W ith the commencement of the Amarnath Yatra being just a week away, the security agencies have height- ened vigil as intelligence inputs have suggested presence of 290 terrorists, including 34 Pakistani nationals exclusively trained by Pakistan Army for targeting security forces, in the Kashmir Valley. These ter- rorists could carry out attacks during the Amarnath Yatra, starting from July 1, the agen- cies have warned. As many as 130 terrorists are of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT), 103 of Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and 34 of Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) besides two of Islamic State Jammu & Kashmir and five of Al Badr. In addition, three terrorists owing allegiance to al-Qaeda Kashmir also known as Ansar Ghazwatul Hind, whose chief Zakir Musa was recently killed by the security forces in an encounter, are also said to be active in the region. Out of the 130 LeT terror- ists, 79 are Pakistani nationals and of the 103 Hizbul terrorists in the Valley seven are Pakistanis and remaining are locals. Out of the 34 JeM ter- rorists, 21 are Pak nationals and remaining 13 locals. Following the inputs, the security grid in the Valley is being strengthened after con- tinuous review and monitoring of the situation in Jammu & Kashmir in order to avoid any untoward incident during the pilgrimage to the cave shrine. Nearly 115 terrorists have been killed by the security forces in Jammu & Kashmir as against a total of 254 last year. Over 70 security forces per- sonnel have been killed so far this year including 45 casual- ties in the Pulwama attack in February in which the CRPF convoy was targeted besides 19 of the Army. Last year, the Army alone suffered casualties of 61 personnel. According to the inputs, most number of terrorists liq- uidated in encounters belong to the JeM whose chief Masood Azhar was designated as a global terrorist by the United Nations earlier this year under the al Qaeda Sanctions List. Turn to Page 2 A fter human skeleton remains were found strewn near a garbage dump close to the post-mortem section of the Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital (SKMCH) on Saturday in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur, where 108 chil- dren have died due to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome and over 100 children are still being treated, an investigation was ordered, officials said. SKMCH Superintendent Dr Sunil Kumar Shahi told the media that he had ordered an internal inquiry after parts of deformed human bones and broken skull were found by some people behind the hos- pital premises. Meanwhile, as news chan- nels beamed the horrific images, the district adminis- tration swung into action and Sub Divisional Magistrate (East) Kundan Kumar and Superintendent of Police (City) Neeraj Kumar rushed to the spot. “We will not like to com- ment on this episode until we conduct a thorough inquiry”, the SP (City) said. Locals said with disgust that improper disposal of dead bodies has been a long-stand- ing problem in the area and stray dogs can be often seen pouncing upon half-burnt corpses. The SKMCH is in news for the death of more than 100 brain fever-afflicted children since June 1. A 42-year-old private tutor allegedly killed his wife Archana and their two- month-old daughter, five-year- old son and seven-year-old daughter by slitting their throats in the early hours of Saturday in South Delhi’s Mehrauli at their residence, police said. The accused Upendra Shukla, who hails from a village in Bihar’s Champaran and used to give private tuition classes of chemistry, has been arrested. Shukla gave his wife, five- year-old son Raunak and two minor daughters, Ranya (7) and two-month-old daughter, a sedative and later killed them while they were sleeping. Some wrappers of medicines were also recovered from the house. Two handwritten notes in Hindi and English in which Shukla confessed to killing his wife and children were recov- ered from the room. He, how- ever, did not give any reason for it, said the officer, adding that Shukla is suspected to be suf- fering from depression. Turn to Page 2 A mid rising geopolitical ten- sions between the US and Iran, India’s aviation regulator DGCA on Saturday said Indian airlines have decided to avoid the “affected part of the Iranian airspace” and reroute their flight “suitably”. On Friday, the American aviation regulator, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), issued a Notice to Airmen (NOTM) prohibiting US-registered aircraft from operating “in the overwater area of the Tehran Flight Information Region until fur- ther notice, due to heightened military activities and increased political tensions”. “All Indian operators in consultation with DGCA have decided to avoid the affected part of Iranian Airspace to ensure safe travel for the passengers. They will re- route flights suitably,” the DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) tweeted on Saturday. Turn to Page 2 P olice on Saturday resorted to lathicharge injuring at least five people at Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas which once again witnessed street fights moments after a three-member BJP national delegation visiting the area left, sources said adding, one person had sus- tained head injuries. Even as the ruling Trinamool Congress leaders blamed the BJP for stoking vio- lence, Arjun Singh, the BJP MP from Barackpore under which Bhatpara is an Assembly segment, said police resorted to an unprovoked lathicharge adding the locals would continue their protests till the administration took measures to rein in the TMC hooligans. Accusing the BJP of “fish- ing in troubled waters”, State Minister and senior TMC leader Partho Chatterjee won- dered whether there was a need for the BJP delegation to visit the area. At least six people have died in one month. Out of them at least two persons died in police firing last week. The BJP’s fact-finding del- egation that on Friday visited the area said they had definite evidence to show that police had opened fire killing two per- sons and injuring the rest. “We have found shells of bullets used in Insas rifle,” said SS Ahluwalia a member of the delegation. “Police said they fired in the air but how did the bullets hit the victims on ground. Were the people flying in the sky?” he asked. The delegation, led by Ahluwalia and comprising Vishnu Dayal Ram and Satya Pal Singh, met the family of deceased persons and locals. The team was likely to submit a report on the situation to Home Minister Amit Shah, party sources said.
being just a week away, thesecurity agencies have height-ened vigil as intelligence inputshave suggested presence of 290terrorists, including 34Pakistani nationals exclusivelytrained by Pakistan Army fortargeting security forces, inthe Kashmir Valley. These ter-rorists could carry out attacksduring the Amarnath Yatra,starting from July 1, the agen-cies have warned.
As many as 130 terroristsare of Lashkar-e-Tayyeba(LeT), 103 of HizbulMujahideen (HM) and 34 ofJaish-e-Mohammad (JeM)besides two of Islamic StateJammu & Kashmir and five ofAl Badr.
In addition, three terroristsowing allegiance to al-QaedaKashmir also known as AnsarGhazwatul Hind, whose chiefZakir Musa was recently killedby the security forces in anencounter, are also said to beactive in the region.
Out of the 130 LeT terror-ists, 79 are Pakistani nationalsand of the 103 Hizbul terroristsin the Valley seven arePakistanis and remaining are
locals. Out of the 34 JeM ter-rorists, 21 are Pak nationals andremaining 13 locals.
Following the inputs, thesecurity grid in the Valley isbeing strengthened after con-tinuous review and monitoringof the situation in Jammu &Kashmir in order to avoid anyuntoward incident during thepilgrimage to the cave shrine.
Nearly 115 terrorists havebeen killed by the securityforces in Jammu & Kashmir asagainst a total of 254 last year.Over 70 security forces per-sonnel have been killed so farthis year including 45 casual-ties in the Pulwama attack inFebruary in which the CRPFconvoy was targeted besides 19of the Army. Last year, the
Army alone suffered casualtiesof 61 personnel.
According to the inputs,most number of terrorists liq-uidated in encounters belong tothe JeM whose chief MasoodAzhar was designated as aglobal terrorist by the UnitedNations earlier this year underthe al Qaeda Sanctions List.
Turn to Page 2
����� ����1�22�3��3�4�(/�35
After human skeletonremains were found strewn
near a garbage dump close tothe post-mortem section ofthe Sri Krishna Medical CollegeHospital (SKMCH) onSaturday in Bihar’sMuzaffarpur, where 108 chil-dren have died due to AcuteEncephalitis Syndrome andover 100 children are still beingtreated, an investigation wasordered, officials said.
SKMCH SuperintendentDr Sunil Kumar Shahi told themedia that he had ordered aninternal inquiry after parts ofdeformed human bones andbroken skull were found bysome people behind the hos-pital premises.
Meanwhile, as news chan-
nels beamed the horrificimages, the district adminis-tration swung into action andSub Divisional Magistrate(East) Kundan Kumar andSuperintendent of Police (City)Neeraj Kumar rushed to thespot. “We will not like to com-ment on this episode until weconduct a thorough inquiry”,the SP (City) said.
Locals said with disgustthat improper disposal of deadbodies has been a long-stand-ing problem in the area andstray dogs can be often seenpouncing upon half-burntcorpses.
The SKMCH is in news forthe death of more than 100brain fever-afflicted childrensince June 1.
A42-year-old private tutorallegedly killed his wife
Archana and their two-month-old daughter, five-year-old son and seven-year-olddaughter by slitting theirthroats in the early hours ofSaturday in South Delhi’sMehrauli at their residence,police said.
The accused UpendraShukla, who hails from a villagein Bihar’s Champaran and usedto give private tuition classes ofchemistry, has been arrested.
Shukla gave his wife, five-
year-old son Raunak and twominor daughters, Ranya (7)and two-month-old daughter,a sedative and later killed themwhile they were sleeping. Some wrappers of medicineswere also recovered from thehouse.
Two handwritten notes inHindi and English in whichShukla confessed to killing hiswife and children were recov-ered from the room. He, how-ever, did not give any reason forit, said the officer, adding thatShukla is suspected to be suf-fering from depression.
Amid rising geopolitical ten-sions between the US and
Iran, India’s aviation regulatorDGCA on Saturday said Indianairlines have decided to avoidthe “affected part of the Iranianairspace” and reroute theirflight “suitably”.
On Friday, the American
aviation regulator, the FederalAviation Administration(FAA), issued a Notice toAirmen (NOTM) prohibitingUS-registered aircraft fromoperating “in the overwaterarea of the Tehran FlightInformation Region until fur-ther notice, due to heightenedmilitary activities and increasedpolitical tensions”.
“All Indian operators inconsultation with DGCA havedecided to avoid the affectedpart of Iranian Airspace toensure safe travel for the passengers. They will re-route flights suitably,” theDGCA (Directorate General ofCivil Aviation) tweeted onSaturday.
Turn to Page 2
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Police on Saturday resortedto lathicharge injuring at
least five people at Bhatpara inNorth 24 Parganas which onceagain witnessed street fightsmoments after a three-memberBJP national delegation visitingthe area left, sources saidadding, one person had sus-tained head injuries.
Even as the rulingTrinamool Congress leadersblamed the BJP for stoking vio-lence, Arjun Singh, the BJP MPfrom Barackpore under whichBhatpara is an Assembly segment, said police resorted to an unprovokedlathicharge adding the localswould continue their proteststill the administration tookmeasures to rein in the TMChooligans.
Accusing the BJP of “fish-ing in troubled waters”, StateMinister and senior TMCleader Partho Chatterjee won-dered whether there was a
need for the BJP delegation tovisit the area.
At least six people havedied in one month. Out ofthem at least two persons diedin police firing last week.
The BJP’s fact-finding del-egation that on Friday visitedthe area said they had definiteevidence to show that policehad opened fire killing two per-sons and injuring the rest.
“We have found shells of bullets used in Insasrifle,” said SS Ahluwalia amember of the delegation.“Police said they fired in the airbut how did the bullets hit thevictims on ground. Were thepeople flying in the sky?” heasked.
The delegation, led byAhluwalia and comprisingVishnu Dayal Ram and SatyaPal Singh, met the family ofdeceased persons and locals.The team was likely to submita report on the situation toHome Minister Amit Shah,party sources said.
directed officials to carry outdevelopment works in over750 unauthorised colonies ona war footing and completethose within fivemonths.
The directionwas given by theChief Minister in ahigh-level meetingwith the Irrigationand Flood Control Minister SatyendarJain and senior offi-cials. It comes at a time whenjust a few months are left forthe Delhi Assembly elections.
“Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Saturday directedthat the ongoing developmen-tal works in 781 unauthorisedcolonies should be completedon a war footing within fivemonths by the irrigation andflood control department,”quoted a statement from Chief
Minister's Office (CMO). People living in unautho-
rised colonies play a decisive role in deciding thefate of any political party inelections.
According to the state-ment, the Chief Minister will
personally monitorthe developmentalworks on a weeklybasis. “The ChiefMinister directed thedepartment to submita weekly report onthe progress of ongo-ing developmentalworks now, which he
will personally monitor,” itstated.
At the meeting, the chiefminister was informed thatthe Model Code of Conductduring the Lok Sabha electionshad halted the works, pushingthe deadlines in many cases.The Delhi Government hasmade a provision of �1,500crore in the budget for thedevelopment of these colonies.
New Delhi: Distressed home-buyers of debt-ridden JaypeeInfratech will hold a silentprotest at Jantar Mantar onSunday in the national Capital,after the lenders and homebuyers failed to agree on a log-ical conclusion.
The Jaypee Infratech hadlaunched around 50,000 flats in2009-10 in various ambitiousreal estate projects in Noidaand along the YamunaExpressway area. But the slow-down in the property marketand other factors affected thefinancials of the company andshattered home buyers' hopes.
The Corporate InsolvencyResolution Process (CIRP) ofJaypee Infratech Limited (JIL)has entered into the endgameof its second round.
As per the homebuyers ofthe Jaypee Infratech, two majorclass of creditors includedhomebuyers with 60 per centvote share and banks with 40per cent in the Committee of
Creditors (CoC) are not onboard in a bid to achieve suc-cessful resolution in the matter.
The buyers have allegedthat the bankers were not mak-ing any effort to resolve theissues.
“It's a unique case whereinthe banks have not made anygenuine serious efforts in thedirection of ensuring success-ful Resolution and the home-buyers whose lifelong savingsare stake making all possiblecompromises and efforts so asto ensure getting possession oftheir dream houses with somereasonable compensation fordelay,”said one of homebuyerswho is serving in defence forces.
Government's NavratnaEnterprise NBCC had pro-posed to take over the JaypeeInfratech and complete over20,000 unfinished flats. Earlier,Suraksha Group had alsoshown interest to acquire thecompany but the flat-buyersrejected the plan. SR
From Page 1The JeM has suffered casu-
alties to the tune of 36 so farthis year.
The Pulwama attack hadtriggered the aerial strikes onthe terror training facility of theJeM at Balakot in Pakistan. TheJaish had claimed responsibil-ity for the February 14Pulwama attack at the CRPFconvoy.
In the wake of the contin-uing action against the ultras bythe security forces, the JeM isparticularly facing shortage of
cadres and the latest ISI-Pakarmy gameplan is to trigger amajor unrest by carrying out amajor attack in the Valley. Asa tactical ploy, the JeM has alsosought to shift its base toJammu to evade action fromthe security forces.
In Jammu region, the out-fit is seeking to create a com-munal situation by targetingthe BJP/RSS leaders and influ-ential personalities from theHindu/Sikh communities,according to Intelligence assess-ments.
�������!�������������� ��From Page 1
“At the time of the killings,the accused’s mother-in-lawwas at their house in Mehrauliwhich has two rooms. WhenShukla did not open the doorof his room on Saturday morn-ing, she informed the neigh-bours who broke it open andfound him lying unconsciousnext to the bodies. They thencalled up the police,” said thesenior police official.
“A police control room(PCR) was received regardingthe incident at around 7 AM.Acting on the call, anEmergency Response Vehicle(ERV) rushed to the spot. Onspot, Upendra had locked the
door from inside where othervictims were also lying in poolof blood. Police team broke thegate and found Upendra sittingnext to the victims.
They were all rushed tonearby hospital whereUpendra’s wife and three chil-dren were declared broughtdead by the doctors,” said thesenior police official.
“Initial investigation, it wasrevealed that Shukla’s wifeArchana was a diabetes patientand he was not a financiallysound person. A quarrel mighthave erupted between the cou-ple recently on this issue due towhich he became depressedand killed them. Police teams
are investigating the exact causeof his depression, which he isclaiming,” said police officialprivy to investigation.
“Shukla was found insidehis room with a cut on his handand the investigation will revealthat whether he tried to com-mit suicide after killing them orhe got injured during the inci-dent,” he said.
According to sources,Shukla had tried to kill his wifeand three children on Thursdaynight also but could not executehis plan. “On the interveningnight of Friday and Saturday, hegave them sedatory substanceand later killed them after slit-ting their throats. Some wrap-
pers of medicines were alsorecovered from the house,”said the sources.
“Preliminary investigationsuggests that the killings tookplace between 1 and 1.30 AM.The bodies have been sent tothe AIIMS for the post-mortemwhich will be conducted onSunday after the family of thedeceased will come here. Theknife used in the incident hasbeen seized and further inves-tigation is underway,” said thesenior police official.
According to neighbours,the mother-in-law of UpendraShukla saw him through thewindow of the room lying onthe floor fainted along with
others. “Upendra had bought this
house six years ago and used togive private coaching to schoolstudents in Vasant Kunj area.He was earning quite good. Hetold me that he takes fourclasses daily and gets Rs 1000to Rs 1200 per class. I never sawany kind of depression on hisface,” said Bharat Mahlawat, aneighbour.
Meanwhile, DeepakKumar, who runs a generalstore in the building, said thathe had spoken to Upendra aday before the incident andthere was no such expressionwhich would show him indepression.
������������������������������ �"""From Page 1After the DGCA’s deci-
sion, Air India’s Chairman andManaging Director AshwaniLohani said,”No substantialeffect on Air India flights.Details being worked out forrerouting on incoming flights.”
As the majority ofPakistani airspace hasremained closed for Indianairlines since the Balakot strikeon February 26, the decision toavoid affected Iranian airspaceon Saturday is going to furtherdisturb the routes of theirinternational flights towardsmiddle-eastern and Europeancountries, and the US. PostBalakot strike, Air India had tore-route, merge or suspendmany of its international flightsthat connect India withEuropean and American cities.
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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Saturday
directed officials to make theprocess for getting new connections as simple aspossible.
Kejriwal who is also achairman of Delhi Jal Board(DJB) also directed officials torestart more than 100 non-functional tube wells inMalviya Nagar to ensure regu-lar and adequate water supplyin the area.
In a meeting in whichCEO Jal Board Nikhil Kumarand other senior officials werepresent, Kejriwal was informedthat people were facing prob-lems due to complex process ofobtaining the new water con-nections. “Providing water topeople is our duty. We shouldnot have any complex rules for
new water connections,” hesaid. Meanwhile, MalviyaNagar residents facing toughtime in summers shared their daily experiences per-taining to water scarcity in theirarea.
One of the residents ofMalviya Nagar area told ThePioneer “We are not getting anydrinking water as the watersupplied by the government isnot fit for drinking and forcedto buy drinking water fromlocal water suppliers.”
Zeeshan, student, said thewater supply is just 2 to 3 hoursa day, that too in very oddhours. “The water supply startsat around 4 am and goes tillabout 7 am. For someone likeme who has to study till late, it'svery difficult to get up daily at4 just to fill up the water tankso that we can use the waterduring the day.”
%���������������������������������������������&��� New Delhi: The Delhi BJP on
Saturday appointed district-level conveners and co-con-veners for a month-long driveto enlist 10 lakh new membersin the party. The membershipcampaign will be launched onJuly 6, the birth anniversary ofSyama Prasad Mookerjee, andwill conclude on August 11.
Delhi BJP general secretaryand head of the campaignKuljeet Chahal said the con-veners and co-conveners of allthe 14 BJP district units havebeen appointed and the block-level conveners and co-con-veners will be appointed in thecoming week. The campaignassumes significance since it isbeing launched ahead of theDelhi Assembly polls sched-uled early next year, he said,adding new members will beenrolled both online andoffline. SR
to death in Dwarka’s MohanGarden extension area onSaturday evening.
The deceased has beenidentified as Shanti Singh andher husband Hari Ballabh, 57.Both native of Bihar. Shanti wasa housewife.
According to a senior policeofficial, on Saturday at about 7PM a Police Control Room(PCR) call was received where-in the called stated that her par-ents sustained multiple stabinjuries on their neck and stom-ach. They are survived by a 22year old son and a 27 year old.
“Prima facie it appearedthat their was a friendly entryat the house. There was no ran-sack in the house,” said thesenior police official.
The CBI has registered agraft case against unknown
officials of Indian Air Force(IAF), defence ministry and thefugitive arms dealer SanjayBhandari in connection withthe alleged corruption in the�2,895-crore deal in 2009 foracquisition of 75 Pilatus basictrainer aircraft.
After lodging the case, theagency also carried out search-es at the residence and office ofBhandari, who is alleged to beassociated to Robert Vadra,the brother in-law of Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi.
The role of some seniorIAF officials and those from thedefence ministry is under scan-ner, sources said.
“We have also bookedunidentified officials of theIndian Air Force, defenceMinistry and Switzerland-based Pilatus Aircraft Limitedin the case,” said an agency offi-cial.
