, Ab-hishek Nayar lbw b Aparajith 58, Bal-winder Singh Sandhu Jr. c Karthik bVijay Shankar 32, Shardul Thakur bAparajith 52, Akshay Girap c Karthikb Vijay Shankar 5, Vijay Gohil (notout) 1; Extras (b-1, lb-5, nb-8): 14;Total (in 150.3 overs): 406.

Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-125, 3-128,4-128, 5-190, 6-311, 7-321, 8-365,9-379.

Tamil Nadu bowling: AswinCrist 18-1-74-1, Natarajan 29-7-105-1,Vignesh 17-1-57-0, Aushik Srinivas39-13-62-1, B. Aparajith 18.3-3-35-2,Vijay Shankar 20-3-59-4, Ganga Srid-har Raju 8-3-5-0, Abhinav Mukund1-0-3-0.

Mumbai noses ahead thanks to Nayar & Tare Inexplicable fielding tactics by Tamil Nadu skipper Abhinav Mukund hampers its chances

LEADING BY EXAMPLE: With the pitch easing out and TN failing tomount any pressure, captain Aditya Tare, along with AbhishekNayar, took Mumbai to a position of strength. — PHOTO: R. V.

MOORTHY

AMOL KARHADKAR

� Abhinav chose not to takethe new ball and persistedwith the spin duo of R.Aushik Srinivas and B.Aparajith

� Tare and Nayar exploitedthis, milking the bowlingwith risk-free cricket

NAGPUR: Jharkhand put up acompetitive performance forthe second day running in theRanji Trophy semifinalagainst Gujarat at the Vid-arbha Cricket Associationground here on Tuesday.

After Ishank Jaggi curbedhis usual attacking instincts toscore 129 in nearly five hours(15x4, 1x6) to give his side afirst-innings lead of 18 runs,left-arm spinner ShahbazNadeem captured three quickwickets in the last session toraise hopes of a Jharkhandentry into the championshipfinal for the first time.

Tough for Gujarat

With two more days to goand a maximum of 180 overspossible, the onus is now onGujarat to press hard and turnthings around from the fourthday.

The fall of skipper ParthivPatel and Samit Gohil in thelast half hour on the third daywere two big blows fromwhich Gujarat may find it dii-

cult to recover and post a chal-lenging target for Jharkhand.

When play resumed, theovernight unbeaten pair ofJaggi and Rahul Shukla hitboundaries, finding the gaps asthe ball raced to the fencemore often than not.

No lateral movement

Though the pitch had a goodcoating of green, the lack ofmoisture underneath meantthe three Gujarat seamers —Jasprit Bumrah, Rush Kalariaand R.P. Singh — were unableto find appreciable lateralmovement. Bumrah, though,worked up speed and extrac-ted lift and was a trifle unluckynot to get a wicket in his open-ing burst of the day.

Furthermore, Jaggi’s de-termined approach and soliddefence, with the main object-ive of taking his team’s first-in-nings score close to Gujarat’s,sustained the contest betweenbat and ball when the seamersoperated. But the spinnerswere not up to the mark, erringin line and length.

The sixth-wicket stand pro-

duced 69 runs after whichKaushal Singh, who began theseason with a century againstMaharashtra, scored a briskhalf-century. Jharkhand added194 runs to its overnight 214,with Jaggi scoring his 15th FirstClass century.

Vikash’s fine efortGujarat made a cautious

start to its second innings, buta fine fielding efort fromVikash Singh from deep coverresulted in the run out of Priy-ank Panchal.

The second-wicket pair ofGohil and Bhargav Merai soonlooked to set things right byscoring at three runs an over.Even as the confident pair ap-peared to be watching the ballwell, Nadeem produced a su-perb arm ball to bowl Merai.

Thereafter Parthiv steppedout and played a feeble shot toshort mid-wicket and Gohilwas trapped plumb in front asGujarat finished the day 82runs ahead.

The scores:Gujarat — 1st innings: 390.Jharkhand — 1st innings: Praty-

ush Singh c Bhatt b R.P. Singh 27,Sumit Kumar c Merai b R.P. Singh 2,Virat Singh b Bhatt 34, SaurabhTiwary lbw b Hardik 39, Ishank Jaggic Bhatt b R.P. Singh 129, Ishan Kishanc Bumrah b R.P. Singh 61, RahulShukla lbw b Hardik 27, KaushalSingh b Bumrah 53, ShahbazNadeem c Gohil b R.P. Singh 16,Vikash Singh (not out) 0, Ajay Yadavb R.P. Singh 6; Extras (lb-7, nb-7): 14;Total (in 102 overs): 408.

Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-57, 3-89,4-121, 5-213, 6-282, 7-380, 8-393,9-402.

Gujarat bowling: R.P. Singh 21-3-90-6, Rush Kalaria 14-5-43-0, JaspritBumrah 27-8-103-1, Rujul Bhatt 11-1-57-1, Hardik Patel 29-2-108-2.

Gujarat — 2nd innings: SamitGohil lbw b Nadeem 49, Priyank Pan-chal run out 1, Bhargav Merai bNadeem 44, Parthiv Patel c ViratSingh b Nadeem 1, Manpreet Juneja(batting) 2, Hardik Patel (batting) 0;Extras (b-1, lb-1, w-1): 3; Total (forfour wkts. in 37 overs): 100.

Fall of wickets: 1-18, 2-87, 3-93,4-98.

Jharkhand bowling: Ajay Yadav11-2-18-0, Rahul Shukla 10-2-25-0,Shahbaz Nadeem 11-2-36-3, VikashSingh 5-0-19-0.

Jharkhand takes first-innings lead G. VISWANATH

THE ARCHITECTS: Ishank Jaggi’s (right) century and KaushalSingh’s half-century raised hopes of a Jharkhand entry intothe Ranji final for the first time. — PHOTO: PTI

HYDERABAD: Adam (N.S. Parmar up)claimed the Golconda Million, themain event of the races held here onTuesday. The winner is trained byP. Shrof and is owned by the UnitedRacing & Blood Stock Breeders Ltdrepresented by Dr. & Mrs. VijayMallya.

1. FALAKNUMA CUP(2,400m), Cat. III, 4-y-o & over,rated 26 to 50: Bullish Approach(P. Sai Kumar) 1, Hal Chal (GNaresh) 2, Sir Walter Raleigh (DeepShanker) 3, Vijay's Harmony (S STanwar) 4. Shd, 1-1/4, 1-3/4. 2m35.78s. Rs. 11 (w), 7, 24 (p), SHP: Rs.45, FP: Rs. 109, Q: Rs. 112, Tanala: Rs.123. Favourite: Sir Walter Raleigh.Owners: M/s. P.S. Ranganathan &A.V. Jayaprakash. Trainer: R.H.Sequeira.

2. GOLCONDA MILLION(1,200m), 4-y-o & over (Terms):Adam (N.S. Parmar) 1, Satellite (P.Trevor) 2, Vijays Joy (P.S. Chouhan)3, Galiat (Beuzelin Louis) 4. Not run:Masteroftherolls. 1, 3/4, 2-3/4. 1m10.61s. Rs. 17 (w), 8 and 9 (p), SHP:Rs. 14, FP: Rs. 39, Q: Rs. 21. Favourite:Vijays Joy. Owner: United Racing &Blood Stock Breeders Ltd rep by Dr.& Mrs. Vijay Mallya. Trainer: P.Shrof.

3. AGOSTINI PLATE(1,400m), Cat. II, maiden 3-y-o only(Terms): Big Heart (BeuzelinLouis) 1, Creator (Suraj Narredu) 2,Lost And Found (P. Trevor) 3, Rutil-ant (Akshay Kumar) 4. 3-3/4, 1-1/2, 1.1m 25.86s. Rs. 8 (w), 6, 8, 7 (p), SHP:Rs. 20, FP: Rs. 42, Q: Rs. 32, Tanala:Rs. 92. Favourite: Big Heart. Own-ers: Dr. Suresh Chintamaneni & Mr.P. Prabhakar Reddy. Trainer: D.Netto.

4. MOUNTAIN LILLYPLATE (1,400m), Cat III, 5-y-o &over, rated 26 to 50: Bharat King(B.R. Kumar) 1, Sea Change (DeepakSingh) 2, Island Bird (K Sai Kiran) 3,Azazil (Y.S. Srinath) 4. Not run:Back To Business. Nk, 2-3/4, 1-1/4.1m 27.31s. Rs. 17 (w), 6, 9, 8 (p), SHP:Rs. 28, FP: Rs. 75, Q: Rs. 40, Tanala:Rs. 408. Favourite: Bharat King.Owner: Mr. A.K. Jaiswal. Trainer:Anupam Sharma.

