resulting in the country’s mis- ... project involves an initial off- ... in the aircel-maxis scam...

20
I ndia and Israel are expected to ink a significant Defence deal worth over 50,000 crore for Seeker technology ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Tel Aviv later this year. The cutting-edge tech- nology will help India take a giant leap forward in manu- facturing smart weapons with- in the country and rapidly modernise missile and rocket system used by the IAF, Army and Navy. The talks for wrapping up the deal are in advanced stage between the two countries and Israel has agreed to transfer the expertise to develop and man- ufacture Seeker technology. It will enable the Defence forces to identify, acquire and then destroy an enemy missile or aircraft at long range or beyond visual range. In simple terms, it means a warship can fire a missile at a hostile target at more than 200 km distance without visually sighting it as compared to the present 50 to 60 km. Seeker tech- nology will also revolutionise the armoured corps as tanks will hit a target at a greater distance and same will be the case for fight- er jets. In fact, this technology will cover the entire gamut of missiles ranging from Akash to Long Range Surface to Air Missiles (LRSAM) used by the three Services. Elaborating upon the importance of this proposed deal, officials said here on Saturday the countries includ- ing the US and some European countries are reluctant to trans- fer Seeker technology to India resulting in the country’s mis- sile system lagging behind by at least two generations. Against this backdrop, Israel has given a clear signal that it will provide the critical ‘know why’ instead of ‘know how’. Starved of the state-of- the-art technology, the Indian industry depends on know how or technology transfer but has not been able to mas- ter entire process of manufac- turing a smart weapon from scratch. In turn, it hampers the faster modernisation of the armed forces as they are using weapons which are at least 15 to 20 years behind in terms of technological advancement as compared to the US, China and NATO countries. Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will be the lead agency in developing this tech- nology. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had given an “in-principle” approval for set- ting up of an 6,000-crore facility by the DRDO for air missile defence systems last year. Besides the Seeker tech- nology deal, the two countries are likely to ink a 10,000-crore deal for joint development of a medium-range surface-to- air missile system for the Indian Army. The other pacts include procurement of 164 laser-des- ignation pods or ‘Litening-4’ for IAF fighters like SU-30s and Jaguars as well as 250 advanced ‘Spice’ precision stand-off bombs capable of destroying fortified enemy underground command centres. The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) chaired by the Prime Minister may clear it next month, sources said. Talks are also underway to finalise a 3,200-crore contract for 321 ‘Spike’ anti tank guided (ATGM) systems and 8,356 missiles. The Army is in urgent need for third-generation ATGMs, with a strike range of over 2.5-km and fire-and-forget capabilities, to equip all its 382 infantry battalions and 44 mech- anised infantry units. The NDA Government in 2014 had selected the Israeli Spike ATGM over the US Javelin missile system, but the actual contract could not be inked due to some issues. The project involves an initial off- the-shelf induction, followed by large-scale indigenous manufacture by Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL). The proposed medium range surface to air missile (MRSAM) project between DRDO and Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), too, is a big ticket item, officials said. The initial order is for one MRSAM regiment, with 16 firing units along with their multifunc- tion surveillance and weapon control systems. BDL will man- ufacture these missiles. DRDO and IAI are already engaged in a project worth over 13,000 crore for Navy and IAF for developing similar missiles. Incidentally, the Israel Defence industry is closely involved with the DRDO in more than 30 projects, includ- ing development of radars, electronic warfare systems and satellite based command and control systems for the three Services. Moreover, Israeli made Greenpine radars are success- fully integrated into the Agni missiles systems capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Israel is now the third largest weapon supplier after the US and Russia to India since diplomatic ties between the two nations were estab- lished in 1990. T he ongoing face-off between the Centre and the Opposition is set to intensify next week. Major Opposition parties on Saturday decided to bring privilege motion against HRD Minister Smriti Irani for “misleading” Parliament on the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in Hyderabad Central University and the JNU row. The Congress, the CPI (M) and the JD(U) announced their plan of action against Irani, who had hit out at Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi and the Left during a debate on the JNU and Hyderabad University con- troversies in Parliament. “The HRD Minister has not only been economical with truth but has also willfully mis- led Parliament on the unfortu- nate suicide of a young Dalit stu- dent, Rohith Vemula”, Congress general secretary Mukul Wasnik and senior spokesperson Kumari Selja alleged. The development comes after Rohith’s mother Radhika on Friday attacked Irani for “telling lies”. She met Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Saturday even as NSUI activists staged a protest against Irani and demanded her resignation over the controversies. For his part, Rahul Gandhi took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his ‘Satyamev Jayate’ tweet after Irani’s fiery speech in the Lok Sabha. He asked Modi to hear the version of mother of Rohith Vemula. “Satyameva Jayate! Modiji do hear these words of Rohith Vemula’s mother,” Rahul tweeted. At the AICC briefing, Wasnik said that the Congress planned to bring privilege motion in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha soon, while CPI(M) leader Mohd Saleem said he would be doing so on Monday. Turn to Page 4 T he 2G Court on Saturday took cognisance of the chargesheet filed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Aircel- Maxis scam and summoned all the accused, including former Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran, on July 11. Besides Dayanidhi, Special Judge OP Sani passed the sum- moning orders also against the former Minister’s brother and Sun TV Group chief Kalanidhi Maran, his wife Kaveri, Sun TV MD K Shanmugham and two companies belonging to the group — Sun Direct and South Asia FM. Following the CBI’s chargesheet, the ED had filed chargesheet under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the four people and two companies for receiv- ing a bribe of 743 crore from Malaysian company Maxis, which acquired Aircel. The ED in its chargesheet said the probe is going on against FIPB violations in the Aircel-Maxis deal involving former Finance Minister P Chidambaram and his son Karti. The probe is also going on against bribe givers T Ananda Krishnan and Ralph Marshall, promoters of the Malaysian company. Turn to Page 4 A Delhi court on Saturday allowed the custodial inter- rogation of two JNU students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya — by two more days — arrested in a sedition case for allegedly organising a controversial event at JNU on February 9 where anti-India slogans were raised and Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru hailed. In a relative development, Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said the sedition case has been transferred to the force’s counter-terrorism unit Special Cell. “I have directed my officers to transfer the case to Special Cell as the matter needs focused investigation. In a case registered under Section 124 A (Sedition), the Special Cell shall do justice,” Bassi told reporters. The process of transfer will take around two days. Besides JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, Umar, and Anirban, the other students allegedly involved in the case are Rama Naga, Ashutosh Kumar and Anant Prakash. Ashutosh has joined the investigation with the Delhi Police. Police claimed that around 22 people present at the flash- point JNU event, including some outsiders, have been identified after the joint inter- rogation of Umar, Anirban and Kanhaiya. Turn to Page 4 Related reports on P3 V edanta Ltd has won India’s first-ever auction of a gold mine in Chhattisgarh as the nation opens up the sector to private companies to curb overseas purchases of the metal. Vedanta, a unit of London- listed Vedanta Resources Plc, beat three other bidders in the auction for Baghmara mine, Reena Kangale who is head of Chhattisgarh’s Directorate of Geology and Mining, told The Pioneer on Saturday. She stated that the compa- ny has quoted the highest bid of 12.55 per cent of the Indian Bureau of Mines price of 74,712 a troy ounce (1 troy ounce = 31.10 gram) to win the gold mine. Turn to Page 4

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India and Israel are expectedto ink a significant Defence

deal worth over �50,000 crorefor Seeker technology ahead ofPrime Minister NarendraModi’s visit to Tel Aviv later thisyear. The cutting-edge tech-nology will help India take agiant leap forward in manu-facturing smart weapons with-in the country and rapidlymodernise missile and rocketsystem used by the IAF, Armyand Navy.

The talks for wrapping upthe deal are in advanced stagebetween the two countries andIsrael has agreed to transfer theexpertise to develop and man-ufacture Seeker technology. Itwill enable the Defence forcesto identify, acquire and thendestroy an enemy missile oraircraft at long range or beyondvisual range.

In simple terms, it means awarship can fire a missile at ahostile target at more than 200km distance without visuallysighting it as compared to the

present 50 to 60 km. Seeker tech-nology will also revolutionise thearmoured corps as tanks will hita target at a greater distance andsame will be the case for fight-er jets. In fact, this technologywill cover the entire gamut ofmissiles ranging from Akash toLong Range Surface to AirMissiles (LRSAM) used by thethree Services.

Elaborating upon theimportance of this proposeddeal, officials said here onSaturday the countries includ-ing the US and some Europeancountries are reluctant to trans-fer Seeker technology to Indiaresulting in the country’s mis-sile system lagging behind by atleast two generations.

Against this backdrop,Israel has given a clear signalthat it will provide the critical‘know why’ instead of ‘knowhow’. Starved of the state-of-the-art technology, the Indianindustry depends on knowhow or technology transferbut has not been able to mas-ter entire process of manufac-turing a smart weapon from

scratch. In turn, it hampers thefaster modernisation of thearmed forces as they are usingweapons which are at least 15to 20 years behind in terms oftechnological advancement ascompared to the US, China andNATO countries.

Defence Research andDevelopment Organisation(DRDO) will be the leadagency in developing this tech-nology. The Prime Minister’sOffice (PMO) had given an“in-principle” approval for set-ting up of an �6,000-crorefacility by the DRDO for air missile defence systemslast year.

Besides the Seeker tech-nology deal, the two countriesare likely to ink a �10,000-croredeal for joint development of a medium-range surface-to-air missile system for the Indian Army.

The other pacts includeprocurement of 164 laser-des-ignation pods or ‘Litening-4’for IAF fighters like SU-30s andJaguars as well as 250 advanced‘Spice’ precision stand-offbombs capable of destroyingfortified enemy undergroundcommand centres. The CabinetCommittee on Security (CCS)chaired by the Prime Ministermay clear it next month,

sources said.Talks are also underway to

finalise a �3,200-crore contractfor 321 ‘Spike’ anti tank guided(ATGM) systems and 8,356missiles. The Army is in urgentneed for third-generationATGMs, with a strike range ofover 2.5-km and fire-and-forgetcapabilities, to equip all its 382infantry battalions and 44 mech-anised infantry units.

The NDA Government in2014 had selected the IsraeliSpike ATGM over the USJavelin missile system, but theactual contract could not beinked due to some issues. Theproject involves an initial off-

the-shelf induction, followed bylarge-scale indigenous manufacture by BharatDynamics Ltd (BDL).

The proposed mediumrange surface to air missile(MRSAM) project betweenDRDO and Israeli AerospaceIndustries (IAI), too, is a bigticket item, officials said. Theinitial order is for one MRSAMregiment, with 16 firing unitsalong with their multifunc-tion surveillance and weaponcontrol systems. BDL will man-ufacture these missiles. DRDOand IAI are already engaged ina project worth over �13,000crore for Navy and IAF fordeveloping similar missiles.

Incidentally, the IsraelDefence industry is closelyinvolved with the DRDO inmore than 30 projects, includ-ing development of radars,electronic warfare systems and satellite based commandand control systems for thethree Services.

Moreover, Israeli madeGreenpine radars are success-fully integrated into the Agnimissiles systems capable ofcarrying nuclear warheads.Israel is now the third largestweapon supplier after the USand Russia to India since diplomatic ties between the two nations were estab-lished in 1990.

/0!�� ������ ��

The ongoing face-offbetween the Centre and the

Opposition is set to intensifynext week. Major Oppositionparties on Saturday decided tobring privilege motion againstHRD Minister Smriti Irani for“misleading” Parliament onthe suicide of Dalit scholarRohith Vemula in HyderabadCentral University and theJNU row.

The Congress, the CPI (M)and the JD(U) announced theirplan of action against Irani, whohad hit out at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi and theLeft during a debate on the JNUand Hyderabad University con-troversies in Parliament.

“The HRD Minister has notonly been economical withtruth but has also willfully mis-led Parliament on the unfortu-nate suicide of a young Dalit stu-

dent, Rohith Vemula”, Congressgeneral secretary Mukul Wasnikand senior spokespersonKumari Selja alleged.

The development comesafter Rohith’s mother Radhikaon Friday attacked Irani for“telling lies”. She met Congresspresident Sonia Gandhi onSaturday even as NSUI activistsstaged a protest against Iraniand demanded her resignationover the controversies.

For his part, Rahul Gandhitook a jibe at Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over his‘Satyamev Jayate’ tweet afterIrani’s fiery speech in the LokSabha. He asked Modi to hearthe version of mother of RohithVemula. “Satyameva Jayate!Modiji do hear these words ofRohith Vemula’s mother,”Rahul tweeted.

At the AICC briefing,Wasnik said that the Congressplanned to bring privilegemotion in the Lok Sabha andthe Rajya Sabha soon, whileCPI(M) leader Mohd Saleemsaid he would be doing so on Monday.

Turn to Page 4

/0!�� ������ ��

The 2G Court on Saturdaytook cognisance of the

chargesheet filed by EnforcementDirectorate (ED) in the Aircel-Maxis scam and summoned allthe accused, including formerTelecom Minister DayanidhiMaran, on July 11.

Besides Dayanidhi, SpecialJudge OP Sani passed the sum-moning orders also against theformer Minister’s brother andSun TV Group chief KalanidhiMaran, his wife Kaveri, Sun TVMD K Shanmugham and two

companies belonging to thegroup — Sun Direct and SouthAsia FM.

Following the CBI’schargesheet, the ED had filedchargesheet under Prevention ofMoney Laundering Act(PMLA) against the four peopleand two companies for receiv-ing a bribe of �743 crore fromMalaysian company Maxis,which acquired Aircel.

The ED in its chargesheetsaid the probe is going onagainst FIPB violations in theAircel-Maxis deal involvingformer Finance Minister PChidambaram and his sonKarti. The probe is also goingon against bribe givers TAnanda Krishnan and RalphMarshall, promoters of theMalaysian company.

Turn to Page 4

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ADelhi court on Saturdayallowed the custodial inter-

rogation of two JNU students,Umar Khalid and AnirbanBhattacharya — by two moredays — arrested in a seditioncase for allegedly organising acontroversial event at JNU onFebruary 9 where anti-Indiaslogans were raised andParliament attack convict AfzalGuru hailed.

In a relative development,Delhi Police Commissioner BS Bassi said the sedition casehas been transferred to theforce’s counter-terrorism unitSpecial Cell.

“I have directed my officersto transfer the case to SpecialCell as the matter needsfocused investigation. In a case registered underSection 124 A (Sedition), theSpecial Cell shall do justice,”Bassi told reporters. Theprocess of transfer will takearound two days.

Besides JNUSU presidentKanhaiya Kumar, Umar, andAnirban, the other studentsallegedly involved in the case are Rama Naga, AshutoshKumar and Anant Prakash.Ashutosh has joined the investigation with the Delhi Police.

Police claimed that around22 people present at the flash-point JNU event, includingsome outsiders, have beenidentified after the joint inter-rogation of Umar, Anirbanand Kanhaiya.

Turn to Page 4Related reports on P3

/0! � �����

Vedanta Ltd has won India’sfirst-ever auction of a

gold mine in Chhattisgarh asthe nation opens up the sector to private companies tocurb overseas purchases of the metal.

Vedanta, a unit of London-listed Vedanta Resources Plc,beat three other bidders in theauction for Baghmara mine,Reena Kangale who is head ofChhattisgarh’s Directorate ofGeology and Mining, told ThePioneer on Saturday.

She stated that the compa-ny has quoted the highest bidof 12.55 per cent of the IndianBureau of Mines price of�74,712 a troy ounce (1 troyounce = 31.10 gram) to win thegold mine.

Turn to Page 4

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It is a story of shy and lonely 64-year-old professor Dr SR Sirasfrom Aligarh Muslim University

who loved listening to LataMangeshkar songs and enjoyed hisevening drink. But sometimespersonal lives of some people becomepublic and Siras was one such tragedystruck person. Most would knowwhat befell this learned Marathilinguist after some goons barged intohis bedroom, beat him and his“friend” up and took someobjectionable pictures to splash themin the local press — suspended fromthe university for being homosexual,he committed suicide after a courtbattle which reinstated him as don.

But Aligarh is not abouthomosexuality, as censor board chiefPahlaj Nihalani said, giving it an ‘A’certificate; it is about a man who waswitch-hunted for being an outsiderand chairman of the LanguagesDepartment in the university. “Dekhomein yahan bahar ka aadmi samjhajata hoon, an outsider. Urdu bolneywale sheher mein Marathi sikhatahoon, shaadi shuda logon ke beechmein akela rehta hoon,” Siras tellsRajkummar Rao, who plays ajournalist and befriends the professor.

As the story progresses, it makesone question the moralistic rules thatthe society has laid down; thedemarcation between what is rightand what is wrong and the right toprivacy. Is it really okay to enter intosomeone’s bedroom and film privatemoments? Most will say whathappens behind closed doors shouldremain private. So why is it that when

it involves two people of the same sexthe moral brigade is up in arms? Whyis it that it is not okay for two men toshare private moments in theirbedroom but for a man and a womanto make out in the open?

What makes this film’s releasetimely is because the Supreme Courtrecently decided to review its 2013judgment that reinstated a law —criminalising gay sex.

The film saddens you becausehere is a man who doesn’t take theword ‘love’ lightly. Like Dr Siras says:“Kabhi love ko bhi samjhne ki koshishkiya karo; it is a beautiful word.” He isnaive, innocent and gives a coy shysmile when he is told he is handsome.But he is also a man who is lonelyand whose fragility touches yourheart. It is a poignant film; a gem of amovie by Hansal Mehta with a superbperformance by Bajpai and somebrilliant writing by Apurva Asrani.

After Neerja, this is anunmissable movie for this week.

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It’s a dark, depressing and mostlyfrigid environment that this film

takes you into. To top it, the journey isfull of horrors, blood, gore and aburning revenge plan of a half-eaten-by-bear way-scout to travel to the othercorner of this unending landscape andkill the murderer of his son.

Despite the slow but intense actionof a factual story set in the 19thcentury, despite its lead actor LeonardoDi Caprio not speaking many, orshould we say any, dialogues, despitethe prolonged and agonising journeythat battles the pitfalls of sheermonotony — it grows on you and youwant to navigate to the end.

Though all the talk of this filmbased on real character of folkloreAmerica, Huge Glass, is about whetherthis time round — finally — Di Capwill get his much awaited Oscar forBest Actor, one should not take awayfrom the immense work put into thislandscape-ridden film bycinematographer Emmanuel Lubezkiand director Alejandro G Inarritu.

While Lubezki creates theatmosphere that is so relevant to thisstory, Inarritu has pieced together thetale with a dogged kind of authenticity.

But back to Di Cap. Well, after fournominations for his earlier similarlyenabled roles with no Oscars yet, thebig question remains. Well, for starters,as Glass, Di Cap is given next tonothing dialogues which test hishistrionic skills as never before. Then,he is made to look so shabby andhidden by fur and filth all through thefilm that it is only his singular acumenfor the big screen that could haveshown all those intense emotions,mostly through his expressive eyes and

facial contortions. Third, with most of the film being

brave enough to concentrate on DiCap’s facial close-ups, the actordeserves undiluted applause forcreating a reality so intense that youbelieve in his agony, feel his pain, livewith his determination and survive ashe does, the cold, snow-bound inertiaof the white landscape.

It is a film of strong will-power, ofdefeating death, of a revenge so fuelledthat nothing can kill it, not even theinherent boredom of the isolation thatthe tale bequeaths on him.

The violence is stark, as are thetimes that these fur-people live in. Youcringe, you close your eyes and youeven turn away at certain sequences,but they all seem to be the only optionof the perpetrators. In one suchsequence, Glass cuts out the innards ofa dead horse and goes to sleep in itsbelly all nude to keep himself warm! Inanother, he eats a raw fish withmaniacal hunger and in yet another, hejoins a savage in eating the raw andbloodied meat of a wild buffalo leftbehind by jackals!

Not to mention the centrepiece ofthe film—his fight with an enragedbear who tears him apart mercilessly,coming back to him repeatedly. How itwas managed, despite the computergraphics, is a tale to tell in itself.

So best actor, best picture, bestcinematography — this one deserves itall.

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Classified as a love story, this same-sextag of a romance may sound over

indulgent and groovy about lesbianencounters, especially when they are allunfolding in the forbidden age of the1950s. But it has a story alright — andit’s all about the straight out of Vogue,rich, restless and seasoned CateBlanchett (Carol) and the gauche, young,hesitant, middle-class salesgirl RooneyMara (Terese) shacking up together inthe face of stiff taboo.

The beauty of their slowly unfoldingrelationship spread around an expansiveroad trip to the West, is that it is both acounterfoil and a complement in equalmeasure. Blanchett is more than extra-ordinary in her role of a much marriedmother of one who has had same-sexflings before, the ultimate lady of theworld in her brown fur, red lipstick anda swagger so unique that you might justgive her the Oscar for Best Actress.

But then there is Rooney Mara, too,who has the most arresting pair ofsparkling, naive eyes and a demeanourso enchantingly hesitant that you wouldthink she deserves much more than asupporting actress statuette this year.

Whoever, whatever, but the twotogether compel you to overcome yourreservations about lesbianism if you haveany, and start seeing what the film is allfor — a love so enduring, so complex, soout of sync with the times and soinevitable that you support it with allyour might.

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This big canvas fantasy adventure,pegged on Egyptian folklore and

celestial beings, is an engaging sagawhich turns a little bit prolonged by theend of it all.

Here, Gods are fighting the rogueGod who has the throne of Egypt underhis sword after killing his King brotherand maiming his heir-apparent nephewforever by swooping out his all-powerfuleyes. Or so he thought, till one measlymortal — a thief at that — loses hisbeloved to her master and bargains withthe God in Exile King to give her lifeback in barter for his eyes which hesteals from the rogue King’s vault.

Amid all this mumble jumble, theflashy film high on computer imageryand graphic action unfoldsinterestingly enough to keep youseated through its prolonged journeythrough well conjured mountains,deserts and heaven, not to mention theultimate abode of life — the sun.

Another matter though that Godstumble from the pedestal by fightinglike mortals for power, money andeternity. The God of Wisdom is funnyand the Sun God all ready to expandand break into fire as is the God of Airwhose wings are clipped by the God ofDesert, played to perfection by GerardButler. Personally, I would have lovedhim to be on the right side of the law.But as a baddie too he glows andgrows on you.

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A11�5�01��>�+.!Watch Ki & Ka’s

first liveperformance at ZeeCine Awards 2016on March 5, 2016 at7 pm simulcast onZee Cinema, ZeeCinema HD, ZeeAnmol and ZeeTamizh. ArjunKapoor will give aspecial performance wearing red stilettos.Ranveer Singh will join in wearing silverstilettos. Also catch Yo Yo Honey Singhsinging at the show and heighten theentertainment.

01>�!,*>�*0�!*04�10$1+$��0210$The channel is all set to regale its

audience with the launch of two new shows– Kuch Rang Pyare Ke Aise Bhi and Ek DujeKe Vaste set to go on air from February 29at 9:30 pm and 10 pm respectively.

Both the shows stories have a uniqueand relatable take on the emotion that bindsthe world — love.

:�/� �!,�+2��!���5:They carry a lot of swag. They travel

in a helicopter. They stay united with eachother in whatever they do. This team inblack may look serious and professional buttheir mission is to tickle your funny bone.The comedy king of telly, Kapil Sharma, isback with a bang with his brand newcomedy show The Kapil Sharma Show.

The new promo which has gone viralshows his gang of comedians — Ali Asgar,Kiku Sharda, Sunil Grover, SumonaChakravarti, Chandan Prabhakar andothers wearing black suits and riding in ahelicopter.

After breaking all ties with Colors overtheir internal conflict, Kapil has nowjoined hands with Sony EntertainmentTelevision, a channel which brought himand many of his competitors like KrushnaAbhishek, Bharti etc in the limelightthrough shows like Comedy Circus andLaughter Challenge. The channel is goingto make an official announcement nextweek about the show which may go on airfrom March end or April first week.Grapevine has it that the first episode willfeature none other than King Khan,promoting his Maneesh Sharma film Fan.It is also said that Kareena Kapoor Khanand Arjun Kapoor have also shot for theshow to promote their movie Ki & Ka.

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�What is Saxena’s character allabout?

Saxena is a psychopath most ofthe time. At other times, he is anormal person you will find in asmall town. Though there is somesadness to his character, he bringsin a lot of positivity — he is smilingand laughing all the time. This iswhat makes his character so lovableand likeable. Then there are hiseccentricities — wanting to takeshocks or getting slapped andsaying ‘I like it’ and getting a squint.People love this.�How many times have you beenslapped in the show?

Around 1,332 times! But who

is keeping track. Each slap has astory and a message behind it buteven when it happens it evokeslaughter because of the situation andcircumstances leading to it.�How did this character come tolife?

I am not the kind of personwho likes doing episodic shows.Saxena was supposed to be there foronly one episode. But people lovedhim so much that I’m still associatedwith it and loving every minute.�Do you find a connect withSaxena?

My life has been full of downs.I’ve been working since I was eight.and seen some very bad days. Yet Ifind a silver lining in everything.This is what I bring to life as Saxena— to be positive in every situation.The character has become sointegral to me that even when I’mnot shooting and say ‘I like it’, I endup with that squint and expression.

�Tell us about Pelu, the rickshawpuller?

He is one of the many characterswho walk in and out of the lives of themain protagonists. He is seen everytime Tiwari or Vibhu are having a tête-à-tête. In that sense he knows all theirsecrets. He also drives other charactersaround like Tiwari’s mother, sometimesAngoori’s father when he doesn’t comeon his scooter. He is the kind ofperson you will find everywhere.�How did the inspiration for hischaracter come?

Sometime back I was in Delhiand I came across this rickshaw wala.I was talking and he just kept a straightface. At the end of the ride, he just

smiled. As for the name, it was given byAashif Sheikh.�Why does he not speak?

Like Saxena, Pelu was only supposed tobe there for one episode. I am the executivedirector and I take charge when ShashankBali is not there. There was need for arickshaw puller so Bali asked me to just standin one corner and smile in the end. Thisfound a connect and I became a permanentfixture. As for the little slips, there was a scene— mushaira — where every one wasinvited. Every one wanted to know how Peluwould speak. It was then that Pelu takes outa parchi. That became an instant hit. The factthat he has a slip every time a question isasked, which sometimes doesn’t make sense,adds to the overall comedy.

Whenever one talks about Hinditelevision, it is always centredaround daily soap and the usual

saas-bahu serials that are full of melodrama,over the top sets and performances,women bedecked in their finery even whenasleep. Amid this, if one gets to see a showthat has plenty of laughable moments, itfinds an instant connect with the viewersand becomes a hit. Bhabi Ji Ghar Par Haion &TV is a classic example of this.

Inspired from the 1995 serial ShrimaanShrimati, this serial has a simple storyline— the male leads’ bid to outdo each otherand impress each other’s wives. Whatmakes this sitcom a must watch is that ithas a local flavour. It is set in Kanpur, thedialogues and situations are funny and soare the various characters — a corrupt andfat police inspector, Happu Singh; tworoadside romeos — Malkhan and Tika; arickshaw puller Pelu who has yet to uttera single word in the series; then there isSaxenaji the eccentric man who gets a highfrom taking electric shocks or gettingslapped by others.

Then, of course, there are the leadprotagonists. Though it is the ladies whotake centrestage in the show, it is the maleleads who tickle the funny bone. They lovetheir wives but don’t pass up on anopportunity to hit on the other’s wife. It isthe situation created in each episodecoupled with acting makes this TV viewingso entertaining.

“The characters are very well definedand have been fleshed out very nicely.Second, the language. One doesn’t usuallysee this kind of Hindi being celebrated.Third, the characters are very real. Theyfind an instant connect with the viewers.Take Anu (Anita). She is a modern womanwho is very dominating but doesn’t mindtaking the lead in romancing her husband.She is not a vamp nor a sati savitri. TakeAngoori; she is very simple with a rural

upbringing. These are the kinds of womenyou would find in real life. This is what theaudience is looking for — some laughterat the end of an otherwise stressful life,”Saumya Tandon, who plays Anita opines.

She also tells you that to begin with shewas apprehensive in doing this show anddidn’t want to be associated with anythingthat was remotely related to melodrama ordaily soap. It took the makers nine monthsto convince her. “Most of the shows on TVare so OTT and I didn’t want to be a partof it. But when I started playing Anu, Irealised how down to earth her characteris. I think in the entire series, her’s and

Vibhuti’s characters are most real; as acouple they are the kind you would findin reality,” Saumya says, adding thatthough there is nothingfantabulous as a concept,having the hots for theneighbour’s wife is ageold,it is the way it has beenwritten that makes it sogood.

