rni regn. no. mpeng/2004/13703, regd. no. l … rni regn. no. mpeng/2004/13703, regd. no....

RNI Regn. No. MPENG/2004/13703, Regd. No. L-2/BPLON/41/2006-2008

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The theatre fest based onUrdu plays will be organ-

ised in the city. The UrduDrama Festival will begin fromTuesday at Antarang Hall,Bharat Bhavan.

The theatre buffs of the citywill witness different genres ofthe plays at the Urdu DramaFestival. It is to be noted thatUrdu Drama Festival is beingorganized by Madhya PradeshUrdu Academy, CultureDepartment. The fest that willbegin from Tuesday will con-tinue till Sunday.

While informing about the

drama festival Nusrat Mehdi,secretary of Urdu Academysaid that every year the dramafestival is organized for theBhopal theatre buffs to built aninterest on Urdu plays.

The drama festival willbegin on Tuesday with the play'Waqt Ke Karahte Rang' direct-ed by Rajiv Verma.

On December 20 i.e.Wednesday, Parchhaiyon kaPeecha will be staged in thedirection of Irrfan Saurabh.On December 21 i.e. Thursday,the play 'Jikr-e-Mir' will bestaged in the direction of NizamPatel.

This year a seminar on

‘Urdu Plays Yesterday, Todayand Tomorrow’ will also beheld. Ram Gopal Bajaj andNadira Babbar will be the chiefguests on the occasion.Renowned playwrights of thecity Rajiv Verma, NazeerQureshi and Ashok Bulani willspeak on the topic.

It will be held onDecember 22 i.e. Friday.

On December 23 i.e.Saturday the play ‘Mere Baad’will be staged. This play isdirected by Tariq Ahmed.

On December 24 i.e.Sunday, the fest will concludewith the play ‘Hori’. The play isdirected by Anumika Sagar.

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With the participation ofmore than 2000 school

children across the country,National Balrang Festival willbegin from Tuesday. The festi-val will be held at IndiraGandhi Rashtriya ManavSanghralaya (IGRMS).

National Balrang is anannual festival to promoteartistic talent among schoolchildren. This year there wil beparticipation of 2000 childrenfrom 21 States and five UnionTerritories across the country.

In the past one month stu-dents of various schools acrossthe country have been prepar-ing for Balrang.

On the first day of the fest,a state level competition will beheld at (IGRMS) with a schoolband performance.

On Tuesday, the nationallevel Balrang fest will be inau-gurated. The fest will includepatriotic song competition,poetry (Hindi and Urdu), folksong and folk dance.

Talking with media per-sons on Monday, Manoj VermaDeputy Director Directorate

Public Instruction said, “Themain objective of balrang is tointroduce children with variouscultures, traditional lifestylesand cultural values and instillspirit of social harmony, humanvalues and brotherhood bybringing children from variousStates and regions on one plat-form.”

“Last year we received anoverwhelming response by theparticipants and this year wehave tried to provide even bet-ter facilities to our guests,” headded.

There will be 1000 stu-dents participating from ninedistricts of Madhya Pradesh.Other than Madhya Pradesh,Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat,Chandigarh, Haryana, Bihar,Jammu and Kashmir,Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram,Nagaland, Assam, Kerala,Karnataka, Punjab,Maharashtra, Manipur, Dadarand Nagar Haveli, New Delhi,Andhra Pradesh, Uttarakhand,Arunachal Pradesh,Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh,Sikkim, Tripura and WestBengal.

He further informed that

there will be 28 different typesof events to be held. Aboutprize distribution, he said that

there will be cash prizes. InFolk dance competition firstprize will be of Rs 51,000, sec-

ond prize will be of Rs 31,000and third prize will be of Rs21,000.

The fest will conclude onDecember 21 with various per-formances.

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The Bhopalites will explore thetribal art and culture at the

Aadi Mahotsav National TribalFestival to be held at Bhopal Haatfrom Tuesday.

The National Tribal Festivalis being organised by TribalCooperative MarketingDevelopment Federation Ltd(TRIFED), Ministry of TribalAffairs Government of India.The festival will be inauguratedby Narottam Mishra Minister forWater Resource and PublicRelation.

Besides, Vishwas SarangMinister of State for Cooperation,

Ram Vilas Patel and YashwantSingh Darbar, Directors on theBoard of TRIFED will be guestsof honour.

While informing about thefestival to the media persons onMonday, Managing DirectorTRIFED Pravir Krishnainformed that the festival is allabout the tribal art and cultureof the country. Informing furtherhe said that the theme of the fes-tival is ‘A Celebration of the Spiritof Tribal Craft, Culture, Cuisineand Commerce.’ The festivalwill feature exhibition-cum-saieof tribal handicrafts, art, paint-ings, fabric, jewellery and muchmore through more than 60

stalls.He further informed thatover 150 tribal artisans from over20 States will be participating inthe festival. A special feature ofthe festival is Tribal India cuisine,recreated and presented in delec-table forms to suit urban tastesby special tribal chefs.

An attractive stage has beenset up at the venue to showcasetribal music and dance everyevening from 6 pm to 8 pm. Inline with the national aspirationto go cashless, for the first timethe tribal merchandise stalls willbe accepting payment throughmajor credit and debit cards, headded. The festival will contin-ue till December 31.

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The State Government hasput the OBC students in

distress in the middle of thesession. The Government in asudden and unexpected movehas cut down the scholarshipamount given to post graduateand undergraduate studentsbelonging to the backwardcommunity.

While the Governmentcolleges will be adjusting thefees accordingly the privatecolleges are demanding thefull fees. This, in the middle ofthe session has put the studentsin quandary.At the time ofadmission, the PG students

were getting a scholarship of Rs18000, which has been reducedto Rs 10000 now. Similarly thescholarship of BCA and BBAstudents has been reduced toRs 4000. Previously the schol-arship for these courses wasmore than Rs 10,000.

This decision in midtermhas created much pressure andtension among the students.During the time of admissionin July there was not even a hintabout this, and expecting thefull scholarship many studentshad taken admission in presti-gious private colleges. Theauthorities of these colleges aredemanding the full fees for thenext semester.

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The Bhopalites enjoyed theMonday evening with bol-

lywood children songs beauti-fully performed by the littleartists on stage. A musicalevening of patriotic songs ‘SwarDhara’ was organised atShaheed Bhavan Auditoriumhere on Monday.

The event was organised byDirectorate of Swaraj Sansthanat Shaheed Bhavan under theevent Desh Raag. The childrenartists gave a scintillating per-formance on stage. On theoccasion Sa Re Ga Ma Pa final-ist Swarit Shukla and BrandAmbassador of Lado Schemeof Madhya PradeshGovernment and Sa Re Ga MaPa finalist Ishita Vishwakarmawere also present.

It is to be noted that SwaritShukla hails from Bhopal andIshita Vishwakarma fromJabalpur. Both of them arefantastic singers and havegained much popularity in Sa

Re Ga Ma Pa, the singing com-petition for emerging singers.

The musical evening washeld by Abhilasha MusicalGroup. It was one of the enjoy-able musical nights for theBhopalites as the children per-formed with much grace andconfidence live on stage. Thechildren first began the musi-cal evening with a prayer song.

Later, they performed thesongs like Nani Teri Morni KoMor Le Gaye, Chanda MamaDoor Ke, Lakdi Ki Kaathi, MaaTu Kitni Achi Hai and more.This was not the end of the musi-cal night, the children also per-formed patriotic songs like Ayemere Watan Ke Logo, Yeh DeshHai Veer Jawano Ka and moreleaving the audience totallyenthralled. Along with SwaritShukla and IshwitaVishwakarma city’s child artistsJayati Dubey, Aditya, PranavPradip, Urvi Agarwal, SatyamSharma, Samiksha Joshi andPranav Dalal also performed onstage.

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The State of WorldChildren 2017 Report

was released here on Mondayin Madhya Pradesh in thepresence of children andyoung people at a ChildrenCarniva l in Bhopal onMonday.

Around 150 children andyoung people from Bhopal,Itarsi and Harda participat-ed.The event witnessed thepresence of Nirmala Buch,Pres ident Chi ld RightsObservatory, Michael Juma,Chief UNICEF, MadhyaPradesh and PradeshKaramelkar, Past Chair, CIIBhopal Zone Chapter.

Michael Juma, ChiefUNICEF, Madhya Pradeshsaid the State of World’sChi ldren Report 2017explores the opportunitiesthe digital age presents forchildren as users and directbeneficiaries of digital tech-nologies: It looks at howsociety can harness thepower of digitalization tobenefit the most disadvan-taged children, make theirvoices heard and limit theharms-online to protect themost vulnerable.

Nirmala Buch, PresidentChild Rights Observatorysaid that it was importantthat children are aware of the

challenges which this tech-nology brings in, but is alsoneed of the time to educatechildren on new technolo-gies . She appreciatedUNICEF to bring our reporton this technology.

Pradeep Karambelkar,Past Chair CII Bhopal ZoneChapter spoke about Muskaninitiative of CII to educate

children and that it is reach-ing out to 30,000 kids in MP.He added that CII would bewilling to support interven-tions by UNICEF on educat-ing children on online safety.

A play presented byKaafila Group showing thedifferent impact of Interneton children focusing onVirtual Gaming. Digital

Experts Yogesh Pandit andJaskaran Singh Manoch talkon different issues relatedwith Digital World focusingon #StaySafeOnline. AnilGulat i UNICEFCommunication Specialistand Mahima ANSH volun-teer conducted the event.

A dance was presented atthe end of the event by the

chi ldren f rom Synerg ySansthan, Harda.

The event was collabora-tively organized by UNICEFwith NGO partners ANSHHappiness Society, ChildRights Observatory MadhyaPradesh, Bharat Calling,Synergy Sansthan andParvarish The MuseumSchool.

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The leader of Opposition inthe State Assembly Ajay

Singh said that results ofGujarat elections 2017 reflectsmoral loss to the BJP as fromthe year 2012 Congress has reg-istered a gain of three per centand the BJP has been confinedto two digit in the StateAssembly.Ajay Singh said thattruth of Gujarat developmentmodel was revealed in theseelection results which PMModi boasted of across thecountry during the campaign-ing for Gujarat elections,

PM Modi left his achieve-ments of development, GSTand demonetisation andworked only to polarizing of

votes.The tall claims of BJP pres-

ident Amit Shah to win 150seats in the State assembly bybooth management, facedrejection from the people of thestate.

Within three years afterparliamentary elections, BJPhas now been reduced to twodigits in Gujarat state assemblywhich explains the huge dissat-isfaction among the state peo-ple and PM Modi, top brass BJPleadership and around 7 lakhRSS activists failed to achieveglorious victory. Congressaccepted the mandate but theanger across every section of thesociety could not be ignored andruled out the possibility of elec-tion rigging, Ajay Singh added.

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Lotus continued to bloom inPrime Minister Narendra

Modi’s home turf of Gujarat.Riding on Modi’s remarkableability to reach out to votersacross caste and class divide,and BJP chief Amit Shah’sgrassroots mobilisation, theBJP proved the skeptics wrongby retaining the State for thesixth time in a row.

Though the BJP did fail tomatch its 2012 tally and theCongress gained solid groundin rural belt, in the end Modiand Shah duo proved that theycan overcome any electoralodds. The saffron party whichwon all five previous Assemblypolls since 1995 with comfort-able margin won 2017 electionswith thinnest margin as it won99 out of 182 seats.

The result was not asgrand as the saffron party hadexpected. Party leaders hadaimed for a much bigger num-ber of seats, but the BJP faceda tough challenge from a resur-gent Congress led by RahulGandhi, as well as youngPatidar and Dalit leadersHardik Patel, Alpesh Thakorand Jignesh Mewani. The angeragainst demonetisation andGST was visible on the groundamong the business commu-nity and more than twodecades of anti-incumbencyposed a real challenge.

The Congress won 77 seats,compared to 61 in the 2012elections. The party may see asilver lining in the Gujaratverdict but after its failure toretain Himachal Pradesh, thegrand old party now rules onlyKarnataka and Punjab amongthe major States, besidesPuducherry, Meghalaya andMizoram. Karnataka elections

are due next year.If Shah was engaged in

micro management, thenModi single-handedly led theBJP campaign. But Modi wasable to win over the upset vot-ers and convince them that healone could take Gujarat andnation on the path of develop-ment and economic revival.

The PM must have sensedthat a close contest was devel-oping in Gujarat. Not surpris-ingly, he addressed 34 rallies inthe State. Compare this with 31rallies he addressed in a muchbigger States like Uttar Pradeshin the Assembly polls, and itbecomes clear how seriouslyModi took the Gujarat polls.

After the tough nature ofGujarat challenge, all eyes willbe on the next Budget. Thefarm sector can come for spe-cial attention in the Budgetafter the BJP conceded majorground to the Congress inrural belt. Also, focus will shifton the nature of economicreforms the PM might haveplanned to undertake in theweeks and months to come.

The BJP has decided tosend Finance Minister ArunJaitley and Saroj Pandey asobservers to finalise leadershipissue in Gujarat. This wasdecided the party’s highestdecision-making body,Parliamentary Board, whichmet on Monday evening in thepresence of Modi and Shah.

The results also prove thosewrong who predicted thatGujarat Chief Minister VijayRupani is on a sticky wicket.Rupani won by a margin ofover 54,000 votes from RajkotWest Assembly constituency bydefeating the wealthiest candi-date in fray, Indranil Rajguru ofthe Congress.

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Riding a strong anti-incum-bency wave and a positive

vote for change, the BJP onMonday wrested the hill Stateof Himachal Pradesh fromthe Congress and will form thenext Government.

Though Himachalaffirmed its faith in the poli-cies of the NDA Governmentand gave thumbs up to theintensive campaign of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andthe electoral strategy of BJPchief Amit Shah, it, however,gave some jitters to the party.BJP’s chief ministerial candi-date Prem Kumar Dhumal bitthe dust. He was defeated inSujanpur from where he wascontesting for the first timeand not from his traditionalstronghold of Hamirpur byprotégé-turned rival RajinderRana.

After Dhumal’s defeat,some of his camp followersamong the newly electedMLAs, offered to vacate theirseats for him. BJP’s victoriouscandidate from KutleharKunwar Vikram Singh offeredto vacate his seat for bringingin Dhumal to the StateAssembly. A section of his sup-

porters floated conspiracy the-ories as he was allotted a con-stituency, which was altogeth-er new for him.

A Dhumal supporter saidbeing a disciplined soldier ofthe party, he accepted to con-test elections from any seatgiven. He said late announce-ment of Dhumal’s name as CMcandidate has cost him per-sonally as he could not focuson his own constituency but inthe entire State where heensured the success of BJP.

Dhumal, who contributedsignificantly in the overallsuccess of the party alongwith his son and HamirpurMP Anurag Thakur, acceptedhis defeat and said that theresult was unexpected and theparty would do introspection.He congratulated the winnersand party workers for thespectacular victory.

The defeat diluted thesweet taste of victory as theparty will have to look forsomeone else, most probably,Union Minister, JP Nadda,the choice of the central lead-ership, as the next head of theGovernment. The loss of stateBJP president Satpal SinghSatti also was not music to theears of BJP supporters.

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The Gujarat Congress head-quarters in Gandhinagar,

which used to remain desertedon result days during the pastfive Assembly polls since 1995,was a buzzing place on Mondaydespite yet another electoraldefeat in the State elections.

There is a reason to cheerfor the grand old party. It put upa commendable show in theelections and was set to form astrong Opposition.

But the outcome was not assatisfying for the party’s faces inGujarat. Among the losers wereits senior most leaders likeShanktisinh Gohil and former

presidents of Gujarat PradeshCongress Committee (GPCC)Arjun Modhvadia andSiddharth Patel. Moreover, for-

mer Union Minister in Man-mohan Singh’s GovernmentTushar Chaudhary also lost.

However, two youngsters,

who had spearheaded OBCand Dalit movements, AlpeshThakore and Jignesh Mevaniwon convincingly from

Radhanpur and Vadgam con-stituencies in North Gujaratregion. Mevani won as inde-pendent but the Congress did-n’t put its candidate in Vadgamin his support. Patidar face ofCongress Paresh Dhanani wonfrom Amreli constituency inSaurashtra region defeatingformer Minister BavkuUndhad of the BJP. AlreadyDhanani’s name is doing therounds for the Leader ofOpposition.

Reacting on the result,GPCC president BharatsinhSolanki said that had theCongress won 8-10 seats more,it could have form newGovernment.

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Describing the party victoriesin Gujarat and Himachal

Pradesh as a stamp of approvalfor the development politics ofthe Modi Government, the BJPtop leadership on Mondayasserted that despite attempts bythe Opposition to sow seeds ofcasteism in Gujarat ‘vikas’ and‘performance’ emerged tri-umphant .

Soon after the results ofGujarat and HimachalPradesh, BJP president AmitShah followed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modireached the BJP headquartersamid tumultuous welcome.Earlier, Shah said poll resultsh a v egiven a blow “to the poli-tics of casteism,dynasty andapp e as ement”and resounding-ly backed thepolitics of devel-

opment and performance. After these twin success-

es, there would now be 14States under direct BJP ruleand five States under NationalDemocratic Alliance.

Addressing euphoric partyworkers and leaders, the PrimeMinister said considering thateven second-time return topower is seen as a major vic-tory and ‘editorials are writtenon it’, the performance of theBJP in Gujarat is nothing shortof extraordinary.

Taking a swipe at BJP’sdetractors, Modi said it isbeing said the impact of GSTwould wipe out the BJP first inUttar Pradesh Assembly polls,then in Maharashtra local bod-ies, and finally the battle ofGujarat, but the party wonhandsomely in all these elec-

tions. He said “intellectu-als” , away from the

ground realities, maygo in wrong directionin their assessment.

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One of the key highlights ofthe Gujarat verdict is the

nature of urban-rural divide.The BJP did manage to keep itssway over urban Gujaratdespite anger of the businesscommunity over demonetisa-tion and GST, but the Congressmade deep inroads into therural regions.

In fact, had it not been forthe BJP’s near sweep of theurban clusters, the outcomecould have been tantalizinglyclose. The BJP’s was unstop-pable in its urban bastion,especially of Ahmedabad,Surat, Vadodara and Rajkot.Out of 55 such seats, the BJPwon 44.

But in the Saurashtra-Kutch region, the BJP suffereda setback as it could win only23 out of 54 seats. In 2012 BJPhad won 35 seats from theregion. The Congress wrested

more than 20 seats from theBJP in rural belts.

The result shows that theCongress, with the help of thecaste leaders like Hardik Patel,Alpesh Thakore and JigneshMewavi, who come from ruralsettings, was able to raise ques-tion mark in the mind of ruralvoters about the “lopsided”nature of development eventhough their individual influ-ence seemingly could not kick

up the Congress tally to adecisive level.

The BJP and PrimeMinister Narendra Modiaggressively countered theCongress’ charges on thiscount, but could not undo thatdamage. Obviously, caste sen-timents also played a major rolein creating a sense of disen-chantment in the rural voterstowards the BJP. In the post-result assessment, the BJP did

blame the Congress for divert-ing the poll campaign to theissue of casteism, which itclaimed had been replaced bythe BJP with the plank of“development”.

In some rural pockets,plummeting prices of cottonhad created sense of disquietamong the voters.

Cotton prices in interna-tional market have kept fallingfor the last five years.

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Congress president RahulGandhi on Monday accept-

ed the people’s verdict inGujarat and Himachal Pradeshand thanked his party workersfor fighting “anger with digni-ty” in the polls. Taking to thesocial media, he also expressedgratitude to the people of thetwo States for the love theyshowered on him.

“The Congress partyaccepts the verdict of the peo-ple and congratulates the newGovernments in both States. Ithank the people of Gujarat andHimachal with all my heart forthe love they showed me,”Gandhi tweeted.

