16
P rime Minister Narendra Modi invented a contro- versial acronym — Sarab — for the Opposition coalition in Uttar Pradesh at his election rally in Meerut to launch a scathing attack on the Samajwadi Party, the RLD and the BSP that have come togeth- er to take on the BJP. A furious Congress demanded his apology and accused him of stooping to a new low. “Sapa (Samajwadi Party) ka ‘sa’, RLD ka ‘Ra’ aur Baspa (BSP) ka ‘ba’, matlab ‘sarab’. (Take the ‘Sa’ of Samajwadi Party, ‘Ra’ or Rashtriya Lok Dal and ‘Ba’ of Bahujan Samaj Party),” PM Modi said to a large public gathering as he launched his campaign in Uttar Pradesh for the Lok Sabha election. “For UP’s good health and for India’s future, should you not stay away from sarab? Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’ aapko barbaad kar degi (this sarab will destroy you),” the Prime Minister said. Barely had he finished speaking, the Congress addressed a Press conference condemning Modi for likening three political parties to “sharab” or liquor. “Does this kind of talk befit a Prime Minister? You are calling three political parties sarab? Is this the way a PM talks? Can the people accept this,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said. “Take back your words and apologise to 130 crore people, or the nation and Uttar Pradesh will never forgive you,” he added. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, however, tweeted that the PM confused “sarab (mirage)” and “sharab (liquor)” because of the teleprompter. “Teleprompters exposed how those who pro- mote hate don’t know differ- ence between ‘sarab’ and ‘sharab’; ‘Sarab’ means mirage which the BJP has been show- ing for the last five years,” Akhilesh said. Describing the PM as “drama king” and “flop film actor”, Surjewala said despite his party’s differences with Mayawati, he addressed her as “ji” and this is “Indian culture”. Hitting out at Rahul Gandhi’s theatre jibe over PM Modi’s address to the nation after India’s successful testing of anti-satellite missile on Wednesday, Modi said , “When I was speaking about A-SAT (anti-satellite missile), some intelligent people got confused. They thought that I was speak- ing about sets used in theatres.” “They got confused A-SAT with set used in theatres. Whether we should cry or laugh at their intellect for con- fusing space mission with the- atre,” Modi said. In a veiled attack to the Opposition, Modi said he will give clear “hisaab” of all that his Government did. He said, Chowkidar hoon bhai, hisaab hoga, sabka hoga, baari baari se hoga.” Lambasting the Opposition while keeping the focus on a strong Government, Modi said that his Government had shown the courage to conduct a surgical strike in all spheres — land, sky and space. The contest is between a “a decisive Government and an indecisive past,” Modi said a day after announcing that India had demonstrated anti-satellite mis- sile capability by shooting down a live satellite. Continued on Page 4 D ays after a unanimous announcement by all the stakeholders of Bihar Mahagathbandhan, the RJD and the Congress on Thursday entered into a fresh round of sparring over two Lok Sabha seats. The development forced RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and HAM leader Jitam Ram Manjhi to cancel their election cam- paigns in the State and rush to Patna, while Bihar Congress leaders flew to Delhi to brief party high command of the “arm-twisting” by the RJD. In the centre of the row is Congress’ insistence on fielding from Darbhanga sitting local MP and former test cricketer Kirti Azad, who recently joined the Congress after resigning from the BJP. The two parties are also at loggerheads over RJD’s threat not to back Congress MP Ranjeet Ranjan from Supaul after her husband, Pappu Yadav, filed nomination from Madhepura as an Independent candidate against veteran Sharad Yadav, who is contest- ing on a RJD ticket. The RJD has staked claim to both the Darbhanga and Madhepura seats due to size- able numbers of Muslims and Yadav votes. Sources said the matter may be resolved amicably by Friday morning and Kirti may be fielded from either Valmiki Nagar or West Champaran. However, it is not cear what could both the parties do to persuade Pappu Yadav to with- draw from the race. While the RJD has been playing the master in the grand alliance, several Congress lead- ers of Bihar claimed the party was “not getting a fair deal” in the seat-sharing arrangement and urged the high command to step in before it was too late. Congress sources said the crisis aggravated to a level that the RJD and the Congress almost decided to part ways, however, a communication was established between Congress leaders with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad currently serving a jail term to defuse the situation. Continued on Page 4 C ongress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said the “Nyay” scheme will remon- etise what the Prime Minister demonetised and asserted that his party’s anti-poverty pro- gramme has thrown the BJP into total disarray. In an exclusive interview to PTI ahead of the 17th general election beginning April 11, Rahul said the Nyay scheme has the twin objectives of giv- ing money to the 20 per cent poorest families in India and remonetising the economy “damaged” by demonetisation. “What the PM has done over the past five years is to remove all money from the economy with failed policies like demonetisation and a poorly executed Gabbar Singh Tax (GST). Informal sectors have been badly hit. “The aim of the ‘Nyay’ scheme is two-fold. First is to guarantee a minimum income to the bottom 20 per cent fam- ilies. The second is to remon- etise the economy that has been demonetised by Modiji,” Rahul said. The Congress chief said there is a reason why the party christened the scheme Nyay, which translates to justice in Hindi. “There is another aspect to calling the scheme ‘Nyay’. Why have we chosen to call this scheme ‘Justice’? Because over the last five years, Mr Narendra Modi has simply snatched from poor and given nothing back. “He has taken away from the farmers, he has snatched from the small and medium businesses, he’s taken away from the unemployed youth, he has extinguished the savings of mothers and sisters of this country. We want to return to India’s deprived sections what Modiji has snatched from them,” he said. Terming Nyay (Nyuntam Aay Yojana) a “game changer” and a “final assault” on pover- ty, Gandhi said the scheme is “fiscally perfectly doable” and will not be implemented “rash- ly like demonetisation and GST of the BJP”. Asked about apprehen- sions of some economists that “Nyay”, which entails an expen- diture of 3.6 lakh crore annu- ally, could aggravate India’s fiscal deficit position, Rahul said, “No, that’s not right.” He said the party consult- ed a large number of econo- mists and experts, studied numerous papers and other research material on this sub- ject and run an extensive finan- cial modelling exercise before deciding to include the plan in its Lok Sabha manifesto. Continued on Page 4 A s the BJP leadership is brainstorming to select candidates for seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi, the leadership is in two minds whether to give ticket to incumbent Member of Parliament Meenakashi Lekhi or to field new candidate from the New Delhi Lok Sabha con- stituency. Among the front runner for ticket, former cricketer Gautam Gambhir has emerged as a popular contender with backing of senior party leaders for the New Delhi constituen- cy, a seat having political sig- nificance as it was represented by BJP veterans like Lal Krishna Advani and late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the past. According to reliable party insiders, Gambhir’s entry into the BJP has further changed the equation. BJP vice president and Delhi BJP in-charge Shayam Jaju and Monika Arora are other contenders. The cricketer reportedly has been meeting various Residential Welfare Associations (RWAs) in the New Delhi constituency to strengthen his case. BJP watchers said Gambhir chance of getting ticket has brightened after his name was included in the fresh list of 31 probable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections by the Delhi BJP. Sources in BJP said the party workers have expressed displeasure with the functioning of Lekhi. Also, with the AAP and the Congress attacking the BJP for the sealing drive, sources said, the BJP leadership might replace Lekhi with a new face in order to beat anti-incum- bency and woo local traders as well as party workers who have accused the sitting BJP MP of being inaccessible. Various trading bodies are upset with Lekhi citing unre- solved problems like conges- tion and parking issue. Sealing drive by the Municipal Corporations on the order of Supreme Court appointed Environment Pollution Control Authority have only added to woes of the traders in Hauz Khas, Greater Kailash, Defence Colony, Lajpat Nagar, Green Park and South Extension. Popular markets like Khan Market, Lajpat Nagar, Sarojini Nagar come under New Delhi constituency and party fears that the issue of sealing could upset their applecart. Continued on Page 4 S tepping up the internation- al pressure to designate Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar as a global ter- rorist, the US, supported by France and the UK, has direct- ly moved a draft resolution in the UN Security Council to blacklist the Pakistan-based terror group’s chief. Two weeks after China put a hold on a proposal to list Azhar under the 1267 al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the Council, the US circulated the draft resolution to the power- ful 15-nation Council to black- list the leader of the terror group and subject him to a travel ban, an assets freeze and an arms embargo. UN sources told PTI that this is the “first time” the US, the UK and France have moved a draft resolution directly in the Security Council to designate Azhar as terrorist. Unlike a list- ing proposal, which is generally under a 10-day no objection period, the draft resolution is not under any no-objection provision. Reacting to Washington’s move, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang in Beijing said, “This is not in line with resolution of the issue through dialogue and negotiations. This has reduced the authority of the Committee as a main anti-terrorism body of the UNSC and this is not conducive to the solidarity and only complicates the issue.” “We urge the US to act cau- tiously and avoid forcefully moving forward this draft res- olution,” Geng said. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made an apparent reference to China blocking the proposal when he said Wednesday that China abuses over a million Muslims at home, but “protects” violent Islamic terror groups from UN sanctions. Sources in New York said that the draft resolution will be discussed informally and then it goes to the Council. However, it is not yet decided by when a vote would be held on the draft resolution, during when it could again face a veto by China, which has in the past blocked bids to blacklist Azhar. Sources said the draft res- olution would condemn “in the strongest terms the heinous and cowardly suicide bombing” on February 14 in Jammu & Kashmir’s Pulwama district that killed 44 CRPF personnel. In New Delhi, sources said, they were aware that a draft has been initiated for consideration of Council members to list Azhar in the sanctions regime as part of global efforts to fight against terrorism. Continued on Page 4

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Prime Minister NarendraModi invented a contro-

versial acronym — Sarab — forthe Opposition coalition inUttar Pradesh at his electionrally in Meerut to launch ascathing attack on theSamajwadi Party, the RLD andthe BSP that have come togeth-er to take on the BJP.

A furious Congressdemanded his apology andaccused him of stooping to anew low.

“Sapa (Samajwadi Party) ka‘sa’, RLD ka ‘Ra’ aur Baspa(BSP) ka ‘ba’, matlab ‘sarab’.(Take the ‘Sa’ of SamajwadiParty, ‘Ra’ or Rashtriya Lok Daland ‘Ba’ of Bahujan SamajParty),” PM Modi said to a largepublic gathering as he launchedhis campaign in Uttar Pradeshfor the Lok Sabha election.

“For UP’s good health andfor India’s future, should younot stay away from sarab?Sapa, RLD, Baspa, ye ‘sarab’aapko barbaad kar degi (thissarab will destroy you),” the

Prime Minister said.Barely had he finished

speaking, the Congressaddressed a Press conference

condemning Modi for likeningthree political parties to“sharab” or liquor. “Does thiskind of talk befit a Prime

Minister? You are calling threepolitical parties sarab? Is thisthe way a PM talks? Can thepeople accept this,” Congress

spokesperson Randeep SinghSurjewala said. “Take backyour words and apologise to130 crore people, or the nationand Uttar Pradesh will neverforgive you,” he added.

Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav, however,tweeted that the PM confused“sarab (mirage)” and “sharab(liquor)” because of theteleprompter. “Telepromptersexposed how those who pro-mote hate don’t know differ-ence between ‘sarab’ and‘sharab’; ‘Sarab’ means miragewhich the BJP has been show-ing for the last five years,”Akhilesh said.

Describing the PM as“drama king” and “flop filmactor”, Surjewala said despitehis party’s differences withMayawati, he addressed her as“ji” and this is “Indian culture”.

Hitting out at RahulGandhi’s theatre jibe over PMModi’s address to the nationafter India’s successful testing ofanti-satellite missile onWednesday, Modi said , “WhenI was speaking about A-SAT

(anti-satellite missile), someintelligent people got confused.They thought that I was speak-ing about sets used in theatres.”“They got confused A-SATwith set used in theatres.Whether we should cry orlaugh at their intellect for con-fusing space mission with the-atre,” Modi said.

In a veiled attack to theOpposition, Modi said he willgive clear “hisaab” of all that hisGovernment did. He said,“Chowkidar hoon bhai, hisaabhoga, sabka hoga, baari baari sehoga.”

Lambasting the Oppositionwhile keeping the focus on astrong Government, Modi saidthat his Government hadshown the courage to conducta surgical strike in all spheres— land, sky and space. Thecontest is between a “a decisiveGovernment and an indecisivepast,” Modi said a day afterannouncing that India haddemonstrated anti-satellite mis-sile capability by shootingdown a live satellite.

Continued on Page 4

���� ##� ��� �794�%9)0;:���7�

Days after a unanimousannouncement by all the

stakeholders of BiharMahagathbandhan, the RJDand the Congress on Thursdayentered into a fresh round ofsparring over two Lok Sabhaseats. The development forcedRJD leader Tejashwi Yadav andHAM leader Jitam Ram Manjhito cancel their election cam-paigns in the State and rush toPatna, while Bihar Congressleaders flew to Delhi to briefparty high command of the“arm-twisting” by the RJD.

In the centre of the row isCongress’ insistence on fieldingfrom Darbhanga sitting localMP and former test cricketerKirti Azad, who recently joinedthe Congress after resigningfrom the BJP.

The two parties are also atloggerheads over RJD’s threatnot to back Congress MP

Ranjeet Ranjan from Supaulafter her husband, PappuYadav, filed nomination fromMadhepura as an Independentcandidate against veteranSharad Yadav, who is contest-ing on a RJD ticket.

The RJD has staked claimto both the Darbhanga andMadhepura seats due to size-able numbers of Muslims andYadav votes.

Sources said the mattermay be resolved amicably byFriday morning and Kirti maybe fielded from either ValmikiNagar or West Champaran.However, it is not cear whatcould both the parties do topersuade Pappu Yadav to with-draw from the race.

While the RJD has beenplaying the master in the grandalliance, several Congress lead-ers of Bihar claimed the partywas “not getting a fair deal” inthe seat-sharing arrangementand urged the high commandto step in before it was too late.

Congress sources said thecrisis aggravated to a level thatthe RJD and the Congressalmost decided to part ways,however, a communication wasestablished between Congressleaders with RJD supremo LaluPrasad currently serving a jailterm to defuse the situation.

Continued on Page 4

���� 794�%9)0;�

Congress president RahulGandhi on Thursday said

the “Nyay” scheme will remon-etise what the Prime Ministerdemonetised and asserted thathis party’s anti-poverty pro-gramme has thrown the BJPinto total disarray.

In an exclusive interview toPTI ahead of the 17th generalelection beginning April 11,Rahul said the Nyay schemehas the twin objectives of giv-ing money to the 20 per centpoorest families in India andremonetising the economy“damaged” by demonetisation.

“What the PM has doneover the past five years is toremove all money from theeconomy with failed policieslike demonetisation and a

poorly executed Gabbar SinghTax (GST). Informal sectorshave been badly hit.

“The aim of the ‘Nyay’scheme is two-fold. First is toguarantee a minimum incometo the bottom 20 per cent fam-ilies. The second is to remon-etise the economy that hasbeen demonetised by Modiji,”Rahul said.

The Congress chief saidthere is a reason why the partychristened the scheme Nyay,which translates to justice inHindi. “There is another aspectto calling the scheme ‘Nyay’.Why have we chosen to call thisscheme ‘Justice’? Because overthe last five years, Mr NarendraModi has simply snatched frompoor and given nothing back.

“He has taken away fromthe farmers, he has snatched

from the small and mediumbusinesses, he’s taken awayfrom the unemployed youth, hehas extinguished the savings ofmothers and sisters of this

country. We want to return toIndia’s deprived sections whatModiji has snatched fromthem,” he said.

Terming Nyay (Nyuntam

Aay Yojana) a “game changer”and a “final assault” on pover-ty, Gandhi said the scheme is“fiscally perfectly doable” andwill not be implemented “rash-ly like demonetisation andGST of the BJP”.

Asked about apprehen-sions of some economists that“Nyay”, which entails an expen-diture of �3.6 lakh crore annu-ally, could aggravate India’sfiscal deficit position, Rahulsaid, “No, that’s not right.”

He said the party consult-ed a large number of econo-mists and experts, studiednumerous papers and otherresearch material on this sub-ject and run an extensive finan-cial modelling exercise beforedeciding to include the plan inits Lok Sabha manifesto.

Continued on Page 4

� �� ������ 794�%9)0;

As the BJP leadership isbrainstorming to select

candidates for seven Lok Sabhaseats in Delhi, the leadership isin two minds whether to giveticket to incumbent Member ofParliament Meenakashi Lekhior to field new candidate fromthe New Delhi Lok Sabha con-stituency.

Among the front runnerfor ticket, former cricketerGautam Gambhir has emergedas a popular contender withbacking of senior party leadersfor the New Delhi constituen-cy, a seat having political sig-

nificance as it was representedby BJP veterans like LalKrishna Advani and late PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayeein the past.

According to reliable partyinsiders, Gambhir’s entry intothe BJP has further changed theequation. BJP vice presidentand Delhi BJP in-chargeShayam Jaju and Monika Aroraare other contenders.

The cricketer reportedlyhas been meeting various

Residential WelfareAssociations (RWAs) in theNew Delhi constituency tostrengthen his case.

BJP watchers said Gambhirchance of getting ticket hasbrightened after his name wasincluded in the fresh list of 31probable candidates for theLok Sabha elections by theDelhi BJP. Sources in BJP saidthe party workers haveexpressed displeasure with thefunctioning of Lekhi.

Also, with the AAP and theCongress attacking the BJP forthe sealing drive, sources said,the BJP leadership mightreplace Lekhi with a new facein order to beat anti-incum-bency and woo local traders aswell as party workers who haveaccused the sitting BJP MP ofbeing inaccessible.

Various trading bodies areupset with Lekhi citing unre-solved problems like conges-tion and parking issue. Sealingdrive by the MunicipalCorporations on the order ofSupreme Court appointedEnvironment Pollution ControlAuthority have only added towoes of the traders in HauzKhas, Greater Kailash, DefenceColony, Lajpat Nagar, GreenPark and South Extension.

Popular markets like KhanMarket, Lajpat Nagar, SarojiniNagar come under New Delhiconstituency and party fearsthat the issue of sealing couldupset their applecart.

Continued on Page 4

���� 37;�9%�7��;<7 :4� 0;7��<7�

Stepping up the internation-al pressure to designate

Jaish-e-Mohammed chiefMasood Azhar as a global ter-rorist, the US, supported byFrance and the UK, has direct-ly moved a draft resolution inthe UN Security Council toblacklist the Pakistan-basedterror group’s chief.

Two weeks after China puta hold on a proposal to listAzhar under the 1267 al-QaedaSanctions Committee of theCouncil, the US circulated thedraft resolution to the power-ful 15-nation Council to black-list the leader of the terrorgroup and subject him to atravel ban, an assets freeze and

an arms embargo.UN sources told PTI that

this is the “first time” the US,the UK and France have moveda draft resolution directly in theSecurity Council to designateAzhar as terrorist. Unlike a list-ing proposal, which is generallyunder a 10-day no objectionperiod, the draft resolution isnot under any no-objectionprovision.

Reacting to Washington’smove, Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesman GengShuang in Beijing said, “This isnot in line with resolution ofthe issue through dialogue andnegotiations. This has reducedthe authority of the Committeeas a main anti-terrorism bodyof the UNSC and this is notconducive to the solidarity and

only complicates the issue.”“We urge the US to act cau-

tiously and avoid forcefullymoving forward this draft res-olution,” Geng said.

Meanwhile, US Secretaryof State Mike Pompeo made anapparent reference to China

blocking the proposal when hesaid Wednesday that Chinaabuses over a million Muslimsat home, but “protects” violentIslamic terror groups from UNsanctions.

Sources in New York saidthat the draft resolution will be

discussed informally and thenit goes to the Council. However,it is not yet decided by when avote would be held on the draftresolution, during when itcould again face a veto byChina, which has in the pastblocked bids to blacklist Azhar.

Sources said the draft res-olution would condemn “in thestrongest terms the heinousand cowardly suicide bombing”on February 14 in Jammu &Kashmir’s Pulwama districtthat killed 44 CRPF personnel.

In New Delhi, sources said,they were aware that a draft hasbeen initiated for considerationof Council members to listAzhar in the sanctions regimeas part of global efforts tofight against terrorism.

Continued on Page 4

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With an aim to treat cancerpatients with high degree

of precision, BLK SuperSpeciality Hospital has launchthe “first” and “most advancedversion” of Tomotherapy -Radixact 9.

Highlighting the key fea-tures of TomoTherapy Dr SHukku, Chairman and SeniorConsultant, RadiationOncology of the hospital said,“TomoTherapy has come as aboon to cancer patients. “It isnow used as a curative treat-ment for cancer, the secondleading cause of death acrossthe world. With the mostrecent introduction ofTomotherapy, the radiationoncology has touched an allnew high in the race of effec-tive curative treatment for seri-ous illnesses. It also enables afully integrated platform forintelligent treatment planning,

data management and treat-ment delivery,” he said.

“Using a refined x-raybeam line and next-generationimaging technology, the systemdelivers scalable and highlyreliable treatments for patientswith a variety of individualtreatment needs,” he said,adding that this technology isan all in one advanced form ofcancer treatment that com-bines Intensity Modulated

Radiation Therapy(IMRT) with theaccuracy ofC o m p u t e dTomography (CT)scanning technology(IGRT- ImageG u i d e dRadiotherapy.

Dr ShikhaHalder, Director andSenior Consultant( R a d i a t i o nOncology) said,“The launch of the

most advanced version ofTomoTherapy is truly aremarkable development whichwill completely change the waycancer has been treated inIndia forever.” With this systemwe can deliver both fraction-ated radiotherapy as well asSBRT and Radio surgery,” hesaid.

Radixact 9 is touted to beone of the most advanced ver-sions of tomotherapy.

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The Special Task Force (STF)of the Haryana police

arrested five members of aninter-State gang after a briefexchange of fire fromDharuhera, in Rewari districton Wednesday night.

The police have recoveredfour illegal pistols of .32 bore,one 9mm pistol, 1 countrymade pistol, 10 live cartridges,four empty cells, �49, 70,000and 2 snatched cars from theirpossession.

The gang was involved inseveral cases of murder, kid-napping, loot and vehiclesnatching in Delhi, Rajasthanand Haryana.

The kingpin of the gangJoginder Singh alias Panchi(34) was carrying a reward of�50,000 announced by theHaryana police.

The other gang membershave been identified as ShivKumar alias Sibba (28) ofPanipat District, Deepak (20)of Sonipat district, KamalMalik (19) and Amitesh aliasBoxer of Panipat district.

STF Inspector General ofPolice (IGP), K.K Rao said:“Acting on a tip-off the STFnabbed the criminals fromDharuhera area, in Rewari dis-trict after a brief exchange offire.”

During the preliminaryinterrogation, the gang con-fessed their involvement in 19cases of murder, attempt tomurder, loot and snatching.

According to the STF, thegang members recently kid-napped Shreyas, a son ofDoctor SP Yadav, who is also anowner of a private hospital inGurugram and had demanded

�50 lakh as ransom.“The gang usually used

snatched vehicles to commitcrimes. They offered lifts to thevictims after which theysnatched their valuables andwithdrew money from theirATMs. In February 2019 thegang had kidnapped a personin Gurugram and recovered

�95,000 as ransom amount,”Rao, said.

“Joginder had eliminatedan Advocate along with Rohtakbased Sandeep Badwasni gangin 2017. The accused wanted tokill a Sarpanch of Bhadra vil-lage in Rajasthan to takerevenge for his brother murderin 2016,” he said.

“Joginder was one of themost wanted criminals andwas changing his locations toavoid his arrest. He wasinvolved in several heinouscrimes. Further probe into thematter is underway,” Rao said.

�� &&��������� 794�%9)0;

The Crime Branch of DelhiPolice has arrested a 35-

year-old Nigerian for alleged-ly duping several people oversocial media. The accused hadcreated several fake IDs withfake girl names on Facebookand through those he used todupe Indian man in order toearn easy money by illegalmeans.

The accused has been iden-tified as Ogbodo IfeanyiHenrey presently living at DevliKhanpur in Delhi and a per-manent resident of Enugu City,11 Kings Street in Nigeria.Police have also recovered 16mobile handsets, 21 SIM cards,two laptops, two internetrouters and five debit cardswith the name of other personsfrom his possession.

According to Dr AjitKumar Singla, AdditionalCommissioner of Police, CrimeBranch, a complaint wasreceived in which complainantsaid that a woman with nameHolly David who claimed to beresident of UK became hisFacebook friend in January2017.

“Both were in constanttouch through social medianetworking like Facebook mes-senger and later on Whatsappand email. The woman toldhim that she would come toIndia on February 6 by BritishAirways. On 06 February the

complainant received callwherein the caller disguised orposed himself as CustomOfficer from Mumbai and toldhim that Holly David is atMumbai Airport and she has topay �55,000 as custom clear-ance to travel in India,” saidAdditional CP.

“The complainant trans-ferred �5.90 Lakh from his bankaccount to the bank account ofalleged persons in three install-ments in the name of Customclearance and Anti TerroristCertificate. After that the allegedpersons demanded more money,but the complainant refused topay and contacted police,” saidAdditional CP.

“A First InformationReport (FIR) was registeredand investigation was initiated.During investigation, emailand call records were scannedwhich led to the arrest of theaccused,” said Additional CP.

“During interrogation, the accused confessed to hiscrimes and revealed that hecame to India on business visain 2013. But in order to earnquick money he created several facebook profiles withfake girls names and haveduped several people in coun-try,” said the Additional CPadding that further investiga-tion is going on.

���� 794�%9)0;

Akey prosecution witnessin a 1984 anti-Sikh riots

case told a Delhi court onThursday that Sajjan Kumarhad instigated the mob to killSikhs.

The witness, JoginderSingh, also identified Kumar,who was present before DistrictJudge Poonam A Bamba, as theperson who instigated the mob.

“When I went to lodge FIR,the police had denied to nameSajjan Kumar in the FIR. SajjanKumar the person who leadingthe mob and provoking them,”the witness said in his state-ment while being examined byadvocate Tarannum Cheema,appearing for the prosecution.

Singh had lost his brotherin the riots.

The court has now postedthe matter for April 9 for fur-ther proceedings in the case.

Earlier, two other key pros-ecution witnesses — ChamKaur and Sheela Kaur — hadidentified Kumar as the one

who had instigated the mob inSultanpuri.

The case was transferredfrom Karkardooma court toPatiala House court here by theDelhi High Court, whichdirected the district judge to

video recordthe proceed-ings at the costof the accused.

K u m a rand two othera c c u s e d ,BrahmanandGupta and VedPrakash, hadsaid that theywere ready tobear theexpenses of thevideography of

proceedings.The three accused are fac-

ing trial on charges of murderand rioting in the case per-taining to killing of Surjit Singhin Sultanpuri.

The proceedings in thecase were earlier stayed afterSingh approached the highcourt seeking transfer of thecase while alleging that evi-dence was not being properlyrecorded.

� 4 ���� ��� 794�%9)0;

Days after a 33-year-oldmaintenance fitter of Delhi

Metro Rail Corporation(DMRC) allegedly committedsuicide by jumping from sev-enth floor of Delhi Metro’sheadquarters in nationalCapital’s Barakhamba road, thestaff council of DMRC hasfiled a fresh complaint toMangu Singh, the ManagingDirector (MD) of Delhi Metro,suspecting a foul play in theincident and has demanded anindependent probe into theincident.

The deceased MaheshParajapti, working as mainte-nance fitter with Delhi MetroRail Corporation (DMRC),was missing since March 22and was found dead at MetroBhawan on Monday morning.The Delhi Police ruling out anyfoul play in the incident hadsaid the incident to be a suicidethough no suicide note wasfound in possession of thedeceased. The police also saidthat the deceased also hadsome matrimonial issue.“Prajapati got married to PriyaVerma on December 15 lastyear and both were having amatrimonial dispute ever sincethey tied the knot. His wife left

him exactly a month after theywere married,” said the MadhurVerma, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), New Delhi district, onthe day the body was found.

However, the staff councilof Delhi Metro alleged that“Prajapati was upset with theHuman Resource Departmentof DMRC as he came to join hisduty in Headquarters after 81days of medical leave but theHR department refused hisapplications and did not gavethe approval to re-join hisduty. In a letter submitted toMD, DMRC, staff council saidthat Mahesh body was found ina mysterious circumstance inthe basement of the Metrobhawan. “He was called by theHR department after hereturned from the meical leaveon 22nd March. He was deniedfor joining duty on that sameday and he was also seen alivelast near the HR departmentonly,” said the staff councils inthe letter.

“There are many issuesrelated to the incident. Whydid the incident take place atmetro Bhawan, why was hecalled? And why was there nowitnesse? Moreover, if a per-son jumped from seventhfloor, how his body can go

under the staircase, so thatnobody can see his body.There is an abetment in thismatter,” read the letter under-signed by Anil Kumar,Secretary of Staff association.

“During initial investiga-tion it was revealed thatMahesh committed suicide byjumping from substantialheight and fell on the basementfloor. There was no suicide notefound from the body. Furtheras per the CCTV footage ofMetro Bhawan, Prajapati waslast seen on March 22 movingtowards the stairs on the sev-enth floor of Metro Bhawan. Amissing person report was filed

in Barakhamba Road policestation on the next day,” saidMadhur Verma, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), New Delhi district.

“It appears that the incidentmay have taken place on theevening of Friday when theoffice was closing for the week-end. The office reopened today(Monday) morning and thebody was noticed,” said theDMRC later on the day thebody was found.

The DMRC staffs alsoalleged that the HR departmenthas also kept quiet and has nottaken action earlier when a staffnamed Nakul died in an acci-

dent while going to home fromDMRC cab.

“The conditions of DelhiMetro staffs are very poor dueto failed actions and pressuresof HR department,” said a staff.

Another staff in a seniorranking position pointed theabsence of CCTV cameras inthe stair case, basements andparking areas. “The parkingarea and the basement areagive a complete deserted lookthat a both male and femalestaff scares to go alone in theparking area. DMRC shouldtake methods to illuminatethe place and install camerasand increase the number ofsecurity guards for the safetyof staffs.”

�� &&��������� 794�%9)0;

An unidentified body ofman, suspected to be in his

30’s, was found near EastDelhi’s New Ashok Nagar areaon Thursday.

According to a seniorpolice official, a police controlroom (PCR) call was receivedat around 6:30 pm on Thursdayregarding the body lying nearthe New Ashok Nagar drainfollowing which a team wasdispatched for the spot.

“On spot, there were noinjuries mark found on thebody of the deceased.

There were no documents found which could identify the deceased,” said the senior policeofficial.

“Once the deceased is iden-tified, post mortem will be con-ducted which will ascertainthe cause of death,” said thesenior police official.

“Police teams have beenformed to scan the area wherebody was found and identifythe deceased. Further investi-gation is going on,” the seniorpolice official added.

�� &&��������� 794�%9)0;

After several gang wars werewitnessed in Outer Delhi

area, the Special Cell of DelhiPolice to curb these criminalactivities launched covert andovert operations which led tothe arrest of a 35-year-oldwanted gangster in nationalCapital. The accused who isalso a close associate of ‘NeerajBawana’ had a reward of Rs 1lakh declared by Delhi Policeon his arrest.

