CIRCULATED THROUGH : TORONTO, MARKHAM, SCARBOROUGH, RICHMOND HILL, VAUGHAN, WOODBRIDGE, ETOBICOKE, NORTH YORK, MALTON, REXDALE, BR AMPTON, MISSISSAUGA, OAKVILLE, HAMILTON, MILTON, STONEY CREEK, BURLINGTON

WATCH CHANNEL Y ON ROGERS 857, BELLFIBE 828, TELUS 2418 & ONLINE AT SOUTHASIANDAILY.COM

27 YEAR OLD SHARANJEET KAUR FOUNDDEAD IN BRAMPTON MURDER-SUICIDE

WILL ENCOUNTER OF RAPISTS DELIVER JUSTICE? WOMEN'S SAFETY, WHO'S RESPONSIBLE? CHANNEL Y SPECIAL PANEL DISCUSSIONFOLLOWING THE HYDERABAD ENCOUNTER, HOSTED BY GROUP EDITOR AND CEO YUDHVIR JASWAL. PANEL INCLUDED RUPINDERHAYER, DR PUSHROOP BRAR, GURDEEP SINGH, JUJHAR SINGH, AND TAJI OBEROI.

BODY OF UNNAO RAPE VICTIM BURIED INFIELDS OWNED BY FAMILY

Refusing to carry out the last rites of the Unnao rape victim, her familyburied her on Sunday. The 24 year old woman was buried in one of thefields owned by her family on the outskir ts of her village in thepresence of the police. I CONTD. ON PAGE 12

MASSIVE PAKISTAN-CHINA SEX TRAFFICKINGCASE BURSTS WIDE OPEN ; 629 PAKI WOMENREPORTEDLY SOLD TO CHINESE NATIONALS

In a major breakthrough, a repor t by TheAssociated Press reveals that 629 Pakistanigirls and women were sold as brides toChinese men in 2018. The list obtained byAP, features strong figures of the numberof women exploi ted in t raf f ick ingschemes since last year. I CONTD. ON PAGE 14

YMEDIA EXCLUSIVE: COUN. MARTIN MEDEIROSSAYS CITY GONE “A LITTLE OVERBOARD” WITH

RELIGION AND CULTUREBrampton wards 3 and 4 councillor Martin Medeiros hit the headlines recentlywith his “blurring the lines” comment on separation ofchurch and state. The statements were presented at acouncil meeting held after delegations fromchurch groups called upon the city to declareDecember “Christian Heritage Month”.

I CONTD. ON PAGE 9

PUNJAB POLICE ARRESTED 100 ISI-LINKEDTERRORISTS IN TWO YEARS, BUSTED 28 TERRORMODULES : CM CAPT AMARINDER SINGH WARNS PAK

In an interview with NDTV's Prannoy Roy onDecember 7, Saturday, Punjab Chief Minister CaptAmarinder Singh touched a whole array of topics.However, his conversation on drugs and making

Punjab a drug-free state was what struck with us.

I CONTD. ON PAGE 12

FATHER OF 21-YEAR OLD SURREY MURDERVICTIM SAYS QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWEREDFather of the 21-year oldinternational student whowas found dead in Sur rey,BC last month, said the malefound deceased along with herwas her husband. They hadmarried only a few monthsearlier. P rabhleen KaurMatharu was one of two people found dead inside a home on 102AAvenue on November 21. In conversation with YMedia, her father GurdialSingh Matharu revealed that the man found along with her, was herhusband Pieter Biermann. I CONTD. ON PAGE 7

OPINION DIVIDED ON INDIA'S CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT BILLAmid massive uproar that ripped through the country, the controver-sial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) 2019 was passed by the RajyaSabha on Wednesday, with 125 votes in favour and 105 against. Thevote came after over a six hour debate as the Opposition launched anoffensive against the Narendra Modi-led government calling the leg-islation “unconstitutional” and “divisive”.The Bill, which was cleared by the Lower House or Lok Sabha with a311-80 margin on Monday midnight, seeks to amend the 1955 citizen-ship law, and will grant citizenship to religious minorities fromneighbouring countries- par ticularly the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists,Jains, Parsis, and Christians from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, and Pa-kistan. Now, why would such a bill trigger controversy? Because itexcludes Muslims.For clarity purposes, the Muslim community makes up for almost 15per cent of the population. Represented by Home Minister Amit Shahin the House, the bill is called a Hindu supremacist agenda pushed bythe government since Modi came to power.In the Rajya Sabha, besides BJP, its allies JD(U) and SAD, the legisla-tion was suppor ted by AIADMK, BJD, TDP and YSR-Congress.Maharashtra's Shiv Sena, which had suppor ted the legislation in theLS, staged a walkout during the voting process. The House also re-jected several amendments made by members of the Opposition.Shah said the bill will not affect the Muslims already residing withinthe country. He said, “Misinformation has been spread that this Bill isagainst Muslims of India. They are Indian citizens and will always

A Toronto woman was found deceased in a home along witha Brampton man, near Eagle Ridge Drive and Bighorn Crescent,in Brampton on Monday. Identified as Sharanjeet Kaur, 27,she is believed to be a victim of a gore murder-suicide.Midweek reached out to the Peel Regional Police and theysaid Kaur was murdered by Navdeep Singh, 35, who thenkilled himself.

BRAMPTON/ETOBICOKE AND AREAONTARIO HEALTH TEAM CHOSEN AS ONE

OF FIRST IN PROVINCEToday, the Ontario Government announced that Brampton, Etobicoke andarea would be home to one of the province’s first Ontario Health Teams(OHT). The Honourable Prabmeet Sarkaria, Associate Minister of SmallBusiness and Red Tape Reduction and MPP for Brampton South, made theannouncement this morning on behalf of Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier andMinister of Health at the Queen Square Family Health Team offices in Brampton.

I CONTD. ON PAGE 6

I CONTD. ON PAGE 9

remain, there is no discrimination against the Muslims residing inIndia.” He added that it was not possible to give citizenship to Mus-lims fleeing from Islamic countries.Calling the CAB “historic”, Shah said, “There has been an almost 20per cent decline each in the population of religious minorities in bothPakistan and present-day Bangladesh. Either they were killed or theyfled to India for shelter.”

LIVING WRESTLING LEGEND TIGER JEET SINGH SR VISITS CHANNEL Y STUDIO TO PROMOTE THE MIRACLE ON MAIN STREET EVENT.

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OFFICERS VOLUNTEER TO RAISE MONEY AT THE PEEL REGIONAL POLICE'S TOYS4TOTS INITIATIVE AT BOSTON PIZZA, ERIN MILLS, ON DECEMBER 8, SUNDAY.

BRAMPTON MAYOR PATRICK BROWN CELEBRATES SINDHI CULTURAL DAY WITH THE SINDHI ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICA, ON DECEMBER 8.

Ruby Sahota, the re-elected Member of Parliament for BramptonNor th, spoke on the first day of the 43rd Parliament to raise a press-ing issue in Brampton and across Canada – the increase in violentdomestic crime in our communities, on the 30th anniversary of theMontreal Ecole Polytechnique anti-feminist massacre. “Over the past10 years, 22 women and children have been murdered in Bramptonas a result of domestic violence. Their names include Lucy Wojtalski,Maria Gorospe, Christian Gorospe, Laura Grant, Riya Rajkumar andmany more. Too often they died at the hands of someone they knewwell, like a spouse or a parent,” said MP Sahota. “No one should fearfor their lives at home. We need our community and all levels ofgovernment to keep working together to prevent these horrific crimesbefore they occur. We must keep building on the work we star ted in2015. We must do more.”MP Sahota statement in the House of Commons echoes sentimentsexpressed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that “things have notchanged enough.” The re-elect Liberal Government will ban mili-tary-style assault weapons and remain committed to their NationalStrategy to Prevent and Address Gender-Based Violence.

MP SAHOTA RAISES CONCERN OVER GROWING INCIDENTSOF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN BRAMPTON

EIGHT STUDENTS TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER EXPOSURE TOIRRITANT IN BRAMPTON SCHOOL

A school in Brampton was evacuated and eight students rushed to a hospital after an unknown spray was released in the building’scafeteria on Tuesday. An irritant was sprayed within Castlebrook Secondary School at around 12.45 pm, causing adverse reactions inmultiple students. Peel Police issued an update on Twitter stating that a total of 18 students and members of the staff were affected andshowed symptoms including ir ritation of the eyes, nose, and throat. Peel Paramedics tweeted that eight patients were transpor ted tolocal hospitals with minor respiratory and mucous membrane irritation.The school was evacuated and firefighters helped air out the building to make sure the premises were safe before students werebrought back in. Details on who discharged the spray and what the substance was remains unclear.

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A night of dining, dance, and fun! Re/Max Gold Realty Inc.'s

LAVISH X'MAS PARTY 2019

Ontario Premier Doug Ford supports the Toronto Firefighters' toy drive

INDIAN-AMERICAN ECONOMIST ABHIJIT BANERJEE SHAKES HANDS WITH SWEDEN'S KING CARL GUSTAF AS HE RECEIVES THE ECONOMIC NOBEL AT A CEREMONY IN STOCKHOLM, ON DECEMBER 10.

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BRAMPTON/ETOBICOKE AND AREA ONTARIO HEALTHTEAM CHOSEN AS ONE OF FIRST IN PROVINCE

CONTD. FROM PAGE 1Amarjot Sandhu, MPP Brampton West, was also in attendance.“Families across Brampton deserve the sor t of quality health careour growing and vibrant community needs,” said Minister Sarkaria.“With today’s announcement, we move one step closer to endinghallway health care for Bramptonians, and improving health outcomesfor patients throughout our community.”“The OHT in Brampton/Etobicoke and area will help patients througha community-based health care delivery model that connects care -and includes primary care and hospitals, home care and long-termcare, mental health and addictions suppor ts, and other health careservices,” added Sandhu. “Being a proud representative of Brampton,I’m excited to see how the Government of Ontario is planning to imple-ment a new model of organizing and delivering health care that betterconnects patients and providers in their communities to improve pa-tient outcomes in the region.”The Brampton/Etobicoke and Area OHT focus is on a central ‘hub’available, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and staffed by healthcare professionals knowledgeable about all the health, commu-nity, home care and social services available in the region. Pa-tients and caregivers will be able to connect with the servicesthey need with just one phone call.“As a physician who has practiced in this community for years, Isee first-hand the challenges that our patients and providers ex-perience in navigating the system,” said Dr. Brian Klar, FamilyPhysician, West Vaughan Family Health Organization. “Our OHTteam is thrilled the Government is leading the development of,and championing this new model for health care in the province –as well as suppor ting us to provide more seamless, integratedcare for the community we collectively serve.”As users of the integrated care hub, providers will have betteraccess to specialist physicians and nurse navigators for theirpatients, along with evidence-based care pathways to ensure animproved care experience. Given the large percentage of physi-cians in the community without broader care team resources andsuppor ts like nurses, dieticians, or physiotherapists, the hub pre-sents an oppor tunity to “equalize the playing field” for both pa-tients and providers in the area.“This is a tremendous oppor tunity as a community of health par t-ners to come together to bu ild a more connected system that enablesbetter access and coordination to services for our patients, and ensures we

all have the right information easilyaccessible to help make better caredecisions,” said Kiki Ferrari, Execu-tive Vice President, Clinical Opera-tions, William Osler Health System.“It’s an exciting time for this commu-nity as local health partners lead theway in transforming the system andensuring more integrated, connectedcare across the region.”The Brampton/Etobicoke andArea OHT is one of the largestamong the province’s first OHTs.Of the 186 members, 144 are phy-sicians and physician groups –collectively serving a populationof close to 900,000 people withinthe Brampton, Bramalea, Nor thEtobicoke, Mal ton and West

Woodbridge regions.“Collaborating with our community and hospital par tners, this initia-tive has brought us together to create new par tnerships focused onimproving access and coordination of care,” said Neil Shah, Execu-tive Director, Queen Square Family Health Team. “Our OHT's ap-proach builds on the family health team model, coupling family phy-sician care with the necessary team to suppor t patients to thrive inthe home and community.”In the time ahead, the Brampton/Etobicoke and Area par tners willcontinue to work together to develop the new model of care for theOHT, and put an implementation plan into place. “Today’s announce-ment demonstrates the promise of more seamless, integrated carefor the region and is excellent news for patients, families and careproviders,” said Gordon Newman, Community Member and Patientand Family Advisor for the Brampton/Nor th Etobicoke and Area OHT.“Moving to implement the integrated care hub is a significant steptoward connecting patients with the services they need – financial,employment, education, housing or otherwise – to ensure their healthand wellness needs are met.”