“My Congress brothers andsisters, you have made me veryproud. You are different thanthose you fought because youfought anger with dignity. Youhave demonstrated to everyonethat the Congress’ greateststrength is its decency andcourage,” he added.

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At a glittering convocationceremony held at the

Iyappa Hall of Military Collegeof TelecommunicationEngineering (MCTE) on Fridayat Mhow, a batch of 22 Officersof the Signal Officers DegreeEngineering and 42 Officers ofthe Technical Entry Schemecourses graduated from MCTE.

The officers were admittedto the fraternity of engineers byProf Pradeep Mathur, Director,IIT Indore. The officers took apledge to utilise their knowledgefor the progress of the countryand glory of the Indian Army.

In his address, Prof PradeepMathur complimented all offi-cers for their performance on thecourse. He stressed upon theimportance of converged com-munications and its implemen-tation through various initiativesin the defence force.

He emphasized that an offi-cer’s endeavor should be, first tobecome a good human being, agood soldier and a considerateleader of men and then aninnovative and outstanding

technocrat.Lt Gen R Sabherwal, VSM,

Commandant, Military Collegeof TelecommunicationEngineering in his addresscongratulated all the graduat-ing officers on culmination oftheir respective courses. Hebrought out the importance ofleadership and urged the youngleaders to be more courageousand responsible.

He exhorted the passingout officers to keep pace withthe phenomenal changes intechnology, especially in thefield of Information andCommunication Technologyand always strive for profes-sional growth.

MCTE which boasts ofan impressive campus andlaboratories is the only insti-tution in the nation which istraining officers in the spe-cialized fields of Informationand CommunicationTechnology, ElectronicWarfare and CyberOperations, contributingimmensely to the Corps ofSignals and the Indian Army.

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An employee of Indoremunicipal Corporation

(IMC) was spotted smoking inopen, but neither the IMC northe district administration hastaken it seriously.

The employee of the IMCengaged in anti-encroachmentsquad was spotted smoking onCorporation vehicle bearingregistration number MP 09CG 4873 at Vijaynagar squareduring the busy traffic hourswhich was engaged in cleaningand removing the encroach-ment of the city.

The employee was smok-ing publically standing on theopen vehicle. The onlookers feltvery sad watching this episode.The director of MadhyaPradesh voluntary health asso-ciation MPVHA which isengaged in tobacco free societyMukesh Sinha told The Pioneerthat it is absolutely wrong tosmoke in public place and theemployee should be bookedunder section 4 of IndianTobacco Act, he added.

Sinha further said that fewmonths back his organizationhad conducted a smoke freecampaign with the help ofIndore administration and thenthe SDMs had fined the peoplesmoking in public.

The Indore municipal cor-poration should take somestrict actions on such employ-ees and the Indore NagarNigam should issue a writtenorder to all its employees not tosmoke in public and should getthat order executed properly.We will also again start a cam-paign for tobacco free Indore innext few days, he added.

Notably, Indore city thatbagged first position in cleancities of India under SwatchBharat Abhiyan, nobody isconcerned towards making thecity smoke free.

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Cyber crime police havenabbed a 20-year-old youth

for cheating his grandfather tothe tune of Rs 2 lakh by usingPaytm e-wallet at BaghMughalia.

The victim GotumalDaamde lodged a complaintwith the cyber crime cell afterhe came to know about trans-actions worth Rs 2 lakhfrom his SBI bank accountthrough e-wallet Paytm.

In his complaint victimstated that he used to keep hisATM card safely and has nevershared details of the ATM cardand when he went to update hispassbook in his SBI, he foundthat transactions amounting toRs 2 lakh were done and whenhe checked with the bank offi-cials, he was informed thatPaytm was used to transfercash.

Based on the complaint thepolice started investigation andfound that the fraud was com-mitted by Ayush Choudharyand surprisingly the accusedwas victim’s grandson.

Later in the investigation itwas found that the transactionswere done by the accused fromHoshangabad road area andtraced the location of theaccused and was nabbed. It wasfound that the victim was hismaternal grandfather and he hasobtained information of hisbank account and used to oper-ate Paytm e-wallet and trans-ferred around Rs 2 lakh to hisSBI account.The accused con-fessed that he obtained infor-mation of his grandfather’s bankaccount without informing himand used the same to transfermoney. The reason of commit-ting crime remained unknown.

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Chief Minister ShivarajSingh Chouhan has said

that the pace of Bhind’s devel-opment will not be hinderedand no paucity will come inthe way of dignity and splen-dor of Bhind.

Chouhan was performingthe bhooomi poojan and ded-icating the developmentworks costing Rs 502 crore inBhind. He also distributedfinancial assistance of Rs 135crore to 33,074 beneficiariesunder the various schemes onthe occasion. Union Ministerfor Panchayati Raj and RuralDevelopment Narendra SinghTomar presided over the pro-gramme.

Chouhan further said thatthe state government hasalready made all the prepara-tions for Chamabal ExpressWay. Beside this, SainikSchool at Bhind will also bestarted shortly. The Bhinddistrict will also be included

in the Mukhya Mantri PayjalAvardhan Yojana. He madeannouncement for construc-t ion of One thousandPradhan Mantri houses inthe Bhind City.

Informing about the var-ious schemes, Chouhan men-tioned that a bill has beenpassed by the state govern-ment for the security ofwomen. A provision of deathpenalty has been made for theculprits involved in heinouscrimes against children andwomen. Besides, a provisionof 10 years has been made bythe state government againsteve teasing. While encourag-ing the children for highereducation, Chouhan said thatlack of funds will not inter-rupt children’s education.

A decision has been takenby the government to lowerthe percentage marks from 75to 70 per cent from the nextyear.

Now students’ fee thatsecure 70 percent marks will

be borne by the state govern-ment for further studies.

Union Minister NarendraSingh Tomar said that sewerline works at a cost of Rs 375crore will be carried out inBhind city under the AmrutYojana. People of Bhind citywill get rid of sewer problemon completion of this sewerline. Minister for UrbanDevelopment and HousingMaya Singh stated that UrbanDevelopment Department isworking speedily to providebasic amenities to the citizens.

Minister of State forGeneral Administration LalSingh Ar ya, Member ofParliament Bhagirath Prasad,MLAs Narendra SinghKushwaha, Chowdhar yMukesh Singh Chaturvedi,Mayor Ashok Argal, PresidentNagar Pal ika KalavatiMiholia, President MehgaonUrban Body Mamta Bhadoria,Public Representative andlarge number of citizens werepresent in the programme.

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Chhattisgarh unit ofBharatiya Janata Party

(BJP) on Monday celebratedvictory of the party in theGujarat and Himachal PradeshAssembly elections here.

A large number of BJPoffice bearers and workersgathered at the BJP office at the‘Ekatma Parisar’ and celebrat-ed the moment with distribu-tion of sweets and with beatingof drums.During the first halfthe contest , the BJP and the

Congress were neck to neckand thus, there was a silence inthe BJP camp but as the leadmargins increased in the sec-ond half the BJP leaders start-ed to come to the partyoffice.After 2 p.m. a huge gath-ering thronged the office to cel-ebrate the moment. State BJPPresident Dharamlal Kaushikand other senior office bearersof the organisation were pre-sent on this occasion.The BJPleaders have given the credit ofthe victory to the PrimeMinister Narendra Modi and

party's National President AmitShah. Kaushik while com-menting on the victory saidthat the people have once againreposed their faith in BJP andhave given mandate to theorganization which is in powerin Gujarat for the past 22years.It was just the beginningand soon it would be repeatedin Chhattisgarh, he said. “InChhattisgarh too, the BJP willform the Government for thefourth consecutive time in arow and will make history”,Kaushik said.

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Though the Congress partycould not reach the

required numbers for formingthe Government in Gujarat, itgave a good fight to theBharatiya Janata Party, com-mented Chhattisgarh In-chargeof All India CongressCommittee P.L. Punia on theresults of Assembly electionsheld in Gujarat and HimachalPradesh.

He was on visit of the Stateon Monday to participate inseveral programmes organisedto mark the birth anniversaryof Sant Guru Ghasidas.

Talking to reporters atSwami Vivekanand Airport,Punia said in upcomingAssembly polls in Chhattisgarh,the performance of the partywould be improved under theleadership of new AICC ChiefRahul Gandhi.

Putting an end to the spec-ulation that ChhattisgarhPradesh Congress Committee(CGPCC) President BhupeshBaghel would be called to NewDelhi and would be given

responsibility in AICC, Puniasaid that the organisation in thestate would continue workingunder leadership of Baghel.

There might be minorchanges in the organisationbut not the leadership, he clar-ified.

Punia also greeted the peo-ple of Chhattisgarh on birthanniversary of Sant GuruGhasidas and said that heexpects that the people of statewould follow the path shownby the saint.

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The Manohar Lal KhattarGovernment which recent-

ly returned from the three-dayHimachal sojourn, has nowasked all its departments tocomply to the directions on fix-ation of expenditure on statefunctions and official meetings.

In a fresh order from thestate Chief Secretary’s office, alldepartments in the State

Government have been askedto adhere to the instructionsregarding fixation of expendi-ture on VVIPlunch/dinner/snacks andtea/coffee for use of govern-ment official meetings, statefunctions and state guest.

The Government has fixed�375 per head for VVIPlunch/dinner while �75 perhead is fixed for providingsnacks and tea or coffee in the

state level meetings at HaryanaNiwas here .

A communiqué in thisregard has been sent to allheads of departments, com-missioners of divisions,Registrar General, High Courtof Punjab & Haryana and alldeputy commissioners inHaryana.

The BJP led StateGovernment had earlier issueddirections in this regard in theyear 2015.

Notably, the present BJPled Haryana Government haveattracted sharp criticism fromopposition for squanderingpublic money on sightseeing.The State Government’s recentsojourn to Timber Trail inHimachal was severely criti-cized by the Congress andIndian National Lok Dal.

Earlier, the Chief Ministerand his cabinet was under firefor undertaking foreign tourswhich is in direct contraventionof their government’s directivethat public funds must not bemisused.

With State’s debt liabilityalready crossing �1 lakh crore,the government had fewmonths back ordered consti-tution of a committee underChief Secretary to find ways tocurtail wasteful expenditureand to bring down revenueexpenditure in the state.

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Kerala BJP’s biggest allyBharath Dharma Jana Sena

(BDJS), a party constituted byorganisations of majority com-munities, is seriously thinkingof leaving the NDA. The BDJSis taking a fresh look at its rela-tionship with the BJP at a timewhen the ruling LDF has begunexpansion exercises in view ofthe next Lok Sabha election.However, the State BJP leader-ship seems to be unfazed by theBDJS threat.

The two-year-old BDJS hasdecided not to accept any posi-tions in the boards or corpora-tions coming under the CentralGovernment even if the BJPmakes offers in this regard.

According to BDJS sources,there is a strong opinion with-in the party that it should switchcamps and that the associationwith the BJP is not going tobring any dividend at all to it.

Stating that the issues hisparty have with the BJP –regarding non-allocation ofpromised positions) – havenot been settled so far, StateBDJS president ThusharVellappally said the other day,“The BJP had promised sever-al positions (in the Centralbodies) to us earlier . But ourState committee has now decid-ed not to accept any such posi-tions even offers are made.”

BDJS leaders are claimingthat both the CPI(M)-led rul-ing LDF and the Congress-

headed Opposition UDF areready to induct their party butthey feel that a decision shouldnot be taken hastily. However,they say that a final decisioncould be taken by the timepreparations for the next LokSabha election begin.

“What is the meaning ofbeing in politics and never get-ting even near to power? It isnot our job to work for bring-ing others to power. The BJPhas not given us a fair treatmentdespite the many promises ithad made when we had becomeits ally. Power does matter andwe shouldn’t allow ourselves tobe used,” said a top BDJS leader.

Launched on December 5,2015 as a political party of var-ious communities of the major-

ity religion, the Bharat DharmaJana Sena draws its actualstrength from the influentialSree Narayana DharmaParipalana (SNDP) Yogam,organisation of Hindu back-ward Ezhavas who constituteover 23 per cent of Kerala’s totalpopulation.

SNDP Yogam general sec-retary Vellappally Natesan,father of Thushar and the realdriving force behind the BDJS,has been advocating the need ofsevering ties with the BJP andexamine the available options forthe past several months despitethe fact that it was none otherthan himself who had led thenegotiations with the BJP lead-ership before joining the NDA.

The BDJS joined the BJP-

led alliance before the Assemblyelection of May, 2016 and it hadfielded candidates in 37 of thetotal 140 constituencies. Thoughit could not win any seat, it man-aged to gather about four per-cent of the total valid votes whilethe vote-share of the BJP, whichcontested in 98 seats, rose to 11percent from the 6.03 per centit had got in 2011.

BDJS leaders are claimingthat the BJP could not haveimproved its vote-share in Keralawithout its help and that it wasalso instrumental in the victoryof a BJP candidate, senior leaderO Rajagopal, for the first time inKerala’s history in the lastAssembly election. “But the BJPdoes not seem to believe in rec-iprocating,” said a BDJS leader.

However, the State BJPleadership thinks that the BDJSthreat need not be taken seri-ously as it views the move onlyas part of a strategy of pre-elec-tion negotiation. According toBJP leaders, the BDJS is mak-ing demands – like eight out ofthe 20 Lok Sabha seats in theState in the next polls – that arenot proportional to its strength.

A top BJP leader said thatthe State leadership need notworry about the BDJS’s threatalso because that party had heldnegotiations for joining thecoalition directly with the cen-tral leaders. “If Thushar andVellappally (Natesan) have anygrievance, they should take itup with our central leadership,”he said.

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For the second consecutiveday, Parliament witnessed

uproar on Monday by theCongress protesting againstPrime Minister Narendra Modi'sremarks against his predecessorManmohan Singh for attendinga dinner here recently wherePakistan diplomats and digni-taries were present. Both theHouses were adjourned for theday shortly after noon due to theensuing din.

While the Rajya Sabhacould not transact any legisla-tive business, the Governmentmanaged to introduce five Billsamidst protest in the LokSabha. Finance Minister ArunJaitley also tabled the'Supplementary Demand forGrants — Second Batch for2017-18,' in the lower House.

The five Bills introduced are'The National Council forTeacher Education(Amendment) Bill', 'ThePayment of Gratuity(Amendment) Bill', The Dentists(Amendment) Bill', 'The IndianForest (Amendment) Bill' and'The Representation of thePeople (Amendment) Bill.'

The main Opposition partymade its intentions clear to dis-rupt proceedings in the RajyaSabha soon after various min-isters laid papers when thehouse met for the day.

Congress leader Anand Sharmabrought up the issue of Modi'sremarks and sought suspensionof business for the day to dis-cuss the issue. DeputyChairman PJ Kurien said theCongress notice for suspensionwas rejected by Chairman MVenkaiah Naidu.

As Congress membersprotested, leader of opposi-tion Ghulam Nabi Azad saidthe voice of the Opposition wasgetting "muzzled" adding theirnotice was getting turned downevery day. He also demandedthat the Prime Minister shouldcome to the House to substan-tiate his allegations against hispredecessor. Sharma said insti-tutional respect is inherentpart of democracy addingManmohan Singh is also a sit-ting MP and Modi should clar-ify his charges against him.

During an election rally inGujarat recently, the PrimeMinister had alleged that several

Congress members includingSingh were present in the din-ner meeting attended by thePakistanis and an alleged con-spiracy was conceived againstthe BJP in the poll bound State.

Not willing to oblige thechair to let the house run,Congress members came intothe well raising slogans forcingKurien to adjourn the house for45 minutes at 11.15 am.Similar scenes were seen whenthe House met again withSharma raising the issue again.Naidu persisted on continuingwith the Question Hour sug-gesting that a separate notice bemoved for suspending businesswhich he would consider.

As several Congress mem-bers began shouting slogans,the Chairman asked them toabstain from such acts as theentire nation was watching theproceedings. Unable to pacifythe agitated members, Naiduthen adjourned the House for

the day at about 12.05 pm.In the Lok Sabha too, the

Congress raised the issue dur-ing the Zero Hour and troopedinto the well along with the Leftmembers who also sought toraise certain issues. Congressmembers raised slogans againstthe Prime Minister anddemanded an apology for hisremarks against Singh. As theprotests continued, SpeakerSumitra Mahajan adjournedthe proceedings for the day.

Earlier, soon after theHouse assembled for the day,the proceedings wereadjourned till noon followingnoisy scenes amid sloganeeringfrom both sides of the House.While BJP members raisedslogans hailing the PrimeMinister and the party, theopposition raked up theremarks made by him againstSingh. Some other Oppositionmembers raised the issue offloods in Odisha.

As soon as the House met,Mahajan referred to the deathof people in a boat accident inAndhra Pradesh, the devasta-tion caused by the Ockhicyclone, earthquakes in Mexicoand Iran-Iraq border and ter-ror attacks in various parts ofthe world, including the US, theUK, Afghanistan and Egypt.

The Speaker also congrat-ulated Indian men's andwomen's hockey teams, boxerMary Kom and weightlifterMirabai Chanu for their "out-standing achievements" as wellas wished them success.

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Days after India said that itexpects Maldives to be

sensitive towards its concernskeeping in mind its `IndiaFirst' policy, Maldives ForeignMinister Mohammad Asimassured New Delhi that rela-tions with India is `time-test-ed' and his Government iscommitted to enhance it fur-ther.

"Relations with India aretime-tested and is based onpeople to people contact &cooperation in several sectors.We remain committed to fur-ther enhancing and strength-ening existing ties," Asim saidon Twitter.

The statement fromMaldives FM came just twodays after Ministry of ExternalAffairs spokesperson RaveeshKumar, while commenting on

China-Maldives ties, said Indiawelcomes development of bilat-eral relations between the twocountries as long as they con-tribute to the peace and stabil-ity in the region. He added thatIndia attaches highest impor-tance to its relations withMaldives.

Raveesh's statement camein context of questions onMaldives growing warmthtowards China and the recentFree Trade Agreement (FTA)between the two countries thatwas hurriedly pushed throughin the Maldives Parliament, ina special session.

The FTA came as a sur-prise for people both inMaldives and in India asMaldives President AbdullaYameen had just a year agoannounced that Maldives' firstFTA will be with India. Yameenalso made his first State visit to

China recently."Our two countries have

strong historical and civilisa-tional linkages and also at thepeople to people level. We arealso committed to supportdemocracy, development andstability in Maldives. It is ourexpectation that as a close andfriendly neighbour Maldiveswill be sensitive to our concernsin keeping with its India Firstpolicy," Raveesh said. MaldivesForeign Minister's statementmakes it clear that hisGovernment has taken note ofIndia's positive comments.

Meanwhile, the Oppositionparties of Maldives haveapproached court for quashingof suspension of their threecouncillors who were suspend-ed for meeting Indian ambas-sador to Maldives, AkhileshMishra, following a prohibitionby its Home Ministry.

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Three Bills were tabled in theLok Sabha on Monday —

one pertained to exemptingfelling and transporting bam-boo grown in non-forest areasfrom the State permit, the sec-ond meant for doing away thepractice of nominating prac-ticing dentists who do not haverequired qualifications to theDental Council of India (DCI)while the third related to peri-od of maternity leave and gra-tuity that can be availed byemployees under a Central law.

The Indian Forest (Amen-dment) Bill, 2017 —whichwould omit bamboos growingin non-forest areas from thedefinition of trees —was intro-duced by EnvironmentMinister Harsh Vardhan evenas BJD leader B Mahtab raisedconcerns and opposed the leg-islation.

Last month, the Govern-ment had come out with anOrdinance to amend the IndianForest Act, 1927 in this regard.This Bill would replace thisordinance.

