16
T he Supreme Court on Friday provided a major relief to the Modi Government by dismissing the demand for a court-monitored CBI probe into the Government-to- Government deal with France for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets, saying there is no occasion to “really doubt the decision-making process” war- ranting setting aside of the contract. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi went into “three broad areas of concern” raised in the petitions — the decision-making process, pric- ing and the choice of Indian offset partners — and said there was no reason for inter- vention by the apex court on the “sensitive issue” of purchase of 36 fighter jets. The apex court said the Indian Air Force (IAF) needs advanced fighter jets as the country cannot afford to be “unprepared” or “under pre- pared” in a situation where adversaries have acquired fourth and fifth generation fighter aircraft, “of which, we have none”. “In view of our findings on all the three aspects, and hav- ing heard the matter in detail, we find no reason for any intervention by this court on the sensitive issue of purchase of 36 defence aircraft by the Indian Government,” the Bench, also comprising Justices SK Kaul and KM Joseph, said in its 29-page judgment. Attorney General KK Venugopal welcomed the ver- dict terming it as an “excellent” and “very good” judgment, which in his opinion has given “clean chit” to the Government by accepting all its arguments. “I think a clean chit has been given to the Government on Rafale deal,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function to give farewell to Justice Madan B Lokur, who is set to retire on December 30. The court said perception of individuals cannot be the basis of a “fishing and roving enquiry” by the court in such matters and it cannot “sit in judgment” over the wisdom of Government’s decision to go in for purchase of 36 aircraft in place of 126. “We are satisfied that there is no occasion to really doubt the process, and even if minor deviations have occurred, that would not result in either set- ting aside the contract or requiring a detailed scrutiny by the court,” the Bench said. It noted that process for procurement of 36 Rafale jets was concluded on September 23, 2016 and no questions were raised at that time and the petitions were later filed after reported statement of former French President Francois Hollande with regard to selec- tion of Indian offset partners. The Bench said it was “cer- tainly not the job of this court to carry out a comparison of the pricing details in matters like the present” and the mate- rial has to be kept in a confi- dential domain. Continued on Page 4 T he Congress on Friday named Ashok Gehlot as Rajasthan Chief Minister and Sachin Pilot as his deputy after party president Rahul Gandhi successfully brokered a peace between the veteran leader and his younger colleague after several rounds of discussion lasting more than two days. They will take oath of office of December 17. Congress observer to Rajasthan KC Venugopal made the announcement and said details of the oath-taking cer- emony would be decided after a meeting with Governor Kalyan Singh in Jaipur. Addressing a Press confer- ence, Gehlot thanked Rahul Gandhi for giving him the opportunity to serve the peo- ple of the State for a third time and promised that he and Pilot will give “good governance”. Rahul met Gehlot and Pilot thrice since Thursday. Hectic parleys were held between top party leaders, including Sonia Gandhi. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra too is understood to be involved in the decision-mak- ing process. Senior party lead- ers Venugopal, Avinash Pande and Jitendra Singh were present during the meeting on Friday. “The united colours of Rajasthan,” Rahul tweeted on Friday afternoon along with a photograph in which the three leaders were seen in a jovial mood. Gehlot and Pilot were welcomed with pomp and splendour at the Jaipur airport after the announcement. Pilot, 41, exuded confi- dence that Congress’ good elec- toral performance will contin- ue, saying the party will get a big mandate in 2019 polls and form a Government at the Centre also. “Mera aur Ashok Gehlotji ka jaadu puri tarah chal gaya hai (Gehlot and I worked our magic in the State),” Pilot said. The Congress went from 21 seats against the BJP’s 163 in 2013 to get 99 seats (plus one of the Rashtriya Lok Dal) in the Assembly elections. Pilot said the party’s manifesto will be implemented immediately. However, the name of Chhattisgarh CM has been kept under wraps. The official announcement will be made on Saturday in Raipur. All the four contenders — TS Singh Deo, Bhupesh Baghel, Tamradhwaj Sahu and Charan Das Mahant — were called to Delhi. They took turns to meet Rahul during the day after the name of Rajasthan CM was finalised. Rahul authorised AICC Central Observer for Chhattisgarh Mallikarjun Kharge to announce in Raipur the CM candidate after the CLP meeting on Saturday. Gehlot will be the fourth leader to become Chief Minister of Rajasthan for a third time. Mohan Lal Sukhadia was the Chief Minister of the State for four times, while Hari Dev Joshi and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat were three-time Chief Ministers of the State. Both Sukhadia and Joshi were Congress leaders while Bhairon Singh Shekhawat was from the BJP. Bengaluru: At least 11 people, including a girl and a woman, died while 75 others took ill on Friday after consuming “prasad” at a temple at Sulavadi village in Chamarajnagar dis- trict, officials said. The condition of eight peo- ple being treated in Mysuru is critical. “A child died at the Government hospital at Ramapura, two each at GH hos- pitals at Kamageri and Kolegal, three at the KP Hospital and one at KRH Hospital,” said Suresh Shastry, Joint Director, Directorate of Health and Family Welfare Services. According to police, the foundation laying ceremony of Maramma temple was organised on Friday morning and prasad was distributed after the function. Continued on Page 4 T he Nepal Government has banned the use of Indian currency notes of 2,000, 500 and 200 denominations, a move that could affect Indian tourists visiting the Himalayan nation where Indian currency is widely used. Indian currency is exten- sively used by Nepalese people and businesses for their savings and transactions. The Nepal Government has asked the people to refrain from keeping or carrying Indian bank notes higher than 100 denomination as it has not legalised them, Nepal’s Minister for Information and Communications Gokul Prasad Baskota said. “The Government has decided not to use, carry and keep the Indian bills of 200, 500 and 2000 denominations. The government will soon issue a formal notice in this matter,” the Minister said. The decision will adverse- ly affect Nepalese labourers working in India as well as Indian tourists visiting Nepal. Nepal Premier KP Sharma Oli said earlier this year that demonetisation hurt the Nepalese people and added that he would raise the matter with Indian leaders. N oted English writer Amitav Ghosh has been honoured with this year’s Jnanpith Award, a literary award given to an author for “outstanding con- tribution towards literature”, Bharatiya Jnanpith announced on Friday. “Amitav Ghosh is a path- breaking novelist. In his novels, Ghosh treads through histori- cal settings to the modern era and weaves a space where the past connects with the present in relevant ways. “His fiction is endowed with extraordinary depth and substance through his academic training as a his- torian and a social anthropol- ogist,” a statement from Bharatiya Jnanpith reads. The decision was taken in a meeting of Jnanpith Selection Board chaired by eminent nov- elist, scholar and Jnanpith lau- reate Pratibha Ray. Continued on Page 4 N ow, Delhiites need not travel all the way to Gurugram and Faridabad to sip freshly brewed beer as the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has finally approved to set up the much awaited micro- breweries in restaurants and bars situated in the national Capital. The new policy or provi- sion for the implementation of microbreweries could not be notified earlier due to various reasons but now as per the offi- cials the DDA approved the same and notified the new policy in the meeting held on Friday morning. According to sources, “The restaurants, hotel or clubs will be allowed to set up the micro- breweries up to 500 litres per day capacity. But at the same time restaurants, bars and hotels have to get the no- objection certificate (NOC) clearance/licences from excise department before setting up the microbreweries.” Microbreweries, also known as organic beers, are freshly brewed beer with dif- ferent fruit flavours such as strawberries, apple, grapes which is also considered as a healthy drinks as per the experts. Experts said micro- breweries are healthy for both men and woman as it does not contain alcohol, chemical and preservatives, especially glyc- erin’s that are used in the pack- aged and beer cans. Also, it will be good drink and safer then the whisky and other hard drinks which will also reduce fatness. Currently, there is only one microbrewery set up at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA). “The Delhi Government has approved the proposal to set up the breweries in Delhi three years ago but it could not be implemented as the brew- eries were listed under the ‘prohibited/negative’ list of industries in the Master Plan of Delhi (MPD) 2021. However, on the request of the Government, Lieutenant- Governor Anil Baijal in December 2017 approved the Government’s plea to remove microbreweries from the ‘pro- hibited’ list of the master plan. After which the DDA’s techni- cal committee approved the proposal in January 2018,” an official said. The official further said after fulfilling all the proce- dures and modalities, the peo- ple of Delhi as well as tourists will enjoy freshly manufac- tured beer. “Moreover, the freshly brewed beer will also be cheap- er than the can and packaged beers as it does not contain the packaging and transporting charges,” said an official. “In Germany, the preg- nant women are advised to have a glass of freshly brewed beer daily as it is so nutritious. But in the bottles chemicals are used which is fatty as well as harmful,” said a beer expert. Continued on Page 4 B uoyed by the Supreme Court verdict on the Rafale fighter jet deal issue, the Government and the ruling BJP on Friday charged the Congress with manufacturing lies and compromising with national security and said truth always holds together while “falsehood always fall apart.” Making this assertion here, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley without directly naming Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi said falsehood was manufactured by “one family”, but they are not above the apex court. Along with the Government, the ruling BJP also accused the Congress of making the Rafale deal look a suspect by telling lies. BJP president Amit Shah said here at a separate Press conference that the SC order was a slap on Congress chief Rahul’s politics of lies and asked him to apol- ogise to the country and its sol- diers for putting national secu- rity at risk. The BJP president said there is no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France, and the court has upheld that in its order on Friday. It is not the job of the court to deal with the com- parative details of the pricing, he said. He also hit out at the Congress president for taking a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi by saying the “chowkidar” is a thief. “All thieves had gathered to call the ‘chowkidar’ a thief, but the country never believed it,” Shah told reporters. Continued on Page 4 T he Central Government has come under cloud for allegedly misleading the Supreme Court by claiming that it had placed the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report on the Rafale jet deal before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament. Congress president Rahul Gandhi along with Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhusan, the three PIL petitioners in the Supreme court against Rafale deal, on Friday pointed out that no such CAG report was ever placed in Parliament or before the PAC. At a Press conference, Rahul said the Supreme Court in its verdict cited a report by the CAG on the Rafale deal was submitted to the PAC but asserted that no such report was given to the House panel headed by Congress’ leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjuna Kharge. Kharge, who was also present at the briefing, said the PAC has not received any such report. “Where has that report gone? Is it with some other PAC that PM Modi has set up,” Rahul asked in a dig at the Government. Both the Government and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group have rejected Rahul Gandhi’s alle- gation of wrongdoings. Rahul again accused the Modi Government of destroy- ing “all institutions” and assert- ed that corruption to the tune of 30,000 crore has taken place in the Rafale deal. He reiterated the Congress’ demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the fighter jet deal and claimed that if it was conducted, names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and businessman Anil Ambani will come to the fore. Continued on Page 4 R eliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani on Friday welcomed the SC order on the Rafale deal, saying it established the falsity of politically moti- vated allegations against him. “I welcome the judgment summarily dismissing all PILs filed on the Rafale contracts, and conclusively establishing the complete falsity of the wild, baseless and politically moti- vated allegations levelled against Reliance Group and me personally,” Ambani said. Continued on Page 4

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Page 1: opinionexpress.in...2018/12/15  · Assembly elections. Pilot said the party’s manifesto will be implemented immediately. However, the name of Chhattisgarh CM has been kept under

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The Supreme Court onFriday provided a major

relief to the Modi Governmentby dismissing the demand fora court-monitored CBI probeinto the Government-to-Government deal with Francefor the purchase of 36 Rafalefighter jets, saying there is nooccasion to “really doubt thedecision-making process” war-ranting setting aside of thecontract.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi went into“three broad areas of concern”raised in the petitions — thedecision-making process, pric-ing and the choice of Indianoffset partners — and saidthere was no reason for inter-vention by the apex court onthe “sensitive issue” of purchaseof 36 fighter jets.

The apex court said theIndian Air Force (IAF) needsadvanced fighter jets as thecountry cannot afford to be“unprepared” or “under pre-pared” in a situation whereadversaries have acquiredfourth and fifth generationfighter aircraft, “of which, wehave none”.

“In view of our findings onall the three aspects, and hav-ing heard the matter in detail,we find no reason for anyintervention by this court onthe sensitive issue of purchaseof 36 defence aircraft by theIndian Government,” theBench, also comprising JusticesSK Kaul and KM Joseph, saidin its 29-page judgment.

Attorney General KKVenugopal welcomed the ver-dict terming it as an “excellent”and “very good” judgment,which in his opinion has given“clean chit” to the Governmentby accepting all its arguments.

“I think a clean chit hasbeen given to the Governmenton Rafale deal,” he toldreporters on the sidelines of afunction to give farewell toJustice Madan B Lokur, who isset to retire on December 30.

The court said perceptionof individuals cannot be thebasis of a “fishing and rovingenquiry” by the court in suchmatters and it cannot “sit injudgment” over the wisdom ofGovernment’s decision to go infor purchase of 36 aircraft in

place of 126. “We are satisfied that there

is no occasion to really doubtthe process, and even if minordeviations have occurred, thatwould not result in either set-ting aside the contract orrequiring a detailed scrutiny bythe court,” the Bench said.

It noted that process forprocurement of 36 Rafale jetswas concluded on September23, 2016 and no questionswere raised at that time and thepetitions were later filed afterreported statement of formerFrench President FrancoisHollande with regard to selec-tion of Indian offset partners.

The Bench said it was “cer-tainly not the job of this courtto carry out a comparison ofthe pricing details in matterslike the present” and the mate-rial has to be kept in a confi-dential domain.

Continued on Page 4

�� �� 456�(5�7$

The Congress on Fridaynamed Ashok Gehlot as

Rajasthan Chief Minister andSachin Pilot as his deputy afterparty president Rahul Gandhisuccessfully brokered a peacebetween the veteran leaderand his younger colleague afterseveral rounds of discussionlasting more than two days.

They will take oath ofoffice of December 17.

Congress observer toRajasthan KC Venugopal madethe announcement and saiddetails of the oath-taking cer-emony would be decided aftera meeting with GovernorKalyan Singh in Jaipur.

Addressing a Press confer-ence, Gehlot thanked RahulGandhi for giving him theopportunity to serve the peo-ple of the State for a third time

and promised that he and Pilotwill give “good governance”.

Rahul met Gehlot and Pilotthrice since Thursday. Hecticparleys were held between topparty leaders, including SoniaGandhi. Priyanka GandhiVadra too is understood to beinvolved in the decision-mak-ing process. Senior party lead-ers Venugopal, Avinash Pandeand Jitendra Singh were presentduring the meeting on Friday.

“The united colours ofRajasthan,” Rahul tweeted onFriday afternoon along with aphotograph in which the threeleaders were seen in a jovialmood. Gehlot and Pilot werewelcomed with pomp andsplendour at the Jaipur airportafter the announcement.

Pilot, 41, exuded confi-dence that Congress’ good elec-toral performance will contin-ue, saying the party will get abig mandate in 2019 polls andform a Government at theCentre also. “Mera aur AshokGehlotji ka jaadu puri tarahchal gaya hai (Gehlot and Iworked our magic in theState),” Pilot said.

The Congress went from21 seats against the BJP’s 163 in2013 to get 99 seats (plus one

of the Rashtriya Lok Dal) in theAssembly elections. Pilot saidthe party’s manifesto will beimplemented immediately.

However, the name ofChhattisgarh CM has beenkept under wraps. The officialannouncement will be made onSaturday in Raipur. All thefour contenders — TS SinghDeo, Bhupesh Baghel,Tamradhwaj Sahu and CharanDas Mahant — were called toDelhi.

They took turns to meetRahul during the day after thename of Rajasthan CM wasfinalised. Rahul authorisedAICC Central Observer forChhattisgarh MallikarjunKharge to announce in Raipurthe CM candidate after the CLPmeeting on Saturday.

Gehlot will be the fourthleader to become ChiefMinister of Rajasthan for athird time. Mohan LalSukhadia was the ChiefMinister of the State for fourtimes, while Hari Dev Joshi andBhairon Singh Shekhawat werethree-time Chief Ministers ofthe State. Both Sukhadia andJoshi were Congress leaderswhile Bhairon Singh Shekhawatwas from the BJP.

Bengaluru: At least 11 people,including a girl and a woman,died while 75 others took ill onFriday after consuming“prasad” at a temple at Sulavadivillage in Chamarajnagar dis-trict, officials said.

The condition of eight peo-ple being treated in Mysuru iscritical. “A child died at theGovernment hospital atRamapura, two each at GH hos-pitals at Kamageri and Kolegal,three at the KP Hospital andone at KRH Hospital,” saidSuresh Shastry, Joint Director,Directorate of Health andFamily Welfare Services.

According to police, the

foundation laying ceremonyof Maramma temple wasorganised on Friday morning

and prasad was distributedafter the function.

Continued on Page 4

����� %�&7!�4(8

The Nepal Government hasbanned the use of Indian

currency notes of �2,000, �500and �200 denominations, amove that could affect Indiantourists visiting the Himalayannation where Indian currencyis widely used.

Indian currency is exten-sively used by Nepalese peopleand businesses for their savingsand transactions.

The Nepal Governmenthas asked the people to refrainfrom keeping or carryingIndian bank notes higher than�100 denomination as it hasnot legalised them, Nepal’s

Minister for Information andCommunications GokulPrasad Baskota said.

“The Government hasdecided not to use, carry andkeep the Indian bills of 200, 500and 2000 denominations. Thegovernment will soon issue aformal notice in this matter,”the Minister said.

The decision will adverse-ly affect Nepalese labourersworking in India as well asIndian tourists visiting Nepal.

Nepal Premier KP SharmaOli said earlier this year thatdemonetisation hurt theNepalese people and addedthat he would raise the matterwith Indian leaders.

����� 456�(5�7$

Noted English writer AmitavGhosh has been honoured

with this year’s Jnanpith Award,a literary award given to anauthor for “outstanding con-tribution towards literature”,Bharatiya Jnanpith announcedon Friday.

“Amitav Ghosh is a path-breaking novelist. In his novels,Ghosh treads through histori-cal settings to the modern eraand weaves a space where thepast connects with the presentin relevant ways. “His fiction isendowed with extraordinarydepth and substance throughhis academic training as a his-

torian and a social anthropol-ogist,” a statement fromBharatiya Jnanpith reads.

The decision was taken ina meeting of Jnanpith SelectionBoard chaired by eminent nov-elist, scholar and Jnanpith lau-reate Pratibha Ray.

Continued on Page 4

�������������� 456�(5�7$

Now, Delhiites need nottravel all the way to

Gurugram and Faridabad to sipfreshly brewed beer as theDelhi Development Authority(DDA) has finally approved toset up the much awaited micro-breweries in restaurants andbars situated in the nationalCapital.

The new policy or provi-sion for the implementation ofmicrobreweries could not benotified earlier due to variousreasons but now as per the offi-

cials the DDA approved thesame and notified the newpolicy in the meeting held onFriday morning.

According to sources, “Therestaurants, hotel or clubs willbe allowed to set up the micro-breweries up to 500 litres perday capacity. But at the sametime restaurants, bars andhotels have to get the no-objection certificate (NOC)clearance/licences from excisedepartment before setting upthe microbreweries.”

Microbreweries, alsoknown as organic beers, are

freshly brewed beer with dif-ferent fruit flavours such asstrawberries, apple, grapeswhich is also considered as a

healthy drinks as per theexperts. Experts said micro-breweries are healthy for bothmen and woman as it does notcontain alcohol, chemical andpreservatives, especially glyc-

erin’s that are used in the pack-aged and beer cans. Also, it willbe good drink and safer thenthe whisky and other harddrinks which will also reducefatness.

Currently, there is onlyone microbrewery set up at theIndira Gandhi InternationalAirport (IGIA).

“The Delhi Governmenthas approved the proposal toset up the breweries in Delhithree years ago but it could notbe implemented as the brew-eries were listed under the‘prohibited/negative’ list ofindustries in the Master Plan ofDelhi (MPD) 2021. However,on the request of theGovernment, Lieutenant-Governor Anil Baijal inDecember 2017 approved theGovernment’s plea to removemicrobreweries from the ‘pro-hibited’ list of the master plan.After which the DDA’s techni-cal committee approved the

proposal in January 2018,” anofficial said.

The official further saidafter fulfilling all the proce-dures and modalities, the peo-ple of Delhi as well as touristswill enjoy freshly manufac-tured beer.

“Moreover, the freshlybrewed beer will also be cheap-er than the can and packagedbeers as it does not contain thepackaging and transportingcharges,” said an official.

“In Germany, the preg-nant women are advised tohave a glass of freshly brewedbeer daily as it is so nutritious.But in the bottles chemicals areused which is fatty as well asharmful,” said a beer expert.

Continued on Page 4

����������� ��������������������������������� ���������������������������������

�� �� 456�(5�7$�

Buoyed by the SupremeCourt verdict on the Rafale

fighter jet deal issue, theGovernment and the rulingBJP on Friday charged theCongress with manufacturinglies and compromising withnational security and said truthalways holds together while“falsehood always fall apart.”

Making this assertion here,Finance Minister Arun Jaitleywithout directly naming SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhi saidfalsehood was manufactured by“one family”, but they are notabove the apex court.

Along with theGovernment, the ruling BJPalso accused the Congress ofmaking the Rafale deal look asuspect by telling lies. BJPpresident Amit Shah said hereat a separate Press conferencethat the SC order was a slap onCongress chief Rahul’s politicsof lies and asked him to apol-ogise to the country and its sol-diers for putting national secu-rity at risk.

The BJP president saidthere is no occasion to doubtthe decision-making process inthe procurement of 36 Rafalejets from France, and the courthas upheld that in its order onFriday. It is not the job of thecourt to deal with the com-parative details of the pricing,he said. He also hit out at theCongress president for takinga jibe at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi by saying the“chowkidar” is a thief. “Allthieves had gathered to call the‘chowkidar’ a thief, but thecountry never believed it,” Shahtold reporters.

Continued on Page 4

�� �� 456�(5�7$

The Central Governmenthas come under cloud for

allegedly misleading theSupreme Court by claimingthat it had placed theComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) report on theRafale jet deal before the PublicAccounts Committee (PAC)of Parliament.

Congress president RahulGandhi along with YashwantSinha, Arun Shourie andPrashant Bhusan, the threePIL petitioners in the Supremecourt against Rafale deal, onFriday pointed out that nosuch CAG report was everplaced in Parliament or beforethe PAC.

At a Press conference,Rahul said the Supreme Courtin its verdict cited a report bythe CAG on the Rafale deal wassubmitted to the PAC butasserted that no such reportwas given to the House panelheaded by Congress’ leader in

Lok Sabha MallikarjunaKharge. Kharge, who was alsopresent at the briefing, said thePAC has not received any suchreport.

“Where has that reportgone? Is it with some otherPAC that PM Modi has set up,”Rahul asked in a dig at theGovernment. Both theGovernment and AnilAmbani’s Reliance Group haverejected Rahul Gandhi’s alle-gation of wrongdoings.

Rahul again accused theModi Government of destroy-ing “all institutions” and assert-ed that corruption to the tuneof �30,000 crore has takenplace in the Rafale deal.

He reiterated the Congress’demand for a JointParliamentary Committee(JPC) probe into the fighter jetdeal and claimed that if it wasconducted, names of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andbusinessman Anil Ambani willcome to the fore.

Continued on Page 4

�������������������������������� ����������������������� ��������������������������������������

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Reliance Group ChairmanAnil Ambani on Friday

welcomed the SC order on theRafale deal, saying it establishedthe falsity of politically moti-vated allegations against him.

“I welcome the judgmentsummarily dismissing all PILsfiled on the Rafale contracts,and conclusively establishingthe complete falsity of the wild,baseless and politically moti-vated allegations levelledagainst Reliance Group and mepersonally,” Ambani said.

Continued on Page 4

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The Delhi police on Fridayclaimed to have solved the

two road rage incidents thathad taken place in the nation-al Capital this week on Monday.In one incident of road rage,Police have arrested a 35 year-old man who had allegedly shota 21 year-old man following analtercation after his bike grazedtheir car in Acharya Niketannear Mayur Vihar Phase-1 inEast Delhi on Monday.

According to Pankaj Singh,Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (DCP), East district,one of the main accused whoshot 21 year-old YogeshChaudhary (21) multiple timesin front of 24/7 departmentalstore at Mayur Vihar’s AcharyaNiketan market has been iden-

tified as Sidhant Verma, aproperty dealer and has over 30criminal cases against him.Police have also recovered thepistol used in the killing andthe car from his possession.

“Yogesh along with his twofriends went to a store in theMayur Vihar’s Acharya Niketanmarket on early hours ofMonday. While Yogesh andone of his friend was waitingoutside the store on their bikefor the other friend, an i20 carbrushed past them. Argumentstarted when the car pulled upand the war of words soon ledto a scuffle. Following this,Yogesh picked up a rod andsmashed a window of the car.There were two persons in thecar and one of them, Sidhant,took out his pistol and firedmultiple rounds at Yogesh,

killing him instantly,” said theDCP.