Bhandari is wanted inIndia for alleged breach of for-eign exchange rules and paying
kickbacks to secure defencedeals. He was booked by theEnforcement Directorate (ED)in 2016 based on complaints ofhis alleged role in dubiousdefence and land deals fromincome tax department andDelhi police.
Bhandari is also beingprobed in Vadra’s allegedLondon properties case.
The agency had registereda Preliminary Enquiry into the�2,895 defence deal three yearsback and was converted into aRegular Case (FIR) and the FIRafter a prima facie case of cor-ruption against the accused wasmade out during the enquiry.
Pilatus Aircraft Ltd., theSwiss company, was one of thebidders for the contract foracquiring trainer aircraft float-ed in 2009, officials said.
The agency has allegedthat the Swiss company hadentered into a criminal con-spiracy with Bhandari andBimal Sareen, both directors of
Offset India Solutions PrivateLimited, and dishonestly andfraudulently signed a ServiceProvider Agreement withBhandari in June 2010, whichwas in violation of the DefenceProcurement Procedure, 2008.It was allegedly done to get thecontract for supply of 75 basicTrainer Aircraft to the IndianAir Force.
Pilatus bagged the con-tract on May 24, 2012 for�2895.63 crore.
“It is suspected that theSwiss company paid huge com-mission to Bhandari and partof which was allegedly paid toinfluence the officials of theIAF and the MoD associatedwith the procurement,” accord-ing to the FIR.
There is a strong suspicionthat the huge cash amountwas part of the commissionamounts paid by PilatusAircrafts Limited to Bhandarito obtain the contract, theagency has alleged in its FIR.
“biased against the Modi-Government” the InternationalReligious Freedom Report thatalleged mob attack againstminorities and that some seniorofficials of the ruling BJP madeinflammatory speeches againstthe minority communities.
The US state department’s2018 International ReligiousFreedom Report shows clearbias against the Narendra ModiGovernment and the BJP, theparty said asserting that itsleaders had strongly deploredviolence against minorities andweaker sections of society.
The report, released onJune 21, alleged that somesenior leaders of the BJP “madeinflammatory speeches againstminority communities”.
“Mob attacks by violentextremist Hindu groups againstminority communities, espe-cially Muslims, continuedthroughout the year amidrumors that victims had trad-ed or killed cows for beef,” thereport said.
In an official statement,
BJP media head and RajyaSabha MP Anil Baluni said“The basic presumption in thisreport that there is some granddesign behind anti-minorityviolence is simply false. On thecontrary, in most of such cases,these instances are carried outas a result of local disputes andby (people with) criminalmindsets.”
Whenever needed, PMModi and other BJP leadershave strongly deplored vio-lence against minorities andweaker sections of the society,he added.
Baluni said India has deep-rooted democratic institutions,including fiercely independentand pro-active judiciary, which
is quite capable of handlingsuch disputes and punish theguilty.
Unfortunately, this fact iscompletely ignored in this report, he said, adding thatthe Bharatiya Janata Partyunder the leadership of Modibelieves in “Sabka Saath, SabkaVikas” (With all, developmentfor all).
“Mega schemes launchedand effectively implemented bythe Modi government havebenefited all the castes, reli-gions and regions equally. BJPis indeed proud of its record inuplifting living standards of allpoor, underprivileged sectionsof the society, irrespective oftheir faith and gender,” he said
in the statement. Indian people have recent-
ly reaffirmed their confidenceon the development agenda ofthe BJP-led NDA alliance bygiving Modi a massive mandatein the parliamentary election,he said.
The report alleged mobattacks by violent extremistHindu groups against theminority communities, partic-ularly Muslims, continued inIndia in 2018, amid rumoursthat victims had traded orkilled cows for beef, an officialUS report said Friday.
The State Department in itsannual 2018 InternationalReligious Freedom Reportalleged that some senior offi-cials of the ruling BJP madeinflammatory speeches againstthe minority communities.
According to some NGOs,the authorities often protectedperpetrators from prosecution,it said.
The report said that as ofNovember, there were 18 suchattacks, and eight people killedduring the year.
On June 22, two UttarPradesh police officers werecharged with culpable homi-
cide after a Muslim cattle trad-er died of injuries sustainedwhile being questioned inpolice custody, the report said.
Mandated by the Congress,the State Department in itsvoluminous report gives itsassessment of the status ofreligious freedom in almost allthe countries and territories ofthe world.
Releasing the report at theFoggy Bottom headquarters ofthe State Department,Secretary of State MikePompeo said the report waslike a report card which trackscountries to see how well theyhave respected this funda-mental human right.
In the India section, theState Department said thatthere were reports by non-governmental organizationsthat the Government some-times failed to act on mobattacks on religious minorities,marginalised communities andcritics of the government.
The State Department saidthat the central and state gov-ernments and members ofpolitical parties took steps thataffected Muslim practices andinstitutions.
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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday congrat-
ulated the winners of the PrimeMinister’s Award forOutstanding Contribution forPromotion and Developmentof Yoga, 2019.
“We are immensely proudof their rich work to ensuremore people embrace Yogaand our planet becomes health-
ier,” he tweeted.Modi posted the congrat-
ulatory message on Twitter inSpanish, French, Arabic,Russian, Japanese and English.
Founded in 1980, the JapanYoga Niketan has popularisedyoga across Japan. It runs manyyoga training institutes andcourses. They have been able todraw people from all sectionsof Japanese society, Modi said.
Founded by Swami
Satyananda Saraswati, the BiharSchool of Yoga, Munger hasbeen actively working for over50 years.
“They merge ancient wis-
dom with modern trends withan aim to improve fitness.Their yoga programmes andpublications are widely popu-lar,” the PM said.
Modi also referred toAntonietta Rozzi, who belongsto Italy and has been practisingYoga for over four decades. Shefounded the Sarva YogaInternational and popularisedYoga across Europe.
“We are proud of dedicat-
ed individuals like her,” hetweeted. The prime ministersaid Swami Rajarshi Muni,who hails from Gujarat’sLimbdi, has made remarkableefforts to spread yoga. Mostnotably, he founded the LIFEMission and is associated withLakulish Yoga University thatmentors students, he said.
“His commitment to socialservice is also outstanding,”Modi said.
The Centre has disbursed�12,305 crore so far to ben-
eficiaries under the PradhanMantri Kisan Samman Nidhi(PM-KISAN) scheme that aimsto boost farmers income byproviding them �6,000 per yearin three equal instalments.
“Recently, the governmenthas initiated the PM-KISANprogramme effective fromFebruary 1 to enable farmers totake care of expenses related toagriculture and allied activitiesas well as domestic needs,”Agriculture Minister NarendraSingh Tomar said in a writtenreply to the Rajya Sabha.
The scheme provides a pay-ment of �6,000 per year in threeequal instalments of �2,000 tobeneficiaries.
Recently, the Centre decid-ed to extend the benefit of thisscheme to all 14.5 crore farmers,irrespective of the size of theirlandholding, costing �87,217.50crore annually to the exchequer.
Giving an update on dis-bursement, Tomar, in a reply toa separate query, said, “Till date,the first installment to3,29,52,568 beneficiaries andthe second installment to2,85,73,889 beneficiaries havebeen credited directly to thebank accounts of farmers’ fam-ilies under the PM-KISAN
scheme.”The Government has dis-
bursed �6,590.51 crore for thefirst installment and �5,714.77crore for the second tranche, thedata showed.
“PM-KISAN is a continu-ous and ongoing scheme, in which the financial benefits aretransferred to the bank accounts of the identified ben-eficiaries as and when theircorrect and verified data isuploaded by the concernedStates/UTs on PM-KiSAN webportal,” the minister said. Thedata uploaded by the States/UTsundergoes multi-level verifica-tion and validation by variousagencies, including banks, and
then the amount is transferredto beneficiaries’ accounts. “Inthis process several times, therejected data is returned to theState/UT governments for cor-rection.
Though this result in delayin release of benefits to the iden-tified beneficiaries, it is essentialso as to ensure that the benefitreaches the correct beneficiary,”Tomar said.
The minister informed thatthe Government has decidedbeneficiaries would be eligible toget the payment commencingfrom the four-monthly period inwhich their names are uploadedin portal and also subsequentinstallments.
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After dillydallying formonths, the Rajasthan
Government has finally agreedto implement the central flag-ship health protection scheme,Ayushman Bharat - PradhanMantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) in the State.
Soon, AB-PMJAY will beintegrated with Rajasthan’sexisting state health scheme,BhamashahSwasthya BimaYojana (BSBY), said Dr InduBhushan, CEO AB-PMJAY andNational Health Authority.
He said, “The NHA hasbeen constantly working close-ly with the RajasthanGovernment in findingapproaches to seamlessly inte-grate BSBY with AB-PMJAY.We are happy that the StateGovernment too will be thepart of the central scheme. Wehave assured all possible sup-port including technical andpolicy-related assistance, toRajasthan.”
Currently, Rajasthan is pro-viding benefits to 97 Lakh
families under the BSBYscheme, and many of the eligi-ble families under AB-PMJAYare already covered underBSBY. All eligible familiesunder BSBY and AB-PMJAYwill be made eligible to availhealth benefits up to �5 Lakhper year under the scheme.
As far as the technology-related aspects are concerned inrolling-out the scheme,Rajasthan will continue thecurrent software implementa-tion, and systemic API basedintegration with solution suiteof NHA for benefits to bedelivered through AB-PMJAY
is envisaged to be done.As a part of package map-
ping, Rajasthan will run apackage mapping exercise toensure all packages specifiedunder PM-JAY are mappedwith the packages in BSBY.However, similar to any staterunning AB-PMJAY, Rajasthanhas complete flexibility toexpand beyond the AB-PMJAYpackages.
Last week, Union HealthMinister Harsh Vardhan hadwritten to the Chief Ministersof Delhi, Odisha, Telanganaand West Bengal, urging themto join the AB-PMJAY.
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In the absence of proper diag-nostic facilities in the country,
particularly in remote areas,nearly 80 per cent of personswith haemophilia (PwH), a seri-ous blood disorder remain undi-agnosed. According to an esti-mate, there are nearly two lakhPwH in India, the highest in theworld.
Haemophilia is a lifelongbleeding disorder that preventsblood from clotting. Delay indiagnosis or treatment can befatal to the persons with thegenetic condition. Also, therepeated bleeding into joints,bones muscles may lead to syn-ovitis, arthritis and permanentjoint deformities.
The Health Ministry tooadmits that a lot is yet to be donein the sector, particularly ondiagnostic front which in fact isa first step toward ensuring bet-ter treatment and managementof the disease.
“There is a need for a net-
work of diagnostic centres acrossthe country that can help first ofall in diagnosis and later makepeople aware about the serious-ness of the health disorder.There are disparities in diagno-sis also,” admitted VinitaSrivastava, national consultant,Blood cell from the Ministry.
She was speaking at anevent “Initiative on HemophiliaCare V- A sensitization programand the way forward, IHC-V”organised here by theHemophilia Foundation of India(HFI), the umbrella body forregistration of the patient with
the disorder. SS Roy choudhury, CEO,
HFI, said, “Almost one person inevery ten thousand is hemo-philic. By this record, there aremore than one 1,33,000 personswith Haemophilia in India.Unfortunately, due to lack ofadequate infrastructure, we havebeen able to identify only 22,000such PwHs so far.
“Also, those who have beenidentified, are not getting ade-quate treatment and medicinesthat are required for propercare, as per the World Federationof Hemophilia. “
Vikash Goel, President(HFI) felt that the identificationand diagnosis of the remainingsufferers can only be possible ifthere are enough trained hemo-philia doctors and testing facil-ities.
According to doctors, causeof haemophilia is the inabilityof the body to produce theanti-hemophilic factor (AHF) inthe required quantity. There isno known cure for this disorder.
Dr Nita Radhakrishnan,assistant professor at Noida-based Super Speciality PediatricHospital Doctors said, thoughthe government has doneenough under the NationalHealth Mission for haemophil-ia, proper diagnostic centreshave not come up in remotebelts of the country.
Also, though, worldwidethere has been increasingemphasis on providingProphylaxis treatment whereinintravenous injection of factorconcentrate is given to the per-sons with haemophilia on reg-
ular basis in order to preventanticipated bleeding, India hasjust made a beginning. TheMinistry has recently started apilot project at two hospitals inNoida in Uttar Pradesh andChennai in Tamil Nadu where-in children are being taught howto administer factors at theirhome itself on regular basis.
Dr Nita Radhakrishnan saidthat if children get timely factorinjections that would preventthem from life threateningbleedings as well as ensure theirquality life. The treatment pre-vents bleeding and joint destruc-tion, helping children withhaemophilia be more active,attend school, go for outdoorgames and above all, follow aroutine life which every childwants to live.
“Though prophylaxis is acostly treatment, its cost-effec-tive in the long-term because iteliminates the high cost associ-ated with subsequent manage-ment of damaged joints andimproves quality of life,” she said.
Jammu: Lauding border resi-dents for providing support totroops and maintaining vigil intheir areas, Army chief GeneralBipin Rawat said on Saturdaythat the forces were fully pre-pared for emerging securitychallenges.
"I am fully satisfied with theoperational preparedness oftroops to meet all security chal-lenges,” the Army chief saidduring his visit to the Akhnoorsector here.
On Friday, the Army chiefhad visited troops on the Lineof Control (LoC) in Rajouri dis-trict and assured material andmoral support to all soldiers forenhancing operational capa-bilities.
He also reviewed the secu-rity situation in the state andexhorted all ranks to remainvigilant to counter nefariousdesigns of the enemy and anti-national elements.
On the second day of his
tour, General Rawat, accompa-nied by General OfficerC o m m a n d i n g - i n - c h i e f ,Northern Command,Lieutenant General RanbirSingh, visited troops in theAkhnoor sector and was briefedand updated by General OfficerCommanding, White KnightCorps, Lt Gen Paramjit Singhand commanders on ground, adefence spokesman said.
He said General Rawatreviewed the preparations torespond to ceasefire violationsby Pakistani forces, counter
infiltration grid and preparationto deal with provocations byenemy on the LoC and theInternational Border (IB).
The Army chief was alsobriefed on infusion of technol-ogy with operational techniquesand integration of force multi-pliers, which has increasedcapabilities manifold, thespokesman said.
He said the Army chief alsointeracted with the soldiersand commended them for self-less devotion and high standardof professionalism.
He was appreciative of thesynergy between Jammu andKashmir Police, civil adminis-tration, Border Security Forceand the Army, the spokesmansaid.
He said General Rawatconveyed his appreciation to thecitizens living along the borderfor providing all support to thetroops and maintaining vigil intheir areas. PTI
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Thiruvananthapuram: Facingheat over the rape allegationsagainst his elder son, CPI(M)State secretary KodiyeriBalakrishnan on Saturdaysought to distance the party andhimself from the case.
Looking visibly uncomfort-able as he faced a barrage ofquestions from the media per-sonnel, Balakrishnan said hisson Binoy was an adult andresponsible for hisactions,adding that he need notexpect any protection from himor from the party.
This is the first timeKodiyeri was reacting on thecharges of rape and cheatingagainst his son, raised by a for-mer bar dancer of Mumbai.
"Neither my party CPI(M)nor I will protect Binoy. He is anadult. He stays as a separate fam-ily and is responsible for hisactions," Kodiyeri said.
The complainant, a 33-year-old woman from Mumbai, hadalleged that Binoy had raped herpromising marriage and she
had an eight-year-old son fromthe relationship.
Mumbai Police has regis-tered a case against Binoy, whois said to be abscounding.
Balakrishnan, who wasundergoing ayurvedic treat-ment,today attended the CPI(M)state secretariat at the AKGCentre here and also met ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan inthe morning.
Speculations were rife sincethis morning that Kodiyeriwould put in his papers.
Surprising the media, theveteran leader called for a pressmeet this evening and made itclear his son would fight the caselegally and neither he nor theparty would back him.
He also said the party wouldnot shoulder the responsiblity ofthe misdemeanours commit-ted by the family members ofparty workers. "This is a lessonto every party member thatCPI(M) will not take responsi-bility in case any family mem-ber commits any offence,"
Balakrishanan said.The allegations need to be
probed to bring out the truth, hesaid, adding Binoy would haveto prove his innocence.
The CPI(M)'s stand on theissue had earlier been made clearby its General Secretary SitaramYechury, who had stated that theparty will not interfere in thematter as it was an issue relatedto an individual and not to theparty, he said. Denying mediareports that he had offered tostep down from the party lead-ership, Balakrishnan said "if Ihad done any wrong, the partywill decide and take the action".
Claiming that he got toknow about the case only afterMumbai police registered anFIR, he rejected media reportsthat the woman and her familyhad contacted him. "No onespoke to me in this regard.All thereports that I or my family hadcontacted her (complainant) areallegations that have been men-tioned in the complaint. Let thecourt decide," he said. PTI
Srinagar: Jammu & KashmirGovernor Satya Pal Malik saidon Saturday the situation in theValley had vastly improved overthe past year and the HurriyatConference was willing to enterinto a dialogue with theGovernment.
"The Hurriyat Conferencewas not willing to talk. RamVilas Paswan was standing attheir door (in 2016), but theywere not ready to talk, Maliksaid at a funtion here. "Today,they are ready for talks and wantto hold dialogue. There is achange in everyone."
Malik said the situation inKashmir had improved eversince he took over as theGovernor last August, addingthat recruitment of militants hadalmost stopped and stone-pelt-ing incidents on Fridays hadended.
"I feel good that the tem-perature (of the situation) hascome down significantly sincethe day I arrived here," he said.
"We do not feel good whena youth is killed, we want tobring him back. There is a lot ofthought being given as to whatkind of scheme is needed tobring them back," Malik said."But when someone opens fire,the security forces will fire back.
They would not present a bou-quet of flowers."
The Governor hinted that itwas not easy to assess the situ-ation of Kashmir while sittingelsewhere in the country even ifone had served or lived in thevalley for some time.
"When I visit Delhi, thereare so many people who claimto be Kashmir hand. I ask themwhen were you in Kashmir.They say 15 years ago," he said."Kashmir changes in 15 days,you do not know anything. Ifyou want to know Kashmir, livethere and see it."
Malik said when he came tothe state he decided not to lis-ten only to intelligence people.
"I am in touch with around200 people and from them Ihave come to know about theproblems. The diseases havebeen diagnosed, the diseases areplenty but these can be cured.The narrative can be changed,the prerequisite is that the inten-tions are good and sincere onboth sides," he added. PTI
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Rajnandgaon: Union MinisterGiriraj Singh said on Saturdaythat those opposing the tripletalaq legislation were doinginjustice to the Muslim women.
The Union governmentFriday introduced the freshMuslim Women (Protection ofRights on Marriage) Bill 2019which criminalises the practiseof triple talaq.
"Those who are opposingthe bill to ban triple talaq in thename of Muslims and religionare doing injustice to our sisters(the Muslim women)," the BJPleader said.
"I want to ask whether lawshave not been been enacted tocheck social evil among theHindus like child-marriage and
the custom of `sati' (burning ofwindow on husband's funeralpyre)," the Union Minister forAnimal Husbandry said.
He was speaking atRajnandgaon in Chhattisgarhafter attending inaugural sessionof a workshop related to his min-istry.
"Those who are opposing it(the bill) have a vested politicalinterest," he said when askedabout the Congress' opposition.
He also advocated simulta-neous elections. "...No year pass-es when there is no election.Frequent elections to panchay-at bodies, municipal bodies,assemblies or Parliament affectthe continuity of developmentprograms," he said. PTI
Chennai: As Tamil Nadu reelsunder the worst water crisis, theruling AIADMK on Saturdayperformed 'yagna' in templesacross the State, while theOpposition DMK staged "emptypot" demonstrations, urging theGovernment to take steps toaddress the issue.
Senior AIADMK leaderand Fisheries Minister DJayakumar took part in a 'yagna'at a Shiva temple here andplanted saplings in the premis-es of the shrine.
He told reporters that per-forming yagnas was "an expres-sion of faith", hoping that theAlmighty will answer theirprayers for rain.
DMK leader and formercity mayor Ma Subramanian,who led an agitation here, hitout at the AIADMK, saying exe-cuting plans with rationale alone
could help address the situation."Conducting such rituals haveno utility," he told PTI.
Municipal AdministrationMinister S P Velumani took partin a 'yagna' at Patteeswaramtemple in Coimbatore district.
As Velumani took part inprayers, hundreds of DMKcadres staged a protest, seekingthe Minister's resignation for his"failure" to create necessaryinfrastructure for water supply.Talking to reporters later, he saidthe move to bring water fromJolarpet in Vellore district toChennai would not affect thewater availability there. FormerLok Sabha deputy speaker MThambidurai took part in aprayer in another city temple.Education Minister K ASengottaiyan participated in apuja at Pachamalai Murugantemple in Erode district. PTI
Palanpur: A SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) wasformed on Saturday to probethe alleged murders of fourmembers of a family inGujarat’s Banaskantha district,police said.
