2UgR_eRXV 4`_X Z_ CR[ >A 4YYReeZdXRcY - Daily Pioneer

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T he exit polls for the five Assembly elections project an advantage to the Congress, which is seen wresting Rajasthan from the BJP and putting saffron party on the tenterhooks in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The TRS is projected to retain Telangana by majority where- as the Congress may end up losing Mizoram, its lone seat of power in North-East. Though a buzz was creat- ed during the last week that the BJP was catching up the Congress in Rajasthan, exit polls show that the Congress may emerge a clear winner in the State, riding on the voters’ angst against the Vasundhara Raje Government. In fact, India Today-Axis exit poll has pro- jected the Congrrss wresting the State with near two-third majority by winning as many as 141 out of 199 seats. The BJP, it added, may win 55-72 seats. Times Now-CNX forecast 105 seats for the Congress and 85 for the BJP. However, Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat forecast a tighter race between the two parties. It gave the Congress and the BJP 81-101 and 83-103 seats respec- tively. When it comes to Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the exit polls are as divided as the main contestants — the BJP and the Congress — though a poll conducted by the NDTV showed the Congress ahead in both the States by a slight mar- gin... In MP, while Republic TV-Jan Ki Baat gave 108-128 seats to the BJP and 95-115 to the Congress in the 230-mem- ber Madhya Pradesh Assembly, India Today-Axis said the saf- fron party could win 102-120 seats as against 104-122 for the Congress. However, the Times Now- CNX exit poll predicted a majority for the BJP in MP with 126 seats and gave the Congress 89 seats. ABP News exit poll said the Congress is likely to get a majority by bagging 126 seats. The BJP, it added, would get 94 seats. Exit polls have given a slight edge to the Congress in Chhattisgarh. The half-way mark in the 90-seat Assembly is 46 seats. In 2013, the BJP had won 49 seats, the Congress 39 while the BSP bagged 1 seat. Here’s a look at all exit poll results for Chhattisgarh. Republic-C Voter predicted 35-43 seats for the BJP and 40- 50 for the Congress while the News Nation forecast a close race with 38-42 seats for the BJP and 40-44 for the Congress. Times Now-CNX, howev- er, gave a simple majority to the BJP in Chhattisgarh, saying it may win 46 seats while the Opposition Congress may bag 35 seats. ABP News said the BJP may get up to 52 seats against 35 of the Congress. However, India Today-Axis predicted the Congress is set to end Chief Minister Raman Singh’s 15-year old reign by winning anywhere between 55-65 seats. The BJP, it said, may be reduced to 21-31 seats. All the exit polls said the alliance of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi’s Janta Congress Chhattisgarh (Jogi) and the BSP may win three to eight seats, which may help him to emerge as a kingmaker in the event of a hung House. Exit polls were almost unanimous in predicting that TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s gamble of advancing the Assembly polls will pay off and he will retain power. Republic TV and Times Now forecast that his party will win 50-65 and 66 seats in the 119-member Assembly. TV9 Telugu and India Today fore- cast a tally between 75-85 and 75-91 for the TRS respectively. Some exit polls saw a tighter battle between the TRS and the Congress-TDP combine. The counting of votes for five States, including Mizoram besides the four States, will be take place on December 11. In Mizoram, the India Today-Axis My India exit poll the ruling Indian National Congress is trailing behind the Mizo National Front (MNF). While the MNF is likely to secure 16-22 seats in the 40- member Mizoram Assembly, the Congress, that ruled the State for the previous two terms, may secure 8-12 seats. The Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM) is seen to be emerging as a disruptive force denting the MNF and Congress in the State. T he Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday conducted searches at six offices of three close associates of Robert Vadra, son-in-law of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, in a case related to assets held abroad through proceeds of crime generated from defence deals. The Congress slammed the ED raids against Vadra’s asso- ciates in the national Capital, NCR and Bengaluru and said an “unnerved” Modi Government was unleashing “vendetta” against party chief Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law to divert the narrative. Vadra on his part com- municated through his lawyers that ED raids to his client did not show any search warrant. “They did not show any search warrant, broke the locks and now preventing people from coming out,” Vadra’s lawyer Suman Khetan said. He said ED officials questioned Vadra’s associates and alleged that “false evidence” could be planted during the search. The ED claimed that searches against Vadra’s aides/former employees were conducted over alleged com- mission received by accused persons in defence deals but refused to divulge the details of the deal or those searched. “The searches at the premises of the three accused persons were related to alleged commission received by some suspects in defence deals, said an ED official. When asked by reporters about the details of the defence deal and the case, the ED official refused to comment, and said, “We will disclose it later.” Sources said the searches were conducted at the office of Skylight Hospitality at 268, Sukhdev Vihar and at an undisclosed premise at KG Marg in the Capital and at one location in Noida besides cer- tain locations in Bengaluru. The searches come two days after the ED issued sum- mons to Vadra in connection with the money laundering probe in the Bikaner land scam case. T he BJP and the Mamata Banerjee Government in West Bengal are on the warpath over the saffron party’s pro- posed rath yatra in the State. A day after a single bench of the Calcutta High Court refused the BJP permission to hold the ‘rath yatra’ in Coochbehar, a division bench of the court modified its order even as BJP chief Amit shah launched an all-out attack against the State Government and accused it of throttling democracy. The first of the three char- iots was scheduled to roll out from Coochbehar on Friday but was deferred till January 9 by a single-Bench. On Friday, a division bench of justices Biswanath Samaddar and Arindam Mukherjee directed Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and Director General of Police to sort out the yatra imbroglio by December 12 and inform the appellant (the BJP) about their decisions. The decision should be reasonable and not arbitrary, the HC said. Wondering as to what made the State administra- tion sit over the bunch of let- ters sent by the BJP seeking permission for the yatra, the judges remarked the Government’s silence was “astonishing and astounding.” The court modified the single Bench’s judgment by taking away the injunctive part of the Wednesday’s order. The Judges said, “The Government could have cho- sen to regulate the yatra, trun- cated it --- from a 40-day affair to a 20 or seven-day one, decided on its routes or the number of rallyists, anything but the way it chose to ignore it was simply astonishing.” Even as an excited BJP leadership pegged on its hope on the court order, lawyers rep- resenting the State Government said, “The court order would be followed in both letter and spirit. The administration will have no problem in deciding on the safe routes or the number of days.” Earlier, the single bench of Justice Tapabrato Chakrabarty on Thursday had denied per- mission for the yatra wonder- ing why the saffron outfit had approached the court so late and after the State contended that the yatra could create communal tension in the State. T he Centre on Friday appointed ISB Hyderabad academician Krishnamurthy Subramanian as Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) for a period of three years. The post of CEA fell vacant in July when Arvind Subramanaian resigned ahead of the end of his extend- ed tenure in October. “The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved the appointment of Dr Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Associate Professor at ISB, Hyderabad, to the post of CEA,” said a Government noti- fication. His appointment will be for a period of three years, it said. An IIT-IIM alumnus, Subramanian holds PhD (Financial Economics) from Booth School of Business, University of Chicago, US. T he three-year-old big cat in Satkosia Tiger Reserve, which was shifted from Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha Tiger Reserve as the part of the country’s first inter-State tiger translocation plan in June and found dead on November 14, was the victim of poaching, preliminary investigations by a two-member Central team has revealed. Asserting that the tiger T1, also known as Mahavir, died after it got trapped in snares mostly used by poachers, Dr Amit Mallick, Inspector General of Forest, National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and K Ramesh from Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in their report also apparently rejected various theories that Odisha Government had been coming with, death due to porcupine attacks being one of them. It also ruled out infight- ing with another dominant male behind the tiger’s death. The inquiry report which is exhaustive in nature also indicates that the death due to poaching calls for various anti- poaching measures such as monitoring by elephants and sensitisation of the locals before more tigers could be shifted to the region. As T1 got injured due to snares, “The case shall have to proceed with investigation accordingly for poaching. To emphasise, preliminary inves- tigation based indicators of crime and multiple factors involved, indicate that the instant case is due to poaching,” said the report. T1 got trapped in snare or other traps set up for wild pig in the area around Brahmi/Kharuani village on November 9. Since the body was found on November 14, the experts have not ruled out the tiger got injured in his neck while trying to break the trap. The tiger had died of multiple organ failure resulting from septicemia caused by the mag- got-infested wound in its neck, said the report which has been submitted to NTCA head Anup Kumar Nayak. However, when contacted, Nayak refused to share the details, but sources said that the report also reflects on the State officials’ bid to cover up the matter as the post-mortem do not adequately address the cause of visible injury. “The analogy and premise based to conclude the cause of death in the post-mortem is not at all satisfactory and complete. Importantly, no metal detector was used before the PM process was initiated. “The visible injury as seen in the pictures made available by the authorities taken before the post-mortem is glaringly clear and leaves no suspicion on the nature sustained and the cause which led to such an injury. This is not adequately addressed during the post- mortem,” says the report. E ven as the exit polls sent confusing signal for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattigarh and victory for the Congress in Rajasthan, both the major political parties — BJP and Congress — exuded confidence that come the counting day — December 11 — and they will have the last laugh. It is different matter that top leaders of both the parties refrained from making any tall claims and left the task to their spokespersons. AICC secretary incharge Pranav Jha said as the surveys have been exhibiting, similar overwhelming response was seen among party workers and the voters in all the poll- bound States. “The results may be more exciting than the current media surveys and that we will win all the five States, includ- ing Telangana and Mizoram. Appreciate the efforts of exit polls which have given the Congress a clear majority in all the States but as per our feed- back from our volunteers and party workers we will win more. We don’t have any con- fusion as is being shown in some of the surveys,” said Pranav reacting to the exit polls. He was also involved in the campaign in Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Rajasthan. However, Madhya Pradesh BJP spokesman Dr Hitesh Bajpai, who was accorded a Cabinet rank status in the Shivraj Singh Chauhan Government, said the results are not in sync with the reali- ty on the ground. “We will win a majority and form a Government, though the num- ber of seats that we will win can be a little less than what we won in 2013,” he said. The ruling TRS and Opposition Congress-led People’s Front too expressed confidence that they would win the Telangana Assembly polls. While the TRS stated exit poll predictions are correct, the Congress said there will be sur- prises. State Congress presi- dent N Uttam Kumar Reddy said the People’s Front, com- prising the Congress, the TDP, the CPI and Telangana Jana Samiti, would get over 80 seats in the 119-member House and that exit polls would be proven wrong. He said the number could go up if the vot- ing percentage was higher. BJP spokesperson Krishna Saagar Rao too exuded confi- dence that exit polls were just an entertainment show and that this time people has voted for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision in the State. Congress leader and a strong contender for the Chief Minister in Rajasthan, Sachin Pilot, thanked the voters and expressed his confidence and said surveys were on same line and that the results on Tuesday could be far better. T he screening of the movie ‘Kedarnath’ has been banned by the District Magistrates of seven districts in Uttarakhand due to law and order concerns. While much of the movie set against the back- drop of the 2013 flood in Kedarnath was shot at locations in Rudraprayag and Chamoli districts, it has been banned in the districts of the State where there are cinema halls. Aspects of the movie including some scenes and reported distortion of facts have elicited objections from various social groups and polit- ical parties including the Congress and BJP. Meanwhile, the State Tourism and Culture Minister Satpal Maharaj said that the State Government will soon draft a policy under which permission will not be granted for shooting any objectionable scenes at religious sites linked to the faith of the people in the state. On Thursday evening, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat had chaired meeting of the committee headed by Maharaj which was formed to look into the objectionable scenes in the movie. The State Government had then left the decision to ban screening of the movie on the District Magistrates. Later, the screening of the movie was banned by the district magis- trates of Dehradun, Pauri, Tehri, Haridwar, Nainital, Almora and Udham Singh Nagar due to law and order concerns. Maharaj said that personally he believes that objectionable scenes should not be incorporated in films shot at religious centres. Kedarnath is revered by Hindus so a movie with objectionable aspects will be strongly opposed as it hurts the religious sentiments of the people. According priority to com- mercialisation in the guise of religious faith, film makers create unnecessary controver- sy by including such aspects which negatively affects social harmony and the law and order situation. He said that the State Government will draft a poli- cy under which permission will not be granted for shoot- ing objectionable scenes at sites of religious importance. To regulate shooting at religious centres, the temple committees are also being read- ied to first make the film mak- ers sign a bond assuring that no objectionable scenes at reli- gious sites will be included in the movie, he added. It should be mentioned here that the movie starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Sara Ali Khan has elicited criticism in Uttarakhand for reported fac- tual distortions with some also accusing it of encouraging love jihad.

Transcript of 2UgR_eRXV 4`_X Z_ CR[ >A 4YYReeZdXRcY - Daily Pioneer

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The exit polls for the fiveAssembly elections project

an advantage to the Congress,which is seen wrestingRajasthan from the BJP andputting saffron party on thetenterhooks in MadhyaPradesh and Chhattisgarh. TheTRS is projected to retainTelangana by majority where-as the Congress may end uplosing Mizoram, its lone seat ofpower in North-East.

Though a buzz was creat-ed during the last week that theBJP was catching up theCongress in Rajasthan, exitpolls show that the Congressmay emerge a clear winner inthe State, riding on the voters’angst against the VasundharaRaje Government. In fact, IndiaToday-Axis exit poll has pro-jected the Congrrss wrestingthe State with near two-thirdmajority by winning as many as141 out of 199 seats. The BJP,it added, may win 55-72 seats.Times Now-CNX forecast 105seats for the Congress and 85for the BJP.

However, Republic TV-JanKi Baat forecast a tighter racebetween the two parties. Itgave the Congress and the BJP81-101 and 83-103 seats respec-tively.

When it comes to MadhyaPradesh and Chhattisgarh, theexit polls are as divided as themain contestants — the BJPand the Congress — though apoll conducted by the NDTVshowed the Congress ahead inboth the States by a slight mar-gin... In MP, while RepublicTV-Jan Ki Baat gave 108-128seats to the BJP and 95-115 tothe Congress in the 230-mem-ber Madhya Pradesh Assembly,India Today-Axis said the saf-fron party could win 102-120seats as against 104-122 for the

Congress.However, the Times Now-

CNX exit poll predicted amajority for the BJP in MP with126 seats and gave the Congress89 seats. ABP News exit pollsaid the Congress is likely to geta majority by bagging 126seats. The BJP, it added, wouldget 94 seats.

Exit polls have given aslight edge to the Congress inChhattisgarh. The half-waymark in the 90-seat Assemblyis 46 seats. In 2013, the BJP hadwon 49 seats, the Congress 39while the BSP bagged 1 seat.

Here’s a look at all exit pollresults for Chhattisgarh.Republic-C Voter predicted35-43 seats for the BJP and 40-50 for the Congress while theNews Nation forecast a closerace with 38-42 seats for theBJP and 40-44 for theCongress.

Times Now-CNX, howev-er, gave a simple majority to theBJP in Chhattisgarh, saying it

may win 46 seats while theOpposition Congress may bag35 seats. ABP News said theBJP may get up to 52 seatsagainst 35 of the Congress.

However, India Today-Axispredicted the Congress is set toend Chief Minister RamanSingh’s 15-year old reign bywinning anywhere between55-65 seats. The BJP, it said,may be reduced to 21-31 seats.

All the exit polls said thealliance of former ChiefMinister Ajit Jogi’s JantaCongress Chhattisgarh (Jogi)and the BSP may win three toeight seats, which may helphim to emerge as a kingmakerin the event of a hung House.

Exit polls were almostunanimous in predicting thatTRS president and ChiefMinister K ChandrashekarRao’s gamble of advancing theAssembly polls will pay off andhe will retain power.

Republic TV and TimesNow forecast that his party will

win 50-65 and 66 seats in the119-member Assembly. TV9Telugu and India Today fore-cast a tally between 75-85 and75-91 for the TRS respectively.

Some exit polls saw atighter battle between the TRSand the Congress-TDP combine. The counting of votesfor five States, includingMizoram besides the fourStates, will be take place onDecember 11.

In Mizoram, the IndiaToday-Axis My India exit pollthe ruling Indian NationalCongress is trailing behind theMizo National Front (MNF).While the MNF is likely tosecure 16-22 seats in the 40-member Mizoram Assembly,the Congress, that ruled theState for the previous twoterms, may secure 8-12 seats.

The Zoram People’sMovement (ZPM) is seen to beemerging as a disruptive forcedenting the MNF and Congressin the State.

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The EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on Friday

conducted searches at sixoffices of three close associatesof Robert Vadra, son-in-law ofUPA chairperson SoniaGandhi, in a case related toassets held abroad throughproceeds of crime generatedfrom defence deals.

The Congress slammed theED raids against Vadra’s asso-ciates in the national Capital,NCR and Bengaluru and saidan “unnerved” ModiGovernment was unleashing“vendetta” against party chiefRahul Gandhi’s brother-in-lawto divert the narrative.

Vadra on his part com-municated through his lawyersthat ED raids to his client didnot show any search warrant.“They did not show any searchwarrant, broke the locks andnow preventing people from

coming out,” Vadra’s lawyerSuman Khetan said. He saidED officials questioned Vadra’sassociates and alleged that“false evidence” could beplanted during the search.

The ED claimed thatsearches against Vadra’saides/former employees wereconducted over alleged com-mission received by accusedpersons in defence deals but

refused to divulge the detailsof the deal or those searched.

“The searches at thepremises of the three accusedpersons were related to allegedcommission received by somesuspects in defence deals, saidan ED official.

When asked by reportersabout the details of the defencedeal and the case, the EDofficial refused to comment,and said, “We will disclose itlater.”

Sources said the searcheswere conducted at the office ofSkylight Hospitality at 268,Sukhdev Vihar and at anundisclosed premise at KGMarg in the Capital and at onelocation in Noida besides cer-tain locations in Bengaluru.

The searches come twodays after the ED issued sum-mons to Vadra in connectionwith the money launderingprobe in the Bikaner land scam case.

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The BJP and the MamataBanerjee Government in

West Bengal are on the warpathover the saffron party’s pro-posed rath yatra in the State. Aday after a single bench of theCalcutta High Court refusedthe BJP permission to hold the‘rath yatra’ in Coochbehar, adivision bench of the courtmodified its order even as BJPchief Amit shah launched anall-out attack against the StateGovernment and accused it ofthrottling democracy.

The first of the three char-iots was scheduled to roll outfrom Coochbehar on Fridaybut was deferred till January 9by a single-Bench.

On Friday, a division benchof justices Biswanath Samaddarand Arindam Mukherjeedirected Chief Secretary, HomeSecretary and Director Generalof Police to sort out the yatra

imbroglio by December 12and inform the appellant (theBJP) about their decisions. Thedecision should be reasonableand not arbitrary, the HC said.

Wondering as to whatmade the State administra-tion sit over the bunch of let-ters sent by the BJP seekingpermission for the yatra, thejudges remarked theGovernment’s silence was“astonishing and astounding.”The court modified the singleBench’s judgment by takingaway the injunctive part of theWednesday’s order.

The Judges said, “TheGovernment could have cho-sen to regulate the yatra, trun-cated it --- from a 40-dayaffair to a 20 or seven-day one,decided on its routes or thenumber of rallyists, anythingbut the way it chose to ignoreit was simply astonishing.”

Even as an excited BJPleadership pegged on its hopeon the court order, lawyers rep-resenting the StateGovernment said, “The courtorder would be followed inboth letter and spirit. Theadministration will have noproblem in deciding on thesafe routes or the number ofdays.”

Earlier, the single bench ofJustice Tapabrato Chakrabartyon Thursday had denied per-mission for the yatra wonder-ing why the saffron outfit hadapproached the court so lateand after the State contendedthat the yatra could createcommunal tension in the State.

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The Centre on Fridayappointed ISB Hyderabad

academician KrishnamurthySubramanian as ChiefEconomic Adviser (CEA) for aperiod of three years. The postof CEA fell vacant in July whenArvind Subramanaian resignedahead of the end of his extend-ed tenure in October.

“The AppointmentsCommittee of the Cabinet(ACC) has approved theappointment of DrKrishnamurthy Subramanian,Associate Professor at ISB,Hyderabad, to the post ofCEA,” said a Government noti-fication. His appointment willbe for a period of three years,it said.

An IIT-IIM alumnus,Subramanian holds PhD(Financial Economics) fromBooth School of Business,University of Chicago, US.

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The three-year-old big cat inSatkosia Tiger Reserve,

which was shifted fromMadhya Pradesh’s Kanha TigerReserve as the part of thecountry’s first inter-State tigertranslocation plan in June andfound dead on November 14,was the victim of poaching,preliminary investigations by atwo-member Central team hasrevealed.

Asserting that the tiger T1,also known as Mahavir, diedafter it got trapped in snaresmostly used by poachers, DrAmit Mallick, InspectorGeneral of Forest, NationalTiger Conservation Authority(NTCA) and K Ramesh fromWildlife Institute of India (WII)in their report also apparentlyrejected various theories thatOdisha Government had beencoming with, death due to

porcupine attacks being one ofthem. It also ruled out infight-ing with another dominantmale behind the tiger’s death.

The inquiry report whichis exhaustive in nature alsoindicates that the death due topoaching calls for various anti-poaching measures such asmonitoring by elephants andsensitisation of the locals beforemore tigers could be shifted tothe region.

As T1 got injured due tosnares, “The case shall have toproceed with investigationaccordingly for poaching. Toemphasise, preliminary inves-tigation based indicators ofcrime and multiple factorsinvolved, indicate that theinstant case is due to poaching,”said the report.

T1 got trapped in snare orother traps set up for wild pigin the area aroundBrahmi/Kharuani village onNovember 9. Since the body

was found on November 14,the experts have not ruled outthe tiger got injured in his neckwhile trying to break the trap.The tiger had died of multipleorgan failure resulting fromsepticemia caused by the mag-got-infested wound in its neck,said the report which has beensubmitted to NTCA headAnup Kumar Nayak.

However, when contacted,Nayak refused to share thedetails, but sources said that thereport also reflects on the Stateofficials’ bid to cover up thematter as the post-mortem donot adequately address thecause of visible injury.

“The analogy and premisebased to conclude the cause ofdeath in the post-mortem is notat all satisfactory and complete.Importantly, no metal detectorwas used before the PM processwas initiated.

“The visible injury as seenin the pictures made available

by the authorities taken beforethe post-mortem is glaringlyclear and leaves no suspicionon the nature sustained and thecause which led to such aninjury.

This is not adequatelyaddressed during the post-mortem,” says the report.

������������ �������������� ���������������� �������������������������������������������������������������� ��������������!�"�����������!�������

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Even as the exit polls sentconfusing signal for

Madhya Pradesh andChhattigarh and victory for theCongress in Rajasthan, boththe major political parties —BJP and Congress — exudedconfidence that come thecounting day — December 11— and they will have the lastlaugh. It is different matter thattop leaders of both the partiesrefrained from making any tallclaims and left the task to theirspokespersons.

AICC secretary inchargePranav Jha said as the surveyshave been exhibiting, similaroverwhelming response wasseen among party workersand the voters in all the poll-bound States.

“The results may be moreexciting than the currentmedia surveys and that we willwin all the five States, includ-ing Telangana and Mizoram.Appreciate the efforts of exitpolls which have given theCongress a clear majority in allthe States but as per our feed-back from our volunteers andparty workers we will winmore. We don’t have any con-fusion as is being shown insome of the surveys,” saidPranav reacting to the exitpolls. He was also involved inthe campaign in MadhyaPradesh, Chhatisgarh andRajasthan.

However, Madhya PradeshBJP spokesman Dr Hitesh

Bajpai, who was accorded aCabinet rank status in theShivraj Singh ChauhanGovernment, said the resultsare not in sync with the reali-ty on the ground. “We will wina majority and form aGovernment, though the num-ber of seats that we will wincan be a little less than what wewon in 2013,” he said.

The ruling TRS andOpposition Congress-ledPeople’s Front too expressedconfidence that they wouldwin the Telangana Assemblypolls. While the TRS stated exitpoll predictions are correct, theCongress said there will be sur-prises. State Congress presi-dent N Uttam Kumar Reddysaid the People’s Front, com-prising the Congress, the TDP,the CPI and Telangana JanaSamiti, would get over 80 seatsin the 119-member Houseand that exit polls would beproven wrong. He said thenumber could go up if the vot-ing percentage was higher.

BJP spokesperson KrishnaSaagar Rao too exuded confi-dence that exit polls were justan entertainment show andthat this time people has votedfor Prime Minister NarendraModi’s vision in the State.

Congress leader and astrong contender for the ChiefMinister in Rajasthan, SachinPilot, thanked the voters andexpressed his confidence andsaid surveys were on same lineand that the results on Tuesdaycould be far better.

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The screening of the movie‘Kedarnath’ has been

banned by the DistrictMagistrates of seven districts inUttarakhand due to law andorder concerns. While much ofthe movie set against the back-drop of the 2013 flood inKedarnath was shot at locationsin Rudraprayag and Chamolidistricts, it has been banned inthe districts of the State wherethere are cinema halls.

Aspects of the movieincluding some scenes and

reported distortion of factshave elicited objections fromvarious social groups and polit-ical parties including theCongress and BJP.

Meanwhile, the StateTourism and Culture MinisterSatpal Maharaj said that theState Government will soondraft a policy under whichpermission will not be grantedfor shooting any objectionablescenes at religious sites linkedto the faith of the people in thestate.

On Thursday evening,Chief Minister Trivendra SinghRawat had chaired meeting ofthe committee headed byMaharaj which was formed tolook into the objectionablescenes in the movie.

The State Government hadthen left the decision to banscreening of the movie on theDistrict Magistrates. Later, thescreening of the movie was

banned by the district magis-trates of Dehradun, Pauri,Tehri, Haridwar, Nainital,Almora and Udham SinghNagar due to law and orderconcerns. Maharaj said thatpersonally he believes thatobjectionable scenes shouldnot be incorporated in filmsshot at religious centres.Kedarnath is revered by Hindusso a movie with objectionableaspects will be stronglyopposed as it hurts the religioussentiments of the people.According priority to com-mercialisation in the guise ofreligious faith, film makerscreate unnecessary controver-sy by including such aspectswhich negatively affects socialharmony and the law and ordersituation.

He said that the StateGovernment will draft a poli-cy under which permissionwill not be granted for shoot-

ing objectionable scenes atsites of religious importance.

To regulate shooting atreligious centres, the templecommittees are also being read-ied to first make the film mak-ers sign a bond assuring that noobjectionable scenes at reli-gious sites will be included inthe movie, he added. It shouldbe mentioned here that themovie starring Sushant SinghRajput and Sara Ali Khan haselicited criticism inUttarakhand for reported fac-tual distortions with some alsoaccusing it of encouraging lovejihad.

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The emotive Ayodhya issuecoming to fore again with

rising intensity a few monthsahead of the 2019 general elec-tion, it is interesting to recallthe mandir movement’s asso-ciation with Uttarakhand. Butbefore coming to this, let uslook back on the time preced-ing the launch of the move-ment.

It came up at a time whenBJP was mired in the slough ofGandhian Socialism, a credozealously propagated by itsfirst president Atal BihariVajpayee to lend the newlyformed party a ‘secular’ iden-tity to silence the ‘communal’cacophony which haunted theBharatiya Jana Sangh, the pre-cursor of BJP. However,Vajpayee’s move to take the BJPto the ‘secular’ high road hada few takers in the party as wellas in the RSS which is consid-ered to be its ideological fount.The critics said that it was anattempt to reduce the party toa copycat with little to distin-guish it from the ideology theCongress professed. ButVajpayee’s towering stature asthe founder and the face of the

fledgling party kept the dissentdown just to be simmeringwithin. The scene changeddramatically after the BJP wasmade to kiss the poll dust afterthe 1985 election-held in thetumultuous aftermath of IndiraGandhi’s assassination.

The party won just twoseats out of 224 seats it con-tested and Vajpayee himselfwas defeated from Gwaliorconstituency by an incrediblemargin. The shell-shocked BJPwas made to grope for an issueout of the dark tunnel, a sort ofvigorous image makeover tocarve a distinct identity of itsown in line with the ideologyRSS had been championingsince 1925, the year it wasfounded.

With Vajpayee’s tacit acqui-escence, L K Advani wasentrusted with the task of steer-ing the party towards turningover a new leaf, shedding itswobbly ‘secular’ scruples. WithAdvani in the ascendency asthe new mascot of the saffronconstellation, the party resolvedto go the whole hog in thedirection of Hindu consolida-tion. It decided to lend its fullweight behind the emotiveAyodhya Movement the ViswaHindu Parishad-founded in1060s at the behest of the RSS-had been energetically spear-heading.

The Ayodhya issue cameup for the first time in courseof the BJP’s national executivemeet held in June 1989. Itclearly stated, sans the least of‘secular’ ambiguity: “Ever since

the temple, revered as thebirthplace of Lord Rama, wasdestroyed the Hindus havebeen longing to see the resus-citation of the temple at the sitewhich they hold as extremelysacred.” Earlier, the VHP-patronised Dharma Sansaddecided to hold the Ramshilapujas across the country as itmet in Allahabad in January1989 when the Kumbh Melawas on.

The first consecratedRamshila brick went toAyodhya from the reveredshrine of Badrinath. Besides, itwas in Haridwar that Sri RamKar Sewa Samiti was set upduring a sant congregationconvened at the behest of VHPin June 1989. The sant frater-nity during the congregation inthe holy city called for the con-struction of the Ram Temple atthe disputed site in Ayodhyawhere the Babri Masjid, sup-posedly built in 1528, stood. ByOctober of the same year, 2,75,000 consecrated bricksreached Ayodhya. OnNovember 9, the foundationstone of the temple was laid bya Dalit at a site which was astone’s throw distance fromthe Babri structure.

Now, let us come to theCongress’s role during thistempestuous time. It was thetime when Rajiv Gandhi wasthe Prime Minister, Buta Singhwas the Union Home Ministerand N D Tiwari was the chiefminister of undivided UttarPradesh.

It must be noted that the

foundation stone was laid at thedisputed site in defiance of thecourt order. It is alleged that thefoundation stone was laid withfull complicity of Gandhi andTiwari with Buta Singh medi-ating between the Centre andthe State Government to cleardecks for it.

Let me recount here inpassing what I read someyears ago, somethingimmensely interesting whenviewed against the backdrop ofCongress’ eternal vacillationon its tangled, tenuous, frag-ile identity, oscillating conve-niently between ‘secularism’and ‘soft Hindutva’ pitches.What I read is that RajivGandhi was taken to a highlyrevered saint Devraha Baba byButa Singh and N D Tiwaribarely a week before the foun-dation stone was laid.

