c m y k c m y k

SPORT | 8Thiem edges pastDjokovic in semis

THE LARGEST CIRCULATED ENGLISH DAILY IN SOUTH INDIACHENNAI I SUNDAY 22 I NOVEMBER 2020

CITY | 2Metro Phase-II set to make

Chennai a world-class city

WORLD | 5Jan Morris, author,

passes away at 94

deccanchronicle.com, facebook.com/deccannews, twitter.com/deccanchronicle, google.com/+deccanchronicle Vol. 16 No. 237 Established 1938 | 8 PAGES| `4.00

Soldier killed, 3 hurt in Pakfiring along LoC in J&K

Jammu: A havaldar in the IndianArmy was killed and three others,

including two women, wereinjured on Saturday as Pakistani

troops resorted to unprovoked fir-ing on forward posts and villagesin different sectors along the Line

of Control (LoC) and theInternational Border (IB) in

Jammu and Kashmir, officials said.

COUNTER POINT

WEATHERMax: 30OC Min: 23OC Rainfall: Nil

ASTROGUIDESarvari: Karthigai 7

Tithi: AshtamiStar: AvittamRahukalam:

4.30 pm to 6 pmYamagandam:

12 noon to 1.30 pm PRAYERS

Fajar: 4.54 amZohar: 11.58 am

Asar: 3.12 pmMaghrib: 5.39 pm

Isha: 6.53 pm

COVID-19 FIGHTAIADMK seals alliance with BJP DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, NOV. 21

The AIADMK’s alliancewith the BJP will continuein the 2021 Assembly elec-tions, Tamil Nadu chiefminister Edappadi K.Palaniswami and deputychief minister O.Panneerselvam declared onSaturday in the presence ofUnion home minister AmitShah at a function inChennai organised tolaunch projects worth`67,758 crore.

Dedicating theKannankottai-ThervoyKandigai reservoir to thenation, besides laying thefoundation for a slew ofhigh-profile projects,including the Chennaimetro rail phase 2, Mr Shahtook a swipe at theCongress-DMK alliance,saying that they had no

right to speak about corrup-tion.

Mr Shah, who addressedthe crowd in Hindi, praisedTamil Nadu for its antiquityand culture and regrettedthat he could not speak inthe ancient language.

The Narendra Modi gov-

ernment has fought againstcorruption, dynasty andcaste politics all these years,Mr Shah said and urged thepeople of Tamil Nadu toteach a lesson to those prac-ticing dynastic politics, likethe people of some otherstates have done. � P3

Ex-DMK MP joinsBJP, may weanaway Alagiri too

Home ministerwalks on road,entices supporters

Chennai, Nov. 21:Former DMK MP K. P.Ramalingam joined theBJP here on Saturday andsaid he would try to con-vince the expelledDravidian party leader M.K. Alagiri to join the saf-fron party.

Ramalingam joined theBJP in the presence ofnational general secre-tary and Tamil Naduincharge, C T Ravi andTamil Nadu unit presi-dent L Murugan at theparty office here ahead ofthe visit of Union homeminister Amit Shah to themetropolis.— PTI � P3

Chennai, Nov. 21: Unionhome minister Amit Shahon Saturday sprang a sur-prise here when he virtu-ally broke protocol to getout of his vehicle and walkon the busy GST Road out-side the airport to greetsupporters, minutes afterhe landed here for a two-day visit to the city.

Mr Shah, who thankedthe metropolis for its love,said it was “great” to be inTamil Nadu.

Police detained a man forallegedly flinging a plac-ard when Mr Shah waswalking outside the air-port. —PTI � P3

Tally crosses 90L; statestold to ramp up testingDC CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, NOV. 21

The Union governmenthas directed state govern-ments and Union territo-ries to ramp up testing forCovid-19 as 46,232 freshdetections were made onSaturday, taking India'soverall tally of novel coro-navirus crossed 90.5 lakh.The death toll so far hasbeen nearly 1.33 lakh outof which 564 fatalitiesoccurred in the last 24hours.

“With a continuoussurge in daily cases inEuropean and theAmerican countries, Indiais taking all cautionarysteps to bring the trajecto-ry of the disease under

control. In view of theincrease in Covid cases ofsome of the north Indianstates, the Centre hasadvised all states and UTsto ramp up testing," offi-cials said.

Health ministry officialssaid an average of morethan 10 lakh tests are con-ducted now.

12 states/UTs have lowertests per million thannational average, andhave been advised by theCentral government tosubstantially ramp up thelevels of testing. Delhi,Kerala, Haryana, WestBengal continue to remainareas of concern even ascases have started surgingagain in Maharashtra overthe last two days.

Kerala brings ordinance to punishcyber abuse; opposition cries foulThiruvananthapuram,Nov. 21: Kerala GovernorArif Mohammed Khan hassigned the Kerala PoliceAct Amendment ordinance,envisaged by the LDF gov-ernment in to prevent cyberattacks against women andchildren which the opposi-tion had alleged would cur-tail freedom of expression.

The opposition parties

had alleged that the amend-ment would give morepower to the police and alsocurtail the freedom of thepress, the charge which wasrejected by Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan sayingthe decision had been takenbased on factors such asabuse of social media to tar-nish the image of individu-als. — PTI � P4

‘600 BC Keeladi pottery had carbon nanotubes’New Delhi, Nov. 21:Scientists have discoveredthe oldest known human-made nanomaterials in the“unique black coatings” ofancient pottery shards --dated to 600 BC --unearthed from an archeo-logical site in Keeladi,Tamil Nadu.

The research, publishedrecently in the journalScientific Reports, revealed

that these coatings aremade of carbon nanotubes(CNTs) which haveenabled the layer to lastmore than 2600 years, rais-ing questions on the toolsused during those periodsto achieve high tempera-tures for making earthen-wares.

According to the scien-tists, including those fromVellore Institute of

Technology (VIT) in TamilNadu, the coatings are“the oldest nanostructuresobserved till now.”

“Until this discovery, toour knowledge, the mostancient known nanostruc-tures in human-made arti-facts are from the eighthor ninth century AD,”study co-authorVijayanand Chandra-sekaran from VIT said.

CNTs are tubular struc-tures of carbon atomsarranged in an orderedmanner, DrChandrasekaran said,adding that coatings inancient artifacts may notusually last this long dueto wear and tear caused bychanging conditions.

“But the robust mechani-cal properties of the CNTbased coating has helped

the layer sustain morethan 2600 years," he added.

Carbon nanotubes havesuperlative properties,including high thermaland electrical conductivi-ty, and very high mechani-cal strength, explainednanomaterial scientist M.M. Shaijumon from IISERThiruvananthapuram,who was unrelated to thestudy. — PTI � P4

Union home minister Amit Shah lighting a lamp and dedi-cated Kannankottai-Thervoy Kandigai reservoir and laidthe foundation stone for various infrastructure projects,totalling over `67,758 crore, across the state in ChennaiSaturday. — DC

CITY pg 2DECCAN CHRONICLE | SUNDAY | 22 NOVEMBER 2020 | CHENNAI

T. SUDHEESH I DCCHENNAI, NOV. 21

With the stone laid forphase-II of Chennai metrorail project by Unionhome minister Amit Shahon Saturday, Chennai, isgoing to become a majorhub of metro services inthe country.

The phase-II having 128metro stations, estimatedto cost around Rs 69,180crore and targeted to becompleted by 2026, wouldcover a total 118.9-kmincluding 76.3-km elevatedrail and the rest under-ground.

According to theChennai Metro RailLimited (CMRL), thephase-II initiated withinfour years of inaugura-tion of phase-1 wasplanned considering thegrowing demand from theChennai citizens for a fast,safe, efficient and sustain-able public transport sys-tem.

In the phase-II project,there are three corridorsat an estimated cost of Rs.61,843 crore supported bythe Government of India,Government of TamilNadu, JICA, ADB, AIIBand NDB.

The corridors includingMadhavaram to Sipcotcovering 45.8 km will con-nect the prime locationslike IT corridor, Adyar,

Mylapore andPurasawalkam with 50metro stations comprising20 elevated metro stationsand 30 underground sta-tions. The 26.1-km light-house to Poonamalleebypass corridor will coverthe commercial hubs ofthe city like Nandanam,T.Nagar, Vadapalani,Valasaravakkam, Porurand Poonamallee with 30metro stations comprising8 elevated and 12 under-ground stations.

The Madhavaram toSholinganallur corridorthat covers 47 km will con-nect prime locations inc-luding Villivakkam, AnnaNagar, Koyambedu, Viru-gambakkam, Ramapu-ram, Madipakkam andMedavakkam with 48 sta-tions comprising 42 elevat-ed and 6 underground sta-tions.

With the completion ofthese three corridors,Chennai will have 173 kmof metro stretch carrying25 lakh passengers per dayaccounting for 25 percent

of public transport trips,which can transform themetropolis into a world-class destination forinvestments and economicactivities.

It may be recalled thatthe state government, inthe last budget, had sanc-tioned Rs 3,100 crore forthe development of themetro phase-II whichrequires 1,309 propertiesincluding 104 residentialand 937 commercial.

V. Ramarao, of Trafficand TransportationForum (TTF), says thoughthe Chennai Metroentered the phase-II, theprice fixation committeemandated by the MetroRailways (operation andmaintenance) Act 2002remains a distant reality

According to him, lowerincome people are notavailing metro servicesdue to high fares. ‘It is dif-ficult for an office-goer tospend Rs 140 for a dailytravel, and impossible fora daily labourer. I can seelot of casual labourers,masons and electricians,apart from the officegoersutilise the suburban railsystem which is verycheap compared to Metro.Instead of taking toomuch care on the exten-sion of metro, CMRL hasto develop an inclusivefare strategy includingconcession to poor who

have Rs 10,000 monthlyincome. Otherwise, theCMRL will really struggleto live up to the expecta-tion of common public.Our cities have variouslevels of socio-economicconditions and publictransport is expected toserve everyone and rea-sonably priced. We need aclear policy on publictransport affordability’,he says.

Meanwhile, CMRL’sphase-I project, coveringtwo corridors for 45 kmfrom Washermanpet toAirport (Blue Line) andfrom Puratchi ThalaivarDr MG RamachandranCentral Metro to St.Thomas Mount ( GreenLine) with a total of 32metro stations, is in opera-tion being the first metrorail system in India to con-nect the city’s main rail-way terminal, bus termi-nals and airport in thefirst phase itself.

The phase-I extension ofthe project fromWashermanpet toThiruvottiyur (WimcoNagar) covering 9.051 kmwith 8 metro stations (2underground and 6 elevat-ed stations) will connectthe northern part of thecity to the central busi-ness district area and istargeted to be opened fortraffic in the end ofJanuary 2021.

Metro Phase-II set to makeChennai a world-class city

OTHER STORIESSick IAS aspirantreunites with family fromChhattisgarhDC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, NOV. 21

A 40-year-old IAS aspirant, whobecame a mentally challengedperson, was reunited with hisfamily with the help of volun-teers of Udhavum Karangal.

Vidyabhushan GhritLahre, ofNandor Kalan, in Janjgir-Champa of Chhattisgarh com-pleted his MA Sociology at GuruShasidas University, Bilaspur,in 2002 and prepared for IASexams.

Much to his dismay, he did notsucceed in the IAS exam in thefirst attempt. He made up hismind for the second attempt butthoughts of failure pervaded hismind, leading to depression. Hemade three attempts but couldnot succeed. He pulled on foryears without any medicationfor mental illness.

In January 2020, when his ill-ness was at its peak, he slippedout of his house inChhattisgarh and landed inChennai. He wandered aimless-ly in Chennai for the past 11months without proper food andshelter. On November 8, socialworkers of Udavum Karangalsaw him lying on the side of thehighway to Bengaluru. Whenthe social workers called him,he got into the ambulance andwas given psychiatric care for afew days.

Workers of Udavum Karangalinteracted with him and got hisfamily details. With the avail-able information, the volunteerstraced his father and spoke tohim. On learning the news ofhis son traced, his fatherSauram rushed to Chennai onNovember 20. They reunited atUdhavum Karangal.

Rowdy hacked todeath by gang inChengalpetDC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, NOV. 21

A rowdy was hacked to death bya gang of goons in Chengalpeton Friday night.

According to the police, thedeceased has been identified asVimal alias Kullavimal (38), ahistory-sheeter and a resident ofAnnai Anjugam Nagar inChengalpet. The incidentoccurred on Friday night whenhe was standing outside hishouse. Eyewitnesses told policethat, at around 10: 30 pm, fourmen on two motorbikes withmachetes and sickles waylaidVimal. On seeing them Vimalbegan to run. However, the gangchased him and hacked him onthe road.

Police said the neighbourslocked themselves inside theirhouses and later alerted them.Though the Chengalpet Townpolice came to the spot, within afew minutes after the alert,Vimal succumbed to hisinjuries.

The body was sent to theChengalpet government hospi-tal for post-mortem. ChengalpetTown police registered a caseand began an investigation.Hunt has been launched for theassailants.

Police informed that Vimalwas involved in two murdercases apart from some criminalcases. He had been living withhis mother Padma inChengalpet. Police suspect theinvolvement of rival rowdygang in the murder.

On Friday evening, the bodyof a woman in her early 20s wasfound underSathurangapattinam police lim-its in Chengalpet district. Thedeceased has not yet been iden-tified by the police.Mamallapuram ASPSundharavadanan along withthe local police came to the spotafter being alerted by the localpeople by around 7 pm. Policesent the body for an autopsy.

A police officer said, “we willwait for an autopsy report toknow the cause of death. Butshe had injury marks suggest-ing physical violence. A probeinto the matter is underway. Weare exploring all angles and dueaction will be taken.’’

The Congress leader-ship in Tamil Naduis caught in a piqua-

nt situation. With electionfever slowly gripping thestate and political partiesrevisiting alliance ques-tions like seat-sharing andseat allotment, the partyseems to be on a sticky wi-cket. Not because of its di-smal performance in Bih-ar elections or any otherreason connected with theparty's functioning in theState but because of somesmart-alecky statementsof some leaders.

Of course, the Congressfaces similar problems atthe national level witheven former Union minis-ter from Tamil Nadu P.Chidambaram makingopen attacks on the leader-

ship, joining the ranks ofthose like Kapil Sibal. Butin Tamil Nadu, suchthings are happeningwhen the state leadershipis treading carefully witha view to not ruffling thefeathers of the cadre oftheir alliance parties,whose support would cer-tainly be required duringthe elections.

Of the recent indiscreetremarks made by someMembers of Parliamentthat threatened to evenrock the alliance boat, onewas a tweet byVirudhunagar MPManickam Tagore, whichangered some DMK lead-ers so much that theyreacted swiftly, turningthe table on the Congress.Tagore had smartly tweet-

ed: There are three sets ofseats - A means safe seats,B means close seats and Cmeans Opposition strong-holds. He said ‘If weanalyse, regional partiestake A & B seats and leaveC seats to Congress.’

