CMYK

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DELHI, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

Printed at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubballi, Mohali, Allahabad and Malappuram • •

Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 ● RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 4 ● No. 307 ● CITY EDITION ● 22 Pages ● Rs. 8.00 ● www.thehindu.in

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kash-mir Governor N.N. Vohra onFriday officially wrote to thePDP and the BJP, the partieswith the largest number ofMLAs following the recent As-sembly elections, on theirplans for government forma-tion.

“Governor sahib sent sepa-rate letters to the state presi-dents of both PDP and BJPsince they have emerged as thetwo largest parties in the elec-tions,” the Principal Secretaryto the Governor said.

“They have been asked tocome and discuss their plans.”

The Governor has invitedPDP president MehboobaMufti to meet him on themorning of January 1 and BJPState president Jugal Kishorethe same afternoon, said PTI.

The communiqué from theGovernor is the first step to-wards the formation of thenew government following thefractured verdict on December23. Former Chief MinisterOmar Abdullah has resigned

but remains in charge till newarrangements are made.

Amid all talks and back-channel negotiations betweenthe political players, govern-ment formation this time isfraught with challenges as allpossible alliances come withriders, while some coalitionswould result in an unrepresen-tative and weak government,other formations threaten thefuture of the political parties.

The single largest party, thePDP, seems to have been gifteda crown of thorns and is seek-ing time to arrive at a decision.

Meanwhile, the NC reiterat-ed its offer of unconditionalsupport to its archrival, PDP,and remained hopeful that thetwo could form a government.

“As a responsible politicalparty to ensure a stable gov-ernment and a smooth transi-tion in government, we haveoffered unconditional supportto the PDP since it is the singlelargest party,” Devender Rana,NC’s Provincial President,Jammu, told The Hindu.

NC reiterates offer of support to PDPZahid Rafiq & Agencies

Governor N.N. Vohra has sent separate letters toPDP president Mehbooba Mufti and BJP Statepresident Jugal Kishore.

Governor asks PDP, BJPto spell out their plans

J&K STALEMATE EFFORTS ON FOR GOVT. FORMATION

� BJP BEGINS TALKS; A CONUNDRUMFOR PDP, NC | PAGE 10

GUWAHATI: Even as the Armyon Friday intensified its coun-ter-insurgency operationsagainst the National Demo-cratic Front of Boroland(Songbijit), the exodus of pan-ic-stricken Bodo and Adivasipeople continued unabated.

Government sourcesin New Delhi said thatthe border with Bhu-tan — where NDFB(S) is believed tohave bases — hasbeen sealed.

So far over a lakhpeople have fledtheir villages. Kokraj-har Deputy Commission-er Thaneswar Malakar toldThe Hindu that 74,912 peoplehad taken shelter in 77 reliefcamps in the district. In Chi-rang district, 14,920 refugees

had taken shelter in 11relief camps, 9,650 peoplewere in nine relief camps inSonitpur district and 8,105people were in five reliefcamps in Udalguri. Sporadic

incidents were reported dur-ing a 12-hour bandh called bythe All-Assam Tea Tribe Stu-dents’ Union, the All-AdivasiStudents’ Association of As-sam and several other orga-

nisations to protest themassacre of Adivasi villagers.Trucks and other vehicleswere torched, stones werepelted on buses and tyreswere burnt on highways andcity roads.

Police have put the deathtoll in the attacks by NDFB (S)on Adivasi villages on Tuesdaynight and in the retaliatory at-tacks on Bodo villages at 75.The strategy group of the Uni-fied Command Structure ofthe Army, the Assam Policeand the Central ParamilitaryForces met at the official resi-dence of Chief Minister TarunGogoi. Emerging from themeeting, Director General ofPolice Khagen Sarma said thecrackdown on NDFB (S) hadbegun.

Border with Bhutan sealed Sushanta Talukdar

ASSAM ATTACKS OPERATIONS AGAINST NDFB(S) STEPPED UP

� JOINT OPERATIONS ALONG BORDER PLANNED | PAGE 11

Adivasis protest against NDFB(S)militants during the State-widebandh in Assam on Friday. — PHOTO: RITU RAJ KONWAR

NEW DELHI: For the first timein history, the BJP has moreState legislators than theCongress across the coun-try.

With over 1,000 MLAs,the BJP has gone from be-ing regionally concentratedto geographicallywidespread.

Using data for MLAsfrom every State for everyyear since 1961, compiled byAshoka University’s Politi-cal Data Centre, The Hindufound that 2014 is the firstyear that the BJP, with1,058 MLAs, has more

State-level representativesthan the Congress, with949. Both numbers are his-toric. For the Congress,which fell below 1,000MLAs only in the 1977 and1979 elections, this is itslowest point ever.

The BJP dominates In-dia’s north, has double theCongress’s numbers in thewest and is neck-and-neckin the east.

The Congress still holdsthe edge in the northeast,but is reduced in strength inthe south.

At 1,058, BJP has most MLAs nationwideRukmini S.

� CONGRESS DECLINE TO CONTINUE |PAGE 10

INSIDE �

TOP POSTINGS

Panel clears high-levelappointmentsNEW DELHI: The PrimeMinister-led AppointmentsCommittee of the Cabinet onFriday effected another roundof postings of bureaucrats.Alok Kumar, an IAS officer ofthe 1984 batch, has been madeSecretary, CVC. Anant KumarSingh has been appointed asAdditional Secretary in theHome Ministry, whereasRaghvendra Singh has beenmade Additional Secretary,Department of Agriculture andCooperation.

NEWS | PAGE 10

FLOOD CONTROL

WB hydrology project

NEW DELHI: With officialestimates putting the damagecaused by floods at Rs. 6,000crore a year, India is set toadopt a World Bank-fundedhydrology project.

NATIONAL | PAGE 11

METROPLUS -MELANGE— 4 Pages

NEW DELHI: President PranabMukherjee signed two key or-dinances on Friday to raisethe cap on foreign direct in-vestment in the insurancesector and facilitate e-auctionof coal blocks, amid protestfrom a National DemocraticAlliance member, Shiv Sena, aformer ally, MDMK, and theDMK.

The Coal Mines (SpecialProvisions) Bill, 2014, waspassed by the Lok Sabha, butcould not be taken up for dis-

cussion in the Rajya Sabha,pushing the government torecommend a re-promulga-tion of the coal ordinance.

In the Insurance Amend-ment Bill, the governmentrecommended promulgationof a fresh ordinance, for anFDI hike from 26 per cent to49 per cent in the sector.

The decision on taking theordinance route was taken bythe Union Cabinet, chaired byPrime Minister NarendraModi, on Wednesday.

In a letter to the President,CPI(M) leader in the Rajya

Sabha Sitaram Yechury con-tended that since a selectcommittee of the Rajya Sabhahad scrutinised the InsuranceBill and had tabled its report,the draft legislation “remainsthe property of the House onwhich a decision is pending.”

Mr. Yechury said 13 of the16 Bills taken up by the LokSabha were passed withoutbeing referred to parliamen-tary standing committees.

Congress spokespersonShakeel Ahmad said the partywould oppose the “OrdinanceRaj.”

Mahim Pratap Singh

President signs coal,insurance ordinances

� EDITORIAL | PAGE 8

� PROTEST AGAINST FIRST NON-TRIBAL CM | PAGE 10

RANCHI: Raghuvar Das, afive-time MLA, waselected leader of theBJPlegislatureparty onFriday,clearing thedecks for hisswearing-inas Jharkhand’s firstnon-tribal ChiefMinister.

Mr. Das will be the10th Chief Minister ofthe State. In theevening, the MLA fromJamshedpur (East) metGovernor Syed Ahmedand staked his party’sclaim to form thegovernment. He isexpected to take oathon December 28.

It’s Raghuvar

in Jharkhand

Amarnath Tewary

CHENNAI: The Chief OperatingOfficer of Sun Network, Pra-veen C. (49), was arrested bythe Central Crime Branch(CCB) on Friday on chargesof sexual harassment of awoman colleague.

CCB sources said the 38-year-old woman, who hadlodged a complaint, quit herjob as programme head of theMalayalam channel Surya TVin Chennai in May after beingrepeatedly subjected to sex-ual abuse and humiliation atthe workplace.

“As the complainant re-fused to put up with his ha-rassment, Praveen used hisofficial powers and abruptlytransferred her to Kochi. Sherequested that the transfer be

revoked as her child was at-tending school in Chennaiand her mother was under-going treatment, but he didnot consider that. So shequit,” an investigating officersaid.

Praveen reportedly contin-ued to harass the woman bynot clearing the final settle-ment, pending salary and oth-er dues, following which sheapproached the city police,the officer added.

A CCB team picked up Pra-veen from his house at AnnaNagar early on Friday.

Following questioning, hewas charged with offencessuch as sexual harassment atthe workplace, criminalbreach of trust and intimida-tion. He was remanded in ju-dicial custody, sources added.

Petlee Peter

Sun Network COO arrested

NEW DELHI: A 51-year-old wom-an from Ghaziabad succumbedto swine flu on Friday. TheHealth Department has putgovernment hospitals on alertafter the death. Hospitals havealso been asked to take mea-sures to treat swine flu cases.

Swine flu killsone in DelhiStaff Reporter

JAIPUR: Sixteen Ministers inRajasthan have received e-mails purportedly from theIndian Mujahideen (IM)warning of terror strikes onRepublic Day. Following this,security has been stepped upat important places.

IM warns of R-Day attacksAarti Dhar

� DETAILED REPORT | PAGE 4 � DETAILED REPORT | PAGE 10

CMYK

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CITY2 THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

LEDs to soon light up Capital’s streetsStreetlights across Delhi will switch to the moreenergy-efficient LED variety within one year,officials have announced: Page 4

Compensation for kin of anti-Sikh riot victimsUnion Home Minister Rajnath Singh distributed chequesof Rs.5 lakh to 16 kin of the 1984 anti-Sikh riot victims inNew Delhi on Friday: Page 5

My way or Segway

A child gets a helping hand during her Segway ride at Rajpath onFriday. PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

NEW DELHI: It’s time to bringout the doggy coats and catsweaters as temperatures dipin the Capital this week. Ani-mal welfare organisations areurging Delhiites to make suretheir four-legged friends arewarm and ready to take on thewinter chill.

It’s a good idea to makeshort-haired pets, includingdogs and cats, wear warmcoats or knitted-sweaters,says Humane Society Inter-national-India’s managing di-rector N.G. Jayasimha. “Thebest precaution for winterwoes is to keep your dog or catindoors with you. Duringwalks, short-haired dogs mayfeel more comfortable wear-ing a sweater,” he says.

According to experts, ananimal’s nose, ears and pawpads are more susceptible tocold and can suffer perma-nent damage if exposed fortoo long. Mr. Jayasimha addsthat if an animal has to bekept outside, it must be in adry and draft-free shelter.The floor of the shelter shouldbe covered in cedar shavingsor straw and the door coveredwith a waterproof burlap orplastic. For strays, make-shiftshelters can be made usingblankets or rugs.

People for the EthicalTreatment of Animals (PE-

TA) India spokesperson Sa-chin Bangera says peopleshould keep an eye for strays.“Take unidentified animalsinside until you can find theirguardians or take them to ananimal shelter. If strays arewild or unapproachable, pro-vide food, water, and shelter,”says Mr. Bangera.

Animals, both pets andstrays, must be given plenty

of food and water during thewinter. “Pets who spend a lotof time outdoors need morefood in the winter becausekeeping warm depletes ener-gy,” says Mr. Jayasimha.

Pet-owners should checkthe bowls to make sure thewater is fresh and not frozen.Also, using plastic bowls isrecommended as the animal’stongue can get stuck to a me-

tallic bowl if it is too cold. If your car is parked out on

the street, bang on the hoodbefore starting it to scareaway any animals that mayhave hid underneath the ve-hicle. The warmth of the en-gine attracts cats and dogs.

If you’ve taken the precau-tions, there is no reason whyyour pets can’t enjoy a sunnywinter afternoon with you.

Stay indoors, dress them warmly, cover the shelter floor with straw, say experts

Damini Nath

READY TO TAKE ON THE CHILL: A pet owner dresses up her dogs in sweaters asmercury dips in the Capital. PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

Keep your pets cozy this winter

NEW DELHI: We know rain and floods;and are well aware of storms;but who the hell are you?….During this season of

electionsin Tamil Nadu;political hawks of all hueshovered over the carcasses.These are two epigrams

(four-line poem) that figureamong the 100 in “Terse Verseon the Tsunami”, a book of po-ems by T. Sampath Kumar, whowears different hats includingthat of a poet, a lyricist and ashort story author.

The epigrams published re-cently are his tribute to thosewho suffered the South Asiantsunami that originated in theIndian Ocean on December 26,2004, and severely hit 13 coun-tries and killed approximately300,000 people.

Originally written in Telugu,the epigrams were translatedinto Hindi first by Sahitya Aka-demi Award winner Dr. J. Lax-

mi Reddy, a retired HindiAssociate professor from DelhiUniversity’s Dayal Singh Col-lege. They were all picked bySahitya Amrith, a literary jour-nal that printed all the 100 po-ems in 2006.

Following popular demand,these were recently translatedinto English by Late Dr. KesavaRao, a lecturer from an AndhraPradesh college. The English

version saw a sober launch atthe Canadian High Commis-sion in New Delhi earlier thisweek.

On the experience of pen-ning the poems, 58-year-oldMr. Kumar, who works withthe High Commission’s Devel-opment Department for thepast 22 years, says: “As a bi-lateral agency, the CanadianHigh Commission was involved

in supporting the rehabilita-tion to lessen the humanitariantragedy. I was on my officialduty to assess the situation inTamil Nadu from 2004 to2009. But seeing the vastnessof the tragedy, I got involvedpersonally. I saw everythingfrom gender discrimination toNGOs helping there, to politi-cal interests. I couldn’t have in-cluded all of that in stories. So I

decided to write just four lineseach on different situationswhich could work like a laddertied with ropes. I left the gapsbetween the ropes to be under-stood by the readers. The 100epigrams in a way serve as astory of the tsunami.”

Notably, this writer of threeother books of short stories inTelugu, has minced no wordswhile mirroring the hypocrisycreeping on the sight of thetragedy in the name of help;people turning vultures to lootthe “dead”; homeless girlsforced into prostitution and soon.

Mr. Kumar had donated theproceeds from the sale of theTelugu version of the book fortsunami victims. “While thebook will be re-launched inDelhi outside the High Com-mission’s premises, fifty percent of the proceeds of its En-glish version will be given toCanAssist, a small fundingbody managed by the HighCommission of Canada to sup-port development of poor com-munities in Delhi,” he says.

After 10 years, a poetic tribute to tsunami victims A hundred epigrams sum up the myriad human stories during the disaster

Rana Siddiqui Zaman

Fishermen pour milk into the sea to mark the tenth anniversary of the tsunamiin Chennai on Friday. At right, the book cover of the Telugu version of ‘Terse Verse on the Tsunami’ by T. Sampath Kumar. PHOTOS: PTI AND SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

TASTE OF INDIA

Visitors relish delicacies at the ongoing National Street Food Festival atJawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Friday. PHOTOS: MEETA AHLAWAT

CMYK

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3THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

CITY

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NEW DELHI: Four labourers,two of them brothers, wereburied alive under rice sackswhich purportedly fell onthem while they were sleep-ing inside a godown in OuterDelhi’s Alipur.

The accident is said to haveoccurred in the early hours ofFriday.

Eyewitnesses said the vic-tims, who used to sleep in themill had chosen to sleep be-tween two rows of rice sacksto ensure insulation from thecold.

Ruling out foul play, a po-lice officer said they wereprobing the matter further.They have registered a case ofcausing death by negligence.

It was a colleague, sleepingsome distance away from thevictims, who first raised thealarm.

“As he could not find thefour labourers when he wokeup at 7-30 a.m. He called outto his other colleagues on see-ing the fallen rick sacks. To-gether they removed thesacks to find the four menburied underneath,” said a se-nior police officer. The four –identified as Pawan Yadav(37), Santosh (24), Lattun Ya-

dav (23) and Manoj (22) –were rushed to the Babu Jag-jivan Ram Hospital wherethey were declared broughtdead. All four hailed from thesame village in Bihar’s Sa-mastipur district. Santoshand Manoj were siblings.

Ashok Yadav who wassleeping some distance awayfrom the accident spot islearnt to have told the policethat even though the accidenttook place very close to wherehe was sleeping, he did not

hear any screams. The officer said it was pos-

sible that the sacks each ofwhich weighed 50 kilograms,would have muffled the voic-es.

The police had to removeabout 50 such sacks from theheap before the bodies couldbe brought out.

The godown where the fourworked as labourers belongedto one Deepak Jain who alsoowns a rice mill in the samepremise. Mr. Jain deals inwholesale supply of rice.

Many workers employedby Mr. Jain use his godownsto sleep at night. The four vic-tims had spread empty sackson the floor and slept ataround midnight on Thurs-day.

Four buried alive under rice sacksBodies were found under 50 sacks each weighing 50 kilograms

Shubhomoy SikdarThe accident in the rice mill is said to havetaken place in the early hours of Friday

The victims had chosen to sleep between tworows of rice sacks to ensure insulation from cold

NEW DELHI: The Crime Branchof Delhi Police have busted aland grabbing racket operat-ing from inside Tihar jail.

Two criminals identifiedas Bijender (27) and PawanMaan (24) have been arrest-ed in this connection. Thearrest came after two casesof land grab attempts werereported from Najafgarh ar-ea in December.

“On December 13 thisyear, two masked motorcy-cle borne assailants came toa plot occupied by NafeSingh at Roshan Pura, Najaf-garh. They opened indis-criminate fire near the plot.On the intervening night ofDecember 18 and 19, a simi-lar case came to light. Twoseparate FIRs were regis-tered,” said a senior policeofficer.

Both the incidents werecaptured on the closed cir-cuit television camera butthe accused persons couldnot be identified as theywere wearing masks.

“On December 24a trapwas laid in Dwarka and theaccused Bijender and PawanMaan were apprehended,”the officer added.

Interrogation of accusedpersons revealed that theyhad fired to terrorise the oc-cupants at the instance ofSandeep Mental, a criminalwho is operating from insideTihar Jail. Sandeep Mental’sbrother Jagdip had providedthe logistic support.

Gang operatingfrom Tihar Jailbusted, 2 held

NEW DELHI: In a major relief toAam Aadmi Party leader andformer Delhi Law MinisterSomnath Bharti, the DelhiHigh Court on Friday set asidean order of the National Hu-man Rights Commission(NHRC) holding him guilty ofracial prejudice and unlawfulacts. The matter relates to acontroversial midnight raidlaunched by him against someAfrican women in Khirki Ex-tension here earlier this year.

Quashing the September 29order of NHRC, a VacationBench comprising Justice S.Muralidhar and Justice Man-mohan Singh directed it to hearthe matter afresh and pass adetailed order after taking intoaccount the evidence led by Mr.Bharti in his defence.

The Court asked the AAPleader to appear before NHRCon January 13, as directed bythe latter while accepting hisrequest for hearing in the case.The Commission had earliersuo motu initiated the proceed-ings in the matter without giv-ing him any notice or an

opportunity of being heard.With these directions, the

Vacation Bench disposed ofMr. Bharti’s appeal against theSingle Judge Bench decision ofTuesday dismissing his writpetition against the NHRC’sruling. The Single Judge hadstated that the petition waspremature, as the NHRC wasseized of the matter by allowingMr. Bharti’s request to beheard. Additional SolicitorGeneral Sanjay Jain appearedfor the Union Government inthe matter.

The NHRC had directed theDelhi Government to payRs.25,000 each as compensa-tion to the 12 African women,who had allegedly suffered ra-cial abuse, illegal detention, in-

timidation, assault andindignity during the raid. TheCommission later asked theDelhi Government to deferpayment of monetary relief fortwo months. In his appealmoved through counsel Dee-pak Khosla, Mr. Bharti con-tended that the Single Judgehad dismissed his petitionwithout allowing fair opportu-nity to explain the facts of thesituation before the NHRC andthe legal grounds on which theplea was maintainable.

The Delhi Police had chargesheeted Mr. Bharti before atrial court in October for al-leged molestation and other of-fences during the raidconducted by him and his sup-porters on the interveningnight of January 15 and 16 thisyear on a house where the Afri-can women were residing.

Mr. Bharti had sought set-ting aside of the NHRC’s orderas well as directions to the Cen-tre, NHRC and Delhi Govern-ment to jointly and severallypay him a sum of not less thanRs.100 crore as compensation.However, the court did not ac-cept his plea for compensation.

Relief for Bharti as HC setsaside NHRC order against him Mohammed Iqbal

Somnath Bharti

2 sent to judicial custody for Mewat rave party

Two of the seven accused who were taken into police custody after a raid at a rave party ina Mewat a farmhouse were sent to 14-day judicial custody by a court in Gurgaon on Friday.According to the police, Lokesh Chopra and Alvir Zaman were found with methamphetamineand cocaine during the raid.— PHOTO: MANOJ KUMAR

“The eyewitness of the casehas stated that he had notseen anyone assaulting Sat-ish, the complainant. The po-lice did not record hisstatement. He was declaredhostile by the prosecution andcross examined by the Addi-tional Public Prosecutor butin vain,’’ the court said.

The complainant in hiscross-examination by the Ad-ditional Public Prosecutor

said that as it was night, hecould not identify the assai-lants. He was also under theinfluence of liquor on the dateof the incident.

“In the present case, PW3(complainant) is the star wit-nesses of the prosecutioncase. In fact he is the back-bone of the prosecution caseand the entire prosecutioncase rests upon his testimonybut he has not supported theprosecution case from anycorner and other prosecutionwitnesses are the official wit-nesses,” the court said.

The complainant also ad-mitted that he had compro-mised the matter with boththe accused persons at a vil-lage panchyat and due to thathe was not deposing againstthem, the court noted.

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court hasacquitted two persons in anattempt to commit culpablehomicide of a man by hittinghim on his head with an ironpipe and rod as the complai-nant and the lone eye-witnessto the crime refused to sup-port the prosecution case.

The prosecution chargesagainst the two accused, Veer-pal and Gangaram, were thatthey had in turn hit the com-plainant with an iron pipe anda rod on his head following analtercation over some issues.

The prosecution examinedsix witnesses to prove thecase.

Except the complainantand the eyewitnesses, all theother were formal witnesses.

Court acquits two in an attemptto commit culpable homicide caseNirnimesh Kumar

NEW DELHI: Probe into a murder caseregistered in Samstipur district in Biharrevealed that the ‘victim’ was actuallyalive in North East Delhi’s Bhajanpura.

On Friday, the police tracked downthe house where the purportedly mur-dered woman Zeba Khan and her malefriend Mohammad Irshad (both 22) hadbeen staying since she left her husbandand children.

Surprisingly, a case of murder wasregistered merely on a complaint sub-mitted by the woman’s father and herfather-in-law had even been arrestedfor allegedly killing her.

Zeba married Sheikh Jalal in 2006.Later, she came in contact with Irshadand eloped with him. They came to Del-hi and started living in a rented accom-modation in Noor-E-Elahi.

Based on a tip off, the police conduct-ed a raid and detained them.

‘Murdered’ womanfound alive Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Siddharth Vashisht alias ManuSharma, who is undergoing life impris-onment after having been convicted inthe 1999 Jessica Lal murder case, was onFriday granted parole for 30 days by theDelhi High Court to enable him to appearin the post-graduation examination ofthe Indian Institute of Human Rights.

A Vacation Bench of Justice S. Mura-lidhar gave parole on Manu’s furnishinga personal bond of Rs. 50,000 with onesurety for the like amount. Manu wasasked not to leave the National CapitalTerritory of Delhi during the paroleperiod.

Manu’s final year examination at theinstitute, recognised by the United Na-tions, will begin on January 1. The courtsaid that since he was allowed to appearin the exams earlier as well, there was noreason to deny him the permission forthe final year.

The court said the convict should keepaway from the area around the residenceof the deceased and her family members.

Manu, 37, son of former Union Minis-ter Venod Sharma, was sentenced to lifeimprisonment by the High Court in 2006

He is to appear for his

post-graduation

examination at the Indian

Institute of Human Rights

Manu Sharma gets 30-dayparole in Jessica Lal case

Manu Sharma

Special Correspondent

after reversing the trial court’s acquittalorder. Manu had shot dead model JessicaLal at the Tamarind Court restaurant inMehrauli here in 1999.

NEW DELHI: Two siblings wererun over by a Delhi TransportCorporation (DTC) bus inSouth Delhi’s Mahipalpur onFriday evening.

According to police, one ofthem was declared broughtdead to the hospital while thecondition of the other one issaid to be critical.

The incident took placearound 4-30 p.m. when thevictims identified as Tinku(12) and Sonu (14) were re-turning home after collectinggarbage. When they werecrossing a road near RadissonHotel, they were run over bya DTC bus enroute to AnandVihar in East Delhi.

“The brothers were resi-dents of Rangpuri Pahari ar-ea near Vasant Vihar. Theyearned their living by collect-ing garbage. Their parentsare daily wage labourers,”said a police officer.

It is alleged that the buswas speeding at the time ofthe accident. Locals forcedthe bus to come to a halt andnabbed the accused driverwho was later identified asAshutosh. He was handedover to police who arrivedsoon at the accident spot.

Tinku and Sonu wererushed to a nearby hospitalwhere Tinku was declareddead. His younger brotherSonu is undergoing treat-ment.

One killed, other injured asDTC bus runs over siblings Staff Reporter

The complainant in hiscross-examination saidthat as it was night, hecould not identify theassailants and he wasalso under the influenceof liquor

● RELIGIONTirumala Tirupati Devasthanam:Thirupavai Upanyasam by Dr. K.Ananthachariar at LakshmiNrisimha Mandir, Karol Bagh, NewDelhi from 6.30 p.m. to 7.30 p.m. Mandala Makara Vilakku PoojaCelebrations: Ganpathi Homan,Bhajan & Ayyappan Pattu at SreeAyyappa Temple, CSC -9, Opp.Pocket F-26, sector-7, Rohini,from 5.30 a.m to 8.45 p.m. Mandala Pooja: Bhajan byHamsadhwani and MandalaVilakku at Sri AishwaryaMahaganapathy Temple, R-3,Keshavpuram, Lawrence Roadfrom 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

● GENERALAlcoholics Anonymous:Meetings: Awareness Group: CDBlock Delhi Governmentdispensary, Pitampura; SuprabhatGroup: Sangam Park, Delhi Govt.dispensary; ProgrammeofRecovery Group: Dwarka Health

Centre, Sector-12; Naya DinGroup: Goyala Dairy, C-286,Satya Public School Galli;Prashanti Group: Lord MahavirSchool Sector-29, adjacent toBhramaputra Shopping Complex ;Chetna Group: Delhi Govt.dispensary B1, Block YammunaVihar, near Mother Dairy;Navchetna Group: Ravi RajDharamshala, behind RamlillaGround, Shahdara; A.A. UjalaGroup: Masihgarh Church,Sukhdev Vihar, near EscortsHeart Institute; A.A. AshadeepGroup: C-1,SafdarjangDevelopment Area, SahodaySchool, Jagriti Group: StColumba’s School, Bhai Vir SinghMarg, near Gole Dak Khana; A.A.Steps To Sobriety Group: AryaSamaj Mandir, near South DelhiClub, Greater Kailash –I;Muktidaan Group:and St MarksChurch, Punjabi Bagh West, 7p.m.

IN THE CAPITAL TODAY

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Fri-day claimed to have bustedtwo inter-state gangs supply-ing illegal firearms with the ar-rest of four persons.

Police also seized 35 semi-automatic pistols, which wereto be distributed to variouscriminal gangs operating inand around the capital. Thefour accused, arrested by theSpecial Cell in two differentoperations, had been supply-ing firearms to criminals— PTI

35 pistolsseized, 4 held

NEW DELHI: The Delhi JalBoard said on Friday thatnormal water supply was re-stored to those parts of theCapital that were experienc-

ing shortage since Tuesday.The DJB had shut down its

Chandrawal and Wazirabadwater treatment plants onTuesday morning as ammo-nia levels in the raw supplywere too high to be treated.

Water supply restoredStaff Reporter

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4 THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

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CITY/NCR

NEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt has issued notices tothe Union Ministry of Infor-mation and Broadcastingand six direct-to-home(DTH) service providers ona public interest writ pet-ition seeking to restrainthese operators from carry-ing any channel or value-added services not regis-tered with, or permitted by,the government.

Violating guidelines

The petitioner, MediaWatch India, a non-govern-mental organisation, allegedthat they were carrying ad-vertisements promotingthemselves in violation ofuplinking and downlinkingguidelines.

Services without licence

Besides, value-added ser-vices such as movies on de-mand and games wereprovided without licencefrom the Ministry, the pet-itioner’s counsel, GauravKumar Bansal, said.

The DTH providers Bhar-ti Telemedia Ltd., Tata Sky,Dish TV, Sun Direct TV, Re-liance Big TV and BharatBusiness Channel receivedthe notice on Wednesday. ADivision Bench, comprisingChief Justice G. Rohini andJustice P.S. Teji, asked therespondents to file their re-plies by March 4, 2015, whenthe case will come up forhearing.

Illegal provision

The petitioner said theDTH operators were illegal-ly providing FM radio chan-nels as well. Even as thestatutory guidelines werebeing “flouted with impun-ity”, the Ministry had nottaken any action, it said.

Notice to DTHoperators forvalue-addedservicesMohammed Iqbal

Jan Dhan Yojana’ is alsoaimed at covering the poorand rural population.

“Till we launched the Prad-han Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana,only 40 per cent people in thecountry had bank accounts.Now, 90 per cent people inthe country have a bank ac-count,” he said.

BJP MPs Vijay Goel, Par-vesh Varma and Udit Rajwere also present in themeeting. —PTI

NEW DELHI: Union Home Min-ister Rajnath Singh on Fridayclaimed there was a “BJPwave” in Delhi and the partywill form the next govern-ment here. He also said therewill be a better coordinationwith the Central governmentif the Capital was also ruledby the BJP. He was address-ing a meeting of farmers atBarwala in North-West Delhi.

“There is a BJP wave inDelhi and I am confident thatour party will form the nextgovernment here,” he said.

Mr. Singh said the BJP hasformed government at theCentre, it has formed govern-ment in Maharashtra and Ha-ryana and a partygovernment in Delhi is not faraway.

The Home Minister saidtill the villages in the countryare developed, India will notprogress so it was utmost im-portant to develop the coun-try’s rural areas.