Before the Bill was intro-duced in the House, Mahtabopposed it by saying theGovernment wants to do awaywith the requirement of seek-ing permission from States fortransportation of bamboo.

“Whom are you protect-ing?... You are protecting theinterests of traders,” Mahtab

claimed as he opposed the Bill.In response, Vardhan said theapprehensions of the memberare not right and the Bill wouldhelp the farmers.

Under the Dentist(Amendment) Bill, 2017 intro-duced by Health Minister JPNadda, the register of dentistsis maintained in two parts —A and B. Part A consists of alldentists possessing recogniseddental qualifications.

Part B comprises personsnot holding such qualifica-tions but are engaged in den-tistry as principal means oflivelihood for at least five yearsprior to commencement of theAct on March 29, 1948.Registration under Part B waspermitted from a date prior toMarch 29, 1948.

This category was meantfor persons displaced duringPartition, those displaced fromBangladesh (since its formationin 1971) or repatriated fromBurma or Ceylon after April 14,1957 and before March 25,

1971, the Statement of Objectsand Reasons said.

Through this Bill, theGovernment proposes to omitthe provisions for nominatingthose registered under Part B tothe dental council, as well as forelecting such people to Statedental councils and joint Statedental councils.

Yet another Bill that wasintroduced in the Lok Sabhathat will allow the Governmentto notify the period of mater-nity leave and gratuity that canbe availed by employees undera central law. The Payment ofGratuity (Amendment) Bill,2017 was introduced by LabourMinister Santosh KumarGangwar in the House.

According to the Statementof Objects and Reasons of theBill, the amendment wouldallow the Central Governmentto notify the maternity leaveperiod for "female employees asdeemed to be in continuousservice in place of existing 12weeks".

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New Delhi: The Governmenthas spent around �970 croreon advertising through theDepartment of Audio VisualPublicity (DAVP) in 2016-17,the Rajya Sabha wasinformed on Monday.

An amount of about �468crore was spent for publicitythrough print media (news-papers and periodicals), whilearound �315 crore for adver-tisements via television chan-nels and � 182 crore throughradio, Union Minister of Statefor Information andBroadcasting RajyavardhanSingh Rathore said in a writ-ten reply. Besides, over �5crore was also spent for multi-media creative works, he said.

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The Indian insurance regu-lator on Monday called for

standardisation of hospitalhealthcare costs within a city asit suggested a string of steps likeintroducing community groupinsurance products to bringdown distribution costs andensure companies are not bur-dened with fictitious claims.

Aim of "responsibility andresponsiveness" in deliveringhealth insurance servicesshould be added to the goal ofachieving affordable healthinsurance in the country by2025, Insurance Regulatoryand Development Authorityof India (IRDAI) Chairman TSVijayan said after inauguratinga health insurance conferencehere organised by industrychamber FICCI.

"The time is perhaps ripe tolook at introducing communi-ty group insurance products tobring down distribution costsand determining the genuine-ness of health insuranceclaims," Vijayan said, whilenoting that the authenticity ofclaims by the insured could beverified through members of acommunity or group so thatinsurance companies were not"unnecessarily burdened withfictitious claims."

The IRDAI chief alsounderlined the need for stan-dardisation of costs of health-care from one hospital toanother in a city. "This analy-sis could be done procedure-wise in a particular city to allowthe insured to opt for a hospi-tal of his choice," he said.

Moreover, Vijayan empha-sised the need to bring downout-of-pocket expenses ofpatients, currently estimated tobe at 62 per cent of all health-care costs.

G Srinivasan, Chairman,FICCI Health InsuranceCommittee and Chairman &Managing Director, The NewIndia Assurance, said that whilelife expectancy in India hasgone up significantly, the dis-ease burden is still very high.The health insurance penetra-tion was abysmally low inIndia at 30 per cent and there-fore there was a long way to go.

Dr Sanjaya Baru, SecretaryGeneral of FICCI, said thatthere was a need to address theanxiety of the customers as theyavail of the benefits of healthinsurance since many remain inthe dark with regard to costsand the services offered tothem. He therefore stressedthe imperative of responsibili-ty amongst healthcare providersin dealing with patients.

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Twelve persons were killedwhen a major fire broke out

in a snack shop at Andheri’sSakinaka locality in northMumbai, after the structurecollapsed in the early hours ofMonday.

The victims, all men agedbetween 28 and 30 years, weresleeping inside the BhanuFarsan Mart located insideMakharia compound alongSakinaka’s Khairani road atAndheri (East), when the firebroke out inside the shop.

Having received a com-plaint about the break-out offire at 4.15 am, the fire brigadepersonnel — accompanied bythree fire engines, four jumbowater tankers and an ambu-lance — rushed to the sceneimmediately afterwards.

The fire fighters extin-guished the fire at 4.38 am andpulled 12 persons from insidethe shop, which gave way

shortly after the fire envelopedthe structure.

All 12 persons, who hadsustained severe burn wounds,were declared dead withinhours after their admission tothe nearby Rajawadi Hospitalat Ghatkopar in north-eastMumbai. “All the twelve per-sons had sustained 100 per cent

burns. They were declareddead between 8.15 am and9.37 am,” a hospital spokesper-son said.

Informed sources at theRajawadi Hospital attributedthe fire to a cylinder blast thattook place inside the farsanshop, located in a gala admea-suring 60 X 30 sq feet. The elec-

tric wiring, installations andhuge stock of eatables, furnitureand sheets were gutted in thefire.

The bodies of the deceasedpersons, which had not beenidentified till late in theevening, were sent for post-mortem shortly after they werepronounced dead.

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Lucknow: The Yogi Govern-ment in Uttar Pradesh onMonday tabled its firstSupplementary Budget of thecurrent fiscal 2017-18 to the tuneof �11,388 crore with focusing itsagenda of development of theinfrastructure like road, power,health, panchayatiraj and schemefor the welfare of the poor anddowntrodden sections of society.

The Supplementary Budgetof �11,388.17 crore would beadditional to over �3,63 lakhcrore of the total Budgetapproved by the State Legisla-ture in the Budget Session heldin July this year. The BJPGovernment took over onMarch 19. Finance MinisterRajesh Agarwal tabled theSupplementary Budget in theAssembly after the QuestionHour in the presence of the CM.

According to the new

schemes of the Government,Deen Dayal Upadhaya KhadiMarketing DevelopmentAssistance scheme has beenlaunched with a token provi-sion of �1000. As much as�1,700 crore has been provid-ed for the construction of toi-lets in the State to under theCentre’s Swachchhata Mission.

The Government has sanc-tioned �380 crore for thePoorwanchal expressway while�1,500 crore are proposed to beallotted for the Prime MinisterAwas (rural) scheme.

Surprisingly, a whoopingamount �39.48 lakh has beensought for the portrait of Yogi inthe photo Gallery of the VidhanSabha while �7.30 lakh havebeen sought for setting up a por-trait of Speaker Hridya NarainDikshit in the Central hall of theVidhan Bhawan. PNS

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UP Chief Minister YogiAdityanath on Monday

reiterated that the BJPGovernment is committed toprovide security to all citizenswithout any discriminationand establish rule of law in theState. Seeking cooperation ofthe Opposition parties in thepassage of ‘UP OrganisedCrime Control Bill 2017’(UPCOCA), Yogi said the pro-posed legislation will eliminatethe menace of the organisedcrime in the State. The Bill islikely to be introduced in theState Assembly on Wednesday.

The hardened criminalsinvolved in organised crimesare surrendering in courts ofneighbouring States and goingto jail. With the introduction ofthe UPCOCA Bill, the Govern-ment is determined to close thisescape route for the criminals.

“The State Governmentrecently attached the propertyworth �290 crore of a mafia donin Saharanpur and you will seemany more such drastic actionin the days to come,” said theChief Minister in the StateAssembly on Monday whilereplying to the adjournmentnotice moved by the Oppositionparties. He added, “The organ-ised crime in UP at present wasat the lowest level and the peo-ples mandate in 2017 UP StateAssembly elections is an ampletestimony to this’’.

Seeking the cooperationof the Opposition parties formaintaining law and order, theCM said, “I welcome theSamajwadi Party and BahujanSamaj Party to work for evolv-ing consensus for maintaininglaw and order and also yourcooperation for the passage ofthe UPCOCA Bill’’. The ChiefMinister, however, added “noneshould try to give politicalpatronage to the criminals’’.

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Maharashtra Governor ChVidyasagar Rao on

Monday heaped praise on theSindhis by saying that themigrant community membersnot only picked up the lostthreads, but on the strength ofhard work and determination,transformed themselves intoone of the most successful com-munities anywhere in the world.

Speaking at a functionorganised by the Global SindhiCouncil at Raj Bhavan to felic-itate eminent Sindhis, theGovernor said: “In the histo-ry of human civilisation, fewcommunities have sufferedsuch trauma and pain as theSindhis did, in the aftermath ofthe Partition of India. Amoment arrived in the history

of the nation that the Sindhiswere left with no other choice,but to abandon their home andhearth, and come to this partof India empty-handed”

“In recent years, we haveseen the large scale migration ofpeople from Yemen, theRohingyas from Myanmar andso on. Quite often, it becomesextremely difficult for migrantcommunities to pick up thethreads of their life all overagain, and to start a new life inan alien land. Many such com-munities get entangled in themesh of poverty and disease andnever come out it,” Rao said.

“The Sindhis are perhaps asingular exception. The Sindhisnot only picked up the lostthreads, but on the strength ofhard work and determination,transformed themselves into

one of the most successfulcommunities anywhere in theworld,” the Governor said.

Congratulating the GlobalSindhi Council and itsChairman Ram Jawhrani fortheir efforts in preserving andpromoting Sindhi languageand literature and for honour-ing excellence, the Governorsaid: “The Global SindhiCouncil deserves our whole-hearted compliments for cre-ating a tradition to honourachievers from the Sindhicommunity.

“During the last onedecade, the Global SindhiCouncil awards have gained instature and acceptance becauseof the high standards set by theCouncil and the high profile ofthe recipients,” Rao said, as hecongratulated all the awardees.

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The decision of Venkaiah Naidu,the Vice President of India andChairman of the Rajya Sabha,to disqualify two members ofhis House — Sharad Yadav and

Ali Anwar Ansari — and the reasoningprovided by him has added a new dimen-sion to the anti-defection law whilestrengthening its provisions and reinforc-ing the original intent of the law makers.

This decision of the Chairman willhave a significant bearing on how presid-ing officers will henceforth considerwhat constitutes “voluntarily giving up”membership of a House. It will also, hope-fully, push presiding officers to completeinquiries under this Act within threemonths and stop needless procrastination.

The issue of defection of these twomembers arose following the decision ofBihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar tobreak away from a pre-poll alliance knownas the mahagathbandhan with some par-ties, including Lalu Yadav’s RashtriyaJanata Dal, to strike an alliance with theBharatiya Janata Party. Both Yadav andAnsari opposed Kumar’s decision, joinedforces with Lalu Yadav and publiclydenounced the new alignment. However,Kumar commanded the support of anoverwhelming majority of the law makersand office-bearers of his party — the JanataDal(United) or the JD(U). Consequently,the JD(U) lost no time in dislodging Yadavfrom the post of leader of the JD(U) in theUpper House and initiated proceedingsagainst Yadav and Ansari.

Under paragraph 2(1) of the anti-defection law, which is placed in theTenth Schedule of the Constitution, amember can be disqualified if he “volun-tarily gives up” the membership of theparty to which he belongs or when hevotes or abstains from voting in theHouse, contrary to the directions issuedby the political party to which he belongs.The critical question that arose in thesetwo cases was whether the conduct of thetwo MPs amounted to them “voluntari-ly given up” the membership of theirparty — the JD(U).

The two MPs argued that they hadnot voluntarily given up membership ofthe party. In fact, it was Kumar who haddone so by violating the aims and objectslaid down in the party constitution and“by acting against the principles onwhich was party was funded”. They alsocontended that the decision of Kumar tobreak away from the mahagathbandhanand to align himself with the BharatiyaJanata Party had resulted in a split in theJD(U) and that their faction command-ed majority support after the split.

The MPs tried to argue that the sanc-tity of a pre-poll alliance cannot be vio-lated. But their attempt to equate the

mahagathbandhan to a political partydoes not hold water. In fact, the SecondAdministrative Reforms Commissionhas recommended that the anti-defectionlaw be amended to protect the sanctity ofpre-poll alliances. It has said that coali-tions are now the norm and there is needto legally bind pre-poll coalition partnersto their alliances.

However, Parliament has not extend-ed the anti-defection law to pre-pollalliances. So, as the law stands today, itrevolves round just political parties. TheNational Commission to Review theWorking of the Constitution also empha-sised the need for legislators defectingfrom one party to another to contest elections afresh.

The Chairman set aside their objec-tions to the party, electing a new leaderin the Rajya Sabha. The majority of theMPs belonging to the party had chosena new leader. The Chairman said in thiscontext, “I have to go by the dictum thatin a democracy, it is the rule of the major-ity and the voice of the majority will haveto be accepted.”

In this case, he said the two MPs hadfailed to provide evidence that their groupcommanded majority in the legislatureparty. Further, the public denounce-ment of Kumar for withdrawing from themahagathbandhan by the two MPs and

their decision to share public platformswith the JD(U)’s rivals “are enough toestablish beyond doubt” that they hadindulged in anti-party activities.

The central point to be determined inthis case is whether the two MPs had “vol-untarily given up” membership of the party.The Chairman relied on two significantjudgements of the Supreme Court in sup-port of the contention that these words hada much wider connotation than just the for-mal resignation from a party. In Ram NaikVs Union of India, the Supreme Courtobserved that the words “voluntarily givenup his membership” are not synonymouswith resignation and have a wider conno-tation. Even in the absence of a formal res-ignation, an inference can be drawn fromthe conduct of a member that he has vol-untarily given up his membership of thepolitical party to which he belongs.

In another case, the Supreme Courtobserved that “the act of voluntarily giv-ing up the membership of the politicalparty may be either express or implied”.Prior to the Supreme Court’s judgementin the Ram Naik case, the Committee ofPrivileges of the Eighth Lok Sabha exam-ined the question as to what constituted“voluntarily giving up membership”.

The committee felt that one should notplace a narrow interpretation of the on theconstitutional provision as it would negate

the very objective which Parliament hadin mind. The meaning of these words, itsaid, must be interpreted according to thespirit in which they have been used.

“The intention of the law-makers isquite clear; that it is not only the overtact of tendering resignation but also byhis conduct that a member may give upthe membership of his political party. Thecommittee are of the view that if a mem-ber by his conduct makes it manifestlyclear that he is not bound by party dis-cipline and is prepared even to wreck itby his conduct, he should be prepared topay the price of losing his seat ….”.

Naidu also took the opportunity toemphasise the need for timely disposal ofpetitions relating to anti-defection. Hereferred to the widespread criticism ofsome presiding officers for inordinatedelay in deciding such cases, therebyallowing defectors to continue as legisla-tors. The Supreme court too had not takenkindly to such delays as in the Speaker,Haryana Vidhan Sabha vs Kuldeep Bishnoi& Ors, the Speaker took around four yearsto decide on a petition seeking disquali-fication. The Chairman said all such casesshould be decided within three months.Only then can the evil of defections beeffectively thwarted.

(The writer is Chairman, PrasarBharati)

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Cooperation is the key”(December 18). That the WinterSession of Parliament started ona stormy note is not a good sign.Parliamentarians must concen-trate more on transacting businessinstead of indulging in mud-slinging. Wasting precious time ofParliament and Legislatures entailsloss of tax payers’ money.

Clearly, the Opposition mustbe blamed for holding the Houseto ransom. The Congress in par-ticular has not learnt any lessonfrom the numerous defeats it hassuffered. The grand old partymust be reminded that in the 2014Lok Sabha election, it returnedwith less than 10 per cent of totalstrength of seats, snatching fromit the Leader of Parliament status.

Now, it has suffered defeatsin Himachal Pradesh and Gujarattoo. People are watching keenlynot only the performance of theGovernment but also the con-duct of parties when they are inthe Opposition.

KV SeetharamaiahHassan

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Sir — This refers to the editorial,“Move to clean vehicles”(December 18). Though it is noteasy to replicate Norway in termsof bringing cleaner technologyand electrical vehicles but surely,India can take a leaf out ofNorway’s experience and bring inthe much-needed changes. UnionRoad and Transport MinisterNitin Gadkari’s constituency

Nagpur has been provided decentinfrastructure to run electric carsand taxis. The same needs to bereplicated across the country.

I agree with the viewsexpressed in the editorial that onlymaking right noises is not goingto help as necessary policychanges must be undertaken andgreater sops must be given to auto-mobile manufacturers because itis these companies who are at thereceiving end whenever there is anadverse policy change by theGovernment, like the one-stepjump in Bharat Stage fuel.

Also, cost of hybrid vehiclesshould be reduced to bring it atpar with other vehicles so that itbecomes viable purchase for theend users. And once these auto-mobile manufacturers are moti-vated and incentivised to producemore cleaner vehicles, we wouldhave made a huge stride in ourobjective to bring greener andcleaner cars to the country.

Bal GovindNoida

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Bangla express gratitude to Indiafor azadi from Pak” (December16) by Manash Ghosh. Bangladeshbecame a reality due to militaryintervention by India, which alsobore a huge burden of refugeesfrom that country. It is, however,disheartening that our countrycouldn’t leverage this achieve-ment or ensure refugees’ return.

Nimai Charan SwainBhubaneswar

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In times of fluctuating customer-market-policy dynamics, data isone of the greatest asset — it

clarifies, revitalises and reinforcesan organisation’s ability to stayahead of the competition. Data is,therefore, a giant value generatorand its maintenance, management,utilisation and storage is pivotal to help create a blueprint for thenear future.

However, despite technologicaladvances, managing data remainsan arduous task — ensuring its con-tinued relevance, storing and secur-ing it without a glitch and usingvoluminous information to one’sadvantage becomes difficult andrequires a smoothened and stream-lined process flowchart.

As India gears up to ride on ahigh digital wave, enterprises aredevising new strategies to tackle thedata surge. Enter the concept of‘data lakes’ — a much-buzzed-about solution for organisationswho need a better way to store andwork with large amounts of dataand analytics.

Data lakes and big data tech-nologies, like Hadoop, HadoopDistributed File System (HDFS),Hive and HBase, have witnessedincreased popularity because oftheir ability to host raw data fromapplications in all forms, often at asmaller cost than enterprise datawarehouses. The idea is that organisations can then easily lookfor the information they need,regardless of the source or format,and thereby help leverage analyticsmore effectively in day-to-day business operations.

Data lakes, however, also offersa prime opportunity that manyorganisations have been missing —which is the ability to monetisedata. As organisations build their

data lakes, without this longer-term goal in mind, they’re makingdebilitating mistakes that will ulti-mately hinder their ability to turntheir data lake into a scalable andelastic data monetisation platform.

There are five common imple-mentation mistakes that organisations tend to make, whichcan affect long-term business appli-cations for data lake technology:

Too much Hadoop: Hadoopis an extraordinary technology.The types of analyses that were pre-viously only possible on costly pro-prietary software and hardwarecombinations are now being lever-aged by organisations of all typesand sizes simply by deploying freeopen source software cal ledHadoop on commodity hardwareclusters. But when Hadoop distri-butions or clusters pop up all overthe enterprises, there is a goodchance that one is storing loads ofduplicated data.

Many enterprises deployHadoop little by little, departmentby department. This creates silos of

data, which inhibits big data analytics because employees can’tperform comprehensive analysesusing all of the data.

Too much governance: Someorganisations take the concept ofgovernance too far by building adata lake with many restrictions onwho can view, access and work onthe data so much so that no oneends up being able to access thelake, thereby rendering the datauseless. If there’s too much gover-nance, there are chances that onecan choke innovation capability.

