% aYRdV ; < TZgZT a`]]d Wc`^ @Te ) - Daily Pioneer

16
D espite the decision of the National Conference (NC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), two main pro-election political parties in Jammu & Kashmir, to stay away from the poll process, the State Election Commission on Saturday announced a four-phased schedule for the crucial munic- ipal elections, starting October 8. The announcement for the conduct of the urban bodies’ polls comes also against the backdrop of separatists’ call for boycott and terrorists’ direct threat to the prospective can- didates and campaigners. The first notification for the urban local body polls would be issued on September 18 and the voting in the first phase would be held on October 8 from 7 am to 2 pm. Addressing a Press confer- ence, Chief Electoral Officer Shaleen Kabra said the polls would be held in four phases on October 8, 10, 13 and 16 this year. “The notifications for phase 2, 3 and 4 will be issued on September 20, 22 and 24 respectively,” Kabra said, adding that 17 lakh voters were registered for the polls. “The counting of votes would take place on October 20,” he said. The National Conference and PDP have decided to stay away from the municipal and panchayat polls citing the link- age of the electoral exercise with a series of litigations in the Supreme Court challenging the special status of J&K under the provisions of Article 35A. The Governor administration on August 31 sought post- ponement of the hearing of the litigations in the apex court in the wake of proposed local body and panchayat elections. The court later deferred the hearing till January next year. The NC was the first regional party that announced to stay away from the elections though the party avoided call- ing for a boycott or launching any campaign for it. The PDP followed suit and announced its inability to take part in the elections. Several other political groups with influence in specific pockets including the CPI(M) and the Peoples’ Democratic Front also chose to stay away from the polls. The Congress remained indecisive on its stance to con- test the elections while the BJP and several Jammu-based parties have not resisted the poll schedule. Despite the NC and the PDP’s decision to stay away, the Governor administration firm- ly adhered to its plan to hold the elections. Former Chief Minister and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti recently said the party will not participate in the elec- tions as the prevailing situation in Kashmir was not favourable. She said the party will not con- test the election till the Government takes positive steps to safeguard the special status of Jammu & Kashmir. New Delhi: The Government is determined to keep fiscal deficit at 3.3 per cent of GDP on the back of buoyant tax rev- enues and expectations of sur- passing the disinvestment tar- get, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said on Saturday but remained non-committal on cutting tax on petrol and diesel. A day after steps to contain the widening current account deficit (CAD) and check fall of the rupee were announced, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday continued his two- day review of the economy as he took stock of tax collections and macro-economic indica- tors in analysing performance of different wings of the Finance Ministry. After the meeting, Jaitley exuded confidence of surpass- ing the 7-7.5 per cent GDP growth target projected in the last Budget presented on February 1, meeting capital expenditure targets, surpassing tax collections projections and exceeding the record 1 lakh crore target of revenue mobil- isation from Government stake sale in PSUs. He, however, did not say if the meeting discussed the recent spike in fuel prices that has led petrol touching a record high of 81.63 per litre and diesel to 73.54 a litre. There were expectations that the Government may cut excise duty on the two fuels to ease burden on the consumers but it seems it didn’t want to take chance as it stands to lose 14,000 crore in revenue from a 1 per litre cut in excise. It feels that the country cannot afford to have a twin deficit problem — a depreciat- ing rupee and high crude import bill putting pressure on the country’s current account deficit (CAD), and a fiscal slippage. “The Government is con- fident and will strictly maintain the 3.3 per cent fiscal deficit target,” Jaitley told reporters after the over three-hour long meeting. With 44 per cent of the budgeted capital expenditure estimate for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2019 already spent by August 31, the Government “will end the year without any cut”, he said, adding that it was extremely necessary to maintain 100 per cent capital expenditure for high growth rate. “The Government is con- fident that we will have a growth rate higher than what we had projected earlier this year in the Budget,” he said. “The inflation is broadly under control”. On revenue collections, he said the impact of anti-black money measures, demonetisa- tion and GST are now visible with “phenomenal” increase in tax base. “The CBDT is very clear that this year they will be able to collect in excess of budget- ed target,” he said. On indirect tax side, he said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is settling down and a pick-up in con- sumption will boost collec- tions in coming months. “We are confident that between direct and indirect tax collections, the Government will comfortably meet the tar- get if not surpass it,” he said, adding the 1 lakh crore dis- investment target will be sur- passed. “And on basis of all these analyses, we are optimistic about our growth rate, our tax collection and certainly as far as fiscal deficit is concerned will strictly meet the 3.3 per cent target,” he said. Asked if fuel prices and duty cuts were discussed, he said the meeting on Saturday was internal review meeting. C ounting of votes in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) polls was suspended on Saturday by election authorities citing “forcible entry” and “attempts to snatch away ballot boxes” at a counting venue, after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged protests claiming it was not informed about the start of the process. The ABVP said its count- ing agent was not informed about the beginning of count- ing of votes polled in School of Social Sciences. In a statement, the JNU Election Committee said it suspended the counting temporarily but refused to name the party which protest- ed. Counting was suspended for over 14 hours, said sources. The JNU Election Committee said, “The counting process, which began on September 14 at 10 pm has been suspended due to forcible entry into the counting venue and attempts to snatch away the sealed ballot boxes as well as ballot papers from our count- ing centres.” The deadlock at the JNU persisted for hours with the ABVP accusing the election authorities of bias towards the Left outfits and threatening to move court. However, counting resumed later in the evening and results of JNUSU polls are likely to be announced on Sunday morning. I n the shocking gangrape of a 19-year-old college girl stu- dent in Haryana’s Mahendragarh district three days ago, one of the three accused is an Armyman post- ed in Rajasthan and a police team has been sent to arrest him, police said on Saturday. The Haryana police set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) and announced a reward of 1 lakh for information leading to their arrest, said Haryana’s Director General of Police BS Sandhu. The victim’s father has said 8 or 10 men may have raped her but she could identify only three of them. The woman, who topped the CBSE Board exam and was felicitated by the Government, was abducted at a bus stop in Kanina town on Wednesday while she was on way to a coaching class, police said. She was then allegedly drugged and gangraped at a secluded spot. Sandhu con- firmed on Saturday that one of the accused is an Armyman posted in Rajasthan. The hunt for the other two accused is also on, he added, expressing confidence that they will land in police net soon. All the three accused were known to the victim. Sandhu said the Armyman — who allegedly raped the woman was identi- fied as Pankaj, posted in Kota — was on leave and expected to rejoin later in the day. In Jaipur, Lt Gen Cherish Mathson, who heads the South Western Command, said the Army will help bring the rape accused to book. A top-ranking commander of banned Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and five Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) ter- rorists were killed in a post- midnight assault on a hideout in Chowgam village of south Kashmir’s Kulgam district on Saturday. A civilian protester was also shot dead by security forces during clashes in the aftermath of fierce gun-battle that lent a serious blow to ter- rorists in south Kashmir region. The authorities suspended train services in the region and snapped internet to prevent escalation in the situation. Official sources said Gulzar Padder of HM and his four associates were trapped in a res- idential house, which was encir- cled during the dead of night following specific input. During the heavy exchange of fire, two Army personnel were injured. Police said Gulzar was a close associate of slain ter- rorist commander Altaf Kachroo and was involved in a series of attacks, including killing of five police personnel at Pambay village in Kulgam, last year. “During the search opera- tion, terrorists fired on the search party. Initially the civil- ians were moved away from the site of encounter to safer locations. T o check terror funding and track suspected businessmen involved in hawala operations, the Jammu & Kashmir police has set up a Financial Investigation Unit and is also aggres- sively using the social media to trans- mit counter narratives to the radical thoughts being put forth by the separatist groups and Pakistan-sponsored terror groups in the Valley. The Jammu & Kashmir police has set up 30 media cells for catering to the local traditional media like the news- papers. In addition, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts have been opera- tionalised by all the 26 districts, five ranges and two police zones to reach out to the public on a real-time basis.

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Despite the decision of theNational Conference (NC)

and Peoples Democratic Party(PDP), two main pro-electionpolitical parties in Jammu &Kashmir, to stay away from thepoll process, the State ElectionCommission on Saturdayannounced a four-phasedschedule for the crucial munic-ipal elections, starting October 8.

The announcement for theconduct of the urban bodies’polls comes also against thebackdrop of separatists’ call forboycott and terrorists’ directthreat to the prospective can-didates and campaigners.

The first notification forthe urban local body pollswould be issued on September18 and the voting in the firstphase would be held onOctober 8 from 7 am to 2 pm.

Addressing a Press confer-ence, Chief Electoral OfficerShaleen Kabra said the pollswould be held in four phases onOctober 8, 10, 13 and 16 thisyear.

“The notifications forphase 2, 3 and 4 will be issuedon September 20, 22 and 24respectively,” Kabra said,adding that 17 lakh voterswere registered for the polls.

“The counting of voteswould take place on October20,” he said.

The National Conferenceand PDP have decided to stayaway from the municipal andpanchayat polls citing the link-age of the electoral exercisewith a series of litigations in theSupreme Court challengingthe special status of J&K underthe provisions of Article 35A.

The Governor administrationon August 31 sought post-ponement of the hearing of thelitigations in the apex court inthe wake of proposed localbody and panchayat elections.The court later deferred thehearing till January next year.

The NC was the firstregional party that announcedto stay away from the electionsthough the party avoided call-ing for a boycott or launchingany campaign for it.

The PDP followed suit andannounced its inability to takepart in the elections. Severalother political groups withinfluence in specific pocketsincluding the CPI(M) and thePeoples’ Democratic Front alsochose to stay away from thepolls.

The Congress remainedindecisive on its stance to con-test the elections while theBJP and several Jammu-basedparties have not resisted thepoll schedule.

Despite the NC and thePDP’s decision to stay away, theGovernor administration firm-ly adhered to its plan to hold

the elections.Former Chief Minister and

PDP president MehboobaMufti recently said the partywill not participate in the elec-tions as the prevailing situationin Kashmir was not favourable.She said the party will not con-test the election till theGovernment takes positivesteps to safeguard the specialstatus of Jammu & Kashmir.

��������� ��� ���������� ��

New Delhi: The Governmentis determined to keep fiscaldeficit at 3.3 per cent of GDPon the back of buoyant tax rev-enues and expectations of sur-passing the disinvestment tar-get, Finance Minister ArunJaitley said on Saturday butremained non-committal oncutting tax on petrol and diesel.

A day after steps to containthe widening current accountdeficit (CAD) and check fall ofthe rupee were announced,Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday continued his two-day review of the economy ashe took stock of tax collectionsand macro-economic indica-tors in analysing performanceof different wings of theFinance Ministry.

After the meeting, Jaitleyexuded confidence of surpass-ing the 7-7.5 per cent GDPgrowth target projected in the

last Budget presented onFebruary 1, meeting capitalexpenditure targets, surpassingtax collections projections andexceeding the record �1 lakhcrore target of revenue mobil-isation from Government stakesale in PSUs.

He, however, did not say ifthe meeting discussed therecent spike in fuel prices thathas led petrol touching a recordhigh of �81.63 per litre anddiesel to �73.54 a litre.

There were expectationsthat the Government may cutexcise duty on the two fuels toease burden on the consumers but it seems itdidn’t want to take chance as itstands to lose �14,000 crore inrevenue from a �1 per litre cutin excise.

It feels that the countrycannot afford to have a twindeficit problem — a depreciat-

ing rupee and high crudeimport bill putting pressure onthe country’s current accountdeficit (CAD), and a fiscalslippage.

“The Government is con-fident and will strictly maintainthe 3.3 per cent fiscal deficittarget,” Jaitley told reportersafter the over three-hour longmeeting.

With 44 per cent of thebudgeted capital expenditureestimate for the current fiscalyear ending March 31, 2019already spent by August 31, the

Government “will end the yearwithout any cut”, he said,adding that it was extremelynecessary to maintain 100 percent capital expenditure forhigh growth rate.

“The Government is con-fident that we will have agrowth rate higher than whatwe had projected earlier thisyear in the Budget,” he said.

“The inflation is broadlyunder control”.

On revenue collections, hesaid the impact of anti-blackmoney measures, demonetisa-

tion and GST are now visiblewith “phenomenal” increasein tax base.

“The CBDT is very clearthat this year they will be ableto collect in excess of budget-ed target,” he said. On indirecttax side, he said the Goods andServices Tax (GST) is settlingdown and a pick-up in con-sumption will boost collec-tions in coming months.

“We are confident thatbetween direct and indirect taxcollections, the Governmentwill comfortably meet the tar-get if not surpass it,” he said,adding the �1 lakh crore dis-investment target will be sur-passed.

“And on basis of all theseanalyses, we are optimisticabout our growth rate, our taxcollection and certainly as faras fiscal deficit is concerned willstrictly meet the 3.3 per centtarget,” he said.

Asked if fuel prices andduty cuts were discussed, hesaid the meeting on Saturdaywas internal review meeting.

���������������� 1<0�2<�6-

Counting of votes in theJawaharlal Nehru University

Students’ Union (JNUSU) pollswas suspended on Saturday byelection authorities citing“forcible entry” and “attempts tosnatch away ballot boxes” at acounting venue, after the AkhilBharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad(ABVP) staged protests claimingit was not informed about thestart of the process.

The ABVP said its count-ing agent was not informedabout the beginning of count-ing of votes polled in School ofSocial Sciences. In a statement,the JNU Election Committeesaid it suspended the countingtemporarily but refused toname the party which protest-

ed. Counting was suspendedfor over 14 hours, said sources.

The JNU ElectionCommittee said, “The countingprocess, which began onSeptember 14 at 10 pm hasbeen suspended due to forcibleentry into the counting venueand attempts to snatch away thesealed ballot boxes as well asballot papers from our count-ing centres.”

The deadlock at the JNUpersisted for hours with theABVP accusing the electionauthorities of bias towards theLeft outfits and threatening tomove court.

However, countingresumed later in the eveningand results of JNUSU polls arelikely to be announced onSunday morning.

���� (6&12-*&)6

In the shocking gangrape of a19-year-old college girl stu-

dent in Haryana’sMahendragarh district threedays ago, one of the threeaccused is an Armyman post-ed in Rajasthan and a policeteam has been sent to arresthim, police said on Saturday.

The Haryana police set upa Special Investigation Team(SIT) and announced a rewardof �1 lakh for informationleading to their arrest, saidHaryana’s Director General ofPolice BS Sandhu.

The victim’s father has said8 or 10 men may have rapedher but she could identify onlythree of them. The woman,

who topped the CBSE Boardexam and was felicitated by theGovernment, was abducted ata bus stop in Kanina town onWednesday while she was on

way to a coaching class, policesaid.

She was then allegedlydrugged and gangraped at asecluded spot. Sandhu con-

firmed on Saturday that one ofthe accused is an Armymanposted in Rajasthan.

The hunt for the other twoaccused is also on, he added,expressing confidence that theywill land in police net soon. Allthe three accused were knownto the victim. Sandhu said theArmyman — who allegedlyraped the woman was identi-fied as Pankaj, posted in Kota— was on leave and expectedto rejoin later in the day. InJaipur, Lt Gen CherishMathson, who heads the SouthWestern Command, said theArmy will help bring the rapeaccused to book.

#�������� ����� �)-1&*&)

Atop-ranking commanderof banned Hizbul

Mujahideen (HM) and fiveLashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) ter-rorists were killed in a post-midnight assault on a hideoutin Chowgam village of southKashmir’s Kulgam district onSaturday.

A civilian protester wasalso shot dead by securityforces during clashes in theaftermath of fierce gun-battlethat lent a serious blow to ter-rorists in south Kashmir region.The authorities suspended trainservices in the region andsnapped internet to preventescalation in the situation.

Official sources said GulzarPadder of HM and his fourassociates were trapped in a res-idential house, which was encir-cled during the dead of nightfollowing specific input.

During the heavy exchangeof fire, two Army personnel

were injured. Police said Gulzarwas a close associate of slain ter-rorist commander AltafKachroo and was involved in aseries of attacks, includingkilling of five police personnelat Pambay village in Kulgam,

last year. “During the search opera-

tion, terrorists fired on thesearch party. Initially the civil-ians were moved away fromthe site of encounter to saferlocations.

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To check terror funding and tracksuspected businessmen involved in

hawala operations, the Jammu &Kashmir police has set up a FinancialInvestigation Unit and is also aggres-sively using the social media to trans-mit counter narratives to the radicalthoughts being put forth by the separatist groups and

Pakistan-sponsored terror groups in theValley.

The Jammu & Kashmir police hasset up 30 media cells for catering to thelocal traditional media like the news-papers.

In addition, Facebook pages andTwitter accounts have been opera-tionalised by all the 26 districts, fiveranges and two police zones to reach outto the public on a real-time basis.

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Any movie that is made on humantrafficking is bound to bring its share ofhorror by showcasing what the girls are

put through once they are caught in the trap.And if that film takes on a global perspective,the storyline is going to haunt the audience fordays, if not weeks.

In that sense, Love Sonia is going to not onlygive you goosebumps while watching it, it willbe a topic of conversation at parties for weeksto follow. That is precisely what Tabrez Nooraniand producer David Womark wanted to do.

Through the protagonist Mrunal Thakur asSonia, Noorani takes you on a quest of a sistersearching for her sibling, once she is sold by herdebt-ridden father (Adil Hussain). As the storyunfolds, one hopes that such an underbelly in thesociety didn’t exist, but it does and with avengeance where the girls are sold for double theamount just because they are virgins and are re-stitched to make more money out of them.

What makes this film compelling is that itbrings you true stories of women who aretrafficked. The fact that the director hasworked with an NGO and Thakur herself spentseveral days talking to the girls from the RedLight area in Kolkata gives you an authenticaccount of the lives of these women.

If only the makers had not tried toromantise this movie — since for these women,there is little romance even after being rescued— would have given been a real cap in thefeather.

Over all, a movie for those who are lookingfor movies that have a real life connect.

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Anurag Basu’sManmarziyaan has apace all its own and in

its own way it compels you tosit through it with adequateinterest in the unfoldingmodern love and relationshipsstory.

I say modern but thetheme is all pretty old. Yourfirst love is generally nothusband material but yourheart never stops beating. Theunsuitable boy who is alwaysthere to give you a life lessonin what you choose. Thenthere is a husband who is,well, totally husband materialbut the thing is that your heartseldom beats, misses a beat,for him.

Both relationships are atplay here in all their colourand bloom. While, it isTaapsee Pannu is the centralcharacter of this engagingfilm, it is Vicky Kaushal wholiterally owns the footagewhenever he is brought ontothe screen. Kaushal is brilliantas the yo-yo-woh-woh-songlifting wannabe DJ fromAmritsar who has no conceptfor commitment orresponsibility. After the weighthe brought to Raazi despiteAlia’s dominating presence inthat film, he gives Vicky themomentum he deserves as agood for nothing but aashiquiguy with commitment issues.As Vicky he shows up hisdaunting range of histrionicswhich will be shaping hiscareer in the right direction.

Then there is Pannu as thebrash pyar-fyaar dazzled girlwith fire in her belly. She too

lives the role of a bindaasPunjabi girl who has noqualms of emerging out ofbeds and romps in spaced outplaces like a ganney ka khet,her own barsati hanging overher mother’s kitchen or amakeshift bed in Vicky’smusic studio with all hisfriends in the know.

Abhishek, on the otherhand, is a picture of restraintand seems to be havingdifficulty in speaking hisdialogues. Too manydeliberations, too many pausesperhaps makes him Basu’sidea of perfect husbandmaterial but to the audiencehe comes across as a man withsome kind of behaviouraldisability.

Together, however, thethree make for a good storytold well. It is different, it isblaze and it is not an assault tothe eye.

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Giving a relief to theShiromani Akali Dal

(SAD), Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court on Saturdayallowed the party to hold a rallyat Faridkot on Sunday.

Besides, the single bench ofJustice R K Jain also directedthe Punjab government to pro-vide adequate security to avoidany untoward incident in the

wake of the rally.The directions came after

the opposition party on Fridaymoved the high court, seekingdirections to the authoritiesconcerned to grant permis-sion for holding a rally.

"The court granted us thepermission to hold the rallyand also directed the state gov-ernment to make adequatesecurity arrangements formaintaining law and order,"

said Damanbir Singh Sodhi,counsel for Akali Dal.

The petitioner Akali Dalspokesperson and former min-ister Daljit Singh Cheema said,"The court also put a stay onthe order of the Faridkot SDMwho denied the permission tohold the rally."

The court also issued anotice of motion for September17 to seek a reply of the stategovernment.

