Max: 32OCMin: 26OCRH: 80%Rain: 50%

Forecast: Scattered rains

WINDOWS

WEATHER

ASTROGUIDE

Mumbai: The bodies of twoof the three people who

went missing in a drowningincident on Sunday have

been recovered and asearch for the remainingone person is still under-

way. Out of the five boys,who were drowned in the

sea at Versova Jetty whileimmersing Ganesh idol, twowere rescued by the locals

on Sunday while three boyswere reported missing. The

incident happened on theday of Anant Chaturdashi,

at Patil Gally no 2 inVersova Village at Andheri(West). The place had not

been designated as Ganeshimmersion point by the

civic body.Full report on Page 3

Kate Winslet, winner of theOutstanding Lead Actress forMare Of Easttown, at the 73rdPrimetime Emmy Awards inLos Angeles on Sunday.■ Report on Page 11 — AFP

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi greets Punjab’s new CM Charanjit SinghChanni after the latter takes the oath of office during a ceremony at theRaj Bhavan in Chandigarh on Monday. — PTI

Plava: DakshinayanaTithi: Bhadrapada Bahula

Padyami till 5.52 amStar: Uttarabhadra till 5.05 amVarjyam: 2.03 pm to 3.43 pm

Durmuhurtam: 8.32 am to 9.21am; 10.57 pm to 11.45 pm

Rahukalam: 3 pm to 4.30 pmSUNSET TODAY 6.18 PM

SUNRISE TOMORROW 6.08 AMMOONRISE TOMORROW 6.49 PM

MOONSET TODAY 6.12 AM

2 dead, 1 missingduring Mumbai

Ganesh immersion

New Delhi: Self-styled com-mander-in-chief of Kuki

National Front MangkholamKipgen, who was wanted in

cases of kidnapping andextortion, was arrested by

the Delhi police’s specialcell, an official said on

Monday. The Kuki NationalFront (KNF) is a Northeast-

based insurgent group. Full report on Page 2

Kuki National Frontleader held in Delhi

London: England onMonday called off next

month’s men’s and women’stours of Pakistan, threedays after New Zealand

abandoned their white-ballseries in the South Asian

country over security concerns. — PTI

Full report on Page 8

After NZ, England toocalls off Pakistan tour

COUNTERPOINT

c m y k c m y k

DELHI AGE| 16WORLD| 6Sonu Sood responds post I-Traids, says you don’t alwayshave to tell your side of story

Uma says bureaucrats ‘pick our slippers’, BJP distances from her remark

NATION| 3Hotel Rwanda hero PaulRusesabagina sentencedto 25 yrs on terror charges

THE ASIAN AGEwww.asianage.com RNI No. 57290/94, Regd No: DL-SW-05/4189/15-17 Vol. 28 No. 216 | 16 PAGES | `5.00

Kolkata Knight Riders players react after winning match31 of the Indian Premier League against the RoyalChallengers Bangalore at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium inAbu Dhabi on Monday. An authoritative KKR bossed RCBfrom the beginning to the end to record a convincingnine-wicket win. ■ Report on Page 8 — AP

KKR outplay RCB, win by 9 wickets

PAWAN BALI NEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

Defence minister Rajn-ath Singh and US secre-tary of defence LloydAustin on Monday had atelephonic conversationduring which they dis-cussed bilateral andregional matters, includ-ing developments inAfghanistan.

“Had a warm telephoneconversation with USsecretary of defence MrLloyd Austin,” tweetedMr Singh.

This was the first con-versation between thetwo after the Talibantook over Afghanistan.It was also the first high-level contact betweenthe two countries afterthe US last weekannounced a trilateralsecurity alliance‘AUKUS’ in the Indo-Pacific with Britain andAustralia as its part-ners. Under the alliance,the US and the UK willhelp Australia havenuclear powered sub-marines to check thegrowing naval power ofthe Chinese Navy in theIndo-Pacific region.

India is also part of theUS-led Quad alliance,which is focused on theIndo-Pacific region. USPresident Joe Biden willhost the first-ever in-per-son Quad LeadersSummit at the WhiteHouse on September 24.

“US secretary ofdefence Lloyd Austinmade a telephone call todefence ministerRajnath Singh todayevening,” said a defenceministry statement.

ASHHAR KHANNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

Charanjit Singh Channi, three-timeCongress MLA from Chamkaur Sahib,was on Monday sworn in as the 16thchief minister of Punjab in the presenceof Congress leader Rahul Gandhi inChandigarh. Along with Mr Channi, twoMLAs — Sukhjinder Singh Randhawafrom Dera Baba Nanak and O.P. Sonifrom Amritsar Central — also took oathas deputy chief ministers. The swearing-in ceremony was skipped by his prede-cessor Captain Amarinder Singh.General secretary Incharge of PunjabHarish Rawat and state unit chief NavjotSingh Sidhu were present at the swear-

ing in.The swearing-

in of the state’sfirst Dalit chiefminister, how-ever, wasmired in con-t r o v e r s i e s .S e n i o rC o n g r e s sleader and for-mer Punjabunit presidentSunil Jakhartook to Twitteron Monday toclaim he wasbaffled by statei n - c h a r g eHarish Rawat’sstatement thatelection in the

state would be led by Mr Navjot SinghSidhu.

Stating that Mr Rawat’s announcementon the day that Mr Charanjit SinghChanni takes oath as the new chief min-ister could undermine the latter’sauthority. To avoid further embarrass-ment the Congress was quick to clarifythat both, the chief minister Mr Channiand state unit chief Mr Sidhu, will be theface of Congress in the upcoming polls.

Addressing his first press conferenceafter taking the oath as chief minister,Mr Channi said that “the party issupreme, not the chief minister’s postnor the Cabinet”.

Calling himself an “aam aadmi” in anapparent dig at the Aam Aadmi Party

■ Turn to Page 4

Channi takes oath as CM, asksCentre to repeal 3 farm laws

■ Swearing-in attended by Rahul, Sidhu ■ I am aam aadmi, says Punjab CM

YOJNA GUSAI with agency inputsNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

Hours before the oath-takingceremony of Charanjit SinghChanni as Punjab chief minis-ter, Congress leader SunilJakhar on Monday questionedAICC general secretary HarishRawat’s reported statementthat the upcoming state elec-tions would be fought under theleadership of Punjab Congresschief Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Mr Jakhar, who is also a for-mer Punjab Congress chief,dubbed Mr Rawat's statementas “baffling”, saying it is likelyto “undermine” the authorityof the chief minister.

“On the swearing-in day of Sh

@Charnjit_channi as chiefminister, Mr Rawat’s state-ment that ‘elections will befought under Sidhu’, is baf-fling. It’s likely to underminethe CM’s authority but alsonegate the very raison d’etre ofhis selection for this position,”he said in a tweet.

The Congress immediatelywent into damage control andsaid it will fight Punjab elec-tions under the leadership ofthe chief minister and PCCchief Navjot Singh Sidhu. Bothwill be “our” faces, it said.

Congress supporters hailedthe party top brass’ decision toappoint a Dalit CM in Punjab,but the BJP alleged that for theCongress “Dalits are only a mat-ter of strategy not emotion.”

Latching on to Mr Rawat’sremarks, the BJP on Mondayalleged that the Congress hasonce again proved that it canmisuse any caste or communi-ty for votes and the newlyappointed Dalit CM will “holdthe seat for a Gandhi familyloyalist” till the elections areover.

Citing examples of Rajasthanand Maharashtra, the BJP saidto “grab votes” the Congresshad named Dalit leadersJagannath Pahadia and SushilKumar Shinde respectively asCMs only to be replaced afterpolls in 1981 and 2004.

“The entire #Toolkit team isdead silent today. After stateincharge Harish Rawat

■ Turn to Page 4

BJP attacks Congress, says Channimade Punjab CM to win Dalit votes

RABINDRA NATHCHOUDHURYRAIPUR, SEPT. 20

Chhattisgarh health mi-nister T.S. Singh Deo,who is engaged in apower struggle with CMBhupesh Baghel, on Mo-nday left for Delhi, fue-lling speculation aboutfresh political develop-ments in the state.

His visit to Delhi,which comes in the wakeof change in leadershipin Punjab, has generatedheat in the rulingCongress circle withparty leaders watchingthe development keenly.

This is Mr Deo’s fourthvisit to Delhi ever sincea purported agreementon sharing of chief min-ister’s post. Mr Deo,however, described hisvisit as private.

C’garh ministerDeo visits Delhi,fuels speculation

New Delhi, Sept. 20: Indiawill resume export of sur-plus Covid-19 vaccines inthe fourth quarter of 2021under the “VaccineMaitri” programme andto meet its commitmentto the COVAX globalpool, but vaccinating itsown citizens remains thetopmost priority of thegovernment, Unionhealth minister MansukhMandaviya said onMonday.

Addressing the media,the minister said the gov-ernment will receive over30 crore doses of Covid-19vaccines in October andover 100 crore doses inthe next three months.

He also said that cumu-lative doses administeredso far across the countryhave crossed 81 crore andthe last 10 crore doseswere administered inonly 11 days.

Asserting that vaccina-

tion of ourown citi-z e n sremains theg o v e r n -ment’s top-most priori-

ty, Mr Mandaviya saidthe export of surplus vac-cines would begin in thenext quarter (October-December) under theVaccine Maitri pro-gramme and in order tofulfil the commitment ofIndia towards COVAX.

This is in line with ourmotto of “VasudhaivaKutumbakam”, he said.

He said that the surplussupply of vaccines will beused to fulfil India’s com-mitment towards theworld for the collectivefight against Covid-19.

COVAX is co-led byGavi, the Coalition forEpidemic PreparednessInnovations (CEPI) and

■ Turn to Page 4

‘India will resumeexport, donationof Covid vaccines’

New Delhi, Sept. 20:Former Union ministersJairam Ramesh andShashi Tharoor onMonday slammed theUK’s Covid-related trav-el rules under whichIndians vaccinated withCovishield would still betreated as unvaccinated,with Ramesh saying it“smacks of racism”.

Mr Tharoor said thatbecause of the restric-tions he had even pulledout of a debate at theCambridge Union debat-ing society and from thelaunch events for the UKedition of his book, “TheBattle Of Belonging”.

— PTI

UK Covid travelrules racist:Jairam, Tharoor

Washington, Sept. 20:The US on Mondayannounced a new inter-national travel systemunder which fully vacci-nated individuals wouldbe allowed to enter thecountry beginning inNovember.

This essentially alsolifts the travel ban oncountries like India thatthe US had earlierenforced.

Former PresidentDonald Trump hadimposed a blanket banon foreign travellersfrom entering the US atthe start of the coron-avirus pandemic inearly 2020. — PTI

US to allow onlyfully vaccinatedto enter country

NCW chief seeksCM’s resignationNew Delhi: NCWchairperson RekhaSharma has soughtthe resignation ofnewly-appointedPunjab CM CharanjitSingh Channi over the“#MeToo allegations”levelled against him.In a statement, MsSharma said it was“shameful” that sucha person wasappointed the CM ofPunjab. — PTI

Rajnath & USdefence secydiscuss Af in phone call

A l l a h a b a d ,Sept. 20:M a h a n tN a r e n d r aGiri, the pres-ident of AkhilBharatiya AkhadaParishad (ABAP), wasfound dead on Mondayat Baghambari Muth inPrayagraj, police said.

The ABAP is thelargest organisation ofsadhus in India.

According to IGP K.P.Singh, Mahant Giri’sbody was found hangingfrom the ceiling by hisdisciples.

A purported suicidenote was also found atthe site in which theseer had written that hewas mentally disturbedand was ending his life.He had also delegatedvarious responsibilitiesto his disciples in thenote, the police said.

“We are reading thenote. He expressed hewas upset. He also wrotewhat should be donewith the ashram afterhis passing, in the formof a will,” Mr Singh said.

The IGP said thatpolice had received acall at 5.30 pm from themuth that Giri hadhanged himself.

“Prima facie itappeared to be a case ofsuicide but things willbe clearer after the post-mortem and forensictests,” the police said.

The influential Hinduseer was hospitalised inApril after he tested pos-itive from Covid-19.

— PTI

Mahant Girifound dead at muth in Allahabad

Moscow, Sept. 20: Russia’sruling party retained itssupermajority inParliament, furthercementing PresidentVladimir Putin’s grip onpower following electionsthat excluded most oppo-sition politicians andwere marred by multiplereports of violations.

The vote was watchedclosely for signs that MrPutin’s control might slip,however slightly, aheadof the 2024 presidentialelection. It’s not yet clearwhether he will run

again, choose a successoror outline a different pathbut he is expected to keephis hand on the tillerwhatever he decides, andan obedient State Duma,or parliament, will cru-cial to those plans.

Results released Mon-day from nearly 99 percent of the country’s poll-ing stations gave the rul-ing United Russia party49.8 per cent of the votefor the 225 seats appor-tioned by parties, accord-ing to the Central Elec-tion Commission. — AP

■ President Putin further cements grip on power

RAJIB CHOWDHURI and YOJNA GUSAIKOLKATA/NEW DELHI,SEPT. 20

In a major organisationalreshuffle, the BJP onMonday abruptlyremoved its MidnaporeMP Dilip Ghosh from theWest Bengal unit presi-dent's post. The move fol-lows the party's white-wash in the recentAssembly election in thestate and defections offour party MLAs and two-time Asansol MP BabulSupriyo to the rulingTrinamul Congress.

First-time BJP MP ofBalurghat, SukantaMajumdar, who wasamong the front-runnersfor the state chief's postbut has maintained a lowprofile so far, hasreplaced Mr Ghosh. Bothof them are from the RSS.

Mr Ghosh, infamous forhis making controversialstatements and knownfor having a strainedrelationship with MrSupriyo and party MLAof Nandigram SuvenduAdhikari after he becamethe leader of theOpposition in the state,headed the state BJPsince 2015 in two consecu-tive terms which includ-ed his re-election inJanuary of 2020.

His removal, however,came a month after heclaimed that he wouldcontinue in his role tillDecember next year evenas party's national presi-dent J.P. Nadda soughtfrom him the names ofprobables to pick his suc-cessor.

Mr Ghosh has been pro-moted to BJP nationalvice president, a post held

■ Turn to Page 4

BJP drops Ghosh asBengal party chief

YUSUF JAMEELSRINAGAR, SEPT. 20

The authorities inJammu and Kashmir aremaking a last-ditch effortto pacify the trader com-munity of Jammu to calloff their one-day shut-down against the govern-ment’s policies andactions which the lattersay are like a choke-holdon their business.

“We have been caughtup in real trouble. Thetrade deficit in Jammu ishitting record highsbecause of the misplacedpolicies and actions of thegovernment. The pan-demic had already causedmassive losses to us. Nowthe government hasallowed about a hundredReliance outlets to openacross Jammu. This willfurther ruin our busi-

nesses,” said a spokesper-son of the JammuChamber of Commerceand Industry (JCCI).

The JCCI’s call for shut-down on Wednesday hasbeen endorsed by severallocal trade bodies andpressure groups. Variouspolitical parties otherthan the BJP are alsoextending support. Thelatest to throw its weightbehind the JCCI is theNational Conference .

A spokesperson ofJ&K’s main Oppositionparty said on Monday,“We extend our whole-hearted support to theshutdown call. We, how-ever, hope the adminis-tration will see reason inits anti-business and

■ Turn to Page 4

Traders not happy withpolicies, Reliance stores

Pro-Kremlin party keeps largemajority in Russian Parliament

■ Support for Wed shutdown grows

SHAHAB ANSARIMUMBAI, SEPT. 20

A court inM u m b a ion Mondayg r a n t e dbail toBollywoodactress ShilpaShetty’s husband RajKundra in the cre-ation and streamingof pornographic shortfilms on differentapps. He has beengranted bail on a per-sonal bond of `50,000.

Kundra’s lawyer Pr-ashant Patil had onSaturday filed the bailapplication contend-ing that the investiga-tion in the case is overand a chargesheet hasbeen filed.

■ More on Page 3

Raj Kundragranted bailin porn case

6 dead, 28 injuredin varsity shootingMoscow: A student ope-ned fire Monday at auniversity in Russia,leaving six people deadand 28 hurt, beforebeing shot by policeand detained. Beyondsaying that he was astudent, authoritiesoffered no further infor-mation on his identity orpossible motive. About3,000 people were onthe campus at the timeof the shooting. PAGE 6

■ Channi, Sidhu to be main faces in polls: Cong after Rawat remark

Cops find suicide note,say top seer was upset

JAMMU

NEW DELHI TUESDAY 21 SEPTEMBER 2021

CITY pg 2THE ASIAN AGE | TUESDAY | 21 SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEW DELHI

IN BRIEF

2 Tihar inmatesinjured after clash

New Delhi: Over 50 freshcases of dengue have been

reported in the national cap-ital in the last one week, tak-ing the total count this yearto more than 210, accordingto a civic report released onMonday. In this month alone,87 cases have been recorded

till September 18, which isabout 41 per cent of the

cumulative cases. The num-ber of dengue cases for

January 1-September 18 peri-od is also the highest thisyear since 2019 when thecount had stood at 217 in

that same duration.According to the civic reportissued by the municipal cor-

porations last week, 158cases of dengue were

recorded till September 11this year. So, 53 fresh cases

have been logged in oneweek. Seventy-two cases

were reported in the monthof August, according to the

report. — PTI

JNU entrance exams commence

211 dengue cases in capital this year

DELHI TO GET ITS1ST WILD ANIMAL

RESCUE CENTREAGE CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

Delhi’s first wild animal res-cue centre at Rajokri will belaunched during the wildlife

week next month, forestand wildlife department

officials said on Monday.“The facility has come up

on a 1.24 acre plot atRajokri in New Delhi where

a monkey rescue centre waslying abandoned. We have

upgraded it to a wild animalrescue centre. It will be

launched during the wildlifeweek,” a forest department

official said. There was nosuch private or governmentfacility in the national capi-

tal. Until now, the forestdepartment, along with

wildlife NGOs, used to res-cue stranded or injured ani-mals and rehabilitate them

at Asola Bhatt WildlifeSanctuary in South Delhi.

“The engagement with theNGOs to rescue animals will

continue. A veterinarianfrom the South Delhi ForestDivision will be deployed at

the centre for their treat-ment,” the official said. The

animal rescue centre willcome up in place of a pro-

posed facility for birds. Theauthorities were not con-

vinced about setting asidegovernment resources for

birds, such as kites andpigeons, which are not ofgreat conservation value,

according to officials.

New Delhi: The JawaharlalNehru University entranceexams for admission com-

menced from Monday across114 cities, its V-C M.