What he was trying tosay was that the DMKdumped the C seats, whichin other words meanunwinnable constituen-cies where the Oppositionwas in a dominant posi-tion, in the 2016 Assemblyelections, leading to theparty’s poor performance.Tagore also said “our stateteam which negotiate inidentifying of seats usual-ly got more the C and fewB & A,” which was astraight attack on his ownparty’s state leadership.

Angered by the MP’sbrazen insinuation, theDMK retorted saying theCongress was allotted 41seats from out of the list of65 seats given to them bythe then TNCC presidentE.V.K.S. Elangovan.

Soon after that, the Siva-

gangai MP Karti PChidambaram said thatwhen it came to coalitionit was not just about bar-gaining for numbers.“Every constituency mustbe individually analysedthrough discussion andparties to decide onprospective candidates.”

Again the suggestionwas that the Congressshould be allottedwinnable seats by theDMK. To top it all heclaimed to have with him areport of a survey of allthe 234 constituencies inthe State, taken by theCongress. He also com-pared the survey to that ofthe one taken by PrashantKishor’s Indian PoliticalAction Committee – tryingto tell the DMK “we are notinferior to you”.

He was also makingsweeping statements likeseat-sharing shouldensure fair representationto every party in the coali-tion. Seat-sharing withDMK will purely be on thebasis of data collected

through the survey, sug-gesting that the Congresshad been short changed inthe last elections.

Also he was trying to saythat the Congress had gro-wn tremendously and hen-ce deserved a better deal,though the reality wasthat the DMK’s successrate in the 2016 Assemblyelection was 55 per centand that of the Congresswas just 20 per cent.

More than the veracity ofthe claims it was the brav-ado of the MPs that cameas a dampener to the cor-dial relationship the Cong-ress otherwise maintainedwith all its alliance par-ties, particularly the DMK.

The TNCC top brass,whose assessment of thepolitical situation is thatan alliance with the DMKand other present friendlyparties like the VCK andthe Left in Tamil Nadualone would help theCongress take on theHindutva brigade at thestate and also the nationallevel, is deeply concerned

over such instances ofMPs shooting from the hip.The statements could jeop-ardize the seat sharingtalks, they fear.

More deadly than theMPs, who were definitelytaking pot shots at theTNCC leadership, was a fo-rmer district congress co-mmittee president fromCuddalore South M. N. Vij-ayasundaram, who launc-hed a scathing attack thatdefamed the party in theeyes of the people. Vijaya-sundaram went to a Tamilbi-weekly magazine to givethem an ‘inside story’ onTNCC president K.S. Ala-giri’s alleged corruption.

Without any evidence orbasis, Vijayasundaramtold the magazine thatAlagiri had collected awhopping amount of Rs 35crore from seven minis-ters in the AIADMK gov-ernment. The gratificationwas in lieu of TNCC ask-ing to contest in the minis-ters’ constituencies duringthe seat allotment talksand then fielding weak

candidates. That wouldenable the ministers tohave a smooth sailing intheir own constituencies.

Though the magazine it-self had raised counter qu-estions to Vijayasundar-am’s incredible claims, thedisgruntled Congressmanhad managed in his mis-sion to besmirch the nameof Alagiri and two othertop TNCC leaders A. Gopa-nna and Selvam, whom hehad accused of collectingthe money from the minis-ters on behalf of theirleader.

This is not the first timeVijayasundaram is mak-ing wild allegationsagainst TNCC leaders.When he did it last year,the TNCC wrote to thehigh command, seekingaction against him butnothing came about it andthat has emboldened himto do more damage, rues aleader. But the real ques-tion is: with such hyperac-tive functionaries in theparty, does the Congressneed enemies?

Tamil Nadu Congress needs no enemiesG. Babu Jayakumar

Just spamming

Biskoth is less crispy! BISKOTH

ANUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN

CAST: SANTHANAM, TARAALISHA BERRY, ANANDRAJ,SOWCAR JANAKI

DIRECTION: KANNAN

RATING: **

The film starts with anintro where we seeD h a r m a r a j a n(Aadukalam Naren),founder of a small biscuitfactory, who has dreams ofmaking it a big brand andwishes that his son Raja(Santhanam) would headthe company one day.However, fate has some-thing else in store asDharma passes away andhis close friendNarasimhan (Anandaraj)assumes charge of thebusiness. Raja grows uponly to become a workerin his own company.

In the meantime, Rajawho frequents a senior cit-izen home meets Janaki(Sowcar Janaki), who

often narrates kutty sto-ries to him. To his sur-prise, Raja finds thateverything Janaki tellscomes true in his life. Howone such story ponderedby Janaki helps Raja toget back his biscuitempire forms thereminder of the film.

The movie is heavilydependent onSanthanam’s one-linersand counter dialogues andthe actor tries his best tokeep the audiences insplits. The plot had thepotential of an engaginglaugh riot. However, theinconsistency in writing

(humour portions) andordinary dialogues endsup in not yielding thedesired results. SowcarJanaki in her 400th filmstands out with her versa-tile performance.Anandaraj and MottaRajhendran are funny inbits. The two heroinesTara Alisha Berry andSwati Muppala have notmuch to do.

Indianising AdamSandler’s Bedtime Stories,director Kannan hasattempted to makeBiskoth engaging but onlypartially succeeds. This‘Biskoth’ is less crispy.

A novel attempt errs in executionQUOTA

ANUPAMA SUBRAMANIAN

CAST: CHELLA, NARESHMADESWAR, BHAVAZ, SAJISUBAMA, NIHARIKA

DIRECTION: P.AMUDHAVANAN

RATING: **

Quota is a message-orient-ed film where a poverty-stricken family has to sur-vive in a system that isstacked against the smallguy. It revolves around atalented child from a trib-al hamlet who yearns tobecome a gymnast. Hiseconomic condition andidentity are a huge deter-rent to his dream.Director Amudhavananputs the spotlight on chil-dren from underprivi-leged backgrounds andhow they often miss out onopportunities. In theprocess, the film suffers asaspects of the making,engagement, and enter-tainment are all curtailed.

Manickam (Chella) sellstapioca for a living, whichin and of itself is a veryfickle source of income.Nurturing utopian ideasalongside is a sure shotway to cripple you finan-cially, and Chella leaveshis family in peril whenhe dies in an accident.Now it’s all on his sonPaari (Bhavas), a gym-nast, to carry his family’s

financial burden andcross over the povertyline.

Quota is a tad bit senti-mental and proselytizing.Yes, one can incorporate astrong message but theaudience would prefer tobe absorbed and enter-tained first before havingthoughts about the‘greater good.’ It does stayclear of the reservation

angle, which the title hintstowards. Instead, the filmmarches on with the twosiblings trying their bestto rise above and fulfill thedreams from their father.

The plot does solidifytowards the latter por-tions. The gymnasiumthemes are drawn upon inan inorganic manner.Overall, a novel attemptthat misses the mark.

FILM REVIEW

DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, NOV. 21

Unable to bear the loss of herson, a 72-year-old woman han-ged herself to death at herresidence in Chennai onSaturday.

The deceased has been iden-tified as Ramani, a resident ofP.V. Nagar 3rd street inPalavanthangal. Her husbandDatchinamoorty passed awaya few years back and she wasliving with her unmarried

son Ramprabhu. She is alsosurvived by another son Bala-ji(32) and daughter Priya (34).

Ramprabhu had been work-ing as an electrical engineerin a private company inPerungalathur. Police sourcessaid that Ramprabhu washospitalised a couple of daysback to treat a blood clot inhis heart and subsequentlypassed away on Friday morn-ing after failing to respond tothe treatment at a hospital inVelachery.

According to the sources, Ra-mani was heartbroken afterlearning about the demise ofher son and hanged herself todeath on Saturday at her res-idence. Priya broke open thedoor and found her mother ha-nging. The police were alerted.

Palavanthangal policerushed to the spot and sentthe body for post-mortem.Further investigations are on.Ramani is a retired IndianCouncil of Medical Researchemployee.

Womancommits

suicideafter herson dies

Lieutenant General RP Singh, Param Vishisht Seva Medal, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal,Vishisht Seva Medal, GOC-in-C, Western Command accepts the Guard of Honour.

Cadets in their various moods of celebration. — DC

On November 8, socialworkers of UdavumKarangal saw him lyingon the side of the high-way to Bengaluru. Whenthe social workers calledhim, he got into theambulance and wasgiven psychiatric care fora few days

Police informed thatVimal was involved in twomurder cases apart fromsome criminal cases. Hehad been living with hismother Padma in Cheng-alpet. Police suspect theinvolvement of rival row-dy gang in the murder

In the phase-II project,there are three corri-dors at an estimatedcost of `61,843 croresupported by theGovernment of India,Government of TamilNadu, JICA, ADB, AIIBand NDB

Passing out parade at OTA

STATE pg 3DECCAN CHRONICLE | SUNDAY | 22 NOVEMBER 2020 | CHENNAI

DC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, NOV. 21

Union home ministerAmit Shah was accordeda rousing welcome whenhe arrived at the Chennaiairport on Saturday withAIADMK and BJP cadreturning up in large num-bers holding party flagsand placards and liningup on both sides ofthe road leading to thecity.

Throwing all norms ofprotocol to the winds,Chief Minister EdappadiK. Palaniswami andDeputy Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam were per-sonally present to receivethe visiting home minis-ter as he stepped out ofthe special aircraftbelonging to BSF thatlanded at 1.50 pm.

Besides top BJP leadersseveral state ministerswere also present to wel-come Shah, stepped out ofhis car on the arterialroad seeing the huge flagraising slogans and wav-ing crowds on both sidesjust as he came out of theairport.

He walked a distancewaving at the cheeringcrowd of AIADMK andBJP supporters. Afterboarding his vehicle, too,he was waving at thecrowds gathered on thekerb as he drove down toHotel Leela Palace, wherehe would be staying dur-ing his visit.

Twitter started trendingwith a hashtag#GoBackAmitShah sincelate Friday evening. Thehashtag that was on top ofthe trending list thismorning saw manyTwitter users comment-ing on the issue.

Meanwhile anotherhashtag welcoming AmitShah to Tamil Nadu wasalso trended by BJP sup-porters, which at onepoint came close to the‘Go Back’ hashtag.

Other social media wasalso abuzz with me-mes and comments onShahs’ visit to Chen-nai.

Amit Shah given a rousing welcomeOTHER STORIES

Vaikundarajanissue: Cases filedagainst 12ARULOLI M | DCTIRUNELVELI, NOV. 21

Police here registered casesagainst 12 persons including anoted businessman for attempt-ing to murder beach mineralminer and exporter, SVaikundarajan.

The cases were registeredbased on a complaint made byVaikundarajan to the citypolice commissioner (in-charge), Praveen KumarAbinapu, on Thursday, that agang under the instruction ofhis brother’s son, SenthilRajan, had been spying on himand his family for more than amonth. Vaikundarajan alsosought protection for his lifefrom Senthil Rajan and hismen. On the direction of citycommissioner, Perumalpurampolice registered case against JSenthil Rajan and 11 others.

CM seeks Centralaid for river linkingprojectChennai, Nov. 21: Tamil NaduChief Minister K Palaniswamion Saturday sought the Centre'sintervention in expediting theGodavariCauvery (GrandAnicut) link project.

He also sought its interventionin sanctioning funds for theCauvery (Kattalai)Gundar linkproject and Nadanthai VaazhiCauvery rejuvenation ofCauvery and its tributaries aproject inspired by the muchacclaimed BJP governments'Namami Gange.'

In three separate lettersaddressed to Union HomeMinister Amit Shah, the chiefminister said the DetailedProject Report (DPR) for theGodavariCauvery (GrandAnicut) link under Phase-I,should be expedited and worktaken up on priority basis, sothat water needs of southernStates could be fulfilled whilemitigating the problem of floodsin Godavari.

"There is a need to rework thelink so as to terminate it in theRiver Cauvery at KattalaiBarrage, instead of GrandAnicut," the chief minister said.

He demanded that the JalShakti Ministry be asked to pro-vide at least 200 TMC ft water toTamil Nadu from this Phase Iand ultimately 300 TMC ft waterin Phase II, when RiverMahanadhi is linked withGodavari. On theCauveryGundar, which is partof the GodavariCauvery link-age, Palaniswami said the diver-sion of surplus flow to thedrought affected parts of TamilNadu will benefit several dis-tricts in Tamil Nadu. The stategovernment has already con-structed a barrage at Mayanuracross the Cauvery at a cost ofabout Rs 255 crore in anticipa-tion of this national project.

The excess flood water ofCauvery during surplus yearscan be diverted upto Gundar toimprove the recharge of groundwater, meeting drinking waterneeds, and stabilisation of aya-cuts in drought prone areas inKarur, Tiruchirappalli, Pudukk-ottai, Sivagangai, Ramanatha-puram, Virudhunagar and Th-oothukudi districts.

Palaniswami sought financialassistance of `10,700 crore forthe Nadanthai Vaazhi Cauveryproject for which a DPR hasbeen prepared. The CM who so-ught early approval of the Chen-nai Metro Rail Phase-II project,said it could be executed with50:50 equity sharing basis bycentral and state governments,as was done for Phase-I project..He also demanded technical andfinancial support for earlyestablishment of Mega TextileIndustry Parks for Dharmapuriand Virudhunagar districtsbesides a Bulk Drug Park.— PTI

B RAVICHANDRAN | DCOOTY, NOV. 21

It was a pathetic sight onFriday witnessing twohealthy male tiger cubs leftbehind by a dead tigress inthe Mudumalai TigerReserve (MTR).

A forest patrol found thecarcass of a tigress atSeemarkuli Odai area nearAkkarai in Singara forestrange in MTR buffer zonelimits on Friday evening. Itsteeth and claws were foundintact with no externalinjuries on the carcass.Forest officials planned for aspot autopsy on Saturdaymorning.

Reaching the spot onSaturday morning, the for-est personnel searched thesurrounding area to look forthe presence of any marksor evidence for the death of

the tigress. To their sur-prise, they found two male

tiger cubs hiding inside abush, a few feet away from

the dead tigress. They res-cued the healthy lookingcubs.

It was concluded that thetigress was strolling the jun-gles with its cubs, but sud-denly collapsed and died.The hapless cubs had spentthe whole night near thecarcass and went into hid-ing on seeing human move-ment there.

Deputy Director, MTR(buffer zone), LCS Srikanth,said that visceral sampleswere collected from the car-cass of the nearly nine-year-old tigress, and is to be sentfor lab analysis to ascertainthe cause of death. The twocubs are nearly three-weeks-old. Forest officials wouldsoon take a call on whetherthe cubs should be sent toVandalur Park in Chennaito raise them there, headded.