While police suspected thatKarsanji Patel (55), a debt-ridden farm labourer, hadkilled his wife and three chil-dren with an axe beforeattempting suicide in Kudavillage in Lakhani taluka of thedistrict on Friday, the villagershave disputed this version.
They claimed that somemoney lenders might havekilled the family members ofPatel. "A five-member SIT hasbeen formed to investigate thegruesome murders after vil-
lagers held a sit-in and refusedto receive the bodies from acommunity health centre untilthe murderers are arrested,"said IG, Border range,Dharmendrasinh Vaghela.
The villagers relented andaccepted the bodies after theSIT was set up.
A large number of vil-lagers gathered outside thecommunity health centre inLakhani and even called for abandh, arguing that Patel wasnot behind the killings.
Police had Friday said thatPatel, who is currently hospi-talised with head injuries, hadaxed his wife Anandiben (50),their two sons, Ukaji (22) andSuresh (13), and daughterBhavna (22). PTI
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Tiruchirappalli (TN): A seniorDMK leader on Saturday askedparty chief M K Stalin not totake on board key ally Congressfor the local body polls, expect-ed to be held shortly andinstead go it alone.
KN Nehru, a former StateMinister and DMK's districtsecretary, addressing a protestdemonstration here, said tallclaims were being made byCongress leaders on gettingmaximum number of seatsfrom DMK for the local bodypolls.
"A Congress functionaryhas claimed to get 35 wards insouth Chennai. Another wants50 seats elsewhere. If this istheir mindset, what will be leftfor DMK workers?
"Where will we go? Shouldwe stand on the road?"he asked.
Hence "I am telling ourpresident; to be of proper useto the people, it will be betterfor us to face the local bodyelections alone."
The Tiruchirapalli districtparty stalwart asked how longcould the party be "palanquinbearers".."we are carrying them(Congress) on our shoulders."
He, however, made it clearthat this was his own view andnot that of the party and added
that he would abide by anydecision of the DMK chief.
In the same breath, he saidif the party top brass wantedthem to continue to prop upCongress, they would do so.
Delving into the Congress-DMK ties in the past, Nehrurecalled that some from thenational party used to criticisethem and the party-led gov-ernment even when they wereallies.
Considering "coalitiondharma," the party worked forA Chellakumar and made himwin from Krishnagiri LokSabha seat though he had spo-ken against the party in theAssembly in the past, he said.
Later, Nehru told reportersthat he had only expressed histhoughts after seeing newsreports of Congress func-tionaries demanding morenumber of seats.
Apparently disapprovingof such demands, he said suchassertions one after other byleaders may strain ties betweenthe two parties.
Asked if his remark was atactic to contest in more num-ber of seats, he said: "for surewe will fight in more numberof seats in the local body elec-tions." PTI
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Fresh from their stupendousperformance in the Lok
Sabha polls which saw them win41 out of the 48 seats inMaharashtra, the ruling BJP andits ally Shiv Sena will take out a“Rath Yatra” in August thisyear to “recapture” power in theState by ‘winning more than 220out of 228 Assembly seats’.
To be led by MaharashtraChief Minister DevendraFadnavis, the “Rath Yatra” to betaken out in the run-up monthsto the October 2019 Assemblypolls will have twin poll planks“Phir ek bar Shivshahi Sarkar”(Saffron alliance governmentonce again) and “Ab ki baar 220ke par”. (We’ll cross 220 seatmark this time).
Making an announcementto this effect after his party held
a state executive meeting here,senior BJP leader and StateRevenue Minister ChandrakantPatil said: “We (BJP and ShivSena) are preparing to contestall the 288 seats in the StateAssembly polls. The chief min-ister will lead the yatra”.
Patil indicated that the BJP’snational leadership wouldappoint a new state party pres-ident in place of RaosahebDanve-Patil who was elected toLok Sabha from Jalna con-stituency for the fifth consecu-tive time in May this year. Hewas sworn in as Minister of Statefor Consumer Affairs, Foodand Public Distribution in theUnion Government on May30.
Earlier in the day, the BJPleaders held a state executivemeeting on Saturday. In seriestweets put out after the meeting,
Fadnavis said: “We are here forpolitics of performance!Decisiveness is our strength, weare not for populist measures,but working hard on actualdelivery system. And only bythis we are able to gain confi-dence of people. We need tomove forward with this direc-tion and with more sustainedefforts”.
“We also discussed at lengthfuture road map & appealed toprepare for next MaharashtraAssembly elections and otherorganisational programs,” thechief minister tweeted.
It may be recalled that onJune 2, Chandrakant Patil saidhad gone to town saying that theBJP and ShivSena would contest135 seats each in the StateAssembly polls, setting aside theremaining 18 seats for our allies.
However, there is no una-
nimity between the BJP andShiv Sena over the chief minis-ter’s post. This time around, theShiv Sena has also staked claimfor the chief minister’s post.
So much so that Shiv Senapresident Uddhav Thackerayslammed the BJP leaders forclaiming that the next chiefminister of Maharashtra will befrom the BJP.
Alluding to claims made byBJP leaders, including Ministerfor Food and Civil SuppliesMinister Girish Mahajan andparty’s observer for MaharashtraSaroj Pande, made at the Stateparty’s executive meeting earli-er in the day, Uddhav said: “Adecision has already been takenjointly BJP’s national presidentAmit Shah, Fadnavis and I. Iwould like to tell all those in theBJP not to speak on this issuehenceforth”.
Further opening of bankingand insurance sectors for
FDI, speeding up disinvest-ment process and manage-ment of water resources wereamong the focus areas of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sinteraction with economistsand industry experts onSaturday to achieve higher eco-nomic growth, said sources.
During the interactive ses-sion, ahead of the presentationof the Union Budget nextmonth, speakers made a casefor “single minded pursuit” toachieve growth, they added.
A release issued by thePrime Minister’s Office (PMO)said that the session organisedby Niti Aayog on ‘EconomicPolicy - The Road Ahead’ wasattended by over 40 economistsand sectoral experts.
“During the session, par-ticipants shared their views, infive distinct groups, on the eco-nomic themes of macro econ-omy and employment, agri-culture and water resources,exports, education and health,”the release said.
Meanwhile, Modi in atweet said he had a fruitfulinteraction with economistsand other experts. “The inputsreceived were insightful andwill benefit our growth trajec-tory.”
N Chandrasekaran(Chairman, Tata Sons), TV
Narendran (Global CEO andMD, Tata Steel), Anil Agarwal(Chairman, VedantaResources), Sanjiv Puri(Chairman and MD, ITC), andVijay Shekhar Sharma (CEO,Paytm) were among the indus-try leaders who put forth theirviews in the meeting.
Among the economistsand experts present at themeeting were Bimal Jalan (for-mer RBI Governor), ShankarAcharya (former ChiefEconomic Adviser), SurjitBhalla (former PMEAC mem-ber), Vikram Limay (CEO,NSE), Sonal Varma (ChiefEconomist, Nomura), ShekharShah (DG, NCAER), and BibekDebroy (Chairman, EAC-PM).
Sources said that key issueslike creation of jobs, boostingexports amid trade wars andinitiating more structuralreforms too were focus of theinteractive session.
Niti Aayog, the govern-ment think-tank, termed thesession as “lively, vibrant, con-structive” where extremely pos-itive discussions took place.
Tata Sons ChairmanChandrasekaran appreciatedthe Niti Aayog’s policy of push-ing eco-friendly electric vehi-cles in the country, accordingto sources.
The Aayog has asked con-ventional two- and three-wheeler makers to suggestwithin two weeks concretesteps towards transition toelectric mobility keeping inmind 2025 deadline.
During the session,Vedanta’s Anil Agarwal made acase for further liberalisation ofthe coal and mining sector.
The PMO release said thePrime Minister thanked allparticipants for their sugges-tions and observations on var-ious aspects of the economy.
State for Finance AnuragThakur and senior officials ofthe ministry Saturday observedthe symbolic ‘Halwa’ ceremo-ny to mark the launch of for-mal printing of documentsrelating to the Union Budget2019-20.
The NDA governmentwould on July 5 unveil the fullBudget for 2019-20. OnFebruary 1, the governmenthad presented an InterimBudget to take Parliament nodfor spending till the new gov-ernment takes charge after thegeneral elections.
“Halwa ceremony markingthe commencement of Budgetprinting process for theGeneral Budget 2019-20 washeld in North Block here todayafternoon in the august pres-
ence of the Union Minister ofFinance & Corporate Affairs,Nirmala Sitharaman,” a Finance Ministry statementsaid. As part of the ritual,‘halwa’ is prepared in a big‘kadhai’ (large frying pot) andserved to the entire staff in theMinistry.
The significance of theevent is that after the sweet dishis served, a large number ofofficials and support staff, whoare directly associated with
the Budget making and print-ing process, are required to stayin the ministry and remain cutoff from their families till thepresentation of the Budget inthe Lok Sabha.
They are not even allowedto contact their near and dearones through phone or anyother form of communication,like e-mail.
Only very senior officials inthe Finance Ministry are per-mitted to go home.
The finance ministry clari-fied on Saturday that an
office order issued by theDepartment of Expenditureon June 18 regarding disbursalof salary for June is applicableto only an attached office underthe department and temporaryin nature.
The ministry cautionedthe general public not to cir-culate the order since it is con-fidential in nature and mayattract punitive actions underapplicable legal provisions.
“It has been brought tonotice that an internalConfidential Office Order per-taining to the Department ofExpenditure, Ministry ofFinance is being circulated invarious social media platforms,”an official statement said. It saidthe Department of
Expenditure’s order relating tothe disbursal of salary for themonth of June 2019 is applic-able only to an attached officeunder the department, name-ly the Controller General ofAccounts (CGA) and officialsworking in the PFMS ProjectCell and is temporary in natureto avoid exceeding the Vote onAccount limit.
With a view to keep theexpenditure within in the ceil-ing of Vote on Accountapproved by Parliament in theinterim Budget, the expendi-ture department decided thatJune salaries of Group ‘A’ and‘B’ officers will be releasedafter passage of the full Budgetfor 2019-20, sources said on theJune 18 order.
Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman will be presentingthe Budget in the Lok Sabha onJuly 5.
India next week, an influentialAmerican lawmaker has askedhim to take up the issue ofincreased tariff on almondsduring his meeting with PrimeMinster Narendra Modi.
India has announced ahike in customs duties on asmany as 28 US products,including almond, apple, puls-es and walnut, in response tohigher tariffs imposed byWashington on Indian prod-ucts like steel and aluminium.
The commerce ministrylast week made public India’sintention to go ahead withimposition of duty onAmerican products, a moveNew Delhi had previouslydeferred in the hope of strikinga trade deal.
Congressman Josh Harder
in a letter asked Pompeo toaddress new retaliatory tariffson almonds with Modi duringhis meeting in New Delhi nextweek.
Harder’s district is one ofthe largest producers ofalmonds in the country, andIndia is the top export desti-nation for the product.
“Our top diplomat is meet-ing with India’s Prime Minister- his job is to advanceAmerican interests, and thatincludes the needs of theCentral Valley. I hope he takesthis seriously, because these tar-iffs could be a big problem forour local economy,” saidHarder in his letter.
Pompeo will be visitingIndia from June 25 to June 27.His visit comes ahead of ameeting between US PresidentDonald Trump and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on thesidelines of the G20 Summit in
Osaka, Japan on June 28-29.During his visit, Pompeo
will meet Prime Minister Modiand his new Indian counterpartExternal Affairs Minister SJaishankar.
“India is an important mar-ket for California almonds.This shipping season, India isour #1 export destination andhas been growing in light of theon-going trade situation withChina,” said Elaine Trevino,president of Almond Allianceof California in an accompa-nying statement.
“We are hopeful that thesetariffs are resolved quickly anddon’t disrupt the access Indianconsumers have to Californiaalmonds,” Trevino said.
California’s largest agricul-tural export is almonds, theCongressman said, adding thatUS farmers export over USD650 million worth of almondsto India annually.
The United States is blacklist-ing five Chinese organisa-
tions involved in supercomput-ing with military-related appli-cations, citing national securityas justification for denying itsAsian geopolitical rival access tocritical US technology.
The move Friday by the USCommerce Department couldcomplicate talks next weekbetween President DonaldTrump and his Chinese coun-terpart, Xi Jinping, aimed at de-escalating a trade disputebetween the world’s two biggesteconomies.
The five blacklisted organ-isations placed on the so-calledEntity List includes supercom-puter maker Sugon.
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The State Bank of India isplanning to expand its mar-
ket in Singapore by enhancingits relationship across small andmedium enterprises (SMEs)some of which have strongfootholds across Asia Pacific.
Acknowledging the stiffcompetition from FinancialTechnology (FinTech) compa-nies.
Washington: Major banksoperating in the United Stateswould be able to withstand asevere global economic crisiswith funds to spare, the FederalReserve said Friday.
The Fed announced theresults of its annual bank stresstests, showing the 18 largestfinancial institutions wouldsuffer losses but still haveenough of a capital buffer tocontinue operating.
“The results confirm thatour financial system remainsresilient,” Fed Vice ChairmanRandal Quarles said.
During the 2008 financialcrisis, the collapse of the mort-gage securities market essen-tially froze the financial systemand the US government had tospend billions to bail out banks.
AFP
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Union Minister RaviShankar Prasad on
Saturday announced that TataConsultancy Services (TCS) isall set to start a major centre inPatna. The Union IT minister,who also holdsCommunications andElectronics portfolio,announced it on his twitterhandle after meeting Tata SonsChairman N Chandrasekaranin New Delhi.
“Chairman of Tata SonsShri N Chandrasekaran metme today. We had an enrichingdiscussion on India’s digitalfuture. I am delighted thatsoon TCS is starting a majorcentre in Patna.
In a landmark ruling in march2018, the Supreme Court hadexplained at length that “weneed to understand thateuthanasia is basically an
intentional premature terminationof another person’s life either bydirect intervention (active euthana-sia) or by withholding life prolong-ing measures and resources (passiveeuthanasia) either at the express orimplied request of that person (vol-untary euthanasia) or in the absenceof such approval/consent (non-vol-untary euthanasia).
In other words, it had stated:That human beings have the rightto die with dignity, allowing aLiving Will. However, it has set outstrict guidelines that will governwhen and how it is permitted. In anation where relatives go to anylengths to save a patient’s life what-ever the cost, the fact that the apexcourt allowed Living Will wasremarkable.
More than a year later, a surveyasked citizens what living wellmeant to them during last days oftheir life. The survey conducted witha sample size of 2,400-plus showedthat 88 per cent wished for the inde-pendence to decide their line ofmedical treatment during the lastdays of their life rather than leavingit on their family. The survey alsoshowed that despite having strongopinions about their last moments,only 27 per cent are aware about theconcept of Living Will.
While the ‘living well’ factormay differ from person to person,most had a wish regarding how theywant to live the last few moments oftheir life. The Supreme Court’s ver-dict on Living Will, withdrawaland withdrawing of life supportbecomes an important factorenabling people to ‘live well’ in theirlast moments. What we now wish isto have simplified process laid downto help people execute their LivingWill.
Dr RK Mani, head of End of Life
Care in India Task Force, tells youthat the need for the survey was dueto the rise in the population of theaged and rise in non- communica-ble diseases.
“In a situation like this there willbe people who need to make theirwishes and values known. Maybenot consciously, but they feel theneed to make others know how theywant to spend their last days. Sincethe SC’s landmark judgement, wewanted to know how much thatjudgement had percolated,” Dr Manisays.
The lack of awareness aboutLiving Will is worrisome sincethere is a another survey that saysthat 83 per cent of people want todie at home — with their family.How does one decide and executeit? This rests with the Living Will.Even if the SC says that Living Willis valid, we are still struggling withcreating awareness, how to do it andhow to honour it.
“Another reason why there issuch low awareness is that manyconfuse Living Will with euthana-sia. But this is not the case. What isbeing debated is avoidance of excesstreatment when there is no benefit.People should be in control of howyou are being handled by recordingyour values and wishes,” Dr Manisays.
Dr Gaurav Thukral, COO,HCAH says that the worrying bur-den on the family and wanting a suf-fering free dignified end of life high-lights the maturity of the Indianpeople in dealing with a difficult sit-uation. “The values of putting needsof the family before your own wasevident as 96 per cent of senior cit-izens who thought Living Will to bea relevant concept. They see it as animportant way to reduce financialstress on their family while 93 percent of respondents in the 25-35years group found it relevant to putan end to suffering of patients onartificial life support,” Thukral says.
Living Will is a person’s right to
live with dignity and how a personwant to live his life. Active and pas-sive euthanasia are just mediums.Just like in passive euthanasia,Living Will kicks in when the per-son writes down in clear words thatunder these circumstances the willneeds to be executed. Any person ofsound mind can make a Living Will.He will appoint a person who willthen make a decision on behalf ofthe person who has made the willthat under unsalvable condition, hedoesn’t want to be put on ventilator.
This is the execution part of theLiving Will. “Then comes the hon-ouring part where the friend or fam-ily member needs to inform the hos-pital. But the problems occur in theexecution itself; honouring comeslater. Take an example. In the lastfive years, a lot has been done inorgan transplant and there are clearguidelines laid down when the per-
son is declared brain dead. The sameneeds to be done in Living Will likeit is in several western countries,”Thukral shares and tells you thatthere are several challenges that willcome while executing a Living Will.
First, we don’t talk of death tillthe person actually dies. We go withthe ethos that the soul never dies,only the body does. Nobody plansfor death in our country unlike theWest.
Second, lack of awareness existsdue to the stigma that is attached ifthe elderly are not taken to the hos-pital during the last days of their life.Statements like ‘they didn’t take careof the parents in their last momentand kept them at home’ are com-monplace. Then there is son versusthe daughter, where the son wouldbe more practical than the daugh-ter. All these social scenarios com-plicate the situation.
There is a reason why we don’twant to talk about death. DevduttPatanaik, physician-turned-mythol-ogist, says that the connectionbetween religion and death is thatreligion gives meaning to death andexplanations to what happens afterdeath. Science has no answers.
He tells you that the reason whywe are scared of death given that allour scriptures say that the only thingcertain in life is death is not basedon scriptures. “This fear is based onthe idea of secret — that we attractwhat we think about. If we thinkabout death, we will attract death.And the attachment to life is plainand simple. The same reason whyleaders don’t delegate or retire, andbehave like control freaks,” Patnaiksays.
Thukral says that even thoughthese are social complications, weforget the most important aspect
here.“We forget to factor in what the
person wants. Does he want to livehis last days where someone else hasto change diapers for him?,” Thukralasks and tells you that there are safe-guards to prevent foul play.
“Just one person can’t and does-n’t make the final decision. Like inbrain dead people, there is not onedoctor who takes the decision, it isa committee in tandem with thefamily members. Similar process canbe in place for Living Will,” Thukralsays.
Dr Mani says that the only mis-use can stem from taking a hastydecision in withholding and with-draw the treatment even thoughthere maybe cases — a rarity—where a forged document maybesubmitted for which there can besafeguards. But this doesn’t andshould not take away the right of theperson to live with dignity. Thequestion is how to go about it inpractice. It doesn’t have to be a legalsounding document since we havethe right to will even if not done infront of the magistrate.
Second, inherent to medicalpractice, there are protocols forsafeguards. It can’t be unilateral doneby one individual. There are stan-dard operating procedures whichneeds to be followed. From the legalside, there has to be a constitution-al right which is now there. But theproblem is in its implementation.Majority of the time, the decisionhas to be down within hours ormaybe days and not month. Thecourts’ procedures are not easy andnobody has the time — the familymembers or the doctors to go tocourt when their patient in on ven-tilator.
“Also, we can’t expect the legalluminaries nor the judges to under-stand the medical challenges on theground. It is the duty of the medicalprofessionals to educate them andadvocate them in the interest of thepatient otherwise the patient’s suf-
fering continues as does the finan-cial burden on the family. Therefore,an appeal has been made to theGovernment and appealing to SC torevisit the procedure for clarificationand modifications,” Dr Mani tellsyou.
Some of the modificationsinclude: To execute the Living Willyou need to get signature of firstclass judicial magistrate which thenneeds to be archived with the dis-trict court digitally and in a hardcopy. Many times, access to this canbe difficult. The option can be get-ting the Living Will notarised orsigned by two witnesses.
Second, in order to honour thewill there are three levels whichinvolves the hospital medical body,the district collector and the districtmagistrate. This is not feasible sinceend of life care is usually taken with-in a week.