Not enough governance:Conversely, some organisationsdon’t have enough governance overtheir data lake, meaning they lackproper data stewards, tools andpolicies to manage access to thedata. If lakes aren’t well-organisedand managed, they can soon accu-mulate immense amounts ofungoverned, low-quality data.

Data can then become ‘pollut-ed’ or ‘tampered with’ and eventu-ally, the business stops trusting thedata, again, rendering the entire

data lake useless.Inelastic architecture: The

most common mistake that organ-isations make is when they buildtheir data lakes with inelastic archi-tecture. This because data storagecan be costly, organisations oftenslowly and organically grow big dataenvironment one server at a time,often starting out with basic serversbut eventually adding high-perfor-mance servers to keep up with thebusiness’ demands. Over the time,growth of data storage outpaces thegrowth of computing needs andmaintaining such a large and phys-ical environment becomes cumber-some and also problematic.

Pet projects: Information tech-nology (IT) groups often champi-on the implementation of datalakes as ‘pet projects’, believingthat if they build a data lake, it willpush the business to use it. ITgroups want to build a data lake andperform analytics on IT data toprove they can perform analytics onthe business’ behalf.

However, IT-used cases are

notoriously low-value exercises froma business perspective, and hence,they do nothing to build credibili-ty with the business stakeholders.

It is, therefore, crucial for busi-nesses to realise that obstacles to datamonetisation, using data lakes, arelarger than just implementationchallenges. As with any emergingtechnology, it will take time beforedata lakes, and, therefore, organisa-tions, who run them, reach their fullpotential. But those who are to startthe journey now — strategically andwith a long-term vision — stand tocreate an enormous competitivelead that will be difficult to dimin-ish in the years to come.

Hence, the future is reserved forthose who fully embrace the uniquecharacteristics of data and analyt-ics and understand the power ofdigital assets that never depletes.These can be used across an infinitenumber of used cases at near-zeromarginal cost.

(The writer is General Manager,data lake and scale-out storage solu-tions, Dell EMC)

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The question of unpaid bills/unpaiddebt and ensuing litigation keepthe courts busy everywhere. Every

legal system provides some or the othermechanism to settle assets of the debtorunder bankruptcy/insolvency laws.These laws have a twin purpose ie, toaddress the debtor’s financial difficultyas quickly and efficiently as possible andto protect the interests of various partiesdirectly concerned with financial diffi-culty, principally creditors and other par-ties with a stake in the debtor’s business.

The Insolvency and BankruptcyCode, 2016, (IBC) seeks to achieve thisvery objective and is a landmark legis-lation in several ways. It brought an endto multiple overlapping legislations cov-ering the arena of bankruptcy andinsolvency of corporate and individualsin various parts of the country by pro-viding a time-bound, step-wise actionplan. The code is derived from the‘Legislative Guide on Insolvency Law ofthe United Nations Commission onInternational Trade’ adopted byResolution of the UN General Assembly,Resolution No.59/40, passed onDecember 2, 2004. It is viewed as a stepin the direction of creating transparent,predictable, efficient and swift legalregime for doing ease of business.

This code is at the nascent stage andthere are several aspects of the codewhich is being clarified through judicialinterpretation in the course of its imple-mentation. The code distinguishesbetween financial creditors and opera-tional creditors. The insolvency processcan be triggered against the company bythe financial creditor, the operationalcreditor or the company itself. Financialcreditors are dealt under Section 7 of thecode. These are banks or financialinstitutions who have advanced loan andcredit facility to the company and thecompany has defaulted the payment.There is no scope for the debtor to raiseany dispute whatsoever when a proceed-ing is initiated under scheme of Section-7 which is a complete in itself.

Sections 8 and 9 of the code dealwith operational creditors. ‘Operationalcreditor’ means a person to whom anoperational debt is owed and includesany person to whom such debt has beenlegally assigned or transferred.‘Operational debt’ is defined under thecode to mean a claim in respect of theprovision of goods or services, includ-ing employment or a debt in respect ofrepayment of dues arising under any lawfor the time being in force and payableto the Union Government, any StateGovernment or any local authority.

Operational creditors may, on theoccurrence of a default ie, on non-pay-ment of a debt or any part of the debt,which has become due and is payablebut has not been paid, deliver a demandnotice of such unpaid operational debtor deliver the copy of an invoice,demanding payment of such amount tothe operational debtor. Within a peri-

od of 10 days of the receipt of suchdemand notice or copy of invoice, thedebtor must submit the proof of the pay-ment of such debt or must bring tonotice of the operational creditor, theexistence of a dispute and the record ofthe pendency of a suit orarbitration pro-ceeding filed before the receipt of suchnotice orinvoice in relation to such dis-pute (Section 8(2)(a)).

One of the issues which came uprepeatedly in last one year before vari-ous National Company Law Tribunal(NCLT) benches was the question of adebtor ‘disputing’ the debt. Conflictingorders were passed by various benchesof the NCLT, while interpreting the pro-visions of Section 8 (2)(a), which laysdown the following:

“The corporate debtor shall, with-in a period of 10 days of the receipt ofthe demand notice or copy of theinvoice mentioned in sub-section (1)bring to the notice of the operationalcreditor — (a) existence of a dispute, ifany, and record of the pendency of thesuit or arbitration proceedings filedbefore the receipt of such notice orinvoice in relation to such dispute.

It must be noted that the expres-sion “dispute” under Section 5(6) ofthe code covers only three things,namely, existence of the amount ofdebt, quality of goods or services orbreach of a representation or warran-ty. Therefore, any dispute has to beconfined to only this and no otheraspect of the commercial dealings.

What vexed legal minds, is the useof the word “and” in Section 8(2)(a),which on a plain reading, appears thatthe debtor had to furnish proof that ithas filed a suit or arbitration if its dis-puting the debt. Merely disputing the

debt is not enough, unless the said dis-pute has been raised either by filing a suitor an arbitration. This also called for apro-active approach on behalf of thedebtor and, instead of waiting for thedemand notice under this code to beraised for the creditor. This interpreta-tion was adopted by the Mumbai benchof NCLT, who in the matter of DFDeutsche Forfait AG and Another vsUttam Galva Steel Limited, held that the“existence of a dispute” means that a suitor arbitration proceedings must bepending before an operational creditorserves a demand notice. Thus, raising adispute in reply to the demand noticedoes not amount to notice of an exist-ing dispute or for that matter filing a suitor initiating arbitration proceedingssubsequent to receipt of demand noticeshall not amount to an existing dispute.

The Delhi bench of NCLT, in thematter of One Coat Plaster, ShivamConstruction Company vs AmbiencePrivate Limited held that the term “dis-pute” needs to have a broad and inclu-sive definition. The Delhi bench furtherheld that it is not mandatory on part ofthe debtor to have initiated a suit or arbi-tration proceeding prior to the receiptof demand notice to assert the existenceof a dispute. Mere response to thedemand notice showcasing existence ofa bona fide dispute shall suffice. TheNational Company Law AppellateTribunal (NCLAT) affirmed these viewsin Kirusa Software Private Limited vsMobilox Innovations Private Limited.

This was finally decided in theauthoritative decision by the SupremeCourt, passed in the same matter ofMobilox Innovations Private LimitedKirusa Software Private Limited (Civilappeal no: 9405 of 2017)

The apex court held that “What isimportant is that the existence of the dis-pute and/or the suit orarbitration pro-ceeding must be pre-existing — ie, itmust existbefore the receipt of thedemand notice or invoice, as the casemay be. Once this is done, the adjudi-cating authority may either admit theapplication or reject it.”

The top court read “and” as “or” andheld that “Even otherwise, the word“and” occurring in Section 8(2)(a)must be read as “or”, keeping in mindthe legislative intent and the fact that ananomalous situation would arise if it isnot read as “or”. If read as “and”, disputeswould only stave off the bankruptcyprocess if they are already pending ina suit or arbitration proceedings and nototherwise. This would lead to greathardship; in that a dispute may arise afew days before triggering of the insol-vency process, in which case, though adispute may exist, there is no time toapproach either an arbitral tribunal ora court. Further, given the fact that longlimitation periods are allowed, wheredisputes may arise and do not reach anarbitral tribunal or a court for up to threeyears, such persons would be outside thepurview of Section 8(2), leading tobankruptcy proceedings commencingagainst them. Such an anomaly couldnot possibly have been intended by thelegislature nor has it so been intended.We have also seen that one of the objectsof the code qua operational debts is toensure that the amount of such debts,which is usually smaller than that offinancial debts, does not enable opera-tional creditors to put the corporatedebtor into the insolvency resolutionprocess prematurely orinitiate theprocess for extraneous considerations.It is for this reason that it is enough thata dispute exists between the parties.”

With this judgement of theSupreme Court, the law on the pointof “dispute” has been clarified to a greatextent. It has provided definite breatherto the operational debtors who mayhave some genuine dispute with respecta pending debt or are holding on thepayment on account or some or theother claim but no formal suit or arbi-tration proceeding has commenced.They stand a chance before the NCLTand can successfully contest an appli-cation for insolvency launched by a dis-gruntled creditor upon showing theexistence of dispute. Operational cred-itors, on the other hand, are requiredto be more mindful and should makean attempt to resolve the disputes withrespect to the pending dues rather thanusing the insolvency mode as a quickfix formula to recover the debt. Thathas never been the purport or theintent of the law on insolvency. It is nota debt recovery mechanism as beenheld in plethora of judgments.

The pronouncement of the apexcourt is binding on all the NCLTs andNCALTs. However, the one questionthat they will still have to ponder uponand decide, on a case-to-case basis, iswhether the dispute raised by the oper-ational debtor is a genuine dispute ora sham? Like always, the tasks beforethe courts is not an easy one.

(The writers are Partners at TRSLaw Offices)

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Congress president RahulGandhi on Monday accept-

ed the people’s verdict both inGujarat and Himachal Pradesheven as the grand old partytermed the outcome of theAssembly polls in PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’shome State as a “moral victo-ry” under the leadership of theGandhi scion.

The Congress blamed theElection Commission for play-ing a partisan role but did notquestion the EVMs. It blamedthe election watchdog for notbeing fair to the Congress andits leaders, including RahulGandhi while it gave fullopportunity to the PM and theBJP leaders to seek votes flout-ing norms of the model code ofconduct.

AICC chief spokesmanRandeep Surjewala lauded the

party performance, which is animprovement over Congress’2012 tally, remarking that theparty has just “lost a front in thebattle.”

Surjewala said that theresults may be seen as a lessonfor Congress, but they were abigger lesson for the BJP.Commenting on BJP’s belowpar performance in PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’s

home turf, it said Congress hasjust lost a front in a bigger bat-tle against the BJP.

AICC general secretary in-charge for Gujarat AshokGehlot said that though theparty lost in two states howev-er it has led to a moral victoryfor the party in Gujarat as wellacross the nation. SeveralCongress leaders attributed theparty’s good show in the polls

to “very effective campaign” ofRahul Gandhi.

Gehlot said Congress isproud of the issue-based cam-paign that it ran in Gujarat. “Ina way, it is a moral win forCongress. We campaigned onreal issues, unlike the BJP,”Gehlot said at a press briefingat the AICC headquartersjoined by Surjewala and formerUnion Minister SushilkumarShinde, who is the party affairsincharge of HP.

Gehlot said that Modiappealed to voters’ emotionsand that PM Modi made per-

sonal remarks against formerCongress President SoniaGandhi, new party PresidentRahul Gandhi and former PMManmohan Singh. “We couldhave used similarly bad lan-guage against PM Modi. But itis not the Congress Party cul-ture to do so,” Gehlot said.

The party cheered to thevote share which gone up to 41per cent, while BJP’s down to49 per cent. Surjewalainformed that six incumbentstate ministers in Gujarat alsolost the elections, besides defec-tors who had switched fromCongress to the BJP.

“People have taught a les-son to those who claimed thatBJP’s tally would cross the150-mark. The ego of the peo-ple who claimed to win morethan 150 seats has been shat-tered,” Surjewala said refer-ring to BJP President AmitShah’s promise in the lead-upto Gujarat polls.

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The wins registered by theBJP in Gujarat and

Himachal Pradesh saw the partycadre celebrating in style atKamalalayam, the Tamil Naduheadquarters of the party onMonday morning itself. Despitetheir animosity for each other,most of the party leaders in theState were seen distributingsweets and jostling for space infront of news camera crew.

But the BJP’s candidateKaru Nagarajan for the R KNagar by-poll scheduled forDecember 21 is fighting a los-ing battle. “The Tamil NaduBJP is in a pathetic conditionand is literally bedridden,according to political com-mentator and columnist R

Rangaraj. “The party has nobase in Tamil Nadu. It also hasno leaders who can take theparty to new heights. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andall-India chief Amit Shah havemade no impact in Tamil Nadu,”

said Rangaraj. The BJP-led NDA front

had won 18 per cent of the pop-ular votes in the 2014 LokSabha election. But it had par-ties like DMDK (Vijayakant),PMK (Ramadoss) and even

Vaiko (MDMK) as alliancepartners. Though the NDA hadto content with just two seats inthe 2004 election, there was afeeling that the front mayemerge as a third alternative inthe Dravidian land. But thefront got disintegrated fasterthan it was formed with all theparties going in different direc-tions. The 2016 Assembly elec-tion saw the NDA finishing therace with just 2 per cent of thepopular votes. All prominentleaders of the BJP includingState president TamilissaiSounderarajan who had con-tested the 2016 Assembly elec-tions lost their security deposits.

“It is going to be a toughtask for the BJP to make anyimpact in Tamil Nadu. Thecentral leadership should over-haul the Tamil Nadu BJP. The

present leadership of the Stateunit is incapable of winningeven a municipal or corporationelection,” said S Rameshan, vet-eran scribe who was the TamilNadu bureau chief of a nation-al news agency for more thanthree decades.

Doraisamy Kuppuram, asenior activist of the BJP basedin Ramanathapuram said it wasdoubtful whether the partywould be able to boast of even25 workers in each of the pollingbooths in the State. “The victo-ries of the BJP in other States hasnot yet inspired the Tamil Naduleaders of the party. Most ofthem are divided into pro-DMK and pro-AIADMKgroups. We do not have pro-BJPleaders in the Tamil Nadu unit,”said another senior leader.

The last time the BJP

entered the Tamil NaduAssembly was in 2001. Four ofits candidates had won the elec-tion as an ally of the DMK.Since then the BJP has not wona single Assembly seat in thethree Assembly elections held inthe State. Union Minister PonRadhakrishnan is the lone BJPMP from Tamil Nadu. But thechances of him getting re-elect-ed from his home turf looksbleak as the DMK has forged upan strong alliance in the run upto the 2019 Lok Sabha election.Radhakrishnan scrapedthrough in the 2014 electiononly because of the disunity inthe Opposition camp. “Had theDMK and Congress contestedthe election together,Radhakrishnan would not haveentered the Lok Sabha,” saidRameshan.

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In a clear indication of inten-sifying her anti-Narendra

Modi rhetoric Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee onMonday construed Gujarat elec-tions results not only as a “moralloss” for the BJP but also as aneffort that had “paved the wayfor a new alternative in 2019.”

The voters of Gujarat hadset the tone for the battle of2019 when India would vote fora “viable alternative” in theCentre, she said, desisting how-ever, from naming the “alter-native” face in an apparent bidto stay afloat as a challenger toRahul Gandhi, experts said.

In a politically significantremark Banerjee had earliernamed all the “like-mindedparties like DMK, AAP, RJD

and even some NDA partnerslike the Shiv Sena” but cau-tiously chose to forget theCongress while underscoringthe “opposition resolve” tounite against the BJP.

Even on Monday she cau-tiously abstained from men-tioning the Congress president’sname while asserting how the“people of Gujarat have finallystarted the process of belling the(saffron) cat.”

Her formal grant of greet-ings to the BJP leadership for itssuccess in the western Stateapart, the Chief Minister said,notwithstanding the “face-sav-ing win” for the BJP the verdicthad confirmed a “moral loss” forthe saffron outfit and now it wasfor the opposition parties tounite and build up on thismoral loss of the saffron brigade.

Citing the voting pattern, --- which clearly showed a fall inBJP’s vote percentage and risein that of the opposition --- theChief Minister thanked thepeople of Gujarat for giving a“balanced” verdict. Politicalanalysts saw in it a chance toproject herself as a viable anti-BJP face alongside RahulGandhi in Delhi. “This is whyshe did not name the Congresspresident for once,” said BNChakrabarty an analyst said.

“I congratulate the Gujaratvoters for their very balancedverdict at this hour.

It is temporary and face-saving win, but it shows amoral defeat for the BJP,”Banerjee tweeted adding“Gujarat voted against atroci-ties, anxiety and injusticecaused to the common people.

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Awhopping 5.5 lakh votersin Gujarat exercised the

option of NOTA (None of TheAbove), which ranked it asfourth after the BJP, Congressand Independents in terms ofgarnering vote percentage. Infact, if the NOTA option gotmore votes than those of estab-lished parties like Mayawati’sBSP and Sharad Pawar’s NCPput together, then it also proveda spoiler for many candidateswho lost by margins less thanthat cast in favour of NOTA.

According to EC data,NOTA garnered 5,51,294 votes(1.8 per cent vote), more thanthe BSP (0.7 per cent), BTP (0.7percent) AINHCP (0.3 percent), RSPS (0.2 per cent) andNCP (0.6 per cent) combined inGujarat Assembly polls. NOTAis exercised by a voter whens/he does not wish to chooseany of the candidates on theballot. During the 2012 GujaratAssembly elections, NOTAoption was not available on theElectronic Voting Machines.

The EC data said the per-centage of NOTA voters wasmore than the votes receivedfive of the seven parties con-testing the Assembly elections.

The BJP got 49.1 per centof the vote share compared toCongress’ 41.4 per cent. Datasuggested that the margin ofvictory for the BJP was less than

10 per cent in 33 constituencies.There are eight seats where thedifference between winner andloser is less than 1000 votes.“Such a percentage of the vot-ers is still not a small numberfor either of the parties toignore. A voter share of thispercentage can swing the pollsin favour of either party,” saida political analyst. Thus it canwell be said that the NOTA fac-tor has helped both theCongress and BJP to improveits tally in Gujarat.

BJP lost the Modasaassembly seat by a margin of147 votes and NOTA received3515 votes. In Botard, BJPwon by a margin of 906 votesand NOTA received 1334 votes.Congress won the Deodar seatby a margin of 972 votes andNOTA received 2988 votes.Similarly, BJP won the Dholkaseat by a margin of 327 voteswhile NOTA obtained 2347vote shares.

The BJP won the Godhraseat by a margin of 258 votes

while NOTA got 3050 votes.On the other hand, Congresswon the Kaprada seat by a mar-gin of 170 votes and NOTAreceived 3868 votes. In Mansa,BJP lost the seat by a margin of524 votes and NOTA received3000 votes.

As per data, BJP won thePorbandar seat by a margin of1855 votes and NOTA received3433 votes. In Khambhat,Congress won by a margin of2318 votes while NOTAreceived 2318 votes. In GujaratChief Minister Vijay Rupani’sRajkot West seat, the NOTAvotes were more than 3,300,while the same in Vadgam(where Congress-supportedindependent Jignesh Mevaniwon) were over 4,200. InGodhra also, NOTA countedover 3,000.

The data further showsthat NOTA has garnered morevotes as compared to BSP, BTP,NCP, AINHCP and RSPS com-bined votes here. NOTA wasintroduced by the electioncommission of India onOctober 11, 2013, following asupreme court order onSeptember 27.

In the 2014 Lok Sabhapolls, when NOTA was intro-duced for the first time in anyparliamentary election, close to60 lakh voters (1.1 percent)opted for this option, whichwas more than the votes polledfor more than 20 parties.

