Bhopal - The Pioneer

C M Y K
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he beleaguered Uttarakhand
T
Chief Minister Harish Rawat
on Saturday got a breather
with Governor Krishna Kant
Paul asking him to prove majority on the floor of the State
Assembly by March 28.
The Governor’s directive came
even as BJP, claiming strength of 35
with the support of nine rebel
Congress MLAs in the 70-member
Assembly, stepped up efforts to
form its Government, contending
that the Rawat Government had
been reduced to a minority.
On his part, Rawat asserted
that he was ready to prove his
majority in the Assembly.
In a letter to the Chief
Minister, the Governor asked him
to prove his majority in the State
Assembly by March 28, a top Raj
Bhawan official said. It was dispatched to the CM shortly before
his appointment with the
Governor this evening.
Rawat, who has been under
pressure from the BJP, now has
time till March 28 to get back the
dissident MLAs.
sserting that the BJP Government has
A
taken major strides towards the development of poor villagers and farmers with
the Union Budget unleashing a slew of allocations for "gaon, garib aur kisan", BJP president Amit Shah on Saturday said the Garibi
Hatao movement is finally finding its feet
under the Modi dispensation, which is taking "one new initiative every 15 days".
This, even as he took up the raging controversies over nationalism and freedom of
ATQT[2^]VaTbb<;0bP1B?[TVXb[Pc^aP]ScWTaT_aTbT]cPcXeTb^U19?PUcTa\TTcX]V
speech and slammed efforts to pass off
6^eTa]^a^UDccPaPZWP]S::?Pd[PcWXbaTbXST]RTX]3TWaPSd]^]5aXSPh
?C8 "anti-national acts as freedom of expression". He sought the party workers to ignite
Invoking the Anti-Defection House as per the Anti-Defection "nationwide patriotism" saying, "Desh
Act, the ruling Congress is all set Act. However, the legal experts are bhakti ka alakh jagayein (arouse the spirto appeal to the Governor to ter- finding loopholes in the it of patriotism in the nation)".
Delivering the inaugural address at the
minate the membership of the Government’s claim. They say the
nine dissident Congress MLAs in Government claiming to have two-day National Executive of the BJP at
the aftermath of Friday evening’s passed the Budget by voice vote the NDMC convention centre here, Shah
happenings inside the House. The has made it difficult for it to take lashed out at Congress vice-president
decision was taken after Chief action against the rebel MLAs Rahul Gandhi for "supporting" those raising anti-national slogans saying "such
Minister Harish Rawat, Speaker under the Anti-Defection Act.
Govind Singh Kunjwal and
“Whip was issued, but the activities cannot be tolerated at any cost".
Parliamentary Affairs Minister voice vote passage of the Budget has
Hitting out at the Congress and Rahul,
Indira Hridayesh deliberated over made the application of the law dif- Shah said they have a "negative mindset"
the issue on Saturday.
ficult,” said one of the legal experts. and hence, are making all baseless allegaAs per the law, membership of
Legal experts say that as the tions against the Modi Government.
the rebels would be terminated Opposition has demanded diviHe said any plan which is geared against
unless things take the form of a sion of votes on the Budget it the unity and integrity of the country will not
split that involves one-third of the amounts to no-confidence motion. be allowed to succeed by the party.
Maintaining that the Congress imposed
concerned party’s strength in the
Turn to Page 4
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Flydubai passenger jet
crashed in southern Russia
early on Saturday, killing all 62
people on board, including two
Indians, as it tried to land in bad
weather in the city of Rostov-onDon, officials said. Passengers
killed in the crash include two
Indians, 44 Russians, eight Ukrainians and one from Uzbekistan.
The two Indians killed in the
crash hail from Kerala. Perumbavoor natives — Shyam Mohan
and his wife Athira — were both
working at a hospital in Russia.
They were returning after a
month-long vacation in Dubai.
The Boeing 737, heading
from Dubai to the southern
Russian city, was reportedly making its second attempt to land
at 0050 GMT when it missed the
runway, erupting in a huge fireball as it crashed, leaving debris
scattered across a wide area.
Detailed report on Page 7
A
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Emergency and banned freedom of Press
when it was in power, Shah said it should
not lecture the BJP on freedom of speech.
"We support freedom of speech but will not
let any effort to break the country's unity
succeed," Shah said.
The meet is being attended by Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, Shah, Union
Ministers Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu,
Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and all other
Cabinet Ministers and Chief Ministers of
BJP-ruled States.
Veteran party leader LK Advani also
attended the conclave and along with Modi,
Shah and Jaitley was seated on the dais.
A socio-economic resolution was
passed by the meet which underlined the
economic plan and policies of the
Government for the betterment of the people belonging to "poor and marginal" sections. The main inputs for the resolution
were given by the party general secretary
Bhupendra Yadav.
Turn to Page 4
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rime Minister Narendra
P
Modi conferred the Krishi
Karman Award on Madhya
Pradesh in New Delhi on
Saturday. This is the 4th consecutive time the State is getting
the award. Farmers Welfare and
Agriculture Development
Minister Bisen received the
award on behalf of the State for
record food grain production
in the year 2014-15.
Union
Agriculture
Minister Radhamohan Singh,
Minister of State Sanjeev
Baliyan and Mohan Bhai
Kalyan Bhai Kundariya were
also present on the occasion.
The Prime Minister conferred the award to the State
during a three-day Krishi
Unnati Mela.
The award carried memento, letter of citation and Rs 5
crore. Besides, in the
Progressive Farmers Category,
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the Prime Minister felicitated
Narsinghpur's farmer Narayan
Singh Patel for wheat production and Morena's Rekha Tyagi
for millet production for the
year 2014-15. They were given
memento, letter of citation and
Rs 2 lakh each.
As a result of Chief
Minister Shivraj Singh
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n a relief for medical and dental students,
IUniversity
the Madhya Pradesh Medical Science
(MPMSU) rolled back its proposed
ity of joy, Kolkata, lightened up
C
in celebrations as India beat
arch-rivals Pakistan — yet again in
a World Cup — with six wickets in
hand on Saturday to get their World
T20 up and running. On a pitch
where Pakistan team had never lost
against the Men in Blue, Team India
changed the history and turned the
tables on their arch-rivals.
Mr reliable Virat Kohli's 55 not
out, and Yuvraj Singh's priced little
cameo of 24 runs helped India cross
the finishing line. The duo shared a
61-run partnership for the fourth
wicket which proved crucial in the
final outcome.
While chasing the modest score
of 118, Men in Blue had a few roadblock which left them reeling at 23/3
at one stage. In the fourth over
Pakistan's veteran pacer Mohammad
Sami took two wickets on two balls
sending Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh
Raina back to the pavilion to silence
the Eden Gardens crowd.
But, after that Yuvi and Kohli
made sure the Blues had no trouble
in chasing down the target with a lit-
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tle bit of help from Dhoni's 13 runs
in the end.
Earlier, Pakistan notched up a
well-earned and extremely competitive score of 118 at Eden Gardens
after MS Dhoni believed in his
bowlers and his batsmen's abilities to
chase and put the visitors to bat in a
rain-delayed 18 over match. On a
pitch that is turning a mile and also
offering assistance to pace, it is a good
total, something that Dhoni would
have wanted to hover around 90 -95.
Turn to Page 4
hike in enrolment and eligibility fee by as
much as 70 per cent.
As per the new proposal, all students
(except NRI quota) will be charged at a fixed
rate. Enrolment fee for MBBS courses has
been slashed from the proposed C8,000 to
C2,000 per candidate. Similarly, dental students will have to pay enrolment fee of C1,000
instead of the proposed C4,000.
The decision was taken by a fee review
committee of MPMSU. On February 19, it
was reported in the local media that MPMSU
has proposed a stupendous hike that would
hit the private medical college students.
Before MPMSU was formed, enrolment fee
paid to local university was as low as Rs 130 for
MBBS course. Meanwhile, the fee review committee did not slash non-resident Indian quota
medical students' fee hike. The NRI students
will have to shell out more for enrolment (USD
1,200 to 3,000) than their yearly course fee.
MPMSU officials suggest the hike in fee
charged by the university is proportional to
changing times. Earlier private and government medical colleges were affiliated to local
universities across Madhya Pradesh. Recently,
the MP government made is mandatory for
all medical colleges affiliate with MPMSU.
Chouhan's farsightedness to
make agriculture profitable,
extension of loans to farmers at
zero percent interest rate,
efforts to increase cultivable
area and area under irrigation,
the State has been conferred the
Krishi Karman Award for the
4th time consecutively.
Turn to Page 4
20?BD;4
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f one were to tell you that a slowpaced
movie can be near perfect, then it
would be difficult to imagine this
possibility. But Eye In The Sky is precisely
this and much more. The movie is
intelligent and thought-provoking. It is
something that very few movies are able
to do. However Hollywood manages to
get right when it gets things in place.
The film creates at atmosphere of
ethics in a world where terrorism and
violence has become a part and parcel of
people’s lives — that of the common man
— while the people who can do
something about it are busy ‘referring up’
in their bid to be politically correct.
It evokes consciousness at every
step but at the same time makes you
question whether a soldier who is fighting
a war should have one, when the enemy
is extremely dangerous capable of killing
innocents with no conscience or regrets,
killing them in his quest to make a point.
Director Gavin Hood has managed
to get the aesthetics in place in a film that
is primarily about how different humans
react in the same situation — here a
military operation through the eye of a
drone. If one is looking for any subtlety
then there is none. This is because there
is plenty of morality involved which plays
out with the cold-blooded Colonel played
absolutely brilliant by Helen Mirren. She
is fierce and willing to bend quite a few
rules. It is, of course, strange to see Alan
Rickman alive – moving and talking and
doing mundane tasks like having a
problem in buying a doll.
It is a movie that tells you the
outcome of action and inaction and keeps
the viewer on tenterhooks till the very
end or it may not.
It is a movie not be missed even with
WT20 going on.
fter a gap of almost 10 years, Sony channel
has revived its show Mann Mein Vishwaas
A
Hai in an all-new avatar, showcasing a bunch
I
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here is nothing mundane about
this family drama from Karan
Johar’s kitty. In fact, it has his
stamp written all over it from the word
go. One had thought that Bollywood
had almost forgotten to make such kind
of films. So kudos to KJo for giving us
a movie that has all the necessary
ingredients to make its mark at the box
office.
Lately, things appear to be going in
favour of KJo — first with Bahubali and
now with Kapoor & Sons. And why not.
The man had to contend with the flop
of his magnum opus Bombay Velvet.
Talking about Kapoor & Sons; it has
everything — spice, drama, some great
numbers — Ladki kar gayi chul — and
set against a backdrop that is extremely
picturesque. The fact that it portrays the
everyday problems (read money) of a
middle class family means that there is
an instant connect with the audience.
Add to it two estranged brothers and the
stage is set for some drama and there
is plenty of it.
Director Shakun Batra should be
given an A-plus for having managed to
make a movie where shouting and
fighting are common into an entertainer
from the word go and keep up the
tempo till the very end albeit with plenty
T
of twists and turns, with a few tears to
be shed towards the end of the movie.
What really works here is not the
storyline but the brilliant casting. There
is Ratna Pathak Shah. From playing the
ranisa in Khoobsurat to a middle class
house wife, she has proved her
versatility. Rajat Kapoor has also
managed to hold his ground as has
Alia Bhatt, who plays a bubbly girl
with a sad story to tell of her own.
Then there is Sidharth Malhotra.
Though there is very little chemistry
between him and Alia, his acting
improves as the movie progresses.
Then, of course, there is Fawad Khan.
He is definitely a keeper. After making
his debut in B ollywood with
Khoobsurat, he plays the role of a man
who doesn’t like girls with aplomb.
But the showstopper of this film
is Rishi Kapoor who plays a 90-yearold. Though he may not have a lot of
screen space, his presence is loud and
clear in places where he is not in the
frame; that is the quality of his
performance in this one. He is witty,
practices how to play dead at regular
intervals much to the annoyance of his
daughter-in-law (Ratna Pathak), loves
Ram Teri Ganga Maili because of that
one scene of Mandakini under the
waterfall, loves to watch ‘rangeen films’
and antogonise the nurse.
This is one movie that comes with
a tag — a great entertainer.
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ere’s a bit of confusion. Is the title of
the movie Heist or Bus 657? If one
H
were to go by some reports, the original
title was Bus 657 but it was changed to
Heist. If this was the case, why not release
the movie by its original title in India
while the same was released in the US as
Heist?
Anyway, the mystery is not over the
title. Nor is it an action thriller. It’s more
about how a heist is planned, executed
and the sequence of events that follow.
It is definitely not a story that is new.
There have been better movies made on
the same subject. So it appears to be a tad
strange why Robert De Niro, who has
given some brilliant performances in
movies like Raging Bull and Heat, would
want to be associated with Bus 657.
Having said that, the movie does
manage to hold your attention. There is
something about a film with a crime
angle that has a thrill quotient despite the
storyline being so mundane and generic.
Obviously one wants the hero, however
bad he is, to get away with his crime.
It is a film that is somewhat engaging
even though it is preposterous and full
of absurdities.
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of real-life miraculous incidents. The show will
have a new story in each episode, selected from
among the thousands of entries received by
the channel, with popular actor Shakti Arora
acting as the narrator.
Explaining why the show is coming
back, creative director Anshuman Sinha said
at the launch: “Considering the number of
letters we received with people
telling their stories, we felt it
was time to bring the show
back.” The show will
feature a series of
miraculous and life-altering
events that real people have
witnessed in their lives.
“The viewer can question if
the life-changing incident is
indeed a miracle or a mere
coincidence and that is where
the concept of vishwaas
comes in; it’s all about perspective.
Miracles are not
something that
can be proven
but we try our
best
to
corroborate the
incident told to
us with other
people who
were present.
We try to
portray the
story with a lot
of sensitivity,” he
says.
Stating that
their
motive
behind creating the
show is to reignite
people’s faith in
God and themselves,
he mentioned that out
of 17,000 stories they
have got so far, 500
have been shortlisted.
40 episodes have been
shot and another 40 are
in the making. “The
plan is to keep making
Ef_VZ_e`eYVd`f_U`W^fdZT
038CH0=0A0H0= XbQPRZPbcWTW^bc^UBPAT6P<P?P^]ITTCEPUcTaPVP_^UU^dahTPab7TcP[Zbc^B0=644C0H030EPQ^dc
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Q This is your fifth season as the
host. What are you doing
differently this time?
It’s little bit of retaining the old
style of hosting and bringing new
innovations. Along with the
fantastic music, we’ll bring
contestants’ success story related to
their struggles, family background
etc so that the viewers could know
them more than just a singer.
There are always a lot of things that
happen on the spur of the moment.
We don’t create a set pattern. I’ll
keep it more fun, real, spontaneous
and create a light atmosphere by
cracking jokes.
Q How are the contestants?
They are phenomenal. I don’t
know how our country manages to
produce so many good singers so
consistently. This time we had
extensive auditions. We called
around 100 contestants to Mumbai
to select top 12. Apart from the
judges, this time we are going to
have 30 jury members who have
selected the final 12. These singers
are all good but it depends on how
they perform on that day.
Q What has been your
observation about the show over
the years?
There have been popular
singers who were launched by this
show and they went on to make it
big for themselves. The level of the
show is very high. The pressure is
immense on contestants with
judges like Pritam, Sajid-Wajid and
Mika. Many end up doing things
they should not be. It’s pretty
much inevitable, given the setup.
Q How have you grown as a host
through this show?
I found little bits of myself
while hosting the show over the
years. It has been a crucial juncture
in my life. I was an 18-year-old
who returned from London with
a
diploma
in
English
contemporary music and didn’t
know what to do. Suddenly this
show came up. From then, there
was no looking back. I gained a lot
of popularity and learnt a lot. I
interacted with a lot of senior
musicians and people who I look
up to like Lataji and Ashaji.
Q You saw stardom at a very early
age...
A lot of my friends were
contemplating about what they
want to do in the future and here
I was already establishing a name
for myself. It gave me immense
confidence. It was never my
intention to work but to be a
more till we have good stories to tell,” he said.
“We are not promoting any religion or any
particular God. We want to tell people that if
they have faith, do good deeds and work for
their goals, they will see miracles happening.
More than believing in God, it is about what
kind of relationship you share with God,” the
host Shakti Arora tells you. He added that he
agreed to the show not only because he loved
the concept but also because he did not wish
to work on a daily soap after just having
finished Meri Aashiqui Tumse Hi, which ended
in a hurry when TRPs went down. “It gives
me more time for myself as shooting for this
is not as intensive as a daily soap,” he said.
Arora revealed that he has always been
interested in the occult sciences and knowing
what the future holds. For this, he even learnt
tarot card reading and numerology. In fact, he
has done these professionally but for charity.
One of the people whose story has been
picked up by the show, Shilpa Chaubey, was
also present at the event and related her
experience: “A few years back, my
younger brother met with an
accident and was on his
deathbed. Although I am
not really a believer, I took
to praying to all the Gods
I knew of and was ready
to sacrifice everything —
food, water, my
marriage. Then I
had an out-of-body
experience where I felt
I was in the presence of
Sai Baba and he told
me that I could take my
brother back. After that,
he started recovering
and is now alive and
well. I feel it is all because
of my mother’s faith in
God.”
It is stories like this
that the creators of the
show want to bring to the
viewers with the motto
‘Vishwaas ka koi tark
nahi hota, lekin fark
padta hai’ (Faith doesn’t
have a logic but it does
affect us).
The show went on
air on March 19.
9LVKIXOORIORYH
B0=644C0H030EQaX]Vbh^dPaT_^acUa^\<d\QPX
PQ^dccWT]TfbW^f^]ITTCEEXbWZP]hP
learner. Ever since I was a child,
right from the time I was trained
under Kalyanji bhai, I’ve been very
blessed to be learning and working
at the same time. By the time I was
seven-years-old, I already
performed in 250 concerts across
the world. I started singing in films
and got offers for acting. I ended
up singing more than 100 songs as
a child artist and acted as well. By
the time I was 13, I had a huge
body of work under my belt. But
then my voice cracked and it went
through modulation during my
adolescent phase. I was out of
action for over six years.
is beautiful yet deadly. She has
stepped out of her home but
Sshehenever
has no supernatural powers. She is
like any other human being. Yet there
is something strange and mysterious
about her. Aparajita, played by
debutante Aishwarya Khare, is a woman
who is brought her up by her mother
Kalpana (Rohini Banerjee) with much
love and care. But she is unaware of the
fact that her mother has been poisoning
her since childhood, preparing her
revenge.
“It’s a romance fable shown with a
lot of intrigue, mystery, love and
revenge. The backdrop of the story is
taken from history which records that
vishkanyas really existed. Chanakya
was responsible for its
creation. He was fed
small portions of poison
since his childhood by
his mother so that his
body could become
immune to poisonous
attacks. He strategically
gave poison to a woman
who turned into a
vishkanya,” producer
Nissar Parvez of
Peninsular Pictures
tells you.
The makers
emphasise
that
vishkanya is not
propagating any
disbelief and this is
very different from
the supernatural
shows
which
showcase daayans,
naagins, bhoot etc.
“There is no
disbelief in it. We
have taken the
backdrop from
Chanakya’s story and showcased how the
mother uses her daughter to take revenge.
She turns blue at various intervals and her
mother gives her a reason that she is
suffering from an ailment and until she
gains her immunity, she is not allowed
to go out and mingle. Why she is doing
it is what we’ll reveal later on the show,”
Parvez says.
The story takes an interesting twist
when Malay Mittal, played by Vin
Rana, returns from abroad after
completing his studies. His curiosity
makes him sneak into the house and
when they both meet, he falls headover-heels in love with
Aparajita.
“From day one of
the audition, I wanted to
take up the show as the
story is very catchy. I
was ver y sure and
confident that I fit the bill
perfectly and can do
justice to it. Malay is a
modern-day man who
is very progressive in
his thoughts and is
the apple-of-the-eye
in his family. When
he meets Aparajita
for the first time, he
finds her the most
beautiful girl and
their friendship
grows into love. But
it
will
be
interesting to see
when he’ll find
out the truth,”
Rana says.
The show,
set in Kolkata, is
slated to go on air
from March 28 at
6:30 pm.
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he Bharatiya Janata Party
T
(BJP) minority cell that
remains mute over its party
leaders chants against Muslim
community awakened to raise
objection over All India MajlisE-Ittehadul
Muslimeen
(AIMIM) president and parliamentarian Asaduddin
Owaisi’s refusal to chant
‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ and said
that chanting ‘Bharat Mata Ki
Jai’ is not only our commitment but it is also our
birthright.
Minority cell State president Hidayatullah Sheikh in a
statement here on Saturday
said, “The statement of Owaisi
is not only objectionable but is
also laughable as chanting
‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ is not only
our commitment but it is also
our birthright.”
Sheikh further said that
Owaisi’s statement has become
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a subject of investigation and
the security agencies of the
country should investigate that
under what compulsion that he
gave such a statement. Why a
cheap statement became his
compulsion for cheap publicity, he questioned.
He said that similar disturbing statement was given by
Owaisi during Bihar assembly
election but the people did not
supported him. If Owaisi
hopes that such statements
would garner him minority’s
support than he would surely
get disappointed.
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ahujan Samaj Party (BSP)
leader and former MLA
B
Kishore Samrite has alleged
that the State Government is
biased towards the SC/ST IAS
officers serving in Madhya
Pradesh.
In a statement, Samrite
condemned
the
State
Government’s alleged move to
harass and isolate the IAS officers, Shashi Karnawat and
Ramesh Thete, from the service
by framing them in corruption
cases.
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As soon as Bharatiya Janata
party (BJP) came to power it
withdrew 28,000 to 32,000
cases of its party members and
also against 42 IAS and IPS officials and nine ministers that
were filed under Lokayukta
investigation. Meanwhile, the
State Government had sanctioned the prosecution against
Karnawat. Samrite alleged that
if she was corrupt she would
have been rich, but she is
under huge debt.
During the suspension,
Karnawat should be given 75
per cent of her salary, but she
received nill and now she is at
the verge of suicide. Similarly,
Ramesh Thete was trapped in
a bribe case of C35,000 and the
Government will terminate
him from services.
Both the IAS officers are
from the socially backward
and weaker class. Samrite has
advised Karnawat and Thete to
stay away from Congress as in
the past, IAS officers Maan
Dahima and Hoshiyar Singh
suffered as they depended on
Congress.
Samrite asked the officer,
“If you intend to join politics by
leaving job, they should come
to the BSP will fight for your
rights
and
forming
Government by uprooting the
riling BJP.”
Noted writer Javed Akhtar
has shown right mirror to
Owaisi that where it is prohibited to chant for motherland.
Islam also mentions of prayer
of motherland, he added.
He said that while the soldiers are performing duty at
the borders of the country for
its safeguard from enemy, it
has become habit of the leaders like Owaisi to give bizarre
statement. They do not believe
that their statements confuse
the community and also gives
wrong message to the society,
he added.
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ndian Railways will
not stop Rajdhani
Express and Shatabdi
express at zero output
stations. This issue was
taken by the railway
management to analyse
it. The Dholpur and
Morena
Railway
Stations are small stations and Railways is not
getting enough number
of passengers from there
and thus resulting in
major loss to the railway
department.
Now
railway
department is preparing not to stop these
super fast trains like
Shatabdi Express and
Rajdhani Express at small
railway stations.
