NEARBY ExitpollsshowBJP aheadin3States The Hindu

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Results of various exit pollsreleased on Thursdayshowed the BJP doing well inUttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand,Goa and even Manipur, withthe Congress and the AamAadmi Party locked in atough contest in Punjab.

However, the numbersgiven by the exit polls variedwidely, suggesting conver-gences only in broad trends.

In Uttar Pradesh, wherefive polls – India News MRC,Times Now VMR, ABPLokniti CSDS, India TV-CVoter and India Today Axis —showed the BJP as leadingthe race, the saffron party’sprojected tally varied from155 to 279 seats.

The SP-Congress variedfrom 88 to 169 seats, whilethe BSP was shown winningjust between 28 and 93 seats.

Even as three out of thefive polls predicted a hungAssembly with the BJP in thelead, Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Akhilesh Yadav ex-tended a hand of alliance tothe BSP, saying in an inter-view to BBC Hindi that nonewanted President’s rule inthe State.

“Will do anything to keepthe BJP out. An alliance withBSP would be better thanPresident’s rule in U.P.,” Mr.Yadav said.

He said he doesn’t want asituation where the BJP“controls U.P. through re-mote control.” After a nastyelection campaign and nu-merous verbal spats, hewent to the extent of sayingthat he “always respectedMayawati.”

“No one will want Presid-ent’s rule imposed in thestate. The SP-Congress willget enough seats and formthe government on its own.But if required let us see,” hesaid.

With counting of votesbarely two days away, the SPpresident’s remark is likelyto trigger speculation aboutthe possibility of a realign-ment of political parties.

When reached for com-

ments, senior Congressleader Sanjay Singh said itwas better not to say any-thing about it “at this stage.”

PunjabThe exit polls showed Pun-jab witnessing a tight contestbetween Aam Aadmi Partyand the Congress, with IndiaToday Axis poll showing theCongress ahead with 62-71out of 117 seats and India TV-CVoter showing AAP aheadwith 59-67 seats. India NewsMRC and News 24 Today’sChanakya showed both hav-ing exactly the same numberof seats.

All polls showed a hugedefeat for the ShiromaniAkali Dal-BJP combine in theState.

UttarakhandIn Uttarakhand, three polls –News 24 Today’s Chanakya,India Today Axis and IndiaNews MRC — showed the BJPwinning the State. India TV-CVoter showed both the

parties tied at 29-35 seats.

ManipurThe India TV-CVoter pollalso showed the BJP surgingahead of the Congress in Ma-nipur, where the Congresshas ruled for 15 years and thesaffron party has hardly anybase. It showed the BJP win-ning 25-31 of the 60 seatswith the Congress trailing at17-23 seats.

Past trendsIn the past, exit polls have of-ten gone way off the mark.In the last Bihar Assemblyelection, for instance, theBJP-led alliance and the JD(U)-RJD-Congress were seenlocked in a close contest bymost polls. The results, how-ever, saw the grand alliancewinning 178 seats out of 243and the BJP’s alliance was re-duced to 59.

Exit polls show BJPahead in 3 StatesSlight lead for Congress over Aam Aadmi Party in Punjab

Special Correspondent

New Delhi

BYPOLL SCHEDULE FOR THREE

LOK SABHA SEATS � PAGE 11

MUSLIMS PREFER SP-BSP TIES:

SURVEY � PAGE 11

FRIDAY REVIEW � 12 PAGES

(TABLOID)

Opening doors:Widows throw lower petals and coloured powder tomark Holi at the Gopinath temple in Vrindavan inUttar Pradesh on Thursday. Till a few years ago, the festival was forbidden for Hindu widows. AP

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Adding colour to their lives

Chief Election Commis-sioner of India (CEC) NasimZaidi has said that long-drawn-out, multiple-phasepolls are here to stay be-cause of the use of Centralpolice forces for the conductof free and fair polls.

Speaking to The Hindu,Dr. Zaidi, looking relaxedafter the end of polling forfive States on Thursday, saidit was the “anxiety” over the

use of State police, and thepreference for Central policeforces by political parties,candidates and even voters

that had led to this state ofaffairs.

“Our elections have be-come heavily dependent onCentral forces as peoplehave their own reservationsabout the State police. TheCommission, therefore, overthe years, has come to de-pend on Central policeforces. Our anxiety and theanxiety of political partiesthat all polling stationsshould be covered by Centralpolice has led to this situ-ation. There have been ex-

amples in the past thatvoters too feel that to trulyensure an unafraid exerciseof franchise, Central forcesare required. Keeping all thatin mind, there is no way outbut to conduct polls inphases. Our voters haveshown unprecedented en-thusiasm, so they are, atleast, not fatigued by thelength of the poll,” he said.

Multi-phase polls here to stay: CECNasim Zaidi puts it down to parties’ preference for Central police forces

Devesh K Pandey

Nistula Hebbar

New Delhi

Nasim Zaidi

INTERVIEW � PAGE 11

VOTINGWITH OUR FEET

� EDITORIAL

Several pairs locked lips atMarine Drive in Kochi onThursday evening, markingthe culmination of day- longprotests by different groupsagainst an incident of moralpolicing in which Shiv Senaactivists had caned andchased away couples fromthe scenic waterfront theprevious day even as police-men watched.

Activists from a clutch oforganisations, including Kissof Love, People Against Fas-

cism and the Kerala SastraSahitya Parishad, begantheir protest around 4 p.m.with a street play against the

self-proclaimed moral po-lice. The play suddenlyturned into a display of af-fection with a couple rollingon the ground and kissing,as the crowd cheered themon. “We stand together,against hate in society andnothing will douse the fire inour hearts,” declared LasarShine, writer and Kiss ofLove activist, soon after-wards.

Staff Reporter

KOCHI

Kochi protests against moral policing

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

Protesters at Marine Drive inKochi. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

ROW IN KERALA ASSEMBLY

OVERMORAL POLICING � PAGE 5

Home Minister RajnathSingh told the Lok Sabha onThursday that the govern-ment had taken a seriousnote of the incidents of“hate crimes” against Indi-ans in the U.S., adding thatsteps would be taken to en-sure that “Indians abroadfeel safe.”

The Opposition partiesquestioned Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s “silence”

on the matter. They askedthe government to spell outin Parliament how itplanned to deal with the is-sue. Mr. Singh said ExternalAffairs Minister SushmaSwaraj was unwell and thegovernment would issue adetailed statement on the is-sue next week. In recentweeks, at least two Indianshave been killed in suspec-ted hate crimes in the U.S.

Will ensure safety ofIndians abroad: Govt.Special Correspondent

New Delhi

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

NEARBY

Am I the poster boy ofdefaulters: MallyaNEW DELHI

“Why have I been madethe poster boy for loandefaulters,” fugitivebusinessman Vijay Mallyaasked the Supreme Courton Thursday.Mr. Mallya accused thejudiciary of targeting himand treating him worsethan a “terrorist”.

NEWS � PAGE 11

SC dismisses GopalAnsal’s pleaNEW DELHI

The Supreme Court onThursday dismissed anapplication filed by realestate baron Gopal Ansalseeking parity with hiselder brother Sushil, whowas spared a jail termbecause of advanced age,in the 1997 Uphaar firecase.

NATION � PAGE 7

DELHI METRO � 6 PAGES

A week after the country’spremier government med-ical institute, the All India In-stitute of Medical Sciences(AIIMS), opened a counter“exclusively” for VIPs, asenior AIIMS official said onThursday they had “closedthe counter.”

The counter was openedfor patients recommendedby the Officer on SpecialDuty (OSD) to Union HealthMinister J P Nadda and other“VIP references.”

Earlier in the day, DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal took to Twitter to blamethe Modi government ofworking “for only VIPs.”

“Modi govt works for onlyVIPs, AAP govt works foronly aam admi,” he tweeted.The closure of the countercomes after strong opposi-tion from the Faculty Associ-ation of AIIMS (FAIIMS),which called it a “brazen at-tempt” to promote VIP cul-ture in the premier institute.

They added that the prac-tice was prevalent even be-

fore. It was handled by theMedia and Protocol divisionbut not in such an openmanner.

‘Not acceptable’“The administration is en-couraging VIP culture in gov-ernment institutes like AIIMSwhere patients have to waitfor hours to consult a doctor.This is simply not accept-able,” said Dr. Nand Kumar,general secretary of FAIIMS.

“What about the poor pa-tients who come from far-flung areas as the OPD regis-tration counter closes by 11a.m. after which they are noteven allowed in the OPDpremises to see a doctor,” headded.

A circular issued by theAIIMS administration of Feb-ruary 23 noted: “In order toaddress the concerns of OSDto President, AIIMS, and tostreamline the OPD registra-

tion (new and follow-up) ofpatients recommended bythe OSD to President, AIIMS,and Members of Parliament,an additional counter shallbe opened with effect fromMarch 1, 2017.”

“This new counter willcater exclusively to the pa-tients recommended by theOSD to President AIIMS andHealth Minister and VIP ref-erences from members ofParliament after being dulyforwarded by the authorityin AIIMS they have beenmarked to,” the notice said.

Definition of VIPsThe definition of VIPs, how-ever, will be determined bythe AIIMS director, deputydirector administration(DDA), medical superintend-ent and senior financial ad-visor besides the OSD to theUnion Health Minister, it ad-ded. The new counter wasset up at the Rajkumari Am-ritkaur OPD building.

AIIMS witnesses an over-whelming footfall of around11,000 patients a day acrossall OPDs.

After protest, AIIMS shuts VIP counterWas opened for patients recommended by Health Minister’s aide

Bindu Shajan Perappadan

New Delhi

Undue favour: Arvind Kejriwal took to Twitter to blame theModi government for working “for only VIPs”. FILE PHOTO

Two Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)militants were killed in agunfight with securityforces in south Kashmir’sPulwama district onThursday. Two civiliansalso died in clashes nearthe encounter site.

The gunfight erupted atPadgampora villagearound 5 a.m. when secur-ity forces were throwing acordon around a residen-tial area where two localmilitants were hiding.

“The militants firedupon the search party. Thefire was retaliated and twomilitants were killed in aneight-hour operation,” saida Srinagar-based policespokesman.

The slain militants wereidentified as MohammadShafi Wagay alias Ehsanand Jahangir Ahmad Ganiealias Safi-ul-lah, both resid-ents of Pulwana, and be-longed to the LeT.

2militantskilled inencounterPeerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

SEE PHOTO� PAGE 10

Three students die of‘food poisoning’TUMAKURU

After spending the betterpart of Wednesday nighttrying to get admitted to ahospital, three students of aprivate residential school inTumakuru district died onThursday in what the policesuspect is a case of foodpoisoning.

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NORTH

DELHI Timings

Friday, March 10

RISE 06:36 SET 18:26

RISE 16:23 SET 04:58

Saturday, March 11

RISE 06:35 SET 18:27

RISE 17:22 SET 05:42

Sunday, March 12

RISE 06:34 SET 18:28

RISE 18:19 SET 06:21

Uproarious scenes were wit-nessed in the Haryana As-sembly on Thursday forcingadjournment thrice on is-sues, including the SYL canaland the alleged “land allot-ment” to yoga guru Ram-dev’s Patajali Yogpeeth bythe BJP-led Stategovernment.

Din also prevailed in theHouse after legislators of themain opposition party INLDtargeted Congress leaderRandeep Singh Surjewala al-leging his party’s anti-Hary-ana stand on the Satluj-Yamuna Link canal issue be-fore they were suspended bythe Speaker.

During question hour,things took an ugly turn soonafter Tourism Minister RamBilas Sharma replied to aquestion raised by BJP MLALatika Sharma who sought toknow if the government hadany proposal to developMorni area in her constitu-ency Kalka into a touristspot.

The BJP and the Congress

members indulged in heatedexchange after Congressleader Karan Singh Dalal al-leged the government wasgiving land to Patanjali Yog-peeth for development of aherbal forest at Morni inPanchkula “without follow-ing” due procedures.

Undue benefitMr. Dalal claimed that Ram-dev, who was appointed asbrand ambassador by theManohar Lal Khattar govern-ment for promotion of Yogaand Ayurveda, was being ex-tended “undue benefit” bythe present regime andcostly land in Morni had“been doled out to him”.

Health Minister Anil Vijclarified that no land hadbeen transferred to PatanjaliYogpeeth and only an MoUwith Patanjali AnusandhanSansthan Divya Yog MandirTrust, Haridwar, was signedfor developing World HerbalForest in Morni.

Mr. Vij said Ramdev willneither take any financial orcommercial benefit from thisproject, nor would he haveright of ownership of the

land, to which a Congressmember quipped, “SethRamdev kaho (call him SethRamdev)”.

Minister hits backHowever, Mr. Dalal ques-tioned Mr. Vij’s locus standiin answering the question,with the minister hittingback in an angry tone andasking the Congress memberto take his seat.

Dissatisfied with the replyof the ministers, the Con-gress MLAs started to walkout of the House when StateCooperation Minister ManishGrover passed some re-marks, which infuriatedthem.

“His (Grover’s) remarksare also an insult to the twosenior woman legislators ofthe Congress - Geeta Bhukkaland Shakuntala Khatak, bothof whom belong to the Dalitcommunity,” Mr. Surjewalasaid, demanding an apologyfrom Mr. Grover.

However, BJP members at-tacked Mr. Surjewala andother Congress MLAs, claim-ing they were misleading theHouse.

Din in Haryana HouseINLDMLAs suspendedHouse adjourned thrice over SYL, ‘land allotment’

Press Trust of India

Chandigarh

Teachers and Anganwadiworkers in Rajasthan havespoken out against theCentre's recent decision tolink the midday mealscheme to Aadhaar, saying itwould completely disruptthe process of food distribu-tion and teaching and learn-ing.

They said it would createan “inhuman culture” wherechildren would be deniedfood due to exclusionthrough biometrics.

While responding to quer-ies of the Right to Food Cam-paign and People's Union forCivil Liberties (PUCL) activ-ists, teachers called upon theadministration to focus onmore nutritious food for thechildren along with a strongschool health programme.They expressed surprise atthe very idea of a daily,weekly or monthly authen-tication process.

Classroom hungerPUCL-Rajasthan presidentKavita Srivastava said hereon Thursday that the activ-ists, during their conversa-tions with the governmentschool teachers and prin-cipals, found them aghast at

the concept of makingAadhaar mandatory for chil-dren.

Some teachers gave in-stances of classroom hungerand stunted children comingto their schools.

As the children coming tothe government schools arefrom economically weakersections, mostly Dalits andminorities, schools generallyensure that the little siblingswho come with the older

children are also fed.“If the machine does not

match biometrics of a child,will he remain without foodand sit in a corner watchingothers having their meals?Won't it be inhuman?” askeda teacher on the condition ofanonymity.

Learning processThe teaching-learning

process will also be disrup-ted, as the day would be over

in the exercise to authentic-ate an average of 200 chil-dren in each school.

While one-time produc-tion of identity on enrolmentwas found justified, Ms.Srivastava said the teacherswere mostly arguing for amore nutritious meal.

“If milk, paneer and eggsare supplied, children will beensured of quick and directproteins and other micro-nu-trients,” said Ms. Srivastava.

Newmidday meal norms ‘inhuman’Teachers, Anganwadi workers speak out against Centre’s decision


JAIPUR

Meal time: Children eatingmiddaymeal at the Government Primary School in Chetna Basti,Jaipur, on Thursday. ROHIT JAIN PARAS

Three members of a familywere on Thursday killedand two injured when thevehicle they were travellingin collided with a trucknear Pandey Patti villagehere, the police said.

Three of afamily killedPress Trust of India

Supaul (Bihar)


THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI

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EAST

Thirteen years after their na-ked protest here against thealleged rape of a 32-year-oldwoman by Assam Riflestroops, the “Mothers of Ma-nipur” want their fight to goon till the controversial AF-SPA is scrapped.

It was on July 15, 2004when the 12 elderly womenstaged the naked protest out-side the historic Kangla Fort,then a camp of the AssamRifles, holding placards thatread “Come Indian ArmyRape Us”, which had shakenthe conscience of the entirenation.

‘Not borne fruit’

The women, fondly called“Mothers of Manipur”, nowsay their protest 13 years agohad not borne fruit and sothey would continue to fighttill the Armed Forces (SpecialPowers) Act is completelywithdrawn.

“We all felt like we aremothers of the hapless girlwho was gang-raped andmurdered. The women of Ma-nipur have been the worstvictims of insurgency. Boththe militant groups and a sec-tion of security forces torture

women as we are soft targets.Our mode of protest thencame from within,” 66-year-old Gyaneshori said.

“We wanted a message tobe delivered to the world andthe rest of the country thatwe too have the right to livewith dignity and Manipuriwomen can’t be just rapedand killed,” she says.

Fort vacated

Haobam Tombi says althoughthe protest led to the KanglaFort being vacated by the As-sam Rifles and the AFSPA be-ing withdrawn from seven As-sembly constituencies, thefight will go on till completewithdrawal of the law whichgives the army enormousemergency powers.

‘Mothers of Manipur’vow to continue ight

Demand withdrawal of AFSPAPress trust of India

Imphal

Women disrobed to protestagainst AFSPA and the rapeof Th. Manorama Devi inJuly, 2004. FILE PHOTO

Two men were arrested onThursday for allegedly rap-ing a young woman inside abeauty parlour in the city.

According to the police,

the woman was known tothe accused.

“The prime accused RajKumar Mondal and his ac-complice Amal Mondal havebeen arrested,” a senior po-lice officer said.

The two that allegedlyspiked her food before rap-ing her.

In a separate incident,three men were arrested inPaschim Medinipur for al-legedly raping a juvenile.

Two raped in Bengal, ive arrestedSpecial Correspondent

Kolkata




WEST

The Shiv Sena’s move tofield candidates for the may-oral post in the Pune Muni-cipal Corporation (PMC)could soil the BJP’s pitch inthe city.

On Wednesday, the cityBJP unit had announced thecandidature of senior partyleader Mukta Tilak for thetop post. However, the Sena,despite not having the re-quisite numbers in the PMC,later fielded SangeetaThosar and VishalDhanawade for the mayorand the deputy mayor’spost.

The moves comes as asurprise as the BJP had ex-tended support to its saffronally, the Sena, by not fieldingany candidates for the may-or’s post in the Brihanmum-bai Municipal Corporation(BMC).

The mayoral election willtake place on March 15,when the new civic bodycomes in being.

The Sena had secured 10of the 162 seats in the PMC.The BJP, on the other hand,had snared 98 seats.

BJP in Nashik, PimpriLikewise, the Sena, too, has

not fielded any mayoral can-didates in the Nashik Muni-cipal Corporation (NMC),paving the way for the BJPthere. The party has fieldedRanjana Bhansi and Prath-amesh Gite for the posts ofmayor and deputy mayor.Both filled their nominationforms on Thursday.

The BJP had swept theNMC as well by winning 67of the 122 seats. The Senahad put up a decent show bybagging 34 seats.

Meanwhile, after much in-ternal wrangling in selectinga mayoral candidate to the

Pimpri-Chinchwad Muni-cipal Corporation (PCMC),the BJP finally announcedNitin Kalaje and ShailajaMore as their nominee forthe mayor and deputymayor post.

Both Mr. Kalaje and Ms.More filed their nominationson Thursday for the mayoralelections, scheduled onMarch 14 during a specialgeneral body meeting.

Like the PMC, the BJP hadwon a massive landslide inthe PCMC as well, bagging77 of the 128 seats, andbreaking the decade-long

hold of Sharad Pawar-led Na-tionalist Congress Party(NCP) there.

However, the party faceddifficult in selecting a may-oral candidate there owingto the infighting betweentwo heavyweight BJP leadersLaxman Jagtap and MaheshLandge (former NCP stal-warts), who wanted their re-spective candidates for thetop job in the cash-richPCMC.

The BJP’s win the PCMC iswidely attributed to themachinations of Mr. Jagtapand Mr. Landge, who pulledin a large number of theirsupporters into the BJP’sfold.

This time, the mayor’spost has been reserved foran OBC candidate for thefirst two-and-a-half years.

The BJP’s candidates areexpected to be elected virtu-ally unopposed, as the NCP,led by senior leader AjitPawar, and the Sena, havedecided not to field any can-didate in the PCMC.

The NCP won only 36seats in in the PCMC, theirformer bastion, followingthe steady defections oftheir top leaders in the area,most of whom joined theBJP before the civic polls.

BJP, Sena in a tussle overPMCmayoral electionsExcept Pune, the safron allies are not ighting each other in State civic bodies

Mukta Tilak, the BJP frontrunner for themayor’s post in thePuneMunicipal Corporation. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Shoumojit Banerjee

Pune

Student’s corner: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat (left) being conferred an honorary degree ofDoctor of Science by State Governor Ch. Vidyasagar Rao (right) at the convocation of theMaharashtra Animal and Fisheries ScienceUniversity in Nagpur on Thursday. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis (centre) was also present at the event. S. SUDARSHAN


Degree matters

Goa’s biggest Hindu folk fest-ival, Shigmo, will begin onMarch 14 and will continuein various rural areas over afortnight. Different dayshave been earmarked for cel-ebrations in different partsof the State.

The festival has becomean important annual eventon the State’s tourism calen-dar. A statement issued bythe State Tourism Depart-ment said thousands of tour-ists are expected to visit, towitness the spectacularShigmo parades.

The float parades will be-gin at Ponda, Central Goa,on March 14. Panaji will wit-ness these parades on March18. The floats are elaborately

built and depict scenes frommythologies. The paradesconsist of traditional folkand street dancers, dancingon the tunes of Dhol tashas,flutes, and other instru-

ments played in the proces-sions across.

The festival also depictsthe Goan life in traditionalfolk dances like GhodeModni, Goff, and Fugdi, per-

formed in troupes along theprocession, passing throughthe streets that are lit upwith colourful décor.

It was traditionally celeb-rated as the homecoming ofthe warriors who had lefttheir homes and families atthe end of Dusshera to fightinvaders.

Pandurang Phaldesai,former member secretary ofthe State-owned Goa KalaAcademy, and an expert onthe State’s folk music anddances, said the wordShigmo has its roots inPrakrit word Sugimaho(meaning post-harvest celeb-ration).

Mr. Phaldesai said, “Thefestival marks celebration ofharvesting of crop and alsocoincides with Holi.”

Shigmo festival to begin fromMarch 14Prakash Kamat

Panaji

The GhodeModni dance being performed during the Shigmofestival in Goa. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

A three-year-old girl child fellto her death from the bal-cony of an apartment inPune’s Kothrud locality onThursday morning.

The mishap occurred inKarishma Society at KarveRoad area. Nikita Patil,daughter of two softwareprofessionals, was gazing outof the balcony of the family’s

seventh floor flat when thetragedy struck. It is notknown whether lack of safetygrills caused the accident.

According to reports, thechild’s father, Abhijit Patil,was seeing off Nikita’s eldersister to her school and hermother had left early forwork. Being left alone in theflat, Nikita had gone to thebalcony looking for herparents.

Three-year-old falls to deathSpecial Correspondent

Pune

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s(BJP) Sanjay Narwane waselected as the Amaravatimayor on Thursday, andSandhya Tikle, also from theBJP, was elected as thedeputy mayor.

In the 87-member house,the Yuva Swabhiman Party,

the RPI(A) and the Shiv Senasupported the BJP in themayoral elections. Both Mr.Narwane and Mr. Tikalepolled 56 votes.

The Congress’s candidatefor mayor’s post, ShobhaShinde, managed to get 15votes. Three members wereabsent while 13 stayed neut-ral for the mayoral poll.

Sanjay Narwane is newAmravati mayorPress Trust of India

Amravati




SOUTH

Nara Lokesh ready fordiscussion on his wealthVIJAYAWADA

Telugu Desam Party nationalgeneral secretary Nara Lokeshsaid here on Thursday that hewas ready for a debate on hisassets, and would like to clearthe misconceptions about hisand his family’s wealth.“Quantum leap in my fortunesis being distorted,” he said.Mr. Lokesh said his mainassets included shares in thefamily-owned HeritageFoods, a conglomerate.

IN BRIEF

Walayar deaths: Keralagovt. suspends SIPALAKKAD

A day after reconstituting theteam investigating the deathof two sisters at Attappallam,near Walayar, the Keralagovernment on Thursdaysuspended Palakkad KasabaSub-Inspector P.C. Chackofrom service for dereliction ofduty. Thrissur Zone IG M.R.Ajith Kumar said disciplinaryaction was also recommendedagainst DSPs V.S. MuhammadKasim and P. Vasudevan, whosupervised the investigation.

INS Tillanchangcommissioned at KarwarKARWAR

INS Tillanchang, a Water JetFast Attack Craft (WJFAC),was commissioned into theIndian Navy by Vice-AdmiralGirish Luthra, the Flag OfficerCommanding-in-ChiefWestern Naval Command inKarwar, Karnataka, onThursday.

Fewer e-commercefirms hire from IIMBBENGALURU

For the second year in a row,the Indian Institute ofManagement Bangalore(IIMB)’s final placement sawlesser presence of e-commerce companies. Butthe gap created by e-commerce industry was filledby banks, consulting andconsumer goods firms thatrecruited in large numbers.

A discussion in the KeralaAssembly on Thursday onthe spurt in moral policingincidents in the State led tosome tense moments withmembers of the Left Demo-cratic Front and the UnitedDemocratic Front accostingone another. The latter boy-cotted the proceedings inprotest against Chief Minis-ter Pinarayi Vijayan’scomments.

Earlier in the day, SpeakerP. Sreeramakrishnan deniedleave for Hibi Eden’s noticeon an adjournment motionon the Shiv Sena’s act ofmoral policing at MarineDrive in Kochi on Wednes-day. The Opposition mem-bers squatted in the well andraised slogans.

Tension erupted followingLeader of the OppositionRamesh Chennithala’s re-mark about K.V. AbdulKhader, which triggered LDFmembers’ protest. TheSpeaker expunged it.

Mr. Vijayan then told theHouse that he suspected theUDF’s hand behind the Mar-ine Drive incident. EnragedUDF members, including Mr.Eden and V.T. Balram,rushed to the well. LDFmembers V. Joy, A. PradeepKumar and I.B. Satheesh fol-

lowed suit. Mr. Sreera-makrishnan adjourned theproceedings at 10.35 a.m.

‘Need for decorum’On reassembling after anhour, Mr. Sreeramakrishnanstressed the need for main-taining decorum in the

House and asked Mr. Chen-nithala to continue hisspeech. Mr. Chennithaladenied making any objec-tionable remark about Mr.Khader and said it shouldnot have been expunged. Heasked Mr. Vijayan to with-draw his comments on the

UDF, since they challengedthe Front’s integrity. He alsoaccused the Chief Minister ofmoving into the well of theHouse.