“There are differentlayers to each character;they are so different fromeach other. The wayVibhuti flirts with Angoori is

so different from the manner in whichTiwari flirts with Anu. Then there are other

characters; they are all very original.Most comedy shows have OTT

acting and dialogues. Bhabi Ji...in that sense has made a

place for itself for beingdistinct from others,”Tandon tells you.

One is told that theconcept had been wellthought of from the FIR

days. But at that timeShashank Bali, also the

director of Bhabi Ji... was busy

with FIR. But the minute that went off airlast year, Bhabi Ji... found its way to thesmall screen.

“When we had just shot a couple ofepisodes of Bhabi Ji... I asked Bali if theserial will work. He only had one thing tosay — “Either it will be a trendsetter or bea total flop.” Today, we all know that thereare so many people who watch the show;dialogues like ‘sahi pakde hain’, ‘I like it’ and‘I am saaary’ have become so popularamong viewers that they use it in daily life.In that sense, we are blessed that peoplehave appreciated the show,” ManojSantoshi, scriptwriter of the show, says.

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Most of us are dreamers and have apassion but few of us manage to live

our dream or pursue what we love. Inthat sense Bollywood Diaries sends amessage to all — don’t give up on yourdream. Director KD Satyam, throughthree protagonists, takes you on a

journey on what people are willing to do,to the point of madness — in the film tobecome big stars in Bollywood.

Take Ashish Vidyarthi who playsVishnu, a 52-year-old, once a theatreactor but forced to do 9 to 5 job. Heseeks help from a guru to, believe it ornot, take birth in the home of aBollywood star. He is even given amantra for this — Om Bollywoodstarayam namah!

If this is not enough, its dialogues are

filmi too — “Manzil toh mil hi jayegibhatak kar he sahi, gumrah toh woh hainjo ghar se nikle hi nahin” and “Bollywoodki producers aur director ko koi pharaknahin padta, chamri gori ho ya kali, baschamri mein talent hona chahiye talent”— but Satyam can be forgiven for thesimple reason that his leads want to beactors.

In a week when you have a movieslike Aligarh and The Revenant one cangive this film a miss. :"������"������

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Is it anywhere near the original? Naa...Not a patch on it. Is it not at all funny?

That’s not true either. Could it have beenany better? Yes, much much better.

Tere Bin Laden 2 came riding on highexpectations and, as expected, could notlive up to them. But then no sequel everdoes. And as far as TBL 2 goes, even themain character Osama is long dead andthrown into the sea. Hence, the centralcharacter is not so much Laden as it isDavid Do Something, an AmericanMarine assigned the task of proving that

Osama is actually dead. Sikander Kher asDavid is more than brilliant and holds thefilm together. Osama has few moments asdoes Manish Paul who plays the film’sdirector in the middle of all the drama,action, shooting and a fallen brigade ofjihadis helmed by Piyush Mishra.

A lot happens in this film but muchtoo quickly. It’s more than evident that theslapstick pace is introduced to hide theslimness of the wit and humour thatpunctuated the original all so well.

Personally, wishing that the satire wasmore pervasive and did not come in fitsand starts as it does in this one. But yes,the person playing president BarackObama is a riot, as is the jihadi leader,Piyush Mishra.

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Jawaharlal Nehru University(JNU) Students’ Union pres-

ident Kanhaiya Kumar has tolda Supreme Court-appointedlawyers’ probe panel that hewas beaten up, pushed to theground and injured by men inlawyers’ robes in front of police,when he was brought to thePatiala House Courts premis-es on February 17.

“When police brought meinside the court’s gate, a mob ofmen in lawyers’ robes attackedme. It appeared as if they wereready to attack and they werecalling others also. I wasassaulted. Police escorting metried to save me but they werealso beaten up. I complaint topolice about being hit by themob, but they didn’t do any-thing. I told the judge I havefull faith in the Constitution.

These are politically motivatedpersons”.

“Main is desh ka naujawanhoon, main JNU mein PhD karraha hoon, log keh rahe hain kimain desh drohi hoon, kuchmedia mera trial kar rahi hai (Iam a youth of this country, I amdoing my PhD in JNU and peo-

ple are calling me ‘anti-national’,a section of the media has put meon trial),” Kanhaiya said whilenarrating the sequence of eventsto the lawyers’ panel in a videoshown on television channels onSaturday.

In a video filmed byHaren Rawal, one of the

lawyers sent to the court,Kanhaiya said he was assault-ed while being brought in forhearing. “I was punched,kicked, thrown to the ground,”he said. “A mob dressed likelawyers were waiting to attackme. I was brutally beaten up.Police, who were escorting

me, were also thrashed.”The panel of six advocates

— Kapil Sibal, Rajeev Dhavan,Dushyant Dave, ADN Rao,Ajit Kumar Sinha and HarenRaval — had visited the PatialaHouse Courts premises onFebruary 17 after the apexcourt was informed thatKanhaiya was beaten up duringhis production before the mag-istrate. In another instancewhen he was attacked, police,who were there, did not do any-thing, he said.

After Kanhaiya narratedthe incident to the panel insidethe courtroom, Sibal calledDCP Jatin Narwal andenquired about it. “How didyou allow the attack to takeplace inside court premises?Your men were there. Whatwere they doing? How he (manwho attacked Kanhaiya outsidethe gate of the courtroom)

was allowed inside?” the panelmembers asked the DCP.

Responding to it, Narwalsaid, “He came with the escortparty and entered the roomadjacent to the courtroom.”The panel members then calledother police officials and askedthem about the incident andthey replied that the personwho attacked Kanhaiya hadclaimed to be his lawyer.Kanhaiya told the panel thatwhen he was assaulted, he felldown and sustained injuriesand at that time he could notsee what police was doing. Tothis, Sibal asked the DCP, “thatmeans police were there andthey did nothing.”

The student leader told thepanel that the person, who hadattacked him, had come to theadjacent courtroom and hehad told his teacher about it. “Itold my teacher that this man

was assaulting me and thenpolice asked that person abouthis identity. He in turn ques-tioned the policeman and askedhim to show his I-card. Thatperson left the place in front ofpolice and police did nothing.He could have been appre-hended there itself. I had toldpolice that this man hadassaulted me,” he said.

On February 17, a bunch ofrowdy lawyers had launched abrazen attack on Kanhaiya,journalists and others and alsoindulged in stone-pelting andhurling abuses on the panel ofsenior lawyers. The panelmembers then asked Kanhaiyaas to whether he could identi-fy the policemen who were pre-sent there and the man whoassaulted him. He replied, “I canidentify. I had told police that thisman had assaulted me and Iwant to file a complaint against

him. He was the first person whohad assaulted me at the gate.”

At this juncture, the panelmembers told the DCP, “Hissafety is your responsibility. Donot give excuses. This is unbe-lievable. You are now underSupreme Court’s order andnot BS Bassi’s order.”

His lawyers then told thepanel members that magistratehad asked Kanhaiya to give astatement in writing. On beingasked by the panel as to whetherhe was attacked inside the court-room where the hearing tookplace, the student leader said,“No. Not inside the courtroom.”

The team of senior advo-cates, after taking stock of thesituation at Patiala HouseCourts, informed the apexcourt that there was seriousthreat to safety of Kanhaiyawho was beaten and pushed byunknown persons in the court.

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Delhi Police CommissionerBS Bassi said the sedition

case in connection with thecontroversial JNU event hasbeen transferred to the force’scounter-terrorism unit Special

Cell. “I have directed my offi-cers to transfer the case to theSpecial Cell as the matter needsfocused investigation. In a caseregistered under Section 124 A(Sedition), the Special Cell shalldo justice,” Bassi told reporters.

The process of transferwill take around two days, saidthe top cop, adding the localdistrict police would not beable to put the focus which thecase demands as they have todeal with numerous routine lawand order affairs.

A few days after registeringthe case in connection with theFebruary 9 event in JNU cam-pus, DCP (South) Prem Nathhad written to theCommissioner, requesting himto transfer the case to SpecialCell. Bassi had refused to do sothen saying the concerned policedistrict has enough capacity todeal with the matter.

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The Akhil Bharatiya VidyarthiParishad (ABVP) would be

taking up the matter of “thosewho shielded” the five accusedstudents inside the JawaharlalNehru University campus withVice-Chancellor M JagadeshKumar, following which theyplan to “approach police”. Five ofeight students resurfaced lastSunday night after nine days ofarrest of JNUSU presidentKanhaiya Kumar.

All the eight students fromAISA, SFI and banned organ-isation DSU respectively havebeen charged with seditionand criminal conspiracy fororganising an event onParliament attack convict AfzalGuru, where they allegedlyshouted “anti-India” slogans.

“The two students — UmarKhalid and Anirban — have toldpolice that they were shieldedwith the help of JNU teachers.We will approach the V-C onthis and enquire further. If it isestablished that teachers havesupported them, we will go topolice also to take action againstthem,” JNUSU Joint Secretaryand ABVP member SaurabhSharma told The Pioneer.

Sharma said the caseagainst students was a “graveone” as they indulged in slo-ganeering to “break the nation”

thus anyone supporting them“deserves to be punished”.

Lot of rumours had spreadacross the media and JNUcampus mentioning about apolice complaint against theJNU teachers but Sharmadenied it. However, he said theABVP has plans to first speakto the administration.

JNU Teachers’ Associationpresident Ajay Patnaik saidthese were just rumours and noteachers had complained aboutbeing questioned over thewhereabouts of the five studentswhile they were underground.

The event “A culturalevening — The country withouta post office” to commemorateGuru’s hanging on February 9created a huge row involving thestudents community.

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Owing to an “abnormal rise”in the ammonia level at

Wazirabad pond, the Delhi JalBoard (DJB) was “forced to shutdown” two water treatmentplants (WTPs) at Wazirabad(130 MGD), Chandrawal (90MGD) and Okhla (20 MGD)on Saturday. The move is like-ly to trigger a water crisis in thecity, which may affect nearlyone-third of its population.

Due to shut down of thesewater treatment plants, thewater supply in the eveningshall be affected. As a result,more than 30 per cent of pop-ulation of Delhi living in walledcity, Central, North Delhi andNDMC and institutions ofutmost importance includingRashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament,Prime Minister’s Office andother parts of Lutyens’ Delhi getadversely affected.

Currently, there is shortageof over 400 MGD in the nation-al Capital and pressure is toolow. Besides, Dwarka watertreatment plant is also shutdown. The affected areas areInderlok, Shastri Nagar, AzadMarket, Beriwala Bagh, BaraHindu Rao, Tokriwalan, PahariDheeraj, Regarpura, NewRohtak Road, Manakpura, BapaNagar, Dev Nagar, Model Basti,Motia Khan, JhandewalanExtention, Nai Walan, JamaMasjid, Chandni Chauk, DaryaGanj and adjoining area, Groupof Hospitals LNJP Hospital,MAMC, GB Pant Hospital,Gurunanak Hospital, MintoRoad, Civil Lines, Majnu kaTilla and adjoining areas,Ajmeri Gate, Sita Ram Bazar,

Ballimaran, Kucha Pandit,Chawri Bazar, Nai Sarak, RamLila Ground and adjoining area,Mukund Pur, Burari, AdarshNagar, Jahangir Puri, ModelTown, Kamla Nagar, DelhiUniversity, Malka Gunj, GTBNagar, Mukerji Nagar, TimarPur, Wazirabad and Jagat Pur

On the other hand, DelhiWater Minister Kapil Mishraon Saturday went to Munakcanal to review the repair work.

According to DJB chief exec-utive officer Keshav Chandra, theammonia level in Wazirabadpond has touched an all-timehigh of 2.6 miligram per litre(mgl) as opposed to the limit of0.2 mgl. As a result, productionof potable water from the threeWTPs — which supply around240 million gallons daily — hasbeen stopped. “The raw watersupply from the Yamuna hasbeen affected due to industrialpollutants from the Sonepat andPanipat drains,” a DJB officialsaid. The DJB also claimed thatwhile the issue of “untreated dis-charge of industrial waste” intothe Yamuna had been raisedrepeatedly, the HaryanaGovernment has not taken anyconcrete measures to check it.

Chandra has also written toCPCB chairman and raised theissue of ammonia. Chandrasaid Domestic and Industrialwaste is being discharged intoDrain No. 8 near MandoraVillage in Haryana andDomestic sewage and Industrialpollution in River Coursethrough Munak Escape. “Spillover of domestic/industrialwaste from drain no. 6 to drainno.8 which runs parallel toeach other,” is also the reason ofhigh level of ammonia.

“Recently, the Carrier Canalfrom Haryana carrying rawwater to Delhi has been damagedby the agitators, which will takearound 15 days in restoration.

“Delhi has no other alternateroute for raw water other thanDelhi sub branch and the riverCourse. Delhi sub-branch haslimited capacity therefore bulk ofthe supply has to come throughthe river course. In the wake ofthe increase of ammonia in theRiver Course, almost 30 per centDelhi will not have drinkingwater supply. It is thereforeessential to keep constant watchon the polluting drains andSTPs of Haryana having outflowin the rivercourse,” the letter said.

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Another wanted student inthe JNU sedition case has

surrendered before the DelhiPolice on Saturday. AshutoshKumar, a student facing sedi-tion charges for allegedly rais-ing “anti-India” slogans on thecampus, joined the policeinvestigation on Saturday. Thepolice on Friday night askedAshutosh to join the probe atRK Puram Police Station.

“Ashutosh, Rama Naga andAnant Prakash Narayan com-municated to police a few daysago their intention to join theenquiry, gave their contactnumber and told police to call

them whenever needed,” saidSucheta De, national presidentof All India Students’Association (AISA), an organ-isation active in JNU.

She said police calledAshutosh on Friday night tocome to the police station onSaturday morning. “So he hasgone today (Saturday). Wewere never resisting.”

Police have already beeninterrogating JNUSU presidentKanhaiya Kumar as well as twoother students Umar Khalidand Anirban Bhattacharya.Other two students, Rama Nagaand Anant Kumar, are yet toreceive any police summon.They had earlier written to

police that they are ready to joininvestigation too.

All students, includingAshutosh, Rama Naga andAnant, are facing the chargesof raising “anti-national” slo-gans in an event organised onthe JNU campus on February9 to commemorate the execu-tion of parliament attack con-vict Afzal Guru. With that,police have identified around22 people who were activeparticipants in the controver-sial event, said police, addingAshutosh, Khalid, Anirbanand a few others are believedto be organisers of the event inwhich anti-national sloganswere allegedly raised.

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Jawaharlal Nehru UniversityStudent’s Union (JNUSU)

has opposed HRD MinisterSmiriti Irani’s statement aboutan “interim report referring theeight JNU students guilty onprima facie” by the high-levelcommittee of the varsity.JNUSU vice-president ShehlaRashid Shora called for a marchto Parliament on March 2where the student’s union willapproach Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh,National Human RightsCommission and MinorityCommission to raise the issue.

“The JNU students andteachers have repeatedlypointed out that this interimreport of the JNU committee,prepared within 24 hours ofits formation, violated allnorms of natural justice anddue diligence. It suspendedstudents without so much aslistening to one word from

any of the accused. It hasrelied on “evidence” fromunauthenticated videos, manyof which as we now knowwere doctored to slander JNUand JNU students,” Shora saidin a Press conference onSaturday.

“The march will highlightconcerns about stifling of dis-sent in JNU, HCU and else-where through sedition charges,and the continuing atmosphereof terror and intimidation aswell as to raise our demand forJustice for Rohith and enactingthe ‘Rohith Act’ against caste-based discrimination in edu-cational institutions. TheJNUSU will also appeal to allthe associations and unionsworldwide to hold an interna-tional protest day on March 2,2016,” she said.

The JNUSU also ques-tioned the MHA and MHRDon sending police inside thecampus if “they were aware ofJNU constituting an internalenquiry?”

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The Arvind KejriwalGovernment has urged

Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley to increase the Delhi’sBudget allocation by at least�5,000 crore in addition to�1,000 crore as Basic andPerformance Grants to the localbodies. In a letter to Jaitley,Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwalsaid the additional budgetaryallocation was required to pro-vide civic facilities in unautho-rised colonies and unplannedsettlements, improve educationand health infrastructure, con-tain air and river pollution,ensure uninterrupted powerand drinking water supply in thenational Capital.

Kejriwal said the DelhiGovernment’s budget hasincreased from �8,793 crore in2001-02 to �41,129 crore in2015-16, but its share inCentral taxes remained frozenat �325 crore since 2001-02.On the other hand, he also saidthe tax devolution to neigh-bouring States like Haryanaand Punjab has substantiallyincreased. “Haryana’s sharehas been increased from�15,200 crore to �42,798 croreand that of Punjab from�20,146 crore to �62,263 croreduring the said period.”

The Chief Minister said theDelhi Government has beendeprived of its rightful share infunding from Central taxes,basic grants and performancegrants to local bodies as rec-ommended by the 14th CentralFinance Commission. “Thisdirectly impinge on the finan-cial capacity of the Governmentof National Capital Territory ofDelhi to implement its devel-opment projects and welfaremeasures for the people ofDelhi.”

The letter said the DelhiGovernment has a separateconsolidated fund from whichall financial transactions ofthe administration, like otherStates are incurred. It said theCity Government, as otherStates, is required to defray alldevelopmental, welfare androutine housekeeping expens-es from its own resources.

Kejriwal has pointed outthat his Government does nothave access to most valuableresources like land, whose pro-

ceeds are retained by the DDA.He said the City Governmentmeets its budgetary needsthrough VAT, Excise and StampDuty, whereas cities and otherStates have access to resourcesdevolved based on the recom-mendations of the 14th CentralFinance Commission. In addi-tion, he said, the CityGovernment can only avail loanfrom the National Small SavingFund and is prohibited fromaccessing debt from financialinstitutions and market bor-rowing under 47A of theGovernment of NCT of Delhi(Amendment) Act, 2001.“Consequently, GNCTD’s bud-get has been limited due to thecurrent policy of sharing ofresources by the Centre.”

Kejriwal stated that being theCapital of the country and oneof the fastest metropolises,Delhi’s claims on its resourceswere immense and varied. Hesaid, “While the Government ofNCT of Delhi has to maintaininfrastructure that meets worldstandards, it also has to improvesupply of civic amenities to theburgeoning population wholegitimately expect employmentand a fulsome life in the Capital.“Consequently, large investmentsin education, health, social, foodsecurities, transport, roads andhospitals have to be made.”

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The leaders of SwarajAbhiyan are all set to “re-

ignite” the campaign againstArvind Kejriwal, whom theyhave accused of betrying anti-corruption movement bybringing in a weak LokayuktaBill. They are also hoping to getsupport from AnnaHazare.

Leaders of theparty, includingPrashant Bhushan andYogendra Yadav,addressed the two-day“National Conventionon Corruption” wherethey also hit out atPrime MinisterNarendra Modi forallegedly “patenting ways” toweaken anti-corruption lawsand institutions.

They said RTI activists andwhistleblowers will join the“apolitical” campaign for whicha “Citizens’ Whistle BlowerForum” (CWBF) will be formed.

“We had hoped the agitation(launched by activist AnnaHazare) for Lokpal would broad-en. After that a political party(AAP) was formed. ArvindKejriwal became supremo ofthe party. The party moved outof its first Government saying itwas not being allowed to bringin Lokayukta.

“And eventually, when itdid pass a Lokayukta Bill (dur-ing its present tenure), theydrafted such a weak Bill... theyinserted a clause which willensure it doesn’t become law.He (Kejriwal) betrayed theentire movement,” Abhiyanleader Prashant Bhushan said.

Hitting out at the AAPGovernment over the Bill,

Bhushan said it lacks trans-parency and noted its clausethat Lokayukta will have pow-ers to also investigate corrup-tion matters relating UnionMinisters is “unlikely” to beaccepted by Centre.

The noted lawyer added itwas this “betrayal” that hasnecessitated efforts to launch

the agitation afresh, which headded, will see participation byRTI activists, whistle-blowersand those working for a “flaw-less” Lokpal.

Echoing Bhushan’s views,Abhiyan leader YogendraYadav said the anti-corrup-tion agitation appeared to have“extinguished” over the pastsome years and claimed it willbe “re-ignited” through theCWBF, which he added, will bean “apolitical” movement.

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New Delhi: The Delhi Commission forWomen (DCW) has received a complaintfrom a teenage German national, who hasstated that she was sexually-assaulted by anauto-rickshaw driver in Central Delhiover two months back. The girl claimed thaton December 14 last year, she lost her waywhen and an auto-rickshaw driver offeredher lift and raped her. She claimed that thedriver again tried to assault her but she

shouted for help and he fled from the spot. The victim then approached the

DCW on February 9, through email andrecorded her statement.

In her complaint she stated that shehad walked out of her hotel room at nightand got lost in the alleyways so she askedfor directions from an auto-driver. Insteadof dropping her to her hotel room, theauto-driver assaulted and raped her in the

dark. She somehow managed to escapeand later a man dropped her back to hotel.She said she was too scared to go to policeto register a complaint.

The commission informed police andmedical examination was conducted.DCW claimed that cops didn’t file an FIRimmediately and only after DCW chair-person Swati Maliwal issued a notice to theDCP (Central) the FIR was filed.

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Puducherry: Three personsfrom Bangalore drowned in theBay of Bengal off neighbouringChinna Veerampattinam vil-lage on Saturday while takinga bath, police said.

Amit Kumar (24) andRajeev (22), both employees ofa private bank and Sumant, 22,an IT employee drowned whiletaking a bath, they said.

The trio had come hereyesterday for a weekend stay.

The bodies have been kept

at the Indira GandhiGovernment General Hospitalin the town. Another youthKallon, who was part of thesame group, was rushed toJIPMER hospital, where hiscondition is said to be stable.

Meanwhile, police said a17-year-old youth, Isaivananfrom Manaveli village nearVeerampattinam, who rushedto save the youths was alsodragged into the sea by thestrong waves. PTI

Thiruchirappalli (TN): A 21-year old student of a privateengineering college near heretoday allegedly committed sui-cide in the hostel over his‘involvement’ in a mobilephone theft, police said.

Sivakumar, a final year stu-dent, hanged himself in the

hostel room of the college atPulivalam.

Police said he had taken theextreme step fearing that hisalleged involvement in a mobilephone theft case would getexposed. PTI

Hyderabad: A 22-year-oldwoman, who aspires to becomea police officer, was allegedlygangraped by two youths where-as another recorded the act onhis mobile phone in Karimnagardistrict of Telangana, police saidon Saturday.

G Srinivas and M Anjaiahallegedly raped the woman,who belongs to ScheduledCaste, while M Rakesh record-ed video of the act on his cellphone, police said.

One of the three accusedhad joined in the same coach-ing class, for the competitiveexamination for police recruit-ment, as the girl had, they said.

A senior police officer saidthe incident took place on theoutskirts of Veenavanka villageon February 10 when the threeaccused, the complainant, andher woman friend were return-ing to their village after watch-ing a movie. “The trio took thetwo women to a hillock and itseems one of the womensensed danger and ran away.Two of the accused allegedlyraped the victim while thethird one shot a video on hiscell phone,” the officer said.

The victim told her parentsabout the incident only two daysago, after which her relativesbeat up the trio on February 24evening and they were admittedto a hospital in the neighbour-ing Warangal district.

Afterwards, a rape com-plaint was filed. The accusedhave also been charged under theSC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities)Act and the InformationTechnology Act. PTI

Mumbai: Superstar RajeshKhanna’s iconic sea-facing bun-galow, Aashirwad, is beingdemolished by its new owner.The bungalow stands on CarterRoad in suburban Bandra andthe demolition work is under-way for the past two weeks now.

After Khanna’s death in2012, his family sold off thebungalow for a reported sum of�90 crore to Shashi Kiran

Shetty, founder and chairmanof AllCargo Logistics. Shettyhas decided to build a new

four-storey residence where hewould stay with his family,sources said.

Khanna, fondly called Kakaby his colleagues and fans, hadbought the bungalow fromanother yesteryear Bollywoodstar, Rajendra Kumar, in the late1960s. Before his demise,Khanna had reportedly said hewanted the bungalow to be con-verted into a museum. PTI

New Delhi: Union Womenand Child DevelopmentMinister Maneka Gandhi onSaturday said a team of NationalCommission for Women visit-ed Murthal in Haryana to ver-ify reports of alleged gangrapebut no ‘substantial evidence’ hasbeen found so far.

“I have sent a team ofNational Commission forWomen to Murthal. But nosubstantial evidence has comeout so far,” Gandhi said.

The Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court had taken suomoto cognizance of mediareports about the alleged crimein Murthal during the Jat quotaagitation and had asked theHaryana Government to sub-mit its reply by February 29.

Haryana Police has set upa committee of three womenpolice officers, including aDIG, to receive any complaintof rape of women during the Jatquota agitation near Murthalvillage in Sonipat district.

Haryana CM Manohar Lalon Saturday asked people toshare information, if they haveany, with the State police regard-ing the alleged incident of sex-ual assault of women nearMurthal during the Jat quotaagitation. “Those people whopossess any information (regard-ing Murthal incident) mustcome forward and share it withthe police,” he said. PTI

Chandigarh: A resident ofIndore has been receiving tele-phone calls since Friday afterHaryana Police listed his num-ber among the names andnumbers of three officers forreceiving information con-cerning the alleged incident ofsexual assault on some womennear Murthal during the Jat stir.

When a journalist called upthe mobile number given yes-terday by Haryana Police DGPYP Singhal of DIG RajshreeSingh, heading the three-mem-ber women police officer’steam, it turned out to be of anIndore resident.

The Indore resident imme-diately asked the journalistwhether he wanted to ask aboutthe alleged rape cases.

When told that he wanted totalk to DIG Rajshree, the Indoreresident retorted that this wasnot the number of the DIG andhe was being harassed sinceFriday as he was repeatedly get-ting calls. “I have lodged a com-plaint with the local police,” therecipient of the call said.

On a phone directoryapplication, the number wasfound to be of Madhya Pradeshcircle in the name of someother person instead of DIGRajshree. PTI

Chandigarh: Haryana Policehas asked former Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda’s closeaide Virender and another per-son, who had been booked inRohtak on sedition charges fortrying to incite violence duringthe Jat quota agitation, to joininvestigation by Sunday.

“They have been issuednotice and given time tillFebruary 28 to join investiga-tion,” Rohtak Superintendent ofPolice (SP) Shanshak Anandsaid on Saturday.

Police had on February 24booked Virender, a Congressleader, and Man Singh Dalal onsedition charges after a 90-sec-ond audio clip of their pur-ported conversation whichrevealed their attempt to inciteviolence during the Jat agitation,had gone viral on social media.

Meanwhile, seeking earlyrestoration of peace inHaryana, Hooda on Saturdaydemanded a probe by a sittingjudge of the Supreme Court toinvestigate the violence.

An FIR was registeredagainst Virender and Dalalunder IPC Sections 124 A (sedi-tion), 120 B (conspiracy), 153A(promoting enmity betweenclasses) and 153 B (imputation,assertion prejudicial to nation-al integration). PTI

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Certain parts of Ghaziabadbecame tense on Saturday

after unidentified persons des-ecrated the statue of Bhim RaoAmbedkar installed atAmbedkar park in NavyugMarket.

The police said that itreceived information on lateFriday night that the statue ofDr. Ambedkar has been wasdefiled. After this a heavypolice force was deployedaround the Ambedkar parkwhich is situated in the Dalitdominated area. The situationbecame grim when a section ofthe Dalit community took outa procession on the Ambedkarroad and staged a dharna atDeenagarhi chowk.

Instantly during night thecivil administration wasapprised of the situation and anew statue was traced in Site IVIndustrial area in Sahibabad.The damaged statue was madeof cement while new one whichis bought of Rs 11 lakh and ismade of bronze metal.

The construction of theplatform is under progress andis expected to be erected onSunday. To satisfy theAmbedkar followers, the stat-ue has been put in the park andday and night construction isunder progress there. FirstInformation Report (FIR) hasalso been registered againstunidentified criminals said theSP City Salman Taj Patil.

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Three truck drivers onSaturday claimed that they

witnessed women beingdragged and molested by Jat agi-tators in Murthal, even as a teamof women police officers todayvisited the site of alleged gan-grapes but said no eyewitness orvictim had turned up before it.

Speaking to mediapersons,the three men — SukhwinderSingh, Niranjan and NareshKumar — claimed that theagitators torched their trucks inMurthal, over 50 km fromDelhi, and assaulted them fol-lowing which they hid in thebushes to save themselves.

They alleged that they sawthe attackers “dragging womenout of vehicles, tearing theirclothers and molesting them”before taking the victimstowards the fields.

Singh alleged that “police-men in plain clothes” wereputting pressure on them toremain silent about the inci-dent.