The petitioner said it wasthe right to freedom of speechand expression and they beallowed to hold assembly ofpeople for a peaceful rally.

On Friday, the districtadministration of Faridkot haddenied Akali Dal to hold a 'PolKhol' rally, citing apprehensionof violence. The police hadapprehended that there couldbe violence between Akaliworkers and radical Sikhs

protesting at Bargari about 40km from the venue.

Earlier also on September5, a clash took place betweenAkali workers and radical Sikhsin Faridkot.

On Friday, former chiefminister Parkash Singh Badaland his son SAD Chief SukhbirSingh Badal had described as"broad daylight murder ofdemocracy" the Punjab gov-ernment decision to ban the

proposed 'Pol Khol' rally.Under fire over incidents of

sacrilege during the previousregime, the SAD has plannedto launch a counter offensiveagainst the Congress govern-ment, which through the RanjitSingh Commission report, hasblamed Parkash Singh Badal ofordering the use of force onthose protesting against theincidents of sacrilege at BehbalKalan in October 2015.

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The Special Task Force (STF)of Haryana Police on

Saturday said it has uneartheda manufacturing unit of illegalliquor operating from villageThol in Ismailabad police sta-tion area in Kurukshetra districtand arrested 16 persons includ-ing 14 belonging to UttarPradesh in this connection.

A spokesman of PoliceDepartment said that acting ona tip off, police team alongwithexcise department personnelraided Surya Sheller in Thol vil-lage and recovered illegal liquorin huge quantity. The illicitliquor factory was being oper-ated under the guise of sheller.STF sleuths also recovered ille-gal liquor and other equip-ments used in liquor manufac-turing. 16 persons were arrest-ed, while two other managed toescape.

After getting input about

the illegal manufacturing unit,the spokesman said that STFsleuths immediately raided andseized 5388 bottles and 9750quarter bottles under the nameof ‘Malta’, 1980 bottles and17150 quarter bottles underthe name of ‘Raseela Santra’,about 14000 empty bottles,13000 empty quarter bottles,15000 cardboard boxes, 1500litres spirit, six tanks of 5000-litre capacity, one large RO, twocanters and huge stock of seals,boxes, labels and holo-gram.

A case under different sec-tions of IPC and Excise Act wasregistered against all accused.

Director General of Police,B.S. Sandhu has congratulatedthe police team whichunearthed the illicit unit.

STF had recently unearthedan illegal liquor factory engagedin bottling of IMFL and otherbrands operating from a houselocated in village BaiyanpurKhurd of Sonipat district.

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Himachal Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur has claimed

that efforts of the state gov-ernment to make HimachalPradesh a favourite destinationfor the entrepreneurs duringlast eight months have shownconstructive results.

Presiding over the meetingof Confederation of IndianIndustries (CII) here on Fridayevening, the chief minister saidthat Himachal was a power sur-plus state and was also open fortourism round the year. "Thestate was the biggest pharmahub of Asia. Developmentalpolicies, single window clear-ances and persistent infra-structural development hashelped the state in attractingthe entrepreneurs," he said.

Thakur said the state hadpotential of generating 27436megawatt hydro power and sofar only 38 percent potentialhad been exploited. The statehas invited the private sectorfor 27 power projects havingcapacity of 2144 megawatt. Heinvited the investors to investin sectors like tourism, powergeneration, agriculture pro-cessing, industries and infra-

structure development forwhich the government wouldprovide all possible assistance.He added that the governmentwas moving ahead in estab-lishing cement projects inSirmaur and Chamba districts.

The Chief Minister saidthat various issues concerningthe industrial organisationshad been settled during the lastfew months and despite polit-ical opposition, various impor-tant decisions had been takento encourage investment inthe state. He said Himachal wasamong the top states in socialand economic indicators andthere was negligible corruption.

Thakur said Himachal hadtough geographical conditionsand infrastructural develop-ment and connectivity weremajor challenges. However,after construction of 70 newnational highways, expansionof helipads and completion ofChandigarh-Baddi andBhanupalli-Bilaspur-Beri raillines would go a long way inimproving the connectivity inthe state.

Additional Chief Secretary,Industries R.D Dhiman in hispresentation said that respon-sive governance, best social

and welfare indicators, unin-terrupted power supply at lowrates, simple procedures andeasy access to the ChiefMinisters office makeHimachal ideal state forinvestors.

Dhiman said 47,321 indus-trial units with investment of28634.64 crores were func-

tional in the state in whichemployment had been given tothousands of youth.

President of the CII,Northern region Sachit Jainsaid that Himachal Pradeshwas progressive state in theindustrial sector where conge-nial industrial environmentencourages the investors. He

stressed on making furtherinfrastructural development,improvement in connectivityand taking more steps to facil-itate the investors.

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A one-to-one meeting

between Chief Minister JaiRam Thakur and officers of thestate government and entre-preneurs was organised hereregarding setting up new indus-trial units and expansion of theexisting ones.

Managing Director ofVardhman group Sanchit Jain,Abhishek Munjal and BhartGoel of Hero group, ChiefExecutive Officer of SaimanRakesh Verma, ManagingDirector of Bulk Drug RajeevGoel, Director Rahul Goel andChief Commercial OfficerAnjur Goel, President of IMTIndustries Association,Faridabad PJS Sarna, PrernaSonia and Shobhit Gupta ofAgro Processing Sector,Chairman of Sor Panel HarishAggarwal, Managing Directorof Delmore and Awal groupAmit Kapoor and ManagingDirector of Crimica Food ParkSS Parmar held talks with theChief Minister.

The representatives ofthese industrial houses dis-cussed about expansion andsetting up of new industrialunits in the state besides theinfrastructural facilities beingprovided by the government.

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Haryana Finance MinisterCapt Abhimanyu on

Saturday said the museumwhich is under construction inRakhigarhi of Hisar district,will become the pride ofHaryana leading to makingNarnaund area as a destinationof world class tourism.

The Minister inspected themuseum under construction inRakhigarhi and also reviewedthe progress of the constructionof the museum being devel-oped over an area of 5.5-acresincluding research centre andhostels for researchers.

The consultants who weregiving it a world-class look gavedetailed information about the

construction of the museum.They showed actual splendourof this museum through a 3-Dfilm about the Museum.

The Finance Ministerdirected the PWD (B and R)department that the film cre-ated on the museum should beshown to the children, theelderly and the villagers ofRakhigarhi to make them

aware that they are residing inan important historic place. Healso asked the Sarpanch of thevillage to provide 2 acres ofland for museum for parkingpurpose and also to get a pro-posal passed in the panchayatabout land for construction ofroad for bye pass on the backside of the Museum.

The Finance Minister said

that Rakhigarhi has uniquetreasures of Vedic civilizationand history of mankind ofHarappan period.

The exploration of thisancient site older thanMohenjo-Daro will exploreancient civilization of India. Alarge number of people acrossthe globe would come to seethis world-class magnificentmuseum Rakhigarhi to knowthe history of human civiliza-tion and the journey so far. Hesaid it will make the Narnaundregion a world-class touristdestination.

This museum, which willbe completed in about oneyear, will show a variety ofshows to the audience, headded.

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Senior SAD leader PremSingh Chandumajra on

Saturday said Punjab cabinetminister Navjot Singh Sidhuhas no right to speak onSikhism as he does not followthe tenets of the religion.

The Shiromani Akali Dal(SAD) leader’s reaction comesa day after Sidhu urged theAkal Takht, the supreme tem-poral seat of Sikhs, to excom-

municate former Punjab chiefminister Parkash Singh Badaland his son Sukhbir SinghBadal from the faith.

Sidhu had alleged that theParkash and his son– formerdeputy chief minister of Punjaband SAD president– had givenorders to the police to open fireat protesters at Behbal Kalan in2015 that led to the death oftwo people.

“A patit (apostate) likeNavjot Singh Sidhu regularly

disrespects his religion bytrimming and dying his beardand performing religious ritu-als forbidden in Sikhism,”Chandumajra said in a state-ment here.

“He has the audacity toapproach the sacred Shri AkalTakht Sahib to vent his hatredagainst practising Sikhs(Badals),” the senior Akalileader said.

“First follow the tenets ofSikhism yourself and maintaina proper Sikh saroop (charac-ter) before you even begin totalk about the religion. Stoptrimming and dying yourbeard,” Chandumajra said fur-ther.

The member of parliamentsaid it was Sidhu’s personalaffair on how he chooses toappear as long as he does not“pretend” to be concernedabout Sikh values.

“He has no right to speakon Sikh issues when he proud-ly defies the dictate of thetenth Guru Gobind Singh onthe sanctity of hair andindulges in rituals and sacrificesstrictly forbidden in Sikhism,”said Chandumajra.

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Higher reaches of districtMandi, Kulu , Lahul, Spiti

and Kangra had the first snow-fall of the winter on Friday.

Bara Bhangal , located atthe height of 18000 feet in theadjoining Kangra district atopBarot Valley had the heaviestsnowfall.

Lahul Valley also had thefirst snowfall of this winter. TheDehnasar Lake in the adjoiningKangra distict also witnessedthe first snow of the winter.

Seraj Valley of this districtatop Shikari Devi also hadmild snow .

Meanwhile there is heavyrush of tourists is rushing to thehigh altitude valleys havestarted visiting HimachalPradesh. They include hikers,trekkers and bikers.

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Himachal Government hasprohibited 328 fixed dose

combinations (FDCs) formanufacture for sale, sale ordistribution for human usewith immediate effect inHimachal Pradesh under sec-tion 26A of Drugs andCosmetics Act, 1940.

The decision has beenmade based on recommen-dations of Drugs TechnicalAdvisory Board (DTAB) asthere was no therapeutic jus-tification for the ingredientscontained in these 328 FDCsor and these FDCs could involve risk to humanbeing, Additional ChiefSecretary, Health and FamilyWelfare B.K. Agarwal saidonSaturday.

He said the Governmentof India has also restrictedmanufacturing, sale or distri-bution of the drug fixed dosecombinations from

September 7. Agarwal saidthat product permissionsgranted to manufacturers andits loan licensees to manu-facture fixed dose combina-tions of 328 also stands pro-hibited.

He said manufacture forsale, sale or distribution offixed dose combinationshence forth would attract sec-tion 28B of Drugs andCosmetics Act. He said thatthese formulations must bewithdrawn from the marketimmediately. The actionwould be taken as per the pro-visions of the Act against thepersons not adhering to theseorders.

Agarwal said that thenotification has been circu-lated to the Himachal PradeshDrug ManufacturingAssociations, HP Society ofChemists and Druggists andall the Drugs Controllers andthe Drugs Inspectors in thestate.

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The 71st Raising Day of theWestern Command, the

frontline operational commandof the Indian Army whichplayed an active role in the warsagainst Pakistan, was celebrat-ed at its headquarters atChandimandir in Haryana’sPanchkula district on Saturday.

A solemn ceremony washeld to remember and respectthe Western Command mar-tyrs who made the supremesacrifice for the nation, adefence spokesman said here.

Lt General Surinder Singh,general officer commanding-

in-chief (GOC-in-C) of theWestern Command, laid awreath at the ‘Veer Smriti’ topay homage to the martyrs, hesaid.

Greeting all ranks and theirfamilies on the occasion, GenSingh highlighted the sacrifices

made by the gallant soldiersand exhorted the ranks toalways remain prepared forthe call of the nation.

The Western Commandsince its inception in 1947originally as Delhi and PakistanCommand has been a saga ofbravery, sacrifice and glory inthe highest military tradition inthe service of the nation, thespokesman said.

To mark the occasion, amotorcycle display by theTornado, Army Team and amilitary band playing variousmartial tunes was also held forall ranks and their families, he said.

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Prime Minister NarendraModi would be visiting

Janjgir-Champa district onSeptember 22, informedDistrict Collector Neeraj

Kumar Bansod andSuperintendent of Police (SP)Neetu Kamal in a joint pressconference at Circuit Househere on Friday.

Bansod said that it is thefirst visit of Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and it is a

p r o u dmoment forthe district.

On thep r o p o s e ddate, aF a r m e r s 'Convention

and ground breaking cere-mony of National Highwayhad been proposed.

Keeping in view theweather conditions, PoliceGround, Janjgir has beenselected as venue for the event.

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Eight Aircraft can now parksimultaneously at the

Swami Vivekanand Airporthere now with two new CodeC type parking put in use fromSaturday, officials informed.

The move had been great-ly appreciated by both sched-uled and non scheduled airlineoperators.

Notably, AAI will be con-structing a new Technical Blockcum Control Tower, and aNew Fire Station of Cat-VIIIcategory at SwamiVivekananda Airport, officialsinformed.

With a view to improvingquality of service and amenitiesfor passengers, AAI is planningto develop land parcels ofapproximately 80 acres aroundthe new integrated terminal ofSwami Vivekananda Airport inRaipur.

It believes that develop-ment of the city side of the air-port would make the region an‘economic hub’ with excep-tional connectivity, officialsinformed.

The city side developmentof the airport envisages settingup of hotels and conventioncenters with an ‘AirportCommercial District’ whichwould also include ‘AirportBusiness District’, and a host ofworld-class passenger conve-nience amenities among others.

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New Delhi: RJD leader andformer Bihar Deputy ChiefMinister Tejashwi Yadav onSaturday said that the BJPwould not get a majority toreturn to power in the 2019Lok Sabha elections as it wouldlose around 100 out of the 134parliamentary seats in Bihar,Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh.

"Today the BJP has over115 seats in Jharkhand, Biharand Uttar Pradesh. But in2019 the BJP would losearound 100 seats in thesestates due to the kind ofalliances that are coming up,"he said at the India Today"Mind Rocks Youth Summit2018".

"There is no doubt in thatthe BJP won't get majority andthey are going to lose," theRashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)leader said.

He said that in UttarPradesh due to the alliancebetween the Bahujan SamajParty and the SamajwadiParty, the Chief Minister (YogiAdityanath) lost his seat ofGorakhpur in the by-pollsearly this year.

"The kind of situation thatis there in Bihar and the kindof alliance that is coming up inJharkhand, the BJP would facelosses in these states," he said.

There are 80 Lok Sabhaseats from UP, 40 from Biharand 14 from Jharkhand. TheBJP had won 73 seats from UPin the 2014 general electionsalong with its alliance partnerApna Dal.

When asked if in such acase there would be threePrime Ministerial candidatesfrom the opposition, Yadavquestioned, "Did any of theleaders in the opposition claimto be the Prime Ministerialcandidate?"

He then said whichever

party would be the singlelargest party would obviouslystake claim to the PrimeMinisterial post and the otherparties would support it.

The former Deputy ChiefMinister also called BiharChief Minister Nitish Kumaras "cheat" minister.

"In 2019 Nitish Kumarwon't win anything. Todayalso he is a Chief Ministerthrough the back door as hebroke the grand alliance thatwas forged in the state aheadof the 2015 assembly polls.And look today who is inpower in Bihar, it is BJP," hesaid.

Nitish Kumar had brokenthe Janata Dal-United party'salliance with the RJD and theCongress in the state in Julylast year and went back to itsold ally Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) in the state.

Highlighting the deterio-rating law and order conditionin the state, the RJD leadersaid, "Look at the condition oflaw and order in Bihar. Whenminors were raped, the ChiefMinister remained quietbecause his party leaders wereinvolved in that. And then Ihave to come to Jantar Mantarto protest against the rapes.And till today nothing hap-pened in the case. Even theCBI and the ED, who are afterus did nothing in the case," heclaimed.

He was referring to therape of minor girls in a gov-ernment shelter home inMuzaffarpur in Bihar.

Referring to the CentralBureau of Investigation (CBI)and Enforcement Directorate(ED) action against his fami-ly members, Yadav said, "Theyclaim when I was a teenagerand not even having a mous-tache, I was doing a conspir-acy in the Railway Ministry.How is it possible? I was inschool and I was playing crick-et.

"What is this? Where is thecountry going?" he questioned."My entire family is beinginvestigated. But why actiononly against only one family?To pressure us they are doingtheir best," he alleged.

"But no investigationagainst Jay Shah, why becausehe is the son of BJP chief AmitShah," he added. IANS

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�� ��New Delhi: A little over Rs1.5 lakh was raised to supporta flood-ravaged Kerala in asale of over 260 handwovensarees.

Organised by Sahapedia,a digital encyclopaedia ofIndian art, culture and her-itage, the Annual VintageSaree sale and auction took

place between 5 p.m. and7.30 p.m. on Friday.

"Of over 260 sarees, wemanaged to sell close to 230.The amount raised is a littleover Rs 1.5 lakh," SahapediaProjects Director NehaPaliwal told IANS over tele-phone.

"The highest figure froma saree sale was Rs 10,500,which was in an auction thattook place as well. The sareeis an Andhra Ikat." she added.

Most sarees in the salewere priced between Rs 200and Rs 800, Sahapedia said.

The amount raised will bedonated to the Kerala ChiefMinister's Distress ReliefFund. The state is reelingunder the disastrous aftereffects of the floods that hit itsmany regions last month.

The annual saree sale,now in its third year, aims tomake India's vast culturalheritage more accessible tothe common people,Sahapedia had said in a pre-vious statement.

The two-hour sale sawmost sarees quickly fly off theracks. The remaining sareeswill be donated to the non-governmental organisationGoonj which works on theunaddressed need of clothing.

IANS

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Ghaziabad: The Uttar PradeshPolice on Saturday inaugurateda motorcycle squad attached toits dial 100 police responsevehicle (PRV) service to enablepolicemen to access narrowlanes.

Uttar Pradesh DGP O.P.Singh launched this specialisedservice at Tigri roundabout onthe border of Ghaziabad andGautam Budh Nagar districts.Speaking on the occasion, Singhsaid 45 motorcycles are beingpressed into service to enhancethe PRV team.

By adding two wheelers, thepolice will increase its reach inthe narrow lanes of the walledcities and villages where four-wheelers are unable to move, hesaid. The motorcycles would belinked with the modern controlroom of Uttar Pradesh Police instate capital Lucknow throughGPS. The GPS will connect themotorcycles with the controlroom through which the officerspresent there will be able tomonitor the exact location ofPRVs.

IANS

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday led the

nation in launching the“Swachchhata Hi Seva” cam-paign as he took up a broom toclean a school named after Daliticon BR Ambedkar here withMinisters of his Governmentand BJP leaders and workersparticipating in similar exerciseacross the country.

In a nearly-two-hour videointeraction with people fromacross the country, includingfaith leaders, Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathand noted personalities such asAmitabh Bachchan and RatanTata, Modi said the sanitationcoverage in India has increasedto over 90 per cent from 40 percent in the four years ofSwachchh Bharat Mission.

He said that few wouldhave thought that nine croretoilets would be built and 4.5lakh villages declared opendefecation free in four years.

The Prime Ministerlaunched the "cleanliness isservice" exercise to push forgreater public participation inone of his government's cen-trepiece programmes launchedon October 2, 2015 and it will

continue till MahatmaGandhi's birth anniversary nextmonth.

All sections of society andevery part of the country havejoined the cleanliness drive, hesaid, exhorting people to reded-icate themselves to fulfilling thefather of the nation's dream ofa clean India.

"Had anybody imaginedthat more than 450 districtswould be open defecation free(ODF) in four years or that 20states and Union Territorieswould be open defecation free

in four years," he said, callingit a historic day.

Adityanath said UttarPradesh, the country's mostpopulous and among the mostpoor states, would be OFD byOctober 2, 2018 as per a base-line survey of the clean Indiacampaign. He said that hisgovernment is working toensure that every family has atoilet by October 2019.

His government had builtover 1.36 crore toilets since itcame to power last year and itsemphasis on cleanliness has led

to a drastic fall in vector-bornediseases, he said.

Modi lauded Adityanathfor his Government's efforts.Cleanliness is playing animportant role in improvingpeople's living standards, hesaid, citing a WHO estimatethat over three lakh lives wouldbe saved by it and also a studythat cases of diarrhoea wouldfall by over 30 per cent.

Lack of cleanliness playhavoc, especially in the lives ofthe poor, pushing them into acesspool of diseases, he said.

The Prime Minister spoketo people in states such asAssam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu,Bihar, Karnataka, Rajasthanand Haryana. He also inter-acted with Indo-TibetanBorder Police personnelinvolved in cleaning PangongLake and its surroundings inLeh, besides religious and spir-itual figures, includingSadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, Sri SriRavi Shankar, and MataAmritanandamayi.

He also interacted withSikh religious figures fromPatna Sahib gurudwara,Muslim custodians of AjmerSharif and those from a mediagroup. He praised efforts ofnewspapers and news channels

to support the "Swachh Bharat"campaign.