As the Baba was then liv-ing on a 12-feet high machanon the bank of Yamuna heused to bless his devotees withhis feet touching upon theirheads. Rajiv Gandhi paid hisobeisance to the saint and

then sought his blessing andguidance on the explosiveAyodhya tangle. The legendaryBaba-revered as the agelesssaint-is said to have looked athim benignantly and mur-mured, “My child, let it hap-pen.” The trio took it as thesaint’s advice to let the foun-dation-laying to happen with-out any Governmental hin-drance.

I do not know whetherwhat I read is true or not. ButI remember having seen afront page picture on a lead-ing Bengali daily of Gandhitaking blessing from the Babawhile reverentially standingwith a beaming face underthe thatched platform theBaba then was living on withTiwari standing near withfolded hands and a devotion-overwhelmed face.

It triggered a fierce row atthe time with the Left inBengal making it an electionpitch to demolish the ‘secu-lar’ pretence of the Congress.

Coming back, in January1990, VHP announced that

the construction of the tem-ple would start in February.However, things remainedshelved for some time as theVP Singh-helmedGovernment at the Centre,running with the outsidesupport of the BJP and theCommunists, sought fourmonths to evolve an amica-ble solution to the tanglewith the concurrence of boththe communities concerned.However, the four-monthcooling-off period passed offwith the consensus remain-ing elusive. Returning to itsstridency, VHP announcedin Haridwar that the work ofconstructing the temple atthe disputed site would beginon October 30 1990.

Around this time, some-thing momentous happenedas V P Singh tabled theMandal Commission report,a craftily crafted move meantto revolutionise the texture ofthe Indian polity and also totake the winds out of the saf-fron sails. Outwitted by thedeadly blow, threatening todivide the Hindu society hor-izontally, BJP/VHP/ RSScombine decided to go all-out on a damage controlmission of sweeping theHindu society under thecyclonic Ram wave.

Accordingly, Advaniembarked on his historicSomnath to Ayodhya RamRath Yatra on September 251990 which unleashed fren-zy in its wake. What hap-pened thereafter is history.

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Chairing a review meetingon Friday, the Haridwar

MP Ramesh Pokhriyal‘Nishank’ discussed the devel-opment of the soil testing lab-oratory established atGovardhanpur village. Notably,on the public-private partner-ship mode, a soil testing labo-ratory has come up in themodel village Govardhanpurwith an estimated cost of�5lakh. With the establish-ment of the laboratory, the localfarmers would no longer beforced to go to Bahadrabad toget their soil samples tested.

In course of the meeting,Nishank reviewed the progressof the three villages adoptedunder Adarsh Gram Yojnafrom the officers of the zilapanchayat. He directed them tobuild the three villages as mod-els for the country.

He also discussed matterspertaining to education, healthand fishery departmentsbesides the district industrycentre.

The District EducationOfficer (basic education) S DSharma said that the number ofteachers and students in theschools located in the modelvillages was good. He alsodrew the MP’s attention to thepaucity of teachers plaguingseveral other Governmentschools running in the district.Further, he demanded devel-opment of infrastructure inthe schools running under thebasic education department.

Former member of theMandi Samiti Sanjay Chopraduring the meeting placed aproposal of implementing e-Krishi market scheme rolledout by the Centre in the dis-trict and pressed the depart-ment to pay more attention themandi samitis run for the ben-efit of the farmers. With theimplementation of the e-krishischeme, the farmers would getmore benefits than what theyare getting now, said Chopra.

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Despite claims by the StateGovernment of improving

health facilities and solvingthe medical staff crunch, thingson the ground are grim in threeimportant hospitals of the dis-trict–Mahila hospital, Melahospital and Har Milap districthospital. While some doctorsare on leave for higher studies,many posts keep lying vacantfor years. The common criticalrefrain among the sufferingpeople is that not just theGovernment-run facilities inthe rural parts of the districtbut the city-based facilitieswhich the people throng intheir hordes after travelling along distance for treatment areat the receiving end of theGovernmental apathy. “Thesevere staff crunch is staringgrimly at the Government-runfacilities both in the rural andthe city areas,” lamented apatient found running aboutthe district hospital to get adoctor to treat his wife downwith high fever.

They say that nearly daily,they face the same situation- oneor more departments of the dis-trict hospital are closed thanksto the non-availability of doctors.“When those running theGovernment claim that the hos-pitals are no longer crippled bythe staff crunch it sounds like amockery of our suffering.

With the OPD non-func-

tional, we are perforce flockingto the private facilities where weare being fleeced,” said anotherpatient gloomily.

On Friday, they faced thesame at the district hospitalwhere there was no orthopaedicsurgeon to cater to the patients.The same was the scene at theroom of the child specialist.What is more, the orthopaedicsurgeon Shivam Pathak is set togo on leave for six months forhigher studies.

However, when contacted,the medical superintendent saidthat his leave has not yet beensanctioned.

The hospital sources saythat the posts left by the sur-geons on retirement remainingunfilled partly account for thesorry state of things. Besides, thepaediatrician leaves the hospitalfrequently to attend hearings atcourt where a case involving himhas been going on.

The ordeal of the peopledoes not end here. Those whocome to collect medical certifi-cates often return empty-hand-ed as many posts of the accoun-tants have been lying vacant forlong. Ram Kumar fromImlikheda village who came totake medical certificate for hisward who was admitted a fewdays ago shared his agony withThe Pioneer. “I am a contractworker and it is not easy for meto manage leaves from the fac-tory. I lose my wages for the dayif I do not report duty. I have

come here to collect medical cer-tificate, but I am returning dis-appointed as the person who isto give me the certificate is noton his seat.”

Last week, the pathologist inthe laboratory in Mela Hospitalwas on leave which led to hun-dreds of blood samples unat-tended and forced the patientsto rush to the private labs to havethe tests done. Those living inthe biggest block of the districtBaghdadabad are living bereft ofmedical facilities.

The shortage of doctorsand the pitiable condition of thecommunity health centre haveleft them at the mercy of the pri-vate facilities which make themcough up a huge amount ofmoney for very elementary testsand the like.

The Civil Hospital based inRoorkee has also been reelingunder an acute shortage of doc-tors. The problem is beingaccentuated by four of thembeing on leave till next year.

The condition of the ruralhealth centres is the worst wherethe ANMs and nurses are run-ning them. With no gynaecol-ogist duty, the women whocome for deliveries are notassured of safe treatment.

The expecting women whoreach the primary health centresare referred to the district hos-pital which is always crammedbeyond capacity with a singledoctor often attending to hun-dreds of patients.

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Sumitranandan Pant, the“Bard of Almora” who sang

of the beauty of nature in hispoetry and was one of the shin-ing names of the “ChhayavaadiKavis” will always be the prideof Uttarakhand besides beingone of the most well-knownHindi poets of our country InDecember 2015, the thenGovernor of UttarakhandDr.K.K.Paul released a memo-rial postage stamp on thisrenowned Hindi litterateur.

It was indeed a significantinitiative to remember andhonour the venerable traditionof literature that Uttarakhandis fortunate to posses. It was forthe first time that a memorialstamp was issued in memory of

any of the various eminentwriters of this region.

This great poet’s deathanniversary falls on December28. He passed away in the year1977.

Kausani and Almora inKumaon in Uttarakhand areinvariably associated with hisname.

Tourists to the picturesqueregion love to visit the museumraised in his memory atKausani. However, if theGovernment makes moreefoorts to project his life andtimes, it would be a great trib-ute to this classic poet who hasbeen often compared toWilliam Wordsworth. Studentsin Uttarakhand must be madeaware of this glorious literaryheritage,

He was born more than acentury ago at Kausani. Pant

was one of the major romanticHindi poets and Uttarakhandcan never stop priding itself forhaving been the birthplace ofsuch an accomplished poet.

Pant was born on May 20,1900. His mother died withina few hours of his birth. He wasgiven the name Gosain Dutt.His initial schooling took placein Almora. After completinghigh school, he moved toPrayag. He did not like hisname so he gave himself a newname —”Sumitranandan Pant”.

He is considered one of theshining names of theChhayavaadi School of Hindiliterature, the others beingSuryakant Tripathi Nirala,Jaishanker Prasad, MahadeviVerma, Harivansh RaiBachchan and Ram DhariSingh Dinkar.

Chhayavaad (Shadowism)refers to the era of Neo–romanticism in HindiLiterature, particularly Hindipoetry (1917–1938) and wasmarked by an upsurge ofromantic and humanist con-tent. Chhayavaad was markedby a renewed sense of the selfand personal expression, vis-ible in the writings of thattime. It is known for its lean-ing towards themes of love andnature. Sumitranandan Panttook to poetry when he wasjust seven, and happened to bestudying in the 4th grade.Having spent his childhoodsurrounded by natural beautyof the mountains and flora andfauna; it was only natural thatit was from here that he got hisinspiration; for his earlierworks reflected a sublime

touch of the scenic serenity. The period from 1907-

1918 has even been admittedby Sumitranandan himself, asthe first phase of his notablewriting career. The poemsthat he wrote in this phasehave been compiled togetherand published in "Veena"(1927).

Pant authored twentyeight published works includ-ing poetry, verse plays andessays. The SumitranandanPant Gallery is a museum inKasauni, set in the housewhere the poet was born. Thebeauty of the hills where hewas born echoes in Pant’spoetic works. After his earlyeducation in Almora, he wentto Queen’s College inKashi(Varanasi) and then to toPrayag University. On hearingMahatama Gandhi’s call forSatyagraha, he left college.However, he continued hiseducation by reading English,Sanskrit and BengaliLiterature.

After some time, he wentto Sri Aurobindo’s Ashram atPondicherry. There was anundeniable influence after thevisit to Sri Aurobindo'sAshram and the result wasevident in the poems that hewas writing then.

The museum at Kausaniencloses manuscripts of hispoems, draft copies of his lit-erary works, articles of his day-to-day use, the awards receivedand also the letters written byhim and received by him.

The compact library inthis museum is worth visiting.

Pant was honoured with

the prestigious PadmaBhushan (1961), Jnanpith(1968), Sahitya Akademi andSoviet Land-Nehru Awardsfor his immense contributionto the Hindi literary scene. Hispoetry epitomised the Indianthought of Satyam, Shivam,Sundaram (the true, the good,the beautiful). Pant was thepoet who effortlessly made thetransition from aesthetic mys-ticism to the temporal.

In his later writings, Pantthe aesthete emerged as athinker, philosopher andhumanist. His finest work, byfar, is “Pallav”, a collection of32 poems written between1918 and 1925.

It was SumitranandanPant, a close friend ofHarivansh Rai Bachchan whohappened to suggest the namefor the two Bachchan brothers—Amitabh and Ajitabh. Hewas like a godfather figure forthe two.

Here is an example of afew lines in the Chhayavadstyle, from Pant’s poem “Almore ka Vasant “(AlmoraSpring):

Vidrum ou, markat keechhaya,

Sone chaandee ka soory-atap;

Him parisal kee reshmeevaayu,

Shat ratnachhay khargchitrit nabh!

(Coral and emerald shadesun's heat first gold then

silver;snow mountain scent on

silken breezes,a hundred jeweled birds

painting the sky)

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The Winter session of theUttarakhand Assembly was

adjourned sine die by theSpeaker Prem Chand Agarwalon Friday. Earlier, unhappyover the Government’sresponse on Gairsain, theCongress legislators staged awalkout from the House. Theleader of the Opposition IndiraHridayesh raised the emotiveissue just after the proceedingsof the House started on the day.She demanded a work adjourn-ment motion under Rule 310for discussion on the issue,given its importance.

All the Congress memberssprang up to their feet when theState Parliamentary AffairsMinister Prakash Pant object-ed to their demand of raisingGairsain under the Rule 310.The Independent MLA PritamSingh Panwar also supportedthe Congress members anddemanded immediate discus-sion on Gairsain.

Commotion ensued in theHouse when the BJP MLAfrom Jhabreda, DeshrakKaranwal said that theOpposition should allow thequestion hour in the Assembly.The Speaker later ruled thatGairsain would be discussedunder Rule 58 later on the day.

The discussions onGairsain started in the post-lunch session when IndiraHridayesh linked Gairsain withthe collective sentiments of thepeople of the State. She took adig at the State Governmentand the ruling BJP, saying thatcontradictory views are ema-nating from the sides of theGovernment and the rulingBJP on Gairsain.

She demanded the StateGovernment to clear its posi-tion on the emotive capitalshift issue. Chakarata MLAPritam Singh also echoed thesame and said that the StateGovernment should give a clearreply as to whether it is inter-ested to make Gairsain a per-manent State Capital or just asummer capital. BhagwanpurMLA Mamta Rakesh andJaspur MLA Adesh SinghChauhan also said that theissue is deeply connected withthe sentiments of the people ofthe State which needed imme-diate attention. Congress MLAfrom Kedarnath Manoj Rawatsaid that Gairsain as the per-manent Capital of State is notjust an emotional issue but animperative.

Citing the recent eventslike food poisoning deaths inBageshwar and birth of a childon the road in Rudraprayag dis-trict, he said that they are a clearpointer to the need of imme-diately shifting the capital toGairsain.

In his reply, the StateParliamentary Affairs MinisterPrakash Pant said that a com-mission headed by Justice V NDixit, appointed on the issue,had tabled its report in theHouse on July 16, 2009. “Thereport was not conclusive onthe matter of shifting the cap-ital from Dehradun,” he said.The Minister admitted that theCongress-helmed Governmentfrom 2012 to 2017 had initiat-ed some steps to hold Assemblysessions at Gairsain which waslater held in makeshift tents.

Pant further said that theAssembly building atBharadisain near Gairsain isalmost ready and reiterated theGovernment’s commitment tohold Assembly sessions there.

The Minister added thatthe State Government has setup a parliamentary study andresearch centre at Gairsain.“Besides, the whole area ofGairsain-Bharadisain is beingdeveloped as a smart city,” hesaid. Pant also mentioned thatthe State Government hasdemanded support from the15th finance commission onbuilding Gairsain. “We havereceived a mandate for fiveyears and a clear roadmapwould be framed on the matterbefore the tenure of theGovernment ends,” he said.

However, unsatisfied bythe reply of the Minister, theCongress members staged awalkout in protest.

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In a major embarrassment forthe Government, a visibly

disappointed Speaker PremChand Agarwal suspended aquestion on the status of cowin Uttarakhand after the Housewas left unsatisfied with theanswer given by the Minister ofState for Animal HusbandryRekha Arya.

In a question, the BJPMLA from Salt, SurendraSingh Jeena said that manycows in the mountainous areashave been left abandoned bytheir owners due to whichthey are forced to live in theopen, vulnerable to the attackof the wild animals. Hedemanded that the StateGovernment should firm up apolicy for the protection of thestray cows. In her reply, theMinister said that there are 24cow shelters spread across theState where stray cows arebeing kept. She furtherinformed that a budget of �2.5crore has been set aside this

year for the upkeep of the shel-ters.

Jeena told the Ministerthat the High Court hasordered the Government to setup a cow shelter for a clusterof every ten villages and noaction has been taken to exe-cute the order, given the pauci-ty of budget. The Minister atthe time suggested that theMLAs should set up such shel-ters in their constituenciesfrom their development fund.Miffed over the suggestion,Jeena retorted that he is readyto set up five shelters in hisconstituency provided theGovernment assures financial

support to run them.Intervening in the discus-

sion, Vikasnagar MLA MunnaSingh Chauhan said that cut-ting across party lines, theUttarakhand Assembly hadpassed a unanimous resolutionto declare cow as RashtraMata. “ But the reply of theMinister is far from sensible,”he said. He further said that itis common knowledge that thebovines constitute 99 percentpopulation of the stray ani-mals.

The BJP member askedthe Minister as to whether theGovernment has empoweredsome enforcing agencies for

cows and its progeny protec-tion act. After a prolonged dis-cussion on the issue, theSpeaker ruled that since theMinister has not given a satis-factory answer the questionstood suspended.

This was the second timein two consecutive days whenthe Ministers were at thereceiving end of the MLAs’onslaught.

On Thursday, the StateEducation Minister ArvindPandey had faced the same inthe House as the MLAs toreinto him with pointed ques-tions to which the Ministerfailed to reply satisfactorily.

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Taking cognizance of thepetition of Congress MLA,

Qazi Nizzamuddin in whichhe had alleged that theGovernment departments arenot answering the questionsraised by the members underRule 300 within the stipulatedtime frame of one month, theSpeaker Prem Chand Agarwaldirected the Government toensure that the replies aredelivered in time. He said thatthe complaint of the member

is very serious and actionshould be taken against theofficers who are not respond-ing in time.

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The Government facedanother time of discomfi-

ture during the proceedings ofthe House when the SpeakerPrem Chand Agarwal accept-

ed a breach of privilegemotion brought by CongressMLA Adesh Singh Chauhanand sent it for scrutiny. Thedecision left the StateGovernment red-faced whichhad already faced humiliationwhen the question on the sta-

tus of cow was suspended bythe Speaker. Chauhan chargedthe State Parliamentary Affairsand Sugarcane MinisterPrakash Pant for providingwrong information on pay-ment of dues of sugarcanefarmers.

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To promote organic farmingin Uttarakhand, the State

Government would soon bringan ‘Organic Act’ in the State.The State Agriculture MinisterSubodh Uniyal had told theHouse on the second day of thewinter session that necessarylegal approval for the Act hadbeen received.

In reply to a question by theJhabreda MLA, Deshraj

Karnwal, the Minister said thatten blocks in different districtsof state have been earmarkedfor organic farming and 28710farmers in Uttarakhand areengaged in organic farming.

He claimed thatUttarakhand would becomethe first State in the countrywhere two lakh hectare of landwould be brought under organ-ic farming. The Minister fur-ther said that the Governmentis promoting organic farmingmore in the mountainous areas.While responding to a supple-mentary question byVikasnagar MLA Munna SinghChauhan on steps taken formarketing of the organic pro-duce, the Minister replied thatmandi samitis have beendirected to purchase all theorganic produce of the farm-ers and they would takerequired measures to marketthe organic produce.

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Reacting to leader of opposi-tion Indira Hridayesh’s claim

that she has proof of graft bypeople linked to the StateGovernment which she will notmake public, the Bharatiya JanataParty State president Ajay Bhatthas said that she should eithermake it public or desist frommaking such statements.

Bhatt said that the leader ofopposition first said in theAssembly and later while talkingto press that those who had con-ducted a sting operation whichhad recently come to attentionhad also sent the footage to herthough she would not make itpublic. He said, “Such state-ments are not expected from aveteran who has been a seniorMLA since the days of undivid-ed Uttar Pradesh along with hav-ing worked on various vitalpositions. On the one hand sheis accusing the Governmentwhile on the other hand, she isherself retracting. What is vitalhere is that she also states that shehas no proof.”

Bhatt further said that theState Government is working inthe proper manner and there isno such thing which can be usedto defame or pressure theGovernment. Hence, there is noquestion of any such controver-sial sting operation proof beingthere. Despite this if Hridayeshclaims to have a copy of the saidsting operation, she should eithermake it public or take back herstatement, stressed Bhatt.

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The Chief MinisterTrivendra Singh Rawat

released a report prepared bythe Rural Development andMigration Commission(RDMC) containing recom-mendations for strengtheningthe socio-economic develop-ment in rural areas of Pauri dis-trict to mitigate migration.Rawat pointed out that stepsneeded to stop the migrationand ensure development inthe district is analysed in therecommendation report.

The RDMC will not con-duct a similar study in Almoraand then in other districts. Atthe same time, the StateGovernment will work on theaction plan for development inthe affected districts with jointefforts of all departments relat-ed to rural development. TheRDMC vice chairman SharadSingh Negi informed that of the15 development blocks in Pauridistrict, there is negativegrowth rate in the last decade(census 2011) in 12 develop-ment blocks.

Even though the districtaccounts for 10.17 per cent ofthe total geographical area ofthe state and is the fifth mostpopulated district, it accountsfor only 4.23 per cent of thestate’s GDP. Data shows thatthere has been a significantmigration from rural areas ofthe district. Out migration hastaken place in 1025 out of atotal of 1212 Gram Panchayats

(2017-18). About 52 per cent ofthe migration has mainly takenplace due to livelihood/employ-ment opportunities. The reportrecommends preparation andimplementation of specificstrategies for boosting eco-nomic growth at the villagelevel as this will generate addi-tional income for the resi-dents.

A vibrant economy at thelevel of villages or cluster of vil-lages will act as a nucleus forsocio-economic growth in therural areas. There needs to befocus on unique strengths ofeach area rather than trying toameliorate generic weaknesses.

The RDMC also recom-mends giving impetus to bothagricultural and non-agricul-tural incomes as income fromservice sector has increased incomparison to income fromtraditional and non-tradition-al agriculture.

Based on advice of experts,different linear departmentsand local residents, plans maybe prepared for clusters of vil-lages that have similar condi-tions. Further, water scarcity,roads, quality education andhealth care are some of thebasic facilities which need to beaddressed in the villages of thedistrict.

The changing climate alsoneeds to be addressed as it hasemerged as a major factor ofconcern, particularly in Pauridistrict where a considerablepart of the rural areas arelocated in the sub-tropicalregion. Agrarian economy willbe the worst affected by climatechange.

The staff of all the lineardepartments needs to be re-ori-

ented, motivated and trained sothat they can facilitate focusedsocio-economic developmentof the rural areas which areaffected by migration.

For the next five to tenyears the focus of such depart-ments should be to boost therural economy in various partsof the district.

The report further rec-ommends skill development,focus on role of women anddistrict policy. The RDMCreport also makes sectoral

recommendations for ruraldevelopment, agriculture, fruitcultivation, animal husbandry,micro, small and mediumindustries and tourism.

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The Uttarakhand TourismDevelopment Board

(UTDB) has appointed anadventure sports officer inRishikesh. The appointmenthas been made in order to takecare of the interests of those inthe white water rafting busi-ness, facilitate swift redressal ofproblems faced in the sectorand ensure disciplined opera-tion of the river rafting busi-ness. KS Negi, who has beenappointed the adventure sportsofficer will shortly assumecharge at the tourist informa-tion centre in Rishikesh.

This will enable redressal atthe local level of complaints ofthe local stakeholders and thoseinvolved in the rafting business.

The State’s Tourism secre-tary Dilip Jawalkar informedthat this step had been taking in

view of the considerable scopefor river rafting tourism in theRishikesh area.

On the one hand, this stepwill enhance the convenience oftourists arriving here fromacross India and abroad whileon the other hand, the localyouth will have access to infor-mation related to adventuresports. Information will alsoprovided about river raftingand travel and trade registrationso as to encourage the localyouth towards self employmentin this sector. Further, theappointment of the adventuresports officer will also help inorganisation of programmesnecessary for skill developmentfor those interested in adventureactivities.

It is pertinent to mentionhere that while Rishikesh isknown internationally as a des-tination for those interested inYoga, in past years it has alsogained popularity as a destina-tion for those interested in riverrafting. While this develop-ment is bringing tourists fromacross the nation and abroad toRishikesh for river rafting, it isalso growing as a viable medi-um for employment.

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All arrangements have beenmade for the passing-out

parade at the prestigious IndianMilitary Academy (IMA) onSaturday when 347 Indian and80 Foreign Gentlemen Cadetswould pass out from its famedportals to become officers inthe Indian Army and thearmed forces of friendlynations.

The passing out contin-gent would comprise 306 GCsfrom 143 regular course and41 from the TechnicalGraduate Course (TGC).Among the FGCs, 49 are fromAfghanistan, 15 from Bhutan,five from Maldives, five fromTajikistan and two each fromNepal, Srilanka and Vietnam.

Among the passing outcontingents, smalls States likeHaryana and Uttarakhandcontinue to be on forefrontwhen it comes to send its mento serve in the armed forces ofthe country. From Haryana,51 youngsters would becomeofficers on Saturday while 26from Uttarakhand would bepart of passing out contingent.

Uttar Pradesh with 53GCs leads the table while

Bihar with 36, Delhi with 25and Maharashtra with 20 GCare some of other the bigcontributors.

Notably, Madhya Pradesh,the second biggest State ofIndia, would contribute only10 GCs in the passing out con-tingent of officers. Anotherbig state Andhra Pradesh (AP)would be sending only fourofficers.

The disinterest of the peo-ple of Gujarat in serving in thearmed forces is clearly evidentas this time too just four GCsare from the State.

The States of Chhattisgarhand Jharkhand which werecreated along withUttarakhand in the year 2000also have less representationwith only two and six GCs thistime respectively, despitebeing much bigger in area andpopulation than Uttarakhand.

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Showcasing the high stan-dards of the training and

physical excellence achievedby the Gentlemen Cadets of

Indian Military Academy, aMulti-Activity Display wasconducted at SomnathStadium on Friday as a pre-lude to the Passing OutParade.

The Display was wit-nessed by a large gathering ofspectators which included thePassing Out Course, theirparents and relatives.

The Gentlemen Cadets

showed dare devil acts onhorseback, which includedtent pegging, trick riding andshow jumping. Further, a per-formance was put up by theGentleman Cadets showcasing

their physical prowessthrough their gymnastic agili-ty and acrobatic skills.

It culminated with theperformance by Gatka andBhangra Team.

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Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh on Friday

gave debt relief against com-mercial bank loans to the tuneof �1771 crore for 1,09,730 eli-gible marginal farmers of fourdistricts, and also announcedthe extension of the waiverscheme to farmers with land-holding of 2.5 to 5 acres.

The amount is being trans-ferred directly to the accountsof the marginal farmers ofcommercial banks directly andthe process will be completedby Saturday, the Chief Ministersaid at a state-level function,where he symbolically handedover debt relief certificates to 25farmers.

The farmers covered inthis phase belong to Patiala,Ludhiana, Sangrur and dis-tricts Fatehgarh Sahib.

Capt Amarinder said in thenext phase, farmers havinglandholding of 2.5 to 5 acreswould get debt waiver towardsboth cooperative and com-mercial banks. He also reiter-ated his commitment to waiveoff the loans of the landlesslabourers in the subsequentphases of the implementationof the waiver scheme.

He said waiver upto �2lakh had been given to all themarginal farmers and also to

the small farmers who hadavailed loan upto �2 lakh underthe scheme. A sum of �1815crore of 3.18 lakh marginalfarmers of Cooperative Bankshad been waived off in the firstphase, in addition to �1771crore of 1.09 lakh marginalfarmers of Commercial Banksin today's State Level DebtRelief Function.

Capt Amarinderannounced that as many as 2.15lacs small farmers ofCooperative Banks would becovered in the 3rd phase, while50752 small farmers ofCommercial Banks would becovered in the 4th phase.

Underlining the need toexport sugar and potatoes toCentral Asian countries, theChief Minister said that he hadwritten to the Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to includethese items in the export list,which was cleared just yester-day. If the Government ofIndia allows Punjab to exportthese products, sugarcane andpotato farmers of the statewould be immensely benefit-ted, he added. CaptainAmarinder Singh expressedconcern about the problem ofspurious seeds, agri-chemicalsand other inputs that reach thefarmers and said his govern-ment was maintaining a strict,24X7 vigil to check sale of such

products. He disclosed that aspecial campaign to ensurebalanced use of fertilisers hadled to reduction in Urea andDAP consumption by 1 lac MTand 46,000 tons respectivelyduring Kharif-2018 as com-pared to the previous year.This, he said, resulted in netsaving of about �200 crores.

He said a campaign waslaunched to educate the farm-ers about judicious use of agro-chemicals on Basmati. As aresult, the quality of Basmatigrain had started meeting

international standards andresultantly, farmers were get-ting better prices of Basmati.This year, farmers are getting�3600-4000 per quintal asagainst �2600-3000 last year, headded.

Capt Amarinder said thestate, in collaboration withexperts from Israel and PAU,would lay special focus onwater conservation so that thisprecious natural resource couldbe conserved.

In his address, MandiBoard Chairman Lal Singh

lashed out at the previousSAD-BJP for devastating thestate's economy and bringingPunjab under enormous debtburden. Due to the misdeedsand visionless policies of SAD-BJP government during itsdecade long rule, the out-standing debt had increasedmore than fourfold, to�2,08000 crore, by the timetheir term ended.

Former Union MinisterPreneet Kaur lauded thePunjab Government for takingits prestigious debt relief pro-

gramme to next level. She saidthe state was committed toholistic and all round develop-ment of all sections of thesociety.

Punjab Congress PresidentSunil Jakhar said that the ChiefMinister had shown the way toother State Governments andthe Centre on how to waive offfarmers' debts. He said that theChief Minister had promotedwelfare of the farmers throughthe debt waiver scheme and ful-filled his poll promise to them.

Lambasting Akali leaderSukhbir Singh Badal for ridi-culing the debt relief pro-gramme of the state govern-ment, Jakhar said that theyshould introspect first on theirown deeds of 10 years.

He said that Punjab hadwitnessed a steep decline in thenumber of farmer suicides,which was nearly 1000 in a yearduring the SAD-BJP rule buthad had now come down to250-300 due to the pro-farmerinitiatives of the CaptAmarinder Singh Government.

Cabinet ministersManpreet Singh Badal, TriptRajinder Singh Bajwa,Charanjit Singh Channi, ShamSunder Arora, Vijay InderSingla, Gurpreet Singh Kangar,Balbir Singh Sidhu, amongstothers were present int hefunction.

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The elections to 13,276 pan-chayats in Punjab will be

held on December 30, StateElection Commissioner JagpalSingh Sandhu said on Friday.

With the announcement,the Model Code of Conducthas come into force immedi-ately, Sandhu said, adding thatit will be in force till the com-pletion of the electoral process.

He further said that theprocess of filing the nomina-tions would commence onDecember 15 and concludeon December 19.

The nomination paperswould be scrutinised onDecember 20 and the date forwithdrawal of the nominationsas well as the allotment ofelection symbols to the candi-dates is December 21, he said.

The voting would be heldon December 30 from 8 am till4 pm and the votes will becounted on the same day, headded.

A total of 86,340 personnelwill be deputed on electionduty with 40 to 50 observers toensure smooth and peacefulconduct of the polls at the

17,268 polling booths, he said.Sandhu said 13,276

Sarpanches and 83,831 Pancheswill be elected by 1,27,87,395registered voters, of which66,88,245 are male, 60,66,245are female and 97 belong to thethird gender.

The State ElectionCommissioner further saidthat the expenditure limit for acandidate contesting for thepost of Sarpanch was �30,000and for the post of Panch, thelimit was �20,000.

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����� +4'!2�"',4 Two years after the surgicalstrikes carried out by the

Army across the Line of Control,Lt Gen (retd) DS Hooda on

Friday said it was natural to havean initial euphoria over the suc-cess but the constant hypearound the operation wasunwarranted.

Gen Hooda was theNorthern Army commanderwhen the surgical strikes werecarried out on September 29,2016 across the LoC as a

response to a terrorist attack inUri earlier that month.