The development came ona day the women police officersteam led by DIG Dr RajshreeSingh and comprising DSPsBharti Dabas and SurinderKaur visited the site at villageHassanpur near Murthal inSonipat district on DelhiAmbala National Highway togather first hand informationabout the alleged incident.

Rajshree Singh maintained

that till this evening no victimor eye witness had come for-ward to provide details.

Asked about recovery ofsome clothes beloning towomen, she told reporters,“These had been sent toForensic Science Laboratory forexamination”.

“Let us see, what comesout,” she told reporters RajshreeSingh told on Saturday evening,“Two truck drivers - one eachfrom Punjab and Jammu andKashmir - have contacted us.”

“But both have denied seenany such thing (alleged rape ofwomen stuck on the NationalHighway near Murthal),” theDIG said.

She said that both of themtold the team that they gotstuck between 10-11 am onthat day.”Between 1-2 pm theirtrucks were burnt and duringthis period both did not see anysuch thing,” the DIG claimed.

The DIG said that awoman called up to tell theteam that she would visit thempersonally tomorrow. “We arewaiting for her to come tomor-row,” she added.

Asked about the claims ofthe three truck drivers aboutseeing the attack, she said allthose people who have anyinformation should come tothe police.

“Anyone who has concrete

proof of the incident, shouldwithout any fear approach theteam. We will protect them andtheir identity will not be dis-closed,” she said.

Asked about the issue,Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar said “aspecial investigation team hasbeen formed to look into thematter and has been directed totake each and every complaintcoming to them.

“I don’t understand whythe eye witnesses and the vic-tims are not coming forward.No eyewitness has contactedthe police yet, they shouldinform the police about theincident.”

From Page 1“I will be giving a notice for breach

of privilege against Irani to Lok SabhaSpeaker Sumitra Mahajan for mis-leading the House on Rohith Vemulaissue,” Saleem said.

JD (U) leader and Rajya Sabhamember KC Tyagi too said that he andnominated member KTS Tulsi willgive privilege notice against Irani toChairman Hamid Ansari on Monday.“There are contradictions in manystatements of Irani regarding RohithVemula case. This is a fit case ofbreach of privilege,” Tyagi told ThePioneer. The members cited the out-burst of Radhika against the HRDMinister and accused the BJP ofbeing anti-Dalit.

“Your Ministry had written thatmy Rohith and other Dalit studentswere anti-national extremists. Yousaid that he is not a Dalit. You accusedhim of getting a false certificate,”Radhika, along with her younger sonhad said at the Press conference. Theyalleged that these strong words froma mother “who has lost her son to theBJP and in particular the HRDMinister’s campus politics is a stampof how recklessly and ruthlessly theirparty is hell bent on clamping down thevoices of dissent.”

Congress spokesman ManishTewari said Irani was “too clever by halfand then you get caught in your ownweb and that’s exactly what has hap-pened to the HRD Minister”.

From Page 1Umar and Anirban were

earlier sent to three days’police remand on February 24,after their midnight surrenderand subsequent arrest in thecase. The duo had returned tothe JNU campus last Sundayafter going missing sinceFebruary 12.

Earlier, the Delhi HighCourt had ordered that “confi-dentiality” be maintained dur-ing the remand proceedings ofUmar and Anirban, besidesKanhaiya, while directingpolice to ensure that no one“suffers even a scratch” andthere is no ruckus this timeafter Kanhaiya was assaulted by‘lawyers’ at Patiala House Courton February 17.

From Page 1Both the Malaysian busi-

nessmen have not yet appearedin the 2G court in the case.

The court has already sentLetter Rogatory (LR) toSingapore upon ED’s petition totrack down the financial detailsof Karti-controlled companyAdvantage Strategic ConsultingLimited involved in the moneytrail with Maxis and Aircel pro-moters. Apart from this, fourLRs were sent by the court toMalaysia, Mauritius and UK.

The LR to Malaysia wassent to track down the kickbackmoney trail of Maxis. The LR toUK was sent to get the financialtransactions between NDTVand Maxis subsidiary AstroAsia worth 50 million dollarsthat happened during the scamperiod in 2006-2007.

From Page 1She added that the

Chhattisgarh Governmentexpected earn more than Rs81.40 crore in addition toexisting royalty of Rs 24.70crore from the mine with areserve of about 2,700-kg gold.The mining will begin in twoyears, she added.

Chhattisgarh’s Directorateof Geology and Mining offi-cials claim that gold price inIndia will crash once the min-ing operation begins atBaghmara which spread in608 hectares area inBalodabazar-Bhatapara dis-trict. Baghmara goldmine islocated nearly 130 km awayfrom State capital Raipur.

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Seeking to reassure the nationof India’s economic stabili-

ty ahead of Union Budget,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday said that if therewas a ray of hope in worldeconomy, it was India.

Addressing a farmers’ rallyin Belagavi, Karnataka, he alsocredited his Government forfirmly dealing with the issue ofcorruption, saying even theOpposition didn’t get anyopportunity to point finger athis Government.

“Everyone in the world,whether it is the IMF, WorldBank or rating agencies, aresaying that if there is a ray ofhope then it is in India. Theeconomic condition of theentire world is in shambles,”Modi said at the huge rally,

organised to promote hisGovernment’s flagship pro-gramme for farmers “PrimeMinister Fasal Bima Yojana”.

He said, “Even the bigeconomies are facing econom-ic crisis. Despite such an envi-ronment of recession, India ismoving forward on the path ofeconomic development.”

On the issue of corruptionhe said that even theOpposition parties, who targetthe Government day and night,haven’t accused the NDAGovernment of corruption.

“When I took office inDelhi, the entire nation was

fed up because of corruption.It has been 18 months, thatyou have allowed me to servethe nation. Even ourOpposition, who give state-ments day and night, hasn’taccused us of corruption. Theydo not have the guts to evenlevel false allegations,” he said.

“The country was reelingunder the economic crisis, andon top of that corruption wasruining the nation,” he added.

Modi stressed the needfor interlinking rivers for bet-ter water management. “If wepromote agriculture, manu-facturing and service sector

simultaneously, we can over-come any crisis,” he said.

The crop insurancescheme which is effective fromthe kharif season, is expectedto help farming sector in dis-tress. in this scheme Farmerswill have to pay a uniformpremium of 2 per cent forkharif crops and 1.5 per centfor rabi crops. For annualcommercial and horticulturalcrops, they will have to pay apremium of 5 per cent. Theremaining share of premiumwill be borne by the Centre andState Governments.

Meanwhile hundreds offarmers of Karnataka RajyaRaitha Sangha (KRRS) andHasiru Sene faction headed byKodihalli Chandrashekar,protested against PrimeMinister’s visit to Belagavidemanding scientific pricingfor their crop, resolution of theMahadayi water dispute, andimplement the recommenda-tions of the NationalCommission on Farmers head-ed by MS Swaminathan amongother assurances given to thefarmers during electioneering

to the last Assembly andParliament elections.

Utilisation of Mahadyaiwater as drinking water for thenorth Karnataka districts hasbecome a major stumblingblock for the political partiesahead of Assembly election in2018. Karnataka is seekingpermission to direct 2 TMC ftof water from Kalasa-Bandurito Malaprabha reservoirthrough a canal to supplydrinking water for areas ofNorth Karnataka, but in thelong term the State seeks thenod for utilising 7.56 TMCft ofwater by constructing reser-voir at Kalasa.

Mahadayi (Mandovi)river originates and flows for28 km in Karnataka andmeanders throughMaharashtra and Goa beforereaching to the Arabian Sea.

Congress-ruled Karnatakahas seen more than 1,000 farm-ers’ suicides last year. The sug-arcane belt of Mandya wasbadly hit with non-operationalsugarcane factories not buyingthe farmers’ crop and leavingthem deeply in debt.

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Union Minister for RoadTransport, Highways and

Shipping, Nitin Gadkari onSaturday said that the Ministryis going to invest close to�25,000 crore in next two tothree years time in Assam fordevelopment of NationalHighways (NHs) in Assam.

The Minister who was inAssam on Saturday also laid thefoundation stone of two bridgesconnecting Sivasagar and NorthLakhimpur via Desangmukh,Dhakhukhana and another oneconnecting Jorhat and NorthLakhimpur via Majuli.

However, little after theUnion Minister laid the foun-dation stones, Assam ChiefMinister Tarun Gogoi said thatthe Union Minister, however,laid the foundation stone of thetwo bridges without evenpreparing the Detailed ProjectReports (DPR) for both.

“We have given prime focusin developing road and waterinfrastructure in the northeastand Assam. For this, the Centrethrough NHAI, PWD andNHIDCL will invest about�25,000 crore in Assan over nexttwo to three years,” Gadkari saidwhile addressing a press con-ference at Guwahati and addedthat the two new highways fromSivasagar to North Lakhimpurvia Disangmukh and fromJorhat to North Lakhimpur viaMajuli will also be built. Thetotal length of the projects willbe 122 km and they will alsohave two major bridges overBrahmaputra River.

Besides this, Gadkari said,a total of 624 km of roads willbe added to the NationalHighway in Assam. “Along withthis, the preparation of DPR isin progress for the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge acrossBrahmaputra and the estimat-ed cost for this will be �3,000crore,” he said adding that 66more road projects are currentlygoing on with a total length of1,378 km and a combinedinvestment of �14,700 crore.

Gadkari also announcedthat 11 rivers in Assam will beannounced as national water-ways, which include the riverslike Aai, Brahmaputra, Beki,Dihing, Dhansiri, Dikhow,Doyang, Gangadhar, Puthimariand Subansiri. “Developmentof the waterways will reducethe transportation cost forgoods and this will impactpositively on the economy,”said the Union Minister.

Meanwhile, coming downheavily on the Union Minister’slaying of the foundation stones,the Assam Chief Minister said

that the foundation stone lay-ing exposes the BJP-led NDAGovernment at the Centre andthat it is out to hoodwink peo-ple with an eye on the upcom-ing Assembly election.

“I have never seen a CentralGovernment like the presentone of going out with founda-tion stone laying spree withoutpreparing the DPRs. How comethe project cost for the two mas-sive bridges across theBrahmaputra could be estimat-ed without preparing the DPRsthat include feasibility report,”Gogoi said in a statement.

The CM said that thoughthe Central Ministers, includingthe PM have made over 200trips to Assam in the past 19months, nothing concrete hasemerged so far. “The CentralMinisters, including PMNarendra Modi have been mak-ing a beeline to the State tryingto give one the impression thatthe present dispensation at theCentre has a soft corner towardsAssam and the North EastRegion as a whole,” Gogoi said.

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Rajendra Singh on Saturdayassumed charge as the

Director General of the IndianCoast Guard and became thefirst non-Navy officer to be ele-vated to the top post. Hereplaced Vice Admiral HCSBisht who will take over as Chiefof Eastern Naval Command.

Singh, who belonged to thefirst batch of Indian CoastGuard in 1980, was theInspector General (West region)during the 26/11 Mumbai ter-

ror attacks. Before assuming thenew responsibility, he was theAdditional Director General ofthe Indian Coast Guard. Hiselevation as the Coast Guardchief was approved by the

Appointments Committee ofCabinet on February 24.

He is the first officer fromCoast Guard cadre to head themaritime security agencywhich came into being 37 yearsback. The top post was earlierheld by officials from theIndian Navy. During his career,Singh commanded each class ofCoast Guard ship in serviceincluding Interceptor Boat,Inshore Patrol Vessel, FastPatrol Vessel, Offshore PatrolVessel and Advanced OffshorePatrol Vessel.

The officer was awarded theTatrakshak Medal (TM) by thePresident on August 15, 1990. Inrecognition of his distinguishedservice, he was awardedPresident’s Tatrakshak Medal(PTM) on August 15, 2002.

Having served in variouscapacities both ashore andafloat, Singh has a track recordin the field of Operations,Administration, HumanResources and Policy andPlans, officials said here.

His main responsibility asCoast Guard chief will be to

maintain the momentum ofmodernization of the forceand improve its capability toguard the 7,500 km long coast-line spread over nine littoralstates. The other priority is toensure seamless co-ordinationwith all the stake holders incoastal security to meet anychallenge, officials said. Morethan 13 agencies are involvedin coastal security including theNavy, Coast Guard, local police,Customs, Port Authorities andDepartment of Fisheriesbesides others.

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Hitting hard at the BJP-ledNDA Government at the

Centre, Bihar Chief MinisterNitish Kumar accused theGovernment of taking nationback to the Hitler’s fascism andbreaking the country throughits ‘divisive’ politics.

Speaking in the StateAssembly on Saturday whilereplying to the motion ofthanks on the Governor’saddress for 100 minutes with-out interruption — thanks tothe absence of entire opposition— he took on the Centre for itsstand on JNU, Rohith Vemula’ssuicide, HRD Minister SmritiIrani’s for raking upMahishasur in her speech inthe Parliament, and other issueslike Love Jihad, Ghar Wapsi,ban on beef, nationalism andmandatory hoisting ofTricolour in all universities.

“Having failed at econom-ic front, this Government israking up emotional and com-munal issues. They are talkingabout nationalism and hoistingof Tricolour in universities butthey should tell what was theirrole in the freedom struggleand the making of Tricolour.Their ‘rashtrawad (national-ism) is only Rashtriya SwayamSewak Sanghwad and thosedissenting are branded as anti-nationals,” said Nitish.

The Opposition boycottedthe Assembly proceedings onSaturday saying the pro-gramme was changed at last

minute and the proceedingsscheduled for the Monday wereforced on Saturday.

The CM clarified thatchanges were made at themeeting of the business advi-sory committee which was alsoattended by the Leader ofOpposition. He said changeswere made to enable the legis-lators to watch the presentationof Union Budget in theParliament. The BiharAssembly and Council willremain shut on Monday.

“We want to know ifFinance Minister Arun Jaitleywill speak anything on thespecial package of �1.25 lakhcrore announced by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi dur-ing the Bihar Assembly polls,”the CM said.

Senior BJP leader SushilKumar Modi however, termedit the black day in the parlia-mentary history of Bihar byholding the session on a holi-day. He said since this businesswas scheduled on Monday,Nitish got scared that becauseof the Union Budget that day

his speech would not get spacein the media so he advanced hisaddress. “He should tell whenin the past legislative sessionwas suspended to watch theBudget? In fact Nitish is the fol-lower of this kind of democra-cy where there is no opposi-tion,” said former Deputy CM.

In his reply, the CM saidthere was rule of law in theState and law and order situa-tion fully under control.“Attempts are being made tocreate a perception about crimein Bihar by the Opposition. Asper the date of the NationalCrime Record Bureau, Biharregistered 3.3 per cent murderper lakh population in 2014and State stood at 12th positionin the country in crime. ManyBJP ruled States are far aheadof Bihar in crime. As comparedto 3403 murders in 2014, 3178murders took place in 2015,”Nitish claimed.

Referring to the non-arrestof RJD MLA Raj Ballabh Yadav,who is accused of raping aminor, the CM said that allattempts were being made bythe police to nab him andonce arrested law would take itsown course through speedytrial. He said, “Nobody can savehim from the long arms of thelaw. I have no pressure fromany quarter. The oppositionhad been accusing us of jungleraj during the polls and nowthey are raking up this issueeven on minor incidents. Whathappened in the Patiala Housecourt was mangal raj?”

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The way Gujarat Assemblypolls of 2012 laid founda-

tion for the BJP victory in the2014 parliamentary polls.Similarly next year’s Assemblypolls in Gujarat will deter-mine the outcome of the LokSabha polls in 2019, claimedBJP’s national president AmitShah in Gandhinagar.

After receiving a hero’swelcome at Ahmedabad airporton his first visit to Gujarat afterhis re-election as BJP nationalpresident, Shah reacted in styleat a function of BJP workers atGujarat BJP’s headquarters inKoba terming organisationalstructure of Gujarat BJP as bestand as a result of it Gujarat wasBJP’s bastion and will remain soin future too.

He said that Gujarat is ide-ological laboratory of the partyand it is crucial for the saffronbrigade to continue will in thestate for setting example forother parts of the country.

In context of BJP’s recentdebacle in Panchayat polls, theBJP president said that there isno need to worry for the partyworkers but from the resultthey should take lesion andstart working for the victory ofthe party in the forthcomingAssembly polls.

Emphasising on unity byforgetting internal differences,Shah in a bid to enthuse partycadre said that BJP Governmentat the Centre working with com-plete maturity under the leader-ship of Prime Minister NarendraModi and it is the responsibili-ty of BJP workers to tell people

about its pro-people policiesand schemes to ensure victory inthe Assembly elections.

Praising his mentor PMModi’s efforts to change theglobal image of the county,Shah said that because of theBJP led NDA Government’sforeign policy and priority tonational security; the world hasstarted looking at India withgreat respect. It is the duty ofBJP workers to convey suchpositive achievements of theModi Government to everyhome in the country, he added.

Taking dig at the Congressvice president Rahul Gandhi’sremark and visit to JawaharlalNehru University post anti-national solgans, the BJP pres-ident said that Congress lead-ers in Gujarat would have to

give answer to people whytheir leader supported anti-national elements.

Shah urged the party work-ers that they should askCongress leaders in public ontheir party’s stand on the issueand not allowed them to moveout freely in public.

“You must ask congressleaders publicly to clarify theirstance on Kashmir issue, AfzalGuru and JNU agitation,” hesaid while addressing 5,000odd BJP workers includingState Ministers, BJP MPs,MLAs and other office-bearers.

Shah who was declared as‘Man of the Match’ in the spec-tacular victory of BJP in LokSabha elections in 2014 byNarendra Modi, said that of thesix assembly polls after Modi

Government sworn in at thecentre, BJP had won in fourstates. As far as two defeats –Delhi and Bihar – are concernBJP’s percentage of vote didn’tdiminish, he claimed.

Earlier, newly electedGujarat BJP president VijayRupani praised Shah’s leader-ship quality by saying thatunder his captain-ship BJPemerged as the largest politicaloutfit in the world with morethan 11 crore members. Rupanicondemned former UPAGovernment for framing AmitShah falsely in various cases inorder to destabilise then ModiGovernment in Gujarat.

He said that they putAmitbhai behind the bars buttruth prevailed and he cameout innocent.

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Burdwan (WB): Two activists,stated to be of StudentsFederation of India (SFI),were hospitalised following ascuffle between the Left-wingactivists and non-teachingstaff in the BurdwanUniversity on Saturday.

An attending doctor of theBurdwan Medical College andHospital said the two wereadmitted to hospital and theircondition was stable.

The SFI and districtCPI(M) leadership claimed atleast 15 members, including thehospitalised two, got injured inthe unprovoked assault by themembers of Siksha BandhuSamity and some outsiders asthe students were on a fastbefore the administrative build-ing in the campus.

They alleged the attackerswere led by local TrinamoolCongress leader SitaramMukherjee.

TMC, however, denied its involvement in any such incident.

Some members of media,present at the spot, also borethe brunt of the clash and suf-fered injuries and the TMC andCPI(M) both condemned anyattack on press.

A senior police officer,when contacted, said though heheard about the clash no offi-cial complaint was lodged byany side as yet.

University Vice-chancel-lor Smriti Kumar Sarkar wasnot available for comments onSaturday’s incident. PTI

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Gandhinagar: In a great reliefto the Gujarat Government,the imprisoned convener ofPatidar Anamat AndolanSamiti (PAAS) Hardik Patel onSaturday broke indefinite fastand took lunch withPorbandar MP Vithal Radadiaat Surat Jail.

The BJP MP Radadia wasin constant touch with Hardikafter he went on indefinite fastreiterating demand for reservation to Patel commu-nity in educational institu-tions and Government jobsunder OBC category.

After having lunch withPAAS convener, Radadia metmedia persons outside Lajporjail and inform that Hardikbroke fast.

Hardik had been on anindefinite fast since February18th. He however later begantaking juices and water as

advised by doctors at Surat civilhospital where he was admit-ted as he fell ill.

Radadia, who is consideredas strong Patidar leader inSaurashtra region was trying atthe behest of Gujarat ChiefMinister to persuade Hardik tobreak his fast agitation. OnSaturday finally he got successto convince 22-year-old pro-quota leader to solve the issuewith the Government amicably.

According to Radadia, hehad discussion with Hardik on35 points and out those therewas agreement on 27 includingthat of withdrawal of casesagainst Patidar leaders relatedto pro-quota agitation. “We hadtalk on reservation to Patelsunder OBC category. I amconfident that we would be ableto sort out the issue in next 2-3 days,” said Porbandar MPafter the meeting. PNS

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Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterJayalalithaa on Saturday

inaugurated a slew of infra-structure projects including areservoir and housing units andkickstarted the distribution ofAmma mobile phones, besidesunveiling a renovated lake-ecopark here.

She launched a host of newGovernment buildings throughvideo-conferencing, whichincluded residential quarters,office buildings and State WaterReseources ManagementAgency office.

A high-level bridge inAriyalur district, bed dams inRamanathapuram andThanjavur districts and a reser-voir in Perambalur districtwere also inaugurated.

The foundation stone for

infrastructure upgradation ofdams, tanks, Vellaiyar andPandavaiyar Rivers was also laid.

The CM launched the �15crore project of “Amma KaipesiScheme” for Community Self-Help Group Trainers and andhanded over mobile phones tothree beneficiaries as a mark ofdistribution to 20,000 trainers.

Buildings housing AnimalHusbandry diary and fisheriesdepartment, constructed at acost of �114.58 crore, acrossTamil Nadu, were opened.

Jayalalithaa also launcheddistribution of 1,600 DistressAlert Transmitters to fishermen,a project worth �2.38 crore.

She inaugurated the reno-vated Chetpet lake here, withadd-on amusement featurelike hi-tech angling, boatingand an eco park set up at a costof �42 crore.

The renovated lakeabounds in Indian fish varietiesand has a capacity to store 1.44lakh cubic meter of rainwater.

In a boost to bio-diversitypromotive measures, the ecopark features hundreds ofplants and rare saplings aroundthe lake and the water-body.

In addition, the facility hasa pollination park and a 1.5kilometer-long walking track.

Government staff quar-ters here comprising 700 housing units for Governmentofficials at Saidapet, built at acost of �100.54 crore, besidesa slew of buildings for various other departmentswere inaugurated.

She also gave away appoint-ment orders on compassionategrounds to two persons as atoken of issuing orders to 111beneficiaries.

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Congress workers onSaturday tried to stop the

cavalcade of BJP leaderSubramanian Swamy here andallegedly threw eggs, tomatoesand ink on it.

Police used mild force todisperse the protesters inwhich some of them receivedminor injuries.

BJP district presidentSurendra Maithani saidSwamy’s cavalcade was on itsway to SD college from circuithouse around 11 AM for aseminar on global terrorismwhen protesters threw eggs,tomatoes, ink and garbage onit at Narwana Chowk.

Congress districtPresident HarprakashAgnihotri led the protest of hisparty workers.

Maithani alleged that

police and the district admin-istration were informed priorto Swamy’s visit but no secu-rity arrangements were made.

Tamil Nadu BJP leadersexpressed shock and concern over the attack onsenior party leader.

Pon Radhakrishnan,Union Minister of State forsurface transport condemnedthe attack on Swamy and said

the Uttar PradeshGovernment should haveensured the safety of the BJPleader. “The attack on DrSwamy is a proof of the intol-erance of the Congresstowards the BJP. Dr Swamyhas been consistent on hisstance against corruption, ter-rorism and religious extrem-ism,” Radhakrishnan toldreporters at Chennai.

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Twenty-five people werekilled in two attacks in

Afghanistan on Saturday, includ-ing one in the capital, with theblasts potentially jeopardisingattempts by Kabul to persuadethe Taliban to join peace talks setfor next month.

Witnesses and officialsdescribed how the suicidebomber detonated near theDefence Ministry in the centreof Kabul just as offices closed forthe day, in an attack later claimedby the Taliban.

“Twelve people, includingtwo Afghan soldiers were killedand eight others injured,” aministry statement said, while aprevious toll given by Kabulpolice chief Abdul RahmanRahimi stated nine were deadand 13 wounded.

The bomber was on foot,ministry spokesman DawlatWaziri added. “I saw woundedcivilians and army soldiers. Theywere begging for help but secu-rity forces did not allow com-mon people to help them,” wit-ness Sardar Mohammad said.

“The causalities, mostly,were civilians,” said anotherman, Saleh Mohammad. “It wasthe time when all the peoplewere going home.”

Earlier on Saturday, a sui-cide bomber on a motorbikestruck at a market in Asadabad,the capital of restive Kunarprovince, killing 13 people andwounding at least 39. No grouphas yet claimed responsibility forthat attack, which a spokesmanfor the provincial governor anda police official both said tar-geted a tribal leader fiercelyopposed to the insurgents, HajiKhan Jan.

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Even as top lawmakers intro-duced resolutions in both

Houses of US Congress thisweek to oppose the proposedsale of eight F-16 fighter jets toPakistan, the Obama adminis-tration has strongly defendedits decision in the name of aid-ing Islamabad bolster its anti-terror operations.

Facing sharp criticism overthe decision, Secretary of StateJohn Kerry told aCongressional hearing that theF-16s have been “a critical partof the Pakistani fight againstthe terrorists in the westernpart of that country, and havebeen effective in that fight”.

While maintaining that the

US tries to be sensitive to themilitary balance with respect toIndia, Kerry told the lawmakers,“Needless to say, we don’t wantto do things that upset the bal-ance. But we do believe thatPakistan is engaged legitimate-ly in a very tough fight againstidentifiable terrorists in theircountry that threaten Pakistan.”

At the House ForeignAffairs Committee hearing,Ami Bera, the only Indian-American Congressman and amember of the House ForeignAffairs Committee, said

Pakistan must prove that it istaking substantive steps to goafter all terrorist groups in thecountry before the US movesforward with the sale of F-16s.

“So far, Pakistan has notshown willingness to go aftergroups like the Haqqani net-work and Lashkar-e-Taiba,which is why I cannot supporta sale at this time. Furthermore,in the event that we do proceedwith a sale, US taxpayersshould not subsidize the cost ofthe F-16s. If Pakistan wants tobuy the planes they should pay

for them.”It has been a strong bipar-

tisan opposition to the pro-posed sale in both chambers.Republican lawmaker DanaRohrabacher introduced a jointresolution in the House ofRepresentatives on Thursday“to express Congress’s disap-proval of an arms deal withPakistan that includes the saleof F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan”.

“The Government ofPakistan has been usingweapons from the Unites Statesto repress its own citizens andespecially the people ofBaluchistan,” Rohrabacher said,highlighting Islamabad’s “arro-gant and hostile actions”against the man who helpedbring al-Qaeda leader Osamabin Laden to justice — DrShakil Afridi.

The arrest of Dr. Afridiand his continued detention in

a cage signified “a declaration ofhostility toward the UnitedStates”, the CaliforniaCongressman said, adding,“Our Government should notprovide military equipment toPakistan, let alone F-16s, as longas they are holding Dr Afridi.”

Another resolution oppos-ing the F-16s sale was movedseparately in the Senate a dayearlier by Republican SenatorRand Paul, who called Pakistana “duplicitous” nation with arecord of supporting terrorism.

“Though the PakistanGovernment has been consid-ered America’s ally in the fighton terrorism, Pakistan’s behav-iour would suggest otherwise,”Paul said in a statement, adding:“While we give them billions ofdollars in aid, we are simulta-neously aware of their intelli-gence and military apparatusassisting the Afghan Taliban.”

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Aface-off on the Republicanpresidential debate stage

has degenerated into a streetbrawl with the two principalcombatants, Donald Trumpand Marco Rubio, resorting toname-calling and mockingeach other endlessly on thecampaign trail.

Senator Rubio kept callingTrump a “con artist” allthrough Friday, vowing not toallow him to hijack theRepublican Party, even as thefront-runner labelled theFlorida Senator “MrMeltdown”, a “choker” and a“lightweight” at every cam-paign outing.

Much to the amusement oftheir supporters and revulsionof party elders, the twoindulged in spectacles of mockimpersonation of one anothereven while declaring the intentto carry their battle for theRepublican nomination to thebitter end.

“There is no way we canallow a con artist to take overthe conservative movement,

and Donald Trump is a conartist,” Rubio held forth, evenas Trump kept up with his ranton how the young Senatorwould be drenched in sweat ifhe as President has to meetwith the likes of RussianPresident Vladimir Putin.

Trump, who clearly had arough time at the debate,bounced back on Friday morn-ing, bolstered by an endorse-ment by New Jersey GovernorChris Christie, who ended hisown presidential pursuit a fort-night ago after poor perfor-mances in Iowa and NewHampshire.

