Ph-V campaign ends, bigwigs in fray...2019/05/05 · Of course, this time the charge of trying to influence voting behaviour was less marked because more than half of India had already

USUALSUSPECTSSWAPAN DASGUPTA

I

n the summer of 2014, the influential British weekly The

Economist — also read by a section of India’s decision-

makers — created a minor flutter by endorsing the Congress.

Actually, more than being enthusiastic about the UPA-II that had

completed an uninspiring five years, the magazine was

outrightly disapproving of the challenger, Narendra Modi. Its

argument was less focused on the future of Indian capitalism

under Modi but principally centred on the BJP’s alleged

programme of social divisiveness.

In any case, The Economist’s advice to Indian voters was

greeted with indulgent smirks and attributed to the ignorance of

distance. At the same time, there was some unease in India at

the sheer presumption of a British publication advising Indians

on voting preferences.

Last week, The Economist did it again. Once again it called

for a vote for Rahul Gandhi and the Congress. It approved the

idea of India undergoing a spell of coalition uncertainty

because it was preferable to the supposed anti-democratic

tendencies of the Modi Government. Of course, this time the

charge of trying to influence voting behaviour was less marked

because more than half of India had already voted. More to the

point, the publication’s main target audience in Bengaluru and

Mumbai had already voted or, given the abysmal turnout, not

voted.

This week, however, the outrage over The Economist

editorial has been more marked. Part of this is because the

publication is a repeat offender. The convention in India is that

the media, while entirely free to parade their political and

ideological bias, stop short of actually telling people how to

vote. Maybe this is hypocritical and it would be more honest if,

like publications in the United States and, increasingly, the UK,

openly endorse parties or leaders. However, for good or bad

this is the convention. It would also be helpful if global

publications — The Economist no longer thinks of itself as

merely a British publication but a magazine that is published

from London — stop extending the spirit of globalisation to

other countries. In some quarters, national sovereignty is an

outdated concept — which is why Brexit is so utterly despised

by them — but here in India, cutting across the political divide,

it is cherished. The Congress may have been flattered that its

leader has secured an influential international endorsement. At

the same time, the more sober in that party must have

recognised the ominous implications of the gratuitous advice

from editorial writers in London. In the days to come, The

Economist editorial will become what we in India call ‘timepass’.

It is unlikely to influence the verdict in even a single

constituency. At best it will encourage a few political upstarts in

the Congress to claim credit for this searing indictment of Modi.

However, there is a larger issue at stake here. A few weeks

ago, the head of the Overseas Congress questioned the

veracity of the air strikes in Balakot. When quizzed, Sam Pitroda

said that his doubts arose from reading about the issue in the

New York Times, a publication he had faithfully read for the past

50 years. In Kolkata, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee raised similar doubts and even questioned the

wisdom of the anti-satellite systems India has developed. She

too said she had based her opinion on foreign publications.

Neither Pitroda nor Mamata were being disingenuous.

Those accustomed to reading the mainstream publications in

the English-speaking countries of the West will have noticed the

strong disapproval of the Modi Government. This does not stop

at their outrage over beef lynchings and the supposed

marginalisation of India’s Muslims. The hatred of Modi has gone

so far that it stretches to a denial of the economic progress

made in the past five years. The Western pundits have

traditionally carped against corruption but when the

Government has acted to curb cronyism and corruption, it has

chosen to focus on the collateral tremors. There is a single

message: Modi can do nothing right.

This unending negativity may, on the surface, have not had

the desired results. Over the past five years, Foreign Direct

Investment has increased substantially and the progressing of

the Ease of Doing Business has been recognised. Likewise,

India’s sovereign ratings have not witnessed any slide.

Corporations interested in finding non-Western locations for

capital investment don’t seem to have been influenced by this

negativity, not least because they have alternative sources of

information. These assessments are based on realism, not

liberal ideology. Yet, for every $10 invested in India there is

probably another $2 that failed to find its way because smaller

companies may have felt that India lacks a wholesome social

environment.

Most of the assessments by Western publications are

based on their pre-existing familiarity with India’s liberal

ecosystem. The same people who sign the petitions against

Modi and wail over the supposed erosion of Indian democracy

are the ones who influence the foreign journalists and their

editorial masters. Compared to their overriding influence in

Western intellectual circles, the Modi Government hasn’t been

able as yet to create a nationalist counter-establishment that

has influence in such circles. The Government has been

tremendously successful in influencing Governments and even

the strategic establishments all over the globe, but it has met

with unbudging hostility in media and academia. This is a

lacunae that has to be attended by Modi if he secures a

renewed mandate on May 23.

What is needed by the next Government is a focused

outreach aimed at sensitising civil society — beyond the

diaspora — to the excitement of crafting a New India. The

strategic worth of such a project should not be underestimated.

India needs to addresshostile Western media

DEEPAK K UPRETI n NEW DELHI

The high-pitched cam-paigning for the fifth phase

of the Lok Sabha polls in 51seats spread across seven Statesended on Saturday with the BJPtrying hard to keep the steamon and repeat 2014 magic andthe rival Congress seeking toretrieve ground it had lost inthe last general elections.

In 2014, the BJP had con-solidated its position from thefifth phase onwards to single-handedly cross the majoritymark. For the Congress, itspresident Rahul Gandhi is inthe fray against BJP’s SmritiIrani from his pocket-boroughAmethi. However, the contestseems to be tougher this timegiven the BJP’s focus on the seatfor the last five years. RaeBareli, Congress leader SoniaGandhi’s constituency, is one ofthe 12 Lok Sabha seats in UttarPradesh which will go to pollson Monday.

The other seats in the elec-torally important UP areDhaurahra, Sitapur,Mohanlalganj (SC), Lucknow,Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi(SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad,Bahraich (SC), Kaiserganj andGonda. SP-BSP-RLD hasemerged in UP as the mainrival of the BJP and banking onits combined vote bank sharewhich was divided in the last

Lok Sabha poll, yielding a duckfor the BSP and only six seatsfor the SP.

In this phase, the BSP iscontesting on five seats —Dhaurahra, Sitapur,Mohanlalganj, Fatehpur andKaisarganj. While SamajwadiParty is fighting on seven seats— Lucknow, Banda,Kaushambi, Barabanki,Faizabad, Bahraich and Gonda.

Union Home Minister

Rajnath Singh is seeking re-election from Lucknow con-stituency, which has been rep-resented in the past by the BJPpatriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee.Rajnath Singh is facingSamjawadi Party’s nomineePoonam Sinha, wife of actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha.

Former Union Ministerand Congress candidate JitinPrasada is contesting fromDhaurahra against former

Chambal dacoit MalkhanSingh of Pragati SheelSamajwadi Party (Lohia). In theFaizabad parliamentary con-stituency, under which thetemple town of Ayodhya falls,sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh istaking on Nirmal Khatri of theCongress. Khatri is a formerUttar Pradesh CongressCommittee chief.

In 2014 elections, 12 of 14seats of this phase in UP were

won by the BJP while NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA)had swept all five seats ofBihar. The Congress could winonly the Rae Bareli and Amethi— out of the 80 seats in theentire State.

State-wise distribution ofLok Sahba seats in this pollround is: UP (14 constituen-cies), Rajasthan (12), MadhyaPradesh (7), West Bengal (7),Bihar (5), Jharkhand (4) andJammu & Kashmir (2). Thephase would see conclusion ofvoting in all 29 seats ofRajasthan, which were won bythe BJP in 2014.

In contrast to previousrounds, poll campaigning inthis phase has been peacefuleven as electioneering duringthe last couple of days was

marred by the panic over Fani,which caused large-scaledestruction in Odisha.

A high-decibel campaignfor seven Lok Sabha con-stituencies in the Bundelkhandregion of Madhya Pradeshended at 5 pm on Saturday.

Polling for Tikamgarh,Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna,Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betulseats, all held by the BJP cur-rently, will take place on May6. This will be the secondphase of polling in MP, the firstphase having been held onApril 29. Union MinisterVirendra Kumar Khatik is theBJP candidate from Tikamgarhwhile former Union Ministerand sitting MP Prahlad Patel isthe party’s Damoh candidate.

Turn to Page 4

PNS n NEW DELHI

People of West Bengalheaved a sigh of relief as

severe cyclonic storm Faniweakened on Saturday morn-ing which wreaked havoc inOdisha leaving 12 personsdead. However, Fani killed atleast 14 people in Bangladeshas it barrelled into the nationon Saturday.

North-East States —Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,Meghalaya, Nagaland,Manipur, Mizoram andTripura — have witnessedintermittent rain since Fridaydue to the impact of Fani. Asmany as 79 flights were can-celled at

different airports in theNortheast region due to badweather.

According to the NationalCrisis ManagementCommittee (NCMC), headedby Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha,the cyclone has caused exten-sive damage to telecommuni-cations and power infrastruc-ture in Puri, Bhubaneswar andsome other areas of Odishawhile the West BengalGovernment has reported mildimpact of the cyclone.

The Andhra PradeshGovernment informed aboutheavy rainfall and some dam-age to crops and roads inSrikakulam district.

In Bengal, the storm lashed

Digha, Haldia, Tajpur,Mandarmani, Sandehskhali,Contai, Diamond Harbour,Bankura, Sriniketan, Asansol,Dumdum and Alipore,Kharagpur, Kolkata, andBurdwan. Trees were uproot-ed, power and telecom linessnapped, metal hoardingsblown away as the storm sweptthrough Bengal. However, no

loss of life was reported fromthe State.

According to Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee,the entire administration wasawake the whole night. “Wewere very worried about thecyclone Fani. There were notmuch damage in the State. Atleast 850 mud houses in thedistricts were partially dam-

aged while 12 were complete-ly destroyed,” she said.

The Kolkata Port Trust(KoPT) also resumed its rou-tine operation on Saturdaymorning at both Haldia andKolkata docks. As Fani hasmoved away, flight operationsresumed at Kolkata andBhubaneswar airports onSaturday. “Flight operationsto and from Bhubaneswar air-port has resumed. AllianceAir flight from Ranchi is thefirst flight to land,” tweeted theMinistry of Civil Aviation.

The Eastern NavalCommand has launched amassive rescue and rehabilita-tion effort in Odisha.

Turn to Page 4

Ph-V campaign ends, bigwigs in fray

Voters to decide Rajnath, Sonia, Rahul, Smriti’s fate; polling on 51 seats tomorrow

Fani peters out in Bengal, bites Bangladesh

42 passengers

injured as bus

overturns after

hit by truck

PTI n NOIDA

Abus ferrying 42 femaleemployees of a private

company overturned after itwas hit by a speeding truck,resulting in injuries to passen-gers in Noida Sector 93 onSaturday around 6 am.

“The bus had 42 passen-gers, all women employees of aprivate firm, who were on theirway to work when their vehi-cle overturned after being hitby a truck,” Phase 2 SHOFarmood Ali Pundir said.

The injured were rushed toa nearby hospital, while thosecritically wounded were takento Kailash Hospital, he said.

“The truck involved in theincident has been impoundedand its driver detained,” theSHO said.

He scotched rumour ofthe law and order situation atthe accident site, and saidprobe is underway.

AGENCIES n AMETHI

The last day of the LokSabha poll campaigning

in Amethi turned interestingwith Priyanka Gandhi Vadraand Smriti Irani locking hornson several issues.

Sitting MP and Congresschief Rahul Gandhi is seekingto defend his turf for thefourth time against UnionMinister Smriti Irani, whohad brought down Rahul’svictory margin to just over alakh in 2014.

Charges have been flyingthick and fast with theCongress accusing the BJP oftrying to bribe voters and the

BJP slamming the Congressfor taking the segment forgranted with dynasty politics.

Campaigning for herbrother, Priyanka said, “SmritiIrani comes here and distrib-utes shoes and sarees. Sheshould come and beg for votesrather than distribute youshoes. I also want to ask if theBJP is so concerned aboutAmethi, why did they wind upprojects which Rahul Gandhiinitiated.”

On the other hand, Smritimocked Rahul in a rally, say-ing, “Absentee MP has alreadygiven up on you and run awayto Kerala.”

Turn to Page 4

Catfight has Amethiprick up its ears

The UN agency for disasterreduction has commended theIndia MeteorologicalDepartment’s “almost pinpointaccuracy” of early warnings thathelped authorities conduct awell-targeted evacuation planand minimise the loss of life.

UN agency lauds

IMD accuracy

PM Modi to visit

Odisha tomorrow

Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday discussed the situ-ation with Odisha Chief MinisterNaveen Patnaik and assured allsupport from the CentralGovernment. Modi will visitOdisha on Monday to take stockof the situation.

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn is transported on the royal palanquin by royal bearers during his visit to the Temple of theEmerald Buddhism just before his coronation on Saturday AP

Rajasthani artist Gopal Biss during an election awareness campaign for Lok Sabha polls in Bikaner on Saturday PTI

Congress president Rahul Gandhi with party general secretary and sister PriyankaGandhi Vadra during the mahila workers meeting, ahead of the fifth phase of LokSabha poll in Amethi on Saturday PTI

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city 02LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019

Sultanpur (PTI): Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi onSaturday claimed that PrimeMinister Narendra Modi lackscourage to speak even a wordabout the poll promises, includ-ing on jobs, that he had made in2014 and said a strong leadershould be able to apologise forfailing to keep his word.

Addressing an poll meetinghere, Gandhi repeated the claimthat six surgical strikes were con-ducted during the tenure of theUPA and said his party neverused it for political benefit. Hesaid the prime minister must tellas to how the youngsters will begiven employment after 2019.“Modi is unable to speak even aword about his earlier promis-es. If Modi had the guts, then hewould have said that I had spo-ken about giving two crore jobsevery year in a rush of blood butI have made a mistake. But, thisman lacks courage....

“A strong leader is the onewho accepts the truth. A strongleader is the one who would ten-der an apology for failing to pro-vide two crore jobs to young-sters and 15 lakh, and then talkabout rectification (of the mis-take),” Gandhi told voters in theconstituency from where theBJP has fielded Maneka Gandhi,the estranged sister-in-law ofCongress Sonia Gandhi. The

Congress has given ticket toSanjay Singh, while the BSP hasnominated ChandrabhadraSingh. He said the entire coun-try had understood that the“chowkidaar is doing chowki-daari of Ambani, Nirav Modi,Vijay Mallya and Mehul Choksi.This chowkidaar has spoken liesbefore the country.”

“The lion-like Congressworkers have burst Modi’s bal-loon which was inflated by themedia,” he said.

A day after Modi mockedthe Congress saying the party,which first ignored the surgicalstrikes carried out under his gov-ernment across the Line ofControl and then opposed them,was now crying “me too, metoo”, Gandhi reiterated his party’sstand. “There were six surgicalstrikes during the tenure of theUPA. The Congress never usedit for political purpose and nei-ther wants to say anything now.It gives the credit to the Army,”he said.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Bharatiya Janata Party pres-ident Amit Shah on

Saturday reiterated his claimthat the National DemocraticAlliance under the leadershipof Prime Minister NarendraModi would form the nextgovernment at the Centre

Addressing an electionmeeting in Fatehpur onSaturday, the BJP president,who also held a roadshow inAmethi, said there was agroundswell of support for theBJP and Narendra Modi aswherever he went he found thatpeople had already made uptheir minds to vote for the BJP.

“I have come here aftertravelling all over the countryduring the last four-and-halfmonths. From east to west andnorth to south, wherever Iwent I heard chants of Modi,Modi. This is not just a chantbut the blessings of 125 crorepeople of the country. Peoplehave already decided that thenext PM will be Modiji,” theBJP president said.

Shah lashed out at thegathbandhan (alliance) ofSamajwadi Party and BahujanSamaj Party, accusing bothparties of indulging in divisivepolitics by pursuing narrowcaste-based politics.

“The previous govern-ments of SP and BSP woulddivide people on caste lines andnot focus on development. TheYogi Adityanath governmentand the Narendra Modi gov-ernment at the Centre haveshifted the focus entirely to

development, without dis-criminating on caste lines,”Shah said .

Hitting out at the opposi-tion, Shah said “they cannotkeep the country safe”. He saidthe country was safe only in thehands of Modi, whose imme-diate response against terroristsearned new respect for Indiaand its people.

“The biggest achievementof the Modi government if ofsecuring the nation againstterrorism. During Sonia-Manmohan rule, terrorists usedto enter India at will and evenbehead our soldiers,” he said.

Listing the achievements ofthe Modi government, Shahsaid it had worked hard for allsections of society, especiallythe poor and the distressed.

The BJP chief held a road-show in Amethi, the home turfof Congress president RahulGandhi, on Saturday in whichhe said that in Uttar Pradesh

the choice was between dynastyand development.

Shah was accompanied bythe party’s candidate and Unionminister Smriti Irani.

“In UP, the choice isbetween dynasty and develop-ment. And people will choosedevelopment over dynast,” hesaid. Shah also asserted that theBJP would win the Amethi LokSabha seat by one lakh votes.“Our overall seats in UP will alsoincrease,” he said.

Irani said the people ofAmethi wanted change and theywould vote for development.

Smriti Irani had lost theelection to Rahul Gandhi in2014, but was able to substan-tially reduce his victory marginfrom more than three lakhs in2009 to just above one lakh in2014.

The BJP had won 71 seatsout of 80 in Uttar Pradesh in2014, while two seats werebagged by its ally Apna Dal.

PNS n LUCKNOW

Samajwadi Party president andformer chief minister of UP,

Akhilesh Yadav, on Saturdayshared pictures on social media inwhich a saffron-clad, tonsuredman is seen accompanying him ashe walks towards a helicopter atthe Lucknow airport.

The pictures, both taken frombehind, are accompanied with aseemingly caustic tweet whoseimport is not quite clear. “We can-not conjure up a false god, but wehave brought a . LeavingGorakhpur with us, he is tellingthe truth of the government acrossthe entire state (Uttar Pradesh),”Yadav wrote.

The words “naqli bhagwan”

(false gods) and “Gorakhpur” arenotable in the tweet. While the for-mer could be a jibe against PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, the lat-ter referred to Yogi Adityanath’sLok Sabha constituency that herepresented for four consecutiveterms as a BJP candidate beforebecoming the Chief Minister inMarch 2017. The Samajwadi Partywon the bypoll to the GorakhpurLok Sabha seat in March 2018 withthe support of Mayawati’s BahujanSamaj Party.

The ‘baba’ in the pictures isseen walking a few steps behindYadav, who looks like the ‘boss’from his demeanour. The picturewas apparently taken whenAkhilesh Yadav was the ChiefMinister of Uttar Pradesh from

2012 to 2017.Chief Minister Yogi

Adityanath on Friday had attackedthe SP president, saying AkhileshYadav was “frustrated” as he wasbeing treated as a second fiddle inthe alliance with the BSP. “This isthe frustration of Akhilesh Yadav.He is frustrated because theSamajwadi Party once won 37 LokSabha seats from Uttar Pradeshunder the leadership of MulayamSingh Yadav. Now he is contestingonly on 37 seats,” Yogi said.

“When he sits with Mayawation the dais, he is seated on a small-er chair while Mayawati herself sitson a bigger one. When he goes tomeet Mayawati, he is asked to keephis footwear out of the room. Thisis his position,” he added.

Lucknow (PNS):Prominent Shia cleric andImam-e-Juma of Lucknow,Maulana Kalbe Jawwad, hasannounced his support to UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singh,the Bharatiya Janata Party can-didate from Lucknow.

“I have not extended mysupport to any political party buta particular person, RajnathSingh, as everybody desires goodpeople to be elected to the high-est legislature institution of thecountry,” Maulana Jawwad saidin a press conference here onSaturday. “Rajnath Singh is a per-son with impeccable credentialswho will never do any wrongwith anybody and will never doanything which is divisive andagainst the larger interests ofsociety, so I have decided to issuean appeal to the people to sup-port the Union Home Minister,”Maulana Jawwad said. He, how-ever, added that it was the dis-cretion of an individual to decidehis/her support for any party andcandidate.

The cleric said, “The deci-sion to support Rajnath Singhhas been taken with the consentof the Rashtriya Shia Sufi Sangh,which does not support any par-ticular political party but a par-ticular person who is alwaysavailable to the common man inthe hour of crisis.” He said “forthe welfare of the country andthe communities, people shouldsupport a candidate who is ori-ented towards serving peopleand the nation and has a broadoutlook and personality”. Hemaintained that he had neversupported any political partyneither would do so in future.

PNS n LUCKNOW

An arms supplier was arrested in ajoint operation of Anti-Terrorists

Squad and Chandauli police and fourpistols besides other ammunition wererecovered from him.

The arrested person, who hailsfrom Munger in Bihar, disclosed dur-ing interrogation that he supplied armsand ammunition to some hardenedcriminals in eastern Uttar Pradesh.

Senior police officers were grillinghim to extract information whetherweapons have been also supplied toanyone to create trouble in the sixth andseventh phases of parliamentary elec-tions in eastern Uttar Pradesh. A casehas been registered in this regard.

The arrest was confirmed by IG(Anti-Terrorists Squad) Aseem Arunbut he said the Chandauli police would

give details of the breakthrough.Sources said that the ATS was get-

ting information about someone sup-plying arms and ammunition in largequantities in eastern UP for the last fewmonths. The arrested person reportedlybrought weapons manufactured inMunger and later sold them to easternUP ganglords to make quick money.

The ATS sleuths were trailing thesuspect and on Saturday morning,they were tipped-off that the arms sup-plier was coming to Chakiya crossingin Alinagar police station area ofChandauli. The ATS team laid a trapwith the help of local police andnabbed him. On taking search, theyrecovered four pistols and ammunitionfrom his possession.

The accused was taken to localpolice station where he revealed hisidentity as Mohamed Danish, a resident

of Sujawalpur area in Sankarpur underMufsil police station of Munger inBihar.

SPEEDING CAR KILLS FOURMeanwhile, four persons, including

two minors, resting under a tree along-side the Lucknow-Varanasi road inPratapgarh, were killed after beingrun over by a speeding car.

The accident took place in Mahkanivillage and the deceased were identifiedas Mamta Devi (30), Gudhiya Devi(32), Neeraj (5) and Suman (4), ASPAvneesh Mishra said.

The four were rushed to a localhospital, where doctors pronouncedthem brought dead, he said.

The car also overturned and fellinto a ditch. The driver of the car wastaken into custody and the bodies weresent for post-mortem.

PTI n PRATAPGARH/BASTI

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturdayaccused the Samajwadi

Party of going soft on theCongress, saying the two par-ties were playing a “big game”against Bahujan Samaj Partychief Mayawati.

Addressing BharatiyaJanata Party rallies inPratapgarh and Basti, Modisaid the SP-BSP alliance part-ners would be at each other’sthroats when the results wereout on May 23.

He said while Mayawatiwas openly targeting theCongress and its policies, aCongress leader was sharingthe stage with the SamajwadiParty.

The apparent reference wasto Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra’s pres-ence at an SP meeting in RaeBareli on Thursday.

“The SP is going soft on theCongress, but its alliance part-ner BSP chief Mayawati isattacking the Congress,” Modisaid in Pratapgarh.

He claimed the SP hadderived advantage out of thealliance, talking about “respect”towards her.

“It was said you (Mayawati)will be made the prime minis-ter, but now `Behenji’ hasunderstood that the SP and theCongress are playing a biggame with her,” he said.

Modi said the Congresshas been reduced to the statusof a ‘vote katwa’ party, sug-gesting its only relevance nowis to queer the pitch for otherparties.

Accusing the Congress and

its president Rahul Gandhi ofharping on the acquisition ofRafale aircraft only to tarnishhis image, Modi took a swipeat former prime minister RajivGandhi.

“Your father was termed‘Mr Clean’ by his courtiers, buthis life ended as ‘BhrashtachariNo. 1’ (corrupt number 1),”Modi said.

He claimed that theCongress chief had admitted inan interview that his only aimis to tarnish Modi’s image.

“By hurling abuses, youcannot turn the 50 long yearsof Modi’s tapasya (struggle)into dust,” the prime ministersaid.

“By tarnishing my imageand by making me look small,these people want to form anunstable and a weak govern-

ment in the country,” he said.“The naamdaar must

clearly listen that this Modi wasnot born with a golden spoon,nor was he born in any royalfamily,” he said, referring toGandhi.

Modi claimed that theCongress was known for divid-ing the country, and charged itwith bringing down coalitiongovernments in the past.

Referring to the UN listingof Jaish-e-Mohammed chiefMasood Azhar as a global ter-rorist, Modi said it was a“major victory in India’s fightagainst terror”.

He attacked the Congressover its own record in tacklingterrorism. “These people hadcreated the hype of Hindu ter-rorism. Today, the terroristsand their masters are praying

that Modi should not come topower, but the country is say-ing Phir ek baar, Modi sarkaar,”he said.

In Basti, Modi accused theopposition of playing vote bankpolitics.

“The SP, BSP and Congressare the biggest example of howprinciples are trampled uponfor power. They are so affect-ed by the bad habit of gettingtheir vote bank arithmetic rightthat they consider people justnumbers,” Modi said.

The PM said the NDAwork culture was differentfrom that of the mahamilawati(adulterated) alliance.

“We want to decentralisethe government. But the‘mahamilawatis’ are eager tocome to Delhi in their lust forpower,” he said.

Lucknow (PNS): TheCommunist Party of India(Marxist) on Saturdayannounced its support toSamajwadi Party-BahujanSamaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dalalliance in Lucknow and otherconstituencies going to polls inthe fifth phase of Lok Sabhaelections on May 6. CPI-M sec-retary Heera Lal Yadav said theparty had decided to defeat theBharatiya Janata Party in theelection as the ruling party’sfaulty policies had destroyedthe country’s economy.