Shatabdi Express which
starts from Delhi and reaches Habibganj will not stop at
small stations as at such stations there are not enough
passengers and also Railway
department did not generate
much revenue from these
small stations.
Railway department is
preparing the plan avoiding
stoppage of the Shatabdi
Express in these stations.
Railway department has told
to management to analyse
the halts at small stations. It is
informed that the stoppage of
two minutes of electric train
costs around C20,000.
B esides, the R ailway
department is also planning
not to stop Rajdhani Express
at Gwalior Railway station.
This train runs from New
Delhi to Bilaspur as there is
not proper traffic from
Gwalior Railway Station, the
railway might take final decision in this regard.
00?³b\TSXP 8=1A845
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day-long workshop on
A
social media was organised
by Aam Aadmi Party’s social
I
Shatabdi Express will not
stop as it is considered as zero
output from Gwalior to
Morena. It is expected that in
April month small stations
halt will be stopped and same
instruction will be send to
concern station managers
respectively.
According to Vijay Kumar
Chief Manager Publicity
Allahabad has informed that
the train which runs with the
speed of 120 kms per hour and
stops for two minutes at zero
output stations incurs major
loss of around C24,506 and the
train which runs 100 kms per
hour and stops for two minutes will give loss of C21,207.
Shatabdi Express will not stop
at Morena, Dholpur and
Lalitpur railway stations as
they are considered as zero
output railway stations. It may
be possible that railway board
will not stop Shatabdi Express
on these zero output stations.
At present Railway board has
not declared any official statement regarding this.
media coordinator Rajesh
Sharma for the party workers
and office bearers of AAP here
on Saturday.
While talking to media
persons here on Saturday,
Sharma said that in the present
environment social media is an
easy and effective medium of
expression. In present condition, people know the difference between a clean and ugly
politics, thus the social media
is becoming predominant in
sharing information and messages, he added.
He further said that in
Delhi, social media played a
major role in forming AAP’s
Government and in Madhya
Pradesh in 2018 too it would
play a decisive role.
Praising the MP’s social
media team of AAP, Sharma
said that it is working like the
team in Delhi and it is bringing out the flaws of the present
government fearlessly, even
after many hurdles and getting
it to the citizens through the
social media.
On this occasion, the State
social media in-charge Rahul
Sharma evocated the team and
said that it is time to start
preparing for the 2018 election.
AAP’s national spokesman
and State secretary Akshay
Hunka in his addressing speech
expressed happiness in the
advancement of the social
media and said that in 2018
elections social media will play
a major role. AAP is getting
included in the discussions of
the social media and it is also
being taken seriously which is
a sign of public awakening
through social media, added
Hunka.
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BC055A4?>AC4AQ 17>?0;
?=BQ 6F0;8>A
he 22nd Foundation day of
Lok Hitkari trust is going to
T
be celebrated on March 20 at
Manas Bhavan at 1 pm.
Lokhitkari trust is known for
the welfare trust for the poor
peoples. The president of Trust
Ramvilas Sharma
and Secretary
Keshav Pandey
have addressed the
media people and
informed that the
Chief Guest of the
programme is Gwalior Mayor
Vivek Shejwelkar and main
speaker is Professor Prakash
Dixit.
The programme is going to
preside over by Chamber of
commerce President Arvind
Agarwal. During the press conference Vijay Gupta, Ganesh
Chatur vedi, and Usha
Chaturvedi were present.
“At present as we are aware
of the commercialisation in the
medical treatment and the
humanity is totally gone and it
has become difficult for the
medium class peoples to bear
the expensive medical treatment then the Lokhitkari came
forward on February 23 to
serve for needy peoples, said
Ramvilas Sharma.
This ambitious
campaign embarked
on February 23, 1994
amongst four peoples
and contributed C200,
Foundation was laid
in 1994 and at present
from Monday to
Saturday Lok Hitkari
Trust opens in morning up to
evening and attended the
patients. On Sunday for villagers
Lokhikari Trust serve free medical services. Lokhitkari Trust
provides free medical treatments to the poor peoples and
conduct camp in Allopathy,
OPD, Eye treatment, Tooth
Treatment etc. Most important
thing of Lokhitkari trust is that
more than 1500peples from all
over the place gives donation to
run this trust.
he
Indira
Gandhi
Rashtriya
Manav
Sangrahalaya under the celebrations of its 40th Foundation
Day is organising various programmes and activities at its
premises from March 21 to 23.
Sangrahalya in continuation of
four decade long tradition
will celebrate foundation Day
with various programmes with
a state as theme.
The chief guest of inaugural ceremony will be
Professor BK Konwar (ViceChancellor,
Nagaland
University, Nagaland). On this
occasion, a new Gallery on
Ethno Music at Veethi Sankul
will be inaugurated. Followed
by inauguration of Nagaland
Prasang: Cultural Festival of
Nagaland under Celebration
of Regional Cultures.
Later in the evening of
Foundation Day, country’s
largest lamp with 1001 wicks
‘Aal-Vilakku’ will be lighted. In
the evening cultural programmes- traditional presentations from Nagaland where
famous band—Tetseo Sisters
and Traditional Dances of
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?X^]TTa_W^c^
Numa Retreat Club
and Spa, Bhopal is all set to
Jofferehan
a unique European food
experience for its esteemed
clients. Visiting Chef Katerina
Garwood, a graduate from Le
Cordon Bleu, London would
remain present. With her experience and knowledge, Chef
Katerina will be organising
various activities and promotions associated with European
Cuisine and the art of fine dining.
While talking to media
persons here on Saturday,
Katerina said that the proposed activities and promotions are- daily specials menu:
On a daily basis Chef Katerina
will be introducing some fine
dining classics from the great
kitchens of France. Guests can
try her daily specials featured
on our black board menus at
both our outlets.
Chef 's Tasting Menu: A
specially prepared four course
menu by Chef Katerina will be
dished up for guests to truly
experience the fine elegance
and subtlety of classic
European cooking. Offering
unique opportunity to enjoy a
full meal through elaborate
courses and ingredient combinations. Dates for this special
promotion to be confirmed
soon.
Cooking Classes: Chef
Katerina will be organizing
short workshops with our
guests on the art of preparing,
cooking and platting classic
European dishes. The cooking
classes include recipes which
can be easily replicated at home
with a fine dining touch.
The best part about Chef
Katerina's cooking is that
most of the ingredients she is
using it from our very own
organic garden, and she is
using them in perfect combination and in accordance with
the ethics of genuine
European technique.
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various Naga Communities
will be performed at Open air
stage of Charaiveti premises
from 7pm.
On March 22, 2016, at
11am a special exhibition on
‘Cultural Heritage of Nagaland
- The Nagas’ at Avritti Bhawan
will be inaugurated. Followed
by opening of a new exhibition
entitled as “The Last of the
Tattooed Headhunters: The
Konyaks” at Veethi Sankul. In
the evening cultural programmes- traditional presentations from Nagaland where
famous band -Tetseo Sisters &
Traditional Dances of various
Naga Communities will be
performed at Open air stage of
Charaiveti premises from
7pm.
On March 23, 2016, the
day will commence with
“Colloquium on Oral and
Literar y Traditions of
Nagaland” with key speaker Prof. Temsula Ao at Rock Art
Centre from 10.30 am. In the
evening cultural programmestraditional presentations from
Nagaland where famous band
–Purple Fusion & Traditional
Dances of various Naga
Communities will be performed at Open air stage of
Charaiveti premises from
7pm.
During the three day festival, from 11am “Live
Demonstration Cum Sale of
Traditional Art and Crafts of
Nagaland” will take place at
Himalayan village and Ethnic
Cuisine of Gujarat, West
Bengal and Punjab will be
available at reasonable prices
from 1.00 pm onwards at
Open
air
exhibition
Himalayan village.
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new railway line network
of 1,300 kms would be
A
ready in Chhattisgarh within a
span of six years.
The State Government has
also made provisions in the
2016-17 budget for providing
public transportation to the
people between Raipur and
Naya Raipur. Under the plan,
the metre gauge line between
Kendri and Raipur will be
taken from the Railways for
development,
officials
stated.
Notably, Chhattisgarh currently has only 1187 route
kilometres of railway lines.
It may be recalled that the
Public sector IRCON
International Ltd. has commenced work in connection
with the construction of new
‘Broad Guage Electrified
Double Railway Line’ in
Chhattisgarh on the East West
Corridor.
The work is being undertaken in Gevra Road-Pendra
Road and Dipka, Kathghora,
Sendurgahr and Pasan sections, officials stated.
Notably, freight train with
speed of maximum 100 kms
per hour will pass through
Chhattisgarh in the East-West
Corridor (Kolkata-Mumbai).
The train will traverse
through the States of West
Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha,
Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra
as the Ministry of Railways has
sanctioned implementation of
Eastern Dedicated Freight
Corridor (EDFC) and Western
Dedicated Freight Corridor
(WDFC) with freight train
speeds of maximum 100
Kmph.
Development of two key
Rail corridors in mineral-rich
Chhattisgarh is now set to
expand the Railway line network by 45 per cent in the State,
officials stated.
The completion of 235-km
Dallirajhara-RaoghatJagdalpur, East and East-West
Rail corridor (300 km) projects
will comprise a total of 535
kilometers Railway-line during
the next two to four years, they
stated.
The South Eastern
Coalfields Ltd (SECL) has
urged timely completion of
East & East-West Rail
Corridors which are crucial for
coal evacuation from its Korba
and Raigarh coalfields in
Chhattisgarh.
The company has also
urged for a massive Railway
capacity augmentation, offi-
cials stated.
The South East Central
Sector which includes
Chhattisgarh is set to play a key
role in Central government’s
ambitious coal loading and
transportation plans.
A Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) has
been signed recently between
Ministry of Railways and Coal
India Limited (CIL) which will
lead to procurement of 2000
wagons (33 rakes) in the first
outgo, officials stated.
The agreement which will
result into speedy supply of
wagons for coal loading in
dedicated circuits.
The Union Railway Budget
2016-17 presented in the
Parliament on Thursday has
put Chhattisgarh on Centre’s
high priority list among states
for its ambitious dedicated
freight corridor project implementation plans.
The Union Railway
Minister Suresh Prabhu in his
budget speech has put high
emphasis on ensuring structuring, award and implementation of freight corridor projects in a time-bound manner
through innovative financing
mechanisms including Public
Private Partnership (PPP).
The Union Railway
Minister in his budget speech
has also put emphasis on rapid
expansion of freight business to
build more dedicated freight
corridors for increased traffic
with consequent benefits for
the economy and environment
with Chhattisgarh being the
direct gainer from the initiative
due to high coal and iron ore
movement through the
Railwaynetwork from the State.
Prabhu also said that technological solutions for project
management and monitoring
will be taken up. The latest
Drone and Geo Spatial based
satellite technology will be
used to monitor physical
progress across major projects
and also the progress on
Dedicated Freight Corridor,
he said.
Notably, on February 9, the
Union Railway Minister had
commented: “For development
of the country, extension of rail
network in resource-rich State
like Chhattisgarh is necessary
and the task of Rail network
extension in the State will be
carried out through a special
joint venture company.”
He was speaking at a programme organised to sign
Memorandum
of
Understanding (MoU) for
three rail corridor project
between Indian Railway and
Chhattisgarh government in
New Delhi.
The country has witnessed
maximum railway track extension work this year, stated
Prabhu, adding that the efforts
made by Chhattisgarh Chief
Minister Raman Singh on
behalf of the State government
"!)2^Sf]R_TVdecZ\V
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341030B?A0370=Q
17D10=4BF0A
he employees of the 108
Emergency Ambulances
T
continued their strike for the
second day on Saturday. The
Government,
however,
claimed that the strike is not
affecting the ambulance services across the State.
National Health Mission
(NHM) Director Salini Pandit
said two 108 Ambulance
employees were arrested in
Balangir district under the
Essential Services Maintenance
Act (ESMA).
Drivers, helpers and medical technicians of the ambulances are on agitation
demanding, among other
things, payment of minimum
guaranteed wages, a 15-per
cent annual increment and
construction of rest houses.
Despite the appeal of the
Ziqitza Health Service (ZHS),
a private agency that runs the
services, and also the State
Government’s imposition of
the ESMA threatening disciplinary action against them, the
employees have resorted to the
cease-work agitation demanding fulfilment of their sevenpoint charter of demands.
The NHM Director said
the strike has not affected the
health service. However, the
situation is expected to worsen in the coming days.
Pandit said the ZHS has
already agreed to hike the
employees’ wages from eight
per cent to 12 per cent, extra
payment for overtime and
food allowance.
She further informed that
the Government is on its toes
to avoid any untoward incidents. The ZHS is operating
364 Basic Life Support (BLS)
and 56 Advanced Life Support
(ALS) ambulances in the State
as per the NHM guidelines.
“We have made alternative
arrangements to meet the crisis arising out of the ongoing
strike. We appeal to the striking employees to join work.
Their demands are under consideration of the Government.
Strict legal action will be taken
as per the law if they fail to join
at the earliest,” Pandit said.
µ)UHHGRP
Students performing street play during their annual function Maffick at MANIT on Saturday
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From Page 1
The Opposition and the
dissident MLAs claim that the
Speaker had throttled their
voice at the behest of the Chief
Minister by denying them the
opportunity to vote. This is
why they have demanded the
Governor to dismiss the
Harish Rawat Government
immediately. They claim that
as the Harish Rawat
Government has all but fallen
because of it running short of
majority, the nine dissident
MLAs -- Vijay Bahuguna,
Harak Singh Rawat, Shailendra
Mohan Singhal, Umesh
Sharma Kau, Subodh Uniyal,
Prem Batra, Amrita Rawat,
Shailarani Rawat and Kunwar
Pranav Singh Champion -are still members of the Vidhan
Sabha. The Opposition said
they would move no-confidence against the Speaker too
when the Assembly meets
again.
Notably, when Vijay
Bahuguna formed the
Uttarakhand Government on
March 13, 2012 then Cabinet
Minister Harish Rawat had
managed to have his staunch
supporter Govind Singh
Kunjwal appointed as the
Speaker. Now Kunjwal, who
had
embarrassed
the
Bahuguna Government by
raising corruption charges
from public forum had acted
in such a manner that his status as someone apart from the
Treasury Bench was blurred,
said the Opposition and the
Congress rebel members of the
House. However, they are
keeping in mind the fact that
the Speaker’s vote in case the
motion leads to a tie can prove
crucial.
However, both sides are
busy taking legal opinion
before firming up their next
strategies vis-à-vis the unfolding drama.
Nine dissident MLAs constituting one-fourth of the
Congress strength in the
Vidhan Sabha standing at 36,
four more are required to help
things take the shape of a
split, a possibility that BJP
says is bright, given the fact
that four, including a Cabinet
Minister, are in touch with
them. If things fail to fructify
as BJP expects the nine dissidents would lose membership
under the Anti-Defection Act.
However, the Government
is pulling out all stops to have
the rebels disqualified before
the Treasury Bench faces the
Assembly.
Sources said that the
Opposition would bring the
no-confidence motion against
the Speaker as the first thing
after the House reopens.
Now, eyes are fixed on the
Governor as the authority to
appoint a protem Speaker in
case the Speaker is removed
rests with him.
Regarding numbers, BJP
has paraded 35 MLAs, including 26 from BJP excluding
MLA Ganesh Joshi, who is
now under judicial custody
and nine rebel Congress
MLAs. The Congress led front
at the present juncture enjoys
the support of 33 MLAs,
including six from Progressive
Democratic Front (PDF),
Congress’s ally. If Harish Rawat
manages to have nine dissident
MLAs disqualified things
would be easy for the
Congress. Moreover, if the one
nominated MLA throws his
weight behind Congress its
strength would go up to 34 in
the 62-member Vidhan Sabha.
While BJP claims the support of 35 MLAs including
nine rebel Congress legislators,
Rawat says he still enjoys a
majority in the 70-member
House as none of the so-called
rebel MLAs has quit the party
or the CLP. He also said that
five of the rebels were in touch
with him.
On a day of claims and
counter-claims by BJP and the
Congress, Assembly Speaker
Govind Singh Kunjwal said the
“Anti-Defection law is in place
and whoever is found guilty of
violating it will have to be acted
against”.
“All Congress MLAs voted
with the Government when
the previous Bill was passed in
the Assembly and nobody had
challenged the Bill. Even the
BJP accepts the voice vote,” he
said.
Asked about BJP’s no-confidence notice against him,
Kunjwal said, “We will see
when it comes in the Assembly.
Members of the legislative
Assembly will discuss and
decide if the no-confidence
notice is valid or not”.
Hitting back at the BJP,
Congress accused Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and
BJP chief Amit Shah of seeking to destabilise non-BJP
Governments through lure of
money and political power.
“The duo of Modi and
Shah are infamous for forcible
eviction
of
elected
Governments in this country.
Elected Government are being
destabilised by a sinister conspiracy. After Arunachal
Pradesh, it is Uttarakhand,”
Congress chief spokesman
Randeep Surjewala told
reporters in New Delhi.
In Dehradun, BJP intensified efforts to dislodge the
Rawat Government, claiming
it has majority in Uttarakhand
Assembly and should be invited to form the Government as
the incumbent Congress dispensation has been reduced to
a minority.
“ The Harish Rawat
Government has lost majority.
Today BJP has the numbers
with the support of rebel
Congress MLAs to form a
new
Government
in
Uttarakhand,” Shyam Jaju, the
State in-charge of BJP said.
Jaju said the party is willing to present the MLAs whose
support it enjoys before
President Pranab Mukherjee
and insisted that Rawat should
immediately resign given the
loss of majority.
Nine rebel Congress MLAs
have reached Delhi and are in
touch with BJP leaders, he
said. Accusing BJP of distorting facts, Rawat said, “Those
who are saying they have support of 35 MLAs are misrepresenting facts. I am confident
that I still have a majority in
for expansion of Railway network in Chhattisgarh display
his commitment towards
Railway’s development in the
State.
The
Chhattisgarh
Government is committed
towards extension of Railway
lines across the State with necessary support from Union
Railway Ministry, Chief Minister
Raman Singh had stated.
“Extension of Railway network is going to bring great fortune for Chhattisgarh by
putting it on path of further
development and efforts in
this regard have already started in the State. As of now, 17
km-long railway route has been
developed and soon it will
reach 50 km mark,” he said.
the Assembly and can prove it
on the floor of the House,” he
told reporters after emerging
from a meeting with the
Assembly Speaker.
The rebel MLAs included,
Congress has a strength of 36
MLAs in the 70-member
Assembly. The ruling party
also has the support of six
members of the Progressive
Democratic Front. The BJP has
28 MLAs.
A three-member BJP delegation of former Chief
Minister and MP Bhagat Singh
Koshiyari, Jaju and general
secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya
met the Governor last night
after the simmering discontent
within a section of Congress
legislature came to the fore.
Amidst chaos in the
Assembly, nine Congress rebels
had joined BJP in demanding
a division of votes on the
State’s annual Budget, which
could have led to the
Government’s fall.
Rebel Congress MLAs
seen raising anti-Government
slogans along with BJP were
mostly those owing allegiance
to former Chief Minister and
MLA Vijay Bahuguna. The
other eight were Harak Singh
Rawat, Amrita Rawat, Kunwar
Pranav Singh Champion,
Shaila Rani Rawat, Pradip
Batra, Subodh Uniyal, a confirmed Bahuguna loyalist,
Shailendra Mohan Singhal and
Umesh Sharma.
Surjewala said BJP was
resorting to such actions in the
backdrop of poll debacle in
Delhi followed by in Bihar
which has “convinced” the ruling party at the Centre that it
would not come to power in
any State through popular
vote. “Is this the Modi culture
of politics of transparency and
accountability to lure away
legislators...Bypassing all constitutional norms?” he said.
Admitting that Congress
MLAs had flouted the party
whip by sitting on a dharna
along with Opposition members, Rawat said they were
liable to be acted against in
accordance
with
the
Constitutional provisions.
The Chief Minister said he
was hurt by the behaviour of
rebel party MLAs including
Harak Singh Rawat and Vijay
Bahuguna.
“As far as Harak Singh is
concerned, the less said the
better. He is such a star of
Uttarakhand’s political firmament. If one or two more such
wrestlers are born in the State,
Uttarakhand of our dreams
will never become a reality,” he
said.
Rawat said he was shocked
by Bahuguna’s conduct in the
House on Friday as he came
from a family which always
fought against communal
forces.
“Coming as it did from the
son of Hemvati Nandan
Bahuguna who always fought
for secular values and stood
against communal forces,
Bahugunaji’s behaviour was
no less shocking,” the Chief
Minister said.
Senior BJP leader Kailash
Vijayvargiya, on his way back
from Raj Bhawan, said if the
Governor does not immediately dismiss Harish Rawat’s
minority Government, they
would knock at the doors of
the President.
Earlier, packed in a luxury bus, BJP and rebel Congress
MLAs numbering 35, went to
Raj Bhawan to seek dismissal
of Harish Rawat Government.
The Governor assured the
MLAs to look into the constituitional provisions and act
accordingly, a Raj Bhawan
spokesperson said.
Leader of Opposition Ajay
Bhatt, who was in the bus, said
35 MLAs including 26 of BJP
and 9 from Congress voted
against the Budget whereas
only 32 from the ruling party
voted in its favour causing the
related Money Bill to fall in
House. All 26 BJP MLAs, barring Mussoorie MLA Ganesh
Joshi, who has been arrested in
Shaktiman case, and sulking
legislator Bhim Lal Arya, were
present in the House on
Saturday.
Congress MLA Sarbat
Karim Ansari also could not
attend the House, which had
an effective strength of 67
MLAs.
Pioneer photo
From Page 1
On Sunday, a political resolution focusing on national
and international events would
be passed by the meet with
main inputs from another BJP
general secretary Ram Madhav.
Shah was effusive in his
praise of the Union Budget and
its "increasing focus" on impoverished villagers and farmers.
Affirming that the promises to
remove poverty have after a
long time found feet under the
Modi dispensation, Shah
detailed the Prime Minister's
crop insurance scheme for providing economic security to the
farmers and described it " a revolutionary step".
He also outlined the "people-centric" welfare measures of
the Modi Government like the
Mudra Bank and implementation of the OROP scheme for
ex-servicemen among others.
Compared to agriculture
growth rate of 2 per cent in
Congress-ruled States, the BJPgoverned States have a rate of
10 per cent, the BJP chief said.
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A094B7:D<0AQ =4F34;78
ajya Sabha chairman and
Vice-President M Hamid
R
Ansari has urged Delhi
Legislative Assembly Speaker
Ram Niwas Goel to initiate
privilege proceedings against
Leader of the Opposition in
Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta
for allegedly casting aspersions
on the members of Rajya Sabha
and calling for abolition of the
Upper House in an article published in a newspaper.
Ansari has sent a letter in
this regard to the Speaker following Janata Dal (United) MP
KC Tyagi’s notice of question of
privilege against Gupta — one of
the three BJP MLAs in the 70member Delhi Assembly — to
the Rajya Sabha.
In his letter, Ansari has
observed that on perusing the
documents on record, the matter seems to involve prima
facie a question of privilege. “I
am accordingly referring this
matter to you in terms of the
procedure mentioned above,
for further necessary action,”
Ansari added.