“Police got to know of theincident when Yogesh wastaken to Lal Bahadur ShastriHospital. During questioning,Sidhant told police that he

met one of his old friends thatnight and went to the 24X7store for midnight snack. Afterthe shooting they fled the spotand tried to stay low. Sidhanthas been previously bookedunder the Gangster Act in UPand has over 30 ongoing crim-inal cases against him acrossDelhi and UP,” said the DCPadding that efforts are beingmade arrest the other accusedwho is still at large.

In another incident, DelhiPolice have arrested two men

identified as Aftab (32) andRamesh (33) both residents ofRani Garden in Geeta Colonyfor allegedly for killing a 34year-old man after a scuffle thatstarted after their scootybrushed his car in Geeta colony.

According to MeghnaYadav, Deputy Commissionerof Police (DCP), Shahdara dis-trict, On Monday at around11.30 pm Sushil Chauhan (34)was driving back home when ascooter hit his car near GeetaColony flyover. “Chauhan cameout of the car and an argumentstarted. Aftab and Ramesh,who were riding the scooter,took out a gun and shotChauhan. Another man oftheir group soon came on abike and also attacked Chauhanwith a knife. All three fled thespot,” said the DCP.

“During investigation itwas found that a man wasrobbed of his bag and attackedwith a knife in a nearby areajust a while before the killing.When the description of thebag-snatcher matched withthose involved in the killing,police prepared sketches. Aftergoing through CCTV footageand analysing call detailrecords, police identified Aftaband Ramesh and arrestedthem,” the DCP said.

During interrogation, theyrevealed that after snatching abag in Shakarpur, their vehiclecollided with Chauhan’s carnear Geeta Colony flyover. Thethird accused has been identi-fied and police are trying tocatch him. The vehicle involvedin the incident has also beenfound,” said the DCP.

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With the arrest of 12 peo-ple, including two foreign

nationals, Gurugram police onFriday claimed to have busteda high-profile sex racket oper-ating out of a guest house atsector-45 in Gurugram.

According to a seniorpolice official, twelve peoplewere arrested including twowomen from Uzbekistan, onefrom Bangladesh, three fromWest Bengal, two from UttarPradesh and four men, includ-ing the owner of the guesthouse, manager and two cus-tomers. “They have beenbooked under different sectionsof the Immoral Trafficking Act

and an First InformationReport (FIR) under appropriatesections have been registeredagainst them at the Sector-40police station,” said the seniorpolice official.

“Specific inputs werereceived about an illegal pros-titution racket running inKrishna Residency guest atsector-45.Before raiding thepremises a constable was sentas a decoy customer who vis-ited the spot on Thursdayevening. The police team thatlay in wait raided the guesthouse after the decoy signaledto them about the deal beingstruck. Twelve people werearrested from the spot,” said thesenior police official.

The raid was conducted bya police team led by InspectorPoonam Huda, who reachedthe spot and nabbed the cul-prits who were soliciting sex

red-handed. The men are agedbetween 25 and 30 years, whilethe women are around 26 to 30years. They used to charge Rs6,500 per customer for theservices. “At the time of theraid, a room in the guest housewas occupied where a womanand man were found in anobjectionable position,” thepolice said.

Police sources said for thepast few days, the police had

been receiving complaintsabout a prostitution businessbeing carried out in the guesthouse. “We are investigating ifthe accused had a properlicence and permissions tooperate even a guest house. Acase has been registered and aprobe is underway,” saidSubhash Boken spokespersonof the Gurugram police. Theaccused were sent to judicialcustody for 14 days after beingproduced before a magistrate,he added.

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A38-year-old property deal-er was found dead in a

drain near his residence inGhaziabad. Police said thedeceased identified as BageshSharma (38) a resident of NoorNagar Sihani was found lyingin the drain with his throat slitby a sharp edged weapon.

“Bagesh dealt in financeand property from his office inKrishna Kunj in Nandgramarea. His scooter, bathroomslippers and shawl was foundlying on the spot,” said a seniorpolice official.

The brother of thedeceased Brahmesh Sharmatold The Pioneer that theBhagesh’s wife call him around

5:00 am on Friday and said thatBagesh was missing since lastnight following which Iinformed the police.

Station House Officer(SHO) of Sihani gate police sta-tion, Sanjay Pandey said thatthe family of the victim haslodged the complaint in whichthey have accused Bagesh’sbusiness rival Sonu Chaudharyfor his murder.

“A case has been regis-tered under appropriate sec-tions. Body has been sent forautopsy and the investigationhas been initiated. The policeteam is also scanning CCTVfootage in the area to identifythe accused. The team willalso question Sonu Chaudhary,”said the SHO .

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An 11-year-old girl who was allegedly forced to

work as a domestic help in theresidence of a software engi-neer in Dwarka Mor area wasrescued by the DelhiCommission for Women(DCW), DCW Spokespersonsaid Thursday.

DCW revealed that theyreceived a call on their helplinestating that a minor girl is beingforced to work as a domestichelp in the house and that heremployers severely beat herregularly.

“On receiving the com-plaint, DCW constituted ateam and sent it to the houselocated in Dwarka Mod area ofDelhi,” they said.

“During counseling thegirl disclosed that she wasn’tallowed to contact her parentsand was not given food prop-erly. The girl was in a patheticcondition and started cryingwhile narrating her story to theDCW team.

She requested to be taken away by DCW. However, when the team triedto rescue the girl, her employ-er created a huge ruckus. DelhiPolice was informed and thegirl was rescued with theirhelp,” said the DCWSpokesperson.

A First Information Report(FIR) was registered on state-ments of the girl under relevantsections of JJ Act at UttamNagar Police Station and theminor was then taken to thehospital for medical examina-tion.

The girl was producedbefore CWC who has sent the

girl to a shelter home.DCW Chairperson Swati

Maliwal said, “I am deeplydisturbed with the growingincidences of abuse withminors. I fail to understandhow so called educated andwell off people treat childrenwho are poor. Don’t they haveany humanity? I appeal to allpeople to inform our helplineof any wrong doings occurringaround them, so that we cantake action.”

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Delhi Police CommissionerAmulya Kumar Patnaik

on Friday launched a commu-nity policing scheme ‘Prahari’to prevent crime and maintainlaw and order in South-westdistrict of the National Capital.

The scheme was launchedby Patnaik at a programmeheld at Delhi Cantt PoliceStation on Friday evening.‘Prahari’ is an initiative toinvolve various stakeholderslike — chowkidar, securityguard and police mitras for pre-vention of crime. Over 700 per-sons comprising members ofResident Welfare Associations’(RWAs), chowkidars and secu-rity guards were also present atthe event. Addressing the gath-ering, Patnaik highlighted thevarious areas where they canhelp police to avert crime, helpin nabbing criminals and main-tain law and order in the region.

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People visiting hospitals,malls and commercial

establishments falling underthe jurisdiction of the eastDelhi Municipal Corporationneed not pay parking fee fromFriday (December 14)onwards.

The EDMC Mayor BipinBihari said an order has beenissued to all concerned placesto allow citizens to park forfree.

“As per the Master Plan ofDelhi- 2021, parking spaces in

hospitals, malls and commer-cial establishments are free of the FAR rule, and hence, they cannot beused commercially,” the Mayorsaid.

Singh further informedthat EDMC has issued anorder, based on which any cit-izens can avail the parkingfacility in these institutes /buildings free of cost.

“If anyestablishment/building wouldbe found charging for theirparking service, Corporationwould take stringent actionsagainst them,” Bihari said.

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The Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) has demanded a

joint Parliamentary committee(JPC) probe into the Rafalefighter jet deal, hours after asthe Supreme Court dismissedpetitions challenging the pactbetween India and France forthe purchase of 36 aircraft.

AAP’s Rajya Sabha mem-ber Sanjay Singh, who wasone of the petitioners, saidthat there were “unansweredquestions” that can only beaddressed through a joint par-liamentary committee probe.

“We respect the SupremeCourt order, but the questions-- like how a 12-day-old com-pany became an offset partnerin the Rafale deal -- can beanswered only through a (joint)parliamentary committeeprobe,” Singh said at a pressconference.

He alleged that BJP chiefAmit Shah was giving his partya clean chit on the basis of theSupreme Court order, “while hehad tried to corner the court inthe Sabarimala matter”.

Earlier in the day, theSupreme Court dismissed thepleas challenging the deal for theprocurement of 36 Rafale jets,saying there was no occasion to“really doubt the decision mak-ing process” warranting settingaside of the contract.

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To ease traffic congestionbetween Delhi and Noida,

Unified Traff ic andTransportation Infrastructure(Planning and Engineering)Centre (UTTIPEC) and Noidahave approved the stretches oftwo major proposals, first ele-vated corridor and its linkageswith existing Delhi-NoidaLink Road falling within theboundary of National CapitalTerritory of Delhi and secondYamuna River Kalindi Kunj ofNoida authority falling with-in the boundary of NationalCapital Territory (NCT). Adecision to this regard wastaken in the 58th governingbody meeting on Friday.

In the first project, whichis part of elevated corridorfrom Chilla Regulator (Delhi) to MP-3 road (Noida) alongShahdara Drain, six — LaneElevated Corridor overShahdara Darin betweenMayur Vihar flyover (nearChilla Regulator) andMahamaya flyover in Noidawill decongest existing MayurVihar-Noida link road whichleads to Noida-Greater Noidaexpressway and Kalindi Kunj.

According to UTTIPECofficials, this road will providealternative route along rightbank of Shadara drain runningparallel to existing MayurVihar -Noida Road up toMahamaya flyover in Noida.“Traffic coming from Delhiand going towards Noida maydeviate from Mayur Vihar

Extension flyover to go toNoida-Greater NoidaExpressway and KalindiKunjuninterrupted,” quotedUTTIPEC statement.

With this, traffic comingfrom Noida Expressway andKalindi Kunj area may take aloop from Expressway to usethis corridor to reach right upto the end of existing MayurVihar flyover uninterrupted.Importantly, the Noida roads

in this stretch of about 5.50Km shall also be given con-nectivity through loops.

In the second proposal-construction of second bridgeon Yamuna river near KalindiKunj/ Traffic Circulation Planon Sarita Vihar side up to pro-posed Kalindi By-pass inwhich the stretch Yamunariver Kalindi Kunj of Noidaauthority falling within theboundary of National Capital

Territory (NCT) onlyapproved by the UTTIPECofficials under the chairman-ship of Lieutenant GovernorAnil Baijal.

As per the minutes ofmeeting, Noida authority hasproposed six lane road passingthrough Shahadra Drain andYamuna river connected withapproaching roads under passfrom Mahamaya flyover toKalindi Kunj intersection.

“A loop has been also pro-posed to pass the traffic com-ing from Noida to Jaitpur vil-lage via underpass towardsSarita Vihar. After Completionof this project, traffic comingfrom Noida to Delhi will usethis new 6-lane road and traf-fic moving from Delhi toNoida will use existing 4-laneroad,” quoted UTTIPEC.

This may be noted, infuture to integrate this pro-posal with the proposed kalin-

di kunj bye-pass project ofPublic Works Department(PWD), provision for 6 lanesignal free elevated road havebeen kept for vehicular trafficmovement from Noida toFaridabad and from Faridabadto Noida.

A rotary has also beenproposed near Jaitpur villagefor traffic movement fromJaitpur village to Metro station(Kalindi Kunj) and Noida/Sarita Vihar.

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Delhi BJP President ManojTiwari on Friday laid the

foundation stone of the Officebuilding of North West DistrictOffice at Rohini. “BJP is ademocratic party and its everyworker is fully dedicated tostrengthen the organisation.BJP is the largest political partyin the world and it also needsOffices in each District,”

The construction work willbe completed soon and it willhelp in more effective workingat the District level. Tiwari fur-ther, said that, six DistrictOffices have already startedworking in Delhi. The Office ofKarol Bagh District was inau-gurated by the NationalPresident Amit Shah. BJP’spolitics is based on develop-ment of the country. PrimeMinister Narender Modiinspires the workers to work forthe welfare of the people fromtime to time.

Leader of Opposition(LOP) in Delhi AssemblyVijender Gupta said on the lines of Karol Bagh Districtthe Office building of NorthEast District will be dedicatedto the people after its completion in Rohini. Theconstructive works by theworkers will get a boost afteropening of this office.

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After launching its youthwing, with its eyes set on

the upcoming Lok Sabha elec-tions, the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) is set to launch itsteachers’ wing in the nationalCapital especially in theUniversity of Delhi. The AAPis expected to launch theteacher’s wing by the nextweek.

With teachers association,AAP will is also planning toform research and non teach-ing association in DelhiUniversity. The name of wingwill be ‘Delhi TeachersAssociation’ (DTA), DelhiResearch Association (DRA)and Delhi Non-Teaching StaffAssociation (DNTSA).

Among the 63 colleges ofDelhi University (DU), thereare 21 undergraduate collegesthat are funded by the AAPruled Delhi Government. TheGovernment has worked and isworking a lot for the develop-ment and up-gradation of theschool education, now the timehas also come to focus on thedevelopment of higher educa-tion.

As per the sources, till2004, like teachers and studentsunion, DU also had a researchassociation known as DelhiUniversity ResearchAssociation (DURA). However,the AAP has decided to revivethe closed union this year in

which students of PostGraduate (PG), MPhill andPhD are expected to join.

“In DU, the research schol-ars are those who don’t haveany support or platform wherethey can go and share theirproblem and take it to theadministration level to get itsolved. This around 10 schol-ars got admission in the varsi-ty after they filed a case in thecourt and this was the first timethat such thing happened.Thus, if an association will bethere to take up the issue of theresearch scholars, the problemsthey face will be solved at thevarsity itself,” said a member ofAAP who is closely working onthe teacher’s wing.

Further as per sources, onecandidate from the upcomingAAP’s-Delhi TeachersAssociation will fight the DU’sAcademic Council (AC) andExecutive Council (EC) pollswhich will be held in February2019. The tentative date for thelaunch of AAP’s teacher’s wingis 18th December.

“In the start around 250

teachers will join the union asits members and further, theassociation will see a partici-pation of members from vari-ous colleges in big numbers,”added further.

While the members ofother teachers union affiliatedto Congress party and BhartiyaJanata Party (BJP) said that theAAP is only playing politicsahead of the upcoming LokSabha election.

“This is not the first timethat party is launching a teacher’swing, it always silently launch-es its teachers wing during theelection in DU and never worksfor the welfare of the teachersand never raise the issues facedby the teachers. Yes, this time itwill promote it widely keepingin the mind the upcoming 2019elections,” said Pankaj Garg,Member of AC and IndianNational Teachers Congress(INTEC), DU.

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The mucha w a i t e d

process for the‘nursery admis-sions’ for approxi-mately 1,600 pri-vate schools in thenational Capitalwill begin fromSaturday with private schoolsmaking their criteria public onFriday.

Distance of student’s resi-dence from school, siblingquota, parents being alumni ofthe school, single child, firstchild are some of the criterialisted by schools for admissionsto the entry level classes.

According to the schedulereleased by the Directorate ofEducation (DoE), the applica-tion window will be open fromSaturday and the last date ofsubmitting application formsfor nursery class admission for2019-20 session is January 7.

The first list of selectedchildren, along with markssecured by them, will be out onFebruary 4. The second list willbe out on February 21 and thenursery admission process willconclude on March 31.

Twenty-five per cent seatsin pre-school, pre-primary andClass 1 will be reserved for eco-nomically weaker sections/dis-

advantaged groups (EWS/DG).The directorate had instructedall private schools to uploadtheir criteria (with points foreach criterion) for admission inopen seats, on its official web-site by December 14. There ishowever, no clarity yet on theschedule of EWS admissions.

The government has alsoset an upper age limit of less than four years to be eligi-ble for nursery, less than fiveyears for kindergarten, andless than six years for admissionto Class 1.

The proposal for an upperage limit was challenged incourt last year. Though a DelhiHigh Court order last yearhad allowed the imposition ofthe upper age limit, the DoEhad decided that the orderwill be applicable only from2019 academic session.

Apart from the abolishedcriteria, the schools have beengiven autonomy to come upwith their own points system.

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In their bid to appeal Membersof Parliament (MPs) to extend

their support for the passage ofAnti Trafficking Bill, 2018, in theongoing Winter Session of theRajya Sabha, 13 survivors ofhuman-trafficking from differentStates came forward at a nation-al consultation on HumanTrafficking, organised by PrayasJuvenile Aid Centre (JAC) Society.

Noted Parliamentariansacross different parties D Raja(CPI), Akhilesh Prasad Singh(INC), Pradeep Tamta (INC), NGokulakrishnan (AIADMK),Satyanarayan Jatiya (BJP) andBhubaneshwar Kalita (INC)attended the consultation toextend their support.

Survivors from various sur-vivor collectives — Utthan,Vimukthi, Aazaad ShaktiAbhiyaan, Bandhan Mukti andWorker Survivor Support groupattended the consultation toshare their experiences andpoint out the gaps in legislations.

“It’s time that Indian lawshave necessary provisions totackle the complex organizedcrime of Human Trafficking. Weare thankful to the governmentfor drafting a comprehensiveand robust law which providesfor necessary tools to address the

crime and safeguards the inter-est of the victims,” Amod Kanthretired Indian Police Service(IPC) officer and founderGeneral Secretary, Prayas, said.

The survivors shared theirexperiences of human traffick-ing, ranging from sexualexploitation, bonded labour,forced marriage, organ traffick-ing, child labour, forced domes-tic labour and other forms oftrafficking. They urged forstrong mechanisms for volun-tary rehabilitation and victim-protection.

“It’s important for the Indiansociety to talk about such graveissues and therefore we reachedout to the citizens in variousparts of India and sought theirsupport in our fight againstHuman Trafficking. Collectivelywe have collected more than1.15 lakh post-cards addressedto the Prime Minister, in supportof the Trafficking of Persons, Bill2018,” said Ranjan (namechanged) a survivor of organtrafficking at the consultation.

Chandrima (name cha-nged), was trafficked at the ageof 18. She was lured into com-mercial sex trade by a neighbour.She was rescued after 7 years.“After I was rescued, we filed anFIR against my neighbour, butshe was bailed only after 20 daysin jail,” she said.

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Experts from various metrorail corporations gathered

on Friday at the second metroseminar organised by theAssociation of Public Transport(UITP) in collaboration withDelhi Metro Rail Corporations(DMRC) on building sustain-able cities, with the UnionUrban Affairs secretary urgingthe public transport sector topromote use of indigenoustechnology.

The second UITP IndianMetro Seminar saw the pres-ence of the Secretary toMinistry of Housing and UrbanAffairs and Chairman, DMRC,Durga Shankar Mishra,Managing Director of DMRC,Mangu Singh, organised, Vijaykumar Singh, ManagingDirector of National Capitalregion Transport Corporation(NCRTC).

Secretary to Ministry ofHousing and Urban Affairsand Chairman, DMRC, DurgaShankar Mishra urged theurban public transport sys-tems to promote indigenoustechnology.

The secretary alsoinformed about I-Metros, aplatform launched to facilitateexchange of information,knowledge and best practices inthe sector. “The I-Metros is theIndian version of CoMET”,said Mishra.

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Anews anchor with a privatetelevision channel died

allegedly after she fell off thebalcony of her fourth-floorapartment here early on Friday,with her family suspecting foulplay.

Radhika Kaushik, whohailed from Rajasthan, was inher house in the Antrikh ForestApartments in Sector 77 witha colleague when the incidentoccurred at around 3.30 AM,police said.

A case has been registeredunder Indian Penal Code sec-tion 302 (murder) on a com-plaint by the family of Kaushik,and the colleague has been

detained for questioning,Sector 49 police station houseofficer Girija Shankar Tripathisaid.

Both Kaushik and her col-league in Zee Rajasthan werereportedly inebriated at thetime of the incident, an officialsaid, adding liquor bottles were

recovered from the housewhere a party was heldThursday night.

"The security guard of thebuilding had alerted the policeat Sector 49 police stationabout the incident. The col-league has told police that hehad gone to her house for din-ner when she accidentally top-pled over the railing in the bal-cony of the flat," the official,who did not wish to be named,told PTI.

“The railing in the balconyis of low-height,” the officialsaid. “We are probing the causeof death,” the SHO said, addingthe body has been sent for post-mortem and the report isawaited.

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From Page 1The Haryana Government

is the first to introduce themicrobreweries pubs in its city-Gurugram in 2010. Currently,there are 45 microbreweries inGurguram and they contributealmost about �320 crore to theexcise department of Haryanagovernment annually.

“Delhi is five times biggerthan Gurugram and one canimagine how much revenue itwill generate for theGovernment.

Once the microbrewerieswill start set up in the city, theGovernment will generatearound �700-800 crore peryear. Also, it is great for tourismalso as people coming from

abroad is looking for suchproducts. Delhi was laggingthis facility but now it will final-ly get it,” said experts.

The dairy farms will alsotie with the restaurants/hotelsand pubs once the microbrew-eries starts as the waste pro-duced from this beer is nutri-tious for the cows especially thepregnant and lactating cows,they said.

Currently, the microbrew-eries facilities are available inGurugram, Mumbai, Goa,Bengaluru, Faridabad andChandigarh. The freshly man-ufactured beer will costbetween �50-60 as compared tothe packaged beer costs around�80-100.

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From Page 1On the offset partner, the

Bench noted that this issue had“triggered” the litigation as

petitioners had alleged thatthe Government gave a bene-fit to Reliance AerostructureLtd by compelling DassaultAviation to enter into a contractwith them at the cost of publicenterprise, HindustanAeronautics Ltd (HAL).

“We do not find any sub-stantial material on record toshow that this is a case of com-mercial favouritism to anyparty by the IndianGovernment, as the option tochoose the IOP (Indian offsetpartners) does not rest with theIndian Government,” it said,adding that it is neither appro-priate nor within the experi-ence of the court to step intothis arena of what is technical-ly feasible or not.

It said “mere press inter-views or suggestions” cannot form the basis for judi-cial review by the court, espe-cially when there was categor-ical denial of the statementsmade in the press by both thesides.

It said in June 2001, an in--principle approval was grant-ed to procure 126 fighter- jetsand on June 29, 2007, theDefence Acquisition Council

granted “acceptance of neces-sity” for procurement of 126Medium Multi Role CombatAircrafts (MMRCA).

The Bench noted that com-mercial bids for 126 jets wereopened in November 2011 andlater, negotiations commencedwith Dassault Aviation. OnApril 10, 2015 an Indo--Frenchjoint statement for acquisitionof 36 Rafale jets in fly-awaycondition through an IGA wasissued and later, in June 2015,the request for proposal (RFP)for 126 MMRCA was finallywithdrawn.

It said the court wasinformed that contract negoti-ations for procuring 126 fight-er jets could not be concludeddue to “unresolved issues” forover three years between theOEM and HAL.

“The need for the aircraftsis not in doubt. The quality ofthe aircraft is not in question.It is also a fact that the longnegotiations for procurementof 126 MMRCAs have notproduced any result, and mere-ly conjecturing that the initialRFP could have resulted in acontract is of no use,” it said.

It also added, “We cannot

possibly compel theGovernment to go in for pur-chase of 126 aircraft” and itwould not be correct for thecourt to sit as an “apellateauthority” to scrutinise eachaspect of the process of acqui-sition.

Former Union MinistersYashwant Sinha and ArunShourie, along with activistadvocate Prashant Bhushan,had moved the apex courtwith a plea for a direction to theCBI to register an FIR foralleged irregularities in thedeal. Before them advocates ML Sharma and Vineet Dhandaand AAP leader Sanjay Singhhad also filed pleas.

The court also said it can-not seek clause-by-clause com-pliances of DefenceProcurement Procedures(DPP) in the Rafale fighter jetdeal and opined that theprocesses have been “broadly”followed. It also expressed sat-isfaction with theGovernment’s decision-mak-ing process which led to thedeal between India and Francefor procurement of 36 Rafalejets, saying there was “no occa-sion to really doubt” it.

The top court dismissedthe key allegation that theGovernment changed the dealand decided to procure 36Rafale fighter jets instead of

126. It said, “The need for theaircraft is not in doubt. Thequality of the aircraft is not inquestion.

It is also a fact that the longnegotiations for procurementof 126 Medium Multi-RoleCombat Aircraft (MMRCA)have not produced any result,and merely conjecturing thatthe initial RFP could haveresulted in a contract is of nouse.

“The hard fact is that notonly was the contract not com-ing forth but the negotiationshad come practically to anend, resulting in a recall of theRFP. We cannot sit in judgmentover the wisdom of deciding togo in for purchase of 36 air-crafts in place of 126.”