Jagadesh Kumar said. Theentrance exams will be held

till September 23. “JNUEntrance Examination

(JNUEE) conducted byNational Testing Agency(NTA) has started todayacross the country in 114

cities and 248 centres. Bestwishes to the candidates

appearing in JNUEE 2021,”Kumar said in a tweet. For

programmes requiring viva,the process will be held

online. — PTI

New Delhi: Two inmateslodged in Delhi’s Tihar jail

were injured after theyattacked each other with

sharp-edged objects, offi-cials said on Monday. This is

the fourth such incidentreported in Tihar jail this

month. The incident tookplace on Saturday evening

inside Tihar’s jail numberthree, they said. The two

inmates attacked each otherwith sharp-edged objects.

One of them was sent tohospital and his condition isstated to be stable, a seniorjail official said, adding thatthe other prisoner sustained

minor injuries. In a similarincident on September 11,

two inmates of the jail wereinjured after a clash broke

out between them. Theinmates had suffered injuries

after they attacked eachother with sharp edged-

objects, officials had said.After the incident, the policehad registered an attempt tomurder case. The police hadalso two undertrial prisoners

of Tihar had sustainedinjuries when they were

attacked with sharp objectsby fellow inmates in sepa-

rate incidents on September12 and 13. Both the attacks

had taken place in jail num-ber three of the prison.

Kuki National Frontchief held in DelhiAGE CORRESPONDENTwith agency inputsNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

Self-styled commander-in-chief of Kuki NationalFront MangkholamKipgen, who was wantedin cases of kidnappingand extortion, was arrest-ed by the Delhi Police’sSpecial Cell, an officialsaid on Monday.

The Kuki NationalFront (KNF) is aNortheast-based insur-gent group.

Deputy commissioner ofpolice (Special Cell)Pramod Singh Kushwahsaid Mangkholam Kipgenalias David Kipgen (24)has a vast network ofarmed militants inManipur and was plan-ning to kidnap employeesof a construction compa-ny involved in major proj-ects and other establish-ments in the Northeasternstate for extortion.

Based on a tip-off, thepolice laid a tarp inSector-7 in Dwarka onSunday and arrestedKipgen, he said.

Several cases related tokidnapping, firing, extor-tion, robbery among oth-

ers are registered againsthim in various police sta-tions of Manipur, theDCP said.

In 2018, the accusedcame in contact with KNFcadres in his village inManipur and indulgedwith them in extortion,robbery and other crimi-nal activities, accordingto the police.

Soon, he became infa-mous for snatchingweapons of forces, kid-napping for ransom,extortion and otherheinous activities and inJune 2020, he declaredhimself as a self-styledcommander-in-chief ofKNF, the police said.

Last year in December,Kipgen, along with hisassociates, had allegedlykidnapped two sentries ofKangvai police outpost inManipur and also robbeda service rifle, the DCPsaid.

“His associates werearrested in the case andthe robbed rifle was alsorecovered but the accusedwas still at large, he said.

While observing ‘SahnitNi’ — the Kuki’s BlackDay — on September 13,the KNF had declared acomplete shutdown inManipur restrictingmovement of vehiclesand closing down alladministrative officesand business establish-ments, the police said.

“The KNF opened firefor violating their callafter they spotted a truckmoving along NationalHighway 2 in Champhaiarea of Kangpokpi dis-trict. Later, Kipgen alsoclaimed responsibility forthe incident in a pressrelease,” Kushwah said.

The Manipur Police hasbeen informed regardinghis arrest, he said, addingthat further investigationis underway.

Plea against govt for using publicmoney on Ganesh Chaturthi event

Centre yet to give time for stubble burning meet: RaiAGE CORRESPONDENTwith agency inputsNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

The Delhi governmentwill start preparing Pusabio-decomposer, a micro-bial solution which canturn stubble into manure,from September 24 and itwill be ready for use inrice fields by October 5,environment ministerGopal Rai said on Monday.

The minister also saidhis Union counterpart isyet to give time for a meet-ing on the use of Pusa bio-decomposer in states sur-rounding the capital andother pollution-relatedissues, and urged theCentre to act promptly.

“We will start preparingPusa bio-decomposer from

September 24 and it willbe ready by October 5. Wehave advanced the processthis year so that farmershave more time to preparetheir fields for the nextcrop,” Mr Rai said duringa press conference.

Chief minister ArvindKejriwal will launch thepreparations at KharkhariNahar. A team of scien-tists from the IndianAgricultural Research

Institute (IARI) and theAgriculture Departmentwill supervise the process,he said.

Unlike last year, thistime the solution will beused to decompose cropresidue in basmati ricefields, too, he said.

“Farmers told us that thecombine harvester used toreap the paddy crop leavesa large quantity of residuebehind. So, this time thesolution will be sprayedwherever needed,” Mr Raisaid.The solution will beused in at least 4,000 acres,which will cost the gov-ernment `50 lakh.

“We have set up a 25-member team to registerfarmers who want tospray the solution in theirfields,” the minister said.

The city government hadrecently submitted anaudit report on the bio-decomposer to theCentre’s Commission forAir Quality Management(CAQM) and sought timefrom the Union environ-ment minister for a meet-ing on its use in the statessurrounding Delhi andother pollution-relatedissues.

“We had sought anappointment with theUnion environment minis-ter, but we have not gotone so far. If the (central)government doesn't actpromptly, it will be verydifficult to make prepara-tions for the use of Pusabio-decomposer in otherstates in time,” Mr Rai said.

AGE CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

The Delhi high court, onMonday, sought theresponse of the Centre,Delhi government, and ECon a plea seeking de-recog-nition of AAP allegingthat it promoted GaneshChaturthi using publicmoney, which is contraryto the Constitution of asecular country.

The counsel for theauthorities sought time toseek instructions and filereplies after which thecourt listed the matter forfurther hearing onNovember 8.

Petitioner and advocate

M.L. Sharma said he wasseeking direction to de-recognise AAP as a politi-cal party and remove chiefminister Arvind Kejriwaland other ministers fromthe Constitutional officedue to alleged deliberatebreach of the Constitutionand the Representation ofPeople’s Act in the interestof the general public.

The plea was opposed bysenior advocate RahulMehra, representing Delhigovernment, saying it wasa totally motivated andmischievous petition,coloured as a public inter-est litigation (PIL), andneeds to be dismissed withheavy costs.

He also said the decisionwas taken to prevent reli-gious congregations amidthe Covid-19 pandemicand as the Delhi govern-ment had prohibited set-ting up of pandals to pre-vent overcrowding, thechief minister had merelyrequested the media tocover the celebration forcitizens’ participationfrom their residences.

Mr Mehra said the gov-ernment facilitating reli-gious celebrations is notnew and it is done everytime during the KumbhMela and Amarnath Yatraand it is the solemn dutyof the state to protect pub-lic health.

FIR against 2 IB officials for duping man of `17LAGE CORRESPONDENTwith agency inputsNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

A case has been registeredagainst two IntelligenceBureau (IB) officials forallegedly duping a personof `17 lakh after promis-ing him a job in the Unionhome ministry, a seniorDelhi Police officer said onMonday.

The FIR was lodged onSeptember 14 at the NorthAvenue police station, offi-cials said.

“They (accused) both areIB officials. No one has

been arrested yet andinvestigation is under-way," the senior police offi-cer said.

The FIR has been lodgedunder sections 420 (cheat-ing and dishonestly induc-ing delivery of property),468 (forgery for purpose ofcheating), 471 (using asgenuine a forged docu-ment or electronic record)and 120B (punishment ofcriminal conspiracy) ofthe Indian Penal Code,they said.

In the FIR, complainantPradeep Kumar, a residentof Gautam Buddh Nagar

in Uttar Pradesh, allegedof being cheated of `17lakh by a man namedPramod Kumar, posted inthe IB.

Pramod had luredPradeep for a job in theMHA in return of `17 lakhby saying that that the

money was required as thetraining cost at a place out-side Delhi, according tothe FIR.

“He (Pramod) assuredme that it was a like a feefor training. Initially, hestarted it all by claimingthat some vacancies werenotified by the postaldepartment of the homeministry for which I waseligible, being a post-grad-uate. He (Pramod) thentold me that it wouldrequire `17 lakh, partiallyas a kind of fee towardstraining and partially to bepaid to a senior official in

the home ministry for pro-cessing my application.Feeling nothing wrong orsuspicious in it, I wentahead with that,” the FIRstated.

The complainant allegedthat he gave `17 lakh to theaccused in cash, the FIRsaid. “He called me toDelhi near North Blockand got my applicationform filled. While sittingin a car, I paid him `17lakh in cash (as he said hewould accept the amountin cash only) along withthe form. All this occurredon January 2014.

BJP leader Ravinder Guptaextorted traders, says AAP

Delhi sees 20 coronavirus cases, positivity rate 0.04%AGE CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

The national capitalreported 20 Covid casesand zero deaths onMonday, while the posi-tivity rate stood at 0.04per cent, according todata shared by the healthdepartment here.

The capital has record-ed only three fatalitiesdue to the infection inSeptember so far.

With the new cases, theoverall infection tally inthe city climbs to 1,43,869.Of this, over 14.13 lakhpatients have recoveredfrom the disease. Thedeath toll stands at25,085.

Delhi reported 28 casesof the infection onSunday and 41 onSaturday.

On Friday, it reported 55Covid-19 cases and onedeath.

There are 379 activecases in Delhi, of which116 are in home isolation.

The number of contain-ment zones stands at 100,the bulletin said.

In April and May, Delhibattled a brutal secondwave of the pandemicthat claimed a massivenumber of lives and ledto a shortage of oxygen athospitals across the city.

On April 20, Delhi hadreported 28,395 cases, thehighest in the city since

the beginning of the pan-demic. On April 22 thecase positivity rate was36.2 per cent, the highestso far.

The highest number of448 deaths was reportedon May 3.

The city governmenthas been ramping uphealth infrastructure toprevent a repeat of thecrisis witnessed duringthe peak of the secondwave of coronavirus inApril and May.

Steps have been takento increase the number ofhospital beds to accom-modate up to 37,000 casesa day and to become self-reliant in terms of oxy-gen supply.

New Delhi, Sept. 20: TheAAP on Monday allegedthat Bharatiya JanataParty leader and formerNorth Delhi mayorRavinder Gupta has beenaccused by traders ofextortion of crores ofrupees, a claim denied byhim.

Addressing a press con-ference, Aam AadmiParty leader SaurabhBhardwaj alleged that theBharatiya Janata Party-ruled municipal corpora-tion sealed a mall in 2013,but reopened it after tak-ing crores of rupees fromshopkeepers and allowedit to operate for eightyears.

The mall was sealedagain when the tradersdid not pay money, theAam Aadmi Party leaderclaimed.

“After the sealing of the

mall, Bharatiya JanataParty leader leadersrestarted the mall illegal-ly by taking crores ofrupees. Senior BharatiyaJanata Party leader andformer mayor RavinderGupta has been accusedby traders of extortion ofcrores of rupees,” saidBhardwaj.

“When BharatiyaJanata Party leaderRavindra Gupta’s black-mailing and extortion

practices got exposed,MCD (municipal corpora-tion of Delhi) againsealed that building thismorning,” he added.

Responding, Guptat w e e t e d ,"@Saurabh_MLAgk Havesome Shame. Do notspread rumours againstthose who raise theirvoice against corruption.Apologise, otherwise Iwill file a defamationcase.” — PTI

Delhi riots: Man who pointedgun at cop seeks dischargeNew Delhi, Sept, 20:Shahrukh Pathan, whohad allegedly pointed agun at a Delhi Police HeadConstable during the 2020communal riots, onMonday moved a courthere seeking dischargefrom all the offences in thecase.

A photograph of Pathanpointing a gun at anunarmed cop DeepakDahiya had gone viral on

social media during thecommunal riots last year.He was arrested on March3, 2020 and is currentlylodged in Tihar Jail.

He is facing charges ofoffences such as riotingwith deadly weapon,attempt to murder, assaultand obstructing public ser-vant in the discharge ofduty under the IndianPenal Code (IPC) and theArms Act. — PTI

Noida copsban private drones tilltomorrow

Residents ofMundka stageprotest seekingbetter roadsAGE CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

Residents of several vil-lages in Mundka, onMonday, staged aprotest demanding bet-ter roads in the area,the police said.

Around 70 people fromdifferent villages haveblocked one carriage-way of Rohtak Roadaffecting the movementof traffic, it said.

The group claimedthat several roads in thearea are riddled withpotholes and remainflooded for days everytime it rains due to poordrainage systems.

The condition of theroads has deterioratedfurther in the wake ofthe downpour in thenational capital inrecent days, localsclaimed.

According to thepolice, the group oflocals are protestingagainst the concernedgovernment agenciesand demanding betterroads.

“Approximately 70people are part of theagitation. They haveblocked one part of thecarriageway on RohtakRoad affecting traffic.We are in talks with thevillagers and trying toresolve the matter,” asenior police officersaid.

“During monsoon, theroads get waterloggedand their conditionworsens. Villagers havewritten to the con-cerned governmentagencies about the pre-vailing situation.Recently, we had organ-ised a meeting betweenthe villagers and DelhiJal Board (DJB) offi-cials,” he added.

Noida, Sept. 20: Thepolice has prohibiteduse of private drones inGautam Buddh Nagarfrom Tuesday ahead ofUttar Pradesh chiefminister YogiAdityanath’s proposedvisit to the district, anofficial order said.

The use of privatedrones has been bannedtill Wednesday eveningby the police commis-sioner under section144 of the CrPC, whichis already imposed inthe districts adjoiningDelhi in western UttarPradesh.

The chief minister’svisit to Gautam BuddhNagar is scheduled onSeptember 22.

In view of the securityof the chief minister,restricting the use ofprivate drones is impor-tant, said the order.

Hence, I pass thisorder under CrPC sec-tion 144 to prohibit anyprivate person or organ-ization from usingdrones from September21 till September 22evening, additionaldeputy commissioner ofpolice (Law and Order)Shradda Pandey said inthe order.

The police have alsowarned of action underIndian Penal Code sec-tion 188 (disobedienceto order duly promul-gated by governmentofficials) against viola-tors of the order. — PTI

A man walks past a wall mural depicting Tokyo 2020 Paralympics medal winning athletes in New Delhi on Monday.— PTI

■ KNF is a Northeast-based insurgent group: Cops

◗ ◗ SEVERAL CASES relatedto kidnapping, firing,extortion, robbery amongothers are registeredagainst him in variouspolice stations of Manipur

◗ ◗ IN 2018, the accusedcame in contact with KNFcadres in his village inManipur and indulged withthem in extortion, robberyand other criminal activi-ties, according to thepolice

◗ ◗ A CASE has been regis-tered against twoIntelligence Bureau (IB)officials for allegedly dup-ing a person of `17 lakhafter promising him a jobin the Union home min-istry

◗ ◗ GOPAL RAI also said hisUnion counterpart is yetto give time for a meetingon the use of Pusa bio-decomposer in states sur-rounding the capital andother pollution-relatedissues, and urged theCentre to act promptly

Students touch the floor as they enter a school that reopened after authoritiesallowed schools to conduct classes for students of 1rd to 3th standard with theCovid-19 protocols in Gurugram on Monday. — PTI

◗ ◗ AROUND 70 peoplefrom different villageshave blocked one car-riageway of Rohtak Roadaffecting the movementof traffic

◗ ◗ SEVERAL CASES AamAadmi Party leaderSaurabh Bhardwaj allegedthat the Bharatiya JanataParty-ruled municipal cor-poration sealed a mall in2013, but reopened itafter taking crores ofrupees from shopkeepersand allowed it to operatefor eight yearsRavinder Gupta

NATION pg 3THE ASIAN AGE | TUESDAY | 21 SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEW DELHI

SHORT TAKES

SHAHAB ANSARIMUMBAI, SEPT. 20

The Bombay highcourt on Monday

dismissedRashtriya

SwayamsevakSangh (RSS)

worker RajeshKunte’s petition seeking direc-

tions to the magistrate court touse the transcript of Rahul

Gandhi’s alleged defamatoryspeech against the RSS as evi-

dence. The HC said that MrGandhi cannot be compelledto admit the alleged speech

merely because the said tran-script was annexed to the peti-

tion filed by the Congressleader in the high court. The

complainant will have to proveits authenticity, the court said.

A single bench of JusticeRevati Mohite-Dere was hear-

ing a petition filed by Kuntechallenging the Judicial

Magistrate First Class’s (JMFC)order refusing to ‘exhibit’ the

speech after Gandhi denied itsgenuineness under section 294

of the CrPC. Under this sec-tion, if an accused accepts adocument, it can be used as

evidence or exhibited; other-wise, it has to be proved at the

time of trial. Mr Kunte hasaccused Mr Gandhi of defam-ing the RSS by making “false

and baseless allegations” dur-ing an election rally in 2014 by

connecting its members toMahatma Gandhi’s assassina-

tion. Justice Revati Mohite Dereobserved that just because Mr

Gandhi had annexed a certifiedcopy of speech’s transcript to

his quashing petition beforethe HC in 2015 didn’t mean

that Kunte could compel himto admit the document. “TheCD would have to be proved

at the time of trial,” thejudge said.

New Delhi: The Congress onMonday nominated Rajni Patil

as its candidate for theupcoming Rajya Sabha by-election from Maharashtra.

The Rajya Sabha seat fellvacant after the demise of

Rajeev Satav a few monthsago. Mr Patil is a former mem-

ber of Rajya Sabha and cur-rently the Congress’ in-chargeof party affairs in Jammu andKashmir. “Congress President

Sonia Gandhi has approvedthe candidature of Rajni

Patil...for the ensuing by-elec-tion to the Rajya Sabha fromMaharashtra,” according to a

statement from AICC GeneralSecretary in-charge of

Central Election CommitteeMukul Wasnik. Mr Wasnik,

who hails from Maharashtra,was a contender for the

Congress ticket for the seat.Mr Wasnik was among the

group of 23 leaders who hadwritten to Sonia Gandhi

seeking organisational over-haul and elections to all

party posts. — PTI

Cong names RajniPatil for Rajya Sabha

RAHUL CANNOT BECOMPELLED TOADMIT SPEECH

AGAINST RSS: HC

SHAHAB ANSARIMUMBAI, SEPT. 20

The bodies of two of thethree people who wentmissing in a drowningincident on Sunday havebeen recovered and asearch for the remainingone person is still under-way. Out of the five boys,who were drowned in thesea at Versova Jetty whileimmersing Ganesh idol,two were rescued by thelocals on Sunday whilethree boys were reportedmissing.