‘Welfare of the people’

“There is no scarcity of re-sources. What is lacking iscommitment to work for thewelfare of people,” he said.

Mr. Singh said the ongoing‘Kisan Bima Yojana’ is an am-bitious welfare scheme forthe farmers and the newlylaunched ‘Pradhan Mantri

‘Better coordinationif BJP govt. in Delhi’

There is a BJP wave inDelhi and I amconfident that our partywill form the nextgovernment here

Rajnath Singh

GURGAON/NEW DELHI: The Ha-ryana Government has askedthe Union Government to de-clare Haryana Sub-Region(HSR) a zone of strategic na-tional interest and demandedspecial annual financial sup-port in the Union Budget2015-16 to ensure satisfacto-ry urban infrastructure.

The demand was made bythe Finance Minister Abhi-manyu while speaking at thepre-Budget meeting of StateFinance Ministers with theUnion Finance MinisterArun Jaitley in New Delhi onFriday.

HSR consists of 35 urbancentres, including Gurgaon,Faridabad, Panipat, Sonepatand Rohtak. The growth rateof urban population in thezone has been above 60 percent, the highest among allthe constituents of NationalCapital Region. These urbancentres face a rapid growth inpopulation as the workforcetravels to work from here tothe Capital.

HSR requires huge invest-ments in almost all sectors,including road network, massrapid transport system,housing, sewage and wastedisposal, power, water supply

to cater to the growing de-mands of the areas. The Min-ister said Haryana cannotcreate the desirable infras-tructure facilities from ownfunds. “The loans providedby the NCR Planning Boardare not sufficient for creatingthe infrastructure required.The Union Governmentshould assist Haryanathrough capital grants to im-prove the quality of life of theareas surrounding Delhi,”said Captain Abhimanyu.

Haryana surrounds NewDelhi on three sides and45.47 per cent of the geo-graphical area of Haryanafalls in the NCR. One of thefastest growing economic re-gions of the country, it has a

huge potential for creatingemployment opportunitiesfor millions as well as for con-tributing to the nationaleconomy. Constant capitalinvestment is required formaintenance of the existinginfrastructure as well for cre-ation of new infrastructure inthe HSR. Haryana is the mosturbanised State among thethree NCR states other thanNational Capital Territory ofDelhi.

According to the Sub-Re-gional Plan 2021, funds re-quired for the developmentof expressways, nationalhighways and State highwaysfor 2013-17 has been estimat-ed at Rs.15,343 crore. For thedevelopment of rapid railtransit system, Rs.2,194 crorewould be required for Delhi-Sonepat-Panipat Corridorand Rs.1,684 crore for DelhiGurgaon-Rewari-Alwar Cor-ridor as Haryana’s share.Thus, the total amount re-quired for the execution ofthese projects will beRs.3,878 crore.

“The Haryana Govern-ment wants these projects tobe declared as projects of na-tional importance, whichshould be funded wholly byGovernment of India,” theFinance Minister said.

Ashok Kumar

Haryana Govt. seeks specialfinancial package this Budget

The loans provided bythe NCR PlanningBoard are not sufficient.The Union Governmentshould assist Haryanathrough capital grants toimprove the quality oflife of the areassurrounding Delhi

NEW DELHI: Streetlights acrossDelhi will switch to the moreenergy-efficient LED (lightemitting diode) variety with-in one year, officials an-nounced at the launch of theproject earlier this week.

All streetlights under themunicipal corporations ofDelhi will have LEDs underthe pilot project of the UnionMinistry of Power. On Thurs-day, Power Minister PiyushGoyal inaugurated thescheme in South Delhi’s Mal-viya Nagar and in East Delhi’sKishan Kunj.

South Delhi MunicipalCorporation Mayor KhushiRam said the LED streetlightswould almost halve the civicbody’s electricity bill from

Rs.80 crore to around Rs.45crore.

There are about five lakhstreetlights in Delhi, of which1.66 lakh are in the SDMC’sjurisdiction. “The amountsaved can be used for devel-opment work and the envi-ronmental impact will also betremendous,” said the Mayor.

The pilot project was start-ed on December 20 in theNorth Delhi Municipal Cor-poration’s Naraina Vihar.Union Urban DevelopmentMinister M. Venkaiah Naiduhad said at the launch that theconversion from convention-al lighting to LED was a steptowards making Delhi a“smart city”. The switch toLED lighting is expected toreduce power bills by 40 percent.

Staff Reporter

LEDs to soon light up Capital’s streets

NOIDA: Security features atparking lots, restaurants,bars and malls in Noida arebeing checked and enhancedby the police ahead of NewYear’s Eve celebrations.

The Gautam Budh NagarPolice has chalked up a planthat involves checkingcrowded places for securityas well as meeting with themanagements of the estab-lishments to make sure nountoward incidents happenon December 31.

Superintendent of Police

(City) Yogesh Singh said:“We are conducting checksat malls, markets, restau-rants, bars and parking lots.Our Anti-Terror Squad com-mandos are also taking partin the exercise to make surethese spaces are notmisused.”

According to police offi-cials, the commandos arevisiting all public installa-tions, including schools, of-fices and guesthouses, to getfamiliar with the facilities.Apart from the New Year’sEve-related incidents likedrunk driving and fights, the

police are also looking outfor larger security concerns.

Security was ramped upacross the district after mil-itants attacked a school inPakistan this month.

Forty ATS commandosand the entire district policehad been pressed into ser-vice to make sure publicplaces like schools were pro-tected.

Drills and checks atschools, office complexesand other public buildingswill continue after Decem-ber 31 till Republic Day, saidpolice officials.

Staff Reporter

Noida Police draw up securityplan ahead of New Year’s Eve

NEW DELHI: Delhiites will nothave to pay more for watertill a new government takesover in the Capital. Thecity’s water utility has de-ferred the annual tariff hiketill its next meeting.

At a meeting of the DelhiJal Board on Friday, mem-bers took the decision to putoff the 10 per cent hike inrates that was supposed totake effect from January 1,2015.

A DJB statement said:“The board decided that theeffective date of implemen-tation of the annual increaseof 10 per cent in the watertariff be deferred to the nextboard meeting.”

However, the hike is un-likely to go through beforethe Delhi Assembly elec-tions, which are expected tobe held in February.

“We have deferred thehike till the next meeting,but we won’t let rates go uptill an elected governmentcan take a decision,” saidDJB member and Leader ofthe House in the BharatiyaJanata Party-led North Del-hi Municipal CorporationMira Aggarwal.

She added that the BJPmembers in the Boardwould demand that the au-tomatic annual hike bescrapped. Since 2009 thetariffs have been going upautomatically on January 1,with the exception of lastyear. In 2013, an electionyear, former Chief MinisterSheila Dikshit deferred thehike.

When the Aam AadmiParty Government tookover, it allowed the rates togo up in January 2014, butalso gave 20 kilolitres of freewater per month to thosewith metered connections.

The current water tariffsfor domestic users range be-tween Rs.2.66 per kilolitreand Rs.33.28 per kilolitredepending on monthly con-sumption.

The fixed service chargeranges from Rs.66.55 forhouseholds consuming lessthan 10 kilolitres a month toRs.266. 20 for those whosemonthly consumption ismore than 30 kilolitres.

Water tariffhike deferred,at least till pollsDamini Nath

BIRTHDAY REMEMBRANCE

NEW DELHI: The National Cap-ital Region recorded its firstswine flu fatality on Friday,with a 51-year-old womanfrom Ghaziabad succumbingto the virus at a private hospi-tal here.

Officials at the Sri GangaRam Hospital, where the pa-tient was admitted, said thewoman had been moved fromColumbia Asia Hospital inGhaziabad a few days ago.

She was in a critical condi-tion and had to be kept on ven-tilator support.

Meanwhile, all governmenthospitals have been put onalert by the Delhi Govern-ment’s health department.Hospitals have been asked totake appropriate measures totreat swine flu cases.

According to the Directo-rate of Health Services, sixcases of swine flu have beenreported in the Capital and itsneighbouring region thismonth.

“This is the first death due to

swine flu this year. A total 32positive cases of swine flu havebeen reported in Delhi andNCR since January 1 till date,”said Dr. Dalveer Singh, StateEpidemiologist, holding theadditional charge of PublicHealth.

The deceased, identified asSheel Goel, resident of EastModel Town in Ghaziabad wasadmitted to the ICU of GangaRam Hospital in a serious con-

dition on December 21.All India figures have re-

vealed that swine flu hasclaimed 204 lives from Janu-ary till November this year. Asmany as 831 confirmed cases ofthe outbreak have been re-ported during the correspond-ing period.

The maximum number ofcases (155) were reported inGujarat, where 55 people suc-cumbed to the disease fol-

lowed by Maharashtra with 42deaths and 112 cases. Karnata-ka ad Punjab reported 294cases and 33 deaths and 56cases and 30 deaths,respectively.

According to the data pro-vided by the Union Health andFamily Welfare Ministry therehas been an outbreak of theInfluenza A H1N1 that causesswine flu since 2009-10, withsporadic outbreaks being re-ported from various States in-cluding Rajasthan, Karnataka,Maharasthra and Kerala.

To check the spread of thevirus that killed 75 people in2011, 405 in 2012 and 699 in2013, the Ministry has provid-ed guidelines on screening andcategorisation of patients, lab-oratory diagnosis, infectioncontrol, home care and clinicalmanagement.Technical sup-port for early case detection isprovided by Integrated Dis-ease Surveillance Programme(IDSP) and through a networkof 26 laboratories in Govern-ment Sector.

With PTI inputs

Hospitals put on alert, asked to take measures to treat casesStaff Reporter

File photo of a swine flu screening centre at RamManohar Lohia Hospital in New Delhi in 2009.PHOTO: V.V. KRISHNAN

51-year-old woman succumbs to swine flu

NEW DELHI: Union FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley on Fri-day inaugurated a 400-kVpower substation at Harsh Vi-har in East Delhi. The Minis-ter said the project will proveto be a milestone in makingEast Delhi a power cut-freezone.

“With this power station,the people in East Delhi willnot have to face any morepower woes,” Mr. Jaitley said.He said the NDA governmentis formulating policies so thatcoal blocks are allocated topower generating companiesand they in turn may providecheap electricity to theconsumers.

Minister of State for Power,Coal, New and Renewable En-ergy Piyush Goyal and Mem-ber of Parliament fromNorth-East Delhi Manoj Ti-wari were also present at theevent.

Mr. Goel said: “The Govern-ment of India ensured that theclearance required for com-pleting this project was madeavailable without any delay.With the commissioning ofthis substation and on com-pletion of some other powerprojects, inverters and gener-ators will not be required any-more in East Delhi.”

The Harsh Vihar powersubstation has been linkedwith Dadri Thermal PowerStation which supplies900MW power to Delhi. DelhiTransco officials said the sub-station will directly draw pow-er from the Dadri ThermalPower Station.

“With the addition of thissubstation, East Delhi hasthree independent powersources. The other two 400KVsubstations feeding East Delhiare at Mandola and MaharaniBagh and they have been link-ed to 220KV substations atsouth of Wazirabad and Gha-zipur respectively. This sub-station would be linked withexisting 220KV substation atPatparganj and upcomingsubstation at Preet Vihar tofurther strengthen the trans-mission network in East Delhiarea,” a Delhi Transco spokes-person said.

The substation would alsoprovide power supply to theproposed Delhi Metro line inEast and North-East Delhi.With the commissioning ofthis substation, East Delhiwould become self-reliant interms of electric supply foryears to come, the official said.

New substation to easeEast Delhi power woesKritika Sharma Sebastian

Finance Minister ArunJaitley at the foundationstone-laying ceremonyfor a new substation atHarsh Vihar in EastDelhi on Friday. PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

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STATE

NEW DELHI: Terming the 1984Sikh riots as ‘genocide’, UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singhon Friday said he has full faithin the Indian judiciary and“justice would be meted out tothe victims only when the per-petrators of the crime are pun-ished”.

“The occasion does not callfor a long political speech, butthere are several persons whoare yet to be punished. I havefaith in our judicial system. Iknow that until these personsare punished, victims will notget relief. I want to assure thatthe government is with you,”Rajnath said after distributingcheques of enhanced compen-sation to the riot victims inTilak Vihar – a resettlementcolony of 1984 riot victims – inwest Delhi.

The Union minister distrib-uted cheques of Rs. 5 lakh to 16kin of the riot victims at afunction here. Delhi govern-ment officials said, enhancedcompensation to 2,459 peoplewill soon be given after a ver-ification. The organisers saidthey were earlier planning todistribute cheques to 40 fam-ilies, but it was given only to 16“as per the availability of thefamily members”.

Mr. Singh also informed thegathering that he has constitu-ted a committee under a re-tired judge to look into thegrievances of victims of 1984riots. “Ever since I took over, Ihave been receiving com-plaints of lack in facilities forthe victims besides complaintsof laxity in the inquiry. I wantthe victims to register theircomplaints with the commit-tee which would become func-tional soon,” said Mr. Singh.

While all the speakers at thefunction, held in a small parksurrounded by dilapidatedDDA flats allotted to the vic-tims, emphasised that thefunction was organised merelyto 'share the pain of the vic-tims', attendance of a batteryof Bharatiya Janata Party lead-ers, both national and local,the 'political nature' of theevent, organised just ahead ofthe Assembly polls, was appar-ent.

However, even those whoreceived the compensationsaid, the best way forward toforget their pain would be ifthe government settles theirissues once and for all. “Suchfunctions force us to live thoseunforgettable moments. Wehave been bearing it for thepast 30 years. Its better suchfunctions are not held and allthe issues are settled in one go.Only then we can moveahead,” said Ajeet Singh, son ofDalip Singh who died duringthe riots.

BJP MP from West DelhiPravesh Verma, BJP nationalsecretary R.P. Singh, DelhiBJP chief Satish Upadhyay,

BJP candidate from Tilak Na-gar during the last year's pollsRajiv Babber and former MLAfrom Rajouri Garden and Akalileader Manjinder Singh Sirsawere some of the notable lead-ers who attended the function.

Besides Mr. Singh, Mr. Ver-ma and Mr. Upadhyay ad-dressed the gathering, besidesLieutenant Governor NajeebJung. While Mr. Verma assert-ed than none less than capitalpunishment would bring clo-sure for the victims, he alsopromised the residents of Ti-lak Vihar that a decision ontheir demand to waive off pow-er bills would be taken by theyear-end.

Distributed cheques of Rs. 5 lakh to 16 kinVishal Kant

Bhupinder Kaur, one of the 1984 riot survivor, getsemotional after receiving a cheque from UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

1984 riots were genocide, says Rajnath

NEW DELHI: The Aam AadmiParty on Friday describedUnion Minister RajnathSingh’s move to distributecheques to riots victims as a‘lollipop doled out to woovoters’.

Accusing the BJP-ledCentral Government oflacking sincerity to dealwith the issue, party leaderAshutosh said by selective-ly distributing the money to17 families the governmenthas displayed opportunism.

“After a series of U-turnsand lies on the issue, themanner in which the HomeMinister selectively imple-mented the decision of pro-viding enhancedcompensation to merely 17families at a political func-tion is a matter of shame,”he said.

Extending his argumentfurther, Mr. Ashutoshquestioned the presence ofDelhi BJP president SatishUpadhyay during the event.

“If it was not a politicalprogramme, why the BJPpresident who has neverbeen elected either an MLAor an MP was present onthe stage with the homeminister?,” asked Mr. Ash-utosh.

AAP calls it a‘poll lollipop’Shubhomoy Sikdar

head Kamaljeet Sehrawatsays has covered nearly 2200women in the city.

The initiative that began onDecember 16 aims to surveyat least 3000 women beforethe findings are presented toBJP president Amit Shah in ameeting scheduled for De-cember 30. “We have spokento school students, collegegirls, women working in fac-tories, in government jobsand even residents of Delhi’svillages,” said Ms. Sehrawat.

Familiar issues haveemerged from a cursory

glance of the findings. Wom-en residing in the rural belthave complained about drunkmen posing a threat, trans-portation systems are inade-quate, the “Delhi Policeshould be more alert” saidone respondent and inces-sant calls from unknownnumbers has been cited as aproblem.

Ms. Sehrawat said thatfeedback was sought fromwomen from different partsof the city such as Burari,Shahdara and even NCRareas.

NEW DELHI: “Men stare at uslike we are zoo animals,” awoman residing in Majnu-Ka-Tila has scrawled on thethin survey sheet that washanded out to her by the Del-hi Bharatiya Janata Party’smahila morcha.

Staring, molestation, eve-teasing, moral policing anddifficulties in commuting atnight seem to be the recur-rent themes that emergedfrom a women safety surveythat Delhi mahila morcha

Women’s wing to submit reportSowmiya Ashok

Winter shopping

Delhiites buying woollens fromJanpath Market on Friday. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

NEW DELHI: Even as the ElectionCommission is still to notify As-sembly elections here, the Con-gress is likely to announce itsfirst list of over two dozen can-didates for the upcoming pollson Saturday.

Party’s Central ElectionCommittee is likely to meet onSaturday and clear the first listthat could contain names of thesitting legislators and thosewho came second during lastyear December polls.

“The CEC is likely to clearthe first list of 25 seats. It in-cludes nine sitting MLAs in-cluding former JDU legislatorShoaib Iqbal, who recentlyjoined the party. Besides,names of 11 of those who camesecond in Assembly polls lastyear are also likely to be clear-ed. The list could also includecandidates finalised for thethree by-elections before theAssembly was dissolved,” a se-nior party leader said.

Besides, names of two formerPradesh Congress chiefs – Sub-

ash Chopra and Surender Ku-mar (ex-MLA from Bawana),are also likely to be included inthe first list, the leader added.

Sources said scrutiny forcandidates for rest of the seatsis also on. The party had soughtapplications from the ticketseekers earlier this month.Sources said the Delhi PradeshCongress Committee receivedaround 1,200 applications forthe 70 Assembly seats rangingfrom 20 to 70 applications indifferent Assembly segments.

Sources also revealed thatthe party is scouting for astrong candidate to fieldagainst AAP convener ArvindKejriwal in New Delhi whereMr. Kejriwal defeated formerChief Minister Sheila Dikshitby around 25,000 votes duringthe last Assembly polls.

Congress may release firstlist of candidates todayStaff Reporter

List likely to includesitting MLAs andcandidates who camesecond in last election

NEW DELHI: After the Aam Aad-mi Party and the BharatiyaJanata Party, the Congress isall set to take the radio routeto reach out to the Delhi elec-torate.

The party is planning to re-lease its radio jingles as partof its Assembly election strat-egy, which also includes put-ting up illuminated hoardingsand organising a rally at Ram-lila Maidan early next year.

“From December 30, theradio spots and illuminatedhoardings will come up. Oneof the slogans chosen forthese publicity campaigns –Kaho Dil Se, Congress phir se– has been given by a 12-year-old. His slogan was chosenfrom a competition started bythe party on Facebook,” a se-nior party leader said.

The party is planning a bigrally at Ramlila Maidan that islikely to be attended by party

president Sonia Gandhi andvice-president Rahul Gandhi.Delhi Congress chief Arvin-der Singh Lovely and seniorleader Haroon Yusuf met theparty’s Delhi in-charge P.C.Chacko and discussed prep-arations for the rally.

“The party intends to holdthe rally before the election

notification, which is likely tobe made around January 10,”said a party leader.

Sources said the party lead-ership has also finalised the85-member campaign com-mittee. However, the chair-man of the committee isawaiting a final nod from Ms.Gandhi.

Radio jingles, rally to settempo for Congress campaignVishal Kant

The Congress is planning a big rally at RamlilaMaidan which is likely to be attended by partypresident Sonia Gandhi and vice-president RahulGandhi. FILE PHOTO: AP

NEW DELHI: Now you can bookonline your entry tickets tothe Taj Mahal in Agra and Hu-mayun’s Tomb in the Capital.

The ticketing facility, a col-laboration between the Ar-chaeological Survey of Indiaand ICRTC, for the monu-ments was launched by theMinister of State for Cultureand Tourism Mahesh Sharmahere on Friday.

Visitors can book their tick-ets online under three cate-gories. While the entry fee tothe Taj for Indians is Rs.20, itis Rs.510 for SAARC coun-tries’ citizens and Rs.750 forother foreign visitors to TajMahal.

For the Humayun’s Tombis concerned, the entry fee isRs.10 for Indians and SAARCcitizens and Rs.250 for otherforeigners.

Entry for children, who areunder 15 years, is free in boththe monuments. – PTI

Now, book entryto Taj Mahaland Humayun’sTomb online

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NORTHERN REGION

DEHRADUN: After a failed 42-day longprotest against the installation ofstone crushers in the Maletha gramsabha, the villagers have restartedtheir protest to demand a governmentorder against the usage of stone crush-ers in the agriculturally-rich region.

On August 13 this year, the villagersstarted protesting against the installa-tion of four stone crushers in the Ma-letha gram sabha in Tehri district. Theprotest continued for 42 days and itended when Tehri District MagistrateYugal Kishore Pant gave orders for thestone crushers to stop operations inthe area.

However, the stone crusher oper-ators approached the Nainital HighCourt and in a recent order the High

Court dismissed the District Magist-rate’s orders.

“The Court said that the permissionfor the stone crushers to operate wasgiven by the State government, so theDistrict Magistrate does not have theauthority to stop the work,” Mr. Pantsaid.

On December 22, the villagers againbegan their protest against the oper-ation of stone crushers in their gramsabha. Head of the Maletha gram sab-ha Surveer Singh Bisht said: “The landwas barren but it was made agricultu-rally productive by the efforts of Mad-ho Singh Bhandari in the 16th century.The dust from stone crushers woulddestroy agriculture which is an impor-tant source of income here.”

Mr. Bisht said the area was of im-mense historic importance and thecrushers would destroy it. “There isalso fear of health hazards from thedust that the crushers will produce,”he said.

Villagers fear the eventual migra-tion of the population of about 9 vil-lages in three gram sabhas that wouldbe affected by the crushers.

Sameer Raturi of the Himalaya Ba-chao Aandolan, which is supportingthe protest said: “We have decided togo on an indefinite fast if the Stategovernment does not order for cancel-lation of operation of stone crusherswithin two weeks.”

Villagers restart protestagainst stone-crushersThey had ended the earlier protestafter DM’s intervention

Kavita Upadhyay

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VARIETY/SOUTHERN REGION

Bhishma advised an agitated Yudishtra to do his duty;to exert himself in the right direction. Such efforts areneeded on the part of anyone, who seeks to make animpact in any field. But such efforts in the properdirection are even more important in the case of aruler, because it is the example he sets which will takehis people in the right direction, said GodaVenkateswara Sastrigal, in a discourse.

If the king is lazy, or afraid of taking decisions, if theking is indecisive and always lamenting his losses, thenhis people too will begin to behave and think like him.In Yudishtra’s case, he was now in charge of a countrywhich had suffered not only economic losses, but lossof human life as well. Yudishtra’s kingdom had oncebeen so prosperous that he had been the envy ofeveryone. And it was his duty to bring his kingdomback to its lost glory. So Bhishma pointed out to himthe importance of sustained effort.

There is a story, oft repeated, of a man who dug awell. Not finding water at ten feet, he dug elsewhere onhis plot of land, this time up to a depth of six feet.Again he abandoned the effort and began to dig atanother place and dug up to four feet. Again he foundno water. But another man digging on the same plot ofland, did not give up after digging through to ten feet,but kept on and on digging at the same spot, to a depthof 20 feet, and found water. So if the first man had keptup his effort, and continued to dig at the same spot, hewould have found water too. So perseverance isimportant.

Perseverance rewarded

FAITH

Across

1 Bank has no source to money(6)

4 Tricks with a bit of ingenuitycreate chances (8)

10 Puts money into fashionableundergarments (7)

11 Female superhero? (4,3)12 Settling for a young girl with a

little intelligence (8)13 Calling for attention to that

woman’s lost husband (6)15 Hood and cape cover nocturnal

being (4)17 Increase in regular charge (9)20 Adoring mail to one who would

lend you a ‘Spinner’? (3,6)21 Gamble on first letter or

second letter (4)24 Integrated and tuned properly

with basic instruments (6)25 You might need at least one to

solve this clue (8)28 Such a person has Cyclopean

vision (3-4)29 Sister has a civil engineer’s

degrees (7)30 Editor initially alters/changes

Shelley’s conclusion on atype of wind (8)

31 That man’s back in vehiclereserved for those who arelate (6)

Down

1 Compliance with a tender canput right initial errors (8)

2 Caught deliveries from fieldingposition (5)

3 Ate duck with that lady (6)5 Spinner goes into that woman

to produce successor (4)

6 Coal’s not burning due toliquids that prevent heating(8)

7 ‘No urn’ became disastrous;Cricket Australia left outchampion (6,3)

8 Many a star’s hot (6)9 Madness due to a tiny sin I

made (9)14 Draft some baffling clues

endlessly and publish (9)16 Exhaustion arises when

thrashing and kickinghusband out (9)

18 Commercial involving Jekyllfinally taking ecstasy and hisalter ego, organic compound(8)

19 Generosity left a really goodengineer saving seventyeuros, tops! (8)

22 Our ref resolved commotion(6)

23 Freedom for engineeringprospect (6)

26 Provoke dog to follow lionregularly (5)

27 Poem on village’s kinky ladyfollowing Spinner without anytop (4)

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 112771 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

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H E L L OM Y A L G I A T H E A L P SO N G G A V D IR A D I I E X C L A I M E DT E R T T A IA D M I R A L L O T I O NR A O L R D G

T R E A S U R E R S H I PI C C T N S HB A O B A B D E A T H L YE N D F L S AR E I T E R A T E I M B E DI R M N A M E EA R I S I N G S M O O T H S

G A E V A

Spinner

Solution to puzzle 11276

Greater initiative for varsities

Lord Robbins,Chairman of he BritishCommittee on HigherEducation, said in NewDelhi on December 26that it would be a goodthing if in a free anddemocratic country theGovernment conceded tothe universities “as muchde-centralised initiativeas is compatible with thefulfilment of socialneeds.” He added thatuniversities could not beentirely autonomousbecause they did not haveall the money theyneeded. On the questionwhether universityeducation should beselective, Lord Robbins,who was addressing apress conference, saidthat he would like allproperly qualified peopleto have the privilege ofuniversity education. Butunder the presentconditions admission touniversities “is bound tobe selective”, he added.

Pamban rail bridgereconstruction

Mr. D.C. Baijlal,Chairman of the RailwayBoard, said in Madurai onDecember 26 that the

reconstruction of thePamban rail bridge wouldcost nearly Rs.40 lakh.The reconstructiondepended on theavailability of girders, butit would take at least oneyear to complete the job,he said. Mr. Baijlal, whomade an aerial survey ofRameswaram onDecember 25, said theRailways would try to getthe girders of therequired size from otherzones of the Railway.

Freedom of PressMrs. Indira Gandhi,

Union Minister forInformation andBroadcasting, said inGauhati on December 26,“We value and appreciatethe freedom of the Pressand freedom ofexpression.” “But thereare times when there issomething very muchgreater at stake thanfreedom of the Press.That is national interestand the fundamentalrights of people,” sheadded. She said: “If thePress encroaches on thefreedom of the individualor goes against thenational interest, then Ifor one will fight forindividual rather than forthe Press. Thefundamental rights of anindividual extend up tothe limit where the rightsof another individualbegins.”

(dated Dec. 27, 1964)

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Madonna’s 14 songs leak online

Pop diva Madonna’s 14 never-heard-before songs, reportedlyrecorded for her upcoming 13th album Rebel Heart, have leakedonline. Madonna took to Instagram to express her displeasure overthe leak, reported AceShowbiz.The tracks that unexpectedly hit the internet included ‘Veni VidiVici’, ‘Beautiful Scars’, ‘Freedom’, ‘God is Love’, ‘Hold Tight’, ‘BestNight’ and a collaboration with Pharrell Williams called ‘Back That Up

(Do It)’ She vented her anger, saying that the leakwas ‘artistic rape’ and ‘a form of terrorism’. The

Material Girl hit-maker then made her albumavailable for pre-order and released six newsongs on iTunes. “Real Rebels think forthemselves! Real Rebels respect ART! Real

Rebels are Rebels in their #rebelheart,” shehad tweeted on the album’s cover art. — PTI

Advani thrilled at PK

Senior BJP leader L.K. Advanihas hailed the Aamir Khan-starrer PK as a “wonderful andcourageous film.” Mr. Advani,who recently watched the film,says that everyone shouldwatch it. “Hearty greetings to [director]Rajkumar Hirani and [producer]Vidhu Vinod Chopra,” he said.“We are fortunate to have beenborn in a vast and variegatedcountry like India. This howevercasts on all patriots a duty toensure that nothing weakensthe unity of thecountry — neithercaste nor communitynor language norregion,” headded. — IANS

Bags, made behind bars

Asmaa Hamdy, a dentistrystudent in Egypt jailed forprotesting against the removalof Mohamed Morsi asPresident, has been spendingher sentence knitting woollenhandbags to send the messagethat imagination is free. Andher “Made in Prison” line ispopular. Hamdy started makingthe handbags for her friendsand family, then fellowprisoners asked her to makesome for their relatives. Now,she takes orders throughFacebook. — Guardian

BREDA, NETHERLANDS: Dutchscientists are recreating thedeaths of some of the world’smost famous personalities byreconstructing their last mo-ments using scents andsounds.

From the smell of Jacque-line Kennedy’s perfume min-gled with the scent of John F.Kennedy’s blood to WhitneyHouston’s last drug-fuelledmoments in a Beverly Hillsbathtub, scientists at BredaUniversity say they offer vis-itors a unique, if somewhatmacabre, historical snapshot.

“We all have seen the imag-es of JFK’s assassination, butwhat did it smell like?” asksFrederik Duerinck from thecommunication and multime-dia design faculty of Breda’sAvans University of AppliedSciences.

To find out, visitors with asense of the morbid are in-vited to lie in a series of foursilver metal boxes similar tothose found in a morgue. The

boxes, pitch-dark inside, arerigged with pipes leading tobottles containing pressur-ised smells.

A soundtrack is played anddifferent scents are releasedinto the box to recreate a spe-cific “final moment.”

For around five minutes,visitors can relive the smellsand sounds believed to havesurrounded four peoplewhose deaths are etched intothe world’s collective memo-ry: Kennedy (1963); PrincessDiana (1997); Moamer Kad-hafi (2011); and WhitneyHouston (2012).