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With the BJP on Mondayretaining Gujarat and

wresting Himachal Pradeshfrom the Congress, party lead-ers described the poll outcomeas a vote for development andtrust in Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Echoing his party’s mood,Modi flashed a victory signafter he arrived in Parliamenthere.

Union Ministers, includingRajnath Singh and PrakashJavadekar, said the polls trendsreflect the impact of Modi’sleadership, while party leaderslike Sakshi Maharaj attributedthe outcome to the PrimeMinister’s “magic”.

“Abhi toh kuch nahi bol-unga kyunki woh haal hi meinadhyaksh bane hain lekin ‘sarmundwate hi ole pade’,” RajnathSingh said in an apparent digat newly elected Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi.

BJP leaders used the 1992Aamir Khan starrer “Jo JeetaWohi Sikandar” title to down-play the better than projectedperformance of the Congress inGujarat and a possible declinein their own numbers.

“Jo jeeta wohi Sikandar(whoever wins is king). This isthe message to those who jokedabout vikas (development),”said Union Minister MukhtarAbbas Naqvi.

Union Minister SmritiIrani seconded him and saidthe victory was dedicated tobooth-level party workers and

those who voted for “goodgovernance” and “develop-ment”.

Asked whether theCongress had given the partya tough fight, she said, “I feel‘Jo jeeta wohi Sikander’...”

Minister Giriraj Singhtermed the result as the firstdefeat for Congress’ new pres-ident Rahul Gandhi and assert-ed that his charisma did notwork. “This is a vote for devel-opment and trust for NarendraModi,” added his colleagueJitendra Singh.

Asked if the results were anendorsement of the Modi gov-ernment’s policies, RajnathSingh, the former party presi-dent, said, “Of course. It is anapproval of the government.”

Echoing his view, Javadekarsaid, “Development is themantra of today’s polity. Andtherefore, people are withModiji.”

According to Defence

Minister Nirmala Sitharaman,the credit goes to people ofGujarat who “voted for devel-opment” and rejected“Congress’ politics of caste”.

Sakshi Maharaj said RahulGandhi “changes his colour likea chameleon”.”That is why hewas visiting temples in Gujarat.But even that failed. This is themagic of our prime ministerNarendra Modi,” he added.

BJP vice president ShyamJaju said anti-incumbency hadnot worked in Gujarat. “Theprime minister’s popularity isintact. Amit Shah’s strategyhas worked,” he said.

BJP general secretaryKailash Vijayvargiyaagreed.”There is nothing toworry. We will form govern-ment in Gujarat with comfort-able majority,” Vijayvargiyaadded. On suggestions thatthe BJP may have suffered asetback as trends indicatedthat it would end up with

fewer than expected seats inGujarat, BJP spokespersonNalin Kohli wondered how awin could be considered a set-back.

“I am hearing on certainchannels that it is a setback.How can a victory be a setback?A setback is for one who doesnot win. If you are in power oryou are in government from1995 non-stop and you aregoing to win another election,it cannot be a setback,” Kohliasserted.

BJP vice president VinaySahasrabuddhe said the partywould analyse the results indetail. “It is a routine process,”he added.BJP leader RamMadhav said, “Casteist agendaof Hardik, Jignesh, AlpeshTroika has helped Congress orcost it the election? Congresshas to search for answers cool-ly after all the details comeout...BJP...Will celebrate butcandidly analyse too.”

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In Himachal Pradesh, 33,741voters pressed the NOTA

button, forming 0.9 per cent ofthe total votes counted in the68 constituencies. The BJPreceived 48.7 per cent votes(18,12, 355 votes) as againstthe Congress' 41.8 per cent(1554793 votes), whileIndependents got 6.3 per cent(236096 votes).

The CPM also managedto score more than the NOTAwith 1.5 per cent votes (53525votes). BSP's vote share of 0.5per cent (18,215 votes) wasless than NOTA in HimachalPradesh too, just as in Gujarat.

NOTA played spoiler inBarsar, where Congressdefeated BJP by a margin of439 votes. NOTA received464 votes there. In Kasauli,BJP defeated Congress by amargin of 442 votes whileNOTA got 503 votes.

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Chief Minister Siddaramaiahruled out any impact of the

BJP’s victory in both Gujaratand Himachal Pradesh on theensuing Karnataka Assemblypolls. He told the media inYadigir in northern Karnatakaon Monday on the sidelines ofhis rath yatra around the Statethat the issues were different inKarnataka.

He said “the election resultsof one State will not have aneffect on the election of anoth-er State. The issues will be dif-ferent. Whatever may theGujarat poll results be, it willhave no impact on Karnataka.”

Siddaramaiah who is facingthe anti-incumbency and wrathof dominant communities overhis appeasement politics ofOBCs and Dalits is certainlyworried over the impact of theelection results in two States asKarnataka is crucial for thecentury old party. According to

political observers KarnatakaAssembly polls will challengeCongress president RahulGandhi and his politicalthoughts put to test.

Confident Siddaramaiahsaid by ensuring the party’s vic-tory in the Assembly polls,Karnataka would give the “firstgift” to newly-appointedCongress president RahulGandhi for his leadership.Claiming that there was noanti-incumbency against hisGovernment, Siddaramaiahsaid if it was there, theCongress would have got toknow about it in theNanjangud and Gundlupetbypolls, which the party won bybig margins.

“I am sure that in 2018, wewill come back to power hun-dred per cent,” he added. Theweakened party high com-mand has given the free man-tle to him in the State to leadthe polls which are crucial forthem to retain its national

identity. He also acknowledgedthat the strategy of Modi andShah of using the “Gujaratipride” card had effectivelyworked in the saffron party’sfavour. Noting that the trendsof the results showed animproved performance of theCongress, the Chief Ministergave the credit for that toRahul Gandhi. Siddaramaiah

has also started using Kannadacard to lure a section of the vot-ers in the State.

“I feel, in Gujarat, we havewon despite losing. The peoplehave shown their support toRahul Gandhi’s leadership,” hesaid.

Pointing at Modi andShah’s Gujarati origin and thefact that the BJP was in powerboth in Gujarat and at theCentre as factors behind thesaffron party’s performance,the Congress leader accused itof polarising the voters by sys-tematically playing the com-munal card.

Siddaramaiah expresseddoubts over the use of EVMs inGujarat elections and saiddespite anti-incumbency and astrong undercurrent against it,the poll results lent credence tothe doubts regarding the elec-tronic voting machines(EVMs). He recently wrote toElections Commission askingfor use of ballot papers in

Karnataka Assembly pollsinstead of EVMs.

However he blamed BJP inKarnataka for flaring up com-munal tensions to polarise thevotes and said “it will not workhere.”

Speaking to reporters inthe city in the backdrop ofGujarat and Himachal Pradeshresults, State BJP chiefYeddyurappa howeverexpressed confidence of BJPwinning 150 out of 224 seats in2018 seats in Karnataka tomake Congress mukthKarnataka a slogan coined tocharge the ruling party.

“Congress party is downand out and Rahul Gandhi hadfailed miserably to lift theparty. The Parivartana Yatrathe BJP had taken up inKarnataka now is attractinghuge public.

Today’s election result is aprelude to Congress losingpower in Karnataka,” heclaimed.

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Chief Minister Nitish Kumaron Monday phoned Prime

Minister Narendra Modi andBJP president Amit Shah andcongratulated the duo for BJP’svictory in Gujarat andHimachal Pradesh. In a tweethe made swipe at Congress foreven losing Himachal whileclaiming to win Gujarat. TheCM, who had been saying thatthe BJP would record anunprecedented victory inGujarat, did not come beforethe media.

The sources said Nitishwas definitely very happy overthe results of Gujarat where theBJP lost about 15 seats as com-pared to 2012 outcome and itstally came down.

“A sweeping victory of BJPwould further have downed themoral of Nitish whom is notgetting much response andrespect from the BJP leadershipafter he returned to NDA foldin July last,” said a BJP leaderon condition of anonymity.

Leader of Opposition inBihar Assembly and Nitish’sformer deputy Tejashwi PrasadYadav had stated sometimesback that Nitish wanted to seeBJP defeated in Gujarat as itsdefeat would enhance hisstature and position in theNDA.

Nitish’s repeated statementthat BJP would win handsdown in Gujarat and wouldincrease its tally, sources said,was under compulsion as hewanted to please Modi.

It is also alleged that fol-lowing Modi’s instruction theJD(U) fielded around one hun-

dred candidates in Gujarat,but neither Nitish nor anyother leader of JD(U) went forcampaigning there, only tohelp BJP and cut into votes ofCongress and its allies. Unlikeprevious elections in Gujaratthe JD(U) at no point of timeasserted that the party has noalliance with the BJP in thatState.

Political observers here arediscussing that BJP’s “not sogood” performance in Gujaratwould go the advantage ofJD(U) and its president Nitishwould be in a position to havehard bargain over seat sharingin 2019 general and 2020Assembly polls.

The way Nitish rejoinedthe NDA after breaking alliancefrom RJD and Congress sug-gested that the Bihar CM hadno option but to take refuge inthe BJP led camp and was com-pelled to do what the saffronparty would ask him to. “NowNitish has got a little bargain-ing option if not the powers hewielded before 2013 split,” aJD(U) activist happily con-fessed.

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The NDA’s Government reli-able alliance partner, the

Chief Minister of AndhraPradesh, Chandrababu Naiduhas congratulated PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andthe BJP’s national presidentAmit Shah for winning Gujaratand Himachal PradeshAssembly elections. Whileexpressing happiness over vic-tory of BJP, on Monday, Naidusaid, “It is once again provedthat people would welcomeparties working for develop-ment”. “Wishing them all thebest for their forthcomingtenure in governance”, headded.

Union Minister of State YSChowdary also conveyed hisgreetings to the BJP and headsof the party for winning theAssembly elections in Gujaratand Himachal Pradesh.

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Refusing to give credit to theBJP for the victory, Patidar

leader Hardik Patel on Mondaycontinued with his EVM hack-ing rant and alleged that thesaffron party played an “unfairgame” by “tampering” withthe machines and using“money power”. His influencein Patidaar dominated seatsdidn’t work with the BJP faringwell in a number of such seats.

The Patidar AnamantAndolan Samiti (PAAS) con-vener, who backed theCongress in the polls, said theparty would have won had theBJP not “indulged in cheating”.

Patel announced that hewould continue his stir to getOBC status for Patels.

The trends and resultsavailable for all the 182 seats ofthe Gujarat Assembly at 8 pmshowed the BJP was heading towin 99 seats and the Congressplus breaching the 80-seatmark

“I congratulate the BJPwhich has won by tamperingwith the EVMs. Though peo-ple of Gujarat had taken a deci-sion (of uprooting the BJP), theruling party won thoughmoney power and by tamper-ing with EVMs,” Patel toldreporters.

He also conceded thatresults from urban seats of

Ahmedabad, Rajkot and Suratwere not on expected lines.Patel insisted that EVMs canalso be “hacked” likeATMs.”There were instanceswherein WiFi networks weredetected during polling,” heclaimed.

Patel also alleged that sealsof EVMs were found brokenbefore the counting startedtoday at many places.“I urge all opposition parties tostart a movement against theuse of EVMs and demand thatnext elections be held through

ballots papers only,” he said.Patel's disappointment was

visible over the poll outcomefrom urban seats ofAhmedabad, Surat and Rajkot,where the BJP came up trumpsdespite the whirlwind cam-paigning undertaken by thequota spearhead.

“People of rural areas didtheir bit but I fail to understandwhat urban voters did. Now, Iwill spend more time in urbanareas,” he said.

Patel said it was “difficult todigest” the BJP's victory on sev-

eral seats such as VarachhaRoad and Kamrej in Suratwhich have sizable Patidarpopulation.

“Varachha Road andKamrej have over one lakhPatidar voters each. They eventurned up in huge numbersduring my rallies in thoseareas. Despite that such resultshave come,” he said.

Patel alleged the poll out-come showed that the BJPwon through “unfair means”.“The Congress could have wonif they (BJP) had not done suchcheating.

Playing a safe game, theBJP had set a target of winningonly 100 seats so that no onequestions their victory,” hesaid.

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Maharashtra’s former ChiefMinister and senior

Congress leader Ashok Chavanon Monday charged that in itsvictory in the Gujarat Assemblypolls, the BJP had suffered a“moral defeat” considering thatthe ruling party achieved thefeat with a slender riding on theback of an intense campaigningcarried out by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, his entireUnion Cabinet and ChiefMinisters of 13 BJP-ruled Statesand through the “misuse” of itsofficial machinery.

Chavan, in a statementissued here, said the outcome ofthe Gujarat Assembly polls,fought by his party under theleadership of Rahul Gandhi,was extremely “encouraging”for the Congress workers acrossthe country.

“The BJP had stooped verylow in its campaign involvingModi, various Union ministers,chief ministers and its leaders.Apart from indulging in filthycampaigning against RahulGandhi and our other leaders,the BJP blatantly misused thepolice and official machinery inits campaign. Having declaredthat it would bag as many as 150seats, the ruling party employedall kinds of dirty tricks. But, theparty could not even cross the

three-digit mark in the elec-tions,” Chavan said.

“At no stage in campaign,the BJP spoke about develop-ment. Instead, the party cam-paigned on issued like Pakistanand Aurangazeb. On the con-trary, our leader Rahul Gandhifought the election on the elec-tion on the development plank,polled 10 per cent of addition-al and won 20 additional seatsthan won in the previous elec-tions,” the former chief minis-ter said.

Chavan said that RahulGandhi took the BJP head onin the Gujarat Assembly pollslike a war veteran. “TheAssembly poll outcome hasboosted the morale of theCongress workers across thecountry ahead of the 2019 gen-eral elections in which we areconfident that we will make theBJP bite dust,” the seniorCongress leader said.

Senior State NCP leaderand leader of the Opposition inthe Maharashtra LegislativeCouncil Dhananjay Mundehanded a back-handed compli-ment to the BJP when he con-gratulated the Amit Shah-ledfor its “shameful” victory in theGujarat Assembly polls.

“The credit of the BJP’s vic-tory in the Gujarat Assemblypolls goes to Narendra Modiwho is in a way Prime Minister

of Gujarat. Modi found himselfin a pitiable state in Gujarat dur-ing the elections. I advise therulers to improve its governanceat least from now on. If they donot, even Modi will not able tosecure his own pride in the nextelections,” Munde said.

Taking a dig at his party’sruling alliance partner in thestate and at the Centre, ShivSena spokesperson Sanjay Rautsaid that the BJP’s victory in theGujarat Assembly polls did notmerit any reaction.

“The BJP had to somehowwin the Gujarat Assembly polls.Having been in power for 22years, the BJP made the most ofmoney power in the polls. Itdeployed 14 of its state chiefministers for its campaign. Itsvictory was a foregone conclu-

sion. But, the BJP has not wonthe victory in a manner itwanted,” Raut said.

Raut said that with the BJPboth in the centre andMaharashtra – said “the atmos-phere in the country is chang-ing” and (Sena) viewed theCongress as “a majorOpposition party.”

“We congratulate both theBJP and the Congress. TheGujarat outcome will set theentire nation thinking,” Rautadded. Asked about the Sena’sperformance in the Gujaratpolls, Raut said: “We havefought many elections. Weknow where we stand and wewill continue to contest morepolls in the future,” Raut said.

Mumbai CongressPresident Sanjay Nirupam saidthat BJP’s victory in the GujaratAssembly polls was not due tothe people of Gujarat, butbecause of the EVMs “This isespecially since the entire pop-ulation of the state was againstthe party and BJP leadersaddressed empty chairs at elec-tion rallies,” Nirupam said.

Nirupam made fun of theBJP when he said: “The partywhich invoked Pakistan,Aurangzeb and Khilji duringthe elections, has suddenlystarted talking about ‘vikas’and development after theresults are declared”.

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Four former Chief ElectionCommissioners on Monday

rubbished the charges of tam-pering of electronic votingmachines (EVMs) and saidthe EVM bashing should stopnow.

Former CEC NGopalaswami said to say EVMscan be tampered is absolutelyincorrect. “EVMs are standalone machines, aren't connect-ed to any network, and can't beinfluenced over Bluetooth orwireless message, so to sayEVMs have something wrongis absolutely incorrect. It's onlya glorified calculator, momentyou open it, it goes dead,”Gopalaswami said.

Apprehensions about pos-sible EVM tampering throughbluetooth technology wasraised by the oppositionCongress during the assemblyelections in Gujarat, which theElection Commission hadtermed “baseless”.

Former CEC T SKrishnamurthy said onMonday that electronic votingmachines (EVMs) are the “realwinner” in Gujarat andHimachal Pradesh electionsand their “bashing” shouldstop now.

When asked over theremarks in some quarters thatthe EVMs are the “real winner”,as results of the two Assembly

elections are being declared, hesaid, “I agree.”

“They (EVMs) have donetheir job well. After all, theCongress has increased itsposition (in Gujarat comparedto the last elections). Someleaders of the BJP have beendefeated. EVMs have servedthe purpose,” Krishnamurthytold PTI.

On being asked whetherEVM “bashing” should stopnow, he said, “It should.” “Ifthey (critics of EVMs) haveanything to say, let them go tothe court and prove it. There isno point talking about (criticis-ing EVMs) in every election,”he said.

Both the Congress and the

BJP are “guilty of attacking theEVMs”, Krishnamurthy said,pointing to a book writtensome years ago by BJP nation-al spokesperson G V LNarasimha Rao that was criti-cal of EVMs.

“The national parties...Ifthey want to show their respon-sibility, they have to go to thecourts or go to an independentbody of technical experts andprove it,” he said.

“Both the parties shouldrealise that there is no pointtalking about the machine. Ifyou have any genuine concern,prove it to the court (thatEVMs can be manipulated), orcall IIT Directors and show

it to them,” Krishnamurthy

added.Amid a raging debate over

the trustworthiness of EVMs,he had said earlier this monththat they are credible, robustand reliable, and expressed his“unwavering faith” in themand their “infallibility”.

Another former CECNaveen Chawla echoed similarsentiments and said EVMscannot be tampered with nowor even in the future. “EVMscannot be tampered with, evenin the future. I am very clearabout this. During my time,BJP had raised doubts on EVMso we had also held a demon-stration like earlier this year forall to come and try rig it,”Chawla said.

Raising apprehensions thatEVMs could be tampered with,Karnataka Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah last weekdemanded that ballot papers beused during the upcomingassembly polls in the Congress-ruled state.

Former CEC H.S. Brahmaalso averred that EVM andVVPAT (Voter Verifiable PaperAudit Trail) machines cannotbe tampered with. “I firmlybelieve that our EVMs,VVPATs cannot be tamperedwith. This matter should beclosed once and for all as it istried and tested. EVM is astandalone machine, questionof hacking doesn't arise,”Brahma said.

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The Uttar PradeshAssembly passed a resolu-

tion on Monday congratulat-ing the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and the BJPpresident for its victory in theGujarat and HimachalPradesh Assembly electionsamid a walk out by theOpposition Samajwadi Partyand the BSP, and a protest bythe Congress in the Well of theHouse.

As Chief Minister YogiAdityanath rose to move theresolution for the “historicvictory of the BJP and for set-ting clean democratic tradi-tions”, Congress leader AjayKumar Lallu barged into theWell to press for debate on lawand order situation whichhad earlier figured in theHouse through an adjourn-ment notice.

BSP legislature partyleader Lalji Verma stressedthat since the resolution hadbeen moved, there should bea debate and later voting onresolution in the house andthe resolution cannot be intro-duced without prior notice.The Parliamentary AffairsMinister Suresh Khanna asper the rules governing theproceedings of the House theleader of the House can bringresolution without notice.