The incident happenedon the day of AnantChaturdashi, at PatilGally no 2 in VersovaVillage at Andheri (W).This place has not beendesignated as Ganeshimmersion point by thecivic body and accordingto a police officer attachedto the Versova police sta-tion the police hadrestricted people fromentering this place but thevictims mischievouslyentered for Ganpatiimmersion. The boys losttheir balance while carry-ing out Ganesh Visarjanceremony and starteddrowning and whenlocals present there sawthis they rushed to theirhelp but could save onlytwo of them.

The incident was report-ed to authorities ataround 9pm on Sunday.Following this differentrescue teams werepressed into action.

Before the rescue teamscould reach the spot twoout of five persons werealready rescued by locals.

PARMOD KUMARNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

The Supreme Court onMonday issued notice to theCentre on a plea by DelhiCommission for Protection ofChild Rights seeking addi-tional safeguards for preg-nant and lactating womenlike continuous monitoringof those receiving Covid vac-

cination. Issuing notice andposting the matter for fur-ther hearing after two weeks,a bench comprising JusticeD.Y. Chandrachud andJustice B.V. Nagarathnasought the assistance ofSolicitor General TusharMehta for appraisal on thepolicy framed and applicableoperational guidelines

“Advocate Vrinda Grover

for DCPCR submits that peti-tion was instituted in May2021 during 2nd Covid waveand subsequently opera-tional guidelines have beenissued for pregnant and lac-tating mothers. However,there are some reliefs thatare to be sought. Issue noticeto Union of India. SolicitorGeneral is required to assistthe court about the policy

which has been formulatedand applicable guidelinesthat are to be framed,” thecourt said in its order issuingnotice. The hearing sawDCPCR telling the court thatsince we are dealing with avirus that we don’t knowabout, there is a need to con-duct scientific research to seewhat are the effects on preg-nant and lactating women.

2 dead, onemissing whileimmersingGanesh idols

RAJIB CHOWDHURIKOLKATA, SEPT. 20

The Central Bureau ofInvestigation (CBI) ques-tioned Manas Bhuniya,another cabinet col-league of West Bengalchief minister MamataBanerjee, in the I-Corechit fund scam in a catand mouse game.

It earlier grilled heavy-weight TrinamulCongress secretary gen-eral and state industriesminister ParthaChatterjee on September13 in the same case. MrBhuniya is the statewater resources investi-gation and developmentminister.

He was summoned bythe CBI to its office atCGO Complex in SaltLake at around 12 pm onMonday. According to

sources, the ministerhowever did not appearciting his role in supervi-sion of the flood situationdue to heavy rain in hisassembly constituency:Sabang which is in WestMidnapore.

But the CBI knew thathe was in Kolkata. Itsent a three-memberteam to his governmentoffice at Khadya Bhavanin New Market aftermaking an appointmentin a phone call and grilled him over two hours in the after-noon.

Sources revealed thatMr Bhuniya was askedabout his links with I-Core as he was earlierseen at one of the eventsorganised by the chitfund company. Afterrecording his statement,the CBI team left.

CBI grills another TMC mantri in I-Core chit fund money scam

Covid: SC notice to Centre on monitoring of pregnant, lactating mothers

RAJIB CHOWDHURIKOLKATA, SEPT. 20

Trinamul Congress candidatefor Rajya Sabha by-poll,

Sushmita Dev, is all set towin unopposed as the BJP

announced on Monday thatit would not field it’s candi-

date against her. WestBengal leader of the opposi-

tion Suvendu Adhikaritweeted in the morning,

“BJP will not nominate anycandidate for Rajyasabha

bypoll due in West Bengal.Outcome is predetermined.

Our focus is to make sureunelected CM to be unelect-ed once again. Jai Ma Kali.”This is the second time the

BJP has paved way for aTMC candidate for a smooth

entry to the RS recently.Earlier when the TMC hadnominated retired bureau-crat, Jawhar Sircar, to the

upper house, he also had anuncontested win. Meanwhile

Ms Dev who has beenentrusted to expand TMC

network in Tripura, filed hernomination at the state

assembly in the afternoon.She said, “We need to

expose the BJP governmentin Tripura. We have never

resorted to any kind of vio-lence there. But it is us who

have been attacked there.Even our MP Abhishek

Banerjee was not spared.Now he is being stopped

from holding rallies there. Indemocracy, no party should

be stopped from carryingout it’s activities. So we havemoved the Tripura high court

for permission.”

ANOTHER EASY WIN FOR TMC

IN RS ELECTION

RABINDRA NATHCHOUDHURYBHOPAL, SEPT. 20

Senior BJP leader and for-mer Union minister UmaBharti has called bureau-crats “chappal” (slippers)of ministers in a govern-ment.

She made the statementwhile receiving a delega-tion of Other BackwardClass (OBC) communitieshere late on Sundayevening.

A video in which she washeard making the remarkswent viral on Monday

prompting state PublicWorks Development (PWD)minister Bhupendra Singhto come out with a state-ment distancing BJP fromit.

“It may be her personalview. We do not agree withit,” Mr Singh said.

In the video, Ms Bhartiwas heard saying that therewas an impression in pub-lic that ministers were usu-ally being prevailed uponby the bureaucrats in mak-ing decisions on officialmatters.

But, this is not true; shewas heard saying in the

video.“Bureaucrats are like our

chappals. They carry outour orders. The ministerasks the secretary privatelyto make notes in the files asper the minister’s wishes. I

know the functioning ofthe government as I waschief minister and Unionminister”, she was heardsaying in the video clip.

A couple of days ago, MsBharti had caused unease

in BJP by declaring that hewould launch a state-widemovement on January 15demanding prohibition inthe state.

State BJP president V.D.Sharma reacted to herstatement saying that lawalone cannot eradicatesocial evils.

Ms Bharti was one of theaspirants for Rajya Sabhaticket in the October fourbiennial elections to thelone seat from MadhyaPradesh. However, BJPgave the ticket to Unionminister Dr L. Murugan.

The opposition Congress

called the commentsshameful and demanded aclarification. “Will chiefminister Shivraj SinghChouhan clarify whetherbureaucrats actually pickup slippers of politicians,”Congress leader K.K.Mishra demanded.

The clarification came onMonday evening. In aseries of tweets, she wrotein Hindi: “The day beforeyesterday at my residencein Bhopal, I met a delega-tion of backward classes.This meeting was not a for-mal one. The video of thatentire conversation has

gone viral in the media. Iam thankful to the mediathat they showed my com-plete video because I wasspeaking in defence ofbureaucracy.

“Some of us leaders — theincompetent ones sitting inpower - take the guise ofbureaucracy to avoid theirinefficiency that ‘we arevery good but bureaucracydoes not allow us to do goodwork’. Whereas the truth isthat honest bureaucracysupports a strong, true andwell-intentioned leader sit-ting in power. This is myexperience,” she said.

Uma says ‘bureaucrats pick our slippers’, BJP distances itself

NAYEAR AZADPATNA, SEPT. 20

In his response toJharkhand chief minis-ter Hemant Soren’sremark on Bhojpuri andMagahi languages, Biharchief minister NitishKumar on Monday saidthat people living in bothstates are like brothersand love each other.“People living in Biharand Jharkhand are likebrothers and love eachother. People who givestatements for politicalgains must respect peopleliving in both the states”,Bihar chief ministerNitish Kumar said on thesidelines of his weeklyJanata Darbar in Patna.

A political controversyhad erupted recently overJharkhand chief minis-ter Hemant Soren’s com-ment on Bhojpuri andMagahi languages. Hehad also claimed thatwomen were assaultedduring the movement forthe creation ofJharkhand by people whospoke these languages.

Jharkhand was carvedout of Bihar in 2000 and

Shibu Soren’s partyJharkhand MuktiMorcha (JMM) played akey role in the movementfor the creation of thestate.

“The movement for thecreation of Jharkhandwas for its regional andtribal languages and notBhojpuri and Magahi.These two languages areborrowed languages.Those who speak these

two languages are domi-nating people”, Mr. Sorensaid earlier this week ear-lier while talking to anews channel.

The BJP which is themain opposition party inJharkhand had reactedstrongly to the commentsmade by Jharkhand CMand termed it as “highlyobjectionable” and alsoblamed him for trying tocreate a divide betweenpeople living inJharkhand.

“Jharkhand CM’s state-ment regarding Bhojpuriand Magahi speakingpeople has exposed hismindset. It is also anattempt to divide the soci-ety”, BJP leaders inPatna said.

SHAHAB ANSARIMUMBAI, SEPT. 20

A court in Mumbai onMonday granted bail toBollywood actress ShilpaShetty’s husband RajKundra in the creationand streaming of porno-graphic short films on dif-ferent apps. He has beengranted bail on a personalbond of `50,000.

Raj Kundra’s lawyerPrashant Patil had onSaturday filed the bailapplication contendingthat the investigation inthe case is over and a

charge sheet has beenfiled.

He argued that in the1400-page chargesheet,there was not a singlepiece of evidence showingthat Kundra was upload-ing the objectionable con-tent that led to the filing ofthis case.

Advocate Patil alsoargued in the court thatthe celebrity and producerdecide what kind of con-tent is to be uploaded onthe platform. It was nei-ther Kundra nor RyanThorpe, the IT head of oneof Raj Kundra’s firms,

who were deciding whatwas to be uploaded.

The prosecution hadvehemently opposed thebail plea arguing thatKundra is a powerful per-

son and releasing him onbail could lead to tamper-ing of evidence and wit-nesses.

Mr Kundra alleged hehas been falsely implicat-ed, was not even named inthe FIR and has beendragged by the respondent(police) in the case.

After hearing argumentsthe court granted bail toKundra and Thorpe.Kundra will walk out ofjail as soon as formalitiesof bail are completed.

Meanwhile, the Bombayhigh court on Monday saidit was concerned about

media reports on actorShilpa Shetty’s minor chil-dren following the arrestof her husband Kundra inconnection with the pro-duction and distributionof pornographic movies.

Justice Gautam Patelobserved this while hear-ing a suit filed by Shettyagainst the alleged defam-atory articles and videospublished against her andher family after Kundra’sarrest in July.

The police, in their sup-plementary charge-sheet,had claimed Kundra wasthe “main facilitator” in

the case and he along withother accused exploitedyoung women strugglingin the movie industry byfilming them in obsceneways.

The nearly 1,500-pagecharge-sheet againstKundra and Thorpe wasfiled in the court onSeptember 15 by the crimebranch.

Besides Kundra andThorpe, Yash Thakur, aresident of Singapore, andLondon-based PardeepBakshi have been shownas wanted accused in thecharge-sheet.

■ ‘1400-page chargesheet doesn’t have evidence showing Kundra was uploading objectionable content’

Raj Kundra granted bail in pornography case

AGE CORRESPONDENTTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM,SEPT. 20

While Kerala was dis-cussing about a Dubairestaurant worker win-ning `12 crore Onambumper for past severalhours, a new twist hasemerged in the story.

Contrary to the claimsmade by Saithalvi thatone of his friend Ahmedhad bought the luckyticket on his behalf, nosuch thing actually hap-pened. He had claimedthat the ticket was beingobtained from his friendand brought to Wayand.

However, new reportssay that the lucky winnerof Onam bumper is oneJayapalan of Kochi whois an autorickshaw driv-er.

Ahmed says he is notaware of the ticket whichwon Onam bumper.

He told a regional news

channel that he was notin possession of any tick-et as claimed bySaithalvi.

Ahmed said, “A personsent the screenshot ofthis ticket to me on myFacebook at 4.10 pm onSunday. I sent the same toSaithalvi at 4.53 pm.Saithalvi told me that heowed some money to afriend and he wouldshow him the ticket andclaim that he has won theprize money. I told him

go ahead and tell him.Nothing else happened.Saithalvi has not won thebumper prize money. Idon’t have lottery busi-ness. I have a closeacquaintance withSaithalvi and that’s all.”

With Ahmed rubbish-ing Saithalvi’s claim thestate lottery departmentis examining the veraci-ty of the ticket taken byKochi man.

Earlier, Saithalvi, whoworks as a helper at arestaurant owned by aMalayali in Dubai, wasflooded with congratula-tory calls and messages.“I came to know that theticket purchased by mehas won the prize afterthe draw yesterday. I hadasked a friend inKozhikode to buy theOnam bumper ticket onmy behalf. I sent `300 byonline mode to purchasethe ticket,” he told mediapersons in Dubai.

People of Bihar, Jharkhand are likebrothers & share love: Nitish Kumar

◗ ◗ EARLIER, Saithalvi,who works as a helper ata restaurant owned by aMalayali in Dubai, wasclaimed to be the winnerof the lottery

◗ ◗ HOWEVER, newreports say that the luckywinner of Onam bumperis one Jayapalan of Kochiwho is an autorickshawdriver

Bharti made statement while receiving a delegation of OBC communities on Sunday evening; video of her speech goes viral in MP

Kerala: ‘Winner’ of ̀ 12cr Onamturns out to be Kochi autowallah

Raj Kundra

A hand rickshaw-puller carrying a passenger wades through a waterlogged cityroad after heavy downpours in Kolkata on Monday.

— PRITAM BANDYOPADHYAY

AGE CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

The Supreme Court onMonday declined to enter-tain a plea by a class XII stu-dent seeking direction to theCentre and States to consid-er and take a time-bounddecision on the physical re-opening of schools and con-duct of offline classes.

Refusing to pass an orderto reopen the schools forphysical teaching, JusticeD.Y.Chandrachud heading abench also compressingJustice B.V. Nagarathna

said, “We don’t know wherethe spike is, in which districtincidence of Covid is high.Ofcourse children do need togo back to school. But thedecision has to be taken bythe States” Observing thatthe complexities of the issuerequire it to be left to thegovernment to make a deci-sion, the top court can’t takeover the governance, thecourt said, “...The govern-ments are wary of exposingchildren to possible infec-tion. We cannot be runningthe administration anddecide these issues.”

SC turns down petition seeking physical re-opening of schools

Bureaucrats are like our chappals. They carry out ourorders. The minister asks the

secretary privately to make notes inthe files as per the minister’s wishes. Iknow the functioning of the govern-ment as I was chief minister andUnion minister.

— Uma Bharti, BJP leader

People living in Bihar andJharkhand are like brothersand love each other. People

who give statements for politicalgains must respect people living inboth the states.

— Nitish Kumar, Bihar CM

CM reacts after controversy over Soren’s remark on Bhojpuri, Magahi speakers

NATION pg 4THE ASIAN AGE | TUESDAY | 21 SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEW DELHI

SHORT TAKES

Bhopal: Primary schoolsreopened in Madhya

Pradesh on Monday afterone and half years. However,

the classes one — fiveresumed in the primary

schools with poor atten-dance of students, reports

reaching from various partsof the state said. “Almost allthe schools recorded atten-dance of less than ten per-

cent of students. Parentsappeared hesitant to send

their children to the schoolsfor fear of their wards get-ting coronavirus infection”,

a senior officer of state edu-cation department said,

unwilling to be quoted. Theprivate schools have howev-er yet to start classes one tofive as examinations of stu-

dents from classes nine to 12were currently in progress in

these educational institu-tions, he added. The state

government has issuedguidelines for reopening ofthe primary schools in the

state.

Raipur: Fissures in SarvaAdivasi Samaj, a tribal body

fighting for causes of theirfraternity in Chhattisgarh,

came to the fore with a fac-tion of the outfit stayingaway from the economicblockade launched in the

state by the body onMonday demanding a per-manent solution to three-

decade-long Leftwingextremism in Bastar. Led bystate executive president of

the body B.S. Rawte, thebody staged economic

blockade in several cities inthe state including Bastardivision by stopping vehi-

cles. Mr Rawte said that thegovernment should initiatesteps to find a permanent

solution to the Naxal prob-lem in Bastar which led tothe killing of hundreds of

tribals and security person-nel in the last three decades.

Rewa (MP): Three peoplewere booked in Rewa in

Madhya Pradesh on Mondayafter a 28-year-old man was

beaten up for allegedly teas-ing a girl, a video of the

assault going viral on socialmedia, police said. Additional

Superintendent of PoliceShivkumar Verma said Baldau

Jadhav, who had recentlybeen released from jail in a

extortion case, was beaten upby the kin of a girl he had

allegedly teased. “After thevideo of the incident, which

took place last week inArjunpur village under

Hanumana police station lim-its, surfaced on social media

on Monday, we booked threepeople under Indian Penal

Code section 327 (voluntarilycausing hurt). Efforts are on

to nab them,” he added. Inthe video, one of the accused

is holding a belt tied aroundthe neck of Jadhav, while

another person is hitting himwith a stick. — PTI

Rift emerges inC’garh tribal body

MP: 3 booked forassault on man

London: A family home inthe leafy Hampstead neigh-bourhood of north London

where Nobel laureateRabindranath Tagore livedduring a visit in 1912 is onthe market, reviving some

talk of its acquisition onbehalf of the Indian govern-

ment. Tagore had lived atHeath Villas in HampsteadHeath, north London, for afew months while he trans-lated his famous collectionof poems Gitanjali’. Duringher visit to the UK in 2015

and then again in 2017, WestBengal Chief Minister

Mamata Banerjee had askedthe Indian High Commission

in London to look intoacquiring the property on

behalf of the Bengal govern-ment to convert into a muse-

um-cum-memorial to theworld-famous poet and

writer. From our point ofview, we are in the businessof selling and as long as our

client gets the value theyseek and it meets all require-

ments under British law, alloffers are welcome, saidPhilip Green, director of

Goldschmidt & Howland, theestate agents handling the

sale. It is a wonderful homein a spectacular part of

London and we are privi-leged to be handling thesale. Its historical signifi-

cance is recognised with theBlue Plaque but besides

that, there has been a lot ofinterest because of its

unique location, period fea-tures and beautiful views of

the Heath, he said. — PTI

HOME WHERE TAGORETRANSLATED GITANJALI

PUT UP FOR SALE

MP primary schoolsreopen after 1.5-year

Hindu devotees perform rituals for their ancestors on the first day of Pitru Pakshaat Sangam in Prayagraj on Monday. — PTI

New Delhi, Sept. 20: Anew survey has revealedthat 28 percent of sur-veyed households in thenational capital have oneor more member showingflu-like symptoms.