Modi said those workingfor the cleanliness campaignwould be remembered likefreedom fighters in the times tocome and would be known astrue heirs of Gandhi.

Building toilets and puttingin place sanitation measuresalone would not do, he said,asking people to inculcatecleaning habits in their lives.Indian culture has traditional-ly put an emphasis on cleanli-ness, he said. After his nearly-two-hour-long interaction,Modi took part in a cleanlinessdrive on the premises of BabaSahib Ambedkar HigherSecondary School in Paharganj.

Union ministers and BJPleaders and workers across thecountry also participated in theexercise following the primeminister's programme.

BJP president Amit Shantook part in a cleaning exercisein Telangana, Home MinisterRajnath Singh in Faridabad,Law minister Ravi ShankarPrasad in Patna among otherswhile Union Minister forTourism, KJ Alphons launchedthe cleaning drive near the SaiMandir surroundings on LodhiRoad here.

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The Election Commissionplans to implement a slew

of measures to curb the circu-lation of fake news on socialmedia and paid news in therun-up to elections. Chief Election Commissioner(CEC) O P Rawat on Saturdaysaid that effective use of mediaand curbing use of fake news andpaid news were important areason which the poll body has beenworking upon. He also advisedmedia to look at some best prac-tices in international media thathave started bringing out a reg-ular column — what was fake lastweek — on the internet, in themedia and 'fact checker reports'.

Rawat, speaking on 'chal-lenges to India electoraldemocracy' at a symposium,said the present set of laws are"inadequate" to tackle the men-ace of black money in elec-tions, and noted thatCambridge Analytica like"machinations" of data theft,data harvesting and fake newspose a potent threat to the elec-toral process in the country.The CEC said democracy doesnot run on whims and itrequires traits such as courage,character, integrity and knowl-edge that are diminishing andare on the "verge of extinction"in the country. Rawat under-lining a number of issues andchallenges that face the electoralbody, said clean elections are likea "well spring of legitimacy" forthe leadership and the people ofthe country and if this was con-taminated bysuch issues,the commonm a nb e c o m e s" c y n i c a l "about theentire system,which is anarea of concern."With therise of fakenews, withthe rise ofmake believethings, with

the rise of all kind of machina-tions like data theft, data har-vesting, profiling, targeted com-munication affecting not onlycommunication but referen-dum world over and changingthe outcome of any processwhich is meant to translate pop-ular will in (taking) a healthydecision, in (choosing) a healthyrepresentative Government.That's the potent threat everydemocracy in the world is fac-ing," Rawat said at the eventorganised by the Chief ElectoralOfficer (CEO) of Delhi.

The CEC said the EC waswell aware of these issues

amongst many others similar tothem. "Here in our country, theCommission is seized of issuessuch as cyber security, securingour data so that CambridgeAnalytica kind of things do nothappen over elections, aboutmisuse and abuse of social mediaplatforms, about fake news,about all kinds of ills that get intowhether it is management ofelectoral rolls, campaign finance,polling process and technology,"he said. He said he was sur-prised to see during Karnatakaelection, in Bengaluru, thepolling percentage was lowest.

"We investigated and wefound that because of IT (infor-mation and technology) indus-try, job hopping was takingplace and this (incorrect electoralrolls) was happening. Nameswere there but people are notthere, that is why polling was just52-54 per cent," the CEC said.

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While advanced treatmenthas prolonged survival

of kids with neuroblastoma, apaediatric cancer of nervecells, the bad news is that sideeffects may persist or developmonths or years after cure inthe form of psychologicalproblems, including depres-sion and attention-deficit dis-orders, says a study.

The study published onlinein the journal, Cancer, hascalled for a close monitoringand intervention to help suchsurvivors.

Neuroblastoma is a solidcancerous tumor that begins inthe nerve cells outside thebrain of infants and young chil-dren. It can start in the nervetissue near the spine in theneck, chest, abdomen, or

pelvis, but it most often beginsin the adrenal glands.

It is the third most com-mon tumor in children and themost common cancer in babiesyounger than one.

The researchers in thestudy had compared neurob-lastoma survivors with 872siblings of childhood cancersurvivors. They found that theneuroblastoma patients were

more likely than the siblings ofchildhood cancer survivors tohave anxiety/depression (19%vs. 14%), headstrong behaviour(19% vs. 13%), attentiondeficits (21% vs. 13%), peerconflict/social withdrawal(26% vs. 17%), and antisocialbehaviour (16% vs. 12%).

"These findings are novelbecause this is the first largestudy that could look at how

neuroblastoma patients aredoing in terms of psychologi-cal and educational outcomes.Before recent advances in treat-ment, this survivor populationwas much smaller and we werenot able to analyse these sortsof long-term outcomes," saidstudy author Dr Nina Kadan-Lottick, from Yale UniversitySchool of Medicine.

While the common treat-ments for neuroblastoma, vin-cristine, cisplatin and retinoicacid, were not associated withthese problems, but survivorswho developed chronic healthconditions as a result of theircancer treatment were atincreased risk for the mentalhealth/behavioural issues, theresearchers said.

Neuroblastoma most com-monly affects children age 5 oryounger, though it may rarely

occur in older children.The study included 859

children younger than 18 whohad been diagnosed with neu-roblastoma at least five yearsearlier. Their median age atdiagnosis was 0.8 years andthey were followed for a medi-an of 13.3 years.

The researchers also foundthat neuroblastoma survivorswho developed mentalhealth/behavioural problemstended to require special edu-cation services and to not go onto college.

"Our hope is that thesefindings will help informstrategies for early screeningand intervention to identifythose survivors at highest riskfor developing psychologicaland educational impairmentlater on in life," Dr Kadan-Lottick said.

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Congress president RahulGandhi continued his

attack on Narendra Modi onSaturday alleging that it was thePrime Minister’s “blue-eyedboy” in the CBI who had dilut-ed the lookout notice againstfugitive businessman VijayMallya, allowing him to flee thecountry.

Taking to Twitter, Rahulalleged that it was AK Sharma,a Gujarat-cadre officer in theCentral Bureau of Investigation(CBI), who played a crucialrole in weakening the lookoutnotice against Mallya. He alsoalleged that the same officerplayed a key role in the escapeplans of fugitive diamondtraders Nirav Modi and MehulChoksi.

"CBI Jt Director, AKSharma, weakened Mallya’s"Look Out" notice, allowingMallya to escape. Mr Sharma,a Gujarat cadre officer, is thePM's blue-eyed-boy in theCBI. The same officer was incharge of Nirav Modi & MehulChoksi's escape plans.Ooops...Investigation! (sic),"he wrote on the microbloggingwebsite.

Rahul and his party haveaccused Modi and FinanceMinister Arun Jaitley of "help-ing" Mallya to flee the countryafter defaulting on bank loans.The Congress has demandedJaitley's resignation over theissue and a probe into howMallya escaped.

The 62-year-old tycoon,who is on bail on an extradi-tion warrant since his arrest inApril last year, is fightingextradition to India on chargesof fraud and money launder-ing amounting to around�9,000 crore.

Rahul's tweet came daysafter Mallya claimed that hehad met Jaitley before leavingthe country in March, 2016. "Imet the finance ministerbefore I left," the liquor baronhad told reporters Wednesdayoutside the WestminsterMagistrates' Court in London,where his extradition case isbeing heard.Jaitley has, how-ever, denied the chargesagainst him.

His party alleged that "23persons" involved in bankfrauds to the tune of �90,000crore fled the country duringthe BJP rule and dubbed it asparty which is "more loyal to acon-man than to a common

man". The Congress party said"the possibility of central gov-ernment's hand in relocation of23 fugitives abroad in pastfour years cannot be ruledout" and demanded an impar-tial probe into the issue.

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Countering charges ofCongress president Rahul

Gandhi, the CBI on Saturdaydefended itself by saying thatthere was no question of foul-play on its part in enablingliquor baron Vijay Mallya toflee the country. The CBI alsoclarified that at the time whenthe decision to downgradethe lookout circular againstMallya was taken, there werenot sufficient grounds for it todetain and arrest him.

"Decision was taken atthe appropriate level as a partof process and not individuallyby the officer as alleged," theCBI said. The agency hasbeen under scrutiny afterreported emerged that it hadchanged a 2015 Look OutCircular against liquor baronVijay Mallya from 'detain' to'inform about movement.

The clarifications comeat a time when the Congresshas upped the attack on thegovernment and on the CBI

for 'allowing' economicoffenders like Mallya and jew-ellers Nirav Modi and MehulChoksi to flee the country.Party president Rahul Gandhieven said that a Gujarat-cadreofficer with CBI had let thethree escape.

Earlier, the CBI had clar-ified that the change in theLook Out Notice against VijayMallya from detain to merelyinform was an "error" since hewas cooperating and therewas no warrant against him.

While Mallya is accused ofowing nearly �9,000 crore toIndian banks, Nirav andChoksi too have been chargedwith defrauding PunjabNational Bank of thousands ofcrores.

"CBI received a complaintagainst Nirav Modi and MehulChoksi from PNB almost amonth after they had left thecountry. Therefore the ques-tion of any CBI officer havingany hand in their fleeing thecountry does not arise," theagency said.

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Ahead of five Assemblypolls and Lok Sabha elec-

tions next year, Congress pres-ident Rahul Gandhi onSaturday appointed formerFinance Minister PChidambaram as theChairman of the ManifestoCommittee and Rajeev Gowdaas the convener ; formerDefence Minister AK Antonyas the Chairman ofCoordination Committee andJairam Ramesh as the con-vener and former CommerceMinister Anand Sharma asthe Chairman of the Publicitycommittee and Pawan Kheraas the convener. Last month,the Congress had formed threecommittees - a core groupcommittee, manifesto andpublicity committee ahead ofthe upcoming Lok Sabha elec-tions in 2019.

The committees will playa major role as they willdefine major strategies forthe general election. Most ofthe senior Congress leaders

are part of the committees.The core member com-

mittee has the big guns of theparty - AK Antony, GhulamNabi Azad, Ashok Gehlot,Mallikarjun Kharge, AhmedPatel, Jairam Ramesh, PChidambaram, RandeepSurjewala and KC Venugopal.

The 19-member Manifestocommittee also includes JairamRamesh, Salman Khurshid,Manpreet Singh Badal, ShashiTharoor, Sushmita Dev, RajeevGowda, Bhupinder SinghHooda, Sachin Rao, LaliteshTripathi, Bindu Krishnan,Raghuveer Meena, MeenakshiNatarajan, BalchandraMungekar, Rajni Patil, MukulSangma and Sam Pitroda. Thepublicity committee has a mixof the senior leaders and theyoung party leaders - AnandSharma, Surjewala, ManishTiwari, Pramod Tiwari, RajeevShukla, Divya Spandana,Milind Deora, Bhakta CharanDass, Jaiveer Shergill, PawanKhera, Kumar Ketkar, VDSatheesan and PraveenChakravarty. Earlier, announc-

ing the formation of these com-mittees, AICC GeneralSecretary Ashok Gehlot hadsaid with the constitution ofthese panels, the party is in elec-tion mode and will start thework of putting up a manifestoand draw strategy for publici-ty and coordination.

The Congress president alsoappointed office bearers, exec-utive committee and five districtcongress committee chief ofChhattisgarh. The Congressalso appointed state coordina-tors for Odisham West Bengal,Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa,Haryana, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh,Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.

Earlier, Congress presi-dent had on Friday cleared theappointment of nine newAICC secretaries and ascreening committee for poll-bound Telangana. SeniorCongress leader Bhakt CharanDass is the chairperson ofTelangana Screening com-mittee, while JothimaniSennimalai and SharmisthaMukherjee have been mademembers of the panel.

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Union Minister of Petroleum& Natural Gas and Skill

Development &Entrepreneurship, DharmendraPradhan on Saturday calledfor a collective introspection onthe changing nature of job pro-files and urged those responsi-ble for fashioning public poli-cy to zero in on the nature andavailability of future jobs.

Internet, he said, waschanging the character of theworkplace at a frenetic pace,and therefore, policy shapersneed to astutely comprehendthe jobs scenario.

Inaugurating the 11thGlobal Skills Summit, 2018,orgainsed by FICCI and theMinistry of Skill Development &Entrepreneurship, Pradhan saidthe belief that technology andinnovation were squeezing thejob space was a myth. Whilesome jobs were being squeezed,a multi-fold increase was beingwitnessed in many other sectorsdue to technological innovation.

India, he said, was blessedwith intellectual manpower,

and the time was ripe to chan-nelize this asset into creation ofgainful employment for thepeople endowed with the righttype of skills.

On the occasion, theMinister released two knowl-edge reports titled, 'Future ofJobs in India-2.0' and'Employer-led Models of JobCreation- Version:2'. The sum-mit also witnessed the launch ofinitiatives such the future skillscourses by NSDC; digital plat-form for blue collar skillingecosystem by Betterplace andrural e-commerce distributionsystem by Connect India.

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External Affairs Minister SushmaSwaraj and Uttar Pradesh Chief

Minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturdayjointly announced that the 15th ‘PravasiBhartiya Divas’ will be held in PrimeMinister Narendra Modi's constituencyVaranasi from January 21-23 andlaunched a dedicated website for the event.

The participants would also get anopportunity for 'Ardh Kumbh MelaSnan' in Allahabad and attend theRepublic Day parade in the NationalCapital, almost coinciding with theassembly of Non-Resident Indians inVaranasi.

The ambitious event organized bythe government for the Indian diasporais being projected as the first of its kindas the invitees will witness the cultur-al heritage of Varanasi and of Allahabadduring the ‘Ardh Kumbh Mela.’ Thetheme of PBD 2019 is the "Role of IndianDiaspora in building a New India".

Arrangements for the ‘Kumbh Snan’(holy bath) will be made at the Allahabad

‘Sangam’ (where three rivers join eachother) for the participants. ( 'Ard Kumbh'

is held every six years and currently thebudget preparation is pegged at and esti-mated �4200 crore.)

Those interested in participatingin the PBD can register on thePravasi Bhartiya Divas website tillNovember 15.

On the last day of event onJanuary 23, President Ram NathKovind will confer the PravasiBharatiya Samman Awards.

Talking to reporters here, Swarajsaid Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) isheld on January 9 every year, but thenext edition of the event has been post-poned by a few days after Indian dias-pora expressed interest in attending theKumbh Mela in Allahabad and RepublicDay celebrations in New Delhi.

So this event will be held aroundthe dates of the Kumb Mela and theRepublic Day parade. Swaraj said shewill interact with four Indian missionsto mark PBD on January 9. The mainevent will be launched by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on January 22.

"After the PBD convention, par-

ticipants will be taken to Kumbh Melaby bus on January 24. Then, partici-pants will travel from Prayagraj(Allahabad) to Delhi by train on thesame day. The railways will run specialPravasi Bharti train for them," she said.The external affairs minister also saidMauritian Prime Minister PravindJugnauth will be chief guest for theJanuary 22 main event while Norwayleader Himanshu Gulati and NewZealand MP Charanjit Singh Bakshiwill be special guests at the PBD eventto be held on January 21.

The event is jointly being held bythe Uttar Pradesh government and theMinistry of External Affairs.

Adityanath said his government ismaking arrangements to showcase the"Athithi Devo Bhava" culture of theholy city of Varanasi. He said it was agood opportunity for the state toshowcase its culture before the world."We will also make arrangements forIndian diaspora to witness culture ofvarious fields of the country at PravasiBharatiya Divas," he said.

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Typhoon Mangkhut lashedthe northern Philippines on

Saturday, with its powerfulwinds and rain setting off land-slides and destroying homes,leaving at least three peopledead and six missing, as thestorm barrelled toward south-ern China.

The most powerfultyphoon to hit the disaster-prone Philippines this yearslammed ashore before dawnin Cagayan province on thenortheastern tip of Luzonisland, a breadbasket that is alsoa region of flood-prone riceplains and mountain provinceswith a history of deadly land-slides.

China and the Philippinesagreed to postpone a visit byChinese Foreign MinisterWang Yi that was to startSunday due to the onslaught,which caused nearly 150 flights,a third of them international, tobe canceled and halted seatravel.

At least three people diedand six others were missing inthe mountain city of Baguioafter ferocious winds and raindestroyed several houses andset off landslides, which alsoblocked roads to the popularvacation destination, said thecity’s mayor, MauricioDomogan.

Authorities were verifyingthe drownings of three people,including two children whoreportedly died as the typhoonapproached.

They were also checking tosee what happened to about 70

men who reportedly returnedto their coastal village inCagayan to check on theirhomes as the typhoon drewcloser Friday, sparking con-cerns over possible stormsurges.

Mangkhut’s sustainedwinds weakened to 170 kilo-metres per hour with gusts ofup to 260 kph after it slicednorthwestward across Luzonthen blew out to the SouthChina Sea, aiming at southernChina and Hong Kong, whereresidents braced for the worst.

With the weather easing,officials warned there was lin-gering danger.

“It’s still a life and death sit-uation,” Defense SecretaryDelfin Lorenzana said byphone, citing past drownings inswollen rivers in mountainprovinces after storms havepassed.

Storm warnings remainedhoisted in 10 northernprovinces, including Cagayan,

which could still be lashed bydevastating winds, forecasterssaid. Thousands of people inthe typhoon’s path had beenevacuated. At daybreak inCagayan’s capital, Tuguegarao,Associated Press journalistssaw a severely damaged publicmarket, its roof ripped apartand wooden stalls and tarpau-lin canopies in disarray.

Outside a popular shop-ping mall, debris was scat-tered everywhere and govern-ment workers cleared roads offallen trees.

Many stores and houseswere damaged but most resi-dents remained indoors asoccasional gusts sent smallpieces of tin sheets and otherdebris flying dangerously.

The Tuguegarao airportterminal was badly damaged,its roof and glass windowsshattered by strong winds,which also sent chairs, tablesand papers flipping aboutinside, Lorenzana said.

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Awoman and her baby werekilled when a tree fell on

their house and several morestorm-related deaths werereported Friday as HurricaneFlorence slammed into theCarolinas, dousing the easternUS States with torrential rainand causing rivers to bursttheir banks.

Four deaths were con-firmed by officials as US mediareported another.

Hundreds of people need-ed to be rescued after becom-ing trapped in their homes bya storm surge of up to 10 feet(three meters) in New Bern, atown of 30,000 in NorthCarolina at the confluence ofthe Trent and Neuse rivers.

As of 8:00 pm (0000GMT), Florence was down-graded to a tropical storm bythe National Hurricane Center(NHC) but authorities warnedthe danger was far from over,predicting “life-threateningstorm surges and strong winds”would persist through thenight.

“We are expecting severalmore days of rain,” NorthCarolina Governor RoyCooper said, describing theamount of rainfall from thehurricane as a “1,000-yearevent.” “Into next week ourrivers are going to continue torise and there will be more sig-nificant flooding,” Cooper said.

There had been three con-firmed deaths from the stormand several others were beinginvestigated to determine ifthey were storm-related, hesaid.

The mother and her baby

were killed in New HanoverCounty when a tree fell on theirhouse, the governor said, whileconfirming another death inLenoir County.

Local authorities reporteda death in Pender Countywhen downed trees preventedemergency units from reachinga woman with a medical con-dition. Local media said shehad suffered a heart attack.

US media later said a sec-ond man in Lenoir Countydied after heavy winds knockedhim down as he tried to checkon his dogs.

“This storm is going tocontinue its violent grind acrossour state for days,” Coopersaid. “The storm is wreakinghavoc on our state.” More than760,000 customers in NorthCarolina were without powerand 21,000 people were beinghoused in 157 shelters acrossthe state.

The White House said

President Donald Trump wasto visit hurricane-hit areas nextweek “once it is determined histravel will not disrupt any res-cue or recovery efforts.”

As of 8:00 pm (local time),maximum sustained winds hadweakened to 70 miles per hourbut the NHC warned Carolinaresidents to be alert for life-threatening storm surges and“catastrophic freshwater flood-ing.” “Flash flooding will beextreme and flood waters willcome up quickly and seeminglyout of nowhere,” the governorsaid.

“We’re deeply concernedfor whole communities whichcould be wiped away.” Some ofthe worst flooding was in NewBern, where authorities wereenforcing a curfew.

Both the Trent and Neuserivers overflowed their banks,flooding homes, stores andstreets and trapping many peo-ple in their houses.

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Los Angeles: NASA’s mostadvanced space laser satelliteblasted off Saturday on a mis-sion to track ice loss around theworld and improve forecasts ofsea level rise as the climatewarms.