The Army had said its spe-cial forces inflicted "significantcasualties" on terrorists waitingthere to cross into Indian terri-tory.

Gen Hooda was speakingduring a panel discussion on thetopic, 'Role of Cross-Border

Operations and Surgical Strikes,'on the first day of MilitaryLiterature Festival 2018 here.

The discussion was attend-ed by Punjab Governor VPSingh Badnore amongst a batteryof former Generals and ArmyCommanders. Many war veter-ans cautioned against "politici-sation" of the military operations.

Responding to a questionfrom the audience, GeneralHooda said in hindsight, itwould have been better had wedone it (surgical strikes) secret-ly. The aim of any such offen-sive had to be not only tacticalbut strategic too, which sub-stantially hampers enemymorale, he said.

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� 6���� ������� ��� ������������178��������Chandigarh: Punjab Health and FamilyWelfare Department on Friday handedover appointment letters to 215 special-ists doctors at a function in Mohali.

Jaspal Kaur, Director Health Services gaveaway the appointment of letters to the newlyrecruited specialists doctors on behalf ofHealth Minister Brahm Mohindra.

Among the specialists doctors who weregiven appointment letters, included 40 doctorsspecialists of anaesthesia, 23 of paediatricians,12 of dermatology, 20 of orthopaedics, 14 ofpathology, 14 of ENT, 20 of psychologists , 23of surgery, 21 of medicine, 10 of gynaecolo-gists, 2 of TB and Chests, 2 radiologists, 8 eyespecialists.

Similarly preferences were taken from the229 MBBS doctors newly recruited doctorsfor the allotment of stations. These MOs havealready been given the appointment letters.Jaspal Kaur said strength of the healthdepartment has enhanced manifold with therecruitment of biggest lot of specialist and gen-eral practitioners. She said the governmenthas recruited record number of staff nurses,multipurpose health workers male and classfour employees for the Health Department.

PNS

Chandigarh: Two assistantsub-inspectors of the PunjabPolice were killed and anothertwo injured on Friday whentheir car rammed into the backof a truck due to low visibilitycaused by heavy fog nearBarnala district.

The deceased ASIs, GurmitSingh and Malkit Singh, wereon way to Patiala for duty fromMuktsar, along with two othercolleagues, when the mishapoccurred near Handiaya townin Barnala.

The two other ASIs, SadhuSingh and Rashpal Singh, suf-fered injuries in the accidentand were rushed to hospital.

Police said the car in whichthe ASIs were travelling hit therear of the vehicle after thetruck driver applied brakes.

Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh expressedgrief over the death of the twopolicemen and wished speedyrecovery to the injured ASIs. Ina condolence message, the chiefminister expressed his heartfeltsympathies to the families of thedeceased policemen. Accordingto a MeT department official,fog had enveloped many partsof Punjab in the morningincluding Amritsar, Ludhiana,Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala,Bathinda and Faridkot. PNS

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In a repeat of sequence of events wit-nessed on November 17, the day

Indian National Lok Dal had officiallysplit; both the factions of INLD willstage a show of strength at theirrespective events on December 9 inHaryana.

While the former INLD leaderAjay Chautala alongwith his sonsHisar MP Dushyant and INSO chiefDigvijay will be launching his sepa-rate political outfit on December 9 atJind, Leader of opposition andINLD’s senior leader Abhay Chautalahas convened a party meeting atChandigarh, Haryana’s capital on thesame day.

Ajay and Abhay are sons of INLDpatriarch Om Prakash Chautala.Founded by former Deputy PrimeMinister Devi Lal in October 1996,the INLD is currently the main oppo-sition party in Haryana.

Notably, OP Chautala hadexpelled three family members fromthe party—first his grandsons HisarMP Dushyant and Digvijay, and thenelder son Ajay—for alleged “anti-party activities”.

The breakaway faction of INLDled by Ajay Chautala will launch anew political outfit on December 9 atJind.

Following his expulsion from the

party last month, Ajay had onNovember 17 announced to form aseparate political outfit while address-ing his supporters in Jind. On thesame day, his younger brother AbhayChautala had held a parallel meetingin Chandigarh with current MLAsand MPs, ex-MLAs, ex-MPs, seniorparty leaders, district president, com-mittees presidents and party workers,in an apparent show of strength andto refrain them to attend Ajay’s eventat Jind.

On the same day on December 9,both the Chautala brothers will nowbe holdings separate events toannounce next course of action oftheir respective political outfits.

Ajay, who is currently in Tihar jailalongwith his father OP Chautala,serving a 10 years jail term in the JBT(junior basic teacher) recruitmentscam, is likely to be out on parole toaddress the Jind rally.

Digvijay Chautala, while talkingto the mediapersons in Jind on Fridaysaid that the name and flag of newpolitical party will be formallylaunched on Dec 9 here.

More than 1500 INSO membershave been given responsibility tooversee arrangements during therally, he said.

After Dec 9, the party will launchits membership programme acrossthe state, he said.

Our political outfit will contestboth Lok Sabha and assembly polls inHaryana next year, Digvijay added.

Ajay’s political outfit is likely tobe named “Jannayak Janta Party”. Theword Jan Nayak has been taken fromAjay’s grandfather Chaudhary DeviLal who was also addressed asJannayak Devi Lal.

Dushyant, Digvijay and theirmother Naina Chautala, who is anMLA from Dabwali have held sever-al meetings across the state to mobi-lize people for the Jind rally.

The rebel INLD MLAs, AnoopDhanak from Uklana and RajdeepPhogat from Dadri had also heldmeetings with their supporters toensure large number of people at therally.

On the other hand, AbhayChautala has convened party execu-tive committee meeting on December9 at Jat Bhawan here.

All national and state executivecommittee members, current andformer MPs, MLAs, general secre-taries, zila presidents, committees’presidents and other party leadershave been directed to be present at themeeting.

Abhay Chautala’s decision to con-vene a party meeting on the same dayis seen as a move to refrain party lead-ers and workers to attend his elderbrother’s rally at Jind.

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Haryana Tourism MinisterRam Bilas Sharma on

Friday said that the MadhogarhFort in south Haryana wouldbe renovated and developed asworld class tourist spot.

“For this purpose, firstinstalment of Rs 30 crore hasalready been approved. TheMadhogarh Fort andMahendragarh Fort would bedeveloped on the lines ofMughal Garden of Pinjore,” theMinister said after presidingover a meeting with senior offi-cers of the Department, here.

The state would be taken totop level in terms of tourismand for this, there would be nodearth of funds, he said.

Sharma said that underthe ‘Swadesh Darshan Yojana’of the Central Government, theState Government has beentaking significant steps todevelop ‘Madhogarh-Mahendragarh-Narnaul-Rewari Heritage Circuit’ asworld-class tourism spot.

It is expected that expen-diture of about Rs 100 crorewould be incurred to fully

develop this circuit. In thisregard, he had met UnionMinister of State for Tourismand Culture, Mahesh Sharmaseveral times in Delhi, theMinister said.

He also said that the devel-opment of ‘Madhogarh-Mahendragarh-Narnaul-Rewari Heritage Circuit’ wouldaccelerate the pace of develop-ment of south Haryana. Thistourism circuit would not onlybenefit the districtsMahendragarh and Rewari,but would also benefit neigh-bouring districts Bhiwani andGurugram, he added.

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The 12th edition of aerospace exhibition “AeroIndia” from February 20 to 24 next year to

be held at Bengaluru will feature two theme-based activities — women and start-ups — withIndian origin US astronaut Sunita Williamsscheduled to attend the show. Held every twoyears, the international exhibition is likely to beinaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Giving these details on Friday, the DefenceMinistry officials said the other theme basedevent in Aero India will have a drone competi-tion for start-ups. Moreover, for the first timecivil aviation exhibition is being subsumed intoAero India which has been Defence only so far.There will be a vintage aircraft rally on one ofthe days.

On the inaugural day, a global CEOs roundtable will happen for the first time and about 15-20 CEOs from global aerospace majors will beattending. Two international level academic sem-inars based on the theme are to be held wheretop academicians and subject matter experts willpresent papers.

The Defence Ministry is also encouragingphotography competitions, one before and oneduring the event. There will be two categories,one for professional and one for the general pub-lic. A postal stamp on the event is also likely tobe released.

The tag line of Aero India 2019 is “runwayfor a billion opportunities.” The logo is inspiredby indigenous Light Combat Aircraft Tejas.Some webinars will also be happening for whichregistration can be done on the event website.

There is one webinar on Regional TransportAircraft and another on growth of airborne sur-veillance systems.

In terms of participation, so far 158 Indiancompanies and 106 foreign companies have reg-istered. Aero India 2017 saw the participationof 213 companies from 22 countries and 234Indian companies.

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The BJP on Friday met theElection Commission (EC)

demanding immediate actionagainst Congress presidentRahul Gandhi for “influencing”voters through paid newsunder the garb of his interviewin a Hyderabad newspaper.The BJP said it was in violationof the model code of conduct.

A party delegation com-prising senior BJP leaders JPNadda and Mukhtar AbbasNaqvi met the Commission inNew Delhi and demanded

action against Rahul. Talking to reporters, Naqvi

said, 48 hours before the close of poll, the Congress chief had given aninterview to a Hyderabad-based newspaper and claimedhis party’s victories inTelangana and other States cit-ing some poll surveys.

He alleged that this was aviolation of poll norms asRahul tried to influence the freeand fair polls. Naqvi said theBJP has also lodged a complaintabout booth capturing in someareas in Rajasthan anddemanded re-polling there.

Referring to the interviewthat Rahul gave to the Englishdaily, published on December6, a day before the TelanganaAssembly polls, the BJP allegedthat the report was a shiningexample of paid news for andon behalf of the Congress.Apart from the interview, thefront page coverage onDecember 6 was another glar-ing example of paid news in thegarb of reporting, the com-plaint mentioned.

In the interview, Rahulrefers to some poll surveys andseeks to influence voters dur-ing the period of electoralsilence, 48 hours before theclose of poll.

The reference to opinionpolls or surveys too violates theletter and spirit of the ElectoralLaws, it contended.

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Social media platforms likeFacebook, Twitter, YouTube

and WhatsApp have told theUnion Home Ministry thatthey will soon deploy ‘proac-tive, Artificial Intelligence (AI)based tools’ to check the spreadof hate messages and rumoursinciting violence and crimesagainst women. Anyone found involved in disseminat-ing fake news creating socialtension or pornographic con-tents inciting sex crimes will beidentified, name disclosed andprosecuted.

This was agreed upon aftera series of meetings betweenrepresentatives of the socialmedia platforms and CentralGovernment officials led byHome Secretary Rajiv Gauba,

a Home Ministry official said.The social media sites haveagreed to deploy ‘proactive, AI-based tools’ to check spread ofhate messages and rumoursinciting violence and crimesagainst women. Such content

will be automatically removedfrom their platforms, the offi-cial said.

There were problems inimplementation or enforce-ment of directives given by lawenforcement agencies under

the IT Act and the TelegraphAct but the level of compliancehas now gone up to 80 per centfrom 60 per cent, while thetime taken to take such actionhas gone down, the official said.

The compliance period hascome down from 72 hours to24 hours and it was agreed thatif a case is made out in any inci-dent, the person will be iden-tified, name disclosed andhe/she will be prosecuted. Thesocial media platforms haveengaged NGOs working in thefield and appointed grievanceredressal cell for prompt action.

Earlier, the Governmenthad said social media siteswere “slow” in removing objec-tionable or unlawful contentwhich allegedly aided thespread of hate messages,rumours inciting violence andcrimes against women and

they were warned of strictlegal action if they failed tocomply with the directives oflaw enforcement agencies.

In the recent past, someobjectionable content whichcould potentially disrupt pub-lic peace or law and order andincite criminal offences, includ-ing communal violence, havebeen posted on Facebook,Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube.

Home Secretary had heldthe meetings in June andOctober. A series of meetingswere conducted by senior offi-cers of the Home Ministry, theDelhi Police and police officersof other States to sensitise thecountry representatives ofsocial medial platforms aboutgravity of unlawful or objec-tionable content posted ontheir platforms, and their pos-sible consequences.

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With the polling processfor the five States of

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,Chhattisgarh, Telangana andMizoram concluded on Friday,Congress president RahulGandhi raised Electronic VotingMachine (EVM) controversy,taking a jibe at “Modi’s India”.

In a tweet, Rahul Gandhialerted the Congress leaders tobe vigilant over the stealing ofEVMs, citing an example ofMadhya Pradesh where heclaims that some stole theEVM and were later founddrinking. “In MP, EVM’sbehaved strangely after polling:Some stole a bus and vanishedfor 2 days! Others slipped away& were found drinking in ahotel. In Modi’s India, theEVMs have mysterious pow-ers,” he said, in an apparent ref-erence to media reports thatElectronic Voting Machines or

EVMs reached a collectioncentre in Madhya Pradesh 48hours after voting ended onNovember 28.

The Congress on Tuesdayhad demanded a probe allegingthat the BJP was “in collusionwith the local administration”in attempting to tamper withEVMs during the November 28Madhya Pradesh Assemblypolls. The EC in its enquiryfound no discrepancy in theEVMs and it had removedReturning Officer Vikas Singh.Besides, one Naib Tehsildar andone Assistant Returning OfficerRajesh Mehra who were

assigned the task to bringreserved EVMs and deposit thesame, suspended.

Rahul on Thursday hadurged party workers in twoStates to put all their efforts attheir respective In anotherincident, two polling officerswere “found drunk” along withEVMs inside a hotel owned bya BJP functionary.

This is not the first timethat Rahul has lashed out atPrime Minister Modi, whilecampaigning in Rajasthan theCongress president accusedModi of forgetting the farmersof the country, and proclaimedthat Modi should not say“Bharat Mata ki Jai”. Rahulsaid, “PM Modi says ‘BharatMata Ki Jai’ before everyspeech. He should instead say‘Anil Ambani ki jai, MehulChoksi ki jai, Nirav Modi ki Jaiand Lalit Modi ki jai’. If you talkof Bharat Mata then how canyou forget our farmers?”

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The Enforcement Directorate(ED) has filed a chargesheet

against former Deputy Directorof the agency Gurnam Singh,his wife Dalip Kaur and anadvocate in a money laundering case in connectionwith a Ponzi scam relating toUnipay2U Marketing and Unipaygateway2U Trading firms.

In his complaint to theCabinet Secretary alleging var-ious charges of omission andcommission, benched CBI spe-cial Director Rakesh Asthanahad alleged Gurnam Singh haddeleted all data from his mobile phone during the nightbefore the searches as soon ashe arrived in India from theUS. Gurnam Singh was facinga disproportionate assets caseof the CBI.

“It appears that the accused(Gurnam Singh) got prior hintthat he was going to besearched. During verification,Telephone surveillancerevealed that Gurnam Singhwas founf to be demanding Rs50 lakh from one Mr Thomas,an advocate for influencingDCBI (Director CBI) and tomake CBI aver before the ApexCourt that CBI would not beable to take up the case.

Verification also revealedthat Gurnam Singh obtainedillegal gratification from theaccused persons in theFEMA/PMLA cases againstUnipay2u, Compact Disc IndiaLtd and Health Biotech Ltd. Onknowing that the case was reg-istered, Director CBI (AlokVerma was furious and shout-ed at the JD (Joint Director)and the undersigned (RakeshAsthana) He (Verma) con-veyed that (then) Director ED(Karnal Singh) was takingaction against GurnamSingh…,” Asthana had allegedin his complaint.

The chargehseet was filedunder Prevention of MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) beforeSpecial Court, PMLA,Chandigarh against Singh, his

wife and Puneet Sharma,Advocate who represented onbehalf of investors of UnipayPonzi Schemes in the Punjaband Haryana High Court.

“During the course ofinvestigation into the cases ofUnipay2U Marketing andUnipaygateway2U Trading, itwas revealed that PuneetSharma Advocate, the counselfor the aggrieved investors/peti-tioners in the writ petitionsbefore the Punjab and HaryanaHigh Court, was in collusionwith Gurnam Singh, formerDeputy Director of ED,” the EDsaid in a statement.

The ED added, “It wasfound that Gurnam Singh wasin the habit of misusing his offi-cial position and power for hispersonal benefits, hence wasrepatriated back to his parentdepartment on 20.01.2017. Heextracted money from theinvestors through PuneetSharma by misrepresentingand making false claims of his proximity to the peoplein positions of power, author-ity and at the same time tookbribe from the promoters ofPonzi schemes.”

Singh allegedly receivedbribe money in the range of Rs3.5-4.5 crore from the respon-dents/accused persons with afraudulent promise to settle thewrit petition in the High Courtas well as ongoing investigationin the money laundering caseregistered by ED.

The proceeds of crime ille-

gally obtained by GurnamSingh were structured and lay-ered in the form of immovableproperties in his name and inthe name of his wife whichwere later on projected as beinguntainted.

Searches were conductedon March 22 and 23 this yearat the residences of Singh,Sharma and other personsinvolved in the case, whichresulted into unearthing ofdocuments relating to posses-sion of movable and immov-able properties.

Assets worth Rs 4.8 crorewhich were dubbed “proceedsof crime” and belonging toSingh, Kaur and Sharma wereattached on December 4 andthe chargehseet was filed thenext day on December 5.

FIRs were registered inHaryana, Punjab andChandigarh against the agentsof Unipay2U Marketing Pvt.Ltd. and Unipaygateway2UTrading Pvt. Ltd. based atChennai, Tamil Nadu and hav-ing offices in Bangalore.

The companies hadManaging Director namelyMugundham Gangam, aMalaysian National besidesother Indian Directors. Thecompany floated online invest-ment Scheme on the basis ofvarious complex marketinglevel techniques of referral andbinary system. The investorswere required to invest in thescheme with assured return of21 per cent.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday soughtresponse from the EnforcementDirectorate (ED) on a pleafiled by beleaguered business-man Vijay Mallya challengingthe ongoing proceedings in aMumbai court to declare hima fugitive economic offenderand confiscate his properties.

The apex court, while issu-ing the notice to the probeagency, however, refused tostay the proceedings on ED’s

plea before a special Preventionof Money Laundering Act(PMLA) court at Mumbaiseeking the ‘fugitive’ tag forMallya under the FugitiveEconomic Offenders’ Act, 2018.

Under the provisions of theAct, once a person is declareda fugitive economic offender,the prosecuting agency has thepowers to confiscate his prop-erty. “Notice. No stay,” a benchcomprising Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and Justice S K

Kaul ordered after hearingsenior advocate Fali S Nariman,appearing for Mallya, for fewseconds.

Mallya, who fled to the UKin March 2016, is wanted inIndia over default of Rs 9,000crore that was loaned toKingfisher Airlines (KFA) byseveral banks.

In September, a UK courthad fixed December 10 as the date to deliver its verdicton whether he can be extra-

dited to India to face charges of fraud and moneylaundering amounting toaround Rs 9,000 crore.

Mallya had moved the apexcourt challenging the BombayHigh Court order which dis-missed his plea seeking a stayon the proceedings before aspecial PMLA court inMumbai on ED’s plea to declarehim a fugitive economicoffender under the new law.PTI

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Friday dismissed aPIL raising allegations againstFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyrelating to capital reserve of theReserve Bank of India.

The apex court also imposes a cost of � 50,000 onadvocate ML Sharma, who hadfiled the public interest litiga-tion (PIL).

“We find no reason what-soever to entertain this PIL,” abench comprising Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and Justcie SKKaul said. Sharma had accusedthe Finance Minister of “plun-dering” the capital reserve ofthe RBI.

The Bench also directedthe apex court registry not toallow Sharma to file any PIL tillhe deposits Rs 50,000.

The top court imposed thecost as the advocate continuedwith the argument after dis-missal of the PIL.

The Chief Justice warnedhim not to continue with thesubmissions, saying cost will beimposed if he was unable tosatisfy the court. The apexcourt expressed displeasurethat the advocate made theFinance Minister as the mainparty in the PIL.

The Bench said, “What isthis PIL? You cannot go onwith such misadventure. Whatexactly is this? You are sayingthe finance minister is plun-dering the capital reserve of theRBI. You are not bringing hon-our to this institution. Why dowe permit you to go ahead withthis PIL.” PTI

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New Delhi: The National TigerConservation Authority(NTCA) on Friday informedthe Supreme Court that theInternational Union forConservation of Nature(IUCN) has given no objectionfor translocation of cheetahs inIndia from Namibia in Africa.

NTCA told a bench com-prising Justices Madan B Lokurand Deepak Gupta that IUCN,which provides inputs toGovernments and institutionson biodiversity, climate changeand sustainable development,has said it would co-operatewith India in translocation ofCheetahs from Namibia.

However, the bench wasapprised by an advocateappearing in the matter that asper report of an expert body,

ground condition in India wasnot conducive for cheetahs.

NTCA referred to the apexcourt’s 2013 decision renderedin a wildlife case and said itdoes not prevent the authori-ties from taking steps in con-formity with the law to relo-cated cheetahs from Africa tosuitable sites in India.

“Why there is such a tear-ing hurry? It is not that youhave to bring cheetahs todayitself,” the bench told NTCA’scounsel. The court said thematter would be taken up forhearing in third week ofJanuary and it would also con-sider a detailed note filed beforeit by advocate A D N Rao, whois assisting the court as an ami-cus curiae in the matter.

NTCA had earlier told thecourt that they have compliedwith IUCN’s requirements forre-location of cheetahs here.The court had asked the author-ity whether they have taken theconsent of IUCN in thisregard.”You want to re-intro-duce cheetahs from Namibia.There is a process. IUCN isinvolved in the process. You aresaying that you have compliedwith the process laid down byIUCN. Has IUCN said that youhave complied with it and theyhave no objection?” the Benchhad asked the NTCA. PTI

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The Centre on Fridayinformed the Supreme

Court that a Bill to amend elec-toral law to allow NRIs to votethrough postal or e-ballots hasbeen passed by the Lok Sabhaand is likely to come up in theRajya Sabha in the upcomingWinter Session.

The Government told this

to Bench of Justices Madan BLokur and Deepak Guptawhich was hearing a batch ofpetitions filed by NagenderChindam, chairman of

London-based Pravasi Bharatorganisation, and other NonResident Indians (NRIs),including Shamsheer VP.

The petitions have saidthat 114 countries, including 20Asian nations, have adoptedexternal voting, which could beheld by setting up pollingbooths at diplomatic missionsor through postal, proxy orelectronic voting.

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Former Jammu & KashmirChief Minister Mehbooba

Mufti accused the Governoradministration of encroachingupon democratic space in theState by issuing controversialorders, which are the preroga-tive of the elected Government.

She threatened to launch apeaceful agitation in leaguewith other political parties if theGovernor Satya Pal Malik ledadministration continued toencroach upon the “basic andsensitive instruments of theConstitutional structure” ofJammu & Kashmir.

Addressing a press confer-ence at her official residenceMehbooba expressed dismayover the reports that theGovernor administration wasmulling to separate Ladakhregion from the administrativealignment with Kashmirprovince by according “divi-sional status” to the region. Thesparsely populated Ladakhregion comprising Leh andKargil districts is part ofKashmir division that formsone of the two provinces of theembattled State.

“We oppose the proposal toaccord divisional status toLadakh region. But if theGovernor administrationdeems it necessary, then thesame status must be accordedto Pir Panjal and Chenab Valleyregions in Jammu province,”she said.

Mufti said that GovernorMalik after taking reins ofJ&K as Head of State has takenseveral decisions that mayhave far reaching conse-quences in the politically sen-sitive State. She said it wasexpected from politicallymature Governor to remainsensitive while dealing with thematters of J&K. She accusedthe Governor of not actingaccording to his mandate.

Mehbooba alleged thatGovernor Malik is pursuing

hidden agenda of unknownquarters to damage and weak-en special status of the State byissuing unpopular orders lead-ing to unnecessary chaos andconfusion.

Mehbooba said GovernorMalik’s orders regarding J&KBank to become PSU andattempts to fiddle with theprocedures to issue StateSubject certificates besideswithdrawal of Roshni Act aretantamount to encroachingupon the sensitive matters per-taining to the people of State.

Referring to purportedproposal of separating Ladakhfrom Kashmir’s administrativecontrol she questioned theGovernor’s promptness in pur-suing these administrativechanges. She said such sensitivematters and issues should beleft for the elected Governmentto discuss and decide.

Mehbooba said indepen-dent Ladakh Autonomous HillDevelopment Councils havebeen put in place for bothKargil and Leh districts in viewof the required mechanism toensure socio economic devel-opment of both the far flungand difficult areas of the Stateand latest proposal to grantDivisional Status to Ladakhseems to be creating adminis-trative imbalance in the State.

She said in case Governoradministration deem itinevitable then the mostdeserving regions in the Stateremain Pir Panjal and ChenabValley regions that are more

underdeveloped, far off andlack desired socio economicdevelopment.She said barring a few parties,all mainstream political partieswere unanimous in not accept-ing Governor Administration’sdecisions which were tanta-mount to encroach upon thesensitive matters relating to thespecial status of J&K within theConstitution of India.

Mehbooba said that RoshniAct was repealed at a timewhen impoverished people likeGujjar and Bakerwal tribalswere expected to benefit from it.

“The high and mightytook advantage of the legisla-tion and when the turn of poorpeople came to get benefits, itwas scrapped,” she said.Roshni Act offered proprietyrights over State land againstfixed prices.

The money collected bythe State was supposed to beinvested in power projects.

Earlier, the PeoplesDemocratic Party askedGovernor to stop fiddling withthe constitutional status of J&Ktill a popular Government wasput in place.

The Party on its twitterhandle wrote, “No fiddlingwith the constitutional status ofJ&K till a popular Governmentis in power.”

In another tweet, the PDPwrote, “Governor Sahab is awell-respected and a seasonedpolitician. Expect him to leavelegislative decisions to the pop-ular Government.”

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The Kerala High Court onFriday granted condi-

tional bail to BJP general sec-retary K Surendran in a caserelated to alleged attack on a52-year old woman pilgrim byfrenzied Lord Ayyappa devo-tees at the Sabarimala Temple on November 6.Justice V Raja Vijayaraghavandirected Surendran to sur-render his passport, not toenter the PathanamthittaDistrict, in which the LordAyyappa temple is located,till the charge sheet in the caseis filed and furnish a bailbond of �2 lakh.

During the hearing, theState Government had strong-ly opposed the relief, sayingSurendran, if released on bail,would attempt to incite vio-lence at the hill shrine.

This is the second caserelated to the Sabarimalaprotests in which the BJP leader had been granted bail.

He was initially arrestedon November 17 fromNilackal, base camp, while onway to the Sabarimala Templeafter he attempted to defyprohibitory orders and refusedto go back despite a requestfrom the police.

Surendran was granted bailin the case on November 21 by

a court in Pathanamthitta, butremained in prison till date ashe was also booked in the caserelated to the alleged attack onthe woman pilgrim.

The woman pilgrim, whohad come to theSannidhanam for the'choorunu' (rice feeding cer-emony) of her grandchild,was blocked and allegedlyattacked by angry devotees onNovember 6, during a specialpuja, suspecting her to be inthe "barred" age group of 10-50.

Sabarimala had witnessedviolent protests by a section ofdevotees against the StateGovernment's decision toimplement the September 28 order of the SupremeCourt, allowing entry ofwomen of all age groups intothe shrine.

The BJP has criticised thestate government over thearrest of Surendran.

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The Congress-led oppositionUDF disrupted proceed-

ings in the Kerala Assembly onFriday, demanding discussionon the Sabarimala temple issue,leading to an early adjourn-ment of the House.

UDF MLAs entered theHouse carrying black bannersand sought withdrawal ofpolice restrictions atSabarimala.

Today's session, whichbegan at 9 AM lasted only 18minutes after AssemblySpeaker P Sreeramakrishnandecided to adjourn proceed-ings due to Opposition protest.

The Speaker told protest-ers that the matter was alreadytaken up by the House earlierand the Chief Minister hadgiven a reply.Leader of Opposition Ramesh

Chennithalahad Thursdayinformed theHouse thatthree of hisparty MLAswere on a sit-inprotest insidethe Assemblycomplex overthe Sabarimalaissue and hisparty was

ready for a compromise talkinside the Speaker's chamber.

"We had yesterdayinformed the House that wewere ready for a compromisetalk with the governmentinside the Speaker's chamber.

However, it seems like thegovernment is not keen onsolving the issue," Chennithalatold reporters Friday.

Three UDF MLAs - V SSivakumar of Congress,Parakkal Abdullah of IUMLand N Jayaraj of KeralaCongress (M) - are on anindefinite satyagraha outsidethe Assembly hall sinceDecember 3 demanding with-drawal of prohibitory orders inand around Sabarimala.

However, the Kerala HighCourt had Thursday saidpolice restrictions and pro-hibitory orders were not affect-ing devotees.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt Friday refused to accordan urgent hearing to the KeralaGovernment's plea challengingthe High Court order toappoint a three-member mon-itoring committee to overseesecurity and other activities atthe Sabarimala temple.

A bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi said theState Government's fresh pleaagainst the appointment of athree-member panel would betaken up in regular court.

The Kerala High Courtrecently appointed a three-member panel to oversee secu-rity and other arrangements atthe historic hill-top shrine inKerala following recent inci-dents of violence there.

The State Government hadearlier sought the transfer ofpending petitions from the highcourt to the Supreme court.

A five-judge constitutionbench headed by then ChiefJustice Dipak Misra said in a4:1 verdict that banning theentry of women into the shrineis gender discrimination andthe practice violates the rightsof Hindu women. PTI

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Eleven illegal Bangladeshiimmigrants, including four

minors, and a human traffick-er from West Bengal, werearrested from a remote villagein Meghalayas South GaroHills district, officials said.

The illegal immigrantstook advantage of the absenceof a border fence along theIndo-Bangladesh border andentered the country with anaim to settle permanently here,they said.

We have arrested sevenBangladeshi nationals whowere caught fleeing their coun-try by the BSF," district SPAbraham T Sangma said.

He said the arrested wereremanded to judicial custody.

The four minors, belongingto the age group of 2 and 5years, who were travelling withthe adult immigrants weredealt with as per law, he said.

The BSF had apprehendedthe 11 Bangladesh nationalsduring a routine check of vehi-cles on NH-62 which con-nects the district headquarterand Tura, the division head-quarter of Garo Hills division.

The Bangladeshi nationals

are residents of Netrakona andSunamganj district ofBangladesh and had crossedthe Indo Bangladesh borderwith an aim to travel up toCoochbehar in West Bengal, aBSF spokesperson said.

He said that ahead of thegeneral elections inBangladesh, the Hindus in thatcountry are feeling insecureand illegally entering India.

A resident of Kalarayekuthivillage in Coochbehar districtof West Bengal, has beenapproaching the Bangladeshisto cross over, a BSF official said.

