ˆˆ ˜ ˘ ˆˆ71 $ 6 ˆ - dailypioneer.com Giving a call for “BJP Hatao, Desh Bachao”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said her State “would show the

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Aday after comfortably win-ning the No-Confidence

Motion, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Saturdaycharged the Opposition withrunning after the PM’s chairignoring the poor, youth andfarmers.

And yet again, he took adig at Congress president RahulGandhi for his “unwanted”hug saying it came since theOpposition had no answer tohis query regarding the reasonbehind bringing in the motion.

Addressing the KisanKalyan Rally in Shahjahanpur,Modi said, “We asked the rea-sons for their No Confidence,but when they failed to give itthey ended up giving anunwanted hug.” Modi had dur-ing his reply to the no-confi-dence motion against hisGovernment on Friday takenon Rahul for his surpriseembrace saying he is in a hurryto be seated in the PM’s chairbut it is possible only if the 125-crore-strong population wish-es so.

For his part, Rahul took toTwitter reiterating that the onlyway to build a nation was byharnessing love and compas-sion of people.

Pointing to the efforts of

the Opposition parties to forgea united front against the BJP,Modi said, “There is not justone ‘dal’ (political party) but dalover dal resulting in “dal-dal”(marshy land) which will onlyhelp the ‘lotus’ (BJP’s electionsymbol) bloom.” He said thecoming together of several par-ties against the BJP will be anopportunity.

Modi’s Shahjahanpur rallywas the fourth in Uttar Pradeshafter Azamgarh, Varanasi andMirzapur. Shahjahanpur is thebiggest wholesale grain marketand also a prominent canegrowing district in UttarPradesh which sends 80 MPs tothe Lok Sabha.

Modi also sought to drivehome the message that there

was more than what meets theeye behind the Opposition’sNo-Confidence motion. “This(motion) was not moved justlike that. Jab �90,000 croreidhar udhar ho gaye tab kitnonki dukanein band ho gayi.Galat kaam band kar de, herapheri band kar de to aisi sarkarpe wo bharoasa karenge kya?,”he said.

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Giving a call for “BJPHatao, Desh Bachao”,

West Bengal ChiefMinister MamataBanerjee on Saturday saidher State “would show theway and the TrinamoolC ongress-prop el ledFederal Front would playthe catalyst” to theinevitable change of 2019when the Narendra ModiGovernment will bethrown out of power“heralding a new India,free from hatred, lynch-ing, and Talibani style violence”.

Banerjee said her partywould commence the processon January 19 next yearthrough a mega all-party rallyat Brigade Parade Ground. “Iwill invite all the leading politi-cians of the country, includingthe Congress and the CPI(M),to unite against the BJP whichhas created a Talibani atmos-phere where mass violence,hatred, communal division andlynching is the order of theday,” she said.

And the lead bringing

about the change will obvious-ly be taken by the TMC-pro-pelled Federal Front, Banerjeesaid from the TMC Martyrs’rally — observed every year toremember the 13 people whohad died in a police firing in aYouth Congress rally led by herin 1991. The Left Frontpromptly said they would notattend Banerjee’s proposedmega rally on January 19 andPradesh Congress presidentAdhir Chowdhury said “theCM will get the reply from thehigh command.”

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Conceding a year-longdemand, sanitary pads

have been exempted from GSTas the GST Council reduced taxrates on an array of daily useappliances and products onSaturday.

While GST tax on sanitarypads was cut from 12 per centto zero, rakhis were exemptedfrom the tax, Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal told reportershere. “Sanitary napkinsexempted from GST,” Goyalsaid.

Among items on whichGST was reduced includefootwear, small televisions,water heater, electric ironingmachines, refrigerators, lithiumion batteries, hair dryers, vac-uum cleaners, food appliancesand ethanol.

“GST Council cuts tax rateon an array of products. Rakhishave been exempted from GST,tax on ethanol has been cut to5 per cent, small handicraftshave been exempted,” Goyalsaid.

Besides, tax rates onworked up Kota stone, sand

stone and similar quality oflocal stones were cut from 18to 12 per cent, with the purposeof avoiding classification dis-putes.

The value limit of footwearwas enhanced from �500 to�1,000 for 5 per cent rate? GSTon 17 items used by middleclass viz paints, refrigerators,AC, washing machines, vacu-um cleaners, storage waterheaters, TVs up to 68 cm wasreduced from 28 to 18 per cent.The next GST Council meeting

will be held on August 4. Consumer durable makers

have welcomed theGovernment’s move to bring —AC, washing machine, refrig-erators — in lower GST slab,saying that it will act as a cat-alyst for the industry.

The move will also help thedomestic manufacturing, andhelp in creating more employ-ment opportunities, saidConsumer Electronics andAppliances ManufacturersAssociation.

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Aman was allegedly lynchedon Saturday in Rajasthan’s

Alwar district by a group ofpeople who accused him ofsmuggling cows, police said onSaturday.

Akbar Khan, 28, and hisfriend Aslam were taking twocows to their village in Haryanathrough a forested area nearLalawandi in Alwar districton Friday night when five menattacked them, Ramgarh policestation SHO Subhash Sharmasaid. Khan narrated the inci-dent to policemen who arrivedat the spot. He died on the wayto a government hospital inRamgarh.

They suspected that Khanwas smuggling cows but theallegation is yet to be verified,Sharma said.

The police arrested twomen, even as Rajasthan chiefMinister Vasundhara Rajepromised stern action in thecase. Khan’s family membershave demanded quick action inthe case.

“We want justice. The cul-prits should be arrested soon,”his father Suleman said.

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The Delhi Government hasnotified a regulation to

limit raising the speed of vehi-cles plying in Delhi with amandatory speed governorrule.

The speed limit for trans-port vehicles having NationalPermit, Interstate Permit or AllIndia Tourist Permit has beenfixed at 80 kmph while dumper,tanker and vehicles carryinghazardous good can ply at 60kmph speed in the nationalCapital. The move comes at atime when the Centre is tryingto do away with speed gover-nors for commercial vehicles.

As per the new directions,the speed limit for transportvehicles having permit to ply inDelhi, school bus with anypermit and all transport vehi-cles exempted from the neces-sity of permits has been fixedat 40 kms speed. For Airportpassenger bus referred in rule93-C of the Central Motor

Vehicles Rules, 1989, the max-imum speed has been fixed at30 km per hour.

Union Road and TransportMinister Nitin Gadkari lastmonth had said the Governmentis likely to revoke the mandato-ry requirement of speed gover-nors for commercial vehiclesthat was imposed in 2017.

“I will remove (the manda-

tory requirement of) speedgovernors for commercial vehi-cles,” Gadkari had said at aPress conference.

Sources in Road Ministrysaid to this effect the Ministrywill have to amend the CentralMotor Vehicles Rules. TheGovernment has made itmandatory though for manu-facturers to equip cars, from July

2019, with speed alarms whichwill be activated after 80 kmph.

The Delhi Government’smove is intended to reduceroad accidents by limiting themaximum speed of vehicles.According to new rules notifiedby the Transport Departmentof the Delhi Government, everytransport vehicle registeredprior to the October 1, 2015,which are not already fittedwith a speed governor (speedlimiting device or speed limit-ing function), shall be fittedwith speed governor.

Speed governors are smalldevices that do not allow dri-vers to accelerate beyond a cer-tain limit. In this case, somevehicles are allowed a maxi-mum speed of 80kmph, whileothers, like school buses, can’tbe driven at speeds over 60kmph. “For heavy vehicles,speed governors cost �15,000-16,000 each. For medium vehi-cles, they cost nearly �10,000,”said officials of transportdepartment.

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A19-year old youth was onSaturday given death

penalty by a court for raping aseven-month-old child inAlwar district of Rajasthan inMay, the first such sentencingin the State after a law entail-ing capital punishment to thoseconvicted of raping a childbelow 12 years of age came intoforce, according to police.

A special court hearingcases of the SC/ST Act and thePOCSO Act in Alwar sen-tenced to death Pintu, who wasfound guilty of raping theinfant in Laxmangarh area inAlwar on May 9. Special JudgeJagendra Agrawal, who hadconducted daily hearings in thecase, found the youth guilty onJuly 18.

Pintu was convicted underIPC sections 363, 366 A (relat-ed to abduction of minor) and376AB (for rape on womanunder twelve years of age) and5(M)/6 of the POCSO Act. Thedeath penalty was awardedunder the IPC section 376 AB,SHO of the Laxmangarh policestation Prahlad Sahay said.

It is the first such case in

Rajasthan after the criminal law(amendment) Ordinance,which introduced IPC Section376 AB came into force onApril 21 this year under whichthe provision of death penaltyfor raping a girl below 12 yearsof age was introduced, accord-ing to DGP OP Galhotra.

“The local police had fileda challan against Pintu undersections of POCSO Act andIPC on June 6,” IG JaipurHemant Priyadarshi said.

The Ordinance wasbrought in after the outcry overthe gangrape and murder of aneight-year-old girl in Kathua inJammu & Kashmir.

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The body of a Jammu &Kashmir police constable,

who was abducted by someunidentified gunmen on Fridaynight in Kulgam district, hasbeen found, a police officialsaid on Saturday.

Constable Saleem Shah,who was on leave, was abduct-ed from his residence in theMutalhama area of Kulgam insouth Kashmir.

A police spokesman saidthe body was recovered from anursery near Redwani Payeenvillage.

“The body bore severemarks indicating that he wasbrutally tortured to death bythe terrorists,” police said.

Initial investigation intothe matter has indicated HizbulMujahideen’s hand in the con-stable’s killing, according topolice.

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Books are a man’s best fiends. And a woman’s too! Thosewho say that diamonds are a woman’s best friends couldnot be more mistaken.

My relationship with books goes back a long time. Ever sinceI can remember, I have had a close bonding with the writtenword which began in Kindergarten itself in the Doon valley.“Kitty and Rover”, the pictorial book about the friendshipbetween a cat and dog in a home is the first book I rememberreading in my life. It had just a few words in it and many lovelypictures. I would sit with it for hours and ask my father to tellme all about Kitty and Rover again and again. And he alwaysdid, adding many an imaginary thing to the story.

This was followed by books like “At Home” , “At Play” andlater “Briar Rose” and “William Tell”. The covers of those booksstill appear in my mind whenever I think of those wonder yearswhen I fell in love with books –a love which has only grownstronger over the years.

A visit to my elder Mausi’s house at Jor Bagh in New Delhiduring a summer vacation led me to a treasure house in the shapeof a book shelf in my cousin’s study where I found books like“Little Women”, “Good Wives” and “Wuthering Heights” thattook me into an enchanted world from which I have yet to comeout. It was a magical experience and I read these books againand again.The friendship between literature and this readerevolved and stayed forever. My cousin was kind enough to letme take some of these classics with me and also introduced meto Enid Blyton and the various beautiful works created by herfor children. This was the beginning of my relationship with theFamous Four and the Five Findouters ,the schoolgirls at MaloryTowers and St.Clare’s,the Secret Seven and all the other childcharacters including the “naughtiest girl”! Such a lovely phaseas a little reader.

Blyton’s was a charmed world which lured all children andwe became hooked .I remember we used to tell each other thatwe will never stop reading Blyton’s books.But ultimately, we didstop.Now, if I ever pick up one and go through a couple of pages,

it brings back memories of mycarefree childhood.Sweetmemories!Billy Bunter(by FrankRichards) and William (byRichmal Crompton) were theother two characters who were animportant part of our childhoodreading.I don’t mind picking up a“William” book even now.

After this began the bondwith adapted versions of classicslike “The Mill on the Floss”, “JaneEyre”, “The Scarlet Letter” ,“Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde”, “Prideand Prejudice” and “The Mayor of

Casterbridge”.This bond turned out to be the strongest andcontinued all my life. Later, as a student of English Literaturein my graduation and post graduation, I studied these classicsas my texts and they became an integral part of my consciousness.Shakespeare whom we started studying in Class seven in ourschool Convent of Jesus and Mary, Dehra Dun, seemed simpleto us as we progressed gradually and were fortunate to studyMacbeth in Class eleven and twelve. It taught us so much aboutlife!

By the time we left school, we were proficient enough tounderstand any Shakespeare drama quite well (something thattoday’s school students cannot say!) I chose to study EnglishLiterature at College as this was what I had always loved doing.So, in a way, my love for reading merged with my study ofthis subject for the next three years and I excelled in mycourse.Later, another two years of studying my favouritesubject brought me a Post Graduate degree in it.After a gapof many years, I could also fulfill my dream of getting adoctorate in English Literature.Despite this, my thirst forreading , especially the classics, has not been quenched. Thecloseness I feel for these works has kept growing deeper andenriched my personal and professional life.

I do not doubt the saying that books are a man or woman’sbest friends.They only give you worlds of experience andknowledge by demanding only a little attention and time fromyou.They teach you about life and this world.

They broaden your mind and develop your vision ,they makeyou more sensitive and more human, something that seems tobe missing among people these days.Today’s world needs morereaders , more people with a love for literature , more peoplewith vision and depth. So, let us all make an effort to pick upa book more often and lose ourselves into enchanted worlds ofwords that weave magic in our lives.

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The late Sridevi’s daughter’s launchvehicle Dhadak, constructed under theprestigious banner of Karan Johar, is a

much too realism hung up romance withminimal heartbeat.

One would argue that any mount on honouris bound to be heavy on the heart but the entireeffort here is to sanitise the ups and downs ofthe life and times of eloped lovers from castebastions of India.

In his bid to not play to the gallery, the directorkeeps Dhadak much too sanitised from emotionwhich, in turn, takes a toll on not just the expectedbut missing chemistry between Ishaan andJhanvi. The couple is shown to be so bogged downby the realities of survival in a strange far awaycity from home that the Dhadak becomes acasualty.

Yes the end is stunning and stark but the

build-up to it is much too slow and entirelyunlike the Marathi original Sairat from whichthis one had been adapted.

It is sad that Sridevi is not around to see herdaughter being launched in Bollywood but hadshe been there she would not have been toohappy with Jhanvi’s character construction in thefilm. Other than that, Jhanvi lacks a lot of hermother’s on-screen assets and may not be ableto live up to the live wire screen personality ofher late mother. Having said that, she does herbest in Dhadak as the daughter of an upper classRajput khandan in love with a lower caste boy.

The problem with the film is that it hesitatedto deep dive into any issue it is dealing with, beit the deep and unforgiving caste divide or thetorture that the family goes through once theprogeny does what is considered impossible.

Ishaan, having the experience with adirectorial heavyweight like Majid Majidi, sailsthrough his role and comes across as aconvincing Rajasthani youth who has noproblem in crying or wanting to get out of therut of a difficult romance.

Don’t go looking for a rollicking romancehere. Dhadak is a mish-mash of everything andthis nothing.

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After Baywatching in style during hisprevious outing, Mr Rock travels to HongKong for a special highrise drama which

he handles a prosthetic leg and a family that hasto be rescued from the 96th floor of a futuristicskyscraper on fire.

Such a premise is enough for a tall buildingdrama and Rock and his clan live up to it, whatwith extortion meanies on his trail not becausehe is rich but because he has the key to thesecurity systems of the building constructed by atechie maestro wishing to kiss the skies muchfaster than even the Burj Khalifa and which athree time height of the Empire State building.

It’s a fantastic building to save all tall andelegant and with a life-size pearl to adorn itscrown. But the film is not so much about heightsas it is about Rock’s ability to fight off impossiblesituations created and recreated by the men who

use his face ID to get into the system of thebuilding to acquire something that no one elseknows about.

There’s a lot at high risk element in the filmand that’s what makes this extremely edgythriller a delight to be with — with bated breathall through the film.

Though entirely Rock-centric, Skyscraper isthe movie of the week and fulfills all the tallclaims of action and drama that come with suchfilms. A nail-biting experience that should notbe missed.

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The animationshere will takeyour heart.

Period!! They arenot the usual Disneykind of rounded andpolished linedrawings. They areedgy, prettygeometrical andwantonly differentbut come to youwith impeccablemotionchoreography thatkeeps you on theseat and attentivethrough the film.

Count Dracula islonely and is lookingfor a dare after his wifepasses away but he has to keep all this from his daughter becausehe is a family man too.

That is the premise of this cute and extremely engagingmonster film which goes for a cruise to the lost city of Atlantiswith almost all the monsters you can fathom aboard.

The colour, the humour, the family values are all there andthe film also gets you to laugh out loud many a time. CountDracula is just too cute to be ignored and that may have beenthe reason why his main enemy is someone he hankers for withmoony eyes and droopy eyes.

The story may be a tad slow but the drawings are socaptivating that even if you no animation buff you will not mindthe proceedings that unfold before tour with all the jazz, bignessand night- time ocean life.

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The nation-wide StudentPolice Cadet (SPC)

Programme was launched byUnion Home Minister, RajnathSingh, from Gurugram andwould be implemented in allGovernment schools in urbanand rural areas across thecountry in a phased manner.

To lend weight to the pro-gramme and give hope to thecadets, Haryana Chief Minister,Manohar Lal, announced thatcadets who participated in itwould be given preference inrecruitment in Haryana Police.

Speaking after the launch,Home Minister Rajnath Singhexpressed hope that the SPCwould lead to a silent revolu-tion over the years by focusingon character building byimparting moral values to bud-ding minds. He expressedconcern that education thesedays laid stress on mere bookreading with little attention

being paid towards characterbuilding of students, which isgetting reflected in negativeeffects on the society in termsof increased crime.

While the dawn of newtechnologies, internet andsocial media has helped ourchildren keep pace with thechanging times, it has alsoadversely impacted our societyas we witness the breakdown ofthe traditional family system,and worrying rise in the inci-dents of crimes and rapes, headded.

Singh said the SPC pro-gramme would help in makingstudents responsible citizens byinculcating in them values ofrespect to the elderly, disciplineand social responsibility.

The SPC programme willprovide a healthy interfacebetween schools and policeand help inculcate in studentsaspects of public safety, disci-pline, patience, tolerance,empathy, respect of senior cit-izens, social harmony, trafficsense and a corruption-freeenvironment.

Referring to the ill effectsof television, internet and socialmedia on children, the HomeMinister said since social media

was affecting everyone, there isneed to focus on characterbuilding of students in schools.

He expressed the confi-dence that this programmewould result in overall devel-opment of a student’s person-ality and bring about hugechange in society.

A sum of Rs 50,000 wouldbe provided to each school for

educational assistance, trainingand contingencies under theprogramme. A sum of Rs 67crore has already been dis-bursed to the states for itsimplementation, he added.

Describing the SPCProgramme as a milestone onthe road to nation-building,Chief Minister Manohar Lalsaid the quality of work of the

police would further improvewith these cadets associatingthemselves with the depart-ment. It would sensitize thecadets towards helping thesociety.

Expressing his gratitude tothe Union Home Minister forlaunching this programmefrom Haryana, he said it wouldplay an important role in pro-

viding new direction to youth.Referring to the talent of

sportspersons of Haryana, theChief Minister said they hadbrought laurels to the state innational and internationalcompetitions. The state gov-ernment would soon recruit6,000 police personnel, headded.

Union Human ResourceDevelopment Minister, PrakashJavadekar, said coordinationwould be established betweenthe academic curriculum andthe SPC Programme. Aboutfour crore students of ClassesVIII and IX across the countrywould be associated with theprogramme.

Union Minister of State,Hans Raj Gangaram, UnionMinister of State for Planning,Rao Inderjit Singh, HaryanaChief Secretary, D.S. Dhesiand Director General of Police,B.S. Sandhu also spoke on thisoccasion.

Haryana Public Works(Building and Roads) Minister,Rao Narbir Singh, UnionHome Secretary, Rajiv Gauba,Haryana Additional ChiefSecretary, Home, S.S. Parsad,amongst other officials werepresent in the meeting.

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Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP)Punjab unit is in crisis.

Two of its top leaders — theLeader of Opposition inVidhan Sabha Sukhpal Khairaand the state unit-co-presidentDr Bablir Singh — are virtuallytraining guns at each other.

Bholath MLA Khaira hasgone up to the extent of claim-ing that it was “impossible” forhim to continue working withDr Balbir, accusing him of lev-eling “false” allegations againsthim of taking money from theparty workers in lieu of partyposts in Shutrana.