Cloaked in pre-dawn dark-ness, the USD 1 billion, half-ton ICESat-2 launched aboarda Delta II rocket fromVandenberg Air Force base inCalifornia at 6:02 am (localtime).

“Three, two one, liftoff!”said a launch commentator onNASA television.

“Lifting ICESat-2 on aquest to explore the polar icesheets of our constantly chang-ing home planet.” The launchmarks the first time in nearlya decade that NASA has had atool in orbit to measure icesheet surface elevation across

the globe. The preceding mis-sion, ICESat, launched in 2003and ended in 2009. The firstICESat revealed that sea ice wasthinning, and ice cover was dis-appearing from coastal areas inGreenland and Antarctica.

In the intervening nineyears, an aircraft mission calledOperation IceBridge, has flownover the Arctic and Antarctic,taking height measurements ofthe changing ice.

But a view from space -especially with the latest tech-nology - should be far moreprecise.

The new laser will fire10,000 times in one second,compared to the originalICESat which fired 40 times asecond.

Measurements will betaken every 2.3 feet (0.7 meters)along the satellite’s path. AFP

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As Tropical Storm Florenceinundated the Carolinas

on Friday, President DonaldTrump circled back to his claimthat the official death toll froma devastating storm a year ear-lier in Puerto Rico was inflated and said thenumber of dead seemed to risefrom double digits to 3,000“like magic.”

Public health experts haveestimated that nearly 3,000perished because of the effectsof Hurricane Maria.

But Trump, whose effortsto help the island territoryrecover have been persistentlycriticised, has repeatedly ques-tioned that number over thelast couple of days.

“FIFTY TIMES LASTORIGINAL NUMBER - NOWAY!” he tweeted late Friday.

Trump falsely accusedDemocrats on Thursday ofinflating the Puerto Rican tollto make him “look as bad aspossible.”

He said just six to 18 peo-ple had been reported deadwhen he visited two weeksafter the October 2017 stormand suggested that many hadbeen added later “if a persondied for any reason, like oldage.”

When Trump visitedPuerto Rico, the death toll atthe time was indeed 16 people.

The number was laterraised to 64, but theGovernment then commis-sioned an independent study to deter-mine how many died becauseof post-storm conditions.

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Tunisia’s ruling party hassuspended Prime Minister

Youssef Chahed in the latestescalation of a row with thepresident’s son that has paral-ysed key decisions on the trou-bled economy.

The North African countryis often portrayed as the lonesuccess story of the Arab Springof 2011 but more than sevenyears after the ouster of long-time strongman Zine ElAbidine Ben Ali it is still bat-tling high inflation and unem-ployment and sometimes vio-lent social unrest.

Nidaa Tounes announcedChahed’s referral to its disci-plinary committee late onFriday after he delivered astinging attack on infightingwithin the party that he saidwas restricting his govern-ment’s ability to revive theeconomy.

“Secondary political con-flicts.. Have disrupted the workof the government, holding itback and blocking the reformprocess and the decisions nec-essary to achieve economicgrowth,” he said in a televisedaddress to a policy confer-ence.

The ruling party is led byPresident Beji Caid Essebsi’sson Hafedh, who has beenbattling to oust the premier formonths.

The power struggle previ-ously came to a head in July,when the president himselfcalled on Chahed to resign.

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The United States has calledan urgent meeting of the

UN Security Council forMonday in response to what itsays are efforts by some coun-tries “to undermine andobstruct” sanctions againstNorth Korea.

The US Missionannounced Friday evening thatthe meeting will “discuss theimplementation and enforce-ment of UN sanctions onNorth Korea.”

The mission didn’t nameany countries, but USAmbassador Nikki Haleyaccused Russia on Thursday ofpressuring an independentpanel of UN experts to alter areport on North Korea sanc-tions that included alleged vio-lations “implicating Russianactors.” Haley said the panelshould release the original

report, which cited “a massiveincrease in illicit ship-to-shiptransfers of petroleum prod-ucts” for North Korea in vio-lation of UN sanctions.

It said some productsallegedly were off-loaded fromRussian ships, which wereidentified in the report.

A summary of the expertsreport obtained in early Augustby The Associated Press alsosaid North Korea has notstopped its nuclear and missileprograms. And it said NorthKorea is violating sanctions bytransferring coal at sea andflouting an arms embargo andfinancial sanctions.

The Security Council ini-tially imposed sanctions onNorth Korea after its firstnuclear test in 2006 and hasmade them tougher andtougher in response to furthernuclear tests and an increas-ingly sophisticated ballistic

missile program.Haley said earlier this year

that successively tough SecurityCouncil sanctions resolutionsadopted unanimously had cutoff all North Korean exports, 90percent of its trade, and dis-banded its pool of workers sendabroad to earn hard currency.

Many diplomats and ana-lysts credit the sanctions withhelping promote the thaw inrelations between North Koreaand South Korea as well as theJune meeting betweenPresident Donald Trump andNorth Korean leader Kim JongUn at which they agreed to thedenuclearization of the KoreanPeninsula.

But in July, US Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo accusedNorth Korea of “illegally smug-gling” in refined petroleumproducts beyond the annualquota of 5,00,000 barrelsallowed under U.N. Sanctions.

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&��'��� ����� ������(&��� ������������������Baghdad: The Iraqi parliamentelected the candidate of a pro-Iran list as speaker on Saturday,paving the way for the forma-tion of a government morethan four months after leg-islative polls.

The country has been inpolitical paralysis since theMay 12 ballot, but the electionof a speaker is expected to

solidify new parliamentaryalliances.

Iraq has a proportionalsystem aimed at preventing aslide back into dictatorship fol-lowing the 2003 ouster ofSaddam Hussein.

The lists elected duringlegislative polls must first formcoalitions. The bloc with themost members appoints the

prime minister and presidesover the formation of the nextgovernment.

The pro-Iran bloc led byHadi al-Ameri’s ConquestAlliance -- a coalition of anti-jihadist veterans close toTehran -- looked positioned totake the lead Saturday after theelection of its candidate,Mohammed al-Halbusi. AFP

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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley onSaturday said the Government’s

decision to increase the remunera-tion of Anganwadi and Asha work-ers by almost 50 per cent will go along way in addressing the griev-ances of these 25 lakh workers.

Stating that there has been along-time demand of Anganwadiworkers and their helpers to givethem a reasonable remuneration,Jaitley said the Governments in thepast have always refrained from giv-ing benefits to these workers osten-sibly on revenue considerations.

“Notwithstanding the pressureon the Budget, the Government hasgiven almost a 50% hike in the firstgo to these workers. This will go along way in addressing the grievanceof these workers,” he wrote in aFacebook post.

Earlier this week, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had announced ahike in the monthly honorarium for

Asha and Anganwadi workers fromOctober.

The remuneration of theAnganwadi workers has been raisedfrom �3,000 to �4,500 per month;the mini Anganwadi workers’ payhas been hiked from �2,250 to�3,500. Remuneration of Anganwadihelpers has been increased from�1,500 to �2,250 per month.

These workers will also get anincentive of �500 per month and�250 per month respectively on thebasis of the real time monitoring ofperformance.

Jaitley said the Anganwadiworkers are the mainstay of theNational Nutrition Mission.Thereare approximately 12.9 lakhAnganwadi workers and 11.6 lakhAnganwadi helpers in the country.These benefits would be available tothese 24.9 lakh Anganwadi workersand their families, the ministersaid.

In the post titled ‘Two success-ful initiatives of the Central

Government’, Jaitley said in the pastthere has been a general distrust ofgovernment schemes.

“The principal reason for thisis that either the benefits don’treach the targeted or that the pro-jected parameters are neverachieved.

However, there are schemeswith a difference. The Swachh BharatAbhiyan is arguably the most suc-cessful one,” he said.

Jaitley said when Prime MinisterNarendra Modi announced theSwachhata campaign in hisIndependence Day Speech of 2014,the rural sanitation coverage ofIndia was 39 per cent.

As we have completed nearlyfour years of the scheme, 39 per centrural sanitation coverage hasincreased to a phenomenal 92 percent.

This was not an easy goal toachieve and this involved a behav-ioural change of the people, Jaitleysaid.

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West Bengal Consumer Affairs MinisterSadhan Pande on Saturday said the price

of petrol blended with ethanol should bereduced and consumers must be informed thatthey are buying blended fuel.

Retail petro dealers should arrange for the ade-quate display of this information, he said on thesidelines of MCCI India Economic Forum 2018.

Refiners are blending 10 per cent ethanolwith petrol, Pande said adding “Keeping con-sumers in the dark about ethanol being mixedwith petrol at the pumps is an act of cheating.Consumers should be made aware of this.”

If ethanol is mixed then the price of petrolshould be reduced.

“I have been informed that the Centre hasearned �12,000 crore in the last fiscal throughthis practice,” Pande, a senior TrinamoolCongress leader said.

The price of fuel has skyrocketed in thedomestic market and is at an all time highprompting the opposition parties to demandreduction in its prices.

Ethanol being a hydroscopic productabsorbs water and affects the mileage of the vehi-cle, the consumer affairs minister said.

Pande said he wrote to the petroleum min-istry and urged it to create awareness amongconsumers about the ethanol blended petrolbeing sold to them.

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The Government shouldfocus on boosting exports

to check the widening currentaccount deficit as imposingcurbs on imports may nothave a significant impact,exporters’ body FIEO said onSaturday.

Federation of IndianExport Organisations (FIEO)President Ganesh Gupta saidthe Government should notrestrict imports to address ris-ing current account deficit(CAD) and fall in rupee.

“I do not think that weshould restrict imports unless wewant to join bandwagon of pro-tectionism and hope that it willspur Make in India,” he added.

He also said that CAD at 2.5per cent of GDP should not bea cause of concern as anythingbelow 3 per cent is not alarming.

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The market extended its decline for secondstraight week with BSE Sensex lossing

another 299.18 points to close 38,090.64 and thebroader Nifty falling 73.90 points to finish at11,515.20.

The truncated and volatile week saw the stockmarket enduring initial bitter losses as rupee sta-bilised during late session after initial record lows.

The key indices fell sharply for the two sessionsduring start of the week, marking one month lowsto revisit 37K-level impacted by escalating tradewar concerns and global slide after US PresidentDonald Trump threatened to impose higher tar-iffs on China, also the negative sentiments onexpectation of US Fed rate hike this month.

While the rupee crashed to fresh record lowson rising crude, strengthening dollar and widen-ing current account deficit, the 10 year-yieldsurged, so did the stocks selling pressure.

However, the market rebounded and cappedthe weeks larger losses after an government offi-cial assurance on measures to support the rupeeafter a planned review of the economy by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi this weekend.

The assurance led the rupee recovery fromrecord lows, it was further supported by datareleased by the Central Statistics Office on cool-ing of retail inflation (CPI).

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MUMBAI: Air chartered ser-vices provider JetSetGo-ownedSkyShuttle on Saturdayannounced the launch of itsshared business jet and chop-per services from Monday.

The Delhi-based non-scheduled carrier, in whichcricketer Yuvraj Singh is one ofthe investors, will fly twicedaily services to Tarapur inMaharashtra’s Palghar districtand neighbouring Vapi in

Gujarat from the city's Juhuaerodrome with a five-seaterBell helicopter, JetSetGo chiefexecutive and co-founderKanika Tekriwal said.

The Mumbai-Bangaloreservice will be catered by a jet-liner, she added.

The company wants to uselearnings from these routes tofurther expand offerings acrossthe country going forward,Tekriwal said. PTI

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Lewis Hamilton produced a 'magic lap' to beatchampionship rival Sebastian Vettel for pole

position in the Singapore Grand Prix here onSaturday.

Ferrari seemed the faster car all weekend untilHamilton came up with a 1:36.105 in his first runin Q3. Vettlel was not able to respond to that andended third fastest with a 1:36.628.

Max Verstappen, in the Red Bull, was three-tenths faster than the German and will start onthe front row with Hamilton.

Hamilton was not able to improve on hisremarkable first run but it was enough to providehim with the ideal launchpad for the race onSunday as he looks to increase the 30-point cham-

pionship lead over Vettel."That lap felt like magic. Don't know where

it came from. I am super overwhelmed," saidHamilton.

Valtteri Bottas was fourth in the otherMercedes, followed by Kimi Raikkonen andDaniel Ricciardo.

Sergio Perez was seventh fastest for ForceIndia while his teammate Esteban Ocon was ninthwith Romain Grosjean of Haas sandwichedbetween them. Nico Hulkenberg of Renaultcompleted the top-10.

Earlier, the drivers who were eliminated in Q1were Kevin Magnussen, Brendon Hartley, StoffelVandoorne, Sergey Sirotkin and Lance Stroll. Itwas the eighth time in the season that Sirotkin andStroll of Williams were knocked out in the firstsession.

What caught most attention was the slow paceof the mighty Mercedes as Bottas and Hamiltonset the 12th and 14th fastest times respectively.

However, the reigning champion bouncedback quickly in Q2, becoming the first driver tobreak into the 1:37s before Ricciardo andVerstappen did the same in the Red Bull, followedby Bottas and the two Ferraris of Raikkonen andVettel.

Charles Leclerc, who will be making his bigmove from Sauber to Ferrari next year, had a nervymoment when he brushed the wall coming outof Turn 21.

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Mushfiqur Rahim hit a superbhundred under pressure asBangladesh scored a compet-

itive 261 against Sri Lanka despiteLasith Malinga wreaking havoc on hisinternational comeback in the AsiaCup opener on Saturday.

Mushfiqur scored a career-best144 off 150 balls with 11 boundariesand four sixes, his sixth hundred inODIs.

Save 131-run stand withMohammed Mithun (63) for the thirdwicket, the former skipper didn't getany assistance from other batsmen asthe wily Malinga showed that he is stilla force to reckon with.

Malinga, who last played againstIndia in a home series September 2017,took 4/23 on his return.

Opener Tamim Iqbal's heroic actwill also be remembered by one and allas he came out to bat despite havingretired hurt with a fractured wrist.Tamim allowed Mushfiqur to have onefinal blast during the slog overs.

Once Malinga and off-spinnerDhananjaya de Silva (2/38) reducedBangladesh to 203/8, Mushfiqur shield-ed no 11 Mustafizur Rahaman (10)during the 26-run stand.

Once Mustafizur was out, Tamimremoved his hand-cast and came outin order to allow his partner to play thefinal three overs.

The Tamim-Mushfiqur pair addedan invaluable 32 runs in 2.4 overs andit could well be crucial in the final con-text of the match.

However Malinga's superb effortwas story of the initial part of thematch. Coming back from semi-retirement with a slight paunch and ashorter run-up, Malinga showed hismastery as he bowled four differentdeliveries to get his scalps.

Liton Das (0) nicked an outswingerin the slip cordon, Shakib Al Hasan (0)was castled by his signature inswing-ing yorker, Mithun skied a slower deliv-ery while Mosddek Hossain was donein by a slow bouncer.

Even Mushfiqur failed to scoreruns off the slinger who bowled asmany as 44 dot balls and didn't con-cede a single boundary in his 10overs.

However the seasoned Mushfiqurgot runs off spinners, scoring on bothsides of the wicket. He used his feetwell against left-arm spinner MalmigaAponso and off-spinners DilruwanPerera and De Silva.

However as wickets fell at theother end, it became difficult forMushfiqur, who considerably sloweddown in his 90's. His hundred came

with a glide off Suranga Lakmal off 123balls.

But once Mustafizur was out andinjured Tamim came in for support,Mushfiqur just cut loose getting 32runs in 2.4 overs before he was the lastbatsman to be dismissed.

Tamim however will not take anyfurther part in the tournament as hewill be out with a broken wrist.

��#�����������������#��In the second game of the tourna-

ment on Sunday, two times championwill face Hong Kong in group A open-er.

Pakistan is placed in group A

along with India and Hong Kong andbefore the big clash against India on19th, Pakistan will like to start on apositive note by beating Hong Konghere on Sunday.

For Pakistan, their strength hasalways been their fierce bowling whichconsists of Mohammed Amir, JunaidKhan.

But this time Pak is laced up withquality batsmen like Fakhar Zaman,who is coming into this tournamentafter smashing double century againstZimbabwe in the last series featuringPakistan.

While Hong Kong will look to getan upset in the game.

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Rising sensation Rishabh Pant,who scored his maiden Test hun-

dred in England, will play the firstthree matches for Delhi in theupcoming Vijay Hazare Trophy, start-ing September 19.

However, veteran Ishant Sharmahas been rested after a gruellingEngland series where he sustained anankle injury on the fourth day of thefifth Test.

The 15-member team will be ledby Gautam Gambhir and DhruvShorey will be his deputy. Gambhirhas been handed back the captaincyafter a gap of one year.

Pant, who captained Delhi toRanji Trophy final last year, didn'ttake up the leadership role as he is acertainty in the Indian Test squad forthe West Indies series, startingOctober 4.

With the consistent Shorey alsoexpected to travel to New Zealandwith the India A team, the selectioncommittee chaired by Amit Bhandaridecided to fall back on the experienceof Gambhir, who is no longer innational reckoning.

The only new face in the squadis rookie all-rounder PranshuVajayran, who bats left handed andbowls medium.

All the performers of last yearalong with talented players from U-22 side has been picked for thetournament.

Reasonably experienced playerslike Unmukt Chand, Manan Sharma,Nitish Rana and Pawan Negi are allin the squad along with youngsterslike basmen Lalit Yadav and HitenDalal.

Squad: Gautam Gambhir (cap-tain), Dhruv Shorey (vc), RishabhPant (wk), Unmukt Chand, NitishRana, Himmat Singh, MananSharma, Pawan Negi, Hiten Dalal,Lalit Yadav, Navdeep Saini, GauravKumar, Kulwant Khejroliya,Simarjeet Singh, Pranshu Vijayran.

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Human civilisation undergoes majorshifts from time to time. Tamil Naduis experiencing such a civilisationalchange, a change in the basic politicallandscape. Whether the change is

taking the State to better days or worse is beingdiscussed widely all over the country. We haveseen civilisational changes leading to destructionas well as reconstruction of societies. Culture,lifestyle, geography, climate, and ecology all vanishat one phase only to reappear in another form.There were instances of empires and kingdomsdisappearing without any trace. We have seen theVedic-era River Saraswati — the banks of whichsaw a flourishing civilisation and which was saidto be flowing through North India to dischargeinto the Arabian Sea — disappearing from the faceof the earth only to be retraced and reinventedthousands of years later by modern-day scientists.The same is the case with River Saradha, the rem-nants of which have been detected in Odisha.

In Tamil Nadu, the present-day generation iswitnessing the spectacle of a tectonic shift in theState’s political skyline. The Dravidian dreamrun is coming to an end even as the State isunder the threat of a rapid regression. The stagefor the de-Dravidianisation of Tamil Nadu beganin December 2016 with the demise ofJayalalithaa, the then Chief Minister andAIADMK chief. Jayalalithaa, a spinster, passedaway without nominating an heir and the resultis there for all to see. The AIADMK disinte-grated into three to four factions by2017, the birth centenary year ofMG Ramachandran, thefounder of the party. There isno charismatic leader in theAIADMK and it wasknown that the partywould soon weaken.

MuthuvelKarunanidhi, the long-serving chief of the DMKtoo left this world earlyAugust, causing jitters inthe party. Karunanidhi,who was elected presidentof the party in 1969, hadover the past 50 years con-verted the DMK into a familyenterprise. Nobody other thanhis close family members coulddream of getting any important positionin the party or in the Government (whenever theDMK was ruling the State).

With his passing away, the General Council ofthe DMK, which had been jampacked with familyloyalists, elected MK Stalin, his second son by hissecond wife, as the party president. MK Alagiri,his elder son, had made his displeasure known byopenly revolting against Stalin and dragging thesuccession issue to the streets. The DMK Trust,which controls properties worth thousands ofcrores all over Tamil Nadu, too, has gone into thehands of Stalin and his family. The DMK hasbecome the Congress of Tamil Nadu. With Alagiri,the former southern chieftain of the DMK declar-ing his battle royale against Stalin and his cronies,the Dravidian major too is in for a major crisis.

The Dravidian regime in Tamil Nadu began in1967 as a consequence of the anti-Hindi agitationwhich rocked the State in the early 1960s. Politicalcommentators and authors describe the anti-Hindiagitation as a manifestation of the anti-Hindu feel-ings, especially the anti-Brahmin feelings preva-lent in the State. The word ‘Dravida’ itself is a mis-nomer and has been coined out of context by asection of politicians in Tamil Nadu to serve theirvested interests. Scholars like Dr SubramanianSwamy say that the term ‘Dravida’ and ‘Aryan’have been used to pollute Indian history to servethe causes of the British colonial masters.