According to the BSF, thearrested Bangladeshi nationals,said that their family membershave already migrated toCoochbehar and have settledthere.

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Rajasthan Chief MinisterVasundhara Raje on

Friday demanded actionagainst former JD(U) leaderSharad Yadav for body shaming her during an elec-tion rally, saying she feltinsulted by his comments andthe Election Commissionmust take cognisance.

Yadav made personalcomments on Raje's appear-ance, calling her fat and ask-ing people to give her rest,while addressing a rally inAlwar on the last day of cam-paigning in Rajasthan onWednesday.

"I feel insulted. This is theinsult of women," Raje toldreporters in Jhalawar. Addingthat she was "absolutelyshocked" and did not expectsuch a comment from anexperienced leader.

Raje, who is fighting foranother term in office, said aleader who had close relationswith her family could notcontrol his language.

It is important, the ChiefMinister asserted, that theElection Commission takescognisance of this and sets anexample so people don'trepeat such a thing in future.

A video of Yadav was cir-culated on social media, with

many labelling his commentscrass and misogynistic.

Calling Raje a daughter ofMadhya Pradesh, he said peo-ple need to give her some restas she was ver y t ired. She was thin earlier, and was now fat, he is heard as saying.

Raje's sharp response toYadav's remarks came on aday the state is voting for anew assembly.

The votes will be countedon December 11.

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National Conference presi-dent Farooq Abdullah

Thursday sought early conductof elections in Jammu &Kashmir, apprehending thatthe BJP may attempt to getthese delayed for the "fear ofimminent defeat" due to its"misgovernance and failure"in keeping up the promises.

"Hold elections and thepeople of Jammu & Kashmir,not New Delhi, will choosethe Government they want forthemselves," Abdullah said while paying homage toBR Ambedkar at a functionheld at Sher-e-KashmirBhavan here.

He said a stable and strongGovernment alone can lead theState to peace and development.

The alliance on crutches,he said, does not suit the State,which is facing numerous chal-lenges and exuded confidencethat National Conference willget a "massive" mandate.

Referring to the landslidevictor y of NC in 1996,Abdullah said a discernibletransformation was broughtby re-building terrorism dam-

aged infrastructure, openingof schools, strengthening ofhealth institutions, function-ing of the various utility ser-vices etc.

In 2000, he claimed hisGovernment provided a "record1.50 lakh jobs" to educatedunemployed. "This all happenedbecause of the strong and stableGovernment," he added.

Abdullah complimentedGovernor Satya Pal Malik fordissolving the LegislativeAssembly and ending the fivemonths' era of "confusion andsuspense with BJP desperatelytrying to manage support forinstalling a particular person asthe chief minister".

Even the visit of BJP gen-eral secretary Ram Madhav toSrinagar failed to garner sup-

port for that person, whohad made all the preparationsfor swearing in ceremony, he said.

Without naming the BJP,the NC chief lamented over "ill-conceived" decisions on GSTand demonetization, sayingthese have "choked" avenues ofemployment and growth byadversely affecting industriesand related sectors.

Even the state like Jammu andKashmir could not escape fromthe ill-effects of anti-people poli-cies perused by the Centre. Hesaid the institutions have beendestroyed by deploying RSS peo-ple in these, thus compromisingwith their identities.

He said he had pitched foropening of Kailash-Mansarovarroute via Ladakh, which howev-er did not happen. He hoped thatModi would consider taking upthis issue with Beijing.

Abdullah also assailedUttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath for showing"least concern" over the killingof a police officer inBulandshahar by a mob."Instead of visiting the family,Yogi chose to attend a sportsevent," he alleged.

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The BJP hit out at NationalConference chief Farooq

Abdullah, claiming he had nomoral authority to accuse it of“divisive politics” as his partywas the harbinger of commu-nal and divisive politics inJammu & Kashmir.

State BJP spokesperson AnilGupta told reporters that peopledid not take Abdullah serious-ly anymore, but he continued toissue statements hoping thatthe sinking boat of his dynasticparty might find some sympa-thisers willing to take it ashore.

"The NC has no moralauthority to accuse the BJP ofdivisive politics since the NC,under his father SheikhMohammad Abdullah, wasthe harbinger of communaland divisive politics in Jammu& Kashmir which was beingpursued by his heirs assidu-ously," he said.

Abdullah had Thursdaycharged the BJP with divisivepolitics in the country andasked Prime Minister NarendraModi to be tolerant. He hadalso accused the BJP of "mas-tering communal divide".

The BJP leader said from the

"Quit Kashmir" movement to thedemand for "greater autono-my", every move of the NC hadbeen communal and divisive.

"The carving of Muslimmajority districts of Doda andKargil, division of Jammuregion into Chenab Valley andPir Panjal region on communallines, changing names of towns,villages and historical monu-ments, demographic invasionof Jammu, expulsion ofKashmiri Pandits, Roshni Act,neglect of Sufism, resettlementact and permanent residentsbill were some examples of thedivisive mindset of the NC andAbdullahs," Gupta claimed.

Reacting sharply toAbdullah's remarks, Guptasaid, "If protection of themajority's interests is divisiveaccording to Farooq, then whatwould he term the NC-Congress votebank politicswhich is based on playingHindus and Muslims againsteach other?"

He said the BJP's policywas justice for all and appease-ment for none. "It doesn't dis-criminate on the basis of reli-gion, region or caste. TheNarendra Modi Government atthe Centre is committed to

equitable development of all,"the BJP leader said.

Gupta claimed Abdullahhad launched a tirade againstthe BJP because the ModiGovernment had ignored thefamily to an extent that theywere engulfed with frustrationand desperation.

"The ever declining vote-share coupled with Kashmiriyouth's abhorrence for his partyand the rising graph of the BJPhas shaken Abdullah so muchthat his statements often areirrational and illogical," heclaimed.

"Another example of NC'sdivisive politics is the demandfor greater autonomy which hasdivided the state communallyand regionally as well. Thedemand was opposed toothand nail by the BJP, Congressand NPP.

"The people of Jammu andLadakh are opposed to any sortof autonomy and favour totalintegration of State with theIndian Union," Gupta claimed.

He also attacked Abdullahfor terming BJP leaders rob-bers, and reminded him that hewas one of the main accused inJammu & Kashmir CricketAssociation scam.

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Twelve people, including alocal DYFI leader, have

been arrested in connectionwith the alleged sexual assaultof a school girl by several menfor a number of days at vari-ous places in Kannur districtafter enticing her throughsocial media, the police saidon Friday.

The girl's father was alsoamong those arrested, a policeofficial said.

The Democratic YouthFederation of India (DYFI) isthe youth wing of the CPI(M),the ruling party in Kerala.

"Sixteen FIRs have beenlodged in five different policestations... We believe there areover 20 accused. We are ques-tioning more people," KannurSP Shiv Vikram told PTI.

The incident came tolight in the first week ofDecember after one of theaccused called the victim'sbrother and demanded�50,000 threatening that hehad some nude shots of thegirl and would post it onsocial media.

According to police, thebrother was allegedly beaten upby the accused at Palakkad,where he had gone to confronthim.

The accused had got intouch with the girl, a student ofclass 10, by creating a fake pro-file of a woman on socialmedia.

On November 19, she wastaken to a lodge atParasinikadavu, a temple townon the banks of Valapattnamriver in the district and alleged-ly sexually assaulted by fourpeople, police said, adding thelodge manager was arrested forfailing to inform police aboutthe offence.

Based on the girl's state-ment, the first FIR was lodgedand a case under the Protectionof Children from SexualOffences (POCSO) Act regis-tered, the police said.

In a similar incident,another minor girl , apparently a friend of the vic-tim, was allegedly sexuallyassaulted by some people,police said, adding two FIRshave been registered in this regard.

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Aspecial CBI court will in alllikelihood deliver the ver-

dict in the case of alleged twinfake encounters of notoriouscriminals Sohrabuddin Shaikhand Tusliram Prajapati andrape-murder of Kausar Bi, onDecember 21.

Two days after theProsecution and defencelawyers wrapped up their finalarguments, Additional SessionsJudge SJ Sharma — who pre-sides over a special CBI court—noted that he would in alllikelihood deliver the judge-ment on December 21.

"I need around 14 days. Iam sure I will finish it by 21stDecember. If I don't completeby December 21st, then I willpass the judgement on 24thDecember.... But I am very surethat I will be able to completemy work by 21st December,"the Judge said.

The alleged fake encoun-ters of notorious gangstersSohrabuddin and Tulsiram anddisappearance of the former's

wife Kausar Bi during 2005-06had resulted in a major politi-cal fallout involving the BJP-ruled Gujarat.

The Prosecution’s case wasthat Sohrabuddin had connec-tions with Lashkar-e-Taiba andwas conspiring to assassinate an"important political leader",presumably then chief ministerand current Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

Initially, there were in all 38accused in the case. Of them,16 has been discharged — 15by the special CBI court andone by the Bombay HighCourt.

The accused discharged inthe case include BJP’s currentnational President and thenGujarat Minister of State forHome Amit Shah, RajasthanHome Minister Gulab ChandraKataria and high-profileDeputy Inspector General DGVanzara, who headed the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) andknown for several encounters,Superintendent of PoliceDinesh MN andSuperintendent of PoliceRajkumar Pandian.

All the IPS officers, arrest-ed for the twin encounters,have been discharged.

In all, 22 accused weretried during the trial. Theyincluded two DeputySuperintendents of Police,Senior Inspectors, Inspector,Sub-Inspectors, Assistant Sub-

Inspectors, Head Constablesand Constables of Gujarat andRajasthan.

During the course of thetrial, 210 witnesses wereexamined, of which 92 turnedhostile.

When the court recordedtheir statement under Section313 of the Code of CriminalProcedure, all the accused hadclaimed innocence and saidthey were arrested because ofthe rivalry among top policeofficials and other factors stem-ming then prevailing politicalsituation in Gujarat.

On the last day of finalarguments in the case, CBIcounsel BP Raju admitted thatthere had been "lacunae" in theCentral agency's investigationas they took over the case fiveyears after the alleged incidents.

"The Sohrabuddinencounter took place in 2005,while the Tulsiram encounterhappened in 2006. We came inpicture in 2010," Raju told thecourt.

So much so that some keywitnesses turned hostile duringthe trial, weakening the CBI'scase.

On his part, the Judgeobserved: "I don't blame CID.I don't blame CBI. There arestatements and witnesses. Ifthey come here and say some-thing else, it's not your fault.You did your job.....both sidesdid their job well....your workis over, my work starts now."

The CBI, however, main-tained that they have enoughmaterial to prove that both theencounters were genuine.However, the defence counselsin the case stated that theProsecution had failed to provethe case beyond reasonabledoubt.

During the last phase of thetrial, a prosecution witnessAzam Khan, who too is acriminal under custody, toldthe court that Sohrabuddinmight have had a role in themurder of the then Minister ofState for Home Haren Pandya,who he claimed had been killedon March 26, 2003, at theinstance of Vanzara.

It may be recalled thatSohrabuddin, a “dreaded crim-inal”, and his wife Kausar Biwere killed in an alleged fakeencounter in November 2004by the Gujarat Police nearGandhinagar in Gujarat. Thecase assumed considerablepublic importance owing to the

alleged involvement of some ofthe high-profile politicians andIPS officers in it.

An aide Tulsiram Prajapati,who was the prime witness tothe killings, was arrested by thepolice but was later killed in anencounter in December 2006after the law-enforcers claimedhe tried to escape from custody.

Later, the police hadnamed 33 persons as accusedin the case. Shah, who wasGujarat Home Minister at therelevant time in 2005, the thenHome Minister of Rajasthanand several Gujarat IPS officers,lower police officials from bothstates besides Andhra Pradesh,were among the accused.

Several police officers fromGujarat were among the 33accused in the "fake" encoun-ters of Sohrabuddin Shaikh,Kausar Bi in November 2005and Prajapati in December2006.

The alleged Sohrabuddinfake encounter case was trans-ferred to Mumbai in September2012 at CBI's request for fairtrial. In 2013, the SupremeCourt had clubbed TulsiramPrajapati's encounter killingcase with that of Sohrabuddin.

In December, 2014, SpecialCBI Judge MB Gosavi inMumbai discharged Shah and16 other co-accused, citingeither lack of sanction for pros-ecution or insufficient evi-dence against them.

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Union Shipping Ministerand senior BJP leader

Nitin Gadkari fainted and near-ly collapsed on a stage at anagricultural university convo-cation function in Ahmednagardistrict in westernMaharashtra, following a dropin his sugar levels.

Sixty-one-year-old Gadkarifelt uneasy when the nationalanthem was being played at theend of the convocation func-tion of Mahatma Phule KrishiVidyapeeth (MPKV) at Rahuriin Ahmednagar district.

Having lost his balance,Gadkari- with his eyes open –was seen to be on the verge ofcollapse. However,Maharashtra Governor CVidyasagar Rao, who was nextto him, caught hold of him andhelped him sit on the chair.

The video footage of theevent showed Gadkari standingup for the national anthem,then slowly dropping backdown towards his chair and theGovernor helping him sit onthe chair. Some of the aides of

both the Governor andGadkari also came to the min-ister’s help.

A diabetic, Gadkari wasoffered chocolate and water. Hewas later examined and attend-ed to by a team of doctors thatrushed to the scene immediate-ly afterwards. The doctors, whoattended on him, described hiscondition as “stable” and he wasreturning to normal.

The incident took placeafter he delivered a speechstanding for nearly half an hour.

Having flown in into thetemple town of Shirdi in anhelicopter, Gadkari had drivendown to Rahuri for the func-tion earlier in the morning.

In a tweet put out later inthe afternoon, Gadkari said:“Had slight medical conditiondue to low sugar. I have beenattended by doctors and I am

doing well now. Ithank all of you forall the well wishes,"Gadkari tweeted.

Though therewas speculation ini-tially that he mightcancel his tour toAhmednagar districtand fly to his homecity of Nagpur in aspecial aircraft,Gadkari continuedwith his programmean hour after theincident.

As scheduled, Gadkari vis-ited the Saibaba temple atShirdi. Talking to media per-sons after taking “darshan” ofSaibaba at the temple, the min-ister said: “I fell suddenly ill asmy sugar level dropped.Owing to lack of oxygen, I felta bit suffocated. Later, I got myblood sugar and blood pressurechecked and the reports werefine. I am better now and thereis nothing to worry”.

“Several well-wishers calledme and made anxious enquiriesabout my health. I am gratefulto all of them,” Gadkari said.

Politicians from differentpolitical parties made enquiriesabout his health and wishedGadkari a speedy recovery."Sometimes hard work takes atoll on health! @nitin_gadkariji please take care. I wish you avery good health!!," NCP pres-ident Sharad Pawar tweeted.

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An ISI agent from Kishtwar,spying on vital security

installations, has been caughtred handed by Kishtwar policeon Friday.

According to preliminaryreports, "ISI spy came on theradar of the intelligence agen-cies as he was regularly shar-ing videos of vital securityinstal lat ions with hisPakistani handlers sittingacross the border".

Police has seized his mobilephone and other material evi-dence to carry out thoroughinvestigation in the case.

Official sources inKishtwar claimed he was alsofound in touch with Harkat-ulMujahideen militant outfit inPakistan and was acting as pertheir diktats.

According to Kishtwarpolice, "the arrested youth hasbeen identified as SehranSheikh alias Abu Zubair S/O ofGhulam Abbas Sheikh R/O ofMalipeth Kishtwar".

"He was found gatheringinformation on the establish-ments of J&K police,armedforces and army deploymentwithin hilly Kishtwar district",the police statement said.

According to police, "ISIspy was regularly sharingvideos with his handlers sittingacross the border".

He had also come in con-tact with Harkat-Ul-Mujahideen organization andwas found gathering informa-tion on Police, armed forcesand security establishmentsfor terrorist attacks. He was alsofound creating sleeper cells inthe region to strengthen their

ground network. "Several local youth, who

came in contact with him,would be subjected to sus-tained interrogation to exposetheir nefarious designs", asenior police officer inKishtwar told The Pioneer.

Intelligence inputs alsorevealed that the Pakistanbased banned organization wasusing this ISI agent to carryoutterror attacks on belt forces inthe region.

Kishtwar police claimedSehran Sheikh had confessedhis involvement behind shar-ing videos of vital securityestablishments of para-mili-tary forces on Pakistani numbers.

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Even as the controversyover the role of several

right wing activists in theBulandshahr violence lastMonday refused to die down,the teams of SpecialInvestigation Team (SIT) andSpecial Task Force (STF)probing the flare-up are nowverifying the role of a servingArmy personnel who figuresin the videos shot during theviolence.

The violence lef tInspector Subodh KumarSingh and a local youth Sumit dead.

The investigators appre-hend that the Army man,who was on leave and presentin his native vi l lage of Mahwa in Bulandshahr on thefateful day, might have shotthe cop.

The suspect was presentin Mahwa village on Mondaybut returned to Kashmir tojoin duty the very next morn-ing. His mother, however,denied his involvement.

A team of UP police has

been despatched to Srinagarin Jammu and Kashmir toidentify the Army personneland quiz him for establishinghis role in the killing of theinspector.

Meanwhile, Defence offi-cials also issued a releaseconfirming that the role of anArmy man was under investigation.

“The police had contact-ed the Northern Commandand fullest co-operation isbeing extended. Details wouldbe released by the police at anappropriate time after positiveidentification. Since the mat-ter is under investigation, noother comment can be

offered,” said a Defencerelease.

Sources claimed that theSIT formed to probe and nabthe perpetrators of Monday’sviolence was making no seri-ous effort to nab primeaccused Yogesh Raj or hisother right wing cohorts iden-tified as Shikhar Agarwal,Upendra Raghav etc.

Senior police officialsbrushed aside questions ontheir arrests, saying thatarrests would be made onlyafter adequate evidence wasgathered about their involvement.

Beside the Army man,the SIT, while scanningvideos, also identified anoth-er youth and prime accusedYogesh Raj’s aide standingwith a handgun with the mobthat attacked the inspector.His identity was established asHemant of Naya Bans, also inChingrawati.

The police said thatHemant had often been seenbrandishing handgun duringvarious agitations in the district.

The cops raided his houseto pick him up and quiz himbut he absconded before thepolice reached there.

Meanwhile, four daysafter the violence, UP Policefinally admitted that a reportprepared by ADG(Intelligence) SB Shirodkarwas received but no furtheraction had been taken.

Briefing media personsin Lucknow on Friday, IG(Crime) SK Bhagat said, “Yes,ADG SB Shirodkar submitteda report and the competentofficers are going through it.”

However, Bhagat refusedto share details claiming thatit was “confidential” andcould not be discussed.

The report could not behanded over to Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath for necessaryaction as he was away in NewDelhi and did not return tilllate Friday evening.

The IG (Crime) furthersaid that the SIT nabbed fourmore accused, not named inthe FIR, and were makingefforts to arrest the remainingaccused.

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Actor-turned-politician RajBabbar may be continuing

his innings as UP Congresspresident despite intermittentspeculations of his exit, but heis probably the only Congressboss of a State who did not geta team of his choice.

Despite completing morethan two years in office,Babbar has so far failed to gethis team approved from theCongress brass. Not justBabbar, even AICC generalsecretary and in-charge of UP,Ghulam Nabi Azad, also failedto convince the mandarinsand get a new team approvedfor Babbar so far.

During Babbar’s tenure,only names of AICC membersfrom UP were finalised that theUPCC chief failed to release tothe media.

Earlier, Arun Kumar Singh‘Munna’ could not appoint ateam of choice but he remainedUP Congress chief for lessthan a year.

Interestingly, even as theparty slumped to its worst pollperformance under RajBabbar, the Congress bossesdid not take a call on hisremoval or extend his term byproviding him with his pre-ferred team.

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Samajwadi Party chiefAkhilesh Yadav along with

his father Mulayam SinghYadav formally kicked off thepoll campaign for 2019 LokSabha elections fromFerozabad on Friday.

Akhilesh was elected toLok Sabha from Ferozabadseat in the 2009 general electionand at present his cousin andSP general secretary RamGopal Yadav’s son AkshayYadav represents the con-stituency.

The launching of poll cam-paign from Ferozabad is polit-ically significant for SamajwadiParty as Akhilesh’s estrangeduncle and bitter rival ShivpalSingh Yadav is likely to contestfrom the seat in the 2019 LokSabha poll.

Shivpal has floated hisparty — PragatisheelSamajwadi Party (Lohia).

Both Akhilesh andMulayam targeted theBharatiya Janata Party for its

failure to deliver on promisesmade during the 2014 generalelection and demonetisation ofhigh value currency notes.

Address a meeting held tolaunch the SP poll campaign,Mulayam said, “The 2019 gen-eral election will decide thedestiny of India. The BJP has alot of fund and you can counterit only by your hard work andsweat. Take a firm resolve todislodge the BJP in the 2019polls.”

Making a fervent appeal tothe voters for supporting sittingMP Akshay Yadav, the SPpatron said, “Akshay Yadav is abright young man who willserve your interests well. Ihave never seen such a hugeturnout in a poll meeting inFerozabad and this will defi-nitely send a good messageacross UP and also in neigh-bouring states.”

Targeting the welfareschemes launched by the BJP

government, Akhilesh said,“The BJP claims to have pro-vided crores of LPG connec-tions to poor people across thestate but very few people havethe money to refill the emptycylinders.”

The SP chief reminded thegathering that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had promisedto double farmers’ income butthere was no let up in the plightof potato growers as they wereforced to either go for distresssale or throw the commodityon highways.

In the 2009 general elec-tion, Akhilesh Yadav success-fully contested from two LokSabha seats—Kannauj andFirozabad — but vacated theFerozabad seat later. His wifeDimple Yadav had contestedthe by-poll but was defeated byRaj Babbar of Congress.

Cautioning the locals,Akhilesh said, “I had contest-ed election from this seat andDimple too but some peoplemisled you, so take care thistime.”

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0���������-�������� ��� �������� ����������>����Lucknow: Chief Minister YogiAdityanath emerged as themost sought after star pollcampaigner as he addressed 74election meetings in the last 21days in four poll-bound States.

The poll results of thesestates will be announced onDecember 11. In an informalchat with this reporter, Yogirecently said that the publicresponse was quite enthusiasticwherever he addressed rallies.

“The election campaigningwas hectic but the response ofthe people made my visitsworthwhile,” Yogi told thisreporter at his 5, Kalidas Margofficial residence in Lucknow.

“At some places, theresponse was unexpected. Allgrounds were full of audienceand the people waited for medespite I being late for themeetings at certain places.Going by public response, theBJP is bound to do well in theseelections,” Yogi said.

The elections in Madhya

Pradesh, Rajasthan,Chhattisgarh and Telangana arebeing seen as the a semifinalbefore the 2019 Lok Sabha elec-tions. The BJP used star cam-paigners led by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in these elec-tions. Among the other cam-paigners, Yogi Adityanath wasthe most sought after.

Yogi addressed 17 rallies inMadhya Pradesh, 23 inChhattisgarh and 26 inRajasthan. He also campaignedin Telangana and addressedeight rallies there. Yogi’s over-all tally of poll meetings was thehighest for any star campaign-er of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The saffron clad Mahant ofGorakhnath temple spoke onRam and Hindutava in hisspeeches and even created a con-troversy by terming LordHanuman as a Dalit. His one-liner ‘Ali and Bajrang Bali’ madeheadlines when he said ‘AapkoAli mubarak, hamare liye toBajrangbali hi kaafi hain’. PNS

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The Union Ministry ofEnvironment, Forests and ClimateChange (MOEF&CC) has donewell to issue a draft notification onNovember 28, 2018, banning the

use of all animals in circuses across the coun-try. The draft notification reads, “In thePerforming Animals (Registration) Rules,2001, under rule 13, the following shall beadded — 13A — prohibition on exhibitingand training of animals for specified perfor-mances. No animal shall be used for any per-formances or exhibition at any circus ormobile entertainment facility.” Not onlythat, it has defined circus as “a large publicentertainment, typically presented in one ormore very large tents or in an outdoor orindoor arena, featuring exhibitions ofpageantry, feats of skill and daring, perform-ing animals, among others.”

The draft notification comes in the wakeof a number of developments, including rec-ommendations from the Animal WelfareBoard of India (AWBI) and Central ZooAuthority of India (CZA), which have beenentrusted by the MOEF&CC to discharge, onits behalf, important regulatory functionsregarding the use of animals in circuses.Besides, under the Performing Animals(Registration) Rules, the AWBI is the desig-nated authority for registering performinganimals throughout the country.

Reports by inspection teams visiting cir-cuses on behalf of the AWBI have, withoutexception, detailed the horrific treatment thatanimals undergo during training for life-threatening acts like jumping through ringsof fire. They are — sometimes even duringperformances — beaten with sticks,whipped, poked with sharp metal rods(sometimes rusted). Bull hooks — heavybatons with sharp metal hooks at one end— are used on elephants despite beingbanned. According to the reports, many ofthe injuries/deformities reported in animalswere attributable to cruelty during trainingas well as performances. Animals hadshown, even after being rescued, the effectsof physical and psychological trauma theyhad undergone during training.

The AWBI has further pointed out thatcircuses, that rarely communicate theirwhereabouts to it in time, were extremelyhard to track. They repeatedly changed theirstock of animals without informing it. Also,animals did not receive basic vaccinations,had no opportunity to exercise, did notreceive veterinary treatment and were usedfor illegal breeding. There have also beenreports of animals dying as a result of prac-tices like the use of unsafe methods by theirhandlers, illegal trading in elephants and tusks— to name a few.

The AWBI has also conveyed to theMOEF&CC that several circuses were oper-ating entirely in violation of rules. At the timeof its writing in June 2017, 11 of them wereperforming without its mandatory permis-sion. These routinely trained and performed

with more animals than thenumbers registered, used bull-hooks to control and train ele-phants and make animals per-form unnatural tricks that couldinjure or maim them for life.Citing Article 51A (g) of theConstitution — which lists“compassion for living creature”as a “duty of every citizen ofIndia” — and the law as laiddown in the Prevention ofCruelty to Animals Act, 1960, itstated that the time had come forthe Government to stop the useof animals in circuses and makeappropriate legislative amend-ments preventing their use in cir-cuses for all time to come.

The proposed ban comes inthe wake of three important stepstowards ending the tormentinflicted on animals in circuses.The CZA de-registered all cir-cuses using wild animals earli-er this year and recommendeda complete ban on all animals incircuses. Earlier, in 2013, the useof elephants in circuses hadbeen banned and, in 1998, theCentral Government hadbanned the use of lions, tigers,panthers, monkeys, bears andbulls in circuses.

These steps have come inthe midst — and to a significantextent because — of a sustainedcampaign by the Federation ofIndian Animal ProtectionOrganisations (FIAPO) andbodies like People for EthicalTreatment of Animals (PETA),People for Animals (PFA) andAsia for Animals coalition. TheFIAPO has been particularlyactive for the past four years

through its End Circus Sufferingcampaign, which has beenendorsed by organisations likethe Born Free Foundation, FourPaws, Animal Concern, Asia forAnimals and more than 200national organisations.

All these organisations haveoutlined in detail the circusindustry’s horrific treatment ofanimals. AS PETA points out in“10 Reasons Not to Attend anAnimal Circus”, many of themare “bred in captivity and willspend their entire lives in closecontact with humans in anunnatural, stressful environ-ment.” The process of training issavage, animals are kept chainedand caged, with barely room toeven take a step in any direction.While not being trained, theysuffer horribly when they aretransported from one place toanother over days. As PETA’sdocument cited points out, thetractor trailers in which they arecarried are generally cramped,filthy, sweltering and poorlyventilated.

Animals in circuses becomedespondent and depressed, mostdevelop abnormal behaviourpatterns and, denied everythingthat gives their lives meaning,sometimes run berserk, attack-ing humans and destroyingproperty and crops. The result ishuman deaths and, invariably,the death of the animal con-cerned.

The vested interests, thatwill be adversely affected by thenotification, will try to flood theMinistry with protests duringthe 30 days which has been pre-

scribed for comments from thestakeholders. The Ministrymust not be deterred by such anengineered effort and makethe draft a part of the rules. Thebasic message inherent in theuse of animals in circuses is thathumankind can capture,enslave, imprison and savagelytorture them for their ownentertainment, which is unpar-donable. Besides, it is not just aquestion of the treatment of ani-mals. In Eternal Treblinka:Our Treatment of Animals andthe Holocaust, Charles Pattersonwrites, “once animal exploita-tion was institutionalised andaccepted as part of the naturalorder of things, it opened thedoor to similar ways of treatingother human beings, thuspaving the way for such atroc-ities as human slavery and theHolocaust.”

Patterson cites ElizabethFisher as holding in Women’sCreation: Sexual Evolution andthe Shaping of Society that theviolence involved in the subju-gation and exploitation of ani-mals paved the way for men’ssexual domination of women. Tomake the torture and killing ofJews acceptable to the perpetra-tors, Hitler and Nazis projectedthem as animals and vermin.This is clearly what explainsTheodor Adorno’s profoundlyinsightful statement, “Auschwitzbegins wherever someone looksat a slaughterhouse and thinks:they’re only animals.”

(The writer is ConsultantEditor, The Pioneer, and anauthor)

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Modi’s masterstroke”(December 6). The extraditionof AgustaWestland middlemanChristian Michel to India comesas a big boost to the ModiGovernment. The Congress,which has been repeatedlyattacking the rulingGovernment for failing to bringback scamsters, has been provenwrong. UPA chairperson SoniaGandhi and Congress presidentRahul Gandhi are already underthe scanner in the NationalHerald case. Now Michel’salleged links to the Congress willhelp the BJP continue its attacksagainst the Congress regardingcorruption.

KR Srinivasan Secunderabad

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Sir — This refers to the editor-ial, “Not in the cow’s name”(December 5). It is simplistic tosee the mob violence in UttarPradesh’s Bulandshahr thatclaimed the lives of a police offi-

cer and a youth as a mere lawand order problem. It cannot beseen in isolation from the poi-son of religious hatred that hasbeen injected into the bodypolitik for political gain.

These killings are an exampleof how India has changed for theworse. Evidently cow vigilantesenjoy political patronage and, byextension, immunity from pros-ecution and punishment. They

are valourised and garlanded.They have now expanded the tar-gets of attack from Muslims andDalits to the police.

What is happening in UttarPradesh is a far cry from goodgovernance. As expected, ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath ismore concerned with cowslaughter than man slaughter.