‘UDF hand’Mr. Vijayan said both theFronts shared the sameviews in dealing with com-munal forces like the ShivSena. But once the UDFMLAs started protests in thewell, he suspected that theytoo had a hand in it.

He denied the charge ofmoving to the well and said aUDF member had shouted athim.

Earlier, Mr. Vijayan saidthe government would in-voke the Goondas Act andthe Kerala Anti-social Activit-ies Prevention Act (KAAPA)against moral policing.

The government was op-posed to invoking KAAPAagainst politicians, but or-ganisations such as the ShivSena would not be allowedto indulge in moral policing,he said.

Row in Assembly over moral policingKerala CM says Goondas Act will be invoked against Shiv Sena; MLAs engage in war of words

Saying ‘no’: P. Rajeev, district secretary of the CPI (M), along with DYFI and SFI activists, at asit-in against moral policing in Ernakulam on Thursday. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT


THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The contract of an associateprofessor, who is openlygay, was terminated by a re-puted college of the city al-legedly because of his teach-ing methods. He allegedlyencouraged his students toquestion the “autocratic”practices of the college man-agement.

Ashley Tellis, associateprofessor, Department ofEnglish, said he was askedto leave a lecture midwayand was summoned to thePrincipal’s chamber. “I wastold that my services wereterminated as students werevery disturbed by my per-sonal opinion. I was eventold that I was hired to teachliterature and not to havepersonal opinions,” he al-leged. Mr. Tellis, who is alsoa gay activist, feels hissexual orientation could“partly be among the reas-

ons that led the college totake this step”.

The principal of the col-lege said Mr. Tellis was ter-minated as he violated thenorms of the institution.

College denies charge“This certainly does nothave anything to do with hissexual orientation. Our col-lege in fact supports thecause of the LGBT com-munity,” he added.

Mr. Tellis feels the collegemanagement took the de-cision as he encouraged stu-dents to talk about some ofthe practices of the collegeand linked this to freedomof expression.

“This is a deeply conser-vative institution and a girland boy are punished forsharing earphones,” he al-leged. Both the manage-ment and Mr. Tellis saidthey would pursue the mat-ter legally.

Bengaluru collegesacks gay professor‘Sexual orientation could be a reason’

Staff Reporter

Bengaluru

After spending the betterpart of Wednesday night try-ing to get admitted to a hos-pital, three students of aprivate residential school inTumakuru district died onThursday in what the policesuspect is a case of foodpoisoning.

They were rejected ad-mission by three private hos-pitals. By the time they weretaken to the Tumakuru Dis-trict Government Hospital,the Class VIII and X boyswere declared brought dead.

Another student and a se-curity guard, who also con-sumed the rice and “sam-bar” served at the hostel’smess the previous night, are

being treated at the hospital.The school is run by a

former BJP MLA and hiswife. According to theDeputy Director of Public In-struction, they did not havea permit to run a hostel,which housed 29 boys.

On Wednesday, around 9p.m., Y. Shreyas (14),Akanksh Pallakki (16), andShantha Murthy (16) — whostayed in the boys’ hostel ofVidya Varidhi InternationalSchool in Chikkanayakana-halli taluk of Tumakuru — ar-rived for dinner. They werethe first to enter the dininghall, along with 16-year-oldSudarshan and the watch-man.

By 9.30 p.m, the studentsand the watchman started

vomiting. They were takento a private clinic at Huliyar.Around 11.30 p.m., the doc-tor asked them to go to Tu-makuru.

‘Brought dead’A teacher and attendant ac-companied them in an am-bulance to Tumakuru city,but three private hospitalsrefused to admit them, saida police officer. “Finally,they were taken to the gov-ernment hospital.They weredeclared brought dead.”

A case under Section 304A (causing death by negli-gence) has been registered.

Chief Minister Siddara-maiah has ordered the dis-trict administration to con-duct a thorough probe.

Refused admission to private hospitals in Tumakuru

Staff Reporter

Tumakuru

3 students die of ‘food poisoning’

Scientists of CSIR-NationalInstitute of Oceanography(NIO) in Visakhapatnam arean ecstatic lot. They havefound three new canyons,forming a major canyon sys-tem in the depths of the Bayof Bengal, close to Kovvadain Srikakulam district.

The finding has beenevading them for 50 yearsand, for the first time, theyhave clearly mapped theocean floor between Vi-sakhapatnam and Srikaku-lam by sending over 32 highdensity beams to the depthsof the sea.

“Canyon systems are gen-erally formed by the flow ofriver water into the sea and

they could be as old as theriver system, which is closeto 23 million years. But whatmakes our find interesting isthat we could locate andclearly map a new system in

the Bay of Bengal off thecoast of Visakhapatnam andafter nearly five decades,”said the acting director ofNIO, S. Prasanna Kumar.

The last canyon systems

off the Visakhapatnam coastwere discovered in 1963 byAmerican geologist E.C. La-Fond of the U.S. Navy Elec-tronics Laboratory, who wascarrying out marine studiesat Andhra University. Thedata was collected on boardresearch ship Anton Bruun.

Huge canyonAccording to P.S. Rao, ChiefGeologist on board RVSindhu Sankalp, the newcanyon system is very hugeand was probably formed byriver Kandivalasa. The depthof the canyon varies fromabout 90 metres at the start-ing point to about 2,500metres at the deepest point,and it extends to about 50 to70 km deep into the sea.

For the irst time, ocean loor between Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam clearly mapped

Sumit Bhattacharjee

VISAKHAPATNAM

New ind: S. Prasanna Kumar explaining the discovery of aunderwater canyon in the Bay of Bengal K.R. DEEPAK

New canyon system found near Kovvada




NATION

Rail service from Ranchito Tori launchedNEW DELHI

The Railways on Thursdayextended passenger serviceson the newly constructedbroad gauge line up fromRanchi in Jharkhand to Tori inBihar.Union Railway MinisterSuresh Prabhu inauguratedthe extension of the Ranchi-Barkichanpi daily passengerservice up to Tori via video-conferencing from NewDelhi. The extension willprovide train services on the29.5-km Barkichanpi-Torisection. PTI

IN BRIEF

Dalit teenager rapedin Banda villageBANDA (UTTAR PRADESH)

A 15-year-old Dalit girl wasallegedly raped by a youth ina village in Banda, the policesaid on Thursday.The teenager had gone to thefields on Wednesday night,when the accused, a residentof her village, allegedly rapedher, they added.A first information report hasbeen registered based on acomplaint by the victim’sfather and investigations areon, the police said. PTI

Woman’s body found onDelhi-Dehradun highwayMUZAFFARNAGAR

The body of a woman in herlate 20s was found at NewMandi bypass on the Delhi-Dehradun highway here, thepolice said on Thursday. Thebody has injury marks.It’s suspected that thewoman was murdered and herbody dumped on thehighway, Station HouseOfficer Praveen Yadav said.The body, which wasdiscovered on Wednesday andis yet to be identified, hasbeen sent for post-mortem,he said.Mr. Yadav added thatinvestigations are underway.PTI

Indian villagers lynched aBangladesh security person-nel and detained anotherwho allegedly tried to loottheir village in south Tripuraon Wednesday night.

The Border Guards,Bangladesh (BGB), in a flagmeeting with India’s BorderSecurity Force (BSF), ex-pressed regret over the intru-sion and assured a thoroughprobe.

Reported from BeloniaThe incident occurred in theBelonia subdivision along thezero line of the border.Around 12 families of the vil-lage left the other side ofbarbed wire fencing as it waserected 150 yard from theborder to respect a bilateralagreement with Bangladesh.

The families of the ‘en-clave’ claimed that 10 person-nel of the Ansar organisation,an auxiliary force of theBangladesh police, and two

civilians forcefully enteredtheir homes. The Ansarmembers were in their offi-cial attire and were armedwith rifles.

Later, the villagers foughtthe intruders with bamboosticks and kitchen knives.They mowed down an Ansarman and caught a civilianwhile the rest got away.

An official of the BSF’s 86

battalion, which is deployedin the area, said on Thursdaythat its troops immediatelyunlocked the fencing gateand rushed to protect the vil-lagers. “Our timely interven-tion prevented further attackfrom the Bangladesh side,”he told The Hindu, addingthat they will ensure protec-tion of affected families.

The police said the de-

ceased had been identified asMohammad Mir Nausad Ali,50, of the 3rd battalion of An-sar. His body and service riflewere handed over to Ansarofficials and the BGB aftercompletion of an autopsyand official formalities.

Civilian detainedThe detained civilian, identi-fied as Suman Mia, 29, hailsfrom Bangladesh’s Feni dis-trict. He was one of two autorickshaw drivers who droveAnsar members to the Indianvillage.

A court sent Suman Mia tojail for five days and askedthe police to complete invest-igation. The police are con-fident of getting vital inform-ation from the accused aboutrepeated looting incidents inIndian border villagers afterobtaining his remand on nextforwarding on March 14. SixIndian villagers were injuredin an attack by BangladeshAnsar intruders. However, allof them are safe.

Villagers in Tripura lynchBangladesh security guardVillagers say auxiliary police unit of Bangladesh was trying to loot their homes

Armed intrusion: The body of the deceased has been handedover to the Border Guards, Bangladesh. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Syed Sajjad Ali

Agartala

The Jammu and KashmirState Archaeology Depart-ment has discovered over800 coins dating back to the11th, 12th Century in Budgamdistrict.

‘Rare discovery’Described as a “rare nu-

mismatic discovery”, thecoins are said to be one ofthe largest recoveries fromthe district.

A team, which was super-vised by M.S. Zahid, Dir-

ector, Archives, Archaeologyand Museum, recovered thecopper coins from a plateauin Nonar village in KhanSahab on Wednesday.

According to the depart-ment, the plateau is rich inarchaeological nature andhad been under the depart-ment’s consideration for awhile.

“The coins were exposedduring a trial excavation. Ar-chaeologists from theArchives Archaeology andMuseums Department are in-vestigating the findings. As

“Research on these coinswill be shared with heritagelovers and archaeologists. Itwill certainly help fill upgaps in the numismatic col-lection of our museums,”said the official.

Dr. Zahid said: “The de-partment has made 11 discov-eries in the last 13 years. Ofthese, four pertained to thenumismatic field.”

The Shri Pratap Singh Mu-seum houses the largest col-lection of ancient copper, sil-ver and gold coins, estimatedat over 70,000.

per a preliminary report, thecoins date back to the 11thand 12th Century when theYassakara and Lohora dyn-asties ruled over Kashmir,”said a State Archaeology De-partment spokesperson.

Undergoing treatmentThe coins are now beinggiven chemical treatment atthe Shri Pratap Singh Mu-seum in Lal Mandi, Srinagar.

After this, they will beidentified and deciphered bydepartmental expert PeerMohammad Iqbal.

Ancient copper coins found in central KashmirOver 800 coins dating back to 11th, 12th Century discovered in Budgam district

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

The coins belong to theperiod of the Yassakaraand Lohora dynasties.SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The State administrationhas started making effortsfor the return of 19 mem-bers of two ostracised famil-ies to their ancestral villageat Phasipada in Ganjam dis-trict of Odisha.

Ostracised by villagersIn 2012, the villagers of

Phasipada had ostracisedthem, alleging that theywere practitioners of sor-cery. On March 29, two per-sons were killed when thepolice opened fire while at-tempting to rescue four per-sons, including a woman,who were being tortured bya mob in the village.

Following the incident,the families of Bhima Nahakand his brother Sudam Na-hak were ostracised by thevillagers. Both families leftthe village and were stayingin Khalikote.

The Odisha HumanRights Commission had dir-ected the Ganjam Collectorand the Superintendent ofPolice to initiate measures

for the return of the twofamilies to their village andtheir proper rehabilitation.

Peace committee decidesOn Wednesday, a peacecommittee meeting wasconvened at Khalikote un-der the chairmanship ofSub-Collector SudhakarSabar to pave the way forthe return of these two os-tracised families to Pha-sipada. The meeting was at-tended by the village elders,representatives of the victimfamilies and the adminis-trative and police officialsconcerned.

Inspector in-charge of theKodala police station, AnilKumar Mohanty, who waspresent at the peace meet-ing, said the village headand other representatives ofPhasipada have promised tohold a meeting on March 18,where a decision on the re-turn of the two ostracisedfamilies would be taken.They would inform the ad-ministration and the policeabout their decision onMarch 20.

Accused of practising sorcery in 2012Staff Reporter

BERHAMPUR

Eforts on to send twoexiled families home

The wildlife wing of the Hi-machal Pradesh’s Forest De-partment has claimed thatthere are around 564 birdspecies living in the hillState, which accounts for45% of the total 1,263 birdspecies found in India.

In the four-day surveycalled ‘Great Backyard BirdCount, 2017’, which washeld from February 17 to 20,about 83 bird check listswere uploaded to eBird and

319 species were reportedfrom eight districts.

Kangra home to mostThe district of Kangra washome to the maximumnumber of species – as manyas 453 of them.

A number of rare specieswere also spotted. The de-partment would soon comeout with details about thenumber and type, said offi-cials. The total bird countswelled to over 16,000 infour days, they added.

Over 500 bird species inHimachal, says survey319 species reported from eight districts

Staff Reporter

Shimla

Nine Sashastra Seema Bal(SSB) jawans and a few civil-ians were injured in a cross-border stone throwing in-cident along the Indo-Nepalborder in Uttar Pradesh onThursday. Authorities saidthe situation was “tense”.

Clash over constructionParamilitary and local po-lice personnel fired a tear-gas shell to disperse themob that had gatheredaround the no-man’s land inBasahi village in Sam-purnanagar here after a dis-pute over some construc-tion work.

“Nepalese citizens peltedstones after SSB jawans atthe location objected to per-manent construction workon a disputed land near pil-lar No. 200,” SSB Com-mandant Dilbag Singh said.

Meawhile, senior SSB of-ficials at the Delhiheadquarters said the issuepertained to a joint surveybeing undertaken by thetwo sides to erect the “miss-ing” pillar no. 200 at theborder.

Indo-Nepalborder: 9 SSBjawans hurtPress Trust of India

Lakhimpur Kheri (UP)




CMYK

ND-ND

NATION

Saraswati Sammanfor Konkani writerNEW DELHI

Eminent Konkani writerMahabaleshwar Sail has beenhonoured with the SaraswatiSamman 2016 for his novelHawthan. The 74-year-old’snovel was shortlisted out of22 books written in as manylanguages. The award carriesa cash prize of ₹15 lakh and acitation. Mr. Sail is a bilingualwriter who has four Marathidramas and seven Konkaninovels to his credit. He hasalso written five short storiesand a novel in Marathi. PTI

The SMS was a deadly blowto an already distraught fam-ily praying for the injuredArmy Major’s recovery.

Sent by Assistant Sub-In-spector (ASI) Jagbir Singh ofthe Delhi police, the SMSsaid Major Rishi R, who wasunder treatment in an Armyhospital in the national cap-ital, had passed away.

Mistaken identityThankfully, it turned out tobe a mistake but one thatcaused huge distress to thefamily. The issue was takenup in Parliament onThursday. It was found thatthe incident happened dueto a case of “mistakenidentity.”

“I got the informationfrom the hospital. So I sentthe message to the area’sCircle Inspector in Kerala,”ASI Singh told The Hindu.

Responding to the mis-

take, a senior police officialsaid: “The ASI confused Ma-jor Rishi with another per-son named Rishi for whomhe had received a medico-legal case report.”

The SMS sent on Wednes-day at 5.49 p.m. said MajorRishi R, who was part of the42 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion,had passed away at the Re-search and Referral Hospitalof the Army in New Delhi.

The SMS was received bya senior police officer inAlappuzha, home district ofMajor Rishi. “When the po-lice officer called back, thesender said he was an Assist-ant Sub-Inspector from theDhaula Kuan police post,” anacquaintance said.

Even before the newscould be formally commu-nicated by the police to Ma-jor Rishi’s family, it spreadlike wildfire. The local mediabegan to report the news,and mourners began togather at his family home.

Probe soughtThe fact was that MajorRishi, who had sustained in-juries on his face during anoperation last Sunday in theKashmir Valley, was fightinghis way back.

“I have sought an inquiryfrom the Ministry of De-fence,” said Member of Par-liament from Alappuzha K.C.Venugopal, who raised the

issue in the Lok Sabha onThursday. “I have also re-quested good medical carefor the officer,” he said.

Major Rishi was shifted toDelhi from Srinagar on Wed-nesday, after his medicalcondition stabilised.

The officer was injuredduring a 24-hour operationin the Tral area of Pulwamadistrict on Sunday. Duringthe operation, the securityforces neutralised two ter-rorists, while a police con-stable was killed. The secur-ity forces also recovered anINSAS rifle, which is believedto have been snatched fromCRPF personnel hast year,from the militants.

Besides Major Rishi, threeCRPF personnel were in-jured during the operation.

During the operation, thehouse of a local carpenterMohammad Ramzan, wherethe terrorists had taken shel-ter, was razed by an IEDblast and subsequent fire.

Delhi police ‘kill’ wrongmanSent SMS to family of Army Major Rishi, recovering in hospital, saying he is dead


New Delhi

Major Rishi R.

The Supreme Court onThursday dismissed an ap-plication filed by real estatebaron Gopal Ansal seekingparity with his elder brotherSushil, who was spared a jailterm because of advancedage, in the 1997 Uphaar firecase.

A Bench of Justices Ran-jan Gogoi, Kurian Josephand A.K. Goel refused to en-tertain his plea, even afterRam Jethmalani, senior ad-vocate and counsel for Go-pal, submitted that his clientwas “almost a dead man,”broken by disease, includingcerebral atrophy. Gopal ar-gued that he had sufferedmore than his brother. “I amnot trying to harm mybrother, but I am also an oldman,” Mr. Jethmalani sub-mitted. “The maximum pun-

ishment should be givenonly for crimes of unimagin-able gravity... negligence isnot foreseeable... I have es-tablished more than parityin this case,” Mr. Jethmalanisubmitted.

“We have passed thatstage [of arguments] now,”Justice Gogoi responded.

On February 9, Gopal wassentenced to serve the re-mainder of his one-yearterm. The Bench directedhim to surrender by March20.

Families’ plea rejectedThe court also dismissed anapplication filed by the fam-ilies of the victims under thebanner of Association of Vic-tims of Uphaar Tragedy,which wanted the court tomodify its February 9 orderand send Sushil to prison, ina punishment on a par withthat of Gopal.

The court said it could notentertain a plea for a reviewof an order passed in a re-view of the case.

Fifty-nine people asphyxi-ated to death when a firebroke out at the Uphaartheatre during a show in1997.

SC dismisses Gopal Ansal’splea for parity with brotherCiting old age, Sushil Ansal was spared jail in Uphaar case

Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Gopal Ansal

Punjab Agricultural Univer-sity in Ludhiana has an-nounced that it has de-veloped the country’s firstgenetically-modified variet-ies of cotton — the seeds ofwhich could be reused byfarmers with no commercialrestrictions, resulting in sav-ings on repeat purchasesevery season.

“The Indian Council ofAgricultural Research (ICAR)has identified three Bt cot-ton varieties – PAU Bt 1,F1861 and RS2013 – for cultiv-ation in Punjab, Haryanaand Rajasthan. They [ICAR]have asked us to put up aproposal on release of thesevarieties,” PAU Vice-Chan-cellor Baldev Singh Dhillontold The Hindu.

Dr. Dhillon said the noti-fication on these varietiescould be out by next monthafter ICAR’s scheduled meet-ing, and the process of mul-tiplying the seeds would,

meanwhile, start. “We ex-pect that by next year wewill be able to distribute afew seeds to farmers for sow-ing. In the subsequent year,we will distribute seeds on alarge scale,” he said.

Cry1Ac gene at work“PAU Bt 1 and F1861 were de-veloped by PAU, whileRS2013 was developed at Ra-jasthan Agricultural Univer-sity (RAU), Bikaner. Whilethe PAU Bt 1 was completelydeveloped at PAU, the F1861

and RS2013 were convertedto Bt version by Central In-stitute for Cotton Research,Nagpur. All three varietiescarry the Cry1Ac gene im-parting resistance againstbollworm complex,” a PAUstatement said. The geneticmodification involves intro-duction of the Bt bacterialgene that codes for a proteinwhich kills the bollworm cot-ton pest.

Dr. Dhillon said, withthese varieties, farmerswould not have to buy costlyBt cotton seeds every year.“The farmers can keep theirown harvest for next year’ssowing,” he said.

Cotton is the only GMcrop allowed to be cultivatedin India. Punjab alone needsaround 20-25 lakh packets ofBt cotton seed whichamounts to about ₹225crore. “The price of thesevarieties will be much lowerthan current Bt cotton hy-brid seed, and it can cut cul-tivation costs,” he said.

Punjab varsity developsnew Bt cotton varieties3 GM seed options to help farmers cut cultivation costs

VIKAS VASUDEVA

CHANDIGARH

Baldev Singh DhillonSMARTINDIANAGRICULTURE.IN

As the protest over farmers’loan waiver entered thesecond day on Thursday,Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)MLAs, sensing the Opposi-tion’s upper hand, chose toraise slogans against thegovernment.

On Wednesday, the ShivSena MLAs joined the slo-ganeering with the Congressand the Nationalist CongressParty in the Assembly.

On Thursday, the Con-

gress and the NCP raised theissue even before the ques-tion hour was called. As theHouse restarted after twoadjournments, the BJPMLAs joined the Oppositionand the Sena MLAs.

Leader of OppositionRadhakrishna Vikhe-Patilslammed the BJP for theprotest. “They are runningthe government. They haveall the decision-makingpowers. How can they evenprotest for something whichthey can easily announce?”

BJP MLAs side withCongress-NCP camp

Protest for loan waiver continues

Common cause:OppositionMLAs protest outside theMaharashtra Assembly in Mumbai on Thursday. PTI

Alok Deshpande

Mumbai

Calling it a ‘humble gift’ towomen in India, LabourMinister Bandaru Dattatreyawelcomed the Parliamentnod to the Maternity Benefit(Amendment) Bill, 2016.Women working in the or-ganised sector will now beentitled to paid maternityleave of 26 weeks, up from12 weeks. The bill will bene-fit about 1.8 million women.

The new law will apply toall establishments employ-ing 10 or more people, andthe entitlement applies onlyup to the first two children.For the third child, the ma-ternity leave entitlementwill only be for 12 weeks.The Maternity Benefit(Amendment) Bill, 2016,was passed by the LokSabha on Thursday, monthsafter the Rajya Sabha ap-proved the measure that

takes India to the third posi-tion in terms of the numberof weeks for maternityleave, after Canada and Nor-way, where it is 50 weeksand 44 weeks, respectively.

‘Wemade history today’“I am very, very happy thatwe have made history today.This will help thousands ofwomen and lead to muchhealthier children,” saidManeka Gandhi, Minister ofWomen and Child Develop-ment. She acknowledgedthat ensuring organisationswill implement the Bill byproviding mothers the 26-week leave, and making pro-visions for a crèche, will bean uphill task.

“This is my humble gift towomen, a day after theworld celebrated the Inter-national Women’s Day,” Mr.Dattatreya said, after a de-bate that lasted four hours.

Paid maternity leaveextended to 26 weeks

Bill a humble gift to women: MinisterSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

SC grants parole toParasmal LodhaNEW DELHI

The Supreme Court onThursday granted a 20-dayparole to Kolkata-basedbusinessman Parasmal Lodhafollowing his mother’sdemise. He was arrested atthe Mumbai airport inDecember 2016 for allegedlyconverting ₹25 crore ofdemonetised notes into newones in connivance withhawala operators. He wasonce an associate of Chennai-based sand mining baron J.Sekhar Reddy.

57.6% turnout inKarnaprayag bypollDEHRADUN

The Karnaprayag constituencyin Uttarakhand on Thursdayregistered 57.6% turnout inthe Assembly polls. Whilevoting in 69 of the total 70seats was held on February15, the polling in Karnaprayagwas postponed following thedeath of the Bahujan SamajParty candidate in a roadaccident. The polling, whichwas held across 169 booths,was peaceful, Chief ElectoralOfficer Radha Raturi said.

Thirty-four cabin crewmembers, including 30 airhostesses, of Air India havebeen grounded for being“obese,” the governmentsaid on Thursday.

Currently, the totalstrength of the cabin crewin the national carrierstands at 3,490. “Atpresent, 34 cabin crew [30female and 4 male] aregrounded due to high BodyMass Index [BMI],” Minis-ter of State for Civil Avi-ation Jayant Sinha said in awritten reply in the LokSabha. As per the DGCAguidelines, the maximumBMI for women is 22 whilefor men it is 25.

“Therefore, cabin crewwho are in the obese cat-egory are grounded to en-able them to attain the pre-scribed limits,” he said.

DGCA normsMr. Sinha further said: “AirIndia provides enough op-portunity to cabin crew toreduce their weight. Oncethe cabin crews are out ofthe obese category, theyare taken back for flyingduties.”

As per the DGCA norms,the cabin crew have to bedeclared ‘fit’, ‘temporaryunfit’ and ‘permanent un-fit’ by designated doctorsthrough their periodicmedical examination.

Accordingly, a cabincrew member found over-weight is deemed tempor-arily unfit and given threemonths to reduce weight.

A cabin crew membercan continue with flyingduty for up to 19 monthswith the ‘temporary unfit’tag. However, if the crewmember fails to reduceweight during this period,he or she is deemed per-manently unfit for flying.

AI grounds34 ‘obese’cabin crewPress Trust of India

NEW DELHI

Ukraine to grant visa-onarrival for Indian touristsNEW DELHI

In a bid to boost bilateralrelations, Ukraine hassimplified the visa procedurefor Indian travellers.Diplomatic sources confirmedto The Hindu that theUkrainian government willgrant visa-on-arrival forcertain categories of Indiantravellers. The normal visafee has been revised to $65for all visa seekers from India.