Tigress dies, leaves behind 2 cubs

Shah lauds CM, dy CMfor handling of Covid

Man who threwplacard at HM arrestedDC CORRESPONDENTCHENNAI, NOV. 21

The city police on Satur-day arrested a man forthrowing a ‘go back Am-it Shah’ placard at UnionHome Minister AmitShah when he got downfrom his convoy andwalked on the GST Roadto greet the BJP cadres.

According to the poli-ce, the man has been ide-ntified as Durairaj (67), aresident of Nanganallurin Chennai.

In a video that is viralon the social media,Durairaj who was stand-ing posing as a BJP sup-porter on the GST Roadthrew the placard at theunion minister. Theplacard, however, didnot affect the movementof Mr Shah. The policeofficials posted theredetained the man. It maybe noted that the hash-tag #GobackAmitShahhas been trending sinceFriday night.

The arrested man hadrecently made headlinesfor interrupting aprotest organised by theBJP in Chennai inSeptember. During theprotest, Durairaj raisedslogans against PrimeMinister Narendra Modiand the BJP. He alleged-ly accused the PrimeMinister of cheatingpeople by promising tocredit `15 lakh in everyperson's bank account ifhe comes to power.

From P1

Praising the chief minis-ter and deputy chief min-ister of Tamil Nadu fortheir handling of theCovid-19 pandemic andtheir performance inother areas like watermanagement, Mr Shahsaid, “To the DMK leaderswho have been accusingthe Centre of doing injus-tice to Tamil Nadu, I wantto ask what they had doneto the state in the 10 yearsof Congress rule whenthey were in an alliancewith that party.” MrPalaniswami, in hisspeech, urged the Centreto give permission for itsproject to link rivers with-in the state.Describing the home min-ister as a modern day“Chanakya”, MrPanneerselvam said thestate was able to imple-ment many developmen-tal schemes because oftheir cordial relationship .

Union home minister Amit Shah waves at supporters in Chennai on Saturday. — PTI

CM orders creation of revolvingfund to pay fees of medicosChennai, Nov. 21: ChiefMinister K. Palaniswamion Saturday ordered cre-ation of a revolving fundto pay fees of governmentschool students whocleared Neet and wereallotted seats in privatemedical and dental col-leges under the govern-ment’s 7.5 per cent reser-vation.

The Tamil NaduMedical ServicesCorporation, which hasbeen directed to createthis fund, has been askedto settle the tuition andhostel fees directly to therespective colleges.

"This measure is aimedat giving effect to myannouncement onNovember 18 to providepost matric scholarshipand other financial assis-tance to all governmentschool students who havebeen allotted seats (in theundergraduate courses)under the 7.5 per cent

quota,” Palaniswami saidin a statement here onSaturday.

Accusing oppositionDMK leader M. K. Stain ofenacting a farce by offer-ing to pay the fees, theChief Minister said thestudents need not wait forscholarship funds."Despite being aware thatthese students would getfinancial assistance fromthe government,DMKoffered its help. This isnothing but a politicaldrama," Palaniswamicharged. — PTI

Stalin demands withdrawalof ECI circular on eldersDC CORRESPONDENT CHENNAI, NOV. 21

DMK president M. K. Sta-lin demanded the with-drawal of the circular fr-om the Election Commi-ssion of India urging theChief Electoral Officersin the states to enablesenior citizens over theage of 80 and personswith disabilities votethrough ‘postal ballot.’

He said there was scopefor several irregularitiesin the new system andthe Bihar Model hadgiven rise to suspicionover the BJP alliance’svictory in the recentBihar Assembly elec-tions going by the allega-tions made by theRashtriya Janata Dal.

The post ballot systemwas fraught with severalproblems as it would dis-rupt the direct pollingprocess happening in thebooths. The circular hadcome as a shock to inde-pendent and honest peo-ple, believing in electoraldemocracy, Stalin said.

Pointing out that the sp-ecial category of absen-tee voters who would beeligible to go for postalballot would not be iden-tified by the Election

Commission in advancewould provide scope forirregularities, Stalinasked the government toget the approval ofParliament for imple-menting the scheme.

He alleged that the 80

years fixed for the seniorcitizens to become absen-tee voters was arbitrarilychanged to 65 years justbefore the Bihar elec-tions and said that therewas no transparency inthe system.

The police offi-cers posted theredetained the man.It may be notedthat the hashtag#GobackAmitShahhas been trendingsince Friday night

Two abandoned tiger cubs. — DC

Udhayanidhi arrested for coronavirus norms violationR VALAYAPATHY | DCNAGAPATTINAM, NOV. 21

Police on Saturday tookinto custody DMK youthwing leader Udhaya-nidhi Stalin along withparty’s principal secre-tary K.N. Nehru and oth-ers on charges of over-crowding and violatingCovid-19 norms, after hecampaigned for the sec-ond day at the fishermenhamlet of Akkaraipettaihere, and also went sail-ing into the sea alongwith the fishermen.

As soon as theyreturned ashore, policetook them into custodyand detained them in aprivate marriage hall.Protesting against this,DMK volunteers squat-ted on the road and pre-vented the movement of

police vehicles in whichtheir leaders were beingtaken away. But policemanaged to arrest themand took them to a mar-riage hall. Police sourcestold DC that they wouldbe released in theevening.

Udhayanidhi told news-men that the AIADMKgovernment was scaredabout his campaign andwas trying to prevent hiscampaign. He said thatin the recent Bihar asse-mbly election campaign,Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and UnionHome Minister Amitshah participated, butthey were not arrested.

He said soon after theelection to the assemblyhere, there will be a defi-nite change in govern-ment.

Amit Shah with state BJP leaders in the city. — DC

From P1

The former MP of bothLok Sabha and RajyaSabha said he would try toconvince Alagiri, whomhe supported to the hiltwhile in the DMK to jointhe BJP adding however adecision has to be takenonly by him.

Ramalingam was sus-pended from the DMKearly this year for 'viola-tion' of party discipline byexpressing a view againstthe party's demand for anall party meeting to dis-cuss the coronavirus pan-demic.

He was also relievedfrom his party post of sec-retary of the agriculturewing. Welcoming him to

the party fold, Ravi saidon his twitter handle, "Itis a great sign that formerDMK MP Thiru Dr K PRamalingam has joined@BJP4TamilNadu on theday Union Home MinisterSri @AmitShah is visitingChennai. This will notonly weaken DMK and itsbase but further st-rengthen BJP across theState."

Expressing confidencethat Ramalingam's entrywould strengthen hisparty, the senior leader,extended a warm welcometo him. Tamil Nadu seniorleaders including PonRadhakrishnan, C PRadhakrishnan and HRaja were present.

Will try to convince Alagiri tojoin BJP, says Ramalingam

NATION pg 4DECCAN CHRONICLE | CHENNAI | SUNDAY | 22 NOVEMBER 2020

SHORT TAKESFUEL PRICE HIKED

FOR SECOND DAY IN A ROW

New Delhi, Nov. 21: Petrolprice on Saturday was hiked by15 paise per litre and diesel by20 paise, the second straight dayof increase in rates after firm-ing international oil rates brokenearly a two-month-long hiatusin price revision.

The price of petrol in Delhiwas hiked to `81.38 per litrefrom `81.23, according to a noti-fication from oil marketingcompanies.

Diesel rates went up from`70.68 to `70.88 per litre.

On Friday, petrol price wasraised by 17 paise per litre anddiesel by 22 paise.

This is the first revision inpetrol prices since September22. Diesel rates had not changedsince October 2.

Public sector oil marketingcompanies - Indian OilCorporation, Bharat PetroleumCorporation Ltd and HindustanPetroleum Corporation Ltd -revise rates of petrol and dieseldaily based on benchmarkinternational oil price and for-eign exchange rate.

They have, however, resortedto calibrating the rates since thepandemic broke out with a viewto avoiding volatility in retailprices.

The 58-day hiatus in petrolprice revision and the 48-daystatus quo on diesel rates werepreceded by no change in ratesbetween June 30 and August 15and a 85-day status quo betweenMarch 17 and June 6.

In Mumbai, the petrol price onFriday was raised to Rs 88.09per litre from Rs 87.92, whilediesel rates went up from Rs77.11 to Rs 77.34.

Rates vary from state to statedepending on the incidence oflocal sales tax or VAT.

SAURABH JOSHI | DCMUMBAI, NOV. 21

The Narcotics ControlBureau (NCB), onSaturday, arrested come-dian Bharati Singh fol-lowing search andseizure of cannabis, inconnection with theongoing probe intodrugs consumption bystars of entertainmentindustry.

The NCB officials hadtaken Singh and her hus-band Harsh Limbachiyafor questioning at theagency's office. The offi-cials later confirmedthat the seized item wascannabis.

A team of the NCBraided the residence ofthe comedian atLokhandwala Complexin Andheri following aspecific information ofpresence of banned sub-stance.

The officials found 86.5gram cannabis from theresidence of the couple.The investigators wereprobing her after hername cropped up duringthe course of investiga-

tion. “One of the arrest-ed drug peddlers hadnamed her during hisinterrogation. We areconducting more search-es based on the informa-tion received from thearrested peddlers,” saidan officer.

The officials said thatthe accused were ques-tioned about the con-sumption when theyconfirmed about havingbought the banned sub-stance and also consum-ing it.

They are being ques-tioned further in con-nection with the same.

The officials are verify-ing details of her hus-band Limbachiya andthey would take further

decision based on thefindings of the probe,officials said.

The officials recentlyquestioned actor ArjunRampal in connectionwith the probe and afterthe NCB arrested hisgirlfriend Gabriel’sbrother over his alleged

links with the interna-tional drug cartels.

The officials are nowprobing the links of thepeddling of drugs to theentertainment industry,including Bollywood.

The NCB earlier ques-tioned actors DeepikaPadukone, Shraddha

Kapoor, Sara Ali Khanand Rakhul Preet Singh,after the agency foundchat exchanges betweensome of them and man-ager Karishma Prakash.The larger drug probestarted following the sui-cide of actor SushantSingh Rajput on June 14.

NCB arrests Bharati afterseizing cannabis from herBharati, hubby confirm that they had bought the banned substance

MANOJ ANAND | DCGUWAHATI, NOV. 21

In what has almost confirmed the break upin alliance between the BJP and BodolandPeoples Front (BPF), the BJP national parlia-mentary board has formally approved thejoining of BPF MP in the Rajya Sabha,Biswajit Daimary, in the saffron party aheadof the Assam assembly election due in April.

The meeting was held at the official resi-dence of BJP national president J.P. Nadda inNew Delhi and was attended by union homeminister Amit Shah, chief ministerSarbananda Sonowal, Assam BJP presidentRanjeet Kumar Dass and cabinet ministerHimanta Biswa Sarma.

Pointing out that parliamentary board hasgiven approval for the induction of the BPFRajya Sabha MP Mr Sarma said,“In the par-liamentary board meeting, our national pres-ident JP Nadda gave the approval for MrDaimary’s joining in BJP. This approval wasnecessary because Mr Daimary is a sittingMP in the Rajya Sabha.” Mr Daimary hadresigned from the post of working presidentof BPF recently. Meanwhile, Mr Daimarywhile announcing his decision to join theBJP told reporters that he has resigned fromhis Rajya Sabha seat on which he was electedon the symbol of BPF. “I have sent my resig-nation to the chairman of the Rajya Sabha,”said Mr Daimary whose resignation from theBPF has been seen as a major setback for theparty.

Earlier, reiterating that the alliance withBPF is over, Mr Sarma clarified that the issueof breaking the alliance with the BPF wasnot discussed at the parliamentary boardmeeting. “Why will the BPF issue be dis-cussed in the parliamentary board of BJP?When BJP is going to form the next govern-ment in BTC after this election (inDecember), where is the question of thealliance between the two parties in the 2021assembly elections? BJP will contest all 12assembly seats in Bodoland TerritorialRegion (spread over four districts) on itsown. But our alliance with AGP willremain,” Mr Sarma asserted.

A day before the parliamentary board meet-ing, Mr Sarma had announced that their five-year old partnership with BPF will not berenewed on expiry of the term of the presentalliance in January, which means that thetwo allies will not fight the 2021 election asfriends but as rivals.

Assam BJP president Ranjeet Dass whowas also present in the parliamentary boardmeeting of BJP in New Delhi said that theparty’s national leadership was apprised ofthe situation in the Bodo heartland in thecontext of the coming council election.

“We have told the party parliamentaryboard that BPF has lost the trust of people inBodoland Territorial Region and BJP willwin the ensuing council elections on itsown.” In January, 2016, BJP had forged a pre-poll alliance with the BPF and the AGP rid-ing on which the saffron party formed itsfirst government in the state.

AKSHAYA KUMARSAHOO | DC BHUBANESWAR, NOV. 21

Turmoil reigned supremein Odisha LegislativeAssembly on Saturday asthe Opposition Congressand BJP strongly con-demned custodial deathsof two youths – K. Rameshof Puri and Tarique Salimof Kuanarmunda policestation in Sundergarh dis-trict - and sought judicialprobe into them.

The transfer of Purisuperintendent of policeAkhileswar Singh andsuspension of theKuarnmunda policeinspector SuprabhaPradhan and two othersub-inspectors for theiralleged role in custodialdeaths on Friday nightfailed to pacify theOpposition lawmakers.

Two youths who werepicked up by the police ondifferent criminal chargeson Thursday died undermysterious circum-stances. Their families

alleged unbearable physi-cal assault by the copsduring the custody led totheir deaths.

The Opposition lawmak-ers, while participating ina special debate on lawand order situation in theHouse, repeatedly rushedto the well of the House topress for their demand.Unable to conduct the leg-islative businesses, theSpeaker Dr S.N. Patroadjourned the thrice.

The Speaker also con-vened an all-party meet-ing to resolve the impasse.However, no consensuswas reached at the all-party meeting asOpposition membersremained firm on thedemands for lodging crim-inal cases against thesuperintendents of Policeof Puri and Sundergarhdistricts and judicialprobes into the two custo-dial deaths in the two dis-tricts.

With no solution in sightto end the deadlock,Speaker adjourned the

House till Sunday(Sunday has been includ-ed in Odisha Assemblycalendar as a workingday). “We have very firmon demands to book thePuri SP on murder chargeand disciplinary actionagainst Sundergarh SP.Besides, judicial probesmust be ordered into thetwo custodial deaths thathappened in the two dis-tricts in the last 48 hours,”said the Leader ofOpposition.

BJP lawmakers –Lalitendu BidyadharMohapatra and JayantKumar Sarangi – alsocame down on the rulingBJD heavily on the custo-dial deaths.

“It seems that the gov-ernment under pressurefrom some non-Odiabureaucrats hasunleashed a reign of ter-ror using the police force.Women, children andcommon people are notsafe here,” said MrMohapatra and MrSarangi.