People wanting to make a LivingWill need to keep some key pointsin mind. First, anyone can executeit whether one is anticipating trou-ble or not.
Second, if you have a serious ill-ness, there should be a discussionwith the treating team on the treat-ment and the limits and what hap-pens when the situation deterioratesor death occurs so that the familyand the patient can express theirapprehension and be prepared. Thiscan even involve candid discussionwith psychologists, counsellors andeven spiritual guides. When there isa holistic approach to what one cananticipate, one can take the rightdecision.
According to Dr Mani, theimportance of Living Will rests onthe premise that death is inevitable.“There was a time when it came nat-urally. Today, due to advancementin medicine death now is unnatur-al— hooked on to medical equip-ment. In such a situation onebecomes just another entity. Henceit is important to execute one,” DrMani says.
�What is the song about?It is a love ballad composed by
Gourov-Roshin. It has been shot in UttarPradesh — Lucknow. We had a good timeduring outdoor shooting. If we hadn’t hadfun, it would have been difficult to survivewith the temperatures touching 45°Celsius. It was so hot. But it was team work.We had fun in the studio as well. DanishSabri has penned the song and KookieGulati has shot the video. It has been pic-turised on Aparshakti and AkankshaRanjan. The good part is that people areloving it too.�Was there a reason why you chose toshoot in this heat?
It is a single. It can’t have a deadlineor be time bound. A single video can’t bepushed forward for long. There is only somuch that one can show in a music video.Luckily, I had only a day’s shoot. Thatworked for me. The idea to shoot — whenand where — rested with the producers.�Are there any clashes when you workwith other composers?
It rarely happens that I am called in fora project where the composer is different.There have only be a handful of suchinstances. With Gourov-Roshin, I havedone a few projects and hence we share agreat chemistry. Also, they are open towhatever changes that came to my mindwhile singing. There were no ego clashes.�How important is it to have a comfort
level with other artists?There will be a time when you sing for
a composer the first time. It would bestrange to turn down a project because youdon’t have that chemistry. But some-times, you come across people with whomyou love to work with. �Why did you choose to do this single?
Gourov-Roshin shared this projectwith me. The melody is simple. People love
simplicity. To begin with, I didn’t know ifit was film or non-film song. The song havebeen supported by Sony Music who areparticular with their project. This is greatfor a performer like me. This song is a life-time experience. �Direction, composing or playback.What do you prefer?
Composer, singer and a performer.This is how I would rate my preference.�You didn’t have a Godfather. Whatstruggle did you face?
My struggle was no different from thenext man who comes to Mumbai. I did-n’t have anything planned. I did what oth-ers do to make a mark in the industry. �Was singing your goal?
I knew that I would make music mycareer. If I had not come to Mumbai, Iwould have been a music teacher.�Advise to youngsters.
Have patience, be positive. Don’t losefocus that brought you to this industry.�Future projects.
I am working on Sadak 2, BatlaHouse and Malang. These are some of theprojects on cards.�What is your life’s mantra?
Dhairya, be calm. Don’t panic.�Did you feel that Aashiqui 2 wouldchange your career graph.
I knew it was a great break. But neverrealised that the song would receive suchrave reviews.
Comedy shows alwaysentertain and thereforepeople love to watch
them again and again. This iswhat makes it easy for the pro-ducers to experiment with thegenre.
The latest one in the his-tory of comedy shows is JijajiChhat Per Hain which went onair from January 2018. Theshow is now set for a twist —Elaichi (Hiba Nawab) is goingto secretly marry Pancham(Nikhal Khurana).
This twist, the makersopine with give the show a TRPboost. Nawab tells you that thetwist was a much needed one.“To get to know why we cameup with the twist in the show,audience have to watch it. Fornow, all I can say is that it wasmuch needed,” she tells you.
But she signed on the dot-ted line and said yes to theshow. Before signing the show,Nawab was sceptical whether itwill be able to attract the audi-ence.
“I was not sure thatwhether this show will be asgood as Bhabhi Ji Ghar ParHain. But then I decided to giveit a try and it has worked outwell till now. The show is pop-ular especially among the chil-dren. I was also unsure about
my character’s name — Elaichi.Now, when I get so much ofappreciation for the role, I feelhappy that my decision ofbeing a part of this show hasturned out well,” she explains.
Khurana says when he firstgot to know about his charac-ter, he was reminded of ShahRukh Khan’s character inChamatkar. “My first reaction
after getting to know aboutPancham was that it is similarto Shah Rukh Khan’s characterin Chamatkar. I was excited toplay this role. Ever since Istarted playing this role, I havebeen evolving as an artist,” hesays.
The show is a brainchild ofSanjay Kohli. He is also theman behind Bhaag Bakool
Bhaag, F.I.R and Bhabhi JiGhar Par Hain. Kohli believesin putting out shows that havethe potential the bring thefamily together. When he start-ed making shows on comedy,he was confident that his showswill tickle the funny bone.
“Making people laugh is achallenge but if done right itwill take you to heights. Myshows target housewives andchildren. They are the oneswho enjoy these shows themost. This is because most peo-ple are busy with work andreach home late. The only peo-ple who can enjoy such showsare women and children. Also,I make them in a mannerwhere this audience can relateto it. It needs creativity anduniqueness,” he tells you.
Kohli has always enjoyedmaking comedy shows becausehe feel it is his duty to makepeople laugh.
Both the shows — BhabhiJi Ghar Par Hain and JijajiChhat Per Hain have beendoing extremely wel.
Therefore, as of now Kohlihas no plans of coming up witha new rib-tickling show but hehas definitely something oncards. Is he stepping into thedigital space? We will have towait and watch.
Based on the Teluguremake — Arjun Reddydirected by Sandeep
Vanga, Kabir Singh is theHindi remake by the samedirector. The good is thatthere are no major changes inthe storyline. This is also the
reason why it makes thisHindi version cringe worthy— this love story is dark,twisted and obessessive.
This alone is a reason forall the men (read boys) tolove Kabir Singh.Unfortunately, the crudity(chasing women because youhave an itch to scratch), thelanguage, the gestures, doingcrack, smoking like a chim-ney, drinking like there is notomorrow and chase thehouse help down the stairs
because she broke a glasswith the intentions of beatingher are only some of thethings that make you squirm.More so, if you are a womanand abhor a situation wherethey are objectified or aretreated as possession. Whilesome sense of belonging andthat someone cares gives yougoose bumps, Kabir Singh’sobsession borders on manic.His severe anger issues addsto the obsessiveness.
Also, no love should go
in a zone which gives theman the right to hit awoman. We have enough vio-lence against women in reallife. Vanga should have beenmore responsible even if theaim was to show realisticcontent and depcits theyoung to a T.
The sad part of thismovie is that even though thefilm shows the protagonist doall these things, there is noway that this will not godown well with the audience.
Arjun Reddy was a hit and sowill this one be.
Shahid Kapoor as KabirSingh delivers OTT perfor-mance. Kiara (Advani) in herrole as meek and mouse likelooks pretty. It is good to seeKamini Kaushal whose note-able works include NeechaNagar (1946) and Nadiya KePaar (1948). It is also good tosee Suresh Oberoi eventhough he does look a bithaggard.
Tehran warned Washingtonon Saturday that any attack
would see its interests across theMiddle East go up in flames afterUS President Donald Trumpsaid he called off a strike at the11th hour.
The aborted US militaryaction was to have been inresponse to Iran’s downing of aUS reconnaissance drone, whichhas seen tensions between thetwo countries soar after a seriesof attacks on oil tankers the UShas blamed on Iran.
“Firing one bullet towardsIran will set fire to the interestsof America and its allies” in theregion, armed forces generalstaff spokesman BrigadierGeneral Abolfazl Shekarchi toldthe Tasnim news agency.
“If the enemy -- especiallyAmerica and its allies in theregion -- make the militarymistake of shooting the powderkeg on which America’s interestslie, the region will be set on fire,”Shekarchi warned.
President Donald Trumpsaid Friday that the UnitedStates was “cocked & loaded” tostrike Iran but pulled back at the
last minute as it would not havebeen a “proportionate” responseto Tehran’s shooting down of anunmanned drone.
Under pressure to respondto the high-stakes incident nearthe strategic Strait of Hormuz,Trump said the US was preparedto hit “3 different sites” Thursdaynight but that he scrapped thestrikes “10 minutes” before theywere to have been launched.
“I asked, how many will die.150 people, sir, was the answerfrom a General,” the presidenttweeted, saying he concluded it
would not have been “propor-tionate to shooting down anunmanned drone.”
According to excerpts of aninterview with NBC’s “Meet thePress” conducted Friday morn-ing at the White House, Trumpsaid he had not given finalapproval to strikes against Iran,and that no planes were in the air. “But they would have been pretty soon. Andthings would have happened toa point where you wouldn’tturn back or couldn’t turn back,”he said.
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Security measures wereincreased at one of Iraq’s
largest air bases that housesAmerican trainers followingan attack last week, a top Iraqiair force commander saidSaturday.
U.S. Military said opera-tions at the base were going onas usual and there were cur-rently no plans to evacuate per-sonnel.
The stepped-up Iraqi secu-rity measures at Balad air base,just north of the capital,Baghdad, come amid sharplyrising tensions in the MiddleEast between the United Statesand Iran.
The current regional crisisis rooted in the U.S.Withdrawal last year from the2015 nuclear deal betweenTehran and world powers.Washington subsequently re-imposed sanctions on Iran,sending its economy intofreefall and cutting deeply intoits oil exports.
Gen. Falah Fares told TheAssociated Press by telephonethat the measures include anight-time curfew, boosting
security inside and near thebase as well as surveillance ofnearby areas.
He said these measuresare being carried out in coor-dination with the US.
“All unnecessary move-ments have been reduced,”Fares said, adding that thecurfew now lasts from sunsetuntil sunrise. He said thechange was made after Baladair base, home to a squadron ofIraqi F-16 fighter jets, was hitwith three mortar shells lastweek without inflicting casu-alties. The curfew had previ-ously been from midnight tosunrise, he said.
Col. Kevin Walker, US AirForces Central CommandDirector of Force Protection,denied in a statement laterSaturday reports that USForces are evacuating contrac-tors or any other personnelfrom Balad air base.
“Operations at Balad AirBase are continuing as normal.Claims that personnel are beingevacuated are categoricallyfalse,” Walker said.
“There are no plans at thistime to evacuate any personnelfrom Balad.”
The frontrunner in the raceto be the next British Prime
Minister, Boris Johnson, wasdealing with the wrong kind ofheadlines on Saturday as aloud and noisy bust-up with hisgirlfriend in London wasreported to the police.
Johnson, who is going headto head with UK foreign sec-retary Jeremy Hunt in theConservative Party leadershiprace to replace Theresa May atDowning Street, was recordedby neighbours during whatseemed like a screaming matchwith partner Carrie Symondsin south-east London onFriday.
“The caller was concernedfor the welfare of a femaleneighbour. Police attended andspoke to all occupants of theaddress, who were all safe andwell,” a Metropolitan Policespokesperson said.
“There were no offences orconcerns apparent to the offi-cers and there was no cause forpolice action,” the spokesper-son added.
‘The Guardian’ reportedthat a neighbour had told thenewspaper they heard a womanscreaming followed by “slam-
ming and banging” during thealleged altercation. In arecording made by the neigh-bour from their own flat,Johnson was reportedly heardrefusing to leave the flat andtelling the woman to “get off ”his laptop before there was aloud crashing noise.
Symonds is allegedly heardsaying the Tory MP had ruineda sofa with red wine: “You justdon’t care for anything becauseyou’re spoilt.
You have no care formoney or anything.”
Johnson’s spokesperson hasrefused to comment on thereports but it will lead tointense scrutiny over the for-mer Cabinet minister’s colour-ful private life. His affair withSymonds, a communicationschief for the Tory party, hadbeen exposed last year result-ing in his Indian-origin wifeMarina Wheeler filing fordivorce.
Wheeler, a human rightslawyer, is the daughter of for-mer BBC journalist CharlesWheeler and his second wifeDip Singh.
During his time as theMayor of London from 2008-2016, Johnson had often madereferences to his wife’s Indian
roots to categorise himself asthe “son-in-law of India”.
The couple are now in theprocess of splitting up after 25years of marriage and fourchildren, with 29-year-oldSymonds expected to joinJohnson, 55, at Downing Streetif he wins the Tory leadershipbattle.
She was in the audienceduring Johnson’s leadership campaign launchon June 12 and has been cred-ited in the media with smarten-ing up the leadership hopeful’slook.
Johnson continues to bethe bookmakers’ favourite tosucceed Theresa May asConservative leader and theUK’s next Prime Minister, afterholding on to a clear lead inseveral rounds of early votingby Conservative MPs.
He now faces the wider160,000-strong Tory member-ship in hustings to convincethem of his credentials overJeremy Hunt.
Members of theConservative Party will receivetheir postal ballot papersbetween July 6 and 8, with thenew leader expected to beannounced in the week begin-ning July 22.
Nine people died in a fierycrash of a small airplane
used in a sky dive operation, offi-cials in Hawaii said. T h e r ewere no survivors after the twinengine King Air plane crashedFriday night near DillinghamAirfield, on Oahu’s North Shore,Hawaii Department ofTransportation spokesman TimSakahara said.
“Upon arrival, we saw theplane fully engulfed in fire,”Honolulu Fire Chief ManuelNeves told reporters on thescene. “The first crews onscene extinguished the fire.”
Neves said the crashedoccurred near the perimeterfencing of the small airport.
“They’re quite a ways awayfrom the runway,” he said.
The plane was used in a skydive operation, and Neves saidsome family members of those
on board waited at the airportfor the plane to return.
The debris field was rela-tively small, about 50 feet (15meters) by 50 feet (15 meters),he said.
“In my 40 years as a fire-fighter here in Hawaii, this is themost tragic aircraft incidentwhat we’ve had,” he toldreporters at the scene, about anhour’s drive north of Honolulu.
Crews with HonoluluEmergency Services said itassisted with death pronounce-ments of the nine after receivingthe call at 6:26 pm local time,agency spokeswoman ShayneEnright said. Names, ages andgenders of the deceased have notbeen released. Neves said manydetails are still not known aboutthe flight. But he says witnesseshave said the plane was inboundto the airport when the crashoccurred but that has not beenconfirmed.
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At least seven people diedSaturday when an under-
construction building ownedby a Chinese company col-lapsed at a Cambodian beachresort, officials said, as rescuersscoured the giant rubble heap forsurvivors.
The building went downbefore sunrise in the casino-resort town Sihanoukville insouthwestern Cambodia, arapidly developing touristhotspot awash with Chineseinvestments.
Four people have beenarrested in connection with theaccident, including the Chinesebuilding owner, the head of theconstruction firm and the con-tractor. A Cambodian landown-er has also been held at provin-cial headquarter for questioning.
The seven-storey buildingwas almost 80 per cent completewhen it crashed down earlySaturday, the deadliest suchaccident in recent years inCambodia.
“Now the death toll fromthe building collapse is seven,”Sihanoukville city police chiefThul Phorsda said, after officialsearlier pinned the number ofdead at three.
At least 21 people werereported injured -- several crit-ically -- and at least three of thedead were Cambodian, includ-ing two workers and a transla-tor.
Rescue workers in hard hatspulled people from a mountainof concrete, wood and twistedmetal. Medical workers attend-ed to a shirtless injured man asconcerned crowds built uparound the site, while scores ofsoldiers and police joined thesearch for survivors.
“Teams continue to searchfor more victims,” a provincialofficial statement said, addingthat an investigation into theaccident had been launched.
There was no confirmationof precisely how many peoplewere at the building at the timeof the collapse, though earlierofficials said 30 people were
feared trapped.Around 50 workers would
normally have been on the siteat the time, Preah Sihanouk gov-ernor Yun Min said.
The building belonged to aChinese national who rented theland from a Cambodian owner.The construction firm and con-tractor were both Chinese-owned as well.
Sihanoukville was once asleepy fishing community beforebeing claimed first by Westernbackpackers, and then wealthyRussians. Chinese investmenthas flooded in in recent years,spurring a construction boom ina resort town known for its casi-nos which pull in mainlandtourists.
There are around 50Chinese-owned casinos anddozens of hotel complexes underconstruction.
Between 2016 and 2018, $1billion was invested by ChineseGovernment and private busi-nesses in the Preah Sihanoukprovince, according to officialstatistics.
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Malaysia on Saturday saidthe perpetrators of vio-
lence against Myanmar’sRohingya minority must “bebrought to justice”, in sharpcomments delivered at a nor-mally tame regional summit.
Myanmar does not recog-nise the Rohingya as citizens,instead officially labelling them“Bengalis”, short-hand for ille-gal immigrants from neigh-bouring Bangladesh.
A military crackdown in2017 drove more than 740,000Rohingya into Bangladesh, car-rying accounts of rape, masskillings and the razing of vil-lages.
UN investigators havecalled for Myanmar’s top gen-erals to be tried for genocide.
But Myanmar’s army andde facto leader Aung San SuuKyi have defended the action as
necessary to f lush outRohingya militants fromRakhine state.
In talks Saturday withSoutheast Asian counterparts,Malaysia’s Foreign MinisterSaifuddin Bin Abdullah calledfor the “perpetrators of theRohingya issue to be broughtto justice”, his ministry said inTweet.
He also said repatriation ofthe minority from the fetid,overcrowded refugee camps ofBangladesh “must include thecitizenship of the Rohingya.” Malaysia, a Muslim countrywhich hosts a large Rohingyarefugee population, is one ofthe few members of theAssociation of Southeast AsianNations (ASEAN) to speak upfor the minority.
The 10-member bloc nor-mally abides by a principle ofnon-interference in each other’sinternal affairs.
Russia’s travel industry hitout Saturday at a decision
by the Kremlin to suspendflights to Georgia as a politi-cally motivated move that haslittle to do with safety concerns.
President Vladimir Putinsigned a decree banningRussian airlines from flying toGeorgia from July 8 late Fridayin response to anti-govern-ment rallies in the ex-Sovietneighbour.
The outbreak of protests was sparked by a par-liamentary address in Tbilisi bya Moscow lawmaker earlierthis week.
The Kremlin said the banwas to “ensure Russia’s nation-al security and protect Russiannationals from criminal andother unlawful activities” anda taskforce was being puttogether to oversee the returnof Russians from Georgia.
Protesters in Hong Kongended their overnight siege
of police headquarters peace-fully Saturday, disappointedthat their demands for the ter-ritory’s leader to formally with-draw a contentious extraditionbill and police to apologize forheavy handed tactics have goneunmet.
By daybreak, police hadcleared the streets of barriers setup by protesters to snarl trafficin the Asian financial center,and only a few groups in themostly youthful crowdremained. Many slept outsidethe legislature.
Traffic was again smoothon a major thoroughfarethrough the government’s cen-tral complex as the protestmovement regrouped to con-sider next moves.
Police said nine female and
four male staffers were hospi-talized “with considerabledelay” during the blockade.The police statement did notsay whether they were injuredin clashes or had otherwisebecome unwell.
Around police headquar-ters, masked and helmeted pro-testers covered surveillancecameras with masking tapeand lashed barriers togetherwith nylon cable ties.
They threw eggs at thebuilding and drew graffiti onthe walls.
Protesters also “splashedoil” and targeted police officers’eyes with laser pointers, accord-ing to the police.
Hong Kong has beenrocked by major protests for thepast two weeks over legislativeproposals that many view aseroding the territory’s judicialindependence and, morebroadly, as a sign of Chinese
government efforts to chipaway at the city’s freedoms.
Hong Kong leader CarrieLam indefinitely suspendeddebate on the bills a week ago,making it likely they would die.But protesters are demanding
that she formally withdraw theproposed changes to the extra-dition laws, which would expandthe scope of criminal suspecttransfers to include mainlandChina, Taiwan and Macau.Some also want Lam to resign.
Legal and business groupsin Hong Kong oppose the leg-islation, saying critics of China’sruling Communist Party wouldbe at risk of torture and unfairtrials on the mainland and thatit further erode the “one coun-try, two systems” frameworkunder which Hong Kong hasbeen governed since the han-dover from British rule in 1997.
The peaceful ending toFriday’s protests drew a sigh ofrelief in the city of 7.4 millionpeople, after police unleashedtear gas and rubber bullets last week in violent clashesthat left dozens injured onboth sides.
Police were previously crit-icized for their use of force butthis time waited out the pro-testers. Police did issue a state-ment at 4:50 a.M. Condemningthem for blocking key streetsand seriously disrupting workat police headquarters.