Rubio, despite his stellarperformance at the debate,now faces the grim prospect ofposting his first victory in theprimaries. Although 12 Stateswill be holding their primarieson Tuesday, polls put Trumpahead in 11 of them andSenator Ted Cruz in one.

London: Finance Ministers fromthe world’s leading economieshave warned of a “shock” to theglobal economy if the UK leavesthe EU. The Ministers gave theiropinion in a statement releasedat the end of a two-day meetingof G20 nations in China.Chancellor George Osborne,who is at the event, told the BBCthe referendum issue was “dead-ly serious”.

But UKIP’s Nigel Faragesaid the G20 announcementwas “no surprise” as it was“mates helping each other out”.“I’m not surprised that bigGovernment gets together tosupport David Cameron,” headded. “This is big banks, bigbusiness, big Government allscratching each other’s backs, Idon’t think that impresses voters.”UK, Chinese and American offi-cials, and Christine Lagarde —head of the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) — havebeen discussing key issues for theglobal economy during the G20summit in Shanghai.

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Nepal Prime Minister KP Olihas said that his visit to

India helped in “improving” theties which had “soured” duringthe anti-Constitution stir evenas the agitating Madhesi frontcalled it a “complete failure” andwarned of fresh protests if theirdemands are not met.

“Earlier the relationsbetween the two neighbourshad soured during the Madhesagitation but my visit hashelped improve the relationsbetween the two countries,” Olisaid, addressing a mass gath-ering in Bhairahawa.

Terming his visit as “fruit-ful”, the Prime Minister said,“As we have no misunder-standings now, our focus willbe on implementing the seven-point deal.”

He also appealed to the agi-tating Madhes-based politicalparties to join the Government.

“As we have delivered theConstitution, now is the time tofocus on development. So, I callon the agitating leaders andNepali Congress to join the gov-

ernment and participate in thenation building process,” he said.

Oli, however, said that anydemand against the nationalinterests will not be addressed.

Kathmandu: Napalese Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s visitto India was unsuccessful, the agitating United DemocraticMadhesi Front (UDMF) said on Saturday.

The UDMF in a meeting on Saturday reviewed the protestprogrammes and said Oli committed a mistake by going toIndia without any agenda, The Himalayan Times reported.

The front has decided not to sit for talks till the govern-ment comes up with a concrete road map to address itsdemands.

It also decided to submit a memorandum to Oli to pres-surise the Government to address the 11-point demands putforth by the front at the earliest.

One of the leaders said the form of protest has been changedat present, and warned that the Madhesi Front would resortto stern protests if the Government did not address its demandspromptly. IANS

Toronto: A Canadian court hasstopped the deportation of aman and his sister to India toface trial for the honour killingof the man’s niece in Punjab ongrounds that they may not getjustice in India.

Surjit Badesha and his sis-ter Malkit Sidhu had hiredcontract killers to eliminateMalkit’s daughter Jassi(Jaswinder) Sidhu in June 2000because she had married alower-caste autorickshaw driverin Punjab.

Canadian-born JaswinderSidhu had met autorickshawdriver Sukhwinder Singh(Mithu) in Jagraon during hervisit to Punjab in 1996 and fall-en in love with him. The twosecretly married in 1999 whenshe came back from Canada totie the knot.

Jaswinder was murdered inJune 2000 near Sukhwinder’svillage. IANS

Washington: Expressing seriousconcern over violence againstreligious minorities in India, 34top American lawmakers haveasked Prime Minister NarendraModi to take immediate steps toprotect their fundamental rightsand bring the perpetrators tojustice. “We urge your govern-ment to take immediate steps toensure that the fundamentalrights of religious minoritiesare protected and that the per-petrators of violence are held toaccount,” the lawmakers, includ-ing eight Senators, said in a let-ter to the Prime Minister. PTI

Moscow: Russia has halted airstrikes inSyria in accordance with a ceasefire bro-kered by the country and the US. Russiaentered the Syrian conflict on behalf ofally President Bashar al-Assad inSeptember 2015, and its air power hasplayed a significant role in the recentmajor gains by Government forces.

“Russia’s air force fully halted bombing in the green zone —that is in those areas and those armed groups which had sentus ceasefire requests,” Lieutenant-General Sergei Rudskoi, a seniorrepresentative of the General Staff, said.

A lull in fighting was reported throughout most of Syria onSaturday, hours after the US-Russia brokered “cessation of hostil-ities” agreement took effect. The Russian and American militariesalso exchanged maps of Syria, while fighting stopped in 34 Syriansettlements, the military said. Agencies

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For the first time, Chinesescientists taking part in a

400-day South Pole researchexpedition can eat fresh vegetables grown regularly on-site.

The researchers can eatfresh vegetables grown regu-larly on-site, Wang Zheng, the

grower who came home lastmonth after the mission inAntarctica, said.

Growing vegetables inAntarctica reminded him ofThe Martian, a sci-fi movieabout an astronaut who sur-vives alone on Mars by eatingpotatoes he grows there, Wangsaid yesterday from his homein Shangrao, Jiangxi province.

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Sanaa: At least 30 rebels andcivilians were killed onSaturday when warplanes fromthe Saudi-led coalition strucka market northeast of the rebel-held Sanaa, witnesses said.

The air strike targeted threerebel vehicles as they entered amarket in the town of Naqil binGhaylan, killing at least 30 Huthiinsurgents and civilians, onetribal source in the area said. Therebel-controlled Saba newsagency gave a higher death toll,saying that 60 civilians werekilled and wounded in the attackbut it did not mention anycasualties among fighters. AFP

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Vientiane: Foreign Ministersfrom the 10 countries of theAssociation of South East AsianNations said on Saturday thatthey were “seriously con-cerned” by recent develop-ments in the disputed SouthChina Sea region and will seeka meeting over the issue withChina. At the end of theirannual retreat, held this year inthe Lao capital of Vientiane,they noted their worries andreaffirmed the importance ofmaintaining peace, securityand stability in the area.

The strategically impor-tant South China Sea is at thecenter of a territorial disputeinvolving China on one sideand a number of ASEAN coun-tries on the other, includingVietnam, the Philippines andMalaysia. Tensions haveramped up since China begana massive land reclamationprogram in 2013.

Recent satellite imagerysuggests that China hasinstalled surface-to-air mis-siles in a disputed area in theParacels chain, promptingaccusations that Beijing is mil-itarising the area. AP

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The normal life was affect-ed in Kashmir valley on

Saturday following a shut-down call by separatists toexhibit resentment against thearrest of former DelhiUniversity Professor SARGeelani and alleged harass-

ment of Kashmiri students inJawaharlal Nehru Universityand other educational insti-tutions outside the State.

Shops and business estab-lishments remained closed andpublic transport was general-ly off the roads. However, pri-vate vehicle were plying nor-mally and attendance in gov-

ernment offices was skeletal.Geelani was arrested by

Delhi Police and sent to judi-cial remand after he organizeda function in Delhi on thethird anniversary of AfzalGuru, who was hanged inDelhi's Tihar Jail on February9, 2013. Police says anti-Indiaand pro-freedom slogans were

raised during the event. Hehas been arrested on seditioncharges l ike three students including JNUStudents Union PresidentKanhaiya Kumar.

The separatists inKashmir allege that Kashmiristudents studying in variouseducational institutions in

Delhi are being harassed afterthese events.

The matter has been takenu by the Governor NN Vohrawith the central authoritieswhile mainstream politicalparties have also expressedapprehensions on the safety ofKashmiri students. TheGovernor, who is running the

affairs of the embattled statesince January 8 when the cen-tral rule was imposed, took upthe matter with Union HomeSecretary and the IntelligenceBureau Chief about the issueof complaints of harassment ofKashmiri students pursuingeducation and careers inDelhi.

The People's DemocraticParty (PDP) sent former advi-sor to Chief Minister AmitabhMattoo to meet JNU vicechancellor to highlighttheplight of Kashmiri students.

The Delhi administrationhas set-up a special cell to look into issues faced byKashmiri students.

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ACentral Excise official andhis wife have been sen-

tenced to three years' rigorousimprisonment in a dispropor-tionate assets case filed by CBIin 2007.

N Muralidharan,Additional District Judge andSpecial Judge for CBI cases,Coimbatore, sentenced KSubramanian, Superintendent,Central Excise, and his wifeKasthuri to three years' RI onFriday, CBI said in a releasehere on Saturday.

The agency's AntiCorruption Branch had regis-tered and investigated the case"on the allegations" thatSubramanian, asSuperintendent atMettupalayam and Coimbatoreand Assistant Commissioner,Mumbai during the check peri-od of 2003 and 2007, had"acquired assets in his nameand in the name of his wife dis-proportionate to their knownsources of income."

The couple werechargesheeted under relevantgrafts provisions of IPC andPrevention of Corruption Act,1988, it said adding they wereconvicted and sentenced tothree years' RI yesterday.

The court imposed a fineof �10,000 on each of them and"orders were also passed toconfiscate the Fixed Deposit of�18 lakh held by the accused,"it added.

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Chief Minister AkhileshYadav dispatched a letter to

Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley, urging him to includethe issues related to develop-ment and welfare of people ofUttar Pradesh, in the proposed2016-17 annual Budget andmade necessary allocations.

In a letter sent on Saturday,Chief Minister recalled pend-ing compensation for the farm-ers whose crops were damageddue to incessant rains and hail-storm, AIIMS in Gorakhpur,Purvanchal SamajwadiExpress-way, Kanpur andVaranasi Metro Rails, andInternational Airports at Zevarand Hiran Gaon (Ferojabad).

Yadav demanded that pro-visions should be made for theabove projects in the UnionBudget along with proper fundfor development ofBundelkhand and Purvanchal.

Yadav claimed that StateGovernment had decided toconstruct PurvanchalSamajwadi Express-way, andhad also allocated some fundsfor the purpose but at thesame time, they also requestedto the Centre to make somecontribution from there side sothat the project could be com-pleted. He said to have request-ed Jaitely to make allocation ofCentral share for completion ofthe project in this budget.

Akhilesh Yadav said that inwake of backwardness ofBundelkhand and Purvanchalregion, his Government alreadymade budgetary provisions forthe development of the twoareas, hence he made similarrequest to Central Governmentto provide special package forthe two regions so that devel-opment of the areas could betaken on priority. Yadavreminded that the demand ofAIIMS in Gorakhpur has beennow made since a long time butno financial allocations havebeen made so far so he alsowrote to Jaitely to make thesame in this budget. LastlyAkhilesh Yadav demandedfunds for construction on inter-national airports in HiranGaon at Ferojabad and Zevarbesides Metro Rail in Kanpurand Varanasi.

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The Economic Survey hasraised serious questions

about large foreign direct invest-ment (FDI) from smallernations, especially Singaporeand Mauritius. It has suggestedthat the Government look at FDIfrom these countries carefully tofind out whether they are beingrouted through them to availbenefits of Double TaxAvoidance Agreement (DTAA).

There are wide variations inFDI inflows into India from dif-ferent countries, it said, addingthat Singapore, Mauritius, theNetherlands and the US accountfor the lion's share. Out of FDI

equity inflows of $24.8 billionduring April-November of 2015-16, more than 60 per cent havecome from two geographicallysmall countries - Singapore andMauritius. “These inflows needperhaps to be examined moreclosely to determine whetherthey constitute actual invest-ment or are diversions fromother sources to avail of tax ben-efits under the DTAA that thesecountries have with India,” it hassaid. The DTAA, commonlydescribed as treaty shopping,helps investors route their invest-ments with a view to minimisetax liabilities.

The Government has liber-alised FDI in over a dozen sec-

tors, including defence, privatesector banks, medical devices,construction, civil aviation andrailway, to attract overseas invest-ment. Further, according to theSurvey, Indian states show a clearregional disparity in FDI inflows.

Delhi, Haryana,Maharashtra, Karnataka, TamilNadu, Gujarat and AndhraPradesh have together attractedmore than 70 per cent of totalFDI inflows to India during thelast 15 years. However, stateswith vast natural resources likeJharkhand, Bihar, MP,Chhattisgarh and Odisha havenot been able to attract foreignfunds directly for investment indifferent sectors, it said.

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The Government will haveto go through a ‘very dif-

ficult process’ of pushingreforms and projects to propelIndia to a high-growth path asit will not happen throughsome magic wand, ChiefEconomic Advisor ArvindSubramanian said on Saturday.

The CEA said he has takena ‘realistic’ view while pro-jecting a growth rate of 7-7.75per cent for the next fiscal andthe growth path could bederailed in the event of an2008-like ‘extreme crisis’ in theworld.

“We highlight somethingswhich could have been done,but have not been done. GST,the strategic disinvestment --that is certainly what we needto do. The whole corporateand bank balancesheet chal-lenges are really important toaddress,” he told the agency inan interview. He was replyingto queries on what the gov-ernment should do to achieve8-10 per cent economicgrowth, a day after the releaseof the Economic Survey for2015-16.

Subramanian said the gov-ernment is trying to solve theproblems faced by the domes-tic industry by bringing in thebankruptcy law, the UDAYscheme to deal with power sec-tor woes, adequately recapi-talising banks and some actionto revive the steel sector.

“It is a very difficult process.There are a lot of stakeholders.Lots and lots of projects thatneed to be sorted out. And a fairamount of money is required

for this. So, we have to workthrough this process slowlyand steadily. It is not going tohappen through some magicwave of the wand,” he said.Subramanian said public invest-ments have to support growthfor sometime now as privateinvestments are yet to pick up.

“This year, the global econ-omy is very very difficult.What is unique about the worldat this stage is that there aresuch a few pockets where youcan say that it is stable androbust. India is the only brightspot. But our prospects will beaffected by what happenseverywhere else in the world,”he said.

Pegging growth at 7-7.75per cent for the next fiscal, thepre-Budget Economic Surveyhas asked the Government topress ahead with reforms,cut subsidies and introduceGST while advocating areview of mid-term fiscaltargets to create space foradditional expenditure.

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NEW DELHI: Enforcement Directorate has start-ed a probe into the finances of Ringing Bells, mak-ers of the world’s cheapest smartphone Freedom251, as questions continue to be raised on the fea-sibility of offering a handset at �251.

Sources said ED is looking into financialdetails and bank accounts of the company andits promoters. No summons or notices have beensent as of now to the company or its promoters,they said. The Noida-based phone-makers havealso come under the scanner of the I-TDepartment which is looking into its financialstructure and has obtained documents, includ-ing those from the Registrar of Companies (RoC),in this regard. Industry members have also com-plained against the company to the TelecomMinistry to dig deeper into the issue.

The Ministry has sought a clarificationfrom Ringing Bells for marketing its 'Freedom 251'mobile phone without a BIS (Bureau of IndianStandards) certification and also asked UttarPradesh government to check the firm's cre-dentials. The company said it has receivedaround 6 crore registrations for the phone. PNS

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President Pranab Mukherjee onSaturday said India is desirous of once

again emerging as a major centre forinternational trade and become a mar-itime power as he inaugurated the coun-try's largest heritage conservation projecthere. The initiative called the Muziris her-itage project is an ambitious plan com-prising development and conservation ofpalaces, museums, a synagogue and anumber of archaeological monuments inthe state and is being implemented by theKerala Tourism department with supportof its central counterpart.

“Being the largest conservation pro-ject in the country and first green projectof Kerala government, Muziris heritageproject has a lot to boast about, be it inthe area of heritage, conservation ortourism,” he said.

Mukherjee said he has been informedthat the next phase of this project is the'Spice Route Initiative' which will exploreinternational connections and linkagesthat the Malabar coast had with manyparts of the world.

“The Spice Route Initiative is bothimportant and timely with India seekingto once again emerge as a major centre

of international trade and transport as wellas a maritime power,” he said.

The Spice Route initiative aims to link41 countries in Asia and Europe withIndia. The President lauded Kerala's‘spirit of tolerance and catholicity of out-look’. “The Muziris heritage project cel-ebrates this magnificent heritage of ourland where people of different religions,castes and languages live in harmony.”

“This project reminds us that our his-tory is one of assimilation, mutualrespect and celebration of our differences,respecting each other's beliefs and values,”Mukherjee said. He said India has alwaysbeen one of the most cosmopolitan soci-eties around the globe as it is ‘comfort-able in dealing with diversity and wel-coming of new ideas and cultures’.

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SHANGHAI: Describing the NewDevelopment Bank (NDB) set upby the BRICS countries as a‘worthwhile venture’, RBIGovernor Raghuram Rajan onSaturday said the multi-lateralbank has gotten off to a good startraising hopes of energising theinvestment and financing of infra-structure projects.

“It is off to a good start. Let usall wish it a success and seewhereit goes. Hopefully, it energises moreinvestment and financing in infra-structure,” Rajan said. “It is a co-operative effort between all BRICScountries. We have already reachedcontingency reserve agreement(CRA). This is second. Let’s seehow it develops. Lots of hopesembedded in it for greater coop-eration (among the) BRICS coun-tries,” he told reporters during abrief interaction. PTI

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JAIPUR: A total of 51 pactsworth �11,531.21 crore weresigned between various com-panies and the StateGovernment here onSaturday.

The memorandums ofunderstanding (MoUs),signed by various depart-ments, related to tourism,agriculture, industries, urbandevelopment, housing andmining sectors.

Rajasthan State IndustrialDevelopment and InvestmentCorporation (RIICO) also signedsome MoUs. The projects will

create more than 26,000 directjobs. Chief Secretary CS Rajan,while highlighting the progressin investment commitmentmade during ResurgentRajasthan summit held inNovember last year, said thatnearly 80 per cent land for theprojects has been identified.

The MoU SigningCeremony today follows theResurgent Rajasthan summitduring which the state govern-ment had signed MoUs worth�3.21 lakh crores. Rajasthan hasalready cleared investment pro-posals worth �4,452. PTI

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The southern grid will getan additional 4,000 mw of

power in the next one year tomitigate the woes of electric-ity-deficit states, Union PowerMinister Piyush Goyal said onSaturday.

Power transmissioncapacity to the southern gridhas been improved by 71 percent in the last 18 months,thereby enabling transmis-sion of more power from thenorth, Goyal said, addressinga meeting. Earlier, the minis-ter dedicated the 1600-MWsuper critical megaDamodaram Sanjeevaiah

Thermal Power Station of theAndhra Pradesh PowerGeneration Corporation atKrishnapatnam, 20-km fromhere. By 2020, an additional18,000 mw of power would bemade available to the southerngrid, he said.

According to Goyal, theCentre was working on a newpolicy to ensure adequate coallinkage to thermal power pro-jects. “Thermal plants havebeen forced to import coal athigher prices but now we willensure linkages to cheaperdomestic coal. This willeliminate need to importcoal," said Goyal, who alsoholds the coal portfolio.

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NEW DELHI:Adani Enterprises,the flagship firm of the AdaniGroup, has incorporated sub-sidiary Korba Clean Coal Pvt Ltdfor carrying on the business ofcoal washing.

“We would like to informyou that the company hasincorporated a wholly-ownedsubsidiary namely 'Korba CleanCoal Pvt Ltd (KCCPL) onFebruary 26, 2016,” AdaniEnterprises said in a filing toBSE on Saturday.

KCCPL is incorporated inIndia and is yet to commenceits business operations, thecompany said. Adani

Enterprises' third quarter netprofit plunged 44 per cent to�196 crore, compared to theyear-ago period, on lowerincome. The company had ear-lier said that it has extracted andsupplied washed coal totalling3.7 million tonnes (MT) toRRVUNL during the ninemonths of the current fiscalcompared with 2.1 MT inApril-December period of theprevious fiscal.

The company said it isramping up coal productionand is well placed to tap thegrowth opportunities in domes-tic coal mining space. PTI

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NEW DELHI: In order to reduceregulatory burden and improveease of doing business, aGovernment panel has suggestedthat a mechanism should be set upto accord speedy approvals toinvestment proposals. The needfor regulation of economic activ-ity as well as for prior approvalshas emerged over time in responseto genuine public concerns at var-ious points of time across theworld, said the panel report. PTI

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>������������������%%��������%����������� ����������������������������%����������� �����(������������������� �����������%�#%%�����������������������������������������%�����������%������� )��������23������� �""����������

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For decades, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity (JNU) has been thenerve centre of political and socialactivism. The students are vocalabout anything they feel about and

movements are initiated at the drop of anopinion on this campus. All this food forthought emanates and revolves around thedhabas here, all of which have made quite aname for themselves.

More often than not, all these move-ments begin at the iconic Ganga Dhaba, thehumble eatery you will find when you enterfrom the main gate of the University. Thedhaba, which has been doing roaring busi-ness on the campus since 1983, has been apart of the students’ life as much as their class-es and semesters on the campus.

This dhaba opens only around 5 pm andis quick to gather gentry on hot trail of dis-cussions. With the students preferring to“chill out” and huddle up only after classesin the evening, the dhaba functions, and isparty to their animated issue-talks whichoften mushroom into movements, speech-es and campaigns. It is open the entire night.

Owner Sushil Rathi tells you that he hasbeen taking care of the dhaba since 1987,when his brother-in-law, who managed itbefore that, passed away. Rathi has been asilent witness to all the changes that thedhaba, the university and its students havegone through in these long years. “Thedhaba’s spot has changed thrice. First, it wasat the Ganga Hostel bus stop, a small placeunder a tarpaulin, way back when it was aboys’ hostel. Then it shifted a bit backwards,towards the left of where it currently stands.We have been at this spot since 1993,” headds.

Rathi’s work keeps him extremely busyeven when the dhaba is closed during the day.The only free day that he and his staff get isthe eighth of each month. But, God forbid,if an important event like the famousPresidential Debate of JNU takes place onthat day, the dhaba must remain open andcater to everyone’s chai and aloo-parathaneeds in the middle of the night. After all,it requires a full belly to bring about change.

The beauty of the place lies in the peo-ple who come from diverse backgrounds.Some people come to the Ganga Dhaba tosit alone and have a dialogue with themselvesand look for answers from within. Otherscome to unwind after a hectic day. Yet oth-ers meet up with friends here over chai inthe winters and nimboo paani in the sum-mers. This place has given shape to many arevolutionary movement on the campus asalso love stories that are part of student folk-lore, having blossomed on some rocksaround the dhaba.

“The point of JNU life is ‘Ganga Dhabato Chandrabhaga’. Whenever there is a rallyor a march, it starts at Ganga Dhaba and goesall the way to the Chandrabhaga Hostel. Thisdhaba is the most happening spot, a great

place for people to meet and interact.Another great place is the more recent 24x7Food Court. But sadly, now it shuts downat 11 pm,” Akash Dewangan, an MA studentat JNU, tells you.

He adds that because most JNU studentsare nightbirds, they usually feel hungryaround 2 am or 3 am and invariably end upat Ganga Dhaba for an aloo paratha for just�5.

Jayant Jigyasu, an MPhil student ofMedia Studies, is well aware of JNU’s histo-ry. He recalls that in 1990, a bunch of JNUstudents were right in the middle of theMandal Commission debate. “When theMandal Commission was getting approved,there was a huge debate on whether to bringin the quota or not. Tempers were runninghigh with paradox views bordering onvolatile clashes between pro and anti reser-vationists. Ashutosh, former AAP candidate,and other activists decided to gather at GangaDhaba and start a surname removal cam-paign in a bid to dissociate themselves withthe caste identity in public life. The parathasand chai flowed in endlessly as the agitationstretched over quite some days,” Jayant tellsyou.

From Mandal then to the tolerance issuesometime back and now to the sedition issue,the Ganga Dhaba has witnessed severaldebates over burning issues that took thenation by storm. What makes JNU differ-ent from other universities is that you mightbe a great scholar but Ganga Dhaba is a placewhere all your thoughts are counter-ques-tioned.

The dhaba is so integral to students thatwhen it faced lease-related problems, theystood up against the administration tomake sure that the eatery or its owners donot get evicted. Rathi tells you that the lease,which passed on to his sister after her hus-band died, expired a few years back. He askswhy the administration is not co-operatingwith him for its renewal. “I am ready to paymore rent, if that’s what the University wants.The students are supportive but the admin-istration is mum about it. Right now, we arefunctioning without a proper lease with noidea of what the future holds,” he says.

“Voltaire once said: ‘I may disagree witheverything that you say, but I would defendto death your right to say it.’ This is exactlywhat tolerance is all about. We talk about any-thing under the sun. This is what democracyis which you’ll find epitomised at GangaDhaba. Even if celebrities come here for adebate, they are treated as equals and not bytheir celebrity status,” Jayant explains.

Not just political but also social move-ments like the ‘Kiss Of Love’ originated atthis dhaba. Started in 2014 by PankhuriZaheer, a JNU student, this non-violentmovement first started in Kerala after aFacebook page called ‘Kiss Of Love’ exhort-ed the youth to participate in their protestagainst moral policing. It reached the Ganga

Dhaba soon enough where very many stu-dents gathered and kissed their partners inpublic.

“Then there was the Pride Paradewhich also got a lot of attention. Whenevermarches or protests happen, they either startat Ganga Dhaba or finish at Ganga Dhaba.That’s where the show of strength happens.JNU is extremely cold during winters andthe mix of chai and egg sandwich can makeyou sit for hours and discuss everything fromAmerica to Begusarai. You will not findCoke, Pepsi or cigarettes at the dhaba as theowners or this dhaba support students in notpromoting any product which propagatescapitalism,” Preeti, a day scholar doing herMPhil in History, says.

Currently, the hottest issue in JNU is thesedition row. Though no one is talking aboutit for now, it all started around the GangaDhaba. However, Rathi insists, contrary topopular perception, life in JNU is not allabout politics. There is a unique culturalatmosphere too. The immensely popular cul-ture nights at the hostels are an event to bewith. Then there is the grand Holi celebra-tion that begins on the eve of Holi. “This isone of the most fun-filled nights of the year.There is a parade which starts from mydhaba and is known as ‘Mamu ki Chaat’. Thishas nothing to do with the street food. It isthe colloquial term for annoying people. Afew years back, the students made Mamu(owner of Mamu’s Dhaba in JNU) ride adonkey decked up with phoolmala as part ofthe parade,” he tells you laughingly.

At the other extreme end of the campuslies the Brahmaputra Hostel. Being seclud-ed from the epicentre of most activities, a

smaller community has formed aroundKaramveer Singh Dahiya’s (fondly calledDahiyaji) shop right in front of the hostel.All the students who stay around this hos-tel, spend a lot of time at his shop, while he

continues his duty to feed these students. “On national and public holidays, the

mess remains closed. So it is my responsi-bility to feed the entire hostel. Even on theircultural nights, we clean up the entire areaand have a gala time. The students respectme a lot and they keep coming back to meetme even after they pass out from the uni-versity,” Dahiyaji, whose cold coffee comeshighly recommended, says.

And that’s not it. Those who are privyto the memorable movements at JNU, likeRathi, can tell you how a lot of things havechanged over the years. Jayant recalls that theGanga Dhaba used to be in front of the boyshostel earlier and used to be so overcrowd-ed in the evenings that a lot of fights tookplace. Rathi remembers an instance wherean over speeding car was stopped and burntdown because the students sitting at his busstop dhaba felt threatened by the speed. Theadministration then decided to shift the boy’shostel a little further into the campus andmade Ganga Hostel for girls.

“It was the time when famous journal-ist Palagummi Sainath was studying in JNU.The Ganga Dhaba was a centre point thatcreated the culture of open debate amongstthe students of JNU and outsiders. It was abigger canvas where people with diverse ide-ologies expressed their opinion without anyfear and limitations. People carried a revo-lutionary mindset and sometimes there usedto be fights in groups at that place during aheated debate. This used to create a lot oftrouble for the administration which madethem switch the boys’ hostel to the girlsthinking that it will then have a more decentenvironment. Also, they though that radi-calisation will not happen at the dhaba andbig gatherings would stop. But none of theshifting had a major impact on the ambience.Instead, girls also started participating open-ly. The women emancipation issue got fireat the Ganga Dhaba where you’ll find girlsvoicing their opinion and hanging out withthe boys,” Jayant says.

Grapevine has it that once actor Saif AliKhan was beaten up at the Ganga Dhaba.According to campus lore, before becomingan actor, he was a roadside romeo who wouldspend a lot of time at JNU with his friendsin a Maruti car. Once, he was caught by someJNUiites and beaten up for cat calling.

“JNU is an addiction. I have seen alum-ni coming to Ganga Dhaba 20 years later fordinner and nostalgia. There is a popular say-ing that ‘people who study in JNU either goto America or Munirka’. Some have studiedone course after the other and become pro-fessors as well. In JNU lingo, we call thembaba log who sit with professors and students,share a drink, debate and give guidance tofreshers. You’ll find them there all the time.Ganga Dhaba sabka mai baap hai (GangaDhaba is like everyone’s parent),” SaurabhDwivedi, who studied MPhil in HindiLiterature from 2004 to 2010, tells you.