Released by LocalCircles,the survey was based onanswers by 7,697 respon-dents across Delhi whowere asked about the num-ber of individuals in theirhouseholds currently withone or more flu-like symp-toms like fever, runningnose, cough, headache orbody ache. Amid fears of apossible third wave ofCovid-19, experts at arecent meeting of theDelhi DisasterManagement Authority(DDMA) had said that as

flu and coronavirus havesimilar symptoms, theDelhi government shouldcontinue vigorous testingto keep the spread ofCovid-19 in check duringthe flu season.

“In response, six percent of Delhi’s residentssaid there are currently‘four or more individuals’with flu-like symptoms.As many as 11 per centsaid they have two-threeindividuals with similarsymptoms. “Another 11per cent said there is onlyone individual with thesymptoms. The majority72 per cent of Delhi’s resi-dents surveyed said noone in their householdhave flu-like symptoms,”the survey noted. — PTI

YUSUF JAMEELSRINAGAR, SEPT. 20

The Army on Monday saidthat there has been nomajor ceasefire violationalong the Line of Control(LoC) after the renewal ofthe November 2003 cease-fire agreement withPakistan earlier this year.It also ruled out Talibaningress in Jammu andKashmir and reiteratedthat it is fully equipped andcapable of defeating anysuch attempt if made.

Lieutenant GeneralDevendra Pratap Pandey,General OfficerCommanding (GOC) of theArmy’s Srinagar-based 15Corps or Chinar Corps,while speaking toreporters on the sidelinesof a function held here saidthat though there havebeen some infiltrationattempts along the de factoborder, these were, unlikeprevious years, not ade-quately supported by anyceasefire violations (byPakistan).

He said, “As far as theceasefire violations, therehave been none. At least inthe Kashmir Valley, therehave been zero (such occur-rences)”. He added, “Yetwe’re fully prepared for

ceasefire violations. If any-thing happens, we’re all setto respond appropriately.But frankly speaking,there has been no instiga-tion from across the border(since last week ofFebruary)”.

Asked specifically aboutinfiltration attempts by mil-itants from across the LoCthis year, he said, “Therehave been some attempts.Unlike previous years,these have not been ade-quately supported (byceasefire violations). Assuch hardly any but two ofthese were successful. Onesuch attempt was made inBandipora (district) butwas quickly neutralised.The second one (reportedfrom Uri area of neighbour-ing Baramulla district) isbeing taken care of.”

Replying to questions,

the Army commander saidthat no one should worryabout possible Talibanspillover in J&K. “Thisquestion has been asked tome a number of times onevents which are unrelat-ed. Right? So, I will againanswer your question.Why are you worried? Youare safe and you will bekept safe. There is enougheffort,” he said.

He added, “I’m not look-ing at questions on theTaliban or foreign terror-ists or local terrorists. Forus, it has got nothing to dowith the quality or quanti-ty. If there is a man whopicks up a weapon, he willbe neutralised either way— by getting killed or bygetting apprehended and ifhe comes and offers (to)surrender, we will take sur-render,” he said.

No ceasefire violation on LoC: Military‘In Kashmir, there have been zero occurrences since renewal of 2003 agreement’

Srinagar, Sept. 20: TheArmy on Monday said itwas engaged in a majoroperation in Jammu andKashmir for the second dayin a row following what isbelieved to be the biggestinfiltration attempt by ter-rorists from across the Lineof Control in recent years.

Internet services andmobile phones have beensuspended in the Uri sectorof north Kashmir since thismorning.

Officials said an infiltra-tion attempt was detectedlate Saturday evening, coin-ciding with the fifthanniversary of the Uriattack in which 19 soldierswere killed after two suicideattackers stormed a mili-tary installation onSeptember 18, 2016.

India responded with asurgical strike across theLine of Control that tookdown several terroristlaunch pads.

According to governmentsources in Delhi, a group ofaround six infiltrators man-

aged to sneak in fromPakistan. A soldier wasinjured in firing during theinfiltration attempt, theysaid. The Army said theoperation to track down theinfiltrators is underway andthe exact situation on theground is still unclear.

This is for the first timewhen phone services andthe internet was suspendedin the wake of a cross-bor-der infiltration attempt. TheArmy said this was the sec-ond such bid this year fol-lowing a ceasefire agree-ment between the armies ofIndia and Pakistan inFebruary.

The Army said since then,no ceasefire violation hasbeen reported and there hasbeen no instigation fromPakistan. “No ceasefire vio-lation this year. We are pre-pared for any ceasefire vio-lation. But frankly, there hasbeen no instigation fromacross the border,” said LtGeneral DP Panday, GeneralOfficer Commanding of 15Corps. — Agencies

Internet curbs in Uriafter infiltration bidsAGE CORRESPONDENT

MUMBAI, SEPT. 20

BJP leader Kirit Somaiyawas on Monday morningstopped at Karad railwaystation and detained by thepolice. The BJP leader wason his way to Kolhapur tofile a police complaintagainst Maharashtra minister Hasan Mushrifin an alleged money laun-dering case. According tothe police, it would havecreated a law and orderproblem.

The BJP questioned thepolice action saying whyno action was takenagainst people who wouldhave created law and orderproblems and insteaddetained Mr Somaiya whowas only using his consti-tutional right. MrSomaiya, who boarded theMahalaxmi Express inMumbai on Sunday nightto go to Kolhapur, in a tweeton Monday said, “Policestopped me at Karad underprohibitory order.”

K o l h a p u rSuperintendent of PoliceShailesh Balkawde con-firmed that Mr Somaiya

was stopped atKarad railwaystation andserved a copy ofthe (prohibito-ry) order. “Afterwe told him thathe was prohibit-ed from enter-ing the district,

he cooperated. Hereturned to Mumbai afteraddressing a press confer-ence in Karad,” MrBalkawde said. On hisreturn to Mumbai, MrSomaiya said that he willcontinue his fight againstthe corruption in UddhavThackeray government.

A few days back,Somaiya had accused MrMushrif, the MLA fromKagal in Kolhapur, ofindulging in corruptionand holding ‘benami’ enti-ties in the name of his kin,allegations dismissed asbaseless by the latter.

Mr Mushrif claimedthat the BJP was targetinghim for refusing to jointhe party. He alleged thatstate BJP chiefChandrakant Patil hadmade an offer to him tojoin the saffron party.

YUSUF JAMEELSRINAGAR, SEPT. 20

The authorities andexperts are concernedabout the level of newCovid-19 cases inSrinagar and have askedpeople to strictly followthe pandemic relatedStandard OperatingProcedure (SOP) and con-tinue to get vaccinated toslow down the virus.

The authorities havealso said that if the situa-tion remains at thealarming levels of spreadand severity, they mayhave to impose a partial

lockdown in the district.Over the past one week,half of the 150-200 posi-tive cases recorded dailyin the twenty districts ofJammu and Kashmirwere from Srinagar alonewhich has a population ofapproximately two mil-lion.

Srinagar’s DeputyCommissioner (DC)Muhammad Aijaz Asadon Monday said thatsome areas in Srinagarcontinue to violate CovidSOPs and the administra-tion will impose strictlockdown in these areasin a few days. “Some

areas are continuouslyviolating Covid SOPs. Wecan’t make the entire dis-trict hostile for violationbeing done by a few areas.We are planning toimpose a strict lockdownin the areas that violateCovid SOPs,” he said

after conducting surprisechecks in the Srinagarareas along with seniordistrict administrationand police officials.

The DC said that duringthe inspection about thir-ty business outlets weresealed and also a fine of`20,000 was imposed onthose found violatingCovid SOPs. He said thatthe inspection was car-ried out to see if variousCovid related advisoriesand guidelines includinguse of face masks andmaintaining social dis-tancing in various busi-ness establishments and

other public places areimplemented or not.During interaction withtraders and shoppers, hecautioned that since fiftypercent of the total Covidpositive cases in J&K arecoming from Srinagarand if SOPs are not fol-lowed in the district theadministration “will beforced to take strict meas-ures again”.

Earlier J&K’sLieutenant Governor,Manoj Sinha, had made afervent appeal to theSrinagarites to followSOPs to prevent furtherspread of the pandemic.

Alarming rise of Covid cases in Srinagar■ Partial lockdown may be imposed to prevent disease in city

28% households havesomeone with flu: Study

Kriti Somaya heldwhile going to filecase against mantri

AGE CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, SEPT. 20

With 30,256 people testingpositive for coronavirusinfection, India’s total tallyof Covid-19 cases rose to3,34,78,419, while the activecases declined to 3,18,181,the lowest in 183 RPT 183days, according to theUnion health ministry dataupdated on Monday.

The death toll climbed to4,45,133 with 295 more fatali-ties, according to the dataupdated at 8 am.

The active cases havedeclined to 3,18,181 compris-ing 0.95 per cent of the totalinfections, the lowest sinceMarch 2020, while thenational Covid-19 recoveryrate was recorded at 97.72per cent, the health min-istry said.

A reduction of 13,977 caseshas been recorded in theactive Covid-19 caseload in aspan of 24 hours.

A total of 11,77,607 testswere conducted on Sundaytaking the total cumulativetests conducted so far fordetection of Covid-19 in thecountry to 55,36,21,766.

The daily positivity ratewas recorded at 2.57 percent. It has been less than 3per cent for the last 21 days,it said.

The weekly positivity ratewas recorded at 2.07 percent. It has been below 3 percent for the last 87 days,according to the health min-istry.

The number of people who

have recuperated from thedisease has surged to3,27,15,105, while the casefatality rate was recorded at1.33 per cent, it said.

The cumulative dosesadministered in the countryso far under the nationwidevaccination drive hasexceeded 80.85 crore,according to the ministry.

India’s Covid-19 tally hadcrossed the 20-lakh mark onAugust 7, 2020, 30 lakh onAugust 23, 40 lakh onSeptember 5 and 50 lakh onSeptember 16. It went past60 lakh on September 28, 70lakh on October 11, crossed80 lakh on October 29, 90lakh on November 20 andsurpassed the one-croremark on December 19.

India crossed the grimmilestone of two crore onMay 4 and three crore onJune 23.

The 295 fresh fatalitiesinclude 152 from Kerala,and 49 from Maharashtra.

India logs 30,256new Covid cases,295 deaths in 1 day

◗ ◗ THE ACTIVE CASES havedeclined to 3,18,181 com-prising 0.95 per cent of thetotal infections, the lowestsince March 2020, while thenational Covid-19 recoveryrate was recorded at 97.72per cent, the health ministrysaid

◗ ◗ THE DAILY POSITIVITYrate was recorded at 2.57per cent. It has been less than 3 per cent for the last21 days

◗ ◗ THE AUTHORITIES andexperts are concernedabout the level of newCovid-19 cases in Srinagarand have asked people tostrictly follow the pandemicrelated Standard OperatingProcedure (SOP) and con-tinue to get vaccinated

■ Continued from Page 1WHO. Highlighting theimportance of indigenousresearch and production ofCovid vaccines in India, hesaid that it is due to therelentless efforts and guid-ance of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi that Indiawas simultaneously under-taking research and pro-duction of Covid vaccinesin such a big way. India’svaccination drive has beena role model for the worldand it is marching aheadwith great speed, he said.

Talking about the expect-ed production and supplytrends in the comingmonths, he said that morethan 30 crore doses will beproduced in October andmore than 100 crores in thecoming quarter. India onFriday administered arecord number of over 2.50

crore Covid-19 vaccinedoses on the occasion ofPrime Minister NarendraModi’s 71st birthday.

The daily Covid-19 vacci-nation in the country wasover 1 crore on September 6,August 31 and August 27.India took 85 days to touchthe 10-crore vaccinationmark, 45 more days to crossthe 20-crore mark and 29more days to reach the 30-crore mark, according to theministry.

The country took 24 daysto reach 40 crore from 30crore doses and then 20more days to cross the 50-crore vaccination mark onAugust 6, it said.

It took 19 more days to gopast the 60-crore mark andtook only 13 days to reach70 crore from 60 crore onSeptember 7, the ministrysaid. — PTI

‘India will resume export of surplus Covid-19 vaccines’

◗◗ ARMY ON Monday saidthat there has been nomajor ceasefire violationalong the Line of Control(LoC) after the renewalof the November 2003ceasefire agreement withPakistan earlier this year.It also ruled out Talibaningress in Jammu andKashmir

◗◗ LT. GEN. DevendraPratap Pandey of theArmy’s Srinagar-based 15Corps or Chinar Corps saidthat though there havebeen some infiltrationattempts along the defacto border, these were,unlike previous years, notadequately supported byany ceasefire violations

■ Continued from Page 1by Krishnanagar MLAMukul Roy before hisswitch to the TMC. TheBJP MP’s new task isexpected to come as arelief to Mr Adhikarisince their style of func-tioning is very different.

On the organisationalrejig, Mr Adhikari tweet-ed, “Heartiest congratula-tions to both Shri@DilipGhoshBJP forbeing appointed asNational Vice President

of @BJP4India & Shri@DrSukantaMajum1 forbeing appointed as presi-dent of @BJP4Bengal. Iwish them very best &believe that both wouldgive their best tostrengthen the party.”

The BJP has alsoappointed formerUttarakhand governor,Baby Rani Maurya, whorecently resigned fromthe constitutional post, asits national vice presi-dent.

■ Continued from Page 1anti-poor policies andtake corrective measures,rather than coming upwith move after move thathurts the overall interestsof the people of J&K”.

The JCCI while callingfor the shutdown hadexpressed anguish overthe “discrimination ofthe highest degree withtraders of Jammu by thegovernment”. JCCI presi-dent Arun Gupta said,“Looking into the atroci-ties of the government onthe business class ofJammu, we have decided

to give a clarion call forJammu Bandh onSeptember 22.” Heexpressed resentmentover the proposal of bigcompanies such asReliance opening storesin Jammu, saying that ifthis happens, small busi-nesses will be affected,and many shops will shutdown.

Mr Gupta asserted,“Instead of adding oppor-tunities for business, thedirectionless governmenthas snatched what was inhand of traders which isunacceptable. These poli-

cies are hitting the busi-ness fraternity hard”.

He alleged that the gov-ernment was planning totarget bar owners next.He said, “Hundreds ofwine traders have losttheir livelihood after theintroduction of e-auctionof liquor vends in J&K.As many as 228 liquortraders lost their shops inthe e-auction conductedrecently. More traders arelikely to go in the redbecause of the anti-Jammu policies andactions of the govern-ment”.

■ Continued from Page 1statement of ‘Siddu will bethe face in coming assem-bly elections,’ the ‘DalitCM’ argument falls flat.For the Congress andRahul Gandhi, Dalits areonly a matter of strategynot emotion,” tweeted BJPnational general secretary(organisation) B.L.Santhosh. Dalits constitutearound 32 per cent of thePunjab population and JatSikhs, who are politicallydominant in the state, arearound 25 per cent.

Mr Rawat’s remarksseem to have deepened theexisting crisis within thestate’s ruling party.

Former CM and party stal-wart Captain AmarinderSingh had vehementlyopposed any move by theCongress top brass toname Mr Sidhu as his suc-cessor and had publiclylambasted the cricketer-turned-politician as“incompetent” while men-tioning his “connection”with Pakistan and friend-ship with Pakistan PMImran Khan and its Armychief general Qamar JavedBajwa.

Alleging that theCongress named MrChanni as the CM “for afew months merely to grabDalit votes as part of its

conspiracy,” BJP nationalgeneral secretaryDushyant Kumar Gautam,who is also a Dalit leader,cited the example of B.R.Ambedkar and said theCongress did nothing topreserve his memory orfound it fit to award himwith the Bharat Ratna.

In his reaction BJP ITdepartment head AmitMalviya said, “This is ahuge insult to the entireDalit community ifCharanjit Singh Channihas been made the CM, only to hold the seatfor Navjot Singh Sidhu,the chosen Gandhi familyloyalist.”

■ Continued from Page 1(AAP), Mr Channi saidthat the Congress Partyhas made a commonman the CM. “I repre-sent the poor. Aamaadmi’s rule has beenestablished. The party issupreme, not the CM orthe Cabinet. The govern-ment will work as perthe party’s ideology,” hesaid. He also reachedout to farmers, who hadbeen agitating againstthe Centre for nearly ayear against the threeCentral farm laws. Heannounced that his gov-ernment will waive thewater and electricitybills of farmers ofPunjab. “All outstandingelectricity bills of thepoor will be waived andtheir electricity connec-tions will be restored,”he said.

Mentioning his ori-gins, Mr Channi said, “Ihave been a rickshawpuller myself... I won’tlet anyone hurt thefarming sector... I willappeal to the Centre torepeal black laws. I fullysupport the farmers’struggle.”

The newly-appointedchief minister also

heaped praise on hispredecessor CaptainAmarinder Singh, say-ing he had done a greatjob. “CaptainAmarinder Singh did alot of good work for thepeople of Punjab. He isalso known as the pro-tector of water rights.He is our party leader,we will take forward hiswork,” he said. Theparty high commandhas given an 18-pointprogramme and we arecommitted to it, said MrChanni, adding promis-es made will be fulfilled.“We will ensure a trans-parent government,” headded.

Punjab now has a Dalitchief minister and histwo deputies are fromJat Sikh and HinduKhatri communities,indicating that theCongress wants to tickall the caste boxes aheadof crucial Assemblyelections early nextyear. With the change inleadership the partywants to wipe the slateclean with theseappointments after thefratricide within thestate unit lasting forfour months.

BJP drops Ghosh as Bengal party chief

BJP attacks Congress, says Channi made Punjab CM to win Dalit votes

Channi takes oath asCM, asks Centre torepeal 3 farmer laws

Traders not happy with policies, Reliance stores

KritiSomaya

EDIT pg 5THE ASIAN AGE | TUESDAY | 21 SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEW DELHI

At the September 17 summit of the Shanghai CooperationOrganisation, which was in the nature of an outreach summit withthe Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) — a militaryalliance of some former CIS states — India offered its most forthright

framework yet to characterise the Afghanistan situation since the Talibantakeover on August 15, but without once naming the Taliban. Actionable linesof policy were not adumbrated other than as a part of a wider collective- eitherunder the UN umbrella, or within a regional grouping.

This is a move on from the stance of virtual closing of shop that South Blockhad so far offered on matters relating to Afghanistan, in practice going to theextent of freezing visas for Afghans even if this was to the bewilderment anddismay of Indian policy circles and Afghanistan-watchers alike. To be fair,external affairs minister S. Jaishankar had stated that the capture of Kabul bythe Taliban without negotiation was likely to affect the question of legitimacyfor the new regime. Somehow this was not taken as being part of a worked outofficial policy-related exercise, but only as a general intellectual expression.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi dispelled that impression in his virtualspeech at the Dushanbe summit last Friday. Thefirst among the four issues he flagged was that ofthe “transition” in Afghanistan not being “inclu-sive”, and coming about “without negotiation”. Inlight of this, he proposed that the question ofrecognition should be exercised “by the globalcommunity collectively and after due thought”,and said India would “support” a “central” rolefor the UN in this regard.

