ˇ ˜ ˚& ˚ ˚ ˜ ˜ˇ˚ ˚ ˜ ˜˛ ˚˚ ˛ ˛ ˚˜ · 2019-03-23 · babbar from moradabad to...

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W ith the candidature of former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh been finalised from Bhopal, the fight in the Madhya Pradesh capital is likely to be interest- ing as Pragya Thakur, aka Sadhvi Pragya Bharti, may be pitted against him. Digvijay is contesting election after 2003 in the State. Digvijay’s candidature was made public by Chief Minister Kamal Nath during his inter- action with mediapersons at a programme here on Saturday. Meanwhile, the Congress has changed the seat allotted to its Uttar Pradesh unit chief Raj Babbar from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri, in an apparent bid to make the Lok Sabha con- test easier for the actor-turned- politician. Imran Pratapgarhiya will now be the party’s candi- date from Moradabad. Party sources said that Babbar was not keen on con- testing from Moradabad, where the BJP has fielded its sitting MP Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar. After having served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for 10 years from 1993 to 2003, Digvijay had left the State saying that he would not contest any election. At present, he is a Rajya Sabha member. Digvijay took active part in MP in the run up to the last Assembly elections. The way the MP CM announced the candidature of Digvijay was quite dramatic. Generally, the CEC of AICC declares the list. Nath said, “I have a list of party candidates in my pocket but I can’t dis- close. However, I can make an announcement. (Congress) Election Committee yesterday (Friday) finalised the name of Digvijay Singhji from Bhopal.” When asked whether Digvijay was happy with the decision, Nath said, “I do not know, whether he is happy, but I am happy.” To a query, whether he has “dealt” with Digvijay with this decision, Nath parried the question on Digvijay’s winnability. Sadhvi Pragya Bharti, who has been acquitted in the Malegaon blast case, is ready to take on Digvijay. Talking to mediapersons in Bhopal, she said, “Digvijay Singh is a ‘desh ka dushman’ and I openly chal- lenge country’s enemies,” Pragya was discharged from an ayurvedic hospital in the city months ago after being treated for critical illnesses. Though Pragya did not confirm whether she has been contacted by the BJP to fight poll, she did say the BJP was a party which matched her ide- ology. However, Pragya hinted she wasn’t much eager to con- test election, but said she was contacted by someone to fight election. Pragya, who had taken sanyas at 14, said it was an opportune moment to enter politics. She slammed the Congress for attacking and Hindutva by calling them ter- ror forces. Pragya was given clean chit in the murder of RSS pracharak Sunil Joshi as well. State BJP spokesman Rajneesh Agrawal told The Pioneer that the voters are waiting for Digvijay to contest from Bhopal. They want to teach him a lesson. S etting aside the seniority norm in appointing a Service chief for the second time, the Government on Saturday selected Vice Admiral Karambir Singh as the new Navy chief after the incumbent Admiral Sunil Lanba retires on May 31 this year. Singh super- sedes the senior most aspirant Vice Admiral Bimal Verma. In 2016, the present Army chief Rawat was selected for the top job superseding the then senior most officer Pravin Bakshi. The incoming chief, who is at present serving as the Flag Officer Commanding in Chief (FOC-in-C) of the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, will be the first helicopter pilot to become Chief of Naval Staff. Before the present appointment, Singh also served as Deputy Chief as well as Vice Chief of Naval Staff. Verma, younger brother of former Navy Chief Nirmal Verma, is at present the Commander-in-chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Command. It is the first tri-ser- vice integrated command to look after the country’s strate- gic interests in that region. The command was set up fol- lowing the recommendations of the K Subrahmanyam com- mittee recommendations on higher defence management. The panel was set up in the wake of the Kargil war in 1999 to suggest ways to fine tune the fighting capabilities in the modern day warfare. As regards selecting Singh over Verma, official sources said the Government followed a merit-based approach there- by giving a go by to the tradi- tion of appointing the senior most eligible officer to the post. They also said Verma had not commanded as chief of operationally important Western and Eastern Commands and these tenures are considered very important for selecting the Navy chief. He was reportedly overlooked for these postings as he was the principal director of naval operations during the 2005 Naval War Room leak in New Delhi. Several critical com- mercial and some operational documents were leaked. Verma came under scrutiny but was cleared with a “severe displea- sure” note. He later served as India’s naval attaché in Iran and also commanded a ship. N ational Capital may wit- ness strong surface winds on March 26. In weekly weath- er forecast, the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) said that there are chances of rain on March 25 and sky will remain cloudy in entire next week. From March 26 onwards maximum tem- perature will increase and fluc- tuate between 32 degree Celsius and 35 degree Celsius and minimum temperature will oscillate between 16 degree Celsius and 19 degree Celsius. It was a pleasant Saturday morning in Delhi with the minimum temperature at 16.6 degrees Celsius, a notch below the season’s average. “The sky will remain clear with strong surface winds during the day,” said an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official. I n a horrific incident, two per- sons died while two are still undergoing treatment at a hos- pital allegedly due to asphyxi- ation after they entered a kitchen waste treatment unit in west Delhi’s Rajouri Garden area. The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon when all four working as housekeeping staff with the restaurant ‘Pirates of Grill’ were asked by the man- agement to clean the kitchen waste tank. The deceased have been identified as Rakesh (45) and Ajay (19) while other identified as Pankaj and Raju are still undergoing treatment and are said to be critical. The deceased Rakesh and Ajay used to live in a rented accommodation at Tagore Garden. Pankaj and Raju used to stay in the restau- rant premises. All four of them were native of Uttar Pradesh. According to Monika Bhardwaj, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), West District, the inci- dent occurred between 1.30 to 2 pm on Saturday. "The victims were rushed to a nearby hospital by Centralised Accident and Trauma Services (CATS) ambulance where Rakesh and Ajay were declared brought by the doctors while Pankaj and Raju are still undergoing treat- ment. Both are unfit for state- ment. Prima facie, it seems that they went in the kitchen waste treatment unit for cleaning purposes and inhaled the toxic fumes in the tank," the DCP said. "A case has been registered under Section 304 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the SC/ST Act against the restau- rant management at Rajouri Garden police station. Further investigation is going on," said the police official privy to investigation. T he Congress in Kerala has proposed AICC president Rahul Gandhi’s name for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, a party bastion in the State, but he has yet to respond to the request, senior leaders said on Saturday. Talking to reporters in Pathanamthitta district, AICC general secretary Oommen Chandy said the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) has requested Rahul to contest from Wayanad. There is a demand from party leaders that Rahul should contest from any of the South Indian Lok Sabha seat. “We have requested Gandhi to con- test from Wayanad seat. He has not commented on the request so far. But we expect that there would be a positive response,” Chandy said. The party, which is con- testing 16 out of 20 Lok Sabha seats in Kerala, has announced the names of 14 candidates but has not declared its candi- dates from Wayanad and Vadakara. “I once again request Gandhi to contest from Wayanad. Congress president contesting from Lok Sabha seats in South India and North India will strengthen national unity and integration,” Chennithala said. T he BJP on Saturday expect- edly denied ticket to yes- teryears’ filmstar and its sitting MP from Patna Sahib Shatrughan Sinha and instead fielded Information and Technology Minister and Rajya Sabha member Ravi Shankar Prasad from its stronghold. However, Prasad may face Sinha eventually as the latter could be fielded by the Congress in the Kayastha- dominated seat. For sometime now, Sinha had been critical of both the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a number of issues. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar announced names for 39 of the 40 seats with Union Minister Giriraj Singh being shifted from Nawada to Begusarai despite his opposi- tion. The LJP will contest from Nawada this time round. The alliance, however, reposed faith in all other Central Ministers from the State by fielding them from the same seats that they had won in 2014. The BJP also announced names of its candidates for Odisha fielding its spokesper- son Sambit Patra from Puri and its State president Basant Panda from Kalahandi. In Bihar though, it did not field its spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain from Bhagalpur, which he had unsuccessfully contest- ed last time, thus putting his future in the party under cloud. The BJP on Saturday announced the names of its 102 more candidates for the Lok Sabha polls, thus now totalling 286 candidates till now. The candidates have been picked for UP, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal, and Kerala, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. Earlier 17 names for Bihar were announced in Patna. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Arjun Munda will contest from Khunti, a seat once occupied by BJP veteran Karia Munda. BJP’s three new names from Uttar Pradesh included Pradeep Choudhary, a Gujjar, from Kairana seat (west UP) which was won by the RLD candidate with the backing of the SP and the BSP in a bypoll in 2018. The bypoll had first tested the efficacy of the Opposition alliance against the BJP. The other candidates from two other seats from West UP which would go to poll in the first phase are Dr Yashwant (Nagina) and Bhola Singh (Bulandshahar). Bengaluru: Ending days of suspense, Janata Dal (Secular) on Saturday said its National president and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda will be alliance’s candidate from Tumkur Lok Sabha seat. Hours after the announcment, Congress leader and Tumkur MP Muddahanumegowda raised strong objection to the move. Detailed report on P5

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Page 1: ˇ ˜ ˚& ˚ ˚ ˜ ˜ˇ˚ ˚ ˜ ˜˛ ˚˚ ˛ ˛ ˚˜ · 2019-03-23 · Babbar from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri, in an apparent bid to make the Lok Sabha con-test easier for the actor-turned-politician

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With the candidature offormer Madhya Pradesh

Chief Minister Digvijay Singhbeen finalised from Bhopal, thefight in the Madhya Pradeshcapital is likely to be interest-ing as Pragya Thakur, akaSadhvi Pragya Bharti, may bepitted against him. Digvijay iscontesting election after 2003 inthe State.

Digvijay’s candidature wasmade public by Chief MinisterKamal Nath during his inter-action with mediapersons at aprogramme here on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the Congresshas changed the seat allotted toits Uttar Pradesh unit chief RajBabbar from Moradabad toFatehpur Sikri, in an apparentbid to make the Lok Sabha con-test easier for the actor-turned-politician. Imran Pratapgarhiyawill now be the party’s candi-date from Moradabad.

Party sources said thatBabbar was not keen on con-testing from Moradabad, wherethe BJP has fielded its sittingMP Kunwar Sarvesh Kumar.

After having served asChief Minister of MadhyaPradesh for 10 years from 1993to 2003, Digvijay had left theState saying that he would notcontest any election. At present,he is a Rajya Sabha member.

Digvijay took active part inMP in the run up to the lastAssembly elections.

The way the MP CMannounced the candidature ofDigvijay was quite dramatic.Generally, the CEC of AICCdeclares the list. Nath said, “I

have a list of party candidatesin my pocket but I can’t dis-close. However, I can make anannouncement. (Congress)Election Committee yesterday(Friday) finalised the name ofDigvijay Singhji from Bhopal.”

When asked whetherDigvijay was happy with thedecision, Nath said, “I do notknow, whether he is happy, butI am happy.” To a query,whether he has “dealt” withDigvijay with this decision,Nath parried the question onDigvijay’s winnability.

Sadhvi Pragya Bharti, whohas been acquitted in theMalegaon blast case, is ready totake on Digvijay. Talking tomediapersons in Bhopal, shesaid, “Digvijay Singh is a ‘deshka dushman’ and I openly chal-lenge country’s enemies,”

Pragya was dischargedfrom an ayurvedic hospital inthe city months ago after beingtreated for critical illnesses.

Though Pragya did not

confirm whether she has beencontacted by the BJP to fightpoll, she did say the BJP was aparty which matched her ide-ology.

However, Pragya hintedshe wasn’t much eager to con-test election, but said she wascontacted by someone to fightelection. Pragya, who hadtaken sanyas at 14, said it wasan opportune moment to enter

politics. She slammed theCongress for attacking andHindutva by calling them ter-ror forces. Pragya was givenclean chit in the murder of RSSpracharak Sunil Joshi as well.

State BJP spokesmanRajneesh Agrawal told ThePioneer that the voters arewaiting for Digvijay to contestfrom Bhopal. They want toteach him a lesson.

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Setting aside the senioritynorm in appointing a

Service chief for the secondtime, the Government onSaturday selected Vice AdmiralKarambir Singh as the newNavy chief after the incumbentAdmiral Sunil Lanba retires onMay 31 this year. Singh super-sedes the senior most aspirantVice Admiral Bimal Verma. In2016, the present Army chiefRawat was selected for the topjob superseding the then seniormost officer Pravin Bakshi.

The incoming chief, who isat present serving as the FlagOfficer Commanding in Chief(FOC-in-C) of the EasternNaval Command inVisakhapatnam, will be thefirst helicopter pilot to becomeChief of Naval Staff. Before thepresent appointment, Singhalso served as Deputy Chief aswell as Vice Chief of NavalStaff.

Verma, younger brotherof former Navy Chief NirmalVerma, is at present theCommander-in-chief of theAndaman and NicobarCommand. It is the first tri-ser-vice integrated command tolook after the country’s strate-gic interests in that region.The command was set up fol-lowing the recommendationsof the K Subrahmanyam com-mittee recommendations onhigher defence management.

The panel was set up in thewake of the Kargil war in 1999to suggest ways to fine tune thefighting capabilities in themodern day warfare.

As regards selecting Singhover Verma, official sourcessaid the Government followeda merit-based approach there-by giving a go by to the tradi-tion of appointing the seniormost eligible officer to thepost.

They also said Verma hadnot commanded as chief ofoperationally importantWestern and EasternCommands and these tenuresare considered very importantfor selecting the Navy chief. Hewas reportedly overlooked forthese postings as he was theprincipal director of navaloperations during the 2005Naval War Room leak in NewDelhi. Several critical com-mercial and some operationaldocuments were leaked. Vermacame under scrutiny but wascleared with a “severe displea-sure” note.

He later served as India’snaval attaché in Iran and alsocommanded a ship.

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National Capital may wit-ness strong surface winds

on March 26. In weekly weath-er forecast, the IndianMeteorological Department(IMD) said that there arechances of rain on March 25and sky will remain cloudy inentire next week. From March26 onwards maximum tem-perature will increase and fluc-tuate between 32 degree Celsiusand 35 degree Celsius andminimum temperature willoscillate between 16 degreeCelsius and 19 degree Celsius.

It was a pleasant Saturdaymorning in Delhi with theminimum temperature at 16.6degrees Celsius, a notch belowthe season’s average. “The skywill remain clear with strongsurface winds during the day,”said an India MeteorologicalDepartment (IMD) official.

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In a horrific incident, two per-sons died while two are still

undergoing treatment at a hos-pital allegedly due to asphyxi-ation after they entered akitchen waste treatment unit inwest Delhi’s Rajouri Gardenarea. The incident occurred onSaturday afternoon when allfour working as housekeepingstaff with the restaurant ‘Piratesof Grill’ were asked by the man-agement to clean the kitchenwaste tank.

The deceased have beenidentified as Rakesh (45) andAjay (19) while other identifiedas Pankaj and Raju are stillundergoing treatment and aresaid to be critical. The deceasedRakesh and Ajay used to live ina rented accommodation atTagore Garden. Pankaj andRaju used to stay in the restau-rant premises. All four of themwere native of Uttar Pradesh.

According to Monika

Bhardwaj, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), West District, the inci-dent occurred between 1.30 to2 pm on Saturday.

"The victims were rushedto a nearby hospital byCentralised Accident andTrauma Services (CATS)ambulance where Rakesh andAjay were declared brought bythe doctors while Pankaj andRaju are still undergoing treat-ment. Both are unfit for state-ment. Prima facie, it seems that

they went in the kitchen wastetreatment unit for cleaningpurposes and inhaled the toxicfumes in the tank," the DCPsaid.

"A case has been registeredunder Section 304 of the IndianPenal Code (IPC) and theSC/ST Act against the restau-rant management at RajouriGarden police station. Furtherinvestigation is going on," saidthe police official privy toinvestigation.

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The Congress in Kerala hasproposed AICC president

Rahul Gandhi’s name for theWayanad Lok Sabha seat, aparty bastion in the State, buthe has yet to respond to therequest, senior leaders said onSaturday.

Talking to reporters inPathanamthitta district, AICCgeneral secretary OommenChandy said the KeralaPradesh Congress Committee(KPCC) has requested Rahulto contest from Wayanad.

There is a demand fromparty leaders that Rahul shouldcontest from any of the SouthIndian Lok Sabha seat. “We

have requested Gandhi to con-test from Wayanad seat. He hasnot commented on the requestso far. But we expect that therewould be a positive response,”Chandy said.

The party, which is con-testing 16 out of 20 Lok Sabhaseats in Kerala, has announcedthe names of 14 candidates buthas not declared its candi-dates from Wayanad andVadakara.

“I once again requestGandhi to contest fromWayanad. Congress presidentcontesting from Lok Sabhaseats in South India and NorthIndia will strengthen nationalunity and integration,”Chennithala said.

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The BJP on Saturday expect-edly denied ticket to yes-

teryears’ filmstar and its sittingMP from Patna SahibShatrughan Sinha and insteadfielded Information andTechnology Minister and RajyaSabha member Ravi ShankarPrasad from its stronghold.

However, Prasad may faceSinha eventually as the lattercould be fielded by theCongress in the Kayastha-dominated seat. For sometimenow, Sinha had been critical ofboth the BJP and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on a

number of issues.The BJP-led National

Democratic Alliance (NDA) inBihar announced names for 39of the 40 seats with UnionMinister Giriraj Singh beingshifted from Nawada toBegusarai despite his opposi-

tion. The LJP will contest fromNawada this time round. Thealliance, however, reposed faithin all other Central Ministersfrom the State by fielding themfrom the same seats that theyhad won in 2014.

The BJP also announced

names of its candidates forOdisha fielding its spokesper-son Sambit Patra from Puri andits State president Basant Pandafrom Kalahandi. In Biharthough, it did not field itsspokesperson ShahnawazHussain from Bhagalpur, whichhe had unsuccessfully contest-ed last time, thus putting hisfuture in the party under cloud.

The BJP on Saturdayannounced the names of its 102more candidates for the LokSabha polls, thus now totalling286 candidates till now.

The candidates have beenpicked for UP, Telangana,Andhra Pradesh, Odisha,Maharashtra, Assam,Meghalaya, West Bengal, andKerala, Goa, Madhya Pradesh,Jharkhand, Gujarat andHimachal Pradesh.

Earlier 17 names for Biharwere announced in Patna.Former Jharkhand ChiefMinister Arjun Munda willcontest from Khunti, a seatonce occupied by BJP veteranKaria Munda.

BJP’s three new namesfrom Uttar Pradesh includedPradeep Choudhary, a Gujjar,from Kairana seat (west UP)which was won by the RLDcandidate with the backing ofthe SP and the BSP in a bypollin 2018.

The bypoll had first testedthe efficacy of the Oppositionalliance against the BJP. Theother candidates from twoother seats from West UPwhich would go to poll in thefirst phase are Dr Yashwant(Nagina) and Bhola Singh(Bulandshahar).

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Bengaluru: Ending days ofsuspense, Janata Dal (Secular)on Saturday said its Nationalpresident and former PrimeMinister HD Deve Gowda willbe alliance’s candidate fromTumkur Lok Sabha seat. Hoursafter the announcment,Congress leader and TumkurMP Muddahanumegowdaraised strong objection to themove. Detailed report on P5

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Page 2: ˇ ˜ ˚& ˚ ˚ ˜ ˜ˇ˚ ˚ ˜ ˜˛ ˚˚ ˛ ˛ ˚˜ · 2019-03-23 · Babbar from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri, in an apparent bid to make the Lok Sabha con-test easier for the actor-turned-politician

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We have already established that Hollywoodmakes the best animation films. The latestfrom DreamWorks reiterates the point.

Those who have not been following the franchisesince the time it began back in 2010 — How to TrainYour Dragon, the film was loosely based on a 2003book by British author Cressida Cowell. It would besomewhat sad to see the series come to an end. Someof the dragons are really cute and not to forgetToothless — and also a dragon with only half a tail.

While the last part may not have the fire that theprequels had, it will thaw even people with a cold heart— it is after all a story about how a species (read dragons)despite being brutally hunted by man still befriends ahuman knowing that this particular boy means well.

Though the original was the best of the lot, part 3is all about some brilliant visuals in the hidden worldwhich take away your breath. The burst of colours isamazing. What is more amazing is that it tells a story— that with love comes a great responsibility — that ofsacrifice.

The first movie was released on March 26,2010 andit comes to an end on March 24, 2019 (technically notend but release). It has been a full circle — for Toothlessto grow up and be the alpha that he is and for Hiccupwho finally grows up to be a man who leads his peopleand making the ultimate sacrifice that love demands.

A movie that will take the kiddies into a wonder landand melt the hearts of the adults. — !�������!������

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Every film ever made onpatriotism evokes pride inevery Indian — that we get to

walk on the land that has producedIndia’s finest. Soldiers who have laiddown their lives to protect MotherIndia — defend her boundariesfrom the enemy— at the cost ofputting not just their lives but theirfamilies as well.

We all always talk about thesacrifice a soldier makes when he isat our borders, we forget that theonly reason he is able to do sofearlessly is due to a strong familybacking. A family that has taughthim to take a bullet on the chest.

Therefore, everything is Kesarimakes you proud— that 21 Sikhs ofthe 36 Sikh Regiment preferred tofight for their honour and notbecause they were being paid for it.That they preferred to face theenemy and defend the border whenthey had the order to run. Thatthey preferred to face death ratherthan be salves to the British.

The film directed by AnuragSingh is a taut war drama that hasbeen executed brilliantly and the

reason why it weaves its magic isbecause it has been so well scripted.The wit, sarcasm, action, humourand tragedy has been beautifullywoven into the narrative. Beinggiven a sneak peek into history thatone gets to see between the Sikhsand Islam adds value. Or thesignificance of kesari rang — Kesarirang ka matlab samjhte ho....shaheedi ka rang hai....bahaduri ka.

Akshay Kumar as HavaldarIshar Singh is brilliant. Off late, theactor has chosen to be part of filmsthat make the audience sit andthink and may be just may be be abetter human being. One can saythat as Singh, this is bestperformance till day. His actinggives you goosebumps because ofthe way he has executed hischaracter and carried the role onhis shoulders.

Not that the other charactersare there for show. Each has playedtheir role to a T. The dialogues, theaction and the climax will leave youteary-eyed as will the sheer violenceand barbarism that unfolds makeyou shudder.

This is a must see epic — how21 Sikhs fought 10,000 Afghans,were martyred and made the enemyrun for their lives. — !�������!������

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�Tell us about your character.I play Mahendra Thakkar, a

successful businessman (has a shopselling Bhakarwadi). He is a man ofvalues and principles and can’tcompromise with them. But believesin changing with time. He is notrudiment in his thoughts and is readyto accept changes both in his businessand life. He respects his customers alot and keeps in mind their choices. �Do you share any similarities withyour character?

Yes. Just like my character I amalso a man of values and can’tcompromise on them. I can’t doanything just for the sake ofimpressing people and creating agood image for myself. I am very realand a very straight-forward person.The difference in me and my characteris that I am not businessman. I can’tsit at one place. I want to be in the fieldand be creative. �How difficult was it for you toexplore the genre of comedy?

It is difficult to get into the skinof the character — be it comic orintense or serious. You can’t say ki yehtoh maine aaram se kar liya. Jis dinactor yeh bolney lag jayega ki arey yetoh mere liye kafee asaan thha thatshows arrogance and overconfidence.It means you don’t want to grow as anactor.

Whenever I am given a characterto play I try to understand hissituation — mental and emotional.Then I try to get hold on hisbackground, family, body-language,accent, education and understand hisstruggle story if any. I feel if someonehas faced struggles in his life and thenrose to name and fame, he will alwaysbe grounded and jinkey paas baap-dada ka paisa hota hai unmey thodaarrogance dikhta hai. After observingthe smallest events of a character’s lifethen I proceed towards the story. Ibelieve in doing my homework andkeep experimenting. If you will notresearch and experiment with yourcharacters then all your performanceswill become monotonous and I feelthat is the end of an actor. I don’t wantto repeat myself and that is whatmakes all the difference in one’sperformance. �Was it difficult for you to make aplace for yourself in the industry?

No, it wasn’t that difficult.Whatever work and projects I took upworked out well. The struggle of anactor comes in when he does aproject which doesn’t work or whenhe doesn’t get work. I had my ownstruggles. I did a film Mann which

didn’t work. But then I did Aankheinand it worked and then there was NoEntry, Welcome, Delhi Belly, RowdyRathore, Bol Bachchan and all ofthem worked out well. I started gettingwork and people started recognisingme. Fortunately, on TV also whateverwork I did turned out to be a successso now I don’t feel worried aboutgetting work. I get work. I have faceda lot of struggle in my theatre days andso I understand how to value my work.�Who is the ustaad of comedy?

Kishore Kumar, Mehmood andJohnny Lever. They did and docomedy effortlessly. Nowadays, if youmock someone people will laugh onit but I think this not the true essenceof comedy. I believe in doingsituational comedy and these peoplewere masters at it. They never madejokes on people that is why stillpeople enjoy watching their work.They are very expressive. And also theevergreen Charlie Chaplin. If someonecan make you cry or laugh withoututtering a word then no one can matchhim ever.�There is a lot of competition in theindustry. Does that affect seniorartists like you?

The scenario has changed in thecomedy genre. There are a lot offormats that have come up. It is anever ending process. An actor or acomedian will never be out of place.Everyone has a USP and they knowwhat they are good at or what theylack in themselves. As far as I amconcerned, I know that I am not goodat doing mimicry so I will never do it.Not am I comfortable in with underthe belt kind of comedy so I won’t getinto it. I always love doing situationalcomedy rather and that is my forte.�Was there a moment when youthought of quitting?