The top court said it can-not “possibly” compel theGovernment to go in for pur-chase of 126 aircrafts. “Ourcountry cannot afford to beunprepared/under-prepared ina situation where our adver-saries are stated to haveacquired not only 4th genera-tion, but even 5th generationaircrafts, of which, we havenone.

It will not be correct for thecourt to sit as an appellateauthority to scrutinise eachaspect of the process of acqui-sition,” it said.

The Bench also took note

of the reasons, including unre-solved issues between DassaultAviation and HindustanAeronautics Limited, whichhad led to annulment of earli-er deal for procurement of 126Rafale jets.

“Man-hours that would berequired to produce the aircraftin India: HAL required 2.7times higher man-hours com-pared to the French side for themanufacture of Rafale aircraftin India,” it noted, adding“issues related to contractual obligation andresponsibility for 108 aircraftmanufactured in India couldnot be resolved.”

Indian Negotiating Team(INT) held as many as 74meetings, including 48 internaland 26 external INT meetingswith the French side, it said. “It is the case of the official respondents that theINT completed its negotia-tions and arrived at betterterms relating to price, deliveryand maintenance, as comparedto the MMRCA offer ofDassault.

This was further processedfor inter-ministerial consulta-tions and the approval of theCCS was also obtained, final-ly, resulting in signing of theagreement. This was in con-formity with the process, asper...DPP 2013,” it said.

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From Page 1In a joint statement, Sinha,

Shourie and Bhusan said thejudgment is based on completely false information. “Shocked that thejudgment is based on com-pletely false information aboutthe CAG report. No CAGreport on Rafale has been sub-mitted or examined,” the triosaid adding that this scandalwould continue to agitate pub-lic mind.

They also pointed out thatthe judgment also made errorslike Mukesh Ambani’s Relianceis shown as parent company ofAnil Ambani.

“The court mentions inpara 25 that “The pricingdetails have, however, beenshared with the CAG, and thereport of the CAG has beenexamined by the PAC.

Only a redacted portion ofthe report was placed before

Parliament, and is in publicdomain”. “All the facts men-tioned above are neither onrecord nor factually correct.

The PAC judgment hasnot been submitted to thePublic Accounts Committeeand no portion of the CAGreport has been placed beforeParliament or placed in thepublic domain.

Obviously this factuallyincorrect statement must bebased on some communication(not on record and unknown tous) made by the Government tothe court. That the court hasrelied on such communicationwhich is factually incorrect on3 counts shows how dangerousit is for the court to rely onstatements made in a sealedcover (not subject to scrutiny orverification) and give its judgement on that basis,” thepetitioners said in a detailedstatement.

From Page 1Dassault Aviation, the

makers of Rafale, had enteredinto an agreement withAmbani’s Reliance Defence Ltd(RDL) for fulfilling offset oblig-ations.

The Congress has been alleging that the govern-ment had put pressure onDassault Aviation to selectRDL as its offset partner.

The government, RDL andDassault Aviation rejected thecharges.

“We remain committed to India’s national security andto making our humble contribution towards the Makein India and Skill India policies of the Government inthe critical area of defenceincluding our offset partnership agreement withour valued partner, DassaultAviation of France,” saidAmbani.

The French firm also clar-ified that RDL was amongmany several other companiesit has chosen for implementingoffset obligations of the deal.

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Nearly 50 tigers havedied in India this

year with the highestnumber of deathsrecorded in MadhyaPradesh, the Lok Sabhawas told Friday.

Minister of State forEnvironment MaheshSharma in a writtenreply said as per figures record-ed till December 12, total tigermortality stood at 49, with 13and 10 deaths registered inMadhya Pradesh andKarnataka, respectively.

He also said around 13 ele-phant casualties in train acci-dents have been reported in2018-19 (up to November 15 in2018).

He said around 35 ele-phant died by electrocution in2018-19 (up to November 15 in2018), while three elephantshave died during the sameperiod due to poaching.

Replying to another ques-tion, he said the total numberof leopard poached during2015, 2016 and 2017 are 194and in the current year till

October, the figure is66.

Sharma said theE n v i r o n m e n tMinistry in partner-ship with the GermanD e v e l o p m e n tCooperation (throughDeutsche Gesellschaftfür InternationaleZ u s a m m e n a r b e i t(GIZ)) has approved

the Indo-German technicalcooperation project on 'HumanWildlife Conflict Mitigationin India'.

"The project aims at pro-viding technical support to thegovernment of India at thenational level and in selectedsites as pilot states likeKarnataka, Uttarakhand andWest Bengal only," he added.

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Aunique bookof original

drawings thatdraws on socialand political lifein India andabroad is going to be releasedat Open Air Gallery at TriveniKala Sangam on Saturday at 4pm. The book Manus bypainter Soumen Bhowmickwith 726 drawings is a graph-ic documentary of the con-temporary time. The unsettlingdrawings, as described by Arthistorian Johny ML, are com-mentary on social and politicalissues depicting all humanangst and emotions. Thepainter has drawn from themeslike social unrest, Syrian war,global migration, farmer's sui-cide, rape of women and chil-dren, and religious persecutiontaking place in different partsof the world. According to thepainter, who is a Delhi Collegeof Art alumnus, the pages ofManus are full of charactersthat he observed and visualizedwhile sitting around TriveniKala Sangam. The book with printed originals in actu-al size is as good as portfolio oforiginals.

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Madhya Pradesh police onFriday claimed to have

busted an online cheating rack-et running from Pakistan withthe arrest of six Indian nation-als in Madhya Pradesh.

Pushpendra Singh (27),Manish Bhalse (23), NagendraSingh (28), Sujeet Singh (22),Kiran Singh (22) and BrijendraSingh (25) were arrested forallegedly cheating people inIndia while working for aPakistani gang, said Indorepolice's Special Task Force chiefJitendra Singh.

Pushpendra Singh, hail-ing from Satna district and cur-

rently living in Indore, wasallegedly the kingpin of thegang in India, he said.

The accused were associ-ated with a Pakistani gangwhich cheated people throughthe `lottery scam', he said.

The accused sent emails topeople, saying they had wonlottery but would need to paysome money to get the awardamount. The victims would beasked to transfer the moneythrough Internet banking.

While the accusedarranged opening of bankaccounts where the moneywould be transferred, theirhandlers in Pakistan withdrewthe money.

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To stop export of livestockfrom Tuna port in Kutch

district, the Gujarat govern-ment issued a notificationFriday banning entry of cattleinto the drought-affected Kutchregion from other parts of thestate.

Making the announcementin Gandhinagar, Chief MinisterVijay Rupani said his govern-ment will not allow export ofanimals as Gujarat is a "non-violent state".

The state home depart-ment has been asked to open aspecial check-post at Tuna Portto stop export of livestock, hesaid. Animals are exportedfrom Tuna in Kutch districtmainly to West Asian countriesfor slaughter and consumption.

"The Gujarat governmenthereby makes an order pro-hibiting the movement of anycattle into any drought- affect-ed area from outside," the noti-fication issued by the agricul-ture department said.

"We issued the notification

because the livestock beingexported from Tuna is broughtfrom other parts of the state,"Rupani told reporters.

"Our government is com-mitted to stop export of live-stock. Gujarat is a non-violentstate. We will do everythingnecessary to stop such export,"the chief minister added.

Tuna Port, designated bythe Centre for livestock export,comes under the jurisdiction ofDeendayal Port Trust, Kandla.

In a letter to CustomsCommissioner at Kandla,Rupani urged him not to allowany export of animals fromTuna, as it does not have "facil-ities for Animal Quarantineand Certification" as mandat-ed by the Central authorities.

Rupani sent a similar com-munication to UnionCommerce Minister SureshPrabhu, requesting him to"instruct the concerned author-ities to not issue any permit forexport of live animals fromTuna until the specified facili-ty for Quarantine andCertification is established".

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Page 5: opinionexpress.in...2018/12/15  · Assembly elections. Pilot said the party’s manifesto will be implemented immediately. However, the name of Chhattisgarh CM has been kept under

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The Election Commission(EC) on Friday explained

the reasons that led to a delaywhich include objection relat-ed to voting machines, manda-tory tallying of electronic vot-ing machine (EVM) count withvoter-verifiable paper audittrail (VVPAT) slips, issuance ofcertificate after every round ofcounting and denying publicannounce system.

The increase in the postalballot votes, slim margins inMadhya Pradesh on many seatsand a cautious approach adopt-ed to avoid the embarrass-ment further, also the reasonsfor delay in announcement ofpolls results this year.

MP Assembly electionresults were declared 24 hoursafter counting began whileRajasthan results declared 19hours after counting began.

Unlike the quick countingof votes for the Assembly pollsin Chhattisgarh, Telangana,and Mizoram, counting inMadhya Pradesh and Rajasthanwent on at a snail’s pace, keep-ing people in general and thepolitical parties in particular ontenterhooks throughout theday on December 11.

Madhya Pradesh ChiefElectoral Officer (CEO) VLKantharao said “The delay isbecause every candidate has tobe provided a certificate afterevery round of counting.”“Right from the first round ofEVM counting at 8.30am, thecandidates were very particu-lar about checking and exam-ining every seal, tag and serialnumber of the EVMs and theircases being brought to thecounting tables. In severalcases, they raised trivial objec-tions on the seals, serial num-ber/tag number, signatures ofpolling staff on the tags, whichrequired the intervention,explaining and convincing bythe Returning Officer, District

Election Officer and Observerbefore these EVMs were takenup for counting. Even thoughno EVM was kept aside orfound tampered amongst the66,000 EVMs taken up forcounting, the process of objec-tions slowed down the rounds,”the CEO said.

The MP CEO furtherexplained that that when aresult is noted from an EVMmachine at a counting table, itis written down on part two ofForm 17C and the countingagents verify and sign on thissheets which is then photo-copied and given to them.

“Similarly, when the tabu-lation of 14 such results fromthe 14 tables in the countinghall is made into a broad sheet,it is again verified and photo-copies are distributed to thecandidates. Strict adherenceto this procedure has sloweddown the counting process,”the ECO said.

“The insistence of the can-didates to not bring the nextround of EVMs on to thecounting tables before tabulat-ed, round-wise figures are writ-ten on the blackboard/whiteboard in the counting hall andannounced in the public

announce system has deniedfive-minute time saving thathave could done in betweenrounds. With an average 22rounds of counting perAssembly constituency, thishas led to two hours of delay”.

According to Kantharao, inabout 250 cases out of 66000EVMs taken up to counting,the presiding officers had notfollowed the Close-Result-Clear (CRC) after the mockpoll done in the morning of thepoll day.

This meant that the resultof these particular EVMs hadto be obtained through thecounting of the VVPAT Slips.

The MP CEO further stat-ed that in the run of up to theLegislative Assembly elections2018, Madhya Pradesh addedabout 13,000 (21 per cent)additional polling stations ascompared to the previous elec-tions. Rajasthan’s ChiefElectoral Officer Anand Kumarsaid the reason of delay isbecause of votes in the elec-tronic voting machine (EVM)have to be matched by ran-domly selecting a VVPAT froma polling centre in eachAssembly constituency.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt has dismissed a curativepetition seeking to re-examineits verdict upholding theappointment of Gujarat cadreIPS officer Rakesh Asthana asspecial director of CBI.

The apex court rejected thecurative petition filed by NGO,Common Cause, whose reviewpetition was also earlier held tobe devoid of merits.

After an in-chamber hear-ing, a bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi,said, “We have gone throughthe curative petition and con-nected papers. In our opinion no case is made outwithin the parameters indicat-ed in the decision of this court(in the case laying down guide-lines to deal with the curativepetition).”

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices MB Lokur, AK Sikriand AM Sapre, passed theorder on December 11 and wasmade public on the apex court’swebsite on Friday.

Curative petition is heardin the chamber of judges in theabsence of lawyers.

The decision of the apexcourt came amidst a bitterfeud between Asthana and CBIDirector Alok Verma. Bothhave been divested of powersand sent on leave by the cen-tral government on October 23.

The apex court, onNovember 28, 2017, had dis-

missed the PIL filed by theNGO against the appointmentof Asthana to the post of CBIspecial director, saying it can-not question a “unanimous”decision taken by the selectioncommittee and the decision isnot illegal.

Later, the court also dis-missed the plea seeking reviewof the verdict.

The top court had saidthere cannot be any doubt thatif the statute provides for con-sultation with any personbefore making a recommen-dation for appointment to anypost, the consultation with thatperson has to be made.

The NGO in its petitionhad challenged Asthana’sappointment, saying it was ille-gal as his name had surfaced ina diary recovered during araid conducted by the IncomeTax Department at the officesand other premises of compa-ny Sterling Biotech Ltd. PTI

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The Agriculture Ministrydata shows that planting of

wheat has increased marginal-ly to 233.71 lakh hectare so farin the ongoing rabi seasonfrom the same period a yearago, but coverage of othercrops especially pulses and ricewas still lagging behind.Sowing of rabi (winter) cropsbegins from October and har-vesting from March onwards.Wheat is the main rabi crop.

Wheat was sown in 233.59lakh hectare in the same peri-od of rabi season in the 2017-18 crop year (July-June). As perthe ministry’s latest data, wheatacreage in Punjab has increasedmarginally to 34.34 lakhhectare so far this season from33.92 lakh hectare a year ago.

Similarly, the area sown towheat in Haryana hasimproved slightly to 24.11 lakh

hectare from 23.32 lakh hectarein the said period. The sowingoperation in these two States isalmost completed, while it isunderway in States especiallyRajasthan, Madhya Pradeshand Uttar Pradesh.

Farmers in MadhyaPradesh have planted wheat inmore area at 44.57 lakh hectare

so far this season when com-pared with 37.91 lakh hectarein a year ago.

However in Uttar Pradesh,wheat sowing was still laggingbehind at 76.70 lakh hectare sofar this season as against 81.90lakh hectare in the same peri-od last season.

In Rajasthan too, the

acreage was slightly down at23.49 lakh hectare as against25.42 lakh hectare in the saidperiod. As per the Ministry’sdata, total pulses area wasdown at 125.40 lakh hectare sofar this rabi season as against138.29 lakh hectare in the year-ago period.

Oilseeds acreage was alsoslightly down at 70.22 lakhhectare as against 70.58 lakhhectare in the said period.Coarse cereals area remainedlagging behind at 37.55 lakhhectare so far this rabi seasonas against 47.16 lakh hectare inthe year-ago.

Rice acreage was also downat 9.24 lakh hectare as against 12.86 lakh hectare inthe said period.

Total area sown to all rabicrops remained down at 476.12lakh hectare so far this rabi sea-son from 502.48 lakh hectare inthe year ago period.

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Ahead of the general elec-tions next year and the

defeat of the ruling BJP in theHindi heartland States’Assembly polls , the Centre hasgranted extension of service ofsix months to IntelligenceBureau (IB) chief Rajiv Jain andexternal Intelligence agencyResearch and Analysis Wing(RAW) boss Anil Dhasmana.Both were due to retire laterthis month end.

While Jain’s tenure was toend on December 30,Dhasmana was slated to retirefrom service on December 29.

The decision to extend thetenure of the two Intelligencechiefs was taken due to theforthcoming general electionand the Centre wants the newGovernment to take a decisionon the appoints for the top

posts of the covert agencies,officials said. Jain, a 1980-batch IPS officer of Jharkhand cadre, was appoint-ed IB Director on December30, 2016, for a fixed tenure oftwo years.

A recipient of thePresident’s Police Medal, Jainhas served in various depart-ments of IB, including the sen-sitive Kashmir Desk.

He was advisor to the pre-vious NDA Government’sinterlocutor on Kashmir KCPant when talks were heldwith separatist leaders likeShabbir Shah.

Dhasmana, a 1981-batchofficer from the MadhyaPradesh cadre, has been withRAW for 23 years, duringwhich he served in importantareas, including the PakistanDesk and is considered anexpert on Balochistan.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) has

launched a probe against theManaging Director of UshaMartin, the country’s largeststeel wire rope maker, in con-nection with alleged violationsof the Foreign ExchangeManagement Act (FEMA),

agency sources said on Friday.The said agency sleuths

questioned Rajeev Jhawar, the MD of the Kolkata-head-quartered firm, at their office in the capital of WestBengal on Friday.

The officials recordedJhawar’s statement under FEMA in connectionwith the purchase and regis-tration of an immovable assetin Singapore in 2013 and a fewother overseas transactions.

Jhawar is under theEnforcement Directorate’sscanner for alleged irregulari-ties in mobilising funds to cre-ate assets abroad.

The agency wants to ascer-tain the source of funds andcompliance of requiredapprovals, the sources said.Jhawar’s uncle BK Jhawar andthe latter’s son Prashant Jhawar are other promoters ofthe company.

The Competition

Commission had recentlycleared Tata Sponge Iron’sacquisition of steel business ofUsha Martin Ltd. (UML) for Rs4,300-4,700 crore. UML hadearlier said the sale of steel busi-ness to Tata Steel will help thecompany in “significant reduc-tion” of its debt.

Usha Martin is amongstthe largest wire rope manufac-turers in the world and a lead-ing producer of speciality steelin India.

New Delhi: The Government is open tothe idea of roping in “outside” agenciesfor accreditation of educational institu-tions, and IITs and IIMs have also been approached in this regard,Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekarsaid on Friday.

“To improve the quality of educa-tion, we are making the accreditationprocess more scientific and tough. TheGovernment wants to increase thestrength of the National Board ofAccreditation and the NationalAssessment and Accreditation Council so that more number of insti-tutions can be accredited,” Javadekar saidduring the national conference on“Positioning India on the GlobalEducation Map”.

“The Government is open to otheragencies taking the responsibility ofaccreditation, and IITs and IIMs havebeen asked about it ... So that more andmore institutions can be accredited,” headded.

The Union Minister said rankingand rating of education institutionsincrease competitiveness among themfor better performance.

“Today, because of the NationalInstitutional Ranking Framework, everyinstitute has constituted an internalcommittee to improve their ranking.Students also take into account the insti-tution’s ranking before taking admission,”he said.

“Graded autonomy is another majorstep by the Government to boost qual-ity education in the country. Universitieswill remain within the ambit of the UGCbut will have the freedom to start newcourses, off campus centres, skill devel-opment courses, research parks and anyother new academic programmes.

“They will also have the freedom tohire foreign faculty, enrol foreign stu-dents, give incentive-based emolumentsto the faculty, enter academic collabo-rations and run open distance learningprogrammes,” he added. PTI

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday said despitehaving “examined closely” thepricing details of the basicRafale fighter jet under theoriginal Request for Proposal(RFP) of 2007 and the oneunder the Inter-GovernmentAgreement (IGA) in 2016 to“satisfy its conscience”, it can-not go into cost comparison asit’s not the job of court.

The top court said despiteits initial disinclination to evengo into the issue of pricing, theCentre was directed to placethe cost details of the aircraft insealed cover, just to satisfy theconscience of the court.

It said the Governmenthas not disclosed the pricingdetails except for the basiccost of the aircraft even toParliament on the ground ofsensitivity of pricing details andnational security, apart fromthe issues of breach of theagreement between the twocountries — India and France.

In relief to the ModiGovernment, the SupremeCourt Friday dismissed thepleas challenging the dealbetween India and France forprocurement of 36 Rafale jetssaying there was no occasion to“really doubt the decision mak-ing process” warranting settingaside of the contract. The dealis estimated to be Rs 58,000crore, or about USD 8 billion.

A Bench of Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi, Justices SanjayKishan Kaul and KM Josephsaid the Central Governmentdespite its reluctance, placedthe material regarding costs ofthe aircrafts before the court tosatisfy its conscience.

“We have examined close-

ly the price details andcomparison of theprices of the basicaircraft along with escalationcosts as under the originalRFP (of 2007) as well as underthe IGA. We have also gonethrough the explanatory noteon the costing, item wise,” theBench said.

It noted that the pricingdetails of 36 Rafale fighter jetsare stated to be covered byArticle 10 of the IGA betweenIndia and France, which pro-vides for protection of classifiedinformation and materialexchanged under the IGA andit would be governed by theprovisions of the SecurityAgreement signed betweenboth the Governments onJanuary 25, 2008.

“It is certainly not the jobof this court to carry out a com-parison of the pricing details inmatters like the present. We sayno more as the material has tobe kept in a confidentialdomain,” the Bench said.

It added even Chief of the

Air Staff is stated to have com-municated his reservationregarding the disclosure of thepricing details, includingregarding the weaponry whichcould adversely affect nation-al security.

The Centre has claimedthat there is a commercialadvantage in the purchase of 36Rafale aircraft and that thereare certain better terms in IGAqua the maintenance andweapon package, it noted.

The pricing details werehowever shared with theComptroller and AuditorGeneral (CAG) and the reportof CAG was examined by thePublic Accounts Committeeof the Parliament and only aredacted portion of the CAGreport was placed before theParliament which is in publicdomain, the court said. PTI

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The India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) predicted

that cyclone is brewing over the Bayof Bengal and it is expected to hitAndhra Pradesh’s coast on Mondayafternoon. The cyclone is named‘Phethai’ (contributed by Thailand)in line with the naming protocol forcyclones in the North Indian Ocean.

This would be the seventhcyclone this year, starting with‘Sagar’, ‘Mekunu’ and ‘Luban’ - allin the Arabian Sea - and ‘Daye,’‘Titli,’ and ‘Gaja’ in the Bay ofBengal and third to hit south Indiain less than two months.

Gaja, Daye, Luban and Titlicaused devastation to standingcrops and taking a number of livesin southern parts of the country.The IMD predicted heavy to veryheavy rainfall has been forecast forcoastal Andhra Pradesh onDecember 16 and 17. South

Chhattisgarh and Odisha mayalso see rainfall on December 17.

“The Bay of Bengal sees approx-imately five times as many cyclonesas the Arabian Sea. In addition,cyclones in the Bay are stronger anddeadlier. But this year could be anexception in terms of the numbers.It has also been seen that nearly 58per cent of cyclones formed in theBay reach the coast, as compared toonly 25 per cent of those in theArabian Sea,” the IMD officials said.

The IMD said as expected, thelow pressure area in Bay of Bengalhas now intensified into a well-marked low pressure area and isnow seen over Central Bay ofBengal. “Conditions continue to befavourable for the system to inducea depression in the next 24 hours.In fact, we expect it to strengtheninto deep depression and furtherinto a cyclonic circulation in thesubsequent 48 to 72 hours,’ it said.

The IMD predicted that

severe cyclone would achieve amaximum intensity of windspeeds reaching up to 105 km/hrand gusting to 115 km/hr alongand off Andhra Pradesh, northTamil Nadu and Puducherrycoasts from Saturday evening.“The system would continue tomove in north northwest directionand would be heading towardsAndhra Pradesh Coast,” it said. Asthe system nears, rains wouldalso start picking up pace and wecan expect heavy to very heavyrains over South Coastal AndhraPradesh. North Coastal TamilNadu would see moderate rainswith some heavy showers.

“Sea conditions would be roughto very rough, along with highvelocity winds. We can expectwinds of 80 kmph-90 kmph gust-ing up to 110-120 kmph at the timeof landfall. Locals and fishermen areadvised not to venture out in the seafor the next three days,” officials said.

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Nearly 24 of the 90 MLAselected to the Chhattisgarh

Assembly this week have crim-inal cases against them. Theyaccount for 27 per cent of thestrength of the House, up from17 per cent in the last assembly.As per the Association forDemocratic Reforms (ADR)report, 13 of the 90 (just over 14per cent) have declared seriouscriminal cases against them-selves - bribery, attempt tomurder and death by negli-gence, among others. The com-parative number for the 2013Assembly was nine per cent.

The Congress has 68 MLAsin the new House, including 19with criminal records (28 percent). Of these, 12 MLAs havedeclared serious criminal casesagainst themselves. Ajit Jogi’sJanta Congress Chhattisgarh(J), meanwhile, has strength offive MLAs, two of whom haverecords. One of these two is

accused of serious crimes.The BJP, which lost power

after 15 years, has three MLAsout of 15 (20 per cent) with arecord, but none of them areaccused of serious crimes.ADR’s analysis revealed that 68(76 per cent) of the incomingMLAs are crorepatis, which isalmost the same as the outgo-ing Assembly’s figure of 67.

Forty-eight CongressMLAs (71 per cent), 14 fromthe BJP (93 per cent), all fiveMLAs of Jogi’s party and one ofthe BSP’s two MLAs fall in thisbracket.

“The average of assets perMLA in the Chhattisgarh 2018Assembly elections is Rs 11.63crore. In 2013, the averageassets of 90 MLAs analysed wasRs 8.88 crore,” said the ADRreport. The average assets areRs 11.83 crore for the Congress,Rs 6.32 crore for the BJP, 28.68crore for the Janta CongressChhattisgarh (J) and Rs 2.04crore for the BSP.