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After steering India to a crucial victo-ry in an Asia Cup match against

Pakistan, Virat Kohli extolled comebackfast bowler Mohammed Amir for his fero-cious opening spell, here on Saturday.

Kohli scored 49 in a tricky chase of 84after Amir had reduced India to eight forthree inside third over.

"I would like to complementMohammad Amir for the way he bowled.I actually congratulated him while he wasbowling. It was so happy to play such anamazing spell. He is a world class bowler,"Kohli said.

Kohli said the conditions were toughfor batting and he was determined to rec-tify the mistakes he committed in theBangladesh match.

"It wasn't an easy wicket to bat on, Iwasn't too happy with myself in the lastgame, where I went too hard at the ball,wanting to continue the way I played inAustralia. I had to respect the conditions,I made mistakes in the last innings but Idug in this time."

Asked about his batting style, Kohlisaid"Even if it is a defensive shot, the intentis positive. Counter-attacking is the gameI play, that's why I bat at no.3 but some-times you have to respect the conditionsand play that way.

"It is very important to be able tochange your shot at the last moment insuch conditions. You need to be switchedon mentally, stay calm and relaxed, cant;hit every ball out of park."

Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhonisaid they had though that Asia Cup wouldbe a tournament for practice ahead of T20World Cup but it was turning out to be atough assignment due to conditions.

"We are a team that loves to play

aggressive cricket but this pushes us torespect the conditions which will be goodgoing into the WT20. I'm glad we restrict-ed them to 85 runs, 100 or 110 runs andthe game was on," Dhoni said.

"The fast bowlers did well but evenafter that we took wickets at regular inter-vals which is crucial to stop runs in thisformat. We have to be switched on in thefield, that is one department where you canguarantee performance, one run out cantake the game away from the opposition,"the Indian captain added.

Dhoni was also not pleased with theuse of some of the umpiring devices likeear-piece which he feels prevents the on-

field official from hearing snicks and edgesin a packed stadium.

Bangladeshi umpire SIS Saikat failedto detect a nick from Khurram Manzoor'sbat off Ashish Nehra's bowling and theIndian captain wasn't happy about it.

"One thing certainly should be done.Umpires now use walkie talkies as well aswear ear piece in one ear which effectivelymeans they are umpiring with one ear. It'sa difficult job. One needs to consider this.They are hearing with one ear. I believe thereis no point having a ear piece when thebowler is bowling as you don't need to useit then. It's better to use both ears as a lotof things might happen on field," he said.

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It will be a battle between the paceattacks of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

as the two teams square off in a cru-cial round robin league match of theAsia Cup T20 here on Sunday.

The match assumes significanceas the winner will take a giant steptowards qualifying for the summitclash of the tournament.

For Bangladesh, a victory is amust as they have already played twomatches winning one and losingagainst India in the opener.

Both the teams beat minnowsUnited Arab Emirates. Sri Lanka didnot need much effort even though themargin of their victory was 14 runswhile Bangladesh were more convinc-ing in their 51-run win.

But both teams had poor outingas far as their batsmen are con-cerned. Sri Lanka managed 129

against an inexperienced UAE attackwhile Bangladesh were no better intheir 133-run effort on Friday.

It will be a battle of bowlers withSri Lanka being led by their dashingcaptain Lasith Malinga, who rocked theopposition with a four-wicket haul.

Mustafizur Rahaman had an offday against India, but against UAE, heshowed why he is rated so highly as hewas on the verge of a hat-trick. So itwill be a contest between Malinga's toe-crushers and Mustafizur's variations.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka Cricket(SLC) has expressed disappointment atformer captain Mahela Jayawardenetaking up the role of consultant with theEngland team for the upcoming WT20.

SLC president ThilangaSumathipala termed Jayawardene'sdecision "sad and disappointing", eventhough it will be for just 10 days.

Interestingly, both Sri Lanka andEggland are clubbed in the same group.

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Stan Wawrinka won the battle of the30-year-olds by defeating Marcos

Baghdatis of Cyprus 6-4, 7-6 (13) to winthe Dubai Tennis Championships titleSaturday.

Wawrinka, seeded second, had beentwo points from defeat in the Dubai tour-nament's first round to SergiyStakhovsky of Ukraine.

This is the third time that Wawrinkahas played in Dubai. In his previous twovisits, the Swiss never won a match.

The victory is Wawrinka's secondtitle of the year. He won a third consec-utive Chennai title last month and haswon the last nine finals he's played,including the 2014 Australian Open and2015 French Open. He last lost a finalin 2013.

Baghdatis, who was unseeded, hasnow lost his last seven finals.

Wawrinka, who has beatenBaghdatis all six times they've played,broke serve on a fifth set point in the

10th game to close out the first set.Baghdatis double-faulted three times inthat game, including the final point.

There were no break points in the

12 games of the second set.Wawrinka initially led 4-1 in the

tiebreaker, and saved four set points towin on his fourth match point on aBagdhatis backhand error.

+�.>�0!:�� *!1!Carla Suarez Navarro restricted

No.3-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska toonly two games as she reached the finalof the Qatar Open with a 6-2, 6-0 semi-final victory on Friday.

The eighth-seeded Suarez Navarroneeded only 62 minutes to beatRadwanska and will next face Latvian 18-year-old Jelena Ostapenko, who reachedher first WTA Tour final when GermanAndrea Petkovic retired with a leginjury while trailing 7-5, 1-0.

Radwanska was 3-1 in head-to-headagainst Suarez Navarro, which includeda crushing 6-1, 6-3 defeat for theSpaniard in the quarter-finals of theAustralian Open in January, but she wasdetermined to make amends from theword go.

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England seamer Steven Finn hasbeen ruled out of the ICC World

T20 in India owing to a calf strainwith Liam Plunkett named as hisreplacement.

For Finn, it is the latest blow dur-ing an injury-hit period. He wasruled out of the tour of the UAE lateDecember with a stress injury to hisleft foot and left the tour of SouthAfrica early with a side strain hepicked up during the third Test inJohannesburg.

"Really disappointed to havepicked up another injury on my roadto recovery," Finn tweeted.

"Gutted doesn't describe it. Goodluck to the guys out there!"

In Finn's absence, Plunkett willform England's pace attack in thetournament alongside David Willey,Reece Topley, Chris Jordan and Ben

Stokes.England badly needed Finn for

the extra pace, which nobody else hasin the 15-man squad, and for hisbounce, which can deter batsmenfrom lunging on to the front foot orrunning down the pitch.

England depart for India onMarch eight.

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India recovered from three early jolts,inflicted by a devastating spell fromMohammed Amir, before notching up

a five-wicket victory against arch-rivalsPakistan in the Asia Cup T20 tournament,here on Saturday.

Amir (3/18) rocked the Indian top-order with a fast and furious four-over spellbut the small target of 84 was not goodenough to stop the 'Men In Blue' whoknocked off the runs with 27 balls to spare.

Indian bowlers had demolished thePakistan batting line up with a superlativeshow as they bundled out the arch-rivalsfor a paltry 83 in only 17.3 overs after opt-ing to field.

But it required the calm and class ofVirat Kohli (49) to take India home with-out further setbacks as his 68-run stand forthe fourth wicket with Yuvraj Singh (14 notout) proved to be decisive.

Kohli's 51-ball innings had sevenboundaries and he looked cut above anybatsman, who featured in today's game.

This is second win for India in the tour-nament and takes them a step closer to thefinal of the continental championship.

What was supposed to be a cakewalkturned out to be a brief nightmare forthe Indians.

Rohit Sharma (0) and Ajinkya Rahane(0), replacing an injured Shikhar Dhawan,were beaten by sheer pace of Amir. Theyfound the late movement at ferocious speedtoo hot to handle. The result was a coupleof plumb leg-befores.

Suresh Raina's (1) problems againstshort ball is well documented and Amirstarted teasing him with deliveries thatkicked up viciously from length. Raina cuta sorry figure with his hop, skip and jumptechnique and when Amir bowled full, theleft-hander expecting a short ball onlylobbed it to Wahab Riaz at mid-on. Indiawere tottering at 8 for 3 at that stage.

However, Pakistan captain ShahidAfridi had no choice but to finish Amir'sspell, in order to get a couple of more wick-ets and stay in the game.

But it was Kohli, who has been

Pakistan's nemesis for some time now,showed why he is among the best in theworld. He shielded Yuvraj from Amir bytaking bulk of the strike. His footwork wasprecise and played close to the body.

In his final over Amir tried to changethe tactic and Kohli promptly whippedtowards square leg and cover drove him fortwo boundaries.

Once Amir's spell was over, it was a for-mality for the Indians with Kohli gainingmore confidence.

Yuvraj's job was to chip in with the sin-gles and stem the rot that set in due to top-order collapse and he did his job. By thetime, Kohli was adjudged leg-before offMohammed Sami's bowling, India wereeight runs short of victory. It was Dhoni,

who finished off the match.Earlier, a collective effort from the

Indians bowlers was backed brilliantly bythe fielders as it became a 'no-contest' fromthe moment India captain MahendraSingh Dhoni opted to field on a pacer-friendly wicket.

Ashish Nehra (1/20) and JaspritBumrah (1/8) dealt initial blows while new

sensation Hardik Pandya (3/8) kept up thepressure and recorded the best figuresamong bowlers. Such was the pressure onPakistan, spin twins Ravindra Jadeja (2/11)and Ravichandran Ashwin were broughtin 12th and 13th over respectively.

The only Pakistan player to cross the10-run mark was wicketkeeper SarfrazAhmed (25).

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E-Mail id: [email protected] No.:- 05180-228192

E.O.I. Notice No. 01/2015-16 Date: 22 Feb. 2016

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST NOTICE NO. 01/2015-16 FOR MAINTENANCE OF REHABILITETEDSODIC-III (PY-1) & (PY-2) DRAINS UNDER UPSLRPIII PROJECT

The Government of India has received a credit from the InternationalDevelopment Association equivalent to US Dollar 197 million towards thecost of U.P. Sodic Land Reclamation III Project and it intends to applya part of the proceeds of this credit to payments under the Contract forwhich the EOI is sought.

Maintenance of Sodic-III drains which are rehabilitated under (PY-1)& (PY-2) years in district Fatehpur, Allahabad and Sant Ravi Das Nagar(Bhadohi) is proposed. Interested Contractors/Firms may submit their offerin this office along with following information with supporting documents-1. Total monetary value of construction works performed for each year

of the last 3 years.2. Report on his financial standing3. Detail of any litigation, current or during the last 3 years which the

bidder is involved the party’s concerned and disputed amount in eachcase

4. PAN issued by Income tax Department.5. Character Certificate issued by District Magistrate.

Interested Contractors/Firms submit their offer district wise in this officewith above information/supporting documents till date 05.03.2016.

Received EOI from the Contactors/Firms shall be shortlisted forcalling the quotations. Quotation shall be invited from only shortlistedContactors/Firms for the same.

Executive EngineerDrainage Division Fatehpur

UP 104605 Date 25.02.2016foKkiu osclkbV www.upgov.nic.in ij miyC/k gSA

OFFICE OF THE EXECUTIVE ENGINEERDRAINAGE DIVISION FATEHPUR

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Gianni Infantino after winning FIFA's pres-idential election vowed to lead the scandal-tainted body into a new era as he faced

immediate calls to ensure genuine reform.The 45-year-old UEFA general secretary

scored a convincing victory in the battle to replacethe disgraced Sepp Blatter, whose 18-year reignended with FIFA mired in unprecedented crisis.

Infantino, a Swiss-Italian, defeated Asianrival Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa in thesecond round of the vote of 207 members.

"FIFA has gone through sad times, momentsof crisis, but those times are over," he said, assert-ing that a "new era" had begun for world's foot-ball's governing body, dogged by a vast set of cor-ruption scandals.

Infantino got 115 votes in the election's sec-ond round while Asian Football Confederationpresident Sheikh Salman, from Bahrain, got 88.They were just three votes apart in the first round.

Five candidates started the day in contention.Prince Ali bin al Hussein of Jordan and for-

mer FIFA official Jerome Champagne saw theirsupport fizzle after the first round, while SouthAfrican tycoon Tokyo Sexwale withdrew beforepolling opened.

Infantino said he would have no trouble unit-ing world football after an election which exposeddivides between Europe, Infantino's power base,and voters in Asia and Africa.

"Today it was an election but not a war," thenew FIFA supremo told reporters. "In an electionyou win or lose and then life goes on."

Sheikh Salman said he was looking forward toworking with his campaign rival, and called for"unity" while stressing that FIFA needed to be more"inclusive and reflect the diversity of world football".

Infantino's election was hailed by world fig-ures such as Russia's President Vladimir Putin andfederation chiefs. Putin, whose country will hostthe 2018 World Cup, said Infantino comes into thepost with "high authority".

The multilingual lawyer takes over leadershipof the world's top sport with its reputation at anall-time low.

Blatter and UEFA president Michel Platinihave been banned from football for six years, USprosecutors have charged 39 people over more than$200 million in football business bribes and Swissauthorities are investigating FIFA's management

and the awarding of hosting rights for the 2018and 2022 World Cups.

Infantino, who only entered the contest afterPlatini was ruled out, will also face immediatefinancial problems.

Acting secretary-general Markus Kattner said"general uncertainty" caused by the crisis meantFIFA was $550 million (500 million euros)behind in its $5 billion budget target for 2015-2018.

The shortfall could complicate Infantino's abil-ity to deliver on a campaign pledge of more thandoubling the amount given back to national asso-ciations to over $1.2 billion in total every four years.

Hours before he was elected, FIFA membersapproved a reform package that aims to limit thepowers of the new president and to end the cor-ruption that prevailed under Blatter.

The president will become more like a corpo-rate chairman of the board, providing strategicguidance but with less management authority.

FIFA's executive committee, which hadbecome an epicentre of graft allegations, has been

rebranded as a FIFA council. It will operate likea corporate board of directors.

Measures such as declaring the salary of thenew president to improve financial transparencywere also included.

But sponsors gave a cool reaction to the mea-sures.

"We urge FIFA's new leadership to prioritisetheir implementation," major backer Visa said ofthe reforms. "As we have said before, we believeit is in the best interests of FIFA, the fans, spon-sors and everyone involved, that there is long-termindependent oversight of the reforms."

Atlanta-based FIFA backers Coca-Cola said ina statement that deeds, not words, regardingaccountability will be the critical factor in judg-ing future support of Infantino's FIFA.

"Under Mr Infantino's leadership, FIFA mustregenerate itself," it said.

FIFA still has doubters and considerablejudicial troubles ahead, particularly from the USinvestigation with trials that could start this year.

Infantino also faced questions over his UEFAties to Platini, but offered thanks for the Frenchfootball legend's years of support.

He also pledged to work "tirelessly" to drag theorganisation out of one of the darkest period's inits 112-year history.

"You will be proud of FIFA," he said. "You willbe proud of what FIFA will do for football."

�0(�0$�0*�,�� 1.��!�+�7,$�2�0Gianni Infantino was hailed for being "not a

politician, not a superstar" but as a reform-mind-ed administrator who can lead the scandal-plagued football body into a brave new world.

"He's not a politician. He's not a superstar. He'sjust very together, very organised," said Greg Dyke,chairman of England's Football Association.

"He has run UEFA really well and he'll be greatas the president of FIFA. I think we can be moreoptimistic about the future of FIFA now than wecould have been certainly a week ago, after a ter-rible year. It's been a corrupted organisation for along time and now I think this is some hope forthe future."

"I am satisfied. We have supported him fromthe start," Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutkotold TASS news agency.

"I hope that everything he has planned will berealised. Football needs a pragmatic and experi-enced man like him."

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Sepp Blatter congratulat-ed Gianni Infantino on

being elected his successoras FIFA president follow-ing a campaign focused onthe need to condemn hisscandal-plagued 18-yearera to the past.

"I congratulate Giannisincerely and from thebottom of my heart for hiselection," Blatter said in astatement.

Blatter was suspendedby FIFA in October afterSwiss prosecutorsannounced he wasthe target of aninvestigationinto criminalmismanage-ment andmisuse offunds.

The 79-year-old Swissnational, however,warned that his successorwill now face even higherexpectations after the mul-tilingual lawyer, who cuthis teeth at UEFA wherehe was secretary-general,set out radical proposalsfor change.

"With the adoption ofthe reform programme,expectations on him will beeven higher. But I am con-vinced that my successorwill put them in place," saidBlatter, currently serving asix-year ban from the game."With his experience, his

capacities, his sense of strat-egy and diplomacy, he hasall the qualities to continuemy work and drive FIFAtowards stability."

Blatter wishedInfantino "a lot of luck andsuccess".

Even though Blatterwas absent from Friday'sCongress, he still proved ahard man to keep out ofthe headlines, be it inEurope or thousands ofmiles away in theCaribbean.

Disgraced Trinidadand Tobago football boss

Jack Warner saidBlatter opened

the door for thec or r upt i onscandal whichbrought himdown with hisown "vindic-

tiveness".He said

Blatter's fall fromgrace was of his own mak-ing and resulted from his"vindictiveness" towardsWarner who did not backhim in the previous FIFAelection.

"I told him it was timeto step down, let theyounger men run thething and so on. So hecame at me. All of this," hesaid, gesturing around thecourt room, "is because ofhis vindictiveness andspite. But I warned themthat the tsunami wouldcome and it is here now."

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Antoine Griezmann scored agoal early in the second half

to give Atletico Madrid a 1-0 winover Real Madrid at SantiagoBernabeu Stadium on Saturday,keeping Atletico's title hopes aliveand virtually ending the rival'schances in the Spanish league.

The French forward scoredwith a left-footer in the 53rdminute after a cross by Brazilianleft back Filipe Luis, helping vis-iting Atletico pull within fivepoints of leader Barcelona, whichhosts Sevilla on Sunday. RealMadrid could drop 12 pointsbehind Barcelona if the Catalanclub wins Sunday.

It was Real Madrid's firstdefeat at home since a humiliat-ing 4-0 loss to Barcelona inNovember. The team had wonseven straight at Bernabeu.

Fans loudly jeered RealMadrid president FlorentinoPerez, calling for his resignation.

It's the third season in a rowthat Atletico beat Real Madrid atBernabeu in the Spanish league.

Griezmann got the winner ina breakaway that started nearmidfield. He carried the ball to thetop of the area, fed Luis on the leftflank and the Brazilian passed itright back for Griezmann's shotfrom near the penalty spot.

Atletico had not scored agoal in its last two games. It has-n't conceded in four straightmatches.

Real Madrid started pressur-ing and controlled the early partsof the game but Atletico improvedand didn't allow the hosts to cre-ate many chances.

Cristiano Ronaldo, who hadscored seven goals in his last threegames at the Bernabeu, cameclose to equalizing with a headerin the 68th but the ball wentstraight into the hands of Atleticogoalkeeper Jan Oblak.

Ronaldo's best opportunitywith the game tied came just threeminutes into the second halfwhen he entered the area freefrom markers but sent his lowshow just wide of the far post. Hehad another chance from a freekick in the 32nd but his swerving

shot was saved by Oblak. One ofAtletico's best chances in the firsthalf had been a long-range shot byGriezmann, forcing goalkeeperKeylor Navas to make a difficultsave in the 40th.

Madrid wanted a red card forAtletico defender Diego Godinpulling Karim Benzema's jerseywhen the French striker headedtoward the goal in the 31st but thereferee only showed Godin a yel-low card. Madrid also sought apenalty on Danilo in the 75th.

The game match marked theencounter of the league's bestoffense and the top defense.Madrid entered the match with 71goals scored, four better thansecond-place Barcelona, while

Diego Simeone's Atletico came inhaving conceded only 11 goals in25 matches, seven goals less thanfourth-place Villarreal.

Both teams were coming offdisappointing draws, with RealMadrid drawing at Malaga aftera missed penalty kick by Ronaldoand Atletico being held to ascoreless draw by Villarreal atVicente Calderon Stadium lastSunday.

The first Madrid derby thisseason ended in a 1-1 draw atAtletico's Vicente CalderonStadium.

Real Madrid had the return ofBenzema, who missed the gameat Malaga because of a back prob-lem. He was substituted at half-time. Coach Zinedine Zidanecould not count on Brazilian leftback Marcelo because of a mus-cle problem.

5,1 !1���1�$�!��0$!!*-$,�2/$*03� Late goals fromCesc Fabregas and BranislavIvanovic saw Chelsea come frombehind to beat in-formSouthampton 2-1 at St Mary'sStadium in the Premier Leagueon Saturday.

Southampton took a first-half lead through Shane Long, butFabregas drew Chelsealevel on 75minutes, and Ivanovic headedthe winner in the 89th. Thechampions extended their unbeat-en league run since interim man-ager Guus Hiddink was appoint-ed in December to 11 games.

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The last game in the Delhi leg ofthe Pro Kabaddi League saw the

home side Dabang Delhi go down31-37 to high-flying Bengal Warriors.It was the last chance for the Eaglesto put on a show for their home fansin what has been a season to forget.The Warriors, on the other hand,were looking to solidify in defense asthey keep one eye on the playoffs.

Delhi started off with AnilNimbolkar, K Selvamani and SeongRyeol Kim in the starting lineup asraiders Kashiling Adake and SurjeetSingh both missed out.

The Warriors welcomed theirstar raider Nitin Tomar, who wasback from a spell out due to injury.In a tense half of kabaddi, both sidesfought hard and had a real go at eachother.

Anil Nimbolkar opened theEagles' account, but the Warriors' starraider Jang Kun Lee picked up a cou-ple of his own to kick things off. Itwas a tense and low-scoring affairwith no major highlights as bothsides played with caution andpatience.

Nimbolkar equalized for Delhi inthe 11th minute to make it 7-7 afterwhich the team from Kolkata edgedahead into an 8-11 lead. The Eaglesresponded in fine fashion with asuper tackle and a fantastic raid byK Selvamani and nudged ahead. Itwas the Warriors who went into thebreak in the ascendancy after suc-cessful raids from Lee and NitinTomar.

Disaster struck for the Eagles inthe second half as they were dis-missed in just the second minuteafter the Warriors opened with a suc-cessful raid and defense. The visitorsopened up an 8-point lead with thescore at 13-21.

Meanwhile, A super show byJang Kun Lee (13 points), the SouthKorean who has been a revelationthis season enabled Bengal Warriorsstrengthen their claims for a semi-final berth with a 37-31 win overDabang Delhi K. C. in the lastmatch of the Delhi phase.

With just over five months to go forthe Rio Olympics, the Delhi

Marathon which takes place on Sundaywill be the last domestic opportunity forIndian Athletes to qualify for the allimportant Olympic Games starting inAugust. Failing to do so would costthem dearly as they would then be leftto compete outside India to seal a birthfor a place in Rio.

Named as the IDBI Life InsuranceNew Delhi Marathon, it has theaccreditation of the Athletic Federationof India (AFI), and has been recog-nized as the National Championship2016 by AFI. The run has also beenconferred with an AIIMS certificationhelping it to attain qualification statusfor prized marathons like Boston,Tokyo and Berlin.

This year amateur runners will geta chance to run alongside 80 elite ath-letes of the country. Ultra marathonersKavin Kondabathini, Limca Recordholders Sangeeta and Sunil Shettyfrom Mumbai are also participating forthis inaugural edition.

Apart from this, we will also seeparticipation from senior citizens,blade runners, youngsters, first timerunners truly showcasing Delhi's fitnessculture and can-do spirit. Over 34 dif-ferently-abled participants will run forthis inclusive marathon. Kulbir Singh,

71-year-old, will be theoldest runner.

Sanjith Luwang who isfrom the Army SportsInstitute (ASI) Pune and aparticipant of the 3000m atthe 2011 Brazil WorldMilitary games said, "Thistime around, with bettertraining and preparation, Ifeel confident about win-ning the title."

Nabha Chandra, alsobelonging to ASI Puneand the winner of theAllahabad marathon 2015reiterated the importanceof doing well at the DelhiMarathon to ensure RioGames qualification. "Ihave the Olympic qualifi-cation timings in sight and

I have been preparingtowards it," said Chandra.

Jyoti Gawade, whoclocked 2: 54: 20 secondsat the Mumbai marathonlast month, said,"Qualifying for the Riogames will be difficult —intention is to improvethe time as much as I can."

The organizers addedthat the registrations havealready crossed seventhousand. The Sundayevent will also have the dis-tinction of being the firstever Inclusive Marathonwhere people with dis-abilities will be competingshoulder to shoulder withall the participants. Exceptfor the Full and Half

Marathon, a five Kilometer SwacchBharat Run commencing at 8:30 amwill also unfold and will be aimed tocreate awareness regarding the impor-tance of cleanliness.

+-00�07��$�+�7,$Ahead of the Delhi Marathon,

Daniel Vaz (in pic.), a seasonedmarathon runner and currently thehead of Nike+ Run Club based out ofMumbai, discusses the variousnuances related to long distance run-ning in India.

Commenting about the Popularityof the Sport, Vaz said: "Long DistanceRunning has experienced a paradigmshift in the country. Since the first annu-al marathon in Pune, 1983, there hasbeen no looking back as every majorcity now has its own marathon and thelist seems to be getting longer with time.

Amateurs and professionals alike, jos-tle throughout the year to get suitableslots."

Giving tips for first time runners,he reiterated the need to follow a rig-orous routine as early as three days priorto the race. To better execute the raceVaz said: "Start conservatively andkeep in mind to ensure that you don'trun someone else's race. At the Initialstage it is important that one should runslower than the targeted pace in orderto avoid being dead legged towards thefag end of the race. It is almost a car-dinal sin to burn out in the early stagesof a race. So one should plan and waitto fall in the groove."

Commenting about the diet intake,Daniel stressed upon the indispensableneed to keep oneself suitably hydratedbefore and even during the race. ForSunday's marathon, he advised todrink 200ML of water every 20 min-utes during the race.

When asked to comment on themental rigors of running long distances,Vaz replied: "It is something that has tobe experienced first-hand by a runnerduring a race. No amount of pre racepreparation can substitute the impor-tance of expecting the unexpectedduring a race. On race day you oughtto have the metal to tackle any situa-tion the race throws at you."

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� How are you enjoying motherhood?It is absolutely wonderful. In the beginning, you don’t real-

ly know what you’re doing, but you learn slowly. And Saira isa wonderful, happy, sorted child. Now she is with us all the time,she travels with us wherever we go, allowing Mahesh and meto do what we love doing. But it is hard work, and as a moth-er you need to balance out a lot of things. Now that she get-ting older, she understands that both her parents havedemanding careers.� How does Saira react seeing you on the screen?

Well, it took her a while to get used to it as she had no ideawhat her mother did for a day job when she was small. Nowshe kind of knows — she was with me while shooting Singh isBling and she saw the film; she thinks it’s hilarious. She under-stands the process now. But it doesn’t really matter to her whatI am off doing on screen. At home, I am still her mum.� To what extent have you been involved in your husbandMahesh Bhupathi’s new sportswear company Zeven?

Since this is Mahesh’s brand, I have been privy to it sinceits inception. I have given a lot of inputs, especially for thewomen’s line. I have seen the product develop right from thestart. I know how great their research and design team is. Andit is very different from being a brand ambassador where youare not really involved in the project much.� What all do you do to stay fit personally, especially sinceSaira (your daughter) was born?

I’ve always been fitness-oriented but yes, of course, myregime changed a bit. Fitness is a way of life for me. I do a lotof things — training, pilates, yoga, running. I work out at leastsix times a week.� Can you tell us something about your next film, Azhar?

Azhar is about the life and times of MohammadAzharuddin. It’s been quite an intense film to work on, alsobecause it is based on true events. There is a certain socialresponsibility as well. I play a pretty hard character, a prose-cuting lawyer. So, it was a good change, completely differentfrom anything else I have done. She’s sort of like the voice ofthe nation because she is asking the questions that millions offans wanted to ask. At this stage in my career, I am enjoyingplaying roles in which I don’t have to play safe. You don’t haveto just look glamorous, you can actually act.� Whom do you enjoy working with more — the young peo-ple like Aditya Roy Kapoor or the older, experienced oneslike Akshay Kumar?

Working with someone like Anil (Kapoor), Akshay orGovinda, they are so good at what they do that it takes yourown performance to another level. At the same time, even theyoungsters (directors as well as actors) have a whole new wayof working. It’s very refreshing to be around them. The com-fort level is a lot more with the older lot of actors, but a newenergy comes with the younger ones.� Any other projects lined up?

There are a couple of things, more so on the productionfront. It needs full attention which I was unable to give afterChalo Dilli. We’ve got two big films this year which will beannounced soon and they will go on the floors by the end ofthis year. There are also some exciting sports-related things hap-pening.