Yes, definitely. There were twoprojects where I thought of leavingthem because for me the workenvironment matters a lot. If I am notcomfortable working in theenvironment I do feel like quitting butI have learnt ki aap jo bhi kaam loussey pura karo, beech mein mat chorokyunki show aap se nahi apney naseebse chal raha hai. I always put asidethose feelings and remember howmuch efforts I have put into it andwalking away is not the solution.�What are your upcoming projects?

I have offers for a few films but forthat I have to leave TV and I am notwilling to do it. So, right now I amonly focusing on Bhakarwadi andonce it will be done, I will do otherprojects for sure.

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Mumbai’s nine-year-old Tejas Varmaalong with super guru Tushar Shetty

have been mesmerising the viewers weekon week with their powerful performances.Though, this is the first time for Tushar asa guru, he has been highly appreciated bythe super judges for his choreography. Thistime around he has managed to impressShakti Kapoor and Govinda who will beseen as special judges for the upcomingHoli special episode. The contestantsperformed on their most celebrated songsas an attribute to their onscreen jodi.

Contestant Tejas Varma and SuperGuru Tushar Shetty performed on Shaktiand Govinda’s popular song Pak Chik Pakfrom their superhit movie Raja Babu. Bothactors were more than amazed and actuallywent speechless on seeing them dressed up

like Nandu and Raja Babu.Expressing his views Tushar’s

choreography and performance ShaktiKapoor said: “You’ve done a brilliant job,I swear! My daughter Shraddha is doinga movie — Street Dancer and one morerelated to dance, I will tell her that at leastone song should be definitelychoreographed by you.”

On hearing this Tushar instantlybowed down to him for his kind gesture.Tushar was elated by the compliment. Hishappiness indeed knew no bounds and wasseen beaming with joy.

The rest of the judges also appreciatedTushar and Tejas for their hard work andthanked Shakti Ji for giving him such anopportunity as he truly deserved every bitof it.

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Producer Rajan Shahi’s Ye Rishta KyaKehlata Hai is one of the longest

running show on Indian television andfor the same it won the award formaximum number of episodes 2875and best continuity show 2019 at theIndian Telly Awards at Sahara Star onWednesday evening. Rajan Shahi whoattends events rarely was seen receivingthe award for Ye Rishta Kya Kehlata Haias a team. He says, "Look stylingdoesn’t matter once your unit says weare a team in true sense of the word.”Ye Rishta has got 102 awards till nowand has a loyal audience and now spnioff of Ye Risthe Hai Pyar Ke is also atalking point and generating goodword of mouth.” We wish Rajan Shahiand Director’s Kut all the very best forproducing heart touching shows.

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Popular TV actors tell you the traditionalfood they used to eat on Holi.Jasmin Bhasin: For me, Holi

celebration is incomplete without gujiya. Iremember my mom used to make gujiya athome for me on Holi. That is the traditionalfood that we have on the festival and I loveand miss those gujiyas. Nothing can matchthe taste of my mother’s cooked gujiyas.

Tinaa Dattaa: My mom makes rasmalai for us every year on Holi and I loveit. Without eating her ras malai, my holi isincomplete. I myself have tried to make itmany times but the taste of ras malai madeby my mom is unbeatable. I can never matchup.

Adaa Khan: My neighbour was aBengali and she used to make these yummyras malais every year on Holi. I rememberon every Holi, she used to get ras malai forus and it used to taste delicious. I do eat Rasmalai at times but the ras malai which sheused to make had a different taste. I usedto love it, I miss eating it.

Arjun Bijlani: As a kid, I rememberplaying Holi with all my neighbours and onthe occasion of Holi, my dad used to makethis yummy chana masala for all of us. So,while playing I used to come in between,munch it and go back to play.

Ssharad Malhotra: As I am a Punjabiand for me, Holi without lassi is incomplete.Every year, we have lassi made at my place.From childhood, till now, I have nevermissed having lassi on Holi. So, I am sureI will have lassi this year as well.

Shashank Vyas: Kachori is somethingwhich my mom makes on Holi. I love eatingkachori with achaar. My mom makesyummy kachori’s every year on Holi. So ifI am not shooting and I am in myhometown on the occasion of Holi, Idefinitely have kachori and achaar made bymy mom.

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The determination of theformer Chief Minister

Harish Rawat to contest fromNainital-Udham Singh Nagarconstituency and theindecisiveness of the partybrass in the wake of the openand vehement opposition bythe leader of the oppositionIndira Hridayesh against hiscandidature appear to havereached a flashpoint as eightout of 11 Congress MLAs fromthe state have marched to Delhion Saturday to pressure theparty high command intofielding Harish Rawat as thecandidate from Nainital-U SNagar constituency.

It is learnt that these leadersmet at the national capital afterHarish Rawat reportedlyrefused to contest election fromany place other than Naintal-Udham Singh Nagar.

When contacted by ThePioneer, the deputy leader of

the Congress legislature partyKaran Mahra admitted that theCongress MLAs have reachedDelhi as one senior leader ofthe party has entered into anunderstanding with the BJPpresident Amit Shah to damagethe prospects of the party inUttarakhand.

The Congress MLAs whohave rushed to Delhi in amajor show of strength includeMahra, former Speaker ofUttarakhand Assembly GovindSingh Kunjwal, Harish Dhami,Mamta Rakesh, Manoj Rawat,Mohammad Furkan andAdesh Chauhan. ManglaurQuazi Nizzamuddin wasalready in New Delhi whenothers reached.

The political temperaturesoared high on Saturdayafternoon when speculationstarted swirling in the statepolitical circles that the LoPIndira Hridayesh had sent a

letter to the Congress presidentRahul Gandhi, affirming thatthe party should not fieldHarish Rawat from Nainitalseat. Her stand was reportedlysupported by the in-charge ofthe state unit of the CongressAnugrah Narayan Singh andthe Pradesh CongressCommittee (PCC) chief PritamSingh.

Sources said that facedwith the opposition from thesenior leaders of the party,Harish Rawat refused tocontest the election. Followingthe disclosure of his refusal,Harish Rawat loyalists turnedactive and the Congress MLAowing allegiance to him rushedto New Delhi as acountermove.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that the AICC generalsecretary Rawat was keen oncontesting from the Nainital-U S Nagar constituency thistime while some senior leadersof the state party wanted himto contest from Haridwar seat.

At the time of the filingthis story, the Congress MLAswere huddled in discussion atthe residence of the All IndiaCongress Committee ( AICC)general secretary K CVenugopal.

Contacted over phone,Kedarnath MLA Manoj Rawatsaid that the MLAs have cometo Delhi to learn what is goingon and to firm up the strategyof the party’s campaign for theApril 11 election.

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BJP deciding not to field itspatriarch L K Advani from

Gandhi Nagar constituency forthe crucial 2019 generalelection marks the end ofVajpayee- Advani era in thesaffron party and a similarstory has unfolded inUttarakhand too with theparty brass denying tickets toits two stalwarts- MajorGeneral B C Khanduri ( rtd),and Bhagat Singh Koshyari.The removal of these battle -hardened veterans, both ofwhom have served as chiefministers of the state, from theelectoral politics heralds arrivalof the new generation of leadersin the party who hitherto havegrown under the toweringpersona of these two leaders.Khanduri has loomed over thepolitical landscape of theUttarakhand, which was carvedout of Uttar Pradesh in 2000,like a colossus as he served asthe chief minister on twooccasions first in 2007 andagain in 2011. His popularitycould be gauged from the factthat in 2012 Assembly election,the party had coined a slogan‘Khanduri hai Jaroori’ (Khanduri is essential).Khanduri is a sitting MP fromGarhwal constituency which hehas represented on five

occasions. It is noteworthy thatGarhwal seat which is nowconsidered as political citadelof the BJP was a Congressredoubt prior to 1991-the yearwhen Khanduri made hiselectoral debut.

Bhagat Singh Koshyari, thesitting MP of BJP fromNainital- Udham Singh Nagarconstituency, has served hisparty in various capacities overthe years. He was a minister inthe first government ofUttarakhand and he laterbecame the second chiefminister of Uttarakhand. Hehas served as the chief of thestate unit of the BJP andnational vice- president of theparty. Considered anorganisational man parexcellence, the present chiefminister Trivendra SinghRawat is considered as hisprotégée.

The denial of the LokSabha tickets to these stalwartsand reported misgiving withinthe party cadre over thisdecision has made the BJPleaders to defend the move.Senior state BJP leaders havemaintained that both Khanduriand Koshyari are the mostrespected leaders of the partyand they would continue tobless the party in time to come.The state general secretary ofthe BJP and chairman of thetwenty point programmeimplementation committeeNaresh Agarwal said thattickets have not been denied toKhanduri and Koshyari. “Butboth have refused to contestelection on age and health

grounds,” he said and addedthat these leaders are the pillarsof the party. “They would

campaign for the partycandidates in the generalelection,” he said.

The state BJP spokespersonand senior leader VirendraSingh Bisht also echoed similarsentiment. He said that both

these leaders have built theparty in the state, brick bybrick through their unflaggingdedication and commitment tothe mission the BJP wasformed for. “They wouldcontinue to bless the party indays to come, we are sure,” hesaid.

Quizzed on the denial oftickets to the two state partygiants, Bisht said that thecentral leadership of the partyhas taken the decision based onvarious factors. He hastened toadd that the party wouldsurely make use of their richexperiences up to the hilt.

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Resonating with the messageof oneness and harmony,

Parmarth Niketan Ashramwelcomed a high leveldelegation from Bali, Indonesia.Leading the delegation ofmostly Parliamentarians werethe head of the Parliament,Putu Parwata and IndraUdayana, founder andchairman, Ashram GandhiPuri, Indonesia.

They were welcomed bythe head of the ashram SwamiChidanand Saraswati andSadhvi Bhagawati Saraswati,president of the Divine ShaktiFoundation.

During the delegation’s morethan a week-long visit, theydiscussed setting up a sacredPadmasana in Rishikesh.

On the occasion, ChidanandSaraswatiji said, “Our mantrashould always be to meet, greet,respect and accept all. India

and Indonesia are like two bodiesbut one soul. We are not separateat all and this is a great beginningto deepen our connection.

I often share that India is nota piece of land but rather it’s aland of peace. India has always

worked for maintaining peacefulrelationships with other nations.”

Indra Udayana, founder andchairman, Ashram Gandhi Puri,Indonesia, said, “The people ofBali, Indonesia love to come tobanks of Ganga.”

Notably, talks about suchcultural exchanges between thetwo nations have been takingplace since the former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeehad visited Bali, Indonesia in2003.

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Garhwal Lok Sabhaconstituency is probably one ofthe very few Parliamentaryconstituencies in India which isspread over five districts andtwo divisions. Coveringmountainous areas ofUttarakhand, the constituencyis considered to be one of thetoughest Lok Sabha seats of thecountry geographically, given itscontiguity to the restive Chinaborder and its jutting intoRamnagar area of Kumaondivision.

Consisting of 14 Assemblysegments, the GarhwalParliamentary seat is spreadover Pauri, Tehri, Chamoli,Rudraprayag and Nainitaldistricts, the last one falling inthe Kumaon division.

In the first general election,the constituency wasrepresented by the Congressstalwart Bhaktdarshan Singhwho won four times in a row.Setting up a very high moralprecedence, BhaktdarshanSingh retired from activepolitics when he was just 59years of age. In the first eightelections, Garhwal was thevirtual pocket borrow of theIndian National Congress whichwon on seven occasions fromhere. The constituency,however, attracted worldwideattention in 1982, whenbreaking away from theCongress, the senior leaderHemwati Nandan Bahugunacontested on the ticket of aJanata Party faction against

Chandra Mohan Singh Negi ofthe Congress in the by-electionfrom here. Then Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi made thiselection a prestige issue for herand went the whole hog todefeat Bahuguna at the hustings.In the high- stake electionwhich saw Indira Gandhithrowing here whole might tohumble her detractor,Bahuguana emerged victorious.

From 1991, BJP fieldedMajor Gen B C Khanduri ( Rtd)from the constituency whoopened BJP’s account fromhere. Riding on the crest of thesupport of the ex -servicemenvoters who constitute a sizablesection of the electorate,Khanduri won from theconstituency five times.

In the 2014 general election,Khanduri routed his Congressrival Harak Singh Rawat by amargin of 2,35,526 votes.

Current scenario

In a major embarrassmentto the BJP, Manish Khanduri,son of the Maj Gen B CKhanduri, has joined theCongress and he is all set tocontest from here on aCongress ticket. Citing old age,Khanduri senior has refused tocontest this election after whichthe BJP has fielded formerchief of the state party TeerathSingh Rawat from here. Retiredarmy officer and formerprincipal of the Nehru Instituteof Mountaineering ( NIM) ColAjay Kothiyal ( Rtd) is also keento contest from here. Spurnedby the major political parties,Col Kothiyal is planning an

electoral plunge from here as anindependent candidate.

The cast profile of theGarhwal parliamentaryconstituency shows that Rajputswith over 61 percent ofelectorate hold a decisive sway.The Brahmins constitute about21 percent of the voters while 12percent of the electoratecomprises the Schedule castevoters.

Assembly segments

The constituency includesBadrinath, Karanprayag andTharali Assembly seats of

Chamoli district, Chaubatakhal,Lansdowne, Srinagar, Kotdwar,Yamkeshwar and PauriAssembly segments of Pauridistrict, Kedarnath and

Rudraprayag of Rudraprayagdistrict, Devprayag andNarendranagar of Tehri districtand Ramnagar of Nainitaldistrict.

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Astring of leaders, includingtwo former MLAs, who

were expelled by the BJPduring the 2017 Assemblyelection have rejoined the partyin the presence of the chiefminister Trivendra SinghRawat on Saturday. Theprominent leaders who alongwith their supporters joined theBJP on the day included two-time MLA from RoorkeeSuresh Chandra Jain, formerMLA from Kedarnath AshaNautiyal and Sandeep Gupta.Notably, all of them hadrebelled against the party andcontested the 2017 Assemblyelection as independentsfollowing which the party hadexpelled them for six years asdisciplinary action.

Addressing the party

workers and supporters of theleaders who came back to theparty a few days before thehigh-stake Lok Sabha electionat the state party office, CMRawat said that all these leadershave shown their commitmentto make Narendra Modi thePrime Minister of the countryagain. He said that he is happythat these leaders hadmaintained cordial relationswith the party leaders and theworkers even after they left theparty. He exhorted theseleaders to ensure that the votepercentage of BJP further risesup during the upcominggeneral election. Rawat saidthat he is confident of theparty workers dedicating thenext 18 days completely to thecause of the party.

He clarified that thehomecoming of these leaders

had been nodded to after allaspects were duly assessed.Dwelling on the beauty ofdemocracy, the CM said thatthe majority opinion is givenrespect despite the presence ofdivergent views.

The general secretary ofthe state unit of the partyNaresh Bansal said that thehomecoming of these leadershad been done after theclearance had been given by acommittee set up to considersuch cases.

The vice- president of theparty Jyoti Gairola,Dharampur MLA VinodChamoli, Jhabreda MLADeshraj Kanranwal and BJPmedia in -charge, DevendraBhasin aside from a largenumber of BJP leaders andworkers were present on theoccasion.

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RANJIT SINGH BRAHM-PURA, the SAD (Taksali) pres-ident, and Khadoor Sahib MP,was once a friend of the Akalis,but now has turned into a bit-ter foe. After fighting and win-ning battles for them,Brahmpura is attacking his com-rades for whom he once trainedhis guns. Leading the Badals-ledAkali Dal’s breakaway faction —Shiromani Akali Dal (Taksali),Brahmpura has decided againstcontesting 2019 LS electionsand working for the party, whilemaking it clear that he wouldagain enter the electoral ring ifneeded be. A veteran, sittingKhadoor Sahib MP, believed thatthe people of the state would not

forgive the Badals and the SADfor their paap (sins) and theywould face sharamnaak haar(shameful defeat) in May 19elections in Punjab. Excerptsfrom the interview:

What, according to you,would be the main issues dur-ing this election?

Unemployment is a majorissue across the nation. India’sfarmers are also suffering dueto Government’s apathetic atti-tude. Then drugs menace is amajor issue in Punjab.Employees are holding protests,there are no jobs.

What about panthic issuesas other political parties areseeking votes on KartarpurSahib corridor, and othersuch issues?

Gurudwara KartarpurSahib is a religious place...lead-ers and political parties shouldnot use it for political gains.Opening of Kartarpur Sahibcorridor was a long pendingdemand of the Sikhs, not onlyin Punjab but all over the

world. The corridor shouldopen, and all should have openaccess to the Gurudwara sahib.But politics on this should beavoided. Everyone knows thatno political party did it. It is adecision taken by theGovernments of two countries.No doubt, (Navjot Singh) Sidhuand other leaders made effortsbut there should be no politics.

You parted ways with theSAD, and blamed the Badalsfor their failure to act in 2015sacrilege cases and the relat-ed firing incidents whereintwo persons died. Is the issuestill relevant?

Everybody in Punjab, evenkids, know who is responsiblefor that. They did everythingdeliberately...They committedsins...and now, they should bepunished for this. Even childrenare against the Badal family, theyknow that they did a wrongthing...In 2017 Punjab assemblyelection, SAD faced a sharam-naak haar (shameful defeat)...Atthat time too, people espressedtheir anger by not voting for

SAD. And this time too, SADwould meet the same fate.

Initially you were part ofPunjab Democratic Alliance(PDA), and then started talkswith Aam Aadmi Party(AAP). Now Sukhpal Khairahas urged you to reconsiderreturning in PDA. What youhave to say?

These young politicians,(Sukhpal) Khaira saab, and Bains(Simarjeet Singh Bains)...Theydon’t have any experience of life.Their way of dealing with oth-ers, their way of functioning andworking style, I feel they areproudy (read arrogant). Theyhave started considering them-selves as the chief minister, andwould do this or that...There isstill three years to go for the nextelection. They should go slowand work sincerely.

Your alliance with AAPseems to not working out alsobecause of Sri Anandpur Sahibparliamentary seat even thoughyou have been offered Bathindaconstituency by them.

Bir Devinder Singh is thesuitable choice for AnandpurSahib and he would contest fromthere only. He is well-educatedand has a strong position amongall in Anandpur Sahib...And incase alliance would not work out,we will work out on which seatswe would field our candidates,and contest elections separatelyas we all are separate parties.

After fielding BirDevinder Singh from SriAnandpur Sahib and formerArmy chief General JJ Singhfrom Khadoor Sahib, can weexpect more big faces as SADTaksali candidates?

There is still two months forthe elections. We are in talks withsome parties, other than AAP, foralliance. It may be possible thatwe would field our candidates onsome of the seats. We will seehow to go about it. We still havetime...will decide in a week or so!

What is your strategyagainst the Badals?

As per my assessment,Harsimrat (Badal) would not

contest from Bathinda. She willcontest from Ferozepur. It isbecause they fear...they have fearbecause people are against theBadals’ and their Akali Dal.Their position is not good aspeople are against them. But,they have to contest the elections.

You have decided not tocontest elections this timedespite being sitting MP?

When we formed the party,I had stated that this is the newparty and we need to work for it.Because if we contest the polls,who will work for the party andstrengthen it, take the new partyforward! We had taken this vowat Sri Darbar Sahib while launch-ing the party that we — that is I,Dr Saab (Dr Rattan Singh Ajnala),and Sewa Singh Sekhwan, andsenior leaders — would not con-test the polls. In case we would nothave avowed that, we would con-test the elections. I had contest-ed the previous polls and wonfrom a big margin. It is not as ifI have some apprehensions or fear from contesting polls...I will work or the party.

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In what could indicate chang-ing political equations in

Haryana and dwindling for-tunes of Indian National LokDal (INLD) after a split, AbhaySingh Chautala on Saturdayresigned as Leader ofOpposition from Haryanaassembly.

Chautala, who is an MLAfrom Ellanabad, said he wouldalso write to the Lok SabhaSpeaker to seek disqualificationof Hisar MP DushyantChautala, the son of his elderbrother Ajay Chautala.

"I have written a letter tothe Haryana Assembly Speakertoday and demanded the dis-qualification of four MLAswho are supporting JannayakJanata Party (JJP) for indulgingin anti-party activities,”Chautala said, addressingreporters.

Ajay Chautala's two sons,Dushyant and Digvijay wereexpelled from the IndianNational Lok Dal lastNovember after their support-ers had heckled AbhayChautala at a rally in Gohanaamid a power struggle inChautala clan.

This eventually resulted inAjay Chautala and his sonsfloating a new outfit, JannayakJanata Party, with four INLDMLAs - Anup Dhanak(Uklana), Rajdeep Phogat(Dadri), Pirthi Singh(Narwana) and Naina Chautala(Dabwali), joining it.

Chautala said he has alsoasked the assembly Speaker todisqualify INLD MLA fromNalwa, Ranbir Singh Gangwa,who joined the BJP Friday. "Ihave also sent my resignationfrom the post of LoP to thespeaker. In a letter to Speaker,I told him to accept my resig-

nation when you disqualifythem (five legislators),”Chautala said.

With Gangwa leaving theparty and four party MLAssupporting the JJP, INLD'sposition as the principal oppo-sition party and Abhay's statusas LoP has come under threat.

The strength of its MLAshad come down to 16 after thedeath of Jind MLA HarichandMiddha and Pehowa legislatorJaswinder Singh Sandhu andthe resignations.

The Congress also has 17MLAs in the Haryana assem-bly. In the 90-member Haryana

Assembly, the strength of theBJP is 48, INLD 17, Congress17, BSP one and Akali Dal one,besides five independents.

Pehowa assembly seat isvacant since the death of INLDMLA Jaswinder Singh Sandhu.

Chautala said he wouldalso write to Lok Sabha Speakertomorrow, demanding dis-qualification of DushyantChautala who had won theHisar seat in 2014 polls on theINLD symbol.

The INLD has 16Legislators in the BJP-ruledstate, while the Congress has17.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh and his

Haryana counterpart ManoharLal on Saturday paid tributes toBhagat Singh, Rajguru andSukhdev on their deathanniversary observed as'Shaheed Diwas' (Martyr'sDay).

"My tributes to Shaheed-e-Azam and Shaheed Sukhdev &Rajguru on their ShaheedDiwas. We remember the sac-rifice of these brave sons of thesoil, who continue to inspiregenerations, on this specialday, which Punjab is observingas Youth Empowerment Day,"Capt Amarinder tweeted.

Manohar Lal in his tweetwrote, "Homage to the fearlessand revolutionary freedomfighters — Bhagat Singh,Rajguru & Sukhdev who sac-rificed their lives for the nation.Their sacrifice for the mother-land will continue to inspire

generations to come." Meanwhile, in Ferozepur,

on the occasion of 'ShaheedDiwas', Deputy CommissionerChander Gaind accompaniedpeople to the martyrs' memo-rial in a special train. The DCinteracted with the people, lis-tened to their grievances anddirected officials concerned toresolve their problems in atime-bound manner.

After reachingHussainiwala, the DeputyCommissioner reached mar-tyrs' memorial and paid floraltribute to the three freedomfighters who were hanged onMarch 23, 1931 by the British.

Chandigarh: The ElectionCommission of India (ECI) hasdrawn up a list of ‘Dos’ and‘Don’ts’ to be followed by polit-ical parties and contesting can-didates till the completion ofthe process of General Electionto Lok Sabha 2019.

Joint Chief ElectoralOfficer, Haryana Inder Jeet onSaturday said that theseinstructions must be strictlyobserved and followed by polit-ical parties and contesting can-didates.

While referring to the Dosto be followed by political par-ties and contesting candidates,he said that to ensure a levelplaying field, public places likemaidans and helipads must beavailable impartially to all par-ties and contesting candidates.He said that during elections,criticism of other political par-ties and candidates should be

restricted only to their policies,programs, past records andworks.

But, the right of every indi-vidual for peaceful and undis-turbed home life should befully safeguarded. The localpolice authorities should befully informed and necessarypermission be taken well intime, of the venue and time ofthe proposed meetings. Therestrictive or prohibitory ordersin force, if any, in the place ofthe proposed meeting, shouldbe fully respected, he added.

Permission must beobtained for use of loudspeak-ers or any other such facilitiesfor the proposed meetings.The time and place of thestarting and termination ofany procession and the route tobe followed should be finalizedin advance and prior permis-sions obtained from the police

authorities. The passage of theprocession must be withouthindrance to traffic. He saidthat cooperation should beextended to all election officialsto ensure peaceful and order-ly poll.

The Joint Chief ElectoralOfficer said that restrictions onplying of vehicles during thecampaign period and on pollday should be fully obeyed. Hesaid that any complaint orproblem regarding the conductof elections should be broughtto the notice of the ElectionCommission’s Observer,Returning Officer, Zonal orSector Magistrate or ChiefElectoral Officer/ElectionCommission of India.

The official said politicalparties should ensure that nopayment in excess of Rs. 10,000is made in cash, in a day, to anyperson, company or entity.

While referring to theDon’ts, he said that no officialwork should be mixed withcampaigning or electioneer-ing and no inducement, finan-cial or otherwise, should beoffered to the voter. Apartfrom this, no appeal on basis ofcaste or communal feelings ofthe electors and no activitywhich may aggravate differ-ences or create mutual hatredor cause tension between dif-ferent castes, communities,religious or linguistic groups,should be attempted. Similarly,political parties and contestingcandidates would ensure thatthere is no use of temples,mosques, churches, gurud-waras or any place of worshipfor election propaganda,including speeches, posters,music or electioneering.