MAPLE ONTARIO RESIDENT SAFEER BHATTI, 27, CHARGED WITH IMPAIRED DRIVING AND OBSTRUCT AFTER HE WAS INVOLVED IN A COLLISION ON HIGHWAY 400 NB AT KING ROAD. HE WAS EXTRICATEDFROM THE VEHICLE BY EMS. SUSTAINED MINOR INJURIES, AS INFORMED BY SGT KERRY SCHMIDT ON SOCIAL MEDIA.

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Join the movement for BramptonBrampton City Council is excited to introduce BramptonU; a movementto launch Brampton’s own fully accredited university. Building on theexcellence of existing par tners, and other universities in Ontario andaround the world, the City is looking to bring a full university to Bramptonto meet the needs of residents and businesses.The City is working with independent consultants on the businesscase and public and stakeholder input is key to making BramptonU areality. As a first step, the City of Brampton is seeking public inputthrough various means:Telephone Survey, star ting December 6? 1,000 residents will be called by random sample.Tele-Town Hall, December 13, 7 – 8 pm

Brampton creates new WorkplaceDiversity and Inclusion Strategyand Work PlanThe City of Brampton has created a new five-year WorkplaceDiversity and Inclusion Strategy and Work Plan. It sets outoppor tunities to foster a more inclusive organizational culturethat engages, develops and celebrates its people, and attractsa diverse workforce.This week, City Council participated in a workshop led by theCanadian Centre for Diversity & Inclusion (CCDI), who providedinsight on the survey of the City’s employees they conductedfrom January to March 2019. The CCDI analysis also includedevidence from focus groups, leadership assessments, and anorganizational maturity analysis.A workplace strategy of this type directly impacts thecommunity. Leading public sector organizations like Bramptonknow that an increase in inclusion means an increase inemployee engagement. In turn, employee engagement affectsproductivity and customer service – and efficient, effectivedelivery of services creates trust and confidence amongresidents, businesses and stakeholders.The strategy has four priorities:· Grow a diverse workforce reflective of the community theCity of Brampton serves· Foster a more inclusive environment where individualssay, stay, and strive· Develop awareness and ability of all employees fordiversity and inclusion to thrive· Celebrate our uniqueness and shared successes byupholding the City’s values of trust, integrity, courage andcompassionLooking ahead to 2020, the City will create a new staffcommittee to ensure it appropriately identifies and implementskey initiatives that support a diverse and inclusive workplace.The City’s Strategic Leadership Team will all have relatedperformance goals and accountabilities. The City will createsafe spaces to connect with colleagues and leaders. And,Employee Resource Groups will be established to connectemployees who identify by similar diversity dimensions.Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said, “I believe passionately in aninclusive and equitable work environment. The results clearly showthat we have work to do in Brampton. I worked with CCDI on thePeel Police Services Board and know that they are committed tohelping the City address our shortcomings. That is why at our nextCouncil meeting I will be moving a motion to immediately acceptall of the recommendations.” David Barrick, Chief AdministrativeOfficer said, “We are committed to fostering an inclusive culturethat engages, develops and celebrates our people, and attracts adiverse workforce – this strategy and work plan reflects ourcommitment to these principles.”

? 100,000 residents will be called by random sample. Those whowant to be guaranteed a call may sign up at www.BramptonU.ca.? Mayor Patrick Brown, Members of Council, and BramptonU projectleaders will be on the call seeking feedback and providing answers toresidents’ questions.As par t of this exciting movement, the City of Brampton is:? Exploring par tnerships and approaches to build and maintain brick and mortarbuildings for a Brampton University and possible student housing? Advocating to the Province for suppor t for BramptonU? Requesting input from a wide range of institutions, organizationsand citizens to help identify programming BramptonU should offer tomeet the demands of students and the future economy.

MISSISSAUGA TACKLES CLIMATE CHANGE WITH CITY’S FIRSTCOMPREHENSIVE CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION PLAN

The General Committee welcomed the City’s first comprehensive Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) on December 4. The planfocuses on both mitigation and adaptation and sets out actions for the City and the community to take over the next 10 years.“Climate change is one of the most pressing issues of our time. We have already begun to feel the impacts of our changingclimate, with increased flooding, rainfall, ice storms and some of the hottest summers on record,” said Mayor BonnieCrombie. “While we’ve made significant progress in our effor ts to mitigate its impacts, from declaring a climate emergencyto replacing our street lights with LEDs, reducing our use of single-use plastics, installing solar panels and making progresson our commitment to plant One Million Trees, there is more to do. With this plan, we are taking significant action to fightclimate change so we can reduce our greenhouse gas footprint and create a more resil ient future for Mississauga. Iencourage all residents to join us in meeting our long-term goal of becoming a net-zero community.”The plan contains ambitious yet practical steps to address climate change. There are two main goals:1. Mitigation: Reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 per cent by 2050, with a long-term goal of becoming a net-zerocommunity2. Adaptation: Increase resilience and the capacity of the city to withstand and respond to current and future climate events“The Climate Change Action Plan is our response to the climate crisis and is our 10-year road map to suppor t Mississauga’slong-term vision of being a low carbon and resilient community by 2050,” said Jodi Robillos, Director, Parks, Forestr y andEnvironment. “The action plan takes a holistic approach. It includes actions to be taken by the City as a corporation, as wellas actions for the community – those who live, work and play in Mississauga; together we all have a role to play in tacklingclimate change.”The CCAP includes 21 key actions to be implemented within the next 10 years. Actions are grouped into five ‘actionpathways’:1. Buildings and Clean Energy2. Resilient and Green Infrastructure3. Accelerating Discovery and Innovation4. Low Emissions Mobility5. Engagement and Par tnershipsBased on current technologies and cost premiums, the City estimates that the plan’s actions will cost at least $460 millionover the next 10 years. Implementation and funding of CCAP actions will be done through the City’s annual business planningand budget process.“The City will play an impor tant role in tackling climate change,” said Dianne Zimmerman, Manager, Environment. “Our planfeatures a number of specific actions including implementing a new Corporate Green Building standard that will helpimprove environmental per formance, reduce costs and position Mississauga as a leader in green buildings. This newstandard will see the City take a low carbon approach for new construction and major renovation building projects beginningin 2021. In addition, our Plan’s actions also focus on replacing the transit bus and corporate fleets with low or zero emissionvehicles, installing renewable energy at municipal buildings, suppor ting our businesses to take action, and developing a publiceducation program on climate change and emergency preparedness for our residents.

CITY OF MISSISSAUGA WELCOMES NEW BOMBARDIER GLOBAL MANUFACTURING CENTREBombardier has announced that Mississauga will be home to a new global manufacturing centre for its Global business jets. The 41.2 acrefacility will be located on Toronto Pearson Lands.“Mississauga is thrilled to welcome Bombardier to our city – a leading global aerospace hub and home to Canada’s largest aerospace sector,” saidMississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie. “Bombardier could have picked anywhere in the world to locate their Global Manufacturing Centre but they choseMississauga. Not only will this investment support jobs and attract talent, but it will also boost economic growth and help raise Mississauga’s profile as a globalaerospace hub where innovation in aerospace thrives.”The new one million square foot facility will see the final assembly line for the manufacturing of Bombardier’s Global business jets and includes a hangar spacefor pre-flight activities.“Businesses choose Mississauga because the City is supportive and provides an innovative environment for them to grow and flourish,” said Bonnie Brown,Director of Economic Development. “Mississauga is very attractive to global aerospace companies looking for the right conditions such as a talented and highlyeducated workforce that can support a large Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), like Bombardier. Our commitment to growing Mississauga’s aerospacecluster has been very successful in helping us achieve our economic goals and attracting new investment.”The new facility will have the capacity to build up to 100 aircraft a year and will support thousands of jobs.“Today, I'm very excited to announce the relocation of our Global aircraft family production activities to a new, cutting-edge manufacturing facility at Toronto Pearson.This is a strategic move for Bombardier and a strong commitment to Ontario’s aerospace industry. It will allow us to offer world-class career opportunities andcontinue fueling the economic development of the region for years to come,” said Alain Bellemare, President and Chief Executive Officer, Bombardier Inc.About Mississauga’s Aerospace SectorMississauga’s vibrant business community is made up of over 98,000 businesses, 1,400 multi-national firms and 76 For tune 500 companies.Mississauga is one of the largest business centres in Canada, and a net impor ter of employment, with over 230,000 people coming intoMississauga for work each day.Mississauga has a robust and diverse business community that makes up some of the largest knowledge-based sectors in Canada. Thesesectors include Life Sciences, Advanced Manufacturing (Aerospace, Automotive, Clean Tech and Food and Beverage), Information andCommunications Technology and Financial Services and Real Estate.Mississauga’s aerospace cluster is the largest in Canada with more than 345 aerospace companies employing 28,000 employees. Mississauga’saerospace cluster is comprised of airlines, aerospace manufacturing, airport services and support services for aerospace manufacturers. TheCity of Mississauga was recognized for its work in the aerospace industry by fDi Magazine, a publication for the business of globalization.Mississauga ranked second in fDi’s Aerospace Cities of the Future 2018/19 Repor t for innovation and attractiveness.

CONTD. FROM PAGE 1Currently in Vancouver to bring his daughter's body back toIndia, Matharu said the two married in an Alber ta cour t inAugust.He said the 18 year old male often sent him photos and chattedwith him via text and video call. The pair, he said, met at a TimHortons three years ago, where they worked together. Theylived separately and had recently paid a deposit torent a house together and had bought furniture and acar. Gurdial said Biermann had met his wife, who hadvisited the victim three months back. He said Prabhleen andPieter dropped her off at the airport. Some time later, sheconveyed her feelings for the boy.His daughter had applied for permanent residency andthe couple were planning to travel to India in January.Invest igat ing the case, the RCMP c la ims i t is amurder-suicide case and that Prabhleen was shot byPieter with a gun he repor tedly purchased the verysame day. Gurdial denied saying it wasn't possible as he lovedPrabhleen very much. “He was very affectionate towards her, andalso us,” He said. In fact, according to the father, the case seems tobe a double homicide. “This is the work of a third person. I cannotbelieve Pieter killed my daughter and then took his own life. Someother person came and killed the two,” he said.He said he asked the RCMP to show him the murder weapon,however, they said that cannot be allowed. “They told me the casehas been shut. I asked them to return my daughter's laptop andmobile phone. But they said the items are at the forensic laboratoryfor evidence and will take some six months before they can behanded back. Now, if the case is closed, why are the laptop andphone still with forensics?” he asked.When Ymedia's journalist asked Gurdial if he suspects someone offoul play, anyone from their friends or Pieter's family, he said, “I don'tknow. All their friends had a lot of love for each other. Pieter did notwant his family to know they were married. He had not allowedanyone to take any picture or video during their court marriage ashe wanted to keep it a secret from his family.”The RCMP's Integrated Homicide Investigation Team hasrefrained from any further comments, saying the case is“essentially concluded.”