Strong chemical odour

For instance, those wantingto experience Houston’s finalmoments are transported to abathtub at the upmarket Be-verly Hills hotel where the di-va died in February 2012 atage 48.

A coroner ruled that thesinging legend died of acci-dental drowning, with cocaine

and heart disease listed ascontributing factors.

To the sounds of splashingwater and Houston’s voice, avisitor first gets a whiff of ge-neric cleaner, used in hotelsaround the world, followed bythe olive oil the singer used inher tub. Then a strong chem-ical odour, similar to that ofcocaine fills the box, grabbingits occupant by the throat, fol-lowed by the sound of rushingwater and then silence.

“Smell is rarely used incommunication and we want-ed to explore its uses,” Mr.Duerinck said. “It’s a verypowerful means ofcommunication.”

“It’s quite surprising andspectacular,” said Riks Soe-penberg, 31, who experienceda recreation of Kadhafi’s lastmoments. “I almost felt my-self being hunted,” Mr. Soe-penberg said.

In the coming months, theinstallation will be takenacross Europe. — AFP

Scientists offer unique historical snapshots

The scents and sounds offamous final momentsANKARA: A secret tunnel dis-

covered under Turkey’ssecond largest castle whereRomanian Prince Vlad III,also known as Dracula, washeld captive will be openedto the public.

The tunnel, Ceylanyolu,under the Tokat castle, wasdiscovered during restora-tion which started in 2009,the Hurriyet Daily Newsreported on Friday.

A railway system hasbeen set up for the removalof stones and earth at theentrance of the tunnel.

“The castle served as aprison in the Ottoman era,and many famous figureswere kept there,” Abdur-rahman Akyuz, Tokut’sculture and tourism direc-tor, said.

“The castle has great po-tential for tourism. Such asteep castle is very rare inany city centre in Turkey.We estimate that the tun-nel is about 300-350metres long.”

Prince Vlad III the Im-paler ruled Wallachia, a re-gion of Romania, from 1448to 1476. — IANS

‘Draculatunnel’ open to visitors

CHENNAI: DMK general secre-tary K. Anbazhagan has writ-ten to the Karnataka ChiefSecretary seeking appoint-ment of a new Special PublicProsecutor in the KarnatakaHigh Court against the ap-peals filed by the former ChiefMinister, Jayalalithaa, andothers in the disproportion-ate wealth case.

Mr. Anbazhagan claimedthat the “conduct of the pre-sent public prosecutor Bha-vani Singh at every stage ofthe case has proved to be ofsomeone who is willing to be

disposed at the dictates of theaccused persons.”

“He does not seem to takeany firm stand on any issuewhich may affect the cause ofthe accused persons. He hadappeared in the bail applica-tions before the High Courtwithout any special order,”said Mr Anbazhagan, who al-so sent a similar letter to theLaw Secretary of the Karna-taka government.

Mr Anbazhagan also citedthe poor health of Mr Singh asanother reason. “He is achronic diabetic patient suf-fering from various other ail-ments too. Our advocates,

who were present in the TrialCourt, inform that the bulk ofthe work was carried out byAssistant Public ProsecutorMurgesh Maradi,” he said.

Mr Anbazhagan said whenthe arguments began, Mr.Singh used to start readingthe evidence and continuedfor 20 minutes. “Then citinghis health condition he usedto seek permission to sit andwould be resting while the As-sistant Public Prosecutor Mr.Maradi continued with thearguments. The bulk of thecross-examination of the de-fence witnesses were alsodone by Mr. Maradi,” he said.

“Bhavani Singh doesn’t seem to take firm stand ”

B. Kolappan

Appoint new SPP inJayalalithaa case: DMK

KOZHIKODE: K.K. Jayachan-dran, a school teacher fromKohinoor, Malappuram, whowas in the Maldivian jail forover eight months now, alleg-edly on false complaints ofphysically abusing a student,reached home safely here onFriday after the Maldivianauthorities released him onThursday evening.

Mr. Jayachandran, an En-glish teacher at Faafu FealiAtoll School in the Island re-public for the last seven years,returned home leaving be-hind the hardships of over250 days in four different jailsin Maldives. “It is literally arebirth for me,” Mr. Jaya-chandran told The Hinduover phone, on his way toKozhikode from Bangalore,where he landed on Thurs-day.

Narrating the mental per-secution he underwent injails ever since he was arrest-ed on April 5 this year, Mr.Jayachandran, said that hisrelease could not have beenpossible without the sincereinterventions of his familymembers, friends, and mediaorganisations. “I was com-pletely helpless ever since Iwas arrested,” he said.

The 51-year-old teacher,who is also a writer and socialworker, was being shiftedfrom one jail to another dur-ing the last few moths. “The

last one was particularlynerve-racking; there were 10of us, including drug-dealers,rapists, and murders, in asmall crammed cell,” he said.Maintaining that he faced nophysical abuse in the jail, hesaid the mental torture, how-ever, was more than he couldtake. The initial trauma of ar-rest took its toll on his memo-ry. “I even struggled torecollect how my daughter’sface looked like; it was excru-ciating,” he said.

The case, according him,was only based on a “trivialclassroom issue,” which wasblown out of proportion bythe school authorities to set-tle an earlier score with him.The complaint was that he

made a disobedient boy sit onthe bench by pushing him onthe shoulder. The manage-ment, according to him, pur-sued the case even after the10-year-old boy and his fam-ily members showed willing-ness to withdraw thecomplaint.

“I was one among the fourteachers targeted by theschool management for someflimsy reasons.” Three othershad to left the school beforehe was arrested, he said. Ob-serving that the working con-ditions in the Island Republicwere really bad, Mr. Jaya-chandran said that an expa-triate could always be“targeted” if the natives orthe authorities desired so.

Jabir Mushthari

Jayachandran Mokeri with daughter and wife atCalicut Press club. PHOTO: S RAMESH KURUP

Jailed teacher back from Maldives

terms) instead of the Kastu-rirangan report (which rec-ommends keeping 37 percent of the Western Ghatsarea out of bounds for pol-luting industries only).

“Just as the opposition toenvironmental regulations,the protests against theGadgil report have been in-stigated politically … the ju-diciary should step in,” hesaid.

He believed the dilutionof Western Ghats protec-tion and the proposedamendments to the envi-ronmental laws undo thework of environmentalistsand people’s movements.

More than 500 participa-nts from 25 countries areexpected to attend thethree-day conference thatwould discuss the implica-tions of climate change.

BENGALURU: An informed,transparent debate involv-ing the public should be im-perative in theimplementation of eitherthe Madhav Gadgil commit-tee report or the Kasturi-rangan committee report onthe Western Ghats, saidR.K. Pachauri, Nobel lau-reate and Chairperson ofthe Inter-governmentalPanel on Climate Change,here on Friday.

Talking to reporters onthe sidelines of the 7th In-ternational Congress of En-vironmental Research, atR.V. College of Engineeringhere, Mr. Pachauri said itwas left entirely to the pub-lic and those affected to de-cide on the implementationof the report.

There has been opposi-tion from those stayingalong the Western Ghats forboth the Gadgil report andthe Kasturirangan reportthat had suggested identifi-cation of ‘eco-sensitive ar-eas’ along the forests wherethere would be restrictionson certain development andindustrial activities.

“We cannot lose the bio-diversity present, because ifwe lose it, we will not get itback. We are a democracy,and it is up to the people todecide its implementation.We have to look at the enti-rety of the issue,” Mr. Pa-chauri said.

However, PrashantBhushan, senior SupremeCourt advocate, was equiv-ocal in his support for theGadgil report (which sug-gests 64 per cent area in theWestern Ghats to be pro-tected under stringent

Pachauri for public debateon Western Ghat reports Staff Reporter

through a video wall constitu-ted by Large Format Display(LFD) DB48D Model – 48inch Full HD commercialLED monitors– installed in a3 by 3 matrix having ninemonitors.

With more than 150 cam-eras installed at strategic lo-cations in the city, the facilitywould enable the police tomanage traffic and enforcetraffic rules through non-in-trusive methods. It will alsohelp them maintain law andorder, by keeping a track ofhappenings in the city, espe-cially during the movement ofVIP/VVIPs, religious proces-

sions and other group activ-ities.

Mr. Ramudu told media-persons that the centre notonly would strengthen thesurveillance and securitymeasures in the city, but alsowould help in improving theimage of the department. “Ti-rupati has emerged as one ofthe key cities in the Statepost-bifurcation, bestowedwith a multitude of projects.Such a facility (Police Com-mand and Control Centre)will be instrumental in real-ising the objectives of the‘Safe City – Tirupati’ cam-paign,” he said.

TIRUPATI: A ‘Police Commandand Control Centre’ underthe ‘Safe City – Tirupati’ pro-gramme, envisaged by the Ti-rupati Urban PoliceDepartment, was inaugu-rated by the Director Generalof Police J.V. Ramudu at Ti-rupati East Police stationhere on Friday.

The state-of-the-art facili-ty in the third-floor of the po-lice station complex,comprises a traffic signallingsystem supplemented by acentralised public addresssystem, which is realised

Tirupati surveillance goes hi-techB. Venkat Sandeep

BENGALURU: An anti-conversion law isunconstitutional as it goesagainst the fundamentalright of the citizen tochoose or change his/herreligion, said seniorSupreme Court lawyerPrashant Bhushan here onFriday.

Mr. Prashant Bhushan

told reporters on thesidelines of a conferencethat the BJP and itsaffiliates were attemptingto bring about the law by“forcibly” convertingcitizens.

“It is illegal to convertunder force or pressure.And what the VHP and theBajrang Dal are doingacross the country is justthat,” he said.

‘Anti-conversion lawunconstitutional’Staff Reporter

CMYK

ND-ND

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

8 THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

That Jharkhand is to get its first non-tribal

Chief Minister since its formation in 2000 is

more a political accident than a seminal

event. Raghuvar Das would not have been the

automatic choice of the Bharatiya Janata Party for the

top post in the State if former Chief Minister and tribal

leader Arjun Munda had won from his Kharsawan

constituency. But with Mr. Munda out of the race, and

no other acceptable tribal face in the front line, the

claims of Mr. Das, a five-time Member of the Legisla-

tive Assembly and former Deputy Chief Minister,

proved too difficult to ignore for the national lead-

ership of the BJP. But the victory of the BJP itself is in

some ways a reflection of voter disenchantment with

the tribal identity politics of the kind practised by the

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. For too long, the JMM lead-

ership took its support base for granted, making and

unmaking alliances without broad consultations with

the rank and file. Some of the political instability in

Jharkhand can actually be attributed to the readiness

of the JMM to play the BJP and the Congress against

each other and win the best bargain for itself. Also, Mr.

Munda’s defeat in an election in which his party other-

wise did reasonably well tells its own story. Clearly, the

BJP was being favoured not for its tribal leaders, but for

the hope of stability it held and the promise of good

governance it made.

However, the elevation of Mr. Das is also a way for

the BJP to be able to say it does not want to play the

caste or tribal identity card like some of its main politi-

cal rivals. In both Haryana and Maharashtra, the two

States where it formed governments after the Lok

Sabha election, the party chose Chief Ministers from

communities that did not have a dominant presence.

Unlike Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar

and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis,

Mr. Das is not known to have close links with the Sangh

Parivar leadership. But what he shares with those two

is the possibility of having an appeal that cuts across

social barriers. With its stress on Hindu religious iden-

tity, the BJP is no doubt more than happy to undermine

caste and tribal identities. The choice of Mr. Das is also

indicative of the BJP’s own diverse support base that

includes, but also goes well beyond, the tribal commu-

nity. The challenge for the national party is to address

the genuine grievances of the tribals in Jharkhand

through an inclusive development agenda without nec-

essarily mobilising them on the basis of their tribal

identity. Surely, Mr. Das can be up to this challenge as

well as Mr. Munda, and, in the process, prove a political

point for the BJP. Indeed, Mr. Munda’s defeat could

prove to be a blessing in disguise for the party.

Beyond the tribal identity

All curricula are situated in contextsand are simultaneously guided byideals. Therefore, an understandingof and a balance between the two is

essential.We have succeeded in creating an educa-

tion system that discourages good educationin every possible way. It is largely apathetic tothe quality of education and the fate of chil-dren. The mindset that governs thinking andthe actions of the functionaries of educationin the government are to somehow managethe naukari and to reap the benefits of the jobon the basis of seniority. The thought of doinga good job rarely comes to mind if it ever does.The idea of reform and improvement remainat the level of rhetoric. In this system, anyteacher who wants to work for good educa-tion has to work on his or her own and with-out much support. He or she also has toovercome varied forms of resistance.

Obstacles before the teacher

In schools, the quality of education revolv-es around issues such as a school uniform,heavy school bags, mark sheets and somesemblance of having the English language andinfrastructure in place. Parents are consciousof the need for quality education, with up-ward mobility in the form of well-paying jobsbeing uppermost in their minds. This is alegitimate expectation, but parents andschools see the path to well-paying jobsthrough so-called English medium and high-fee charging schools. From there it moves onto children studying in private universities,now a dime a dozen, and which all proclaim toproduce leaders.

Children’s lives, even in the rural areas,now revolve around television and in variousactivities on the mobile phone. Hence, themotivation to ensure that a child has a worth-while education enabled by a wholesomelearning experience has to be created by theteacher. Even if the child is a natural andenthusiastic ‘learner’, that all learning isequally worthwhile is an unexamined as-sumption. Therefore, the teacher has to di-rect the efforts of the child towards this goal.This is a difficult job.

Let’s focus on the teacher. In the generalatmosphere of economic competition andconsumerism, a teacher legitimately desiresleading a good economic and social life. Theteacher has to constantly fight with her vis-ibly low status in society, which saps her en-

thusiasm for good teaching.Education is increasingly becoming centric

to the government’s thinking in order to real-ise the desire for India’s economic compet-itiveness in a globalised world. Thus, thepurpose of education can be well served byhaving a layered education system. One partof that system can take the responsibility ofmass producing “narrowly skilled” peoplewith a limited vision of life and completelysold out on shining promises of consumeristhedonism. Another part could produce a lim-ited number of people who can think rela-tively better regarding skills and theoreticalknowledge, but still remain wedded to prom-ises of economic growth.

Obviously, in each point mentioned in thesystem, namely the parent, the child, a teach-er’s ambitions and the government, there ex-

ists many alternative ideas and serious effortsas well. I have painted this grim picture inorder to claim that this is the dominant moodand in spite of there being many people whowant to do something better. The purpose ofciting these instances is not to deny the posi-tive aspect, but to make the point that a teach-er has to work in an adverse scenario and beon the lookout to identify genuine elementsin the system to collaborate and work with.

The ideals

The issue is this: what is the kind of Teach-er Education (TE) curriculum needed thatcan help a new teacher enter this scenariowith confidence and to work effectively? Thecontext-centric thinking has a natural tend-ency to privilege status quo without the

thinker being conscious of this problem. Onestarts thinking of ways of survival in the faceof adverse elements in the context and losessight of the larger purpose, thereby reinforc-ing the context as it is. This is producing atendency to take the context as given andplanning education that seems possible in thegiven limitations. In the process, the limita-tions gain acceptance while the quality ofeducation becomes a variable to be adjustedwith them. The teacher has to strive for qual-ity; not only for survival.

But why should the teacher struggle? It ismuch easier and personally beneficial for himto go along with the system. What motivationcould there be to challenge it? And, strive forwhat? What should he try to achieve? Whatare the kind of tools to be used? These ab-stract questions are very pragmatic ones if we

are to develop an effective TE curriculum.One definite requirement to work well is to

have an idea of what one is working for and anability to divert one’s efforts towards en-abling worthy goals and a vision. Therefore, apersonal examination of goals and vision pro-posed by the system is essential in order tocreate commitment for a task. This requires areasonable amount of intellectual autonomy;it may be weak and limited autonomy per-haps, but autonomy nonetheless.

A teacher needs to build an intellectually,ethically and socially satisfactory, if not excit-ing, life for herself as a thinking being. Also, apossibility for continuous personal develop-ment is essential in order to contribute to-wards creating good education. Usually,creating opportunities for such development

is supposed to be the job of the system; but inthe situation we have, the poor teacher has tofend for herself.

A commitment to good education will alsorequire an understanding of the need for edu-cation in people’s lives and society, and areasonable dose of dreams. People seem to becreatures of dreams to a large extent, andthere is no contradiction between being crea-tures of dreams and being situated in socio-political reality as embodied creatures. Thetrick is to create dreams that have intellectualconviction as well as pragmatic possibility.

The need for capabilities to teach is obviousenough. But these capabilities have to berooted in what one wants a child to achievethrough education, an understanding of thechild, and the society in which both the childand the teacher live. This demands a serioustheoretical understanding of the same, boringand age-old questions: Why teach? What toteach? And, how to teach?

Practical skills

None of our TE programmes has ever seri-ously tried to achieve a clear and convincingenough understanding of what one tries toachieve through education. It always has beena rhetoric of larger aims and working formyopically understood parental and marketaspirations. This confusion has made educa-tion non-serious to both — a case of na khudahi mila na wisaal-e sanam. We are prone tosee the failure of TE in the lack of practicalskills. However, a deeper analysis is likely toshow that the failure is primarily theoretical.Practical skills, however well taught, usuallydo not answer the question “why” and, there-fore, do not generate conviction and commit-ment — essential ingredients in goodteaching. There is a reasonable unexploredpossibility that adequate understanding ofand conviction in the “why” along with guid-ance in teaching skills may produce a varietyof viable methods. Therefore, the issue is notwhere to start from — is it theory or frompractice? It is to traverse the whole contin-uum whatever one’s chosen starting point is.If one starts at theory, then it is about bring-ing it right down to the classroom level and interms of actual skills; if starting with class-room work, it is about taking it to issues ofserious theoretical understanding. A half-fin-ished or half-hearted job, irrespective of thestarting point, will remain unsuccessful. Adisplay of bias in any direction will also becounterproductive.

In concrete terms, a teacher has to have arange of capabilities. A tentative first listingcould look like this: capability to teach allschool subjects at the primary level and at theleast, one at the upper primary level. This willinvolve practical activities, the use of materi-als, and connecting with children. It will alsodemand an understanding of the subject interms of its content, epistemology and ratio-nale in the curriculum; adequate understand-ing of the curriculum and its rationale. It willnecessarily involve understanding the aims ofeducation, the need for education in an indi-vidual’s life and in social life; a convincingdream of a desirable society and living a satis-factory life. And situating oneself and thechild in this dream; self-confidence and a con-viction to work in an either indifferent oradversarial education system; a professionalconviction that one can find ways for personalgrowth and development as a teacher, and acapability to generate episodes of reasonablesuccess in order to keep that hope alive.

What kind of curricular content and in-stitutional experiences will develop thesequalities is what will have to be worked outseriously, with care and in detail. It seemsthat without these capabilities, teacher edu-cation is unlikely to have any effect on thesystem. We also have to discard the rhetoricof “change agents” and replace it with anunglamorous idea of doing one’s job ade-quately to one’s personal and social satis-faction, and as a plain and simple worker.

(Rohit Dhankar is with the Azim PremjiUniversity, Bangalore, and is honorary secretary, Digantar, Jaipur.)

A template for teacher educationNone of our Teacher Education programmes hasever seriously tried to achieve a clear andconvincing enough understanding of what onetries to achieve through education. It always hasbeen a rhetoric of larger aims and working formyopically understood parental and marketaspirations

Rohit Dhankar

“A commitment to good education will require an

understanding of the need for education in people’s lives andsociety, and a reasonable dose of dreams.

”

No privatisationThe statement by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi categorically rulingout any plans to privatise theRailways (Dec.26) is welcome.Instead, he should be prudentenough to spend available andlimited resources, both local andforeign, to provide new railwaylines in inaccessible and remoteareas of the country, especially inMadhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,Bihar and the Northeast. This mustbe the priority; not fancy projectsfor bullet trains and so on.

J. Eden Alexander,Thanjavur

Ghar vapsi talesThe report, “No let-up by Hindugroups on ghar vapsi” (Dec.26) wasdisturbing. Sadly, right-wingelements have been pursuing theirmission of conversions andreconversions with redoubledvigour without any qualms aboutthe attendant threats to communalharmony. That organisations likethe VHP pride themselves on thearithmetic of conversions isdeplorable. Inflammatory speechesby both the BJP and religiousleaders have become the order ofthe day. With the Prime Ministerremaining silent, one wonders whatgood governance and developmentwill really mean (“Modi leads goodgovernance carol,” Dec.26).

P.K. Varadarajan,Chennai

There should be an anti-conversionlaw in our country. Everyoneshould have the right to follow thereligion they want. When somebodytakes the decision to give up onereligion and follow another, it

means he or she has chosen torepose faith in its rituals, customsand practices and involves his/herconscience, soul, heart and body.Right-wing elements need to askthemselves whether the mereexternal donning of the symbols of areligion means conversion. Has theperson really accepted the newreligion? What is really in theperson’s soul?

Sumit Lour,Bulandhshar, Uttar Pradesh

The Kashmir mandateThe article, “Understanding theKashmir mandate” (Dec.26), wasinteresting but undermined thelegitimate aspirations of the twoother regions of Jammu andLadakh. There was no answer tohow nearly half-a-million internallydisplaced Kashmiri Pandits (whoare about to complete half a centuryin forced exile) can be encouragedto return. The ground realities andthe nature of the mandate not onlyreflect the diverse aspirations of thepeople of the three distinct regionsbut also reflect the self-contradicting objectives of thepolitical parties claiming torepresent the aspirations of theentire State. Ideally, the Stateshould be renamed as “Jammu,Kashmir and Ladakh”. The taskshould not be that daunting for aformation that may be forged in theinterest of further integration of thestrife-torn valley into the Indianmainstream.

Ramesh Manvati,Noida

The recently concluded electioncould become a remarkable startingpoint in our fight against insurgencyif the parties concerned drop their

narrow-minded political agendas. Itmust be borne in mind that unlikeprevious occasions, this time theKashmiris have very clearlydemonstrated their implicit faith inIndian democracy. It is this spiritthat deserves to be celebrated. Theway forward now is to bring lightinto the lives of young Kashmirisand provide them qualityeducation, health services,electricity and transport. If thischance is lost, history will notforgive us.

S.A. Thameemul Ansari,Kayalpatnam, Tamil Nadu

Every possible care has to be takenby all political players in the Statenot to play the divisive card. TheBJP could have made inroads in theValley, but the development agendaof Narendra Modi remainedsubservient due to the party’shidden agenda, and which did notstrike a chord. Any downslide willonly bring the situation back tosquare one.

Parthasarathy Sen,New Delhi

The results show that issues likeArticle 370, a uniform civil code andother sensitive issues have beenrejected by Kashmiris. The BJP hasclearly set its sights on Ministry-formation. This would amount tofoisting the BJP on the people whenthey have clearly expressed theirchoice. Parties must desist fromplaying political games and insteadlook to ushering in peace anddevelopment in the State.

M.M. Gurbaxani,Bengaluru

Bodoland troubles“Rebels without a cause” (Dec.26)

gives a clear insight into the Bodoproblem. The point that thedemand for a separate area has beenignored is what will make the“movement” even stronger. This ismainly because the Assamgovernment has hardly taken stepsto usher in change anddevelopment. Unfortunately, thedivision of Andhra Pradesh is whatwill embolden outfits to resort tomayhem and terror in order fortheir demands to be met. It isapparent that the Congress did nottake this into account. The Assamgovernment should now take firmsteps to keep the State intact.

Maya Hemant Bhatkar,Chennai

The spate of attacks on people arebut acts of terror and cowardice. Itis unfortunate that the State did notact on leads given by intelligenceagencies. One wonders how thegovernment will now tackle thecycle of violence on the one handand find solutions to suspicion, fearand hate on the other.

Naresh Tanti,Borhapjan, Assam

Assam seems to be always on theboil. It is a fact that the problem isneither a communal nor a religiousone but one of conflict betweenolder inhabitants and new settlers.The Modi government, whichpromised during the electioncampaign to combat violence inAssam, should deal with thesituation firmly especially as thesteps taken by the State have notyielded results.

Bhanamma Aravinda Bai,Hyderabad

It is a familiar tale once again —

incidents of violence followed by ablame game between the State andthe Centre. The fact is that theCentre is equally responsible for themyopic vision and policies adoptedtowards extremist groups innortheastern India. This has onlyled to the mushrooming of offshootorganisations. A fast and pragmaticsolution through talks withoverground factions and a schemeto break the nexus betweeninsurgent groups and politicalparties — which is an open secret —must be thought of.

Nupur Das,New Delhi

The Adivasis, one of the mostdeprived sections of the State’spopulace, politically, socially andeconomically, are now caughtbetween the State and the militants.It has always been the case here thatinnocent and poverty-strickenpeople are the targets for differentstate and non-state players. Whyhave successive governments failedto protect the life of commoners inthe State? When there wereintelligence reports, why were pre-emptive and precautionarymeasures abandoned?

Punya Jyoti Boruah,Dhemaji, Assam

Since 2008, hundreds of peoplehave died and many more have beeninjured in ceaseless violence in theState. One also has to rememberthat the “surrender policy” followedby the State has also given rise tonumerous factions. Who does onetalk peace with especially as eachleader thinks he is more importantthan the other?

Biman Baruah,Guwahati

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the fullpostal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Even for a country known for its tardy judicial

processes, the fact that the L.N. Mishra assas-

sination case remained in the trial stage for

nearly 40 years after the Union Railway Min-

ister was killed in January 1975 is an unconscionable

blot on the criminal justice system. It is somewhat

typical of the administration of justice in the country,

but longer than normal, as even long and protracted

proceedings move on from trial to appellate stage with-

in a decade and a half. Undue delay, it is often noted,

amounts to denial of justice. The accused have to bear

the burden of a pending criminal case for years, often

from their youth to a ripe old age. The victims and their

families are left with a sense of dejection. Delay may

also lead to unjust acquittals as many key witnesses are

unlikely to be available or have a sufficiently good

memory to testify with confidence after the passage of

many years. In the Mishra case, four men have been

sentenced to life imprisonment, but they are already

too old and infirm to suffer rigorous imprisonment.

There really cannot be any acceptable justification for

the 35-year delay since the trial was transferred from

Bihar to Delhi in 1979.

The Law Commission, which has gone into the issue

more than once, has pointed out that the judiciary

alone is not to blame for processual delays, as the fault

equally lies with tardy investigators and prosecutors.

There are other factors like lack of manpower and

insufficient use of technology. The panel has suggested

remedial measures, both administrative and legisla-

tive. One should not forget that some trials, invariably

those involving public functionaries, have been expe-

dited at the intervention of the higher judiciary. A

perception had gained ground that the languid criminal

justice system helped the political class delay and un-

dermine prosecution for corruption. It was to remedy

this that the Supreme Court fixed a time limit of one

year after framing of charges for the completion of

trials related to legislators. The time has now come for

the judiciary to extend the principle to all criminal

cases. A reasonable time limit, one that would not

compromise on due process, may have to be fixed. Even

now, Section 309 of the Criminal Procedure Code says

once examination of witnesses begins, the court shall

proceed on a day-to-day basis until all witnesses are

examined. This provision has to be enforced. As sug-

gested by a Law Commission report to the Supreme

Court in 2012, the law relating to superintendence of

the lower judiciary by the High Courts may be amended

to provide recourse for those affected by judicial delays

to approach the High Court for expediting trials.

Justice in slow motion

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

9THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

COMMENT

>>The infographic in “Parties hail honour for Vajpayee, Malaviya” (Dec. 25,2014) said Madan Mohan Malaviya established the Banaras Hindu Universityin 1915 whereas the Editorial, “Honouring complex legacies” (Dec. 26, 2014),said Malaviya’s living legacy is the BHU that he founded in 1916. The Editorialis correct. According to the website of the Banaras Hindu University, the “…university was founded … , in 1916 … The university was created under theparliamentary legislation - B.H.U. Act 1915.”

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

A Chinese city is attempting toforce its eight million residents

to memorise and recite a series of“Socialist values,” state media report-ed on Friday, with spot-checks to en-sure conformity.

The central Chinese city of Wuhanis calling on “all residents to internal-ise 12 core Socialist values, which arepart of an ideological campaign byChina’s ruling Communist party,” theGlobal Times tabloid reported.

The city will hold “mandatory reci-tation sessions,” the report said, withstudents told that “officials from[the] Central government” wouldcheck on them.

“We held a class meeting to check ifwe could remember them,” a gradu-ate student at a local university toldthe newspaper. “No one could leaveuntil we could recite them all.”

“If anyone failed to recite themwhen the school checked, they wouldlose their scholarship for next year,”

another student said.Chinese President Xi Jinping has

pushed the “socialist values” cam-paign since assuming office last year,in an attempt to shore up support forthe Communist party.

The values include wealth andpower, patriotism, harmony, as wellas some terms which the Communistparty defines differently from theWest, such as democracy and rule oflaw. Despite the mandatory cam-paign, the values also includefreedom.

China has relaxed controls on ide-ology since the Communist excessesof the Mao Zedong era, but govern-ment officials regularly say that“Western” liberalism is inappropri-ate for China.

All Chinese students up to thepostgraduate level are already re-quired to attend political classeswhich require them to memoriseCommunist party ideology. — AFP

Chinese city makes ‘Socialistvalues’ mandatory: report

It is the policy of The Hindu to correct significant errors as soon as possible.Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page.

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Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday toFriday);

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All communication must carry the full postal address and telephone number. No personal visits.

The Terms of Reference for the Readers’ Editor are on www.thehindu.com

On December 11, 2014, when theU.N. General Assembly adopt-ed June 21 as the InternationalDay of Yoga, as recommended

by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indiarejoiced. Never mind that the day beforewas the first Human Rights Day under hiswatch; this crept by unnoticed.

At the SAARC Summit, Mr. Modi de-claimed, “As we seek to build bridges toprosperity, we must not lose sight of ourresponsibility to the millions living with-out hope.” He was, as always, matchless asa kathakar, an artiste whose fabulous re-telling of fables reinforces them in theminds of the faithful as fact. But while hisperformances have zero defects, on thelives of the multitudes hanging on to hiswords, believing in them and daring tohope, they have had zero effect so far,because the responsibility of which thePrime Minister spoke is usually ignored.

In 1990, the U.N. launched the HumanDevelopment Report based on the chal-lenging predicate that “people are the realwealth of a nation.” How wealthy are wereally? After two decades of rapid GDPgrowth, we bestride SAARC like a colossusdoing the splits, one foot splayed eastwardto keep China out, the other westward tokeep Pakistan down. We loom like a giantamong midgets, but on every parameterthat measures equity in development,there is little to choose between us andour neighbours.