The accused has been iden-tified as Dushyant alias MonuBajitpur who is a native of vil-lage Bajitpur Thakran in Delhi.

According to PramodSingh Kushwaha, the DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Special Cell, on March,26, specific inputs werereceived that a notorious gang-ster Monu Bajitpur wanted inseveral heinous cases andinvolved in recent killing ingang wars in Outer Delhiwould visit Sector 16, Rohini,Delhi to meet his associateSonu in order to plan forkilling rival gang members.

“Following the tip off a trapwas laid and accused wasapprehended with a semi-auto-matic loaded .32 bore countrymade pistol is his possession,”

said the DCP. “During interrogation the

accused revealed that on direc-tion of Neeraj Bawana, he usedto give threat calls to builders,businessmen and bookies forextortion.

He was planning to elimi-nate Hitesh, Sanam, Rahul ofrival Ashok Pradhan Gang.For this he was arranging menand material,” said the DCP.

“Some of his associatesidentified as Sunil, Sukhwinderand Ravinder were recentlyarrested by the police afterthat he hide to evade his arrest.He is involved in nine criminalcases. Further investigation isunderway to trace the associ-ate of accused person andsource of weapon,” the DCPadded.

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Leader of Opposition (LoP)in Delhi Assembly, Vijender

Gupta said that Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal has turned"blind eye" to all serious cor-ruption and rampant irregu-larities against Chairman DelhiWaqf Board AmmantullahKhan.

Why AAP is giving sup-port to Khan's misdeeds, saidGupta referring handing overWaqf properties and 100 crorerupees to unauthorized personswithout following due processby Waqf chairman Khan anddemanded CBI inquiry from

Lieutenant Governor AnilBaijal.

Gupta alleged that Khanhas recently handed over WaqfProperties more than at least100 crore rupees to unautho-rised persons without followingdue process.

"Khan is guilty of unlaw-fully creating and filling up 36posts of different categories inDelhi Waqf Board to his relatives, friends andfavourites," said BJP leader,adding, "He is trying to unlaw-fully open bank accounts in thename of the Board to siphon-off huge sums for his personalgratification."

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The Election Commission(EC) on Thursday gave an

undertaking in the Delhi HighCourt that an advance noticewill be given to ArvindKejriwal before taking anyaction, including derecognitionof his Aam Aadmi Party, for hisalleged bribery remarks duringGoa Assembly election cam-paign in 2017.

Justice Yogesh Khannatook on record the statement bythe poll panel and disposed ofKejriwal's application seekingdirections to the EC not to takeany action against him or hisparty based on its January 21,2017 censure order.

In its January 2017 order,the EC had said that if he, infuture, repeated such remarks,it would take action againsthim and his party.

On Thursday, the EC'slawyer said a notice would besent in advance to the AamAadmi Party (AAP) convenorbefore taking any action againstthe party under para 16A of theElection Symbols (Reservationand Allotment) Order.

Under the Symbols order,the EC has the power to sus-pend or withdraw recognitionof a recognised political partyfor its failure to observe theModel Code of Conduct or fol-low lawful directions andinstructions of the poll panel.

The court made it clear theorder for advance notice wasapplicable to any action inconnection with the utterancesmade during the January 2017poll campaign in Goa and not

with regard toany remarksmade in future.

The pollpanel, during theproceedings, hastaken the standthat the ModelCode of Conductwas violated byKejriwal when hemade theremarks and

hence, an order of censure andlater a direction for lodging anFIR was issued against him inJanuary 2017.

Kejriwal, in his plea, hascontended that the EC's order

amounts to "curtailing" hisfreedom of speech and expres-sion guaranteed under theConstitution of India.

The application was movedin his main petition seekingquashing of the poll panel'sdecisions and which will beheard on April 26.

The poll panel had earlierorally told the high court thatonly a complaint caseagainstKejriwal was pending in a Goacourt for his alleged briberyremarks at election rallies in thestate on January 7-8, 2017 andno FIR was lodged as directedby the EC.

During a series of rallies inGoa on January 7-8, 2017,Kejriwal had asked voters to

"accept money from theCongress and BJP candidatesbut vote for the AAP".

The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) had filed two complaintsagainst the AAP supremo,seeking his prosecution undervarious sections of the IndianPenal Code (IPC) for askingvoters to accept money. TheCongress too had condemnedthe Delhi chief minister's state-ment.

The poll panel had, there-after, directed that a complaintbe lodged against Kejriwalunder the provisions of theRepresentation of the People Act dealing with brib-ing voters and the relevantsections of the IPC.

�� &&��������� 794�%9)0;�

Following the instruction ofChief Electoral Office

(CEO), Delhi, the civic author-ities have removed around 2.2lakh banners, posters andhoardings in their jurisdic-tion. The North DelhiMunicipal Corporation (NMC)has topped the list in such vio-lation while Delhi Cantonmentarea is at bottom.

According to data providedby CEO, officials of NMC

have removed 82132 hoardingsin different areas under itsjurisdiction while the figure is30533 in New Delhi MunicipalCouncil (NDMC) areas.Similarly, East Delhi MunicipalCorporation (EDMC) andDelhi Cantonment area hasremoved 41744 and 2411 ban-ners, posters and hoardingsrespectively.

"Till date, a total of 225693hoardings/banners/posters areremoved in all over Delhi," saidthe office of CEO.

The Modal code of con-duct for the Lok SabhaElections 2019 came into onMarch 10. The Lok Sabha elec-tions will start from April 11

and will be held in seven phases, followed by counting of votes on May 23. The elec-tions in Delhi will be held onMay 12.

According to the data,under violation of model codeof conduct, up to Thursday, atotal of 74 First InformationReports (FIR's) have beenlodged, out of which, nine isagainst Aam Aadmi Party, Sixagainst Bhartiya Janata Party,one against Congress Partyand Bahujan Samajwadi Party(BSP) and the remaining 57cases are against under thehead of others/non-politicalparties.

Further a total of 212 num-bers of unlicensed arms andweapons and a total number of2265 numbers ofcartridges/explosives/bombshave been seized. Whereas,3724 licensed arms have been deposited and 33552 per-sons have been booked undervarious sections ofCRPC/Delhi Police Act, as pre-ventive action measures, saidthe official.

Till date, 378 bottles, 67Half, 62467 quarters of IndianMade Foreign Liquor (IMFL)

and 475 bottles, 762 Half,13126 quarters of Countryliquor and 4861 bottles of beerhave been seized.

A total number of 483FIR's have been registeredunder the Excise Act and 477persons are arrested under theExcise Act.

Besides, this the 152 FIR'shave been registered underArms Act, in which 188 per-sons are arrested and 100.160Kg. Narcotics/Drugs have been seize. "As on date(28.03.2019), eleven cases arerecorded against the violationin other cases (misuse of vehi-cles, violation of loudspeakers,illegal meetings and gratifica-tion of electors, etc)," said theofficial.

The total voters in the National Capital are14049155 as on date. Out of thetotal voters, 7735753 are maleand a total number of 6312741are female and 661 third gen-ders.

Further number of firstvoters between the age group of18-19 are 1,97,000 and there area total 86,727 voters who hasjust attained the age of 18years.

�� &&��������� 794�%9)0;

In new digital age, politicalleaders have taken the assis-

tance of social media application"Twitter" to connect with votersas Delhi BJP unit presidentManoj Tiwari on Thursday hosta first #TwitterChaupal in Burarivillage.

Interestingly, through livetweeting, Delhi people raised1,700 questions pertainingnames of candidates, develop-ment issues.

Tiwari, Member ofParliament (MP) from NorthEast constituency said thepolicy of Sabka Saath, SabkaVikas is necessary to end thecaste politics in the country andthe Prime Minister NarenderModi is working on it.

"PM Modi is trying to giveequal opportunity to all for thetotal development of the coun-try. BJP is the Party which hastaken steps to end the evil ofcaste politics from society,"said Tiwari echoing SwachhBahart Mission campaign.

"Under Ujjwala Scheme 6.5crore Gas Connections havebeen provided to empower the

women and the works done byPrime Minister is being talkedabout at every Chaupal of thecountry," Tiwari conveyedachievements of Modi govern-ment through Twitter. As pol-lution has become perennialproblem in Delhi, some peoplealso questioned about pollutionrelated issues.

Replying them and hittingruling Aam Aadmi Party(AAP), the BJP leader said thatthere is such a negativeGovernment ruling Delhiwhich is not ready to admit itsmistakes.

"This Government has nowill power to take steps to con-trol pollution. EnvironmentCess of 9000 crore rupees hasbeen recovered from the peo-ple of Delhi but has not beenutilized," he said .

���� 794�%9)0;�

The Delhi Government maybe refusing to be part of the

Centre's Ayushman Bharathealth insurance programme— Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY) — but bigprivate hospitals in the nation-al Capital are gradually show-ing keenness to be part of theworld's largest healthcarescheme.

Sir Ganga Ram Hospital onThursday became the first 700-bed high capacity multi-spe-ciality health institution hos-pital from the national capitalto sign a pact with the NationalHealth Authority (NHA) underthe Union Health Ministry forempanelment in the AyushmanBharat scheme.

The agreement was signedby NHA CEO Dr InduBhushan and additional direc-tor (medical) of the hospital DrSatendra Katoch here.

"Sir Ganga Ram Hospitalhas become the first 700-bedhigh capacity multi-specialitytertiary care hospital fromDelhi to join Ayushman Bharat.Many more will follow soon,"Bhushan said.

He said this is the first big

hospital in Delhi to get empan-elled into the scheme after theNHA in September had invit-ed private hospitals in Delhithat are accredited with theNational Accreditation Boardof Hospitals (NABH) to getempanelled with the AB-

PMJAYIt provides healthcare ben-

efits worth Rs five lakh to eacheligible family per year in gov-ernment and empanelled pri-vate hospitals.

According to Dr D S Rana,Chairman (BOM), Sir GangaRam Hospital, "We deeplyvalue the ethos of AyushmanBharat - Prime Minister JanArogya Yojna . Our hospitalwill contribute towards thevision of Prime Minister toprovide health for all Indians."

NABH-accredited hospi-tals in Delhi include Max SuperSpeciality Hospital, Saket;Fortis, Shalimar Bagh; Fortis,Vasant Kunj, MoolchandHospital; Delhi Heart and LungInstitute; Pushpawati SinghaniaResearch Institute; RajivGandhi Cancer Institute; BatraHospital; Sitaram BhartiaInstitute; and Primus Super Speciality Hospital,among others.

�� &&��������� 794�%9)0;

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)leader and party candidate

from north-east Delhi DilipPandey on Thursday met a del-egation of teachers and stu-dents from Stanford Universityand discussed the upcomingLok Sabha elections and the cur-rent political scenario in thecountry. The 20-member dele-gation comprised of studentsand teachers of the Law depart-ment of the University. Theinteractive session was alsoattended by Durgesh Pathak,organisation building in-chargeof AAP and member of theparty's Political AffairsCommittee (PAC).

The discussions were heldon the upcoming general elec-tions, current scenario of thecountry, Delhi's governancemodel and AAP, a statementfrom the party said.

"Delhi is facing a ridiculoussituation; the powers of theelected Delhi government arelimited and have been curtailedby the Modi-led UnionGovernment. "We are fightingthese elections on the plank offull statehood to Delhi. OnceDelhi gets full statehood, mostof the problems Delhi faces due

to multiplicity of agencies wouldbe solved," Pandey told the del-egation.

The AAP had alreadyannounced to contest parlia-mentary election on the issue ofDelhi's 'full Statehood under theleadership of Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal.

Earlier on Wednesday, AAPconvener Gopal Rai had hit outboth the Congress and theBharatiya Janta Party, sayingthat the AAP will not allow theseparties to get away from the issueof full statehood easily. Pointingout the earlier remarks of Delhicongress president SheilaDikshit, he had said that Dikshitraised the issue of multipleagencies which created hurdlesin developmental works due tolack of coordination amongagencies. "It is shocking thatsomebody who has been a CMof Delhi is today saying thatstatehood for Delhi cannot be anissue for Lok Sabha elections," hesaid.

The delegation wanted toknow about the works of theDelhi Government. On a queryfrom the delegation, AAP leaderDurgesh Pathak explained howhis was different and has an edgeover its political rivals.

"We are a bunch of people

with good intention and we haveshown it through the DelhiModel of governance. We carefor the people. AAP is a freshbreeze of air in the politicallyvitiated atmosphere of the coun-try. "We are fighting againstdivisive forces that are out todamage the social fabric of thenation. We are here to stop themfrom ruining the country. I amconfident that they will bethwarted in their attempt," hetold the delegation.

Pandey also explained onthe campaign design of the partyand how important was thedoor to door campaign for theparty which has limitedresources to reach out to the peo-ple through main-stream media."Door to door campaign givesyou an upper edge over yourrival. They feel a personal con-nect with AAP. We reach out toeach and every household ofDelhi personally and that makesa different," he said. "BJP and itspresent leadership of Modi andShah don't have faith in consti-tution. They have ruined allinstitutions of the country. It isvery important to defeat them inorder to save the country at anycost. AAP will leave no stoneunturned in defeating the fascistforces," he said.

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Delhi International AirportLtd (DIAL) has been

adjudged as a global 4-StarAirport and ascribed as the bestAirport in India and CentralAsia in 2019 'Skytrax WorldAirport Awards', the officialsaid.

The award was conferredto Delhi Airport in an awardceremony organised by Skytraxin London on March27th 2019.The award was received byCEO of DIAL Videh KumarJaipuriar.

Speaking on the occasion,Jaipuriar said, "The collabora-tion of various agencies work-ing at the Airport has enabledit to achieve this unique feat. Inthe last one year, we haveundertaken series of initiativesincluding retail refresh at T1and T3, commencement of T2as full-fledged terminal, more

immigration counters and var-ious technological interven-tions,".

Edward Plaisted, CEO ofSkytrax said, "To receive thisglobal 4-Star Airport rating isa truly fabulous achievement.Customers look for comfort,convenience and consistency intheir airport experience and following the in-depthaudit of IGIA, we found thatthese items are being welldelivered and their standardsmeeting requirements for 4-

star rating."The Skytrax airport ratings

are based on a comprehensiveanalysis of over 500 productand service items across the air-port customer experience. Thecriteria include key items ofprocess efficiency, terminalcomfort and cleanliness, pas-senger facilities and staff ser-vice, stated a release issued byDAIL.

It said that the productassessment includes featuressuch as seating, power options,Wi-Fi, washrooms, food andbeverages and all front-linefacilities. Service ratings coverboth official staff as well asmore general airport staff.

The world airport star reat-ing program is a global quali-ty-evaluation-system for theAirport industry. It uses adirect and professional analy-sis of airport's product and ser-vice quality standards.

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With an aim to protect ele-phants, wildlife SOS

launched "Refuse to Ride" cam-paign with India's first highspeed train "Gatiman" expressthat ferries nearly 45,000tourists between Delhi andAgra each month.

The Golden Triangle ofAgra, Jaipur and Delhi forms apopular tourist route andWildlife SOS has taken on thetask of educating tourists aboutthe choice they must makebetween responsible tourismand one that promotes elephantabuse.

Promoting elephant pro-tection, the train also spread-ing the message -"Joyrides onelephants is elephant abuse."

Paula Simpson, anAmerican tourist on the trainsaid"I have been sensitizedtoday and will never ride anelephant again or promote ele-phant abuse even accidentally.I hopethis message will encour-age tourists like me to refrainfrom riding elephants. Thiswill bringa positive change inthe life of voiceless animals whosuffer for the entertainment ofhumans."

For many tourists travel-

ling to India, taking an elephantride tops their bucket-list ofmust-have experiences. Butmost peopleare not aware ofthe harsh reality behind howelephants are tamed and thehorrific abuse they mustendure to be "trained" for giv-ing rides.

Kartick Satyanarayan, Co-founder & CEO of WildlifeSOS, said"India is the laststrong hold for the AsianElephant and home to 50% ofthe world's Asian elephantpopulation. There is a need toprotect their population in thewild. If we reduce the demand

for elephants for joyrides andin temples, these animals willremain safe in the wild."

Baiju Raj, DirectorConservation Projects -Wildlife SOS said"The demandfrom tourists for animal enter-tainment is keeping thisgrotesque industry alive. If

tourists stop riding elephants, their abuse andexploitation will stop. As longas there are huge profits to bemade by exploiting animals, theabuse and exploitation of ele-phants in tourism and enter-tainment industry will per-sist."

Notably, India has only22000 to 25000 elephants left inthe wild. At this rate, we couldlose the entire wild elephantpopulation in the next 5 to 10years if steps are not taken toconserve and protect thisspecies.

"The heavy robes that maskthe scars from spiked chains,deep wounds from beatings,

puss filled abscess, lameness,rotting footpads preventtourists from seeing the truthof what the elephant suffers,"said Wildlife SoS official,adding,

"Oil or paint is smeared onwounds and scars to concealthe reality from innocenttourists. Intricately painteddesigns on the elephant act asclever distractions to keeptourists from discovering thedark truth behind elephant'joy' rides. Sadly, all this isdone by people who exploit ele-phants and fool tourists whoout of ignorance are misled topay big bucks to go on elephantrides."

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Amassive signature cam-paign to support the armed

forces was announced here onThursday.

The campaign will begin inthe first week of April called the'Armed Forces SupportMission', the campaign willcover 350 cities in the countryand aims to set a world recordby raising �50 crore for theforces from 5 crore signees, itsorganisers said.

A minimum amount of�10 is to be collected from eachsignee, which will be deposit-ed in the National DefenceFund, set up to take charge ofvoluntary donations in cashand kind received for promo-tion of the national defenceeffort, and to decide on theirutilisation with the prime min-ister being the chairperson ofits executive committee, theysaid.

The programme is a col-laborative effort by MK Sharma(an ex-banker), the AsianAcademy of Film andTelevision (AAFT), CreatesTrust, Mother India CrochetQueens, Election Awaaz,

Indian Skills DevelopmentCouncil, Global Organisationof People of Indian Origin,among others.

"We aim at making it tothe Guinness Book of Recordsby collecting �50 crore and fivecrore signatures," said SandeepMarwah, director of AAFTand founder of Noida FilmCity.

"The amount so collectedwill be deposited in theNational Defence Fund for thebenefit/welfare of IndianArmed Forces.

Each signee will be given acertificate and an officialreceipt of the amount collect-ed by us along with depositparticulars of the NationalDefense Fund.

The names of thesignee/donors will be pub-lished on the websiteafsm.Org.In," he added.

Marwah said even thoughthe government was doing itsbit to support the forces, it wastime the people make similarefforts.

JP Singh of Election Awaazsaid signatures could be madeon the ground as well as onlineon the dedicated website.

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A27-year-old man, who wasriding a motorcycle, was

killed allegedly after being hitby a cluster bus in East Delhi'sGhazipur area, police said onThursday. The deceased wasidentified as Arun Kumar, aresident of Ghazipur area, theysaid.

Kumar was taken to LalBahdur Shastri hospital wherehe was declared brought dead.The accident occurred near acrematorium in Ghazipuraround 4 pm on Tuesday, thepolice said.

Bus driver DevendraSingh, 53, was arrested thesame day, they said.

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Dehradun: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi on Thursdayblamed the previous Congress-led Governments for the“delay” in getting the Rafalemilitary aircraft, saying theparty sat on the deal as it waseyeing kickbacks.

Launching the BJP’s pollcampaign in Uttarakhand fromRudrapur, the Prime Ministersaid the Congress cared morefor “malai” (commission) thannational security. He pitchedthe BJP as the party that stoodfor the armed forces, saying theCongress Governments caredlittle for what they sought —modern weapons, bullet-proofjackets and the one rank, onepension scheme that his ownGovernment has implemented.

He said the deal for theFrench military aircraft wasmooted during the term of AtalBihari Vajpayee Governmentbut the following Congress-ledGovernments of delayed theacquisition. “They sat on it for

10 years because they were notgetting the “malai,” he chargedat the Rudrapur rally.

The Congress has criti-cised the new Rafale dealsigned by the Modi govern-ment, claiming it is costlier andthere is corruption involved.The Bharatiya Janata Party andthe government have repeat-edly rejected the charge.

Modi also referred to theAgustaWestland VVIP heli-copter deal signed by theCongress government, sayingalleged middleman ChristianMichel is now spilling thebeans in court.

The PM did not directlyrefer to the recent Congresspromise to implement anincome guarantee scheme forthe poorest 20 per cent of thepopulation. But he said theparty had given the ‘GaribiHatao’ (eliminate poverty) slo-gan generations back and hasnothing new to offer in theseelections. PTI

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The Election Commission ( EC) on Fridaywill decide whether Prime Minister

Narendra Modi’s address to the nation onIndia successfully testing an anti-satellitemissile is a violation of the model code ofconduct.

Addressing the media on Thursday,Deputy Election Commissioner SandeepSaxena said the decision will be announcedon Friday. “The poll panel is examining threeaspects of the matter -- MCC, law and media.The committee had written to Doordarshanand All India Radio seeking details of thesource of the video feed”, Saxena said.

“The committee of officers set up yes-terday (Wednesday) to examine the issue hashad two meetings -- one yesterday and onetoday. ( Thursday).. We are going into theentirety of the matter essentially to see ifthere was a violation of the MCC. It is beinginquired. We are quite hopeful that we

should be able to complete it very soon. Weare trying by tomorrow we should be ableto complete our inquiry,” he said. He addedDoordarshan and All India Radio have sub-mitted their replies and the panel is exam-ining them. To a question, the poll officersaid that the Prime Minister had neithersought permission, nor informed theElection Commission about his address.

The EC directed the team to ensure offi-cial machinery and the government officewere not misused to the advantage of the rul-ing party and also sought a report in thisregard. Although the EC’s permission was-n’t sought before the address was aired.

On Wednesday, EC officials had statedthat what is already under examination bythem are the precedents of such a nationaladdress by the Prime Minister shortlybefore the Lok Sabha polls and whether“national security” could be invoked by the ruling NDA for the urgencyof the address.

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Avisiting team of an AntiTerrorist Squad (ATS) from

Bihar — acting in collaborationwith its counterparts fromMaharashtra — on Thursdayarrested a terror suspect want-ed in connection with thePulwama terror attack, in Pune.

Identifying the terror sus-pect Shariya Anwar-ul-HaqMandal (19), said to be a resi-dent of Gajna, Bajipur inNadiya district of West Bengal,the Bihar ATS raided a hideoutat Khalumbre village Chakanlocated on the vicinity of Puneand arrested Mandal. Mandalwas “masquerading” as alabourer at Khalumbre village.

The visiting Bihar ATS teamproduced Mandal before a localcourt and obtained his transitcustody. Mandal was taken to

Bihar. Preliminary investiga-tions have revealed that Mandalhas links with two Bangladeshinationals, Khairul Mandal andAbu Sultan, both of whom theBihar ATS had arrested earlier.

Khairul and Sultan areallegedly the members of thebanned Bangladesh groups –Jamat-ul-Mujaheddin andIslamic State of Bangladesh.The name of Mandal, holed upin Pune, cropped up during theinterrogation of the arrested duoby the Bihar ATS personnel.

As many 44 CRPF person-nel were killed in the Pulwamaattack. The incident, which wasone of the deadliest terror attackswitnessed in J&K, saw a Jaish sui-cide bomber ram into a vehiclecarrying over 100 kg of explo-sives into their bus in Pulwamadistrict. Many people were crit-ically injured in the attack.

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In an unfortunate incident, an Indian Navy manon Thursday died during combat weapon firing

drills in the Arabian Sea.Twenty-one-year-old Mohan Raj, Seaman First

Class, of the Indian Navy serving onboard INSGomati, suffered grave injury, while carrying outcombat weapon firing drills at sea. However, thedetails of the incident were not immediately known.

The critically injured sailor was airlifted fromthe ship to the nearest naval hospital INHS Asvini,Mumbai by a Seaking helicopter. However, Raj suc-cumbed to his injuries.

Raj, who hailed from Katpudi in Tamil Nadu,is survived by his parents and two siblings.

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New Delhi: Sitting MP from PunjabHarinder Singh Khalsa, who was sus-pended from the AAP, and former RJDleader in Jharkhand Girinath Singhjoined the BJP on Thursday.

Fatehgarh Sahib MP Khalsa joinedthe BJP in the presence of Union Financeminister Arun Jaitley, while UnionDefence Minister Nirmala Sitharamanwelcomed Girinath into the party fold.

Girinath, who had been MLA inJharkhand, said it is ‘ghar wapsi’ (home-coming) for him as his father was amember of the ‘Jan Sangh’ — the BJP’spredecessor. Khalsa, who belongs to theSC community, had won the 2014 LokSabha polls on the Aam Aadmi Party’sticket from Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, but was suspended from theparty in 2015.

He started his political carrier withthe Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ally inPunjab. PTI

Washington: US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo onWednesday chided China’s“shameful hypocrisy” over itstreatment of Muslims in theCommunist nation while pro-tecting violent Islamic terror-ist groups from sanctions bythe United Nations.

Pompeo was apparentlyreferring to China blocking aproposal to designate Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed’schief Masood Azhar as a ‘glob-al terrorist’ at the UN SecurityCouncil earlier this month.

“The world cannot affordChina’s shameful hypocrisytoward Muslims. On one hand,China abuses more than a mil-lion Muslims at home, but onthe other it protects violentIslamic terrorist groups fromsanctions at the UN,” Pompeosaid in a tweet, without men-tioning the JeM or the outfit’schief.

France, along with Britainand France had moved a pro-posal in the 1267 al-QaedaSanctions Committee of theSecurity Council this month todesignate Azhar a “global ter-rorist” following the February14 Pulwama attack, but China,another veto wielding perma-nent member, blocked it.

China put a hold on theresolution arguing that it needsmore time to study it. Everymember of the UN SecurityCouncil, except China, hadsupported the proposal.

The JeM had claimedresponsibility for the Pulwamaattack in which 44 CRPF per-sonnel were killed.

Pompeo’s criticism ofChina came on a day when itemerged that the US, support-ed by France and the UK, hasdirectly moved a draft resolu-tion in the UN Security Councilto blacklist Azhar. PTI

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From Page 1“It will not be appropriate for us to

comment at this stage on a processwhich is entirely within the parametersof informal discussion of the Counciland its members,” a source said.

An annex to the draft resolutionsays Azhar is associated with theIslamic State terror group, al-Qaida for“participating in the financing, plan-ning, facilitating, preparing, or per-petrating” or “supplying, selling ortransferring arms and related mater-ial” or supporting acts of the JeM.

It says that Azhar founded JeMafter his release from prison in Indiain 1999 in exchange for 155 hostagesheld on an Indian Airlines flight thathad been hijacked to Kandahar,Afghanistan. It adds that Azhar waspreviously the leader of the terroristgroup Harakat al Mujahadin, alsoknown as Harakat ul-Ansar, and that

most of these groups’ members sub-sequently joined Jaish under Azhar’sleadership. In 2008, JeM recruitmentposters contained a call from Azharfor volunteers to join the fight inAfghanistan against Western forces.

The Sanctions Committee makesits decisions by consensus of its mem-bers. However, for a resolution in theSecurity Council to pass, it needs ninevotes in favour and no vetoes from anyof its five permanent members —China, Russia, the United States,France and the UK.

France, the UK and the US onFebruary 27 moved a proposal to des-ignate Azhar under the 1267 AlQaeda Sanctions Committee. It wasunder the no-objection period andCommittee members had a period of10 working days to raise any objec-tions to the proposal.

More than a dozen member Stateshad co-sponsored the proposal. Aboutan hour before the no-objection dead-line was to expire on March 13 at 3pm, China blocked the proposal byputting a hold on it.

The February proposal was the

fourth such bid at the UN in the last10 years to list Azhar as a global ter-rorist. In 2009, India moved a proposalby itself to designate Azhar. In 2016again India moved the proposal withthe P3 — the US, the UK and France— in the UN’s 1267 SanctionsCommittee to ban Azhar, also themastermind of the attack on the airbase in Pathankot in January, 2016.

In 2017, the P3 nations moved asimilar proposal again. However, onall occasions China, a veto-wieldingpermanent member of the SecurityCouncil, blocked the proposals frombeing adopted by the SanctionsCommittee.

A UNSC designation will subjectAzhar to an assets freeze, travel banand an arms embargo. An assetsfreeze under the Sanctions Committeerequires that all states freeze withoutdelay the funds and other financialassets or economic resources of des-ignated individuals and entities.

The travel ban entails preventingthe entry into or transit by all statesthrough their territories by designat-ed individuals.

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From Page 1To a question on the scheme being

prima facie populist, Gandhi said “it is nota populist measure as projected by some crit-ics”. “If giving out Rs 3.5 lakh crore to 15 peo-ple by Narendra Modi is not considered pop-ulist, why should this be as it is aimed at ben-efitting the poor,” he said.

“Is it only the crony capitalist friends ofMr Modi who are to benefit from govern-ment schemes? I’m only asking for fairness,for justice, or ‘nyay’ for India’s poor. There’snothing populist about that,” he countered.

Taking a swipe at Modi, who announcedthe demonetisation of high value currencynotes in a surprise move in November 2016,Rahul said, “We’re not rash. We don’t take stepslike demonetisation and GST without con-sultations, without conferring with the experts.We have vetted this, tested this, and fiscally‘Nyay’ as a scheme is completely doable.” TheCongress president did not give a time line onwhen the party planned to make India pover-ty free and said ‘Nyay’ will first be testedthrough a pilot to “smoothen out any flaws”.

“We’re not going to do it the way GSTwas done. We are first going to run a shortpilot project to smoothen out any flaws inthe implementation process and then roll itout nationwide. We’re also going to set downa robust way of identifying the beneficiaries,so that no deserving family is left out,” hesaid. Asked if the pilot will be run inCongress-ruled states, Rahul said expertswill decide on that.

“This is for the experts to decide. In the10 years of the Congress-UPA Government,we took 14 crore people out of poverty net.Our goal now is to finish the job,” he said.

Rahul added that 20 per cent to 22 percent families are living in poverty even today.Many of them have been pushed into thiscycle by the prime minister’s demonetisa-tion scheme and ‘Gabbar Singh Tax’ (GST),he noted. “Our goal is to completely elim-inate poverty from India,” he said, describ-ing ‘Nyay’ as the final assault on poverty.

���������555From Page 1

Modi, said the Opposition is “ner-vous” because of the bold decisions hisGovernment has taken in recent weeks.He referred to the strike by the IndianAir Force at terror camp in Pakistan’sBalakot in the aftermath of Pulwamaattack, in which 40 soldiers werekilled in a suicide bombing owned bythe Jaish-e-Mohammed. “Nation hasseen many Governments that gave slo-gans but it has for the first time seena Government that takes prompt deci-sions,” he said.

The Prime Minister said that thecountry’s 130 crore people had madeup their minds that the NDA wouldreturn to power. “... India has made upits mind who to vote for... For proof,see the large number of people attend-ing this rally,” he said amid loudapplause from the gathering. Callinghimself the nation’s “chowkidar’”, Modisaid, “It was this chowkidar’sGovernment that had the courage toconduct surgical strikes on land, skyand space. India should develop, Indiashould be secure from enemies.” Thecountry is, for the first time, witness-ing a Government that knows how todeliver, he said.