Nepalese nationals must havevisa if they are entering
India from Pakistan, China,Hong Kong and Macau, accord-ing to a notice issued by theNepalese Embassy in NewDelhi.
Similarly, Nepalese nation-als travelling to Gulf countries,including Saudi Arabia, Qatar,Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain andLebanon, are required to acquireNo Objection Certificate fromthe respective Nepalese Em-bassies, it said. To get the NOC,a traveller is required to submitan application to the respectiveembassy along with relevantdocuments, including employ-ment permit, the notice stated.
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Claiming that there was aserious threat to the life of
jailed former Pakistan primeminister Nawaz Sharif due tolack of medical care, his daugh-ter Maryam Nawaz on Saturdaysaid that her Pakistan MuslimLeague (N) party will not lethim become the “Morsi” ofPakistan.
Former Egyptian presidentMohamed Morsi, who tookover the realm in country’s firstfree elections in 2012 and wasousted a year later by the mili-tary, died on Monday afterfainting during a session incourt. However, a group ofBritish lawmakers and lawyers,who published a report inMarch 2018 into how Morsi was
being treated in custody, con-cluded that the former presi-dent, who had a history of ill-health including diabetes, liverand kidney disease, was notreceiving adequate medical care.
“We are not Egypt and wewill not allow Nawaz Sharif tobecome Morsi,” Maryam, vicepresident of PML (N), said.
She said that Sharif, 69, wasseriously ill and needed imme-diate medical care which wasnot being given to him in jail.
Alleging that there was aserious threat to Sharif ’s life,Maryam said that her fatherwas suffering from complicat-ed ailments and neededfocused treatment, includingsurgeries, and the treatmentmight go for a year.
She said that the treat-
ment is complicated and doc-tors in Pakistan are reluctant totreat the high-profile patient.
Maryam also claimed thather family was not informedabout Nawaz’s third heartattack that he suffered in AdialaJail last year, The ExpressTribune reported.
The three-time prime min-ister had in April sought theSupreme Court’s permission togo abroad for medical treat-ment. However, the permissionwas not granted.
He was given a six-weekinterim bail by the top court onMarch 26 to undergo medicaltreatment. He had filed a peti-tion on April 27 for permanentbail as he was suffering fromacute anxiety and depressionthat may lead to “sudden death”.
Pyongyang’s relationshipwith Beijing is “invincible”
because the countries bothendured Japanese rule, NorthKorea said Saturday, the dayafter the Chinese President’shighly symbolic visit ended.
The commentary, in offi-cial North Korean newspaperRodong Sinmun, comes short-ly before the G20 summit inJapan where US PresidentDonald Trump will meet withChina’s Xi Jinping.
With Beijing andWashington at loggerheadsover trade, China is keen toremind Trump of its influence
with nuclear-armedPyongyang, while increasinglylooking to Japan -- a key USally in the region -- to serve asa hedge against growingAmerican protectionism.
Relations between Tokyo,Beijing, and both Koreas arestill heavily affected by Japan’sexpansionism in the first halfof the 20th century, withPyongyang’s state media criti-cising Japan on a near-dailybasis.
Saturday’s Rodong Sinmundedicated five pages to thesecond day of Xi’s visit toPyongyang, and carried a sep-arate editorial stating how the“sacred period of the anti-
Japanese struggle has becomethe foundation of the DPRK-China friendship”.
“DPRK-China relationshipis an invincible friendship thatfirmly combines military cama-raderie and trust,” it stated,using the abbreviation of NorthKorea’s official name.
Xi, in a rare opinion piecepenned for the newspaper ear-lier this week, also said citizensof the countries jointly opposeda “foreign invasion” and sup-ported each other in the pur-suit of socialism.
Like North Korea, Beijing’sCommunist authorities alsoregularly denounce Tokyo overhistorical issues.
that he would be Iran's "bestfriend" and that the Islamicrepublic could be a "wealthy"country if it renouncednuclear weapons, amid soar-ing tensions between the twonations.
"We're not going to have
Iran have a nuclear weapon,"Trump told reporters outsidethe White House as he pre-pared to depart for CampDavid for meetings on the sit-uation with Iran, whichdowned a US drone earlierthis week. "When they agree tothat, they're going to have awealthy country. They're goingto be so happy, and I'm goingto be their best friend.
Ariveting duel under thesun gave two hardfought points to Team
India at Hampshire Bowl onSaturday. Yes, the points wentto India but the hearts weretaken by the doughty Afghanswho fought till the very lastover and almost toppled Indiato a defeat after keeping themon a tight leash through boththe innings.
Had a well-movingMohammed Shami not bursttheir bubble with his last-overhattrick, brilliantly engineeredwith accuracy, pace and con-secutive yorkers, Afghanistan'sMohammed Nabi may wellhave led his team to a historicfinishing line, after his compa-triots did the needful earlier inthe day.
The Afghans cordoned offthe famed Indian batters,restricting them to a frustrat-ingly slow and low 224/5 afterskipper Kohli elected to batand then made the bowlerssweat it out with every ball tillthe very last over.
It was a heart-warmingeffort by the minnows whohave thus far been in the newsfor being mauled on field andquestioned off it for pub inci-dents, selection fights and,players being sent home, cap-tain being replaced and coachthreatening to sing like acanary.
The latest victim of theirdismal show was the otherwisemuch-applauded star spinnerRashid Khan whom the hostssent to the cleaners with 110runs and no wickets. Butagainst India, it was, indeed,their sunshine day with theirspinners restricting one of themost celebrated batt ingbrigades to a struggle fromwhich they never emerged.
And, when the baton waspassed on to the Indianbowlers, it was a long andfierce haul they had to gothrough before, as Kohli wouldhave said, ticking the rightboxes to victory. At the end ofthe day, Afghan spinnersturned more balls and headsthan their big brother Indiancounterparts making the gametilt in and out of reach verymany times.
While Mujeeb-ur-Rehman(10/1/26) and Rashid Khanturned in an aggressive wick-et-taking innings earlier inthe day, recording fantastical-ly low run rates, Chahal andKuldeep were made to toil longin the middle, concentratingmore on putting on thesqueeze. Another story thoughthat they excelled with theircontainment bowling which,in the end, compelled theAfghan batsmen to take suici-dal chances and go underpressure of the big moment.
Mohammed Nabi, whoscampered to a fast 50 plusscore in the death overs, threwin an endearing rebellion, giv-ing Kohli in the middle andthe Indian fans all aroundmany heart-stoppingmoments.
They came whisker closeto the target, finally beingbowled out to Shami's stun-ning hattrick who first gotdanger man Mohammed Nabito a yorker, then Aftab Alamto another one and finallyMujeeb-ur-Rehman by whichtime the Afghans needed 16runs to record a historic win.
With two precision york-ers and a third ball going intothe stumps with searing paceand accuracy, Shami showedclass and intent in gobbling upthe Afghan tail when Indianswere most hungry. That wasquite an Indian repeat for you32 years in the making afterChetan Sharma achieved thesame feat in Nagpur againstNew Zealand.
All said, it was a classiceffort by the Indian arm thatsaved the day left wide open bytheir batt ing colleagues.Putting on the squeeze hasbeen elevated to a fine art byKohli's bowlers, both thequicks in the opening oversand the spinners in the middleovers, and then all of them in
the death overs.While Shami walked back
with four scalps, Bumrah, withtwo in an over, displayed hispower and ability to bowlbang-on yorker after yorker inhis last three overs, freezingthe callow Afghans in theircrease. Chahal, who got two alittle late in his spell, wasspot-on too as was Dhoni whostumped Rashid with thespeed of a cheetah.
Not that the veteran mas-ter finisher showed the same
pace in any form with his bat,struggling in the middle for along time before being relievedof his ordeal at a measly 28runs after the opening orderfolded up cheaply, giving thebaton to him.
The expected slugfestturned into a surprisinglyunexpected sluggishness afterskipper Virat Kohli won thetoss and elected to bat.Gloomy batting, early andcheap loss of wickets and a runrate hovering to an anorexic
4.5 till well into the death overstook away the fun from thegame which was being seen asa run-rate boosting platformfor the in-form Indians.
Not that the batsmen, onthe wrong side of caution onhindsight, did not try but thewicket seemed to have thingsin it much to the delight of theAfghan spinners who turned
in terrific over after over as thebatsmen struggled quiteunusually, failing to acceleratefor a long, worrying while.
India's slow start, punctu-ated by regular fall of wickets,sparse boundaries and a con-tinuous struggle to jack up therun rate stoked a gamut ofpopular emotions - from cheer,to silence, to worry to bewil-derment and to anger by thetime the match ended with just224 on board.
The lionised Indian open-ing line-up failed miserably,but for a brief flourish byskipper Kohli who turned inthe top score of 67. The mid-dle struggled even more andthe Pandya fireworks madetheir absence felt as neverbefore.
Dhoni behaved quite outof character, shedding his yenfor rotating the strike, givingup many cheeky singles withKedar Yadav and failing toscore much after Kohli depart-ed to an upper edge to pointjust when he was looking toescalate after his half ton.
Before him Shankar,Rahul and Rohit left cheaply,giving Dhoni the job to startbuilding as opposed to finish-ing. India at 136/4 with a runrate of 4.4 in the 32nd overspoke as much of the Indianinaction as of the brilliant
Afghan show in the middlewith Mujeeb-ur-Rehmanbowling tight, straight andfull, joining up the dots mag-nificently to make the runcanvas of India look empty.
Ten overs with one wick-et for 26, this was Mujieeb'sbest spell on the big stage.With Rashid finally takingout Dhoni at 28 to a wilystumping in the 45th overwhen India was at 193, thebeleaguered Afghans hadshown up their mettle andbrilliance while the Indianswere left dealing with questionmarks on their inertia.
Dhoni's departure in someways brought relief withexpectations around HardikPandya's hitting abilities giv-ing some hope of fireworks todeck up a deadweight matchfrom India's point of view.Hardik, too, was flummoxedthe way the Afghans kept onwith their tight deliveries. TheIndian tail for this match waslike a Golden Retriever's,longer than usual.
Jadhav left with 52 soonafter Shami came and went for1, caught in a flash at cover bysubstitute Noor Ali Zadrangiving skipper Gulbadin Naibreason to celebrate twice in hisover.
The figures showed howgood the Afghan bowling wasand how bad the Indianresponse to it turned out to be.The first boundary came onlyin the 6th over when KLRahul square cut Aftab Alam.but that was only after RohitSharma had departed post anunusually listless existence atthe crease, being bowled byMujeeb when India was 7 andSharma merely 1.
The next boundary camein the 10th over and the nextone only in the 20th over,making fans feel the heat ofthe static engulfing the mid-dle and questions popping upon the skewed Indian mindsetafter good shows against muchbigger teams.
Yes, India won in the endbut what panned out biggerthan their victory was theticklish question: Did captainKohli misjudge the pitch inelecting to bat or was it amindset that his batsmen gotinto never to emerge from?Huddles will be dealing withthis in days to come, but factremains that today's showemphasised the big crack thatIndia is beset with in the lossof the fiery Shikhar Dhawan atthe mouth.
It’s not about the six pack, it’s aboutthe skill and Lasith Malinga
showed that in spades in Sri Lanka’swin over England.
He has done it so many timesfor Sri Lanka over the years but itwas great to see him at his best. Hewas on a mission with the new ball,taking two crucial early wicketswhich Sri Lanka needed to defenda total like 232.
Then when Joe Root looked likehe was playing one of those inningswhere he just takes the game awayfrom you, Dimuth Karunaratneturned to Mali and threw him theball. He told him that he needed himand Mali delivered. Big players per-form in big games and that is whathe did, removing Root and then Jos
Buttler who could have won thegame for England as well.
I was really impressed withDimuth’s captaincy, trusting hisplayers, bringing on the off-spinnerDhananjaya de Silva at an importanttime and getting rewarded for that.I hope this game will give Sri Lankaa lot of confidence in this ICC Men’sCricket World Cup. They have beat-en one of the best teams in theworld, and they need to believe inthemselves.
At times it feels like they have
played with a little bit of fear andhave not been able to really expressthemselves. This win should changethat. Even after they had batted, I feltthat it was a competitive totalbecause the wicket was fairly slow.
It was great to see AngeloMathews scoring some runs. He stillisn’t quite in top form and you couldtell that he really needed a score. Attimes I wanted him to be moreaggressive, but with wickets fallingaround him, he produced a greatinnings and was the rock of that bat-
ting line-up.A word also for Avishka
Fernando. His performance shouldgive Sri Lankan fans a lot of hope forthe future. With Dimuth andAngelo, this team has batsmen whocan build an innings but it is impor-tant to have the x-factor in there aswell and that is what Avishka pro-vides. I’ve been a fan of his for awhile now, and I thought he playedreally well after those two early wick-ets, taking some of the momentumaway from England.
It’s a great win for Sri Lanka, butalso for the World Cup and it opensthings up a little.
The top four so far have a lot ofmatches against each other comingup, so they will inevitably drop somepoints. You look at New Zealand,Australia and England who all haveto play each other which does makeit interesting. That leavesBangladesh, Sri Lanka and the WestIndies with a chance to close the gapif they can pick up a few more wins.
I’ve always been convinced thatSri Lanka step up their game atWorld Cups. They have the abilityand they have the skill. This gameshould give them the confidence.
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Lasith Malinga insisted he haddone nothing new despite being
hailed as a “legend” after starringin Sri Lanka’s stunning World Cupwin over England.
The veteran paceman tookfour for 43 as Sri Lanka, defendinga seemingly modest total of 232-9,beat England by 20 runs to open upthe race for a semi-final spot.
England, bidding to win theWorld Cup for the first time, wouldhave gone top of the 10-teamround-robin table with a victory atHeadingley.
But instead they suffered theirsecond defeat of the group phasefollowing an equally surprising14-run loss to Pakistan.
Malinga’s haul saw him becomejust the fourth bowler to take 50wickets at the World Cup afterGlenn McGrath, MuttiahMuralitharan and Wasim Akram.
And just as importantly for SriLanka on Friday, the 35-year-old,renowned for his unorthodox‘slingshot’ action, struck tellingblows.
Malinga, who briefly returnedhome earlier in the tournament fol-lowing the death of his mother-in-law, rocked England at the start oftheir chase when he had JonnyBairstow lbw for a golden duck.
England then saw Malingahave stand-in opener James Vincecaught at slip.
Malinga had the in-form JoeRoot caught behind down the leg-side for 57 on review and JosButtler fell lbw for 10 to a trade-
mark yorker.Ben Stokes tried to take the
game away from Sri Lanka — nowjust two points behind third-placed England — with a blister-ing unbeaten 82, only for wicketsto keep falling at the other end.
“We know how hard BenStokes hits it, he got two or threeboundaries but we just kept bowl-ing our stock ball,” said Malinga.
“We stuck to our basic plan —line and length, no loose balls andadd in some variations and bounc-ers.”
Sri Lanka captain DimuthKarunaratne praised Malinga andfellow veteran Angelo Mathews,whose painstaking 85 not outhelped them recover from a col-lapse to three for two.
“Lasith is a legend,” saidKarunaratne.
“He keeps doing what heknows, that’s the main thing, thebasic things. He did a really goodjob.
“It looked like a 300 wicket, wethought it was a good, flat wicket.But when we played it seamed inthe first few overs then it got slow-er and slower.”
As for Mathews, the skippersaid: “Angelo, in-form, he knowshow to play his role. He’s a goodfinisher and did a good job.”
Sri Lanka — who have nowbeaten England in four successiveWorld Cups — next play SouthAfrica in Durham a week onFriday and Malinga said: “Wewant to carry on the momentumand confidence into the othermatches.”
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England say they won’t tone down theiraggressive instincts when they take on
Australia on Tuesday, despite a shock defeatto Sri Lanka exposing what former captainMichael Vaughan believes is the side’s “onedownfall”.
Next week’s hotly-anticipated clash atLord’s between the Ashes rivals took on anextra layer of intrigue on Friday as Englandslumped to their second defeat of the tour-nament after failing to chase down SriLanka’s modest total of 9-232 at Headingley.
England’s aggressive batting line-up hasmade them the No 1 ODI team in the world,but the likes of Vaughan have questionedtheir decision-making in pressure moments.
Moeen Ali was singled out at Headingleyafter he tried to hit back-to-back sixes andwas caught at long-off, with his dismissalsparking a match-changing collapse of 5-42.
“England have not played with anysmartness,” Vaughan told the BBC. “Thegame was won when Moeen Ali hit a six andhe tried to hit another. I hope we are not inan era where in the dressing you can't say‘that is not good enough’.”
“What this has proven is the one down-fall of this England side. We have all said thatif England play smart cricket then they willbe the team to beat. But they didn’t.”
England have comfortably scored fasterthan any other side in the world since theirearly exit from the 2015 World Cup, withtheir run-rate of 6.31 well above their near-est challenger Australia (5.78).
Missteps from Eoin Morgan's side havebeen few and far between in that period, buttheir ability to play a more restrained game
with the bat when conditions are againstthem has come into question before, mostnotably when Pakistan knocked them out ofthe Champions Trophy in 2017.
In the semi-final at Cardiff, England fold-ed for just 211 on a used pitch despite beingheavily favoured to win the tournament.
Warm London weather and a freshwicket at Lord's should, however, make forfavourable batting conditions come Tuesday'sclash with Australia.
Asked if his side’s belief in their aggres-sive strategy is as strong as ever, Morganreplied: “There is no reason why it should-n’t be. We are going to play competitivegames. We are not going to win every gamein this World Cup. We still need to go backto the process that's taken us to being astrong side in the world. I think the messageis quite simple — we need to do the basicsalong with the way that we play as well.”
The tournament hosts had been heavi-ly favoured to reach the semi-finals, but thatcould be in jeopardy if they slip up againstany of their final three group-stage oppo-nents — Australia, New Zealand and India,all of whom currently hold top-four spots.
England haven’t beaten any of thoseteams at a World Cup since the 1992 edition,but recent history may be a better guide tohow Morgan’s side will respond and itdoesn’t spell good news for the Aussies.
In their last 46 ODIs on their home turf,England have not lost two consecutivegames, a trend Morgan is well aware of.
"When we get beaten, we tend comeback quite strong," he said. "We tend toresort to (playing) aggressive, smart, posi-tive cricket.
"Let's hope that is the case on Tuesday."
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Eoin Morgan admits Englandforgot about the basics of a run
chase in a shock defeat to Sri Lankabut has promised to bounce backagainst defending championsAustralia in their next game onTuesday.
England suffered a shocking20-run defeat at the hands of SriLanka here on Friday, failing tochase down what looked like a sub-par 232/9.
“You look at the basics of a runchase, partnerships are very impor-tant. We struggled to get enough ofthem, or one substantial one,going. We had a couple of individ-ual innings but that is not going tobe enough to win the game,”Morgan was quoted as saying byICC website.
Ben Stokes made an unbeaten82 and Joe Root 57 for the hosts,but the two ran out of partnerseven as Lasith Malinga led aremarkable fightback.
“Quite a few wickets wereturning points, simply in the factthat you have got guys coming inat six, who average 40, seven whoaverage 30, we bat all the waydown. So every single wicket isquite important because every sin-gle one could have salvaged apartnership that could win you thegame,” insisted Morgan.
With England scheduled to
face Australia at Lord's next week,Morgan has asked his teammatesto come back strongly.
“When we get beaten we tend
to come back quite strong, we tendto resort to aggressive, smart andpositive cricket so let's hope that’sthe case on Tuesday.
“The message is quite simple,we need to do the basics alongwith the way that we play as well.There is no reason why it should-
n’t be, we are going to play com-petitive games and are not goingto win every game in this WorldCup,” said Morgan.
“We need to go back to theprocess that has taken us to beinga strong side in the world,” headded.
A lowly Sri Lanka had onlyone win in the tournament com-ing into this clash and too againstAfghanistan, but Morgan insistedthey didn’t underestimate theiropponents.
“Mally (Malinga), he has beenaround for a long time, so bowl-ing like that is not a surprise at all.We are going to lose games in thegroup stages.
“We didn’t deserve to winthis game. There were a couple ofchallenges that presented them-selves with the wicket and we did-n’t overcome them,” said the skip-per.
England were without the ser-vices of injured Jason Roy at thetop of the order and their slowstart in the chase might havehampered their chances of win-ning, but Morgan begged to dif-fer.
“If you look at the games wehave played. We would love (Roy)in the side and he is a hugestrength at the top of the order butthat is not why we lost the gameor why we might have struggledon this wicket,” said Morgan.
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Glenn Maxwell, the man whoknows Adam Zampa as well as
any in the Australian camp, insiststhe leg-spinner can be a legitimatewicket-taking option at the businessend of the World Cup.
