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Prime Minister NarendraModi has decided to shakeup India’s privileged VIP cul-ture, most notably symbol-ised by flashing red beaconlights on top of vehicles, byscrapping a rule that al-lowed the Central and Stategovernments to nominatedignitaries who could usesuch lights.

Moreover, States are alsobeing stripped of theirpower to specify personswhose vehicles can use blueflashing lights. Effective May1, only emergency servicesvehicles such as ambu-lances, fire engine trucks,and police vehicles will beallowed to use blue lights.Red lights will not be permit-ted on any vehicle. Privatevehicles will not be allowedto use either red or bluelights.

“The PM made the de-cision to carry out far-reach-ing amendments to theCentral Motor Vehicles Rulesof 1989, which he reportedto the Cabinet on Wednes-day,” said Finance, Defenceand Corporate Affairs Minis-ter Arun Jaitley after a Cab-inet meeting on Wednesday.

A specific clause in Rule108 of the 1989 regulations,which empowers the Centreand the States to designatesome dignitaries as entitledto red lights on top of theirvehicles, is being abolished.

“This is a central rule and

the government is removingthis rule from the rule book.Its abolition would meanthat neither the Centre northe States would have anydignitary that governmentscan nominate for the usageof red beacons,” Mr. Jaitleysaid.

“The government has de-cided to do away withbeacons of all kinds atop allcategories of vehicles in the

country as it is of the con-sidered opinion thatbeacons on vehicles are per-ceived symbols of VIP cul-ture, and have no place in ademocratic country. Theyhave no relevance whatso-ever,” the Road Transportand Highways Ministry saidin a statement later.

Modi shows red light tobeacons of VIP privilegeOnly ambulances, ire engines, and police can use them

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI

A slew of decisions: Finance and Defence Minister Arun Jaitleyemerging from a Cabinet meeting in New Delhi on Wednesday.

* R.V. MOORTHY

STATES CAN SEEK FOREIGN

FUNDS FOR PROJECTS � PAGE 13

The Supreme Court invokedthe maxim — ‘Let justice bedone though the heavensfall’ — on Wednesday and ex-ercised its extraordinaryconstitutional powers underArticle 142 to order a jointtrial of the dual Babri Masjiddemolition cases and revivecriminal conspiracy chargesagainst BJP and SanghParivar leaders, includingL.K. Advani, Murli ManoharJoshi and Union MinisterUma Bharti, in connectionwith the demolition of the16th century mosque onDecember 6, 1992.

“This court has the power,nay, the duty to do completejustice in a case when foundnecessary. In the presentcase, crimes which shake thesecular fabric of the Consti-tution of India have allegedlybeen committed almost 25years ago,” a Bench ofJustices P.C. Ghose and Ro-hinton F. Nariman observedin a 40-page judgment.

The court transferred theRae Bareli case, languishingin a magistrate court, to theCBI court in Lucknow for ajoint trial.

Daily hearing ordered It ordered the Lucknow CBIjudge to hold day-to-day trialand pronounce the judg-ment in two years. It forbadethe transfer of the judge and

also adjournments. Anygrievances, the Bench said,should directly be addressedto the Supreme Court. Its dir-ections have to be compliedwith in letter and in spirit,the court cautioned.

The Rae Bareli case ac-cuses the BJP and SanghParivar leaders of havinggiven speeches which pro-moted enmity andthreatened nationalintegration.

Composite charge sheetThe Lucknow case, investig-ated by the CBI, is against“lakhs of unknown karsevaks” and deals with theactual act of demolition andviolence. With the clubbingof the cases and revival ofthe conspiracy charges, theaccused political leaderswould be tried under thecomposite charge sheet filedby the CBI on October 5,

1993. The Bench agreed withthe CBI charge sheet’s find-ing in 1993 that both thecriminal conspiracy by thepolitical leaders and the ac-tual demolition of the 16thcentury mosque by karsevaks were part of the“same transaction” and war-ranted a joint trial.

Besides Mr. Advani, Dr.Joshi and Ms. Bharti, thecourt ordered the Lucknowcourt to frame conspiracycharges against Vinay Katiar,Sadhvi Ritambara, VishnuHari Dalmia, Champat RaiBansal, Satish Pradhan,Dharam Das, Mahant NrityaGopal Das, Mahamandalesh-war Jagdish Muni, Ram VilasVedanti, Vaikunth LalSharma and Satish ChandraNagar. All were named as ac-cused in the 1993 CBI chargesheet.

The court has kept thetrial against Rajasthan Gov-

ernor Kalyan Singh, who wasUttar Pradesh Chief Ministerat the time of the Babri de-molition, in abeyance. Itheld that Mr. Singh was pro-tected from prosecution bythe constitutional immunityhis Governor’s post allowshim under Article 361.

But the Lucknow judgewill frame charges and com-mence criminal prosecutionagainst Mr. Singh the mo-ment he steps down as Gov-ernor.

Under Section 216 (1) ofthe Criminal ProcedureCode (Cr.PC), a court haswide powers to alter or addany charge in any case at anytime before judgment is pro-nounced. If convicted, theaccused persons would facepunishment of three to fiveyears.

Conspiracy charge against Advani in Babri case revived Supreme Court transfers Rae Bareli case to Lucknow CBI court for joint trial

Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

MORE REPORTS ON � PAGE 11

46 killed as bus

plunges into Tons

river in Shimla

page 7

BSF jawan Tej Bahadur

Yadav who complained

of poor food dismissed

page 10

522 British MPs back

May’s decision to call

snap polls on June 8

page 12

Champions League:

Real goes through in

controversial fashion

page 17

The Ministry of Home Af-fairs (MHA) has cancelledthe Foreign ContributionRegulation Act (FCRA) li-cence of the Public HealthFoundation of India (PHFI),the country’s largest publichealth advocacy group.

The NGO has been barredfrom receiving foreign fundson the ground, among oth-ers, that it used foreign con-tributions to lobby parlia-mentarians, the media andthe government on tobaccocontrol issues, which “isprohibited under theFCRA.”

‘Funds diverted’The MHA has claimed

that funds were diverted forthis use. It also listed otheralleged violations such as re-mittances to foreign coun-tries from its FCRA account,

and failure to declare all itsbank accounts to the gov-ernment. The Bill andMelinda Gates Foundation(BMGF) is a major donor offunds to the PHFI, havingtransferred ₹183 crore to itbetween 2010 and 2015. ThePHFI’s FCRA licence, whichenabled it to receive foreignfunds, was renewed in Au-gust 2017.

It was valid till 2021. It isbelieved that the thinktank’s association with theBMGF played an importantrole in the government’s ac-tion against them – a factthat was corroborated by aHealth Ministry official.

As for the charge that thePHFI used foreign funds tolobby with parliamentariansand others on tobacco con-trol, it undertook this initiat-ive in partnership with theIndian Health Ministry.

PHFI loses FCRAlicence for lobbying ‘It used funds for anti-tobacco drive’

Vidya Krishnan

Vijaita Singh

New Delhi


Video gaming will befeatured as a full sport at the2022 Asian Games, withcompetitors in electronicsports set to receive medalsfor their digital prowess.

The Olympic Council ofAsia says it will introducee-sports to the officialprogramme of the AsianGames at Hangzhou, China.It will also be ademonstration sport at the2018 Asian Games inPalembang, Indonesia.

The OCA said thedecision is a reflection of“the rapid development andpopularity of this new formof sports participationamong the youth.”

The Council iscollaborating with Alisports,a unit of China’s Alibaba

Group, to bring e-sports tothe games. No details weregiven on which video gameswould be included.

Regional appealThe Asian Games features awide range of traditionalOlympic sports along withothers containing more

regional appeal. The sportsinclude ‘sepak takraw’,which combines featuresfrom soccer and volleyball,and kabaddi, which isdominated by India.

The programme has alsoincluded a variety of martialarts, contract bridge, jet-skiracing and sport climbing.

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2022 Asian Games to open uparena for e-sports enthusiastsEvents in Hangzhou will ofer medals for video games

Associated Press

KUWAIT CITY

Real-time turf: The Fuse gaming team at the Major LeagueGaming Championships in the U.S. in this 2014 image. * AP

Voters will be able to verifyif their ballot was correctlyregistered in all electionsafter September 2018, in-cluding the Lok Sabhapolls of 2019.

The government onWednesday approved theprocurement of 16.15 lakhVoter Verifiable PaperAudit Trail (VVPAT) ma-chines sought by the Elec-tion Commission of India(ECI).

The total cost for buyingthese machines that func-tion like a printer attachedto the electronic voting ma-chine and disburse a ballotslip after the vote is cast, is₹3173.47 crore.

The ballot slip containsthe name, serial numberand symbol of the chosencandidate.

Nod for 16.15lakh VVPATmachines Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI


Prime Minister NarendraModi took to Twitter tospeak about the Cabinet’sdecision to do away with redbeacon lights that separateVIPs from the rest, and said“every Indian was special.Every Indian a VIP.”

Speaking through hispersonal Twitter handle@narendramodi, Mr. Modiwas responding to messagesof congratulations from hisfollowers.

“It should have beendone a long time ago. Gladthat a strong beginning hasbeen made,” he said.

Every Indian a VIP: PMSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

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Colleges in the Kashmir Val-ley faced the prospect of aprolonged shutdown as theauthorities on Wednesdayordered the closure of all 46colleges for two more days toprevent students from com-ing out on the streets toprotest.

“Teaching work in all col-leges of the Kashmir divisionshall remain suspended onApril 20 and 21 as a precau-tionary measure,” said aspokesman of DivisionalCommissioner Baseer Khan.

No classesThere have been no classesin all 46 government degreecolleges and some schools inSrinagar since Monday afterstudents clashed with secur-ity forces across the Valley,leaving dozens of studentsinjured.

The trigger of the protestswas the alleged police ex-

cesses on students of Gov-ernment Degree College,Pulwama, on April 13, whichleft over 50 students injured.

This year’s academic ses-sion, which began in March,has seen only one month ofclasses. With the govern-ment not confident of open-

ing the colleges, many fear arepeat of 2016, when educa-tional institutions were shutfor five months.

Sources said the govern-ment is mulling multiplemeasures, including barringcirculation of videos on so-cial media platforms, to stop

unrest in the colleges.In fresh protests on Wed-

nesday, students of severalschools took to the streets inPalhallan, Delina, Ajas,Sopore, Nadihal and Kanganin north and central Kash-mir. They clashed with thesecurity forces at severalplaces.

Tear-smoke shells wereused to disperse the schoolchildren, hampering trafficon several highways. Stu-dents from Government Col-lege for Women Nawakadal,Srinagar, also staged aprotest.

‘Grim situation’“This is a grim situation. Weare worried,” said a spokes-man of the State Educationministry. The education min-istry officials claimed thatthe decision to close downschools and colleges “istaken by the district adminis-tration after assessing theground situation.”

Meanwhile, the principalof Government Degree Col-lege, Pulwama, which is atthe centre of the storm, wason Tuesday attached to thedirectorate office “till an in-quiry is completed.”

Move criticisedThe move was criticised bymany quarters. “The govern-ment has yet again disgracedan upright and honest Kash-miri officer. Every incidentproves that nothing is in thehands of the governmentand even minor decisionsare being taken keeping inview the interests of securityagencies,” said EngineerRashid, an MLA.

Separatist leaders Syed AliGeelani, Mirwaiz UmarFarooq and MohammadYasin Malik, while stronglycriticising the administrationfor “invading educational in-stitutions and assaulting stu-dents,” called for solidarityprotests on Friday.

Kashmir colleges face prolonged shutdownState government orders closure of all 46 degree colleges for two more days

Peerzada Ashiq

Srinagar

Rising anger: Continuing student protests have forced theclosure of all degree colleges in the Valley. * FILE PHOTO

Six persons were killed in amajor fire that broke out inan electrical factory in Sec-tor 11 here on Wednesday,trapping nearly a dozen em-ployees in the five-storeybuilding. One employeesuffered severe injurieswhen he jumped off the topfloor to escape the blaze.Search operations were ontill late in the evening.

Three of the deceasedhave been identified as Jas-meet Kaur (20), VivekKochar (35) and IndrabhanSingh (38). Jasmeet hailedfrom Mohali in Punjab whileVivek was from Laxmi Nagarin Delhi. Indrabhan wasfrom Lucknow.

According to factory em-ployee Sheeshpal, the firebroke out around 1 p.m. Un-fortunately for the trappedemployees, their initial dis-tress calls went to the wrongpolice control rooms. “When

we dialled 100, the call gotconnected to the Delhi po-lice control room. We triedagain, but in the second at-tempt the call went to theGhaziabad control room.After several attempts, we fi-nally managed to connect tothe Noida control room,”said Sheeshpal, alleging that

the fire tenders reached thespot an hour and a half late.

The factory has about adozen employees. “Primafacie it appears that the firebroke out due to a short cir-cuit on the third floor.Within seconds we had totake a decision on whetherto run upstairs or down-

stairs. Four employeesrushed upstairs. One em-ployee jumped from the fifthfloor, while the rest rusheddownstairs,” said Ashish, an-other employee.

The condition of the em-ployee who jumped off thebuilding is said to be critical.

Factory owner MahboobAkhtar said ₹15 crore worthof goods were inside the fact-ory. “I am more concernedabout my employees,” hesaid.

Short circuit suspectedAkshay Sharma, Deputy Dir-ector of the UP Fire Depart-ment, said: “As soon as ourcontrol room got the inform-ation, over a dozen firetenders were rushed to thespot. Hydraulic platformswere used to put out theblaze. Prima facie it appearsthat the fire broke out due toa short circuit. Further in-vestigations are on.”

Six killed in major factory ire in NoidaDistress calls by employees went to the wrong police control roomsPurusharth Aradhak

NOIDA

Inferno: Black smoke billows from the burning factorybuilding in Noida * SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

SEE ALSO � DELHI METRO PAGE 3

Amit Shah to board 2019 caravan NEW DELHI

The Narendra Modi

government may be getting

ready to celebrate its third

anniversary, but BJP

president Amit Shah is

already preparing for the

2019 Lok Sabha elections,

with a whirlwind tour of all

State capitals over 95 days

starting from April 27.

NEWS � PAGE 10

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NEARBY

BSP to contest civic polls on party symbolLUCKNOW

In a marked shift in its

electoral strategy after the

drubbing in the Assembly

elections, the Bahujan Samaj

Party has decided to contest

the upcoming urban body

polls in Uttar Pradesh on the

party symbol. The BSP would

be ighting urban body polls

on its symbol after a gap of

over two decades.

NEWS � PAGE 10


Duty of every Punjabi towelcome Sajjan: AAP CHANDIGARH

Punjab Chief Minister

Amarinder Singh has dubbed

Canada’s Defence Minister,

Harjit Sajjan, a Khalistani

sympathiser, but the Aam

Aadmi Party on Wednesday

said it was the duty of every

Punjabi to welcome the

visiting dignitary.

NORTH � PAGE 2


DELHI METRO � 6 PAGES

The Union government hasdefended its foreign policyoriented towards job cre-ation, and indicated thatthe latest measures takenby Australia and the UnitedStates will not curtail visasfor Indian professionals.

A formal statement wasissued on Wednesday afterthe two countries adoptedmeasures that were likelyto reduce the number ofvisas for IT professionals.

H1-B visas“Insofar as H1-B visas areconcerned, the cap has re-mained at 65,000 sinceDecember 2004 when theH1-B Visa Reform Act of2004 was enacted by theU.S. Congress,” said a state-ment issued by External Af-fairs Ministry spokesper-son Gopal Baglay.

‘No threatto visas forprofessionals’


NEW DELHI


https://t.me/srikakulam bubbly

DELHI Timings

Thursday, April 20

RISE 05:51 SET 18:50

RISE 01:34 SET 12:40

Friday, April 21

RISE 05:50 SET 18:50

RISE 02:16 SET 13:37

Saturday, April 22

RISE 05:49 SET 18:51

RISE 02:58 SET 14:34

Raising questions over therevised memorandum of un-derstanding (MoU) signed bythe BJP government for anoil refinery, senior Congressleader and former RajasthanChief Minister Ashok Gehloton Wednesday said the “in-ordinate delay” in the pro-ject had led to losses, whichwere far more than the sav-ings of ₹40,000 croreclaimed by the ruling party.

Previous MoUThe previous MoU for theproject signed during theCongress regime in 2013 wasjunked by the BJP govern-ment after raising doubtsabout its financial viability.

A fresh MoU was signedwith Hindustan PetroleumCorporation Limited (HPCL)here on Tuesday for estab-lishing the refinery at Pach-padra in Barmer district.

Mr. Gehlot said at a pressconference that the four-

year delay had caused an ex-orbitant loss in revenue,business and employmentgeneration.

“The State's equity of 26%has not been increased,even though the cost has es-calated from the previous₹37,229 crore to ₹43,119crore,” he said.

Union Minister of Statefor Petroleum DharmendraPradhan had claimed duringthe MoU's signing that thefinancial burden on theState government would re-duce by two-thirds, as thetotal viability gap funding tobe paid by the State would

amount to ₹16,845 croreagainst ₹56,040 crore stipu-lated in the previous MoU.

Mr. Gehlot said the Gu-jarat government was earn-ing value added tax of₹1,500 crore every year be-cause of the delay and de-manded that both the MoUsbe investigated to let thetruth come out.

“The people of Rajasthanwill not forgive BJP for sus-pending the refinery projectfor so long, as it had a hugepotential for the State's ex-ponential growth,” he said.

‘No clarity’The former Chief Ministersaid there was no clarityabout the internal rate of re-turn (IRR) in the revisedMoU, as an RRI lower than15% stipulated in the previ-ous MoU would yield lesserprofits for the State.

Besides, the Union Minis-ter had not mentioned whenthe project would start mak-ing profit, he said.

‘Delay led to losses which are far more than the savings’


Jaipur

Ashok Gehlot *

Gehlot questions revisedMoU for oil reinery

Punjab Chief Minister Am-arinder Singh has dubbedCanada’s Defence Minister,Harjit Sajjan, a Khalistanisympathiser and has refusedto meet him during his visitto the State, but the AamAadmi Party, the principalOpposition party in Punjab,on Wednesday said it wasthe duty of every Punjabi towelcome the visitingdignitary.

Senior AAP leader andleader of the Opposition inthe Punjab Assembly, H.S.Phoolka, said Mr. Sajjan hadmade Punjabis proud by se-

curing a high post in the Ca-nadian government.

“I had invited Mr. Sajjanfor a formal meeting with myparty MLAs but due to un-

availability of time and pre-scheduled programme he isunable to meet AAP lead-ers,” he said.

Even the Shiromani Gurd-

wara Parbandhak Commit-tee (SGPC) has decided tohonour Mr. Sajjan on hisvisit to Golden Temple inAmritsar on April 20,where he is scheduled topay obeisance.

SGPC head Kirpal SinghBadungar had said as pertradition, the SGPC wouldextend due honour to Mr.Sajjan by presenting him asiropa (robe of honour.“Mr. Sajjan is a senior dig-nitary of Canada, a country

which enjoys good relationswith India. It will be a proudmoment for all the Sikhswhen Mr. Sajjan will be hon-oured,” he recently said.

Duty of every Punjabi towelcome Sajjan, says AAP He made us proud by securing a high post in the Canadian government: Phoolka

Harjit Sajjan *


Chandigarh

The chopped body of a six-year-old boy, Aryan, whohad been kidnapped fromKarnal district, was onWednesday found in agunny bag kept inside ashop near his home, thepolice said.

Aryan was kidnappedon Monday evening fromnear his home in Popra vil-lage. After he did not re-turn home till late night,his family lodged a com-plaint. Yesterday, the fam-ily got a ransom call for ₹5lakh, police said. Todaysome locals noticed bloodcoming out from a shop.The police team found abag with the body.

Body ofkidnappedboy foundPress Trust of India

Chandigarh

A day after seven personswere charred to death in theRanipura fire incident in thecity, the district administra-tion on Wednesday conduc-ted raids and seized illegallystored firecrackers from agodown and four shops, anofficial said.

“Godown of Dilip PatakhaHouse was raided and 10boxes of crackers wereseized. This is the same firmwhich had illegally storedfirecrackers at its shop in Ra-nipura where the fire hadbroken out, in which sevenpersons lost their life,” Sub-Divisional Magistrate BihariSingh said.

Besides the godown, the

illegal stock of crackers wasrecovered from four shopsin this area, he said.

“Though the firecrackerlicense of Dilip PatakhaHouse was cancelled lastyear, the shop owner hadstored the crackers illegally,”the SDM added.

The incident occurred lastafternoon, when the blazestarted at the cracker shopand spread to the adjoiningshop selling polythene bagsand five other outlets.

Five cops sent to linesCracking the whip, IndoreDIG HarinarayanchariMishra on Wednesday with-drew five police personnel,including a police station in-charge, from their field du-

ties for dereliction of duty,in the wake of the incident.

“Central Kotwali policestation in-charge C. S.Chadhar and four other po-lice personnel from thesame police station wereline-attached (withdrawnfrom the field duty) due tocarelessness (in monitoringthe illegal storage of crack-ers),” the DIG said.

Probe orderedDistrict Collector P. Narharihas already ordered a magis-terial enquiry into theincident.

Madhya Pradesh ChiefMinister Shivraj SinghChouhan has announced aidof ₹2 lakh each for the kin ofdeceased.

Illegally stored crackersseized from godown, shops Licence of Dilip Patakha House was cancelled last year

Press Trust of India

Indore

H.S. Phoolka

The Allahabad High Courton Wednesday directed theUttar Pradesh governmentto file an affidavit elucidat-ing the guidelines its pro-poses for e-auctioning ofmining leases in the State.

Passing the order, a Divi-sion Bench comprising ChiefJustice D. B. Bhosle andJustice Yashwant Vermamade it clear that the Stategovernment’s request for va-cating the stay order on min-ing of major minerals wouldbe considered only if the af-

fidavit is filed on May 1, thenext date of hearing in thematter.

The court’s observationscame in response to a pleamade by Advocate-GeneralRaghavendra Singh whosubmitted that while theState government was layingdown guidelines for e-auc-tion, in a bid to curb illegalmining, the same was a“time-taking process”.

Temporary leases soughtThe Advocate-General hadprayed that the State govern-ment be “permitted to give

temporary mining leases toavoid shortage of sand andother minerals in UP”.

The Court, however, toldthe AG to ensure that the af-fidavit filed on behalf of theState government on thenext date of hearing con-tained the aforementionedguidelines.

Illegal miningThe Court was hearing apublic interest litigation filedby Gulab Chandra Mishra,who had drawn the court’sattention towards illegalmining activities in the State.

‘Request for stay order to be considered if iled on May 1’


Allahabad

Allahabad HC asks UP govt to ile aidavit on mining

A girl died of burn injuriesand her sister is in criticalcondition when a man setthem on fire in West Cham-paran district of Bihar, thepolice said. A Karatetrainer of the elder sisterallegedly poured petrol onthem and set them ablaze,SP Vinay Kumar said. Hewas angry over rejection ofhis marriage proposal tothe elder sister, he said.

Two sistersset on ire Press Trust of India

Bettiah

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THE HINDU NOIDA/DELHI

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EAST

Governor convenesAssam Assembly session GUWAHATI

The Assam Assembly has

been summoned by Governor

Banwarilal Purohit on

Wednesday to meet here on

May 8. The Governor

summoned the Assembly to

meet at 9.30 a.m. The

Assembly had last met for

the budget session from

January 30 to March 10. PTI

IN BRIEF

Couple get life term for killing man BANKURA

A couple was sentenced to

life imprisonment by a local

court here on Wednesday for

killing a man for his failure to

pay them back a paltry sum of

₹ 30,000. Additional District

Judge D. N. Ray of Bankura

fast track court also imposed

a fine of ₹ 10,000 on convicts

Mujibur Khan and Kasari

Bibi.PTI

16,000 teachers to beappointed in Assam GUWAHATI

The Assam government on

Wednesday said it will

appoint nearly 16,000

teachers by next year with

the Centre relaxing norms for

the State regarding

qualifications for teaching

jobs. “We have 19,709 people

who have passed TET exam.

Out of that, nearly 80 per

cent will be recruited by

2018,” Assam Education

minister Himanta Biswa

Sarma said. PTI

Woman crushed to deathby elephant in BengalBANKURA

A woman was crushed to

death by an elephant in

Nityanandapur jungle in

Bankura district on

Wednesday. Bankura District

Forest Officer Pinaki Mitra

said the 60-year-old woman

was collecting kendu leaves

in forest when she was

attacked by the elephant. PTI

Union Textiles MinisterSmriti Irani on Wednesdaysaid cases against BharatiyaJanata Party workers in WestBengal was a reflection ofthe growing nervousness ofthe ruling Trinamool Con-gress in the State.

“That the people are hit-ting the streets in large num-bers is indicative of their dis-illusionment,” Ms Irani saidat a press conference here.

Like the other senior BJPleaders who are visiting theState, the Union Ministerwas upbeat about the per-formance of the BJP in therecent Kanthi Dakshin As-sembly by-poll. She said theresults indicated the “declin-ing popularity” of not onlythe other political partiesbut also the TMC. “It is indic-

ative of the efforts put in bythe BJP’s Bengal unit. It isalso indicative of the declin-ing popularity of the TMCand other political parties inWest Bengal,” she said.

“You cannot take citizensof West Bengal for granted

anymore,” she added.

Narada caseAsked about the recentprobe by the CBI in theNarada news sting videos,Ms. Irani refused to com-ment saying that constitu-

tional propriety as a CabinetMinister does not allow herto make any comment onthe judicial matter.

Refuting allegations of cer-tain BJP leaders being soft onMamata Banerjee, Ms. Iranisaid: “I do not think so.Many senior BJP leadershave come to West Bengal. Itis indicative of the support ofthe government of India toBengal, and is indicative ofthe support of the BJP’s na-tional president.”

PTI adds: Ms. Irani dis-missed claims that the BJPhas a political understandingwith the ruling TMC, sayingif that was so the policewould not have filed casesagainst State BJP chief DilipGhosh. “Cases were filedagainst the State BJP presid-ent and party workers werebeaten up,” she said.

TMC popularity declining in Bengal, says Smriti IraniNo political understanding with Trinamool Congress, says Union Minister

Union Textiles Minister Smriti Irani interacts with the media inKolkata on Wednesday. * PTI


Kolkata

Despite more than 10,000fire incidents reported in thelast one year, the Fire andEmergency Services depart-ment in Bengal is sufferingfrom an acute shortage ofstaff with about 47% of theoperative posts (personnelwho are directly engaged infire fighting) lying vacant.

Sources in the depart-ment told The Hindu that ofthe sanctioned 7,802 operat-ive posts, about 3,667 are ly-ing vacant. Minister of Fireand Engineering Sovan Chat-terjee said the departmenthas already hired 1,500 aux-iliary fire operators and initi-ated the process to hire an-

other 1,500 permanent staff. Between January 2016 and

2017, 10,776 incidents of acci-dental fire took place in theState. In Kolkata alone, 2,132incidents occurred. An offi-cial said loss of property inthese incidents was valued ataround ₹ 73 crore. But nearly50% [2,340] of the sanc-tioned 4,748 key posts of firefighters, who are at the fore-front of operations, are lyingvacant.

Auxiliary fire operatorAccording to a fire depart-ment official, instead of mak-ing fresh recruitment, theState government was hiring“poorly trained” contractualworkers designated as auxili-

ary fire operator. Of the 1,178posts of leaders, nearly 38%(447) are lying vacant.

“For the last three years,almost no proper recruit-ment has taken place in thedepartment. Instead, only1,472 auxiliary fire operatorshave been hired on contrac-tual basis,” said a seniorofficial.

As for the posts of sub-of-ficers, who are the second-in-command of fire stationsafter the station officer,about 56% (242) of the totalsanctioned strength of 427are lying vacant. However,the current strength of sta-tion officers is comparativelybetter as 20% (48) of the 238sanctioned posts are vacant.

Nearly 50% posts vacant in Bengal ire brigade‘Government hiring poorly trained contractual workers’

Soumya Das

Kolkata

Amid allegations that plasticeggs were being sold in WestBengal, tests conducted onsamples collected from thecity suggested that all eggsare normal.

“Around 22 tests were

conducted, which found alleggs were normal in biolo-gical origin and there wasno existence of any plasticegg in the seized samples,” arelease issued on Wednes-day by the Information andCultural Affairs Departmentsaid.

No plastic eggs in Bengal: govt Press Trust of India

Kolkata

Government employees inTripura would get the bestbenefit if the BJP comes topower in the 2018 Assemblyelections, said its State pres-ident Biplab Kumar Deb.“Within three months of tak-ing over we will implementthe terms of the seventh paycommission,” he announcedon Wednesday.

Mr. Deb said the party isconfident of achieving acomfortable majority in theelections as CPI(M), Trin-amool Congress and Con-gress are fast losing ground.He claimed the party’s cent-ral leadership has attachedextreme importance toTripura and political mattersin the State were extensivelydiscussed in the recently-held meeting of the nationalexecutive at Bhubaneswar.