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From Page 1Congress is believed to

have succumbed to the pres-sure of RJD to vacateDarbhanga Lok Sabha seat cur-rently represented by KirtiAzad. RJD had lost the seat bya thin margin in 2014 and ispushing for the candidature ofits senior leader Abdul BariSiddiqui from Darbhanga.

Congress sources said thatin case of sorting out the lastminute hurdle Congress mayrequest subject to agreeing ofKirti Azad to field him eitherfrom Valmikinagar or WestChamparan in Bihar orDhanbad in Jharkhand.However, in Jharkhand RJDhas already given threat towalk out from the Oppositionalliance over being allottedonly one Lok Sabha seat.

There are also speculationthat Congress may field KirtiAzad from Delhi if the Cong-AAP alliance shapes up in thenational Capital.

Congress has focused onB r a h m i n - d o m i n a t e dMithilanchal and party work-ers are keen to have eitherDarbhanga or Madhubani intheir pocket. RJD, however,does not want to give up eitherof these two seats.

It is keen to keepDarbhanga for former MinisterAbdul Bari Siddiqui and hasoffered the other Mithilanchalseat of Madhubani to MukeshSahni’s Vikassheel Insaan Party(VIP). Here also RJD is insist-ing VIP to field rebel RJD

leader MAA Fatmi or formerMP Ali Anwar.

The Congress is alreadyupset at having to concede itstraditional Aurangabad seat toJitan Manjhi-foundedHindustani Awam Morcha(Secular). As of now, the seatsoffered to Congress areSasaram and Samastipur(reserved), Patna Sahib, Supaul,Valmiki Nagar and Munger.Three other Congress seats,which have already beenannounced are Purnea,Kishanganj and Katihar.

In the meantime, Congressreceived another shot in thearm with another BJP rebel MPShatrughan Sinha calling onthe Congress chief expressinginterest in joining the grand oldparty. He is likely to be pittedagainst BJP candidate UnionMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadfrom Patna Sahib that hasirked RJD which had thoughtSinha to field from the sameLok Sabha berth.

Under the seat-sharingarrangement in the GrandAlliance, the RJD will field can-didates on 20 seats, Congresson nine, Hindustani AwamMorcha (HAM) on three,Rashtriya Lok Samata Party(RLSP) on five, VikassheelInsan Party (VIP) on three andthe Communist Party of India(CPI) on one seat.

Reacting to the days’ devel-opment, Supaul MP RanjeetaRanjan said a strong messagemust be sent across thatCongress is not a pushover andclaimed to have urged the highcommand to take a decision forthe sake the party’s well beingin the State.

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From Page 1The BJP had won the New Delhi seat in 2014 com-

fortable with a margin of over 1.5 lakh. Lekhi had wonthe seat with 46.75 per cent vote share while Congressleader Ajay Makan managed to get 18.86 per cent of voteand AAP’s Ashish Khetan got 18.86 per cent votes.“Gambhir is strong contender, becoming obvious choicefor the party High Command particularly after Pulwama,but sealing and issue of unauthorised colonies in NewDelhi constituency is also other important issues wherethe selection committee has to give a thought,” said a BJPleader.

The competition is not just between the Congress andthe BJP, the AAP has evolved and gaining popularity inclusters and slum colonies,” said sources, adding, “AAP has always highlighted issues pertaining to waterand electricity in slums and may gain momentum againstCongress and BJP.”

In the Delhi Assembly, the New Delhi seat is repre-sented by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who rode on thevotes of the dominant service class people residing in theconstituency.

Further, he was also voted by the slum dwellers in theconstituency.

RK Puram, Malcha Marg, near Moti Bagh PilnajiVillage are urban villages where people reside in unau-thorised colonies and frequent visits of AAP represen-tatives may change the narrative.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said candidates forseven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi could be announced by first week of April. The filing of nomina-tions will begin on April 16.

In July 1974, he joined the Indian ForeignService (IFS) and worked as a Second

Secretary in Jakarta. Later, he served as aFirst Secretary in Bangkok and Norway.

In June 1984, while posted in Norway,he resigned in protest against the OperationBlue Star.

As the Congress Government filedsome cases against him, he decided to stayin Norway, running a small eating joint andworking as a postman in Norway. Hereturned to India in 1990, after beingassured that the cases against him wouldbe dropped.

During 1990-91, he served as theChairman of Punjab Human RightsOrganization, an NGO that highlighted theexcesses committed by the StateGovernment during the anti-insurgency

operations. During 1991-03, he served asa secretary of the Shiromani GurdwaraPrabhandak Committee (SGPC).

Harinder Singh joined Shiromani AkaliDal, and was elected as an MP fromBhatinda in 1996, winning by a margin of92,229 votes.

He was a member of the third NationalCommission for SC/ST under the AtalBihari Vajpayee Government. Aam Aadmi Party.

In 2014, Harinder Singh joined theAam Aadmi Party, and contested the 2014Lok Sabha elections from Fatehgarh Sahib.

He won by a margin of 54,144 votes. On29 August 2015, he was suspended from theAAP due to anti-party activities.

He has denied any involvement in anysuch activities.

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Bollywood actor VivekOberoi and producer of

film “PM Narendra Modi”,Sandeep Singh on Thursdaymet the Election Commission(EC) after complaints werefiled over the release of theupcoming movie “PrimeMinister Narendra Modi” thebiopic on the life of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andban of its trailer in light of theModel Code of Code (MCC)being in force ahead of the LokSabha election. The duo haddiscussions with the poll offi-cials on the release date of theModi’s biopic which is set torelease on April 5, merely aweek before the first phase ofLok Sabha elections on April 11.

Accompanied with hislawyer Hitesh Jain, actor VivekOberoi met officials of the ECand responded to all queriesraised by the Commission.Speaking to the media, Oberoi’slawyer, Hitesh Jain said thatthat they have filed a detailedresponse to the notice receivedfrom the EC. “We have sub-mitted that biopic PMNarendra Modi is not in vio-lation of Model Code ofConduct.”

When asked, whether themovie would be released as onits scheduled date, Oberai’slawyer said: “ We have alreadyannounced the release date.However we will wait andwatch”. The EC has earlier senta notice to four producers ofthe upcoming film ‘PMNarendra Modi”. EC had ear-lier sent notices to two news-papers on 20 March over pub-lishing ‘PM Narendra Modi’film’s poster for promotions.

Meanwhile, the DelhiChief Electoral Office sent a

notice to the makers of thebiopic after it felt that the filmwas allegedly violating theModel Code of Conduct. On20 March, East DelhiReturning Officer K Mahesh,suo motu, issued notices to theproduction house and musiccompany behind the film, andtwo leading newspapers forpublishing advertisements ofthe biopic.

Congress and the CPMhad complained to the com-mission about the film’s release,saying it’s being done withpolitical intent. SeniorCongress leaders includingKapil Sibal had held a meetingwith the Election Commissionon Monday demanding topostpone the release of the film“PM Narendra Modi” — the

biopic on PM Modi starringVivek Oberoi and produced bySandip Ssingh — alleging thatthe film violates the modelcode of conduct ahead of theLok Sabha 2019 elections.

Speaking to reporters afterthe meeting with the ElectionCommission officers in NewDelhi, senior Congress leaderKapil Sibal not only targetedthe BJP party, but also the mak-ers (Producer Sandip Ssingh)and actors (Vivek Oberoi) ofthe PM Modi biopic saying thatthe film is a “corrupt practice”and “launch of the film ismotivated” ahead of theGeneral Elections.

A delegation of the CPIand the CPI(M) on Tuesdaymet Election Commission offi-cials and demanded that releaseof the film based on the life ofPrime Minister Narendra Modibe deferred, claiming it to be a“propaganda material”.

CPI’s D Raja and CPI(M)Polit Bureau member NilotpalBasu met the poll panel officialson March 25 and also pointedout serious law and order sit-uations in Tripura and WestBengal.

The Model Code ofConduct came into effect fromMarch 10 across the State onthe day when the ElectionCommission announced thedates for elections which arescheduled to begin from April11, while the results are to beannounced on May 23.

Directed by OmungKumar, the biopic on India’sincumbent Prime Minister -Narendra Modi - features VivekOberoi and Boman Irani inpivotal roles. Prior, it wasexpected to release on April 12,but given the elections weredue to begin a day earlier, therelease was preponed to April 5.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyon Thursday said Article

35A, which restricts non-per-manent residents and thoseoutside the Jammu & Kashmirto buy property in the State ,was “surreptitiously” includedby a presidential notification inthe Constitution in 1954 and is“constitutionally vulnerable”.

The BJP leader who is alsochairman of party’s campaigncommittee said the article wasalso hampering economicdevelopment of the State.

The Jammu & Kashmir iscurrently under President’s ruleafter BJP pulled the plug on thecoalition Government in themilitancy infected border State.

In a blog, Jaitley said theseven-decade history of theState of Jammu & Kashmir

confronts changing India withseveral questions.

“Was the Nehruviancourse, which the State hadembarked, a historical blunderor was it the correct course tofollow? Most Indians todaybelieve that it is the former.

“Does our policy todayhave to be guided by that erro-neous vision or an out of boxthinking which is in conso-nance with ground reality?”Jaitley wondered .

The senior BJP leader andin-charge of the party’s cam-paign committee for generalelections said Article 35A was“surreptitiously” included by apresidential notification in theConstitution in 1954.

Article 35A, he said, wasneither a part of the originalConstitution framed by theConstituent Assembly, nor did

it come as a ConstitutionalAmendment under Article 368of the Constitution whichrequires an approval by two-

third majority of both Housesof Parliament. “It came as apresidential notification and isa surreptitious executive inser-

tion in the Constitution.” Jaitley further said the

Article gives the right to theState Government to discrim-

inate between two State citizensliving in the State on the basisof declaring some as perma-nent residents while leaving out

the others. It also discriminates

between permanent residentsof the State and all other Indiancitizens living elsewhere, headded.

“Lakhs of Indian citizens inJammu & Kashmir vote in LokSabha elections but not inAssembly, municipal orPanchayat polls. Their childrencannot get Government jobs.They cannot own propertyand their children cannot getadmitted to Governmentalinstitutions.

“The same applies to thosewho live elsewhere in the coun-try. The heirs of ladies marry-ing outside the state are disin-herited from owing or inherit-ing property,” the Ministeradded.

He said the State does nothave adequate financial

resources and its ability toraise more has been crippled byArticle 35A.

No investor is willing to setup an industry, hotel, privateeducational institutions or pri-vate hospitals since he can nei-ther buy land or property norcan his executives do so, hesaid.

“Article 35A, which is con-stitutionally vulnerable, is usedas a political shield by many butit hurt the common citizen ofthe State the most. It deniedthem a booming economy,economic activity and jobs,”Jaitley said.

The Minister added thatthe present Government hasdecided that the rule of law inthe interest of the people ofKashmir valley and the largerinterest of India must equallyapply to Jammu & Kashmir.

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The process of filing nomi-nations for the third phase

of Lok Sabha election involvingfive out of 40 seats scheduledon April 23 in 115 seats spreadacross 14 States. The ElectionCommission (EC) on Thursdayissued a notification for phasethree Lok Sabha polls.

All seats in Goa, Gujarat,Kerala, Dadra and NagarHaveli, Daman and Diu, andPuducherry will go for pollingin this phase. Uttar Pradesh,Bihar and West Bengal willhead for voting in all the sevenphases of the general elections.

According to the ElectionCommission, the parliamen-tary constituencies going topolls in the third phase inUttar Pradesh includeMoradabad, Rampur, Sambhal,Firozabad, Mainpuri, Etah,Badaun, Aonla, Bareilly andPilibhit.

Jhanjharpur, Supaul Araria, Madhepura Khagaria in Biharand Surguja (ST), Raigarh (ST)

Janjgir-Champa (SC), Korba,Bilaspur, Durg and Raipur inChhattisgarh will head for vot-ing in the third phase.

The Anantnag seat inJammu & Kashmir will also gofor polls in this phase. Whilethe nominations begin onThursday, the last date for fil-ing of filing papers is April 4and scrutiny of nominationswill be held on April 5. The lastdate for withdrawal of candi-dature is April 8, the notifica-tion said.

The election will pit theBJP-led National DemocraticAlliance against mostly differ-ent Opposition groupings invarious States, including ofCongress, the Left and region-al forces who are continuing towork out a grand alliance tominimise a division of votesagainst the saffron party.

The BJP has worked out aseat-sharing formula with somenew allies and several old part-ners. However, the Oppositionparties are yet to do so in sev-eral States.

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At least 83 per cent of 521sitting MPs are “crorepatis”

and 33 per cent of them havecriminal cases against them.The Association forDemocratic Reforms (ADR),has compiled the report afteranalysing self-sworn affidavitsof the 521 MPs out of 543members elected to the LokSabha in the 2014 elections.“Out of the 521 Sitting MPsanalysed, 430 (83 pc) are

crorepatis. While 227 of themare from BJP, 37 are fromCongress, 29 from AIADMK,among others,” the report said.The average assets per sittingMP for Lok Sabha 2014 elec-tions are �14.72 crore.

While 32 sitting MPs havedeclared more than �50 croreworth of assets, only two sittingMPs have declared assets lessthan worth �5 lakh. At least 33per cent sitting MPs havedeclared criminal cases againstthem in the affidavits.

“While 106 of them havedeclared serious criminal casesincluding cases related to mur-der, attempt to murder, com-munal disharmony, kidnap-

ping and crimes againstwomen, 10 sitting MPs havedeclared cases related to mur-der. Out of these, 4 sitting MPsare from BJP, 1 MP from INC,NCP, LJP, RJD, SwabhimaniPaksha each and one MP is anIndependent,” the report said.

“14 sitting MPs havedeclared cases of attempt tomurder. Out of these, eight sit-ting MPs are from BJP and oneMP each from INC, AITC,NCP, RJD, Shiv Sena andSwabhimani Paksha. 14 sit-ting MPs declared cases relat-ed to causing communaldisharmony. Out of them, 10sitting MPs are from BJP and1 MP from TRS, PMK, All

India Majlis-E-IttehadulMuslimeen and AIUDF each,”it added.

In another report on per-formances of the MPs, theADR said that seven MPs fromDelhi had the highest averageattendance and on an average,they attended 289 out of the312 sittings. On an average,MPs asked 251 questions andattended 221 out of the 312 sit-tings. Two MPs from Nagalandattended 88 sittings on an aver-age, the lowest in the last fiveyears. Among political par-ties, the maximum number ofquestions were asked by 18 ShivSena MPs, each of them on anaverage asking 639 questions.

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ACentral Health Ministryprobe panel set up to audit

the country’s top Sports InjuryCentre at Safdarjung Hospitalin Delhi has found huge irreg-ularities in its functioning —ranging from violation in pro-curement of equipments andfacilities, financial mis-man-agement to serious discrepan-cies in appointments of health-care professionals.

The panel after submittingan interim report to the UnionHealth Ministry on October2018 which said that “availablerecords and evidence, prima-facie, indicate collusion of SICwith some suppliers thereby

causing loss to the patients andpublic exchequer,” has recent-ly submitted yet another exten-sive 62 pages report in the mat-ter.

The Ministry in Septemberlast year had set up a seven-member panel, headed by JointSecretary Rajeev Manjhi, totake up the special audit ofSIC’s functioning in variousareas ranging from equipmentsand facilities for operation the-atres to their procurement andmaintenance.

Both the reports have rec-ommended a detailed probeinto the matter in view of “bla-tant violation of CVCs instruc-tions and has sought immedi-ate action against those respon-

sible for irregularities”. Thematter is now under the scan-ner of Union Health MinisterJP Nadda. When contacted,Union Health Secretary PreetiSudan said appropriate actionwill be taken in the matter.

The huge gross irregulari-ties have also pointed needle ofsuspicion towards the thendirector of the SIC, Dr DeepakChaudhary.

Intriguingly, the Ministryin December 2018 had issueda notice to Dr Chaudhary toofor “taking up a commercialassignment with a private hos-pital without prior permissionfrom the Government”. Sourcessaid that pending reply, theMinistry has put on hold his

request for voluntary retire-ment from Dr RML Hospitalwhich he had joined after serv-ing several years in the SIC. Theprobe panel in its interimreport said “On scrutiny of thefiles pertaining to procure-ment of equipments and facil-ities for operation theatre andphysiotherapy units of the SIC,it has been observed that thereare blatant violations of gener-al financial rules (GFRs) andthe procedures adopted arerepugnant to CVC instruc-tions.

“With regard to usefulnessand usability of the equipmentwith almost similar functionshave been proposed to be pro-cured twice by furnishing a cer-

tificate that the said equipmentsare being procured not asreplacement or additional butas a first-time procurement.Frequent purchases have beenresorted to for certain equip-ments such as arthroscope 30and 70 degrees, and camera etc.

“It is surprising that theseequipments have been con-demned even during the man-ufacturers’ warranty period.…many equipments are not inworking conditions. There isno clarity with regard toCAMC/AMC….. It has alsobeen observed that Director,SIC indented some expensiveequipments for procurementprojecting quite high usability,whereas the same are being uti-

lized much below the project-ed usability of the equipment ieeven less than 10 per cent, thussuggesting infructuous expen-diture for extraneous consid-erations,” further said thereport.

The panel has also sus-pected nexus between SIC,SFH and M/S MahajanImaging, a private diagnosticplayer. “The centre (SIC) maderecommendations by conceal-ing some vital informationwhich resulted in extendingfavour to M/Mahajan Imagingby relaxing the terms of agree-ment and to neutralize sub-stantial amount of penaltyaccruing to the Government,which could have been

imposed because of violation ofthe terms of the contract andthe decision in this regard hasbeen taken at the level ofDirector (SIC) and MSSafdarjung Hospital. Besidesthere is no system in place tomonitor the free cases asagreed…” notes the report.

Also, “….. there is no ratio-nalized purchase procedurefollowed by procurement ofimplants in SIC. Documentsmade available to the panel evi-dently indicate of a nexusbetween SIC and a particularsupplier who has been supply-ing almost 90 per cent ofimplants at exorbitant rates.

“The records suggests thatthe provisions of the GFRs have

been twisted …while a closescrutiny of the operation the-atre records reveal that dispro-portionately large number ofsurgeries were performed byusing implants of certain makes(Depuy and Arthrex).

The final 62 pages reporttoo has recommended furtherdetailed investigation in view of“blatant violations ofGFRs/CVCs instructions” andlarge scale irregularities.

“The Indenting officer(HOD) may be made person-ally accountable for submittingfalse indents,” said the reporteven as it has sought annualaudit of the high-value equip-ments and devices among others.

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Two years after giving nodto the conversion of the

Akola-Khandawa railway line,passing through the heart ofMaharashtra’s Melghat TigerReserve, from metre gauge tobroad gauge, the StandingCommittee of the NationalBoard of Wildlife (NBWL)has recently asked the railwaysto look for alternate route.

The move follows afterthe National TigerConservation Authority(NTCA) as well as theDehradun based WildlifeInstitute of India (WII) in ameeting in February 2019 ofthe high-lavel wildlife panelheaded by Union EnvironmentMinister dr Harsh Vardhanwhich is responsible for fram-ing India’s policy and strategyfor wildlife conservation,opposed the proposal.

They asserted that theupgradation of the track willfragment the tiger habitat giventhat of the 35 km long railwaylines which falls inside theTiger Reserve and proposed tobe upgraded, 18 km passthrough the core area, thushaving serious impact on therich flora and fauna of theregion.

The NTCA recommendedthat the only feasible mitiga-tion is ‘avoidance’ of the broad-ening of gauge through the

area of tiger reserve andoptions for the alternateroutes/alignments bypassingthe tiger reserve should betaken up by the railway author-ities.

As per the minutes of theStanding Committee of theNBWL, NTCA MemberSecretary Anup Nayak point-ed out that “alternate align-ment surveyed by the railwayswhich bypasses the tigerreserve can facilitate greatereconomic development of theregion by connecting the near-by 29 villages and large popu-lation living in the area.

“After discussions, theStanding Committee recom-mended to return the propos-al to the MaharashtraGovernment with request toreview the proposal in thelight of the recommendationsof the NTCA and WII,” saidthe minutes of the meeting.

The members also noted thattwo applications were filedbefore the Central EmpoweredCommittee against theapproval of the upgradation ofthe track.

Spread over an area of1,673 sq km, the Melghat TigerReserve, which is home toabout 50 tigers is connectednorthwards to Satpuda forests.

In 2017, the Standing com-mittee of the NBWL hadapproved the proposal subjectto the mitigation measuresrecommended by the NTCAand WII.

However, wildlife activistshad slammed the move withsome of them even approach-ing the Supreme Court ledCentrally Empowered com-mittee (CEC) against the rail-way plan arguing that it shouldbe shot down as it will endan-ger the tigers besides otherwildlife in the region.

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Lok Sabha MP ShatrughanSinha on Thursday ended

speculation over his joining theCongress after meeting partypresident Rahul Gandhi andboth sides announced that theBJP rebel will induct himself inCongress next week. Sourcessaid that the joining which wasto happen on Thursday itselfhad to be delayed due to revivalof the tension within the RJDand Congress in the Biharmahagathbandhan.

After meeting RahulGandhi, Sinha announced hewill join the Congress. “Joiningwill happen soon, we will giveyou a positive news duringNavaratri. I will join Congressnow,” Sinha said talking tomedia later. AICC incharge ofBihar Shaktisinh Gohil tweet-ed that Sinha will join theparty on April 6.

Sources said that Sinha’sjoining was marred by theimmediate friction betweenthe two major grand alliancepartners while RJD complain-ing that Sinha could have beeneven RJD’s bet. Sinha, Congressand RJD finally decided toabort the move to join and buypeace for sometime.

“RJD was said to be keenon having Sinha as its candidatefrom Patna Sahib constituency.Sinha and RJD supremo LaluPrasad share a cordial relation.But the Congress has alwayscontested the Patna Sahib seatwhenever it allied with theRJD in Bihar.

So, the party wanted tofield Sinha on its own symbol.This tug-of-war had apparent-ly caused the delay in decisionof Sinha joining the grand oldparty,” said a senior Congressleader.

Sinha is a two-time sittingBJP MP from Patna Lok Sabha

seat and has been critical of theNarendra Modi Governmentfor past couple of years. He hasbeen sidelined in the BJP,which replaced him withUnion Minister Ravi ShankarPrasad as the Lok Sabha can-didate from Patna Sahib con-stituency.

On Wednesday, BiharCongress election campaigncommittee chairman AkhileshPrasad Singh had said that

Shatrughan Sinha would jointhe party “in New Delhi onMarch 28 at 11.30 am”. Singhhad also announced that Sinhawill be the Congress candidatefrom Patna Sahib.

On his part, Sinha praisedRahul Gandhi after hepromised to implement a min-imum income guaranteescheme if the Congress is votedto power in the Lok Sabhapolls.

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New Delhi: The Supreme Courton Thursday said it would hearon April 8 a batch of petitionschallenging the Centre’s decisionto grant 10 per cent reservationin jobs as well as admissions toeducational institutions to eco-nomically weaker sectionsacross all classes.

A Bench comprisingJustices SA Bobde and SANazeer said it would also dealwith the contentions raised bysome of the petitioners whohave said that the matter wasrequired to be adjudicatedupon by a Constitution Bench.

At the outset, SolicitorGeneral Tushar Mehta, appear-ing for the Centre, sought anadjournment saying he andAttorney General KKVenugopal were appearing in amatter on Thursday before aConstitution Bench headed byChief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.

“I am on my legs before theConstitution Bench. Pleaseaccommodate me,” he told theBench.

Senior advocate RajeevDhavan, appearing for one ofthe petitioners, referred to theapex court’s last order passed inthe matter on March 11 andsaid the issue of whether thesepleas should be referred to aConstitution Bench should beconsidered. PTI

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Rae Bareli: Congress generalsecretary Priyanka Gandhi onThursday said she has beengiven the key task of strength-ening her party in the UttarPradesh — even beyond theLok Sabha elections — andensure it comes back to powerin the 2022 Assembly polls.

Hitting out at the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP), Priyanka,who is the Congress’ easternUttar Pradesh in charge, alsosaid her party which fought forfreedom does not need a “cer-tificate of patriotism” fromthose who sought to apologise

to the then British rulers.Addressing block presidents,

booth workers and the membersof gram panchayat and zila pan-chayat of the party in Rae Bareli,the constituency of her motherand UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi, she said: “I have beengiven the task to strengthen theparty in the state. And I willensure that the party comes topower in the State in 2022.

“And once the Governmentis formed in Uttar Pradesh, Ican ensure that we are not

going to be defeated for next10-15 years on the basis of thedevelopment works.”

Priyanka Gandhi hadmade the same point at herprogramme near Gauriganj inAmethi — the constituency ofher brother and CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi — onWednesday night.

“Are you preparing for theelections? I am not talkingabout 2019, but 2022,” sheasked the workers, indicatingthe reason for her appointment

in the party’s long-term strat-egy in the State.

“And we do not need cer-tificate of nationalism fromanyone who never participat-ed in the freedom struggleand who wrote letter to theBritishers seeking apology,” shesaid. IANS

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Bolstering Bharatiya JanataParty’s (BJP) election cam-

paign on two Lok Sabha seatsfrom Jammu region, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi onThursday launched a ‘blister-ing’ attack on three rival polit-ical parties — the Congress, theNational Conference (NC) andthe Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and held them respon-sible for the current situation inJammu & Kashmir.

Prime Minister accusedthe Congress and its policymakers for not according toppriority to the issues ofNational Security and striking‘discordant’ notes against thewishes of the countrymen at acrucial juncture.

He also pointed fingerstowards the Congress partyfor taking support of twoKashmir-based regional partiesfor its own survival in the

electoral fray in Jammu ignor-ing the statements and standtaken by the leaders of theseparties in Kashmir valley .

The Congress had earlierfielded joint candidates, fromJammu-Poonch andUdhampur-Doda Lok Sabhaseat, after stitching a tacticalalliance with the NC to defeatthe BJP. The PDP has alsoextended support to the twoCongress candidates in Jammuprovince.

Before kick-starting hiselection campaign, PrimeMinister Modi rememberedparty stalwart Prem NathDogra and saluted members ofthe Dogra community. He alsogreeted them in chaste ‘Dogri’language amid thunderingapplause.

“I am happy that when Ihave set out to reach out to thepeople of this country ahead ofthe Lok Sabha polls, I came toJammu first”, Modi said.

Addressing a mammoth

election rally in the border beltof Akhnoor Prime Ministersaid, “Congress, NC & PDP areresponsible for the problemsJammu & Kashmir faces today.It is because of them thatKashmiri Pandits faced so muchtrouble. Terrorism took roots inthe State. Sadly, national secu-rity is not a priority for them,they only care about powerand their dynastic politics”.

He said “leaders of thesethree political parties in thestate are losing their sleep fol-lowing complete crackdownby the security agencies on ter-rorist organisations and theirsympathisers in the State.

Referring to Balakotestrikes on terror factories activein Pakistan, Modi said, “eversince India demonstrated itscapacity to destroy terror infra-structure deep inside Pakistanone after the other senior con-gress leaders are speakingagainst the national interest andgiving clean chits to terrorists

and Pakistan”.He said even those parties

who ruled the State of Jammu& Kashmir for many years aredoing the same. Commentingon the language of opposition,Modi said that Pakistanapplauds such voice.

“The whole country is talk-ing in one voice and theseCongress people are talking ina different voice. Do you acceptthis language of Congress? OfPDP? of NC? Pakistan applaudstheir language,” said Modi.

Further escalating its sharpattack on the Opposition, Modisaid, “What is beyond compre-hension is Congress’ attitude. Isit the same Congress that SardarPatel was a part of? Is it thesame Congress that NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose was apart of, and fought for India’sindependence,” Modi asked.

Modi said, if you monitorsocial media and TV channelsin Pakistan, terrorists and theirhandlers are all praying to getrid of ‘Chowkidar’ and victoryof ‘mahamilavati alliace’ in LokSabha polls. In his 35 minutespeech Prime Minister also pre-sented a comprehensive reportcard of his government beforethe electorate and sought anoth-er term to carry forward thejourney on road to prosperity.

Lucknow: With electioneeringfor the 2019 Lok Sabha pollsgaining steam in Uttar Pradesh,political leaders are increasing-ly resorting to personal attackson their adversaries. If the mav-erick BJP MLA from Bairia,Surendra Singh hit the headlinesfor his remarks against BSPsupremo Mayawati, UttarPradesh Cabinet MinisterShrikant Sharma hit a new lowby making indecent commentson Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

The Bairia MLA had saidMayawati gets facials done andher hair coloured even thoughshe is 60-years-old. He alsoreportedly made offensiveremarks against UPA chair-

person Sonia Gandhi andHaryanvi singer-dancer SapnaChaudhary, evoking wide-spread criticism from politicalparties and social media users.

A media agency quoted himas saying that both Sonia Gandhiand Sapna Chaudhary used towork as dancers. “Rahul’s moth-er (Sonia Gandhi) was also in thesame profession in Italy and hisfather made her his own. He(Rahul Gandhi) should also takethe family tradition forward andmake Sapna his own,” the MLAsaid. The BJP legislator, who isknown for his controversial

statements, had earlier termedRahul and his sister Priyanka“Ravana and Shurpanakha”, andaccused Mayawati of “murder-ing” a woman’s dignity by join-

ing hands with one-time archrival SP. UP Power MinisterShrikant Sharma stirred up ahornet’s nest with his tweetterming the Congress president

a “coward and impotent”.The comments triggered a

war of words between the twoparties as well as on socialmedia platform. PTI

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In an apparent bid to hit theBJP where it hurts the most

Mamata Banerjee onWednesday questioned the saf-fron outfit’s failure to keep itspromises particularly the oneon Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

Mounting a blisteringattack on the BJP for dividingIndia in the name of religionand in the name of Lord Rambut failing to proceed a singlestep towards constructing theRam Temple in Ayodhya theBengal Chief Minister onWednesday said “when theelection comes you (BJP) goabout selling Ram’s name forvotes. But after the electionsyou forget your promises.”

Comparing her achieve-ments in restoring places ofworships to their lost gloriesBanerjee said “Despite makingtall promises before the electionsyou (BJP) have failed to constructa Ram Temple in five years buthere. I have renovated a whole lotof places of worship — provid-ing added facilities in —Dakshineshwar, Belur Math,Tara Peeth Furfura Sharief.”

Taking an apparent dig atPrime Minister Narendra Modithe Chief Minister said “thecondition of Ganga in Varanasi— from where Modi was elect-ed — remains the same as itwas five years ago but go toGanga Sagar and you will seehow we have made it a livingparadise.” The Chief Ministerwas attending a Holi Milangathering attended by people of

all communities. Citing howthe people of Bihar, UP,Rajasthan, Gujarat and otherplaces feel “more than at homein Bengal,” she said the situa-tion in those places were notthe same.

“You will not find lynchingin Bengal like it happens inother places,” she said attackingthe BJP leaders for accusing ofstopping Durga Puja celebra-

tions in her State. “Can thesepeople say anything about thereal symbolism behind Durgaor Kali or do they rememberthe mantras (of the MotherGoddess)? I am sure they don’t.But I do though I do not sellabout my religion.”