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�� �������������������������� ����"��'�-�������New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday said it cannotseek clause-by-clause compli-ances of Defence ProcurementProcedures (DPP) in the Rafalefighter jet deal and opinedthat the processes have been“broadly” followed. It alsoexpressed satisfaction with theGovernment’s decision-mak-ing process which led to thedeal between India and Francefor procurement of 36 Rafalejets, saying that there was “nooccasion to really doubt” it.

Top court, while junkingthe PILs challenging the Rs58,000 crore Rafale deal, exam-ined the three “broad areas ofconcern” — decision-makingprocess, difference in pricingand the choice of Indian OffsetPartner by Dassault Aviation.

Scrutinising the decision-making process, a bench head-ed by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi said though it had nooccasion to really doubt theprocess, even if there wereminor deviations then theywould not lead to annulmentof the deal. On the DPP, the

court cannot seek “clause-by-clause compliances” of theDefence ProcurementProcedures. “Broadly, theprocesses have been followed”.

The Bench, also compris-ing Justices SK Kaul and KMJoseph, said, “We have studiedthe material carefully. We havealso had the benefit of inter-acting with senior Air ForceOfficers who answered courtqueries in respect of differentaspects, including that of theacquisition process and pricing.

“We are satisfied that thereis no occasion to really doubtthe process, and even if minordeviations have occurred, thatwould not result in either set-ting aside the contract orrequiring a detailed scrutiny bythe court.” It added, “We havebeen informed that joint exer-cises have taken place, andthat there is a financial advan-tage to our nation. It cannot belost sight of, that these are con-tracts of defence procurementwhich should be subject to adifferent degree and depth ofjudicial review.” PTI

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Bengal unit of the CongressParty is planning to contest

single handedly in the nextyear’s Lok Sabha elections,party insiders say.

The Pradesh Congressleadership has been given aclear mandate by the Centralleadership to take a decision onits system of alliances, sourcessaid. The decision is the falloutof Chief Minister MamataBanerjee’s prior announcementto go it alone in the generalelections.

“Our workers are beingattacked and killed and theirhouses and properties lootedevery day by the TrinamoolCongress people. They arebeing framed in false cases. Sothe Congress plans to take onthe TMC alone on its ownstrength,” PCC presidentSomen Mitra said.

Insiders however said itspublic posturing apart, the PCCstill might wait for a “respectableoffer” from the Trinamool with-out which the party will go italone in the elections.

The PCC is divided inthree groups. The first groupled by former PCC presidentAdhir Chowdhury and StateOpposition Leader AbdulMannan who want an alliancewith the Left Front. The second

group led by the likes ofSubhankar Chakrabarty, AHKhan Chowdhury feel theCongress has no chances ofwinning without support fromthe Trinamool. The thirdgroups led by the likes of MPPradip Bhattacharya want to goit alone.

Mitra a veteran partyleader of 1960s and 70s hasasked the lower rung leaders toreach out to the people andstrengthen the organisation“where we have a bigger pres-ence.” The Congress currentlyhas four MPs in Bengal. Whiletwo seats are fromMurshidabad the two othersare from Malda district.

However the party alleges

that its organisational base hasbeen “gobbled up by theTrinamool Congress which haseither by muscle power or bylure of money forced a largenumber of our local workers tojoin their side.”

Mitra said “we will have torebuild our organisation inmany places. The victories inRajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarhshows that we still can do it evenin Bengal. If we start workingfrom now then we can definite-ly challenge the TMC.”

On whether the party willstill go with the Trinamool ifthey offer a respectable alliance,he said “they have notapproached us, neither we willgo to them begging for seats.”

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AMadras High Court orderdelivered on Thursday ask-

ing the Tamil NaduGovernment to shift 150 MBBSstudents from a private medicalcollege in Kancheepuram toGovernment run medical col-leges exposed the rot that hasset in the medical educationsystem, at least in the State.

Justice T Raja, while dis-posing a series of petitionsfiled by the students ofPonnaiyah RamajayamInstitute of Medical Sciences(PRIMS) complaining aboutthe lack of infrastructure in thecollege asked the Tamil NaduGovernment to shift the 150students from the college to the22 Government-run medicalcolleges in the State.

This is not the first time theMadras High Court is issuingan order like this. The year2017 saw the court ordering theshifting of 144 students fromAnnai Medical College andHospital to government-runmedical colleges. Dr C VKrishnaswamy, highly respect-ed medical doctor in TamilNadu told The Pioneer that theregulatory mechanism in the

State need to be beefed up tosave the students from fly-by-night operators. “Most of theprivate colleges have found tobe wanting when it comes toinfrastructure facilities andqualified teachers,” said DrKrishnaswamy.

Though the PRIMS didnot meet the mandatoryrequirements, the collegeauthorities managed to get theessentiality certificate from theState government in August2014 which authorised theinstitution to admit 150 stu-dents every year to the MBBScourse. But the Medical Councilof India opposed the move bythe Tamil Nadu government toissue essentiality certificate andLetter of Permission pointingout that PRIMS had manyshort comings. This includedshortage of outpatients, lowbed occupancy and non-avail-ability of blood bank.

But the College authoritiesmanaged to get the permissionbased on a Supreme Courtverdict based on the reportsubmitted by the OversightCommittee. The CentralGovernment issued the Letterof Permission in August 2016which allowed the intake of stu-dents from the academic year

2016-17. But the students facednumber of problems in the col-lege from day one onwardsbecause of shortcomings ininfrastructure.

Dr GR Raveendranath,general secretary, DoctorsAssociation for Social Equality(DASE), said the court orderswere reflective of the ineffi-ciency and corruption prevail-ing in the sector. “It is allbecause of the essentiality cer-tificate issued by the StateGovernment that the PRIMScould commence MBBS course.The fact that an essentiality cer-tificate was issued to an insti-tution which does not meet themandatory requirements itselfhas to be probed comprehen-sively,” said Dr Raveendranath.

He also pointed out thatadmitting students from privatemedical colleges to govern-ment run colleges was counterproductive in all respects. “Thegovernment-run colleges havealready filled the classes withstudents. There is a student-teacher ratio as well as otherlimitations in the governmentcolleges. Admitting studentsmidway in the course cause lotof hardship to other studentsand teachers,” saidRaveendranath.

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In a sad commentary on thefunctioning of the Central

Bureau of Investigation (CBI),a Pune court on Friday grant-ed bail to the three accused inthe Narendra Dabholkar mur-der case, after the CBI failed tofile a supplementary charge-sheet in the case within thestipulated 90 days.

Pune’s First Class JudicialMagistrate SMA Sayyed grant-ed bail to accused Amol Kale,Rajesh Bangera and AmitDegvekar, after the CBI failedto file the chargesheet againstthem within the stipulated 90days after their arrest.

The relief to three accusedcame a day after they movedthe court for bail on the groundthat the CBI had not soughtadditional time from the courtto file the supplementarycharge-sheet under section 43of the Unlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA).

Kale, Bangera andDegvekar are also accused in thejournalist Gauri Lankesh mur-der case. The CBI had arrestedBangera and Degvekar onSeptember 1, while Kale wasarrested on September 3. The

CBI had in the first week ofSeptember obtained the custodyof Kale, Bangera and Degvekarfrom the Katnataka’s SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) inves-tigate their links with theDabholkar murder case.

The contention of the threeaccused was that neither thechargesheet was filed underIPC nor did the CBI seek addi-tional time from the court tofile the supplementary charge-sheet under UAPA.

At Friday’s hearing, a requestwas made on behalf the CBI thatthe probe agency be given timetill December 20 to file thechargesheet on the ground thatits officials were pre-occupiedwith some other work in Delhi,the CBI. However, MagistrateSayyed rejected the CBI’s requeston the ground that it should havefiled the chargesheet onWednesday when the 90-daydeadline expired.

However, there have been

many occasions in the pastwhen the Bombay High Courthad pulled up the CBI for theinordinate delay in completinginvestigations in the NarendraDabholkar murder case.

The Supreme Court hadsaid on Tuesday that if there wasa “common thread” among themurders of social activistsNarendra Dabholkar, GovindPansare, journalist GauriLankesh and rationalist M MKalburgi, then one agency couldinvestigate all the four cases.

Sixty nine-year-old anti-superstition campaignerDabholkar was shot dead himfrom a point blank range by twomotor-bicycle riding gunmen —aged between 25 and 30 years,while he was taking a morningwalk on the Omkareshwarbridge located in the heart ofPune, on August 20, 2013.

Gauri Lankesh (55) wasshot gunned down outside herBengaluru residence on

September 5, 2017. She was theeditor in Lankesh Patrike, aKannada weekly started by herlate father P. Lankesh. AfterLankesh’s death, Gauri used toher own weekly called GauriLankesh Patrike.

With the State police hav-ing failed to make any headwayin the investigations into theDabholkar murder case, theBombay High Court had trans-ferred the case to the CBI onMay 9, 2014, after overrulingthe objections raised by theMaharashtra Government. TheCBI had registered a case onJune 2, 2014, on the highcourt’s orders.

It was the Karnataka SITthat arrested Kale, Bangeraand Degvekar first in connec-tion with the Dabholkar mur-der case. The CBI, which ishelped by the MaharashtraAnti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) inthe investigations, has a strongreason to believe that the samepistol was used by the miscre-ants in killing both Dabholkarand Gauri Lankesh.

While Kale is former Puneunit convenor of HinduJanajagruti Samiti, an affiliateoutfit of Sanathan Sanstha,Digvekar was a promter ofSanatan Sanstha’s publicationthe Sanatan Prabhat. Bangeraallegedly trained two sharpshooters Sachin Andhure andSharad Kalaskar in handlingthe pistol.

�� �� �8-%4>6

Prime Minister NarendraModi’s visit to Rae Bareli,

the parliamentary constituen-cy of United ProgressiveAlliance (UPA) chairpersonSonia Gandhi, on December 16could throw some surprises asthere is a possibility that rebelAam Admi Party (AAP) leaderand poet Kumar Vishwas mayjoin the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in his presence.

Though sources close to thepoet denied such a move, andthere is a tradition that no pol-itics is involved during thePrime Minister’s function,sources in the BJP confirmed inLucknow on Friday that thereis a strong possibility of KumarVishwas joining the party.

“There isa surprise foryou. Wait tillSunday,” asenior BJPleader said. In2014, KumarVishwas con-tested the LokSabha electionfrom Amethi constituency onAAP ticket and in 2019 hecould be the BJP candidate inplace of Union TextilesMinister Smriti Irani.

But sources in the BJPclaimed that Vishwas could beshifted to Rae Bareli to contestagainst Sonia Gandhi, whileIrani could contest against RahulGandhi from Amethi again.

Lucknow: Sleuths of theSpecial Task Force have soughtthe help of Nepal police toarrest prime accused inBulandshahr violence and Bajrang Dal’s city chiefYogesh Raj.

The violence which erupt-ed in Bulandshahr onDecember 3 claimed the livesof the Inspector of Syana policestation and a local youth.

“We have inputs that toavert his arrest, Raj has fled toNepal. We are in contact withour Nepalese counterparts andare trying to drop the net onthe mastermind ofBulandshahr violence,” said asenior STF officer posted inwest UP.

On Thursday night, the STFteam arrested another accused,identified as Saurabh Payal, fromBulandshahr. He was producedin a local court on Friday morn-ing and the court sent him to jail.Earlier, the probe agencies hadarrested armyman Jitendra Malikaka Jeetu Fauji in connectionwith the Bulandshahr violence.Later, a hunt was launched forarresting some aides of thearmyman who were at the sceneon the fateful day.

Interestingly, all accusednamed in the FIR and with saf-fron links have been freelyuploading videos on social sitesand giving interviews, pleadingtheir innocence, but the lawenforcers have preferred to lookthe other way. PTI

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Page 7: opinionexpress.in...2018/12/15  · Assembly elections. Pilot said the party’s manifesto will be implemented immediately. However, the name of Chhattisgarh CM has been kept under

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With former MinisterSenthil Balaji joining the

DMK on Friday, the process ofdisintegration of the AIADMKhas reached the full steam.Hundreds of his followers tooaccompanied Balaji in his jour-ney from Karur to Chennai andthen to the DMK headquartersat Mount Road in the metro.

Balaji and his followerswere welcomed into the DMKby party chief MK Stalin. It wasa home coming for SenthilBalaji who had left the DMK in2000 to join the AIADMK andwas elected thrice to theLegislative Assembly in theparty ticket.

“The AIADMK is a sinkingship and Thalapathi (Tamil forcommander, as Stalin isaddressed by his followers) is theonly leader who is capable ofresuscitating Tamil Nadu fromthe clutches of the BJP,” Balajitold reporters after enrollinghimself as a DMK volunteer.

Hereafter he will addressStalin as Thalapathi andJayalalithaa as Jayalalithaa.Before reaching Chennai onFriday morning, Balaji and hisfollowers had removed the pic-tures of Jayalalithaa andSasikala from their shirt pock-ets, cars and SUVs. By the timethey left the DMK head quar-ters, all vehicles in the motor-cade accompanying Balaji spot-ted pictures of Stalin andKarunanidhi.

TTV Dhinakaran, generalsecretary of Amma MakkalMunnetra Kazhagam (AMMK),the breakaway faction of the

AIADMK launched by VKSasikala (aide to late JJayalalithaa) wished SenthilBalaji as the best in his newinnings in the DMK. “I don’tknow why he decided to leaveus. If he had any genuine prob-lems and had told us about it,we could have sorted it out,” saidDhinakaran in Friday. Balaji wasa camp follower of Dhinakaranand the AMMK before he casthis lots with the DMK.

G Satyamurthy, politicalcommentator and columnistsaid the exit of Balaji was notgoing to make any impact onthe fortunes of the AIADMK orthe AMMK. “Both are fast dis-integrating and I do not knowwhether the AIADMK wouldsurvive the 2021 Assemblyelection. The ground report isthat the AIADMK would bewiped out in the Lok Sabhaelection,” said Satyamurthywho is also sceptical about thestrength of Dhinakaran.

“AIADMK does not have a

charismatic leader who couldmatch the calibre of Jayalalithaato pull it through the troubledtimes. I am not sure about thecapabilities of Dhinakaran,”said Satyamurthy. He also saidSenthil Balaji joining the DMKis also media hype. “You waitfor a couple of weeks and seewhat happens to him andDhinakaran. Tamil Nadu pol-itics is getting churned,” he said.

Dr V Mythreyan, MP andsenior leader of the AIADMKsaid there is no possibility of hisparty’s merger with theDhinakaran faction. “OPanneerselvam, our convener,has made it clear that there isno question of aligning with theSasikala family dominatedparty and the subject endsthere,” Mythreyan said.

This puts to rest at least forthe time being, reports aboutthe possibilities of mergerbetween the rival factionswhich were being highlightedby the local media.

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In a freak mishap, a 22-year-old college student collapsed

and died during a tug of wargame at Somaiya College atVidya Vihar in north-eastMumbai late on Thursdayevening.

A resident of Thane city,Jibbin Sunny was leading oneof the two teams in the tug ofwar game when the incidenttook place.

The tournament had beenorganised as part of the college’sannual sports day

The video footage of the mishap, which wentviral on Friday, showed that Sunny collapsed after he putthe rope around his neck and pulled it with more power.

Sunny was rushed to thenearby Rajawadi Hospitalwhere he died during treat-ment.

While the cause of deathwas not immediately known,Sunny’s body has been sent forpost-mortem.

This is perhaps the first death that taken placein the metropolis during a tugof war game.

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Hitting out at the Congresspresident, Uttar Pradesh

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanathsaid Rahul Gandhi told liesabout the Rafale fighter aircraftdeal and he should apologise tothe people and defence per-sonnel for spreading canards toget political mileage.

“The oldest political partyof the country has failed to per-form its duty. It has threatenedthe nation’s security andintegrity by questioning theRafale deal which was initiat-ed by their government but waslater shelved as they could not

find any middleman like(Ottavio) Quattrocchi or(Christian) Michel,” the Chief Minister said whilespeaking to news persons inLucknow on Friday.

Yogi was reacting to aSupreme Court judgement inwhich a three-member benchgave a clean chit to the Rafaledeal. The judgement came as ashot in the arm for the saggingmorale of the Bharatiya JanataParty, which promptly used theverdict as a hammer to beat theCongress.

The Chief Minister alsoasked the Congress why its gov-ernment delayed the Rafale

deal during its tenure from2007 to 2014.

“Was the party in powersearching for brokers like theydid during the previous defencedeals?” Yogi asked in an obliquereference to the Bofors deal.

Yogi said that RahulGandhi should also disclose thesource of his information onRafale deal as it seemed that hisstatement against the govern-ment was an attempt to weak-en the country’s security.

“The statements made bythe Congress chief were morealarming as neighbouringcountries are equipped with thelatest aircraft and other defence

technology,” he said.The Chief Minister also

suggested to the judiciary notto entertain frivolous publicinterest petitions (PILs) whichcould affect the security andintegrity of the country.

“This is a fact that thesePILs were filed just to reappolitical mileage and defamethe government. The courtshould take strict action againstsuch PILs,” he said.

Yogi welcomed the deci-sion of the SC in rejecting allpetitions filed against the Rafaleaircraft deal and claimed thatthe judiciary’s verdict was aclear indication that nothing

was wrong in the deal.“The SC judgement has

exposed the false propagandaof the Congress. The grand oldparty defamed the Central gov-ernment and the BJP merely forpolitical reasons,” Yogi said.

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The decision of ChiefMinister HD

Kumaraswamy and coalitionpartner Congress to appointPratap Chandra Shetty, aCongress leader from coastalKarnataka as Chairman of theLegislative Council (upperHouse) has made both theJD(S) and the Congress leadersfuming against the decision ofthe Chief Minister.

The decision has upset theformer pro tem chairman ofthe council (of the JD(S))Basavaraja Horatti and theCongress leader SR Patil( whowas Siddaramaiah’s candidate)both Lingayat leaders haveopenly criticised the Congressand the JD(S). Along with itanother powerful Lingayatleader from north Karnatakaand former water resourceMinister MB Patil also direct-ly hit at Kumaraswamy andmany say this might help BJP

to consolidate in favour of theparty which is playing Lingayatcard successfully in many elec-tions. The Lingayat dramaunfolded in the ongoingWinter Session of the Assemblywhere Kumaraswamy is facingthe heat both inside and theoutside. Sugarcane farmers areprotesting and pressuring forthe MSP and also to get thedues cleared.

The Lingayats are a pow-erful community which con-stitute over 19 per cent of thestate population. The BJP hasbeen polarising Lingayat voteskeeping its strongman from thesame community BSYeddyurappa and this mighthelp them to work out a strat-egy in the ensuing 2019 generalelections.

Even though the Congressvictory in the Hindi heartlandhas given ammunition to thecoalition partners, the centuryold party has failed to douse thefire. In another political devel-

opment Siddaramaiah who isthe chairman of the coordina-tion committee of the coalitionGovernment has cut short hisforeign visit and back inBengaluru to handle the chang-ing political developments.

Many Congress MLAs arewaiting for the December 22for the Cabinet expansion.According to sources after the

victory in MP, Rajasthan andChhattisgarh the party may notexpand the Cabinet whichmight lead to more dissent inthe party.

The State Governmentsacceptance on the floor of thehouse that only 800 farmers havebenefited from the �49,000 crorefarm loan waiver till now hasgiven ammunition to the BJPand also dissidents within thecoalition partners.

A senior Congress leadersaid “the party which extend-ed support to JDs to form thegovernment has ignored theLingayat leaders in the partywho were involved in themovement for a separate andminority religion tag to thecommunity. The Centre alsorejected their demand and theleaders who led the movementare left in a lurch in process”.

Soon after stepping downas the pro-tem chairman of thelegislative council, BasavarajaHoratti, blamed his leader

Kumaraswamy and asked himnot become a rubber stamp.

He said , “I want to tell myleader and Chief MinisterKumaraswamy not to end up asa mere rubber stamp of theCongress. My party asked me tofile the nomination but after werealised that the Congress wasfielding its candidate, we backedout to save the coalition fromembarrassment,” he added.

He said, “The Congressdrove a hard bargain for theportfolios during the cabinetformation. They had thendemanded the speaker’s postwhile agreeing to give thechairman’s post to the JD(S).But now, they have unilateral-ly decided to stake claim to thecouncil top post. Can you runa coalition without rules?”

Former water resourcesminister MB Patil of theCongress has questioned theGovernment on North-Southdisparity when it comes toallocation of prime positions by

the Congress is miffed with theparty over not being given aCabinet berth. He said “morenumber of Congress legislators(41) had been elected fromnorth Karnataka, but only fiveof them had been made min-isters. In contrast, 36 legislatorshave been elected from SouthKarnataka, but nine of themhave been made ministers”.

“All the prime portfolios likeHome, Water Resources, RuralDevelopment and PanchayatRaj have gone to legislatorsfrom South Karnataka.Important positions like DeputyChief Minister, Speaker of theAssembly, Chairman of theCouncil too have gone to legis-lators from the South” he added.

He said he will be writinga letter to Congress presidentRahul Gandhi regarding this.“This disparity should go andthe imbalance should be setright. The post of chairmanshould have gone to SR Patil,”he added.

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The 11th edition of annualrejuvenation camp for tem-

ple elephants in Tamil Nadubegan at Thekkampatti on thebanks of Bhavani River onFriday.

State Hindu Religious andCharitable EndowmentsMinister Sevoor SRamachandran inauguratedthe camp along with forestminister Dindigul Serinivasanand Municipal AdministrationMinister S P Velumani.

Ramachandran said 27 ele-phants from various templesand mutts had been brought forparticipation in the 48-daycamp, a pet project of lateChief Minister Jayalalithaa.

Adequate medical care willbe provided to the elephants atthe camp, with special veteri-narian teams, he said addingnutritious food with special dietwould be given.

Meanwhile, about 40 farm-ers of surrounding 23 villagesattempted to stage a picketingof the road near the venue,opposing the camp at the loca-tion, claiming threat to the peo-ple and crops by wild ele-phants which stray into theirarea in view of the presence oftemple jumbos.

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Adawn-to-dusk shutdowncalled by the BJP to protest

against the death of a man saidto be a Sabarimala devoteederailed Kerala on Friday,sparking widespread anger overthe disruption to normal life.

The 50-year-oldVenugopalan Nair set himselfon fire at a BJP protest venueon Thursday and succumbed tohis injuries in a hospital here.

But in his dying declaration, hemade no mention of theSabarimala temple.

Before being taken to thepublic crematorium, his bodywas brought to the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) protestvenue where party leaders paidtheir last respect.

But the rationale for calling the shutdown cameunder fire from the rulingCPI-M, Congress, businessgroups as well as the man onthe street.

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Jammu & Kashmir hasbecome the first State in the

country to have a law banning sexual exploitation ofwomen by those in positions of authority, having afiduciary relationship or a pub-lic servant.

The State AdministrativeCouncil (SAC) under the chairmanship of Governor Satya Pal Malik onFriday approved the‘Prevention of Corruption(Amendment) Bill, 2018’ andthe ‘Jammu & KashmirCriminal Laws (Amendment)Bill, 2018’, an officialspokesman said.

The Jammu & KashmirCriminal Laws (Amendment)Bill, 2018 seeks to amend the Ranbir Penal Code,whereby specific offence undersection 354 E is being inserted to provide for the offence of ‘sextortion’, hesaid.

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Key NDA constituent JD(U)on Friday made it clear that

it was not in favour of pro-mulgation of an ordinance tofacilitate the construction ofRam temple in Ayodhya,demand for which has beenmade by the sangh parivarand a section of the BJP.

JD(U) national general sec-retary Ram Chandra PrasadSingh said the party will stickto its earlier stand it had takenon the issue in its earlier avataras the Samata Party which was— the issue either be solved bymutual consent between theaffected communities or decid-ed by a court of law.

There should be no confu-sion in the minds of the peo-ple with regard to our stand onRam temple issue at Ayodhya.If an ordinance is promulgat-ed to facilitate construction ofthe temple, our party will notsupport it, he said.

“Since the Samata Partydays, we have been in favour ofa resolution of the dispute bymutual consent or through acourt order. We brook no thirdalternative,” Singh, who is alsothe party’s leader in the RajyaSabha and a confidant of Chief

Minister Nitish Kumar toldreporters here.

Even before walking out ofthe NDA in 2013, the JD(U)had always insisted that abro-gating Article 370, Ram templein Ayodhya and Uniform CivilCode should be kept out of thecoalition agenda. JD(U), head-ed by Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar, is running acoalition Government with theBJP in Bihar.

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Mumbai: On a day theSupreme Court dismissed pleaschallenging the Rafale deal,PDP chief Mehbooba Muftisaid the BJP should also waitfor the apex court’s verdict onthe Babri Masjid issue.