“Our national presidentAmit Shah ji to Home Minis-ter Rajnath Singh to seniorleaders have all shown in-terest to recurrently visitTripura to boost the partyahead of the Assembly poll”,said Sunil Deodhar, who in-teracted with reportersalong with Mr. Deb.

Amit Shah’s visitParty General SecretaryRam Madhab is reaching onApril 22 to oversee prepara-tions for visit of Amit Shah,who is arriving on May 6 ona two-day visit. Another topleader Ramlal Ji will visit theState on June 11 next.

Mr. Deb’s statement onpay incentive to State gov-ernment employees andpensioners attains import-ance in the wake of forma-tion of pay review commit-tee by the Left Front

government. He termed thedecision (pay review com-mittee) of the State govern-ment a “gimmick” and as-sured to dispeldiscrepancies in real termsby implementing recom-mendations of the 7th cent-ral pay commission withinthree months of elections.

Special campaigners Speaking on initiatives in themonths ahead of the As-sembly election in early2018, he said they havechalked out a detailed planto host top central leaders,ministers and organisationexperts. “Sixty special cam-paigners each would campout in 60 assembly constitu-encies,” he added.

Party MP and cinestarRupa Ganguly will address arally at Sonamura in Sepahi-jala district on Thursday.

Party hopeful of a comfortable majority in 2018 polls

Syed Sajjad Ali

Agartala

Will implement 7th paypanel, says Tripura BJP

Odisha Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik orderedwithdrawal of red light fromall VIP vehicles in the Statefrom Wednesday. Mr. Pat-naik also returned to his res-idence without the red

beacon in his officialvehicle.

The CM’s order camehours after the Central gov-ernment announced its ab-olition on any vehicle otherthan ambulances, policevehicles and fire brigadevehicles from May 1.

Patnaik returns homewithout red beaconOdisha withdraws red light from VIP vehicles

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik rides in his carwithout a red beacon in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday. * PTI


BHUBANESWAR





WEST

On the lookout: Water shortage in Kalajhari forest area near Nagpur has forced blackbucks to migrate to the city. The pictureshows them near Hudkeshwar area of the city on Wednesday. * S. SUDARSHAN

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Water woes

A decomposed carcass of atigress was found in theMansinghdeo wildlife sanc-tuary of Saleghat forestrange in Pench Tigerreserve.

Deputy director of PenchForest Reserve S.B. Bhalavisaid, “The carcass was no-ticed by the forest depart-ment’s patrolling staff onApril 17, but the messagewas conveyed to senior offi-cials late since the area fallsin the deep interiors of thejungle.”

He said a post-mortemcould not be performed asthe carcass was in a highlydecomposed state. This isthe third death of a tigressin the reserve since January.

Carcass oftigress found inPench reserve Press Trust of India

Nagpur

The Gujarat High Court onWednesday sought the standof the Union and the Stategovernment on a plea seek-ing cancellation of a 1994 of-ficial resolution that had in-ducted people of 39 castesinto the Other BackwardClass (OBC) list.

The plea was filed byAjmal Thakor, the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) corpor-ator of Visnagar Nagarpalikain Mehsana district. The pe-tition also seeks a fresh sur-vey to identify other back-ward communities andcreate a new list of the OBC.

The Division Bench ofChief Justice R. SubhashReddy and Justice V.M. Pan-choli has issued notices to

the National and State OBCcommissions, besides theUnion and the State govern-ment, in the case.

The petitioner has con-tended that the inclusion of39 castes in the OBC list wasnot based on any review orrecommendation of the OBCpanel, and that it wasagainst the Supreme Court’s1993 order in Indra Sahwneycase, in which the apexcourt, while directing peri-odic review of the list everyten years, had ordered thatcastes would not be in-cluded without recommend-ation or review of thecommission.

The plea has also soughtthe HC’s direction to freezejobs and admissions beinggiven on the basis of the list.

Notices to Centre, Gujarat on plea against OBC list Press Trust of India

Ahmedabad

Despite the temperaturesreaching 46.2 degrees Celsiusin Chandrapur on Wednes-day, the city recorded a 42%voter turnout till 5.30 p.m.for the election to its civicbody.

The poll to theChandrapur Municipal Cor-poration is being consideredas a battle of prestige for theruling Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP) in the State, becausethe city is the hometown ofRashtriya SwayamsevakSangh (RSS) chief MohanBhagwat.

Union Minister for StateHansraj Ahir, and Maha-rashtra Finance Minister Sud-hir Mungantiwar also hailfrom Chandrapur.

After winning the recentlyheld zila parishad electionsin the district, the BJP hadfielded candidates for all 66seats, covering 17 wards inthe city, in the civic body.The party contested the elec-tion without any visible fac-tionalism between the Ahircamp and the Maungantiwarcamp.

The Congress’s faction-rid-den unit also put up a strongand united show during the

election campaign.Chandrapur MP NareshPugalia was asked to lead thecampaign by party high com-mand after it suffered a ma-jor loss in the ZP polls underthe leadership of former Ma-harashtra Cabinet MinisterVijay Wadettiwar. The partyhad fielded 64 candidates forthe polls.

The BJP’s ally Shiv Senaalso contested the electionson its own strength by field-ing 61 candidates. The Na-tionalist Congress Party alsocontested the polls with 43candidates. The counting ofvotes will be held on April 21.

Chandrapur records 42%turnout in civic electionThe poll is being considered as a battle of prestige for the BJP

Pavan Dahat

Nagpur

The Hindu Janajagruti Sam-iti (HJS), a right-wing outfit,has demanded a ban onthe sale of T-shirts imprin-ted with pictures of Hindudeities at the ‘Saturdaynight market’ at Arporaand Anjuna flea market.

It submitted a memor-andum to the Anjuna Po-lice and to the Deputy Col-lector of Bardez Taluk,North Goa, stating that thesale of the T-shirts causes“denigration” of deities,which hurts religious senti-ments of Hindus. The or-ganisation also wants theState government to issuean ordinance that wouldaddress their demand.

Ban T-shirtswith picturesof deities: HJSSpecial Correspondent

Panaji

A group of activists underthe banner of recentlyformed Indians for Actual-ization of Democracy (IAD)on Wednesday released afact-finding report on theMarch 25 communal viol-ence at Vadavali in Patandistrict of north Gujarat,following a visit to the area.

Vinod Chand, the pres-ident of IAD, called the in-cident as a “dacoity” ratherthan “riots,” and said theincident sparked off after atiff between two school-boys, one Hindu and theother Muslim, when thelatter reprimanded theformer for throwing stonesat a beehive.

Vadavali wasa dacoity, notriot: activist

Kieran Lobo

Mumbai

Breaking his silence over thelatest controversial state-ments of a prominent VishwaHindu Parishad(VHP) leaderregarding “beef ban imple-mentation in Goa”, ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikaron Wednesday said his gov-ernment would ensure thatnobody takes the law in theirhands to further their per-sonal views and choices.

Responding to a questionfrom journalists at his post-Cabinet briefing at the StateSecretariat on Wednesday,Mr. Parrikar, when asked forhis comments on the beefban statement by the VHPleader, retorted why shouldhe react to everything said byanybody.

“As far as I am concerned I

will ensure that the law is fol-lowed; nobody will be al-lowed to take law in theirown hands. This is my tenthstatement on these kind of is-sues since 2012, and youmust have written it 10times,” said Mr. Parrikarsounding a bit annoyed overmedia interest on suchstatements.

When pressed for his gov-ernment’s stand on protect-ing individual constitutionalliberties with regard to foodand clothes, Mr. Parrikar saidin this country no one canstop anyone from makingany statement.

“If someone is vegetarianhe will say I am veg, propag-ate veganism; if somebodydoes not like non-veg he willsay that. It is an individualchoice,” said Mr. Parrikar.

‘Beef ban: No one can uselaw for personal goals’Goa CM pulls up media for taking joy in reporting controversial statements


Panaji

Goa Chief Minister ManoharParrikar on Wednesday saidenergy and resourcesshould not be spent on pro-tection of VIPs, barring thePrime Minister and thePresident.

Following the Union Cab-inet’s decision to ban redbeacons on VIP cars onWednesday, the CM said hewould stop using it. “I be-lieve that VIP culture has tobe reduced. It is a wrongthing that is happening tothis country. Security is amindset. Security can beachieved with two, three, or

four people,” Mr. Parrikartold reporters at a mediabriefing after the Cabinetmeeting at the StateSecretariat.

Later in the day, two Min-isters in the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP)-led coalition gov-ernment: Minister for Tour-ism Manohar Ajgaonkar andWater Resources MinisterVinod Paliyekar, said theyhad removed red beaconsfrom their official cars, fol-lowing the Central Cabinet’sdecision.

Mr. Parrikar also asked of-ficials in the CMO to issue in-structions for implementa-tion of the decision.

‘Energy, resources should notbe spent on VIP protection’Special Correspondent

Panaji


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Jagan to highlightfarmers’ plight GUNTUR

YSR Congress president Y.S.

Jagan Mohan Reddy will

undertake a two-day ‘rythu

deeksha’ from April 26 to

highlight the plight of the

farmers who are reeling

under the steep fall in the

prices of commercial crops.

IN BRIEF

Cricket betting racketbusted, ₹10.8 lakh seizedHYDERABAD

City police on Wednesday

seized ₹10.8 lakh in cash, an

LED monitor, a laptop and 17

mobile phones from a gang

that was found indulging in

cricket betting. While eight

persons connected with the

betting racket were arrested,

the main bookies — Lucky

Gaja and Gajanand — were yet

to be traced, the

Commissioner’s Task Force

Additional DCP N. Koti Reddy

said.

Five years after PascalMazurier, former employeeof the French Consulate inBengaluru, was arrested oncharges of raping his three-and-a-half-year-old daughter,a sessions court on Wednes-day pronounced him notguilty. It cited lack of evid-ence to prove Mr. Mazurier’sguilt.

Mr. Mazurier, 44, wasbooked under Section 376 ofthe Indian Penal Code by theHigh Grounds police in 2012following a complaint by hiswife. At the time of his ar-rest, he was the DeputyHead of Chancery at theFrench Consulate inBengaluru.

“Over 26 witnesses wereexamined. The medical evid-ence and other parameterssubmitted by the police,along with the charge sheet,proved false for which myclient was exonerated,” S.Mahesh, counsel for Mr.Mazurier, told The Hindu.

Soon after his acquittal,Mr. Mazurier who addressedthe media, said: “It has beena long battle, but I am happythat justice has been done.”

Plan to appealThe prosecution as well asthe girl’s mother, however,reiterated that they had notgiven up their fight forjustice. B.T. Venkatesh, Spe-cial Public Prosecutor, main-

tained that it was a “verygood case fit for prosecu-tion,” and plans to appealthe judgment in theKarnataka High Court.

Mr. Mazurier is also ex-ploring the legality of gain-ing custody of his three chil-dren, who are currentlyliving with wife, and takingthem back to France. “Thechildren are citizens ofFrance and they have the

right to stay there with theirfather,” said Mr. Mahesh.

In her complaint, Mr.Mazurier’s wife said on June13, 2012, she returned hometo find their daughter crying.According to the domestichelp, Mr. Mazurier had beenin their bedroom with theirdaughter for a long time, shesaid. On June 14, she tookher daughter to a privatehospital where doctors, afterconducting a swab examina-tion on the child found thatit tested positive for sperm.After the hospital confirmedrape, the mother filed a com-plaint against her husband.

The police summoned Mr.Mazurier the same eveningand let him go after hedenied the allegation. He,was however, subsequentlyarrested. Kumar Jahgirdar,president of CRISP, a city-based NGO for child rightsand shared parenting, whohelped Mr. Pascal fight thecase, said “though there wasa delay in justice, victory forthe truth prevailed.”

Court acquits Pascal Mazurier ‘No evidence’ to prove rape charge against former employee of French Consulate

Long battle: A ile photo of Pascal Mazurier, his mother Jackieand CRISP NGO president Kumar Jahgirdar * V. SREENIVASA MURTHY


Bengaluru

The Telangana govern-ment’s Department ofSchool Education has an-nounced summer vacationfrom Thursday for allschools — government andprivate — in view of the pre-vailing heatwave condi-tions throughout the State.

The Commissioner &Director of School Educa-tion said in an official re-lease that the decision wastaken after receiving ad-visories from the DisasterManagement department,feedback from District Col-lectors and demand fromparents. On Wednesday,Hyderabad recorded a tem-perature of 42 degreesCelsius while Adilabad re-corded a maximum at 44.1degrees Celsius. Thunder-storm was witnessed onWednesday which broughtdown the temperature insouthern parts of the State.More rain is expected inthe next 24 hours.

Heat forcesTelangana toshut schools Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD

Banning the dumping of mu-nicipal solid waste aroundBellandur Lake, Bengaluru,the National Green Tribunalon Wednesday directed theimmediate and completeshutdown of all industriesaround the water body.

A bench headed by NGTChairperson JusticeSwatanter Kumar noted: “Allthe industries located in thevicinity of Bellandur Lakeand discharging effluent arehereby directed to be closed.No industry is permitted tooperate unless inspection bya joint inspection team isconducted and analysis of ef-fluent is found to be withinthe permissible limits.”

The green panel asked the

Karnataka State PollutionControl Board to seal indus-tries violating its directions.

It also said a penalty of ₹5lakh would be imposed onanyone found dumpingwaste in and around the

lake. The NGT directed acommittee comprising offi-cials of the Bangalore Devel-opment Authority, theKarnataka Lake Conserva-tion and Development Au-thority and the Urban Devel-

opment Department tooversee one-time cleaning ofthe lake in one month, in-cluding desilting, removal ofall waste from the lake andsurface cleaning.

Namma Bengaluru Found-ation, at the forefront of thefight to save the lake, onWednesday announced theformation of a 10-membercommittee comprising thepetitioners, local residentsand experts to ensure the im-plementation of the order.

Law department apologyLaw Department officialsapologised to the Bench,which took exception totheir interpretation of itsMay 4, 2016 order on bufferzones around lakes anddrains.

Panel asks govt. to seal units violating order, lays down penalty for dumping waste

Special correspondent

NEW DELHI/Bengaluru

In peril: A ile photo of foam gushing out of Bellandur Lake inBengaluru. * BHAGYA PRAKASH K

Close industries near Bellandur Lake: NGT

The CPI(M) Central commit-tee has issued a warning toparty Central committeemembers and former KeralaMinisters E.P. Jayarajan andP.K. Sreemathy over nepot-ism charges against them.

Mr. Jayarajan, who wasIndustries Minister in thePinarayi Vijayan Cabinet,stepped down on October14, 2016, following an up-roar over the appointmentof P.K. Sudheer Nambiar, hissister-in-law Ms. Sree-mathy’s son, as ManagingDirector of the public sectorKerala State Industrial En-terprises (KSIE).

Expression of regretTalking to reporters afterthe Central committeemeeting in New Delhi onWednesday, CPI(M) generalsecretary Sitaram Yechurysaid the action was taken

based on the report that theCentral committee had re-ceived from the CPI(M) Statecommittee and the explana-tion given by the two lead-ers. When pointed out that acensure was a mild punish-ment considering the seri-ous charges of corruptionand nepotism against thetwo leaders, Mr. Yechurysaid: “ I am telling you theopinion of the Central com-mittee, what we discussedand what we decided.” Bothleaders had regretted theiraction, he said.

CPI(M) panel censuresJayarajan, Sreemathy

The two face charges of nepotism


NEW DELHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

E.P. Jayarajan

Back in the 1970s, K.Anjaneya Prasad, then alecturer in commerce atV.K.R. College, Gannavaram,was watching his childrenplay with his mother’s oldbottu petti (literally vermilionbox, the vanity boxes of thatera, a traditional farewell giftgiven to a new bride by herparents when she left for herin-laws’ home) when an oldcopper coin fell out of it.

Intrigued by the coin’sfaded markings, whichseemed to be in English, butwere evidently not of Britishorigin, he took it to acolleague in the historydepartment at the college.

All his friend was able to tellhim was that it was indeed avery old coin.

In the years since then,Mr. Prasad — who is now 75years old — has been tryingto find out what theprovenance of the coin really

is. “I approached everyhistory faculty, libraries,museums, even RomanCatholic nuns,” he says. “Ihave referred to hundreds ofbooks to find out the historyof the coin.” A Professor ofNumismatics at the CalcuttaUniversity had identified it asan invaluable piece ofevidence to the history in theregion.

Mr. Prasad showed TheHindu the coin, which heusually stores in a banklocker for safety. The text onthe coin says ‘L. VERUS AVCARMENIACUS’ on one sideand ‘VRP IIII. IMPII’ on theother, which would seem toindicate a connection withRome. “Later I found out it

was a coin of RomanEmperor Lucius VerusArmenicus, one of the twoadopted heirs of theEmperor of Rome, AntoninusPius.” That would tale thecoin back to the secondcentury of the Common Era.

Mr. Prasad has no ideahow his ancestors got thecoin. He says that locals havefound such coins in ruins invarious parts of theAmaravati region. ProfessorM. Srinivas Reddy, head ofthe History department atAndhra Loyola College, saysthat the finding of a Romancoin in Amaravati could beexplained by the Romanshaving trade withDharanikota.

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A 2nd century Roman coin in AmaravatiCollege lecturer found it in his mother’s vanity box in the 1970s

K. Anjaneya Prasad withthe ancient coin

Tharun Boda

VIJAYAWADA





NATION

INLD MP DushyantChautala ties the knot GURGAON

A host of dignitaries

including Home Minister

Rajnath Singh and Baba

Ramdev attended the

wedding ceremony of INLD

MP Dushyant Chautala who

tied the knot with Meghna,

daughter of an IPS officer.

Haryana Governor Kaptan

Singh Solanki and many

Union Ministers were present

at the function. - PTI

IN BRIEF

Punjab police seizebanned medicinesFAZILKA

The Punjab Police on

Wednesday claimed to have

seized more than 13,000

tablets of banned medicines

and arrested two persons.

“We have recovered 10,800

tablets of Tramadol and

2,400 tablets of Alprazolam

from possession of two

persons,” Fazilka SP

(Investigation) Harmit Singh

Hundal said. - PTI

Train mishap averted by alert driverUNNAO

A major train accident was

averted on Wednesday by an

alert locomotive pilot of the

Kanpur-bound Utsarg Express

who applied emergency

breaks on spotting a loose

“glue plate” and stopped the

train in time. The damage to

the tracks was detected

between Ajgain and

Kusumbhi stations. - PTI

240 cartons of liquorseized in Bihar Muzaffarpur

The Excise department on

Wednesday seized 240

cartons of liquor and arrested

three persons in this

connection from a locality

under Saraiya police station

area in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur

district. The seized

consignment of liquor, valued

at Rs 50 lakh, was brought

from Haryana by a local liquor

trader. - PTI

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Wed-nesday launched a scathingattack on the BharatiyaJanata Party, saying the saf-fron party only knows divis-ive politics and is always onthe lookout for opportunit-ies to sour relations.

“The divide and rulepolicy is the only politics theBJP has mastered. The saf-fron party creates riftsbetween Hindus andMuslims, Muslims-Christi-ans, Biharis-Bengalis andOdias-Bengalis. The party al-ways tries to make Statesand individuals fight amongthemselves,” Ms. Banerjee,who is on a three-day visit toOdisha, told reporters atPuri.

“We will not let divisivepolitics succeed. We alwaysput India first in our politics.It is a matter of fact that theBJP espouses a whole lot ofissues, but those have gotnothing to do with thepeople,” she charged.

On her alleged commentssupporting beef consump-tion, Ms. Banerjee said:“Nobody has the right to is-

sue dietary prescriptions.The Constitution authoredby B. R. Ambedkar is a secu-lar one. People hailing fromdifferent faiths and religionsfollow the Constitution. I ama born Hindu, but I don’t dopolitics which tarnishes theimage of Hindu religion. Onthe other hand, BJP’s politicsblemishes Hinduism.”

“As the Central govern-ment in New Delhi, the BJPhas miserably failed in gov-

ernance. On the other hand,the BJP keeps finding faultsin others and blames othersfor everything in the countryas if it does not have anyvices,” she added.

‘Won’t allow a free run’“If the party [BJP] comes todestabilise us where it doesnot have a base, do you thinkwe will allow them a freerun? We will invade theirstrongholds and disturb

them there,” she said.In the evening, Ms Baner-

jee went to JagannathTemple for darshan undertight security.

A servitor had threatenedto oppose her entry into thetemple alleging that she hadopenly supported beef con-sumption. Bajrang Dal activ-ists staged a protest near thetemple. However, the policewhisked them away. Two ofthem were detained.

Won’t let BJP’s divisivepolitics succeed: Mamata ‘Nobody has the right to issue dietary prescriptions. The Constitution is secular’

Holy trip: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee outside Puri’s Jagannath Temple onWednesday. * BISWARANJAN ROUT

Satyasundar Barik

BHUBANESWAR

Manipur Congress leaders,including State unit presid-ent T. N. Haokip, vice-presid-ents N. Loken and D. D.Thaisii, and general-secret-ary R.K. Imo Singh, met theparty high command in NewDelhi on Wednesday morn-ing.

The leaders weresummoned to the nationalCapital on Tuesday for dis-cussions on recent claims byChief Minister N. Biren Singhthat more MLAs from theparty were set to join theBharatiya Janata Party.

Sources said the mainagenda of Wednesday’s talkswas how to keep the remain-ing 26 MLAs from defecting.Two Congress MLAs — T.Shyamkumar and Ginsuan-hau Zou — defected to theruling BJP recently. In fact,Mr. Shyamkumar is a Cab-inet Minister in the Manipurgovernment.

Congress spokesperson K.Joykishan told The Hindu

that both MLAs will face pro-ceedings under the anti-de-fection law.

The Congress hademerged the single-largestparty by winning 28 of 60seats in the recent Manipur

Assembly elections. The BJP,which bagged 21 seats,joined hands with otherparties to increase itsstrength to 32 and the coali-tion government was swornin on March 15. The coalitionpartners include the NagaPeople’s Front, NationalPeople’s Party (NPP),Rashtriya Janata Dal, All In-dia Trinamool Congress andone Independent MLA.

However, the sailing hasbeen far from smooth forthe Chief Minister. StateHealth and Law Minister L.Jayentakumar of the NPPhad on April 13 submittedhis resignation in protestagainst Mr. Biren Singh’s “in-

terference” in the Healthand Law Departments.

Though the Chief Ministermanaged to smooth ruffledand dismissed the issue as“minor misunderstanding”,appointment orders madeby him are yet to be re-voked. The Director ofHealth Services was recentlysuspended and an interimdirector appointed. FamilyWelfare Director Dr. RajoSingh has gone to courtagainst appointment of theInterim Health Director. Ma-nipur High Court lawyerstoo have been agitatingagainst the alleged proposalto appoint a non-localAdvocate-General.

‘CM can’t lure more’Talking about all positions inthe current coalition govern-ment —12 Ministers, 12 Par-liamentary Secretaries andother constitutional posts —being full, Mr. Joykishan re-marked, “The Chief Ministercan’t lure more CongressMLAs since there’s novacancy.”

However, straws in thewind indicate that Mr. BirenSingh may be planning topart ways with the coalitionpartners and set up a purelyBJP government.

Main agenda was how to keep party MLAs from defecting

Iboyaima Laithangbam

IMPHAL

Manipur Cong leaders meetparty high command in Delhi

The Punjab Cabinet on Wed-nesday approved fresh mineauctions through progressivee-bidding in an attempt tobring in greater transpar-ency into the mining busi-ness and curb the sandmafia.

The decision, which is ex-pected to end the practice ofgranting contracts of minesthrough the reverse biddingprocess, was taken during a

meeting held here under thechairmanship of Chief Minis-ter Captain AmarinderSingh.

“E-bidding is expected toincrease the government rev-enue to around ₹300 crore,”said an official spokesper-son, adding that the govern-ment has also decided to im-plement the IntegratedMines and Minerals Manage-ment System (i3MS).

“The i3MS is approved bythe Union government and

has been successfully tried inOdisha,” the Cabinet noted.

Further, the Punjab gov-ernment has also paved theway for rationalisation of feein private schools by approv-ing the Punjab State Regula-tion of Fee of Unaided Edu-cational Institutions Rules,2017.

“The rules would cap theannual fee hike by privateschools at 8% of the previousyear’s fee,” Finance MinisterManpreet Singh Badal toldreporters, adding that allother funds charged by

schools would be covered bythese rules.

Gurdwara upkeepThe Cabinet has also decidedto hand over management ofthe historic Saragarhi Me-morial Gurdwara in Feroze-pur to the Saragarhi Me-morial Management Trust toensure better upkeep.

Also, the government hasdecided to scrap the contro-versial Khalsa University Act,2016.

Punjab govt turns to e-bidding for sand miningAmarinder Singh’s Cabinet also caps annual fee hike by private schools in the State at 8% SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

CHANDIGARH

Amarinder Singh *

Three employees of an NGOworking for differently-abled children have beentaken into custody and acase was registered againstthem for allegedly assaultingand injuring an inmate inone of its homes in Assam’sKamrup (Metro) district.

The eight-year-old, whohails from Arunachal Pra-desh and was put into thehome run by Society for

Health and Edication Devel-opment at Sonapur here re-cently, was seriously injuredand admitted to a privatehospital in the city, Kamrup(Metro) Deputy Commis-sioner M. Angamuthu said.

The Deputy Commis-sioner said he had orderd aninquiry into incident.

Sonapur Circle OfficerDhrubajyoti Hazarika visitedthe home and after an in-quiry, lodged an FIR atSonapur police station.

3 NGO staf in custodyfor assaulting child Press Trust of India

Guwahati





NATION

No liquor shops nearreligious places: U.P. CMLUCKNOW

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister

Yogi Adityanath on

Wednesday warned officials

of action if the ban on liquor

shops around important

religious places such as

Ayodhya, Vrindavan and Deva

Sharif was not strictly

implemented. PTI

IN BRIEF

In a bid to extend its ideolo-gical reach to areas not con-sidered its traditional con-stituency, the RSS-backedDeendayal Research Insti-tute (DRI) is set to organisethe four seminal lectures on‘Integral Humanism’ thatwere delivered byDeendayal Upadhyaya, theJan Sangh’s founding gen-eral secretary, in the Mum-bai suburb of Khar in 1965.

The lectures, which havebeen translated into Eng-lish, will be delivered overfour days just as the origin-als were. The event will beheld at the tony environs ofthe India InternationalCentre here.

Integral humanism andcultural nationalism areconsidered to be the twomain ideas on which the BJPbases its ideology.

“In 1965, PanditDeendayal Upadhyaya de-

livered these lectures on In-tegral Humanism betweenApril 22-25 in Khar, Mumbai.This being his centenaryyear we decided to replaythese lectures, after translat-ing them into English for anewer audience, that is nottraditionally associated withus,” said DRI general secret-ary Atul Jain.

Rajya Sabha MP PrabhatJha, who is also associatedwith the DRI, said there wasa “large section of peoplewho want to understandwhat the BJP is, what theRSS is and what integral hu-manism stands for. This sec-tion has not been our tradi-tional constituency, likeperhaps those who accessthe English language press.We want to make sure thatthose who wish to knowhave access to this ideo-logy.”

Apart from the lectures,there will be storytelling ses-sions on all four days.

Bid to populariseDeendayal’s lectures

RSS-backed body eyes wider audience

Nistula Hebbar

NEW DELHI

At least 46 people werekilled when a bus veered offthe road and fell into theTons River in Gumma, about15 km from Nerwa in Shimladistrict, on Wednesday.

The bus was on its way toTiuni from Vikasnagar in Ut-tarakhand. There was onlyone survivor — the bus con-ductor who jumped midway.

Most of the passengers be-longed to the Chopal tehsilof Himachal Pradesh. Policesaid about 44 bodies hadbeen fished out by the even-ing. Some more are believedto have been washed away.

Rescue teams, includingdoctors, paramedics, policeand fire brigade staff, weresent from Nerwa andChopal.

Panel to ascertain causeHimachal Pradesh TransportMinister G.S. Bali announceda financial assistance of₹50,000 each to the familiesof the deceased. He alsoordered the constitution of acommittee headed by theRegional Transport Officer,Shimla, to ascertain thecause of the accident. It has

been asked to submit its re-port within seven days.

Uttarakhand Chief Minis-ter Trivendra Singh visitedthe site of the accident andassured the victims all help.He announced an immediate

relief of ₹1 lakh to the de-ceased and ₹50,000 to theinjured. Rescue teams anddisaster management per-sonnel also arrived from Ut-tarakhand.

Himachal Pradesh Gov-

ernor Acharya Dev Vrat ex-pressed grief. Chief MinisterVirbhadra Singh, who hadleft for Delhi to meet ED offi-cials in connection with amoney-laundering case, senthis condolences.

46 die as bus falls into riverIt veered of the road and plunged into Tons near Shimla; 44 bodies ished out

Tragedy on wheels: Locals amid the wreckage of the bus that fell into the Tons river onWednesday. The bus conductor was the lone survivor of the accident * AFP


SHIMLA

From illegal deletion of onecrore job cards, to manipula-tion of the Management In-formation System, wilfuldelays in payment of wages,wage suppression, and un-der-funding of the pro-gramme, the Central govern-ment is trying its best toundermine and “finish off”the Mahatma Gandhi Na-tional Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme, claimedcivil society activists in Delhion Tuesday.