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‘I enjoy roles where Idon’t have to play safe’

���������� ����� ��������A mother, an actress, a businesswoman, a producer – LARADUTTA BHUPATHI is all this and more. In the Capital recentlyfor the launch of her husband’s sports brand, she talks aboutPRAKRITI ROY her upcoming projects

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With staycation being the new buzzwordin the travel and hospitality circuit, it

seems that vacations are passe. In-city vaca-tions have taken their place, what with mosturbanites being too caught up to take off fora week or two.

That’s where a staycation comes in. Anamalgamation of ‘stay’ and ‘vacation’, a stay-cation is a night or weekend spent at a hotelwithin your city of residence. Being awayfrom home for even a night and indulgingin some leisurely activities, without havingto worry about home or work, is somethingmore and more people are opting for.

Opting to stay at a hotel like Crowne

Plaza in Okhla may look like an unlikelychoice probably for a relaxing weekend butit is all soaked in luxury and up with thetrend. Add to that its stellar restaurantChaoBella where Italian and Oriental cuisinemeet perfectly and your city vacation is com-plete. The restaurant has a live Sundaykitchen. “Guests benefit from our loyalty pro-gramme which has inclusions like onenight’s free stay and discounts on food andbeverages. A lot of people avail of these byindulging in staycations here for special occa-sions or weekends,” says Raju Shreshtha, gen-eral manager, Crowne Plaza Okhla, NewDelhi.

Louis Sailer, GM, The Leela Palace, NewDelhi, agrees that staycations are a perfect

retreat to counter high pressure work lives.The best part is that these mini vacations nolonger depend too much on the time of theyear as people today make spontaneous plans.

Keeping up with the trend, Shreshthasays his hotel has formulated special pack-ages for staycation wherein family stays areencouraged and subsidised.

Dusit Devarana on NH-8 already has onoffer a couples’ getaway which includes athree-course dinner, a bottle of house wine,breakfast and 60 minutes of aroma spa.Depending on the room, it can cost you any-thing between �35,00-50,000. While stayca-tions of this sort were earlier limited to cou-ples, now even families often opt for them.

“The key segment for these offers are thediscerning millennials who are connected tothe world and latest updates, have their pref-erences and like to maintain work-life bal-ance,” Sailer says. The hotel has speciallydesigned staycation package for families, forcouples and even a dedicated package forwomen.

The trend is on the rise because peoplehave very busy and see weekend getaways asthe best way to unwind. “They do not needmuch planning. With attractive packagesavailable, access to Internet for online book-ings, mobile apps, have added to instantbookings,” Shreshtha tells you.

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She has played a warriorprincess in Ashoka. A glam-

ourous girl in Kabhi KhushiKabhi Gham. A die-hard loverin Omkara. A bubbly, chirpy,go-getter in Jab We Met andromcom woman in Golmaal 3and 3 Idiots. Kareena KapoorKhan believes in living adiverse life on the big screen.She is coming again to surpriseyou with yet another contem-porary love story Ki and Ka.She not only plays a newavatar of a modern day wifewho is independent and aspi-rational but also believes inearning her living and makinga mark for herself in whatev-er she does. What brings atwist is her husband played byArjun Kapoor who loves to bea house husband.

“Ki and Ka is differentfrom other films I have donein the past. It has a differenttake on gender. Most people

say that man is the breadwin-ner. Women have to be athome and look after the kidsand the marriage. This filmtalks about how it doesn’treally matter if you are a manor a woman. What matters isthat love and understandingsupersede everything. Respectof each other and the choicesmade are a very importantaspect of marriage. Today,women are leading the pactand are in the forefront, espe-cially in male-dominated pro-fessions. Instead if gender dif-ferentiation, one must focuson empowerment and pro-gression of each other,” Bebosays.

Her recent song — Highheels with Arjun Kapoor madea lot of news for its funnyquirks. “Shooting for songs area lot of fun. In this song, Arjunis dressed as a woman andwears high heels. He got intothe woman’s shoes very well.Arjun Kapoor is a dear friendand we get along well,” she

says.Resting on the anticipa-

tion of her coming film, Bebosays she is now feasting on herall time favourite — the ice-cream specially with the tem-peratures soaring to 29degrees. “The fusion of choco-late and brownie is worldfamous and so is Magnum.

You can’t resist this temptation.My favourite flavour wasMagnum Classic until I triedchocolate brownie. It’sabsolutely fantastic,” she tellsyou on the sidelines of anevent sponsored by the ice-cream brand.

Kareena has been thebrand’s ambassador ever sinceits launch last year.

“Having ice cream makesme feel happy. I was always anice cream girl. We used to saythe popular rhythm — Iscream, you scream, we allscream for ice cream. Be itafter school, nightouts withfriends or during wee hours,ice cream used to be the bestoption to indulge anytime,and kill the hunger pangs. Iwould always end up eatingmore than one. It’s just notenough to just restrict yourselfto one. But I also make surethat I follow my fitness routinedaily as we owe to our bodyand health is wealth in today’stime,” Bebo says.

Come the wedding season, andweddings are not the only thingthat people are worried about.

The bride and groom, as well as thebridesmaids and groomsmen, areequally worried about planning the pre-wedding bachelors/bachelorette bash.

As per the original idea of this kindof party, it would be a night of carni-valesque revelry — a lot of drinking,dancing, and an array of scantily cladwomen or men. But recently, the trendis shifting from partying all night longto taking trips with close friends thatinvolves a lot of adventure activities.

Where bachelor trips are con-cerned, beaches are everybody’sfavourites. And so is Goa. GoBananasis a company that plans customised tripsexclusively for the bachelors and bach-elorette trips. Their itinerary includesnot just night-time activities like club-bing and parties, but also day-timeadventure sports like scuba diving, raft-ing, kayaking and paragliding. Theyexplain: “We organise and plan every-thing from the hotel stay till the check-out. It is very customised, depending onwhat activities that particular groupwants. Bachelor groups want an arrayof activities — casinos, boat parties,water sports, belly dancing, sightseeing.So we plan everything accordingly. Thebudget depends on individuals.”

A professional in this industry,Ayushi Misra of Absolutely Yushi tellsyou the most preferred destinations forsuch trips — Goa, hill stations,Andamans, Thailand, Sri Lanka,Mauritius, Dubai, Turkey, if it fits thebudget Spain and of course Vegas. Shealso tells you: “The trip is well plannedand each day is allocated for a partic-

ular activity. There is always one bignight where the group of friends cele-brate the bride/groom with a big party.The rest of the activities include club-bing, beaches, trekking, adventuresports, spas and shopping.”

Recently, adult lifestyle portalKinkpin tied up with world-famousparty organisers, Bangkok BachelorParty Pvt, partner in Hangover 2movie. Reetinder Singh, director-founder of Kinkpin, feels that there isa void in this industry. “Even withBangkok Bachelor, the best in business,mails and phone calls could not sub-stitute personal attention. Through ourcollaboration, we can organise theThailand trips from here itself, leavingno room for doubt for the clients,” hesays. They take care of all the activitiesduring the trip. Reetinder explains:“Bachelor parties are not just beer par-ties anymore. During the day, theclients participate in various fun andadventure activities, tuned and cus-

tomised to their budget like sky diving,flyboard, artificial wave surfing, etc.Parties usually happen at night. Ourmain clientele is from metros but weare seeing regular demands from tier2 cities as well.”

For those with a desire to be closeto nature, camping is a great option.There are many companies that organ-ise weekend camping getaways forsmall groups. Big Red Tent is one suchcompany that has camping trips aroundMumbai. They say: “Camping activitiesare definitely coming up with a lot morepeople opting for it. People want to dooffbeat things like star-gazing in nature,barbeques in the open, trekking. Wecharge about �2,000 per person for anovernight stay.”

A great trip for a bachelors’ wouldbe to go ‘glamping’, says Wed MeGood, one of the biggest wedding plan-ning portals in India. Glamping basi-cally stands for glamorous camping. Ifyou and your friends are not ready to

face the ravages of nature but still wantto go camping, this is the way to go.Ayushman Singh, assistant manager,Shakti Voyages, says: “We pitch our lux-ury camps in offbeat places where fewerpeople go and there are not too manyaccommodations available. These tentsare almost like hotel rooms with air con-ditioning, running hot and cold water.We have these campsites around fairsand festivals, like the Pushkar camel fair,Hornbill festival in north-east.”

Ayushi says: “The concept of tripsis definitely an evolving trend.However, currently it is a 50-50 sce-nario and is relative to the amount offree time people can make given thehectic life they already lead.” Reetinderadds that “travelling is gaining impor-tance, which means more people areeager to explore new destinations.These parties are getting more popu-lar as urban youth is getting western-ised and travelling abroad has becomeeconomical.”

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� What drew you to this pro-ject?

First, was the prospect ofworking with Alejandro GIñárritu. He’s a great visionary,and there are very few film-makers like him who can makea poetic, existential epic piece.Here, you have a linear storywhich is somewhat of a campfirelegend of American history: TheAmerican survivalist, the furtrapper, the mountain manmauled by a bear, then travellinghundreds of miles through theharshest conditions, driven byinstinct. But through Alejandro’seyes it became something muchmore than that. It tells a story oftriumph, of the human spirit andwhat it is to overcome massiveobstacles. It became less of arevenge story, it is much moreprofound than that.�Was that always the ambition— to make it less linear andmore… ‘poetic?

Yes, that was the intentionfor this film. To achieve this, wesubmerged ourselves in these ele-ments and had to plan accord-ingly for what was going tohappen. To bring the film to life,we worked for months to preparefor and execute well-choreo-graphed shots. We learnt every-thing we could about the timeperiod — reading as much as wecould — but at the end of the day,nature consumed all of it. Whenpeople see this movie they’regoing to feel submerged in a

completely different world and adifficult time in history. � Tell us about Hugh Glass.

This film is based on thetrue story of Hugh Glass as heleads this fur trapping unitthrough the wilderness or ratherits remaining survivors becausea Native American tribe, theArikara, attacked their basecamp and killed many of itsmembers. Along the way hewent out scouting and cameacross two bear cubs and ends upmauled by a fully-grown moth-er grizzly bear. Nearly dead, hebecomes isolated from his group.� The bear mauling sequenceis being described as incredi-ble...

This scene is one of the mostincredible cinematic experiencesthe audiences will ever have. Itwas a difficult and arduoussequence to put together, but itended up as profoundly movingbecause of Alejandro’s ability toput the audience in the middleof the scene. They will practicallyfeel the breath of the bear. It real-ly takes your breath away. � The period the film is set inis not particularly well-docu-mented. That must have creat-ed challenges.

That’s right. Making thisfilm was almost like making ascience fiction movie becausethere was little historical infor-mation to work with. Not onlydo cinema audiences not knowmuch about this time period,

expert historians don’teither. This is reallybecause America hadn’tbecome America. Thisregion was a wilderness atthat time. The fur tradewas before the gold rush,before the oil rush, itwas the first bit ofnature that couldbe extracted andexported toEurope.� How did youresearch theperiod?

Much ofour researchwas doneusing the actu-al journals ofthe fur trap-pers of thetime, becausethere were nonovels, nowriters orjournalists goinginto this wilderness.We had to createthis world.� The film is veryimmersive, reallymaking you feellike you are there— is it fair to saythat was one ofthe big ambi-tions of the film?

Definitely.For example,it was filmed

in natural light. We rehearsedmost of the day and thenshot during the few hoursof natural light we had. Ifyou think of BarryLyndonor films like that,those were done in nat-

ural light or by can-dlelight. This

took it evenfurther: Therewas no light atall! I think thatChivo (cine-matographerEmmanuelLubezki) andA l e j a n d r o

pulled off epicintimacy.� Tell us a little

about workingwith Alejandro.

He is a geniusof filmmaking.

What I love abouthis approach is that

he’s an old-school film-maker and an outsider.He’s within and without.While he’s been withinthe industry, he’s beeninfluenced by an entirelifetime of studying

cinematic history andother great masters and

he really wants to makehis own mark in film his-tory. He’s developed hisown approach and a stylefor making movies overthe years — a style that has

become synonymous with himnow.� Was it a tough shoot?

Yes, we all worked incredi-bly hard. The entire crew dealtwith extreme circumstances.Whether it was constant extremeweather, or cameras not workingbecause it was 40 degrees belowzero, or the snow melting inunprecedented warming periodbecause of climate change in theterritory causing the entire land-scape to go dry and barrenwithin five hours. At one point,we shut down for weeks.Everyone involved was com-mitted to this movie.� Is it difficult as an actor toconvey your thoughts and emo-tions without being able tospeak?

It was challenging. This filmhad a completely different way ofdoing things. I had to have all ofthe same thoughts and motiva-tions as I would playing a char-acter with more of dialogue thatexpresses what they’re feeling.We went through this screenplayand looked at each particularmoment and what Glass wasgoing through. The wholeprocess of survival was one thatwe explored in great detail.� The locations appears to bea key factor in creating the film’sfeeling of authenticity.

Alejandro wanted to find thelast untouched forest land thatGlass experienced, which for uswas up in Canada. A lot of the

forests there still remain. A lot ofthe rivers still remain. But manyof these locations were incredi-bly difficult to get to. We had alarge crew, which had to movewith us. It took a tremendousamount of scouting beforehandon Alejandro’s part to find eachparticular shot. He really want-ed to make the film like animmersive painting.� Did you ever have timeswhere you thought, ‘Man, I did-n’t know it was going to be thishard’?

Absolutely. I don’t thinkanyone could have predictedthe challenges that this moviegave us. It threw at us every pos-sible challenge you could imag-ine. But the great thing aboutmaking movies is what you’redocumenting struggle and you’redocumenting all the things thatyou went through in making it.To me, this is the closest thingI’ve ever done to a documentaryeven with CGI elements in themovie.� Is it true that you had to kindof go to boot camp and learnnew skills?

I had to learn survival skillsand there was a lot of detailembedded in the script. Weworked with specialists to learnabout the muskets we used,which take a minute to reload.And the bear fur I had to wear.I learned how to start fires usingthe elements, how to eat, or howto survive cold temperatures.

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turn, thebanks which

need to grow,some estimates

call for an $35 bil-lion infusion, will begin to lend

robustly once again. The indications are that Prime Minister

Narendra Modi is set on continuing with alargely mixed economy rather than aThatcherite privatisation drive. The endeavourwill be to strengthen both the private and publicsectors at the same time. The Government doeswant to dilute its holding in many enterprises,but only in order to help it grow under moreefficient management.

This centrist stance is inevitable for themoment, particularly since infrastructure devel-opment in roads and ports etc and the upgrad-ing of the railways has had to be kickstartedwith Government investment. This, eventhough private and foreign funding is welcomeand expected to join in shortly.

The key change, however, is that no area isbeing reserved exclusively for the Governmentanymore. There are no ‘commanding heights’ ofthe economy to be exclusively state-owned,whether it is defence, nuclear power, roads,ports, electricity, solar energy, services, e-com-merce, digital India, Smart Cities, and so on.

This is clear from a large number ofannouncements, but most recently, the long-awaited US howitzers, that will shortly com-mence manufacturing partly in India in collabo-ration with the Mahindra Group.

Almost all manufacturing sectors are now open to foreign and private sector invest-ment. Even health and education sectors are being opened up, though the necessaryemphasis is still missing.

In rural India, there must be radical change tomake it profitable. So much is on the anvil,including modern storage and grain handling, thecold chain, modern marketing/auctioning/pricediscovery infrastructure, food processing, alter-nate energy sources, rural connectivity/infra-structure, both physical and IT, and so on. All ofit seeks private/foreign investment/know-how.

This Government is not embarrassed toadmit that it cannot generate the trillions ofdollars, and access the technology needed for allthis by itself. But it doesn’t want progress to begreatly slowed or stopped as a consequence.

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s thirdBudget, to be tabled on the ‘leapling’February 29, 2016, evokes great expecta-tions. It is a time of tremendous opportu-nity, but also an overhang of unfulfilled

promises. What are the discernible trends at thistime? In the context of a rather charged politicalbackdrop, this Budget needs to be a watershed thatwill be spoken of in future for its shift towards araft of substantial second-generation reforms.

2016 must be remembered, as we often recall1991, as the year when the foundations of a developedIndia were put in place. This Budget should — as amoney Bill that cannot be blocked or stymied underthe Constitution — be made to serve as a vehicle for aplethora of urgent pending legislation. These could bereworked to its barebones, reduced to its financialparameters, and be inserted into this document.

Two expensive Parliamentary Sessions havebeen wasted so far, and this one, coming up, is alsoexpected to fail. But the Budget will be passedbecause it sanctions monies for the running ofParliament itself, and the provisioning of the legis-lator salaries and perquisites as well.

So the Union Budget 2016 should become thefirst one in our history that carries legislative loadin its pages, alongside changes in taxation provi-sions, and allocations of monies for various purpos-es. Rajya Sabha cannot stop or hold up a designatedmoney Bill for more than 14 days.

The economy does have some sunny spots,though most of the initiatives taken by thisGovernment have yet to show results. A key block isthat the investment cycle in private business andindustry has not yet begun. Demand is still soft andcredit is both expensive and very hard to come by.

However, the FDI picture is rosy, and particu-larly in defence manufacturing, the IndianRailways, and selected infrastructure projects, it isexpected to go through the roof by the GeneralElections year 2019.

Growing its GDP between 7.3 and 7.6 per centon the revised calculation basis at the moment isnot bad. But this is mainly on the back of theGovernment’s own infrastructure spending.

India has had a bonanza of over �2 lakh crore,gained from its reduced oil bill. And more comingup, with prices unlikely to spike anytime soon. Thissaving is being redeployed even though there arehefty unpaid subsidy backlogs from UPA times.

The prompt doing away with the subsidy onpetrol/aviation fuel and diesel has probably beenthis Government’s boldest, and only, major reformso far. And though the subsidy on kerosene andLPG continues, there have been voluntary surren-ders for the latter in response to the PrimeMinister’s appeal.

Many other subsidies and welfare programmes,particularly for rural India initiated by the UPA,which this Government has decided to carry for-ward and even enhance, have to be funded. Thismay not be the best thing in classic economics, butthe Government has an obligation to help the poor.

Luckily there are some other initiatives that havecontributed to Government coffers. The very suc-cessful round one of spectrum auctions garnered ahandsome �1.1 lakh crore. Coal mining — practical-ly dead and buried under the UPA — has beenrevived. The public sector Coal India is functioningwell again, but modernisation of the miningprocesses is yet to happen. Imports have been dras-

tically cut, and a sav-ing of some �30,000crore is expected inFY16. Coal auctionshave given the privatesector access to the min-eral, even though theGovernment is no longer giv-ing it away for nothing.

Iron ore mining in Goa hasbeen revived, and this has restoreda source of revenue there in additionto tourism and rampant construc-tion. But other much larger mininginitiatives in Odisha and elsewhere arestuck for want of various clearances, andland. When and if this is tackled it couldadd substantially to growth. Power genera-tion, transmission and distribution systems havebeen improved and alternate energy sources, suchas solar power, are being seriously tapped.

The Government’s disinvestment target of�69,500 crore from last year has been under-achieved at �37,000 crore, despite a volatile stockmarket. The collection of direct and indirect taxesis going well enough and is expected to end fiscalyear 2015 very near target. Around 66 per cent ofit has already been collected by December 2015.

Though not exactly stellar, almost 460,000 newjobs were created by December 2014. These werein industry and services, according to theGovernment’s own labour bureau surveys. Another64,000 new jobs were added by March 2015; sopresumably the end of fiscal year 2015 will see a

respectable figure too. But since 10 lakh new

entrants come into thelabour market yearly, thepromise of 100 millionjobs over the next sixyears is indeed one ofthe most pressing needs.

The outlay for floodsand drought compensation

has gone up sharply, froman earlier average of �8,000-9,000 crore to over �24,000crore, even as only 30 percent of crop destruction was

compensated. And these natur-al disasters, in the absence of

adequate engineered solutions, haveset the entire rural sector back, both in

per capita income and overall contribu-tion to growth terms.

While torrents of gratuitous advice and wishlists from business, industry, chambers of com-merce, bankers, politicians, and columnists hascome in, the broad future direction seems to havebeen already set. The Finance Minister willemphasise and dwell on the upliftment of ruralIndia, which is in distress.

PSU banks — under-capitalised, burdenedwith NPAs — are being cleaned up, presumablywith an intent to sell up to 49 per cent of theirequity to foreign investors and privates. This will,if accomplished, see them adopt best practices,improve their performance and profitability. In

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But bringing manufacturingto India for items that werebought out from abroad

will have a very welcome effecton GDP growth going forward.Results should begin to showfrom this year.

The skilling development tocome will be a natural corollaryand export potential of trulyhigh-value and high-technologyitems will extend the evidentearly success of ISRO in the busi-ness of launching foreign satel-lites, for example.

However, the bold structuralreforms must begin now. Theimportant pending legislation —GST, labour, land, bankruptcylaws etc — must find theirreworked way into money Bills.Some States have already passedtheir own new land acquisitionlaws, but more of them need totake the plunge.

This Union Budget will alsofollow on from a far more dynam-ic Railway Budget that has beenthe case in recent years. The deter-mination is to both vastly mod-ernise the Railways and return itto substantial profitability. Work

on freight corridors is proceedingapace and should provide a rev-enue boost when completed.

The Economic Survey to fol-low the Railway Budget is expect-ed to be cautiously optimistic. Atthis juncture, India’s is the fastestgrowing economy in the world,albeit on a small $2 trillion base.

The consumption-led boostexpected from the implementationof the OROP and 7th PayCommission awards will also playits part in increasing liquidity.

The three per cent or less ofour population that pays incometaxes may get some relief in termsof a raised exemption threshold.But Tax Deducted at Source(TDS) and other onerous taxes,such as service tax, should reallybe thrown over. Instead, the muchtalked about minimal expendituretax payable by all who conduct abank transaction above a certainspecified limit should be intro-duced forthwith.

In any case, the Governmentcollects most of its tax indirectly,but all efforts to widen theincome tax base have not reallydone much. So, this need for a

more or less universal directexpenditure tax is urgent.

Whatever be the hesitations,this Budget must seize the day. Itneeds to boldly point towards thepolicies of an NDA-ruled future.

It cannot afford to be a rehash, acut-and-paste job of timid andincremental UPA ideas for whichthis Government has been muchmocked already.

It must excite enthusiasm and

renewed support from all sec-tions, including overseasobservers. It must set policy andstructural direction for the nextthree years and beyond.

Let us proceed with the belief

that the NDA will secure a secondterm. Looking at the voters, this isa strong likelihood, based on thestubborn and substantial supportfor Prime Minister Modi in par-ticular. The BJP/NDA vote sharetoo has not slipped despite twoyears in the saddle and the griev-ous loss in Delhi and BiharAssembly Elections.

The Opposition, meanwhile, isincreasingly painting itself into acorner. It blocks legislation inParliament, makes offensiveremarks against the PrimeMinister, and wild, half-baked alle-gations against other importantMinisters and Chief Ministers.

It speaks against Modi andhis Government sitting inPakistan! It threatens to unleashanarchy on the streets as if thiscountry and its welfare is noneof its concern. This, in additionto supporting anti-national,secessionist and subversiveforces, along with the AAP, andthe Left in particular, often tothe discomfiture of otherregional parties.

All this is not going downwell with the masses, the armed

forces, police, CRPF, BSF beinginsulted by the Opposition’s dis-dain for their contributions, agood part of silent majority, theoutraged legal fraternity. Evenwithin itself, this lot is fractious,with uneasy and multiple partiestrying to rub together in theircraven quest for power.

There are discernible earlytrends towards a disgust with peo-ple that don’t even baulk at theprospect of consorting with theKhalistanis, Maoists, Kashmiriseparatists, ISIS, various Pakistaniterrorist outfits such as LeT, JeM,the Taliban, and others.

The mass of voters, now moreor less evenly split between urbanand rural India, are not comfort-able with secessionists and terror-ist helpers. Recent results fromAssembly byelections in differentparts of the country had the BJPwinning seven out of the 12 seatscontested.

A great opportunity to consol-idate its position with a bold andfar reaching Budget, handed to itby Opposition extremism, shouldnot therefore be squandered bythe NDA at this point.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Indiahas become a far more aggres-sive company of late; at therecently concluded Auto Expothey were the only carmaker to

launch a major new brand in Jeep andeven Fiat’s car line-up has been given amakeover. Heading the makeover list isFiat’s performance brand Abarth, sig-nified with a stylised Scorpion logo.

While the Abarth ranges exclama-tion point is given by the Abarth 595,the souped up Fiat 500, the big, bold textcomes from a car a third of the price.The Abarth Punto. Make no mistakes,getting a car under �10 lakh (just by asmidgen, ex-showroom) with 145horsepower is unheard of in India.

In a country obsessed with “kitnadeti hai?” the Punto Abarth is the carthat answers “**** it!” and walks outof the examination hall. There is notmuch to separate most 1,200cc petrol-engined hatchbacks in India; they allhave around 80-85 horsepower, they allhave great fuel economy and they, forthe most part, are all boring, yet effi-cient to drive.

Maybe because FCA India decidedthey would bring in a performancehatchback, so ignored the excise ben-efits of a smaller engine because I wouldlike to believe they realised the plainjane Punto was not setting the salescharts on fire, they went on this extremeroute. And what a route!

Once you do manage to hook upyour mobile phone to the PuntoAbarth’s bluetooth system — which iseasier said than done — downloadAC/DC’s Thunderstruck because this isthe Abarth’s soundtrack.

The system is by default set toincrease volume as the speed goes up;many car audio systems are set up thisway, but rarely does the volume go upso many decibels. You sense thespeed you have suddenly acceleratedto as the crashing drums and AngusYoung’s guitar riffs hit a maddeningand loud crescendo and you sudden-ly realise that you are going very, very fast.

Small cars in India, well, affordablesmall cars in India, are not supposedto perform like this, they are not sup-posed to accelerate like a rocket andhandle the speed so well, the steeringis delightfully weighted for instance.Your first reaction when you drive thiscar is simple, “This car costs below �10lakh? No way!” But it does, yet it faith-

fully wears the Abarth Scorpion on thesteering wheel.

If power is your thing and you areon a tight budget — keep in mind youdo not get similar levels of power in anyother small car or even mid-level sedanin India — there is no better buy. Yet,when you take your heart out of theequation and start thinking with yourhead, things become a bit different.While Fiat is now offering a three-yearall-in service package, its reputationamong Indian car buyers has not recov-ered in over a decade. Fiat’s still depre-ciate like a brick thrown off a building.

And there are other small issues;when you stop thinking about just howamazingly fast this little car can go, andthe fact that in its black paint with thered racing stripes, it is a headturner, youremember that the seating position isa bit odd. And that the music system isnot that great. And did I tell you aboutthe depreciation? Yes, we did, butremember when I said this car tore upthe answer sheet when asked about fueleconomy because it is not a prettyanswer in the real world. Thank godthat crude prices are at such lows.

But sometimes you do not buy a carwith your head though. You buy a carbecause it gives you, what James Maycalls that “fizz in your pants”. ThePunto Abarth certainly gives you thatfizz. In a country bereft of affordable hothatchbacks, this is a statement. And wehope this makes other carmakers realisethat while people requiring this fizz arefew in number, they are the alphas of thecarbuying world. You do not buy this carfor value or economy or anything likethat, you buy this car for fun!

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Often when we host a dinner orlunch, it is cumbersome to have somany dishes, plates, spoons and

glasses to get dirty in one go and pile upin the kitchen sink to scrub off, dry andput into the cupboards. Hosting a partyfor friends and family members, kids andtheir friends or any occasion you want tocelebrate by inviting people over can bequite a task especially when you think ofhaving a theme.

The current trend that is surely a bless-ing for every individual is the rise of e-com-merce world in the party supplies zone: fun-cart.in, whysoserious.co.in, thecrazyme.com,partyinabox.co.in, to name a few. Yes par-ents who have been pestered by their chil-dren to host theme birthday parties, everybride-to-be who wants a fun bachelorette,every groom who is planning on having abachelor party for the boys, party suppliesstore is an answer to all their prayers. Hereare a few benefits of ordering party sup-plies online, rather than hunting for themin random stores and tiring yourself out.

Time saving: Ordering party supplies, beit paper plates to paper napkins, balloonsto streamers, glasses to fork and knifes, theonline store for party lovers is a one-stopshop for every party need and makes sureyou do not waste your time sourcing stufffrom different vendors. One can spendmore time cooking and preparing deliciousdishes for the menu rather than wastingtime on running pillar to post for caps,buntings and other party accessories.