IN BRIEF



CMYK

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

Voter turnout estimates areoften revised for ainal

tally by the Election Commission, but by all ac-

counts the current round of Assembly elections

has witnessed deepened participation. In the inal, and

seventh, phase of the Uttar Pradesh elections onMarch

8, the turnout for the 40 seats was initially estimated to

be 60.03%, an increase of more than 2% over 2012, and

hovering near the average for all the seven phases. In

the second phase of Manipur’s election the same day,

for 22 of the total 60 constituencies, the turnout in

three-quarters of the booths was reckoned to be more

than 86%. In Punjab, which went to the polls on Febru-

ary 4, the turnout was 77.4%, marginally less than the

78.2% registered in 2012. In Goa, which also voted on

February 4, it was about 83%, indicating a marginal in-

crease since 2012. And in Uttarakhand, which voted on

February 15, early estimates put the turnout at 65.64%,

against the 2012 turnout of 67.22%.Wemust await thei-

nal estimates, though it is clear that noneof these States

has come close to matching Tripura’s Assembly elec-

tion turnout of 90-plus. Even so, the voter participation

in these elections has once again proved to be far-

fetched the ever-hovering anxiety about voter fatigue, if

not cynicism. Indeed, in comparison to other mature

democracies with their problem of low voting by the

young, the so-calledmillennials, in India voter enthusi-

asm cuts across class and age. And as the 2014 Lok

Sabhaelection turnout indicated, it has alsobridged the

gender gap, with the EC reckoning it has come down to

1.46 percentage points, from 4.42 in 2009.

At irst glance, these igures are a repudiation of the

worries about voter choice that keep aloat ideas such

as deepening the None of the Above (NOTA) option on

voting machines to include the right to reject. In fact,

ethnographic studies suggest that the Indian voter per-

ceives voting day to be a special one, with a celebratory

camaraderie at the polling booth relecting a determin-

ation tomake her vote count. Andwith turnouts gener-

ally rising as one goes from parliamentary to State to

local polls, it is clear that personally felt outcomesmat-

ter most to voters. Besides, as the higher turnout in the

Malwa region compared to the rest of Punjab this year

indicates, where the party competition is keenest, vot-

ing is higher. Nonetheless, the old thumb rule about

higher turnout meaning an anti-incumbent vote is a

thing of the past. Psephological data are rich with the

reasons that motivate a vote, and each verdict must be

read separately. The decreasing gender gap is one to

particularly celebrate. From theirst election in 1951-52,

when millions of women did not igure in the electoral

rolls as theywouldnot share their names, to the conver-

sations on the sidelines of these elections, with women

asserting they’d vote diferently from their husbands,

India has come a long, though not long enough, way.

Voting with our feetRobust turnouts in the Assembly elections

defy anxieties about voter alienation

The rulingof theEuropeanUnion’s topcourt giving

member-states the right to grant or deny asylum

has come as welcome news for populist hard-

liners hostile to the surge of refugees desperate to es-

cape the humanitarian catastrophe in West Asia. In a

deining verdict this week on the immigration crisis, of

amagnitude not seen sinceWorldWar II, the inal judg-

ment of the European Court of Justice of the 28-nation

bloc overturned the opinion of its prosecutor, which is

rather unusual for the institution. Its prosecutor had

said in February that governments should issuehuman-

itarian visas to people at risk of torture and degrading

treatment, consistent with their obligations under the

European charter on human rights. In overruling that

stance, the common judicial arbiter for the bloc held

that member-states were not obliged to issue visas to

people from third countries who had no prior links in

Europe. Under theCommonEuropeanAsylumSystem,

as with similar international mechanisms, countries

are expected to process asylum requests humanely

once refugees arrive. A not inconceivable consequence

of the verdict is that the mass of migrants who em-

barkedupon thosedangerous journeys on thehigh seas

may ind no realistic alternative in their attempt to lee

conlict zones than continue to undertake those risky

ventures. Tuesday’s development is also a shot in the

arm for eurosceptic political parties that have remained

steadfast in their opposition to the jurisdiction of the

Luxembourg court over national governments.

This controversial case, concerning a Syrian family

from Aleppo seeking asylum in Belgium, also brought

into sharp focus the politically divisive andhateful cam-

paign witnessed since the beginning of the migration

crisis. While their plea was upheld by domestic courts

on humanitarian grounds, the strength of right-wing

opposition led to a senior legislator being ined for defy-

ing the order, culminating in the challenge in the

European Court of Justice. Given the appeal of anti-im-

migrationpolitical parties in three of the founder-mem-

ber states of theEU that go to general elections this year,

theNetherlands, France andGermany, the setback for a

more orderly and legal immigration system could not

be greater. Mainstream liberal political forces across

the bloc face the biggest challenge in decades to their

conceptionof anopenandhumane society. This is their

moment to stand up for the so-called European values

the continent’s leaders have emphasised since Donald

Trump’s ascent to the White House. A perception that

western nations are turning their back on the rest of the

world is the last thingmature democracies can aford at

a juncture when the rules-based global order is under

increasing attack. Action on the commitment given at

the UN last year to put in place legal pathways for mi-

grants and refugees wouldmark a beginning.

Open gatesEU countries must stand up for ‘European

values’ with humane asylum policies

In recent weeks, there has been alood of commentary lamentingthe demise of ‘the liberal rule-

based international order’; the sys-tem that came into being afterWorld War II and has since beenled and shaped by the West underU.S. leadership for the last sevendecades. While cracks in this ‘or-der’ have been showing up in re-cent years, it is after the election ofDonald Trump as U.S. Presidentthat a conviction has grown thatthe seven-decade-old ‘order’ isdead and change is now upon us.

Yet the lengthening shadows ofthis change have been visible inother parts of the world for nearlya decade; at least from 2008 withthe global inancial crisis whichpresaged the unravelling of theWashington Consensus. Historytells us that the wheels of changenever stop. Sometimes, when theymove slowly, it is only possible tojudge the distance travelled bylooking in the rear-view mirror,and at other times, like thepresent, change appears to berushing at us through the wind-screen even aswe search for a ‘newstable and normal’ in the age ofuncertainty.

Myth of the ‘liberal order’But in mourning the passing of theold and familiar, a myth is beinggenerated about this liberal inter-national order. While it is true thatthere is greater volatility andchurning in the world today thanbefore, it is equally true that partsof the world have been goingthrough these changes for muchlonger.What is new is that the tidesof change are now lapping at theshores of theWestern world.

West Asia has been in turmoil atleast since the turn of the centurywhen the growth of jihadist ex-tremism seared itself on the globalconsciousness with 9/11 though itsshoots were visible in the region adecade earlier. The reordering ofCentral Asia and Eastern Europebegan with the disintegration of

the Soviet Union and has nowbeenunfolding for nearly a quartercentury.

China’s rise started fourdecadesago and gathered steam after glob-alisation. It was facilitated by theU.S., initially justiied as part of theColdWar logicwhich saw theUSSRas the mortal enemy, and after theColdWar, on thehopefulmyth thata prosperous China would gradu-ally move towards a more pluralpolitical system, becoming part ofthe liberal order. As themyth evap-orated in recent years, PresidentBarack Obama was placing Chinain the category of ‘free riders’,while announcing the ‘US pivot toAsia’!

China’s rise is accompanied bythe rise of other emerging econom-ies and a shift in the geopoliticalcentre of gravity from the Euro-At-lantic to Asia and the Indian andPaciic Oceans. Deining the char-acteristic of this change is a new re-port by PricewaterhouseCoopersthat predicts that by 2040, the E7(emerging countries of China, In-dia, Indonesia, Brazil, Russia, Mex-ico and Turkey) will be twice theeconomic size of G7, the seven ma-jor advanced economies!

Out of syncThe post-World War II ordermarked the end of colonialism andwas intended to be based on thedemocratic principle of equality ofsovereign states, but this ideaquickly fell prey to the realities ofthe Cold War. The UN became anarena for the power play betweenthe two superpowers. By the timethe Cold War ended, the institu-tional structures of the UN wereout of sync with the new politicalreality. The U.S. became ‘the solesuperpower’ but hubris and thedecision to invade Iraq sooneroded theauthority of its unipolarmoment.

In hindsight, the liberal interna-tional order was not ‘global’ andconsequently, ‘liberal and rule-based’ only in a small part of theworld, the West. It is here todaythat populism, nationalism and il-liberalism have emerged, relect-ing adecisive rejectionof the statusquo. This is only partly due to eco-nomic reasons that got aggravatedafter 2008. The rejection of thestatus quo is equally a cultural re-jection, a rejection of globalisation

that enriched Corporate Americabut not the average worker inMiddleAmerica. It has contributedto the creation of a global elite andthe backlash against it has takenthe form of anti-immigration, na-tionalism and populism. A tiredand ageing Europe, preoccupiedwith its experiment of a post-sover-eignty EU, andMr. Trump’s victorymark the end of themyth.

Apost-WestworldPopulism breeds the politics ofagitation often exploiting insecur-ities by distorting facts. In today’sage of information overdose, thishas taken the form of makingeverything intoahalf-truth.A truthif questioned enough loses itsshine and a lie if repeated enoughtimes becomes a half-truth. Doingthis in a 24/7 news cycle togetherwith the echo chamber of socialmedia has only becomeeasier thanbefore. This is why at the MunichSecurity Conference last month,Russian Foreign Minister SergeyLavrov aptly described the currentchange as a shift to a “post-Westworld”.

The biggest challenge of copingwith this shift is absenceof crediblemultilateral institutions. Greaternormative damage is done whenthe gap between myth and realitybecomes unmanageable. A classic

example is NATO, a creation of theColdWar but even today describedin the West as a central pillar ofWestern, liberal order!

In such times of change, is theidea of stability an oxymoron?Much depends on how it isdeined. Clearly, in times of changestability cannot be a defence of thestatusquo.However, breaking it upinto crisis stability, deterrence sta-bility andarms race stabilitymakesthe objectives relatively discreteandmodest.

The nuclear dimension cast adark shadowover the ColdWar butthe equation in a bipolarworldwasrelatively simpler. In today’sworld,with the focus on Asia and the In-dian and Paciic Oceans, the dyadhas been replaced by nuclearchains with variable linkages. Newcompetitions are underway evenas the irebreak between nuclearand conventional is gettingblurred. Conventional precision-strike weapons can be as destruct-ive andnuclearweapons canbede-signed for variable yields depend-ing on the intended targets. Undersuch circumstances, arms race sta-bility is hardly feasible.

Therefore deterrence stabilityand crisis stability assume greatersigniicance. Shifting from single-warhead missiles to MIRVed mis-siles and missile defence technolo-

gies impact deterrence stabilitywhich rests on mutual vulnerabil-ity. Today, more and more coun-tries are exploring both areas.Soon, thiswill lead todoctrinal anddeployment changes. Develop-ments in North Korea provide easyjustiication for the U.S. (and SouthKorea) to consider deploying mis-sile defences in East Asia but thesecan easily trigger concerns inBeijing. Unless addressed, Chinawill indways, both symmetric andasymmetric, to ensure that its de-terrent credibility is maintained.

Ensuring crisis stabilityIn addition to deterrence stability,it is vital to ensure crisis stability.This requires communication linksand risk reduction mechanismswhich need to be designed andmade operational sooner ratherthan later. This is not a question oflegality, of claiming that the Nuc-lear Non-Proliferation Treaty re-cognises ive nuclear weaponstates, as China has been doingduring the Nuclear SuppliersGroup debates last year on thequestion of India joining; it is aquestion of acknowledging groundreality that demands that all stateswith nuclear weapons share an im-perative to move towards estab-lishing crisis stabilitymechanisms.

The Cuban missile crisis in 1962helped drive home the realisationto the U.S. and Soviet leadershipsthat nuclear weapons were qualit-atively diferent. It began the pro-cess of the search for strategic sta-bility, arms control and crisismanagement.

The stability mechanisms put inplace, together with a bit of luck,helped to ensure that nuclearweapons were not used during thelast seven decades. But today’sworld is an age neither of hege-mons nor of prescriptive norms; itis an age of uncertainty and changewhich increases the likelihood ofcrisis escalation. A new initiativefor a modest degree of stability isneeded if the nuclear taboo has tohold. Given the growing conver-gence between the leaders of Indiaand Japan, these two countries arewell placed to launch such an initi-ative.

Rakesh Sood is a former diplomat andcurrently Distinguished Fellow at theObserver Research Foundation.

Stability in the time of changeAs the liberal order yields to an age of uncertainty, a new initiative is needed if the nuclear taboo has to hold

Rakesh Sood

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On February 24, the TamilNadu government an-nounced the planting of 69

lakh trees to commemorate thebirth anniversary of late ChiefMinis-ter and former All India AnnaDravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AI-ADMK) party head, Jayalalithaa. Anumberof politicians organised freemeals for the poor and Jayalalithaa’sniece and aspiring MLA, DeepaJayakumar, loated a party in heraunt’s name — the MGR AmmaDeepa Peravai.

A fewdays later, theDravidaMun-netra Kazhagam, led by M.K. Stalin,still coming to termswith not havingsecured any tangible advantagefrom V.K Sasikala’s conviction andthe battle between AIADMK leadersO. Panneerselvam and K. Palan-iswami for theChiefMinister’s chair,started demanding that State fundsnot be used to propagate Jayala-lithaa’s name as shewas a “convict”.Consequently, they have gone tocourt on the issue.

The letter of the law has thus farnot been interpreted as precluding aconvicted representative’s brandfrom being used by the State for ad-orning its spaces andnaming its pro-grammes. One may argue that it isdiicult to draw a line —what are theconvictions that warrant a disquali-ication from brand promotion?

Drawing a lineIf the spirit of the law is upheld, thedrawing of a line becomes fairlystraightforward. Section 8 of theRepresentation of the People Act,1951, says that MPs or MLAs con-victed of certain ofences, including

for corruption, aredisqualiied fromthe time they are convicted until sixyears have passed after their prisonsentence is completed. Disqualify-ing someone from running for elec-tions but allowing messages andwelfare assistance to low in theirname is counter-intuitive to thespirit of the law and the con-sequences it seeks to impose uponthose who run afoul of it.

In the case of Jayalalithaa, thesituation has been made complexfor a number of reasons — she was aformer Chief Minister who had hershare of critics but also a large fol-lower base. The issue is bound to be

emotive. The AIADMK is seeking tocapitalise on the public afectionand sympathy for her, especially at atime when the party’s continuationas an ideological identity is far fromgiven and there is an internal sculeover who her real political heirs are.Additionally, there is a legal technic-ality the AIADMK is relying on: Jay-alalithaa was not convicted in thedisproportionate assets case butcharges against her abated becauseshe had died before the SupremeCourt made its judgment.

However, a reading of the judg-ment clearly indicates that Jayala-lithaa has not been convicted onlybecause she is now deceased. Hadthe Supreme Court pronounced averdict while she was alive, the situ-ation would have been quite difer-ent as the court in its judgment,found an “inextricable nexus”between Jayalalithaa and the threewhowere convicted.

AnewnormalPlaces and programmes are

named after individuals to honourtheir memories, often because theyhad a special association with theplace or programme’s founding.Given the court’s observations, it isonly proper that Jayalalithaa’s nameand photographs cease to be associ-ated with spaces and programmes

that are publicly funded at least fortheperiodof her disqualiication (10years) in the counterfactual situ-ation of her being alive today.

This is especially important in asystem that is riddled with corrup-tion and criminality; over a third ofLok Sabha MPs in 2014 had criminalcases against them and over a ifthwere serious cases, according todata from the Association for Demo-cratic Reforms, a think tank. InTamil Nadu a surreal situation is de-veloping, in which ministers are be-holden to an individual sitting in aBengaluru jail. Criminality in polit-ics is not just commonplace, it is be-coming the new normal and the useof imagery and names is part of theglue that seals this state of afairs inplace.

This brings us to the larger ques-tion of naming government pro-grammes, buildings and airportsafter politicians — convicted or oth-erwise. An open debate on this islong overdue — the public imagina-tion has room for far more thanpoliticians, especially given the lowregard politicians have for publicfunds and discharging their re-sponsibilities. So why must theyhave a near monopoly on ourspaces?

[email protected]

Making a clean breakWhymust our politicians have a near monopoly on our public spaces?

Sriram Lakshman

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Dire straitsIndian ishermen beingcaught and released by theSri Lankan Navy is old hat(“Sri Lanka to release all 85Indian ishermen incustody”, March 9). Theissue had been dealt with athighest levels of the twonations Despite numerousinstances of being ired at bythe Lankan authorities, onewonders why our ishermenoften go back to ish introubled waters. There is aclear demarcation ofinternational and nationalwaters. Like India, theisland nation has sovereigncontrol over its waters. If wecry foul over such actions,we’re only disrespecting SriLanka’s right to territorialintegrity.R. Prabhu Raj,

Bengaluru

■ Why is it that Tamil Naduhas a way ofmaking it to theheadlines? Youngsters fromthe State reach AndhraPradesh to fell red sanderstrees and are involved insmuggling them. If this isnot an illegal act, what is?Political leaders in the Statemaintain a subtle silenceover this for obviousreasons. Then there is theissue of Tamil ishermenlanding in Sri Lankan jailsfor illegal ishing,deliberately violatingagreed norms. It is obviousthat there is politicalbacking. The Indian CoastGuard should preventmisadventures by ourishermen and the Centralgovernment should be irmon this issue.T.M. Ranganathan,

Sriranagam, Tamil Nadu

■ The very understandablewave of outrage in TamilNadu over the killing of itsishermen has once againturned the focus on the veryimperative need to usher ina permanent solution to theissue of ishing rights,livelihood and security ofishermen from both thesides withoutmaking anycompromise on theotherwise existing fragilemarine ecosystem.Extensive use of trawlersover the years has inlictedirreversible damage to themarine resources in thePalk Straits. Putting an endto overishing by trawlersand building a sustainableisheries economywith ascaling down of ishing arethe need of the hour.M. Jeyaram,

Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu

Terror ightThe killing of terrorists witheither an Islamic State linkor under the ‘heavyinluence of the IS’ is avictory for intelligenceforces in the country (March9). Asmuch as the policeand the governmentmusthave heaved a sigh of relief,the fact that the terroristswere holed up in a busylocality andwere armedshould jolt the governmentinto action andmake itrealise that it cannot rest onits laurels.In the end, the politicaltussle over communalisingterror relects the sad stateof our politics at a timewhen the entire worldstands united in crushingterror.Ganapathi Bhat,

Akola, Maharashtra

Online attackIt is deplorable that peopleshould criticise a young girlfor her religious tolerance(“Muslim trolled forrendering Hindu song”,March 9). Art is all aboutacceptance and is a form ofexpression that deies allboundaries of language,religion and culture. SuhanaSayed’s rendition of thehymnwasmelodious andreceivedmuch praise fromthe judges. It is unfortunatethat social media hasbecome an easy,anonymous portal forpeople to spew hatredtowards others who haveconlicting ideologies.Shravya Sharath,

Bengaluru

Medal iascoA backlog of 15,64,130

servicemedals is indeedappalling and deeplyshocking (“Eforts on toclear servicemedalbacklog”, March 9). It istime the brass hats seriouslyintrospect on theircumulative and collectivecallous attitude in resolvingthis issue over the years.Needless to say, themorale,the spirit and the urge toachieve and own amedalmust be at an all-time low inthe Services.One cannot help contrastthis with the numerousprivileges and beneits thatare sanctioned overnightand disbursed post-haste tomany of our electedrepresentatives.S. Lakshminarayan,

Hyderabad

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

more letters online:

www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/

CMYK

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DATA POINT

Every time an Indian isher-man is injured or killed in SriLankan waters, the endlesssquabbles of the politicalparties are set aside and anoisy wall of solidarity imme-diately goes up against SriLankan trigger-happiness. On

the other hand, when a Bangladeshi cattle smuggler is killed, ithardly gets even a squeak out of mainstreammedia.But here is what happens at the beginning of every month

and something that is not publicised. The Sri Lankan NavyHeadquarters sendsout a consolidated report on Indianishingcraft in Sri Lankan waters. The report for February this yearwas sent on March 2. It went to, among others, the DirectorNaval Operations (Indian) as well as the Director Operations,Indian Coast Guard. It is also usually marked to the High Com-mission of India in Colombo and the Sri Lankan High Commis-sioner in India,whonodoubt forwards it to thepeople hedealswith.The information is quite extensive. In February, the Sri

Lankans noticed approximately 835 ishing trawlers/dhowsthey said were engaged in bottom trawling/poaching. Theywere sighted in 29 locations well within Sri Lankan territorialwaters, closer to the shores of Mullaitivu, Point Pedro,Talaimannar, Vetthlaikeni, Kakerathivu as well as the Delft Is-lands. In the annexures, in four columns, there are details suchas the timewhen the trawlers were noticed ingressing. On Feb-ruary 6, of Delft there were 50 trawlers. On some days the SriLankans detect hundreds.This has been going on for years. OnFebruary 19, 2011, for in-

stance, they detected 700. A copy of this, with the registrationof the trawlers, inds its way to the Fisheries Department ofTamil Nadu. They probably maintain the list of registeredboats.Whathappens to this listwhen it gets there?Aneducatedguess is that it is thrown into the dustbin as Sri Lanka does notget to hear of what we dowith the information.

An easy crossingYou could cross the Palk Straits in less than three hours.Though there are no markers, it is easy enough to know whenyou are in their waters: everymobile phone comes with a GPS.

At the beginning of the decade, there were 60,000 ishingvessels for 591 ishing villages strung out along Tamil Nadu’s1,076 km coastline. It is not clear howmany of them have GPS.According to Sri Lankan estimates, a signiicant portion of thisnumber has been regularly detected in Sri Lankan waters.Some are seized and the ishermen arrested.

In This year, in these three months, the igures are 14 boatsand 85 ishermen arrested.While the ishermenwill be eventu-ally released, the boats will be held back. If they release theboats, they are likely to be found ishing again.

Since the civil war ended, some of the dynamics havechanged. Sri Lankan ishermen want to assert the right overtheir territorial waters. If New Delhi can erect fences manyhundred kilometres long on both the eastern andwestern bor-ders and institute shooting as a deterrent policy, why apply an-other yardstick when it comes to amuch smaller neighbour?

The right to ishSri Lanka’s ishermen want to asserttheir right over their own territorialwaters, hindered by Indian trawlers


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v. sudarshan

Right from the Ranchi ri-ots in August 1967, theBabri demolition in 1992,the Gujarat riots in 2002,to the recent Muzaf-

farnagar riots, the Sangh Parivarhas always used nefarious designsto foment, organise and spreadcommunal riots for rich electoraldividends. The Sangh Parivar is en-gaged in an attempt to make in-roads into Kerala with the intentionof altering society forever by givingit a communal colour. It is desper-ate because it finds that this is notan easy task given the strong pres-ence of the Communist Party of In-dia (Marxist) in the State, which will

stall all attempts at communalpolarisation.

This desperation is at the root ofthe murderous politics being prac-tised by the Bharatiya Janata Partyand the Rashtriya SwayamsevakSanghin Kerala. From 1971, whenThalassery in Kannur district wit-nessed rampant RSS-instigated viol-ence against Muslims, the CPI(M)has taken the path of resistance.The designs of the RSS did not workin 1971 because of the stand the CPI(M) took. Since then, the RSS hasbeen targeting our cadre and sup-porters, declaring us as their swornenemies. They have not succeededin their grand design of communal

polarisation, but theyhave certainly succeededin turning Kerala into asimmering pot of politicalviolence.

No space for 'fanatics'The brutality of RSS

killings has ranged fromthe murder of an eight-year-old boynamed Fahad of Kanhangad, to thatof 68-year-old Sarojini Amma. Sofar, the RSS has slaughtered 205 CPI(M) activists in the State; over 3,000CPI(M) activists have been disabledand the homes of over 10,000 activ-ists attacked. Taken together, over650 CPI(M) activists have beenkilled by the RSS, BJP, Congress, In-dian Union Muslim League (IUML),the fundamentalist Muslim outfitSocialist Democratic Party of India

(SDPI) and the police.The last Assembly

elections saw the CPI(M)coming to power with anunprecedented majorityin Kerala under the lead-ership of Pinarayi Vi-jayan. The BJP struck alli-ances with 100-odd caste

and religion-based outfits to fightthe election. But the people of Ker-ala sent out a clear message that thefanatic Hindutva ideology has nospace in the multicultural socialfabric of Kerala.

The single seat that the BJP wonwas a gift from the Congress-ledUnited Democratic Front (UDF).The Congress has always adopted asoft approach towards the SanghParivar. Congress Working Commit-tee member A.K. Antony has criti-

cised this approach and warned hisparty workers of the danger of ‘be-ing Congress during the day andRSS at night’.

The alarming fact is that nine in-nocent persons have beenmurdered by the RSS in the lastnine months, including in the ChiefMinister’s constituency. Union Min-isters are seen supporting and in-stigating these murders.

Peace overturesHowever, despite these murders,

the Sangh is finding it difficult to re-tain its foothold even in their sup-posed strongholds and many RSSleaders and workers have startedspeaking up against theirleadership.

This has prompted the Sangh tocreate a greater fear psychosis

among its cadres to prevent deser-tions. Our party does not believe inpolitical violence or murders. Wefirmly believe that no organisationcan be destroyed with violence.The CPI(M) is not likely to crumblein the face of political attacks andatrocities — if it were, the partywould have ceased to exist. Onmany occasions the CPI(M) hastaken the initiative to hold bilateralmeetings with parties and organisa-tions, including the RSS and BJP, tohelp put an end to violence.

Recently, the Chief Ministermade yet another fervent effort inthis direction by personally conven-ing a meeting of leaders of all polit-ical parties to find a lasting solutionto end the political violence in theState. We are always ready to talk toanyone to ensure peace in Kerala.

Who’s behind the Kerala killings?RSS has grand designs of altering our society by giving it

a communal colour and we will not let that happen

Kodiyeri

Balakrishnan

is State secretary of the

CPI(M). He was Home

Minister during the

chief ministership of

V.S. Achuthanandan

LEFT, RIGHT, CENTRE

LEFT

That Marxists are in-tolerant towards otherideologies is well-known. World over,this has been the ex-

perience since the October Revolu-tion. In Kerala, wherever there is apolitical clash, the CPI(M) is a com-mon factor. The undivided CPI’sfirst significant physical attackagainst the RSS was in 1948 atThiruvananthapuram, against anRSS sanghik (conclave) addressedby the then RSS sarsanghchalakM.S. Golwalkar. Another major at-tack by the CPI took place in 1952on a gathering which was to be ad-

dressed by Guruji at Alappuzha.During the Emergency, the fight

against the autocratic and dynasticregime was carried on solely by RSSand its affiliates in Kerala. Thou-sands of RSS men staged non-viol-ent satyagraha, courted arrest andunderwent inhuman police tortureduring the period. The younger sec-tions of the CPI(M) became a frus-trated lot as they found their party’sapproach towards the Emergencyhad compromised their position. Asa result, several CPI(M) activistsjoined the underground activities ofthe RSS and turned into activecadres after the Emergency. This

trend was more visible inthe CPI(M) strongholdslike Kannur, Alappuzhaand coastal Thrissur. Adesperate CPI(M) leader-ship came to the conclu-sion that the best way tostem the desertions was tokill those who joined theRSS. In September 1978, they killedChandran of Panunda.