Visibly perturbed, Khairawent “live” on a social net-working website, Facebook,giving vent to his ire against hisparty colleague. He evendeclared to complaint againstDr Balbir to the state partyaffairs in-charge and DelhiDeputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia, along with the entireparty high command.

Past week, the politicalstorm hit AAP’s state unithard as 16 of its senior leaders,including six district presi-dents, tendered their resigna-tions from the party posts inprotest against Dr Balbir’s“arbitrary decisions”.

Party leaders, in a joint res-ignation letter addressed toDelhi Deputy Chief Ministerand state party affairs in-charge Manish Sisodia, hadstated that Dr Balbir had takenseveral “wrong decisions” fromthe time he was appointed thestate co-president due to whichthe party’s graph was plum-

meting in the state. They demanded that AAP

should be saved and workersshould be listened to, and peo-ple like Dr Balbir should beremoved from the party so thatit is strengthened in Punjab.

Khaira had then called fora meeting with the party’sstate president BhagwantMann to urge him to call a spe-cial meeting of AAP office-bearers to sort out the issue,and listen to the grievances ofparty leaders who haveresigned.

At the same time, Khairahad rubbished reports that theresignations of 16 leaders, whoowe allegiance to Khaira, werefallout of differences betweenhim and Dr Balbir Singh.

Notably, AAP’s Punjableadership is hit by sharpinfighting between Khaira andDr Balbir over the past month.Sharp differences between thetwo were witnessed during apress briefing where Khairabitterly contradicted Dr Balbiron the controversy surround-ing MLA’s statement on theissue of “Referendum 2020”.

In the immediate after-math of Khaira’s statement on‘Referendum 2020”, Dr Balbirhad issued a statement sayingthat AAP did not supportwhat Khaira had said and thatan explanation will be soughtfrom him on his statement.

Despite all the criticismand opposition, “unperturbed”Dr Balbir is going ahead withthe new appointments of stateoffice bearers, including dis-trict heads, and halka in-charges.

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Himachal Government hasdecided that Himachal

Pradesh State Electricity BoardLtd would Purchase electricityproduced by the small powerprojects upto 25 MW capacityin order to help the power pro-ducers of these projects andattract more investment inpower sector, Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur said on Saturday.

Presiding over a seminaron “Speedy Development ofHydro Electric Projects inHimachal Pradesh” organisedby Bonafide Himachalis HydroPower Developers andHimalaya Power ProducersAssociation in collaborationwith MNRE, Government ofIndia and MPP & PowerDepartment, NES,Government of HimachalPradesh here, Thakur said thatthe State has identified poten-tial of over 27000 MW whichonce fully harnessed have thepotential to transform theeconomy of the State.

The chief minister saidthat till date only 10547 MWpotential stands harnessed andthe state government has set atarget to harness about 182MW potential during the cur-rent year by active participationof private and public sectors,for which the Government wasproviding several incentives tothe power producers so thatthey can construct hydro powerprojects in the State with ease.

Thakur said the power

producers would be indepen-dent to sell the electricity gen-erated by them to other inter-ested buyers. He said a com-mittee would be constitutedunder the chairmanship ofPower Minister to look into theissues raised by the power pro-ducers of the State.

The Chief Minister saidthat State Government hasmade necessary amendmentsin the Power Policy so as tomake it investors friendly. "TheState government was accord-ing speedy forest clearances forthe construction of power pro-jects in the State. This wouldsave the power producers fromunnecessary delays in the con-struction of power projects," hesaid, adding that during thepresent tenure of the StateGovernment, some major ini-tiatives have been taken for thewelfare of the investors both inpower and industrial sectors.

Thakur said that in orderto attract more investors inpower sector, the StateGovernment has already

deferred the royalty at the rateof 12 per cent for the first 12years for upcoming projectswhich will immensely benefitthe power producers.

This would help thepower producers to pay theloans and interest on the loaneasily during the initial yearsof the projects. In addition,upfront premium at the rate ofRs 1 lakh per MW is beingcharged from upcoming pro-jects for safeguarding theinterests of the independentpower producers.

MPP and Power MinisterAnil Sharma said that powerand tourism sector hasimmense potential both formaking the State economical-ly self-sufficient and providingemployment opportunities tothe youth of the State. He saidthe Power Policy has beenmade investors friendly andgreater stress would be laid onpower transmission so thatindependent power producersdoes not face any hardship inselling the power.

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Haryana Government onSaturday decided that the

State will soon implement aFilm Policy to encourage filmproduction related activitiesin the State and promotion ofHaryanvi culture across theworld through its depiction inthe films.

The draft policy hasalready been prepared.

The decision was taken,during a meeting held underthe chairmanship of ChiefMinister, Manohar Lal toreview various projects.

The Chief Minister saidthat maximum films should bemade in Haryana and throughthe medium of films the cultureof Haryana would be promot-ed across the world. Haryanaviactors should also be encour-aged in films to play importantcharacters.

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Haryana Finance Minister,Capt. Abhimanyu said theGovernment has decided toextend the benefit of con-veyance allowance at the rate of10 per cent of basic pay, subjectto a minimum of Rs 2,500 andmaximum of Rs 7,200 permonth, to the deaf and dumbemployees, including hearing-impaired employees havingloss of 60 decibels or more,with effect from May 1, thisyear.

He said that a proposal tothis effect was approved by theHaryana Chief Minister,Manohar Lal on Saturday.

He said that theGovernment had taken thisdecision in consideration of thedemand of ‘Deaf GovernmentEmployees Welfare Association’for the benefit on the pattern of

Government of India (GOI). Earlier, the benefit was

limited to only blind andorthopaedic disabled employ-ees of the State. However, nowas per the GOI pattern, itwould also be extended to deafand dumb employees includinghearing-impaired employeeswith 60 decibels or more in thebetter ear in the conversationrange of frequencies as per thePersons with Disabilities (EqualOpportunities, Protection ofRight and Full Participation)Act 1995, he added.

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To strengthen the powersystem in the State, work onIntegrated MIS project is inprogress which would be com-pleted by March 31, next year.

The Chief Minister wasinformed in the meeting thatthe work on this project is inprogress as per module andwould soon be completed.

Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) system is also developedso as to collect the electricitydata feeder-wise.

Under the ‘Mhara Gaon,Jagmag Gaon’ Scheme 993feeders were selected, out ofwhich the work has been com-pleted on 568 feeders and onthe remaining 326 feeders, thework is in process. It wasinformed that 2380 villagesunder 485 feeders are getting 24hour electricity supply.

Regarding LED lights, itwas informed in the meetingthat so far 1.54 crore LEDs havebeen distributed in the State.On this, the Chief Ministerdirected that all DeputyCommissioners should ensureinstallation of LED lights intheir offices by August 15.

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Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal has directed toformulate a scheme in con-

sultation with officers ofPunjab, Chandigarh andHimachal Pradesh to keepwater of Ghaggar River clean.

The Chief Minister wasapprised that in order to keepGhaggar River clean, 46 STPsand three CTPs were beingestablished whereas eightSTPs were under constructionand 20 were proposed.

Discussing the GlobalCity Project, the ChiefMinister was apprised thatglobal city was being devel-oped over 1,000 acres of landnear Gurugram and its mas-ter engineering plan wasready. It is expected that plotswould be auctioned byDecember and January.

Regarding the progress ofKu n d l i - Ma n e s a r- Pa l w a lExpressway, the ChiefMinister was informed that 92per cent of the project hasbeen completed and theremaining work would soonbe finished.

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The Aam Aadmi Party onSaturday criticised the

statement of union Homeminister, Rajnath Singh inwhich he stated the Sikhgenocide of 1984 as moblynching and the partytermed it as another injusticedone to the Sikh community.

In a press statementissued here, co-president ofAAP Punjab, Dr. Balbir Singh

said that the statement showshow insensitive BJP andCongress leaders are to termthe Sikh genocide thatshook the world asmere a mob lynching.He said the Homeminister has againmade mockery of theinnocent Sikhs killedin 1984 with his state-ment. He demanded thatRajnath Singh must take hiswords back and apologize to

the Sikh community.Dr. Balbir said that not

only Congress but BJP aswell has alwaysdenied justice to SikhCommunity andboth the parties haveplayed politics overit. He said that theneed of the hour is toput the people

responsible for Sikh geno-cide behind the bars but BJPgovernment at centre is also

saving the leaders ofCongress.

Asking SAD leadersParkash Singh Badal, SukhbirSingh Badal and union min-ister Harsimrat Kaur Badal toclarify the statement of homeminister about the Sikh geno-cide, the AAP leader saidthat the power hungry Akaliswould never say a wordagainst BJP leader just tokeep Harsimrat Badal as min-ister in Modi Govt.

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Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar onSaturday demanded the resignation of

Sukhpal Singh Khaira as Leader of Opposition(LoP) in the wake of the serious allegationsof corruption levied by his own party colleagues.

In a statement issued here, Jakhar said thatgiven the gravity of the charges againstKhaira, he should quit on moral grounds, fail-ing which he should be sacked by the AamAadmi Party (AAP) leadership.

He cited the reported allegations made byPunjab AAP co-president Balbir Singh, pur-portedly to some AAP workers, that Khairatakes cash from party workers. Describing thecharges as shocking, he said the AAP leaderhad lost all moral right to continue in theresponsible position of LoP.

Jakhar also urged theVidhan Sabha Speaker to takecognizance of the chargesagainst the LoP and initiate necessary actionunder the rules of the Assembly.

The allegations had totally exposedKhaira, already mired in controversy over adrugs case, as completely lacking in politicalpropriety and decorum, said the PPCC chief,demanding his immediate removal from thepost.

Considering the high moral ground thatAAP had been trying to take on the issues ofdrugs and corruption, before and after the2017 Assembly elections, allowing Khaira tocontinue as Leader of Opposition, and in facteven as member of the party would not becondoned by the people of Punjab, theCongress president said.

The bribery allegations, which hadplunged the beleaguered Punjab unit AAP into

a fresh crisis, showed that the party had lostits narrative completely as a serious politicalentity in the state, alleged Jakhar.

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The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) onSaturday asked AAP Convener and Delhi chiefminister Arvind Kejriwal to tell Punjabis whyhe was not taking action against Amarjit SinghSandoa even after charges had been framedagainst the Ropar AAP legislator in a womanmolestation case.

In a statement here, former minister andSAD spokesman Maheshinder Singh Grewalsaid Kejriwal had made the issue of womansafety a major poll plank in the 2017 assem-bly elections.

"Now when his own legislator has beenhauled up by the Rupnagar chief judicial mag-istrate and charges have been framed againsthim under several criminal acts including

intimidating, insulting, assault-ing and outraging the modestyof a woman, Kejriwal is main-taining a stoic silence. By doing

so he is showing how much respect he has forthe victim who is a former AAP worker anddaughter of an army officer in particular andPunjabi women in general," he said in thestatement.

Asking Kejriwal to take action against theAAP MLA before he is put behind bars, theAkali leader said earlier even after SpecialInvestigating Team (SIT) found Sandoa guiltyof beating up and outraging the modesty ofhis former landlady when she approached himto pay rent due to her, Kejriwal did not takenany action against his party leader. "Now aftersubmission of the challan against Sandoa thechief judicial magistrate has framed chargesagainst him. What is Kejriwal's excuse for nottaking action against Sandoa now?" Grewalasked.

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Haryana Chief Minister,Manohar Lal, on Saturday

announced to establishIndustrial Model Township(IMT) at village Khatodada indistrict Mahendragarh, andalso to give Rs 250 crore for thedevelopment works ofMahendragarh AssemblyConstituency.

Addressing a public meet-ing at Mahendragarh, the ChiefMinister said that drinkingwater schemes of Rs 123 crorewould be implemented in dif-ferent dhanis of theMahendragarh area. Apartfrom this, the Haryana StateAgricultural Marketing Boardwould construct 50-km differ-ent connecting roads in thearea.

He also announced to

establish a Government SeniorSecondary School for Girls inthe old building ofGovernment College forWomen at Mahendragarh city,besides establishing a SkillDevelopment Centre in thatschool.

Manohar Lal said that theState Government has beenensuring equitable develop-ment of all areas in the state.The government has intro-duced a number of schemes forwelfare of all sections of thesociety.

He said the StateGovernment has made exten-sive arrangements in view ofthe recent hike given by theCentral Government in theMinimum Support Price(MSP) especially on procure-ment of Bajra.

The CM said the State

Government has worked atdifferent levels to provide ade-quate irrigation water to farm-ers. As a result of the cleaningof canals, for the first timewater has reached about 300tail ends in the last 30 years.Micro irrigation schemes arealso being promoted, he added.

Education Minister, RamBilas Sharma said that the agri-culture sector would bestrengthened with the increasein MSP of crops. The bajragrowers of the area would bebenefitted with this enhance-ment in MSP.

Agriculture and Farmers’Welfare Minister, O.P. Dhankarsaid the State Government wasmaking efforts to double theincome of farmers and arrange-ments have been made to pro-cure bajra at the increasedMSP.

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The Legal Metrology wingof Fo o d an d C iv i l

Suppl i e s D e p ar t m e nt ,Punjab on Saturday said it

has conducted statewideraids continuously for past2 days at the eating jointson Railway Stations, BusStands and the roadsideDhabas.

T h e t e ams of L e g a lMetrology Inspectors andtheir staff detected grossirregular it ies at severalplaces like obliteration ofMRP, overpricing and nonstandard weights and mea-sures.

As many as 149 inspec-tions were conducted and30 cases were booked undervarious provisions of LegalMetrology Act and Rulesi n c lu d i ng 2 2 for ove r pricing, 2 for non declara-tion of mandatory detailson packaged products likethe net contents, MRP, dateof manufacture, expiry dateetc and 6 cases for non verification ie non stampingof weights used to measurequantity of goods.

Rs. 2,47000 is expected

to be collected as the com-pounding fee from the chal-lans done during the raids.

Bharat Bhushan Ashu,Food and Civil SuppliesMinister Punjab, said theraids were prompted by therush of complaints regard-ing overcharging of waterbottles and other packagedeatables at the bus standsand railway stations.

He added that "the fre-quenc y of the sur pr is ei ns p e c t i ons wou l d b eincreased in order to pro-tect the common man frombeing cheated and defraud-ed. "

He appealed to the pub-lic to inform or lodge com-plaint for any wrong doingby the seller of products likeovercharging, fraudulentuse of weights and measuresa n d n on - s t an d a rd packaging.

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Chief Minister Raman Singhreviewed the preparations

and programmes on scheduledvisit of President RamnathKovind to Chhattisgarh withhis cabinet colleagues and seniorofficials at his official residenceon Saturday. President is sched-uled to visit the State on July 25and 26 at Dantewada and Bastar(Jagdalpur).

Chief Minister also heldvideo-conferencing with bothdistrict collectors, SPs and relat-ed department officials. He

sought all details of the pro-grammes and status of relatedpreparations.

It is the second official visitof President to Chhattisgarh.Earlier, last year on November 5and 6, he had visited the State. Hehad also visited the Guru BabaGhasidas birth place atGiraudhpuri.

The proposed visit scheduleof President include the interac-tion with farmers of Dantewadadistrict involved in organic farm-ing, visit to Jawanga basedEducation City and interactionwith children.

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Avantika Srivastava fromBhilai will represent

Chhattisgarh in Mrs IndiaPageant to be held at Chennaion July 30.

Avantika met CEO, BhilaiSteel Plant (BSP), M Ravi onSaturday who wished her allthe best for the event andasked her to give her best towin Mrs India 2018 title andbring the prestigious Mrs IndiaCrown to SAIL, BSP fraterni-ty, a BSP press releaseinformed.

Avantika Srivastava hasalready been crowned the pres-tigious Mrs India Central 2018title. She has also won MrsIndia Central 2018 Best TalentAward.

Mrs India 2018 will be asix-day event in which thecontestants will be judged onparameters like beauty, intelli-gence, public appearance,Traditional Round, IndoWestern, Evening Gown andQuestion Answer Round.

Avantika has completedher studies from Lucknow.

She is very fond of doingadventure Sports likeSnorkelling, Paragliding andRiver Rafting.

Avantika does ClassicalDancing and is learningKathak for past few years.

She is also a trained 3DRangoli designer and enjoys totravel and explore new places.

Avantika dedicates hersuccess to the blessings of wellwishes of her family and friends.

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Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister and TDP presi-

dent N Chandrababu Naidu onSaturday said his party will notjoin the NDA even if the BJPapproaches it for the 2019 gen-eral elections even as he assert-ed that his party’s No-Confidence Motion against theGovernment was a battle of“morality versus majority”.

Asserting that the TeluguDesam Party (TDP) had joinedthe NDA in 2014 only to ensurejustice to the people of theState, Naidu said, “We are notpower hungry. We neveraspired for Cabinet berths. Wewaited four years for them(BJP Government) to do justiceto Andhra Pradesh, but theybetrayed the people of theState. How can we be sure thatthey will not do it again”. TheTDP had formally quit theBJP-led NDA earlier this yearafter the latter denied specialcategory to the State.

“Yesterday’s no-confidencemotion was a battle betweenour morality and the majorityof the BJP,” Naidu said at a Pressconference in the nationalCapital. He thanked the otherOpposition parties for sup-porting the TDP’s no-trust

motion.On the BJD staging a walk-

out from Parliament during thedebate on the no-confidencemotion, exposing chinks inOpposition unity, Naidu said,“He (BJD chief NaveenPatnaik) is an old friend...They will be taken on board.”

The TDP chief had in Mayvowed to unite regional partiesto take on the BJP in 2019 LokSabha elections and had saidthat his party would play a piv-otal role at the Centre. Naiduon Saturday reiterated that hehas no prime ministerial ambi-

tions.Asked if the TDP would

join the NDA for the 2019 elec-tions if the BJP promises otherbenefits to Andhra Pradesh, hesaid, “No. I just want that jus-tice is done to my State.”Contesting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s remark inthe Lok Sabha that special sta-tus cannot be extended to theState “as the FourteenthFinance Commission (FCC)does not allow it”, the AndhraPradesh Chief Ministerclaimed, “The FFC says it doesnot have any role in it... Don’t

drag us into it. It is theGovernment which has to takea call.”

He also attacked UnionMinister Arun Jaitley for “deny-ing special status to AndhraPradesh and then extending thesame to Northeastern States”.Naidu said that it was “unwise”on Modi’s part to compare his“able leadership with taintedpoliticians” during a discussionon the no-confidence motion.

On the Prime Ministerterming Telangana ChiefMinister K Chandrashekar Raomore mature than Naidu, theAndhra Pradesh Chief Ministersaid, “I am senior to the PrimeMinister himself. How can hesay that? I became ChiefMinister in 1995 while Modibecame the Chief Minister ofGujarat in 2001.”

He alleged that neitherModi nor Home MinisterRajnath Singh tried to find asolution to the problemsbetween Andhra Pradesh andTelangana. Referring to Modi’sremark that the “Congresskilled the mother and saved thechild. Had I have been there, Iwould have saved the mothertoo”, he said, “We have waitedfor years for him to do so.”“We’re still asking him to savethe mother,” Naidu said.

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Learning from the Islamictelevangelist Zakir Naik

case, the country’s law enforce-ment agencies have initiatedsteps to map the origin andmode — television, radio andinternet — of dissemination ofradical speeches.

This after the PrimeMinister’s Office (PMO) direct-ed the Ministry of HomeAffairs, States and IntelligenceBureau to identify the “originof sermons and the technolo-gy used to disseminate them”.

During e meeting chairedby the PMO, it was pointed outthat the controversial preach-er Zakir Naik deliberatelyinsulted the religious beliefs ofHindus, Christians and Islamicsects like Shia, Sufi and Barelvi,and his speeches influencedyouths to the cause of the ter-ror group Islamic State.

Seeing the impact of thedamage done, the PMO also

directed, “Initiative should alsobe taken for training of peopleand production of inspira-tional films for the purpose ofde-radicalisation.”

The MHA, States andpolice forces across the coun-try have been asked to form aspeacilised team to start a de-radicalisation process so thatfurther incidents of radicalisa-tion do not happen.

“The State police shouldalso monitor funding of vari-ous non governmental organ-isations and other organisationsinvolved in anti-national activ-ities,” the directions issued bythe PMO stated. Also, theMHA and IB have been askedto “initiate action in a time-bond manner” and report theprogress to the PMO.