The Speaker HridayNarain Dixit did not allow theBSP member to speak so LaljiVerma and his party membersstaged a walk out. Leader ofthe Opposition Ram GovindChaudhary also joined himand led SP members outstressing that he would not beparty to any new tradition.

All Congress members,meanwhile, joined their leaderin the Well and raised anti-Government slogans. Earlierspeaking on the BJP victory,the Chief Minister saidGujarat results showed therewas a need to rise above neg-ative politics and it would bebetter to move ahead with apositive attitude toward devel-opment.

Yogi Adityanath congrat-ulated Prime Minister

Narendra Modi, saying thewin reflected that steps takenby him were appreciated bythe people and he suggestedCongress not to contest LokSabha elections in 2019 afterthis humiliating defeat.”Thereis no alternative to victory...ifthey learn to shun negativity,they would benefit them-selves as well as the country,”he said.

The Chief Minister saidthe BJP’s performance inGujarat and HimachalPradesh Assembly polls was alesson to those who forgot

polit ical courtesy andindulged in unparliamentari-ly language.

He said the party’s perfor-mance was a victory of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’spolicies . “Gujarat andHimachal Pradesh results area lesson to those who forgetpolitical courtesy and indulgein unparliamentarily lan-guage. Those raising questionmark on the prime ministerwill now have to accept hisleadership,” he told reportersin the Vidhan Bhawan com-plex here.

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Samajwadi party presidentand former UP Chief

Minister Akhilesh Yadav hassaid the results of the GujaratState Assembly elections haveproved that the Gujarat modelof development was a hoaxwhich is not even remotelyrelated to the ground realityand the welfare of the commonpeople.

“The Gujarat electionresults are a clear indicationthat the people do not like thepolitical forces which fail tocarry out the development.The elections results are a clearexample that the people cannotbe swayed for long by falseclaims of development andcapturing power’’, said the SPleader. Welcoming the electionresults he said “the BJP madetall claims of winning 150Assembly seats, the Prime

Minister, Union Ministers andChief Ministers of several Statescamped in Gujarat and BJPused all possible tricks to influ-ence the people but the resultswere exact opposite to theclaims of the BJP and their tallywas reduced to less than 100seats’’. “The Gujarat Assemblyelections have exposed thecasteist and communal charac-ter of the BJP.

The BJP leaders usedunparliamentarily and intem-perate language during theelection campaign and loweredthe dignity of the politics andthe institution of democracy’’,charged the SP president.

SP president also make adig on the Prime Ministernarendra Modi for using seaplane for election campaign inGujarat. “How come this gim-mick of using sea plane isrelated with the development ofthe State’’.

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Trashing newly appointedCongress president in crick-

eting terminology, Goa ChiefMinister Manohar Parrikar onMonday said the BJP's win inGujarat and Himachal Pradesh isactually an indication of the pollresult in 2019 general elections.

Parrikar while speaking toreporters in Panaji, also said thatthe setbacks faced by the party inthe Saurashtra region, would bemended by the BJP before the LokSabha polls.

“As far as Gujarat goes, therewere multi speculations, thereforeI congratulate Gujarat Chief

Minister and it shows how ourPrime Minister has a connectiv-ity with the Gujarati people. Allforces came together, HardikPatel from Patidar agitation, therest of the opponents also cametogether.

Even though they had a jointcampaign to defame NarendraModi and the BJP, the people ofGujarat knew the truth. Despitethe 22 year incumbency and allopponents banding together andtrying their best, the BJP won abig victory in Gujarat,” Parrikarsaid, while commenting on thetwin victories.

When asked to comment onthe performance of Rahul

Gandhi, who was last week for-mally appointed as vice presidentof the BJP, Parrikar said: “Openinginnings zero”. “Rahul Gandhi'spopular rating is lower thanparty,” he added.

Commenting on the slip inthe BJP's tally in Gujarat, the for-mer Defence Minister said: The(tally) is not less. In many placesin Gujarat, many efforts weremade to defame the BJP, the partyhad a good strategic response toit. It had an effect in Saurashtra,that is why the seat tally fell a bit,but after 22 years, there is an nor-mally element of incumbency, nomatter who is in-charge, howev-er good.”

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With wrong figures oftrending results in the

Gujarat polls, BSE benchmarkSensex witnessed a huge swingof 1,166.41 points during theday’s trade, signaling the kindof trend reversal witnessed onD-Street. The market had a jit-tery start in the opening min-utes on Monday after earlytrends for Gujarat electionindicated a very close race.

In the minutes leading tothe opening bell, the opposi-

tion party Congress was seenleading, thereby spookinginvestors. The stock marketfinally rallied 139 points to

close in the day on prospectsthat the BJP is set to keeppower in Gujarat and topplethe Congress in HimachalPradesh, but not before it gota big scare from counting ofvotes early on during the ses-sion. The rupee, which had ear-lier crashed, making up muchof its losses against the dollarcame as a big source of support.

However, this wasn't theonly occasion when the Sensexhas swung to such levels.Between 2010 and 2017, theSensex has seen a swing of1,000 points on three previousoccasions. The start was omi-nous as the benchmark Sensexcrashed 867 points to go below

the psychological 33,000 whilethe NSE Nifty plunged 258points within one hour ofcounting of votes that showedboth the parties were locked ina tight race. But then, the tideturned as the BJP started totake lead in a majority of seats.According to ElectionCommission tally at 5 pm, theBJP had won 70 seats and wasleading in 29 for a possible totalof 99 in the 182-memberGujarat assembly.

In Himachal Pradesh too,the BJP won 17 seats and wasahead in 27 seats while the rul-

ing Congress won 10 and wasahead in 11 in the 68-memberhouse. A majority will comewith 35 seats.

The 30-share BSE index hita high of 33,801.90 and settledup 138.71 points, or 0.41 percent, at 33,601.68, its highestclosing since November 29when it had closed at 33,602.76.The gauge gained 409.93 pointsin the previous two sessionsafter exit polls had predictedBJP win in Gujarat andHimachal Pradesh assemblypolls.

The 50-share Nifty

reclaimed the key 10,300-markto close higher by 55.50 points,or 0.54 per cent, at 10,388.75,its highest closing sinceNovember 27.

It moved between10,074.80 and 10,443.55 intra-day. It was an extremely volatilesession, borne out by theSensex swinging over 1,200points through the day and theNifty 369 points.

“While market sentimentebbed and flowed, as electionresults trickled in, PSU bankstocks marched ahead in antic-ipation of bank recapitalisation

updates from the Parliament’songoing winter session.Investors will now also focus ondevelopments on the GSTfront, including implementa-tion of e-way bill mechanism,”said Anand James, ChiefMarket Strategist, GeojitFinancial Services.

M&M hit it big in theSensex team, soaring 2.71 percent, while Sun Pharma andSBI gained up to 2.06 per cent.In contrast, Yes Bank, CoalIndia, Infosys, ITC, KotakBank, HDFC and NTPC suc-cumbed to rush for takingprofit, which narrowed thegains.

The metal index advanced

1.83 per cent, followed by autoconsumer durables and health-care. However, realty finishedin the negative zone.

Given the improvement insentiment, the broader marketsplayed along, with the mid-capindex rising 0.76 per cent andsmall-cap 0.45 per cent.

Domestic institutionalinvestors (DIIs) offloaded equi-ties to the tune of �635.44 crorewhile foreign portfolioinvestors (FPIs) net sold sharesworth �921.03 crore last Friday,provisional figures showed.Global shares also showed anupward trend after prospects ofthe passage of a Republican taxBill in the US improved.

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NEW DELHI: Within days ofgetting a rap on its knuckles,Airtel offered to return �190crore subsidy that had flowninto the ‘unsolicited’ PaymentsBank accounts of its 31 lakhmobile phone subscribers,sources said on Monday.

Airtel wrote to NationalPayments Corporation of India(NPCI) on Monday promisingto return �190 crore (alongwith interest) to the consumers’original bank accounts thatwere linked to the Direct BenefitTransfer (DBT), the sourcesfamiliar with the developmenttold PTI.

NPCI is an umbrella organ-isation for all retail payments inIndia. Both Airtel and AirtelPayments bank came underfire after Airtel allegedly openedaccounts of its mobile phonesubscribers without seekingtheir ‘informed consent’, andLPG subsidy worth crores wasbeing deposited to these

accounts. The Governmentacted swiftly in the matter andthe Unique IdentificationAuthority of India, late lastweek, temporarily barred thecompany from conductingAadhaar-based SIM verifica-tion of mobile customers usingeKYC process and e-KYC ofpayments bank clients.

Suspending the ‘e-KYClicence key’, the Aadhaar issuingbody UIDAI also orderedPricewaterhouseCoopers to con-duct an audit of Bharti Airtel andAirtel Payments Bank to ascer-tain if their systems and process-es are in compliance with theAadhaar Act.

“The Government has taken

a stern view of the entire issueand Airtel has been forced toreturn the amount to originalbank account of these cus-tomers,” said a Governmentsource who did not wish to benamed. The mechanism of theDBT benefits floating into theaccounts is also being tight-ened, to bring in greater account-ability, he noted. Mounting pres-sure on Airtel, the state-run oilcompanies had begun writing tothe billionaire Sunil Mittal-ledfirm asking it to transfer back theLPG subsidy that got credited toits payment bank accounts.

The subsidy thatGovernment pays to householdsfor buying cooking gas LPG hasgot credited to these paymentsbank accounts, leading to incon-venience to users many of whomdid not know that their entitle-ment was not coming to theirregular bank account but goingan account which they had notapplied for. PTI

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NEW DELHI: The FinancialResolution and DepositInsurance Bill may not beintroduced in Parliamenteven during the BudgetSession, as the joint commit-tee looking into it on Mondaygot an extension for submit-ting its report. Lok SabhaSpeaker Sumitra Mahajaninformed the House thatextension of time has beengranted for the joint panel onthe FRDI Bill ‘up to the lastday of Budget Session, 2018’.

It also comes at a timewhen concerns have beenraised in some quarters aboutcertain provisions of the bill,which was introduced in theLok Sabha in August thisyear. The joint committee onthe FRDI Bill, 2017 have decid-ed to seek extension of time upto the last day of BudgetSession, 2018, as the report ofthe joint committee would notbe ready for presentation byDecember 15. PNS

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Widening its probe into bit-coin investments and trade,

the Income Tax (IT) departmentis set to issue notices to 4 to 5 lakhhigh networth individuals (HNI)across the country who were trad-ing on the exchanges of thisunregulated virtual currency.

The taxman had conductedsurveys at nine such exchangeslast week to check instances oftax evasion. The department,official sources said, found thatout of the estimated 20 lakh enti-ties registered on theseexchanges, about 4 to 5 lakh were‘operational’ and indulging intransactions and investments.

Sources told PTI that theBengaluru investigation wing ofthe tax department, which super-vised last week’s operations, hasnow dispatched the informationof the individuals and entitiesfound on these databases to eightother such wings across the coun-

try for a detailed probe.“Those individuals and enti-

ties whose records were recov-ered by the department are nowbeing probed under tax evasioncharges. Notices are being issuedand they will have to pay capi-tal gains tax on the bitcoin

investments and trade,” a seniorofficial privy to the operationsaid. About 4-5 lakh HNIs andtheir businesses are being issuednotices which will first seektheir relevant financial detailsand subsequently establish thetax demand, if any, he said.

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H!#"�� "�#�!� $�� 20*1��!��# NEW DELHI: The Governmenton Monday sought Parliament’sapproval for additional expendi-ture of �66,113 crore, whichincludes funds to roll out schemesfor providing electricity connec-tions to the poor and payment ofurea subsidies.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitleymoved the second batch ofSupplementary Demands forGrants for 2017-18 in the LokSabha. Approval of the Parliamentis sought to authorise gross addi-tional expenditure of �66,113.44crore, said the document on‘Second batch of SupplementaryDemands for Grants, 2017-2018’.

“Of this, the proposalsinvolving net cash outgo aggre-gates to �33,379.99 crore andgross additional expenditure,matched by savings of the min-istries/departments or byenhanced receipts/recoveriesaggregates to �32,732.05 crore,”it said. PNS

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NEW DELHI: JSW Techno Projects Management on Monday saidit has executed definitive agreements to acquire 49 per cent sharesof Brahmani River Pellets (BRPL) from Aryan Mining and TradingCorp Pvt Ltd (AMTC). The acquisition is subject to approval of theCompetition Commission of India (CCI) and other conditions prece-dent as set out in the definitive agreements, it said. The size of thedeal was however not disclosed by the company. BRPL is engagedin the business of manufacture and sale of iron ore pellets. It owns a4 MTPA pellet plant in Jajpur and a 4.7 MTPA iron ore beneficia-tion plant in Barbil, both in Odisha. Besides, it has a 230 km slurrypipeline connecting the pellet plant with the beneficiation plant. PNS

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The Church of England onMonday appointed the Right

Reverend Sarah Mullally as thefirst female bishop of London,making her the senior-mostfemale bishop to be appointed bythe Anglican church.

The 55-year-old, who wasthe bishop of the town ofCrediton in Devon, takes overher London role from DrRichard Chartres, who retiredin February, Downing Streetsaid on Monday. Legislation toallow women bishops was for-mally adopted by the Church ofthe England in 2014.

Nay Pyi Taw: The Human RightsWatch (HRW) on Mondayreported the burning of 40Rohingya villages in Myanmar ina military campaign, which ledmore than 655,000 people of thisMuslim community to flee toBangladesh.

The HRW used satelliteimages to identify the new inci-dents, raising the total numberof villages completely or partiallyrazed to 354 since the beginningof the military offensive onAugust 25, reports Efe news.

In a statement, the rightsgroup said that some of thecases detected occurred thesame week that the govern-ments of Bangladesh and

Myanmar signed a memoran-dum on November 23, to beginthe repatriation of the hun-dreds of thousands of refugeeswho have crossed the border.

HRW Asia director, BradAdams, said the continueddestruction of Rohingya vil-lages shows that the commit-ment signed to ensure the safereturn of refugees is merely apublic relations stunt.

“The satellite imageryshows what the Myanmar Armydenies: that Rohingya villagescontinue to be destroyed. TheMyanmar government pledgesto ensure the safety of returningRohingya cannot be taken seri-ously,” said Adams. IANS

Beijing: A Chinese court has sen-tenced an ethnic Han to two yearsand six months in jail for attack-ing Islam and Muslims online.

The Heping districtPeople’s Court in Shenyang inLiaoning Province in its verdictcharged the man with incitingethnic hatred after he set up awebsite and online chat groupsand posted pictures and articlesattacking Muslims from April2009 to June 2016.

Several Muslims reported Lito local authorities, Global Timesreported today. The verdictdelivered in November saidthat Li’s behaviour violated theprinciple of ethnic equality andnegatively impacted society.PTI

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At least 10 persons, mostlyHindus, were killed and

nearly 50 others injured todayin a stampede in Bangladeshduring the post-funeral prayerand feast of a formerChittagong mayor, police said.

The tragedy happened inthe Jamal Khan area at amemorial event organised forthe minority Hindu commu-nity, The Daily Star reportedfrom the port city.

A police official said all ofthe dead were men who hadbeen attempting to attend theevent.

The death toll is expectedto rise as several others havebeen seriously injured in theincident at a convention centre,officials said.

“According to informationwe received, 10 people werekilled,” a Home Ministryspokesman told.

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Afghan security forces onMonday killed three insur-

gents who launched an attackon a training centre ofAfghanistan’s main intelligenceagency in Kabul following anoperation that lasted aboutfive hours, officials told Efe.

The operation ended ataround 3 pm, although theforces took another hour toclean bullets and other rem-nants from the site.

“Fortunately we don’t have

any casualties among civiliansand security forces,” said BasirMujahid, spokesperson of thecapital’s police service, adding:“Their plot to enter the NDS(National Directorate ofSecurity) compound wasthwarted by the security forcesand they failed.”

According to Mujahid, theinsurgents had morning triedto launch a direct attack on anNDS building, but were pre-vented from doing so by thesecurity forces and holed them-selves up in a nearby building

before being surrounded.The attackers also had a

vehicle loaded with explosivesthat members of the securityforces safely detonated duringthe operation, Mujahid added.

Afghan Ministry ofInterior Affairs spokespersonNasrat Rahimi said that threeattackers were involved andconfirmed that all of themhave been killed in the oper-ation.

He added that two mem-bers of the security forces wereslightly injured during the

operation.The attack has been

claimed by the hardlineWahhabi ISIS terror organisa-tion, according to a message byits affiliated Amaq news agency,which said two insurgents car-ried out the attack.

The Afghan capital haswitnessed a number of majorinsurgent attacks this year.

A month ago, at least 17people, including eight policeofficials, were killed and 18were wounded in a suicideattack at the entrance of a

hotel in northwestern Kabul.The worst attack in the

Afghan capital since 2001 tookplace in May, when a truckloaded with explosives left 150people dead and over 300wounded.

Since the end of NATO’scombat mission in Jan. 2015,Kabul has been steadily losingground to insurgents and nowcontrols only 57 percent of thecountry, according to the USSpecial General Inspector forReconstruction ofAfghanistan.

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Barcelona can still outscore oppo-nents even on a rare day whenLionel Messi is far from his brilliant

self.Barcelona warmed up for next round's

"clasico" match at Madrid by routingDeportivo La Coruna 4-0 Sunday toincrease its lead of the Spanish league.

Messi tried to join in the demolition,but the Argentina forward had a penaltysaved by goalkeeper Ruben Martinezafter he had already been frustrated onthree separate occasions when he hit thewoodwork. Jordi Alba and Luis Suarezalso sent shots off the post.

Barcelona didn't need any goals fromMessi, however, as Suarez and Paulinhoboth scored twice to help the team capi-talize on Valencia's loss at Eibar onSaturday.

"If we had practiced to hit the wood-work we probably wouldn't do it as well,"Barcelona coach Ernesto Valverde joked."Once the first goal fell, our opponent hadto take risks and that made things easi-er."

Unbeaten Barcelona extended its

advantage to six points over AtleticoMadrid, which jumped ahead of Valenciaby beating Alaves on Saturday. Valenciais eight points behind Barcelona.

Real Madrid is 11 points adrift infourth with a game in hand beforeBarcelona visits the Santiago Bernabeunext weekend.

"We are pleased because the best wayto prepare for a big match is to get a winbeforehand and get that extra boost ofconfidence," Valverde said. "But nobodywins the league at this point in the sea-son."

Martinez turned back a flurry of threestrikes moments before Barcelona gotgoing when Andres Iniesta caughtDeportivo off guard trying to leave its ownarea after a cleared corner kick.

Iniesta spied Messi and lobbed the ballforward to the star forward. Messi did therest by controlling the pass with his chestbefore drawing Martinez to him and lay-ing off for Suarez to score in the 29thminute.

Suarez got his second two minutesafter halftime. He used one touch of hisleft boot to drive in Sergi Roberto'ssuperb cross that bent the ball behind the

retreating defense to meet Suarez at thefar post.

After only scoring three times in thefirst 11 rounds, Suarez has six goals in hislast five league matches.

Paulinho had doubled the lead in the41st and got Barcelona's fourth goal in the75th by finishing off shots that had comeoff the upright by Messi and Alba.

)+)��Bottom-side Las Palmas looked fin-

ished at 2-0 down but fought back withtwo goals in the final 10 minutes to sal-vage a 2-2 draw at home with Espanyol.

The Canary Islands club's poordefending allowed Gerard Moreno toscore twice before halftime.

But Loic Remy scored to spark thecomeback before Jonathan Calleri head-ed in the equalizer with a minute left.

%+��1��+�+1%Girona continued its excellent first

campaign in Spain's top flight by beat-ing Getafe 1-0 at home after ChristianStuani's header in the fifth minute.

Girona moved up to seventh place onthe strength of its fifth victory.