In the real world, matters are unlikely to pan outin the manner that India suggests. Therefore, New

Delhi would need to be ready to take its own individual decision when neededeven if other major regional SCO capitals such as Beijing, Moscow, Islamabad— or world capitals, most notably Washington, London and the leadingEuropeans, besides Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Doha (in the specific Afghan context)—are unable to coordinate and arrive at a common basis for granting recog-nition to the new rulers in Kabul. Nevertheless, India’s stand could lead to abroader regional as well as international caution on the question of recogni-tion, not least in light of recent actions in Afghanistan, particularly those inrelation to girls and women in the matter of education and employment. If itis the UN that New Delhi has flagged, then Indian diplomacy has to show it inaction that it means business. The PM also flagged the question of instability,extremism and encouragement to international terrorism that flows from anunbridled Taliban takeover. In this, the public and the official sentiment inBeijing or Moscow are not likely to be very different, no matter that China isall pent up, hoping to play the role of Kabul’s biggest economic benefactor andthe Taliban already calling China its “most important partner”.

Beijing will doubtless attempt to do its own deal with the Taliban andPakistan in the hope of finessing the terrorism factor, but the Russian positioncould be more in line with India’s, although President Vladimir Putin noted inhis summit speech that while Afghanistan was not “representative” or “inclu-sive”, but it was “important” to work with the Taliban interim regime. He alsourged coordination between countries on the question of recognition of thenew dispensation.

Already, there are shades here of the Indian understanding but also a point-er to necessary pragmatism. There does appear to be room for buildingbridges of understanding with Russia and Iran, and strengthen commonthreads with China, especially on the question of the likely spread of extrem-ism and terrorism.

21 SEPTEMBER 2021

First contours of Indianframework for Afghanistan

If it is the UN thatNew Delhi hasflagged, then

Indian diplomacyhas to show it in

action that itmeans business.

One thing canbe said infavour of Pri-me MinisterN a r e n d r a

Modi. He has made polit-ical dynasts the object ofsocial media sneers andsymbols of unmeritedinheritances. It may beanother matter thatRahul Gandhi may be farbetter educated and gen-uinely qualified, but it isMr Modi who is seen asthe one with merit,because he came up thehard way. In a countrywhere over a million sitfor the JEE to qualify fora few hundred places inthe IITs, and where thewinnowing process ofselection for just aboutevery admission or open-ing is very severe, be it agovernment medical col-lege or the civil servicesor even to become ajawan in the military orthe police, the impor-tance of being perceivedas merited cannot beignored. The chaiwallastory is more compellingthan the Doon Schooldynast. It is no wonderthen that Mr Modi’s riseis seen as merited andMr Gandhi’s ascensionas unmerited.

But make no mistake.Some inheritances aredeemed legitimate. Acorporate scion is notperceived as unmerited.For instance, movieactors who inherit looksand talent, and doctorsand lawyers who inheritpractices are seen aslegitimate inheritors tilltheir lack of merit showsup. But when the dotingparent or the fawningcourtier thrusts a son ordaughter, in the democ-ratic age it is no longerseen as merited. Politicalparties are not royalcourts where a haplessMohammed Shah Ran-gila or an indolent Baha-dur Shah Zafar can beforced upon a nation.

People have a way ofshowing how they feelabout this. In the 2019Lok Sabha elections K.

Chandrashekar Rao’sdaughter Kavita wasrejected in Nizamabadwhile the TRS went on towin most of the seats. InUttar Pradesh, MulayamSingh Yadav won whilehis daughter-in-law wasdefeated.

Mr Gandhi rightlyabdicated the Congresspresidency after theparty was soundly beat-en in the last elections.But the Congress Work-ing Committee responsewas to resolve that itwould create a new SevaDal to replicate the RSS’booth level election fight-ing machine. Clearly, theanalysis was that it wasthe RSS’ booth levelorganisation that wonthe BJP the elections.

Nothing can be furtherfrom the truth. Whatwon the elections wasthe demagogic charismaof Mr Modi, who cast aspell with a mishmash ofreligious rhetoric, out-right lies and distortionof, let alone the past, buteven recent history. Thechallenge for theCongress is to create acompetitive imagerythat will rekindle themagic it had once cast tocombat the RSS’ perni-cious ideology. If it cando that the election fight-ing booth level machinewill automatically hap-pen. In the modern age,the currency that willkeep the troops motivat-ed and fighting are ideasand dreams. The prob-lem is that the Congressstill thinks currency isthe only king.

Never a confidentleader and at best a diffi-dent speaker, with littleof what makes a personcharismatic, Mr Gandhican hardly be a foil to MrModi, a communicatorpar excellence and a rab-ble rouser without apeer. In June 2014 theCongress reached downto pluck MallikarjunKharge from obscuritymostly because he wasthe only one other leaderwith some standing in

the party who couldreply to the new masters.He was up to the job.

He said that the NDAwas repackaging workdone by the UPA andasked the NarendraModi government toimplement the promisesmade without trumpet-ing and “arrogance”. MrKharge invoked theMahabha-rata and saidthat though thePandavas were few innumber as compared tothe Kauravas, still theycould not be defeated. Atanother time he dis-missed then home minis-ter Rajnath Singh’sattempt to paint theCongress as anti-dalit byclaiming that Dr B.R.Ambedkar, unhappyabout how theConstitution had turnedout, wanted to leave thecountry with a scathingriposte: “Dr Ambedkarnever wanted to leavethe country. He was partof the country. YouAryans came from out-side. We have beenputting up with yourways for five thousandyears.” Rajnath Singh, aRSS man to the core, didnot have an answer, ashis shakha training did-n’t provide him with thetrue historical backdropof India.

What the Congressneeds now is an ideologi-cal and social contrast tothe BJP, someone whocan dismiss the RSS’mythology, with the con-tempt that it deserves.The Congress’ stable ofprincelings simply can'tdo it. The Congress needsto dig deep into its smallbagful of peasant leaderswith a track record ingovernment and beingfrom the people. One canbe sure that there areseveral others in theCongress who could leadthe party. Among thechief ministers it has

Bhupesh Baghel ofChhattisgarh and AshokGehlot of Rajasthan.Both have a record asexemplary CMs andexcellent organisationalmen. But Mr Gehlot is abit hamstrung because ofhis poor communicationskills. Mr Baghel is aclear possibility.

He is a great communi-cator and belongs to theKurmi caste. The Kurmiagriculturist communi-ties have a reputation asbeing hard working butwere considered to be atribe rather than a casteby the authorities of theBritish Raj. Desiringrecognition as a caste,the first Kurmi commu-nity association wasformed in 1894 inLucknow to protestagainst the recruitmentpolicy that debarredthem from entry to thepolice service. In 1894 thefirst Kurmi organisationcame into being inAwadh and sought todraw other communities— such as the Bhils,Mahtos, Koeri and Koli— under a commonumbrella as Kurmi. TheKurmis have a long tra-dition of being opposedto the brahmins whodominate our polity andcall the shots in the RSS.

Clearly the RSS stillsees Mr Kharge or some-one like him as the dan-ger man. Till SoniaGandhi announced her-self as the Congress pres-ident again, the RSS botfactories were churningout garbage about howMr Kharge was worth`1,000 crores, then`10,000 crores. Comingfrom a party that spentover `50,000 crores ineach of the last two LokSabha elections, andwhose leader appearsdressed in an insigniasuit and Gucci eyeglass-es, this is rich. Whensomebody like MrKharge or Mr Baghelpoints this out, it will cutdeep. Unfortunately, theCongress still behaveslike the latter-dayMughals, with a durbarin place of an empire.

The writer, a policy ana-lyst studying economic

and security issues, heldsenior positions in gov-ernment and industry.

He also specialises inthe Chinese economy.

BACKDOOR ENTRYIt is really shameful thatthe leaders of politicalparties who fail to winLok Sabha elections gowith begging bowls toget nominated to theRajya Sabha from otherstates. While P.Chidambaram got nomi-nated from Maharashtra,now it’s the turn of theBJP’s L. Murugan who isgetting nominated fromMadhya Pradesh. We feelsuch nominations shouldbe annulled as theseleaders never bother totake up the cause ofthese states.

Capt. N. ViswanathanCoimbatore

What theCongress needs

now is an ideolog-ical and socialcontrast to theBJP, someone

who can dismissthe RSS' mytholo-gy, with the con-

tempt that itdeserves.

THE ASIAN AGE

KAUSHIK MITTER K. SUDHAKAR

Editor Printer & Publisher

THE ASIAN AGE office is located at:New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110002. Phone:(011) 23211124. Published and Printed on behalf of and for◗ Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg,New Delhi 110 002 at BFL Infotech Ltd., C-9, Sector-III, Noida -201301.◗ London: Quickmarsh Ltd, 8th Floor, Block 2, Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London, SE1 7NQ.RNI Registration number: 57290/94

Why the Congress needsan alternative to Modi

The escalating row between AUKUS and France over the nuclear-poweredsubmarine deal is another body blow to US President Joe Biden’s diplo-macy as well as USA’s standing as the leader of the free world. Treading

on allies’ toes without deep thought being apparent in several decisions thathave had fearsome international ramifications, including most of all theshambolic pullout from Afghanistan, has been Biden’s playbook since occu-pying the White House. Some of the western world’s oldest ties among France,the UK and the USA have been torn asunder by the biggest power among themdeciding to dramatically change global equations in unilateral manner in itspursuit of China as an enemy.

A peeved France, hurt in the pocket by Australia ditching the diesel subma-rine deal worth nearly $90 billion, may have reacted petulantly in pulling outambassadors from nations of its allies. It has, however, made the boldest state-ment against the USA going back on the post-Trump promise of ‘America isback’ and multilateral diplomacy guiding its foreign policy. Biden’s moveshave infuriated not only France. In the nightmarish Afghan situation it creat-ed, the USA has managed to upset the EU, besides Poland and Ukraine inallowing Moscow’s gas pipeline to Germany and the UK too with glib com-ments on Northern Ireland.

The Indo-Pacific strategic initiative of arming Australia with nuclear sub-marines, a necessity in the changed equations in the sector thanks to Chinaarming itself impressively in seafaring power, is seen as the last straw. Bidenmay use what is a significant week now for world leaders at the UnitedNations to try and undo much of the damage he has wrought in foreign policythat seems to resemble his predecessor’s ‘America First’.

At a time when close friends are peeved, India may have been given theimpression that the USA needs it more than ever before, as in the inclusiveQuad group. As India’s defence ties with France are on a sound footing afterthe Rafael jets deal, it might even be expected to play the honest broker tomend broken ties. Abundant caution would, however, be advisable given howBiden has brushed aside the sensitivities of closer allies in charting his ownpath.

SHIFT GOA'S CEOFREE AND FAIR elections are fun-damental to the running of ademocracy. Politicians must notdictate terms to officials whosemandate it is to ensure free and fairpolls. IAS officers are transferredwithin three years but Goa's chiefelectoral officer Kunal has been inoffice for almost six years. He con-ducted the 2017 Assembly electionsmarred by the buzz of partisanship.There were allegations of electoralmalpractices by the ruling party.The Election Commission shouldbear in mind the words of formerAl-banian Prime Minister FatosNano: “Organising free and fairelections is more important thanthe result itself”.

Aires RodriguesRibandar, Goa

US moves rile allies & enemiesDON’T NEED NEETIN TUNE WITH its poll promise ofdoing away with the NEET, theDMK-led Tamil Nadu governmenthas passed a Bill exempting thestate from this examination. Theopposition to NEET is long-stand-ing in Tamil Nadu. There is littledoubt that the NEET favours asmall section of society, and itsadmissions data shows that itplaces students from marginalisedbackgrounds, first-generationlearners and state-board educatedstudents at a significant disadvan-tage. Global research suggests thatstandardised entrance tests neednot always be the correct determi-nant of merit. Surveys indicate thatschool grades are a much betterprognosticator of personality whichdetermines a student’s success.

R. SivakumarChennai

Afew months after takingoffice, Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi said in theLok Sabha that MNREGA

would be continued only because itwould show how poorly theManmohan Singh government hadperformed. “My political instinctstell me that MNREGA should not bediscontinued,” he said, mocking theOpposi-tion benches, “because it is aliving memorial to your failures.After so many years in power, allyou were able to deliver is for a poorman to dig ditches a few days amonth”. Mr Modi said he wouldinstead let the scheme die naturallyas his government would create bet-ter jobs.

This would be done by underfund-ing it and by making it accessible tofewer people. After the governmenthad taken office, Nitin Gadkari hadindicated that MNREGA would belimited to less than one-third ofIndia’s districts. Another thing thatthe Modi government would do todiscourage MNREGA work wouldbe to delay payments to workerswho are meant to be paid in 15 days.Delays went up from 42 per cent in

2012 to 70 per cent in 2014. Sixmonths after Mr Modi had takenoffice, by December 2014, except forfive states, all others had receivedsignificantly lower funds from theCentre in 2014, compared to 2013.

As India's economy has begun toweaken and unemployment hasrisen, the Modi government hasbegun to invest more and more inthe scheme which the PrimeMinister had called a failure. In2014-15 MNREGA got `32,000 crores,in 2015-16 `37,000 crores, in 2016-17`48,000 crores, in 2017-18 `55,000crores, in 2018-19 `61,000 crores, in2019-20 `71,000 crores and in 2010-21`1,11,000 crores. The memorial hasbecome almost three times the sizeit had been under Dr ManmohanSingh. However, it is still not able tomeet the demand for jobs by a popu-lation that simply has no work.

In the current year, `73,000 croreshas been set aside on the assump-tion that demand is low, but 80 percent of the money has already beenspent in the first five months of thefinancial year. And the mostdemand for work under MNREGAis going unmet as we will see.

MNREGA guarantees 100 days ofemployment in the year at `200 perday to each registered household,meaning that the family wouldreceive `20,000 for the year.

A total of 13 crore Indian house-holds are registered, covering halfthe population, which is 25 crorehouseholds. There was a decline of24 lakh job cards in 2016 but afterdemonetisation there was anincrease of 18 lakh cards the follow-ing year. This shows that whenthere is an economic stress, poorIndians fall back on MNREGA butwhen things are going well theylook for non-MNREGA jobs.

A study by the Centre forEconomic Data and Analysis(CEDA), affiliated to AshokaUniversity, notes that last year,MNREGA demand increased by 1.5crore, meaning eight times moredemand than in that hard year afterdemonetisation. Unfortunately, inour biggest states, the governmentis failing to ensure that those whowant work get it. In Uttar Pradesh,the average employment per regis-tered households was 18 days(`3,600) and in Bihar it was 11 days

(`2,000). These are not amounts thathouseholds can survive an entireyear on. Ninety-five per cent of reg-istered homes did not receive thefull 100 days of work last year.

That is the condition that we findourselves in today. The other thingthat the CEDA survey revealed isthat the youth, not being able to findpermanent employment, are seek-ing MNREGA jobs. From 20 per centof the age group 18-30 looking forMNREGA work in 2018, the figurehas almost doubled to 37 per cent.

The government’s own data saysthat the number of Indians aged 15and above who are working or look-ing for work is 40 per cent of theworkforce. This number is over 60per cent in the United States, closerto 70 per cent in Thailand andIndonesia and over 70 per cent inChina. India’s work participationrate is lower than Pakistan andBangladesh. Are Indians lazy? No,there are no jobs.

The Centre for Monitoring theIndian Economy says that in 2016 42per cent of India’s working age pop-ulation was employed. This fell to 41per cent in 2017, then 40 per cent in

2018-19, then 39 per cent in 2019 andit is now 36 per cent. The total num-ber of Indians who are workingtoday is less than five years agothough the population has grown byseven crore people.

The problem is not one that will goaway and as we have seen the num-bers are getting progressivelyworse. The impact that this is hav-ing and has already had has notbeen fully examined because thepolitics of our country is focused onother things. India has always beena poor nation where the majoritysuffers silently while a tiny set ofpeople do well.

Things today may not appear to bevery different from the way theywere a thousand years ago. Thequestion is, will the majority silent-ly suffering remain the case at atime when inequality is visible tothe extent that it is today? If theanswer to that question is no, thenit’s vital that as a nation we discussthe problem and not wait for it toexplode.

The writer is a columnistand a senior journalist

Aakar Patel

Poverty on therise, jobs beginto vanish: WillIndia explode?

Subhani

LETTERS

MohanGuruswamy

`500 for the best letter of theweek goes to R. Sivakumar

(Sep. 10). Email: asianage.letters@gmail.com.

WORLD pg 6THE ASIAN AGE | TUESDAY | 21 SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEW DELHI

Bornia Tarall (R) is awarded with the ‘Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Merite’ (Nation Honour of Merit) by FrenchPresident Emmanuel Macron during a ceremony in memory of the Harkis who helped the French Army in theAlgerian War of Independence, at the Elysee Palace in Paris, on Monday. — AFP

Los Llanos De Aridane,Sept. 20: Lava continued toflow slowly from a volcanothat erupted in Spain’sCanary Islands off north-west Africa, but the headof the regional gove-rnment said Monday heexpected no injuries to pe-ople in the area after some5,000 were evacuated.

Lava was flowing on theisland of La Palma towardthe sea, moving at 700 me-tres per hour, according tothe Canary Islands Volca-nology Institute.

The lava was moving intwo streams through a mo-stly unpopulated area,

Canary Islands governme-nt chief Ángel Víctor To-rres said. Some 20 isolatedhouses were destroyed,SER reported.

“We’re not expecting anyother eruption,” Torressaid, adding that air traf-fic in the area was notaffected. “There will beconsiderable material da-mage,” he said. “We hopethere won’t be any person-al injuries.”

People on La Palma lar-gely live from farming.Spanish Prime MinisterPedro Sánchez was due tovisit the affected area Mo-nday after cancelling his

trip to New York to attendthe UN General Assembly.

The volcano erupted Su-nday after a weeklongbuildup of seismic activi-ty that was closely monito-red by authorities. TheCanary Islands Volcanolo-gy Institute reported theinitial eruption shortlyafter 3 pm near the south-ern end of the island, whi-

ch saw its last eruption in1971. Huge red plumestopped with black-and-white smoke shot out alo-ng the Cumbre Vieja vol-canic ridge, which scien-tists had been monitoringfollowing the accumula-tion of molten lava belowthe surface and days ofsmall earthquakes.