5. SPEAKERS CUP (D. II),(1200 m), 4-y-o & over, rated 66 to90: Exclusive Wind (P. Trevor) 1,Rahuls Pet (Beuzelin Louis) 2, CityOf Wonders (Y.S. Srinath) 3, SirMajestic (Suraj Narredu) 4. 2-3/4,4-1/2, 1/4. 1m 10.94s. Rs. 32 (w), 7, 6, 11(p), SHP: Rs. 17, FP: Rs. 76, Q: Rs. 26,Tanala: Rs. 233. Favourite: Rahuls

Pet. Owner: Mr. G. Narasa Reddy.Trainer: Anupam Sharma.

6. G.V. RAO MEMORIALCUP (D. I), (1,100m), Cat. II, 5-y-o &over, rated 46 to 70: Symbol OfPride (P. Ajeeth Kumar) 1, RockHeights (Mukesh Kumar) 2, FairAnd Squre (C.P. Bopanna) 3, Par Ex-cellence (Md. Ismail) 4. 1-1/4, 1/2,1/2. 1m 06.44s. Rs. 47 (w), 10, 14, 17(p), SHP: Rs. 51, FP: Rs. 401, Q: Rs.266, Tanala: Rs. 3715. Favourite:Masti. Owners: M/s. Kudithi Ma-hender Reddy, Rammohan Belde,Kishan Raj Sri Raj Vellore & Prem-anand Sugandhi. Trainer: AnupamSharma.

7. SPEAKERS CUP (D. I),(1,200m), 4-y-o & over, rated 66 to90: Mr. Baahubali (Y.S. Srinath) 1,Vallee Secrete (Akshay Kumar) 2,Atruist (P. Trevor) 3, Mangalyaan(P. Ajeeth Kumar) 4. 1-3/4, 1/2, 1. 1m11.33s. Rs. 8 (w), 6, 13, 7 (p), SHP: Rs.28, FP: Rs. 45, Q: Rs. 36, Tanala: Rs.95. Favourite: Mr. Baahubali.Owner: M/s. Pratap RacecitementPrivate Limited represented by theestate of late Mr. D. Pratap ChanderReddy & Mr. Ashish Bajaj & Mrs.Chalasani Pranavi. Trainer: L.V.R.Deshmukh.

8. G.V. RAO MEMORIAL

CUP (D. II), (1,100m), Cat. II, 5-y-o& over, rated 46 to 70: ExclusiveBeauty (Y.S. Srinath) 1, Astra(Suraj Narredu) 2, Catherine (B.R.Kumar) 3, Dandy Girl (Mukesh Ku-mar) 4. Shd, nk, 3/4. 1m 06.54s. Rs. 26(w), 9, 6, 14 (p), SHP: Rs. 23, FP: Rs.53, Q: Rs. 25, Tanala: Rs. 349. Favour-ite: Astra. Owners: Col. K.S. Garcha,Mrs. Inderjit Garcha & Dr. VeerathuSantaiah. Trainer: MSatyanarayana.

9. COMMON LAND PLATE(1,200m), Cat. III, maiden 4-y-o &over, rated 26 to 50: Raja Hindus-tani (P. Sai Kumar) 1, Symbol OfGold (P. Ajeeth Kumar) 2, Ikigai (GNaresh) 3, Al Sadr (B.R. Kumar) 4.Hd, 2-1/2, nk. 1m 13.41s. Rs. 347 (w),56, 23, 16 (p), SHP: Rs. 75, FP: Rs.8855, Q: Rs. 2073, Tanala: Rs. 53436.Favourite: Poll Promise. Owner: Mr.Md. Junaid Ali Khan. Trainer: N.Ravinder Singh.

Treble (i): Rs. 130 (314 tkts.), (ii):Rs. 397 (114 tkts.), (iii): Rs. 1083 (110tkts.); Consolation: Rs. 466 (382tkts.); Jackpot: Rs. 51993 (eight tkts.)

Note: It was Aragonda Princesswhich won the Musical Morn Plateon Monday and not Aragonda asmentioned.

RACING

Adam claims Golconda Million

KOLKATA: Kolkata Knight Riderson Tuesday announced thatformer India pacer L. Balajiwould work with the team asits bowling coach.