Over the years, several workersand leaders of the Sangh have beenkilled in Kannur. Prominent amongthose killed were BJP Kannur dis-trict secretary PannyannoorChandran (1986), Yuva MorchaState vice-president K.T. Jayakrish-nan Master, who was killed in aclassroom in front of Class VI stu-dents in 1999, and Kannur district

sharirik pramukh Manoj(2014). In 1984, Kannurdistrict sahakaryavahaSadanandan Master’slegs were chopped offbelow the knees. Thekilling spree of the CPI(M) has been on view inother parts of the State

too. At Vadanappally in Thrissur,they set fire to a house and a manwas burnt to death. Three RSS menwere killed in a single incident atMurukkumpuzha,Thiruvananthapuram, in 1987. InSeptember 1996, Anu, Sajith andKim Karun, ABVP workers at theDewasvom Board College, Mannar,were attacked and they drowned inthe Pampa river.

Such killings peak when the CPI

(M) is in power and all investiga-tions become farcical. The cadreskill during UDF rule too, but theyenlist the Congress’s support andescape punishment. The judge whoawarded capital punishment to K.T.Jayakrishnan’s murderers facedthreats to his life and was given po-lice protection. The CPI(M) Kannurdistrict secretary, P. Jayarajan, wasarrested in connection with themurder of RSS worker Manoj in2014 and is now out on bail citingheart ailments. It is not just the RSSwhich is at the receiving end of CPI(M) violence. Workers of the Con-gress, Muslim League and even CPI,their coalition partner, have beentargets of their murderous attacks.The killing of CPI(M) dissident T.P.Chandrasekharan at Vadakara is an-

other instance of intolerance of theCPI(M).

Tense atmosphereMore than 200 Sangh workers havelost their lives in Kerala. In Kannuralone, about 85 swayamsevaks havebeen killed. Nine RSS/BJP workers,including a woman, have beenkilled since Pinarayi Vijayan tookover as Chief Minister. Recent talksto maintain peace and end violencepolitics initiated from both sideshave helped defuse the tense situ-ation to a certain extent but, unfor-tunately, violent attacks on BJPworkers are still being reported.Whatever the provocation, the BJPwill not deviate from the path ofpeace and will continue to supportall peace initiatives.

The BJP will continue to support all peaceful initiatives.

It is the CPI(M) which does not want peace

Kummanam

Rajasekharan

is Kerala BJP president

and a long-time

member of the RSS

RIGHT

It is impossible to be-lieve that the greenand pleasanthomesteads and activeand vibrant public

spaces in Kannur are killing fieldstoo. But, sadly, they are. Politicalmurders and violence have becomethe order of the day in Kerala, espe-cially in Kannur. In the last ninemonths of the LDF government, 19political murders have been repor-ted, mostly from this northern dis-trict, and five of them from theChief Minister’s constituency. In90% of the cases, it is a CPI(M)versus RSS-BJP fight. It is not just

that lives are being cut short, butthe future of their families is beingshattered too. It is a war for territ-ory, war for more cadres and it hasbecome a numbers game too.

In Kannur and Kasaragod, unlikein other districts in Kerala, there are‘party villages’, a strange conceptand a horrible reality at the sametime. In a CPI(M)-controlled village,everybody should be members orsupporters of the CPI(M). They musttake part in all party functions. Thetentacles of the party do not endthere. Whether it is a marriage or adeath, it is the local committee orthe area committee of the CPI(M)

which takes all decisions.The party is all-pervasive.Dissent invites intimida-tion, ostracisation and of-ten leads to violence — andin some cases, murder.The BJP-RSS parivar is asintolerant, unreasonableand undemocratic as theCPI(M). They are two sides of thesame coin. They have no qualmsabout challenging the rule of lawand freedoms guaranteed by theConstitution. There is no logic, nodecency and no humaneness in theactions of these perpetrators ofviolence.

In Kannur, it is a numbers gametoo. Like in some medieval feudalworld, they want heads as trophies.If the CPI(M) kills in one village, the

RSS will retaliate in an-other part of Kannur.Then there are these ven-detta killings. Those in-volved in a politicalmurder or a clash are atrisk of being attackedanytime, anywhere. Inthis crossfire, sometimes

innocent lives are also lost. I believethat when the rulers themselves donot believe in concepts like rule oflaw and justice, criminals will rulethe roost.

When the ruling party itself is in-volved in murders and violence,how can there be effective policingand justice for all? From T.P.Chandrasekharan’s case, the in-volvement of top CPI(M) leaders inkillings and violence is out in the

open. The BJP and its ideologicalfountainhead, the RSS, emboldenedby their government at the Centre,have been engaging with the CPI(M)on a one-on-one basis.

The path forwardNeither the CPI(M) nor the BJP-RSShas a history of non-violent politicaldialogue. As long as theCPI(M) andthe BJP refuse to see the value ofdemocratic engagements and ex-changes, there is little hope to getthem across the table. In a place likeKerala where people have lived to-gether for centuries with a lot oftrust in each other and a lot of shar-ing, any attempt to polarise peopleon communal lines will be cata-strophic. It is the Congress and theUDF that have stuck to a non-violent

path and fought back against boththe parivar and the CPI(M). For aCongress worker, aligning withdemocratic and non-violent forcescomes naturally. It is the politicalconspiracy of the RSS and the CPI(M) to create as much violence aspossible and grab maximum polit-ical space. They think by doing so,they can fulfil their dream of a Con-gress-free Kerala and a Congress-muktBharat. They are acting in amutual and complementary man-ner. In this scenario of violence andhatred, the relevance of Congressand the UDF will increase becausethe need of the hour is a strong andclear voice upholding democracy,freedom and pluralism.

(All views as told to Gouridasan Nair)

Both CPI(M) and RSS are indulging in violence to realise

a common dream of a Congress-mukt Kerala

V.D. Satheesan

is vice-president,

Kerala Pradesh

Congress Committee,

and is also chairperson

of the Public Accounts

Committee, Kerala

Assembly

CENTRE

A joint meeting of the Congress President, Mr. Kamaraj, withthe Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Mr. Morarji Desaimay be held to-morrow [March 10] when Mr. Kamaraj willmake another effort to secure the unanimous election of theleader of the Central Congress Parliamentary Party. Mr.Kamaraj had talks with the Prime Minister and also Mr. Desaito-day [March 9, New Delhi]. The position that emerged thenwas that a contest was inevitable. What was suggested yester-day [March 8] was that Mr. Desai may be included in the Cab-inet as Deputy Prime Minister and given the portfolio ofHome Affairs. This suggestion was not found acceptable tothe Prime Minister.

FIFTY YEARS AGO MARCH 10, 1967

Talks on leadership issue


FROM ARCHIVES

A Special Tribunal sitting at Suri is engaged in hearing a casein which two Bengalee women, Dukodibala Debi andSuredhuni Molyani, and a teacher, Nibaran Chandra Chatak,are charged under the Defence of India Act. It is alleged bythe prosecution that on 1st December, the police searched thehouse of one Kshetra Mohan Bannerjee of Gondalpara inFrench Chandernagore and seized three revolvers and a letterwhich gave clue to the police as to the secret working of ananarchist gang on the bank of the Ajoy river in the district ofBirbhum. On 8th January the police simultaneously searchedthe houses of the accused, found two steel trunks containing5 revolvers and 1132 cartridges and one revolver case andother incriminating articles in the house of Suredhuni andseized certain papers belonging to the other two accused.Dukodibala and Surendhuni were arrested and produced be-fore the Sub-Divisional Officer of Ranpuhat. The case isproceeding.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO MARCH 10, 1917

Charge against Two Bengalee Women

Iron Cage/PhilosophyMax Weber used the Ger-man term stalhartes ge-hause, which in the 1930sEnglish translation of thework titled The ProtestantEthic and the Spirit of Cap-italism appeared as “ironcage”. Weber wrote thatthe cage traps individualsin systems based on ra-tional calculation, the trueend result of the Enlight-enment ideal of scienceand rationality helpingmankind to climb up theladder of history towardsemancipation. Weber be-lieved in idealism, inwhich things are knownonly because of the mean-ings individuals apply tothem. His concern was forthe social actions of indi-viduals and the subjectivemeaning people attachedto them within the frame-work of social contexts.

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CONCEPTUAL

Apioneer in the field ofgravitational waveshttp://bit.ly/DreverLIGO

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MORE ON

THE WEBthehindu.com/opinion

A recent case has exposeda lacuna in the Protectionof Children from SexualOffences (POCSO) Act of2012, which defines a‘child’ as a person under18 years of age.

The case, which cameup before the SupremeCourt, concerns a sexualassault victim whose biolo-gical age is 40 but whosemental age is six. Thecourt has to decide onwhether such a person is a‘child’ under the POCSOAct.

Cerebral palsy victimThe victim was a womansuffering from cerebralpalsy since birth. A de-tailed medical reportshows that her IntelligenceQuotient (IQ) and mentalage on eight social adapt-ive domains specify heroverall mental age to besix years.

Her 68-year-old motherwants the criminal case tobe transferred to a Special

Court designated underthe POCSO Act. The Su-preme Court has reservedthe case for judgment andis determined to interpretthe 2012 Act in a verdict,despite the fact that thesole accused died in judi-cial custody. Section 2(d)of the Act brackets victimsas those whose biologicalage is under 18 years. Theaspect of “mental age” ofvictims has not been con-sidered by Parliament.

This is despite the factthat the Preamble and theStatement of Objects andReasons of the POSCO Act,as also United NationsConvention on the Rightsof the Child, make itabundantly clear that theclear purpose of the Act isto “protect children fromoffences of sexual assault”and “to secure the best in-terests of the child”.

Advocate AishwaryaBhati, who represents thevictim in the case, arguesthat the failure to take intoconsideration the mental

age of victims is an attackon the very purpose of the2012 Act. Ms. Bhati submit-ted before the SupremeCourt that a purposiveconstruction to compos-itely include biological andmental age rather than sin-gularly biological agealone will be a natural ex-tension of the protectiveumbrella of POSCO Act.

A precedentAmong the internationalcases quoted in the Su-preme Court, the SouthAfrican case law of DanielJohannes Stephanus VanDer Bank v The State(2008) involving the rapeof 19-year-old woman whohad a mental age of an 8.5gains significance. TheHigh Court held that theterm ‘age’ also includesthe mental age of the vic-tim while granting her pro-tection and justice. TheSupreme Court of Appealof South Africa upheld thefinding as reported in2016.

Does ‘age’ encompass mental age?

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ACT ONE

The Protection of Children from Sexual Ofences Actfails to account for the mental age of the victim

Krishnadas Rajagopal

CMYK

ND-ND




NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

After Speaker SumitraMahajan disallowed ad-journment notices given byseveral Opposition mem-bers to raise the issue, theytook up the matter duringZero Hour.

Leader of CongressMallikarjun Kharge accusedthe government of “failure”in raising the issue with theU.S., saying the recentspate of racial attacks wasdeeply disturbing and Mr.Modi and his governmenthad “failed”, as neitherhave they condemned theincidents, nor taken up theissue with the U.S. at a highlevel.

“Why has the Modi gov-ernment maintained a si-lence. The Prime Ministertweets on every issue. Whyhas he kept quiet over sucha serious matter,” he said.

Taking a dig at the PrimeMinister, Mr. Kharge saidthat Mr. Modi is seen “hug-ging foreign leaders and sit-

ting on a swing withChinese President Xi Jin-ping” but has not taken upsuch an important issue.

Saugata Roy of the Trin-amool Congress said thegovernment did not seemto be interested in protect-ing the interests of Indiansin the U.S. Both Mr. Khargeand Mr. Roy said hatecrimes have seen a risesince Donald Trump tookover as the U.S. President.

‘Serious issue’Congress leader ShashiTharoor told reporters out-side Parliament that hatecrimes against Indians werea “serious” issue and ques-tioned the government’s“silence.”

“The key question raisedby my party was why is thegovernment silent? Why isit silent when Indian livesare being jeopardised dailyby these kinds of incid-ents,” he said.

Why is PM silent onhate crimes: Oppn.

He said the protest wasmeant to counter the “hateand intolerance in the formof racism, sexism and dis-crimination against thegender minorities.”

The activists were seensporting flowers on theirhair and wore colouredmasks. Many also broughtorigami pieces and colouredballoons.

While Kalakakshi, anartist collective, came upwith kiss-in umbrellas –evocative of couplesperched on the benchesalong the waterfront walk-way here, Oraali, an altern-ative folk rock band fromThrissur, staged a protestperformance.

Members of the LGBTcommunity, who gatheredat the venue , raised slogansagainst alleged police dis-crimination towards themand demanded the with-drawal of Section 377 fromthe Indian Penal Code.

Meanwhile, the venue

witnessed some tense mo-ments as a group of BJP act-ivists marched along thewalkway, raising slogansagainst both the kissing pro-testers and the Shiv Sena.Prompt intervention by thepolice helped avert tension.

Kochi protests againstmoral policing

A day after the Uttar Pradeshpolice retracted their state-ment that the men whoplanted a bomb on a train inBhopal were from the Is-lamic State (IS), Home Minis-ter Rajnath Singh did notmention the Islamist terror-ist organisation or any otheroutfit in his statement to theLok Sabha. He, however, de-scribed Saifullah, who wasshot dead by the Uttar Pra-desh police on March 7, as a“suspected terrorist”.

On Thursday, a MadhyaPradesh police official toldThe Hindu that the accusedhad prepared the “pressurepipe bomb” after download-ing a manual from Inspire, amagazine published by theal-Qaeda, a terrorist outfitwhich has become weakafter the emergence of the Is-lamic State.

The Uttar Pradesh policesaid the accused were self-proclaimed members of theIS and had even recovered ahand painted signature black

flag of the jihadist outfit fromthe rented house on the out-skirts of Lucknow where Sai-fullah was killed.

The low-intensity bombused in the train blast com-prised potassium chlorate,which is commonly availablein the market, another offi-cial said.

Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Shivraj SinghChouhan had told a newsagency on Wednesday thatthe accused belonged to theIS and had even sent the

photograph of the bomb totheir handler in Syria.

NIA probeMr. Rajnath Singh informedthe Lok Sabha that the Na-tional Investigation Agency(NIA) will probe the suspec-ted terror cases, includingthe Lucknow encounter inwhich an alleged terrorist,Saifullah, who was linked tothe train blast was killed.

While the Uttar Pradeshpolice shot dead Saifullah onTuesday, six suspects havebeen arrested in M.P. andU.P. on terror charges, Mr.Singh said.

Lok Sabha membersthumped desks when Mr.Singh lauded Saifullah’sfather Mohammad Sartaj forrefusing to accept his son’sbody after he told reportersin Kanpur a day ago that “ifhe could not be loyal to thecountry, how can he beours”.

“The government is proudof him and I am sure Parlia-ment too is,” Mr. Singh said.

“Initial inspection of the

scene of crime indicated thatthe accused had used an IEDprepared by using locallyavailable explosives for theblast. Madhya Pradesh policecoordinated with centralagencies for the investigationof the incident. Sub-sequently, based on availableintelligence, three suspectswere taken into custody byMadhya Pradesh police dur-ing vehicle checking at Pipar-iya in district Hoshangabad.Interrogation of these sus-pects indicated their involve-ment in the aforesaid incid-ent and they were arrested.Further investigation of thecase is being done in co-ordination with central agen-cies and information is beingcollected about other accom-plices of the accused,” theMinister said.

Based on the interrogationof the above suspects andother available information,the Uttar Pradesh police initi-ated action at differentplaces in Lucknow, Etawah,Kanpur and Auraiya, Mr.Singh added.

Rajnath hails U.P. man fordisowning slain terrorist sonThe government is proud of him and I am sure Parliament is too: Home Minister

Rajnath Singh

Vijaita Singh

New Delhi

The Parliamentary StandingCommittee on Defence onThursday pointed out thebizarre reality that this year’sdefence budget is not suffi-cient to meet even the com-mitted liabilities in the case oftheNavy.

Overall the committee ob-served that the budgetaryprovisions for 2017-18 as well

as the “dismal status of cap-ital procurements” do not re-ciprocate the “seriousness”required towardsmeeting de-fence needs.

“This year, the allocationis ₹18,000 crore in the capitalbudget, whereas the commit-ted liabilities itself are to theextent of ₹22,000 crore,” thereport noted about the Navy.This means that the alloca-tion would not be sufficientto pay for the deals alreadycontracted.

These observations werepart of Report no. 29 on ‘De-mands and Grants’ tabled inthe Lok Sabha onThursday.

In the case of theArmy, thecommittee observed that theArmy is expected tomeet thevast responsibilities of ensur-ing external and internal se-curity and for that, it is“quintessence” that Army

personnel be equipped withthe latest state-of-the-artequipment, but said theplummeting trend in fundingdoes not reciprocate thehugeexpectations laid upon theService.

“TheCommittee views thisas a dichotomy and feel thatthe situationmerits immedi-ate attention…,” it noted.

For the Army, against thecapital allocation of ₹25,254crore, the committed liabilitybeing carried forward from2016-17 to 2017-18 itselfamounts to ₹ 23,000 crore.

For the Air Force, the re-port noted that the budget al-

located exclusively for ‘newschemes’ is only ₹4,000crore, which it noted would“hamper the modernisationdrive” of the force as ex-penses related to the pro-curement of aircraft and re-lated equipment are high costin nature.

Make in IndiaThe Committee also pulledup thedefenceministry on its‘Make in India’ initiative. In2016-17, a total budget of ₹22,222,34 crore was actuallyspent on modernisation bythe Air Force, of which the re-port said only ₹268.10 crore,

that is, about1% of the ‘spend-ing’, was signed with Indianvendors.

“The Committee is per-turbed to observe that thestatistics donot resonatewiththe conceptual emphasis ofthe Government on ‘Make inIndia’,” it said.

The Committee also tookserious note of the fact thatwhile on one hand, “theMin-istry of Finance cites the slowpace of spending as thereason for making lower al-locations, on the other, thereare some crucial proposals ly-ing with the Ministry and arepending approval.”

Funds earmarkedinsuicient onseveral grounds

Dinakar Peri

NEW DELHI

Committee ticks of govt. on defence allocations

Manohar Parrikar

Feeling the heat: Villagers clash with securitymen near the site of an encounter in Pulwamadistrict of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday. Twomilitants and as many civilians were killed. AFP

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Fight and fury

India is ready to accept aUnited Nations (UN) per-manent Security Councilseat without using a veto forthe first 15 years, the MEAconfirmed here onThursday.

Answering questions onthe stand taken by India’sAmbassador to the UN onWednesday where he ad-dressed the General As-sembly’s Inter Govern-mental Negotiations onbehalf of Brazil, Germany,India and Japan (called theG-4), MEA spokespersonGopal Baglay said there hadbeen “no change in the gov-ernment’s position” on se-curing veto power at theUNSC, but India did notwish to “impede” the pro-cess.

In his submission Ambas-sador Syed Akbaruddin hadsaid that India and other G-4countries were ready to ac-cept a moratorium on usingthe veto.

“While the new perman-ent members would as aprinciple have the same re-sponsibilities and obliga-tions as current permanentmembers they shall not ex-ercise the veto until a de-cision on the matter hasbeen taken during a review[expected after 15 years],”Mr. Akbaruddin said. “The

Indian Ambassador’s state-ment merely stresses thatthe matter of veto need notbe made into something toprotract urgently needed re-forms of the Security Coun-cil,” added Mr. Baglay. Ac-cording to officials, India ishopeful that the Chairper-sons of the Inter-Govern-mental Negotiations (IGN)will now put out a text re-cording every country’sviews to take the reforms tothe next step.

Showing flexibility“This is one way of keepingthe process going, and toshow some flexibility on ourpart,” explained ChinmayaGarekhan, former IndianAmbassador to the UN.

However, Mr. Garekhansaid that he doubted Indiacould uphold the morator-ium if there were any resolu-tions at the UNSC that af-fected India directly.

‘No change in India’sstance on UNSC veto’Will accept no-veto rule for irst 15 years

Suhasini Haidar

New Delhi

Syed Akbaruddin

After his father’s arrest, Ab-dul Qadir, son of G.M. Khan,a former Indian Air Forceman accused of influencingyouths to join the terrormodule busted by the UttarPradesh police, said: “Thecountry’s enemy is our en-emy.”

Khan’s sons said theirfather’s long and unex-plained absence from thehouse had left thempuzzled.

G.M. Khan and Azharwere arrested here onThursday. Azhar had earliergiven the police the slip as amob surrounded the policeteam that reached his shopat Rehmani Market to arresthim on Monday evening.The family resides in thesame Jajmou area where thealleged terrorist Saifullahwas gunned down after anencounter.

Strained relationshipMr. Qadir sought to distancehimself from his father andhis alleged activities.

“It is well known that I oreven other family members

don’t get along with myfather,” he said. Meanwhile,since the arrest of brothersImran, Danish and Faisal forallegedly being a part of theterror module, the policehas restricted the move-ment of their parents, andImran’s wife and daughter,with personnel taking turnsto guard the house. Addi-tionally, they are not beingallowed to make phonecalls.

The police cite securityreasons for the restrictions.A policeman who was a partof the raid team that pickedup Faisal from his homesays the move is necessit-ated by the fear that thefamily would tip off othermembers of the network.

Son distances himselffrom former IAF man‘The country’s enemy is our enemy’

Shubhomoy Sikdar

KANPUR

G.M. Khan

India on Thursday conveyedits concerns to Pakistan re-garding the movement ofterrorists along the Line ofControl (LoC) as well as re-patriation of two of its na-tionals who crossed the LoCpost-Uri terror attack.

The information was con-veyed during an unsched-uled call between the IndianArmy’s Director-General ofMilitary Operations (DGMO),Lt. Gen. A.K. Bhatt, and hisPakistani counterpart Maj.Gen. Sahir Shamshad Mirza,the Army said in astatement.

“These concerns ariseprimarily from specific in-puts of Pakistani regulars

training terrorists for infilt-ration and cross-borderraids. The specifics of themhave been shared withPakistan DGMO,” one Armysource said.

Army gears upAs winter ends and summersets in, infiltration sees agradual increase along theLoC and the Army is gearingup for a surge this year inview of the unrest inKashmir.

However, Pakistan rejec-ted the observation on ter-rorists along the LoC.

“Indian concerns on ter-rorists’ movement alongLoC were strongly rejectedduring hotline. Indian Armyasked to look inward, shareevidence,” Maj. Gen. Asif

Ghafoor, spokesperson ofPakistan Armed Forces,tweeted quoting The Hindu’stweet on the issue.

Lt. Gen. Bhatt also com-municated that twoPakistani nationals appre-hended in Uri, Kashmir,would be repatriated onMarch 10 through Wagahborder.

On Wednesday, the Na-tional Investigation Agencyhad handed over the twoPakistani youths, Faisal Hus-sain Awan and Ahsan Khur-sheed, to the Army’s 16Corps headquarters inJammu. They were arrestedin connection with the lastyear’s terror attack on themilitary camp in Uri inwhich 19 soldiers werekilled.

Inputs about Pakistani regulars training terrorists shared


NEW DELHI

India, Pak. DGMOs hold talks

India said it would prefer notto have a public debate withthe U.S. on actions againstforeign-funded NGOs in thecountry, hours after the U.S.State Department expressedconcern over the impendingclosure of U.S Christian char-ity Compassion Interna-tional (CI) in India.

The Ministry of ExternalAffairs said it would prefer“not to air reactions in pub-lic”, and said the govern-ment’s actions were not inany way guided by theRashtriya SwayamsevakSangh, as alleged by the CI.“There is a well-establishedlegal framework for NGOs toconduct their operations inIndia. India has one of thelargest NGO networks in theworld,” said MEA spokesper-son Gopal Baglay.

Mr. Baglay’s responsecame after the State Depart-ment termed the impendingclosure of CI’s operations inIndia “unfortunate.” Depart-ment spokesperson MarkToner said the U.S was in

talks with the Indian govern-ment on the issue. “I thinkwe’re concerned... when wesee... a group like Compas-sion International, which webelieve is working and doingimportant work in India andis closed down, that it’s amatter of concern, but cer-tainly we’ll raise that withthe Indian Government.”

“...unfortunately, we’veseen over the past couple ofyears a number of foreign-funded NGOs in India thathave encountered significantchallenges in continuingtheir operations. And we be-lieve it’s imperative that all

parties work transparentlyand cooperatively in a waythat, obviously, respects In-dia’s laws but also encour-ages a transparent process,and these are views thatwe’ve made clear to the In-dian Government,” Mr.Toner said .

Mr. Baglay also repeatedhis statement, made to TheHindu on Wednesday, dis-missing allegations made byCI that their ouster from In-dia was because of “ideolo-gical” reasons and that theywere in negotiations with anRSS activist in the U.S. to re-verse strictures against themon the question of aiding re-ligious conversions.

RSS issues statementOn Thursday, the RSS issueda statement denying the al-legations first carried in TheNew York Times and callingthem “false and unfair.”

”The RSS works only inIndia and has no represent-ative in any foreign country,including the U.S.,” saidManmohan Vaidya, All IndiaPrachar Pramukh of the RSS.

Govt. rejects U.S. charity’scharge on RSS role in exitThere are well-established norms on NGOs, says MEA


New Delhi/Washington

Gopal Baglay

The National InvestigationAgency (NIA) has not yet de-cided on appealing againstWednesday’s trial court or-der acquitting self-pro-claimed monk and formerRashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) activist SwamiAseemanand and six othersin the 2007 Ajmer Dargahblast case.

Three others were heldguilty by the court.

Public Prosecutor Ash-wini Kumar Sharma toldThe Hindu that there wasenough evidence againstAseemanand, including hisconfessional statement to aDelhi court.

Confessional statement“Aseemanand’s statementwhere he had confessed tothe terror act was on re-cord, I don’t know why thecourt did not consider it andacquitted him. I am yet toreceive a copy of the judg-ment and there could be an-other reasons as well for theacquittal,” Mr. Sharma said.

In his confessional state-

ment recorded before a ma-gistrate in a Delhi court,Aseemanand had said thathe and other activists wereinvolved in bombings atvarious places of worshipacross the country, such asAjmer Sharif and Hydera-bad’s Mecca Masjid, andSamjhauta Express for tak-ing revenge against the “ter-ror acts of Muslims”.Aseemanand is on bail inSamjhauta case and the trialin Mecca Masjid blast has al-most concluded.

An NIA official said, “Weare yet to get a copy of theorder. We will decide oncethe order has been analysedby our legal team.”