In a relief to the ModiGovernment, the SupremeCourt on Friday dismissed thepleas challenging the dealbetween India and France forprocurement of 36 Rafale jetssaying there was no occasion to“really doubt the decision mak-

ing process” warranting settingaside of the contract.

“Like the Rafale decisionwas welcomed, I hope they (theBJP) will wait for the decision (ofSupreme Court) on Babri Masjidas well and won’t start pointingfingers at the SC. We have aninstitution which is highlyrespected,” Mehbooba said.

She was replying to ques-tions at an event held by the Observer ResearchFoundation (ORF).

The Rashtriya

Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) hasbeen demanding an ordinanceor a law to build a Ram templein Ayodhya at the earliest. Ithad also criticised the SupremeCourt’s decision to defer thehearing in the land disputecase, saying it “hurt” Hindusentiments.

Several Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) leaders have alsosupported RSS chief MohanBhagwat’s push for the law toenable the construction of Ramtemple. PTI

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Page 8: opinionexpress.in...2018/12/15  · Assembly elections. Pilot said the party’s manifesto will be implemented immediately. However, the name of Chhattisgarh CM has been kept under

Young Ahalya from Kollam, whogrew up in a pineapple farm,loved the fruit’s colours so muchthat she decided to express her-self through them and turned

painter. As she filled up her canvas with intri-cate scenes of plantation life, replicating herhard-working parents’ faces on the figuresthat peopled it, she surrounded them withhills and forests, nature in a flaming surgeas it were, pushing the pylons of civilisationin a distant greyness. Her fellow artists havepicked up a morbid rubble tossed up by theKerala floods and strung them to a twistedspinal cord, which is straightening itself ina desperate lunge at survival. There’sPangrok Sulap from Malaysian Borneo,another artist born of the soil, dancing ona canvas spread taut on wood-cut blocksdepicting farm life and issues, his happy feetimprinting his memories of them. All ofthem have stitched together their peasantorigins and come together at the KochiMuziris Biennale, which is unshackling artfrom the confines of rarefied thought andelitism to listen to the sub-terranean voic-es and helping them stake a claim in con-temporary discourse.

If art biennales are meant to rearticu-late the times, then the Kochi edition hasclearly pushed key frontiers in global dia-logue, snapping the exclusionary stiffness ofart fairs and museums, where the plight ofthe dispossessed is merely the motif and notthe felt anguish of those who go through it.As its curator, artist Anita Dube hasattempted to explore “possibilities of a non-alienated world” and managed to address theelephant in the room, to create a safe pub-lic sphere where we can think freely,exchange ideas, ask questions of ourselves,have conversations and dialogue rather thanideological loud-mouthing and best of allprovide a safe pedagogic haven where peo-ple do not feel threatened, judged or notqualified enough. In this respect, the Kochibiennale has fully given credence to sociol-ogist Pierre Bourdieu’s argument for theneed to create a social and cultural capitaljuxtaposed to the economic one. He haddefined “cultural capital” as that which deter-mined the “tastes” of society, which, if notwholesome and representative enough, canperpetuate a cycle of privilege instead ofbreaking it down. Museums and galleriesmay lend us access to all sorts of artworkthat have emerged as an interpretation ofhistory, context and archives but what of sen-sitive story-telling? Will it be a projectionof an idea rather than a humane experience?The Kochi biennale hasn’t talked down, ithas allowed everyone to come in. Or asDube described it, enfolded them in the “dis-cursive frame of culture.” Be it an attemptat post-colonial redemption by the West, theresolution of anxieties, the fluidity of iden-tities, the retrieval of protest poetry fromconflict zones, the reinstatement of women’s

dues, like that of the selflessMalayali nurses, the cry for eco-logical justice, the siege ofmicro-cultures or the much-revered cow head turning intoa fist of agrarian assertion,every voice has been respectedand interpreted in concrete,tactile and visually explosiveterms. For public engagement ofart cannot happen unless itappeals to our sensorium. Andtill that is done, till art alsobecomes a source of pleasure,populism will continue to cedespace to majoritarian mono-logues. Should that be easilyhanded over? Shouldn’t pop-ulism be a happy prospect thanbe demonised as a takeover toolof everybody’s trade?

In that sense, the Kochibiennale has already startedthe process of culture reclama-tion as a democratic nurturingof ideas, not a handed downrewriting of scripts. Muziriswas an ancient port on theMalabar coast, our first point ofglobalisation over centuries asmerchant ships plied the spiceroutes and broke down barriersfor a confluence and assimila-tion of cultures. Perhaps thisbiennale rescued that ancientspirit and applied it to the cur-rent context.

For Kerala, a State that wasravaged brutally by the floodsbarely a hundred days ago —1.5million people displaced and200,000 lives lost —the biennalehas been a huge palliative.Many had questioned if theGovernment should go throughwith this edition and not divert

the usual funds to the recon-struction process. But ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan want-ed to send out the message thatKerala is resilient and meansbusiness. The spinoff effects onthe economy by way of tourism,services and infrastructure arefor all to see. The laid-back FortKochi area is now a bustle, thewaterways have emerged astransport corridors ferryingpeople from one island toanother, the local youth havesigned up as volunteers andmost residents have opened uphomestays and cafes.Warehouse owners, who dobooming business in a porttown, have let out spaces forthree months to make way forinstallation artists. And aban-doned houses are getting a newlease of life. More so, the peo-ple of Kochi, who have virtual-ly owned this art event as theirbadge of pride through thepast years, don’t want to let goof it. Students and young peo-ple are toggling assignmentsand work to play hosts andcoordinators. Thousands of car-penters are at work, helpingerect structures and artworks,the caterers have never beenbusier, feeding visitors on theroadside and the auto wallahshave replaced the need forGoogle maps.

The Chief Minister himselfinaugurated the biennale, lend-ing a heft to proceedings andinsisting in his speech that thetraumatised State indeed need-ed to heal itself through art. Thebiennale has done up drab

walls in hospitals and dressedup worn out facades withcolourful murals to mask thedarkness of pain. Over theyears, organisers have reachedout to schools and made entryfree on certain days for the com-mon people to access andembrace a different form ofexpression. This is the processby which an auto rickshaw dri-ver like Bapi Das was inspiredenough to embroider histhoughts on fabric, now onprominent display. Or a run-away like Vicky Roy, who grewup in a shelter home near theNew Delhi Railway station andwho was trained in a photogra-phy workshop, to reframe theurbanscape through his lensand awaken us to the trickle-down effects of societal statutesand policy-making. LikeAhalya, they were not empow-ered by birth, be it in terms ofaccess to language or chance.They evolved on their own,organically and untutored.Kerala clearly isn’t shedding atear for itself.

Of course, what’s art with-out the political subtext? Andthere were plenty at the biennaleposited against the visual epi-demic of clichés on other media.At a time when the womenartistes’ collective have articu-lated their brand of #MeToo inthe Malayali film industry andfaith debates on Sabarimalacontinue to hover over awoman’s right to enter theshrine, the biennale has had itsfirst woman curator and devot-ed more than 50 per cent of the

works to women artists. TheGuerrilla Girls, who have beentalking about sexism in the artsfield through provocative slo-gans and street performances,have plastered the town withplacards, asking questions aboutwhether women are only goodas models for artists and ifgallery staff get respectable pay.Kashmiri artist Veer Munshihas recreated a Sufi shrine withlacquer coffins of the young,arguing for the middle path indialogues and a return to civil-isational contiguity that hasbeen torn asunder by extrem-ism. A young performanceartist frisks entrants to peaceful-ly demonstrate his angst ofgrowing up behind the wiredquarters. That speaks louderthan the gun.

In the end, art anywhereshould be about the relationaldynamic between the creatorand the audience. Only then canit be a vibrant cultural asset andoffset hierarchies set by eco-nomic and political structures.Or to borrow words from theGuerrilla Girls, “Don’t let muse-ums reduce art to a small num-ber of artists who have won apopularity contest among big-time dealers, curators and col-lectors. If museums don’t showart as diverse as the cultures theyclaim to represent, tell themthey’re not showing the histo-ry of art, they are just preserv-ing the history of wealth andpower.” The sea winds havebrought a whiff of life to Kochi.

(The writer is AssociateEditor, The Pioneer)

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Sir — Retired Lieutenant GeneralDS Hooda, who was the formerGeneral Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Army’s NorthernCommand in September 2016when the surgical strikes tookplace, rightly spoke against thepoliticising of military opera-tions. Surgical strikes were part ofa necessary counter-offensive ofthe Army in retaliation to the Uriterror attack in which 19 Indiansoldiers were killed by Pakistaniterrorists.

Hooda said that it was natur-al to have initial euphoria aboutthe success, but the constantmaintenance of hype over militaryoperations was unwarranted.Indeed, a constant political show-casing of a military strike can doa two-fold damage. First, a con-stant political chest-thumping foran Army operation can haveadverse effects on our relationswith neighbouring countries.Second, if it turns into politicalasset for one political party, it willsend a wrong impression that theentire country is divided in termsof defence policy.

Sujit DeKolkata

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Rahul’s day dawns”(December 12). The Assemblyelections must prod the BJP toacknowledge the relevance ofthe much maligned dynasty of theCongress and that it is but a formof orchestrating individualstrengths to optimise collective

results. The Indira Gandhi regimeof imperious central diktats sawthe party gradually losing cohe-sion at grass roots. Tall regionalsatraps could yet hold the party,but with the loss of RajasekharReddy of Andhra Pradesh, theparty plunged into decline.Clearly, the dynasty was effectiveso long as its president producedresults. See what the lack ofdynasty has done to the

AIADMK, whose faction fight isa textbook case for the SamajwadiParty.

Congress chief Rahul Gandhiseems to have learnt the lessonswell. His persuasive style had thefrontline leaders, be it Rajasthanor Madhya Pradesh, to put partyneeds above personal ambitions.His task now is to keep that espritde corps going and showcase thesame for the 2019 LS elections.

Meanwhile, the BJP too mustponder now that its centrally dri-ven one-man party apparatushas proved fallible. Nor can thePrime Minister carry the soleonus of campaigning. The partyneeds many more shoulders andgiven its poor bench strengthtoday, it is left with little time topromote fresh talent.

R NarayananNavi Mumbai

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Rahul’s day dawns”(December 12). The BJP was, per-haps, too over-confident of win-ning the Hindi-speaking belt.But they lost because of emptypromises. The results should be aneye-opener for the party. Risingproblems, like farm and rural dis-tress as also urban angst played acrucial role in the erosion of theBJP’s support base. Understandingthe problems faced by people willremain crucial to fight the nextGeneral election.

Jubel D’CruzMumbai

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Page 9: opinionexpress.in...2018/12/15  · Assembly elections. Pilot said the party’s manifesto will be implemented immediately. However, the name of Chhattisgarh CM has been kept under

The Preamble to theConstitution of India clearlystates that India is a sover-

eign, socialist, secular, democraticrepublic. But as the ongoing pub-lic discourse of our political mas-ters clearly shows, we are more ademocracy and less a republic. Wemay not truly be aware of the sub-tle difference between the two oreven be bothered to give this aspectmuch thought. But make no mis-take, if we are to progress and devel-op as a nation, we cannot do with-out either. History tells us that theterm ‘democracy’ originated fromthe Greek words ‘demos’, the com-mon people, and ‘kratos’ orstrength. The first democracy wasthe city of Athens in 508-507 BC

where Cleisthenes, known as thefather of Athenian democracy,introduced the concept of rule bythe common people. However, rep-resentational democracy, as weknow it today, is very different fromwhat was practised then and istoday defined by its one major char-acteristic “rule of the majority”,which can easily devolve into mobrule or tyranny of the majority, oreven worse, anarchy.

Benjamin Franklin once said:“Democracy is two wolves and alamb voting on what to have forlunch.” The only thing that keepsthe lamb off the lunch menu is thefact that we are a republic — not aperfect one but still one nonethe-less. What that basically implies isthat the country is not a privateconcern of the rulers but is consid-ered a “public matter” and belongsto each one of us regardless of caste,creed, gender or ethnicity. Whilethis obviously demands that ourrulers are elected and not inherit-ed, as quite a few tends to be, moreimportantly, it requires them to rule

for the common good, an aspect ofgovernance on which philosophers,such as Plato and Aristotle, wrotevolumes. This is, of course, onlypossible when there are a set of lawsand those elected as leaders followthem both in letter and spirit.

Unfortunately over the past fewdecades, common good seems to beignored in the face of parochial andself-serving interests of our leaders,as the rule of law is often ignored orrendered irrelevant. It is no wonderthen that our legislatives at theCentre and States have a surfeit ofmembers facing criminal charges —1,765 MPs and MLAs at last count,or 36 per cent facing over 3,500cases as per the Government;though some contend the numbersare vastly understated.

While the Supreme Court maywell view the entry of criminals intolegislative bodies as akin to “termiteto the citadel of democracy,” it can-not make laws to keep them out.That, the court said, is the domainof Parliament, an institution that isyet to show a firmness of resolve to

stem the rot. Ironically, it is theactions of the apex court itselfwhich gave a fillip to criminals join-ing politics with its farcical rulingin the infamous JMM bribery case,involving the bribing of MPs todefeat a no-confidence motionbrought against the then PrimeMinister PV Narasimha Rao’sGovernment way back in 1993.These allegedly corrupt MPs wereunashamed and blatant enough toopenly deposit the bribe money ina public sector bank. They weresubsequently prosecuted under thePrevention of Corruption Act butwere absolved by the SupremeCourt’s interpretation of Article 105of the Constitution. This Articlestates that (1) MPs shall enjoyfreedom of speech in Parliamentand (2) shall not be held liable toany proceedings in any court inrespect of anything said or any votegiven in Parliament.

The court held that the allegedbribe-takers, who had voted in theHouse, were “entitled to the immu-nity conferred by Article 105(2)”. It

also went on to direct that thebribe-givers must be prosecuted, asalso the bribe-takers who did notvote. Certainly, a unique legal jus-tification for the concept of honouramong thieves.

The apex court has nowattempted to correct the existingstate of affairs by directing theGovernment to set up 12 fast-trackspecial courts to try cases against thelegislators.

In addition, it has also directedall political parties, which give tick-ets to persons with criminal casespending against them, to publicisethe information on the party web-sites, apart from issuing a declara-tion in “widely circulated” newspa-pers and on electronic media afterthe nomination is filed.

However, there is little doubtleft that the “centre of gravity”seems to have shifted in favour ofthe criminal legislators and theyseem to have become indispensableto parties for grabbing power. Thesad truth is that actions taken by theSupreme Court now are of little

consequence, nothing more thanclosing the barn door after thehorse has bolted.

While regular and reasonablyfair elections have ensured that wecontinue to enjoy the fruits of avibrant democracy, the same can-not be said for the state of ourRepublic. The gradual decline ofvalues and the rule of law haveensured that the common good isof little concern to our political classwho are quite happy with the sta-tus quo. Neither the judiciary northe bureaucrats can bring aboutchange for the better that isrequired. It is, therefore, left to thecommon citizen to act. If we do notstand up and reclaim the space, wehave conceded to criminals andother low-life who now sit in judg-ment over us. It will be our childrenwho will pay the price in the com-ing years.

(The writer is a military veter-an, a Consultant with the ObserverResearch Foundation and VisitingSenior Fellow with The PeninsulaFoundation, Chennai)

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The results of the Assembly electionsheld in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh,Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizorammust have sent jitters down the spineof the BJP leadership. The seniors had

never expected this kind of a drubbing, thinkingtheir schemes were indeed people-friendly whentheir implementation was skewed. In contrast, theoutcome has also done a lot to rejuvenate theCongress and Opposition leaders, who are all nowrallying behind the leadership of Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi. The BJP, however, has notbeen totally routed. It retains a fair share of thevote pie in spite of anti-incumbency in the threeheartland States — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthanand Chhattisgarh. But for sure, the oft-repeatedslogan of ‘a Congress-mukt Bharat’ was blownaway like a hot balloon. With these results, theOpposition is going for the jugular now andsmelling power for the 2019 parliamentary elec-tions, notwithstanding the fact that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s popularity remainsintact.

The results have further proved that theIndian electorate does not bother about perfor-mance or rhetorical slogans and knows how tohalt the juggernaut. They have also thrown a fewlessons for both the ruling and Opposition par-ties. Let us examine the matter from the point ofview of both the BJP and the Opposition. As aninformed citizen, this writer has been observingthe functioning of the Government in differentfields in different States, has been writing on issuesgermane to the people, hailing good decisions andproviding suggestions for improvements on sev-eral others.

Governance is not a cakewalk for any ruler,nor is feeling the pulse of the Indian mind in elec-tions an easy task, as voters have time and againbeen pooh-poohing expert psychologists with dis-dain. Any hasty policy decision on well-inten-tioned goals and programmes has always back-fired on the ruling regimes. People have a poormemory both for good deeds as well as bad. Theytend to forget the good deeds fast enough and for-give quickly on bad experiences. Because of this,for quite some time, the Indian polity hasbecome a sort of circus. Short-term perceptionsrule the people’s minds and those who exploitthem are victorious.

Taking a particular group or section of peo-ple for granted is wishful thinking. The rulingNDA had a lot of positives to offer to the coun-try after it came to power, both internally (in sev-eral fields) as well as on external affairs. India’sprestige and position grew to a new height andesteem, globally. The Prime Minister’s demoneti-sation drive had yielded a few positives in duecourse, like busting black marketers in realestate, ghost business houses et al. This writervividly remembers the poor people happilystanding in long queues before the banks duringdemonetisation as they believed it was going toend black money and cause difficulty to the cor-rupt and the rich.

There has been a sustained increase in thenumber of Income Tax Returns (ITRs) filed in thelast four financial years. As compared to 3.79 croreITRs filed in 2013-14, the number of ITRs filedduring 2017-18 was 6.84 crore, which is an

increase of 80.5 per cent. The numberof e-filings increased to 6.75 crore dur-ing the last fiscal. During 2017-18, thegross collections before refunds rose by13 per cent to �11.44 lakh crore. Thequantum jump in tax base to a largeextent was the result of demonetisation.The Government machinery, however,could not counter the allegationsagainst it.

But the biggest voter loss (loss ofvote base) for the BJP was the businesscommunity (the traditional BJP sup-porters for long) due to initial hiccupsin the implementation of the Goods andService Tax (GST). The introduction ofGST was a revolutionary attempt butthose who implemented it will neveragree that they failed to read the peo-ple’s mind on this. The problem is thatpromises made before the reform gotunder way were never implemented.And later, when the Government triedto correct the mistakes, it was too late.

The mishandling of the agitation ofthe upper castes against reservation forpromotions in Madhya Pradesh andRajasthan had really made a differenceto the BJP as the community voted forNOTA. In Madhya Pradesh, NOTAvotes were exercised by 542,295(6,43,144 voters) constituting about 1.4per cent of the total votes. In Rajasthan,NOTA votes were to the tune of467,781, constituting about 1.3 per centof the total votes polled. Most people,who exercised NOTA, were anti-reser-vation supporters and former BJP sup-porters. The BJP got 41 per cent votesin Madhya Pradesh while the Congressgot 40.9 per cent. The 1.4 per cent

NOTA may have taken the BJP’s tallyto well past 120 seats. Similarly, asagainst the Congress getting 39.3 percent of votes compared to the BJP’s 38.8per cent in Rajasthan, the NOTA votewould have crossed to 40 per cent forthe BJP and the party could havescraped through. In Chhattisgarhthough, the Congress really trouncedthe BJP by a margin of 10 per cent.

Yet another cause of the Congress’win was the way the party got the sup-port of farmers, who were facing sev-eral constraints notwithstanding thefact that Shivraj Singh Chouhan, dur-ing his chief ministerial tenure,increased the irrigated land from 7.5lakh to 36 lakh hectares over the last 10years. It was the disconnect in the pro-gramme with regard to production,marketing and incomes of farmers(including lopsided implementationof the Bhavantar scheme) that stokedthe farmers’ anger.

Though the Union Governmenthad taken a lot of steps for the farm-ers’ welfare, it had either not been mar-keted or executed well. Besides, thefarmers’ income was still not commen-surate with production costs. InRajasthan, the State had done very goodwork in water harvesting but the pro-grammes did not catch the imaginationof the farmers. The outreach by thebureaucracy was also not visible on theground.

Another cause of the BJP’s defeat isthe mobilisation of opposition partiesand the saffron party’s lack of contain-ment of negative vibes in politics. The“Sampark for Samadhan” was a damp

squib as those who were contacted weremainly urbanites. Genuine opinionmakers’ attempts for course correctionwere ignored. For example, thoughTelugu Desam Party supremoChandrababu Naidu’s own politicalsituation is not so good in AndhraPradesh, his alienation did fuel a move-ment against the BJP. Similarly, theparty alienated several of its opinions-makers who during the last 15 yearswere in its favour. This writer knowsone senior journalist and many moresupporters who relentlessly attemptedto take the BJP to a high pedestal as anacceptable national party with pan-Indian appeal among the intelligentsiabut they were either ignored or side-lined.

Now, the Congress and theOpposition front must adopt a charterwhich is nationalistic and filled with apositive vision for a future India andaway from confrontationist polity as theBJP is still a favourite for 2019. TheCongress has to modernise its function-ing and embrace a collective leadership,keep the Delhi crowd of bureaucrats ata distance and engage with experts toserve the nation. The people are fed upwith poor governance and unnecessarylogjams in Parliament. To make democ-racy work, we must be a nation of par-ticipants, not simply observers andsquabbling political leaders. The man-date of people is supreme. It should beseen as a lesson for all politicians, par-ticularly in view of the coming LokSabha election in 2019.

(The writer is a Retired CivilServant)

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The rupee declined by 22paise to close at 71.90

against the US dollar on Fridayamid strengthening of thegreenback and cautious tradingin the domestic equity market.

Forex traders said therupee came under pressurefollowing strengthening of thedollar against major currenciesoverseas, while caution pre-vailed amid the RBI’s centralboard meeting under newGovernor Shaktikanta Das.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex) market, thelocal unit opened lower at

71.80 and fell further to touchthe day’s low of 72.04.

However, it pared somelosses and finally ended at71.90 per dollar, down by 22paise against its previous close.

On Thursday, the Indianrupee had plunged 33 paise to71.68 per US dollar.

Benchmark indices finishedwith modest gains after a see-saw session Friday. The BSESensex ticked higher by 33.29points, or 0.09 per cent, to endat 35,962.93, while the broaderNSE Nifty rose 13.90 points, or0.13 per cent, to 10,805.45.

Brent crude, the interna-tional benchmark, was trading

at $61.02 per barrel Friday,lower by 0.70 per cent.

On a net basis, foreignportfolio investors (FPIs)bought shares worth �675.14crore Thursday, while domes-tic institutional investors (DIIs)were sellers to the tune of�51.86 crore, provisional dataavailable with BSE showed.

The Financial BenchmarkIndia Private Ltd (FBIL) set thereference rate for therupee/dollar at 71.7359 and forrupee/euro at 81.4628. Thereference rate for rupee/Britishpound was fixed at 90.5809 andfor rupee/100 Japanese yen at63.20.

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Public Sector Banks (PSBs)do not have any plans to

shut down their ATMs,Minister of State for FinanceShiv Pratap Shukla informedParliament.

The statement assumessignificance amidst a report bythe Confederation of ATMindustry (CATMi) warningthat nearly half of the 2.38 lakhmachines run the risk of clos-ing down by March next yeardue to regulatory compliancechanges making the businessunviable due to rising costsand dipping or stagnant rev-enues.

As reported by the sched-uled commercial banks, smallfinance banks, payment banksand white label ATM operators,2.21 lakh ATMs are deployed inthe country as on September30, Shukla said in a writtenreply to the Lok Sabha.

Apart from ATMs, bankingservices across the country areprovided through bank branch-

es, inter-operable business cor-respondents (BCs) with micro-ATMs etc, he said.

Further, he said, mobilebanking services and variousdigital modes of banking facil-ities are also available in India.

Replying to another ques-tion, Shukla said theGovernment announced recap-italisation of PSBs to the tuneof �2.11 lakh crore in October2017, through infusion of cap-ital by the Government andraising of capital by banksfrom the markets.

PSBs meet their capitalrequirement through varioussources including, inter alia,mobilisation of capital from themarket through issuance ofcapital instruments and mon-etisation of non-core assets,internal capital generationincluding through recovery inwritten-off accounts, and cap-ital infusion by the govern-ment.

“�88,139 crore was infusedby the Government in PSBsduring financial year 2017-18after the recapitalisationannouncement and provisionof �65,000 crore has been madein the budget for the currentfinancial year for infusion,” hesaid.

Since the recapitalisationannouncement till November2018, PSBs have been recapi-talised to the tune of �1,28,861crore through infusion andmobilisation of capital from themarket, he said.