Citing recent media re-ports, Nikhil Dey of the Maz-door Kisan Shakti Sangathan(MKSS) said: “There is stillno consolidated list of jobcards that have been de-leted. We don’t know whatmethodology was adoptedfor this verification drive,and no reason has beenoffered for terming a jobcard ‘fake’.”

According to theMGNREGA, no job card canbe cancelled for reasonssuch as ‘unwilling to work’.“Yet the records at gram

panchayats show that themost frequently cited reasonfor deletion of job cards was‘unwilling to work’. This is aviolation of the Ministry ofRural Development’s ownguidelines,” Mr. Dey said.

‘Why no action?’“If it is true that 1 crore jobcards were found to be fake,how come no criminal ac-tion has been taken againsteven a single government of-ficer for perpetrating thefraud,” asked Ankita Agar-wal, an independent re-searcher on labour rights.

“Many job cards thatcould not be linked toAadhar have been summar-ily deleted, so that the bur-eaucracy could claim to havemet the statistical target of100% Aadhar seeding of jobcards,” she added.

“It is very clear that thegovernment does not wantto spend money onMGNREGA,” said JayatiGhosh, a professor of eco-nomics at Jawaharlal NehruUniversity. “That’s why ithas been under-funding the

programme, as reflected inthe inadequate funds allot-ted for it. While the requiredbudget for financial year2017-18 was ₹79,898 crore,the government allocatedonly ₹48,000 crore, whichis barely 53% of what is re-quired to meet the States’projection of demand forwork under MGNREGA.”

Workers registered withMGNREGS are entitled tocompensation for delay inpayment of wages. But thegovernment is tweaking theMIS so that the delays areeither hidden or not cap-tured, the activists said.

Wage rates“Not paying workers forwork done is tantamount toforced labour or slavery,”pointed out KamayaniSwami of the MGNREGACentral Employment Guar-antee Council.

“The Central govern-ment’s MGNREGA wagerates continue to be belowthe State’s minimum wagerate for several States,” shesaid.

Activists decry wage suppression, delays, under-funding

‘Govt. trying to inish ofrural employment scheme’


New Delhi

Odisha Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik on Wednes-day directed Director Gen-eral of Police K. B. Singh totrace Babuli Panda, thegrandson of freedom fighterLaxmi Indira Panda, after hegot separated from his par-ents at the Bhubaneswarrailway station.

The parents were amongthe descendants of freedomfighters felicitated by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onSunday.

Surendra Panda, son ofLaxmi Indira Panda, a mem-ber of the Azad Hind Fauj,and his wife Sujata Pandawere invited to Raj Bhavanwhere Mr. Modi felicitateddescendants of 16 familiesassociated with the armedrebellion against British co-lonialism, known as thePaika rebellion of 1817, andother freedom struggles of

Odisha. After the function,the couple and their sonwere at the station to boardthe Hirakhand Expressaround 7.35 p.m. the sameday to return to their nativeplace in Jeypore in Koraputdistrict.

When Mr. Panda, in hissixties, returned from therest room, he could not findhis wife and son and he

missed the train. Mr. Pandawaited at the station tillMonday morning and took atrain in the evening to Jey-pore, hoping they wouldhave reached their home.

Co-passenger’s helpIt later emerged that Ms.Panda too was waiting at thestation till Monday. It wasnot clear how Babuli got sep-arated from his parents. Shethen mistakenly boarded theKalinga Utkal Express in theevening.

Noticing a distressed Ms.Panda, Debapriya Samal, aco-passenger, informed theGovernment Railway Police.They then alerted the ChiefMinister’s office.

Mr. Patnaik directed theBalasore Collector to assignan official to escort Ms.Panda to her place. How-ever, the police had not beenable to gather any informa-tion about the boy.

Odisha CM asks DGP to indfreedom ighter’s grandsonBoy goes missing at railway station after felicitation event

Staff Reporter

BHUBANESWAR

Naveen Patnaik

Assam Chief Minister Sarb-ananda Sonowal has askedthe Directorate of HealthServices to rush to Majuliand probe the circum-stances in which a youthhad to carry the body of hisrelative on a bicycle from ahospital to his village.

The instruction cameafter television channelsaired images of the youthtaking the body of his relat-ive on a bicycle from a hos-pital at Garamur in Majulito Balijan village on theriver island.

No roadThe youth said he was car-rying the body home asthere was no proper roadand there were many bam-boo bridges en route, mak-ing it difficult to take thebody in a van.

Majuli, the largest riverisland in Assam, is repres-ented in the Assembly byMr. Sonowal.

Assam youthcarries bodyon bicycle Indo-asian News Service

Guwahati

Army veteran pedals for fallen soldiersNEW DELHI

Major General Somnath Jha

(retd.), who cycled 11,000 km

as a tribute to the soldiers

who died for the nation,

concluded his journey by

laying a wreath at the Amar

Jawan Jyoti on Wednesday. PTI

Internet blocked in KendraparaBHUBANESWAR

The Odisha government on

Wednesday blocked Internet

for 48 hours in the district

headquarters town of Kendr-

apara to prevent escalation of

tension over an objectionable

post in social media.

Referring to the recentJallikattu agitation in TamilNadu, Supreme Court judgeJustice J. Chelameswar onWednesday said the inten-tion of the judgment to pre-vent cruelty against animalshad not reached the masses.Instead of understandingthe spirit of the verdict,people agitated and the is-sue snowballed into wide-spread protests in whichvoices were heard againstthe Supreme Court itself.

Justice Chelameswar,who chaired the M.N. RoyMemorial Lecture on “FreeSpeech, Nationalism andSedition,” organised by theIndian Renaissance Insti-tute, said there was need tocreate awareness.

Stating that the “English-knowing gentlemen” of thecountry had become pro-gressively intolerant, he saidif they were unable to con-

vince a common man aboutwhat is wrong and what isright, the core issues of In-dian society could not be re-solved.

Stating that Indian soci-ety had become more intol-erant and less rational, hesaid there was a huge dis-connect between urban andrural India with respect tothe perception of rights andliberties.

‘Indian society is now more intolerant’Judge calls for creating awareness


NEW DELHI

Justice J. Chelameswar





CMYK

A ND-ND

EDITORIAL

The ‘normal’ monsoon forecast of the India Met-

eorological Department brings the promise of a

year of growth and good health for India’s eco-

nomy and ecology. If correct, India will have a second

consecutive year of normal rainfall, after two years of

drought. The prospect that 2017 will be a good year

boosts the prospects of enhanced agricultural output,

healthy reservoir levels, more hydropower and re-

duced conlicts over water. It will also test the eicacy of

the expensive water management initiatives launched

during 2014 and 2015 by the Centre and the State gov-

ernments to harness rainfall and build resilience for fu-

ture drought cycles. As the IMD’s experience shows,

forecasting the all-India summer monsoon rainfall is

fraught with uncertainties and has often gone of the

mark. The dynamic model that it is using this year to

make a forecast that includes an assessment of two phe-

nomena — a possible late onset El Niño in the Paciic

Ocean and variations in sea surface temperatures that

create the Indian Ocean Dipole — will be keenly

watched. Given that El Niño is expected only in the later

part of the year when the monsoon is in its inal stages,

the expectation of normal rainfall is reasonable. A con-

irmation could come in June.

When more than half the population is sustained by

agricultural livelihoods, highly eicient water utilisa-

tion holds the key to higher farm productivity. In fact,

preparing for drought remains a top priority today, in

spite of a big increase in outlays for irrigation made over

successive ive-year plans. Data on ive decades of grain

output from 1951 show that the negative impact of

drought on productivity is disproportionately higher

than the positive efects of a normal or surplus mon-

soon. This underscores the need to help farmers with

small holdings to look ahead. As agriculture scientist

M.S. Swaminathan pointed out during the drought a

couple of years ago, the focus has to be on plant protec-

tion, water harvesting and access to post-harvest tech-

nologies. The NITI Aayog has also been calling for ways

to cut water use, since India uses two to three times

more water per tonne of grain produced compared to,

for example, China, Brazil and the U.S. The way forward

is to create ponds, provide solar power for more farms,

mechanise operations and expand drip irrigation cov-

erage. Aiding small farmers with the tools and provid-

ing them formal inancing can relieve their cyclical dis-

tress. The area under drip irrigation, estimated to be

less than 10% of net area sown, can then be expanded. A

normal monsoon will also relieve water stress in the cit-

ies if they prepare catchments and reservoirs to make

the most of the season and incentivise residents to in-

stall scientiic rainwater harvesting systems.

Clouds of prosperityThe monsoon forecast should galvanise the

country to make the most of a good season

Given that she had ruled out a snap election on

several occasions, British Prime Minister

Theresa May’s announcement on Tuesday

caught most people by surprise. As the House of Com-

mons a day later endorsed the advancing of the elec-

tion, due in the normal course in 2020, by a thumping

522 votes for, and just 13 against, she appeared to have

everything going for her. It was very diferent last sum-

mer when Ms. May was chosen by the Conservatives to

occupy 10 Downing Street after Prime Minister David

Cameron stepped down after the ‘Brexit’ referendum.

The Tories were smarting from internecine battles.

Some of these feuds in fact were so brutal that she was

not spared personal attacks relating to her health and

family, matters wholly unrelated to her politics and suit-

ability for being head of government. But since then Ms.

May has come a long way, establishing a irm hold over

the party apparatus. The few remaining members of

Parliament from the pro-Europe camp have been fur-

ther marginalised. Potential troublemakers among

eurosceptics have also been kept in check. Ms. May now

feels it is time to erase the perception that she is an un-

elected Prime Minister. The only real hurdle she had en-

countered to her Brexit plan was the legal challenge de-

manding a formal parliamentary authorisation of the

U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU. But what little resolve re-

mained in the two Houses to secure guarantees for im-

migrants from the bloc and a demand for legislative ap-

proval of the inal deal was met with strong resistance

from the government. The announcement by the Scot-

tish National Party of a second referendum on inde-

pendence only delayed by a few days the start of the

formal process of withdrawal from the EU.

The scope for the U.K. to bargain for a reasonable

deal with the other 27 countries in the EU appears to be

extremely limited. As the 2019 countdown has begun,

there is now greater appreciation in London of this

emerging scenario than there was a few months back.

Chances are that EU law will continue to operate in sev-

eral areas, long into a transition period after London

formally leaves the bloc in March 2019. A possible ex-

tension of the jurisdiction of the European Court of

Justice, or further inlows of EU immigrants, will test

eurosceptic silence. It is likely that the advantage of fa-

cing the electorate ahead, rather than in the immediate

aftermath, of the conclusion of an uncertain inal Brexit

deal inluenced Ms. May in taking the decision to hold a

snap poll. The timing is not all bad from her point of

view. At the hustings on June 8, the voters face a choice

between a demoralised and directionless opposition

and a government obliged to deliver on their referen-

dum decision last year to leave the EU. As the latter is

now a fait accompli, a voter rethink on the question is al-

most of little consequence. For Britain’s Labour Party,

the challenge could not have been stifer.

A June dateTheresa May appears to hold all the cards

as she calls a snap election in the U.K.

It’s a testament to the unexpec-tedness of Theresa May’s call fora snap general election that even

in the hour before the announce-ment, when her oice had indic-ated that the British Prime Ministerwould be speaking on the steps ofDowning Street, many still ques-tioned what the nature of the an-nouncement could be. A generalelection igured in the speculation,but then as many pointed out on-line, it was less than a month agothat her oicial spokesperson hadcategorically ruled out one till2020 — at which time an electionwould have to be held under theFixed-term Parliaments Act of 2011(unless a two-thirds majority of theHouse of Commons allowedotherwise).

Explaining itMs. May acknowledged the needfor an explanation of this change ofheart, saying she had only recentlyand reluctantly recognised theneed for an election to take placebefore 2020, pegging it on the needto secure unity in Parliament as thecountry prepared to launch head-long into full-ledged negotiationswith its European partners on exit-ing the union, as well as resettingits relationship with the rest of theworld. “We need a general electionand we need one now,” she de-clared on Tuesday.

Her statement rings true formany a reason: while it may havebeen a U-turn, the need for an elec-tion has been palpable in British

politics for a while now.Since taking over as Prime Min-

ister last year, Ms. May has beenvulnerable on a number of fronts,not least the fact that she came toher position after other prospect-ive replacements for her prede-cessor David Cameron droppedout of the race following last June’sreferendum. It’s something thatcritics have thrown at her along theway as she has put herself at thefront of the Brexit — a process thathas pegged itself on giving controlback to the British Parliament andpeople. It became all the more rel-evant as the nature of the Brexitplanned by the governmentemerged, revealing that Britainwould in all likelihood extract itselffrom the European single marketin order to take control of its bor-ders. This was a far cry from whatMr. Cameron had pegged his 2015electoral campaign on: keepingBritain in the EU, with which ithoped to renegotiate its relation-ship. “We are clear about what wewant from Europe. We say: yes tothe Single Market,” read the Con-

servatives’ 2015 manifesto.While her government suc-

ceeded in getting its Brexit-author-ising legislation un-amendedthrough Parliament, the govern-ment’s real battle is yet to begin,with reams of legislation neededdomestically to bring about theBrexit process smoothly. With op-ponents continually questioningwhether the Brexit that the govern-ment was embarking on was theone that the people of Britain hadsigned up for, this would have lefther and her government particu-larly vulnerable. Holding — andwinning — a general election woulddo much to help Ms. May tacklethose challenges, giving somemuch-needed authority to theBrexit process.

Coming into her ownIt could also help her set her ownagenda and further distance her-self from that of Mr. Cameron,whose vision of Britain contrastedmarkedly with her own. Of particu-lar signiicance to India will be Ms.May’s tougher stance on immigra-

tion. As Home Secretary she wasresponsible for a tightening of im-migration rules, and her tenure asPrime Minister has seen her putimmigration control — from bothwithin and outside the EU — at theheart of her agenda, despite warn-ings that it could damage eforts tosecure trade deals, including onewith India. Eforts by the opposi-tion, the House of Lords, and evensome within her own Cabinet topersuade her that internationalstudents shouldn’t be included innet migration igures have provedunsuccessful, with Home Secret-ary Amber Rudd suggesting lastyear that a further tightening ofpolicy when it came to interna-tional students was on the cards.

Under these circumstances itmay seem surprising that Ms. Maydid not announce plans for a gen-eral election before, particularlygiven that a string of recent opinionpolls have put her well ahead ofJeremy Corbyn’s Labour.

A tough ight aheadHowever, it will be a gamble too:rarely will a British election havebeen as ideologically driven as theforthcoming one, pitting Ms. May’sstrictly conservative vision of Bri-tain with that of the Labour party,which is led by its most left-wingleader to date, and has, while back-ing the Brexit, promised to ofer an“efective alternative” that in-volves, among other things, pump-ing more into the National HealthService and welfare, and raisingcorporation and individual taxesfor the well-of. The Liberal Demo-crats have committed themselvesto keeping Britain in the singlemarket and avoiding the hardBrexit the government has em-barked upon. “This election is yourchance to change the direction ofthe country,” said Tim Farron fol-

lowing the announcement of theelection.

While Ms. May herself hasscored well in polling compared toMr. Corbyn (a poll last week put her37 points ahead), other data sug-gest a level of support for the La-bour leader’s policies — including arecent poll by ComRes for The Inde-pendent newspaper that foundsupport for raising the minimumwage, and the top rate of tax, andcharging a goods and services taxon private schools as Mr. Corbynhas suggested. The revival of theLiberal Democrats’ fortunes willalso add to the uncertainty. Theparty, which saw its parliamentaryseats fall from 57 to eight in 2015,has tapped into the anti-Brexitmovement that remains a powerfulforce across the country.

Ms. May would undoubtedlyhave had Scotland in mind whenshe opted for the general election.A fall in support for the Scottish Na-tional Party (SNP) would under-mine its call for a second referen-dum on independence. While Ms.May has not ruled out a second ref-erendum altogether, she has irmlyrejected the SNP’s suggestedtimeline, insisting that now wasnot the time for one when Britainshould be putting all its energy intosecuring a good deal. “In terms ofScotland, this move is a huge polit-ical miscalculation by the PrimeMinister,” declared First MinisterNicola Sturgeon, who accused thePrime Minister of putting herparty’s interests ahead of the coun-try with the electionannouncement.

Miscalculation or not, it’s anelection that will deliver politicalcredibility to a country desperatelyin need of it.

[email protected]

United they exit?A general election victory would give Theresa May the authority she needs to lead Britain out of the EU

vidya ram

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The country’s banking sector isseverely stressed with one-sixth of the gross advances of

public sector banks (around ₹7 lakhcrore) being non-performing assets(NPAs). Existing statutory remediesof insolvency, restructuring of com-panies, securitisation of debts yieldmuch litigation but insuicient re-coveries. The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) brought out a Corporate DebtRestructuring scheme for resolu-tion of dues from the larger com-panies which account for 70% of thedebt portfolio; despite it being awell-structured system, it has failedto deliver substantially. It, however,omitted from attention the smallerborrower with loans less than ₹10crore.

Now attention is focussed on theconcept of a “bad bank”, whichwould purchase the large loansfrom the holding banks. The latterwould then have better-looking bal-ance sheets; however, the formerwill ind recovery no less diicult. Itwould then sell of assets to privatebuyers, who see opportunities for

proit-making rather than invest-ment in the economic productivesense.

Roadblocks to settlementTwo core aspects appear to be themajor roadblocks. The irst is thelimiting aspect of direct negoti-ations between bank and debtor,which usually run on the lines ofhigh demands by banks and low of-fers by the debtor. The smaller bor-rower especially is faced with an im-balance in negotiating strength andis thus denied feasible, even if unat-tractive, settlement terms. Largerborrowers in acute distress mayface similar problems. Settlementterms can be onerous which, ifbreached, have consequences ofclosure of business and sale of prop-erty. A mediation approach, wherean independent neutral engageswith both parties, is more likely,practically and empirically, to leadto faster and better agreements. Injoint and separate sittings with themediators, this consensual, non-co-ercive and conidential process en-ables the parties to discuss optionssuch as debt concessions, repay-ment schedules, interest reduc-tions, perhaps even additionalcredit with safeguards.

In face-to-face meetings betweenonly creditor and debtor, the fullergamut of settlement opportunitiesare not explored, because this

would involve more information be-ing exchanged or conditional con-cessions being made which borrow-ers fear will be seized upon by bankoicers for enhancing demands andhard bargaining. Mediation re-verses this; the process is designedto freely create, explore and reineoptions to yield a solution both am-icable and sustainable. Moreover, intheir separate meetings withparties, mediators can bring hometo them the problems with theircase should it proceed to litigation,the lack of worthwhile alternativesto reaching an agreement at thetable, and also persuade them totake more reasonable and practicalstands.

Mediation is now well acceptedin India, both legislatively andthrough extensive use by the courts.

Agreements reached through thisprocess are enforceable without dif-iculty. If the RBI sets up mediationpanels consisting of bankers, ac-countants and experienced mediat-ors, that will provide the requiredinstitutional framework and en-hance trust and credibility in theprocess and personnel.

Freedom from fearThe other major block, which para-lyses decision-making in govern-ment and public sectors in India, isthe fear of post-decisional re-tributive action by way of investiga-tion and prosecution by multipleagencies such as the police, theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI), the Central Vigilance Com-mission (CVC), the Lokpal, etc.Once initiated, the spectre oflengthy criminal trials looms, ac-companied by fear of arrest, denialof bail and public ignominy. Courtsrespond inadequately — they do notspeed up trials or consider bail ap-plications expeditiously or penaliseunnecessary prosecution. This in-hibits settlements which are in thebest interests of the bank but in-volve some concession or latitudeinevitable in reaching the bestcompromise.

Freedom to take sound commer-cial decisions must be statutorilystructured, else all our schemes willcome to naught. One way is to cre-

ate a high-level body before whichsettlement agreements can beplaced for approval. This body willexamine the settlement to see if it iscommercially advantageous and isin the interests of the public sectorinancial institutions, taking all pre-vailing circumstances into account.Where it comes to an airmativeconclusion, that should providecomplete immunity — from the po-lice, the CBI, the CVC, the Lokpaland the courts — for the oicers ofthe bank who have negotiated andrecommended such solution. Thisis a better step than oversight com-mittees which do not provide thebackbone to take the commercialdecision of beneicial compromise.

Such a body needs to be headedwith high authority, drawn from thetop echelons of the judiciary, theRBI and public sector banks,serving or retired. It should be amulti-tier body when the number ofcases increases, which will happenbecause once you ofer mediatedsolutions with protection for sounddecision-taking, then both banksand borrowers will know that itmakes eminent sense to try this ap-proach which essentially means norisk in trying for a settlement, andno risk in agreeing to it.

Sriram Panchu is a Senior Advocate andFounder, Concord Mediation Trust.E-mail: [email protected]

The case for mediated settlementsTo reduce NPAs, creditors and debtors need suicient immunity to hammer out sound commercial solutions

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Grounding MallyaThe euphoria ingovernment circles over thebrief arrest of tycoon VijayMallya in London mightevaporate soon as legalcircles are of the opinionthat the extradition processmight well turn out to be along-drawn afair (“Mallya,held, released on bail”, April19). Mr. Mallya’s nonchalanttweet, wherein he hasreferred to media hype overhis arrest, reveals that the‘king of good times’ is not inthe least worried about theonset of the extraditionprocess. Given India’sabysmal track record in thematter of extraditing thoseholed up abroad aftercommitting crimes in India,the Mallya case too mighttake time as there areseveral channels of appealwhich the businessman andhis battery of lawyers willcertainly explore. What weare seeing now are babysteps being taken and thehard grind might comesooner or later.C.V. Aravind,

Bengaluru

■ The government may havescored a victory over itsmany naysayers but now

that the embattled tycoonhas received conditionalbail, India must prepare fora long-drawn-out appellateprocess in British courts.The move to arrest himshould not be seen inisolation, but as part of amulti-pronged efort by thegovernment to tackle blackmoney, bad loans, andnefarious corporatepractices. The challengebefore the Modi governmentis larger than Mr. Mallya. Itmust go after all the big loandefaulters and bring themall to justice. I wonderwhether the Modigovernment would be ableto go after equally corruptpoliticians too.J. Akshobhya,

Mysuru

Merger moves The decision by the twofactions of AIADMK party totry and reunite and keep outthe Sasikala family ispragmatic (“AIADMK rulinggroup revolts againstSasikala”, April 19). Theparty would do well toremain intact at least fornow. As party generalsecretary V.K. Sasikala andher nephew and deputygeneral secretary, T.T.V.

Dhinakaran, who constitutethe power centre have nowbecome liabilities, the rulingfaction has acted in a smartway. But how long the new-found camaraderie can lastbetween the two factions,especially when there is nostrong leadership at thehelm, is a moot point. Thetwo leaves will have towithstand the scorching raysof the rising sun (the DMK)as well as strong gale windsfrom Delhi. Dr. D.V.G. Sankararao,

Nellimarla, Andhra Pradesh

■ People of the State arehardly concerned about theconstant issures in theAIADMK as these are quitecommon in Tamil politics.The party was founded by acharismatic and magneticpersonality, which was thencarried to new heights byanother equally charismaticleader with anextraordinary ability to keepthe cadre in check. Now thatthere is a leadership crisis,political pundits havealready started sounding thelast bugle. If the so-calledleaders of the party sticktogether for the sake ofpower for another fouryears, they must ensure that

they emulate the qualities ofthe party’s founders andgovern well. Victor Frank A.,

Chennai

■ The report, “An albatrosscalled Sasikala” (April 19),says: “it was the list (IncomeTax document which namedseveral Ministers) thatunited them against theparty leadership”. Does thisimply that the Ministers arehopeful or assured ofescaping IT raids if theyrebelled against the Sasikalafamily? Does this not exposethe BJP at the Centre inusing IT raids as a tool toachieve political ends or tosettle scores with itsopponents?N. Sambasivam,

Chennai

The Kejriwal interviewDelhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal’s charisma and hisideology appealed toyoungsters who were drawntowards the AAP, which wasintent on pushing for an eraof governance free of scams,corruption, caste equationsand communal politics.However, his resignationafter a short stint in oiceand his series of dharnas

have left peopledisillusioned. Mr. Kejriwalshould realise that hecannot change thingsovernight and instead focuson development andcreation of employmentopportunities for youth. Hemust stop blaming EVMmachines for the decline inthe AAP’s popularity(‘Wednesday Interview’ –“‘There is no negativityabout AAP’,” April 19). Veena Shenoy,

Thane, Maharashtra

Fuel conservationOne wonders whether thedecision to close retail fueloutlets in Tamil Nadu andPuducherry for 24 hours onSundays will reduce fuelconsumption to any

mentionable extent (“Fueloutlets to remain shut onSundays from May 14”, April19). Instead of buying fuel onSunday, people would do iton Saturday, just as tipplerskeep adequate stocks oftheir favourite brands onOctober 1 when TASMACoutlets are closed on GandhiJayanti. If the Prime Ministeris really interested inpromoting fuelconservation, he shouldtake steps to reduce thenumber of vehicles in VIPcavalcades and alsopromote public transportsystems. The savings wouldbe substantial.P.G. Menon,

Chennai

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

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corrections & clarifications:

The Editorial, “Equity in debt” (April 19, 2017) said that theFRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) law was en-acted to ‘limit the government’s borrowing authority’ under Art-icle 268 of the Constitution. It should be Article 292 of the Constitu-tion.

An OpEd article - “The great climate churn” (April 18, 2017) - in-correctly said the area of India’s land mass is about 1.3 millionsq.km. Actually, it is about 2.973 million sq.km.

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The Chief Minister of Nagaland, Mr. T.N. Angami, has ex-pressed grave concern at the reported deployment of armedvillage defence personnel by the Assam Government along thedisputed Assam-Nagaland boundary, and “the indiscriminatemass arrest of Nagas by the Assam Government authorities.”In a telegram to the Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi andthe Chief Minister of Assam, Mr, B.P. Chaliha yesterday [April19], Mr. Angami has described these as “acts of discriminationagainst a particular race in India.” “Such discrimination”, hesaid, “had led to high tension among the Nagas generally andis bound to jeopardise the traditionally friendly and brotherlyrelationship between the two sister States.” Mr. Angami hasurged the Assam Chief Minister to issue necessary instructionsto the officers of the Assam Government posted along theNagaland-Assam boundary to adopt a more cautious andsober attitude “in order to avoid serious repercussions”.

FIFTY YEARS AGO APRIL 20, 1967

Nagaland CM resents Assam’s border steps

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FROM ARCHIVES

In opening the proceedings of the evening Professor VyasaRow pointed out the necessity for the teachers to push them-selves forward and show their self-respect and independencewhen others encroach upon their field. He then laid stress onthe need for a separate university for Trichy and among otherthings he pointed out that while Great Britain possessing thesame area and population boasted of 19 Universities, theMadras Presidency after 150 years of British Rule claimed only1 University. Trichinopoly both with reference to student pop-ulation, the existence of 2 First Grade Colleges, a number ofhigh schools, its geographical position, climatic conditionsand its historical importance was preeminently fitted to have aUniversity for the Tamilians when Andras and Malayalis hadbeen agitating for their own.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO APRIL 20, 1917

Educational conference at Trichinopoly

Earlier this year, top adminis-trators in Indian science sub-mitted a detailed project reportto Prime Minister NarendraModi. This paper has reviewedportions of the 48-page report,titled Vigyan 2030: Science andTechnology as the Pivot forJobs, Opportunities and Na-

tional Transformation. And the report, in its assessment of thestate of Indian science, is stingingly honest: “The stature of In-dian science is a shadow of what it used to be… because of dec-ades of misguided interventions. We have lost self-conidenceand ambition and the ability to recognise excellence amongstour own. In a false sense of egalitarianism, we often chose themediocre at every level.”

One of its key recommendations is to have an independentscience and technology authority that will have two parallelarms. One, a ‘discovery arm’ that can organise the expertise ofvarious organisations across states and regions to solve a basicresearch problem. Two, a ‘delivery’ arm that will closely workwith industry and evolve public private partnerships. Such anauthority, the report envisions, will report directly to the PrimeMinister. SPARK (Sustainable Progress through Application ofResearch and Knowledge), as the body is tentatively named,will be overarching yet have “light touch” governance.

Check out the pastAll very good, except that India already has bodies that were, intheir wisdom, conceived as umbrella organisations that canpool the intellectual and technological resources of organisa-tions and direct them towards speciic missions.