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NOTICE

It is notified for the informationthat my Original QualifyingExamination Certificate of Main,Secondary, Senior SecondaryExamination of Year 2014 andRoll No. 5710710 issued byCBSE has been actually lost.Name of the candidate AasthaGupta, Address B-99, Sector-CMahanagar, Lucknow.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath during a rally in Pratapgarh on Saturday PTI

SP going soft on Cong: Modi

Jawwad extendssupport to Rajnath Singh

NDA to form next govt

under Modi: Amit Shah

BJP president Amit Shah during an election roadshow in support of party'scandidate Smriti Irani on Saturday PTI

Arms supplier held in Chandauli CPI-M backsSP-BSP-RLDalliance

Akhilesh brings ‘baba’ in caustic tweet

Modi lacks courage

to speak about his

poll promises: RaGa

Lucknow will be‘cakewalk’ forRajnath: BJP

Lucknow (PTI): Winning theLucknow Lok Sabha seat, which the BJPhas held since 1991, will be a “cakewalk”for Union minister Rajnath Singh,Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharmaclaimed, even as Samajwadi Party’sPoonam Sinha seeks to give a tough fightto the saffron party.

The seat was won by late prime min-ister Atal Bihari Vajpayee five consecu-tive times between 1991 and 2004, andSharma believes that Singh will win as hehas carried forward the BJP stalwart’s“vision for development”.

While the SP-BSP-RLD alliance’sPoonam Sinha, who is backed by heractor husband and former BJP leaderShatrughan Sinha, is making her polit-ical debut, the Congress has fielded self-styled spiritual guru Pramod Krishnam,who had unsuccessfully contestedSambhal in 2014 and got just 1.52 percent of the votes. Krishnam is seekingvotes invoking Vajpayee’s legacy and haspromised that if he wins, he will build agrand statue of Vajpayee in the UP cap-ital on the lines of the Statue of Unity inGujarat.

In the midst of his hectic cam-paigning, Sharma told PTI: “The(Lucknow) seat will be a cakewalk forRajnathji, who has carried forward thevision for development of Atalji in thisconstituency.” Singh was a minister in theVajpayee Cabinet between 2003 and2004, and also the president of the BJPfrom 2013 to 2014 before Amit Shah tookover.

Singh during his campaign tried toportray a balanced image by visiting tem-ples and Muslim clerics, includingLucknow Eidgah Imam Maulana KhalidRasheed Firangi Mahali.


PIONEER NEWS SERVICE n LUCKNOW

The last day of the cam-paigning in Lucknowon Saturday saw Lok

Sabha poll candidates puttingin every ounce of energy try-ing to convince the electorateto vote for them. Even afterthe campaigning ended at 6pm, majority of the candidatessaid they would continuemeeting people and organisa-tions while some said theywould take rest and catch upwith families and friends.

Samajwadi Party candi-date Poonam Sinha, who hada hectic day, met the membersof Kayastha Sabha. She saidshe would catch up with herfamily. “I will also try out thefamous cuisine of Lucknow asI am fond of cooking and eat-ing. There are some friendswho have been bringing deli-cious home-cooked food,” shepointed out.

Asked whether the heatbothered her in Lucknow, shesaid she was used to similar

weather in Bihar. She said shewould leave for Mumbai afterthe polling day (May 6).

Congress candidateAcharya Pramod Krishnamtook part in a motorcyclerally, which was flagged off byparty leader Rajeev Shuklafrom Begum Hazrat MahalPark. The rally moved towardsParivartan crossing, HanumanSetu, Nishatganj, IT crossing,Hazratganj crossing, andMahatma Gandhi Marg.

Krishnam said he wouldnot rest till he was declaredthe winner and the incumbentgovernment was out of power.“ I will be continuing mymeetings with various organ-isations and people at large. Iam used to working till latenight and then starting earlyin the morning. On May 7, Iwill be leaving for MadhyaPradesh since I am the starcampaigner of the Congress,”he said. Home MinisterRajnath Singh’s sons PankajSingh and Neeraj Singh keptup the hectic pace of cam-

paigning on the last day withpadyatras and held a meetingwith Bharatiya Kisan Union.

Among other candidates,Kapil Mohan Chowdharyfrom Mera Adhikar Dal Partysaid they distributed the cam-paigning material which theyhad in abundance and helddoor-to-door meetings. Hesaid he would be catching up

with family and friends.“I am not worried about

the results. If we win, nothinglike it. However, if we don’t,we will work harder,” he said.

Mohammed Faheem fromIndian National League saidhe visited areas where therewere a lot of girls. “I do notintend to rest even as the cam-paigning has ended. I will

continue meeting people andreach out to as many as pos-sible,” he added.

Ramesh Kashyap from

Indian Forward Bloc Partysaid he continued with hecticcampaigning in trans-Gomtiareas on the last day.


District Magistrate KaushalRaj Sharma directed all

the sector and zonal magistratesto be present at KanshiramSmriti Upvan at 6 am on Sundayfor departure of the pollingparties and report the pro-ceedings with details. Presidingover a review meeting atScientific Convention Centrewhere the sector and zonalmagistrates were trained, theDM said on the polling day(May 6), they had to reach theirrespective booths and carry outa mock poll and also make reg-ular visits during the polling. Healso issued directives for the safemovement of EVMs after thepolling is over.

The DM said voters couldtake their vehicles uptill 100metres of polling booths butthere should be no campaign-ing material for any party. Hesaid the political parties mustkeep their desks at least 200metres from polling booths orelse action would be taken.The DM said the voters couldnot carry their mobiles insidethe polling booths and therewould be no provision to keepthe mobiles there. “The voterswill not be allowed to havegutka, tobacco, cigarette andsimilar items at the pollingbooths. They will also not beallowed to take arms, match-boxes, sharp-edged weapons orlighters inside the pollingbooths. The voters who reachthe polling booth at 6 pm willbe given a token and allowed tovote but those who reach after6 pm won’t. People won’t beallowed to assemble near thepolling booths after castingtheir votes,” Sharma said. TheDM said any person or organ-isation could make arrange-ments of drinking water for thevoters in view of the hot weath-er prevailing in the city, but any

kiosk should be at least 200metres away from the pollingbooths. He also appealed to thepeople to constitute ‘bulawatolis’ in their respective coloniesso that people could be encour-aged to go out and vote. He saidpeople who had not got theirvoting slips were required to dial1950 to get the same. As thecampaigning concluded at 6pm, the DM said no candidatewould be allowed to organiserallies or roadshows any further.However, door-to-door meet-ings were allowed, he said,adding that loud speakers wouldbe banned from 6 pm onSaturday (May 4) to 6 pm onMay 6.

NINE PINK BOOTHS IN LUCKNOW

District Magistrate KaushalRaj Sharma, who is also the dis-trict election officer, said therewould be nine pink booths inLucknow with female staff andonly women voters would becasting their votes there. Forthe security of the fairer sex,female cops would also bedeployed at these booths.

The DM was speaking dur-ing the training of the staff tobe deployed at the pink pollingbooths. He also gave the staffpink sarees and pink caps towear on the polling day. Thetraining was carried out forpresiding women officers andpolling officers. The womenwere informed about the func-tioning of EVMs and also given

Hectic day for Lok Sabha poll candidates

Time to catch up with sleep for some; for others, its business as usual

(Left) Rajnath Singh’s supporters led by Neeraj Bora, Acharya Pramod Krishnam, and Poonam Sinha (below) taking part in poll campaigning in city on Saturday Pioneer


The Traffic departmentannounced diversions in

view of the movement ofpoll ing parties toMohanlalganj from SmritiUpvan on Sunday and themovement of polling partiestowards Rama Bai Sthal forsafe deposit of EVMs.

The vehicles going fromRae Bareli road will come outof Gate No. 3 and then turntowards Bijli Pasi Qila cross-ing, Sector N crossing andthen BBAU trisectiontowards Shaheed Path. Thevehicles will not be allowed tomove in front of the rallysthal and will be divertedfrom BBAU Gate No. 3

towards Mansarovar project.The vehicles will not beallowed to move from RainBasera Rally Sthal towardsAurangabad and will bediverted towards BBAUunderpass and then towardsthe service road. Vehicleswill also not be allowed tomove from Ramabai RallySthal police station trisectionto Rain Basera trisection orAurangabad Shaheed Pathunderpass and will be divert-ed towards Shaheed Path.

Traffic will not be allowedto move from AurangabadShaheed Path underpass tothe rally sthal and will bediverted towards Parag Dairyroad, Bijli Pasi Qila andSportsganj.

Traffic diversions

DM directives to sector, zonalmagistrates



Amassive fire broke out in aparking lot close to Dargah

Hazrat Abbas in Saadatganjpolice station area on Saturdayafternoon. While locals sus-pected foul play, police soughtto allay their apprehensions andclaimed that the fire broke outdue to short circuit and fourcars were damaged in the inci-dent. Police spokesman AKDwivedi said the fire broke outaround 2:30 pm.

“The land belongs toDargah Hazrat Abbas and theparking lot is managed by themutawalli, identified as Rafiqul,who had appointed Sajid ofKashmiri Mohalla to look afterthe affairs. Those parking theirvehicles there pay Rs 600 permonth to avail of the facility.The parking lot is adjacent tothe boundary wall of theDargah. The fire was intenseand it damaged four cars beforethe flames were doused by thefirefighters. Two fire tenderswere pressed into service,” hesaid. People whose cars weregutted were identified asArvind Kumar, Parvez Mirza,RP Sihna and Raju Gupta (allof Saadatganj).

Discounting any foul play,Dwivedi said there was noreason why someone would setfire to the cars. “The locality isdense and it is difficult for res-idents to take their cars to theirhouses situated in narrowbylanes. However, the case isunder investigation on thatline too,” he said.

The incident came as a big

surprise to several locals. Afterthe fire broke out, a huge num-ber of residents assembled atthe scene. By the time, the fire-men reached the spot, the res-idents had taken measures onto douse the fire.

“The fire was intense andflames were leaping so highthat it had the local residentsand shop-owners scared.Initially, the fire broke out inthe back side of the parking lotbut soon, the flames reachedthe gate. We dialled policecontrol room but the copsreached late. By that time, the

fire had engulfed the carswhich were reduced to ashes,”a local resident said.

Meanwhile, a fire broke outin the residential premises ofGudamba police station onSaturday noon under mysteri-ous circumstances, damagingseveral impounded vehicles.The fire was contained by copspresent at the police stationbefore it could spread further.

As per reports, some copspresent in the office sawsmokes emanating from a vehi-cle dumping yard in type-IIquarters. The cops rushed to

the scene and started throwingwater on the vehicles on fire.The policemen also used pipesto sprinkle water to douse theflames.

The police said a schoolbus and two bikes were burntin the mishap. They said thefire broke out after someonethrew a bidi on a heap ofgarbage. It was not the first fireincident at Gudamba policestation, which is one among themodel police stations in thecity. Several vehicles were dam-aged in fire incidents on July 2in 2017 and on May 19 in 2018.


Lucknow Breast CancerSupport Group was

launched at the EndocrineSurgery department of KingGeorge’s Medical University(KGMU) on Saturday.

“Breast cancer is the mostcommon and deadliest canceramong women. Breast cancerwas one of the two most com-mon cancers in 2018, accord-ing to the World HealthOrganization (WHO) with 20.9lakh cases and 627,000 deaths.Early detection, screening anddiagnosis saves more lives,improves quality of life andreduces cost and complexity oftreatment,” said Dr Anand KMishra, head of EndocrineSurgery department, KGMU.

“The group is beingformed with over 25 femaleand two male breast cancersurvivors to help support notonly patients who are goingthrough diagnosis, treatmentand care but also their atten-dants and family members.Survivors themselves will con-nect via Facebook andWhatsApp groups besidesmeeting in person as theydecide upon,” Dr Mishra said.

KGMU Vice-ChancellorDr MLB Bhatt thanked thebreast cancer survivors who notonly defeated the deadly can-cer but also demonstratedcourage, compassion and sol-idarity to step forward to helpand comfort other patientsneeding support.

“Patients do not only needphysical health but also requiresupport for mental health,where this group can play apivotal role. There are over 350patients who have successful-ly received breast cancer treat-ment and care by theEndocrine Surgery depart-ment of KGMU. With over 1.5lakh breast cancer patientsevery year in India, KGMU’sEndocrine Surgery depart-ment has stepped up its ser-vices for breast cancer patientswith 70-80% cure rate. Earlydiagnosis is vital for improvingsurvival,” Dr Bhatt said.

“Breast cancer patient sup-port groups play a key role inhelping complement health-care as well as give moralboost to patients and families.Breast cancer care includesdignity, respect, support andlove and considers not just thephysical impact of cancer butrespects the emotional, and

social wellbeing of each indi-vidual and their carer,” DrRama Kant, former head ofSurgery department and ex-chief medical superintendentof KGMU. Dr Rama Kantdonated Rs one lakh for thecause.

“There are risk factors forbreast cancer that are modifi-able, such as obesity, unhealthydiet and sedentary lifestyles.Tobacco and alcohol in anyamount is also responsible forcarcinogenic mutations.Exposure to certain environ-mental compounds such aspolycyclic aromatic hydrocar-bons (PAH) also increasebreast cancer risk. Non-mod-ifiable risk factors are likegenetic (5-10%) and earlymenarche and late menopausebut majority of 90% risk factorsfor breast cancer are modifi-able. We all must act uponreducing cancer risks andaddressing the risk factors that

are modifiable,” Dr PoojaRamakant of EndocrineSurgery department (KGMU)said.

Dr Kul Ranjan Singhpointed out that breast cancerincidence was occurring morein younger women in India.“Breast cancer is very aggres-sive in biology when it happensin younger women. Womenpresent late to us unfortunate-ly as 50-70% of patients whoreach us are already inadvanced stage or metastaticwhen they are first diagnosed.Late diagnosis of breast canceris directly proportional to sur-vival rate. Educating women,men and transgenders abouthealthy lifestyles to reducecancer risk is important. Wehave to raise awareness aboutbreast self-examination and ifany change or inconsistency isfound, people should checkwith the doctor,” Dr Singhsaid.

Lucknow (PNS): Twobike-borne unidentified mis-creants attempted to deprive acorporator of her gold chainwhen she was distributing voterslips in Madiaon on Saturday.In a bid to confront the mis-creants, she fell on ground andsuffered injuries.

The victim, identified asRupali Gupta, is a BJP copora-tor from BhartenduHarishchandra ward. She wasdistributing voter slips near aparking lot around 11:30 amwhen targeted by the chain-snatchers. “The pillion-riderlaid his hand on my gold chain

but I caught hold of his handand also clung on to her chain.He tried to snatch it and laterpushed me down. But as I didnot let go of the chain, the mis-creants could not take it away.However, it broke into twopieces. Geeta, a resident of thelocality, raised an alarm afterwhich the miscreants sped offthe scene,” she told the police.

Police said they got someCCTV footage and the victimidentified the miscreants whenshown the same. “The bike wasseen moving towards PaltanChhavni via bylanes,” SHO,Madiaon said.


Abus driver was thrashedafter he knocked a biker in

Ashiyana on Saturday. He wasrushed to Lokbandhu Hospitalwhere the mishap victim wasalso admitted.

As per reports, RishiTripathi of Hasanganj was goingtowards Power House crossingwhen his bike was knocked bya bus from behind. “The victimwho was moving slowly on theroadside went flying into the airbefore falling. The bus drivertried to flee the scene but somecommuters nabbed him,” eye-witnesses said.

They said the commuterscaught hold of the errant busdriver and called the police.“Initially, the people were not

irate but cops reaching thescene late made them lose theircool and they started beating upthe driver,” they said. A policespokesman said Rishi wasadmitted to hospital by cops.“The bus driver, identified asHausla Prasad of Barabanki,suffered injuries in the attackand he was also hospitalised,” hesaid, adding since no com-plaint had been lodged in thisconnection, no FIR had beenregistered. Denying reports thatthe police took time in reach-ing the scene, he said the alle-gation was unfounded. “Themob chased the bus driver andthrashed him before the policecould reach the scene. Themen who created ruckus fledthe scene after the policereached there,” he said.

OPERATIONAL CONFERENCEThe second joint Army-Indo Tibetan

Border Police (ITBP) Operational Conferencewas held at the Central CommandHeadquarters in Lucknow Cantonment onSaturday. The conference was chaired by BrigVikram Singh, General Staff (Operations),Central Command, and was attended bysenior officers of Army and ITBP. The ITBPcontingent was headed by IG Nilabh Kishore.Various strategies ranging from sharing ofoperational intelligence, improving coordi-nation and enhancing synergy between thetwo forces were discussed at the conferenceto maintaining better vigilance along the Lineof Actual Control.

SCHOOLSCAN

CANTTWATCH

4 cars reduced to ashes in parking

lot fire; locals suspect foul play

Chain-snatchers made to eat

humble pie by gritty woman

Bus hit biker, driver thrashed by mob

KGMU sets up breast cancer support group

FUN OUTINGTiny-tots of The

Hermitage School, Aliganj,enjoyed a Metro ride as part ofan educational trip on Friday.The children had a delightfultime as they kept looking outthrough the windows. Duringtheir visit, they were alsobriefed about the ticket vend-ing machines and special fea-ture inside the trains.

YOGA COMPETITIONCouncil for the Indian

School CertificateExamination (CISCE) organ-ised an inter-school yoga com-petition at Seth MR JaipuriaSchool in Gomti Nagar onFriday. Students of SKDAcademy (Rajajipuram) wonvarious contests. Some of thewinners included ArchitShukla, Deependra Yadav,Yuvraj Singh, Akshat Verma,and Asmit Patel. Director ofSKD group Manish Singh and

principal Kusum Batra con-gratulated all students.

OPEN DAYCity Montessori School,

Gomti Nagar Campus II,organised Open Day celebra-tions on Saturday. The parentsadmired the artistic talents oftheir children as they show-cased their skills in Englishspeaking, mental maths, sci-ence experiments, moral val-ues, etiquettes & manners, self-

expression, recitation, health &hygiene, yoga, taekwondo,drawing, songs & music.Besides, a puppet show, playzone, dental check-up for kidsand cooking, drawing, com-puter and other interestingcontests were also organisedfor mothers of the students.CMS founder Jagdish Gandhisaid they were able to achievetheir target because they gotparents’ support and they theyshared the school’s vision.

From Page 1In 2014, the BJP had won

27 of 29 seats in the State. TheCongress later increased itstally to three after wrestingRatlam seat from the BJP in abypoll. The Congress, whichcame to power in the State inDecember last year after 15years, hopes to carry forwardthe winning momentum whilethe BJP hopes to repeat its2014 magic.

The five seats of Biharwhich would go to poll areMuzaffarpur, Saran,Sitamarhi, Vaishali andHajipur. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi led the cam-paigning from the front, hold-ing a rally at Muzaffarpurwhere he canvassed in favourof the local BJP candidate asalso nominees fielded byalliance partners the JD(U)and the LJP.

Congress president whoseparty is not contesting any ofthe five seats going to the pollson Monday, did not hold anelection meeting in these con-stituencies which are, howev-er, being contested by alliancepartners in theMahagathbandhan.

BJP chief Amit Shahaddressed rallies at Saran andSitamarhi and spoke about the

Prime Minister’s commitmentto his work which is evidentfrom his having not taken aday off in 20 years.

Bollywood actor and BJPMP Hema Malini held a rallyat Sitamarhi where sheexpressed delight over theimproved infrastructure inBihar and recalled withamusement the 1990s whenthen Chief Minister LaluPrasad reported promise ofmaking the potholed roads ofthe State as smooth as hercheeks had made headlines.

BJP MPs Ajay Nishad andRajiv Pratap Rudy are seekingre-election from their respec-tive seats of Muzaffarpur andSaran respectively. Rudy facesChandrika Rai of RJD, father-in-law of Lalu Prasads elderson, Tej Pratap Yadav.

LJP chief Ram VilasPaswan, who has announcedthat he would no longer con-test direct elections, has field-ed his younger brother andState Minister PashupatiKumar Paras from his pocketborough of Hajipur.

In Bengal, the fear overFani cyclone led all politicalparties to cancel their electionmeetings in last two days. Onthe last day of campaigningthe BJP candidate of Bongaon

(SC) seat, Shantanu Thakurwas injured in a road accident.

Seats in which electionswill be held on Monday areBongaon (SC), Barrackpur,Howrah, Uluberia,Serampore, Hooghly andArambagh (SC) where1,16,91,889 electorate willdecide the fate of 83 candi-dates, the ElectionCommission said.

The EC will deploy a total578 companies of Centralforces, which will cover almost100 per cent polling booths inthe seven constituencies toensure free and fair polling,officials in the poll body said.

The campaign saw pollmeetings by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, BJP presidentAmit Shah and West BengalChief Minister and TrinamoolCongres supremo MamataBanerjee. Mamata also par-ticipated in a number of road-shows.

In Bongaon (SC) seat,which is on the Indo-Banglaborder and has a large num-ber of voters from the Matuacommunity, TMC has fieldedMamata Thakur against theBJP candidate ShantanuThakur. The Left Front con-stituent CPI(M) has nomi-nated Alakesh Das, while the

Congress has nominatedSourav Prosad.

In Barrackpore, the TMChas fielded its sitting MPDinesh Trivedi against BJP’sArjun Singh, who had defect-ed from Mamata Banerjee’sparty ahead of the poll. TheCongress has nominated MdAlam and CPI(M) GargiChatterjee.

Howrah Lok Sabha seatwil l see TMC’s PrasunBanerjee, a footballer-turnedpolitician locking horns withBJP’s Rantidev Sengupta.Congress has nominatedSuvra Ghosh and the CPI(M)Sumitro Adhikary.

Kalyan Banerjee is theTMC candidate fromSreerampur seat against BJP’sDebjit Sarkar. The Congresshas nominated DebabrataBiswas and CPI(M) has field-ed Tirthankar Ray for the seat.

In Hooghly seat Ratna DeNag of TMC will contestagainst BJP’s celebrity candi-date Locket Chatterjee. TheCPI(M) has nominated PradipSaha and the Congress PratulChandra Saha for the seat.

Braving inclement weath-er due to Cyclone Fani, thepolling personnel have alreadyleft for the 13,290 booths inthe seven constituencies.

Frrom Page 1I am sending the Congress

manifesto in an envelope to thepeople. They are sending you`20,000 each. They think theycan buy you with votes. Theyare mistaken. I have learnt somuch from you.”

Earlier Priyanka said, “Theway my father was dedicated tothe welfare of people ofAmethi, my brother too iscommitted.”

Priyanka’s canvassing forher brother centred on emotionas she went around greetinglocals, addressing them as“family members” and recallingthe old days when her father,the late Rajiv Gandhi, used torepresent Amethi.

“I used to come here withmy father as a 12 year old. Ihave seen this arid land turngreen after my father camehere. The way my father wasdedicated to the people ofAmethi, my brother is alsocommitted,” Priyanka told thepeople. The BJP, on the otherhand, flagged Congress’s dynas-tic politics as the bane ofAmethi and sought to woo

locals with development.“Where was the absentee MPwhen 10 Amethi villagescaught fire recently? He aban-doned you even after winningthe seat in 2014 whereas Istood by you even after losing,”Irani told people as she exud-ed confidence that they will“teach the absentee MP a les-son for ignoring his con-stituency for 15 years”.

To the women of Amethi,Smriti has promised sugar at`13 a kg and to voters she haspledged development callingout the slogan ‘Phir ek baarModi sarkar’.

As titans clash in this large-ly underdeveloped area, somelocals see Amethi and theGandhis as inseparable, whileothers are willing to shun oldloyalties and seek new hori-zons. Amethi is still awaitingfruits of development so muchso that a cluster of local villagesis considering to boycott elec-tions over an old unfulfilledpromise of a rail under bridgein the Amethi town.

“We have been demandinga rail under bridge at an

unmanned rail crossing fordecades. Even in the last elec-tion we had threatened a boy-cott but Rahul Gandhi told ushe will help. Nothing hasmoved. We feel betrayed,” saidSurinder Singh of villageBirahimpur, where locals haveresolved to boycott the May 6poll. According to MumtazKhan, an ex-village head ofRaydepur, the fight for anunder bridge started in 1987and people are dejected enoughto consider a boycott.

“We are a VIP segment yesbut we are fed up now,” he ruedas the segment wears a desolatelook bereft of finesse thatshould have been attached withsuch a seat.

That said, generational loy-alty for the Gandhis remains afactor here with some localsindicating that despite lack ofdevelopment, Rahul Gandhiwas likely to be voted back.

For Uma Shankar Pathak,an old timer, “The Nehru fam-ily gave this place its identitythough there has not beenadequate development.”

According to another local

Bhola Nath, “For the sake of theGandhi family’s legacy, peoplemay still vote for Rahul Gandhihere.” A section of people dis-agree and feel the competitionthis year is cut throat and any-thing can happen.

“It is a very close contestand nothing can be said. Thistime the Gandhis are cam-paigning much harder thanbefore and their anxiety is vis-ible,” said Mahesh Jaiswal ofAmethi. Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel andOBC leader Tamradhwaj Sahu,besides Ghulam Nabi Azadand others also campaigned forRahul.

The BJP also gave a finalpush to its campaign withAmit Shah holding a roadshow for Smriti on Saturdayand Yogi Adityanath holdingrallies earlier.

Another local Shiv Kumarsaid, “Earlier, the Gandhiswould only come to file thenomination. This time they arespending much more time inAmethi because they knowSmriti Irani is a tough chal-lenger.”