FATHER OF 21-YEAR OLD SURREYMURDER VICTIM SAYS QUESTIONSREMAIN UNANSWERED

PM JUSTIN TRUDEAU'S LIBERAL GOVERNMENTSET TO DELIVER FIRST CAMPAIGN PROMISEIn a move that would help Prime Minister Justin Tr udeau's government deliver on its campaign promise to lower taxes for Canadians as its toppriority for the parliamentary agenda. Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabled a notice of a motion in the House of Commons that proposes toamend the Income Tax Act to boost the Basic Personal Amount (BPA) exemption, the amount you can earn before you star t paying taxes, byalmost $2000, meaning the first $15,000 earned will be tax free. The cuts will be phased in over four years beginning in 2020.Morneau called the move a “very significant measure” and that it will lower taxes for about 20 million people. He said, “We know this is goingto have a very impor tant impact on those 20 million Canadians.” The government would phase out the benefits of the increased BPA forwealthy Canadians, gradually reducing the benefit for those with annual net incomes above $150,473. To be fully implemented in 2023, singleindividuals would save almost $300 in taxes every year, and families would save almost $600.Government estimates suggest almost 1.1 million more Canadians would no longer pay any federal income tax. During the election campaign,Trudeau had promised that the tax cut would be the government's top order of business if re-elected.New Minister of Middle Class Prosperity Mona Fortier was asked if the tax cuts are big enough to have a noticeable impact. She said it willCanadians pay for their children's activities and camp, or help them save for retirement.Meanwhile, Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre called the announcement “too little and too late” as taxpayers will have to wait fouryears for the full benefit. In a statement, he said, “To restart Canada's weak economy, we need bigger and faster tax cuts. Conservative lovetax cuts. They reward workers with more money to save, pay down mor tgages or suppor t local business and charities. However, the last timeLiberals promised to cut taxes, they raised them. We'll read their latest proposal to ensure their deeds match their words. We'll also urge thegovernment to consider bigger and faster tax cuts.”The Conservatives will review the motion and discuss in caucus before taking formal position. Meanwhile NDP finance critic Peter Julianproposed capping the tax changes at $90,000 and using it to provide basic dental care for low income Canadians. He said, “We know thatrelieves pressure on the health-care system and we know would make a terrific difference in the lives of those families.”

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COP25: DELIVER ON COMMITMENTSDespite climate scientists being vocal about the climate crisis, thepolitical response to it has largely been indifferent. On December 3,the World Meteorological Organisation said the past 10 years werethe warmest on record, with the global mean temperature about 1.1degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels between January and Oc-tober 2019. This indicates that the 1.5 ° C threshold will be breachedin the 2030s, much earlier than expected. The current mitigationpledges are likely to take us to a 3.2 ° C warming scenario by the endof this century. Inaction has already set off irreversible chain re-sponses to ecosystems, such as marine heat waves and acidifica-tion; severe heat waves; and changes in the southwest monsoonpattern, among others.The United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP25) in Madridthat ends this week has shown no indication of progress on meetingthe Paris Agreement goal of keeping the global temperature rise be-low 2 ° C, and pursue effor ts to keep it under 1.5 ° C. Developedcountries, including Australia, Singapore, Japan and the United States,have said they will not update their nationally-determined contribu-tions (NCDs). About 51% of all NDCs have included carbon markets,which is an emissions-trading mechanism, as one of the means toachieve emission reduction. Developed countries have also not de-livered on their pre-2020 commitments, the most impor tant amongthem being mobilising $100 billion per year by 2020 to suppor t devel-oping nations in mitigating and adapting to impacts. India, China, andBrazil, among others, have sought a stock-take on the implementa-tion of pre-2020 commitments by developed countries at COP25.There is also a logjam related to “corresponding adjustments” (wherea country can sell emission reductions to another) on concerns re-lated to the impact on indigenous communities from carbon-offset

projects like plantations or hydropower, and on the car ryover of un-sold carbon credits from clean development mechanism. A draft de-cision on “loss and damage” has proposed that developed countries,private and non-governmental organisations scale up finance and

technology suppor t for vulnerable countries to compensate for loss.But this, too, is facing push back from developed countries. Devel-oped countries must recognise it is an existential crisis for everyoneon the planet and deliver on their commitments.

THE WISDOM IN CJI BOBDE’S WORDSWisdom does not call for a discussion, nor honesty for an essay. Philosophictruths are for absorption, not analysis. When a statement is made from thedepths of knowing, it acquires the pith and form of a saying — it becomes anaphorism. One does not look for the whys and wherefores of an aphorism.

One does not ask where it is coming from, or where it is headed. It is justthere, to be observed, experienced, reflected upon. As one might, say, asunrise or a shooting star. Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde’s observationon Saturday that “justice should not be revenge” belongs to that category ofstatements. It needed no paraphrasing. But he went on to give one — one thatwas as master ful as the original aphoristic statement, “I believe”, he added,“ justice loses its character as justice if it becomes revenge.” Repor ts of thisstatement of the Chief Justice of India at an event in Rajasthan linked itexpectedly enough to the tragic-beyond-belief rape and murder in Hyderabadof a young woman; the calls for quick , instant, retribution; and the bloodyaftermath 10 days later. This was the nature of reportage, even its duty. But asone who found completeness, repleteness and a kind of absolution in thestatement, I found that contextualisation unnecessary, and in fact, unwanted.I did not want to think of what may have been the trigger for the statement. Ijust wanted to take its wisdom, its power and its moral force in — for its ownsake. And as I did that, I saw with the same sense of gratitude, more comingfrom the same aquifer of insight. “Justice”, he continued “ought never to beinstant”. It has been a long while since one heard a high functionary in Indiasay something that is not a cliché, is not clever, not intended to strike awe,stoke fear or sell an idea that has no takers outside the world of the awed,fear ful or gullible. It has been a long, and barren, while.And so this shaft of truth comes as both a revelation and a relief.Aphorisms do not, I said, call for analysis, only experiencing. And it is pre-cisely as the latter — experiencing the force and gravity of Justice Bobde’sremarks — that the following thoughts came to me.We, as a people, have traditionally been enamoured of the imagined gutsi-ness in eent ka javab pathhar se (to a brick hurled I will return a flying stone).We have admired javab (reply, rebuttal, retor t, repulsion) over the consider-ing of an issue in the manner suggested by the great Mahavira in his theoryof anekantavada (not oneness). We have, from the times of the Mahabharata,been traditionally inclined to settling scores by combat. But the sur facedensity of these flying missiles in our society, in our politics and, in fact, in alldepartments of life, has now broken all previous records of retaliation. Thesnails pace of judicial proceedings has, without a doubt, led to impatiencenow exploding all around us, a fact that Justice Bobde alluded to in his lecture.The pulse of vengeance beats faster and stronger now than it ever has. Andthe garland of admiration is reserved now, not for the thinking mind or the

probing intellect, but for the swinging arm, the swaggering foot. The logicalend of this is a reversion to pre-institutional disarray, an atavistic recoil tomedieval bedlam. The danger in this is not just an erosion of coda, of canonsof law in the world of crime and punishment alone, but the valorisation of“fixing” over due process, of the specious claim of “quick action” over soundworking. In other words, of haste over efficiency.Ours has become an “instant culture”, quick to slight, quicker to be slighted.Swift to injure, swifter to be injured. Fast to pronounce verdicts, faster tocounter-pronounce refutations. Our legislatures have little time to ponderissues. Our governors, and even the highest functionary in the land, ouresteemed president, are obliged to consider proposed enactments in the eyeof storms. A state can become two union territories, a legislature put to sleep,a government sacked and another sworn in, in one fleeting instant. And allthis, as our electronic media, being time-kept to the second, “breaks” thisnews 24*7, with the jerks and jolts of cardiac arrhythmia.Today, in popularity ratings, diligence is out, dramatics are in; veracity is out,velocity is in. Ours are times of fait accompli.Who and what is imperilled? In a word: Justice. In four words: The characterof justice. In twelve, the future of a constitutionally governed nation-State in aretributive country. Which is why the words of our chief justice come as balmto justice’s aching soul.

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General Accounting & Bookkeeping

Justin Trudeau's minority government locks hornswith the Opposition over its Throne Speech

Tory leader Andrew Scheer has reiter-ated that his party will not support acarbon tax. Suggesting changes toPrime Minister Justin Trudeau-led mi-nority government’s throne speech, hesaid, “We’re going to fight for pipelines,lower taxes, and reduced regulations tomake Canada the best place in the worldto invest, start a business and createjobs.”Not stopping there, he also blamed thegovernment for creating what he callsa national unity “crisis” with its policiesthat according to him alienates Alber taand Saskatchewan. Scheer said, “Anational unity crisis requires respect-ing provincial jurisdiction and scrappingthe carbon tax and stopping the attackon the Western Canadian economy.”He added, “I want all our colleaguesfrom across Canada to not underesti-mate the deep alienation and anger thepeople of my province, along with our

neighbours in Alberta, currently feelabout their deal in Confederation. Thedamage done over the past four yearsis significant.”The comments come at a time whenScheer fights to retain his post as aleader of a party. He however dis-missed statements blaming the Con-servatives’ election failure to his lack ofproviding a credible climate changeplan. The Leader of the Official Opposi-tion said his party will always oppose acarbon tax. All eyes were on Ottawa onDecember 5 as the 43rd Parliament ses-sion took place, the first after the Octo-ber elections. A lot of speculations pre-ceded the Throne Speech, with opposi-tion par ties putting forth their expecta-tions from the Prime Minister JustinTrudeau-led minority government.Governor General Julie Payette read outTrudeau’s Speech from the Throne inthe afternoon. The speech provided a

sketch on the government’s new visionas they enter unchar ted territories withthe minority situation. The speech said,“In this election Parliamentarians re-ceived a mandate from the people ofCanada which Ministers will carry out.It is a mandate to fight climate change,strengthen the middle class, walk theroad of reconciliation, keep Canadianssafe and healthy, and position Canadafor success in an uncer tain world.”It added, “These are not simple tasks.But they are achievable if you stay fo-cused on the people who sent you here.”Not really a surprise package, prom-ises were more or less a repetition ofthe previous speech. It included targetsfor net-zero carbon emissions by 2050,planting two billion trees, increasing thefederal minimum wage, ratifying the re-negotiated NAFTA trade deal, cuttingcellphone bills and banning assault-style rifles. It also included a promise to

preserve 25 per cent of Canada’soceans and land by 2025 along with avow to table and pass legislation imple-menting the UN Declaration on theRights of Indigenous People in the firstyear of the mandate.The speech also vowed to create aNational Action Plan on gender-basedviolence.“Canadians expect their leaders to standup for the values and interests that arecore to Canada’s prosperity and secu-rity – democracy, human rights, andrespect for international law. Canadiansexpect the Government to positionCanada and Canadians for success inthe world,” the speech said. It alsoadded, “As a trading nation, the Govern-ment will seek out opportunities forCanadian commerce, ingenuity, and en-terprise.”The speech also identified continuedfocus on multilaterism, promotion ofdemocracy and human rights, and tack-ling climate change while also high-lighting the need to build par tnershipson “the development and ethical use ofartificial intelligence.” GG Payette read,“The mandate of this recent election isa starting point, not the final word. Thegovernment is open to new ideas fromall Parliamentarians, stakeholders,public servants, and Canadians. Idealslike universal dental care are worthexploring, and I encourage Parliamentto look into this.” She also read,“Whether it’s fighting money launder-ing or making parental benefits tax-free,there are good ideas across par ties,and this government is ready to learnfrom you and work with you in the yearsahead.”Trudeau needs a majority vote in theHouse of Commons to vote for theSpeech.

CONTD. FROM PAGE 1The demand ironically came after a street in the city was re-named to Guru Nanak Street.Coun Medeiros made a brief appearance on Group Editor andCEO Yudhvir Jaswal's morning radio show South Asian PulsePrime Time on Monday. When asked about his controversialstatements, the councillor said, “People play politics with reli-gion. Once we do it for one group, we have to do it for everybody.People are afraid that Christianity losing impor tance.” Talkingabout delegations who demanded December be declared Chris-tian Heritage Month, he said every councillor should have apersonal responsibility to not bring religious groups to City Hall.“Such things should not be brought down to city hall. When coun-cillors bring in these groups, it is simple political pandering. It isnot appropriate to star t mixing politics with religion.” Citing thatgiven the floodgates have now been opened, Jaswal asked thecouncillor how to stop the movement now?“One of the things is that we've star ted to talk now. Each councillorshould be more disciplined. They want to go to churches, temples, mosques,sure, go ahead. But don't try to get easy votes. I received a good feedbackfrom the community. They agree with me. We have to find a way where werecognise our diversity. Not in a way that we divide the community.” CounMedeiros then suggested an example on how a singular celebration –something like a parade, can be organised to celebrate multiple religiousgroups. Ending on a firm note, he said, “We have to develop a policy so it'scoherent and we are applying to all groups. This is something we need tohave the strength to follow. We really need to have a fine line to recognisecommunity groups and religion. This is something we are learning, but wereally need to have frank discussion on this.”He added, “We have a budget deliberations meet in February. Nobody isfunding us to spend on religion or cultural groups. Which is why, we need toask ourselves. We won't say not but not a single dollar can be spenton such events anymore. I will raise this during the budget dis-cussion. It's really impor tant that people express their opinionon the issue. I really appreciate people's backing. The demandfor a Christian Heritage month, as a catholic, it offended me. Wealready celebrate Easter, we already celebrate Christmas.”