Balaji, who was part ofKKR’s bowling line-up from2011 to 2013 and contributed inthe team’s victorious cam-paign in 2012, would replaceWasim Akram.

On his new role, Balaji said,“I thoroughly enjoyed my stintas a player of KKR side and Iam delighted to be back to thefranchise that I have admired.”— Special Correspondent

Balaji is KKR’sbowling coach

L. Balaji.— FILE PHOTO

Bangladesh: T. Iqbal c Bruce bWheeler 11, I. Kayes c Ronchi b Henry0, S. Rahman c Henry b Ferguson 16,Shakib Al Hasan c Santner b deGrandhomme 14, S. Sarkar c Ander-son b Ferguson 0, Mahmudullah bFerguson 52, Mosaddek Hossain cAnderson b Santner 20, M. Mortaza cde Grandhomme b Wheeler 1, N.Hasan (not out) 7, Rubel Hossain(not out) 2; Extras (w-18): 18; Total(for eight wkts. in 20 overs): 141.

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-28, 3-30,4-30, 5-67, 6-99, 7-114, 8-138.

New Zealand bowling: Wheeler4-0-22-2, Henry 4-0-44-1, Ferguson4-0-32-3, de Grandhomme 4-0-23-1,Santner 4-0-20-1.

New Zealand: N. Broom c Shakibb Rubel 6, K. Williamson (not out) 73,C. Munro c Hasan b Mustafizur 0, C.Anderson c Tamim b Shakib 13, T.Bruce run out 7, C. de Grandhomme(not out) 41; Extras (lb-1, w-1, nb-1):3; Total (for four wkts. in 18 overs):143.

Fall of wickets: 1-22, 2-28, 3-46,4-62.

Bangladesh bowling: Shakib 4-0-30-1, Mortaza 3-0-22-0, Rubel 4-0-43-1, Mustafizur 4-0-21-1, Mosaddek2-0-9-0, Soumya 1-0-17-0.

Toss: Bangladesh New Zealand won by six wickets,

leads series 1-0Man-of-the-match: Kane

Williamson

SCOREBOARD

NAPIER: New Zealand captainKane Williamson stroked hissixth international Twenty20half-century to guide his sideto a nervy six-wicket victoryover Bangladesh in the firstmatch of their three-gameseries at McLean Park here onTuesday. — Reuters

Williamson steersKiwis home

NEW DELHI: Mithali Raj will leada 14-member Indian squad tothe ICC Women’s World CupQualifiers to be held inColombo from February 3-21.

India is drawn in Group Aalong with Sri Lanka, Ireland,Zimbabwe and Thailand whileSouth Africa leads Group Bwhich also has Pakistan,Bangladesh, Scotland andPNG.

India will play a warm-upmatch against South Africa be-

fore its opening qualifieragainst Sri Lanka on February7.

The World Cup will bestaged in the United Kingdomfrom June 26 to July 23.

The squad: Mithali Raj (capt.),Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mand-hana, Thirush Kamini, Veda Krish-namurthy, Devika Vaidya, SushmaVerma (wk), Jhulan Goswami, ShikhaPandey, Sukanya Parida, Poonam Ya-dav, Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayak-wad and Deepti Sharma. — PTI

Mithali at the helm

RAJKOT: Tamil Nadu has againbeen penalised for maintain-ing a slow over-rate in Mum-bai’s first innings. As a result,captain Abhinav Mukund hasbeen fined 100 per cent of hismatch-fees while the rest ofhis team-mates have beenpunished 50 per cent.

Even after deducting allow-ance for stoppages, match ref-eree Sunil Chaturvedi and on-field umpires VirenderSharma and Abhijit Deshmukhfound Tamil Nadu two oversshort during Mumbai’s pro-longed first innings. — SpecialCorrespondent

Tamil Nadu penalised

CMYK

SPORT | 19THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017

NOIDA/DELHI

PERTH: The United States pair-ing of Coco Vandeweghe andJack Sock edged closer to thefinal of the mixed teams Hop-man Cup with a 3-0 win overSpain here on Tuesday.

The results:United States bt Spain 3-0

[Coco Vandeweghe bt Lara Arru-abarrena 6-2, 6-4; Jack Sock bt Feli-ciano Lopez 3-6, 6-2, 6-3;Vandeweghe & Sock bt Arruabarrena& Lopez 4-3 (5/3), 3-4 (2/5), 4-3(5/2) (fast four)].