From Page 1“The cyclonic story crossed

Kharagpur and is likely to con-tinue further in north-eastdirection with a wind speed of90 kilometres per hour. Theextremely severe cyclonic stormrelatively weakened after enter-ing coastal Odisha and trans-formed into “very severe” as itapproached West Bengal.Analysis and numerical modelguidance suggested widespreadrainfall activity acrossNortheastern States and wide-spread rainfall activity overArunachal on May 4 and 5,” theIMD said. Heavy rain alongwith a wind speed of 175 kilo-metres per hour batteredOdisha as cyclone Fani made

landfall close to the templetown of Puri on Friday morn-ing, leaving a trail of destructionin the State. Life remainedparalysed on Saturday, a dayafter the ‘extremely severe’cyclonic storm in Odisha.

As communication net-works are not in place, theextent of damage could not beascertained. Energy infrastruc-ture has suffered a massivedamage in the region. Failure ofmobile connectivity has addedto the chaos. The NationalDisaster Response Force(NDRF) has moved 16 addi-tional teams, comprising about45 personnel in each, for rescueand relief work in Odisha andhas removed fallen trees and

other obstacles on most of theroads. In Andhra Pradesh, Fanitriggered heavy rain in coastaldistricts of Andhra Pradeshbesides uprooting 10,000coconut trees and destroyingagriculture and horticulturecrops. The JharkhandGovernment issued an adviso-ry on May 3, asking all districtdeputy commissioners to set upcontrol rooms to meet any exi-gency in the wake of Fani.

Two maritime reconnais-sance sorties were undertakenby the Dornier aircraft of theNavy revealing widespreaddestruction localised aroundthe temple town of Puri,according to an official state-ment. Based on the aerial sur-

veys, the Eastern NavalCommand is undertaking athree-pronged rescue and reha-bilitation effort centred aroundPuri and its suburbs in coordi-nation with the StateGovernment and the districtadministration. Meanwhile, theexamination authority, NationalTesting Agency (NTA) has can-celled NEET UG 2019 for can-didates appearing in Odisha inwake of Fani. The notificationhas been issued a day before thescheduled exam date on May 5.According to the notification,“NEET exam scheduled forMay 5 in Odisha has beenpostponed as per the request ofthe State Government workingon relief and rehabilitationwork in the wake of Fani.Revised dates for the exam inOdisha will be announcedsoon.”

Catfight has Amethi prick up...

Ph-V campaign ends, bigwigs...

Fani peters out in Bengal...

landmark 05LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019

PNS n NEW DELHI

Congress president RahulGandhi on Saturday minced

no words in accusing theElection Commission (EC) ofbeing "completely biased" whenit comes to matters related to theOpposition. His remarks comein the wake of clean chits givenby the EC to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and BJP chiefAmit Shah on various com-plaints of Model Code ofConduct violations.

Rahul also said Congress'sinternal assessment after fourphases of polling shows that theBJP will lose in the Lok Sabhaelections and he sees a "scaredPrime Minister" unable to facethe onslaught of the Opposition.

At the same time, theCongress president lashed outModi saying the Indian Army isnot the Prime Minister's "per-sonal property". And seeking tocounter the BJP's zero-toler-ance policy against terrorism, hesaid the Congress will deal withit "more sternly" than Modi.

On the EC, Rahul said,"When it comes to issues of theBJP, the EC is absolutely on thestraight line, when it comes tothe Opposition's issues, it iscompletely biased."

"The working style of Modi,the ruling BJP and the RSS is toput pressure on institutions.This is evident everywhere —SC, EC, Planning Commission,RBI. That is their approach. Wedo not expect that the EC willnot be affected by that pressure,"Rahul said. However, he assert-ed that the EC has to commit to

its responsibility and carry it out. "All this institutional capture

that is taking place and all thenegative effects of it will haveconsequences in the future. Weare not going to allow Indianinstitutions to be disturbed,controlled, crushed and anybodywho colludes, anybody whofalls to this pressure, is com-mitting a crime," the Congresschief said.

Addressing a press confer-ence at the Congress headquar-ters in Delhi, he launched anoth-er attack on Modi for "insulting"India's armed forces. TheCongress does not politicise thearmy, Rahul said, and it is notanyone's property as PM Modiquestioned the Congress' claimsthat the UPA government hadcarried out six surgical strikesduring its tenure. "The army, airforce or navy are not the per-sonal property of NarendraModi ji like he thinks," he said.

Referring to the six surgicalstrikes the Congress had listed

as carried out under the UPArule, he said those were not con-ducted by his party, but by theArmy. "When he (Modi) says theIndian Army's surgical strikeswere video games, he does notinsult the Congress, but theIndian Army. "The Army haddone this (surgical strikes). It istheir job. We do not politicise theArmy," Rahul said.

He also took a swipe at theBJP on the release of Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azharback in 1999. "Who sentMasood Azhar to Pakistan? DidCongress send him to Pakistan?Which Government negotiatedwith terrorism? Congress didn'tsend him there. The reality isthat BJP compromises with ter-rorism," Rahul said.

The Congress chief alsodeclared that it was clear the BJPwas losing the Lok Sabha polls".He said it was the "assessment"of the Congress that the BJP waslosing. Rahul also said he willstand by his "Chowkidar Chor

Hai" jibe as it is a reality and con-tinue using the slogan againPrime Minister Narendra Modi.Rahul said he apologised to theSupreme Court as he felt he hadmade a mistake.

"There is a process is goingon in the Supreme Court and Imade a comment attributed toSC so I apologised. I did notapologise to the BJP or Modi ji.'Chowkidar Chor Hai' willremain our slogan," he said."More than half of the electionsare over and there is clear cutfeeling that Modiji is losing …Our general assessment is clear-ly saying that BJP is losing theelections," Rahul said.

"The reality is that Modiji islosing the elections and it's vis-ible on his face," he said.

The main issues facing thecountry, he said, were unem-ployment and the crisis facingthe farmers of the country butthe Prime Minister said nothingabout the concerns of the com-mon people.

Hitting out at the PrimeMinister, Rahul said: "Modiji'sentire strategy is to distract. Wehave fought four to five electionswith him. We have foughtagainst him in Gujarat,Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh. As soon as herealises that he is not going towin then he brings somethingnew like he brought seaplane inGujarat." The Congress chief 'sremarks come a day after thePM said during a public meet-ing in Rajasthan's Sikar that theparty which questioned the sur-gical strikes is now saying "metoo, me too".

Election Commission biased against Opposition: Rahul

Congress president Rahul Gandhi addresses a press conference ahead of the fifthphase of Lok Sabha polls at AICC HQ in New Delhi on Saturday PTI

PNS n NEW DELHI

Virtually describing Congress PresidentRahul Gandhi a defence deal pusher

or facilitator of defence offset contracts, BJPon Saturday sought to counter Congresson the Rafale controversy by alleging thatRahul was instrumental in getting anScorpene submarine offset contracts to hiscompany's partner in a deal which Indiahad with France during the UPA regime.

In a counter-offensive on the eve of the5th phase of polling, BJP rejected Rahul'sclaim that BJP was losing as per Congressparty's "internal assessment" and stated thateven Congress president was set to loseAmethi, his home constituency in UttarPradesh.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley soughtto draw Rahul's attention to the chargesagainst him that his American associatewho was a partner in his now-defunctLondon-based company had got an offsetsubmarine contract and demanded an"structured response" from him and hisparty.

" How come the company throughvicarious ways get the offset contract ?" ,he asked addressing a press conference andposed a counter to what he called CongressPresident's wild and baseless allegation ona private Indian company getting Rafaleoffset contract signed between the BJP andthe French Government. He said it was aserious charge.

Finance Minister cited a media reportand gave more information that he said he

had found out to take a swipe at Gandhi,saying it is story of a man who aspired tobe a defence deal pusher and is now aspir-ing to be prime minister.

Detailing the allegations Jaitley saidRahul and his sister Priyanka GandhiVadra were directors in Backops ServicesPvt. Ltd. Registered in India in 2002 andthen a firm of a similar name was regis-tered in the UK in which Rahul Gandhiand Ulrik Mcknight were directors.

It was an "influence for cash" company,Jaitley alleged, adding that Mcknight wasmarried to a Congress leader's daughterand was part of Rahul Gandhi's "socialgang".

Rahul and Mcknight registered thesame London address, which Jaitley saidwas owned by Ajitabh Bachchan, brotherof actor Amitabh Bachchan. In 2009Rahul Gandhi left the UK firm and theIndian company wound up in 2010 but hispartner remained associated with differ-ent firms, he said. Mcknight won an off-set contract with a French firm awardedan Indian Navy deal to build submarines,he said.

Jaitley asked, "The question is how willyou like now to be judged. You are judg-ing others when there is no evidence. Youdistance yourself from a shady companylaunched by

you and then your partner gets an off-set contract."

"What was his (Rahul) own role? Didhe want to start off as a defence dealer. Itis a very serious subject and we will want

top Congress leadership to respond at theearliest," he said. Taking a dig at theCongress president, he wondered if itwould have been better had he remain inthe defence business and not joined poli-tics.

In another pincer attack by BJPspokesperson G V L Narasimha Raotermed Congress president's attacks onPrime Minister, outcome of frustration asthe party is not only losing elections acrossthe country in a big way but its "so-calledbastion Amethi is also crumbling."

Addressing a press conference, Raosaid the remarks by the Congress chiefindicate "desperation because the party isseeing not only its fortunes crumble all overIndia but also seeing its so called bastionsin Amethi and Rae Bareli crumbling".

"People of the country want Modijiback. Rahul Gandhi knows the reality andis scared of losing Amethi, and out of des-peration is making such claims which arefactually incorrect," he added.

"Congress is facing extinction in thiselection. Despite a series of lies uttered byGandhi over the last several months, hesimply has not been able to bring the partyback to life and is literally on the death-bed in this election," Rao said.

Responding to questions by theCongress leaders as to why national secu-rity was an issue, he said it is the top issuefor the BJP and dominant issue for thecountry unlike the Congress, duringwhose regime there have been several ter-ror attacks.

Rahul Gandhi’s partner got offsetcontracts of Scorpene deal: BJP

PNS n NEW DELHI

In another clean chit to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,

the Election Commission (EC)on Saturday said PM did notviolate the mode code of con-duct at his speech in which hesaid he had kept Pak on toesfor safe release of IAF pilot

Wing CommanderAbhinandan at Patan inGujarat on April 21.

"The matter has beenexamined in detail in accor-dance with the extant advi-sories, provisions of the ModelCode of Conduct. After exam-ination, the Commission is ofthe view that in this matter no

such violation of the extantadvisories/provisions is attract-ed," EC says.

Sources in EC said thatChief Electoral Officer ofGujarat had sent a detailedreport on the alleged violationsof advisories of theCommission and Model Codeof Conduct in a speech deliv-

ered by PM Narendra Modi atPatan.

PM Modi had in his Patanspeech took on Pakistan anddescribed how his governmenthad kept the Pakistan govern-ment on its toes to ensure thesafety of Wing CommanderAbhinandan in the aftermath ofBalakot air strikes.

Modi gets clean chit for Guj speech

PNS n NEW DELHI

Following the ElectionCommission's notice, BJP

candidate Kirron Kher onSaturday apologised and saidthat it was done "unintention-ally", acknowledging that itwas "wrong". "Some partyworker sent it and my socialmedia team sharedit...Sometimes because of rushof work and enthusiasm, peo-ple do it and which is wrong.Children should not be usedfor this at all. I agree with thatand it was not done uninten-tionally...So it was very bad, notgood and it should not havebeen done," Kher said in herreply to Election Commission(EC).

Earlier, the EC issued anotice, seeking reply of BJP'sChandigarh candidate Kirron

Kher after she shared a videoon twitter in which childrenwere seen campaigning forher. The poll panel has askedthe actor-turned-politician toreply within 24 hours.

"You have shared a videoon your twitter account whichshows that children are beingused for election campaign inyour favour through slogan'Vote for Kirron Kher' and 'AbKi Baar Modi Sarkar'," thenotice, issued on May 3, said.

In the notice, it was men-tioned that the National

Commission for Protection ofChild Rights in January 2017had requested the EC to ensurethat children are not involvedin any form with election-related activities, by either elec-tions officials or political par-ties.

The EC had subsequentlyinstructed that it should beensured by all political partiesand election officials that chil-dren are not involved in anyelection-related activity, as perthe notice.

Kher is seeking re-elec-tion from the Chandigarh LokSabha seat and is pitted againstfour-time MP and Congresscandidate Pawan Kumar Bansaland AAP's HarmohanDhawan.

Chandigarh will vote in thelast phase of Lok Sabha elec-tions on May 19.

After EC notice, Kirron Kher apologisesfor campaign video featuring children

PNS n NEW DELHI

With assets worth over`374 crores, Congress

candidate from GunaJyotiraditya Scindia is the rich-est candidate contesting in LokSabha sixth phase electionswhile BJP's cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir isthe second in the list with assetsover `147 crore. IndianNational Lok Dals (INLD) can-didate Virender Rana is thethird richest candidate withassets worth over `102 crore.

In its latest report on can-didates contesting 6th phase ofthe Lok Sabha polls, theAssociation for DemocraticReforms (ADR) said Scindia,who is also in-charge of theCongress in western UttarPradesh, topped the list of 967candidates. The Harvard andStandford alumnus declaredmovable assets of 45,58,00,245and immovable assets of`3,28,98,18,500.

The ADR has analysed theself-sworn affidavits of 967 outof 979 candidates, who arecontesting in the sixth phasethat goes to polls on May 12.Second on the list is Gambhirwith assets over `147 crore,including 1,19,15,87,789 mov-able assets and `28,00,00,000immovable assets. The formernational-level cricketer alsohas the highest liabilities of over`34 crore and highest annualincome of over `12 crore forfinancial year 2017-18 asdeclared in the ITR amongcandidates contesting in LokSabha sixth phase elections.

With total assets worthover `102 crore, IndianNational Lok Dals (INLDs)Virender Rana is the thirdrichest candidate in sixth phase

Lok Sabha poll.There are 12 candidates

who have not been analyseddue to unavailability of theirproperly scanned and completeaffidavits, at the time of mak-ing this report," it said. Amongthe major parties 46 out of 54candidates from BJP, 37 out of46 candidates from Congress,31 out of 49 candidates fromBSP, six out of 12 candidatesfrom AAP and 71 out of 307Independents have declaredassets worth more than Rs 1crore.The average asset percandidate contesting in sixthphase is `3.41 crores," it said.

It also said Shiv Sena'scandidate Rajib Mahato fromWest Bengal's Purulia con-stituency has declared zeroassets. The ADR said 395 can-didates have declared theireducational qualification to bebetween Class 5 and 12, while509 candidates have declaredthey are graduate or hold a bet-ter degree. A total of 35 candi-dates have declared just thatthey are literate while 10 saidthey are illiterate. In the sixthphase there 83 female candi-dates when 59 constituenciesfrom seven States.

In the 6th phase polls, as

many as 189(20%) out of 967candidates analysed havedeclared criminal cases againstthemselves. Nearly 146(15%)out of 967 candidates analysedhave declared serious criminalcases against themselves.Among the major parties,18(33%) out of 54 candidatesfrom BJP, 12 (26%) out of 46candidates from INC, 17(35%)out of 49 candidates from BSP,5(31%) out of 16 candidatesanalysed from SHS, and 27(9%)out of 307 independent candi-dates have declared seriouscriminal cases against them-selves.

New Delhi: Former UnionMinister MJ Akbar, whorecorded his statement beforea Delhi court on Saturday in adefamation case filed by himagainst journalist PriyaRamani, replied that he doesnot remember their meetingand other details after he wascross-examined by Ramani’scounsel.

Appearing beforeAdditional Chief MetropolitanMagistrate Samar Vishal,Akbar said that his defamationcomplaint against Ramani,who has accused him of sexu-al misconduct 20 years ago,was “correct” as his public lifehas been “adversely affected”and “lifetime’s good reputa-tion” damaged by her “offen-sive words”. PTI

‘I don't remember',

says Akbar to

queries from

Ramani's counsel

Scindia, Gambhir richestcandidates in 6th phase

New Delhi: The Centre hastold the Supreme Court that"categorical and emphatic"findings recorded by the topcourt in its December 14 lastyear verdict in the Rafale dealcase has no apparent errorwarranting its review.

It said the petitioners, inthe garb of seeking review ofthe verdict and placingreliance on some press reportsand some incomplete internalfile notings procured unau-thorisedly and illegally, cannotseek to re-open the wholematter since the scope ofreview petition is "extremelylimited".

The Centre's reply cameon pleas filed by former UnionMinisters Yashwant Sinha,Arun Shourie and activist-advocate Prashant Bhushanseeking review of theDecember 14 verdict by whichtheir plea seeking probe intoalleged irregularities in themulti-crore Rafale fighter jetdeal was dismissed.

Two other review peti-tions have been filed by AAPleader Sanjay Singh and advo-cate Vineet Dhandha.

All the review petitionsare scheduled to be taken upfor hearing next week by abench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi.

"The review petition...Isan attempt to get a fishing and roving inquiry ordered,which this court has specifically declined to gointo based on perception ofindividuals. A non-existentdistinction is sought to be cre-ated between an inquiry bythe CBI and the court byplaying on words," theCentre's affidavit said. PTI

SC's Rafale verdict

has no apparent

error warranting

its review: Centre

BJP National president Amit Shah, along with party candidates Hans Raj Hans and Harshvardhan being garlanded during an election rally for the Lok Sabha polls inRohini, New Delhi on Saturday PTI

New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Saturdaysent three C-130J Super Hercules aircraft toBhubaneswar from Hindan Air Base forhumanitarian aid and disaster relief, an IAFspokesperson said.

The aircraft are carrying approximate 45tonnes of relief material including medicinesfor the locations affected by Cyclone Fani.

"The IAF had remained on hot standbyfor a launch ever since the first warning aboutthe cyclone was received. The aircraft werepositioned at Hindan for a short notice takeoff, waiting for the restoration of landingfacilities at cyclone affected airfields," he said.

The Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopterlanded at Bhubaneswar for humanitarianassistance and disaster relief operations.

The helicopter, launched from Guwahatiairbase, is one of many IAF aircraft beingdeployed to the cyclone affected areas, hesaid.

"Air operations began after the restora-tion of landing facilities at cyclone affectedairfields and are going to continue with fullforce in the coming days.

"The Indian Air Force is committed toproviding dedicated efforts to bring succourand relief to the affected populace and helpin restoring normalcy in the region," thespokesperson said. PTI

Cyclone Fani: IAF sends 3Super Hercules aircraft toBhubaneswar for relief ops

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturdaygranted bail to Ritu Khaitan, wife ofAgustaWest land chopper scamaccused Gautam Khaitan, in a blackmoney and laundering case.

Special Judge Arvind Kumargranted relief to Ritu Khaitan after sheappeared before the court in pur-suance to summons issued after filingof charge sheet.

In the same case, the court had onApril 16 granted bail to GautamKhaitan and had put various condi-tions on him, including that he will

not tamper with the evidence or try tocontact or influence the witnesses andjoin the investigation as and whencalled.

The fresh criminal case under thePrevention of Money Laundering Act(PMLA) was filed by the EnforcementDirectorate against Gautam Khaitanand his wife on the basis of a caselodged by the Income Tax Departmentagainst him under the provisions ofthe Black Money (Undisclosed ForeignIncome and Assets) and Imposition ofTax Act, 2015. PTI

Wife of chopper scam accused GautamKhaitan gets bail in black money case

New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturdayreserved its order for May 13 onSubramanian Swamy's plea seeking to bepart of the trial in the death of SunandaPushkar, wife of Congress MP ShashiTharoor. Special judge Arun Bhardwajpassed the order after hearing all the par-ties. Swamy's plea has also sought to bringon record the Delhi Police's vigilancereport on tampering of evidence in thecase and claimed that it might lead to

framing of additional charges.Pushkar was found dead in a suite of

a luxury hotel in the city on the night ofJanuary 17, 2014. The couple were stay-ing in the hotel as the official bungalowof Tharoor was being renovated at thattime. The former Union minister hasbeen charged under sections 498-A (hus-band or his relative subjecting a womanto cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide)of the IPC. PTI

Sunanda Pushkar death case: Court reservesorder for May 13 on Swamy's plea

06

STATES SEATS

Bihar (5) Sitamarhi, Madhubani, Muzaffarpur, Saran, Hajipur

Jammu & Kashmir (2) Ladakh, Anantnag (Pulwama, Shopian)

Jharkhand (4) Kodarma, Ranchi, Khunti, Hazaribagh

Madhya Pradesh (7) Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad, Betul

Rajasthan (12) Ganganagar, Bikaner, Churu, Jhunjhunu, Sikar, Jaipur Rural, Jaipur, Alwar,Bharatpur, Karauli-Dholpur, Dausa, Nagaur

Uttar Pradesh (14) Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj, Lucknow, Rae Bareli, Amethi, Banda,Fatehpur, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Bahraich, Kaiserganj, Gonda

West Bengal (7) Bangaon, Barrackpore, Howrah, Uluberia, Srerampur, Hooghly, Arambag

LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019

He (Narendra Modi) demonetised theeconomy, we will remonetise itthrough (minimum incomeguarantee scheme) NYAY...I candebate him anywhere apart from AnilAmbani’s home

RAHUL GANDHI

Your father was termed ‘Mr Clean’ byhis courtiers, but his life ended as‘Bhrashtachari No 1...The naamdaarmust clearly listen that this Modi wasnot born with a golden spoon, norwas he born in any royal family

NARENDRA MODI

QUOTE-UNQUOTE

MOHIT KANDHARI n JAMMU

Epicentre of home grownmilitancy — Pulwama and

Shopian — two South Kashmirdistricts are set to witness lowvoter turnout, in the last leg ofthree phase polling for theAnantnag Lok Sabha seat dur-ing fifth phase of polling inJammu & Kashmir on May 6.

In the run up to the 2019Lok Sabha polls, dastardlyattack on a CRPF convoy inPulwama, leading to martyr-dom of 44 jawans, had changedthe political discourse acrossthe country. But on groundzero, as the entire Governmentmachinery is gearing up to holdpeaceful polls, the commonvoter remains elusive.

In the absence of high-octave electioneering in thearea even the ‘passionate’ vot-ers are showing little or nointerest in reaching out to thepolling booths to cast theirvotes. Despite huge presence ofsecurity forces, fear is still lurk-ing in the minds of commonpeople over the outcome ofparticipating in the ongoingpoll process.

It is the young brigade of‘home grown’ militants who arestill ruling the roost and settingthe agenda. They had pastedposters and issued diktatsagainst participation in theongoing poll process.

At last count, around 100local militants were still activein the area. The current crop oftop militant commanders,active in Kashmir Valley, allcome from Pulwama district.

Hizbul Mujahideen’s posterboy Burhan Wani, followed byhis successor Sabzar Bhat bothwere natives of Tral area inPulwama. Riyaz Naikoo andZakir Musa,active militantcommanders, also hail fromPulwama.

Compared to first tworounds of polling in Anantnagand Kulgam, which witnessed13.6 and 10.42 per cent polling,Pulwama, Shopian — hot bedsof militancy — are set to wit-ness sharp decline in the voterturnout. Pulwama district com-prises four Assembly segmentsof Tral, Pampore, Pulwamaand Rajpora, while Shopiandistrict has two Assembly seg-ments of Shopian and Wachi.

These two districts alwaysplayed a pivotal role in electingPDP representatives duringAssembly polls as it remainedPDP’s strong hold.

Mehbooba Mufti’s fate toois hanging in balance due topoor voter turnout in first twophases. Poor turn out in thesetwo pockets does not augurwell for her political survival inthe State politics.

In the aftermath of killingof HM Commander BurhanWani in July 2016, the equationchanged on ground zero dras-tically. Unrest in the area pre-vented the Election commis-sion of India from holding by-polls to the Anantnag LokSabha seat after the same wasvacated by Mehbooba Muftibefore occupying ChiefMinisters chair in the state.

Political observers inKashmir claimed the votingmay not touch double digit fig-ure in these pockets. Theyattribute large-scale militancyrelated violence and crackdown by the security forces inthe aftermath of killing ofHizbul Mujahideen poster boy,Burhan Wani as the main rea-

son behind disenchantmentwith the poll process.

Meanwhile, in order torepose faith of the voter in theelection process, the Electioncommission of India hadrecently rushed around 300additional companies of paramilitary forces to ensure inci-dent free polling in the area.

Barring few election meet-ings, organised in the partyoffices or residences of sup-porters/officer bearers of thesepolitical parties no other sig-nificant political assembly hasbeen reported in the area.

The local politicians in thearea too have failed to changethe narrative. This is evidentfrom the participation of sup-porters during campaign meet-ings of rival political parties.

PDP Chief MehboobaMufti, stayed away from theseareas fearing backlash fromcommon people, angry with herover her decision to align withthe BJP after the death of PDPPatron Mufti Mohd Sayeed.She had joined protest demon-stration in support of Jamat-e-Islami in Pulwama. NC topbrass, including Farooq

Abdullah and former CM OmarAbdullah held closed doormeetings in secure zones toensure safety of political work-ers. Similarly Congress candi-date GA Mir focused on door-to-door campaign and avoidedbig election meetings due topresence of foot prints of localmilitants in the area.

The SVEEP Kargil official passes from the Penzi La Pass (14,000 ft) just after the opening of the pass for movement. Ladakh goes to poll on Monday Twitter

Pulwama, Shopian may witness poor voter turnout

Pulwama: National Conferenceleader Omar Abdullah onSaturday said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was harping onthe Pulwama terror attack andsubsequent air strikes inPakistan’s Balakot to hide hisfailures on economic front, jobcreation and alleviating agrar-ian distress.

The former CM said whileKashmir was no more an elec-tion issue in Pakistan, it wasPrime Minister Modi whofocussed his election campaignon the situation in the Valley.