“Dravida was first used by Adi Shankara in

the famous debate he hadwith the Buddhist scholar, MandanaMisra. Adi Shankara was asked whohe was and he said he was Dravidashishu or child. Dravida is a com-bination of ‘Thra’ and ‘Vidu’,which means ‘three’ and ‘coast’ respec-tively. This means that Dravida is the land of three coasts. ‘Aryan’ is not a word in Sanskrit. Aryaputhra or Aryaputhriwere terms used to address men andwomen of learning and who possess good qualities,” says Dr Swamy.

The anti-Hindi agitation in TamilNadu went out of the Government’s con-trol following the suicide by a person atThiruchirappali Railway Station on January25, 1965, according to N Kalyanasundaram, achronicler of Tamil Nadu politics. “This man sethimself ablaze following a quarrel with his wife.Anbil Dharmalingam, the DMK leader, portrayedit as a self-immolation against Hindi and it caughtup with the people. Dharmalingam was later madea Minister by the DMK leadership for the servicerendered by him,” said Kalyanasundaram, whowas a witness to the suicide.

The word ‘Dravidan’ has an inherent anti-Indiafeeling in it. The average Tamilian, who grew up inan anti-Hindi and anti-Aryan surrounding, feelsthat he/she is not a part of mainland India. TheDravidian regime, which came to power for the

first time in 1967 and is since ruling the Statealternately by way of the two factions,

has done a lot of damage to thenational fabric. CN Annadurai,

during his tenure as a memberof the Rajya Sabha, is on

record demanding thesecession of Tamil Nadufrom the Union of Indiaand formation of a sepa-rate country by the name,Dravida Nadu. Thoughthe DMK was forced toput the demand on theback burner following the

16th amendment of theConstitution, the clamour

for Dravida Nadu is stillstrong in the DMK and some

outfits with a Dravidian tag.Stalin had suggested on March

17 at Erode that the Southern Statesshould come together and demand the forma-tion of Dravida Land. K Thirunavakkarassu, theDMK historian, said it was a possibility. “TheDMK Constitution is clear on this. The partystands for the formation of Dravida Nadu,” hehad said following the demand by Stalin.

Most Indians are not aware of the intensity ofthe anti-Hindi campaign by the Dravidian parties.Tamil Nadu is the only State in the country whichdoes not have even a single Jawahar NavodayaVidyalaya, public schools offering free educationto rural poor in the country. While all districts inthe country have such schools in most backwardregions, Tamil Nadu’s Dravidian parties, the DMKand the AIADMK, have declared such institutionsunwelcome in the State.

“The Navodaya Vidyalaya system is a uniqueexperiment unparalleled in the annals of schooleducation in the country and provides the bestresidential school system irrespective of a child’seconomic condition. This was introduced as apart of a new education policy of the RajivGandhi Government in 1985,” said YR Johnson, aformer principal of Navodaya Vidyalaya, whoresides in Kanyakumari. Johnson and his friendshad approached the Madras High Court with aplea to direct the Tamil Nadu Government to takesteps to launch Navodaya schools in the State.Though the Madras High Court ordered theopening of such schools by July 2017, the

DravidianGovernment got the

order stayed by the apex court.“Such schools would lead to the impo-

sition of Sanskrit and Hindi on Tamil stu-dents,” argued the State in the court.

Sreesailam Unnikrishnan, aMalayalam professor and a revered lin-guist, says that the Dravidian leaders’ pas-sion for Tamil has crossed all limits ofsensibility. “They are still led by the argu-ments put forward by Robert Caldwell, anevangelist, who proposed the theory thatTamil was a unique language and part ofthe Dravidian language. There is no scien-tific proof for this theory. All languagesare equally unique. Nobody questions onwhat authority an evangelist spoke aboutTamil,” said Prof Unnikrishnan.

Interestingly, the children and grandchil-dren of all Tamil chauvinistic leaders studyin high-end public schools where speakingTamil is an offence punishable with heftyfines. Stalin’s daughter Chenthamarai ownsSunshine Public School in Chennai wherespeaking Tamil would land the students introuble. “This is a part of an attempt tomake Tamil Nadu a separate country withinIndia. The Dravidian party leaders wouldclaim that the State is a separate entity wherethere is no Hindi and Sanskrit. Tamil Naduis the only State opposing NEET and doesnot allow Hindi or Sanskrit in schools,” saidH Raja, National Secretary, the BJP.

The sense of alienation, which is dis-cernible among the average Tamilian, is thebalance sheet of the 50-year-long Dravidianrule. It is sad to see that the Congress, whichhad ruled the State till 1967, stands as a mutespectator to the Dravidian’s resistance tolaunch Navodaya Vidyalayas in Tamil Nadu, adream project of their leader, late RajivGandhi. The industrialisation of Tamil Naduhad come to an end in 1967 with the changeof Government at Fort Saint George inChennai. The never-ending Cauvery Riverwater sharing imbroglio, the demand for theretrieval of Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka, the

campaign for thecreation of TamilEelam in Sri Lankaare the major narra-tives in Tamil Nadu’spolitical discourse.

What did theDMK do for theState when it waswielding power atthe Centre from2004 to 2013?Karunanidhi’sgrand nephew,Dayanidhi Maran,was made aCabinet Ministerwith the portfolio

of Information Technology andTelecommunications, TR Baalu was madeMinister for shipping and surface transport,two of the money-spinning Ministries.When fight erupted in the family over shar-ing of the booty, Dayanidhi was removedand replaced by A Raja, friend ofKanimozhi, Karunanidhi’s daughter by histhird wife, Rajathi.

The family’s fortunes saw a manifoldjump during this period. Following thedisclosures by The Pioneer about the 2Gscam, Raja lost his ministership. Both heand Kanimozhi were arrested and sent toTihar Jail. By that time, Karunanidhi hadlost much of his bargaining power withthe Congress. The DMK withdrew supportto the UPA Government in 2013, citingthe failure of the Manmohan Singh-ledGovernment to save the Sri Lankan Tamilsfrom ethnic pogrom by the Army of theisland nation. The Sri Lankan civil war gotover in 2009 itself, with the Army killingPrabhakaran and his associates. ButKarunanidhi had to give a valid reason tojustify his decision to withdraw support tothe Congress Government. The real reasonbehind the DMK’s decision to walk out ofthe UPA Government was the failure ofthe Congress to save Kanimozhi from theignominy of going to jail in the multi-crore 2G Spectrum scam, which is out ofthe public mind now.

The demise of Jayalalithaa andKarunanidhi within a span of two years hasleft a big void in Tamil Nadu politics. Thestrength of Dravidian parties, too, has erod-ed over the past two decades because ofmany reasons. Scientific breakthroughs inhuman genome sequencing and DNA stud-ies have proved beyond doubt that therewere no Aryans or Dravidians in the coun-try. “The concept was brought in by the EastIndia Company and the British rulers as partof their plan to turn North India againstSouth India. There is no historical, archaeo-logical, literary or scientific proof for theArya-Dravidian divide,” said PG Haridas,professor of history, Mahatma GandhiUniversity. He pointed out that BreakingIndia, a comprehensive research workauthored by Rajiv Malhotra and AravindanNeelakandan, hit the last nail in the coffin of the Dravidian theory.

Nicholas Kazanas, the Greek Indologist,expressed his shock over the infatuation ofthe Dravida parties for Dravidian theory.“The whole world is saying that India isculturally, historically, and educationallyahead of others. But these politicians inTamil Nadu are still hanging on to this out-dated theory,” said Prof Kazanas, an author-ity on Vedas and Sanskrit.

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What has happenedwith Jayalalithaaand Karunanidhi

leaving the centrestage is thesudden appearance of manyfringe groups funded andsponsored by NGOs, theChurch, and various Islamistorganistions. “There is arapid regression in TamilNadu. What we saw as thefarmers’ protest in New Delhistaged by AyyakannuPonnusamy and his associ-ates was the manifestation ofthese fringe elements. Theyoffered the internationalmedia an opportunity to por-tray India in a poor light,”said an author who wasforced to leave Chennaibecause of her open criticismof the Jallikattu agitation atMarina Beach in January2017. No human rightsorganisation — of whichthere is no dearth in Chennai— came to her rescue whenshe was issued death threatsby the fringe elements.

“If Tamil Nadu has to besaved from the grip of theseanti-national elements, it willneed a dose of nationalism.The BJP seems to be the onlyparty capable of doing it,”

said Dr Swamy. TheCongress, which has beenriding piggyback on eitherthe AIADMK or DMK, is apale shadow of what it was inthe 1960s. The other day sawthe TNCC headquartersbecoming a battleground, asthe factions owing allegianceto various leaders scuffled inthe presence of the media.The DMK is in for majortrouble as Alagiri hinted onSeptember 5 that he will cre-ate problems for his youngerbrother Stalin, who hasbecome the party president.If Stalin antagonises Alagiri,a specialist in winning elec-tions, his dream of becomingthe CM of Tamil Nadu wouldremain unfulfilled. The DMKhas degenerated into a familyenterprise and that is the rootcause of its weakening.

Stalin is controlled by hiswife Durga, son Dayanidhi,and son-in-law Sabareesan.Since Alagiri’s wife Kanthibelongs to the ScheduledCaste, other members of theKarunanidhi clan are yet toaccept her as a member ofthe family and that is whyAlagiri has been kept awayfrom the party by Stalin, says

Raveenthrhan Thuraiswamy,a close associate of the familyand a political analyst inChennai. The DMK is notfree of caste politics, but itpractices it secretly. It isthrough those who are closeto the K-clan that informa-tion comes out through theiron curtains ofGopalapuram.

Though the AIADMKhas become weak, it has notenthused leaders like EVKS

Elangovan, former UnionMinister and Congressleader. “Many fringe groupsare showing keen interest inan alliance with the DMK.There are 39 Lok Sabha seatsin Tamil Nadu and it is goingto be a tough job for Stalin tosatisfy one and all,” saidElangovan, who prefers afront lead by the DMK —one that includes theCongress, the PMK (an outfitof the Vanniyar community),

the Left, and Islamists. The splinter political out-

fits are causing concern toleaders of major political par-ties. Udhayakumar, the anti-nuclear power plant man;Seeman, who claims to be thespokesman of Sri LankanTamils and Eelam;Thirumurugan Gandhi, and ahost of others who enteredthe political landscape afterthe death of Jayalalithaa areto be watched out for. They

may not be commanding anymajor base in the State, butthe damage they could causeis a worrisome factor.

The agitation against thehydrocarbon plants, theopposition against theChennai-Salem GreenCorridor, the resentmentagainst the Indian NutrinoObservatory, and the oppo-sition towards NEET and theEnayam high end port areproof that something isbrewing in Tamil Nadu. Ifthe national parties playtheir cards well, the Statemay see a tectonic shift fromDravidian politics that hasdegenerated Tamil Nadu.Though there are fringeparties like the DMDK (ledby film actor Vijayakanth),MDMK (led by the volatileVaiko), and PMK (led by SRamadoss, whose only mis-sion seems to be to makehis son the CM of TamilNadu), they are all of nui-sance value only.

Political commentatorand thinker TM Menon, long-time resident of Tamil Naduwho watched the Dravidianpolitics for more than fourdecades, says that neither theDMK nor AIADMK are both-ered about the welfare of thepeople or the progress of theState. “Their humongous mis-takes are elevation of Tamil

sub-nationality to the highestpedestal, cultivation of theethnic separatism, and divi-sive identity politics, thescorning of Indian nationalpride, all of which eventuallyled to the decline of patrio-tism in Tamil Nadu’s publicspace. The Dravidian partiesare too dangerous for ournationhood, democracy and atrue federal system, and henceunacceptable,” said Menon.He is also of the view that thetwo superstars of Tamil film-dom, Rajinikanth and KamalHassan, who have declaredtheir political ambitions, aredoomed to fail. “One cannotunderstand what Hassan says;nothing makes sense. Bothactors are on the wrong sideof 60 and do not have time toreach out to the Tamil peo-ple,” said Menon.

People in Tamil Nadu areslowly understanding thefrauds being played on themby the DMK and AIADMK.They are becoming consciousof the fact that the DMK is afamily-owned enterprisewhere only members withthe DNA of Karunanidhi canaspire for important posi-tions. The rest have to becontent with the crumbsthrown at them by Stalin andfamily members.

There is a silver liningamidst all this chaos, though.

More people in Tamil Naduhave started learning Hindithrough the Dakshina BharatHindi Prachar Sabha(DBHPS) in spite of StateGovernment’s hatred of thenational language. “Despitethe fact that Hindi is nottaught in Governmentschools in the State, 2017 saw1.28 lakh students appearingfor the basic examinationheld by the Sabha,” said SJayaraj, secretary, DBHPS.There are nearly 11,000Hindi pracharaks working inthe State, he added.

Tamil Nadu is waiting fora leader who can connectwith them and convincethem that Tamils are equal topeople in other States of thecountry. Air-conditioned car-avans and chartered aircraftwould not get you the loyaltyand respect anymore. Take acue from the style of late NTRama Rao and lateRajasekhara Reddy of theneighbouring AndhraPradesh. Or observe the likesof Capt Amarinder Singh ofPunjab or Yogi Adityanath ofUttar Pradesh or Sachin Pilotof Rajasthan. Tamil Nadu iswaiting for a change from thefilmi style family-orienteddynasty politics and mafiarule. Tamilians want to getout of the Dravida Naduphobia; lead them.

The significance of Guwahati isoften reduced to its connectionwith Kamakhya Temple, whichis one of the Hindu ShaktiPeethas, or its proximity to the

Kaziranga National Park, which has beengiven the tag of a World Heritage Site byUNESCO. But there is a lot more toGuwahati, the largest city of Assam. Therich history of Ahom kingdom and its sub-sequent merging with British Assam addsa colourful layer to the rich legacy ofGuwahati. A combination of mythologyand textbook history needs to be lookedinto to get a taste of the many stories thatthis place has to offer.

Legend has it that this land was onceknown as Pragjyotishpura and was ruledby a demon king named Narakasura, whowas later killed by Hindu God, Krishna.King Narakasura’s son Bhagadutta isbelieved to have sided with the Kauravasin the battle of Mahabharata. Another taleconnects Guwahati with Hindu GodShiva, who is believed to have come herefor meditation after the death of his wife,Sati. When Kama, the God of lust and pas-sion, had tried to interrupt his penance, anangry Shiva had reduced Kama to ashes.Kama’s wife Rati pleaded with Shiva andeventually, a new form of Kama emerged.The new form of Kama created the word‘Kamrup’, the most common name bywhich this part of Assam is known.

Inscriptional evidence suggests that inthe 4th century, Pushyavarman and his fam-ily ruled Pragjyotishpura, which waswatered by the river that was then knownas Lauhitya, and is today known asBrahmaputra. The last king of this dynastywas Bhaskar Varman. Modern history saysthat in 1228, invaders from Burma hadestablished Ahom kingdom here. It lastedtill 1826 when Assam came under the EastIndia Company. It was at that time thatGuwahati as a city bloomed and Assam asa region turned into a coveted area for grow-ing commercial crops like tea. Guwahatibecame all the more significant when teabecame the cash cow of the East IndiaCompany. Elements of British legacy andHindu mythology became one here and givemodern Guwahati its unique identity.

Guwahati also houses theCommonwealth War Cemetery, which hasrelics from World War II. It might not beas popular as the war cemeteries in Imphalor Kohima, but every year, it still managesto attract thousands of foreign tourists whocome here to revisit history. This small yetbeautiful war cemetery in Guwahati is an

exceptional gem. Thanks to its geograph-ical location, Guwahati was a big wartimeairbase when Allied Forces were planningto cut off Dimapur from the rest of India.At that time, several dead soldiers had beenburied in ordinary graves. Later, in orderto give them a dignified burial, their graveswere relocated to Syllet Military Cemetery,Amaribari Military Cemetery, NowgongCivil Cemetery, and Mohachara MilitaryCemetery. After the end of the war, moregraves were shifted here from Darjeeling,Dhubri, Dibrugarh, Shillong, Silchar, andCooch Behar to make this a more impor-tant place. Today, the place has 486 gravesthat belong to soldiers of the BritishCommonwealth and 24 graves that belongto Chinese soldiers of Ching-Kai-Shek’sarmy. It also has 25 unidentified graves.Those who rest here in eternal peacebelonged to prestigious regiments likeRoyal Australian Airforce, Essex Regiments,Bengal Civil Pioneers, Royal IndianAirforce, Scottish Rifles, Royal DeccanHorses, King’s own Yorkshire Light Infantryand Royal Artillery.

The most unique feature of this warcemetery is that it houses 11 graves ofJapanese soldiers who had died in 1944under the leadership of Lance CorporalMiyata Kotsuo. Kotsuo died on September13, 1944. In 2012, a team of officials fromJapan had come here to dig up the gravesand collect the remains of their soldiers.This is perhaps the only World War IIcemetery in India where along withCommonwealth soldiers, ‘enemy’ sol-diers also rest in peace.

Another important tale about Guwahatiis related to Lachit Borphukan and his roleis the Battle of Saraighat. Lachit Borphukanwas the commander-in-chief of Ahom kingin the 17th century. With his outstanding

military skill, especially in naval warfare, hehad forced the Mughals back to Delhi, leav-ing Assam unconquered. The Battle ofSaraighat, which was fought in 1671 on thebanks of the mighty Brahmaputra, sawLachit’s army defeat Aurangzeb’s eventhough the latter was heavily supported byPortuguese gunners. An imposing statueof Lachit Borphukan, along with his war-riors, now stands at the river bed ofBrahmaputra. The place where the battletook place has now been decorated with theSaraighat Rail Road Bridge.

Guwahati is the child of RiverBrahmaputra. The 2,900-km-long riverthat covers a basin of 6,51,334 sq kmcomes from Tibet and covers about 728km in its journey through Assam, break-ing into several big and small riverislands. Considered sacred in Hindumythology, the river is described as thelove child of Brahma and Amogha (queenof king Shantanu) in Kalika Purana.

This river is considered to have mas-culine fury which can often be destructive.No wonder, then, that it floods its banks,including areas in Guwahati city, every nowand then. But Brahmaputra is also the rea-son why Assam is fertile and green. It formsthe base for Assam’s rich biodiversity. Mostof the national parks and wildlife sanctu-aries in Assam are also dependent onBrahmaputra. To add to that is theimmense beauty of the river. An eveningcruise here, along with sumptuous snacks,drinks, and music — both English andAssamese — is an experience beyondwords. Umananda, also known as PeacockIsland and popularly known as the world’ssmallest human-habited river island, isoften the highlight of such journeys.

Going back to the Shiva and Kama leg-end that gives this river the names

Bhashmakut or Bhashmachala, one learnsabout the Umananda Shiva Temple. It wasestablished in 1694 by Gadhadhar Singhaof Ahom dynasty. The original temple wasdestroyed in the 1897 earthquake. Later,the present version of the temple was setup. Umananda Island is also home to gold-en langur, a rare species that was broughthere by a king of Nepal for sacrifice.Fortunately, they were freed instead.

This cruise takes one through manymilestones of history. On the banks ofBrahmaputra, several old British bungalows,watch towers, and mosques can be seen. Italso boasts of a magical sunset over the hori-zon when the sky looks like a fountain headof melted lava of an active volcano.

One has not seen much of that if onehas not visited the ruins of Madan KamdevTemple, the massive arena of debris withstone sculptures and a broken plinth of sev-eral temples. Often referred as the “hiddenKhajuraho of Assam”, the temple dates backto the 9th century, though no written his-tory is available. In 1855, an employee ofthe East India Company named Captain ETaite Dalton first recorded it as a cluster of15 temples inside a deep jungle nearGuwahati and he contributed an article onthis in the Asiatic Society Magazine inCalcutta. It created a sensation among schol-ars, and soon gathered more attention.However, the devastating earthquake of1897 reduced all temples to rubble, thusmaking the site an endless kingdom of orna-mented stone sculptures. From 1901, a localMuslim land collector named Niyamat Ali

started preserving the place, and from 1943,a scholar named Tarini Kanta Sarma start-ed doing serious research on the debris.