He said that activities,which are corrupt practices or

electoral offences such asbribery, undue influence,intimidation of voters, per-sonation, canvassing within100 meters of a polling station,holding of public meetingsduring the period of 48 hoursending with the hour fixed forthe close of the poll and con-veyance of voters to and frompolling stations, are prohibited.He said that demonstrations orpicketing before house of anyindividual, by way of protest-ing against their opinion oractivities should not be resort-ed to. In order to maintainpurity of elections and bringtransparency in the electionprocess, political parties havebeen advised to avoid transac-tions in cash and instruct theiroffice bearers, official, agentsand candidates not to carryhuge amount of cash duringelections. PNS

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Haryana Chief ElectoralOfficer, Rajeev Ranjan on

Saturday said all officialsengaged in the election dutyshould work according to theguidelines and directives of theElection Commission of India.

The CEO presided over areview meeting regarding elec-tion preparations in theFaridabad division withDistrict Election Officers,Assistant Returning Officersand other officials engaged inelection process in Faridabad

During the meeting,District Election Officer andDeputy Commissioner, AtulDiwedi also presented a detailedreport on the current electionspreparations in the district forthe Lok Sabha elections. DistrictElection Officer, PalwalManiram Sharma and DistrictElection Officer, Mewat, Pankajalso presented reports of theirrespective districts before theElectoral Commissioner.

The CEO dialled the tollfree number 1950 and receivedthe vote related informationand also checked call receivedon the toll free number. He alsochecked the complaints receivedon Twitter and its replies.

Ranjan said that for the firsttime, c-Vigil App is being usedin the election, through whichanyone could upload any pho-tograph or video related toviolation of Model Code ofConduct or carrying out of anyirregularities by any candidateor political party. He clarifiedthat this app could only be usedfor complaints related to theelection process. Through thisApp, the general public is beingempowered. The complaintsreceived on c-Vigil throughphoto and video would beredressed within 100 minutesby the officer concerned. Thiswould help in detecting thelocation. That would also makeup for strong evidences againstthe candidate which can be pre-sented in the court. This time,technology would be used inelections, under which violationof Model Code of Conduct andconcealing of election expen-diture would be impossible.

The CEO said that onlyhaving a voter slip is not theproof of being a voter, it isimportant to have an identitycard for voting. Eleven alter-native documents have beenspecified by the ElectionCommission for identificationpurpose during voting. He said

that now, all voting relatedinformation would be easilyavailable for voters in all dis-tricts, through Touch Screen.For this purpose, touch screenswould be set up across the state.Through the medium of thisscreen, the voter could getinformation like vote, booth no,place of booth, EPIC no,Assembly number, VidhanSabha Constituency, vote relat-ed information about all mem-bers of family.

The official asked to speedup the Systematic Voters’Education and ElectoralParticipation (SVEEP) activi-ties in Faridabad division anddirected the officers for elabo-rate work to increase the vot-ing percentage. He said thatthose eligible voters who still donot have their voter’s card,they could apply to get theirvoters card made till April 12,2019 up to 3 pm. They couldalso apply online onwww.nvsp.in. He said thatawareness should also be gen-erated among people to checktheir name in Voters list.

In order to publicize this,hoardings are being put up atpublic places and ElectoralLiteracy Club has been madeactive at colleges and universi-

ties. He said that the principalsof colleges would also issue acertificate ensuring that nostudent in their college who is18 years or above age is with-out Voter’s Card.

Ranjan said that this time,such arrangements would bemade in Lok Sabha electionsthat the polling parties neednot stand and wait in longqueues for the deposit of theirbelongings but instead theirbelongings would be deposit-ed quickly on their arrival.Now, the counters for deposit-ing of belongings by the pollingparties would not be fixed, butany polling party could go toany counter and deposit theirbelongings.

He said all facilities pre-scribed by the ElectionCommission on polling stationsshould be provided. All theAssistant Returning Officersshould visit polling boothsunder their respective assemblyconstituencies and wouldensure that no polling stationlacks any facility. The facilitiesincluded clean drinking water,shed, ramps for divyangs, elec-tricity, toilets, two doors forentry and exit in the polling sta-tion and others. He also gavethe necessary guidelines to the

officials for conducting LokSabha elections in a free, fair,and peaceful manner. He alsoasked to complete the work ofappointing of BLA (booth levelagent) through the representa-tion of political parties. Hesaid that on the basis of pastexperience, such polling sta-tions, which have less votingpercentage, there more numberof motivational activities andawareness programs should beorganized for voters.

The Chief Electoral Officersaid that all political partiesshould be asked to use envi-ronment friendly material inthe election campaigning. Loudspeakers should not be usedduring the campaigning from10 am to 6 am according toElection Commission's guide-lines. This time, booth levelofficers would visit every houseand distribute the voters slipfive days’ before the voting andafter distributing the votersslip ensure to take the signatureof the person concerned. Hesaid that all Duty Magistratesand Inspecting Officersengaged in election duty wouldhave GPS systems in theirvehicles so that monitoring ofelectoral duty could be donewith additional awareness.

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Shiromani Akali Dal presi-dent Sukhbir Singh Badal on

Saturday said his party willcome out with names of can-didates for the remaining LokSabha seats in a week.

The party had alreadyannounced to field Bibi JagirKaur and Charanjit SinghAtwal from Khadoor Sahiband Jalandhar seats respec-tively.

"The party will release itsremaining candidate list for theparliamentary election inanother one week or so,” saidSukhbir here.

Out of total 13 Lok Sabhaseats in Punjab, Akali Dal con-tests on 10 and BJP on three.

The seven-phased LokSabha polls will be held fromApril 11 to May 19 and thecounting of votes will be takenup on May 23. Punjab will go topolls in single phase on May 19.

The SAD president said heheld a meeting on Saturdaywith party leaders and workersof Fatehgarh Sahib parliamen-tary constituency.

He further said the partywould start a week long mem-bership drive starting April 1during the course of whichparty office bearers would fanout across the state to registernew members.

Sukhbir urged the partyoffice bearers to go house-to-house to make the membershipdrive a huge success. He saidhe would also participate in thedrive and enroll new membersin Jalalabad.

The SAD chief alsoannounced that he wouldaddress party rallies across thestate as part of the electioncampaign for the forthcomingparliamentary polls fromMarch 31.

He said he would addressthree rallies on March 31 at

Ropar, Garhshankar andBalachaur. Badal said he wason the verge of ending the'Worker Milni' (meeting) pro-gramme under which he hadinteracted with party workersacross 90 constituencies in thelast more than one month.

He said workers wereupbeat and ready to take on thealleged "corrupt and non per-forming" Congress govern-ment. "Everywhere I wentworkers told me the peoplewere ready to teach a befittinglesson to the Congress gov-ernment for reneging on eachand every promise made to thepeople," he alleged.

"People are now also com-paring the people friendly lead-ership of Parkash Singh Badalduring which each and everysegment of society was bene-fited with the totally inept andfailed leadership of chief min-ister Amarinder Singh,”Sukhbir claimed.

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SAD leader and BathindaMP Harsimrat Kaur Badal

on Saturday accused PunjabHealth Minister BrahmMohindra of dragging his feetover setting up of a temporarycampus for the Rs 925 croreBathinda AIIMS project.

She also alleged thatMohindra had conspired with theAam Aadmi Party (AAP) and thePunjab Ekta Party to derail theAll India Institute of MedicalSciences (AIIMS) project.

"Punjab health ministerBrahm Mohindra shouldexplain why he did not do hisjob and approach the Centrefor establishing a temporarycampus for AIIMS, Bathinda,"questioned the ShiromaniAkali Dal (SAD) leader.

She advised Mohindra tostart working for the welfare ofthe youth and make the tem-porary AIIMS campus at theBaba Farid University, Faridkotoperational immediately.

"This is what you havebeen elected for. You shouldhave gone to Delhi to get theproject expedited," the Unionfood processing industry min-ister in the Narendra Modi gov-

ernment said in the statement."Instead of doing this you

are becoming a co-conspiratorin the move to derail AIIMS,Bathinda solely to ensure I donot get credit for bringing theprestigious medical college anduniversity to this constituency,"she said.

"The truth of the matterwas that the expert committeeof PGI had recommended thatthe temporary campus ofAIIMS, Bathinda be estab-lished in Faridkot so that thefirst batch of MBBS for the2019-20 academic year can bestarted," she added.

"You (Mohindra) as healthminister know this. There is noreason for the Congress gov-ernment to drag its feet onestablishing the campus of sucha prestigious project which fallsin the assembly segment of itsfinance minister ManpreetBadal," she said further.

"It is unfortunate that theFM as well as leaders of otherpolitical parties including AAPState Convener Bhagwant Mannand PEP leader Sukhpal Khairahave joined hands to derailAIIMS, Bathinda and deny theyouth their due," she alleged.

"It was befuddling that

Mohindra and his office wasnot able to comprehend therecommendation of the PGIExpert Committee which clear-ly stated 'the institutionalarrangements' (for TemporaryCampus) will have to beworked between Baba FaridUniversity and AIIMS,Bathinda," she said.

The SAD leader furtherclaimed that both the Unionministry as well as PGI,Chandigarh which was thementor institution for AIIMS,Bathinda had approved thetemporary campus.

"However the Punjab gov-ernment, which should havebeen first to act on this rec-ommendation, is trying toobfuscate the issue and is pur-posely derailing the project,"she alleged.

"I on my part did my best.I spoke to the Baba Farid ViceChancellor and Union healthminister J P Nadda and evenwrote to chief ministerAmarinder Singh to start class-es of AIIMS, Bathinda atFaridkot," she said.

"Everyone responded exceptfor the Punjab governmentwhich is still trying to deny thedevelopment," she added.

Chandigarh: Every Financialactivity of any candidatesshould be gauged minutely toprovide level playing field to allcandidates, Punjab ChiefElectoral Officer S. KarunaRaju on Saturday instructedofficers and representatives ofvarious banks working inPunjab.,

Interacting with bank rep-resentatives, the CEO apprisedthat the Election Commissionof India has framed rules toconduct fair, transparent andpeaceful elections besides giv-ing all candidates and partieslevel playing field. "As per thedirections of ECI, Several mon-itoring teams have also beenformed to execute such rules inletter and spirit, which werecontinuously working on

assigned tasks", he said. Raju said the election

expenditure limit for the per-son interested to contest theelections has been fixed Rs.70lac by the Election Commissionof India and the candidate hasto spend all this expenditurethrough the account to openedaccording the directives of theElection Commission of India.

The Punjab CEO said

Banks shouldensure that there isno difficulty inopening an accountas per ElectionC o m m i s s i o ninstructions andevery financialactivities of alreadyexisted bankaccounts of the

family members of candidate isbeing closely monitored.

He said that there is a largeproportion of buyers, who pur-chases goods through e-com-merce companies. If a candidateor concerned person purchas-es large number of goodsthrough online payment, he /she should also be supervised asthese goods goods could beused to allure voters. PNS

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Continuing his attack onCongress president Rahul

Gandhi's close aide Sam Pitrodafor allegedly taking a dim viewof Pulwama terror attack andsurgical strike against Pakistan,BJP president Amit Shah onSaturday accused the Congressof "insulting" the martyrdom ofsoldiers killed in the Pulwamaterror attack and claimed thatonly BJP can ensure the coun-try's security.

In the continuing poll-cam-paign slugfest with the Congress,Shah asked Rahul to apologiseto people and armed forces forthe comments of his aide.

Speaking to media, Shahsaid Pitroda's statement con-veyed that the Pulwama terrorattack was a "routine" incidentcarried out by a few people forwhich Pakistan cannot beblamed, as the BJP chief askedRahul to make his party's standclear on the issue.

Pitroda, he said , also ques-tioned surgical strikes and airstrikes by the Indian armedforces.

"Does the Congress believethat terror incidents in the coun-try have nothing to do with thePakistan government orPakistan Army?" Shah asked,seeking Congress President'sresponse.

Pitroda is Indian OverseasCongress chief and is seen to beone of the key advisers to

Gandhi.His comments, including

that one cannot "jump on entirenation" (Pakistan) just becausesome people from there "camehere and attacked" in referenceto Pulwama terror attack, wereFriday seized on by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to leadthe BJP's all-out attack againstthe Congress on the issues of ter-rorism.

Keeping the heat on theopposition party on the issues ofterrorism and nationalism in therun-up to the Lok Sabha polls,Shah said the Congress is knownfor "vote bank" and "appease-ment" politics during electionand asked if such politics can beabove national interest and the"blood of martyrs".

The BJP president thendrew a comparison betweenthe Congress-led UPA dispen-sation's "no strong action"against terrorism and the Modi

Government's "zero tolerance"against it to assert that only thesaffron party is capable of secur-ing India.

"I want to reassure people ofthis country that only the BJPcan provide security to thecountry, can give a befittingresponse to terrorism and canfoil Pakistan's conspiracy," hesaid. The Modi Government hassucceeded in isolating Pakistaninternationally and the moraleof security forces is sky high, hesaid.

Shah said the Congresspresident on March 7 had saidthat questions raised on airstrikes should be answered.

"But whose questions hewants to be answered and whoraising questions on Indian AirForce. Who do you support? Itis not proper for the nationalpresident of a party to raise suchquestions and doubt the IAF," hesaid.

"When anti-national slo-gans were raised in JNU youcalled it freedom of expressionand you also went there in theirsupport. This is an example ofyour abhorrent vote bank poli-tics".

The BJP president alsorejected the Congress distanc-ing itself from Pitroda's com-ments by terming them as hispersonal views, as he wondered"what is personal view in poli-tics".

The Congress presidentshould tender an apology with-out any delay, he demanded.

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New Delhi: BJP president AmitShah will launch the party's pollcampaign after the Lok Sabhaelection schedule wasannounced with a rally in Agrain Uttar Pradesh on Sunday,and its top leaders will hold ral-lies in every constituency acrossthe country till Tuesday.Asserting that national securi-ty plank will figure high on theparty's 'Vijay Sankalp' (Pledgefor Victory) rallies plannedfor Sunday and Tuesday, seniorparty leader Mulkhtar AbbasNaqvi said the BJP will launch"ground strike" against "abusersof security forces". PNS

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New Delhi: Returning fire onBJP’s tirade against SamPitroda for allegedly goingsoft on Pakistan, the Congresson Saturday took potshots atPrime Minister NarendraModi for sending best wishesto his Pakistani counterpartImran Khan on the eve of theneighbouring country’s nation-al day saying he should stopsending “love letters” toIslamabad.

Modi had sent a letter toKhan, greeting the people ofPakistan on the eve of itsNational Day and highlightingthe importance of a terror-freeSouth Asia. It was Khan whomade Modi’s gesture public.

Congress chief spokesper-son Randeep Surjewalareminded Modi of his ownwords asking him to stop writ-ing “love letters” to Pakistanand alleged that his “muscularpolitics” is aimed at only thepeople and the media.

The attack came afterModi sent his best wishes toKhan on the Pakistan NationalDay, which is celebrated tomark the Lahore Resolution onMarch 23 each year.

“Mr 56” of the Sari-Shawl-Impromptu Pak visit forBirthday-ISI invite fame

diplomacy was feeling veryshy yesterday.

“Guess? Chowkidar hidthe fact that he had wished PakPM on Pak National Day with-out a word on Pak terrorism.

"Muscular politics soapopera for people and mediaonly," Surjewala said onTwitter.

The Congress leader alsotweeted, "Modi ji, Stop writingthis Love Letter to Pakistan".

He posted a video ofModi's interview to a channelwhere Modi during the UPAtime is saying Pakistan needsto be talked to in the languageit understands and that writinglove letters to it should bestopped. He was referring tothen prime ministerManmohan Singh's letter tothen Pakistan President.

Senior Congress leaderKapil Sibal too pitched in say-ing: "Remember Modiji...Youembraced (then Pakistani pre-mier) Nawaz Sharif, calledhim to your inauguration andshowed what a change it wouldbe. It was you who shared abirthday bash, gave him gifts.While our PM never visitedPakistan, you gave him giftsand then you are teaching uslessons on Pakistan?"

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Claiming that Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi

has no ostensible source ofincome, the BJP on Saturdayquestioned the substantial risein his income between 2004and 2014.

BJP leader and UnionMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadtold the media that Congressleader's income had risen fromover �55 lakh in 2004 to �9crore in 2014 as per his elec-tion affidavits, and asked howcan a mere MP witness such a

jump in income."In his election affidavit in

2004, his income was�55,38,123 while in 2009, itrose to �2 crore and in 2014 itrose to �9 crore. We know howmuch an MP earns. We wantto ask what is this RahulGandhi model of developmentwithout an ostensible source ofincome," he said.

He also questioned Rahulwhether he had bought twoproperties from Unitech whichwas linked to the 2G spectrumallocation scam, PTI quotedBJP leader as saying.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday utilised

the 109th birth anniversary ofsocialist ideologue RamManohar Lohia to hit out atsocialist parties by dubbing as

"reprehensible"their efforts toform a grandalliance withthe Congress.He said Lohiawould be "hor-

rified" as most of these partiesclaim to be his followers.

In a blog to mark the 109thbirth anniversary of Lohia, Modialleged, "Today those partiesthat falsely claim to be Dr.Lohia's followers are desperate toform an opportunistic 'maha-milawat' or adulteration allianceswith the same Congress (whichLohia opposed). It is both iron-ical and reprehensible."

The Samajwadi Party, Janata

Dal-Secular, Rashtriya JanataDal and Sharad Yadav'sLoktantrik Janata Dal, which willmerge with the RJD after theLok Sabha polls, were some ofthe parties formed on socialistideology.

Modi claimed Lohia wouldbe "proud" of the NDAGovernment led by the BJP forfollowing his ideas.

"Dr Lohia's thoughts inspireus. He wrote about modernisingagriculture and empoweringfarmers, which the NDAGovernment is effectively doingthrough efforts such as PMKisan Samman Nidhi, KrishiSinchai Yojana, e-Nam, SoilHealth Cards and more," he saidin the blog shared on Twitter.

Referring to gender inequal-ity, the Prime Minister saidnothing pained Lohia more thanthe caste hierarchy and inequal-ity between women and men.

"But neck deep in vote bankpolitics, it was parties that dis-

honestly claim to be Dr Lohia'sfollowers that opposed the NDAGovernment's move to abolishthe inhuman practice of tripletalaq," he alleged.

Hitting out at the Congress,Modi said whenever Lohiaspoke, the Congress "trembledwith fear". He said Lohia hadonce claimed that during theCongress regime neither agri-culture and industry nor theArmy improved.

"These words can accurate-ly describe even subsequentCongress regimes, where farm-ers were harassed, industry wasdiscouraged (except if theybelonged to friends and relativesof Congress leaders) and nation-al security was ignored," the PMwrote. Noting that anti-Congressism was Lohia's "heartand soul", Modi said,"Unfortunately, today Lohiawould be horrified at the polit-ical developments taking place."

"Those parties that claim

inspiration from Lohia havecompletely abandoned his prin-ciples. They are leaving noopportunity to insult him...Lohia always believed thatdynastic politics was inimical todemocracy. He would have beenflabbergasted to see his 'follow-ers' think about their own fam-ilies first instead of the nation,"he wrote.

Modi alleged that these par-ties are "experts at grabbingpower, looting as much as pos-sible and exploiting others. Poorpeople, tribals, Dalits, OBCsand women are not safe in theirrule because these parties give afree run to criminals and anti-social elements."He said peopleshould realise as as to how canthose who betrayed Lohia beexpected to serve the nation.

"Today they are betrayingthe principles of Dr Lohia,tomorrow they will also betraythe people of India," Modialleged.

Bengaluru: Ending days ofsuspense, Janata Dal (Secular)on Saturday said its nationalpresident and former PrimeMinister HD Deve Gowda willcontest the Lok Sabha pollfrom Tumkur.

The 85-year-old JD(S)patriarch had earlier expresseddoubts about contesting thepolls, saying he was thinkingabout his “usefulness” in thenational capital.

“Former PM and JD(S)national president HD DeveGowda will contest fromTumkur Parliamentary con-stituency as JD(S)-Congresscombined candidate,” JD(S)spokesperson Ramesh Babusaid in a statement.

Gowda will file his nomi-nation on March 25, he said,adding that JD(S) andCongress leaders will be pre-sent on the occasion.

Gowda ceded the Hassanseat that he had been repre-senting to his grandson PrajwalRevanna.

Amid doubts aboutGowda contesting the polls, as he had earlier indicated he would not, there was speculation that he may contest from Bangalore North. Though there was pressure within JD(S) for their party supremo to contest from Bangalore North,it was apprehensive aboutCongress' complete supportthere as most party's MLAsthere are considered close toGowda's bete noireSiddaramaiah.

It was feared that theMLAs may seek to takerevenge for the former ChiefMinister's defeat fromChamundeshwari in the 2018Assembly polls.

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Lucknow: Samajwadi Partychief Akhilesh Yadav onSaturday termed the BJP“schizophrenic” and allegedthat the party tries to co-opticons like Mahatma Gandhi,BR Ambedkar and RamManohar Lohia but followspeople who these leadersdisagreed with.

The remarks by the SPchief came in response toPrime Minister NarendraModi's blog in which he dubbedthe efforts of regional parties toform a grand alliance with theCongress as "reprehensible",saying socialist ideologue RamManohar Lohia would be "hor-rified" as most of these partiesclaim to be his followers.

Accusing the BJP of prac-tising double standards, Yadavwrote on Twitter, "I wonderwhich principles are being spo-ken of. The BJP seems to be

schizophrenic.""On the one hand they try

to co-opt Gandhi Ji, BhagatSingh, Sardar Patel, DrAmbedkar and Dr Lohia andon the other hand they follow

people who these leadersopposed and disagreed with."

In a blog to mark the 109thbirth anniversary of Lohia,Modi alleged, "Today thoseparties that falsely claim to beDr Lohia's followers are des-perate to form an opportunis-tic 'maha-milawat' or adulter-ation alliances with the sameCongress (which Lohiaopposed). It is both ironical andreprehensible."

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Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) president Mehbooba

Mufti has thrown her hat in thepoll arena by deciding to con-test Lok Sabha polls fromAnantnag parliamentary seat.

She had earlier vacated theseat in June 2016 to becomeChief Minister of the Stateafter the demise of her father

Mufti Mohd Sayeed. She had defeated National

Conference candidateMehboob Beg by a margin ofover 65,000 votes in 2014 LokSabha polls.

Addressing a press confer-ence in Srinagar on Saturday,Mehbooba also announced herparty's decision of not fieldingany candidate from two Lok

Sabha seats of Jammu-Poonchand Udhampur- Doda. Withthis announcement she hascome on the same page with theNational Conference and theCongress party.

The former Chief Ministersaid the decision was taken toprevent division of ‘secular’votes in the Jammu region.

She also announced thatAgha Mohsin would be theparty’s candidate for Srinagarparliamentary seat.

The party had given man-date to Qayoom Wani fromBaramulla constituency.

With the entry ofMehbooba Mufti in the fray theAnantnag Parliamentary seat isset to witness quadangular con-test. National Conference hasfielded Justice (Retd) HasnainMasoodi, while BJP has givenmandate to Sofi Yousaf whileCongress is yet to announcename of its candidate.

Due to security concerns,LS bypolls weren’t conducted inAnantnag since April 2017.

In view of the prevailingsecurity situation the ElectionCommission of India has decid-ed to conduct polls in three

phases to ensure fool proofsecurity arrangements.

Meanwhile, in another sig-nificant development formerIAS officer Shah Faesal onSaturday said that his partywon’t contest the upcomingLok Sabha elections.

Addressing a press confer-ence at Press Club in Srinagar,Faesal said that they willstrengthen the party first beforetaking the poll plunge.

Faesal launched his ‘Jammu& Kashmir Peoples Movement’party during a function inSrinagar on last Sunday.

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In a bid to occupy the anti-BJP, anti-Trinamool

Congress space in Bengal,Congress president RahulGandhi on Saturday attackedboth Narendra Modi andMamata Banerjee with match-ing ferocity, calling the former‘a vendor of lies’ and the latter‘an autocrat of sorts’ who does“whatever she likes.”

Incidentally, Gandhi’sattack comes weeks afterCongress leader in Lok Sabhaand his senior party colleagueMallikarjun Kharge joinedBanerjee along with 21 othernational leaders in aMahagathbandhan (grandalliance) rally in Kolkata. Therally was held on February 19from where all the leadersvouched for a united Indiaand united Opposition to fightdown a “communal BJP.”

Mendacity is the hallmarkof the Prime Minister, Gandhisaid in North Malda fromwhere he commenced his elec-toral campaign in Bengal.

Launching a vitriolic attackon Modi for “peddling lieswherever he goes,” he saidadding the coming electionwill see a battle of ideologies.“On two sides of the politicalspectrum are: Congress whichis fighting for the unity of thecountry and the BJP-RSS whichwant to drive a wedge betweencastes and communities.”

Piercing the PrimeMinister with the Chowkidarspike Gandhi said Modi is aperson who not only “tells liesthroughout the day,” but also“functions as a chowkidar(watchman) of the rich people.”

The common people likethe unemployed, farmer work-ers do not need chowkidars, hesaid insisting only “the richpeople like Anil Ambani” needthem. Attacking Modi for“defending the corrupt andfugitives” like Mehul Chowksi,Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallyawho have defrauded the banksof thousands of crores of rupeesGandhi said the Prime Ministerhad “taken the common man’s�30,000 crore to fill the pock-

ets of Anil Ambani” in Rafale(fighter craft) case.