NIA adds it is undecided on appeal

Vijaita Singh

New Delhi

Swami Aseemanand

‘Had enough proofagainst Aseemanand’

The Navy has ordered aBoard of Inquiry (BoI)against a group of youngsailors for alleged insubor-dination on board the sur-vey ship INS Sandhyak.

Three or four junior sail-ors with up to two-and-halfyears of experience wereordered to disembark afterthe incident, sources in theNavy said.

Insubordination chargeIn a statement, the Navysaid INS Sandhayak, whileon a routine deploymentoff Paradip in the Bay ofBengal, had reported an in-cident of insubordinationinvolving young sailors onWednesday.

“Indian Armed Forcesare known for maintaininga very high standard of dis-cipline. An inquiry hasbeen ordered into the in-cident as there is no scopefor tolerance for such in-cidents,” the Navy added inthe statement.

If found guilty, the sail-ors will face action in ac-cordance with the provi-sions of the Navy Act.

Navy to probeconduct of 4young sailors


New Delhi

Yuva Sena chief AadityaThackeray on Thursdayindefinitely suspended theparty membership of thoseinvolved in the Kochi moralpolicing incident.

“The incident in Kerala isshameful and unnecessary.The party will not shield orendorse such act,” Mr.Thackeray tweeted. “Thesaid persons involved in theact in Kochi, have beenimmediately suspendedfrom the party indefinitely.”

Sena cadresuspendedStaff Reporter

Mumbai

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CMYK

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NEWS

Sonia flies abroad formedical check-upNEW DELHI

Congress president SoniaGandhi, who did notcampaign in the Assemblyelections in five States, willgive the counting onSaturday a miss as she hasflown abroad for treatment.Party sources said she left fora “routine check-up” and willreturn only after Holi. PTI

IN BRIEF

At the end of the Assembly polls in five States, Chief ElectionCommissioner Nasim Zaidi spoke to The Hindu on electoralfunding, bribery of voters and multiple-phase elections.

Weare at the end of theAssembly polls in fiveStates, with Uttar Pradeshhaving seven phases. Aresuch lengthy pollsdesirable?

Overall, the elections havepassed off smoothly, andcontrary to all expectationsand precedents, in a peace-ful manner. Regarding theseven phases in U.P., wewould also like to have had itin the shortest number ofphases. Our elections havebecome heavily dependenton Central forces as peoplehave their own reservationsabout the State police. TheCommission, therefore, overthe years, has come to de-pend on Central policeforces. Our anxiety and theanxiety of political partiesthat all polling stationsshould be covered by Centralpolice have led to this situ-ation. There have been ex-amples in the past that voterstoo feel that to truly ensurean unafraid exercise of fran-chise, Central forces are re-quired. Keeping all that inmind, there is no way out butto conduct polls in a phasedmanner. It can be com-pressed to six or even five

phases, but not less thanthat. I must add here, thatour voters have shown un-precedented enthusiasm, sothey are, at least, not fa-tigued by the length of thepolls.

The polls took place rightafter the decision by thegovernment todemonetise certaincurrency notes. Has thatcurrency squeeze affectedvoter inducement by cashand kind?

Leaving aside the policy ofdemonetisation, and purelyfrom the [Election] Commis-sion’s point of view, this setof elections has seen an un-precedented number ofseizures of all manner of in-ducements to the voter. Ifyou total cash, liquor, drugs,bullion, it crosses ₹350crore, a three-fold increaseover 2012 when we seizedaround ₹100 crore worth ofstuff. Liquor worth ₹86 crorehas been seized during thesepolls.

What do you attribute thisto?

Our enforcement was 24

hours, our people worked inthree shifts; therefore, I feelthat there has been an in-crease in the volume of thesegoods seized during thesepolls. I am only looking at itfrom the Commission’s pointof view and have no com-ment to offer on the possibleeffects of demonetisation.

Three senior politicalfigures, Chief Ministers ofDelhi andUttar PradeshArvind Kejriwal andAkhilesh Yadav andDefenceMinisterManohar Parikkar, all saidduring these polls thatpeople “should acceptbribes but vote for them”.

The Commission has alwaysurged political parties that all

of them have to work with usin curbing pecuniary induce-ments to vote, and althoughthe matter with regard tothese three leaders areclosed, the Commissionwould continue to urge notto use these words. Leaders,if they are speaking againstthis practice, must speakagainst it unequivocally andnot even refer to accepting abribe tangentially. The com-mon man might see it as avalidation of the bribe, andtherefore leaders must speak

out against accepting bribesunequivocally, withoutdissembling.

Are the laws dealingwithelectoral bribessufficient?

The Commission is seekingto make bribery a cognisableoffence. Cognisability is re-quired because when youlodge an FIR today and un-der the current laws, policecannot take action, it willhave to go back to the courtsto do that. In this regard, theMinistry of Home Affairs, onour pursuance has circulateda Bill seeking to amend cer-tain sections of the IPC relat-ing to making bribing a cog-nisable offence. As a part ofthat note, they have pro-posed the enhancement ofpunishment for the offenceas well. Therefore, as far asindividual voters are con-cerned, with these provi-sions coming in, individualmatters will be dealt withvery effectively. The EC willcontinue to pursue an earlierproposal of ours about coun-termanding elections if thereis a widespread bribing ofvoters, based on materialevidence and reports of re-turning officers. That too isunder consideration of thegovernment.

Will the Centre’s decisionto cap the limit on

anonymous cashdonations to ₹2,000 bringabout transparency inparty funding?

We had, in the past, made aproposal that the amount ofdonation that remains an-onymous should be broughtdown to ₹2,000 from₹20,000. We understand it isnow part of the Finance Bill.It is a good beginning and tothis extent, the anonymity ofdonors will decrease. How-ever, there is a counter viewthat ₹2000-limit will also bemisused. But, as and whenthose instances come, wewill deal with it.

What about electoralbonds. It is being said thatit is not going to bring anytransparency?

As far as electoral bonds areconcerned, we have learntthat it is part of the FinanceBill, but we don’t have theoutlines of this scheme. How-ever, I can say in general if itis going to reduce the an-onymity, we welcome it.

What is the ElectionCommission’s view onstate funding of elections?

Our view is that state fundingcan come only subject to cer-tain deep reforms in the en-tire system. It cannot be astand-alone proposal. We

have said that there is a needto reform the functioning ofpolitical parties, a need forinternal democracy [of theparties], for decriminalisa-tion so that sources of moneyare also checked. Thereshould be complete transpar-ency of the funding of polit-ical parties and any othermeans of black money get-ting into the political systemor in the hands of candid-ates.

The PMhas proposedsimultaneous elections.What are the bottlenecksin implementing theproposal?:

The first condition is toamend the Constitution, forwhich there are recommend-ations that debate should beheld among the politicalparties. It is an important na-tional issue. The second partis our role [in the implement-ation].

It is a huge logistical exer-cise in terms of mobilisingthe election machinery. A lotof money would be required.If you have simultaneouselections, and they are de-pendent on forces, the elec-tions will have to be multi-phased.

I guess, it may take a min-imum of two months. It is ahuge logistical exercise, butsurmountable under certainconditions.

Leaders must tell voters not to take bribes, says CEC‘The Election Commission is seeking to make it a cognisable ofence as under current laws police cannot take action’

Devesh K. Pandey

Nistula Hebbar

<> It [simultaneous

polls] is a huge

logistical exercise,

but surmountable

under certain

conditions.

INTERVIEW | NASIM ZAIDI

SANDEEP SAXENA

The Election Commission onThursday announced theschedules for byelection tothree Lok Sabha and 12 As-sembly seats.

The byelections to the

Srinagar and the AnantnagLok Sabha constituencieswill be conducted on April 9and 12, respectively.

In the Malappuram LokSabha constituency, whichfell vacant after the death ofIUML leader E. Ahamed, the

elections will be held onApril 12. The by-polls in theRadhakrishnan Nagar As-sembly constituency inTamil Nadu, which was heldby former Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa, will be conduc-ted on April 12.

Bypoll schedule for 3 LS seats outSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

₹10 notes with additionalsecurity features soonMUMBAI

The Reserve Bank (RBI) willsoon issue ₹10 denominationnotes with enhanced securityfeatures for circulation. TheRBI on Thursday said thebanknotes in the MahatmaGandhi series-2005 will carryinset letter ‘L’ on bothnumber panels, bearing thesignature of Governor UrjitPatel. PTI

Even as most exit polls indic-ated a hung Assembly in Ut-tar Pradesh, a survey of theMuslim community in theState showed that a largenumber of them want theSamajwadi Party (SP) andBahujan Samaj Party (BSP) tojoin hands in such asituation.

Over 92% of the respond-ents in the survey done byCrowdNewsing want the SPand the BSP to bury their dif-ferences and come togetherto form the government inthe State.

In 10 pocketsThe post-poll survey revealsthat the Muslim vote wasanything but strategic, saysBilal Zaidi, founder ofCrowdNewsing, which talkedto 2,600 people in 10Muslim-majority pockets in

urban and rural areas of theState. CrowdNewsing is astart-up that crowdfundsstories for journalists.

“The vote of the minoritycommunity was split wide

open between the SP, theCongress alliance and theBSP, with the former gettingover 55% of the community’svote. Only 36% of the re-spondents said they had

voted for BSP. The remainingvoted for smaller partiessuch as the Rashtriya Lok Dal(RLD), the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul Muslimeen andthe Peace Party-led alliance,”Mr. Zaidi says.

In communally disturbedareas such as Shamli andKairana of western U.P., theCongress-SP alliance seemsto have prevailed over theBSP. On the other hand, theMuslim community in manypockets of central and east-ern Uttar Pradesh seems tohave strongly backed May-awati’s Dalit-Muslim posi-tion, bypassing the SP-Con-gress alliance.

Reasons for disaffectionWhen probed about the reas-ons behind their disaffectionwith the BJP, most of the re-spondents pointed to theparty’s public positioningagainst the community; 86%

respondents believed PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s‘shamshan versus kabristan’comment was a direct attackon minorities. Askedwhether Ram Mandir orBabri Masjid is an election is-sue or not, 59% believed itwas a non-starter. This in-cludes close to 75% votersunder 30 years of age.

On their voting prefer-ence, the top answer was“the party’s ability to win”with 45%, followed by “can-didate’s ability to defeat theBJP candidate” at 29%, and“candidate’s track record” at20%. Asked about issues thatmattered to them, develop-ment of infrastructure,roads, water and electricitytops the agenda at 44%, fol-lowed by party’s ability to“prevent riots, communal vi-olence” at 23%, “creation ofjobs” at 19%, and “candid-ate’s religion” at 12%.

Muslims prefer SP-BSP govt.: SurveyA large section of the community wants parties to join hands in case of a hung Assembly

Mohammad Ali

MEERUT

Moot point: A survey shows that in communally disturbedareas such as Shamli and Kairana, the Congress-SP allianceseems to have prevailed over the BSP. AFP

control. Everything has beenattached. I have nothing,”Mr. Vaidynathan submitted.“So you are penniless,”Justice Goel asked.

In the present case, thebanks had approached theSupreme Court accusing Mr.Mallya of secreting away $40million (Rs. 600 crore) thathe received from the Britishliquor major Diageo Plc fol-lowing his resignation aschairman of United SpiritsLtd. in February 2016. Thebanks accused Mr. Mallya ofcontempt of court as he did

not disclose this sum amongthe assets the SupremeCourt had ordered him toreveal.

Mr. Mallya, in turn, hadreplied that the $40 millionwas one among “thousandsof transactions” he did.

“So what was the unholyworry to disburse the 40mil-lion when you owed somuch to the public banks?Why did you not pay backsomething to purge your-self?” Justice Lalit asked.

‘Mocking at the judiciary’“His wilful, contumaciousconduct of siphoning of themoney and disbursing it outof reach of the authorities ata certain level shows that thegentleman is mocking the In-dian judicial system,” ShyamDivan, banks’ counsel, said.

A notice of contempt fromthe Supreme Court is alreadypending against Mr. Mallyafor allegedly supplying thebanks with vague informa-tion about his and his fam-ily’s assets in India and

“Why have I been made theposter boy for loan default-ers,” fugitive businessmanVijay Mallya asked the Su-preme Court on Thursday.

Mr. Mallya, who owes₹9,200 crore to banks andhas properties worth ₹8,000crore attached under thePrevention of Money Laun-dering Act, accused the judi-ciary of targeting him andtreating him worse than a“terrorist”, with no access tothe rule of law.

“Why is my case [Mr. Mal-lya’s case] unique? Why am Itargeted when the bankshave seven lakh crore rupeesworth of non-performing as-sets,” C.S. Vaidyanathan, Mr.Mallya’s counsel, said in aday-long hearing.

The Bench of Justices A.K.Goel and U.U. Lalit reservedfor final orders an applica-tion by a consortium of 13banks.

“I [Mr. Mallya] have noproperty of which I have any

abroad. Mr. Mallya had op-ted to file an application inthe Supreme Court for recallof the contempt notice. Thecourt has reserved orders onthis re-call application.

Attorney-General MukulRohatgi and Mr. Divan saidthe businessman was takingthe Supreme Court “for aride” and his conductshowed he cared “twohoots” for the judiciary.

Justice Goel asked Mr. Ro-hatgi whether there was anyaction that could be takenunder the criminal law to se-cure Mr. Mallya’s presence.

The Attorney-Generaltook instructions from theHome Ministry and cameback in the afternoon to de-tail that the government hasrequested the U.K. govern-ment to deport Mr. Mallyaand a Note Verbale was is-sued in February 2017.

“When you pass an orderof contempt, we will show itin the proceedings in Eng-land,” Mr. Rohatgisubmitted.

Am I the poster boy of defaulters: MallyaAccuses courts of targeting him and treating him worse than a terrorist

Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI

Vijay Mallya

The Election Commission isexpected to announce theschedule for election to theoffice of the President soonafter byelections to the va-cant Lok Sabha and As-sembly seats are over in

April. Pranab Mukherjee’stenure ends on July 25.

On December 29, thepanel sought State-wise de-tails of the members of theElectoral College. In total,there are 4,120 Assemblyseats, 233 Rajya Sabha and543 Lok Sabha seats.

Poll panel gears up forpresidential electionSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Sri Lanka has assured Indiaof conducting “a very thor-ough investigation” into anincident which led to thedeath of an Indian fisher-man and injured severalothers.

The statement from theExternal Affairs Ministrycame a day after both sidesagreed to release fisher-men in each other’s cus-tody following the killing.

“After the unfortunateincident in which one fish-erman lost his life, we tookup the matter at thehighest level in Sri Lanka.The Sri Lankan govern-ment has assured us that avery thorough investiga-tion will take place into thematter,” said Gopal Baglay,Spokesperson of the MEA,during the weekly briefing.

This was the first formalstatement from the MEAafter a 21-year-old fisher-man was allegedly killed bythe Sri Lankan Navy nearRameswaram on Monday.

Sri Lanka toprobe killing


New Delhi

Jawan killed in ceasefireviolation in PoonchJAMMU

An Army jawan was killedwhen Pakistani troopsviolated ceasefire in thePoonch sector in the Jammuregion on Thursday. Officialsources said Pakistani troopsopened fire at Indian postsaround 2 p.m. in the Gulpurarea, to which the Armyretaliated effectively. Thesources said a jawan, DeepakJaganath, died of a bulletinjury on the head. PTI

CMYK

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WORLD

Scottish referendumcould precede BrexitEDINBURGH

Scotland could hold anindependence referendum inthe autumn of 2018, justmonths before Britain is dueto leave the European Union(EU), Scottish First MinisterNicola Sturgeon told theBBC. Ms. Sturgeon saidautumn 2018 would be a“common sense time” forScotland to hold anotherindependence referendum,once there is some outline ofa deal to exit the EU. REUTERS

ELSEWHERE

China report slamsU.S. election as ‘farce’BEIJING

Beijing on Thursday accusedAmerican politicians ofcorruption and hypocrisy in itsyearly rebuttal to U.S.criticisms of China’s humanrights record, saving an extraheaping of invective for thecountry’s divisive presidentialrace. “In 2016, money politicsand power-for-money dealscontrolled the presidentialelection, which was full of liesand farces. There were noguarantees of political rights,”Beijing’s report said. AFP

Refugees who helpedSnowden seek asylumHONG KONG

Refugees who shelteredfugitive whistleblowerEdward Snowden in HongKong are formally seekingasylum from the Canadiangovernment as their lawyerssaid on Thursday their livesare in danger. The refugeestook in the former NationalSecurity Agency contractor in2013, helping him to evadeauthorities by hiding him intheir cramped homes after heinitiated one of the largestdata disclosures in U.S.history. AFP

Pak. again shuts borderwith AfghanistanPESHAWAR

Pakistani officials sayauthorities have again closedthe two main bordercrossings with Afghanistanafter a temporary, two-dayopening that enabled nearly35,000 people to cross theborder. Border managementofficials Fayyaz Khan andIrfan Toor said on Thursdaythat the Torkham and Chamancrossings would be shutindefinitely. The crossings aremajor arteries for trade andcommerce between the twoneighbours. AP

There will be no changes inthe H-1B visa programme forskilled temporary foreignworkers before this year’s se-lection process kicks off onApril 1, the White House in-dicated on Wednesday. TheU.S. admits 85,000 peopleon H-1B visas every year,through a lottery processthat begins with the filing ofapplications on April 1.

Press secretary SeanSpicer said President DonaldTrump was focused on deal-ing with illegal immigrationat the moment and the over-all revamp of the immigra-tion process will comesubsequently.

The legal and the illegal“I think there is the legalpart of immigration and thenthe illegal part of immigra-tion. The President’s actionsthat he’s taken in terms ofhis executive order andother revamping of immigra-tion policy have focused onour border security, keepingour country safe, our peoplesafe. And then, obviously,whether it’s H-1B visas or theother one — spousal visas —

other areas of student visas,I think there is a natural de-sire to have a full look at — acomprehensive look at that,”Mr. Spicer said.

David Perdue and TomCotton, Senators pushing forlegislation that will restrictfamily-linked and employ-ment-related legal immigra-tion to the U.S. met Mr.

Trump on Tuesday. Mr.Spicer said Mr. Trump wasvery supportive of their ef-forts with respect to how weview legal immigration.

“He mentioned it in hisjoint address that we’re oneof only a handful of coun-tries that doesn’t use a merit-based system of immigra-tion, and that is something

that we need to look at in itstotality,” Mr. Spicer said.

While Mr. Trump’s prefer-ence for merit-based immig-ration as opposed to family-linked immigration could beseen as beneficial for Indiantech workers, any direct cor-relation could be misleading.Mr. Trump has spoken aboutmerit-based immigrationthroughout his campaign,even while opposing immig-rant workers allegedly un-dercutting or replacingAmerican workers.

Neither Mr. Trump nor hisadvisers believe the H-1Bprogramme is merit-based,going by their public state-ments so far.

Mr. Spicer had earlier saidthe administration was con-sidering executive and legis-lative actions to overhaul theH-1B programme. While nomeasure is expected beforethe beginning of this year’sprocessing season, therecould be changes later in theyear. Top on the administra-tion’s priority is work permitfor spouses of H-1B visa hold-ers, which was introducedthrough an executive actionby the Obamaadministration.

No changes in H-1B programmeWhite House says President Trump’s immediate focus is on tackling illegal immigration

Liberty in peril:Womenwearing ‘Statue of Liberty’ costumesprotest Donald Trump’s immigration policies in Sydney. AFP

Varghese K. George

Washington

An inaugural Common-wealth summit focused onstimulating trade within thegroup kicked off onThursday in London, as gov-ernment representatives andbusiness people gathered todiscuss opportunities forgrowth. The meeting,though planned before lastyear’s Brexit referendum,has acquired new signific-ance as a result of it, as Bri-tain pushes for trade dealsbeyond the EU borders.

The two-day event in-volves a series of round-tablediscussions between minis-ters from over 30 countriesand chief executives, fol-lowed by a ministerialround-table, which its organ-isers hope will kick-start fur-ther action on strengtheningcross-Commonwealth trade,ahead of next year’s Com-

monwealth Heads of Govern-ment Meeting (CHOGM) inthe U.K., which is expectedto bring together leaders aswell as 2,000 businessesfrom across the group.

The Commonwealth lead-ership is targeting an in-crease in intra-group tradeto $1 trillion by 2020, from$750 billion. Organisers ofthe trade summit are hope-ful that a Commonwealth ac-cord that recognises the be-nefits of trade within thebloc and provides the frame-work for potential trade initi-atives between groupingswithin it is achievable in thenext couple of years.

India is being representedby Commerce Secretary RitaA. Teotia, who took part inpanel discussions on theease of doing business andcreating an export economy.Ms. Teotia’s visit will be fol-lowed by that of M.J. Akbar,

Minister of State for ExternalAffairs, who will be attend-ing the Commonwealth Min-isterial Action Group meet-ing next week, also inLondon. “From today, tillthe CHOGM summit, theCommonwealth will be animportant part of ouragenda,” said Deputy HighCommissioner Dinesh Pat-naik on Thursday.

Ties beyond EUAt the event, British TradeSecretary Liam Fox spoke ofBritain’s eagerness to forgestronger ties beyond the EU.“Protectionism can be a se-ductive but a false friend.”

Speaking at the start ofthe day, Lord Marland, chairof the Commonwealth Enter-prise and Investment Coun-cil, noted the sharp disparitybetween the population ofthe Commonwealth (arounda third of the world’s popula-

tion) and its share of trade(around 15%). “That givesgreat potential,” he saidadding that common actorssuch as language and similar-ities in legal and regulatoryregimes meant that the costsof trade could be on average19% lower compared toother states.

Changing attitudes to-wards globalisation in otherparts of the world added tothe opportunities presentedto the Commonwealth tostimulate trade within thegroup, he said.

“When countries protectthemselves, it will give short-term benefit to sectors but itcan do great harm,” saidNew Zealand’s Minister forTrade Todd McClay ahead ofthe discussions. “We needoutcomes that help bring ustogether and make tradefreer and fairer and helpsour economies grow.”

Bloc targeting increase in trade to $1 trillion by 2020, from $750 billion now

Vidya Ram

London

Commonwealth trademeet begins

Three-week tussle: Buddhist monks from Thailand’s Dhammakaya temple confront soldiers at the temple’s gates in Pathum Thaniprovince. Thai police are seeking the arrest of a monk, Phra Dhammachayo, onmoney laundering and other charges. REUTERS


Face-of

Islamic State (IS) group chiefAbu Bakr al-Baghdadi is re-ported to have abandonedMosul, leaving local com-manders behind to lead thebattle against Iraqi forces ad-vancing in the city.

With Iraqi troops makingsteady progress in their as-sault to retake Mosul fromthe jihadists, a U.S. defenceofficial said Baghdadi hadfled to avoid being trappedinside. It was the latest signthat IS is feeling the pressurefrom twin U.S.-backed of-fensives that have seen itlose much of the territory itonce controlled in Iraq andSyria.

Speaking to reporters inWashington, the defence of-ficial said Baghdadi had leftMosul before Iraqi forcesseized control of a key roadat the beginning of this

month, isolating the ji-hadists in the city.

“He was in Mosul at somepoint before the offensive...He left before we isolatedMosul and Tal Afar,” a townto the west, the official said.

“He probably gave broadstrategic guidance and hasleft it to battlefieldcommanders.”

Baghdadi, who declaredIS’s cross-border “caliphate”

at a Mosul mosque in 2014,in an audio message inNovember urged supportersto make a stand in the cityrather than “retreating inshame”.

More U.S. troops in SyriaAlso, a spokesman for theU.S.-led coalition in Syriasaid on Thursday that theU.S. is deploying an addi-tional 400 troops to help de-feat the IS in Raqqa. “Theyare temporary forces,” U.S.Colonel John Dorrian told re-porters in Baghdad, con-firming a report in The New

York Times, adding that thelong-term authorised level ofU.S. troops in Syria would re-main at 500.

IS is facing simultaneousoffensives in northern Syriaby government forces, Turk-ish-backed rebels, and aU.S.-supported alliance ofKurdish and Arab fighters.

IS chief Baghdadi has ledMosul, says U.S. oicialHad told supporters in November to stand their ground

Agence France-Presse

Mosul

Some Iraqis displaced fromMosul due to thebattle. REUTERS

A case was registered onThursday against unidenti-fied persons involved inspreading “blasphemousmaterial” on social media,amid a top Pakistan court’scall for a ban on such sitesdue to the spread of “blas-phemous” images. Thecase was registered at Ra-man Police Station after Is-lamabad High Court (IHC)ordered the government toimplicate those running“blasphemous Facebookpages”. “Sentiments ofMuslims have been hurt bythe content being sharedon these pages,” accordingto the FIR.

The relevant sections ofblasphemy laws have beeninvoked against the perpet-rators of the crime, an offi-cial said.

The action came twodays after Islamabad HighCourt Judge Shaukat AzizSiddiqui called for a ban onsocial media sites inPakistan due to the spreadof “blasphemous” imagesonline.

Justice Siddiqui onMarch 7 had ordered In-terior Minister Nisar AliKhan to take immediate ac-tion to eliminate access toblasphemous content onsocial media.

Justice Siddiqui alsoordered to put names ofthe people found to haveposted blasphemous con-tent online on the Exit Con-trol List, thereby prohibit-ing them from leavingPakistan.

The controversial blas-phemy laws were intro-duced in Pakistan byformer military ruler Zia-ul-Haq in the 80s and any-one charged under thelaws become an easy targetfor extremists.

Case against‘blasphemous’sites in Pak.Press Trust of India

Islamabad

The London newsroom andstudios of RT, the televisionchannel and websiteformerly known as RussiaToday, are ultramodern andspacious, with spectacularviews from the 16th flooroverlooking the Thames andthe London Eye. And, itsLondon bureau chief,Nikolay A. Bogachikhin,jokes, “We overlook MI5 andwe’re near MI6,” Britain’s do-

mestic and foreign intelli-gence agencies.

Mr. Bogachikhin was pok-ing fun at the charge fromWestern governments, Amer-ican and European, that RTis an agent of Kremlin policyand a tool directly used byPresident Vladimir Putin toundermine Western demo-cracies — meddling in the re-cent U.S. presidential elec-tion and, European securityofficials say, trying to do thesame in the Netherlands,France and Germany, all ofwhich vote later this year.

But the West is not laugh-ing. Even as Russia insiststhat RT is just another globalnetwork like the BBC or

France 24, albeit one offering“alternative views” to theWestern-dominated newsmedia, many Western coun-tries regard RT as the slicklyproduced heart of a broad,often covert disinformationcampaign designed to sowdoubt about democratic in-stitutions and destabilise theWest.