A senior police officer,who attended the meeting,explained the directions havebeen issued to see that the rad-icalised youths are rehabilitat-ed. The officer said, “Damage

has been done. Now let us notrepeat it.” The role of NGOs areunder scanner as Naik’s NGOIslamic Research Foundation(IRF), banned in 2016 underthe Unlawful Activities(Prevention) Act (UAPA), aswell as private firm HarmonyMedia Pvt Ltd, conspired topromote enmity and hatredbetween different religiousgroups and insultied certainsects of Islam and other reli-gions .

Naik has been chargesheet-ed under the UAPA for head-ing an unlawful associationand inciting youth to take upterror acts and join global ter-ror outfits like Islamic State.The National InvestigationAgency is probing cases againstNaik, who has relocated inMalaysia in 2017 from SaudiArabia, where he had beenstaying since 2016. Naik has ahuge fan following across theworld, with adherents mes-merised by his rhetoric.

NIA has stated that Naikhad deliberately and mali-ciously insulted beliefs ofHindus, Christians and certainMuslim sects that did not sub-scribe to Wahhabism, with theintention to outrage religiousfeelings, and IRF and HarmonyMedia were instrumental in thecirculation of incriminatingspeeches in the form ofCDs/DVDs/TV programmes..

Radicalisation is theprocess of directly and indi-rectly motivating Muslims toparticipate in jihadi terror,based on religious teachingsand grievance-nurturing byIslamic preachers, the Urdupress and other Islamic media.

As per reports, around adozen States have witnessedincidents of radicalisationincluding Maharashtra,Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,Gujarat, Assam, Jammu andKashmir, Delhi, Uttar Pradeshand Madhya Pradesh.

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Aday after his hug-and-winkact, Congress president

Rahul Gandhi on Saturday saidthat only way to build a nationwas by harnessing love andcompassion of people.

And the Congress said thatModi does not have problem inhugging Pakistan PM NawazSharif during his unscheduledvisit to the neighboring coun-try but lacks the grace in hug-ging own countrymen. It saidthat while Rahul spoke in hisdebate about issues concerningthe nation, Modi remainedhooked to attack onlyOpposition. It also alleged thatthe BJP is trying to make a‘Lynchistan’ out of Hindustan.

Taking to Twitter, Rahulsaid debate in Parliament onthe no-confidence motion wasabout the Prime Minister using“hate, fear and anger” in thehearts of some people to buildhis narrative, and the Congresscountering that through loveand compassion.

“The point of debate inParliament.. PM uses hate, fearand anger in the hearts ofsome of our people to build hisnarrative. We are going toprove that love and compassionin the hearts of all Indians, isthe only way to build a nation(sic),” he said.

After concluding his

speech, Rahul walked acrossthe aisle to where the PrimeMinister was sitting andhugged him, capping his blis-tering attack on Modi. ThePrime Minster shook Gandhi’shands but ignored his call tostand so that he could hug theBJP leader. The Congress chief,however, embraced him as heremained seated.

Giving a clarificationon the French ambas-sador issue, formerUnion Minister AnandSharma said RahulGandhi never askedFrench President forclassified informa-tion and the samehas been authen-ticated by FrenchG o v e r n m e n twhich tooissued a state-ment that onlyc l a s s i f i e dinformationcan’t berevealed.

“One isc l a s s i f i e dinformation,one is com-mercial infor-mation whichwould also dealwith parametersand price of air-craft. During themeeting with

French President, where myselfand the then Prime MinisterManmohan Singh were pre-sent, on specific query fromRahul Gandhi if there is anyobjection on part of French todisclose price of the aircraft,French President clearly saidthere is no condition on theirpart,” Sharma took to Twitter toclear the air over French

Government statement. After Rahul Gandhi’s

speech in Lok Sabha, theFrench Foreign Ministryput out a statement on the

security pact but didnot refer to the dis-

c u s s i o n sbetween RahulGandhi andF r e n c hPresident dur-ing his visitthis year. Thes t a t e m e n tsaid therewas a 2008agreement on

c l a s s i f i e di n for m at i on

“that couldimpact securityand operationalcapabilities” ofthe defenceequipment ofIndia or France.

The FrenchG o v e r n m e n t ’sstatement did not,

however, spell out if the pur-chase price of the fighter jetswas also classified informationunder this pact.

At the AICC briefing, partyspokesman Jaiveer Shergill saidthat BJP is working overtime tobreak the social fabric of thecountry and enjoying themoments. “BJP is workinground the clock to ensureHindustan becomes aLynchistan. It’s Ministers gar-land lynch accused at functions.BJP is the voice of the mob thatruns amok,” Shergill said.

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AVote of No Confidenceagainst the Government is

a serious business. It is not anoccasion for frivolity. The leadparticipants in the debate arenormally senior political lead-ers. They are expected to raisethe level of political discourse.If a participant happens to be aPresident of a national politicalparty nourishing PrimeMinisterial aspirations, everyword he speaks should be pre-cious. His facts should conveycredibility. Facts are alwayssacrosanct. None should evertrivialise the debate. Those whodesire to be Prime Ministernever blend ignorance, false-hood and acrobatics.

Regrettably, the Presidentof the Congress Party missed agreat opportunity. If this washis best argument for 2019,God help his party. His lack ofunderstanding is not only con-fined to basic issues but also tothe niceties of protocol. Oneshould never misquote a con-versation with a Head ofGovernment or a Head ofState. You do it once, seriouspeople will be reluctant tospeak to you or speak in yourpresence.

Rahul Gandhi, by con-cocting a conversation withPresident Macron, has low-ered his own credibility andseriously hurt the image of anIndian politician before theworld at large. Not to be awareof the fact that UPAGovernment Minister hadsigned the secrecy pact is notunderstandable.

He now seeks to embarrassDr. Manmohan Singh byimplicitly insinuating that Dr.Singh was a witness to the con-versation being wholly unawarethat his own Government hadentered into the secrecy pact.Rahul has repeatedly shownthat he is ignorant of facts. Butto insist on disclosure of finan-cial details, which indirectlyinvolves the disclosures of the

strategic equipment on the air-craft, is to hurt national inter-est. Cost gives away a clue tothe weaponry in the aircraft.

Is he unaware of the factthat the UPA proposed GSTamendment to the Constitutionnever included petroleumproducts as part of the GST? Itis only the NDA which broughtit within the GST with tax to belevied once agreed by the GSTCouncil.

He seems unaware of pub-lic issues when he equates dec-laration of accounts as NPA asa loan waiver. There is noMinister who either desires tochange or is constitutionallyentitled to change theConstitution of India. The lastIndian politician who wantedthe power to change theConstitution was Rahul'sgrandmother and she toofailed.

Hallucinations can givemomentary pleasure to a per-son. Therefore, to hallucinateafter an embarrassing perfor-mance that he has won futureelection or to hallucinate thathe is the reincarnation of MarkAntony being complementedby friends and foes alike, maygive him self-satisfaction butfor serious observers it is morethan just self-praise - in fact aserious problem. Even indynasties many successorsremind you of the virtues oftheir predecessors. Yesterday Ireread two of Panditji’s leg-endary speeches - ‘Tryst withDestiny’ and ‘Light has goneout of Lives’.

(Writer is former FinanceMinister)

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Anew Lancet report has saidthat combining testing and

treatment of HIV with syphilisamong sex workers and gaymen could reduce the numberof new HIV cases in India byseven per cent, and potential-ly avert over 50,000 new infec-tions, in next decade.

The research suggested thatusing HIV screening, anti-retroviral therapy (ART) totreat the infection, and antivi-ral drugs to prevent disease inuninfected people along withtesting and treatment forsyphilis in female sex workersand men who have sex withmen (MSM), can decrease thenumber of new HIV cases at anational-level by seven percent between 2018-2028.

It can also potentially avert51,000 new infections (includ-

ing 43,000 in MSM, but fewernew infections in female sexworkers).

Professor Chris Beyrer,from the John HopkinsUniversity in Maryland, USsaid that “Health systems mustbe designed to meet the needsof the people they serve, includ-ing having the capacity to

address multiple health prob-lems simultaneously. No onecan be left behind in our effortsto achieve sustainable health.We must recognise health as aninvestment, and increaseresources to support stronger,sustainable, and people-centredhealth systems.”

Further, the combined

strategy could also avoid 81,000AIDS-related deaths (including59,000 in MSM, and 6,200 infemale sex workers) between2018-2028.

Including testing and treat-ment of syphilis is estimated todiagnose and treat more than510,000 new syphilis cases infemale sex workers and MSMin 2018 alone, but the long-term effects would depend oninfection and re-infection rates,the report noted.

According to a new LancetCommission led by theInternational AIDS Society, a“dangerous complacency” toHIV control, which includesstalling of HIV funding inrecent years, could lead to aresurgence of the deadly dis-ease as well as hamper theefforts to end the pandemic by2030, which has claimed livesof over 35 million people

worldwide.Thrusting on the need for

urgent changes to the HIVresponse, the researchers saidthat historic “exceptionalism” ofHIV treatment and care mayno longer be sustainable; ser-vices will likely need to be partof wider health care supportingrelated diseases and condi-tions.

“The HIV response andthe broader global health fieldmust work together. Despitethe remarkable progress of theHIV response, the situation hasstagnated in the past decade.Reinvigorating this work willbe demanding, but the futurehealth and wellbeing of mil-lions of people require that wemeet this challenge,” saidLinda-Gail Bekker, President ofthe International AIDS Societyand Professor at University ofCape Town, South Africa.

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New Delhi: With an aim toreach out to people as well astheir community members suf-fering from depression andanxiety and curb associatedstigma, experts here from thesector have joined hands withtheir counterparts from theUS-based National Networkof Depression Centers, a non -profit consortium of 25 leadingclinical and academic insti-tutes in America.

As a part of the strategy,Indian chapter NationalNetwork of Depression CentersIndia Foundation (NNDCI)has been launched recently.Loyola Medicine Psychiatrist

Dr Murali Rao, MD who is thefounding chair of NationalNetwork of Depression Centers- India Foundation explained,“We aim to bring mental healthliteracy to a population forwhom the stigma of depressionis the greatest obstacle to seek-ing treatment.”

Prof. Nand Kumar,Psychiatrist, All India Instituteof Medical Sciences, Delhi,and Vice- Chair of the NationalNetwork of Depression Centers- India Foundation added,“One of the major objectivesbehind establishing NNDC-I isto create scientific awarenessabout depression among the

members of the society includ-ing non-mental health medicalprofessionals and people inpublic life.”

Eminent medical institutessuch as National Institute ofMental Health andNeurosciences (NIMHANS),All India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS), PostGraduate Institute of MedicalEducation and Research andDr Ram Manohar LohiaHospital have already agreed tojoin the effort aimed towardsbuilding an effective ecosystemto address the current ongoingmental disorder scenario inIndia, said Dr Kumar. PNS

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Describing Sri Lanka asIndia’s trusted partner in

South Asia and the IndianOcean region, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Saturdaysaid the two countries canwork together to translate theirvision of shared progress intoreality.

Addressing an event toexpand Emergency AmbulanceService across the entire islandnation of Sri Lanka with Indianassistance, he said, “In goodtimes and bad, India has been,and will always be the firstresponder for Sri Lanka.”

Sri Lankan Prime MinisterRanil Wickremesinghe, whowas in Jaffna, joined the eventvia a video bridge.

“When I look at Sri Lanka,I see not only a neighbour, buta very special and trusted part-ner of India in South Asia andin Indian Ocean (region),” the

PMO said in a statement quot-ing Modi.

He said New Delhi’s devel-opment cooperation withColombo is an importantmeans for translating the visionof shared progress into reality.

“It is not just a coincidencethat India has the privilege tobe Sri Lanka’s partner in estab-lishing this first responder ser-vice and in its expansion. Ingood times and bad, India hasbeen, and will always be thefirst responder for Sri Lanka,”Modi said.

He recalled that during hisvisit to Sri Lanka last year, hehad promised that India willwork for expanding the pre-hospital EmergencyAmbulance Service across theisland nation.

“I am happy that India hasfulfilled its promise in a time-ly manner and we have markedthe beginning of the 2nd phaseof the Service,” he said.

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England's Farnborough air-show this week saw deals

worth $192 billion, a jump ofmore than 50 per cent com-pared to 2016, in a sign of"confidence in global trade",organisers said on Saturday.

The biannual air indus-try gathering recorded more than 1,400 commercial air-craft orders, valued at $154billion, alongside at least1,432 deals for engines worth$21.96 billion.

The total is an increase of$67.5 billion on the last airshowtwo years ago, with the mile-high rivalry between Boeingand Airbus — who made the

majority of plane orders —swelling sales.

US aviation giant Boeingannounced 676 orders, totalling$92 billion at list prices, as ofThursday, while its Europeancompetitor had unveiled 431orders worth $70 billion.

"The major deals

announced this weekdemonstrate how confi-dent the aerospace indus-try is and the role ofFarnborough as an eco-nomic barometer," saidF a r n b o r o u g hInternational chief exec-utive Gareth Rogers.

The show attractedits most global attendanceever with around 100

countries represented and arecord Chinese presence,Farnborough said in a statement.

There was also a near-10per cent rise in trade visitorscompared to previous years,with more than 80,000 visitorspassing through the gates, itadded.

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Reliance Industries Ltd onSaturday said its subsidiary

has purchased additional 8.14per cent stake in luxury fash-ion retail firm Genesis Colorsfor about �34.17 crore.

"Reliance Brands, a sub-sidiary of the Company, haspurchased an additional 8.14per cent equity stake in luxu-ry fashion retail firm GenesisColors Limited for about�34.17 crore, taking its totalstake in GCL to 9.29 per cent,"RIL said in a filing.

GCL was incorporated inNovember, 1998 and is in

retailing and wholesale busi-ness of branded readymadegarments, bags, footwear andaccessories directly andthrough its subsidiary/Jointventures.

"GCL belongs to a similarindustry as Reliance BrandsLimited. This acquisition willadd to the existing portfolio ofbranded fashion retail outlets,"the filing said.

GCL's had provisionalannual turnover of �86.02 crorein fiscal year 2017-18. It hadturnover of �80.04 crore and�114.16 crore in 2016-17 andFY 2015-16, respectively, thefiling added.

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HDFC Bank on Saturdayreported an 18.2 per cent

increase in its net profit at�4,601.44 crore for the quarterended June.

The private sector lenderhad registered a net profit of�3,893.84 crore in the corre-sponding period of the previ-ous fiscal 2017-18.

Total income for the quar-ter grew 18.8 per cent to�26,367 crore from �22,185.40crore in the quarter endedJune 30, 2017, the bank said ina regulatory filing.

Net revenues (net interestincome plus other income) increased to�14,631.60 crore from�12,887.4 crore earlier.

The net interest income(interest earned less interestexpended) for the quarter grewby 15.4 per cent to �10,813.60crore, from �9,370.70 croreearlier, driven by asset growthand a net interest margin of 4.2per cent for the quarter, HDFCBank said.

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Donald Trump on Saturdaysaid his ex-lawyer Michael

Cohen may have acted illegal-ly after it emerged he hadsecretly taped a discussionabout payments to a formerPlayboy model who claims shehad an affair with the USPresident.

In his first direction reac-tion to a report broken by theNew York Times a day earlier,Trump added: “The good newsis that your favourite Presidentdid nothing wrong!”

The Times reported theFBI had seized the recordingduring a raid on Cohen’s officeearlier this year, quotinglawyers and others familiarwith the recording. Cohen hasnot yet been arrested orcharged.

“Inconceivable that the

Government would break intoa lawyer’s office (early in themorning) — almost unheardof,” Trump tweeted.

“Even more inconceivablethat a lawyer would tape aclient — totally unheard of &perhaps illegal.”

Former Playboy modelKaren McDougal claims shehad a months-long affair withTrump after they met in 2006,shortly after Trump’s wifeMelania gave birth to their son

Barron. She told CNN previ-ously that he tried to pay herfor sex.

The Wall Street Journalsaid the September 2016 con-versation between Trump andCohen was about buying therights to McDougal’s story,which she sold a month earli-er to The National Enquirer for$150,000.

The tabloid ultimately saton it, preventing it frombecoming public. The chair-man of its parent company,American Media, is a friend ofTrump.

Friday’s reports raisedquestions about why Trump’scampaign denied knowledge ofthe deal between McDougaland American Media when itbecame public and fannedspeculation about how muchdamage Cohen can inflict onthe president.

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France and Russia onSaturday despatched a plane

carrying humanitarian aid tothe ravaged former Syrian rebelenclave of Eastern Ghouta,which was retaken byGovernment forces in Aprilafter a five-year siege.

A Russian Antonov 124military cargo plane carrying50 tons of medical aid andhumanitarian supplies left theairport at the central Frenchcity of Chateauroux at 0100GMT, the airport’s head MarkBottemine told AFP.

Undertaken as part of aUN Security Council resolu-tion, “the aim of this project isto enable civilian populationsbetter access to aid,” a jointFranco-Russian statement said.

The plane is heading forRussia’s Hmeimim air base in

the west of Syria. It is the firstjoint humanitarian aid opera-tion between Russia and awestern country.

The aid will be distributedon Saturday under the super-vision of the UN’s Office for theCoordination of HumanitarianAid (OCHA). “Humanitarianassistance is an absolute prior-ity and must be distributed inaccordance with principles ofhumanity, neutrality, impar-tiality and independence acrossall Syrian territory withoutexception, where internationalhumanitarian law must be fullyrespected,” the joint statementsaid. France had secured “guar-antees” from Russia that theSyrian regime would notobstruct the distribution ofthe aid, and that it would notbe misappropriated or divert-ed for political purposes, theForeign Ministry said.

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APakistani High Courtjudge on Saturday alleged

that the country’s powerful ISIspy agency is pressuring theChief Justice and other judgesto get favourable verdicts in dif-ferent cases, including againstousted Prime Minister NawazSharif.

Speaking at the RawalpindiBar Association on Saturday,Islamabad High Court judgeJustice Shaukat Siddiqui open-ly lashed out at the InterServices Intelligence for “con-trolling” the judiciary andmedia.

“Today the judiciary andmedia have come in the con-trol of ‘Bandookwala’ (army).Judiciary is not independent.Even the media is gettingdirections from the military.The media is not speaking thetruth because it is under pres-sure and has its interests,” he

said.He said, “In different cases,

the ISI forms benches of itschoice to get desired results.The ISI had asked the ChiefJustice to make sure that NawazSharif and his daughterMaryam Nawaz should notcome out of jail before the July25 election. It also had askedhim not to include me in thebench hearing the appeal ofNawaz Sharif and his daughterin the Avenfield case. The CJtold ISI that he would make abench of its choice.”

The bench deferred theSharifs’ appeal case after polls.Both Sharif and Maryam areserving 10 and seven-yearterms, respectively, in AdialaJail in Rawalpindi in the

Avenfield corruption case.Both were arrested on July

13 on their arrival fromLondon after an accountabili-ty court found them guiltyover his family’s ownership offour luxury flats in the UKCapital.

Siddiqui further said, “Iwas offered by the ISI that a ref-erence against me would bewithdrawn if I agreed to coop-erate with it. I was even offeredto be made Chief Justice. But Irefused as believe that it is bet-ter to die than to sell my con-science.”

The judge said the judicia-ry and media are a voice ofpeople’s conscience. “If theirfreedom is curbed thenPakistan will remain no morean independent country.Owing to military dictator-ship during half of 70 years ofits history, Pakistan today isneither an Islamic nor a demo-cratic country,” Siddiqui said.

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President EmmersonMnangagwa on Saturday

assured Zimbabwe’s whitefarmers that their land will notbe taken, calling on them towork together with theGovernment ahead of land-mark elections on July 30.

Under his predecessorRobert Mugabe, white farmerswere evicted in favour of land-less black people from 2000 bya controversial policy thatwrecked agriculture and trig-gered an economic collapse.

But less than two weeks togo before Zimbabwe’s first elec-tions since Mugabe’s ouster,Mnangagwa moved to quashany fears the practice would berepeated.

“This issue of new (land)invasions is a thing of the past.The rule of law must nowapply,” Mnangagwa told agroup of about 200 white andAsian people gathered in theCapital Harare, adding that

the “animal farm mentality,”was a thing of the past.