Bodoland Frontties end, BJP toinduct BPF MP

Custodial death issuerocks Odisha Assembly

Punjab farmers to lift rail blockade

BHAGWAN PARAB | DCMUMBAI, NOV. 21

On the lines of YogiAadityanath government,which is planning to bring a lawagainst unlawful conversions inUttar Pradesh, the BJP hasdemanded a similar act inMaharashtra. The BJP will pro-pose to bring such an actagainst ‘Love Jihad’ inMaharashtra, said senior BJPleader Kirit Somaiya.

“We support the move of theUP government, which hasdecided to bring a law againstlove jihad. There should be asimilar law in Maharashtra.The BJP will table a proposal inMaharashtra Vidhan Sabha inthis regard,” he said.

RABINDRA NATHCHOUDHURY | DCBHOPAL, NOV. 21

Madhya Pradesh whichhas the highest number of526 big cats as per the lat-est census has earned thedubious distinction ofrecording deaths of maxi-mum tigers - 25 - in thecountry in the last 11months.

According to tiger mor-tality updates provided bythe National TigerConservation Authority,MP has witnessed death of25 tigers, the highestamong the states in thecountry, since January2020 and majority of tigermortalities were reportedoutside the reserve forestsin the state.

Incidentally, it was the6th year in a row that thestate has topped the chartof tiger mortality amongthe states. Forest officershave attributed the high

mortality of tigers in MPto congestions in reserves.

“The state is witnessingan increase in tiger popu-lation due to favourablehabitats. But, at the sametime the growth of tigerpopulation has left lessthan 10 sq km for eachtiger in these reserves”, asenior forest officer of theMP government told thisnewspaper requesting notto be quoted since he wasnot authorized to speak tothe media.

“We need to learn fromthe conservation model ofKarnataka where thetiger mortality is muchlower”, he added.

Karnataka has the sec-ond largest population of tigers (524) in the coun-try.

Principal chief conser-vator of forest (PCCF) ofMP government AlokKumar, however, said thetiger population in thestate was increasing.

“Most tigers died of nat-ural causes, while somedeaths were a result ofhuman-animal conflicts”,he told the media here.

According to him, theBandavgarh tiger reservehas encountered a severeproblem of congestionand witnessed deaths of 9tigers in the last 11months.

While 4 tigers in thereserve died in territorialfights, one was killed inpoachers and the reasonsfor the death of 4 otherswere yet to be ascertained,a senior forest officersaid.

The PCCF has recentlywritten letters to all chiefconservators of forest,field directors of tigerreserves, directors ofnational parks and divi-sional forest officers seek-ing urgent measures tostrengthen conservation,protection and safety ofwildlife.

25 tigers die in MP in 11months, highest in India

Chandigarh, Nov. 21:Different farmers’ organisa-tions in Punjab, protesting thethree Central farm laws, onSaturday announced to lifttheir rail blockade for passen-ger trains from November 23.

The decision to allow passen-ger trains in the state cameafter a meeting of representa-tives of farmer leaders withChief Minister AmarinderSingh who had invited them for

talks here. “Punjab farmers tocompletely lift their rail block-ade from Monday (November23) to allow all goods and pas-senger trains, in response toimpassioned appeal by thechief minister at a meetingwith Kisan Unions,” tweetedRaveen Thukral, media advisorto the Punjab chief minister.

Before meeting the chief min-ister, farmers’ organisationsheld their own meeting to delib-

erate the rail blockade issue.The farmers’ organisation,

that had resorted to ‘rail roko’agitation from September 24over the farm laws, had alreadyagreed to allow goods trains torun in the state, besides clear-ing rail tracks and vacatingplatforms. But the deadlockbetween the protesting farmersand the Railways continuedover resumption of trains.

The farmers’ bodies had

maintained that they wouldconsider allowing passengertrains to run in the state if theCentre starts running goodstrains first. However, theRailways had refused to resumegoods trains, saying it wouldeither operate both freight andpassenger trains or none. TheRailways has maintained thatit needs full guarantee from thestate government that no trainswill be disrupted. -PTI

BJP FOR LAWAGAINST ‘LOVE

JIHAD’ IN MAHA

KERALA BRINGSORDINANCE

AGAINST ABUSEFrom Page 1

The state cabinet, last month,had decided to give more teethto the Police Act by recommend-ing addition of Section 118-A.

It stipulates either imprison-ment for up to five years or afine of up to Rs 10,000 or both tothose who produce, publish ordisseminate content throughany means of communicationwith an intention to intimidate,insult or defame any personthrough social media.

Expressing concern over therising crime graph, fake propa-ganda and hate speech on socialmedia since the outbreak

of Covid-19, the LDF govern-ment had said since cyberattacks are amajor threat to pri-vate life, it has been decided toamend thePolice Act as theexisting legal provisions wereinadequate tofight such crimes.

It said while the SupremeCourt had repealed section 66-Aof the IT Act and Section 118 (d)of the Kerala Police Act on thegrounds that these were againstfreedom of expression, theCentre has not introduced anyother legal framework.

Farmers resorted to ‘rail roko’ to protest Central farm lawsBIG | RESPITE

�� THE OFFICIALSrecently questionedactor Arjun Rampal inconnection with theprobe and after the NCBarrested his girlfriendGabriel’s brother overhis alleged links withthe international drugcartels.

Bharti Singh arrives at the NCB office for questioning after a raid at her resi-dence by the agency in a drug related case in Mumbai on Saturday. - PTI

New Delhi, Nov. 21: Amid ris-ing Covid-19 cases, inadequatebeds in government hospitalsand absence of specific guide-lines for Covid treatmentresulted in private hospitalscharging exorbitant fees, a par-liamentary panel on Saturdaysaid, asserting that a sustain-able pricing model could haveaverted many deaths.

Chairperson of the parlia-mentary standing committeeon health Ram Gopal Yadavsubmitted the report on‘Outbreak of Pandemic Covid-19 and its Management’, toRajya Sabha Chairman M.Venkaiah Naidu.

This is the first report by anyparliamentary committee onthe government’s handling ofthe Covid-19 pandemic.

Underlining that healthcarespending in the country with apopulation of 1.3 billion is“abysmally low”, the panelsaid fragility of Indian healthecosystem posed a big hurdlein generating an effectiveresponse against the pandem-ic.

“The committee, therefore,strongly recommends the gov-ernment to increase its invest-ments in the public healthcaresystem and make consistentefforts to achieve the NationalHealth Policy targets of expen-diture up to 2.5 per cent ofGDP within two years as theset time frame of year 2025 isfar away and the public healthcannot be jeopardised till thattime schedule,” the report stat-ed.

The National Health Policy2017 has set a target of govern-ment expenditure on health-care up to 2.5 per cent of GDPby 2025 from just 1.15 per centin 2017.

Stating that the public had toundergo trauma and distress

due to absence of a dedicatedhealthcare system, the com-mittee observed that the num-ber of government hospitalbeds in the country were notadequate to handle the increas-ing number of Covid and non-Covid patients.

“... Cost of health servicedelivery increased due toabsence of specific guidelinesfor Covid treatment in privatehospitals as a result of whichpatients were charged exorbi-tant fees,” the committee notedin the report.

Stressing on the need for bet-ter partnership between thegovernment and private hospi-tals in wake of the pandemicand shortage of state-runhealthcare facilities, thereport said, “The Committee isof the view that arriving at asustainable pricing model totreat Covid patients could haveaverted many deaths.”

The committee believeshealthcare should never belimited to only those who canafford to pay but should movetowards the noble vision ofuniversal health coverage. Forthis happen, the governmentneeds to be considerate andsupport the private health caresector, the report said.

The committee was all praisefor healthcare workers anddoctors for being on frontlinein handling of the deadly virusand said they should havedefined working hours, pre-dictably functioning relieverrosters and scheduled off-dutydays.

The doctors, who have laiddown their lives in fightagainst the pandemic, must beacknowledged as martyrs andtheir families be adequatelycompensated, it suggested inthe report. - PTI

Par panel: Pvt hospscharged exorbitantfees for Covid-19

From Page 1

But the people of this timemay not have intentionallyadded CNTs, instead, duringthe processing at high temper-atures, these would have justformed accidentally,” DrShaijumon said.

“If there is some processingof the potteries, which proba-bly would have involved somehigh-temperature treatment,then it will add more justifica-tion to the findings,” headded.

According to DrChandrasekaran, the closestscientific explanation for thefinding is that some “vegetalfluid or extract” might havebeen used in the coatings ofthese pots which may have ledto the formation of CNTs dur-ing high-temperature process-ing.

Rajavelu S, professor of his-tory at Alagappa Universityin Tamil Nadu, who was unre-lated to the study, said the peo-ple of this time may haveadded or coated somethingsimilar to plant-sap to theinside of the pots, and subjectit to the nearly 1100-1400degree Celsius high-tempera-ture fire treatment as seen inkilns.

“This fire treatment mayhave led to the formation ofthe coating which has likelystrengthened the pot andmade the coating durable,"Prof. Rajavelu said.

“Normally with high-tem-perature processing of car-bon, they form these type oftubular nano-structures, butuntil about the 1990s therewere no sophisticated instru-ments available to charac-terise them. So these struc-tures are already even presentin nature and only now we areobserving them,” explainedDr Shaijumon.

Prof. Rajavelu concurred. Hesaid the ancient people wouldnot have known these asCNTs, but may have just hadthe need to make their potshave high durability, and mayhave needed a certain colourout of their products onapplying high-temperaturefiring.”

“They likely knew the tech-nique to make these coatingspractically, but may not haveknown this as a thesis withany kinds of formulae," Prof.Rajavelu added.

Commenting on the signifi-cance of the research,Sharada Srinivasan, anexpert in archaemetallurgyassociated with the NationalInstitute of Advanced Studies

(NIAS) in Bengaluru, saidnanotechnology has madestrides since the 90s with theadvent of advanced tech-niques like the scanning tun-nelling microscopy.

“But it is increasingly recog-nised from archaeologicalstudies that past skilled arti-sans sometimes accidentallyor empirically made nanoma-terials -- such as the famousEgyptian Blue -- withoutbeing aware of the science ofworking at the nano-scale,”Dr Srinivasan said.

Based on their analysis, DrChandrasekaran said theancient Tamil civilisation ofthis time were aware of, andmastered high-temperatureprocessing, but added that themeans and mechanism bywhich they produced theseartifacts with carbon-nan-otubes is not widely explored.

“Black and red pottery wareassociated with megalithicsites in southern India contin-ues into Keeladi dated back to6th century BC. The fineblack and red effect wasachieved by high temperaturefiring temperatures at about1100 degrees in the presenceof carbon-rich matter andiron-rich red soils,” DrSrinivasan said.

“They do not look like nor-mal pots, these have glazedfinishes, and are made ofhigh-quality clay,” Prof.Rajavelu added.

He said these earthenwareswere likely used by the“sophisticated people of thetime,” adding that “a lot ofthe shards” have been foundin Keeladi, “some dating backeven as early as 900 BCE.”

“We have known for a longtime that in iron smelting andmanufacture, India was aworld leader at the time. Eventhe Sangam ancient Tamil lit-erature has noted about steelmanufacture,” Prof. Rajavelusaid.

“The technological skills ofthe Tamils in high-tempera-ture manipulation of car-bonaceous matter to makeultra-high carbon cruciblesteel known as wootz by aboutthe mid to late centuries BCwas also reported by us, whilecarbon nanotubes werereported in medieval pat-terned ‘Damascus’ bladesforged from such steel,” DrSrinivasan explained.

She believes the findingsexpand the broader knowl-edge of the history of scienceand technology in India, andpoint to potential future appli-cations of such nanomateri-als as durable coatings. - PTI

Study says 600 BCKeeladi pottery hadcarbon nanotubes

ACCIDENTAL FIRING KILLS 1 INMLC’S RESIDENCE

Lucknow, Nov. 21: A 35-year-old man died of gunshotinjuries suffered in an acciden-tal firing amid the playful scuf-fle among friends for a pistolduring a birthday celebration atthe official residence ofSamajwadi Party MLC AmitYadav, police said on Saturday.

Following the death ofBarabanki native RakeshRawat, four men have beenarrested, said DeputyCommissioner of Police SomenBarma. The incident occurredon Friday night at MLC’s offi-cial residence in Lucknow’sHazratganj where the five peo-ple had gathered to celebratethe birthday of one VinayYadav. PTI

WORLD pg 5DECCAN CHRONICLE | CHENNAI | SUNDAY | 22 NOVEMBER 2020

IN BRIEF

JAN MORRIS,AUTHOR, PASSES

AWAY AT 94New York, Nov. 21: JanMorris, the celebrated journal-ist, historian, world travellerand fiction writer who in mid-dle age became a pioneer of thetransgender movement, hasdied at 94.

Morris died in Wales onFriday morning, according toher literary representative, Un-ited Agents. Her agent SophieScard confirmed her death.Morris had been in failinghealth. Additional details werenot immediately available. TheBritish author lived as JamesMorris until the early 1970s,when she underwent surgeryat a clinic in Casablanca andrenamed herself Jan Morris.

Her best-selling memoir“Conundrum,” which came outin 1974, continued the path ofsuch earlier works as ChristineJorgensen's “A Personal Autob-iography” in presenting herdecision as natural and liberat-ing. “I no longer feel isolatedand unreal,” she wrote. Morriswas a prolific and accom-plished author and journalistwho wrote dozens of books.

BOB DYLANDOCUMENTS

SELL FOR $495KBoston, Nov. 21: A long-losttrove of Bob Dylan documentsincluding the singer-song-writer's musings about anti-Semitism and unpublishedsong lyrics has sold at auctionfor $495,000. Boston-based R RAuction said Friday the collec-tion privately held by the lateAmerican blues artist TonyGlover, a longtime Dylan friendand confidante, was soldThursday to a bidder whoseidentity was not made public.The collection included tran-scripts of Glover's 1971 inter-views with Dylan and lettersthe pair exchanged.

The interviews reveal thatreveal that Dylan had anti-Semitism on his mind when hechanged his name from RobertZimmerman.

RESIGN WITH ME,GUATEMALA VP

URGES PREZGuatemala City, Nov. 21:Guatemala's vice presidenttold President Alejandro Gia-mmattei that both men shouldresign their positions “for thegood of the country” followingthe approval of a budget cutt-ing educational and healthspending that caused a publicoutcry. “We both resign,” VicePresident Guillermo Castillosaid he told Giammattei Frid-ay. He had suggested vetoingthe approved budget, firinggovernment officials and atte-mpt more outreach to varioussectors around the country.

Giammattei had not respond-ed publicly and Castillo didnot share the president's reac-tion to his proposal.