Citing procedures laid down
by the Committees of Privileges
of the Lok Sabha and Rajya
Sabha in the report of their joint
sitting in 1954, Ansari has asked
the Speaker to initiate further
necessary action against the
Leader of Opposition in the
Delhi Assembly.
As per the procedure, one
House cannot claim or exercise any authority over a
Member of the other House in
cases where a Member of one
House is alleged to have committed a breach of privilege of
the other House.
When a question of breach
of privilege is raised in any
House in which a member, officer or servant of the other
House is involved, the Presiding
Officer shall refer the case to the
Presiding Officer of the other
House, unless on hearing the
member who raises the question
or pursuing any document
where the complaint is based on
a document, he is satisfied that
no breach of privilege has been
committed or the matter is too
trivial to be taken notice of, in
which case he may disallow the
motion for breach of privilege.
Upon the case being so
referred, the Presiding Officer of
the other House shall deal with
the matter in the same way as if
it were a case of breach of privilege of that House or of a
member thereof. The Presiding
Officer shall thereafter communicate to the Presiding
Officer of the House where the
question of privilege was originally raised a report about the
enquiry, if any, and the action
taken on the reference.
,QGLD <^SX_aTbT]cb:aXbWX
From Page 1
But it was a contest in
which Ashwin was bewilderingly not given his full four
overs despite being restrictive
at 4 runs an over and Hardik
Pandya bowled just two to
give away 25 runs as Shoaib
Malik feasted on him with two
brilliant sixes in consecutive
balls. On the whole, it was a
gruelling contest in the middle.
The Indian spinners lived up to
expectation, restricting the
Pakistani batsmen and, to a certain extent, curbing the damage done by Pandya and Jasprit
Bumrah who gave away 8 runs
an over.
Meanwhile in New Delhi,
Indian women's team lost to
Pakistan by two runs via
Duckworth-Lewis method in a
rain-affected group league
encounter.
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From Page 1
Bisen said that during the
year 2014-15, food grains production and productivity
increased by 254 lakh tonnes
and 1719 kg per hectare, respectively, the area under irrigation
also increased by 3.26 lakh
hectares. In the State, 29.45
lakh quintal certified seeds were
produced. Free of cost spiral
graders and seed treatment
drums were provided in 40,000
villages under seed quality
improvement programme.
In the year 2014-15, 1.09
lakh hectare infertile land was
converted to fertile. Agriculture
advisories are being sent to the
farmers through mobile SMS.
Credit cards were distributed to
13.36 lakh farmers during the
year 2014-15. At present, 78.75
lakh farmers have kisan credit
cards. An Agriculture Cabinet
has been constituted for better
collaboration and coordination
among concerned departments.
The State's Principal
Secretary for Agriculture, Rajesh
Rajora, and the Director for
Agriculture, Mohan Lal Meena,
were also present on the occasion.
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ith the agriculture sector
under duress due to sudden change in weather conditions, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi feels it is time for farmers to look at alternative sources
of income as well, apart from
agriculture.
Speaking at the inauguration of Krishi Unnati Mela on
Saturday, the PM urged the
farmers to focus on crop diversification and go for allied activities like dairy, poultry and
food processing to boost their
income as depending of farming alone cannot help them sustain their families.
In order to survive natural
calamities, Modi suggested that
farmers should follow threepronged approach towards
farming to insulate from crop
losses. “At present, farmers follow one pillar, that is farming
alone. When this pillar falls
down due to hailstorm, their
survival is affected. So, it is
W
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New Delhi: The Election
Commission on Saturday
flagged the issue of “hate
speeches” and plunging standards of political discourse
during campaigning with the
parties, in the backdrop of
personal attacks by leaders in
the recent Assembly polls.
At the closed-door meeting, the political parties agreed
that the issue had to be
addressed. But most of the six
national parties and the 49
regional parties opposed the
suggestion of the poll panel to
hike security deposit for contesting candidates and seeking
a ‘no dues’ certificate from
parties operating from
Government accommodations.
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At present, a candidate has
to deposit a security of C10,000
for Assembly polls and C25,000
for Lok Sabha polls which is
forfeited in case the contestant
gets less that one-sixth of the
votes polled.
There were also divergent
views on the use of ‘totaliser’, a
machine with mixes votes from
various polling stations and
which EC feels would further
protect voters’ identity during
counting of votes.
At the closed-door meeting, the Commission also
took up the issue of ‘indirect
campaigning’ in areas which
go to polls in a multi-phased
election.
Meanwhile, after the
removal of 37 officials including a District Magistrate and
four Superintendents of Police
two days back, the Election
Commission today removed
another IPS official Bharati
Ghosh in poll-bound West
Bengal following complaints
from opposition parties.
important to have our farming
based on three pillars,” he said.
The first one is to continue to
regulate farming in one third of
the crop area. The second one
is to grow timber on the boundary of the farm field and the
third one is to adopt animal husbandry, poultry and bee keeping among other activities. “If
we do our farming on these
three pillars then farmers will
have ways to insulate from losses due to natural calamities. And
their income will also rise,”
Modi said.
He called upon farmers to
go for value addition and take
up food processing in a big way
to boost their income. “The
more farmers take up food pro-
cessing, the more their income
will increase. If you sell milk,
you will get less price. But you
sell ghee and paneer, you earn
more. Similarly, if you sell raw
mango, you may get less price
but you would earn more if you
make pickles and sell,” he said,
while urging farmers to unite
together to bring changes in villages,” PM said. He even talked
about the increasing market of
organic food in the country and
suggested farmers to explore
this aspect as well.
As per the latest
Government data, the all-India
average monthly income of
agricultural households during
the crop year July 2012-June
2013 was estimated at C6,426.
The PM also asked farmers
to conserve water and mentioned several initiatives taken
by his Government for agriculture growth, including introduction of a new insurance
scheme and giving soil health
cards to farmers, with a view to
doubling their income by 2022.
nion Minister M Venkaiah
Naidu Saturday lashed out
at Congress leader Jairam
Ramesh over his remarks that
Government showed “utter contempt” of Rajya Sabha by passing Aadhar Bill as Money Bill
and accused Congress of resorting to “flimsy political gimmicks” under a “game-plan”.
“The statement of senior
Congress leader Jairam
Ramesh that the NDA
Government showed utter contempt of Rajya Sabha on
Aadhar Bill is reprehensible
and once again shows the
Congress mindset of opposing
a progressive legislation for
the sake of Opposition even
though it aims at transforming
the lives of millions of poor and
marginalised sections in the
country,” Parliamentary Affairs
Minister M Venkaiah Naidu
said in a statement.
Stating that it was “unfair”
on the part of Ramesh to “question the prerogative of Lok
Sabha Speaker” in declaring
U
once water reaches there, you all
can think how much that land
will give us back.”
He suggested funds from
MNREGA should be utilised for
creation of assets such as ponds
to conserve water. “About
MNREGA, many discussions
take place, but no asset has been
created. This government is
emphasising... During this summer in every village, one work
should be done through
MNREGA and that is desilting
of ponds, deepening of ponds
and creating new ones. In this
Budget, the government is aiming at 5 lakh ponds,” Modi said.
Modi also gave away the
Krishi Karman Awards for
2014-15 to states and farmers
for their outstanding performance in agriculture. He also
launched a mobile application
for farmers — Kisan Suvidha.
This app will provide information to farmers on weather,
market prices, seeds, fertilisers,
pesticides and agriculture
machinery.
?=BQ =4F34;78
fter taking on the Modi dispensation over the EPF tax,
A
Congress vice-president Rahul
Gandhi on Saturday attacked the
NDA Government for cutting
down interest rates on small savings, including PPF, terming it
as an assault on the middle class.
RSS-affiliate Bharatiya Mazdoor
Sangh (BMS) also opposed the
cut in interest rates saying market-driven economic policies
were not suitable for India.
“Slashing interest rates on
small savings — on PPF and
KVPs — is yet another assault by
the Modi Govt on hard working
middle class people,” Rahul said
in a series of tweets. “This Govt
has failed farmers, failed the
poor & now it’s failing the middle class. Modiji ppl are seeing
through your event management politics!,” he tweeted.
In a move that will hit common man, the Government had
cut interest rates on all small sav-
ings schemes, including PPF,
Kisan Vikas Patra (KVP) and
senior citizen deposits, to make
them more market aligned.
Interest rate on Public Provident
Fund (PPF) scheme has been cut
to 8.1 per cent for the period
April 1 to June 30, from 8.7 per
cent, at present.
The Congress had reacted
strongly against the Government’s latest move by saying it
is “fleecing” the poor and is a
“criminal breach” of trust of hapless people. It had described it as
an overt attempt at “robbing
money by snatching it from
unsuspecting individuals”.
Meanwhile, BMS general
secretary Virjesh Upadhyay said
the reduced interest rates has
badly hit the common man, who
in turn, will not keep their
money in banks which are
already in bad shape.
“Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh
opposes reduction in interest
rates on small and long term savings. We demand that
Government should reconsider
its decision keeping in mind the
feelings of common people
investing in small savings,”
Upadhyay said.
The BMS also asked the
Government to make a paradigm shift in the country’s economic model as “market-driven
economic policies were not suitable for India.” The BMS had in
the past also criticised the
Government’s economic policies
and said the recent announcement will also affect Prime
Minister’s Jan Dhan Yojna.
The Centre had termed the
decision as a “normal exercise of
resetting” rates in March every
year and being in line with market conditions.
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he Parliament while enacting a law to reorganise a
State must ensure fair and
equitable distribution of assets
and funds between the two
successor States, the Supreme
Court has observed in a recent
judgment.
The court was dealing
with a “tricky” situation arising out of a decision by
Telangana Government to
freeze the bank accounts operated by the Andhra Pradesh
State Council of Higher
Education (APSC) post-bifurcation. The APSC, created in
1988, was headquartered at
Hyderabad and this became
the bone of contention.
What was at stake was a
fixed deposit amount of
C115.88 crore lying in the
name of APSC and a bank
balance of 18.41 crore held in
State Bank of Hyderabad. The
Telangana Government
ordered the bank to freeze all
finances operated in the name
of APSC and the bank complied with the same. The
Andhra Pradesh High Court
ruled in favour of Telangana
accepting the position that
Hyderabad fell in Telangana
territor y. In fact, the
Telangana Government even
passed a law creating a parallel APSC named Telangana
State Council of Higher
Education (TSC).
But in Supreme Court,
Telangana lost. Ruling against
Telangana, the bench of
Justices V Gopala Gowda and
Arun Mishra said, “By no
stretch of imagination can it
be assumed that the complete
takeover of assets of the erstwhile APSC by TSC, on the
ground that the State institution happens to be in
T
Hyderabad, which is now a
part of Telangana, was what
the legislature had in contemplation while enacting the
Reorganization Act 2014.”
Any bifurcation, the
bench observed, is sensitive
and tricky and thus the onus
is on the legislature to make
a smooth division of State’s
erstwhile assets, finances and
liabilities
in
the
Reorganization Act. It said,
“Adequate care has to be taken
by the legislature (Parliament)
while drafting legislations
such as the Reorganisation
Act, 2014 to ensure a smooth
division of all assets, liabilities,
and funds between the States
to make sure that the interests
of the citizens living in these
States are protected adequately.”
The AP Government had
read
out
from
the
Reorganization Act to show
how APSC was meant to serve
the interest of both states till
such time they agreed to
divide all assets, funds and liabilities accruing till the date of
bifurcation in the ratio 52:48
based on population.
According to this division, AP
would benefit C77.89 crore
from APSC while C56.4 crore
will go to Telangana. But with
the present decision of
Telangana to unilaterally
freeze the bank accounts, the
money belonging to the 13
districts of AP post-bifurcation, over which Telangana
had no claim, also got stuck.
This fact also weighed with
apex court in setting aside the
freeze order.
The bench directed both
states to amicably arrive at a
settlement and asked Centre
to constitute a Committee, to
determine the share, if no
agreement was forthcoming
within two months.
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Modi added his Government
has identified 90 stuck irrigation
projects which can irrigate 80
lakh hectares. The Government
is spending C20,000 crore to
boost irrigation projects.
He even emphasised on
micro and drip irrigation as well
as liquid fertiliser to reduce cost
of production and raise farmers’
income level. Water harvesting
is of as much importance as
water conservation. We do not
have the right to waste water. Per
drop more crop is how we can
do that,” Modi said.
Attacking Opposition parties for claiming that all projects
and programmes started when
they were in power, PM said:
“You would be surprised to
know that as much as 90 projects which are full of water like
dams have been built, but there
is no way to provide water to
farmers. Now, my Government
is working to provide water
from these projects and once it
is completed, around 80 lakh
hectares will get water. And
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Aadhar Bill as a Money Bill,
Naidu said that by stating that
it was the recommendation of
the Government to consider it
as a Money bill, the Congress
leader, a member of Rajya
Sabha, is “casting aspersions”
on the wisdom and impartiality of the Speaker.
He said there has been
absolutely no attempt to bypass
Rajya Sabha and claimed that
the Congress leader was raking
up a “needless controversy”
over the semantics of a Money
Bill. Naidu asserted that the
Aadhar Bill could not be
termed anything else but a
Money Bill as it involved draw-
ing huge expenditure to provide subsidies.
“In such a situation, it is
simply untenable for anybody
to contest the categorisation of
Aadhar Bill as a Money Bill.
Secondly, where is the question
of bypassing Rajya Sabha when
due Parliamentary processes
have been followed at every
stage,” he said.
Accusing Congress of
adopting an “obstructive” attitude and “blocking” important
welfare and development-oriented bills, Naidu said,”the
Congress is showing utter
contempt towards people’s
mandate.”
ith the Harish Rawat-led
regime in Uttarakhand
W
in crisis, the ruling Congress
on Saturday accused Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and
BJP chief Amit Shah of trying
to destabilise non-BJP
Governments through lure of
money and political power.
The BJP, for its part, asserted
it has a majority in
Uttarakhand Assembly now
and should be invited to form
the Government as the
incumbent Congress dispensation has been reduced to a
minority.
Congress spokesman
Randeep Surjewala said the
party is not scared by the conspiracy and would deliberate
on all legal, political and constitutional steps to shake off the
challenge to the Government.
The four-year old Congress
Government is under threat
with nine rebel Congress MLAs
raising the banner of revolt and
reportedly joining the BJP,
which has staked claim to form
the
Government
in
Uttarakhand. The rebel
Congress MLAs were mostly
those owing allegiance to former Chief Minister and MLA
Vijay Bahuguna.
“The duo of Modi and
Shah are infamous for forcible
eviction
of
elected
Governments in this country.
Elected Governments are being
destabilised by a sinister conspiracy. After Arunachal
Pradesh, it is Uttarakhand,”
Surjewala alleged.
He said the BJP was resorting to such actions in the backdrop of poll debacle in Delhi
followed by Bihar which has
“convinced” the ruling party at
the Centre that it would not
come to power in any State
through popular vote. “Is this
the Modi culture of politics of
transparency and accountability
to
lure
away
legislators...bypassing all con-
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Udhagamandalam: A tiger was
shot dead on Saturday, eight days
after it had killed a worker and
triggered panic among the locals
in Devarsholai, about 80 KM
from here, even as two policemen sustained bullet injuries.
The seven-year-old carnivore had received more than six
bullets, police said.
The 53-year-old worker
from Jharkhand, Magu was
mauled to death by the tiger on
March 11 after which three
teams, drawn from forest and
police departments and Special
Task Force, were on their toes to
catch it live which had serious
injuries on its leg and abdomen
and provide treatment.
Over 10 cameras and six
cages were installed besides prey
animals to catch it and the
forces, numbering nearly 150
were monitoring round the
clock its movement. As the STF
men noticed the movement of
the tiger this afternoon, a section
of the combined forces fired
from all sides, some sitting atop
trees and temporary huts, resulting in the big cat's death around
3 PM, they said.
PTI
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stitutional norms?” Surjewala
said.
A three-member BJP delegation of former Chief
Minister and MP Bhagat Singh
Koshiyari, Shyam Jaju, the State
in-charge of party, and general
secretar y
Kailash
Vijayvargiya met Uttarakhand
Governor KK Paul late on
Friday night after the Congress
MLAs revolted against the
incumbent Government. The
nine rebel Congress MLAs
have arrived in Delhi and are
in touch with BJP leaders. The
Governor has asked Harish
Rawat to face the floor test on
March 28.
“The Harish Rawat
Government has lost majority.
Today BJP has the numbers
with the support of rebel
Congress MLAs to form a new
Government in Uttarakhand,”
Jaju said. He added the party is
willing to present the MLAs
whose support it enjoys before
President Pranab Mukherjee
and insisted that Rawat should
immediately resign given the
loss of majority.
The rebel MLAs included,
Congress has a strength of 36
MLAs in the 70-member
Assembly. The ruling party
also has the support of six
members of the Progressive
Democratic Front. The BJP
has 28 MLAs.
Amidst chaos in the
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Uttarakhand Assembly on
Friday, the nine Congress rebels
had joined the BJP members in
demanding a division of votes
on the State’s annual budget,
which could have led to the
Government’s fall. Congress
MLA from Rudraprayag,
Harak Singh Rawat claimed the
finance Bill in connection with
the budget had fallen, thus
giving clear indication that the
ruling party has been reduced
to a minority with 35 votes
against the budget and 32 in its
favour.
auding the “liberal and largehearted” Parsis for their conL
tribution in diverse fields, Union
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
on Saturday said that the smallest community in India has
never regarded themselves as
minority, a “mindset” that has
allowed them to emerge as a
“role model” for others.
“I think what stands out is
the fact that the smallest minority in India has really never felt
that it is a minority. It has never
regarded itself as a minority. It
is this mindset that has enabled
it to be, in many standards, the
role model for the rest of the
country,” Jaitley said
He was addressing the gathering after opening the
Everlasting Flame International
Programme
Celebrates
Multicultural Ethos of the ParsiZoroastrian Community here.
Parsis came to India from
Iran in somewhat adverse circumstances, Jaitley said while
noting that they have preserved
their culture and also exhibited
the ability to reach the top
whether it be industry, armed
forces, legal profession, architecture or the civil services.
Jaitley proposed that the
town of Udvada in Gujarat,
where the Parsis had landed
centuries ago, should be developed as a global cultural centre.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
had taken an initiative for developing the town when he was the
Gujarat Chief Minister, he said.
Union Ministers Najma
Heptulla, Mahesh Sharma and
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi attended
the event along with eminent
members of the Parsi community, including British parliamentarian Karan Bilimoria.
Jaitley also noted that
although the British Parliament
has a Parsi member, the Indian
Parliament does not.
Heptulla expressed concern over the slow growth of the
Parsi population. She said that
while she has worked extensively for population control,
with regard to Parsis, it is otherwise.
She lauded the community
saying the measure of its contributions is disproportionate to
its size and it has never sought
any favour from the
Government.
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ata Steel is in discussion
with foreign companies
T
for investments up to C20,000
crore in heavy industries over
the next five years at its
Special Economic Zone (SEZ)
project at Gopalpur in Odisha.
“We believe we should be
able to get foreign investment between C15,000 to
C20,000 crore over the next
five years at the Gopalpur
SE Z ,” Tat a Ste e l SE Z
Managing Director Arun
Misra told PTI here last
night. “We are currently in
discussions with 13 to 14
different investors. Talks are
at various levels,” he said at
the 'Emerging India Forum
2016' in Singapore.
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The investment will be in
defence, metal downstream
and electronics as well as
chemicals and pharmaceuticals among others, Misra,
who is marketing the
Gopalpur SEZ as a gateway to
the South East Asian markets,
said.
Tata Steel is the anchor
tenant for the multi-product
2,970-acre SEZ at Gopalpur in
Odisha. The UK-based
Midget Corporations is setting
up an assembly plant for
‘unmanned aerial vehicle targets’ which are used by army
for firing practices. Singapore
consultant Subrana Jurong
has completed the SEZ's masterplan with all land cleared
for leasing within the 30
square km boundary.
“All master-planning has
been done, the entire area has
been cleared, there is no
encumbrance,” Misra said.
Basic utilities and road infrastructure has already been
built in early development of
the zone which has Tata Steel's
ferrochrome plant.
The Gopalpur SEZ, just off
the National Highway 5, will
be based on a Singapore model
for industrial development
which offers land parcels of
various sizes for industries, he
said. Tata Steel SEZ will invest
between C2,000 and C2,500
crore by 2020 in the Gopalpur
SEZ, for which a Tata Power
power plant proposal is also on
the drawing board.
The company is also discussing a possible investm e nt i n e x p ans i on of
Gopalpur port, about five
kms away from the zone.
“We want to show that if you
plan well and provide infrastructure, SEZ can be successful,” Misra added.
ndiabulls Housing Finance
on Saturday said it will
raise C510 crore by issuing
non-convertible debentures
(NCDs) through private
placement. The issue will
open on March 23 and close
on the same day, the company said in a BSE filing. Under
the plan, the company will
issue 5,100 secured non- convertible redeemable debentures with an face value of
C10 lakh each.
Aggregating to C510
crore, on private placement
basis, pursuant to special resolution passed by shareholders of the company held on
September 7, 2015,” it said.
The tenor of the issue
varies from 719 days to 1,083
days, bearing coupon rate in
the range of 9.4935 per cent
to up to 9.4953 per cent.
6XeTUPXaRWP]RTc^<P[[hPbc^_\TSXPcaXP[bPhb<Pid\SPaBWPf
?C8Q 7H34A0103
MD of biotechnology major
Biocon, said: “It (settlement)
does not happen overnight”
and said media exerting
pressure on Mallya to settle
the dues instantly does not
make it easy.
“Today everybody is being
tried by media.Whether it's
banks recovering their debts.
Whether it’s the debtors,
whether it’s the Government.
Everybody is being tried by
media. For instant recovery of
all dues - each and every penny.
Which is unrealistic. So, media
frenzy is getting in the way of
following due processes,” she
said.Interestingly, noted industrialist Rahul Bajaj had said,
“Wherever there are justifiable reasons (for non-payment
of loans), actions should not be
taken. However, where there
are cases of wilful default,
where loans were diverted for
other purposes, action should
be taken. Catching thieves will
not harm the country.”
Mazumdar-Shaw, however,
said there are many companies
which have large debts even
though they have not been
declared as defaulters. One has
to focus on the bigger issues of
debt recovery and dispute resolution and also on the mounting debt of public sector banks
which is causing financial
stress. The proposed bankruptcy law, when cleared by
Parliament, would certainly
expedite the process of resolving these enormous challenges
(NPA issue), she said.
“There are many debts
which have to be recovered.
Fair opportunity should be
give to debtors to settle. But just
being carried away by TV
shows, nothing is going to
come.” “I think every default-
F^^S[P]Sc^PbbTbbbXcdPcX^]
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oted entrepreneur Kiran
Mazumdar-Shaw says
beleaguered businessman Vijay
Mallya should be given a fair
opportunity to settle the loan
default issues with banks, and
maintained media trial against
him would not help matters.
Resolution of debt and
financial disputes take a long
time in the country due to lack
of a bankruptcy law, she said in
an interview to PTI here and
noted Mallya has himself clarified he is willing to settle the
loan default case and hence he
needs to be given a fair opportunity to do so.