The Human Development Index (HDI)for 2014 ranks us at 135 among 187 coun-tries; Sri Lanka at 73 did way better thanus, and we were shadowed by Bhutan at136, Bangladesh at 142, Nepal at 145 andPakistan at 146. The fact that India was astable democracy, as the others were not,that our economy had galloped along, astheirs had not, had made very little differ-ence to the lives of our citizens.

Within the HDI, the Gender InequalityIndex which measures three critical pa-rameters — reproductive health, women’sempowerment and their participation inthe labour market — is particularly impor-tant because it shows how a society treatsits more vulnerable half. Sri Lanka at 75 iswell ahead of us, but so is Nepal at 98,Bhutan at 102 and Bangladesh at 115. In-dia is in lock-step with Pakistan, bothranked at 127. The Criminal Law Amend-ment Act, which brought in far-reachingmeasures to protect women, is now al-most two years old; sadly, it has madelittle difference.

Depth of deprivation

My five years on the National HumanRights Commission were a humbling ex-perience. In 2009, we had 82,000 com-plaints, in 2013, a lakh. A five-memberCommission could not possibly do justiceto more than a fraction of these. We dis-missed 60 per cent of complaints in li-mine, or at the outset, 11 per cent withdirections to officials to act (but never had

the time to check if they did) and trans-ferred 6 per cent to the State HumanRights Commissions, which were mostlyramshackle.

Our investigative visits to rural Indiawere dives into the darkness that con-tained the mass of the iceberg of which thecomplaints coming to us were only the tip.In a country still largely illiterate, a ter-rible violation of human rights in itself,very few knew the NHRC existed. Thosewho did wondered if it would be able tohelp; many thought it would not. For ev-ery complaint that came to us, a hundreddid not, but since so many were on sys-temic problems affecting entire commu-nities, they brought home to us the range,depth and persistence of discriminationand deprivation in India. The two are of-ten linked, and that is the real cause ofworry with our new dispensation. The

poorest and the most vulnerable — wom-en, Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castesand Muslims — suffer because the socialbias against them is rooted in Hindu beliefand practice, and still so strong that thelaws meant to protect them are impotent.Even under a secular government, publicservants would plead with the NHRC thatthere would be law and order problems ifthey tried to implement these. The dangernow is that under a government so overtlyHindu, these practices will flourish evenmore. The hate speeches of Cabinet mem-bers signal where this could lead us.

Mr. Modi wants his party to be carefulwith their words, but there are fifty shadesof saffron around, most of it strident. Hewants civil servants to be sensitive, butthey always are, to the wishes of the pow-ers that be. He wants the police to beSMART, but they already are, reporting tothe National Crime Records Bureau thatin 2013 there were only two incidents ofhuman rights violations by their person-nel. The same year, 33,753 complaints tothe NHRC, a third of the total received,were against the police, detailing how theypreyed on those they should protect.

In Mr. Modi’s defence, these are nation-al problems he has inherited, not created,but Gujarat is the template he holds up tothe rest of India, and there are a range of

impartial reports that show how cavalierit has been about the lives of the State’speople. A 2013 Lancet study found thatamong the 11 rich States, Gujarat had donethe worst in bringing down the mortalityrate of children under five, one of theMillennium Development Goals. TheCensus established that the sex ratio inGujarat has declined from 934 in 1991 to920 in 2001 to 918 in 2011. Not surprising-ly, the NCRB data shows a high incidenceof crimes against women. So too, the datashows, are crimes against ScheduledCastes, at levels higher than in the otherdeveloped States: Maharashtra, Punjaband Tamil Nadu. The ASER/Pratham Re-ports on Education show low percentagesof students in Standard V who could read aStandard II text, and could do divisions.That is not a model to copy.

Dreadful cost

Despite what he said in Kathmandu,Mr. Modi’s record as Gujarat Chief Minis-ter shows that his sights are set on pros-perity, not on “the millions living withouthope.” ‘Make in India’ is his priority, andthere the signs are ominous. A few weeksback, ASSOCHAM issued an advertise-ment which announced, “Repeal of ar-chaic laws is the need of moderntimes…ASSOCHAM has identified 105laws for review, which can promote a bet-ter regulatory framework for successfullyactualising Mr. Modi’s vision of ‘Make inIndia’.” These include 43 laws that protecthuman rights and safeguard labour wel-fare, including the Bonded Labour System(Abolition) Act, Protection of ForestRights Act, Inter-State Migrant WorkersAct, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regu-lation) Act, and the Minimum Wages Act.If these are the voices he listens to, devel-opment will come at a dreadful cost.

India’s governments have so far pur-sued development with a human face.Vast social welfare programmes protectthose whom the market forces savage, butthese are riddled with huge problems. Forinstance, hardly any materials go into therural employment guarantee projects, buteach year material costs claimed are wellover 20 per cent of its budget. A surveydone for the NHRC showed that 60 percent of the allocation for the IntegratedChild Development Services was beingstolen. The list goes on. The answer doesnot lie in jettisoning these programmes,but in making them work better. Withoutthem, rural India will empty out.

Our Prime Minister’s many admirersbelieve that Sardar Patel’s mantle has de-scended on him. Vallabhbhai Patel madeIndia, Narendra Modi can unmake it. Butwith his extraordinary talents, integrityand ability, our Prime Minister can also bethe making of India, and make India, all ofIndia, proud. That should be his tribute tohis idol, not the monstrous statue of theSardar now rising in Gujarat like a prel-apsarian Ozymandias.

(Satyabrata Pal is a former Member ofthe National Human Rights Commission.)

Fifty shades of saffron

SYMBOLIC: “Narendra Modi can pay tribute to Sardar Patel by makingIndia proud rather than building his statue.” Picture shows him withBJP leader L.K. Advani in Kevadia village, Gujarat. — PHOTO: AFP

The danger now is that under an overtly Hindu government, discriminatory practices againstthe most vulnerable people will flourish even moreSatyabrata Pal

Discrimination anddeprivation are oftenlinked to one another, andthat is the real cause ofworry with our newdispensation

In New Gurgaon, where I live,Christmas is a very significant affair.

This Christmas too, you might havebeen forgiven for thinking thatsignificant sections of an electorate thatvoted for the Bharatiya Janata Partysuddenly converted to Christianity. Allover Gurgaon, Resident’s WelfareAssociations organised Christmas fairswhere children sang carols, santas gaveaway gifts, and people of all ages,dressed in red caps, exchangedChristmas greetings. Gurgaon’sChristmas is, of course, now a nationalevent and my description could beapplied to December 25 goings-on in anumber of cities across India. However,when I rang a friend in Kerala to wishhim “Merry Christmas,” he respondedthat someone else had rung him earlierin the morning, saying he was calling togreet him on what might be the lastChristmas in India. Though said in jest(and in reference to recent anti-Christian violence), this comment sitsoddly with what appears to beuninhibited and large-scaleparticipation of non-Christianpopulations in Christmas celebrations.Or, does it? Is it possible that we mighthave, in fact, come to prefer Christmaswithout Christians? The manner inwhich Christmas has come to belong toall of us is not without consequences fora multi-religious society.

When I was small, Christmas was aday that belonged to a specificcommunity. It was, in many cities ofNorth India, referred to as bada din ( bigday). “Bada Din Mubarak!” was the termI was taught to use as a greeting, if icame across any Christian on December25. I don’t think I came across many andhence the greeting remained apedagogic contrivance rather thancustomary practice. But what it didteach me, not in a self-conscious‘secular’ manner but as part of casual,everyday life, was that a specificreligious day and a specific religiouscommunity were intertwined andlegitimate aspects of Indian life. As achild, because Christmas was not myfestival, I and several others around merecognised it as a festival that belongedto another community, that was as real

and legitimate as mine. In myimagination, Christmas was celebratedby real flesh and blood people whoconstituted actual communities. Theirbada din signified something as valuableas the festivals that I took part in.Hindus and Christians existed as well-defined communities, but not hostileones. That community was real to meprecisely because Christmas andChristianity mapped on to each other.

In recent times, when Hindus havestarted to celebrate Christmas as theirown, we have moved into an era where afestival of legitimate difference hastransformed into one of a ritual ofleisure and lifestyle. It becomescontiguous with taking a foreign holidayor buying a fridge. It need not remind usany longer of the legitimacy of thecommunity for whom Christmas is

something more than a ‘shopping mallfestival’ but a fundamental way ofdefining community life. Celebratingthe customs and rituals of anothercommunity is not itself a bad thing.However, in this case it appears thatwhen Christmas becomes “our” festival,it ironically weakens the ability torecognise, respect and championdifference. The “mainstreaming” ofChristmas sits alongside a growingindifference towards Christians: it isalmost as if we can do it as well as themand don’t really need them. It,peculiarly enough, signifies a time ofChristmas without Christians.

A shopping festival

The invention of Christmas as ashopping festival has a long history inthe West, particularly in the context oflate 19th century Britain. The morerecent replication of this process inIndia is intimately tied to shifts inpolitical and consumer cultures. It does,however, have a parallel in the 20thcentury’s manufacture of yoga as alifestyle activity in the West, largelyshorn of its philosophical bearings. Thespread of yoga in the West did not leadto greater tolerance of Indians and thepopularity of Christmas in India haslittle to do with an acceptance ofreligious differences. Indeed, it is the

context of something quite the opposite:the symbolic production andconsumption of different ways of beingthrough consumerism that exists side-by-side with the actual suppression ofdifference. So, while we consumeChristmas cake, we don’t seem verybothered by arson in churches. We havebegun to prefer prepackaged difference.

It is an odd situation, then, and quitedifferent from when I was a child.Earlier, Christmas was not a festival ofthe Hindus but Christians were notidentified as an enemy community. Itwas not a utopia of communal harmonybut certainly different. Now, however,Christmas finds vigorous acceptanceamong the majority community —words can hardly convey theearnestness with which the children ofmy locality sing “Silent Night” — butthere are hardly any mainstreammurmurs (let alone roars) of protestagainst anti-Christian sentiments andpractices. I don’t ever remember singing“Silent Night” and may have waited invain to ambush a passing Christian (oranyone else) with a bada din greeting,but I also do not recall church burningand ‘ghar vapsi’ as normalised activities.

What is at stake is something muchmore fundamental than the tiringinvocation of ‘secularism’ versus‘fundamentalism.’ These categories maynot be adequate to understand a presentwhere some sections of the majoritycommunity adopt minority rituals butrejects minorities. When we become‘shopping mall Christians’ — theChristmas celebration in my localityended with an RWA-sponsored tombola— we forget that a religious festivalsignifies something more than theconsumption of different commodities;it is meant to remind us of the differentkinds of people in society. The currentupsurge in Christmas celebrationsappears, dangerously, to encourage thesense that it is our right to celebrateChristianity’s key event on one day ofthe year, without taking anyresponsibility for what happens to itsadherents on the other days when wemove on to some other form ofconsumption.

(Sanjay Srivastava is professor ofSociology at Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi.)

A time of Christmas without Christians

Sanjay Srivastava

A religious festival signifies something more than the consumption of commodities; it ismeant to remind us of the different kinds of people in society

UNIVERSAL FESTIVAL? “The manner in which Christmas has cometo belong to all of us is not without consequences for a multi-religious society.” Picture shows students dressed as Santa Clausahead of Christmas day celebrations in Gurgaon. — PHOTO: PTI

Celebrating the rituals ofanother community is nota bad thing, but whenChristmas becomes 'our'festival, it weakens theability to recognise, andrespect difference

Maybe I’m just projecting, but Christmas seemed unusually subduedthis year. The malls seemed less crowded than usual, the people

glummer. There was even less Muzak in the air. And, in a way, that’s notsurprising: All year Americans have been bombarded with dire newsreports portraying a world out of control and a clueless government withno idea what to do.

Yet if you look back at what actually happened over the past year, yousee something completely different. Amid all the derision, a number ofmajor government policies worked just fine — and the biggest successesinvolved the most derided policies. You’ll never hear this on Fox News,but 2014 was a year in which the federal government, in particular,showed that it can do some important things very well if it wants to.

Start with Ebola, a subject that has vanished from the headlines so fastit’s hard to remember how pervasive the panic was just a few weeks ago.

Judging from media coverage, especially but notonly on cable television, America was on theverge of turning into a real-life version of “TheWalking Dead.” And many politicians dismissedthe efforts of public health officials to deal withthe disease using conventional methods.Instead, they insisted, we needed to ban alltravel to and from West Africa, imprison anyonewho arrived from the wrong place and close theborder with Mexico. No, I have no idea whyanyone thought that last item made sense.

As it turned out, however, the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention, despite someearly missteps, knew what it was doing, whichshouldn’t be surprising: The CDC has a lot ofexperience in, well, controlling disease,epidemics in particular. And while the Ebolavirus continues to kill many people in parts ofAfrica, there was no outbreak here.

Consider next the state of the economy.There’s no question that recovery from the2008 crisis has been painfully slow and shouldhave been much faster. In particular, theeconomy has been held back by unprecedentedcuts in public spending and employment.

But the story you hear all the time portrayseconomic policy as an unmitigated disaster,with President Barack Obama’s alleged hostilityto business holding back investment and job

creation. So it comes as something of a shock when you look at the actualrecord and discover that growth and job creation have been substantiallyfaster during the Obama recovery than they were during the Bushrecovery last decade (even ignoring the crisis at the end), and thatalthough housing is still depressed, business investment has been quitestrong.

What’s more, recent data suggest that the economy is gatheringstrength — 5 per cent growth in the last quarter! Oh, and not that itmatters very much, but there are some people who like to claim thateconomic success should be judged by the performance of the stockmarket. And stock prices, which hit a low point in March 2009,accompanied by declarations from prominent Republican economiststhat Mr. Obama was killing the market economy, have tripled since then.Maybe economic management hasn’t been that bad, after all.

Finally, there’s the hidden-in-plain-sight triumph of Obamacare, whichis just finishing up its first year of full implementation. It’s a tribute to theeffectiveness of the propaganda campaign against health reform — whichhas played up every glitch, without ever mentioning that the problem hasbeen solved, and invented failures that never happened — that I fairlyoften encounter people, some of them liberals, who ask me whether theadministration will ever be able to get the programme to work.Apparently nobody told them that it is working, and very well.

In fact, Year 1 surpassed expectations on every front. Remember claimsthat more people would lose insurance than gained it? Well, the numberof Americans without insurance fell by around 10 million; members of theelite who have never been uninsured have no idea just how much positivedifference that makes to people’s lives. Remember claims that reformwould break the budget? In reality, premiums were far less thanpredicted, overall health spending is moderating and specific cost-controlmeasures are doing very well. And all indications suggest that Year 2 willbe marked by further success.

And there’s more. For example, at the end of 2014, the Obamaadministration’s foreign policy, which tries to contain threats likeVladimir Putin’s Russia or the Islamic State rather than rushing intomilitary confrontation, is looking pretty good.

The common theme here is that, over the past year, a U.S. governmentsubjected to constant badmouthing, constantly accused of beingineffectual or worse, has, in fact, managed to accomplish a lot. Onmultiple fronts, government wasn’t the problem; it was the solution.Nobody knows it, but 2014 was the year of “Yes, we can.” — © New YorkTimes News Service

Tidings of comfortWORLD VIEW

Over the past

year, a U.S.

government

constantly

accused of being

ineffectual, has, in

fact, managed to

accomplish a lot

PAUL KRUGMAN

CMYK

ND-ND

10 THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

MEERUT: Despite the crack-down by the Uttar Pradeshgovernment, the Hindu Ma-hasabha is firm on celebrat-ing January 30, the dayMahatma Gandhi was shotdead by Nathuram Godse, as‘Shaurya Divas.’

The plan for the celebra-tions includes installation ofGodse’s bust in differentparts of the country.

Madan Acharya, nationalgeneral secretary of the Ma-

hasabha, said the installa-tion of Godse’s bust,including in Delhi and Mee-rut, would be carried out asplanned.

“Whatever the adminis-tration plans to do, we wouldinstall the statue of PanditNathuram Godse on Janu-ary 30, ” he said. “Our net-work exists in 16 States. InUttar Pradesh alone, wehave offices in 63 districts,where we will organise pro-grammes to mark ‘ShauryaDivas’.”

He said the Mahasabhawould also install a bust inAmbala, where Godse wasexecuted. His assertioncomes after the State gov-ernment warned the Hin-dutva group of stern actionand a “possible ban” if it didnot stop its attempts to “dis-turb communal harmony.”

U.P. Minister ShivpalSingh Yadav told the mediaon Thursday that the gov-ernment would not allowanyone to “divide” the coun-try in the name of religion.

Mohammad Ali

Hindu Mahasabha firm on installing Godse’s bust

RANCHI: At least 12 Minis-ters, including two from theBJP’s alliance partner, All-Jharkhand Students’Union, are likely to takeoath along with RaghuvarDas, Chief Minister-desig-nate. The swearing-in is ex-pected on Sunday.

Earlier, in the legislatureparty meeting, his namewas proposed by NeelkanthMunda and seconded bytwo party leaders Saryu Raiand C.P. Singh, who alsowere seen as contenders forthe post.

Party sources told TheHindu that Saryu Rai, Jam-shedpur (West) MLA, islikely to be the Speaker.

Party leaders indicatedthat Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi would attend theswearing-in.

Those expected to takeoath on Sunday are LouisMarandi, who defeatedJMM leader and formerChief Minister HemantSoren from Dumka, C.P.Singh and Birenchi Maran-di and the AJSU leaders Ka-mal Kishore Bhagat andChandra PrakashChaudhury.

The Chief Minister-des-ignate said a transparent

government with good gov-ernance was his firstpriority.

Several tribal organisa-tions voiced their protestagainst appointing a non-tribal Chief Minister. TheAdivasis Sangharsha Mor-cha and the Rashtriya SarnaSamiti shouted slogans anddisplayed placards whiledemanding that a tribesper-son be made Chief Ministerof a tribal State likeJharkhand.

In Patna, the former Bi-har Chief Minister NitishKumar said the BJP had seta wrong precedent by elect-ing a non-tribal as ChiefMinister.

“Jharkhand was createdin 2000 on the issue of trib-al sensibilities and repre-sentation and since then,there have been tribal ChiefMinisters there. But now asthe BJP has broken that tra-dition, it seems they nolonger have any faith in thetribal community,” Mr. Ku-mar said.

The Adivasi Chhatra Sangh and the Adivasi SarnaSamiti staging a protest against the election of anon-tribal Chief Minister in Ranchi on Friday. — PHOTO: MANOB CHOWDHURY

Amarnath Tewary

Protest against first non-tribal CM

Saryu Rai,Jamshedpur (West)MLA, likely to be theSpeaker

NEW DELHI: Using data forMLAs from every State forevery year since 1961, com-piled by Ashoka University’sPolitical Data Centre, TheHindu found that 2014 is thefirst year that the BJP, with1,058 MLAs, has more State-level representatives thanthe Congress, with 949.

Taken together with theLok Sabha elections, inwhich the BJP with 282 seatshad its best ever showing,and the Congress with 44seats, had by far its lowestresult, the numbers showthat this is by far the Con-gress’ lowest ever ebb in In-dian politics.

Moreover, the Congresscan expect to do poorly inStates elections over thenext few years, including As-sam in 2016 and Karnatakain 2018, says Sanjay Kumar,professor and Director of theCentre for the Study of De-veloping Societies.

“By the next general elec-tion, it is likely not to be inpower in any major State,”Mr. Kumar said. Moreover,the Congress’ problem is notjust that it is losing elections.

“If you look at States likeMaharashtra, it is coming inthird and fourth position,”he pointed out.

“The anti-Congress andanti-incumbency sentimentthat had been building up inthe last few years first led toour loss in some States, andthen in the general election.

The momentum of that isstill continuing in theseState elections,” Congressnational spokespersonSandeep Dikshit said.

“It wasn’t that States likeChhattisgarh or MadhyaPradesh were doing so wellfor the BJP to win all ofthem, or that Congress gov-ernment was doing that bad-ly in every State; this trendhas transcended all local-level issues,” Mr. Dikshitsaid.

The intensity of thattrend, however, was reduc-ing, he said; while the BJPhad swept Leh and Jammuin the parliamentary elec-tions, it had not completelyswept these regions in theState elections.

“The Congress is now re-duced to Karnataka, Kerala,Himachal Pradesh, Uttarak-hand and the north-east;what are even geographicallythe fringes of the country,”BJP’s national spokespersonNalin Kohli said. “We arethankful that the BJP’s re-cord of development and de-livery under the leadershipof Prime Minister NarendraModi is being accepted. It isfor the Congress to intro-spect on why it has been soreduced,” he said.

Congress downtrendlikely to continue: expert

Rukmini S. ‘By the next generalelection, the partymay not be in powerin any major State’

SRINAGAR: The stalemate overalliances between politicalparties to form the next gov-ernment in Jammu andKashmir continued on Fri-day, even as the Bharatiya Ja-nata Party (BJP) made thefirst important move by call-ing on several stakeholders,including leaders of the singlelargest party, the People’sDemocratic Party (PDP).

BJP national general secre-tary and RSS ideologue RamMadhav, who arrived in theKashmir Valley on Thursday,met senior PDP leader andMember of Parliament Mu-zaffar Hussain Baig at his res-idence in Srinagar. Accordingto sources, the two met againat the hotel where Mr. Mad-hav is staying.

According to BJP sources,Mr. Madhav also met Niza-muddin Bhat, another seniorPDP leader and defeated can-didate from Bandipore. He,however, denied having spo-ken to Mr. Madhav in any of-ficial capacity, adding thatthey were old friends sincetheir days in journalism.

While PDP sources saidMr. Baig, who seems keen onan alliance with the BJP, wastalking in his personal capac-ity without the party’s ap-proval, Mr. Madhav saidpeople could not discuss gov-ernment formation withoutthe mandate from their lead-ers. Sources in the PDP saidthe party was still discussingthe ramifications of an alli-

ance with the BJP. “It is ahistoric decision for theState, especially for Kashmir,and it is fraught with gravedangers,” a senior PDP leader

told The Hindu. “To form agovernment with the BJP isto go to the gallows hopingthat we will survive.”

Mr. Madhav said the com-

mon ground between the BJPand the PDP — which arepoles apart in their ideolog-ical positions — was the de-velopment of the State. Talks

between the parties had justbegun and the discussion hadnot yet reached specifics suchas who would be the ChiefMinister.

BJP begins talks with stakeholdersHaving a tie-up with the BJP is to go to the gallows, says PDP leader

Zahid Rafiq

NEW DELHI: For the People’sDemocratic Party thatJammu and KashmirGovernor N.N. Vohra hasinvited — along with the BJP— to form a government inthe troubled northern State,and the National Conference(NC), the party the BJPprefers as a partner, thefractured mandate hasthrown up a conundrum.

An alliance in Delhi maynot pose too many problemsto either the PDP or the NC— the latter, even a favouriteof the Delhi establishment;but one in Jammu andKashmir has seriousimplications for the tworegional parties, given howdifferent their worldview isfrom that of the BJP,especially in relation to theState.

The BJP’s approach toJammu and Kashmir,defined by its opposition toArticle 370 that gives theState special status, is at oddswith any other partyoperating in the State. Whiletop BJP sources recently

indicated that it might behard to abrogate Article 370,they said administrativemeasures could be taken tofurther dilute its provisions.These sources added that theparty intended to focus onwelfare measures for theGujjars and the Bakerwals —also Muslim but of tribalstatus. This is clearlyintended to create a wedgebetween them and theMuslims who dominate theKashmir Valley.

It would like to use itsnumbers in the Assembly topush for a review of theSupreme Court freeze ondelimitation in the State,valid till 2026. If the BJPsucceeds in this, the numberof seats in the Jammuregion, where it has won 25of the 37 seats, couldincrease at the expense ofthe more sparsely populatedconstituencies of theKashmir Valley, completelychanging the politicaldynamics.

Indeed, talk of a possiblealliance between the BJPand the PDP/the NC hasupset MLAs of these parties,

as reports from Srinagarsuggest. If NC MLA AgaRoohullah said he would notsupport any effort to form agovernment with the BJP,another party MLAMohammad Shafi favouredan alliance instead with thePDP to “safeguard” theinterests of the State: “They[the BJP] don’t just want theintegration of Jammu andKashmir but also itsassimilation. This may not bewritten but this is what theyare doing. Look at theforcible conversions,” hesaid. PDP MLAs have notgone on record but many areuncomfortable at thethought of an alliance withthe BJP.

On Friday, the Leader ofthe Opposition in the RajyaSabha and former ChiefMinister, Ghulam Nabi Azad,told journalists here: “TheBJP has, of course, ademocratic right to try andform a government inJammu and Kashmir. Butnow that it is in power at theCentre, it should place thecountry above its interests,and not so aggressively

pursue the formation of agovernment there. Jammuand Kashmir, like the Statesin the northeast, is not justreligiously sensitive, butculturally, politically andgeographically so, being closeto the borders. One wrongmove would be disastrous.Jammu and Kashmir is notlike Maharashtra, Rajasthanor Gujarat.”

Referring to the Congress,he said: “It took 67 years forthe people of the State todigest the Congress — notfully, I admit — and the BJPwants to do it overnight. LetMufti and the regionalparties decide what is bestfor the State.”

Of course, within the BJP,there are differences forthese very reasons on theparty’s attempt to form agovernment. At least threesenior Cabinet Ministersindicated as much to TheHindu, but the party, pushedby president Amit Shah andthe RSS, appears determinedto go ahead with its plans,though it failed to win anyseat both in the Valley and inLadakh.

A conundrum for PDP, NC Smita Gupta

J&K GOVERNMENT FORMATION

NEW DELHI: Prime MinisterNarendra Modi-led Ap-pointments Committee ofthe Cabinet (ACC) on Fri-day effected yet anotherround of postings of bu-reaucrats, approving ap-pointments at seniorpositions.

Alok Kumar, an IAS offi-cer of the 1984 batch, hasbeen made Secretary, Cen-tral Vigilance Commission.

Anant Kumar Singh hasbeen appointed AdditionalSecretary in the HomeMinistry, whereas Ragh-vendra Singh has beenmade Additional Secretary,Department of Agricultureand Cooperation.

While T. Vijayakumar isnow Director-General,Council for Advancementof People’s Action and Ru-ral Technology, M.J. Jo-seph has been placed asDirector-General, Bureauof Indian Standards andD.V. Prasad as AdditionalSecretary in the Womenand Child DevelopmentMinistry.

Deepak Kumar has beenappointed Additional Sec-retary in the Labour Minis-try, Deepak Shetty is nowDirector-General (Ship-ping) and Vijaya Shrivasta-va is Additional Secretaryand Financial Adviser tothe Health Ministry.

Ajay Narayan Jha is Ad-ditional Secretary with theDepartment of Expendi-ture and Alok Shrivastava isAdditional Secretary withthe Shipping Ministry.

Modi-led panelclears high-levelappointments Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Union Finance Min-ister Arun Jaitley said on Fri-day that the immediatechallenge was to increase thegrowth rate during 2015-16,projections of which vary from6 to 6.5 per cent.

He was making the openingremarks at a pre-budget meet-ing with State Finance Minis-ters here. Calling on States toimplement jointly with theCentre the Goods and ServicesTax (GST), Mr. Jaitley said theeconomic spin-off of imple-menting the reform would behugely beneficial to both, ac-cording to an official release.

Most of the States supportedthe initiative of the Union gov-ernment regarding the imple-mentation of GST, the releasesaid. States also welcomed theprovisioning of Rs. 11,000 croreduring this fiscal for CentralSales Tax compensation tothem by Mr. Jaitley. The Cen-tre’s assurance on full compen-sation of losses due to the GSTrollout was also welcomed.

The Finance Minister said“India grows when Statesgrow.” The growth in the ser-vices sector was good whilethat in agriculture was reason-able. He referred to the patchygrowth in the manufacturingsector and said this was one ofthe biggest challenges for theCentre. He urged the States towork with the Centre in takingthe economy back to the high-growth path. He told the Statesthat the Fourteenth FinanceCommission had submitted itsreport and it was under theconsideration of the Centralgovernment.

The meeting was attendedamong others by Chief Minis-ters of three States (who holdthe Finance portfolio) and 13State Finance Ministers. It wasalso attended by Minister ofState for Finance Jayant Sinha,Finance Secretary Rajeev Meh-rishi, Revenue Secretary ShaktiKanta Das, Expenditure Secre-tary Ratan P. Watal, FinancialServices Secretary HasmukhAdhia and Chief Economic Ad-viser Arvind Subramanian.

Raising growth rate a challenge: JaitleyPuja Mehra

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley with FinanceSecretary Rajiv Mehrishi during a pre-Budgetmeeting with State Finance Ministers in New Delhion Friday. — PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA

JAIPUR: Sixteen Ministers inRajasthan have received e-mails purportedly from theIndian Mujahideen (IM)warning of terror strikes onRepublic Day. Followingthis, security has beenstepped up at importantplaces.

Ten Cabinet Ministers andsix Ministers of State re-ceived the mails on their offi-cial mail IDs on December22. The mail purportedlysent by the Indian Mujahi-deen said: “We are IndianMujahideen. You people becareful. We are going to giveyou a Big Bang surprise. Youcan do whatever you want,but it’s a challenge that wewill carry out many bombstrikes in Rajasthan on Janu-ary 26. Stop us if you can.”

Veracity being checked

Director-General of Police

Omendra Bhardwaj toldpresspersons here that whilethe threat was being takenseriously, the police were as-certaining the veracity of themails. Help had been soughtfrom Interpol and other in-ternational agencies and thepolice were working in coor-dination with other securityagencies.

Probe under way

Mr. Bhardwaj said therewas no reason to panic andthe anti-terror squad was in-vestigating the matter.

Home Minister GulabChand Kataria said thosewho had sent the mail wouldbe identified soon.

16 Rajasthan Ministersreceive threat mailAarti Dhar

Allegedly sent by IM,the e-mails warn ofbomb strikes onRepublic Day

NEW DELHI: External AffairsMinister Sushma Swarajwill chair the 8th session ofthe India-South Korea jointcommission meeting alongwith her South Koreancounterpart Yun Byung-seover the weekend.

The visit is important toimprove relations with animportant partner in our“Act East policy” said Min-istry of External Affairs(MEA) Spokesperson SyedAkbaruddin.

Ms. Swaraj is also expect-ed to call on the South Ko-rean President and Defence

Minister apart from othersenior officials.

This is the first multi-structured discussion be-tween the two countries af-ter the NDA governmentcame into power and im-proving economic ties willbe the major focus.