Castillo said he would notresign alone. Discontent hadbeen building over the new2021 budget on social mediaand then generated clasheswith police Friday in front ofthe congress. The spendingplan was negotiated in secretand approved by the congress.

Washington, Nov. 21:The surging Coronavirusis taking an increasinglydire toll across the US justas a vaccine appears athand, with the countrynow averaging over 1,300Covid-19 deaths per day —the highest since thecalamitous spring in andaround New York City.

The overall death toll hasreached about 253,000, byfar the highest in theworld. Total confirmedinfections have eclipsedmore than 11.7 million,after the biggest one-daygain on record Thursday— almost 188,000. And thenumber of people in thehospital with Covid-19 hitanother all-time high atmore than 80,000.

With health expertsdeeply afraid Thanksg-iving travel and holidaygatherings next week willfuel the spread of thevirus, many states andcities are imposing near-lockdowns or other restri-ctions. California ordereda 10 pm to 5 am curfewstarting Saturday, cover-ing 94% of the state's 40million residents.

The Texas border countyof El Paso, where morethan 300 people have diedfrom Covid-19 since Oct-ober, is advertising jobsfor morgue workers capa-ble of lifting bodies weigh-ing 175 pounds or more.

Officials are offering morethan $27 an hour for workdescribed as not onlyphysically arduous but“emotionally taxing aswell.” The county hadalready begun paying jailinmates $2 an hour to helpmove corpses and hasordered at least 10 refrig-erated trucks as morguesrun out of room. Covid-19deaths in the US are attheir highest level sincelate May, when theNortheast was emergingfrom the first wave of thecrisis. They peaked at

about 2,200 a day in lateApril, when New York Citywas the epicentre and bod-ies were being loaded ontorefrigerated trucks byforklift. — AP

Daily US virus deaths highest since MayCountry now averaging over 1,300 Covid deaths per day, daily infections at a record high of 188,000

Warangal doc finds possiblecure for Covid-19 issues

Moscow, Nov. 21: Russiaon Saturday registeredrecord numbers for dailyinfections and deathsfrom the Coronavirus,two days after havingpassed two million cases.

Health officials reported24,822 new infections and476 deaths, bringing thenational total to 2,064,748million cases and 35,778fatalities since the begin-ning of the year.

While those figures sug-gest a lower death rate

than elsewhere in the wo-rld, they need to be treat-ed with caution. The offi-cial Russian death tollonly includes those inwhich Covid has beenestablished as the pri-mary cause of death afteran autopsy.

Data published by Russ-ia's federal statistics serv-ice earlier this monthindicated excess deaths ofmore than 117,000 year-on-year between March andSeptember, suggesting

that virus fatalities couldbe much higher. Most ofthe new cases announcedSaturday were recordedin Moscow (7,168) and inthe country's second city,Saint Petersburg (2,476),with other regions record-ing figures in the tens orhundreds.

“We are getting a lot ofcalls at the moment,”Dmitri, a SaintPetersburg ambulancedriver, told AFP. “Thenumber of sick people is

growing.” The medicalteam he worked with col-lecting samples to identi-fy cases visited around 20addresses every day, hesaid. “People are scared,and they are calling for adoctor as soon as they geta little cough,” saidLyudmila, one of the twonurses on the team.

On Wednesday, RussianPresident Vladimir Putindescribed the surge ininfections and deaths as“alarming”. — AFP

Russia Covid-19 toll hits new highDON ELDEST SONDONALD TRUMPJR. TESTS +VEWashington, Nov. 21:Donald Trump Jr, the eld-est son of US PresidentDonald Trump, has testedpositive for Covid-19, hisspokesperson said, latestin the First Family to havebeen infected by the dead-ly virus. Trump Jr testedpositive at the start of theweek and has been "quar-antining out at his cabinsince the result,” the spok-esman said on Friday. "Hehas been asymptomatic sofar and is following allguidelines," the spoke-sman added. — PTI

THE RECENT brea-kthroughs on Co-

vid-19 vaccines offer aray of hope. But that rayof hope needs to reacheveryone. That meansensuring that vaccinesare treated as a globalpublic good — accessi-ble and affordable toeveryone, everywhere.

ANTONIO GUTERRES UN Secretary General

Lahore, Nov. 21: APakistani court hasjailed two moreaides of Mumbaiattack mastermindand Jamat-ud-Dawah (JuD) chiefHafiz Saeed in a ter-ror financing case.The Anti-TerrorismCourt (ATC) ofLahore on Fridayhanded down six andfive-and-a-half yearsof imprisonment toJuD leadersMuhammad Ashrafand Lucman Shah,

respectively. ATCJudge Arshad Hus-sain Bhutta alsoimposed a fine of Rs10,000 on each ofthem. On Thursday,the 70-year-old JuDchief was sentencedto 10 years of impris-onment in two terrorcases by ATCLahore.

Saeed's two closeaides — Zafar Iqbaland Yahya Mujahid— were sentenced to10 and a half yearseach. — PTI

TERROR FINANCING: TWOHAFIZ SAEED AIDES JAILEDTIBETAN LEADER IN WH: 1ST IN 60 YRS

Washington, Nov. 21:The head of the Tibetangovernment in exile hasvisited the White Housefor the first time in sixdecades and met the newlyappointed senior US offi-cial on Tibetan issues, theCentral TibetanAdministration said onSaturday, a developmentthat could enrage Beijing,which has accused the USof trying to interfere inChina's internal affairs.Dr Lobsang Sangayentered the United StatesWhite House on Friday —

a historic feat. This is the first time in

the last 6 decades the headof the Central TibetanAdministration (CTA) hasbeen invited into theWhite House, the CTA saidin a statement. "It is agreat honour to be the firstpolitical head of theCentral Tibetan Adm-inistration to formallyenter the White House,"Sangay said in a tweet.

"Today's visit amounts toan acknowledgement ofboth the democratic sys-tem of the CTA and its

political head... This unp-recedented meeting perh-aps will set an optimistictone for CTA participationwith US officials and bemore formalised in thecoming years," said theCTA, which is based inDharamshala in India.

Sangay, the President ofthe Central Tibetan Admi-nistration (CTA), wasinvited to the White Houseto meet the newly appo-inted US Special Coordi-nator for Tibetan Issues,Robert Destro, on Friday, itsaid. — PTI

WH: Trump admin dideverything for transitionWashington, Nov.21: The Trumpadministration hasdone "everythings t a t u t o r i l yrequired" to do inthe event of a transi-tion, the WhiteHouse has said,asserting that a con-stitutional processis being played outto determine thewinner of theNovember 3 presi-dential election.

Incumbent USPresident DonaldTrump, a Republic-an, has refused toconcede the electionto 78-year-old JoeBiden, a Democrat,and has filed multi-ple lawsuits chal-lenging the pollresults in several st-

ates. Trump, 74, hasmade allegations ofwidespread elec-toral fraud, withoutproviding any evi-dence.

Former US vicepresident Biden wasdeclared the winnerof the closely-foughtUS presidential elec-tion on November 7.Biden now has 306electoral votes toTrump's 232 votes.To win the race tothe White House, thesuccessful candidateshould have at least270 electoral votesout of the 538-mem-ber ElectoralCollege.

His lead in the pub-lic vote overallstands at more than5.9 million. — PTI

Washington, Nov. 21:An Indian-American sci-entist has discovered apotential strategy to pre-vent life-threateninginflammation, lung dam-age and organ failure inpatients diagnosed withCovid-19.

Published online in thejournal Cell, the researchcoming from the lab ofDr Thirumala-Devi

Kanneganti, an Indian-born researcher workingat St. Jude Children'sResearch Hospital inTennessee, identified thedrugs after finding thatthe hyperinflammatoryimmune response associ-ated with virus leads totissue damage and multi-organ failure in mice bytriggering inflammatorycell death pathways.

The researchersdetailed how the inflam-matory cell death signal-ing pathway worked,which led to potentialtherapies to disrupt theprocess. “Understandingthe pathways and mecha-nism driving this inflam-mation is critical todevelop effective treatme-nt strategies,” saidKanneganti. — PTI

EDIT pg 6DECCAN CHRONICLE | SUNDAY | 22 NOVEMBER 2020 | CHENNAI

Isay this to sound like I have an all-round life, but I mean Twitter.Thanks to Mark Zuckerberg and his strange ideas of how threaten-ing decapitation is not threatening decapitation, my interactionswith Facebook have diminished. WhatsApp I have always

abhorred because there are only so many “Good Morning” fake cups ofcoffee and bunches of flowers that you can receive without falling vio-lently ill.

Aha, I hear you thinking, this means you are in favour of “fake news”and are actually a secret WhatsApp addict. You could imagine that butyou could also imagine that I ruthlessly block anyone who bores mewith endless rightwing rubbish.

It is true that I have another Zuckerberg product or acquisition on myphone and that is Instagram. This I like. I haven’t fully grasped its pur-pose other than the purpose of all social media which I understand is tosell me as “data”. But I do enjoy the photographs. Especially of endlessimages of boiled eggs and avocadoes in such creative and innovativejuxtaposition. The human mind is fabulous.

Is that it? There’s the Nasa app for the latest on space exploration, theChirp app for the latest on gravitational wave detections, the free weath-er apps which are quite my favourite to waste time on, the Google mapapp which forces me to find geographical locations mentioned in every book I read. The tennis apps, well their purpose is obvious. If Ican’t remember anything else afterlooking at my phone to check, well, thisis it.

I don’t have much to do with the “gig”economy either and not just I live in aremote area where no one really wantsto gig by. I am wary of using my phoneto pay, transact, bank. And I do likehumans and physical shops and such.And I don’t want to chat with my phoneservice provider on WhatsApp no mat-ter how many annoying messages theysend me!

So after this long detour, we reachTwitter. Or do we? Once, angry withTwitter for its Zuckerbergian refusal tostop toxicity and for suspending anti-toxic handles, a few of switched us toMastodon. This was really sweet for awhile. There were only like-minded peo-ple on it and you had lovely chats. Butboy did it get hellishly boring after awhile. There was no information yousee, because there were no news sites,no information sites, no sports sites. Nonothing, really. Bye-bye it was toMastodon. I still get plaintive emailstelling me what I’m missing, like froman old flame who hasn’t realised it’sover.

Now we reach Twitter. It’s got every-thing right with it and everythingwrong with it. I’m not going to get philo-sophical and stuff and tell you it’s amicrocosm of life blah blah. But it iscompelling and it is negotiable. And Ispend most of my day on it. Yeah, itsounds pathetic, but do I care?

You want the obvious: you interactwith a wide range of people from allover the world. There is no endless procession of smiling cups of coffee.Fake news may proliferate but is easily called out. News itself is widelyavailable with “real time” updates. You can take part in conversationsor you can just watch.

Trolls? Yes. There are trolls. They can be putrid, vile, scary. You haveto deal with them. For journalists, trolls have long been part of our lives.Earlier, trolls would write postcards and letters. Then they sent emailsand wrote comments below your articles and columns. They made moreor less the same threats of death and rape. It was just a question of scaleand accessibility. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer. I don’t interact;they wither away.

It’s a great escape too from the real world and that’s why it’s an addic-tion. An ever-widening circle of information, entertainment, interac-tion, annoyance, humour, joy and so on. People you might never haveknown existed otherwise. People you never would have met. And yes, Ihave met some Twitter friends in real life. And sometimes, especiallysince Covid, have interacted more with real friends on Twitter than inreal life!

I get that it’s not for everyone. It can be too political, too in-your-face,too demanding of responses. It can force you to fall into weird rabbitholes. Words, phrases, ideologies you don’t understand. I feel my age onTwitter at all times and have to use online dictionaries to understandwhat people, young people, say and mean. There are worlds withinworlds revealed. If I were a proper psycho-babbler, I would have moreinsights to offer into human nature and the infinite spirals we can tra-verse!

I get that some people prefer cat videos and holiday snaps. Either way,we are part of this grand social media exercise. If you’re up for a fight,you know where to find me!

The writer is a senior journalist who writes on media affairs, politicsand social trends. She tweets at @ranjona.

The number ofIndians infectedby Covid-19 hascrossed 90 lakhs.Over 1.3 lakhs

have died of the virus. Theeconomic distress in thewake of the pandemic ispalpable. Millions haveseen their earnings drop.

Amid the deaths, dis-ease, debt and despair,guess what some stategovernments in India areconcerned about? Theyare worrying about whoone marries, whether theperson is of the same faithor a different one, and ifthere is any hint of con-versions, forced or otherwise.

In the last few weeks,several BJP-ruled stategovernments have beenratcheting up tension bypublicly announcing theirplans to bring about legis-lation to outlaw what theydescribe as “love jihad”.

Last week, it was theturn of Madhya Pradesh,where night curfew hasnow been imposed inIndore, Bhopal, Gwalior,Vidisha, and Ratlam dis-tricts from November 21as Covid-19 cases surge. Inthe middle of all this,Madhya Pradesh homeminister NarottamMishra found time todeclare that a “love jihadbill”, which intendsimposing five years of rig-orous imprisonment for“violators”, will soon beintroduced in the stateAssembly.

Madhya Pradesh is notthe only state stoking sen-timents around the “lovejihad” conspiracy theory,which pivots around thebelief that Muslim men inIndia are part of someorganised campaign toconvert Hindu women toIslam. Four other BJP-ruled states — includingUttar Pradesh andHaryana — are following

the same playbook.At an election rally in

Jaunpur last month, UttarPradesh chief ministerYogi Adityanath warnedof dire consequences tothose found guilty of “lovejihad”.

Earlier this month,Haryana home ministerAnil Vij announced thathis state was planning tobring in a strict law tocontrol “love jihad” casesand soon a committeewould be constituted todraft the law. The tourismminister of Karnataka,also BJP-ruled, has tweet-ed that the southern statewould bring in a “a lawbanning religious conver-sions for the sake of mar-riage”. Assam ministerand BJP Northeast point-person Himanta BiswaSarma has joined in thechorus against “lovejihad”.

What is behind this rushfor laws to outlaw “lovejihad” in the time of a pandemic?

It is clearly a rallyingcry to mobilise BJP sup-porters. But that is onlypart of the story.

Think of all the issuesand questions that getspushed off the news cycleeach time “love jihad”grabs headlines. Publichealth experts like AnantBhan and HemantShewade point out thatIndia is far from being onthe top of the pandemicand governments at theCentre and in states mustfocus on addressing theneeds of those with Covid-19 and those who haveother diseases. There isliterally no time to waste.

Why then this noiseabout “love jihad” whenin February this year, G.Kishan Reddy, Unionminister of state for homein the Narendra Modigovernment, said: “Theterm ‘love jihad’ is not

defined under the extantlaws.” He also said: “Nosuch case of ‘love jihad’has been reported by anyof the Central agencies.”Mr Reddy was replying toa question by CongressMP Benny Behanan inParliament on “whetherCentral agencies havereported any case of ‘lovejihad’ from Kerala duringthe past two years and ifso, the details thereof?”