She expressed confidence
Mallya would return to
India. Pointing that the case
was pending before the Debt
Recovery Tribunal for some
years, the Chairperson and
N
?C8Q 270=3860A7
fter its two outlets were
looted and burnt in
Rohtak, Haryana during the Jat
agitation last month, footwear
and apparel brand Woodland
on Saturday said it will assess
the situation before reopening
the stores.
The outlets were generating sales around C4-5 crore per
annum, the company said.
During the stir, arsonists had
first looted and then burnt
down two Woodland stores
located in Rohtak, which was
the epicenter of pro-quota Jat
agitation.
“For Rohtak, we will asses
(situation) before we take a call
on whether to reopen the
stores,” Woodland Managing
Director Harkirat Singh told
PTI. He also described the
mayhem in several parts of
Haryana during Jat stir as setback.
“It was a setback. We were
running both of profitable
stores. We would have opened
another one, but now we are
thinking to whether to reopen
those two. It was a setback not
only for us but for so many
other companies,” Singh said.
“We have close to 25-30
stores in Haryana. Practically
A
in all towns. And it is not that
we are closing those stores,
they will keep running,” he
said. He further said the company might look at the possibility of opening its stores on
a franchise model.
“These things happen and
they are very sad. We all feel
there is a lot of market potential there, but when such things
take place, we take a step back
and we think whether it is really sensible to do it, but of
course, one has to see as for the
future.
May be we will be more
careful probably we open franchise. We have not yet thought
of how we will take it up now.
We are still kind of what is the
possibility. Normally, we open
company owned stores everywhere,” he said.
“We have yet to decide
what to do. We are still pursuing how we can get compensation then we will probably
search for some franchisees.
In places where we are
not sure where we feel about
safety angle and all, it is
always better to have local
person involved who can
take care better,” he said.
Rohtak had seen massive
damage to the private property by violent protesters.
?=BQ =4F34;78
SGEC Heavy Engineering
has signed four technical
Icooperation
agreements with
Austria's Neuson Hydrotec
GmbH for manufacture and
supply of various items.
“The company has signed
four technical cooperation
agreements with Neuson Hydrotec
GmbH, GaisbergerstraBe 52,
Austria for manufacture, sale
and supply of items, jointly for
India,” ISGEC said in a filing to
BSE. Nosing press plant, forging plant, forging complex
press, and straightening press
are the items under the agreement for manufacture, sale
and supply, it said.
The technical cooperation agreement in respect of
nosing press plant came into
effect on March 16, it said. The
remaining agreements will
come into effect once they are
approved by the Board of
Directors in the next meeting.
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er should be given an opportunity to settle. If you constantly threaten the debtor that
you will be arrested, you will be
put behind bars... that's not the
way to recover the debts.”
“We never had bankruptcy law which is very important
law to deal with all these things.
I think we have to give an
opportunity not just to Vijay
Mallya but all debtors and
defaulters to try and settle
with banks and banks to recover as much dues as they can,”
Mazumdar-Shaw noted.
Noting that she and Mallya
grew up together, she said “I
have known him for a long
time. And I know that he is sincerely trying to settle his debt.
But now he is so worried about
the way media has been going
after him.”
On whether Mallya would
return to India, she said: “I am
sure he will. Of course he is
very worried about what will
happen when he comes back.
He is very keen to settle.”
,QGLDDLPVWRFDSWXUH
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?C8Q 2>8<10C>A4
ndia aims to capture 20 per
cent market share in
Internet of Things (IoT), an
emerging sector which would
be worth $300 billion by
2020, a top Nasscom official
said on Saturday.
The IoT is driving the
fourth wave of industrial
re volut i on d r am at i c a l ly
a ler ting manufac tur ing ,
energy, transportation, medical and other industrial sectors while emerging worldwide, Vice President of
Na s s c om
( In du s t r i a l
Initiative) KS Vishwanathan
told reporters here.
As the global IoT business is expected to touch
$300 billion by 2020, India
aims to capture 20 per cent
market share in another
five years, he said.
I
Vishwanathan was here
to launch Nass com IoT
Centre of Excellence, a joint
initiative of Government of
India, Depar t ment of
Electronics and Information
Technology (DEITY) along
with TCS, Intel, Amazon Web
S er vices and FORGE
Accelerator.
Depending on the success
of Coimbatore hub, it was
proposed to launch such centres in Pune, Baroda and
Hyderabad, even as a pilot
project was underway in
Bengaluru, he said.
To a query on the pace of
setting up startups in view of
additional tax being levied on
them, Vishwanathan said,
“nearly 1,000 startups are
being added every year in
India, which stands third in
the world in terms of numbers
and will continue to grow.”
C`SVceGRUcRSRedW`c[VhV]]Vcd¶
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?=BQ =4F34;78
obert Vadra, son-in-law of
S onia Gandhi, has
R
expressed solidarity with jewellers who are protesting
against imposition of one per
cent excise on non- silver
jewellery and said a solution
should be found to the problems of small-time workers
who are suffering due to the
issue. Noting that it has been
many days that the jewellers
have been protesting, he said
they should be heard.
“Imagine the plight of
the small scale workers, who
are suffering and struggling
with day to day needs. And
no one seems to be willing to
find a solution,” Vadra, a
businessman himself, said in
a statement here.
Vadra, who has met representatives of All India
Gems and Jewellery Trade
Federation, said “If the roll
back has not been entertained, in that case the federation is simply wanting to
allow the trade to pay excise
duty of 1 per cent or equivalent amount of VAT paid
(whichever is lower), to the
centre through the Excise
Department, but based on the
VAT, so that the Government
8Y^TeZQRb_dXUbcd_`
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he Hinduja brothers have
emerged as the richest
T
Asian-origin entrepreneurs
in Britain for the fourth consecutive year with an estimated personal fortune of
16.5 billion pounds.
The India-born brothers
G P Hinduja and SP Hinduja
topped the ‘Asian Rich List
2016’ released here last night
and the annual rankings
showed that they had added
one billion pounds to their
personal fortune in a year to
be worth an estimated 16.5
billion pounds.
The ‘Asian Rich List’
assesses the total wealth of
Britain's top 101 richest Asians
and is compiled by UK-based
publishing house Asian Media
and Market. Steel tycoon
Lakshmi N Mittal was ranked
second in the list, released by
the
Indian
High
Commissioner to the UK
Navtej Sarna.
The fortune of Mittal,
however, has plummeted by
3.3 billion pounds to finish
with 6.4 billion pounds.
Leading NRI industrialist Lord
Swraj Paul is listed as 15th richest with fortune worth 500 million pounds.
This year’s analysis showed
that the UK’s richest Asians
have their fortunes worth 55.54
billion pounds up from 54.48
billion pounds in 2015. The
highest riser and a new entry
is Cyrus Vandrevala, with 2 billion pounds at number five.
He moved to London with his
wife Priya, having made his
money in the US in the internet business.
He is now in private equity and real estate. Sri Prakash
Lohia, chairman of the
Indorama Corporation, is listed 3rd richest with fortune
worth 3 billion pounds. The
Arora brothers - Simon, Bobby
0da^QX]S^?WPa\P
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?=BQ =4F34;78
urobindo Pharma has
received final nod from the
A
US health regulator to manufacture and market its generic
Naproxen Sodium tablets used
for the treatment of osteoporosis in postmenopausal
women.
“The company has received
final approval from the US
Food and Drug Administration
(USFDA) to manufacture and
market Naproxen Sodium
tablets USP, 220 mg,”
Aurobindo Pharma said in a
BSE filing. The company
expects to launch the product
in the first quarter of the next
fiscal, it added.
“The approved product
has an estimated market size of
$96 million for the twelve
months ended January 2016
according to IMS,” it said. The
company's drug is the generic
version of Bayer Healthcare
LLC's Aleve tablets, it added.
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and Robin - owners of discount retail chain are 4th richest with a fortune worth 2.1 billion pounds. Within the
Hinduja group -- conglomerate with interests across automotive, real estate and oil -Gulf Oil, Ashok Leyland,
IndusInd Bank and Hinduja
global Solutions appear to have
done particularly well.
According to the Asian
Rich List, Gopi Hinduja, cochairman of the Hinduja group
does not think that wealth
should be measured only or
even mainly by how much
there is in someone's bank
account. “If you consider one
to be wealthy or rich only
because of his money, you are
totally wrong,” he said.
“I consider someone to be
wealthy and rich if he has good
friends, good contacts, good
relationships. If you want to
calculate my wealth by counting my money then you are
wrong,” he said.
“My father always told
his children, ‘Act local but
think global’ and be diversified in your businesses.
Don't be in one sector, be in
different sectors, and also be
spread geographically. Don't
be in just one country so that
you are always balanced. If
one sector is not doing well,
the other will.”
Gopi Hinduja said, “My
message is ver y clear.
Bediversified; be in different
countries and you will never
have shocks. I have not seen
any adverse impact on our
businesses because we are
spread across 38 countries
and reach a hundred countries.”
“Since the recession in
2008, the US has picked up.
However, everyone is now nervous about China where the
GDP has fallen to between 6
per cent and 6.5 per cent. But
people forget the trillions of
dollars China has its reserves.”
He said the country that
offered the best investment
potential is India.
“India is the best destination. In India today your GDP
is 7.3 per cent - plus a lot of
reforms are going to come in.
We have a god budget,” he said.
He said, “Prime Minister
Narendra Modi has a good
goal but his problem is similar
to that of Manmohan Singh and that is implementation.
So he has to have a team to
implement what he is doing, but
I think he is making improvements. Maybe in the next six
months we will see there will be
a structure where things started getting implemented. If you
are in private sector you have
huge opportunities.”
6.60LFURILQUDLVHV
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VHFXULWLVDWLRQGHDO
?C8Q =4F34;78
KS Microfinance has raised
Sritisation
C538.11 crore through a secudeal -- the seventh
such transaction in 2015-16. In
a BSE filing on Saturday, SKS
Microfinance said it has ‘completed seventh securitisation
transaction during 2015-16 for a
pool value of C538.11 crore’.
With this transaction, the total
sum of securitisation completed
during the current fiscal (year-todate) is C2,319.93 crore, it said.
The entire pool qualifies for
priority treatment as per the
Reserve Bank’s priority sector
lending guidelines. “The pool has
been rated AA (SO) by a leading
rating agency, signifying a high
degree of safety regarding timely servicing of financial obligations. Such instruments carry a
very low credit risk,” it added.
SKS Microfinance added that
it has also assigned a pool of loan
receivables of an aggregate value
of C506.55 crore to one of the
largest public sector banks on
direct assignment basis as per
guidelines prescribed by RBI.
SKS Microfinance is a non-banking finance company regulated by
the Reserve Bank of India.
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NEW
DELHI:
Adani
Enterprises Ltd on Saturday said
that its arm Adani Green Energy
Ltd (AGEL) has incorporated
two wholly-owned subsidiaries.
In a BSE filing the company said,
AGEL has incorporated a wholly owned subsidiary named
Sami Solar (Gujarat) Private Ltd
(SSGPL) on March 17. PNS
jca^l
CaPSTab³bcaXZTT]cTab 'cWSPh
NEW DELHI: The strike by
jewellers and bullion traders
continued for the 18th straight
day on Saturday demanding
rollback of the proposed excise
duty on non-silver jewellery.
Most jewellery shops and
establishments in the country
have been on strike since March
2 after Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley in his Budget announced
one per cent excise duty on nonsilver jewellery. Jewellers are
also opposed to mandatory
quoting of PAN by customers
for transactions of Rs 2 lakh and
above.
Meanwhile, in a bid to calm
the frayed nerves of agitating jewellers, the finance ministry yesterday said artisans and job workers
will not have to pay this levy. PNS
does not suffer on revenues
proposed.” But at the same
time, he added, they want
respite from the compliances
which are impossible for
small scale workers in the
jewellery industry to follow.
“I have understood and
find it completely non practical, for small scale workers
to follow these compliances,”
he said.
“More over, t he re a l
probem of black money will
be addressed when gold bars
will not be sold, as the jewellers association promise
willingly,” Vadra said, adding,
“This will save our nation a
great deal of funds, which are
used to procure this unaccounted gold into the country to absorb individuals
black money.” Jewellers and
bullion traders have been on
strike since last 18 days
demanding rollback of the
proposed excise duty on nonsilver jewellery.
?344e`eR\V`gVc9D4=
NEW DELHI: State-run
NBCC said its Board has
approved takeover of
Ko l k at a - b a s e d
P SU
Hi n d u s t a n S t e e l w o r k s
Construction Ltd (HSCL).
Initially, HSCL will operate
as a subsidiary of NBCC
and eventually it will be
merged with the Navratna
firm. HSCL also has an
order book of C8,000 crore
which could be handled by
NBCC, a source said. PNS
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s part of the Republican
establishment’s continuA
ing bid to block front-runner
Donald Trump, former presidential nominee Mitt
Romney has now come out in
strong support of Senator Ted
Cruz in the hope that he
alone can contain the Trump
surge and ensure an “open
convention” to select the party
nominee.
Ahead of next Tuesday’s
Republican caucus in his
home-State of Utah, Romney
unleashed another round of
attack on Trump, commenting that it has now become a
contest between “Trumpism
and Republicanism”, with
Tr umpism representing
“racism, misogyny, bigotry,
xenophobia, vulgarity and,
most recently, threats and
violence”.
“I will vote for Senator
Cruz and I encourage others
to do so as well, so that we can
have an open convention and
nominate a Republican,”
Romney said in a Facebook
post on Friday.
Romney, who had campaigned for Governor John
Kasich in Ohio just last week,
sought to explain his aboutturn, saying: “The only path
that remains to nominate a
Republican rather than Trump
is to have an open convention.
At this stage, the only way we
can reach an open convention
is for Senator Cruz to be successful in as many of the
remaining nominating elections as possible.”
He went on to say that
although he likes Governor
Kasich and his “solid record
80=B Q <>B2>F
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as governor”, a vote for Kasich
from now on in the primaries
will only help the controversial billionaire, making it
“extremely likely that
Trumpism would prevail”.
Trump promptly fired
back on Romney, calling him
a “choker” for the manner in
which he lost the 2012 race to
President Barack Obama.
“Failed Presidential Candidate
Mitt Romney was campaigning with John Kasich & Marco
Rubio, and now he is endorsing Ted Cruz. Mitt Romney is
a mixed up man who doesn’t
have a clue. No wonder he
lost!” he commented in a
series of vitriolic Twitter posts.
Training his guns on
other detractors from the
Republican establishment as
well, Tr ump tweeted:
“Americans want to see a
President who will fight FOR
them – not a bunch of failed
politicians fighting w/ each
other about how to stop me.”
And Romney’s endorsement
of Cruz will be “good for me”,
Trump said.
The angr y exchanges
between the two happened
just hours before Trump
arrived in Salt Lake City for
his first major Utah rally that
saw some clashes between
protesters and supporters of
Trump outside the venue after
the event. If supporters kept
chanting “Donald Trump”,
protesters carried signs calling Trump a racist. “Mr Hate
Out of Our State,” said one
placard.
Trump used the opportunity to make his appeal to
Utah’s majority Mormon population and in the same
breath wondered whether
Romney truly represented
their faith. Saying he loves the
Mormons and has many
friends in Salt Lake City, he
remarked: “By the way, Mitt
Romney is not one of them.
Are you sure he’s a Mormon?
Are we sure?”
If Cruz was thrilled by
Romney’s support and call to
Utah voters, Kasich said while
Romney is entitled to his opinion, the election is “not a parlour game” and that he himself
remains convinced that he is
the Republican best placed to
defeat Hillary Clinton in the
November race.
Boeing 737-800 passenger
jet operated by low cost airA
line FlyDubai crashed while
AT_dQ[XRP]_aTbXST]cXP[RP]SXSPcT3^]P[SCad\_b_TPZbPcPRP\_PXV]aP[[h^]
5aXSPhX]BP[c;PZT2Xch
0?
Washington: Republican
presidential front-runner
Donald Trump has said the
US has now become a “third
world country” as compared
to infrastructures in Dubai
and China, and promised that
things would change once he
is elected the American
President.
“We have become a third
world country, folks!,” Trump,
69, told his supporters at an
election rally at Sal Lake City
in Utah, which goes to presidential primary elections on
Tuesday.
“If you go to places like
Dubai, China, you look at the
roads, at the rail roads, they
have the bullet trains that go
100s of miles an hour. And if
you go to New York, they’re
like 100 years ago,” he said.
Trump said the US under
him would knock out the
ISIS and rebuild the country.
“When it comes to trade,
we are going to start being
smart, because our country is
poor. We are going to make
American so great again. It is
not great now. We need education to that,” he said.
Reiterating that Trans
Pacific Partnership is a “disastrous” trade deal, Trump
said the US under him would
have deal that would favor
America.
“It is not a question of free
trading. Free trading is wonderful. The problem of free
trading is that we need smart
people on our side also. If I am
president, I guarantee you
they (Mexico) would pay (for
the wall) and they would be
very very happy about it,” he
said.
Trump said his administration would negotiate great
trade deal amid applause and
cheer from the audience.
attempting to land in the southern Russian city of Rostov-onDon on Saturday, killing all 62
passengers, including two
Indians. The flight was en route
from Dubai and had been circling the airport for up to two
hours after an initial aborted
landing attempt, according to
Russian news reports. There
were high winds in the area at
the time.
The plane was coming in
for a second attempt to land at
3 a.m. when it plunged to the
ground and burst into flames.
The crash occurred inside the
airport’s perimeter, about 250
metres short of the runway.
Ministry of External Affairs
spokesman Vikas Swarup said
the two Indians who appeared
on a list put out by the Russian
authorities are Anju Kathirvel
Aiyappan and Mohan Shyam.
According to Flydubai - an
Emirati budget airline with a
new fleet of planes that started
flying in mid-2009 — the jet was
carrying 55 passengers — 33
women, 18 men, four children
and seven crew members, CNN
reported. Initial reports suggested that all passengers on
board were Russians; however,
the Emergencies Ministry later
confirmed that 11 foreigners
AdbbXP]4\TaVT]Rh<X]XbcahT\_[^hTTbX]eTbcXVPcTcWTfaTRZPVT^UPRaPbWTS
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Moscow: Russian investigators
probing the crash of a Dubai
airliner in southern Russia
that killed all 62 people on
board have found one of the
plane’s flight recorders.
The Boeing 737-800 operated by FlyDubai was carrying
55 passengers, most of them
Russian, and seven crew
members of various nationalities when it crashed today in
the city of Rostov-on-Don
while trying to land in strong
winds.
Russia’s Emergencies
Ministry said there were no
survivors. Four children were
among those killed, FlyDubai
said.
AP
were on board, including all the
crew members.
FlyDubai said the passengers included 44 Russians, eight
Ukrainians, two Indians and
one Uzbekistani. “While we are
still awaiting final confirmation,
it is with great sadness that we
report we believe there are no
survivors,” FlyDubai said on the
airline’s Facebook page.
Speaking about the incident, FlyDubai chief executive
Ghaith al-Ghaith said: “Our
primary concern is for the families of the passengers and crew
who were on board.
“Everyone at FlyDubai is in
deep shock and our hearts go
out to the families and friends
of those involved. We don’t yet
know all the details of the accident but we are working closely with the authorities to establish the cause,” he said.
The airport will remain
closed until Sunday, and medics
and psychologists were on
standby to assist family members, the Emergencies Ministry
said. About 700 people were
involved in the rescue operation.
$ZX[[TSX]8bcP]Qd[Q[Pbc 8aP`[Pd]RWTb^UUT]bXeTX]0]QPa
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t least five people were
killed and 36 injured in a
suicide bombing that hit
Turkey’s central Istanbul on
Saturday.
The attack took place in
front of the local governor’s
office in Beyoglu, Hurriyat
Daily News quoted Istanbul
governor Vasip Sahin as saying.
Turkish Health Minister
Mehmet Muezzinoglu said 36
people, including 12 foreign
nationals and a child, were
injured.As many as seven of the
injured were in critical condition.
Three Israeli citizens were
among the injured, Dogan
News Agency reported. Israel’s
Foreign Ministry Spokesman
Emmanuel Nahshon said
Israeli citizens were injured, but
could not confirm the exact
number.
The surrounding areas
were cordoned off. Germany,
which kept its embassy in
Ankara and consulate in
Istanbul closed on March 17
05?Q 1067303
A
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forces have launched a
broad offensive to retake the
Icityraqi
of Hit from the Islamic
and March 18 following an
intelligence input of a terror
attack threat, warned its citizens in Istanbul after the attack
to stay in their hotels and follow the media for security
updates. The attack in Istanbul
came six days after a suicide
bomb attack in Ankara killed
37 people.
The attack in Ankara was
claimed by the Kurdistan
Freedom Hawks (TAK), a terror group linked to the outlawed PKK.
?C8Q :0C7<0=3D
n the eve of Prime
Minister K P Oli’s visit to
O
China, leaders of agitating
#:8;;438=E84C=0<
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rench President Francois
Hollande met today with key
F
cabinet ministers and security
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rorist Daesh (ISIS) gangs have
fled back into the town centre,”
the head of the local council for
Al-Baghdadi district, Malallah
al-Obeidi, said.
Daboun said Iraqi aircraft
and jets from the US-led international coalition were providing air support. Al-Asad
military air base, which houses a large contingent of US and
other foreign military advisers,
lies around 35 kilometres
northwest of Hit.
Iraq’s security forces
launched a final push against IS
in Anbar’s provincial capital
Ramadi late last year and established full control over the city
last month.
Aid agencies have voiced
concern over the fate of an estimated 35,000 civilians who
have fled Hit and its surroundings in the run-up to the
latest military offensive. The
International Committee of
the Red Cross said late yesterday that thousands of freshly
displaced people were stranded in areas where very little
assistance is available.
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State (ISIS) group in the western province of Anbar, a top
commander said today.
Led by the elite CounterTerrorism Service, forces from
the police, army and local tribal fighters were making a final
push to retake Hit, 145 kilometres west of Baghdad.
“They have begun a broad
operation to liberate Hit and
Kubaysa,” Major General Ali
Ibrahim Daboun, the head of
the Al-Jazeera Operations
Command, said. Kubaysa is a
smaller town a few miles west
of Hit, a key hub along the
Euphrates that the jihadists
have controlled since October
2014.
Daboun said Iraqi security forces and tribal fighters had
retaken a cement plant west of
Kubaysa and raised the Iraqi
flag there. “Members of the ter-
Madhesi parties in Nepal have
approached the Chinese envoy
here to express their concerns
regarding
the
new
Constitution.
In a meeting held here, the
leaders of the alliance yesterday
handed over a memorandum
to Ambassador Wu Chuntai
urging China to exert diplomatic pressure on Nepal for fulfilling their demands related to
7^[[P]STW^[Sb\TTcX]V
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officials after the arrest in
Belgium of the last major suspect wanted in connection with
the November Paris attacks.
As well as Prime Minister
Manuel Valls, the meeting
included the interior, defence,
justice and foreign ministers, top
security officials and the armed
forces chief. “The goal, following the arrest of (Salah)
Abdeslam and several of his
accomplices, is to review operations that are under way and
the fight against terrorist groups
in France and Europe,” a member of Hollande’s entourage
said. Abdeslam, Europe’s most
wanted man who allegedly
helped plan the November 13
attacks in which 130 people
were killed, was captured in a
dramatic raid by armed police
in Brussels on Friday.
Abdeslam, 26, and four
other suspects were arrested in
the gritty Brussels neighbourhood of Molenbeek.