Gandhi was campaigningin favour of Congress candidateIsha Khan Chowdhury who iscontesting in place of his cousinsister and sitting MP MausamBenazir Noor who is contest-ing on a Trinamool Congressticket.

Attacking Noor for betray-ing the people as “you electedher on Congress ticket but sheswitched over to the TMCunder pressure from that party,”Gandhi said the people willtake account of their betrayers.Noor however said she hadturned coat inspired by thegood works done by MamataBanerjee.

Taking on Banerjee forgiving Bengal an autocraticGovernment Gandhi said, “it isa one-man show going on inBengal. The person who runsthis Government never takesanyone’s suggestions. She doeswhatever she likes,” adding thepresent Government was “notbetter than the one run by theprevious Left Front.”

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After weeks of close-doorconfabulations, the

Congress and NCP on Saturdayformalised the seat-sharingarrangement for the“Mahaghatbandhan” con-stituents in Maharashtra, withthe two main parties, decidingto contest 24 and 20 seatsrespectively and leave theremaining four seats to small-er parties.

Under the seat-sharingarrangement hammeredamong the constituents of“Mahaghatbandhan”, theCongress will contest 24 seatsout of the total 48 Lok Sabhaseats in the State, while theNCP will field candidates in 20constituencies. Of the remain-ing four seats, the smaller par-ties — Raju Shetti-led

Swabhimani ShetkariSanghatana (SSS) will contesttwo seats, while HitendraThakur-led Bahujan VikasAghadi (BVA) and YuvaSwabhimani Paksha (YSP) willfight one seat each.

Addressing a joint newsconference with NCP’s Statepresident Jayant Patil and for-mer Deputy Chief Minister AjitPawar, Maharashtra PradeshCongress Committee (MPCC)president Ashok Chavan said:“There are in all 56 political par-ties in Maharashtra’sMahaghatbandhan. Leaders ofall political parties are presenthere”.

Apart from the Congress,NCP and three other con-stituents, the other major con-stituents in the Opposition’sumbrella coalition include: thePeople’s Republic Party(Kavade), RPI(Democratic),SwabhimaniRepublican Paksha, Bhim Sena,United Republican Paksha,Maharashtra Muslim Sangh,All India Vimukta Bhatkya

Jaati Jamati Party, GanrajyaSangh, Maharashtra ParivatranSena, Swabhimani RPI andRPI (Kharat).

Launching a blisteringattack against the ruling BJP,Chavan said: “We have formedMahaghatbandhan by involv-ing political parties represent-ing all sections of the societyincluding farmers, labourers,women, Dalits, minorities,youth and oppressed sections.The NDA Government isindulging in “Jumle baji”. Thereis a lot of unhappiness amongcommon people in the state.The BJP-Sena Government haswreaked havoc in the State. Ithas failed to deliver on allfronts. Our intention to throwout Governments at the Centreand in the State.

Chavan charged that theAmit Shah-led party was prac-tising “Saam, dham, Dhand,Bhed” politics and said thatmany smaller parties were suf-fering because of the ques-tionable politics indulged in bythe principal ruling party.

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An embarrassed formerChief Minister Ashok

Chavan on Saturday dismissedspeculation about his impend-ing resignation as theMaharashtra Pradesh CongressCommittee president, after anaudio tape in which he isheard telling a party workerthat ‘No one is listening to me.I am planning to resign" wentviral in the State.

An audio tape of a con-versation between Chavan anda party activist fromChandrapur, who identifiedhimself as one Rajurkar, inwhich the former expresseddesire from his post as the StateCongress chief went viral onSaturday.

In the mobile conversa-tion, the caller voiced resent-ment over the nomination ofVinayak Bangade as aCongress candidate for theChandrapur Lok Sabha seatand said that the party cadres

were opposed to Bangade’scandidature.

Chavan also suggested tothe caller that he should speakto Mukul Wasik, who was“calling the shots” in the selec-tion of candidates for the state."But Mukul Wasnik is no onein front of you," the caller said.

At one stage, Chavan isheard saying: “I have alsoinformed the party. Nobody islistening to me. I am planningto resign”.

A former Chief Minister ofMaharashtra, Chavan wasquestioned about the audiotape in circulation at a newsconference called to announcethe formalisation of the seat-sharing arrangement amongthe “Mahaghatbandhan” con-stituents in the State.

Though he indirectlyadmitted that the tape was gen-uine one, Chavan said that aprivate conversation had norelevance in politics. He clar-ified that he had no plans toquit as the MPCC chief.

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Automobile major TataMotors will increase prices

of its passenger vehicles rangeby up to Rs 25,000 startingApril 2019.

The company said in astatement on Saturday that theprices will be hiked due to ris-ing input costs and externaleconomic conditions.

According to MayankPareek, President, PassengerVehicle Business Unit, TataMotors: "The changing marketconditions, rising input costsand various external econom-ic factors have compelled us to

consider this price increase." "We are confident of main-

taining our growth trajectory inthe coming months on theback of our robust portfolioconsisting of segment-leadingproducts like Tiago, Hexa,Tigor, Nexon and Harrier."

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Changes in the SEBI listingand prevention of insider-

trading regulations, revisions inthe double-taxation avoidanceagreements (DTAAs) withMauritius and Singapore are setto come into effect from April 1.

The changes in DTAAsgive India the right to tax cap-ital gains arising on Indianequity shares sold by aSingapore or Mauritian resi-dent

All this may also helpimprove corporate governancestandards for the listed com-panies in India.

Indian financial marketsrecently saw several cases ofhigh volatility in companies,like Sun Pharma, DHFL andIL&FS, which created panic

among retail investors. In allthese, the role of the boardcame under lens.

The modifications in thelisting agreement will improvecorporate governance by mak-ing relevant changes in theorganisation of the board.

Among the key regula-tions, which will come intoeffect, are that the top 1,000 list-ed companies will be requiredto have at least six directors ontheir board against three, pre-

scribed by the Companies Act2013. Besides, the top 500 willalso need to have at least oneindependent woman director.

Also, a director can holdthat position in not more thanthe eight listed entities, while anindividual will not be permit-ted to be independent directorin more than seven companies.

A detailed explanation willbe required if an independentdirector resigns before com-pletion of the term.

The Securities andExchange Board of India(SEBI) has also amended insid-er-trading regulations.

As per the amendment, thedefinition of unpublished pricesensitive information (UPSI)has been narrowed, allowinglisted companies to share such information for board-determined legitimate purpos-es, but only if the disclosure isin the best interest of the com-pany.

While UPSI will help checkinsider-trading, the SEBI reg-ulations have permitted flexi-bility by allowing block tradebetween insiders or betweenrelated parties within a com-pany sharing same UPSI.

The changes will also keeptransactions undertaken due toa regulatory obligation andexercise of stock option at a

pre-determined price out of theambit of insider-trading.

The new requirementswith relation to SEBI regula-tions will also apply to inter-mediaries like auditors,accountancy firms, law firms,analysts and consultants.They'll have to put in placeinternal controls to check insid-er-trading.

Additionally, the conces-sional tax regime for investorsunder the earlier DTAAs formaking investments into Indiavia Singapore and Mauritiuswill cease to exist from April 1.

India amended DTAAswith Singapore and Mauritiusin 2016.

It gave India the right tocollect tax on capital gainsarising on Indian equity sharessold by a Singapore orMauritian resident.

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The signalling at the FederalReserve of the US meeting

last week that no more interestrate hikes should be expectedduring 2019 has ramificationsacross the globe given the scaleof the US economy and theimportance of Federal Reservepolicy to global investments.From the perspective of theIndian investment community,there are some crucial take-aways and the reiteration of afew existing trends.

First, given that global G-10 bond markets have seen astructural bull trend over thelast three decades with interestrates moving lower, from aportfolio allocation perspective,the low long-term bond yieldsin the developed economieswill create significant pressureon investment portfolios forinvestment return generation.

Hence, the need to look foralternative mechanisms toboost returns will be evengreater post the FederalReserve meeting last week.This search for higher yieldfrom developed market port-folios provides an avenue foremerging markets such as Indiato attract some of the capitalthat sits with developed market

investors. Relatively dovishcentral bank policy like the onesuggested by the FederalReserve last week further addsimpetus to the trend.

The second and the biggesttakeaway from the signals pro-vided by the Federal Reserve isthat the trends such as theavailability of large amounts ofcapital for investment and themove from institutionalinvestors towards more directinvestments are here to stay. Asdeveloped economy basedinvestors look towards emerg-ing markets to generate invest-ment returns, India by thesheer size of its market, is a des-tination for the return-seekingcapital.

It is true that while largeinstitutional capital allocationsfrom the pension and theinsurance industry do consid-

er the absolute level of interestrates, it is as much true that alot of the significant portfolioallocation decisions are eitherlong-term or structural giventhe large portfolio sizes.

Therefore, lower long-endyields in the developed marketsprovide India with an oppor-tunity to attract long-datedstructural funding for mis-sion-critical businesses andinfrastructure.

The structural nature ofportfolio allocations impliesthat if attractive investmentopportunities are found inIndia, then the capital beinginvested does not necessarilyface the risk of "capital-flight"even if interest rates were tomove significantly higher in thedeveloped economies in theyears to come. Essentially,greater focus towards attracting

investment inflows into Indiawhich flow into the Indianeconomy due to structural low-interest rate regimes allowsIndia the leeway to attract"higher-quality" capital that isfocused on long-term returns.

The single most significantfocus for long-term capital inIndia must be on the unlistedmarket and unlisted assets.The greatest challenge for bothinvestors and the government,for obvious reasons, has beendirecting capital into the unlist-ed space. In the past, lack oftransparency, an opaque pric-ing mechanisms and regulato-ry hurdles have all been issues.However, with market instru-ments such as InfrastructureInvestment Trust (InvIT) typeof vehicles that help bridge thegap between unlisted assetsand a liquidity provision plat-form, we are taking steps in theright direction.

Structural changes sweep-ing across the asset manage-ment industry globally such asthe recent decision by theCalifornia Public Employees'Retirement System (CalPERS)to approve two internal privateequity organisations is vitalfor India. CalPERS decision hastwo significant ramifications.

Firstly, fee structures across

the alternative asset manage-ment industry are being ques-tioned as investment returnshave experienced downwardpressure. The pressure to gen-erate higher yields in the faceof higher asset managementfees also implies a search forgreater-yield. A growing mar-ket such as India is an obviousinvestment destination for suchfunds. Secondly, an institutionsuch as CalPERS with $354 bil-lion under management willneed large economies with arelatively high threshold ofminimum deal size to operatein.

As mentioned earlier,India, given the size of theeconomy, provides the rightopportunities in the right quan-tities.

In summary, structuralchanges sweeping through theworld in terms of demograph-ic trends, under-funded pen-sions funds and lower-interest-rate regimes are an opportuni-ty for economies such as Indiato partner with capitalproviders to help boost growth.

Signalling by central banks,such as the Federal Reserve, area timely reminder that theopportunities still exist, and arenewed focus is the need ofthe hour.

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Jet Airways, on the verge ofgoing belly-up, has sus-

pended operations on as manyas 13 more international routestill end-April even as itgrounded seven more planesdue to non-payment ofrentals, taking the number ofsuch aircraft to 54.

Besides, the airline hasalso reduced frequencies onseven other overseas routes,mostly from Delhi andMumbai, according to airlinesources.

"... An additional sevenaircraft including two planes ofJetLite, have been groundeddue to non-payment ofamounts outstanding tolessors under their respectivelease agreements," the airlinesaid in a filing to the stockexchanges late evening Friday.

The company said that asmentioned earlier, it is active-ly engaged with all its aircraft

lessors and is regularly pro-viding them with updates onthe efforts taken to improvethe liquidity.

Earlier, sources said routeswhere services have been tem-porarily withdrawn includePune-Singapore (seven aweek), which was launchedwith much fanfare late lastDecember, and Pune-AbuDhabi (seven flights a week).

Jet Airways has alreadysuspended services on theMumbai-Manchester route.

Gasping for funds and nobailout on the horizon, theNaresh Goyal-controlled air-line has now reduced its oper-ations to one-fourth from over600 daily flights earlier, withjust one-third of its 119 fleetbeing operational.

The airline has discontin-ued services from Delhi toAbu Dhabi (nine a week),Dammam (14 weekly), Dhaka(11), Hong Kong and Riyadh(seven each a week) up to

April 30, said the airlinesource.

Besides, the airline hasalso suspended services on theBangalore-Singapore route,where it flies twice daily, tillApril 30.

The flights which havebeen suspended from Mumbaifor this period include servicesto Abu Dhabi (12 weekly),Bahrain (4-7 weekly), andDammam (14 weekly). Theseservices will remain suspend-ed till April 30, as per thesource.

Similarly, flights on theMumbai-Hong Kong (7 week-ly) route will also not be oper-ated between March 23 andApril 30, while the Kolkata-Dhaka services have also beensuspended till April 30.

In addition to this, servicesfrom Delhi and Mumbai toKathmandu, Bangkok, Doha,Kuwait and Singapore havebeen also reduced significantly.

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About 4.74 crore small and marginalfarmers registered under the PM-

Kisan scheme before the Model Code ofConduct (MCC) for general election cameinto effect on March 10 will get the sec-ond installment of �2,000 each in theirbank accounts, a senior government offi-cial said Saturday.

Of these 4.74 crore beneficiaries, 2.74crore farmers have so far received the firstinstallment and the rest will be covered bymonth-end, he said.

The Election Commission of India(ECI) has allowed the Union AgricultureMinistry to transfer the first and secondtranche of the payment to all those bene-ficiaries registered under the schemebefore March 10, the official added.

Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, theCentre announced the �75,000-crorePradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi(PM-Kisan) scheme under which �6,000per year would be disbursed in three instal-ments to around 12 crore farmers whohold cultivable land up to 2 hectares.

In the budget, the NDA government

allocated a sum of �20,000 crore, to trans-fer �2,000 each to farmers in the firstinstallment by March-end, for the ongo-ing fiscal under the scheme.

The scheme was formally launched atnational level by Prime Minister NarendraModi on February 24 at Gorakhpur inUttar Pradesh by transferring the firstinstalment to 1.01 crore farmers, amount-ing �2,021 crore.

"We were hoping to have the data of12 crore farmers from across the country.But the data of 4.74 crore farmers has comebefore the MCC was enforced," the offi-cial told PTI.

The government has already releasedthe first installment of �2,000 each to 2.74crore beneficiaries and the remainingwill be covered before this month-end, he

said. With regard to the payment of second

tranche to begin from April 1, the officialsaid the ECI has allowed to make the pay-ment to all those beneficiaries registeredbefore the MCC kicked in.

"We can go ahead and make the pay-ment of first installment to the rest of thepeople whose names are on the portal. Wecan go ahead and make the payment forthe second installment as well," the offi-cial said. In Uttar Pradesh, the first install-ment has been released to around onecrore farmers so far and the Centre hasreceived data of additional 66 lakh farm-ers.

The official further said that Punjaband Haryana are amongst the top benefi-ciary states as more than 80 per cent of thefarmers registered under the scheme havereceived the first installment.

While, some states including WestBengal, Delhi and Sikkim have yet not sub-mitted the farmers' data and therefore nomoney has been transferred.

The official also mentioned that nofresh data has come from states after theMCC came into effect.

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Facing a barrage of attacksfrom President Donald

Trump over plant closures,General Motors announcedFriday a USD 1.8 billion invest-ment and the creation of 700new jobs in the United States.

About USD 300 millionwill be geared towards pro-duction of electric vehicles atthe auto giant's Orion plant inMichigan, creating 400 jobs,the company said in a state-ment.

Those vehicles had beenslated for production outside ofthe United States. In November,GM shuttered five US plants,including auto assembly plantsin Michigan and Ohio as partof a 15 per cent cut in its work-force worldwide -- cuttingaround 14,000 employees --which drew Trump's Twitterwrath.

This week he urged thecompany to reopen theLordstown, Ohio auto plant orsell it to someone who would.

"We are excited to bringthese jobs and this investmentto the US," GM chief MaryBarra said in announcing theplans to employees in Orion.

"This new Chevrolet elec-tric vehicle is another positivestep toward our commitmentto an all-electric future. GMwill continue to invest in ourUS operations where we seeopportunities for growth."

The new investment willhelp the company comply with new rules agreed to under the revisedNorth American free trade deal, the statement said.

Among other changes, theUnited States-Mexico-CanadaAgreement, or USMCA,requires that manufacturersproduce a share of their vehi-cles in higher-wage factories inorder to gain duty-free accessto the region -- a requirementaimed at favoring US andCanadian facilities over thosein Mexico.

The treaty has yet to be rat-ified, however. The Orion plantalready builds the Chevy BoltEV, and the new model "will bebased off an advanced versionof the same vehicle architec-ture," the statement said.

However, this is separatefrom the previously announcedplan to produce a Cadillac EV.

In addition to the invest-ment, GM said it is in theprocess of adding 1,000 jobs toits truck assembly plant inFlint, Michigan.

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Kurdish-led forces pro-nounced the death of the

Islamic State group’s nearlyfive-year-old “caliphate”Saturday after flushing outdiehard jihadists from theirvery last bastion in easternSyria.

Fighters of the US-backedSyrian Democratic Forcesraised their yellow flag inBaghouz, the remote riversidevillage where diehard jihadistsof a variety of nationalitiesmade a desperate, dramaticlast stand. The SDF’s victorycapped a deadly six-monthoperation against the final rem-nants of the caliphate whichonce stretched across a vastswathe of Iraq and Syria, andheld seven million people in itssway.

Saturday’s announcementwill go down as a symbolic datein a war that changed the faceof the region and spurred aspate of global terror attacks.“Syrian Democratic Forcesdeclare total elimination of so-called caliphate and 100 per-cent territorial defeat of ISIS,”spokesman Mustefa Bali said ina statement, using anotheracronym for IS.

In Al-Omar, an oil fieldused as the main SDF stagingbase for the final phase of the

assault, fighters in their bestfatigues laid down theirweapons and broke into songand dance.

A military band playedanthems, including the StarSpangled Banner, as a ceremo-ny attended by Kurdish topbrass and officials got underway. The state proclaimed inmid-2014 by fugitive IS supre-mo Abu Bakr al-Baghdadistarted collapsing in 2017 whenparallel offensives in Iraq andSyria wrested back its mainhubs Mosul and Raqa.

The nearly five years offighting against the most bru-tal jihadist group in modernhistory has left thousand-year-old cities in ruins and popula-tions homeless. Early US esti-mates put the numbers of ISfighters at around 40,000, manyof them foreigners.

But the territory adminis-tered by the remnants of IScontinued to shrink monthafter month and in September2018 the SDF launched a finaloffensive on the last dregs of the“caliphate” in its EuphratesValley strongholds.

US President DonaldTrump, whose country has ledan international miliary coali-tion against IS since September2014, jumped the gun onannouncing the end of jihadistterritorial rule on multiple

occasions.SDF fighters last week

expelled the last IS fighters whorefused to surrender from anencampment on the edge ofBaghouz and have since beenhunting down a few survivorshiding on the reedy banks ofthe Euphrates. “Those wholasted the longest were mostlyforeigners... Tunisians,Moroccans, Egyptians,”

Hisham Harun, a 21-year-oldKurdish fighter, told AFPshortly after the SDF’s yellowflag was raised.

Around him, the formerjihadist encampment was lit-tered with bullet-riddled truckcarcasses, discarded suicidebelts and the torn tents wherethe caliphate’s last families shel-tered for weeks.

The bodies of suspected IS

fighters could be seen but it wasunclear what happened to thefew jihadists who were stillputting up a fight as late asFriday afternoon.

According to the SyrianObservatory for HumanRights, more than 750 SDFfighters and around twice asmany jihadists were killed inthe last few months of theEuphrates offensive.

Kurdish officers and aidgroups were flummoxed bythe number of people whohad remained holed up in thelast IS redoubt of Baghouz, asmall village even few Syrianshad ever heard of until thisyear.

As SDF forces pummelledIS positions and US warplanesdropped huge payloads on theriverside village, tens of thou-sands of people fled over arocky hill and trudged throughthe plains in biblical scenes.

For weeks, the ghostly fig-ures of the caliphate’s lastdenizens hobbled out of thebesieged village, famished,often wounded but sometimesstill defiantly proclaiming theirsupport for IS.

The Kurdish-led force andforeign intelligence havescreened more than 60,000people since January, around 10percent of them jihadists turn-ing themselves in.

Most of the people evacu-ated from the smoulderingruins of Baghouz in recentdays were relatives of IS mem-bers who now fill overcrowd-ed camps further north inSyria’s Kurdish-controlledregion. The biggest of them, Al-Hol, is struggling to host 74,000people, including at least 25,000school-aged children.

Among them are thou-

sands of foreigners fromFrance, Russia, Belgium and40-plus countries that are inmost cases unwilling to takethem back. “The needs arehuge and the camp is over-whelmed,” Peter Maurer, pres-ident of the InternationalCommittee of the Red Crosssaid Friday upon returningfrom a five-day visit to Syria.

French PresidentEmmanuel Macron hailed thefall of Baghouz saying “a sig-nificant threat to our country”has been “eliminated”.

But while the SDF takingBaghouz marks the end of theIS “caliphate”, the jihadists stillretain a presence in easternSyria’s vast Badia desert. Theyalso have hideouts in parts ofIraq as well as sleeper cellscapable of carrying out the kindof deadly guerrilla insurgencythat accompanied the rise ofthe Islamic State group.

IS fighters who escaped theshrinking rump of the“caliphate” in time and reor-ganised their group are alreadyre-establishing their formersanctuaries in Iraq.

Even the Pentagon haswarned in a recent report thatthe absence of sustained coun-terterrorism pressure on ISwould allow the jihadists toreclaim some territorial controlwithin months.

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British Prime MinisterTheresa May has told law-

makers she may not seek pas-sage of her troubled Brexitwithdrawal plan in Parliamentnext week.

The embattled leader, whofaces a major protest march incentral London on Saturday,wrote to lawmakers Fridaynight saying she would bringthe European Union with-drawal back to Parliament ifthere seems to be enough back-ing for it to pass.

“If it appears that there isnot sufficient support to bringthe deal back next week, or theHouse rejects it again, we canask for another extensionbefore 12 April, but that will

involve holding EuropeanParliament elections,” she said.

May’s changing stancereflects the plan’s dismalchances in the House ofCommons after two priordefeats.

She also says she wouldneed the approval of HouseSpeaker John Bercow to bringthe plan back for a third timedespite his objections. Bercowhas said a third vote would vio-late parliamentary rules unlessthe plan is altered.

May said in her letter tolawmakers that if the deal isapproved, Britain will leavethe EU on May 22, a dateagreed with EU officials.

Lawmakers have twicerejected the deal and haven’tshown any clear swing toward

endorsing it in recent days.Britain is scheduled to leave theEuropean Union on April 12 ifno deal is approved.

Pro-Brexit forces are alsogirding for the possible politi-cal impact of a planned marchin central London in support ofholding a second referendumthat would give British votersthe option of remaining in theEU despite the 2016 vote infavor of leaving.

The organisers of the“People’s Vote March” predictthat one of Britain’s largest-everprotest marches will grip cen-tral London. More than 4 mil-lion people endorsed an elec-tronic petition this week infavor of revoking Article 50, theact that formally triggered theBrexit process.

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The top military commanderin Syria’s autonomous

Kurdish region urgedDamascus on Saturday tochoose the path of dialogueafter his forces sealed a key vic-tory over the Islamic Stategroup.

"We call on the centralgovernment in Damascus toprefer the process of dialogue,"Mazloum Kobane, the overallcommander of the SyrianDemocratic Forces, said in astatement.

He read part of the state-ment at a ceremony to payhomage to his fallen comradesand celebrate the capture ofBaghouz, the very last pocket

of territory held by IS, whichSDF forces took after weeks offighting.

The statement urged thegovernment of Syrian PresidentBashar al-Assad to "start prac-tical steps to reach a politicalsolution based on the recogni-tion" of autonomous institu-tions and of the SDF's specialstatus.

Syria's eight-year conflicthas seen the country's Kurdscarve out a large de factoautonomous region in the oil-rich northeast. The Kurdish-dominated SDF has acted asthe ground force of the US-ledmilitary coalition that inter-vened in Syria and Iraq inSeptember 2014 to counter theexpansion of IS.

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Atour bus with 56 people onboard caught fire in China’s

central Hunan province, killing26 people and injuring 28 oth-ers, officials said Saturday.

The accident occurred on Friday when the 59-seaterbus from the neighbouringHenan province suddenlycaught fire on a highway inHanshou county in Changdecity.

The 28 injured were rushedto three local hospitals.

Five of the injured are in acritical condition, state-runXinhua news agency quotedlocal officials as saying.

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American envoy to the US-ledcoalition fighting the IslamicState group hailed the demise ofthe extremist group’s self-declared “caliphate” in easternSyria on Saturday as a “criticalmilestone”.

“This critical milestone inthe fight against ISIS delivers acrushing strategic blow and un-derscores the unwavering com-mitment of our local partnersand the global coalition to defeatISIS,” William Roebuck said,using an alternative acronym forIS. But the coalition envoywarned that the fight against thejihadists was not yet over.

“While we have completedthe territorial defeat of ISIS inSyria and Iraq, we still havemuch work to do to achieve anenduring defeat of ISIS,” he said

at a main staging base for theUS-backed Syrian DemocraticForces whose Kurdish-led fight-ers defeated IS.