“There was a time whenJ&K used to dominate electionsin Pakistan but now it is PMModi who is going to town withJ&K in the election campaign.The PM is raking up Balakotand Pulwama terror attack tohide his Government’s failureson economic front, employ-ment generation and the agrar-ian distress in the country,”Abdullah said. PTI

Omar: PM harpingon Pulwama, Balakotto hide failures oneconomic front

High-pitch WB campaign recedes

PTI n KOLKATA

The high-pitched cam-paigning by differentpolitical parties for seven

Lok Sabha constituencies goingto the polls in the fifth phase onMay 6 came to an end Saturdayevening. The campaigning dur-ing the last couple of days wasmarred by the panic overCyclone Fani, which causedlarge scale destruction in neigh-bouring Odisha.

The fear over the calamityled all political parties to canceltheir election meetings.

On the last day of cam-paigning the BJP candidate ofBongaon(SC) seat, ShantanuThakur was injured in a roadaccident.

Seats in which electionswill be held on Monday areBongaon(SC), Barrackpur,Howrah, Uluberia, Serampore,Hooghly and Arambagh (SC)

where an electorate of1,16,91,889 will decide the fateof 83 candidates, the ElectionCommission said.

The EC will deploy a total578 companies of central forces,which will cover almost 100 percent polling booths in the sevenconstituencies to ensure free andfair polling, officials in the pollbody said.

All the seven seats, whichare spread across North 24Parganas, Howrah and Hooglydistricts and parts of Nadiadistrict, will see a four-cor-nered contest betweenTrinamool Congress, BJP,Congress and the Left Frontmajor CPI(M).

The campaign saw pollmeetings by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, BJP presidentAmit Shah and West BengalChief Minister and TrinamoolCongres supremo MamataBanerjee. Banerjee also partic-

ipated in a number of road-shows.

In Bongaon(SC) seat, whichis on the Indo-Bangla borderand has a large number of vot-ers from the Matua communi-ty, TMC has fielded MamataThakur against the BJP candi-date Shantanu Thakur. The LeftFront constituent CPI(M) hasnominated Alakesh Das, whilethe Congress has nominatedSourav Prosad.

The Matuas (Namasudras)are a closely-knit scheduledcaste group with presence in fiveparliamentary seats in Northand South 24 Parganas dis-tricts of West Bengal, makingthem one of the biggest votebanks in the state. ShantanuThakur is the grandson of thelate Matua matriarch BinapaniDevi, while Mamata BalaThakur is her daughter-in-law.

In Barrackpore, the TMChas fielded its sitting MP Dinesh

Trivedi against BJP’s ArjunSingh, who had defected fromMamata Banerjee’s party aheadof the poll. The Congress hasnominated Md Alam andCPI(M) Gargi Chatterjee.

Howrah Lok Sabha seatwill see TMC’s Prasun Banerjee,a footballer-turned politicianlocking horns with BJP’sRantidev Sengupta. Congresshas nominated Suvra Ghoshand the CPI(M) SumitroAdhikary.

In Uluberia seat TMC’sSajda Ahmed will contestagainst Joy Banerjee of BJP.The Congress has fieldedShoma Ranisree Roy andCPI(M) Maksuda Khatun.

Kalyan Banerjee is the TMCcandidate from Sreerampur seatagainst BJP’s Debjit Sarkar. TheCongress has nominatedDebabrata Biswas and CPI(M)has fielded Tirthankar Ray forthe seat.

In Hooghly seat Ratna DeNag of TMC will contest againstBJP’s celebrity candidate LocketChatterjee. The CPI(M) hasnominated Pradip Saha andthe Congress Pratul ChandraSaha for the seat.

In Arambagh(SC) seat,TMC’s Aparupa Poddar willcontest against Tapan KumarRay of BJP. The CPI(M) hasfielded Sakti Mohan Malik andCongress Jyoti Kumari Das.

Braving inclement weatherdue to Cyclone Fani, the pollingpersonnel have already left forthe 13,290 booths in the sevenconstituencies.

Besides general electionobservers and expenditureobservers, the poll panel has forthe first time deployed a specialpolice observer and a specialobserver. In another first,VVPAT will be used in allpolling booths along with theEVMs, EC sources said.

PTI n PATNA

Campaign ended on Saturdayfor five Lok Sabha seats in

Bihar which go to the polls in thefifth phase of general elections onMay 6.

The five seats areMuzaffarpur, Saran, Sitamarhi,Vaishali and Hajipur.

Prime Minister NarendraModi led the campaigning fromthe front, holding a rally atMuzaffarpur where he canvassedin favor of the local BJP candidateas also nominees fielded byalliance partners the JD(U) andthe LJP.

He described the rulingNDA in the state as a cohesivethree in one entity and the oppo-

sition weak, loosely knit and help-less against menaces of blackmoney, corruption and threats tonational security.

Congress president RahulGandhi, whose party is not con-testing any of the five seats goingto the polls on Monday, did nothold an election meeting in theseconstituencies which are, how-ever, being contested by alliancepartners in the‘Mahagathbandhan’.

BJP chief Amit Shahaddressed rallies at Saran andSitamarhi and spoke about theprime ministers commitment to

his work which is evident fromhis having not taken a day off in20 years.

In his speeches Shah soughtto present a contrast with Gandhiwhom he accused of going on aholiday every three to fourmonths.

Bollywood actor and BJPMP Hema Malini held a rally atSitamarhi where she expresseddelight over the improved infra-structure in Bihar and recalledwith amusement the 1990s whenthe then chief minister LaluPrasads reported promise ofmaking the potholed roads of the

state as smooth as her cheeks hadmade headlines.

All the five seats going topolls in the fifth phase were wonin 2014 by the NDA two each byBJP and LJP and one by UpendraKushwahas RLSP, which quitthe coalition last year and joinedthe ‘Mahagathbandhan’.

Sitamarhi MP Ram KumarSharma, who had supportedKushwaha when he severed tieswith the NDA, revolted after hewas denied a ticket by RLSP,which is contesting five seats asagainst three five years ago.

He shared the stage with

Amit Shah at the latters Sitamarhirally dropping ample hints abouthis future political move. The seathas now gone to Chief MinisterNitish Kumars JD(U), whichhas fielded former MLA SunilKumar alias Pintu.

The party had earlier nom-inated Varun Kumar, but hedeclined to contest. Pintu facesArjun Rai of RJD, who had wonin 2009 on JD-U ticket.

BJP MPs Ajay Nishad andRajiv Pratap Rudy are seeking re-election from their respectiveseats of Muzaffarpur and Saran,respectively. Ajay faces anotherNishad, Raj Bhushan Chaudharyfielded by the Mukesh Sahni-ledVIP, which is seeking to assumeleadership of the Nishads.

High stakes for BJP in Bihar

world 07LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019

TROTTINGTROTTING

PAKISTANI AMONG 4HELD IN SRI LANKAColombo: Four foreign nationalsincluding one from Pakistan whoviolated immigration andemigration regulations werearrested by the police in SriLanka during search operations.The arrested persons includetwo Nigerians and one each fromPakistan and Bangladesh, News1st reported. The 25-year-oldPakistani and the 24-year-oldBangladeshi nationals werearrested in Grandpass forresiding in the country without avalid visa.

‘9 DEAD IN ISIS ATTACK’IN SOUTH LIBYATripoli: At least nine people werekilled on Saturday in an attackclaimed by the Islamic Stategroup targeting forces loyal tostrongman Khalifa Haftar insouthern Libya, officials said.ISIS fighters, “backed bycriminal groups andmercenaries”, launched a dawnassault on a military trainingcamp in the southern city ofSebha, which is controlled byHaftar’s forces, the city’s mayorHamed al-Khayali told AFP.

GLOBE

AFP n GAZA CITY(PALESTINIANTERRITORIES)

Gaza terrorists on Saturdayfired dozens of rockets at

Israel, which responded withstrikes that killed a Palestinian,officials said, as another esca-lation between them threateneda fragile ceasefire.

The latest flare-up camewith Hamas, the Islamist move-ment that rules the blockadedGaza Strip, seeking furtherconcessions from Israel underthe ceasefire.

Israel said around 150rockets were fired from thePalestinian enclave by lateSaturday afternoon and its airdefences intercepted dozens ofthem. One woman was seri-ously injured in a rocket strikeon the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat,some 20 kilometres from theGaza border, police said.

Police said a man was alsohospitalised in the city of

Ashkelon and spoke of otherinjuries without providingdetails.

A house near Ashkelonwas damaged, while otherrockets hit open areas.

The Israeli army said it hadtargeted two rocket launchersin Gaza with an air strike in animmediate response and itstanks and planes later hit some30 military targets for Hamasand its ally Islamic Jihad.

A Gazan security sourcesaid a series of Israeli strikestargeted at least three separateareas of the Gaza Strip and thatthree “resistance fighters” werewounded. The Gaza healthministry reported one personkilled and seven wounded.

Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu was hold-ing consultations with securi-ty chiefs. A statement fromIslamic Jihad claimed respon-sibility for at least some of therocket fire and said it was pre-

pared for more if necessary.Its armed wing distributed

a video showing militants han-

dling rockets and threateningkey Israeli sites, including Ben-Gurion international airport

near Tel Aviv.A source in the group said

Egypt was engaged in discus-

sions to calm the situation, asit has done repeatedly in thepast. Israel announced onSaturday afternoon that it wasclosing its people and goodscrossings with Gaza as well asthe zone it allows for fishermenoff the enclave until furthernotice due to the rocket fire.

The escalation follows themost violent clashes along theGaza border in weeks onFriday.

Four Palestinians, includ-ing two Hamas militants, werekilled after two Israeli soldierswere wounded in a shootingduring weekly protests on theborder.

Israel and Palestinian mil-itants in the Gaza Strip havefought three wars since 2008and fears remain of a fourth.

A ceasefire between Israeland Hamas brokered by Egyptand the United Nations had ledto relative calm around Israel’sApril 9 general election.

But on Tuesday, Israelreduced the offshore fishinglimit it imposes for vesselsoperating out of Gaza after a

rocket was fired from the ter-ritory. Israel’s Army blamedIslamic Jehad for the rocket,which fell into theMediterranean.

On Thursday, Israel said itsaircraft struck a Hamas militarycompound after balloons car-rying firebombs and explo-sives were launched across theborder.

Palestinians in Gaza havefrequently fitted balloons withfirebombs in a bid to damageIsraeli property and have in thepast succeeded in setting fire tolarge areas of farmland.Following that air strike, Israelsaid two rockets were launchedfrom Gaza.

With the ceasefire at risk,a Hamas delegation led by itsGaza head Yahya Sinwar leftthe enclave for Cairo onThursday for talks withEgyptian officials.

The ceasefire has seenIsrael allow Qatar to providemillions of dollars in aid toGaza to pay salaries and tofinance fuel purchases to easea severe electricity shortage.

Dozens of rockets fired at Israel from Gaza

Israeli response kills 1

Smoke rise from explosions caused by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Saturday AP

AFP n BANGKOK

King Maha Vajiralongkorn,Rama X of Thailand, was

crowned on Saturday in a daz-zling show of pageantry, lacedwith Hindu and Buddhist rit-ual, vowing to reign “withrighteousness” on behalf ofthe Thai people.

Starting at the auspicioustime of 10:09 am (0309 GMT),the public was granted a rarewindow into the cloisteredhalls of Thai power as the keyrituals of the three-day coro-nation began. KingVajiralongkorn is the tenthmonarch of the Chakri dynasty,which has reigned since 1782.

He ascended the throneover two years ago followingthe death of his beloved father,but waited until after a longmourning period before settinghis coronation date.

Saturday’s sombre cere-mony opened with the white-gowned king — the folds of hisrobe leaving one shoulderbared — receiving sacred waterfrom across Thailand and dab-bing it gently across his face ata shrine inside the GrandPalace complex.

A cannon salute markedthe moment as pipes playedand Buddhist monks chanted.

Several grey-haired Hindu

Brahmins were also in atten-dance at the syncretic ceremo-ny, which symbolises RamaX’s transformation from ahuman to divine figure.

He later took his seat underthe umbrella of state and washanded the Great Crown of

Victory, a tiered gold 7.3-kilo-gram (16-pound) headpiecetopped by a diamond fromIndia.

Uttering his first, briefroyal command he vowed toreign “with righteousness” forthe benefit of the Thai people.

His fourth wife, Suthida —married in a surprise ceremo-ny days before the coronation— was invested as Queen,kneeling in respect in front ofher husband who sat on athrone.

For most Thais, it is thefirst time they have witnessedthe pomp and grandeur of acoronation — the last was in1950 for the king’s belovedfather Bhumibol Adulyadej.

“I’m excited to have achance to be a part of this... I’mhere to capture people’s emo-tions,” said Jakarin Kerdchok,16, a volunteer student takingphotos near the palace.

Hundreds of state officialsin immaculate white uniformslined the streets around theGrand Palace. But only a mod-est number of civilians bravedthe hot sun for the royal con-voy.

“I’m really happy andproud because as citizens, wehave the best king and queen inThailand or even the world,”said Pornthip Pongsai, a resi-dent of Ang Thong provincewho travelled hours to catch aglimpse.

The king held a grandaudience with members of theroyal family, the privy counciland senior officials later in theafternoon at the Grand Palace.

In this photo released by Bureau of the Royal Household, Thailand’s King MahaVajiralongkorn sits on the throne in front of an audience of diplomats anddignitaries after being officially crowned king at the Grand Palace on Saturday AP

King Maha Vajiralongkorncrowned Rama X of Thailand

King Vajiralongkorn isthe tenth monarch of theChakri dynasty, whichhas reigned since 1782

AP n SEOUL

North Korea fired severalunidentified short-range

projectiles into the sea off itseastern coast on Saturday, theSouth Korean Joint Chiefs ofStaff said, a likely sign ofPyongyang’s growing frustra-tion at stalled diplomatic talkswith Washington meant toprovide coveted sanctions reliefin return for nuclear disarma-ment.

South Korea’s military hasbolstered its surveillance incase there are additionalweapons launches, and South Korean and U.S.Authorities are analysing thedetails.

Dhaka: At least 14 people werekilled and 63 others injured ascyclonic storm ‘Fani’ barrelledinto Bangladesh on Saturday, aday after leaving a trail ofdestruction in eastern Indiancoastlines, media reports said.

However, BangladeshDisaster Management Ministryofficially confirmed four deaths— two in Barguna and oneeach in Bhola and Noakhali —on the basis of “initial reports”from the three coastal districtsand said it was yet to compilethe details of the casualties anddamages caused by the cyclone.

“The detailed informationfrom all the affected districts isyet to reach us,” State Ministersaid. PTI

PTI n COLOMBO

Police in Sri Lanka onSaturday asked members

of the public to hand overswords or other large knives tothe nearest police station aftera haul of such blades wererecovered from mosques andhomes during searches follow-ing the Easter Sunday suicidebomb attacks.

Announcing the amnestyscheme, police spokesmanRuwan Gunasekara that theknives which are used for day-to-day “domestic” and “justifi-able” purposes were notrequired to be handed over topolice.

Apart from large blades,

Gunasekara said that policeand army uniforms or suchcamouflaged materials, whichare in possession with thecommon people should also behand over to the police.

“This will be in effect fromtoday until tomorrow”, he said,adding, “If you are havingpolice or camouflaged militaryuniforms, please hand themover to the nearest police sta-tion”.

The move came after policerecovered a large haul ofweapons, including swords,and camouflaged materialsduring searches of mosquesand houses following the EasterSunday’s suicide attacks, whichclaimed 250 lives.

Islamabad: The Taliban onSaturday said the gap is nar-rowing in talks withWashington’s special peaceenvoy over a timetable for thewithdrawal of U.S. Troops fromAfghanistan. The two sides arecontinuing to meet in Qatar,where the insurgent movementmaintains a political office.

In a voice message to AP,the Taliban spokesman inDoha, Suhail Shaheen, saidboth sides have offered newproposals for drawing downU.S. And NATO forces.

This would be a significantinitial step toward a deal to endnearly 18 years of war andAmerica’s longest militaryengagement.

“There are proposals tolower the gap between the twosides, but (it) still needs nego-tiation to reach a final agree-ment,” he said. AP

AP n JACKSONVILLE (US)

Acharter plane carrying 143people and travelling from

Cuba to north Florida endedup in a river at the end of a run-way Friday night, though nocritical injuries or deaths werereported, officials said.

A Boeing 737 arriving atNaval Air Station Jacksonvillefrom Naval StationGuantanamo Bay, Cuba, with136 passengers and seven air-crew slid off the runway intothe St. Johns River, a NASJacksonville news release said.

The Jacksonville Sheriff ’sOffice posted on Twitter that amarine unit responded toassist. The plane was in shallowwater and not submerged.Everyone on the plane was aliveand accounted for, the agencyposted, with 21 adults trans-

ported to local hospitals ingood condition.

A photo posted by deputiesshows a Miami AirInternational logo on the plane.

The company didn’t imme-diately respond to messages

from The Associated Press.Capt. Michael Connor, the

commanding officer of NASJacksonville, said during a newsconference that passengerswere a mix of civilian and mil-itary personnel.

‘Miracle’: Plane crashes intoFlorida river, but no deaths

In this photo released by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, authorities work at thescene of a plane in the water in Jacksonville, Fla. on Friday AP

Taliban say gap

narrowing in

talks with US

14 dead, 63 injured

as cyclone ‘Fani’

hits Bangladesh

Handover swords, large knives,Army uniforms to police:Lankan police to public

North Korea fires

several short-range

projectiles into sea

AFP n ISTANBUL

Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan on

Saturday called for the oppo-sition’s local election victory inIstanbul to be declared invalidand the vote re-run, increasingthe pressure on the country’selectoral authorities.

“Clearly, there were irreg-ularities and corruption,”Erdogan said in a speech at abusiness leaders’ meeting.

“If the Supreme ElectoralCouncil could dissipate all this,that would ease the conscienceof our fellow citizens,” headded.

The electoral body, theYSK, is due to meet on Mondayto examine a request byErdogan’s AKP party to cancelthe result of the March 31 localelections which the party lostin Istanbul, where the mainopposition candidate EkremImamoglu won the mayoral

race by a tight margin.Several partial recounts

have so far supported the ini-tial results in both Ankara andIstanbul, with the main oppo-sition CHP party callingErdogan a “bad loser” willingto do anything to hold on topower in the country’s eco-

nomic capital.Observers attribute the

electoral setbacks to the rulingJustice and Development Party(AKP) to voter discontent overTurkey’s ongoing economictroubles.

Refusing to concede theIstanbul result, Erdogan

denounced “massive irregu-larities”, and his party accusedvoting officials of under-reporting votes cast in favourof its candidate.

“My fellow citizens say tome: ‘My president, there mustbe a re-run of this election’,”Erdogan said. “Come and let’sgo before the people and wewill accept what the people’swish dictates.”

Istanbul prosecutors onThursday said they had openedaround 30 probes into thevote, and over 100 voting boothmanagers had been summonedfor questioning.

In comments laterSaturday Imamoglu urged theelectoral council to “take adecision based on the law andjustice,”.

CHP spokesman FaikOztrak told Erdogan to “stopputting pressure on the YSK”.

“There were no irregular-ities, no abuse,” he insisted.

Erdogan calls for Istanbul vote to be re-run

AFP n WASHINGTON

President Donald Trumpsaid he held “very positive”

talks on Friday with his Russiancounterpart Vladimir Putinon the crisis in oil-richVenezuela, where Washingtonis pushing to oust the Moscow-backed president.

The US leader adopted astrikingly conciliatory tone fol-lowing a more than hour-longconversation with Putin, com-ing days after an abortive mil-itary uprising in support ofJuan Guaido, the oppositionleader seeking to driveVenezuelan President NicolasMaduro from power.

“It was a very positive con-versation,” Trump said. “He isnot looking at all to getinvolved in Venezuela otherthan he’d like to see somethingpositive happen for Venezuela.”

“And I feel the same way.We want to get some human-itarian aid. Right now peopleare starving.”

Trump’s tone came in starkcontrast to that of his top advi-sors, in particular Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo whocharged this week that the

socialist Maduro had beenpoised to flee to Cuba, but wastalked out of it by the Russians.

Recognized as interimleader by more than 50 coun-tries including the UnitedStates, Guaido has vowed tokeep the pressure up onMaduro, urging his supportersto stage peaceful demonstrations at militarybases on Saturday in a fresh bidto rally the armed forcesbehind him.

US-Russian tensions havespiked over the months-longstandoff in Venezuela, and theKremlin’s assessment of theTrump-Putin call differed sub-stantially from that comingfrom the White House.

“Interference in internalaffairs, attempts to change theleadership in Caracas throughforce, undermine the prospectsfor a peaceful settlement of theconflict,” said a Russian state-ment.

“Vladimir Putin stated thatonly the Venezuelan peoplehave the right to decide thefuture of their country,” itadded.

The United States hasimposed tough sanctions and

Trump has refused to take thethreat of military action off thetable, in an intensifying cam-paign to drive Maduro frompower.

Washington is insistingMaduro’s days are numbered -- but experts say US options forbreaking the stalemate are lim-ited, and that Washington mayhave overestimated the oppo-sition leader’s strength.

Acting Defense SecretaryPatrick Shanahan hostedPompeo at the Pentagon Fridayalong with National SecurityAdvisor John Bolton andAdmiral Craig Faller, com-mander of the US SouthernCommand.

Reiterating Trump’s posi-tion -- that “all options” are onthe table -- Shanahan declinedto provide any details on a pos-sible military intervention.

“I’m trying to avoid walk-ing into ‘We could do this or wecould do that,’” he said.

“What people should feelconfident about is we have...There’s depth to these plans.”

“We have a comprehensiveset of options tailored to certainconditions and I’m just goingto leave it at that.”

Tokyo: Japan’s EmperorNaruhito greeted the publicSaturday for the first timesince his succession, expressinghope for Japan to keep pursu-ing peace.

Naruhito ascended theChrysanthemum Throne onWednesday, a day after his 85-year-old father, Akihito, abdi-cated. From a balcony over-looking the palace ground,Naruhito thanked throngs ofwell-wishers for congratulatinghim.

“I am deeply grateful andpleased that I am receiving cel-ebration from you all today,”said Naruhito, wearing a formalsuit and standing next to hiswife, Empress Masako.

“I wish for your health and

happiness, and sincerely hopethat our country pursues worldpeace hand in hand with othercountries and will develop fur-ther.”

As he waved from the bal-cony, where he was accompa-nied by other members of hisroyal family, the spectatorscheered, took photos andwaved Japanese flags.

Akihito, who became theemperor emeritus, and his wifeMichiko, were not present toavoid concerns about interfer-ence with the serving emperor.

Naruhito was scheduledto make balcony appearancesseveral more times through theevening to greet many morepeople still waiting in longlines outside the palace. AP

Japan’s emperor

greets public for 1st

time since succession

Trump hails ‘very positive’Venezuela talks with Putin

nHow have things changedafter playing AngooriBhabhi?

A lot has changed. I tooka break of two years in mycareer and was waiting for agood project where I get toplay a good character. PlayingAngoori was the right choice.It is important for an actor toget to play a good role aftercoming back from a break.Angoori has become thebiggest role of my life. Playingher is a treat for me and Ihave enjoyed playing it. Thisrole has offered me a lot offame, Angoori has nowbecome an household nameand it feels good. I have alsowon many awards for therole.nDid you ever think thatthis character will becomeso popular?

I never imagined it.When I got to play thischaracter, I was replacingsomeone else for the role. Itcame with a lot ofresponsibility. I decided togive my 100 per cent to thecharacter. I didn’t think that

I will get this much love andappreciation from theaudience. I believe in onething agar hum pooriimaandari ke sath koi kaamkartey hain toh uska resultzaroor milta hai.nDoes it mean that youhave to work harder?

Yes. I would not call itchallenging but it came as ahuge responsibility on me atthat time. I knew that I wasreplacing a big character. Itwas important that I wasable to do justice to thecharacter. It wasn’t easy. I hadto work on my language andaccent. I come from MadhyaPradesh, so Bhojpuri wasalien to me. Initially, I faceda lot of difficulties to get intothe skin of the character andget everything right.Eventually, it all worked outwell for me.nWhat is that one thing that

you like and dislike aboutyour character?

I like the innocence ofthe character. It is a beautifulcharacter to play. I get toexperiment a lot with thecharacter. The thing that Idislike about my character iswearing a heavy wig andheavy sarees. I get a lot ofheadache after wearing it fora long time.nDid you want to be anactor?

Yes. Being an actor wasmy childhood dream. Jab semujhe hosh hai, tab se mujheactor hi banna tha. I becamean actor a long time ago — abathroom actor. Thengradually, with everyone’sblessing and because maineitni shiddat se yeh maanga kiI got into this field. It was along journey, full of ups anddowns but I made it heresomehow.

nWhat kind of roles wouldyou like to experiment with?

There are so many. I loveearthy characters and wouldalso love to be a part of artfilms. After Bhabhi Ji GharPar Hain, I would love to playthose characters which noone will ever imagine meplaying. I am looking forwardto some bold stuff too.nWhere did you get yourinspiration from?

There are so many actorsthat inspire me in a way orother. Whenever I seesomeone doing a brilliantjob and I get inspired by themand I think that why can’t I domy work in such a way thatinspires others. There is somuch of talent around us thatI believe in getting inspiredfrom everything andeveryone around me.nApart from acting whatelse keeps you busy?

I love travelling. Andvery soon I will come up withmy own travel show for theaudience.nWhat does fame mean toyou?