“I am saying we shouldcease to talk about who ownsthe farm in terms of colour. Itis criminal talking about that. Afarmer, black farmer, a whitefarmer is a Zimbabweanfarmer.” Mnangagwa said hisGovernment was “raciallyblind” and needed the expertiseof everyone across the economy.

Zimbabwe’s white popula-tion has fallen to less than oneper cent of the country’s 16 mil-lion after Mugabe imposed thepolicy to expropriate farms in2000. Agricultural outputcrashed in the aftermath, withinvestors leaving and massunemployment forcing mil-lions of Zimbabweans out ofthe country to seek work.

Mnangagwa acknowledgedthe failure of the land reforms,saying the expertise of whitepeople in the farming sectorwas still needed and encour-aging them to take part inrebuilding Zimbabwe.

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US Secretary of State MikePompeo on Saturday

urged UN member-states tokeep tough economic sanc-tions fully in place on NorthKorea and maintain pressureon Kim Jong Un to dismantlePyongyang’s nuclear program.

“We need to see ChairmanKim do what he promised theworld he would do,” Pompeotold reporters after meetingwith the Security Council.

The United States believesthat North Korea can shed its“pariah” status from its nuclearand missile programs, but “itwill take full enforcement of

sanctions for us to get there,” hesaid.

Pompeo traveled to NewYork for the one-hour meetingwith the council to provide afirst briefing to the top UNbody on North Korea sinceTrump and Kim Jong Un’ssummit. China and Russiahave argued that North Koreashould be rewarded with theprospect of eased sanctionsfor opening up dialogue withthe United States and haltingmissile tests.

But US Ambassador NikkiHaley made clear that the bestway to support US diplomacyon North Korea was “to notloosen the sanctions.”

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Iran’s supreme leaderAyatollah Ali Khamenei said

on Saturday that negotiationswith the United States are “use-less” because it does not abideby agreements.

“As I have previously said,we cannot trust in the words ofthe United States and even intheir signature, so negotiationswith the United States are use-less,” Khamenei told a gather-ing of Iranian diplomats inTehran.

“The idea that problemscan be resolved through nego-tiations or relations with theUnited States is a major error,”he added.

Having withdrawn fromthe landmark 2015 nucleardeal between Tehran andworld powers, Washington isdetermined to isolate Iranand pile on economic pres-sure with a full reimpositionof sanctions, starting inAugust.

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Germany has lifted eco-nomic sanctions on Turkey

and relaxed its travel advice tothe country, Berlin said onSaturday, after Ankara endedits two-year state of emer-gency.

A 1.5 billion-euro ($1.7billion) limit on export guar-antees to Turkey would not berenewed this year, Germany’seconomy Ministry told AFP.

The measure was imposedin July 2017 as a way to pres-sure Ankara after the detentionof a German human right cam-paigner and five other activists,including the head of AmnestyInternational in Turkey.

Opposition parties inGermany have accused the 1.5billion-euro limit of being tootimid, given that the value ofexport guarantees increasedfrom 1.1 billion euros in 2016to 1.46 billion euros the fol-lowing year.

Germany’s ForeignMinistry also removed a warn-ing on its website about itsnationals facing a high risk ofarrest when visiting Turkey.

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China is waging a “quietkind of cold war” against

the United States, using all itsresources to try to replaceAmerica as the leading powerin the world, a top CIA experton Asia has said.

Beijing doesn’t want to goto war, he said, but the currentcommunist Government,under President Xi Jingping, issubtly working on multiplefronts to undermine the US inways that are different than themore well-publicized activitiesbeing employed by Russia.

“I would argue... Thatwhat they’re waging against usis fundamentally a cold war —a cold war not like we saw dur-ing THE Cold War (betweenthe US and the Soviet Union)but a cold war by definition,”Michael Collins, deputy assis-tant director of the CIA’s EastAsia mission centre, said at theAspen Security Forum inColorado yesterday.

Rising US-China tensiongoes beyond the trade dispute

playing out in a tariff tit-for-tat between the two nations.

There is concern overChina’s pervasive efforts tosteal business secrets anddetails about high-techresearch being conducted inthe US. The Chinese militaryis expanding and being mod-ernised and the US, as well asother nations, have com-plained about China’s con-struction of military outpostson islands in the South ChinaSea.

“I would argue that it’s theCrimea of the East,” Collinssaid, referring to Russia’s brashannexation of Ukraine’sCrimean Peninsula, which wascondemned throughout theWest.

Collins’ comments trackwarnings about China’s risinginfluence issued by otherswho spoke earlier this week atthe security conference. Thealarm bells come at a timewhen Washington needsChina’s help in ending itsnuclear standoff with NorthKorea.

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England Test captain Joe Root mayhave decoded how to tackle chi-naman Kuldeep Yadav but Sachin

Tendulkar feels that the young wristspinner could still prove to be a hand-ful if the home team prepares dry sur-faces for the upcoming five Test seriesagainst India, starting August 1.

"Whatever I saw on television,Root picked Kuldeep from his handand did that really well. Now Kuldeep'swrist action is a complex one and oncehe lands the ball, I don't think toomany batsmen in world cricket havegot the ability to tackle him off thepitch. Root could afford to playKuldeep late because he was pickinghis wrist position early," Tendulkar saidon Saturday.

When asked if these are ominoussigns for the Indian team, Tendulkarhowever begged to differ.

"I don't think all the other Englandbatsmen have played Kuldeep well. Thekind of weather that has been inEngland with the sun baking thepitches, Kuldeep will be very much inaction and so will be the other Indianspinners.

"If the pitches remain flat and dry

like the ones during the limited oversleg, India are in with a very goodchance. But if it's a green top, obviously,the England seamers will come into theplay," the legend opined.

He did agree that missing

Bhuvneshwar Kumar during the firstthree Tests along with Jasprit Bumrahfor the opening game in Birmingham,"will be a setback" for India.

"Bhuvi's injury (stiff back) is a realsetback for India. I for one was expect-

ing a lot from him. He has over the yearsperformed at a level that you expect a cer-tain kind of performance from him. Withhis ability to swing the ball, he was goingto be very critical to India's scheme ofthings during the Test series.

"And let's not forget those runs thatBhuvi scored in England during the lastseries (2014). He is a decent enough bats-man, who could string those partnershipsat the back end of the innings. But then, Ibelieve that we still have a lot of quality inour pace department (Ishant Sharma,Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, ShardulThakur).

About Bumrah, Tendulkar felt that hewas missed more during the ODI series.

"Bumrah was certainly missed by Indiain the ODI series during those crucial deathovers where he has been a championbowler. He has started off well in Test crick-et and this series is a wonderful opportu-nity for him. But he is expected to come-back during second Test. So I am hopingfor the best," Tendulkar said.

But the highest run-getter in Testcricket refused to believe that missingBhuvneshwar and Bumrah in the first Testwill affect the morale of the side and espe-cially skipper Virat Kohli.

"Let me give you an example of myplaying days. I was the captain during the

1997 Sahara Cup in Toronto. The Indianteam didn't have Javagal Srinath, VenkateshPrasad and Anil Kumble. Yet, we beatPakistan 4-1 (series best remembered forSourav Ganguly's four back to back MoMawards). I don't think we should call Indiaa depleted side as it is being unfair to theothers, who will be playing in the series.

"What I am trying to say is that youmight just get the best out of your resourcesin adverse conditions. Just because youdon't have certain key players doesn'tmean that you will have a certain kind ofresult. It never happens like that in anysport. Accepted that it's not a great thingto go into a big series without your key play-er but then you just have to move on andfocus on your job ahead," Tendulkar said.

Skipper Virat Kohli's treacherous formin 2014 has been talked about a lot butTendulkar feels that it will have no bearingon Indian captain's performance in theupcoming series.

"Virat's 2014 performance has gotnothing to do with how he would performin the upcoming series. And it's not justabout Virat's performance. If you ask meif I am hopeful of a good show from Virat,my answer would be "Why only Virat? I amhopeful of a good show from the Indianteam. It's the team that needs to performwell," Tendulkar concluded.

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Wicketkeeper-batsman JonnyBairstow says England will look

to carry forward the momentum oftheir come-from-behind ODI seriestriumph against India into the Testarena.

The 28-year-old said: "There's anoverlap of players between the Test andthe one-dayers so coming off the backof a series win is going to naturallyboost your confidence."

After the T20 series defeat and thedrubbing in the ODI opener, Englandregistered convincing wins in the nexttwo matches to claim the rubber 2-1.

"Playing against the number twoside in the world when you're rankedat one there's always pressure on it andto win that series was something we setout to do.

"We will take confidence fromthat into the Test team but at the sametime it's something that we know withTest cricket is completely different.

"It's a different formula, a differentgame and different personnel withinthe team," Bairstow said.

The five-Test series against Indiafollows England's 2-1 ODI series winover the tourists which helped themcement their place as the world's top-ranked one-day side.

Eoin Morgan's ODI team have wontheir last eight series but it's been a dif-ferent story for England's Test side whoare ranked fifth in the world and havefailed to win any of their last three serieswith just one match won.

England's Test captain Joe Rootstarred with the bat in the ODI seriesagainst India and hit the headlines forhis 'mic-drop' celebration after scoringa match-winning century at

Headingley."I know he's copped a lot of stick

for it," Bairstow said, smiling."I don't think that'll be coming out

anytime soon! It was good fun and hedeserved to get man of the series theway that he went out and guided usthrough, especially at Headingley.

"Hopefully he goes out and keepsscoring the runs that he's scored in thelast two games."

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Stuart Broad wants to be the go-to"guy" for England skipper Joe

Root as the seamer gears up toprove his fitness and make a come-back in the big-ticket Test seriesagainst India, beginning August 1.

The Nottinghamshire pacebowler doesn't want to look too farahead, but next year's Ashes series isdefinitely on his radar.

"I think it is quite dangerous tolook as far ahead as that. It can takeyour mind off what is really impor-tant," Broad told Sky Sports News.

"I don't want to look too farahead, but a huge goal of mine is toregain the Ashes in 2019. That is

number one, top of the list, but whatis going to make me a better crick-eter in the short term, is to be ableto be in that team fit and firing andbe the guy Rooty (Joe Root) looks to."

On a comeback trail, Broad willlook to regain full fitness after suf-fering an ankle injury playing for hiscounty against Worcestershire in theSpecsavers County Championshiplast month.

"I really need to shorten mymindset and get things that are real-ly reachable now and get things topush towards, rather than look toends of careers because once you dothat you slow down as a person andI am not at the stage of wanting to dothat."

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Sri Lanka surged to 151 for 3 in their sec-ond innings on Saturday - a 365-run

overall lead - as they sought a whitewash tri-umph over South Africa in their two-Testseries.

After their spinners had skittled outSouth Africa for just 124 in their firstinnings, Sri Lankan openers DanushkaGunathilaka and Dimuth Karunaratne puton a quickfire 91 to set the foundation foranother strong score on the Colombo pitch.

Gunathilaka was Sri Lanka's primaryaggressor, hitting six fours and two sixes inhis 61 off 68 balls after tea on the second day.

Keshav Maharaj struck twice to removeGunathilaka and Dhananjaya da Silva, fora duck, but Karunaratne progressed smooth-ly at the other end to reach 59 while AngeloMathews had 12.

The hosts built up their domineeringlead at the end of a day in which their 10thwicket pair added valuable runs to build afirst innings of 338. South Africa were thenrouted by Sri Lanka's spinners with AkilaDananjaya taking five for 52.

Dananjaya and Rangana Herath frus-trated South Africa through the morningsession as they added 61 runs to theovernight total.

Left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj even-tually dismissed Herath to end the innings,and complete a haul of nine for 129 - the sec-

ond-best for a South Africa bowler and thebest since the country made a post-apartheidreturn to Tests in 1991.

But Sri Lanka's 338 was always going tobe a challenge and Dananjaya, Herath andDilruwan Perera then tore through the

South African batting, already exposed bytheir defeat in the first Test in Galle.

Dananjaya took his second five-wickethaul in Tests while Herath and Pererashared the remaining five South Africanwickets. Stand-in captain Suranga Lakmalwas not required to deliver a single ball.

Only South Africa captain Faf du Plessisand wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock showedresistance, making 48 off 51 balls and 32 off31 respectively.

South Africa lasted only 34.5 overs, afterSri Lanka had batted for 104.1 overs in theirfirst innings.

Dananjaya, left out for the first Test atGalle, struck with his second ball of thematch, having Dean Elgar caught at gullywith a turning offbreak.

He got Theunis de Bruyn edging behindin the next over, and Perera picked up theSouth Africa middle order to finish on fourfor 40.

The only batsman to put any pressureon Sri Lanka was du Plessis, who attackedthe spinners after lunch, sweeping withabandon as he struck eight fours and a six.

Du Plessis and Hashim Amla put on thebest partnership of 55, but Perera dismissedthem both within four overs of each other.Despite de Kock's aggressive innings, theremainder of South Africa's batting wereeasy meat when Dananjaya came back.

Du Plessis left the field at the end of theday with a worried look on his face.

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Sebastian Vettel surged to pole for hishome German Grand Prix on

Saturday as Lewis Hamilton suffered asetback when his Mercedes broke downto leave him at the back of the grid.

Vettel topped qualifying with a dev-astating final lap in his Ferrari to pipValtteri Bottas in the second Mercedes.

A distraught Hamilton limped outin the first qualifying session when hiscar broke down with a hydraulics fail-ure.

Vettel rubbed salt in the Britishdefending world champion's wounds byoutpacing Bottas by two-tenths of a sec-ond.

In front of a huge crowd of flag-wav-ing Germans at the track near hisHeppenheim birthplace, Vettel delivereda lap record in one minute and 11.212seconds to top the Finn's 1:11.416.

"Thanks to those fans," said Vettel."It was amazing to see so many Ferrariand Germany flags.

"It just kept getting better and I knewfor the last lap I had a little bit more - Iam full of adrenaline, but feel so happy."It is his second pole for a German GrandPrix and the 55th of his career.

Vettel's qualifying success makeshim favourite to land his first FormulaOne victory at Hockenheim and only hissecond Grand Prix win in Germany as

he seeks to extend his eight-pointadvantage over Hamilton.

Kimi Raikkonen was third in thesecond Ferrari ahead of Max Verstappenof Red Bull and the two Ferrari-poweredHaas cars of Kevin Magnussen andRomain Grosjean.

Another home hope NicoHulkenberg was seventh ahead of hisRenault team-mate Carlos Sainz, risingMonegasque star Charles Leclerc ofSauber and Sergio Perez of Force India.

Hamilton, who had attempted topush his car to stay in contention, said:"It was definitely a tough one, but thesethings happen and all you can do is tryand gather your thoughts and live tofight another day.

"I'll give everything tomorrow to seehow high I can get up, but its not goingto be like Silverstone." Hamilton isexpected to start 14th on the grid.

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Rising Indian shuttler Lakshya Sen stormed into thefinals after disposing off fourth-seed Indonesian

Ikhsan Leonardo Imanuel Rumbay in the semifinalsof the Asia Junior Championships at Jakarta onSaturday.

Sixth-seeded Lakshya, who stunned second seedLi Shifeng in quarterfinals on Friday, saw off Rumbay21-7, 21-14 on the fourth day of the individual events.

In the title showdown tomorrow, Lakshya willmeet top-seeded Indonesian Kunlavut Vitidsaran whodefeated third-seeded Chinese Yupeng Bai 21-14, 21-12 in another match.

"It feels good to be in the final. I am happy withthe way I am playing now and hope to maintain thetempo in Sunday's final," said Lakshya after the semi-final match.

Though the entire match took 40 minutes, his firstgame was over in less than 16 minutes. In the secondgame, however, Rumbay did well to resurrect himselfbut the Indian was always ahead by at least three points.

The fourth seeded Indonesia played well in thesecond but could never come close to challenge theauthority of Lakshya. On a couple of occasions,Rumbay surprised the Indian with some good net-playand cross-court smashes. But Lakshya was quickenough to return the compliment.

Talking about the finals, Lakshya said: "I have neverfaced him before. But I will definitely try and give mybest shot against the top-seed," said Lakshya, who hadwon a Bronze in 2016 Asian Juniors.

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Banished opening batsman DavidWarner says he is looking to be part

of Australia's World Cup defence inEngland next year after his first hit-outat home on Saturday.

The pugnacious Warner smacked 36runs off 32 balls in the NorthernTerritory Strike League in Darwin as hesearches for match practice to gear forhis return to top-level cricket early nextyear.

Warner, 31, was handed a one-yearban from international and state crick-et by Cricket Australia for his role inhelping to devise a plan to rub sandpa-per on the ball during a Test matchagainst South Africa in March.

He had pledged to play in thecricket outpost while he was involved incommunity coaching work earlier thisyear as part of the terms of his ban, andmade good his offer in his side CityCyclones' comfortable win againstNorthern Tide in a 50-over fixture.

"I'm pretty good when I'm fresh,"Warner told reporters.

"If you look at the last 12 months,I played basically every game (forAustralia) and didn't get a rest.

"I had a five-day turnaround beforethe first Test in South Africa and I ledthe team in (the T20 tri-series inAustralia and) New Zealand whensome of the other guys had a rest.

"So I know that the breaks do me(good), and you don't lose formovernight."

Warner said he would have theopportunity of warm-up games beforethe World Cup in May-July next year.

"You've got plenty of warm-upgames before the World Cup, and I'll beplaying the IPL (Indian Premier LeagueT20 competition) as well leading intothat," he said.

"So there's plenty of cricket andplenty of world-class players to playagainst, as well to get my preparation onsong."

Warner confirmed his intention tocontinue at international level once hissuspension is completed, and for sometime into the future.

"I wouldn't be here today and work-ing my backside off to keep scoring asmany runs as I can for each team thatI play for if I didn't love it - I'd proba-bly retire," he said.

"But I've still got plenty of fuel in thetank and I'm excited.

"(I have) the next eight months toreflect upon what's happened and thenmoving forward to be a better personand a better cricketer.

"I'm just ticking along to make sureI'm preparing well for this and the CPLcoming up."

Warner will play for the St LuciaStars in next month's Caribbean PremierLeague.

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The South Korean President Moon Jae-inpaid a four-day visit to India in July (7-10) and held delegation-level talks withPrime Minister Narendra Modi and othersenior leaders on a wide range of bilateral,

regional, and global issues of mutual interest with aview to further strengthen the special strategic part-nership between the two countries. This was Moon’sfirst visit to India after he took over as the Presidentof South Korea in 2017. It was one of the most pro-ductive visits to India by a foreign leader as thetalks ended with a big-ticket investment announce-ment that would further deepen bilateral tiesbetween Asia’s third and fourth largest economies,particularly in the economic sphere. Prime MinisterModi also took the opportunity to mention howIndia is concerned about North Korea’s nuclearweapon development programmes, and appreciatedMoon’s initiative to address this issue. For India,Pyongyang’s nuclear link with Pakistan hasremained a matter of concern for a long time.

�� India-South Korea relations are not recent but forreasons other than economics, bilateral relationsremained in a state of “strategic disconnect”. India’spolicy of “non-alignment and economic autarchy”and the perceived closeness with the then SovietUnion were seen by the US and its allies, such asJapan and South Korea, with suspicion. Under thecircumstances, there was little prospect for India-South Korea relations to develop. Even the impor-tant role played by India in dispatching the 60thParachute Field Military Ambulance Platoon — amobile army surgical hospital that treated more thanhalf of the wounded soldiers and an average of 250to 300 civilians a day, during the UN operations inlate 1951 following the Korean War — thoughremembered with gratitude, did not substantiallyhelp remove political barriers to forge a partnershipthat could have fetched mutual benefits.

There are civilisational linkages between thetwo countries too. It is popularly believed inSouth Korea that the legendary Korean King Suromarried an Indian princess from Ayodhya cen-turies ago and mothered the Kim dynasty. Almost80 per cent of the present generation bearing thename Kim trace their ancestry to the ancientdynasty. So, there is an emotional connectionbetween the people of the two nations.