Banerjee who once againassured the nation that GSTwill be reviewed and demon-etisation will be investigatedsaid how the BJP was drivinga wedge in the Indian societyby setting one communityagainst the other and how theyare dividing India to rule thecountry.

“We will not divide thecountry but we will reviewGST, probe demonetisation”and double MNREGA days toensure increased employment,Banerjee said.

The Chief Minister whohad earlier disapproved of thePrime Minister’s announcementof India’s path-breaking progressin the anti-satellite warfareinstead of the DRDO chief said,“the BJP is adopting all kinds ofmean ways to gain votes.”

She had earlier attackedFinance Minister Arun Jaitleywho accused her of demeaningIndia’s Defence programmes.“Jaitley ji is an educated man,a good looking man but howcan he say like that? He saidthat I am criticising India’snuclear and other programmes.Why should I do so? I onlyobjected to the announcementmade by the Prime Minister.This should have been done bythe DRDO chief,” she said.

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Amethi: Congress generalsecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra wriggled herself out ofher party workers demand toget herself weighed in ‘lad-doos’, making the local leaderwho had planned the eventto sit on the scales instead.After day-long meetings withpartymen in her brotherRahul Gandhi’sParliamentary constituencyon Wednesday, PriyankaGandhi arrived at the resi-dence of local leader FatehBahadur around midnight,where the host had theweighing scales ready.

She, however, turneddown the request by herparty workers to sit on themagainst ‘laddoos’ and insteadgot the host to sit on them,much to the amusement ofonlookers.

She also got a promisefrom the partymen to workharder not just for theupcoming Lok Sabha elec-tions but also for the 2022Assembly polls in UttarPradesh. PTI

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Bihar BJP presidentNityanand Rai was on

Thursday mobbed and heckledby supporters of a party rebel,who has filed his nominationas an Independent candidatefrom Katihar Lok Sabha con-stituency notwithstanding theseat going to alliance partnerJD(U) headed by ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar.

Rai called on BJP MLCAshok Kumar Agarwal at hisresidence and spent over twohours trying to persuade himto withdraw his nomination infavor of the JD(U) candidateDulal Chandra Goswami, who would seek to wrest theseat for NDA from TariqAnwar of the Congress.

The BJP had won the seatthree times on the trot in 1999,2004 and 2009 with support ofthe JD(U). In 2014, whenNitish Kumar went it alone, thethree-time BJP MP NikhilKumar Choudhary finishedthe runner-up while Anwarthen with Sharad Pawars NCPand a several-term MP fromKatihar, won after a gap ofmore than a decade.

The JD(U)s Ram PrakashMahto had finished third withjust over one lakh votes, waybehind the BJP candidate, whopolled nearly 3.16 lakhs.However, the seat went to theJD(U) this time after the par-tys return to the NDA as thealliance had to make manyadjustments to accommodatethe Chief Ministers party.

However, when Raiemerged from Agarwals househere, he found himself sur-rounded by hundreds of theMLCs supporters who hadkept shouting slogans outsideduring the period the state unitchief remained inside.

As Rai tried to get insidehis vehicle, he had to jostle withthe agitators who were quelled

by the police before he coulddepart. Later, Agarwal made hisintentions clear when he defi-antly said roothne manaane kadaur khatm hua (the time forsulking and cajoling is over).Besides Katihar, the BJP is alsofaced with the embarrassmentof rebellion by its leader inanother constituency Bankawhere former MP PutulKumari has filed her nomina-tion as an Independent.

On Wednesday, State vice-president and in-charge of partyheadquarters Davesh Kumarhad shot off missives to therebel candidates to withdrawtheir nominations and warnedthem of disciplinary action.

Putul Kumari had madeher electoral debut in 2010 asan Independent candidate andwon in the bypoll that wasnecessitated by the death of herhusband Digvijay Singh, whohad served as a minister in gov-ernments headed by VP Singhand Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Singh had pulled off astunning victory in the 2009Lok Sabha polls when the for-mer JD(U) leader won the seatfighting as an Independentafter falling out with NitishKumar even though the elec-tions were swept by the NDAwhich bagged 32 out of 40 seatsin the State.

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Thiruvananthapuram: BJPKerala unit chief PS SreedharanPillai on Thursday said theparty will raise the Sabarimalaissue over women’s entry andthe alleged harassment sufferedby the Lord Ayyappa devoteesduring the campaign in theupcoming Lok Sabha polls.

If the law permits theCentre to intervene in the mat-ter, the BJP would take all pos-sible steps to bring a new leg-islation to protect the temple’scustoms and traditions, theleader said in a statement here.

“Each BJP candidate hasthe right to raise the issue ofassault on Lord Ayyappa devo-tees in Sabarimala and theattempts to destroy their faithduring the campaign in apeaceful manner,” he said.Pillai’s statement came hoursafter his reported remarks thatthe BJP will not use Sabarimalaas campaign issue in the LSpolls triggered a controversy.

A section of the mediareported that his statementwas contradictory to the standtaken by K Surendran, theBJP-NDA’s candidate inPathanamthitta (where theSabarimala temple is located),who had made it clear that theSabarimala row would be oneof the major campaign issues.

“I have never said any-where that Sabarimala issuewould not be raised during ourelection campaigns. The NDAcandidate in Pathanamthittaand the party cadre there haveevery right to raise the issue dur-ing campaigns in accordancewith the law,” he said. PTI

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Lucknow: Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadavdirected party workers not to make indecent com-ments against women after the NationalCommission for Women pulled up a party leaderfor allegedly making sexist remarks against actor-turned-politician Jaya Prada. SP Sambhal district

president Firoz Khan had allegedly said Jaya Pradawould “enthral the people of Rampur with herghungaroos and thumkas”. In a short video clip,Khan is heard saying “Rampur ki shaameinrangeen ho jaayengi ab jab chunavi mahual chale-ga (Rampur’s evenings will turn colourful this elec-tion season)”, seemingly referring to Jaya Prada,who recently joined the BJP. PTI

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Aday after Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee

questioned propriety of appoint-ing a Special Police Observer forBengal who had earlier been seenattending an RSS programme inuniform, the ElectionCommission of India onWednesday replaced the seniorIPS officer with a new one.

Though the ECI would notprovide reasons it removed for-mer Director General of BSF KKSharma as the Special PoliceObserver for Bengal. VivekDubey 1981 batch IPS officer willsupervise the Lok Sabha electionin the State in place of Sharma,Additional Chief ElectoralOfficer Sanjay Basu said.

He quoted “specific orders”from the ECI but said no spe-

cific reason had been offered forthe new move. Banerjee had onWednesday cited photographsshowing how in 2018 Sharmahad joined an RSS-sponsoredprogramme in police uniform.

Apart from policeobservers the ECI has alsoappointed 44 expenditureobservers to monitor thespending of various politicalparties, sources said.

Meanwhile, the KolkataPolice on Thursday recoveredRs 35 lakh from a person atBrabourne Road in NorthKolkata. Identified as PKSharma from Odisha theaccused was taken into custody.The Thursday’s recovery takesthe total recovery of unex-plained cash to about 11 coreinthe past two weeks: highest everin Bengal, sources said.

Kaliabor/Teok: BJP chief AmitShah on Thursday accused theprevious Congress Governmentin Assam of settling illegalimmigrants in the State, as heapplauded the Narendra ModiGovernment for securing thecountry’s frontiers and aveng-ing Indian soldiers killed byPakistan-backed terror groups.

Addressing election ralliesin the state, Shah asserted, letalone infiltrators “not even abird” will be allowed to enterAssam illegally if the BJP secures

a second term at the Centre.He said only Prime

Minister Narendra Modi andthe BJP can ensure security ofthe country and not theCongress or its president RahulGandhi. “In his five years inoffice, Modi brought in a lot ofdevelopment. But most of all heensured the security of thecountry and its borders. Underhis leadership, India avengedthe blood of our soldiers killedin Uri and Pulwama attacks byPakistan-based terror ele-ments,” Shah told election ral-lies in Kaliabor and Teok.

The BJP president claimedthe way the world viewed Indiaunderwent a drastic changeunder Modi. Shah insisted thatIndia under Modi was only thethird nation after the US andIsrael to take swift revenge forthe spilling of their soldiers’blood by enemies. He criti-cised the Congress party fordemanding proof of the damagecaused by the Indian Air Force’sBalakot air strike inside Pakistanin the wake of the killing of 44CRPF personnel in Pulwama.

“Should we avenge our fall-en soldiers or not? The Congressparty cannot protect the coun-try’s borders. If we want to pro-tect India’s borders, then onlyNarendra Modi and BJP can dothat,” Shah said. PTI

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Having decided to fight allthe 48 Lok Sabha polls in

Maharashtra as a third front,the Bahujan Samaj Party andthe Samajwadi Party will con-test 44 seats and four seatsrespectively in the State.

Thirteen days ahead of thefirst phase of the four-phasedpolls in the state, the BSP andSP on Thursday announced theseat-sharing pact betweenthem. Under the pact, theSamajwadi Party will contestMumbai north-west, Dhule,Nanded and Beed seats.

Of the 44 seats that it iscontesting in the State, theBSP will release its first list of19 seats.

The seats for which theBSP it has named candidatesinclude: Bhandara-Gondia,Chandrapur, Ramtek, Nagpur,Washim, Amravati, Buldhana,Hingoli, Akolam, Parbhani,Osmanabad, Latur and Solapur.

Mayawati will launch theBSP-SP launch in Maharashtraat a rally in Nagpur on April 4.SP chief Akhilesh Yadav isexpected to attend the rally.

Both the BSP and SP donot have the following inMaharashtra that they caninfluence the Lok Sabha polloutcome. For instance, the BSPhad contested all the 48 lokSabha polls in the state. TheMayawati-led party polled apathetic 2.61 per cent – which2.22 per cent votes less than thevotes it had polled in the 2009Lok Sabha polls.

Mumbai: The BJP is bankingon the popularity of some ofBhojpuri film industry’s biggeststars to see it through a clutchof Lok Sabha seats in easternUttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

The saffron outfit is tap-ping film stars Ravi Kishan,singer-actor Dinesh Lal Yadavalias ‘Nirahua’ and PawanSingh and they are expected tocontest elections from seats ineastern UP and West Bengal,which have Bhojpuri voters,party insiders said.

Singh is already in the BJP,while Yadav joined the party onWednesday in Lucknow in thepresence of Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath.

PTI

Patna: Upset over being side-lined in the party and the fam-ily, Tej Pratap Yadav, elder sonof RJD chief Lalu Prasad, onThursday resigned as patron ofthe RJD student wing ahead ofthe Lok Sabha polls, dealing ablow to Bihar’s mainOpposition party.

“I am resigning as patronof RJD student wing. Thosewho think I am naive are mis-taken,” tweeted Tej PratapYadav, a former Bihar HealthMinister who has been havingsimmering disputes with hisyounger brother and the moreactive Tejashwi Yadav.

Tej Pratap Yadav addedthat he knew who wields whatkind of influence in partyaffairs. The resignation comesin the absence of Lalu Prasad,who is undergoing treatment ata Government hospital inRanchi after being convicted infodder scam cases.

Tej Pratap Yadav hasreportedly told his aides that hewas pained because his requestto accommodate two of hissupporters as candidates inthe Sheohar and JehanabadLok Sabha seats was rejected.

RJD leaders close to himsay he is not happy the wayTejashwi Yadav has been givencommand of the party and withthe latter’s style of functioning.Tejashwi Yadav is the Leader ofOpposition in the BiharAssembly.

“In last six months, TejPratap had time and againpointed out how he was side-lined in the party” by TejashwiYadav, a former Deputy ChiefMinister. IANS

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The Samajwadi Party onThursday declared five

more candidates for Lok Sabhapolls in Uttar Pradesh, takingthe total number of it candi-dates declared so far to 27.

The list includes the namesof former MLA Puja Pal fromUnnao and one candidate forMadhya Pradesh. The partyhad earlier declared a list of 23candidates, including one from

Madhya Pradesh. Beside Pal, former SP

Minister Bhagwat SharanGangwar was been given tick-et from Bareilly, Nasir Quereshifrom Moradabad, ShyamSunder Singh Yadav fromJhansi and Nathuni PrasadKushwaha from Kushinagar.

The surprise inclusion inthe list is Bahujan Samaj Partyleader Raju Pal’s widow PujaPal. Raju Pal was shot dead indaylight by Atiq Ahmad inAllahabad. Later the BSP field-ed Puja Pal and she won the2012 Assembly poll comfort-ably but lost in the 2017

Assembly election. This time,Puja has been pitted againstSakshi Maharaj, the sitting MPof Bharatiya Janata Party fromUnnao, and former CongressMP Annu Tandon.

“Puja Pal is ‘Gaderia’ bycaste and since Unnao has asizeable population of Lodhiand Mallah, she seems to be agood bet,” a senior SP leadersaid. On the other hand, formerMLA from Nawabganj(Bareilly) and a minister inAkhilesh Yadav government,Bhagwat Sharan Singh Gangwarhas been fielded from Bareilly.

The inclusion of NathuniPrasad Kushwaha’s name in theSP list also came as a surprise.Kushwaha, a veteran SP leader,contested five elections — threeAssembly and two parliamen-tary — but lost all. He will bepitted against RPN Singh ofCongress and Vijay Dubey ofBJP from Kushinagar in east UP.

The BJP has denied ticket

to its sitting MP Rajesh Pandeyfrom Kushinagar this time andhas replaced him with VijayDubey.

The SP has also fieldedturncoat Naseer Quereshi fromMoradabad. He contested twoAssembly elections on BSPticket in 2012 (MoradabadDehat) and 2017 (Kaanth) butlost both. In 2018, he joined theSP and was selected as alliancecandidate from Moradabad.

In Jhansi, the SP has field-ed Shyam Sundar Singh Yadav,who had joined the SP afterleaving the BJP.

The SP is contesting thegeneral election in alliancewith BSP and would contest on37 seats, while the BSP wouldfield candidates from 38 seats.Rashtriya Lok Dal, the thirdpartner of the alliance, hasbeen given three seats.

SP patron Mulayam SinghYadav is contesting fromMainpuri, SP chief AkhileshYadav from Azamgarh, his wifeDimple Yadav from Kannauj,Dharmendra Yadav fromBudaun, Akshay Yadav fromFerozabad and MohammadAzam Khan from Rampur.

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Even as suspense continuesover the name of Congress

candidate from Lucknow LokSabha constituency, formerUnion Minister Jitin Prasada,who unsuccessfully contestedfrom Dhaurahra parliamen-tary seat in 2014, has hinted atcontesting from Lucknowinstead of Dhaurahra.

Prasada, who was on hisway to the State capital viaSitapur on Thursday, wasstopped by Congress workerswho wanted him to contestfrom Dhaurahra. “My bodymay be present in Lucknow butmy soul will always be inDhaurahra. Give me sometime, I am standing at a polit-ical cross-roads. I am going toLucknow and will decide whatI have to do,” said Prasada as headdressed Congress workers atKanshiram Colony in Sitapur.

Jitin Prasada reached hisLawrence Terrace house inLucknow in the evening andheld a meeting with his sup-porters over the future strategy.

Earlier, there were rumoursthat Jitin Prasada was joiningthe BJP after reports emergedof his being unhappy withalleged pressure from the partyleadership to change his seatfrom Dhaurahra to Lucknow.However, he rubbished thespeculation.

Prasada was a UnionMinister in the UPAGovernment and is presentlyan invitee member of theCongress Working Committee.

As per sources, theCongress is likely to field himfrom Lucknow for a direct fightwith Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh. The sources saidCongress general secretaryincharge of eastern UP, PriyankaGandhi Vadra, came up with theidea of shifting Prasada from hispresent constituency after the

former Minister reportedly con-veyed his reservation over fight-ing from Dhaurahra.

Prasada, a Brahmin, hailsfrom a prominent political fam-ily of Shahjahanpur. His father,late Jitendra Prasada, was aCongress stalwart and had evencontested the party presidentialelection against Sonia Gandhi.

Jitin Prasada son won hisfirst Lok Sabha election fromShahjahanpur in 2004. In 2009,he shifted to the newly-formedDhaurahra constituency andwon but in 2014, he lost to theBJP. Dhaurahra is one of the 80Lok Sabha constituencies in UPthat will go to polls in thefourth phase. While theCongress has declared Prasadaas its official candidate fromDhaurahra, reliable sourcesclose to the leader said theparty now wanted to shift himto Lucknow.

New Delhi: The CPI(M) onThursday proposed curbing ofmass surveillance, statutoryminimum wage of not lessthan �18,000 per month andchecking monopolies over tele-com and internet service plat-forms in its manifesto for thecoming Lok Sabha elections.

This is the first time whenthe Left party has mentioneddigital rights of citizens in itsmanifesto. The CPI(M) said itwould recognise digital infra-structure as public infrastruc-ture and stop mass surveillanceby State agencies under section69 of the IT Act.

“There should be clearprovisions and judicial super-vision of any surveillance thatviolates citizens privacy. Enactdata privacy laws that protectthe people against appropria-

tion/misuse of users privatedata for commercial use,” saidCPI(M) General SecretarySitaram Yechury while releas-ing the manifesto along withPolit Bureau members BrindaKarat, Prakash Karat and

Nilotpal Basu.He said the party would

curb monopoly of some tele-com majors. The manifestoalso proposed the scrapping ofthe use of Aadhaar and bio-metrics for all social welfare

measures, repeal/amend theNational Security Act, section499 of IPC (relating to defama-tion) and Armed Forces(Special Powers) Act (AFSPA).

In the declaration, the partyalso proposed alternative poli-cy platform under which itcalled for protection of the sec-ular principle and democraticrights enshrined in theConstitution and enforcementof farmers’ right to sell their pro-duce at minimum support price.

“Our main aim is to defeatthe BJP, increase the strength ofthe CPI(M) and the Left inParliament and form an alter-native secular Government,”Yechury said.

The left party said the pen-sion system would enablesenior citizens to live with dig-nity. PTI

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The Samajwadi Party is like-ly to release its manifesto

for the Lok Sabha polls,promising jobs and setting upof a youth commission, in thefirst week of April. As SP’salliance partner Bahujan SamajParty does not have a traditionto release a manifesto, AkhileshYadav will be free to announcehis party’s poll promises. TheBJP and Congress will alsorelease their manifestos soon.

The SP manifesto is like-ly to be pro-youth, with thepromise to bring a nationalyouth employment job guar-antee bill, compulsory job forevery youth and setting up ofa youth commission.

The manifesto will alsofocus on larger role to beplayed by regional parties inthe country, particularly in the

post-poll scenario.A senior SP leader said in

Lucknow on Thursday that ata time when rising unemploy-ment was a big issue, the partyplanned to catch the imagina-tion of youths, specially in thestate, by promising to enact leg-islation on national youthemployment job guarantee.

“In this legislation, theparty will make the promise ofproviding jobs to all thoseyouths who are registered inemployment exchanges with-in six months time,” he said.

Besides, the youth com-mission will be constituted onlines of the existing minorityor women’s commissions. Butthis commission will com-prise youths from universitiesand civil societies. It will advisethe government on formulat-ing policies for the youths,” theleader said.

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Kolkata: Lok Sabha candidatesin West Bengal’s Birbhum dis-trict are seeking to exploit allmodes of transport to attractattention. While one candidatechose bullock cart, anotherdecided to drive an e-rickshaw.

Actor-turned-politicianSatabdi Roy, seeking to retainthe Birbhum Lok Sabha seatshe had won for the TrinamoolCongress in 2009 and 2014,was seen riding an e-rickshawall by herself while campaign-ing in villages of the

Rampurhaat locality.Roy, clad in a pink saree

and donning sunglasses, alsoparticipated in a tribal dancewith the women folk of thelocality. Not to be outdone, herBJP rival Dudh Kumar Mondalrode a bullock cart to interactwith the people of anotherPanchayat area. The Birbhumconstituency will go to polls onApril 29 in the fourth of theseven-phased Lok Sabha elec-tion in the State. IANS

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The Indian sub-continent is a wound-ed region that has been subjected todangerous contextualising of terror

that is ultimately tantamount to “justifica-tion of terrorism.” The adage, “One man’sterrorist is another man’s freedom fighter”has been used and abused by both terrorgroups and roguish states, whose stated pol-icy distinguishes between “good” and“bad” terrorists. Repeated warnings todesist from such categorisation — as thesame inevitably backfires — is personifiedby Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’sroutine posting of the figure of 75,000Pakistani casualties and an economic costof $123 billion to the state, owing to itsostensible fight against terrorism.

Obviously, the Pakistani state has notcome clean on its own track record of duplic-itousness and insincerity on terror, with thethen Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’sprophetic warning that “snakes in the back-yard would not just bite the neighbours.” Thetact of selectively legitimising and deliber-ately contextualising some terror organisa-tions as “freedom fighters” or “defenders ofthe faith” comes with accompanying risks ofthese morphing and mutating intoFrankenstein monsters and turning upon itsprogenitors. The fact is that Pakistan is wit-nessing a breakdown in its social structures,economic health and political future by pan-dering to regressive “contexts” to justify itsinterferences across the Durand Line in theAfghan region, across the Line of Control inIndia as also across its Iranian border.

An unwarranted and insensitive contex-tualising of a terror act was recently madeby an Australian Senator, Fraser Anning, fol-lowing the horrific massacre of at least 50lives at Christchurch in New Zealand,which literally resulted with an egg on hisface. The Senator had incredulously stated,“The real cause of bloodshed on NewZealand streets today is the immigration pro-gramme, which allowed Muslim fanatics tomigrate to the country in the first place.”While his statement was squarely lambast-ed by the political leadership in specific andsociety in general, in both his nativeAustralia and New Zealand — the age-oldpractice of “contextualising” terror, that fur-ther divides and polarises societies, was infull display. In stark contrast was the deftstatesmanship, empathy and sensitivityshown by New Zealand Prime MinisterJacinda Ardern in handling the post-attacknarrative by unambiguously designating theincident as a “terrorist attack”, resulting in amore corrective and reformative step asopposed to the vacuous “contextualising”, aswas done by the Australian Senator.

In India, too, expected apologists of ter-ror across the border and some within, lendimmediate “context” and “credence” to anyterror attack by willy-nilly justifying the sameon the pretext of the need to “introspect whyit happened?” Terrorism is a multi-dimen-sional phenomenon that breeds and survives

on popular legitimacy of itsactions among the aggrievedcommunities and the otherstakeholders — this psychoso-cial “oxygen” is the key determi-nant for its sustenance. It is thisspirit of unequivocal delegitimi-sation that was invoked byArdern when she spoke aboutthe terrorist in a deliberatelynameless way by stating, “Hemay have sought notoriety butwe in New Zealand will give himnothing. Not even his name.”

This handling was verydifferent from the terror attackin Pulwama in India, wherespotlight on the “perpetrator”was ensured by the cynicalpolitical manipulation of thesame, a 24-hour mediablitzkrieg covering the sublime-to-the-ridiculous theories andthe unashamed “sharing” oftrue and manufactured contenton the social media.

Somehow, under the garbof various “contexts”, thePulwama terror act did notunite the entirety of populacefor its sheer brutality andinhumanity but deflected theissue into unnecessary dividesof political positions, pro-and-anti-nationalism andended up polarising the mass-es even more.

A similar frenzy was instru-mental in elevating BurhanWani into a cult-like phenom-enon with a complex process ofcognitive accommodation,

claims-and-counter-claims andsocietal assimilations.

It is important to recognisethat the maximum “context- set-ting” of terrorism is done by for-eign powers who have vestedinterest in the disruption ofnormalcy, national politicianswith a hovering electoral calcu-lator and finally the TRP-drivenmedia (mainstream and social)that ignites popular passions toensure that the requisite ‘fuel’ forterror justifications persists.

China’s patent realpolitikapproach in defending Pakistan,and by that extent, JeM chiefMasood Azhar on the floor ofthe United Nations, is a classiccase of a foreign power afford-ing a context of “technicality” invetoing the symbolic step thatcould have named and shamedIslamabad, which brazenlychooses to side with those whouse violence in the name of faith.

Even fringe support,applause or “context” is suffi-cient for the terror industry —it is imperative that no platformfor contextualising of terror isallowed in the aftermath of anyterror attack. Speaking aboutPakistan’s support for terrorism,UN Secretary-General AntónioGuterres had specifically saidthat “no political reason…nocause, no grievance” could jus-tify it. Former US PresidentGeorge Bush in his address tothe joint session of Congress onSeptember 20, 2001, had

famously exhorted on the dou-ble-speak on terrorism, “Everynation in every region now hasa decision to make: Either youare with us or you are with theterrorists.” This nudge had ledto some temporary course-correction in Islamabad —with Pakistan purportedly join-ing the global “war on terror”— but the subsequent reversalto its patent contextual supportto the terror industry led to itscoming under the internation-al scanner — take for examplethe ongoing Financial ActionTask Force (FATF) proceedings— and reached its pinnacle ofopprobrium when Osama binLaden was “taken out” from themilitary garrison town ofAbbottabad.

Similarly, Pakistan refuses toabandon its basic instinct of con-textualising and interfering in theaffairs of its neighbours, much tothe chagrin of Kabul, Tehran andDelhi. Proverbial chickens arecoming home to roost as thePakistani establishment nowplays the “martyr card” on ter-rorism after years of contextualsupport based on a flawed inter-pretation of history, co-religion-ist and “freedom struggle” as itexpectedly backfired, giving aninvaluable lesson to all apologistsof terror-contextualising.

(The writer, a military veter-an, is a former Lt Governor ofAndaman & Nicobar Islandsand Puducherry))��� ������ ���������� �����

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Space superpower” (March29). Having successfully test-fired an anti-satellite missile,India has joined the elite spaceleague comprising the US, Russiaand China. Mission Shakti is theresult of nine years of hard workby our scientists. By shootingdown a low earth orbit satellite,the mission has been declaredsuccessful. India has rightlyassured the international commu-nity that it would not misuse thisnew capability.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Between spirit and rules”(March 28). R Ashwin’s“Mankading” of Jos Buttler dur-ing an Indian Premier Leaguematch between Punjab andRajasthan has stirred up a contro-versy. The cricket fraternity andfans stand divided on the“Mankading” incident. However,it must be understood thatAshwin just followed the rule

book of cricket and his call wascompletely legal. He did not doanything wrong. If experts are somuch depressed by his action,then the rule of “Mankad” shouldbe removed from the law books.But until the removal of theclause, all must enjoy one of themost watched sports around theworld with passion.

Navneet SethDhuri

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Sir — This refers to the article,“The fatal game of opportunisticpolitics” (March27) by KalyaniShankar. Impartially speaking,both the BJP-led NationalDemocratic Alliance (NDA) andthe Congress-led UnitedProgressive Alliance are set for ahigh-octane political battle, come

May 2019. The writer’s compar-ative analysis between theCongress and the BJP holds good.For the latter, issues like anti-incumbency, agrarian crisis,demonetisation blues and mostimportantly, non-delivery of pollpromises, including jobs for theyouth, will matter.

As a united Opposition wasleaving no stone untuned to posea grave challenge to the ruling

regime, the Pulwama terror attackand the subsequent air strike inBalakot gave the latter a chanceto uplift its sagging image.Further, while the BJP hasannounced a slew of pre-pollalliances, the grand alliance hasbeen more interested in formingstate-specific partnerships. In theend, it is the electorate who willplay the role of a king-maker.

Azhar A KhanRampur

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Between spirit and rules”(March 28). After Ashwin’s“Mankaded” dismissal of JosButtler, much talk has eruptedabout the true spirit of the game.If the rule is against the game’strue spirit then why was it includ-ed at all? Nowadays, batsmen takeadvantage of being out of thecrease even before a ball is deliv-ered. It’s time to include“Mankaded” as the 11th type ofdismissal in ICC laws.

PK Suresh Via email

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In times of rapid globalisation, open mar-ket, technological advancements and cli-mate change, the world is getting more andmore complex day-by-day. The situationis accentuated by insecurity, apprehen-

sions, distrust and violence that confront prac-tically every nation. Further, there was never somuch competition among nations as it is at pre-sent. Indians understand these issues very wellin the context of the perpetual state of aggres-sion created by Pakistan against it.

Our country has done astonishingly well increating global goodwill during the last five yearsas was evident from the support we got for thegenuine and effective response to the Pulwamamassacre, which was a massive and unprecedent-ed act in the history of post-independent India.The strategy of renewing and refreshing past rela-tionships has proved its worth beyond doubt.However, this cannot be an occasion to becomesluggish. Instead, we must realise that much moreneeds to be done to sustain the international good-will we earned and seriously delineate the elementsrequired to further strengthen this bond. Thereare several areas of cooperation like trade andcommerce, investment and production, collabo-rations in technology, transfer and the like butthere are also long-term strategic imperatives thatremain unmatched in giving soft-power dividends.

For ages, India has gone through this expe-rience from its Asian neighbours, particular-ly the Southeast Asian segment. Indeed, we areproud of our past glory and its acceptancebeyond sea shores. To cultivate new interna-tional relationships even with old friendlynations, one must realise the importance ofacquaintance with history, culture and heritageon both sides. These play a significant role infurthering mutual understanding and refresh-ing cultural and emotional bonds. This famil-iarity is an essential support to comprehendthe current situation and visualise its importin the emerging context. Strategic readiness incurrent times requires comprehension of ‘thepace of change’ in pragmatic terms. Commonwisdom will be to learn from history, drawinspiration from it, know the present, andreshape it for a better future for the genera-tions to come.

India is fortunate to have an unimpeachableand exemplary legacy of mutual relationships withthe East Asian region. What has sustained thismutuality for ages? It cannot just be trade andcommerce alone; though they remain a very strongcementing factor. We have to only delineate theessence of mutually constructive partnerships bothin the past and the present. Initiatives like the ‘ActEast’ policy deserve appreciation and strengthen-ing, besides a constant vigil on elements who maybe apprehensive about these developments.

Rabindranath Tagore had mentioned in oneof his lectures that “it was often alleged that Asiawill never progress as it has turned its face back-ward.” This acquisition has been proved wrong byJapan, China and India. Equally, if not more effec-tively, the South-East Asia region has proved itwrong. All nations have moved ahead withouteither disregard for their past or ignoring newknowledge. People of this region are not perpet-ually lost in the sweet slumber of the glory of the

past; oblivious to the need to move ahead in timesand with times. Probably realising this, MahatmaGandhi had indicated that he would keep the win-dows and doors of his house open for fresh air— of ideas and knowledge — but refused to beblown off his feet by any. It is one thing to be proudof one’s history, culture, tradition of knowledge,growth, scriptures and literature but it is also nec-essary to examine whether all of this alone is suf-ficient for the times ahead?

Present international relationships requirea very sensitive recall of the past and a realisa-tion that these are the times of “equality of part-nerships”, which must be dexterously har-monised and sustained. There are unique fea-tures in every culture, region, religion and civil-isation. When dealing with Asian countries, oneis often tempted to recall how Indian influencehas reached far and beyond the sea shores, with-out any bloodshed and coercion. It was not partof any conquest or converting people to one pre-ferred religion or “salvaging the souls of the sav-ages” but an organised, respectful and mutual-ly beneficial interaction and exchange of ideasand knowledge among equals. Trade and com-merce featured prominently and strengthenedbonds with the international community.Knowledge exchange brought people togetherin rather close bonds that went beyond the mun-dane requirements of human existence.