G David Milton Maruthancode

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Sir — The other day, Congresspresident Rahul Gandhi wasvery vociferous about the lack-adaisical performance of theModi Government at the Centreand the K Chandrasekhara RaoGovernment in Telangana.Accusing them of being “chipsof the same block”, Rahul

Gandhi said, “KCR has madeTelangana a replica, a micro-cosm of Modi’s India —motivat-ed by hatred, aimed at constant-ly dividing people, putting themat cross purposes to retainpower, destroy institutions, devi-ated from all norms of democ-racy, mutating the spirit and let-ter of the Constitution, monop-olising power to benefit contrac-tors, family and friends.”

It is a reality today that agrowing number of people feeldisenchanted and disillusionedwith the Modi Government.Several problems have grippedthe country’s economy; farmers’problems, too, remain unre-solved. Poll promises remainunfulfilled. People have becomeirritated due to skyrocketingprices of essential commoditiesand rising fuel prices.

Prime Minister Modi cannow salvage himself and hisparty only if he undertakes prag-matic and practical steps andsteadfastly implements variousprogrammes so that benefitscan reach the intended people.

TK NandananChennai

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Abul Ala Maududi was once oneof the most influential Islamicscholars in the Muslim world. A

prolific author and thinker, he is saidto have given shape to what began tobe known as “political Islam.” Ironically,this term was first used almost exact-ly a year after Maududi’s demise in1979. Coined by American scholarMartin Kramer, the term first appearedin his 1980 book, Political Islam. Thebook investigates the emergence ofIslam as a political idea after the with-ering away of Left-leaning secular-nationalist regimes in various Arabregions and non-Arab Muslim nations.According to John O Voll in OxfordBibliographies in Islamic Studies, “polit-ical Islam” referred to any interpreta-tion of Islam that served as a basis forpolitical identity and action.

In the 1980s, “political Islam” waslargely associated with Islamic move-

ments that were inspired by the writ-ings of men such as Pakistan’s Maududi,Egypt’s Hassan al-Banna and SayyidQutb, and Iran’s Ruhollah Khomeini.Interestingly, only Khomeini was alivewhen the term was coined. Early“political Islam” was fuelled by the intel-lectual pursuits of these men. However,by the 1990s, political Islam mutatedwhen the movements that it hadinspired fragmented and took upon amore militant and violent shape. In his2016 essay, The Sectarianism of theIslamic State, H Hassan wrote that thefragmentation gave birth to a new setof ideologues that uprooted “politicalIslam” from its intellectual grounding.They introduced a more takfiri and mil-itant dimension to the discourse ofpolitical Islam. This led to the creationof a number of violent and even anar-chic insurgencies in Muslim countries.

Even though Maududi was an earlycritic of the idea of Pakistan and haddismissed Muhammad Ali Jinnah forbeing ‘secular’ and Westernised, thereis enough reason to believe that, hadMaududi been alive today, he wouldhave disapproved of the post-1990s’ tra-jectory of “political Islam.” Before thecoinage of the term “political Islam”,

Maududi had described the politicalexpression of Islam as ‘Islamic ideolo-gy’. He insisted that politics was inher-ent in Islam and could not be separat-ed from faith. But this idea was most-ly rejected by ‘Muslim modernists’ whoclaimed that such thinking could onlylead to the creation of a totalitariantheocracy. This was observed by mod-ernists such as Khalifa Abdul Hakim,Justice Munir Malik, Field Martial AyubKhan, Dr Fazalur Rahman Malik and,to a certain extent, by ZA Bhutto.

According to Leonard Binder’s1961 book, Religion and Politics inPakistan, this idea was also derided bythe more traditionalist Islamic outfits,but for different reasons. They accusedMaududi of trying to “create a newcreed.” Binder added that this wasmainly because Maududi did notbelieve that the ulema and the clergywere capable of installing the kind ofIslamic State that he was propagating.Binder wrote that after finally accept-ing Pakistan in 1948, Maududi instruct-ed his party, the Jamaat-i-Islami, to findways to influence state andGovernment personnel to adopt hisideas for the “gradual formation of anIslamic State.” Maududi’s ideas found

a large Muslim middle-class audi-ence, as opposed to those formulatedby other religious outfits such asMajlis-i-Ahrar and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam. This was mainly due to the factthat Maududi’s turn towards studyingIslam did not come by studying at a tra-ditional madressah.

Maududi was born in 1903 inAurangabad, India, into a family thathad relations with the modernistMuslim scholar Syed Ahmed Khan.According to Professor Irfan Ahmed,Khan convinced Maududi’s grandfa-ther to enroll his son (Maududi’sfather) into Khan’s MuhammadanAnglo-Oriental College in Aligarh.The father became an enthusiasticsupporter of Khan’s modernist ideas.But incensed by the “liberal” and“Westernised” lifestyle of the studentsof the college, the grandfather pulledhim out. Maududi’s father soonrenounced everything that attractedhim at the college and became reli-gious. When Maududi was born, hevowed not to give his son a Westerneducation. So Maududi received hisearly education at home. He was thensent to the Oriental High Schoolwhere the curriculum was designed by

famous Islamic scholar Shibli Nomani.At 16, Maududi left school and afterhis father’s demise, began his career asa journalist. Even though he was asso-ciated with a newspaper owned by theJUI-Hind, Maududi did not exhibitany overt signs of religiosity. Binderwrites that all the while Maududi wasdevouring books on Islamic law andhistory and also studying the works ofEuropean philosophers. He hadn’tgrown a beard till after 1932. Binderwrote that Maududi was also fond ofwearing Western clothes.

Irfan wrote that Maududienjoyed cinema, theatre and music.Vali Nasr, in his book, Maududi andthe Making of Islamic Revivalism,wrote that Maududi’s wife,Mahmudah Begum, “was quite lib-erated.” She did not observe purdah.According to Binder, Maududi wentthrough a sudden transformationafter witnessing the mushrooming ofnationalist sentiments in India’sMuslim community. Consequently,he was dismayed by the way in whichMuslim modernists downplayed theidea of jihad as mandatory armedstruggle. He rejected their assertionthat jihad meant an internalised and

non-violent personal struggle.In 1932, Maududi published his

first book, Towards UnderstandingIslam, and emerged as a theologianwho slammed the interpretations ofIslam’s sacred texts by Muslim mod-ernists. He also managed to upsetmany ulemas by claiming that theydidn’t have the tact to impose thesharia in 20th century conditions.Maududi continued to fall in and outwith the Pakistani establishment tillthe 1970s. He was sentenced todeath in 1954 and, in 1964, his partywas banned. But his ideas became thefoundation upon which a protestmovement against the ZA Bhuttoregime was launched in 1977.

Maududi supported the reac-tionary military coup against Bhuttoand saw it as a vessel through whichhis ideas could gain currency in thecountry’s constitution. This didbecome a reality in the 1980s butMaududi was not alive to see it; hepassed away in 1979. Nor was healive to see many of the same ideasmutate and become associated withthe more violent and militant expres-sions of political Islam.

(Courtesy: The Dawn)

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While a recent incident has once againbrought the porosity of coastal patrollingin Andaman & Nicobar Islands into focus,

it will be worth recalling an incident that took placemore than four decades ago, and which, perhaps,laid the foundation for an independent Coast Guardunit. Here is a personal account.

There used to be a policy of posting officersfrom Union Territories-Cadre (now Arunachal, Goa,Mizoram and Union Territories) of the All IndiaServices, to certain difficult and far-flung areas inthe beginning of their careers. Accordingly, on myfirst promotion as SP, Andaman & Nicobar Islands,I reached Port Blair in July 1973. The incident ofDecember 1974, that I am about to narrate,assumed importance as it had some internationalramifications, besides the creation of coast guardas a separate entity being placed on a firm footing.

Out of more than 500 islands in the Andaman& Nicobar Islands, only a few are inhabited and someonly have a police post to fly the national flag. Despitethe fact that Kondul did not have any requirementof policing, a police post had been functioning theredue to threats from foreign ships often visiting thisarea for poaching and their crews having a barterexchange with the tribals. Towards the end ofDecember 1974, a panic message was received bymy office at Port Blair, from Kondul, necessitatinga visit and my personal intervention. Kondul is avery small island in the Bay of Bengal. With an areaof less than two square miles, it is, perhaps, tooinsignificant for any geographical atlas to have recog-nised its existence. Located in between the LittleNicobar and the Great Nicobar, its population con-sisted entirely of the Shompen tribals and was esti-mated to be only 75 in 1971.

The message from Kondul disclosed that a fewpoachers had landed on an isolated portion of theisland and when they were challenged by the police,they had fired with automatic weapons. A decisionwas taken to strengthen the post and provide themwith light machine guns. Accordingly, we made useof the Chief Commissioner’s inspection boat MVTarmugli and I left for Kondul. Enroute, on the highseas, in our territorial waters, there was anencounter between the poachers (who were fromThailand) and our vessel. Firing from our side result-ed in the death of one and injuries to two others.Later, their vessel was boarded and poachersarrested for further proceedings. This party then leftfor Port Blair, while I continued towards Kondul.

The sea around the Nicobars is known to bethe most placid from the end of December,through January and February. But contrary toexpectations, that day, the St George’s Channelbetween the islands of Little Nicobar and the GreatNicobar, where Kondul is located, was extremelyrough. In any case, in the absence of a jetty, MVTarmugli had to anchor about three kilometres awayfrom the coast line. It was already twilight hour andas the fishing boat, which was to take me ashore,came alongside, it could be observed that the boatappeared to be taking in some water through a gapin the flooring and I just could not imagine how Iwould jump into the fishing boat which was at amuch lower level. But I managed somehow. Mycook Moidu along with the additional men fol-lowed. Unloading heavy baggage in a rough sea witha difference in the levels of boats can be very tricky

but the entire stuff, including ordinancewas unloaded safely. Initially, the distancedid not appear much but once the fish-ing boat started to move, we realised wehad quite a distance to travel. Despite thesea being extremely rough, all of us trav-elled without life jackets as none was avail-able. It had already become dark and wewere still not ashore but the crew and theold out board engine were giving theirbest. The last about 200 yards had to bewaded through and ruined my uniform.It also became amply clear as to why allour men, who had come to receive theirSP, were only in shorts and barefoot. Somewere even in tucked-up lungis. But we didmanage to unload the entire baggage,including gifts for tribals and ordinancein a dry condition.

The first evening I shared my dinnerwith the men as we had not unpacked.Also, I had to borrow the bed, along withthe mosquito net, from one of the jawans.Our men were stationed in thatched bam-boo ‘bashas’ with large sized mosquitoesfor company. One of the ‘bashas’ had beencleared for my exclusive use. In theabsence of any electricity, one had to usethe petromax and curtail the bedside read-ing at night. Coconut water substituted forbottled drinking water that is often usedthese days.

As the sun in these areas rises early,even by 5 am, it used to be very brightand warm. The training programme forthe jawans stationed there and the newcontingent commenced in right earnest,the sea beach being the only open spaceavailable. Our training session could notlast for more than two hours, the sunbeing very hot with penetrating UVrays. Later, quite some time was alsospent on investigating the site of land-ing and searching for spent ammunitioncases. Used cigarette packets, besides

empty cans of foodstuff and drinks withforeign markings, were found in abun-dance. It was learnt that the poachersusually took coconuts, fresh water andeggs from tribals in exchange for ciga-rettes and some cheap clothing.

The ‘bashas’ became extremely hot inthe afternoon, and as such, I had my bedorganised in the open with a net, undera coconut grove. In the afternoon, whenthere was some breeze, I became busy withmy books and cricket commentary. Wespent another two hours in the eveningfor training and this went on for three-four days.

The only means of communicationwith the outside world was through aradio and daily reports were being sentto the headquarter. Later, after thecompletion of the task in hand, I askedfor a boat to be sent to pick me up forthe return journey. On the morning ofday four, a Naval petrol boat INS Pulicatwas deputed for the purpose; it did reachKondul but was at least 4 km away fromthe shore. Due to very rough conditionsat sea, it was unable to get any closer.From this side, I was advised against tak-ing the rickety fishing boat that far. Icould see the naval vessel at anchor butcould do nothing as all communicationswere through Port Blair. My messagesused to go to headquarter at Port Blair,from where they were communicated onphone, to the office of NOIC, fromwhere they communicated with the boat.The boat must have waited for aboutthree to four hours and then left. It wasa great disappointment but then therewas no other option. So I went back tothe cricket commentary and books. Thiswent on for a couple of days. Next morn-ing again, almost coinciding with sun-rise, INS Panvel came to pick me up, butwe were unable to leave the shore due

to very rough conditions. The ricketyboat, the only one at Kondul, could notbe put out to the sea and the naval ves-sel could not come closer. In the mean-time, Vishwanath was going great gunsagainst Andy Roberts and I think hescored one of the finest centuries of hiscareer at Eden Gardens.

Even as this dilemma continued andmy anxiety was turning into disappoint-ment, good news came. The administra-tion had chartered a private boat whichpicked me up from Kondul and droppedme at Car Nicobar on the evening of NewYear’s day of 1975. From Car Nicobar toPort Blair, it was virtually a home run anda hassle-free comfortable 20-hour journey.The seas had again become calm andplacid and it was as if one was lazing ina blue lake, with all the anxieties andapprehensions fading away into the past.Another good news was that India hadwon at the Eden Gardens.

Back in Port Blair, in the New Year,a lot of reports had to be prepared whichwere sent by the administration to theMinistry of Home Affairs. It was specif-ically mentioned that the coastalpatrolling, which hitherto used to be theresponsibility of the local police, shouldbe taken away as there were hardly anyresources or expertise. It was also suggest-ed that a specialised agency be assignedthis task. I feel that our inputs from PortBlair of early 1975 would have definitelyplayed some role in the establishment ofthe Coast Guard in 1977.

And today as I write after 44 years, Iam told, Kondul, the tiny speck in the Bayof Bengal, that virtually ceased to exist forsome time after the 2004 tsunami, hasresurfaced, almost having a rebirth.

(The writer is a retired Delhi PoliceCommissioner and former UttarakhandGovernor)

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To make shipping on nation-al waterways more lucra-

tive, Inland WaterwaysAuthority of India (IWAI) hastaken up a pilot project todemonstrate methanol as mar-itime fuel, a top official saidFriday.

The nodal agency forinland waterways has decidedto place an order to retrofitwork boats and new cargo ves-sels with engines that can runon methanol.

“We are placing order for3 work boats to retrofit enginesand 6 low draft cargo vessels of1,000-2,000 tonnes capacity toCochin Shipyard that will usemethanol as fuel with technol-ogy from Sweden after a go-ahead from NITI Aayog,” IWAI

vice-chairman Pravir Pandeysaid.

Pandey was speaking toreporters on the sidelines of ashipping conclave organisedby the Bengal Chamber ofCommerce & Industry here.

Methanol can be a gamechanger as the cost of the fuelis just �26 a litre and theroadmap was shown by Uniontransport minister NitinGadkari, Pandey said.

IWAI is also working onfuel bunkering facilities inintervals of about 500 km onthe entire 1,600 km Haldia-Varanasi stretch for ships onmethanol.

Methanol’s volume is high-er than diesel.

The design of the cargovessels have been offered byDST of Germany that requires

just 1.5 meters draft — a cru-cial factor for inland waterways’success at least in the NW-I thatstretches from Haldia toVaranasi.

IWAI has assured draft of2.8-3 metres till Patna but fur-ther upstream there is draftissues which can be as low as2 meters.

IWAI is also working onfreight villages at Sahebgunjand Varanasi for which it hasalready taken land between100 and 300 acres that will pro-vide infrastructure to supportvolumes.

Freight village is an areawhere all activities relating totransport, logistics and distri-bution of goods are carried outby various operators. The con-cept is popular in Europe butnew in India.

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Th eNational

H i g h w a yAuthority ofI n d i a(NHAI) saidit is focusingon sustain-able, safe andgreen devel-opment ofroad projects in the country.

“Despite pressure of con-structing road infrastructurewith speed, NHAI is focusingon providing safe, sustainable,accessible, clean and greenmobility in the country,” NHAIMember (Projects) RK Pandeywas quoted as saying in a state-ment.

A sustainable mobility inthe country, he said, willaddress a lot of issues coming

in the way of safe system forroad users.

The safety of road users,workers as well as environmentprotection, he said, are a mat-ter of concern during con-struction activities worldwide.

“NHAI is fast changing itscontract system and has set upa high powered committee inthe MoRTH to clear the pro-jects as per requirements,” headded.

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The European Union and itscitizens should be “worried”

about telecoms giant Huaweiand other Chinese firms thatcooperate with Beijing’s intelli-gence services, a senior EU offi-cial warned on Friday.

European CommissionVice President Andrus Ansipissued the remarks after MengWanzhou, Huawei’s chief finan-cial officer and daughter of itsfounder, was arrested a weekago in Canada at Washington’srequest.

The White House did notspecify why she was detainedbut mentioned longstandingUS concerns over Chinese firmsusing stolen intellectual prop-erty and how Beijing acquiresinformation technology.

“Do we (in Europe) have tobe worried about Huawei orother Chinese companies?”Ansip asked during a pressconference in Brussels.

“Yes, I think we have to beworried about those companiesbecause they set new rulesaccording with their IT compa-

nies, their producers,” Ansip said.“They have to cooperate

with their intelligence services.And this is about mandatorybackdoors,” the former primeminister of Estonia added.

He said he has longopposed such backdoors wherethe firm may use chips toobtain secrets from customers,though he pointed out little wasknown about concrete cases.

“It’s not a good sign whencompanies have to open theirsystems for some kind of secretservices,” he added. “As normalordinary people of course wehave to be afraid.”

Experts in the US seeMeng’s arrest last Saturday as atoughening stand inWashington on dealing withChinese tech firms amid long-standing concerns overcyberespionage.

Recent US federal law alreadybans military and Governmentuse of devices made by Huaweiand fellow Chinese firm ZTE oversecurity concerns.

Federal regulators are also inthe process of implementingrules that would bar Huawei forrolling out fifth-generation, or 5G,networks in the United States.

Huawei has denied anyties to the ChineseGovernment, but many inWashington are sceptical.

Huawei is meanwhile fac-ing bans for 5G contracts inAustralia and New Zealand,and British telecom group BTrevealed on Wednesday it wasremoving Huawei equipmentfrom its core cellular network.

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Nissan on Fridayannounced plans to recall

approximately 150,000 vehiclesowing to improper tests onnew units, dealing a fresh blowto the Japanese car giant fol-lowing the shock arrest of for-mer chairman Carlos Ghosn.

“Nissan has recently foundseveral non-conformities thatmay have caused inaccuratepass/fail judgements duringthe inspection process,” thecompany said in a statement,adding it would “promptly”recall as many as 150,000 unitsin Japan.

It confirmed that improp-er tests were carried out onbrakes, speedometers andother systems before shipmentat its domestic assembly plant.

Nissan plans to notifyauthorities of the recall onThursday, it added.

The manufacturer wasforced to recall more than onemillion vehicles last year afteradmitting staff without prop-er authorisation had conduct-ed final inspections on someunits intended for the domes-tic market before they wereshipped to dealers.

The latest recall representsanother blow to the company,which has been rocked sinceGhosn was arrested onNovember 19 on allegations heunder-reported his salary bymillions of dollars over fiveyears.

Ghosn denies any wrong-doing.

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Tokyo prosecutors havedecided to indict Nissan as

well as its former chairmanCarlos Ghosn and anotherexecutive as early as next weekover alleged financial miscon-duct, a report said on Friday.

The report comes amidspeculation that Ghosn and hisright-hand man Greg Kellywill face new allegations relat-ed to under-reporting of theauto titan’s compensation.

The pair were arrested onNovember 19 on suspicion ofconspiring to understateGhosn’s pay by some five billionyen ($44 million) in official fil-ings during the five years up toMarch 2015.

The Nikkei business dailyreported Friday that Ghosn andKelly would likely be indictedon those allegations as soon asMonday, when their currentdetention period expires.

The daily said prosecutorshad decided that Nissan was alsoresponsible for the alleged finan-cial wrong-doing and wouldbring charges against the firm.

Under Japanese law, pros-ecutors can hold suspects forup to 22 days while investigat-ing a single allegation.

But they can seek an addi-tional 22 days of detention foreach new accusation against asuspect.

Reports suggest Ghosn andKelly could face a new accusa-tion related to under-reportingof the former chairman’s com-pensation by another four bil-lion yen ($35.5 billion) over thelast three years.

The new accusation is alsoexpected to be announced nextweek.

Japanese prosecutors saidthey could not comment on thereport and Nissan said onlythat it was cooperating with theprosecutor’s office.

“The company has been...Fully cooperating with itsinvestigation. We will contin-ue to do so,” spokesmanNicholas Maxfield told AFP.

Neither Ghosn nor Kellyhave yet been officially charged,and they deny any wrongdoing.

Ghosn’s November 19arrest in Tokyo shook the busi-ness world, where he has longbeen a highly regarded topexecutive.

In Japan, Ghosn was cele-brated as a charismatic businessleader who saved Nissan fromthe brink of failure and rebuiltit as a money-making sub-sidiary of Renault.

But since his shock arrest,he has been removed from theboards of Nissan andMitsubishi Motors.

Nissan has begun theprocess of choosing Ghosn’ssuccessor, with the final deci-sion expected on December 17.

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The GST anti-profiteering author-ity has found a distributor of

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) guilty ofnot passing on the tax rate cut ben-efit of over �5 lakh to consumers.

The case before the National AntiProfiteering Authority (NAA) statesthat the distributor had hiked thebase price of two products — J&Jbaby shampoo 100ml and J&J babypowder 200gm — after the GSTCouncil slashed tax on them to 18 percent from 28 per cent on November15, 2017.

The Directorate General of AntiProfiteering (DGAP), which inves-tigated the complaint against the saiddistributor, went through its books ofaccounts for the period November15, 2017 to March 31, 2018.

It was found that the base priceof the baby shampoo was increased

from �57.24 to �62.10 a piece fol-lowing the November 15 rate cut.Similarly, the base price of the babypowder was increased to �87.67from �80.82 a piece.

NAA, while asking the distributorto deposit over �5 lakh to consumerwelfare fund, directed it to reduce theprices of all the products by makingcommensurate reduction in their rates.

“The respondent (distributor)is directed to deposit the profiteeredamount of �5,01,646 along with theinterest to be calculated at the rate of18 per cent from the date when theabove amount was collected by him

from his customers,” NAA said.NAA also asked DGAP to fur-

ther investigate the quantum of prof-iteering made by the distributorfrom April 1, 2018, and submit itsreport to the authority.

EY Tax Partner Abhishek Jainsaid, “A critical aspect to be noted inthis ruling is that the responsibilityof compliance with anti-profiteeringprovision is on the seller of the prod-ucts and a retail dealer selling goodsto the end customer cannot shift hisaccountability of this compliance tothe original manufacturer of thegoods”.

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Commerce Minister SureshPrabhu on Friday was opti-

mistic on the India growthstory saying, “the worst is overand best is yet to come.”

The Minister was address-ing the Global Venture CapitalSummit in Goa, attended byover 100 investors from acrossthe globe keen on start-ups.

“There is no market, whichis exciting as India...This is anew phase in Indias growthstory,” Prabhu said invitinginvestors to participate in this.

The Minister said phe-nomenal growth will take placein every sector. Noting thedrive of infrastructure creationin the country under theNarendra Modi-ledGovernment, Prabhu said thisis a dire need for such a largecountry.

“The Government has toinvest more than 10 per cent oninfrastructure year after year.That is because we failed to doit in the past,” he said indirect-ly blaming the formerCongress-led Governments atthe Centre.

Prabhu, who was also rail-way minister, said on thatfront,the entire investment wasrunning into hundreds of bil-lions of dollars.

“We created, for the firsttime, a five-year plan of $144billion investments. There wasphenomenal change in theinfrastructure after that,” heclaimed.

Prabhu, who also holdsthe portfolio of civil aviationminister said, “In the aviationsector, we have created 100 air-ports and we will add 100more in the next ten years timewith the investment of $65 bil-lion. The story is similar inroads,” he pointed out.

Prabhu said that when heheld the responsibility as powerminister, the country was fac-ing a deficit and questionswere asked on how India willbecome powerful withoutpower.

“We made one law thatbrought in $250 billion ininvestments in a matter of adecade. Today, India frombeing power deficient, is apower surplus country,” heboasted.

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The Indian rupee on Fridaystaged a mild recovery to

close at 70.82, rising 8 paiseagainst the US dollar in linewith rally in domestic stocksand positive global cues.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex), the rupeeopened on a firm note at 70.58against the US dollar andsurged further to touch a highof 70.44 during the day.

The local unit finally settledfor the day at 70.82, higher by8 paise over its previous clos-ing price.

On Thursday, the rupeelost 44 paise against the dollarto close at 70.90.

Forex dealers said the localunit recovered lost groundtracking weakness in Americandollar against some currenciesoverseas following reports thatthe Federal Reserve could slowdown its pace of interest ratehikes next year.

The Financial BenchmarkIndia Private Ltd (FBIL) set thereference rate for the rupee/dol-lar at 70.5663 and forrupee/euro at 80.2245.

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Credit rating agency Icra onFriday downgraded cash-

strapped Jet Airway’s long-term ratings from ‘B’ to ‘C’, thesecond such action by it sinceOctober.

The short-term ratingshave, however, been reaffirmedto ‘A4’.

The rating downgrade con-siders delays in the implemen-tation of the proposed liquid-ity initiatives by the manage-ment, further aggravating itsliquidity, as reflected in thedelays in employee salary pay-ments and lease rental pay-ments to the aircraft lessors, theagency said.

Significantly, the NareshGoyal-promoted full servicecarrier has been in the red sincethe March quarter of the pre-vious fiscal. Facing severe liq-uidity crunch, the airline hasbeen defaulting on payment ofsalaries to its senior staff,including pilots and engineerssince August as well as to someof the vendors.

Jet Airways in a regulato-ry filing also confirmed the rat-ing downgrade by Icra.

Instruments with ‘C’ ratingare considered to have very

high risk of default regardingtimely servicing of financialobligations, as per the agency.

These long-term ratingsof Jet Airways were assigned byIcra to �698.9-crore NCDsprogramme, �4,970 crore oflong-term, �645 crore of long-term, fund-based facilities, and�700 crore of long-term andnon-fund based facilities.

The ‘A4’ rating is assignedto securities that are consideredto have minimal degree ofsafety regarding timely pay-ment of financial obligations.Such instruments carry veryhigh credit risk and are sus-ceptible to default.

According to Icra, JetAirways has large debt repay-ments due over the next fourmonths (December-March) of

FY19 (�1,700 crore), FY20(�2,444.5 crore) and FY21(�2,167.9 crore).

The company is undertak-ing various liquidity initiatives,which includes, among others,equity infusion and a stakesale in Jet Privilege Private(JPPL), and the timely imple-mentation of these initiatives isa key rating sensitivity, said Icra.

Airline chief executive offi-cer Vinay Dube reportedly hadlast month told the his pilotsthat the airline was expectingto have a new investor onboard in the next two to threemonths.

It has also sought $ 350-bil-lion soft loan from its invest-ment partner Etihad Airways totide over the liquidity crisis forthe time being.

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New Delhi (PTI): State Bank of India on Friday said it hadreceived shareholders’ approval to raise up to �20,000 crore throughsale of shares. Shareholders’ approval was sought “to create, offer,issue and allot such number of equity shares for an amount notexceeding �20,000 crore... by way of public issue (i.e. follow on pub-lic offer) or private placement, including QIP/GDR/ADR and/orany other mode or a combination(s) thereof, as may be decidedby the board,” it said in a regulatory filing.

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Benchmark indices broketheir three-day fallingstreak on Friday driven

by upbeat global cues, recov-ering rupee and a surge inKotak Bank shares on reportsthat Berkshire Hathaway maypick up a stake in the lender.

The BSE Sensex rallied361.12 points, or 1.02 per cent,to close at 35,673.25.

Similarly, the broader NSENifty jumped 92.55 points, or0.87 per cent, to 10,693.70.

However, both the indicesended lower for the week. TheSensex fell by 521.05 points, or1.43 per cent, while the Niftylost 183.05, or 1.68 per cent,during the week.

Kotak Mahindra Bank wasthe biggest gainer on both theindices on Friday, spurtingnearly 9 per cent followingreports that Warren Buffett’sBerkshire Hathaway Inc wasplanning to pick up a stake inthe private sector lender.

According to mediareports, Berkshire Hathawaymay invest between USD 4 bil-lion and USD 6 billion in thelender by buying promoterstake or through a preferentialallotment.

Other gainers includedAdani Ports, Bajaj Auto,Infosys, Asian Paints, Maruti,HUL, L&T, M&M, ICICI Bankand Reliance Industries, risingup to 3 per cent.

Top losers were SunPharma, Coal India, Yes Bank,PowerGrid and NTPC, slidingup to 2 per cent.

“Indian equity market hadturned cautious during theweek, profit booking was evi-dent in anticipation of the finaloutcome of the state elections,a precursor of the general elec-tion.

“Domestic marketrebounded today along withglobal market, which has light-ened up, hoping for a resolu-tion of US-China trade war.Opec’s decision to delay thefinal resolution to cut oil out-put caused prices to fall, boost-ing sentiments in India,” saidVinod Nair, head of research,Geojit Financial Services.

Investors took positive cuesfrom Asian and European equi-ties after US Fed ChairmanJerome Powell signalled thatthe three-year tightening cyclewas drawing to a close, andIMF chief Christine Lagardesaying that the US was not like-ly to see an economic contrac-

tion in the near term.The rupee appreciated by

24 paise to 70.66 against the USdollar in intra-day trade amidweakness in the greenbackagainst some currencies over-seas.

Oil prices eased further onworries that a meeting of Opecand non-Opec producers willnot agree to an output cut.Brent crude, the internationalbenchmark, was trading 0.72per cent lower at USD 59.63 perbarrel.

Meanwhile, on a net basis,foreign portfolio investors(FPIs) bought shares worth�72.47 crore on Thursday,while domestic institutionalinvestors (DIIs) were net sell-ers to the tune of �389.78crore, provisional data availablewith BSE showed.

Elsewhere in Asia, Korea’sKospi rose 0.34 per cent, Japan’sNikkei gained 0.82 per cent,Shanghai Composite Indexedged 0.02 per cent higher,while Hong Kong’s Hang Sengshed 0.35 per cent.

In Europe, Frankfurt’sDAX rose 0.85 per cent andParis’ CAC 40 gained 1.40 percent in early deals. London’sFTSE too jumped 1.53 percent.

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Indian IT company HCLTechnologies on Friday said

it would acquire select IBMsoftware products for USD 1.8billion (over �12,700 crore) inan all-cash deal.

The transaction, subjectto “completion of applicableregulatory reviews”, is slated toclose by mid-2019, HCLTechnologies said in a state-ment.

The deal entails sevenproducts in areas includingsecurity, marketing and col-laboration solutions, and rep-resents a total addressable mar-ket of more than USD 50 bil-lion, HCL Tech said in a regu-latory filing.