Most of those evacuated

found family or friends totake them in. The restwere in shelters, officialssaid. La Palma, with a pop-ulation of 85,000, is one ofeight volcanic islands inSpain’s Canary Islandsarchipelago off Africa’swestern coast.

At their nearest point,the islands are 100 kilome-tres (60 miles) fromMorocco. A 4.2-magnitudequake was recorded beforethe eruption, which tookplace in an area known asCabeza de Vaca on thewestern slope as the ridgedescends to the coast.

— AP

Spanish island’s lava heads toward seaSpanish PM cancels UN trip, to visit the affected areaHOUSES | DESTROYED

● ● THE VOLCANO erupted Sunday after a weeklongbuildup of seismic activity that was closely monitoredby authorities.

● ● HUGE RED plumes topped with black-and-whitesmoke shot out along the Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge.

France remembers the Harkis

Pfizer: Jab safe for children aged 5-11Trial results are first for children under 12, with a Moderna trial for six-11-yr-olds ongoingFrankfurt, Sept 20: Pfizerand BioNTech on Mondaysaid trial results showedtheir Coronavirus vaccinewas safe and produced arobust immune responsein children aged five to 11,adding that they wouldseek regulatory approvalshortly.

The vaccine would be ad-ministered at a lower dos-age than for people over 12,they said.

“In participants five to 11years of age, the vaccinewas safe, well toleratedand showed robust neu-tralising antibody respon-ses,” US giant Pfizer andits German partner said ina joint statement.

They plan to submittheir data to regulatorybodies in the European

Union, the United Statesand around the world “assoon as possible”.

The trial results are thefirst of their kind for chil-dren under 12, with aModerna trial for six-11year olds still ongoing.

Both the Pfizer and Mo-derna jabs are already be-ing administered to adole-scents over 12 and adultsin countries around theglobe. Although childrenare considered less at riskof severe Covid, there areconcerns that the highlycontagious Delta variantcould lead to more seriouscases.

Innoculating children isalso seen as key to keepingschools open and helpingend the pandemic.

“We are eager to extend

the protection afforded bythe vaccine to this youn-ger population,” said Pfiz-er CEO Albert Bourla, not-ing that “since July, paedi-atric cases of Covid-19have risen by about 240percent in the US”.

Kids in the 5-11 age trialgroup received a two-doseregimen of 10 microgram-mes in the trial, comparedwith 30 microgrammes forolder age groups, the com-panies said. The shotswere given 21 days apart.

The 10 microgrammedose was “carefully select-ed as the preferred dosefor safety, tolerability andimmunogenicity” for thatage group, the statementsaid.

The side effects were“generally comparable to

those observed in partici-pants 16 to 25 years ofage”, it added.

Among the most com-

monly reported side effec-ts in the past have beenpain and swelling at theinjection site as well as

headache, chills and fever.Israel has already given

special authorisation tovaccinate children aged 5-11 who are “at significantrisk of serious illness ordeath” from Covid, usingthe Pfizer jab at the lowerdosage.

Pfizer and BioNTech are

also trialling their vaccineon infants aged six monthsto two years, and on chil-dren aged two to five.

The topline results forthose trials are expected“as soon as” the fourthquarter of this year, thecompanies said.

All together, up to 4,500children aged six monthsto 11 years have enrolled inthe Pfizer-BioNTech trialsin the US, Finland, Polandand Spain.

Like its Moderna rival,the Pfizer jab is based onnovel mRNA technologythat delivers genetic inst-ructions to cells to buildthe Coronavirus spike pro-tein, in order to evoke anti-bodies when bodies encou-nter the real virus.

— AFP

Oppn claims massfraud after Putinparty sweeps vote

Six killed in Russian university campus firingMoscow, Sept. 20: A gun-man opened fire Mondayon a university campus incentral Russia and killedsix people before beingdetained, investigatorssaid, in the country’s sec-ond mass shooting thisyear to target students.

Video on social mediashowed students throwingbelongings from the wind-ows of university buildi-ngs in the city of Perm,around 1,300 kilometres(800 miles) east of Moscow,

before jumping to flee theshooter.

The Investigative Comm-ittee, which probes majorcrimes in Russia, initiallysaid eight people werekilled but later revised thenumber of deaths to six.

It said 28 people werebeing treated after theattack at Perm State Natio-nal Research University.

“Some of them have beenhospitalised with injuriesof varying severity,” itsaid in a statement.

It said the gunman, lateridentified as a student atthe university, carried outthe shooting with a hunt-ing rifle he purchased ear-lier this year.

“During his arrest, heput up resistance and waswounded, after which hewas taken to a medical fa-cility,” the statement said.

The health ministry, incomments cited by Russi-an news agencies, said 19among the wounded werebeing treated for gunshots.

State media broadcastamateur footage reported-ly taken during the attackshowing an individualdressed in black tacticalclothing, including a hel-met, carrying a weaponand walking through thecampus.

Video from outside theuniversity showed distres-sed students fleeing thecampus and making phonecalls to friends and familybehind a cordon of policewearing helmets and body

armour. President Vladimir

Putin had been notified ofthe shooting, the Kremlinsaid, and ministers hadbeen ordered to travel toPerm to coordinate assis-tance for the victims.

“The president expressessincere condolences to th-ose who have lost familyand loved ones as a resultof this incident,” Putin’sspokesman Dmitry Peskovsaid. Regional authoritiessaid that classes at local

schools, colleges and univ-ersities were cancelled onMonday.

School shootings havebeen relatively unusual inRussia due to tight securi-ty at education facilitiesand because it is difficultto buy firearms.

But Monday’s attack wasthe second one this year,after a 19-year-old openedfire in his old school in thecentral city of Kazan inMay, killing nine people.

— AFP

Moscow, Sept. 20: Russi-a’s opposition accused theauthorities of mass voterfraud as election resultson Monday showed theruling United Russia par-ty winning a sweepingmajority in parliament.

The three-day vote thatended on Sunday followedan unprecedented crack-down on critics of Presi-dent Vladimir Putin andcame with pre-electionpolls showing United Rus-sia’s popularity at a his-toric low.

But the party still clai-med a two-thirds majorityin the lower house StateDuma, with United Russi-a’s Andrei Turchak sayi-ng it was a “convincingand clean victory”.

He said the party hadtaken 120 seats from theparty list and 195 single-mandate seats — a total of315 seats from 450.

It was a drop from the334 seats United Russiaheld before the election,but still enough for theparty to enact major legi-slation, including chang-es to the constitution.

With 95 percent of votescounted by 1000 GMT onMonday, United Russiawas ahead with 49.6 per-cent of the vote followedby the Communist Partywith 19.2 percent.

Predictions by state-runpollsters had suggestedUnited Russia winningonly around 30 percent.

Kremlin spokesmanDmitry Peskov hailed the“competitiveness, openn-ess and honesty” of the el-ections, saying it was cle-ar that “United Russia isthe main preference ofthe voters”.

But allies of jailed Kre-mlin critic Alexei Naval-ny, Russia’s leading oppo-sition figure, called theresults outlandish.

“This is truly unbeliev-

able. I remember the feel-ing in 2011, when theystole the election. Thesame is happening rightnow,” said Navalny’s spo-keswoman Kira Yarmysh.

Claims of widespreadfraud in 2011 sparkedhuge protests led byNavalny, who was arrest-ed in January and jailedon old fraud charges fol-lowing a poisoning heblamed on the Kremlin.

His allies said the votewas being falsified on amassive scale, pointingespecially to repeated del-ays in releasing the resul-ts of electronic voting inopposition-friendly Mosc-ow. The European Unionsaid the elections had suf-fered from intimidationand limited “credible”monitoring, while Germ-any called for fraud cla-ims to be “clarified”.

Navalny's organisationswere banned as “extrem-ist” ahead of the electionand his top allies werearrested or fled and any-one associated with hisgroups was kept fromrunning.

Navalny’s team had cal-led for opposition suppo-rters to back other candi-dates who could potential-ly defeat United Russia,most of them from the Co-mmunist Party.

— AFP

HK ELECTORSDECIDED, ONLY 1OPPN MEMBERHong Kong, Sept. 20:Results for the vote formembers of Hong Kon-g’s Election Committeewere finalised Mondayafter hours of delays,with just one opposition-leaning candidate elect-ed to the 1,500-strongcommittee.

On Sunday, select HongKong residents voted formembers of the ElectionCommittee that will cho-ose the city’s leader inthe first polls followingreforms meant to ensurecandidates are loyal toBeijing. Results wereexpected to be announ-ced by midnight, but dueto several delays theywere only announced at8 a.m. on Monday.

Authorities said therewere problems with theballot verification pape-rs, and that it was likelythat officials were fillingin paperwork incorrect-ly, causing the delays.The Election Committeewill select 40 of 90 law-makers in the city’s leg-islature during electionsin December, as well aselect Hong Kong’s leaderduring polls in Marchnext year.

In May, the legislatureamended Hong Kong’selectoral laws to ensurethat only “patriots” —people who are loyal toChina and the semi-aut-onomous territory —will rule the city.

The committee alsowas expanded to 1,500members, from 1,200,and the number of dire-ct voters for committeeseats was reduced fromabout 246,000 to less than8,000. The restructuredelectoral process guara-ntees a vast majority ofthe Elections Committeewill be largely pro-Beiji-ng candidates, who arelikely to choose a chiefexecutive and half oflawmakers who are alig-ned with the ruling Chi-nese Communist Party.

The changes are part ofa broad crackdown onHong Kong civil societyfollowing mass pro-dem-ocracy protests in 2019.Authorities have tighte-ned control over the for-mer British colony witha sweeping national sec-urity law imposed by Ch-ina’s Communist Partythat effectively crimi-nalised opposition to thegovernment.

N. Korea says US sub alliancecan trigger ‘nuke arms race’Seoul, Sept. 20: NorthKorea's foreign ministryon Monday said a new USalliance in the Indo-Pacific and Washington'srecent submarine con-tract with Australia couldtrigger a “nuclear armsrace” in the region.

Last week the US annou-nced a new three-way sec-urity pact with Australiaand Britain, as part of astrategic partnership und-er which American nucl-ear submarines will be su-pplied to Canberra.

“These are extremely un-desirable and dangerousacts which will upset the

strategic balance in theAsia-Pacific region andtrigger off a chain ofnuclear arms race,” NorthKorean state media KCNAquoted a foreign ministryofficial as saying.

“This shows that the USis the chief culprit top-pling the internationalnuclear non-proliferationsystem,” they added.

Nuclear-armed NorthKorea fired two missilesinto the sea last Wedne-sday, with Seoul success-fully test-firing a submar-ine-launched ballistic mis-sile (SLBM) hours later,becoming only the seventh

country in the world withthe technology.

South Korea's test is a st-rategic advance for Seoul.It has been strengtheningits military capabilities tocounter the threat posedby the North, which is un-der international sanctio-ns for its nuclear weaponsand ballistic missile pro-grammes. In a statementcarried by KCNA onMonday, the chief of Nor-th Korea’s defence scienceagency called Seoul’s new-ly developed SLBM a “clu-msy piece of work” lack-ing key technology. “Thehomegrown SLBM

unveiled by South Koreawill not be able to serve asan effective means ofattack at war,” he said.

The spate of missiletests and bumper defencedeals in the Pacific havehighlighted a regionalarms race that is intensi-fying as a China-US rival-ry grows. “It is quite natu-ral that neighbouring cou-ntries, including Chinacondemned these actionsas irresponsible ones ofdestroying the peace andstability of the region,”the North Korean foreignministry official said.

— AFP

AUCKLAND EXTENDS LOCKDOWN FORTWO WEEKS, TO EASE SOME CURBSWellington, Sept. 20: NewZealand’s largest cityAuckland will remain in aCovid-19 lockdown for atleast another two weeks,although some restrictio-ns will be eased, PrimeMinister Jacinda Ardernsaid Monday.

Ardern said the city oftwo million would movedown to level three on NewZealand’s four-tier Coron-avirus response system by

late Tuesday, even as aut-horities remain commit-ted to eliminating a Delta-variant outbreak.

“We’re moving now beca-use the advice we have isthat we do not have wide-spread, undetected trans-mission in Auckland,” shesaid. “If everyone contin-ues to play their part, wecan continue stamping out(the virus).”

— AFP

25-year jail term for‘Hotel Rwanda’ heroKigali, Sept. 20: The manwho inspired the film“Hotel Rwanda” was con-victed of terrorismoffences Monday and sen-tenced to 25 years in pris-on in a trial that humanrights watchdogs andother critics of Rwanda’srepressive governmenthave described as an actof retaliation.

Paul Rusesabagina, cre-dited with saving ethnicTutsis during Rwanda’s1994 genocide and a recip-ient of the US President-ial Medal of Freedom,boycotted the announce-ment of the verdict aftersaying he didn’t expect

justice in a trial he calleda “sham”.

The US resident andBelgian citizen was convi-cted on nine charges,including the formationof an illegal armed group,membership in a terroristgroup, financing a terrorgroup, murder and abduc-tion. He was charged alo-ng with 20 other people.

The circumstances sur-rounding Rusesabagina’sarrest last year, his limit-ed access to an independ-ent legal team and hisreported worsening heal-th have drawn interna-tional concern for the 67-year-old. — AP

● ● THE restructuredelectoral process guar-antees a vast majority ofthe Elections Committeewill be largely pro-Beijing candidates, whoare likely to choose achief executive.

SHORT TAKES

CHINA CRAFT TOCARRY SUPPLIES

TO SPACE STATIONBeijing: China successfullylaunched an unmanned cargospacecraft Tianzhou-3 on Mon-day to deliver supplies for itsunder-construction space sta-tion Tiangong, which is sched-uled to be completed by nextyear.

The Long March-7 Y4 rocket,carrying Tianzhou-3, blastedoff from the WenchangSpacecraft Launch Site in thesouthern island province ofHainan, China Manned SpaceAgency (CMSA) said.

U.S. BEGINS FLYING HAITIAN

MIGRANTS HOMEDel Rio: The US acted Sundayto stem the flow of migrantsinto Texas by blocking theMexican border at an isolatedtown where thousands ofHaitian refugees set up a camp,and American officials beganflying some of the migrantsback to their homeland.

About a dozen Texas Depart-ment of Public Safety vehicleslined up near the bridge andriver where Haitians have beencrossing from Ciudad Acuna,Mexico, into Del Rio, Texas, foralmost three weeks. Yellowpolice tape was being used toblock them from using a smalldam to walk into the US.

GERMAN FM TOBE GRILLED IN

FRAUD CASEFrankfurt: German lawmakerswill Monday quiz FinanceMinister Olaf Scholz, the fron-trunner in the race to succeedAngela Merkel as chancellor,over an investigation into ananti-money laundering agencyoverseen by his ministry.

Scholz’s appearance beforethe German parliament’s fina-nce committee comes less thana week before Germans go tothe polls on September 26.

MPs from opposition partieswill have the opportunity toask Scholz questions via videolink after the finance and jus-tice ministries were raided byprosecutors on September 9 aspart of a probe into the Colo-gne-based Financial Intellige-nce Unit (FIU).

UK HOLDS MEETOVER SOARING

GAS PRICESLondond: The UK governmentwas on Monday holding anemergency meeting with ener-gy and consumer groups, asthe country experiences recordgas prices that threaten hugebills for households as well asundermining food supplies andcasting doubt on energy firms’futures. Prime Minister BorisJohnson sought to reassureconsumers fearing surgingwinter power bills and the pos-sibility of more small Britishenergy firms collapsing fromhigher costs.

Faced with a fast-moving sit-uation, Business SecretaryKwasi Kwarteng was meetingwith the energy industry andconsumer groups.

CANADIANS VOTEIN POLL THAT CAN

COST TRUDEAUToronto: Canadians began vot-ing on Monday in an electionthat that threatens to knockJustin Trudeau from power.

Trudeau gambled on an earlyelection in a bid to win a major-ity of seats in Parliament.

Polls indicate Trudeau'sLiberal Party is in a tight racewith the rival Conservatives: Itwill likely win the most seatsin Parliament, but still fail toget a majority, forcing it to relyon an opposition party to passlegislation. Polling stationsopened first in the Atlantic co-ast province of Newfoundland.

“Trudeau made an incrediblystupid error in judgement, saidRobert Bothwell, a professor ofCanadian history and interna-tional relations at the Unive-rsity of Toronto.

Trudeau entered the electionleading a stable minority gov-ernment that wasn't underthreat of being toppled.

The opposition has beenrelentless in accusing Trudeauof calling the early vote twoyears before the deadline forhis own personal ambition.

Trudeau channelled the starpower of his father, the Liberalicon and late Prime MinisterPierre Trudeau, when he firstwon in 2015, but a combinationof high expectations, scandaland calling the election lastmonth during the pandemichave hurt his brand. Trudeauis betting that Canadians willreward him for navigating theCoronavirus crisis better thanmost countries did. Canada isnow one of the most vaccinat-ed nations in the world.

● ● ISRAEL HAS alreadygiven special authorisa-tion to vaccinate childrenaged 5-11 who are “at significant risk of seriousillness or death” fromCovid. Pfizer andBioNTech are also triallingtheir vaccine on infantsaged six months to twoyears, and on childrenaged two to five.

Vladimir Putin

Sensex falls 525 points; metal stocks get mauled

China property woestrip global markets

pg 7TUESDAY | 21 SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEW DELHI

AMELIA POLLARDSEPT. 20

Ten years ago, the poultrymuscle disease known aswhite striping was almostnon-existent. Now, the fat-boosting ailment showsup in 99 per cent of USstore-brand chickens,according to a HumaneLeague study.

The animal-welfare non-profit conducted an inves-tigation in 29 states thatfound the affliction in vir-tually all grocery-store-brand chickens sampled.The illness is driven bythe extreme conditions offactory farming, whichturbocharges the raisingprocess to a matter of

weeks and puts unduephysical stress on the ani-mals, the Humane Leaguesaid.

The disease's namecomes from its visible sideeffect: thin white stripesthat appear on the meat'ssurface. With the chickensunable to bear the weightof their own bodies, thedisease causes the birds to

replace some of their mus-cle tissue with fat.

As a result, chickenswith white striping havefat content thast is 224 percent higher than thosewithout the affliction. Theillness also decreases themeat's protein content by 9per cent. Affected meatdoesn't taste different thannormal chicken, however.It is also safe to eat.

"Consumers just reallydon't have a choice rightnow, which is frustrating,"said Michael Windsor, thecorporate projects lead atthe Humane League. "Ifyou wanted to avoid white-striped chicken, they'rejust not offering it."