This makes one understand how scholarship,knowledge and wisdom can be exchanged to ben-efit both the interacting parties, lead to better andhigher comprehension of humanity, happiness andharnessing respectfully the bounties of nature. Inknowledge exchange, one can benefit only whenboth sides are respectful to each other, none isobsessed with being the giver, but are ready toaccept knowledge and wisdom from the other sideas well. The wisdom of the East does not belongjust to one country of the region ie, India. Onewould be uncomfortable if in any reference to theglorious past of ours and its vast spread beyondthe Indian borders, it is presented as everything

flowing from “us” and being received by “them.”Take for example, Indonesia or Thailand.

One can say that these nations have far bettercomprehension of the need to sustain culturalcontinuity than we Indians. In Thailand, Ram,Ram Lila and Ayodhya enjoy respect at a levelas is not — repeat not — being extended by alarge number of Indians. The manner in whichIndonesians have sustained and refined their cul-ture presents much to be learnt by Indians. TheGita and Yoga could earn respect all around theglobe but in India, one cannot include even acouple of shlokas — fully and totally secular —in the school text books.

Who are culturally more advanced? Are weready to learn from others? Or are we too happywith our dream of becoming a Vishwa Guru again?In recollecting, refreshing and re-envisioningIndia’s relationship with Asian countries, the firstcaution is to forget the psyche of being the giver,being the Vishwa Guru. This concept — whendevoid of the connected responsibility to set ourown house in order — can create negative vibesamong other people. We must now accept thatknowledge, both secular and temporal, has beencreated and discovered in all parts of the globe —time, measure and magnitude can differ. AncientIndians had really toiled hard on the terrain ofknowledge quest and earned respect from all over.Are we doing the same now? This aspect shouldbe paramount in present-day considerations.

A strife-torn world today must be lookingtowards India, conscious of its unique historicalstanding as a nation that had learnt to live togeth-er with every conceivable diversity, like that of eth-nicity, language, religion and culture. The Westis now facing problems arising out of a necessityto learn to live together with diversities. These havereached their doorsteps because of globalisation,ease of mobility in seeking greener pastures andhave also forced migrations in search of securityand livelihood. If India was still high on its recordof social cohesion and religious amity, on adher-ence to joint family systems and social security,

on basing its democracy on values defined byGandhi and the spirit of freedom struggle, thesenations would have flocked to India to learn more.

Deeply satisfied, they declare India as theirguru without the latter itself making a claim. Ifwe were a learning hub and had ancient higherlearning institutions like Nalanda, Taxila andVikramshila among others, the continuity of ourgurudom would have been unchallenged. Indianeeds to become a great global learning hub.Swami Vivekananda presented India’s past gloryto the world, the values it had adhered to in thepast and the concern it had shown towards thewelfare of all without any discrimination.Vivekananda received global acclaim and admi-ration. He knew that this alone was not sufficient.He established the Ramakrishna Mission world-wide. Yes, you have to create institutions that pre-pare the people and give them true education. Letthem comprehend that “education is the perfec-tion already in man.”

Tagore had predicted that “India is destinedto be the teacher of the world.” He did not trav-el the globe to declare that India would be theVishwa Guru. Instead, he established institutionsthat had all the ingredients of a gurukula andevery feature of a modern-day internationalknowledge hub. Similarly, this aspect was elab-orated by Sri Aurobindo. He predicted that“India will be the moral leader of the world.”He established the Auroville Ashram inPondicherry. All of these examples must giveus an idea of how international relationships canindeed be given a sound cultural knowledge andspiritual base, to strengthen the moral basis ofrelationships. It was the continuity of this moraltradition that Gandhi included “commerce with-out morality” and “wealth without work”among the seven social sins that he publishedin 1925. Incidentally, it also included “knowl-edge without character.” India needs to relearn,and create knowledge hubs of its own.

(The writer is the Indian Representative on theExecutive Board of UNESCO)

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During my last trip to the USin 2018, I noticed that thecurrent affairs sections of

almost all major book stores in theAmerican cities that I visited car-ried quite a few titles on ‘Whitepower populism.’ Most of thesebooks were alarming in their con-tent and tone. This was a stark con-trast to what one often found on thesame shelves some five years ago.Most of them used to be stackedwith books on ‘Islamic’ fundamen-talism and terrorism. The contentof these books, too, had been large-ly alarming in nature, written aswarnings about a phenomenonwhich was already tearing manyMuslim countries apart and threat-ening Western societies.

After facing numerous terrorist

attacks, death tolls and socio-polit-ical fissures triggered by extremistassaults on civilians and securitypersonnel, most Muslim countrieseventually came round to chal-lenge the grave existentialist threatand attacks posed by extremists.These states did this through someunprecedented military operationsand related political and judicialmanoeuvres. But whereas the situ-ation in the most affected countries— such as Pakistan, Egypt, Turkey,Saudi Arabia and Algeria — wasgradually brought under control andmajor extremist outfits were takenout, the situation in other affectedcountries such as Afghanistan,Yemen, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria and,to a certain extent, Mauritania, isstill somewhat precarious.

In his 1992 book, The Failure ofPolitical Islam, the French politicalscientist and author Olivier Roywrote that the more coherent ide-ologies formed from the 1940sonwards and derived from thewritings of radical Islamic scholarssuch as Rashid Rida, Hassan Al-Banna, Abul Ala Maududi, SayyidQutb, Ruholla Khomeini and Hasan

Al-Tarabi all peaked in the late1970s and across the 1980s.

They contributed in the engi-neering of what came to be knownas “political Islam”, which advocat-ed the formation of “Islamic states”through both conventional as wellas revolutionary political means.But according to Roy, as this strandof political Islam reached a crescen-do — especially during the ‘Afghanjihad’ against Soviet forces inAfghanistan — there was also itsfragmentation and eventual decline.Roy wrote that after the Sovietforces were forced to pull out ofAfghanistan, emboldened ‘Islamists’,who had fought in Afghanistan,then attempted to create ‘Islamic’revolutions in their own countries.

As the State in their respectivecountries pushed back, however, theIslamists retaliated with violencethrough terrorism. Roy wrote thatfrom being a coherently definedideology, political Islam took amore anarchic and even nihilisticturn. Roy predicted that this forcewould burn out in its own fire andfury. Interestingly, he was writingthis in 1992, nine years before the

tragic 9/11 attacks in New York. Butif we trace the rise and relativedecline of extremist terror in coun-tries such as Pakistan, Algeria,Turkey and Egypt, we can seemuch of Roy’s thesis coming true.

The outfits behind extremistterror in these countries wereentirely nihilistic. They enforcedtheir presence through three mainstratagems: (1) seeding fear throughextreme terror; (2) using variouscriminal activities to financiallysupplement themselves; and (3)manipulating non-militant person-nel in the media, religious circlesand even within the State andGovernment so that they couldrationalise this terror in the main-stream as an outcome of econom-ic issues and ‘lack of Islam’ in theworkings of the State.

But as German academicMarkus Daechsel wrote in his book,The Politics of Self-Expression, thepost-9/11 terror groups had lostinterest in the theory of 20th cen-tury political Islam and were moreinterested in filling a personal emo-tional void; even though theyexplained their acts (and their

nihilistic violence) as a global waragainst ‘infidels.’ Indeed, once theybegan to become engulfed by theirown fires and nihilistic impulses, thestate moved in to push them out.

It is remarkable how similar thetrajectories of White power pop-ulism and the terrorism that it isinspiring, and of ‘Islamic’ extrem-ism are. The narratives of ‘Islamic’extremists are a combination of asuperiority complex derived froman imagined (and largely a histor-ical) Utopian past, and a besiegedmindset — which explains theMuslims as victims of Westernmodernity and immorality. Thenarratives used by White suprema-cists, too, hark back to a past inwhich violent and destructiveevents, such as slavery in the US,apartheid in South Africa and riseof Nazism in Germany, are seen asUtopian epochs which were over-thrown by the Jews, liberals andcommunists. The supremacistsbelieve this status quo was nowbeing maintained by allowing non-White immigrants to settle on“White lands.” So this narrative, too,combines a mythical and Utopian

memory of a past with a sense ofmodern-day victimhood.

Recently, many media andpolitical commentators in the UShave been urging theirGovernment (and those in variousEuropean countries) to start treat-ing violence by individual or col-lective White supremacists just asthey have been doing the violencecoming from ‘jihadists.’ ElenaPokalova, a professor of interna-tional security studies, wrote inForeign Policy in Focus (November2, 2018) that White far-right rad-icalisation needed to be addressedat the same level as Islamist radi-calisation. In a 2018 article for theNew York Times, author and socio-political commentator JanetReitman wrote that despite the ris-ing number of hate crimes andgroups in the US, the country’slaw-enforcement agencies failed todetect their rise and influence. Shewrote that this allowed the prolif-eration of extreme White suprema-cist ideas and related violence.

It can be said that the stage thisstrand of extremism is in the West(or the stage Hindu extremism is in

India) is what ‘jihadist’ extremismwas in Pakistan some 15 years ago.It’s a confusing stage in whichmany sections of society and eventhe intelligentsia are willing to buyinto the victimhood claims of theextremist groups and even act astheir apologists. As a result, the Stateand society spiral down in a flux ofconfusion and inaction, especiallywhen politicians and influencers —who were once on the fringes ofsociety — begin to cultivate andorganise the growing extremistsentiments as a constituency.

Indeed, as Olivier Roy pre-dicted, extreme ideas and groupseventually get engulfed by their ownfires. But Western countries, nowfacing the spectre of White far-rightviolence, should not wait to addressthe problem. Before extremist ideasburn out, they leave behind a trailof death and destruction. Because,remember, before the State andGovernment of Pakistan finallydecided to act against major terrorgroups, over 70,000 Pakistanis hadalready been killed in the nihilisticflames of the extremists.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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Five State-owned banks,including PNB, Bank of

Baroda and Union Bank, onThursday received sharehold-ers' approval for capital infu-sion to the tune of �21,428crore in lieu of preferentialallotment of shares to theGovernment.

This capital infusion is forthe current fiscal ending March31, 2019.

Punjab National Bank(PNB) in a regulatory filingsaid that an extraordinary gen-eral meeting of shareholderswas held on March 28 forobtaining shareholders'approval to issue and allot80,20,63,535 equity shares at apremium of �71.66 per shareamounting up to �5,908 croreon preferential basis to theGovernment.

Bank of Baroda said theFinance Ministry informedabout its decision to infuse cap-ital of �5,042 crore in the bank.

"The capital infusion willbe by way of preferential allot-ment of equity shares (specialsecurities/bonds) of the bankduring 2018-19, asGovernment's investment,"Bank of Baroda said.

Union Bank said: "TheCommittee of Directors forRaising of Capital Funds(CDRCF) of the bank at itsmeeting held on Thursdayconsidered and approved theallotment of 52,15,62,658 equi-ty shares at an issue price of�78.84 aggregating to �4,111.99to Government in accordancewith the applicable provisions."

The board of the Chennai-headquartered Indian OverseasBank (IOB) in an extraordinary

general meeting decided to toallot preferential shares toGovernment to get capital infu-sion of �3,806 crore.

"The Board for Issue ofEquity Share Capital at itsmeeting held today has issuedand allotted 269,54,67,422equity shares at an issue priceof Rs 14.12 per equity share(including premium of �4.12per equity share) toGovernment by way of prefer-ential allotment," IOB said.

With this allotment, theGovernment holding hasincreased from 89.39 per centto 92.52 per cent in the bank,it added.

"This capital infusion willhelp the bank to shore up itscapital adequacy requirementsand enable the bank to build arobust loan book," RSubramaniakumar, MD & CEO,Indian Overseas Bank told PTI.

He also said that variousinitiatives have been taken bythe bank for turnaround andthere was a visible improve-ment in the bank's perfor-

mance as seen in the thirdquarter results.

Subramaniakumar hopedthat the bank will be able toreturn to the black in the nextfiscal year beginning April 1,2019.

Earlier, the bank raised�261 crore to its share capitalin January under EmployeeStock Purchase Scheme (ESPS)in which as much as 92 per centof the employees participatedwhich resulted into over-sub-scription of bank stock.

"With this capital infusionand taking into account thecapital raised through ESPS aswell as sale of non core assets,CRAR (capital to risky assetratio) will improve consider-ably," he said.

Central Bank of India allot-ted 68,72,48,322 equity sharesat �37.25 aggregating upto�2,560 crore.

With this allotment, share-holding of Government hasincreased from 89.40 per centto 91.20, Central Bank of Indiasaid.

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Former NITI Aayog vicechairman Arvind

Panagariya has said the imple-mentation of the CongressParty's ambitious 'Nyay' schemenot only poses a "fiscal chal-lenge" to India's economy butalso has a "serious incentiveproblem".

Congress president RahulGandhi on Tuesday said that itsminimum income guaranteescheme, Nyuntam Aay Yojana(Nyay) assures up to �72,000 ayear or �6,000 a month incometo 20 per cent of India's poor-est families if the party is votedback to power in the Lok Sabhaelections next month.

Panagariya, who served asthe first vice chairman of NITIAayog for two years from 2015to 2017, told PTI that 'Nyay' isdifficult to implement andunlikely to achieve its intend-ed objective.

"It raises three major ques-tions - the incentive compati-bility issue, the fairness issueand fiscal challenge,"Panagariya, an eminent Indian-American economist, said.

But Gandhi said the ‘Nyay’scheme has the twin objectivesof giving money to the 20 percent poorest families andremonetising the economydamaged by the demonetisa-tion in 2016.

Its aim is two-fold. First isto guarantee a minimumincome to the bottom 20 percent families. The second is toremonetise the economy thathas been demonetised byPrime Minister NarendraModi, Gandhi told PTI.

Senior Congress leader andformer finance minister P

Chidambaram on Wednesdaysaid 'enough' economists andexperts had been consultedand they broadly agreed thatIndia has the capacity to imple-ment the scheme.

Former RBI GovernorRaghuram Rajan has said theimplementation of the schemeis possible, Chidambaram said.

"Our calculation showsthat it will not cross 2 per centof the GDP, it will be 1.8 percent of the GDP at any givenpoint of time," he said.

Commenting on thescheme, Panagariya said thetransfer is meant to be �6,000per month per family to 50 mil-lion families and at the sametime, it also guarantees anincome of �12,000 per monthto these families.

"What happens if one fam-ily has an income of only�4,000 and another �8,000 permonth? Will the former thenreceive �8,000 and the latter�4,000 per month? If so, whyshould anyone with incomebelow 12,000 do any work at allsince their incomes will be�12,000 regardless of what theyearn?" he asked.

Interpreted this way, "thereis a serious incentive problemwith the scheme", Panagariyaasserted.

"If the scheme is meant totransfer flat �6,000 per monthto identified families regardlessof the family's earned income,you cannot deliver �12,000per month to families earningless than �6,000," he asserted.

The programme, asannounced by the Congress,guarantees �12,000 per monthin income to the poor, which is�144,000 per year, he said,explaining the fairness issue.

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The rupee slumped 42 paiseto end at 69.30 against the

US dollar on Thursday, itssecond straight session ofdecline, in line with otherAsian currencies amidstrengthening of the green-back.

Most Asian currenciesstruggled amid expectations ofdovish monetary policy stanceby central banks following adeteriorating global economicoutlook.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex) market, therupee opened weak at 69.04and fell further to touch theday's low of 69.35.

It finally finished at 69.30per dollar, down by 42 paiseagainst its previous close.

On Wednesday, the rupeehad weakened marginally by 2paise to end at 68.88 against

the US dollar.Foreign institutional

investors (FIIs) remained netbuyers in the capital markets,putting in �1,481.11 croreWednesday, as per provision-al data.

Meanwhile, brent crudefutures, the global oil bench-mark, fell 1.08 per cent to tradeat $67.10 per barrel.

BSE benchmark Sensexzoomed over 400 points whilethe NSE Nifty reclaimed the11,500 mark Thursday onrobust buying in banking,finance, telecom and ITstocks.

The Financial BenchmarkIndia Private Ltd (FBIL) set thereference rate for therupee/dollar at 69.0038 and forrupee/euro at 77.6868. Thereference rate for rupee/Britishpound was fixed at 91.0280and for rupee/100 Japanese yenat 62.69.

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Private sector ICICI Bank onThursday said it has

launched two instant homeloan products for up to �1crore.

The instantaneous homeloan facilitiy enables cus-tomers to get final sanctionletter for new home loans aswell as for a top up loan in afully-digital way, the banksaid in a release.

'Instant Home Loan'enables pre-approved salariedcustomers of the bank to availloans up to �1 crore for a tenureof up to 30 years (based on theage of the customer) usinginternet banking facility, ICICIBank said.

'Insta Top Up Loan' helpsexisting home loan customersof the bank to avail the facili-ty of topping up loan instanta-neously upto �20 lakh for atenure of up to 10 years in apaperless manner.

The facility helps the cus-tomers get the top up amountdisbursed immediately in theiraccount as compared to theindustry practice of approvingand disbursing a top up homeloan in a few working days, thebank said.

"As a result of our con-tinued endeavour, we havethe largest mortgage portfo-lio among private sectorbanks in the country with thelowest delinquency levels.Instant home loan facilitiesare extensions of this sameendeavour. These facilitieswill help new home buyers aswell as the existing cus-tomers , " ICICI BankExecutive Director AnupBagchi said.

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Markets regulator Sebi hasslapped a total fine of �30

lakh on three directors of SyblyIndustries in a matter related tomanipulation in issuance of glob-al depository receipts (GDRs).

The directors — SatyaPrakash Mittal, MahendraKumar Gupta and SubodhKumar Goel — have been finedfor acting as party to the fraud-ulent scheme, Sebi said in threeseparate orders on Wednesday.

The orders came followinga probe conducted by the reg-ulator to investigate irregular-ities in the company's allotmentof 1.51 million GDR amount-ing to $6.99 million on theLuxembourg Stock Exchangein June 2008.

The entire 1.51 millionGDR were subscribed by onlyone entity, Vintage FZE (nowknown as Alta VistaInternational FZE) uponobtaining loan from EuropeanAmerican Investment Bank(EURAM).

Sebi noted that the threedirectors of the firm along withother directors in its boardmeeting in March 2008 passeda board resolution that autho-rised EURAM Bank to useSybly's GDR proceeds as secu-

rity in connection with the loan.The board also authorised

the firm's managing directorand director Umesh KumarMittal, to sign any application,agreement, etc., as may berequired by EURAM Bank.

Subsequently, a pledgeagreement was signed betweenSybly and EURAM Bankwhereby Sybly pledged theGDR proceeds against the loanavailed by Vintage FZE for sub-scribing to Sybly's GDR.

Sebi noted that Vintagewould not have been able to sub-scribe the GDR issue had Syblynot given such security towardsthe loan taken by Vintage.

The orders further notethat "the arrangement of loanand pledge agreement, whichresulted in the subscription ofGDR issue of Sybly was not dis-closed to the stock exchange ina true and complete mannerbut was reported as misleadingnews to the stock exchange."

In similarly worded sepa-rate orders, Sebi said: "theNoticee by approving the afore-said board resolution in theboard meeting held on March31, 2008, and which subse-quently led to execution of thepledge agreement ... Has actedas a party to the fraudulentscheme."

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The Commerce Ministry hasrecommended imposition

of countervailing duty onChinese tyres for buses and lor-ries, a move aimed at guardingdomestic players from importsthat are subsidised by theneighbouring country.

The Ministry's investiga-tion arm Directorate General ofTrade Remedies (DGTR) in itsfindings after a probe has stat-ed that imposition of definitivecountervailing duty is requiredto offset subsidisation.

"The authority considers itnecessary to recommendimposition of definitive coun-tervailing duty on the importsof the subject goods (NewPneumatic Tyres for Buses andLorries) from China," theDGTR has said in a notifica-tion.

It said since the productalready attracts anti-dumpingduty from China, the amountof countervailing duty to beimposed would be the differ-ence between the quantum ofspecified countervailing andanti-dumping duty payable.

The finance ministry takesfinal call for imposition of theduty.

The direc-torate carriedout the probefollowing com-plaints fromt h eAutomot iveT y r eManufacturer'sAssociation.They have fileda petition onbehalf ofdomestic pro-ducers for

imposition of the duty on theseimports.

The DGTR said thedomestic industry has con-tended that China is providingcountervailable subsidies tothe producers and exporters ofthese tyres.

According to the petitionof the association, subsidies byChina are being provided by

them under different pro-grammes such as grants, taxincentives, preferential lending,export financing and exportcredit, and equity support.

Imports of these tyres fromChina increased to 81,896tonne in 2016-17 from 30,665tonne in 2014-15.

Countervailing duty is acountry-specific duty which isimposed to safeguard thedomestic industry againstunfair trade subsidies provid-ed by the local governments ofthe exporting nations.

India has already imposedcountervailing duty as well asanti-dumping duties on variouskinds of products from China,with which India has a hugetrade deficit.

Trade deficit with Chinaincreased to $63.12 billion in2017-18 from $51.11 billion in2016-17.

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India's merchandise and ser-vices export would touch

$540-billion mark this fiscal,Commerce Minister SureshPrabhu said Thursday.

He said exports are grow-ing at a healthy pace and ship-ments of goods would reachover $330 billion.

Similarly, services exportswould touch about $200 billion,according to Prabhu.

In total, both "merchandiseand services exports puttogether will reach about $540

billion" by the end of this fis-cal, the minister said here at afunction.

During April-February2018-19, the goods exportsgrew by 8.85 per cent to$298.47 billion.

Talking about the stallednegotiations for a free tradeagreement between India andEuropean Union, the ministersaid India is keen to resume thetalks.

"We are really keen to havethis FTA with EU. India willwork to find a workable deal,"he said.

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NTPC Limited (NTPC),the largest power gener-

ating company in India,priced US$ 450 million 5Year bond offering in theinternational markets underits USD 6 billion MediumTerm Note (MTN)Programme on 26th March2019. NTPC’s US$ 6 billionMTN Programme was setup in 2006 and this issuancewas the tenth offering underthe Programme taking thecumulative amount raisedunder the MTN Programmeto US $ 4.30 billion.

Having updated theMTN Programme inDecember 2018, NTPC was

wel l posit ioned to takeadvantage of a supportiveprimary credit market andconducted comprehensivedeal roadshow covering inSingapore, HongKong andLondon from 21st – 25thMarch 2019 to reach out to awide range of fixed incomeglobal investors and toappraise them about compa-nies’ financials and its futureplans. Based on the investorsfeedback, NTPC launched aUSD 450 million senior,unsecured, fixed rate Reg-S 5year bond transaction withan initial price guidance ofCurrent 5Y US Treasuriesyields (CT5) plus 185 bpsarea on 26th March 2019(Asia open).

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India’s second largest IT ser-vices firm Infosys on

Thursday said it would acquire75% stake in ABN AMROBank’s wholly-owned subsidiary,Stater,, for 127.5 million euros(about �989 crore). Both thecompanies have signed anagreement to this effect.Founded in 1997, Stater providesend-to-end mortgage adminis-tration services in theNetherlands, Belgium andGermany.

As part of the deal, Infosyswill acquire 75% of the share-holding in Stater, while ABNAMRO will continue to hold theremaining 25%, Infosys said ina statement. Infosys said thepartnership was in alignmentwith its strategy to strengthen itsmortgage servicing capabilitiesin Continental Europe.

The transaction is expectedto close during the first quarterof fiscal 2020, subject to cus-tomary closing conditions, itadded. “This transactionstrengthens our approach tooffer clients digital platforms andindustry focused solutions. Itbrings together our comple-mentary capabilities to enhancethe value we offer to our finan-cial services clients,” Infosys

president Mohit Joshi said.The current management

team of Stater will continue tosteer the company, Infosysadded. “While mortgages are akey product for ABN AMRO,providing administrative mort-gage services is not a core activ-ity. That’s why we are verypleased with Infosys as Stater’snew majority shareholder.

“ABN AMRO will keep astrategic interest of 25% and willcontinue to be an importantclient to Stater,” said ChristianBornfeld, member of the exec-utive board of ABN AMRO.Infosys said mortgage serviceswas a focus area for large cor-porations in the financial sec-tor, given the importance of theasset on a bank’s balance sheet.

In a regulatory filing,Infosys said it would have therights of a majority sharehold-er as part of the terms of theshareholders’ agreement. Thisincludes the right to appointmajority of directors in thesupervisory board, right to sub-scribe to new shares, right offirst refusal in the event oftransfer of shares, right torestrict amendment of articles,issuance, redemption and repur-chase of shares, merger, demerg-er, bankruptcy or Liquidationamong others, it added.

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State-owned Power FinanceCorporation (PFC) on

Thursday completed the acqui-sition of majority stake in RECLtd. by transferring �14,500crore to the government, anofficial said. The transactionhas helped the governmentmeet its disinvestment target of

�80,000 crore for the currentfinancial year.

“The entire considerationof �14,500 crore for acquiring52.63% equity of the Govern-ment of India in REC is paid byPFC through RTGS (real-timegross settlement) mode thismorning,” the official told PTI.The official said PFC chairmanand managing director Rajeev

Sharma handed over the RTGSadvice to Power Secretary AKBhalla on Thursday to com-plete the acquisition. Themoney has been transferredinto the government’s accountonline.

The official further said thegovernment’s 52.63% equity inREC would be transferred inthe name of the PFC by the

closing of the stock market onThursday. PFC has raisedmoney from Bank of Baroda,Life Insurance Corporationand State Bank of India, amongothers, to make the payment.

Earlier on March 20, PFChad inked a share purchaseagreement to acquire 103.94crore equity shares of �10 eachof REC Ltd.

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Benchmark indices ratch-eted higher on Thursdayas banking, finance and

IT stocks surged amid expiry ofMarch series derivatives con-tracts.

The BSE Sensex vaulted412.84 points, or 1.08%, toclose at 38,545.72, while thebroader NSE Nifty settled at11,570, higher by 124.95 pointsor 1.09%.

Rate-sensitive banking,realty and auto counters spurt-ed on expectations of a rate cutby RBI next week, brokers said.

Heavy short-covering onexpiry of March series futuresand options (F&O) contractsalso buoyed investor senti-ment, they added.

Global equities were mixedamid a fall in bond yields,underscoring recession fears.

The 30-share Sensex, aftera positive start at 38,208.30,stayed in the green throughoutthe session, with buying pacegathering momentum towardsthe end.

In the Sensex pack, gainersincluded HCL Tech, SBI, ITC,Bharti Airtel, Sun Pharma, YesBank, Axis Bank, TCS, AsianPaints, ICICI Bank, TCS, BajajFinance and Infosys, jumpingup to 3.84%.

On the other hand, TataSteel, ONGC, Bajaj Auto,PowerGrid, M&M and HeroMotoCorp fell up to 1.73%.

“Benchmark indices out-performed the broader indiceson the expiry day supported by

banks and IT. Bank Nifty pro-pelled to a new high in expec-tation of rate cut from RBI nextweek and recapitalisation ofbanks. Besides, the slide inIndia’s 10-year bond yield fur-ther raised the possibility ofrate cut.

“Global economic growthconcerns and Fed’s dovish viewon rates will give a positiveimpetus to emerging marketslike India,” said Vinod Nair,head of research at GeojitFinancial Services.

Except metal and power, allBSE sectoral indices finishedwith gains, led by realty, teck,IT, bank and finance.

On a net basis, foreignportfolio investors (FPIs)bought shares worth �1,481.11crore on Wednesday, and

domestic institutional investors(DIIs) were net buyers to thetune of �134.92 crore, provi-sional data available with theBSE showed.

The rupee, meanwhile,depreciated 11 paise against theUS dollar to 68.99 (intra-day).

Elsewhere in Asia, HongKong’s Hang Seng climbed0.16% while Japan’s Nikkei fell1.61%, Shanghai CompositeIndex declined 0.92%, andKorea’s Kospi slipped 0.82%.

In the Eurozone, Frankfurt’sDAX gained 0.50% and ParisCAC 40 was up 0.35% in morn-ing trade. London’s FTSE toojumped 0.73%.

The benchmark Brentcrude futures were tradinglower by 0.37% at USD 67.58per barrel.

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New Delhi (PTI): S&P Global Ratings has downgraded thecredit rating of Tata Motors and its wholly-owned subsidiaryJaguar Land Rover (JLR), citing weak profitability, Tata Motorssaid on Thursday. “We would like to inform that based on S&PGlobal Ratings, the credit rating of the company and Jaguar LandRover Automotive Plc has been downgraded,” the company saidin a regulatory filing. The rating agency cited weakness in prof-itability of JLR as the main reason for downgrading credit rat-ing of Tata Motors and its British arm. S&P cut its rating on seniorunsecured notes of JLR and Tata Motors to ‘B+’ from ‘BB-’.

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New Delhi (PTI): Apparelbrand W, a part of TCNSClothing Co Ltd, is eyeing upto 20% of its revenue from saleof products made from sus-tainable fabrics in the next 18-24 months.

“Sustainability in fashion isa relatively newer concept. We areexperimenting with differentkind of sustainable fabrics. Weexpect revenue from productsmade from sustainable fabrics todouble in the 18-24 months to10-20% from about 5-10% at pre-sent,” TCNS Clothing Co man-aging director Anant Daga toldPTI. The company on Thursdayannounced an exclusive part-nership with Aditya Birla Group’sLivaeco brand. Last year W hadlaunched a new line of HaritKhadi products styled by thecompany. “These sustainableproducts are priced at a premi-

um, but we have seen greatresponse from customers forHarit Khadi products. We wantto give the customers the choiceabout the kind of fabric they wantto buy,” Daga added.

Aditya Birla Group seniorpresident Manohar Samuel said:“We are launching our newestoffering Livaeco exclusively withW, which has created a collectionthat embodies our focus on sus-tainability and high fashion todelight the customers”. TCNSClothing sells its productsthrough 521 exclusive brandoutlets across 1,598 large formatstores across Shoppers Stop,Pantaloons, Lifestyle, Central,among others and 1,496 multi-brand outlets as of December 31,2018. The company plans to open70-80 exclusive brand outlets inthe next fiscal for its brand W andAurelia, Daga said.