YMEDIA EXCLUSIVE: COUN. MARTINMEDEIROS SAYS CITY GONE “A LITTLE

OVERBOARD” WITH RELIGION AND CULTURE

Canada commemorates 30th anniversary of the École Polytechnique massacreThe House of Commons held a solemn moment of silence on December 6, as members of Parliament remembered the victims of the ÉcolePolytechnique massacre 30 years ago. A gunman entered the engineering school on the evening of December 6, 1989 and killed 14 women in an anti-feminist mass slaying. He then took his own life.Speaking at the House of Commons, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said gender-based violence remains an ongoing threat to women's safety. He said,“Each December, as we honour the memories of those 14 women, the survivors and the families, we promise to do better. But the reality is that in 30years, things haven't changed enough.” He added, “Women, girls and people of diverse gender identities still face unacceptable and preventableviolence -- violence that destroys lives, families and communities. It is more than time for change. It is more than time to put an end to gender-basedviolence including the national tragedy of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. Because it is more than time to build a country whereeveryone is safe and where everyone's rights are respected and realized.”He also highlighted his campaign pledge to ban automatic assault rifles, including the weapon used in the Montreal Massacre. Trudeau said, “Theseweapons, designed to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time, have no place in our communities, in our streets, in our country.”Conservative Leader and Leader of the Official Opposition, Andrew Scheer said the 14 women who lost their lives were just students going to schoolthat day. Women should not still be concerned for their safety simply because they are women, he said. “It is unacceptable that violence against womenremains an issue to this day. That is why we must all resolve not to be content with simply respecting women, but we must call on each other to beproactive, to demonstrate with our actions, how much we value the safety, dignity, and value of every life of every woman.”Meanwhile, New Democratic Par ty Leader Jagmeet Singh warned the “anti-woman hatred” that led to the massacre in Montreal 30 years ago remainsan ongoing threat. Singh said, “Thirty years af ter Canadians said, 'Never again', following the polytechnique tragedy, we need to recognize collectivelythat we still have a long way to go to respect that commitment. Systemic change starts when governments take male violence against women serious,takes it for the epidemic that it is. With a national action plan, we can end violence against women.”People, including PM Tr udeau and Governor General Julie Payette, gathered on Mount Royal in the evening, at 5.10 pm when the firstshots were fired originally. 14 beams of light were shone over the Montreal skyline as the names of all the victims were read aloud.

27 YEAR OLD SHARANJEET KAUR FOUNDDEAD IN BRAMPTON MURDER-SUICIDE

CONTD. FROM PAGE 1Media officer Const. Heather Cannon said the two were in arelationship. It needs to be pointed out, that the Toronto Police hadissued a Missing report on Kaur on Sunday. Other media reportshave divulged a little more details on the victim. A friend of Kaur'sis in constant touch with her family. According to the repor t, Kaurlived in Etobicoke and used to stay in constant touch with herfamily. However, on Sunday, her family raised concern when theycouldn't contact her. The friend said they called her all day and evencalled her work. Her employer told the friend that Kaur had given nonotice of absence. The victim had last spoken to her via text onSaturday and described her as “casual” and “happy”.A little after 2.00 pm, on December 9, officers entered a basementapartment in the home and discovered Singh's body before findingthe Kaur's body. The police is conducting an investigation, however,is convinced that it is a case of murder-suicide.

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RASHTRAPATI BHAWAN LIGHTS UP IN ORANGE TO RAISE AWARENESS ON VIOLENCE OVER WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD. THEMOVE IS A PART OF UN'S UNITE TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN CAMPAIGN.

Why hang us, asks Delhi gang-rape convict;cites Vedas, Puranas and Gandhi

Akshay Kumar Singh, one of the four men convicted for the 2012gang-rape and murder of a young girl, on Tuesday filed a reviewpetition in the Supreme Cour t against the death penalty awarded tohim and three others by the top cour t two years ago.In his plea, Singh, 32, also asked the Supreme Cour t why it wascontinuing with death penalty as a punishment when lives are al-ready getting shor ter. His petition refer red to the Vedas, Puranas andUpanishads to argue that there was a time, in Satyug, when peoplelived for a long time. Not any longer, he said.Akshay Singh’s petition pointed to air pollution and unclean water inDelhi. “Everyone is aware of what is happening in Delhi NCR in re-gard to water and air. Life is going shor t to shor t, then why deathpenalty?” Singh asked in his petition.Singh and three others had raped and murdered a 23-year-old para-medic student on her way back home in December 2012. A malefriend who was with her at the time of the crime was thrashed and the

woman, brutalised and dumped on the highway.The four have been on death row for a few years now.Akshay Singh’s petition argued against the death sentence.“The death penalty is the premeditated and cold blooded killing of ahuman being by the state in the name of justice,” he said, explainingit as an effor t by the government to “promote simplistic responses tocomplex human problems rather than pursing their root causes”.The petition sought systemic reforms in the criminal justice systemand argued that the cer tainty of punishment was an effective deter-rent, not severity of punishment.The petition comes against the backdrop of repor ts that a presidentialmercy plea filed by some of the accused would be rejected soon.Once the legal challenges are over, a Delhi court will issue a blackwarrant and star t the process of execution within the jail premises.Afzal Guru, convicted in the 2001 Parliament Attack case, was thelast prisoner to be executed in Tihar jail in February 2013.

THE FOUR HAVE BEEN ON DEATH ROW FOR A FEW YEARS NOW. (ANI PHOTO)

JNU ROW: WHAT IS THEOUTRAGE ALL ABOUT

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) is all set to witnessanother showdown between the students and the admin-istration. The agitating students have given the call toboycott the end-semester examinations which are sched-uled to begin on December 12.The boycott is a par t of an ongoing strike against anincreased hostel fee. While the students are confident ofa mass boycott, the administration has conveyed to thestudents that police forces could be sought to conductthe examination, if needed.PROLONGED PROTESTSFor 44 days, students have been protesting against asteep increase in the hostel fee and demanding a com-plete rollback of the new hostel manual. Another majorgrouse has been the non-engagement of the JNU stu-dents’ union in the making of the draft hostel manual.As per the proposed hostel manual, students would havehad to pay a service charge of Rs 1,700 per month ap-proximately. This charge did not exist earlier. The rent fora single-seater room has been increased from Rs 20 permonth to Rs 600 per month, and for a double-sharingroom from Rs 10 per month to Rs 300 per month. Themess security fee, which is refundable, was revised fromRs 5,500 to Rs 12,000. Water and electricity were alsomade chargeable on a pay-per-consumption basis.Students claim that along with additional mess chargesof around Rs 2,500 per month, they would have to payaround Rs 6,000-7,000 monthly which would push manystudents out of the university. Under the existing fee struc-ture, they pay around Rs 3,000 per month.As per the university’s annual repor t, of the 1,556 candi-dates admitted in the 2017-2018 academic session,around 40% of the students came from households wherethe parental income was less than Rs 12,000 per month.Thus, the union argues that if a family earns around Rs15,000, it is not feasible for them to spend Rs 6,000 ashostel fee in educating a child.The fee hike crisis received national spotlight after hun-dreds of students protested outside the university’s thirdconvocation on November 11 effectively confining vicepresident Venkaiah Naidu and Union human resourcedevelopment minister Ramesh Pokhriyal at the spot forover six hours. A week later, on November 18, thousandsof students spilled over to Delhi’s roads where, despiteDelhi Police’s denial, they were charged with batons.The university announced the first of two concessions inbetween these two incidents on November 15, effec-tively proposing a dual fee structure after the university’s283rd Executive Council (EC) passed the revised manual.Students belonging to the below pover ty line (BPL) cat-egory, and not availing JRF/SRF/ or equivalent scholar-ships (which are above Rs 25,000 per month), would beeligible for a 50% concession in all slabs. The one-timemess security deposit was also rolled back from pro-posed Rs 12,000 to existing Rs 5,500. Clauses citingcur few timing of 11.30pm and ‘appropriate’ dress codewere also removed.The second concession announced on November 25 gavea 50% concession in utility and service charges for allstudents and 75% reduction for those belonging to theBPL category. The utility and service charge slab wasonly introduced in the present manual and comes to aroundRs 2,000 per month, including electricity and watercharges.The students’ union rejected both the cutbacks calling ita gimmick and said two fee structures in a universitywould fur ther stigmatise the marginalised. Their stir fora complete rollback continued with marches and dem-onstrations in different par ts of the capital.WHAT NEXTSince protesting students have laid siege to the adminis-trative block and classes have been suspended for overa month, the academic processes in the university havebeen severely affected. While students and teachers havelent suppor t to the fee hike movement, students are alsoworried about missing out on studies and lecturers withrenowned professors who may retire soon. Several for-eign students are worried about the visa issue they mayface if the semester were to be extended.As students refuse to back down, the administration hasbeen consistently stating that those not fulfilling theiracademic requirements through submissions and ex-aminations will be expelled from the institute.While examinations have been suspended in the univer-sity before due to the closure via sine die in 1983, this isa first where students would be boycotting the examina-tion, former JNUSU members said.THE ARGUMENTSJNU administration has been justifying the hike and ser-vice charges citing a fund crunch. In a fact-sheet issuedlast month, Satish Chandra Garkoti, Rector II, revealedthat the varsity has a deficit of more than Rs 45 crore andit is largely because of huge electricity and water chargesand the salary of contractual staff which is no longerpaid by UGC. The university said that the “shor tfalls inthe non-salary expenditures should be met by using theinternal receipts generated by the university” as per UGCinstructions.

Delhi High Cour t on Tuesday dismissed a plea which had sought a judicial probe or an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) in the fire at an illegal factory in the Capital’s Anaj Mandi area, where at least 43 people were killed on Sunday.A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Hari Shankar said the police are probing the matter and so there is no need for any judicialprobe. The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Avadh Kaushik had contended that nearly half a dozen depar tments andauthorities are in place in the national capital to keep a watch on such illegalities and to prevent incidents of fire.But all of them, it said, “being hand in glove, obviously for corrupt reasons, have become blind and closed their eyes and have left thepeople to die in an inhumane manner”.The plea had also sought that an exper t committee is constituted to conduct a survey of all such buildings and spots where there is apossibility of fire incidents and take steps to prevent those.Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has ordered a magisterial inquiry into the fire and sought a report within seven days.The Nor th Delhi Municipal Corporation has also set up a one-man enquiry to look into the oversights that led to a five-storey illegalfactory operating from Anaj Mandi for at least 10 years.For ty-three people died, mostly young migrant labourers, and 16 others were injured in the devastating fire that ripped through theunauthorised factory in Anaj Mandi early on Sunday, in the worst blaze in 20 years that exposed shoddy city planning and lax enforce-ment of fire safety rules in the Capital.Delhi Police arrested the building’s owner Rehan and his manager Furkan on Monday.

Delhi HC dismisses plea for judicial, CBI probe into Anaj Mandi fire

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THE UNNAO GIRL BEING TAKEN FOR HER LAST RITES BY FAMILY MEMBERS AND RELATIVES AMID A HEAVY SECURITY COVER. (PTI)

CONTD. FROM PAGE 1Lucknow divisional commissioner Mukesh Meshram and inspectorgeneral of police SK Bhagat spoke to the woman's father and brotherfor an hour, and convinced them to agree to bury the woman.The funeral was attended by several people and leaders, includingState Labour Minister Swami Prasad Maurya and Minister in-chargefor Unnao Kamal Rani Varun. The victim's father also spoke withadditional chief secretary Avnish Awasthi over the phone. He as-sured them that the government will consider their demand for a job.Unnao district magistrate Devendra Pandey said, “The family hasbeen provided with security and two houses under the PM housingscheme will be given on priority.” He said if they want, they will begiven a licence to hold weapons.CM Adityanath, who currently faces pressure from the opposition,and people, has announced an ex gratia of Rs 25 Lakh for her family.The victim who was set on fire on December 5, succumbed to herinjuries in Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital the next day. She was as-saulted by five men including two accused of gang raping her lastDecember when on way to a cour t hearing, and suffered 95 per centburns. She was briefly treated at two state government hospitals be-

BODY OF UNNAO RAPE VICTIM BURIEDIN FIELDS OWNED BY FAMILY

fore being airlifted to a Delhi hospital.The victim suffered a cardiac arrest on Friday and was declared dead30 minutes later. Hospital sources informed that doctors tried to re-suscitate her but could not save her. The news came just a couple ofhours after her father shared fear that she may not survive. Demand-ing all five men to be killed in an encounter to serve her justice, herfather had said, “My daughter’s condition is extremely critical, onlyGod can save her now.”The victim was on her way to a local railway station in Unnao earlymorning to reach a cour t hearing in Rae Bareli, when she was ac-costed by the accused at 4.30 am on Thursday and set on fire. Shehowever, managed to give a statement to subdivisional magistrate(SDM) Daya Shankar Pathak at the hospital after the attack.He said that the men first hit her on the head and attacked her with aknife. They then poured petrol and set her on fire. The victim ran akilometre covered in flames, begging for help. The accused, ShivamTrivedi, his cousin Shubham, father Hari Shankar Trivedi, uncle RamKishore Trivedi and, Umesh Bajpai have been ar rested af ter the inci-dent and sent to 14 days judicial custody. Shivam and Shubham arethe original accused of gang-raping the victim in 2018.