Even Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’sevocative poem that Korea will be the lamp bearerfor the illumination of Asia could not translate toconcrete construction of an India-South Korea part-nership until the ideological gulf remained. The col-lapse of the Soviet Union and India’s Look East poli-cy, rechristened now as Act East policy, dramaticallyaltered the perceptions in reviewing India-SouthKorea bilateral ties in a different light in which eco-nomic, defence, and strategic dimensions werefound enmeshed. The strategic history of India’s tieswith this Northeast nation, that remained disjointedfor almost four decades since the end of the KoreanWar, has been successfully recast now.

Put briefly, India-South Korea relations havedeveloped in stages. The years since diplomatic tieswere established in 1973 until early 1990 was thefirst stage or the ‘budding period’. Though someefforts were made by both, they could not realise thepotentials because of their “inherent ideologicalincongruity and differences in their policy orienta-tion”. While India adopted a socialist, secular, demo-cratic government at home and pursued the policyof non-alignment of the third world in internationalaffairs, South Korea remained tied in a securityalliance with the US. So, both saw each other asbelonging to different camps and “were blinded bythe blinkers of the global block politics of the time”.

India’s choice of inward-looking import substitution model of development sharply con-trasted with South Korea’s outward-lookingexport-oriented development path prevented thegrowth of economic ties between them. Thoughthe diplomatic and other bilateral interactionscontinued smoothly, not much headway could be made in expanding the economic ties.

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The second stage of the bilateralties between 1991 and 2009 can becalled the phase of ‘economic andcommercial cooperation’. Both coun-tries discovered a convergence ofinterests in many areas during thisperiod. In the third stage, the bilater-al relationship was elevated into a‘strategic partnership’. This strategicpartnership could be achievedbecause of the convergence of India’sLook East Policy and Korea’s NewAsia Diplomatic Initiative describedas “policy rendezvous”. First, thebilateral relationship was catapultedinto a higher gear when PresidentRoh Myun-Hwan visited India in2004 and a “long-term cooperativepartnership” was established. Thisserved as the bedrock for bilateralrelations. This relationship was ele-vated to the level of strategic part-nership when President Lee Myung-bak paid a historic visit to India in

January 2010 as the chief guest of theRepublic Day celebrations. TheComprehensive EconomicPartnership Agreement (CEPA)signed in 2009 was also implement-ed and entered into force fromJanuary 1, 2010, thereby jumpstart-ing the dormant economic compo-nent of the bilateral ties. The CEPA— which came into force onJanuary 1, 2010 — was the first dealof its kind which India signed withan OECD country, and South Koreawith a BRIC nation.

Subsequently, several top levelvisits have taken place between thetwo countries: Former PresidentPratibha Patil’s visit in July 2011, for-mer Prime Minister ManmohanSingh’s visit in March 2012, and oth-ers. Defence and Foreign Ministersfrom both countries have also visit-ed, each time elevating the relation-ship to a higher level.

��Against this background as the rela-tionship evolved, Moon’s recent trip toIndia is another milestone in the bilat-eral ties. Firstly, the timing of the visitis significant as it coincided with thechanges taking place with breathtakingrapidity in the geopolitical landscapeof Northeast Asia. The architect of thechanges is none other than PresidentMoon whose peace overtures — whichstarted with North Korea’s participa-tion in the PyeongChang WinterOlympics and subsequently led to asummit meeting with Kim Jong-un onApril 27, and later paved the way forthe first ever summit between Kimand US President Donald Trump inSingapore on June 12. India-SouthKorea relations were elevated to ‘spe-cial strategic partnership’ after Modivisited South Korea in May 2015,seeking investments in many flagshipprogrammes of the Government,

including Skill India and Make inIndia. The South Korean Governmentearmarked a whopping $10 billion as“financing arrangement for infrastruc-ture development in India”.

Moon’s dynamic leadership asidefrom his efforts to solve the nucleardilemma of North Korea becamedemonstrably clear, or at least hisintent, even during the presidentialelection campaign in 2017 whereinhe pledged that he would elevate tieswith India to the level of Korea’s rela-tions with four major powers in andaround the Korean Peninsula —China, Japan, Russia, and the US.This aside, he intended to craft Indiaprominently in his “new Southernpolicy” and include the 10-memberASEAN group in its ambit. This is asignificant departure from Korea’straditional foreign policy and possi-bly could be, as some analysts sug-gested, a hedging strategy amid the

US-China stand-off, coupled with thedesire to forge a robust India-SouthKorea partnership in the interest ofbuilding peace and stability in theregion. Though for India, SouthKorea is a valued partner, bilateraltrade is below its potential. Bilateraltrade in 2017 totaled $20 billion andinvestment has shown an upwardtrend. Both sides have pledged toincrease it to $50 billion by 2030.There are about 300 Korean compa-nies which have invested about $3billion, employing about 40,000workers. The only aberration in thebilateral ties seems to be that thePOSCO project in Odisha did nottake off despite that it was the singlebiggest foreign direct investment pro-ject to the tune of $12 billion, owingto land acquisition problems.

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As the calm and almost under-populated road is taken on theway to this destination, onetends to wonder, “Is itNetarhat or nature hut?” But,

well, as William Shakespeare famouslywrote, “What is in name?” Half the magicof this lesser-known, colonial hill stationin Jharkhand lies in its underexploredbeauty. A 156 km-long drive that takes oneto this hidden gem of Chotanagpurplateau situated in Satpura hill range ofcentral India. At the last stage of this trav-el, the car scales the height of 3,622 ft,crisscrossing black metal roads. It runsinside a deep jungle of pine, bamboo,mahua and saal. There, one can see a greenjungle on looking out of the car window.Long, brown carpets of dried leavesrolled out on both sides of the road canalso be seen. If one discounts the soundof the engine of the car, then the only othersound one can hear on this path is that ofthe wind blowing through the forest or ofdry leaves being crushed under one’s feet.If the time of the journey is February orMarch, one also gets to see blooming redpalash flowers — the state flower ofJharkhand. No wonder that this place wascalled the ‘Queen of Chotanagpur’.

Nestled inside a deep and dark shad-owed forest and surrounded with greenhills, this place is mesmerising. For a back-packer, this is perhaps the picture that

dominates his/her dreams. For someonewho wants a break from the kerfuffle ofan overcrowded city, Netarhat is the placefor nirvana. And for someone who wantsto witness nature in all its colourful beau-ty, this is like passport to paradise.

Hidden inside one of the most prim-itive yet pristine forests of the Chotanagpurplateau, Netarhat as a small hill stationbecame so dear to British administratorsthat they did want everyone to know aboutit! They wanted to retain the primitive ele-ment in beauty of this place. So, they neverallowed any commercial establishment tocome up here. Even today, accommoda-tion and transportation facilities inNetarhat are very basic. For those who aretired of a world dominated by technolo-gy, the best part about Netarhat is that nomobile tower gives any signal. So, once oneis here, he or she is truly in the lap ofnature, and can rest without any interfer-ence from the digital world.

In early 1930s, the Palamou TigerReserve was created adjacent to Netarhat.That indirectly protected this place frompopulation explosion and ugly urbaniza-tion. Except for a huge residential schoolnamed Netarhat Public School which wasestablished in 1954, till today, the environ-ment around Netarhat is pure and almostextraordinarily intoxicating.

In undivided Bihar, when Ranchi wasthe summer capital, the British often used

to take a break from city life by driving 156km up into hills to relax their body and soulin the forest bungalows of this place. Theynever disturbed the ecological balance ofthe place by making it commercial. In thewhispering woods of saal, pine and palash,the wild forest and its original habitants —both human and sub human — used to co-exist in harmony.

The dense solitude of the place wasa grand source of peace and a strongreminder of the Scottish moors for manyof them. It was the time when this placewas probably named by them as ‘naturehut’. There is a chance that nature hut wasdistorted to Netarhat. However, somelocals also argue that it was once a mar-ket for a bamboo which is called neta inlocal language.

The story a colonial hill station cannever be complete without a saga that hastragedy mingled with romance. In this hutof nature, too, a similar legend lives.According to that legend, a British girlnamed Magnolia was once in Netarhat. Herpassion for the musical appeal of flute playedby a local, tribal boy soon grew into love.This was unacceptable to the society of hertimes. Tired of repressing her feelings, shecommitted suicide by jumping off BatuaTola, a cliff in Netarhat, along with her horse.

The place where she committed sui-cide is also the point from where touristsgo to witness a dazzling sunset over the

horizon of the plateau. This is nowcalled the Magnolia Sunset Point. Amarble plaque situated at this place tellsthe love story of Magnolia. It also has astatue of the horse facing the valley. It cre-ates an aura of melancholy. In twilight,when the sun goes down the hill over-looking the deep dark forest, the sky isdecorated with a splendor of magicalcolor. The sea of saffron engulfs MagnoliaPoint every day and reminds one of a lovethat never saw a happy ending.

A river flows here that resembles aheavily ornamented lady. It is known asRiver Koel. Originating from a small vil-lage named Tutuapani, the river runsthrough the jungle with rocks and pebbleson her chest. Its sand banks are virgin andisolated. Like Magnolia Sunset Point , the

banks of Koel also shine in sunset with ariot of colors. From azure to deep crim-son, the water of Koel changes its colorwith color of sky. On a full moon night,the river looks its best.

Netarhat is also believed to be theplace with one of the best ‘sunrise points’in the world. Here, the sun comes like anempire and within a few seconds of itsentry over the horizon, it gives an impres-sion that makes it seem like it is conquer-ing the landscape. With its advent, everytree lights up with the sound of chirpingbirds and a new day breaks in. AtNetarhat, one almost wishes they had apair of wings so that he or she could fullyenjoy the eternal serenity of this place.Here, nature rests in a cozy hut and allowsthe visitors to sink into its charm.

This 12-million capacity steelplant was floated in 2005 andPOSCO had the patience to wait

for close to a decade to see the projectbecome functional. In the process, thecompany invested a lot of money inthe social sector, including the CSR.But despite strong governmental sup-port to the company to make therequired land available for the steelproject to be set up, the efforts failedand POSCO was forced to pull out ofthe project in 2017, after waiting for 12long years as public resistance contin-ued with no sign of ending.

Though POSCO was an unhappyexperience for South Korea, this did notdeter it to halt investment in India inother projects, such as by firms like Kiaand Samsung, in recognition of theIndian market and the buying power ofthe urban middle class estimated to beto the tune of 350 million plus.

Though the main driving force inthe bilateral relations remains econom-ic, the strategic dimension — includingdefence cooperation — is becomingequally important. The two sides arelooking at defence hardware procure-ment and manufacture. India is lookingfor minesweepers for the Navy, andSouth Korea could be a possible source.India has also sourced artillery gunsfrom South Korea and is looking tomanufacture them in India under theMake in India programme. In this light,Moon’s India visit shall pave the way forexpanding bilateral ties in multifariousdimensions, upgrading business ties tothe level Korea has with China. Indeed,Moon has been pushing Korean majorsto raise their investment in India.

The reason why the economicdimension in the partnership is signifi-cant can be deciphered from theaddress Moon made to the India-KoreaBusiness Forum organised by theFederation of Indian Chambers ofCommerce and Industry. It was attend-ed by top management of the majorchaebols or large family-owned mega-conglomerates from Korea, such asSamsung, Hyundai, and LG. The threecompanies command large chunks ofthe export and domestic consumer andindustrial markets in Korea. This wasthe second such event in less than five

months. In February, Modi hadaddressed a mega delegation of 150-odd Korean companies, wherein he hadexhorted the chaebols to furtherexpand the $2.7 billion worth of invest-ment mainly in the automobile andengineering sectors. Consumer prod-ucts of Korean companies, such asSamsung and LG, are household namesand therefore important players in theIndian consumer market. In the auto-mobile sector, Hyundai competesequally with Japanese products, such asToyota, Honda, and Mitsubishi.

There are some trade and tariffissues that need to be sorted out. Forexample, India seeks zero duty on itemssuch as sesame and motor parts. Koreais reluctant to accede to this request.South Korea imports 630 per cent dutyon Indian sesame, while imports 24,000tonnes a year from China at zero duty,

and therefore, India’s request is legiti-mate. Korea feels that opening tarifflines to a country ensures zero customduty to importers of the country towhich it is opened. The duty is applica-ble for products under those tariff lines.

From the strategic perspective, theimportance of South Korea in India’sIndo-Pacific strategy came out clear inModi’s keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 1, 2018, when hementioned South Korea was an impor-tant component of the Act East policy.

During Modi’s visit to South Koreain 2015, the two sides sought amend-ment to the bilateral Air ServicesAgreement to enhance flight connec-tivity covering more cities. As Koreanbusiness in Indian cities expands,Korea would be interested in increas-ing direct flights from the existing sixin a week. That time, an MoU was

inked on cooperation in audio-visualco-production, paving the way for co-production of films, animation andbroadcasting programmes.

This time during Moon’s visit, fiveMoUs in the field of science and tech-nology were signed. Science andTechnology Minister Harsh Vardhanand his Korean counterpart You YoungMin signed three MoUs on Programmeof Cooperation 2018-21, Establishmentof Future Strategy Group andCooperation in Bio-technology andBio-economy. Two other MoUs weresigned between the Council of Scientificand Industrial Research (CSIR) andSouth Korean National ResearchCouncil for Science and Technologyand IIT Mumbai and Korea Institute ofScience and Technology, to furtheraccelerate future-oriented cooperation.

During his visit, Moon inaugurateda Samsung manufacturing unit, thelargest in the world, in Noida in whichthe company has invested $760 million,demonstrating the trust and businessconfidence in Indian market despite theunhappy experience of POSCO. This isgoing to be the world’s largest mobilephone manufacturing facility, toutingModi’s pet Make in India to propelIndia to become the world’s second-largest manufacturer of mobile phonesas the number of factories soared to120 from just two, four years ago.

Apart from creating four lakh directjobs, 30 per cent of the phones manu-factured at the factory — built at a costof �5,000 crore — will be exported tothe Middle East and Africa. India wasalready the R&D hub for Samsung, nowit will be a manufacturing base too.

Would India be the next China forSouth Korea, as claimed by Korea’sTrade Minister Kim Hyun-chong? Itmay be recalled when South Koreadeployed the THAAD US missiledefense system in 2017, a decisiontaken by Moon’s predecessor, a diplo-matic row broke out between SouthKorea and China as the latter felt thatTHAAD breached into China’s security.China adopted a series of economicretaliatory measures against Koreanproducts, thereby severely affecting theKorean economy. South Korea is yet torecover from this. Moon now seeks to

enhance economic and trade relationswith the ASEAN and India, thusannouncing his southern policy.

Moon’s strategy is laudable but notwithout difficulties. Many bilateral eco-nomic issues concerning trade and tar-iff need to be sorted out. Moreover, ifMoon targets the ASEAN grouping as asingle package, that would be difficult,as a strategy that fits all countries maynot be possible as the characteristics ofeach country could be different. Forexample, if South Korea wants toexpand the market presence of its car-makers in Indonesia — the largest carmarket in Southeast Asia whereJapanese vehicles enjoy 98.6 per centmarket share, but the Korean cars takeup only about 0.1 per cent — the chal-lenge could be huge.

On the other hand, India holds thegreatest potential for South Korea andhas the least risk, which is why India isa priority destination for Korean busi-nesses. The absence of any sensitiveissue, either historical or geographical,also works in India’s favour to be a pre-ferred partner for South Korea. TheMoon Government has, therefore, pri-oritised India to deepen and strengthenmultidimensional relations.

With its population expected toreach 1.5 billion in 2030, India has thepotential to emerge as the world’s singlelargest market. In view of this, anynation doing business with anothercountry may find it irresistible to over-look India to be a partner in pursuit ofeconomic prosperity. Moon is awarethat India is eyeing the tag of theworld’s third largest economy by 2030,after overtaking France as the sixthlargest economy and coming close tothe UK, which is at the fifth place.Indian economy is at the take-off stageand is expected to be the world’s thirdlargest by 2030 with the GDP worth$10 trillion. This means India is aimingto overtake the UK, Japan, andGermany by 2030, to be behind onlythe US and China. As far as doing business is concerned, India presentstempting prospects for any country, andSouth Korea is well aware of this.

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In writing this cautiousreview of Hasan Abdullah’sThe Evolution of Ghalib,the latest English languagetome on Urdu’s favourite

virtuoso, I plead the kind indul-gence of that cult of his con-firmed acolytes to whom he isperfection personified. So muchhas been written, said, and per-formed on and about the goodMirza over the course of the pastcentury or so that it oftenappears difficult to believe in thedawn of the new and different.Abdullah’s tribute is packagedand presented as such, so it waswith a degree of trepidation thatI picked it up to partake of thenuggets of wisdom and insightswhich it promises to offer to theuninitiated. What I found was amixed bag of as many hits asmisses, a text which is undoneby the passion which informsand frames it. Abdullah’s bookmay well be unique in its focuson the trajectory of Ghalib’s craftand thought through his longlife, but its many lacunae leave asour taste of dissatisfaction.

This is because The Evolutionof Ghalib reads mostly like thefond work of a besotted fan. Acommentary such as this, pre-senting Ghalib’s poetry chrono-logically, has not been attemptedbefore, so Abdullah is undeniablya trendsetter in this regard.However, readers who approachthe book expecting, finally, a lit-erary biography of the man andthe poet will be a little disap-pointed. In an age of fandoms,this is unsurprising: every notedauthor across all major languageshas been reworked on, their lifeand work reimagined and rein-scribed in keeping with thetimes. Ghalib has been no excep-tion to this, and there have beenattempts — more cinematic thanliterary — to creatively rethinkhis legacy. But Abdullah stumbleseven without trying: starting outto “present the intellectual evolu-

tion — not biography — ofGhalib through an interpretationof his couplets”, Abdullah’s cri-tique flounders precisely due tohis strong partiality to Ghalib, anaffinity which blinds him to thevery particular demands ofscholarship.

Careful attention to wordsand to the framing of concepts isprimary amongst these. GivenAbdullah’s “predisposition fordefinitive logic and not for hazy

poetry”, I expected rigor anddepth worthy of a subject aschallenging and expansive as theevolution of Ghalib’s mind andart. I was disappointed, instead,to find the text thick with loosereferences such as “Nature”, “feu-dal”, “progress”, and “the belovedpeople”. Nature, as per Abdullah,is “all-encompassing. Anythingand everything, animate or inan-imate, is included in nature;nothing is outside her”: but then

how is “Nature” feminine, andthrough which process of cogita-tion did Abdullah reach this fas-cinating definition which runscounter to much received wis-dom? Ghalib, Abdullah informsus consistently, questionedreceived wisdom throughout hiscareer, but how sound is to pre-sent him as a revolutionaryvotary of inclusive change, inter-ested both in agrarian reformand the abolition of caste in

what Abdullah constantlymisidentifies as a “feudal” soci-ety? These claims cry out loudfor substantiation, which alasAbdullah stoops not to provide.

Consider, similarly, theunfortunate effect of a phrase asconfounding as “the belovedpeople” next to Ghalib’s verse:

“ham ney maanaa kehtaghaaful nah karo gey, lekin

khaak ho jaaen gey ham, tumko khabar hotey tak”

“…the poet realises that it wouldtake long for people to compre-hend his poetry…he is exhortingthe beloved people to appreciatehis inner turmoil, which resultsin this timeless poetry.”

Abdullah’s sympathy forGhalib mires him in a miasma ofunadulterated affect, precludingthe possibility of a critical inter-rogation of his life and his cor-pus: He would have done greaterjustice to his work by linking the

evolution of Ghalib’s poetry tohis life. This would have fit verywell in the inspired schemawhich he presents, spanningfifty-four years of Ghalib’s poeticand public life. What we are leftwith, however, is pure opinionuntouched by any critical facul-ties: for example, whereverGhalib appears an honourable,self-composed, radical free-thinker to him, he also appearsan arrogant, self-indulgent,insolvent, and deeply conserva-tive brat to me. Had Abdullahtried even a little to approachGhalib from this extremity, tothink of even the possibility ofchipping through his aura andseeing the man as he was, thisbook would have been so muchricher in its presentation of thelife and times of Ghalib. If onlyhe had tempered his passionwith the reason to which he soearly lay claim in the narrative,The Evolution of Ghalib wouldhave been a true masterpiece.��,��"��-��$� ��"��-�� ? ��<��

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For long, the primary roleof a forensic psychiatristhas been the treatment of

offenders who committedcrime when mentally ill orbecame unwell when in prison.In recent years, however, as thefocus of Forensic Psychiatryhas increasingly moved frominstitution to community wel-fare, one of the many demandsmade on the clinicians is keep-ing up to date with the ever-increasing pace of develop-ments, particularly with thelegal aspects in the sector. Thisis all the more relevant if onekeeps the ‘patient-centricMental Healthcare Act of 2017’in mind. Psychiatrists feel thatthis Act is likely to increase thecaregiver’s involvement withthe patient. It will also increasethe cost of mental health ser-vices, and add legalities thatmay lead to defensive practiceand more paper work.