“The campaign is not over.ISIS... Remains a significantthreat,” Roebuck said at theOmar oil field in eastern Syria.

IS’s loss on Saturday of itslast redoubt in the village ofBaghouz signalled the demise ofthe “caliphate” that the extrem-ist group declared over a largeswathe of Syria and neighbour-ing Iraq in 2014.

But the jihadists still retaina presence in eastern Syria’svast desert and have claimeddeadly attacks in areas con-trolled by US-backed forces.“We will continue to support thecoalition’s operations in Syria toensure... This enduring defeat,”Roebuck said. AFP

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Prime Minister Theresa Maysaid Saturday the fall of the

last bastion held by IslamicState (IS) jihadists in Syriamarked “a historic milestone”,paying tribute to British andcoalition forces.

“The liberation of the lastDaesh-held territory is a his-toric milestone that would nothave been possible withouttheir commitment, profes-sionalism and courage,” shesaid in a statement, using anArabic acronym for IS.

“I commend the tirelesswork and extraordinarycourage of the British forcesand our global coalition part-ners that have fought Daesh inSyria and Iraq.”

Kurdish-led forces among

the 79 international partnerspronounced the death of thenearly five-year-old “caliphate”Saturday after flushing out ISjihadists from their last redoubtin Baghouz, eastern Syria.

Britain, which has sufferedfrom multiple terrorist attacksin recent years by perpetratorssaid to have been inspired by IS,has vowed to remain focusedon fighting the group andsecuring the region.

“We must not lose sight ofthe threat Daesh poses and thegovernment remains commit-ted to eradicating their poiso-nous ideology,” May added.

“We will continue to dowhat is necessary to protect theBritish people and our allies.”Britain has committed nearly1,400 military personnel tothe region to support local

forces, while the Royal AirForce has conducted more than1,600 air strikes in Iraq andSyria, according to govern-ment figures.

Western allies in the US-led coalition are negotiatingwith Washington on the resid-ual force that will remain aftermost of the American soldiersare brought home.

“We cannot be complacent,” British ForeignSecretary Jeremy Hunt warnedSaturday.

“Even without territory,Daesh and its poisonous ide-ology will continue to pose athreat to the people of Iraq andSyria, as well as to the widerworld. “The international com-munity must remain firm in itsdetermination to counter anddefeat it.”

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Thousands of police fannedout across central Paris

and other French citiesSaturday for the 19th consec-utive week of “yellow vest”protests, with officials vowingto prevent a repeat of the riot-ing and looting that marred lastweek’s rally in the capital.

Several hundreds ofdemonstrators began marchingshortly after midday from asquare in the south of Paristowards the Sacre-Coeur basil-ica at Montmartre in the north,with banners calling forPresident Emmanuel Macronto “Get Lost!”

Authorities banneddemonstrations in a large area

in the west of the city, includ-ing the Champs-Elysees, thescene of last Saturday’s rampageby hundreds of black-clad agi-tators.

Dozens of police vehicles,including armoured trucks andwater cannons, encircled theArc de Triomphe at the top ofthe iconic avenue, with officerssearching people’s bags andpatrolling in front of boarded-up storefronts.

At the opposite end of the avenue access was completely blocked to the Place de la Concorde, near thepresidential palace and theNational Assembly, and twodrones were flying over thecapital to track any protesters’movements.

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An attack involving gun-men and bomb blasts on a

complex housing governmentministries in Somalia’s capitalkilled at least 11 people onSaturday, including the deputylabour minister, officials said.

Claimed by the Al-ShabaabIslamist group, the assault wasa sign of the insurgency’s con-tinued ability to strike at theheart of Somalia’s government,despite years of foreign militarysupport for Mogadishu.

The fighting began withtwo blasts at the gates of thecomplex housing the labourand works ministries.

Police say at least fourgunmen then stormed thebuildings, leading to a shootoutas officers rushed to confrontthe attackers.

“The death toll reachedeleven, three of them women,

and the number of wounded is15,” said AbdukadirAbdirahman Adan, director ofMogadishu’s Aamin ambulanceservice.

Senator Ilyas Ali Hassanconfirmed that Saqar IbrahimAbdalla, the deputy ministerfor labour and social affairs,was also killed.

“I cannot elaborate on howhe died but I can confirm thathe was killed inside the min-istry building,” Hassan said.

Police official IbrahimMohamed said all the gunmenwere killed.

“There were some othercasualties including membersof the police,” he said, withoutelaborating.

Attacks that combinebombings with gunmen havebecome a speciality of the Al-Qaeda linked group, which isrunning an armed insurrectionagainst what it sees as heretic

and foreign influence inSomalia.

The group emerged fromIslamic Courts that once con-trolled central and southernSomalia and are variously esti-mated to number between5,000 and 9,000 men.

In 2010 the Shabaabdeclared their allegiance to Al-Qaeda. The following year, thegroup were chased out ofMogadishu by the 22,000-strong African Union peace-enforcement mission, AMI-SOM.

They have since lost manyof their strongholds but retaincontrol of large rural swathes ofthe country and continue towage a guerrilla war, frequent-ly hitting Mogadishu.

In October 2017 a truckbombing in a busy neighbour-hood of the capital killed over500 people, the deadliest attackin Somalia to date.

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Atwin bombing at a publicceremony in southern

Afghanistan on Saturday killedat least four people, includinga provincial official, andwounded more than 30, offi-cials said.

Omar Zwak, spokesmanfor the governor of Helmandprovince, said the bombings tar-geted a celebration of Farmer’sDay in a sports stadium in theprovincial capital, Lashkar Gah.Mohammad Khan Nasrat, theeconomic director of Helmand,was among those killed in theattack, the government said ina statement.

Zwak said 31 other peoplewere wounded in the blasts,including provincial councilmembers and provincial secu-

rity officials, but he said nonewere in critical condition.

The Taliban, who effec-tively control half the country,including large parts ofHelmand province, claimed theattack. The insurgents havekept up their daily attacks onAfghan security forces and gov-ernment targets even as theyhave held several rounds oftalks with the United States inrecent months aimed at endingthe 17-year war.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan,dozens of people protestedagainst a military operation inthe northern Kunduz provincewhile carrying the remains oftheir loved ones. Photos fromthe protest showed whatappeared to be the bodies of 12people, including five or sixsmall children.

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Novak Djokovic put hisIndian Wells disap-

pointment behind him onFriday at the ATP and WTAMiami Open with a ruthless7-6 (7/2) 6-2 destruction ofAustralian Bernard Tomic tomove into the third round.

The Serbian world num-ber one endured a meek exitat the hands of GermanPhilipp Kohlschreiber in the

California desert but arriveddesperate to land what wouldbe a record seventh title inSouth Florida.

Tomic, the current worldNo 81, gave the 31-year-old afew problems yet theAustralian struggles to con-sistently challenge the bestplayers and this was evidentonce again as Djokovic easedthrough the gears at HardRock Stadium with just onehour and 13 minutes on the

clock.On a day that saw

Djokovic, top-ranked womanNaomi Osaka and 23-timeGrand Slam championSerena Williams advance,the shock of the day was thedeparture of Indian WellsMasters winnerDominic Thiem, whowas beaten 6-4, 6-4by highly ratedPolish 22-year-old HubertHurkacz.

Elsewhere,there was dis-appointment forKei Nishikori.The fifth seedlost to SerbianDusan Lajovic2-6, 6-2, 6-3 butreigning champi-

on John Isner outlasted Italianqualifier Lorenzo Sonego 7-6 (7/2), 7-6, (9/7).

Japanese star Osaka hadto keep her emotions in checkas she opened her campaignby outlasting Yanina

Wickmayer 6-0, 6-7 (3/7),6-1.

Since winningher second consec-utive Grand Slamtitle in January at

the AustralianOpen, Osakahas failed togo deep in

Dubai orIndian Wells.

Next up inthe third roundis Taiwan'sHsieh Su-Wei,who defeated

American AlisonRiske 6-2, 7-5.

The pair hada rollercoaster

clash in the Australian Openat the start of 2019 withHsieh a set and 4-1 up inMelbourne only to lose adramatic third-roundencounter.

Serena Williams surviveda second-set lull to beatSweden's Rebecca Peterson 6-3, 1-6, 6-1, and elder sisterVenus also advanced with a 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 win over Spain'sCarla Suarez Navarro.

There will be a repeat oflast week's WTA final inIndian Wells between BiancaAndreescu and AngeliqueKerber.

Canadian 18-year-oldAndreescu, who brilliantlywon her maiden WTA title inCalifornia, beat AmericanSofia Kenin 6-3,6-3 to booka third-round meeting withthree-time Grand Slam win-ner Kerber, who saw offRussia's Karolina Muchova 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

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Aaron Finch's fine century drove Australiato a convincing eight-wicket win over a

new-look Pakistan in the first one-day inter-national on Friday.

The Australian skipper scored 116 off 135balls for his 12th one-day international cen-tury that helped his team overhaul the 281-run target in 49 overs on a flat Sharjah sta-dium pitch.

The win gives Australia the lead in thefive-match series and comes on the back oftheir 3-2 series win in India earlier thismonth.

"To be able to chase down the target forthe loss of two wickets is nice. It's nice to keepthe momentum with a fourth win in a row,"Finch said.

Finch's match-winning knock over-shadowed Haris Sohail's maiden one-dayhundred (101 not out) which helped Pakistanto 280-5 in their 50 overs.

"We needed wickets at the top which didnot come our way because Finch and Marshhandled the chase very well," stand-in cap-tain Shoaib Malik said.

"Congrats to Haris for getting a hundredbut we did not push Australia hard," headded.

The 32-year-old Australia smashedMalik for a huge six towards deep mid-wick-et to complete his century — his first sinceJune last year against England at Chester-Le-Street — off 120 balls.

Finch, who knocked four sixes and eightboundaries, added an innings-building 172runs for the second wicket with Shaun Marshwho scored an unbeaten 91 off 102 balls withfour boundaries and two sixes.

With 46 needed Finch becameMohammad Abbas's maiden wicket but PeterHandscomb hit 30 not out to help Marshcross the line.

Finch and Marsh came together afteropener Usman Khawaja fell for 24.

Earlier, the young and inexperiencedPakistan led by Malik proved no match forAustralia, who are on a roll after their winin India earlier this month.

Left-hander Sohail, who reached 1,000runs in his 27th one-day international whenon 40, anchored Pakistan's innings, adding98 for the third wicket with Umar Akmal whomade a 50-ball 48 in his first internationalmatch for two years.

Sohail took a single to complete his hun-dred in the last over, finishing with six bound-aries and a six.

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Isuru Udana's astonishing 84 forSri Lanka wasn't enough to stop

South Africa from clinching theirTwenty20 international series witha 16-run win in the second matchat SuperSport Park on Friday.

Udana thrashed his not outscore off 48 balls to take Sri Lankafrom a seemingly hopeless positionto one where they had an outside

chance of winning.It initially looked easy for South

Africa, who scored 180 for threeafter being sent in, with ReezaHendricks hitting a fluent 65 andRassie van der Dussen a powerful-ly-struck 64.

Sri Lanka lost their first fourwickets in the first four overs andwere floundering at 62 for six whenUdana walked in to bat in the 10thover.

But, as he did in the fourth one-day international, Udana overshad-owed the recognised batsmen witha superb display of clean hitting,although he had a let-off when hewas caught on the long-on bound-ary off JP Duminy when on 31, onlyfor Duminy to be no-balled for over-stepping. Udana hit eight fours andsix sixes.

"He's the kind of player weneed. He showed his character," saidSri Lankan captain Lasith Malinga,who was disappointed with yetanother top-order batting failure.

Duminy praised a "really goodteam performance" and the wayDale Steyn and Chris Morris hadstruck twice each with the new ball.

"There are a few things we canimprove in the middle and endovers. Udana played a fantasticinnings but we gave him a few life-lines," he said.

Hendricks and Van der Dussenput on 116 off 78 balls for SouthAfrica's second wicket.

While man of the match Van der

Dussen's innings was marked bypower hitting, which brought himfour fours and three sixes, Hendricksoozed class as he struck nine foursin a 46-ball innings marked by flu-ent off-side drives.

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India defeated Asian Gameschampion Japan 2-0 to start its

campaign at the Sultan Azlan ShahCup hockey tournament on a pos-itive note on Saturday.

Varun Kumar converted apenalty corner in the 24th minuteto hand India the lead beforeSimranjeet Singh (55th) scored adiving field goal from skipperManpreet Singh's brilliant pass tosecure full three points for the five-time champions.

After a goalless first quarter,India slowly took control of theproceedings. Eight minutes into thesecond quarter, India won a penal-ty corner and Varun made no mis-take in finding the back of theJapanese goal with a powerfuldragflick.

The Indian midfield mannedby skipper Manpreet and KothajitSingh stole the limelight by creat-ing numerous scoring chances butthe forwardline was guilty of wast-ing opportunities.

With four minutes remainingfor the second hooter, MandeepSingh missed the target by a

whisker after being set up by agood pass from Sumit Kumar(Junior).

In the third quarter, Japansecured their first penalty cornerin the 33rd minute but India cus-todian PR Sreejesh did well tothwart the danger.

The following minutes sawboth India and Japan create scor-ing opportunities but in vain.

With two minutes remainingfor the third hooter, Japanese strik-

er Kenji Kitazato took a brave shoton goal but missed the post by a bigmargin.

Playing in overcast conditionswith temperature hovering around28 degrees, India continued itshunt for a second goal and earneda penalty corner within minutes ofthe fourth quarter.

But this time Varun missed themark, allowing Japan to launch aquick counter attack, which waskept at bay by Birendra Lakra'salertness.

Japan tried different ways todislodge India, used full-press togain ball-possession but did notsucceed.

Japan removed their goal-keeper to add an extra man in the55th minute but the tactic back-fired with India making use of theopportunity to double their lead. Itwas a diving effort by Simranjeetthat put India ahead.

With just two minutes remain-ing, Japan secured another penal-ty corner but the attempt waswell-defended by Surender Kumar,backed by goalkeeper KrishanPathak, who replaced Sreejeshafter half-time.

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Raheem Sterling showed that he iscoming of age on the internationalstage as his hat-trick saw England

start their Euro 2020 qualifying cam-paign by hammering the CzechRepublic 5-0, while Antoine Griezmanninspired France to a battering ofMoldova.

Manchester City attacker Sterlinghad scored just two goals in his first 45caps, but he now has five in his last threeinternational appearances followingFriday's treble, which helped Englandstorm to the top of Group A ahead ofMonday's trip to Montenegro, whodrew 1-1 at Bulgaria.

Sterling opened the scoring in the24th minute when he tapped homeJadon Sancho's cross, and struck twicemore in the second half to put the resultbeyond doubt after Harry Kane firedhome his 21st England goal from thepenalty spot.

"It was a beautiful team performanceand I was happy to help the team get thewin," Sterling said.

Sterling has 24 goals for club andcountry this term and his impressiveform is a fry cry from the dark dayswhen he was vilified as England crashedout of Euro 2016.

"I'm just being confident in myself,I'm trying to get in areas and take shots,not to worry about anything," he added.

England carried the momentumfrom a run to the World Cup semi-finalsand qualification for the last four of theNations League into the Euro qualifiersand blooded young hopeful Sancho,who impressed on his full England

debut.The 18-year-old who has

shone in the Bundesliga forBorussia Dortmund, gaveEngland fans further cause forexcitement, with his potential adding tothat of Sterling and Kane coming intotheir prime.

"I thought Raheem was electric. He

has looked like that all week in training.I'm pleased for him, it is a special nightfor him," coach Gareth Southgate said.

"I think he's really matured as a per-son and a footballer. He's hungry forgoals and hitting things instinctivelywithout thinking too much."

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after an older head in AntoineGriezmann spurred the world champi-ons on to a comfortable 4-1 victory at

Moldova.Griezmann opened the scoring

with his 27th France goal in the24th minute of their Group Hencounter before crossing forRaphael Varane to double the

scores three minutes later.Olivier Giroud equalled David

Trezeguet as Les Bleus' third highestscorer of all time with his 34th inter-national goal nine minutes before the

break and Kylian Mbappe completed therout with three minutes left, beforeVladimir Ambros claimed a late con-solation for Moldova.

Griezmann would have had twomore assists had Giroud and PaulPogba been more clinical in front ofgoal, but France's display was easilyenough for the three points and top spotin the group ahead of Iceland andTurkey, 2-0 winners against Albania andAndorra respectively.

"We played a very consummate firsthalf in terms of control and attackingorganisation. The second half was lessfulfilling due to substitutions," saidcoach Didier Deschamps.

"We've opened our campaign welland the second game comes aroundquickly. In three days we have do itagain."

Cristiano Ronaldo drew a blank onhis return to international football afternine months away, as Ukraine battled to

a goalless draw in Lisbon.The draw was the first time Santos'

side have failed to score at home in 19matches and leaves them second in thegroup behind Luxembourg, who beatLithuania 2-1.

William Carvalho had a fine head-er ruled out for offside in the 16thminute and Ronaldo, Pepe and AndreSilva all went close to opening the scor-ing, but Ukraine stopper Andriy Pyatovwas on fine form to deny them.

In the end the away side could havesnatched the three points throughJunior Moraes, only for the debutant tofluff a golden chance to grab a shockwin.

"We didn't play as we wanted to. Westarted slowly, not pressing the way wewanted," said Manchester City mid-fielder Bernardo Silva.

"The second half we tried to createchances to go after the game but unfor-tunately we didn't score."

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Lionel Messi's international return didn't do muchto help Argentina regain top form.Messi was back on Friday for the first time since

the 2018 World Cup but couldn't stop his team losing3-1 to Venezuela in a friendly.

Salomon Rondon, John Murillo and Josef Martinezscored for Venezuela at the Wanda MetropolitanoStadium, while Lautaro Martinez replied for Argentina.

Messi hadn't played an international since the 4-3 loss to France in the round of 16 at the World Cupin Russia.

"He played a good game" Argentina coach LionelScaloni said. "The chances we created were thanks tohim."

Messi showed his usual deft skills and his long-rangeshot in the 38th minute was headed for the top corneruntil Venezuela goalkeeper Wuilker Farinez Aray tippedthe ball over the crossbar.

Messi helped set up Argentina's 58th-minute goalwith a pass to Giovani Lo Celso, who eventually fedMartinez inside the area.

Venezuela had opened the scoring in the fifthminute when Rondon ran on to a long pass into thepenalty area and sent a right-footed shot beyond goal-keeper Franco Armani.

Murillo made it 2-0 just before halftime by curl-ing the ball away from Armani just inside the far post.

Venezuela's fast counterattacks were a nightmarefor Argentina throughout and Martinez sealed victo-ry by converting a 75th-minute penalty.

"It's satisfying to earn a victory against a team likeArgentina," Venezuela coach Rafael Dudamel said.

Dudamel surprisingly offered his resignation afterthe match. He told a news conference he was not happyabout the political use of a visit by a government offi-cial before Friday's game in Madrid, and said his futurewould be decided in talks with federation officials inthe coming days.

The last time Argentina played at the Metropolitanoit lost 6-1 to Spain in a World Cup warmup in 2018.

Argentina will play another friendly on Tuesdayagainst Morocco in Tangier. Scaloni said he hadn'tdecided whether Messi would play in that game.

Argentina has not won a trophy since the 1993Copa America. It lost the last two finals of the tour-nament to Chile, in 2015 and 2016. It also lost the 2014World Cup final to Germany.

The Copa America will be held in Brazil in June.Venezuela on Monday plays a Catalunya team that

is expected to include former Spain players Gerard Piqueand Xavi Hernandez.

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a groin injury in the shock 3-1 defeat toVenezuela.

Barcelona star Messi started the fixture fol-lowing a self-imposed eight-month exile inwhich he missed six friendlies since the tourna-ment in Russia, which they exited in the last 16at the hands of eventual champions France.

The Argentine Football Federation tweetedthe injury update following the loss at AtleticoMadrid's Wanda Metropolitano stadium.

Gonzalo Martinez has also been ruled out ofthe fixture in Tangier with a thigh problem.

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Iss baar sardi lambi pad gayi… Mausamka kuchh pata hi nahi chal raha hai...”(“Winter this time has lengthened... Theweather has been behaving so indeci-sively”). For someone who has just shift-

ed from the hills of Shimla to the plains ofDelhi, the inherent perplexity of this and simi-

lar statements beinguttered by the Capital’sresidents comes with acharm of its own, forwinteriness remains inthe blood and themind. In fact, if there issomething that has qui-etly yet most effica-ciously helped me andmy family during thesettling-in process overthe last few months, it

is the continuation of winter in the plains, forwhat has allegedly been “a long time, thistime”. While the mountains have now beenreplaced by high-rises and the fresh, silverymists have made way for (sadly) the haze ofsmoke and the coughs of smog, the chill ofwinter has nonetheless retained, injecting acool that is otherwise desperately sought inthe harsh of Indian summers.

In the middle and upper highlands of thecountry, it isn’t uncommon to witness a spell ofsnow well into March, a period that otherwisecoincides with the youthful ‘warmth’ of springand Holi. Just as seasons behave differently indifferent places, directions and directionalityalso assume distinctive currencies in dissimilarsettings. There was a time when weatherreports at the end of television news invariablybegan with a nod towards the four metropolis-es — Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta —with Delhi automatically becoming a synonymfor the ‘North’. And yet for me, with a child-hood spent entirely in the foothills, valleys andridges of the Himalayas, ‘North’ was uncon-testably something much higher and distantfrom the country’s Capital. And if the curiousrelationship between directions and seasons isanything to go by, then season-wise, Himachaldirectly relates to winters first and summers

second, and Delhi, vice-versa. Of course, Delhi winters, too, get celebrated just as theHimalayan spring and summer, but essential-ism about a particular ambience of a placecontinues to hold its sway in the popular consciousness: “Delhi heat” (Dilli ki garmi),“Shimla chill” (Shimla ki thand). Consequently,temporality itself assumes a different tenor forpeople habituated to varying vistas and weath-ers, the lengthiness of summer holidays inplains finding an equivalent counterpart in theprotracted winter breaks of hills and moun-tains for school children.

One key reason for the ‘automatic’ linkthat people draw between Shimla (and manyother hill stations) and winters is the shapethat the season takes as a result of naturaltopography and architecture. Some monthsago, I had reflected in this space on how atypical hill house exerts a strong claim to inti-macy and coziness because of its picturesqueshapeliness: Gabled and pitched roofs, sym-metrical and stylised facades. Add to this andthe surroundings a cover of snow, and thealready romanticised setting gets furtherintensified in charm and appeal. It is remark-able that a number of features that we tend toassociate with a typically generalised under-standing of a scenery — rivers, clouds, mists,sunsets, and snow — depend on the penchantof water for various forms, because water byitself is transparent and shapeless. Snow bearstestimony to countless visual profiles asevinced by the intricate lure of geometricalsnowflakes (for the keen eyed), and more per-vasively, by the layering it congeals into overbuildings and natural terrains (for the com-mon eyed). Shape further evinces prolongedtactility, and it never ceases to amuse me howvisitors from plains regularly exult in the dis-covery of the thinnest layer of white on hill-sides during their travels, instantly stoppingtheir cars to touch and hold a bit in animated,expansive gestures, to be further immortalisedby photography. If in the plains, it is themoon atop the Taj Mahal that must be cus-tomarily palmed or fingerpicked for a photo-graph, then in the hills, it is the pristine snowthat has to be handled to experience and

demonstrate the feeling of being alive in athandi jagah (cold place). Snow embodies thequality of being faraway just like the distantmoon, and once you touch it, you bring your-self closer to a fantasy world. No wonderthen, that across the country, temporaryamusement parks under the rubric of ‘WinterWonderlands’ routinely spring during the sea-son, and snow — even if artificially created —gets excitedly sought after by one and all.

Snow is the silent cousin of sonorous rain.Extravagantly celebrated in culture, from ritu-als to poetry and cinema, rains in India dictatea season of their own (the monsoon), the landafter all bearing an overwhelmingly hot, tropi-cal topography. Unlike many Europeannations whose de rigueur damp atmospheresgenerate around persistent but diffident pre-cipitation, Indian rains are ever confident intheir might and music. But whereas rainsoccasion song and dance, snow primarily har-bingers meditation and contemplation,because its entry indexes a wholesome silence,a quintessential quietness. In the hills, it isoften the case that only after a prolonged,resounding spell of rain will snow gather thedignity and gravity to chart a way for itself.Once the drama begins, all differences beginto recede, the unity of a colourless colourresiliently seeping surfaces and sensibilities. Itis not always easy to make sense of this inher-ently contradictory hue, and I still remembermy childhood classes where drawing snowinvariably posed a difficulty, so that we usuallyleft patches of white sheet uncoloured when-ever we had to depict frozen mountain peaks.

But the lure of white extends far beyondthe hills, and subconsciously, we fervently hopethat the picturesqueness of snow-clad high-lands somehow permeates the surfaces of flat-lands as well. When some weeks ago, a stronghailstorm took over Delhi and left it soaked ina sheet of white, the question that immediate-ly propped up alongside the images was: “Isthis Delhi or Shimla?” Another such specula-tive query also mentioned “Switzerland”, thedream of inhabiting a distinguished destina-tion in a distant land once again infiltratinghuman desire via the bait of white.