Hollande, whose embattled
presidency will be partly defined
0QSTb[P\BP[PW
by his response to the worst terror attacks on French soil, said
Paris would request Abdeslam’s
extradition from Belgium “as
rapidly as possible”.
With Belgium having
arrested a series of people over
links with Abdeslam, Hollande
said many more were involved
in the Paris attacks than originally believed. In Paris, meanwhile, four suspected Islamists
were arrested Wednesday, one
of whom was thought to be
planning “violent acts”, French
Interior Minister Bernard
Cazeneuve said.
Cazeneuve played down
reports that an attack had been
“imminent” and said the
authorities “carry out arrests of
this kind every day.” Hollande,
though, said the “threat level
remains very high.”
the new charter.
“We have mentioned that a
large section of the population
in Nepal has not accepted the
new constitution and the government has been suppressing
their agitation against the new
constitution,” said Manish
Suman, the general secretary of
Sadbhavana Party.
“We also said that the
prime minister has lied to the
international community
through his claims that the new
constitution has ensured rights
of all communities in the country,” he claimed.
According to Suman, “the
meeting was a step toward
establishing people-to-people
relations between Nepal and
China” by sharing proper information.
Until now the Madhesi
leaders have only met Indian
officials seeking support for
their demands and agitation.
C M Y K
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igh on confidence after their
emphatic victor y over
England, the West Indies will
once again look for an explosive
knock from Chris Gayle to inch closer to a semifinal berth when they take
on defending champions Sri Lanka in
a World Twenty20 Super 10 Group 1
match today.
The West Indians showed ominous form in the triumph over
England but the Lankans are expected to put up a stronger challenge to
them.
Gayle could, however, prove to be
the trump card for the West Indians
after setting the tone with a 47-ball
hundred against England — the
fastest ever in World Twenty20.
Should his bat roars the way it did
against England, the Lankans will find
it nearly impossible to stop him from
steering West Indies.
Both the sides are not short on
experience with Angelo Mathews
and Tillakaratne Dilshan being the
Lankan mainstays.
As far as the batting of the West
Indies is concerned it will revolve
around the power-hitting Gayle who
hammered 11 sixes against England.
Perfect foil for Gayle at the other
end would be Marlon Samuels, who
would be keen to continue the form
which he hit against England in the
previous match.
Samuels struck eight fours in his
37 before Gayle’s brutal strikes took
West Indies home.
The West Indies also seem unaffected by the absence of all-rounder
Kieron Pollard, opener Lendl
Simmons and Darren Bravo.
Mystery spinner Sunil Narine is
not there to trouble the rival batsmen
with his unorthodox bowling, but the
Caribbeans still have a decent spin trio
of Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn,
and Marlon Samuels.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka are
41D5<9>5 14=60;DAD
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he contract row back home has cost them a couple of
good players in the ongoing ICC WT20 but West
T
Indies captain Darren Sammy on Saturday said he is not
B7>>C8=6C8<4)FTbc8]SXTbRaXRZTcTab_[PhX]VU^^cQP[[SdaX]VP_aPRcXRTbTbbX^]PccWT<2WX]]PbfP\hBcPSXd\X]1T]VP[dad^]BPcdaSPh
coming into the match with a win
against Afghanistan, who posed a
spirited challenge before the seasoned Tillakaratne Dilshan guided the
islanders to a six-wicket win in their
opening match.
The Angelo Mathews-led side
will look to Dilshan, who smashed 83
not out off 56 balls against
Afghanistan, to give yet another rollicking start against the formidable
West Indies.
Dilshan’s knock would have bolstered the low confidence of Sri
Lanka as they had suffered three consecutive losses in the Asia Cup besides
B C0C 8 B C 8 G
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losing two warm-up games in the lead
up to their tournament opener.
Dinesh Chandimal would like to
give a brisk start to counter the
threat posed by Gayle and Co.
After losing some matches coming into this tournament, Sri lanka suffered another when their 2014 WT20
winning skipper Lasith Malinga
stepped down, following concern over
his slow recovery from a knee injury.
With bowling their weak link, the onus
would be on the batsmen to put the
big score on the board.
B@D03
Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews (captain),
?C8
Dushmantha Chameera, Dinesh
Chandimal, Tillakaratne Dilshan,
Rangana Herath, Shehan Jayasuriya,
Chamara Kapugedera, Nuwan
Kulasekara, Suranga Lakmal, Thisara
Perera, Sachithra Senanayake, Dasun
Shanaka, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru
Thirimanne.
West Indies: Darren Sammy (captain), Samuel Badree, Sulieman Benn,
Carlos Braithwaite, Dwayne Bravo,
Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher,
Chris Gayle, Jason Holder, Ashley
Nurse, Denesh Ramdin, Andre
Russell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome
Taylor, Evin Lewis.
the least bit concerned as the ones who are in the side have
enough calibre to be simply destructive.
West Indies annihilated England in their opening World
T20 match in Mumbai with
swashbuckler Chris Gayle hammering the event's fastest hundred that came off just 47 balls.
The comprehensive win
has renewed the team's selfbelief, which had taken a hit
during the payment row with
the Cricket Board after which
players such as Darren Bravo
opted out of the event.
"Yes we are missing important players but once we execute
our plans then we can be very
destructive. It's cricket and it's
an event that we enjoy playing.
So, whatever issues, they are C!8B05D==H60<4
behind us. Our focus is on win- 0=30;;B>ACB>5
ning matches and we want to C78=6B20=70??4=
take it step by step," he told on 0CB0<4C8<4F4
the eve of Sunday's match =443C>2><4D?
against Sri Lanka here.
"It is the calibre of the F8C7>=4>ACF>
players in the squad that I am ?;0=BC>
concerned about," he added. =4DCA0;8B4C74186
Asked whether it is a 6D=B8=C748AB834
revenge match since West ¯BA8;0=:02>027
Indies lost to Sri Lanka in the
semifinals of the previous 6A070<5>A3
World T20, Sammy said, "I
wouldn't say it is revenge. If this match was the final then
we could think on those lines but it is a group game."
"We respect them a lot and we have had great games
between us. Hope it is a good game tomorrow. We want
to keep winning. We want to execute our plans. You saw
it against England."
In India, Sammy said the dew factor expectedly plays
a big role. "Here in India, we know dew is a big factor so
obviously we weigh that. But you know that we have no
control over the toss. We know what to do if we win the
toss," he said.
508AC81B5
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dvancing into the Super 10 stage for
the first time in three attempts, minA
nows Afghanistan will face a formidable challenge when they clash with South
Africa in the ICC World Twenty 20
Championship at the Wankhede
Stadium here on Sunday.
Afghanistan suffered a narrow defeat
against defending champions Sri Lanka
in their opening Group 1 game at
Kolkata's Eden Gardens and they will
have to get across South Africa to keep
themselves afloat.
The Proteas, on the other hand, suffered a stunning two-wicket loss against
England last night despite scoring a
record-high score of 229 for 4 and Faf
du Plessis' men would come hard at the
Afghans, eager to notch up their first win
in WT20 to stay in semifinals contention.
The Afghans need to stand up to this
assault, with both bat and ball from
South Africa whose bowlers were taken
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batsman Mohammed Nabi.
The Afghan bowling attack also
lacks in experience to stand up to the
assault of the likes of Quinton de Kock,
Hashim Amla, A B de Villiers, Faf du
Plessis, David Miller and Duminy.
Off-spinner Nabi and leggie Rashid
Khan have been the most successful in
the tournament with seven wickets so far,
but they will face a stiffer task against the
top-class Proteas' batting line-up.
B@D03
South Africa: Faf du Plessis (capt), Kyle
Abbott, Hashim Amla, Farhaan
Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wk), AB
de Villiers, JP Duminy, Imran Tahir,
A434<?C8>=C8<4)B^dcW0UaXRP]_[PhTabfX[[[^^Zc^^_T]cWTXaPRR^d]cPVPX]bc0UVWP]XbcP]
?C8 David Miller, Chris Morris, Aaron
Phangiso, Kagiso Rabada, Rilee Rossouw,
chase, is unlikely to be as accommoda- Dale Steyn, David Wiese.
to the cleaners by the England.
Can a bunch of amateur cricketers tive to the Afghans led by Asghar Afghanistan: Asghar Stanikzai (capt),
defeat a top outfit like South Africa, who Stanikzai. Stanikzai was the lone top- Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Noor Ali
will be coming at them at full tilt, and order batsman to come out with his rep- Zadran, Usman Ghani, Mohammad
remain in contention for a semi-final utation enhanced with a knock of 62 Nabi, Karim Sadiq, Shafiqullah Shafiq,
against Sri Lanka and he not only needs Rashid Khan, Ameer Hamza, Dawlat
spot, is the big question.
The pace attack of the Proteas, to fire big again, but would require good Zadran, Shapoor Zadran, Gulbadin
which leaked runs aplenty to allow Root support from the likes of opener Naib, Samiullah Shenwari, Najibullah
and company stage a magnificent run Mohammad Shahzad and middle-order Zadran, Hamid Hassan.
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tar wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt
on Saturday secured an
SOlympic
quota place for India with
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a gold-medal finish in the men's
65kg freestyle category in the
Asian Olympic Qualification tournament here.
Yogeshwar became the second Indian wrestler after Narsingh
Yadav to book a berth for the Rio
Games, to be held later this year.
Even before he clinched the
yellow metal, the 33-year-old had
qualified for Olympics by virtue of
reaching the final on the second
day of the competition. The top two
finishers in each weight category
here are assured of a Rio berth.
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The London Olympics bronzemedallist finished on top of the
podium after his rival from China
Katai Yeerlanbieke forfeited the
gold-medal bout.
En route the final, Yogeshwar
put up a dominating show, winning all his three bouts rather
comfortably.
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shuttlers Saina Nehwal
and H S Prannoy registered fightIingndian
victories in the last eight contests of women's and men's singles
events respectively to reach the
semifinals of the $120,000 Swiss
Open Grand Prix Gold badminton
tournament here.
Two-time champion, Saina
took another step towards the Swiss
Open crown after ekeing out a 1321, 21-15, 21-14 win over Japan's
Sayaka Sato, seeded seventh.
The Olympic bronze medallist
will next take on her fierce rival
Wang Yihan, seeded 3rd. Saina has
a 4-9 record against the former
World No 1 but the top seeded
Indian will take confidence from
her three wins against the Chinese
in 2015.
In men's singles, 13th seed
Prannoy took almost an hour to get
across Thailand's Tanongsak
Saensomboonsuk, seeded 16th, 2118, 22-24, 21-9. He will next face
Tzu Wei Wang of Chinese Taipei.
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heir campaign got off to a positive start after a hardfought win over Pakistan, West Indies will look to conT
tinue the good run in the ICC Women's World Twenty20
when they take on a struggling Bangladesh in a Group B
match here on Sunday.
West Indies rallied to eke out a narrow four-run win
over Pakistan in their World T20 opener and they would
to look produce a better performance against Bangladesh,
who are smarting from losses against India and England.
On paper, West Indies are the hot favourites against
minnows Bangladesh, who qualified for this World T20 like
Ireland in the tournament at Thailand last year.
Skipper Stafanie Taylor was only bright spot in West
Indies' batting during their last match against Pakistan as
they could muster only 103-8 and they will have to address
their batting woes ahead of the bigger clashes — England
(March 24 at Dharamsala) and India (March 27 at
Mohali) — which awaits them in the tournament.
The Caribbean side boast off as a balanced side with
experience and youth. Captain Stafanie Taylor has been the
highest run-getter for them for the last five years and had
also become the first West Indian woman to surpass the
2000 mark in this format.
Similarly, off-spinner Anisa Mohammed have carried
the bowling attack on her shoulders. The 27-year-old's haul
of 3 for 25 against Pakistan on Wednesday helped her to
cross the 100 wickets mark.
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umbai-based author and freelance
journalist Jerry Pinto’s novel, Em and the Big
Hoom (Rupa Publications, 2012), which
won him the Windham-Campbell Literature
Prize 2016, worth $150,000, was a profoundly gripping story of his mother who suffered from bipolar
disorder. Em was the nickname for her and The Big Hoom
was an endearment for the father in the novel.
Beautifully written, it documented the lives of the
family and their everyday struggles. But then, chronicling
was not new to Pinto who had earlier written Bombay,
Meri Jaan: Writings on Mumbai, Helen: The Life and
Times of An H-Bomb, Leela: A Patchwork Life (with Leela
Naidu), and so on. Something about the process of registering histories always appealed to him.
Pinto emphasises, “I’ve a terrible fear that we live in a
state called Amnesia, not India. Forgetting is our
favourite sport. If it were an Olympic sport, we would be
gold medalists. Names, people, myths, legends, stories,
languages, cultural nuances, recipes — they are all dying
around us. In some sense, writing for me is an act of
retrieval, to control this tide of forgetting.
When I teach at the post-graduate Social Media
Communications department at Sophia Polytechnic,
Mumbai, I make my students write a 5,000-word long
essay on their mothers. They are required to go and
interview their mothers, the mothers’ friends and family, and document their lives. I tell the students that
they have to hand over their essays to
their daughters because we tend to forget women’s stories. Women’s histories
are the first to be erased. This may be
why I use anthologies so often: To
remind people of what has happened in
the world of the book and to bring these
in contact with things that I have made
happen by commissioning them. And
why I chose somewhat peripheral figures in Helen and Leela Naidu. Because
the periphery can tell you a lot about
the mainstream but also about itself.”
It becomes apparent that he treats
nostalgia as a literary technique to attain
catharsis. Through his writing, he goes
back in time to relive memories. He says,
“Nostalgia needs rose-tinted glasses; it
means inventing a glorious past and contrasting it with
the unsavoury present. When we try and remember our
past, it should be located in its context. To cite a minor
example, if people say that they could buy a whole basket
of mangoes for one paise back in the day, one should
realise that they earned a salary of one rupee at that time
and that one paise had a completely different value. Thus
remembering needs us to look around, to have a stereoscopic view, taking into account all the problems and
conflicts of the past as well. In this country, there’s a golden view of anything from the past; we romanticise it. As
they say about the great Indian family, ‘It’s all about loving your parents’ (from Karan Johar’s Kabhi Khushi
Kabhie Gham). We like to uphold families as emblems of
collective contentment but we all know our families. The
first 20 minutes of any family party is peaceful, then the
debates and fights ensue amidst all merriment and on
their way back in the cars, the arguments resume, “Why
did you say that?” or “Why didn’t you ask…?”
We tend to be more cautious about how we project
our family life. For instance, we erase the nutty grandmother from our clean familial narratives, ditto the aunty
who went away to say the Osho ashram.”
And it is this scrutiny of an Indian family set-up
which has led to his forthcoming book. He
recalls, “Many readings of Em and the Big
Hoom would turn into deeply densely emotional sessions. I remember in the Q&A
round, a woman started weeping, saying that her family had locked her
brother for five years because he
M
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was hearing voices. I am not a trained
mental health professional and don’t know
how to react to that level of emotion; I’m a writer and in
that capacity, I become a catalyst for these people to
channelise their grief. So eventually, I told them to write
their stories down. A friend suggested putting them
together in a book. The Book of Light (Speaking Tiger) is
almost ready and will be released soon. Again, the past
comes in, people come in, and the quiet person in the
corner of the photograph comes to life.”
Nonetheless, writing seemed to have helped him stabilise something that was missing in his life. It’s rare that
a novel like this — strikingly original, insightful and profoundly poetic — could not help him enhance his own
personality. He replies, “Whenever I meet a younger person, I feel like apologising for where we are headed today.
My generation should have worked harder at establishing
the ideals and institutions of the country. We should have
made civil society more resilient. But then when I watch
the vigour and determination of the young lot — in JNU
and Hyderabad, so to say — I feel glad that the spirit is
alive and hopefully they will do a better job. And so perhaps words produce the cement that holds things together for me. I am happiest when I am writing.”
It’s this quest to establish one’s identity that did not
allow him to name the narrator of the novel; so as not to
limit him. He says, “I appreciate the slippage of meaning
between the reader and writer. I didn’t write it as a book
of mental ill health as well, it was a book
of love. Again, if it is perceived as a narrative of psychology, I wouldn’t complain”.
When he actually decided to pen his
story, it accumulated into a work that was
seven lakh words long and written over 25
years, finally reduced to 60,000. And they
were all handwritten! About this fascinatingly unique journey, he says: “Every year, I
indulged in self-imposed ‘self-improvement’
exercises. If one summer was invested in
reading Plato, Aristotle, Socrates etc, one
would be about reading Kamala
Subramaniam’s version of the Mahabharata.
So, one summer, it became about writing
my own novel. I thought I would start in
April and end in June. I did about 14,000
words that summer and then gave it up.
Draft one dead in the water. There were other attempts in
other forms: A play, a dramatic monologue, a novel with an
omniscient observer, Em telling her own story.
Then when I was 40, at the Jaipur Literature Festival,
my friend Naresh Fernandes arranged for me to meet
Suketu Mehta, his friend. He told Suketu sternly that he
was to get me to the right company and create the opportunity for me to tell a story. So Suketu Mehta gets me to a
table where Salman Rushdie and Kiran Desai are having
a conversation and David Godwin is also sitting around.
Then he knocks on the table and says, ‘Jerry will now tell
a story’. I was horrified but I thought, ‘Let’s do this then’
and I told a story, a family story. They listened, they
laughed, they seemed to be having fun. Not only that,
Godwin said that if I wrote the story, he would represent
me. On my way back from Jaipur, I thought, Loha garam
hai maar do hathoda (from Sholay)! I quit my job and
wrote for five years, I wrote a thousand words a day and
ended up with the 750,000 words. But when I tried to
edit them after a six-month gap, I discovered that the
first two lakh words were so pathetic that it was unfair to
put anyone through them. I thought I had waited five
years of my life but I read on dutifully and dolefully.
Then suddenly, I liked a passage and typed it out. Ten
thousand words later I found another. Then a third and
suddenly I began to see that I might have a novel. I found
40,000 words in that rubbish heap and I rewrote it and it
became Em and the Big Hoom.”
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What are your opinions about the Hindi
comic shows that are either slapstick or
in the roast format?
Some people do love them. I love slapstick personally — actually, it can be very
funny depending on how good the performers are. The one thing I am not a fan
of is men playing women. Every time I
see that on TV, I wonder to myself,
“Come on, they couldn’t get a fat, funny
woman to play that?” It’s just weird to me
and very old-fashioned. But then again
the audience that watches that type of
thing loves it and I guess that matters
more than my jealousy-laden opinion.
Abroad, while people absolutely love
Tina Fey, Amy Poehler etc, they love to
hate Lena Dunham. Do you think Lena’s
brand of comedy is a little extreme and
self-appropriating or is she a ‘feminazi’ as
many claim her to be?
Oh please! Extreme according to whom?
That’s the thing, isn’t it? It’s always going
to be extremely something to someone.
And that is probably why I think she is fantastic! She just goes ahead and does her
thing without worrying about the reactions. I don’t think she is trying to offend
people — people just take offense because
they have nothing else to do! I love Lena
and everything she attaches herself to. I
love women who know they are in your
face and have no fear. It’s a life lesson. In
fact, I would say my style is way more Lena
than Tina or Amy.
Speaking of ‘feminazi’, that sounds like
a word an old man made up because his
khap panchayat got taken down! So old
school! But I suppose brave women will
always be attacked. They change the status
quo, they try to shift the power. That’s too
much for some sexists, I suppose.
eading Indian comedienne
Radhika Vaz is not only a stellar
performer of English stand-up
acts in the country but is also a
strong voice that subverts conformist stereotypes and proprieties women
are subjected to. At a time when stand-up
comedy has still not filtered into the mainstream, Radhika’s humour — particularly
her play, Unladylike — has succeeded in dislocating regressive social and gender taboos
among many urban youths. In an interview,
the artiste, born in Mumbai and raised in
Bangalore, talks about her way of thinking.
L
Your memoir (Unladylike, Aleph Books)
chronicles your early life in detail, but you
have not narrated much about your foray
into a career as a stand-up comedienne. Why
so, since most of your readers will (probably) pick up the book essentially because
they identify you for your comic acts?
I would like to think that the readers just
want to laugh, and my life — childhood,
adolescence and adulthood — is rife with
ridiculous anecdotes about me hoping that
one day I would become a ‘feminine’
woman. That said, I did intentionally leave
out the whole career bit mainly because
I needed something for book number two!
And I find I need some emotional distance
from a subject before I write about it. I
want to write about the good times and
the pain — but I need to get over the pain,
so I wanted to take my time.
How do you create a funny scene? Or in
other words, what triggers an idea in you?
I have to think it’s funny, I have to have
laughed at it myself otherwise I won’t write
about it. Any writing class always tells you,
“write what you know” — it’s the same for
jokes. If it affects you personally in any
way, whether it makes you angry or
amuses you or even if it’s just something
you are curious about for some reason,
then it’s probably worth exploring for
material. Sometimes it’s an immediate
reaction — like we all have towards stupid things some politicians or other public figures say or do, and sometimes it’s
issues that you live with every single day
like gender inequality. And sometimes it’s
your own personal experience — marital
problems, kid problems, bowel movements. It’s a long list.
What narrative or writing techniques do
you use to keep your acts original and fresh?
Wow! “Narrative” that’s a big, writer-ly
word! Now I feel slightly stupid! I came to
all of this with no formal training, I put
myself through writing and comedy ‘school’
by taking night classes and weekend classes, so you have to ask me questions with real
simple words in there!
I guess I keep things fresh by reading
a lot. Reading what other people write is
an amazing way to broaden your own horizons. It gives the mind new directions to
go in. When I am with my friends, I am
never the funniest person in the room. I
think who you hang out with is important
too. I am also lucky to be surrounded by
very smart, funny people — their opinions,
whether they agree with me or not, have
helped me form strong ones of my own.
So essentially, what I am saying is I steal
other people’s ideas!
I’m assuming there may have been times
when your audience may have found you
unfunny or even offensive. Could you
share an anecdote about a disappointing
reception of your performance?
Me? No! That’s some other comedian you
are thinking about. Just kidding. Of
course, I have eaten it on stage more than
a few times. I once had a client who
assured me that the crowd was “super
chilled out”. That’s a pretty stupid thing to
say to a comedian like myself unless you
are absolutely sure about it. But he did, so
I jumped in with both feet and talked about
the issues young women face — like having to remain virgins until they are married. Suffice it to say the middle-aged, predominantly male and so not “super chilled
out” audience almost had a stroke! I then
made it marginally worse by talking about
how parents hate talking to their kids about
safe sex. I think I may have hit too close
to home on that one!
In that case, are Indians mature and democratic enough to understand your humour?
Well, it would be a bit much to expect all
of us to be mature and democratic. We
aren’t democratic enough to allow people
to eat beef or watch James Bond kiss for
more than six seconds (refer to Pehlaj
Nihalani’s now infamous censorship of the
last Bond film)!
Having said that, I do get audiences who
are with me from start to finish, men and
women who enjoy my style of story-telling
and so I try and enjoy the ones that appreciate my big mouth rather than the ones
who think I go “too far”. Plus, you can’t
please all people all the time, right?
Right, but how would you improvise if
things go awry in the middle of your act?
I usually don’t. My act is set in stone because
I am making a point not just telling a series
of jokes. It’s not for everyone and I can live
with that. I feel no fear or pressure once I
am on stage. It’s not the most conventional stand-up format, but then again I don’t
care much for convention.