This is where the book,Forensic Psychiatry: An IndianPerspective, penned down bywell known psychiatrists DrRC Jiloha, Dr Prerna Kukretiand Dr Dinesh Kataria, comeshandy. The book is structured,focused and lucid. As has beenrightly pointed out by DrAmita Dhanda, Professor andHead at the Centre forDisabilities Studies, Centre forLegal Philosophy and JusticeEducation, NALSARUniversity of Law, Hyderabad,in the foreword of the book,the book comprehensivelymaps out the various sectors inwhich law and psychiatryintersect with each other in ademocratic polity.

The authors have tried torender the task manageableand the information accessible.They have divided the bookinto eight sections comprising

of 39 chapters focusing on dif-ferent dimensions of ForensicPsychiatry. Some of these are:Conflict with criminal laws,testamentary capacity, mar-riage issues, sexual perver-sions, fitness to work, and eth-ical issues dealing with confi-dentiality and privileged com-munication. Section II focuseson mediological responsibili-ties in doctor-patient relation-ship. And Section VIII exam-ines a range of issues such asorgan transplantation andeuthanasia which have rele-

vance to mental health. “Thisbook should be perused notonly to know what the law isbut also to reflect upon what itought to be,” Dhanda says fur-ther. It also aims to providetips on testifying in legal mat-ters.

The authors have made aneffort not only to inform stu-dents and clinicians about theincreasing use of their work injudicial contexts but also toprepare them for ethical andpractical issues that can arisewhen their work enters the

legal arena. While the field ofForensic Psychiatry is vast, thestream itself is in an infantstage. Hence, the authors havechosen only the crucial areasin which the importance ofscientific concepts is occurringat a particularly rapid rate. Theapplication of these conceptsin day-to-day clinical practiceis of paramount importance.

The book is user friendlywithin the mental health andlegal context for which it iswritten. It can be used as a textbook or as a reference book by

students of Forensic Psychiatryto acquire basic skills in thesusceptibility of ForensicPsychiatry and apply thoseskills in their day-to-day clini-cal practice. It has been divid-ed into eight broad sections,further divided into 39 chap-ters. It gives a string of refer-ences citing medicolegalresponsibility in cases dealingwith victims of sexual offenses,suicides, sex reassignmentsurgery, organ transplantationand foreign nationals.

It examines various facetsof mental health keeping thelegal system of India and ethi-cal issues in ForensicPsychiatry, in mind. It alsogives updates on legal statueslike MHCA 2017, Rights ofPersons with Disabilities Act2016 and Narcotics and DrugsPsychotropic Substances Act(NDPSA). This is an idealtext/reference work for clini-cians handling the treatmentand prognosis of psychiatric

patients and for professionalsinvolved in forensic scienceand toxicology, handlingmedicolegal cases with psy-chiatric implications. It is alsouseful for law officers, policepersonnel and officers ofinvestigating agencies who arelikely to be involved withcases of psychiatric affliction.

Various surveys haveshown that mental disordershave become more commonin India. This means there isa need for more and betterservices in the field ofForensic Psychiatry. Butagain, the stream is still in itsinfancy in India. According toa study conducted atBangalore’s National Instituteof Mental Health andNeurosciences in 2016, across12 different states, the preva-

lence of depression for bothcurrent and lifetime is 2.7 percent and 5.2 per cent, respec-tively. Approximately 1 in 40and 1 in 20 people are suffer-ing from past and currentepisodes of depression all overthe country. This survey hasshown that lifetime prevalenceof mental disorder is 13.7 percent on the whole, whichwould mean at that least 150million Indians are in the needfor an urgent intervention.

Recipient of several presti-gious awards for his exemplarywork in mental health, Dr RCJiloha, the lead author of thebook is Professor and Head of the Psychiatry Departmentat Jamia Hamdard University.The co-authors are members ofthe Indian Psychiatry Society.Dr Prerna Kukreti is AssociateProfessor at the Department of Psychiatry, Lady HardingeMedical College, Delhi. AndDinesh Kataria is the Head ofthe Department.

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As Taliban and ISIS are ped-dling competitive violent

narratives in the Pakistan-Afghanistan region forsupremacy and the Pakistan’somnipotent Army is trying toinstall a Government of itschoice in the July 25 generalelections in Pakistan, the after-effects is set to be frighteningnot only for the Af-Pak regionbut also for India.

The most favourite party ofthe Pakistan Army is ImranKhan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf.Although the outreach of thePakistan Muslim League-Nawaj(PML-N) is much larger, thePakistan Army and jehadisseem to be hell bent on riggingthe general election. Seen in thisperspective, Nawaz Sharif andhis political heir, daughterMarriam, have already beenbarred from fighting electionsfollowing the Pakistan SupremeCourt awarding 10 years and 7years imprisonment to fatherand daughter respectively in agraft case.

As the political field iscleared, jehadi elements are try-ing to become lawmakers inPakistan. Mumbai terrorattacks mastermind HafizSaeed too has joined the elec-toral fray. Saeed’s son and son-in-law are contesting electionsunder the banner of Allah-o-Akbar Tehrik. And as cam-paigning peaks, there are hushprotest against election rulesbeing blatantly flouted to cre-ate favourable results. The alle-gations include dictating, gag-ging or threatening mediahouses for independent andfree reports and opinions. Thejudiciary is toeing the line ofthe Pakistan Army.

The results of the likelyrigged elections will not onlyhurt the democratic aspirationsof the people of Pakistan, it willhave negative impact on Indiaand Afghanistan also becausePakistan Army chief GeneralQamar Javed Bajwa is trying togive a new twist to Pakistan for-eign policy by getting closer toChina in order to minimise theAmerican influence. The mostlikely repercussion may beattempts by Pakistani agenciesto orchestrate terrorist attacksin India and Afghanistan. SinceChina is providing all kinds ofsupport to Pakistan, theAmerican pressure is unlikely

to work.The recent suicide blast by

ISIS in Afghanistan’s Jalalabad— which was home to over2,50,000 Sikhs and Hindusbefore 1990s but now has only300 such families — that killedat least 19 people, most of themmembers of the country’s Sikhminority, raises three funda-mental questions.

First, whether Afghanistanis turning into the third homefor ISIS after Syria and Iraq?Second, what is the categoricaldifference between Taliban andISIS? Third, what are theoptions for India in the com-plex scenario?

According to US reports,more than 700 hundred ISISfighters are present inAfghanistan. The Russiansources claim the number maybe around 10,000. ISIS has

been gaining ground inAfghanistan since 2014 whenthe US announced to withdrawits troops from Afghanistan. Alarge number of disenchantedTalibans have shifted loyalty toISIS and their main targets arecivilians, mostly non-Muslims.One of the popular videos ofISIS in Afghanistan proclaims,“O, you Muslims in every cor-ner of the world immigrate toKhorasan; if you are incapableof immigrating to Iraq andSyria, come to Khorasan.” Thename of Khorasan refers to ahistoric region which includesparts of modern dayAfghanistan, Pakistan andneighbouring countries.

ISIS and Taliban both havebacking of the Pakistan Army,albeit for different reasons.Media reports claimed theJalalabad bombing was perpe-

trated by Taliban under thepatronage of Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI). Theaim is to terrify non-Muslims toleave Afghanistan and Pakistanor convert to Islam. A monthago, a prominent Sikh religiousleader Charanjit Singh Sagar wasshot in Peshawar in Pakistan.

Moreover, the ISIS factionoperating from Afghanistan isindependent. They swear byBaghdadi, but are not con-trolled by ISIS from Syria orIraq. As most of them are for-mer Talibans, they are familiarwith the difficult terrain ofAfghanistan. Therefore, theUS forces fail to navigate theirmovement. The group is alsoaided by Pakistan Taliban.

The rise of ISIS in theregion is a bad omen. As Indiais a major country reshapingthe economic and military

structure of Afghanistan, ISISmay consider India as an exter-nal hurdle to its dream of hav-ing free reign in Afghanistan.More than 150 Indian engi-neers and technical experts areworking in major infrastruc-tural projects in Afghanistan. In2017, India and Afghanistaninaugurated two air corridors toboost connectivity and it hasresulted in significance increasein trade volumes. As a part ofthe next generation “NewDevelopment Partnership”,India is implementing 116 newhigh impact development pro-jects in 31 provinces ofAfghanistan and is imparting training to Afghansecurity personnel. India isalso a major trading partner ofAfghanistan.

To counter India’s initia-tives, Pakistan is doing every-thing to upset the apple cart.Pakistan is a major non-NATOally that borders Afghanistanand has been a key route for USsupplies into the country.Islamabad fears an Indian-dominated Afghanistan wouldleave it vulnerable. Therefore,Islamabad seeks a weak KabulGovernment dominated by apliant, supportive Taliban.

However, India under theleadership of Modi is creatinga new wave in world politics.The Chinese attempts are toreduce Indian influence in itssurrounding areas. Attemptsare being made by China tolure Nepal away from India.China has pumped hugeamounts of cash in Pakistan’sforthcoming elections. Beijingis trying to create an AsianOrder where the space forIndia is synchronised. Theother powers like the US andRussia are divided on manyissues concerning India. This isa defining moment for Indianforeign policy.

(The writer is Head of theDepartment of Political Science,Central University of Haryana)

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The recent conundrumcaused by messages broad-

cast on WhatsApp has stirredup a hornets’ nest. A spree oflynchings in the past one yearon rumours spread onWhatsApp about alleged childlifters and cow killers has hadserious repercussions. Whathas happened is not new. If welook back we will come acrossinstances where canards havehurt religious sentiments lead-ing to fatal consequences. Fakevideos of alleged beef suppliersled to lynchings, and womenkilled for alleged practice ofblack magic. Even videos of theISIS beheading someone werebroadcasted as events takingplace in Kashmir.

Another genre of suchvideos is misquoting people ofprominence; for instancesmanufacturing gold from pota-toes, or segregating electricityfrom water or misbrandingthe policies of the Government.

Thousands of such videosare created and circulated onsocial media platform daily.The underlying idea is to whatextent we should blameWhatsApp or any other socialmedia platforms as it does nothave a motivated mind of itsown. Of course, it can be reg-ulated content-wise, the pointis why it wasn’t?

WhatsApp is not the onlymedium that is being used bytroublemakers. Facebook too is

not far behind, however, thesocial media giant has donesome damage control but hasbeen found wanting on what isexpected. What needs to beborne in mind is damage con-trol is preceded by damage. Adamage which people withmisplaced motivations cause,the human element from suchincidents can never be takenaway. It is not the intentionargued in favour of lesser safe-ty standards to be applied byWhatsApp. But while blamingWhatsApp, are we not losingsight of the human element inthe lynching?

There will always be somepolicy, some committee, someregulation or some order whichintends or has been effective incontrolling such videos, theGovernment too has swunginto action and is working onregulating the digital world.What has been unregulated isthe irresponsible acts of its owncitizens, the tendency to getcarried away by any messagethey see. It is circulated atspeeds faster than light; whatalso follows is the personaltouch of the sender, expressinghis anger or happiness.

With WhatsApp beingused with large number ofIndians, one can hear peopletalking about what is the mosttrending topic on WhatsApp.And it has been noticed thatthe traditional media picksthese “virals” to regurgitatethe contents to their read-ers/viewers.

It has become a trend onTV channels that anchors dis-sect such videos and informtheir viewers about how gen-uine or fake a “viral” video is.But that is not how it is takenby the netizens, before themedia houses label these viralsas fake or genuine, online usersget new content for sharing.

People simply get moti-vated beyond reason and com-mit themselves to things whichare illegal and inhumane. Amoral regulation with reason-able and societal considerationswould just serve the purpose,which is more about selfrestraint and informed decisionmaking, rather than being reg-ulated all the time.

WhatsApp, however, hasassured of content checking.

After facing criticism frompublic and prodded by theIndian Government,WhatsApp has decided tocrack down on spreading onrumours by limiting forward-ing of messages to five chats atonce in India. “We believethat these changes — which wewill continue to evaluate — willhelp keep WhatsApp the wayit was designed to be: a privatemessaging app,” the companysaid in a statement.

Is it not possible that avideo which misinforms peo-ple or a video which reports aspecific incident to be some-thing else be not shared? It isnot necessary that it is sent inbulk, it can be shown to peo-ple who do not have mobilephones and they are thenequipped with informationwhich never existed in thefirst place. It is then commu-nicated to the others, and thefirst step of a video becomingviral is completed.

I personally have witnesseda situation where a messagewas not circulated or madeviral, but the content of it wasdiscussed as it was shown tosome people. The person whofeatured in that video wasbeaten up for allegedly makingcertain statements.

It is not always about tech-nology which needs regulation;a person can be his own adminand control the disseminationof information from his end.What needs to be done is cre-ation of awareness about thebad effects of fake messages onsociety. Of course conceptslike privacy by design havebeen introduced in theEuropean Union; the time-frame of it trickling down toIndia is still unknown.

Technology is ever evolv-ing and so is the human race,both keep on outsmarting eachother, but what can very safe-ly be concluded is that a guncreated by a human being cankill and can protect; safetyfeatures can be added, but touse it to kill or to protect liessolely with the finger pullingthe trigger.

(The writer is a facultymember at Jindal Global LawSchool, OP Jindal GlobalUniversity, Sonipat, Haryana)

The Rohingya Muslim crisis inthe western province of

Myanmar, called Arakan orRakhine, is fast becoming one of theworst humanitarian crises in theworld.

Meanwhile, the issue hasalready been tabled in theInternational Criminal Court (ICC)on behalf of Rohingyas this April.The prosecutor for the Rohingyasrequested the judges at the ICC tofind if it is possible to prosecute theMyanmar authorities for massdeportation of these people toneighbouring Bangladesh.

Last month, while visitingRakhine province, the chief ofInternational Committee of theRed Cross, Peter Maurer, cast doubton whether Rohingyas would everbe able to return home, although theMyanmar Government has offi-cially allowed them to return.

In the light of these develop-ments, it’s worth finding out howlong the Rohingya crisis wouldcontinue? Will there be an end totheir plight and how can it beachieved?

Rohingyas are believed to beMuslims. The first Muslims who set-tled in this region were believed tobe Arab marines and traders thatarrived in the Rakhine coast in the8th and 9th centuries. OtherMuslims who came to the area inlater centuries include Persians,Moguls, Turks, Pathans andBengalis. During the British colonialperiod from 1824-25 until 1948,there was massive migration fromChittagong (currently in

Bangladesh) to what is now theRakhine State (Rianne ten Veen,2005). This is how the origin ofRohingyas is documented world-wide. However, it’s neither accept-able to the majority Burman popu-lation nor to the Government ofMyanmar. To them, Rohingyas arepurely encroachers from neigh-bouring Bangladesh and hence,they are barred from being citizensof the country. They, in fact, enjoyedover a decade of relative calm andreligious tolerance until the arrivalof the first military rule in 1962under the leadership of Ne Win.

He, along with his BurmaSocialist Party, subsequently dis-mantled the social, political andconstitutional provisions thatoffered protection to Rohingyas. Hisunique “Burmese way to socialism”was one of the few mechanismsthrough which he wanted to havecoercive control over the hinter-lands. And, Rohingyas’ homelandRakhine province came under hissurveillance. Under the EmergencyAct of 1974, the military regimestripped Rohingyas of their nation-al registration certificates andreplaced them with foreign regis-tration cards. By 1977, theGovernment conducted the his-toric Nagamin National Censusunder which all citizens wererequired to register their identity.However, Rohingyas were barredfrom doing so and henceforth, theyremained illegal residents in thecountry. In 1978, as a result of theNagamin Census, nearly 2,00,000Rohingyas were violently forced into

neighbouring Bangladesh. This wasin a way the beginning of the exo-dus of Rohingyas to Bangladesh,then a newly independent poornation of South Asia. But finally, the1982 Myanmar Citizenship Law,called as the most defining legisla-tion in the history of modernBurma, completed the full cycle ofmaking Rohingyas both homelessand stateless.

The “full citizenship” as men-tioned in this law is given to “135national races” of Myanmar, butRohingyas do not fall in the list.Then in 2008, the Governmentstarted issuing temporary registra-tion cards just to racialise citizenshipon the basis of ethnicity. While thesecertificates or cards were normallyissued to the citizens only, thoseissued to Rohingyas were clearlymarked as “not evidence of citizen-ship”. Thus, just before the onset ofdemocratic reforms in Myanmar in2011, the Tatmadaw (Myanmarmilitary) completed all legal proce-dures to declare Rohingya Muslimsstateless. This racially-based form ofcitizenship had dire consequenceson the very survival of Rohingyas asa group in Myanmar.

Though the National League forDemocracy (NLD), the party head-ed by Suu Kyi, initially talked aboutrights of ethnic minorities, shefailed to address the status ofRohingyas. Since her release fromjail and after she got elected toParliament in 2012, she has main-tained complete silence on thisissue, fearing a backlash from themajority Burmans, particularly from

the radical Buddhist clergy.When the Rohingya-Rakhine

unrest took place in 2012, surpris-ingly President Thein Sein appealedto the UN to resettle all Rohingyasoutside Myanmar. This indeed invit-ed sharp criticism from the inter-national community, but Suu Kyiremained silent. Once the Suu Kyi-led NLD won majority and formedthe country’s first broad-baseddemocratic Government in May2016, Rohingyas hoped for a peace-ful living. But then they should nothave expected anything from herside as she denied even a single tick-et to any Muslim candidate from herparty in the national election con-ducted in 2015.

She behaved like a true politi-cian as she knew very well that towin the numbers she could no wayannoy the majority Burmans. In thesame year, the horrifying clashesbetween Rohingyas and Buddhiststook the ugliest turn. And thiscalled for military operation inRakhine and finally drove out lakhsof Rohingyas to Bangladesh. Again,the conflict between the two groupsescalated in mid-2017 andRohingyas had to leave their home-land for safety and security.

Today, Bangladesh’s Cox Bazararea has become their second home.But how far this country could takethe burden of these refugees? Hence,the ICC has been moved to seewhether Myanmar authorities couldbe held accountable for suchheinous crimes committed againstRohingyas. The ICC’s jurisdictionextends to war crimes, crimes

against humanity and genocideeither committed within the terri-tory or by a national of a state thatis member of the court. Myanmaris not a member of the court, but itcan be prosecuted if it can bedemonstrated that its commissiontook place within the territory ofBangladesh, which became its mem-ber in 2010. Deportation is one suchcrime for which one country can bebooked and now it is to prove thatRohingyas have forcefully beendeported from Mynamar toBangladesh. The crime of deporta-tion can be committed only if thevictim enters the territory of anoth-er nation. Looking all these legalperspectives, it can be saidMyanmar can be rightly prosecut-ed in this case. All eyes are on theICC, the global Rohingya commu-nity and human rights activists, andorganisations are eagerly waiting fora historic judgment against theMyanmar Government.

The sustained problem today inRakhine is a deep sense of threatfrom Islam, illustrated and rein-forced through political and reli-gious narratives. Sad part is that it’spenetrating very fast among theRakhines and across Myanmar. The“hate factor” against Rohingyas hasalmost taken a xenophobic tone inthe country.

The chutzpah displayed by theTatmadaw is sending wrong signalsto the international community.Equally, the democracy icon is fastlosing her charisma as she haslargely ignored the plight ofRohingyas since 2012. It is felt that

Suu Kyi is corroborating with theArmy generals in the massive cam-paign against Rohingyas.

Suu Kyi’s larger-than-life per-sona is evanescent. The reasons arenot far to seek her lacklustre per-formance in her two years in power,rising ethnic unrest in various partsof the country, and the gallopingRohingya tragedy, etc, may soonmake her longstanding global imagego away.