Western attention focusedon RT when the Obama ad-ministration and U.S. intelli-gence agencies judged with“high confidence” in Januarythat Mr. Putin had ordered acampaign to “underminepublic faith in the U.S. demo-cratic process,” discredit Hil-lary Clinton through the

hacking of Democratic Partyinternal emails and providesupport for Donald Trump,who as a candidate said hewanted to improve relationswith Russia.

Social media campaignThe agencies issued a reportsaying the attack was carriedout through the targeted useof real information, someopen and some hacked, andthe creation of false reports,or “fake news”, broadcast onstate-funded news media likeRT and its sibling, the inter-net news agency Sputnik.These reports were thenamplified on social media,sometimes by computer

“bots” that send out thou-sands of Facebook and Twit-ter messages.

To many Americans, theimpression that RT is an in-strument of Russian med-dling was reinforced when itsprogramming suddenly in-terrupted C-SPAN’s onlinecoverage of the House ofRepresentatives in January.(C-SPAN later called it a tech-nical error, not a hacking.)

Watching RT can be adizzying experience. Hardnews and top-notch graphicsmix with interviews from allsorts of people: well knownand obscure, left and right.They include favourites likeJulian Assange of WikiLeaks

and Noam Chomsky, the lib-eral critic of Westernpolicies; odd voices like act-ress Pamela Anderson; andcranks who think Washing-ton is the source of all evil inthe world.

Deep scepticismBut if there is any unifyingcharacter to RT, it is a deepscepticism of Western andU.S. narratives of the worldand a fundamental defens-iveness about Russia andPutin.

Analysts are sharply di-vided about the influence ofRT. Pointing to its minusculeratings numbers, many cau-tion against overstating its ef-

fect. Yet focusing on ratingsmay miss the point, saysPeter Pomerantsev, whowrote a book three years agothat described Russia’s use oftelevision for propaganda.

“Ratings aren’t the mainthing for them,” he said.“These are campaigns forfinancial, political and mediainfluence.”

RT and Sputnik propelthose campaigns by helpingcreate the fodder for thou-sands of fake news propagat-ors and providing anotheroutlet for hacked materialthat can serve Russian in-terests, said Ben Nimmo,who studies RT for the At-lantic Council. NYT

West says the RTis a tool in thehands of Putin

Steven Erlanger

London

Russia’s RT network: Is it more BBC, or a Kremlin agent?

Sri Lanka is to scale back aprofitable but controversialdeal to sell a deep-sea portto a Chinese company afterwidespread protests, thePorts Minister saidThursday. Arjuna Rana-tunga said the governmentwas renegotiating the sale ofthe debt-laden but strategic-ally-located Hambantotaport.

It had hoped to transferan 80% stake to the ChinaMerchants Port Holdings ona long lease, but the pro-posed deal met with opposi-tion from residents in thesouthern town of Hamban-tota and some members ofthe ruling coalition.

“We have proposed sev-eral changes [to the originaldraft agreement] and wewill end up with a situationwhich is far more favourableto the institution,” Mr. Rana-tunga told reporters inColombo, referring to theSri Lanka Ports Authority.

He did not give details,but official sources said theSLPA wanted to reduce the

Chinese company’s equityholding and the lease

period, and ensure overallsecurity of the port re-mained in its control.

The port, built during theformer president MahindaRajapaksa, has become awhite elephant with reven-ues insufficient even to paysalaries of staff.

The new government,which came to power inJanuary 2015, has been try-ing to renegotiate terms ofits $8-billion Chinese debt,which includes the con-struction costs of the Ham-bantota port.

Sri Lanka to scale backHambantota port dealThe Chinese-built port is making losses


Colombo

A protest against a proposedsale of stake in the port to aChinese company. AFP

WikiLeaks will provide tech-nology companies with ex-clusive access to CIA hack-ing tools that it possesses, toallow them to patch soft-ware flaws, founder JulianAssange said on Thursday.

The anti-secrecy grouppublished documents onTuesday describing secretCentral Intelligence Agencyhacking tools and snippetsof computer code. It did notpublish the full programsthat would be needed to ac-tually conduct cyberexploits.

“Considering what wethink is the best way to pro-ceed and hearing these callsfrom some of the manufac-turers, we have decided towork with them to givethem some exclusive access

to the addition technical de-tails that we have so that thefixes can be developed andpushed out, so people canbe secure,” he said during apress conference broadcastvia Facebook Live.

Several companies havealready said they are confid-ent that their recent securityupdates have already ac-counted for the allegedflaws described in the CIAdocuments.

To enable tech irms ix software lawsReuters

Washington/Frankfurt

WikiLeaks founder JulianAssange

WikiLeaks to shareCIA hacking tools

Republican Senator fromArkansas Tom Cotton, whomet President DonaldTrump this week, said thecurrent system does notbring in the brightest andthe best. So there is needto reform it and this iswhat Mr. Trump isplanning to do.

“I think, on the H-1Btemporary visa but also thepermanent green cards,like EB1, EB2, the Presidentwants to get the very bestpeople from around theworld,” Mr. Cotton toldMSNBC. “They don’t bringin PhDs and computerscientists. They bring inmid-level and they replacemid-level datamanagement workers,” heargued.

“So he [Trump] wouldlike to see reforms to thoseprogrammes that I would,”he said.

‘We needPhDs, not mid-level workers’Press Trust of India

Washington

European Union presidentDonald Tusk won a secondterm on Thursday despiteopposition from his nativePoland, vowing he wouldtry make the bloc “better”in the wake of Brexit.

Twenty-seven EuropeanUnion leaders voted at asummit in Brussels to giveMr. Tusk a new two-and-a-half-year mandate withonly Poland voting against.

Poland’s euroscepticgovernment, a long-termfoe of Mr. Tusk, hadthreatened to derail thesummit if the EU forcedthrough his presidency.

“Grateful for trust & pos-itive assessment by #EUCO[European Council]. I willdo my best to make the EUbetter,” Mr. Tusk said onTwitter after gettingre-elected.

Donald Tuskre-elected EUpresidentAgence France-Presse

Brussels

CMYK

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Bank of Baroda . . . . . . . 159.45. . . . . . . . . 0.20

Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . . 360.20. . . . . . . -0.50

BHEL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157.50. . . . . . . -0.75

Bosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22028.50. . . . .139.25

BPCL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632.00. . . . . . . -7.00

Cipla. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589.20. . . . . . . -2.65

Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318.10. . . . . . . -2.10

Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . . 2704.85. . . -141.95

Eicher Motors . . . . . . . . . 23396.95. . . . . -51.40

GAIL (India) . . . . . . . . . . . . 379.25. . . . . . . -9.81

Grasim Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1009.50. . . . . . . . . 7.35

HCL Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 844.35. . . . . . . -3.35

HDFC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1371.50. . . . . . . . . 3.80

HDFC Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1394.20. . . . . . . . . 2.00

Hero MotoCorp. . . . . . . 3289.00. . . . . . .16.30

Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189.20. . . . . . . -1.00

Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . . 870.30. . . . . . . -1.00

ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273.50. . . . . . . -0.90

Idea Cellular . . . . . . . . . . . 103.95. . . . . . . -2.25

IndusInd Bank . . . . . . . . 1326.30. . . . . . . -1.05

Bharti Infratel . . . . . . . . 305.15. . . . . . . -4.80

Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1011.55. . . . . . . . . 3.75

ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264.95. . . . . . . . . 0.80

Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825.45. . . . . . . . . 0.55

L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1476.90. . . . . . . . . 0.60

Lupin. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1453.45. . . . . . . . . 3.80

M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1303.95. . . . . . . . . 0.40

Maurti Suzuki . . . . . . . . . 5964.40. . . . .100.25

NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158.30. . . . . . . . . 1.20

ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189.65. . . . . . . -3.30

PowerGrid Corp . . . . . . 194.45. . . . . . . -1.15

Reliance Ind. . . . . . . . . . . . 1286.75. . . . . . . -4.45

State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273.25. . . . . . . . . 3.35

Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . . 685.15. . . . . . . . . 4.75

Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . 467.60. . . . . . . . . 4.80

Tata Motors DVR . . . . 279.10. . . . . . . -0.40

Tata Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82.20. . . . . . . . . 0.10

Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 469.45. . . . . . . -3.00

TCS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2519.75. . . . . . . . . 7.55

Tech Mahindra . . . . . . . . 488.95. . . . . . . -2.95

UltraTech Cement . . 3822.85. . . . . . .19.25

Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 484.50. . . . . -10.60

YES Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1465.25. . . . . . . -9.20

Zee Entertainment . 517.40. . . . . . . . . 2.95

EXCHANGE RATESIndicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at4 p.m. on March 09

CURRENCY TT BUY TT SELL

US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 66.51. . . . . . . 66.83

Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 70.20. . . . . . . 70.55

British Pound. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 80.88. . . . . . . 81.27

Japanese Yen (100) . . .. . 58.05. . . . . . . 58.33

Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .9.63. . . . . . . . . 9.67

Swiss Franc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 65.57. . . . . . . 65.89

Singapore Dollar . . . . . . . .. . 46.81. . . . . . . 47.04

Canadian Dollar . . . . . . . . . .. . 49.18. . . . . . . 49.43

Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . . .. . 14.91. . . . . . . 14.99

Source:Indian Bank

BULLION RATES CHENNAI

March 09 rates in rupees with previous rates inparentheses

Retail Silver (1g). . . . . . . . . . 44.20. . . . (44.70)

22 ct gold (1 g) . .. . . . . . . . . . 2,759. . . . (2,777)

Qatar Airways’ plans to setup a fully foreign entity-owned airline in India maynot take off any time soon asthe Indian government hasput its proposal to dilute thesubstantial ownership andeffective control (SOEC)clause on the back burnerfollowing opposition fromthe domestic airlineoperators.

“The proposal to amendthe SOEC norms by amend-ing the Aircraft Rules, 1937was put on hold followingsome objections raised bythe Federation of Indian Air-lines (FIA),” a senior CivilAviation Ministry officialsaid, on condition ofanonymity.

Akbar Al Baker, chief exec-utive officer of Qatar Air-ways, the state-owned airlineof Qatar, on Wednesday an-nounced a plan to set up a100%–owned domestic car-rier in India along with itsgovernment’s investment

arm, Qatar Investment Au-thority. During an interac-tion at the ITB Berlin travelshow he said that the airlinewill be making an applica-tion soon to Indian officials.

FDI limitIn June last year, the Centrehad raised foreign direct in-vestment (FDI) limit inscheduled commercial air-lines to 100% from 49%.However, a foreign carrier

can only invest up to 49% toset up a domestic airline inIndia and the rest, up to 51%,has to come from local orforeign investors includingairports and sovereign fund.

SpiceJet chairman andmanaging director AjaySingh and IndiGo Presidentand Whole-time DirectorAditya Ghosh are slated tomeet Civil Aviation SecretaryR.N. Choubey on Friday andare expected to raise the is-

sue of allowing Qatar Air-ways to set up a fully ownedforeign airline in India, air-line sources said.

“It is the policy of the gov-ernment to welcome FDI inthe civil aviation sector,” Mr.Choubey told The Hindu.

“As far as the specific caseis concerned, it has to gothrough the approval routebecause as per media re-ports, they are planning toinvest more than 49%. So,once they put in their applic-ation, then the process of ap-proval will start and a finalcall will be taken.”

The Centre is yet to final-ise a draft notification issuedin November to dilute SOECclause for airlines in the Air-craft Rules, 1937, to give ef-fect to its new FDI policy.

Mr. Choubey said the draftnotification to dilute theSOEC norms is “under final-isation” stage at the ministry.

Indian registrationAccording to the presentrules, an air operator permit

is granted to a company onlyif it is registered in India, theChairman and two-third ofits directors are Indian cit-izens and the substantialownership and effective con-trol (SOEC) is vested in In-dian nationals.

Relaxing normsThe Centre has proposed todilute these norms by doingaway with the SOEC clauseand allowing just one-thirddirectors to be Indian cit-izens against two-thirds pre-scribed at present.

“No country in the worldallows its airlines to beowned and controlled by for-eign entities,” FIA AssociateDirector Ujjwal Dey toldMukul Roy, Chairman, Parlia-mentary Standing Commit-tee on Transport, Tourismand Culture in a letter datedFebruary 15. “Even pro-ponents of free market eco-nomies such as the USA andCanada, allow only 25% ofvoting rights to foreign na-tionals and entities.”

Qatar’s airline plan faces turbulenceThe Gulf State’s lag carrier is facing opposition from Indian airlines over ownership, control norms

Somesh Jha

NEW DELHI

Rules to ly: According to the present norms, an air operatorpermit is granted to a company only if it is registered in India.

Demonetisation had a bigimpact on retail automobilesales, especially in the mini-car segment such as RenaultKwid, but the situation is re-covering fast and should benormal in three to sixmonths, said Renault’scountry CEO and managingdirector Sumit Sawhney.

A spurt in cash-basedsecond hand car sales afterthe demonetisation of high-value currency notes inNovember also hit newsmall car sales.

“We have seen the mini-segment getting impacted,”Mr. Sawhney said. “That’swhy after demonetisation,the biggest impact was ontwo-wheelers and a little onthe mini-segment. It was abig impact on the retail side,but it is also recovering veryfast,” he said, citing healthysales in February and thefirst week of March.

“We are seeing that trendslightly weaning off…people are now coming outof the demonetisation phaseand it’s a matter of three tosix months, by when an-other big thing — the Goodsand Services Tax — willcome into play,” he said.

Second-hand carsOne reason for small carsales to be affected, as perthe Renault India CEO, wasthat people were interestedin liquidating their second-hand cars, most of whichwere done in cash transac-tions. While 45% of Kwidbuyers are first-time carowners, the rest includethose who are upgradingfrom second-hand cars andother small cars.

“But remember, the guywho is coming as a first timebuyer is also selling his bikefor ₹15,000-₹20,000 to payfor registration and margincosts of the car. These cashtransactions have got largelyimpacted. But it’s slowly go-ing out,” he said, speakingto the media after unveilinga premium variant of Kwid

called Climber on Thursday.Following demonetisa-

tion, Renault expects thesecond hand car sales mar-ket to become more organ-ised so it is setting up 50new used car outlets in thecoming financial year. It hadmade a beginning on thisfront last year with 20 ex-clusive Renault used cardshowrooms.

Kwid ClimberPowered by a 1-litre petrolengine, the new KwidClimber offers two variants.The manual version of thecar has an ex-showroom(Delhi) introductory price ofover ₹4.30 lakh, while theautomatic manual transmis-sion (AMT) model is pricedat ₹4.60 lakh.

The company hasclaimed a fuel efficiency of23.01 km per litre for themanual version and 24.04km/litre for the AMTmodel.

Renault’s focus on thesmall car Kwid, with 98% ofits content made locally, willpay off in the long run, Mr.Sawhney said.

Renault is the seventhlargest player in India with a4.5% market share.

Note ban bluesfade for RenaultSituation to be normal in 3-6 months


NEW DELHI

market watch

09-03-2017 %

CHANGE

Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 28,929 dddd0.09

US Dollar dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd66.71 dddd0.00

Goldddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 29,250 dd -0.85

Brent oil ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd51.97 dd -5.92

Tata Power Delhi Distribu-tion Limited (TATA Power-DDL) has become the firstIndian power utility to de-ploy tele-protection servicesover its entire network fol-lowing a deal with Nokia,the two companies an-nounced on Thursday.

The enhanced systemwillallow Tata Power-DDL to re-ceive nearly instant updatesof any fault in its infrastruc-ture and reroute powerthrough alternative lines tominimise the disruption tothe end consumer. “The sys-tem connects all our gridstations and ensures there istele-protection and in casethere is a fault, then it canbe addressed immediately,”

Praveer Sinha, CEO & MD atTata Power-DDL, told re-porters. “The consumershould never have to pur-chase digisets or inverters.”

Mr. Sinha said the com-pany hopes to roll out smartmeters in a year, whichwould help the consumer byproviding them with disag-gregated consumption datato gauge which parts of theday see higher consump-tion, among other uses.

The development of util-ity-specific features for IP/MPLS networks has “en-abled us to deliver a resili-ent, secure and highlyefficient network” and laysthe foundation for futuresmart grid applications,Sanjay Malik, head of IndiaMarket, Nokia said.

Nokia to help Tata Powerto detect faults in Delhi

Tele-protection covers entire networkSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI

The promoter entities of Re-liance Industries (RIL) haveinitiated the process of sim-plifying the ownershipstructure of the company byway of block deals onThursday, with shares worthmore than ₹50,000 crorebeing traded on BSE.

Data from the exchangeshowed that a total of 39.61crore shares were traded ata price ranging between₹1,283 and ₹1,285 per share.A total of seven inter–seblock trades were struckwith the total value of₹50,859 crore.

Inter–se transfer refers to

sale of shares between thepromoter entities. Pro-moters of many companiesuse the inter–se transferroute to consolidate theirholdings as such transac-tions do not trigger an openoffer.

Exchange data showedthat the sellers comprisedentities like Adisesh Enter-prises LLP, Trilokesh Com-mercials LLP andAbhayaprada EnterprisesLLP. The entities on the buy-ing side included DevarshiCommercials LLP and Tat-tvam Enterprises LLP.

Earlier, the company hadsaid that it had decided tosimplify the complex hold-

ing structure of the com-pany and that eight pro-moter entities have agreedto buy about 119 crore sharesrepresenting 36.7% stake inthe firm from 15 promoterentities.

“The promoter group en-tities of RIL plan to restruc-ture their shareholding inRIL by inter–se transfer ofshares among the promotergroup entities and havemade the necessary disclos-ures in this regard,” aspokesperson for the pro-moter group said, addingthat the “proposed inter–setransfers will not result inany change in promotergroup shareholding in RIL.”

Transfers will not change promoter group’s shareholding

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI

RIL promoters do blocktrades worth ₹50,859 cr.

Renault’s small car, Kwid,is witnessing a higher pro-portion of its sales beingregistered in the names ofwomen owners, buckingan industry norm uniqueto the Indian market.“If Isee our registration data,the female population isvery high — over 12% regis-trations, so the actual usersmay be much higher. Myestimate is over 25% ofKwid users are women,”said Renault India CEO andMD Sumit Sawhney.

‘12% of Kwidsregisteredto women’


NEW DELHI

New avatar: Renault India CEO andMD Sumit Sawhney withthe Kwid Climber unveiled in NewDelhi on Thursday. PTI

President Donald Trumpand Republican law-makers have already setin motion a series ofmeasures that will dereg-ulate American oil, gasand coal sectors and In-dia sees an opportunityto enhance bilateral co-operation in these areasin the coming years.

Thirty percent of all in-crease in world’s energydemand from now to2040 will be from India,and energy cooperationwill be an increasinglykey component of bilat-eral relations, PetroleumMinister DharmendraPradhan said after ameeting with U.S. EnergySecretary Rick Perry.

This was the first min-isterial level interactionbetween India and U.S.under the new adminis-tration. India will startimporting Liquefied Nat-ural Gas from the U.S. in2018 under contractssigned during the previ-ous Obama administra-tion. Right pricing will en-able India to ramp upimports from the U.S., Mr.Pradhan said.

The Trump administra-tion’s focus is on makingAmerican oil and gas sec-tor competitive in theworld market and it doesnot want environmentalconcerns holding backthe sector. By deregulat-ing oil and gas, androlling back incentivesavailable to non–conven-tional energy industry,the Trump administra-tion is hoping to create aboom in the U.S. oil andgas market.

Three Indian publicsector companies, GAIL,Oil India and IOC and Re-liance have invested inU.S. shale gas production.The Obama administra-tion’s focus was on push-ing renewable energy co-operation with India, but

Trump administration’sfocus is different said anIndian official.

Mr. Pradhan saidPrime Minister NarendraModi’s commitment to in-crease the share of non-conventional sources inIndia’s energy mix is in-dependent of what theAmerican administrationthinks or does. “The PMis clear that India will goahead with its COP 21commitments,” the minis-ter said.

‘Texas visit’He said Mr. Perry hasasked him to request Mr.Modi to visit his homestate of Texas, which isthe centre of Americanpetroleum industry. Mr.Modi is expected to visitthe U.S. in the next twomonths. While it appearscertain that Mr. Trumpwill disrupt the U.S. en-ergy sector, its implica-tions for the global mar-ket are unclear.

Mr. Pradhan said co-operation could be in theareas of clean coal tech-nology, and in convertingcoal to synthetic gas.“American technologyand investment could beof great help in coal sec-tor. U.S technology willalso be helpful in buildingsmart grids and reducingtransmission losses,” saidMr. Pradhan, who atten-ded the CERA Week inHouston, an annual con-ference of energy execut-ives and policy makers.

India sees optionsin U.S. energy policy

To enhance cooperation in oil, gas

Varghese K George

Washington

Three Indian public sectorcompanies have investedin U.S. shale gas. AFP

McDonald’s India has em-barked on its next phase ofgrowth in western and south-ern Indian markets by com-mitting to significantly en-hance customer experience atits outlets.

Having operated in theQuick Service Restaurant(QSR) space for 20 years andintroducing several innova-tions in the past years tocounter competition, McDon-

ald’s is changing the format ofits restaurants and addingmore items in its menu be-sides emphasizing on con-venience for customersthrough technology.

The company has intro-duced its first ‘Experience ofthe Future’ restaurant at Nar-iman Point in Mumbai whichhas got a completely newlook.

This will be replicated atoutlets across western andsouthern India in the future, a

top official said.The new restaurant offers

customisable menu, new tech-nology and a best-in-class cus-tomer experience.

The company has also im-proved its menu by addingsoups and farm fresh salads.

It is transitioning its exist-ing wraps into whole wheatwraps and also offering achoice of milk based bever-ages with Happy Meals.

The ordering process andstaff role have been made

completely different. Throughself-order kiosks, customerscan customise and build theirown burgers and skip thefront counter entirely, withtheir food being served attheir table. Once an order isplaced, customers can take aseat while a Bluetooth track-ing device would guide thestaff to serve the order righton their table.

There is also facility fortable-top games whilst havinga meal.

McDonald’s changes restaurant formatImproves menu by adding salads, focus on technology to raise customer experience

Lalatendu Mishra

MUMBAI

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IN BRIEF

CIL may not meet outputtarget this iscalKOLKATA

Coal India may close thecurrent iscal with aproduction of about 550million tonnes against atarget of 598 million tonnes.The company’s output in theirst eleven months of 2016-17 stood at 488.1 milliontonnes. This marked a 91%fulilment of its target and a2.3% growth. As per thisestimated production level,the growth rate may be a tadlower at about 2.1% — one ofthe company’s lowest since2012-13.

Cyient picked for LibertyGlobal’s ‘GIGAWorld’HYDERABAD

International cable TV andbroadband company LibertyGlobal has selected IT irmCyient to support its‘GIGAWorld’ initiative thatseeks to provide broadbandspeeds of one gigabit andmore to millions of homeshouseholds across Europe.Cyient said it would deployits capabilities in deliveringFTTP (ibre-to-the-premise)and HFC (hybrid-ibrecoaxial) planning and designservices to Liberty Global.

Google is taking on Amazonand Microsoft in their ownbackyard in order to domin-ate cloud computing ser-vices. The Silicon Valley gi-ant is betting big on its cloudtechnology and forming alli-ances with other technologycompanies to tap the money-making enterprise business.

At the Google Cloud Nextconference in San Francisco,the company announced asignificant partnership withGerman software makerSAP. It would allow custom-ers to run SAP’s flagshipproduct HANA, an in-memory platform for pro-cessing high volumes of datain real-time, on Google’scloud platform. The partner-ship would also offerGoogle’s suite of intelligentapps to users.

Security, business tools“With Google cloud, we nowoffer businesses, Googlequality computing, securityand business tools,” Googlechief executive Sundar Pi-chai told an audience con-sisting of hundreds of Goo-glers and thousands of thecompany’s customers andpartners. “And it is an ex-traordinary big bet for us,”he said.

An alumnus of IIT-Kharag-pur and a native of TamilNadu, Mr. Pichai said thatGoogle is on a mission to or-ganise the world’s informa-tion and make it universallyaccessible and useful. Thishas made it engage withevery branch of computerscience.

“It has led us to break-throughs in cloud computingtechnology. Google cloud is anatural extension of thecompany’s mission,” he said.

Like Microsoft and

Amazon Web Services,Google is offering cloudtechnology that combines alarge amount of storage andcomputing. It then sells it tocustomers who may want toenhance or set up new datacentres.

In February, Snap Inc.,the parent company of socialmedia mobile app Snapchatdisclosed that it had signed a$2 billion, five-year contractwith Google for its cloudservices.

“We have possibly theworld’s biggest and mostpowerful secured network,”said Diane Greene, seniorvice president of GoogleCloud.

Mount EverestShe said that if stacked ontop of each other, the serversin one of its data centreswould rise 5,000 feet aboveMount Everest.

Asked how Google would

compete with Amazon in thecloud, Ms. Greene said that itwas Google’s technologywhich was giving its custom-ers the “competitiveadvantage.”

Ms. Greene, who also co-founded enterprise softwaregiant Vmware, brought topexecutives of large compan-ies like SAP, Colgate-Pal-molive, HSBC and eBay onthe stage to showcase the im-pact Google’s cloud techno-logy was creating for them.

Google along with e-com-merce company eBaydemonstrated the capabilit-ies of a new personal shop-ping bot (bots are softwareapplications that run auto-mated tasks) or “shopbot”for the Google Home, avoice-activated speakerpowered by the Google As-sistant, live on the stage.

The bot can help custom-ers assess the value of theirpossessions. eBay’s chief

product officer R. J. Pittmanasked the Google Home toconnect with eBay and findout the value of his camera.The chatbot told him theprice value of his cameraeven after getting very littledescription about theproduct.

“Cloud is moving veryfast, we see it as a strategicgrowth engine that acceler-ates innovation,” said Mr.Pittman. He said that eBayhad more than one billionlive listings across 200 coun-tries. Within five months thecompany was able to runthese listings on the Googlecloud platform. “It was not atest, not a prototype. Itquickly moved to a produc-tion-grade environment,”Mr. Pittman said.

Entertainment companyDisney said that it had putabout 500 projects rangingfrom customer facing to re-search and developmentproducts on Google’s cloudplatform. “We have beenable to focus on telling greatstories,” said Michael White,chief technology officer atDisney.

HSBC’s chief informationofficer Darryl West said thatthe banking and financialservices organisation hadabout $2.4 trillion in assetsand besides that, a hugeamount of precious data. Hesaid that the company had aset of applications to minehidden insights from thedata to identify nefariousactivity such as money laun-dering. “The cloud partner-ship with Google does notstop here. It is just the start-ing point,” said Bernd Leuk-ert, a member of the execut-ive board at SAP for productsand innovation.