CONTD. FROM PAGE 1Stating that he is worried about drugs, he said, “We have set up aspecial task force, we have got them working hard and you will besurprised we have arrested around 32,000 people. Of course theyare not all in the jug. We have been through investigations, peoplehave been let off. We have got about 3800 which have been con-victed. And the rest are under-trials, almost 4000.” He stated thesources from where all the substance was flowing into the region.He said that drugs used to come from across the border.Now it is coming from Kashmir. It comes from Nepal,and Delhi. “We caught a 300 kilo consignment comingfrom Uri. And then it comes from land, nearly one ton ofthis thing came to Kandla and then from that a couple ofhundred kilos were shipped to Punjab.”Captain said, “We seem to have become the destinationbecause people feel we have money, so people sell drugshere. We have been very tough on this. Now we havejust extradited a man from Armenia. From here we areworking upwards and hopefully we will get to the top.There is so much money in drugs and that is somethingthat will keep us on our toes all the time.”He clarified that the problem is “not going to disappear but itcer tainly will become manageable. It was completely out of con-trol before.” The CM said his government had made a commit-ment to calm down the rampant drug problem within Punjab. “Wehave broken the backbone of it, now the question is to push downas much as we can.”

PUNJAB POLICE ARRESTED 100 ISI-LINKED TERRORISTS IN TWO YEARS,BUSTED 28 TERROR MODULES : CM

CAPT AMARINDER SINGH WARNS PAK

BEHIND BJP CONFIDENCE ON CAB PASSAGE, SUPPORTFROM FRIENDS, RIVALS AND 2 EXES

A day after the contentious Citizenship Amendment Bill, which seeksto give citizenship to persecuted minorities from Pakistan, Bangladeshand Afghanistan, was passed in Lok Sabha, the ruling Bharatiya JanataPar ty (BJP) is confident of the bill’s passage in the Rajya Sabha aswell, where it does not have a majority.

The BJP is cer tain that it will get suppor t from par ties such as AllIndia Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), YSR CongressPar ty, Telugu Desam Par ty (TDP) and Biju Janata Dal (BJD), whichare not par t of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). BJP is alsocounting on adding three more votes to its tally from its former ally,

Shiva Sena, after it voted in favourof the bill in the lower house onMonday. Shiv Sena, which hasbroken ties with the BJP after fall-ing out over government forma-tion in Maharashtra, had raisedseveral concerns about the pro-visions of the bill during discus-sion in Lok Sabha, but eventuallyvoted in favour of the bill that willoffer citizenship to Hindus, Chris-tians, Parsis, Buddhists, Sikhsand Jains.A senior BJP functionary whospoke to HT on condition of ano-nymity said the par ty is confidentof garnering suppor t from non-NDA members because thesepar ties had in the past supportedthe bi l l seeking thereorganisation of Jammu andKashmir and abrogation of Ar ticle370; and also the bill that madetriple talaq punishable with athree-year jail term.BJP, which has 83 members in the245 member house, is countingon suppor t from 11 AIADMK, 7BJD, 3 Shiv Sena, 2 YSRCP, 2 TDP,and at least three independentMPs in the Rajya Sabha.The par ty will also get suppor tfrom NDA allies, which include 6from Janata Dal (United) threefrom Akali Dal, one each fromRepublican Par ty of India and LokJanashakti Par ty, and a dozenmore from smaller par ties. Thereare currently five vacancies in theupper house.The Opposition that includes Con-gress, DMK, Trinamool Congress,Rashtriya Janata Dal, SamajwadiPar ty, Bahujan Samaj Party, Leftparties, Telangana Rashtriya Samithi,Aam Aadmi Party and Janata Dal (Secu-lar) have all opposed the bill and willpush for stalling its passage in the up-per house. A clutch of oppositionpar ties have also said that theywill push for a review of the billby a select committee.

A DEAD MAN, 60, AND ONIONSIN WAR OF WORDS BETWEEN

JAGAN REDDY, NAIDUYSR Congress par ty president and Andhra Pradesh chiefminister Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday accused the TeluguDesam Par ty of playing “politics over corpses” af ter a mandied allegedly standing in a queue to buy onions.The chief minister was referring to the death of a 60-year-old man Sambi Reddy at Rythu Bazar (farmer’s market) inGudivada town on Monday.Quoting media repor ts, TDP president and leader of opposi-tion N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the inept handling ofonion supply had led to the death of Sambi Reddy whilestanding in queue for more than two hours to purchase on-ions. Countering Naidu’s criticism, the YSRCP presented avideo clipping of the statements of the son and brother-in-law of the deceased, who claimed that Sambi Reddy hadgone to the Rythu Bazar not to buy onions but only freshvegetables. “I request the political par ties not to try to gainpolitical mileage out of personal grief,” Sambi Reddy’s sonMallikarjuna Reddy said.He said his father, who had been working as a conductor inRoad Transpor t Corporation (RTC), had taken voluntary re-tirement a few years ago af ter he suffered a hear t attack.Since then, he has been doing a small-time business inGudivada. “He went to the temple in the morning and on hisway, he went to Rythu Bazar to fetch vegetables, where hecollapsed due to hear t attack,” Reddy explained.Jagan said the TDP was trying to politicise issue for itsadvantage. “Naidu, whose family concern Heritage Foodsis selling onions at Rs 200 a kg, is shedding crocodile tearson the onion crisis. He is not leaving even dead bodies toplay politics,” he criticised. The chief minister said AndhraPradesh was the only state in the country that was supply-ing onions at a subsidised rate of Rs 25 per kg throughmarket intervention scheme. “The fact that there are longqueues at Rythu Bazars itself is an indication of the supplyof onions at subsidised rates,” he pointed out.

‘BHANGRA POLITICS’:ASADUDDIN OWAISI’S DART ATSHIV SENA’S STAND ON CABAll India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) boss andHyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi called the Shiv Sena’sdecision to suppor t the contentious Citizenship (Amend-ment) Bill in the Lok Sabha but setting conditions for sup-por ting its passage in the Rajya Sabha as an example of“Bhangra politics”. “This is Bhangra politics. They write‘secular’, in common minimum programme, this bill isagainst secularism and Ar ticle 14. It is politics of oppor tun-ism,” he said according to ANI.Last month, the Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) coalitiongovernment in Maharashtra comprising the Sena, Congress andthe nationalist Congress Party (NCP) promised secular and inclusivegovernance in a document spelling out its five-year agenda.During the debate in the Lok Sabha on Monday, Owaisi tore up the bill,alleging that it was aimed at making Muslims “stateless”. He alsowarned that it would lead to another partition. The Shiv Sena whichbacked the government on the CAB in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, preparedthe ground to take a sharp u-turn in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesdaywith party boss and Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeraysaying his MPs would back the contentious law only if the governmentaccepts its suggestion to hold back voting rights to brand-new citizensfor 25 years. The Sena has suggested changes it wants to be includedin the Bill in the Rajya Sabha, he said. “Where will these refugeesstay...in which state. All this should be clarified,” he added.“We raised some questions but they were not answered. Itis an illusion that only the BJP cares for the country,”Thackeray said. “We don’t take a stand based on who likesit or not,” he said when asked about his par ty’s stance onthe Bill. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which seeks toprovide Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees comingfrom Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan after facing re-ligious persecution there, was passed in the Lok Sabha alittle past midnight on Monday after a heated debate thatlasted over seven hours.

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UNION HOME MINISTER AMIT SHAH SPEAKS IN THE LOK SABHA DURING THE ONGOING WINTER SESSION OF PARLIAMENT,IN NEW DELHI, MONDAY, DEC. 9, 2019.

The External Affairs Ministry on Tuesday said the statements made bya committee of the US government on religious freedom on Citizen-ship (Amendment) Bill are “inaccurate and unwarranted”.In a statement issued on Monday, the US Commission for Interna-tional Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said that it was deeply troubledover the passage of the bill in the Lok Sabha. “The statement made byUSCIRF on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is neither accurate norwarranted. The Bill provides expedited consideration for Indian citi-zenship to persecuted religious minorities already in India from cer-tain contiguous countries,” the ministry said in a statement.The Lok Sabha, late on Monday night, passed the contentious citizen-ship bill that grants citizenship to religious minorities from threeMuslim-majority countries in India’s neighbourhood after a fierce nine-hour debate in which Opposition par ties alleged the legislation vio-lated the Constitution by linking faith to citizenship.The Bill will now be brought in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling par tydoes not enjoy majority.“If the CAB passes in both houses of parliament, the US governmentshould consider sanctions against the Home Minister Amit Shah andother principal leadership,” the Commission said.“USCIRF is ‘deeply troubled’ by the passage of the CAB, originally

introduced by Home Minister Shah, in the Lok Sabha given the reli-gion criterion in the bill,” it added.In response to criticism from the US Commission, the governmentsaid the body is guided by its “prejudices and biases on a matter onwhich it has clearly little knowledge and no locus standi”.“Neither the CAB nor the National Register of Citizens (NRC)processseeks to strip citizenship from any Indian citizen of any faith. Sugges-tions to that effect are motivated and unjustified. Every nation, includ-ing the United States, has the right to enumerate and validate itscitizenry, and to exercise this prerogative through various policies,”the statement said.Home Minister Amit Shah, who piloted the bill in the Lower House,repeatedly emphasised that the bill is not violative of constitutionalprovisions and that Muslims have nothing to worry as they havenothing to do with this bill.“If minorities are getting persecuted in neighbouring countries, wecannot be mute spectators. We have to ensure their safety and dig-nity,” Shah said. The minister said that under the proposed legislation, citizen-ship will be granted to refugees without even documents, including ra-tion cards, and blamed the Congress for Par tition. “It was the Con-gress that divided the country on religious lines, not us,” he said.

‘MOTIVATED’: GOVT RESPONDS TO US COMMISSIONSTATEMENT ON CITIZENSHIP BILL

Punj Police arrested 100 ISI-linkedterrorists in two yearsPunjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has warnedPakistan against cooking up any trouble in the state. Speak-ing at the Progressive Punjab Investors Summit 2019 inMohali, he said his government has busted 28 terror mod-ules and arrested over 100 ISI-backed terrorists in the lasttwo years. He said, “Twenty-eight terror modules werebusted and more than 100 ISI-backed terrorists arrested bythe Punjab police in the last two years.” He issued a warn-ing saying, “Behave, or else be prepared for the conse-quences. Pakistan has its own problems, but I won't letthem make their problems my problem. We will not let themmess around with us.”He said he has issued clear orders to the police to handleany internal or external threat with an iron hand. Not holdingback, the Captain said he believed Pakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan wanted peace but the Pakistan Army calls theshots and obstructs effor ts for peace. “But they have tounderstand that they and their country are doomed if they donot change their ways. The Pak army will have to “playball” if they have to feed their people and save their coun-try.” The CM also asser ted that his government was com-mitted to providing a safe and stable environment to theindustry for its growth.