There is very little hope thatMyanmar will revise the contro-versial 1982 citizenship law. But toresettle Rohingyas, this law has tobe amended sooner or later.

Time now is to reconcile the dif-ferences between the minorityRohingyas and the RakhineBuddhists. Though there is scanthope for such an atmosphere in thecoming future, an effort backed byinternational bodies such as the UN,global human rights agencies andbig powers may raise hope forpeace in the Rakhine province. Infact, regional bodies like the ASEANtoo can pursue the Government ofMyanmar to chart a course ofaction to bring an end to theRohingya crisis. Surely, the NLDGovernment would benefit byappeasing rights advocacy groupsand lifting restrictions on human-itarian agencies so that they canoffer their services to thousands ofdisplaced Rohingyas in remote vil-lages in the Rakhine province.

Suu Kyi must make it clear to theultra nationalist Buddhist groups thatonly peace can ensure developmentin Myanmar, one of the most under-

developed nations in South-EastAsian region. It is very unlikely thatthe majority Burmans who seem toback these radical Buddhist organi-sations against Rohingya Muslimswould agree to such proposals.Unless their image of the “Other” asthey think about the Rohingyasgradually fades away and a nationalnarrative of inclusion gets under way,Myanmar would soon turned out tobe another “boiling pot” of Asia.What author George Orwell wrote inhis 1934 novel Burmese Days cor-rectly depicts the current racial prej-udice: “To talk, simply to talk! Itsounds so little, and how much it is!When you have existed to the brinkof middle age in bitter loneliness,among people to whom your trueopinion on every subject on earth isblasphemy, the need to talk is thegreatest of all needs.”

Initially Rohingyas crisis was aninternal issue, but now it involvesBangladesh directly, apart fromsome other neighbouring nations ofMyanmar. Hence, a strong inter-vention of the UN is desirablebefore the last Rohingya civilianleaves Myanmar. And this couldoffer a fertile ground for breedingIslamic terror in a region which isalready facing the horror fordecades. Only the Government ofMyanmar, particularly Suu Kyi withthe support of its military, canoffer hope for Rohingyas inRakhine. Driving hapless Rohingyasto Bangladesh is not a solution at all.

(The writer is an expert oninternation affairs)

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Wet and muddy from their trekacross the Mexican border,immigrant children say they sat

or lay on the cold, concrete floor of theimmigration holding centres where theywere taken. It was hard to sleep withlights shining all night and guards kick-ing their feet, they say. They were hun-gry, after being given what they say werefrozen sandwiches and smelly food.Younger children cried in caged areaswhere they were crammed in with teens,and they clamored for their parents.Toilets were filthy, and running waterwas scarce, they say. They waited, unsureand frightened of what the future mightbring. “I didn’t know where my motherwas,” said Griselda, 16, of Guatemala,who entered the US with her mother inthe McAllen, Texas, area. “I saw girls askwhere their mothers were, but the guardswould not tell them.”

The children’s descriptions of variousfacilities are part of a voluminous and attimes scathing report filed in federalcourt in Los Angeles in a case overwhether the Trump administration ismeeting its obligations under a long-standing settlement governing how youngimmigrants should be treated in custody.Dozens of volunteer lawyers, interpretersand other legal workers fanned out acrossthe Southwest in June and July to inter-view more than 200 immigrant parentsand children in holding facilities, deten-tion centres and a youth shelter.

Advocates said the Government isn’tcomplying with the decades-old Floresagreement, which lays out detentionconditions and release requirements forimmigrant children. “They have spokenout loud and clear, and what they’ve saidis they are experiencing enforced hunger,enforced dehydration, enforced sleep-lessness,” said Peter Schey, an attorneyfor the children who has asked the courtto appoint a special monitor to enforcethe agreement. “They are terrorised, andI think it is time for the courts and thepublic to hear their voices.”

The Department of HomelandSecurity, which oversees immigrationand border enforcement, did notimmediately comment. But in theirown reports to the court last month,Government monitors said that immi-gration authorities were complyingwith the settlement agreement.

In his report, Henry Moak Jr, juve-nile coordinator for US Customs andBorder Protection, documented the airtemperature as appropriate at a numberof border facilities and said he drank thewater himself from five-gallon contain-ers at a processing centre in McAllen.He said some children and parents toldhim they disliked the food and weren’tsure the water was drinkable, but there

were no allegations the food wasspoiled. At the Yuma station in Arizona,he said he tried the water there, too,and, “I can confirm the water fountainsworked and the water tasted clean.” Thelitany of complaints compiled by advo-cates comes after a global outcry drovethe Trump administration to stop sepa-rating immigrant families at the border.

Authorities are now reuniting par-ents and children under a separate courtorder and said they will seek to detainfamilies together during their immigra-tion proceedings, though under theFlores agreement immigrant childrenare generally supposed to be releasedfrom custody in about 20 days.

Many of the children described

conditions in US Customs and BorderProtection facilities where they weretaken and processed in the initial daysafter crossing the border. They wereidentified in the reports solely by theirfirst names. Timofei, a 15-year-oldfrom Russia who sought asylum at theborder with his parents over theirbeliefs as Jehovah’s Witnesses, saidnight and day blended together in thelocked, crowded room where he washeld with other boys. It had a singlewindow overlooking an empty corridor,he said. He said there was no soap inthe bathroom, and he only sometimesgot a single-use toothbrush. He said hewas offered a shower upon arriving atthe San Ysidro, California, facility but

didn’t take one and wasn’t allowed oneon his second or third day there.

Some children were later sent to theCasa Padre shelter in Texas for immigrantchildren traveling alone or who were sepa-rated from their parents. The facility oper-ates under a contract with the Departmentof Health and Human Services. There,teenage boys described going hungry andnot being given enough time to speakwith their parents by phone.

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman forHHS’s Administration for Children andFamilies, said the agency wouldn’t com-ment on specific cases but if a contrac-tor doesn’t comply with agency proce-dures, the issue is addressed.

Also in Texas, Keylin, a 16-year-oldgirl from Honduras, said she travellednorth with her mother after her moth-er’s life was threatened back home. Thepair turned themselves in at the bordernear McAllen and were taken to a facili-ty she called the “ice box” because it wasso cold. A day later, they were taken to afacility with caged areas she called the“dog house.” There, they were separatedand allowed to speak once for 10 min-utes over the next four days, she said. Inboth places, the food was frozen andsmelled bad and she couldn’t eat it, shesaid. She said female guards yelled at herand other girls and made them stripnaked and leered at them before theyshowered. “I was very frightened anddepressed the entire time. I was scaredof the guards and scared I would bedeported without my mother,” she said,adding they were later reunited and sentto a family detention centre.

Angel, a 13-year-old who came fromMexico with his mother, said guardstold boys in his cell in McAllen, Texasthey were going to be adopted andwouldn’t see their parents again. He waslater sent to family detention with hismother where he said they passed anasylum screening and were awaitingrelease. “I am excited to get out of hereand get past this nightmare,” he said.

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For some time now, there hasbeen no talk of the Congressgoing it alone in Uttar Pradesh.People say the party is expectedto find a place in the alliance of

the SP and BSP. Earlier, it was being saidthat the Congress would go solo and fieldas many forward candidates as it can tocounter the BJP, but now this debate hasbeen put to rest. Leaders who are tryingto forge a Mahagathbandhan in UP are ofthe view that all anti-BJP forces have tofight together and there should be onlyone candidate from the Opposition tocreate a daunting challenge for the BJP.

Sources say the SP, BSP, Congress,and RLD have almost arrived at the seat-sharing agreement. This is a conventionalformula, which ensures seats for the win-ning candidate and for those who are onthe second position. According to thisformula, the Congress might get eightseats. In the last elections, the party hadwon Raebareli and Amethi seats and hadcome second on six other seats. In 2009,the Congress had won 22 seats. Thoughmany Congress leaders feel that the proposal of eight seats is not what theyhad hoped for, at the end of the day, the party will have to accept it.

According to the same formula, theRLD might get three seats, all of whichwill be in western UP. According tosources, Ajit Singh’s son Jayant Chaudharywill get the Mathura seat, from whereHema Malini is currently the MP. In thebyelections, the RLD had bagged Kairana,so the seat will go to the party. Apart fromthat, Ajit Singh’s conventional seat —Baghpat — will also be in his kitty. As perthe formula, the SP will get 36 seats, andthe BSP will get 34 — this, because the SPhad won five seats in the last elections andhad come second on 31 seats, whereas theBSP had come second on 34 seats. Thebuzz is that Akhilesh Yadav might give acouple of seats from his quota to the BSP.

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There’s growing suspense over the nextmove of the RLD’s Ajit Singh. There is

news that along with the SP, BSP, andCongress, he is talking to the BJP as well.If the Mahagathbandhan offers him twoor three seats, he might consider the BJP’soffer, which, sources say, is of five seats.This must be noted that the RLD has per-formed the best only with the BJP.

In 2009, the RLD had fought alongwith the BJP and won five seats. In 2014,the RLD fought in alliance with the

Congress and had lost all seats. The truthis that the caste equation in western UP isdifferent and the RLD’s chances will bebetter if it goes with the BJP. The Jats andother Hindu votes are expected topolarise in favour of the RLD and BJP.On the other hand, if the RLD goes withthe secular alliance, it will affect the Jatvotes. Though this time, the Jat and Jatavare expected to vote together. And that iswhy Ajit Singh is in a dilemma.

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After a long gap, there are chances thatMayawati might fight the Lok Sabha

Elections this time. She had fought fromthe Akbarpur seat in 2004. This must benoted that as of now, she is not a memberof any House of Parliament. In 2012,when her party lost the elections and shehad to resign from the CM post, she hadjoined the Rajya Sabha, only to resign inSeptember 2017. So, she is no more amember of any House of Parliament orany legislative house. Now, her party is

projecting her as the PM candidate forthe next Lok Sabha Elections. The BSPhas set a target to win at least 50 seats indifferent States along with UP by forgingalliances with different parties. This is tobe seen on how many seats the BSP willfight and how many seats it will win. Butthis is a fact that if there’s hungParliament after elections and a leader ofa small party becomes the contender forthe PM post, then the first requirementwill be for him/her to be a member ofany of the Houses of Parliament. That iswhy there is speculation that Mayawaticould fight the LS polls this time.

Mayawati had earlier fought fromBijnor, Haraura, Akbarpur, and Haridwar(earlier a part of UP). This time also, shemight choose a seat from western UP,where her party has a strong base. Whenshe had fought from Akbarpur, she won44 per cent votes. After delimitation, thename of the seat has been changed toAmbedkar Nagar. This is a general seatand is said to be Mayawati’s first choice.

Her other preference is Nagina, where theBSP had come third in the last elections.

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Yet again, there is speculation thatPriyanka Vadra will fight the Lok

Sabha Elections from Raebareli. SinceSonia Gandhi has not been keeping wellfor the past few years, people sayPriyanka might be roped in from hermother’s seat. Then there are some whosay Rahul Gandhi might change his seatand will fight from Raebareli. In thisscenario, the question that arises is:Will Priyanka then fight from herbrother’s seat? According to anotherbuzz, Priyanka could be the joint candi-date of the BSP, SP, and Congress fromVaranasi. The last time around, ArvindKejriwal had fought from this seat. Nobig leader has wanted to fight from thisseat. Neither the SP nor BSP wants togo up against PM Narendra Modi. Allparties are trying to throw their ball inanother’s court. If Priyanka is fielded

from Varanasi, the elections will bevery interesting. But this might alsojeopardise Rahul’s political career.

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The Congress is trying to tie up withother parties in the three States

where elections are scheduled at the endof this year. When the leaders of theseStates met Rahul, they discussed severalissues and a consensus was reached overthe alliance policy. Though, the Presidentof Rajasthan Congress doesn’t want any alliance, claiming they will win on their own, in Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh, party leaders wantalliances. In Chhattisgarh, Mayawati andAjit Jogi have already talked about a tie-up. However, the door is still open forthe Congress. If the Congress wants analliance, it will have to leave almost halfthe seats. The Congress wants to go intoan alliance with the BSP in MP, but thiswould be possible only when there’s apackage deal for both States.

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Abig-screen transfer for DowntonAbbey has been rumoured foralmost as long as the show has

been on television. But on Friday themovie was confirmed, with creatorJulian Fellowes scripting, The BookThief ’s Brian Percival to direct andUniversal Studios to distribute.Production will start later this sum-mer, with a release next year likely.Plot details remain under wraps, but itis expected the action will pick updirectly from the last season’s finale,which was set in 1926.

“When the television series drewto a close it was our dream to bringthe millions of global fans a movie,”said producer Gareth Neame, “andnow, after getting many stars aligned,we are shortly to go into production.Julian’s script charms, thrills andentertains, and in Brian Percival’shands we aim to deliver everythingthat one would hope for as Downtoncomes to the big screen.”

The show, which ran for six sea-sons on ITV in the UK and PBS in theUS, won three Golden Globes and 15

Emmys from 69 nominations, whichmade it the most nominated non-UStelevision show in the history of theawards. Its enormous followingworldwide is credited with kickstart-ing a revival in period drama on boththe big and small screen, and pro-pelling stars including HughBonneville, Dan Stevens and MichelleDockery to international fame. Theseries was originally conceived as aspin-off prequel to Fellowes’ Oscar-winning 2001 film about a murder ina stately home, which also featuredMaggie Smith as a waspish matriarch.

When Marina Zenovich was anaspiring actor living in NewYork, taking on small roles

to pay the bills, she was cast as anextra in The Fisher King, appearing inthe scene where Parry, the madcapeccentric played by Robin Williams,imagines a spontaneous flashmobbreaking out among enchanted com-muters in Grand Central Station.

It’s “one of the most glorious cine-matic moments”, Zenovich says, butshe’d forgotten taking part in it untilher new documentary, RobinWilliams: Come Inside My Mind,screened at the Karlovy Vary film fes-tival this month. When asked if sheever had a chance to meet her subject,whose life she’d been poring over forfour years, she recalled having waltzedin his close proximity.

Fashioned from archival footage,old audio tapes, interviews withWilliams’ contemporaries, and clips ofthe comic’s stand-up, Come Inside MyMind is the first documentary to com-prehensively examine Williams’ lifeand art since his suicide in 2014. It

includes virtually no narration, savefor Williams’ own, which can have aneerie, almost ghostlike effect (if onlyghosts were as charming and exuber-ant as Robin Williams). “Every personis driven by some deep, deep, deep,deep secret,” he says in voiceoverabout half-way through the film.

It’s a question Williams scarcelyaddressed, preferring to bear his soulby way of performance. “SteveMartin says in the film, when Robinwas on stage, whether it was theateror stand-up, he was in charge,” saysZenovich. “But in his life he was try-ing to hold himself together.”

Towards the end of his doublealbum Scorpion, Drake con-firms the sting in his tale; some-

thing that has defined him as the popstar of his age. Midway through thesong Final Fantasy, in which he hasimagined the luckless ways in which ahookup might turn out for him, heopines: “I hope that the apocalypse isthe only thing that doesn’t come.” Thisis not an adroit turn for the artist. Hehas always equated sex with the chaosof the world, a notion that talksdirectly to fans. His sex is frequentlytinged with the dolorous. The combi-nation of ecstatic euphoria and intro-

spective melancholy — the good, thebad and the ugly of sex — may yetturn out to be the defining culturaltrope of our times. Let’s call it “sadand sexy”, to misquote the title ofLykke Li’s recently released fourthalbum. While baby boomers and GenX-ers wrestle with the sexual catastro-phes of yore (such as Yewtree and#MeToo), millennials are finding that,in popular culture, the joy of sex hasbeen supplanted by the retelling of itsnihilistic woes. In 2018, “sexy” doesnot necessarily equate to being turnedon; it connects to more complicatedbehaviour and emotional states.

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AMaine rapper surprised moviego-ers with free tickets to a sci-fi

satire movie. Rory Ferreira,who goes by the stagename Milo, boughtall 129 seats to the4.20 pm showingof the movie“Sorry to BotherYou” at theNickelodeon inPortland, Maine, onSaturday. The Portland PressHerald reports employeestold patrons they could see amovie for free as they arrivedat the theater. Ferreira says hewas inspired by the movie’sdirector, Boots Riley, to do some-thing good for society. Ferreira, ofBiddeford, also attended the movie,and tweeted an invite for anyoneinterested to “catch a flick wit me.”The movie follows the story of ablack telemarketer who takes onwhite speaking mannerisms totry to succeed at his job.

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AHouston-based mat-

tress company isoffering a dream

job for those whowant to “be paid tosleep” — a bed-test-ing “Snoozetern.”Mattress Firm saidit is acceptingapplications

through July 23 for thepaid internship, which wouldinvolve testing out new and

popular beds while chroni-cling the experience in

videos and on socialmedia platforms.“Pursuing a degree incatching Z’s? Wouldyou rather carry a

pillowcase instead of abriefcase? This Fall, you

can snag the internship ofyour dreams as Mattress

Firm’s first‘Snoozetern,’” the job

posting on the compa-

ny’s website reads. Theposting says applicantsshould have a specific set of sleepy-time skills. “If your greatest skillsinclude sleeping in, constant nappingand a passion for a good night’s rest,we have the internship for you,” itreads. Applicants must be at least 18years of age; be “proficient in napping,regardless of time of day;” be “interest-ed in exposure to different surfaces,textures and sleep positions;” and be“passionate about sleep and comfort.”

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Workers in a metropolitan sewerdistrict in Ohio have amassed an

impressive collection of toys, eyeglassesand other objects that made their waythrough the sewer system.

The Metropolitan Sewer District ofGreater Cincinnati provides wastewatercollection and treatment for businessesand residents in Hamilton County andsmall portions of adjacent Butler,Warren and Clermont counties. Itscombined sewer system takes in waterfrom storm drains and sanitary sewers.

WVXU radio in Cincinnatireports that most of the water

cycling through HamiltonCounty eventually ends up at the dis-trict’s Mill Creek Station, where soliditems are stopped by bar screens andtransferred to a conveyer belt.

Brad Blankenship, a plant supervi-sor at the station, says items includingballs, cellphones, credit cards andwatches have been found. Blankenshipand co-workers grab the interestingfinds and add the sanitised objects to ashelf in the plant.

Blankenship says items on the shelfinclude a baseball, a miniature rubberduck, eyeglasses and toy cars. “Imaginea 3-year-old who likes to flush thingsdown the toilet,” Blankenship said.

District officials warn that somewaste is small enough to get throughthe screens. Keith Heffner, the sewerdistrict’s assistant superintendent saysthat includes cooking grease and fat,which some people pour down thedrain. “Even though you put some soapwith it, you put some hot water with it,it’s gonna break it up, but it’s going tore-congeal once it loses temperature andgets into the collection system,” Heffner

said of cooking grease and fat.Grease will mix with anything

it comes into contact with,including plastic, leaves andbaby wipes, Heffner said.He says even though wipesmay be flushable in toilets,they will not break downbefore they get to thetreatment plants.

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Made in the shade? Itwas more like made

in the mud for hundredsof people at a Michiganpark. Scores of children— and some parents —participated in the 31stannual Wayne CountyMud Day on Tuesday atNankin Mills Park inWestland, west of Detroit.They sloshed and slidaround in a shallow“pool” of mud andengaged in various racesand a limbo line.

In keeping with tradition,there was something royalamid the soil: Three-year-oldCharles Daviskiba and four-

year-old Molly Kofahl werecrowned Mud Day King andQueen. After the festivities,a local fire department rig

sprayed water to rinse themud-caked masses.

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Avisitor to a Tennessee gasstation captured video of

an unusual vehicle gassing up —a motorised shopping cart. Thevideo, filmed at a Sunoco station

in Jefferson City, shows a man sit-ting in a modified shopping cart

next to a pump. The cart moves onits own with a gas engine and is con-trolled with a steering wheel. “Thisvideo was filmed at our local gas sta-tion. To me, it was interesting to usea shopping cart with a motor

attached. He saved a lot of money ongas!!” the filmer wrote.

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When Alexia Inge was 22,she was in a seriousaccident. Her father,Christopher, had beendriving along a winding

country lane near the family home inSomerset, with Inge in the passenger seat,when a car shot around the corner andsmashed into them. It flipped upsidedown, killing both the driver and passen-ger. Christopher was “a bit knockedabout”. Inge broke her back and sternum.