If snow naturally embodies an ambienceof otherness through the magic of move-ment, texture, and transformation, then oneof the ways of relating to that otherness (inaddition to posing and photographing) is bywearing something warm and woolen. Thereis a joke amongst Himalayan folks that peo-ple from the plains, even while visiting thehills in the thick of summer, automaticallydon layers of woolens, because for them, it isenough that they are in the hills. But there isanother joke to do with the woolens amongstthe Himalayan folk regarding themselves.Once, when someone from the upper reachesof the Kullu valley (other versions sayLahaul-Spiti) was visiting Delhi during a hotsummer, a perplexed local enquired: “Don’tyou feel hot in this dress?”, referring to thelayers of woven cloth traditionally worn byHimachalis of the higher areas. To which thevisitor promptly replied: “Jab garmi andarjaayegi hi nahi toh lagegi kaise?”(“When theheat won’t pass through the thick layers of myclothing, how would it affect me?”). In thefirst joke, wool becomes the way of relatingto the hills by staving off the cold (existingor not) when you don’t originally belong tothe landscape; in the second, wool strangelytransforms into a ruse for staving off heat bymaking one feel entirely at home. On similarlines, I too have occasionally wondered whydo we drape a snowman in a woolen cap anda woolen scarf when he himself is made ofsnow? Shouldn’t their warmth be considereda threat to his snowy, frozen identity?

Recently, the ever-versatile social com-mentator Santosh Desai observed that “theidea of warmth as a defining human conditiongets re-affirmed only when it is cold. It is thenthat the idea of being alive becomes synony-mous with the idea of being warm”. Thisremarkable insight is perhaps most potentlyillustrated by the persistent cultural image of aworking fireplace, with people huddledaround together and snow falling outside.

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For, to follow Desai, firemakes special sense when itis cold outside.Warmth is a

crucial human emotion and affectthat takes root in our desire toconnect and continue the art ofliving. AR Rahman and Gulzar’sgorgeously composed title songfor Shaad Ali’s 2002 romance-drama Saathiya evocatively bringsout this desire by sewing the pres-ence of snow with the intimacy ofwool: “Baraf giri ho waadi mein/aur hansee teri goonjey/oon meinlipti simti hui/baat karey dhuaannikley” (“The valley be clad insnow/and your laughterechoes/cuddled within the weaveof wool/your voice condenses intofog”). While the film is set inMumbai, the song itself is shot inKullu and Manali. But there are anumber of films based in theplains that do not have to rely onhill stations to conjure the idea ofwinteriness. One can think ofAankhon Dekhi (2013)and Delhi 6(2009) among others, both set inDelhi, that seek to construct thevisual aesthetic of warmth bychoosing the season of winter, asvisibilised by the accoutrementsof shawls and sweaters.

And yet for all their charm,wool, winter and their variouswonders need to be contextu-alised, not generalised, becausecold places themselves differ inpatterns and persistence. Myyounger brother, a social anthro-pologist who working in theTrans-Himalayas for the past fewyears, tells me of the extraordi-narily tough life that the peopleof Lahaul-Spiti (which form thecold deserts of HimachalPradesh) lead when winterarrives. The old saying that holdsspring nearer when winter comesneeds tweaking here, becausespring is certainly far behind insuch areas. Here, societies wage aback-breaking battle of arduouslabour to remove the massivelythick layers of snow from theirhouses and establishments, day inand day out (for months in andmonths out), in addition to find-ing means to survive within tem-peratures of minus 10 to minus35 degrees. Snow isn’t benignhere, and even its pervasivewhiteness becomes a source ofblindness under the sun, suchthat people must necessarily weargoggles to protect their vision. In

the months that have gone by,such extremes have also beenreported from Western cities andmetropolises, but their technolog-ically advanced materiality ofdaily life still makes it easier to

alleviate the inhuman conditionsas compared to the traditionaland rudimentary methodsinvolved in the Trans-Himalayas.Simultaneously, however, the evilof snow and ice incessantly

springs up in Western fantasy lit-erature, whether it is the reign ofthe White Witch in the CS Lewis’Narnia books, or the regime oficy ‘darkness’ in Susan Cooper’sThe Dark is Rising series, or, most

popularly, the White Walkers ofGeorge RR Martin’s A Game ofThrones books, whose fear lendsan incomparable negative chill tothe words “Winter is coming”.

Perhaps, it is futile to recon-cile the two sides of the season.Nature destroys, but as GeorgeEliot put it at the end of her mas-terpiece, The Mill on the Floss, italso “repairs its ravages”. I ambiased in using the phrase sincethe full quotation actually standsas: “Nature repairs her ravages,but not all.” As climate changeswells in its reach and impact, thetruth of Eliot’s prescient wordsbecomes even more loud, morethreatening than ever before. Andagain, the most recognisable sym-bol of its destruction is to do withsnow and ice, their melting anddisappearance. It appears that tokeep the earth stable, ice in theupper regions of the planet mustretain its iciness. As a humanquality, however, ‘iciness’ ringswith an undesirable undertow, asdoes the word ‘coldness’ (“Hegave me a cold shoulder”). Andyet in Hindi, we routinely use thephrase “thand rakho” (“Keep yourcool”) to assuage someone

seething with anger that isaligned with garmaahat (aggres-siveness that is invariably ‘heat-ed’). Nature continuously pro-vides us a palette of objects andoccurrences that can be used toentirely different effects in dif-ferent situations. With a majorpart of my life spent in theHimalayas, I remain moreattuned towards cold places (notcold dispositions!) that constant-ly sing with a warmth and inti-macy of their own, notwith-standing the hardships involved.

As the Delhi winter slips intospring only to quickly fade intosummer, I know that my eyes andears will automatically be lookingforward to all the advertisementspromoting thandai, from DermiCool talcum powder (with itsalliterative “thanda thanda coolcool” jingle) to assorted squashesand drinks, that habitually workwith close-ups of ice and snow.For winteriness firmly remains inthe blood and the mind.

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The concepts of ‘digital skills’ and‘digital competencies’ have bro-ken through the confines of theinformation technology (IT)industry in recent years. They

have become highly relevant yardsticksagainst which organisations across indus-tries measure the most-valued resource:Their human capital. All eyes are on theupcoming generation of workers —known as the most digitally adept gener-ation yet — to see how they can apply crit-ical thinking skills and technology knowl-edge to achieve new levels of humanprogress in the highly technologicallyadvanced workplace of tomorrow.

The new workplace expectationsposes an important challenge to India’seducation sector to prioritise skills build-ing as the nation (ranked 80th) contin-ues to trail behind other economies in thelatest Global Talent Competitive Index. Asa result, being prepared for the futureworkforce weighs heavily on the mindsof parents and students.There is then nochoice but for educational institutes tocombine frontier technologies with skill-based teaching and learning in the class-rooms, to equip upcoming generations ofworkers with the necessary proficienciesfor tomorrow’s digital economy.

�������������� ������������ ������������ ������Business leaders are turning to the edu-cation sector for digital talents who haveinnovative thinking as they find them-selves caught in an increasingly technol-ogy-driven and disruptive economic.Unfortunately, traditionally the educationsystem was designed to produce acade-mic excellence rather than to answer thequestion “how can we equip students with

the necessary skills to accelerate innova-tion and drive economic growth?” Thiscreates a gap between what is needed andwhat is available. The sharp rise indemand for data-driven capabilities, suchas analytics and digital marketing, is cre-ating a severe skill gap in the labour mar-ket. It is estimated that over half of thebusinesses worldwide are being affectedby digital talent shortage, according to areport by Capgemini and LinkedIn. Thethreat of labour shortage is becoming veryreal for local Indian organisations.

Whilst the Government is placing anurgent focus on implementing trainingprogrammes and skills-building initiatives— notably with the launch of Skills India— these measures only alleviate but do notaddress the root of the problem: The lackof continuous exposure to technology anddigital through the education journey.

Digital literacy should instead bedeveloped from an early age, through theintroduction of innovative ways of think-ing and digital learning tools in classrooms,with the aim to foster young digital-firstmindsets and develop the critical skillsneeded for the process of lifelong learningand constant reinvention. In this aspect,the education system holds the key to nur-turing competent future workforces.

������������������������������������� ������������ �� ���Digital is quickly becoming the founda-tion to everything we do in today’s infor-mation age. This includes educatingyoung minds, who will in a few shortyears determine India’s economic growthand place on the global stage. It is thencrucial to enrich every level of educationwith 21st century knowledge and its appli-cations — through skill-based learning —

to ensure that students today who will betomorrow’s workforce can navigate andthrive in a fast-moving economic climate.

Our children are off to a promisingstart as they continue to benefit from anincreasingly digital upbringing that helpsshape their technology experiences andexpectations from an early age. Schools andeducators need to rise to the technology-driven characteristics of students to pro-vide them with the right digital tools andchannels to develop the necessary skills forthe 21st century workplace.

We recognise the necessity of suchskills and all our teachers as well as cam-puses are equipped with training, facilitiesand systems to inculcate these skills to ourstudents. These skills include:

Collaboration: Mimicking the risingtrend of workforce mobility, schools canexplore the use of virtual technology andhigh-speed connectivity to promote

knowledge-exchange and collaborationamongst students in different locations.

Digital competency: With automationand artificial intelligence poised to replaceresource-heavy and repetitive tasks with-in organisations, schools can help theirstudents improve future employability bypreparing them for the human-machinepartnership from today. The provision ofstudent access to digital learning tools androbotics/AI labs can have far-reachingimpacts in terms of shaping the next gen-eration of digital workforce.

Innovation: It is important to help youngcurious minds understand that technol-ogy is not only a means to better produc-tivity — it also holds the key to creatingnew values and breaking down boundariesof what is possible. Entrepreneur boot-camps and innovation competitions are anexcellent way to encourage out-of-the-boxthinking and applications of technologyamongst students. Amidst calls for urgentactions to develop a future-ready work-force capable of powering new levels ofinnovation, the words of the renowneddevelopmental psychologist Jean Piaget aremore relevant than ever: “The principalgoal of education is to create individu-als who are capable of doing newthings, not simply of repeating whatother generations have done”. By havinga clear grasp of new workplace require-ments and applying a digital-firstapproach to its skills-based education,India can take strong steps in the rightdirection to equipping our children withthe necessary skills to thrive in tomor-row.-���������� ��'� �������� ���"�����1�����

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!�(��)�*�����+�����(�������+*�)�+�����)�����**�)����,�Urban lifestyle can be a bane as much

as a boon. The diseases and healthdisorders that one becomes prone

to in cities appear to become more wide-spread due to the rapid industrialisationof the country. Human health is a resultof the contact of genetic, nutritional,socio-cultural, economic factors and phys-ical infrastructure. All these factors areinfluenced by the environment they areembedded in and by changes in this envi-ronment.

Around the country, lifestyle disorderslike diabetes, obesity and cardiovasculardiseases are already affecting the health andwell-being of thousands of people every-day. Stem cell therapies carry an immensepotential in treating the incurable and irre-versible lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heartdisease, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s,bringing this therapy at the centre stage ofmedical evolution. However, there are cer-tain other lifestyle disorders that are tak-ing a toll on the human health like hair fall,ageing, blindness and infertility (vitiligo isalso quite prominent these days). Hereagain, Stem Cell Therapy acts as a regen-erative medicine to promote the reparativereaction of dysfunctional or injured tissue.Let’s scan through the battle between stemcells and the following lifestyle disordersand problems:

��� ����Hair loss is a frustrating and embarrass-ing experience for every man and womanwith increasing age. Voluminous hair isassociated with vitality and youth. No won-der, people are always on the lookout forsome solution that truly works and does-n’t simply belt out false promises thatnumerous advertisements offer. Finally,there is good news for them! The key tobringing back those lost strands lies in stemcells wherein they are turned into hair fol-licle cells and transplanted onto denudedparts of the scalp or body. Compared to theinvasive method of hair replacementsurgery, researchers have genetically mod-ified adult human skin cells to form anepithelial stemcell. This cell is one of thebuilding blocks for functioning hair folli-cles and produces structurally recognisablehair shafts.

�� �������� �������Infertility problems have been a majorsource of concern for Indian couples late-ly due to changes in lifestyle, stress and therecent trend of late marriages contribut-ing to this occurrence. While poor spermcount plays a major role in male infertil-ity, female infertility is an outcome ofhealth disorders like polycystic ovarian dis-order or PCOD. Stem cells are being con-sidered as potential new therapeutic agents

for the treatment of infertility by the doc-tors wherein the cells could be stimulat-ed in vitro to develop various numbers ofspecialised cells including male and femalegametes, given their potential use inreproductive medicine. Primordial germcells (PGCs) are some of the first cells tobe developed when an egg cell is fertilisedby a sperm. While some cells remain insideeventually developing into the fetus, othercells on the outside become the placenta.Most of the inner cells become stem cells,capable of turning into any kind of spe-cialised cell, and a small number of thembecome PGCs, carrying the genetic infor-mation that will one day be passed downas sperm or egg. Researchers have beenable to create these PGCs. However, theyare yet to determine whether a PGC canbe turned into a sperm or egg cell.

�������������� �������As people grow old, a large number of cellsin their bodies get replaced and with age,their body’s ability to reproduce new cellsdecreases immensely. Body fat is the rich-est source of adult stem cells in thehuman body. They carry the incrediblecapacity to not only divide to form morestem cells, but also to differentiate into spe-cialised cells to regenerate dying or dam-aged tissues. Stem cell treatments help inreloading the supply of stem cells, allow-ing the body to repair and rejuvenate withyounger looking skin. By inserting thesestem cells combined with some fat tissueinto the areas of the face with wrinkles, theface is softly altered without letting it loseits distinctiveness.

�������For people who are blind, the thought ofretaining their eyesight seems like animpossible dream. The tables have finallyturned, made possible by a few scientists.Macular degeneration is a leading cause ofvision loss in older adults and when itstrikes, it affects the area of the eye that isimportant to see fine details. Through stemcell therapy, stem cells are injected into therear of the eye in order to replace the dam-aged photoreceptors, which are small butcrucial cells found in the retina. These pho-toreceptors are sensitive to light and are vitalto a person’s ability to see things.

Lifestyle disorders are witnessing asteady increase day by day and they canhave debilitating effects on the humanbody, its functions and appearance.However, the advent of clinical research-es on stem cell therapies with one’s ownstem cells has raised a ray of hope in theconstant effort to reverse the effects of thesedisorders. This is good news as it can openthe gateway to treating life-threatening dis-orders in the long run.

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Asleepy hill station, aquiet, farawaymonastery surrounded

by mountains and nestled inbreath-taking scenic beauty, adecent-looking couple tryingto reawaken their passionaway from the bustle of a hec-tic city, surrounded by severalpeople with intriguing livesand obscure motives, and asensitive document with anacute incendiary potential —if knit together seamlessly,these would make a perfectrecipe for a Bollywood pot-boiler. An urbane,new-agereader is denied precisely thatfeeling of fulfilment or a fit-ting denouement in thisextremely good looking novelthat aspires in vain to be apacy adult thriller. The secondbook by actor Barun Chandawho dons the hats of an adver-tising guru, acting and writingby turns, Murder in theMonastery offers a well-exe-cuted narrative.

Placing Kolkata old houndAvinash Roy at the centre ofstory, Chanda seems to havedrawn upon one inspirationtoo many: A detective whowants some moments of peaceand solitude à la a SherlockHolmes, who is surrounded bya motley group of touristswith hidden pasts put togetherby circumstances like AgathaChristie’s ten little soldiers, adocument pertaining to themysteries of Jesus Christ’s lifewhich is dished out in a man-

ner not entirely unlike DanBrown, to name a few. Royholidays with his beautiful butoft-neglected wife Sharmila,romping in the wilderness andrecovering his lost libido, putsup at the out-of-the-wayDengziang Monastery and isrudely interrupted when he isabout to make out with hiswife once more, summoned bythe head Lama, Lama Phunsokto help recover the missingIssah document. What followsis the sulking wife, neglectedonce more as duty beckons,packed off to home throughher angry outbursts in chasteBangla: “Let it ruinhim…Taatetomarki?”,“Dhurchhai! You are impossi-ble” to never reappear in theplot, having spiced up thestory in the beginning with

some legitimate lovemakingsequences to justify the adulttag. The ace detective Roy ofcourse stays back in theSikkim monastery to cleanup the matter. In a poor imi-tation of James Bond-esquemanner, Roy proceeds tomake friends with the “ratherattractive” Coorgi girl stayingat the monastery, Miriam deGonzales, who seems toknow everything that Roythought to be a private con-versation between him andthe head Lama. Miriam’s dis-turbing know-it-all chatterand obviously flirtatiousattentions put Roy on alert,and together they narrowlyescape being crushed todeath by a stray boulderrolling down the hill. Theepisode reminds one of

Sherlock missing a similarattempt on his life afterMoriarty’s death, retold in thefirst story of “The Return ofSherlock Holmes”. The readeris given samples of Roy’s clini-cal observation skills through-out, as he goes about makingdeductions about randomhappenings and individuals.What plunges Roy finally intoaction in proper, however, arethe twin murders of Miriamand Tenzing, her secret lover,within the monastery. Aidedby his colleague and AssistantPradyot, Roy and InspectorThapa launch on a wild goosechase for the mysterious nunwho slept with Miriam on herlast night.

That our hero is an ageingdetective, at times utterlyunimaginative and clumsy,

becomes difficult to get togrips with, especially in thelight of Pradyot’s swashbuck-ling, more hands-on approachtowards his work. He is notonly adept at physicallyimpressing himself upon thepeople he seeks to question,reminding one of CID’s the-atrical and burly officer Daya,but also displays a keenersense of observation as com-pared to his boss. Roy’s round-ing up and sizing up of thesuspects is also Poirot-like: Heanalyses the characters andmotives of all the significantcharacters, yoked together byfluke or by design, talking infirst person, “Let us takeWilliam ‘Billy’ Ford first…”The character of the Frenchdocumentary film makerPierre Duval is somewhat lazi-ly sketched, with lingeringloose ends. Thrown into thisjumble carelessly are Billy’snymphomaniac wife who pur-sues him literally across theseven seas; the mousy, secre-tive but ultimately harmlesscouple; a Lama seekingrevenge having been a victimof sexual abuse as a child, aChristian organisation whichoperates in dubious ways, andthe tale of Miriam’s failed sui-cide attempt. The sparselyinjected humour feels deliber-ate and lame by turns, failingto lighten up the tenor of thenarrative. The character ofInspector Thapa however,offers some respite by hissheer ingenuity and typicalpolice hound doggedness. Thelast quarter of the novel is theweakest link, with roughjumps and farfetched solutionscooked up rather like instantnoodles, sadly, sans the magicmasala.The logical what’s andwherefore’s are made frustrat-ingly redundant as the readeris pushed into a hastily puttogether chase for unravellingmistaken identities, hazymotives, and the mystery ofthe missing document tests allthe ‘incredible’ powers ofdeduction of the ace detectiveAvinash Roy. Murder in theMonastery should be read on along journey, putting a tradi-tional, gripping whodunitaside, befitting only a straight,breezy read.

Primo Levi, in TheReawakening, sequel tohis classic memoirSurvival in Auschwitz,writes: “Monsters exist,

but they are too few in numberto be truly dangerous. Moredangerous are the common men,the functionaries ready tobelieve and to act without ask-ing questions.” It is an importantlesson. It is a reminder thatgenocides aren’t a result of onebad straw-man’s evil actions;they are a result of public acqui-escence to crumbling institu-tions, apathy towards discrimi-nation and dehumanisation oflarge segments of people, andindifference to politics as longas it doesn’t personally affect us.Harsh Mander’s Partitions of theHeart is a worthy and timelyintervention at a time whenmost public protests are beingdeemed anti-national, and whenindependent administrativeinstitutions are slowly beingstripped of their autonomy.

Mander’s book is a scathingindictment of the ruling party inpower, who he sees as culprits aswell as catalysts behind the con-temporary climate of communalhate, and minority discrimina-tion within the country. He dubsthis phenomenon ‘commandbigotry’ which has emboldenedordinary and less powerfuleveryday hate-mongers to exer-cise their worst instincts in pub-lic without fear of Governmentalcensure. The narrative begins inthe Gulberg Society during 2002Gujarat riots where the callous-ness of the Gujarat Modeltowards the rights of its Muslimminority, even in the face oftheir persecution and death, wasfirst put on display. Mandercarefully details the apathy ofpolice forces even as Lok SabhaMP Ehsan Jafri made repeatedphone calls to local police sta-tions as well as people in theuppermost echelons of the StateGovernment, allegedly includingthe then Chief MinisterNarendra Modi, to no avail. Thenext Chapter, “The Ethics ofCollective Vengeance” takes acloser look at the fall-out of thisGovernment sanctioned bigotry.The segregation of Muslim com-munities in villages of Gujaratpost 2002, as well as their unof-ficial economic boycott is juxta-posed with the uninterestedGovernment machinery which

failed to do the absolute mini-mum to maintain refugeecamps, or ensure communal rec-onciliation or social integration.

Divided into 12 chapters, thebook takes care to focus on vari-ous interrelated issues likeincreased public lynching ofminorities, cow vigilantism,love-jihad politics, religiousconversions, and profiling ofyoung Muslim men as terrorists.He also dedicates an entirechapter to the ‘betrayal’ of ‘secu-lar’ political parties which led tothe rise of such a tendency. Theculpability of the Left parties,Congress, Samajwadi Party et al

in deepening religious divide fortheir own short-term politicalgains is discussed and thorough-ly criticised in the text. He pro-poses that these circumstanceshave reduced minority groups tosecond class citizenship withintheir own country. He terms thisperpetual feeling insecurity andtheir manufactured outsider-sta-tus as a “bloodless phase ofgenocide”. “They make a desola-tion and call it peace”, AghaShahid Ali had written in ACountry Without a Post Office, aslight rephrasing of Tacitus’“solitudinem faciunt, pacemappellant”. In Partitions of the

Heart we are made to confront ajarring reality where this desola-tion of Kashmir has come tohaunt the minorities of the restof the country too. It lifts thecurtain on the ugly side ofaggressive, masculinist Hindutvafascism that has taken largeparts of the country in its grip.Mander’s book is part journalis-tic, part academic and meticu-lously researched in keepingwith the requirements of boththese fields. The author tries toinclude as many examples ofnews-reports, eye witnessaccounts, and documentary evi-dences as part of his argument

in true journalistic style. Hisacademic rigour ensures thatthese individual events andissues don’t sit in vacuum butare linked to larger social pat-terns of social and politicalcomplacency.

One of the primary weak-nesses of the book, in my opin-ion, is Mander’s ‘all was well’syndrome. Time and again, hedescribes each post-riot affectedarea as an erstwhile model ofcommunal harmony. India ofpre-2002 years might have hadproblems, but in Mander’sworldview it was a tolerant, har-monious country where people

of all faiths co-existed in peace.The truth is more complex thanthat. While the role of certainpolitical forces cannot beignored in stoking communaltensions over the past few years,it is historically inaccurate toclaim that the subliminal anti-Muslim rhetoric isn’t deeplycoded in the very fabric of thesocial and cultural idea of India.The battle for a secularConstitution was hard foughtand hard won; to ignore that isto ignore the tremendouscourage that Nehru andAmbedkar displayed when theypersisted in countering theHindutva forces that wantedIndia to be a Hindu nation inopposition to our newly dividedIslamic neighbour. One danger-ous consequence of this is thatit completely frees ‘us’, who aretolerant, from all responsibilityfor the actions of ‘them’ whoengage in bigotry. This inabilityto make ourselves accountablefor perpetuating the very struc-tures we claim to be fightingagainst cannot but be a band-aid solution. The book shiesaway from engaging in anuanced understanding of thelegacy of Partition on the citi-zenry of India despite mention-ing it in its title. I also felt thatMander could have spent a littlemore time in exploring the eco-nomic conditions that may haveled to the radicalisation of somany people in Hindutva ideol-ogy. Finally, the book takes forgranted the reader’s knowledgeof the workings of the RSS, andits ideological influence in BJP.This limits its readership topeople who already agree withMander in their perception ofthe organisation. Perhaps thatwas intended by the author, butI do believe that this book couldhave made a case for newerconverts to Hindutva ideologyto reconsider their affiliationsin light of the information pre-sented here.

The above critique notwith-standing, this book serves as apoignant archive of the timeswe live in. In the tradition offaithful truth-keeping of writ-ers before him, Mander bearswitness to the systemic erosionof inter-community tiesthrough this book. It should berecommended to everyone whowishes to understand contem-porary India.

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2���������������The announcement of victory over

the Islamic State (ISIS) group inSyria marks the end of the extremists’self-styled caliphate, a proto-state inwhich they held millions hostage totheir dark and brutal vision. But ISIS,which traces its roots back to thebloody emergence of al-Qaida in Iraqafter the 2003 US-led invasion, hassurvived past defeats and is alreadywaging a low-level insurgency in areasit was driven from months or evenyears ago.

The grueling four-and-a-half-year campaign to drive ISIS from theterritories it once held has left entiretowns and neighborhoods in ruins, inboth war-torn Syria and Iraq. If thelong-standing grievances of SunniMuslims in both countries continueto fester, the extremists could riseagain.

What has ended exactly?What is over is the ISIS’ physical

“caliphate,” after the SyrianDemocratic Forces, a Kurdish-ledgroup supported by the United States,declared on March 23 the capture ofthe last tiny patch of territory con-trolled by the militants, in the east-ern Syrian village of Baghouz.

That domain once stretched overlarge parts of Syria and Iraq, whichthe group conquered in a blitz in thesummer of 2014, capturing towns andcities, including Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest.

The fighters bulldozed bermsalong the border and proclaimed acontiguous caliphate stretching acrossa third of both countries. At itsheight, the territory was the size ofBritain, stretching from near thenorthern Syrian town of Aleppo tothe outskirts of the Iraqi capital,Baghdad, and home to 8 million peo-ple.