Back in the team to faceBangladesh after a two-gameabsence, Zampa returned figures of1-68 off nine overs and went for 30off his last 13 balls as MushfiqurRahim and Mahmudullah launcheda spirited late rear-guard at TrentBridge on Thursday.
But Maxwell stressed the num-bers failed to tell the full story.
“I thought today was the besthe’s bowled in a while,” the all-rounder said of Zampa, one of twospinners in Australia’s squad along-side Nathan Lyon.
At other times he’s bowled notas well but still taken wickets.That’s always been his challenge. I’mpretty close to him in the field aswell and talking to him and mak-ing sure he’s still doing his thing. Ithought today he did really well.
“Unfortunately, (there were a)couple of big hits off his good balls,which you expect as a spinner. Itcost him towards the end of hisspell. “It’s just the nature of leg-spinbowling in one-day cricket thatsome days your best ball goes forsix.” Zampa has five wickets for thetournament at an average of 47.20and an economy rate of morethan seven, though spinners havelargely found the going tough atvenues with modest boundariesand flat pitches.
Coach Justin Langer hasadmitted he has been taken abackby the triumph of pace over spinduring the tournament given theincreasing importance of slowbowlers in 50-over cricket since the2015 World Cup.
But as the British summer
progresses and pitches presumablyget drier, conditions could swing infavour of spinners.
“I thought he bowled beauti-fully today and if keeps putting theball in the right areas he's going tokeep getting wickets for us,”Maxwell said.
Maxwell played an importantrole in Zampa’s re-emergence as aforce in Australia’s bowling attackin the lead-in to the World Cup.
Having found himself down onconfidence during Australia’s five-game one-day tour of India inFebruary, it took some candidwords from his Melbourne Starscaptain to help put Zampa right.
“Bowling to someone like Virat(Kohli) and he’s hitting the ball inall areas — you definitely feel likeyou’re under pressure,” said Zampa.
“I didn’t feel like I was at mybest for the first three games. It wasMaxi who had a word to me andsaid, ‘good on you for gettingwickets, but you’re probably not atyour best. What have you changedfrom the Big Bash?’
Sarfaraz Ahmed is adamantthat defeat to India last
time out won’t be playing onPakistan’s mind in the slight-est when they take on SouthAfrica at Lord’s.
Pakistan have won justone of their five matches at theWorld Cup 2019 — an impres-sive 14-run triumph over hostsEngland — but lost by 89 runsto their biggest rivals India atOld Trafford in their mostrecent match.
They will have had a weekto analyse that loss by the timethey take to the field inLondon on Sunday, wherethey will try to down a Proteasside who similarly only haveone victory to their name.
But skipper Sarfaraz insistshis team won’t be focusing onthe past and that the squad areconfident of bouncing back instyle at the home of cricket.
“Everything is fine afterthe India match,” he said. “Itwas tough for us but after thematch, we gave our playerstwo days’ rest. Then beforethree days, we were practisinghard.
“Psychologically there is apressure on you as a Pakistancaptain if you lose againstIndia in a World Cup match.
“People will think we arebeaten but it's not the first timewe have lost to them in aWorld Cup, so it’s fine. We allare OK and we are all are back-ing ourselves, so hopefully we
will bounce back.“Morale is still very high
for us. The tournament isnow open now, so we have achance and we are focussingmatch by match. Hopefully wecan start by beating SouthAfrica.”
The two sides contested ahighly-competitive ODI series
in South Africa back in Januarythat Pakistan eventually lost 3-2.
That has whetted theappetite for this Sunday's clash,although Sarfaraz believes it isfoolish to read too much intothose games six months on.
“If you talk about the SouthAfrica series, it’s different,”
added Sarfaraz. “A bilateralseries is a different type of pres-sure to a World Cup. We playedgood cricket but unfortunate-ly we didn't win the series. Weare very hopeful heading intothe game against South Africaand we will try for our best.”
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With both teams virtually out of thesemifinal race, South Africa andPakistan will be battling it out for
a consolation win in their World Cupmatch at the Lord’s here on Sunday.
Having mustered just three pointsfrom six games, South Africa are all butout of the tournament while Pakistanmight still sneak into the semifinals, pro-vided they win their remaining fourgames and other results go in their favour.
When Pakistan were pummelled byWest Indies in their tournament opener,many of their loyal fans drew parallel totheir triumphant campaign in 1992 whenthey scripted a sensational turnaround towin the title.
However, following Pakistan’s heavyloss against India on June 16, not manyof their supporters have any hopes leftfrom their struggling side. It is not a sur-prise that the fans have shown littlerestraint in their criticism of the SarfarazAhmed-led side and stories of faction-alism have surfaced from nowhere.
“It (severe criticism) is usual inPakistan cricket after the team performsbadly, isn’t it? The expectations arealways high,” said former captain ShahidAfridi during his chat with ShoaibAkhtar on the latter’s Youtube channel.
Mohammad Amir was the lonewarrior in the bowling departmentagainst India and their batting andfielding, too, was a big let down onceagain. Senior player Shoaib Malik, whohas not been among the runs so far, isnot expected to get another game in hislast competition before he retires fromODI cricket.
South Africa, too, have not learntfrom their mistakes in what has been adisappointing campaign.
They did have their moments in theprevious game against New Zealand butlet the Kane Williamson-led side off thehook and paid the price for it.
Head coach Ottis Gibson said theteam’s target in the remaining games isto play to its potential.
“We’ve still got three games to playand I’d like to think that we can at leastplay the way we know we can play,” saidGibson ahead of the game.
“The thing about the squad is thatthere are guys playing their last WorldCup and I’d like to think that they willleave the world stage having signed offon a strong note.
“And there are some youngsters here
that I’m sure will play in future WorldCups. So they too would like to leave astatement. That’s the way we’ve got tolook at it,” he added.
Leggie Imran Tahir and batsman JP Duminy will retire from ODIs after theconclusion of the team’s campaign here.
It will also be the first match at theLord’s in the World Cup and it remainsto be seen how the pitch will play.
H��� Pakistan: Sarfaraz Ahmed (captain),Fakhar Zaman, Imam ul Haq, BabarAzam, Haris Sohail, Hasan Ali, ShahdabKhan, Mohammed Hafeez, MohammedHasnain, Shaheen Shah Afridi, WahabRiaz, Mohammed Aamir, Shoaib Malik,Imad Wasim, Asif Ali.South Africa: Faf du Plessis (captain),Quinton de Kock (wk), AidenMarkram, Hashim Amla, JP Duminy,David Miller, Kagiso Rabada, DwainePertorius, Andile Phehlukwayo, TabraizShamshi, Imran Tahir, Lungi Ngidi,Chris Morris, Rassie van der Dussen,Beuran Hendricks.
We definitely never feel done and out.We’ve sort of tried to put a lot of focus backcompletely on to us going forward. It’s obvi-ously really important that we win theremaining three of our games, and if there’soutside chance of qualifying, that would beincredible.�Has it been difficult to lift the playersfor today’s match?
Naturally after the game, it was — itwas quite a tough one to swallow becauseobviously it was quite an important gamefor us leading to it and it was really close.It obviously went down to the wire andKane Williamson played incredible to gethis team going, something we can learnfrom. The mood, naturally it was a bitdown, but I think we’ve done a bit of oursulking and moping around. The energy inthe changing room is really good, and ithelped as the families arrived day beforeyeaterday. The guys are feeling slightly morerefreshed.�A lot of starts without anyone gettingthat big score. Has that been the differ-ence between success and failure?
It’s sort of the modern game. A start isalmost — it’s really important to get your-self in, because we’ve seen the knocks andthe magnitude of knocks that some of thetop players in the world are doing at theWorld Cup. They are really scoring bighundreds.�How important is it for you to get theruns and stamp your authority?
From a confidence perspective, it willbe quite important. It will be nice goinghome, whenever we go home, knowing thatwe have managed to put performancestogether at a World Cup. So it is importantfor us. Going forward, we are trying to notlook too much into the future in terms ofplayers retiring and things like that. It’ssomething that really is outside of our con-trol as players and as young players, espe-cially. If you look at guys like Kagi andLungi, they have actually done incrediblywell in their young career so far. So it’ssomething we are putting a bit of focus on.�How much of an inspiration SA mighthave taken from SL?
It was a great game of cricket, and it justproves that as soon as a team clicks on theday, any team at this World Cup can beatany other team. That’s why I say we reallykind of focus on ourselves because if we puttogether our best game of cricket, it shouldput us in a good position to hopefully wingames. It’s nice to see that a team like SriLanka with great players, and maybe havebeen struggling for form, as have we, havebeen able to overcome one of the favourites.�Can you put your finger on why you’restruggling to convert the starts?
It’s situations in the game whereas abatter, you and your partner might also bedeciding we are going to try to put pres-sure on this bowler and it doesn’t come off,execution let’s you down but the thinkingis right.�Which Pakistani bowlers do you feeldifficult for SA batsman?
We’ve played a recent series againstPakistan. Hafeez wasn’t part of that series,so that will be a new sort of challenge forsome of us who haven’t faced him. But asa whole, I think Pakistan have got a real-ly good bowling unit. Amir is back and inform, and obviously Ahmed has hadattack. It will be a nice challenge to facethem at lords, and as a whole, I think, yeah,their bowling lineup is one we definitelycan't take lightly.
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strugglers to stick together asthey prepare to face SouthAfrica in a must-win game atLord’s today.
Pakistan have only threepoints from five games and tomake the semis they are like-ly to need to win their fourremaining games andimprove their net run-rate,while hoping other results gotheir way.
Pakistan pace-man Riazinsists his team-mates realisethe importance of the do-or-die game and he hopes dis-playing a united front againstSouth Africa will spark astrong performance.
“We have to lift our-selves,” Wahab told reporters.“We are each other’s strength.We are all good friends andknow that only 15 of us canlift the team which not evenour family members can do.”
Team management gave
Pakistan’s players time off tounwind and come backrefreshed after the Indiagame.
Riaz insisted his team-mates realise the mistakesthey have made so far and aredetermined to make amends.“Good teams are the oneswho realises their mistakes, sowe have discussed all thosemistakes and a two day break
has refreshed us,” he said.But the 33-year-old, who
took three wickets inPakistan’s shock win over pre-tournament favouritesEngland, admitted the bowl-ing unit needs to work hard-er.
“As a bowling unit we aretrying hard, We are all focusedto do well in the South Africamatch,” Riaz said.
Manchester United behind himas he sent Chile into the CopaAmerica quarter-finals with thewinning goal in Friday’s 2-1 winover Ecuador.
Jose Fuenzalida gave Chilean eighth-minute lead butEnner Valencia equalized forEcuador from the spot.
Sanchez bagged the winnerbut Chile finished with 10 menafter Gabriel Achilier’s red carda minute from time.
The 30-year-old Sanchezstarted only nine PremierLeague matches, scoring justonce, in an injury-interruptedseason for the Red Devils inwhich he struggled to make animpact when he did play.
But he scored for the secondgame running in Salvador asChile joined Colombia as theonly teams to qualify for theknock-out stages after their firsttwo games.
Chile top Group C with aperfect six points ahead of theirclash with Uruguay at Rio’siconic Maracana on Monday.
Ecuador are left staringelimination in the face after asecond straight defeat, knowingthey must beat Japan in BeloHorizonte on Monday to standany chance of progressing.
Chile began as they had leftoff in their 4-0 thrashing ofJapan last Monday, opening thescoring after just eight minutes.
Ecuador made a hash ofclearing a corner and Fuenzalidasent an angled volley from theedge of the area into the far bot-tom corner.
Ecuador brought the same
muscular approach to the gamethat had seen them reduced to10 men in their opener againstUruguay — a 4-0 loss.
Sebastian Mendez foundhimself in the referee’s bookafter just three minutes for arobust challenge on CharlesAranguiz.
However, it was Chile whowere lucky to reach the breakwith a full complement aftergoalkeeper Gabriel Arias suf-fered two rushes of blood to thehead.
First he clattered intoMendez inside the area, allow-ing Valencia to chip home theequalizer from the spot on 28minutes.
Arias escaped further sanc-tion, though, and that saved himfive minutes before the breakwhen he charged rashly out ofhis area to try to beat the speedyRomario Ibarra to the ball onthe flank.
Ibarra went down from theslightest brush of contact andafter a lengthy VAR delay, Ariaswas shown a yellow card.
In what proved a nigglyencounter, referee PatricioLoustau showed nine yellowcards and a red.
Chile were back in frontearly in the second period aftermore poor Ecuador defending.
Aranguiz was allowed toturn and cross far too easily onthe right and Sanchez was leftunmarked at the back post toside-foot a volley beyond thedespairing dive of AlexanderDominguez.
Ecuador were bossing pos-session but were toothless upfront, while Sanchez andEduardo Vargas provided fargreater cut and thrust for Chile.
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Drag-flicker Gurjit Kaur scoreda brace as India secured its
place in the final round of TokyoOlympic qualifiers by beating Chile4-2 in the semifinals of the women'sFIH Series Finals hockey tourna-ment here Saturday.
The top two teams from theongoing tournament have securedtheir berths in the FIH OlympicQualifiers to be held later this year.
Gurjit (22nd, 37th minutes)struck twice, while Navneet Kaur(31st) and skipper Rani Rampal(57th) were the other goal scorersfor India.
Carolina Garcia (18th) andManuela Urroz (43rd) scored thegoals for Chile at the HiroshimaHockey Stadium.
India will take on Japan in thesummit clash on Saturday.
The hosts beat Russia 3-1 inpenalty shoot-out in the othersemifinal after both the teams werelocked 1-1 at the end of regulation60 minutes.
World no. 9 India started thematch on the front foot as theymade six circle entries inside thefirst 15 minutes but to no avail.
Chile also made four circlepenetrations but failed to get a shoton target as the first quarter endedgoalless.
But the Indian team was in fora surprise three minutes into thesecond quarter when Carolinascored a field goal through a
counter-attack to seize the initiative.Stunned by the goal, the Indians
went on the offensive and drew par-ity four minutes later when Gurjit
converted a penalty corner as boththe teams went into the halfwaybreak locked 1-1.
A minute after the change of
ends, India took the lead throughstriker Navneet, who picked up theball from just outside the 25-yardcircle, ran into the striking circle
and slotted home with a powerfulshot.
Six minutes later, India extend-ed their lead through another penal-ty corner conversion by Gurjit.
Chile did not give up andearned two penalty corners in quicksuccession towards the dying stagesof the third quarter but they failedto capitalise on their chances.
In the 43rd minute, though, apoor clearance from the Indiandefence saw Chile regain possessionand Urroz reduced the marginfrom a Denise Krimerman's feed.
The fourth and final quarterwitnessed a good fight between thetwo teams till the 57th minutewhen Rani scored with a reverse hitafter receiving a pass from LilimaMinz.
After the match, India captainRani dedicated the win to teammateLalremsiami's father, who passedaway on Friday.
Rani lauded the young strikerfor showing great courage in theface of adversity by staying with theteam instead of returning homeafter listening about her father'sdeath.
"One of our team mateLalremsiami lost her father yester-day so this victory is dedicated toher father. Hope he rests in peace.She did really good and we are soproud of her. She was with the teamand didn't return home," Rani said.
"We are happy that we are in thefinal. This game is all about winningbut still we can do much better."
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Lewis Hamilton timed his best lapto perfection on Saturday when
he took pole position ahead of hisMercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottaswith a blistering late effort at theFrench Grand Prix.
The five-time world champion,who had struggled to match theFinn's pace in the previous twopractice sessions, reeled off a fastestlap in one minute and 28.319 sec-onds.
It was the 86th pole of hiscareer for Hamilton, who won lastyear's race from pole, and a record-increasing 63rd front-row lock-out
for Mercedes. Hamilton has taken60 of his poles with Mercedes.
It was a master-class from thedominant Silver Arrows team whiletheir rivals laboured in pursuit,with Monegasque Charles Leclerctaking third for Ferrari ahead ofMax Verstappen, fourth for RedBull.
British rookie Lando Norrisimpressed with a fine effort to takefifth ahead of his resurgent McLarenteam-mate Carlos Sainz and, sur-prisingly, a despondent SebastianVettel down in seventh in the secondFerrari after a gearbox issue duringQ3.
Daniel Ricciardo was eighth for
Renault ahead of Frenchman PierreGasly in the second Red Bull andAntonio Giovinazzi of Alfa Romeo.
"It's not an easy track," saidHamilton. "It's very technical andValtteri has been very quick allweekend. I've been chipping awayand the last two laps were the ones."
Bottas said: "I think Lewis hada really good lap. It's between super-close between us all weekend and it'sabout fine details."
A happy Leclerc said: "At theend, I am pretty happy with my lapand unfortunately it wasn't enough!A good start will be very importanttomorrow."
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Roger Federer said it was a"special" feeling to reach
the final of the ATP event inHalle for a 13th time afterbeating Pierre-Hugues Herbert6-3, 6-3 in Saturday's semi-final.
Federer is chasing arecord-extending tenth title atthe pre-Wimbledon grasscourt event this year, havingsuffered a surprise defeat toCroatian Borna Coric in lastyear's final.
"It is very, very special. Iam glad I got another chancethis year, because last year Ireally didn't know if I wouldever play another Halle final,"he said.
World number 43Herbert, 28, struggled in hisfirst-ever meeting with 20-time major winner Federer,who is hoping to win a ninth
Wimbledon title next month.The straight-sets victory
provided welcome respite forthe Swiss star, who was forcedto battle through gruellingthree-set encounters with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and RobertoBautista Agut earlier in theweek.
"I feel in a similar situationto last year. I was perhaps moretired last year because I hadplayed in Stuttgart the weekbefore," said Federer.
"I hope I can call on thatextra bit of energy, because Iam going to need it tomorrow."
The 37-year-old Swiss willface David Goffin in the final,after the Belgian fought to vic-tory over rising Italian star
Matteo Berrettini earlier onSaturday.
"Goffin plays well from theback of the court, he playsaggressively and returns well,"said Federer.
Goffin, 28, who knockedout home favourite and worldnumber five Alexander Zverevin the last eight, beat Berrettini7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to reach his firstATP Tour final since 2017.
"It's an amazing feeling. Ihave worked really hard in thelast few months and it is pay-ing off now," said Goffin.
Goffin has lost seven of hiseight meetings with Federer inthe past, beating him in threesets at the 2017 ATP Finals inLondon.
Kane Williamson's latestWorld Cup batting master-class helped New Zealand
recover from a woeful start to posta total of 291-8 against the WestIndies on Saturday.
New Zealand were 7-2 insidethe first over after fast bowlerSheldon Cottrell removed openersMartin Guptill and Colin Munrofor golden ducks at Old Trafford.
But Williamson's career-best148 — his second successive WorldCup hundred after a match-win-ning 106 not out against SouthAfrica at Edgbaston on Wednesday— turned the tide.
The New Zealand captainreceived sound support from RossTaylor (69) during a third-wicketstand of 160.
However, Cottrell helped leavethe West Indies with a reachabletarget thanks to an impressive 4-56 in his maximum 10 overs,including the key wicket ofWilliamson.
He also held three catches andran out dangerman Colin deGrandhomme (16).
Taylor gave his innings awaywhen he could not clear Jason
Holder at mid-off after chipping acatch off Chris Gayle, to leave NewZealand 167-3 in the 31st over.
But Williamson carried on intypically calm fashion.
He went to his 13th one-dayinternational hundred with hiseighth four when he pulled a loosedelivery from fast bowler KemarRoach.
He then hoisted Cottrell leg-side for the only six of his innings.
Williamson surpassed his pre-vious best score in 137 ODIinnings — 145 against South Africain Kimberley in 2013 — before hefell skying Cottrell to wicket-keep-er Shai Hope.
In all, Williamson faced 154balls, including 14 fours and onesix.
He has now scored 373 runs,including two hundreds, in fourinnings this World Cup at anaverage of 186.5.
Earlier, West Indies made a
sensational start after Holder sentNew Zealand, the 2015 losingfinalists, into bat.
Cottrell was on target firstball with a delivery that thuddedinto the pads of Martin Guptill.
Umpire Ruchira Palliyagurugeinitially said "not out" but the WestIndies successfully reviewed the
decision, with replays showing theball would have hit leg stump.
Munro too fell first ball, beat-en completely by another yorkerthat smashed into his stumps.
For the second time in the overCottrell, still a serving member ofthe Jamaica Defence Force, greet-ed a wicket with his trademark mil-itary salute.
It was only the second occasionwhen both openers in a World Cupmatch had fallen for first-ballnoughts, with Sri Lanka's LahiruThirimanne and TillakaratneDilshan collecting golden ducksagainst Afghanistan in 2015.