Delhi HC dismisses plea for judicial,CBI probe into Anaj Mandi fireDelhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed a plea which hadsought a judicial probe or an inquiry by the Central Bureauof Investigation (CBI) in the fire at an illegal factory in theCapital’s Anaj Mandi area, where at least 43 people werekilled on Sunday. A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel andJustice Hari Shankar said the police are probing the matterand so there is no need for any judicial probe.The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate AvadhKaushik had contended that nearly half a dozen depar tmentsand authorities are in place in the national capital to keep awatch on such illegalities and to prevent incidents of fire.But all of them, it said, “being hand in glove, obviously forcorrupt reasons, have become blind and closed their eyesand have left the people to die in an inhumane manner”.The plea had also sought that an exper t committee is con-stituted to conduct a survey of all such buildings and spotswhere there is a possibility of fire incidents and take stepsto prevent those. Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal hasordered a magisterial inquiry into the fire and sought a re-por t within seven days. The Nor th Delhi Municipal Corpora-tion has also set up a one-man enquiry to look into the over-sights that led to a five-storey illegal factory operating fromAnaj Mandi for at least 10 years.For ty-three people died, mostly young migrant labourers,and 16 others were injured in the devastating fire that rippedthrough the unauthorised factory in Anaj Mandi early onSunday, in the worst blaze in 20 years that exposed shoddycity planning and lax enforcement of fire safety rules in theCapital. Delhi Police arrested the building’s owner Rehanand his manager Furkan on Monday.

Babri masjid a fact, temple merely a belief: PetitionersThe existence of the Babri Masjid is a fact that has been historicallydocumented while the existence of the Hindu temple on which theBabri Masjid was built is merely a belief of the Hindus, a reviewpetition filed today by 40 civil rights activists in Supreme Cour t chal-lenging the November 9 verdict in Ayodhya dispute claimed.The petitioners who are not original parties to the suit, submitted thatthey belong to various Indian faiths including Hindu, Muslim, Sikh,Christian, Buddhist and Jain apar t from people with atheist and ag-nostic convictions and they are deeply aggrieved by the judgment ofthe court.The petitioners, including Harsh Mander, Nandini Sundar, Ir fan Habiband Apoorvanand have challenged the rationale of the cour t in award-ing the 2.77-acre disputed site to Ram Lalla Virajman, the child deity,while giving Muslims an alternative site of 5 acres for the construc-tion of a new mosque.

The judgment’s tenor, language and operative orders expanded thescope of the case from a title dispute to a battle about the “faith” of theHindus and the Muslims, the petitioners claimed.The petitioners submitted that faith of a community cannot overridethe faith of another community and the practices of two faiths cannotand should not be compared as expression of faith can differ. In itsjudgment, the cour t weighed theproof adduced by both par tiesshowing their worship on thedisputed land over the centu-ries. However, when coming toa decision, it unfairl y placed ahigher value on the proof givenby one side over another, the pe-titioners argued.

FRANCE AND INDIA TO BOOST JOINT OPERATIONSIN A BID TO PROTECT INTERESTS IN INDIAN OCEANFrance will ramp up joint patrols and operations with India’s armed forces in the Indian Ocean toprotect the interests of both countries, counter illegal activities and ensure an international rules-based order, a top F rench commander said on Monday.Vice Admiral Didier Maleterre, joint commander of French forces in the Indian Ocean and theUnited Arab Emirates, indicated that China’s presence at a string of civilian and military facilities,including Hambantota in Sri Lanka, Gwadar in Pakistan and Djibouti, has security implications forthe Indian Ocean region.Maleterre, here for discussions with his Indian counterpar ts, told journalists that besides securingsea lanes of communication used by merchant vessels, it is essential to protect undersea cables,including those in waters off Sri Lanka, which are used for 85% of the worldwide web.In 2020, a P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft of the Indian Navy will go to Reunion Island, aFrench possession in the Indian Ocean, to conduct joint patrols with French frigates in strategicareas such as the Mozambique Channel, he said. The two sides are also looking at joint patrols andoperations in the northwestern Indian Ocean, including the Gulf of Aden, and greater coordinationin the Strait of Hormuz, which saw several attacks on tankers this year.There are also plans for a joint exercise with amphibious assets off the Goa coast next year and ahumanitarian assistance and disaster relief exercise in south India in 2021.“Joint patrols with India is a new concept. We don’t have so many assets (in the region) and theagenda for next year will be very impor tant,” Maleterre said. F rance will work with strategicpar tners such as India, the US and Australia to achieve its “very clear strategic and politicalobjective” that the rules-based order remains intact and is respected, he added.Maleterre explained France’s focus on the Indo-Pacific by citing two factors – the presence of 1.5million French citizens on island territories, and the country’s exclusive economic zone of morethan 11 million sq km, the second largest in the world, with 93% or 9 million sq km in the Indo-Pacific. China, he said, wasn’t “hiding anything about its ambitions” behind the Belt and RoadInitiative (BRI), which is a strategy to protect sea lanes of communications and to extend itsinfluence in eastern African countries.“They have a plan to have bases in Hambantota, Sri Lanka, in Pakistan, in Djibouti and in othersites. For the French, we want the international law and order to be respected,” Maleterre said.Noting that China first deployed its warships in the Indian Ocean in 2008 for the ostensible reasonof tackling piracy, he said Beijing had gone on to deploy “more and more assets”, includingdestroyers and conventional and nuclear submarines. “These assets are not the best tool to fightagainst piracy, there is another ambition behind it, and we know that,” he said.“Par t of the cooperation with India is to be able to protect our interests together with the US andJapan and the British,” he said, adding France believes the ports of Hambantota and Gwadar have a “dualuse”. France intends to have a secure link for exchange of classified information between its military headquartersin Abu Dhabi and the Indian Navy in Delhi. “This illustrates the level of confidence in our relationship. It isvery rare to have such links with non-NATO countries to exchange classified information,” he said.

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MYANMAR'S LEADER AUNG SAN SUU KYI ATTENDS A HEARING IN A CASE FILED BY GAMBIA AGAINST MYANMAR ALLEGINGGENOCIDE AGAINST THE MINORITY MUSLIM ROHINGYA POPULATION, AT THE INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE (ICJ) INTHE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS DECEMBER 10, 2019. (REUTERS)

CONTD. FROM PAGE 1Touted as the biggest trafficking case to be unveiled, sev-eral victims who were initially interviewed by the policerefused to testify in cour t out of fear or for being bribed.The repor t said that human trafficking networks exploitedPakistan’s poor Christian population. The news broke af-ter a list prepared by investigators working to control ac-tive trafficking networks within Pakistan was obtained byAP. Pakistan authorities have maintained a silence on theissue to maintain ties with Beijing.At least 31 Chinese nationals who were booked under ille-gal human trafficking were released by a local Faisalabadcour t af ter prosecution failed to establish the case. “InOctober, a court in Faisalabad acquitted 31 Chinese na-tionals charged in connection with trafficking. Several ofthe women who had initially been interviewed by policerefused to testify because they were either threatened orbribed into silence, according to a cour t official and a po-lice investigator familiar with the case,” read the repor t.A cour t official was quoted by the agency who said thatseveral women who had initially been interviewed by police stayedmum just because of fear or bribe. Quoting an FIA official, the reportsaid, “Trafficking of girls and women is still continuing butnobody is taking it serious. It is now at the climax.”

MASSIVE PAKISTAN-CHINA SEXTRAFFICKING CASE BURSTS WIDE OPEN; 629 PAKI WOMEN REPORTEDLY SOLD

TO CHINESE NATIONALS

Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi faced calls for Myanmar to “stop thegenocide” of Rohingya Muslims as she personally led her country’s defenceat the UN’s top cour t on Tuesday.Suu Kyi, whose silence about the plight of the Rohingya has tarnished herreputation as a rights icon, sat through graphic accounts of murder and rapein the wood-panelled cour troom in The Hague.Rights groups have criticised her decision to represent Myanmar at theInternational Cour t of Justice against accusations by the west African state ofThe Gambia that it has breached the 1948 Genocide Convention.Around 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighbouring Bangladesh after a bloodycrackdown by the Myanmar military in 2017 that UN investigators havealready described as genocide.“This is very much a dispute between Gambia and Myanmar,” GambianJustice Minister Abubacarr Tambadou told the judges of the cour t, which wasset up in 1946 to resolve disputes between UN member states.“All that The Gambia asks is that you tell Myanmar to stop these senselesskillings, to stop these acts of barbarity that continue to shock our collectiveconscience, to stop this genocide of its own people.” Tambadou, a formerprosecutor at the tribunal into the Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, said Myanmar’smilitary operation involved “mass murder, mass rape and mass tor ture,children being burned alive in their homes and places of worship.” TheGambia is seeking emergency measures to prevent further harm to theRohingya, pending a wider case at the ICJ which could take years.Suu Kyi listened to accounts by The Gambia’s lawyers of Rohingya victims,including a mother whose one-year-old son was beaten to death and aneight-month-pregnant woman who was stamped on and then repeatedlyraped. Wearing traditional Burmese dress, the 74-year-old did not speak towaiting media after ar riving at the cour t’s turreted Peace Palace headquar-

ters in a motorcade with a police escort.A group of some 50 pro-Rohingya protesters gathered outside the gates of theICJ for the hearing, carrying banners saying: ‘Say yes to Rohingya, justicedelayed is justice denied” and “Stop Burma military attack Rohingya.” “To-day is the start for our right to justice,” said Mohammed Harun, 49, whotravelled from London for the hearings. “It’s international justice day forRohingya,” he told AFP.A small group of Suu Kyi supporters also unfurled a banner outside the cour twith the Myanmar leader’s face on it saying: “ We love you, we stand withyou!” “Suu Kyi is the only person who can solve this problem,” suppor terSwe Swe Aye, 47, told AFP.“We are not denying that the Rohingya people suffered, but we are denying,like Suu Kyi, that there was a genocide in Myanmar.” Thousands of peoplehave also turned out in Suu Kyi’s suppor t in Myanmar in recent weeks sinceshe announced that she would personally lead the southeast Asian nation’scase at the cour t.Suu Kyi is set to speak in Myanmar’s defence on Wednesday. She is ex-pected to argue that Myanmar was conducting legitimate operations againstRohingya militants and that the ICJ has no jurisdiction in the case.The 74-year-old was once mentioned in the same breath as Nelson Mandelaand Mahatma Gandhi, having won the Nobel in 1991 for her resistance toMyanmar’s brutal junta.After 15 years under house arrest she was freed in 2010 and led her par ty tovictory in elections in 2015, but her defence of the same generals who oncekept her locked up has since caused international condemnation.The case is also being watched in Bangladesh where the Rohingya remain insprawling camps.“I demand justice from the world,” said Nur Karima, a Rohingya refugee

whose brothers and grandparentswere killed in a massacre in the vil-lage of Tula Toli in August 2017.ICJ judges have only once beforeruled that genocide was committed,in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre inBosnia.Myanmar, however, faces a numberof legal challenges over the fate ofthe Rohingya, including a probe bythe International Criminal Cour t -- aseparate war crimes tribunal in TheHague -- and a lawsuit in Argentina.

NOBEL PEACE LAUREATE SUU KYI TOLD TO ‘STOPTHE GENOCIDE’ IN UN COURT SHOWDOWN

A US congressional committee on Monday heard lawyersfor Democrats and Republicans present evidence for andagainst impeaching President Donald Trump for abusinghis power by pressing Ukraine to probe his political rivalsand then obstructing a congressional investigation.The hearing held by the Democratic-led House judiciarycommittee was a major step in the draf ting of the articlesof impeachment against Trump. Democrats plan to moveswiftly towards a vote before Christmas to impeach thepresident, setting up a trial by the Republican-led senate,next January.“It is not a requirement that the President be a good per-son,” Barry H Berke, counsel for the House judicial com-mittee, said opening the hearing. “But the very documentthat created the awesome presidency and its powers thatwe have, made it clear it is a requirement that that thePresident be a person who does not abuse his power.”At the hear t of the case argued by Berke and later by DanielGoldman, counsel for the House intelligence committee,is the effor t by President Trump to compel Ukraine to in-vestigate former vice-president Joe Biden, who is seekingthe Democratic nomination to challenge Tr ump in 2020, bywithholding $391 million in military aid and a status-boost-ing White House meeting for the newly elected PresidentVolodymyr Zelensky.“We are here today because Donald J. Tr ump, the 45thPresident of the United States, abused the power of hisoffice—the American presidency—for his personal politi-cal benefit,” said Goldman opening his statement.The Republicans have broadly argued that no crime wascommitted, that the aid was withheld because Trump isloathe to give aid to foreign countries and had withheld theaid earmarked for Ukraine because he had concerns aboutthe high levels of cor ruption in that country, and that it wasreleased subsequently. And that Democrats’s impeach-ment inquiry was an attempt to remove from office a dulyelected president and also prevent him from winning asecond term. “To impeach a president who 63 millionpeople voted for over eight lines in a call transcript isbaloney,” Steve Castor, counsel for the Republicans of theHouse intelligence and judiciary committees.Republicans, and President Trump, have slammed the pro-ceedings as unfair and a witch-hunt. But the White Househas refused to par ticipate in the two two hearings held bythe judiciary committee, including the one on Monday.President Trump seemed to have been tuned into thelivestream of the hearing from the White House. “Read thetranscripts,” he tweeted midway through Goldman’s open-ing remarks, referring to the summaries of his two phonecalls with President Zelensky; one in April and the other,and the more damaging of the two, in July.In the second call, which was used by Democrats to launchthe impeachment inquiry in September, Tr ump askedZelensky for a “favor” and investigate Biden and his son,Hunter Biden, for latter’s links to a Ukrainian energy firm.There is no mention of a quid pro quo, which, however,was implied as has been affirmed by multiple officials intestimonies to the House intelligence committee, includ-ing Gordon Sondland, the Trump-appointed ambassador tothe EU and one of the lead men for the Ukraine effor ts.