South Korea has a tradesurplus and Ms. Swaraj willdiscuss steps to reduce itand also impress upon theSouth Korean industry toinvest in India.

Recently, Ms. Swaraj can-celled the tender for eightmine sweeper vessels forthe Navy in which a SouthKorean firm had been

shortlisted.Asked if it would be dis-

cussed, MEA Spokespersonsaid India sought coopera-tion from South Korea inship building activities in-cluding the defence sector.“South Korea is a majorship building country andwe welcome their participa-tion in India as part of the‘Make in India’ campaign,”he said.

Both sides will also takeforward talks on imple-menting the civil nuclearagreement cooperation,particularly in R&D andpersonnel training, whichwas signed in 2011.

Sushma to chair India-South Korea meetDinakar Peri

NEW DELHI: Accusing the CBI oftaking a U-turn in the Sohra-buddin and Tulsiram Prajapatimurder case, the Aam AadmiParty alleged that the agencywas preparing an escape routefor BJP president Amit Shah.

Mr. Shah is named as an ac-cused in the case probed by theCBI. Referring to the “changedstand” adopted vis-à-vis Mr.Shah’s alleged role in the twomurders in a special CBI court,party leader Ashish Khetansaid the agency which has sofar named him as the primeaccused was now planning totry him as just another ac-cused in the case.

The basis of these allega-tions, he said, was the CBI’srecent submission before thecourt in Mumbai where Mr.Shah has filed a dischargeapplication.

“Mr. Shah’s lawyers submit-

ted that the charges againsthim be dismissed. We expect-ed the CBI to stick to its earlierstand of naming Amit Shah asthe kingpin of the conspiracyand lynchpin of an extortionracket he was running with se-nior officers of the Gujarat Po-lice and gangsters likeSohrabuddin,” he said.

Mr. Khetan said the CBI, in-stead of arguing the casestrongly, only presented a fewbrief facts and urged that thecase should continue.

He also said that while Mr.Shah’s lawyers argued overthree days, the CBI lawyerwrapped things up within 15minutes thus making the pros-ecution’s case a “weak andwishy-washy one.”

“The shift in the position isclearly the outcome of the BJPassuming power at the Centrewhich effectively brought theCBI under its control.,” hesaid.

CBI taking U-turn on Shah: AAP

Shubhomoy Sikdar

ceiving threats, their facultydecided to cancel the event,”a disappointed Mr. Patward-han told The Hindu. “Thestudents are refusing to say

where the threats camefrom or to divulge the namesof the faculty who cancelledthe event. Obviously, theyare themselves underthreat.”

Mr. Patwardhan suspect-ed it to be the usual case ofright-wing intimidationwherein they “threaten theorganisers” of the eventrather than approachinghim. “They know I will notstop,” he said.

College authorities failedto give reasons, stating theywere under “tremendouspressure from certaingroups” and that the cancel-lation was “regrettable.”

The film, a searing investi-gation into the perils of reli-gious fundamentalism sinceIndependence, was made inthe aftermath of the Ayod-hya riots. It has since in-curred the hostility of theRashtriya Swayamsevak

Sangh and its affiliates, whohave left no stone unturnedto disrupt its screeningssince 1993.

In 2002, the Vishwa Hin-du Parishad (VHP) prevent-ed the movie from beingscreened at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History(AMNH) in New York. How-ever, it denied any involve-ment in this case. VHP Punechief Sanjay Kulkarni said,“we know nothing aboutthis.” Milind Ekbote, of theSamatha Hindu Agadhi, aleading Hindutva front inPune, also denied involve-ment.

“We do things openly. Notcoerce behind the scenes,”said Mr. Ekbote.

According to students,while posters of the filmwere put up on the campusfor the better part of theweek, they were torn downfollowing intimidation.

PUNE: Caving in to allegedpressure of suspected right-wing groups, the ILS LawCollege in Pune has can-celled the screening of notedfilmmaker Anand Patward-han’s controversial 1992documentary Ram ke Naam(In the name of God) thatdocuments the Babri Masjiddemolition.

The film was to bescreened at the college audi-torium at 5.00 p.m. on Sat-urday, to be followed by aquestion-and-answer ses-sion with Mr. Patwardhan,who had already bought histickets for the event.

“It is stupefying. Till yes-terday [Thursday], every-thing was set for thescreening. This afternoon[Friday], student organiserscalled to say that after re-

College cancels screening of film on Babri demolitionShoumojit Banerjee & Omar Rashid

Anand Patwardhan

CMYK

ND-ND

11THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

NATIONAL

NEW DELHI: Even as the Army isintensifying its operations inSonitpur and Kokrajhar dis-tricts of Assam where Nation-al Democratic Front ofBoroland (Songbijit) mili-tants massacred 75 people,India has enlisted the supportof Bhutan in tackling terroristincidents along the border.

External Affairs MinisterSushma Swaraj spoke to theBhutanese government at thehighest level and it had re-sponded positively, Ministryspokesperson Syed Akbarud-din said here on Friday.

Responding to queries, hesaid the Minister was trying toestablish contact with otherfriendly countries in theneighbourhood for increasingcooperation in checking ter-ror-related activities andflushing out terrorists fromtheir territories. It is suspect-ed that some of the key NDFB(S) leaders have slipped intoneighbouring Myanmar.

“Cooperation with neigh-bouring countries will give asharp edge to our anti-terroroperations in the border areasof Assam,” government sourc-es said adding the border withBhutan had been sealed.

After a review of the securi-ty situation in Sonitpur andKokrajhar districts of Assam,Union Home Minister Raj-nath Singh asked Army Chief

General Dalbir Singh to inten-sify anti-militancy oper-ations. They are said to havediscussed joint operationswith Bhutan and Myanmaragainst the NDFB(S), whichhas bases in both countries.

The Home Minister askedthe Army Chief to ensure thatpeace was restored in Assam.Army presence would also beincreased in Arunachal Pra-desh and Meghalaya, whereNDFB(S) militants have afootprint.

General Singh said 66 Armycolumns had been deployed inAssam.

Joint operations along border plannedIndia seeks help of Myanmar, Bhutan to tackle militants

Vinay Kumar &Dinakar Peri

Army officials asking protesters to remain peaceful during a bandh inKokrajhar and Sonitpur districts on Friday. — PHOTO: RITU RAJ KONWAR

ASSAM MASSACRE FALLOUT

KOLKATA: West BengalChief Minister MamataBanerjee visited northBengal on Friday to reviewthe assistance being pro-vided by the district ad-ministration to the peoplewho have fled Assam in thewake of the violence un-leashed by the NationalDemocratic Front of Boro-

land (Songbijit) and takenshelter in relief camps inAlipurduar district.

“About 1,000 peoplehave come from Assam.Whatever we can do withinour limited means, we willdo for them,” Ms. Banerjeetold journalists outside theBagdogra airport in Siligu-ri. She will remain in Jal-paiguri on Friday and visitthe camps on Saturday.

Special Correspondent

Mamata promises help

NEW DELHI: With flood damagein the country pegged in therange of Rs. 6,000 crore ayear, according to official es-timates, India is poised toadopt a World Bank-fundedhydrology project. Such aproject has already made adifference in 13 States whichopted for it in the earlier twophases.

Under the proposed ex-pansion of the project, Stateswill be able to generate anddigitise their own data with-out waiting for central help.The project for the wholecountry is estimated to costRs. 3,000 crore.

The project, the first phaseof which began some 20 yearsback, has digitised real timedata in 13 States, according toAnju Gaur, senior water spe-cialist, World Bank. Some ofthe main reasons for floodsare poor reservoir manage-ment systems as was wit-nessed some years ago inWestern Maharashtra.Farmers sometimes faceproblems as they plant cropswithout knowing if there isassured water fromreservoirs.

There is no reliable hydr-ological data and some of thefigures are as old as 1993. Theproject, in partnership withthe Union Water ResourcesMinistry and other agencies,was aimed at developingmonitoring systems in theStates. The use of such data

on water storage and avail-ability is unlimited, Ms. Gaurpointed out and can be usedin decision support system(DSS). The project has com-pleted two phases and estab-lished the basis for aHydrological InformationSystem (HIS) for reliablerecords.

Data collection was nearprimitive till as recent as2009 when in Karnataka,gauge readers from drought-affected areas would send infigures on post cards. Karna-taka first asked for mobilephones so that data could besent speedily and latermoved to setting up systems

for real-time data sincegauge readers often did notventure into the field.

The major handicap wasthe unwillingness to sharedata across States citing con-fidentiality issues. There is aculture of not sharing dataand the project resulted in amajor breakthrough by thegovernment which intro-duced a data policy, she said.

The Bhakra Beas Manage-ment Board and the KrishnaBhima Basin in Maharashtraare two examples where realtime water data has helpedto take many decisions andto prevent floods. Maharash-tra is one of the best man-

aged States in terms ofwater, Ms. Gaur said and oneof the earliest to go in for thehydro meteorologicalsystem.

The project gives datawhich can help release of wa-ter from reservoirs and pre-vent untimely floods. Theoperating costs have gonedown by half due to advanceknowledge of water availa-bility, rainfall and even waterquality, Ms. Gaur said.

Though the initial invest-ment is high, over the yearsthe States have found that itis worthwhile. “The projectmade information travel fas-ter than flood waters,” re-marked Ms. Gaur. The dataalso uses satellite to help fig-ure the amount of snow melt,and make projections on theflows into the reservoir. Thisis particularly useful in thecase of the Bhakra basin.

Apart from flood preven-tion, the data and real timemonitoring of water flows al-so helps in analysing andtesting proposed projects.She said a tunnel project todivert water in Pune wasdropped as a result.

As part of the project, wa-ter quality stations havebeen set up in the Gangariver at 10 locations fromHrishikesh to Kolkata. TheRs. 550-crore project in twophases which is complete, isa loan to the government ofIndia and aimed at a com-plete standardised central-ised water data system.

Nationwide hydrology data soonThe World Bank-aided project is estimated to cost Rs. 3,000 crore

Meena Menon

A temple submerged in floods in Uttarkashi.— FILE PHOTO: PTI

JALANDHAR: An EnforcementDirectorate team questionedPunjab Revenue MinisterBikram Singh Majithia onFriday in connection with al-leged money laundering inthe Rs. 6,000-crore synthet-ics drug racket case.

The ED had issued sum-mons to Mr. Majithia to ap-pear at its Jalandhar office.While he was being ques-tioned, activists of the Con-gress and the Akhil BharatiyaVidyarthi Parishad held pro-tests against him outside andburnt him in effigy. Theywere arrested.

A team of five senior offi-cers, three of them from Del-hi, questioned the Ministerfor nearly five hours. Emerg-ing from the ED office, Mr.Majithia said he would coop-erate with any investigatingagency. “I also want the truthto come out,” he said.

Mr. Majithia had earlier al-leged that he was facing a po-litical witch-hunt even afterfive Central investigationagencies had found no evi-

dence against him during theUnited Progressive Alliancerule and the High Court haddismissed a petition filed byCongress leaders.

The ED had prepared aquestionnaire for Mr. Majith-ia about his alleged links withthe alleged drug dealers Sat-preet Satta, Amrinder Laddiand Parminder Pindi.

Mr. Majithia is the youngerbrother of Union Food Proc-essing Minister HarsimratKaur Badal, wife of PunjabDeputy Chief Minister Sukh-bir Singh Badal.

ED quizzes Punjab Minister in drug racket case Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Bikram S. Majithia

JALANDHAR: The timing ofthe Enforcement Directo-rate questioning of PunjabRevenue Minister BikramSingh Majithia in the syn-thetic drugs case just daysbefore BJP president AmitShah is to launch a State-wide campaign againstdrugs in Punjab on January12 has raised manyquestions.

It was soon after dust hadsettled on the Maharashtraelections that the drug issueagain came into spotlight inPunjab. First came the newsin November about the EDpreparing to summon Mr.Majithia for questioning.

Consequently, PunjabBJP president Kamal Shar-ma demanded Mr. Majith-ia’s removal from theCabinet saying “even topBJP leaders such as [L.K.]

Advani had stepped downon moral grounds and Akaliministers Sarwan SinghPhillaur and Gulzar SinghRanike had been forced toresign” after their namescropped up. But in case ofMr. Majithia, Chief Minis-ter Parkash Singh Badal in-sisted that meresummoning did not makeanyone culpable or anaccused.

This was followed byPrime Minister NarendraModi’s reference to thedrug problem in Punjabduring the third episode ofhis radio programme,“Mann ki Baat.” Later vari-ous BJP leaders includingNavjot Singh Sidhu andparty Ministers like AnilJoshi demanded Mr. Ma-jithia’s removal.

However, BJP presidentAmit Shah declared thatthe SAD-BJP alliance was

intact and the two wouldcontest the civic polls inPunjab together. Clearly,with the next Assemblypolls due in 2017, the BJP isin no hurry to walk out ofthe eight-year-old alliancegovernment in Punjab justyet. But Mr. Shah had alsoobliquely hinted that theAkalis should prepare for alesser role in future like theShiv Sena in Maharashtraby saying that in alliancepolitics too the partiesshould see whom the peo-ple were voting for. Mr.Shah is due to launch aStatewide campaign againstdrugs from Amritsar on Ja-nuary 12.

The timing of the sum-mons to Mr. Majithia onthe eve of the three-daywinter session of the Pun-jab Assembly was crucial asthe issue dominated the en-tire session.

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Timing raises many eyebrows

is meant for non-operatingstaff.

“For take-off, rest andlanding she was illegally al-lowed to sit in the cabin crewhorizontal rest area [bunk]by the commander. Immedi-ately after the flight took off,the First Officer of the flightwas asked to relax in the ver-tical seat [jump seat] and de-nied his horizontal rest inthe bunk beds.

“When the second set ofcockpit crew went to rest shewas then moved to the cabincrew rest area,” Mr. Rao saidin his complaint.

When contacted, the AirIndia spokesperson refusedto comment on the issue,while Mr. Somasundaransaid he was not aware of anysuch complaint. — PTI

NEW DELHI: In an alleged vio-lation of aviation safetynorms, a daughter of a seniorAir India executive travelledin the bunk which is onlymeant for resting of flightcrew members as per theDGCA norms, during one ofthe airline’s flight to Newarkrecently.

K.V.J. Rao, a union leaderand former Air India cabincrew, has also alleged in hiscomplaint, lodged with thesecretary in the Civil Avia-tion Ministry V. Somasun-daran that a first classpassenger was forced to sitin the executive class on oneof the national carrier’sflights to Delhi from Frank-furt to accommodate a se-nior bureaucrat last month.

According to Mr. Rao, thedaughter of a senior Air In-dia pilot was first allowed tosit on the jump seat and thenrest in the bunk during the14-hour long flight to Ne-wark from Mumbai on De-cember 13.

A jump seat in the aircraft

Daughter of senior AIexecutive travels in bunk

As per DGCA norms,bunk is meant forresting of flight crewmembers

PATNA: As many as 200 Maha-dalits, the poorest among Da-lits, converted to Christianityat Atiya village near BodhGaya on Thursday, prompt-ing Chief Minister Jitan RamManjhi to seek an investiga-tion and BJP leaders to de-mand a ban on such activitiesin Bihar. A local priest, Raj-kishore, allegedly supervisedthe ceremony.

The families reportedlysaid they had converted for“growth and betterment inlife and free education oftheir children.”

A resident of the villagetold The Hindu that conver-sion of Mahadalit families inthe area had been going onsince 2007, with no one evercreating a furore. In 2007-08,35 families had convertedand got free education fortheir children in the localEmmanuel Mission PublicSchool, run by the Church ofPromise.

Anil Manjhi, Saped Manj-hi, Dhanesh Manjhi and Bha-nesh Manjhi of the villagetold officials that they con-verted for the good things inlife, such as free educationfor their children at the localmissionary school, and an al-cohol-free society.

While Mr. Manjhi sought areport from the District Ma-gistrate, the former BiharChief Minister Nitish Kumarexpressed ignorance aboutthe ceremony.

BJP leaders Prem Kumarand Vinod Narayan Jha saidthe government should in-vestigate the issue and bansuch activities. Local BJP MPHari Manjhi visited the vil-lage on Friday to ascertainthe facts.

Earlier, when reports ofconversion of Mahadalitfamilies to Christianity camefrom Bhagalpur and Mungerdistricts, officials visited thevillages, but the people de-nied that they had converted.

200 Mahadalitsconvert toChristianity in Gaya

Amarnath Tewary

IMPHAL: Eight human skullswere recovered from the oldcompound of TombisanaHigher Secondary School inImphal town.

The school had been shiftedand a facility is under con-struction. While the labourerswere scooping out earth fromthe compound on Thursdayand Friday, they found eighthuman skulls. Forensic ex-perts, who collected the skullsfor further examination, saidthese appeared to be of thebodies who were killed about20 years ago. However the ex-act period can be establishedonly through proper examin-ation, they added.

8 human skullsfound in schoolcompound

Iboyaima Laithangbam MUMBAI: The Maharashtragovernment has ordered anenquiry into yet another14-day furlough granted toactor Sanjay Dutt, who iscurrently serving a five-year jail term in Pune’s Ye-rawada prison for illegalpossession of arms in con-nection with the 1993 serialblasts in Mumbai, by thejail authorities.

“The Maharashtra HomeMinistry will initiate aprobe in the case of actorSanjay Dutt’s furlough,”said Minister of State forHome Ram Shinde onFriday.

Mr. Dutt was releasedfrom prison on December24 after his application for

furlough, the third since hewas sentenced to jail inMarch 2013, was granted.He was first given furlough

for 14 days in October 2013,and this was extended by 14more days for his legsurgery.

He was again granted a30-day furlough last year inDecember and that too wasextended twice on accountof his wife Manyata Dutt’sillness.

Hearing a public interestlitigation petition, theBombay High Court hadquestioned the eagernessshown by the governmentto allow the actor’s re-quests. The Centre too de-manded a report from theState government.

Mr. Dutt has alreadyserved 18 months in prisonas an under-trial and willhave to spend three and ahalf years more in jail.

Furlough for Sanjay to be probedAlok Deshpande

Sanjay Dutt

NEW DELHI: The Union UrbanDevelopment Ministry hasgiven urban local bodies thepowers for appraisal and ap-proval of Swachh Bharat Mis-sion project proposals in all4,041 statutory towns andcities.

Union Urban DevelopmentMinister M. Venkaiah Naiduhas approved the implemen-tation guidelines, which em-power the State governmentsand the civic bodies to pro-pose and approve theprojects.

Ministry officials said thecivic bodies had been author-ised to prepare, sanction andimplement projects to con-struct household, communityand public toilets under thebroad directions of the gov-

ernments of the States andthe administrations of UnionTerritories, which would ap-prove solid-waste manage-ment project proposals.

“The Minister is of the viewthat decentralisation willaugment capacities of urbanlocal bodies, besides enablingquicker implementation ofthe mission,” an official said.

Of the Rs. 62,009-croreproject cost, Central assist-ance will be Rs. 14,623 crore,while the States and theUnion Territories will be re-quired to contribute Rs. 4,874crore.

The States will match acontribution of 25 per cent ofthe Centre’s share under dif-ferent components of themission. A private invest-ment of Rs. 42,512 crore isbeing targeted under the pro-

gramme in urban areas.“Component-wise, the

Central government will pro-vide an incentive of Rs. 4,000in respect of each individualhousehold toilet to be built,40 per cent as grant or viabil-ity gap fund [VGF] for com-munity toilets and 20 percent grant/VGF in respect ofsolid-waste managementprojects. Public toilets will bebuilt entirely with private in-vestment,” the official said.

Nearly 15 per cent of thetotal Central allocation — Rs.2,139 crore — has been ear-marked for behaviour changecommunication to sensitiseurban populations to the illsof open defecation and theimportance of proper use andmaintenance of toilets andprevention of manualscavenging.

Special Correspondent

Civic bodies to clear Swachh projects

HYDERABAD: Union Ministerfor Science and Technologyand Earth Sciences HarshVardhan has said that the In-dian National Centre forOcean Information Services(INCOIS) will soon extendits GIS-based 3D protocol ontsunami warning to all vul-nerable areas in the countrywith new methodologies andimproved warningprocedures.

The protocol is in place forCuddalore and Nagapatti-nam of Tamil Nadu, and 3Dmapping will be ready for therest of the tsunami-prone ar-eas too.

At the inaugural session of

a national workshop on “In-dian tsunami early-warningsystem: progress, challengesand future road map” orga-nised here on Friday to com-memorate 10 years of thedevastating Indian Oceantsunami, Dr. Harsh Vardhansaid details of every personliving in vulnerable areaswould be mapped. The pilotproject in Cuddalore and Na-gapattinam would be extend-ed to other areas.

Hailing the efficacy of thesystem developed by IN-COIS, he said it did not issueeven one false warning dur-ing the seven years of its ex-istence, even when advancedcountries such as Japan hadissued several false alerts.

B. Chandrashekhar

Tsunami warning soonin all vulnerable areas

experiment in this regard,”said Mr. Sircar.

He was in Kolkata to launchPrasar Bhararti’s Vividh Bha-rati service on FM in the city.

Pointing out that the FMchannel would also be acces-sible on cell phones, Mr. Sircarsaid: “The Government of In-dia is very keen on mobileFM.”

He also said that the FM ra-dio was becoming increasinglypopular and easily accessiblethrough cell phones adding“We call it the democratisa-tion of radio reach.”

Asked about the potential ofdigital radio in Kolkata, he saidthat it would take some timebefore digital radio becomes

popular due to the small avail-ability of radio sets.

On the issue of offering longterm contracts to the casualstaff of Prasar Bharati, hepointed out that if a casualstaff had “good performancehe or she will be offered longterm contractual assignment.”

As for radio jockeys, he said:“They only do radio assign-ments. There is no question ofpermanent absorption forthem.”

In August, Prasar Bharatihad dropped 100 anchorsworking for the organisationfor the last 19 years from itsweekly anchoring rota as theywere over the age limit of 30fixed for radio jockeys.

KOLKATA: Prasar Bharati is try-ing to expand its online pres-ence to reach a wideraudience, its Chief ExecutiveOfficer Jawhar Sircar said hereon Friday.

Referring to the young gen-eration’s increasing use of In-ternet, he pointed out that ifVividh Bharati had onlinepresence then its reach wouldwiden.

“These days the youth arelistening to everything on theInternet. If Vividh Bharatigoes online then listenersfrom California to Vancouverwill be able to listen to it. Weare currently conducting an

Prasar Bharati trying toexpand online reach: CEOStaff Reporter

In memoriam

Relatives and coastal communities pay floral tributes to victims ofthe 2004 tsunami in a symbolic offering at Elliot’s Beach inChennai on Friday. — PHOTO: M. KARUNAKARAN (REMEMBRANCE

ACROSS ASIA: PAGE 12)

CMYK

ND-ND

12 THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

INTERNATIONAL

WASHINGTON: The U.S.-ledcoalition pounded the IslamicState (IS) jihadist group with 31

air strikes on Friday, includingmore than a dozen in theflashpoint Syrian town ofKobane, the Pentagon said.

The 13 strikes in Kobanedestroyed 19 fighting positions,as well as IS buildings, stagingareas and a vehicle, theDefense Department said in astatement. — AFP

19 IS positions in Kobane destroyed

ANKARA: A Turkish court onFriday ordered the release of a16-year-old high school pupilarrested for “insulting”President Recep TayyipErdogan, following accusationshis detention was the latestsign of the country veering toauthoritarianism.

The boy, Mehmet EminAltunses, was released

following a complaint by hislawyer over his arrest in thecentral city of Konya.

Altunses had delivered aspeech on Wednesday in Konya,a bastion of the ruling Islamic-rooted Justice andDevelopment Party (AKP),where he accused Mr. Erdoganand the ruling party ofcorruption. — AFP

Teen held for ‘insulting’ Erdogan freed

PESHAWAR: Pakistani securityforces have killed a Talibancommander who allegedly fa-cilitated the Peshawar schoolmassacre, which left 150 peopledead in the country’s worst ev-er terror attack, officials saidon Friday.

Named only as “Saddam”,the militant was killed onThursday night in a gunfightwith security forces in the res-tive Khyber tribal area, whichborders the north-western cityof Peshawar where last week’shorrific attack took place.

“Commander Saddam was adreaded terrorist, who waskilled in an exchange of firewith the security forces in Jam-rud town of Khyber tribal re-gion,” top local administrationofficial Shahab Ali Shah told apress conference in Peshawar.

“Six of his accomplices wereinjured and arrested.”

He added that Saddam is be-lieved to have facilitated theschool attack, although the ex-tent or capacity of his allegedinvolvement was not yetknown.

“Authorities are currentlyinterrogating the injured ter-

rorists,” Shah said.He described Saddam as an

important commander in thePakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), andsaid he had masterminded sev-eral bomb attacks.

Meanwhile, a US dronestrike on a Taliban compound

in North Waziristan killed atleast four militants on Friday,officials said, the second suchincident in a week.

Another drone strike inNorth Waziristan on December20 killed at least five militants,officials said.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sha-

rif has announced the estab-lishment of military courts forterror-related cases in order toaccelerate trials, and he has al-so lifted a six-year moratoriumon the death penalty, reinstat-ing it for terrorism-relatedcases.

Warrant against cleric

Meanwhile, a non-bailablearrest warrant was issued onFriday against famous Lal Mas-jid cleric Maulana Abdul Azizfor threatening civil societymembers who were protestingagainst him for not condemn-ing the Peshawar schoolmassacre.

Islamabad Civil Judge SaqibJawad issued arrest warrantagainst Azizi on the request ofinvestigation officer of thecase. — PTI, AFP

An important commander in the Pakistan Taliban who masterminded many attacks

Pakistani civil society activists carry placardsduring a rally in Karachi earlier this week. — PHOTO: AFP

Peshawar attack facilitator ‘Saddam’ killedPAKISTAN BATTLES THE TERROR WITHIN

ISLAMABAD: Zakiur RehmanLakhvi, the key planner of2008 Mumbai attacks, on Fri-day challenged his detentionunder a public security orderin the high court here afterthe Pakistan government re-jected his plea seekingrelease.

“Today Zakiur RehmanLakhvi filed a petition in theIslamabad High Court, chal-lenging his detention underMaintenance of Public Order(MPO),” Lakhvi’s counsel Ra-ja Rizwan Abbasi told PTI.

“Legal requirements havenot been fulfilled in the de-tention of Lakhvi. Besides,

the legal grounds the govern-ment has cited in the matterare not maintainable,” hesaid. The court will fix thedate for hearing of the case onMonday.

Islamabad Anti-TerrorismCourt Judge Kausar AbbasZaidi on December 18 hadgranted bail to Lakhvi citinglack of evidence against himin the Mumbai attacks case,but before he could be re-leased from jail, the govern-ment detained him for threemore months under PublicMaintenance Order in AdialaJail where the trial is beingheld. — PTI

Lakhvi challenges detention

PESHAWAR: The Army schoolhere that was attacked by thePakistani Taliban will be reo-pened early next month afterbeing renovated . According

to reports, reconstructionwork on the school was underway in full swing and is to becompleted by Saturday. It isexpected the school would be

reopened on January 5.The height of the four walls

around the school is beingraised by 12 feet including twofeet of barbed wire. — PTI

Army school to reopen next month

MADRID: Smartphone car-rideservice Uber vowed on Friday tokeep operating in Spain despitea ban following a lawsuit by taxidrivers and said it would fightthe case in court.

A Spanish judge on December9 banned the company fromoperating its UberPOP servicein Spain and ordered telecomcompanies and payment service

providers to block it. It saidthose were “precautionarymeasures” adopted while thecourt examines a case broughtby the Madrid Taxi Association.

“Uber will continue torespect Spanish law but hasdecided to challenge theprecautionary measures,” thecompany said in a statement.

— AFP

Spain: Uber defies ‘precautionary’ ban

KHAO LAK (THAILAND): Tearfulmemorials were held acrosstsunami-hit nations on Fridayfor the 220,000 people whodied ten years ago when giantwaves decimated coastal ar-eas along the Indian Ocean inone of the world’s worst nat-ural disasters on record.

On December 26, 2004 a9.3-magnitude earthquake offIndonesia’s western tip gen-erated a series of massivewaves that pummelled thecoastline of 14 countries as farapart as Indonesia, Thailand,Sri Lanka and Somalia.

Among the victims werethousands of foreign touristsenjoying Christmas on the re-gion’s sun-kissed beaches,carrying the tragedy of an un-precedented natural disasterinto homes around the globe.

In southern Thailand,where half of the 5,300 deadwere holidaymakers, peoplerecounted stories of horrorand miraculous survival as thechurning waters, laden withthe debris of eviscerated bun-galows, cars and boats, sweptin without warning, obliterat-

ing resorts and villages.Thai Prime Minister Pray-

uth Chan-ocha noted that thetragedy “allowed us see thekindness and help that camefrom around the world thathelped us pass through thedifficult time.”

Indonesia’s Aceh province,which was closest to thequake’s epicentre, was hit firstand hardest. More than170,000 people died in Indo-nesia alone, about three-quar-ters of the total death toll.

Indonesian Vice-PresidentJusuf Kalla led a prayer cere-mony on Friday in BandaAceh, the capital of Acehprovince. He and other offi-cials placed flowers at a massgrave where thousands of un-known tsunami victims wereburied.

Mosques also held prayersacross the province whilepeople visited mass graves —the resting place of many ofIndonesia’s tsunami dead.

— AFP, AP

10 years since tsunami, Asia recalls the horror, remembers the victims

Refugee children displaced by tsunami try to catch relief goods in Lampaya, onthe outskirts of Banda Aceh, Indonesia in a January 2005 file photo.— PHOTO: AP

Thai children hold roses before releasing them into the sea near the Ban Nam Khem tsunami memorialpark on Friday; (right) Sri Lankan tsunami survivors travel in the 591 train which was hit by 2004tsunami during a commemorative ride in Peraliya. — PHOTOS: AFP, AP

SAINT PETERSBURG: Justwhen Russians thought itcould not get any worsewith the ruble tumbling asfast as the oil prices onwhich their economy de-pends, the people of St. Pe-tersburg are waking up torationing.

But in President Vladi-mir Putin’s hometown, themartyr city that survived anearly 900-day siege inwhich thousands starved todeath in World War II, it isnot food and drink that isbeing rationed, but metrotokens.

In one of the most bizarreepisodes of panic buying ina nation notorious for itshoarding instincts in timesof trouble, people have beenbuying up to 85,000 extra

metro tokens a day so theycan save three rubles (fivecents) when the price goesup on January 1.