As a humourist who has performed in different parts of the world, is what people
find funny universal? Meaning, although
your audiences differ culturally and geographically, is there any one joke which
everyone imminently finds funny?
I think human beings are all the same really and most of us have a gut reaction to a
few things. I think people always find other
people’s bad luck quite entertaining. There
are the standard things that are amusing:
Mothers-in-law, awkward sex stories, jokes
about powerful people, jokes about powerful people who also happen to be overweight. I notice it’s never OK to fat-shame
unless the person you are shaming is powerful — then it’s allowed. This is a universal truth. Personally, I find anything unexpected or risky very amusing. And, of
course, fart jokes!
Why is the standup comedy scene in
Bangalore stronger than in rest of India?
That is probably because Bangalore audiences are enthusiastic supporters. You
can’t have a popping scene in a dead city,
no matter how fantastic a comedian is; if
the city is uninterested, there will be no
show. Add to that the equation of the
Bangalore comedians themselves — all
amazing, cool performers who have
worked hard to put the city on the map.
They do it all — improv, sketch and standup. And they are super supportive of travelling comedians such as me.
Which Indian female comedians would
you recommend to our readers?
I have watched (and so recommend) Neeti
Palta, Aditi Mittal and Sonali Thakker.
Kaneez Surka is a hot improvisor, Anu
Menon and Sumukhi Suresh do sketch and
stand-up, and there is Vasu Primlani who
I have not watched but I have read some of
the things she writes about and so I imagine her act is funny and different.
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xam time means a lot of reading, writing and spending
endless hours either in the
library or while gazing at computer screens to hunt for notes and finish assignments. All this usually
results in stressful and strained
eyes. Therefore, students are advised
to take good care of their health and
eyes in particular.
Around five per cent of schoolchildren have strained or tired eyes,
especially during revision sessions
which start just before examination
days. So if your child complains of
headache, tired eyes or blurred
vision, the best advice is to let them
take regular short breaks, close their
eyes for a while or look out of the
window or at some distant object to
relax. Checking a smartphone or
watching TV is not a break!
One has to be particular about
eyes as tired eyes can be very disconcerting. The last thing parents
need to fear during examination
days is the unexpected trip to the
optician or the eye hospital as it can
be very distracting.
Usually the symptoms are a
result of studying for long hours, or
not taking a break in between or
studying in bad light.
According to statistics, approximately one in five children need
spectacles for sight correction.
Hence, it is important to note that if
the eye strain persists, then you
should take your child for a complete
eye check-up to rule out any refractive errors or any other eye disorder.
But if your child is using a computer or tablets for study purpose
then their eye problem could also
be linked to computer vision syndrome (CVS) or digital eye strain.
This is the condition in which
individuals experience eye discomfort and vision problems when
viewing digital screens for extended periods. The level of discomfort
appears to increase with the duration of digital screen usage. In
such a scenario, adjusting the display settings, like brightness, text
size and contrast, etc of your digital screen can help reduce eye
strain and fatigue.
Another important point for students to remember while using
computer is to blink often as it moistens your eyes and prevents dryness
and irritation. When working on a
computer, people blink less frequently than what they normally do.
To reduce the risk of dry eyes dur-
E
ing computer use, try this exercise:
Every 20 minutes, blink 10 times by
closing your eyes as if falling asleep
(very slowly). This will help rewet
your eyes. Also, to further reduce the
risk for CVS, and neck, back and
shoulder pain, take frequent breaks
in between work.
Here are a few tips for eye care
during examinations:
„ It is advisable to wear the glasses prescribed when studying,
especially while working on digital screens to avoid strain and
headache.
„ If you are using contact lenses,
do not use them for more than
12-14 hours a day.
„ Follow the 20-20-20 rule during
long hours of study. After every
20 minutes, look out of the window for about 20 seconds at an
object which is about 20 feet
away. This helps relax your eyes
and relieve eye strain.
„ Avoid watching TV and playing
games on your mobile or iPad in
your break time so as to avoid
added stress on your eyes.
„ It is advisable to keep the reading material at a distance and
study in a well-lit room.
You should not slouch over the
table or read in awkward positions. This might lead to neck
pain and headache.
„ Lubricant eye drops can be used
for soothing eyes during the
examination days but only in consultation with your eye doctor.
„ Whip up an eye mask. This can
help in rejuvenating tired eyes.
Take a small washcloth or towel
and run it under cold water,
wring it and put it over your eyes
for 2-7 minutes. Ice cold compresses and tea bags are also beneficial in relieving puffy eyes. For
a home-spa effect, add a few
drops of lavender oil or rose
water to your eye mask.
„ Try focusing on objects at different distances to reduce eye strain.
Focus on the tip of the pen and
bring it closer to your nose at a
steady pace. Do 5-10 repetitions. Focusing helps in improving vision and can also help a
twitch caused by tired eyes.
„ A good night’s sleep and a healthy
diet with adequate water intake
are also equally important. Good
luck for your exams!
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t was difficult to tell such a
personal story because there
are moments, as he says, when
one is hamstrung by the truth. But
at the same time, he knew that the
mother lode was always present.
All he had to do was to nurture it.
The responses have been as overwhelming as well. He says, “I
remember this one time when a
journalist who I thought was a
friend asked me at a public event
if I felt guilty about using my
mother’s mental illness to write a
book. It’s difficult to react to such
hurtful questions in public but the
appropriate answer occurred to
me a couple of days later: ‘Don’t
you feel guilty about asking me
such a question?’
I believe for every author,
every story we write comes from
our own storehouse of the self. For
example, Helen is about Helen but
it is also about my father sending
me to watch Hindi films every
I
Thursday. And sitting in the seven
different theatres in Mahim, I discovered this strange figure, so
Indian, so alien and I fell in love. I
wouldn’t have found my way to the
book had it not been for those
encounters. My editor, publisher
and friend Ravi Singh and I were at
a bar and her song Mungda mungda (from Inkaar) started playing.
We both stopped talking just to listen to it and to smile, and then Ravi
asked if I knew someone who could
write a book on Helen and I said,
“Me” and the next day I was at
Lamington Road, buying her films.
It’s the same with Leela Naidu.
As a young journalist I had gone to
interview Dom Moraes, who was
then her husband, and it was such
a difficult task to interview him
because of his sophistication. He
was very elegant, such a world citizen; he knew Sir Stephen Spender
and Roger Bacon, and he spoke
with this British accent that was
almost impossible to decipher. On
the other hand, Leela was kindness
itself. Suketu tells this story where
Leela went to a house party, sat herself and did not move for several
minutes after all guests had left. In
the presence of just the family members, she finally moved her feet
under which a cockroach was
trapped. She did not want the family
to be embarrassed by the presence
of cockroaches in their house. So
when she asked Adil Jussawalla if he
could help her find someone who
could assist her in writing her autobiography, he recommended me.
At the same time, he also
unsettled many stereotypes about
Roman Catholics in Mumbai, such
as, say, ‘Sandra from Bandra’ (borrowing from Paromita Vohra’s
documentary by the same name).
As he notes, “You know, I actually
appear in Paromita’s film.
Stereotypes are a lazy way of
thinking about people. Literary fic-
tion is about making a case for
highly specific individuals and that
should always break stereotypes.”
Apart from the sentimental
nuances, he also had the literary
information and expertise to write
the novel. He made a lot of literary
references in it. How did he strategise its format? He answers, “It is,
of course, a collaborative effort.
First, don’t send your draft until
you are very sure of its credibility. I
sent it to Adil Jussawalla, Rashmi
Palkhivala, Naresh Fernandes etc
for their opinions. Adil, for example, suggested that I put titles for
chapters because he felt it read
like an investigative report, as if
some journalist were trying to
find out about a family. I think I
had kind and talented friends
who could help me enhance the
prospects of the book.”
He has also mentioned in the
past how he can write only in
Mumbai. He says, “That is because
I hand-write everything and I cannot afford to lose the pages. So I
prefer to be at home in Mumbai
for that purpose. So I edit what I
have written when I am travelling
or I translate. But if push comes to
shove, I know I will be able to
write where I am because I need
me to be there”.
One might find writing a
lucrative career option after winning this award but Pinto clarifies, “I must say I did the book
on Bollywood posters for money.
However, I love Bollywood and
its aesthetic gives me a peculiar
pleasure. So even in that case,
there was still a connection with
the subject and the desire to say
something.
I think it is possible to earn a
living from writing as long as you
do not have children and do not
have to pay the rent (or EMIs) in a
metro. Oh and a codicil for all
those people who are living in
their own homes and do not have
children. You cannot want to live it
up and still earn a living through
writing. If you are willing to keep
it simple, if you’re willing to buy
only what you need, then it’s just
about possible, I think”.
He continues, “I have never
really been burdened by worries in
the first place. My needs are books,
films, and travel. If I can’t travel
physically, I will do so through
reading. What makes me feel elated about the prize is that the novel
was rejected by everyone abroad
when David Godwin approached
publishers as my agent. Then
Radhakrishnan Nair commissioned me to interview Pankaj
Mishra and I handed him the
novel. He loved it, he showed it to
his wife Mary Mount and I got
published in England and
America. So I did it my way.”
Does that redefine contemporary Indian literature under the
Western gaze? Because his writing
is an Indian story, unlike the works
of say, Jhumpa Lahiri or even
Rushdie. His story is not about
expatriates but is rooted in
‘Indianness’, like we have seen in
the works of an Arundhati Roy or
a Vikas Swarup and Raj Kamal Jha.
He says, “I don’t know. I think
every book we read helps reshape
our world. So I hope it will reconfigure things in its own small way
but I also believe we should all be a
part of the reshaping of literature.
Before we say: America should
read more Indian novels, can we
say: I should be reading more
Indonesian/Nigerian/Peruvian
novels? Can we open our libraries
and hearts and reading lists to
authors from other nations before
we insist on other nations reading
us? And can we reach out,
through translation, to the languages we have in India?”
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nis Shivani’s Karachi Raj is so
believable that it’s unconvincing. Soon as I flipped over
the last page and finished the
book I asked myself: Is this
about Mumbai, about Delhi, or about
Karachi? And if it is indeed about
Karachi, then are we really so alike?
Of course, in this sense Shivani’s
debut novel can be located as part of an
established canon of literature on the
mega-cities of the world. It offers
glimpses of the many socio-economic
layers which have constituted urban life
for the past 200 years or so: The poor,
the middling, and the rich, with all their
dreams and aspirations jumbled in a
confused, searing, almost undecipherable mix. Shivani’s Karachi is a city of
the desperately poor aspirationally rubbing shoulders with the uber rich; liberal bourgeoisies holding a semblance of
civic rationality against the increasingly
unmasked clout of religious fundamentalists; and welfarist expatriates wooing
industrialists and politicians to bring
A
hope to urban squatters. It is a city
where ghosts of a bloody past hint at a
violent future, a city whose aspiration to
globality are constantly undercut by its
own schizophrenic self-destruction.
As such, then, it is much like any
other mega-city in the Indian subcontinent, if not the so-called developing
world. Seema, Claire, Hafiz, Ashiq,
Majid, Hina, and Tipu are all characters
familiar from our own lives on this side
of the tumultuous border. Their lifejourneys, the manner in which their
existences entangle with each other’s, all
of these are mirrored in the pages of our
own life-stories. Seema’s curiously platonic relationship with Ashiq, Majid’s
meteoric rise to fame and success,
Claire’s search for the variegated truth of
life in the basti, and Hafiz’s dalliances
with various forms of employment and
employers, all of these are tropes which
for long have attended writing on cities
and their denizens. Images of deprivation and decrepitude too have been
increasingly familiar with the success of
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Slumdog Millionaire, and the many
tribulations of life in the basti and
Seema, Hafiz, and Claire’s struggles
with, for, and against them seem part of
the larger narrative of urban inequity all
across the world.
What makes Karachi Raj significant
and interesting, then, is the incidence of
its topicality, that it is about Karachi. It
not just adds to the growing corpus of
literature on Pakistan in the English
language, but also performs a vital exercise in similitude. It brings the reader to
the human heart of Karachi, to hope
and despair of a people whose existence
in the larger, global imagination seems
a factor only of militancy and mullahs.
Shivani’s Karachi is a city like any other,
with grim, gun-toting men threatening
civic life only from the peripheries of
daily life. When bomb blasts happen, as
in Saddar, it serves only as reminder of
the cataclysmic violence which threatens the very basis of civic life.
Otherwise, life goes on in the city —
and particularly in the basti — with an
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unconcern which is indicative, to refer to
Huma Yusuf ’s provocative postulation, of
a planned productivity of habitation
working to make a violent, dangerous
city healthily liveable.
Importantly, Shivani’s narrative
trope, practices, and aesthetics enable
the generation of this tactical productivity of habitation. Hina’s world of films
and television, for instance, goes at its
own pace and direction regardless of the
bloodshed frequently unleashed by militants. Similarly, the mystics and fakirs of
Tipu’s Sufi dargahs evoke an age and
space which violence cannot touch.
Ferhana and Rehana, Ashiq’s wellplaced and well-heeled sisters, live a life
of luxury and privilege which neither
fundamentalism nor political unrest
seems to touch, and even Claire,
sequestered in the basti, is exposed
more to the vagaries of the elements and
unsanitary living conditions than to the
machinations of jihadis and of conservatives in a heavily sexist society.
This is where Karachi Raj seems a
particularly dexterous novel. By presenting and linking vignettes of Karachi’s
various socio-economic spheres, it
shows Karachi and Karachiites producing conditions of habitation, over and
against the devastation regularly
unleashed by terrorism. Divided into 12
months of the year from the calendar of
the American anthropologist Claire, the
narrative evokes well the linked fragmentation which constitutes the varied
experiences of everyday Karachi.
However, at times this fragmentation
seems a little forced, it seems apparent
that the effort to delink linkages has
been made too strenuously. Yet, the last
chapter is satisfyingly disappointing:
There is no conclusion, not even a closure. The narrative simply stops, refusing to conjure the illusion of a happily
ever-after for either the city or its citizens and making-up for the less satisfactory disappointments of narrative fragmentation elsewhere in the novel
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hen it comes to describing the success of the
15-year-old brand
Kurkure, the Cl,000-crore-plus
snack brand of PepsiCo India, old
timers often talk of providence.
Over the years, Kurkure has come
to be identified as a quintessential
family brand and has brought joy
to many families, consistently
highlighting thought-provoking
contemporary points of view on
the Indian family and its myriad
interactions. Right from the
beginning, Kurkure has been
steering between tradition and
modernity: Made with familiar
kitchen ingredients but in shape
and format and flavour delivery;
of ‘twist on tradition’.
It was launched in 1999 and
has since then transformed the
way Indians snack. At its core, it
questioned the existing norm that
salty snacks were divided into two
large segments, traditional and
potato chips. Kurkure introduced
a new sub-segment within namkeens, creating a new palate experience for consumers. Armed with
its unique product proposition:
‘Familiar taste in an innovative
format’, the brand broke category
codes and transformed the landscape of snacking in India, both
sensorial and visual. It introduced
a sub-segment that was not palm
food, but finger food — so if namkeen was eaten in a bowl, Kurkure
was eaten out of a bag.
Brandishing a strangely
addictive, intense chatpata taste, it
was launched as Lehar Kurkure, a
sub-brand under the umbrella of
Lehar. It used traditional Indian
‘kitchen ingredients’ like rice,
lentils, corn and Indian masala
seasoning; and the story goes that
it took 220 trials to make
Kurkure. Consumer testing had
people loving the crunchiness and
saying it was very ‘kurkura’
(crunchy) — and from there
came the name.
W
When it was launched in
Chandigarh, the sales team literally
‘painted the town orange’ with all
three-wheelers carrying the packs
being painted in that colour. One
of the fastest market placements,
Kurkure had near 100 per cent
coverage in 10 days, something
that was repeated in many other
markets soon after. The small
packs hanging in ‘ladis’ (hangers)
outside shops rather like shampoo
sachets, was another innovation
that became a category norm.
With its zesty, multi-sensorial
taste that was energising and
mood transforming, and as a consumer once put it, an ‘item number in the mouth’, it was launched
with the tagline: ‘Kya karen, control nahin hota’ to drive home the
addictive taste of the product.
In a country so rooted in family values, few brands came across
as truly ‘family brands’. Kurkure
rooted itself in the family social
context and became a commentator on the changing Indian family,
always bringing its own insightful
observations on quirky truths of
the great Indian family. It professed that families that snacked
together and laughed together,
stayed together. It portrayed a family that was happily, unabashedly
idiosyncratic and playfully imperfect, always accepting that ‘we are
like this only’ and that ‘in our family it happens like this only’.
When other players started
trickling in, sensing the opportunity, Kurkure had to reassert its
uniqueness and elevate itself above
the mass of copycats. It did a re-jig
of the product (extra spicy) and
linked the product’s transformational experience to the ‘twist’ in
army regular arid staid situation.
The ‘twist on tradition’-centred
promotion continued till 2004
even as the brand then signed on
the bubbly actress, Juhi Chawla in
2004 in an attempt to target
housewives who were the ‘gate-
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keeper’ audience for the brand.
Kurkure wanted to do something special with Juhi and decided to leverage her cheerful personality, her amazing sense of
comic timing, her non-glam doll
image and the fact that she was a
mother and housewife too. Since
housewives were generally
hooked on TV serials, Kurkure
decided to target them by making
a spoof on Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi
Bahu Thi, a popular TV soap at
that time. It continued with many
a spoof, be it of Bollywood classics or TV soaps that helped tell
product stories of ‘Kahaani mein
twist’ (A twist in the story).
Starting with 2005, it also
strategically targeted evening
teatime, at the time the largest
occasion for snacking-consuming
macro snacks, ie biscuits and
namkeens-as the consumption
occasion. It reached out to the
homemaker who desired ‘evening
tea’ as the moment for changing
gears and to other members who
looked forward to evening tea as a
moment of relaxation and a joyful
collective family huddle. Kurkure
stepped in not just as a snack but
as a bonding factor that brought
the family back into the same
hying room, creatively rendering,
‘Chaitime masti bole to Kurkure!’
The timing could not have been
better with the large family as a
unit beginning to disintegrate into
nuclear set-ups.
To further enhance its share
of teatime, it launched two subbrands ‘Kurkure Solid Masti’, as
new-age substantial snack options
for that ‘evening peckishness’ and
‘Kurkure Masti Squares’, as an aid
to the homemaker who desired
versatility in teatime snacks. Both
sub-brands, however, did not find
much traction with consumers.
It kept raising its standards in
terms of variants, flavours, formats, occasions and communication to deter copycats that posed
serious threat. Disruptive largescale consumer engagement programmes like ‘Kurkure Mast
Family Jackpot’, ‘Kurkure Jupp for
the Cup’ (during the ICC World
Cup 2007) and ‘Kurkure
Chaitime Achievers’ were
launched to drive consumption.
‘Kurkure Chaitime Achievers’
(family face on the pack communication) was not just engagement, but consumer-generated
participation, another first from
the ever-innovative Kurkure. The
winning recipe made out of
Kurkure was the ‘family’s passport
to fame’, with the winning families
having their photograph featured
on one million Kurkure packs.
This was the first-ever consumergenerated participation in the history of advertising in India; and
with over 100,000 responses, it
lead to a surge in business.
To leverage yet another consumption occasion, Kurkure came
up with ‘Zyada meetha ho gaya?
Muh Kurkure karo’ for Diwali,
which was traditionally a sweetscentred feasting time. This was
again in line with the brand DNA:
a twist on tradition.
It launched its ‘X-treme’ edition of flavours to connect with
the youth, which in turn reinforced its positioning as ‘always
doing the unexpected’.
Unearthing yet another insight
into the great Indian family,
Kurkure launched its iconic tagline ‘Tedha hai par mera hai’ in
2008. ‘Tedha hai par mera hai’
became a part of everyday conversations and advertising folklore. Some of the novel initiatives
during this period included new,
unusual ingredients; introduction
of regional variants; flavours
inspired by master chef sessions
around chutneys/pickles; and creating rituals — Kurkure bhel via
on-premise bhel carts at PVR.
Many of its other flavours
were co-created with chefs who
specialised in regional cuisines, or
those who loved experimenting
with fusion food. It also introduced the puffed range, again
stealing the show with new
shapes. Puff corn has been one of
the most successful launches for
Kurkure in the puffed segment.
It revamped its communications strategy in late 2012, scaling
up its ‘Tedha hal par mera hai’
proposition, creating a first-of-itskind ‘Kurkure screen family’. With
a very modern ‘remix bahu’ at its
centre, India’s Most Crooked
Family is a joint family, bubbling
with conversation and energy;
disagreements and conflicts,
negotiating between the individual and the collective, balancing
tradition and modernity, and
always looking for ways to resolve
everything with warmth and
laughter. And this quirky family
told every new story, be it new
taste, new pack size, or new price
point. To help drive sales in the
large pack segment, the family
gathered in the living room and
tapped into the insight of ‘the
making of the guest list’ — that, in
an Indian family, there is no such
thing as a ‘small family party’!
Kurkure thus managed to get on
to the kitchen shelf where the
housewife stored it and then
served it with pride.
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:
he Bharatiya Janata Party has
done well to reject the atrocious pre-conditions set by
Peoples Democratic President president Mehbooba Mufti for Government formation in Jammu & Kashmir. This development took place on
March 18, a day after Mufti met BJP
president Amit Shah in New Delhi.
BJP general secretary and the party’s
point-man for Jammu & Kashmir,
Ram Madhav, issued a statement
that day from the national capital,
saying that, “A Government cannot
be formed on the basis of conditions”. This was most appropriate
and a candid response to the PDP’s
ill-motivated pre-conditions.
The stand of the BJP will surely
be appreciated across the nation in
general and in Jammu & Kashmir in
particular. It will silence the socalled ‘secular’ critics, who until now
had been questioning, day-in and
day-out, the party’s alliance with
what they called a ‘pro-Pakistan’ and
‘pro-separatist’ outfit. In fact, the
people of Jammu and the internallydisplaced Kashmiri Hindus have
already welcomed the BJP’s rational
and nationalist stand. They have
opined that it will go a long way in
sending the right message to Kashmiri separatists, their cohorts in the
so-called Kashmiri parties and to
the political establishment in the
State — that Prime Minister Narendra Modi means serious business in
the separatist and militant-infested
Jammu & Kashmir State.
Three of the most controversial
pre-conditions set by the PDP are:
Transfer of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation-run and
controlled Dulhasti (Jammu) and
Uri-II (Kashmir) power projects to
the Jammu & Kashmir Government;
T
revocation of the Armed Forces
(Special Powers) Act from certain
areas of Jammu & Kashmir, including Srinagar in Kashmir and Kathua
in Jammu; and vacation of certain
lands which the Army has been lawfully using for long for training purposes and military operations to
defend the borders and maintain
peace in the restive and militantinfested areas of the State. Other
demands of the PDP include two
smart cities, one each for Jammu
and Kashmir; another financial
package for the flood-affected people in the valley; a free-hand to run
the Government so formed; and
result-oriented talks with Pakistan
on the Kashmir issue.