DEMOCRATS SAYS DONALDTRUMP ABUSED POWER,

REPUBLICANS CALL IT ‘BALONEY’

Saudi gunman tweetedagainst US before naval

base shootingThe Saudi gunman who killedthree people at the Pensacolanaval base had apparentlygone on Twitter shor tly beforethe shooting to blast U.S. sup-por t of Israel and accuseAmerica of being anti-Mus-lim, a U.S. official said Sun-day as the FBI confirmed it isoperating on the assumptionthe attack was an act of ter-rorism.Investigators are also tryingto establish whether the killer,2nd Lt . MohammedAlshamrani, 21, of the RoyalSaudi Air Force, acted aloneor was par t of a larger plot.Alshamrani, who was killedby a sheriff’s deputy duringthe rampage at a classroombuilding Friday, was undergo-ing f l ight t ra in ing atPensacola, where membersof foreign militaries routinelyreceive instruction.“We are, as we do in mostact ive-shooter invest iga-tions, work with the presump-tion that this was an act ofterrorism,” said Rachel J.Rojas, the special agent incharge of the FBI’s office inJacksonville.

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In second-hand embarrassment, a video has surfaced showing sev-eral NATO leaders talking about US President Donald Tr ump. Thevideo sees Tr udeau chatting with French President Emmanuel Ma-cron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dutch Prime MinisterMark Rutte and Britain’s Princess Anne at a leaders’ dinner atBuckingham Palace. Shot by the Royal host’s pool camera, the videoshows Johnson asking Macron “Is that why you were late?” Trudeauthen says, “He was late because he takes a 40-minute press confer-ence off the top.” The conversation goes on with Trudeau at one pointclaiming, “I’ve watched his team’s jaws just drop to the floor.” React-ing to the video during his press conference with German ChancellorAngela Merkel, Trump called Trudeau “two-faced”. He said, “He’stwo-faced. And honestly, with Tr udeau, he’s a nice guy. I find him to bea very nice guy, but the truth is that I called him out on the fact thathe’s not paying two per cent and I guess he’s not very happy about it.”He added, “He’s not paying two per cent and he should be paying two

NATO LEADERS ALLEGEDLY MOCK TRUMP,HE CALLS TRUDEAU “TWO-FACED”

per cent. It’s Canada, they have money.”Tr udeau faced the press after the video went viral. Deflecting anysuggestion of a rift between him and Trump, noting that they had metthat day and had “a number of good conversations” throughout thesummit.“I made reference to the fact that there was an unscheduled pressconference before my meeting with President Trump and I was happyto take par t of it and it was cer tainly notable ,” Trudeau said. Aboutthe jaw-dropping remark, he said the comment was in referenceto the unexpected announcement by Tr ump that the next G7 will behosted at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland. Trudeausaid, “We were all surprised and, I think, pleased to learn that thenext G7 will be at Camp David. I think that was an unscheduledannouncement and I think every different leader has teams thatevery now and then have their jaws drop at unscheduled surpriseslike that, for example.”

Five Indian-origin contestants in race for Miss UniverseIn a historic moment for India, fiveseparate contestants of Indian-origin competed for the 68th editionof the tit le. While India wasrepresented by Uttar Pradesh'sVar tika Singh, 27 year old PriyaSerrao represented Australia. Sheis the first Indian-Australian to becrowned Miss Universe Australia.Born to Indian parents inSecunderabad, she spent most ofher childhood in Oman and Dubaibefore she shifted to Melbournewith her family at the age of 11.Serrao is a policy advisor for theVictorian government and holdsdegrees in Politics, InternationalStudies, and Law. Second Indian-origin contestant is Shweta Sekhonfrom Malaysia, a freelance fashionmodel with Punjabi roots.Singapore was represented by

Mohanaprabha Selvam. She has adegree in Biomedical Science.First-generation immigrant, Mehr

Eliezer was born in New Delhi, butraised in the Philippines andPanama. She represented Panama

and is the first nationalised Panamanianto ever par ticipate and win theMiss Universe Panama pageant.

Four dead, two injured in gunrampage at Czech hospital

A gunman opened fire Tuesday in a hospital in the east-ern Czech city of Ostrava, killing four people and seri-ously injuring two others, police said.“There are four dead and two seriously injured peopleon the site,” regional pol ice spokeswoman PavlaJirouskova told the public Czech Television.She added the suspect remained at large, with policeasking the public for help.Police have published a picture of the alleged suspecton Twitter, showing a man with receding ginger hair andwearing a red jacket.Czech TV repor ted that he was about 180 centimetres(5.9 feet) tall.“I can confirm a shooting at the Ostrava Faculty Hospitalaf ter 7:00 am (0600 GMT) today,” Interior Minister JanHamacek tweeted. The DNES daily repor ted on itswebsite that the shooting had occurred at the traumaward of the hospital in Ostrava, a steel hub located around300 kilometres (190 miles) east of Prague.

Sydney choked by haze fromAustralia bush fires, AQI 11

times more than hazardous level

Wildfires engulfed the Australian city of Sydney on Tuesdayin haze so thick in some places it was 11 times worse thanthe level considered “hazardous,” and was apt to triggerfire alarms. The city cancelled ferries and some offices inthe downtown area were evacuated.Local health officials advised people to stay indoors asmuch as possible and those with hear t and lung problemswere told to avoid all outdoor activity.“The smoke here in Sydney is extremely bad today, it issome of the worst air quality we’ve seen,” Richard Broomeof New South Wales Health told reporters.“We are just urging people once again to take these (condi-tions) seriously,” Broome said.Ambulances have been answering dozens of respiratory-related calls a day, said the head of NSW Ambulance, BrentArmitage. Sydney Trains warned that fire alarms at trainstations might be set off by the thick smoke drifting into thecity from fires ringing Sydney.The regional environmental depar tment said the air qualityindex, or AQI, in some par ts of the city was more than 11times the 200 reading considered hazardous.Given the dire air quality, workers should not be forced totoil on outdoor job sites while the haze persists, said UnionsNSW’s assistant secretary, Thomas Costa.“Toxicity is very, very high,” Costa said.Winds were expected that could clear the air but also fanthe brush fires, weather forecasts showed.

Turkey deports 11 Frenchrelatives of ‘terrorist’ suspectsTurkey has sent 11 French relatives of suspected “ter roristfighters” back home, the Turkish interior ministry said Mon-day, the latest in Ankara’s renewed push to depor t foreignjihadist insurgents.“Eleven French citizens have been depor ted to their homecountry,” a ministry statement said.A French judicial source confirmed that four women andtheir seven children had arrived early on Monday, af terthey were released from camps in Kurdish-held par ts ofnor theastern Syria.Under a 2014 accord between F rance and Turkey, Parisagreed to take back jihadists trying to return home fromSyria via Turkey and incarcerate them at home.Two of the women returned Monday were already the sub-ject of arrest warrants. They were detained late Mondayafter appearing before a judge and being charged with “crimi-nal terrorist association,” the judicial source said.The other two were sought by police and were taken into incustody upon arrival at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airpor t, thesource added. The children were placed with child protec-tion personnel. Another source close to the case said thewomen had escaped from a camp controlled by Kurdishforces in Syria before they were captured by Turkish police.Ankara has sharply criticised Western countries for refus-ing to take back citizens who left home to join the IslamicState group (IS) in Syria and Iraq.Turkey says it has around 1,200 foreign IS members incustody. The bulk of the foreign jihadists are being held inSyria itself, with thousands languishing in prisons andcamps across the country’s nor theast.Turkey’s interior ministry said last week that 59 “foreignter rorists” have been deported to their home countries sinceNovember 11, when it began a new push to expel them.

Donald Trump warns Kim Jong Un has ‘everything’ to lose through hostilityPresident Donald Trump warned Sunday that Nor th Korea’s Kim Jong Un had “everything” to lose through hostility towards the UnitedStates, after Pyongyang said it had carried out a major new weapons test.“Kim Jong Un is too smar t and has far too much to lose, everything actually, if he acts in a hostile way,” Tr ump tweeted in response tothe unspecified test at the Sohae space launch center.The announcement of Saturday’s test came just hours after Trump said he would be “surprised” by any hostile action from the Nor th,emphasizing his “very good relationship” with Kim.Tr ump and Kim engaged in months of mutual insults and threats of devastation in 2017, sending tensions soaring before a diplomaticrapprochement the following year.The pair have met three times since June 2018 but with little progress towards denuclearization. Pyongyang has set Washington aDecember 31 deadline to make new concessions to kickstar t stalled talks.“Nor th Korea, under the leadership of Kim Jong Un, has tremendous economic potential, but it must denuclearize as promised,” Trumptweeted. “NATO, China, Russia, Japan, and the entire world is unified on this issue!”Writing that Kim had “signed a strong Denuclearization Agreement” at their June 2018 summit in Singapore,” Tr ump warned: “He doesnot want to void his special relationship with the President of the United States or inter fere with the U.S. Presidential Election inNovember.” Separately, interviewed on the CBS TV news program “Face the Nation,” US National Security Advisor Rober t O’Brien wasasked whether Nor th Korea was preparing to restar t nuclear tests.

IRAN UNVEILS BUDGET OF ‘RESISTANCE’ AGAINST US SANCTIONSIran’s President Hassan Rouhani announced Sunday a “budget of resistance” against US sanctions targeting the country’s vital oilsector, backed by a $5 billion Russian investment.Rouhani said the aim was to reduce “hardships” in Iran where a shock fuel price hike last month triggered nationwide demonstrationsthat turned deadly.Af ter unilaterally withdrawing from a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in May last year, the US began imposingsanctions on Tehran, including on oil expor ts, which it aims to squeeze to zero in a campaign of “maximum pressure”.Iran has suffered a sharp economic downturn, with a plummeting currency sending inflation skyrocketing.Rouhani told parliament that the budget of 4,845 trillion rials, or $36 billion at the current street rate, was devised to help Iran’s peopleovercome difficulty.“We know that under the situation of sanctions and pressure, people are in hardship. We know people’s purchasing power hasdeclined,” he said.The budget would benefit from a $5 billion “investment” from Russia which was still being finalised, said Rouhani.“We hope that $5 billion in capital will enter the country, either through plans that have already been finalised or which will be finalisednext year,” he said.Iran and Russia have strengthened ties in recent years, with both backing President Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.Rouhani told lawmakers the budget, which includes a 15-percent public sector wage hike, “is a budget of resistance and persever-ance against sanctions”. He said the fiscal plan came in response to the “maximum pressure and continuation of America’s sanc-tions” and vowed it would signal “to the world that, despite sanctions, we will manage the country, especially in terms of oil”.

16 MidWeek MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2019

DABANGG 3 CLIMAX:SALMAN KHAN TO BLOW

UP 100 CARS, FIGHT WITHSUDEEP AND HIS 500 MEN

CHHAPAAK TRAILER LAUNCH HIGHLIGHTS:DEEPIKA PADUKONE AND VIKRANT MASSEYARE ALL SET TO INTRODUCE THEIR FILM TO

THE WORLD ON TUESDAY.