The Principal Scientiic Adviser to the Government of Indiais one such oice. The NITI Aayog, now essentially a policythink tank, and tasked with coordinating States and researchagencies, is another. Though they have no dearth of eminent,experienced scientists, they haven’t substantially vaulted sci-ence and technology in the country either. The Council of Sci-entiic and Industrial Research faces its own challenges of ef-fectively translating its know-how. Scientiic departments inIndia, from the Department of Atomic Energy to the Depart-ment of Science & Technology, have bureaucracies of theirown. They battle the dilemma of having to take bold, expensiverisks — that science by its very nature requires — and on theother hand, be accountable to the Finance Ministry. Not onlydoes a new overarching body run the risk of “stepping on toes”but it will also be a challenge to exert solemn authority withoutbeing a cantankerous accountant. It must, somehow, marrycommerce and knowledge without being commercial and en-sure that good ideas — beyond the Indian Institutes of Techno-logy and Science — don’t die out for lack of funds or recom-mendations from inluential scientists. Any new idea, torejuvenate the administration of science, must also ensure con-tinuity. Very often, bold experiments are supported and incub-ated for a few years and by the exertions of individually-motiv-ated leaders. A change of government and new leaders hasfrequently meant ‘new priorities’ and the infant-death syn-drome for the bold experiment. Can SPARK have a legal struc-ture that can have continuity and the purpose of its creationhard-wired into it? These are diicult questions that the councilof science secretaries, who authored the report, must address.

SPARK or an ember?The proposal for an independent S&Tauthority needs more thought

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Jacob Koshy

With the recent U.S. missile attackson a Syrian airbase, U.S. PresidentDonald Trump rewrote much of theforeign policy script of his campaign.

Fulfilment of campaign promiseswas emphasised in Mr. Trump’s firstexecutive orders: banning immigra-tion from some Muslim-majoritycountries, reversing Obama-era cli-mate change policies, withdrawingthe U.S. from Trans-Pacific Partner-ship negotiations, building a wallalong the Mexican border and order-ing replacement of the “Obamacare”health insurance scheme.

The sobering reality, however, wasthat almost every order was chal-lenged in the courts or required Con-gressional review, or needed furtherdefinition before implementation.The course of the failed legislative ef-fort to repeal and replace Obamacarereceived real-time coverage on televi-sion.

Reversing changesHe also encountered fierce domesticopposition to many of his tweets,words and actions. There was harshCongressional and media criticism ofhis views on “resetting” relationswith Russia, a tougher line withChina and questioning the raisond’etre of the North Atlantic TreatyOrganisation (NATO). Congressionalhearings on Russian “meddling” inthe U.S. elections received wall-to-wall TV coverage.

The internal dissent was alsomanifested by damaging leaks ofclassified information from withinhis own administration, which un-dermined the President’s pursuit ofhis policy priorities.

The Syria missile strike should beseen against this backdrop. One viewis that facing plunging poll ratings,policy squabbles among his close ad-visers and a virtual paralysis of gov-ernance, Mr. Trump had to act. Oth-ers see the insidious influence of theAmerican “deep state”.

In one fell swoop, he overturnedsome of his major campaignpremises; he demanded Syrian Pres-ident Bashar al-Assad’s removal, hisadviser branded Russia a strategiccompetitor and hailed NATO’s role ininternational security. This about-

turn delivered gratifying results:cross-party support in Congress, ap-plause from NATO allies and, for thefirst time in his administration, en-dorsement of most sections of theU.S. media.

The justification offered for thestrike was alleged chemical weaponsuse by the Syrian Army on April 4.However, a policy shift was alreadysignalled in end-March, when bothU.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillersonand Defence Secretary James Mattisstrongly criticised Russia’s actions inUkraine and Afghanistan.

U.S. allies unquestioningly accep-ted the U.S. claim of “incontrovert-ible evidence” of the Syrian Army’suse of chemical weapons. Why theSyrian Army should risk such actionwhen the military and political situ-ations were veering in its favour wasa question not asked. The suggestionthat the chemical agents may havebeen in the militants’ possession wasbrushed aside, as was the Russian de-mand for an impartial internationalinvestigation.

Dealing with ChinaMr. Trump also seems to be back-tracking somewhat on his campaignpromises on China. After a remark-ably cordial meeting with ChinesePresident Xi Jinping on April 7, he de-clared that they had developed an“outstanding” relationship. Correctlygauging that the nearly $350 billionU.S. trade deficit with China was thekey concern for Mr. Trump, Mr. Xihad arrived with a proposal to ad-dress this issue with a joint planwithin 100 days. Mr. Trump urgedChina to use its economic clout withNorth Korea (DPRK) to make it rollback its nuclear programme. Afterthe summit, the President tweetedthat China could expect a bettertrade deal if it helps with DPRK.China immediately responded bytightening an import ban on DPRKcoking coal, which is that country’smost important export. The addedbonus for the U.S. is that the ban willsignificantly boost U.S. coking coalexports to China.

All this does not yet amount to acoherent U.S. foreign policy strategy.The U.S. missile strike rattled Russiabut has not helped the war on the Is-lamic State (IS). The fragile ceasefirein Syria and the UN-sponsored intra-Syrian dialogue in Geneva are both indanger of collapse. The battle forRaqqa, the de facto IS capital, is stillto be fought and won. U.S.-supportedSyrian “moderate” rebels, togetherwith Kurdish militias, are north of

the city and the Syrian Army (backedby Russia) is in the south. U.S.-Russiacoordination is essential for success.Even more complicated is the after-math of the eventual victory. Thereare divergent strategic interestsbetween Russia, Turkey, Iran and theGulf countries. These messy realitiesof the conflict and the messier out-look for peace were the reasons whythe Obama Administration tacitly ac-quiesced in Russia’s 2015 military in-tervention in Syria. Mr. Trump’s aver-sion to a prolonged militaryinvolvement in Syria may yet leadhim to a pragmatic arrangement withRussia.

We do not know as yet how theU.S. will deal with Chinese assertive-ness in its neighbourhood. Mr. Tiller-son mentioned that U.S. concernsabout China’s activities in the SouthChina Sea were conveyed at the Sum-mit, but this was eclipsed by otherheadlines of the summit. If a U.S.-China bargain on trade and NorthKorea decreases the pressure onChina in the Asia Pacific, it would sig-nificantly alter the strategic calculusin the region.

By design or otherwise, theTrump Administration has kept bothfriends and foes off-balance by itswords and actions. The President’stweets on China kept the Chineseleadership on tenterhooks before Mr.Xi’s U.S. visit. Even after a cordialsummit, the Chinese were jolted by aPresidential tweet, asserting that theU.S. could deal with DPRK evenwithout Chinese help. The despatchof a naval strike force to the Koreanpeninsula added menace to the mes-sage.

U.S. allies are not exempt. Mr.

Tillerson created consternation byconveying that his deputy would at-tend a NATO Foreign Ministers’ meet-ing. NATO Foreign Ministers hastilyrearranged their schedules to suit hisconvenience.

What’s in it for India?Recent comments of the U.S. Ambas-sador to the UN that the U.S. wouldproactively prevent India-Pakistantensions gave India some food forthought. The Trump Administra-tion’s decision to increase defenceand civilian aid to Pakistan in 2017 isalso puzzling, when his own generalsare publicly accusing Pakistan of sup-porting terrorism in Afghanistanfrom its territory. However, themassive U.S. bomb recently droppednear the Afghan-Pakistan border maywell have sent a message to Pakistanby disrupting cross-border Talibanmovement.

Keeping interlocutors off-balanceby unpredictable behaviour mayhave tactical utility, but it cannot be-come the staple of a superpower’s in-teractions. A superpower commandsrespect by a level of predictabilityand consistency of action. It is pos-sible – and highly desirable – that theTrump Administration gravitates to-wards that “normal”. Meanwhile, asthe Indian leadership prepares to en-gage with the Trump Administrationon the strong foundation establishedin the past three years, it might notefrom others’ experience that transac-tional aspects are important in ce-menting political and strategic con-vergences.

P.S. Raghavan is a former diplomat

Keeping interlocutors of-balance cannot become the staple of a superpower’s interactions

Gauging the Trump efect

p.s. raghavan

U.S President Donald Trump AP

In his remarkable book The Diploma Disease(1976), Ronald Dore captured the enormoussurge for higher education in the SouthAsian region that resulted in the accumula-tion of degrees without much hope or oppor-tunity for employment. The demand forquality higher education has only grown inthe decades that followed, despite high un-employment figures. In Timepass (2010)Craig Jeffrey documents the dilemma inwhich young men in a small town in north-ern India find themselves. Equipped withdouble MA degrees, they languish in the uni-versity, in search of coveted ‘service’, wait-ing for something to happen and essentiallypassing time. This is the reality in the vast ex-panse of higher education in India: degreesaplenty, but limited opportunitiesfor growth!

The current outcry about the Uni-versity Grants Commission (UGC)decision to curtail MPhil and PhDseats in universities perhaps needsto factor in this as well as what goeson in universities. We must recog-nise that while students enrol for re-search, some drop out due to com-pelling reasons such as employment. Thereare also some departments in Delhi Univer-sity, for example, which have the dubiousdistinction of churning out dozens of me-diocre PhDs each year.

The rigours of researchFar from being an innocuous phenomenon,the number of students a supervisor is allot-ted is significant. The supervisor is critical tothe student’s intellectual life and is calledupon if a student seeks a job reference, parti-cipation in a conference or workshop, fund-ing, a hostel seat, or action on any form of in-justice. The supervisor is the student’slifeline. In order to be efficient in her interac-tion with students, it is impossible for a pro-fessorial supervisor to deal with more thansix-eight PhD students or one or two MPhilstudents at any given time. A professor alsoteaches and tutors other students, evaluatestheir essays and examination papers, andstruggles to find time for research.

The pursuit of doctoral research (in thesocial sciences) is ostensibly with a purposeto examine a problem with fine-tuned re-search, doing first-hand fieldwork, and mak-ing sense from different perspectives. Thetask of writing about it comes later. That iswhy doing research, in the social sciences atleast, takes a phenomenally long time. It

needs substantial commitment, abilities formeticulous data collection and analysis and,above all, the strength to persevere despiteall odds. The MPhil degree, I may add at therisk of being pilloried, does not adequatelyprepare a student for all this.

A good PhD programme must have com-pulsory coursework, and it is this course-work that prepares a student for doctoral re-search. It is a myth to assume, howevermuch you might want to retain the MPhil,that it helps prepare students for research.The MPhil degree in itself also does not res-ult in eligibility for a university position. It ispassing the ubiquitous National EligibilityTest (NET) administered by the UGC, or StateLevel Eligibility Test (SLET) at the State-level,or completing a PhD degree that in fact en-sures eligibility for a teaching position in theuniversity system.

Mentoring serious studentsAll students who register for the MPhil pro-gramme do not necessarily have their eyesset on doctoral research. While many stu-dents committed to research may at first

seek entry into the MPhil pro-gramme, some of them also do sofor other reasons, notably, wait-ing for admission to universitiesabroad, retaining a privilegedhostel seat, or simply remainingin the university system. A realitycheck would tell us how many ofthem have their eyes set on aneventual PhD programme. It is

those students who are serious about doingresearch, belonging to different categoriesand socio-economic backgrounds, whomone must nurture and help to grow, as re-searchers and scholars, in our efforts aseducators.

Retaining MPhil and PhD seats merely be-cause we seek to keep vistas of opportunityopen is not the reason we should do so. Suchopportunities are increasingly more andmore difficult to come by and we must beopen to other avenues through which schol-arship is to be supported, encouraged anddeveloped. The pursuit of degrees alonedoes not necessarily nurture scholarship. Itperhaps diminishes higher education farmore rapidly. An emphasis on quality in ourresearch programmes in a range of discip-lines — rather than in the number of seats atour disposal — is the only way we can con-tribute to the growth of higher educationand scholarship in this country.

Let us first ensure this quality, outsideDelhi and major Central universities, to en-sure that students not only receive good edu-cation but also find themselves capable ofhaving the skills for employment, and notnecessarily in the university system alone.

Meenakshi Thapan teaches Sociology at the DelhiSchool of Economics

The degree diseaseAn emphasis on quality in our research programmes, rather than the number of seats, will further scholarship

meenakshi thapan

InterpellationPolitical philosophy

Following Jacques Lacan’sdescription of the mirrorstage in childhood devel-opment, in which an in-fant mistakes its mirror im-age for itself, LouisAlthusser developed theconcept of interpellation.In this, society constantlymakes its subjects adopt aparticular identity: citizen,consumer, wife, religiousfollower, etc. The ideolo-gical state apparatuses insociety, which belong tothe private domain, andinclude family, religion,and culture, and the re-pressive state apparatuses,which belong to the publicdomain, such as the policeand the military, spreadthe dominant ideology ofthe society. Interpellationis the process by whichideology, embodied insuch apparatuses, consti-tutes the identities of indi-viduals in socialinteractions.

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CONCEPTUAL

Quiz: Communism incinemahttp://bit.ly/filmquiz1

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THE WEB 3

What is the Belt & RoadSummit? The Belt andRoad Summit is China’sfirst international confer-ence of all the 60-pluscountries that have signedup to be a part of the infra-structure corridor alsoknown as the New SilkRoute and the One BeltOne Road (OBOR) projectsince it was first proposedby Chinese President XiJinping in 2013. The route,for which China hasalready allocated a $40-bil-lion fund, is made up ofrailway lines, roads, high-ways, maritime channelsand energy projects thatwill connect China toplaces as far as the U.K.,essentially for trade ingoods and fuel supplies.

Who is attending? At apress conference this weekto unveil the agenda of thesummit, Foreign MinisterWang Yi said that at least28 heads of state and gov-ernment will attend theforum in Beijing on May14-15, including RussianPresident Putin, PakistaniPrime Minister NawazSharif, Myanmar’s Aung

San Suu Kyi, Kazakh Pres-ident Nursultan Nazar-bayev, and leaders of In-donesia, Malaysia and thePhilippines. The Spanish,Greek, Hungarian, Serband Polish PMs and theSwiss and Czech Presid-ents will also attend. Italywill be the only member ofthe G-7 to attend at a headof state level. In addition,UN Secretary-General Ant-onio Guterres, World BankPresident Jim Yong Kim,and International Monet-ary Fund Managing Dir-ector Christine Lagardeare also expected.

Why is India refusing toattend? India has beenwary of China’s intentionswith the project since itwas first invited in Febru-ary 2014. Those worrieswere further enforcedwhen Mr. Xi announced$46 billion for projects inPakistan to construct theChina-Pakistan EconomicCorridor (CPEC) whichwill connect to Xinjiangthrough parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).Indian officials have madeit clear that they cannot be

a part of the summit whichwill include Indian territ-ory as a part of Pakistan,and will not attend thesummit at a senior level ordiscuss joining the B&RInitiative until China clari-fies its stand on PoK.

Could India join the B&RIat a later date? Theoretic-ally, if India’s political andstrategic concerns aremet, the initiative could beseen as viable, particularlygiven that many of the pro-jects envisaged under theBCIM (Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar) corridorand the “Asian Highwayproject” would dovetailinto B&RI plans. Already,all of India’s neighbours(with the exception ofBhutan) are a part of it,and India too is keen to in-crease connectivity withthem. However, tense bi-lateral ties with China, andIndia’s growing concernsover Chinese hegemonicintentions in South Asiaand the ‘Indo-Pacific’ re-gion make it practicallyunlikely that India willconsider joining it in thenear future.

At the crossroads

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FAQ

Why India won’t be at the Belt & Road Summit in Beijing


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FROM PAGE ONE

This would mean that theywould be barred from con-testing elections for the sixyears following the comple-tion of their sentence.

Justice Nariman, whowrote the judgment, calledout the names of Mr. Advaniand Dr. Joshi while pro-nouncing the verdict inopen court to underline thefact that the criminal con-spiracy charges have beenrevived against them.

The judgment furthersnubbed Mr. Advani and Dr.Joshi for raising objectionsabout how the SupremeCourt’s use of its formidablepowers under Article 142would violate their funda-mental rights. The courtwondered how they stillworry about their funda-mental rights when theBabri trials have remainedstagnant for a quarter of acentury without justice be-ing delivered.

“Almost 25 years havegone and yet we are sol-emnly reminded that Re-spondent Nos. 4 [Advani’s]and 5 [ Joshi’s] fundamentalrights should not be cur-tailed by any order passedunder Article 142,” JusticeNariman wrote.

The court criticised theCBI for not pursuing its ef-forts for a joint trial of theRaebareli and Lucknowcases despite the fact that asingle judge of the Alla-

habad High Court had up-held their composite chargesheet in a February 12, 2001order.

The court faulted the Ut-tar Pradesh government forrefusing to cure a “technicaldefect”, which ultimatelygave enough room for 21 ac-cused persons, includingMr. Advani, to get a sessionscourt to drop proceedingsagainst them on May 4,2001. The Babri trials hadlargely remained frozen intime since 2001. Together,both cases have a total ofover 900 witnesses waitingto testify.

The SC ordered the CBI toensure that witnesses re-main present wheneverevidence is required to betaken during trial, so thatadjournments are notsought. If an “impossible”situation arises, the trialcourt would record thereason for the adjournmentand give a proximate date.

The Supreme Court clari-fied that this would not be ade novo or fresh trial, whichwould entail fresh framingof charges, but only involvethe joining of criminal con-spiracy into the existingcase. The court clarified thatwitnesses who were alreadyexamined separately in bothRaebareli and Lucknowcases can be recalled and re-examined under Section 217(a) of the Cr.PC.

Conspiracy chargesrevived in Babri case

The Health Ministry was notconsulted about the cancel-lation of the FCRA licence,confirm sources.

“The FCRA licence hasbeen cancelled and theyhave been served a showcause notice. They will begiven a hearing to presenttheir case,” a senior HomeMinistry official said.

In a statement to TheHindu, the PHFI said it hadreceived a notification fromthe MHA’s FCRA wing re-garding the renewal of itsFCRA registration. “Certainobservations have beenmade by the Ministry onutilisation of funds related

to PHFI’s projects on to-bacco, HIV/AIDS, and its fin-ancial reports. PHFI hassubmitted the requisite in-formation and documentsto the MHA on the observa-tions raised in the notifica-tion and provided theneeded clarifications.”

It said it was seeking anearly resolution of the issueand continuation of FCRAregistrations based on theclarifications it hasprovided.

Since the NDA govern-ment came to power, theFCRA licences of more than11,000 NGOs have been can-celled.

PHFI loses FCRAlicence for lobbying

It can be seen by the voterthrough a screened windowfor seven seconds to check ifher vote has been correctlyrecorded.

“The Prime Minister hadsaid two days ago that afterthe recent election results,an unnecessary issue hasbeen raised [on EVMs]. Hecalled it a manufacturedcontroversy. Today, if afterlosing, you start blamingmachines, machines don’tbecome bad,” said Defence,Finance and Corporate Af-fairs Minister Arun Jaitley,briefing reporters after aUnion Cabinet meeting onWednesday.

“The Supreme Court inan order dated 8th October,2013 had directed that [the]Government of India mayprovide required financialassistance for procurementof requisite number ofVVPAT units for implement-ation in [a] phased manner.Overall, 16,15,000 machinesare needed and if the orderis placed in April 2017, thenthe machines can be de-

livered by September 2018,”Mr. Jaitley said.

“Naturally, for all theelections thereafter, allpolling booths will have apaper trail along with elec-tronic voting machines. TheElection Commission hasbeen demanding this andthe Union Cabinet has ap-proved it after detailed de-liberations,” the Ministersaid.

Chief Election Commis-sioner (CEC) Nasim Zaidihad last year written toPrime Minister NarendraModi on the issue, and hadalso urged the Union LawMinistry last week to ur-gently release funds, giventhe “prevailing environ-ment”, to facilitate procure-ment of VVPAT machinesfor the conduct of the 2019Lok Sabha elections.

The EC had earlier in-formed the government thatif the order was not placedby February, it would be-come difficult for the manu-facturers to supply the ma-chines by September 2018.

Nod for purchase ofVVPAT machines

The Narendra Modi govern-ment may be getting ready tocelebrate its third an-niversary, but BJP presidentAmit Shah is already prepar-ing for the 2019 Lok Sabhaelections, with a whirlwindtour of all State capitalsacross the country over 95days starting from April 27.

Mr. Shah, in his presiden-tial address to the party ex-ecutive at Bhubaneswar re-cently, declared that thegolden age of the BJP woulddawn only after the party in-stalled a Chief Minister inevery State of the country.

Three categoriesA senior general secretary ofthe BJP involved with the

tour preparations told TheHindu that the party had di-vided States into three cat-egories — those that had BJPgovernments, those that hadNDA governments and thosewhere Opposition partieswere in power.

“We have a further cat-egory of very big, big andsmall States. This will decidethe number of nights Mr.Shah will spend in eachState. In a very big State, thetrip may extend to two orthree days, while in smallStates, it may be for just aday. But the idea is that hewill spend a night in everyState and speak to State unitleaders and karyakartas, togive the feeling that we areinvolved in every level of or-ganisation,” he said.

He will be in Jammu (notthe Kashmir Valley) on April29 and 30.

To meet workers“Programmes will involveclosed-door meetings,booth-level karyakarta meet-

ings and interactions withthe media and intellectualsof various areas. In the meet-ing between Mr. Shah and of-fice-bearers, at least a partymember or two who are notoffice-bearers but under-stand local equations will beadded to the mix to get agood feel of the ground,” thegeneral secretary added.

Tripura rallyThe only public meeting thatMr. Shah will address wouldbe in poll-bound Tripura.“That State is going to thepolls; so probably there willbe a public meeting there.Otherwise, the entire focusof the party president’s tourwill be the 2019 elections,and our preparedness for it,”he said.

Shah to board 2019 caravan To strategise for the Lok Sabha polls, he will tour all State capitals over 95 days

Amit Shah

Nistula Hebbar

NEW DELHI

India’s attempts to supportthe arrested former Navy of-ficial Kulbhushan Jadhav inPakistan faced a hurdle onWednesday when Islamabadpostponed a scheduledmeeting with the Indian en-voy.

Sources said that themeeting was only post-poned for a day, and notcancelled. The postpone-ment was announced soonafter India summonedDeputy High Commissionerof Pakistan to discuss thestatus of the case. Sourceshad informed The Hinduthat High CommissionerGautam Bambawale was ex-pected to raise the issue ofassistance to Mr. Jadhav dur-

ing the meeting on Wednes-day with Pakistan ForeignSecretary Tehmina Janjua.

The meeting is significantas it was scheduled in thebackdrop of reports thatPakistan would not allowconsular access for Mr.Jadhav.

The agenda“[The meeting was to takeup] certified copies of pro-ceedings of Court of Inquiry,Summary of Evidence andmedical report on Jadhav,assistance with a lawyer todefend Jadhav in appeal,visas for family members tovisit Pakistan for legal pro-cess and consular access asprovided in Vienna Conven-tion on consular matters,”said a source.

Pakistan postponesmeeting on JadhavSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

In a marked shift in its elect-oral strategy after the drub-bing in the Assembly elec-tions, the Bahujan SamajParty has decided to contestthe urban body polls in UttarPradesh on the party symbol(elephant), after a gap ofover two decades.

A senior leader said it hadso far refrained from distrib-uting ticket as it had to dealwith multiple contendersand feared that favouringone would alienate the oth-ers.

Asked why a similarscramble for ticket would

not arise in the party, theleader said that since the de-cision had been formally an-nounced, there would be nosuch issues this time. Partychief Mayawati announcedthe decision during a closed-door meeting of State office-

bearers here on Wednesday.The elections notificationsare expected by May-end.

The BSP movement is at a“crossroads” and to tacklethe “challenges” facing it, “anew strategy” and “energy”is required, a party state-ment quoted Ms. Mayawatias saying. “There is a need towork at all levels with a mis-sionary zeal,” she said.

Sources said the party de-cided to contest the upcom-ing local elections with asymbol with an aim to re-gister its presence in thoseareas, mobilise its cadre andprevent further loss of voteshare.

Keen to prevent loss of vote share after Assembly debacle

Omar Rashid

LUCKNOW

BSP to contest urban bodypolls on party symbol

Mayawati

Within days of Tibetan spir-itual leader Dalai Lama’svisit to Arunachal Pradesh,China has reinforced itsclaims on the State by nam-ing six places there in stand-ardised Chinese characters,Tibetan and Romanalphabets.

On April 14, China’s Min-istry of Civil Affairs an-nounced on its website thatthe State Council, China’sCabinet, had issued the newregulations. The state-runGlobal Times reported thatthe six places in South Tibet— the name ascribed byBeijing to Arunachal Pra-desh — were namedWo’gyainling, Mila Ri,Qoidêngarbo Ri, Mainquka,Bümo La and Namkapub Ri.

‘Legitimate action’Foreign Ministry spokesper-son Lu Kang asserted onWednesday that the stand-ardisation of names was a

“legitimate action by theChinese government”, intune “with our regulations”.He stressed that China’s pos-ition on the eastern sectionof our boundary was “con-sistent and clear”.

Mr. Lu underscored thatChina was “firmly against”the “Indian government’sindulgence of Dalai Lamaactivities in the disputedeastern section of the India-China boundary and alsoabout his anti-China activit-ies.” He added: “These activ-ities are also against the In-dian government’scommitments to China.”

Xiong Kunxin, a Pro-fessor of Ethnic Studies atBeijing’s Minzu University ofChina, said, “The standard-isation [of names] cameamid China’s growing un-derstanding and recognitionof the geography in SouthTibet. Naming the places is astep to reaffirm China’s ter-ritorial sovereignty overSouth Tibet.”

China renames sixareas in Arunachal Comes after Dalai Lama’s recent visitAtul Aneja

Beijing

A BSF constable who hadposted a video about the“poor quality” of foodserved to jawans in forwardlocations has been dismissedon charges of “making falseallegations, posting photo-graphs on social media andfor carrying two mobilephones”.

A Border Security Forcestatement said Tej BahadurYadav (41), was sacked after aSummary Security ForceCourt (SSFC) held him guiltyon four counts of breach ofdiscipline.

He can appeal against theorder before the Inspector-General (Frontier) of theforce or the Director-Generalof the BSF within threemonths.

With the order taking ef-fect, Mr. Yadav, with 20years of service, will bedenied pension. He told anews agency that he would

move a higher court in ap-peal.

The SSFC proceedings,the BSF said, was conductedagainst Mr. Yadav undercharges including “an actprejudicial to good orderand discipline of the force inwhich he made false allega-tions on social media regard-ing quality of food and didnot adhere to formal griev-ance redressal mechanism ofthe force”. “Neglect to obeygeneral orders of the force inwhich he carried two mobilephones while on operationalduty against the standard

operating procedures andalso posted photographs inuniform on social media incontravention of instruc-tions. The individual [Mr. Ya-dav] was found guilty of allthe charges and awarded dis-missal from service,” the BSFsaid in a statement.

Opportunities givenAll opportunities were exten-ded to Mr. Yadav to presenthis defence but he could putforth none, a senior BSF of-ficer said.

The SSFC proceedingswere held between April 13and 19, following a StaffCourt of Inquiry (SCoI) un-der the BSF Act and Ruleswhere statements of seniorofficers and colleagues of thejawan were recorded.

Mr. Yadav’s video com-plained about watery daland burnt chapatis were be-ing served to the troopsserving on inhospitableterrain.

BSF constable sackedover Facebook videoTej Bahadur Yadav was found guilty on four counts


New Delhi

Tej Bahadur Yadav

Delhi police officials onWednesday night servedsummons on AIADMKdeputy chief T.T.V. Dh-inakaran in Chennai, in acase of an alleged attempt tobribe Election Commissionofficials in Delhi for retriev-ing the party’s “two leaves”symbol.

It is, however, not knownwhen Mr. Dhinakaran hasbeen asked to appear beforethem. Assistant Commis-sioner Sanjay Sherawat andanother official served thesummons on Mr. Dh-inakaran at his Besant Nagarresidence in Chennai.

The Delhi police person-nel, who were inside Mr. Dh-inakaran’s house for about20 minutes, declined tospeak to the waiting mediawhile leaving the premises.

Anxiety and tension,meanwhile, prevailed for awhile as a party worker tried

allegedly to set himselfablaze. The self-immolationbid was thwarted by othercadre and someplainclothesmen.

Mr. Dhinakaran had, soonafter the arrest of SukeshChandrasekhar, the allegedmiddleman in the briberydeal, asserted that he wouldface the matter legally.

He had denied any know-ledge of Sukesh.

On Tuesday the Delhi po-lice had issued a lookout no-tice against Mr. Dhinakaran.

The lookout notice was is-sued in the wake of inputsthat he was an NRI andcould try to flee the country,police said.

Delhi police sources saidthere is strong evidence toshow Sukesh and Mr. Dh-inakaran had been in con-stant touch with each otherfor the alleged deal.

₹50 crore dealSukesh has disclosed that hehad struck a deal for ₹50crore for helping theSasikala faction keep the‘two leaves’ symbol.

Till now, the middlemanhad allegedly got ₹10 croreof the deal amount and theremaining was to be given tohim in a time-bound man-ner.

While ₹1.3 crore wasseized from him, whathappened to the other ₹8.7crore is also being probed.

(With inputs fromShubhomoy Sikdhar)

Delhi police servesummons on Dhinakaran Ask him to join probe in poll panel bribery case


Chennai/New Delhi

T.T.V. Dhinakaran

Concerned over the “dis-turbed” situation in the Val-ley, the Congress on Wed-nesday formulated apolicy-planning group forJammu and Kashmir to takeforward the peace initiativein the State.