Fame is momentary. It isfor a short duration. If you arehit then people rememberyou aur phir kuch time baadbhool bhi jatey hain. Oneshould not take fame tooseriously. I believe in doinggood work, imaadari ke sath.This is what matters at theend.nHow was the experiencebeing a part of KitchenChampion?

It was an amazing andfun-filled experience. Thewhole team is brilliant. Thisis the first time that I haveworked with my husband(Piyush Poorey) in any show,so I enjoyed it a lot. I got tocook, dance and do mimicrytoo. It was a wonderfulexperience. I got to spendsome time out from my usualroutine. I would like to thankArjun Bijlani (host of theshow) and the makers forhaving me there. I hope thatthis association will be therein future too.

LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019 films & tv 08

SHOW TIME

BLANK

*ing: Sunny Deol, Karan

Kapadia, Karanvir Sharma,

Ishita Dutta

Rated: 5/10

Over the years therehave been so manymovies made on

terrorism and sleeper cellsand how to end it all. Blankjust gets added to the list ofthe manys.

What we have is a man— an accident victim —brought to a hospital wherethey find a bomb tickingthat too that is linked to hisheart beat no less. He dies,the bomb explodes. Thesituation is explosive thefilm is not.

This is where theproblem lies. Blank which isBehzab Khambata’sdirectorial venture is unableto cash in on the pace atwhich the story should

progress. Given the urgencyof the situation, the pace isslow. The characters moveas if they have tons of timeat their hands, it is just theopposite. There are 25 livebombs that are about to gooff in various parts of thecountry.

The reasons for creatingterror are the same. Wordslike jannat, Inshaallah and itis just business are thrownaround. Money makes theworld go round is themantra.

Yelling and screamingno longer works and nordoes beating the terrorist toa pulp. There are far moreadvanced ways to get themtalking. Bollywood appearsto have forgotten that.References to the RAW andIB are cliched. if all thework has to be done bythese Intelligence Agencies,the police might as well shut

shop and put up theiruniforms.

Newbie Karan Kapadia(brother-in-law of AkshayKumar) does manage toleave his mark even thoughthere are many instanceswhere he just appears toamble along. But he is talland fights well. This shouldgo in his favour. Sunny Deolhas yet to lose the perpetualfrown as is the fact thatshouting no longer gets thework done. The parts wherehe yells grate on nerves.Good that these are few.

The 111-minute filmshould have been fraughtwith tension and speedunfortunately time is spentin showing sleeper cellschecking their text andwalking. But not all is losthere. It is good to see close-ups of hand-to-handpunches thrown in.

— Shalini Saksena

Lacks pace and

thrill quotient

ARJUN GETS EMOTIONAL

Amother’s love is the purest form of lovewhich never falls short even after the

child grows up to become an adult. Tocelebrate this unconditional love, Colors’Kitchen Champion celebrates Mother’s Daywith a special episode dedicated to themothers. Being a part of the celebration werethe special guests Jayati Bhatia and NimishaVakharia along with their mother anddaughter.

Host Arjun Bijlani and the guests gotnostalgic as they shared anecdotes andmemories with their mothers. Amidst theconversation Jayati Bhatia asked Arjun howmuch he loves his mom and what he feelsfor her. The moment Arjun started toexpress, as a surprise, a video from hismother was played for him. His motherexpressed how much she loves him and sheis proud to have a son like him.

Overwhelmed to see the video Arjun gotemotional and expressed, “My mother hasbeen the pillar of my life. I lost my fatherwhen I was 19 and was very disheartenedwith this loss. While struggling withhardships, I lost my path and got into badinfluences. One day I saw my mother sittingalone and crying, I realised she was feelingvery lonely. That day I decided that I will notlet her shed a tear and reach to the peak ofsuccess to give her all the happiness shedeserves. She has sacrificed a lot and stoodby my side at every step of my career. She

has motivated me in all my struggles and yetgave me the freedom to pursue my dreamhence whatever I am today is because ofher.”

SHAAN RECREATES LOVE-OLOGYZee TV’s Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Li’l Champs

contestants have been winning theaudiences’ and judges hearts while makingthe entire nation groove to their powerfulvoices and brilliant performances. Theupcoming episode will witness loads of Indiepop songs entertainment as the singinggoddesses Alisha Chinai and Shilpa Raogracing the show as special guests.

To add to the gala evening, the naughtyLi’l Champs boys– Hritik Gupta, PritamAcharya, Mohammad Faiz, Ayush KC and

Bhavesh Mattu gave a tribute to Shaan in avery special way, by performing to his songLove-ology while wearing wigs recreatingShaan’s hairstyle from the late 90’s. Shaanwas surprised and touched by theirperformance. Right after the performanceRicha Sharma requested Shaan to wear thewig and sing along with the boys. Shaanbeing the star of the evening and a completesport, obliged and performed with the Li’lChamps.

LOTS OF FUN AND KHATRA It seems as if Bharti Singh has found a

new way of entertaining the audience -assigning fun, fierce and crazy tasks tocelebrities on Colors’ Khatra khatra Khatra.In the upcoming episode, Bharti Singh had afield day when it came to assigning tasks,Aftab Shivdasani was made to be paired withhis companion Harsh Limbachiyaa and PunitPathak. The task involved them to dress uplike females and gossip for a few minutes. Toadd to the fun task, and bringing alive thepunjabi-ness, Bharti Singh selected brightand colorful sarees for them. The entire castand crew were on the floor with laughter,Harsh like a typical gossip monger started

talking about his wife, Bharti Singh and howshe overpowers him all the time or tries her

hand at it in any case. Punit and Aftab lateradded to it and appreciated Harsh’s patienceand perseverance in being with Bharti.

A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANEZee TV’s Dance India Dance has

revolutionised the landscape of dance inIndia, making it a mainstream career choicefor millions. The biggest dance legends whohelm the industry as top-of-the-leaguechoreographers, reality show judges andperformers have all risen from DID. Be itDharmesh, Shakti Mohan, Punit J Pathak,Salman Yusuf, Raghav Juyal, Prince or thewinner of the previous season SanketGaonkar. Now, Dance India Dance is all setto return with an all-new, never-seen-beforeseason with a revamped format — DanceIndia Dance: Battle of the Champions. Thisyear, the show will introduce an exciting,hyper-competitive format whereincontestants will be divided into four zonalteams and pitted against each other inweekly dance-offs.

Recently Bollywood choreographer

Bosco Martis was roped in as the first judgeand joining him on the panel will be popularrapper Raftaar. Well, what many might notknow is that Raftaar first appeared as acontestant of DID Doubles eight years agoand will now be seen as the judge on theshow.

Raftaar has received accolades for hiscontribution to the music industry and withhis innate sense of rhythm, his inimitablemusicality and killer moves up his sleeve, weare excited to watch him step into the shoesof a dance-guru.

Commenting on his new role as a judge,Raftaar said: “Dance and music run in myblood and judging Dance India Dance is ahuge deal for me as I was once a contestanton the show. I have so many fond memoriesof dancing on this stage and I can't wait towatch many others like me sizzle on thedance floor. I started off as a danceinstructor which helped me save money formusical career so I am overjoyed andthankful to have got this venture. I have anemotional connect with this stage. Moreover,this year there is a complete change in theformat of the show and I am really lookingforward to witnessing some amazingdancing talent battle it out in a hyper-competitive space of dance-offs.”

PlanYour

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The Tiki Fest is here to take you on a drinkingvoyage to the laid back, tropical atmosphere.

It will be amarvelous blend ofculture, drinks andsporty atmosphere.The tropical cocktailswill describe thecolorful Tiki cultureserved with exoticfruits and flowersthat exemplify beachand summer fun.Get high at Smaaashwith newlyintroduced Tikicocktails that willredefine the way you drink your cocktails. Thefreshly introduced cocktails are The RoosterSkull, Dominican Republic, Rum Swizzle, TheBahamas and others.

90’s nostaligia at Punjab GrillsVenue: Punjab Grills, Connaught Place, NewDelhiDate: Till May 31, 2019Timings: 11 am to 10 pm

Punjab Grill, has come up with a special 90’ssummer drinks menu for all its guests to

indulge into a mindfully curated cooler andshakes that will surely take you down thememory lane. The new menu willkeep you hydratedat all times. It willbe your icy escapeto the world ofhappy wonderlandwith all things coolwith these FreshSummer Coolers.From ChatmolaElectric Soda totheir amazing Pan Pasand Chutki Martini, youwill get it all to beat the heat. Their SwadCranberry Margarita is your way to getrefreshed with a blast of berry and will makeyour day instantly better. They also have RimJhim Mojito that will make you fall in love withmojito all the more. But one thing that youcannot miss is their Fruity poppins lassi withphantom sweet cigarette, with yummy bits ofcandy, which is a class apart!

TELLYTALE

‘Playing

has changed

my life’

Angoori

MUSBA HASHMIspeaks with

Bhabhi Ji GharPar Hain fame

SHUBHANGI ATREwho talks abouther journey and

experience doingKitchen Champion

Shaan spills out secretsPeople are often heard saying that love

keeps growing after marriage andjudge Shaan proved the fact on the sets

of Zee TV’s popular non-fiction show SaRe Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs. In the upcomingepisode of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Lil Champs, hostRavi Dubey asked Shaan if it’s an easy lifefor him at home when his wife is notaround. A man of few words ace singer andJudge Shaan who doesn’t talk much abouthis personal life, revealed that life is easywhen his wife is not around at home.Hearing this, Ravi instantly told Shaan thatwe should hear this from the horse’s mouthand invited Shaan’s wife Radhika on stage.Which left Shaan harrowed.

Talking about her beloved husband,Radhika revealed rare facts about Shaan andher relationship. Furthermore she spilled thebeans about her first date with him,

wherein she had to pay the bill and he didn’tfeel shy about it.

After which Shaan was left speechlessand in a very coy manner said, “aap toh meripol khol rahe ho.” Radhika furtherembarrassed Shaan and revealed that oncehe recycled the same letter that he hadreceived from his ex-girlfriend to whichRadhika replied ‘you have guts.’

While reliving all the old memories,Shaan also revealed about his wedding daymadness, “On the day of our wedding, Iwent shopping for my sherwani two hoursbefore the mandap mahurat. It wasn’tbecause of any superstition, I had initiallythought of wearing a dhoti, but a friend ofmine told me that I’ll not be able to get onthe ghodi in a dhoti, so we had to drop theidea last minute and rush to shop for thesherwani in an emergency.”

Hotstar Premium makes way for

MasterChef Australia

MasterChef Australia has been oneof the most loved international

shows in India since it first aired over10 years ago. Australia’s favourite judgesGary Mehigan, George Calombaris,and Matt Preston have becomehousehold names in our country too.MasterChef is no longer just a TV show,it’s a cultural phenomenon and this time,with Hotstar Premium, you will notneed to wait for months to watch thelatest season of one of the biggestreality shows in India. Season 11 ofMasterChef Australia will be available inIndia exclusively on Hotstar Premiumfrom the May 4 2019, soon after theshow’s premiere in Australia.

Twenty-four talented and passionatehome cooks have earned the privilegeof wearing the coveted white apron.With different backgrounds, differentexperiences, skills and culturalinfluences, there is one thing that unitesour Top 24 — their passion for food.Will Jess Hall, a New South Wales travelagent who wears her heart on hersleeve, succeed in winning the hearts ofthe judges? Will Tim Bone, who sharesan uncanny resemblance to PrinceHarry, find his crowning achievementin the kitchen? Will Sandeep Pandit, aVictorian IT project manager fromKashmir, tip the judges spice meter overthe edge with his traditional feast? Thestakes are high as aspiring MasterChef ’scontend for culinary glory with shocks,surprises and bundles of fun at everystep of the way.

Last year, Sashi Cheliah, an Indian-Singaporean origin Australian cookstood victorious. With more talentedhome cooks competing this year, whowill the next MasterChef be? Onlytime will tell! Hotstar Premium is thefirst and only destination for you towatch this show just days after theinternational premiere.

Sashi Cheliah, Indian-Singaporeanborn Australian television cook, prisonofficer and winner of MasterChefAustralia 2018 said: “It’s been a year now

and I am still enjoying the euphoria thatsurrounds MasterChef Australia. It istruly an incredible experience laced withboth delight and excitement. MasterChefAustralia enjoys a massive fan followingin India and the fact that Indianaudiences do not have to wait formonths to catch up on the latesthappenings of the show is quitewonderful. With India being such aculturally vibrant country, food plays avery central role among Indian familiesand with this show, they now have yetanother reason to connect with whatthey love most — food. I wish all thenew contestants for season 11 the bestof luck as the competition progresses.”

Bharti’s romanticdance

Colors’ Khatra Khatra Khatra has beenproviding viewers with rib-tickling

laughter and pranks that can make one’sstomach hurt. Recently, in an evening fillednon-stop entertainment, Bollywood’srenowned actor, Aftab Shivdasani and verybeautiful, Sonnalli Seygall decided to visit thesets of Khatra Khatra Khatra.

Keeping in mind the show’s naturewhich is full of challenges, the duoparticipated with all enthusiasm andperformed every task thrown at them. Thehighlight of the show was when Bharti caughtAftab off-guard and she forced him to danceon a romantic song Kitni Baichain Hoke andled the dance floor with hilarious moves. Asurprised Aftab, was sporting enough to playon and got into the romantic character rathereasy. The whimsical act was well appreciatedthus making it one of the most attractivemoments of the evening.

After failing to make single finalappearance in the cash rich,high profile and glamorousIndian Premier League (IPL)even after being the regularparticipant in the tourna-

ment since its inception in 2008, Capital-based side Delhi Capitals (formerlyDaredevils) made a string of changes thisyear (highlight of which was changing thename) before the start of this year’s tour-nament. They retained the core this time inhope that the retention of three of India’sbrightest upcoming talents may lead to thechange of fate for the side.

Till now the kind of performance theyoung Shreyas Iyer’s side has delivered, itlooks like the change has really worked forthe new looking Delhi Capitals (DC).

After 13 games, the side is at the thirdspot in the points table with eight wins andhas not just only secured its first playoffsberth since 2012 but also became the firstteam to do so in this year’s league.

What’s special about this time was thefact that despite not getting enough homeadvantage from the Feroz Shah Kotla pitch,Delhi won matches and that too against thehigh profile fancy opponents like MumbaiIndians, Sunrisers Hyderabad and KolkataKnight Riders, which have a perfect blendof an all-round balance in its ranks in theirown backyard.

However securing a playoffs berth is justthe first step in the path of success for anyother team playing in the competition butfor Delhi’s side that has finished at the bot-tom half of the table for half a dozen year(three times at the last spot in the past sixyears) this is certainly a moment to cheerfor.

The side is always considered as anunderachiever in this big cash-rich leagueprimarily because of the fact that they failedto make use of the best possible resourcesavailable to them.

Many of the former players performedexceptionally well in the tournament aftermoving out of Delhi, time and again leav-ing Delhi with the guilt of not keepingenough faith in its squad’s abilities to per-form and win tournaments for it.

For example, arguably one of the mostsuccessful skipper Gautam Gambhir, whowon two IPL trophies with the KolkataKnight Riders in his seven-year stay at theCity of Joy was part of the Delhi side for fourseasons (2008-10 and 2018) but the localDelhi lad who is often referred to as the mas-ter planner couldn’t help Delhi win the title.

And it’s not just about Gambhir orSehwag, but even the two most consistentand impactful overseas players of the IPLover the years — David Warner and AndreRussell were also a part of Delhi’s side beforerelocating to Sunrisers Hyderabad andKolkata Knight Riders, where they becomethe biggest match winner of their respectivesides.

The leading run scorer of this year’stournament and two time orange cap win-ner in the past, Warner (692 runs in 12innings) started his IPL journey with Delhiin 2009 and stayed here till 2013. During hisfive-year stay, the New South Wales open-er smashed 1456 runs in 56 innings at anaverage of 28.54 and with two hundreds and10 fifties. While after relocating he managed3271 runs in 71 innings an average of 55.44with 2 centuries and 34 fifties. Also, he suc-

cessfully lead Sunrisers to the winner’s tro-phy in 2016.

While, Warner stint was satisfactorywith Delhi, Caribbean powerhouse AndreRussell failed to make much an impact dur-ing his stay. He featured in seven games forDelhi wherein four innings he could onlymanage 58 runs and only one wicket. Butafter moving to Eden, he managed 1318 runsin 46 innings with a strike rate over 185. Hehas also crowned the most valuable playerof the 2015 edition.

And the way these two performed thisseason, making an impact in every game bytheir presence in the line-up, just imaginewhat Delhi could have done with these twoin its ranks.

However the way, Delhi played this sea-son with all young guys coming together andperforming consistently well throughout hasmade an impact for Delhi. Especially skip-per Shreyas Iyer, the way DC’s 12th skippertook the responsibility of leading from thefront.

The 24-year old Mumbaikar is muchdisciplined with his shot selection and haskept his nerve calm in precious situationsand time and again allowed his bat to makean impact more than his words.

In the batting front, where explosivewicket-keeper batsman Rishabh Pant andseasoned campaigner Shikhar Dhawan iscatching the eyeballs because of the flam-boyance, it is Iyer’s sensible cricket that hashelped Delhi to cross the finishing line onmany a times.

His three fifty-plus scores (67 vs RoyalChallengers Bangalore in Bangalore, 52 atKotla) and 58 not out vs Kings XI Punjab,along with 45 against Sunrisers, 43 in the tiedgame against Kolkata Knight Riders in Delhi,which was decided after super over finishcame in winning the cause.

And to his support in the middleorder, there is Dhoni’s Indian team deputyRishabh Pant. Delhi’s leading run-getter inthe last season (684 runs in 14 games),Pant started this season with abang, thrashing World’s Number1 bowler Jasprit Bumrah duringhis 27-ball, 78 run innings atWankhede in the first game of thisyear’s edition.

And after the World Cupsnub, he smashed 36-ball againstRajasthan Royals, which earnedhim praise from Indian formerskipper and Delhi Capitals advi-sor Sourav Ganguly, who took tosocial media to praise the youngbatsman and wrote: “RishabhPant, you deserve this. You arewow.”

Also adding to the list ofconsistent performers for theDelhi side, Shikhar Dhawanis the most experiencedplayer in the line-up. Afterbeing traded fromSunrisers to Delhi inreturn for VijayShankar, ShahbazNadeem, andAbhishek Sharma,Shikhar found hismojo back andbecame the lead-ing run-scorerfor Delhi in thetournament. The

local Delhi boy is in the fourth place forOrange Cap race and has already scored 470runs in 13 innings.

While, his opening partner PrithviShaw, who made sensational Test debutagainst West Indies in October 2018 by scor-ing 134 runs in his maiden innings inInternational cricket, has also played somevital knocks at the top.

But, apart his 99 against Kolkata KnightRiders at Kotla, he has not played any otherimpactful innings , but is complementingShikhar well at the top by adding quick runsin the first power play to provide Delhi asolid start at the top of the order.

Delhi’s success this time is muchbecause of the impact innings from the topfour Indian batsmen and to complementthem, the side has Kagiso Rabada in its rank,who after missing majority part of the lastseason due to injury, is back into businessand is currently the leading wicket-taker inthe tournament (25 wickets), miles ahead

of his closest contender and countrymenImran Tahir (21 wickets).

His excellent death bowling, per-fect yorker, and wicket-taking ability

makes him stand out of the rest. TheSouth African also defended 11

runs against big-hitting AndreRussell during the Kolkata

game in the seasons firstsuper over. He sent Russell

packing on his 147 km/hyorker, which Ganguly

referred to as the “ballof the IPL.”

However, bythe end of thet o u r n a m e n t ,

Delhi suffered amassive setback when

Cricket South Africacalled back KagisoRabada as a precau-tionary step keeping inmind the ICC WorldCup starting in less thana month time.

The pacer was suf-fering from a stiff back

issue and was sidelinedagainst Chennai game on

May 1, which Delhi went onto lose by 80 runs — its

biggest defeat of this year’s

campaign.Though the side will miss its ace pacer

during the most important phase of the tour-nament, they still have enough players whocan step up and deliver in the big game.

It is beyond any doubt that Delhialways had some great names in its ranks,be it from the Indian subcontinent — theplayers who are traditionally the best play-ers against spin bowling or the fancy over-seas players — ones more comfortableagainst the seam.

But what didn’t even happen in presenceof seasoned campaigners like VirenderSehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh,Zaheer Khan, Kevin Pietersen, Ab deVilliers, David Warner, and Dilshan was theresult in Delhi’s favour. So what differenthappened with time. Is it because of the pres-ence of Ricky Ponting and Sourav Gangulyin the dugout?

Certainly, the presence of two of thebiggest leaders have a great impact but whatnot to forget is the combination with whichDelhi played this time. The franchisebacked its players to perform even after fewdisappointing innings. This was some-thing which was missing in the last 11 years.

Unlike previous times, where they con-stantly used to tussle combinations for thefavourable outcomes. This time, the top four-Prithvi Shaw, Shikhar Dhawan, Shreyas Iyerand Rishabh Pant played every game of thisyear’s campaign even though at times it feltlike Delhi could have tried Colin Munro up

the order in place of young Prithvi, wholooked a slight off colour and hasn’t playedany such impactful innings so far apart his99 against Kolkata.

Or could have asked Rishabh Pant toadjust his game plan according to the teamsituation. Because at times the Delhi ladthrew his wicket at crunch situation by play-ing irrelevant short which could have beenavoided at that point.

But, neither of this happened and thecoaches and captain gave full freedom toeveryone in the squad, to express themselvesas per they want and that blossomed con-fidence in the players which was clearly evi-dent in the field through their body-lan-guage.

The team looks fresher this time and theplayers are giving their best to contribute inthe game not only with the bat and ball, butalso in the fielding.

The other significant change that is vis-ible this time includes the team’s strongbench strength which provides the man-agement to try out various combinations ingames based upon the nature of the wick-et. Often, it is seen that teams don’t try toalter winning combination even though itmismatched with the on-field conditions butDC has not hesitated with change and chop-ping.

In the slow track of Kotla, at times theyplayed with three spinners — Amit Mishra,Axar Patel, and Sandeep Lamichhane whilein high scoring venues of Mumbai andKolkata, they believed in the pace battery ofKagiso Rabada, Ishant Sharma, ChrisMorris, and Keemo Paul.

The kind of combinations with whichDelhi played shows the amount of game-changing talent present in the dugout.And that’s whats the primary element of asuccessful team.

Over the years, Delhi tried to bringimpactful players for a big price and triedto influence the result via them but everytime it turned out to be a blunder. The fran-chise spent 16 crores to land Yuvraj Singhin Delhi but the left-handed batting all-rounder could only manage 248 runs in 14games and just took one wicket. In 2018,they went with Glenn Maxwell for 9 croresbut the Aussie too failed badly and just man-aged 169 runs in 12 games.

The problem with Delhi was not justthat their big picks failed to perform but alsothe management’s lack of trust in its keyplayers. Constant changing and chopping ofthe squad and the change of the support staffalways have a bad impact.

This time neither of this happened andthe result of which is evident in the pointstable where Delhi became the first team toqualify for playoffs.

The belief in abilities is such high amongthe players that when Shikhar Dhawan wasasked about what team is expecting fromnow, the Gabbar said: “We are very confi-dent of winning the title and time and againwe have proved that in this season that weare ready to do so. The belief is such highthat we will not only play the final but willalso win it and end the barren run of tro-phy-less tenure.”

Delhi started this year’s campaign witha convincing 37 runs win against MumbaiIndians at Wankhede in a high scoring affair.Rishabh Pant was the star performer inMumbai, where the World Cup hopefulscored 27-ball unbeaten 78 (7 fours and 7

sixes) to help Delhi post-213-6 and then acombined bowling performance sent MIback to pavilion for 176 runs in 19.2 overs.This was the only game in the entire tour-nament when Mumbai was sent all packing.

But the brilliant start couldn’t last longas in the first home game at Feroz ShahKotla, defending champion Chennai SuperKings beat Delhi by 6 wickets.

However the side quickly bouncedback and halt Kolkata Knight Riders two-match winning run in the third game (sec-ond at home) after a tense super over fin-ish. Prithvi Shaw missed a well-deservedmaiden century by a run but it was KagisoRabada’s brilliant Yorkers in the one overdecider that steal the limelight. The SouthAfrican pacer defended 11 runs againstAndre Russell and lead Delhi home.

The fourth game Delhi played at Mohaliwas the reality check for them where SamCurran exposed loopholes in the batting lineup as Capitals saw shocking collapse and loseseven wickets for just 8 runs in 167 runschase and thus losing the game by 14 runs.

In the fifth game, Sunrisers keep the jug-gernaut rolling and won comfortably by fivewickets after restricting the hosts for 129 for8.

With three defeats in first five games,the ghost of yesteryears started to hauntDelhi, but before it could make an effect theteam bounced back in an amazing fashionand won the next three games on the trot.

The first was against Virat Kohli’s ledRoyal Challengers Bangalore at MChinnaswamy. Kagiso Rabada’s 21/4 firstrestrict RCB under 150 and then ShreyasIyer’s first fifty of the season, 67 runs helpDC win by four wickets.

Next stop was at Eden Gardens whereShikhar Dhawan’s 97 not out anchorsseven-wicket triumph. In the third succes-sive away game, Delhi faced Sunrisers andafter posting 155 runs on the board, Delhifought back against the likes of in-formDavid Warner and Jonny Bairstow and dis-missed last eight opposition batsmen for just15 runs to pull out result in its favour.

This was probably the game whichchanged the perception about Delhi goingahead this season. The comeback was justout of the box against Sunrisers.

However, coming back to Kotla, does-n’t worked for Delhi initially and they lostthe third home game by 40 runs againstMumbai Indians.