— Bloomberg

SANGEETHA GCHENNAI, SEPT. 20

Gearing up for the festiveseason, consumer prod-uct categories, includinggarments, textiles,leather and gems & jew-ellery, have witnesseddouble-digit month-on-month growth in terms ofonline hiring in August.

Online hiring demandwitnessed a positivegrowth of 24 per cent inAugust against July inthese segments, accord-ing to Monster.com.Textiles and jewellerysales increase during thefestive season. Apartfrom the festive seasondemand, the govern-ment’s approval of thePLI scheme for textiles isalso improving hiringsentiments in the sector.According to the indus-try, large employmentopportunities willemerge with new invest-ments under PLI.

The gems & jewelleryindustry too is witness-ing a surge in exportsand it hopes to clock 12per cent growth indomestic jewellery retail.Ahead of the festive sea-son, the industry hasbeen increasingly engag-ing the workforce to com-plete orders.

Production and manu-facturing too witnessedan 8 per cent growth dueto seasonal hiring. Interms of functions, mar-keting and communica-tion witnessed 17 per centmonth-on-month growth.

Overall, there has beena slight uptick in job post-ing activity in August2021 with a 1 per centincrease compared to the

previous month. Postingsimproved by 14 per centin August against thesame month last year.

Naukri.com’s monthlyjob market indexJobSpeak too was up inAugust compared to thesame period last year.

On a year-on-year basis,August indicated stronggrowth in e-recruitmentactivity in IT-hardware &software at 39 per cent,followed by shipping &marine at 37 per cent andtelecom at 36 per cent.

Consumptionsectors step up

hiring in AugustRAVI RANJAN PRASADMUMBAI, SEPT. 20

As expected, the paymentcrisis being faced byChina's second largestproperty developerEvergrande and upcomingcentral bank meetings toreview monetary policiesimpacted the global mar-kets, leading to sharpdecline in metals, bank andreality stocks in India.

After a gap-down openingthe Sensex traded in thered and extended the fallafter a brief recovery toclose 525 points or 0.89 percent down at 58490.93.

The Nifty-50 fell 1.07 percent or 188.25 points to17396.90.

In Asia, Hong Kong'sHang Seng Index fell 3.30per cent while other majorAsian markets of China,Japan and South Koreawere shut due to a holiday.Major European marketsalso opened lower and trad-ed more than two per centdown while US market wasdown over 1.5 per centaround 8 pm IST.

The BSE Metal Index

dropped 6.80 per cent whileBSE Realty and Bankex fell2.16 per cent and 1.66 percent, respectively.

The top losers in themetal index included TataSteel (9.53 per cent), JindalSteel (9.13 per cent), Sail(8.20 per cent), NMDC (7.70per cent) and JSW Steel

(6.99 per cent).“Metals have been under

pressure today on buzzover Chinese firmEvergrande facing finan-cial trouble and specula-tion over default on debtpayment, which has led toa selloff in most riskyassets,” said Navneet

Damani, head of commodi-ties & currencies research,Motilal Oswal FinancialServices.

Domestic institutionssold equities worth Rs1,626.58 crore while foreignportfolio investors were onthe sidelines with net buy-ing worth Rs 92.54 crore.

New Delhi, Sept. 20 TheSebi on Monday saidjunior staff of assetmanagement companieswill have to invest atleast 20 per cent of theirgross salaries in aphased manner, startingfrom October 2021.

The designatedemployees will bemandatorily required toinvest 20 per cent fromOctober 1, 2023, whilethe junior employee willbe required to invest in aphased manner, the reg-ulator said in a circular.

Ten per cent compen-sation of junior employ-ees will have to beinvested in the mutualfund units of the fundhouse from October 1,2021. This will beincreased to 15 per centfrom October 1, 2022 andto 20 per cent fromOctober 1, 2023.

The circular said thatall junior employees willbe mandatorily requiredto invest 20 per cent fromOctober 1, 2023.

A designated employeeof the AMC below theage of 35 years (exclud-ing CEO, head of anydepartment and fundmanagers), will bedeemed as a junioremployee.

The phased implemen-tation for junior employ-ees will cease to applyfrom the date suchemployee attains the ageof 35 years.

The regulator saidunits allotted to the des-ignated employees willbe subject to clawback inthe event of gross viola-tion of code of conductor fraud or gross negli-gence by them.

—PTI

MF JUNIOR STAFFSHOULD INVEST20% SALARY INSCHEMES: SEBI

FALAKNAAZ SYEDMUMBAI, SEPT. 20

The spot rupee endedMonday’s session at 73.74to a US dollar after open-ing at 73.82, last seen inearly September as jittersover China’s market direc-tion placed the domesticand regional stock mar-kets under pressure. Thedollar-rupee traded in awide range between73.8250 and 73.6150, trig-gered by worries over theChinese property develop-er Evergrande’s debt cri-sis. Weakness in stocks

added to the upward pres-sure, but exporter sellingand corporate flowspushed the pair back.

Monday’s close was 26paise down compared tothe rupee’s previous ses-sion on Friday where ithad settled at 73.48 againstthe dollar. The DollarIndex, which gauges thegreenback’s strengthagainst a basket on sixcurrencies, was trading0.27 per cent higher at93.44.

Investors worldwidewere cautious ahead ofseveral central bank meet-

ings, headlined by the USFederal Reserve's policymeeting on Tuesday andWednesday. Apart fromthe Fed, the Bank ofEngland, Bank of Japanand Swiss National Bankare also scheduled to meetthis week. The Fed iswidely expected to keep itsinterest rates unchanged.

However, hints of taper-ing by the end of this yearmay emerge from thismeeting. Evergrande hasto service $83.5 billion ofinterest payments on its$300 billion accumulateddebt.

RUPEE FALLS 26 PAISE AGAINST DOLLAR

US supermarket chickenaffected by white stripingRAGINI SAXENA,

HASLINDA AMIN &RISHAAD SALAMATSEPT. 20

Hybrid vehicles are a bet-ter fit than battery-pow-ered electric cars for Indiain the immediate future,given the nation's short-comings in EV infrastruc-ture, according to theregional head of auto partssupplier Schaeffler AG.

"Hybrid vehicles will playan equally important rolebecause they are able toaddress some of the imme-diate infrastructure chal-lenges around e-mobility,"Dharmesh Arora, Schae-ffler's Asia Pacific CEOsaid in an interview withBloomberg TV on Monday."For electric mobility tobecome mainstream we

could argue it will takesome more years or longerthan rest of the world."

Schaeffler's outlookechoes the stance of India'sbiggest carmaker Maruti

Suzuki India Ltd, which isalso glum about the uptakeof electric vehicles and isfocusing on hybrid modelsuntil charging infrastruc-ture improves and EVs

become more affordable forIndian buyers. Electricvehicles account for lessthan 1 per cent of India'sannual car sales, comparedto almost 10 per cent inChina.

Schaeffler is looking tomake the Asia Pacificregion an export hub,Arora said. in Exportsaccounted for 14 per cent ofSchaeffler India Ltd's sec-ond-quarter sales, up from11 per cent in the first quar-ter. The company is seeinga good response for India-made products and intendsto take advantage of theircost-competitiveness byexporting not just to Asiabut the rest of the world,Harsha Kadam, CEO ofSchaeffler India, said on anearnings call in July.

— Bloomberg

Hybrid vehicles key to electric shift: Schaeffler

New Delhi, Sept. 20:Nestle India chief SureshNarayanan on Mondaysaid that 2022 will likelybe a "difficult year" ascommodity prices areexpected to rise and resultin the spectre of foodinflation for the manufac-turers.

The leading FMCG play-er, well known for house-hold brand names likeMaggi and Milkybar, isanticipating an escalationin the prices of raw mate-rial inputs, includingmilk, coffee, cocoa and oilprices.

In the last six to eightmonths, Narayanan saidNestle has seen an aver-age price hike of 1-3 percent.

According to him, thefirst half of 2021 was rela-tively more secured andsubdued in terms of com-modity pricing as exceptpacking materials andcrude oil, by and large,prices of milk and wheathave been broadly stable.

"Going forward, 2022clearly looks to be promis-ing to be a difficult year.There is clearly an uptickas far as milk prices areconcerned," Narayanantold reporters during avirtual media roundtable.

Apart from disruptionscaused by the coronaviruspandemic and non-replacement of milchherd on-time across thecountry has also resultedin a depleted supply base.

Similarly, globally coffeeprices are also going up"quite significantly" asthere have been adverseimpacts in Vietnam,which is the largest grow-er of coffee, due to thepandemic and disruptionsthere, Narayanan said.

"So, there is going to bethe spectre of food infla-tion that will be staring atus," he said.

Globally, there is around5 per cent of uptick incommodity prices, headded."I think, the for-ward pressures are likelyto be more acute thanwhat we have beenthrough at the moment."

— PTI

SANGEETHA GCHENNAI, SEPT. 20

Responding to reportsabout its lawyers fun-nelling legal fees to paybribes to government offi-cials in India, Amazon saidit would investigate all alle-gations of corruption andtake action.

A media report said that

a whistleblower had com-plained that Amazon'slegal representatives usedmoney paid to them tobribe Indian officials.Following this, Amazon'ssenior corporate counselhas been sent on leavepending investigation, saidthe report by MorningContext, a news portal. Thereport also pointed to a

possible role played byanother lawyer, who hadworked with Amazon as anexternal counsel, and alegal firm that helped it ina recent high-profile case.

"We have zero tolerancefor corruption. We takeallegations of improperactions seriously, investi-gate them fully, and takeappropriate action. We are

not commenting on specif-ic allegations or the statusof any investigation at thistime," said an Amazonspokesperson.

The allegations, if true,are a violation of the USForeign Corrupt PracticesAct that prohibits compa-nies and individuals frompaying bribes to foreigngovernment officials.

New Delhi, Sept 20: Aftergetting rapped for accept-ing Vedanta Group's bidthat would give just 5 percent of their outstandingloans, lenders to VideoconIndustries on Mondayapproached the insolven-cy appellate tribunalNCLAT seeking fresh bidsfor the debt-laden con-sumer durable firm.

Anil Agarwal's Twin-Star Technologies hadoffered Rs 2,962 crore totake over VideoconIndustries, but the amou-nt was 4.15 per cent of theadmitted claims of Rs64,838.63 crore of lenders.

State Bank of India, theleading lender ofVideocon Industries, hasapproached the NationalCompany Law AppellateTribunal requesting for arebidding of the 13 com-panies of the debt-riddengroup, on account ofstrong observationsagainst the Rs 2,962-croretakeover bid.

SBI, on behalf of assent-ing creditors of Videocon,which represents 94.98per cent voting, had filedan application before theNCLAT requesting toremand back the matterto the committee of credi-tors. — PTI

New Delhi, Sept. 20: Indiahas climbed two spots andhas been ranked 46th bythe World IntellectualProperty Organization inthe Global InnovationIndex 2021 rankings, anofficial statement said onMonday.

It said India has been ona rising trajectory over thepast several years in theGlobal Innovation Index(GII) and rose from a rankof 81 in 2015 to 46 in 2021.

According to the state-ment, the consistentimprovement in the GIIranking is owing to theimmense knowledge capi-tal, the vibrant startupecosystem and the amaz-ing work done by the pub-lic and the privateresearch organisations.

The scientific depart-ments like the Depart-ment of Atomic Energy;the Department ofScience and Technology;the Department ofBiotechnology and theDepartment of Space haveplayed a pivotal role inenriching the nationalinnovation ecosystem, itsaid, adding, the GII is thefulcrum for governmentsacross the world to assesssocial and economicchanges. — PTI

New Delhi, Sept 20:Retirement fund bodyEPFO recorded netnew enrolments of14.65 lakh in July, giv-ing a perspective offormal sector employ-ment in the country.

The provisional pay-roll data of theEmployees' ProvidentFund Organisationreleased on Mondayshowed a growingtrend, with 14.65 lakhnet payroll additionsduring July 2021.—PTI

SUBHADIP SIRCARSEPT. 20

Foreign funds are steadilyincreasing exposure toIndian debt amid growingexpectations that inclu-sion of the nation's bondsinto global indexes isimminent.

Bond purchases by over-seas investors under theuncapped Fully Accessi-ble Route, climbed to Rs3,500 crore ($476 million)in August, the highest thisyear. They've bought Rs2,940 crore of bonds so farthis month, set for a fifthstraight month of inflows,following outflows fromJanuary-April.

Global index providerFTSE Russell, whichplaced Indian bonds onthe watchlist for possibleinclusion in its debtindex, is set to announcethe result of its review onSeptember 30. JPMorganChase and Co typicallyreviews its index thismonth. Morgan Stanleyestimates India's inclu-sion in global bond index-es will lure $40 billion ofinflows in the next twoyears.

Indian authorities havebeen working towardmaking the nation's bondseligible for index inclu-sion to help fund infra-structure projects.

Bloomberg LP said in2019 that it would workwith Indian authorities tohelp the nation gainaccess to global indexes.

RBI governor Shakti-kanta Das said earlier thismonth that policy makersare making efforts toenable international set-tlement of transactions ingovernment bonds, amove that would greatlyincrease the attractive-ness of Indian debt andhelp in inclusion in globalindexes. India has alsobeen trying to sort out tax-ation issues withEuroclear to facilitate list-ing of Indian debt.

Most of the spadeworkis done and the nation'sbonds are expected to beincluded in the indexes byMarch, Sanjeev Sanyal,principal adviser to thefinance ministry said onFriday.

"We expect foreign-investor demand to imp-rove, albeit in a measuredway, drawing on fallinghedging costs and pros-pects for index inclusion,"said Ashish Agrawal,rates strategist atBarclays Plc.—Bloomberg

Mumbai, Sept 20: If thegovernment lets itsbonds to be included inthe global indices, themove can fetch anadditional $30-33 bil-lion of foreign fundsinto these bonds nextfiscal.

Currently, among theemerging market, theIndian governmentbonds (IGBs) have thelowest foreign owner-ship at about 2.5 percent—only ahead ofthe Philippines—while the same is over30 per cent in SouthAfrica and close to 14per cent in China, saida Bank of AmericaSecurities report onMonday. — PTI

quickBITES

INDICATORS %Sensex 58,490.93 -0.89Nifty 50 17,396.90 -1.07S&P 500* 4,342.19 -2.05Dollar (`) 73.74 -0.34Pound Sterling (`) 100.81 -0.48Euro (`) 86.31 0.30Gold (10gm)* (`) 45,080▼14 0.03Brent crude ($/bbl)* 74.18 -1.54IN 10-Yr bond yield 6.138 0.00US 10-Yr T-bill yield* 1.331 -0.039

* As of 8:30 PM IST

Finmin to kick offbudget exercisefrom October 12The finance ministry will kick-start the exercise to preparethe annual Budget for 2022-23from October 12 amidst signs ofrevival of the Indian economy.The budget for the next yearwill have to address criticalissues of demand generation,job creation and putting theeconomy on a sustained 8 percent plus growth path. It will bethe fourth budget of the Modi2.0 government and financeminister Nirmala Sitharaman.

PNB earns `170 crfrom minimumbalance charges

Punjab National Bank collectednearly Rs 170 crore by levyingcharges on customers for notmaintaining the required mini-mum balance in their accountsduring 2020-21, according toRTI information. PNB’s revenueearned from such chargesstood at Rs 286.24 crore in2019-20, PNB said in a reply toan RTI query by MadhyaPradesh-based activist ChandraShekhar Gaur. Banks levy suchcharges on a quarterly basis.

Gujarat, Kerala,TN top FSSAIfood safety indexGujarat, Kerala and Tamil Naduhave topped an index thatranks states on food safetyparameters for 2020-21,according to an FSSAI reportunveiled by health ministerMansukh Mandaviya. The indexranks states on five parametersof food safety: humanresources and institutionaldata; compliance; food testingfacility; training and capacitybuilding; and consumerempowerment.

Merck to spend$3.5 bn on electronics unit Merck KGaA plans to investmore than 3 billion euros ($3.5billion) through 2025 in itselectronics business to capi-talise on rising demand forsemiconductor and displaypanel materials. The Germancompany will expand produc-tion capacity, bolster R&Dspending, and is also consider-ing bolt-on acquisitions, it said.Merck makes materials andtechnologies for computerchips and display screens.

Printed & Published by K. Sudhakar on behalf of

Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited.Printed at BFL Infotech Ltd, C-9 Sector3, Noida-201301. Published at 219, N DTiwari Bhawan, Deen Dayal Upadhyay

Marg, New Delhi-110002. Editor: Kaushik Mitter, RNI

Registration number 30074/09, Air surcharge Re 1. © All rights

reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission of

The Editor,Financial Chronicle ® is prohibited.

EPFO ADDS 14.65 LMEMBERS IN JULY

MICHAEL GONSALVESPUNE, SEPT. 20

Volvo Trucks India, adivision of VECommercial Vehicles, onMonday launched newgeneration six heavy-dutytrucks under the FM andFMX range in India.

The new range of truckscost over Rs 1 crore,depending on specifica-tion and customisation.

“These new generation

trucks are designed todeliver higher opera-tional efficiency to ourcustomers,” Vinod Aggar-wal, MD and CEO at VECommercial Vehicles toldFC. These trucks wouldserve in some of the mostdemanding and time-crit-ical applications and theyare built to push the lim-its of productivity with afocus on improving thedriver environment andsafety, he pointed out.

NEW VOLVO TRUCKS START ABOVE `1 CR

VIDEOCON LENDERSMOVE NCLAT, SEEKFRESH BIDS

Nestle India chief expectsmilk, coffee prices to rise

INCLUSION CANBRING $30 BN

Global index inclusion buzz luresforeign funds back to Indian bonds

INDIA RANKS 46THON INNOVATIONINDEX 2021

Amazon to probe bribery allegations on its lawyers

Suresh Narayanan

The firm’s views echo the stance of Maruti Suzuki NOT YET | TIME

GAMES pg 8THE ASIAN AGE | TUESDAY | 21 SEPTEMBER 2021 | NEW DELHI

SHORT TAKES

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: The BCCI onMonday announced that

domestic cricketers affected bythe Covid-curtailed 2020-21

season will be paid 50 per centadditional match fee as com-pensation for the disruption

and also hiked their remunera-tion for the upcoming season.Many Indian cricketers strug-

gled financially after the RanjiTrophy was not held last yearfor the first time in its history

due to the Covid-19 pandemic.The BCCI compensation pack-

age for these players wasawaited for a long time.