(The writer is in SiliconValley, U.S.A., at the invita-tion of Google)

Google ups the ante in cloudbattle with Amazon, MicrosoftWeb giant strikes alliances, including with SAP, to boost cloud computing power

Peerzada Abrar

SAN FRANCISCO

Going great guns:Google aims to organise the world’sinformation andmake it universally accessible, says Pichai.

The pension fund regulatoris hopeful of the Centre soonagreeing to its suggestion forallowing up to 50% of thefunds contributed by gov-ernment subscribers underthe National Pension Systemto be invested into equities.

The Centre is “quite sym-pathetic to this point ofview,” said Hemant G. Con-tractor, Chairman, PensionFund Regulatory and Devel-opment Authority (PFRDA).“We have had severalrounds of discussions.” Hewas optimistic of the revi-sion in ceiling happening inthe “next couple of months.”

Presently, the ceiling oninvestments in equity mar-kets from contributionsmade by government sub-scribers is 15%. In contrast,up to 50% of the contribu-tions by non-government

subscribers is permitted tobe invested in equities.

This will be a “big change.Lot of money can start flow-ing into equities once theceiling is raised from 15 to50%,” Mr. Contractor saidhere on Thursday.

Contributions from non-

government subscribers ac-count for 15% of the corpuswhich is managed by sevenpension fund managers(PFMs). The consolidated in-vestment in equities is 13%,he said adding two morefund managers are to be ap-pointed shortly.

Among other suggestionsis one to permit auto enrol-ment aimed at increasingpension coverage in the in-formal sector. Noting thatsome countries, includingthe U.K., had tried this outsuccessfully, Mr. Contractorsaid anybody who came un-der the ambit of the schemewas automatically coveredbut had an option to opt out.

The Centre is examiningPFRDA’s suggestion to makeauto enrolment mandatoryfor Anganwadi workers,ASHA workers and employ-ees of gram panchayats, thePFRDA Chairman added.

Regulator wants 50% limit on govt. subscribers’ corpus too


HYDERABAD

Centre may raise equitycap for pensions: PFRDA

GETTYIM

AGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Revision in ceilingmayhappen in the “nextcouple of months.”

Paytm on Thursday droppedplans to levy a 2% fee fortopping wallets throughcredit cards and said itwould instead add featuresto prevent the misuse ofcredit cards on its platform.

Earlier, Paytm had saidthat a lot of users were mis-using its platform by addingmoney from credit card towallet and transferring tobank, thereby earning creditcard loyalty points and freecredit period. Citing the in-terests of customers andmerchants, the company de-cided to remove the 2% fees.

Paytm dropscard fee, toadd features

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI

The Centre has issued draftrules to ensure integrity, se-curity and confidentiality ofelectronic payments madethrough prepaid paymentinstruments (PPIs), pop-ularly called e-wallets. Thedraft rules, on which theMinistry of Electronics andInformation Technology hassought public comments,make it mandatory for e-PPI(electronic pre-payment in-strument) issuers to developan information securitypolicy that ensures that thesystems operated by themare secure.

The Information Techno-logy (Security of Prepaid In-

struments) Rules, 2017,define an e-PPI issuer as a“person operating a pay-ment system issuing prepaidpayment instruments to in-dividuals/organisations” un-der the aegis of ReserveBank of India. The rulesmake it compulsory for e-PPIs to publish on theirwebsites and mobile applic-ations both their ‘privacypolicy’ and terms for use oftheir payment systems. Thedraft also details the re-quirements of a privacypolicy. The rules mandatethat e-PPIs should carry outrisk assessment to spot se-curity risks and also ensureadequate due diligence isdone before issuing PPIs.

Centre issues draft ruleson e-wallet paymentsk.t. jagannathan

CHENNAI

Dr.Reddy’s recalls acnedrug in the U.S.HYDERABAD

Dr.Reddy’s Laboratories isrecalling more than 24,500cartons of Zenatane(isotretinoin) capsules, adrug used in the treatmentof nodular acne, from theU.S. market. The recall wasinitiated last month as aresult of “failed dissolutionspeciications - lowdissolution results at S3stage,” the latest USFDAenforcement report said.The recall was classiiedunder Class III (not harmfulto health).

CMYK

ND-ND




SPORT

Thursday turned out to be asdramatic with regard to the‘cheat-gate’ as the last twodays of the Bengaluru Test,which saw India clawing itsway back to script a famouswin.

The BCCI first formallylodged a complaint againstAustralia captain Steve Smithand his batting partner PeterHandscomb for the formerprompting his skipper to seekdirections from the dressingroom over whether to useDRS during the BengaluruTest.

Late in the night, however,the Board of Control forCricket in India (BCCI) did aturnaround after a fruitfulmeeting between BCCI chiefexecutive Rahul Johri and hisCricket Australia counterpartJames Sutherland here.

At the end of a prolongedmeeting at the BCCIheadquarters, a joint state-ment issued by the BCCI andCA confirmed that the boththe parties are keen to moveon from the ugly episode thatmarred a high-voltage Testmatch.

“BCCI will withdraw thecomplaint filed with the ICCwith an expectation that thetwo captains will meet priorto the Ranchi Test and com-mit to lead their teams by ex-ample and play the rest of theseries in the right spirit,demonstrating that the play-ers from both teams are trueambassadors for their re-spective countries,” said thestatement issued onThursday night.

Focus on the game“In discussing the relevant is-sues in depth, we have agreedthat it is in the best interest ofthe game to put these differ-ences aside and clear the wayfor the focus to be on thecricket, and the remainingmatches of the series,”Suthlerand stated in therelease.

Johri hoped the ‘cheat-gate’ won’t have a bearing onthe remainder of the series.“India has always cherished acontest with Australia andover the years, the perform-

‘Cheat-gate’ controversyIssue put to rest as BCCI and Cricket Australia shake handsAmol Karhadkar

MUMBAI

Eye of the storm:Handscomb had admitted to promptingSmith to seek help from the dressing room. AFP

Mushfiqur Rahim’s gutsy 85helped Bangladesh avoidthe follow-on but Sri Lankaclaimed a substantial 182-run first innings lead to takecontrol of the first Test atthe Galle International Sta-dium on Thursday.

After bad light forcedearly tea on day three of thecontest, Sri Lanka neededtwo balls to claim the lastBangladesh wicket ofMustafizur Rahman andbowl out the tourists for 312.

Sri Lanka could not comeout to bat for the secondtime in the match as almostthe entire final session waslost to rain.

Resuming day three on133 for two, Bangladesh lostfour wickets in the morningsession but captain Mush-fiqur waged a grim battleagainst the Sri Lankans.

The stumper-batsmanjoined forces with MehediHasan Shiraz (41) to raise106 runs for the seventhwicket and help it cross the300-mark.

Sri Lanka sitting prettyMushiqur carves out a half-century

Reuters

GALLE

Captain’s knock:Mushiqur Rahim helped Bangladesh avoidthe follow-on on Thursday. AFP

Sri Lanka — 1st innings: 494Bangladesh — 1st innings: T.Iqbal run out 57, S. Sarkar c Ku-mara b Lakmal 71, M. Haquelbw b D. Perera 7, M. Rahim bHerath 85, Shakib Al Hasan cDickwella b Sandakan 23, Mah-mudullah b Kumara 8, L. Das cGunaratne b Herath 5, M.Hasan lbw b D. Perera 41, T.Ahmed lbw b D. Perera 0, S.

Roy (not out) 0, M. Rahman cK. Mendis b Herath 4; Extras(lb-6, nb-2, w-3): 11; Total (in97.2 overs): 312.Fall of wickets: 1-118, 2-127, 3-142, 4-170, 5-184, 6-192, 7-298, 8-298, 9-308.Sri Lanka bowling: Lakmal 14-0-42-1, Kumara 16-1-70-1, Per-era 19-4-53-3, Herath 26.2-4-72-3, Sandakan 22-5-69-1.

SCOREBOARD SRI LANKA VS BANGLADESH, 1ST TEST

The ICC was, on Thursday,accused of allowing theseries between India andAustralia to descend into an-archy after Steve Smith andVirat Kohli escaped punish-ment over the latest bust-up.

Former India wicket-keeper Saba Karim said theICC’s statement was“bizarre”. “Why would

somebody from the ICCeven talk about Kohli?”Karim asked.

Chetan Chauhan was sim-ilarly scathing. “I am reallysurprised by the decision ofthe ICC and I am sure a lot ofpeople will be upset about itas Smith’s gesture was abso-lutely clear,” said the formerIndia opener.

Merv Hughes, former Aus-tralia fast bowler, said there

was no doubt about Smith’sguilt.

“It’s not a twisting of therules, it’s a breaking of therules, there’s no doubt aboutthat,” he said.

In an article headlined“Gutless ICC”, Australia’sDaily Telegraph said the ICChad “waved the white flagand virtually allowed an-archy to potentially mar therest of the series”.

Criticise it for not issuing sanctions on Steve SmithAGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

NEW DELHI

Former players slam ICC

India has retained M. Vijayin its squad for the finaltwo Test matches againstAustralia, while opting notto include the recoveringMohammed Shami.

Vijay missed the secondTest after having injuredhis left shoulder whilediving in the field in Pune.

With the third Test be-ginning in Ranchi only onMarch 16, though, theopener seemingly has timeto make a full recovery.

Shami, meanwhile,made his comeback from aknee injury this week,when he played one gamefor Bengal in the Vijay Haz-are Trophy but that wasthe fast bowler’s first com-petitive outing sinceNovember.

Rohit Sharma, who alsoreturned from a thigh in-jury to play in the HazareTrophy, has not been selec-ted either.

Hardik Pandya, who wasunavailable for selection inBengaluru with a shoulderissue, has been left out ofthe squad.

The fourth Test will beplayed in Dharamsala fromMarch 25.

The squad: Virat Kohli (capt.),M. Vijay, K.L. Rahul, Chetesh-war Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane,Karun Nair, R. Ashwin, R.Jadeja, Wriddhiman Saha,Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav,Jayant Yadav, BhuvneshwarKumar, Kuldeep Yadav andAbhinav Mukund.

Vijay retainedSpecial Correspondent

BENGALURU

Ace Indian shuttlers P.V.Sindhu and Saina Nehwalstormed into the quarterfi-nals of the All England Openbadminton championships,after posting straight-gamevictories, here on Thursday.

Both Sindhu and Sainaare in the top half of the wo-men’s singles and if theywin their quarterfinalmatches, they will face eachother in the semifinals.

However in men’s singles,H.S. Prannoy suffered a 21-13, 21-5 loss to seventh-seeded Chinese Tian Hou-wei in 33 minutes to crashout of the tournament.

Sindhu, a silver medallistat the Rio Olympics, dishedout a dominating game totrounce Indonesia’s DinarDyah Ayustine 21-12, 21-4 in

just half-an hour.

London Olympics bronzemedallist Saina notched upa comfortable 21-18, 21-10win over Germany’s Fabi-enne Deprez in 35 minutes.

Keeping her cool

Saina, who had defeated de-fending champion NozomiOkuhara in the openinground, opened up a 12-8lead at one stage but her op-ponent made a comebackby levelling the scores at 17.

Saina held her nerve towin the first game at 18.

In the second game,Saina was more ruthless andsurged ahead from 1-1 on-wards, never to give her op-ponent a chance to comeback.

Sindhu, Saina cruiseOn course for a semiinal meeting

ALL ENGLAND OPENPress Trust of India

BIRMINGHAM

Smooth progress: Saina Nehwal took out Germany’s FabienneDeprez in quick time tomake the quarterinals. FILE PHOTO

Peter Handscomb said heis now familiar with theDRS rules and it’s time tomove on from the incid-ent that sparked a hugecontroversy.

Handscomb had ad-mitted that it was he whosuggested to Smith toseek the dressing room’sopinion.

“No, just completelyunaware that youcouldn’t do that. But nowI know — I have been welland truly informed andI’m just looking forwardto moving on from this.It’s still new in my inter-national career, so Ihaven’t had a lot to dowith the DRS and I’mnow a lot more familiarwith it,” he said.

Lot more familiar with

DRS now: HandscombPress Trust of India

Bengaluru

ances of both, the teamsand the players, are testi-mony to the level of com-petitiveness that existsbetween these two teams,”he said.

“While having respondedofficially to one such incid-ent which happened in thelast Test, together, we be-lieve that the focus of theteams and the joy theyprovide to the fans, shouldnot be diluted and it is im-perative to ensure that therest of the series, whichpromises a great cricketingcontest, not becompromised.”

That both the sides havedecided to not let the‘cheat-gate’ affect the re-maining two Tests in the

series would also mean thebosses at the InternationalCricket Council headquar-ters in Dubai can heave asigh of relief.

After all, the ICC on Wed-nesday had clarified that itwill not take any punitiveaction against any of theplayers involved in thematch.

The ICC stand, coupledwith match referee ChrisBroad’s comments to TheDaily Telegraph in Australia,are understood to havepeeved the Indian dressingroom. It had resulted in theBCCI, in consultation withthe Indian team, deciding topress for a disciplinary ac-tion against Smith andHandscomb.

CMYK

ND-ND




SPORT

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The Supreme Brahman, proclaimed by scriptures to be thatwhich is higher than the highest and subtler than thesubtlest, is not to be grasped by human thought and word.Then how is one to make any headway in spiritual quest?

Scriptures address this issue from many angles. Theyshow that the human faculties and sense perceptions arenevertheless valuable resources and can be used along withlogic and experience for progress in this quest.

But above all, it is reiterated that faith in the grace of theLord and the effect of the Guru’s teaching can confer the dir-ect realisation of the ultimate knowledge, said Sri Goda Ven-kateswara Sastrigal in a discourse.

Preceptors such as Adi Sankara and Vidyaranya have ex-pounded the essence of scriptural teachings for the benefitof spiritual aspirants. The basic lesson to be learnt is to de-velop the skill to discriminate the real from the non-real. Inhis text Panchadasi, Vidyaranya uses logic that is based onone’s experience and rational perception to enable the dis-ciple to understand the true nature of the Self.

One useful method is the analysis of the three states of ex-perience, namely, waking, dream and deep sleep. It is easilyseen that the Self is present in all the three states while theobjects vary and are changing.

The Self is the essence of consciousness and is at the coreof the five sheaths, anna, prana, mano, vijnana and ananda,enveloping it. It is not affected by time or space. While allelse is always subject to change, the Self alone exists etern-ally.

Likewise, the external world is analysed and by the pro-cess of differentiation the non-dual reality of Brahman is es-tablished. The entire created universe with names andforms is shown to be the manifestation of Brahman. It is aconscious evolution of Brahman’s will and desire to create.

FAITH

Skill to discriminate

IN BRIEF

Sebastian Vettel setsFerrari’s hopes soarBARCELONA

Sebastian Vettel set Ferrari’shopes for the 2017 FormulaOne season soaring byblitzing the fastest time seenin pre-season testing here onThursday. The four-timeWorld champion clocked 1min19.024 despite appearing toease off in the third sector ofhis fastest lap. AFP

A battling Kane Williamsonensured New Zealand tookthe second-day honours des-pite a crippling calf injury tosenior batsman Ross Taylorin the first Test against SouthAfrica here on Thursday.

Williamson was not out 78as he propped up the inningswith nightwatchman JeetanPatel on nine, taking NewZealand to 177 for three inreply to South Africa's 308.

Taylor was on eight whenhe limped from the field dur-ing a torrid period in whichhe was also hit on the helmetby a fired-up Morne Morkel,who sent down a lively 10overs for 26 in his comebackfrom a serious back injury.

New Zealand wrapped upthe South African inningsfive overs after lunch, withthe last six wickets falling foronly 56 runs.

It was a rapid end to an in-nings where the wicketoffered little for the bowlersand Dean Elgar, with his 140,had the tourists well placedat 252 for four.

By tea, New Zealand was59 for one and it added a fur-ther 118 for two wickets, plusthe loss of the injured Taylor,in the final session.

South Africa removedTom Latham early, caughtbehind off Vern Philanderfor 10, and New Zealand was15 for one.

But Williamson and JeetRaval sparked the inningswith a 102-run stand, a re-cord second-wicket partner-ship for New Zealand againstSouth Africa, before Ravalwent for 52.

The opener had offeredearly chances with close-runsingles before he settleddown and looked set by thetime he brought up his half-century driving Keshav Ma-haraj for the sixth four of hisinnings.

But he lasted only another

seven balls and was unableto score again before hescooped the spinner to Elgarat midwicket.

Williamson has survivedfour chances in his innings.Maharaj found an edge whenhe was on 10 and again on40, but both fell fractionallyshort of Hashim Amla at firstslip.

On 72, he was sent backby Henry Nicholls and hemade his ground by the slim-mest of margins, before anedge off Philander four runslater failed to carry to theslip cordon.

The Maharaj-Amla part-nership made no mistakewhen removing Nicholls for12, with Amla diving to hisleft to take a sharp one-handed catch.

South Africa resumed daytwo on 229 for four and ad-ded a cautious 23 in 12 oversbefore Neil Wagner claimedthe crucial wicket of Elgar toend his 104-run partnership

with Temba Bavuma.

It was the beginning of theend for South Africa. Quin-ton de Kock fell for 10 to hisnemesis Patel, dismissed bythe off-spinner for the thirdtime in as many innings onthis tour. Patel also bowledKagiso Rabada while Trent

Boult claimed Bavuma for64, Maharaj for five and fin-ished the innings bowlingPhilander for 21.

Boult was the sharpest ofthe New Zealand bowlerswith four for 64, while Wag-ner took three for 88 and Pa-tel finished with two for 85.

Williamson leads ightbackNew Zealand wraps wup the South Africa innings ive overs after lunch

Lucky run: KaneWilliamson survived four chances to ensure New Zealand took the second-dayhonours against South Africa. AP


Dunedin

South Africa — 1st innings: S.Cook lbw b Boult 3, D. Elgar cWatling b Wagner 140, H. Amlab Wagner 1, J. Duminy c Taylorb Wagner 1, F. du Plessis cBoult b Neesham 52, T.Bavuma c Watling b Boult 64,Q. de Kock cWagner b Patel 10,V. Philander b Boult 21, K. Ma-haraj c Neesham b Boult 5, K.Rabada b Patel 4, M. Morkel(not out) 0, Extras (b-4, lb-1,w-2): 7; Total (in 122.4 overs):308.

Fall of wickets: 1-10, 2-20, 3-22, 4-148, 5-252, 6-265, 7-279,8-298, 9-308.

New Zealand bowling: Boult32.4-12-64-4, Wagner 31-8-

88-3, Patel 33-12-85-2, Sant-ner 18-5-32-0, Neesham8-2-34-1.

New Zealand — 1st innings: T.Latham c de Kock b Philander10, J. Raval c Elgar b Maharaj52, K. Williamson (batting) 78,R. Taylor (retd. hurt) 8, H.Nicholls c Amla b Maharaj 12, J.Patel (batting) 9; Extras (lb-6,nb-2): 8; Total (for three wkts.in 55 overs): 177.

Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-117,3-165.

South Africa bowling: Rabada14-3-46-0, Philander 14-4-37-1, Morkel 10-3-26-0, Maha-raj 16-3-57-2, Duminy 1-0-5-0.

SCOREBOARD NEW ZEALAND-SOUTH AFRICA, FIRST TEST

While the Deloitte Audit Re-port on the mismanagementof BCCI funds by the Hydera-bad Cricket Association, theGoa Cricket Association andthe Odisha Cricket Associ-ation has been in public do-main for a long time, por-tions of the audit reportfindings of most full memberassociations of the BCCI hasbeen published online byOutlook.

While HCA spent moneyon gold coins for its 22 man-aging committee members,the Deloitte report says theBaroda Cricket Associationspent ₹96 lakh on “silvercoins memorabilia for 2,300members.”

Speaking to The Hindu,

present and past officer-bearers of the BCA con-firmed that silver coins weregiven out. A senior membersaid that even now silvercoins are being distributed

to members who have notreceived them.

“Being the birth Centen-ary year of Vijay Hazare andthe Diamond Jubilee of theBCA, the managing commit-tee decided to give a memor-abilia to all members,” con-firmed AunshumanGaekwad.

The former BCCI and BCAsecretary Sanjay Patel saidhe has not received the silvercoin, but confirmed that thecommittee had deliberatedon presenting memorabiliato members and players.

“The BCA was celebratinga big milestone year and Vi-jay Hazare’s birth Centenaryand the managing commit-tee took the decision,” saidPatel.

The BCA is one among thefull member associationsthat has refused to adopt theJustice Lodha Committee re-commendations. The associ-ation’s presidentSamarjitsinh Gaekwad, not

part of the majority group inthe Committee, recentlywrote a 103-page grievancesreport to the CoA, pointingout that the accounts of theassociation have not beenprepared for the last threefiscal.

Former BCCI secretaryNiranjan Shah urged theCoA to conduct an enquiryinto the leak.

“It’s unfortunate thatsome details of the reporthave been leaked to the me-dia,” he said.

The Deloitte report alsoconsists details of work itwas engaged with the cricketassociations of Baroda, U.P.,Haryana, Jharkhand, Kerala,Odhisha, Hyderabad, Goa,Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh,Saurashtra, Assam, Bengal,Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Maha-rashtra, Karnataka, Punjab,Delhi, Madhya Pradesh,Tripura, Vidarbha, Rajastha,Andhra and J & K.

HCA spent money on gold coins, says Deloitte audit report

G. Viswanath

MUMBAI

BCAmembers got giftsworth ₹96 lakh

Arsene Wenger will take intoconsideration the views ofangry Arsenal supporterswhen he decides whether toremain at the club beyondthe end of this season.

Wenger endured calls forhis resignation before andafter Tuesday’s humiliating5-1 defeat against Bayern Mu-nich in the ChampionsLeague.

It is not the first timeWenger has been subjectedto vitriolic abuse in recentyears as the Frenchman’sfailure to build a title-win-ning team since 2004 con-tinues to frustrate fans.

Wenger, who has been incharge at Arsenal for 21years, is yet to confirm hewill accept a reported two-year contract extension andspeculation has grown thathe will quit when his presentdeal expires.

Asked whether he wouldconsider the crowd’s dis-pleasure when deciding hisfuture, Wenger said: “Yes.You consider. It is not themost important factor toconsider of course.

“I don’t work for my im-age, I work for this club.How I look is not really myproblem. I have shown sinceI have been here, I have

shown I love this club andam loyal to this club.

“I think I have made theright decisions and respectthe values of this club. I haveworked for 20 years to makeour fans happy and when welose games I understandthey are not - at certaintimes you have to accept dif-ferent opinions.”

‘Will weigh fans’ feelings’Wenger yet to decide on accepting contract extension

AFP

LONDON

Clear message: Arsenal supporters make their views onlong-standingmanager known in no uncertain termsduring the rout by Bayern. REUTERS

MUMBAI: Kramer, ridden by P.Trevor, claimed the Nadia MaryHomi Wadia Trophy, the mainevent of Thursday’s (March 9)evening races.The winner is owned by Mr. Jay-dev M. Mody representing J.M.Livestock Pvt. Ltd. M. Narredutrains the winner.

1 BEAUTIFUL STRANGER PLATE

(1,600m), Maiden, 3-y-o only:GLORIOUSUS (Trevor) 1, My Pre-cious (P.S. Chouhan) 2, We BreakThe Rules (Suraj Narredu) 3 andGdansk (Neeraj) 4. 2-1/2, 1-1/2, 6-1/2. 1m, 38.66s. ₹26 (w), 10, 18 and12 (p). SHP: 55, FP: 379, Q: 119,Tanala: 175 and 38. Favourite: WeBreak The Rules. Owners: Mr.Homi F.Mehta, Mrs. AnaheetaH.Mehta, Mrs. Liane M.Luthria,M/s. Jehangir Homi Mehta &Milan Luthria. Trainer: ImtiazSait.

2 PICASSO PLATE (1,600m),rated 53 to 79: MULTIGLORY

(Dashrath) 1, Eternal Sunshine(Sandesh) 2, Mekong Delta(Neeraj) 3 and Streetjammer ( J.Chinoy) 4. 1-3/4, 1/2, Lnk. 1m,37.93s. ₹66 (w), 16, 13 and 14 (p).SHP: 39, FP: 203, Q: 67, Tanala:550 and 183. Favourite: EternalSunshine. Owners: M/s. K.H. Vac-cha & Z.H. Vaccha. Trainer: S.K.Sunderji.

3 NADIA MARY HOMI WADIA

TROPHY (1,000m), Maiden, 3-y-o only: KRAMER (Trevor) 1,Lady Sergeant (C.S. Jodha) 2, IceDancer (Suraj Narredu) 3 and

Gold Field ( J. Chinoy) 4. 1/2, 2-1/2,Nk. 59.14s. ₹23 (w), 12, 12 and 16(p). SHP: 36, FP: 51, Q: 26, Tanala:125 and 54. Favourite: Kramer.Owners: Mr. Jaydev M. Mody rep.J.M. Livestock Pvt. Ltd. Trainer:M. Narredu.

4 D.P.C. KAPADIA TROPHY

(1,600m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to46: NELSONS BLOOD ( J. Chinoy) 1,Pretty Angel (P.S. Chouhan) 2,Viking (Neeraj) 3 and Cristo Boss(Pereira) 4. 3, Lnk, 3-1/4. 1m,38.95s. ₹24 (w), 12, 14 and 19 (p).SHP: 34, FP: 34, Q: 29, Tanala:248 and 83. Favourite: Drogo.Owners: Mr. & Mrs. Vijay B.Shirke, Mr. & Mrs. K.N. Dhunjib-hoy rep. Five Stars Shipping Co.Pvt. Ltd & Mr. Farouq K. Ratton-sey rep. Hyperion BloodstockPvt. Ltd. Trainer: Vishal Gaikwad.

5 FLAREON PLATE DIV. II

(1,000m), Cl. V, rated 1 to 26:SMART CHOICE (S. Amit) 1, KnightAt Arms (Dashrath) 2, AmazonCat (Parmar) 3 and Rich N Rare(Kuldeep) 4. Not run: Blaze TheTrack. 1-3/4, 3/4, 1/2. 1m, 00.31s.₹26 (w), 13, 14 and 21 (p). SHP: 48,FP: 151, Q: 55, Tanala: 418 and332. Favourite: Smart Choice.Owner: Mr. Ramesh Chandra Me-hta. Trainer: Vijay Kasbekar.