The Congress has beencritical of the Centre as wellas the PDP-BJP coalition gov-ernment over the handlingof the situation in Jammuand Kashmir since July lastyear.

The policy-planninggroup is chaired by formerPrime Minister ManmohanSingh and includes formerHome Minister P. Chidam-baram and CWC membersKaran Singh and GhulamNabi Azad, besides the J&KCongress in-charge AmbikaSoni.

“Congress president So-nia Gandhi has constituted apolicy-planning group forJammu and Kashmir under

the chairmanship of Dr.Manmohan Singh,” AICCgeneral secretary JanardanDwivedi said in a statement.

Other leaders who arepart of the group includeJ&K Congress presidentGhulam Ahmed Mir, CLPleader in State Rigzin Zora,former MP Tariq HameedKarra and party vice-presid-ent Shyam Lal Sharma.

Sources said the groupwill study and assess theground situation and makeinitiatives for restoring nor-malcy in the State, which isfacing unrest for quite sometime now.

Leaders meet PresidentMeanwhile, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi meta delegation of Congressand National Conferenceleaders.

They later met PresidentPranab Mukherjee and ap-prised him of the currentsituation prevailing in theState.

Cong. forms panel toassess J&K situation

To take measures to restore normalcy


New Delhi

While claiming that therewere “some fears” amongthe Ministers that madethem revolt against him,AIADMK leader T.T.V. Dh-inakaran on Wednesdaysaid he was not against themerger of the two factionsof the party. Going by out-ward appearances, heseemed nonchalant andunaffected by the develop-ment that saw Ministerswho earlier supported himresolving to remove himfrom the party. However,on persistent questioningby the media, he went backand forth on his state-ments.

Earlier in the day (be-fore leaving for a courthearing), he appeared con-fident and maintained thathe had the support of allMLAs. A few hours later,his tone changed as he de-clared he had no problemwith the merger as long asit benefited the party andthe govt in the long term.

Not againstmerger:DhinakaranDennis S. Jesudasan

CHENNAI

The CPI(M) will launch anationwide campaign inMay to build a counter-nar-rative to what it sees as thenarrative of “communalpolarisation” by the Naren-dra Modi government andRSS.

“We are going to take upissues like PDS curtail-ment; MNREGA allocationcurtailment; denial of enti-tlements by linking them toAadhaar as the machinessometimes fail to identifybiometric data; growingunemployment and privat-isation, which also hits thereservation policy; and theneed to raise MSP for farm-ers to 1.5 times the cost ofproduction,” CPI(M) gen-eral secretary SitaramYechury told presspersonsat the culmination of theparty’s central committeemeeting here.

He said another effortwould be to consult allnon-Congress, secularparties — to begin with —and people’s movements.

CPI(M) plansdrive againstpolarisationSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

On Tuesday, President Don-ald Trump signed an execut-ive order to review the pop-ular H1-B visa programmethat attracts a large numberof Indian IT professionalsand other technically quali-fied people. At the sametime, Australia too scrappedits temporary work visas forforeign workers, a bulk ofwhom are from India. “Thechanges announced by thegovernment of Australia re-cently replace one schemewith another. Senior Aus-

tralian officials have con-veyed to us that the impactof the changes will be negli-gible on Indian workers,most of whom fall in highskill category,” the officialstatement said.

Mr. Baglay said, “The gov-ernment is in touch with thegovernments of the UnitedStates and Australia onthese matters and is alsomaking full assessment ofthe impact of these recentchanges, in consultationwith all stake holders.”

No threat to visas forprofessionals: Centre


CMYK




NEWS

The Union government andthe BJP assessed the impactof the Supreme Court orderon Wednesday reviving crim-inal conspiracy chargesagainst the party’s seniorleaders L.K. Advani, MurliManohar Joshi and UmaBharti.

Union Finance MinisterArun Jaitley, however, virtu-ally ruled out any move to di-vest Ms. Bharti of her Cab-inet berth.

“This case has been onsince 1993, and this is not anew situation. It will take itscourse,” he said. “If gettingcharge-sheeted was the rulefor removal, then therewould be very few CongressChief Ministers left.”

At a press conferenceearlier in the day, Ms. Bhartiannounced her intention tovisit Ayodhya on Thursday.However, by the time PrimeMinister Narendra Modi fin-ished a meeting with theBJP’s core group around 6p.m., she went back on herplan.

Presidential pollsBJP sources said the topparty leadership, includingMr. Modi, was of the viewthat the court order was tobe seen as just another mile-stone in the long saga of the

case, and not to be mademuch of, especially since Ut-tar Pradesh has a newly elec-ted BJP government.

The court order, however,has a political consequence:its bearing on whether ornot Mr. Advani or Mr. Joshicould be considered for theposts of President or Vice-President. The names of thetwo veteran leaders havebeen making the rounds aspossible candidates. Mr. Ad-vani said in an interviewwith a television channeltwo days ago that his polit-ical career was not over.

“It does not go down wellwith me whenever anyonesays something like thatabout me,” he said.

Asked about the chancesof either of these leaders be-coming President, Mr. Jaitleydismissed it as “a hypothet-ical question”.

Law Minister RaviShankar Prasad, lawyer for

Ram Lalla Virajman in thetitle suit of the case, said inPatna that they were highlyrespected in the party.

In the evening, Mr. Joshivisited Mr. Advani’s resid-ence, but returned revealingnothing to the media.

BJP thinks nothing has changed on the groundJaitley says Babri Masjid case has been on since 1993 and this is not a new situation; Joshi visits Advani’s house, but doesn’t reveal what transpired

Murli Manohar Joshi


NEW DELHI

Union Minister for Water Re-sources Uma Bharti, namedin the Supreme Court orderthat revived a criminal con-spiracy charge against herand several senior BJP lead-ers, struck a defiant note, re-fusing to resign and declar-ing that she was “proud” ofhaving participated in theRam Janmabhoomimovement.

Addressing a press confer-ence at her residence afterthe court order, Ms. Bhartirebutted charges of criminalconspiracy in the demolitionof the Babri mosque in 1992,saying “a conspiracy wouldimply that something wasdone in secret but whateverhappened was in full publicview”.

‘Congress hypocritical’“I am proud to have been as-sociated with the Ram Janm-abhoomi movement,” Ms.Bharti added. She accusedthe Congress of hypocrisyfor demanding her resigna-tion as, in the aftermath ofthe Sikh riots in Delhi in1984, neither (CongressPresident) Sonia Gandhi nor(late Prime Minister) Rajiv

Gandhi was indicted, shesaid. “The party that was be-hind the Emergency and the1984 riots has no right to de-mand my resignation,” Ms.Bharti said.

She also said she wasready for questioning “at theshortest notice”. Even as shewould be conferring with her

lawyers, Ms. Bharti said shehad no regrets over her “in-volvement” and that a Ramtemple “would definitely bebuilt” in the days ahead.

“This country is of cow,Ganga, Tirangaa [tri-colour]and Ram. Wherever they areinsulted, we will fight,” sheadded.


NEW DELHI

No looking back: Uma Bharti addressing a press conference ather residence in New Delhi on Wednesday. * R.V. MOORTHY

Uma Bharti deiant and ‘proud’

Union Home Secretary RajivMehrishi will meet his U.K.counterpart, Patsy Wilkin-son, in May to try and speedup the extradition of busi-ness tycoon Vijay Mallya. Butexperts and officials say itwill be a long-drawn affair.

Official sources said theHome Secretary would dis-cuss the extradition of nineothers when he would meetMs. Wilkinson.

“I won’t be surprised ifMallya’s extradition neverhappens,” said a senior IPSofficer who had handledsuch cases.

Retired IPS officer N.R.Wasan, who has had a longstint with the CBI, said theproceedings were long-drawn, unless India couldensure that the BritishCrown Prosecution Servicepursued the case on a day-to-day basis.

“Mr. Mallya was arrestedand produced before the

court as per the provisionsunder the Extradition Act’ssub-chapter on extraditionhearing. Then under Section9, the judge will decidewhether prima facie there isa case, on the basis of whichextradition can be allowed,”Mr. Wasan said.

Appeal foraIf the court allows extradi-tion, Mr. Wasan said, the ac-cused can appeal against theorder in the High Court un-der Section 26 of the Act. Ondismissal of the appeal, hecan approach the court of

the House of Lords, asprovided by the British law.Then, Mr. Mallya can ap-proach the European Courtof Human Rights.

“Most of the extraditionrequests fell through,primarily for two reasons.Either we failed to primafacie prove that the person isaccused of the said offenceor on the grounds of humanrights,” Mr. Wasan said.

A senior intelligence of-ficer said political vendetta,fears of human rights viola-tions, passage of time andseveral other factors couldbe used effectively to delayextradition efforts.

Shinoj Koshy, U.K. soli-citor and partner in Luthra &Luthra, said Mr. Mallya’s ex-tradition could be speededup if India persisted. He ar-gued that British Prime Min-ister Theresa May could takea firm stand to ensure aquick extradition. “In the lar-ger scheme of things, he isinsignificant. But now that

she has announced snappolls, we have to see howmuch personal interest shewill take in the issue,” Mr.Koshy said. He said the onlysuccessful extradition fromBritain to India, of Gujaratriot accused SamirbhaiVinubhai Patel, happenedbecause the accused did notoppose the extradition.“Everyone who has opposedan extradition case has beenable to create enough roadb-locks to stay back,” he said.

War Room leak caseThe Indian government hasvirtually given up its effortsto extradite Ravi Shankaran,one of the masterminds ofthe Naval War Room leak, al-most after a decade of legalefforts. Mr. Shankaran wasone of the prime accused inthe 2005 case in which navalofficers and intermediarieswere accused of taking outclassified information fromthe naval war room in NewDelhi.

Getting Mallya back not easyThose who have fought extradition have been able to create roadblocks: experts


NEW DELHI

Vijay Mallya

At the heart ofWednesday’s SupremeCourt judgment for ajoint trial and revival ofthe criminal conspiracycharge in the BabriMasjid demolition case isthe accusation againstthe CBI for not doingenough as a prosecutingagency.

A Bench of JusticesP.C. Ghose and RohintonNariman highlighted twoinstances in the early2000s when the CBI, forinexplicable reasons,failed to pursue its casefor a joint trial of the RaeBareli and Lucknowcases. The court evensuggested that had theCBI done enough in2001, the Supreme Courtwould not have beenrequired to step in.

On October 5, 1993,the CBI, in a compositecharge sheet before the

Special Court, hadaccused 21 top BJP andSangh Parivar leaders,including Mr. Advani andMr. Joshi, of criminalconspiracy. Four yearslater, the CBI court inLucknow found primafacie evidence supportingthe charge sheet.

But in February 2001,the Allahabad HighCourt, on revisionpetitions filed by theaccused, found that theLucknow court had nojurisdiction over the RaeBareli case. The HighCourt had neverthelessupheld the CBI chargesheet, saying the lack ofjurisdiction was only a“technical default”.

The CBI filed asupplementary chargesheet against only eightof the 21 accused ofconspiracy in its 1993chargesheet. Hence, thecharges against all 21were dropped.

CBI in the dockKrishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI

A day after the SupremeCourt questioned its silenceover judicial enquiry com-mission reports accusing itspersonnel of committing at-rocities in Manipur duringinsurgency, the Army onWednesday said its job wasnot to kill “our own coun-try’s people.”

The Army accused thatthe findings of the judicialprobes may have been inad-vertently “biased” as thejudges who headed the in-quiry commissions were loc-als. “The Army’s job is not tokill our own people,” Attor-ney General Mukul Rohatgisaid in defence of the Armyin the Supreme Court.

Appearing before a Bench

of Justices Madan B. Lokurand U.U. Lalit, Mr. Rohatgisubmitted that the courtshould not shut its eye to thepossibility that the judicialofficers, who headed thecommissions of enquiry,were local people and mayhave been guided by localapprehensions and factors.

“This is our own country.If the Army is disbelieved,

then the whole system willgo haywire and cannot work.The inquiry officers mayhave been biased due totheir local considerations,”he argued in a hearing thatwent on the whole day.

Rues trust deficitHe rued the trust deficit ap-parent when insinuationswere made that the Armywas stage-managing deathsof innocents as armed en-counters with insurgents.

“The Army is operating ininsurgency-prone areas ofManipur in difficult circum-stances and it cannot be dis-believed. It cannot be saidthat I have stage-managed tokill my own people,” Mr. Ro-hatgi submitted.

The arguments come in

the backdrop of a curativepetition filed by the Centrein the Supreme Court to ur-gently re-consider a July2016 verdict, which rippedopen the cloak of immunityand secrecy provided by theArmed Forces (SpecialPowers) Act of 1958 (AFSPA)to security forces for deathscaused during encounters indisturbed areas.

The SC had held that“there is no concept of abso-lute immunity from trial by acriminal court” if an Armyman has committed an of-fence. The curative petitionargues that the judgment hasbecome a fetter against se-curity forces involved in anti-militancy operations in sens-itive and border areas of thecountry.

‘Our job is not to kill our people’ A-G defends the Army over panel reports on atrocities in insurgency-hit Manipur

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi

The Congress on Wednes-day demanded that thoseguilty in the demolition ofthe Babri Masjid be pun-ished and Union Ministerfor Water Resources UmaBharti resign from the Cab-inet after criminal conspir-acy charges against herand other senior leaders ofthe BJP in the case was re-vived by the SupremeCourt.

“The Supreme Court hasspoken. Let justice be doneand the guilty punished,”Congress chief spokesmanRandeep Surjewala said.

“Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi should also en-sure that his Ministersmaintained a high stand-ard of morality in the faceof this ruling. The law isequal for everyone irre-spective of stature, caste,creed, religion or region,”Mr. Surjewala said.

The Nationalist CongressParty (NCP) also welcomedthe court ruling.

Let the guiltybe punished:CongressSpecial Correspondent

New Delhi

Even as the Supreme Courton Wednesday ordered re-opening of the Babrimosque demolition case,Rashtriya Janata Dal chiefLalu Prasad said the de-cision could nix chances ofBJP veteran L.K. Advani inthe presidential race. TheRJD chief also asked howcould Kalyan Singh remainas Governor even after theSupreme Court order.

“Recently, Union Minis-ter Rajnath Singh andother NDA leaders did notturn up at a programme inPatna attended by the Pres-ident to honour freedomfighters due to my pres-ence. Then how could theymake Kalyan Singh as Gov-ernor after the court or-der,” asked Mr. Prasad.

Order cannix Advani’schances: Lalu Amarnath Tewary

Patna

Modi to launch UNVesak Day in Sri LankaCOLOMBO

Prime Minister Narendra

Modi will inaugurate UN

Vesak Day in Colombo on

May 12, Sri Lanka’s Minister

for Justice Wijeyadasa

Rajapakshe said here on

Wednesday. During his visit,

Mr. Modi will hold bilateral

meetings with the Sri Lankan

leadership. The two countries

are likely to finalise

development cooperation

agreements, in addition to

discussing key bilateral

matters.

IN BRIEF

Cabinet approves leaveencashment for military NEW DELHI

The Union Cabinet on

Wednesday approved

encashment of accumulated

leave for military personnel

who died or were invalidated

out of service between 1991

to 1999. “The Cabinet chaired

by PM Narendra Modi has

approved leave encashment

up to 180 days in respect of

those Defence personnel who

died or were invalidated out

of service between December

12, 1991 to November 29,

1999 with less than 15 years

of service,” the government

said in a statement.

Tax evaders get govt.relief to declare assets NEW DELHI

The government has

extended the deadline for tax

evaders who wish to declare

undisclosed income under the

Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan

Deposit Scheme to April 30,

2017 from the earlier

deadline of March 31, as per a

notification issued by the

Central government on

Wednesday. The scheme was

launched in December 2016

to grant an opportunity for

black money holders who

deposited large, unaccounted

money into banks following

the demonetisation of high-

value notes.


CMYK




WORLD

Ecuador recountconirms Moreno’s winQUITO

A recount of more than 1.2

million votes in Ecuador late

on Tuesday conirmed leftist

candidate Lenin Moreno as

the winner of presidential

elections, the country’s

electoral council said. In the

recount, Mr. Moreno

obtained 51.16 % of valid

votes with Guillermo Lasso at

48.84% — 1,594 votes more

for Moreno than in the

original April 2 count. Reuters

ELSEWHERE

Ahmadi professor foundmurdered in PakistanLAHORE

A professor belonging to the

persecuted Ahmadi

community was found

murdered at her residence

here, in the third such attack

on the religious minority in

the last three weeks. Punjab

University’s Department of

Microbiology and Molecular

Genetics professor Tahira

Parveen Malik (61) was living

alone at her oicial residence

on the varsity campus. PTI

2 sentenced to death inBangladesh for war crimesDHAKA

Two Bangladeshi war crimes

convicts were on Wednesday

sentenced to death by a

special tribunal for

committing crimes against

humanity during the 1971

Liberation War against

Pakistan. Moslem Prodhan

and Syed Mohammad

Hussain, who is absconding,

were sentenced to death by

the three-member

International Crimes Tribunal

after being held guilty of six

charges, including

abductions, torture, mass

murders and genocide. PTI

Britain is set to go to the pollson June 8 after an over-whelming majority of MPsbacked Prime MinisterTheresa May’s call to hold ageneral election on that date.A total of 522 MPs voted in fa-vour of the motion on Wed-nesday afternoon. With just13 votes against the motion,this easily exceeded the two-thirds threshold needed forthe government to be able tooverrule legislation that hadrequired elections to be heldat regular five-year intervals,beginning in 2015.

The vote came just a dayafter Ms. May caught thecountry — and most politicalcommentators — off guardwith her call for an election,to secure political “unity” asthe country prepares for de-tailed negotiations on exitingthe European Union (EU).

Brexit negotiationsThe broad contours of theelectoral debate likely to un-fold in coming months beganto emerge during Prime Min-isters Questions and the de-bate held just ahead of thevote, as leaders and signific-ant figures across the polit-ical spectrum sought to cla-rify their views.

Ms. May reiterated herreasons for holding an elec-tion, insisting that politicaldivisions in Westminsterrisked weakening Britain’shand in the negotiations withEurope.

The election would enablethe parties to “make our re-spective cases to the countryand then to respect the resultand the mandate it providesto give Britain the strongestpossible hand in the negoti-ations to come,” she said.She accused Labour of hav-

ing economic policies thatwould “bankrupt” the eco-nomy.

Labour, on the other handsought to play on the U-turnmade by Ms. May over theholding of a general election.Just last month, her officialspokesperson categoricallyinsisted that no electionwould take place. “This is aPrime Minister who prom-ised that there wouldn’t beone. A Prime Minister whocannot be trusted,” said La-bour Leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“We welcome the opportun-ity of a general election be-cause it gives the Britishpeople the opportunity tovote for a Labour govern-ment that will put the in-terests of the majority first,”he added, as he attacked gov-ernment policy on health,education and welfare. “Whyare there tax giveaways tothe richest corporationswhile our children’s schoolsare starved of the resourcesthey need to educate ourchildren for the future?” heasked

The Liberal Democrats at-tacked Ms. May’s decision torule out taking part in tele-vised debates ahead of theelection. “This election canchange the direction of ourcountry, from the con-sequences of a potential hardBrexit outside the single mar-ket to the future of our NHSand social care, our schoolsand our environment,” saidLiberal Democrat leader TimFarron. “What is she scaredof,” he asked.

Recent polls have giventhe Conservatives a comfort-able lead: one conducted byYouGov on April 12-13 foundthat 44% supported the Con-servatives, against 23% forLabour and 12% for the Lib-eral Democrats.

MPs back May’s poll call522 legislators vote in favour of motion seeking a general election in June

Explaining the U-turn: British Prime Minister Theresa Mayspeaking in the House of Commons on Wednesday. * AFP

Vidya Ram

London

A man arrested for a shoot-ing spree in the central Cali-fornia city of Fresno on Tues-day in which three whitemen were killed saw himselfas part of an ongoing racewar, according to family andpolice.

The suspect, an African-American named Kori AliMuhammad (39), shouted“Allahu Akbar” as he was be-ing taken into custody.

But Fresno police chiefJerry Dyer said indicationswere it was not a “terrorist-related crime” and a probewas under way to determineif the murders qualified as ahate crime. He saidMuhammad, who used thealias “Black Jesus” and waswanted in the killing lastweek of an unarmed securityguard outside a motel in thecity, had indicated on hisFacebook page that he hated

white people and the govern-ment. He said all the victimswere white males and therewas every reason to believeMuhammad had acted alone.

Muhammad’s father, Vin-cent Taylor, told The LosAngeles Times that his sonwas convinced he was part ofan ongoing war betweenwhites and blacks, and that“a battle was about to takeplace”. Muhammad facesfour counts of murder andtwo counts of attemptedmurder, authorities said.

Man held for shootingspree in California

Kori Muhammad killed 3 on Tuesday

Agence France-Presse

Los Angeles

Kori Ali Muhammad. * AP

Negotiations on the stalledBangladesh-China-India-My-anmar (BCIM) economic cor-ridor are set to resume nextweek in Kolkata.

After a gap of over twoyears, the meeting of JointStudy Group ( JSG) of aca-demics and officials of thefour countries on April 25-26is expected to finalise theroad map for the BCIM eco-nomic corridor, scholars at aseminar at Nanchong, south-west China revealed. TheChina West Normal Univer-sity is hosting a conferenceof scholars from China, In-dia, Pakistan, and Sri Lankaon the prospects of China’sBelt and Road Initiative (BRI)in South Asia.

The last meeting of theBCIM was held Cox’s Bazaarin Bangladesh in December2014.

There is a perceptionamong Chinese scholars thatIndia had become lukewarmto the BCIM project andlinked it to its reservationson the China-Pakistan-Eco-nomic corridor whichpasses through Pakistan Oc-cupied Kashmir (PoK). In-dian officials, however, de-clined that there was aconnection between thetwo.

India’s supportHowever, there was a viewexpressed at the conferenceabout India’s readiness forparticipation in standaloneconnectivity projects withChina, which were not ne-cessarily connected with theBeijing-led BRI. Both theBCIM and the CPEC predatethe formal launch of the BRI.

Separately, Chinese For-eign Minister Wang Yi had,at a press conference in

Beijing on Tuesday, referredto the BCIM economic cor-ridor. He had said that thefour countries are ready toadvance the economic cor-ridor within the frameworkof the BRI.

The BCIM economic cor-ridor hopes to connect Kolk-ata with Kunming, capital ofthe Yunnan province. It en-visages formation of a thriv-ing economic belt, focusingon cross-border transport,energy and telecommunica-tion networks.

Starting from Kunming,the route passes throughnodal points, such as Man-dalay and Lashio in Myan-mar. It heads towards Kolk-ata after passing throughManipur and Silchar, beforecrossing Bangladesh via Syl-het and Dhaka, withbranches extending to theports of Cox Bazar andChittagong.

The last meeting was held in Bangladesh in December 2014

Atul Aneja

Nanchong

Dialogue on BCIM corridorto resume next week

Far-right leader Marine LePen is a frontrunner with justdays to go until France votesin the first round of its pres-idential election.

On the campaign trail, Ms.Le Pen has positioned herselfas a protector of France whowould pull the country out ofthe EU, slash immigration,make it harder to get Frenchnationality and crack downon suspected Islamists.

‘We want equality’AFP has spoken to Le Pensupporters across Franceabout why they have chosento back her:

“I’m not racist, but when Isee our parents working likedogs only to end up withnothing at the end of themonth, while unemployedArabs are walking aroundwith iPhones...,” said YoanJenais (19), who runs a cloth-ing stall in Saint Raphael insouthern France.

“We don’t want to be bet-

ter than other people, wejust want equality,” headded.

“Marine will be able to getthe country back on its feet.Migrants are in unfortunate[situations], but there arepeople from France strug-gling and they must behelped urgently. To not do sowould be an injustice,” saidDorothee (38), a prisonguard in the northern town

of Bapaume. Behind thexenophobic and anti-Islamwords of Le Pen voters, thereis often another driving senti-ment, said ChristeleMarchand-Lagier, an FN spe-cialist at the University ofAvignon in southern France.There is “a feeling of beingpushed aside, abandoned”.

Security is a worry for theFrench in the wake of thestring of attacks that have

killed more than 230 peoplesince the beginning of 2015.

“The attack made up mymind,” said Andre (48), a res-ident of the Riviera city ofNice who plans to vote forMs. Le Pen after the Islamistcarnage in his city last Julythat killed 86 people.

The depressed formercoal mining town of Henin-Beaumont has had an FNMayor since 2014 and someresidents are happy withtheir leadership.

France’s unemploymentrate has hovered near 10% inrecent years, despite prom-ises from its last two Presid-ents to spur growth.

“I voted for [Nicolas]Sarkozy, we got nothing. Ivoted for [Francois] Hol-lande, we got nothing. So,I’m going to vote for Le Penand we’ll see,” said Pasa Er-tugrul (29) from the easterntown of Brousseval.

”Around here the factoriesare closing, so where is theprogress in France?” heasked.

Who are the Le Pen voters?Her rhetoric has struck a chord amid security issues and unemployment


Paris

The frontrunner: People attending a rally by Marine Le Pen atthe Dome De Marseille on Wednesday. * GETTY IMAGES

A woman on a train in Ire-land has been caught oncamera making expletive-ridden racist comments to-wards Asian passengers,telling one of them to “goback to India” for placing abag on an empty seat, me-dia reports said onWednesday.

In the videos, originallyposted on Twitter, the wo-man can be seen and heardmaking expletive-riddencomments towards fellowpassengers.

Twitter user ‘TheBex-Way’ filmed the woman on atrain from Limerick Colbertstation to Limerick Junctionon Sunday, Irish Independ-ent reported.

Irish Rail has reportedthe incident, captured in aseries of videos showing theIrish woman’s racist rant ona Limerick train, to theGardathe state police forceof the Republic of Ireland.

Irish womanmakes racistremarksPress Trust of India

London

The executive order signedby President Donald Trumpcalling for a review of H-1Bvisas is too little and too late,U.S. lawmakers said, even asmore than half a dozenpieces of legislation on re-forming the programme re-main pending in the Houseof Representatives and theSenate.

“We already know H-1Bvisa abuse hurts American

workers. Simply reviewingthe programme is too little,too late,” Senator DickDurbin said after Mr. Trumpsigned the order directinghis administration to reviewthe functioning of thesystem.

Half a dozen billsU.S. lawmakers have alreadytabled more than half adozen Bills in the Congresswith specific proposals to re-form and improve the H-1B

visas systems. Many of thoseproposals, as per industrybody Nasscom, are discrim-inatory and are targeted to-wards Indian IT companies.

Mr. Trump’s long-awaitedexecutive order drew sharpreactions from the Opposi-tion Democrat lawmakersand the sponsors of these le-gislations, but drew applausefrom the treasury benches.Congressman Bill Pascrell,Ranking Democrat on theWays and Means Subcom-

mittee on Trade, alleged thatthe executive order is yet an-other “broken promise”from Mr. Trump, who hadreportedly told the Amer-ican people that he wouldend the H-1B visaprogramme.

Senator Chuck Grassley,an author of legislation to re-form the H-1B and L-1 skilledwork visa programmes, saidit is time to take actionagainst the abuse of H-1B visasystem.

‘Review of H-1B too little, too late’Press Trust of India

Washington

The Trump administrationsaid on Tuesday it waslaunching an inter-agencyreview of whether the liftingof sanctions against Iran wasin the U.S.’s national secur-ity interests, while acknow-ledging that Tehran wascomplying with a deal torein in its nuclearprogramme.

In a letter to U.S. House ofRepresentatives SpeakerPaul Ryan, the top Repub-lican in Congress, on Tues-day U.S. Secretary of StateRex Tillerson said Iran re-mained compliant with the2015 deal, but said therewere concerns about its roleas a state sponsor ofterrorism.

Under the deal, the StateDepartment must notifyCongress every 90 days onIran’s compliance under theso-called Joint Comprehens-ive Plan of Action ( JCPOA).It is the first such notifica-tion under U.S. PresidentDonald Trump.

Tillerson’s statement“The U.S. Department ofState certified to U.S. HouseSpeaker Paul Ryan todaythat Iran is compliantthrough April 18 with itscommitments under theJoint Comprehensive Plan ofAction,” Mr. Tillerson said ina statement.

“President Donald J.Trump has directed a Na-tional Security Council-ledinteragency review of theJoint Comprehensive Plan ofAction that will evaluatewhether suspension of sanc-tions related to Iran pursu-ant to the JCPOA is vital tothe national security in-terests of the United States,”Tillerson added.

He did not say how longthe review would take but

said in the letter to Mr. Ryanthat the administrationlooked forward to workingwith Congress on the issue.

During his presidentialcampaign, Mr. Trump calledthe agreement “the worstdeal ever negotiated”, rais-ing questions over whetherhe would rip up the agree-ment once he took office.

Lifting of sanctionsThe historic deal betweenIran and six major powersrestricts Tehran’s nuclearprogramme in exchange forthe lifting of international oiland financial sanctionsagainst the Islamic Republic.