Czech Republic bt Australia 2-1[Nick Kyrgios bt Adam Pavlasek 7-5,6-4; Lucie Hradecka bt Daria Gav-rilova 4-6, 6-4, 6-4; Hradecka &Pavlasek bt Gavrilova & Kyrgios 3-4(1/5), 4-3 (5/1), 4-2 (fast four)]. —AFP

USA socks Spain

CHENNAI: For Spain’s RobertoBautista-Agut, 2016 was agreat year. He reached a ca-reer-high ranking of 13, withthe icing being a victory overNovak Djokovic on way to hisfirst Masters final. Summingup the year, the world No. 14said: “It was the best season ofmy career. I just want to con-tinue improving and try to befit. Beating Novak (Djokovic)is the best win of my career.”

His match against Djokovicsaw the Serbian lose his tem-per on more than one occa-sion, even breaking his rac-quet and tearing his T-shirt. Sodid those shenanigans distracthim? “No. When you playagainst these big players, youhave to concentrate and focuson the game. You cannot af-ford to get distracted. Thoseincidents don’t distract.”

About the role of clay courtsin having an influence on thesuccess of Spaniards, Agutsaid: “It’s good to play on clayin the beginning of your ca-reer. It helps you understandthe game more and makes youstronger mentally and physic-ally playing long rallies. Ten-

nis in Spain has great culture.We have school tennis andgood academies. We have lotof age group tournament thatmakes us competitive playersfrom a young age.”

Agut, who is the second-highest Spaniard in the rank-ings behind Rafael Nadal, isalso the only Spanish playeryounger than Nadal among thecurrent lot to be ranked in thetop-20.

But he shrugs of any com-parison with the 14-timeGrand Slam champion. “Nadalis the only one in the world. Itis impossible to get close, so Iam very focused on me. I can-not be compared with Nadal.”

Like many Spaniards hedabbled in football too, play-ing for Villarreal CF till the ageof 14 before turning his focustowatds tennis. The reason —he could control his owndestiny.

‘2016, the best season of my career’S. DIPAK RAGAV

Roberto Bautista-Agut. — PHOTO: R. RAGULONDON: Manchester United

closed to within a point of thePremier League top four aftera controversial 2-0 victory at10-man West Ham United onMonday.

Goals from Juan Mata andZlatan Ibrahimovic — his 12thin 12 games — gave Jose Mour-

inho’s sidevictory atLondon Sta-dium after

Sofiane Feghouli was harshlysent of for West Ham.

It was United’s seventh winin a row in all competitionsand while it remains in sixth, itis certainly looking up ratherthan down.

United is level on pointswith fifth-place Tottenham,one point behind fourth-placeArsenal and 10 adrift of run-away leader Chelsea.

Mourinho will hope it is thestart of a serious challenge forChampions League qualifica-tion by his side, especiallywith Liverpool next up afterFA Cup and League Cup tiesagainst Ipswich Town andHull City.

Referee Mike Dean’s de-cision to send of West Hammidfielder Feghouli in the 15thminute was comfortably thebiggest talking point of theevening. The Algerian mo-mentarily lost control of theball as he drove towards goal,allowing Phil Jones a chance tochallenge.

The result: West Ham 0 lost toManchester United 2 (Mata 63,Ibrahimovic 78). —AFP

Ibrahimovic andMata see of 10-man West Ham

MUMBAI: Chennai Smashers,powered by controlled per-formances from P. Kashyap,P.V. Sindhu and the doublespair of Chris Adcock and Gab-rielle Adcock, marched ahead4-0 after just three matches be-

fore eventu-ally winning5-0 againstBengaluruBlasters in

the Vodafone Premier Bad-minton League on Tuesday.

Denmark’s rising talentViktor Axelsen defeatedTommy Sugiarto in straightgames for Bengaluru’s firstpoint, whose decision to namethe concluding men’s doublestie as the Trump match featur-ing Koreans Yeon Seong Hoand Sung Hyun Ho provedwrong. Chris Adcock could do

no wrong, playing his part toperfection in the doubles con-tests. Sindhu turned out be theace in the Smashers’ pack, win-ning the Trump tie against thegritty Hong Kong player Ch-eung Ngan Yi 12-10, 11-6. Thelithe Indian overcame mo-

ments of self-doubt to registerher first victory of this edition.