Mr Reddy also notedthat Article 25 of theConstitution provides forthe freedom to profess,practice and propagatereligion subject to publicorder, morality andhealth. “Various courts,including the Kerala highcourt, have upheld thisview,” he said in a writtenreply.

It is astonishing that in2020, an adult woman inIndia is not seen as capa-ble of making decisions onher own about herself andthere are so many who arewilling to believe thatthere is a vast conspiracyleading to young Hinduwomen being seduced andcoerced into marriage byMuslim men under falsepretexts. Hadiya Jahan’scase comes instantly tomind. Her family claimedthat she was a victim of“love jihad”, despite hersaying that that she hadconverted willingly. TheSupreme Court subse-quently restored the mar-riage. A Supreme Court-ordered probe by theNational InvestigationAgency into 11 cases ofinter-faith marriages inKerala has not found anyevidence of forced conver-sion in any of the cases.

In India, there is no lawbarring couples from dif-ferent faiths from gettingmarried. Couples, includ-ing interfaith ones, canget married under aSpecial Marriage Actwithout changing theirreligion. The law, howev-er, requires the registrarto post a notice about theintended marriage 30days before the weddingand this has triggeredmany problematic situa-tions, with families andright-wing groups tryingto stir the pot if it the cou-ple are from differentfaiths.

The All India Lawyers’Association for Justice, anational lawyers’ collec-tive, has condemned theannouncements made bythe BJP-ruled states topass a law against “lovejihad”.

In a statement, the asso-ciation said that it“believes that every per-son has the right to marryor not, and to select theirpartners as per their willand desire…Governments, instead ofpursuing a communalagenda that penalisesthose who exercise theirconstitutional freedoms,must take immediatesteps to enact a law thatwould specifically coverthe field of so-called ‘hon-our’ crimes.”

It is clear that charges of“love jihad” may not stickin court. It is also clearthat the “love jihad”bogey is more a marker ofthe politics of intimida-tion than anything else.All this high-decibel talkabout an imagined “lovejihad” and the rush forlaws to stop somethingthat does not exist isworse than tilting at wind-mills — it is helpingdivert attention from farmore pressing issues sur-rounding the pandemic.

We can neither afforddeepening of fissures nordiversions.

The writer focuses ondevelopment issues in

India and emergingeconomies. She can be

reached atpatralekha.chatterjee

@gmail.com.

All this high-deci-bel talk about an

imagined ‘lovejihad’ and the rush

for laws to stopsomething that

does not exist isworse than tilting

at windmills — it ishelping divert

attention from farmore pressing

issues surroundingthe pandemic

It’s a great escape toofrom the real world

and that’s why it’s anaddiction. An

ever-widening circle ofinformation,

entertainment, inter-action, annoyance,

humour, joy and so on.People you might

never have knownexisted otherwise.People you never

would have met. Andyes, I have met some

Twitter friends in real life.

Subhani

Ranjona Banerji

Off the beaten track

PatralekhaChatterjee

How I tweeted awaymy pandemic summer

Get priorities straightin time of a pandemic

The real socialdistance in US:

Can Joe, Kamalaensure change?

Be jubilant, but keep it short.Donald Trump clings to theWhite House but it’s a pret-ty good bet that he will

depart, kicking and tweeting, onJanuary 20. He nonetheless gar-nered 72 million votes, so his long-anticipated exit may not be perma-nent. The Democratic Party failedto cut into his support because theywere loath to say one word thatsmacked of the visionary aspira-tions of FDR’s New Deal or LBJ’sGreat Society, regarded as hideous-ly socialist by their big donors.

Wall Street injected millions ofdollars into Joe Biden’s campaign,and awaits Cabinet appointmentsand more, which will be duly grant-ed given that some 40 former lobby-ists populate his transition team. Sowe are a long way from Mr Bidenposing credibly as a humble man ofthe people. It was truly bizarre lis-tening to affluent Democrats dis-miss Bernie Sanders as not a “real”party member when he andElizabeth Warren were the onlycandidates who stuck to the valuesof traditional FDR Democrats.

After fending off the left-liberal

platforms of Mr Sanders and MsWarren, complacent Democrat offi-cials are determined to revert to thesame stale economic policies thatbred Mr Trump’s resistible rise topower in the first place.Throughout his lacklustre cam-paign, Mr Biden avidly played theCovid-19 card of extreme lockdown,pleasing perhaps a third of the pop-ulace who can afford a Zoomlifestyle but far less so a hard-pressed majority who plead that theeconomy (jobs, wages, small busi-nesses and housing stability) istheir foremost worry.

Lockdown proponents like toclaim that disobeying their rulesmeans you will murder yourgranny. They don’t like to hear thatlockdowns mean condemning mul-titudes to poverty, homelessnessand early deaths (from untreatedillnesses) in order to protect theirprivileged selves. The anti-Covidmeasures in the United States sim-ply managed to shift the risks fromthe upper class to the poor, and is nosmall part of the reason for theboosted Trump vote. A loss of seatsin the House of Representatives and

an inability to gain a Senate majori-ty should alert the DemocraticParty lords that something essen-tial is missing in their economicprogrammes, but all they do isblame the left for their own short-comings.

Mr Biden’s popularity was onlymodestly higher than Mr Trump’s.The bulk of Democrats voted for JoeBiden out of distaste for Mr Trump,not enthusiasm for he who has littleto offer those outside his high-income social orbit. Mr Biden has atrack record any conservative cancherish — servant of the credit cardindustry in his home state ofDelaware, passing a 2005 law strip-ping people of bankruptcy relief;tormentor of Anita Hill during a1991 Supreme Court nominationevent, installing a judge whobecame a reliable rubber stamp forreactionary views; pushing a 1994crime bill that sent the incarcera-tion of minorities skyrocketing; andblithely offering several times,including as Barack Obama’s vice-president, to slash social securityand Medicare to make foolish com-promises with crafty Republicans.

Mr Biden’s good manners will be arelief, but only for a short spell.

Kamala Harris praised Mr Bidenfor his “audacity” in choosing heras running mate when nothing wasmore obvious than the careful polit-ical calculations involved in thechoice. In mainstream Americanpolitics, “identities” of race, creed,ethnicity and gender are areallowed to flourish instead of classinterests, which are not supposed toexist. One hopes that Ms Harris’shattering of race and gender barri-ers puts those symbolic goalsbehind us, because Barack Obama’spresidency gave black voters whoweren’t already prosperous nothingbut a vicarious thrill. Canny elitescan always pick useful opportuniststo do their bidding, on the assump-tion that all that people crave is tobecome part of the establishment.Too often, they’re right about that.Ms Harris is a dedicated careeristwho played her cards right as a pub-lic prosecutor with a mercilessapproach to the poor, even threat-ening to jail parents of truant children.

The US isn’t centre-right, but the

people who run it are. An New YorkTimes poll attests two-thirds of UScitizens want a wealth tax, nationalhealthcare, free college tuition anda Green New Deal, just for starters.A recent Fox News poll put thosefigures even higher.

Mr Biden and Ms Harris becameDemocratic candidates becausethey are “safe hands” who enableWall Street, mega corporations, andtoo-big-to-fail banks to go on bilkingaverage citizens. The top 10 per centin the US now own 78 per cent of thewealth. At this rate, the top 10 percent should own everything inanother lifetime, but something hasto give. The real social distancingthat the US has practised since the1970s is the ever-yawning gapbetween the wealthy and the rest.Mr Biden is by no means a remedy,unless the social justice movementsarising during Trump’s era pres-sure him ever so reluctantly intothe role.

By arrangement with Dawn.The writers are the authors of No

Clean Hands and Parables ofPermanent War.

Kurt Jacobsen and Sayyed

Hassan Khan

Dec 360

KAUSHIK MITTER Editor, R. MOHAN Resident Editor DECCAN CHRONICLE offices are located at: Chennai: SP 3 Developed Plot, Industrial Estate, Guindy, Chennai 600032. Phones: (044) 22254747, 22254748 Coimbatore: 77 Vivekananda Road, Ramnagar, Coimbatore 641009. Phone: (0422) 2231255, 2231256 Hyderabad: 36, Sarojini Devi Road, Secunderabad 500 003. Phone: (040) 27803930-4. Fax:

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22 NOVEMBER 2020

LETTERS

UNWELCOME SUGGESTIONThe suggestion of theReserve Bank of India(RBI) that big businesshouses in the countrymay be allowed to setup banks (Corp housesset to get bankinglicences, Nov.21) isunwelcome. Actually,there is no dearth ofbanks/ branches in thecountry. Let the exist-ing banks (in private aswell as public sector)avoid non-performingassets (NPAs) and ens-ure liquidity and prof-itability to sustain inthe business. One can-not be oblivious of themerger of some nation-alised banks to guaran-tee cost effectivenessand efficient function-ing.

S. Ramakrishnasayee,Chennai

DUTY AND ROLE OF SCTHE EDITORIAL SC fails if itcan’t protect fundamental rights ofall (Nov. 21) highlighting the dutyand role of the Supreme Court ofIndia as the protector of the funda-mental rights of the citizensagainst the might of governmentis worth its weight in gold. Theeditorial contains the historicalbackground and perspective of theIndian Constitution and thequotes of the speeches of eminentmen like late AnanthasayanamIyengar the first LS Speaker withregard to Article 32 (right of citi-zens to take legal remedy throughSupreme Court). The SupremeCourt of India is not simply astructure created out of cementlime and iron but it is a standingbut silent symbol of hope of thecommon man to seek remedyagainst state oppression. But oflate the Supreme Court and judgesare brought to ridicule and opencriticism by those who expect thejudges to dance to their tunes.None would forget the mocking ofPrasant Bhushan against the judi-ciary a few months before and hisreluctance to pay the fine of onerupee imposed upon him for con-tempt of court.

Kooduthuraiyan, Coimbatore

LIFETIME BAN ON CONVICTSTHE PROPOSAL (of the Centralgovernment to bring lifetime banon persons convicted for crimesfrom seeking public office throughelections is a right step in cleans-ing society and political climate ofthe country. Law abiding peoplewith limited means at present fearand hesitate to contest against per-sons with muscle and moneypower and criminal background.If honesty and straightforward-ness is to be restored in public lifeit is very essential that personswith doubtful and dubious reputa-tion are barred from entering pub-lic life permanently.

V. Rakesh Kaushik, Chennai

TRUMP NOT CONCEDINGTHE INCUMBENT Donald Trum-p’s blatant refusal to concede theUS presidential election by flaggingunsubstantiated allegations offraud and casting aspersions on thevery integrity of the electoralprocess had cast a big shadow overthe smooth transition of power.Trump’s menacing manoeuvringswith an intent to overturn the elec-tion results with its potential nega-tive ramifications on the country’sdemocratic credentials areunheard of in the independent his-tory of the United States. With keybattleground states such as Georgiaand Michigan won by Joe Biden,Donald Trump is making his last-ditch efforts to scuttle the finalresults.

M. Jeyaram, Sholavandan

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Bahrisons, New Delhi

How the ‘republic of fear’has become a reality!

When Prime MinisterNarendra Modi speaksof a ‘New India’, and

defines it as an India free fromthe shackles of casteism andcommunal tension, an Indiathat successfully solves itsendemic problems of corrup-tion, nepotism, and terrorism,an India where every woman,man, and child would be givenan empowered and dignifiedstandard of living, thanks to asociety that harnesses India’sentrepreneurial spirit tobecome an economic power-house, he is not wrong. Rather,he is merely reiterating a his-toric commitment to the free-doms that were preserved andguaranteed in the Old India.

But, as usual, between therhetoric and the reality therefalls a great shadow. For allthese statements and ideals(which one can find very little todisagree with), one is struck bythe complete lack of any idea ofhow our country is going toachieve any of this. And, on thecontrary, plenty of evidence ofthe opposite: whether it is the‘Achche Din’ of 2014 or the ‘NewIndia’ of the present, under theBJP government, these phrasesappear to be a mere smoke-screen for the real agenda thatthis government has pursuedsince coming to power. The roadto New India appears litteredwith the wreckage of all thatwas good and noble about theOld India.

In its place, an ugly distortionof the Indian idea is rising, anIndia where an especially dan-

gerous and perverted form ofethnonationalism is being fos-tered; and, in this India that isbeing sought to be created, anarrow-minded majoritarian-ism prevails, where incidents ofcommunal violence proliferate,driven by mob-lynching zealots,and gau rakshak vigilantes. Inthis grotesque New India, driv-en by Hindu zealots, BharatMata ki Jai and Jai Shri Ramhave become rallying cries ofbigotry rather than the beauti-ful slogans Indians are free touse or not as they wish. AsPratap Bhanu Mehta fittinglyasked: ‘How did this fantasy ofhope, painted in the colours of anation marching to one tuneand one purpose, completelyblanket out the actual republicof fear?’

If this ‘republic of fear’ wasonly hinted at in the first term ofModi’s BJP government, in itssecond term it has become aclearly illustrated reality... TheBritish also ruled India as an‘empire of fear’ for this veryreason: as historians haveshown, the colonial regime wasconstantly fearful, even para-noid, because they were unsureof whether or not they reallyunderstood what they weredoing. The BJP government hasbegun showing similar symp-toms. Their populism is built onthe exploitation of fear: thenativist fear of foreigners(migrants, minorities, threaten-ing neighbours), the middle-class fear of competition fromrising socio-economic groups(OBCs, Dalits, Muslims,

migrants), the identitarian fearof demographic eclipse (fromMuslim over-procreation, ‘lovejihad’, and the like), the nation-alist fear of territorial fragmen-tation (caused by a left-liberal-Kashmiri ‘tukde-tukde gang’,abetted by Pakistan, deter-mined to break India intopieces), and the traditionalistfear of the unfamiliar rupturesof globalisation.

The ‘Hindu nationalists’ havean ideology they want to imple-ment but the resistance theyhave run into — from the anti-CAA protests to unruly, suffer-ing but defiant migrant workers— causes doubts and promptsthem into exaggerated counter-reactions as a way of maskingtheir confusion. It is ironic thatin their strutting hyper-nation-alism, bereft of any real under-standing of the country’s histo-ry and heritage and devoid ofany commitment to the trueidea of India, they most resem-ble the imperialist bluster of theBritish Raj.

The Covid-19 pandemicshowed up the Modi govern-ment from the time the firstcases began to be detected — itsmultiple failures in dealing with

the crisis, whether in terms ofdealing with the catastrophichuman cost of the disease or thecollapse of the economy, weredifficult to hide. At the sametime the outbreak facilitatednationalist projects in manycountries, including India. Ithas also convinced many (whoneeded little convincing) thatforeigners are to be feared, thatstrict border and immigrationcontrols are essential, that freetrade should be restricted, andthat national interests shouldtrump international coopera-tion. To many, including thosearound Mr Modi, the answerlies in strong government, inputting the nation’s needs overindividual citizens’ freedoms,and in dispensing with demo-cratic niceties, from federalismto parliamentary oversight, inwhat the government deems tobe the national interest.