With more than 1.8 mil-lion sold so far in Decemberthe authorities had to stepin and ban cashiers fromselling people more thantwo tokens at a time.

Signs of panic buyinghave emerged in recentweeks with many hard-pressed households hoard-ing sugar and buckwheat,

one of the country’s mainstaples, as the ruble at onepoint lost one quarter of itsvalue in just two days.

Normally only around15,000 metro tokens a dayare sold in Russia’s secondcity, but as the ruble crisisworsened, that increased tobetween 80,000 and100,000 a day.

The price of the tokensare set to rise from 28 rou-bles (45 euro cents) to 31roubles (50 cents) on Janu-ary 1.

Russia’s monetary crisiswas sparked by the fall inthe price of oil, and wors-ened by Western sanctionsover Ukraine. The ruble haslost about 40 per cent of itsvalue against the dollar andeuro this year. — AFP

Rationing in Russia, of train tokensRussians hoardingmetro tokens sothey can save moneywhen the price goesup on January 1

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’sworst flooding in decadesforced some 118,000 peopleto flee as Premier Najib Ra-zak came under fire afterphotos showed him golfingwith U.S. President BarackObama during the storms.

At least five people havebeen killed by the rising wa-ters and there appeared littlerespite on the way on Friday,with forecasters predictingfurther heavy rainfall acrosspreviously unaffected south-ern parts of the country.

Govt. under criticism

As local media carriedphotographs of people wad-ing through flood waters asdeep as two metres (6.5 feet)and entire houses sub-merged by rising water, thegovernment faced criticismfor not declaring a state ofemergency to help devastat-ed communities.

Seasonal flooding hits Ma-laysia every year and regu-larly forces tens ofthousands from their homes,but the latest round has

forced authorities to evac-uate around 118,000, mostlyin the north-east, state newsagency Bernama reported.

Rising flood water has ren-dered several roads unusableand authorities have sus-pended train services insome of the worst-affectedareas. Communications havealso been badly hit by thestorms.

In a rare piece of positivenews, around 100 touristswho were stranded in a re-mote resort in central Ma-laysia’s Mutiara TamanNegara Resort were rescuedand sent to a relief centre.

Malaysian Prime MinisterNajib called on rescue work-ers desperately trying to re-ach flood victims to step uptheir efforts to deliver foodand water.

Mr. Najib himself cameunder fire, however, whenphotos emerged of the Pre-mier playing golf with Mr.Obama in Hawaii, with Ma-laysians questioning why hewas not at home to deal withthe crisis in posts on his offi-

cial Facebook page.Amid rising criticism, the

government said on FridayNajib had decided to cutshort his usual year-end va-cation and return to Malay-sia on Saturday to overseerescue operations.

Meanwhile, the Malaysian

Meteorological Departmentwarned of a heavy downpourover the next few days inparts of the country thathave so far been spared theworst of the flooding, includ-ing the southern state of Jo-hor, which neighboursSingapore. — AFP

Malaysia: floods force 1.18 lakh to flee

An aerial view of flooded streets of the NationalPark in Kuala Tahan, Pahang. — PHOTO: REUTERS

KATHMANDU: China’s ForeignMinister on Friday announcedhis country’s increased sup-port to Nepal for the latter’ssocio-economic development.

During the talks between thedelegations led by the respec-tive Foreign Ministers, Ma-hendra Bahadur Pandey ofNepal and China’s Wang Yi,China named several areas forcooperation between the twoneighbours. The grant hasbeen scaled to 80 million Chi-nese yuan from its current 15million yuan.

China has expressed its sup-port to help Nepal in areas in-cluding trade, investment,infrastructure development,

increasing energy generationfrom hydropower, agriculture,tourism promotion, scienceand technology, and law andorder.

The Chinese Foreign Minis-ter also said his country waswilling to provide all the helpneeded by Nepal in graduatingfrom the least developed coun-try (LDC) status to a developedone by the target year of 2022.

Answering a question, Ne-pal’s Foreign Minister Pandeysaid that the two sides dis-

cussed how to make China’srole more active in SAARC.China has a status of observerin the regional grouping. Dur-ing the recent SAARC Summitin Kathmandu, India shotdown any increased role — assuggested by Nepal and Pakis-tan — for China in SAARC.

Mr. Wang said his countriesrelation with India was im-proving and expressed thehope that it would attain newheights in future, adding thatNepal has a role in strength-ening the ties between theneighbours.

“Nepal can become bridgenot just between China and In-dia but also for the entireSouth Asia,” the Chinese Min-ister said.

China pledges more assistancefor Nepal’s developmentDamakant Jayshi Kathmandu, Beijing

discuss makingChina’s role moreactive in SAARC

PERELIYA: In Sri Lanka,where 31,000 peopleperished, survivors andrelatives of the around 1,000who died when wavesderailed a passenger train,boarded the restored OceanQueen Express and headedto Peraliya — the exact spotwhere it was ripped fromthe tracks, around 90 kmsouth of Colombo.

The head train guard saida lack of knowledge oftsunamis led to needlessdeaths. “We had about 15minutes to move thepassengers to safety. I couldhave done it. We had thetime, but not theknowledge,” WanigaratneKarunatilleke (58) said.

The Ocean Queen Expresswas rebuilt after thetsunami and has become asymbol of the disaster in Sri

Lanka and was at the centreof sombre commemorationsfor the country’s 31,000victims on Friday.

Mourners laid flowers andlit incense at a memorial forsome 1,270 people buried inmass graves on Peraliyabeach.

Buddhist, Hindu,Christian and Muslimceremonies were held inPeraliya to commemoratevictims across the country.

Remembrance serviceswere held around Sri Lankaon Friday, while PresidentMahinda Rajapakseobserved his traditional twominutes’ silence.

Sri Lanka had not been hitby a tsunami in livingmemory before 2004 andthe tragedy became thecountry’s worst naturaldisaster. — AFP

Ocean Queen marches on

COLOMBO: At least 14 personshave been killed in Sri Lank-a’s recent rains and conse-quent floods, which havedisplaced over six lakh peo-ple, Sri Lankan news agencieshave reported.

Many parts of the island,including its North Central,Central and Eastern prov-inces, have been experiencingincessant rains for over aweek. Several highways andkey access roads criss-cross-ing the country are inundat-ed, according to local mediareports.

Private news agency Adad-erana said least three personswere dead following in land-slides in Badulla in Sri Lank-a’s Central Province, whichexperienced a massive land-slide in October. Nearly 60homes were destroyed and atleast 100 persons were buriedalive.

Many of the districts af-fected by the floods experi-enced the one of Sri Lanka’sworst droughts this year, put-

ting farmers in a fix.Sri Lanka’s Election Com-

mission, gearing up for thecountry’s January 8 Presi-dential polls, is said to beequipping itself with boats, toensure transportation of bal-lot boxes, media reports said.

14 killed in Sri Lanka floodsMeera Srinivasan

An election poster ofPresident MahindaRajapaksa.— PHOTO: AFP

CMYK

ND-ND

BUSINESS13THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

BRIEFLY

IMG on coal blocksto meet next weekNEW DELHI: The inter-ministerial group (IMG) oncoal blocks will meet nextweek to examine the issueof bank guarantee (BG) ofcoal blocks which wasreviewed by it earlier,according to a meetingnotice. “The matter wasconsidered by the Coal Ministry inconsultation with LawMinistry which has opinedthat the decision to invokeor release BG will have tobe considered on case-to-case basis by thegovernment forimplementation of theorder of Delhi High Court, the noticefurther said. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Facing persistentcalls for interest rate cutsfrom the government and theindustry, Governor Raghu-ram Rajan, on Friday, said theReserve Bank of India (RBI)cannot ‘flip-flop’ on rateswith every rise or fall in theinflation and would ratherwait for a stable low pricescenario.

“The message I have beensending is that we don’t wantto flip-flop back and forth.This month inflation was 2per cent, therefore I will cutthis much. Oh! it went up to 5per cent, may be I should in-crease it. That’s not how acentral bank operates,” hesaid.

“It (RBI) takes a view andunless things change dramat-ically from that view, it pro-ceeds on a process of eitheraccommodation or tighteningand that is what I would liketo see have happened,” Mr.Rajan told a news channel .

The Wholesale Price Index(WPI)-based inflation is on adecline, and in November,dropped to zero level, thelowest in about five-and-half

years. Retail inflation, too, fellfor the fifth straight month inNovember.

Mr. Rajan, who has keptthe key policy rate at 8 percent since January, said India

had not fully solved the sup-ply side problems, and, hence,people would get more infla-tion over time.

“Its not that the RBI isagainst growth, it is for sus-

tainable growth... Our hori-zon is sometimes longer thanthose who want us to cut.They are seeing next quarterprofits. Let us look at the nextyear and year after, just downthe line how profitable youare,” he said.

He said that governmentwanted low inflation. And, thebest way RBI could aidgrowth over the mediumterm was by keeping inflationlow, he added.

“What we have to do is,once we are sure that the dis-inflationary process is wellunder the way, we will havethe ability to be more accom-modative in the sustainableway,” he said.

Explaining his point, Mr.Rajan said RBI could cut in-terest rates by 500 basispoints today and there wouldbe a boom in consumptionand in investment.

“But what happens to in-flation. Because we haven’tfully solved the supply sideproblem, people will get moreinflation over time. But es-sentially what I have said toanybody is that lets do it in a

sustainable way,” he said.The Governor also said that

RBI was not focusing on fall-ing oil prices as it was notknown “how long its going tostay low.”

Referring to the Uber (taxiaggregator) controversy, Mr.Rajan said it was using a wayof bypassing regulations. “Nomatter who you are, can’t vio-late regulations,” he said,adding that new technologyneeded some adjustments interms of regulations.

Answering question on bit-coin, a virtual currency whichhas security concerns, he saidthat down the line the nationwould be moving to “cashlesscurrency” and that virtualcurrencies would becomemuch safer in future.

For better functioning, healso supported segregation ofthe post of chairman and themanaging director in publicsector banks.

Answering queries on‘Make In India’, Mr. Rajansaid there was a need to cre-ate the conditions for pro-moting domestic manu-facturing. — PTI

Apex Bank will rather wait for a stable low price scenario

Raghuram Rajan

RBI can’t flip-flop on interest rate: Rajan

Sensex gains33 pointsMUMBAI: In a volatile trade,the benchmark BSE Sensexon Friday rose by 33 pointsto close at 27241.78, mainlyhelped by gains in HDFC,Infosys and TCS, amidstlack of fresh market cues.The 50-share NSE Nifty,after falling to the day’s lowof 8147.95, staged a strongcomeback to regain the8200-mark to close at8200.70, up 26.60 pointsfrom previous close. — PTI

Rupee loses 6 paise

MUMBAI: At the inter-bankforeign exchange market,the Indian currencyresumed better at the day’shigh of 63.45 a dollaragainst its previous close of63.51. However, it latersettled at 63.57, showing afall of six paise or 0.09 percent. — PTI

TRAI may regulateHD channels’subscription charges

NEW DELHI: Telecom andbroadcast regulatorTelecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (TRAI)is planning to review thefreedom given to direct-to-home service providers indeciding subscriptioncharges for high definitionchannels. There are about40 HD channels in thecountry and DTHoperators charge premiumfor them compared tonormal quality channels(standard definition or SD).“TRAI is mulling reviewingforbearance regime on HDchannels. Consultationpaper on the same will befloated next month,” anofficial source told PTI.

Forex reserves standat nearly $320 bMUMBAI: Foreign exchangereserves in the week toDecember 19, 2014, surgedby a $3.163 billion to $319.997 billion on the backof a massive jump inforeign currency assets.Last week, reserves hadincreased by $2.172 billionto $316.833 billion, RBIdata showed here onFriday. —PTI

Prime Minister Narendra Modi (right) withMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella in New Delhion Friday. — PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: Keen to investmore in India, Microsoft’schief Satya Nadella, on Fri-day, pledged support to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sDigital India initiative.

Besides Mr. Modi, Mr. Na-della also met Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley and TelecomMinister Ravi Shankar Prasadand discussed modernisationand security of the govern-ment’s digital infrastructure,among other issues.

“It was a courtesy visit. Mi-crosoft is the company that isa multi-national but is oper-ating in India for India andIndian businesses...”

“In every meeting of courseboth ‘Digital India’ and ‘Makein India’ are top of mind andfor us, top of mind in terms ofour contribution to India,”Mr. Nadella said after hismeeting with Mr. Jaitley.

This was his second visit toIndia since taking over asglobal CEO of $86-billiontechnology giant Microsoft.

Sources in the FinanceMinistry said Mr. Nadella hadinformed Mr. Jaitley that Mi-crosoft was keen on ‘investingmore’ in India.

“The Minister (Prasad)shared with Mr. Nadella theinitiative of Digital India tak-en by this government head-

ed by the Prime Minister. Hetold the Microsoft CEO thatDigital India is designed tobridge the gap between havesand have-nots,” Communica-tion and IT Ministry said in astatement.

Mr. Prasad also sharedwith him India’s potential inthe field of e-commerce andhow connectivity could play arole in harnessing its poten-tial, he added.

“The Minister furtherurged Microsoft to work to-wards digital literacy in In-dia... The Minister alsoinformed about the incen-tives for promoting electron-ic manufacturing in India as apart of Make in India,” thestatement said.

Microsoft was keen on col-laborating with the govern-ment in providing last mileInternet connectivity, espe-cially through the Wi-Fi tech-nology, the statement added.

Mr. Nadella also shared hisideas on modernisation ofgovernment with Mr. Prasadstating that Microsoft couldhelp in building secure gov-ernment controlled digitalinfrastructure.

Other issues like data secu-rity and domestic electronicmanufacturing were also dis-cussed. — PTI

Nadella discusses digitalIndia initiative with PM

CHENNAI: India Cements isplanning to mobilise funds tothe tune of Rs.500 crore. Thiswould be raised through qual-ified institutional placementor foreign currency convert-ible bonds or global deposito-ry receipts or otherinstruments. The board hasapproved the proposal and aresolution to this effect waspassed at the annual generalmeeting held here on Friday.

Addressing shareholders atthe meeting N. Srinivasan,Vice-Chairman and Manag-ing Director, said the compa-ny had returned to black inthe third quarter after wit-nessing losses for four quar-ters. There was a slightimprovement in demand thisyear, he said.

Mr. Srinivasan was cau-

tiously optimistic on the per-formance in 2015 with theexpectation of a pick-up in ce-ment demand. The companyalso expected the market topick up in Andhra Pradeshand Telangana. He said therewas excess capacity of 100million tonnes at all-Indialevel. South also had a sub-stantial excess capacity.

In the case of India Ce-ments, against a total capac-ity of 16 million tonnes, itproduced only 9 to 10 milliontonnes a year. When the ca-pacity utilisation was lower,the company had to incurhigher fixed costs. The dutiesand levies alone came toRs.100 per bag. With the ex-pectation of a pick-up in de-mand and price, capacityutilisation would improve, re-sulting in an increase in mar-gin, he said.

During 2013-14, due to low-er price realisation, the com-pany lost Rs.200 per tonne inmargin, he said. The companywas taking steps to cut cost

and improve logistics. It hadcreated 160 to 170 MW of cap-tive power capacity. This in-cluded 100 MW capacity fromthe  power plants at Sankar-nagar in Tamil Nadu andVishnupuram in Telanga-na.The company was takingall necessary measures at theoperational level to improvethe working in the remainingpart of the current fiscal.With a stable Government atthe Centre and the thrust oninfrastructure developmentand housing and the bifurca-tion of Andhra Pradesh intotwo States, Mr. Srinivasanwas hopeful that the invest-ment activity would pick upresulting in an improved de-mand for cement in the com-ing months.

Considering the tough eco-nomic situation, sluggish de-mand, cost pressure and

lower realisation price, theperformance of India Ce-ments during the year 2013-14 should be considered satis-factory, Mr. Srinivasan said.Talking about the industryMr. Srinivasan said the cur-rent year was the centenaryyear for the Indian cement in-dustry which had crossed somany hurdles and had grownfrom strength to strengthover a period of time. It wasone of the success stories ofde-control and de-regulationwith installed capacity havingshot up by 15 times in the last30 years to 360-365 milliontonnes. Southern Region ac-counted for a lion’s share of40 per cent.

With the economy regis-tering sub 5 per cent, the ce-ment industry took a hit withpractically nil growth lastyear.

India Cements plans to mobilise Rs.500 crore S. Varadharajan

N. Srinivasan

NEW DELHI: India’s long-heldposition as the world’s topdiamond polisher is beingchallenged by soaring outputfrom China, compelling Indiato seek help from ally and toprough diamond supplier Rus-sia to defend its market share.

India has traditionally re-lied on the middlemen intrading hubs of Antwerp, TelAviv and Dubai for its supplyof rough diamonds, whichmainly come from Russia orAfrica. Most of the world’sdiamond output is sent to In-dia for cutting and polishingbefore being retailed aroundthe world.

But China has managed tobreak the established traderoute by getting diamonds di-rectly from African mines inwhich Chinese companieshave a stake. This has boostedthe value of China’s net ex-ports of polished diamondsby 72 per cent in the past fiveyears to $8.9 billion.

While India’s exports, sup-plied by firms such as AsianStar, Gitanjali Gems and Ven-us Jewel, rose 49 per cent to$14 billion over that time,shipments have seen a sharpdrop this year.

“China’s active procure-ment of rough supply fromAfrican countries was reduc-ing the supply available to In-dian manufacturers,” saidSandeep Varia, an executiveof Assocham. “Many unitsacross the country had to layoff workers due to losses.”

As a result, China’s share ofthe global polished diamondmarket has tripled to 17 percent in the past decade, ac-cording to data from the Unit-ed Nations. India’s share hasfluctuated between 19 and 31per cent.

Prime Minister NarendraModi, who comes from thewestern state of Gujarat

where the polishing industryis centred, has answered callsto bolster the diamond sectorby convincing Russia to sellrough diamonds directly toIndia.

During President VladimirPutin’s visit to New Delhi thismonth, Russia’s state-rundiamond monopoly Alrosasigned a dozen deals to in-crease direct rough diamonddeliveries to India that wouldhelp reduce the cut taken bymiddlemen in the secretiveprecious gems trade.

The direct deals would alsoreduce risks linked to West-ern sanctions imposed overRussia’s annexation of Cri-mea, while Mr. Modi is addi-tionally seeking arrange-ments that would allow Rus-sian jewellery makers to sendrough diamonds to India andre-import polished stonesduty-free.

But to compete effectivelywith China, India would alsoneed to streamline its tax andimport rules, industry sourc-es said.

“China is not going to dis-place India as the leading dia-mond polishing hub any timesoon, but India needs to re-form its archaic tax rules tomake the Indian diamondpolishing industry more at-tractive for foreign miners,”said Martin Rapaport, Chair-man of diamond and jewel-lery service firm RapaportGroup. — Reuters

China challenges India’spolished diamond throne

India seeks helpfrom Russia todefend marketshare

China gets roughdiamonds directlyfrom African mineswhere it has stake

NEW DELHI: Troubled Indiancarrier SpiceJet has paid em-ployees' salaries for Novem-ber and cleared dues of fuelcompanies as of Friday, itschief operating officer said.

Sanjiv Kapoor met seniorofficials in the Indian avia-tion ministry on Friday alongwith co-founder Ajay Singh,who sources have said is plan-ning to team up with private-equity funds to infuse fundsin to the carrier.

Money-losing SpiceJet haddelayed employees’ salariesfor November and brieflygrounded its fleet this month for want of cash. Itsmajority owner, billionaireKalanithi Maran’s SunGroup, has said it cannot af-ford a bailout.

SpiceJet has bank loans of$47 million, Mr. Kapoor said,adding Friday’s meeting was‘very constructive’. He didnot elaborate.

Shares zoom 9 per cent

Shares of SpiceJet surged 9per cent on Friday to settle at

Rs.19.25 on the BSE followingreports that the budget carri-er would submit a revival planto the government on the ba-sis of a proposed investmentof $200 million from Mr.Singh and the U.S.-based JPMorgan Chase. — Reuters,PTI

Employee salaries, fuel dues cleared: SpiceJet

NEW DELHI: With its KG-D6cost recovery arbitrationstuck for three years, Re-liance Industries has soughtimmediate start of the pro-ceedings for early resolutionof the dispute.

Naming former UK judgeSir Bernard Rix as its arbitra-tor in place of former ChiefJustice of India S. P. Bharu-cha, who quit earlier thismonth, RIL through its legalcounsel has written to the OilMinistry seeking start of theproceedings from nextmonth, sources privy to thedevelopment said.

Bharucha was earlier RILnominee on a three—memberarbitration panel, which is todecide if the oil ministry wasright in disallowing over $2.3billion of KG-D6 cost as out-put lagged targets. He, how-ever, recused himself afterthe government challengedhis nomination more thantwo—and—half years after his

nomination.The government felt he had

not disclosed all previous as-sociations with RIL and thathis arbitration could createdoubts about his independ-ence and impartiality.

The company, in the letter,expressed “distress” at the at-tempts of the government toremove Justice Bharuchafrom the panel of arbitration.

Bharucha, it said, has animpeccable reputation and itwas “unfortunate” that thegovernment chose to demon-strate, in the course of an in-ternational arbitration, thatit did not have faith in a for-mer chief justice.

Bharucha was nominatedas an arbitrator on November23, 2011 and the correspond-ence relating to his disclo-sures ended in June. Thismonth, the governmentsought his removal from thepanel of arbitrators, leadingto his resignation. — PTI

RIL seeks immediatestart of KG-D6 costrecovery arbitration

BULLION RATES

December 26 rates in rupees with

previous rates in brackets

ChennaiBar Silver (1 kg) 36,960 (35,940)Retail (1 g) 39.50 (38.50)24 ct gold (10 g) 27,110 (26,890)22 ct gold (1 g) 2,535 (2,514)DelhiSilver 37,000 (36,500)Standard gold 27,000 (27,000)Sovereign 23,700 (23,700)

EXCHANGE RATES

Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit except yen at 4 p.m on December 26

Currencies TT TT Buying Selling

U.S. Dollar 63.36 63.68Euro 77.22 77.62Pound Sterling 98.58 99.09Jap Yen (100 Units) 52.66 52.94Chinese Yuan 10.19 10.25Swiss Franc 64.23 64.56Singapore Dollar 47.92 48.20Australian Dollar 51.50 51.77Canadian Dollar 54.58 54.86Swedish Kroner 8.10 8.15Danish Kroner 10.38 10.43New Zealand Dollar 49.10 49.36Hongkong Dollar 8.16 8.21Malaysian Ringitt 18.14 18.26Kuwaiti Dinar 216.01 217.61UAE Dirham 17.25 17.34Bahraini Dinar 168.03 168.91Qatari Riyal 17.46 17.47Saudi Riyal 16.93 16.94Omani Riyal 164.54 165.40

Source: Indian Bank

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14 THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

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BUSINESS

SNIPPETSSEBI lets Bangalore Stock Exchange to exit

MUMBAI: The Securities and Exchange Board of India(SEBI) has passed an order on Friday providing the exitto Bangalore Stock Exchange Ltd. (BgSE) as a stockexchange. BgSE is the seventh stock exchange to exitunder the policy issued by the stock market regulator on May 30, 2012. This guideline containeddetails of the conditions for exit of de-recognised / non-operational stock exchanges, including treatment of theirassets and a facility of dissemination board for companieslisted exclusively on such exchanges, while taking care of the interest of investors.— Special Correspondent

Trevor Bull, CEO of Aviva Life

MUMBAI: Aviva Life Insurance, on Friday, said it hasappointed Trevor Bull as the Chief Executive Officer andManaging Director for its operations in India. Mr. Bull,who will take charge from January, is replacing T. R.Ramachandran, who led Aviva India since October 2008,said a release. Mr. Bull, who has more than 35 years ofexperience in the insurance industry across Asia andEurope, has held key leadership positions in ZurichInsurance Malaysia Berhad, The Philippine AmericanLife & General Insurance Company, Tata AIG LifeInsurance, AIG Life Korea, ALICO Tokyo and LutineAssurance Services Limited, Birmingham. — PTI

Zensar Tech inks deals with three U.S. firms

MUMBAI: The Pune-based Zensar Technologies Ltd. (ZTL)on Friday said it had signed several new deals ininfrastructure management (IM) in the U.S. with threecompanies. “We are delighted with the traction in the IMmanaged services business and are also getting wins innew areas like end-user experience management. Thedeal in enterprise applications and infrastructuremanagement is strong and we look forward to a good yearin 2015-16,” Ganesh Natarajan, ZTL Vice-Chairman andCEO, said in a statement. — IANS

MUMBAI: NYK Auto Logistics(India), a part of automotiveocean transportation and lo-gistics major NYK Group ofTokyo, has entered into anagreement with Gujarat Pipa-vav Port Ltd. (APM Termi-nals Pipavav) to set up adedicated Roll-on/Roll-off(Ro-Ro) automobile yard atPipavav port in Gujarat.

Under the arrangement,Gujarat Pipavav Port has sub-leased 85,000 sq. meters ofland for 10 years inside itspremises to NYK Auto to de-velop a dedicated commonuser integrated Ro-Ro termi-nal.

The facility would alsohave a pre-delivery inspec-tion (PDI) unit and a vehicleprocessing centre (VPC). Theyard would be commissionedin mid-2015.

“NYK shall implementglobal best practices at Pipa-vav Ro-Ro terminal and sup-port the growth ofautomotive exports from In-dia under Prime Minister’s

‘Make in India’ initiative. Theyard at Pipavav will have anannual designed capacity of2.50 lakh vehicles,” NaotakaIshizawa, Managing Director,NYK Auto Logistics(India),said.

NYK group operates 18 Ro-Ro terminals globally, includ-ing seven in China, Thailandand Singapore.

“The common user inte-

grated Ro-Ro terminal withPDI and VPC at Pipavav shallprovide global quality servic-es to customers in northernand western automotive clus-ter,” Takaya Soga, GeneralManager, NYK Auto LogisticsGroup, Tokyo, said.

Gujarat Pipavav Port willprovide all the port and relat-ed facilities for ensuringsmooth and seamless flow of

automobile cargo. “We arecommitted to increasing ourexisting service portfoliofrom container, bulk, liquidand now automotive cargo.NYK is a proven leader in op-erating auto terminals world-wide, and has an extensivefleet of Ro-Ro ships offeringregular sailings to and fromthe major ports around theglobe,” Prakash Tulsiani, Ma-naging Director, Gujarat Pi-pavav Port,said.

Gujarat Pipavav Portshares closed with a gain of2.40 per cent at Rs.175.25 onthe BSE.

NYK Auto to set up Ro-Roterminal at Pipavav portThe yard will be commissioned in mid-2015Special Correspondent

Cargo handling facility at Pipavav Port

● NYK shallimplement global bestpractices at PipavavRo-Ro terminal andsupport the growth ofautomotive exportsfrom India underPrime Minister’s‘Make in India’initiative.

NEW DELHI: Riding on newlaunches, Japanese auto ma-jor Honda is set for over 62per cent growth in its sales inIndia this year at around 1.8lakh units. The company,which launched two models— mid-sized sedan City andmulti-purpose vehicle (MPV)Mobilio during the year, hadsold 1.11 lakh units in 2013.

“2014 was a very successfulyear for Honda as it contin-ued its growth journey for thethird consecutive year,” Hon-da Cars India Ltd. (HCIL) Se-nior Vice-President, Sales &Marketing Jnaneswar Sensaid in a statement.

During January-November2014, the company sold 1.65lakh units, up 61.8 per cent,from 1.02 lakh units in thesame period of previous year.

Mr. Sen said Honda was setto end 2014 with a record saleof 1.8 lakh units.

“In line with business ex-pansion, the company alsomade strong progress in ex-panding its dealership net-work during the year, andcrossed the milestone of 200dealers in the country in No-vember 2014,” he added.

The company plans to ropein another 100 dealers by theend of the next fiscal, and takethe total tally to 300 facilities

by March 2016. Elaboratingon the launches during theyear, he said that the newgeneration City, which waslaunched in January, had soldmore than 71,000 units tillNovember 2014.

The company also made aforay into the MPV segmentwith the Honda Mobilio. Thisvehicle has cumulatively soldmore than 22,000 units in theinitial five months afterlaunch. The car maker cross-ed the sales milestone of onelakh units in August this year,and also saw its productioncapacity double during theyear. “2014 also witnesseddoubling of production ca-pacity in HCIL with the startof assembly operations in theTapukara plant in February2014,” Mr. Sen said.

Buoyed by strong sales mo-mentum for its cars, the pro-duction was ramped upwithin few months and theplant has been running ontwo shift operations sinceNovember 2014, he added. —PTI

Honda set for recordcar sales in 2014

● Launch of new Cityand MPV Mobiliohelps sustain strongsales momentum.

CHENNAI: The sub-Rs.5 lakhhatchbacks are the most pre-ferred ones in the used carmarket across eight top citiesin the country, according to asurvey by Gaadi.com, an on-line platform for used-carbuying and selling as also fornew car information.

Bengaluru has the highestaverage ask price for usedcars at Rs.5 lakh, while Punehas the lowest average offerprice of Rs.3.25 lakh.

Some cities have higher de-mand for hatchbacks pricedunder Rs.3 lakh. pointed outthe survey.

Also, Rs.5 lakh plus SUVs(sport utility vehicles) experi-ence robust demand withmodels such as Toyota For-tuner and Renault Duster.Cars of Maruti and Hyundaicontinue to see strong de-mand in the used-car seg-ment due to affordable pricesand lower maintenance costs.

High demand

Elaborating on consumerbehaviours in major cities,Umang Kumar, Chief Exec-utive Officer, Gaadi.com told

The Hindu that there washigh demand for cars inRs.1-2 lakh price bracket inthe used-car market in Chen-nai though supply was verylimited in the category.

The average asking pricefor a car was Rs.4.31 lakh,while the average offer pricefor used cars was Rs.3.67 lakhin the city. “Sedans in generalare not preferred by used carbuyers in the city. Interest-ingly, Maruti 800 sells likehot cakes in Chennai,” headded.

But overall, models of Hy-undai, Fiat, Renault andBMW have high demand inChennai’s used-car marketthough supply is lower thandemand.

Buyers in Bengaluru pre-ferred sedans more than any

others and sub-Rs.3 lakh se-dans were in high demand. InHyderabad, people preferredused cars priced below Rs.3lakh and models of Maruti,Hyundai and Toyota were themost sought after ones. Hyd-

erabad also reported a gooddemand for luxury model Au-di Q3.