Cheung surged to a 5-0 leadand was up 6-3 at the break be-fore the Indian, cheered on bythe fans, clawed back. Sindhucaught her opponent of-bal-ance with a flat cross-court

smash to make it 9-9 and madeit 10-10 before winning the bigpoints. In the second, Sindhu’sgrowing confidence saw hergo ahead 5-4, closing out therally with a ferocious smash.There was no stopping herafter that.

Kashyap snufed out Saur-abh Verma’s ambitions with aclinical show in the firstsingles, winning 11-8, 11-5. The2012 London Olympicsquarterfinalist remained incontrol right through.

The results: Chennai Smashers5 bt Bengaluru Blasters 0 [P.Kashyap bt Saurabh Verma 11-8, 11-5;(T) P.V. Sindhu bt Cheung Ngan Yi 12-10, 11-6; Chris Adcock & Gabrielle Ad-cock bt Ashwini Ponnappa & YeongSeong Yoo 11-6, 8-11, 15-14; TommySugiarto lost to Viktor Axelsen 11-7,13-11; Chris Adcock & Mads PeterKolding bt (T) Sung Hyun Ko & YeongSong Yo 11-7, 7-11, 13-11].

Smashers sail past the BlastersNANDAKUMAR MARAR

BLAZING AWAY: P. Kashyap was in complete command againstSaurabh Varma. — PHOTO: PTI

DOHA: Defending championNovak Djokovic made a stickyreturn to action before recov-ering from losing the openingfour games to beat Germany’sJan-Lennard Struf 7-6(1), 6-3at the Qatar Open on Monday.

Serena advances

World No. 2 Serena Willi-ams shook out any cobwebsfrom four months away fromthe game with a 6-3, 6-4 victoryover France’s Pauline Parmen-tier in the first round of theAuckland Classic on Tuesday.

The results: At Brisbane: ATP/WTA Brisbane International:Men: First round: Rafael Nadal btAlexandr Dolgopolov 6-3, 6-3; SamGroth bt Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-3,5-7, 7-5; Jared Donaldson bt GillesMuller 6-4, 6-4; Viktor Troicki btYoshihito Nishioka 6-4, 7-5.

Lucas Pouille bt Gilles Simon 7-6(6), 7-6(4); Diego Schwartzman btSam Querrey 6-2, 6-4; Mischa Zverevbt Alex De Minaur 6-3, 6-3.

Women: Second Round: Karo-lina Pliskova bt Asia Muhammad 6-1,6-4; Alize Cornet bt Christina McHale6-2, 6-1; Elina Svitolina bt Shelby Ro-gers 7-5, 2-6, 7-5; Garbine Muguruzabt Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 3-6, 7-6(7).First round: Destanee Aiava bt Beth-anie Mattek-Sands 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

At Auckland: WTA AucklandClassic: Serena Williams bt PaulineParmentier 6-3, 6-4; Naomi Osaka btAnnika Beck 6-2, 6-4; Mirjana Lucic-Baroni bt Mona Barthel 6-3, 3-6, 6-3;

Jelena Ostapenko bt Marina Erakovic6-1, 6-2; Caroline Wozniacki bt NicoleGibbs 6-1, 6-0; Barbora Strycova btBarbora Stefkova 6-4, 6-3; LaurenDavis bt Kiki Bertens 7-6(3), 6-4; Yan-ina Wickmayer bt Johanna Larsson6-1, 6-2; Madison Brengle bt JamieLoeb 6-4, 7-6(5); Varvara Lepchenkobt Arina Rodionova 6-3, 6-4.

At Doha: ATP Qatar Open:Novak Djokovic bt Jan-Lennard Struff7-6(1), 6-3; Nicolas Almagro bt PaoloLorenzi 7-6(2), 4-6, 6-3; Jiri Vesely btAnil Yuksel 6-2, 6-3; Dustin Brown btFacundo Bagnis 6-1, 6-7(2), 6-4;Fernando Verdasco bt Vasek Pospisil7-5, 6-0; David Goffin bt Robin Haase7-6(4), 6-2.