Iran denies ever havingconsidered developingatomic weapons althoughnuclear experts havewarned that any U.S. viola-tion of the nuclear dealwould allow Iran also to pullback from its commitmentsto curb nuclear develop-

ment. Those commitmentsinclude reducing the num-ber of its centrifuges by two-thirds, capping its level ofuranium enrichment wellbelow the level needed forbomb-grade material, redu-cing its enriched uraniumstockpile from around10,000 kg to 300 kg for 15years, and submitting to in-ternational inspections toverify its compliance.

Last month, Mr. Trump’sDefense Secretary JamesMattis had said that Irancontinued to behave as anexporter of terrorism andstill sponsors militantactivity.

The United States haslong accused Iran of beingthe world’s biggest statesponsor of terrorism, sayingthat Tehran supported con-flicts in countries like Syria,Iraq and Yemen, and backedgroups such as Hezbollah,its Lebanon-based ally.

U.S. acknowledges that Tehran remains compliant with it

Reuters

WASHINGTON

A high point: Then-Secretary of State John Kerry with Iran’sForeign Minister Javad Zarif in Vienna in January 2016. * REUTERS

Trump administrationorders review of Iran deal


CMYK

BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



NIFTY 50

PRICE CHANGE

ACC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1511.35. . . . . . . 18.50

Adani Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.80. . . . . . . . . 6.45

Ambuja Cements. . . .. . . . . . 240.15. . . . . . . . -0.60

Asian Paints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1048.90. . . . . . . . . 8.45

Aurobindo Pharma . . . . . . 640.05. . . . . . -24.25

Axis Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 499.50. . . . . . . . -0.15

Bajaj Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2808.70. . . . . . -15.70

Bank of Baroda . . . . . .. . . . . . 174.85. . . . . . . . -1.20

Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339.95. . . . . . . . . 1.15

Bosch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22475.35. . . -135.00

BPCL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 722.90. . . . . . . . -1.30

Cipla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 575.40. . . . . . . . -0.40

Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282.70. . . . . . . . . 3.45

Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . .. . . . 2607.40. . . . . . -21.05

Eicher Motors. . . . . . . . .. 25457.60. . . . . . -75.00

GAIL (India). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393.80. . . . . . . . -0.75

Grasim Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1082.20. . . . . . . 17.35

HCL Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 808.60. . . . . . . . . 0.55

HDFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1490.20. . . . . . . 10.15

HDFC Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1449.00. . . . . . . . . 1.70

Hero MotoCorp . . . . . .. . . . 3199.75. . . . . . -26.50

Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186.00. . . . . . . . . 2.20

Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 908.55. . . . . . . . -4.20

Indiabulls HFL . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 957.15. . . . . . . . -5.10

ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280.55. . . . . . . . -2.85

IndusInd Bank . . . . . . . .. . . . 1421.60. . . . . . -10.15

Bharti Infratel . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 346.70. . . . . . . . . 9.80

Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 919.20. . . . . . . . -3.45

Indian OilCorp . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 435.25. . . . . . . . . 4.40

ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278.70. . . . . . . . -0.35

Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875.60. . . . . . . . -6.05

L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1670.55. . . . . . . . . 1.05

Lupin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1410.25. . . . . . . . -4.70

M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1259.45. . . . . . . . -3.70

Maurti Suzuki . . . . . . . . .. . . . 6196.95. . . . . . . 59.80

NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164.90. . . . . . . . . 3.20

ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179.85. . . . . . . . -1.10

PowerGrid Corp . . . . .. . . . . . 211.20. . . . . . . . . 8.85

Reliance Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1368.80. . . . . . . . -1.40

State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284.05. . . . . . . . -6.25

Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 663.35. . . . . . . . -1.80

Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443.05. . . . . . . . -0.65

Tata Motors DVR. . . .. . . . . . 271.55. . . . . . . . . 1.00

Tata Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85.65. . . . . . . . . 2.10

Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450.75. . . . . . . . . 0.85

TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2299.15. . . . . . . . -9.65

Tech Mahindra . . . . . . .. . . . . . 414.30. . . . . . . . -4.60

UltraTech Cement. .. . . . 3939.80. . . . . . -32.40

Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 498.25. . . . . . . . . 4.25

YES Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1605.45. . . . . . . . -0.45

Zee Entertainment . . . . . . 521.90. . . . . . . . . 4.30

BULLION RATES CHENNAI

April 19 rates in rupees with previousrates in parentheses

Retail Silver (1g) . . . . . . . . . . . 45.30. . . . . (45.80)

22 ct gold (1 g) . .. . . . . . . . . . . 2,826. . . . . (2,829)

EXCHANGE RATES

Indicative direct rates in rupees a unitexcept yen at 4 p.m. on April 19

CURRENCY TT BUY TT SELL

US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 64.38. . . . . . . 64.70

Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 69.03. . . . . . . 69.38

British Pound. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 82.71. . . . . . . 83.13

Japanese Yen (100) . .. . 59.08. . . . . . . 59.38

Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 9.35. . . . . . . . . 9.40

Swiss Franc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 64.57. . . . . . . 64.89

Singapore Dollar . . . . . . .. . 46.07. . . . . . . 46.30

Canadian Dollar. . . . . . . . .. . 47.94. . . . . . . 48.18

Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . .. . 14.63. . . . . . . 14.72

Source:Indian Bank

market watch

19-04-2017 % CHANGE

Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddd 29,336 ddddddddddddddd0.06

US Dollardddddddddddddddddddd 64.58 ddddddddddddddd0.07

Gold ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 29,900 ddddddddddddddd0.00

Brent oil ddddddddddddddddddddd 54.74 ddddddddddddddd0.00

Large infrastructure projectsbeing executed by State gov-ernment entities will find iteasier to tap internationalfunds from bilateral finan-cing agencies, with the Cab-inet enabling them to dir-ectly access funding fromsuch agencies on the basis ofa central government guar-antee while keeping suchloans off States’ books.

“The funding arrange-ments that bilateral agenciessuch as Japan InternationalCooperation Agency ( JICA)provide, is either with Stategovernments or central PSUs— State entities are not al-lowed,” said Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley. “If any Stateentity needs funding for itsprojects, it has to approachthe State government andany such funding would beincluded under the State’sborrowing limits set by theFiscal Responsibility andBudget Management (FRBMlaw).”

“So based on some condi-

tions, a section of State entit-ies with revenue of ₹1,000crore or more, who areworking on infrastructureprojects worth over ₹5,000crore, have been permittedto directly take money fromsuch funding agencies on thebasis of a central govern-ment guarantee,” he said.

Financially soundAn official statement saidthat the Cabinet had ap-

proved policy guidelines toallow financially sound Stategovernment entities to bor-row directly from bilateralODA (Official DevelopmentAssistance) partners for im-plementation of vital infra-structure projects.

“All repayments of loansand interests to the fundingagencies will be directly re-mitted by the concernedborrower. The concernedState Government will fur-

nish guarantee for the Loan.The Government of Indiawill provide counter guaran-tee for the loan,” accordingto the statement.

Citing the example of thealmost ₹18,000 MumbaiTrans-Harbour Link project,where JICA is expected tolend more than ₹ 15,100crore, Mr. Jaitley said Maha-rashtra’s development ex-penditure would go down tothat extent as its quota forborrowing under the FRBMtargets would be used up.

Welfare schemes“State Budgets also havepressure to spend on welfareschemes. If internationalfunding is coming in, if thatgets included in the FRBMcalculations, then infrastruc-ture projects will suffer,” Mr.Jaitley said, adding that pro-jects like the Mumbai Trans-Harbour Link would now be-come possible.

While the Mumbai Metro-politan Region DevelopmentAuthority (MMRDA) hasbeen allowed to borrow dir-

ectly from JICA for the trans-harbour project, other stateentities meeting the revenueand investment criteriacould also utilise this finan-cing route.

‘Ensure checks’“For getting infrastructureprojects off the ground, thisis obviously a good move,”said Amrit Pandurangi,senior director at Deloitte In-dia. “But it must be usedprudently for select projectsin a State as taking such fin-ancing out of the FRBMframework could temptStates to borrow too muchfor all sorts of projects,” headded.

“There need to be somechecks in place to ensurethat future governmentsaren’t saddled with toomuch long-term debt onterms that appear to be softnow, but could become cost-lier over the years if youfactor in the forex risk on topof the inherent risks in long-gestation infrastructure pro-jects,” Mr. Pandurangi said.

State entities can seek loans overseasCabinet has allowed inancially sound entities to borrow directly from ODA partners for projects


NEW DELHI

On condition: The State will guarantee the loan with theCentre providing a counter guarantee. * GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCK

Samsung on Wednesday in-troduced the Galaxy S8and the Galaxy S8+ in Indiawith a price tag of ₹57,900and ₹64,900, respectively.

The smartphones will beavailable starting May 5across select retail stores aswell as online on SamsungShop and Flipkart, whilepre-booking starts fromApril 19. The buyers of thetwo devices will get adouble data offer on theReliance Jio network.

“On a monthly rechargeof ₹309, users will enjoy448 GB of 4G data overeight months,” accordingto a company statement.

SamsungGalaxy S8now in IndiaSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Flipkart-owned fashion re-tailer Myntra said that it hasacqui-hired logistics start-upInLogg for an undisclosedamount, to strengthen andexpand its supply chaincapabilities.

The deal referred to instart-up parlance as an ‘ac-qui-hire,’ is when a com-pany acquires another firmto recruit its people.

The acquisition will seethe InLogg team joinMyntra.

The Bengaluru-basedfirm was founded in 2015 byformer-Flipkart employeesPreeti Jain, Rajat Khandujaand Prateek Gautam. Myn-tra said that it would also ac-quire InLogg's technologyplatform that provides endto end logistics solutions forthe e-commerce sector.

Ananya Tripathi, chiefstrategy and planning of-ficer of Myntra said this dealwill help the company scalewhile delivering customerexperience in Tier 2, 3 and 4cities.

“Myntra’s vision is to usetechnology to democratisefashion. With an 80% year-on-year growth, we are on astrong trajectory to achievethis,” Ms. Tripathi, said in astatement. The acquisitionwill also allow the firm toleverage local and regionalplayers to enhance its reach,reduce delivery time and de-velop a plug and play model“which can be scaled in thefuture,” she said.

InLogg is Myntra’s fourthtechnology-led acquisition.Earlier, it acqui-hiredBengaluru-based tech ven-tures Cubeit and Native5.

The InLogg team will join MyntraSpecial Correspondent

BENGALURU

InLogg is Myntra’s fourthtechnology led acquisition.

Myntra ‘acqui-hires’logistics start-up

U.S. President DonaldTrump’s plans to tighten visanorms for skilled workerscould potentially hurt mar-gins at India’s IT servicesproviders and may lead tolayoffs in the sector, accord-ing to industry analysts.

On April 18, Mr. Trumpsigned an executive ordercalling for a review of theH-1B visa program andsought increased scrutiny toprevent its abuse. The U.S.move comes amidheightened curbs initiatedby other nations includingthe U.K., Singapore and Aus-tralia, which has eliminatedits 457 visa program.

U.S. has been the key mar-

ket for Indian IT firms,which have been among thebiggest users of the H-1B visaprogram. The U.S. govern-ment recently said it re-ceived 199,000 H-1B visa pe-titions for 2018, 37,000 lessthan last year.

While analysts ruled outany major immediate riskfrom the changes in the U.S.visa process, they said anysweeping reforms couldpose a major risk in futureand hurt IT companies’margins.

Costs to riseShiva Ramani, founder andCEO, iOPEX Technologysaid, “The visa curbs will in-crease cost of delivery lead-ing to a margin fall. As a res-

ult IT firms can’t afford tohave bench and there maybe layoffs.”

Infosys on Wednesdaysaid it would work with U.S.policymakers and focus onhiring local talent.

Industry lobby Nasscomsaid: “Nasscom membercompanies support efforts toroot out any abuses that maybe occurring in the H-1B sys-tem. Ours is one of the mosthighly regulated and scrutin-ized sectors in the economy,and Nasscom member com-panies abide by all applic-able laws and regulations.”

“The H-1B law cannot bechanged through an execut-ive order, and even a changein rules have to comply withthe existing H-1B law,” Cyrus

D. Mehta, managing attorneyat New York-based law firmCyrus D. Mehta and Part-ners, wrote in an e-mailedresponse.

Vikram Shroff, Head ofHR law practice at NishithDesai Associates, said Indianfirms had already startedplanning for a scenario of arestrictive visa regime. TheU.S. order could pose someconcerns at the time of re-newals or extensions or for achange in employers.

“Indian IT firms havebeen net job creators in theU.S.,” Shivendra Singh, vice-president and head, GlobalTrade Development at Nas-scom said. “The funda-mental issue has been short-age of skilled workforce.”

Indian IT irms are among the biggest beneiciaries of the visa programmeSanjay Vijayakumar

CHENNAI

H-1B visa restrictions may lead to layofs

Fintech company Paytm isbelieved to be in discus-sions with Japanese con-glomerate SoftBank to raisemore than $1 billion.

The deal, if successful,will value the Alibaba-backed Paytm at more than$7 billion from the current$5 billion, multiple sourcessaid.

When contacted, Paytmand SoftBank declined tocomment.

Interestingly, SoftBankwas an early investor inAlibaba.

The talks come at a timewhen SoftBank is workingon a sale plan of e-com-merce firm Snapdeal and islikely to make an an-nouncement in the nextfew weeks.

SoftBank is the largestshareholder in Snapdeal,which is locked in an in-tense battle with AmazonIndia and Flipkart.

One of the sources saidPaytm might buy Snap-deal-owned payments firmFreecharge as part of thetransaction with SoftBank.

Paytm eyes$1 bn. fromSoftBank PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

NEW DELHI

A plan to restructure Sri-Lankan Airlines is expectedto take flight within sixmonths, the airline’s chiefcommercial manager, SivaRamachandran, told The

Hindu here on Wednesday.U.S.-based firm Texas Pa-

cific Group has been pro-posed as the most suitablepartner for the project fromamong the three short-listedbidders out of a total of 10,he said. Under the public-private-partnership, the se-lected investor will have 49%stake and the remaining 51%will be with Sri Lankan gov-ernment. At present, the air-line is fully-owned by thegovernment with 1.5% stakewith banks and staff.

“The airline managementwill change hands to the se-lected investor and therewill be no interference fromthe government in the newdispensation”, Mr.Ramachandran said unveil-ing the road map to makethe debt-ridden national air-line a global leader.

The Srilankan Cargo,Ground Services, SriLankanCatering Private Ltd — afully-owned subsidiary ofthe airline, SriLankan Engin-eering that takes care of themaintenance, repair over-haul activities, SriLankanAviation College and the Sri-Lankan Holidays, the leisurearm of the airline, will be un-der the new dispensation.

The hub of the SriLankanairlines operations is fromBandaranaike Internationalairport in Colombo. Itprovides connections to itsglobal network of 101 destin-ations in 47 countries inEurope, the Middle East,

South Asia, the Far East,North America, Australiaand Africa.

New terminalThe international airport inColombo is to get a newmodern terminal and a run-way as part of the steps be-ing chalked out to expandand further diversify theproducts and services, hesaid.

With a workforce of 6,900employees in the island na-tion and overseas, Sri-Lankan operates a fleet of 27aircraft including wide-bod-ied Airbus A-330, A-321 andmid-range A-320s.

SriLankan Airlines may begina revamp within six months‘U.S.-based Texas Paciic Group proposed as best partner’S. Anil Radhakrishnan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Global hub: Bandaranaike International airport in Colomboprovides connections to 101 destinations in 47 countries.

Amazon.com has unveiledits content streaming deviceFire TV Stick with a voice re-mote control to vie withproducts including Google’sChromecast in India.

The device, which is soldin markets such as the U.S.,U.K., Germany and Japan,has been customised for In-dia and is priced at ₹3,999.

“Customers can instantlystream their favouritemovies and TV shows rightfrom the TV,” Amit Agarwal,Senior VP and Country Man-ager of Amazon India toldThe Hindu. “Fire TV Stick isalready a best-selling devicein some of the other geo-graphies we sell it in. Wehave taken it and made it

better for India. Featuressuch as data monitoring isspecific to India. We also hadto keep in mind that thereare caps on data here, thenetworks are patchy.”

On Amazon’s plan to takethe product, which has beenenhanced for India, to othermarkets, Mr. Agarwal said

the company is very focusedon India right now.

India’s e-commerce in-dustry, he said offered thecompany “immense”possibilities.

“E-commerce in India hasprobably not even crossedminute one…If I look at theamount of innovation thatlies ahead of us, it’s im-mense. I don’t really thinkabout what is in vogue todayor not. One piece that will al-ways be in vogue is the cus-tomer’s need.”

‘Opportunities galore’“That will require significantinnovation and innovationrequires investment for longperiods of time. If you lookat Amazon globally, eventoday, it is day one for us...

India is so early in its evolu-tion that I think at least forthe next 20 years, there are alot of opportunities here,”Mr. Agarwal said.

“We will continue to addmore selection in all the cat-egories that we have. Ouroldest category is books. Wenow have Hindi books store,Marathi books store, Malay-alam books store...justadding selections in existingcategories is so much oppor-tunity,” he added.

“The benefit of being ob-sessed with your customersis that customers are alwaysdissatisfied and that keepsyou on your toes to workeveryday to figure out onhow to satisfy them and howto improve your service,” Mr.Agarwal said.

Amazon unveils Fire TV stick to take on GoogleFeatures such as data monitoring are speciic to India as networks are patchy


NEW DELHI

Customers can instantlystream their favourite moviesand shows on TV.


BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



IN BRIEF

Pankaj Phatarphod, managing director & country head ofservices, RBS India, talks to Oommen A. Ninan on what hashelped global captives or Global In-house Centres (GICs),which give back-end systems support to their parent compan-ies, stay afloat among big players such as Infosys, TCS andWipro. India is home to more than 1,000 GICs with combinedexport revenue in excess of $19 billion in 2015.

How has the journey beenfor GICs from beingsupporters of back-officesoftware projects to beingstrategic businessfunctions?

■ Three key elements havecharacterized this journey, adeepening of the relation-ship between the GICs andthe parent organisation,based on trust, senior exec-utive support and a demon-stration of consistent deliv-ery and innovation by theGIC, a shared goal constantlyreiterated — for example inour case to be the numberone in customer service,trust and advocacy by 2020in the markets we operate —enabling the GIC to steer bey-ond a mere ‘delivery of ser-vice level KPIs’ to being anintegral part of the customer

journey, focussed on busi-ness outcomes.

Having the right tools andframeworks in place for qual-ity, right from the earlystages of the GIC set up andan evolved model to attract,retain and develop talent atall levels has stood us in goodstead.

While most IT companiesare reworking theirbusiness model to surviveautomation andprotectionist tendenciesin major markets, how dothe GICs stay relevant?

■ Every industry has its setof challenges and so do GICsin this complex environ-ment. GICs will continue toplay a key role if we stay ob-sessed with our customer,foster non-linear thinking,

develop our people and lead-ers in vital skills that drivechange, interpret data andcreate a digital mindset.More importantly, it’s nevera ‘them (parent) versus us(GIC)’ environment. We needto look globally to resolve thechallenges an organisationmay face, best-shore as a loc-ation strategy and not neces-sarily limited to a cost bene-fit, our ability to collaborate,unlock employee creativityand bring a sense of urgencyto all that we do, will makeus deliver great value to ourcustomers.

Should GICs be seen as athreat to traditional largeIndian outsourcingcompanies such as TCSand Infosys?

■ Not at all. Each one bringsspecific advantages to thetable and since a while now,a joint service deliverymodel has also been in placein various organisations,quite often to acceleratevalue for the parent organ-isation. GICs, at times, en-

gage service providers in im-plementation support onvarious large programmese.g. for robotics, processautomation, co-creation ofdelivery centres with a hy-brid construct, carving outwork to service providers.

What makes the Indianoperations stand outamong other globalpeers?

■ The leadership positionthat India has enjoyed is tobe valued, nurtured andstrengthened. The demo-graphic dividend in thiscountry (our millennials are600+million) provides an ex-pansive pool of talent acrossvarious fields including re-search & development, tech-nology services, financialskills etc. governmental andinstitutional support contin-ues to play its part. The eco-system in India of technologydevelopment, product in-novation, data analytics andoperations brings a formid-able scale and scope advant-age to the sub-continent.

GICs have continued toincrease their headcountin the past five years, willthe current automationtrend see an impact onjobs?

■ I would look at it differ-ently, our world is becomingincreasingly digital, our cus-tomer needs a mortgage...‘now’. To meet the changingneeds of our customers in an

environment that is increas-ingly regulated as well, weneed to simplify the way weoperate and offer our cus-tomers a service at a timeand place convenient to him/her in a transparent manner.

There are exciting timesahead in interpreting whatour data tells us about ourcustomer, how quickly canwe provide our client thatmagic moment, how seam-less is our delivery.

However, all this rests onthe bedrock of service excel-lence and innovation. Andthat’s why we need peoplei.e. people who bring theirtalent and a passion to jointhis journey…sure there willbe challenges but peoplewho are ready to ride thewave…will find their placeand thrive.

Organisations do have totake tough decisions fromtime to time and hencepeople development is cru-cial …it is imperative thatGICs build fit-for-future cap-abilities in their organisa-tions, given the pace ofchange.

‘We have to stay focussed on our customer’GICs need people and leaders in vital skills that drive change, interpret data and create a digital mindset

<> Our millennials

provide an

expansive pool of

talent

INTERVIEW | PANKAJ PHATARPHOD

Muthoot Capital’s Q4net proit rises 62%KOCHI

Muthoot Capital Services’

net proit rose 62% to

₹11.12 crore for the fourth

quarter ended March 31,

compared to the same

period a year earlier. The

company has an overall

AUM of ₹1,440 crore on the

back of aggressive two-

wheeler loan inancing and

corporate lending portfolio.

The total income increased

26% to ₹79.80 crore,

according to a statement.

Nomura introducesintech partnershipMUMBAI

In a bid to encourage

entrepreneurship in the

inancial market space,

Japanese inancial irm

Nomura has introduced its

‘Voyager - Nomura FinTech

Partnership’ in India.

Nomura has collaborated

with PwC as a knowledge

partner, and with Google,

IBM and Amazon Internet

Services to bring together

industry expertise to the

programme.

Carnegie sets up Chairin honour of Ratan TataMUMBAI

Carnegie Endowment for

International Peace

announced the

establishment of Tata Chair

for Strategic Affairs in

recognition of Tata Group’s

former Chairman Ratan N.

Tata’s leadership on

Carnegie’s Board of

Trustees.The Chair’s work

will focus on the pressing

international security

challenges of the emerging

world order, especially on

U.S. foreign policy in Asia

and the Indian

subcontinent.

Tata Motors has intro-duced buses featuring AMT(automated manual trans-mission) technology aimedat high-traffic urban use.The feature would beprovided on the Starbusand Ultra brand of buses,ranging from 12 metres and9 metres and priced at ₹21lakh (ex-showroom NewDelhi) onwards.

Developed especially forcity conditions, the BS4compliant AMT buses areavailable in variants for di-verse applications, TataMotors said in a statement.The technology, whichautomatically engages thevehicle’s clutch and shiftsthe gear, considers enginetorque, vehicle load androad inclination, resultingin optimized gear shiftingand hassle-free driving.

“Having developed theAMT technology for ourbuses with WABCO, we willcontinue to work with part-ners like them” to developproducts with value forcustomers, said Ravi Pis-harody, executive director,commercial vehicles.

Tata Motorsunveils AMTcity busesSpecial Correspondent

MUMBAI

Almost 41% of the samplescollected from 386 mines ofCoal India Ltd. have beendowngraded after an ana-lysis of 871 samples by theCoal Controller’sOrganisation.

“Recalibration of entiregrading methodology is alsogoing to help government inits mission to make cheappower available to commonperson,” CIL said in a stockexchange filing on Tuesday.

The samples were from‘size-fractions and sidings’ of386 (of the 406) CIL mines.While 51.5% of the samplesretained their grades, 40.7%were downgraded and 7.7 %were upgraded from thegrade declared during 2016-17. “In most cases downgrad-ing has been of one or twogrades,” CIL said, addingthat as the coal was mainlysent to the power sector thesale realisation was based onthe analysed grade. The im-pact on revenue could only

be assessed after coalsampling and analysis over areasonable period of time,CIL said.

The earlier practice en-tailed annual grade declara-tion by coal companiesbased on samples collectedby them and analysed at ac-credited laboratories, withthe CCO’s approval obtainedsubsequently.

CIL said that independentgrade certification will helpit gain consumer confidenceand avoid grade-slippages.

‘Recalibration of grading method to make power cheaper’


KOLKATA

Coal India mines downgraded

Daimler India CommercialVehicles (DICV), the Indiansubsidiary of Daimler AG,expanded the product port-folio of its BharatBenz brandby rolling out a 16-tonne in-tercity coach from its Or-agadam unit.

“Two years back, we cre-ated a new segment in thebus category by rolling out9-tonne coaches,” saidMarkus Villinger, managingdirector, Daimler BusesIndia.

“Today, we are comple-menting DICV bus brandportfolio of school, staff andtourist buses in the 9-tonnecategory with the rollout of16-tonne coach to take inter-city travel to the next level.”

Refined interiorsThe 16-tonne coach comeswith front engine, biggercabin space distribution foreasy seating, refined interi-ors and wider windows.

The front and rear air sus-pensions are recalibratedwith chassis performance to

minimise impacts of roadundulations.

Mr. Villinger said the newbus and chassis come withindigenisation level of morethan 90%.

Operators would benefitby way of total cost of own-ership, reliable performanceand proven BS-IVtechnology.

So far, DICV was export-ing 9-tonne chassis and fullybuilt school buses. Now, itwould start offering the 16-tonne chassis to more than20 countries.

To ofer the 16-tonne chassis to more than 20 countries


CHENNAI

Daimler rolls out intercity coach

City-based AuromatrixHoldings inked an area de-velopment agreement withG6 Hospitality, a U.S.-basedfirm in the economylodging space. The pactwill facilitate G6’s entryinto India and entail the in-troduction of the Motel 6,Studio 6 and Hotel 6brands in the local market.

Founded in 1990, Aur-omatrix is a commercialhotel developer.

Auromatrix,G6 of U.S. inkhotels pactK.T. Jagannathan

CHENNAI


CMYK

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POINTS TABLE

team M W L Points NRR

Kolkata Knight Riders 5 4 1 8 +1.013

Sunrisers Hyderabad 6 4 2 8 +0.587

Mumbai Indians 5 4 1 8 +0.302

Delhi Daredevils 5 2 3 4 +1.157

Kings XI Punjab 5 2 3 4 -0.302

Royal Challengers Bangalore 6 2 4 4 -0.747

Rising Pune Supergiant 5 2 3 4 -0.942

Gujarat Lions 5 1 4 2 -1.096

Sunrisers Hyderabad: DavidWarner c Mishra b Morris 4 (7b),Shikhar Dhawan c Mathews bMorris 70 (50b, 7x4, 1x6), KaneWilliamson c Shreyas b Morris89 (51b, 6x4, 5x6), Yuvraj Singhb Morris 3 (4b), Moises Hen-riques (not out) 12 (6b, 2x4),Deepak Hooda (not out) 9 (4b,1x6); Extras (lb-1, w-1, nb-2): 4;Total (for four wkts. in 20overs): 191.

Fall of wickets: 1-12 (Warner,1.5 overs), 2-148 (Williamson,16.1), 3-170 (Dhawan, 18.1), 4-170 (Yuvraj, 18.2).

Delhi Daredevils bowling: Jay-ant Yadav 2-0-16-0, Chris Mor-ris 4-0-26-4, Zaheer Khan 4-0-37-0, Pat Cummins 4-0-37-0,Angelo Mathews 3-0-41-0,Amit Mishra 3-0-33-0.

Delhi Daredevils: Sanju Samsonc Henriques b Siraj 42 (33b, 3x4,2x6), Sam Billings c Hooda b

Siraj 13 (9b, 3x4), Karun Nairrun out 33 (23b, 5x4, 1x6), Rish-abh Pant c Warner b Yuvraj 0(1b), Shreyas Iyer (not out) 50(31b, 5x4, 2x6), Angelo Math-ews c sub (Jordan) b Kaul 31(23b, 2x4, 1x6), Chris Morris(not out) 0 (0b); Extras (b-3,lb-2, w-2): 7; Total (for fivewkts. in 20 overs): 176.

Fall of wickets: 1-14 (Billings,1.5), 2-85 (Karun, 9.2), 3-86(Pant, 9.5), 4-105 (Samson,13.1), 5-175 (Mathews, 19.5).

Sunrisers Hyderabad bowling:Bhuvneshwar Kumar 4-0-29-0,Mohammed Siraj 4-0-39-2, Sid-darth Kaul 4-0-32-1, RashidKhan 4-0-33-0, Moises Hen-riques 3-0-32-0, Yuvraj Singh1-0-6-1.

Toss: Sunrisers.

Man-of-the-match:Williamson.

Sunrisers won by 15 runs.