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With anaim to

provide cus-tomer servicesthrough onlineshopping por-tals, a Delhibased DVComgroup has launched India’s firstTech supported e -storeDVComm.in. The site offers awide range in IT ,Communication andElectronics among other relat-ed products.

The company is said tohave deployed a team to help,guide buyers with their pre-sales assistance & Free TechConsultation.

DVComm’s big advantageis that they are providing pre-sale guidance, post sales servicewith direct liaisoning withOEM during the warranty peri-od of the product, this begetscustomer comfort & huge con-fidence, a service that is pro-

vided by non other DVComm also provides a

chargeable installation asrequired & guarantees deliveryanywhere in India. Presently itsproduct line includes a widerange in IT, Networking,Telecom, CCTV SecurityElectronics, UPS products fromleading Global brands such as— Cisco, Alcatel, Polycom,CPPlus, Samsung, Nikon,Huawai, LG, Dell, HP,Emerson, APC and others.

Surya Murugaian fromEricson Global Services India,Bengaluru said — “The Hubmotors from DVComm.in aregood, their components arereally trust worthy”.

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Indian School of Hospitality,a newly inaugurated

Gurugram based hospitalityand culinary arts college, host-ed its first international coun-sellor summit — theCounsellors’ Retreat 2018.

Inaugurated by Chancellorof the Gurugram UniversityMarkanday Ahuja, the summitsaw a gathering of school coun-sellors representing schoolsfrom across the entire countryand neighboring regions,including people who areworking in hospitality educa-tion École hôtelière deLausanne.

The Counsellors’ Retreatwas called with the missionand aim to introduce school

counsellors to the diverserange of professional oppor-tunities and career paths in theworld of travel, tourism, hos-pitality, culinary arts and othernew age industries for theirstudents.

The event saw counsellorsparticipate in talks held byindustry and education leadersthat highlighted the trends ofthe hospitality industry, careeroptions for students and thebenefits of hospitality and culi-nary education for today’s tal-ent.

During the interactivesession, industry and academ-ic experts discussed andexchanged views about ISHand its curriculum for the hos-pitality and culinary educationspace.

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India Post on Wednesdayannounced full-f ledged

entry into e-commerce busi-ness, where it will leverage itsparcel business for end-to-end delivery of products.

“We have simplified deci-sion-making process atDepartment of Posts (DoP) bysetting up a separate parceldirectorate. It can make quickdecision on parcel rates andrelated provisions. India Postwill leverage its vast networkfor e-commerce services fordoorstep delivery of prod-ucts,” CommunicationsMinister Manoj Sinha told

reporters.The minister also

launched India Post’s e-com-merce portal.

Earlier, any decision relat-ed to change in parcel deliveryrates or matching services ofprivate players requiredapproval from top officials,which was time-consuming.

The DoP has set up parceldirectorate which is free totake decision to match thecompetition.

“India Post is open for reg-istration of all vendors for e-commerce business. It willpick up products from vendorand deliver to doorstep ofcustomers,” Sinha said.

India Post has deliverynetwork up to remotest vil-lages through its 1.55 lakh postoffices which no one canmatch, the minister said.

“We will also facilitatereturn of products service likeit is available for customers onother e-commerce platforms,”India Post Secretary A NNanda said.

Sinha said the departmentwill strictly monitor delivery ofproducts.

“The credibility that DoPhas built over the years isimmense. We will suitablyresolve complaints wheneverwe receive them,” the ministersaid.

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India’s wholesale inflation fellto a three-month low of 4.64

per cent in November, drivendown by decline in prices offood articles, especially veg-etables, and some easing inrates of petro products.

The Wholesale Price Index(WPI)-based inflation was 5.28per cent in October and 4.02per cent in November last year.

Food articles witnessedsoftening of prices with defla-tion at 3.31 per cent inNovember, against 1.49 percent in October, governmentdata released Friday showed.

Vegetables, too, becamecheaper with deflation at 26.98per cent in November, com-pared to 18.65 per cent in theprevious month.

Inflation in the ‘fuel andpower’ basket in Novembercontinued to rule high at 16.28per cent, but was lower than18.44 per cent in October. Thiswas on account of lowering ofprices of petrol and diesel, fol-lowing a decline in globalcrude oil prices.

Separately in petrol anddiesel, inflation was 12.06 percent and 20.16 per cent, respec-tively, and for liquified petro-leum gas (LPG), it was 23.22

per cent during October.ICRA Principal Economist

Aditi Nayar said the easing ofthe WPI inflation was led by adeeper disinflation in prices ofprimary food articles, easing ofinflation related to crude petro-leum and mineral oils follow-ing the correction in retail fuelprices, and some impact of theappreciation in the rupee onthe landed prices of imports.

“The recent trend of ayear-on-year correction in foodprices does not augur well forthe strength of rural demand inthe immediate term. However,factors such as weak post-monsoon rainfall and a delay inrabi sowing pose some uncer-tainty regarding how long foodprices would remain in the dis-inflation zone,” Nayar said.

Nayar said with the recentstability in the crude oil pricesand the rupee, ICRA expectsthe WPI inflation to rangebetween 3.7-4.4 per cent in theremainder of second half forcurrent fiscal.

Among food articles, pota-to prices continued to rulehigh with 86.45 per cent infla-tion in November. While onionwitnessed deflation of 47.60 percent, the same for pulses stoodat 5.42 per cent.

The October inflation at

4.64 per cent is the lowest inthree months, and a lowerinflation than this was lastseen in August at 4.62 per cent.

CARE Ratings, in its analy-sis, said it expects WPI inflationto remain in the range of 4.5-5 per cent for the rest of theyear, and will be above the CPIrates.

The WPI inflation forSeptember, however, has beenrevised upwards to 5.22 percent, from the provisional esti-mate of 5.13 per cent.

Data released earlier thisweek showed that the retail orconsumer price index-basedinflation for November also fellto a 17-month low at 2.33 percent.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) mainly takes into accountretail inflation data while for-mulating monetary policy.

In its fifth monetary poli-cy review for the fiscal, releasedlast week, the Reserve Bankkept interest rates unchanged,but held out a promise to cutthem if the upside risks to infla-tion do not materialise.

The central bank loweredretail inflation projection to2.7-3.2 per cent for the secondhalf of the current fiscal, citingnormal monsoon and moder-ate food prices.

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The Jammu and KashmirGovernment for the first

time will set up a Real EstateRegulatory Authority (RERA)in the state to promote regu-lated and planned growth ofthe real estate sector, officialspokesman said on Friday.

On Friday, the StateAdministrative Council (SAC)under the chairmanship ofGovernor Satya Pal Malikapproved the establishment ofReal Estate RegulatoryAuthority (RERA) in the State.

The Jammu and KashmirReal Estate (Regulation andDevelopment) Bill, 2018approved by the SAC provides

a provision to establish theReal Estate RegulatoryAuthority, the State AdvisoryCouncil and the Real EstateAppellate Tribunal in the Stateto effectively and efficientlyregulate this sector, spokesmansaid.

The move is aimed at pro-moting planned developmentof real estate and to ensure saleof plots, apartments, buildingsand other real estate projects,in an efficient and transparentmanner and to protect theinterests of the consumers, headded. RERA would ensure afair and just treatment to thebuyers and protect them fromany unscrupulous builders, hesaid.

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State-owned Oil and NaturalGas Corp (ONGC) Friday

said its board will considerbuyback of company shares ata meeting on December 20.

This follows Governmentpushing cash-rich PSUs to usetheir funds to buy back sharesor pay a higher dividend. TheGovernment is looking tobridge budgetary deficitthrough higher receipts of div-idend as well as selling itsshares in PSUs in the buybackprogrammes.

Stock buybacks refer tothe repurchasing of shares bythe company that issuedthem. A buyback occurswhen the issuing companypays shareholders the marketvalue per share and re-absorbs that portion of itsownership that was previ-ously distributed among pub-lic and private investors.

In a regulatory filing,ONGC said, “The meeting ofBoard of Directors of the com-pany will be held on Thursday,

December 20, 2018, inter-alia,to consider the proposal forbuy-back of the fully paid-upequity shares of the company.”

The Government holds67.48 per cent stake in India’slargest oil and gas producerONGC.

Just on Thursday, state-owned Indian Oil Corp (IOC)said it will buy back 29.76 croreshares for about �4,435 croreand spend another �6,556 croreon paying an interim divi-dend to shareholders.

The board of the country’slargest oil firm Thursdayapproved buyback of up to29.76 crore equity shares, or3.06 per cent, at �149 pershare.

The Government, whichholds a 54.06 per cent stake inthe company, is expected toparticipate in the share buy-back.

The Government is tar-geting a minimum �5,000crore through share buybackoffers of state-owned firmslike Coal India, BHEL and OilIndia Ltd.

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Expressing concerns over slowpace of sugar export, the

Government on Friday directedmills to undertake shipment oftheir fixed quota and eventhreatened to take action againstdefaulting sugar mills.

To liquidate surplus stockand improve the liquidity of thesugar mills to facilitate them forclearance of cane price arrearsof farmers, the Governmenthas asked domestic sugar millsto mandatory export 5 milliontonnes in the 2018-19 market-ing year (October-September).

The Government is evencompensating expensestowards internal transport,freight, handling and othercharges to undertake shipment.

“However, it has beenobserved that the sugar millsare not undertaking export ofsugar at a desired pace. Onlyabout 2.46 lakh tonne of sugarhas been exported and con-tracts of only about 6 lakhtonne (including 2.46 lakhtonne of actual export) in thefirst quarter of the season,” thefood ministry said in a state-ment.

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Signalling an end to the near-ly two-month power tussle

in Sri Lanka, disputed PrimeMinister Mahinda Rajapaksawill resign on Saturday, his sonsaid on Friday, soon after theSupreme Court refused to staya court order that restrained theembattled former strongmanfrom acting as the premieruntil it fully heard the case nextmonth.

Rajapaksa, 73, was appoint-ed as the prime minister onOctober 26 by PresidentMaithripala Sirisena in a con-troversial move after sackingRanil Wickremesinghe, whichplunged the island nation intoa constitutional crisis.

“To ensure stability of thenation, Former President@PresRajapaksa has decided toresign from the Premiershiptomorrow after an address tothe nation,” Rajapaksa’s sonNamal tweeted.

The Sri Lanka PodujanaPeramuna (SLPP) with for-mer president, Sri LankaFreedom Party (SLFP) andothers will “now work to forma broader political coalitionwith President Sirisena”, NamalRajapaksa, a lawmaker, added.

Wickremesinghe’s camp

was hopeful that Sirisena wouldnow reinstate him over theweekend after Rajapaksaresigns, effectively ending thepolitical stalemate that plaguedthe nation for the past sevenweeks.

There was no immediatereaction from PresidentSirisena, the architect of thecurrent crisis.ParliamentarianLakshman Yapa Abeywardenasaid Rajapaksa, who ruled SriLanka for nearly a decade,decided to step down in thebest interest of the country.

He claimed Rajapaksa canhold office without resigningbut that will only further dragthe political turmoil in thecountry. So the former presi-dent decided to step downafter the court ruling given on

Friday and on Thursday. His Cabinet will also stand

dissolved, Abeywardena wasquoted as saying by theColombo Gazette.

The apex court’s latest rul-ing came a day after it unani-mously declared that the dis-solution of Parliament byPresident Maithripala Sirisenawas “illegal”, in a body blow tothe embattled leader, whosecontroversial

decisions plunged theisland nation into an unprece-dented political turmoil.

The Supreme Court decid-ed that a Court of Appealorder issued against theappointment of Rajapaksa asPrime Minister and againsthis Cabinet from holding officewill stand.

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European Union leadersexpressed deep doubts on

Friday that British PrimeMinister Theresa May can liveup to her side of their Brexitagreement and they vowed tostep up preparations for apotentially-catastrophic “no-deal” scenario.

May cancelled a Brexit votein the UK Parliament this weekafter it became clear the assem-bly would reject the deal sheconcluded with the EU lastmonth.

She travelled to Brussels inhope of wringing some con-cessions from her Europeanpartners that would helpassuage doubts about the draftdivorce agreement back inLondon.

But EU leaders rejected anyattempt to re-negotiate theiragreement, a 585-page legaltext settling things like thedivorce bill and the rights nextyear of Europeans living inBritain or Britons living in theEU, plus a document laying outtheir hopes for future rela-tions, which isn’t legally bind-ing.

They did publish a shorttext with “assurances” abouthow the deal would work.

“Very objectively, the sig-nals that we heard yesterday arenot especially reassuring aboutthe capacity in Britain to be

able to honour the engagementthat was undertaken,” BelgianPrime Minister Charles Micheltold reporters.

Expressing a “giganticdoubt” that May can get thedeal through Parliament,Michel said: “we are going to besure to prepare for all hypothe-ses, including the hypothesis ofa no-deal.”

No country has ever leftthe 28-nation EU — the world’sbiggest trading bloc — and therules laying out that process aresketchy. Essentially, Brexit isbeing made up as the processadvances. Court challengeshave clarified some of the rules.

This week, Europe’s topcourt ruled that Britain canchange its mind about leavingshould it want to.

One thing is clear: Brexitwill happen on March 29,

although a transition periodwill help ease Britain out overalmost two, and possibly up tofour, years. The prospect of ano-deal has shaken marketsand the British pound, and cre-ated uncertainty for investorsand businesses. Brexit involvesBritain leaving around 750international treaties drawnup over 40 years of member-ship. One of them is the EU’saviation market.

Without a deal, Britishplanes won’t be able to land inEurope on March 30. Nor willEuropean planes be able to landin the UK.

May didn’t talk to reportersas she entered EU headquartersearly Friday for talks withFrench President EmmanuelMacron, after shuttling aroundEurope earlier this week seek-ing support.

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British Prime MinisterTheresa May insisted on

Friday that her Brexit deal wasstill alive and kicking, despitea stinging rebuff from theEuropean Union after sheasked for changes to make theagreement more palatable toUK lawmakers.

May came to an EU sum-mit in Brussels seeking legallybinding changes to the agree-ment, but the bloc told herbluntly that a renegotiationwas not possible. They offeredonly assurances they wouldseek to move swiftly on forginga new trade deal after Britainleaves the bloc on March 29.

Nonetheless, May toldreporters in Brussels that shewelcomed the EU’s words —and that, as formal conclusionsof an EU summit, they “havelegal status.”

“There is work still to do,and we will be holding talks incoming days about how toobtain the further assurancesthat the U.K. Parliament needsin order to be able to approvethe deal,” May said.

May’s optimism contrastedwith a pessimistic tone frommany on the EU side. EU lead-ers expressed deep doubts thatMay could live up to her side

of their Brexit agreement andvowed to step up preparationsfor a potentially-catastrophic“no-deal” scenario for Britain’sdeparture.

“Very objectively, the sig-nals that we heard yesterday arenot especially reassuring aboutthe capacity in Britain to beable to honor the engagementthat was undertaken,” BelgianPrime Minister Charles Micheltold reporters.

Expressing a “giganticdoubt” that May can get herBrexit deal through the BritishParliament, Michel said: “weare going to be sure to preparefor all hypotheses, including thehypothesis of a ‘no deal.’”

May canceled a Brexit votein the U.K. Parliament thisweek after it became clear itwould strongly vote down theBrexit deal she concluded withthe EU last month. She hopesto secure changes from the blocin order to get Parliament’sapproval in a vote next month.

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China has lodged a “stern”diplomatic protest with the

US over the Senate passing abipartisan legislation that seeksto impose a visa ban onChinese officials who denyAmerican citizens, officials andjournalists access to Tibet, evenas Bejing asked Washingtonnot to make it a law.

Reacting to the US move,Chinese foreign ministryspokesman Lu Kang said herethat the American action dis-regarded facts and amounted tointerfering in China’s internalaffairs and was a violation ofinternational rules.

“China is firmly opposed toit and lodged stern representa-tions to the US. I have to pointout that Tibet affairs comeunder China’s internal affairs

and it allows no foreign inter-ference,” he said.

‘The Reciprocal Access toTibet Act’, seeking unhinderedaccess to Tibetan areas forAmericans, something which isroutinely denied by theChinese government, waspassed by the US House ofRepresentatives in September.

The US Senate on Tuesdaypassed the crucial bipartisanlegislation that also calls for avisa ban on Chinese officialswho deny American citizens,government officials and jour-nalists access to Tibet, theremote Himalayan homelandof exiled Tibetan spiritualleader the Dalai Lama.

The legislation, passedunanimously, comes amid theTrump administration impos-ing massive trade import dutieson China that has started

impacting the Chinese econo-my.

The bill now heads to theWhite House for PresidentDonald Trump to sign into law.

Lu said foreigners enteringTibet can apply through nor-mal channels and every year alot of foreigners and localtourists visit Tibet.

He said since 2015, about40,000 Americans visited Tibetand this included US Senators,Congressmen and business-men.

“This shows the US accu-sations do not hold water at alland Chinese government andpeople cannot accept that. Weurge the US to immediatelytake effective measures to stopsigning the act into law andthus avoid harming US-Chinarelations and our cooperationin key areas,” he said.

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Israeli forces kept up a man-hunt on Friday for a

Palestinian who shot dead twosoldiers in the occupied WestBank, as Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu facedrightwing pressure for a strongresponse.

Thursday’s shooting wasthe latest incident shatteringmonths of relative calm in theWest Bank, where 4,00,000Israelis live in settlementsalongside more than 2.5 mil-lion Palestinians.

It was the third deadlyattack by Palestinian gunmenin the West Bank in twomonths and set off demon-strations by settler groupsagainst Netanyahu, whoserightwing government depends

on their support. Israeli mediaspeculated Friday about thepossibility of a new Palestinian“intifada,” or uprising, againstIsrael’s occupation of the WestBank. In Thursday’s attack, agunman got out of his car andopened fire on soldiers andothers outside a settlement inthe central West Bank, killingtwo and seriously injuringanother two Israelis beforefleeing. In response the armylocked down the city ofRamallah, home to secularPalestinian president MahmudAbbas, while calling in rein-forcements.

Clashes betweenPalestinians and Israeli forceserupted in different parts of theWest Bank, including insideRamallah during army raids.

Settlers shouting forrevenge threw stones at

Palestinian vehicles, while anArab bus driver was beaten byultra-Orthodox Jews in ModiinIllit settlement, according toIsraeli media reports.

In overnight raids, thearmy said it arrested 40Palestinians, most of themaffiliated to the Islamist move-ment Hamas which hasclaimed responsibility for tworecent shooting attacks.

It has not yet claimedThursday’s attack, thoughIsraeli officials point the fingerof blame in its direction.

The Army did not say ithad made arrests linked direct-ly to the latest attack.

At a checkpoint near theBeit El settlement on Fridaymorning, a soldier was mod-erately wounded after a man hithim with a rock before fleeing,the Army said.

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As e v e n - y e a r - o l dGuatemalan girl died in

American custody after beingdetained by US border police inNew Mexico, The WashingtonPost reported on Thursday.

The girl who illegallycrossed the border fromMexico along with her fatherand dozens of others died lastweek of “dehydration andshock,” the newspaper report-ed, citing US Customs andBorder Protection.

She had “reportedly hadnot eaten or consumed waterfor several days,” the CBP toldthe Post, who said she beganhaving seizures more than eighthours after being detained.

Emergency responders hadmeasured her body tempera-ture at 105.7 degrees (41 centi-grade), the Post said.

She died after being flownto hospital.

The name of the girl andher father have not beenreleased.

The father is in El Paso,Texas awaiting a meeting withGuatemalan consular officials,the Post said, quoting CBP,which said it is investigating theincident.

President Donald Trumphas made hard-line immigra-tion policies a central plank ofhis presidency, drawing firefrom critics who accuse him ofdemonising migrants for polit-ical gain.

Much attention has beenfocused on caravans of thou-sands of Central Americanswho have made their way toTijuana, Mexico, just southfrom San Diego, California ina challenge to Trump, who crit-icised them as posing an “inva-sion”.

But migrants fleeing pover-ty and gang violence also con-tinue to cross over in NewMexico, Texas and Arizonaafter enduring dangerous treksthrough Mexico.

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Ireland’s parliament haspassed a landmark legislation

to make abortion legal for thefirst time in the Catholic-majority country, a “historicmoment” which came after anIndian dentist died from bloodpoisoning in 2012 when thedoctors refused her repeatedrequests to abort the foetus.

Ireland voted decisively tochange the Constitution torepeal the Eighth Amendmentin May, with 66.4 per cent vot-ing in favour of new legislationto allow for the termination ofpregnancies.

“The bill that allows for theintroduction of abortion ser-vices in Ireland has passed all

stages of the Oireachtas(IrishParliament) and will now go toPresident Michael D Higgins tobe signed into law,” IrishBroadcaster RTE reported onThursday.

“Historic moment for Irishwomen. Thanks to all whosupported and well done to(Health Minister) Simon Harrisfor steering this through bothHouses,” Ireland’s Indian-originPresident Leo Varadkar said.

The new development hascome following a rising num-ber of distressing stories aboutwomen unable to get an abor-tion in Ireland.

One of the high-profilecases was that of 31-year-oldIndian dentist SavitaHalappanavar, who died in

agony from blood poisoningafter doctors refused herrepeated requests for an abor-tion while she was having amiscarriage at a Galway hos-pital in 2012. Her death helped“personalise” the debate aroundabortion, said a legal scholar atTrinity College Dublin.

“This is a genuinely historicmoment. It paves the way forthe implementation of the ser-vice for termination of preg-nancy in January 2019,” saidMinister Harris. The Regulationof Termination of PregnancyBill allows for abortion servicesto be provided “on demand” upto the 12th week of a pregnan-cy, in the case of a fatal foetalabnormality or where the phys-ical or mental health of the

mother is in danger.Since the bill’s introduction

at first stage in October, therehave been some minorchanges, including a decision to review the legisla-tion after three years, ratherthan five years as was originallyplanned. Two different doctorswill be allowed to assess awoman in early pregnancy andthe offences section has beenmoved from the front of thebill, the BBC reported.

“I want to thank the cam-paigners who fought for 35years to change a nation, tochange hearts and minds. Iwant to thank the minoritywho fought the battle in herewhen it was convenient for themajority to ignore.

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President Donald Trumpknew it was wrong to order

election-eve hush money paidto two women who claimed tohave had affairs with him, hisformer lawyer Michael Cohensaid in an interview to bebroadcast Friday.

Trump acted because he“was very concerned abouthow this would affect the elec-tion,” Cohen told ABC News ofthe women’s allegations in hisfirst comments since beingsentenced to three years inprison on Thursday.

Trump has said he neverdirected Cohen to break thelaw. But Cohen, asked if Trumpknew the payments to StormyDaniels and Karen McDougalwere wrong, said “of course.”

Cohen challenged Trump’sassertion in a tweet Thursdayafter the lawyer’s sentencingthat he never told him to breakthe law.

“I don’t think there is any-body that believes that,” Cohentold George Stephanopoulos onthe program “Good MorningAmerica.” ABC releasedexcerpts of the interview aheadof its full airing.

“First of all, nothing at theTrump Organisation was everdone unless it was run throughMr. Trump. He directed me tomake the payments, he direct-ed me to become involved inthese matters,” Cohen said.

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Atop EU court on Fridaythrew out an appeal by the

Palestinian Islamist movementHamas against its listing by thebloc as a terrorist organisation.

The General Court of theEU rejected a bid by Hamas, themilitant group which has ruledthe Gaza Strip since 2007, toend a freeze on assets held inthe bloc that was imposed in thewake of the 9/11 attacks in theUnited States.

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<�"'�����#$�##�#� � ����"�$�������"#;�(����%��#�$"#�;����#%��Strasbourg (France): France’s interior minister on Friday dis-missed a claim by the Islamic State group that it was responsi-ble for a shooting spree at a Christmas market in Strasbourg afterthe gunman was shot dead by police, ending a 48-hour manhunt.

The city reopened the market on Friday, with officials prais-ing the massive public help and quick police reaction that ledto the death of suspected shooter Cherif Chekatt late on Thursday.

AFP

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Can you tell us James, what wasthe most important part for you to

get right in creating this worldand telling this story visually?

James Wan: Probably one ofthe biggest visuals I wanted toget right was the costume ofAquaman. That was definite-

ly something we worked hardand long on. I really want-ed to capture the vibrancyof Atlantis and all theunderwater kingdomsand do justice to thecomic book while obvi-ously, filtering itthrough my own sensi-bility.

Mera is fierce. Shegoes toe-to-toe with the

bad guy. What are youmost proud of in terms

of this character — theway she was written and the

way you portrayed her?Amber Heard: Well, I feel

really lucky to have worked withpeople who wanted to maintain

the integrity and strength of theoriginal character. Mera never was

anything other than a bad-ass superhero. She is no damsel in distress. Mera

is a kick-ass woman and doesn’t need anyhelp from anyone. It was amazing to getto play a character like her.