6 DR. A.H. SAYED PLATE

(1,200m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to46: SEACRETS (S. Amit) 1, WayAhead (Shubham) 2, ToughEnough (C.S. Jodha) 3 and GrandeVitesse ( J. Chinoy) 4. Sh, Sh, Hd.1m, 12.40s. ₹112 (w), 25, 26 and 15

(p). SHP: 84, FP: 901, Q: 805,Tanala: 4,774 and 1,228. (Note: Inthis race Fortuna (A. Gaikwad up)planted in the starting stalls anddid not take part in the race). Fa-vourite: Zoom Zoom. Owners:M/s. T.C. De Sousa, K.H. Vaccha &Neil Shah. Trainer: AdhirajsinghJodha.

7 SIX SPEED PLATE (1,200m),Cl. III, rated 40 to 66: LADIS-

LAUS (Trevor) 1, Flashy Wings(P.S. Chouhan) 2, Arakawah (A.Gaikwad) 3 and Sparkling Eyes (S.Amit) 4. 1-3/4, 3/4, Snk. 1m, 11.10s.₹79 (w), 18, 16 and 20 (p). SHP:44, FP: 129, Q: 127, Tanala: 1,408and 862. Favourite: SparklingEyes. Owner: Mr. Rajesh Monga.Trainer : S.K. Sunderji.

8 FLAREON PLATE DIV. I

(1,000m), Cl. V, rated 1 to 26:FOREVER YOURS (C.S. Jodha) 1,Highland Princess (A. Gaikwad) 2,King Of Killen (Dashrath) 3 andReality (Kuldeep) 4. 3/4, 1-1/4, 3.1m, 00.35s. ₹29 (w), 13, 17 and 13(p). SHP: 39, FP: 76, Q: 28, Tanala:169 and 65. Favourite: ForeverYours. Owners: Mrs. PragyaDevgan & Mr. Harisharan Devgan.Trainer: Subhag Singh.

Jackpot: 70%: ₹74, 562 (6 tkts),30%: Rs. 3,835 (50 tkts).

Treble: (i) ₹2,155 (three tkts), (ii)₹6,226 (three tkts).

Super Jackpot: 70%: ₹55, 717 (onetkt), 30%: ₹3,980 (six tkts).

Kramer wins feature event

ONGC beat OIL 3-1 and 3-0in the men’s and women’steam stage II semifinals ofthe Indian Oil-PSPB inter-unit table tennis tourna-ment here on Thursday.The results:Veteran men’s team: Final: OILbt EIL 3-0 (Soneswar Deka btChattar Singh 11-2, 11-2, 11-5;Gautam Hazarika bt VedPrakash 11-6, 11-8, 13-11; TridibDuvarah bt Anuj Sharma 12-10,11-8, 19-17).Semifinals: OIL bt ONGC 3-1(Gautam Hazarika bt L.V.Thakre 9-11, 11-9, 5-11, 8-11;Soneswar Deka bt Bhaskaran11-3, 11-6, 11-4; Tridib Duvarahbt Rajesh Saxena 11-7, 11-7, 13-11; Soneswar Deka bt L.V.Thakre 11-7, 11-9, 11-3); EIL btIOC 3-0 (Ved Prakash bt Am-bastha 9-11, 11-7, 11-4, 11-5;Anuj Sharma bt Joseph Bene-dicto 11-3, 11-1, 9-11, 11-7; Chat-tar Singh bt Ravi Butaney 16-14, 13-11, 11-8).Women’s team: Semifinals:

ONGC bt OIL 3-0 (MadhurikaPatkar bt Adrija Sarmah 11-7,11-6, 11-5; Pooja Sahasrabudhebt Mouma Das 11-5, 11-4, 12-10; Divya Deshpande bt Nan-dita Saha 5-11, 11-5, 13-11, 12-10); IOC bt GAIL 3-1 (ManikaBatra bt Senhora D’Souza 11-2,5-11, 11-7, 12-10; KrittwikaSinha Roy lost to Riti Shankar9-11, 11-9, 4-11, 9-11; VaruniJaiswal bt Rewa Sahni 11-4,11-2, 11-2; Krittwika Sinha Roybt Senhora D’Souza 11-5, 11-4,5-11, 6-11, 11-9.

Men’s team: Semifinals: ONGCbt OIL 3-1 (Harmeet Desai btBirdie Boro 11-5, 11-7, 11-8; A.Amal Raj lost to Subhajit Saha9-11, 5-11, 10-12; G. Sathiyan btSankabh P. Baruah 11-4, 11-6,11-4; Harmeet Desai btSubhajit Saha 9-11, 11-3, 11-4,11-7); BPCL bt IOC 3-1 (SanilShetty lost to Achanta SharathKamal 6-11, 6-11, 11-9, 7-11;Soumyajit Ghosh bt SudhanshuGrover 11-8, 11-5, 5-11, 11-7;Ronit Bhanja bt SouravChakravarthy 5-11, 7-11, 11-9,11-3, 13-11).

ONGC teams in inalsBeats OIL to advanceSports Bureau

CHENNAI

The Delhi and DistrictCricket Association (DDCA)Administrator JusticeVikramajit Sen hassummoned coach K. P.Bhaskar and managerShankar Saini to hear theirversion of the episode in-volving an abusive verbaltirade by Gautam Gambhirin the dressing room.

At the end of the VijayHazare cricket tournamentmatch against Uttar Pra-desh at the KIIT ground inBhubaneswar recently,Gambhir had humiliatedBhaskar in the dressingroom.

Following an uproarwhere veterans like BishanSingh Bedi, Ravi Shastriand Delhi selector AtulWassan called for a discip-

linary action againstGambhir, the DDCA Ad-ministrator has decided tospeak to them.

Bhaskar, a former Delhicaptain and a respectedcoach, has maintained a si-lence on the issue even asGambhir chose to go pub-lic.

Bhaskar and Saini havereportedly submitted theirreports to Justice Sen.

Dressing room imbroglio:Bhaskar, Saini summonedDDCA to hear the coach’s and manager’s versionSpecial Correspondent

New Delhi

Khalsa College triumphsNEW DELHI:

Yashwardhan and AnuragNenwani helped KhalsaCollege to a 2-0 victory overHansraj College in the final ofthe Dellhi Universityinter-college men’s tennischampionship.Anurahg Nenwani outplayedSagar Sehrawat 6-1, 6-0 afterYashwardhanhad beaten Anshuman Gulia6-4, 6-2.The results (final): KhalsaCollege bt Hansraj College2-0; Third place: Shri RamCollege of Commerce btRamjas College 2-1.Semifinals: Hansraj Collegebt SRCC 2-0; Khalsa Collegebt Ramjas College 2-1.

Sambhalpur, VBPSin title clashNEW DELHI

Sambhalpur University madethe final of the 24th Nehruall- India inter-Universityhockey tournament with a2-0 victory over Guru NankDev University, Amritsar, hereon Thursday.In the other semifinals, VBPSbeat Bangalore via shoot-out.The results: Sambhalpur 2(Shilanand Lakra, NitinMukesh Tigga) bt GNDU,Amritsar 0.VBPS, Jaunpur 2 (Ram Raj,Ankit) bt Bangalore 2 (Md.Zaheel Mouseen, Somaiah KP)in shoot-out.

TH Delhi / CITY Sports_02 User: 9809 23:40:34 Replate Reason:

CMYK

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SPORT

Jazz overcomesRocketsLOS ANGELES

Rudy Gobert and GordonHayward led the offensivecharge as Utah Jazz claimedthe season series againstHouston Rockets with a115-108 victory in the NBA onWednesday.Other results: Boston 99 btGolden State 86; Washington123 bt Denver 113; SanAntonio 114 bt Sacramento104; Milwaukee 104 bt NYKnicks 93; Toronto 94 bt NewOrleans 87; Minnesota 107 btLA Clippers 91; Indiana 115 btDetroit 98; Atlanta 110 btBrooklyn 105; Miami 108 btCharlotte 101; Orlando 98 btChicago 91. AGENCIES

IN BRIEF

Sprinter Fraser-Prycepregnant, to miss WorldsLONDON

Jamaican sprinter andreigning 100mWorldchampion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce announced onWednesday that she ispregnant and will miss theWorld Championships herethis August. She said she willreturn to competition in2018. REUTERS

Man City frustrated ingoalless drawMANCHESTER

Manchester City failed to firein a frustrating 0-0 homedraw with Stoke City onWednesday.The results: Premier League:Manchester City 0 drew withStoke City 0.La Liga: Deportivo la Coruna 1(Borges 90+3-pen) drew withReal Betis 1 (Piccini 70).

Going by the numbers, thecourse stayed ahead of thosetrying to conquer it as theopening day of the $1.75 mil-lion Hero Indian Open proveda testing one.

After lightning, followedby brief showers, curtailedplay for 90 minutes onThursday afternoon, 66 play-ers could not finish their firstround.

This included England’sDavid Horsey whose score offive-under par after 14 holesearned him a one-stroke lead.

Among the 78 players whofinished their round beforebad light forced closure,Italian Matteo Manassero pro-duced the best card, that offour-under 68.

Spain’s Carlos Pigemmatched Manassero’s tallythough he could finish only 14holes on this day.

Among the Indians, who

will return on Friday to finishtheir opening round, defend-ing champion S.S.P. Chow-

rasia parred the first 11 holesand later moved to one-underafter 15 holes. Chiragh Kumar

was at one-under with eightholes to play.

“It’s a good start as one ex-

pects it to be a high-scoringweek,” said Chowrasia.

“I didn’t drop any shots onthe front-nine but missed atleast four birdie-opportunit-ies from close range. Themissed birdie, from three feeton the eighth, was a disap-pointing one. I feel that is thetoughest par-5 hole and abirdie there would’ve reallylifted my confidence.”

Par roundsRahil Gangjee and youngShubhankar Sharma cardedpar rounds and left thecourse with a sense ofachievement especially afterlooking at Anirban Lahiri’spoor 76.

The 2015 championdouble-bogeyed the 18th afterthree successive birdies andafter the turn, bogeyed thricein succession and triple-bo-geyed the seventh beforesigning off with back-to-backbirdies. “I’m quite disappoin-

ted actually. I’ve gotten my-self a long way out of positionnow, but it’s now up to me tosee what I can make of it”said Lahiri.

“I was playing well at thestart but a couple of timesjust waiting, on hitting myshot, threw me off myrhythm.

“One instance was on the18th when I stood on the teefor a long time and couldn’tmake up my mind whether todraw or cut the ball. I endedup making a bad swing there.That led to a double-bogey.

Losing the rhythm“After the 18th, I just couldn’tfind my rhythm. I couldn’t hitthe right kind of shape I waslooking for. I missed a bunchof greens as well.

“I was in a great positionoff the tee on the fourth, but

miscalculated the wind there.Another loose swing on theseventh led to a triple bogey,”he explained.

Jeev disappointsLahiri, in turn, could gainconsolation from the fact thatJeev Milkha Singh could onlymanage a forgettable 13-over85, which turn was a shadebetter as compared to two-time champion Thaworn Wir-atchant’s card of 17 over 89!

In contrast, amateur RigelFernandes bounced backstrongly from a double-bogeystart to finish nicely on parfollowing three birdies on thelast four holes.

“The course from tee togreen is pretty nice. The put-ting surfaces are a little ex-treme so you just have to bein the right parts. I have notplayed anything like thisever,” said Fernandes whosefather walked with him allday.

Horsey leads; Chowrasia and Chiragh one-underLahiri misreads the course, goes four-over on rain-afected opening day

STAYING AHEAD: David Horsey’s ive-under par after 14 holes gave him a one-stroke lead onThursday. STUART FRANKLIN/GETTY IMAGES

Rakesh Rao

GURUGRAM INDIAN OPEN

The Athletics Federation ofIndia (AFI) has decided to re-view its decision to bar ath-letes who are outside na-tional camps from selectionto Indian teams in interna-tional competitions.

At its Executive Councilmeeting held here on Febru-ary 25 and 26, it was initiallydecided to keep athletestraining outside nationalcamps out of the nationalteams, but following objec-tions raised by several seniormembers it was decided to

review the decision.For this purpose, the AFI

has set up a five-membercommittee including its se-lection committee chair-man, Gurbachan SinghRandhawa, chief Nationalcoach Bahadur Singh andformer chief coach J. S.Saini.

AFI president AdilleSumarivalla said the federa-tion had no objection to ath-letes training at establishedcentres abroad.

Incidentally, Usha Schoolof Athletics at Kozhikode,Kerala, is an approved

centre for National camp.The decision to clamp

down on “individual train-ing” was a sequel to the oft-repeated complaints thatathletes who trained outsidecamps tended to resort todoping. The assumption wasthe National Anti-DopingAgency (NADA) generallyconcentrated on thecampers in its out-of-com-petition testing, thus leavingthe “outsiders” vulnerableto the menace.

The fact that athletes whowere in the national campwere also prone to doping

and were in fact caught inthe past was stressed at themeeting, with pointed refer-ence to woman 400m run-ner Priyanka Panwar, beforethe EC decided to review thedecision.

Relay teamsThe AFI is planning to enterthe men and women’s4x400m relay teams in theWorld Relays at Nassau, Ba-hamas, on April 22 and 23.The top eight teams therewould automatically qualifyfor the World champion-ships in London in August.

AFI to review policy on non-campersThe federation has no objection to athletes training at established centres abroadVijay Lokapally

NEW DELHIOlympic champion MonicaPuig advanced to thesecond round of the BNPParibas Open with a 6-0,6-2 win onWednesday overwildcard Danielle Collins.

Belinda Bencic alsowent through, beating Ts-vetana Pironkova 6-4, 6-1.The results: First round:Monica Puig bt DanielleCollins 6-0, 6-2; LouisaChirico bt FrancescaSchiavone 6-3, 6-3; BelindaBencic bt Tsvetana Pironkova6-4, 6-1; Monica Niculescu btSorana Cirstea 4-6, 6-3, 6-1;Wang Qiang bt KaterynaBondarenko 5-7, 6-4, 6-4;Yanina Wickmayer bt LauraSiegemund 6-3, 3-6, 6-4;Kayla Day bt Kurumi Nara 6-3,6-4; Kirsten Flipkens bt Cath-erine Bellis 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; An-ett Kontaveit bt Misaki Doi7-5, 6-4; Sara Errani bt MandyMinella 1-6, 6-4, 7-5; HeatherWatson bt Nicole Gibbs 4-6,6-2, 6-2; Evgeniya Rodina btChristina McHale 6-1, 6-0; Jo-hanna Larsson bt CamilaGiorgi 7-6(3), 6-3.

PuigadvancesAgence France-Press

INDIAN WELLS

Exactly eight months aftershe was dropped from theIndian squad for the RioOlympics and six monthsafter she was recalled only tocall it quits from the nationalside, experienced midfielderand former captain Ritu Ranicompleted her return to theIndian women’s hockeyteam after being named forthe Hockey World League(HWL) Round 2 in Vancouvernext month.

The team was officially an-nounced on Thursday butRitu had returned to the foldearlier, featuring in the re-cent Test series against Be-larus that India won 5-0. Shehad refused to talk, though,preferring to concentrate onthe matches. After the offi-cial announcement, how-ever, she admitted the feel-ing was one of homecomingand relief.

“It is good to be back. It is

good to play competitivehockey again, be with myteammates, be out there inan India jersey and play forthe country.

“It’s good to come back tothe team on a winning note.That’s what I have done formore than 10 years, therehas been little else in my life.

“It was tough to be awayfor so long but now is a newbeginning with a new staffand new coach,” Ritu toldThe Hindu from Bhopal,where the team is training at

the moment. She had beendropped from the Olympicsside for form and disciplin-ary issues by former coachNeil Hawgood, somethingthat was denied by theplayer who later quit, sayingwith her Olympics dreamsshattered, there was noreason for her to continue.

“I am glad of the fact thatHockey India understood myposition and accepted mydecision to come out of re-tirement. My family is ex-tremely supportive of meand encouraged me to pur-sue the sport even after mar-riage,” she said.

The squad: Goalkeepers: SavitaPunia, Rajani Etimarpu; De-fenders: Deep Grace Ekka,Sunita Lakra, Gurjit Kaur, Re-nuka Yadav, Lalhlunmawii;Mid-fielders: Deepika Thakur, Nav-jot Kaur, Ritu Rani, Monika, LilyChanu, Namita Toppo; For-wards: Rani Rampal, VandanaKatariya, Poonam Rani, Sonika,Anupa Barla.

Ritu back in the reckoningShe says the feeling is one of homecoming and reliefUthra Ganesan

NEW DELHI

Ritu Rani. FILE PHOTO

Luis Figo and Ryan Giggspainted a rosy picture of thescene at the launch of a tal-ent-hunt ahead of thesecond season of PremierFutsal.

The ‘LaunchPad’ initiat-ive will seek to recruit fivelocal players to each of theparticipating teams from apool of over 2,000participants.

The registrations beginon March 10, and is open toapplicants between 18 to 30.

The shortlisted playerswill undergo rigorous train-ing at camps in their re-spective cities, where theywill be evaluated for phys-ical fitness and mental agil-

ity, and technical attributeslike flair, positioning, drib-bling, passing and tackling.

This season of PremierFutsal , like the previous edi-tion, has not found the ap-proval of the All India Foot-ball Federation.

“Our stand remains un-changed. The league doesnot have the sanction of theAIFF,” said Praful Patel, theFederation president.

The AIFF has also issueda warning to the players.“The Federation is also in-structing all its affiliate unitsto not allow players who areregistered with the affiliatesto participate in this unau-thorised and unofficial Fut-sal league,” said a press re-lease from the AIFF.

Talent-hunt launched

Premier Futsal still has nosanction from the AIFF


NEW DELHI

Yuki Bhambri stunned fifthseed Blaz Kavcic of Slove-nia 6-1, 6-4 in the pre-quarterfinals of the$50,000 Challenger tennistournament on Thursday.The results: $50,000 Chal-lenger men, Zhuhai, China:Singles (pre-quarterfinals):Yuki Bhambri bt Blaz Kavcic(Slo) 6-1, 6-4.$15,000 ITF women, SharmEl Sheikh, Egypt: Singles(pre-quarterfinals): Sai Sam-hitha bt Yana Sizikova (Rus)4-6, 7-6(3), 7-5.Doubles (pre-quarterfinas):Ola Abou Zekry (Egy) & An-ette Munozova (Swe) bt DanNi Wang (Chn) & Sai Samhitha6-3, 6-3.ITF grade-1 juniors,Nonthaburi, Thailand: Girls(quarterfinals): Xin Yu Wang(Chn) bt Zeel Desai 6-2, 6-3.

Bhambribeats KavcicSports Bureau

ZHUHAI (CHINA)

Former Asian championMan Singh will compete inthe shotgun World Cup inAcapulco, Mexico, fromMarch 19 to 26.

Young Angad Vir SinghBajwa, who was in the raceto make the final in theWorld Cup and had won themixed skeet bronze withHalley Dunn of the US in ahigh quality field, also staysin the squad.

Amrinder Singh Cheemagot back his assured berthfor having vacated his spotin the Delhi World Cup, leav-ing the coach a chance to re-vive the hopes of Man Singhwho had placed tenth in theWorld Championship inGranada in 2014.

Such a right for coach hasbeen restricted only toskeet, and thus there will beno change in the men’s trapand double trap teams.

Zoravar Singh Sandhu,Kynan Chenai and Bi-rendeep Sandhu will makethe team, while none of thewomen trap shooters havebeen found eligible to com-pete as they had notachieved the MinimumTravel Score (MTS) of 67.

Thus Manavjit SinghSandhu continues to coolhis heels. In double trap,Ankur Mittal, who won thesilver in the World Cup re-cently, will compete alongwith the 14-year-old ShapathBharadwaj. Skeeet shooterRashmee Rathore will be theonly woman in the squad ofnine, as Saniya Sheikh hadbeen rested.The team: Zoravar SinghSandhu, Kynan Chenai, Bi-rendeep Sodhi (trap), AnkurMittal, Shapath Bharadwaj(double trap), Angad Vir SinghBajwa, Amrinder SinghCheema, Man Singh (skeet),Rashmee Rathore (women’sskeet).

Man Singh in shotgunteam forWorld CupAngad Vir Singh Bajwa also in squad


New Delhi




LIFE

Lake in Australiaturns vivid pinkSYDNEY

An Australian lake has turneda vivid pink in a startlingnatural phenomenon. ParksVictoria chief conservationscientist Mark Norman onThursday said the spectaclewas the result of green algaeat the bottom of the lake atWestgate Park on theoutskirts of Melbourneresponding to high levels ofsalt and changing colour. AFP

IN BRIEF

Neanderthal used‘aspirin’ for toothachePARIS

Nearly 50,000 years beforethe invention of penicillin, ayoung Neanderthal withtoothache ate greenerycontaining a natural painkiller, analysis of his teeth hasrevealed. He ate an antibioticfungus called Penicillium andchewed on bits of poplar treecontaining salicylic acid — theactive ingredient of modern-day aspirin, said a study. AFP

Based on a DNA analysis of afossilised eggshell fragmentof ostrich, Indian research-ers have for the first timefound molecular evidence toconfirm the presence ofthese birds in India morethan 25,000 years ago.

Scientists found 92% ge-netic similarity between thefossil eggshell samples andStruthio camelus, an ostrichspecies found in Africa. Theresults were published in thejournal PLOS ONE.

Eggshell fragments of os-trich discovered from Indiabefore have been studied us-ing morphological features,which is insufficient to con-firm that ostriches may havelived in India. This is the firsttime that molecular evid-ence indicating their pres-ence has been obtained.

The ostrich sample ana-lysed has close proximity tothe African ostrich species

and underlines the move-ment of these birds betweenAfrica and India before theIndian landmass driftedaway from Africa.

Eleven fossilised eggshellsamples from eight archae-ological sites in Rajasthan,Gujarat and Madhya Pradeshwere studied. DNA was isol-ated from five samples and atiny portion (43 base pairs)of a highly conserved mito-chondrial region was ampli-fied and then sequencedfrom one of the samples.

The other four samples hadless than 30 base pairs andhence were not included inthe study.

Scientific challenges“We could amplify only asmall portion of the DNA asthe sample was highly de-graded. It is scientificallychallenging to isolate DNAfrom ancient samples. Andin this case, the sampleswere exposed to hostile en-vironment,” says Dr. Ku-marasamy Thangaraj fromthe Centre for Cellular andMolecular Biology (CCMB),Hyderabad, one of the au-thors of the paper.

“It is very difficult to studyancient DNA as it is oftenbroken into small fragments.So we could amplify only asmaller overlapping DNAfragment,” Dr. Thangarajsays.

“We are happy that wecould get this much informa-tion considering that the

sample was very old and notwell-preserved,” he adds.

This is the first time thatlong-term DNA preservationin fossil eggshell collectedfrom tropical environments,as seen in India, has beenstudied.

“Eggshells are a bettersubstrate than bones for pre-serving ancient DNA. The in-tracrystalline structure ofthe shell minimises micro-bial contamination,” saysSonal Jain from the Depart-ment of Biotechnology, In-dian Institute of Technology(IIT) Roorkee, the first au-thor of the paper.

“X-ray diffraction andelectron backscattering dif-fraction studies helped infinding which eggshells weregood and which were bad.The shells are made of cal-cium carbonate. If calciumchanges to magnesium, andif there is more magnesium,then the sample is more de-graded,” says Ms. Jain.

Ostriches lived in India onceClues found in DNA extracted from 25,000-year-old fossilised eggshells

R. Prasad

CHENNAI

From the past: A piece offossilised ostrich eggshell.

SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Potatoes may growon the red planetNEW YORK

Experiments by theInternational Potato Centre(CIP) in Lima, Peru, haveshown that it is likely that thetuber can grow on Mars.Seedlings sprouted from atuber planted in a speciallyconstructed CubeSatcontained environment thatdelivers nutrient-rich water,scientists said. IANS

A new study suggests thatthe ability to perform aston-ishing feats of memory canbe learned.

After 40 days of daily 30-minute training sessions us-ing a strategic memory im-provement technique,people who had regularmemory skills at the startand no previous memorytraining more than doubledtheir capacity.

From recalling an averageof 26 words from a list of 72,the participants were able toremember 62, researchersat Radboud University Med-ical Centre in The Nether-lands found. Four monthslater, without continued

training, recall performanceremained high.

Brain scans before andafter training showed thatstrategic memory trainingaltered the brain functionsof the trainees, makingthem more similar to thoseof world champion memoryathletes, researchers said.

“The training inducessimilar brain connectivitypatterns as those seen inmemory athletes,” said Mar-tin Dresler, assistant pro-fessor at Radboud Univer-sity Medical Center.

Mr. Dresler used func-tional magnetic resonanceimaging (fMRI) to measuredifferences in the strengthsof communication betweenbrain regions.

Training can give youa super-size memory

May double word recall capacity


London

A man posing online as popsuperstar Justin Bieber wason Thursday charged withmore than 900 child sex of-fences in Australia after enti-cing young fans to send himexplicit images, police said.

The 42-year-old used on-line platforms includingFacebook and Skype to im-personate the chart-toppingCanadian singer, with his al-leged offences dating backto 2007. “Detectives hadbeen investigating a manwho allegedly posed asJustin online in order to soli-cit explicit images fromyoung children,” Queens-land state police said.

“As part of the investiga-tion, a 42-year-old man hadearlier been charged with anumber of child sex of-fences including possessingchild exploitation materialand using a carriage service

to groom persons under 16.“After a thorough examina-tion of the man’s computer,he has been further chargedwith another 931 child sexoffences.”

The charges include rape,indecent treatment of chil-dren, making child exploita-tion material, using a car-riage service to procureperson under 16, and usinga carriage service for childpornography material.

Detective Inspector JonRouse described thebreadth of offences as “hor-rendous” and urged fans tobe extra vigilant when usingthe Internet.

“This investigationdemonstrates both the vul-nerability of children thatare utilising social mediaand communication applic-ations and the global reachand skill that child sex of-fenders have to groom andseduce victims,” he said.

‘Bieber impersonatorexploiting children’

Police track 42-year-old AustralianAgence France-Presse

Sydney

The Great Silk Road thatspans many countries in-cluding India was carvedby nomads moving herdsto lush mountain pasturesnearly 5,000 years ago,long before Marco Polo tra-versed the vast trans-Asiantrade route, a study hasfound.

The study employedsatellite imaging, geo-graphic information sys-tems and archaeologicalanalysis to show that 75%of the ancient Silk Roadsites across highland innerAsia fell along the paths itsmodel simulates as optimalfor moving herds to andfrom prime mountainmeadows.

The route grew out ofhistorically ingrained path-ways of nomads who wereknowledgeable and stra-tegic in mountain mobility,researchers said in a paperpublished in Nature.

‘Silk Roadmade bynomads’Press Trust of India

Washington

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