SCOREBOARD SUNRISERS VS DAREDEVILS

IPL-10

PLAYING TODAYDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

KXIP vs MISony Six, Sony ESPN, Sony Max(SD & HD), 8 p.m.DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

The members of the Com-mittee of Administrators(CoA) will meet the BCCI of-fice-bearers and the CEORahul Johri here on Friday todiscuss the salient featuresof the proposed changes tothe ICC’s constitution andfinancial models.

The ICC chairmanShashank Manohar was alsoinvited for the meeting, buthe is set to depart for Dubaion the same day to attendmeetings that precede theICC CEC (on April 24) andthe ICC Board (on April 26).

Two reasonsThe meeting between theCoA and BCCI is taking placefor two reasons. A few weeksago, the CoA shot off a 11-page letter declining to ac-cept in toto the ICC SpecialWorking Group’s governanceand revenue sharing model,highlighting that it was notconvinced about the methodapplied for determining therevenue sharing model and,in particular, the BCCI sharebeing whittled down in ex-cess of the ₹900-crore figurethat was reportedly acceptedby the BCCI’s SGM here inFebruary 19, 2016.

The SGM was assured bythe then BCCI president

Shashank Manohar that hewould not bring down theBCCI’s share below 15% froma high of 21 %-plus that wasagreed upon by an ICC resol-ution in 2014.

And more recently, theCoA and BCCI officials hadoccasions to meet and dis-cuss ICC matters with severalcountries’ boards. The meet-ing here on Friday will givean opportunity for the CoAto tell all about those meet-ings to the BCCI office-bear-ers, especially Amitabh

Choudhary who has beennamed by the SupremeCourt to attend the ICCBoard.

It appears that the CoA,the BCCI and a majority of itsaffiliated members are onthe same page as regards theradical changes proposed bythe ICC, but the ‘Big3’ gov-ernance model was dis-carded at the ICC’s AnnualConference in Edinburghlast June. Later, the ICC Spe-cial Working Group met anumber of times and de-

cided to share the revenueadhering to the principle of“Equity, conscience andcommon-sense”.

There was further dramawith Manohar resigning aschairman of ICC and thenagreeing to continue untilthe ICC Annual Conferencein June.

Sufficient hintsManohar may have givensufficient hints to the CoAand perhaps one or twosenior BCCI members of hisreadiness to increase theBCCI’s share from $289 mil-lion (₹1867 crore), but willAmitabh go beyond the res-olutions adopted at the SGMat New Delhi on Tuesday.

The first resolution is toask the ICC to defer all de-cisions till the annual con-

ference and the second is tosummarily reject thechanges — constitution andfinancial.

Having had serious discus-sions with Manohar on therevenue sharing model, theCoA knows the extent towhich the ICC will probablyagree to revise BCCI’s share.The news on the grapevine isthat could be substantial.

Meanwhile, BCCI sourcessaid both Amitabh and Johrispoke to Manohar onWednesday.

CoA and BCCI to meet tomorrowTo discuss the proposed changes in the ICC’s constitution and inancial models

G. Viswanath

Mumbai

A couple of hours beforethe Special General Meet-ing in New Delhi on Tues-day, some BCCI affiliatedmembers persuaded theoffice-bearers not to movea resolution to allow Amit-abh Choudhary to with-draw India’s participationfrom the ICC ChampionsTrophy in June, in theevent of decisions goingagainst BCCI’s interests.

A member confided thata majority of the memberswere against this resolu-tion that was to be moved

at the behest of a formerBCCI president from theSouth.

“The general sentimentwas that the BCCI and In-dia should not be under-mined; India should beprominent in Worldcricket, but we could nothave resorted to the ex-treme step,” said a fullmember representative.

The SGM also passed aresolution allowing theBCCI treasurer AnirudhChaudhry to accompanyAmitabh to Dubai, al-though one or two mem-bers opposed it.

Timely withdrawalG. Viswanath

Mumbai

Bowlers are often the un-sung heroes in limited-overs,especially T20, cricket. Nowonder then that in a high-scoring affair that saw RoyalChallengers Bangalore andGujarat Lions amass 400-plus runs at the SaurashtraCricket Association stadiumon Tuesday night, the Gaylesand the Kohlis and the Mc-Cullums hogged all the lime-light.

Had it not been for a cour-ageous performance withthe ball by the visiting leggieYuzvendra Chahal though,the Lions could well haveoverhauled the stiff target of214. Chahal took anotherstep in making a case for apermanent slot in India’slimited-overs side with acourageous three-wickethaul that ensured RoyalChallengers go into a four-day break after breaking alosing spree.

In the absence of leggieSamuel Badree, who usuallybowls with the new ball,Chahal was asked to bowl inthe PowerPlay overs. Andthe bowler responded byseeing the back of the dan-gerous Dwayne Smith andthe reliable Suresh Raina inhis first two overs.

Just when McCullum wason the verge of going ber-serk, Chahal spoilt the Kiwi’sand the home team’s partyby forcing him into a mistakein his last over. His figures ofthree for 31 was one of thehighlights of the match.

Royal Challengers headcoach Daniel Vettori couldn’thelp but heap praise on theleggie, who made his inter-national debut last year. “Ihave been lucky enough tohave worked with Chahal for

the past four years and alsoplayed against him when hewas in Mumbai (Indians),”said Vettori, a top-notch left-arm spinner.

“The way he bowled inthe Champions League final

(in 2013) was the reason whywe wanted to get him intoRCB. He is competitivecoupled with a lot of skills. Ithink those two qualitiesmake a formidable combina-tion for a spin bowler and heis positive and confident ofwhat he is doing. If you cansucceed in a stadium likeChinnaswamy then it meansyou are special and we sawthat again today with hisperformance.”

No end to injury woes

While Chahal and ChrisGayle offered a lot of reasonto smile, there was little tocheer about the availabilityof big players. A.B. de Villi-ers, who missed the first twogames, and Samuel Badree,who starred with a hat-trickin his maiden outing of theseason last week, joinedTymal Mills in the list of in-jured players.

Vettori hoped that thefour-day break will help allthe RCB players to be avail-able for its next game onSunday, against KolkataKnight Riders at Eden Gar-dens. “We are fortunate thatwe don’t play till the 23rdand we have some recoverytime. We are hopeful thatAB, Tymal and Badree are fitfor that,” Vettori said. “Wedo have an extended timebefore the next game and weare reasonably confidentthat they will be fit for thegame. But it was good thatChris and Travis (Head)stood up today, giving usmore selection dilemma.”

Chahal makes another strong case Amol Karhadkar

Rajkot

Making it count: Yuzvendra Chahal, who got the opportunity toopen the bowling, dismissed Dwayne Smith and Suresh Raina inhis irst two overs. * AFP

In the city of the Holkars,Kings XI Punjab takes onMumbai Indians in an IPLclash at the Holkar stadiumon Thursday.

The results so far showthat both sides fare well atchasing, notwithstandingthe fact that Kings XI has lostbatting second in its lastcouple of games. The upsideis that it has won chasing inthe two games that it hasalready played here, andthat is something that Mum-bai bowling coach ShaneBond is well aware of.

“Even though the bound-

aries are reasonably smallhere, the first-innings scoresin the last two games herewere around 150-160, andPunjab has chased themdown comfortably,” he said.

Dew may not be a factoron Thursday, reasonedBond; it was “pretty hot anddry”.

“It has a nice grass-cover. Ithink the bounce here issomething we are going to

have to adjust to. We are notexpecting the same sort ofbounce as at the Wankhede,”Bond said of the wicket.

And, as widely as it is heldthat an annual T20 league isoverkill and that the fans aregetting jaded, there is stillspirited consumption. Therewas a vendor watching anIPL match during peak busi-ness hour at a bustlingstreet-food bazaar here.

The mass appeal aside,the IPL has allowed fringeand upcoming players gaincredence and loom large;like how Kings XI’s MananVohra and Mumbai’s NitishRana have grabbed attention

this year. They are both theirteam’s highest run-getters sofar. “This season has been anunique opportunity for him(Manan Vohra),” said KingsXI’s assistant coach MithunManhas.

“Over the last few sea-sons, he has played secondfiddle to (Virender) Sehwagand (Shaun) Marsh. But, thistime, he has a chance to playhis natural game, and that’sa huge plus for him.

“He has a lot of potential,but it will be his consistencythat will define him.”

Thursday will again be anopportunity for the both ofthem to stay in the limelight.

MI wary of KXIP’s chasing abilitiesThe latter has done well so far batting second at the Holkar Stadium

S. Prasanna Venkatesan

INDORE

Beware the wrath of a patientman! Having warmed thebenches so far, Kane StuartWilliamson had a few scoresto settle in his opening out-ing (incidentally his 100th inthe format) of the Vivo-In-dian Premier League.

The New Zealander choseto vent his ire on a haplessDelhi Daredevils attack, tothe detriment of the touristsand the delight of SunrisersHyderabad fans at the RajivGandhi stadium on Wednes-day night.

Turbo-charged by Willi-ams’ 51-ball 89, the host piledup an imposing 191 for fourand terminated the Daredev-ils’ chase 15 short of target.Hampering the advance ofthe visitors was some preci-sion-driven bowling at thedeath by Bhuvneshwar Ku-mar and Siddharth Kaul,which curtailed the big-hit-ting Shreyas Iyer and AngeloMathews.

David Warner called rightand went for first strike.Wanting to work across Mor-ris’ climbing ball from out-

side off, the Sunrisers’ skip-per edged to his end instead.The ballooning ball gaveAmit Mishra enough time tocome in from fine leg and ac-cept the catch. If that blowwas big, Shikhar Dhawanand Williamson didn’t let itshow, quick to move on fromthe reversal and rebuild theinnings.

Waiting in the wings hadonly made Williamson keento step up, the Tauranga-nat-ive hoisting Mathews highinto the galleries over cow-corner and long-off off suc-cessive deliveries. Then thecalm Kiwi carted Pat Cum-

mins’ steepler over the mid-wicket hoardings. The Aussiespeedster pumped up thepace, plied Yorkers aplentyand even a full toss, whichKane caned for a six.

If Mishra was meant toslam the brakes on William-son’s carnage, the wily leggiecould do little to contain it.Williamson fell when he hitagainst the pace of Morris,holing out to Shreyas at deepmid-wicket. Dhawan, a shadesidelined in the strike-ratestakes, propped up thecharge, helping himself to asix en route to a 50-ball 70.

Dhawan departed, pullingMorris to deep mid-wicketMathews. Yuvraj Singh wascastled by the South African

off the next ball. The Pretor-ian packed more than apunch, enjoying the distinc-tion of claiming all the fourSunrisers wickets that fell.

For Daredevils, SanjuSamson, with a 33-ball 42

laced with three boundariesand two maximums, hadforged a forceful response.So did Shreyas with an un-conquered 50 to throw amighty scare in the Sun-risers’ camp.

Williamson makes his wait worth it for SunrisersThe Kiwi batsman canes the Delhi Daredevils attack into submission; Shreyas Iyer’s half-century throws a scare in the Hyderabad camp

In ine touch: Kane Williamson was in a punishing mood as he top scored for SunrisersHyderabad with 89 (51b, 6x4, 5x6) to help his team to a challenging 191 for four.

* K. PICHUMANI

A. JOSEPH ANTONY

HYDERABAD


CMYK

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SPORT

SUDOKU

P O T E N T I A L L Y

A A E D O O C O

L U L L A B Y C O U P L E T

M E R L K S A I

I N S E T L I O N E S S E S

S H I U S

T U T S I C A T T E R I E S

R O N M F T

Y O U N G T U R K B U Y E R

G P I O O

R E H E A R S A L S A T A N

A E L T L S R G

R O S E L L A I R I D I U M

E T O I N N E A

Y U R I G A G A R I N

Solution to puzzle 11985 Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

“Neither was there a time when I was not, nor these kingswho stand before you, nor will there be a time in the futurewhen we all shall cease to be,” says Krishna with a finalityright at the onset of His discourse to Arjuna. The emphasis ison the cosmic process that goes on where the Supreme Lordand the innumerable souls coexist through their cycle ofbirth in their journey to liberation.

In a discourse, Sri O. R. Devanathan drew attention to theanalogy of two birds living together in a tree, quoted in theUpanishads, as illustrative of the many similarities and cru-cial differences between the jivatma and the Paramatma.Each is the friend of the other, and as inseparable compan-ions, they both live in the same tree. Of these two, one eatsthe fruit of the tree, but the other simply looks on withouteating.

The jivatma’s body that is attained through past karma iscompared to a tree and the bird enjoying the fruit is the indi-vidual’s experience of pleasure and pain.

The jivatma is similar to the Paramatma in respect of itsindestructible nature by which it is immortal. It is also theessence of consciousness and bliss. But omniscience, omni-presence and omnipotence are the Paramatma’s exclusivetraits.

Krishna reveals to Arjuna that He is aware of all the birthsof all souls while Arjuna’s awareness is very limited. TheLord is the controller of the universe and appears in humanform time and again for specific purposes. He incarnates outof His Sankalpa. But the individual soul is bound by karmaand is born to experience the effects of karma. The indi-vidual soul draws close to the divine by contemplating onHis infinite power and by devotion to Him. The path to liber-ation is through faith and devotion to God and by seekingHis feet.

FAITH

The cosmic process defying gravity (7)

6 Mobs vandalized a grave

earlier with explosives (4,5)

7 A General is out of the country

(6)

8 Urge college administrator to

take money and accept

daughter (6)

14 Gate outside new building

primarily shows joint

possession (9)

16 Natural light to last till

morning following month,

not really a relection (8)

17 Amidst roar, director

established support (8)

19 Returned bunch of 516 sheets

after Electricity Board

rejected for smudge (7)

20 Almost mislead worker

immersed in action related to

meditative techniques (7)

21 Jail has an issue, press release

sent in advance (6)

22 After chasing tramp,

sportswoman collapses and

faints (6)

25 Attack stone building (5)

choppy sea, collected money

and rejected assistance (4,5)

12 Support provided by India to

Intelligence (5)

13 Everyone overwhelmed by gift

bag (7)

15 Person returned English title

(4)

18 Rebuke rude busmen

disembarking setter (4)

20 Tours regularly to procure red

material (7)

23 Oarsman at bank to board

ferry's jumpy (5)

24 After losing margins,

ingenuously rebuilt a space

that allows light (3,6)

26 Son, at hotel bar attacked by

animal (5,4)

27 Medical device despatched

bypassing Tiruchi border (5)

28 Denials on issue from the right

(3)

29 Somehow placate or inject a

bit of morphine, a painkiller

(11)

■ DOWN

1 Seasoning lady added on pan

with deseeded beans (8)

2 Forcefully dismissed, managed

subtly (8)

3 Dish Missus hid inside (5)

4 African managed to kidnap

staff (7)

5 Root sprouting in downpour

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9 10

11 12

13 14 15

16 17

18 19 20

21 22

23 24 25

26 27

28 29

(set by Afterdark)

■ ACROSS

1 In revolt, rioters peak and form

a political movement (11)

7 Continue to be evenly candid

(3)

9 First, push model to the

forefront after certiicate

from channels (5)

10 One going crazy collecting

butter for test (9)

11 Infamous company came via

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11986

Europa League: TEN 1, 2 &TEN 1 HD, 11.30 p.m.NBA: Sony Six & Sony Six HD,4.30 a.m. (Friday)

TV PICKS

India’s top 400m runners,men’s national record-holderMuhammed Anas and AsianGames women’s bronzemedallist M.R. Poovamma,have not got visas for theAsian Grand Prix, the first legof which begins in Jinhua,China, on April 24.

“They will not be going toChina. The Chinese Embassyhas not declined the visasbut it has said that in thesetwo particular cases, it willtake one month’s time to givethe visas. We don’t have thetime,” an Athletics Federa-tion of India official told The

Hindu on Wednesday.“And the embassy has not

given a reason for this. It toldus that it will keep the pass-ports for one month if weneed the visas and in case we

can’t wait that long, we cantake back the passports. So,we have collected thepassports.”

This might have to do withpolitical and diplomatic ten-sions between the twonations.

“We have never faced aproblem getting Chinesevisas before. In fact, our racewalking team went to Chinarecently and we did not haveany problem,” said the AFIofficial.

“The other 13 athletes andfour coaches have got visas.”

Anas, from Kerala, andKarnataka’s Poovamma werethe only two Indians to get400m berths at the AsianGrand Prix.

After the first leg in Jin-hua, the second leg will alsobe held in China, in Jiaxingon April 27. The third leg will

be in Chinese Taipei on April30, which Anas andPoovamma will attend.

More visa issuesVisa issues continue totrouble Indians in other ath-letics championships too.

The World Relays begin inBahamas on April 22, but theIndian men’s and women’s4x400m relay teams havenot got their transit visasfrom the American Embassy.

“We had applied for theAmerican transit visas onApril 7, as soon as we got thevisas from the Bahamas. Wehave now been told that thebiometric procedure will bedone on Thursday and thevisa interview will happen onFriday,” said the official.

“So, how can they go forthe event that happens onSaturday?”

Anas, Poovamma to miss Asian GP over visa issuesWe have never faced such a problem before, says AFI oicial

Stan Rayan

Kochi

Chinese hurdle: While the Chinese Embassy has not declined visas to Anas, left, and Poovamma, the fact that it will take a month’stime for the document to be issued means that neither will be able to travel to Jinhua. * FILE PHOTOS

India’s P. Kashyap andHarsheel Dani advanced tothe men’s singles pre-quarterfinals of the$150,000 China MastersGrand Prix Gold badmin-ton tournament here onWednesday.The results (singles, Indiansunless mentioned): Men: P. Kashyap bt SuppanyuAvihingsanon (Tha) 21-16, 21-17; Harsheel Dani bt YanRunze (Chn) 21-16, 22-20.Women: Li Wenmei (Chn) btSai Uttejitha Rao Chukka 21-4,13-21, 21-12; Li Yun (Chn) btSri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli21-18, 21-11.

Kashyap andHarsheeladvancePress Trust of India

Changzhou (China)The drama surroundingshot-putter Inderjeet Singh’sdoping controversy contin-ues to stretch almost tenmonths after he first testedpositive.

On Wednesday, Inder-jeet’s lawyers insisted on get-ting the complete set of doc-uments from the NationalAnti-Doping Agency relatedto the testing of his sampledrawn on June 29 last yearwhile competing in Hydera-bad in the run-up to the RioGames. The shot-putter hasalleged tampering, and de-manded that his ‘B’ samplebe tested at a differentWADA-accredited lab.

Interestingly, the NADAhad gone ahead with testinghis ‘B’ sample in January thisyear, in the presence of anindependent observer as au-thorised under the worldbody’s rules, after Inderjeet

refused to appear in persondespite several reminders.That had also turned outpositive, increasing thechances of a four-year banon the shot-putter who hadqualified but could not parti-cipate at Rio.

Inderjeet and his lawyerson Wednesday claimed thatthey had not got any writtenresponse to their two applic-ations moved before theAnti-Doping DisciplinaryPanel in October 2016. Thefirst had sought details of theinitial review of the test res-ults by NADA, whichcountered that it was donebetween July 22 and 25.

The second applicationhad sought the testing of his‘B’ sample in a different lab,and Inderjeet’s lawyersclaimed that NADA had goneahead and got it tested on itsown before the ADDP couldgive any directions. The ath-lete continued to insist on

getting whatever may be leftof the ‘B’ sample to be testedelsewhere.

The entire controversysurrounds the fact that apreliminary report from theNADA, sent to the AthleticsFederation of India (AFI)stated that Inderjeet hadtested negative at the Na-tional Dope Testing Laborat-ory (NDTL) for his samplecollected on June 29.

Another sample, collec-ted out of competition atSonepat on June 22, had bythen turned up ‘positive’.

NADA informed the AFIthat additional tests on theJune 29 sample had alsoturned out ‘positive’.

Inderjeet had tested posit-ive for anabolic steroid an-drosterone and etiocholano-lone.

That discrepancy also ledto the athlete and his coun-sel demanding a second testat a different lab.

Lawyers demand ‘B’ sample test at a diferent labUTHRA GANESAN

NEW DELHI

Inderjeet doping saga continues

India’s ViswanathanAnand finished third over-all with 13.5 points out of apossible 21 at the KorchnoiZurich Chess Challenge,which concluded onMonday.

USA’s Hikaru Nakamura,with 15 points, emergedthe overall winner, claim-ing 4.5 points in the blitzsection.

He won the blitz tourna-ment, and was half-a-pointahead of Anand.

Russia’s Ian Nepomni-achtchi took the secondplace overall with 14points.

The eight players playedseven rounds with a timecontrol of 45 minutes and30 seconds per move and ablitz event with a time con-trol of 10 minutes and fiveseconds per move.

Nakamuratriumphs;Anand thirdPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

CHENNAI

DASCB in quarterinals

Off-spinner CharanjeetSingh picked up a five-wicket haul and UpendraYadav scored a 70-ball 86that included five sixes asDefence Accounts SportsControl Board (DASCB) beatMinerva Cricket Academy(MCA) by 18 runs to enterthe quarterfinals of the 27thall-India Om Nath Soodmemorial crickettournament. Put in to bat,DASCB started well beforelosing five wickets for just 18runs in the middle, all tospinners, but managed toreach 250. In reply, MCAwas bundled out for 232.

The scores: DASCB 250 forseven in 40 overs (UpendraYadav 86, Murtaza Ali 44 n.o.,Naman Sharma 40) bt MCA232 in 37.2 overs (NavneetSingh Virk 57, Arjit Gupta 41,Charanjeet Singh five for 48).

TG Titans in inal

Zoravar Singh scored 54 andthen picked up three for 19while Siddarth Mittal got

three wickets as well as TGTitans (TGT) beat Zenith XIby two runs to enter thefinal of the fifth RoshanaraPremier League. AdityaKaushik picked up fourwickets for the losing side.

The scores: TGT 153 in 19.5overs (Zoravar Singh 54,Apoorv Jain 21, Aditya Kaushikfour for 19, Pulkit Jain threefor 30) bt Zenith XI 151 foreight in 20 overs (EkanshGultai 55, Gursimar Singh 26,Zoravar three for 19, SiddarthMittal three for 21).

Anurag and Anmol shine

Anurag Kumar (69) andAnmol Sharma (four for 30)helped Vikaspuri CoachingCentre (VCC) defeat RohtakRoad Gymkhana (RRG) bythree wickets in the AdmiralCricket League.

The scores: RRG 214 for ninein 40 overs (Shekhar Sehrawat42, Arjun Tewatia 38, ArunDrall 36, Anmol Sharma fourfor 30, Mohd. Shoaib three for45) lost to VCC 220 for sevenin 38.3 overs (Anurag Kumar69, Priyank Tehlan 40).

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

\ DELHI ROUND UP \

Justice Vikramajit Sen, whoassumed charge in Februaryto cleanse the Delhi and Dis-trict Cricket Association(DDCA) following a HighCourt directive, is all set totake some clinching de-cisions that would givecricket in the capital hopeand direction.

“I’m committed to com-plete the task entrusted bythe Hon High Court,” JusticeSen told The Hindu onWednesday.

Among the many issuesconfronting Justice Sen, themost vexing involves identi-fying the electorate for theelection and drafting of thenew Article of Association.

It is DDCA’s new constitu-tion that has left many veter-ans staring at their bleakfuture.

The abolition of proxy sys-tem of voting would be wel-comed by many who haveknown the way the DDCAhad functioned since its in-ception in February 1936when it was known as Certi-ficate of Incorporation.Thanks to Justice Sen, the ex-isting constitution, treated asa classified document thusfar, has been uploaded onDDCA’s official website.

‘Transparency’“I believe in transparencyand the effort here is to putthings in perspective,” saidJustice Sen. In keeping withhis promise, he has also up-loaded the proposed consti-tution on the website withsome significantamendments.

“Proxy voting has beenthe bane of DDCA,” saysformer India captain Bishan

Singh Bedi who has stead-fastly maintained that in hisfight against the systemwhich allowed some indi-viduals to hang on to powerfor more than three decades.

The proposed amend-ment reads, “On a show ofhands or on a ballot everyMember present in personand entitled to vote shallhave one vote, and upon apoll every member presentshall have one vote. Votemay be given personallyonly. No proxy voting shallbe allowed during the meet-ings.”

This significant change inthe voting process has

caused consternation tomany disgruntled elementsat the Ferozeshah Kotla.

The new constitution alsoproposed the appointmentof a Chief Executive Officer(CEO) to “ensure that DDCAworks to its maximum poten-tial and administrative andfinancial aspects are lookedinto properly.”

Five-year contractThe CEO would be given afive-year contract along witha team of six managers, to beappointed by the ExecutiveCommittee, to assist him.

In a significant proposalthat is likely to bring a halt tointerference in selection mat-ters and make sure the juniorgrade of cricket functionssmoothly, the new constitu-tion alters the compositionof the Sports Working Com-mittee (SWC) which had

played havoc with the cricketstructure for the last twodecades or so.

The SWC, originallyformed to conduct the localleague, had assumed powersto recommend coaches andselectors for different panels.

“In the process theywould dictate and interferein the selections.

“SWC was a monster cre-ated by the Executive Com-mittee (EC). Credibility iswhat DDCA needs to developon a priority,” said former In-dia wicketkeeper SurenderKhanna.

According to the proposedamendments, the CWC shallinclude five national / inter-national men / women crick-eters of repute, two mem-bers elected by affiliatedclubs, two members of insti-tutional clubs and a coachwho needs approval of the

BCCI. The earlier SWC was a10-member committee ofrepresentatives of affiliatedclubs.

Speedy action

Promising speedy action,Justice Sen said, “The delaywas caused by the attentionneeded for the Vijay HazareTrophy and the ongoing IPL.We are awaiting responsefrom the members on theproposed Article of Associ-ation which shall be followedby the holding of the AGM.”

Justice Sen also assuredannouncing of the reportsubmitted by a three-mem-ber committee on the issueof Gautam Gambhir’s indis-cipline and use of intemper-ate language against Delhicoach K.P. Bhaskar at theend of the Vijay Hazare leg inBhubaneswar.

He is set to take clinching decisions to cleanse DDCA

Vijay Lokapally

NEW DELHI

Committed to complete the task: Justice Sen

<> I believe in

transparency and

the efort here is to

put things in

perspective

Siddhant Banthia and Ma-likaa Marathe emerged theboys’ and girls’ championsin the Rendezvous RolandGarros Masters junior ten-nis tournament on the clay-courts of the DLTA Com-plex on Wednesday.

Top seed SiddhantBanthia outplayed Abhi-manyu Vannem Reddy 6-1,6-0 while girls’ secondseed Malikaa beat YubraniBanerjee 6-1, 6-3 in thefinal.

The winners from India,China, Korea, Japan, Braziland the US will compete inParis for a wild-card to theRoland Garros juniortournament.

Banthia, who has an ITFjunior ranking of 71, mightnot need the wild-card toget into the main draw.

The 13-year-old Malikaahas not played on the ITFjunior circuit yet.Other results: Third place:Boys: Rishabh Sharda bt DipinWadhwa 7-5, 6-2. Girls: Rad-hika Yadav bt Prerna Vichare6-4 (conceded).

Siddhant,Malikaa earnParis ticketsSpecial Correspondent

NEW DELHI

Ramkumar Ramanathanlost 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4) to AkiraSantillan in the secondround of the $125,000Challenger on Wednesday.

Prajnesh Gunneswaranwon his first-round matchagainst Ruan Roelofse.The results: $125,000 Chal-lenger, Taipei City: Secondround: Akira Santillan (Jpn) btRamkumar Ramanathan 6-4,3-6, 7-6(4). First round: Pra-jnesh Gunneswaran bt RuanRoelofse (RSA) 7-6(4), 6-4. Doubles first round: Stevende Waard (Aus) Ben McLach-lan (Nzl) bt ChristopherRungat (Ina) & Jeevan Ned-unchezhiyan 4-6, 6-4, [10-8].$100,000 Challenger,Bradenton, USA: Doubles:First round: Andre Sa (Bra) &Leander Paes bt Sergio Galds(Per) & Dennis Novikov (USA)6-1, 6-3.$25,000 Futures, Bukhara,Uzbekistan: Second round:Vishnu Vardhan bt NikolaCacic (Srb) 7-5, 6-2; VadymUrsu (Ukr) bt Sriram Balaji 7-6(3), 6-2. Doubles quarterfi-nals: Sriram Balaji & VishnuVardhan bt Temur Ismailov(Uzb) & Markos Kalovelonis(Rus) 6-1, 7-6(2).$15,000 ITF women, Cairo:First round: Anhzelika Isaeva(Rus) bt Shwweta Rana 6-4,6-1; Riya Bhatia bt RishikaSunkara 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4);Sowjanya Bavisetti bt AzaliyaBadegyeva (Rus) 6-4, 2-6,6-2.

Ramkumarbows outSports Bureau

Taipei city

Chicago Bulls poweredpast Boston Celtics 111-97on Tuesday to take a 2-0lead over the Eastern Con-ference top seeds in theirNBA playoff series, whileToronto Raptors avoidedfalling into a 0-2 hole.

In Toronto, Kyle Lowrybounced back from alacklustre game one asRaptors beat Bucks 106-100to level their series at onegame each.The results: Eastern Confer-ence: Chicago Bulls 111 bt Bo-ston Celtics 97; Toronto Rap-tors 106 bt Milwaukee Bucks100. Western Conference:Los Angeles Clippers 99 btUtah Jazz 91.