Quality and quantity: Online party sup-pliers give the highest quality and do notrefrain from giving out items in huge quan-tity, so at times if you are worried how youwould source the same themed napkins,plates, forks, spoons, cups, streamers etc alltogether for a large gathering, do not hes-itate and log on to an online site and easeall your worries.

Affordability: Every party supply has vari-ations and varieties in terms of prices; onlineparty suppliers cater to every pocket andmostly make sure none of the party propsare overpriced, thus making a customerregret having planned a theme party in the

first place. Online party suppliers are morethan keen to make a party a success and takethe initiative to bring out stuff that is bestin quality and high on affordability.

Exclusivity: Online party suppliers aim tobring out the best in the market and mostof the times stock unique themes to keepup with the party culture, be it for new car-toon character themes for kids, age appro-priate themes for grown-ups, fun elementsto bring out a fresh mood to boring partygames and a lot more. For instance, unlikecommon plastic glasses, online party sup-plies have options of coloured glasses, LEDglasses, tall and small glasses, etc. There isa wide range for customers to choose from,and not once would a party lover leave thewebsite without finding his/her themerelated items in abundance.

Convenience: Apart from the fact thatthese e-commerce enterprises are the eas-iest way to finding party items, they aresimply a click away and goods orderedreach right at your doorstep without anyhassle of driving around the entire citylooking for party props, getting stuck inparking areas and then finally reaching theshop and haggling on items since theyclaim supplies are exclusive even when theyare of inferior quality.

Fun element: Online party supply storesdo not cater to one set of items, rather theyline up an array or articles so that a partycan turn out to be a complete success. Theyeven suggest party games that are ice-breakers for any social event and helpguests bond, creating a fun day or night cel-ebration. From floating lights to photobooth banners, drinking games to attireaccessories that match your theme, onlineparty suppliers are flooding consumerswith ideas they had never thought of before.

It is the right time now that you plana party and pick a theme from the numer-ous listed themes on an online party sup-plier’s website since no one spells ‘party’better than the current Indian party sup-pliers. Now is the time to celebrate everyoccasion big or small, for every theme isworth celebrating.

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Tulsi Badrinath’s editedcollection of her latefather Chaturvedi

Badrinath’s essays encapsulatesa range of everyday themes ina most refreshing and thoughtprovoking manner. Rangingfrom those of good governanceand justice to sexual, personaland social health, the essayssimplify the seemingly loftypreachings of the Mahabharataand the religions of Jainism,Hinduism, and Islam. The sim-ple and interesting use of lan-guage to elucidate on issues oftruth, dharma, and individuals’freedoms and rights amongothers appeals to the lay read-er. The essays also draw uponthe works of some eminentWestern thinkers such asRonald Dworkin and HLAHart. Dworkin was a JewishAmerican philosopher whoworked on American constitu-tional laws and Hart was awell known British legalphilosopher. Awarded theSahitya Akademi Award forhis The Mahabharata:AnInquiry in the HumanCondition, Badrinath usesnumerous anecdotes from theepic and uses them to exploreand interpret today’s issues.

In the present collection ofessays as well as in his awardwinning book, the writer hasshowed how the concerns dealtwith in the epic are pertinenttill today. Picking up ideas fromthe epic and the aforemen-tioned religious ideologies, heapplies them to the contempo-rary status quo and offers solu-tions with fresh perspectives. Inthe process, he also opens upthe Mahabharata and the reli-gion from their cocoonedunderstanding into what isimmediate as well as mundane.

Not only do the essays offera much needed windowtowards the solutions for thediconcerting and issues of ourtimes but they also take theinterested reader closer to thepast so as to widen his knowl-edge of the religious philoso-phies as well as to come up withhis own interpretations.

The writer, undoubtedly,seems extremely well-versedwith the epics and religions

and exhibits skill in connectingthese with the present materi-alistic/industrialist society.With great stress on dharmaand right ways of doing things,a subtle cynicism for the globalmarket and its emphasis onmoney relations is also dis-cernible. In the opening essayof the book, Towards a Worldof Freedom, Badrinath statesthat what the global marketfalsely promises, that is, thetwin assurances of happinessand truth, are actually com-pletely absent from its system.But he also states that com-pletely freeing oneself from thecurrent materialistic circles isneither possible nor called for.The way to create harmonybetween our inner peace andthe mad race of the world is tobe found by turning towardsthe religious past and its archa-ic religious/philosophicalschools of thought.

What keeps one engaged inthe narrative is the techniqueused by the essayist in puttingtogether the contents of eachchapter. He intelligently choos-es the central theme, title andthe sequence of each essay.Each of them puts across thepoint in a concise manner with-out overflowing into a numberof pages, and consequently notlosing its essence. He usesample examples used from bothIndian as well as Westernthought systems and that addsto the refined writing style ofthe essayist. The essays putacross in strong terms thewriter’s belief that the teachingsof the epics and of the differentschools of thought — both ofour homeland as well as of theWest — are enriched withunending worth for man if only

the latter could seek deeperinto oneself with a true inten-tion of their application.

Viewing a religious sys-tem only as a means of wor-shipping God to win hisfavours is a hazardous andillogical exercise. Religions ofour country are much morethan that; they are guides forenabling a healthier and har-monious life and also serve asrule books for social andpolitical agendas. The essaysbring out the essence of dif-ferent religious schools whileelaborating on specific con-cepts and ideas. The appeal tothe readers in turn getsamplified by the simple yethitting discussions of the cho-sen topics. One such idea thatresonates throughout thework is of dharma, a Sanskritterm the writer defines as

‘foundation’. He elaborates ondharma by picking up instancesfrom the Mahabharata and theArthashastra.

Even before the institutionsof the state, kingdom or theking appeared, dharma hasserved as the foundation ofrelationships in the society. Notto be understood solely asbelief in a personal godhead,the concept serves as anumbrella term defining one’sright conduct vis-à-vis his/herstation in life. Consideringboth to be of equal worth, thewriter states the true dharma ofthe State/King and also of thecitizens those who make up thesociety. If it falls on the formerto be intelligent and free fromarrogance and partiality, it isenjoined on the latter to havefaith in the powers and judg-ment of the former. The two

being in sync only can create aharmonious space where bothexist and flourish together.

The collection of essaystriggers the readers to indulgein introspection. It forces us torevisit our notions of right andwrong, of what we consider fairand how far our actions actuallybenefit us. In a time when basichuman sensibilities are break-ing down in the face of cut-throat competition in everysphere, the essays connect us tothe aged but valid lessons froman epic and religious systems,forcing us to rethink and lookinto ourselves. The Jain philos-ophy of aparigraha, translatedas ‘not-grasping’ by the essayistis something which is connect-ed to all of us in this day. Farfrom discouraging you to enjoythe materialistic things you canhave from your hard earnedmoney, the concept actuallyapplies to the non-materialisticthings in life. Often due to ourstrong financial/social standingwe tend to exhibit a superioror overpowering attitudetowards our relationships.Treating people as commodi-ties and trying to control oroverpower them is what weneed to disengage from.

What makes the book anespecially interesting reading isthat it does not come across asa lesson or a preaching. On theother hand, it appears extreme-ly informative but withoutbeing too burdensome. There isa certain level of curiosity tomove on to the nextchapter/essay to see how theessayist has dealt with anotherimportant concept.

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Jhumpa Lahiri’s books are alwaysawaited with unparalleled excite-ment. After all, when she wroteher first book, a collection ofshort stories (The Interpreter ofMaladies), she won the Pulitzer

prize for it; her second collection of sto-ries (Unaccustomed Earth) was the No 1at the The New York Times Best SellerList. The novel she wrote (TheNamesake) was adapted into a muchcritically acclaimed Hollywood film byMira Nair. The one that followed it (TheLowland) went a step ahead and gotnominated for the Man Booker prize.Not that I hold awards as markers ofcredibility, but it goes without sayingthat Lahiri is certainly one of the mostloved living authors of our time. Even anon-reader is aware of her works. Iremember when I had interviewedKhaled Hosseini, he had said that hereads everything that she writes. Soimagine the curiosity and hype that herfirst non-fiction, almost a memoir ofsorts — written by her in Italian andtranslated into English by AnnGoldstein — can generate.

In other Words, or In Altre Parole, isa chronicle of her engagement withItalian and her metamorphosis as aRoman inhabitant. In short, it is her“linguistic autobiography” about thetime she left her country — the US —to find her home, in Rome. Lahirimoved to Rome from Brooklyn withher husband Alberto Vourvoulias andtheir two children, Octavio and Nooralmost four years back in a deliberatedecision to break away from the redun-dancy of her daily life and find a senseof belonging, presumably in literaryanonymity. Having been to Florence inher earlier years, been an avid reader ofRoman mythologies and done her PhDin Renaissance Studies, she gravitatedtowards Italy, which became her home.She moved back to the US to be amember of faculty in the Lewis Centerfor the Art’s Program in CreativeWriting at Princeton University inSeptember 2015, but had mentioned ina previous interview that she wouldlike to go back to Italy some day.Although it would be overambitious tocall this book her autobiography, thereaders do get a substantial glimpseinto her mind and the struggles in herItalian life.

She leads her readers to her jour-nal of thoughts that she writes inItalian and her struggles with it: “Igather beautiful words that have noexact equivalents in English (formico-lare, chiarore: To move in a confusedfashion, like ants, and also to have

pins and needles; shaft of light). Igather countless adjectives (malmesso,plumbeo, impiastricciate: Shabby, lead-en, smeared) to describe thousands ofsituations. I gather countless nounsand adverbs that I will never use.

At the end of the day the basket is

heavy, overflowing. I feel loadeddown, wealthy in high spirits”.Perhaps, that is why she also confessesthat she finds herself unworthy ofreceiving the Pulitzer Prize for Fictionand that she has been longing for anew direction in writing.

What heightens the essence of thebook is that identity ruptures, immi-gration, an absence of inheritedbelonging, echo through Lahiri’s life.

Growing up in the US, her parentswanted her to have an ‘Indianupbringing’ whereas her Indian name,Nilanjana Sudeshna Lahiri was tooforeign for her teacher to pronounceand hence it was reduced to her nickname, Jhumpa. Displacement has beena consistent theme in her works andso, In Other Words, is no exception.

Amidst her essays, it also containstwo short fictions. Not surprisingly,both share a theme of reality and illu-sion, or rather, belonging and dis-placement, in an attempt to find whatis one’s own.

In the spirit of constructive criti-cism, the book is just 200 pages longbut it does not quite succeed inavoiding redundancy. At certainpoints, it not only becomes pre-dictable but also underlines what shehas already effectively narrated in theprevious chapters. More anecdotesfrom her Roman life would havedoubled the delight, one would sug-gest. Also, readers would certainlyfind new themes and perspectivesfrom her delightful and refreshing.More often, Lahiri is confined to heroft repeated motifs of displacement,deracination, and identity crisis.

Nonetheless, her flair for wordsand charming metaphors make up forthe occasional hiccups.

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Popular memory is remarkablyshort in this blessed land ofours. Ours is a nation that has

a poor sense of history. In this ageof TRP-driven, news telly-deter-mined 24-hour news cycle, publicmemory has been rendered shorter,our sense of history has becomenear non-existent. What is peddledas truth today could be proveduntrue tomorrow and made to dis-appear from public discourse theday after, but none would recall thedefacement a week later. A monthis a long time, a year longer, adecade is an era and a couple ofdecades is like predating the arrivalof humankind.

Our Left-liberal eminent intel-lectuals, our agenda-burdened jour-nalists, our vote-seeking politicians,make full use of this reality ofIndia. They gloss over facts that donot fit into their predeterminednarratives, they take recourse toglib talk and charming phrases thathide more than they reveal, theyshift goalposts and sneer at thosewho point out that every text has acontext. ‘Whataboutery’ is the newcussword that has been bred in theCommentariat’s laboratory ofdeceit. Our easily excitable chatter-ing classes and our unwashed mass-es are thus badgered into sub-servient acceptance of bunk as wis-dom, fiction as fact.

This past week has witnessednotables holding forth on thevirtues of tolerance, alternativereadings and free speech on cam-puses. We have heard highfalutinlectures on the many meanings ofnationalism, of the true meaning of

patriotism, and a vigorous defenceof subversion of all that is sacred tothis nation and define its identityby teachers and students kept inclover by toiling taxpayers. Academic mumbo-jumbo, politicalsubterfuge and more have beenmarshalled by those who believethat the “mere echo of slogans” can-not shake, leave alone hurt, India.Who is to tell them the terribleprice India has paid on account ofslogans? Sure, “Azadi” is merely aslogan. But even the most casual,passing glance at the terrifying sta-tistics of death and loss in KashmirValley will reveal the hideous con-sequences of this slogan.

We heard Prof Sugata Bose’slofty enunciation of what toleranceis all about, what academic freedommeans, what campuses should belike with no external interference,least of all by the ruling dispensationof the day. We saw MPs congratulat-ing him, of desks being thumped inapproval. The Harvard don was nodoubt mighty pleased with himself.He had reason to be. None botheredto point out to him, and his gaggleof admirers among MPs and media-persons, that he had just demon-strated his limitless hypocrisy.

There was not even a whimperof protest, not a single voice callinghim out. Here was a Trinamool MPlecturing others in Parliament whilehis party thugs brutally thrashedstudents at Burdwan University inWest Bengal. Male and female stu-dents were dragged out from theirrooms and pulped. Nobody pointedout to him how TMC goons hadtrashed the historic Baker

Laboratory in Presidency Collegeand his party leadership had stoutlydefended the vandals. No voice washeard reminding him of the violenceunleashed by TMC student leadersacross campuses, how a policemanwas shot dead. The list is manytimes longer than the speech hegave, painting himself and his partyas a class above others, placing him-self and his party on a high pedestal.

We heard CPI(M) MP andGeneral Secretary Sitaram Yechury,the chief commissar, wax eloquenton why the Union Governmentmust have no say, nor interfere, inthe affairs of the Central universi-ties it funds. We heard him mouthpious cliches, we saw him fakemoral outrage. But none called himout. Nobody among the MPs daredmention the ruination broughtabout in schools, colleges and uni-versities under the CPI(M)’s tute-lage when the Left Front was inpower in West Bengal from 1977 to2011. Only those who were card-carrying members of the Partycould find jobs as teachers. Onlythose who were members of the SFIand DYFI could speak freely. TheHarmat ruled campuses.

Mr Yechury could have beenpushed on the backfoot and evenbrought tumbling down from thehigh horse on which he roderoughshod over the Government byciting three specific instances ofMarxist thuggery. The crude man-ner in which the Party tried tobludgeon Santosh Bhattacharya,Vice Chancellor of Calcutta Univer-sity, into submission after he resist-ed the Reds was not even men-

tioned by the Treasury Benches.Bhattacharya’s travails at the handsof his Marxist tormentors was in1984-87. That was not too far ago.No whisper was heard of how theRamakrishna Mission went to courtseeking minority status to save itsschools and colleges from Marxistmarauders. No mention was heardof the bloody, brutal crackdown onprotesting students at JadavpurUniversity in 2005.

Such then is the hypocrisy anddeceit of those who have closed ranksto defend JNU’s malcontent. Suchthen too is the counterstrike capabili-ty of those in power and who wouldlike us to believe that they want toclean up campuses. It was HumanResource Development MinisterSmriti Irani’s job to give a point-by-point rebuttal on the HyderabadCentral University and JawaharlalNehru University events. She made aspectacular speech and tore the nar-rative of calumny to bits. But nothingprevented her colleagues fromlaunching an all out attack, nothingstopped them from carpet bombingthe hypocrites and the deceitful. Yetthey failed to do so. Random sniperfire is all we saw and heard.

Modi Sarkar has two choices. Itcan either be willing to wound butafraid to strike, or be willing tostrike and unafraid to wound.There is no halfway house whenideologies clash in the guise of stu-dent politics and campus shenani-gans. Sadly, few if any on the BJP’sside of the fence realise this point.A pity, indeed...

(The writer is a current affairsanalyst based in NCR)

��������������� �������������������� ���Reader response to Swapan Dasgupta’s column,Usual Suspects, published onFebruary 21:

Punish guilty: As long as wehave anti-nationals who talkabout ‘Bharat ki barbadi’, weshould have a sedition law topunish them.

Jitendra

Political tactic: Whether thesedition law should bereviewed or scrapped, is amatter of debate. But to takecomfort in the possibilitythat the Modi Governmentwas hasty or premature intaking action against anti-nationals, is false and moti-vated. This is the problem ofthe Congress-Left camp.

After all, it is impossiblefor any Government of theday to look the other way

when such things happen. Not surprisingly, it is

when the scoring of politicalbrownie points started thatall the trouble began.

Subramanian

Constitutional validity: Itdefies logic as to how sloganslike ‘Bandook se lenge azadi’,‘Bharat ki barbadi tak, jungrahegi’ and blood-curdlingcalls for Kashmir’s secessionand India’s dismemberment,can be seen as an expressionof dissent, not sedition.

The anti-nationaldemonstrations at JawaharlalNehru University also result-ed in public disorder, as waswitnessed in the scufflebetween lawyers and slogan-shouters at the Patiala Housecourt a few days later.

In case after case, Indiancourts have upheld the con-stitutional validity of Section124A, even as they ensured

that the provisions are notmisused by the Governmentto victimise individuals.

Ajay Tyagi

Intellectual goons: Noteverything in the world isinspired by love for money.The Congress-Left allianceand their intellectual goondaelements do not hate PrimeMinister Narendra Modibecause they don’t benefitfinancially under his rule.

Neither has the Leftmovement world over co-opted violent Islamism formonetary considerations. Anationalist Government, thattoo a working one, is an exis-tential threat to the Left.

Also, a false sense ofintellectual superiority com-bined with the frustration ofbeing unable to convince themasses, makes the Left madwith rage.

Nishant

�������� ����������������������������������������������Reader response to Kanchan Gupta’s column,Coffee Break, published onFebruary 21:

Better leave: The sloganswere not anti-Government oranti-establishment. Theywere anti-India. I will acceptfreedom of speech if it is dis-sent against the Government,but people who do not wantto be loyal to their owncountry, are free to leave.

Vikram Kumar

Maintaining discipline: Werarely see such demonstra-tions or protests in a privateinstitute because, to beadmitted to and study at aprivate institute, one has tospend astronomical sums ofmoney (for obvious reasons).

Students at Jawaharlal

Nehru University and otherpublic-funded institutionsthrive on tax payer money.Therefore, they have novalue for money and misusethe freedom of speech.

That said, it is not rightfor student unions to be con-trolled by political groups.This trend has to be undone,even if it means bringing alaw to this effect. This initself will improve disciplinewithin the campus.

Ram

Media’s role: It seems as ifthe media, instead of con-demning anti-nationalevents, is protecting andeven supporting the studentsat Jawaharlal NehruUniversity.

When the silent majorityof India can see the anti-national intent of the slo-gans, even though many citi-zens do not subscribe to

Rashtriya SwayamsevaSangh’s ideology, why is itthat, those loyal to the coun-try, are being attacked asRight-wing elements?

Shalini Mishra

Forgotten sacrifices: What’smissing here is a reference tothe supreme sacrifice madeby our brave soldiers whonot only protected our MPsbut also upheld the sanctityof Parliament, during theterror attack that Afzal Guruhad masterminded.

People are prone to for-getting or belittling the sacri-fices made by our securitypersonnel — be they fromthe police, the paramilitaryor the Army. Anti-nationalelements of all hues shouldbe identified, exposed,shamed (if they have anysense of shame at all) andpunished as per law.

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One glance backwards at2015 reminds us of howhazardous political pre-

dictions can be – it will leave inits wake a trail of shatteredassumptions, overturned con-ventions and discredited poll-sters. No one at all would havepredicted a year ago that JeremyCorbyn, or anyone like him,would today be leader of theLabour Party. Indeed, he wouldhave been astonished to hearthat himself.

The year to come must there-fore be approached with somehumility, but my thoughts onlikely events begin with that sameleadership. This will probably bethe year Mr Corbyn wishes hehadn’t stood for it, but that doesnot remotely mean he will be ableor willing to give it up.

Trapped in his position bythe vastly cumbersome rules forelecting a successor, he will lead asteadily more divided party asmoderates finally decide toorganise themselves, not merelypast their 11th hour but possibly,too late, after midnight.

Stand by for a long overdueeffort by leading Labour figureson the right to articulate an alter-native vision of what socialdemocracy means in the 21stcentury. And with it, some seri-ous resistance to their leader byLabour MPs, who decide they

will not simply go quietly into thenight. Smaller parties will findthis situation gives them manyopportunities. While the LiberalDemocrats under Tim Farronwill show few signs of recoveryfor some time, UKIP, with NigelFarage, will enjoy being the nat-ural party of protest and the oneto be feared by both main partiesin by-elections.

In spite of their own divi-sions they are likely to do well,at least until the EU referendum,which, whatever the outcome, isa mortal threat to their exis-tence. The Nationalists, underNicola Sturgeon, will go into theScottish elections in May ridingvery high, and anything lessthan a big win would now be ahuge blow to them.

While they will keep thebrakes on the momentumtowards a second independencereferendum for fear it will cometoo soon, by summer theirthoughts will turn to when thatreferendum should be. Theiranswer will be: at a time when oilprices might have recovered, butbefore time and mistakes erodetheir own popularity.

Another referendum willform part of their platform forthe big election year of 2020.Events in 2016 will determine theoutcome of the even bigger refer-

endum, on staying in or leavingthe European Union. I believethat David Cameron will con-clude his negotiations successful-ly enough for most Conservative

MPs to back him in a campaignto stay in – but party divisionswill make the timing of the pub-lic vote a difficult issue in itself.

While there has been talk of a

referendum in the early summer,it is the general law of EU negoti-ations that they take longer thananticipated. More likely timing istherefore in the autumn. This willmean a very tricky choicebetween September, with all therisks of an August campaignwhen small events are magnified,or October/November, with aConservative conference in mid-campaign.

As to the outcome of the EUreferendum, on an average daythe British public is split roughly60-40 for staying in. Britain is acountry utterly unenthusiasticabout the EU but narrowlyresigned to staying in it. Theresult will not always look likethis, but ultimately the vote willbe swayed by economic fearsand the worry that if the UKleaves the EU, then Scotland willleave the UK.

The big risk here is theimmense strain that will beplaced on Europe this year bymuch larger waves of migration,made even worse by the mis-handling of last year’s first tasteof the crisis. This year is likelyto see many more closed bor-

ders in Europe, to control immi-gration but also for security rea-sons as the struggle with IS ter-rorism intensifies.

It will be a testing year for theEurozone as well, as it becomesclearer that the Greek crisis hasbeen postponed, not resolved,and as a new Government inPortugal rebels against the disci-plines of the single currency.Growing disillusionment in otherEuropean countries may compli-cate or further delay the referen-dum in Britain.

By contrast, it will becomeclear that decentralisation withinEngland is a tangible prospect,with Manchester gearing up toelect its own mayor and othercities racing to catch up. Overall,the British economy is set foranother year of broad-basedgrowth that will keep it ahead ofmost other advanced economies.

With a slowing world econo-my but a strong performance bythe US and UK, the greatest poli-cy dilemmas of 2016 will be facednot by Governments, but by cen-tral bankers.

Concluding in the end thattheir own hesitation will itselfbecome problematic for confi-dence, my bet is they will pursuethe rise in interest rates that, ifnot done in 2016, might not bedone for a very long time indeed.

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The Congress has worked hardto attack the Government andkeep it on the backfoot in theBudget Session. However, theparty’s Parliamentary man-

agers are not sure whether they will getsupport from other Opposition parties.The Congress will only get supportfrom its alliance partners — RJD, JDUand DMK. Since the Left is an unofficialalliance partner of the Congress, it willalso back the party.

Apart from these, no other partywill support the Congress. For long, theSamajwadi Party and Bahujan SamajParty have been keeping distance fromthe Congress. The BJD has targeted theCongress for not allowing any work inthe last two Parliament Sessions. At theall-party meeting, BJD leaderBhartruhari Mahtab raised this pointand asked the Congress about issues likeVyapam scam and Lalitgate due towhich Parliament had been disrupted.

Since the Congress has forged anunofficial alliance with the Left in WestBengal, Mamata Banerjee is also miffedwith the party. She has instructed herparty MPs to not support the Congress.In Tamil Nadu, the Congress hasfinalised a tie-up with DMK, and thereis a chance that AIADMK will give itssupport to the Government. This meansafter the BJP and Congress, the threebig parties in Lok Sabha ie AIADMK,TMC and BJD will not support theCongress. Managers of the BJP andGovernment will try to take advantageof this situation.

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The Congress is indulging in interest-ing politics for the Budget Session.

In the two all-party meetings, theCongress had said to the Governmentthat it must not bring any controversialBill in the first half of the Session.

Managers of the Government saythe Congress is bound to raise contro-versial issues, such as the JNU row aswell as the suicide of Rohit Vemula.Since Rahul Gandhi visited both spotsand had extended his support to stu-dents, he wants these issues to be raisedin Parliament. So the leaders of theCongress are planning to interrupt thelegislative work in the first phase of theSession ie February 23 to March 1.

Congress leaders are well aware thatthere is only one controversial Bill ie the GST. This Bill is being consideredimportant from an economic perspec-tive and most of the parties are agreeable. That is the reason why theCongress wants the focus to not be on the Bill in the first half of the Session and wants it to be raised only in the second half.

But interestingly, the Congress isnot ready to support the Bill even inthe second half of the Session. Herecomes the question — when theCongress is not going to support theBill even in the second phase, then why should the Government pay heed to the party’s advice?

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Beni Prasad Verma, former CentralMinister and senior leader of UP

Congress, is restless. His discomfortcan be easily understood. After losingthe Lok Sabha Elections, he has beenmarginalised, while his rival PL Puniais still maintaining his stature.

Punia is an important centre ofCongress’s Dalit politics in UP. He is anMP and at the same time he is thechairman of the SC Commission, that iswhy he has got the status of a CabinetMinister. He doesn’t have much role insending Beni babu on the margins.

However, Beni is trying hard tobring himself back into mainstreampolitics. Recently, he has given manystatements which have put him back inthe news. Beni, who is said to be astaunch opponent of the BJP, firstpraised Prime Minister Narendra Modiand his schemes.

Later, his love for Samajwadi Partysuddenly came to the fore and heannounced his support for SamajwadiParty candidates in MLC elections.When he realised his gaffe, he said thatsince the Congress was not in the fray,he supported the Samajwadi Party.

However, now the question is whatwill the Congress do with him? Till theLok Sabha Elections, he was consideredclose to Rahul Gandhi. But in the pasttwo years, they have grown apart.Despite all this, some leaders of theparty are seeing a distinct role for himin the Assembly Elections. TheCongress is of the view that Beni babuhas a good hold not only among Kurmis

but also among other backward castes.So, he can be of help in the Assemblypolls. This is also true that the BJP isalso trying to woo Yadav voters.Meanwhile, Beni babu will always find aplace in Samajwadi Party.

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Mamata Banerjee and Mukul Royhave come together again after a

separation just as Nitish Kumar andLalan Singh had reunited in Bihar. Toraise Roy’s stature, Mamata has officiallymade him number two in her party, AllIndia Trinamool Congress (TMC), bygiving him the post of Vice-President.

Sources say that now Roy is devisingthe strategy for Assembly Elections. He has developed a cordial relation with Mamata’s nephew, AbhishekBanerjee, and has also developed a good rapport with Mamata’s close aide, Derek O’Brien.

It should be noted that after sidelin-ing Dinesh Trivedi and Roy, Didi hadgiven all major responsibilities toAbhishek and Derek. The two leadershave become the face of the party andlook after coordination with theGovernment and Opposition. They areset to continue with their roles.

Derek will be the face of the party,but strategy related decisions will betaken by Roy. He has started preparingthe strategy for the campaign and selec-tion of candidates. It is being said thathe has prepared a list of more than twodozen MLAs who will not get ticketsthis time. He has also devised a strategyto expose the hidden game of the Left

and Congress, and at the same he is alsoplanning to project TMC as the mostpowerful opponent of the BJP. Mamatahas full confidence in all his decisions.

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Now, the Congress is completely fol-lowing Rahul’s agenda. Sonia Gandhi

has reduced her role in strategic issues.The political line of the party is beingdecided by Rahul and it is he who hasdevised the strategy to be in an attackingmode in Parliament. The strategy toblock GST Bill is also his brainchild.

Sources say it was the decision ofRahul and his team to show solidaritywith JNU students after the anti-national sloganeering episode.Interestingly, many senior leaders werenot in favour of this. They were of theview that this could be fatal for theparty. They raised their voice, but even-tually supported the move.