“IBM and HCL Techno-logies today announced adefinitive agreement underwhich HCL will acquire selectIBM software products forUSD 1.8 billion,” it said.

With this acquisition, HCLTech will get software productsin areas of marketing, com-merce, security and collabora-tion, a “highly profitable rev-enue stream” containing a sig-nificant annuity component,and access to over 5,000 largeclients across industries andgeographic markets, along withsales and marketing teams,the filing said.

HCL Tech chief financialofficer Prateek Aggarwal told

PTI that the deal also entailstransfer of IBM employees,but did not divulge any num-bers.

The cash deal will be fund-ed largely through internalaccruals, with USD 300 millionof debt, HCL Tech said, addingthat nearly half of the totalamount would be paid at closeof the deal.

This is the biggest acquisi-tion for HCL Tech till date, andamong the largest by an Indiantech company. The acquisitionalso reflects HCL’s ambitionsfor software products busi-ness — considered to be thenext growth frontier for ITcompanies.

The software products inthe deal include Appscan (forsecure application develop-ment), BigFix (for securedevice management), Unica(for marketing automation),Commerce (for omni-chan-nel eCommerce), Portal (fordigital experience), Notes &Domino (for email and low-code rapid application devel-opment), and Connections (forworkstream collaboration).

HCL and IBM have anongoing intellectual propertypartnership for five of theseproducts.

“The products that we areacquiring are in large growingmarket areas like security, mar-keting and commerce whichare strategic segments for HCL.

Many of these products are wellregarded by clients and posi-tioned in the top quadrant byindustry analysts,” said CVijayakumar, president & CEO,HCL Technologies.

John Kelly, IBM seniorvice-president, CognitiveSolutions and Research, said:“We believe the time is right todivest these select collabora-tion, marketing and commercesoftware assets, which areincreasingly delivered as stand-alone products. At the sametime, we believe these productsare a strong strategic fit forHCL, and that HCL is wellpositioned to drive innovationand growth for their cus-tomers.”

Shares of HCLTechnologies dived 5 per centon Friday after the companyannounced acquisition of selectIBM software products forUSD 1.8 billion in an all-cashdeal.

The stock dropped 4.98per cent to close at �961.55 onBSE. Intra-day, the scrip had hita low of �935, down 7.6 percent.

On NSE, the stockslumped 5 per cent to close thecounter at �961.9. During thetrading session, the scrip hadtouched a low of �934.45 anda high of �1,000.

A total of over 1.10 crorescrips were traded during theday on the stock exchanges.

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State-run NTPC is likely toacquire the Central govern-

ment’s stake in SJVN Ltd, butthe Himachal Pradesh gov-ernment has expressed somereservations relating to thistransaction, an official said.

At the current market price,sale of 63.79 per cent stake inSJVN would fetch the Centreabout �6,700 crore. SJVN is ajoint venture between the Centreand the Himachal Pradesh gov-ernment, with a joint holding of90.63 per cent. At the end ofSeptember, Centre held 63.79per cent stake in SJVN, while HPgovernment held 26.85 per cent.

An official said the discus-sions were going on for purchaseof Centre’s stake in SJVN, butHimachal Pradesh governmenthad some concerns.

“We are looking at NTPCacquiring Centre’s share inSJVN. The matter is stuckbecause of resistance fromHimachal Pradesh government.We are discussing it,” the officialsaid.

If the acquisition goesthrough, this would be the thirdsuch transaction amongstCentral Public SectorUndertaking (CPSEs). InJanuary, ONGC bought gov-ernment’s entire 51.11 per centstake in oil refiner HPCL for�36,915 crore. On Thursday, theCabinet cleared PFC buying52.63 per cent stake in REC, foran estimated �15,000 crore.

The government has alreadymopped up over �32,000 crorefrom CPSE disinvestment so farin the current fiscal. The budgettarget has been set at �80,000crore.

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Script Last Abs ChangeTraded Price Change %3MINDIA 21685.70 116.85 0.548KMILES 171.85 -9.00 -4.98AARTIIND 1444.45 -9.15 -0.63ABB 1392.45 14.25 1.03ABBOTINDIA 7545.60 24.20 0.32ABCAPITAL 97.20 -0.55 -0.56ABFRL 181.05 -0.70 -0.39ACC 1444.65 19.00 1.33ADANIPORTS 373.75 9.85 2.71ADANIPOWER 52.45 0.45 0.87ADANITRANS 217.65 1.50 0.69ADVENZYMES 172.85 -0.45 -0.26AEGISLOG 210.30 -0.80 -0.38AIAENG 1673.75 -9.20 -0.55AJANTPHARM 1047.10 -44.40 -4.07AKZOINDIA 1553.55 0.05 0.00ALBK 43.15 -1.60 -3.58ALKEM 1894.75 -21.70 -1.13ALLCARGO 104.40 -0.30 -0.29AMARAJABAT 703.10 -0.40 -0.06AMBUJACEM 212.15 3.70 1.78ANDHRABANK 26.95 -0.50 -1.82APARINDS 616.35 -2.40 -0.39APLAPOLLO 1317.50 6.00 0.46APLLTD 614.40 -3.20 -0.52APOLLOHOSP 1207.55 17.75 1.49APOLLOTYRE 225.55 0.35 0.16ASAHIINDIA 248.25 -4.50 -1.78ASHOKA 120.20 -0.10 -0.08ASHOKLEY 102.60 0.70 0.69ASIANPAINT 1318.60 23.55 1.82ASTERDM 151.05 4.00 2.72ASTRAL 1056.10 9.70 0.93ATUL 3376.80 5.05 0.15AUBANK 610.15 -4.95 -0.80AUROPHARMA 751.65 0.10 0.01AVANTI 355.70 4.30 1.22AXISBANK 603.25 2.90 0.48BAJAJ-AUTO 2779.75 60.70 2.23BAJAJCORP 347.75 2.50 0.72BAJAJELEC 470.20 -0.65 -0.14BAJAJFINSV 5849.60 175.85 3.10BAJAJHLDNG 2982.05 23.65 0.80BAJFINANCE 2488.10 56.70 2.33BALKRISIND 892.35 -4.45 -0.50BALMLAWRIE 182.10 0.35 0.19BALRAMCHIN 100.15 -1.80 -1.77BANDHANBNK 472.10 1.60 0.34BANKBARODA 106.30 1.20 1.14BANKINDIA 79.50 -1.30 -1.61BASF 1528.80 -28.05 -1.80BATAINDIA 1058.75 19.00 1.83BAYERCROP 4295.35 18.60 0.43BBTC 1308.90 3.75 0.29BEL 80.40 -1.50 -1.83BEML 708.15 6.70 0.96BERGEPAINT 310.55 2.50 0.81BHARATFIN 989.00 -4.60 -0.46BHARATFORG 506.40 -20.40 -3.87BHARTIARTL 303.90 -0.20 -0.07BHEL 66.00 0.25 0.38BIOCON 612.75 6.75 1.11BIRLACORPN 601.50 0.85 0.14BLISSGVS 140.10 13.40 10.58BLUEDART 3093.00 -7.00 -0.23BLUESTARCO 640.50 1.00 0.16BOMDYEING 89.70 -2.85 -3.08BOSCHLTD 18517.60 115.50 0.63BPCL 325.00 0.20 0.06BRITANNIA 3006.85 18.40 0.62CADILAHC 349.40 -5.85 -1.65CANBK 247.00 1.25 0.51CANFINHOME 239.45 -1.55 -0.64CAPF 501.05 -1.05 -0.21CAPPL 396.40 -0.40 -0.10CARBORUNIV 346.65 -0.20 -0.06CARERATING 991.25 2.65 0.27CASTROLIND 145.15 -2.30 -1.56CCL 268.70 0.10 0.04CEATLTD 1248.30 -6.10 -0.49CENTRALBK 28.35 -0.05 -0.18CENTRUM 36.80 -0.25 -0.67CENTURYPLY 182.55 2.50 1.39CENTURYTEX 870.85 17.30 2.03CERA 2345.00 2.90 0.12CGPOWER 37.60 0.15 0.40CHAMBLFERT 146.10 -0.40 -0.27CHENNPETRO 271.90 -2.35 -0.86CHOLAFIN 1229.00 3.60 0.29CIPLA 515.10 -2.10 -0.41COALINDIA 236.80 -3.90 -1.62COCHINSHIP 375.10 0.60 0.16COFFEEDAY 263.25 -3.25 -1.22

COLPAL 1233.90 41.55 3.48CONCOR 660.30 -1.95 -0.29COROMANDEL 410.35 2.40 0.59CORPBANK 25.35 -0.30 -1.17CRISIL 1544.65 22.10 1.45CROMPTON 218.95 -1.65 -0.75CUB 176.15 -1.30 -0.73CUMMINSIND 781.25 -1.85 -0.24CYIENT 612.00 -1.55 -0.25DABUR 411.00 10.50 2.62DBCORP 164.75 -2.10 -1.26DBL 450.25 18.40 4.26DCBBANK 154.80 3.05 2.01DCMSHRIRAM 357.85 8.05 2.30DEEPAKFERT 143.40 -6.40 -4.27DEEPAKNI 230.90 -9.45 -3.93DELTACORP 238.85 3.15 1.34DENABANK 15.50 -0.05 -0.32DHANUKA 430.00 -9.15 -2.08DHFL 201.20 -3.80 -1.85DISHTV 33.70 -0.55 -1.61DIVISLAB 1491.50 30.50 2.09DLF 172.55 5.00 2.98DMART 1508.40 11.95 0.80DRREDDY 2683.70 41.45 1.57ECLERX 1049.50 -12.00 -1.13EDELWEISS 189.20 4.60 2.49EICHERMOT 22300.35 5.30 0.02EIDPARRY 201.10 -4.05 -1.97EIHOTEL 182.95 -1.20 -0.65ELGIEQUIP 231.05 1.95 0.85EMAMILTD 404.85 -13.95 -3.33ENDURANCE 1152.65 38.60 3.46ENGINERSIN 111.55 -0.95 -0.84ENIL 605.00 0.80 0.13EQUITAS 109.05 -2.45 -2.20ERIS 646.60 14.25 2.25ESCORTS 626.15 -5.35 -0.85ESSELPRO 99.60 3.75 3.91EVEREADY 198.60 -0.05 -0.03EXIDEIND 249.60 -1.50 -0.60FCONSUMER 44.40 -0.50 -1.11FDC 180.50 -5.30 -2.85FEDERALBNK 83.35 -1.15 -1.36FINCABLES 463.35 -4.50 -0.96FINOLEXIND 514.80 -4.45 -0.86FLFL 404.40 8.15 2.06FORBESCO 2496.40 8.95 0.36FORCEMOT 1629.85 -15.35 -0.93FORTIS 147.05 -0.20 -0.14FRETAIL 513.85 2.00 0.39FSL 51.75 -1.00 -1.90GAIL 334.70 -14.15 -4.06GDL 136.10 -0.75 -0.55GEPIL 815.90 -11.30 -1.37GESHIP 304.15 4.55 1.52GET&D 222.50 -4.60 -2.03GHCL 219.60 -3.05 -1.37GICHSGFIN 225.85 -1.20 -0.53GICRE 275.00 -3.10 -1.11GILLETTE 6496.40 7.45 0.11GLAXO 1350.40 -4.75 -0.35GLENMARK 642.85 17.80 2.85GMDCLTD 86.15 0.35 0.41GMRINFRA 15.20 -0.20 -1.30GNFC 339.60 -0.45 -0.13GODFRYPHLP 888.25 -8.85 -0.99GODREJAGRO 501.70 -7.95 -1.56GODREJCP 751.55 4.50 0.60GODREJIND 542.65 -2.00 -0.37GODREJPROP 657.35 -9.30 -1.40GPPL 96.10 2.80 3.00GRANULES 84.25 -0.60 -0.71GRAPHITE 890.20 26.40 3.06GRASIM 802.85 6.90 0.87GREAVESCOT 118.25 -3.30 -2.71GREENPLY 138.90 1.20 0.87GRINDWELL 502.15 17.10 3.53GRUH 295.05 1.90 0.65GSFC 106.35 3.05 2.95GSKCONS 7526.10 56.70 0.76GSPL 181.75 0.00 0.00GUJALKALI 541.65 1.10 0.20GUJFLUORO 880.80 5.55 0.63GUJGAS 637.15 2.50 0.39GULFOILLUB 798.55 32.35 4.22HAL 762.70 -7.70 -1.00HATSUN 620.50 -0.90 -0.14HAVELLS 677.10 2.65 0.39HCC 10.84 -0.15 -1.36HCLTECH 961.55 -50.40 -4.98HDFC 1952.25 8.05 0.41HDFCBANK 2105.65 11.55 0.55HDFCLIFE 393.15 -3.15 -0.79HDIL 21.35 -0.80 -3.61

HEG 3976.45 -21.70 -0.54HEIDELBERG 151.15 1.45 0.97HERITGFOOD 495.10 11.90 2.46HEROMOTOCO3064.05 46.65 1.55HEXAWARE 316.30 -3.80 -1.19HFCL 17.55 -0.25 -1.40HIMATSEIDE 210.90 -3.00 -1.40HINDALCO 218.85 1.00 0.46HINDCOPPER 46.60 -0.65 -1.38HINDPETRO 225.05 0.15 0.07HINDUNILVR 1822.85 22.45 1.25HINDZINC 272.05 3.45 1.28HONAUT 22689.90 67.75 0.30HSCL 130.35 0.20 0.15HSIL 198.80 -0.95 -0.48HUDCO 41.30 -0.15 -0.36IBREALEST 75.25 -2.05 -2.65IBULHSGFIN 718.95 -13.15 -1.80IBVENTURES 366.85 -14.95 -3.92ICICIBANK 352.15 4.60 1.32ICICIGI 876.75 -24.55 -2.72ICICIPRULI 314.80 6.35 2.06ICIL 58.35 -0.35 -0.60IDBI 60.20 -0.10 -0.17IDEA 33.80 0.25 0.75IDFC 37.80 0.05 0.13IDFCBANK 36.50 -0.15 -0.41IEX 155.80 2.05 1.33IFBIND 833.80 -0.70 -0.08IFCI 12.82 0.14 1.10IGL 248.65 -4.45 -1.76IL&FSTRANS 12.25 -0.60 -4.67INDHOTEL 143.75 -2.95 -2.01

INDIACEM 86.25 -1.00 -1.15INDIANB 217.70 1.05 0.48INDIGO 1021.15 31.05 3.14INDUSINDBK 1565.45 -4.30 -0.27INFIBEAM 44.40 -0.55 -1.22INFRATEL 253.75 -1.90 -0.74INFY 681.05 12.85 1.92INOXLEISUR 223.60 0.65 0.29INOXWIND 74.90 -4.05 -5.13INTELLECT 215.95 1.55 0.72IOB 14.04 0.14 1.01IOC 129.55 -0.80 -0.61IPCALAB 771.45 -3.85 -0.50IRB 143.50 -1.05 -0.73ISEC 263.75 5.65 2.19ISGEC 5234.10 -54.25 -1.03ITC 274.10 2.00 0.74ITDC 289.45 -1.30 -0.45ITDCEM 100.45 1.35 1.36ITI 86.85 -1.00 -1.14J&KBANK 37.50 -0.55 -1.45JAGRAN 112.90 1.55 1.39JAICORPLTD 97.65 -0.70 -0.71JAMNAAUTO 65.05 2.55 4.08JBCHEPHARM 303.25 0.90 0.30JCHAC 1790.00 -31.40 -1.72JETAIRWAYS 276.20 -2.00 -0.72JINDALSAW 77.65 -1.00 -1.27JINDALSTEL 147.05 -2.35 -1.57JISLJALEQS 61.60 0.05 0.08JKCEMENT 713.70 -2.40 -0.34JKIL 122.00 -2.10 -1.69JKLAKSHMI 271.80 2.65 0.98JKTYRE 90.30 -2.10 -2.27JMFINANCIL 85.50 0.85 1.00JPASSOCIAT 6.64 -0.06 -0.90JSL 34.05 -0.85 -2.44JSLHISAR 86.80 0.00 0.00JSWENERGY 68.70 1.25 1.85

JSWSTEEL 302.15 -3.00 -0.98JUBILANT 790.50 -13.05 -1.62JUBLFOOD 1243.15 -60.25 -4.62JUSTDIAL 470.75 1.10 0.23JYOTHYLAB 182.15 -1.30 -0.71KAJARIACER 430.60 -7.15 -1.63KALPATPOWR 339.75 7.10 2.13KANSAINER 445.05 6.20 1.41KEC 279.60 3.15 1.14KEI 372.50 13.30 3.70KIOCL 141.30 -4.50 -3.09KNRCON 191.05 -4.45 -2.28KOTAKBANK 1282.25 100.75 8.53KPIT 207.10 -5.10 -2.40KPRMILL 588.15 3.70 0.63KRBL 295.65 -2.90 -0.97KSCL 513.45 11.45 2.28KTKBANK 102.90 0.30 0.29KWALITY 9.39 0.29 3.19L&TFH 138.95 -0.15 -0.11LAKSHVILAS 88.60 0.90 1.03LALPATHLAB 962.90 -5.60 -0.58LAOPALA 222.15 0.15 0.07LAURUSLABS 377.30 0.40 0.11LAXMIMACH* 5703.65 -33.80 -0.59LICHSGFIN 439.35 3.45 0.79LINDEINDIA 678.65 23.10 3.52LT 1398.45 18.85 1.37LTI 1497.75 -9.10 -0.60LTTS 1529.85 11.15 0.73LUPIN 839.90 -4.95 -0.59LUXIND 1439.95 -8.60 -0.59M&M 720.65 9.75 1.37

M&MFIN 419.50 17.25 4.29MAGMA 108.60 -6.65 -5.77MAHABANK 12.53 -0.09 -0.71MAHINDCIE 252.40 5.95 2.41MAHLIFE 385.65 9.90 2.63MANAPPURAM 83.35 3.85 4.84MANPASAND 85.90 -4.55 -5.03MARICO 354.60 3.60 1.03MARUTI 7314.10 104.40 1.45MAXINDIA 62.10 -1.15 -1.82MCX 711.20 1.75 0.25MEGH 55.95 -0.10 -0.18MFSL 428.30 0.15 0.04MGL 861.30 -9.75 -1.12MHRIL 203.45 -0.75 -0.37MINDACORP 134.10 1.10 0.83MINDAIND 320.00 2.30 0.72MINDTREE 866.90 4.90 0.57MMTC 26.85 -0.50 -1.83MOIL 169.80 0.15 0.09MONSANTO 2707.45 16.55 0.62MOTHERSUMI 154.75 -2.75 -1.75MOTILALOFS 613.30 0.45 0.07MPHASIS 981.05 -20.65 -2.06MRF 65460.15 697.35 1.08MRPL 71.05 -0.05 -0.07MUTHOOTFIN 470.90 55.00 13.22NATCOPHARM* 714.10 5.50 0.78NATIONALUM 63.20 0.10 0.16NAUKRI 1512.65 -37.90 -2.44NAVINFLUOR 703.70 -10.60 -1.48NAVKARCORP 44.50 -5.45 -10.91NAVNETEDUL 104.40 -1.35 -1.28NBCC 51.90 -1.15 -2.17NBVENTURES 115.25 -0.80 -0.69NCC 79.90 2.15 2.77NESTLEIND 10402.75 98.45 0.96NETWORK18 37.15 -0.95 -2.49NH 208.50 -1.35 -0.64

NHPC 26.10 -0.30 -1.14NIACL 195.40 0.95 0.49NIITTECH 1091.85 12.85 1.19NILKAMAL 1516.35 23.15 1.55NLCINDIA 75.35 -3.35 -4.26NMDC 92.05 -0.20 -0.22NOCIL 161.50 -0.20 -0.12NTPC 137.85 -1.30 -0.93OBEROIRLTY 476.20 -0.05 -0.01OFSS 3593.70 24.95 0.70OIL 178.15 -2.50 -1.38OMAXE 212.20 3.80 1.82ONGC 139.90 -0.25 -0.18ORIENTBANK 82.35 -1.95 -2.31ORIENTCEM 76.85 -1.85 -2.35PAGEIND 24268.10 47.45 0.20PARAGMILK 240.65 -1.15 -0.48PCJEWELLER 66.35 1.80 2.79PEL 2085.95 -13.50 -0.64PERSISTENT 610.55 9.05 1.50PETRONET 210.10 -0.60 -0.28PFC 89.80 -0.45 -0.50PFIZER 2762.45 -3.25 -0.12PFS 16.00 -0.10 -0.62PGHH 9565.55 -28.10 -0.29PHILIPCARB 205.50 0.90 0.44PHOENIXLTD 608.90 2.20 0.36PIDILITIND 1139.95 5.70 0.50PIIND 805.35 -8.20 -1.01PNB 66.00 -0.10 -0.15PNBHOUSING 934.60 -0.50 -0.05PNCINFRA 131.50 -4.45 -3.27POWERGRID 182.55 -0.75 -0.41PRESTIGE 200.25 0.40 0.20PRSMJOHNSN 79.95 -0.25 -0.31PTC 84.25 1.50 1.81PVR 1486.45 -2.85 -0.19QUESS 623.90 -23.80 -3.67RADICO 384.75 5.80 1.53RAIN 125.90 -1.00 -0.79RAJESHEXPO 570.55 -0.10 -0.02RALLIS 170.35 0.00 0.00RAMCOCEM 594.30 9.00 1.54RATNAMANI 870.00 14.85 1.74RAYMOND 790.45 17.10 2.21RBLBANK 548.85 -1.35 -0.25RCF 59.65 0.75 1.27RCOM 15.76 -0.53 -3.25RECLTD 104.65 0.70 0.67REDINGTON 85.65 1.45 1.72RELAXO 748.00 7.30 0.99RELCAPITAL 208.95 -2.45 -1.16RELIANCE 1133.25 9.80 0.87RELINFRA 307.85 8.35 2.79REPCOHOME 343.20 1.90 0.56RNAM 178.30 1.15 0.65RNAVAL 12.57 -0.23 -1.80RPOWER 27.70 -0.05 -0.18SADBHAV 203.60 -2.95 -1.43SAIL 51.10 -1.90 -3.58SANOFI 6124.15 -65.85 -1.06SBILIFE 564.35 -0.85 -0.15SBIN 275.40 -0.35 -0.13SCHAEFFLER 5449.60 28.20 0.52SCHNEIDER 103.50 -2.75 -2.59SCI 41.30 -0.35 -0.84SFL 1435.30 -14.70 -1.01SHANKARA 539.25 -24.15 -4.29SHARDACROP 269.80 -3.35 -1.23SHILPAMED 373.10 -2.00 -0.53SHK 175.20 1.05 0.60SHOPERSTOP 495.85 3.55 0.72SHREECEM 16317.95 245.60 1.53SHRIRAMCIT 1557.50 4.45 0.29SIEMENS 948.70 24.15 2.61SIS 773.15 8.15 1.07SJVN 26.15 -0.55 -2.06SKFINDIA 1889.40 -17.40 -0.91SOBHA 449.05 6.10 1.38SOLARINDS 992.35 -7.20 -0.72SOMANYCERA 278.95 -5.65 -1.99SONATSOFTW 312.15 1.05 0.34SOUTHBANK 15.35 0.20 1.32SPARC 201.60 -10.25 -4.84SPICEJET 77.10 -0.50 -0.64SREINFRA 30.70 0.20 0.66SRF 2120.70 22.45 1.07SRTRANSFIN 1093.65 -10.55 -0.96STARCEMENT 98.25 -1.65 -1.65STRTECH 299.35 -9.90 -3.20SUDARSCHEM 328.60 1.00 0.31SUNCLAYLTD 3430.00 -42.55 -1.23SUNDRMFAST 524.70 6.65 1.28SUNPHARMA 411.30 -8.80 -2.09SUNTECK 347.90 -3.60 -1.02

SUNTV 594.75 4.20 0.71SUPPETRO 207.55 7.50 3.75SUPRAJIT 214.05 12.00 5.94SUPREMEIND 963.80 -0.70 -0.07SUVEN 231.05 -0.05 -0.02SUZLON 5.16 -0.04 -0.77SWANENERGY 102.45 0.00 0.00SYMPHONY 1003.70 4.90 0.49SYNDIBANK 31.60 -0.70 -2.17SYNGENE 538.85 2.00 0.37TAKE 136.15 -0.25 -0.18TATACHEM 674.30 5.70 0.85TATACOFFEE 92.95 -0.40 -0.43TATACOMM 521.35 10.30 2.02TATAELXSI 1008.70 -2.30 -0.23TATAGLOBAL 206.40 -1.55 -0.75TATAINVEST 854.40 0.15 0.02TATAMETALI 617.60 0.50 0.08TATAMOTORS 162.45 0.05 0.03TATAMTRDVR 89.15 0.55 0.62TATAPOWER 79.30 0.15 0.19TATASTEEL 507.90 -3.15 -0.62TCS 1995.95 4.20 0.21TEAMLEASE 2887.90 24.85 0.87TECHM 692.90 -4.60 -0.66TEJASNET 214.30 -4.40 -2.01TEXRAIL 52.00 0.10 0.19THERMAX 1107.85 -8.55 -0.77THOMASCOOK 217.95 -2.15 -0.98THYROCARE 546.70 -4.95 -0.90TIFHL 508.50 -5.95 -1.16TIMETECHNO 101.55 -0.60 -0.59TIMKEN 511.25 7.70 1.53TITAN 914.70 7.15 0.79TNPL 249.85 0.90 0.36TORNTPHARM 1684.25 -7.00 -0.41TORNTPOWER 257.55 -3.70 -1.42TRENT 323.20 -1.55 -0.48TRIDENT 65.25 0.40 0.62TRITURBINE 115.10 0.00 0.00TTKPRESTIG 6998.80 -59.00 -0.84TV18BRDCST 34.15 -0.10 -0.29TVSMOTOR 541.45 9.85 1.85TVSSRICHAK 2414.70 -28.95 -1.18TVTODAY 377.05 -1.30 -0.34UBL 1229.60 1.15 0.09UCOBANK 17.75 0.05 0.28UFLEX 275.05 -2.90 -1.04UJJIVAN 215.85 -2.35 -1.08ULTRACEMCO 3936.70 74.15 1.92UNICHEMLAB 194.65 -3.10 -1.57UNIONBANK 73.05 -0.60 -0.81UPL 758.25 10.90 1.46VBL 754.25 -12.00 -1.57VEDL 195.90 0.55 0.28VENKYS 2294.30 -16.80 -0.73VGUARD 212.45 4.65 2.24VIJAYABANK 41.70 -0.10 -0.24VINATIORGA 1463.95 23.85 1.66VIPIND 519.30 11.25 2.21VMART 2753.40 2.85 0.10VOLTAS 543.65 5.15 0.96VTL 1044.30 -15.25 -1.44WABAG 250.90 -5.55 -2.16WABCOINDIA 6404.80 -81.35 -1.25WELCORP 147.65 -1.70 -1.14WELSPUNIND 59.90 -0.15 -0.25WHIRLPOOL 1342.45 -14.60 -1.08WIPRO 334.20 2.50 0.75WOCKPHARMA 499.50 -2.80 -0.56YESBANK 166.10 -2.20 -1.31ZEEL 477.75 9.80 2.09ZENSARTECH 230.70 -5.60 -2.37ZYDUSWELL 1249.85 11.80 0.95

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10644.80 10704.55 10599.35 10693.70 92.55KOTAKBANK 1181.00 1345.95 1176.15 1284.55 104.30BAJAJFINSV 5708.40 5875.55 5668.50 5847.00 179.50ADANIPORTS 364.80 374.60 363.75 374.00 10.05BAJAJ-AUTO 2722.00 2793.00 2716.30 2781.50 63.40BAJFINANCE 2443.00 2497.75 2414.65 2486.35 53.95ZEEL 468.00 483.90 467.00 477.50 9.25ULTRACEMCO 3905.00 3958.00 3880.05 3940.00 75.50INFY 672.00 685.75 665.60 681.00 12.50ASIANPAINT 1306.50 1324.00 1298.40 1317.00 21.90DRREDDY 2661.00 2714.30 2643.00 2684.35 43.15LT 1387.00 1404.00 1372.10 1400.00 20.50MARUTI 7244.00 7349.95 7201.00 7315.10 105.40UPL 753.90 763.80 739.45 756.60 9.80HINDUNILVR 1801.30 1832.75 1792.10 1825.15 23.65HEROMOTOCO 3060.00 3077.00 3025.10 3066.00 39.25M&M 726.80 726.80 709.60 720.00 9.05TITAN 911.00 921.45 893.30 916.00 10.25GRASIM 802.00 809.00 793.10 804.00 9.00ICICIBANK 349.60 353.00 345.30 351.30 3.65HDFCBANK 2106.70 2118.00 2080.30 2115.00 17.95RELIANCE 1129.45 1136.95 1108.35 1133.20 9.55AXISBANK 602.40 609.50 592.35 604.50 4.45HDFC 1946.90 1961.30 1929.10 1957.95 12.15WIPRO 332.80 336.35 324.45 333.35 1.70HINDALCO 219.70 221.40 216.55 219.00 1.10ITC 274.95 276.20 273.30 274.25 1.20EICHERMOT 22400.00 22486.15 21963.40 22306.35 95.00TCS 1985.05 2003.90 1973.00 1999.85 7.15BPCL 328.40 330.95 321.45 326.00 1.10BHARTIARTL 305.00 307.80 298.95 305.00 1.00SBIN 277.00 277.35 272.10 276.00 0.35VEDL 197.95 198.30 193.00 195.55 0.20INDUSINDBK 1572.00 1580.00 1531.05 1570.65 1.20HINDPETRO 229.70 230.30 223.50 225.20 -0.15TATAMOTORS 162.25 164.20 160.80 162.50 -0.15TATASTEEL 510.70 514.90 503.20 509.00 -1.20CIPLA 520.00 530.65 512.00 513.65 -1.65POWERGRID 183.80 187.00 180.65 182.90 -0.60TECHM 698.00 703.95 685.15 693.00 -3.40ONGC 140.20 141.45 138.05 139.40 -0.75IOC 132.75 133.60 128.70 130.00 -0.75INFRATEL 254.00 256.95 251.55 252.60 -3.05YESBANK 170.00 172.00 162.00 166.40 -2.05NTPC 140.00 141.10 136.55 138.00 -1.80JSWSTEEL 306.10 308.20 298.25 301.45 -3.95COALINDIA 241.95 242.45 236.50 236.90 -3.70IBULHSGFIN 736.00 749.00 707.50 716.65 -16.70SUNPHARMA 425.00 426.00 408.15 409.95 -10.20GAIL 346.00 347.00 330.80 335.25 -13.75HCLTECH 1000.00 1000.00 934.45 961.90 -50.60

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 26884.85 26970.15 26724.80 26915.65 117.35COLPAL 1206.05 1249.40 1203.45 1229.00 34.80INDIGO 993.00 1033.50 992.80 1019.00 27.90DLF 168.40 173.00 165.10 172.05 4.65DABUR 403.50 414.20 401.60 410.50 9.90ICICIPRULI 312.00 316.70 308.35 315.00 6.80SIEMENS 927.40 959.70 918.25 940.00 16.75ABB 1386.95 1409.00 1375.15 1403.00 24.65AMBUJACEM 209.80 213.50 207.60 211.55 3.40SHREECEM 16062.20 16400.00 16061.95 16320.15 249.15MARICO 351.30 357.95 351.30 355.45 4.15DMART 1503.00 1520.85 1497.10 1514.00 17.35MRF 65269.00 65700.00 64864.05 65500.00 735.20ACC 1426.00 1447.65 1426.00 1438.25 14.45BANKBARODA 105.80 107.00 102.95 106.25 1.00HINDZINC 267.15 273.90 267.15 271.50 2.50BIOCON 606.15 624.20 603.20 610.00 4.85BOSCHLTD 18480.00 18584.10 18400.00 18516.05 130.95ASHOKLEY 102.40 103.70 101.25 102.80 0.70GODREJCP 750.00 758.60 741.70 750.90 4.85BRITANNIA 2986.35 3013.85 2950.00 3005.40 19.05LICHSGFIN 437.80 440.75 429.95 438.55 2.70IDEA 33.90 34.30 33.25 33.75 0.20HAVELLS 676.20 682.85 673.65 677.45 3.20BANDHANBNK 475.40 476.95 469.15 471.60 1.45BHEL 65.80 66.75 64.35 65.85 0.20PIDILITIND 1135.00 1151.70 1123.60 1138.00 3.30NIACL 196.15 197.45 195.00 195.55 0.50AUROPHARMA 752.35 768.80 733.00 752.95 0.60NMDC 93.00 93.50 90.30 92.50 0.05SUNTV 591.00 598.85 578.70 590.20 -0.50PGHH 9560.00 9600.00 9479.95 9574.15 -21.70PETRONET 211.40 213.90 206.10 210.00 -0.60OFSS 3600.00 3600.00 3550.05 3550.05 -13.55CONCOR 664.90 666.40 655.60 659.10 -2.60ABCAPITAL 98.00 98.90 96.75 96.85 -0.75PEL 2108.00 2132.75 2055.00 2084.95 -17.90NHPC 26.80 26.80 26.00 26.15 -0.25LUPIN 853.00 859.00 832.20 838.75 -8.25SBILIFE 568.00 571.90 559.35 562.00 -5.80GICRE 275.40 276.65 274.50 275.00 -2.95L&TFH 139.65 140.90 135.70 138.00 -1.65HDFCLIFE 396.00 399.00 391.00 391.25 -5.20OIL 181.15 182.30 177.50 177.60 -2.80SRTRANSFIN 1113.00 1116.55 1081.10 1087.65 -17.40MCDOWELL-N 646.00 650.80 630.80 633.00 -11.10CADILAHC 354.90 355.85 348.70 349.40 -6.40MOTHERSUMI 156.70 159.95 153.65 154.50 -2.85BEL 82.30 82.55 80.00 80.10 -1.70ICICIGI 896.25 903.00 870.10 879.00 -23.15SAIL 52.90 53.55 50.50 50.85 -2.20

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France was mobilizing tens ofthousands of police officers

and closing landmarks includ-ing the Eiffel Tower and theLouvre as authorities warnedthat anti-government protestson Saturday could be evenmore violent than the ones thathave crippled the country forweeks.