But, they finally manage to break theKotla code in the fifth and sixth game againstKXIP and RCB respectively with ShreyasIyer and Shikhar Dhawan leading from thefront by scoring half-centuries in both thegames. DC won by five-wickets againstPunjab and 16 runs against Bangalore.

In between both these games, theyplayed against Rajasthan Royals at Jaipur,where Rishabh Pant’s 36-ball 78* outshinesAjinkya Rahane’s second IPL hundred (105not out) to help Delhi win by six-wickets.

But, in the penultimate game of theleague phase, without the likes of Rabadaand Ishant, Delhi first failed to understandthe nature of Chennai’s wicket and failed torestrict MS Dhoni to take CSK close to 180runs mark. The side suffered its heaviestdefeat of the campaign at Chepauk by 80runs where Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadejashared seven-wickets to sweep Delhi out for99 runs.

special 09LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019

With the perfect blend of youth and experience in the squad and result coming in its favour, reshaped Delhi look set to end the wait of more than adecade for its maiden IPL trophy. What makes it a serious contender for the title this time under the leadership of Shreyas Iyer, HARSHIT BISHThas a say about as he analyses the factors which worked in the Capitals’ favour

Year League table Final standing standing

2008 4th out of 8 Semifinalists (4th)

2009 1st out of 8 Semifinalists (3rd)

2010 5th out of 8 5th

2011 10th out of 10 10th

2012 1st out of 9 Playoffs (3rd)







2019 3rd out of 8 TBA

HEAD

D D C A P T A I N S

Name Mat Won Lost Tie NR Win%

Virender Sehwag 52 28 24 0 0 53.84

Gautam Gambhir 25 12 13 0 0 48.00

Dinesh Karthik 6 2 4 0 0 33.33

James Hopes 3 0 2 0 1 0.00

Mahela Jayawardene 18 6 11 1 0 36.11

Ross Taylor 2 0 1 0 1 0.00

David Warner 2 0 2 0 0 0.00

Kevin Pietersen 11 1 10 0 0 9.09

JP Duminy 16 6 9 0 1 40.00

Zaheer Khan 23 10 13 0 0 43.47

Karun Nair 3 2 1 0 0 66.66

IN CAPITAL LETTERS

variety 10

SHALINI SAKSENA n NEW DELHI

Are you a discerning customerand wouldn’t mind paying forservices that one may not find

anywhere in Delhi-NCR? If theanswer is yes, then head to The ManiPedi Spa in Gurugram — the first nailsalon which recently opened its sec-ond outlet near Galleria Market with1,800 sq ft state-of-the art facility.

The reason why a Delhi residentshould visit this spa is because they area ‘one of a kind’ beauty service busi-ness. Mahema Bhardwaj, ManagingDirector of The Mani Pedi Spa tellsyou that the reason why she startedthis spa was because she couldn’t findthe service she wanted.

Bhardwaj says that the secondoutlet is the result of an overwhelm-ing response from their customers atour first outlet.

“Our vision is to provide ourclients with never been experiencedservices in the mani-pedi industryhere in India. Our approach towardsproviding these services is different

from what is prevalent in the market.Everything from our ambience toplacement of stations, selection andtraining cum certification of a femaledriven staff, use of top-of the lineproducts sourced internationally andutmost focus on hygiene sets us apartfrom others,” Bhardwaj tells you.

“Many salons have men. Somewomen find it uncomfortable. Also, Iwas not sure about the instrumentsand whether they were being properlysterlised. We use disposable wherepossible, rest are put in a sterliser. Theproducts used are complete safe. Onecan even eat with one’s hands and notworry about any chemicals going inthe body ensuring hygiene levels thatat par with US safety standards. Ourstaff is regularly trained in the latesttechniques used internationally,”Bhardwaj says.

The products make a huge dif-ference as one of the therapist getsworking on the feet. After the basiccleaning (they use disposable instru-ments) an egg mask put on the feetand then wrapped in cling foil (for 10minutes leaves) the feet soft. A gel nailpolish completes treatment.

Nail spa is just as thorough. Thetherapist cleans and buffs away. Don’tworry if you don’t have natural nails.The spa uses plastic nails by CNDShellac, a US-based company. If plas-tic is a no-no for you, go for foambased nails. They are just as sturdy andperfectly safe. That done, one has theoption of normal nail paint (OPI nailcollection with lacquered finish). Onecan choose from over 250 nail paints.One can even go for nail art. if youdon’t know what design to choose thetherapist will step in to help. The spaoffers many designs. One can evengive the therapist your own design.

Bhardwaj plans to open 10 moreoutlets in India and create a preferencefor this new concept of spas. WillDelhi be first in line? Hopefully, yes.

LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019

nWhat is the film about?The film is directed and written by Alankrita Shrivastava.

It is an interesting take on lives of people in our country. Allmy scenes are with Konkana and the complex relationship theyhave since they are from different class.nHow has your journey been thus far?

I have been in the industry for around 10 years, I wouldsay that my acting journey began only five- six years back asI have been acting seriously in the last five years.nWhat has been some of the ups and downs?

In the beginning, there were many downs. When I cameto Mumbai I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t have any work.There were many lean periods. There were times of frustra-tion. It was tough to pass time. Things changed in 2016 andluckily I started getting work, a lot more than I expected.nHow tough is it to deal with this situation?

To be honest one is angry. It is easy to say have patience.But this is not easy when you see others get work and you havenone. One has to be patient in a good way. You don’t knowhow long you will last here. You have to be ready all the time.You have to keep yourself motivated at all times.nDid you always want to be an actor?

No, not at all. I was pursuing my engineering in from IIT-Delhi. I started acting doing plays where I was there— with-in the campus and outside. I even worked for a year while pur-suing theatre. But it was tough because of office hours. I wasgetting frustrated. I realised that I was missing acting and want-ed to go back to the stage. That is when I decided to take abreak. I met a few theatre people in Mumbai, quit my job andshifted here. I never went back.nUsually, films is the first step after theatre, you chose TV.Why?

This is not entirely true. I did this one TV show last yearbecause it was different, it was a conscious decision. I was doingtheatre because I love being on the stage. Many of us are notvery enthusiastic about TV since it doesn’t excite as much eventhough there is a lot of money. It was not about making money.If that I was the case I would have stuck to my job.nIs that why you did web, is offers excitement?

Yes. It offers you so much more. Not that there is any harmin doing TV shows. TV actors are so hardworking. It is justthat I don’t find any relatability. Web and theatre offers excite-ment. There is experimentation. This is why a lot of Bollywoodfilmmakers are doing web shows since they also feel that theyhave a lot more to do.nHas the change in content made you reinvent yourself?

There have been changes in web content. When I did myfirst web show things were different since the budget was smalland scales have increased. Not the case now. If players are herenow. This has opened up doors to do more on a much largerscale. This is great for actors.nWhat is the lesson that you have learnt?

There are lessons everyday as new things are thrown at youdaily. You have to reinvent yourself. You can’t be smug. To beflexible and have the ability to learn all the time. Things changeyou can’t say you know all.

AMOL PARASHER will soonbe seen in Dolly Kitty Aur WohChamakte Sitare directed byAlankrita Shrivastava.SHALINI SAKSENA chats upthe actor about his journey

‘An actor can’t

be smug’

nHow did acting happen?I knew that I wanted to be an

actor when I was two-and-a-half yearsold. I did my first stage performanceback then. My parents worked asteachers in a school and they wantedsomebody to play Lord Krishna, inhis younger years. That’s how I wenton stage for the first time. Now, I feelfortunate enough to have spent twodecades working in the industry,

doing some of my best work.nIs it hard to survive in the

industry?I am in a comfortable

place now where peo-ple would not like tocompromise withwanting somebodyelse instead of me. Ihave had made myplace in the industrywhere people showthat belief in me that

you can do this andyou should do this.

The best of opportuni-ties are coming my way. I

have produced a short film— Chutney, which was loved

by all. So things have been work-

ing out well. Competition jisko lagtaho, woh uskey bare me sochey meredimag me aisa koi khyaal nahin aatahai.nFrom Platform to Bioscopewala,how has your journey been?

I still feel the same excitementwhile going on the sets. I still feeldelighted to have signed a new film. Ifeel happy when people read out acertain kind of script to me. I feel joy-ful. I like playing different kinds ofpeople, that’s the thrill for me.nDo you have any regrets?

Not really. Eventually, all my deci-sions have turned out right because Iam still here in the industry.nYou have shared the screenspacewith some of the prominent actorsin the industry. What is that onething that you learned from them?

I have learnt something or theother from all of them. I have recentlyworked with Akshay Kumar for a filmand he has a unique, razor-sharpfocus. He is doing about 75-80 thingsat any given time — listening to thesongs of some upcoming film, listen-ing to the narration of some scripts,meeting someone and working on thepromotions of something. He can do

multiple things at the same time. Hemanages everything so well that itdoesn’t make any difference while heis shooting. So this concentration issomething that I learnt from him.When it comes to Aamir Khan, thenof course he does a few things but hegoes deep into them, so this is what Ilearnt from him. Then, KareenaKapoor Khan was another great artistto work with. She is lovely, generous,happy, friendly and relaxed aboutbeing on sets. It feels like she was bornon the sets and it’s a part of her life.nYou have worked on differentmedia — stage, TV, films and web.What is the one differnce you felt inall of them?

Films are director-oriented. He isthe one who sees the whole thing inhis head and he will shoot you andput only those parts in the film thathe likes. He will change and modifythings according to him to make theperformance work. Also everything isshot in bits and pieces. Television iswriter driven. Stage is solely an actor’smedium and there is no retake. Ienjoy films and TV for their reach.nYou are now a part of SavdhaanIndia so what made you say yes to it?

This the first time that I am host-ing a crime-based show. SavdhaanIndia is an iconic show and I feel itwill probably go on for many moreyears. It is a talked-about show whereeveryone has either seen it or heardabout it. It has completed its sevenyears which is a big thing. Also, it isnot just an overnight thing, it is aclassic. I liked the idea of the showand the premise that it sets out — tobe alert. In our country, where thereis such a vast populace, there is animportant need for alertness.Furthermore, in these seven years ofthe show, they have kept up with thechanging nature of the crimes. Also itis a medium where I get to playmyself. It is my direct connect withthe audience where I can communi-cate to them ki maksad aapko darananahin, aap ko samjhana hai.nWhat next?

There is a web series coming outin May — Hostages. It is a dream rolefor me. I am doing a film — GoodNews with Dharma Productions. It ismy first project with them and I amexcited about it. I am writing anddirecting a feature, so that will benext.

‘I have made my place in the industry’

It’s a kids world

What would your reac-tion be if someonewere to tell you that

the Capital witnessed a stageshaw that had an all kids starcast. Incredulous, would bethe first thought to come tomind. But believe it or not theretelling of the classical —Sleeping Beauty — enthralledthe audience recently becauseits stars ranged between theages of four to 13 with the 13-year-old playing the lead inSleeping Beauty.

The musical is a brainchildof Bubbles Sabharwal (SwaraBhaskar’s mother in Veere DiWedding) and Lushin Dubey.With over 30 years experi-ence, the duo, who startedKids World back in 1990, arealso the creators of Wizwits thatperformed at Kingdom ofDreams.

Sleeping Beauty that beganas a theatrical workshop soontook the shape of a full-fledgedstage as the kids wanted to seethemselves grow.

“Entertainment should bewholesome and healthy notonly movies. There should beother avenues. Children’s per-sonality grows with leaps andbounds having gone throughtheatre. We teach confidenceand communication wherethere has to be clarity ofthought and speech. Thisempowers you,” Sabharwal says.

A majority of the inspira-tion and elements for the musi-cal came from the fairytale. Therest was from everyday life.“There are some fictional ele-ment to the play as well. Thereare a couple of characters whoare not there in the original likeFicklehead. They are like twojokers. This is to introducehumour into the play.Maleficent is an eight-headedmonster whose power is in apurple flower. The reason forthis dramatisation is to let thekids’ imagination a flight offancy,” Sabharwal tells you.Though 80 per cent of theSleeping Beauty is in English,there rest is in Hindi.

She doesn’t agree that the-atre has come of age today.

“There has always been view-ership for theatre. Back in1992, Peter Pan was staged. Wedid 30 shows. But Kingdom ofDreams gave a pan India podi-um to theatre. This has helped.School groups were coming into watch Wizwits,” Sabharwaltells you.

According to her whatbrings down theatre is the pro-hibitive cost that comes if onewants to showcase it in Delhi,not so in the case of Mumbaiwhere there are places whereone can get basic infrastructure.

Fourteen-year-old TahiraSolomon from Sanskriti Schoolwho played Aurora says: “Ihave been working with KidsWorld since I was about 6.With each play I’ve not onlycreated many new friends butI’ve also learned many newthings and have grown into amuch more confident personunder the guidance of Lushinand Bubbles ma’am and I hopeto continue my journey withthem.”

Her sister Amyra who is inClass IV tells you that she usedto watch her sister do plays inKids World since she was a tod-dler and was fascinated and thatgot her interested in work-shops. “Now , I got to be onstage and perform in front ofmany people. I have lots of funand I make a lot of new friends,”the eight -year-old student ofSanskriti Schools shares. Sheplayed the witch, Gorgon.

Anya Rastogi, a nine-year-old Class V student of ModernSchool, Vasant Vihar whoplayed Malificent says: “I havehad lots of fun performing asMalificent in Sleeping Beauty. AtKids World, they don’t push youbut make it interesting andmake you take part in the deci-sions about the play also. I havealso made a lot of new friends.I love the music and the cos-tumes as well,”

Laura Santana who gavethe music tells you that she hasben part of the Kids Worldsince she was a kid herself. Herinspiration for the musicalcomes from the fact that herfather and uncle gave music to

each and every stage play thatKidsworld has given — FromAnnie to Oye Matilda! Tu HaiUstaad!

“My inspiration has alwaysbeen the kids. I started work-ing with my uncle the minuteI passed out of college.Whenever we do a production,we make singing a little con-temporary so that the kids canenjoy and have fun while learn-ing,” Santana explains.

The challenge is that kidstoday are not exposed to jazz,western classical and or evenIndian classical. “The minutethey are exposed to music, it ispop not that there is anythingwrong here. But we should beaware of our roots as well.Sleeping Beauty is western clas-sical by Pyotr IlyichTchaikovsky. The minute theyhear it, they say: ‘Oh my God!What is this? We can’t sing this.’To get them to change theirstyle of singing is challenging.But then they go back andexplore it and enjoyTchaikovsky which is satisfyingfor me,” Santana says.

The workshops that ulti-mately culminate into a pro-duction starts with introducingthe kids to an animated versionof a classical if it is available.When it comes to singing, it isnot purely classical; the musicis peppy, something that theycan identify with.

“For this stage show, wehave used instruments like thecello and the flute. This isbecause I didn’t want to tam-per with the classic too muchbut I introduced drums. Thebeat here adds a bit of a temposo that the kids find it bouncy,”Santana who also gets a lotquestions from the kids whowant to introduce their owntouch to the song.

“When they ask me this, Igive them options. if they wantit to try their way or my way ora middle path — theirs andmine. I work with each kidindividually. While workingwith the lead of Sleeping Beauty,I see what her range is and cus-tomise the song accordingly,”Santana says and tells you thatthe audience is always in awe

since the youngest star is just 4. Dubey tells you that her

background as an special edmakes her job easier. The factthat she loves children is anadded advantage. “You areworking with specially-ablekids. It can test your patienceand tolerance. I am a calm per-son and love kids. When peo-ple ask me how many kids Ihave I tell them two — biolog-ical — but tens of thousandsotherwise. The minute youtalk to children, you are on parwith them. I don’t mollycoddlethem. There is an intrinsicwisdom in kids,” Dubeyexplains.

There is an exercise thatDubey insists upon. Each of herartists have to know the lines ofother performers. If an artist isunable to perform, other onecan step in. This way each kidfeels important and knows thatnobody is a lead.

“Five-year-old Dipshiknows all the lines of the nar-rator. If today, if the narratorfalls ill, Dipshi will step in,”Dubey says.

Interestingly, the theatricalworkshop found its way on tothe stage. “We didn’t knowwhat kind of lessons the kidshad imbibed. it is easy to per-form in front of moms, dadsand chachas. The real test is tosee them perform in front of anunknown crowd,” Dubeyshares.

However, to take SleepingBeauty to other cities may notbe so easy since the cast is soyoung — 4 to 13. In the past theteam has travelled with fivemothers as guardians and ayoung starcast. At best thedirectors will take the musicalto close by places likeChandigarh or even Sohna.

To put out this stage play,it has taken the directors twoto three weeks. The kids havebeen trained for two hours eachday with no break.

“Usually we don’t want toprolong the time of the work-shops. The time that we workwith is crucial. So sometimeswe work without a break,”Dubey says.

SHALINI SAKSENA speaks with directors BUBBLES SABHARWAL and LUSHIN DUBEYabout their latest workshop theatrical — Sleeping Beauty — an all children’s stage show

I STILL FEELEXCITED TO GO ONTHE SETS. I FEEL

DELIGHTED TO HAVESIGN A NEW FILM. IFEEL HAPPY WHENPEOPLE READ OUTCERTAIN KIND OFSCRIPTS TO ME. I

FEEL JOYFUL. I LIKEPLAYING DIFFERENTKINDS OF PEOPLEAND THAT’S THETHRILL FOR ME

Each of theartists have toknow the lines

of otherperformers. Ifany artist isunable to

perform, theother one canstep in. Thisway each kid

feels importantand knows that

nobody is alead

— Lushin Dubey

Talktime

TISCA CHOPRA

She is known for giving stellar performances in

films like Taare Zameen Par and Dil Toh

Bachcha Hai Ji. She speaks with

Musba Hashmi about her journey in the

industry, hosting a crime show and

upcoming projects

Time to nail this art

BEFORE

AFTER

Starcast of Sleeping Beauty take a bow

BENGALURU: Closing in on one of their worstIPL seasons, Royal Challengers Bangalore's bat-ting mainstays Virat Kohli and AB de Villierson Saturday apologised for their "up and downperformances", and thanked the fans for theirsupport.

"RCB fans, thank you so much for the sup-port throughout the season, you guys areincredible. Virat will agree to the fact that thelast game with the rain, it was only a 5-over gamebut one of the most memorable games in my lifeand it wasn't even the result. Thanks to you guys.

"Sorry about the up and down perfor-mances, we are hoping to finish on a high. Pleasekeep supporting us, it keeps us going. Hopingsomething special is coming in the last game andnext season," AB de Villiers said in the messageto their fans for supporting them throughout aforgettable campaign.

"One game left for the season, it's been dis-appointing for us and for all of you but as wedo every year, we are going to come out and doeverything next season to turn it around.

"This has to be a special message for you all

because even after three hours of a game beingwashed out, you still sit in the stadium and giveus the loudest cheer when we walk out to bat.It's special and it's always going to be special inour hearts and minds. Thank you for being thebest fans that you are," Kohli said in the video.

sport 11LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019

PTI ■ MOHALI

Already assured of a playoff berth,table toppers Chennai Super Kings

will aim to maintain their pole posi-tion with a victory over a strugglingKings XI Punjab in their last IPL groupleague encounter here on Sunday.

After a defeatagainst MumbaiIndians in an earliermatch, MahendraSingh Dhoni-led CSKbounced back with amassive 80-run winover Delhi Capitals intheir last game, toonce again capture the No.1 spot.

Heavy loss against MumbaiIndians saw their net run-rate falling

and now with just a game left in theleague stage, the defending championsneed a win to maintain their domi-nance and cement their position at thetop.

With 18 points from 13 games, awin will give them 20 points, which isunlikely to be achieved by any other

team.In their previous

match against DelhiCapitals, skipperDhoni and SureshRaina guided the teamto a challenging 179/4and then restricted theopponent to just 99.

Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadejashared seven scalps between them asthey wrecked havoc.

Dhoni, Raina, Ambati Rayudu,Shane Watson and Faf du Plessis willlook to score big runs in Mohali, whileTahir and Harbhajan will aim toflummox the Kings XI batsmen withtheir spin magic.

In contrast, Kings XI Punjab, whoare already out of the play-offs race,would be playing only for pride. With10 points from 13 games, they are atseventh spot, a rung above bottom-placed Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Inconsistent KXIP's hopes of mak-ing it to the playoffs were dashed in aseven-wicket loss to Kolkata KnightRiders in their last match here. Notbeing in the reckoning for playoffs willbe a disappointment for the homecrowd in Sunday's match but they willhope that KXIP finish on a high.

In the previous game against KKR,despite posting a challenging 183/6,visitors' openers Shubman Gill (65 notout) and Chris Lynn (46) took thematch away from the KXIP. After thematch, KXIP skipper RavichandranAshwin admitted that powerplay hasbeen one of his team's "massive prob-lems".

Ashwin summed up his team'scampaign this season as not up themark.

Their in-form openers Chris Gayleand K L Rahul, who have been amongruns, would be keen to come goodagainst CSK.

The likes of Sam Curran, MayankAgarwal and Nicholas Pooran willhave to shoulder more responsibilityin the middle-order.

Super Kings look to maintain pole position

Up Next

Live on Star Sports 1& 2

MOHALI

KXIP vs CSK

SUNDAY | 4:00 PM

HEADTO

HEADM 20

CSK 12

KXIP 7

Match After

PTI ■ NEW DELHI

Delhi Capitals crushedRajasthan Royals' play-off hopes with a con-

vincing five-wicket victory tofinish off the league campaignin the ongoing IPL on a highnote here on Saturday.

Already through to theplay-offs, Delhi Capitals firstrode on veterans Ishant Sharmaand Amit Mishra's superbefforts with the bowl to restrictRajasthan Royals to 115 fornine and then chased down thetarget in 16.1 overs, withRishabh Pant remainingunbeaten on a 38-ball 53.

The win lifted Delhi to thesecond spot in the standingswith 18 points from 14 gamesbut to finish as second best side,the Capitals would needMumbai Indians to lose againstKolkata Knight Riders onSunday.

A win for Mumbai wouldautomatically drop Delhi tothe third spot as they have aninferior net run-rate.

Rajasthan are out of thetournament, finishing with just11 points from 14 games.

Chasing a modest target,Delhi made a quick startthrough Shikhar Dhawan (16)and Prithvi Shaw (8) before IshSodhi (3/26) removed boththe openers in consecutiveballs to give himself a hat-trickchance.

Sodhi first got rid offDhawan, in the second ball ofthe fourth over, holed out byRiyan Parag and then Shaw

played on the next delivery.Skipper Shreyas Iyer (15 off

9) and Rishabh then added 33runs off 25 balls for the thirdwicket before the former washoled out by Liam Livingstoneoff Shreyas Gopal.

While Delhi lost two morewickets in the form of ColinIngram (12) and SherfaneRutherford (11), Rishabh car-ried on his bat and finished offthe chase by hitting Sodhi for

a big six over long-leg off andin the process also notched uphis fifty.

Rishabh's unbeaten knockwas studded with two fours andfive hits over the fence.

Earlier, Ishant (3/38) didthe early damage before leg-spinner Mishra (3/17) came tothe party to rock Rajasthan'sinnings.

Young Parag (50 off 49,4x4s, 2x6s) was the lone bright

spot for Rajasthan as he held onto one fort and notched up hismaiden IPL fifty to take the vis-itors close to the 120-run mark.

Rajasthan had a disastrousstart to their innings after opt-ing to bat as they were reducedto 30 for four at the end of thefirst six overs of powerplay withIshant doing bulk of the dam-age.

Ishant struck in the secondover, removing Rajasthan skip-

per Ajinkya Rahane (2) andthen came back an over later toclean up Livingstone (14).

To make matters worse forthe visitors, in-form SanjuSamson (5) fell victim to anunnecessary mix up withMahipal Lomror in the nextover.

Lomror (8) didn't help hiscause either as he handedIshant his third wicket of theday, nicking one to Rishabhbehind the stumps.

Parag and Gopal tried tostabilise the innings with a 27-run fifth-wicket stand beforeMishra scalped two wickets inconsecutive deliveries in the12th over to disturb Rajasthan'sresistance.

Mishra first foxed Gopal(12) to be stumped by Rishabhand then induced a faint edgefrom new man Stuart Binny,which again Rishabh obliged.This gave Mishra a chance forregistering a hat-trick.

The leg-spinner was wellon course of scalping a hat-trick but Trent Boult droppeda sitter at long-off to handKrishnappa Gowtham life.

However, Mishra got hisman an over later as Gowathamgave a straight forward catch toIshant at long-off andRajasthan slumped to 65 forseven.

Parag opened up late andsmacked Ishant for two fours topick up 18 runs off the 17thover and then smashed Boultfor two sixes in the final overbefore perishing in the last ballof the innings.

PTI ■ BENAGLURU

Amatch-winning 120-runpartnership by Shimron

Hetmyer (75) and GurkeeratSingh (65) helped RoyalChallengers Bangalore beatSunrisers Hyderabad by fourwickets in their IPL game hereSaturday.

Earlier, captain KaneWilliamson dealt in fours andsixes as Sunrisers Hyderabadplundered 28 runs in the finalover to reach a challenging 175for seven.

SRH were 147 for seven atthe end of the 19th over butWilliamson cut loose after that,smashing Umesh Yadav fortwo sixes and as many fours tofinish the innings on a high.

Williamson remained notout on 70 off 43 balls, hittingfour sixes and five fours at theM Chinnaswami Stadium.

To make matters worse forYadav, he was wrongly no-balled by umpire Nigel Llong.

Sent into bat, SRH were offto a brisk start with MartinGuptill and Wriddhiman Saha(20) putting on 46 runs for theopening wicket in 4.3 overs, butthe keeper-batsman failed toclear pacer Navdeep Saini as thevisitors lost their first wicket.