Major category

About 80 per cent of used-car demand in Mumbai was in

sub-Rs.5 lakh segment. BMW3 series dominated the luxuryused car market of this city,while Maruti Dzire was highin demand across categoriesof used-car customers.

In Delhi, Toyota Fortuner,BMW X5, Maruti Alto 800,Honda Amaze and Toyota Co-rolla Altis were the most pre-ferred ones, while Fortunerwas the hot favourite of usedcar customers in this city.

Kolkata had surprisinglyhigh demand for Tata Nanowhen compared with othermetros. Customers of thiscity were the most price-sen-sitive among all metro used-car buyers. In Pune, 90 percent of the used-car demandwas in sub-Rs.5 lakh, of which30 per cent is for cars pricedin the range of Rs.1-2 lakh.

Sub-Rs.5 lakh cars buoy second-hand salesG. Balachandar

TOKYO: Toshiba Corp will de-cide during the next businessyear from April on where tobuild an additional memorychip plant and will consideroverseas locations for the fa-cility, Chief Executive HisaoTanaka said on Friday.

Less than four months af-ter opening a NAND flashmemory chip fabricationplant in Yokkaichi, westernJapan, Mr. Tanaka told Reu-ters in an interview that de-mand was outstrippingcapacity and the Japaneseconglomerate must expandproduction.

NAND memory chips areused in smartphones and oth-er electronic devices.

“Samsung already has afactory in China, in Xian, andHynix has one, too,” Mr. Ta-naka said. Pressed on wheth-er China would be the bestoverseas location, he added:“But Samsung has a plant inthe U.S., as well.”

Toshiba will aim to beginproduction at the new facilityaround 2017, he said, addingthat domestic locationswould also be an option.

For the company’s nuclearpower plant business, Mr. Ta-naka said India could be anoption if he could be con-vinced of the workability of aproposed insurance poolbacked by the government toindemnify global nuclear sup-pliers against liability in thecase of a nuclear accident.

The company's healthcaredepartment aims to reach the1 trillion yen ($8.3 billion)milestone in revenue in 2017partly through acquisitions,although M&A on the scale ofhundreds of billions of yenwould be necessary to achievethat goal, he said.

“Our strong suits are diag-nostics, treatment, and such,but (M&A deals) would mostlikely be in MRIs and CTscans, or the area of diseaseprevention.” — Reuters

Toshiba eyes overseaslocations for chip plant

● The demand isoutstripping capacityand the Japaneseconglomerate mustexpand production.

NEW DELHI: Lupin has receivedthe U.S. Food and Drug Ad-ministration (USFDA) ap-proval to market a genericversion of ViiV Healthcare’sEpivir tablets in strengths of150 mg and 300 mg, used intreating HIV infection, in theU.S. market, Lupin said in astatement.

The Mumbai—based firmhas received final approvalfrom the US Food and DrugAdministration (USFDA) forits Lamivudine tablets instrengths of 150 mg and 300mg, Lupin Ltd said in a state-ment.

Lupin Pharmaceuticals Inc(LPI), the company’s U.S.subsidiary, would commencemarketing the product short-ly, it added. — PTI

Lupin getsUSFDA nodfor HIV drug

Jun 30, 14 Dec 26, 14

Lupin

1030

1122

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1306

1398

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Rs.1406.40

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15THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

SPORT

PUNE: Ankita Raina, the No. 4seed, beat Romania’s Ene Cris-tina 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to enter thefinal of the $25,000 ITF NECC-women’s championship at theDeccan Gymkhana on Friday.

Ankita will meet the No. 6seed from Great Britain, KatyDunne, who defeated Georgia’sSofia Shapatava 6-1, 6-2 in theother semifinal.

The winner of the final willreceive $3,919 and 50 WTApoints. — SpecialCorrespondent

Ankita Raina in final

CHRISTCHURCH: New Zealand’sbig-hitting skipper BrendonMcCullum was hailed on Fri-day for his rollicking 195 to dra-matically turn the opening dayof the first Test against SriLanka.

His dominating 134-ball per-formance which led New Zeal-and to 429 for seven at stumpsalso carried special significancefor the 8,000 people who turn-ed up at the Hagley Oval.

They were looking for anoutstanding performance tomark the return of Test cricketto the earthquake-battered cityand the signs were againstthem until McCullum strode tothe crease with New Zealand at88 for three.

The wicket was green andMcCullum, who lost the toss,was forced to bat on a pitchwhere he desperately wanted tobowl.

But within a session-and-a-half he had Sri Lanka on theropes at the oval, a venue pur-pose-built after the city’s for-mer cricket ground atLancaster Park was destroyedin the devastating 2011 earth-quakes which claimed 185 lives.

McCullum spreadeagled thefield, smashing 18 fours and 11sixes, in a record-breaking per-formance that New Zealandbatting coach Craig McMillanrated the best opening day inNew Zealand Test history.

“It was a very special day. Itwas the sort of day this venueand this city deserved, withwhat they’ve gone through,”

McMillan said.As McCullum bludgeoned

the bowling, he took just 74balls to crack the fastest centu-ry in New Zealand Test historyand became the first New Zeal-ander to score 1,000 runs in acalendar year.

He equalled McMillan’s New

Zealand record of 26 off oneover when he smashed threesixes and two fours off six ballsfrom Sri Lanka’s strike bowlerSuranga Lakmal.

He also equalled the NewZealand record of 11 sixes in aninnings (Nathan Astle), oneshort of the world record of 12

held by Pakistan’s WasimAkram.

McCullum has now hit 92sixes in his career, closing in onthe world’s best of 100 by Aus-tralian Adam Gilchrist.

“Even in your wildest dreamsyou would never have picked aday of Test cricket like that, es-

pecially when the pitch is a lit-tle bit on the green side and youlose the toss,” McMillan said. “Idon’t think I have enough su-perlatives to describe (McCul-lum’s) innings.

“He has the ability to dom-inate, dismantle bowlers veryquickly and change the tempo

and the way an innings is head-ing very quickly. He’s so de-structive. I think, probably themost destructive and dom-ineering player who has playedfor New Zealand.”

The innings capped a stellaryear for McCullum, who, inFebruary, became the first NewZealander to join the elite clubof cricketers to score 300 in aTest innings.

Against Sri Lanka he starredin two century partnerships —with Kane Williamson (54) andJimmy Neesham (85) —as heled his side out of trouble andput it in command of the Test.

When he was eventually un-done, caught by a diving Di-muth Karunaratne to giveoff-spinner Tharindu Kaushalhis maiden Test wicket, McCul-lum left the ground to a stand-ing ovation.— AFP

McCullum leaves Lankans gaspingCRICKET / The skipper hits 18 fours and 11 sixes, in a record-breaking performance

BLITZKRIEG: Brendon McCullum's dominating 134-ball 195 had Sri Lanka on the ropes. — PHOTO: AFP

New Zealand — 1st innings: T.Latham c Kaushal b Eranga 27, H.Rutherford b Lakmal 18, K. Williamsonb Prasad 54, R. Taylor run out 7, B.McCullum c Karunaratne b Kaushal195, J. Neesham c Sangakkara bMathews 85, B-J. Watling lbw b Math-ews 26, M. Craig (batting) 5; Extras(lb-4, w-2, nb-6): 12; Total (for sevenwkts. in 80.3 overs): 429.

Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-60, 3-88,4-214, 5-367, 6-420, 7-429.

Sri Lanka bowling: Lakmal 17-3-83-1, Eranga 18-1-82-1, Mathews 9.3-1-34-2, Prasad 12-2-62-1, Kaushal22-0-159-1, Thirimanne 2-0-5-0.

Toss: Sri Lanka.

SCOREBOARD

The world of badminton pro-duced far less predictable

results in 2014. Lee Chong Weistayed World No. 1 through theyear but slipped a rung in thefinal week of the year after beingsuspended following a doping vi-olation in August. World cham-pion Chen Long replaced theMalaysian at the top of the rank-ing list.

The domination of the Chi-nese ladies continued as theyheld the top-three spots. Butwhen it came to the Worldchampionship, it was Spain’sCarolina Marin who gave Eu-rope a rare title in ladies singles.

In fact, even in the year-end-ing Superseries Finals, the Chi-nese ladies failed to make thesemifinals, before Chinese Tai-pei’s Tai Tzu Ying emerged asthe surprise champion.

For India, there were plentyof gains this year. If the first-

ever Uber Cup bronze was thehigh point of the team competi-tions, individual performancesstayed in focus.

Undoubtedly, the star of theyear was K. Srikanth. After win-ning the National title in De-cember last and starting the yearwith a world ranking of 47, hefinished the season at No. 4!

This leap was made by his stu-pendous performances in thesecond half of the year. This wasafter he suffered from meningi-tis in July and recovered onlyafter spending a few days in In-tensive Care Unit. His dramaticcomeback saw him win the Chi-na Masters by beating twiceOlympic champion Lin Dan,considered among the greatestto have played the game.

He made the semifinals of theHong Kong Open and the Super-series Masters to end up as the

highest ranked Indian in themen’s World list.

Saina Nehwal also finished atthe fourth spot, and P. V. Sindhu,11th in a year that gave them newself-belief. Saina, winner ofthree titles including the ChinaMasters and Australia Super Se-ries after starting the year withthe Grand Prix Gold title atLucknow, decided to part wayswith long-time coach and men-tor P. Gopi Chand in the run-upto the Asian Games. She trainedunder former National coach Vi-mal Kumar and had reasons tobe pleased with the results, thatincluded a team bronze in AsianGames.

Sindhu, who claimed a secondWorld championship bronze butfailed to live up to the seeding inthe Commonwealth Games. Sheretained the Macau Open title,having settled for bronze in theAsian championship and theCommonwealth Games.

The duo of G. Jwala and Ash-

wini Ponnappa produced a se-ries of good performances in theUber Cup after claiming thebronze in the continentalchampionship.

For P. Kashyap, the Common-wealth Games singles gold atGlasgow brought his best mo-ment of the year. Arvind Bhatwon the German Open, H.S.Prannoy claimed the IndonesianMasters before signing off withthe Tata International title. Sau-rabh Verma won the Iran FajrInteratoinal Challenge and theAustrian International Chal-lenge in a year where he alsofinished runner-up in the Ma-laysia Grand Prix Gold.

P. C. Thulasi, a distant thirdranked player in the country,and the mixed doubles pair ofAkshay Dewalkar and PradnyaGadre won the titles in the SriLanka International Challenge.

Overall, the year should rankas the best in terms of gains forIndian badminton.

METEORIC RISE: K. Srikanth started the year with aworld ranking of 47, and finished the season at No.4. — PHOTO: AFP

BADMINTON

Srikanth emerges as the new starRakesh Rao

REWIND 2014

MUMBAI: Mumbai FC’s latestsignings Chika Wali, Reisang-mei Vashum and Amoes havebeen named in the 20-membersquad for the Federation Cupfootball 2014-15, to be held atthe Nehru stadium, Fatorda,Margao.

Meanwhile, midfielder ArataIzumi will lead Pune FC.Coached by Karim Bencherifa,PFC will be taking part for theseventh time and has been inform this season, reaching theDurand Cup final and KingsCup in Bhutan.

The squads: Mumbai FC: Goal-keepers: Kunal Sawant, Nidhin Lal.Defenders: Chika Wali, Justine Ste-phen, Collin Abranches, Rahul Bheka,Kali Alaudeen. Midfielders: ClimaxLawrence, Reisangmei Vashum, Tai-suke Matsugae, Pradeep Mohanraj,Amos, Dane Pereira, Rohit Mirza,Ashutosh Mehta. Forwards: SampathKutty Mani, Josimar da Silva Martin,Mohammed Rafi, Jayesh Rane, Cle-tus Paul. Coach: Khalid Jamil.

Pune FC: Goalkeepers: AmrinderSingh, Arup Debnath, Avilash Paul.Defenders: Luciano Sabrosa, Mat-thew Gonsalves, Raju Yumnam, Zoh-mingliana Ralte, Salam Ranjan Singh,Munmun Timothy Lugun. Midfielders:Bineesh Balan, Arata Izumi, RyujiSueoka, Velington Rocha, DhanpalGanesh, Nikhil Kadam, AnthonyD’Souza, Mumtaz Akhtar, LalrempuiaFanai. Forwards: Eric Brown,Thongkhosiem Haokip. Coach: KarimBencherifa. — SpecialCorrespondent

Mumbai FCsquad forFederation Cup

CHENNAI: Ajay Kudua’s 55helped Kerala beat Karnatakaby five wickets in the SouthZone veterans’ cricket tourna-ment for the N.P.V. RamasamyUdayar Trophy here on Friday.

The scores: Karnataka 121 foreight in 30 overs (B. Akhil 31, KrishnaPrasad three for 21) lost to Kerala 124for five in 24.2 overs (Ajay Kudua 55).

Kudua sets upKerala’s win

KOLKATA: Rashid Khan of Delhiequalled the RCGC course re-cord with a superlative nine un-der 63 to waltz to the secondspot with a 10 under 134 at theend of the second round of theyear-ending McLeod Russelchampionship here on Friday.

Arjun Atwal was the other In-dian to hold the course recordwith American Edward Fryattwho achieved it first in 1997. At-wal equalled it in 2001. The citygolfer and local favourite cameup with 66 on Friday to jump totied sixth at six under 138.

Overnight leader, Shubhan-kar Sharma of Gurgaon contin-ued to lead the field, albeit bythe thinnest of margins — onestroke — as he carded a threeunder 69. This gave him anoverall 133 for two days.

Overnight second place hold-er S. Chikkarangappa of Benga-luru was third with 135.

The 23-year-old Rashid wasthe cynosure of all eyes. He hadbirdies on the fourth, fifth and

sixth and then again on theninth, 10th, and 13th. Then hecame up with an eagle on the15th with an-eight-foot putt anda birdie on the 16th.

Rashid said he had made aslight change to his putting styleand that did the trick. “It is niceto be back in the reckoning forthe Rolex order of merit. I needto stay calm, play cool,” he said.

His lone victory on the PGTItour was at Bengaluru where hewon the Eagleburg Masters inSeptember-October.

Sharma (64-69) had five bird-ies and two bogeys to hold on tothe lead. The 21-year-old Chik-karangappa stayed in the huntfor the title as well as the Rolexranking crown after a round of69.

The top scores:After 36 holes: 133 Shubhankar

Sharma (64, 69); 134 Rashid Khan(71, 63); 135 S. Chikkarangappa (66,69); 137 Gaganjeet Bhullar (68, 69),Shamim Khan (67, 70); 138 ShankarDas (68, 70), Arjun Atwal (72, 66); 139Rahil Gangjee (70, 69), Chiragh Ku-mar (69, 70).

GOLF

Rashid Khan equalscourse recordSpecial Correspondent

KOCHI: With the big stars, in-cluding defending championsH.S. Prannoy and P.V. Sindhu,and men’s World No.4 K. Sri-kanth all missing, the secondManorama Indian Open Na-tional-ranking badmintontournament which begins atthe Rajiv Gandhi indoor stadi-um here on Saturday offers anice chance for sport’s spar-kling youngsters to prove theirmettle.

With players like Srikanthand Sindhu preoccupied withthe international circuit, it isnow getting tougher for manyorganisers to attract sponsorsand to run national circuittournaments. The Indian Openhere, which had its qualifyingrounds on Thursday, is now go-ing through the same problemdespite being the country’s big-gest prize-money event in thenational-ranking circuit.

In this situation, SubhankerDey has been given the top bill-ing in the men’s section whilethe junior national championRituparna Das gets the honourof heading the women’s field.

Ajay Jayaram, the men’sWorld No.65, has not beenseeded list because the interna-tional circuit points do notcount for national rankings.

The tournament, which wasa 32-player draw in the men’ssection, has now been made a64-player draw this time.

The main draw action beginson Saturday evening and thetournament concludes on De-cember 30.

The top five seeds: Men: 1. Sub-hakar Dey, 2. Sameer Verma, 3. Ad-itya Prakash, 4. Abhimanyu Singh, 5.C. Rohit Yadav.

Women: 1. Rituparna Das, 2. Say-ali Gokhale, 3. Arundhati Pantawane,4. Tanvi Lad, 5. Saili Rane. — Spe-cial Correspodent

Subhankar,Rituparna gettop billing

CAIRO: Manchester City’s YayaToure will be favourite to col-lect a record fourth successiveAfrican Footballer of the Yearcrown after he was named inthe list of final three nomineesby the Confederation of AfricanFootball.

The Ivory Coast midfielderfaces competition from Borus-sia Dortmund and Gabon for-ward Pierre-EmerickAubameyang, as well as Nigeriagoalkeeper Vincent Enyeama,who plays for Lille.

Toure has collected theaward for the last three years,matching the feat achieved byCameroon’s Samuel Eto’o andGhana’s Abedi Pele.

Victory again would mean hejoins Eto’o on four titles overallbut would be the first player toreach that milestone in consec-utive seasons.

The award is voted for by thehead coaches of the 56 nationalassociations within the Africangoverning body.

The winner will be an-nounced in Lagos on January 8.— Reuters

Toure favourite

RAJAHMUNDRY: Top seed ManavThakkar tamed qualifier RohitKaram of Manipur 3-0, and sec-ond seed Manush Shah downedNitin Singh (Uttarakhand) bythe same margin to storm intothe pre-quarterfinals of the76th cadet and sub-junior Na-tional table tennis champion-ships at the CherukuriConvention Centre here onFriday.

Other seeds, barring sixthseed Virmani Parth, had aneasy outing, as the Delhi ladstruggled a bit before overcom-ing Saroj Siril of Telangana11-9, 10-12, 12-10, 11-7.

But the match of the day wasbetween two qualifiers — Guj-arat’s Kaushal Bhatt and Mah-

arashtra ‘B’s Gaurav Lohaparte. The see-saw battle went in

favour Kaushal 12-10, 6-11, 11-8,8-11, 11-9.

He struggled to find his feetin the first game after beingstretched by his opponent onlyto lose his second game. Kaush-al took the third game, but con-ceded the fourth beforewinning the fifth at 11-9.

The results: Sub-junior: Boys:First round: Manav (PSPB-A) bt K.Rohit (MNP) 11-1, 11-4, 11-4; Sidd-hant (NB) bt Roshan (MP) 8-11, 12-10,15-13, 11-7; Chhabra Singh (DLI) btVathsin (TEL) 11-8, 11-4, 13-11; K.Shriram (TN) bt Saji Ajins (KRL) 11-7,7-11, 11-7, 11-6; Regan Albuquerque11-7, 7-11, 11-5, 11-2; Goel Shubh(DLI) bt Vijay Kumar (TN) 8-11, 11-3,

10-12, 11-9, 12-10; P. Siddhant (GOA)bt Ishaan (GUJ) 11-8, 11-2, 11-7; S.Ashwin (MHR-A) bt G. Shaurya (CHD)11-6, 11-6, 11-2; Snehit (TEL) bt Sar-thak (PUN) 11-8, 11-3, 11-6.

Kaushal Bhatt (GUJ) bt LohaparteGaurav (MHR-B) 12-10, 6-11, 11-8,8-11, 11-9; Shivjit Singh (DLI) bt SagarPiyus (TN) 11-9, 11-4, 11-9; Jayabrata(NB) bt Jayasurya (AP) 11-4, 11-8,11-9; John (PSPB-A) bt Raj Neeraj(KNT) 11-6, 11-8, 11-9; Shakreja(HRN) bt Sankket (TN) 11-6, 11-9,11-7; Sarthak (UP) bt Moshin (ASM)11-8, 11-4, 11-6; Anukram (PSPBA) btEshwara Rao (ODS) 11-4, 11-8, 11-6;Chithresh (TN) bt Hrisshsikesh (MHR-A) 6-11, 11-6, 11-7, 12-10; Pyas (DLI)bt Diyyansh (KNT) 11-6, 11-9, 4-11,11-5; Rohan (KNT) bt Shivam (GUJ)11-1, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5; Weslet (GOA)

bt Dutta Manik (HRN) 11-5, 11-8, 7-11,11-7; Somaiya Kapil (PSPBA) bt Ayan(NB) 6-11, 11-6, 15-13, 12-10; BokilSanat (MHR-B) bt Karan (TN) 11-5,11-5, 11-6; Virmani Parth (DLI) bt Sa-roj Siril (TEL) 11-9, 10-12, 12-10, 11-7;Pednekar Shaurya (MHR-A) bt JainAkbar (MP) 11-6, 11-2, 11-5.

Md. Inush (KRL) bt Kashish (DLI)11-9, 4-11, 11-8, 3-11, 11-8; SatyamGirf (UP) bt Dey Arjit (NB) 11-1, 11-4,11-9; Harsh (PSPBA) bt Karthik(GOA) 11-8, 11-6, 11-7; Sameer(PSPBA) bt U. Gokul (TN) 5-11, 6-11,11-5, 11-9; 11-3, Tanmay Rane(MHR-B) bt Yashansh (DLI) 6-11,11-6, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6; Adarsh (UP) btSai Tejesh (TEL) 11-8, 11-8, 11-8;Shah Manush (GUJ) bt Gusain NitinSingh (UKD) 11-4, 11-2, 11-6. — Spe-cial Correspondent

TABLE TENNIS

Manav and Manush enter pre-quarterfinals

BENGALURU: Evraz, who has beenwell tuned, is expected to score in theJog Cup (1,600m), the main event ofthe races to be held here on Saturday(December 27).

False rails (width about 5.5m from1,600m to 1,000m and 7.5m from1,000m to the winning post) will be inposition.

1 SUMMER DUST PLATE (Div.II), (1,400m), rated 20 to 45, 1.15p.m.: 1. Little Brown Jug (9) IrvanSingh 60, 2. Hidden Deal (7) KiranRai 59, 3. Summer Sensation (5)Christopher 59, 4. Helios (1) AshokKumar 58.5, 5. Trojan (2) A. Velu58.5, 6. Musical Treasure (6) NitinSingh 57.5, 7. Perfect King (3) M.Kumar 57.5, 8. Simply Clever (8) R.Pradeep 57.5, 9. Meherani (4) Mark57, 10. Cool Springs (11) B. Harish 56,11. Flying Bullet (10) P. Ramesh 55and 12. Noble Princess (12) ArshadAlam 55.1. Hidden Deal, 2. Little BrownJug, 3. Musical Treasure

2 KEMMANGUNDI PLATE(1,600m), rated 00 to 25, 1.45: 1. Tan-ganyika (6) David Allan 62.5, 2. Vee-lena (12) Sai Vamshi 62.5, 3. ZuluFantasy (2) A. Ramu 62, 4. Conjurer(9) Christopher 61, 5. Tuscano (7) A.Imran Khan 61, 6. Moher (5) R.Anand 60.5, 7. Angela (11) ArshadAlam 60, 8. Attractive Bay (8) KiranRai 59.5, 9. One To Note (3) D. Patel59.5, 10. Dancing Laurie (4) ChetanKalay 58.5, 11. Arthur (1) Ashok Ku-mar 57.5 and 12. Mr Charm (10) B.Harish 50.1. Tanganyika, 2. Angela, 3. At-tractive Bay

3 RAICHUR PLAE (Div. I),(1,400m), rated 40 to 65, 2.15: 1. AtlasPower (2) Nitin Singh 62.5, 2. King-ston Town (4) Christopher 60.5, 3.Sherlock Holmes (1) M.A. Roushan59.5, 4. Saltoro Ridge (6) P. Trevor58.5, 5. Star Of Destiny (8) Suraj Nar-redu 58.5, 6. Secret Dimension (9)Kiran Rai 58, 7. Fourth Dimension(7) Srinath 56, 8. Salina (5) ChetanKalay 55.5 and 9. Sans Frontiers (3)N. Rajesh 55. 1. Fourth Dimension, 2. SaltoroRidge, 3. Star Of Destiny

4 A.P. KOTHAVALA MEMO-RIAL CUP (1,200m), 2-y-o only,(Terms), 2.45: 1. Bold Command (8)Md. Shoaib 57, 2. Castle Key (4) P.Trevor 57, 3. Garuda (3) Suraj Narre-du 57, 4. Indian Brahmos (11) D. Pa-tel 57, 5. Mr Big Shot (5) Christopher57, 6. Rare And Brave (1) Gnanesh-war 57, 7. Super Success (12) P.S.Chouhan 57, 8. Danburite (10) Ar-shad Alam 55.5, 9. Heaven Is Here(2) A. Velu 55.5, 10. Ninja (6) K.G.Steyn 55.5, 11. Purple Star (9) R. Pra-deep 55.5 and 12. Sun Moon AndStars (7) David Allan 55.5. 1. Garuda, 2. Ninja, 3. Sun MoonAnd Starts

5 SUMMER DUST PLATE (Div.

I), (1,400m), rated 20 to 45, 3.15: 1.Colour Of Gold (9) S. Babu 60.5, 2.Bella Pinky (2) B. Naveen 60, 3. SenorD (8) Raja Rao 60, 4. Ace Mesmerise(4) Md. Akbar 59, 5. Liege Lord (3) S.Asgar 57, 6. Speedstress (6) P.S.Chouhan 57, 7. Celestial Storm (7) Vi-vek 56.5, 8. Sweet Angel (11) B. Harish55.5, 9. I Smile (5) Nitin Singh 55, 10.Scorching (1) Kiran Rai 55 and 11.Tree Lounge (10) Vaibhav 54. 1. Speedstress, 2. Celestial Storm,3. Tree Lounge

6 HORANADU PLATE (1,200m),rated 20 to 45, 4-y-o & over, 3.45: 1.Delilah (9) A. Ramu 62, 2. Markus Sit-tikus (5) Kiran Rai 60.5, 3. Aceem-pressjessie (11) Prabhakaran 60, 4.Spanish Moon (8) S. Asgar 59, 5. Ca-dogan (7) Shobhan 58.5, 6. Viva Diva(2) Vivek 58.5, 7. Feet On Fire (6) Ar-shad Alam 57, 8. Jeyem’s Pride (10)Ashok Kumar 57, 9. Stimulator (4) A.Imran Khan 56, 10. Rakshitha (3) Ni-tin Singh 54.5, 11. Thunder (12) Che-tan Kalay 54.5 and 12. Aero Star (1) N.Rajesh 53.5. 1. Feet On Fire, 2. Rakshitha, 3.Delilah

7 JOG CUP (1,600m), rated 60 &above, 4.15: 1. Inquisition (8) A. Ramu66, 2. Evraz (4) Srinath 60, 3. Magni-tude Star (6) Nitin Singh 59.5, 4. Co-riolis (1) P. Trevor 59, 5. Aashikaara(3) David Allan 58.5, 6. Amistad (7)Gnaneshwar 56.5, 7. Mickey Mouse(5) Kiran Rai 53.5 and 8. Stimulate (2)Vaibhav 52. 1. Evraz, 2. Coriolis, 3. Aashikaara

8 HAVERI PLATE (1,200m),rated 40 to 65, 4-y-o & over, 4.45: 1.Clueless (10) Christopher 60, 2. Dia-mond Quest (2) Gnaneshwar 59, 3.Arch Duchess (4) Arshad Alam 58.5,4. Little Love (3) Suraj Narredu 57.5,5. Ace Angelfire (5) A. Imran Khan56.5, 6. Crown Emperor (12) P. Tre-vor 55.5, 7. Sun Glow (6) Adarsh 55.5,8. Ungoogleable (1) S. Shiva Kumar55, 9. Wings Of Fortune (9) Kiran Rai54.5, 10. Lads Gladiator (7) R. Pra-deep 54, 11. Vigorous (8) P.S. Chou-han 54 and 12. Cardigan Bay (11) RajaRao 53. 1. Wings Of Fortune, 2. Vigorous,3. Little Love

9 RAICHUR PLATE (Div. II),(1,400m), rated 40 to 65, 5.15: 1. Hen-drix (3) P.S. Chouhan 60, 2. Barac-chus (10) David Allan 58, 3. HiddenSoldier (5) Kiran Rai 57.5, 4. RusticSunrise (4) A. Imran Khan 57.5, 5.Saltoftheearth (1) B. Nayak 57, 6.Apollo Star (7) Ashok Kumar 56, 7.Guts And Glory (8) N. Rajesh 56, 8.Evalina (2) K.G. Steyn 55.5, 9. SovietUnion (6) B. Harish 55 and 10. Mill-rose (9) P. Trevor 54. 1. Hendrix, 2. Millrose, 3.BaracchusDay’s best: EvrazDouble: Fourth Dimension -GarudaJkt: 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9; Tr (i): 1, 2 and 3;(ii): 4, 5 and 6; (iii): 7, 8 and 9.

Evraz runs with a good chance

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bad-minton star Saina Nehwal onFriday expressed her inabilityto take part in the 35th Nation-al Games to be held in Keralafrom January 31 to February14, 2015.

Speaking to the media here,the World No. 4 who was on aprivate visit to the city said thather main focus was the 2016Olympic Games to be held inRio de Janeiro and the keyevents in the world calendarleading to the big event.

“There are too many eventsthrough the next year as I lookforward to the 2016 OlympicGames. And having consideredall options, I have decided toskip the National Games.

“However, I would like to ex-tend my support to the Nation-al Games and am confident thatit will be conducted smoothly,”she said. — SpecialCorrespondent

Saina to skipNationalGames

HYDERABAD: Left-arm spinnerPragyan Ojha will report to theICC-accredited bowling centrein Chennai for informal tests,according to K. John Manoj,Secretary of Hyderabad CricketAssociation.

The HCA official said theyhad received a communicationfrom the BCCI in this regardand the exact schedule wouldbe intimated to the 28-year-oldbowler in a couple of days.

“We are not exactly surewhat the programme is andhow long will it be. Maybe, theywill send a communication toOjha in this regard,” Mr. Manojsaid.

It may be recalled that theleft-arm spinner, who pickedmore than 113 Test wickets in24 Tests, ironically had a 10-wicket haul in the last Test heplayed against the West Indiesin November 2013 which wasalso batting great Sachin Ten-dulkar’s farewell Test, inMumbai.

Hyderabad Ranji coach Ab-dul Azeem insists that Ojha wasnever called for any suspect ac-tion nor cautioned during thisseason when the team had al-ready played three games —two away and one at home. “Asfar as my knowledge goes, therewas never a hint of this fromany of the umpires or any offi-cial,” he added.