For decades, Pakistan and its
Kashmir-based agents, Kashmiri
political parties such as the PDP and
the National Conference, and Kashmiri civil society members including
the Kashmir High Court Bar Association and the Kashmir Economic
Alliance, have denounced Afspa as a
‘draconian’ law, contemptuously
termed the NHPC-run power projects as “symbols of Indian imperialism”, and described the Indian Army
as an “occupying force”.
Even the Kashmiri leadership of
the so-called grand old party of India,
the Congress, has on umpteen occasions, expressed almost identical
views in their desperate bid to strike a
chord with the communal constituency in Kashmir. On June 5, 2011,
senior Congress leader and then Minister for Irrigation, Taj Mohi-ud-Din
even even went to the extent of
terming the Government of Indiaowned NHPC as a replica of the East
India Company and charged it with
draining the State’s power potential.
“The NHPC is behaving like the
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East India Company in the State. It
is exploiting the water resources of
poor States. Their attitude is arrogant and they are contemptuous
towards law of the land,” Mohi-udDin said while addressing a daylong seminar on the Management of
Water Resources in Jammu and
Kashmir, organised by the J&K Citizens Welfare Council in Srinagar.
The point is that the PDP, which
is a sub-regional party with its support-base confined only to certain
parts of the valley, has pitched for
power, paisa (money) and Pakistan.
The overwhelming view in Jammu,
Ladakh and the camps housing
lakhs of internally-displaced Kashmir Hindus is that the PDP wanted
to re-stitch the alliance with the BJP
to reassume power for a bigger purpose. This view was based, and
rightly so, on the oft-repeated statement of the PDP president that her
deceased father, Mufti Mohammed
Sayeed, had entered into a post-poll
alliance with the BJP “not for power
but for fulfilling his vision for J&K”
and that she will accept the chair
only if she got a definite assurance
from the Government of India that
she will have “unbridled powers to
fulfill her father’s dream and give an
effect to her father’s most-cherished
vision within a definite timeframe”.
So, what was the vision and
dream of her father? His vision was
“self-rule” as succinctly defined in
the PDP’s 2014 election manifesto,
also called Aspirational Agenda.
Apart from seeking semi-independence from India or at least limiting
the jurisdiction of New Delhi over
J&K to only defence, foreign affairs
and communication, the Mufti had
also sought equal sovereign powers
for Islamabad with New Delhi in
this part of the State. In other words,
his vision talked about what he himself called “supra-state measures”
and “shared sovereignty”. This was
the vision of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed. He assumed power as Chief
Minister on March 1, 2015, to
achieve his mission but only after
the Hurriyat leadership gave its consent to the PDP for forming the
Government with the BJP.
To put things into perspective, it
is desirable to quote verbatim what
the incumbent PDP president said on
December 12, 2015, while speaking at
Agenda Aaj Tak: “With Vajpayee the
experience was good, but forming an
alliance with the present BJP was not
easy for us. It took us two months to
decide the agenda of alliance. Hurriyat party was also called and getting
consent on most of the issues the
Government is working”.
There are potent reasons for the
BJP to say what it said in response to
the PDP’s pre-conditions. Had the
BJP conceded to these demands,
Kashmiri separatist and their supporters would have construed it as
their crowning glory and a great step
forward towards their ultimate goal.
They would have seen the acceptance of these three demands not
only as an act of retreat by a defeated Indian state from Kashmir, but
also used it to further embolden the
votaries of limited accession to
intensify their activities in the valley,
browbeat and blackmail New Delhi,
and seek more concessions that will
further widen the already wide constitutional, political and emotional
gulf between Kashmir and the rest
of the country.
(The writer is former Dean,
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jammu)
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Reader response to
Swapan Dasgupta’s column,
Usual Suspects, published
on March 13:
Good show: Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar helped showcase
our art and culture. He
brought together 35,000
artists on the banks of
Yamuna. It’s good that the
Prime Minister attended.
The President should have
been there as well.
Bapty S Seshasayee
Disappointed lot: Pseudoseculars are devastated that
such a large crowd happily
participated in this mammoth jamboree.
Chandra Moorthy
Unholy combination: The
writer has underlined the
unholy combination of the
Congress, the communists
and some section of religious
minorities, whose sole aim
seems to be Hindu-bashing.
Mahendra Patel
The Left-leaning bubble has
already been punctured. A
minuscule percentage of
Indian TV viewers care
about the anxieties and concerns of these worthies. It
was heartening to see the
Prime Minister attend the
event. Our leaders mustn’t be
guided by the Delhi-based
English media. If they fall
into that trap, they will be
reduced to insignificance.
Jitendra
Disruptive elements: Quite
a few students who graduated from Jawaharlal Nehru
University have turned out to
be foul-mouthed and intolerant public intellectuals. Look
at the leaders of the
Communist Party of India
(Marxist) and the
Communist Party of India.
They have shamelessly said
that they will keep interrupting the Rajya Sabha and
paralyse parliamentary business so as to make Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s
Government dysfunctional.
Vigilant citizens should
identify habitual interrupters and seek their
removal from Parliament.
The MPs were elected to do
legislative business — not
disrupt Parliament. There
may be freedom of speech
and expression, but let’s not
confuse that with freedom
of disruption.
Anil Tandale
Big issue: JNU Students
Union president Kanhaiya
was arrested on sedition
charges. He is being hailed
by the media as a national
hero. But the writer thinks all
this is just a side show.
Perhaps, he forgets that the
action of the police and
courts carry little weight. It is
the media that is the arbitrator of public opinion.
BB
Seculars stuck: Sri Sri Ravi
Shankar put up a great show
which was enjoyed by a large
audience. Prime Minister
Narendra Modi was in attendance but it would have been
better if Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal, Congress
vice president Rahul Gandhi,
RJD chief Lalu Prasad, Bihar
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar,
West Bengal Chief Minister
Mamata Banerjee, CPI(M)
leader Sitaram Yechury and
other self-declared secularists were also in attendance.
Perhaps, they got stuck in the
Delhi traffic!
Premolal
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Reader response to
Kanchan Gupta’s column,
Coffee Break, published
on March 13:
Nation first: It is sad that
regionalism is taking the
front seat in Indian politics.
This is happening at the cost
of national interest. This is a
dangerous trend for
Indian democracy.
There should a compulsory test or mandatory
coaching that all individuals
seeking public office should
have to take. This has to happen at all levels of Indian
politics and governance.
This system should help
inculcate the concepts of
nation, nationality and
national interest — and
explain the importance of
prioritising the nation above
all others.
This will best serve the
growth of Indian democracy
and economic development.
I know such a system is
unlikely, but one can always
hope for the best.
Mahesh Kumar
Economic alienation: In an
all-India context, provincialism is bad. But the question
is: Where does provincialism
come from?
Think about this: Even
within a State, some people
want to carve out
autonomous or separate districts. Why? In most cases, it
is because people in a particular area or region feel that
they have been economically
marginalised by the larger
administrative unit — be it a
state or nation. Our leaders
with narrow vision are
responsible for this sense
of alienation.
Niladrinath Mohanty
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here was a time when the
BSP, NCP and RJD were in
the race to become national
parties after the Congress
and BJP. Now, AAP and JDU
are in the same race. After being badly
defeated in the Lok Sabha Elections,
AAP plans to move ahead gradually.
Under this strategy, the party has
decided to fight elections in Punjab
and Goa. Elections will be held in
these States next January. After that,
Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections will be held at the end of next
year. It is being said that AAP will
fight in these two States as well.
In the same manner, JDU is projecting its candidates for Assam elections,
which are scheduled for next month.
Bihar CM Nitish Kumar will also go
there for campaigning.
Next year, JDU will fight Punjab
and Uttar Pradesh elections too. In
both these States, there is a possibility
of an alliance between JDU and
Congress. There is a good number of
Bihari immigrants in both States and
they constitute majority votes on the 17
seats. However, JDU and AAP have to
perform well in four States so that they
can get the status of a national party.
The real reason behind this is to project
their leaders as PM candidates in 2019
Lok Sabha Elections.
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his is election year in UP and there
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are many contenders for the CM
post within the BJP. The party also has
to take a decision on the new State
President, which is said to be the reason
why the party is not announcing its CM
candidate now. Supporters of Yogi
Adityanath demand that he be declared
the CM candidate or they will boycott
the elections. The sadhus who back Yogi
have also demanded the same. He is so
serious about his claim that when
Anupam Kher criticised him at a function in Kolkata, he became angry and
called the actor a villain in real life.
However, there is a different story
playing out between State President
Lakshmi Kant Vajpayee and organisation General Secretary Sunil Bansal.
When Bansal called a meeting to discuss the plans of six big rallies in the
State, Vajpayee was not invited.
Vajpayee has to be replaced but the
decision will not be easy. Amid all this,
Varun Gandhi is also staking his claim.
2>=60=320BC44@D0C8>=
of the Congress are not able
to understand how to cope with the
Scastetrategists
equation in UP. At present, there is
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t seems highly unlikely that the
Government would be able to
Iaccomplish
any important legislative
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work in this Parliament Session. All
legislative work could be suspended till
the Assembly Elections in five States
are over. The Government was hopeful
of getting the GST Bill passed in the
next half of the session, but now the
chances seem bleak.
Those who were in support of the
Bill are now hesitant. TMC will not support this Bill due to political compulsions as State elections are around the
corner. There is a clamour for Muslim
votes in West Bengal and that is the reason why leaders of the party feel that
TMC must not be seen supporting the
BJP or the Central Government. In this
scenario, the Government will get a big
jolt as TMC had been supporting the
GST Bill all this while.
Jayalalithaa has always been against
the GST Bill, so there is no chance that
she will support it during election time.
On the other hand, the Congress and
BJP are at loggerheads on many issues,
so a compromise is unlikely. The
Congress is not happy about the row
over Rahul Gandhi’s citizenship, while
the BJP is miffed with the comparison of
RSS and ISIS. Tension between the
Opposition and Government has
increased over the Aadhar Bill too. In
this scenario, the Government is bound
to face problems in legislative works.
That is why there is a chance that two
more Bills, along with GST, will be stuck.
D=05542C431HC74BC8=6
before the elections in West
Jtheust
Bengal, a sting operation has become
cause for a tug of war between the
ruling and Opposition parties. In this
sting operation, around a dozen TMC
leaders were allegedly shown taking
bribe. Leaders of Congress and TMC
are considering it a trump card.
Though sources in TMC claim Mamata
Banerjee is not taking it seriously and
might not even take action against any
of the leaders. If necessary, notice will
be sent to one or two of them.
However, her party has decided to
give an apt reply to this. MPs and leaders of TMC are citing the example of a
sting operation done in Delhi in 2014.
They are saying that even in Delhi,
many people were implicated in a sting
operation. There were allegations
against Kumar Vishwas and Alka
Lamba, but Arvind Kejriwal did not
take any action, rather countered the
Opposition parties and alleged that this
was nothing but political vendetta.
Mamata is treading the same path. She
said that the tapes of the 2014 sting
operation have been doctored and
released now only to defame her.
The issue of sting operation could
increase the problems of Rajya Sabha
MP KD Singh. Mathew Samuel, the
brain behind the sting operation, used
to work with a news magazine of which
KD Singh is the owner. Samuel had
started working on the sting operation
when he worked with the magazine, and
that is why many leaders are raising
questions about KD Singh.
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his year’s Rajya Sabha elections have
put the BJP in a dilemma. For the
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past many years, the party had two
Muslim faces that entered Parliament
from different Houses — Shahnawaz
Hussain in Lok Sabha and Mukhtar
Abbas Naqvi in Rajya Sabha. Now,
Najma Heptulla has been added to this
list. There is no Muslim face of the BJP
in Lok Sabha as Hussain was defeated in
the last elections. On the other hand,
apart from Naqvi and Heptulla, MJ
Akbar is also in Rajya Sabha.
Naqvi and Akbar will retire in July.
It is almost certain that Naqvi will be
elected from UP again. Probably this
time Akbar will not be re-elected from
Jharkhand, but will rather be nominated. Though this is also true that
Salim Khan is also a strong contender
from the nominated quota. Sources
say he had been promised a Rajya
Sabha seat after the Padma award controversy last year, and can be nominated on the seat vacated by his former
partner, Javed Akhtar.
Sources in the BJP say Hussain is
trying to get a Rajya Sabha seat either
from Madhya Pradesh or Bihar. Apart
from him, Sabir Ali is also said to be a
contender for Rajya Sabha. That
means, this year, five Muslim faces of
the BJP —Hussain, Naqvi, Akbar, Ali
and Khan — are contenders for Rajya
Sabha seat and the party can give green
signal for only two of these.
no core vote bank of the party in the
State. So, discussions are going on to
find out how to attract one or two major
castes. Sources say this has been discussed in the recent meetings of party
leaders. The party is hopeful about
Brahmin voters. That is why the name of
Sheila Dikshit has been proposed either
for party in-charge of UP or CM candidate in the State. Though many leaders
say the party will not gain anything from
thinking about Dikshit. They say the fact
that senior leaders are mulling over her
name proves that the Congress doesn’t
have any strong Brahmin leader.
However, the truth is different. There
are many good Brahmin faces in the
party, such as Rajesh Mishra, Jitin
Prasada, Pramod Tiwari, Rita Bahuguna
Joshi and Satish Sharma. The party can
send Satish Sharma to Rajya Sabha again.
Meanwhile, Rahul wants to tap into
the Dalit and Muslim vote bank. Not just
him, even P Chidambaram and Ghulam
Nabi Azad are indulging in similar political tactics. In-charge General Secretary
of UP Madhusudan Mistry has even prepared a roadmap for this. That is why it
is being said that Rahul wants him to
continue on the post. In this scenario, PL
Punia and Salman Khurshid might also
become prominent. For Thakur votes,
the party can also give a big role to
Sanjay Singh from Amethi.
9Rd@SR^R\ZT\deRceVUR_VhRc^dcRTV0
ran’s decision to test-fire two ballistic missiles emblazoned with the
legend “Israel must be wiped out”
in Hebrew is not the sort of reassuring
conduct one would expect from a
country that claims it wants better
relations with the outside world.
Timed to coincide with US
Vice-President Joe Biden’s tour of
the Gulf states and Israel, the missile
launches will not just be seen as an
unnecessarily provocative act of
aggression by countries like Saudi
Arabia and other Gulf states. They are
also deeply embarrassing for the Barack
Obama administration, which is still
trying to reassure its allies in the Gulf
and Israel that its controversial nuclear
deal with Tehran has ended Iranian
attempts to build nuclear weapons —
for the time being, at least.
Only a few weeks ago, naive enthusiasts of President Obama’s nuclear
deal claimed that gains made by socalled moderates in Iran’s recent elections for the Majlis, or Parliament, as
well as the Assembly of Experts,
demonstrated Iran was well on the way
to reform and move towards a more
transparent system of Government.
What these modern-day fellow
travellers — and they include many
leading lights in our own Foreign
Office — fail to appreciate is that
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s uncompromising Supreme
Leader and guardian of Iran’s Islamic
revolution, personally vetted all of
the candidates. Thus only those with
impeccable revolutionary credentials
were allowed to stand. So much for
Iran’s new spirit of reform.
For, despite the modest gains made
by these so-called reformers, the fact
remains that the real power in Iran lies
with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC),
whose duty is both to defend and export
Iran’s revolutionary values throughout
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the Muslim world — with special focus
on neighbouring Arab states.
Not only do the Revolutionary
Guards control a significant percentage
of the Iranian economy — including
the country’s vast oil reserves — they
are also responsible for Iran’s defence
and security policy which, contrary to
Washington’s confident predictions in
the wake of the nuclear deal, has led to
a significant upsurge in Iranian meddling in neighbouring Arab states.
The fear now among pro-Western
Arab leaders is that Iran will embark
on a military build-up funded by the
estimated $150 billion Tehran is
set to receive as a result of the
sanctions being lifted.
The missile tests will certainly be
seen by many regional leaders in that
context, particularly as many Western
intelligence experts are convinced the
missiles are being designed specifically
to carry nuclear warheads. In addition
to continuing to develop its ballistic
missile programme, Tehran last month
also concluded a deal with Russia to
improve its missile defences.
One of the more obvious failings of
Obama’s nuclear deal is that it allows
Iran, a country which the CIA says
once had an illicit nuclear weapons programme, to continue development
work on its ballistic missiles.
Washington no doubt believes there
is no harm in Tehran building missiles
that can strike at the heart of Europe
when it does not have the means to fit
them with nuclear warheads. But that is
not how things are viewed in the Gulf.
According to senior security officials I have spoken to recently in the
region, there is no guarantee that
Obama’s deal will prevent Iran from
continuing work on its nuclear
weapons programme. As one senior
defence official commented: “We know
the Iranians well, and we know they
have no intention of giving up their
ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons.”
Not surprisingly, the Gulf states
have now embarked on developing a
multi-billion pound anti-missile shield
of their own. If nothing else, Obama’s
legacy to the Middle East will have
been to initiate a new arms race.
In Israel, too, intelligence officials
take the same view about Iran’s longterm nuclear ambitions, which no
doubt explains Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent decision
to cancel his proposed visit to
Washington later this month.
The problem now is that if
Washington is not prepared to take
Iran’s continued acts of bellicosity
seriously, there are plenty of Arab
leaders who will. For the past two
weeks, Saudi Arabia has been hosting
the Middle East’s biggest-ever military
exercise — Operation Desert
Thunder. An estimated 20 Muslim
nations have taken part in the exercise which is aimed at strengthening
the ability of the Saudi-led coalition
to defend itself against the growing
threat posed by Islamist-inspired terror groups, such as Daesh.
But the possibility should not be
ruled out that one day these same
forces could be used to defend Sunni
Arab regimes from the threat posed by
Shia Iran. In Yemen, Saudi Arabia is
already fighting a proxy war against
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, while
Riyadh has made no secret of its determination to secure the overthrow of the
pro-Iranian regime of President Bashar
al-Assad in Syria.
Despite all the evidence to the
contrary, the Obama administration
continues to hail the merits of its
nuclear deal with Iran, which it insists
will form the centerpiece of Obama’s
legacy when his presidency concludes
later this year.
Yet if Iran continues with unprovoked acts of aggression, such as its
latest test-firing of ballistic missiles,
then there is a genuine risk that Saudi
Arabia and its allies will become
involved in a direct, and far more dangerous, military confrontation with
Iran. And that is most certainly not
the kind of legacy Obama had in mind
when he concluded his ill-advised deal
with the ayatollahs.
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cation of our species’ advanced intellect
to understand what really happened,
much more than political clatter.
We have discovered an extraordinary story. Just over a billion years ago,
many millions of galaxies away, a pair
of black holes had collided. They had
been circling around each other, and so
by the time they were a few 100 miles
apart, they were releasing great
amounts of gravitational energy.
When the black holes finally
merged, they radiated a 100 times more
energy than all the stars in the universe
combined to form a new black hole 62
times as heavy as our sun. The waves
rippled outward in every direction, and
50,000 years ago at the time when we
homo sapiens were also beginning on
our path of evolution, these waves
entered our Milky Way galaxy.
The story of how this monumental
discovery took place is equally mind-
boggling. In 1916, Einstein had predicted the existence of these gravitational waves, but it was a hypothesis
without any tangible proof. This led to
a great deal of speculation and
inspired massive numbers of ‘gravitational wave hunters’ to go exploring
for proof. There were many false starts
and rumours about gravitational waves
that even led to the perception that
gravitational wave hunters may be
careless or at worst liars.
After years of studies, reports, presentations, and committee meetings,
the National Science Foundation in
the US funded the construction of an
enormous gravitational wave detector
called the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational-Wave Observatory
(LIGO). The construction in the US of
LIGO began 22 years ago.
The US also invited India to set up
a LIGO lab because the findings from
another distant location in the world
would help consolidate the findings on
gravitational waves. The Indian
Government at that time could not take
a decision at the appropriate time. The
problem is that the viability of research
is often evaluated using the general formula of productivity, which by definition divides outputs by inputs. The outputs are measured by the gross contribution of a research project and the
estimated rate of maturity, whereas the
input variable in this case is often the
cost of the research project.
The LIGO team was diverse. It even
included a set of people whose job was
to create fake evidence of a gravitational wave so as to booby trap LIGO scientists and this way keep them on their
toes. About 60 Indian scientists were
also part of the data analysis aspect of
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run-in with customs at Cairo
airport has left rock singer
Bryan Adams fuming, after a
border agent scrawled a number on
his guitar. The Grammy award-winning musician, who was in Egypt for a
concert at the Giza pyramids, posted a
picture of the vintage Martin acoustic
guitar on his Instagram account. A
number and an illegible word in
Arabic had been written in green ink
on the mahogany instrument’s side.
“Airport customs graffiti on my
1957 Martin D-18 from Egypt. Back to
the luthier bryanadamsgetup,” Adams
wrote on Instagram, referring to his
latest album, Get Up. Adams said his
problems with customs had begun on
his arrival at the airport. “We almost
didn’t get the equipment into the
country, and when we did, it was all
marked like this,” he wrote in a
Facebook message. “There were
absolutely no apologies.”
A customs official said instruments were marked with serial numbers, although usually with stickers.
Regarding the ink, he suggested:
A
<8=8H0270CC4A98
DXUVYbcdTYbUSd_RcUbfQdY_^_VWbQfYdQdY_^Q\gQfUc_^6URbeQbi!!dXYc
iUQbgY\\cebU\i_`U^e`^UgVb_^dYUbc V_be^TUbcdQ^TY^W_ebe^YfUbcU
ver since we homo sapiens
replaced our neanderthal
cousins, we have tried to lay
order amongst our species in
the form of various governance systems, so that we can apply
our species’ advanced intellect to the
challenges of survival, evolution, and
further exploration. Gradually in many
parts of the world we formed rules for
political representation to govern ourselves. But as a Frankenstein case, governance has become the challenge that
we need to solve.
In the US, the electoral cacophony
and fanfare called Super Tuesday took
place this month, and it made millions
across the world wonder how two of
the most disliked politicians in
America had managed to win. In India,
too, politics managed to shock people
when parties blew out of proportion a
situation in Delhi where students,
including the head of the students’
union, were protesting.
Political institutions, which we ourselves created, may have become the
biggest stumbling block to our evolution and exploring our curiosities.
Last month marked possibly the
greatest scientific discovery of the century. On February 11, 2016, in
Washington DC, it was announced
that the first direct observation of
gravitational waves had been made.
This discovery proved right Albert
Einstein’s theory of relativity made
about a 100 years ago.
It opens up new frontiers for understanding our universe. So far more than
95 per cent of our universe remains
imperceptible to traditional astronomy.
This discovery of gravitational waves is
a development that deserves the appli-
EJPANJ=PEKJ=H
gravitational waves discovery. A group,
led by Indian Bala Iyer at the Raman
Research Institute in collaboration with
scientists in France, led the mathematical calculations used to model gravitational wave signals from orbiting black
holes and neutron stars.
Another group led by Sanjeev
Dhurandhar at IUCAA initiated and
carried out foundation work on developing data analysis techniques to detect
weak gravitational wave signals buried
in the detector noise by looking for the
best match between the calculated
waveforms and the detector signal.
In their initial proposal to construct
the instrument, the LIGO team had
warned that the preliminary design was
unlikely to detect anything.
Nonetheless, they argued, an imperfect
observatory had to be built to understand how to build a better one. In this
way the Advanced LIGO — an improvised version of the earlier instrument
— was scheduled to be unveiled on
September 18, 2015. This machine was
to be the most sensitive instrument
ever built in history to detect anything
that was not a gravitational wave.