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Script Open High Low LTPSUZLON 6.65 6.75 6.43 6.50DHFL 137.50 155.00 137.40 149.40RPOWER 10.45 10.75 10.42 10.67JPASSOCIAT 5.42 5.58 5.23 5.33YESBANK 270.00 276.90 268.40 275.20IBULHSGFIN 755.00 824.00 755.00 814.95SBIN 310.00 319.90 309.15 318.40SPICEJET 96.75 100.00 95.65 99.60RCOM 4.35 4.35 4.35 4.35GRUH 270.75 275.25 259.85 272.50JUBILANT 651.10 676.00 650.00 654.60IBVENTURES 289.00 323.90 289.00 314.50GRAPHITE 418.00 456.30 418.00 444.90RELIANCE 1350.00 1369.90 1343.35 1360.55JETAIRWAYS 276.00 276.00 267.55 269.35HEG 1999.00 2164.05 1990.00 2121.05BANKBARODA 121.95 130.40 121.55 129.60IDEA 28.60 29.90 28.25 29.00INFY* 730.00 745.00 730.00 738.50RELCAPITAL 203.45 208.00 200.10 201.50ITC 294.95 301.50 293.15 300.00ICICIPRULI 336.10 354.75 336.10 351.85L&TFH 155.00 155.45 151.70 153.50PNB 93.50 95.70 93.45 95.35IDBI 42.35 45.05 42.35 44.50AXISBANK 762.15 788.55 757.50 780.20RELINFRA 132.75 135.90 131.15 135.15TATAMOTORS 169.70 171.45 167.50 170.60JUSTDIAL 597.10 621.10 597.10 612.40ASHOKLEY 85.90 89.20 85.35 88.50ANDHRABANK 28.00 28.00 27.30 27.80MARUTI 6564.00 6618.00 6507.00 6585.70SUNPHARMA 467.80 479.90 465.05 475.75DABUR 411.35 417.15 407.50 412.05TATASTEEL 514.85 516.50 505.60 507.00ZEEL 426.00 444.35 426.00 441.90ICICIBANK 392.80 401.25 392.80 400.00RAIN 97.25 104.25 96.60 101.80TCS 1978.00 2010.95 1972.40 2000.45M&M 660.10 663.30 653.60 656.90CANBK 285.00 298.35 283.80 295.10IFCI 13.19 13.75 13.10 13.65BAJAJ-AUTO 2985.00 3020.00 2911.00 2941.15PETRONET 235.40 245.60 235.35 244.20NBCC 65.70 65.70 64.10 65.00VEDL 177.80 178.95 175.75 178.05MUTHOOTFIN 602.65 613.55 597.00 609.00IDFCFIRSTB 53.55 54.85 53.00 54.45BHEL 71.80 72.30 71.00 71.50LT 1368.00 1390.00 1365.00 1384.05INDUSINDBK 1819.90 1835.00 1778.00 1819.95BOMDYEING 137.60 141.70 136.60 138.15AVANTI 424.00 437.00 417.00 421.30DLF 191.00 197.70 191.00 193.95WIPRO 255.95 257.90 253.80 254.60HDFCBANK 2300.20 2327.00 2285.75 2300.55HCLTECH 1044.95 1090.00 1044.95 1082.25HEROMOTOCO 2589.00 2589.00 2517.20 2532.05ALBK 53.45 55.40 52.00 54.65ADANIPORTS 369.95 383.00 368.30 380.90BAJFINANCE 2943.00 2996.00 2942.00 2989.65ESCORTS 819.00 820.00 790.20 794.25NTPC 137.00 139.00 135.30 135.85PHILIPCARB 173.00 181.50 172.75 177.45HDFCLIFE 371.10 373.25 368.45 371.05BANKINDIA 103.10 106.30 102.90 105.60UNIONBANK 93.80 97.00 93.00 96.55KOTAKBANK 1334.00 1352.50 1329.95 1341.00ONGC 160.25 160.95 156.25 157.60TECHM 770.00 782.10 769.10 771.85GMRINFRA 19.90 20.40 19.40 20.00BANDHANBNK 498.00 530.00 496.00 521.25INOXLEISUR 324.00 334.90 322.00 328.00LUPIN 726.00 730.00 720.40 724.70PCJEWELLER 80.95 82.80 80.25 82.30BEML 966.50 997.20 966.00 991.25EDELWEISS 192.00 196.55 189.10 193.70HINDPETRO 269.70 279.55 269.70 276.05WOCKPHARMA 429.35 437.20 426.70 432.55IOC 161.60 164.00 160.60 161.65INDIGO 1400.40 1448.45 1390.00 1441.35TAKE 134.00 145.55 134.00 143.45RECLTD 149.00 151.15 147.00 149.30GODREJPROP 889.00 889.00 855.05 866.60BIOCON 600.00 608.00 592.15 606.45DISHTV 36.45 39.70 36.30 39.00RBLBANK 672.05 686.70 671.65 684.20DELTACORP 258.00 263.05 258.00 261.05SIEMENS 1074.00 1093.00 1065.20 1087.50WELCORP 135.00 136.55 130.10 131.90BATAINDIA 1375.50 1425.65 1369.00 1412.60JAICORPLTD 113.55 117.70 113.55 116.75VGUARD 224.40 230.80 221.50 224.00ORIENTBANK 114.30 115.45 112.30 114.90DCAL 209.00 210.00 203.00 210.00BALKRISIND 963.80 990.95 960.65 981.65ABCAPITAL 101.20 101.85 98.00 99.00FEDERALBNK 92.70 94.00 91.40 93.55TITAN 1115.00 1135.00 1112.15 1134.00HINDUNILVR 1684.90 1690.00 1675.00 1684.30BHARTIARTL 323.00 333.15 318.25 330.45IBREALEST 90.00 92.70 89.85 91.40EXIDEIND 225.75 228.90 220.00 221.20GAIL 355.00 363.00 345.35 358.30ISGEC 553.10 580.00 553.10 569.15BAJAJFINSV 7008.00 7020.00 6864.75 6953.05JINDALSTEL 167.90 168.55 164.00 164.85HDFC 1922.50 1950.35 1915.00 1941.40

SOUTHBANK 16.00 16.60 15.90 16.49PEL 2660.00 2708.00 2620.00 2698.00GODREJCP 695.00 700.00 691.00 693.70PFC 117.10 119.50 116.60 117.55MOTHERSUMI 142.90 146.30 142.65 145.80LTI 1671.05 1697.00 1655.75 1683.85JSWSTEEL 286.50 290.00 284.05 287.70INDIACEM 101.75 103.15 101.50 102.35BLISSGVS 167.20 183.00 166.00 178.05SRTRANSFIN 1258.40 1292.75 1253.80 1276.80MPHASIS 948.05 975.90 941.15 961.65TATAMTRDVR 85.00 85.55 84.10 85.25SAIL 50.50 51.00 50.15 50.55MGL 1021.10 1044.00 1014.00 1039.60INDIANB 263.80 280.00 261.55 276.45COALINDIA 233.60 237.25 232.90 235.55SYNDIBANK 40.85 43.30 40.45 42.85STAR 463.95 469.45 458.50 464.95GNFC 306.20 314.30 305.35 312.25FORCEMOT 1680.00 1728.00 1675.00 1706.60MANAPPURAM 121.75 126.60 121.75 126.55ASIANPAINT 1482.00 1505.00 1473.70 1501.00NCC 113.45 113.95 111.00 111.45HINDALCO 208.00 208.10 202.10 202.90OBEROIRLTY 524.00 541.25 524.00 533.80PIDILITIND 1228.00 1244.25 1219.00 1223.15ICICIGI 996.15 1010.10 996.00 998.75HEXAWARE 335.50 339.50 335.50 337.20BRITANNIA 3100.00 3113.95 3029.90 3087.85TATAPOWER 71.95 72.60 71.05 71.40STRTECH 219.10 222.50 218.80 219.60SPARC 192.10 198.40 192.10 194.45AMBUJACEM 232.00 234.60 227.90 231.75RCF 59.80 60.20 58.80 59.15SUNTECK 459.95 464.50 454.65 459.50CENTRALBK 32.05 36.05 32.05 34.70BEL 92.95 93.20 91.80 92.45M&MFIN 433.00 435.30 425.45 428.50BHARATFORG 494.70 497.00 488.10 494.60BPCL 379.90 388.85 378.70 385.35OIL 181.65 186.00 180.65 184.75FSL 48.90 49.35 47.75 47.95ADANIGREEN 35.15 37.55 35.00 35.80TATAELXSI 954.45 964.80 949.05 959.80UPL 907.90 936.00 896.60 927.05VIPIND 484.00 485.75 472.75 482.25SUNTV 592.00 607.90 589.00 606.00KTKBANK 131.50 134.45 131.50 133.55TRIDENT 68.55 70.45 68.00 68.50APOLLOHOSP 1155.00 1191.95 1154.50 1190.00

NMDC 103.05 103.90 100.80 101.50WESTLIFE 427.00 441.00 422.95 439.80INTELLECT 205.00 213.40 205.00 208.85LICHSGFIN 535.00 536.75 527.30 535.10PVR 1609.25 1658.10 1609.00 1636.65GSFC 101.00 103.60 100.80 102.10UBL 1370.00 1385.20 1337.35 1370.50INFIBEAM 41.55 42.60 41.50 42.40NATIONALUM 53.25 53.75 53.00 53.00FRETAIL 467.00 467.00 451.00 455.00JISLJALEQS 56.85 58.85 56.55 58.40ACC 1599.00 1624.00 1587.55 1620.00JMFINANCIL 94.00 95.35 93.55 94.10EICHERMOT 21039.50 21288.80 20793.85 20881.60DIVISLAB 1674.30 1678.65 1642.00 1663.00AMARAJABAT 725.20 731.75 713.10 717.30DRREDDY 2765.00 2765.00 2710.00 2716.80CGPOWER 43.25 44.10 42.50 43.80POWERGRID 199.45 199.95 196.50 197.90ADANIPOWER 46.95 47.55 46.60 46.95ASHOKA 132.20 132.90 128.00 129.70RADICO 397.80 406.00 395.00 400.65HINDZINC 271.50 278.00 268.40 276.40IDFC 46.50 47.30 45.85 46.90CEATLTD 1080.05 1095.00 1070.80 1087.20HFCL 23.15 23.50 22.60 22.90DBL 670.00 673.80 645.00 646.95ASTERDM 156.20 156.20 150.55 152.50OMAXE 208.95 208.95 205.00 205.95REPCOHOME 470.00 481.40 461.25 469.45AUROPHARMA 774.50 777.30 766.05 770.10JUBLFOOD 1444.10 1465.00 1437.80 1459.35PHOENIXLTD 638.85 680.85 638.85 645.20RNAM 197.20 204.80 197.20 202.95IPCALAB 919.75 970.00 914.85 970.00HAVELLS 753.65 763.50 747.95 759.50

IRB 142.00 145.00 141.35 143.80VOLTAS 626.65 633.50 622.80 623.40TVSMOTOR 460.00 475.00 459.80 474.00SFL 1230.10 1262.25 1206.00 1254.35CANFINHOME 338.55 347.00 337.20 347.00UJJIVAN 340.00 340.40 336.00 336.60VENKYS 2340.05 2362.00 2312.65 2316.95J&KBANK 48.45 54.05 48.10 52.95LTTS 1460.00 1549.90 1460.00 1540.05MERCK 3500.00 3618.00 3475.00 3558.15MINDTREE 947.45 950.10 935.60 941.15BAJAJELEC 569.90 572.00 561.00 566.40IGL 305.00 310.90 305.00 307.55MAGMA 117.95 121.80 116.95 119.50MEGH 61.65 63.10 61.50 61.80CIPLA 526.95 530.00 522.75 526.80MCX 785.20 813.45 784.55 806.75CHOLAFIN 1428.15 1454.50 1418.05 1447.00NIITTECH 1310.00 1338.00 1310.00 1324.00AJANTPHARM 1025.00 1029.15 990.95 1022.25GRANULES 118.00 119.90 115.10 116.50APOLLOTYRE 212.00 218.45 212.00 217.70MANPASAND 121.80 123.45 119.00 119.25HIMATSEIDE 222.80 223.00 213.00 213.15ULTRACEMCO 3900.00 3970.00 3899.25 3911.60DMART 1480.00 1483.00 1465.65 1469.00GRASIM 829.00 840.60 824.50 830.50NESTLEIND 10900.00 11100.00 10813.25 11027.90CORPBANK 28.00 29.25 28.00 28.75NOCIL 147.00 149.00 145.55 146.70ISEC 245.00 251.70 240.90 242.65THOMASCOOK 241.95 247.00 239.00 247.00GUJGAS 145.00 145.00 143.10 144.30MFSL 451.90 452.50 435.00 438.65AARTIIND 1585.00 1587.50 1538.00 1548.40GICHSGFIN 275.00 278.00 267.25 270.35BBTC 1290.00 1311.00 1278.00 1283.00GUJFLUORO 1062.95 1085.05 1062.95 1082.10CENTURYTEX 902.00 913.00 898.00 909.00TATACHEM 584.35 589.00 579.00 589.00ADANITRANS 209.70 219.45 209.70 217.65AUBANK 574.05 588.80 570.60 588.00SHANKARA 408.00 418.35 407.00 408.00TATAGLOBAL 198.10 200.45 197.00 199.70PAGEIND 24730.05 24802.50 23793.30 24800.00KEC 299.95 306.00 295.65 304.80BAJAJHLDNG 3268.35 3750.00 3254.40 3553.00TATAMETALI 622.25 636.60 618.10 627.30KANSAINER 455.00 455.00 446.60 449.00ENGINERSIN 116.10 117.30 115.00 115.90KEI 425.10 428.10 412.50 423.50NIACL 192.15 198.85 187.10 191.80PNBHOUSING 826.35 835.00 824.35 825.75GODREJIND 542.40 545.25 535.85 541.50WELSPUNIND 60.60 61.45 59.20 59.45DCMSHRIRAM 415.00 419.00 409.55 414.95MINDAIND 340.00 343.00 333.50 334.95RAYMOND 800.00 806.15 792.00 797.90BHARATFIN 1144.00 1146.30 1117.00 1135.35EQUITAS 135.95 136.00 134.00 135.60KALPATPOWR 476.00 489.00 470.20 473.25DCBBANK 204.00 205.40 202.45 204.95TORNTPOWER 252.40 253.95 248.50 249.50INDOSTAR 368.95 389.00 367.25 382.30TV18BRDCST 34.70 35.15 34.50 35.00NLCINDIA 69.45 71.50 67.85 69.55MOTILALOFS 600.00 601.00 591.75 595.05KSCL 453.00 461.80 450.65 456.50GHCL 247.00 247.00 240.80 241.45FORTIS 137.45 139.05 135.45 136.25SRF 2430.15 2465.55 2430.15 2454.15CASTROLIND 164.45 165.50 162.70 164.20NAVKARCORP 40.90 42.00 39.80 40.15CUMMINSIND 740.30 749.75 735.45 742.75ABB 1327.00 1330.00 1307.05 1315.00HUDCO 43.20 44.85 43.20 44.60COLPAL 1262.00 1270.50 1250.10 1253.65APLLTD 528.10 530.15 517.35 520.05CHAMBLFERT 172.00 173.50 167.80 168.15GSPL 177.05 184.85 176.60 183.35GODREJAGRO 514.25 517.50 508.15 509.00JSWENERGY 69.80 69.80 68.05 68.80SREINFRA 28.90 29.80 28.35 29.45SHK 153.00 154.00 147.80 151.65PRESTIGE 249.10 255.90 249.00 250.00BERGEPAINT 321.80 327.45 321.80 325.00HSCL 114.00 117.95 114.00 116.10HINDCOPPER 48.80 49.10 48.30 48.40LEMONTREE 80.35 82.45 80.05 81.75TORNTPHARM 1895.45 1937.25 1894.00 1931.05UCOBANK 19.00 19.35 18.80 19.05DEEPAKFERT 134.05 137.70 134.05 136.50SOBHA 473.05 485.00 472.70 478.50SWANENERGY 106.85 110.80 106.85 108.00CADILAHC 332.50 338.00 330.80 335.75GODFRYPHLP 1120.55 1143.70 1120.55 1137.10LAURUSLABS 401.00 405.00 400.00 403.10PERSISTENT* 630.00 649.65 627.20 635.05JBCHEPHARM 359.90 363.15 351.20 355.00MOIL 153.55 158.00 153.45 157.55MARICO 335.50 340.95 334.25 338.35SONATSOFTW 339.00 345.00 334.05 335.90KRBL 354.05 358.00 336.35 341.25ITI 94.25 95.80 94.05 94.50CHENNPETRO 260.50 267.60 258.25 267.20WHIRLPOOL 1518.00 1542.10 1477.40 1494.35SBILIFE 621.50 623.55 614.05 616.65APLAPOLLO 1381.20 1470.75 1381.20 1450.00GUJALKALI 497.00 511.50 494.50 496.80

TATACOMM 603.30 613.25 595.95 607.40CONCOR 519.00 519.00 501.30 511.10ASTRAL 1160.30 1163.45 1134.00 1134.10DEEPAKNI 275.00 278.65 273.15 273.15TIMETECHNO 104.65 107.25 102.20 103.45SYNGENE 585.35 599.05 568.40 590.75EIDPARRY 200.00 205.70 200.00 205.00ALLCARGO 114.10 119.00 114.10 117.40JKTYRE 90.50 90.50 89.40 90.00JSL 39.10 39.35 38.40 38.75JINDALSAW 85.00 86.75 84.70 84.90LAKSHVILAS 64.25 64.50 63.25 64.10FDC 169.95 173.80 164.40 164.60GSKCONS 6930.15 7295.00 6921.95 7181.00ABFRL 223.15 225.50 220.00 221.05NBVENTURES 103.25 104.00 101.75 102.40HAL 738.00 738.00 715.00 720.15AIAENG 1766.00 1855.10 1766.00 1832.75MAXINDIA 68.50 69.40 68.30 69.00EMAMILTD 399.25 405.20 394.00 394.00KAJARIACER 575.00 578.25 566.75 572.00NATCOPHARM* 561.95 570.00 560.00 565.75GICRE 244.75 244.85 237.40 239.55QUESS 769.35 769.35 734.30 745.05PTC 73.50 74.15 73.40 73.65INDHOTEL 151.55 152.50 149.60 150.50HERITGFOOD 524.05 549.00 517.85 533.70INFRATEL 317.80 319.50 314.25 317.60SUVEN 265.90 267.90 260.80 262.05HSIL 252.00 255.30 247.00 248.35COCHINSHIP 391.85 398.20 385.05 394.85CENTURYPLY 199.95 203.95 199.35 203.00BAJAJCON 316.95 318.00 312.00 312.00NAVINFLUOR 716.00 727.00 709.10 710.10SYMPHONY 1390.00 1415.00 1385.15 1392.75PRSMJOHNSN 91.90 94.50 91.70 93.55BASF 1444.75 1494.90 1405.70 1489.50GREAVESCOT 141.95 143.60 139.25 139.50ADVENZYMES 177.00 177.00 168.50 168.85FCONSUMER 44.95 45.60 44.75 45.05UFLEX 215.15 218.00 213.40 215.45RAJESHEXPO 670.00 675.00 665.25 672.65TIINDIA 381.00 386.80 362.65 380.00SCHNEIDER 102.95 104.20 101.00 101.90MRPL 73.55 74.95 72.30 73.15TTKPRESTIG 8390.00 8592.00 8380.00 8591.00NHPC 24.60 24.80 24.50 24.60CROMPTON 214.15 222.35 214.15 219.10MMTC 27.85 28.25 27.85 28.00IOB 13.90 14.31 13.90 14.27PFIZER 3250.00 3310.00 3229.75 3260.00GLENMARK 642.50 651.00 637.45 650.00WABAG 326.00 328.05 323.85 327.85CAPPL 411.90 411.90 400.40 401.00HEIDELBERG 177.25 180.00 174.80 178.75TEJASNET 170.50 173.55 167.00 173.55GREENPLY 154.50 155.75 151.00 151.00JAMNAAUTO 59.40 60.50 59.00 59.70SADBHAV 251.90 254.40 241.10 246.00BIRLACORPN 524.00 525.00 512.00 525.00SUPREMEIND 1114.95 1114.95 1075.05 1097.00SCI 37.45 37.75 37.10 37.70COROMANDEL 499.95 500.00 486.50 494.25CARBORUNIV 388.75 391.00 380.20 391.00CRISIL 1459.55 1475.00 1444.00 1448.10EVEREADY 194.00 198.00 193.25 194.85TRENT 371.05 383.00 364.00 366.95RAMCOCEM 711.00 713.65 702.10 712.00LINDEINDIA 479.55 494.00 479.55 485.00UNITEDBNK 10.99 11.38 10.85 11.21COFFEEDAY 289.00 296.05 284.20 296.05MAHABANK 13.28 13.69 13.28 13.63LALPATHLAB 1070.00 1085.00 1060.00 1060.00PGHH 10750.00 10825.00 10350.25 10610.10AEGISLOG 202.50 204.10 199.55 200.25PARAGMILK 255.00 258.00 255.00 255.55ALKEM 1756.60 1770.00 1748.00 1755.40FORBESCO 2175.00 2235.00 2175.00 2187.15TATACOFFEE 89.90 91.15 89.65 90.20ATUL 3486.00 3553.40 3472.00 3511.20IBULISL 273.45 293.00 273.45 293.00GPPL 101.50 102.00 100.25 100.80SJVN 24.15 24.15 23.70 24.15ENDURANCE 1142.70 1157.20 1142.70 1148.00PIIND 1030.90 1034.40 1018.00 1034.40CUB 202.00 202.95 200.75 201.20NESCO 470.00 494.00 468.00 486.65JSLHISAR 91.70 91.70 89.35 91.30PNCINFRA 148.35 152.55 147.10 148.35

JAGRAN 118.00 119.20 116.55 119.00NAUKRI 1886.00 1901.90 1861.00 1861.00SHREECEM 17900.00 18484.05 17696.75 18249.00BDL 282.05 285.75 281.00 281.65BOSCHLTD 18000.00 18025.25 17850.05 17921.15DHANUKA 407.70 407.70 391.50 392.60EIHOTEL 193.40 202.85 193.00 199.20INOXWIND 63.90 66.75 63.90 66.10SUNDRMFAST 558.00 558.00 549.75 558.00LAXMIMACH 6098.00 6098.00 5998.00 6028.80SUDARSCHEM 338.90 350.00 338.90 350.00ECLERX 1138.00 1150.00 1133.00 1150.00SUNCLAYLTD 2870.00 2900.00 2750.00 2900.00CENTRUM 31.00 33.15 31.00 32.60MAHINDCIE 233.00 240.30 230.00 233.40KNRCON 262.45 263.00 258.00 258.00NETWORK18 34.65 35.25 34.35 34.75REDINGTON 95.45 96.20 95.10 95.90IEX 160.25 164.95 159.95 164.95MAHLOG 509.00 515.00 503.55 509.30OFSS 3374.90 3400.00 3359.35 3363.55VINATIORGA 1645.65 1646.80 1617.40 1639.80CYIENT* 669.00 674.00 650.25 654.95FINCABLES 489.70 491.10 480.00 480.00TIMKEN 583.95 584.30 565.00 566.00SHILPAMED 342.00 347.45 340.00 344.40MINDACORP 140.00 140.00 136.20 137.50GLAXO 1300.00 1300.00 1289.60 1299.80RALLIS 161.55 163.40 160.60 161.70JKCEMENT 836.00 841.90 820.00 841.00MRF 56374.45 56837.25 56000.00 56009.00NILKAMAL 1432.25 1433.00 1411.50 1420.00JKLAKSHMI 355.80 355.80 347.40 347.40JCHAC 1930.00 2045.00 1930.00 2009.60GDL 127.10 131.25 125.00 128.75FINOLEXIND 496.00 501.00 485.80 500.00GILLETTE 6482.00 6650.00 6482.00 6613.85THERMAX 996.30 996.30 982.80 986.90BAYERCROP 4349.70 4350.00 4329.95 4338.20ZYDUSWELL 1316.15 1327.00 1279.05 1289.50BALMLAWRIE 186.80 187.00 184.50 186.00SKFINDIA 1915.60 1979.00 1915.60 1959.55TNPL 209.75 210.65 204.10 205.25STARCEMENT 97.00 100.90 97.00 99.20ZENSARTECH 234.85 235.35 224.40 234.50IFBIND 949.65 971.00 947.00 970.00GRINDWELL 591.10 592.00 570.30 578.95MAHSCOOTER 3450.40 3499.00 3450.40 3483.00ABBOTINDIA 7200.05 7322.60 7200.05 7299.00VBL 815.75 817.90 807.05 810.50GEPIL 812.40 814.90 790.00 810.00SANOFI 5688.90 5847.30 5688.90 5780.00BLUEDART 3421.90 3620.00 3416.50 3537.25GAYAPROJ 153.00 162.50 151.65 159.40NAVNETEDUL 108.75 110.20 108.35 108.85GET&D 261.00 276.25 261.00 274.05DBCORP 187.55 191.45 185.90 188.50SOMANYCERA 410.00 421.50 404.00 421.00SUPPETRO 225.95 232.70 220.20 230.00GMDCLTD 81.75 82.00 81.00 81.00ITDC 280.05 284.70 277.55 281.70CERA 2682.85 2770.00 2680.00 2770.00GULFOILLUB 840.00 840.00 827.00 831.10KPRMILL 549.00 576.65 549.00 567.60LUXIND 1341.30 1355.00 1335.05 1335.05LAOPALA 212.90 218.70 210.95 217.85TATAINVEST 827.85 827.85 824.00 825.60HONAUT 22552.70 22589.00 22251.00 22535.00HATSUN 722.50 722.50 706.95 710.15SOLARINDS 1033.05 1059.00 1023.65 1030.00GESHIP 281.00 286.00 281.00 284.25THYROCARE 515.10 526.15 515.10 524.35ASTRAZEN 1972.75 1972.75 1938.60 1966.00MHRIL 250.00 250.00 243.95 244.65VTL 1066.60 1093.00 1066.60 1092.25SHOPERSTOP 465.05 469.35 462.80 463.05JYOTHYLAB 185.00 185.50 183.35 184.40BLUESTARCO 660.10 672.00 660.10 671.80ITDCEM 130.00 132.00 128.90 132.00ORIENTCEM 82.85 83.20 81.20 82.40CCL 290.35 292.70 285.05 285.20TVTODAY 319.70 320.70 316.30 318.00TVSSRICHAK 2218.95 2240.00 2186.60 2235.00RELAXO 765.00 769.80 760.00 769.80CARERATING 992.00 993.00 989.00 993.00ERIS 623.00 641.00 621.50 640.00SCHAEFFLER 5392.15 5428.50 5345.00 5345.00FLFL 482.30 487.10 480.00 485.00ESSELPRO 114.95 114.95 112.70 114.803MINDIA 23685.05 24073.60 23685.05 23950.65VMART 2685.00 2701.60 2675.00 2675.00MAHLIFE 364.85 364.85 361.40 361.40SHRIRAMCIT 1802.25 1809.50 1789.50 1809.50SUPRAJIT 238.00 240.95 237.00 240.10SHARDACROP 364.00 386.95 358.50 386.00ASAHIINDIA 260.00 263.50 256.40 256.75GALAXYSURF 1051.00 1065.00 1051.00 1065.00APARINDS 665.90 672.00 661.85 672.00TEAMLEASE 3028.20 3028.20 2977.40 2988.30TRITURBINE 107.10 109.00 107.00 107.00TIFHL 483.80 485.75 472.00 472.00WABCOINDIA 6256.05 6395.70 6256.05 6345.00MONSANTO 2585.00 2598.00 2582.00 2598.00SIS 866.60 870.00 855.50 870.00KIOCL 137.05 140.50 136.80 140.50RATNAMANI 886.00 890.00 885.05 890.00NH 215.05 218.40 213.90 217.10AKZOINDIA 1769.70 1789.00 1769.70 1788.80ELGIEQUIP 244.45 245.00 244.00 244.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 11463.65 11588.50 11452.45 11570.00 124.95IBULHSGFIN 753.00 823.35 753.00 818.00 67.60ZEEL 426.85 445.00 426.30 443.50 20.45ADANIPORTS 368.85 382.65 366.30 381.00 14.70HCLTECH 1051.40 1088.35 1050.00 1085.00 41.85UPL 905.90 935.95 896.40 934.00 32.10SBIN 310.10 339.65 309.05 319.20 10.40ITC 294.10 302.00 293.00 301.00 7.90HINDPETRO 269.15 279.45 269.15 276.25 7.05BHARTIARTL 322.60 333.00 317.75 330.80 8.30YESBANK 270.65 277.70 268.30 275.10 6.65SUNPHARMA 465.00 479.80 465.00 475.45 10.60BPCL 379.55 389.05 378.35 387.30 8.35AXISBANK 761.10 787.65 757.15 775.80 16.50ASIANPAINT 1473.50 1508.95 1473.50 1500.15 28.10TCS 1980.00 2014.60 1972.80 2004.45 36.55TITAN 1120.00 1139.55 1111.45 1135.00 18.50BAJFINANCE 2940.10 3000.00 2940.05 2993.00 47.75LT 1371.00 1392.50 1364.00 1388.00 21.55ICICIBANK 392.75 401.90 392.75 399.05 5.85VEDL 177.00 178.95 175.65 177.95 2.50MARUTI 6535.00 6625.00 6501.20 6609.80 91.80INFY 730.00 745.00 730.00 739.10 9.40HDFC 1917.00 1950.00 1912.05 1942.10 22.20TECHM 770.00 782.00 768.05 772.85 7.90RELIANCE 1350.25 1369.80 1342.80 1362.00 12.75KOTAKBANK 1338.00 1352.00 1328.90 1344.95 12.10COALINDIA 234.40 237.65 232.75 236.30 1.85TATAMOTORS 169.00 171.40 167.55 170.90 1.05GAIL 354.55 363.00 354.30 358.00 2.15GRASIM 828.60 841.45 823.70 833.50 4.90WIPRO 255.90 257.90 254.10 256.00 1.45HINDUNILVR 1685.00 1692.00 1673.40 1689.85 9.05IOC 162.00 164.10 160.35 162.25 0.80INDUSINDBK 1812.50 1834.40 1777.15 1813.00 8.75HDFCBANK 2298.80 2325.00 2287.85 2308.00 8.55NTPC 137.50 139.35 135.10 137.10 0.10CIPLA 525.30 527.35 522.30 525.60 0.10ULTRACEMCO 3920.00 3968.00 3894.45 3900.00 -1.95INFRATEL 317.45 319.65 313.45 316.00 -0.20BAJAJFINSV 6994.00 7022.70 6857.50 6970.00 -10.35JSWSTEEL 286.00 290.00 284.00 286.85 -0.65EICHERMOT 21024.00 21300.00 20781.05 20924.75 -49.40HEROMOTOCO 2550.00 2558.00 2515.00 2530.00 -13.20M&M 659.05 662.75 653.60 655.20 -4.85BAJAJ-AUTO 2989.00 3020.45 2915.00 2954.00 -26.10POWERGRID 200.00 200.00 196.45 197.50 -2.70DRREDDY 2774.70 2774.70 2708.00 2723.00 -42.05ONGC 160.00 160.25 155.20 156.75 -3.35TATASTEEL 514.40 516.45 504.80 505.00 -10.80HINDALCO 206.95 208.30 201.55 203.10 -4.55

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27664.65 27915.30 27648.75 27873.05 249.85BANKBARODA 121.75 131.40 121.55 129.75 8.20BANDHANBNK 496.80 532.40 495.00 518.00 25.30ASHOKLEY 85.60 89.70 85.30 89.10 3.65PETRONET 235.05 246.00 234.35 244.50 8.45SUNTV 587.40 610.00 587.40 609.00 19.75INDIGO 1396.00 1447.90 1388.10 1442.00 40.70SRTRANSFIN 1254.00 1294.00 1254.00 1280.20 34.50PEL 2641.00 2708.00 2620.00 2698.00 66.70SIEMENS 1065.30 1094.40 1064.75 1091.00 26.25CADILAHC 332.00 337.80 330.50 337.70 7.70MOTHERSUMI 143.05 146.30 142.50 145.50 3.05DLF 191.90 197.80 191.60 194.30 3.90HAVELLS 753.00 765.00 747.60 764.60 15.30SHREECEM 17914.00 18449.00 17657.45 18234.85 349.25OIL 182.00 186.50 180.65 184.65 3.25IDEA 28.55 30.00 28.25 29.00 0.50ACC 1604.00 1629.40 1587.00 1629.00 26.45ICICIGI 997.40 1011.00 990.00 1004.95 14.80CONCOR 502.95 514.20 502.95 510.00 7.50L&TFH 154.95 155.15 151.65 153.65 2.15HINDZINC 271.10 277.75 268.10 275.50 3.65SAIL 50.30 51.10 50.10 50.85 0.60BIOCON 600.00 608.75 592.10 608.00 5.70BEL 92.90 93.20 91.65 92.70 0.60LUPIN 728.80 733.00 719.80 728.00 4.30GODREJCP 693.00 697.75 690.00 694.00 3.90ICICIPRULI 337.55 355.00 336.55 351.05 1.85AMBUJACEM 232.30 234.90 227.50 233.20 0.95MARICO 336.40 341.00 334.05 338.20 1.20NMDC 101.50 104.00 100.60 102.00 0.35OFSS 3387.00 3408.95 3350.00 3378.00 7.70DABUR 410.00 417.30 407.45 412.00 0.75LICHSGFIN 536.05 537.70 527.15 533.75 0.40PGHH 10701.00 10974.00 10586.95 10706.00 5.00NHPC 24.60 24.85 24.55 24.65 0.00PIDILITIND 1225.00 1243.50 1217.00 1224.00 0.00BOSCHLTD 17915.15 18000.00 17817.60 17920.00 -39.30HDFCLIFE 371.95 373.20 368.10 370.20 -1.50BHEL 72.10 72.40 70.85 71.00 -0.30SBILIFE 620.00 624.80 613.60 616.00 -2.70DMART 1485.00 1485.00 1468.00 1471.80 -7.60GICRE 244.40 245.00 236.80 238.80 -1.45AUROPHARMA 779.90 779.90 765.75 770.25 -4.80COLPAL 1259.00 1271.80 1250.00 1256.90 -7.90MRF 56740.00 56849.90 56100.05 56161.00 -424.15BRITANNIA 3092.00 3118.50 3028.00 3066.50 -30.40ABB 1321.10 1331.70 1308.45 1312.30 -14.15MCDOWELL-N 539.00 543.55 530.30 533.00 -6.95ABCAPITAL 101.50 101.80 97.60 98.20 -2.70NIACL 192.70 199.90 186.50 188.50 -5.75

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Russia said on Thursday itstroops will stay in

Venezuela “for as long as needed”, rejecting US President Donald Trump’sdemand that Russia remove itsmilitary from the crisis-strick-en country.