In the wake of the BCCI com-munication, Hyderabad select-ors late this evening, replacedOjha with leg-spinner AkashBhandari for the team’s nextmatch against Services to beplayed here from December 28.— Special Correspondent

Ojha to attendrehab

NEW DELHI: Veteran Delhi bat-sman Mithun Manhas has beenincluded in the side for theteam’s Ranji Trophy gameagainst Gujarat, to be played atthe Ferozeshah Kotla groundhere from December 28 to 31.

Manhas missed the first twogames of the season due to ahamstring injury.

A veteran of 137 first-classmatches, Manhas has beenamong the mainstays of Delhibatting since his debut in 1997.

His inclusion, however,means youngster HimmatSingh has been left out of the15-member squad that was an-nounced here on Friday by theDDCA selection committeeheaded by Yashpal Sharma.

Also dropped from the squadwas fast bowler Pradeep Sang-wan, making way for spinnerManan Sharma. Sangwan re-turned from a one-year ban fordoping to make the cut for thefirst two games.

However, the change in per-sonnel is unlikely to make

much difference to the sidesince the ones who have beendropped did not figure in theplaying eleven in either of thetwo games so far which Delhiwon.

The squad: Gautam Gambhir(captain), Virender Sehwag, UnmuktChand, Milind Kumar, Mithun Manhas,Rajat Bhatia, Vaibhav Rawal, PunitBisht, Sumit Narwal, Parvinder Awa-na, Varun Sood, Shivam Sharma,Navdeep Saini, Dhruv Shorey, MananSharma.

Manhas back for matchagainst GujaratSpecial Correspondent

Mithun Manhas.— FILE PHOTO

KOLKATA: Mohun Bagan an-nounced a 20-member squadthat will participate in the up-coming 2014-15 FederationCup football.

Mohun Bagan, which isclubbed alongside SalgaocarSC, Pune FC, Shillong LajongFC and Bengaluru FC in groupB, will start its campaignagainst Bengaluru FC at TilakMaidan, Vasco on December30.

The squad: Pierre Boya, KatsumiYusa, Sony Norde, Shouvik Ghosh,Pritam Kotal, Kinshuk Debnath, Pan-kaj Moula, Balwant Singh, Jeje Lal-pekhlua, Oladimeji Bello Rasaq,Shilton Paul, Debjit Majumder, SouvikChakrabarti, Lal Kamal Bhowmick,Sabeeth Sathyan, Sukhen Dey, Bik-ramjit Singh, Denson Devadas, Seh-naj Singh, Anwar Ali. Coach: SanjoySen. — Principal Correspondent

Mohun Bagan'sFed Cup squad

NEW DELHI: Man-of-the-MatchMohit Hudda scored 62 whileHarshit Kumar snapped upthree wickets for just six runsto help Haryana Cricket Acade-my beat Quetta DAV Academyby 17 runs in the 19th SahibzadaAjit Singh cricket tournamentat the Guru Gobind Singh Col-lege ground.

The scores: HCA 143 in 38.5 overs(Mohit Hudda 62; Prince Chaudharythree for 36) bt Quetta DAV 126 in 38.4overs (Harshit Kumar three for six,Raunak Dabas two for 24).

Mohit, Harshitshine for HCA

CMYK

ND-ND

16 THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

NOIDA/DELHI

SPORT

A mind game and a puzzle

that you solve with

reasoning and logic. Fill in

the grid with digits in such

a manner that every row,

every column and every

3x3 box accommodates

the digits 1 to 9, without

repeating any. The

solution to yesterday’s

puzzle is at right.

su ldo lku

The festive period couldmake or break Tottenham

Hotpsur’s season. And nomatch is more important thanSunday’s home game againstManchester United.

After the Boxing Day trip toLeicester City, Mauricio Po-chettino’s side faces Louis vanGaal’s side and Jose Mourin-ho’s Chelsea in the space of justthree days at White Hart La-ne. The clash with the EnglishPremier League leader is thepick of the New Year’s Dayfixtures.

Without too many peoplenoticing, Spurs are creeping upthe table as their players be-come more familiar with Po-chettino’s style. They’re alsothrough to the semifinals of theCapital One Cup against Shef-field United — and into theknockout stages of the EuropaLeague where they will faceFiorentina over two legs inFebruary.

The key to Spurs’ improve-ment is tightening up defen-sively. Club captain YounesKaboul was dropped as JanVertonghen and Federico Fa-zio became the first-choicepairing at centre back. 

Solid foundation

England international full-back Kyle Walker is lookingconfident again after returningfrom injury. So with Ben Daviescompleting a well-balancedback four, Tottenham has a sol-id foundation, with players whocan also contribute with pace inattack.

And Spurs will have more op-tions in defence come Januarywhen United States right-backDeAndre Yedlin joins themfrom Seattle Sounders in MajorLeague Soccer (MLS). Apartfrom Yedlin, Pochettino saysthat he won’t make any major

January signings.But to properly get their sea-

son going over the holiday peri-od, they need to string togethermore consistent results athome. The North Londonershave played a lot better on theroad than they have in theirown backyard, much to the dis-may of their fans.

Only in recent weeks havethey started to register signif-icant league victories at WhiteHart Lane — the November 30win against Everton was seenas a breakthrough — aftermemorable away successes atWest Ham, Aston Villa, Hulland Swansea, where they fin-ished strongly to take all threepoints.

Pochettino deserves creditfor improving his side’s fitnesslevels this season which sees itplaying with intensity for theentire 90 minutes.

So the home clash against amuch-improved ManchesterUnited is seen as a potentialturning point in the season.Spurs’ recent record againstthe Red Devils is good — they’reunbeaten in their last fourleague meetings and won theirlast match 2-1 at Old Traffordon New Year’s Day this year. 

That victory was their sec-

ond consecutive success at theTheatre of Dreams whereChristian Eriksen scored a goaland provided an assist. 

Standout performers

The Danish playmaker isstronger and fitter this seasonthan last when he would occa-sionally fade out of games. Heand striker Harry Kane havebeen the club’s standout per-formers this season. 

Without really hitting topgear, Spurs are on the brink ofthe top four, are likely to appearin a Cup final and are doing wellin Europe. It makes one won-der about their true potentialonce they actually start to playwell on a regular basis.

So both van Gaal and Mou-rinho will be expecting toughafternoons in North London. Abreakthrough win against thesemanagerial heavyweights byPochettino will prove to thehard-to-please Spurs’ fanswhat is possible this season. Itis definitely a danger game forManchester United as it looksto make it eight gamesunbeaten.

(Jason Dasey is Senior Edi-tor of ESPN FC and the formerhost of SportsCenter India andSportsline)

Will Pochettino’s men showtheir spurs over holiday period?Jason Dasey

READY TO ROCK: Tottenham Hotspur’s ChristianEriksen is a stronger and fitter player this season.— PHOTO: REUTERS

LONDON: Chelsea, ManchesterCity and Manchester Unitedshowed their rivals no seasonalcheer on Friday as they pulledaway from the pack in the Pre-mier League with one-sidedBoxing Day victories.

Leader Chelsea set the toneby overcoming West HamUnited 2-0. City following suitwith a 3-1 success at WestBromwich Albion and Unitedkept pace by beating NewcastleUnited 3-1, with Wayne Roo-ney scoring twice and assistingone.

Chelsea continues to leadCity by three points, with Unit-ed seven points further back,while West Ham’s loss allowedSouthampton, TottenhamHotspur, Swansea City and

Liverpool to make ground inthe race for the top four.

Goals in each half from JohnTerry and Diego Costa — his13th of the campaign — earnedJose Mourinho’s Chelsea aone-sided home win over WestHam, which slipped to fifth.

West Ham was expected toprovide a stern test after a runof five games without defeat,but despite Morgan Amalfitanohitting the post late on, Sam Al-lardyce’s team was well beatenin what was the London rivals’100th encounter.

Ninth consecutive win

City was again without in-jured strikers Sergio Agueroand Edin Dzeko at a snow-splattered Hawthorns, but

made short work of West Bromto register a ninth consecutivevictory.

Fernando punished an errorby goalkeeper Ben Foster to put

City aheadin theeighth min-ute, with aYaya Tourepenalty anda David Sil-va goal ex-tending the

visitor’s lead before BrownIdeye scored a late consolation.

Manchester United returnedto winning ways following lastweekend’s 1-1 draw at AstonVilla by sinking Newcastle atOld Trafford. Rooney broke thedeadlock in the 23rd minute,

tapping in after a sliding Rada-mel Falcao steered Juan Mata’spass across goal, and added asecond 13 minutes later with anassured finish.

The United captain, whoplayed in midfield again, teedup Robin van Persie to headhome the host’s third goal eightminutes into the second half,before Papiss Cisse repliedwith an excellent late penalty.

Sterling hits winner

Liverpool ended a run ofthree games without victory bywinning 1-0 at Burnley throughRaheem Sterling’s first leaguegoal since September.

Liverpool lost goalkeeperBrad Jones to injury, which sawthe dropped Simon Mignolet

summoned from the bench,and Merseyside rival Evertonalso lost its ’keeper Tim Ho-ward in a 1-0 defeat at home toStoke City.

The results: Burnley 0 lost to Liver-pool 1 (Sterling 62); Crystal Palace 1(Dann 86) lost to Southampton 3(Mane 17, Bertrand 48, Alderweireld53); Everton 0 lost to Stoke 1 (Bojan38-pen); Leicester 1 (Ulloa 48) lost toTottenham 2 (Kane 1, Eriksen 71);Manchester United 3 (Rooney 23, 36,van Persie 53) bt Newcastle 1 (Cisse87-pen); Sunderland 1 (Johnson 1)lost to Hull 3 (Ramirez 33, Chester 51,Jelavic 90); Swansea 1 (Sigurdsson13) bt Aston Villa 0; West Brom 1(Ideye 87) lost to Manchester City 3(Fernando 8, Toure 13-pen, Silva 34).

Chelsea 2 (Terry 31, Costa 62) btWest Ham 0. — AFP

CASHING IN: Skipper John Terry was in the right place at the right time, side-footing home a Diego Costa assist. — PHOTO: AP

City stays on Chelsea’s tailFOOTBALL / Wins for Man United, Liverpool, Southampton and Spurs

MELBOURNE: Planning isunder way to place a batwhich once belonged toAustralian cricketer PhillipHughes on Mount Everestin a tribute to the batsmanwho died last month, anofficial said Friday.

The death of Hughes, 25,from a head blowsustained while playing adomestic match at theSydney Cricket Groundstunned the sports worldand triggered anoutpouring of grief.

Cricket Australiachairman Wally Edwardssaid on Friday that theCricket Association ofNepal had proposed theEverest idea.

After Hughes’s death,bats were left outside thefront doors of homes inAustralia and around theworld and a spontaneous#putyourbatsoutcampaign received amassive response withthousands posting picturesof bats on Twitter.

Edwards also told aBoxing Day Test lunchthere were plans for a63-over game to be playedin Nepal as part of thetribute to Hughes who was63 not out when hesustained the fatal injury,Australian Associated

Press reported.“So although we enter

the festive season withheavy hearts, thecommunity’s response hasbeen comforting and inmany ways uplifting,”Edwards said inMelbourne.

Patented

In anotherdevelopment, a report saidon Friday that CricketAustralia has trademarkedthe phrase ‘63 not out’ toprevent people fromcashing in on the death ofthe batsman.

“Cricket Australiaregistered the trademarkin conjunction withPhillip’s managementpurely as a defensiveregistration to preventothers trying to exploitPhillip’s memory,” a CAspokesman told The WestAustralian.

“There was someevidence of that starting tooccur which is why wehave taken this action,”the spokesman said.

The West Australiansaid unlicensed Hughesmerchandise is being soldby online auction sitesincluding t-shirts, stickersand memorial trophies. —AFP

Bat on Everestplanned as a tribute to Hughes You may have thought you

had heard the last of KevinPietersen and that 2015 wouldbring no more of his prolongeddispute with the England andWales Cricket Board. Sorry tohave to tell you it is far fromover and that the weeks leadingup to the World Cup will befilled with his name and the de-bate over whether he should berecalled.

There is still a big backing forKP in the England dressingroom, the more so since the re-moval of Alastair Cook from theone-day captaincy after his fail-ures in Sri Lanka. Players onlywant to be winners and ofcourse in the last three monthsEngland has seen one failure af-ter another.

Never mind the comparativesuccess of James Taylor, thecontinuing good scores fromJoe Root and the occasionalblast from the new leader EoinMorgan. No-one has replacedKP and the news that he hasbegun the Big Bash in such star-tling fashion has only causedthe sparks to fly again.

“Who would you rather seeemerging from the pavilion? KPor any of the batsmen now play-ing?” asked one person close tothe centre of events.

Feelings running high

His suggestion was thatevents had progressed so farthat it was decided by those whowant rid of KP to send PaulDownton, the new managing di-rector of the team, to the select-

ors’ meeting a week ago so thatall talk of a KP comeback wasquashed.

I do not know if it was in theminds of James Whitaker andhis fellow selectors to bring himback for the World Cup — prob-ably not since they must beaware of the feelings at the topof ECB — but if they had lis-tened to the dressing roomrumblings soon after Cook’s de-parture they would have knownthat feelings were running high.

They had made their stand bygetting rid of Cook. Had theyanother revolution in mindover KP? We may never know.

It is clear that the odds areagainst KP playing in the WorldCup. His criticism of authorityin his book, his behaviour in re-cent years and the gradualbuild-up of antagonism towardshim all mean a return is un-likely.

It would not take a lot, how-ever, to reverse that state of af-fairs but I have learnt in the 25years I have covered cricket forThe Hindu that on the outsidethe game is calm, conservativeand constant but on the insidetornadoes rage. You must neverrule out any possibility no mat-ter how remote.

As I come to an end of mystint with The Hindu, I natural-ly wonder what the next quarterof a century will bring. Moresurprises I suspect. Arm actionswill offend the traditionalists bytaking on the shape that wouldmake a baseball pitcher happy.More one-day cricket than wehave ever seen; although surelyTwenty20 is the shortest pos-sible form of cricket.

Batsmen will grow stronger,bowlers will look on 90 miles anhour as the norm and fieldingwill improve to at least the samedegree that has been evident inthe last few years.

My biggest hope is that a newgeneration of coaches, trainers,officials and policy makers willtake over the game and perhapssit down to thrash out an overallstrategy that will improve thegame as a spectator sport, workon all aspects of health and safe-ty and try to find a formula thatwill enable Tests, One-Day In-ternationals and T20 to livetogether.

Cricket’s greatest strength isits variety which counts for farmore than its traditional values.I want to see it grow, to draw inyoungsters and to have anothergolden age.

The next quarter of a centurymay bring more surprises

Let a new generation of coaches,

trainers, officials and policy makers

take over cricket and thrash out a

strategy that will improve the game as a

spectator sport, writes Ted Corbett

MELBOURNE: Gutsy and tena-cious he was, as a left-handedopener for Australia. The dura-tion of his stay at the crease wasoften as long as his famous nose.

Bill Lawry, who made 5,324runs in 67 Tests at 47.15, wasinducted in Australia’s Hall ofFame in 2010.

The Hindu caught up withthe former Australian captainhere on Friday. Lean, fit andwarm, the 77-year old carrieshis years lightly.

Lawry played his cricket inthe non-helmet era of uncov-ered pitches. And he faced somemenacing fast bowlers such asHall and Griffith, Trueman andStatham.

“Pitches were not coveredthen. It would rain in the after-noon and then the pitch becamemoist. Batting was not easy.You had to be good technically,”he said.

On coping with the quicks,Lawry said, “You needed to beclear in your mind. I hookedand pulled. Bob Simpson wouldweave out of the way with hiseyes on the ball. He would seethe ball pass his chin.”

Asked why several modernday batsmen got hit on the hel-

met, Lawry answered: “Per-haps, they are taking their eyesoff the ball because of the secu-rity of wearing the helmet. Inour days, it was a question ofsurvival.”

He remembered Trueman asa complete fast bowler. “Hisaction was perfect to swing theball or cut it off the seam,” hesaid.

“Statham was tall, fast; hewas a yard quicker than True-man, and very accurate.”

Queried why many modernday pacemen lacked the preci-sion of the bowlers from thepast, Lawry said: “Someone like

Trueman bowled 600 overs incounty cricket every seasonapart from the overs he sentdown in Tests. He could put theball exactly where he wantedto. John Snow was among themost accurate fast bowlers Ihave seen. Do international pa-cemen bowl as much in domes-tic cricket now? Bowling acrossdifferent formats may not behelping them either.”

Lawry found the lack of accu-racy especially surprising, giv-en cricketers were full-timeprofessionals these days. “Weall had regular jobs, apart fromplaying cricket. I used to workas a salesman. In fact, if weplayed a Test on Friday, Iwould work as a salesman tillWednesday night. And I had toapply for leave to my office toplay for Australia.”

The Australian rememberedthe late ’60s when Australiamet India both home and away.And he recalled Tiger Pataudi.

“He was a gentleman, a finehuman being. He was also anattacking captain and an ag-gressive batsman despite visionin only one eye. I thought heled brilliantly in Australia in1967-68, although India lost4-0. Prasanna was outstandingin the series but Pataudi was

unfortunate in not having pen-etrative pacemen,” he said.

Lawry recollected the magicof Erapalli Prasanna and Bish-an Bedi. “Prasanna bowledbeautifully in India too in 1969.He had more side spin thanBedi. But Bedi was lovely in themanner he flighted.”

Asked about captaincy, Law-ry responded, “It’s that abilityto get the best out of everyplayer.”

On M.S. Dhoni, Lawry said:“I’ve heard he is a nice man.But sometimes he does notseem a very involved captain.To a young side, he has to showa little more intent on thefield.”

He believed DRS was goodfor the game. “It can removethe howlers. If you don’t wantDRS, you should not use tech-nology for checking a no-ballafter a dismissal. It should beall or nothing.”

Lawry said his team did say afew things to the opposition onthe field. “It’s okay as long asyou don’t cross the line. Some-times, as Richie Benaud wouldtell us, not saying anything toan opposition player when heexpects something to be said tohim can also get you a wicket. Itcould make him tense.”

‘I had to apply for leave to play for Australia’S. Dinakar

Bill Lawry. — PHOTO:

BRENDON THORNE/GETTY

IMAGES

NEW DELHI: West Bengal dis-played fine team effort to startits campaign with a 25-18, 25-22, 25-22 win over Gujarat in aboys’ Pool A match on the open-ing day of the 37th National sub-junior volleyball championshipat the Ajmal Khan Park, KarolBagh, here on Friday.

Last year’s quarterfinalist,Bengal played solidly to take thefirst set without much trouble.However, it found the goingtough when Gujarat competedkeenly in the next two.

Bengal benefited from thegood work of its blocker-cum-setter Pratik Sarkar. The tall boymoved swiftly to cover the netand set up some nice balls for hiscolleagues to score points off.Libero Manoj Sardar also madeuseful saves as Bengal narrowlytook the second set.

Led by its setter KamalChaudhary, Gujarat fought backin the third set and kept theserve with it for a good period.Chaudhary showed his skill as aplaymaker as well as an oppor-tunistic scorer.

However, he did not getenough support from his team-mates who committed a lot ofunforced errors.

Bengal, which let slip the mo-mentum a little bit, regainedcontrol primarily due to the de-cent performances of its captainDebdip Kole and Sarkar in thethird set.

In one of the longest matchesin the girls’ section, HimachalPradesh thwarted a spiritedAndhra Pradesh to record ahard-fought victory in Pool D.

Important results: Boys: Pool A:West Bengal bt Gujarat 25-18, 25-22,25-22. Pool C: Uttarakhand bt Goa25-12, 25-8, 25-23. Pool D: Manipurbt Jharkhand 25-18, 25-18, 25-18;Delhi bt Andhra Pradesh 25-23, 25-17,25-18.

Girls: Pool B: Uttar Pradesh btBihar 25-4, 25-4, 25-6. Pool C: Mah-arashtra bt Odisha 25-4, 25-9, 25-5;Haryana bt Delhi 25-20, 25-18, 25-22.Pool D: Himachal Pradesh bt AndhraPradesh 25-13, 25-17, 20-25, 25-22.

VOLLEYBALL

Bengal begins itscampaign with a winSpecial Correspondent

Himachal Pradesh girlsthwart a spirited AndhraPradesh

South Africa — 1st innings: D. Elgar c Ramdoin bPeters 121, A. Petersen c Johnson b Gabriel 17, du Plessis(batting) 99, H. Amla (batting) 17; Extras (lb-4, w-5, nb-7):16; Total (for two wkts. in 88 overs): 270.

Fall of wicket: 1-47, 2-226. West Indies bowling: Taylor 19-4-64-0, Peters 15-6-

44-1, Holder 13-5-25-0, Gabriel 15-0-52-1, Benn 25-3-81-0,Samuels 1-1-0-0.

Toss: West Indies.

SCOREBOARD

PORT ELIZABETH: Dean Elgar and Faf du Plessispunished the West Indies for fielding lapses asSouth Africa built a strong position on the firstday of the second Test here on Friday.

South Africa was 270 for two at stumps afterbeing sent in to bat in overcast conditions. Elgarmade a Test-best 121 and shared a second-wick-et partnership of 179 with du Plessis, who fin-ished the day unbeaten on 99.

The West Indies missed four chances to breakthe Elgar-du Plessis stand. du Plessis was putdown by Marlon Samuels at gully off JeromeTaylor on eight, and again by Devon Smith div-ing to his right off left-arm spinner SuleimanBenn on 26.

One ball after du Plessis’s second escape, theleft-handed Elgar went down the wicket to Bennand was well out of his ground as the ballsqueezed through to hit low on the pad of cap-tain and wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.

Elgar was on 48 and, to add insult to thedisappointed bowler, went down the wicketagain and lofted Benn to the straight boundaryto raise his fifty.

Elgar could have been run out on 73. After amix-up with du Plessis, he was several metresshort of safety when Kenroy Peters’s throwfrom mid-wicket missed the stumps at the bow-ler’s end.

West Indian troubles did not end with themissed chances. Benn left the field after fallingheavily while trying to stop an Elgar drive.

Holder was prevented from bowling in Benn’splace in the next over because he had not beenon the field long enough after being treated for ahand injury. Instead Taylor had to fill in at atime when he would have expected to be restingup ahead of taking the second new ball.

Bavuma makes debutBatsman Temba Bavuma became the sixth

black African — and the first since LonwaboTsotsobe four seasons ago — to play Test cricketfor South Africa. He replaced the injured Quin-ton de Kock. He was the 85th player to be cappedsince South Africa returned to Test cricket in1992. — AFP

CRICKET

Windies pay for missed chances

IN FULL FLOW: South Africa’s DeanElgar made his third Test century andshared a second-wicket partnership of179 with du Plessis. — PHOTO: AFP

CMYK

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17THE HINDU SATURDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2014

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Cleveland Cavaliers’ LeBron James grabbed the early leadover Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry in the fans poll forthe 2015 National Basketball Association all-star game

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Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (74 per cent) has been voted the No.1 footballer in the world overtaking Argentina’s Lionel Messi for thetop spot by an elite panel of 73 judges drawn from 28 countries

Telecast schedule

Australia vs India, third Test, STAR Sports1, 3 & HD1, 5a.m.; South Africa vs West Indies, second Test, TENCricket, 2 p.m.

MELBOURNE: Steven Smith’stechnique complemented hisflair. The Indian pacemen bow-led with some fire. And R. Ash-win kept one end up with tightoff-spin.

The fare on view at the MCGon Boxing Day was hard andcompetitive. The surface hadsome pace and bounce, and thecricket was engaging.

The honours were largelyeven. Australia might perhapseven hold a slight advantagesince India would have to batlast.

The host was 259 for five atstumps on day one of third Testin the Border-Gavaskar series.

Smith was unbeaten with 72;an innings that once again un-derlined his character. In thecauldron, his focus was unwa-vering.

India had its moments on atense day but could have hadgreater success had its groundfielding on a large arena beenbetter. Fielding lapses easepressure on the opposition.

For most part, a crowd of69,993 had its fill. It was notone of those days when runscame at a hectic pace. They hadto be earned.

The last hour summed up theday. The Indian pacers hadtheir tails up, with two strikesafter tea.

The left-handed ShaunMarsh, looking fluent till thatpoint, nicked a MohammedShami delivery that left himfrom back of a length.

Then debutant Joe Burnsunder-edged a pull off anUmesh Yadav short ball. Heworked up good pace, extractedlift.

Brad Haddin, looking dis-tinctly uncomfortable, waspeppered with short-pitchedbowling from the pace bowlers.The wicketkeeper-batsmanwas even struck on the body byone that climbed from Yadav.

The second new ball was tak-en but Haddin hung on.

The Indian pace attack wore

a different look, with Varun Aa-ron being replaced with Shami.Aaron will fly to India to attendhis grandfather’s funeral, andwill join the squad in time forthe fourth Test.

Shami, bowling a betterlength and achieving some de-viation, operated with somespirit but Smith negotiated himcapably.

He briefly left the field owingto a niggle in his thigh but re-turned to bowl again.

Smith batted with the kind ofconfidence that has highlightedhis batting in this series. Theright-hander is such a naturaltimer of the ball.

He waltzed down to smashAshwin over long-off for a sixon this huge ground. When Ish-

ant Sharma strayed in line, hewas whipped past mid-wicket.

This was also an inningswhere he worked the ballaround cleverly. Given hisstrength off either foot, it ishard to find a chink in Smith’sbatsmanship.

Big scalp

The Indians struck early inthe morning after Australiaopted to bat. It was a big scalptoo as David Warner, unable tokeep a Yadav lifter down, waswell held by Shikhar Dhawan inthe slips.

Chris Rogers and Shane Wat-son then strung together a 115-run second-wicketpartnership.

Rogers’s game is marked by

an economy of movement; thisdoes not mean his footwork islimited. The left-hander’s back-lift is short but his timing isgood. Rogers gets himself intogood positions, particularly forstrokes between point andcovers.

And, like most Australianbatsmen, his horizontal batshots are punishing. When Sha-mi pitched short outside off,the southpaw ruthlessly cuthim past the fence.

When the Indians bowledfuller and straighter, they werepunch-driven down theground.

The opener was looking goodfor more when Shami got one toangle across him; the length in-vited a drive and Rogers nicked

to Dhoni. His place on the line,Watson was positive with hismethods. While he looked goodin defence, the all-rounder alsocut Shami past the fence andpulled Ishant. Watson was for-tunate, though, on 37. He edgeda length delivery on the offstump from Shami, but a divingDhawan spilled the offering.

Watson, like Rogers, got hishalf-century but could notpress on. He missed a sweep offAshwin to be adjudged leg-be-fore. Ashwin held one end upwhile the luckless Ishant toiledaway.

India included debutant K.L.Rahul (for Rohit Sharma)ahead of Suresh Raina.

Honours even after an engaging dayCRICKET/ Smith holds Australia’s innings together with an unbeaten 72S. Dinakar

SEESAW BATTLE: While Steve Smith led the Aussie charge on Boxing Day with a characteristically-feisty innings, Umesh Yadavrattled the hosts with his pace and lift, and got two wickets in the process. — PHOTOS: PATRICK SCALA, SCOTT BARBOUR/GETTY IMAGES

Australia — 1st innings: C. Rog-ers c Dhoni b Shami 57 (126b, 5x4), D.Warner c Dhawan b Yadav 0 (6b), S.Watson lbw b Ashwin 52 (89b, 4x4),S. Smith (batting) 72 (158b, 4x4, 1x6),S. Marsh c Dhoni b Shami 32 (83b,4x4), J. Burns c Dhoni b Yadav 13(27b, 2x4), B. Haddin (batting) 23(53b, 1x4, 1x6); Extras (b-1, lb-6, w-1,

nb-2): 10; Total (for five wkts. in 90overs): 259.

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Warner), 2-115 (Rogers), 3-115 (Watson), 4-184(Marsh), 5-216 (Burns).

India bowling: Ishant 21-6-54-0,Yadav 20-2-69-2, Shami 17-4-55-2,Ashwin 27-7-60-1, Vijay 5-0-14-0.

Toss: Australia.

SCOREBOARD

MELBOURNE: There was a mo-ment on Friday when bowlerMohammed Shami, assumingthat Steven Smith might be outof his crease, flashed the ball to-wards the striker’s end.

The paceman’s responsedrew a rather angry reactionfrom Smith.

Asked about the incident,Australia’s opening batsmanChris Rogers said: “He (Smith)knows he belongs. He had theconfidence to say a few words.He knows he is one of the betterplayers in the world.”

Rogers, who came up with aninnings of 57, said he was dis-appointed at not progressing toa bigger score. “It is frustrating.This is the third fifty in succes-sion for me. As an opener you doall the hard work and to then getout…,” he said. “My feet weregoing well. But I snicked a ballthat left me a little.”

On his 115-run associationwith Shane Watson — his fifthcentury partnership with Wat-son in Tests — Rogers said: “Weenjoy each other’s company inthe middle. We have a bit of alaugh. He goes at the ball prettyhard. I like them to come to me alittle bit. We feed off eachother.”

The 37-year-old left-handersaid the Indian pace attack bow-led well. “They had plans foreach batsman,” he said. “Theybowled short at me and Haddin.They didn’t bowl so much roundthe wicket this time.

“There were a few Indian

misfields and a dropped catchthat helped us.”

On the pitch, he said: “Thereis something in the wicket if youbowl in the right areas. The oddball goes quicker off the sur-face.” Rogers said Ishant Shar-ma was the toughest bowler tocope with, for him.

“The angle he bowls, he canswing it away from me, has theskill to straighten it. He was thebiggest threat for me,” Rogerssaid.

Asked about him being con-stantly under the scanner, Rog-ers replied, “That’s the nature ofthe beast. At my age, there aregoing to be questions when Idon’t make runs.”

He conceded, “I don’t knowhow long I can go. I do feel myage sometimes.”

Shami said he did not deliber-ately throw the ball because thebatsman at the other end wasSmith.

“It doesn’t matter who thebatsman is. My aim is to getwickets,” he said.

Shami said he concentratedon line and length, and added:“The Kookaburra ball does notreverse [as much as] the SG ball.It reverses only a little. Youneed to use the new ball well andthen bowl consistently.”

The paceman, who left thefield briefly in the last session,said, “It’s a slight niggle on theleft thigh. It’s nothing serious.”

On Ashwin keeping thingstight, Shami said, “If somebodydoes that, it becomes easier toattack or bowl length from theother end.”

Watson and I feed offeach other: Rogers

WELL BEGUN: Chris Rogers said he was disappointedat not pushing on after getting to a half-century,the opener's third on the trot. — PHOTO: AFP

Special Correspondent

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