After addition of another14 runs to the team total, SRHlost their second wicket whenGuptill was dismissed byWashington Sundar for a 23-ball 30.

Manish Pandey, whostretched Mumbai Indians withhis brave half century in theirlast game, fell cheaply, for nine,leaving the visitors in sometrouble at 61 for three in theeighth over.

Picked in the World Cupbound Indian team for his

'three-dimensional' abilities,Vijay Shankar raced to 27 withthe help of three sixes, but againfailed to translate the start intoa big score.

Shankar was Sundar's thirdscalp of the evening andYuzvendra Chahal picked uphis 100th wicket in IPL whenhe lured Yusuf Pathan intoplaying an irresponsible shot toleave Sunrisers at 127 for fivein the final ball of 16th over.

Even as wickets fell at reg-

ular intervals, Williamsonlooked to rotate the strike andalso go for the big hits.

Barring the opening stand,the only partnership that flour-ished a bit was the one betweenWilliamson and Shankar, whoended up giving a catch whilegoing for a slog sweep.

Williamson brought up hisfifty in style, hoicking Yadavover long off for a six and fol-lowed that with some morelusty hits.

PTI ■ MUMBAI

Their play-off chances hang-ing in balance, Kolkata

Knight Riders will keep nostone unturned as they take onMumbai Indians with a prayeron their lips in a must-winIndian Premier League game onSunday.

KKR defeated Kings XIPunjab to keep their play-offhopes alive till the last leagegame but if SunrisersHyderabad manage to sneakpast RCB on Saturday, it mighttake a Herculean effort in termsof improving the net run-rate.

Placed fourth, SRH have anet run-rate of +0.653, which iscomparatively better than fifthplaced KKR's +0.173. In case,SRH lose to RCB, it will be likea quarter-final for KKR as a winwill do the job.

However MI would like to

carry on the winning momen-tum as 18 points and a better netrun-rate than both first placedCSK and third placed DelhiCapitals will give them twoshots at qualifying for the final.

With Chris Lynn andShubhman Gill coming good

and the marauding AndreRussell to follow at No 4, skip-per Dinesh Karthik would fancyhis chances at the batting-friend-ly Wankhede.

If the likes of seasonedLasith Malinga, Jasprit Bumrah,Krunal Pandya and leggie Rahul

Chahar have to be taken to task,then KKR batsman will have toput up a special show.

Russell, who has been con-sistently delivering for his team,will have to showcase hisprowess and mettle once again.

For KKR, their bowling hasbeen the biggest concern astheir bowlers have been ripped

apart by their opponents both inthe Powerplay as well as at thedeath. Pacers Harry Gurney,Sandeep Warrier, Narine andPiyush Chawla will have tobowl a tight line and length torestrict the famed Mumbai bat-ters.

Meanwhile, MumbaiIndians, who have already qual-

ified for the playoffs will eyerevenge after KKR after they hadsuffered a 34-run defeat inKolkata.

Also the result of the matchwhich finalise on which positionMumbai finish and who will betheir opponent in the play-off.

For the hosts, apart fromHardik (380 runs from 13matches), South AfricanQuinton De Kock (462 from 13)has been among the runs. Butothers including Rohit Sharma(331 runs from 12), SuryakumarYadav (292 runs from 13),Krunal Pandya ( 176 runs from13) and Kieron Pollard (240 runsfrom 13) need to shoulderresponsibility.

However an area of concernfor head-coach MahelaJayawardene would be the fre-quent middle-order collapseand he would like to strength-en before the knockouts.

Live on Star Sports 1& 2

MUMBAI

MI vs KKR

SUNDAY | 8:00 PM

HEADTO

HEADM 24

MI 18

KKR 6

PTI n MOHALI

Kolkata Knight Riders skipperDinesh Karthik is not known

to lose his cool for on-field lapsesbut he doesn’t mind letting it ripoccasionally if it can bring the bestout of his players.

During Friday’s must-win awaymatch against Kings XI Punjab,Karthik lost his cool at the inningsbreak as his bowlers and fieldersdidn’t execute his plans properly.

When asked about his frayedtemper, the KKR skipper admittedthat he wasn’t happy with hisbowlers and fielders.

“It’s been a hard few days. Iwasn’t too happy with the what thebowlers and the fielders weredoing, so I thought I should let theboys know what I felt at that time.

It is rare, not many people haveseen me angry. If I feel I need to beangry to get the best out of the boys,then maybe,” Karthik said after histeam’s seven wicket win over KXIP.

KKR fast bowler SandeepWarrier said that the skipper wasurging his men to be on toes dur-ing crunch situations.

“He (Karthik) was telling us tobe on our toes as it was a must-wingame for us. He was telling us tofocus on every ball,” said Warrier,who got the wickets of KL Rahuland Chris Gayle. The skipper how-ever was all praise for youngShubman Gill, who scored anunbeaten 65 off 49 balls to anchorthe chase of 184.

“It’s fair that we have given Gilla chance at the top of the order, andhe has grabbed the opportunity

with both hands. It’s a big ground,but we did the small things well. Weran well between the wickets, putpressure on the bowler and it wasgood execution from the bats-men,” Karthik said.

Asked what was the gameplanfor Rahul and Gayle, Warrier said,“I was looking not be predictableto them because the wicket was justholding a bit at the start. So, I wastrying to be not be predictable. Mystrength is swinging the ball, Iwas trying to swing it both waysand mix it with slow balls inbetween.”

“Back of the length was a bithard to hit as the ball was not com-ing onto the bat pretty easily, so Istuck to this with the new ball andit worked,” the 28-year-old bowlerfrom Kerala said.

DC END ROYALS CAMPAIGN

Ishant & Amit pick 3 wickets each to help Delhi win by 5 wickets

Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer watch the pitch during the first game on Sunday IPL

Mumbai Indians players arrive at the pitch before the match IPL

KKR face Mumbai in must win clash

Won't mind if my anger gets best out of boys: Karthik

Virat, AB sorry for up & down performance

Hetmyer, Gurkeerat script RCB’s win

sport 12LUCKNOW | SUNDAY | MAY 5, 2019

PTI n NEW DELHI

Not known to pull backpunches, Gautam

Gambhir hit back at ShahidAfridi, offering to take him toa session with “a psychiatrist”after the former Pakistan cap-tain wrote a few uncharitablethings about the Indian open-er.

Afridi in his just-releasedautobiography ‘Game Changer’had sarcastically referred toGambhir as someone who“behaves like a cross betweenDon Bradman and JamesBond,” and has a “lot of attitudeand no great records” Gambhirresponded through his officialtwitter handle tagging Afridi.

“...you are a hilariousman!!! Anyway, we are stillgranting visas to Pakistanis formedical tourism. I will per-sonally take you to a psychia-trist,” Gambhir tweeted.

The duo never shared agreat rapport on and off-the-field and it was reflected inAfridi’s take on Gambhir.

“Some rivalries were per-sonal, some professional. Firstthe curious case of Gambhir.Oh poor Gautam. He & his atti-tude problem. He who has no

personality. He who is barely acharacter in the great schemeof cricket. He who has nogreat records just a lot of atti-tude,” Afridi wrote.

“Gambhir behaves like he’sa cross between Don Bradman& James Bond. In Karachi, wecall guys like him saryal(grumpy). It’s simple, I likehappy, positive people. Doesn’tmatter if they are aggressive orcompetitive, but you have to bepositive & Gambhir wasn’t,” hefurther wrote.

The two had an angry bustup during a bilateral seriesODI in Kanpur back in 2007

(wrongly referred in Afridi’sbook as Asia Cup game).

“I remember the run-inwith Gambhir during the 2007Asia Cup, when he completedhis single while runningstraight into me. The umpireshad to finish it off or I wouldhave. Clearly we had a frankbilateral discussion about eachother’s female relatives,” Afridirecalled the uncharitable verbalexchange. Afridi has recentlyagreed that he had indulged inage-fraud and was 21 years oldwhen he scored his hundreddebut and not 16 as it wasbelieved for a lot of years.

AP n TURIN

Cristiano Ronaldo scoredlate as Juventus dented

Torino’s chances of qualifyingfor the Champions Leaguewith a 1-1 draw in Serie A onFriday.

Torino looked set to com-memorate the 70th anniversaryof the Superga air disaster bybeating Juventus following SasaLukic’s first-half goal, butRonaldo leveled six minutesfrom time.

Torino remained sixth, twopoints below fourth-placeAtalanta for the finalChampions League berth,ahead of the rest of the week-end’s games. Juventus hasalready won its eighth consec-utive league title.

“The draw burns. We werethinking of victory,” Torinocoach Walter Mazzarri said.“Two or three times we couldhave scored the second goaland maybe brought the winhome. There are still threematches left. We have to playthem like we did tonight.”

The derby was movedahead a day to avoid clashingwith the anniversary of the1949 plane crash in which 31people died, including the“Grande Torino” team thathad won five straight league

titles.“The ‘Grande Torino’ side

represented the history of foot-ball,” Juventus coachMassimiliano Allegri said.

“Tomorrow we have tocommemorate this tragedy,which will always remain in

everyone’s memory and heart.” Torino took the lead in the

18th minute after Lukic mus-cled Miralem Pjanic off the ballon a Juventus throw-in andcurled into the far side of thenet for his first goal for the club.

However, Ronaldo headed

Leonardo Spinazzola’s crossinto the top right corner in the84th minute for his 21st leaguegoal, which moved him backinto a tie for second behindSampdoria striker FabioQuagliarella for the most goalsin Serie A this season.

CHARLOTTE: Anirban Lahiri’sdisappointing run continued ashe missed the cut at the WellsFargo Championship here.

He followed up his firstround 79 with a 71 to be eight-over for 36 holes and missedaction for another weekend.

This is Lahiri’s sixth missedcut in 14 starts and he has onlyone Top-10, at the MayakobaChampionships.

He will now need somequick results to ensure that hekeeps his record of making theFedExCup play-offs each yearsince 2015.

Lahiri hit 13 of 18 greens inregulation during his secondround at the Wells FargoChampionship, though it wasbetter than the first day. Yet thefirst day’s 79 did not help hiscause as the cut fell at one-over.

Lahiri had four birdies andthree bogeys in his one-under71, but it was little too late tokeep him for final two rounds.

Jason Dufner, who hasstruggled since 2017 moved intothe lead at 11-under following a63 in the second round. It is thefirst time he has a 36-hole leadsince the 2017 Memorial.

AFP n LIVERPOOL

Everton kept their slim hopesof a top-seven finish in the

Premier League alive as theyrecorded a fourth consecutivevictory at Goodison Park bydefeating Burnley on Friday.

The Toffees have seen offChelsea, Arsenal andManchester United on theirpatch recently — by an aggregatescore of 7-0 — and two goals inthree first-half minutes proveddecisive against the Clarets.

Burnley defender Ben Meegot a telling final touch toRicharlison’s strike while SeamusColeman headed in on therebound as Everton ran out 2-0winners in both sides’ penulti-mate fixture of the campaign.

The win moved Everton upto eighth and to within a singlepoint of Wolves in seventh — aposition that will seal a EuropaLeague berth next season ifManchester City beat Watford inthe FA Cup final later thismonth. Wolves could extinguishcoach Marco Silva’s stated aim ofEuropean football with a winover already relegated Fulhamon Saturday but this was animpressive way to sign off athome from Everton.

Just as it seemed the visitorshad weathered the earlyonslaught, they fell behind in the17th minute as their backtrack-

ing defence gave Richarlison aninvitation to rifle beyond TomHeaton.

The Brazilian’s left-footstrike from the edge of the areatook a slight deflection off theunfortunate Mee, and Burnley’sluck worsened as Evertonincreased their lead momentslater.

Lucas Digne’s rasping effortfrom a similar distance was par-ried back into the danger zoneby Heaton, allowing Coleman,just onside, to stoop to head intoan empty net.

Everton’s second seemed torouse Burnley, who thought theyhad pulled one back whenAshley Barnes expertly steeredRobbie Brady’s ball into the areaacross Jordan Pickford, only forthe assistant referee to flag foroffside.

Burnley showed more pur-pose in the early stages of thesecond half than they did in thewhole of the opening 45 minutes.Chris Wood’s low first-timestrike was saved by Pickfordwhile Brady’s teasing ball into thearea caught Johann BergGudmundsson unawares, lead-ing to the ball spooning over thebar.

Burnley could not find a wayback into the match, withEverton claiming an eighth cleansheet in their past 10 top-flightfixtures.

Ghosal,

Chinappa

storm into

final

PTI n KUALA LUMPUR

The two stars of Indiansquash — the men’s top

seed Saurav Ghosal and reign-ing champion Joshna Chinappa— stormed into the final of theAsian Individual SquashChampionship with convincingsemi-final victories here onSaturday.

Women’s second seedJoshna defeated sixth seedSivasangari Subramaniam ofMalaysia 11-7, 12-10, 11-3while Ghosal ousted the sev-enth seed Eain Yow Ng ofMalaysia 11-2, 11-6, 11-4.

Joshna was the first toappear on the court andaccording to coach HarinderPal Sandhu, she could not havemade a better start to a match,running away with an earlylead against Subramaniam.

There was focus and deter-mination in the Indian to startwith and even thoughSivasangari caught up with herin the second game and forcedher to draw parity at 10 points,Joshna did not lose control.

BERLIN: French striker Jean-Philippe Mateta scored a lateequaliser for Mainz to end RB Leipzig’s six-game winning streakin a thrilling 3-3 draw in the Bundesliga on Friday.

Mateta’s 83rd-minute goal snatched a point after Timo Wernerhad put Leipzig on course for victory with a goal and two assists.

The draw is an untimely set back for in-form Leipzig, comingjust a week before they host league leaders Bayern Munich.

With Bayern two points ahead of second place BorussiaDortmund, Leipzig could make a potentially title-deciding inter-vention by beating the leaders. They also face Bayern in the GermanCup final later this month, but Rangnick said that his side were notgetting distracted by the chance of silverware.

Mainz took the wind out of Leipzig’s sails as they came from3-1 down to earn a well-deserved draw. Werner set up LukasKlostermann as Leipzig took an early lead on the counter-attack.Klostermann then doubled the lead in controversial circumstances,after team mate Willi Orban appeared to foul Mainz striker KarimOnisiwo in the build-up. Onisiwo got his revenge just before half-time, turning Klostermann in the box to fire Mainz back into thegame. Werner, though, showed quick feet and a cool head to restorehis side’s two-goal lead after the break and notch up his 16th leaguegoal of the season. Moussa Niakhate prodded in another goal forMainz at a corner on 67 minutes, before Mateta beat the offside trapto slot in a late equaliser. Leipzig’s midfield maestro Kevin Kamplwill miss next week’s clash with Bayern after picking up a yellowcard late in the game. Leipzig remain in third after securingChampions League qualification last week.

Leipzig’s winning run ends

ahead of Bayern showdown

“...YOU ARE AHILARIOUS MAN!!!ANYWAY, WE ARESTILL GRANTINGVISAS TOPAKISTANIS FORMEDICALTOURISM. I WILLPERSONALLY TAKEYOU TO APSYCHIATRIST”

Ronaldo earns draw for Juve

Everton keep Euro dreamalive with Burnley win

uventus's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring a goal during the Italian Serie A soccer match between Juventus FC andTorino FC at the Allianz Stadium in Turin on Friday

I will take you to psychiatrist:

Gambhir hits back at Afridi

Lahiri misses cut

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Iused to hate golf. I absolutelydespised it being shown on thetelly. I couldn’t imagine why peo-ple take something so boring soseriously and call it a sport. I

don’t even know why I got clicked withTiger Woods at Madame Tussaudswhen I clearly didn’t know enough toadmire him or the legacy he was creat-ing at that time. Then I grew up. Lastmonth was pivotal in the history ofgolf, in more ways than one. TigerWoods winning his fifth Masters, 14years after he last put on the GreenJacket, 11 years after last winning aMajor is nothing short of extraordi-nary, poetic, superlative, and a touchredemptive. Let’s put this into perspec-tive. Since 2009, he has seen his repu-tation severely tarnished amidst aninfidelity scandal followed by divorcewith his Swedish wife, Elin Nordegren,had four back and two knee surgeries,been addicted to painkillers causinghis arrest for suspected driving underinfluence, dropped out of the world’stop 1,000 golfers, amongst many otherobstacles that makes this comeback allthe more awe-inspiring. When we talkof huge comebacks in the history ofsport — not just golf — this will rankas one of, if not the best.

Peyton Manning is talked about inthe great comebacks conversation afterhe endured multiple neck surgeries andwas dumped by the Colts but had a latecareer revival in Denver; an MVPaward in 2013 and a Super Bowl title in2015. Monica Seles was the youngestFrench Open champion at 16 years ofage and the youngest Number 1 inworld rankings at that time. She hadalready won eight Grand Slams beforeher 20th birthday. Then when she wasat her peak, she was stabbed in abizarre incident on court by a derangedSteffi Graf fan, narrowly missing herspinal cord and organs. But the damagewas done psychologically. Seles had tobattle depression and eating disorderbefore returning to the court after twoyears. She was never the same playeragain but to even come that far, win-ning the Canadian Open in 1995 andthe Australian Open in 1996, was alaudable achievement.

Niki Lauda had already won oneWorld Championship Title in FormulaOne racing in 1975. In his second in1976, his Ferrari swerved off track, hitan embankment, burst into flames andmade contact with Brett Lunger’s Ford.Unlike Lunger, Lauda was trapped in thewreckage and suffered severe degreeburns to his head and inhaled hot toxicgases, damaging his lungs and blood.

Although he was conscious in theimmediate aftermath, he later slippedinto a coma. Six weeks later, he wasbehind the wheel at the Italian GrandPrix. Lauda would go on to win twomore championship titles before retiring.

Muhammad Ali, widely regarded asthe “greatest of all time”, was stripped ofhis title and suspended for three yearsafter he refused to serve in the US Armyduring the Vietnam War. His comebackagainst the undefeated Joe Frazier in thematch dubbed as “the fight of the centu-ry” ended in his first ever professionalloss. He would go on to beat Frazier in arematch. Then came the much awaitedThrilla in Manila in 1975. Frazier andAli were both geared up for this, Frazierdesperately needing a win for his come-back but Ali would not be denied byhim a second time. Ali went on to winthat dramatic 14 round fight (the 15thwas stopped as Frazier’s eyes wereswollen shut and he was badly beaten)and Ali kept fighting till 1981.

Woods, though, was reluctant toclaim it was even the best comeback inhis own sport. He points to BenHogan, who won the US Open a yearand a half after nearly dying in a carcrash. He does have a point. But thecomparisons of comebacks in differentsports across different eras is not todiminish one’s significance or impactfrom the other. It is only to laud themost recent one keeping the others inmind. What separates the story ofTiger Woods from others is that he notonly suffered physically but mentally.Of course, any physical injury has itspsychological repercussions. But thegrit and determination to come out ofso many and emerge a winner yet againcannot be understated.

In a multicultural consumerist soci-ety like the US that the whole world stillpretty much aspires to model itself on, awin like this is monumental keeping inmind the brand value of Tiger Woodsbefore he was stripped of all endorse-ments following his promiscuity revela-tions. A win like this changes every-thing. It’s a literal game changer in everysense of the term. From the way peoplelook at golf to golf as a brand equityitself. In a time when majority of theAmerican intelligentsia is debating andregretting the election results while stillreminiscing about the last President,who was incidentally black, TigerWoods has given them another reasonto be proud by coming up “trumps”.

A win like this is astronomicalbecause a win like this transcendssport. With all due respect to the othergolfers devoid of such ups and downs

in life, a win for any of them wouldnever have generated this kind ofhoopla. The fact that we know all aboutTiger Woods without knowing the dif-ference between a birdie and a bogey iswhat makes us sit up and take notice.It’s what instantly puts him and thewhole of golf right back on the map.

The news of Tiger Woods winninganother Masters hit me in three stages.First was that of shock. I was (and I’msure many of you were too) genuinelysurprised to see him not only competingamongst the best but beating everyoneagain to be the best. After all, that’soccurred. After all that’s passed. After allthat he must’ve faced. After all thosenights he must’ve spent waiting for thisfine day. I cannot even fathom the tur-moil that must’ve gone through thatmind of his. Just like I couldn’t fathomhearing what all he had done to puthimself in that position. But I came to arealisation that people like him aren’tmere mortals. And maybe, just maybe,that’s the reason they don’t have flawslike the rest of us; something akin to aGreek tragedy. Their flaws are tragic andfatal. They’re capable of extraordinarythings in their field of specialty. Theyalways have that extra mile in them,whatever the circumstances. And likeany other Greek tragedy, their story hasthe element of fate centred around them.

Speaking of fate and the role it hasto play in the making or breaking of agenius, Malcolm Gladwell reiteratesover and over in his book, The Outliers,that there are no geniuses in this world,just people who happened to be in theright place at the right time. In hiswords, “No one — not rock stars, notprofessional athletes, not software bil-lionaires, and not even geniuses — evermakes it alone.” Steve Jobs, Bill Gates,the Beatles etc all had vision and talent,but they were successful only becauseof a certain turn of events that went intheir favour. Gladwell notes that suc-cess “is not exceptional or mysterious.It is grounded in a web of advantagesand inheritances, some deserved, somenot, some earned, some just plainlucky”. But for that rub of the green(the phrase ironically originating fromgolf) to even work, you have to havethe building blocks in place first —namely talent, hard work, and anundying will to succeed.

Tiger Woods had everything as domost champions in any sport. But whatmakes his story unique is that he wasbrutally brought down from hispedestal when the scandal broke out.He wasn’t the god of golf anymore. Hewas the proverbial Greek god.

Suddenly, he had everything to loseagain and had to start from scratch. Todo that at this age is what makes hiscomeback all the more commendable.

At the end, it all comes down toman’s inherent drive to be the best. Tobe better than the rest. And you can’tinculcate that drive. Another thing Iwas shocked about (albeit pleasantly)was the kind of reaction he is receiving.It’s almost as if everyone has forgivenhim for doing the wrongs he did. Hehas paid the price. He has spent histime in hell. And now it’s his time toshine. But why was I surprised thatpeople reacted so positively in the firstplace? Which brings me to the secondthing that hit me: Happiness.

Everyone wants to identify withyour success but never your failure. I’veseen that all too well from close quar-ters. Failure is an integral part of thesuccess equation. By identifying in thephenomenon of a successful comeback,we are in some way relating it to ourown journey. His victory is somehowour victory. His win is somehow ourhope. And his story is somehow oursource of happiness. People want toidentify with your story because thatmakes it more real, more tangible. Andthere’s nothing more relatable than theraw emotion of a comeback. There’s areason why the Manchester Unitedgathered an extraordinary fan followingin terms of numbers in the Ninetiesand Noughties. It’s because their goldenperiod of comebacks coincided with thestratospheric rise in TV coverage andPremier League revenues. More thenumber of exploits from the undisput-ed “comeback kings” (Liverpool fanswould argue otherwise), more the view-ers developed an affinity for the cluband hence more the fan following. It’snot as if comebacks weren’t beingaccomplished before or after that era.It’s just that in this case, they happenedto be the ‘outlier’, the club at the rightplace at the right time.

But all that is okay. The real ques-tion is how do these individualsmuster up the courage, the determina-tion, the same intensity and mindset tobe able to compete at the same leveland win against all odds? The answeragain lies with the Gladwell school ofthought. They always had it. This wasalways part of the script. The fallingdown wasn’t. Once that was dealt with,coming back up was no doubt difficultbut the most natural thing to do. Itgave him hope. It gave him purpose. Itgave him his raison d’être.

In the words of Gladwell himself:“There is something profoundly wrong

with the way we look at success. Wecling to the idea that success is a sim-ple function of individual merit andthat the world in which we grow upand the rules we choose to write as asociety don’t matter at all.”

Eldrick Tont Woods, nicknamedTiger, was always the outlier from thevery start: A child prodigy who wasintroduced to golf before the age of twoby his athletic father, Earl Woods. Healready had the proverbial ‘10,000hours’ under his belt way before hestarted competing professionally. Andalthough the 10,000-hour rule is morefiction than fact, it does hold signifi-cance. It does give you pointers. It doesgive you the extra edge before anyoneelse. He was an outlier not only interms of being an early starter and hav-ing the kind of resources and golfcourses only few could afford, he wasalso the outlier in terms of when hewas born. Augusta barred AfricanAmerican players from the Mastersuntil 1975. Augusta National had noblack members until 1990. TigerWoods’ birth year? Yep, 1975. He didn’thave to deal with the racial barriers,the death threats, the prejudice. Hestarted his career when all of that hadbeen a thing of the past and golf wasready to usher in the era of the greatestAfrican American to ever grace thesport. Was all this a coincidence? Fate.The rub of the green. Outlier.

The third and last emotion that hitme was that of belief and inspiration.His story gave me the motivation to getup from the tangles of misfortune I findmyself in. Every comeback victory has acertain human element attached to it.Everyone loves a rags to riches story, acome from behind victory, an underdogturnaround, an inspiring feat to talkabout. In more ways than one, TigerWoods was all of them. His reputationwas in tatters, his health was nowherenear the previous standards, he wasalready being tagged a “former golfer”,his comeback attempt was written offbefore he even started, no one gave hima chance of competing in the Mastersagain. But did it matter though? Andmore importantly, should it matter?What the world thinks of you shouldn’tcome in the way of your “personal leg-end”, as Paulo Coelho calls it. Becauseif it does, you’ll never achieve it. Andthen the world will have one lessinspiring thing to talk about. “Younever give up,” says Woods. “That’s agiven. You always fight. Just giving upis never in the equation.”