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Aizawl's unbeaten run in the league came to an end as theylost 0-1 to regional neighbours Shillong Lajong in the

first Northeast Derby of the season at their home RajivGandhi Stadium, here on Monday.

In a hard fought encounter in Aizawl, Lajong's Khasiwinger Redeem Tlang scored the only goal in the 60 minuteof the game to which Aizawl couldn't find a reply as Lajongsecured their third win of the season. The win gives ShillongLajong the much needed three points and with this win theymove to the second position in the league table equal onpoints with leaders Minerva Punjab FC but have played onegame more than the league leaders.

The home side made only one change to the team thatfaced Churchill Brother as Lalbiak Thanga filled the gap leftby injured David Rinmuana. Lajong's Coach Nongbet madetwo change, captain Samuel Lalmuanpuia and Alen Deorywere replaced in the starting eleven by Shaibor Karpan andKynsailang Khongsit respectively.

Also known as the fortress for Aizawl FC saw the dim-nutive, yet lively winger H Lalmuankima steal the ball at thehalfway line and sent a delightful pass to Kobayashi only forthe Japanese to waste his golden chance. Kobayashi was alonein the box with no pressure from the Lajong boys, but stillcouldn't find the back of the net.

The match was not played at the tempo the fans wouldhave expected, both teams found it hard to carve out goalscoring chances. Just after the half hour mark, Yemenese mid-fielder Al-Hagri danced past Aizawl's Saighani and Kareembut his weak shot was collected easily by goalkeeperAvilash Paul, Al Hagri was given another gem of a chancebut again his poor finishing let him down.

After an array of chances in the first 45 minutes the scorestood at 0-0 at the end of the first half.

Both teams started the second half brightly but it wasthe away team who scored the first goal of the match. AlHagri's shot inside the box was blocked by the Aizawl's boysbut the ball fell to Khasi winger Redeem Tlang, who calm-ly curved the ball towards the far side of the net and scoredhis second league goal of the season. Tlang again got a chancebut the winger's effort was heroically palmed away by theAizawl FC goal keeper.

��%�1��.+1%�-��0+1��%+�1��1��3��-��=�Match No 20 of Hero I-League 2017-18 will seeKolkata giants Mohun Bagan host the new comers fromManipur NEROCA FC. Mohun Bagan who drew theirlast match against Shillong Lajong FC will look to returnto winning ways, as they will be facing the young andimpressive NEROCA FC who are riding high on two backto back to wins against Gokulam Kerala FC and ChennaiCity FC. The match will be played at Vivekanada YuvaBharati Krirangan (VYBK).

Ravaged by injury scares and a suspension, the Greenand Maroons will be hopeful of breaking the double-digitmark on the points table after dropping two points againstShillong Lajong at home in the last round.

Head coach Sanjoy Sen expected more from his side,which has already drawn two games out of four. "We haveto learn from our past mistakes. It is not that we haven't scoredgoals in the game against Minerva and Lajong - the two gameswe dropped points in. We conceded after scoring the firstgoal and it is imperative that we don't drop points in our homegames," he said.

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Adi Shankaracharya appeared onthe Indian land at a time whenSamrat Harshvardhan in North

India and Pulkeshi in South had passedaway. After 650 AC the era of a grand andstable dynasties in India had come to anend. This was a time when constantstruggle and political ups and downs instates wishing for a dynasty rule had alto-gether disturbed political unity and stabil-ity in the country. The struggle of Kashmir,Kannauj and Gond besides the conflictbetween Pal-Pratihar and Rashtrakut kingshad agitated the north. Same way Southrulers Chalukyas, Pallavas and Pandavs haddisturbed the entire India.

Arab armies and entry of traders in theWest added a new dimension to the cir-cumstances. Influence of local officials andrulers started increasing amidst an atmos-phere of anarchy and insecurity. Feudal sys-tem began to surface in place of empires.The rights of farmers and gram panchay-ats were maintained but it is also true thatthe power with rulers or kings had dis-banded. It was an age of princes and feu-dal rulers amidst all the anarchy. Such apolitical situation reflected in AdiShankaracharya’s works. There was noChakravarthy king in the time of AdiShankaracharya. The decline of the tradi-tional Indian social system in this state ofanarchy was obvious.

Till the time of Adi Shankaracharya,the era of ancient memorials and Puranashad ended in India and creation of sever-al apocryphal epics had begun. Conflictbetween the liberalists and hardliners hadalso started surfacing. Practice of tantra-mantra and idol worship had begun. OldVedic gods were being given new formsbesides several Buddhist communitieshad also become prevalent. The religious

scenario during Adi Shankaracharya’stime is known more as an era of commu-nion and struggle between the theist andatheist streams believing in the existenceof Veda. Shankaracharya came into beingin India in this Sankranti period. Throughpure knowledge and spirituality, he over-powered all forces opposed to the Vedicreligion and dedicated his life to stop thedecline of religion in Indian society. AdiShankaracharya had a short life. He livedfor hardly 32 years but established theAdwait Vedanta to its pristine puritythrough his sharp perceptive powerswhich paved the way for the salvation ofhumans. Adi Shankarachary not onlydefeated opposing communities throughhis knowledge after restoring Vedantathrough his exposition but also gave a newlife to the ancient dharmik kshetras whilehe reformed upassana-sampradayas.

In the life of Adi Shankaracharya, onehas darshan of a great saint. Full of mirac-ulous incidents, his life is like that if anongoing padyatri moving on to establishsanatan truth and one who influenced alldimensions of Indian culture with hisenlightening knowledge.

Despite all historic controversies,Madhya Pradesh can take pride in the factthat Adi Shankaracharya, the Devadoot ofIndia’s national unity had come to the con-fluence of Narmada and Mahishmatirivers during his yatra. Omkareshwar,

Ujjain, Pachmatha (Rewa) andAmarkantak connected to him are situat-ed in Madhya Pradesh. It is believed sinceages by the core state of India that AdiShankaracharya’s Guru Shri Govindpada’sashram was on the banks of Omkareshwarand his ancient cave are still there todaywhere lakhs of devotees visit for darshan.The world famous tale of Shankaracharya’swith Shastraarth with Acharya MandanMishra who resided in Maheshwar isunforgettable. The summary of this is thatby religiously fulfilling one’s responsibili-ty towards human welfare through one’skarmayoga, one can attain power. It is onlythrough this power that one can under-stand the unity between Jeev, Jagat and

Brahma.The same power exists in everyhuman being and the entire matter anddivinity (Jad-chetan) which is providingenergy without any differences to all.Continuing to live in this Adwait Bhavapaves the way to welfare of mankind.Human society is not a root source, it is agroup of living beings. A human being hasan independent will power through whichhe paves the way for progress of individ-ual and society. Adi Guru Shankaracharyhas spread the message to mankind thatif a small group also works towards wel-fare of mankind, one can stop violence andbloodshed.

Shankaracharya was responsible forconnecting all loose wires and restoring

cultural unity in India. Shankaracharyatoured the entire India and through hisShastrarthas chose the way of deep debatebecause he believed not in defeating any-one but showing them the path of truthwhich they have forgotten or strayedfrom and without which their life wasimpossible. Govardhan Math inJagannathpuri in the East, Sharda Math inthe west, Shrangeri Math in the south andJyotirmath in the North are Gyan-SamvadPeeth established by Shankaracharya thatare calling human beings yearning for sal-vation to them.

In the memory of the pious life anddarshan of Adi Shankaracharya, MadhyaPradesh Government is organising EkatmaYatra from December 19 to January 22. TheYatra aims at public awareness towards real-isation of Jeev, Jagat and Jagdish proposedin the Udwait Vedant Darshan, awarenesstowards Adi Guru’s valuable contributionsand collection of metal for the installationof Shankaracharya’s statue at Omkareshwarbesides developing Omkareshwar as aninternational level Vedant Darshan Kendra.There will be 140 Jan-Samvad during this35-day yatra.

Passing through four places in the Stateincluding Omkareshwar, Ujjain,Pachmatha (Rewa) and Amarkantak, theEkatma Yatra will culminate atOmkareshwar. All 51 districts of State willbenefit from one of these yatras. A pro-

gramme on Adi Shankaraacharya’s life anddeeds will be presented every day duringthis 35-day yatra and metals will be col-lected from all sections of the society forinstallation of the Ashtha dhatu statue ofShankaracharya. A massive 108-ft highmetallic statue of Adi GuruShankaracharya will be installed atOmkareshwar and its bhoomi-pujan willbe held on January 23, 2018.

Earlier this year, the State Governmenthad recalled Adi Shankanracharya througha programme organised on February 9 atOmkareshwar. His Prakatosav was held inall districts of the State on May 1, 2017.

According to Dr. Shyam Singh Shashi,great personalities do not remain confinedto the era in which they were born. Theybecome the treasures of every age due totheir works related to public interest andwelfare. Adi Shankaracharya is one suchvaluable gem who enjoys a distinct placein Indian culture and Darshan.He was bornat a time when Indian culture was goingthrough a major crisis and its decline wasnot far away. At such a time he presenteda visibly sad and fearful public with aunique mantra in the form of ‘KimSmartavyam Harrenam Sada, Na YaminiBhasha’.

And this way he emerged as a sourceof enlightenment amidst the dark cloudsfull of spiritual and organizational power.The result was that the country could faceforeign forces for the next 400 years.

Today the need of the hour is of suchan unstinted outlook that takes us forwardwith qualities of truth, non-violence, gen-erosity and sensitivity. Madhya Pradesh ismaking such an effort through itsShankaracharya recall and installation ofhis massive statue.

(The writer is Additional Director inPublic Relations Department, MadhyaPradesh)

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As we step into the New Year, andembrace the fast changing digi-tal world, we leave a trail of

cyber-attacks, which have been moresophisticated and lethal, sabotagingindustries and individuals by thefts offinances and personal data. This raisesthe bar for stronger cyber security. Asurvey by eScan security has alsorevealed how Artificial Intelligence(AI) and machine learning are becom-ing the de facto norms of adoption forfuture growth of businesses and indus-tries. The following will dominate ourlives

Crypto currency: 2017 saw theemergence of crypto-currency as avolatile commodity. Moreover, thevolatility hasn’t subdued the interests ofthe investors. The latter half of 2017 sawRansomware attacks with WannaCry inthe forefront and their dependence onBitcoin. Cyber criminals will continueto demand ransoms in crypto curren-cy because of the unregulated anony-mous currency market.

Due to the spiralling price of theBitcoin in 2018, criminals would shifttheir focus to other crypto-currenciesand this would be the game changer inthe popularity of the crypto-currencies.

The hard forks of the Bitcoin result-ed in the creation of Bitcoin Gold andBitcoin Cash. Furthermore, there areplans to introduce Bitcoin Silver andBitcoin Platinum, which would fuel thegrowth of the Bitcoin economy. With somany forks, the investors would have toexercise caution as the very likelihoodof fake crypto-currencies, scams andPonzi schemes may surface in 2018.

Ransomware: Ransomware willcontinue to be a major threat in the year2018. It is one of the easiest ways for acyber-criminal to extract money from

the victim. In 2017, we witnessed theusage of publicly available exploits viz.Eternal Blue for lateral movement with-in the network. Moreover, Ransomwarecreators may shift their loyalties fromBitcoin to other crypto-currencies,since the payment of the ransom has tobe viable for the victims and the surg-ing price of the Bitcoin would be thecontributing factor.

2018 would also witness the custompricing of the ransom based on thecountry and the capability of the target-ed organisation to pay up the ransom.

Traditionally, spear-phishing was lim-ited to information warfare; however, wemay find organisations being activelytargeted with specifically tailoredRansomware so as to increase the ROIfor these criminals.

Improved Security of IoT Devices:Since the demand for smart devices andother Internet of Things (IoT) devicesare increasing every day, the need foradvanced security for these devices hasalso increased. According to recent sta-tistics, there will be an almost 30 billionconnected things in major industries

and IoT will touch every role across thecorporate spectrum. Simultaneously,the attacks against these devices will alsorise.

Besides, in 2017, IoT devices havebeen targeted by various botnets,including the infamous Mirai botnet,which leveraged the vulnerabilities tofurther attack the critical infrastructure.2018 would be a mixed bag and witness the emergence of implementa-tion of security guidelines for thedevelopment of IoT devices amongst thevendors.

Increase in mobile hacking: 2017was the year which saw the emergenceof DDoS malware affecting Androiddevices and also witnessed the take-down of WireX Botnet which had cre-ated havoc. Information-stealing MobileMalware cannot be attributed to cybercriminals alone as device manufactureshave come under fire for violating theprivacy of its users. As a precautionarymeasure, the Indian government hadissued a diktat against a majority ofdevice manufacturers. It has also black-listed more than 40 apps developed byChinese organisations.

Device manufacturers and appdevelopers will find 2018 to be verylucrative but would also come under theradar of privacy activists and govern-ment for flouting the norms laid downfor protection of their citizens’ data.With the enforcement of GDPR just afew months away, the latter half of 2018would witness a slew of privacy breach-es by mobile app developers.Implementation of multi-factor authen-tication after understanding the exactrequirement thoroughly will help theorganisation in minimising the chancesof any kind of cyber-attacks.

Comic Con is no longer restrictedto children or to Delhi. Over the

years, it has garnered a lot of attentionamong adults who love to relive theirchildhood fantasies through theirfavourite superhero comics and use thegraphic format as a new tool of cultur-al expression and projection of urbanmetaphors. Today Comic Con hasbecome a sub-culture of its own.

In 2011, around 25 exhibitorssigned up for the first edition in Delhiand 5,000 fans showed up. By 2017 theComic Con has grown to host showsacross five major Indian cities. Lastyear, a total of 1,70,000 visitors showedup at the various events and over 1,000exhibitors came on board.

“The market is being taken veryseriously by the content creators andthe international companies, alongwith the consumers, who are clear withwhat they expect from the market,”says Jatin Varma, founder of ComicCon and also a TV show producercum publisher. He came up with theidea at the age of 25 and managed witha team of 20 people. “It started as a per-sonal project and the only reason Iwanted to do a Comic Con wasbecause I was a fan and I wanted topublish a strip under my name. Therewas a time when to be a comic bookfan in India was a lonely thing indeed.But now it is a culture in itself.”

The trend of releasing films at theComic Con was something that hecame up with while brainstormingfor new experiences for visitors.“Baahubali fit the mould last year. It’shard to say if the trend will contin-ue as it is hard to get the dates, alongwith which the producer also has tobe willing. Also, not all Indianmovies work here as they have tocompete with international films,which roll out comic book charac-ters as big budget ventures most ofthe time. The audience, too, is moreinclined towards Western comics,so we have to make sure we balancethem out.”

For Varma, the content and theexperience go hand in hand. “The VR(visual reality) dome of theMahabharata was a part of our exper-iment. That’s one epic which allows forgreat graphic projections and we areglad that people enjoyed it. So, we arecontinuously on the lookout for part-ners who can add creative aspects.”

The organisers have also alignedthe graphic storyboard idea to gam-

ing, which has emerged as an interest-ing sidelight over the years. “Even thepeople who are not interested in it havebeen enjoying the experience. So,these are the two elements that we willdefinitely be expanding in the comingyears.”

Varma feels that in India, comicsare assumed to be for kids rather thanfor everyone, which creates a problemat the level of distribution. “On theinternational front, comics as anindustry is blooming — people aregoing for web comics, animatedmovies and films based on comic char-acters. There is a strong potential outhere as well, especially with the huge

market. And from the perspectiveof our event, we try to provide plat-forms for the local comics and the

creators of various characters.”

Comic Con has also expandedfrom its original scope, embracingeverything that comes under theumbrella of pop culture. “Getting theinternational players to come into themarket takes a lot of convincing as thereturns in India are smaller and takea longer time. Also, there is never aready market available in India.Though we have been successful, theprocess and the growth has been slow.I feel that it’s a half won battle for now.”But he is optimistic that as the mar-ket matures, so will the venture.

After Delhi, the festival will trav-el to various cities including Mumbai,Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad, butspreading it further has become a chal-lenge in itself. While Varma wants tosee Comic Con being a part of citieslike Kolkata and Chennai, unfortu-nately “venues are creating a problem.For a live event, one needs a certainamount of space which is difficult towork out. But we are trying to tackleall the problems and will be taking itto places like Chandigarh, making ita pan-Indian culture.”

For Varma, planning is a nerve-racking exercise. “We don’t knowwhat we will end up with. Being a partof the show, it depends on the partners.If Disney chooses to bring otherMarvel properties other than just StarWars — it ends up being a decision ofthe team as a whole.” However, bring-ing them along with the stars is tough,as aligning with the dates creates aproblem. “The whole Star Wars con-versation started in April last year andonly then did it end up being a partof Delhi Comic Con.” But with smartinnovations, Varma has more tricks uphis sleeve.

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Actor RiteishD e s h m u k h ,

described by theBollywood fraternity asone of the most genuine,warmest and craziest ofthe lot, turned 39 onSunday. A successfulactor and producer, he islooking forward to shootTotal Dhamaal.

“December 7, 2018— The date is fixed.Excited to shoot the thirdpart of this mad madfi lm Total Dhamaal.Looking for ward toworking with my friendAjay Devgn again andthrilled to be workingwith Madhuri Dixitji andAnil Kapoor sir for thefirst time. Arshad Warsiand Jaaved Jaaferi, mypartners,” Riteishtweeted.

Total Dhamaal isthe third film inthe comedyentertainer fran-chise Dhamaal.It will be direct-ed by IndraKumar.

“My sixthfilm with direc-tor Indra Kumarand producerAshok Thakeria(Indu ji andAshokji). They arelike family to me.The third part ofthe Dhamaal seriesis even more madthan the previousones,” added theactor.

Anil is a lsoexcited about team-ing up with Riteish. “Heplays a villain and acomedian on-screen withequal mastery, but mostimportantly, he is one ofthe warmest and kindestpeople I know. It’s nowonder that he winshearts on and off-screen!.Happy BirthdayRiteish. Looking forwardto working with you. It’sgoing to be a TotalDhamaal,” he tweeted.

Words of praise camein abundance for Riteish,who began his Bollywoodinnings with Tujhe MeriKasam, which alsostarred his now wifeGenelia D’Souza.

Genelia sent out aromantic message for her

husband, with whom shehas two children. “Thankyou for being my every-thing... For making lifeabout loving you... Youwill forever be myalways,” she wrote.

Here’s what othercelebrities tweeted: Youalways make sure every-one is smiling. It’s a giftthat you gift to others...It’s your day today. HappyBirthday, my brother.

Suniel Shetty :Riiittttzzzz... Anotheryear stronger... anotheryear better... another yearsweeter... another yearmerrier... Wish you a veryHappy Birthday. Loadsof love.

Shraddha Kapoor:Wish all your dreamscome true. Keep smil-ing.

Vishal Dadlani:Wish you many

more successes,both as actor andproducer. Big love,Dada.

T u s s h a rKapoor: Happybirthday fellowpartner in pio-neering certaincrimes, super-cool crimes!

Many Many more tocome!

Athiya Shetty :Happiest birthday toone of the kindestsouls, RiteishDeshmukh. I hope

you have the bestestone ever!

Sophie Choudr y :Happy birthday to one ofthe sweetest, most wellbrought up, genuine,witty, talented humanbeings you will evermeet!! Have an amazingyear Riteish... Big hug.

Aftab Shivdasani:Happy birthday to thecraziest yet nicest guy Iknow, Riteish. Have agreat one brother. Maythis year be filled withlots of happiness and suc-cess for you.

Dia Mirza: Happybirthday to the nicest,warmest, kindest friendRiteish! May you havethe best day and an evenbetter year ahead. Receivein abundance all that loveyou give so generously.