Orm is the villain of the film but

he also has a point about humankinddestroying the oceans. What was it likeplaying the many sides of this complexcharacter?

Patrick Wilson: Well, his fight is per-fectly understandable. There’s a long his-tory of Aquaman protecting oceans,fighting whaling, saving fishermen, allthroughout comic history. I like that theyleft the pollution up to Orm because itenables you to have a really violentresponse. And I think there’s somethingcathartic for an audience watching that.I think you’d be hard-pressed to findsomeone who didn’t think we weredestroying the oceans; of course we are.And, of course, it’s something we all needto take heed of — not that, that’s the maintheme of the story, but certainly that’sOrm’s track when he sets out to combinehis armies and take on the surface.Everybody says, ‘Yeah, I get it. So, it’s a funway in, because then you’ve got conflict.You sort of wonder, so he’s the little broth-er of an older brother he never had?’ Heknows deep down he is the firstborn, sothere are all those very Shakespeareancomplex emotions that he’s dealing with.But you start him from a very organicplace, then you can go as big as you want,which we do.

James, what was your biggest chal-lenge, and why Jason?

James Wan: Ultimately, it is justbringing his personality to this character— not bringing him to Aquaman, butbringing Aquaman to him. And what I

love most about it is I get to be the oneto showcase the other side of JasonMomoa that not many people have seen,which is the funny side of him. And afterthis movie comes out, people are going tosee what a great potential romantic leadhe is as well.

Jason Momoa: I just want to speakEnglish. I don’t want to fight anymore.

James Wan: But that’s what I loveabout Jason — he comes in and just makesa statement with this character, and that’swhat this first movie really needs.

When you first learned that you weregoing to play Aquaman, how did it makeyou feel to know you’d be taking on oneof the most iconic heroes known incomic books?

Jason Momoa: When Zack (Snyder,the director) first told me I’d be the cast…I wish I had a picture of my face because,I am the last person he should be hiring.I thought I’d be playing a villain. It was anhonour. Zack’s perspective is so radical,and what it offered to the team in JusticeLeague was something we hadn’t seen.And it’s not until the end of this movie thatwe get to him being a king.

With so many water effects in thismovie, what were some of the challengesyou ran into?

James Wan: You hear it all the timefrom filmmakers that making movies withwater is not the most pleasant thing. It’suncomfortable and slows down the speedof the film. The irony is all the sequences

that are actually fully submerged in thisunderwater world — that was actually shotdry for wet. And that’s literally what itsounds like, in these rigs that simulateswimming, floating, and how your bodymoves underwater. But we did play witha lot of water as well. I don’t think you canmake an Aquaman movie and actually nothave anyone get wet. And, again, the ironyis that when we’re actually above the water— when we’re dry — that’s when I haveto drench the actors nonstop. Whenthey’re actually out of water, that’s whenthey’re dripping wet. But when you’reunderwater, people actually look dry, sothat’s why we shot it without water.

The biggest water set that we had inthis film was the submarine sequence atthe beginning. We built the submarineover a water tank and would just submergeit again and again. As we’d play out thescene, we would submerge it, and thenbring it back out of the water tank, blowdry it down, and then do take two, andthen take three. It was quite a laboriousprocess. And, a bit of a pain.

Jason, this movie is going to meansomething to Aquamanfans, but doyou think it has something specific to sayfor people who are half-Asian or hald-native Hawaiian?

Jason Momoa: Coming from thePolynesian islands, there are so manywater gods that we have and so much folk-lore and mythology about how the islandscame about — from Kanaloa to Tomaloaand Maui. It’s the Poseidon story and I getto play that. To be the first mixed-racedSuper Hero in 2018 is a huge honour. Andalso just to play it so close to who I am,with all of Arthur’s imperfections. I don’thave to be Superman — I’m not. But I gotto play it as someone who really is splitbetween those two worlds, and I’m excit-ed for the world to see it.

What is the one thing you reallyhope people will take away from thisfilm?

James Wan: For the fans out therewho have stood by Aquaman all theseyears while people made fun of him, hiscomic book and all the characters in hisworld — I want them to see that this isfinally the opportunity to get revenge. Thismovie is made with a lot of passion. I wantpeople to know that I respected thesource material in making this film. Andthen, on the other side, I want to intro-duce all these characters to a whole newgeneration of kids that didn’t grow up withAquaman, and so I want the two separateworlds to come together.

What were called the melas,popularly known as amuse-ment fairs, have now got a

suave new avatar as theme-based festi-vals and extravaganzas, especially onesthat are centred food. In fact, the turnof the season seems to signal the startof a host of events centred aroundgourmet eating. This trend has not onlyacquired a must-do status among thedenizens of the capital but also shapesthe face for various cuisines and foodcultures in the year to come.

Ruchi Sibal, co-founder and direc-tor of the Palate Fest, says that the fes-tival was the first-of-its-kind when itwas launched five years ago. “We con-ceptualised the show keeping in minda space where there is something foreveryone including kids and adults. Ifit provides a section to particularcuisines to showcase, there is also a spe-cial section for kids as well as one forpresenting food products for adults,” shesays.

There will be gaming zones for kidsand sections that promote healthy eat-ing habits. It also gives a platform forvarious chefs and cooks to share andlearn new recipes.

With about 80 stalls, the festivaloffers piquant food options like fresh-ly-skewed fish, barbecued chicken,noodles, and various cuisines includingMexican and pan-Asian.

“Food is something that can bringeverybody together. People used to gofor picnics in the parks earlier. Now thatconcept is vanishing. However, such fes-tivals, in a way, are trying to replicatethe experience minus the preparationand time that these entailed. These aimto bring in delicacies at big venues,”

believes Ruchi.So what is the biggest element that

the festival offers? Founder AditiKapoor says that by bringing in chefsfrom many segments, they are trying topromote healthier food eating habits.She says, “We have chef Sabyasachi whopromotes ‘healthy bingeing’ of fruits anddry fruits including dehydrated man-goes without any added sugar. He alsobrings fresh eating habits by avoidingtrans-fat and including a tomato andcucumber salad.”

Ruchi lists some of the elements thathave been added for the first time in thefest. “So we have a country pavilion forMexico in a corner. It will present theirlocal cuisine and culture. We have alsoexpanded our entertainment factorwhere we’ll have the kids’ zone. Earliereverything was in one area, now thereare separate sections for everyone. Wealso have little food alleys where therewill be young and significant foodbrands. There is also more participationfrom even the general public.”

She mentions the B2B programmewhere new businesses for food can bethought about and set up. She says,“Anyone, people from the government,commercial heads from embassies,wedding planners or gifting business-es, who want to team up with like mind-ed individuals and create somethingrelated to food. The fest offers the spaceto incubate new ideas.”

Aditi believes that street food inIndia was always more popular buttoday the Indian audience is open tomore cuisines and food cultures. Shesays, “It’s not just about havingchowmein, butter chicken or chole bha-ture anymore, or going out to have one

food item. Such a festival gives a roofto all kinds of cuisines together.”

She says that this scenario hasevolved among the current populationas they are travelling a lot more. “Whenthey like something in a foreign land,they also wish for it to be present andaccessible in their own country. Nowwith growing awareness, the availabil-ity has also increased. Today there’s aplethora of things to explore,” she says.

While talking about the challenges,she agrees that there are always hurdleswhile creating something so massive.“But,” she says, “the biggest one is to notbecome stagnant and do the samething year after year. There shouldalways be certain additions that give anew vibe. This time there are food ses-sions and talks on healthy food, sectionsfor food art and organic products, enter-tainment and more.” She recalls thatwhen they implemented their idea forthe first time, half a decade ago, “therewas one challenge — understanding.We wanted people to comprehend thatit is not just a frivolous food festival thathas some drinks and music but alsoamusement related to food as well as an

opportunity to gain some knowledgearound various cuisines.”

So what have been the patterns thatshe has observed during the course offive years? “The demographic of thecountry is so wide that there are no par-ticular lines that hit the highest graph.If some follow more international dish-es, some still stick to Indian food. Thosewho have tried things before and haveliked them want to stick to them.There are variations so there can’t by justone statistic. But, the Indian audienceis indeed increasingly heading towardsglobal food movements,” says Aditi.

The three-day extravaganza willalso see Bollywood actress TaapseePannu greeting audience. There will beperformances by singers like DalerMehendi on December 16, whileJasmine Sandlas and Tulsi Kumar willbe performing today. A few names fromthe culinary space are Big Wong, JomJom Malay, Bombay Brasserie, TheGreat Kabab Factory, Orient Heritage,Wok to Walk, Olives of Spain, Kiara’sSoul Kitchen, among others.

(The festival at Nehru Park ends onSunday.)

Norwegian-Pakistani actress filmmakerIram Haq, whose film What Will PeopleSay has been selected as Norwegian entry

for the best foreign language film at the 91stAcademy Awards, says telling a compelling storyis more important for her than winning anaward because she does not believe in compe-tition when it comes to art.

How did she first react on her film beingchosen to represent Norway at the Oscars.

Haq, whose film stars Indian actors AdilHussain, Ekavali Khanna and Rohit Sarafisaid, “When I started making the film, the mostimportant thing for me was to tell a story in anutmost honest manner. And as an individual, Istrongly believe that art is never a competition.”

“Of course, it is a big honour for me that myfilm has been chosen but I want to say that it isnot possible to compete in art. Reaching out topeople with a story is important,” added Haq,whose earlier film ‘I am Yours’ was also select-ed as the official Norwegian Oscar entry for BestForeign Language Film.

This year, Rima Das’s Village Rockstar hasbeen selected as India’s official entry to Oscar.

The story of Haq’s film deals with the jour-ney of a young girl who is dealing with socio-cultural difference and a disturbed relationshipwith her parents.

According to her, understanding the gen-erational gap and expressing a critical view onthe matter through the film was very important.

Talking about projecting a balanced viewwith the story, Haq said, “It was important forme to put out both sides of the story. You see,the film is basically a love story between a fatherand his daughter and that does not really workbecause they are coming from two different gen-eration, gender and mindset.

“While the daughter understands the cul-tural values of her father and how he is strug-gling to accept the cultural difference of a worldthat is very different from a regular south Asiansociety, the girl is a Pakistani born and broughtup in Norway. It is almost impossible for her tolive her entire life to please her family.”

The film not just features Indian actors, butis also shot in various parts of India, mostly inRajasthan. In fact, Adil won the Best Actor awardat the Amanda Award or the NorwegianNational Awards.

On casting Indian talent, especially Adil,Haq said, “He is a wonderful actor and he wasthe perfect choice for playing the father. Howwonderfully he transformed the character fromscript to screen through his performance.”

Being a Pakistani girl who is born andbrought up in Norway herself, just like the pro-

tagonist Nisha — played by Maria Mozhdah —the film is quite autobiographical for the direc-tor. Reflecting upon that, she said, “When ourparents went abroad and were not well-integrat-ed, they feared to embrace the new culture. Thatis how they ended up taking wrong decisionsfor their children.”

“I had to live life like a well-mannered SouthAsian girl in my home because according to myparents, ‘log kya kahenge (what will people say)’otherwise, we will lose out on our tradition andculture. They think the new generation will losethemselves in the western culture.

“I wanted the young generation to break freeof that constant thought of log kya kahenge andassert that we are not here to live up to the expec-tation of ‘log (people)’... we are here to live ourzindagi (life). This is how I always stand by mychild as a mother,” added Haq.

She was kidnapped and taken to Pakistanand lived there for a year. She had lost connec-tion with her parents.

“I want to say that the story of the film istold with a lot of love but at the same time, it isa critical voice on how you shut down a youngvoice, or the voice of a girl, because she is a girlor because the individual is young. I am a strongbeliever of respecting young voice.”

Before making her directorial debut in 2010with the short film Little Miss Eyeflap, Haqworked as an actress, writer and theatre artistefor many years.

Is she interested in collaborating more withIndian actors? She said, “I have already workedwith Indian artistes and producers over here inIndia and of course I love India. I speak the lan-guage and it feels like they are my people. So, Iam open to the idea of collaborating with Indianartistes in the near future.”

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From fiery oranges and yellows, myriad shades ofblue, to black, green, rich hues of red and even cop-per, silver and gold, artist Vinita Karim’s canvases

are a glorious riot of colour.“I love colours. I just can’t work in black and white.

There is no fun in that,” tells Vinita.Born in Myanmar, educated in Sweden and the

Philippines, originally from India — Vinita Karim’snomadic lifestyle takes her all over the world. She chan-nels her constantly changing surroundings into her pas-sion for art and no matter where she goes, through herpaintings, sculptures and installations, Vinita carries withher the rest of the world.

Her new collection of abstract cityscapes titledMagical Musings, were created in the last five years, repli-cate fantastical cities in the artist’s mind on to the can-vas. The exhibition also showcases eight sculptures, whichshe did not sculpt but painted.

The imaginary spaces featuring clusters of housesagainst robust skies, and sometimes beautifully colouredstreams or rivers, are products of Vinita’s entire life, whichshe has, quite literally, lived out of a suitcase.

The artist is a fan of all things layered, and her paint-ings are no exception. Sometimes they are layered withdifferent painting techniques, at other times she uses dif-ferent mediums like acrylic, oil and embroidery to tierher works.

Vinita explains further that her works are literallylayered with geographies, histories and the cultures ofdifferent places while physically they are the paints, linesand embroidery.

As she travelled from one city to another, each placeleft a mark. She imbibed their spirits that got intertwinedin her head, giving birth to cities of her own.

“My father was part of the Indian Foreign Serviceand I have lived in over 10 countries. I am like a spongewho has absorbed everything around me. It was not justtravelling for me. I was living in these cities. And whenyou live in a city, you become very intimate with its cul-ture and people. The best thing is that all these differ-ent cultures also get embedded in your own psyche,” saysshe, who is inspired by Austrian landscape artistHundertwasser, “yet I consistently link back to my rootsin India.” Richly coloured canvases combine the sanddunes of Egypt with the islands of the Philippines, theghats of Varanasi with the rivers of Bangladesh. Theseare not just pretty pictures, they are “living landscapes”,she explains.

Her rendition of the holy city of Varanasi, forinstance, is overwhelmingly rich, particularly the waters.

She uses impasto, a technique where one paints witha palette knife, to render almost a three dimensional tex-ture to the Ganges river in the painting. The canvas madeusing acrylic, gold and copper on linen, is colourfullychaotic in its juxtaposition of the multi-layered blues ofthe river, with multi-coloured boats.

“Like I have a lot of different roles other than beingan artist, a mother, a wife, similarly in my painting I wantto use different mediums. I don’t want a single flat paint-ing. Instead, it needs to have depth in it. I need my worksto be layered because they represent many histories com-bined with a lot of my imagination,” says she.

Oil is her favourite medium even if it takes longerto dry out. She says that it is rich, soft and offers a dis-tinctive depth to the works.

Vinita recreates similar imaginary cities with herwork on sculptures too, at the risk of making a viewerfeel her work was repetitive, but not in a boring way,largely because of the judicious use of colours.

Vinita has painted landscapes as she stronglybelieves that it will always be an important part of anyart discourse, despite the rising trend in conceptual anddigital art.

(The exhibition is on display till January 5 atGallerie Ganesha.)

The tapping was gentle yet insis-tent and then a sudden shatter-ing sound echoed around the

studio. Two flowers broke off from agreen decorative glass piece and madea clatter triggering collective ohs andsighs from the 10 odd people that werehovering around the glass artists craft-ing the piece at Studio Glass Sutra inChattarpur.

“One has to go very slowly toremove the glasswork from the rod asthe bottom part is cold and the upperpart is soft. The upper part couldn’ttake the shock and that is the reasonit broke,” says Reshmi De, founderStudio Glass Sutra.

The piece, an exquisite green,opaque figurine, was work underprogress for quite sometime andentailed frequent trips between the fur-nace and the heating chamber wherethe flowers are kept. If the glass washeated a little less, the flowers don’tstick, if it was melted a little bit more,then there was always the danger of theflowers falling off. This meant that itwas not a simple process and neededconstant switches between the twoplaces. Brent Sheehan, a glass artistfrom California who had been hold-ing the piece at the end of a blowingrod, shrugs at the loss. Reshmi says,“This doesn’t break our heart but yes,we do feel bad.”

Reshmi, an Economics graduatefrom Assam, ventured into glassaround 1999. She made the long jour-ney from her state to Delhi in searchof doing something different where, “Icould tell a story of life, experiencesand my journey.” And that was despite

her parents opposition who wanted herto do masters in the subject or appearfor the UPSC exams. But she was yetto decide upon how she was going topursue her calling. Initially she sat forMBA exams, qualified for some insti-tutes, then attended workshops onMass Communications and butrealised that her heart was not in anyof it.

“Then I saw some coloured glasspieces with light passing through,” andit was as if her life too was illuminat-ed. She asked the person who hadbrought them questions similar to theones that she now fields often— abouthow it was made, the technique andmore. Initially she started with mar-keting them but did not want to sellsomething without understanding it.“I started studying online. I wanted togo to Firozabad but everyone object-ed. There were only two trains to theplace and that too without any reser-vation. But I stood by my decision andheaded there. I remember distinctlythat it was May 1999 and after so manyyears, I am still at it,” she says. But therewere some recurrent problems. Shestudied online but when she wantedsomething similar created, there wasa skill, understanding and aesthetic gapamong the craftspersons. So there wasalways a discrepancy between hervisualisation and the final output. “SoI decided that I should do things which

they understand.”It was as if seeing her persistence,

doors seemed to open automatically.In two months, an institute calledCentre for Development of GlassIndustry came up which was commis-sioned by Government of Indian andUnited Nations IndustrialDevelopment Organisation (UNIDO).“They invited Czech glass master PetrNovotn who is ranked as one of thethree world celebrities in the field ofglass art craft by experts. He wasaccompanied Martin Janecký, his assis-tant and after all these years we are stillin touch.

It was from them that Reshmilearnt that glass has an art side also.“Here I learnt that it was important tounderstand the material and the designafter which you think through thewhole process and create it yourself,”she recalls.

She crafted her pieces and soldthem to stores, as well as at places likethe Blind School Diwali Mela. “Theones at the latter were more like handcrafted organic tableware pieces,” shesays.

In 2007, she branched out intoinstallation art. “I started doing com-missioned pieces. My most expensivepiece was a wall installation for a cor-porate on sustainability which waspriced at �27 lakh and a chandelierwhich cost �25 lakh.”

Reshmi works with different meth-ods of glass making. Hand blown glassis where glass is melted in a furnace ata temperature of 1050-1100 degreescentigrade temp. The molten glasswhich has the viscosity of honey isblown through the end of a pipe andgiven shape. This is the most difficultof the techniques. “While most peo-ple claim that they are doing this, itlathe blowing where borosil test tubesare attached at the end of a machineand given shape as well as design iswhat they are actually doing.”

Then there is flame work which isused to create more intricate andoften smaller pieces like jewellery. “Ihave even created a 3x90 feet chande-lier with this technique. Then there isfusing or slumping which is used tomake platters and large installations.

However, while working with glassthere are somethings that need to bekept in mind. If the glass is notcooked properly, it breaks. At her stu-dio, she maintains the highest ofinternational standards. The glassesthat they wear to protect the eyes aremade of didanium and there is prop-er hand gear.

Reshmi wants to create an under-standing and an awareness about artwhere people can see the beauty ofglass and craftsmanship. “There isdesign touching the boundary of art,with an infusion of craft. I am trying

functional art as well. So there is a tran-sition from design to art to craft,” shesays.

Reshmi also points out that thereare different types of glass that areinvolved. While for the colouredpieces, she works with recycled glassfor the clear ones, it is the fresh glassthat is used. To infuse colour sheprefers the glass bars from Krugler orReichenbach which are German basedbrands to camouflage the quality of theglass. Her devotion can be measuredfrom the fact that often when the glassis being melted she shifts bag, baggageand dog to the studio where shesleeps on the first floor to keep a checkon the furnace. “Glass needs to bemelted at 1300 degrees celsius for 12-14 hours to be perfect,” she says.

She prefers to not make more thanfour to five pieces of each of her workas, “I get bored,” she says.

The pieces can start at �1,000 forthe tiniest one. The bespoke luxuryones begin at �7,000 and can go up toa few lakh while the installations startat �3 lakh upward. For the IndiaDesign Week, she is working on arange of lighting which incorporatedtextile with glass.

As for her future plans she wantsto work with women and give them thehope and skill set to improve their livesas well as try and get the study of glassincorporated in some institute.

�How does the Tasting India Symposium ini-tiate a dialogue on India’s gastronomic heritageand culinary tourism?

It’s a fantastic concept to have something likethis as it gets plenty of people from across thecountry to come and discuss various issues andthat’s what the industry needs — to reach notonly the chefs but also the suppliers. It also giveschefs exposure and enlightens them with what’son the market and to come and interact with.In the end it’s a journey in process. The sym-posium has done an amazing job in gettingeverybody under one roof to initiate the advo-cacy initiative.

�What are the ways that can promote culinarytourism potential in India?

Tourism in India is on a rise and we needa lot of support from the government. It is a landof plenty with its history and heritage and cul-ture. Food is a very important part in tourismbecause wherever we go we want to eat and enjoythe diverse cuisine of India, right from Rajasthanto Kanyakumari to Nagaland and Sikkim. If youcombine the scenic beauty with some amazingfood, there is nothing more than one needs.

�What are the challenges to a sustainable foodculture in India?

Education and awareness are very important.We talk about sustainability but we also need tohave fair trade for farmers. They have to belooked after and given exposure. Train the peo-ple at grassroot level from farmers to peopleworking at lower positions in hotels and paythem decent salary. The farmers must be edu-

cated about new methods and techniques.

�What is your idea of the Indian cuisine? Howdo you think it is being appreciated by inter-national chefs and present in the globalpalate?

India is a sleeping giant. It is just awaken-ing. There is a change for sure, we have been try-ing to push this for many many years inLondon and as chefs we do seminars and work-shops. When you are there even if you are not

an am ambassador you are still representingIndia, and we try to show it in a very humbleand approachable manner. It’s a misconceptionthat Indian food is spicy and oily as that’s notthe case at all. Nobody eats that on a daily basis.We have to learn to respect our culture first. Theexposure and awareness has been phenomenalnow with Google and the internet in place. Alsothe media has started appreciating what we have,which was not the case initially when I start-ed. Journalism is very structured and construc-tive now.

�What are some of the global food movementsand revolutions today?

It’s all going back to basics in many ways —going back to flavours, good tastes and respect-ing which part of the world you are from.Everyone wants to eat healthy and as local aspossible. We have 14 restaurants globally and wetry to incorporate ingredients from that region.You have to respect sensibilities around you. Youhave to also support the local communities andhelp them earn their bread and butter.

�What do you have to say about the currentfood culture in India?

India for the past few years has been all

about molecular which had already been passedover by Europe 20 years back. It’s a phase pass-ing by. At my restaurant a lot of dishes areinspired from home cooking and mothers’ cook-ing. They are about childhood memories, theybring nostalgia. If somebody eats something andthat touches them, they always want to go backto that place. So for us if we can send our guestswith one happy memory, our job is done. I ambiased about food. I love the food that is cookedfrom the heart.

�How has your cooking evolved over the years?

It keeps evolving, It never stops. Also fromthe business point of view, you have to have thatUSP in order to be ahead from everybody else.Why would someone want to come to my restau-rant when there are 10,000 other restaurants thatare doing the same job. A lot of chefs becomevery complacent after a while, but what we dois we step in and change the existing.

There is no new technique, but it’s theapproach towards food. Right from doing foodwhich is very singular to deconstructing it. Nowthe trend is to enjoy a variety of food. I am a bigfan of street food and we try bring that authen-tic flavours in our restaurant so that those whocan’t stand on the roadside can enjoy it too.

�What are some of the most successful foodexperiments that you have mastered ?

We always keep trying — the smoking tech-nique from Rajasthan to samosas or makingbiryanis in dum. Fortunately I have travelled alot in India because of the travel shows and Ipicked up a lot on the way. It’s a constant process,we never stand still.

�How do you think cooking food is an art?It is a big art form and it is also a science.

You have to have the basic understanding andlearn the things, and then you can learn to mod-ify it. Everybody can cook but if you can trans-form basic food into something very special, itsan art. There is a whole technique and under-standing of variety of ingredients you use. Aschefs we try to learn the food in the best way.Its not only cinematic art but it is also an art foryour palate.

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Arare history awaits two-timedefending champions Australiaas they chase a record hat-trick

of titles, taking on Netherlands in thesemi-finals at the Kalinga Stadium onSaturday.

World No 1 Australia is second onlyto four-time champions Pakistan, hav-ing won the world title thrice before,which includes back-to-back Goldmedals in the last two editions of thetournament in 2010 and 2014.