In Kalika Purana, we get a reference ofMadan Kamdev Temple. The legend saysit was here that Madana, the God of pas-sion, reunited with his wife Rati. Thus, thetemple walls were decorated with figuresexpressing human passion. Several panelsare bold and candid in expressing physicalrelations between man and woman. Theyalso depict various Hindu Gods, animalmotifs, and floral designs. The roofless tem-ple is enshrined with an Uma-Maheshwarstatue where we see Shiva and his wife Umain an emotional state. Though no founda-tion plaque or dedicatory tablet was foundin the debris, it is assumed that it was estab-lished by Vanamala Varman Deva ofSatasthambha dynasty in the 9th century.Later, it was expanded and completed byPala kings of Bengal. However, no solid evi-dence has been produced so far. MadanKamdev Temple is now considered a tem-ple of fertility. Young couples pray here tofulfill their desire of becoming parents.

In Guwahati, near Nehru Park, a smallwooden church is a reminder of our colo-nial past. This is the Christ Church of 1844,one of the oldest buildings of the city. Thisis the third reincarnation of its original formas the first one was destroyed and secondone badly damaged in the 1897 earthquake.The present version was completed in 1903.

Another treat is a state museum ded-icated to the unexplored heritage trail ofGuwahati. The collection of stone sculp-tures and statues is astounding. Severalcollections of MahishashuramardiniDurga from the 10th to 13th century aredisplayed here with monolithic stonepillars and iron cannon of Ahom dynasty.Set up in 1940, this museum houses oneof the richest collections of artifacts.

Last but not least is the temple ofKamakhya, a pilgrimage spot of Hindus.This temple, too, has been destroyed andrebuilt several times and by several peo-ple. The present one was built in 1665 bythe king of Cooch Behar of Bengal namedNabanarayan. After the 1897 earthquake,it was repaired to a great extent. Festivalslike Ambubachi when the Goddess goesthrough her annual menstruation andPoush Biya when the Goddess gets mar-ried with Kameshwara are celebratedhere and draw huge crowds.

Though Guwahati is famous for theKamakhya Temple, the city has muchmore to offer. It offers a rare combinationof modern life and tales from the past.

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If you like intrigue, conspir-acy, and trivia tinged withquirky originality, then

Travails with The Alien is thebook for you. The latest printoffering from the Society forthe Preservation of Satyajit RayArchives, Travails with TheAlien: The Film That WasNever Made and OtherAdventures with Science Fictionis provoking, insightful, andfun. It is an engaging explo-ration into film history whichis guaranteed to delight cinemabuffs in India and abroad.

The premise is simple. In1967, Satyajit Ray penned downthe treatment for a unique sci-ence fiction movie. Set in ruralBengal, amidst the familiar clashof tradition and modernity inthe form of a deeply hierarchicalvillage community and a slylymanipulative industrialist, thestory of The Alien plays upon thelimitations put on human under-standing and agency by hubris.Admittedly, in 2018 this storyappears both simplistic andundercooked: The tradition-modernity confrontation is a lit-tle too done-to-death to appealto contemporary audiences, evenwith a cheekily cordial extra-ter-restrial thrown in. Yet, it’s impor-tant to remember that The Alienis a unique concept for its timeand that in the mid-1960s noth-ing like it existed on celluloid.Planned as a bilingual project, inboth Bangla and English, it wasto be not just the first sciencefiction movie on and from Indiabut also the first to humanise thesubject of extra-terrestrial inter-action by making the alien notan invader, a source of gravethreat, but a friendly, curioustraveller. Ray’s film was to be abig-ticket international affair,backed by Columbia Picturesand billed to star majorHollywood actors. Coming soonafter the success and acclaim ofthe ‘Apu Trilogy,’ The Alien waspoised to transform Ray as apioneer of science fiction with atruly global footprint.

Alas, this was not to be.Despite favourable responsesfrom Columbia and leadingHollywood actors like PeterSellers, Marlon Brando, andSteve McQueen, The Alien got

embroiled in legal complica-tions which made it impossiblefor either Columbia or Ray toproceed. These originated large-ly due to the intractability ofMichael Wilson, Ray’s supposedproducer and alleged co-authorfor the project. With Wilsonappropriating all the consider-able advance of $15000 withoutRay’s knowledge and then refus-ing to clearly relinquish claimsto the script, Ray was eventuallyleft with little choice but to let

the affair fizzle down to slow,painful obscurity. Connectingthe dots amongst dramatis per-sonae dispersed in Calcutta,Colombo, Los Angeles, Paris,and London, Travails with TheAlien curates a retrospective onthese vexed and tiresome eventswhich grounded the film evenbefore it could take off to itspromised and promising start.

While this is the centralconcern of the book, Travailswith The Alien is not really a

piece of film detection. It doesmore than just put together thevarious players in this forgottensaga. It also contextualises TheAlien within Ray’s oeuvre, notjust as a director but also as anillustrator, writer, thinker, andscience fiction aficionado.Present along with the treat-ment of The Alien are“Bonkubabu’s Friend” (1962),the short story in Sandeshwhich is supposed to have beena literary prototype for the

movie, a few essays on sciencefiction and cinema by Ray,interviews of Ray on science fic-tion and on The Alien, and afeature, “Ordeals of The Alien”,written by Ray for TheStatesman in 1980. These andother pieces in the book are lib-erally sprinkled with pho-tographs, scanned copies of cor-respondence, and excerpts fromnewspapers during the three-year period from 1967 to 1969,when the fortunes of The Alien

were a matter of public specula-tion. These nuggets from theRay Archives make Travailswith The Alien an appetisinginsight into Ray’s abidingengagement with the transgres-sive potential of adventure andexploration on the human soul:The infinite possibilities of tech-nological advancement actingupon the human condition ashe knew and understood it.

One of the chief delights ofthe book, however, is its pre-sentation. No effort seems tohave been spared in the repro-duction in colour of Ray’s illus-trations on science fiction andspace travel, and the docu-ments on the Sci-Fi Cine Clubevoke a charming sepia nostal-gia of a fandom before fandom.Sandip Ray, the editor, and hisassociates Dhritiman Chaterji,Arup K De, Riddhi Goswami,

and Deepak Mukherjee deservethanks and congratulations forso carefully and tastefully com-piling and arranging the verymany archival documentswhich constitute the lastingvisual appeal of the book.Scholars of Ray and of Banglacinema will obviously findTravails with The Alien a raretreat, as will fans of Ray’s filmsand writings.

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As the common populacecontinues to become moreaware and invested in thepublic sphere, and unprece-dented developments con-

tinue to take place at the highest politi-cal levels, History Repeating by politicalrisk analyst Sam Wilkin is a timelyintervention to examine the simultane-ous growth of the process of politicalmobilisation as well as the rise of pop-ulism and the intimate relationshipbetween them. With one keen eye onhistory and another on the events hap-pening around us, the book is a handyguide to ace the political flux of todayand prepare ourselves better for thetimes to come. After all, as Wilkinquips, “The historical patterns coveredin this book will influence our future,but we determine it.”

Since time immemorial, regimeshave been burned to the ground, theyhave been replaced (for better orworse), popular rebellions havebecome revolutions, great leaders haveemerged and exiled, and newer socialclasses have come to light. From grandarrivals to disgraced exits, from coupsto uprisings, from political intrigue tostatesmanship — history is replete withrich examples of such incidents thathave and in several instances, still con-tinue to shape the destiny of nations.

But what does the toppling of agovernment or unrest in the public of aparticular state with specific local fac-tors at play mean for other countries orthe global political scene in general?

What is the root cause of politicalerosion and what conditions facilitateit? Is there a pattern to look for? Is his-tory actually repeating itself every-where with just slight variations?Which precious lessons from our pastare awaiting (re-)discovery?

Traversing the hits and missesacross various forms of regimes andleadership in places as diverse asThailand, Russia, Iran, Argentina andAmerica, the book examines the pat-terns in rise and fall of the govern-ments, the unstable conditions thatlead to political turmoil and pave wayfor the rise of populism. This delightful

journey culminates closer home withthe last chapter being a dedicated guideto examine if your own country mightbe doomed and on the path of decline!

Populism is defined as the supportfor the concerns of ordinary people, thequality of appealing to or being aimedat ordinary people. One wonders then,if the rise of populist politicians appeal-ing to the collective conscience of com-mon citizenry would bring genuineadvancement and change. Or are wemissing something here?

Are these populists really themessiahs of the common people orjust another bunch of opportuniststhat bulldozed their way to power andperks? Is there really an attempt atgenuine reform or are the same well-versed tricks being offered again,albeit in new packaging? What sort ofpeople make a good government?Which type of government is thebest? Can politicians of any hue betrusted to work selflessly for the wel-fare of people? Is their empathy withthe common class real? Or is that toojust a well-veiled ruse for self-advancement only?

“Populists often come to powerby mobilising politically disaffectednon-voters; populists can gain fromeconomic turmoil, which discreditsthe parties in power; populists canthrive in a polarised environment,because they find it easy to pick upsupport from across the politicalspectrum,” says the book. Whendemocracies are plagued with lack ofresponsiveness (‘representation gap’)and distrust in political leaders, itbecomes easier for populists to makeclaims about broken political systemsand claim votes to win, it argues.

Also, high levels of inequality in thesociety and mobilisation of selectivesubgroups of population based on iden-tity markers like caste, language andcolour, pose a serious challenge to sta-bility. Also, mobilisation of one groupoften results in counter rising of anoth-er group and we’re looking at perfectconditions for a full-blown political tur-moil. However, historical evidence alsopoints out to the resilience of democra-

cies, where nations and its people haveendured much more to uphold theirdemocratic spirit.

So, can we expect clarity from thischaos? Can discontent be turnedaround for good? How can the politicalstructures be saved from crumbling? Inthis context, the author aptly highlightsthe significance of political reformsand sound governance in improvingthe quality of politics and also main-taining peace and continuity in thesociety. The book says, “Some of themain elements of the quality of gover-nance are the effectiveness of the gov-ernment bureaucracy, the quality ofregulation and economic policy, therule of law, control of corruption andthe maintenance of public order.Countries that do well in these areastend to be far less likely to suffer vio-lent revolution (or, indeed any kind ofserious political violence).”

Indeed, no two countries can pos-sibly have the exactly same politicalexperiences, conditions, and criteria

defined by social scientists fail routine-ly, several new factors are discoveredand time-tested theories discredited, asnations continue to chart their ownunique course. But this uncertainty isprecisely why it necessitates the need totalk and examine these questions andconcepts, which may very well be sig-nificant takeaway points from wherethe much-needed discussion on politi-cal discourse today can be taken for-ward and provide insights on how toengage with the leadership in a whole-some and effective manner.

With humour strewn around aplen-ty, this is not a drab political treatise.Instead, it is quite an engaging read forall — serious as well as general readersof the genre. Picking up anecdotes fromsome of the most riveting events ofpolitical churning from the recent past,and weaving them in an easy, conversa-tional language, Wilkin manages todeliver an erudite book on politicswhich covers the past, the present andthe interesting times to follow.

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Russia is undertaking a week-long wargame called “Vostok-2018” or “East

2018” in the Eastern part of Siberia fromSeptember 11 with the sole purpose ofpractising rapid deployment of a largenumber of forces, aircraft and vehicles,criss-crossing western and eastern frontiersof Russia with ease. Since this exercisebegan, it has been touted as the largest wardrill conducted by Russia since the ColdWar. The last such exercise was conduct-ed in 1981, known as Zapad 81.

Vostok-2018, literally meaning “East”in Russian language, involves 3,00,000Russian and 3,200 Chinese troops, near-ly 36,000 tanks, 1,000 aircraft, 80 ships,armoured personnel carriers andarmoured infantry vehicles.

First of all, this drill is about sheershow of military might of Russia underVladimir Putin against an overwhelmingaggressive expanding the NATO that hasover the years succeeded in encircling thecountry. The exercise displays to theworld Putin’s capability of roping in majorpowers of Asia, like China and verystrategically Mongolia, for Vostok-2018,which Russia used to hold solo earlier.

China’s participation in the war gameproves beyond doubt that the Russia-China relationship has come to a new levelof understanding. China’s Ministry ofNational Defence said, “The aim of theVostok-2018 is to strengthen strategic mil-itary partnership between the two coun-tries and deepen friendship and cooper-ation and further boost the two countries’capability to deal with security threats inthe region”. The exercise is aimed more attraditional than non-traditional securitythreats in the region.

Looking at the broad contours of thisbattle preparation, one can say that it is arehearsal against any possible aggressionby the US and its allies in the region or tocounter America’s international influence.

Further, one has to understand thepost-Soviet Russia carefully. It is the Westand its allies that goaded the megaloma-niac Putin into mass propaganda andaction. When the Soviet Union collapsedduring Perestroika and Glasnost of MikhailGorbachev, the obvious consensus sur-faced on board was that it was a systemicfailure and triumph of the liberal demo-cratic order. And, when the power passedon to Putin from Boris Yeltsin, he des-perately wanted a place for Russia withinthat Western order.

Interestingly, Putin was the first for-eign leader to call George W Bush after9/11 in the US, and offer his help inAfghanistan. The most profound reasonfor Putin’s offer was that around the sametime, Russia was fighting its own waragainst the radical Islamic separatists in

Chechnya. Therefore, Putin wanted to joinAmerica’s “global war on terror” as an allyto crush internal Muslim uprising.

But Washington ignored Moscowonce and for all, even while preparing foran attack on Iraq. And, a wounded Putinproclaimed his disdain for the West in theMunich Conference on Security Policy in2007: “Only two decades ago, the worldwas ideologically and economically split,and its security was provided by massivestrategic potential of two superpowers.” Headded, “It is the world of one master, onesovereign dictated by the US. The currentorder is ‘unacceptable’ and the time hascome to ‘rethink the entire architecture ofglobal security’.”

Julia Ioffe, an expert on Russia com-mented, “Nonetheless, Putin has spent thedecade since that speech making sure thatthe US can never again unilaterallymanoeuvre without encountering friction;and most importantly, it can never deposehim.”

Last year, the NATO dispatched four

battalion-sized battle groups, one deployedin Poland and one each in three BalticStates of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.Meanwhile, the US started bringing backheavy armoured units to Western Europe.Always suspicious of Moscow’s moves,Washington and the rest of the Westerncapitals, particularly the NATO nations,alerted their intelligence and spying net-work around Russia and its peripheries.But it seems the sudden rise of Putin hasliterally failed the vigilantism of the Westto a great extent. Russia’s alleged intrusioninto the last US Presidential election hasproved it very well.

Besides, much beyond the tradition-al ties between Russia and China, what hasbeen marked is an emerging closer eco-nomic bonding between the two, where-in not only they are trying to come up witha strong coalition of like-minded nations,but also developing their bilateral eco-nomic might to stand up to any econom-ic crisis in future. The official Xinhua newsagency records that China’s direct invest-

ment in Russia reached up to 72 per centin 2017. Now, with Donald Trump’s reac-tionary policies taking a heavy toll onChina’s trade with the US, chances are highthat the Communist country will movecloser to Russia. And this is visible asRussia recently became the 9th largesttrade partner of China.

Meanwhile, Putin is also smartlymoving into this opportunity and offeringChina a comfort zone as bilateral trade andclose cooperation between the two giantscould be equally beneficial than resurfac-ing Cold War rhetoric between the two.Thus, Russia is fast turning into thelargest oil supplier to China as the latterhas to make fuel available for its billion-plus population and make hundreds ofmanufacturing outsourced plants func-tioning.

Around the same time, Gazprom,Russia’s largest energy major, is buildinga 3,000 km gas pipeline which will be con-necting Eastern Siberia to China’s borderareas. Thus, both are truly celebrating their

partnership and seem to get going againstthe backdrop of Trump’s invectives againstthe two major players in the global scene.Thus in June, Chinese leader Xi Jinpingcalled his Russian counterpart his “best,most intimate friend”.

On the other hand, combat experienceand modernisation gleaned from the bat-tlegrounds of Georgia and Ukraine will befar-reaching. The Russian military is stillin the process of transition and Putin isdesperate to come out of the old style func-tioning of the armed forces. However,defence experts have mixed opinionsabout Moscow’s modernisation of armedforces under Putin. Dmitry Gorenburg ofHarvard University said, “The moderni-sation move started in 2009 after Russianmilitary’s lacklustre performance in theGeorgian warfield in 2008. There is fur-ther improvement in the speed of decisionmaking and communication of decisionsto the troops and interoperability amongmilitary branches, followed by the replace-ment of Soviet-era equipment that was

rapidly reaching the end of its service life.”This shows how the need was felt to

upgrade military and allied services so asto respond to an ever-growing encir-clement by the NATO. Another analystMichael Kofman of the Wilson Centre’sKennan Institute highlights, “By 2012,Russia reorganised its armed forces froma Soviet mass mobilisation army into a per-manent standing force and began improv-ing quality across the board.”

Thus from 2009 to 2012, militarymodernisation programme had complet-ed a full circle which placed Putin to amore comfortable level to jump into theSyrian quagmire in 2015. Putin’s full-fledged support to the beleaguered SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad, in fact, helpedhim survive till date. With this, the entirewar game in the troubled West Asia hastaken a new shape as then AmericanPresident Obama was not keen on thedirect involvement of the US troops on theground. From a distant player, Russia haspushed itself to the centre stage of the mostvolatile war game in the world. Gradually,Putin has turned tables on the US to regainrole as a key player in deciding the fate ofthe Syrian regime.

When we see Russia’s active aggressionor participation in global conflict zones, weequally need to review how America andits allies spread their vigilantism almost ineach part of the world. Russia’s advance toformer Soviet Republics, including Georgiaand Ukraine, could be called as a come-uppance to the West which had fastexpanded to include the same group ofnations once the USSR broke down.

Today what bothers Putin more is notthe continued encroachment of the Weston Russia’s periphery, but its serious med-dling in the country’s domestic politics. Isit the time for action for Putin? Indeed,Vostok-2018 will send a strong signal to theNATO and its allies. When the world isgradually witnessing an ebbing Americanleadership, Putin offers an alternative.Beyond his war mongering and muscleflexing, he is capable of bringing massivepolitical reform at his home turf so as togive an audience to the voices of dissent.It is a big irony that leaders like him arealways paranoid about their security,tenure and future role in public life.

Lord Acton rightly said, “Everybodylikes to get as much power as circum-stances allow, and nobody will vote for self-denying ordinance.” The same way, Putinwould continue to extend his despotic ruleas long as he is alive. The internationalcommunity may experience many moreVostok-2018s on the days to come.

(The writer is an expert on international affairs)

Whether it is the South Asianfirmament or any other ter-

ritorial nationality, the theme ofmainstreaming the younger gener-ation has always been a pet peeve inthe Indian and the American poli-cy mindset. However, the growingradicalisation has drawn the atten-tion of the security and intelligenceestablishment. Radicalisation is thebane of an ordinary civilisationalnarrative. Going by the organic con-ception of the State, if the sinews andthe arteries of nation state areblocked or the life blood of func-tionalism vitiated, then it is a mat-ter of worrisome introspection onthe part of the nation and its pop-ulation.

The United States has been anavid target of terror mongers andviolent Islamic anti-state actors,especially since America createdFrankenstein in Afghan conun-drum along with its interventions inWest Asia since the days of thePersian Gulf conflicts, where thebattlelines were finally drawn withthe radical and Wahabi Islam. TheUnited States of America has beenknown since the days of its found-ing days in the seventeenth centu-ry to stay away from the entanglingalliances of the world polity. Still, theAmerican interventions in Cubaand the US-Spanish wars initiated

a trajectory of never-to-look-backpathway to a coincidental worlddomination with the replacement ofGreat Britain by the United States ofAmerica, as the world’s sole sur-viving superpower.

In the contemporary context,since the September 11 attacks, theAmerican Homeland Security Actand the Patriot Act were legislatedin order to restore parity with theministrations of the non-state actors.The American literary bestsellertitled “Terrorist” has hewn an inter-esting narrative upon the rising andexpanding throes of radicalisationin the suburbs and the educationalinstitutions of the American nation.The narrative of the fictional workprovides a glimpse into the lives ofa Muslim student and his singlemother, along with the Jewish men-tor in the high school. Witnessingthe racial and social segregation,which misguided Muslim young-sters feel in the American schoolsand the sequestration leading themto empty parking lots and Basketballcourts, is a theme which hasreceived its much deserved attentionin the contemporary time span. Theissue of undocumented aliens can betaken up here as it is this corpus ofpopulation from Latin Americaand South Asia which poses arankling security threats to the

American homeland. This is whathas resulted in the brass tacks of atalk about a Mexican wall and thescrapping of the Deferred Action forChildhood Arrivals (DACA) immi-gration policy, which separatesminors from their undocumentedalien parents in the form of initiat-ing limits on the H1 visas for theemployers in the United States.