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All day every day, even whilethey sleep, tens of millionsof children in South Asia are

being seriously harmed by toxicair. South Asia is leading theworld and not in a good way. Here,air pollution now kills an estimat-ed 130,000 children under fiveevery single year. It is a staggeringfact that 12 million babies inSouth Asia are breathing air thatis six times more polluted than theinternational limits set by theWorld Health Organization. Thismeans that South Asia has three-quarters of the global total.

The full impact of breathingharmful air is not visible to thenaked eye, but the Air QualityIndex measures how toxic the airis. A measurement of 0-50 is‘good’, 50-100 is ‘moderate’, 100-150 is ‘unhealthy for sensitivegroups’ (including children), 151-200 is ‘unhealthy’, 201-300 is‘very unhealthy’, and 301-500 is‘hazardous’. In the four-day peri-od between January 8 and 11, thenumber reached 417 in NewDelhi (hazardous), 310 inKathmandu (hazardous), 328 inDhaka (hazardous), 510 in Kabul(hazardous), and 234 in Karachi(very unhealthy). These num-

bers mean deaths, and they meanserious, lasting harm.

In India, nearly 1.3 millionpremature deaths occurred just in2017 due to indoor and outdoorair pollution. Ten of the world’stop 20 most polluted cities are inIndia. Around 77 per cent of thecountry’s population is exposed tooutdoor air pollution levels abovethe National Ambient Air QualityStandards safe limit. The averagelife expectancy in India wouldhave been 1.7 years higher if theair pollution levels were less thanthe minimal level.

A cough, sore throat or soreeyes are the common things thatwe notice. But the real damage isfar more serious. The most danger-ous air pollutants of all are thesmallest particles. They reach deepdown into the lungs. From thelungs, they pass into the blood-stream. In the bloodstream, theycirculate around the body.

Air pollution is a severe andgrowing threat to people of all ages,but it is particularly bad for chil-

dren’s health and development. A2018 World Health Organizationstudy reveals that over one lakhchildren under the age of five diedin 2016 because of air pollution inIndia. There are three main rea-sons why children are particular-ly at risk. First, children breathefaster than adults. A typical adulttakes between 12 and 18 breaths aminute. A three-year-old childtakes 20 to 30 breaths a minute,and a newborn takes 30 to 40. Soyoung children are breathing in thepolluted air two to three times asmuch as adults.

Second, children’s lungs andother organs are developing. Thismakes them particularly vulnera-ble to damage. This can have bothimmediate effects, such as asthma,and long-term effects, such asreducing their lung volume for life.

Third, the youngest childrenare also in danger because thebarrier between the bloodstreamand brain is not yet fully formed.The air pollutants can cross fromthe lungs to the bloodstream, and

from the bloodstream to thebrain. There, they actually causebrain cells to inflame. This dam-ages the brain cells and affects thechild’s cognitive and intellectualdevelopment. Today’s generationof children will be affected for lifeand as adults, we have a pressingand serious duty to reverse thishorrendous trend.

The high exposure of India’schildren and their vulnerability toair pollution make this an issue tobe addressed with urgency. Weneed to see cleaner, renewablesources of energy and we needbetter waste management to pre-vent open burning of harmfulchemicals, but of course the pre-cise solutions vary across theregion. We cannot let childrenbreath toxic air. Speaking up forone’s children is a first step.

The Government of India’sefforts towards launching aNational Clean Air Programmewith an aim to cover 104 cities iscommendable. However, with atarget to reduce air population by

only about 30 per cent by 2024,there is need for further urgent andpro-active action to protect theyoung generation. Stringent lawenforcement regarding pollutingindustries, burning of solidwaste/residues, among others, isnon-negotiable. Policy shifts, suchas the switch from pollution fueloptions like diesel or petrol toCNG or electrical cars, increasedinvestment in public transport etcare noteworthy efforts by theGovernment. However, furtherinvestment and incentives to adoptclean energy, especially in small-er towns, are crucial. Incentivisingthe use of LPG in rural areas asagainst highly polluting fossil fuelis another critical need.

Reducing indoor and out-door air pollution must be inte-grated in all major Governmentprogrammes, such as SmartCities, rather than institutingstand-alone interventions. Thiscould go a long way in promot-ing positive behaviours, big andsmall, among all citizens andcreate a drive towards a pollution-free India for us and for the gen-erations to come.

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As young as age four,children begin polic-ing each other toadhere to strict genderrules — attentive to

point out “you can’t wear that, it’sa girl’s colour,” or “you can’t playwith that, it’s a boy’s toy.” As socialbeings dependent on adults, chil-dren carefully absorb and attune tosocial norms given their survivalrequires continued inclusion with-in their families. It is this desire tobe accepted that causes a boy tosuppress his perfectly naturalhuman inclination to cry and beheld as he becomes indoctrinatedinto the idea that these healthybehaviours are unacceptable andweak for boys and men.

When we do not prioritiseproviding counter messaging torestrictive gender rules, the silencereinforces the subconscious ideathat a child must sacrifice theirfreedom of expression and whole-some development in order toconform. The absence of thought-ful and consistent dialogue aroundgender in homes and schools is avacuum that, luckily, we can worktogether to fill.

�� !��"#��$%&' �(�)!�)*�(Whether at home or in school, theimportant first step is to becomeaware of double standards and notaccidentally enforce them. Holdgirls and boys to the same standardsof what it means to be a “good per-son”, instead of teaching them dif-ferent values of a “good boy” and“good girl.” For example, it isimportant that all children learnhow to be responsible by helpingmake food, not just girls. Similarly,it is important for all children to feelempowered that they can fix thingsby learning to use constructiontools, not just boys.

Girls and women are oftenlabelled bossy or a tomboy whenthey are physically active andassertive. The conservative stan-dard of a “nice girl,” where a girlis not supposed to stand up forherself, can discourage her fromthe proactive, authentic, and hard-working qualities we value inboys. It’s important to encouragea girl’s curiosity, determination,and grit, not simply her ability toplease and serve others.

It’s also crucial to encourage aboy’s empathy and capacity to col-laborate and communicate thought-fully, not simply his ability to com-mand attention and compete.When we celebrate boys from anearly age for their capacity to be vul-nerable, emotional, and ask for help— that these are signs of strengthand courage — we create betterpeople who are less likely to resortto violence when experiencingemotional turmoil and are morelikely to thrive in their profession-al and personal relationships.

$"��+ *( �*$' �,$� '(As adults in their lives, you are a liv-ing role model who can purposelylook for ways to step outside thetypical box of gender expectations.By doing so, you will inspire thechildren in your life to dreambeyond these restrictions and dis-cover what their own authenticexpression looks like. As a parent,one place to start is by having con-versations with your partner abouthow your self-expressions andresponsibilities divide based ontraditional gender roles and wherecould be opportunities to experi-ment with new forms of expressionand distribution of responsibilities.

For example, maybe Dadmakes breakfast and Mom makesdinner, or both Mom and Dad readbedtime stories and snuggle beforebed. As a father, you can make a

conscious effort to share your feel-ings, tell your kids you love them,and make it safe for your kids to dothe same. Show your children thatresponsibilities — whether it’s car-ing for the house or earning income— are not assigned based on some-thing as arbitrary as what bodyparts one has, but instead get divid-ed based on thoughtful conversa-tions and mutual understanding.

Schools and families can also bemore intentional about providingrole models through books andfilms to help expand children’simagination for what is possible forthem and show a diversity of waysto express themselves. You canprovide more female role models forgirls who don’t fit the typical box —pioneers in science, chemistry, ath-letics, diplomats, journalists,philosophers. Provide male role

models who don’t fit the tradition-al man box — men who speak upas peacemakers, homemakers, nurs-es, teachers, and feminist activists.

-)+ �$. !�/$!+ *()��$!(When your kids see music videos,films, commercials, and sexistmedia, engage in discussions aboutwhat they’re seeing and how whatthey’re watching makes them feel.At home and in your classrooms,show sexist memes and havedebates about the differencebetween free speech and hatespeech, objectification and how weare taught to primarily valuewomen for their bodies as lovers ormothers and value men for theircapacities to obtain wealth andwomen. Discuss unrealistic andracist beauty standards and the waymarketing uses the female body as

a means to sell products. Help kidsbe critical thinkers, questioners, anddiscern for themselves what makesthese mindsets problematic.

Even with little children, whenyou hear of a child labelling some-thing based on gender, “those areboy’s sunglasses,” use it as a learn-ing opportunity to question thatidea. Ask them what makes some-thing a boy’s sunglasses and what’sthe point of such categories? Whyis it that the blue Kinder egg is onlymeant for boys? Does this make anysense? Then show them counter-examples to these “rules”.

�$!��)��$�� )/-��- ,Nursery is a great time to beginteaching children about bound-aries and consent. By doing so,parents and schools can take pre-ventative measures against unnec-

essary traumas, embarrassment,body shaming, or bullying ratherthan simply reacting after the fact.

Share with children that theyget to choose whether someone cantouch their bodies and that they areallowed to choose whether or notthey want to hug or kiss someone.Saying “no” when someone pinch-es their cheeks or makes them feeluncomfortable is an important firststep to ensure that they feel reas-sured to speak up if someone doessomething inappropriate. Teachingchildren they have a right to theirbodies and should always come telltheir parents if something happensto them, is an essential part to keep-ing them safe and empoweringthem into the future. Equallyimportant is keeping your childreninformed with the proper vocabu-lary for their body parts and as theygrow, stay ahead of the game byinforming them about the changessoon to come with puberty. Whenadults withhold the scientificallyproper names for private parts, chil-dren begin to internalise that thesebody parts are shameful and secre-tive. This in turn can prevent a childfrom sharing with a trusted adultif they are touched inappropriate-ly on these private parts.

Especially ensure all children —boys and girls — learn about men-struation in order to diminish thestigma, shame, and bullying thatgirls experience. When adults keepmenstruation a secret, childrenexperience it as a bad thing and canbegin believing women’s bodiesare dirty or impure. Far too manywomen think they are dying withthe onset of their first period,given they were provided no priorwarning that one day blood wouldstart flowing from their bodies. Oneway we start creating equality is byteaching kids when they are youngthat the bodies of girls and boyshave some differences, lots of sim-ilarities, and are all worthy of equalcelebration and pride.

%��'�( �)+)�')&' �&$$0(The great news is that there areexperts from around the world whohave developed credible child-friendly books and curriculums forteachers and parents to learn fromand use. Some curriculums wedraw inspiration from in ourschool is ‘Live Respect’ by A Callto Men, ‘Very Young Adolescence2.0’ by Promundo, ‘The Mask YouLive In’ by the RepresentationProject, and Advocacy for Youth’ssexuality education curriculum.These resources provide teachersand parents age appropriate infor-mation on relationships, gender,and sexuality that can be altered tomeet our cultural context.��!�� "�# � ��

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The multiple bombings,including suicide blasts,

targeting the mass congregationat Catholic churches, hotelsand other public places in SriLanka have once again drawnthe concern of the internation-al community over the dangerof Islamist terrorism and radi-calisation of a section ofMuslim youths across the globe.The civilised world, includingthe Muslim religious and sec-ular intelligentsia, was swift tocondemn the abhorrent attacks,which took more than 250lives, and expressed concernedabout the failure of Sri Lankanstate to the repeated warningsfrom India and its local intelli-gent units as well as the abilityof the ISIS and other interna-tional Islamist terrorist organ-isations to wreak havoc.

While such incidents haveroutinely brought into the ques-tion the role of Wahhabi-Salafisation in raising a radi-calised generation of Muslimyouths with conception of“enemy other” to commit geno-cide, the contribution of Turkeyunder Islamist leadership ofRecep Tayyip Erdogan to theprocess of radicalisation of asection of global Sunni Muslimyouth has hardly been focussedupon. If one aspect of Islamistbombing in Sri Lanka, asclaimed by the perpetrators,was to avenge the killing ofMuslims in New Zealand bywhite supremacists, one is con-strained to bring into focus thestatement of President Erdogan,which may have implication infurther motivating the radi-calised Islamist elements tocommit barbaric acts.

During the campaign ofmunicipal election in Turkeylast month, President Erdoganlambasted the politics ofIslamophobia in the West,showed a video clipping of theChristchurch mosque shoot-ings, and stated: “Turkey wouldmake the attackers pay for hisact if New Zealand did not.”Calling upon New Zealand

authority to restore deathpenalty, Erdogan further stat-ed on March 19 in an electionrally, “You (Brenton Tarrant,the Australian attacker inChristchurch) heinously killed50 of our siblings. You will payfor this. If New Zealand does-n’t make you, we know how tomake you pay one way oranother.”

If one looks at the rhetoricand tone of these statements ofPresident Erdogan, one wouldfind that it is not different fromthe rhetoric and semantic ofnon-state Islamist radicals andterrorists. It is another matterthat statements and terroristactions of non-state Islamistactors are routinely con-demned, but world leadershardly condemn the statementand action of state actors. Ithappens because, first, terror-ism has been understoodessentially as “non-state phe-nomenon”, and second, thestate practice of political prag-matism, which tolerates suchstate figures for the consider-ation of wider economic andpolitical interest.

Such alarmist Islamist pol-itics on the part of the Erdoganregime is not difficult to under-stand. It is likely to increase innear future for three importantreasons. First, the Islamist pol-itics is centrally linked withErdogan’s personal ambition ofresurrecting the institution ofCaliphate in 1924 — the 100thyear of abolition of Caliphateby the Kemalist state of Turkey.Second, the deteriorating con-dition of Turkish economy isalso pushing Erdogan toembrace Islamist politics.Third, Erdogan is losingdomestic political ground asevident from his failure to winover mayorship in some of thelargest cities like Istanbul,Ankara, Izmir and other citiesin March 2019 local elections.The AKP defeat in Istanbul isvery symbolic for its survival.While the loss of its formerPrime Minister and Speaker —

Binali Yildirim — in Istanbulis a severe jolt to AKP’s hege-mony, rubbing salt to theirwounds is that the winnerfrom CHP has a credibleMuslim face. This explainswhy the Erdogan regime hasdecided to demand the re-election of Istanbul mayoralelection despite twice recount-ing of the ballots and even for-mally lodged the complaint toSupreme Election Board (SYK)to derecognise approximately13,500 votes, which belongedto dismissed, imprisoned offi-cials alleged to be FETO(Gulen movement) members.Interestingly the AKP candi-date, Yeldrim, lost to the CHPcandidate in Istanbul with themargin of 13,500 votes. Theprosecutors of Turkish state hasnow launched more than 32investigations into the allegedirregularities in Istanbul may-oral election held last monthand summoned more than 100polling station officials forquestioning as suspects, muchafter declaration of result !

The success of Islamist,Caliphal politics of PresidentErdogan depends upon fulfil-ment of certain conditions.One, President Erdogan mustemerge and be recognised asthe leader of Muslim world.This has pushed Erdogan toembrace aggressive, authori-tarian style of politics withforemost anti-Israel, anti-westMuslim face who is also cham-pioning the cause of Muslimminorities living into non-Muslim majority countries.With physical liquidation of AlQaeda and ISIS and the nearabsence of other anti-west,anti-Israel Muslim political fig-ure, a good section of Muslimworld looks into Erdogan amodern day Saladin. Thisauthoritarian Islamist brand ofpolitics of Erdogan demands ade-democratisation of Turkeyand freedom from any demo-cratic constraint in his gover-nance. This brought him intoconflict with the Gulen move-

ment internally, which refusedto cater to the demand ofErdogan to promote him asglobal Muslim political leaderthrough its global network ofschools and dialogue centres, atdomestic level and in theEuropean Union.

Second, the Caliphal poli-tics of Erdogan requires a thor-ough de-legitimisation, rathercriminalisation, of Arab stateactors, principally Saudi Arabiaand the UAE, with a view toremove them as legitimateleader of global Sunni Muslimcommunity. As a result, theErdogan regime has closeteditself to Islamist allay, primar-ily Iran, Qatar and Hamas, andincreased its physical inter-vention in neighbouring Syriaand Iraq to bolster it neo-Ottoman image on the onehand and leave no stoneunturned in criminalising anddiplomatically isolating SaudiArabia and the UAE.

The increase in anti- Saudi,anti-UAE rhetoric on the partof the Erdogan regime hasanother aspect also: to show tothe Muslim world that therecent embrace of pluralismand diversity by the UAE andSaudi Arabia is a weakness ofIslamic tradition and projecthis brand of Islamist authori-tarian anti-pluralism politics asreal Islamic and in line withCaliphatic tradition.

Two recent examplesexpose this mischief of theErdogan regime. The first con-cerned the Jamal Khashoggiincident, which was badlyexploited by Turkish state toexpose the Saudi state in baddiplomatic taste and deprivethe Kingdom of its Islamiclegitimacy to rule and claim therightful custodian of Meccaand Medina and leadership ofSunni Muslim world. The otheris the attempt of Turkish stateto criminalise the UAE byarresting two Palestinians forspying for the UAE in Istanbul,one of which is alleged to havecommitted suicide in jail while

in solitary confinement. Thereis a strong indication of foulplay by the Erdogan regime inthis case, which was commit-ted to defame the UAE, for thefact of the matter is that dur-ing last three years Turkey haswitnessed 51 cases of suicideinside Turkish jails, includingthe suicide cases in solitaryconfinement. In none of thesecases, the Turkish authority hasever carried out autopsy toascertain the reason of death.

Today Turkey has becomea rogue state, with its hobnob-bing with ISIS and otherIslamist terrorist elementsbeing widely reported.President Erdogan hasemerged as one of the princi-ple sources of radicalisation ofthe Muslim youth across theworld, particularly in Indiansubcontinent where the secondlargest Muslim community ofthe world is living as religiousminority with historical senseof discrimination and legacy ofKh?lafat movement. There arealready reports that publica-tions regarding Kashmir hastremendously increased inTurkey during last three years.The Government of India mustbe cautious in dealing with theErdogan regime and must denyhim the opportunity to radi-calise the Indian Muslims.

(The writer is Senior Fellowwith Policy PerspectivesFoundations. Views expressedare of the author and in no waysrepresents the view of PPF)

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The Easter Sunday fidayeenattacks in Sri Lanka are

unique for three reasons. First,the island nation — unlike itsneighbours: India, Pakistan,and Bangladesh — had notseen till then any terror act byproclaimed Islamist forces.Second, the perpetrator ISIS,despite being badly batteredand ousted from the land of itsCaliphate just a month before,has told the world loud andclear that it still has potentialto surprise new territories withits lethal action.

Third, the curious selec-tion of the island nation for thesuicide blasts by ISIS, in con-nivance with Lankan-basedNational Thowheeth Jamaath,raises a pertinent question:Whether the erstwhile ethnicdivide in Sri Lanka was rebornin religious radicalisation?

However as there has neverbeen any systemic discrimina-tion against Muslims in the SriLanka — an essential ingredi-ent for the breeding of religiousradicals — this question war-rants special attention, alsobecause experience shows thatIslamist forces, particularlyISIS, have flourished only inthose regions which are afflict-ed with pre-existing conflicts -sectarian, ethnic, or religious.

Despite local and globalIntelligence reports suggestingthat National ThowheethJamaath and its south Indiancohorts have been in touchwith ISIS for long, the choiceof Sri Lanka for the revoltingattacks is more to do with thepeaceful island nation being asafe target for ISIS, which isdesperate to stay in the reck-oning for global Islamist terrorleadership. ISIS, which wield-ed enormous control over hugearea stretching from easternIraq to western Syria till Marchthis year, is straining everynerve to peddle a global nar-rative that its loss of 88,000kmterritory doesn’t mean thatISIS has lost its Islamist appeal

for global jehad. And here itneeded a solid platform toannounce the same.

Seen in this context, thereclusive ISIS chief Abu Bakral-Baghdadi made the firstappearance in five years, beforethe global media in a videomessage to readily claim theresponsibility for the Lankanterror attacks. He used theoccasion to outline the crum-bling outfit’s vision, calling forjehad via war of attrition, andinsisting on its propaganda ofrobust presence in South-eastAsia, including the Philippines.

Baghdadi also exhortedthe “believers” for hijrah(migration) to theAfghanistan-Pakistan regionfor recruitment of jehadis. Theramifications can be found inSri Lanka Army CommanderLieutenant General MaheshSenanayake’s interview to theBBC in which he claimed thatsome of the “suicide bombersvisited Kashmir and Keralafor some sorts of training or tomake some more links withother foreign outfits”. Maybethis explains why Sri Lankabecame the sure-shot target forhomeless Baghdadi, who haslost his last redoubt in Syria.

Although Baghdadi claimscaliphate is not bound by thegeography, he is raring to gainlost ground in Iraq and Syria.ISIS already has a covert net-work in Iraq. Therefore, it isessential that the coalitionforces should maintain its holdin the areas of ISIS caliphate tillit destroys the outfit’s raisond’être.

As for Sri Lanka, the islandnation needs to ensure ISISdoesn’t succeed in having localfranchises there. Consideringthe sophistication of the high-ly coordinated attacks all byLankan nationals, the biggerriddle for Colombo is to unrav-el whether any of its citizenever fought for ISIS outside thecountry, and, more specifical-ly, to ensure, if they did, they

land in prison. Although Sri Lankan

Muslims have supported theGovernment’s crackdownmethods against the Islamistsin the wake of the Easterbombings, the success of theefforts hinges on the narrativethe Government is able toconstruct. Any ostentatiousaction against religious-cul-tural symbol is fraught with thedanger of spawning more rad-icals born out of the narrativeof the State operation.Therefore, the burqa (face veil)ban may be a pragmatic deci-sion — considering the factsthat some of women accom-plices of the suicide bombershad fled the scene in burqa —for the time being till the raidsand investigation are over, theban should be lifted as soon aspossible before Islamist outfitscan exploit the situation withnewfound purpose and energy.

(The writer is AssociateEditor & News Editor, ThePioneer)

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The recent annual Gallup Poll sug-gests that 55 per cent of Americansare subject to stress, anger, and

worry, compared to the global average of35 per cent, following negative experi-ences they undergo on various counts. Inanother study, Cigna, a wellness organisa-tion, suggests that 82 per cent of Indianssuffer from stress. These figures, based ona very small sample size, may not presenta true picture. Be that as it may, but thereis no denying the fact that general stresslevel is quite high, deserving attention.And this mental malaise is growing dayby day. In America, I observed that thosesuffering from stress and anxiety unhesi-tatingly seek expert’s help. In India, on thecontrary, majority of people try to evadeany medical help, as if that would be asocial stigma. People feel that once mentalimbalance in a person, temporary though,becomes public, they will not be takenkindly. Instead, they prefer going forbelief-driven puja.

Stress, as it stands, is a mentalpredicament. Can a pundit’s prayers enterthe victim’s mind for necessary correc-tion? It is really difficult to digest. The factremains that once a person comes understress, the first casualty is hormonal

imbalance, which in turn further com-pounds the stress. This way, a person getscaught up in a circuitous web, whenhe/she often loses sense of reason anddirection. Under such a situation, coun-selling doesn’t work, as any fresh educa-tive input doesn’t get registered in theirmind. But when hormonal balance getsrestored through medication, the personbecomes receptive, and therefore, couldrespond to counselling.

But why stress? Given a situation, realor assumed, when a person is not able tocope up, he/she comes under pressure. Itcould be because of not being able to meetaspirational urges; when met with unfore-seen circumstances and challenges forwhich one may not be prepared; unpalat-able societal atmosphere; or even assumednegative thoughts. For someone with aninflated ego, it becomes difficult to digestthings happenings beyond their prede-fined parameters. Such a situation couldlead to tremendous emotional upsurge, inturn leading to acute stress. The questionnow is: How to lead a stress-free life?That, however, is simply inconceivable.The universe is in continued motion.Human life, too, is always in action. Andno movement is possible without being

met with resistance. Even while apparent-ly idling, a person’s mind keeps flirtingwith uninterrupted streams of thoughts(some of them assumed). The mind initself is potent enough to successivelybreed contrarian thoughts. Not to men-tion being confronted with challengesthrown by competing interests andunforeseen circumstantial constraintswhile pursuing the tasks in hand.

What, however, really matters is howwe deal with the challenges. Some of usmay take it in our stride and deal withthem intelligently. Those unable to copemay stretch the problems beyond theirdue. Caught up in its melee, such peoplefail to perceive issues in hand in perspec-tive. They often come under mental, emo-tional, or physical pressure leading tomental fatigue, exhaustion, and a sense ofincapacitation. This may result in a senseof fear and insecurity. If left uncared forlong, stress may assume serious propor-tions, calling for medical intervention.The question now is in a given situation,why do individuals respond in variedways? The unique character of a being,according to one’s mind, is preconditioned— virtues and attributes; likes and dis-likes; prejudices and obsessions; habitsand attitudes — hold the key to how oneresponds to a situation. A positively ori-

ented mind can handle the usual trialsand tribulations of life logically. A nega-tively charged person may unmindfullyfall into the stress trap and start playingthe victim card. What’s the way out?

The answer lies in awareness. First,look within — the core strengths andweaknesses. Identify, acknowledge, andaddress the fault lines and optimise thestrengths. Explore the hard realities of lifeand accordingly equip oneself throughsuitable educative inputs. Many a times,one’s egotistical mind fails to acknowledgeone’s fault lines. In such a situation, astrol-ogy may prove handy, as it knows no bias.Here is a case study: Lagna and Moonsigns are both owned by Mercury, whichis conjunct headless Ketu and also oppo-site Mars. That, in the first place, impliesthat he wishes to live on his own exclusiveterms. Second, if ever faced with contrari-an views, he becomes overcritical, and in astate of anger, passes caustic remarks,often offending those around. Stress, thus,has become a regular feature of his life.

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