Williamson and Taylor, howev-er, repaired the damage in style fora New Zealand side who have yetto lose at this World Cup.
The West Indies were seventhin the 10-team round-robin grouptable before the start of Saturday'smatches and struggling to qualifyfor the semi-finals.
“The play’s the thing/Wherein I’ll catch theconscience of the king.” — Shakespeare
In the 60’s, while the flower childrenof the West were smoking up theirprivate infinities and seeking out anew world, and while popular cul-ture was poised to consume the
sanctum preserved for classics, RolandBarthe declared the ‘author’ dead. And
George Steiner pointedto the death of tragedy.But since history is nota single stream andeach nation is living itsown time, theatre inIndia was beingshaped by individualgenius and the defin-ing consciousness ofthree giants: In Hindi,Mohan Rakesh; in
Marathi, Vijay Tendulkar; and inKannada, Girish Karnad.
While Karnad went on to excel also asan actor, director, translator, and scholar, it is as a playwright — as one of these threegiants that define modern Indian plays —that one will remember him most. “You know, how I have been an actor, apublisher, a filmmaker. But in none ofthese fields have I felt quite as much athome as play writing,” the 1998 JnanpithAward winner once said (The Post-ColonialSpace: Writing the Self and the Nation).
For his language, he chose Kannada,the language of his childhood memories,and for his themes, he invoked thosechimeral tales and characters that comefrom and inform our myths, our history,and our dreams — plays like Yayati,Hayavadana, Naga-Mandala, Tughlak,Agni Mattu Male, and Taledanda.
In his use of mythology and history,he was unique and stands apart from hiscontemporaries, who employed otherstrategies to inform their plays. There area million factors that shape the aestheticsof an artist, but in case of Karnad, onecan safely trace it back to his early yearsin the quaint town of Sirsi, Karnataka,where he got to watch and enjoy the itin-erant Natak Mandalis that were commonto the region in early 20th century beforethe movies relegated them to the mar-gins. Karnad’s parents, Krishnabai neeMakikar and Dr Raghunath Karnad, adoctor in the Bombay Medical Services,were both ardent admirers of theatre andtook him along for regular performances,which fired the imagination of youngKarnad. He grew to love the Yakshaganatheatre, and the performances hewatched in his village. One sees thepower and the spectacle of these folkforms many years later, still strong, in thedramatic rhythms of his plays.
The rich women-centric themes, theawareness and consciousness of thewoman’s experience from Yayati toHayavadana and Naga-Mandala, may haveas much to do with his life, as with hisexposure to the Western canon.
Born in Matheran, Maharashtra, his
familywas by no
means a con-ventional one: Hismother was awidow with a son andhad to wait for fiveyears to marry the youngDoctor Karnad due tosocial pressures. Karnad’s teenage yearswere spent in Dharwar with two sistersand a niece, a household with a strongpresence of women figures.
Many years later, when Karnad was42, he married Saraswathi Ganapathy, amarriage formalised after 10 years ofbeing together. Evidently, modernity wasnot just an intellectual import, for him, itwas an experiential legacy.
��������� �While Kannada was Karnad’s childhoodlanguage, his language at school wasMarathi, and after graduating in Mathsand Statistics in 1958, he studiedPhilosophy, Politics, and Economics atMagdalene in Oxford, as a Rhodes scholarin 1960-63 (he was also the President ofthe Oxford Union during this time!).
Back in India, he had a longish stintwith the Oxford University Press until1970, after which he devoted himself tofull-time writing and a Chennai-basedtheatre group The Madras Players. Butagain in the late 80’s, Karnad lookedWest, and was a visiting Professor at theUniversity of Chicago, and a Fulbrightplaywright-in-residence.
These influences readied the groundsfor the playwright: A rooted, earthy earlylife, seeped with the beauty and thegrime of post-Independence India, and ayouthful 20’s in the midst of Oxford’svortex, wherein the best of Westernthought and art came to be studied anddiscussed. It is, therefore, not surpris-ing that though Karnad’s plays tellIndian tales, like the characters ofHayavadana, they bear a mixed incom-pleteness and posit conflicts, uncertainidentities and philosophical questionswith overlapping moral frameworks.
�/������ ��/Karnad’s use of Indian myths and historygave his plays the power of context — he did not have to tell the story beforetelling the story. But he did it in such away so as to draw fresh interpretations.This was not a new technique to India, where the Ramayana and theMahabharata have been mined by thegenius of playwrights many a time to tell a story relevant to the age.
The newness lay in his Aristotelianelegance of form, and the ability of hisplays to address complex political andsocial questions contemporary to the timethe plays were written. The psychologicaland philosophical conflicts of the play
dance in a symbolictelling in the more mythic
plays (like Hayavadana andNaga-Mandala) and in the con-flict internal to characters in hishistoric plays (like Tughlak andThe Dreams of Tipu Sultan).
His use of folktales, theatricalspectacle, song and fantastic plotsallowed him to pull off that
impossible balancing act of commentingon contemporary issues without soundingpropagandist or agenda-driven, of pro-voking thought without instructing, andof creating masterpieces that belong to adifferent age, speak to a different age, andyet remain relevant to all ages.
������/ Yayati, Karnad’s first play came out in1961. He was 23, in the flush of youth,Sartre and Oxford. “I was excited by thestory of Yayati. This exchange of agesbetween the father and the son, whichseemed to be terribly powerful and terriblymodern. At the same time, I was reading alot of Sartre and the Existentialist. Thisconsistent harping on responsibility, whichthe Existentialist indulge in, suddenlyseemed to link up with the story of Yayati,”said Karnad in The Post-Colonial Space:Writing the Self and the Nation.
The play is based on a story from theMahabharata, of King Yayati, who becauseof his infidelity, is cursed with perpetualold age by Shukracharya. Keen to enjoythe pleasures of youth, Yayati asks one ofhis sons to give him his youth in exchangefor the kingdom. The tale is seen throughthe eyes of that son’s (Puru’s) wife. Theplay was in Kannada (one that Karnad didnot translate into English himself), anastonishing achievement, and put himfirmly on the road to being the playwrightthat he became. How the Existentialist’semphasis on ‘responsibility’ morphed into‘dharma’ seen through the gaze of awoman is what myths are made of!
However, it was Tughlak in 1964,which really put Karnad on the nationalstage. Staged in the ancient Purana Qila inDelhi, directed by the legendary EbrahimAlkazi, and a young fiery Manohar Singhplaying the 14th-century KingMuhammad bin Tughlaq, this play tells atonce the story of a man before his time,impulsive, visionary, and tragic, and magi-cally becomes a metaphor for theNehruvian era of development and gover-nance. The figureheads may have changein the real world today, but the archetypaltale, built out of stuff that makes ushuman, still yields meaning contemporaryto us. Like any truly great play, it tran-scends its time, and has the ability toremain compelling and relevant.
Girish Karnad is often calledthe Renaissance man, a man
of many parts, an intellectualwho defined the taste of an entiregeneration. But when the dustsettles, and time plays its part, hewill be fondly remembered in thelittle beautifully etched roles heessayed, both on television (thosewere Doordarshan days) and onthe bigger screen.
His role as father of littleSwami in Malgudi Days, in partic-ular, is unforgettable. A perfectfoil to Swami’s antics and adven-tures, Karnad played the part withsuch ease and effortlessness that itis etched forever in the minds ofpeople who grew up in the 80’s.He was at once stern yet sensitive,proud yet vulnerable, and thoughMico Chandru also essayed thepart later, it wasn’t quite the same.
Karnad also anchored for thescience programme, TurningPoint, and played dad inIndradhanush (India’s answer toTime Machine), yet this“Doordarshan fan” will alwaysremember him as Swami ke Papa.His involvement with cinema wasdeep, a natural extension to hislife in theatre. Here he acted,directed, wrote and collaboratedon every aspect of filmmaking,both in Kannada and Hindi. Hewon four Filmfare Awards, andwas conferred the Padma Shriand Padma Bhushan by theGovernment of India.
However, for non-Kannadaspeakers, his greatest contribu-tion to Hindi cinema arguablywould be the movie Utsavreleased in 1984. Adapted fromSudraka’s Sanskrit playMrichhkatikam, it starred Rekha,Anuradha Patel, Shashi Kapoor,Anant Nag, Amjad Khan, andintroduced Shekhar Suman.Karnad’s direction was impecca-
ble: It was probably the first timethat period drama based on aSanskrit play was made into amovie so truthfully, with all therich trappings of classical drama— the humour, the sensuality,and the sheer beauty of the plot.
Rekha never looked better.The art direction was fabulous,but the movie fizzled at the boxoffice and left Shashi Kapoor amuch poorer man. Both ShashiKapoor and Karnad were 20years too early. If one hasn’t seenit yet, one ought to; it’s a masterclass in filmmaking.
Another powerful movieKarnad directed and comeshighly recommended isGodhuli (1977). StarringNaseeruddin Shah, Om Puriand Kulbhushan Kharbanda, itis a movie that carries the dra-matic impact of a Theban play.Naseer is compelling, and themovie has one of the finest lastscenes in Indian cinema.
Karnad’s directorial debut inKannada films was withVamsha Vriksha (1971), whichhe co-directed with BV Karant,and for which they were award-ed the National Film Award forBest Direction. Some of hisother famous Kannada moviesinclude Tabbaliyu NeenadeMagane, Cheluvi, and Kaadu,though you may want to lookup the Kannada gangster movieAa Dinagalutoo.
His notable Hindi moviesinclude Manthan (1976) andSwami (1977), though he is bet-ter known to the millennial gen-eration for his roles in NageshKukunoor films like Iqbal(2005), Dor (2006), andAashayein (2010), besides playing roles in Yash Raj Films’ Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Tiger Zinda Hai (2017).
Had Karnad never decided tospeak up as a public intellec-
tual, standing up for what hedeemed right, speaking up —sometimes, even out of turn —taking up cudgels for values likepluralism, had he just writtenwhat he did, that stupendousbody of work, it would have beenenough, his writing alone carriesthe strength of his convictions,and the power to question, tochallenge and to mobilise. Butgood enough was not enough forKarnad. He needed to stand evenwhere his plays would not go atgreat personal risk and speak up,every time. He spoke up for a plu-ralistic culture, for freedom ofexpression, never mincing hiswords when taking on what hesaw as fundamentalism; in recenttimes, becoming one of thestaunchest critics of Hindutva. Hespoke up against the demolitionof Babri Masjid in 1992, and hespoke up against the RSS andother organisations allied to theidea of Hindutva. He spoke upagainst the Idgah Maidan contro-versy in Hubli. He spoke up, tak-ing on the daunting Modi wave.
He was a name in the listthat included Dabholkar,Pansare, Kalburgi, and GauriLankesh. And at Gauri Lankesh’smemorial, silent, he still spokeup. It raised a storm, when hetook on VS Naipaul’s personalsimplistic view of history, callingout his “antipathy towardsIndian Muslims”, notwithstand-ing Sir Vidiadhar’s daunting lit-erary status, way back in 2012 atthe Tata Literary Festival.
He spoke up when SLBhyrappa criticised The Dreamsof Tipu Sultan, drawing attentionto the complexity of the character.Attempting to explain the differ-ence between history and historyretold as myth, he said referringto his earlier play Tughlak, “I don’thave an iota of interest in the his-torical Muhammad Tughlaq. Ihave no interest as to whether hewas good or evil, whether he waspro or anti-Hindu. I wished towrite an entertaining play, and inthe endeavour, wanted to choosea fairly complex character.” (inTipu Sultan: The Tyrant of Mysoreby Sandeep Balakrishna)
And he spoke up against nar-row linguistic chauvinism, eventhat of Kannada. Above thosewho appear to have succeeded inchanging the meaning of criticalterms of public discourse, where-in cultures turn civil, terms likeliberalism, urbanity, secular, hisname towers high, and his playsshall answer even as he goessilent, the picture of a genius,breathing in through an oxygenmask many languages, many cul-tures, with a placard that simplysays, “Urban Naxal”.
MOST ATHOME AS A
����A�58���“Tragedy springs from outrage; it protests at the conditions of life. It carries in it the possibilities of disorder, for all tragic poets havesomething of the rebelliousness of Antigone.” — George Steiner
In 1971 came Karnad’sHayavadana, probably his mostcomplex play. Based on a tale
from the Vetalpanchvimishika, andThomas Mann’s The TransposedHeads, which deals with the ques-tion of identity, incompleteness ofman, and the age-old dichotomy ofmind and matter, body and soul.The philosophical questions itaddresses are: What defines a manmost — his body or his mind? If theheads of two people were inter-changed, who would retain theidentity, the one with the head orthe one with the body?
In this play, Karnad employedthe form he had learned so manyyears back, as a child, watchingYakshagana folk theatre. This storyof the ‘horse-man’ with the humanvoice and a laugh that ends with aneigh, reminds one of the search forwhat is whole and human inJonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels.While some believe Hayavadana tobe the archetypal conflict betweenmind and body, it is a far more com-plex work — seeking the ‘complete-ness’ and ‘belongingness’ of manitself, and an inquiry into what cre-ates identity. A German version ofHayavadana directed by VijayaMehta was also staged as part ofDeutsches Nationaltheater, Weimar.
His play Naga-Mandala or Playwith Cobra, 1988, drew not onKarnad’s familiar classical sources,but upon an old story narrated tohim by another great, AKRamanujan. The play weavestogether two oral tales, one meta-
textual, about the nature of oraltales itself, while the other is a storyof a queen who fills the emptinessof her life by making up tales. TheKannada version won him theKarnataka Sahitya Academy Award,while his English translation of thesame was staged as a part of the cel-ebrations of the 30th anniversary ofGuthrie Theatre, Minneapolis.
He then went on to write AgniMattu Male (The Fire and the Rain),commissioned by the same theatre.
Karnad’s Taledanda (Death byBeheading, 1990) was an importantplay, especially in retrospect, dealingwith Veerashaivism, a 12th centuryreform movement, which was radi-cal and of contemporary relevance.It may well be a coincidence thatKarnad and his long-time friend,Lankesh, dwelled deep into thisLingayat reform movement, whichgrew deeply contentious, and fatal toKalburgi and Gauri Lankesh.
Karnad, as a playwright, usedthe language of myths and historyin a way modern India had neverseen, bringing to fore issues aboutwomen, children, and power; his craft deftly subverted meaningsof stories that had got fixed andappropriated it for a voice that we can comprehend and respond to. The architecture of his playsdraws strongly from Western structures, but the metaphors areIndian, and the archetypes, firmlyuniversal. They will last. GirishKarnad will not be forgotten.
Around a month ago, World Hypertension Day wasobserved. The notable piece of statistic was that four outof 10 adults worldwide have high blood pressure and only
around 50 per cent of them are aware of it. Some two decadesago, the number of adults estimated to be living with high bloodpressure was around 972 million. In the next five years, the num-ber is expected to grow to around 1.56 billion. Mindbogglingby any standards as a good 20 per cent of the population aroundthe globe will likely be suffering from hypertension. What isthe basis of coming to this conclusion is certainly a subject mat-ter of another research. Particularly because if we calculate thetotal number of people suffering from hypertension and otherglobal epidemics like diabetes, cancer, AIDS, depression etc,it may work out to be nearly the size of the entire populationof the world. Whether the whole world is sick or not is a wide-ly debatable issue, but given the business interest of the strongpharma lobby, there is certainly some room for scepticism. Moreso when huge investments in corporate hospitals are comingup and health/medical insurance companies are looking for anew and huge market. Then there is another question that needsto be answered: Whether these pieces of statistic are meant forcreating awareness or creating a market. If one has the patienceto sit in the out patients department of any senior physicianof a decent sized hospital and observe closely the kind of com-plaints the patients come with, hypochondriasis rather than anyserious malady would seem to be the major disease. In fact,many doctors are now actually confirming this. However, thisis not to discount the threat that lurks all over the world onaccount of changing lifestyles, which most diseases of the pre-sent times arise from. But we must take these warnings witha pinch of salt. Are they actually warnings or agonising statis-tics to awfulize the whole scenario by creating some kind of afear psychosis that benefits the pharma lobby more than thepotential patients? There is need to assess the whole situationscientifically and with an open mind and question such asser-tions. A case in point is the recent guidelines on identificationof diabetic patients and potential diabetics. While the measuresof diabetes are also changing and benchmarks are being low-ered, what is more interesting is the creation of new categories.So there is a range of measurements that tends to classify cat-egories of diabetic patients, starting from a stage called pre-diabetic. Often the predisposing factors are being highlightedas causative factors and this prompts many people to start tak-ing preventive medication, which may not be needed at all.Further, many people may actually develop some diseases outof fear. The big question that thus needs to be addressed iswhether the hypertension epidemic, that the world is likely towitness in the next five years, is due to medical conditions ormental conditions created by the onslaught of fear evokedthrough information that can make even a healthy individualanxious of his health condition. Tension, of course, is rising inthe world but it is more due to anxiety that is being systemat-ically ingrained in human minds. Health is everybody’s con-cern, but that should not make everybody sick.
Everything changes in thismaterial world, some slow-ly and some fast; such is the
nature of this material world. Forexample, a human body changesvery slowly but a flower is just theopposite. And changes presentchallenges. Yes, this human bodyundergoes changes slowly but itsurely does. A child grows slow-ly but at every stage of his growththere are new challenges likeadmission in school, college etc.And each change requires impor-tant decision-making on the partof all concerned. Are we fullyequipped for making such deci-sions? The answer is no. Why?Because we can never have thefull facts because most of theimportant decisions involve thefuture, ie what will be the effecton the future due to the decisionmade. For example, what shouldbe the subject of specialisation fora student. One should knowwhat the student’s natural abili-ty is, what interests him, what isgood for his future, etc.
Who can tell for sure? Godcan because He is not only awareof everything about the presentbut He also knows the past and thefuture. We may know what tran-spired in the past but only whatleft deep impression on us. Rest weforget, which is not unnatural.Regarding the present, we areseverely limited in knowing thebig picture. We may know somepart but never the whole of it. Weare not equipped. This is the cos-mic design. And the future is
largely unknown except whatastrologers, palmists, etc indicateto us, and that may not be entire-ly accurate. It is also part of thecosmic design that we can seekhelp from God and He will oblige.
Personally, I seek God’s guid-ance and help all the time. I willcite some instances when Isought God’s help and it provedto be highly beneficial. Someclient owed us a lot of money and
we were unable to do anythingabout it. Someone suggestedgoing to court. This was a bigdecision, therefore, I prayed forguidance. The response camethat the present was not the righttime for such an action. Heindicated that such action atthat time was driven by greed —a door to hell. (16.21) We had topursue other avenues for the timebeing and be patient about it.
Subsequent events confirmedwhat my Lord had indicated.
One of my close relativesacted badly with me. I becamequite incensed. However, beingin the habit of seeking guidancefrom God, I prayed for guidance.My Lord indicated that if Iwanted to be happy, I shouldcontrol my anger. (5.23) I turnedmy relationship with this personinto a formal one where emo-
tions have no place. In anotherinstance, I received a suspiciousmessage on mobile. I meditatedon God and pat came theanswer, which was to block thenumber because lust should beshunned at all costs. (3.41)
Jealousy is not too far frommy thinking, but my Lord repeat-edly warns me of its conse-quence, ie birth in lower species.(16.19) I have been instructed toshut out such thoughts, and I amgetting into a habit of doing so.The last instance is somewhatunusual. My daughter misplacedan important document andthere was tension. I prayed andmy Lord indicated where thedocument was.
God is ever willing to helpbecause we in ourselves cannever be complete or totallyindependent; we need God’s help,Him being omnipotent, omni-scient and omnipresent. Aren’t wesmall souls and mostly helpless,and ill-informed? If we reallywish to avail of this readily avail-able facility, we can fortify our-selves with the knowledge of theBhagavad Gita. There is no otherqualification required. Wheneveranxious or fearful, pray to Godfor guidance and get perfectanswers or solutions. God willmost likely refer to a particularverse in the Gita. Anyone canapproach God and He willrespond in His own ways; we justhave to be receptive.:��������������������"��� ����������* � ��� ������������K�/��*������?���
Krishna, through his teach-ings in the Gita as well as his addresses to thechief fighters in theMahabharata war, such as
Arjuna, Bhima, and Duryodhana,proved to be a great counsel on solv-ing present age day-to-day’s prob-lems. Krishna’s Karmayoga tendingto be an optimistic way to life provesa concrete living methodology of lifeto the present day man. As it providesfull instructions on his daily routinesuch as food, duties, thoughts, rela-tionships, responsibilities whetherpersonal or social. Accordingly, thetitle of Karma Shastra is also appliedto the Gita as a practical guide for aman of action and a mandate foraction. It is professed that throughthe practices of the Karma Yogaalone can one aspire all through per-fection in one’s life. Besides, Krishna’ssaga from the Mahabharata ,Puranas, and Gita teachings provideseveral hints to present day mankindtowards better management of worklife and other things.