Russia’s weekend deployment of troops andequipment to bolster PresidentNicolas Maduro has ratchetedup already high internationaltensions over Venezuela where the Trump administra-tion is pushing for regimechange.

The Russian ForeignMinistry insisted Thursday the presence of its troops there did not pose a threat toanyone.

“They are involved in theimplementation of agreementsin the sphere of military andtechnical cooperation,” saidministry spokeswoman MariaZakharova, adding they wouldremain in the country “for aslong as needed.” “Russia isnot changing the balance ofpower in the region, Russia isnot threatening anyone unlikecitizens in Washington whomI have just quoted,” she toldreporters.

She was referring toTrump’s comments that “Russiahas to get out” of Venezuela aswell as to statements by USSecretary of State MikePompeo that Washington doesnot plan to negotiate withMaduro and wants to endRussia and Cuba’s influence onCaracas.

The United States andmore than 50 other countriesrecognise Venezuelan opposi-tion leader Juan Guaido asinterim president while Russia,along with China, backsMaduro.

“Neither Russia norVenezuela are provinces of theUnited States,” Zakharova said.

Russian Foreign MinisterSergei Lavrov has accusedWashington of trying to“organise a coup d’etat” in theoil-producing nation.

Venezuela’s military attachein Moscow also said Thursdaythat Russian troops were in thecountry under an agreementon military and technical coop-eration and not to carry out amilitary operation.

A Russian air forceAntonov-124 cargo plane anda smaller Ilyushin Il-62 landedat the main airport outsideCaracas on Saturday andoffloaded around 100 troops

and tonnes of equipment.“As for the presence

of Russian specialists, we aretalking about cooperation, mil-itary and technical coopera-tion,” the attache, Jose RafaelTorrealba Perez, was quoted assaying in translated commentsby RIA Novosti state newsagency.

“We are absolutely not talk-ing about Russia’s military pres-ence to carry out military oper-ations,” he added.

Venezuela’s DefenceMinister Vladimir PadrinoLopez is expected to visitMoscow in April as part of thecooperation between the twocountries, the attache said.

On Tuesday, Zakharovadeclared that Russia was “devel-oping cooperation withVenezuela in strict accordancewith the constitution of thatcountry and with full respectfor its legal norms”.

“The presence of Russianspecialists on Venezuelan ter-ritory is regulated by an agree-ment between the Russian andVenezuelan governments onmilitary and technical cooper-ation that was signed in May,2001,” she said.

In 2011, Russia gaveVenezuela a $4 billion loan tobuy Russian armaments.

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Britain’s Government said itintended to hold a third

parliamentary vote on PrimeMinister Theresa May’s Brexitdeal on Friday but was await-ing the go-ahead from Houseof Commons speaker.

“We recognise that anymotion brought forwardtomorrow will need to be com-pliant with the speaker’s rulingand that discussion is ongoing,”Andrea Leadsom, who repre-sents the government in par-liament, told MPs.

“A motion will be tabledjust as soon as possible andobviously by later today,”Leadsom said Thursday.

Commons Speaker JohnBercow has previously blockeda third vote on the deal, invok-ing a 17th-century statute thatprevents parliament from vot-ing on the same thing againand again.

“The only way we ensurewe leave in good time on May22 is by approving the with-drawal agreement by 11:00 pmon March 29,” she said.

Leadsom pointed out thatEU leaders had granted an ext-ension until May 22 “providedthat the withdrawal agreementis approved by the House ofCommons this week”.

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At least 30 indigenousGuatemalans were killed

on Wednesday night whenthey were struck on a highwayby a semi-trailer truck in thetown of Nahuala in the coun-try’s west, rescue workers said.

“Personnel from theDepartmental MunicipalFirefighters have counted atleast 30 dead people at thispoint,” spokesman CecilioChacaj told reporters.

The group had congregat-ed at the site of a hit-and-runaccident that had killed a res-ident of their neighborhoodwhen they in turn were hit bythe truck, Chacaj added.

Guatemala, a CentralAmerican country of some16.5 million people, has a poorroad safety record and trafficrules are frequently ignored.

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A44-year-old man who shotand killed five people in

northern China earlier thisweek was motivated by revengeover “trivial matters” and tar-geted specific individuals,authorities said on Thursday.

The suspect was the deputydirector of a local water plant,said the Kailu county govern-ment from Tongliao city in theInner Mongolia region.

Citing local police, officialssaid the shooter, surnamedLiang, was driven by “con-flicts created by trivial mattersin work and life”, without offer-ing more details.

Police have seized the smallcalibre rifle used in the crime,said authorities on their officialWeChat social media account.

The suspect was in policecustody and an investigationwas underway, they added.

Kailu county policedeclined to comment.

The shooting, which tookplace on Monday, was a rarecase of gun violence in China,where the Government tightlyrestricts ownership of firearms.

There are no official sta-tistics on gun-related deaths.

In November 2017, threepeople were shot dead and sixothers wounded in southernGuangdong province.

In January that same year,a high-ranking city official inthe southwestern province ofSichuan burst into a govern-ment meeting and shot andwounded the mayor and cityparty secretary before killinghimself.

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Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu said on

Thursday Israel is prepared fora widespread military cam-paign in Gaza as tensions sim-mered following the latest flare-up -- but only after all otheroptions were exhausted.

Netanyahu has been seek-ing to head off political pressureover Gaza ahead of April 9 elec-tions, in which he faces a strongchallenge from former mili-tary chief Benny Gantz.

“In recent days I gave

instructions to fortify forces, toadd vehicles, to be prepared fora comprehensive campaign,” hesaid during the inauguration ofa new road in northern Israel.

The premier, who wasspeaking after visiting militaryforces on the Gaza border,noted however that a war wouldbe the last option.

“All Israelis should knowthat if a comprehensive cam-paign is required, we will enterit strong and safe, after we haveexhausted all other possibilities,”said Netanyahu, who also servesas defence minister.

Palestinian militants hadon Monday fired a long-dis-tance rocket from the GazaStrip, hitting a house north ofTel Aviv and wounding sevenIsraelis, triggering Israeli airstrikes and further Palestinianfire at southern Israel.

Netanyahu beefed up themilitary presence near Gaza, butby Wednesday the fighting hadabated after Hamas announceda ceasefire brokered by Egypt.

Israel has been carefullymonitoring the situation onthe Gaza border ahead ofSaturday, which will mark a year

since mass protests and deadlyclashes began there.

A demonstration on the day of the anniversary is expect-ed to draw thousands ofPalestinians.

A Hamas official said anEgyptian delegation met withthe Islamist movement’s leaderIsmail Haniya in Gaza City onWednesday night in furtherefforts to calm tensions.

The official said the dele-gation informed Hamas and itsallies in Gaza that Israel hadagreed to measures such asimproving the electricity supplyin the strip, which suffers fromsevere power shortages.

In exchange, Hamas wouldbe expected to maintain calm atthe weekly protests along theGaza border, including duringSaturday’s anniversary.

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The EU on Thursday urgedLondon to provide a way

forward on Brexit, taking notethat the British Parliament hadfailed to agree a fresh solutionto the UK’s divorce from thebloc.

“The EuropeanCommission takes note of theindicative votes in the Houseof Commons last night. Thisis part of an ongoing politicalprocess in the UK, which wefully respect,” EU spokesmanMargaritis Schinas said.

“We counted eight ‘no’slast night, now we need a ‘yes’on the way forward,” he added.

Schinas was referring tothe parliament’s unprecedent-ed step on Tuesday of votinga choice of alternate solutionsto the near-dead divorce dealMay reached with Brusselsafter 17 months of talks.

But none of the eightoptions secured a majorityand another vote has been setfor Monday on some of theproposals. A proposal to holda second referendum -- a pop-ular idea with EU supporters-- came second while thosepromoting a cleaner breakfinished near the bottom.

Belgian Prime Minister

Charles Michel told journalistsin Brussels that without asolution from Britain, EUleaders would meet again onApril 10 or 11 to discuss nextsteps.

EU leaders last weekoffered Britain a Brexit exten-sion until May 22, but only oncondition that parliamentvotes through the deal byFriday, the day Britain wasoriginally scheduled to leave

the European Union.The May Government

said Wednesday it wanted athird vote on the EU deal onFriday, but the outcomeremained uncertain.

If the vote fails a thirdtime, May will have to spell outto EU leaders what steps Britainwill take by a deadline of April12, or risk crashing out of thebloc without any arrangementsin place.

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Amassive fire engulfed a 22-storey building in Dhaka’s

posh Banani area on Thursday,killing at least 19 people, includ-ing a Sri Lankan national, andinjuring 70 others, in the sec-ond major blaze to hit theBangladeshi capital since lastmonth.

The incident, which hap-pened on Thursday afternoonin a building that houses severalgarment shops and internetservice providers, left severalpeople trapped inside as theblaze spread to two adjacentbuildings.

“Until now we can tell youthat the inferno killed 19 peo-ple, one of them being a SriLankan national. Seventy oth-

ers are wounded,” a senior fireofficial told PTI.

At least six of the killed,including the Sri Lankannational, died after they jumpedoff from various floors of thehigh-rise building for safety.

“A Sri Lankan citizen iden-tified as Niras Chandra, wasdeclared dead at KurmitolaGeneral Hospital. He fell off thebuilding while trying to escapethe fire,” Kazi Shahan Haque,officer-in-charge (OC) ofCantonment police station, wasquoted as saying by the DhakaTribune.

Another person, who wasyet to be identified by theauthorities, was declared deadat Kurmitola General Hospitalafter he fell off the buildingwhile trying to escape the fire.

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President Donald Trumprenewed on Thursday his

threat to close the vital US-Mexico border, claimingAmerica’s southern neighbourwas doing “NOTHING” to slowthe flow of illegal immigrants tothe United States.

In a flurry of early morningtweets, Trump warned: “Mayclose the Southern Border!”

“Mexico is doing NOTH-ING to help stop the flow of ille-gal immigrants to our Country.They are all talk and no action,”he added.

“Likewise, Honduras,Guatemala and El Salvadorhave taken our money for years,and do Nothing. The Demsdon’t care, such BAD laws.”

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Amilitary helicopter hascrashed in southwestern

Kazakhstan, killing all 13 ser-vicemen on board, the defenceministry said Thursday.

The crash involving theRussian-made Mi-8 aircraftoccurred on Wednesday, theministry said in a statement.

“13 servicemen werekilled... While performing theirmilitary duty,” it said.

Kazakhstan’s new presidentKassym-Jomart Tokayev tweet-ed that he had ordered aninvestigation into the crash.

A Soviet-era workhorse firstbuilt in the 1960s, the Mi-8 heli-copter is widely used to trans-port passengers and supplies toremote sites.

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At least 15 people died whena bomb exploded on a

busy street and ripped into anearby restaurant in Somalia’scapital on Thursday, medicssaid.

Security officials and wit-nesses reported bodies strewnon the ground as plumes ofsmoke rose high into the airafter the bomb detonated onMogadishu’s Maka Al-Mukarama road, one of theseaside capital’s main thor-oughfares, an area busy withbusinesses and travellers.

It struck as people wereeating lunch.

Abdulkadir AbdirahmanAdan, director of the AaminAmbulance service, said that 15 people had been killed, aswell as several more wounded

by the ferocious blast.Witnesses described scenes ofdevastation.

“The car bomb struck arestaurant along the road,” saidAbdulahi Osman, who wasnearby to the explosion. “Thisreally was a disaster.”

Vehicles were tossed intothe air by the blast, which alsodamaged surrounding build-ings. Witnesses said severalcars and three-wheeler motor-bikes were destroyed by theforce of the explosion.

“I saw 16 people carried

from the blast scene — andmore than 10 of them werealready dead,” Osman added.

Ambulance workersrushed in to help take thewounded to hospital.

“I don’t know whether theywere dead or wounded, but Icould see several people strewnin the street — some of themwere motionless,” said SuadoAhmed, another witness whowas at the scene moments afterthe blast.

Teams of ambulance work-ers carried away those killedand wounded on stretchers,while volunteers also helped byusing plastic sheeting to lift thebodies away.

The bombing is the latestin a recent string of blasts inMogadishu, which has been hitregularly by Al- Shabaabattacks.

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Israeli cave explorers saidThursday that a salt cave with

striking stalactites near the DeadSea is the world’s longest, beat-ing the previous record-holderin Iran. The cave namedMalham, stretching over 10kilometres, runs through MountSodom, Israel’s largest mountain,and spills out to the southwestcorner of the adjacent Dead Sea.

Pale salt stalactites hangfrom the ceilings, and some ofthe walls sparkle with salt crys-tals. Drops of salty water are vis-ible at the tips of some of the sta-lactites.

Malham became known toresearchers through the work of

Amos Frumkin, founder anddirector of the HebrewUniversity’s Cave ResearchCentre, who in the 1980smapped around five kilometresof it. But in 2006, researchersmapped over six kilometres ofthe N3 cave in southern Iran’sQeshm island, granting it thewidely recognised status of theworld’s longest salt cave.

Two years ago, Israeli spe-lunker Yoav Negev decided tocomplete Frumkin’s work, reach-ing out to Bulgarian cave explor-ers for reinforcements with thepromise of a warm winteradventure. Negev, founder of theIsrael Cave Explorers Club,joined forces with BoazLangford, a researcher at the

university’s research centre, toorganise a delegation of eightEuropean spelunkers and anoth-er 20 locals.

They spent some 10 daysmapping the cave in 2018.

A second 10-day expeditionthis year with 80 local andinternational spelunkers com-pleted the measuring and map-ping of the cave with lasers,determining its length at morethan 10 kilometres.

Mount Sodom is essential-ly a huge salt block covered bya thin but \resilient layer of caprock. The rare desert rains findtheir way through cracks in thecap rock and dissolve the salt toform small caves that flow downtoward the Dead Sea.

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Ocean heat hit a record highin 2018, the United

Nations said Thursday, raisingurgent new concerns aboutthe threat global warming isposing to marine life.

In its latest State of theClimate overview, the WorldMeteorological Organization(WMO) reaffirmed that the lastfour years had been the hotteston record — figures previous-ly announced in provisionaldrafts of the flagship report.

But the final version of thereport highlighted worryingdevelopments in other climateindicators beyond surface tem-perature. "2018 saw newrecords for ocean heat contentin the upper 700 metres," aWMO statement said.

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They say ‘literature isthe voice of humanheart.’ As the JCB

Prize for Literature jurycomes back this year, RanaDasgupta, literary director,said, “The Jury is con-ceived to reflect a widevariety of backgrounds andexperiences. This is howwe ensure the verdicts arefresh and interesting to alarge number of readers.The members of the 2019jury are passionate readers,and eminent within theirrespective fields. They willhave fascinating debatesabout the books we send intheir direction.”

Pradip Krishen, Jurychairman, said, “I’m hon-oured and immenselypleased at this opportuni-ty to peer deeply into ayear’s worth of Indian fic-tion. It is especially grati-fying that the prize goes

out of its way to includeIndian fiction in languagesother than English, bring-ing it to the attention of awider audience. It’s goingto be intense and togetherwith a set of wonderfulcolleagues on the jury. I’mlooking forward to play mypart in this year’s selec-tion.”

The jury comprisesAnjum Hasan (author andcritic), Pradip Krishen(filmmaker and environ-mentalist), K R Meera(author), Parvati Sharma(author), and Ar vindSubramanian (economistand former chief econom-

ic adviser to theGovernment of India).

The entries for the

prize will close on April 30.The jury will announcethe list of ten titles on

September 4, followed bythe short list of five titles onOctober 4. The winner ofthe �25 lakh prize will beannounced at the awardsdinner on November 2. Ifthe winning work is atranslation, the translatorwill be awarded an addi-tional �10 lakh. Each of thefive shortlisted authors willreceive �1 lakh; if a short-listed work is a translation,the translator will receive�50,000.

The 2018 prize wasawarded to Jasmine Daysby Benyamin, translatedfrom the Malayalam byShahnaz Habib.

Comedy series Sex and theCity, is getting a follow-up, which examines love

and dating after 50. In a com-petitive situation, ParamountTelevision has land-ed the rights to itsfollow-up novel — IsThere Still Sex in theCity? which is set tobe released by GrovePress on August 6,hails from Sex andthe City authorCandace Bushnell.

The book is a take on sex,dating, and friendship in NewYork city after 50. Set betweenthe Upper East Side ofManhattan and a countryenclave known as the village,

the book looks at love and life,marriage and children, divorceand bereavement, as well as thereal pressures on women tomaintain their youth.

Bushnell will writethe pilot script andserve as an executiveproducer on the projectalong with Liza Chasinfrom 3dot Productionsand Robyn Meisinger.

“The original Sexand the City book andseries served as a

ground-breaking touchstonefor an entire generation ofwomen, myself included,” saidNicole Clemens, president ofParamount TV.

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Actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh on Thursdayunveiled his Madame Tussauds’ wax statue. Adie-hard fan of reality TV star Kylie Jenner,

Diljit wants her wax figure too, should find a spot inthe iconic Regal Building at Connaught Place.

The Udta Punjab star has said in the past, he want-ed to visit Madame Tussauds in London, but couldnot. “There was a long line. I was in London for a dayso couldn’t find the time. I tried again but the attemptswere not successful. Then I thought, I will go in likethis only,” hesaid. And nowthe singer’s waxreplica hasindeed enteredthe museum.

He actedsurprised by thestrong resem-blance betweenhim and his waxfigure, whichsports black andred casuals witha huge neckpiece and ablack turban. Itis the first tur-baned figure inM a d a m eTussauds Delhi.“Forget abouthaving a wax figure here, I had almost given up hopeof even entering Madame Tussauds,” said the artiste,who took a selfie with the figure.

Asked which actress’ statue he would like to havehere, he laughed and said, ‘Kylie Jenner.’ Diljit, whoturned up at the event all suited up, has often expressedhis “love” for the reality TV star on social media. Hisfans gathered outside the Regal building to get aglimpse of him. One of them said, “It’s an honour forall the Sikhs to have his wax figure as he is the firstSikh celebrity to get a wax statue at MadameTussauds.”

Diljit wasn’t seen interacting with his fans, but hehad a message. “First of all, there is no need to be likeme. I am just doing my job. I am working for myselfand family. Keep working hard, you will get what youwant,” he said.

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The automobile hasbeen around for a125 years now, andever since BerthaBenz, the pioneer-

ing wife of the car’s inventorKarl Benz demonstrated thata vehicle could be used overlong distances, humanity hasnot been the same because thetyranny of distance was sud-denly removed. The internalcombustion engine may beloathed by misguided envi-ronmentalists but without itwe cannot imagine modernsociety. Even if we considerthat the real boom in automo-bile ownership really started acentury ago at the end of theFirst World War and the sub-sequent economic boom, thecar of those days werenowhere near the cars oftoday, even something as ele-mentary as the layout of thepedals and self-startingengines were not around.Forget a hundred years, Ihave been driving cars since Iwas just under 18, working myway up to a license at a drivingschool.

And back then, about togive my twelfth boards, I hada rather different vision for mylife, even thought that I wouldgive my IIT entrance exams.The last thing I imagined wasthat I would end up travelling

around India and the worlddriving and writing aboutcars for a living, so thingsturned out fairly alright I’d say.But back in the late-1990’s,while the Maruti 800 andZen had made their way ontoour roads and the first of thecars from the new breed ofmanufacturers like Ford, Opeland Hyundai were just com-ing in, many folks still drovethe Ambassador and thePadmini. And if you did youwould remember that chang-ing gears was a bit of a skill.Today, many cars have a rev-counter and while that issomething that you wouldmiss in a car if it was not there,unless you are out and outgunning the car, do you real-ly need it? Because in anautomatic car, the computersare so smart that they knowexactly how you are drivingand what gear you need tochange to, and even if youoverride the system, the gearschange seamlessly. That was-n’t the case in old cars, you hadto listen to the note of theengine and know just when toslot the cogs in. But synchro-mesh gears are not new, sothat is not a rabbit hole that wewill go down. But from the2000’s to today, in cars that Ihave been driving for a livingso many things have changed.

So I asked a couple of mypeers what feature of the lasttwenty-odd years in automo-tive development that theycould not live without today.Now these features are neces-sarily brand-new but havebecome far more common inthe past twenty years. MuraliSwaminadhan of the HinduBusinessLine told me that itwould be modern ClimateControl systems, whichaccording to him are nowessential thanks to hot weath-er conditions and rising dustand pollution, as well as soadvanced that you don’t real-ly need to keep on fiddlingwith them like you needed towith the sliders on the Maruti

800 for example.Adil Jal Darukhanawala,

automotive expert and histo-rian and my driving compan-ion over the past few days dri-ving a new luxury car told methat it would be the dual-clutch gearbox. This is aremarkable feature that allowsfor near instantaneous gearchanges with the car keepingthe next gear in the sequenceselected by having two clutch-es, one for odd gears and onefor even gears. Of course thatis a very simplistic way ofdescribing this but essential-ly that is what it is. While theseDCT gearboxes are standardon luxury cars, you can findthem on the Volkswagen Polo

GT TSI and Automaticoptions on the Vento, and theVW Group calls their DCTgearboxes a DSG and thetechnology was developed byPorsche for sporty versions ofthe 911. Ford had such agearbox on the earlierEcoSport and Fiesta.

For me, the feature I can’treally live without are revers-ing and even all-round 360cameras. Particularly withmodern car safety featuresironically leading to a rash ofblind spots, it is impossible tooften reverse without these,and occasionally even maketight turns. The 360 cameraon the new Nissan Kicksmight feel like a gimmick butis very useful. As I wrote in anearlier column, I have becomeso used to this that my basicreversing skills are not asgood as they used to be.

The fact is that cars todayare very advanced, very fuelefficient and very safe. Andnot only are they a worldremoved from cars of a cen-tury ago, they are a worldremoved from cars from justtwenty years ago. I like drivingclassic cars occasionally, butanyone who says that the ‘olddays’ were better has no ideaof what they are talking about.Nothing like the present andI can’t wait for the future!

Health sensibility andconsciousness hasbeen on the rise atan exponential ratein the country.

Taking the stairs instead of theescalator, accounting a trainerafter or before work hours, replac-ing soft drinks and other pack-aged drinks with health andimmunity-boosters — these aresome of the ways a fit routine andthe need for a healthy body is tak-ing over the Indian minds.

There is yet another side toIndia’s growing health conscious-ness. Actress and fitness enthusi-ast Jacqueline Fernandez saidthat the trend blazer has beenpointing upwards for people read-ing food labels and understand-ing nutrition charts before mak-ing a decision. She said that thechange has surely come in andpeople are taking their health asthe “most important factor.”

Well, it’s also one the majorreasons why ‘Delhi Gets Raw’ wasorganised in the city recently bythe Raw Pressery.

She said that cold-pressedjuices are more helpful in main-taining health as compared toother packaged drinks or every-day juices in the market, whichare made with concentrate, sta-bilisers and extra-added sugarand preservatives. “Cold-pressedjuices are never heated and con-sist 100 per cent fruit. They

retain more nutrition and livingenzymes in the juicing process. Itbasically makes your food workharder to gain more nutrition, vit-amins and enzymes to lead ahealthy lifestyle,” said she.

The actress is an extremelyavid follower of yoga, purelybecause of its “holistic health ben-efits.” She said, “I’m really glad wehosted Yoga Rise in Delhi, as thecity is now leaning towards mak-ing healthy the new sexy. Nothinglooks as good as a healthy bodyand vibe. Our aim is to go outthere and help people make theright choices. I’m grateful thatyoga has become that channel forus. The energy in Delhi is surre-al and we hope to do more of suchwellness events.”

Jacqueline, who was initiallynot so inclined towards it, now

fully embraces yoga. It is rooteddeep in her workout and fitnessregime. She not only follows itreligiously, but also suggests herfriends and family to practice it.She said, “To achieve flexibility,yoga is the best exercise. It alsoslows down your stress level.”

Talking about her fitnessmantra, Jacqueline said, “It isquite simple — one should eatright, must get adequate sleep,and exercise regularly because it’snever too early or too late to worktowards being the healthiest you.I ensure that I maintain a healthydiet, stay positive and relaxed.Being healthy is the need of thehour.” No matter how one keepsin mind the fitness mantras, shesays, there are certain things thatneed to be worked upon like “sta-mina and flexibility.”

She recalls that she discussedabout how there was a need ofcold-pressed juices with no addedpreservatives with her friendbefore the beverage brand waseven launched. “At the same time,such juices should also be conve-nient and a seamless fit in ourcurrent fast-paced life withoutmaking any compromise in qual-ity. The juices are easy to carryand can be home-deliveredwhenever required,” she suggest-ed.

Some of her fitness tips:- Always set an aim for every

week, keep tracking yourprogress.

- Have sufficient quantity ofwater, it keeps the body hydrat-ed.

- Don't push yourself beyondlimit especially after a long tiring

day. Never punish your body.- Always read the label before

buying food items.- Eat fresh, healthy and nutri-

ent-enriched foods.It’s no wonder that more

than half of us open a supplementbottle to get the nutrition weneed. Many of us take supple-ments not just to make up forwhat we’re missing, but also togive ourselves a boost. Jacquelinefeels that getting nutrients straightfrom a pill sounds easy, but sup-plements don’t necessarily deliv-er on the promise of better health.She said, “I believe in eatinghealthy and having a natural dietas that is best for the body. Whilethis might take some time toadapt, it will surely pay off in thelong run and help lead a morebalanced life.”

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In my past life, I must have been bornin a country that had no food, becausefrankly, I am eternally hungry and mynear and dear ones will vouch for that.I have loved food all my life. My pater-

nal grandmother, Agnes, was a brilliant cookand I can still remember the aromas waft-ing in from her kitchen; her picking mush-rooms from the garden during the rains tomake soup and pâté. My maternal grand-mother, Rosemary, was a darling in thekitchen, and her fish curry with rice is some-thing that I would love to have just oncemore. Unfortunately, I never learnt anycooking from either of them. I wasn’t inter-ested in the process, only focussed on its eat-ing part.

My love affair with food started abouteight years ago, when I was pregnant withZene, and didn’t have much to do. Ergo, Ispent time watching travel and food showson TV, and started writing down recipes totry them out. While I expanded during mypregnancy, I started experimenting in thekitchen. Fortunately, I was travelling withArshad for the shooting of a film and wasliving at the beautiful St. James Apartments.I had plenty of time to saunter through thefarmer’s market and pick and choose freshproduce. I would cook for the cast and crewwho came over often. Initially, I wasn’t quitesure if they really loved the food or were justbeing nice, but soon, they began comingover often for a tasty meal. I realised thenthat both my grannies were sprinkling theirmagic dust on me. Today, my mother’s foodis what I actually want to learn. I love thefood my mum, Joanna, makes. She is myrecipe book and always a call away to tell meabout my next step if I ever get stuck.

A few years down the line, if anyone hadtold me that I would one day put togethera food book, I think I would have rolled onthe floor laughing. Slogging it out in thekitchen was not my style. I could eat a lot.After I discovered the joy of cooking, I did-n’t look back. I started my blog about fiveyears ago, after my domestic help decidedto leave. My friend Mini Mathur insisted thatI watch the film Julie & Julia but just would-n’t tell me why. When I did, I suddenly knewmy path. Frankly, my help leaving was thebest thing that happened to me. Suddenly,I was thrown into the thick of things — thekitchen, vegetable market, groceries, cook-ing — and to top it all, two very hungry chil-dren looking expectantly at me. (I love topicture this scene in my head.) Well!Something had to be cooked, and so I start-ed taking baby steps into the kitchen.

Gradually, I started to get seduced by thearomas, textures and the possibilities thatcould conspire in this beautiful place I dis-covered in my own home — my kitchen. Itwas like meeting a stranger and becomingfriends. Reading, googling and watchingfood became an obsession. I discovered thesecrets of fire to vegetables, yeast to flour,wine to meat, and the right amount ofkneading, whipping and marination. Itwas then that I realised I love cooking, notjust because I could really put myself intothe heat of it, but because I loved to see thefaces of the people I cooked for.

Jaya Misra, my friend, introduced meto blogging and insisted that I write aboutmy experiences. She always read my piecesbefore I uploaded them. This whole processof cooking and writing took off like beingon a surfing board, and I was busy ridingwave after wave, enjoying the thrill of cook-ing, feeding and reaching out to so manylike-minded foodies. It was catharsis that Inever thought I needed.