Radicalisation is more of a

mind game in the United States. Thecontainment of terror attacks by dis-illusioned youths, till the BostonMarathon attack, speaks volumesabout the effectiveness and effica-cy of the American security estab-lishment in the aftermath of theplane’s deep dive on Pentagon inSeptember 11, 2001. The OxfordEnglish Dictionary attempts a stol-id definition of radicalisation, “The

action or process of causing some-one to adopt radical positions onpolitical or social issues.”

There was a vehicular attack inManhattan in November 2017,which was traced back to a migrantfrom Uzbekistan. New York DailyNews reported, “Sayfullo Saipov, a29-year-old from Tampa, Florida,reportedly emigrated to the USfrom Uzbekistan in 2010. The inves-tigation is in its early stages, but ifprevious cases are any indication, itis likely that Saipov did not come tothis country — legally or illegally,that is still unclear — as a violent extremist. Odds are he wasradicalised here.”

This is a matter of worrisomeanalysis and efficacious introspec-tion by the American establishmentas the old storyline of pre-radi-calised migrants spoiling theAmerican Dream is the cause of alltrouble. How can an ordinary star-ry-eyed youth takes up cudgelsagainst the system or the entity ofthe American establishment aftergetting radicalised in America andits school and university system? Itis not a matter of ungainly crimi-nalisation due to poverty andimpoverishment, but an ideologi-cally driven and madrasa hewn nar-rative, which catches them young inthe homeland in the United States

of America. It is this deleterious viti-ation of the national and patrioticnarrative that the United Statesguards against by relying on psy-chotherapists and mentors to weanaway youngsters from the glareand attraction of rebellious strife.Now, it is part of an institutionalstriving in the United States.

The United States HomelandSecurity committee report in 2016reported, “Now at this juncture, thehomeland faces the highest threatfrom the ISIS and fundamentalismsince the September 11 attacks.” TheDepartment of Homeland Securityhas already reminded the securityestablishment against the threat ofvehicular ramming attacks whichpose a challenge to the institution-al effectiveness in tackling terror andthe sentient invincibility of theUnited States. What the terror mon-gers are attaining to achieve is topoint out in a gladiatorial contest,the invincibility theme of theAmerican security and make itpart of a larger jehad to civilisa-tionally vituperate the grandilo-quent American Dream and itsspectacularity which is part of thesoft power approach of theAmerican Foreign Policy. It is thissheen and the larger-than-life one-uppance of the American manifestdestiny and the fable of America

being the sparkling city on Camelotwhich the global terrorist organi-sations are attempting to strikeagainst. Also, the entire exercise ispart of the tenet of “Super terrorism”where terrorists strategise to utiliseas a true blue utilitarian, the nodesand inter nodes of the Americaninfrastructural superstructure. Itaims to utilise the American web ofinfrastructure such as its oil depots,refineries, highways and the trans-port and communication networkthrough locally trained agents whohave their origins in the schools andmadrasas of the nation despite themulticultural rubric which Americatakes pride upon.

In the age of lone-wolf attacksgaining prominence, the focus ofcounterterrorism specialists hasshifted to the phenomenon of rad-icalisation. After the incidents likethe terror attacks in San Bernardinoand Manhattan, the challenge is notto locate terrorist hideouts in therugged caves of Tora Bora. The chal-lenge is to spot the potential terroristfrom among the millions of inno-cent civilians loitering around thestreets of New York City, Boston orany other city in America.

(The writer teaches InternationalRelations at Indian Institute of PublicAdministration, Delhi)

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Donald Trump nearly started aconflict with North Korea inearly 2018, when he proposed

a tweet that “scared the daylights”out of his Defence Secretary JamesMattis, a new book claims. “This isall about leader versus leader,” saidTrump, according to Fear, anupcoming book by legendaryWatergate journalist Bob Woodwardseen by the Telegraph. “Man versusman. Me versus Kim.”

Woodward reveals that Trumpwanted to send a tweet ordering theUS military dependents — thousandsof family members of 28,500 troops— to leave South Korea. It sent hisnational security staff into panicmode. A senior figure in the NorthKorean politburo had already sig-nalled to them that any evacuationwould be interpreted in Pyongyang asa precursor to military attack.

Knowing that, Trump’s tweetwould effectively be a declarationwar and could have provoked Kiminto attacking South Korea. Thetweet was never sent. The book alsoreveals that Trump decided early inhis presidency that the United Stateswould stay in Nato, but told Mattis tobecome its “rent collector”.

Following a crunch meeting at theWhite House, to decide whetherTrump was “in or out” of the alliance,the President was persuaded and toldMattis: “You can have your Nato.”

According to the book, Trump’sdoctor had the President’s schedule cutback because of “stress”. And a pictureemerged of Melania Trump as a key,and tough, behind-the-scenes player,with one senior adviser describing heras a “hammer”. The dinner meeting todecide Nato policy was convened inthe Red Room of the White House at6.30 pm on February 8, 2017, by thenChief of Staff Reince Priebus. The US

policy had to be settled ahead of aspeech by Mattis in Munich a weeklater. Trump insisted on talking aboutthe gossip of the day, until dessert,when Priebus said: “We’ve really got todeal with the Nato issue.”

Retired General Keith Kellogg, theNational Security Council chief ofstaff, argued Nato was “obsolete” andthe US was being “used” by allies.Mattis and Joseph Dunford, chairmanof the joint chiefs of staff, argued infavour of Nato, according to the book.

Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law, also interjected, saying the USwas only losing “pennies on the dol-lar” in supporting Nato. Mattisexpressed confidence Germany wouldmeet the target of paying two per centof the GDP on defence. He added: “Ifyou didn’t have Nato, you would haveto invent it. There’s no way Russiacould win a war if they took on Nato.”

At the end of the dinner, Trumptold Mattis the US would supportNato but allies must pay. He told

Mattis: “You can have your Nato. Butyou become the rent collector.” Mattisreportedly laughed and nodded.During the same meeting, Trumpreportedly asked C Boyden Gray, for-mer US Ambassador to the EU:“Which is going to be the next countryto drop out (of the EU after Brexit)?”

Gray said he did not think therewould be another one; Trump said heagreed. The prospect of conflict withNorth Korea reportedly came closestearly this year when Trump proposed

sending a tweet ordering home fami-lies of the 28,500 US military person-nel stationed in South Korea.

North Korea had previously madeclear it would regard such a move as asign of imminent attack. Trump’splanned tweet was considered “almostunthinkable” by aides, Woodwardwrote. The President later raised theidea with Lindsey Graham, theRepublican Senator with whom heplays golf. Graham reportedly toldhim: “That is a big frigging deal. MrPresident, I don’t think you shouldever start this process unless you areready to go to war.”

According to the book, RearAdmiral Ronny Jackson, Trump’sdoctor until earlier this year, repeat-edly advised John Kelly, his Chief ofStaff, to “dial back” the President’sschedule because he was “understress”. Kelly responded by introduc-ing more non-specific “executivetime” on the schedule, the book said.

People close to the first coupletold Woodward there was “sincereaffection” in the relationship, they atedinner together at times, but MrsTrump “operated independently”.

Steve Bannon, Trump’s formerchief strategist, was quoted as saying:“Behind the scenes, she’s a hammer.”He believed Mrs Trump had the mostinfluence with the President of any-one, identifying who was telling herhusband the truth, and who was“sucking up”. She was “obsessed” withraising their son Barron, and thatwas “her focus 100 per cent,” aninsider told Woodward.

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This time something unusualhappened at the NationalExecutive meeting of the BJP.Sources say the current burn-ing issues, including the rising

fuel prices, were not discussed anywhere— neither in the meeting of party offi-cials nor in the open session. On bothdays of the meet, Central Ministers suchas Nirmala Sitharaman, Ravi ShankarPrasad, and Prakash Javadekar addressedthe press but kept mum on these crucialissues despite repeated questions by jour-nalists. In the same manner, no discus-sion was held over the agitation of for-ward castes against the SC/ST Act, asparty leaders and spokespersons stayedsilent. They briefed the media about allpolitical resolutions passed in theNational Executive, but nothing wasmentioned about the foreign or econom-ic policies. This must be noted thatrecently, India and the US held the 2+2dialogue, and the Opposition is allegingthat India has surrendered all its interestsbefore America. The economic policiesof the Narendra Modi Government arealso being questioned, but the BJP lead-ers are maintaining stoic silence.

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KChandrashkhar Rao was runninghis Government with more than

two-thirds majority, but he dissolvedthe Assembly. Now the question iswhether this step will prove beneficialfor the Chief Minister of Telangana ornot. The scenario is reminiscent ofhow the UK’s PM Theresa May put hermajority Government at stake last yearwhen she announced the dissolution ofthe House of Commons. She got a bigjolt in elections and her party lost themajority. KCR might just land in thesame situation; he hopes for the bestbut may get the worst. In the next twomonths, the Assembly Elections will beheld in the State, and the Oppositionparties have started coming together.The Congress, TDP, and the Left havealready formed an alliance.

The Left parties have a stronghold ina big part of Telangana. Though Maoistorganisations have removed their basefrom the area, almost all big leaders of theCPI Maoist come from this area. In thelast elections, the CPI and CPM had gotone seat each and gathered good numberof votes in almost a dozen seats. Apartfrom that, the BSP had won two seats.The Congress had got 21 and the TDPgot 15 seats. The Congress, TDP, Lefttie-up is bound to give KCR’s TelanganaRashtra Samithi a big jolt. Although theorganisation of the Congress has notstrengthened much since the last elec-

tions, the alliance will have an effect on the chances of the ruling party.

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The NCP and Congress leaders, whoearlier thought that the Shiv Sena

would not go with the BJP, are nowchanging their views. They are ready toaccept that the Sena would go only withthe BJP, and three incidents in lastmonth have forced them to change theirmind. It is now being believed that theShiv Sena and BJP will go into a pre-pollalliance on the old formula.

The most recent incident is related tothe soaring oil prices. Oil is the costliestin Maharashtra, with petrol prices touch-ing �90 per litre. When the Congress,NCP, and other Opposition parties calleda Bharat Bandh on the issue, the ShivSena didn’t support it.

Before that, during the MonsoonSession, the Shiv Sena had supportedthe Government on the no-confidencemotion moved by the TDP. In the samesession, the party backed the BJP in theelection of the Rajya Sabha Vice-

Chairman. Though this is also true thatthe party always gives statementsagainst PM Modi and the BJP on almostevery issue, it nevertheless extends sup-port to the BJP if the need arises. Thatis why the Congress is of the view thatthe BJP and Shiv Sena will go together.Earlier, the Congress and NCP were ofthe view that if the BJP and Sena goseparately, they will be wiped out. Butnow the picture has changed.

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The Congress is trying its best to unitethe Opposition parties for the next

Lok Sabha and Assembly Elections, but itseems that no parties — other than thosewho were partners of the UPA — areopenly backing the Congress. In fact,some regional kshatrapas are in a dilem-ma. They are not very comfortable withthe party as they feel that it is not suit-able for their own regional politics.

That is why almost all big regionalkshatrapas kept away from the BharatBandh over soaring oil prices. The BJD,TMC, SP, BSP, TDP and other regional

parties, which are openly against the BJP,didn’t support the Bandh. It was expect-ed that the ruling BJD in Odisha wouldprobably go with the Congress, butNaveen Patnaik bluntly told the partythat he was against the Bharat Bandh.

The TMC also didn’t participate inthe agitation, though it gave its moralsupport. Since the ruling party in WestBengal didn’t support the Bandh, noeffect was seen in the State. In UttarPradesh, the SP and BSP didn’t take part in the Bandh either. The SP leadersinstead staged a dharna. In AndhraPradesh, the TDP didn’t support theBharat Bandh. Only parties such as theRJD, the Left, NCP, and JMM stoodbehind the Congress.

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Yashwant Sinha, who left the BJPsome time ago, and Shatrughan

Sinha, who is not happy with the party,are toiling hard to unite the Opposition.That is why they went to Ahmedabad tomeet Patidar leader Hardik Patel andalso participated in a function of the

Aam Aadmi Party in Noida. In fact, the two leaders have come closer toArvind Kejriwal. Some time ago, whenYashwant Sinha sat on a dharna at VijayChowk, Kejriwal told his supporters toparticipate in the agitation.

But can Kejriwal make way into theOpposition bandwagon with the effortsof the Sinha duo? Kejriwal and his partyleaders are working towards this goal,and are in talks with the Congress. Theproblem, however, is that nobody canread Kejriwal’s mind. On one hand, he isholding talks, and on the other hand, heis creating pressure. He divulged hisplans for UP in the presence of Yashwantand Shatrughan. Before that, he hadannounced that he will fight on all seatsin Haryana. His party is also gearing upto fight elections in Madhya Pradesh andRajasthan. Though this is also true thatwherever his party has contested, exceptin Delhi, it has created a new record ofgetting the lowest votes. This time, theCongress wants no party to hamper anychance of alliance. So, there will be anattempt to persuade Kejriwal anyhow.

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An 83-year-oldJapanese woman

has been announced byGuinness World Recordsas the world’s oldest pro-fessional club DJ. SumikoIwamura, 83, aka DJSumirock, said she decided toattend a DJ school at the age of77 and soon discovered she had atalent for it. Iwamura, who owns andworks in the kitchen of a Chinese foodrestaurant, has a regular DJ slot atDecabar Z in Shinjuku, but her talentshave led to guest gigs at exotic locationsincluding Paris and New Zealand.

She told Guinness World Recordsthat DJing isn’t all that different fromrunning her restaurant. “You get feed-back from your customers quickly inboth cases,” she said. “If you’re playingtracks and they don’t like it, they’llleave the floor and start drinking at thebar. If the tracks are danceable, thenthey’ll stay on and dance their heartout.” “Restaurant customers are the same— if it tastes good, then they lookhappy, and they’ll tell me that they like

it. For me, it’s easy to work out how peo-ple are feeling in both cases,” she said.

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Apair of Texas A&M gradu-ates said they were sur-

prised when a sonogram imageshowed their expected child

signaling support for rivalUniversity of Texas.Samantha Perkins saidshe and her husbandare both graduatesand devoted fans ofTexas A&M

University, butduring their

recent sonogramappointment the

tech asked if they wereUniversity of TexasLonghorn fans. “Myhusband and I justlooked at each other,”Perkins told KTXS-TV.The image showedthe foetus flashing aUT “Hook ‘em

Horns” sign.Perkins said

she and herhusband already havesome Texas A&Mapparel ready for thebaby, who is due in January,and they are planning toattend an upcoming game. “Starting thebrainwashing early,” Perkins joked.

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It was a case of hold the honey, doublethe mustard in Times Square at

lunchtime on Tuesday. Police shut partof 43rd Street near Seventh Avenue aftera thick swarm of bees gathered atop ablue and yellow umbrella over a hotdogcart in an area of Manhattan alreadybuzzing with swarms of pedestrians,tourists and traffic.

A police officer who keeps bees him-self, arrived at the scene in Times Square,known as “The Crossroads of the World,”at 2.30 pm, wearing a mesh-hooded bee-keeper suit. He deployed a vacuumcleaner-like device to collect the beesunharmed, said New York Police

Detective Sophia Mason. Thescene drew crowds of

tourists taking pho-tographs. “It took about

45 minutes to suck themup,” Mason said. “They

are at an undisclosed location. Theywill rehive them.” No one was injured

in the incident, Mason said. “The beesjust wanted some hot dogs,” she added.

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Awoman has used the Tinder datingapp to prank more than 100 men

into showing up for a date that turnedout to be a Hunger Games-style compe-tition. The New York Times reports thatthe woman identified as NatashaAponte invited dozens of Tinder con-tacts to meet her in Manhattan’s UnionSquare on Sunday for what theythought was a one-on-one date.Instead, a woman who says she wasNatasha told them they had to competefor a date with her. She disqualified themen who were under 5-foot-10 (1.78meters) and those named Jimmy, aname she dislikes. Then she asked the

remaining contestants to performpushups and footraces. The stuntreportedly was videotaped by RobBliss, the man who shot a widelywatched catcalling video in 2014.

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An octogenarian flying trapeze artist,the owner of the world’s fastest jet-

propelled go-kart and a dog namedFeather with a flair for jumpingare among the record-breakingstars to win a place in the latestedition of Guinness WorldRecords. Others to feature inthe 2019 edition of the book,which went on sale onThursday, include the creator ofthe world’s largest knitting nee-dles and an Irish butcher, BarryJohn Crowe, who has producedthe most sausages — 78 — inone minute.

Betty Goedhart, fromCalifornia, has been named theworld’s oldest trapeze artist at 85and attributes her success to “doingthings I enjoy doing”.

“I’m hoping I encourage people,women, to not think that when they hitthe age of 55, they are old. We have gota lot more on our journey,” saidGoedhart, who only began trapezeclasses at the age of 78 but looks asthough she has spent a lifetime swing-

ing through the air upside down.British art student Elizabeth

Bond, 31, decided to drawattention to her exhibitions bycreating knitting needles thatmeasure some 4.42 meters in

length. Another Briton,Tom Bagnall, 26, rackedup a record speed of 181

km per hour for a jet-pro-pelled go-kart.

Animals also featureamong the latest worldrecord-breakers. Dogowner Samantha Vallefrom the US state ofMaryland trained Feather,

whom she adopted froma rescue center, to jumpover ever higher hurdlesuntil she set a new canine

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Danny Boyle has called on film-makers and writers to “reacharound the hollow cavern” of

Brexit to ensure British TV and filmcontinues to be seen as among the bestin the world. The director said work-ing on his most recent production, the10-part television drama Trust, whichstarts on BBC Two, had made himmore determined to work withEuropean production companies.

“The series is set in 1973, the yearin which we joined Europe, so therewas something ironic about the factwe were making it with the knowl-edge we were going to leave,” he said.“It just seemed more and more insaneto us, especially as we were making itwith this wonderful Italian co-pro-duction company.

“I can only hope that filmmakers,writers, journalists will try to buildaround this. Airline companies cer-tainly will, as will businesses. Rightnow it feels as though something hasbeen severed and we’re adrift but Ihope that people will try to compen-sate for this terrible void that’s beencreated for us by politicians.”

Trust, which tells the story of the

kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, thegrandson of the then richest man inthe world, marks Boyle’s first return toTV since directing the pilot of the2014 police drama Babylon. Trust waswritten by Simon Beaufoy, whoworked with Boyle on SlumdogMillionaire and 127 Hours, and starsDonald Sutherland as John Paul Getty,Hillary Swank as Gail Getty, the kid-napped teenager’s mother, andBrendan Fraser as the fixer called into sort everything out.

Eminem has broken the UK chartrecord for consecutive No 1albums, beating a record held

jointly for 36 years by Abba and LedZeppelin. His album Kamikaze, a sur-prise release recently and his secondalbum in less than a year, is his ninthNo 1 in a row — a run stretching back18 years to his second collection, TheMarshall Mathers LP. Eminem put outa statement alongside the news, say-ing: “Does this mean I get to callmyself Sir Eminem?”

Kamikaze is also the fourth-fastestselling album this year in the UK,behind Arctic Monkeys, Drake andGeorge Ezra, and outsold the No 2album, the soundtrack to MammaMia! Here We Go Again, by threecopies to one. The album’s openingtrack, The Ringer, also reached No 4in the singles chart — it features anattack on Donald Trump, describinghim as an “evil serpent” — while twoother album tracks, Lucky You andFall, also reached the Top 10.

After garnering a reputation as aformidable “battle rapper” in the late1990s, Eminem broke into the main-

stream in 1999 after being mentoredand signed by Dr Dre, with his debutalbum The Slim Shady LP. It remainsthe only one of his albums not toreach No 1 in the UK, though two ofits singles reached the top five. Whilethat album showcased his cartoonishlyviolent alter ego Slim Shady, he let hisown voice come through on the fol-low-up, 2000’s The Marshall MathersLP — regarded by many as one of thegreatest rap albums of all time.

The organisation that bestows theAcademy Awards says it is sus-pending plans to award a new

Oscar for popular films amid wide-spread backlash to the idea. TheAcademy of Motion Picture Arts andSciences says it will further studyplans for the category. It wrote in astatement that it recognised thatimplementing a new award three-quarters of the way into the year cre-ated challenges for films that havealready been released. The film acade-my announced the new category for“outstanding achievement in popular

film” last month. It prompted animmediate outcry, with many insideand outside the film industry wonder-ing how it would affect critically andcommercially popular films such asBlack Panther. The superhero block-buster has been cited as a possible bestpicture contender, with producerslaunching an awards-season push.Critics of the Academy’s decision hadfeared, however, that a new categorycould stand in its way of the moreprestigious prize. No traditionalsuperhero film has ever been nomi-nated for best picture.