Radek Stepanek bt Marcos Bagh-datis 6-4, 5-3 retd.; Arthur de Greef btMohamed Safwat 6-7(8), 7-5, 6-4;Horacio Zeballos bt Florian Mayer 6-7(3), 6-4, 7-6(9). — Agencies

Djokovic struggles

Serena Williams.— PHOTO: AP

CHENNAI: At the Aircel ChennaiOpen, Ramkumar Ramanath-an’s stock in the recent yearshas been built on one memor-able victory over SomdevDevvarman in 2014 and a runto the quarterfinal last year.

On Tuesday, he gave the im-pression of someone restingpurely on those past laurels,slumping to a dispiriting 53-minute 6-1, 6-1 loss to YukiBhambri.

For the 22-year-old, it was,more than anything else, the

harshest oflessons onthe unforgiv-ing nature oftennis whereone is only asgood as hislast result.

“I couldn’thave played better,” saidBhambri after the match.

But the 24-year-old didn’teven have to bring out his bestto beat Ramkumar.

In the opening four games,local lad won a paltry fourpoints. For the whole match, itwas 25 out of 80.

Bhambri played the smartertennis. He hurried Ramkumarand made quite a few forays

towards the net. He was aidedin no small measure by an op-ponent who repeatedly hitshort.

And on the few occasionsthat Bhambri’s approach wasof the mark, Ramkumar failedto make him pay. Like, in theseventh game, down 1-5, hehad both the player and thecourt at his mercy but drilled

the ball straight at Bhambriwho redirected it for a winner.

If there were even fainthopes of Ramkumar turningthe tide in the second set, theyquickly evaporated as he fell5-0 behind, and it was only amatter of time before Bhambriended his misery.

“I just didn’t take the foot ofthe pedal,” said Bhambri, who

will meet Benoit Paire next. “Itried to get as many breaks aspossible. I just need to servebetter and return better. Thesethings make life easier.”

Saketh Myneni, India’shighest-ranked singles player,took the court immediatelyafter, against MikhailYouzhny. For a fair amount oftime he even succeeded in get-

ting the crowd interested. At2-2 in the first set, he earned abreak point.

But some poor judgementlet him down; he left alone aball which he thought was sail-ing long only for it to dropinches in.

At 4-5, he served a double-fault on game-point. From thatmoment, the set could not besalvaged, and a few minuteslater it was clear that thematch was lost too. The Rus-sian won 6-4, 6-3.

Earlier, Aljaz Bedene playedinch-perfect tennis to beatGuillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3,6-3.

Bhambri knocks out of-colour RamkumarSaketh Myneni fails to mount a sustained challenge against veteran Mikhail YouzhnyN. SUDARSHAN

STRETCHED? HARDLY! Yuki Bhambri got off to a brilliant start, and “just didn’t take the foot off thepedal” to close out a 6-1, 6-1 win over Ramkumar Ramanathan. — PHOTO: R. RAGU

SILIGURI: India will seek to reit-erate its ‘giant’ status in the re-gion when it meetsBangladesh in the final of theSAFF women’s football cham-pionship at the KanchenjungaStadium here on Wednesday.The host has been the cham-pion in all the three previouseditions ever since the tourna-ment was conceived in 2010.

The only worry will be ayoung Bangladesh side thathas already dented the host’simpeccable record.

India, which had won all the15 matches while claiming itsthree crowns, was held to agoalless draw by Bangladeshin the league stage barelysome days ago.

Coach Sajid Dar expectedhis team, which had swampedAfghanistan 5-1 in the league,to perform to its true potentialin the final. The convincing 3-1

win over three-time finalistNepal in the semifinals had gotthe Indian women back intothe winning rhythm and Darsaid this would help the teamregain confidence.

Bangladesh has kept a cleansheet while scoring the mostnumber of goals (12), while theIndian attack has managedeight goals while concedingtwo.

Confident

Celebrating its first entryinto the final, Bangladesh headcoach Golam Robbani Chotonsaid his team was unlucky notto win against India in theleague outing.

“Yes, India had more of ballpossession, but had SabinaKhatun been able to capitaliseon a chance in the 75th minute,we should have won.

“YWe have our strategy forWednesday and will give ofour best to see that we are the

new champions,” said Choton.The Bangladesh coach drew

his confidence from the goodform of his strikers Sabina andShopnah, who helpedBangladesh beat Afghanistan6-0 in the league stage beforeprevailing over Maldives bythe same margin in thesemifinal.