The extremists governed under aharsh and violent interpretation ofIslam. They massacred those whoresisted their rule and beheadedhostages, including Western jour-nalists and foreign aid workers, ingruesome videos circulated online.Alleged adulterers were stoned todeath, those believed to be gay werethrown from the tops of buildings,and children were made to watch theatrocities as part of their brainwash-ing. The group captured thousands ofwomen from Iraq’s Yazidi minority,forcing them into sexual slavery.

ISIS also carried out the moremundane actions of a state — col-lecting taxes, printing school text-books, minting its own currencyand restoring public infrastructure. Itwas an experiment in statehood thatnot even al-Qaida ever tried on a sig-nificant scale.

From its de facto capital of Raqqa,in northern Syria, its leaders plottedspectacular attacks abroad, includingthe 2015 Paris attacks that killed 130people. As ISIS began to hemorrhage

territory, it began opportunisticallyclaiming attacks without any evidenceof its involvement.

The self-proclaimed caliphateattracted tens of thousands of peoplefrom around the world, lured by thegroup’s online activism and slicklyproduced propaganda videos. Young,troubled men were eager to wage waragainst those branded enemies ofIslam, while others were drawn to thepromise of life in an Islamic state gov-erned by God’s law.

That physical “caliphate” wasdeclared dead, for now.

What is the cost of liberation?The grueling four-year air and

ground campaign against ISIS haskilled or wounded tens of thousandsof people, driven hundreds of thou-sands from their homes and left aswath of destruction stretching fromthe suburbs of Damascus to centralIraq.

The major cities ISIS once held —Mosul, Raqqa, Fallujah and Ramadi— have all seen major devastation.

The group put up fierce resistancenearly everywhere, using civilians ashuman shields and launching wavesof car bomb and suicide attacks. Asit slowly retreated, it left behindbooby traps and explosives that inmany areas have yet to be cleared.

The US-led coalition droppedtens of thousands of bombs over Syriaand Iraq to help its allies on theground advance, sometimes pulver-izing entire city blocks. SyrianGovernment forces backed by Russianair power battled ISIS in some areas,as did Iraq’s state-sanctioned militias,with help from Iran.

The death toll from the campaignremains uncounted. In a reportreleased last year, the coalition con-firmed the deaths of 1,139 civilians inairstrikes conducted between August2014 and November 2018. Rightsgroups say the number is muchhigher.

An Associated Press investigationfound at least 9,000 civilians died inthe assault to retake Mosul alone. InRaqqa, the US-backed campaignkilled hundreds of civilians andcaused destruction on a massivescale. Syria is still mired in civil war,and Iraq estimates it will need $100billion to rebuild. Local leaders inMosul say they need that much fortheir city alone. No one has offeredto foot the bill, and hard-hit areasremain empty, even years later.

What’s next The official declaration of victo-

ry is of mostly symbolic value.Thousands of ISIS militants have dis-persed and gone to ground, and USdefense officials have warned that IScould stage a comeback in Syriawithin a year if military and coun-terterrorism pressure is eased.

“They’ve cut the trunk of this

malignant tree, but they haven’tpulled up its roots, which are stillcapable of growing and spreading,”Hisham al-Hashemi, a researcher inextremism and expert on ISIS, wrotein a Twitter post.

Activists who closely follow theconflict in Syria already point to signsof a growing insurgency and sleepercells carrying out assassinations, set-ting up flying checkpoints and claim-ing roadside bombs in liberated areasacross Syria and Iraq.

That insurgency could gainstrength as President Donald Trumppresses ahead with his planned USwithdrawal from Syria. The Americancommander overseeing the fightagainst ISIS, General Joseph Votel, haswarned that the group is far frombeing defeated, saying its leadershave dispersed and gone under-ground.

“What we are seeing now is notthe surrender of ISIS as an organisa-tion but a calculated decision to pre-serve the safety of their families andpreservation of their capabilities,” hesaid earlier this month, adding thatthe insurgents are “waiting for theright time to resurge.”

The withdrawal of Americanforces from eastern Syria would openthe door for major turmoil as variousactors — including the Syrian gov-ernment, allied with Russia and Iran— race to fill the vacuum.

ISIS was all but defeated oncebefore, when US forces withdrewfrom Iraq in 2011; experts warn itcould stage another devastatingcomeback.

And ISIS has established affiliatesacross Asia and Africa, and contin-ues to be active in places likeAfghanistan, Libya, Egypt’s SinaiPeninsula, Yemen and the Philippines.

Future of detained fighters andtheir families

Another major concern is jihadisfinding their way back to Europe.Around 1,000 foreign fighters are cur-rently being held in Kurdish-run pris-ons in northern Syria. Their wives —many of them from Western coun-tries — and their children are incamps in northern Syria.

Syrian Kurdish authorities arecalling on countries to take back theirnationals, saying they cannot affordto keep shouldering the burden.Trump has weighed in, calling onBritain, France, Germany and otherEuropean allies to repatriate theirnationals and put them on trial.

“The US does not want to watchas these ISIS fighters permeateEurope, which is where they areexpected to go,” he tweeted inFebruary.

But few countries are willing tobring back people they view as a secu-rity threat, posing a dilemma for theKurdish-led forces as the US preparesto withdraw. AP

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Syria resonates in the regionaland global fulcrum as another

conflict centre and a twilightzone. The fact has been that ter-rorism is the spectacular attentiongathering device of a resource andfund challenged non-state actor.

In West Asia regionally and inthe Syrian quagmire particularly,the issue of insurgency and thespectacularity of the ministra-tions of the Kurdish forces alignedwith United States against the ISISare present, which are somewherepitted against the Bashar-Al-Assadregime of Damascus.

Once upon a time Syria usedto be a progressive and modernistpopulation centre, but, with theinternecine entry of Iran intoLebanon through Syria andHezbollah, the regional scenariohas become tricky going beyondthe pale of the quintessential BOP( balance of power) system in thelarger international system and theWest Asian region. Now, theSyrian nation has turned into aregion, facing one of the worsthumanitarian disasters whosesinews now reach out to Europeas part of a larger migrationacross the European mountainsand icy lands.

The US, too, gets embroiled inthis regional fracas. TheDecember 2018 decision ofPresident Trump to withdraw thelast contingent of 2,000 soldiershas been a part of his larger“sequestration and isolationiststreak” in the context of the USforeign policy. The US we perceivetoday is much different from thetimes of President Bush where-inthe superpower nowadays intendsto withdraw from global respon-sibilities, including that of conflictresolution and related recon-struction efforts in destroyedprincipalities.

The power vacuum left by theAmerican withdrawal from apost-Saddam Iraq led to thespawning of a Phoenix like IslamicState (ISIS). In a way, if theBashar-Al-Assad regime does notsurvive, which appears highlyunlikely then a strong and capac-ities-laden nation-state actor suchas the US will be required to setthe unstable stables in order inSyria.

The American interventioniststreak has been on view in placeswhich have faced humanitariancatastrophes. Syria is one suchinstance, wherein, the NATO ally,Turkey too has reservations aboutthe Washington’s policy of takingthe help of the Syrian Kurd groupsand the attendant militia, in orderto counter the ISIS, as the flock of

YPG and others are categoricallyTurkey’s insurgents and law break-ers. Still, akin to other places andin the context of American home-land security, the White House hasto adequately pre-empt the incur-sive and destabilising insurgentsin the Syrian context and the larg-er West Asian region. This leadsus on to the American R2P as theAmericans need to stay muchlonger in Syria to oversee theestablishment of peace and sta-bility in the conflict ravagednation. According to the 2012Global Leadership Report, 29 percent of the Syrians approve of theAmerican leadership, with 41 percent disapproving and 31 percent people expressing indeci-sion about the American leader-ship in Syria.

The scenario of diplomaticexchanges was never so badbetween the doughty Damascusand Washington as in the firstPersian Gulf War of 1990-91,President Bush Sr was part of theAmerican-led coalition to coun-teract the dictatorial act ofSaddam Hussein, and later in thedecade of the nineties, theAmericans successes in bringingHafiz Al Assad of Syria to medi-ate with the state of Israel with thelarger objective of peace in WestAsia. By the time in the aftermathof the September 11 attacks, Syriaparticipated in the US-led GlobalWar on Terror (GWOT) in orderto support the American strivingin West Asia.

In fact, the Syrians were thefirst state to intimate theAmericans about a terror attackon the US Fifth fleet in line withthe USS Cole bombing in 1998.Despite, the Syrian-Americancooperation in the context of theGWOT, Syria has always remainedon the American list of terrorsponsoring safe havens, since theUS enumeration of the same in1979. The US is of the opinion thatthe Damascus regime supportsterror and separatist actors inIsrael and the Palestinian territo-ries, which place the West Asianpeace and stodgy stolidity at agrave risk.

As an adjunct, the USEmbassy was attacked in 2006 forwhich the Syrian Governmentplaced the blame on the Americanpolicy in Iraq. These little flies inthe ointment tended to sour therelations between the twin nationswhich were partially at differentfootings, since the last 30-40 oddyears. So no supine surprises hereover the growing of thaws betweenDamascus and Washington!

The Americans clearly parted

ways when President Obamasponsored the UNSC resolutionlaying the blame for all violence onBashar-Al-Assad and demandedthat he steps down from the per-ilous pedestal of power. TheAmerican Ambassador, RobertStephen Ford, was too withdrawnfrom Syria under duress at threatsto his personal safety and well-being paving the way for thebranding of state of Syria as arecalcitrant nation state. Still, inthe Trump Administration, the USSecretary of State, Rex Tillerson,opined that the longer termpedestal of Bashar-Al-Assadwould be decided by the localSyrian populace and on severaloccasions the US President hassupported idea of “safe zones” inSyria which Syria finds unac-ceptable and beyond the pallor ofrealism.

Also, in the aftermath of theDouma chemical attacks, theTrump regime with Paris initiat-ed missile attacks on the Syriandenomination, thus, paving theway for a confrontation betweenthe US and its allies on side of thefencing ring and Iran and Russiabeing on the antagonist side of thefighting ring.

Very accurate Tom Hawkmissiles have been deftly utilisedfrom USS Philippine Sea andUSS Ariegh Burke at the ISIS tar-gets in Raqqa. Thus, Syria is akinto a rogue nation state tumblingon with Iraq and others, in thecontemporary US understandingof the conflict, thus, ushering ina twilight zone scenario. As aresult in 2014, the nations of theorder of Bahrain, Qatar, UnitedArab Emirates along with theAmerican F-22 Raptor StealthFighters were unleashed on theSyrian air space.

Harking back to Americanhistory, the American interventionin Cuban war and the incidents inPhilippines have served as initia-tor elements in the rise ofAmerican power according toHoward K Beale in 1956 worktitled as, “Theodore Rooseveltand the Rise of America to WorldPower.”

President Theodore Rooseveltat the turn of the century had goneon to contend that the UnitedStates ought to have warshipsequal in number to the aspirationsand the popular will of the greatAmerican people. The niceties ofriding a horse, dining with theelites and deliberating on worldpolitics and literature happen to bethe enumerated characteristics ofa true blue American gentleman,paving the way for the larger over-

arch of the American nation. Thus, America has always

been on a kind of Oregon trailwhich includes incursions of themilitary genre inside states hob-bled with humanitarian disastersas a consequence of political vio-lence, terrorism and attendantmayhem. Regulating the interna-tional system has somehow beena lynchpin of the US foreign pol-icy to rescue the challenged andturmoiled nations their popula-tions.

(The writer teachesInternational Relations at IndianInstitute of Public Administration,Delhi)

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Donald Trump said he“hates” seeing Brexitbeing “ripped apart,” indi-

cated he believes there should beno second referendum, and saidthat Theresa May “didn’t listen”to his advice. Trump’s interven-tion came as he also promisedthat a “large scale” trade dealwith “unlimited potential” waswaiting to be done between theUK and US after Brexit.

Speaking in the Oval Office,while meeting Leo Varadkar, theIrish Taoiseach, the US presidentsaid he had been watching the“very sad” developments in theUK, and his approach to negotia-tions would have worked better.He said: “I will tell you, I’m sur-prised at how badly it’s all gonefrom the standpoint of a negotia-tion. But I gave the prime minis-ter my ideas on how to negotiateit, and I think you would havebeen successful. She didn’t listento that, and that’s fine.

“I mean, she’s gotta do whatshe’s gotta do, but I think itcould have been negotiated in adifferent manner, frankly. I hateto see it, everything being rippedapart right now.” Trump haspreviously said his advice onhow to secure Brexit may havebeen “too brutal” for May.

Addressing the question of asecond referendum the presidentindicated it should not happenbecause it was “very unfair”. Hesaid: “I don’t think another votewould be possible because itwould be very unfair to the peo-ple that won, that say ‘What do

you mean you’re going to takeanother vote?’. So that’d be tough.

“I thought it [the 2016 refer-endum result] would happen, itdid happen, but both sides arevery, very, you know, they’recemented in. It’s a tough situa-tion. It’s a shame. Frankly, it’s ashame. There was no reason forthat to happen. They could havehad the vote and it should havegone smoothly. Unfortunately, itdidn’t. It’s a very complicatedissue, and actually the issue onthe border of Ireland is one of themost complex points.”

Trump said an extensionseemed inevitable but he wouldlike to see Brexit “work out”. Hesaid: “I think they’re going tohave to do something becauseright now they’re in the midst of ashort period of time, and they’renot going to be able to do that. “Iwould like to see that whole situa-tion with Brexit work out. Youknow, we’re talking to them abouttrade, and we can do a very bigtrade deal with the UK. But it’svery sad to see what’s happeningthere, and there was no reason.”

Trump recalled how he hadpredicted the 2016 referendumresult. He said: “It wasn’t that Iwas a supporter. I predicted thatit was going to happen. I wasright and people laughed when Ipredicted it. “I can tell you it’s a

very complex thing that’s goingon right now. It’s tearing a lot ofcountries apart. And it’s a shameit has to be that way.” He added:“We’re also renegotiating ourtrade deal with the Europeangroups. We’re talking to the EUabout trade, they’re willing totalk to us. “And if they don’t talkto us we’re going to do some-thing that’s going to be prettysevere economically, tariff a lotof their products coming in,because the EU treats us very,very unfairly. It’ll probably workout. Otherwise, we’re going to dosomething that’s good for theUnited States.”

Varadkar told Trump: “Ithink it’ll be a few years until theUK sorts itself out, but in themeantime the EU is available totalk trade with the US...” Thepresident said he would be goingto Ireland this year. He said: “I’llbe coming at some point duringthe year. It’s just a great place.” Hetweeted, “My Administrationlooks forward to negotiating alarge scale Trade Deal with theUK. The potential is unlimited!”

Earlier, Trump had warnedthat Britain “may not be able totrade with the US” because ofTheresa May’s Brexit deal incomments that could torpedo herhopes of winning Parliament’sbacking. He said the agreement

May reached with Brussels“sounds like a great deal for theEU” as he urged the PrimeMinister to think again. ThePresident’s intervention seemedto fly in the face of May’s claimsthat Britain would be able tostrike free trade deals around theworld after Brexit despite herconcessions to the EU.

Also, Trump and Nigel Faragediscussed the merits of a no dealBrexit during a face-to-face meet-ing earlier this month. The USpresident was urged to supportwalking away from the table if abad agreement is on offer — justlike he had done during NorthKorea talks in Vietnam. The con-versation took place at theConservative Political ActionConference [Cpac] in WashingtonDC, a gathering of right-leaningpoliticians where both men gavespeeches. Moreover, the USPresident’s former chief strategisthad said that Margaret Thatcher isthe inspiration for DonaldTrump’s policies in the WhiteHouse. Steve Bannon also saidnow is the “the moment” for BorisJohnson, who quit as Foreignsecretary over Theresa May’sproposed Brexit deal, to chal-lenge the Prime Minister to leadthe country. Bannon, who ranTrump’s successful campaign tobecome President in 2016, saidthat Trump’s policies were basedon “pure Thatcherism”. Bannonhad also said: “What we are try-ing to do is get a piece of actionfor the little guy.

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Iunderstand democracy as some-thing that gives the weak thesame chance as the strong,” saidMahatma Gandhi. “Vox populivox dei,” an oft-quoted axiom in

democracies, was coined by the Greeksand conveyed that the voice of the peo-ple was indeed the voice of God.Democracy is the manifestation of peo-ple’s will to be governed by those theyelect. It is a different matter that thevery same people as voters may notnecessarily be happy with the electedrepresentatives they choose to governthem. Democracy, also, is not necessar-ily the voice of the majority. Many peo-ple do not vote, and those who do maynot see their candidates win.

Society has a history spanning mil-lions of years, and the media, especiallythe mass media, is a little over a centuryold. Yet it is ironical that the media,over the years, has accumulatedimmense power to influence society inmore ways than one. The media’s powercomes from its capacity to influencepublic opinion. Media critics believethat it is not a knowledge-based profes-sion, but depends on events and hap-penings interpreted from both the sup-ply side of information — throughpress releases, backgrounders, pressconferences, events, etc — and thedemand side of information, from theperspective of reporters who interpretevents and information according totheir understanding and mental capa-bility. The media, therefore, can be seenas a social institution, which is not andcannot be very different from thenature of the society it exists in.

The relationship between themedia and society is symbiotic. In fact,any debate on the mass media andsociety oscillates between twoextremes, depending on who is sayingit. Some swear by the media’s unbri-dled power, while others feel that themedia does not affect lives at all.Whatever may be the cliché in theseviews, there is no gainsaying the factthat the media has become part of theeveryday life of an average person,who makes sense of the world aroundhim/her through media stimuli.

In this chapter, an effort has beenmade to provide a theoretical constructto the interrelation of democracy, themedia and its impact on elections. Thelast century or so has seen the develop-ment of many theories and modelsaround the subject, which have alsobeen tested in many elections in theWest, especially in the United States(US). Over the years, elections in otherdemocracies, especially in the develop-ing world, have copied campaign stylesand media usage from their Westerncounterparts, again the US in particu-

lar. Critics have often called this the‘Americanisation’ of elections. Theremay not have been many scholarlyresearch studies on the Indian electionswith a theoretical construct in the past,but the current crop of scholars — fromnot only India but also the West — hasevinced great interest in the Indianelections, and one does find referencesin contemporary literature on the sub-ject. The later chapters have cited anumber of such studies. British com-munication theorist Denis McQuailascribes four important attributes to themass media that lend it significance.

A power source: The media is theprimary means of transmission andsource of information in society. Themedia is in the area of public affairs:Government organisations and the cor-porate sector, because of various regula-tions, are often in the media glare.

A definition of social reality: Themedia is a forum where the changing

culture and values of society andgroups are ‘constructed, stored andvisibly expressed’.

A primary key to fame and celebri-ty status: First, it was people from theentertainment industry, thensportspersons, and now even corporatehonchos, who have acquired celebritystatus in the media. The power of themedia, however, is not intrinsic butacquired. This power comes from thepeople, as consumers and audiences ofnews and various other programmes.The political institutions that areaccountable to the people in a democ-racy through periodic elections obvi-ously face the worst of a vocal andnegative media, and that is what lendspower to the media.

Harwood L Childs, author of AnIntroduction to Public Opinion, in histhesis on the subject, strongly advocatesthe preserving of public opinion,because many forces in his view seem

to be at work, curtailing and undermin-ing its role. These, according to Childs,include the tremendous growth in exec-utive power, the growing complexityand speed of social change, the emer-gence of pressure groups and higherstakes among political parties, the massmedia and other channels.

Representative bodies are becomingless representative, and elections,though they indicate the preferred can-didates, often give only a slight indica-tion of public attitude. A section of ana-lysts feels that the decision of the votersis more often shaped by the mass mediastimuli around election time. Excessivevisibility of certain candidates in com-parison to others, cunning campaignsby parties and the ‘public face’ as pre-sented have the capability to swing pub-lic opinion in favour of or against acandidate, which may have nothing todo with the ‘real’ choice of the elec-torate, as it should have been. To what

extent an average person depends onmedia messages or to what extent themedia shapes our minds, attitudes andopinions is, however, a moot point.

��������� ������There have been numerous debatesleading to concern and anxiety aboutthe increasing role and influence ofthe media, which, it is alleged, haschanged the very fabric of politics. Afascinating, and at times intriguing,interplay of the mass media and poli-tics has been the subject matter ofmuch empirical research.

Politics as an institution has a longhistory. Many things have influencedpolitics over the years. Similarly, themedia has undergone changes andentered various phases. Political institu-tions have taken centuries to be whatthey are today. The media as an institu-tion has progressed in a much shorterperiod, as said earlier. Thanks to theingenuity of the human mind, coupledwith science and technology, the mediahas acquired such a formidable positionand influence from being a watchdogthat it questions institutions and prac-tices that are as old as the human civili-sation itself. While the news media hashistorically been viewed as aggressiveand overenthusiastic for the latest andhottest information, its watchdog func-tion in a democratic society posits thatpeople know what their Governmentsand public-funded institutions aredoing. The media has the power to holdthe Government and public-fundedinstitutions accountable, forcing themto explain actions and decisions, all ofwhich affect the people they represent.

The assumption is that the pressspeaks for the people, thus the freedomof speech and freedom of the press Actsare widely prevalent in some democra-cies. The need for freedom of the mediais to ensure that it articulates the voiceof the people and their concerns bybringing them in the public domain.The argument supports that the newsmedia must question the Government,thereby contributing in making democ-racy function. Therefore, it is impor-tant to understand that the freedomof speech and expression is in theinterest of the public, and such legis-lation does not only protect the func-tions of the press, but also lets it func-tion without fear or favour. Today, inthe era of globalisation, this role hasundergone a sea change. It is oftenalleged that the media today hasbecome a commodity. There is alsogrowing criticism against the mediafor projecting unabashed violence. �4������������"���������" ����������� ���

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Page 14: ˇ ˜ ˚& ˚ ˚ ˜ ˜ˇ˚ ˚ ˜ ˜˛ ˚˚ ˛ ˛ ˚˜ · 2019-03-23 · Babbar from Moradabad to Fatehpur Sikri, in an apparent bid to make the Lok Sabha con-test easier for the actor-turned-politician

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Long-haul flights, tons of guns anda bagpipe flamethrower: Such arethe special demands of his career

that James Bond has never been con-sidered a poster boy for an eco-friendlylifestyle. But next year’s 25th Bond filmlooks set to have Ian Fleming’s heromake his first concession to climatechange, by driving an electric AstonMartin — albeit one which retails at£250,000. According to reports, thefilm — whose working title ofShatterhand was recently debunked —will see Daniel Craig’s 007 behind thewheel of an Aston Martin Rapide E,one of only 155 electric cars being builtby the British manufacturer.

The Sun reports that director CaryJoji Fukunaga has spearheaded thechange, with their source describinghim as “a total tree-hugger”. “This issomething Cary pushed for andDaniel and the producers are goingalong with. Everybody is afraid ofBond getting labelled ‘too PC’ but theyall felt the time was right to put him ina zero-emission vehicle.”

Aston Martin’s relationship with

the spy franchise began in 1964, whenSean Connery drove a DB5 sports carin Goldfinger. Shooting on the newfilm is expected to start in April, aftera series of delays involving the replace-ment of Danny Boyle as director fol-lowing reported “creative differences”between he and producers BarbaraBroccoli and Michael G Wilson.

Many suggested Boyle and his co-writer John Hodge were eager to bringBond up to date with a plot includingnods to the #MeToo movement —and, potentially, 007’s own death.

Three Michael Jackson fan groupsare suing his alleged victims inFrance for “sullying his memo-

ry” by taking part in the LeavingNeverland documentary, the fans’lawyer told Agence France-Presse. TheMichael Jackson Community — whichclaims to be the “official fan clubforum” — and the MJ Street and OnThe Line groups accuse Wade Robsonand James Safechuck of “lynching”Jackson.The case, which will be heardby a court in Orléans in northernFrance in July, follows reports thatJackson’s children were also consider-ing taking legal action against themen, who say that Jackson sexuallyabused them when they were children.

Lawyer Emmanuel Ludot, whohas previously successfully suedJackson’s doctor for causing distress tohis fans by giving him the drugs thatkilled him, said the groups “want todiscredit the accusations of pae-dophilia” against Jackson.

Ludot said the “indignity of theextremely grave accusations” made by

Robson and Safechuck in LeavingNeverland had sullied the memory ofthe singer, who died in 2009.

Jackson’s image had been affectedby the allegations as well as “the wholecommunity of his fans”, the lawyersaid. Leaving Neverland was firstbroadcast in the US on HBO earlierthis month and has since brokenstreaming records in Britain.

The film has outraged some ofJackson’s fans, who have waged anoften vicious social media campaignagainst his accusers.

Four months after it first appearedon Netflix, footage of a real-liferail disaster will be removed

from the movie Bird Box, the post-apocalyptic thriller starring SandraBullock. The stock footage used con-cerns a 2013 tragedy in the Québectown of Lac-Mégantic when an unat-tended train carrying crude oil rolleddown an incline, came off the tracksand exploded, killing 47 people.

Earlier this year, the streaminggiant said it would not remove theclip, which in Bird Box is used to illus-trate mass deaths in the wake of an

invasion of spectral beasts who causea person’s worst fears to materialise,leading them to kill themselves.

But in a statement to TheWraprecently, Netflix confirmed that bothit and the makers of Bird Box havedecided to replace the clip. They alsoapologised, saying: “We’re sorry forany pain caused to the Lac-Méganticcommunity.” In response, Quebec’sMinister of Culture andCommunications, Nathalie Roy,praised the decision, saying it showsthat “by uniting and pooling ourefforts, everything is possible”.