“Cricketers who participated in2019-20 Domestic Season will

get 50 per cent additionalmatch fee as compensation for

season 2020-21 lost due toCovid-19 situation,” BCCI gener-

al secretary Jay Shah said in atweet.

The decision to give compensa-tion and increase the match fee

was taken during the BCCI’sApex Council meeting on

Monday.The move will likely benefit

more than 2,000 male crick-eters from the under-16 to the

senior level. — PTI

Domestic playersget salary hikes

SSyyddnneeyy,, AAuussttrraalliiaa:: New Zealandcricket great Chris Cairns onMonday said he was “facing

possibly the greatest chal-lenge” of his life after being left

paralysed following a strokeduring a heart operation.

The 51-year-old, one of theworld’s top all-rounders in the

early 2000s, underwent life-saving surgery last month whena tear developed in the lining of

a major artery. The Canberra-based former international had

an emergency operation inSydney but suffered a stroke

during the procedure, leavinghim unable to use his legs.

In his first comments since,Cairns shared a video message

on social media in which hethanked the surgeons, doctors,

nurses who “saved my life”,acknowledging there was “a

long road ahead”.“I had several surgeries and

grafts and very thankfully thespecialists were able to save

the heart itself. One of the com-plications that arose was a

spinal stroke which in itself willprovide me with possibly the

greatest challenge I’ve everfaced in rehab going forward.”

— AFP

Kiwi Cairns faces ‘tough challenge’

MMaanniillaa,, PPhhiilliippppiinneess:: Philippineboxing superstar Manny

Pacquiao has launched his pres-idential bid with vows to tackle

poverty and corruption as heseeks to win over voters with

his rags-to-riches story.“The time is now — we are

ready to rise to the challenge ofleadership,” Pacquiao — cur-

rently a senator — said Sunday,as he accepted the nomination

of a rival faction in PresidentRodrigo Duterte’s ruling party.

The eight-division world cham-pion and national hero made

the announcement weeks afterlosing what could be his last

professional fight, againstCuban Yordenis Ugas in Las

Vegas. — AFP

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: The Indian cricketteam will play 14 T20

Internationals and just fourTests at home between

November 2021 and June 2022as the BCCI announced its

international itinerary, whichfeatures just three ODIs.

The teams that will visit Indiaduring the eight-month period

are New Zealand (in November-December), West Indies (inFebruary, 2022), Sri Lanka

(February-March 2022) andSouth Africa (in June, 2022).

In between December-January,India will be touring South

Africa and the IPL will happenbetween April-May.

Against New Zealand, India willbe playing two Tests and three

T20Is while West Indies are dueto play three ODIs and five

T20Is.Sri Lanka will play two Testsand three T20Is while South

Africa will come for the short-est tour where they would play

five T20Is in a space of 10 days.The four Test matches will be

held at Kanpur and Mumbai forthe New Zealand series. — PTI

India set to hostNZ, WI, Lanka, SA

Pacquiao to runfor prez in 2022

RRooyyaall CChhaalllleennggeerrssBBaannggaalloorree:: Virat Kohli lbwb Prasidh Krishna 5,Devdutt Padikkal c Karthikb Ferguson 22, SrikarBharat c Shubman Gill bRussell 16, Glenn Maxwellb Varun 10, AB de Villiersb Russell 0, Sachin Baby cRana b Varun 7, WaninduHasaranga de Silva lbw bVarun 0, Kyle Jamiesonrun out 4, Harshal Patel bFerguson 12, MohammedSiraj c Varun b Russell 8,Yuzvendra Chahal (notout) 2. Extras (lb-2 nb-3w-1) 6. TToottaall:: ((aallll oouutt iinn 1199oovveerrss)) 9922..FFooWW:: 1-10, 2-41, 3-51, 4-52,5-63, 6-63, 7-66, 8-76, 9-83.BBoowwlliinngg:: VarunChakravarthy 4-0-13-3,Prasidh Krishna 4-0-24-1,Lockie Ferguson 4-0-24-2, Sunil Narine 4-0-20-0,Andre Russell 3-0-9-3.

KKoollkkaattaa KKnniigghhtt RRiiddeerrss::Shubman Gill cMohammed Siraj b Chahal48, Venkatesh Iyer (notout) 41, Andre Russell (notout) 0. Extras (nb-1, w-4)5. TToottaall ((ffoorr 11 wwkktt,, 1100oovveerrss)) 9944..FFooWW:: 1-82.BBoowwlliinngg:: Mohammed Siraj2-0-12-0, Kyle Jamieson 2-0-26-0, WaninduHasaranga de Silva 2-0-20-0, Yuzvendra Chahal 2-0-23-1, Harshal Patel 2-0-13-0.

SCORECARD

Matches 22RR 12 PK 9

LAST YEAR’S MATCHES●● Rajasthan Royals defeatedPunjab Kings by 4 wickets atSharjah.●● Rajasthan Royals beat PunjabKings by 7 wicketa at Abu Dhabi.FIRST MEETING IN 2021●● Punjab Kings beat RajasthanRoyals by 4 runs at Mumbai.

SSTTAATTSS:: S. PERVEZ QAISER

●● Sanju Samson, who smashed 99sixes in 82 innings of 86 matches,needs just one more maximum tobecome only second batsman tocomplete a century of sixes forRajasthan Royals after ShaneWatson (109 sixes in 76 innings of78 matches).●● Mohammed Shami, who took 47wickets at an average of 24.74 in36 innings of 36 matches, needsthree more wickets to becomefourth bowler to complete a halfcentury of wickets for PunjabKings.●● Punjab Kings have won threeand lost two in last five matchesplayed against Rajasthan Royals.

FOR THE RECORD

HEAD to HEAD

NATIONAL || BOXING

AAbbuu DDhhaabbii,, SSeepptt.. 2200:: Anauthoritative KolkataKnight Riders bossedRoyal ChallengersBangalore from thebeginning to the end torecord a convincing nine-wicket win in theirIndian Premier Leaguematch here on Monday.

Showing serious intentafter their mediocre out-ing in the first phase ofthe league earlier thisyear, the Knight Ridersbowlers fired in unison tobundle out RoyalChallengers Bangalorefor a paltry 92.

Then, the opening duoof Shubman Gill anddebutant Venkatesh Iyerplayed some breathtak-ing shots and made lightwork of the chase of 93,completing the formalitywith as many as 10 oversto spare.

The supremely-talentedGill got out for a 48 off 34deliveries while Iyer, whocould have been a suc-cessful management pro-fessional after finishinghis MBA in finance andgiving up a placement asa tax consultant, waslooking good on a 27-ball41 not out when the win-ning run was hit.

The result will not justboost their moraleimmensely but alsoimprove KKR’s net runrate going ahead.

Opening the bowling,architect-turned-mysteryspinner VarunChakravarthy (3/13) didthe star turn with threewickets in an excellentfour-over spell. Star all-rounder Andre Russell(3/9 in three overs) alsobagged three wickets,including AB de Villiers’golden duck, while therewere two for LockieFerguson.

Devdutt Padikkal wasthe highest scorer with 22runs in a forgettable out-ing in skipper ViratKohli’s 200th game forRCB.

Bowling the day’s sec-ond over, right-arm medi-um pacer PrasidhKrishna dealt RCB a bigblow when he had ViratKohli trapped in front ofwicket with his fourthdelivery that jagged inand hit him above theknee-roll.

Having completed adouble century of match-es for RCB, Kohli wentfor a review but the ball-tracking technology con-firmed that it was goingon to hit the stumps. Thiswas immediately afterKohli sent a Krishnadelivery in front ofsquare on the off-side fora lovely four. — PTI

KNIGHTS SHINEClinical KKR outplay Kohli’s RCB, win by 9 wickets

Opening batsman Shubman Gill of Kolkata Knight Riders plays a shot during anIPL match against Royal Challengers Bangalore held at the Sheikh Zayed Stadiumin Abu Dhabi on Monday. — BCCI

DDuubbaaii,, SSeepptt.. 2200:: LiamLivingstone and EvinLewis’s explosive battingwill meet its match inChris Gayle’s power andK.L. Rahul’s finessewhen Rajasthan Royalslock horns with PunjabKings to improve upontheir mid-table positionin the Indian PremierLeague here on Tuesday.

The two IPL teams havebeen perennial under-achievers in the leagueand would be desperateto change their fortunesafter disappointing oneand all with their under-whelming performances

over the past few sea-sons. More so for PunjabKings, the only team thathas lacked any kind ofstability over the 14 sea-sons of IPL with cap-tains and coaches beingchanged like musicalchairs.

For skipper Rahul itwill not just be about theruns he scores but alsoabout how he leads theteam with guidance fromAnil Kumble, who willalso want to prove hismettle as a franchisecoach.

However, the match onTuesday will be more

about the kind of startsthat the top-orders play-ers provide.

Liam Livingstone hasbeen a rage in shortestformat for last couple ofyears now and is cominginto his own with somegreat performances in‘The Hundred’. Hispotential opening part-ner is likely to be WestIndies man Lewis, whohas often been Indiancricket team’s nemesis invarious games.

Mohammed Shami isexpected to be partneredby either Chris Jordan orNathan Ellis. — PTI

Battle of explosive battingas Rajasthan meet Punjab

NNeeww DDeellhhii,, SSeepptt.. 2200:: TheBCCI on Monday ratified ac o m p r e h e n s i v ePrevention of SexualHarassment (POSH) poli-cy which also brings theIndian cricketers into itsambit.

Until now, the BCCI didnot have a specific policyto deal the matters of sex-ual harassment. The poli-cy is also applicable tooffice-bearers, members ofApex Council and IPLGoverning Councilbesides the cricketersfrom senior to U-16 level.

In a nine-page documentin possession of PTI, theBCCI states that a fourmember Internal

Committee will be formedto investigate sexualharassment complaints. Itdid not name the membersduring its Apex Councilmeeting on Monday.

“The presiding officer ofthe IC shall be a womanemployed at a senior levelat the Workplace(“Presiding Officer”),”reads the policy.

“2 members of the ICwill be selected fromamong the employees,preferably who are com-mitted to the cause ofwomen or have experiencein social work or havelegal knowledge.

“1 member of the IC willbe selected from a Non-

G o v e r n m e n t a lOrganization or associa-tion committed to thecause of women or a per-son familiar with issuesrelating to sexual harass-ment ( External Member ).At least one half of themembers of the IC will bewomen.”

The complainant mustfile the complaint withinthree months from the

date of incident and the ICwill give seven workingdays to the accused torespond to the allegations.The respondent gets 10days to respond.

The ICC gets 90 daysfrom the date of com-plaint to complete itsinquiry and forward itsrecommendations to theBCCI which will act on itwithin 60 days. The com-

plainant or respondentcan go to court if they arenot satisfied with BCCI’sverdict.

BBCCCCII TTOO PPAAYY $$11..55MM TTOOEECCBB FFOORR HHOOSSTTIINNGG CCUUPP

“BCCI is paying ECB afixed fee of USD 1.5 mil-lion (from our host fee of$13.5 Million) and opera-tional costs of $5.5 millionwhich will be covered byICC. Total fee payable isUSD 7Millon,” read anofficial note.

Majority of the matcheswill be played in the UAE.

Oman Cricket, which ishosting six matches, gets afee of $400,000.

— PTI

POSH policy brings players to its ambit●● Until now, the BCCI did not have aspecific policy to deal the matters of sexualharassment. The policy is also applicable tooffice-bearers, members of Apex Counciland IPL Governing Council besides thecricketers from senior to U-16 level.

BBeellllaarryy ((KKaarrnnaattaakkaa)),, SSeepptt..2200:: The accomplished trioof Sanjeet (92kg), ShivaThapa (63.5kg) andMohammad Hussamuddin(57kg) stood just one winaway from booking a slotin India’s world champi-onship squad after theyentered the finals of themen’s National BoxingChampionships here onMonday.

Reigning Asian gold-medallist Sanjeet, repre-senting Services SportsControl Board (SSCB),proved too strong forHarsh Kaushik from Delhias he registered a convinc-ing 5-0 win.

Sanjeet will take onHaryana’s Naveen Kumarin the final. Naveenblanked Punjab’s RaghavChaudhary.

Another SSCB boxerHussamuddin, however,faced a tough challengefrom the in-form youthworld champion Sachin ofHaryana.

The defending championHussamuddin had to workhard before completing a 4-1 win in an intense semifi-nal bout. He will fightagainst Delhi’s Rohit Morin the gold medal match.

Later, 2015 world champi-onships bronze-medallistThapa recorded a dominat-ing victory over UttarPradesh’s Abhishek Yadav,

winning with a unanimous5-0 verdict.

The five-time Asianmedallist will square offagainst SSCB’s DalveerSingh Tomar in the finalon Tuesday.

Deepak (51kg), Akash(54kg), Etash KhanMuhammed (60kg), Akash(67kg), Sumit (75kg),Sachin Kumar (80kg),Lakshya (86kg) andNarender (+92kg) were theother SSCB boxers to enterthe finals.

Chandigarh’s KuldeepKumar (48kg) and Sagar(+92kg) also made theirway into the finals withequally dominant victo-ries. While Kuldeep Kumaroutperformed UttarPradesh’s Ravi Kumarwith a unanimous margin,Sagar too comfortablydefeated Maharashtra’sReynold Joseph, when thereferee stopped the contestin his favour.

For Karnataka, NishantDev also booked a finalberth in the 71kg category.Nishant got the better ofHaryana’s Yashpal with aneasy 5-0 win.

Gold medal winners fromthe championships willearn themselves a chanceto represent the country atthe world championshipsto be held in Serbia fromOctober 24 to November 6.

— PTI

Shiva, Sanjeetseal final slots

DDuubbaaii,, SSeepptt.. 2200:: ChennaiSuper Kings head coachStephen Fleming has lav-ished praise on youngopener RuturajGaikwad, saying heabsorbed the pressureand played a “remark-able” innings which gavethe team a chanceagainst defending cham-pions Mumbai Indians intheir IPL match here.

Gaikwad hit a match-winning unbeaten 88 asCSK posted 156/6 afterbeing reduced to 24 forfour inside the power-play.

“Today’s innings wasvery special. It’s okay toplay an innings in a high-scoring game and domi-

nate. But when you’rethe one to get a score togive your team a chance,then that’s even morespecial,” Fleming said.

“So, the way he wentabout his work, it hadreally absorbing pres-

sure and then the abilityto accelerate as theinnings went on, it reallywas down to his hand,that we were able to cre-ate any pressure whatso-ever. So, it was a remark-able innings from him.”

Gaikwad anchored theinnings with an unbeat-en 58-ball knock.

“It was very special, asyou know, we’ve had verybig taps on him (Ruturaj)for some time. Even lasttime we were here, werushed him back, proba-bly too early given theshape he was in fromCovid, but that’s howmuch regard and respectwe have for his ability.”

— PTI

LLoonnddoonn,, SSeepptt.. 2200:: Englandon Monday called off nextmonth’s men’s andwomen’s tours of Pakistan,three days after NewZealand abandoned theirwhite-ball series in theSouth Asian country oversecurity concerns.

The England and WalesCricket Board (ECB)arrived at the decision towithdraw after deliberat-ing over the weekend,pulling out of what wouldhave been the country’sfirst tour of Pakistan since2005.

“The ECB Board con-vened this weekend to dis-cuss these extra EnglandWomen’s and Men’s gamesin Pakistan and we can

confirm that the Board hasreluctantly decided towithdraw both teams fromthe October trip,” the ECBsaid in a statement.

It added, “The mental andphysical well-being of ourplayers and support staffremains our highest priori-ty and this is even morecritical given the times weare currently living in.

“We know there areincreasing concerns abouttravelling to the region andbelieve that going aheadwill add further pressureto a playing group whohave already coped with along period of operating inrestricted Covid environ-ments.”

— PTI

SSCB’s Sanjeet (right) in action during 92kg semifinalbout at the 5th Men’s Elite National BoxingChampionships in Bellary, Karnataka, on Monday.

NNeeww DDeellhhii,, SSeepptt.. 2200:: India’s Payas Jain claimed his sec-ond successive under-17 boys title after defeating TomClosset of Belgium 3-1 in the WTT Youth Contenderfinal in Tunis.

Picking up the threads from where he left off inOtocec, Payas outwitted Tom 7-11, 11-4, 11-4, 15-13 in thesummit clash on Sunday.

The Delhi lad, who won gold in the same category inSlovenia last week, had a bad start to the final butcame back strongly to go up 2-1.

However, in the fourth game, his opponent squan-dered a couple of game points to let the Indian finishin style. In his semifinal, Payas defeated Preyesh RajSuresh 16-14, 11-8, 11-8.

Despite his upper hand in the first game, the TamilNadu boy could not breach Payas’ confidence andfinally settled with the bronze.

Ankur Bhattacharjee, who played an enduring semi-final against Tom Closset, settled for the bronze.

— PTI

INDIAN TT PLAYERS MAKEMERRY AT WTT YOUTH MEET

NNeeww DDeellhhii,, SSeepptt.. 2200:: TheDelhi High Court onMonday sought theCentre’s stand on a peti-tion by Manika Batra, whowas left out of the Indiancontingent for the upcom-ing Asian Table TennisChampionships, assailingTable Tennis Federation ofIndia’s (TTFI) mandate ofcompulsory attendance atthe National CoachingCamp in order to be select-ed.

Justice Rekha Palli grant-ed two days to the centralgovernment counsel totake instructions on thepetition which alleges thaton one occasion, thenational coachSoumyadeep Roy pressur-ized Batra to throw away amatch to enable one of hispersonal trainees to quali-fy for the Olympics 2020and seeks that the SportsMinistry enquire into themanagement of the federa-tion.

The judge said the allega-

tions against the coachwere serious and theCentre should be a littleproactive.

There is something to besaid. We have a high rank-ing player. We have to bal-ance... If there are suchsenior allegations againstthe coach, Union of Indiahas to be a little bit proac-tive on this, said the judge.

Let them (Centre) comeback with instructions.Ultimately she is the high-est-ranking player in thecountry today, the judgeadded.

Senior counsel SachinDutta, appearing for Batra,said that by virtue of a ruleon mandatorily attendingthe national camp, hisclient’s chance for the 25thITTF Asian Table TennisChampionships, 2021,which is to be held in Dohafrom September-October,has been scuttled in spiteof her fulfilling all merit-based criteria.

— PTI

HC looks for Centre’sstand on Manika plea

Coach Fleming all praise forGaikwad’s remarkable knock

AFTER NZ, ENGLAND TOOCALL OFF PAKISTAN TOUR

Ruturaj GGaikwad

TEAM || SELECTION ROW

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