The results of these efforts were
finally borne around 11 am Central
European Time on September 14, 2015,
when Marco Drago, a 32-year-old
Italian postdoctoral student and a
member of the LIGO Scientific
Collaboration, was viewing the LIGO
data remotely at the Albert Einstein
Institute in Hannover, Germany. On
that day he was the first person to
notice that the gravitational waves had
reached Earth. It took months for the
LIGO team to test and ensure that this
detection of the gravitational waves met
the statistical threshold of five sigma,
which is the gold standard for declaring
a discovery in physics.
The September 14 detection of
gravitational waves was thereafter officially known as GW150914. It represents the first observational evidence
that black-hole pairs exist. Until now,
they had existed in theory, because by
definition they swallow all light in their
vicinity, making themselves invisible to
regular telescopes.
Near a black hole, gravity becomes
the strongest force in the universe.
Einstein had predicted this in 1916, and
the LIGO results suggest that his equations align almost perfectly with the
real-world observation. Indian scientists have been given credit for the data
analysis aspect of this discovery.
Since 2011, a consortium of Indian
research establishments have been lobbying to have a gravitational wave
detector located in India. Known as the
LIGO-India project, it is piloted by the
Department of Atomic Energy and the
Department of Science and Technology.
After the announcement of the
detection of gravitational waves last
month, the Union Cabinet, chaired by
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said
that it had in-principle approved a proposal to have a gravitational wave
detector in India. Let us hope that this
agenda is not sabotaged by political
parties in a quest for votes. We have
missed this bus at least once.
CWTfaXcTaXb2WXTUBdbcPX]PQX[Xch>UUXRTaU^acWT
Va^d_^UR^\_P]XTb9X]SP[BcTT[P]S?^fTa;cS
“Maybe it wasn’t us?”It is not the first
time someone has written numbers on
one of Adams’s guitars. In 2015, he
tweeted that Air Canada had scrawled
a serial number in black ink.
Egyptians mocked the incident on
social media: “Doesn’t Adams know
that we glued together Tutankhamun
with super glue? It’s normal that we
write something on a 60-year-old guitar,” one wrote.
3V_2WW]VT\+C`SZ_ZdR]cVRUjUVRU
t is just the latest bit of ignominy
for the superhero sidekick known
as Robin. Quietly sidelined by the
keepers of the Batman flame after Joel
Schumacher’s oft-ridiculed 1997 debacle Batman & Robin, the caped crusader’s crime-fighting partner has now
been killed off before the first frame
has rolled of the new superhero movie,
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.
The new Batman, Ben Affleck,
revealed the news in an interview with
Entertainment Weekly, in which he discussed his take on Gotham’s eternal
defender as older and more jaded.
“[Batman is] bitterly disappointed...
that he’s lost this guy who fought by his
side,” said Affleck. “That character’s
death must have been devastating to
him, and he’s suffered. We get the sense
that he’s suffered a lot of devastating
losses before this movie even starts.”
Batman’s pain at the death of his
protege mirrors the events of Frank
Miller’s 1986 graphic novel The Dark
Knight Returns, which Batman v
Superman director Zack Snyder has
said will be a key influence on his
I
movie. In the comic book, a cruel,
grey-haired Batman laments the loss
of former boy wonder Jason Todd,
who was killed by The Joker in an earlier episode, though he also takes on a
new, female Robin, Carrie Kelley.
Affleck said the new Batman is
both inspired by and fearful of superheroes such as Wonder Woman, AKA
Diana Prince, who will be played by
Gal Gadot in Snyder’s movie.
Dej]Vd`WWVcVUaRceZ_?`]R_¶d3d]ZXaZ
arry Styles has reportedly been
offered a role in Christopher
Nolan’s second world war epic
Dunkirk. According to Deadline, the
One Direction singer is set to make
his acting debut in the drama alongside Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh
and recent Oscar winner Mark
Rylance. The reports suggest that it
won’t be a leading role.
Details of the film are being kept
secret but the Inception director is
rumoured to be searching for mainly
unknown actors to play the key roles
with the more well-known talent taking a back seat. He is said to be keen
H
on newcomer Fionn Whitehead for
one of the two leads.
Last month it emerged that Nolan
will be using authentic Second World
War battleships for the film because
he wants to avoid using too many digital effects. The film will tell the story
of the Dunkirk evacuation at the start
of the Second World War.
Styles was previously offered a role
in romantic drama Tulip Fever, alongside Judi Dench and Alicia Vikander,
but turned it down. He is loosely
attached to star in the next season of
horror comedy series Scream Queens
alongside Emma Roberts.
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man dressed as Marvel superA
hero Captain America was
involved in a beauty store robbery in Texas along with a
sidekick. Security camera
photos shared by Plano
police crime stoppers
showed the two suspects
and their vehicle at the
scene of a robbery at
an ULTA retail
store. One man can
be seen wearing a
black and yellow
hoodie while the other is
dressed in a Captain
America costume.
Police said the men
may be connected to a
string of similar robberies
in the area, although it is
unclear what was stolen
from this location. The suspects escaped in a silver
four-door SUV, believed
to be a Dodge Durango
or Chrysler Aspen.
D?8
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tate Department of Ecology offiScials
say a crew picking up litter
found 100 pairs of shoes in
boxes along Interstate 90 east
of North Bend. KIRO-TV
reports an Ecology
Youth Corps crew
found the white, flatheeled shoes Tuesday
morning. State officials say the shoes,
which appear new,
have been donated
to a Seattle organisation that helps homeless women, children and
families in need.
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family in Australia
were excited to see the
A
end of a drought in the
area, but got more than
they bargained for when
fish began falling from
the sky. Tahnee Oakhill
shared video of the
phenomenon to her
Facebook page as her
daughter excitedly placed
the tiny fish into a nearby puddle.
“The kids got a good little catch
today — five or so,” Oakhill wrote in a
comment. “It was pretty surreal watching them walk around on a once
droughted property in the guts of the
[Queensland] bush and scoop living fish
out of mud puddles on the dirt road.”
The Oakhill’s Winton property had
received about three inches of rain prior
to the appearance of the fish. “It’s pretty
crazy, getting that much rain was pretty
shocking and then that happening after
that...it’s been a weird week,” said Oakhill.
As for the fish, ecologist Dr Peter
Unmack said the spangled perch which
are “pretty much everywhere” in central
Australia likely did not fall from the sky.
He explained that the tiny fish can
quickly travel long distances in small
amounts of water, but added that this
tendency did allow a small possibility
for them to get caught in rainclouds.
“The other key point is if you did get
massive updrafts of water and fish that
got carried up into the clouds, every-
thing up there is frozen because it’s
too cold,” he said. “So it is theoretically possible, but it’s
difficult to see many
situations where fish
get picked up by strong
winds and can survive.”
D?8
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C>0E>83C4GC8=6<8B70?B
British cathedral sought to reassure
visitors that they could still view a
A
massive sculpture following a Facebook
post by the statue’s creator saying the
church had moved it because people
kept bumping into it while texting.
The Salisbury Cathedral, located
about 90 miles outside of London, said
in a tweet under the Twitter handle
@SalisburyCath: “Don’t worry, you can
still see ‘The Kiss’ at the Cathedral.
We’ve moved the sculpture onto the
lawn #Relationships.”
‘The Kiss’ is a 20-foot sculpture of
clasping hands by artist Sophie Ryder.
Recently, Ryder posted a video on
Facebook of a crane moving the statue,
with the comment “We had to move
‘The Kiss’ because people were walking
through texting and said they bumped
their heads! Oh well!!”
The Cathedral did not
respond to a Reuters
request for comment on
why it moved the sculpture.
Social media users
poked fun at the statue’s
relocation to the lawn.
Visitors were
originally
meant to follow a path
through the
clasped hands.
@GRumpGitRant
tweeted: “It’s safe now to visit
#salisbury cathedral. The
kiss statue better known as
the #claspedhands is no
longer a danger.”
“I think it is crazy it
was moved,” wrote Karin
Muir on Ryder’s Facebook
page. “Maybe if more people bumped their heads
whilst walking and texting, they’d stop doing
it sooner.”
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Virginia man unknowingly
AChewbacca
became the judge of a
impersonator con-
test after his friends posted
his phone number on
Craigslist. Blake Webb’s
friends posted his number
to the online classified site
and encouraged people to call
Webb’s phone with their best
Chewbacca impression in order to
win a prize of $50.
The fraudulent contest was set
to run through May 4, a day commonly associated with Star Wars
due to a twist on the Jedi saying,
“May the force be with you,” “May the
4th be with you.” “Most of the time
they would just go, ‘Hey is this the
guy from Craigslist?’ And I was like,
‘What?’” said Webb. “[After they do
the impersonation] I was like, ‘Hello!’
They’d be like, ‘Is that good? And I’d
be like, ‘Yeah, that was pretty good.”
Webb said that he’s actually had
some lengthy conversations with the
callers after the initial confusion.
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oli is the day
when Holika,
who had the
boon to remain
unscathed in
fire, took Prahlad on her lap
and sat in fire. Lord Vishnu
came to Prahlad’s aid and as
a result, Holika burnt while
Prahlad remained unharmed.
The stories from Puranas
appear to be mythological
tales to a layman as the incidents described in them
often refer to things that
seem supernatural or surreal,
for example, the power to
remain unscathed in fire or
the invocation of energy
called Vishnu.
Puranas are, in fact,
chronicles of real events that
occurred with our ancestors,
who inhabited this planet
many thousand years ago.
These ancestors were not
aliens or super-humans, they
were humans like you and
me, only they were able to
tap into the phenomenal
potential that a human being
has. Majority of us, on the
other hand, leave that force
within us unused.
The physical creation is a
manifestation of the five elements in their various permutations and combinations.
These elements come together to form a body because
there is an impurity or dosha.
As per Ayurveda, these
doshas are vata pita and
kapha, as per other Vedas, it
is a selfish/negative thought.
The dosha along with its
action tendency determines
your prakriti or basic nature.
The level of impurity reflects
upon the thought process of a
person. The purer the elements, the higher the
thoughts; more the impurities,
the grosser thoughts one
H
catches from the environment.
Our body is because
there is dosha and it is these
doshas that cast us into the
whirlpool of diseases, imbalances, emotional congestion
and an overall negative
approach towards life. If
there is dosha (negativity) in
the body, the body will
remain ie there is always an
aspect of negativity in
humans, the level of negativity decides whether you are
good or bad. When negativity is more, one is termed as
bad, when it is less, he/she is
called good.
Swami Vivekananda once
at a lecture expressed a similar view while speaking
about a black dot on a white
background that was presented to him. He explained how
all our lives we focus on the
tiny black dot, missing out
on the limitless white
expanse.
This is, in fact, the primary reason why whether
someone drives a luxury car
or travels by a bus, each one
is unhappy and disturbed
with the way things are. I get
countless mails daily from all
over the world and 99 per
cent of them are negative. If
only we could change from
negative to positive, our
health would improve as
would the quality of life, and
time (both good and bad)
which seems to drag at a
snail’s pace would seem to be
pass away in no time. That is
a sign of evolution.
Holi is a perfect time to
move from negativity
towards positivity. This
Purnima of the month of
Phalgun holds within itself
the phenomenal power to
burn away negativity. The
night of Holi is a powerful
t is very unfortunate to see this all-pervading anger. Elaborate plans are being
made and executed to kill innocent
schoolchildren. Parents are scared about
sending their kids to schools, but do they
try to control their own anger? Divorces
and single parent families are becoming
the norm, not an exception. Almost no
one is trying to control his or her anger. It
has become fashionable to become angry.
One feels good about it. Is this not a sad
situation, rather a dangerous situation?
In this article, I will try to analyse the
reasons for such widespread anger, the
harm it is doing to all concerned, what we
can do about it and the benefits of being
able to do so. Let us start with children.
Amazingly, they are beginning to keep
pace with others. They are shouting at
their parents and also on others, breaking
things, acting rebelliously and, generally,
harming themselves. And all these video
games, serials, etc are not helping, if anything they are promoting anger.
One will assume that children, when
they grow up, will become more sensible.
Yes, some do but others have problems with
many things, like money situation, difficulties faced in doing well in studies, thoughts
about future, inability to enjoy life, etc.
Are the middle-aged doing any better?
The scenario is quite bleak. The realisation
that they are not even close to what they
had dreamed about is enough reason to be
I
here are turbulent times. These are competitive
times. These are disturbing times. These are
changing times. And the pace of change is very
fast. By the time one is able to adapt to the change, the
scenario has changed. Naturally, the one thing that is
available for a high premium is tranquillity of mind.
Man is not at peace with himself.
In fact, philosophically speaking, he is not at pace
with himself as there is a competition between his
inner self, the core, and the outer self, the periphery,
which is the significant other. Significant because
though ephemeral in nature, it is an entity that impacts
man significantly.
But pause for a moment. Is this a new phenomenon? Think deeply and you will realise it is not. It was
always there. Times were disturbing, turbulent and
competitive. Changes were taking place. But still that
tranquillity and peace, that seem to slip away from the
hand like an eel, was not all that elusive.
Why it is that tranquillity is difficult to achieve
today? Because the nature of competition between the
inner self and the outer self is different. It was competition of the inner self with the outer self. Today, it is the
competition of the inner self against the outer self. The
very nature of this competition is hostile and in any
kind of hostility, peace is the first causality.
But the most vital issue that arises is can this condition be changed? Is it an impossibility? With a little
bit of insight and some sincere effort, the condition
can be changed. The inner self needs to be explored,
found and strengthened. And it is possible because
people in the past could do it. They also had the outer
and inner self. They also had the conflict between the
two selves. But they could resolve that harmoniously,
achieving peace and tranquillity in the process.
The solution lies in reinventing the self. It is reinventing the self that will lead to increase in self-effectiveness that we are so desperately searching. But there
is a process for reinventing the self. The process begins
with self-introspection. The prescription is ‘find time
for yourself ’. Today the greatest difficulty is to find
time for oneself.
Technology has speeded up things, shortened distances, catalysed communication and supposedly
increased leisure. But the paradoxical part is that this
leisure finds you in far greater shortage of time.
Swami Vivekananda had said that if you are not
talking to yourself at least once a day, you are missing
the opportunity of meeting an excellent person in this
world. And rightly so. You are your best friend. You are
your best enemy too.
How you handle self will determine this. Learn to
talk to yourself. It is an art. The art of self-introspection. From this will arise the means of self-renewal that
will pave the path of reinventing self and finally lead to
heightened self-effectiveness. The inner self is the pivot
of self-renewal but is not given due importance. The
outer self bags all our attention.
The following words from Lord Rama may help in
understanding the nature of outer self. After vanquishing demon king Ravana, the Lord reached Ayodhya.
The people asked how he could slay the mighty
Ravana. Lord Rama then said, “I didn’t kill Ravana. It
is the ‘I’ who killed Ravana.” ‘I’ refers to Ravana’s ego.
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night, a night of silence and
of internalisation, a night
when the potency of various
mantras and jaaps is at its
peak as is the transformational effect of fire.
It is important here that
the mantras be given by a
guru who is siddha in the
mantra. Mantra is shakti in
the form of dhwani; any
errors in the uchharan
changes the frequency of the
sound, and the result can be
disastrous.
Holi is a night of chanting mantras which have been
channelised by one’s guru
and of invocation of positivity through yagya in his/her
presence. The experiences
one gets and their effects on
one’s being equals the sadhna
of many years together in
just one night.
Yagyas are of various
kinds — there are those for
channelising creative forces
in the environment and also
those for siddhi of the God
or Goddess that is being
invoked. There are specific
yagyas for fulfillment of specific tasks as desired by the
sadhak. Depending upon the
capacity and desire of the
sadhak, the guru prescribes a
yagya to be performed on
the night.
A yagya uses fire as a
medium to interact with the
shaktis that run creation. Fire
or agni deserves a special
mention among the five elements as it is the only element that cannot be polluted. It is also the only element
that rises up despite the pull
of gravity. The implication of
this is that agni purifies anything that comes in contact
with it and holds the capacity
to make you rise. No wonder
it became the first word of
the first Veda, the Rig Veda.
On certain days, energy
patterns are especially conducive to the process of
purification in the body, the
day of Holi being one of
them. On this day, Holika
entered the fire with her
nephew Prahlad. She was a
sadhika and it was her time
to get purified, hence the fire
accepted her. Prahlad, on the
other hand, was already pure
and so did not burn. So a
body that is pure remains
unaffected by fire; fire here
symbolises the physical fire
as well as the negativities or
disturbances of our life.
A pure body would be
eligible to go to higher lokas
and have conversation with
gods and be in ananda all
the time. An impure body
would be revelling in the
pleasures of the physical
world which are of course
temporary. It would think
that it is having fun and
passing time, while in reality, it is time that is passing
it and taking it towards rog
because rog is the opposite
of bhog — the creation
being bipolar and a sum of
opposites.
Sanatan Kriya details
certain fire purification techniques for Holi, where you
make a circle of fire around
you and the guru gives you
certain mantras to instantly
trigger the process of purification, leaving you lighter
while the regular practice of
Ashtang Yog makes you
Prahlad. When the body is
pure, its receptivity to the
positive forces in creation
heightens, manifestation of
thoughts and darshan of
Gods and Goddesses follows.
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frustrated and angry, which reflects in
their behaviour. The last group of old persons, one would have hoped, would have
calmed down. No, they have problems
with their children either due to being
ignored by them or attempted to be
exploited by them, society they live in and
alleged injustice done to them in their
lives. To be honest, the situation appears
quite bleak to say the least.
Let us see some of the reasons for
such all-pervading anger. The first reason is envious nature. Denial of lust is
not far behind. Intolerance is fanning
anger all round. People are getting impatient; they want everything instantly. Ill
health contributes to getting irritated.
Overstress is another reason. Just like
envy, dislike of someone becomes a
cause for getting angry. Injustice appears
to be a valid reason to be angry. Or
humiliation suffered, even though the
self maybe the cause of it. Similarly,
being cheated gives enough justification
for being angry. Infidelity is another reason for exploding. Helplessness also gets
converted into anger sometimes, as does
frustration. And now there is attention
one gets worldwide by showing your
anger by doing terror acts.
What harm is anger doing to the self
and others? One loses peace of mind — a
very big loss. One may take some step and
suffer irreparable damage. Anger causes
enmity and one may be avoided by others.
One loses control over self and may damage one’s own health. Anger causes strain
in relationships, and one looks foolish.
Anger is destructive.
What can be done to control this
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enemy, which results in foolishness, which
in turn causes bewilderment, ie inability
to take the right decisions based upon
experience; and, subsequently, causes
intelligence to be lost, which ensures that
one is doomed. (Bhagavad Gita 2.63)
Such measures could be individual or
collective, ie through proper education.
But the latter solution is time-consuming
and may not be so effective after all in the
short term. Therefore, we must try to do
so ourselves. I am not ashamed to state
that I am also guilty of this fault and now I
have taken an oath to control my anger.
Fortunately, it is working because I have
become aware of my shortcomings and
am fully determined to work on them.
The following measures are quite
practical. Try to avoid situations which
can cause anger. Don’t be a perfectionist
because in this material world it is impossible to be one. Control lust. Have faith in
justice of God. Mind control is a basic
necessity for achieving it. Tolerance and
patience are absolute must. Reduction of
stress will help. Lastly, if we keep in mind
the harm we will avoid that anger inflicts
on us, we will want to give up anger.
Believe me, I am very satisfied that I have
taken such an oath; my life is looking
much better than what I could have imagined only a week ago.
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uman body-mind organism is an
integrated mechanism, wherein
if one aspect goes bad, it
adversely affects the other. In case one’s
physiology goes bad, it has to have related adverse bearing on the mindset.
Mind then comes under stress, which in
turn, causes hormonal imbalance in the
system, and which further increases the
stress level, at times leading to depression. At the same length, if mental state
gets anyway disturbed, it leads to health
complications. Man, thus, gets trapped
into a circuitous web of body-mind
infirmities. As a consequence, sleep
becomes the first casualty. Eventually,
the thought process becomes incoherent, when medical intervention
becomes necessary. And, since the
whole system remains under strain, it
calls for holistic care.
It’s pertinent to note here that
Ayurveda and Homeopathy are
premised on the concept of providing
holistic healing to ailing persons and so
go for systemic correction to bodymind organism. On the contrary, modern medical science remains focused to
treating just the disease. Their medicines may bring immediate relief, but
there may not be any improvement in
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terms of the constitutional status of a
being. And then at times medicine has
side-effects that may lead to other
health issues sooner or later.
A case in point is that of a young girl
undergoing psychiatric treatment for
quite some time, but with not much of
improvement. The doctor prescribed psychotropic drug, and subjected her to psychological counselling, which was
premised on feed back offered by her
parents about her behavioural pattern.
But they have no means to figure out the
basic constitution of her body-metabolism, which varies from person to person.
But despite all the medication and counselling, she doesn’t have sound sleep, but
for which her energy level remains low
when she wakes up in the morning. Her
head remains heavy, feels lot of heat
inside. She does not feel like doing anything. She has a feel that nobody in the
family loves her, as they do not listen to
her. Not finding a way out, her parents
brought her seeking guidance. When
asked: Whether she has an irregular
bowel, she answered in the affirmative.
Remember, when the bowel movement becomes irregular, assimilation of
food in the body becomes disorderly.
As a result, the various energy streams
emanating from food, vital to nourishment of different organs of the body,
become short of the requirement. In
turn, the cough, pitta, and vayu constituents of the body get imbalanced.
Excessive air element keeps the mind in
agitated state, where after sleep becomes
the first casualty, which in turn, leads to
further health complications. In such
cases, unless the digestive system gets
toned up, no psychotropic drug or
counselling could be of any help.
A look at the astrological chart of an
ailing person can figure out the overall
tendencies of physical and mental health
of a being. Let us now look at the girl’s
astrological pointers. Lagna lord Venus
is conjunct 6th lord Jupiter, which incidentally happens to be the lagna sublord as well implying a fragile health
profile. Jupiter occupying the nakshatra
owned by Ketu posited in Mercury
owned sign Gemini points to being vulnerable to problems of mind genesis.
Health indicator, the Sun, conjunct
Mercury occupies the Virgo sign, both
ill-disposed off to Uranus, Neptune, and
Rahu. The implication, in the first place,
is that her bowel movement would be
irregular. Second, she would have an
agitated and unstable mind, lacking
focus. Also, she would have a vacillating
mind. The two read together account
for her impaired reasoning and judgment. Third, she would be erratic and
habitually inclined to disregard elder’s
advice. Fourth, she remains stuck to her
fanciful dream world, often distanced
from ground realities, and not keen to
look beyond. She may not acknowledge
truth on its first appearance.
Moon occupying Cancer sign,
though well aligned to the Sun, is placed
opposite Saturn. That, in the first place
accounts for unpredictable mood swings.
Second, she’s comfort loving and caught
with inertia and indolence, and therefore,
would not be keen to take pains to work
towards fulfillment of her ambitions. She
has a negative mindset which brings in a
sense of pessimism, making her vulnerable to depression. Mars placed adverse to
Neptune speaks of inferiority complex.
All put together makes her a fit case for
psychiatric problems. A holistic treatment has been accordingly advised,
which if taken up seriously, she may
regain her normal self soon.
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