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There is a chance, particu-larly if you’re not an aviduser of Instagram orSnapchat, that you areamong the uninitiated

when it comes to Cardi B. Allow usto rectify the situation, and fill youin on a one-of-a-kind fashion per-sonality that, honestly, everyoneunder the age of 30 is talking about.

The Bronx-born rapper hit the headlines when her debutalbum, Invasion Of Privacy, broke records after reaching num-ber one across America in just 24hours following its much-anticipat-ed release. Cardi B’s real name isBelcalis Almanzar — her stagename came to be because her sisteris named Hennessy. Friends nick-named Belcalis ‘Bacardi’ and, forwork purposes, it translated tobecome Cardi B.

Following a stint as a stripperand a career as a social media per-sonality, Cardi was granted one ofthe coveted slots on popularAmerican reality TV show, LoveAnd Hip Hop. She showcased hermusical talents during her two sea-sons on the show and her followercount grew simultaneously — herInstagram now boasts a staggering22 million fans. She left the showlast year, officially launching hermusic career and signing withAtlantic Records, which also hasEd Sheeran, Rita Ora, and BrunoMars on its books.

While she’s no doubt beenbreaking music records, Cardi hassimultaneously been breaking downfashion barriers — from sittingfront row at New York FashionWeek with the US Vogue’s AnnaWintour, to launching a fashioncollaboration with Instagramfavourite, Fashionnova. While hergoofy humour, straight-talkingapproach, and determined person-ality have already won us over,here’s why the 25-year-old shouldalso be on your fashion radar.

��������������������Just two weeks after Cardi’s first sin-gle, Bodak Yellow, was released, theartist hit New York Fashion Weekand was taken in by some of fash-ion’s most notoriously hard to pene-trate circles. She sat front row atAlexander Wang’s show, next toAnna Wintour and went on to gracethe front rows at Christian Siriano,Prabal Gurung and Jeremy Scott.Not content with just watchingshows, Cardi has also walked therunway herself, modelling in aGypsy Sport show, and also part-nered with MAC Cosmetics for afashion week event last February.

����������#������������After much media speculation, Cardiannounced her pregnancy during aperformance on Saturday Night Live,wearing a bodycon white maxi dresswith mesh panelling that hugged herbaby bump. Fellow musicianRihanna took to Instagram to posther congratulations. Her declarationmimicked that of Beyoncè, whofamously announced her first preg-

nancy on stage following a live per-formance at the MTV Awards in2011. Cardi’s baby news came hot onthe heels of a marriage proposalfrom her rapper beau, Offset, who isone third of hip-hop trio, Migos, atthe end of last year, which took placeduring, you guessed it, a live on-stageperformance in Philadelphia.

������������������� ���While few would be able to replicateher outfits in a ‘get the Cardi look’feature, her unpredictable fashionchoices do make for entertainingviewing and fun talking points. Thechain-printed mini dress with clash-ing thigh-high boots that she woreto her album release party, and thevoluminous Cinderella-esque ball-gown she wore to Rihanna’s annualDiamond Ball (a bespoke numberby fashion pal and Americandesigner, Christian Siriano) were atopposite ends of any style spectrum,and she is known for regularlychanging her hairstyles, sporting ablunt dark bob one day, and tum-bling blonde waves the next. For her35-minute Coachella set, she kittedout her growing baby bump in anall-white look complete with pigtails,paying homage to 90s girlband, TLC.

��������������������������It was announced a few months agothat the rapper was collaboratingwith Fashionnova, a popularAmerican brand famous for itsbodycon styles sported by the likesof Kylie Jenner and rapper, BlacChyna. While she sings aboutwearing “bloody shoes” (a refer-ence to Christian Louboutin’s sig-nature red soles) and is an avidwearer of high fashion labels suchas Vetements, Gucci andBalenciaga, the artist regularlypairs her designer pieces with highstreet buys, and has previouslydescribed her high-low fashion mixas how “people like me stay rich”.

At a listening party for her newalbum, the star paired herFashionnova shorts, which wouldcost around £25, with a shearling-trimmed Altuzarra jacket whichwould set you back around £2,000.While you’ll have to wait untilOctober for the Cardi B xFashionnova collection, you canguarantee the rapper will be sportingthe brand in the meantime.

�� ���������������� � ��It’s taken the 25-year-old less thantwo years to transform from strip-per, to reality TV star, to record-breaking solo artist and fashiondesigner. It’s all been achievedthrough enough self-promotion torival a Kardashian. The rapper hasstated that she’s now a millionaire,has various fashion and beautycontracts in the works, and hermusic boasts the largest number ofstreams for an album by a woman.Her ‘work wardrobe’ might be alittle different than the average,but there’s no denying it; hers is aunique, but effective form ofpower dressing.

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Lord Krishna has strictly prohibited,“Such knowledge should never beimparted to one who is not austere;

who is not a devotee; and not to one whois not desirous to know; and not to onewho envies God.” (18.67) God, Himself,does not make a big deal out of His incar-nations, when He does appear on theearth because God respects our free will.He does not want anyone to be forced toaccept God as such. Therefore, God nei-ther provides incontrovertible proof ofHis existence, which He can nor wishesus to try to do so. God only gives subtlehints like when He performs miracles.This allows diehard atheists to disputethem as many did when the milk miracletook place, though scientifically no onecould explain the disappearance of milkin countless temples.

The same fact holds true about tem-ples, etc all over the world. A murti ofGod is made by an artisan, which is theninstalled in a temple. What changes?Devotees of God come to the temple andreverently worship the murti. Thischanges the murti into an idol becauseGod must reciprocate their devotion; Hebecomes active in the idol. He begins toradiate spiritual energy. This is similar toGod becoming active in our hearts.Devotees of God feel the presence of Godwhen He destroys the darkness born ofignorance by the shining lamp of knowl-

edge. (10.11) We call them intuitions. Letus remember that God is omnipresent,therefore, He has to be present in thetemple as well as in our hearts. The onlydifference is that He becomes active if weso desire. Again, the free will is at play. Heleaves us alone if we so choose.

This connecting through the heart isvery much at play with spiritual writersand preachers. Many famous writers haveadmitted that what they wrote wasinspired by higher forces. They had noidea about what they wrote when theydid. The same experience is not souncommon with preachers. They surprisethemselves sometimes with what they say.

None of this is meant to be a proof ofGod’s existence, but it does help if one islooking for something to reinforce one’sfaith. What will you say about astrologyand palmistry? Good astrologers andpalmists have better than 90 per cent

accurate predictions. We cannot explainthis by chance phenomenon. It can onlybe explained by a system set in place by

God. How could soothsayers likeNostradamus predict about somethingwhich was non-existent when they were

alive, like Hitler’s rise in the 20th century,when Nostradamus died in 1556?

If God’s existence is mysterious, so isthe truth about soul. But we cannot dis-regard rebirth as recorded extensively byauthorities like Dr Ian Stevenson. Cananyone deny that we carry impressionsfrom our past lives? How else can a five-year-old play an instrument like harpsi-chord expertly? Similarly, why does atiny toddler, who cries or laughs whenasleep, unless he or she is seeing some-thing from the past life/lives?

Many persons known to me well havewitnessed astonishing feats performed bypersons with material siddhis. Same istrue of out-of-body experiences of many.Ghosts have been talked about for cen-turies and the jury is still out on theirexistence. Similar is the experience ofpeople who have seen planchet in opera-tion. I will round off with a mention oftruly great saints, who could not sharetheir time prior to their death with oth-ers; they just wanted to be with their Lordalone. They couldn’t be pretending at theend of their lives. Let me repeat that noneof the above is proof of God’s existencebecause God, as mentioned earlier, doesnot want it to be so. However, if someoneis wishing to reinforce his or her faith inGod, these will help a lot.

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Life brings many disappoint-ments and challenges. It’seasy to fall victim not onlyto others who may hurt ormistreat us, but also to our

own anger. When we grow angrywhen someone hurts us, we suffertwofold. First, we have to bear thepain that others may cause us.Second, we must bear the pain andsuffering that comes with acting onour own anger. At work, the anger wefeel not only upsets us emotionallybut has a deleterious effect on ourphysical body. It causes stress, whichin turn contributes to stress-relatedailments. This can affect us byincreasing our risk for heart disease,cancer, stroke, high blood pressure,and other diseases.

It takes a great amount ofstrength to withstand the temptationsto overcome anger. We may think theangry person is strong, but actuallythey are succumbing out of weaknessto their own temper. It takes one whois brave of heart to say no to anger.Let’s trace what happens to us whenwe don’t forgive our boss, our co-workers, or our subordinates. Each ofour personal stories generally beginswith something that happens to us onour job that we don’t like. Some per-son has wronged us in some way.Maybe someone has said somethingto hurt our feelings or hurt us physi-cally. Someone might have takensomething from us. Maybe someonehas cheated, deceived, or lied to us.Someone we trusted might have bro-ken that trust. Power, position, orwealth might have been taken fromus. There is always a root cause of aproblem between two people.

As the incident escalates at work,we find our thoughts and wordsoccupied with how to rectify the situ-ation. Some people will try to solvethe problem peacefully by talking itover with the person who they felthad done them wrong. Sometimes wetry that, but the other person is notwilling to listen to change. Then, wefeel we must do something moredrastic. This leads to retaliation orrevenge. We begin to think aboutways to get back at the person whohurt us, or we think about ways to geteven with them. We want to see jus-tice done. Our mind refuses to forget

what has happened until we retaliate.Thus, from that one incident, we endup creating more scenarios and situa-tions in response. The other personthen may get back at us for retaliat-ing. A cycle of action and reactionmay go on and on, escalating a smallsituation into a major problem.

What has happened in theprocess? We have lost our peace ofmind. The initial incident may havelasted a few moments, or a few hours,or a day, but we have now spent hun-dreds of hours and countless daysreplaying what happened and think-ing about how to get even. In theprocess, the precious moments of ourlife have been wasted. Instead ofkeeping our attention on what canhelp us, we have wasted the time inreplaying a bad movie. Thus, we losemore than the person at whom weare directing our anger.

A life spent in not forgiving is alife in which we are like a CD orDVD recording that plays the samebad scene over and over. How manyof us want to see a bad movie twice,or hear a song we don’t like playedagain and again? How many of uswant to eat the same food we don’tlike again? We usually say, “Thistastes terrible.” That is what happenswhen we repeat in our minds all thewrongs done to us.

Many of us do not only replaywhat has happened, but we also try torewrite a new ending in which wecome out redeemed for beingwronged and the other person comesout punished. We cannot undo whatthe other person has done. We cansay, “The suffering has happened andlet it end here and call it quits,” or wecan take revenge and say, “I need tohurt the other person so I am pre-pared to risk the reaction comingback on myself.” Do we wish to addto our own pain by retaliating andrefusing to forgive? It is like runningour clothes in the washing machineto get out the grime, but instead ofpouring in soap suds or detergent, weare pouring in more dirt. How willthe clothes ever become clean?

If someone at work has hurt us,we can choose to forgive and forgetor we can choose to retaliate. Thechoice is ours to make. There is phys-ical harm we do to ourselves when we

are caught up in the opposite of for-giveness: Anger, hatred, andvengeance. These feelings cause dam-age to the physical body. Doctors andmedical researchers are realising thatanger and hatred have detrimentaleffects on our body. Let us analysethe reason. First, there are certainresponses in the physical bodydesigned to help protect itself inorder to preserve the species. When aliving creature senses danger, thereare certain hormonal and chemicalreactions within the body that help itrespond to danger. These hormonescause one to fight or take flight. Theyare useful for giving the bodystrength and quick physical respons-es, such as running or protectingone’s self. But if one interprets it aslife-threatening problems of daily life,that is not a threat to survival, thenone is responding with the fight orflight hormones for no reason.

The result is that we do not see aneed to flee or fight but feel threat-ened. This converts into anger orrage. Thus, we become angry oversituations that don’t threaten our life.This causes the body to circulatehormones needed to run or protectoneself over minor situations thatare part of daily life. Because thesehormones, such as cortisol, are cir-culating through us when we do notneed them, they end up causingdamage to the physical body.

We know, for example, that realcortisone has side effects to the body,so doctors recommend them cau-tiously. However, the body’s naturalcortisol when we are angry or understress ends up circulating through uscausing stress-related ailments. If oneis continually in that state of fear,anger, or stress, those hormonescause a breakdown of other body tis-sues. This is what causes stress-relat-ed ailments, such as digestive prob-lems, headaches, heart problems, skinproblems, and breathing problems.

There are so many challenges ofdaily life that people are respondingto with the same release of fight orflight hormones as if threatened bytrue danger. People may becomeupset if someone cuts in front ofthem on the road while driving towork. They lose their temper if some-one at work makes a small mistake.

Our reactions are out of proportionto the errors that others make.

Years ago, we may not haveknown the physical dangers thatanger and stress caused our body.However, now that we are aware of it,we can consider whether it is worthgetting angry over trivial work situa-tions if it means we increase our riskof heart attack, breathing problems,and digestive problems. The relationbetween anger and our body isbecoming clearer day by day.

The solution for protecting thebody against the hormones releasedby hatred, anger, and vengeance issimple: Forgiveness. It is onlythrough forgiveness that we can calmourselves down and avoid the reac-tions of hatred and violence. Amajority of the time at our jobs weare responding to minor problemswith the same intensity as if our liveswere threatened. Think about all thethings that make us angry. How manyof them threaten our lives? Howmany are just minor annoyances?

We can learn how to stay calm atwork through practising forgivenesswhen someone hurts us. In this way,we can protect our body from thedamage of hormones releasedbecause of anger. We will see a reduc-tion in stress-related ailments.

What are the keys to staying calmat work through forgiveness? One ofthe keys is to let go. When we forgiveand forget, we are letting go of thepast and what has happened. We aresaying, “I forgive the person for whathas happened. Then I am going toforget about it.” In this way, we areletting it go. One technique to devel-op forgiveness so we can stay calm atwork is meditation. The problems oflife will not end. However, throughmeditation, we can focus our atten-tion on the peace within so we canrise above life’s difficulties.

Through meditation, we are intouch with a place of calm within usthat gives us the strength to forgiveothers, overcome anger, and staycalm at work. We cannot control oth-ers at our job, but we can control our-selves. At work, we can choose peaceand calm which will help improveour physical and mental health, andmake for a happier life.

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Imagine a hypothetical situation. If the organisationsand institutions world over had been managed moreeffectively, the leaders were more committed to the

cause, and the people were more sincere, the worldwould have been a better place. But this has not hap-pened despite the fact that we came up with the idea offormal Management Education with a structured cur-riculum to precisely achieve such a state. Today,Management Education is perhaps the most soughtafter course that claims to make, or rather, manufacturemanagers. That is, people with that uncanny knack tocreate surplus and promote prosperity so that the worldbecomes a better place to live in. However, the transfor-mation that Management Education was supposed tobring in the people attending the courses seems not tocome, given the fact that the world still appears to bestruggling with the ills that plagued the past when therewas no Management Education. Not that ManagementEducation can be panacea for all ills, but mismanage-ment is certainly the reason for most problems. If wecompare the violence, the treachery, the deceit, thepoverty, the misery, and the disasters of the past withthe present, they seem to be eerily contemporary. Weare not talking about a subject like Philosophy that isstill groping in the dark to find answers to the problemof evil. Philosophy was just a quest. ManagementEducation was supposed to be the discipline to provideanswers to all these. Naturally, the validity of theManagement Education paradigm needs to be ques-tioned. Maybe not to reject it but to reinvent it. Moreso, because it is being increasingly realised that there isa wide gap between what is taught in those four walls ofa B-School and what is needed to cope with the chal-lenges of the real world. It was more than three decadesago that a popular book, What They Don’t Teach You atHarvard Business School, in which author MarkMcCormack lucidly brought out the point: “What theycan’t teach you at a business school”. To prove his point,the author rather caustically suggests that if ThomasEdison had gone to a business school, we would still beusing big candles to read books. Corporate behaviourwe still are not able to define with certitude, but theinstances of corporate misbehaviours are legion thatmake us rethink on what is to be taught inManagement Education. Business frauds, managerialmisdemeanors, and corporate felonies are growing infrequency even as B-schools and management gurusare rising in number. Over 500 years ago, Britishstatesman, Sir Thomas More, had raised a basic ques-tion on why enterprises fail and had suggested that itwas due to poor management. Yet, in spite of morethan 11 and a half decades of the start of formal man-agement education, we still seem to be clueless as towhat is the antidote to that poor management. Or dowe need to reframe the question because it is not theenterprise that fails? It is the human beings that man-age the enterprise that fail. The answer then has to befound in causes of this human failure. It all boils downto just one aspect that Management Education impartsthe management wisdom but does precious little formanagerial character. It is not wisdom versus character.But it certainly is wisdom with character. How to dothis is what we need to think about.

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Summing up the discussion in theprevious issue, it comes out thaton no count astrology can be

termed as unscientific. This valued dis-cipline, however, doesn’t need sanctionof modern science either. For, it is adiscipline in its own right. It has itsown philosophy, structure, well-defined operative principles in confor-mity with laws of nature, and phraseol-ogy. Not simply that, if you look intothe genesis of Indian Astrology, it willcome out that it has laid down theground for modern science to take off.

Astrological study in fact beganwhile exploring the periodic course thatweather cycle follows, vital to an agrari-an economy. In the process, it was firstrealised that weather cycle primarilymoves in correspondence with Sun’sannular cycle. It was later observed thatthough weather cycle follows almostsimilar periodicity, but carries the scopefor variation every year. They, therefore,enlarged their scope to the influenceexercised by other planetary bodiesmoving round the Sun. Once enough ofknowledge had been gained, worth for-mulating them, the need of symbols wasfelt. In the process, emerged the systemof numbers, which in turn led to evolu-

tion of mathematics, the premise onwhich modern science took off.

Let us now look at the interrelationbetween energy variation in the cosmosand life cycle on earth in real terms.The most glaring example is high tidesin the sea on a full Moon day. Bear inmind; human body comprises of almost65% water content, with the samewater-salt mix as in the sea, but with adifference. Water content is not in aloose form as in the sea. So, on a fullMoon day, such upheavals in humanbody would not be apparently visible asin the sea. But it is difficult to digestthat water-humor in the body, wouldnot get affected, with related bearing onmental and emotional plane. Be itknown that according to Ayurveda(Ancient Indian System of medicine), abeing’s health status is subject to varyingmix of water, fire, and air humors con-stituting the human body. No wonder,lunatics and stressed out people areworst affected on a full Moon day.

Every 11th year, the Sun is subject towhat is called ‘Solar Flare’. A study atTree Ring Centre in USA reveals thatfollowing solar flare, the annual ringformed in the tree trunk becomes rela-tively wider. Over the next five years, the

ring becomes gradually thinner, andthen again progressively widens duringthe next five years. A Japanese scientistworking on human blood has observedthat female blood becomes thin duringtheir menstrual period and pregnancy.But following solar flare, even men’sblood becomes relatively thin.

Here again, every 90 years, the Sunis subject to a major storm. Followinga study of 4,000 years of the flow pat-tern in the river Nile, an Egyptianscholar has pointed out that followingsolar storm, the water level is the high-est. It then begins to gradually recededuring the next 45 years, where after itagain begins progressively rising. Suchis the correspondence between thevarying nature of cosmic energy pat-tern and life cycle on earth.

Now coming back to human life, weare all aware that mind serves as prime-mover of a being. It, in the first place,defines the functional mandate of abeing, according as an individual’s mindis inherently framed. Second, it sets theterms of one’s desire-destination. Third,based on one’s habits and attitudes, italso holds the key to quality of effortsone may put in towards the task in hand.So, all actions on our part are precededby intense working in the mind by way

of visualisation and articulation of theaction plan. Now, what goes throughanybody’s mind can’t be read by anymeasure. But planetary motions, andthereby expected changes in the cosmicenergy pattern can be tracked downwith a fair amount of precision. It is onthis premise that astrology works.

A still better use of astrology wouldbe to look at the map of heaven at thetime of one’s birth to figure out the wayan individual mind is inherentlyframed, with all its positives and nega-tives. Applying exclusive human privi-lege of guiding one’s action by choiceand discrimination, negative trendscould be corrected through consciousefforts. The positives may then play outeffortlessly. We could thus even reshapethe course of our destiny. To sum up,astrology can serve as a very effectivediagnostic tool directed towards humanresource development, and with a fairamount of precision.

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