Delhi State President Ajay Makenand former Minister Anand Sharmaalso accompanied Rahul to the JNUcampus. Later, Sonia’s political secre-tary also backed Rahul’s move.Whether it is the decision to go intoelections in Assam under the leader-ship of Tarun Gogoi or the decision todeclare Captain Amarinder Singh asPunjab’s Chief Minister candidate,everything has been Rahul’s call.

Of course it was Ghulam NabiAzad who went to Tamil Nadu to coaxDMK for an alliance, but he went therewith Rahul’s permission. The decisionof a change of guard in Uttar Pradeshhas also been awaiting Rahul’s nod.

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Political instability in Jammu andKashmir is expected to end soon. The

two largest parties in the J&K Assembly —PDP and BJP — will continue their rela-tionship and form the Government in theState. This was being speculated as MLAsof both parties don’t want to go into elec-tions. Almost five years remain in thetenure of the State Assembly. Under thispressure, both parties were bound to takethe decision to form the Government.

Now, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti hasgiven an indication that she will followthe path of her father and respect thedecision taken by him — meaning shewill form the Government with the BJP.Though Mehbooba has played an emo-tional card in the name of her father, butthis seems to be a well thought out strate-gy. PDP leaders did not want thePresident’s Rule to continue. They knewthat if they didn’t form the Government,the BJP would not lose anything andwould enjoy the power through theGovernor. The other possibility was thatthe BJP might have gone with NC. Therewas a possibility that the Congress andPDP wouldn’t continue for long and inthat case, the BJP would have tried for thefirst Hindu CM in the State.

That is why Mehbooba decided totake a risk. Sources in PDP say she willnot follow the common agenda like herfather but will push her own party’sagenda. She will run the Governmenther way. She wants to connect with herold followers of the Valley. At the sametime, she will try to increase her accept-ability among Hurriyats.

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Emma Watson has announcedthat she will take a year awayfrom acting to further her

knowledge of feminism. The actor, lastseen in the supernatural thrillerRegression, told author and activistBell Hooks about her intention duringan interview in Paper magazine. “I’mtaking a year away from acting tofocus on two things, really,” she said.“My own personal development is one... my own personal task is to read abook a week, and also to read [anoth-er] book a month as part of my bookclub. I’m doing a huge amount ofreading and study just on my own.”

Watson was tempted to spend thetime at university but decided againstit. “I almost thought about going anddoing a year of gender studies, then Irealised that I was learning so muchby being on the ground and justspeaking with people and doing myreading,” she said. “That I was learningso much on my own. I actually wantedto keep on the path that I’m on. I’mreading a lot this year, and I want todo a lot of listening.”

The Harry Potter star will alsofocus on HeForShe, an initiative thatshe launched in her capacity as a UNWomen goodwill ambassador, aimedat engaging men in the fight for gen-der equality. The campaign willinclude an arts week, a universitytour and the launching of a new site.Watson has also launched a feministbook group on Twitter, called OurShared Shelf.

Actor Shia LaBeouf is occupy-ing a lift in Oxford with twoother performance artistes

for 24 hours as part of his latestproject. LaBeouf and his art collab-orators Nastja Säde Rönkkö andLuke Turner also addressed theOxford Union.

The union said the trio will beoccupying the elevator at EC Oxford,an English language course centre inGloucester Green, for a 24-hour stintending at 9 am on Saturday. Theywill leave the elevator for their talkbut will return afterwards.

A live audio and video feed willbe broadcast inside the union debat-ing chamber for the duration of theevent, which is called #ELEVATE. Itis also being streamed on YouTube.

“Visitors will be able to joinLaBeouf, Rönkkö and Turner insidethe elevator during this time, and areinvited to address the artistes, thedebating chamber, and the internet,so that their collective voices mayform an extended, expansive andegalitarian Oxford Union address,”

the union said.The performance and access to

the debating chamber will be freeand open to the public for the 24hours. According to the BBC,LaBeouf told students in the liftthat he was invited by the union’spresident when he was involved inan art piece in Liverpool last year,which involved him setting up hisown call centre.

Less than a quarter of Americanssupport a boycott of the Oscarsover the Academy of Motion

Picture Arts and Sciences’ failure tonominate any actors of colour for thesecond year running, according to anew poll. Just 23 per cent of respon-dents to a survey by Reuters saidthey backed calls for viewers to “tuneout” from the world’s most famousfilm ceremony this year, which istaking place at the Dolby theatre inLos Angeles today. Spike Lee, WillSmith, Jada Pinkett Smith, TyreseGibson and Michael Moore areamong the notable figures who have

called for a boycott or signalled thatthey will be staying away in protest.

Reuters’ poll found that 44 percent of Americans disagreed with theidea of a boycott. However, the sameproportion of respondents said theybelieved studios had a problem withminorities, and 30 per cent said thatHollywood’s output does not accurate-ly represent US diversity. Reuters andIpsos polled 2,423 people online, threeweeks after the Academy’s announce-ment of changes to membership rules,including proposals to double thenumber of voters from black or ethnicminority backgrounds.

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Investigators in the JacksonvilleSheriff ’s Office in north Florida

say they are searching for a clumsy burglary suspect who was caught on surveillance videofalling through theceiling of a Popeyesfried chickenrestaurant.

First CoastNews reports thatthe video showsthe man crashingto the floor in aheap last Monday.He’s then seenstruggling to pryopen a safeunder a counter,using a varietyof items that wereon hand. According to a newsrelease on the Sheriff ’s website,the man got away with an unde-termined amount of cash. Nofurther details were immediatelyavailable, police said.

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AVirginia deer paid a visit to a localliquor store after managing to

push open the front door. TheVirginia Department of AlcoholicBeverage shared security camera

photos that show the animal walkingthrough the front door of one ofthe State’s oldest stores in CliftonForge and making its way to theback of the store.

“The doe reportedly pushedopen the store door and headedstraight for the bourbon aisle

before being shown outthe back,” they

wrote onFacebook.

Whilethe deerwound upleaving thestore

withoutmaking a

purchase, theFacebook post speculatedwhether the deer wasshopping for some spirits

to celebrate

having survivedhunting season. Thepage also encouragedits followers to come upwith their best caption forthe photograph.

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As if the European Union does nothave crises enough, now traffic

chaos in its congested capital Brusselsis being blamed on hungry mice. EUleaders gathering for a summit lastThursday to deal with the refugee crisisand British threats to quit the bloc finda city struggling to cope with repeatedclosures of key road tunnels caused bycrumbling concrete and years of decay.

Now the Belgian Capital’s regionalParliament has been told that repairsare being held up because original con-struction plans have been destroyed —apparently eaten by rodents.

The tunnels provide vital arteriesacross what is often described asEurope’s most traffic-congested city.But for decades the plans for their construction were stored in the pillarsunder a motorway bridge for want

of space elsewhere.“They may havebeen eaten by

mice,” the former head of the city’s infra-

structure agency told city lawmakerslast Wednesday.

The state of the roads in the city of1.2 million, home to the EuropeanUnion and NATO headquarters, hasbecome a hot political issue inBelgium, with an estimated bill of some1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to repairall the tunnels.

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ANew York state man shared a videoof a motorist he describes as “possi-

bly the best worst driver in the historyof a snowstorm”.

Mark Reussow, who posted thevideo to Facebook, captured footage ona highway near Rochester of a motoristswerving back and forth on the snow-covered road in an apparent show ofskill. “He’s just having fun,” Reussowsays in the video. “He’s a pro! He’s a pro-fessional.” However, Reussow’s admira-

tion for the driver proves shortlived: “Ihope he bites it,” he says.

“Freakin’ idiot,” Reussow says.“Kinda entertaining, though.”Reussow described the motoristin the video’s description as“possibly the best worst driverin the history of a snowstorm”.He said in a comment hedecided to film the motoristbecause the dangerous drivingmade him “a bit nervous.”

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Aerial footage from aVirginia farm shows the

eerie scene of 43 enormousbusts of US Presidents res-cued from a defunct themepark. The video, posted toYouTube, shows the statues invarious states of disrepair inCroaker, Va. The 20-foot-tallconcrete busts, which depictthe first 43 Presidents of theUnited States, were builtfor Presidents Park, aWilliamsburg attrac-

tion that opened in 2004 andwas shuttered just six years

later in 2010.Howard Hankins, a

construction companyowner who was origi-nally hired to helpbuild the park, wascontracted to get ridof the heads, whicheach weigh between11,000 and 20,000

pounds, but he insteadmade arrangements to

have the heads moved tohis farmland in nearbyCroaker.

A Facebook post by theWilliamsburg PresidentialMuseum Project revealedHankins is spearheading the

effort to build a newPresidential Museum and

Park in Williamsburg to givethe busts a new home.

The project has aGoFundMe page attempting to

crowdfund the estimated$500,000 cost of the new park.

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Aleap year, where an extraday is added to the end ofFebruary every four years,is down to the solar system’sdisparity with the

Gregorian calendar. A complete orbit ofthe earth around the sun takes exactly365.2422 days to complete, but theGregorian calendar uses 365 days. Soleap seconds — and leap years — areadded as means of keeping our clocks(and calendars) in sync with the earthand its seasons.

>,4��0�1K$+��.�4��0�(1�+-�+4#All other months in the Julian calendarhave 30 or 31 days, but February lostout to the ego of Roman emperorCaesar Augustus. Under his predecessorJulius Caesar, February had 30 days andthe month named after him — July —had 31. August had only 29 days. WhenAugustus became emperor, he addedtwo days to ‘his’ month to make Augustthe same as July. So February lost out toAugust in the battle of extra days.

B- �-!�5�1!�+�8!�/*/1�7+17*+4The Roman calendar did have 355 dayswith an extra 22-day month every twoyears, until Julius Caesar becameemperor and ordered his astronomerSosigenes to devise a better system inthe 1st Century. Sosigenes decided on a365-day year with an extra day everyfour years to incorporate the extrahours, and so February 29 was born.

As an earth year is not exactly365.25 days long, Pope Gregory XIII’sastronomers decided to lose three daysevery 400 years when they introducedthe Gregorian calendar in 1582. Themaths has worked ever since but thesystem will need to be rethought inabout 10,000 years.

1�/�41�+��!0�$�181+4���41�+!The year 2000 was a leap year, but theyears 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not.There’s a leap year every year that isdivisible by four, except for years thatare both divisible by 100 and not divisi-ble by 400. The added rule about cen-turies (versus just every four years) wasan additional fix to make up for the factthat an extra day every four years is toomuch of a correction.

>,�$��!��� 1�/�!15*0.#Leap years are not directly connected toleap seconds, but both are for the pur-pose of keeping the earth’s rotations inline with our clocks and calendars.Leap seconds are added to bring theearth’s rotation in line with atomictime. A leap second was added at theend of June last year, when immediatelybefore midnight dials read 11:59:60.

Atomic time is constant, but theearth’s rotation is gradually slowing downby around two thousandths of a secondper day. Leap seconds are therefore cru-cial to ensuring the time we use does notdrift away from time based on the earth’sspin. If left unchecked, this would eventu-ally result in clocks showing the middleof the day occurring at night.

The extra second can sometimescause problems for some networkswhich rely on exact timings. When alast leap second was added in 2012,Mozilla, Reddit, Foursquare, Yelp,LinkedIn, and StumbleUpon all report-ed crashes and there were problemswith the Linux operating system andprogrammes written in Java.

5� 10.�+!�+1D-�+1� 1�/�41�+!The modern Iranian calendar is a solarcalendar with eight leap days insertedinto a 33-year cycle. The IndianNational Calendar and the RevisedBangla Calendar of Bangladesh arrangetheir leap years so that the leap day isalways close to February 29 in theGregorian calendar.

�*+0�*0�(1�+-�+4��H#The chances of having a leap birthdayare one in 1,461. People who are bornon February 29 are referred to asleaplings or leapers. In non-leap years,many leaplings choose to celebrate theirbirthday on either February 28 orMarch 1, while purists stick to February29 for the occasion. Some suggest thoseborn just after midnight on February29 should celebrate their birthdays onFebruary 28, while those born justbefore midnight on March 1 should cel-ebrate their birthdays on that day.Those born around midday are less for-tunate when it comes to picking a side.About 4.1 million people around theworld have been born on February 29.

(�2*-!�/1*/ 1��*+0�*0� 1�/�.�4The chances of having a birthday on aleap day are extremely slim — the oddsare one in 1,461 to be exact — and there’squite an eclectic mix of famous peopleborn on the day, including Romanticpoet John Byrom, 16th Century pontiffPope Paul III, Italian composerGioacchino Rossini, English footballerDarren Ambrose, British astronomerCharles Pritchard, rapper Ja Rule, andmotivational speaker Tony Robbins .

>*210�/+*/*!1��0� 1�/�41�+Leap years are also marked as a time forwomen to propose to men. One theoryis that the custom dates back to the 5thCentury, when, legend has it, an Irishnun called St Bridget complained to StPatrick that women had to wait toolong for their suitors to propose. StPatrick then supposedly gave womenthe chance to ask the question everyfour years. The tradition is not thoughtto have become commonplace until the19th Century.

Then there’s the theory that QueenMargaret of Scotland was behind thefabled Scottish law of 1288. The lawallowed unmarried women the freedomto propose during a leap year, and theman who refused was handed a fine.The truth behind this tale is dubious atbest — after all Queen Margaret wasjust eight years old when she died andscholars have been unable to find arecord of the law.

Others argue that the tradition ofwomen proposing on this day goesback to the times when the leap yearday was not recognised by English law.Under this theory, if the day had nolegal status, it was acceptable to breakwith the convention of a man propos-ing. In Denmark, if a man turns down aproposal they must give the woman 12pairs of gloves and in Finland thepenalty is fabric for a skirt.

$,1�5�/�$� �5�$4�*(� 1�/�41�+The city of Anthony, which straddlesTexas and New Mexico in the US, is theself-proclaimed leap year Capital of theworld. A four-day festival is held thereeach leap year that includes a hugebirthday party for all leap year babies.

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In the Indian tradition abelief goes that in thebeginning there wascomplete void, neitherlight nor darkness, nei-

ther energy nor matter but avast formless state. Then theaadishakti (primeval energy)with the radiance of hundredsuns and uproar sound of herlaughter like Om gave birthto the cosmos.

While another Indianphilosophic thought holdsthat Om as a soporific soundwas flashed forth in the mindof Brahma while he wasabsorbed in meditation. It isalso believed that the rhyth-mic sound Om had exhortedthe Almighty to create theworld. Hence, Om is consid-ered the original primordialsound when the creation hadstarted, and thus Om shouldbe treated as sound or naada,and a signature of Brahma.

Om can also be treatedakin to ‘amen’ in Christianityand ‘ameen’ in Islam.However, in the Vedic times,Om was used as a solemn‘yes’, implying consent. In theUpanishads, Om is reckonedas a symbol of Almighty andthe means of attaining himby meditating upon it. In theGita, Om is not only includedwithin the triad title ofAlmighty vide its famous for-mula “Om Tat Sat” but alsoacclaimed as Lord Krishnahimself when it is said “giraa-masmyekamaksharam”.

In the same context, thesphota theory also addssound note as it holds thatthe creation process of theworld involved such move-ments which led to produce asound similar as Om andhence Om is identified asnaadabrahma, implying theprimordial sound which gaverise to the cosmos.

This proves that Indiansfrom the very beginningrealised the spiritual aspect ofsound or naada, which

enabled them to visualise thesupreme God in the form ofletters or aksharas denotingthat which is immutable andwho else other than God asnaadabrahma is immutable.

The German expoundersof yoga philosophy likeHauer while comparing thesound Om with the sound ofbull roarer, treat it as “anuminous primeval sound,purely an exclamation”.While Panini treats it as par-ticle which is to be placed atthe commencement of anactivity, utterance and writ-ing “Om abhyudaane”.

Hence goes the maxim,“With the chanting of Om,they sing the mantras; withit the priests officiate thesacrifice and with it even thecreator began the creation”.Besides, the different deriva-tions of Om assign it differ-ent implications. Forinstance, if derived from theSanskrit root aap meaningto attain and from avammeaning that, it implies“that medium which enablesthe chanter to attain hisdesired objects”.

Another school of thoughtbelieves that Oman is theoriginal form of Om whichderived from the root avawith the addition of the suf-fix man signifies theAlmighty. In the yoga philos-ophy, Om holds a significantplace as it is closely connect-ed with the yoga practices.Since in yoga, Om in a sym-bol form is resorted to by theyogi in the form of supportfor the mind in its move-ments of thought and con-centration. However, thesymbolism of Om which ledto its philosophic develop-ment started with the time ofthe later Upanishads when itwas first looked upon assymbolic representation ofBrahma and secondly as amedium of meditation whichdirectly leads the chanter to

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From the Bible to the Indian scriptures, in mostreligious books, the poor have been thought tobe closer to God. Gandhiji referred to them as

daridranarayan, which means “God resides in poor”.According to St Mathews, “Blessed are the meek forthey shall inherit the earth.” But these notwith-standing, the fact is that poverty hurts. And it hurtsmore because it grows because of the few rich whoare getting richer.

While the media at large keeps on singingpaeans of globalisation, liberalisation and marketisa-tion, the poor are not able to get what the champi-ons of market economy had promised. Fudging real-ity by statistics is one thing but stark reality is anentirely different story. In fact a closer and deeperlook at the effects of globalisation would point outthat the benefits of this most trumpeted mediaexpression has helped the rich become richer whileimpoverishing the poor.

Even as recession persists, depression persists andthe hitherto fairly insulated economies also get entan-gled in the quagmire of recession, clamour for morereforms is getting louder. These are Budget times inIndia and the annual Budget is due tomorrow.

While it is the Government’s prerogative to decidethe course that the Budget may lead to, the econo-mists — inadvertently or inordinately — are leavingno stone unturned to make things easier for the rich,which usually make things difficult for the poor.

Sounds harsh, but facts do speak for themselves.A recent Oxfam study bares it all. The findings sug-gest that the wealth of the richest 62 people has risenby 44 per cent in the five years since 2010. Thatcomes to an increase of more than half a trillion dol-lars. The interesting piece of statistics is that in 2010,it was 388 people whose wealth was equal to that ofthe poorest half of the world population. In 2011, thenumber became 177, in 2012 it was 159, in 2013 itbecame 92, then 80 in 2014, and 62 in 2015. A sys-temic change that cannot be ignored.

The other interesting findings are that since theturn of century, the poorest half of the world’s popu-lation has received just one per cent of the totalincrease in global wealth while half of the increasewent to the top one per cent. Further, the averageannual income of the poorest 10 per cent of peoplehas risen by less than three dollars each year inalmost two and a half decades.

As the gap between poor and rich widens yearafter year post globalisation, it is time to think aboutthe real agenda of globalisation. The good reason ofcourse was summum bonum or greater good to greaternumber, but it certainly was not the real reason.

If only one per cent people own wealth more thanwhat 99 per cent own, something certainly is wrong withthe scheme of things. Globalisation that started withmuch fanfare as glasnost and perestroika in the thenUSSR, saw the same USSR as its first causality. China hasbeen second, though other emerging economies also fellprey to globalisation propaganda. Will it be India thistime? Needs to be pondered over. The way our economyswings at global cues is not a happy augury and indicatesa larger design. It is time God actually becomes the sav-iour of the poor as daridranarayan. �����������������������%����������� ����"��������*����)�/�����

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attain him. Hence, accordinglyin these scriptures “the con-stituents of Om include man’sinner soul which is identifiedas soul in space localised in thesun, as well as the deemingrays of the sun encircling andenlightening us”.

Besides, a series of metaphorsare also applied to expound itssymbolism. It is likened to thebow as it leads the chanter’s con-science to the Almighty. It isalso called a boat or a chariotthrough which the chantertreads over the ether of the heartand attains the proximity ofAlmighty, and also since itschanting leads all the jivas in theuniverse in diverse ways to theenjoyment of various objects.Om as a synonym of God intotal is also called pranava sinceit is the primordial sound in theuniverse and it forms the firstutterance of the Almighty, andthe original sound when thecreation of the world is assumedto have started.

Om is also included amongthe epithets of Lord Shiva in hisNaadasvarupa and also thusforms synonymous withshabdabrahma ornaadabrahma. It is held thatOm embodiment of spiritualpower signifies universal for-mulation of the energy ofsound and speech. Since all thesounds and thoughts of theuniverse constitute the outflowof Om, the eternal sound thathas manifested itself in theform of all sensible objects inthe universe.

Om is also looked upon asthe sovereign source seed andwomb as well as the originalsupreme unity of all thethings, ideas, forms, names andall the entities in the universe.Besides, this single word repre-senting the supreme God com-plete in all aspects is alsotermed ajaikapaada, whichdenotes the signification “thatBrahman definitely denotes thesingle word Om since the for-mer when endowed with his

one portion only has assumedthe infinite sentient and insen-tient forms in this universe andalso that since the same formsthe monosyllabic name of thedivine among the names oflower and higher Brahma”.

Om is also best called asakshara or immutable andimperishable since it serves asymbol of the supreme who isall pervasive, unique withoutbeginning and unrelated to anyeffect. Om is also titled asudgeeth as its meditation assymbol of Brahma fetches onewith objectives of attainingspiritual ascension and openschanter’s mind to the experi-ence of higher state. Accordingto Kathopanishad, the medita-tion of Om even leads one towin over Death God. Split upinto three letters ‘a u m’ it turnsto be symbolic representative ofthe three states of Brahmawhich are known as jaagrata,svapna and sushupti, and arealso indicative of perfect stateof spiritual consciousness ofenlightened individual. Whensplit into four letters ‘a u hum(bindu) m’ it turns to be sym-bolic representative of ManasTattva along with five senseorgans of speech, seeing, listen-ing, touching and smelling andalso signifies five gross ele-ments (panchamahabhutas)with which the cosmos is madeand of which each worldlybeing is a component part.

This all pervasive aspect ofOm terms it also as a cosmicGod since it signifies thatspace, fire, wind, sun andheaven all in total form isimplied by Om. Another viewholds different concept offivefold Om as representingfive fold sheaths present in allbeings of the universe, suchas ‘subtle or praanamaya,casual or manomaya, gross orannamaya, supercasual orvijnanamaya, blissful oranandamaya.

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We expect others to betrustworthy, but are wesuch persons who can be

relied upon to be good, honest, sin-cere, etc? This is a tough question,which everyone should ask himselfor herself because we have doublestandards in this aspect of our per-sonality. We think we can get awaywith whatever we are, rather somepeople think it is very smart to foolothers, cheat them, and generallytake advantage whenever they can.But this definition of smartnesshurts very badly in the long run ifpractised for any length of time.

See for yourself. The momentothers realise that someone is try-ing to take advantage of them, andthis does not take too long, he orshe is strongly disliked. I will go tothe extent of stating that society asa whole begins to shun such per-sons. He or she may be tolerated ifhe or she is powerful or has opu-lence, which others are forced toseek from him or her, but there willbe no trust for him or her. There isno question of that because otherswill be afraid that such a personwill try to harm or trick them.

There are other disadvantagesas well. Credit of any kind may notbe available to him or her. Who is

foolish enough to risk what he orshe has? Banks, credit card compa-nies, insurers, etc do credit checkbefore extending their facilities.Otherwise also, people will bechary to give opportunities to suchpersons because who wants to backan ultimate loser, which such a per-son eventually turns out to be?Surely, it is a poor use of intelli-gence to not become trustworthy.

See what benefit we will deriveif we become trustworthy. The veryfirst benefit will be the liking ofpeople for us. Almost everyone willlike to deal with such a person.Imagine what kind of attention wewill be assured of getting by beingtrustworthy. I will even go furtherto state that such persons are given

a lot of respect. And such attentionreally pleases. Don’t we all crave forattention? Is it not a human weak-ness? People will trust us with what

is dear to them, in which moneycomes at the top. Don’t all business-es require credit facilities in orderto run their operations successfully?

Not only that, others willentrust us with the most responsi-ble tasks. There will be opportuni-ties galore as is suited to our abili-ties. The world will become afriendly place for us. It becomes somuch easier to advance in life withall these forces helping us. We willfeel satisfied with life and peace ofmind will descend on us soonerthan later. And, believe me, God ismuch pleased because being trust-worthy is part of our dharma,which God promotes.

Yes, there are so many advan-tages, then why do so few try to betrustworthy and prefer to try tooutwit others? Because it is noteasy to become one; one has to doa lot to achieve this status, begin-

ning with being truthful, and weare so used to lie for short-termgains or for avoiding immediatepunishment. Being honest is simi-larly a tough task because honestypays in the long run only; cheating,etc give immediate advantages.

One must begin to think ofwelfare of others, which is difficultbut that is where our welfare alsolies; it really does as experience willtell us. This means that our mind-set should be more for giving thantaking. Again, this goes against ourgrain and is difficult to accomplish.

One should be able to resisttemptations, which are plenty inour lives. In short, weaknesses ofany kind will make us untrust-worthy. Behaviour is required,not words because a cheater canoutdo most people as far aswords go. Others should speakfor us because we all do that forourselves in any case. Andbecoming a genuine devotee ofGod does inspire confidence inus. Yes, it is a lifelong achieve-ment to be known as trustworthybut its benefits far outweigh allthe sacrifices we have to make tobecome one.

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If you reach the apex, the nextcourse due is fall, if you are notprepared to change track to the

callings of the dynamics of emergingtimes. For, Nature, which holds thekey to life, remains in a permanentstate of flux, prompting continuedchange in the transient world we livein. The paradox, however, is thatinvariably those in comfort zone, towhich one identifies after acquiringit, put in all out efforts to resistchange. Though well aware that theworld does not move to one’s asking,yet their egos make them play alltricks in store to retain status quo.Eventually, they are overtaken by thecallings of emerging times, and leftbehind in the run of time.

Those aspiring for high officesought soothsayer’s help in all humili-ty before they challenged the man inpower. But once they acquired power,ego overtook them. In their egotisticaloverdrive, they preferred listening tohangers-on, for whom ‘the boss isalways right’. Those who had ralliedaround them to make it to the aspiredposition too were disregarded, if theyever tried to sound reason. Even thesoothsayer’s advice became suspect in

their eyes, if it did not suit them.Thus has political trajectory of

Arunachal Pradesh been moving,which I have been closely trackingsince a decade now. Typical of thisnortheastern tribal State is that but forone, all others who consulted me werenot aware of their exact birth particu-lars. So, I had to rely, either on‘Horary chart’ drawn at the momentof consultation or on the chart drawnat the time of oath taking. My readingproved right all the time. Meanwhilefour chief ministers have been uncere-moniously dethroned, and one lost lifein a helicopter crash. But they allexhibited similar trends.

Last October, the then chief minis-ter inquired about his future prospect.He was warned in clear terms that heseemed to be losing ground. So, heshould try to build bridges with thosehe had of late tried to marginalise,otherwise, situation may go out of hiscontrol. His ego would not let himtake my advice kindly, particularlywhen many self-seeking astrologershad assured him being firmly in thesaddle. A few days later someoneknown to both of us confronted me:“How come your prediction is against

the majority view and at a time whennobody seems to have necessarystrength to challenge him?”

“Yes-person is a no person,” Iresponded. A genuine well wisher isexpected to fearlessly make you awareof the truth so that you could intelli-gently articulate your moves.Explaining further, I informed himthat since “transit Saturn was in oppo-sition to the Sun, identified with rulerin the chart drawn at the time of hisoath taking, which read together withtransit Mars joining Saturn in thatchart, he was due for a difficult timeahead at the hands of those whom hehad offended badly”. So it happened incase of his predecessor, when transitSaturn moved against both Mars andthe Sun as placed in the chart drawnat the time of his oath taking. Unlessyour friend mends fences with hisadversaries, I am afraid, he may evenlose power. And remember, planetsknow no bias. My friend, “taste of thepudding lies in its eating,” and youhave been witness to my repeated suc-cessful prediction about change ofguard in Arunachal Pradesh. And theresult is there to see.

My first encounter with Arunachalpolitics was in 2002 when the lone

member of the Opposition, who hadearlier headed the State uninterruptedfor 19 years, came asking: “Is thereany scope for regaining the highoffice, and if so, by when? LuminaryMoon over the head in the horarychart, read together with the Sun con-joined with Jupiter the 10th lord,meant he will regain power, whentransit Jupiter lent support to 10thhouse exactly a year after. But he lostpower when transit Saturn joined Sunand Mars four years down the line.

In his successor’s case again,Moon was over the head. BothSaturn and Jupiter extended supportto the 10th house. The Sun wasapplying trine to Jupiter which wouldbe exact in 13 days promising powerwithin that period. But Mars beingopposite Saturn in that chart, meantbeing out of scene when the twoacquire supportive role in 2011. Hein fact died in a helicopter crashsince the Sun was playing spoil sportwith Rahu and Ketu.

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