Bulls powerspast CelticsAgence France-Presse

Los Angeles

Rajon Rondo, left, onlynarrowly missed the 11thplayof triple-double of hiscareer. * AFP


CMYK

A ND-ND




SPORT

Cristiano Ronaldo scored ahat-trick to send Real Madridthrough to the ChampionsLeague semifinals with a 4-2extra-time win and 6-3 ag-gregate success against 10-man Bayern Munich in con-troversial circumstances onTuesday.

A bizarre Sergio Ramosown goal forced the extraperiod after Robert Lewan-dowski opened the scoringfor Bayern from the penaltyspot and Ronaldo equalised.

Marcelo twice cleared offthe line for Madrid andJerome Boateng did the samefor Bayern in a thrillinggame, which was tilted in

Madrid’s favour by ArturoVidals dismissal for two yel-low cards, the second ofwhich was harsh.

Ronaldo put Madrid levelat 2-2 on the night in the firstperiod of extra time when hescored his 100th ChampionsLeague goal, from a clearlyoffside position, before hewrapped up his treble withanother disputed goal andMarco Asensio added afourth.

Good beginningBayern began well, with Thi-ago Alcantara’s close-rangeshot brilliantly blocked onthe goal line by Marcelo. Ar-jen Robben lashed the re-bound into the side-netting.

Madrid began to find itsfeet and was soondominating.

Ramos nearly put the hostahead after the otherwise su-perb Manuel Neuer spilled ashot, but Boateng somehowblocked his effort on the line.

However, it was Bayernwhich took the lead in thesecond half when Casemirofouled Robben in the areaand Lewandowski dis-patched the penalty.

Ronaldo levelled, headingbeyond Neuer in the 76thminute, but Bayern restoredoverall parity within aminute when Ramos prod-

ded into his own net after ascramble in the area.

With the game heading to-wards extra-time Vidal wassent off for a second bookingafter appearing to win theball cleanly from Asensio,leaving Bayern with 10.

It gave Madrid the upperhand going into the added 30minutes and it took advant-age when Ronaldo scoredthe crucial second fromRamos’s cross, despite beingin an offside position.

Madrid added two morelate on, Ronaldo appearingfractionally offside again forits third.

Atletico Madrid provedtoo streetwise to entertainanother Leicester City

fairytale as it reached thesemifinals for the third timein four seasons on Tuesday,winning 2-1 on aggregate.

Jamie Vardy’s first goal atthe King Power Stadium inthe competition gaveLeicester hope of somethingspecial after Saul Niguez’sfirst-half header put Atleticoin control.

The results: Real Madrid 4(Ronaldo 76, 104, 109, Asensio112) bt Bayern Munich 2 (Le-wandowski 53-pen, Ramos 77-og) (Real Madrid won 6-3 on ag-gregate after extra time);Leicester City 1 (Vardy 61) drewwith Atletico Madrid 1 (SaulNiguez 26) (Atletico Madrid won2-1 on aggregate).

A controversial Real winDubious refereeing sinks Bayern; Atletico ends Leicester’s fairytale run

Agencies

Madrid

Undeserved victory jig? Ronaldo, who reached a century of European club goals, and Marcelo, the assist provider for his third goal, may well have reasons tocelebrate,but screen grabs — as seen on the right — show that the Madrid striker was of-side for his last two goals against Bayern on Tuesday. * AP

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Time for video refs,says AncelottiMADRID

Bayern Munich coach Carlo

Ancelotti said UEFA must

swiftly introduce video

technology. “In a quarterfinal

you have to put a better

referee, or it is the moment to

introduce video refereeing,”

said Ancelotti. AFP

Neuer out for rest of seasonBERLIN

Germany’s goalkeeper Manuel

Neuer is out for the rest of the

season after fracturing his left

foot in Bayern Munich’s

Champions League defeat at

Real Madrid, club chairman

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

announced on Wednesday. AFP

Rummenigge accusesreferee of ‘shafting’BERLIN

At a team banquet Bayern

Munich’s Karl-Heinz

Rummenigge said, “For the first

time, I’ve got some sort of mad

rage inside me, because we had

a shafting. We have been

shafted in the truest sense of

the word.” AFP

Ronaldo is out of thisworld, says ZidaneMADRID

Real Madrid boss Zinedine

Zidane wanted the attention

focused on Cristano Ronaldo

rather than Hungarian referee

Viktor Kassai.

“When you see what Cristiano

is doing, it is really impressive,”

said Zidane. AFP

10 versus 14 is hardto play: BoatengMADRID

Defender Jerome Boateng,

reacting to the referee’s

decisions, said, “10 against 14 is

hard to play. They were

decisive scenes.” Arjen Robben

said, “it’s such a shame that

such a super game is decided

by one man with a whistle.” AP

A 10-man Maziya Sports andRecreation Club of Maldivesedged past Mohun Bagan bya solitary goal to register itssecond win in a Group Eleague of the AFC Cup at theRabindra Sarobar Stadiumhere on Wednesday.

Mohamed Umair scoredthe only goal of the en-counter, late in the first half,to ensure full points for thevisitor which rose to thesecond spot with six points.

Despite fielding a major-ity of reserves with an eyeon the decisive I-Leaguematch against Aizawl thisweekend, Bagan controlledthe match for most part butfailed to avail of the oppor-tunities that came its way.

Going aheadMaziya, on the other hand,showed better applicationand went ahead in the 34thminute.

It made the most of a fine

counter-offensive move justwhen Bagan was beginningto relax after a series of at-tacks that the visitor had de-fended resolutely.

Umair pounced on thechance after the Bagan de-fenders lowered their guard,allowing the nippy Maziyaattacker access into their ter-ritory.

Umair covered a lot ofground before firing an an-gular shot that made its waypast a diving K. Shibinraj inthe Bagan goal.

Maziya’s strike cameagainst the run of play andafter the host had two goodscoring opportunities — inthe 14th and 32nd minutes —

which Balawant Singh failedto convert.

Replacing Scottish strikerDarryl Duffy, who was restedby Bagan coach Sanjoy Sen,Balwant was found wantingwhen it came to finishing.His first attempt struck thecrosspiece while he delayedhis effort off the second, al-lowing the Maziya defendersto rush back and support thegoalkeeper.

No effectBagan introduced Japanesemidfielder Katsumi Yusa inthe 73rd minute, but that didnot help in altering the sco-reline.

Maziya saw its Serbian de-fender Milos Kovacevic ejec-ted with a second booking inthe 87th minute, but the sideheld on to its slender leadwith 10 men and ensure itsfirst away win of the groupstage.The result: Mohun Bagan 0 lostto Maziya S&RC 1 (MohamedUmair 34).

Maziya downs BaganThe host left to rue missed opportunities

Amitabha Das Sharma

KOLKATA

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

� Mohamed Umair scores

the only goal of the

encounter

� The visitor climbs to the

second spot with six

points

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

Andy Murray returned fromover a month out with an el-bow injury to launch hisclay-court season with agruelling 7-5, 7-5 defeat ofGilles Muller at the MonteCarlo Masters onWednesday.

The world No. 1 wasjoined in the third round bynine-time tournament cham-pion Rafael Nadal, who heldoff British surprise-packageKyle Edmund 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 inthe Spaniard’s 400th careermatch on clay.

Murray waited until latein both sets to make hismove, finally putting Mulleraway in just under twohours. But the 29-year-oldwas poor on his serve witheight double faults whilebreaking Luxembourg’sMuller four times.

Murray was kept on theback foot in the opening setas he lost the first game andonly caught up late. In thesecond he was also far fromhis fluent best, before grind-ing out victory.

It was the first time backon the ATP since his elbowproblem — his last matchwas a second-round loss toVasek Pospisil at IndianWells on March 12.

Victory for Nadal came inhis 400th match on clay, his

record on the surface an out-standing 366-34.

The Spaniard swept thefirst set 6-0 against 45th-ranked Edmund, but foundhimself fighting for survivalin the third set. The fourthseed finally squeezed homeafter two and a quarterhours.

Murray and Nadal werejoined in round three bySwiss third seed StanWawrinka, who saw offCzech Jiri Vesely 6-2, 4-6,

6-2. Czech ninth seed TomasBerdych put an end to therun of 39-year-old TommyHaas 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.

The results (second round):

Rafael Nadal bt Kyle Ed-mund 6-0, 5-7, 6-3; Andy Mur-ray bt Gilles Muller 7-5, 7-5;Stan Wawrinka bt Jiri Vesely6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Dominic Thiembt Robin Haase 6-3, 6-2; TomasBerdych bt Tommy Haas 3-6,6-1, 6-4; Pablo Carreno Bustabt Karen Khachanov 6-4, 6-4;Alexander Zverev bt FelicianoLopez 6-0, 6-4; Albert Ramos-Vinolas bt Carlos Berlocq 6-2,6-2; Mari Cilic bt Jermy Chardy6-3, 6-0; Lucas Pouille bt PaoloLorenzi 6-2; 6-4; DiegoSchwartzman bt RobertoBautista Agut 6-3, 7-6(3).

Tough for Murray and Nadal Wawrinka and Berdych also advance

Squeezing through: Nine-time champion Rafael Nadal held ofsurprise-package Kyle Edmund.

* PHOTO: CLIVE BRUNSKILL/ GETTY IMAGES

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

MONTE CARLO

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

� It was Nadal’s 400th

career match on clay and

he has an outstanding

366-34 record

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Tamil Nadu opened itscampaign with a 25-17, 25-12, 25-11 victory over Assamin the boys’ section of the43rd National junior volley-ball championships, whichbegan at Paravur on Wed-nesday. Meanwhile, Telan-gana had mixed luck in theleague phase. While itsboys defeated HimachalPradesh in a five-setthriller, its girls lost to Ma-harashtra. The results (league): Boys:Rajasthan bt Delhi 25-11, 25-20, 25-21; Chandigarh bt Bihar28-26, 25-22, 25-23; UttarPradesh bt Tripura 25-12, 25-10, 25-18; West Bengal btMadhya Pradesh 25-22, 25-13,25-17; Telangana bt HimachalPradesh 26-28, 25-18, 25-13,20-25, 17-15; Tamil Nadu btAssam 25-17, 25-12, 25-11;Odisha bt Maharashtra 25-21,25-15, 25-16; Puducherry w/oAndhra Pradesh. Girls: Maharashtra bt Telan-gana 24-26, 25-10, 25-16, 25-14; Puducherry w/o HimachalPradesh; Bihar w/o AndhraPradesh; Uttar Pradesh btDelhi 22-25, 26-24, 25-21, 25-23; Rajasthan bt Jharkhand25-16, 25-18, 25-15; MadhyaPradesh w/o Chandigarh;Odisha bt Jammu and Kashmir25-13, 25-11, 25-8; WestBengal bt Puducherry 25-12,25-5, 25-9.

Strong startfor TN boysSpecial Correspondent

KOCHI

Host Kerala scored its firstvictory in the National sub-junior football champion-ship, thrashing Uttar Pra-desh 3-0 at the Corpora-tion Stadium here onWednesday. The results (preliminaryleague): Kerala 3 (AbhayShanmukhan 18 & 42, AbinAnoop 78) bt Uttar Pradesh 0.

Mizoram 2 (Lanunsanga 19& 70) bt Madhya Pradesh 0.

First win for KeralaSpecial Correspondent

KOZHIKODE

Maria Sharapova hasbrushed off criticism fromher rivals as she prepares tomake a return next week inStuttgart following her 15-month doping ban.

“That is the least of myconcerns,” said the 30-year-old Russian. “I haven’twasted a single thought on

it. I know that I am respec-ted in my field. I see it inhow my opponents playagainst me.”

The Russian makes her re-turn next Wednesday — thefirst day she is eligible toplay — after being given awildcard with some rivalsnot approving of the organ-isers’ decision.

Sharapova could not have

picked a better place tomake her return. She haswon the Stuttgart clay-courttournament three times andlost just once — to AngeliqueKerber in 2015 in thefirst-round.

About the doping ban,Sharapova said she found it“incredibly difficult” tocome to terms with it: “I feltvery small and vulnerable.”

‘I know I am respected in my ield’Sharapova brushes of criticism from her rivals

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

BERLIN

The Popular Rally, which ranfor more than two decadesbefore taking a break in2008, will make a comebacknext month.

The event, which used tobe part of the Indian Na-tional Rally Championship(INRC), will have a ceremo-nial flag-off from the MarineDrive here on May 13 even-ing. The actual competitionon May 14 will feature spe-cial stages at the Malayattoorand Kalady plantations. TheMarine Drive will be the fin-ishing point.

While it has the FMSCI’sapproval, the Popular Rallythis year is not a part of theINRC. However, many prom-inent national stars are saidto have promised to attendthe event, which will have atotal prize fund of ₹7 lakh.

“We could have run this

event as a national champi-onship round this year. Infact, we almost got it on thenational circuit in 2015 but itfell through,” said John K.Paul, the MD of PopularVehicles, the title sponsor ofthe event. “We will try tohave it as a national roundnext year.”

“Since we are runningthis event after many years,we want to test the watersbefore taking a bigger

plunge,” said Bikku Babu, aformer driver who is part ofthe Southern Adventuresand Motorsports (SAM)team, the organisers of theevent.

The rally will be a 300kmevent, with 85km of it beingthe 12 special stages.

Apart from the FMSCICup, the event will featurecompetitions in the 2,000cc,Gypsy, Esteem and Opencategories.

Popular Rally is backon the road again The event this year though is not part of the INRC

Making a comeback: John K. Paul, left, and Bikku Babuannounce the return of the Popular Rally. * SWF


KOCHI


CMYK

A ND-ND




LIFE

Serena Williams hintsshe may be pregnant Serena Williams will return to

world number one next week

but may not stay atop the

rankings for long after

hinting on Wednesday that

she is pregnant. Williams

posted a photograph on

Snapchat showing off a

bump. She captioned the

photo “20 weeks”, teasing

fans that she might be about

to have her first child. REUTERS

IN BRIEF

Victoria Beckham getsroyal recognition LONDON

It was a posh day at the

palace for former Spice Girl

Victoria Beckham. The pop

singer turned fashion

designer was made an Officer

of the Order of the British

Empire on Wednesday. Prince

William presented the award

at Buckingham Palace. “I’m

proud to be British,” she said

in a statement. AP

Shock of mother’s deathlingers: Prince William LONDON

U.K.’s Prince William has said

the shock of losing his mother

Princess Diana two decades

ago still lingers within him,

days after his younger

brother Harry spoke about his

own struggles coming to

terms with her death. Diana

was killed in a car crash in

Paris in August 1997, when

William was 15. REUTERS

Skin mucus secreted by acolourful, tennis ball-sizedfrog species found in Keralacan be used to develop ananti-viral drug that can treatvarious strains of flu, accord-ing to a new study.

Frog mucus is loaded withmolecules that kill bacteriaand viruses and researchersare beginning to investigateit as a potential source fornew anti-microbial drugs.

Defence peptidesOne of these “host defencepeptides”, found in a frogspecies (Hydrophylax bahuv-istara) native to Kerala candestroy many strains of hu-man flu and protect miceagainst flu infection, re-searchers found.

An international team ofresearchers, including thosefrom Rajiv Gandhi Centre forBiotechnology in Kerala,screened about 32 frog de-fence peptides against an in-fluenza strain and found thatfour of them had flu-bustingabilities. When researchersdelivered small electricshocks, they collected the se-

cretion that contained a pep-tide, or chain of amino acids,that appears to fight off theH1 strain of flu virus.

“In the beginning, Ithought that when you dodrug discovery, you have togo through thousands ofdrug candidates, even a mil-lion, before you get one ortwo hits. And here we did 32peptides, and we had fourhits,” said Joshy Jacob ofEmory University in the U.S.

When the researchers ex-posed isolated human red

blood cells in a dish to theflu-buster peptides, threeout of the four proved toxic.

However, the fourthseemed harmless to humancells but lethal to a widerange of flu viruses.

Named after ‘urumi’The researchers named thenewly identified peptide“urumin” after the urumi, asword with a flexible bladethat snaps and bends like awhip. Electron microscopeimages of the virus after ex-

posure to urumin reveal avirus that has been com-pletely dismantled, research-ers said.

Urumin is not toxic tomammals, but “appears toonly disrupt the integrity offlu virus”. When researcherssqueezed some urumin intothe noses of lab mice, thepeptide protected themagainst what would have oth-erwise been a lethal dose ofH1 flu virus, the kind re-sponsible for the 2009 swineflu pandemic.

It seems to work by bind-ing to a protein that isidentical across many influ-enza strains, and in lab ex-periments, it was able toneutralise dozens of flustrains, from the 1934archival viruses up to mod-ern ones, researchers said.

More research is neededto determine if urumin couldbecome a preventive treat-ment against the flu in hu-mans, and to see if otherfrog-derived peptides couldprotect against viruses likedengue and Zika.

The study was publishedin the journal Immunity.

(With inputs from AFP)

A frog’s mucus could treat luKerala amphibian’s slime proves to be lethal for viruses, says study


Thiruvananthapuram

Quick defence: Hydrophylax bahuvistara produces secretionswith protective peptides * SANIL GEORGE & JESSICA SHARTOUNY

The English translation ofwriter Perumal Murugan’snovel Mathorubhagan (OnePart Woman) has won theSahitya Akademi’s award fortranslation in English.

“I am really happy aboutthe award as I liked thetranslation. It has alreadywon the Canada IlakkiyaThotta Virudhu,” said Mr.Murugan.

The translation was doneby Aniruddhan Vasudevanand the book was publishedby Penguin.

The prize in the form of acasket containing an en-graved copper plaque and acash component of ₹50,000would be presented at a ce-remony in June.

Emotions retained“There was a consistenttone of tenderness betweenthe couple in the novel andthe challenge was to main-tain the feeling in transla-tion,” said Mr. Vasudevan,

who is pursuing his PhD ontransgender issues in theUniversity of Texas in theU.S. After postgraduation inEnglish, Mr. Vasudevanswitched to anthropologyfor his doctoral thesis.

He clarified that being amember of the LGBT com-munity had nothing to dowith him taking up thetranslation of the novel,Mathorubhagan.

The title describes LordShiva in his avatar as a com-bination of man and wo-man. “I bought the novel in2011 in the book fair and im-mediately liked it. When Imade a suggestion to itspublisher Kalachuvadu Kan-nan that it should be trans-lated into English he told methat I could do it. I sent a fewchapters to Penguin andSivapriya, one of the editors,liked it,” he said.

Asked why he had chosento call the book One Part Wo-man instead of One PartMan, Mr. Vasudevan saidthat the translation of thetitle need not be literal. TheTamil title ends with themasculine classifier.

Mr. Vasudevan recalledthat Perumal Murugan faceda lot of controversy over thebook and the Madras HighCourt order in his favourgave the author muchneeded relief. “The awardfor translation has also vin-dicated his right as a writer,”he said.

Vasudevan wins honour for translation of Mathorubhagan

B. Kolappan

Chennai

The front cover of One Part Woman.

One Part Woman bagsSahitya Akademi award

Pole position: Labourers transport bamboo logs down the Longai River near the Tripura-Mizoram border in Damchara. * AFP

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Gently down the stream

Workaholic Japan has un-veiled its first-ever plan tolimit overtime, but criticswant to give it the boot, say-ing an “outrageous” 100-hour-a-month cap will donothing to tackle karoshi, ordeath from overwork.

Tokyo’s bid to ease a na-tional health crisis comesafter the top executive at ad-vertising giant Dentsu quitlate last year in response tothe suicide of a young em-ployee who regularly loggedmore than 100 hours of over-time a month.

The death of Matsuri Taka-hashi generated nationwideheadlines, prompting thegovernment to come up witha solution to punishing workhours blamed for hundredsof deaths due to strokes,heart attacks and suicidesevery year.

A panel headed by Prime

Minister Shinzo Abe hassince come up with a plancalling for a maximum of 100overtime hours a month. Theconservative leader called ita “historic step for changingthe way people work in Ja-pan” but critics think theplan should be given itsmarching orders.

The Labour Lawyers’ As-sociation of Japan hasslammed the proposed capas “extremely inappropriate”and “impossible to support”.

“It’s tantamount to en-dorsing a limit that couldcause overwork deaths,” saidAssociation head IchiroNatsume.

Others who have lostloved ones to karoshi agree.“We cannot accept this — it’soutrageous,” said Emiko Ter-anishi, who heads a groupfor relatives of karoshi vic-tims. “I thought the govern-ment was finally going totackle the issue... But thishas turned out to be [a] stepbackward rather than a stepforward.”

Ms. Teranishi’s husbandwas the manager of a strug-gling soba noodle restaurantin Kyoto when he committedsuicide in the mid-ninetiesafter suffering from depres-sion blamed on long workinghours. “My husband workedfor a total of 4,000 hours ayear without weekends off.At most, he had two days offa month,” she said, addingthat he was pressured towork more by his recession-hit employer.

“He was depressed. Hetold me he couldn’t sleep or

to overwork puts them at ser-ious risk of dying, accordingto a government survey pub-lished in October.

That survey was part ofthe nation's first white paperon karoshi.

The new rules would limitmonthly overtime and levypenalties on firms that don’tcomply — both firsts in acountry notorious for itsgruelling work schedule. Thescheme, hammered out byJapan’s biggest businesslobby Keidanren and the Ja-panese Trade Union Confed-eration, known as Rengo, of-ficially says overtime shouldnot exceed 45 hours amonth.

But the proposed changesto the labour laws, expectedto be submitted this year,would let employers makeworkers put in as many as100 hours of overtime if theoffice is busy — a determina-tion made by managers.

eat. I asked him to take a dayoff every morning, but hestill went to work.”

Low productivityThe popular post-war imageof a Japanese “salaryman”toiling long hours, drinkingwith the boss and then tak-ing the last train home hasevolved over the decades,but many still spend farmore time at the workplacethan their counterparts inother modern economies.

Currently, Japanese firmscan make full-time employ-ees work far beyond theusual 40 hours a week dur-ing busy periods. Overtime isviewed as a sign of dedica-tion at many firms, even if Ja-panese workers’ productiv-ity lags behind that of theirU.S. and Europeancounterparts.

And more than one in fiveJapanese companies haveemployees whose tendency

Japan’s 100-hour overtime cap sparks angerCritics of the government’s proposal say it will do nothing to tackle karoshi, or death from overwork


Tokyo

National crisis: The eforts come in the wake of the resignationof an advertising executive last year in response to the suicideof a young employee, who died from overwork. * AFP

Bollywood superstar ShahRukh Khan on Wednesdaywished luck to Sachin Ten-dulkar for his upcomingdocu-feature Sachin: A Bil-lion Dreams, and called thelegendary cricketer his“guiding light”.

“I believed, when youdid well, I would too andwhen you didn’t, I will fail.Like a billion others I missmy guiding light. All thebest for the film,” the actortweeted.

Responding to that,Sachin tweeted: “Zindagime haar na hoti to koi kabhijeet ta nahi aur kuchseekhta bhi nahi [Had therebeen no loss, nobodywould’ve won and learnedanything]. Touched byyour words like a billionothers, love you Shah RukhKhan.”

The film has been direc-ted by London-basedwriter James Erkine.

Sachin is myguiding light:Shah RukhIndo-Asian News Service

Mumbai

German sportswear giantAdidas sparked a social me-dia outcry Tuesday aftersending an e-mail congratu-lating runners in the BostonMarathon for having “sur-vived” the race.

The choice of wordsjarred as memories remainfresh of the 2013 deadlybombing of the event in theMassachusetts city.

“Congrats, you survivedthe Boston Marathon!” Adi-das said in the subject lineof an e-mail it sent to the26,492 participants who fin-ished the annual race onMonday.

Online furoreThe e-mail instantly set off afurore on social media,where many people pub-lished screen grabs of the

email and denounced its of-fensive nature.

The official Twitter ac-count of Adidas NorthAmerica, with the handle@adidasUS, rushed to apo-logise. “We are incrediblysorry. Clearly, there was nothought given to the insens-itive e-mail subject line wesent Tuesday,” it tweeted.

“We deeply apologize forour mistake.”

On April 15, 2013, twobrothers of Chechen des-cent, Tamerlan andDzokhar Tsarnaev, plantedpressure-cooker bombsnear the Boston Marathonfinish line, killing threepeople and injuring 264.

On Monday, GeoffreyKirui and Edna Kiplagat leda Kenyan clean sweep at the121st Boston Marathon, win-ning the respective men’sand women’s races.

Runners praised for ‘surviving’ event


Washington

Adidas apologises forBoston Marathon gafe

An asteroid more than 400metres wide will pass closeto the earth late on Wednes-day or early on Thursday,zooming by at a distance ofjust over 1.8 million km, butwith no chance of impact,according to NASAscientists.

Smaller asteroidsroutinely make closer passesto the earth, but 2014 J025,discovered in May 2014, willbe the largest asteroid tocome this near to the planetsince 2004, flying by at onlyabout 4.6 times the distancefrom the earth to the Moon,1.8 million km.

2014-JO25 will pass closestto the earth after havinglooped around the Sun. Itwill then continue on pastJupiter before heading backtoward the centre of thesolar system.

Having several years of

data on the asteroid’s tra-jectory gives scientists theability to predict its pathvery confidently, said Dav-ide Farnocchia, a mathem-atician at NASA’s Near EarthObject programme.

The asteroid, estimated tobe between 600-1,400metres wide and twice as re-flective as the Moon, won’tbe visible to the naked eye,but sky watchers should beable to view it with tele-

scopes for one or two nightsstarting on Wednesday. Thelast time 2014-JO25 was inour immediate neighbour-hood was 400 years ago,and its next brush with theearth won’t happen untilsometime after 2600.

In 2004, the 5-km-wideasteroid Toutatis passedabout four lunar distances,or just under 1.6 million kmfrom the earth.

Amateur astronomersmay be watching J025’s jour-ney, but Mr. Farnocchia saidhe and his colleagues havemoved on to tracking evencloser encounters, such asasteroid 1999 AN10, a 800-metre wide rock predictedto pass only 3,80,000 kmfrom the earth, or slightlyless than the distance to theMoon, in 2027. Asteroids arecomposed of rocky andmetallic material.

(With inputs from AFP)

Biggest one to come this near to the planet since 2004Reuters

Asteroids are made of rockyand metallic material. * AP

Large asteroid to passclose to the earth: NASA

Scientists have developedthe first global Internet Atlas,including a detailed map ofthe Internet’s physical struc-ture in India, an advance thatcould help guard the in-frastucture from terrorism orextreme weather events.

Despite the Internet-de-pendent nature of our world,a thorough understanding ofthe Internet’s physicalmakeup has only recentlyemerged through InternetAtlas developed by research-ers from University of Wis-

consin-Madison in the U.S.and their collaborators.

“Internet is in a constantstate of flux and mapping isreally important to under-

stand the evolution of the In-ternet,” RamakrishnanDurairajan, a PhD candidateat the University of Wiscon-sin-Madison told PTI. “Nosingle service provider canoffer an authoritative per-spective on the structure ofthe Internet,” Mr. Durairajanadded.

While average users rarelythink of these elements,things like submarine cables— buried below the oceanfloor — run between contin-ents to enable communica-tion. Data centres in build-ings all over the world are

packed with servers storingmany types of data. Trafficexchange occurs betweendifferent service providers atinternet exchange points.Though these and other ele-ments may be out of sight forthe average user, they arecrucial pieces of the physicalinfrastructure that billions ofpeople rely on.

Improving connectivity“We have over 1,200 mapsworldwide including India.All the data are connectedusing web search,” said Mr.Durairajan. “From maps that

than one entity. “There is a lot of infra-

structure sharing happeningin the Internet today,” saidMr. Durairajan. “Many ser-vice providers do this to savedeployment costs by signingleases with other serviceproviders.”

“This infrastructure shar-ing leads to a problem called’shared risk’: physical con-duits shared by many serviceproviders are at an inher-ently risky situation sincedamage to those conduitswill affect many several pro-viders,” he added.

versity of Wisconsin-Madison, meaning that anevent like a train derailmentcould end up disrupting In-ternet communications.

“The question of ‘howdoes mapping contribute tosecurity?’ is one of our fun-damental concerns,” said Mr.Durairajan.

The project has helpeddirect attention to the prob-lem of shared risk. Physicalinfrastructure is commonlyshared by multiple network-ing entities, so damage toany particular piece of infra-structure can impact more

we have in our repository I’dsay we have fibre runningacross almost all the States inIndia. However, connectivitycould be improved in thenorth-western and north-eastern regions.”

Mapping the physical In-ternet helps stakeholdersboost performance andguard against a number ofthreats, from terrorism to ex-treme weather events likehurricanes. “A lot of infra-structure is by major right-of-ways, like railroad lines,”said Paul Barford, Professorof Computer Sciences at Uni-

Scientists in U.S. develop irst detailed global Internet atlas It includes a detailed map of the Internet’s physical structure in India, and may help guard the infrastucture from terrorism or extreme weather


Washington

Atlas will help track evolutionof Internet infrastructure.

* GETTY IMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO


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