Doctors put her in a cast from herneck down to her waist. For twomonths, Inge lay in her childhoodbedroom on pain medication, consid-ering her future and being fed home-cooked meals by her mother, Rosie.Sheneeded two years of physio in order tolearn to walk again. It was too painfulto stand for any length of time, so hercareer in modelling fell by the wayside.Later, she received £45,000 in compen-sation. “I knew I wanted to do some-thing really good with it,” Inge saysnow. After a chance meeting with anAmerican management consultant,Jessica DeLuca, she had the idea forCult Beauty. The two women com-bined their skills — DeLuca’s corpo-rate experience, with Inge’s insiderknowledge of the beauty and fashionindustries (her younger sister Olivia isalso a highly successful model).

Together, they came up with a decep-tively simple premise: A one-stop onlineshop for beauty products that actuallyworked, and made no overblown orpseudo-scientific claims. Inge investedher compensation money in the start-up.”We started in Jess’s spare bedroom in herflat,” says Inge, 41. “It was about 18months until we started paying ourselves,and then it was a salary of £500 a month.”

We met in Cult Beauty’s sparkly newheadquarters in Islington, NorthLondon — all white walls, tastefulflower arrangements and height-adjustable work stations that can turninto standing desks at the press of a but-ton. The offices were designed by herhusband, architect Pravin Muthiah. Ithas been quite a journey from that bed-room start-up.“We’ve survived,” Ingeagrees. “And survived really is the word.It hasn’t always been easy!” Cult Beautyis now celebrating 10 years in the busi-ness. It is one of Britain’s fastest-growingprivate companies, employs 110 staffand now stocks sells 200 brands, fromthe established Charlotte Tilbury make-

up range to new names such as Huda,the brainchild of award-winning beautyblogger Huda Kattan. In 2017, their pre-tax profit was £3.6million.

Each product on Cult Beauty comesindependently recommended and has afull list of ingredients, so that consumerscan make up their own minds aboutwhat they want to put on their skin orhair. “It’s radical transparency,” explainsInge, who will often spend her down-time painstakingly typing out the ingredi-ents herself. “And I’m dyslexic as well, soI have to put a thumb over each letter tomake sure I’ve read it correctly.”

The most marked change in ourbeauty habits over the last decade, shesays, is that we have all become a lotmore informed — largely thanks to peo-ple sharing tips on social media andhighly influential beauty vloggers whooffer free make-up tutorials on YouTube.“I call it the rise of the skintellectual: peo-ple who are so well-informed becausethey have access online and can holdcompanies to account.” The other bigtrend, she adds, is “wellness make-up” —beauty products designed to make youlook healthier and more natural.According to Inge, the exaggerated, high-ly-contoured, heavily made-up Instagramfaces made famous by the Kardashiansand currently seen on the contestants ofLove Island are, like, so over.

“Whereas before, people wouldshow their status by buying the rightkind of handbag, now it’s about having abeautifully healthy glow as a social signi-fier,” she explains. “It’s the glow that tellseverybody: I have a reasonable amountof holidays, I can afford to eat reallywell, I have a personal trainer to be per-fectly lean. When you have this lifestyle,you get this glow. Meghan Marklewould, I think, be the perfect example ofthat. But now,” Inge grins, “there ismake-up that means you can fake it.”

Over the next 10 years, she thinkswe’ll begin to see women taking healthsupplements as part of their skincare rou-tine. There’s an increasing awareness thatexternal beauty starts from the inside,and one of Cult Beauty’s featured prod-ucts is a Glow Inner Beauty Powder —which describes itself as “edible skincare”and contains probiotic “superfoods” thatpromote better gut health, which in turnpromise to improve one’s complexion.

Gosh, I say, that all sounds like anawful lot of bother. What if you justneed a quick fix? Inge laughs. “One of

my go-tos is a Simple Human sensormirror that magnifies to five times anormal mirror and emulates naturallight, which you so often don’t get inmodern bathrooms,” she says. Inge hastwo stubbornly recurring chin hairswhich she has affectionately nicknamedVeronica and Doris. The mirror is “bril-liant” at spotting when they need pluck-ing. Inge is such funny and self-depre-cating company that it would be easy tooverlook her phenomenal professionalsuccess. She is a female CEO and entre-preneur in an environment that is noto-riously hostile towards women.

The Telegraph’s Women MeanBusiness campaign was launched earlierthis year because start-ups run by womenin Britain receive just nine per cent ofventure capital funding annually, despitethe fact around a third of businesses inthe country are female-owned. The glar-ing gender disparity highlighted by thisnewspaper has prompted the governmentto launch a review into the causes.

“I think it’s a great and necessarycampaign,” Inge says. “It’s a confidencething [when it comes to women askingfor money]. I’ve always thought it’s a bitlike dating: if you look like you’re desper-ate and really need the money, you’llnever get it. I’m talking in stereotypes,but the way that men have been broughtup is to show confidence — to fake it tillthey make it and say ‘We’re great, you’dbe idiots not to invest,’ as opposed to themore collaborative, female approachwhich is to say ‘This is what I’d really likefrom you.’ In the early days, when I wasrecruiting, if we advertised a job with asalary of £30,000-£35,000 and you askeda female candidate what they would like,they would say £33,000. A man wouldsay £37,000,” she continues.

“But it’s changing now and I do seeyounger women with a lot more confi-dence, partly because they have grown upwith more female role models in busi-ness.” Has she ever experienced sexism inbusiness? “Yeah, when we were trying toget funding, for sure,” Inge admits. “We’dwalk into a room and all the men wouldend up like this...” she breaks off, slouchesin her chair, spreads her legs and assumesa lecherous facial expression. “Their atti-tude was ‘What are you going to do for usthen?’” As it turned out, Inge didn’t needtheir help to build a multi-million poundbusiness. But I’m guessing those venturecapitalists are kicking themselves now.

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Do we feel complete? Or isthere a feeling that some-thing is missing? Why are

our minds so restless? What arewe looking for? We, humans,being the intelligent speciesshould have found the answer bynow. Why did we not? Are we indenial? Yes, we are. A generalpicture of the cosmic design willilluminate. I will refer to TheGita for this purpose. There isGod — the omnipresent, theomnipotent and omniscient. Heis everywhere. (6.30) Everythingis in Him; nothing is outside ofHim. Whatever we see is God’sbody. We are located in thisbody. Is that too hard to com-prehend? It shouldn’t be. LordKrishna states, “I pervade thisentire creation.” (10.42) Arjunaconfirms, “You have encom-passed all in Yourself.”

Then, there is God’s materialnature. It is made up of earth,water, fire, air, ether, mind, intel-ligence and ego. (7.4) Everythingwe see is made of these ele-ments. The working of the mate-rial nature is overseen by godsand goddesses. It works on thecause and effect principle. Clear-cut rules have been set by God,

under whose superintendenceeverything functions. (9.10) Weare rewarded and punishedaccording to the ‘karmaphalaprinciple’. And, there is anothernature, which is different fromthe material nature. We, souls,are parts of this nature. We aregiven material bodies accordingto the karmas we have done ear-lier. Similarly, we are placed incircumstances like where we areborn, to which parents, etc.depending on what we deserve.

The cosmic design is justand perfect. Then, why are we —the superior beings of nature —not peaceful and happy? Whydoes life look like a big lock?Because we have refused to lookfor its key. Logic says that if alock has been created, then,there must be a key. What is thiskey? The key is proper interper-

sonal relationships between ussouls and God and His materialnature. We may challenge thispremise. Yes, we may not havemuch to do with God exceptbeing aware of the concept ofGod but we do deal with thematerial nature. But we do so onour terms. We feel that the cre-ation is I-centered. No, it is not.How can it be with seven billionof us? We must follow nature’slaws if we wish to be rewardedand not punished. The materialnature is very compassionate. Ifwe follow dharma and do ourduties, it rewards us in manyways. There is a saying inSanskrit: Dharma protects thosewho protect dharma.

The same fact holds in ourrelationship with God. He willdo almost anything for us butwe must accept that the cre-ation is God-centric, not I-cen-tric. And what do we have to doto show that we have becomeGod-centric? We must followGod’s instructions as Arjunaagreed to do after a long dis-cussion with the Lord. (18.73)What in essence are God’sinstructions? “Develop My con-sciousness; become My devotee;

make sacrifices for Me; andoffer obeisance to Me.” (18.65)What are these sacrifices?“Whatever you do; whateveryou eat; whatever offering youmake in fire sacrifice; whateveryou give in charity; whateverausterities you perform you dothat as an offering to Me.”(9.27). And, “In all respectstake My shelter only.” (18.62)

All of the above do notappear impossible to do. Whatmust we do? Step one is to knowwhat God’s instructions are. Thiswe can conveniently get fromThe Gita. The next step is to fol-low these. Yes, there are manybut we don’t have to get startedon all of them; we can do soselectively. Doing so will bringfaith in God; He does providesubtle hints of His existence.Such faith makes us spirituallyintelligent, as different frommaterially intelligent as manyare. Now we can tackle ourobstinate minds and egos. Thiswill take time but can be done asexemplified by saints over theages. They had found the key topeace and happiness.

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The times are changing. Changing so fast thatLewis Carroll sounds almost prophetic when hemakes the queen quip to Alice in his classic Alice

in Wonderland — “Now, here, you see, it takes all therunning you can do, to keep in the same place. If youwant to get somewhere else, you must run at leasttwice as fast as that!” In today’s world, ideas, words,expressions — everything has changed. In fact, thevery grammar of life has changed. Thus, we have twoterms to ponder over — Technocracy and Dataitis.Technocracy has come to acquire a new connotationand Dataitis is now a new mindset. Technocracy instandard parlance is a system of government run byscientists and technocrats, people with technicalsophistication or knowledge. Nothing can be fartherfrom truth. Technocracy in its present form has cometo mean rule by technology, and technology alone. It isno longer the rule by the meritorious. It has becomerule by machines. Today, if you go to a bank and thelink fails, which it does, the parroted answer would bethat no work is possible till the link returns. Virtually,it is not the man but the machine that rules. And whyonly banks? This holds true even if you go to the rail-way reservation counter, or to big malls. Even in theATMs, it is a regular feature. All thanks to this depen-dence, the human beings behind these machines havepractically stopped applying their brain. Rather, theyhave outsourced thinking. This is amply evident inpersonal dealings where we use computers or mobilesto communicate with acquaintances. Recently, in thecourse of a railway journey, this columnist becamefriends with a family that was on the adjacent berth.There was exchange of business cards with a promiseto be in touch through emails. The gentleman who wastravelling was true to his word. So, after two days, Ireceived a mail addressing me as “Dear Pyramid”. As Iwas reading the message wondering how Pramodbecame Pyramid, I found a one-line email followingthis one, expressing regret but categorically statingtechnological intervention or “autocorrect” was the vil-lain in that story. Thus in these times of modern-daytechnocracy, it is technology that does all the thinking.God only knows whether technology is smart or not.But the human element is certainly missing and peopleare becoming dumb. And it is not just one stray case. Agood many cases validate this assertion. But it is notjust technocracy that is blunting human ability. Thereis a more dangerous syndrome these days that isafflicting human minds. Of course, it is in some mea-sure a technocracy effect. Nevertheless, it needs a newterminology —Dataitis. Like all other words endingwith ‘-itis,’ this also is some kind of an affliction. It cre-ates a huge obsession with data. While some social net-working sites are using data for commerce, the humanobsession with data is one kind of a dependence syn-drome. So, the time-tested learning and thinking tech-niques, observation and insight, that gave humans aunique advantage are being rendered ineffective due towhat we can call disuse atrophy. It is this dataitis that iscrippling human thinking. Big data notwithstanding, ifsample is representative and population homogenous,even small data can do the trick. But if sample is notrepresentative, no amount of data will suffice.Technocracy, then, is just the new fad and Dataitis, thenew obsession. Much ado about nothing.

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also give rise to genuine feel-ings of compassion and a desirefor peace in the world. Hence,holistic education is meant tohelp an individual fulfil his orher true purpose as part of acommunity. Today, educationin India stresses academicexcellence, often at the expenseof the development of otheraspects of a student’s personali-ty. Holistic education preparesan individual for life.

�� 9Today, good formal educationin India strives to make chil-dren learn, while holistic edu-cation also helps children“learn, how to learn”. Simplylearning a subject may not besufficient to navigate life; chil-dren must learn how they canlearn. By “learning how tolearn”, they acquire skills thatmake them not only more suc-cessful in life, but that also leadthem to be happier and well-adapted members of society.

�� 9While holistic education allowschildren to learn how tobecome lifelong learners, it alsoinstils in them a curiosity forlearning and wanting to knowmore. So, unlike the traditionalmodel of education in Indiatoday, holistic education con-tinues outside the classroomand well into adulthood, if notinto old age. Becoming lifelonglearners is more importanttoday than ever before.

Learning spiritually meansthat students and their teachersshare a deep connection withthe subject they are learning.Such teachers do nothing lessthan inspiring their students bycreating a lifelong bond withlearning. Such students devel-op spiritually and carry for-

ward a spark into any profes-sion they choose to work in.

��%��By following the practice ofholistic education, a studentgrows more confident and cer-tain of his or her place in hissociety or community. Thus, achild develops social and com-munication skills. Such skillsare essential for success in anyleadership role today and willremain important for successwell into the future.

��Every child is born gifted, it isthe role of educators to bringout the child’s strengths. Oncethe child discovers his or herpassion, he or she will learnand take part in related activi-ties with enthusiasm and enjoyovercoming the challenges.

��One of the most importantprinciples in teaching is linkedto “positive association” whichin education translates into “themore children enjoy learning,the more they will want to con-tinue learning”. Positive associ-ation with learning createsadults who remain curious andopen throughout their lives andwho go on to be more innova-tive in the workplace.

��$��The ideas that shape our mod-ern world were formed by theancient Greeks well over 2,000years ago. We pride ourselvesfor living in a democracy, butthe idea was first formed byancient Greeks. By adoptingholistic education for our chil-dren, one can aspire to con-tribute as much to the future asthe Greeks have to contributedto our world. ��"��-��=�+ ��

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Holistic is a wordthat originatesfrom ancientGreek andwhich means to

encompass “an entire thing”.Ancient Greeks had created acivilization that is thebedrock of all westernthought; they indeed had aholistic view of humanbeings. While today we knowancient Greeks mostlybecause of the many pro-found philosophical works ofthinkers such as Socrates,Plato, and Aristotle; theancient Greeks gave us muchmore than just inspiring phi-losophy. They were at theforefront of human thoughtmore than 2,000 years ago.They also constructed beauti-ful buildings and theorisedabout how men should ideal-ly live and be governed. Sopowerful was the impact ofancient Greece that works bythe ancient thinkers, mathe-maticians, and philosopherswere unequalled in the westfor over two millennia.

Ancient Greeks were dri-ven by holistic beliefs andthoughts, and viewed an indi-vidual who excelled in multi-ple activities to be far superiorto one who excelled in onlyone task. For instance, it wasnot uncommon for a topmathematician from ancientGreece to also be a top body-builder and a top athlete.They believed that beingespecially skilled in only onenarrow activity and in noother was actually a symptomof vulgarity. It should, there-fore, be said that ancientGreeks believed in and prac-tised holistic education.

%��Unfortunately, educationtoday has grown rigid, nar-

row, and inflexible. Childrenstudying in even the bestschools in the country areforced to give up their passionafter the 10th standard and toinstead concentrate solely ona narrow stream of subjectsthat will allow them to earn alivelihood in the future. Theancient Greeks and some oth-ers today would call this vul-gar. Holistic educationemphasises that “the whole isgreater than the sum of itsparts”. In the context of learn-ing, this means that a studentis comprised of more thanjust a mind that should mem-orise. Rather, a student isbelieved to have a uniquefunction in society and isknown to be driven by uniquefeelings and emotions. Theholistic form of educationtakes such additional consid-erations into account andallows students to reach theirfullest potential by improvingadditional qualities that chil-dren possess.

� ��9��While the term spiritualityusually seems connected tomorality or religion and oftenexcludes many who are out-side a certain belief system,when it is applied to educa-tion it stands for “teachingauthentically”. This can alsomean teaching with the inten-tion to teach rather thanmechanically going throughthe motions of teaching.

A student is more thanthe sum of his parts; hencewhile a child may be a goodsportsperson and excel at his-tory or physics, he or she alsohas a self that is connected toa community. This connec-tion is what gives a child anidentity, meaning, and pur-pose. The same connections

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Worried parents of a female childcame seeking answer to a vol-ley of questions: “What’s there

in my daughter’s course of destiny thather marriage is not coming aboutdespite our best efforts during the lastcouple of years? She has already com-pleted 33. Many a times, we came closeto arriving at an agreement with theboy’s side, but failed at the last moment.Some pundits are of the opinion that thegirl’s chart is cursed, which needs to beaddressed through specific pujas. Howdo we believe that these pujas couldchange the character of her cursedchart? Guide us, how to go about.”

At the outset, let me make it clearthat astrological charts simply reflectupon probable course that life may takein emerging times, in accordance withone’s own Karmic accruals carried overfrom the past. The very idea of anastrological chart being cursed isflawed. There are clear astrologicalpointers to the fact that she is due for adelayed marriage and not before 32/33.And even that is purposeful. Perhaps,she needs enough of time and space forhaving had enough of exposure to therealities of life. Following which, shemay become matured enough to han-

dle the intricacies of marriage with rel-ative ease and comfort.

Remember, every individual is bornunique, each reflecting varying mind-trends, often at variance with others.And marriage happens between two cor-responding opposites. Yet, they have to bein accord with each other, overridingeach other’s individual limitations.Therefore, a lesson in inter-personal rela-tionship skills is called for, which may letyou relate well to each other ignoringeach other’s few shortcomings. Many atimes hardened attitudes of the partnersstand in the way. It, therefore, becomesdesirable to work upon one’s limiting ten-dencies before getting married, which isoften time consuming. For, habits diehard. And it is difficult to digest thatbelief driven puja performed by a punditcan change a person’s attitude.

In the above context, a brief lookinto how a being’s destiny is made outbecomes imperative. Remember, memo-ry impressions pertaining to the experi-ences one goes through during a lifetime, sets the premise on which the nextlife takes off. Say for instance, if one hasan early marriage, which goes throughrough patch. Such persons will wish formarriage at a matured age during the

next life. The paradox, however, is thathow your life is pre-programmed beforeyou take birth, doesn’t remain in ourconsciousness. But, such pre-program-ming can on no count be termed as acurse. It may kindly be appreciated thatthe course of destiny is not bound bysocietal norms either. It always has anindividualistic bearing. True, going bythe usual societal trends, her marriageseems unduly delayed. But that’s howher life is programmed.

Let us now look at the girl’s destinypointers and her habit tendencies. Markthe presence of Jupiter, the natural signi-fying planet for a girl’s marriage. In retro-grade motion, it occupies its sign of debil-itation, coinciding with the marriage sig-nifying seventh house. Retrogression ofJupiter implies that she has to addressimplications of certain Karmic carryoverfrom the past birth, before she gets mar-ried. What? Jupiter is ill-disposed off tomischievous Neptune, which implies thatshe carries peculiar self-defined beliefs,even distanced from ground realities.Jupiter is also opposed to intelligence sig-nifying Mercury posited in the lagna.Mercury too is adversely placed toNeptune, which accounts for her insensi-ble reasoning and judgment. She wouldbe full of internal conflicts, not knowing

how to go about in life. Lagna lord Moonoccupies a fixed sign, which is oppositeUranus. The obvious implication is thatshe has a mercurial temperament havinga hardened attitude. Mercury again is ill-disposed off to limiting Saturn, whichspeaks of a fixated one track mind.Emotionally oriented Venus is locked inadverse formation to Uranus and the Sun,which in the first place implies that shewould be emotionally volatile. Second,she carries strange views about love rela-tionship. Unless she addresses these atti-tudinal problem, it will be difficult for herto get along with her partner.

Now in terms of time frame, Jupiteris marked with 32 years and Mercurywith 33 years. For, going through thelessons of life, she is expected to havebecome street smart, worth intelligentlynegotiating the callings of life with rela-tive ease and comfort. An early marriagefor her could have been a disaster. For,she would not have been as accommoda-tive, as she would be now.

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