At one point, I needed to learn how tomake bread, because my dad used to makeit when we were kids and by the timeI wanted to learn, he said he hadforgotten how. So, I joined a oneyear part-time baking course atSophia Polytechnic and underthe tender hands of Shashi ma’am,I learnt more than I had bargainedfor. Baking taught me the art ofpatience, something that I stillstruggle with. It taught me thateverything happens when it is sup-posed to. She once caught me star-ing down at my bread that I had leftto prove. And she pointed out that if I

kept staring at the dough, it would still notrise up in a second. It would take its timeto prove so I should concentrate on doingsomething else during that time. I alwaysthink of her when I bake bread now.

In the middle of all this, I was anchor-ing a cooking show and met the lovelyShazmeen, who told me about her stint atTante Marie. In 2011, I went off to the sleepytown, Woking, and spent 11 weeks atTante Marie. With amazing teachers, I learntabout sweating onions, kneading puff

pastry, cooking meat at just theright temperature to keep it pinkin the middle, understandinghow important it was to whip

the egg whites till they had theright amount of stiff peaks for ameringue, how to debone a fish,how to cut chicken, clean thefloors, wash the fridge, do the ves-sels and much more. I also trav-elled to Paris, Budapest, Austria,

Ireland and sat for exams, andwatched every play that was worth

its salt on the weekends. All this was

possible was because Arshad, who is quitea rockstar, stayed home and looked afterZeke and Zene. My parents too set up tentat my place. And Zoya, Arshad’s niece,would ensure that they went for movies andwere occupied and happy. My friends Mini,Jaya, Sandy and Sambo came in often, tookthe kids out, and hung with them. I wouldnot have been able to go without this entireweb of support that I was lucky enough tohave. My friends in London — Lorraine,Sanjay and Rachna Narang, Junky, Pooja andEve — were my home away from home.

My life is a series of coincidences. I neverplanned a moment and whatever I plannednever happened. After years of being partof ad-films, theatre, anchoring TV shows,travelling for work and being an MTV VJ,I was ready for a new chapter in my life. Andhaving kids changed it around. Food was justa side-effect of being a mother. This was justthe perfect time to put my apron on and gofor it, all burners flaming. Arshad, who wasthe chef in my kitchen, just took a back seatand sat and watched me, as I struggled myway into food heaven. He always encouragedme even when the food was really not upto the mark. He always said that it was fan-tastic and gave me advices for somethingnew. And every time I made kheema orpaaya, he would say, “It’s lovely, but does nottaste Muslim!” Well, I really want to learncooking Mughlai and Kashmiri food one day.It’s on my bucket list. And Arshad, who is‘world famous’ within our circle of friends

for his Biryani, bowed out of my kitchen witha smile. I finally took over my kitchen.

My friend, Mini, started gifting merecipe books and my friends were alwayswilling to eat what I cooked. This encour-aged me, inspite of disasters. So post twoyears of food blogging, I finally got enticedto do a book. I remember when the first offercame, I refused because I was too scared.When the second offer came, I had, by then,digested the fact that probably somethingis right. The third offer came when I wentto Bhutan, the land of happiness. This tripfinally made me warm up to the idea of pen-ning a food book. Though it did feel like agood idea, it made me nervous. Neither wasI a chef nor a writer. I didn’t know where tobegin from. I procrastinated for six monthsand decided that because I cook only forpeople whom I love, the book should be anapt reflection of that. I then started puttingmenus in place and designing my foodaccording to the people I was cooking for.It was a tedious process writing down recipesand taking care of a teaspoon of this and atablespoon of that. I never go by accuratemeasures when I cook for myself. But to givea recipe that worked, I had to.

I had jumped into the deep end of thepool and had to swim to the shallow. Icould not think of a better photographerfor this book other than my friend, AmitAshar. He is someone who will always cap-ture what no one else sees. I remember thefirst day of shoot when we were doing theChristmas menu. I brought the bakedchicken out of the oven. It was hot,looked yummy, and Amit set up the shot,looked at me and said, “‘Do you have glyc-erine?” I asked, ‘Why?’ He explained thatfood stylists used glycerine to make thefood look shiny and moist. I was aghast!Why would anyone do that to good food?I told him to give me a minute. I took thechicken, warmed up the gravy, poured itover the chicken and we shot the dish. Thisis how we did the entire book, it is exact-ly from my kitchen to yours, what you seeis what you will get. We never used any-thing artificial to enhance the look, noth-ing was over or undercooked to look good.It was as per the recipe. I just cooked eachdish like I was going to serve it to some-one I really loved.

There is really nothing I would changeabout the book. I have kept all the recipessimple to follow. Go for it, make it yourown, tweak it, and think of me when asmile breaks on the face of the person youhave cooked for. This is me, with all myflavours and enthusiasm, cooked at tem-peratures that were sometimes too hot tohandle and sometimes like a tropical day,with the freshest of ingredients andcooked with a whole lot of love. A verywise person once said, ‘You are what youeat.’ Well then, I want to eat a ‘fit person’to be fit myself! But I am not a cannibal.So, I try and eat healthy and do my regu-lar workout and yoga. And yes, I run. It’sone of those things that makes me happy.

(Excerpts from From My Kitchen toYours, published by Om BooksInternational.)

Celebrate Navroz at the Parsispeciality restaurant SodaBottle Opener Wala with a

meal that is reminiscent of home stylecooking.

The Bhonu includes a specially-curated menu of vegetarian andnon-vegetarian options for the feast.The Vegetarian Bhonu comprises of

Saria, Sproutedkachumber salad,Gajar nu aachar,Papeta papti nu shak,Vegetable cheese patticeand Masala ni daal.The Non-vegetarianfare on the other handhas Chicken pattice,Prawns patio, Muttonmasala and Dal. Therecipes have beenpassed down from onegeneration to the nextin every Parsi house-hold.

But it is the sweet-ness spread around bythe Falooda that haspeople queuing up formore. Of course, there

is another Parsi speciality that mostpeople are familiar with, Laganucustard, that rounds of the dessertsection. There is also bottomlessSangria and cocktails, to ensure thatthis a Navroz party that does not end.

The celebrations are on till April15 at its Khan Market, Noida andGurgaon outlets.

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Roger Federer is preparing himself fora barrage of Kevin Anderson big

serves after the Swiss superstar sealed hisplace in the ATP and WTA Miami Openquarter-finals in just 61 minutes onWednesday.

Federer is celebrating 20 years at thistournament and edged closer to hisfourth title in South Florida as the upand coming Russian Daniil Medvedevwas swatted aside 6-4 6-2.

Next up for the 20-time GrandSlam-winning legend is the SouthAfrican world number seven whofamously beat the 37-year-old atWimbledon in 2018 over five dramat-ic sets.

That triumph was Anderson's onlywin over Federer in six attempts — andthe only time he's won a set.

But having classily dealt withMedvedev, the former world numberone knows it won't be as straightforwardwith the 6 ft 8 in Anderson at the otherend of the Hard Rock Stadium's centercourt.

"I think if you beat me atWimbledon, you've got my attention,"smiled Federer.

"He's got a great serve and I'm happyhe's playing again after his injury.

"So from that standpoint, I knowwhat I'm about to expect tomorrow. Thematches I have played against him Iknow can be extremely close always."

Defending champion John Isner,meanwhile, powered his way to thesemi-finals as Roberto Bautista Agut,who sent world number one NovakDjokovic crashing out in the previous

round, was seen off 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 ,(7-5).

"I was pretty fortunate out there,"confessed the American, who smasheddown 24 aces compared to theSpaniard's tally of just three and will playthe winner of Croatia's Borna Coric andFelix Auger-Aliassime, the 18-year-oldfrom Canada.

In the women's draw, Simona Halepmoved closer to reclaiming her worldnumber one crown after a well-execut-ed 6-4 7-5 triumph over China's WangQiang.

Following Petra Kvitova's exit onTuesday, Halep needs only to reachSaturday's final to knock Naomi Osakaoff the top of women's tennis after beingdeposed following the Japanese's secondmajor win at the Australian Open ear-lier this year.

Halep's recovery from 1-5 down inthe second set showed the kind of men-tal toughness displayed by only the verybest and the Romanian is looking ingood shape to land her first Miami title,even if she's not overly consumed aboutthe prospect of reclaiming the numberone tag.

���������Former Indiacentre forward ShivendraSingh is set to be appoint-ed assistant coach of thenational men's hockeyteam and will start work-ing with the side nextmonth.

A livewire during hisplaying days, Shivendrawill exclusively work withthe strikers and form anintegral part of the Indiancoaching staff set to beheaded by AustralianGraham Reid.

Reid's appointment isjust a formality now after

Hockey India and SportsAuthority of India recom-mended his name to theSports Ministry.

Besides Shivendra,former Australian drag-flicker Chris Ciriello, whois the current analyticalcoach, will be the otherassistant coach in new set-up.

"Shivendra Singh willjoin the Indian team soonas an assistant coach soon.He will work with the for-wards under the new chiefcoach," a source close tothe development said.

Shivendra was part ofthe Indian team that wona Silver medal in the 2010Delhi CommonwealthGames, besides being amember of the Bronzemedal-winning side of2010 Guangzhou AsianGames.

The coaching set-upwill also have SAI coachPiyush Kumar Dubey,who is already with theteam at the ongoingAzlan Shah Cup in Ipoh,Malaysia. He will exclu-sively work with the goal-keepers. PTI

���� 794�%9)0;�

Indian shooters on Thursday clinchedone Gold and two Silver on the second

day of competitions to remain on top ofthe standings in the 12th Asian AirgunChampionships in Taoyuan, Taipei.

Ravi Kumar and Elavenil Valarivanwon Silver in the senior 10m air riflemixed team event while India made it a1-2 in the corresponding junior event onyet another profitable day.

Ravi and Elavenil topped the quali-fication rounds with a score of 837.1 butwere beaten in the five-team final by theKorean pair of Park Sunmin and ShinMinki.

The Koreans won the Gold with ascore of 499.6 to the Indians' 498.4.Chinese Taipei won the Bronze. A sec-

ond Indian team consisting of DeepakKumar and Apurvi Chandela finishedfourth.

In the junior 10m air rifle mixed teamevent, two Indian teams made it to thefinal round. The pair of Mehuli Ghoshand Keval Prajapati topped the qualifi-cation round with a score of 838.5, whileShreya Agrawal and Yash Vardhan qual-ified in second position with 831.2.

Shreya and Yash, however, turned thetables on their compatriots in the final,piping them by a margin of 0.4 points.

Mehuli and Keval led throughout thefinal and they opened up a gap of 1.6points over Shreya and Yash going intothe final six shots. But, the pair ofShreya and Yash overturned the deficit,finishing with 497.3 to Mehuli andKeval's 496.9.

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Former champions P VSindhu and KidambiSrikanth advanced to the

quarterfinals after easy winsbut the highlight of the daywas H S Prannoy's thrillingvictory over Denmark's JanJorgensen on the third day ofthe Yonex-Sunrise India Openon Thursday.

B Sai Praneeth andParupall i Kashyap alsoadvanced to the quarterfinalsof the World Tour Super 500event after contrasting wins inthe men's singles competi-tion.

Sindhu, who clinched thetitle in 2017, thrashed HongKong's Deng Joy Xuan 21-11,21-13 in the women's singles,while Srikanth recorded a 21-11, 21-16 win over China's LuGuangzu in the men's event.

Olympic Silver medallistSindhu will next faceDenmark's eighth seed MiaBlichfeldt, who had won theBarcelona Spain Masters,while Srikanth set up a meet-ing with compatriot B SaiPraneeth in a rematch of their2017 Singapore Open final.

Still recovering from astomach problem which led toa nagging gastro-esophagealreflux and breathing issuethat spoilt his last season,Prannoy overcame a stiff resis-tance from former worldnumber 2 Jorgensen 21-19,20-22, 21-17 to enter his first

quarterfinals in eight months."It was a tough match. Jan

was playing really well, theconditions were difficult. Jan'sgame is very tricky and he isvery confident on certainstrokes and he is expe-rienced," the 24-year-old Prannoysaid.

"I could trustmyself and lot ofcredit goes to coaches.The quality of match wasnot that great, not many longrallies. There were short ral-lies. I played on a positivenote. I stepped up in the sec-ond game and took a goodlead in the third," he added.Prannoy will next lock hornswith second seed and titlefavourite Viktor Axelsen ofDenmark, who had made it tothe All EnglandChampionship final.

Praneeth, who hadreached the final at SwissOpen early this month, ekedout a thrilling come-from-behind 18-21, 21-16, 21-15win over fifth seeded compa-triot Sameer Verma.

"It is obviously tough. Weknow each other's weakness-es and strengths, so withnobody outside the court totell you something aboutstrategies, you have to thinkon your own," Praneeth said.

Kashyap, a 2014Commonwealth Gameschampion, got r id ofThailand's TanongsakSaensomboonsuk 21-11, 21-13 in the pre-quarterfinalcontest to set up a fight withChinese Taipei's Wang TzuWei, who ended SubhankarDey's giant-killing run with a21-16, 21-13 win.

"I think he started well,connecting a couple of smash-es in the initial parts and Imissed my defence. But I wasready for him because this isthe consecutive 2nd or 4thtime I have beaten him,"Kashyap said.

Riya Mookerjee tooshowed the stomach to fightbefore going down 8-21, 21-17, 13-21 to eighth seed MiaBlichfeldt of Denmark.

The Indian men's doublespair of Manu Attri and BSumeeth Reddy, seeded sixth,overcame China's HuangKaixiang and Wang Zekang25-23, 21-18, while AshwiniPonnappa and N Sikki Reddyprevailed 21-18, 21-14 overChina's Chen Xiaofei andZhou Chaomin.

The women's doubles pairof Aparna Balan and SruthiKP edged out Hong Kongduo of Wing Yung and YeungNga Ting 21-19, 7-21, 21-17,while the men's doubles pairof Pranaav Jerry Chopra andShivam Sharma beat compa-triots Aniruddha Mayekarand Vinay Kumar Singh 21-15, 21-11 in another match.

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Two-time champion Ratchanok Inthanondoesn't want to exert herself too much for a

third title at the ongoing India Open tournamentas she is wary of getting injured in an Olympicqualification year due to the hectic internation-al schedule.

The Badminton World Federation (BWF)revamped its structure in 2018, making it com-pulsory for the world's top-15 players in the sin-gles events and top-10 pairs in the doubles dis-ciplines to play a minimum of 12 out of 15 WorldTour tournaments or face a penalty.

The first three months of the new BWF sea-son has already seen injuries to top players suchas three-time world champion Carolina Marin,former world No 1 Korean Son Wan Ho andChina's fast-rising Gao Fangjie.

The Olympic qualification period begins April29 with the BWF ranking on April 30, 2020 beingthe cut-off for the allocation of spots for the TokyoOlympics.

"I am worried about injury as it takes a longtime to recover so I have to take care of my body,"said Ratchanok, who brushed aside India's SaiUttejitha 21-9, 21-6 in the opening round for astrong start at the ongoing India Open.

The 24-year-old Thai has battled injuries eversince she burst onto the scene with world cham-pionship Gold in 2013. She suffered a foot injurythe same year.

In the 2015 world championship, she wasstretchered off court due to another injury. Shealso picked up a nagging knee injury at the RioOlympics which troubled her in 2016 and 2017.

"What is good for me right now is to main-tain my fitness. This is the Olympic qualificationyear and an important year for everyone, all theplayers will look to play a lot of tournaments forranking points," she said.

"It is crucial for me to win I know but I don'twant to pressure myself for winning the cham-pionship," she added.

Former world champion Viktor Axelsenalso feels the BWF needs to look at the numberof tournaments a player should play in a givencalender year.

"I don't think the way is to put in more tour-naments, I would rather look for better qualityof the tournaments we already have, than thenumber," said the former world number oneDane.

Ratchanok would be looking to for a third titleat the India Open but she is coming into the eventafter the disappointment of a first-round exit fromthe All England Championship.

"I had lot of expectations from myself at theAll England but I lost in the first round. (But) Itry to motivate myself as it is in the past now andI can't change it in any way," she said.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saidhe is "beyond excited" tobe handed the Manchester

United manager's job on a full-time basis as the club announcedon Thursday he had signed athree-year deal.

The Norwegian, 46, hasinspired a dramatic revival ofUnited's fortunes since takingover from the sacked JoseMourinho in December, win-ning 14 of his 19 games and lead-ing the Red Devils to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

Solskjaer, who scored 126goals in 366 appearances forUnited, was already a hero to fansas the man who scored the stop-page-time winner in the 1999Champions League final to com-plete a historic treble.

In his short spell in charge hehas lifted United back into con-tention for a top-four finish in thePremier League and is preparingfor a mouthwatering ChampionsLeague clash against Barcelonanext month.

"This is the job that I alwaysdreamed of doing and I'm beyondexcited to have the chance to leadthe club long-term and hopeful-ly deliver the continued successthat our amazing fans deserve," hesaid in a statement onmanutd.com.

Solskjaer told MUTV he hadrelished the support from the fanssince he replaced Mourinho.

"I've always had it but I haveto say the last few months havebeen absolutely crazy with the waythey've taken to the players, to meand to the coaching staff. We'vereally appreciated that support

and hopefully we can pay themback now."

After Mourinho was sackedfollowing a 3-1 loss to Liverpoolon December 16, Molde bossSolskjaer was given the task ofreviving United's flagging fortunesbut was expected to return to theNorwegian club following hiscaretaker spell.

���$ �� ��&����At that stage Tottenham man-

ager Mauricio Pochettino was thefirm favourite for the permanentOld Trafford hotseat after animpressive few years at the helmat Spurs.

But Solskjaer forced the handof Manchester United hierarchyby sheer weight of results, becom-ing the first United manager towin his first six league games.

The Norwegian also helpedcleanse the toxic atmosphere atUnited, where Mourinho hadfallen out with a number of keyplayers.

France World Cup win-ner Paul Pogba andMarcus Rashford in par-ticular have thrivedunder Solskjaer,who has beencredited withrestoring anattacking verve miss-ing under a succession ofmanagers.

United's executive vice-chair-man Ed Woodward said: "Morethan just performances andresults, Ole brings a wealth ofexperience, both as a player andas a coach, coupled with a desireto give young players their chanceand a deep understanding of theculture of the club."

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Mankaded' in theiropening match,

Rajasthan Royalswould look to resur-rect their fortunes inFriday's IPL clashagainst SunrisersHyderabad, whowould also be aimingto put behind a disap-pointing first-day show.

Rajasthan's campaign started on a controver-sial note when Jos Buttler became the first crick-eter in the IPL to be 'Mankaded'. The incidentraked up a storm but Rajasthan will have to getover the episode to ensure that their campaignremains on track.

Buttler looked in great touch in their open-er but he would look for more support from thelikes of Ajinkya Rahane, Sanju Samson, SteveSmith and Ben Stokes in the batting department.

In particular Smith, who returned to the IPLafter missing the last edition following the ball-tampering scandal, would be eyeing more timeat the crease ahead of the upcoming World Cup.

Dhawal Kulkarni and spinner KrishnappaGowtham were brilliant upfront with the ballagainst Kings XI, but Stokes and Jaydev Unadkatleaked runs. Pacer Jofra Archer, who gave awayjust 17 runs in his four overs, looked threateningbut wickets eluded him. Just like Rajasthan,Sunrisers too didn't have a dream start to theircampaign, losing by six wickets to KolkataKnight Riders.

While the David Warner-led Sunrisers' bat-ting looked solid, the death bowling performancespoiled their chances against KKR.

Warner, who is in imperious form afterreturning to competitive cricket following the one-year ban for ball-tampering, played true to his rep-utation, smashing 85 off 53 balls against KKR theother day.

And Sunrisers' know their chances heavilydepend on Warner's success even though they alsohave the likes of skipper Kane Williamson,Jonny Bairstow, Vijay Shankar, Manish Pandey,Yusuf Pathan and Shakib Al Hasan in their ranks.

Williamson wasn't available in the first gamedue to injury but head coach Tom Moody indi-cated that he in all likelihood "will be fit for Friday'sgame and lead the side".

Sunrisers' bowling unit, led by BhuvneshwarKumar, had a good outing for most part of thematch on Sunday before the Andre Russellstorm blew them away in the last three overs.

And come on Friday, Bhuvneshwar and therest of the attack, which also includes Rashid Khan,will be eyeing a much-improved death bowlingshow.

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Consecutive fifties in different battingpositions ought to be a confi-

dence-builder but Kolkata KnightRiders batsman Nitish Rana says he isoccupied by the concern of maintain-ing his form that usually "fizzles" outearly in the IPL.

As a makeshift opener in theabsence of Sunil Narine, Rana struck afine 68 in KKR's first match againstSunrisers Hyderabad on Sunday.

Back at No 4 in their secondmatch, Rana scored a 34-ball 63 againstKings XI Punjab on Wednesday to over-take Delhi Capitals' Rishabh Pant (103runs in two matches) in the earlyOrange Cap race.

"I haven't thought too far ahead. Butfor the last couple of seasons, I start wellbut my form fizzles out towards the laterhalf of the tournament," Rana said afterKKR's 28-run win.

"So this time around, I want to workon this. I want to continue the kind ofform I have started in till the end of thetournament."

Having impressed at different bat-ting positions, Rana said, "That's thesign of a good team. My plan was clear— to hit a loose ball and then, let DK(Dinesh Karthik) or (Andre) Russelltake over for the last four-five overs."

Four of his seven sixes came againstIndia's top off-spinner RavichandranAshwin but Rana said the attack was notpre-planned.

"I was just trying to build myinnings. I was taking it ball by ball at thestart and then when I thought I couldcharge, I did that.

"It doesn't matter for me who thebowler is. My game plan was simple. Ithought that was the time to attack andI did. That was the plan for the two overs— of Ashiwn and South African pacer(Hardus Viljoen)."

Rana also hailed Andre Russell's 17-ball 48 and said the lifeline, when theJamaican survived owing to a no ball,gave them 20-25 runs extra.

"Having 218/4 definitely worked inour favour, how Russell got a lifeline andthat probably gave us those 20-25 runsextra.

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An umpiring howler off thelast delivery cost RoyalChallengers Bangalore

dearly as Mumbai Indians pippedthe hosts by six runs largely due toJasprit Bumrah's brilliant spell atthe death in an IPL encounter onThursday.

Needing six to take the gameinto Super Over, Lasith Malinga'sfinal delivery to Shivam Dube wasa no-ball that was missed by theon-field umpires as RCB managed181 for 5 in reply to 187 for 8 byMumbai Indians.

What hurt them more was ABde Villiers, who nearly took histeam to victory with an unbeaten70 off 41 balls would have facedthe free-hit. Both umpires CNandan and ICC Elite Panel's SRavi bungled completely leavingVirat Kohli seething in anger.

But nothing can be takenaway from fit-again Bumrah'smastery at the death as he single-handedly won it for MI withsuperb 17th and 19th overs.

During chase, Kohli signalledhis intentions at the beginningitself hitting Jasprit Bumrah forthree consecutive boundaries inone over. Hardik Pandya wasslashed through the point andcover driven for successive bound-aries.

Mayank Markande, who dis-missed Parthiv Patel (31 off 22balls) with a googly was hit for astraight boundary by Kohli. On theday, Kohli became the secondman after Suresh Raina to com-plete 5000 runs in Indian PremierLeague.

De Villiers, who got a reprievewhen Yuvraj Singh failed to antic-ipate a sharp chance in the slip cor-don, got his act together and dis-patched Markande into the stands.De Villiers then got his second sixoff Lasith Malinga to finally getinto the groove.

With the partnership oneshort of 50-run mark, Bumrahcame back for his second spell andbowled a sharp bouncer and theRCB skipper couldn't maintain hisbalance trying to execute a pull-shot as Hardik Pandya completed

the formalities.However De Villiers, who was

set by then was in a mood to takeMalinga to the cleaners. A shad-ow of his old self, Malinga wasmissing length most of the timesand two huge sixes in the 16th overof the Lankan slinger saw DeVilliers get the equation down to41 off 24 balls.

But Bumrah kept MI in thematch giving away only one run inthe 17th over as 40 was requiredoff the last three overs.

Put into bat, Hardik muscled

a couple into the stands and oneout of sight to help MumbaiIndians recover from a middle-order collapse and post a decent187 for 8.

Pandya hit three sixes and twofours in his unbeaten 32 off 14balls after Yuzvendra Chahal (4/38in 4 overs) reduced MI from acomfortable 124 for 2 to 147 for 7.MI lost five wickets in a space of3.3 overs for only 23 runs.

This was after a vintage YuvrajSingh was raising visions of a sixsixes over with three maximums

in Chahal's 14th over. However hewasn't fourth time lucky asChahal's courage to maintainflighting the ball yielded results.

Chahal then removedSuryakumar Yadav (38 off 24balls) and Kieron Pollard in quicksuccession to bring RCB right backin the match.

It was then left to HardikPandya to score the bulk of the 30runs in the final two overs to takeMI to a fighting total on a placidbatting track.

In fact, Hardik's third and finalsix went out of the stadium as hegestured to the dressing roomspointing his bulging biceps.

However at the beginning itlooked like MI would cross the200-run mark as Rohit Sharma (48off 33 balls) and Quinton de Kock(23 off 20) added 54 for the open-ing stand but it was foiled byChahal's lion-hearted bowling.

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Kings XI Punjab coachMike Hesson said

"game-changer" AndreRussell completelysnatched the match awayfrom his team in the IPLclash against KolkataKnight Riders and ruedthe no ball that let off theswashbuckler before hewent on a rampage.

Russell was on threeoff five balls when he wasbowled by MohammedShami with an inch-per-fect yorker on off-stumpbut it was declared a noball because the side hadthree fielders, instead ofthe mandatory four,inside the circle in the17th over.

Russell then smashedeight boundaries in arow to add 44 runs in thenext 12 balls to pushKKR to a record 218/4 atthe Eden Gardens.

"It's a fine line whenyou're bowling to AndreRussell. He's agamechanger," Hessonsaid as Russell returnedwith a second man-of-the-match award inKKR's 28-run win.

"The game changedin the 17th over.Obviously we had a planfor Russell that we exe-

cuted well, but we weren'tquite alert enough in thefield, and that's where thegame changed."

"We had that littlebit of jubilation andthen things turned pret-ty quickly (with the noball) and we weren'tquite able to turn thelast few overs for 12 or14 runs. Instead weended up giving givingaway 22 or 24 runs, andit probably changed thegame."

Skipper Ashwin'sdecision to bring ontheir �8.4 crore buyVarun Chakravarthy tobowl the second overbackfired spectacular-ly. Sunil Narine ham-mered the uncappedmystery spinner forthree sixes and a four ina 25-run over.

Defending the ploy,Hesson said: "It wasn't

so much Narine. Lynnwas on strike at the startof that second over. Thatwas the match-up wewere looking for. Andthen Narine came onstrike and you know hewas able to take a toll."

Hesson also backedChakravarthy and saidhe was nervous like any-one else playing theirfirst game.

"The way he cameback in the second andthird over was excellent.And it will give him andus a lot of confidence.You know, playing yourfirst game in front of acrowd like this is diffi-cult.

"Narine's obviouslygoing to hit you fromball one. I think he willlearn to settle down a bitquicker. But I'm stillvery pleased the wayhow he came back."

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Rajasthan Royals as ateam has moved on

from the Jos Buttler'Mankading' incident andthe focus will strictly be onwinning their next IPLencounter against SunrisersHyderabad on Friday, saidseamer Jaydev Unadkat.

Asked if the team wasaffected by 'Mankading' controversy,Unadkat said: "We haven't even men-tioned it once after that day. We havemoved on from that incident. It's timethat we focus on the game coming up.

"Every game is going to be crucialin a tournament like this. Mankading(controversy) has not really made anykind of impact on us and we are look-ing for what we can do to win the game

on Friday."Buttler looked a cut

above rest when it came toattacking the KXIP bowl-ing and Unadkat said thatthe Englishman alonecan't win the franchisegames as he would alsorequire support fromother batsmen.

"It (Buttler's form)actually adds to that con-

fidence. If someone starts like that, peo-ple can take confidence and can learnfrom the way he has been approachingthe game. He has been tremendous forus throughout the last season.

"However, there need to be others,who can also contribute as Buttleralone can't win you games. Yes, himbeing in prime form is an advantage forus."

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Martin Guptill is notamong the four first-

choice overseas players forSunrisers Hyderabad but thesenior New Zealand batsmanwants to utilise his time fac-ing Rashid Khan at the netsto prepare for the WorldCup game againstAfghanistan on June 8.

With David Warner,Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khanand Shakib Al Hasan beingthe first choice foreignersand regular captain KaneWilliamson waiting to get fit,Guptill will have to bide histime but he wants to makeoptimal use of it.

For Guptill, Rashid is abowler he has not facedmuch save a few games in anearlier Caribbean PremierLeague edition.

"I played with him inCPL a couple of years back.He is an amazing bowler. Heis very hard to face becausehe is quick," Guptill saidduring a media interaction.

"I will be getting into thenets to figure out how to playhim because our secondgame at the World Cup thisyear is against Afghanistan.Obviously, if I can face himat the nets, may be I can putsome plans in place for the

corrected it againstBangladesh," he said.

Asked what exactly theproblem was, Guptill said:"My balance was not correct.I was not loading up well inmy set up that caused meplaying to different linesthan I would have liked to.But I did work hard with mylongtime coach at Aucklandwith whom I share a goodworking relationship."

Guptill has never been asought after player in IPLlike some of his other NewZealand team-mates but heactually has no qualms.

"I go into auctions withreasonably low expectations.If I get picked, it's good andif not can't do anythingabout it. It's my third seasonwith a third team. So I amdoing the rounds. SRH isquite a tight-knit unit andthey have had the same coreof players for a number ofyears now. I know I can't getinto the XI straightaway," hesaid.

He might get a chance inthe second half whenBairstow returns to Englandbut Guptill does not want tolook that far ahead.

"I try not to get tooahead. Cricket is a funnygame. I take each net sessionas it comes and work hard.

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Cricket's lawmakers MCC appeared tobacktrack on the Ravichandran Ashwin

'Mankad' controversy on Wednesday whenthey said that the Indian's running out of JosButtler in an IPL game was "not within thespirit of the game".

Earlier this week, the MCC insisted thatthe rule governing the 'Mankad' was essentialto avoid unrestrained backing-up.

On Wednesday, the MCC's manager of theLaws Fraser Stewart told British media in theUAE that they had now reviewed their orig-inal statement.

"Having extensively reviewed the incidentagain and after further reflection we don'tthink it was within the spirit of the game,"Stewart said.

"We believe the pause was too longbetween the time Ashwin reached the creaseand the moment it was reasonable to expectthe ball would be delivered.

"When Buttler could have reasonablyexpected the ball to be delivered, he was in hisground."

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World Cup," said the32-year-old, who hasplayed 47 Tests, 169ODIs and 76 T20Internationals.

Guptill is hopefulof making full use ofhis chances at

Sunrisers, havingworked on his tech-nique after an indiffer-ent home series againstIndia.

"During the Indiaseries, I had some tech-nical problem and I

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