“According to the infor-mation we have, some radical-ized and rebellious people willtry to get mobilized tomorrow,”Interior minister ChristopheCastaner told a press confer-ence on Friday. “Some ultra-violent people want to takepart.”

Authorities say 8,000 policewill fan out across Paris,equipped with a dozen barri-cade-busting armored vehiclesthat could be used for the firsttime in a French urban areasince 2005.

“These vehicles can be veryuseful to protect buildings,” saidStanislas Gaudon, the head ofpolice union Alliance. “And incase they set up barricades, wecan quickly clear out the spaceand let our units progress.”

At the height of the festiveshopping season, many Parisstore owners were boarding uptheir shop fronts and have saidthey will remain shut Saturdayfor fear they may be in the lineof any unrest between protest-ers and police.

Meanwhile, Paris police,fearing protesters could turnstreet furniture and construc-tion site material into makeshiftweapons, were removing all theglass containers, railings andbuilding machines set up inhigh-risk areas including theworld-renowned Champs-Elysees avenue, which wouldnormally be packed withtourists and shoppers on aSaturday in early December.

The Nicolas wine chain,

one of the biggest retailers inthe country, canceled all itswine tasting sessions scheduledfor Saturday.

“It’s with an immense sad-ness that we’ll see our city par-tially brought to a halt, but yoursafety is our priority,” Parismayor Anne Hidalgo said.“Take care of Paris on Saturdaybecause Paris belongs to all theFrench people.”

Across the country some89,000 police will be mobilized,up from 65,000 last weekendwhen more than 130 peoplewere injured and over 400were arrested as protests degen-erated into the worst street vio-lence to hit Paris in decades.

Authorities also have can-celled six French league soccer

matches around the country.Since the unrest began on

Nov. 17 in reaction to a sharpincrease in diesel taxes, fourpeople have been killed inaccidents.

The protesters are collec-tively referred to as the “yellowvest” movement, in reference tothe fluorescent safety outfitFrench motorists keep in theircars.

Amid the unrest, some ofthe protesters, French unionofficials and prominent politi-cians across the political spec-trum have urged calm espe-cially as French PresidentEmmanuel Macron agreed toabandon the fuel tax hike thattriggered the movement.However, protesters’ demandshave now expanded to otherissues hurting French workers,retirees and students.

Students opposing an edu-cation reform protested againFriday, a day after footagewidely shared on social mediashowing the arrest of highschool students protesting out-side Paris prompted an outcry.Trade unions and far-left par-ties have lashed out at perceivedpolice brutality.

The images, filmedThursday at Mantes-la-Jolie,showed a group of students ontheir knees with their handsbehind their head. They are

being watched over by armedpolice officers whose faces arehidden by ski masks.

Interior ministerChristophe Castaner said that151 people were arrested in thesmall town, adding that someof them carried weapons. Hesaid none of the students wereinjured.

The rioting has also had aneconomic impact at the heightof the holiday shopping season.Rampaging groups last week-end threw cobblestonesthrough Paris storefronts andlooted valuables in some of thecity’s richest neighborhoods.

The national Federationof French markets said thatChristmas markets have been“strongly impacted” and that itsmembers registered “an averagefall of their estimated figuresbetween 30 and 40 percentsince the beginning of themovement of the yellow vests.”

In addition to the closureof the Eiffel Tower, many shopsand museums across France,including the Louvre, OrsayMuseum and the Grand Palais,will keep their doors shut onSaturday for safety reasons.

“We need to protect culturesites in Paris but also every-where in France,” CultureMinister Franck Riester toldRTL radio.

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Pakistan is keen to have a“proper relationship” with

the US similar to Islamabad’sall-weather ties with Chinarather than being humiliatedand treated like a “hired gun”,Prime Minister Imran Khanhas said.

The ties betweenWashington and Islamabadstrained, especially afterPresident Donald Trump, whileannouncing his Afghanistanand South Asia policy inAugust last year, hit out atPakistan for providing safehavens to “agents of chaos” thatkill Americans in Afghanistan.

In September, the Trumpadministration cancelled USD300 million in military aid toIslamabad for not doingenough against terror groups.Last month, Trump said casti-gated Pakistan once again, say-ing it was not doing “a damnthing” for America in curbingterrorism.

Prime Minister Khan, in aninterview with The WashingtonPost on Thursday, said: “Iwould never want to have arelationship where Pakistan is

treated like a hired gun —given money to fight someoneelse’s war,” Khan said, referringto the 1980s war against theSoviet Union and the ongoingwar on terror.

“It not only cost us humanlives, devastation of our tribalareas, but it also cost us our dig-nity,” he said.

When asked to elaborateon the ideal nature of relation-ship that he would like to havewith Washington, Khan added:“For instance, our relationshipwith China is not one-dimen-sional. It’s a trade relationshipbetween two countries. We

want a similar relationshipwith the US.”

The prime minister saidPakistan was not “hedging”towards China, rather it wasWashington’s attitude whichhad brought a change in thebilateral relationship.

The cricketer-turned-politician rejected the notionthat he was “anti-US”, sayingthat disagreeing withWashington’s policies did notmake him “anti-American”.

“This is a very imperialis-tic approach. ‘You’re eitherwith me or against me’,” he said.When asked if he wanted rela-tions between Pakistan andthe US to “warm up”, Khanresponded: “Who would notwant to be friends with asuperpower?”

This week, Khan saidPresident Trump wrote to him,seeking Pakistan’s help in bring-ing the Afghan Taliban to thenegotiating table to end the 17-year-long war in Afghanistan.

Welcoming the US bid toengage in talks with the AfghanTaliban, he emphasised thatIslamabad did not want the USto leave Afghanistan in a hurryas they did in 1989.

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Colombo: Security wasstepped up outside Sri Lanka’stop court on Friday ahead of anexpected ruling on whether thepresident broke the law bysacking parliament last month,a decision that could potentiallylead to impeachment proceed-ings. President MaithripalaSirisena plunged the countryinto crisis on October 26 whenhe fired the prime minister andappointed the contentiousMahinda Rajapakse in hisplace. He then dissolved par-liament on November 9.

Four days later, theSupreme Court issued an inter-im ruling suspending Sirisena’sdecree and restoring parlia-ment, which almost immedi-ately passed a no-confidencemotion against Rajapakse.

The court’s seven-judgebench was likely to deliver afinal ruling on the constitu-tionality of Sirisena’s move onFriday. PTI

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China’s foreign minister toldhis North Korean counter-

part in Beijing on Friday thathe hoped Pyongyang andWashington will maintain dia-logue and stick to their denu-clearisation summit agreement.

Wang Yi met with NorthKorea’s Ri Yong Ho as denu-clearisation talks have made lit-tle progress since a historic Junesummit between PresidentDonald Trump and NorthKorean leader Kim Jong Un.

China is a key player in thediplomatic shuffle as it is NorthKorea’s main diplomatic allyand trade partner. “China andNorth Korea should continueto push the situation on thepeninsula to develop positive-ly towards denuclearisation,”said China’s ministry of foreignaffairs in a statement, citingcomments from Wang.

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Robert Mueller is set toreveal more details about

his Russia investigation onFriday as he faces court dead-lines in the cases of two menwho worked closely withPresident Donald Trump.

The special counsel andfederal prosecutors will have tofile separate memos in courtdetailing the cooperation oflongtime Trump legal fixerMichael Cohen, who hasadmitted lying to Congressand orchestrating hush-moneypayments to protect the pres-ident. And Mueller’s team willalso be disclosing what theysay former Trump campaignchairman Paul Manafort liedabout when his plea deal fellapart last month.

Cohen and Manafort areamong five former Trumpassociates whom prosecutorshave accused of lying either tofederal investigators or toCongress.

The court filings will closeout a week in which Mueller’steam for the first time provid-ed some details of the helpthey’ve received from formerTrump national security advis-er Michael Flynn. Prosecutors,

who said Flynn’s assistancewas “substantial” and meritedno prison time, disclosed thathe had cooperated not onlywith the Russia investigationbut also with at least one otherundisclosed criminal probe.

The new details aboutMueller’s investigation are setto become public as Trumpcontinues to lash out at theRussia investigation and thosewho help prosecutors. Trumpsingled out Cohen, accusinghim of lying to get a reducedprison sentence. The presidentalso praised another associate,Roger Stone, for saying hewouldn’t testify against him,and Trump said a pardon forManafort isn’t off the table.

In the latest filings Friday,prosecutors will weigh in onwhether Cohen deserves prisontime and, if so, how much. Indoing so, they’ll have to providea federal judge with at leastsome description of the assis-tance he’s provided to theirinvestigations — the Russiaprobe and a separate investi-gation led by the U.S. attorney’soffice in Manhattan.

In August, Cohen pleadedguilty to eight criminal counts,including tax evasion and cam-paign finance violations.

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President Donald TrumpFriday nominated chief

State Department spokes-woman and a former Fox Newsjournalist Heather Nauert asUS’ next envoy to the UN toreplace the outgoing Indian-American Nikki Haley.

Trump told reporters at theWhite House that “HeatherNauert will be nominated forthe ambassador to the UnitedNations”.

“She’s done a great jobworking with (Secretary ofState) Mike Pompeo and oth-

ers over at the state depart-ment,” Trump said on the 48-year-old former TV journalist.

“She’ll be ambassador tothe United Nations. She’s verytalented, very smart, very quickand I think that she will berespected by all,” he said.

In October, Haleyannounced that she was leav-ing the post by the end of theyear. The 46-year-old formerSouth Carolina governor hasserved nearly two years in thepost. She is the first Indian-American ever appointed to aCabinet position in any USpresidential administration.

Nauert is expected to bequizzed on her qualifications tobe America’s top diplomat tothe UN by Senate Democratsand could face a contentiousconfirmation hearing. Sheneeds only a simple majorityvote to be elevated to the newrole.

Nauert is an unorthodoxchoice, given her little experi-ence in government or foreignpolicy before she took up therole at the state department.

She was made the statedepartment spokeswoman inApril 2017, her first govern-ment position.

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Musicians are immortal. Theymay leave behind the worldfor a new life, but their voic-es remain alive. One suchvoice was of the legendary

singer Jagjit Singh, who not only gave a newface to music but also made ghazals moreaccessible to masses by using simple poeticlanguage and more modern instruments.

As the Salaam Baalak Trust commemo-rates its 30 anniversary paying tribute to thelegend, singer Shekhar Ravjiani gears up foryet another performance, after sold out con-certs in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong,Dubai and the Jaipur Literature Festival, inthe capital this time as ‘Hazaaron KhwaisheinAisi...’

He feels that the performances across sixvenues around the world has been “anabsolutely beautiful journey as we havereceived a really appreciative audience.” Forthe singer, who also currently judges the real-ity TV show, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, it is a “greathonour to commemorate this special mile-stone for the Salaam Baalak” through his trib-ute to Jagjit Singh.

He says that there could be no other causeas noble as doing something for such an NGOas this will encourage the children to moveahead in the field as their journey is inspiredby us. “Children will dream as big as weencourage them to. The Trust has consistent-ly given the children all the exposure andguidance that they need to find their wings.I hope with all my heart, that seeing showslike mine will encourage more children todevelop an interest in music and helpunearth hidden talent that has been undis-covered so far.”

As the youth shifts more towardspeppy item numbers, rock and rapmusic, has the prevalence andcharm around classical musiclessened over the years? Shekharbelieves that music remainseternal irrespective of its genre,especially classical music,which “is the backbone of anygood composition.”

He believes that it’s us whoneed to keep alive the traditionamong children in terms ofmusic. He says, “There willalways be different genres that getinvented overnight and disappearequally soon. However, what willalways remain, like a solid foundation,immovable and immortal, is classicalmusic. It’s up to us to keep the love for tra-

ditional forms alive by making them relevantfor the youth. We underestimate how appre-ciative people are even today when they heara beautifully sung and composed piece ofclassical music. Maybe we are the ones whohave strayed and need to come back to ourroots.”

With a number of compositions likeHanuman Chalisa, Gehra Ishq, Radha, I HateLuv Storys, and winning numerous accoladesfor the same, the singer feels that even thoughhe has come a long way since he first start-ed in the industry, which was two decadesago, he still has a long way to go.

He says that the journey of a singer isever-evolving and “I still have a long wayto go. In the past decade, I have felt somuch love and encouragement from mylisteners who urge me to sing moreoften. It’s heartwarming to know thatso many people enjoy my songs,” hesays.

The actor, who recently made anacting debut with 2016 film Neerja,hopes to put out many more songsthrough both films and his inde-pendent albums. “HazaaronKhwaishein Aisi has pushed meas a singer in ways that I neverimagined. It has personallybeen a journey of growth forme as a singer and I have hadto practice and hone myvoice immensely to preparefor every show. Every chal-lenge is

taking me forward as a singer and I enjoyevery minute of it,” says he.

With the advent of social media, thecompetition has increased immensely asthere is an accessible and available platformfor everyone to showcase their talents now.However, was it easier before to get noticedin the music industry?

Shekhar says that since change is theonly constant, even music industry has been

impacted in its own way. He says, “Socialmedia has helped a lot of people find theirvoice and showcase their talent. However, italso means that competition is abundant andone has to be really superlative to stand out.I wouldn’t say it was easier before. It was prob-

ably far more difficult to get noticed asopportunities had to be pursued

and hunted down. Whether it’stoday or yesterday, one thingnever changes — the formu-la for success, which is tal-ent and hard work and a bitof luck. That’s the route.There’s no short cut really.”

As the singer hasworked for both individ-ual albums as well as filmtracks, he explains howhe observed their cre-ative processes.

He feels that hisindependent singleshave always been aresult of a processthat is guided more by“creative instincts”than a brief. Thiscould be one of themajor differencesbetween composingfor a film and analbum. “While musiccomposed for a film is

dictated by a commer-cial requirement and

driven by a storyline, anindependent single could

be like driving without real-ly caring about the destina-

tion. Going where your hearttakes you and discovering a spe-

cial tune that no one has heardbefore,” says he.

(The performance, also featuringinstrumentalist Deepak Pandit, will be

staged at the Siri Fort Auditorium, AsiadVillage, near Green Park Metro Station onDecember 13 from 7:30 pm to 9 pm.)

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The Ice Juice twist at the end of sea-son 2 was extraordinary. What isyour take on how the season cameto a dramatic end? Paul Giamatti: I’m glad to know thatpeople didn’t see it coming. I’mnever able to predict what the writ-ers are going to do. I think one of thegreatest strengths of the guys who cre-ated and wrote the show is that they’reconstantly thwarting your expecta-tions. You think you know what’sgoing to happen and they just some-how zig the other way and fool you,it’s great. He not only risked every-thing, but also everything that otherpeople had too. He’s tanked hisfather and his best friend in theprocess of nailing Axelrod. As far asI’m concerned, it should leave youfeeling like he’s a remarkable humanbeing. But I don’t know if people aregoing to think that necessarily abouthim. He put everybody else, and him-self too, on the line. He really does-n’t care what he does.

Chuck risked everything to getAxelrod behind bars, including allof his savings. What does that tellus about him? I don’t think he cares about themoney. The other guys do and there’severy reason they should. They feelgreat animosity towards him as thethird season unfolds. Nobody ishappy with him. Although his wife isokay with him.

Chuck and Wendy enter their homehand-in-hand at the end of the sea-son 2. Will season 3 see a reconcil-iation for the couple?At the beginning of this season, theyare definitely on the road to workingthings out. They are getting backtogether. One of the interestingthings in the last season was the twoof them trying to work things out. It

was tricky for them and things hap-pened. You know, there’s all kinds ofconflicts in their lives.

They open the door to other part-ners. Chuck finds out aboutWendy’s affair but she doesn’t knowthat he knows. How does thisknowledge effect their relationshipin season 3?My father reveals to me what hap-pened. My real anger, pain and dis-gust is actually reserved more for myfather who had the disgusting audac-ity to try to use that against me or useit as some kind of hurtful barb afterI lost his money. I think Chuck hasa very mature attitude about whathappened. His father is a guy whohurts people when he’s angry.

What are Chuck’s political aspira-tions in the third season?They are not exactly on the back-burner but he’s got a lot of other fishto fry. He’s not only got to contendwith Axelrod, he also has to conductthe case from a distance because Igave it to Connerty (Bryan) who hastaken it over with Drake (Oliver). TheEastern district has it. So, once again,I have to puppet master the wholething from a distance. So, Chuck isdoing a lot of fancy footwork to tryto control the whole thing from a dis-tance. The political aspirations are stillthere and, of course, this case is goingto have bearing on my political aspi-

rations.

Is Chuck as much fun to play as heis to watch? It’s a lot of fun. And everybody is incrazy jeopardy this season. TobyMoore, who plays Connerty, put itreally well in terms of Chuck. He said,‘he’s become less Mussolini and moreMachiavelli.’ So he continues to beruthless, but it is much more refinedand focussed. He’s much less of ahammer and more of a kind ofscalpel. What’s also been increasing-ly evident through the show is a kindof appealing characteristic; he has a

certain degree of self-knowledgenow. He realises that he’s a bastard andnot entirely happy to be one. He’s triedto be a better person in terms of hiswife and the people he works with atthe office. The ruthlessness is stillthere, but it’s somewhat tempered. Itmay not be how it’s perceived, butthat’s how it feels from the inside.

Does Chuck want to be governor oris he just pursuing a political careerto please his father?I think it’s complicated. How muchof it was planted in him? At this pointhe does want it but his father’s pres-

sure is annoying. There was anenjoyment taken by the two of themin the second season doing thistogether. It’s sort of pleasing him andthat’s nice for Chuck. He would gen-uinely like to be Governor. He’sambitious. But what becomes inter-esting in this season is that how muchhis father supports him or thwartshim.

Has Chuck come to terms with thefact that Wendy is back workingwith Axelrod again?I think that he has accepted her posi-tion there. He has realised that herengagement is not sexual or intimate.He’s accepted that this is what she’sgoing to do. There’s a way in whichit becomes a certain kind of LadyMacbeth. She’s become a little bit ofmy advisor too, as well as his. Herplaying both sides of this is going tolead her to try to create some sort ofdetente between the two of us. She’sadvising both of us probably with theidea of creating peace between us.

Does playing this character on TVmake you covet the lifestyle andwealth of these characters? It’s crazy. I think I wouldn’t knowwhat to do with all that money. Itwould freak me out. But I supposeone could become accustomed to it.The interesting thing is, I’ve becomemore and more fascinated by the guysthat I play. I’ve become interested in

how that stuff works. For instance,how the Department of Justice works,how these guys work, and whatexactly goes on with the politicalshenanigans. It’s really interesting.

Is what we see on Billions a realis-tic portrayal of this world? The money and legal elements areaccurate. It’s television so thingsneed to be compressed to makethem happen faster and in simplerways than the normal.

Is Chuck the bad guy or is Axelrodthe bad guy?It’s not clear who the bad guy is,entirely.

Chuck has his own sense of style.Does putting on the Chuckwardrobe help you to get into therole?It’s always funny to me when I go infor my makeup and I’m in my civil-ian clothes. I feel I look strange untilI put that suit on. I look weird. ThenI put the suit on and it’s all fine. It isvery armour-like and incredible. Hedoesn’t have a relaxed wardrobe,even though you’re supposed to beseeing him occasionally, he’s still gotpressed khakis on. He’s just not a guywho ever dresses down and relaxes.That’s back a little bit in season 3. Thathad gone in the second season, butthat’s back a little bit, which is reallyfun.

How challenging are the dom-ination scenes?

I find it fascinating and it’s fun todo. And it’s nice to be able to havesomebody, like Maggie (Siff), who isso relaxed and fun and finding thingsinteresting in the same way. They arereally interesting scenes to do.

(The show airs every Tuesday at10 pm on AXN.)

Singer Ananya Birla feels there isa stigma and fear surroundingmental illness which often iso-

lates people. The singer says peoplein India are scared to reach out forhelp because they don’t want to bejudged.

The singer has in the past openedup about her own struggle with men-tal health and asserts that it is veryimportant for public figures to talkabout it.

“The first step in addressing theissues of mental health around theworld is to try to stamp out the stig-ma and normalise discussions aboutit by talking openly and shameless-ly,” Ananya, 24, said.

“People, especially in India, arescared to reach out for help becauseof the fear of being judged. The tabooaround it is our biggest challenge atthe moment. Mental health is atopic that is rarely discussed andwhen it is, it’s often trivialised. It’simportant that people like me, andthose in the media, speak out to chal-lenge this,” she said, adding, “We needmental health to be considered justas important and unashamed asphysical health.”

Be it Chris Cornell, DoloresO’Riordan, Chester Bennington, LilPeep or Avicii — the world has lostsome music icons due to mentalstress.

Ananya felt depression can affectanyone.

“It doesn’t matter whether youhave success or money — these all goout the window if you’re not feelingright. Sure, situational things inmusic like being on the road andaway from your family, and in manycases easy access to alcohol and drugsplays a big part, but at the end of theday mental health doesn’t discrimi-nate and neither should we,” she said.

Ananya, who has been musical-ly inclined since childhood, contin-ued: “The music industry has a darkhistory with the tragic loss of toomany amazing people to suicide. Butit is not just musicians. Depressionand suicide rates are on the rise glob-ally.

“In India, one person attemptssuicide every three seconds. Notenough is being done and although

mental illness is just as common asphysical illness, it is surrounded byshame, stigma and fear which isolatespeople when they need support themost.”

The singer is doing her bit to helpthe mentally-affected people. “At themental health initiative MPower,which I have set up with my moth-er, we want to show people that it isokay to be not okay sometimes. Andto let them know that there is helpavailable should they need it,” said thesinger, who will soon be seen in anepisode of TV show Twinning onSunday.

On the professional front,Ananya released her fourth singleCircles this year after the success ofMeant to be and Hold on.

Looking back, she said, “I’mdefinitely someone who learns by trialand error. I’ve experimented and fig-ured things out for myself, failed a lot,but always moved forward withmore knowledge and a better under-standing of myself. I’m a passionateperson so I dive-in headfirst.

“There are things I would’vedone differently but I wouldn’t changewhere I am at the moment or the pathI’m heading on,” she added.

She said that she is working ona lot of new material.

“I am playing with some differ-ent styles and even incorporatingsome more Indian sounds into mymusic. I’m going back and forth fromLos Angeles quite a bit, because theperson producing the EP is basedthere. Hopefully, it will be out earlynext year.”

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What is life, if not a complexwoven web of emotions,much like the branches ofa winding tree intertwinedwith creepers? We experi-

ence solitude, companionship, love anddevotion without a lull throughout our livesin ebbs and flows. Artist Suruchi Jamkarrepresents the intricacies that make lifeintriguing through her series of paintingstitled, A tale of eternity and tranquility.

She says, “I tell my stories by paintinggirls wearing turban. They take youaround into my life experiences and real-isations. The turban symbolises how girlsnowadays are — strong and independent.They take their own decisions and maketheir own choices. It’s all about thestrength of the women. I’m not sure aboutempowerment because I think we still havea long way to go towards that.”

The mind is the most amazing thingin the world. It is very impressionable.Everything that the body and its sensescome across makes an impression on themind. While some leave temporary impres-sions, some last for years, resurfacing withthe same intensity that was felt the first

time. For her, these impressions originatefrom her childhood days and her person-al travels.

She tells, “Each journey is an explo-ration, be it travelling to a remote potteryvillage, a cottage in the jungle or aninward flashback to childhood.” It is thiscreativity inspired by her memories andmusings that has found a space on her can-vasses. “Whatever touches my heart comeson my canvas,” adds Suruchi.

She uses vibrant colours in her paint-ings to portray, in a persuasive manner, thedifferent aspects of life. She uses thick knifefor the application of oil paints which givea convincing depth to her works.

The artist explains how some paintingsalso derive inspiration from the imageriesof Rajasthan. “The aridity and the distinct-ly visible horizon of the desert, the clearskies and the colorful turbans worn by themen are some elements which I used in myworks. In my paintings though I made thewomen wear the turbans. The turban sym-bolises the ‘thinking mode of the mind’. Mywomen take their own decisions aboutwhat life throws at them on their ownterms.”

Suruchi strongly believes that art isactually a lot of struggle for an artist irre-spective of its form. She explains why, “It’sthe most challenging part to get your artto people because we are not a very art-cen-tric country, I’m sorry to say that but, trust

me, for an artist it’s a humongous strugglein our nation. Because we haven’t taughtour children how to appreciate art, it’s notpart of their curriculum ever, to learn aboutyour country’s art history. In a way, we areactually bringing up an ignorant genera-

tion which eventually affects artists like us.”Ask her about how one can feel con-

nected to her works? She tells us,“Whatever experience touches me willtouch everybody else as well, because ona humanity level we are one consciousness.It’s possible that everyone might not likeit from the same degree of realisation butyes I’m sure each will connect to it.”

Art has been a part of humanity sincewe were cavemen. It is an intrinsic part ofbeing human to paint and decoratethrough figures. For example, the cavepaintings are prehistoric. History hasbeen always been documented by art,” addsshe.

To conclude, Suruchi tells that herpaintings depict the reaction of an imag-inative mind. Her works involve Girlwith a turban; Reclining figures under thestarlit skies; Friends playing a game of mar-bles’, and many more creative and vibrantportraits of women. She says, “These havehelped her create the feeling of comfortand easy pace.”

(The exhibition is on display tillDecember 10 at the Art Gallery of theEmbassy of Peru.)

Actress Sharmila Tagore, whoturns 74 today, says that SaraAli Khan’s confidence, humili-

ty and charm makes her very happyand it’s heartwarming to see, thedaughter of Saif Ali Khan and his for-mer wife Amrita Singh, the way shehas turned out. Excerpts from an inter-view:

What are you doing this birthday?Not very much, I’m afraid. Somefriends will drop in. Soha is coming.The other children Sabaa and Saif willalso come if they can.

The one thing that has changed foryou in the past one year is the pres-ence of your two young and beauti-ful grandchildren?Yes, it certainly adds to my happiness.I do see them as much as I can. But notenough because we live in differentcities. But I must say they re-energiseme. There’s nothing like young chil-dren’s energy... They are always curi-ous and enthusiastic about many dif-ferent things. So yes, being aroundTaimur and Inaaya makes me reallyhappy. Though like I said, I wish Icould be with them more often.

You were quite a phenomenal com-bination of mother and actress inyour heydays? During the shootingof Aradhana you were pregnant withSaif...I don’t think I was pregnant duringAradhana. But yes, during Safar andChoti Bahu, I was pregnant and quiteunwell in the last phase of my preg-nancy. Then during Besharam I waspregnant with Sabaa.

You now have more time for yourgrandchildren than you ever didfor your children?Yes, that’s true. I do have a lot moretime for my grandchildren, the kindof pressure of time that I tackled ear-lier is no more there though I do keepmyself busy with professional commit-ments like the random ad here and acinema conference there. But definite-ly I now have more time for not justmy grandchildren but also my chil-dren. I have more time for our ances-tral home in Pataudi also.