There have been signs of pop-ulism’s inroads into people’spsyches. Already this pandemicperiod seems to have ushered inan increased fear of the ‘Other’,as unfounded rumours andaccusations against peopleblamed on the basis of theirnational, religious, ethnic, orregional identity have had afield day in many countries. InIndia, citizens from theNortheastern states have suf-fered racial discriminationbecause of their supposedly‘Chinese’ features. Social mediaand nativist populism haveamplified prejudices; the factthat a puritan Muslim sect, theTablighi Jamaat, had held amajor gathering just before thelockdown, whose attendeesspread the infection to manystates when they returnedhome, was used to justify openbigotry and discriminationagainst Muslims.

Another risk thrown up by thegovernment’s response to thepandemic, that may help furtherits nationalist project, is the

increasing reach of the surveil-lance state. Already the BJP gov-ernment had expanded thereach of the Aadhaar scheme —initially conceived by its prede-cessor UPA government as ameans of providing verifiablesecure identities to the poor topermit the direct transfer ofgovernment benefits to them —as an all-embracing mandatorymeans of amassing biometricinformation on every citizen,even linking it to people’smobile phone numbers andbank accounts. Though theSupreme Court partially put thebrakes on this digital overreach,the government was unde-terred... During the coronavirusoutbreak, concern about theinadequacies of existing datasystems to monitor and trackthe spread of the virus’s trans-mission was used to justify thedevelopment of dedicated appsand tools to track, along withGPS, Bluetooth, and cell phonetowers, people’s data, their trav-el history, contact with otherindividuals and possible prox-imity to known carriers of thevirus. The government hasalready made its Aarogya Setuapp, reliant on these tools, com-pulsory for every governmentemployee and is trying to extendits reach to every citizen.

Post-Covid-19 India is unlikelyto give up these useful instru-ments of surveillance and con-trol. China has already shownthe way to a form of ‘digitalLeninism’; India’s is headingtowards ‘digital nationalism’.India could well see an en-hanced deployment of surveil-lance and data gathering underthe guise of preventing a simi-lar scenario in the future, des-pite the Supreme Court rulingson individuals’ right to privacy.

Extracted with permissionfrom Aleph, the publishers, fromShashi Tharoor’s The Battle of

Belonging (448 pages)

Shashi Tharoor

excerpt

Alfa Ndiaye, a Senegalesesoldier fighting for Francein the trenches of the

Great War, is consumed by blood-lust, which you’d think might bean asset under the circum-stances. But after watching theprotracted, gruesome death ofhis friend and ‘more than broth-er’, Mademba, a switch is flickedin Alfa’s mind. He becomes, ineffect, a sadistic serial killer,until war itself cannot providesufficient cover for his extremity.

David Diop’s powerful novel,not much more than novellalength, is full of echoes and por-tents. Over the course of his self-

justifying narrative, Alfa says‘God’s truth’ so often that thenotion is drained of meaning.Translated from the French, thetext revolves around recurringimages and verbal tics, as thoughAlfa is trying a series of keys tounlock his troubled psyche. Afterseeing Mademba’s guts, ‘slimy asfreshwater snakes’, tumblingfrom his belly, it suddenly strikesAlfa that their trench resembles‘a woman, open, offering herselfto war, to the bombshells, and tous, the soldiers’. The night beforecall-up, the village beauty, FaryThiam, granted Alfa her sexualfavours, and his account of theway she ‘opened the interior ofher body’ takes on a disturbing tone.

For a while Alfa’s fellow sol-diers, both Toubab (white) andChocolat, applaud his antics andlaugh at the grisly trophies hebrings back to the trench. Afterall, the French captain hasencouraged the Africans to playthe part of ‘savage Negroes, can-

nibals, Zulus’. The rumour whichgrows among his fellow Africansis that Alfa is a ‘dëmm’ or devour-er of souls, which only feeds his

grandiosity.Alfa’s account of his upbring-

ing in Senegal, brief and power-ful as anything else in the novel,makes clear that he was a much-loved child in an ordered societybound by ties of honour andrespect. It is this war of theEuropean powers that twists himinto a monster. ‘Only obeyingorders’ always sounds like a cop-out, but the punishment metedout to those who defy the captainis as brutal as any of Alfa’scrimes.

With elegant brevity, Diop pres-ents a world with no firm divid-ing line between courage andmadness, murder and warfare;the most dedicated killers areawarded the Croix de Guerre.Alfa’s final transformation, as heattempts to atone for his guiltover the death of his friend, isunexpected, poetic — and chilling.

By arrangement with the Spectator

Born into a wealthy Marwari family inKolkata, Srilaa has everything a girlcould ask for, apart from love and

attention from her parents. Her father is fartoo immersed in work to be anything butvaguely interested in her — she has to makedo with the occasional pat on the head. Herbeautiful mother is very sweet but very dis-tant — she’s a mystery that is never properlyexplained. She avoids her daughter andbacks away nervously when Srilaa wants totalk to her. Besides, she spends most of herwaking hours away from home doing “somecharity work”.

Srilaa often wonders why the house-helprefers to her mother as “Madamji” ratherthan “Bhabiji”, the traditional Marwari titlefor a housewife. The actual “Bhabiji” athome is her bua who keeps traditionalMarwari customs alive and the large domes-tic staff in shape. It is left to her bua and amaid to actually bring Srilaa up, andbetween thetwo of themthey don’texactly do afantastic job.

Perhaps it’sbecause of thisaffection-lessu p b r i n g i n gthat Srilaafalls back onfantasies —sexual fan-tasies, to beprecise. Orperhaps shejust has ahealthy sexualappetite. Whenwe first meether, she’s fan-tasising over apainting in herbedroom—anEnglish dukeastride hishorse. Anassault by her cousin’s boyfriend is her veryfirst sexual experience—she enjoys it somuch, she wants to tell everyone she meetsabout it, including her fiancé.

Marriage and children don’t dampenSrila’s enthusiasm for sex. Fortunately, herhusband is as understanding as a goodfriend would be, and they have what wouldbe called an “open marriage”.

We get brief respites when De shifts herfocus to the subtitle of the book: “The gildedlife and longings of a Marwari goodwife.”The occasional glimpses of life in a Marwarijoint family are interesting. The Maharaj(cook) has pride of place in their kitchens,and Marwari women have no qualms aboutluring really good ones from friends. Beingassociated with charities is seen as a greatasset: the women look saintly, and all thatgoodwill rubs off on the family business aswell. De is beautifully tongue-in-cheek aboutthis obsession with charity, as Srilaa cyni-cally tries her hand at it too.

Srilaa discovers her most preciousMarwari genes along the way: Business acu-men. Every venture she tries her hand atflourishes, till she gets distracted by yetanother man.

This book started out with promise, if onlybecause of the dysfunctional family Srilaagrew up in. However, don’t expect the Tolstoymaxim to kick in here: “Happy families areall alike; every unhappy family is unhappy inits own way.” Srilaa’s childhood doesn’tappear to have cast any shadow on her future.All she’s interested in is sex, and nothing elsematters. Her breasts are the only things thatdeveloped in the book, and while they may bestunningly globular, she is completely flat—just like all the other characters.

Rupa Gulab is a freelance writer and theauthor of Girl Alone, Chip of the OldBlockhead and The Great Depression

of the 40s

Rupa Gulab

review

THE BATTLE OFBELONGING

The brutal education of ayoung serial killer

New Delhi: Indian-Americanauthor Chitra BanerjeeDivakaruni’s new novel will bringalive one of the most fearlesswomen of the 19th century — thelegendary warrior queen JindanKaur.

The Last Queen will be released byHarperCollins India in January2021, the publishers announced onTuesday.

Daughter ofthe royal ken-nel keeper, thebeautiful Jind-an wasM a h a r a j aRanjit Singh’syoungest andlast queenbesides hisfavourite. Shebecame regentwhen her sonDalip, barelysix years old,unexpectedlyinherited thethrone andwent on tobecome a leg-endary warrior queen.

Passionate and dedicated to pro-tecting her son’s inheritance, Jin-dan distrusted the British and

fought hard to keep them fromannexing Punjab. Defying tradi-tion, she stepped out of the zenana,cast aside the veil and conductedstate business in public. Addres-

sing her Khalsatroops herself, sheinspired her menin two warsagainst the Brit-ish. In the end, shewas imprisonedand exiled by theBritish. Her son,Dalip Singh, was

exiled, too. Though henever ruled, he is often ref-erred to as the last mah-araja of the Sikh empire.

The Last Queen is beingdescribed by the publish-ers as an exquisite lovestory of a king and a com-moner, a cautionary taleabout loyalty and betrayal.The novel has already beenoptioned for film rights.

Houston-based Divakarunihas authored books likeThe Forest ofEnchantments, Before We

Visit the Goddess, Oleander Girl,The Mistress of Spices, Sister of MyHeart, Palace of Illusions and OneAmazing Thing. — PTI

Profile of a Punjabi queen

By SHASHI THAROOR Aleph`799

BOOKS pg 7DECCAN CHRONICLE | SUNDAY | 22 NOVEMBER 2020 | CHENNAI

Marwari wife’ssexcapades endon surprisingly

flat note

Whatever your political affilia-tion, your idea of religion, yourstand on history, and your atti-

tude to learning, it’s safe to say that youwill be offended — or at least made a bitunhappy — by mythologist DevduttPattanaik’s latest book, Pilgrim Nation:The Making of Bharatvarsh.

If you do not like the concept of secu-larism, you’ll be purple-faced with rageat the syncretism of various places ofworship around the country.

If you do not like the idea of using thepast to justify the present, you’ll be dis-tressed by the many reiterations of howinvaders looted and destroyed temples.

If you think faith must be single-mind-ed and you must worship in one partic-ular manner, you’ll be incensed by themyriad ways in which human beingsmake their own mythologies to suittheir own needs.

If you don’t take kindly to lessons onbeing a good person, you’ll probablythrow the book at the wall and then tearout the pages and use them to mop upnoxious excretions.

But if you can manage toput your beliefs aside for ashort while, you mightfind yourself a teensy bitcharmed by a book thattakes you through 32places of pilgrimage inthe country, across allmajor religions, completewith stories of how andwhy these places came tosummon worshippers andthe kind of worshipperswho answer the call.

Pattanaik’s premise inthis book is that fromtimes way back whenborders were fluid andIndia did not exist as anational entity, the sub-continent was still per-ceived as a single unitbecause it was tiedtogether by the threads ofall kinds of pilgrimroutes. Women and men

left their homes and travelled long dis-tances to seek locations of piety thatwould lead to a darshan of God in oneform or another, and thus purificationfrom sins and a renewed joy in life.

As centuries passed, theidea that God has morethan one form led the peo-ple of the subcontinent toaccept as their own thegods of other faiths as well.And now in these moderntimes, while some attitudesto God seem to havebecome more single-mind-ed, some gods are not asso-ciated with any particularfaith: they may well be filmstars as the last chapter ofthe book shows.

With this premise as hisbase, Pattanaik divideshis book into ideas ofdevotion rooted in periodslike the Vedic age, theTantrik Age, theEuropean Age and so on,covering the Hindu,Buddhist, Jain, Muslim,Christian and Sikh faiths,as well as local and tribal

iterations of the various stories andmythologies. Anyone who has read hisearlier books will recognise the way hedeals with each anecdote gently andthoughtfully, asking questions and pro-viding different points of view on thesame stories, ultimately expanding histheme to cover all sorts of worship anddevotion.

However, if you are familiar withPattanaik’s earlier books, you will alsonote that this book is not quite in hisusual style. For one, his tone of voicedoes not carry quite the same sense ofunderstanding when he talks of imam-baras, mosques, gurdwaras and church-es as it does when he talks of shrinesand temples – he usually writes onHindu mythology. For another,Pattanaik never imparted obvious les-sons in his earlier books; he merely pre-sented several viewpoints that let read-ers see possibilities. In Pilgrim Nation,however, you get in-your-face lectureson how to be a good human being. Thisdetracts so greatly from the charm ofthe book that I cannot re-read it ever.

Kushalrani Gulab is a freelance editor and writer who dreams of

being a sanyasi by the sea

PREACHY TONE MARS THIS QUIRKY HISTORY OF PILGRIMAGES

By SHOBHAA DE Simon & Schuster

`399

SRILAAJI: THE GILDED LIFEAND LONGINGS OF A

MARWARI GOODWIFE

By DAVID DIOP Translated by ANNA

MOSCHOVAKIS Pushkin £14.99

AT NIGHT ALL BLOOD IS BLACK

KushalraniGulabreview

This year’s JCB Prize awardee Malayalam writer S. Hareesh is 45 years old. His debut novel,Meesha (translated into Moustache), ran into troubled waters in 2018 for its observation ofwomen going to temples to draw the attention of male admirers. However, it has now beenapplauded for its chronicling of life in Kerala’s underrepresented Kuttanad region, its biodiversity and caste politics, all seen through the lens of magic realism and folklore.

PILGRIM NATION: THEMAKING OF

BHARATVARSH By DEVDUTTPATTANAIK

Aleph`499

SuziFeayreview

Queen Jindan Kaur;(inset) Chitra BanerjeeDivakaruni

GAMES pg 8DECCAN CHRONICLE | CHENNAI | SUNDAY | 22 NOVEMBER 2020

SHORT TAKES

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: Former first classcricketer Raghunath

Chandorkar on Saturday turnedhundred years old, becomingonly the third Indian cricketer

to complete a century of birth-days.

Chandorkar played seven firstclass games, representing

Maharashtra (1943-44 to 1946-47) and Bombay (1950-51). The

wicket-keeper batsman hadscored 155 runs in seven games.

He also effected three catchesand two stumpings.

Prof. D.B. Deodhar (1892-1993)and Vasant Raiji (1920-2020)

are the only other Indian crick-eters to celebrate 100 birth-

days. — PTI

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: The Delhi HalfMarathon on Saturday

announced the entries of worldrecord holders Brigid Kosgeiand Ababel Yeshaneh for the

upcoming event. At theChicago Marathon in October2019, Kenya’s Kosgei stunnedthe world when she broke thelong-standing women’s world

marathon record by more thana minute, clocking 2:14:04.

Yeshaneh was a distant secondon that occasion but still ran a

superb personal best of 2:20:51.However, the tables were

turned at the Ras Al KhaimahHalf Marathon in February thisyear when a contest betweenthe pair in the final stages of

the race saw Ethiopia’sYeshaneh prevail in a world

record 64:31 with Kosgei sec-ond in 64:49.