Come on Saturday, the Kookaburraswill be chasing their third consecutiveworld crown.

But it would be easier said thandone as in world No 4 Netherlands atough contest awaits Australia.

The Dutch, who have won the titlethrice before — the last time being in1998 — too would be desperate to breaktheir 20-year-old jinx.

Netherlands would be high on con-fidence especially after their hard-fought 2-1 win over home favouritesIndia in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

Going by form and world ranking,it is expected to be an edge of the seatthriller between the two teams, who

prefer to play totally contrasting styleof hockey.

While attacking hockey is the backbone of Australia, the Dutch mostly pre-fer to play waiting game with a compactdefence and relying more on countersto surprise their opponents.

There is hardly anything to differ-entiate between the two sides going byrecent head-to-head record.

Since 2013, Australia andNetherlands have played each other 11times with the Kookaburras winningfive and losing four while two ended indraws.

The Australians made a slow startbut grew in confidence as the tourna-ment progressed.

After a hard-fought 2-1 win overIreland in their opener, Australiastepped on the gas and registered con-vincing wins over England (3-0), China(11-0) and France (3-0).

The Dutch, on the other hand,started with a bang and mauledMalaysia 7-0 before losing 1-4 toGermany.

They defeated Pakistan 5-1 in theirlast pool match before beating Canada5-0 in the cross-overs and eking out aclose 2-1 win over India in the quar-

terfinals.The Australia-Netherlands match

has all the makings of a classic. In 2014at The Hague, Australia came out on topagainst Netherlands 6-1 in front ofhome crowd to lift their second con-secutive World Cup.

And Saturday's encounter will pro-vide the Dutch an opportunity toavenge their loss four years ago.

But in the last four years since theymet in the final of 2014, much haschanged.

The likes of Jamie Dwyer, Mark

Knowles and Glenn Turner have retiredbut the Kookaburras have rebuilt bril-liantly under coach Colin Batch sincethe disappointment of Rio Olympicsand have returned to the top of theworld rankings.

The Dutch, on the other hand, areunquestionably much tougher underMax Caldas now than they were fouryears ago.

Australia's Daniel Beale too agreedthat it would be a tough, exciting bat-tle on Saturday for a place in Sunday'ssummit clash.

"We are into the crucial stage of thetournament. We got to watch lastnight's match between Holland andIndia. So we have learnt a lot from that.We are expecting a very tough matchtomorrow," he said.

"We have very proud history. Thereis no special formula. We work hard, wetrain hard. We are fiercely competitive.Every tournament we go we go to win."

Beale said what happened fouryears ago will hardly have any impactin Saturday's must-win game.

"In 2014 Australia had great successin the final but that was a long time agoand this group has changed immense-ly. So we are looking to create a bit ofhistory," Beale said.

"Holland are a very tough team.They have quality players. Billy(Bakker), (Robert) Kemperman,(Valentin) Verga. We wil do our home-work and try to nullify them."

Meanwhile, Olympic Silver medal-list Belgium too would be looking tocreate history by making their maidenWorld Cup final appearance when theytake on England in the first semi-finalearlier in the day.

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Olympic Silver medallist P V Sindhucontinued her unbeaten run while

debutant Sameer Verma also qualifiedfor the knockout stage with a straight-game win in his last group B match atthe BWF World Tour Finals, here onFriday.

Playing her third successive year-ending finale, Sindhu dished out somedeceptive strokes and showed precisionduring the 35-minute contest to pre-vail over world No 12 Beiwen Zhang21-9, 21-15 in a one-sided women'ssingles contest to top Group A.

"I was down 2-6 initially but Ipicked up the lead, so after that I wasfine," Sindhu, the last edition's runner-up, said after the match.

"I have played a few matchesagainst her after the Indian Open final,so I took it as a fresh match," said the23-year-old referring to her IndianOpen final loss to Zhang at New Delhiearly this year.

"I am happy with the three wins,it is a positive thing. I hope to move for-ward with the same positivity and dowell in the semifinals," added Sindhu,who won all the three matches of hergroup and will now take on world No8 and 2013 world champion RatchanokInthanon of Thailand in the semifinals.

On the adjacent court, 24-year-oldSameer showed great athleticism andproduced a masterful performance to

demolish Thailand's KantaphonWangcharoen 21-9, 21-18 in a matchthat clocked 44 minutes.

After losing the opening match toworld No 1 and world champion

Kento Momota, Sameer, whoqualified for the tournamentafter defending his title atSyed Modi International last

month, recovered well tocome up trumps againsthis other two opponents

in Group B.He will now

face All Englandchampion andWorld champi-onship Silvermedallist Shi Yuqi

of China in the semi-finals.

"I have played himbefore at Swiss Open

so I knew how to goabout it. In the second

game I was losing so aftersome advice from my coach,

I kept my patience and nowI am ready to play the semifinals," saidSameer.

"It has been a great experienceplaying my first world tour finals."

In the women's singles, Sindhu,

who had stunned worldNo 1 Tai Tzu Ying in herprevious match, didn'tmake a good start againstZhang, conceding a 0-4lead early on.

But she clawed back at 6-6 afterproducing some angled returns, whichincluded a delightful over-the head-cross court return.

The Indian then sealed the open-ing game comfortably in 15 minuteswhen Zhang failed to reach a shot atthe fore court.

After the change of sides, Sindhucontinued to dominate the proceedingsto accumulate the first five pointsbefore hitting long.

Zhang seemed to suffer fromindecision and ended up committingtoo many unforced errors.

The Indian managed a 11-9 advan-tage at the interval after Zhang wentlong again.

The Indian committed threeunforced errors before sealing thecontest, following her opponent's mis-cued shot which went long.

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Olympiakos dumped AC Milan out of the EuropaLeague on Thursday after beating the seven-time

European champions 3-1 in a pulsating clash inGreece, while Eintracht Frankfurt fans ran riot dur-ing the German side's win at Lazio and Celticmade the knockout stages despite losing toSalzburg at Celtic Park.

Captain Kostas Fortounis' penalty nineminutes from time saw the Greeks move intosecond place in Group F ahead of GennaroGattuso's Milan, who thought theyhad squeaked through when CristianZapata had pulled a goal back lessthan two minutes after putting thehosts 2-0 up with a comical own goal.

Olympiakos finished level on 10points with Milan but qualifiedahead of the Italians thanks to theirsuperior goal difference followingMilan's 3-1 win over the Greeks inOctober, and they end the group stagetwo points behind group winnersReal Betis, who drew 0-0 atDudelange.

Eintracht had already comfort-ably taken top spot in the group thanks to winningall five of their previous games, while Lazio were alsoin the last 32 regardless of the result of the match, won2-1 by the away side as they came back from a goaldown thanks to second-half strikes from MijatGacinovic and Sebastien Haller.

Last year's runners-up Marseille finished bottomof that group after losing 3-1 at home to ApollonLimassol and ending the group stage with just a sin-gle point.

����������������������� Celtic looked to be following Old Firm rivals

Rangers out of the competition after Steven Gerrard's

side fell 1-0 at Rapid Vienna earlier on Thursday, butTore Reginiussen's equaliser four minutes from timefor Rosenborg at RB Leipzig allowed BrendanRodgers's side to qualify second from Group B, twopoints ahead of the Bundesliga outfit.

Second-half goals from Munas Dabbur andFredrik Gulbrandsen meant that Salzburgtopped the group with a 100 percent recordafter a 2-1 win, while Olivier Ntcham's stop-page-time penalty meant nothing for the resultnor the final standings.

Chelsea, who had already won Group L,looked to be on their way to a perfectsixth win from six, but could onlyscrape a point at eliminated Vidithanks to substitute Olivier Giroud'slate free-kick, after an Ethan Ampaduown goal and Loic Nego's sumptuousvolley had put the hosts a goal ahead.

BATE Borisov qualified alongsideChelsea after winning 3-1 at rock-bot-tom PAOK.

Alexandre Lacazette confirmedArsenal's dominance of Group E withthe only goal of a low-key 1-0 win overbottom side Qarabag, while second-placed Sporting Lisbon cruised past

Vorskla Poltava 3-0.Malmo are in the knockout stages after snatch-

ing a 1-0 win at Besiktas that saw the Swedes leapfrogtheir Turkish hosts in the extremely tight Group I.

All four teams in the group were in contentionfor qualification on Thursday, but Genk managed tohold on to first place after hammering Sarpsborg 4-0.

Sevilla took top spot in Group J from Krasnodarthanks to a 3-0 win, while Rennes pipped Astana tothe knockout rounds with a 2-0 victory.

Bayer Leverkusen ensured first place in Group Awith a 5-1 hammering of Larnaca, while Zurich drew1-1 at Ludogorets.

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Star Indian shuttlers Saina Nehwaland Parupalli Kashyap tied the

knots in a simple ceremony here onFriday.

"Saina got married as per courtrules today at about 11.30 (AM)," herfather Harvir Singh said.

The wedding took place atSaina's residence in Orion villas atRaidurgam in Cyberabad.

"It was a small gathering ofabout 40 guests, including relativesof the Saina and Kashyap's families.

"It was a very simple ceremonyand December 16th will be thereception," Singh said.

The guests included Governors

of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,according to Singh.

Saina posted a photograph withKashyap on Friday, announcing hermarriage.

"Best match of my life...#just-married," she wrote in Twitter.

Kashyap said, "We are veryhappy. Today was a north style wed-ding and 16th midnight is themuhurtam for the South Indianwedding."

While Saina wore a powder bluelehenga with minimal makeup andjewellery, Kashyap was dressed in apink kurta and white pyjamas.

Saina and Kashyap, who met atPullela Gopichand's academy, werein a relationship for quite some

time now. But the couple nevercame out in the open regarding theirrelation.

Saina had confirmed the news oftheir wedding in October but the hec-tic international badminton schedulekept them busy.

Last month, they started extend-ing their wedding invitation toimportant personalties, includingTelangana MLA KT Rama Rao, filmstar Chiranjeevi, owner of HyderabadHunters (PBL franchise) VRK Rao.

Saina and Kashyap's wedding isthe latest among a string of high-pro-file weddings involving sportsper-sons. Last year, India cricket captainVirat Kohli had married Bollywoodactress Anushka Sharma in Italy.

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����� 5"&7

India recovered from a patchy startto reduce Australia to 277 for six onthe opening day of the second Test

but the hosts still walked out withadvantage considering the bowler-friendly conditions, here on Friday.

A 112-run opening stand betweenMarcus Harris (70) and Aaron Finch(50) vindicated their decision to bat ongreen top before Indian bowlers madea decent recovery by taking threewickets each in the last two sessions.

With the pitch offering better assis-tance from the post lunch sessionandthe Indian bowlers managing to recti-fy their line and length, the visitorsmade inroads into the Australian bat-ting line-up.

Skipper Tim Paine (16 not out) andPat Cummins (11 not out) were unbeat-en at stumps after enduring a testingspell from Jasprit Bumrah.

Pacer Ishant Sharma (2/35) andspinner Hanuma Vihari (2/53) took twowickets apiece while Bumrah (1/41) andUmesh Yadav (1/68) accounted for onebatsman each.

Following a good start, ShaunMarsh (45) and Peter Handscomb (7)looked to extend their fourth-wicketpartnership but could only manage toadd three runs as Sharma brokethrough early in the final session.

Handscomb looked to cut away tooclose to his body, and Virat Kohli helda stunning one-handed catch at second

slip to dismiss him in the second overafter tea.

Marsh and Travis Head (58) thenadded 84 runs for the fifth wicket, andin doing so took Australia past 200 inthe 69th over. India could have brokenthrough early, but Rishabh Pant putdown a regulation catch from Marsh(on 24) off Vihari in the 67th over.

India were looking in bother againwhen Marsh fell against the run of play,trying to cut Vihari and edging to firstslip where Ajinkya Rahane made nomistake.

Head reached his third Test half-century off 70 balls but threw it all awayas he square cut a wide delivery off

Sharma six overs later and was caughtat wide third man.

Earlier, India struck thrice postlunch as Australia were reduced to 145-3 at tea.

Jasprit Bumrah (1/41) and UmeshYadav (1/68) struck during a tight spellin the second hour of play after lunch,as Australia lost three wickets for 22runs.

Post lunch, Marcus Harris hadbrought up his maiden Test half-cen-tury off 90 balls as he took his open-ing stand with Aaron Finch (50) to 112.

Their 100-stand had come up in the34th over, with India leaking another48 runs in the hour's play after the

break. Mohammed Shami (0-63) con-ceded 23 runs in his four-over second-spell after lunch.

Finch too reached his second Testhalf-century off 103 balls as Australiareached a position of strength. Butthings turned thereafter as Bumrahstruck first up in the 36th over, trappingFinch lbw with a fuller delivery.

KL Rahul dropped Harris (on 60)off Shami in the 45th over, with thefielder failing to time his jump at sec-ond slip. It didn't cost India too muchthough as four overs later, he hit a sur-prise bouncer from Vihari straight atRahane at slip.

In between, Yadav used the pressurebuilt and etched out Usman Khawaja's(5) wicket, out caught behind in the46th over as India gained the fruits oftheir hard work in this second hour ofplay.

In the morning session, Australiadefied a green-top wicket and made

steady progress to reach 66-0 at lunch.The Perth wicket at the Optus

Stadium was talked up a raging green-top wicket, but the Australian openersdefied all that speculation. For theirpart, Indian pacers chipped in with allpossible help and bowled a poor firstspell with the new ball.

Shami was India's best bowler of thefirst session as he bowled with immac-ulate control from the very beginning.He came on to bowl in the 12th overand immediately troubled the batsmen.

Finch survived an lbw shout onaccount of height as India wasted a DRSreview. They had another loud shoutturned down on the very next ball, butthis time no review was taken.

India bowled better in the secondhour of play and conceded only 19 runsin 13 overs. But the damage hadalready been done as the duo were setand the new ball had been wasted ona fresh pitch.

����� 5"&7

All-rounder Hanuma Vihari says key for Indianbatsmen will be to remain disciplined on a pitch

which has got better for the fast bowlers after a goodcontest between ball and bat on the opening day ofthe second Test.

The pitch was slow in the morning, but it quick-ened up after lunch. The Indian bowlers adjustedwell to take six wickets.

"For us the important thing is to not think aboutthose aspects too much. If it is up and down, youcan't do much about it. If we can keep that out ofmind, we will be successful. As batsmen, we will tryto be as disciplined as possible, just how we did inthe second innings of the last Test," Vihari said.

"You have to play ball by ball. That's what mat-ters. If you are thinking about the previous ball, youwon't react perfectly to the next ball. Keep that ballout of your mind," he added.

Indian bowlers were "disciplined" after an ordi-nary start on the opening day of the second Test andthe target for day two is to restrict Australia to 320-odd in the first innings.

"The first hour tomorrow (on Saturday) will bevery crucial. If we get them out for below 320, weare right back in the game. If we bat well, we havea good chance. The first hour is crucial," said Vihari.

����� 5"&7�

Australian opener AaronFinch believes the second

Test against India is going to bea "real grind" and off-spinnerNathan Lyon will play an impor-tant role considering the amountof bounce on offer at the Perthwicket.

"It's going to be one ofthose games that'll be a realgrind for both sides. The posi-tion we're in we would havetaken at the start of the day, nodoubt, especially winning thetoss and batting," Finch toldreporters.

"I think Nathan Lyon willenjoy bowling with the amountof bounce on this track, nodoubt he will be excited to bowlhere," added the opener, whoscored 50 in Australia's firstinnings on Friday.

Asked about making theIndian bowlers work hard, Finchsaid, "Our plan was to bat on thiswicket regardless of what hap-pened in Adelaide, the heat and

getting miles into their legs."That was our plan to bat

first anyway and take that chal-lenges head on. No doubt itmight play a factor later in thisgame, or third or fourth Test, butit was always our plan to bat(after winning the toss)."

Talking about his partneryoung Harris, who scored hismaiden Test half-century at hishome ground, Finch said, "Ithink what everyone's seen fromhim so far, not a lot fazes him.He's a pretty chilled out charac-ter who just goes with the flowand that's the way he's alwaysbeen.

����� 5"&7�

Former skipper Allan Borderfeels the Australian pace bat-

tery will have the advantage oflearning from the mistakes ofIndian seamers, who bowled a "lit-tle bit short" on the opening dayof second Test.

"Given the amount of deliv-eries that went past the outsideedge India will feel they couldhave had a better day. Theybowled well but if I'm beingsupercritical they were a little bitshort," he wrote in a column forFoxsports.

"With so many balls passingthe outside edge you've got to erron the fuller side. You may occa-sionally get hit down the groundbut any ball that moves off theseam is good chance of catchingthe edge.

"The good news for Australiais their bowlers will have learnedfrom what worked and what did-n't, and when it is their turn tobowl they will be confident. There

were just enough balls bouncingawkwardly or moving off theseam to encourage them."

With R Ashwin injured, Indiadrafted in Umesh Yadav in theplaying XI, making it a four-menpace attack — only the thirdtime in their Test history.

Part-time spinner Hanuma

Vihari, who was included in theteam in place of the injured RohitSharma, took two wickets andBorder hinted India might havemissed a trick by not opting for aspecialist tweaker, looking at thevariable bounce.

"Moving forward in this Testwe'll see whether or not India hasmissed a trick by not picking aspecialist spinner," he wrote.

"Despite part-time off-spinnerHanuma Vihari's two bonus wick-ets, I still think this is a seamer'swicket."

The former Australia batsmansaid the hosts' first-innings runsmight prove to be gold on thispitch.

"Both teams went hard onFriday but Australia finished itwith their noses in front. On a sur-face like this runs on the board,particularly in the first innings, arelike gold.

"At the same time, we won'thave a true sense of where thisgame stands until India has alsohad the chance to bat on it."

����� �C�75&

Tamim Iqbal and SoumyaSarkar slammed half-cen-

turies as Bangladesh cruised toan eight-wicket win over theWest Indies in the third andfinal one-day international totake the three-match series 2-1on Friday.

Tamim hit an unbeaten 81while Soumya added 80 off 81balls to guide Bangladesh to202-2 in 38.3 overs after MehidyHasan's career best 4-29 helpedthe home side restrict the WestIndies to 198-8 in 50 overs.

Shai Hope fought a lone bat-tle for the tourists, scoring hissecond successive hundred ofthe series but it was in vain asno other batsman provided sup-port.

Fresh from an unbeaten146 off 144 balls in the previousmatch, Hope struck anotherunconquered knock of 108 off131 to prop up the visitors, tak-ing his tally in the series to 297runs.

Bangladesh made a steadyresponse, with Tamim and LitonDas hitting 45 runs for the

opening wicket before Litonoffered a catch to RovmanPowell at mid-on off KeemoPaul.

Soumya and Tamim deniedthe West Indies any momentum,putting 131 runs in their secondwicket stand, which all butsealed the contest and the series.

Mushfiqur Rahim wasunbeaten on 16 at the other end.

Earlier, skipper MashrafeMortaza and spinner Shakib AlHasan claimed two wickets eachafter man-of-the-match Mehidyrattled the West Indies' top-order.

"It was a good match —Hope played an excellentinnings," Mashrafe said after the

match."Our bowlers have been

very good. Spinners have beentight and pacers also stuck to theplans," he added.

Earlier, Hope defied thespirited Bangladesh attack, hit-ting Shakib over the long off tobring up his fourth ODI centu-ry after the ninth wicket hadfallen for 177 runs.

The opener, who wasnamed player of the series, alsohit 10 fours in his fine innings.

Bangladesh won the firstmatch by five wickets on Sundaybefore the West Indies levelledthe series with four-wicket winin the second match two dayslater.

����� ->�>!*>

Sri Lanka on Friday broughtback Lasith Malinga after a

long hiatus as captain of its lim-ited-over squads to lead thenational team against NewZealand.

Sri Lanka Cricket said the 35-year-old right-arm fast bowlerwas named skipper of a 17-mansquad for three one-day interna-tionals and one T20 startingJanuary 3.

Malinga led Sri Lanka to theT20 World Cup in 2014. But sincecaptaining Sri Lanka against theUAE in February 2016, he has notled the national team.

He had lost his captaincy aswell as his place in the team afterrecurring injuries which forcedhim to sit out many tourna-ments.

However, he captained anODI match against India inAugust last year.

The latest squad for the short-er forms of the game was ratifiedby President Maithripala Sirisenain the absence of a sports minis-ter, the cricket board said.

Sri Lanka is effectively with-out a government since a disput-ed cabinet appointed by Sirisena

was defeated in a no-confidencemotion last month.

Sri Lanka squad: LasithMalinga (captain), NiroshanDickwella (vice captain), AngeloMathews, Danushka Gunathilaka,Kusal Janith Perera, DineshChandimal, Asela Gunaratne,Kusal Mendis,Dhananjaya deSilva, Thisara Perera, DasunShanaka, Lakshan Sandakan,Seekkuge Prasanna, DushmanthaChameera, Kasun Rajitha, NuwanPradeep and Lahiru Kumara.

����� !8!*�$

Shreyas Iyer slammed 11 sixes and 17fours in a blistering knock of 178 and put

on a double century stand with skipperSiddhesh Lad, who made a responsible 130,to power Mumbai to an imposingscore of 439 for 8 against Barodahere on Friday.

Iyer was in punishing form,sparing no one from the visitors'ranks to compile his 12th first classhundred in his first game of the sea-son as he rescued the hosts from 28for 2 with a stand of 283 in justover 45 overs with Lad onday one of the elite GroupA game.

Hardik Pandya,back in competitivecricket after recoveringfrom a back spasmopened the bowlingfor Baroda androcked Mumbai witha two-wicket haul for21 in his impressive come-back spell of six overs.

Iyer smacked left armspinner Bhargav Bhatt forthree sixes in four balls torace to his century in 86balls and then singledout veteran Yusuf Pathanfor similar punishment bycarting the off-breakbowler for three successivesixes. A more sedate Lad,who faced 173 balls and strucktwo sixes and 12 fours, deniedBaroda a wicket for more thanfour hours spread over the firsttwo sessions.

However, Baroda grabbed fivemore wickets before stumps withPandya snapping up one more vic-tim, in-form all rounder ShivamDube, to finish with end of dayimpressive figures of 3 for 74 in 15overs.

Bhatt picked up four wick-ets while Pathan was the othersuccessful bowler.

Meanwhile, at Surat, despiteskipper Priyank Panchal's 94,Gujarat were bowled out for 216against Karnataka. For the vis-itors, Vinay Kumar, PrateekJain, Ronit More, KrishnappaGowtham and Shreyas Gopalpicked two wickets each.

At New Delhi, Vidarbhareached 243 for 6 againstRailways with skipper Faiz Fazal top-scor-ing with 53.

And at Nashik, Saurashtra batsmenhammered a listless Maharashtra attack toend the opening day at 269/3.

�� ���)#�����#����� ����)�#)��� 3���Odisha bowlers produceda spirited show as they bowled outRajasthan for a meagre 135 on the open-ing day of their Elite Group C encounter.

For Odisha, the Mohanty duo —Basant and Rajesh — both right-arm pac-

ers — did the job as theyshared nine wickets among them.

Basant returned with excep-tional figures of 6-20 and wasably supported by Rajesh (3-63)as Rajasthan batters had a hor-rid time at the Vikash cricket

ground here.For them, only skipper

Mahipal Lomror (85)played a valiant knock

to ensure that the sidecrossed the 100-runmark.

Lomror, whowas the last manto be dismissed,struck 14 fours

and a six, as he waged alone battle.

In reply, Odisha lost four wick-ets and were 78/4 at close of play,still adrift by 57 runs. DebasishSamantray (30 not out) andAbhishek Raut (22 not out) areholding the fort.

Meanwhile, in AgartalaPratyush Singh-led Tripura'sfightback as the hosts reached to247/7 at stumps on day 1. Theywere 128/6 at one stage.

At Lucknow, Ishank Jaggi (76not out) and all-rounder ShahbazNadeem (70 not out) tookJharkhand to a respectable 278/6after the side were teetering at157/6 against Uttar Pradesh.

In Goalpara, Puducherry'sFabid Ahmed hogged the lime-light with an all-round show on

a day 22 wickets tumbled in theirPlate Group match against

Arunchal Pradesh.The Kerala recruit top-scored

with an unbeaten 41 beforePuducherry were bundled out for136.

Ahmed then foxed the ArunchalPradesh batsmen with his off-spin onway to career-best figures of 6/29.

Former India pacer Pankaj Singh(3/20) also chipped in with crucial

breakthroughs as Arunchal Pradeshfolded for 82 at their adopted homevenue.

Under fading lights, ArunachalPradesh's Upadhyal Deendyal dismissedboth the openers for a total of 22 wicketson the day.

At stumps on day one, Puducherrywere 28/2, leading by 82 runs.

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