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Apparently not all unicornsare the embodiment of puri-

ty and grace. Baltimore CountyPolice say a person dressed in aunicorn costume and wieldinga crowbar tried to rob a con-venience store Saturdaymorning in the Baldwincommunity. Officers arrivedjust after the High’s storeopening time of 5 am torespond to the robbery call.

Police say the suspect hadfled in a silver car. Theylocated what appeared to bethe same car after it hadwrecked. No other cars wereinvolved in the wreck.

Police say two peopleinvolved in the crash weretaken to a hospital, and detec-tives are working to determinewhat their involvement was inthe robbery. No charges wereimmediately filed. Police didn’tsay if money or merchandisewas taken in the robbery.

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German police say a drunkenman with a fire extinguisher

smashed his way into the driver’scab of a high-speed train running

from Frankfurt to Paris anddemanded that the driver slowdown. Federal police said theICE train operated byGermany’s Deutsche Bahnstopped near Frankfurt after

the incident Sunday morning.The 30-year-old man fromHeideberg, who wasn’t identi-fied, was arrested and faces aninvestigation into dangerousinterference in rail traffic,among other things.

Police say passengers saidthe man took a fire extinguisheroff the wall, smashed a glassdoor separating the cab from thepassenger compartment, and toldthe shocked driver the train wasgoing much too fast and he hadto save the passengers. No pas-sengers were hurt but the trainwas taken out of service.

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AFlorida man called911 after going to the bathroom

and finding a bright green iguana swim-ming in his toilet. Fort LauderdaleBattalion Chief Stephan Gollan tells theMiami Herald the man “freaked out anddidn’t know what to do.” He says fire-fighter Jeff Kurus put on a sterile glove,reached in and grabbed the iguana. Hetook it outside and released it into thewild. Gollan says the department “is theend-all-be-all” when it comes to uniquecalls. The department tweeted picturesof the iguana, adding “can you imaginelifting the toilet lid and finding this?”

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Exposing cheese to round-the-clockmusic could give it more flavor and

hip hop might be better than Mozart,Swiss researchers said on Thursday.Nine wheels of Emmental cheeseweighing 10 kilos each were placed inseparate wooden crates last Septemberto test the impact of music on flavorand aroma. The cheese was exposed 24

hours a day to A TribeCalled Quest’s hip hoptrack “We Got it From

Here”, Mozart’s ‘MagicFlute’ opera or Led Zeppelin’s rock clas-sic “Stairway to Heaven”. One wheelwas played the throbbing techno ofVril’s “UV” and another Yello’s darkambient piece “Monolith”.

Soundwaves at low, medium andhigh frequencies were played for threeothers while one wheel was left in peace.“The most obvious differences wereobserved in strength of flavor, smell andtaste,” Bern University of Artsresearchers said in reporting the find-ings of a culinary jury which did blindtasting. “The hip hop sample topped thelist of all cheese exposed to music interms of fruitiness...(it) was the strongestof these in terms of smell and taste.”

Benjamin Luzuy, a Swiss TV chiefand jury member, told Reuters TV:“The differences were very clear, interm of texture, taste, the appearance,there was really something very differ-ent.” The experiment, instead of usingloudspeakers, used mini transmitters toconduct the energy of the music intothe cheese. “All the energy is directly

resonating inside of the cheese,” MichaelHarenberg of Bern University of Artstold Reuters. Beat Wampfler, the cheese-maker behind the project, said thecheeses were tested twice by the juryand both times the results were more orless the same. He said the experimentwould now focus on hip hop. “The ideais now to take 5 or 10 cheeses and puthip hop on them and then compare.”

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Tel Aviv has taken a small steptoward protecting the lives of

“smartphone zombies.” Themunicipality has installed specialLED sidewalk lights at a busycrosswalk to alert distractedpedestrians staring at theirphones when they can walk andwhen they should stop. TomerDror, head of the traffic manage-ment division at the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality, said the“zombie traffic lights” aim tominimize accidents betweenvehicles and inattentive pedes-trians at crosswalks. “We can-

not force them to take their eyes out ofthe smartphone and into the road. Weneed to find ways to put the road intotheir eyes,” he said. The striped lightsturn green when it is safe to walk, andred when pedestrians should halt. Fornow, the pilot program is limited to a

single intersection in central TelAviv, but the municipality saysit will expand the zombielights if they prove effective.

Similar systems havealready been used in

Australia, Singapore andthe Netherlands. So far,smartphone-addictedresidents seem to bewelcoming the lights.

“It’s somethingamazing,” said Tel Avivresident Shai Levi. “Assomeone who is addict-ed to his phone and isall day long with hishead glued on thescreen, I think that itcan without any hesita-tion, reduce the num-

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My earliest recollectionof my personal stylewas far from compli-mentary; instead, itstarted with retorts of

“Well, you’re going to look very silly!”And indeed I did: Utterly silly. Butstill I threw aside the pristine twin-setneatly laid out for my sister’s party infavour of a garish pyjama top,Dalmatian-print leggings, stuck-onearrings and a conservative flourishof patent Mary Janes, an outfit Ithought was the height of sophistica-tion. The whole ensemble was set offby a pink beaded purse puckered withjelly tots, an ill-tempered Tamagotchiand other five-year-old-child essen-tials. Let’s just say it was hard to dis-tinguish me from the clown bookedfor post-lunch entertainment.

In this moment, fashion becameabout more than clothes for me. It wasan act of defiance, self-assertion and adeclaration of who I was — which cer-tainly wasn’t going to be imposed byanyone but myself. In the years follow-ing, this sense that style is intimatelyconnected to our identity has strength-ened. Although I’ve had a muscleweakness disability since birth, inrecent years, additional illness, such assevere pneumonia, has significantlyimpacted my mobility, stamina and thephysical strength of my voice. As afashion journalist with a disability, Irecognise how style can empower peo-ple to express themselves regardless ofability, race, age, gender or size.

In recent years, the concept of“diversity” has come into focus in thefashion industry, catapulted from theabyss to assume centrestage in fashioncampaigns, glossy magazine coversand post-catwalk commentary. In fact,we’ve just witnessed a record year interms of inclusion in fashion.Diversity has become not only a buzz-word but also a measure of a brand’srelevance in an intensely competitivedigital marketplace. The fashion we

see today is an optimistic celebrationof a spectrum of identities.

This may be true with regard to themodels we’re seeing in front of thecamera. Take for instance HalimaAden, Charli Howard, or Adut Akech,who are all redefining traditionalsupermodel stereotypes. But thesefaces are the harbingers of change thatconceal the endemic lack of represen-tation in the wider fashion industry.Diversity doesn’t begin and end withwho we see in front of the camera, weneed more minority voices leadingfrom behind the lens. Recent accusa-tions of racism facing establishmentbrands — such as Prada, Gucci, andBurberry, which were recently calledout for their racially offensive imagery— are a testament to this fact. Thesolution is simple, and urgent: Wemust address this disconnect betweenthe diversity of the models on the cat-walk and those packed into the frontrow — the editors, buyers, and ulti-mately, the voices of power.

However, one minority group isseverely under-represented. Although20 per cent of people have disabilities,this demographic is largely non-exis-tent in the fashion sphere, with only ahandful of designers, such as TeatumJones and the late AlexanderMcQueen, recognising fashion’s poten-tial to challenge our perception of dis-ability. McQueen’s legacy is defined byhis ability to subvert prescriptive ideasof beauty; his spring/summer 1999show featuring the Paralympian AimeeMullins in a pair of handcrafted pros-thetic legs is a defining example of howMcQueen’s work deconstructed socialtaboos regarding disabled bodies.Historical prejudices have made dis-ability synonymous with victimhoodor failure, and consequently it is oftenhidden from public view.

Actress Selma Blair’s first appear-ance on the red carpet following hermultiple sclerosis diagnosis last yearsaw her pose defiantly with a mono-

grammed walking cane. As a formermuse for luxury brands like StellaMcCartney and Chanel, this imagewas a powerful symbol of how fashionenables disability to transcend thestigma that surrounds it. Her presencewas also a glaring reminder that peo-ple with disabilities are often unseenon platforms like the red carpet, theepitome of spectacle and visibility. Soalthough it represented a victory fordisability representation, primarily itwas an intimation of how far there isto go before it’s accepted as the norm.In a later interview with Vanity Fair,Blair laments the lack of stylish cloth-ing available to disabled individuals.She wants designers to focus onimproving adaptive fashion, which isdesigned to meet the needs of thosewith disabilities and chronic condi-tions: “It can still be chic. You should-n’t have to sacrifice style.”

At last designers are beginning toacknowledge the disabled consumer

market, which represents £249 billionof untapped spending power.Recently, the Cornish-lifestyle brandSeasalt (as worn by the Duchess ofSussex) launched its first adaptiveclothing line, Easy On. The collection,only available online, includes discreetadditions to existing signature stylessuch as magnetic fastenings on theirpopular Beachcombing Coat, loops onsleeve cuffs to make pulling them onand off hassle-free, and soft elasticat-ed waistbands which are pinch-freewhen seated. “We wanted to helpwomen who can find dressing diffi-cult,” explains Seasalt’s design directorSue Simpson. The collection wasinspired by customer focus groups, soit’s designed to “fit into their lives andmake [them] feel confident”.

However, when I point out theirdesigns are exclusively shown onable-bodied models, they state thephotography is “a blank canvas” butwould take in my feedback. But thisexposes the long-standing myth thatdisability isn’t marketable. More thanever, consumers want to align them-selves with brands that have a posi-tive, inclusive ethos.

Seasalt follows in the footsteps ofother forward-thinking brands, suchas Marks & Spencer and TommyHilfiger, which have already releasedadaptive clothing lines. Their designsfeatured everything from adjustablehem-lengths to accommodate pros-thetic limbs and soft Velcro fastenings,to sleep-suits specifically tailored forbabies with hip dysplasia. With a newreport revealing the adaptive clothingmarket could reach $288.7 billionglobally this year, they are right to beexpanding their offerings.

The fashion industry’s fascinationwith diversity not only fulfils an ethicalresponsibility, but it’s incredibly lucra-tive. While I’ve always believed fashioncan foster an inclusive spirit, finally theindustry is poised to reflect this.

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Why am I making such a state-ment? Because as souls this isour number one duty. Souls are

sat, chit, and ananda. These are intrinsicto them. Souls are eternal. This is com-mon knowledge. Souls are also con-scious. This is also well known, becauseall souls are naturally so. However, thereis a problem with the ananda part. Oncein material bodies, we, souls, are nolonger in the state of ananda. Rathermost of us, except some very advanceddevotees of God, are in more or lessopposite state, ie disturbed, fearful, anx-ious, etc. Yes, people try to enjoy life butthey do so in whimsical ways. This factrequires further explanation.

We, embodied souls, are governedby the three modes of the materialnature. These are goodness, passion, anddarkness. Unfortunately, the majorityare under the influence of the lower twomodes of passion and darkness. Theirpleasures are mostly under the influenceof these two modes. For example, a per-son under the influence of the mode ofpassion will eat rich food in excessivequantities. Such eating, though appeal-ing to the palate and the stomach, willhurt his or her health in the long run. Aperson under the influence of the modeof darkness will be obstinate, crooked,badly behaved, lazy, etc. (The Gita

18.28) and his enjoyment will be gov-erned by these emotions. People ingoodness are wise in their choice ofpleasures. These are stepping stones tothe goal of getting to the ananda state,which requires a few lives to fully attain.

As everyone is different and havedifferent circumstances, there will bemany different types of enjoyments, butif one sticks to enjoyments mostly in themode of goodness and, most important-ly, which are according to dharma, notdharma-aviruddhah, he will gain allkinds of benefits and will not be harmed.As I am familiar with my own self, I willdetail how I am going about enjoying mylife. I have drawn a detailed list of all theactivities which are enjoyable to me andare available to me. Eating is the firstand the most regular enjoyment for me. Ieat what is good for me healthwise. Itake sufficient time to eat and eat in

small morsels. I eat mostly alone with noother activity like watching TV. In short,I enjoy my eating and hope to continueto do so for the rest of my life.

My other premier enjoyment is writ-

ing. In this, I must thank my Lord forhelping me. He gives me realisations,which I jot down. I meditate a lot on spir-itual truths revealed to me. I make notesand then sit down to give them shape of

an article. The same is true of all thebooks I have written. This is my veryimportant enjoyment, which I hope tocontinue to get, God willing. Of course Iwatch my favourite programmes on tele-vision, which are mostly musical pro-grammes. I am very particular aboutwatching news on television. This mustbe balanced, fact-based. The last and theforemost enjoyment for me is spendingtime with my Lord in His photo forms. Ifeel sheltered and this is when I get mostof my realisations. I do not think that Iwill ever be deprived of this enjoyment.

One of the reasons most people aremortally scared of diseases and major set-backs is that they have this impressionthat their enjoyments will dry up. This isnot true. God has not made a creationwhere one is condemned to miseries only.Remember, we have many faculties whichcan and do give us enjoyment. We havesenses — the most common means, then,we have minds. Intelligence is not farbehind and, ultimately, we have ourselves,ie our own selves, souls. In conclusion, Imust reiterate that enjoyments shouldnever be given up. If not, we will becheating ourselves; we must enjoy tomake our lives meaningful. Life will go onbut we must find ways to enjoy.

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These are the times of information revolution,more fashionably called information age. Whenwas information nor crucial is still not clear. But

let us not debate that. So the new jargon is ‘big data’,‘cloud computing’ and many more fancy coinages. Sothere are companies into the manufacture of so-calledintelligent machines, claiming that these provideinsights without limits. Well, for a student of AbnormalPsychology, that is more of a problem than a solution.Yes, insights without limits are reasons for fantasisingand causing delusions, of both persecution as well asgrandeur. And, of course, they also convert boundedrationality into unfounded assumptions. Anyway, weare in an era where people use stylish phrases like ‘datais the next oil’ for this world. Whatever that meansmay not be easily inferred but the fact remains thatmankind can survive without data or oil but not with-out water, which is the real impending threat lurkinground the corner. As city after city go waterless, cluesare hardly discernable. Nevertheless, as this craze fordata grows to maddening levels, there is a need to exer-cise some caution. While we are slowly but surely get-ting submerged in the ocean of information, nay data,an old poetry comes to mind. It was Samuel TaylorColeridge who wrote this sometime around the end ofthe 18th Century in his Lyrical Ballads. It was the‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’, a sailor’s plight on boarda ship surrounded by water all over in a vast ocean,forcing him to recite the famous rhyme: “Water, water,everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” The modern-dayhuman’s plight can be summed up with just a littlemodification: “Data, data everywhere, not a byte tothink.” Yes, that is what is happening, and rather fast.Bombarded with data, all kinds of data on all types ofsubjects, the human mind is gradually slipping into anoblivion of its own making. It is losing its ability tothink and analyse, thus increasingly developing adependence on gadgets to aid the mind to think. Whatis worse is that these gadgets are systematically beingmade a substitute for the mind. Look what is happen-ing: Machine is learning and human mind is losing theability to learn. That it may lead to disastrous conse-quences is still a subject matter of huge global debate,but the fact is that our thinking is being outsourced tothe so-called intelligent machines. Resultantly, humanbeings are likely to become what O’Henry, had he beenaround, would have termed as the Banana Public draw-ing an analogy from his famous expression “BananaRepublic”. Overdependence on these thinking devicesis subjecting the brain muscles to a kind of disuse atro-phy, which may lead to the same fate that strikes theother bodily muscles making them flaccid. This in alllikelihood is going to affect the human mind and itsthinking ability in the long run. Some glimpses canalready be found with amnesia and ability to retain andrecall information declining. There are people who donot even remember their mobile numbers. Even simplecalculations need to be carried out with the help ofmechanical devices. Such a data-induced dependencesyndrome is not far off that will render the mind dys-functional and blunt the thinking process. But it seemsthat in the cacophony of differing noises, no one isready to believe that minds, if not used, can wellbecome a vestige like the appendix.

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With the set of mysticaland spiritual con-cepts having synthe-sised with Krishnaduring the later phase

of the saga, the same built an aura ofdreamland with spiritual overtonesaround Krishna’s personae by provid-ing him with pastoral associates andscenario in the form of his foster par-ents Nanda-Yashoda; elder brotherand sister Balarama-Ekanamsha orSubhadra Gopas and Gopis, includingRadha, and Vrindavana. Mostly, thenarratives of the Puranas, which referto Shri Krishna’s activities with thesepastoral associates, are held to havebeen framed and construed andspecifically designed to teach symbol-ic and spiritual ideals through thoselilas which Krishna enacted in thecompany with his pastoral associateson earth. Besides, Krishna’s allVrindavana lilas, which he enacts intheir company wherein he mostlyplays the role of love and friendship,are similarly held to be happenings onthe non-physical plane and in non-physical bodies, as Vrindavana is alsolooked upon as representing the innerconsciousness of every individual.

Hence, the whole Vrindavana lilaof Krishna is held symbolic along withhis partners, who are also assignedwith spiritual overtones. Since, hisVrindavana lila on the whole repre-sents Krishna’s playful activities duringwhich he behaves the way he likes.For, at Vrindavana, his encounterswith Putana, cart, Trina varta,Aghasura, Bakasura, Dhenuk, Keshiand Kaliya, fighting with whom,Krishna had not to exert his strengthbut in place he just toys with them forachieving his victory. This very well

explains why Krishna’s such easygoingencounters at Vrindavana or Gokulaare termed lilas signifying that thesewere mere sports and diversions onthe part of Krishna at Vrindavana. Inthe same context, Harivamsha seemsto add “that all the associates ofKrishna during his Vrindavana lilaswere the parts of the Gods themselves,and hence spiritual”. Similarly,Krishna’s enemies at Vrindavana areheld by some representing all types ofvices such as lust, pride, hatred, ego-ism, pride, envy, greed etc. Accordingto others, Vrindavana metaphoricallystands for the garden like holy andpure heart of every devotee of Krishnawhere he teaches the love of devotionto all alike who lend their hearts tohim. Krishna’s activities at Vrindavanaalso are held to delineate him as asymbol of a spiritual saadhak withultimate realisation of his true individ-ual state. In the same strain, Krishna’sfoster parents Nanda and Yashoda areheld symbolically representing thesuper most eternal bliss and the ulti-mate knowledge respectively.

While their resort Vrindavanaitself represents the region of highestspiritual delight and the field of spiri-tual growth and devotional love as itslord Nanda himself is spiritual blissincarnate. The Puranas, in the sameregard, also dictate us that we mustnot treat Krishna’s Vrindavana lilaswith his pastoral associates as havingoccurred at one place or time butrather treat them as recurrent modal-ity with the purpose of conveyinginspiration and guidance to devoteesof every type having either of thesefeelings towards Krishna such asaffection of parents; of friends; or ofloved and beloved etc. Krishna at

Vrindavana denotes the universal selfand his foster father Nanda implyingbliss guides all these in their relationsto the universe and themselves.Nanda as supreme joy is located inVrindavana like the brain of everyenlightened person. Krishna inVrindavana as Nanda’s son representsa devotee who is set on his devotionalpath with various distractions likepersonal desires which are termed asdemons like Putana, cart and others.Next, among pastoral associates ofKrishna, his elder brother Balrama isdealt with. He was also known asBaldeva and Samkarshana. Accordingto Mahabharata, he was an incarna-tion of God Vishnu’s white hair asKrishna was incarnation of GodVishnu’s black hair. That is why theyare stated to have fair and dark com-plexion respectively. It is also statedthat God Vishnu divided Himself intotwo parts who are later known asKrishna and Balarama. He is alsostated to be the incarnation ofprimeval serpent Ananta-Naga.

According to Kautilya, Balaramahad his special devotees with shavenhead independent of Krishna.According to Kautilya, Krishna’s broth-er Balrama was later identified withsuch a deity whose worship was invogue during Kautilya’s times on theanalogy of Krishna’s later identificationwith God Vishnu. Similarly, as anincarnation of Sheeshnaga, Krishna’selder brother Balrama might have beenidentified with some tribal god of theNagas and because of which theKaliya-Naga’s episode was introducedin the Krishna saga to propagate theideal that Shri Krishna had also wonover the prevailing tribal cult of theNagas who are held to rule over the

Mathura region for a long time.Likewise, in the later stage of Krishnacult, if Krishna’s elder brother is treatedas symbol of the individual soul and isnamed Nara, he is forever proclaimedthe eternal accomplice of Krishna,Narayana, performing the role of hiselder brother. The other pastoral asso-ciates of Krishna include his sistercalled Subhadra or Ekanamsha who isstated to be Yashoda’s daughter whowas exchanged with Krishna, but didnot die at the hands of Kamsa, and wassaved and secretly reared by a Gopa atVrindavana and later worshipped bythe cowherds as mother GoddessKatyayani, since she was the one whohad saved Krishna’s life. The Puranasalso state that it was on her advice thatKrishna succeeded in killing Kamsa. Itis also known that those days, the wor-ship of Katyayani was prevalent amongthe Gopis, for they along with Radhaare stated to worship GoddessKatyayani to beget Shri Krishna astheir husband. Thus, it be ascertainedthat she was introduced as Krishna’spastoral associate and sister to meetthe requirement of the devotional aspi-rations of the people who looked for-ward to the impress of Shakti in theKrishna Cult. Next, the chief of pas-toral associates associated with Krishnaseems to be the cowherdess Radha.These two types of Gopis, associatedwith Krishna in later stage of hissaga, represent two variant distincttraditions of Krishnabhakti withmain focus on the Rasa-dance.Radha and other Gopis are also con-sidered to be the outcome of theprevalent poetic tradition of lovesentiment during the 16th century.

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“Having understood, what youexplained in the last issue, I have beentrying to self-reflect upon myself, but invain. I am not able to remain focused.My mind gets bombarded with uncon-trolled volume of random thoughts,something like a monkey continuouslyhopping from one branch of the tree tothe other. I keep flirting with thosethoughts. There doesn’t appear to beany scope to figure out my true nature,not to say anything about correcting thethought process. Tell me, how do I goabout?” Asked a reader. “How do youexpect to contain a fragile mind so fast,which is habituated to move unre-strained. Have patience, sustained prac-tice may bear fruit.” I responded. Betterlook for a Guru and pursue the processregularly under his guidance. As youproceed, many such questions may keeparising. Guru will lead you through.

Meanwhile, for the convenience ofour valued readers, I am suggesting atried and tested simple process. Just liedown on your back on a flat surface.Close your eyes and let loose your mind.Let thoughts naturally flow in and flowout. You will be flooded with thoughts.Don’t worry, it is all happening as a partof the process. But don’t pay any atten-

tion to them. Pursue the process for atleast 20 minutes every day. Having reg-ularly pursued the process for a while,mind will settle down as all suchthoughts as would be unnerving youfrom within will go out of reckoning.You may feel relaxed. Following which,unlike earlier, you may now be able tosee a pattern in the thoughts flowingthrough the mind. Watch them closely,they will reveal your true nature.Following which you could take correc-tive initiatives through fresh educativeinputs.

The paradox, however, is that oftenpractitioner’s ego plays spoil sport in theprocess. It doesn’t let you dispassionate-ly identify and acknowledge your fault-lines. In that case, you may seek theguidance of a Guru. He may be able tointuitively figure out your true natureand show you its mirror image.Alternately, you could seek astrologicalguidance for your personality reading.Astrology looks at energy map of theheaven at the time of one’s birth, whichreflects upon personality frame up of abeing with a fair amount of precision, asenergy knows no bias.

A case in point is that of a highlyreligious person, who has been offering

his prayers at least for an hour everymorning and evening. Yet, his habit ten-dencies won’t spare him. And his familylife is in a mess. Let us look at his astro-logical pointers. Personality indicator,the Sun is locked in adverse formationwith Mars, Uranus, and Saturn. That, inthe first place, makes out an impulsive,argumentative and quarrelsome person.Second, he is eccentric and erratic.Third, he carries seeds of fear and inse-curity because of which he has a nega-tive mindset. He is self-pitying and pes-simist. He is a cynic who is in the habitof finding fault with others. He is jeal-ous and over critical of others. Put to anadverse situation, instead of facing ithead on, he may try to somehow find anescape route. A sense of inertia deeplyingrained in his psyche, his initiativeswill be delayed. Habitually, he shunstaking challenges. So, he may missopportunities. And when left behind inthe run of time, he may fall into depres-sion. What further compounds his prob-lems is that even the mind-signifyingMoon is clouded by Saturn’s negativeaspect.

Fiery Mars is ill-disposed off its direenemy Saturn as well as Uranus. Thatmakes him temperamental, intolerant,impatient, habitually suspicious of

everybody and anybody, and evenrevengeful by nature. Uranus and mis-chievous Neptune play spoil sport withintelligence signifying Mercury. Thatmakes him unconventional, eccentricand opinionated. He remains stuck tohis self-delusionary perceptions, dis-tanced from ground realities. He won’tacknowledge truth on its first appear-ance. Driven by sense of hope againsthope, he will continue blindly pursuinghis perception till pushed to the wall. Italso accounts for his impaired reasoningand judgment. For the above stated rea-sons, his inter-personal relationshipstands compromised and so he is notable to relate to those around with easeand comfort. And the result is there tosee. Just academic awareness of his faultlines would not help him get over hishabit tendencies. For, they are deeplyembedded in the inner realms of hismind in seed form. To get over, contin-ued reflection over fresh educativeinputs is required.

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