MMiiyyaazzaakkii,, JJaappaann:: Rahil Gangjeestaged a superb comeback onhis back-nine to card an even

par 71 in the third round of theDunlop Phoenix Open, here.

Gangjee now has rounds of 71-72-71 and at one-over for 54

holes he is Tied-49th in only hissecond event in Japan in 2020.

Almost 20 events have beencancelled in Japan this year due

to the pandemic.

A special hundredfor Chandorkar

Kosgei, Yeshanehto run at DHM

Gangjee shootseven par in Japan

CChheennnnaaii:: The Tamil NaduCricket Association (TNCA)on Saturday named formerstate captain S. Suresh the

new chairman of its CricketAdvisory Committee (CAC).Former Tamil Nadu opener

U.R. Radhakrishnan andIndia women’s captain

Sudha Shah are the othermembers of the committeewhich is likely to meet in afew days to pick the state

selectors.Meanwhile, TNCA’s Apex

Council has decided to con-duct its Annual General

Body Meeting (virtual) onDecember 28.

Suresh named inTNCA’s CAC

Kolkata, Nov. 21: BCCIsecretary Jay Shah onSaturday said that pacerMohammed Siraj, whohas lost his father, wasgiven the option of flyingback home to be with hisgrieving family but hedecided to stay back inAustralia for “nationalduty”.

Ghouse, who was suffer-ing from a lung ailment,died on Friday. He was 53.

“The Board of Controlfor Cricket in India(BCCI) had a discussionwith Siraj and he wasoffered the option of fly-ing back and be with hisfamily in this hour ofgrief,” Shah was quotedas saying in a BCCI mediarelease.

“The fast bowler hasdecided to stay with theIndian contingent andcontinue performing hisnational duties. The BCCIshares his grief and willbe supportive of Siraj inthis extremely challeng-ing phase,” Shah added.

Board president SouravGanguly took to twitter tolaud the Hyderabad pacer

for his resilience andmental fortitude in thishour of tragedy.

“May Mohammed sirajhave a lot of strength toovercome this loss..Lotsof good wishes for hissuccess in this trip...Tremendous character,”Ganguly tweeted.

Ghouse, who was anauto rickshaw driver, wasthe biggest influence inSiraj’s life, as he encour-aged him to take up crick-et as a career.

Siraj first came intolimelight with 41 wicketsfor Hyderabad in RanjiTrophy, followed by arecord `2.6 crore IPL dealfrom SunrisersHyderabad as anuncapped player. — PTI

BEREAVED SIRAJ DECIDES TOSTAY BACK WITH TEAM IN OZ

Going by the cricketplayed betweenthe two teams inthe past few years,

India’s tour of Australiapromises rich and excitingcricket in all formats. Butthere are hardships forVirat Kohli and Co whichcan’t be overwhelmed byhype.

In the ODIs and T20is,India will be without theirbest white ball batsman,Rohit Sharma. In Tests,the team will be withoutthe services of their bestbatsman in red ball cricket

over the best part of adecade, Virat Kohli.

More than just irony, thisis a serious setback toIndia. It leaves the battingvulnerable across the dif-ferent formats, which theAussies will be eager toexploit. Though he cameback after a spell on thebench to play in the knock-out stages and led MumbaiIndians to the title, Rohitwasn’t cleared by theBCCI’s medical team forthe ODIs and T20is. He iscurrently in rehab andrecovery at the National

Cricket Academy inBangalore.

Kohli will return to Indiaafter the first Test to be byhis wife’s side for the deliv-ery of their first child.Australia’s strict quaran-tine rules (14 days) hasscuttled Kohli’s prospectsof returning back for theTests, so he is availableonly for the first day/nightpink ball affair atAdelaide.

The Test series are undergreater scrutiny as the pre-vious rubber — also playedDown Under — was won byIndia: A wonderfulachievement consideringno Indian team had everdone this in Australia inover 70 years.

Obviously, the hometeam will be seekingrevenge, and with the

return of Steve Smith andDavid Warner — both serv-ing a ban in 2018 — it willbe that much tougher forIndia to retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Considering his massivesuccess as opening bats-man after his wondrousexploits in the World Cup,Rohit will be sorelymissed. Though K.L.Rahul has shown superbform, it is in white ballcricket. How well headapts to the longer formatis now crucial for India.

Much of the pre-Testseries conversation anddebate has been aroundhow good the currentIndian pace attack is, evenwithout Ishant Sharma(also in rehab inBangalore) andBhuvaneshwar Kumar.

In 2018, India’s paceattack — Bumrah andShami in particular — wasoutstanding, and themajor factor in the seriestriumph. If they are insimilar form this time,there is every chance of anencore.

However, former Indiacaptain Kapil Dev, has aninteresting — and perhapsmore pertinent — take onthe matter. Kapil believesthat the fate of the seriesdoes not hinge on the fastbowlers, but on the Indianbatsmen, though for vastlydifferent reasons than inhis playing days.

“India’s pace attack issuperb,’’ Kapil said whenwe chatted the other day. “Iam confident bowlers willtake 20 wickets. But willbatsmen provide 350-400

runs for bowlers to win thematch?’’

Moot question. Beforethe pace bowling got teethand edge to bundle outrivals, India’s batting wasseen as it strength playingoverseas. Now there isdoubt whether the bats-men can do enough to sup-port bowlers!

The Test series beginsafter the ODIs and T20isare completed, whichshould give the Indianplayers enough time to set-tled down and acclimatizeto Australia conditions.

But this does not meanthat the next couple ofweeks is a slack period.White ball cricket has itsown huge significance inthe sport today which play-ers and teams will ignoreat their own peril.

This will be a particular-ly testing period for Kohli.His success as captain inthe shorter formats doesnot quite match up to theterrific win percentage hehas in Tests.

There has been widedebate whether the cap-taincy should not be bifur-cated between him (Tests)and Rohit (ODIs andT20is). England, Australiaand South Africa forinstance follow the splitcaptaincy theory, Pakistan(now) and New Zealand(for the most part) don’t.

There are pros and consto the theory, but what’sclear is that in the Indiancontext, the debate willintensify and Kohli placedunder even further scruti-ny if results are notfavourable.

Rohit will be sorely missed in white ball seriesAyaz MemonOver The Top

���� Board presidentSourav Gangulytook to twitter tolaud the Hyderabadpacer for hisresilience andmental fortitude inthis hour of tragedy.

London, Nov. 21: DominicThiem recovered fromsquandering four matchpoints in a dramatic sec-ond-set tie-break to beatNovak Djokovic in the lastfour at the ATP Finals onSaturday.

The US Open championwon 7-5, 6-7 (10/12), 7-6 (7/5)and will face either RafaelNadal or Daniil Medvedevin Sunday’s final at theelite eight-man event.

The world’s top four play-ers all made it through tothe semi-finals for the firsttime at London’s O2 Arena,which is hosting the sea-son-ending event for the12th and final year.

Thiem forced the onlybreak to take a tight firstset 7-5 but neither playercould make the break-through in the second set,which went to a tie-break.

Thiem had four matchpoints but agonisinglywatched them all slip awayas 17-time Grand Slamchampion Djokovic lev-elled.

It was a similar story inthe third set, with bothplayers rock-solid on serveand the match came downto a deciding tie-break.

The Serbian world num-ber one raced into a 4-0lead and looked certain towin but Thiem stormedback, winning six points ina row to earn two more

match points.He was unable to capi-

talise on the first of thosebut won the second to takethe match.

BBUULLGGAARRIIAANN PPLLAAYYEERRGGEETTSS LLIIFFEETTIIMMEE BBAANN

In London, the TennisIntegrity Unit has bannedBulgarian playerAleksandrina Naydenovafor life and fined her$150,000 for match-fixingoffenses.

Naydenova “had partak-en in match-fixing activitymultiple times between2015 and 2019,” the anti-cor-ruption body said in astatement Friday.

The 28-year-old, whosehighest WTA singles rank-ing was 218, had been pro-visionally suspended Dec.27 last year prior to a disci-plinary hearing.

The TIU said Naydenovacommitted 13 breaches ofthe Tennis Anti-corruptionProgram with 12 of themrelating to match-fixingand one relating to “sever-al incidents of non-cooper-ation” with the investiga-tion.

The sanction means thatNaydenova “is permanent-ly prohibited from playingin or attending any tennisevent authorized or sanc-tioned by the governingbodies of tennis.”

— Agencies

Newcastle, Nov. 21:Frank Lampardwarned Chelsea to stayhumble after theyclimbed to the top ofthe Premier League forthe first time in morethan two years with aconvincing 2-0 win atNewcastle on Saturday.

Lampard’s sidemoved above Leicesteron goal differencethanks to FedericoFernandez’s first halfown goal and TammyAbraham’s strike afterthe interval.

Chelsea are unbeatenin nine games in allcompetitions andhaven’t lost in theirlast six league match-es.

With five clean sheetsin their last six match-es in all competitions,Chelsea’s third succes-sive league victory wasthe perfect way to starta hectic period leadingup to Christmas.

Maurizio Sarri wasin charge the last timeChelsea were in poleposition in the PremierLeague in September2018.

But Lampard’s squadare more formidablethan his predecessor’sfragile team and a seri-ous title challengelooks increasingly pos-sible.

“It’s not an easygame. We played wellin patches and theresult is key in thesegames,” Lampard said.

“The Premier Leagueis tough, relentless,and we dealt with thechallenge of the gamevery well.

“I won’t get excitedabout being top of thetable for five minutes.It’s important to behumble and know it’s along race.”

Chelsea could surren-der top spot before theend of the day, withboth Aston Villa andTottenham able to goabove them dependingon their results.

“We can’t have it allour own way, but weput the game awaywith a professionalp e r f o r m a n c e , ”

Lampard said.“First 20 minutes we

were great, we had con-trol and all the posses-sion. I always felt thatthe real danger from uswould be on the count-er.

“You saw that withTimo Werner on thebreak and then settingup Tammy’s goal.”

Lampard had com-plained about havingto play in the Saturdayearly kick off whenseveral of his playershad only returnedfrom internationalduty on Thursday.

— AFP

Chelsea’s new castle Blues take top spot for first time in over two years

Pamplona, Nov. 21:Osasuna came from behindto draw with Huesca 1-1,keeping the visitors win-less since their return tothe Spanish league.

Huesca dominated earlyat El Sadar Stadium.Sandro Ramirez finishedoff a poor clearance byOsasuna goalkeeper SergioHerrera to open the scor-ing in the fifth minute.

After not creating anyscoring chances in the firsthalf, Osasuna improvedwith substitutes made atthe restart. Defender DavidGarc scored an equalizerin the 68th. Huesca have

drawn seven and lost threegames since returning tothe topflight after one sea-son in the second division.The point lifted it from lastplace to out of the relega-tion zone in 17th place.

“We were not able to playour game, but it wasalways positive to get apoint, especially at a toughground like this,” Ramirezsaid.

“Victory still eludes us,but I think if we keepdoing things well it willcome.”

Osauna was in 10th placeafter a third consecutiveround without a win.— AP

Vasco, Nov. 21: KwesiAppiah scored from thespot as NorthEast UnitedFC began their IndianSuper League campaignwith a 1-0 win overMumbai City FC here onSaturday.

A red card and a penaltyturned a game, thatMumbai were otherwisedominating, on theirhead and handedNorthEast United a win-ning start at the TilakMaidan.

Appiah (49’) scored theonly goal from a penaltyafter the Islanders werereduced to 10-men follow-ing Ahmed Jahouh’s redcard just before thebreather.

In the early stages, itlooked like NorthEastwere aiming for nothingmore than a goallessdraw, with extreme cau-tion visible in their gameplan.

Predictably, it wasMumbai who dominatedthe first half. TheIslanders were neat andproactive for long spells,though they were unable

to find a cutting edge. Despite having players

like Jahouh, HugoBoumous, and RowllinBorges, all capable of cre-

ating magic on their day,Sergio Lobera’s sidefailed to get a single shoton target in the first 45minutes. — PTI

Paris, Nov. 21: KylianMbappe’s two goalsagainst his former clubwere not enough asFrench league leadersParis Saint-Germainwasted a 2-0 lead and lostat Monaco 3-2.

Mbappe’s first-halfbrace took him to 99 goalsfor PSG since joiningfrom Monaco three yearsago in a deal worth a stag-gering 180 million euros.

But lively German for-ward Kevin Volland net-ted twice after the break,and was fouled by centerhalf Abdou Diallo for apenalty converted by for-mer Spain and Barcelonamidfielder Cesc Fabregasin the 83rd.

Diallo was sent off toleave PSG with 10 men inthe closing stages.

The defeat was PSG’sthird of the season andended a run of eightstraight wins after losingthe first two games.

Monaco moved up tosecond place, and fourpoints behind PSG,despite being without topscorer Wissam BenYedder as he recoversfrom the coronavirus.

Another comfortablePSG win looked on thecards when Mbappelatched on to a fine passfrom winger Angel DiMaria and finished confi-dently in the 24th minute.

The France striker thenbeat goalkeeper VitoMannone from the spot inthe 36th after midfielderYoussouf Fofana gaveaway a penalty.

Striker Moise Kean andMbappe had goals ruledout for offside shortlybefore the break, andMonaco pulled one backin the 51st when Vollandturned in Fofana’s crossfrom the right. — AP

Appiah wins it for NorthEast Utd

TTHHEE RREESSUULLTTNNeewwccaassttllee 00 CChheellsseeaa 22 (Fernandez 10-og,Abraham 65)

Huesca’s winless streakcontinues after 1-1 draw

MONACO COMEBACK TO STUNLEADERS PSG

Margao, Nov. 21: Anew-look FC Goa,strengthened by theaddition of fresh for-eign players and a newhead coach, will begintheir ISL campaignwith renewed vigourwhen they clash withformidable BengaluruFC here on Sunday.

FC Goa have neverwon the ISL trophy andwould be hoping thatthis time around theygo one step forwardthan 2018 and 2015 sea-sons, when theyemerged as runners-up.On the other hand,BBFC who have wonthe ISL once, wouldalso be hoping for awinning start and thecontribution of starstriker Sunil Chhetriwould be the key.— PTI

NEW-LOOK GOAREADY TO FACECHHETRI & CO.

Chelsea’s Tammy Abraham (left) scores against Newcastle United in their EnglishPremier League match at the St. James’ Park in Newcastle on Saturday. — AP

Mandar Rao Dessai (left) in action on his Mumbai Citydebut against NEUFC in an ISL-7 match at the TilakMaidan Stadium in Vasco on Saturday. — ISL

Austria’s Dominic Thiem celebrates after winning the firstset during the semifinal against Novak Djokovic of Serbiaat the ATP World Finals at the O2 arena in London onSaturday. — AP

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Thiem edges pastDjokovic in semis

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