Are you still keen on a bio-pic onyour husband the Nawab of Pataudi?Well, it will depend on who the cap-tains of the ship are , the producersand director. It is a good story, I think,with all the twists and theturns in his life... father’sdeath, losing his eyeafter which his averagecame down from 60 to30. To receive such ablow at a young age... Idon’t think anyone elsehas been able to makethose adjustments andthat kind of an impactwith one eye. Henot only batted butalso fielded afterthe eye accident.I think he was aw o n d e r f u lsportsperson.God knows,what he’d haveachieved if hehad both hiseyes.

We neverthought of himas being visual-ly impaired atall...That’s because hehad a wonderfultemperament. Heabsorbed that lossand moved ahead.Tiger’s life was filledwith losses, his father,his eye, his privy purse.In her book Soha (AliKhan) has written sowell about her father.

Any man who winsyou over has to bespecial?I don’t know aboutthat. But I had learntso much from him. Ido miss himimmensely. I wishhe was here for me.So many of myfriends are stilltogether withtheir soulmates.

You see your friends celebrating their50th wedding anniversary. But it wasnot meant to be (for me). So what canI do?

But you have a lot to be thankful for?Oh yes. I do practice active gratitude.In my thoughts, actions words I amdeeply grateful for what life hasgiven me.

Would you like Saif to playPataudi Saab?No, let them (the filmmakers)

decide. Maybe Saif can be inone phase of the story. His

story has so many phas-es. Even a good docu-mentary is a goodidea. Unfortunatelythere isn’t too muchfootage on Tigeravailable.

There is a lot oftalk about women’ssafety going on inour society. Whatmade you sostrong, indepen-dent and non-vul-

nerable in yourheydays?Probably my familybackground. We’vealways had verystrong women inmy family. Also , Ihad the self confi-dence. I wasn’tcareer-oriented. Iliked the work and Ienjoyed it. But I hadother interests. Ihad a strong senseof self derivedfrom my family,and perhaps thatkept me fromharm’s way. Also,I had a very pro-tective hairdresserNeena whoalways checkedmy behaviour.

She was always saying,‘Why are you doing this...

Why are you talking so loud-ly?’ etc. Neena was my con-

stant companion at outdoor shootings.She also gave me a lot of objective per-spective.

How do you feel about the way the#MeToo movement is going?I don’t want to comment on it. I don’tsee how my two-bits can contribute tothe discussion. I followed a bit of it.But I don’t know. Of course, I’ve alwayssupported the feminist movement. ButI really don’t know about this namingand shaming.

We cannot possibly wrap up thisinterview without...(Interrupts) Without talking aboutSara? (laughs). Yes, I am so excitedabout her debut (in the f i lmKedarnath). I am very impressed byher... though I don’t see why her self-confidence should surprise me. Butwhether it was Koffee With Karan, withRajeev Masand or BBC... her confi-dence, humility and charm made meso happy... it’s so heartwarming to seethe way she has turned out. She wentto Columbia University for her stud-ies before joining films as educationwas important for her growth as a per-son and not for career. She’s nevertongue-tied. And how well she stoodup for her father on Karan Johar’sshow... I am really proud of her.

Lastly, your grandson... the biggestKhan superstar, Taimur?I must confess I am worried about hima bit. We, in this family, have all hadour share of media attention. Theyplace you on a pedestal and then sud-denly drop you. At the moment,Taimur is not affected because he’s tooyoung to understand what’s going on.But later when he’s older and if theattention is taken away he might getaffected. So we are a little concerned.But as Sara said, what can we do aboutit? Frankly, without the media, we arenot alive in today’s day and age.

Taimur fields the media better thanall of you?He’s innocent and young... Let’s hopehe doesn’t get adversely affected. I’dlike to request the media to be a bitmore sensitive to him. Otherwisewhat can we do?

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Academy award-nominated cinematog-rapher Donald McAlpine of MoulinRouge! fame presented Delhi with a dif-

ferent visual perspective in the web series RajmaChawal, said director Leena Yadav and produc-ers Aseem Bajaj and Gulab Singh Tanwar.

Bajaj, a celebrated cinematographer himself,was asked about the difference that McAlpinebrought to the table.

He said, “Sixty years ofexperience as a cinematograph-er in every frame of our story.In Rajma Chawal, there arecharacters, the city, a differentculture and several elementsthat have been amalgamated inthe story.

“It is easy for any celebrat-ed cinematographer to feeltempted and flaunt his craft thatcould overpower the subjectmatter. Maintaining the sim-plicity is actually a challengeand he did that beautifully.”

Remembering the first day of their recce atold Delhi’s Chandni Chowk with McAlpine,Leena said, “We were walking about the placeand he looked above at the wires hanging all overthe places near the roof and walls in those nar-row lane. He then told me, ‘Look at them, it isso like the connection between people in anyrelationship... wrong connection creates prob-lem, the right one, brings people closer.’”

She added, “I was so impressed with how hewas looking at every corner of the place fromthe perspective of our story.”

Adding to that, Tanwar said: “It was a con-scious decision to bring someone on board from

abroad because that always adds a new perspec-tive; because as an Indian, when we look at ourown places, we tend to capture the mundane partof it — the noise, traffic, dirt and everything thatbothers us in daily life.

“When the same place is viewed through aperson from a different background, the perspec-tive changes,” she said.

The film Rajma Chawal,released on Netflix, is set inDelhi featuring Rishi Kapoor,Amyra Dastur, Nirmal Rishi,Aparshakti Khurana and HarishKhanna. The film premiered atthe BFI London Film Festivalthis year and was screened at the20th MAMI Film Festival.

Leena, known for her filmParched, said, “It was interest-ing when Donald sat downwith me just before we startedrolling and said that though heknows the story and script, hedoes not know Hindi.

“Since all the actors will speak in Hindi, hesaid if he can ask me about it, when capturingan emotional moment, because without know-ing the language, there is a possibility of catch-ing false moment in the performance.”

She added with a smile, “The good thing isthat after looking at a few shots, he came to meand told me how the portrayal of emotions weretouching his heart, despite not knowing the lan-guage... I realised that is the purpose of univer-sal storytelling, which crosses the boundaries oflanguage and culture and touches the rightcords.”

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Their campaign off to asmooth start, hosts Indiawould look to seal a direct

quarterfinal berth with a winagainst Canada in their final PoolC match of the men's hockeyWorld Cup here on Saturday.

World number 5 India arecurrently leading Pool C withfour points from two gamesahead of Olympic Silver medal-list Belgium (4 points) onaccount of a better goal differ-ence. The Indians have a goal dif-ference of + 5 as againstBelgium's +1.

Both Canada and SouthAfrica have one point each fromtwo matches but the NorthAmericans are placed third witha goal difference of -1 as againstSouth Africa's -5.

While India are placed at anadvantageous position at present,the pool is still wide open. Thehosts would not want to leaveanything on chance and theywould seek a comprehensivewin on Saturday to cement theirplace atop the pool and directlyqualify for the last eight round.

The second and third placedteams from the pool will playcross-over matches against num-ber 2 and 3 teams of other poolsto decide the remaining last fourquarterfinal places.

Going by records and form,India are hands down favouritesto come out victorious againstCanada.

But as we have witnessed onThursday with world number 20France upsetting Olympic cham-pions Argentina in a Pool Aencounter, anything can happenin modern world hockey.

Besides the better rankings,India enjoy a superior head-to-head record against Canada.Since 2013, India and Canadahave played five matches againstIndia with the hosts having wonthree, lost one and drawn one.

So come on Saturday, the

Indians will have to come outwith a clear frame of mind andwith just one goal — a compre-hensive win against Canada andtop the pool.

But it would be easier saidthan done as the Canadianshave improved tremendouslyover the years, especially theirdefence, which was visible intheir first game against Belgiumwho found it difficult to breaktheir backline and just managedto eke out a narrow 2-1 win.

The onus would be onIndia's lethal fowardline com-prising Mandeep Singh,Simranjeet Singh, AkashdeepSingh and Lalit Upadhyay to takethe responsibility on their shoul-ders.

The Indian midfield, led byskipper Manpreet Singh, has sofar produced a decent show,while the defence need to bemore agile and cautious, espe-cially considering the fact that thebackline is infamous for crum-bling under pressure towards theend.

Conceding late goals hasbeen India's perennial problemand it once again came to hurtthe hosts when their defence,consisting of Birendra Lakra,Surender Kumar, HarmanpreetSingh, broke down under pres-sure to concede a goal four min-utes from the final hooter and giftBelgium a draw in their lastmatch.

Indian goalkeeper P RSreejesh too does not look thesame under the bar after return-ing to the side following aninjury lay-off.

Canada have given Indiaproblems in the past, the mostrecent being in last year's HockeyWorld League Semi-Finals inLondon where they defeatedIndia 3-2 to finish fifth.

If that was not enough, in the2016 Rio Olympics too, Indiawere held to a 2-2 draw by theCanadians.

But India's chief coach

Harendra Singh was not in amood to dwell in the past andsaid those experiences will onlyact as catalyst to do better on

Saturday."Past failures are experi-

ences. These experiences we willtry to make use the present. The

present is the match againstCanada. The match will decidethe fate of our pool. I am notthinking about what happened inHockey World League Semi-Final or Rio Olympics," Harendrasaid.

While insisting that Canadawill rely on counter-attacks, thecoach said India can't divertfrom its strength — that isattacking hockey.

"They will not give space.They wait, wait and wait to getopportunities and that will betheir plan. But we have to play toour strength," Harendra said.

"You can't go and defend.You can't be on the backfoot. Wehave to play attacking hockey.The players have adopted attack-ing hockey when they wereteenagers. It's in our culture. Youcan make minor adjustments,but not change the mindset," headded. In the first match of PoolC on Saturday, Belgium willtake on South Africa.

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The world hockey body(FIH) has initiated an

inquiry against Pakistan'sassistant coach DanishKaleem for breaching securi-ty protocol, adding to the listof off-field issues plaguingthe former champions at theongoing men's tournament.

Danish has been called fora hearing by the FIH techni-cal delegate on Saturday afterhe was charged for movingaround in the stadium with-out having his accreditationcard during the Pool D matchagainst Malaysia onWednesday.

With the World Cupnearing halfway stage,Pakistan's campaign is gettingfrom bad to worse due to ahost of issues, which includeinjury blow to skipperMuhammad Rizwan Seniorand a one-match suspension

to his deputy Ammad Butt.As if that was not enough,

Hockey India has now lodgedan official complaint withFIH's Technical delegateChristian Deckenbrock ofGermany against Danish forbreaching security protocoland misbehaving with securi-ty persons inside the stadium.

Pakistan's chief coachTauqeer Ahmad Dar admittedthings are far from rosy for hisside on and off the field aheadof their crucial Pool D matchagainst Netherlands onSunday.

"The last few days havebeen very hard. Most energiesare being wasted on thingsother than sports," said Dartold reporters after a practicesession here on Friday.

"One of our main players,our skipper has fractured histoe and is out of the tourna-ment. Our vice-captain hasbeen banned by the Technical

Delegate. The reason we haveno clue. There was no actiontaken on the ground. Nopenalty corner was given andno green card was given.

"One more inquiry aboutour coach that has beenlodged by Hockey India. Anew enquiry every day," headded.

Dar, said the off-fieldissues are having an adverseeffect on the Pakistani players.

"We are in bad shapementally. We are focusing onthings other than the ground.We are discussing who isgoing to come because ofinjury. Our top two are out ofthe ground," he said.

"18 players and 2 are notthere. Only 15 left for thematch against Holland. It is amajor handicap as we areminus 1 tyre of a car againstNetherlands, one of the tough-est teams in the tournament,"the former Olympian said.

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Ireland crashed out of the men'shockey World Cup after losing 2-

3 to England, handing China a'lucky' berth in the knockout stagesdespite being crushed 0-11 bytwo-time holders Australia here onFriday.

The last round Pool B engage-ments concluded.

Australia topped the pool withan all-win record after thrashinglowly China in a lop-sided affairand remained on course for a hat-trick of titles.

Australia accumulated ninepoints from three games andsecured a direct entry into thequarterfinals while England fin-ished second on four points andChina (2 points) scrapped throughby securing the third spot with twodraws.

Despite the heavy loss, Chinamade it to the cross-overs, courtesyEngland's win over Ireland.

If the England-Ireland matchhad ended in a draw, China wouldhave been thrown out of the com-petition.

In the cross-overs, China willtake on France on December 10,while England will face NewZealand the same day.

World No 7 England scoredthree field goals through DavidCondon (15th minute), LiamAnsell (37th) and James Gall (38th)to come out victorious.

For world No 11 Ireland, ChrisCargo (35th) and ShaneO'Donoghue sounded the board.

"It's always a tight game againstIreland and they caused us quite alot of problems," said man-of-the-match Liam Ansell.

"But we knew that if we couldtake our chances then we wouldwin the game and we did that here.

"We never wanted to draw thegame - in these tournaments it'sabout building momentum fromgame to game and that's what we'retrying to do."

In the match between Davidand Goliath, Australia toyed with

the hapless Chinese defence andscored goals at will to go into thehalfway break with a commanding6-0 lead.

Coming into the match withtwo impressive draws against high-er-ranked England (2-2) andIreland (1-1), it turned out to be acompletely different ball game forthe Chinese, as they found it dif-ficult to breach the huge gulf.

From start to finish, the matchwas mostly played at the Chinesehalf with the Kookaburras launch-ing one attack after another.

After managing to holdAustralia initially, the floodgatesopened in the 10th minute andthere was no stopping the

Kookaburras thereafter.Blake Govers (10th, 19th, 34th

minutes) scored a hat-trick, whileyoung Tim Brand (33rd, 55th)accounted for two goals. AranZalewski (15th), Tom Craig (16th),Jeremy Hayward (22nd), JakeWhetton (29th), DylanWotherspoon (38th) and FlynnOgilive (49th) were the other goalgetters for Australia.

Australia hold the record ofbiggest win margin, which theyachieved by defeating South Africa12-0 in the 2010 World Cup inNew Delhi.

The scoreline against China isthe second biggest win in the his-tory of the game.

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Gujarat Fortunegiants showedwhy they are a team to be feared

as they earned a hard-fought 29-27win over Telugu Titans in InterZone Challenge Week of Vivo ProKabaddi Season 6.

The raiding duo of K Prapanjanand Sachin combined to score 19points to lead their team's charge.Telugu Titans' home leg got off toa losing start as they came close toinflict a defeat on Gujarat.

Rahul Chaudhari top scoredwith 8 points for the Titans whoremain bottom of the table in ZoneB.

Sachin picked up two raidpoints from his first two raids togive Gujarat Fortunegiants 2-1 lead.Rahul Chaudhari made his first suc-cessful raid in the 5th minute asTelugu Titans led 4-3.

The next few minutes werepretty even as both teams jostled forpoints but Chaudhari tilted the

balance in Titans' favour in the 10thminute.

Prapanjan made a quick andsuccessful raid in the 13th minuteas Gujarat trailed 7-8. Prapanjan'stwo- point raid in the 15th minutegave Gujarat 11-9 lead.

The Fortunegiants ended thefirst half strongly as they inflictedan all out in the 20th minute. At theend of the first half GujaratFortunegiants led 17-12.

Telugu Titans started the second

half strongly as they scored threequick points to reduce the deficit tojust two points.

Sachin made a two-point raid asGujarat Fortunegiants led 19-17after 24 minutes.

In the 30th minute substituteRakshith scored with a two-pointraid as Titans trailed 20-21.

The Titans took the lead for thefirst time in the second half afterinflicting an all out in the 32ndminute.

With less than five minutes togo it was the Titans who held a threepoint lead but Prapanjan with a two-point raid reduced it to one.

Rakshith got made a success-ful raid in the 36th minute to giveTitans 27- 25 lead.

But Sachin leveled the match inthe 38th minute and a tackle pointgave Gujarat 28-27 lead.

Rahul Chaudhari had a chanceto tie the match in the last minutebut Gujarat sent him to the benchand emerged victorious.

While in the second game of theday, Pardeep Narwal’s brilliant showleads Patna Pirates to a blockbusterwin over Puneri Paltan.

The three-times defendingchampion beat Pune side by a hugemargin of 53-36.

Their ace raider Pardeep, whoonly manage to secure solitarypoint against Gujarat Fortunegiantswas in complete colour and man-aged to grab a rich haul of 27 pointsin his name.

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Determined to keep a clean slate againstCanada, coach Harendra Singh on

Friday said India will look to write their ownscript and progress in the tournament with-out depending on other results.

"We interpret a picture as we see it. Ourtarget is to top the pool irrespective of theresult of Belgium versus South Africagame. Our fate is in our own hands,"Harendra said on the eve of the game.

"We are still on the second floor, they(Canada) are in the basement (in terms ofposition in the pool and goal difference). Letthem come up to our level, then we will see.Our goal average is a lot better.

"We expect two things. One, I need tofinish on top. The other, I want a clean sheetand no goals scored against India," he added.

Harendra said India has devised a dif-ferent style of play for Canada and they willtry to adopt that in Saturday's game.

"As a coach, I analyse. Most of the play-ers that have come here, Chris (Ciriello) hasfaced most of them. So, the inputs he givesare important having already been there,"he said about India's analytical coach fromAustralia.

"We will play some different kind ofhockey tomorrow (on Saturday) and tryvariations depending on the game and sit-uation."

India is currently ranked fifth in theworld while Canada is 11th.

But the India coach reiterated that rank-ings hardly have any significance in mod-ern day hockey.

"I have said it from the start andeverybody should now agree with me. I sawabout China, Japan and France (as teams ofthe future). For me, in modern sports, espe-cially in a team sport, ranking and numbersare to write on paper," Harendra said.

"Every team that comes to a major tour-nament wants to play the last match on lastday. Small teams want to prove that theydeserve to be here."

India's analytical coach Ciriello empha-sised on the importance of convertingpenalty corners as well as defending them.

"We have got such a balance of gooddirect flickers and many variations. Thereare three good flickers (Harmanpreet Singh,Amit Rohidas and Varun Kumar). Focus isalso on push and trap, good quality andgood speed. There is difficulty all levels," theAustralian said.

"Our focus is on good execution andshots on goal. If you can't get a push or trapright, it doesn't matter how good your flick-er is.

"We are expected to defend as well asscore from penalty corners. The guys areputting their hands up and willing to get hitwhile defending," Ciriello said.

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Australia are "still fighting, still in thecontest", debutant Marcus Harris

insisted on Friday, after India nosedahead by snaring seven wickets andleaving the hosts with some rallying todo in the first Test.

The opener though said that theyare still in the game on account of beingjust 59 runs behind India's first innings'score of 250.

At the same time he praised theIndian attack for keeping things tightand restricting them to 191 for sevenat stumps.

"I thought they bowled really well- the run rate's only two and a bit, soI thought they bowled really well. Westuck at it pretty well. It was a tough day.It wasn't easy to score, so I thought wefought well.

"Travis Head batted well, PeterHandscomb looked good and MitchellStarc batted well at the end. I thinkwe're in a decent position," Harris said.

He said that Australia did want toget on the front foot and attack but theIndian bowlers kept relentless pressureto force them into fending off overs.

"You can only put bowlers underpressure if they give you opportunityto put them under pressure. The wick-et doesn't let you play like that.

"You want to come out and blastthem everywhere and be going greatguns, but sometimes it's not that way.That's why it's called Test cricket.We're still fighting, still in the contest."

Asked if Australia's intent was toattack the Indian bowling at all, he said,"You want to attack all the time butsometimes it's not that easy. The wick-

et wasn't overly easy to score on, andI thought they set good fields.

"It was just one of those old school,hard days of Test cricket and I think it'spretty even and both teams havebowled pretty well so far."

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Debutant Will Somervillegrabbed three key wick-

ets to guide New Zealand totheir first away series win overPakistan in 49 years with acrushing 123-run win in thethird and final Test on Friday.

The off-spinner took 3-52and was aided by fellow spin-ner Ajaz Patel's 3-42 asPakistan came up well shortafter being set a daunting 280-run target in 79 overs.

They crumbled to 156 in56.1 overs on a weary pitch atSheikh Zayed Stadium inAbu Dhabi.

New Zealand's last awayseries win against Pakistanwas a 1-0 victory in matchesplayed in Pakistan in 1969.

Somerville, who took 4-75 in the first innings to fin-ish with seven wickets in thematch, broke a stubborn 43-run sixth-wicket standbetween top scorer BabarAzam (51) and skipperSarfraz Ahmed, who made28.

Patel ended Azam's 114-ball resistance before gettingthe last wicket when he dis-missed Hasan Ali for four,sparking celebrations amongthe New Zealand players.

Pakistan were again letdown by sloppy batting.

They were off to a disas-trous start when Mohammad

Hafeez, in his last inningsbefore he retires from Testcricket, was bowled by fastbowler Tim Southee for eight.

Medium pacer Colin deGrandhomme had first-innings centurion Azhar Alicaught behind for five beforeSomerville's double strikepushed Pakistan to 55-5 atlunch.

Somerville had HarisSohail caught off a tentativepush in the slip with his thirdball of the first over for nineand next ball had first inningscenturion Asad Shafiq caught

behind off the glove.In the last over before

lunch Imam-ul-Haq, watch-ing four wickets fell at theother end, gave an easy catchto forward short-leg off Patelfor 22.

Earlier, Kiwis declaredtheir second innings on 353-7 after 45 minutes of battingwith Henry Nicholls remain-ing unbeaten on 126 andKane Williamson dismissed athis overnight score of 139.

���� !.1�2.34��

Gautam Gambhir lived acharmed life but the

famous grit was displayed inabundance on way to anunbeaten 92, his final knock incompetitive cricket guidingDelhi to 190 for one.

On the second day of theRanji Trophy encounter againstAndhra, Delhi was placed wellin reply to the visitors' first-innings score of 390.

Everything else became afootnote once Gambhir enteredthe field.

It was a Feroz Shah Kotlahosting a Ranji match, forwhich a few hundred faithfulsfrom Old Delhi turned up.

The stage was set and therewere little elements that thehandful of people wouldremember in his last hurrah.

There was a customarysecurity breach (synonymouswith Kotla) with a fan trying toclick a selfie before beinghauled up, the Guard ofHonour by teammates at everybreak and his wife turning upwith two adorable daughtersjust after the husband com-pleted a fifty.

Gautam Gambhir had it alland even the Almighty would-n't have wanted the fairytalescript to go awry.

So no onec o m p l a i n e dwhen anAndhra fielderdropped a sitter

at mid-off, a regulation catchwhich would have been other-wise gobbled "11 out of 10times".

He was twice dropped inthe slips but it didn't matterduring the 152 balls that heplayed.

They wanted to seeGambhir bat like Gambhir.Ugly but effective with somepleasant drives sprinkled inbetween and scrappy at othertimes.

The tuck of the hips, thejabs and the dabs with quickrush and that occasional coverdrive were all there to see.

Once into his 70s, heslowed down as the milestoneapproached.

It's his last chance to lift hisbat, open his helmet andacknowledge whoever will bepresent at the Kotla onSaturday.

He needs eight runs moreand probably wouldn't mind ifa few more cricket fans turn upfor that probable moment.

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Bowlers and stand-in skipperSiddesh Lad who scored an

unbeaten 70 led Mumbai's fight-back against Maharashtra onday two of their Elite Group Amatch.

After bundling outMaharashtra for 352, Mumbai ended the secondday at 196 for 5, still adrift by 156 runs on Friday.

In the morning Maharashtra, who resumedat their overnight first innings score of 298 for 3,were bowled out for 352 with medium-pacerAkash Parkar (4-56) being the pick of Mumbaibowlers.

The fight-back for Mumbai was continued by

crisis man Lad who walked in atnumber 3 after the early fall ofopener Jay Bista (23).

Lad, who hit 9 fours and a sixin his 151-ball knock, and expe-rienced Aditya Tare (63), whoopened the innings, compiled acrucial 109-run stand for the sec-

ond wicket.But Maharashtra hit back by taking three

quick wickets. After Tare departed, experiencedSurya Kumar Yadav (12), Armaan Jaffer (6) andin-form Shivam Dubey (4) fell cheaply as Mumbaislumped to 5-181 from 2-143.

Shubham Ranjane (9 not out) was holding fortwith Lad as the two teams will fight it out for afirst innings lead Saturday.

����� !.1�2.34�

Vijay Shankar's unbeaten 87 and bril-liant batting performance from cou-

ple of other Indian batsman too helpedIndia A beat New Zealand A by 5 wick-ets in the first match of the three-matchOne-Day series at Mount Maunganui.

Indian A skipper Manish Pandeywon the toss and invited host to put runson the board. And they managed to con-siderably set up a challenging total.

Opener Hamish Rutherford (70 in66 balls) and George Worker(35) added83 runs for the first wicket before the laterwas sent packing by K Gowtham (viarunout).

However, skipper Corey Andersoncouldn't do much with the bat and wasdismissed cheaply for 6 runs.

But later in the slog overs, JamesNeesham (79* in 48 balls) and TimSeifert (59) made fun of experienced yetunimpressive Indian bowling to leadscorecard count 300 plus.

Especially Neesham was in full flowin the last overs and helped Blackcapsside to add 46 runs in last 17 balls.

For India A, Siddharth Kaul picked2/74, while Khaleel Ahmed, NavdeepSaini, and K Gowtham picked a scalpeach.

Chasing 309 to win, India A open-ers Mayank Agarwal (24) and ShubmanGill (37) added 61 runs for first wicket.Shreyas Iyer made a run-a-ball 54 whileskipper Pandey managed 42 to keep theruns flowing at a steady rate during themiddle overs. Wicketkeeper IshanKishan also contributed 47 runs to thewinning cause, which included 3 sixes.

NZ A pacers Hamish Bennett took2/65, while Lockie Ferguson grabbed2/75. Doug Bracewell and JimmyNeesham picked a wicket each as well.

But they failed to put a break onVijay Shankar, who played a sensibleknock and hold it together till end totake India A to the win with an over togo.

���� '2.3'�2.

India had the slight edge ina sedately-paced battle ofattrition after senior off-

spinner R Ashwin cleaned up theAustralian top-order and a metic-ulous pace effort kept the hometeam's scoring in check on the sec-ond day of the opening Test here.

Travis Head (61 batting) and PatCummins (10) kept Australia in the game

with a 50-run partnership in the last sessionbut India walked away with the advantage afterthe latter fell towards the end of day's play.

At stumps, Australia were 191/7 in 88overs with Ashwin being their primary tor-mentor, securing figures of 3/50 in 33 overs.He was aided well by the pace duo of JaspritBumrah (2/34) and Ishant Sharma (2/31).

Mitchell Starc (8 batting) was giving Headcompany at close of play with Australia trail-ing by 59 runs against India's first inningseffort of 250 all out, the highlight of which wasCheteshwar Pujara's fighting hundred.

Post tea, the hosts lost two wickets for 10runs in a passage of play spanning eight overs.Peter Handscomb (34) had been living dan-gerously and he was the first to fall. He triedto play the late cut against Bumrah but onlymanaged to edge behind.

Shortly after, Ishant came up with anunplayable length delivery and Australian cap-tain Tim Paine (5) had no choice but to playat it, only to edge to the keeper.

Australia were struggling at 127-6, whenthings turned their way thanks to the eighth-wicket partnership between Head andCummins.

Head started to play more shots as soonas the tail-ender came to the crease, and indoing so, reached his second Test half-centuryoff 103 balls.

Cummins faced 44 balls until then but itdidn't matter as Bumrah trapped him LBW.However, the Indian pacers were unable tomake further inroads into the Australianlower-order as Head and Starc batted out theremaining overs before stumps.

Earlier, Ashwin bowled with control asAustralia were restricted to 117-4 at tea.

The senior off-spinner bowled an incisive

spell that tied down the Australian batsmen.First up, Shaun Marsh (2) gifted his wick-

et immediately after the break. In the very firstover, he went for a wild slash against Ashwin,but ended up playing on as Australia werereduced to 59-3.

Usman Khawaja (28) and Handscombthen added 28 runs for the fourth wicket. Butthe big moment came in the 40th over, whenAshwin got Khawaja's wicket. The left-han-der pushed one forward against Ashwin andgloved it to keeper Rishabh Pant.

India appealed, and then opted for DRSreview with hotspot showing a faint tickle onKhawaja's glove as Australia were suddenlyreduced to 87-4.

Head then joined Handscomb and defiedthe Indian bowling, which didn't allow anyeasy runs but also couldn't find another break-through before the tea break.

Handscomb struck five boundaries, whileHead hit a four as well, as the duo put on 30runs for the fifth wicket, taking Australia past100 in the 48th over.

In the morning, Australia were placed at57-2 at lunch after India were bowled out for250 (88 overs) on the very first ball of themorning session.

Mohammed Shami (6) showed nopatience at all and went after a short deliveryfrom Josh Hazlewood (3-52) only to be caughtbehind down leg side, as India's innings cameto a quick end.

Thereafter, Australia didn't have the bestof starts as Ishant bowled Aaron Finch (0) witha fuller, inswinging delivery on only the thirdball of their innings.

It was a hectic start to the day's play, butKhawaja and debutant opener Marcus Harris(26) settled down to provide a solid start forthe hosts.

The duo batted out 20.4 overs and put on45 runs for the second wicket, already high-er than any partnership for the top-four Indianwickets.

Ashwin was introduced into the attack inthe 12th over of the innings, and first struckbefore lunch. Harris played on to his pads andwas caught at silly point in the 22nd over, asthe spinner got dividends for blocking all scor-ing opportunities. Australia's 50 came up inthe 27th over thereafter.

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Pakistan selectors onFriday recalled fast

bowler Mohammad Amirin the 16-member squadfor the three-match Testtour of South Africa start-ing later this month.

Sarfraz Ahmed willlead the side, which opensthe tour with the first Testat Centurion fromDecember 26.

The second Test will beplayed at Cape Town fromJanuary 3 to 7 next year,while the third and finalmatch is in Johannesburgfrom January 11 to 15.

Amir was droppedfrom the side after failing toget a single wicket in threeAsia Cup matches inUnited Arab Emirates(UAE) and missed Testseries against Australia andNew Zealand.

Also staging come-backs are leg-spinnerShadab Khan, and openers

Fakhar Zaman and ShanMasood.

Zaman was ruled outof the NZ series with a kneeinjury, while Shadab wasout because of hamstringproblem.

Masood was alsobrought back after recentgood form, scoring twinhundreds in a four-daymatch against New Zealand'A' two months ago.

Back-up wicketkeeper,Mohammad Rizwan hasalso returned to the squadafter his consistent perfor-mance in the domesticcricket and for Pakistan 'A'.

But there were noplaces for off-spinner BilalAsif and Lahore openerAbid Ali, who has also beenscoring heavily at thedomestic level and forPakistan 'A'.

Inzamam's nephewImam-ul-Haq gets anotherchance despite scoring amere 73 runs in three Testsagainst New Zealand.

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