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1947 is a difficult memory for the sub-continent. With the English govern-ment officially slicing a country into

two nations, triggering the largest dis-placement of human population in the his-tory of the world, millions of peoplecrossed the borders that were not evenknown to them. This alienated people ofboth countries from their own land. Alarge number of families were caughtbetween life and death.

That’s the reason why Jis Lahore NaiVekhya o Jamyai Nai, a play written byAsghar Wajahat, which has been adaptedand staged over the last 25 years all overthe world, has refused to fade. The playhighlights the trials and tribulations ofcommon people during the Partitionthrough the story of an old Hindu womanwho is left behind in Lahore. But she findsa Muslim family, who are themselves dis-placed from Lucknow, and the emergentbond rescues both and restores faith inhumanity.

The play begins with the Mirzas fromLucknow migrating to Lahore as they havebeen allotted a haveli vacated by a Hindufamily. On entering they find Ratan kiMaa, claiming her right of residency andrefusing to vacate. But seeing her genuinelove and affection towards them anddeeply sensitive about their own rooted-ness to their city and a sense of belong-ing to it, the Mirzas gradually settle downin the haveli along with her, dropping theidea of pushing her out. Simultaneously,there is a constant friction between fel-low Muslims over how the Mirzas shouldbe treating the old Hindu woman livingwith them under the same roof.

The play is an emotional journey ofthe protagonist who is able to transformpeople for whom humanity had becomesecondary. Through her love, she buildsa relationship with the family who over-took her house irrespective of what reli-gion they belonged to. So connected isRatan ki Ma to Lahore that she dies in the

house quite suddenly. This in turn resultsin the Maulvi, Hidayat Hussein and sev-eral others coming together to carry outher last rites. However, in a shocking turnof events, a staunch rival kills the Maulvi

to assert his purity as a Muslim by pun-ishing him for helping in a Hindu funer-al.

Even though the play is in the back-drop of the Partition, it is still relevant in

today’s context. It is essential that thecoming generations know that differencesin customs, ideology and rituals havenever restricted unity among Hindus andMuslims. Since centuries, all have beenborn and brought up in the same moth-erland, living together with love andmutual respect for each other. Thus,despite many reasons of diversity, therecan still be a visibly discerning, yetunderlying form of unity. Reasons of unityin India are stronger than the cause of itsdiversity.

Jis Lahore Nai Dekhya was first per-formed under the direction of HabibTanvir in 1989, who subsequently tookthe play to Karachi, Lahore, Sydney, NewYork and Dubai. The play was brought toDelhi by the Asmita Theatre Group,directed by Arvind Gaur and staged at SriSathya Sai Auditorium, Lodhi Road onDecember 15. It was an initiative byNAAD Foundation, a public charitabletrust in association with Arts Vintage.

When Rajasthani folk singerBhanwari Devi takes the stage,

she radiates a primal energy thatcourses through the audience.Delivering a full-throated rendition ofher hit Kattey at Pushkar, her rustictruth and whole-heartedness of emo-tions waft past her blue bandhni veil.Musician Ram Sampath was sotouched by it that he recorded it as alive act for Coke Studio. That’s how shetouched many of us and is the reasonwhy she features in the lineup foranother edition of Pushkar’s SacredFestival.

Says her son and fellow musicianKrishna Kumar, “Coke Studio was anenriching experience and took us tothe hearts of people across the globe.We have gone back to the show twiceon popular demand.”

Bhanwari is a skilled folk singerand has done numerous shows but thatdoesn’t deter her from keeping up withthe daily practice sessions. “My moth-er has been singing since the last fivedecades and even after creating a namefor herself, she doesn’t miss a single dayof riyaaz which continues for an hourand more. She wakes up early in themorning to practise her skills. Her con-nection with music is deep rooted, it’sin her veins.” So the devotee of musicnever refuses to perform in the spiri-tual environs of Pushkar.

Divulging details about her musi-cal journey, Krishna adds, “My moth-er was six years old when she began hermusical journey with her father, train-ing and performing with him. Afterhis death in 2002, she has been per-forming with me and my five broth-ers.”

The team is preparing to stagetheir next performance in Australia.The troupe, consisting of BhanwariDevi, Krishna Kumar, Inder Kumar,Subhash Kumar, Rajveer Kumar,Surendra Kumar and Rahul Kumar,has performed in China, Hong Kong,Australia, Scotland, England andFrance.

Throughout her career, Bhanwarihas also improved her talent, singingfolk songs, qawaali, ghazals and manymore. Having started out as a five-year-old, Krishna, now 35, is cultivating

similar values and discipline among hischildren, training them while incor-porating the essential elementsrequired in the art of folk singing.

Her son believes that in spite ofbeing illiterate, she has created a namefor herself through the gift of music.“Music means everything to her, herlife revolves around it and it meansmore to her than us,” he tells us,threading himself proudly to a lega-cy that was once on the verge of dying

out. The troupe has collaborated withSona Mohapatra, Rekha Bhardwajand Javed Akhtar.

Meanwhile, we feel Meera’s pathosand pain as she belts out a bhajan,Kaanu ro na jaane mori preet, scoop-ing us up in the immensity of Meera’slove and dedication towards LordKrishna though he is unaware aboutit. But Meera doesn’t mind. Just likeBhanwari who is fearless in her eman-cipation through melody.

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At the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa,Aruna Ganesh Ram had performers

recreating moments from various streetvendors’ lives, framing the street as a per-formance space, sharing a slice of per-sonal narratives, food conversation andtheir aspirations. The audience journeyed

from one crafted space into another, inpromenade style, encountering a newspace and a new story, one after the other.Through a confluence of song, narrativeand rhythm, the labour and love behindeach item of ubiquitous street foodcomes to the fore.

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Australia won back the Ashes afterbowling England out cheaplydespite rain delays and a pitch con-

troversy to secure an innings win on thefinal day of the third Test in Perth, here onMonday.

Having confirmed his status as theworld's best batsman with a match-winningdouble century, Steve Smith added victo-rious Ashes captain to his ever-expandingresume as England were dismissed for 218in their second innings in the last AshesTest to take place at the WACA Ground.

That gave the home side an innings-and-41-run win and an unbeatable 3-0 leadin the five-match series, having won theopening two Tests in Brisbane andAdelaide.

Pat Cummins secured the famous urnfor the home side when he had ChrisWoakes caught behind for 22, promptingAustralian celebrations.

But while it was a comfortable win,there was high drama on the final day cour-tesy of yet another WACA pitch contro-versy.

Victory seemed assured for Australiawhen they had England 132 for four at theconclusion of the fourth day, still 127 runsbehind with Australia yet to bat again, buta rain-damaged pitch threatened to end thematch without a ball being bowled on thefinal day.

Showers had caused play to be aban-doned early on the fourth day and theycontinued through to Monday morning,forcing a scheduled early resumption to becancelled, with Australia needing just sixmore wickets to win the match and regainthe Ashes.

Complicating matters further was adamp spot on the pitch, just outside thepopping crease at the southern end of theground.

WACA staff worked furiously with leafblowers to try to dry the patch out as moreshowers passed through and the coverscame on and off at regular intervalsthroughout the morning.

How the water got onto the wicket wasunclear, although there was speculation itmight have been linked to strong winds lift-ing the covers.

But umpires Chris Gaffaney andMarais Erasmus would not allow play toresume until they believed the pitch hadbeen returned to the same condition as atthe end of day four.

Play did not get under way until after

lunch, and even then to the chagrin of anEnglish camp who felt the conditions weredangerous.

England's batsmen also had to contendwith balls jagging violently off cracks onthe pitch in a contentious end to 47 yearsof Ashes cricket at the WACA Ground.

Wickets tumbled quickly for Englandupon the delayed resumption, withovernight batsman and first-innings cen-turion Jonny Bairstow bowled for 14 by thefirst delivery he faced for the day from JoshHazlewood, which kept low.

Hazlewood removed England's lasthope Dawid Malan — who backed up hisfirst innings century with a fighting 54before being caught behind — to finishwith figures of 5-48.

Malan's first day heroics, whenEngland appeared to be in a dominantposition at 368-4 from which an inningsdefeat would be almost impossible, seemeda distant memory as he trudged from thefield.

��+��.��0�+��0��Skipper Smith praised his "excep-

tional" team as Australia reclaimed theAshes with an innings win over Englandin the third Test in Perth on Monday, andset his sights on a series whitewash.

Australia dismissed England for 218 intheir second innings after rain delays anda pitch controversy on the final day in Perthto win back the urn in the last Ashes Testto be played at the WACA Ground.

That gave the home side an innings

and 41-run win and an unbeatable 3-0 leadin the five-match series, having won theopening two Tests in Brisbane andAdelaide.

"It's been an amazing couple of weeks,"said Smith. "What the boys have deliveredhas been exceptional. England have hadtheir foot in the door in a couple of gamesand we've been able to claw our way backto get back in the game, and then keep the

foot on the throat."Having confirmed his status as the

world's best batsman with a match-winningdouble century, Smith added victoriousAshes captain to his ever-expandingresume.

That CV also includes a role in the 5-0 whitewash of England on their last tourto Australia, and Smith said his team wouldnow seek to repeat that achievement.

"It'd be fantastic to do that and we'll talkabout Melbourne when we get there."

"Right now, I'm just really satisfied withwhat we've achieved in these first three Testmatches. I'd love to do that again, but wewill just take it one step at a time."

While it was a comfortable win for thehome side in the end, there was high dramaon the final day courtesy of yet anotherWACA pitch controversy.

Victory seemed assured for Australiawhen they had England 132 for four at theconclusion of the fourth day, still 127 runsbehind, but a rain-damaged pitch threat-ened to foil the home side.

Showers had caused play to be aban-doned early on the fourth day and theycontinued through to Monday morning,with Australia needing just six more wick-ets to win.

Complicating matters further was adamp spot on the pitch, just outside thepopping crease at the southern end of theground.

WACA staff worked furiously with leafblowers to try to dry the patch out as moreshowers passed through.

C��+��+%��3Umpires Chris Gaffaney and Marais

Erasmus would not allow play to resumeuntil they believed the pitch had beenreturned to the same condition as at theend of day four, which ended up being afterlunch.

"It was a shame that was some waterwas able to get through the covers in thefirst place at an international venue,"Smith commented. "The umpires made theright call to get us back on to play thegame."

Root agreed with Smith."Credit to the umpires for making the

right call on the start of play, they gave ittime to dry out as when we got to theground it wasn't fit to play on," Root said.

Wickets tumbled quickly for Englandupon the delayed resumption, with JonnyBairstow bowled for 14 by the first deliv-ery he faced for the day from Hazlewood,which kept low.

�-�� 9(�

Australian captain Steve Smith has paid trib-ute to some bold selections after his team

regained the Ashes in Perth on Monday.The home team took an unbeatable 3-0 lead

in the series with an innings victory over theEnglish at the WACA Ground, despite raindelays and a damaged pitch.

Smith said the comprehensive result, whichhas Australia on track for its third Ashes white-wash in four home series, was vindication forthe national selectors for making some imagi-native selections.

Wicketkeeper Tim Paine was not even keep-ing for his state side Tasmania when he wasnamed for the first Test at the Gabba, while therecall of 34-year-old Shaun Marsh raised plen-ty of eyebrows.

Then batsman Peter Handscomb wasdropped for the third Test, with underachiev-ing all-rounderMitchell Marshgetting a surpriserecall.

Paine hasresponded withpolished perfor-mances behindthe stumps and130 runs at 43.33,while ShaunMarsh produceda crucial centuryin the second Testin Adelaide andhas 224 runs at74.66.

M i t c h e l lMarsh took hischance in the third Test, notching his maidenTest century in making 181.

"I thought they were really good selections,"Smith said. "Painey has been mentioned as thebest keeper in the country for a long period oftime and the way he has kept has been excep-tional. The way he has batted has been excep-tional as well, we have had some very valuableruns from him at seven. Shaun Marsh as well,he's come in and done a terrific job."

D�+%��DSmith credited his bowling attack's firepower

for providing the difference between the sides,with Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and PatCummins all capable of bowling considerablyquicker than their English counterparts.

He said the success of the trio was rewardfor extended planning to ensure they were attheir prime for the Ashes.

"Here in Australia it certainly makes a dif-ference on the flatter tracks where there isn'tmuch sideways movement, that extra air speedcan make a big difference," he said. "We'veworked really hard to ensure we had these threebig quicks were on the park and ready for thisseries."

�-�� 9(�

England captain Joe Root defend-ed his underperforming senior

players after his team meekly hand-ed back the Ashes to Australia inPerth, here on Monday.

Victory by an innings and 41runs gave Australia an unassailable3-0 lead in the series, but Root saidthe English had to be careful not tomake hasty decisions based on thisseries.

Former England batsman KevinPietersen said one of the openingbowlers needed to be dropped, in anapparent reference to Stuart Broadwho returned career-worst figures inPerth.

Pietersen's former English team-mate Ian Bell also suggested it wastime for former skipper AlastairCook to retire, having scored just 83runs at 13.83 in this series so far.

However Root backed the pair,along with Moeen Ali and JimmyAnderson, to continue to be impor-tant players for England.

"I'd like to think so," Root saidwhen asked if Cook, Broad andAnderson would still be in the teamin 12 months.

"They've got huge amounts ofexperience and they do offer a lot tothe group and their performancesover a long period of time speak forthemselves.

England coach Trevor Baylisshad hinted that pressure may haveto got to some of the senior playersin the Ashes, but Root dismissed thesuggestion.

"They've been in situationswhere things haven't gone for thembefore and that's why they've playedso many games.

"No reason they can't do thatagain. It's important we don't panicand make hasty decisions after threegames."

Root leapt to the defence of hispredecessor as national captain, say-ing he didn't think Cook was readyto retire.

"He's done it so many timesbefore and he's a very stubborn guy

who likes proving people wrong," hesaid.

"The amount of extra work he'sputting in behind the scenes tells mehe's desperate to keep going."

Root conceded his own formhad been down and felt he mighthave been putting too much pressureon himself to perform.

"Things feel like they just haven'tran for me out in the middle," hesaid. "I feel pretty good in the way Ihave prepared and sometimes youjust have to keep battling throughthose tough periods."

He also refused to say theabsence of star all-rounder BenStokes, unavailable for the Ashes afteran alleged fight outside a Bristol pub,had played a big part in England'sdemise.

"I'm not going to make excuses,"he said.

"We knew that he wasn't goingto be on the tour from the start. I wasvery confident that this group ofplayers could come out here and wintogether."

��+�� D��D�(�

Vice-captain Karun Nair struck anunbeaten century to put former

champions Karnataka in a strong posi-tion on the second day of their RanjiTrophy semifinal against Vidarbha at theEden Gardens, here on Monday.

Nair's unbeaten 148 ensured ahealthy 109-run first innings lead forKarnataka over Vidarbha.

Resuming at the overnight score of36 for three, Nair hit 20 fours and onesix in his stellar knock and batted all thethree sessions.

Nair thwarted an onslaught fromyoung Vidarbha pacer RajneeshGurbani, who returned with his thirdsuccessive five-wicket haul (5/90).

The second Indian to score a triplecentury in Tests, Nair, found a fine allyin skipper R Vinay Kumar (20 not out)as the duo batted sensibly amid the ruinsin an unbroken 69-run ninth wicketpartnership that took Karnataka's leadpast 100.

At close, Karnataka were 294 foreight when bad light stopped play at 93overs with three more days left in play.

Bowling with a short run-up, SouthAfrica-bound India pacer Umesh Yadav(2/71) gave Vidarbha their first break-through at the stroke of lunch endingNair's overnight 139-run partnershipwith CM Gautam (73).

The Karnataka wicketkeeper slasheda delivery straight to deep point after a

fine knock that was laced with eightboundaries.

Karnataka looked to go theVidarbha way in the post-lunch sessionas Gurbani hit the deck hard and swungthe ball to take three wickets for 24 runsin his superb third spell of 9-0-49-3.

Stuart Binny (4), Shreyas Gopal (7)and K Gowtham (1) were all dismissedcheaply as Karnataka were tottering at198 for seven at one stage in reply toVidarbha's 185.

Binny lasted 12 balls and edged a

beautiful outswinger behind the stumps,while Gowtham was deceived brilliant-ly by a slower one as the batsman mist-imed a drive straight to gully.

��+�+1��1��%�+1��1%��1�5��Gautam Gambhir was patiencepersonified while unheralded KunalChandela showed maturity beyondyears as their twin tons took Delhi toa commanding 271 for three againstBengal on the second day of the RanjiTrophy semi-final, here on Monday.

With Bengal scoring a below par 286in their first essay, they are sure to con-cede the first innings lead.

The only positive aspect for Bengalwas the final session where Delhi scoredjust 51 runs losing three wickets, includ-ing that of Gambhir (127 off 216 balls)off the bowling of Mohammed Shami.

Gambhir was an epitome of calm-ness during his 42nd first-class hundredin the company of Chandela (113 off 192balls), who is playing only his third first-class match.

The Bengal attack comprisingMohammed Shami (23.2-3-83-1) andAshok Dinda (18-2-86-1) looked pedes-trian and the manner in whichGambhir-Chandela duo humiliatedthem was indeed deflating.

The best part about Gambhir thisseason has been his attitude. He remainsattached with a goal of guiding Delhiwith crucial runs yet manages to stayuninvolved like an isolated island.

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Indian opener Rohit Sharma'sthird career double hundred

in the just-concluded seriesagainst Sri Lanka has pushedhim up two spots to fifth in thelatest ICC ODI PlayerRankings among batsmen.

It's the first time that Rohithas crossed the 800-point markas he ended the three-matchODI series which India won 2-1 with 816 points.

Though he has enjoyed acareer-high ranking of third inFebruary 2016, he reached apersonal high of 825 pointsafter the second match inMohali when he struck anunbeaten 208, his third ODIdouble-century.

Rohit's opening partnerShikhar Dhawan, named play-er of the series, too has gained

one slot to reach 14th positionafter aggregating 168 runsincluding an unbeaten 100 inVisakhapatnam. Dhawan hadslammed 68 in the secondmatch, figuring in a 115-runopening stand with Rohit.

Rested Virat Kohli stillleads the batting chart with 876points.

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Ajinkya Rahane's wretched form will notbe a big concern for the South Africa-

bound Indian team, feels former captainSourav Ganguly.

Rahane has scored only 17 runs in fiveinnings against Sri Lanka at home but hisrecord outside sub continent makes him avital cog in the wheel.

"No, I don't think Ajinkya Rahane'sform is a concern as he is a quality player.Virat Kohli, Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujaraand Murali Vijay have all been to SouthAfrica. The best thing is that they are goingback to South Africa as better players,"Ganguly told PTI during an interaction onthe sidelines of Ranji Trophy semi-finalbetween Bengal and Delhi.

The former captain is impressed withcurrent bowling attack but wants to waittill he watches them in action.

"We will find out if this is the best bowl-ing attack or not. They have got pace forsure. Umesh has pace, Bhuvneshwar is ingood form, so let's wait," he said.

While conditions will determine theplaying XI in Cape Town on January 5,Ganguly is not averse to trying out HardikPandya at No 6, something a lot of expertsare sceptical considering his technique inbouncy conditions is not well document-ed.

"You will not realise till you give

Hardik a chance. Depends on how youwant to go about it," said one of India'sshrewdest captain.

"Rohit Sharma did well in the twochances that he got. If it's a flat track, maybe we should have that extra fast bowlerin the XI but if it's a green top, we shoulddefinitely have an extra batsman," heopined.

Ganguly, who is the president of theCricket Association of Bengal (CAB),picked Shikhar Dhawan as his choice asopening partner of Murali Vijay.

"Shikhar Dhawan has been in suchgreat form and Murali Vijay has also playedwell against Sri Lanka," he said.

While India have talent to do well, win-ning a series will be easier said than done.

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