Dar was more reflective,saying “we learnt few lessonsfrom the draw in the leaguestage and we will try to put ona better show in the final.

“We have done well in thesemifinal and hope to pick upfrom there when we go for thetitle.”

The Indian team is a mix ofyouth and experience, withcaptain Bala Devi leading a listof seasoned campaigners. In-dumati Devi, Dangmei Graceand Sasmita Malik are some ofthe other names the host willbe banking on ensure its fourthconsecutive title.

FOOTBALL

India starts overwhelming favouriteAMITABHA DAS SHARMA

KOLKATA: In the backdrop of theSupreme Court tightening thenoose around the BCCI to im-plement Lodha Committee re-forms and the demand for re-vision in the National SportsCode for other sports bodies,16-time World championcueist Pankaj Advani saidsports organisations should beathlete-centric to producechampions on a regular basis.

The Supreme Court orderon the BCCI and the IndianOlympic Association’s contro-versial move to appointSuresh Kalmadi and AbhayChautala, who are facing cor-ruption charges, havetriggered the demand fortransparency and good gov-ernance in sports bodies.

Particularly in the contextof the BCCI, Advani said eventhough he could not commenton what happened with thecricket body he would like the“sports policy” to revolvearound athletes. “Until thendon’t expect anything…Wewill have champions comingout because of their own mo-tivation, efort, own support

staf etc. But champions com-ing out of the system as part ofa structured policy, don’t ex-pect that,” said Advani, whowas here to take part in theKolkata Open snookerchampionship.

Advani said India had a longway to go to be like China,Australia and America insports. He said in India sport-ing excellence was measuredon the basis of performancesin quadrennial events, such asthe Olympics and the AsianGames. “Sport is about con-sistency… Ask Roger Federerand he would say Wimbledonover Olympics… Celebrationof a person finishing fourth orwinning a bronze in theOlympics is much more than amultiple World title orsomeone who has won a medalno one else has.

“I definitely feel there is abig diference in the way wecelebrate achievements inquadrennial events comparedto those in year in and year out.I am not complaining. This isour perception. If we have tochange our perception, wehave to look at sport from a dif-ferent angle.”

GENERAL

Sports policy should revolve aroundathletes, says Pankaj Advani

LONG WAY TO GO: Pankaj Advani, inaugurating the Kolkata OpenNational invitation snooker championship in Kolkata onTuesday along with Sourav Kothari (left) and Aditya Mehta(right), says it will take time for India to become a sportingpowerhouse like China. — PHOTO: PTI

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

First round: Aljaz Bedene (GBr)bt Guillermo Garcia Lopez (Esp) 6-3,6-3; Yuki Bhambri bt RamkumarRamanathan 6-1, 6-1; MikhailYouzhny (Rus) bt Saketh Myneni 6-4,6-3; Renzo Olivo (Arg) bt CasperRuud (Nor) 7-6(3), 6-2; Benoit Paire(Fra) bt Konstantin Kravchuk (Rus)6-3, 6-4, Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe) bt RaduAlbot (Mda) 6-2, 6-1; Rogerio DutraSilva (Bra) bt Dusan Lajovic (Srb) 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(3).

Doubles: James Cerrentani (USA)& Philipp Oswald (Aut) bt JonathanElrich (Isr) & Scott Lipsky (USA) 6-4,1-6, [10-8].

THE RESULTS

Wednesday’sschedule� Centre Court: Marin Cilic(Cro) vs Josef Kovalik (Svk);Dudi Sela (Isr) vs HyeonChung (Kor); Purav Raja &Divij Sharan vs Leander Paes& Andre Sa.

� Court 1: Albert Ramos-Vinolas (Esp) vs Steve Darcis(Bel); Marcelo Demoliner(Bra) & Nikola Mektic (Cro)vs. Rohan Bopanna & JeevanNedunchezhiyan; SakethMyneni & RamkumarRamanathan vs Steve Darcis(Bel) & Benoit Paire (Fra).

� Court 2: Daniil Medvedev(Rus) vs Yen-Hsun Lu (Tpe);Nicholas Monroe (USA) &Artem Sitak (Nzl) vsKonstantin Kravchuk &Mikhail Youzhny (Rus); JohanBrunstrom & AndreasSiljestrom (Swe) vs GuillermoDuran & Andres Molteni(Arg).

5 p.m. start