The five essential factors of worklife management — efficiency, consis-tency, landing, controlling, and socialbonding — which Krishna discussesin the Gita are also well-delineated inthe narratives of the epicMahabharata, describing its 18-daywarfare in Kurukshetra, which illus-trates the unitive programme of the-ory and action, since life is held sim-ilar to the battlefield Kurukshetra. TheGita is the summary of all those fac-tors which serve as essentials for main-taining good work-life balance, andthe Mahabharata shows how thoseprinciples are applied in practice.
However, a gist of these princi-ples required for work-life balance isavailable in the opening chapter of theGita titled ‘Arjuna-Vishada Yoga’,which presents to us the behaviour-al crisis of the chief fighter in theMahabharata war, who has to man-age the impending warfare. Undersuch circumstances, Krishna’s dia-logue with Arjuna in the first chap-ter of Gita proves of great contin-gency for structuring managerialscience in the form of the essentials(aspects) required for smooth (run-ning of work-life balance) life. A per-son set on the path of life is just likeArjuna presented in such a positionand the context with which the Gitabegins the same day when the warwas about to start, also sounds thesame as a person starting his life.
Firstly, Krishna’s preaching ofYoga suggesting bonding of physical
and psychological faculties sounds aseffecting complete work life of pre-sent-day persons and making it har-monious and completely successful.As the Gita’s teachings provide scien-tific code of living, which guaranteessuccess all through in one’s life affairs.It is stated that by developing a bal-anced mindset through the control ofthe forces of attraction and repression,and being in harmony with the worldin the form of natural surroundingand fellow beings in all thoughts.
Krishna’s other teaching which isapplicable in this regard is that a per-son should have full faith and con-fidence in oneself, which will add topersonal strength and power andmake him win over all obstacles inlife with inner balance and calmness.
The Gita also suggests that a per-son’s life is divided on two fronts. Oneis limited to home where one has toperform one’s intrinsic individual
activities, while one’s workplace is thesecond home where one has tospend most of the day time for per-forming vocational duties, whichmay also be close to his intrinsicnature. Accordingly, a person shouldbracket both these activities (relatingto home and workplace) as a singleunit and treat both the premises asone’s operational field or karmakshetra, which is named Kurukshetrain the Gita, and treat both these withgreat value and importance, and notneglect either of the two and managehouse and office, ie life and work, inproper balance on equal levels.Further, the Gita’s suggestion that aperson has to be well-versed in hisprofessional sphere and should bewell-disciplined also sounds helpfulfor present-day people to managework life in a better manner.
Besides, the opening chapter ofthe Gita also provides many perspec-
tives on the work-life balance sepa-rately in the speeches of both Arjunand Duryodhana. Firstly, on themanagement of things like adminis-tration, organising events,Duryodhana’s words provide helpfulguidelines. These focus on the onemajor perspective of human life —affairs. Duryodhana is stated to havefirst made the survey of the army onboth sides and given his assessmentabout the same to his teacher Drona.He was apprehensive of the strengthof the opposite party, yet he impressedupon his preceptor Drona that he ismore skillful and better than the fight-ers in the opposition. Similarly, a per-son set on his life affairs should notbe led away by his weaknesses, ratherhe should be confident about his abil-ities to face the situation. Here,Duryodhana’s speech illustrates aperson’s faith in personal strength andalso his belief that he is loved and
respected everywhere by everyone insociety. His state of mind is also pos-itive as he looks upon his own armyas unconquerable by enemy. Whileaccording to him, the army of the ene-mies is conquerable.
The other prospective on life-work balancing technique can betraced in the words of Arjuna, whichhe addressed to Krishna after survey-ing from a distance the well-managedarmy of his opponent. Thus, it is evi-dent that both Arjuna andDuryodhana treat the same situationof life affairs in a completely differ-ent way. One treats the job in handor the current karma to be executedin association with his friends and rel-atives in opposition, while the othersees his action to be performed alongwith his friends and relatives only andnot as the enemies in opposition.
Here, Arjuna’s review of hiswork-life or karma led him to believethat it was in confrontation with hisfriends and relatives with whom hewas bound. Krishna’s advice toArjuna at this juncture helps suchtype of man who is perplexed withregard to the right and wrong actionunder certain circumstances.According to the Gita lessons, he hasto properly understand the complex-ities and the dynamics of karma oraction. Just like Arjuna, in one’s lifealso, sometimes personal karmabecomes easily involved with theaction of friends, relatives, as well asenemies. As a result, one’s work is eas-ily tarnished with the prejudices, bothconventional and personal.
According to Krishna, anotherguideline for managing work-life bal-ance is that “while involved in lifeaffairs of individual life, either voca-tional or social, one must be cautiousthat behind every action there is a willand behind every will there is a val-ued judgment”. It is also further stat-ed that the desire which supports one’saction arises out of mind, which is astore-house of thoughts and ideas,memories, and pairs of opposite feel-ings like love-hate, pleasure and pain,and that everything one feels anddesires is conceived in the mind only.Krishna, in the Gita, summed up hisguidance to present-day man onwork-life balance that one may man-age it by combining personal andsocial life and work together and dis-charge all these activities with excel-lence, keeping in mind that such activ-ities bring in a sense of togethernessand not that of exclusiveness.
panied me in Air India flightwherein I read this stirring dialogue:
“But today, for instance,Mr M’Choakumchild wasexplaining to us about NaturalProsperity,” said Sissy.
“National, I think it musthave been,” observed Louisa.
“Yes, it was. But isn’t it thesame?” she timidly asked.
“You had better say,National, as he said so,” returned Louisa.
“National Prosperity. Andhe said, Now, this schoolroom isa Nation. And in this nation,there are fifty millions of money.Isn’t this a prosperous nation, and ain’t you in a thriv-ing state?”
“What did you say?” askedLouisa.
“Miss Louisa, I said I did-n’t know. I thought I couldn’tknow whether it was a prosper-ous nation or not, and whetherI was in a thriving state or not,unless I knew who had got themoney, and whether any of itwas mine. But that had nothingto do with it. It was not in thefigures at all,” said Sissy, wipingher tears.
This dialogue, fromCharles Dickens novel: HardTimes, between Ms Louisa andSissy Jupe, a girl student notgiven to dictates of philosophyat her school that “nothing butfacts” matter, was not an ordi-nary dialogue, for Sissy wasonly a student generally notsupposed to be having nuancedwisdom to reflect on widerimplications of a mal-behavingeconomy but the visionaryauthor could fathom and put inSissy’s mouth the real distressof a girl student who knewmacro prosperity held no guar-antee for prosperity at microlevel. Equally important if notmore is, at her age, she alsoknew what was “National” wasobviously “Natural” too. Thusemerge these two importantlessons from aforementionedinteraction having tremendousrelevance for developmentalefforts underway in differentcountries.
Reading Dickens may ini-tiate readers into an emotion-al churning: a good way to pro-
ceed further but there is nogainsaying the fact that issuesinvolved in modern day life’svariedness when juxtaposedalong with complexity of socio-economic developmental mod-els render any analysis far toocomplicated. Let it be bela-bored further in terms of someof the principal concerns asexpressed in literature on wel-fare economics.
In the absence of refinedweapons in their armory, con-ventionally economists haveused a crude measure i.e. percapita income as indicative ofhuman welfare. Justified criti-cism asserts and with goodlogic that this single crudemeasure provided by per cap-ital income is inadequate andthe need to assess a number ofdistinct areas of human life indetermining how well peopleare doing can hardly be over-looked. Economists and poli-cy makers now are almostunanimous that we shouldinstead measure people’s capa-bilities, that is, whatever theyare able to do and that too ina variety of areas of life. Thathas been the seminal way ofegging on debate on factorsaffecting and consequentiallyimproving the quality of lifewith a view to making availableto policymakers options fortaking measures, includingcorrective ones, to promotehuman well-being and welfare.
When the prosperity of anation or the quality of life ofits inhabitants is talked about,how much money or let us say“goods” and “services” areavailable for a given number ofpeople (the dilemma Sissy con-fronts Louisa with) is not acomprehensively equipped toolto explain away national pros-perity. Larger questions involv-ing distribution of theseresources and more criticallywhat that distribution ofresources does to people’s liveslurk around. How people withthese resources conduct theirlives is what economists andphilosophers tend to look into.There are a lot of indices onehas to gauge like people’s lifeexpectancy, health care, med-ical services, education — andnot only about their availabil-ity, but about their nature and
more crucially their quality.Philosophers and econo-
mists have by and large reachedan uncompromising consensusthat the life a person leads canbe seen as a combination ofvarious doings and beings,which can be generically calledfunctionings. Some function-ings may be elementary matterslike being adequately fed, nour-ished and disease-free, whileothers may be more com-pounded, such as having self-esteem, preserving human dig-nity, taking part in the life ofthe community, and so on. Theterm “capability” of a personconnotes various alternativecombinations of functionings,any one of which (any combi-nation) a person can choose tohave. In this sense, the capa-bility of a person correspondsto the freedom that a personhas to lead one kind of life oranother. Capability is linkedclosely and is dependent upon“entitlement approach” whichemphasises a person’s actualcommand over bundle ofgoods and services and thatperson’s actual position in thesystem that operates throughset of rules regulating usage ofcommodities. For instance, inan economy overall ratio offood to population may be highbut there might be people orgroups not having sufficientcommand over food and thesepeople or groups might suffer.
Further, a basket of goodsand services may be veryappropriate for a young manbut the same will be disastrousfor an old man. Similarly, a bas-ket of goods and services for aman suffering from severe dia-betes may not be very appro-priate for a diabetes-free manof the same age. Or alterna-tively, goods suitable forextreme summer will not besuitable for severe winter.Climate too matters.
With an alarming numberof persons affected with psy-chiatric problems like schizo-phrenia, manic depressive psy-chosis and other severe and notso severe mental disorders,sooner or later appropriatepolicy strategies have to bethought out and in place toaddress their concerns: bothphysical and psychological.
Pertinent here is to recall JohnRawls’ “difference principle”which offers an explanation for“most deprived group of per-sons”. Deprivation is defined interms of availability of “primarygoods” which can be verydiverse in nature and this inturn necessitates constructionof an overall index of variousprimary goods. Rawlsian ver-sion is alleged to have beeninsensitive to persons withspecial needs: the disabled,sick and “mentally defective” asRawls called them. Policiesaimed at tackling poverty,hunger and deprivation must take care of people ofthese groups.
There are some importantissues in entitlement and capa-bilities approach. Since it isagreed that economic devel-opment’s overall target isexpansion of people’s “capabil-ities”, principal concern shouldfocus on what people can do inconsequence of having bene-fitted from enhanced capabil-ities. Second issue is to under-stand the process of econom-ic expansion and structuralchanges through which capa-bilities can be expanded. Whilegoods and services are valuable,they are not valuable in them-selves. Their value lies in whatthey can do for the people, orrather, what people can dowith these goods and services?Third, let us assume that thecapabilities of each person areuniquely related to total avail-ability of goods and services,then one can go ahead withfocusing on the total supply ofgoods and services. But thatassumption can never holdgood. We have the problem ofthe division of the total outputbetween families and individ-uals and in addition, we arefronted with the fact that theconversion of commoditiesinto capabilities varies enor-mously with a number of para-meters, e.g. sex, health, age,class background, education,social relations, etc.
For example let us take onegoal of SustainableDevelopment Goals launchedworldwide in 2015. In case ofgoal number 2: zero hungerwhich necessarily involves foodand nutrition, the nutrition of
people depends on the avail-ability of food per head in thecommunity, but distributionconsiderations too weigh heav-ily. Additional factors that needto be looked into are the per-son’s age and sex, a woman:whether pregnant or lactating,metabolic rates and body size,activity levels, medical condi-tions including presence orabsence of stomach parasites,climatic conditions, etc. Theproblem of distribution of foodwithin households is a seriousissue. Sex bias is an acceptedfact. There is no simple equa-tion between the capability ofa person to be well nourishedand availability of food. Unlessother related capabilities likeenjoying food, social inter-course, general happiness infamily, etc, are enhanced, nouseful conclusion can be drawn about well-being of ahuman being.
Prayagraj Experience:In Prayagraj, I asked a few
persons as to their views on fivebest indicators of developmentthey noticed during lasttwo/three years. Unanimously,they agreed on one: 24 hourselectricity supply everyday ascompared to 4 to 8 hours cutpreviously; two: 24 hours watersupply everyday as comparedto intermittent cuts/no suppliespreviously; three: about 90 percent congestion on almost allroads gone.
“Widening of almost allroads. We freely move on roadswe used to fear going twoyears back. Now cars can trav-el at 50 plus an hour and thatwas unthinkable previously,”said the taxi driver.
Four, neat and transparentadministration with no or verymeagre delays. “Responsiblebehaviour is the rule. Sense ofdiscipline prevails,” remarkedanother retired officer. But thefifth was the most importantthing which they commonlyshared, “Everyone is enjoyingthese changes. These are pub-lic goods and hence all personsirrespective of caste, religion,groups are entitled for thesefruits of development. The fas-cinating beauty of theseachievements is these are uni-formly available to all.”
One evening, I walkedRajapur road I used to go tofetch vegetables and other eat-ables during 1990-95 when Iwas posted at the thenAllahabad. I was for utmostsurprise. Road was really wide,clean, well-lighted and trafficwas highly disciplined. Pleasureaccompanied me as I moved onthat road. I thought “Yes, it isall inclusive growth. And thatwas what Sissy Jupe had in hermind when she disagreed withLouisa. We are amid timeswhen everyone is assured ofuniform benefits of develop-ment; benefits are not confinedto a few persons, groups ororganisations. No one needs toquarrel as did Sissy Jupe.”
Such a development hasmany invisible positive effects.Wide roads and less congestionleads to less and reduced stressand hypertension levels whichin turn contributes to generalhappiness, no or less alterca-tions on roads, no or lesseraccidents and so on so forth.24-hour availability of elec-tricity makes studies by stu-dents irritation free andrewarding. Time lost in look-ing at the clock waiting for cur-rent to come can have seriousimplications for students.Continuity of concentrationgoes and what they lose is sim-ply immeasurable.
Salman Rushdie’s THEGOLDEN HOUSE:Monologue of V Arsenyeva:
Let me end the article on aliterary note akin to the way itbegan. Charles Dickens criti-cally looked at iniquitousbehaviour of economy througha character Sissy Jupe. Rushdiehas Vasilisa Arsenyeva, aRussian girl with origins inSiberia, in mind. She now livesin New York and sometimes inFlorida. She intermittentlyreflects on issues like her ownpoverty, need and love. In hermonologue, she emphasises avital fact about “poverty of herorigin”. A time comes in a poorperson’s life when in place ofcursing his/her sufferance,he/she starts relishing it.Arsenyeva looks “with con-tempt” at those sympatheticwith her poverty. She admits,“Poverty is a disgusting condi-tion and to fail to emerge from
it is also disgusting. The past isa broken cardboard suitcasefull of photographs of things Ino longer wish to see.”
The question of food, thequestion of clothing, the ques-tion of warmth were all impor-tant questions for Arsenyevabut “there was never any ques-tion about a sufficiency ofdrink for her father.” But sheexcelled at all things she didand that moved her to Americaand she felt no need to thankanyone because she came toAmerica due to her solo efforts.Need causes love. To live hap-pily in a house, you must build“a solid house”.
Economists value capabil-ities and entitlements becausethese apart from paving theway towards freedom ofachieving happiness, also cre-ate plethora of correct, trans-parent and unbiased opportu-nities for the overall develop-ment of people. It is a questionof the command that peoplehave over their lives. It is allabout leading a life whichenables one to live up to whatArsenyeva’s monologue con-firms, “I am the general ofmyself and my body is the footsoldier that obeys what the gen-eral commands.”
Let us ponder over herexclamation and imagine theinner happiness that onceimpoverished and deprivedbut now capable Arsenyevahas achieved. Looking atPrayagraj experience, it is clearthat the society is steadilyheading towards times whenongoing developmental effortswill ultimately provide peoplewith what Paul Streeten calls,“the opportunity for a full life”.
(The author hails fromGorakhpur and is currentlyAdditional Deputy Comptrollerand Auditor General in office ofComptroller & Auditor Generalof India. He is a poet writing inEnglish with three poetry col-lections. His fourth bookSOLILOQUY OF A SMALLTOWN UNCIVIL SERVANT, asemi-autobiographical literarynon-fiction, has been publishedby Rupa Publications, NewDelhi in March 2019. The viewsexpressed in this article are hispersonal views.)
All actions on our part are primarilyguided by cause-effect chain, theimplication of which gets
stretched on to the successive life afterdeath. We are thus born with Karmicimprints carried over from the past birth.These imprints are there in the form ofthought-seeds parked in our memorybank, which, given a congenial ground,come out in open. They set the terms ofhow our individual minds are primarilyoriented — desire trends, whims andfancies, prejudices and obsessions, habitsand attitudes. This way, every individualis born unique, each keen to passionatelypursue one’s individualistic aspirationalurges. That is subject to further add onas our impressionable minds get drawntowards tempting influences of the livingworld. No wonder, we all begin life withhigh hopes and ambitions, and in ouryouth, carrying the mindset as if nothingis unachievable. Accordingly, we set ourdream destination. Dreams are necessaryfor reaching heights one is capable of,since they serve as focus to reach anobjective. The paradox, however, is thatas we negotiate life in real terms, moreoften, we are to face challenges posedfrom within (habit tendencies) and
beyond. When things don’t move onexpected lines, we become subject tofrustrating experiences. Not everybody isable to take it kindly, particularly thosehaving a restive mind, marked withimpatience, intolerance, and a swagger-ing ego. The weaklings, in particular,come under acute pressure, often leadingto depression. If not attended promptly,it can take a serious turn, even demand-ing medical intervention.
The irony, however, is that in India,a large majority takes it lightly. Theybelieve that with time, as life progresses,we may come out of that hang, which ina large number of cases doesn’t happen.The worst is that they consciously avoidseeking an expert’s help, which, carry-ing the feeling that if it ever comes outin open, we may become socially out-caste. What we don’t realise is that ifleft unattended, our life itself may getderailed. In this respect, the Westernworld is much better, as they unhesitat-ingly seek immediate help.
The other day, someone worriedabout his child’s mind-state in futureterms came asking: “My child was hospi-talised by hostel authorities, when foundin a state of depression. Is there any
scope of its recurrence in future?”“Well, the seeds of negativity and
depression are very much in evidence inhis chart. Given a trigger, it could eruptagain. At this stage, though medication isnot required, regular counselling is calledfor. That may help him reorient thethought process in a way that he couldtake challenges in his stride,” I advisedhim. But he didn’t take it seriously. Theworry is that as Saturn catches up withnatal Moon early 2021, he once againbecomes susceptible to depression. But atthe end of the day, it is their call.
Let us have a look at his astrologicalpointers. Born with Aries lagna, heshould be impulsive, aggressive, impa-tient, intolerant, who would wish to liveon his own exclusive terms almost in ademanding mode. He may wish to be atthe head of things, never keen to play asecond fiddle to any. He may jump intoaction without applying proper fore-thought, which makes inviting adversi-ties more probable. He won’t ordinarilypay any attention to the advisories andcounsel offered by elders either, as theSun is ill-disposed off to Uranus. Thatmakes him eccentric, defiant, and habit-ually suspicious of elders’ intent. Hemay give a damn to commonsensicalwisdom and would rather prefer to pas-
sionately pursue his own line of think-ing, without any reality check.
Mind signifying Moon is conjunctSaturn, the planet of its nemesis, whichpoints to a negative mindset carrying theseeds of fear and insecurity. Such charac-ters usually keep their feelings sup-pressed within. Added to that is Moon’sconjunction with Rahu, as well as con-junction of Uranus and Neptune.Consequently, when things don’t moveon expected lines, he may fall into a neg-ative bind. He may keep mulling overthem beyond due, which when gravitatefurther, could set in depression. All themore, because intelligence signifyingMercury, the sub-lord of ailment signify-ing 6th cusp as well as 12th identifiedwith isolation, is opposed to Jupiter, the3rd cusp sub-lord. That, in the first place,accounts for his insensible reasoning andjudgment. And if that would not beenough, the linkage of 6th cusp with the3rd and 12th makes him susceptible toproblems of mind-genesis.
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