Jayesh Bhai Jordaar: Ranveer Singhaces the look of Gujarati Boy!

TO WATCH ALL THE LATEST GOSSIP IN ENTERTAINMENT,WATCH CHANNEL Y ROGERS 857, BELLFIBE 828, TELUS 2418

P19 P18

A VIDEO FROM SHAHEEN BHATT’S BOOKLAUNCH IS GOING VIRAL AS HER DAD ANDFILMMAKER MAHESH GOT UPSET AT THE

EVENT. AN EMBARRASSED ALIA BHATT CANBE SEEN TRYING TO CALM HIM DOWN.

P21

DABANGG 3 CLIMAX IS LIKELY TO BEMOUNTED ON EPIC PROPORTIONS.

SALMAN KHAN WILL FIGHT OFF 500 MENLEAD BY THE FILM’S VILLAIN SUDEEP AS

100 CARS GO UP IN SMOKE.

Turn up the beat and put 'Sauda Khara Khara'from Good Newwz on repeat!

WADA hands Russia a four-year banfrom all major sporting events

DEEPIKA PADUKONE BREAKS INTOTEARS AT CHHAPAAK TRAILER

LAUNCH; SAYS 'I'M LOST FOR WORDS'

ALIA BHATT TRIES TO CALMDOWN DAD MAHESH AS HE

LOSES COOL AT DAUGHTER’SBOOK LAUNCH

Ranveer Singh, Katrina Kaif, Kriti Sanon, Janhvi KapoorBest and worst dressed celebrities this week

WHAT IS IT ABOUT BOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES THAT EXCITES POPULATIONS ALL AROUND THE WORLD? THE CRAZE WITHWHICH PEOPLE OBSESS OVER CELEBRITIES IS QUITE UNREAL, AND IN INDIA THEY ARE GIVEN ALMOST GOD-LIKE STATUS.IT COULD BE THEIR ONSCREEN PERSONAS, THEIR LARGER-THAN-LIFE LIVES, THEIR WELL-MAINTAINED PHYSIQUE, THEIRINSPIRATIONAL LIVES AND EVEN THEIR SENSE OF STYLE. IN THE PAST FEW YEARS, EVEN BEFORE SONAM KAPOOR AHUJAWENT ALL OUT WITH HER STYLE GAME, CELEBRITIES WOULD INSPIRE MASSES, IN FACT EVEN GOVINDA’S OVER-THE-TOPOUTFITS FROM THE ’90S MANAGED TO INSPIRE THE MASSES FOR QUITE SOME TIME. SO, AS TRADITION GOES, LET USDIG INTO THIS WEEK’S FASHION SCORECARD AND FIND OUT WHICH CELEBRITIES DRESSED THEIR BEST, AND WHOSELOOKS WERE A POOR, SORRY MESS. FROM RANVEER SINGH AND KATRINA KAIF, TO NUPUR SANON AND AKSHARAHASSAN, HERE IS THE LIST FOR THIS WEEK’S BEST AND WORST DRESSED CELEBS.

TO ADVERTISE CALL 416-475-5000OR EMAIL YMEDIA@SOUTHASIANDAILY.COM

INDIA VS.

WEST INDIES

ODI’s Schedule

1ST ODI

SUNDAY, 15 December 2019 / 3:00 AM2ND ODI

WEDNESDAY, 18 December 2019 / 3:00 AM3RD ODI

SUNDAY, 22 December 2019 / 3:00 AM

>>>>> DETAILS ON PAGE 21

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) handed a four-year ban from allmajor spor ting events to Russia, bar ring the Russian flag and anthemfrom entering events like the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and Paralympics andfootball's 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Russian athletes can however, provethey are clean and compete under a neutral flag.Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called the ban a par t of“chronic anti-Russian hysteria.” He said, “It is obvious that significantdoping problems still exist in Russia, I mean our sporting community. This isimpossible to deny. But on the other hand the fact that all these decisions arerepeated, often affecting athletes who have already been punished in one way oranother, not to mention some other points- of course this makes one think that thisis par t of anti-Russia hysteria which has become chronic.”The unanimous decision was taken during a meeting in Lausanne, Swit-zerland, on Monday. It came after Russia's Anti Doping Agency (Rusada)was declared non-compliant for manipulating laboratory data handedover to investigators in January 2019. Wada said Rusada has 21 days toappeal against the ban. If it does so, the appeal will be referred to theCour t of Arbitration for Spor t (Cas).Wada president Sir Craig Reedie said the decision showed its “determination toact resolutely in the face of the Russian doping crisis.” He added, “For too long,Russian doping has detracted from clean sport. The blatant breach by the Russianauthorities of Rusada's reinstatement conditions demanded a robust re-sponse. This is exactly what has been delivered.”

Ranveer Singh is such an artist who plays each and every characterwith per fection. He gets into the skin of the character and these char-acters become not just a character but a par t of his life.Ranveer Singh and Yash Raj Films are coming together on what Ranveer hascalled ‘a miracle script’ penned by debutant writer-director Divyang Thakkar.The first-timer is directing Ranveer in a humourous enter tainer set in Gujaratand the superstar will be seen playing the role of a Gujarati man for the firsttime. Naturally, the anticipation to see the first look of Ranveer from the filmwas immense. Today the first look of Ranveer Singh's next film will JayeshBhai Jordaar has been unveiled in which he will be seen in a Gujarati Boy'savatar. In the still, Ranveer is seen to have visibly transformed himself again,shedding many kilos and he looks unrecognisable as a Gujarati man who isdefinitely trying to protect the women standing behind him. He isn’t the alphahero as played by leading men in Bollywood and from the first look, it isobvious that the film will champion the cause of women empowerment.

After making the world go dance with Chandigarh Mein, the makers of GoodNewwz have released another party anthem of the year, in fact, it will be weddingdance number of the year. The new song is 'Sauda Khara Khara'.Feeling nostalgic? Well, yes it is Sukhbir's hit number which has been re-createdbut with a dash of fresh lyrics and peppy beats. The song features Diljit Dosanjh,Kiara Advani, Sukhbir and the special appearance of Akshay Kumar who hasstolen the show with his Naagin Dance. The song has been sung by DiljitDosanjh, Sukhbir and Dhvani Bhanushali. Kumaar has penned the lyrics andthe music has been scored by Lijo George - Dj Chetas & Sukhbir. Good Newwz isan upcoming Bollywood comedy film that revolves around two couples who takethe IVF route to become parents but a major goof-up makes way for a comicaldrama as Akshay and Diljit's sperms are get mistakenly interchanged in theprocess thanks to their similar surnames. Directed by Raj Mehta, Good Newwzmarks the coming together of Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor after 10long years along with Diljit Dosanjh and Kiara Advani sharing the screenspace for the first time. The film is all set to hit the screens on December 27th.

18 MidWeek MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2019

THE BATTLE IS LOST!

M O V I E R E V I E W

CAST: ARJUN KAPOOR, KRITI SANON,

SANJAY DUTT, MOHNISH BAHL, KUNAL

KAPOOR, SHARAD KELKAR, PADMINI

KOLHAPURE, ZEENAT AMAN

DIRECTION: ASHUTOSH GOWARIKER

RATING - 2.5/5

Chintu aka Abhinav Tyagi (Kar tik Aaryan) is a government employeefrom Kanpur. His parents are looking for a bride to tie his knot andsoon he meets Vedika Tripathi (Bhumi Pednekar) and is smitten byher. They like each other and tie the knot.Af ter a brief blissful period in his mar riage, Chintu Tyagi's life be-comes boring and star ts to revolve between his home and office withno spice lef t until one day he meets Tapasya Singh (Ananya) whocomes to Kanpur looking for a plot to set up a workshop for her Delhiboutique. She puts the spice back into Chintu Tyagi's monotonous life,he likes her a lot and wants to spend as much time with her aspossible as he star ts to feel happy once again because of her. Chintufeels that she is hesitant to befriend him as he is married so hecomes up with a twisty solution that ends up causing a lot of confu-sion & madness and his best friend and aide Fahim Rizvi (AparshaktiKhurrana) adds to this madness.Kar tik Aaryan delivers a charming per formance as Chintu Tyagi whois stuck in his boring routine life with a dull marriage and grabs thefirst oppor tunity he gets to break away from this routine.Kar tik's chocolate-boy charm works like magic once again and what-ever gap is left is filled by what has become his trademark now 'amonologue' which is hilarious by the way and relatable especially ifyou are mar ried. Bhumi Pednekar also delivers a decent per formanceas the gorgeous Vedika, a teacher and Chintu's wife who enjoys a

good fan following among her students at school. She por trays Vedikaon-screen naturally and with ease.After making her debut earlier this year with 'SOTY 2' Ananya Pandaystrikes again as the hot-shot Delhi girl 'Tapasya'. She has improvedher skills a lot here which is impressive but she still needs to work onher dialogue delivery and word stress.Aparshakti Khurana has an impressive comic timing and uses thatper fectly to steal the show in his scenes. He has become a greatasset as the 'Hero Ka Dost' of Bollywood and after 'Luka Chuppi' hisand Kar tik's camaraderie in a delight on-screen.On the direction front, after 'Happy Bhaag Jayegi' (2016) and 'HappyPhirr Bhaag Jayegi' (2018), Mudassar Aziz once again proves hismettle in the rom-com genre. The film takes time to hook you up butonce it is set it doesn't wander off from the path.The screenplay has enough comic and emotional elements to keepyour eyes glued to the screen and the director treats the story of the1978 film in such a way that it doesn't look outdated and seemsrelevant to the viewer in today's scenario too.Although the script of the film could have been a tighter making thefilm increase its pace. The music is nice and the songs there are, feelrelevant and don't spoil everything by suddenly popping up like manycringewor thy masala films.It also packs some amazing cameos and references to the originalwhich is nostalgic and delightful.Overall Pati Patni aur Woh is a complete package that has enoughspice and humor to keep you hooked. So if you are looking for pureenter tainment this weekend then go for it without any second thoughts.

DABANGG 3 CLIMAX: SALMAN KHAN TOBLOW UP 100 CARS, FIGHT WITH

SUDEEP AND HIS 500 MENSalman Khan’s Dabangg 3 will have a high-octane actionsequence as the climax, in sync with the image of the copfranchise’s lead inspector Chulbul Pandey. Kannada starSudeep, who plays the antagonist’s role of Balli Singh, willbe seen locking horns with Chulbul aka Salman in theclimax sequence. Shot over a period of 23 days, Chulbuland Balli will engage in hand-to-hand combat. Salman willalso face 500 men from Balli’s side. According to sourcesclose to the production, the sequence will also involveblowing up of at least 100 cars, and the scale of action willbe bigger than any Salman film. Salman returns as a cop,inspector Chulbul Pandey for Dabangg 3. Saiee makes herBollywood debut with the film and will be seen playingChulbul Pandey’s par tner from his younger days. SonakshiSinha reprises her role of his onscreen wife Rajjo for thethird film in the cop franchise. Kannada star Sudeep willessay the role of the main antagonist while Pramod Khannawill replace late brother Vinod Khanna, who essayed therole of Salman’s onscreen father in the two previousinstalments.One of the major attractions of Dabangg 3 will be the songMunna Badnaam Hua. While the first two films had ‘spe-cial songs’ featuring Malaika Arora, the new one will haveSalman grooving to a specia l number. DirectorPrabhudheva also joined him for the dance. Talking aboutdancing with Salman almost 10 years after he did in MeraHi Jalwa (Wanted), Prabhu Deva said in a statement, “Shar-ing screen space with him( Salman Khan) in a song afterMera Hi Jalwa (Wanted, 2009) was magical. I can neverturn down his request. I hope people will like seeing ustogether again.”Dabangg 3 is produced by Salma Khan, Arbaaz Khan andNikhil Dwivedi under the banner of Salman Khan Films. It is set to hittheatres on December 20.

Inside Rani Mukerji’s daughterAdira’s birthday bash: AbRam,Misha-Zain, Yash-Roohi join

grand celebrations

Rani Mukerji and Aditya Chopra hosted a glitzy unicorn-themed bash bir thday bash for their daughter Adira, whoturned four on Monday. The par ty was attended by severalBollywood stars and their children.Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan’s son AbRam Khan, ShahidKapoor ’s children Misha Kapoor and Zain Kapoor, KaranJohar ’s twins Yash Johar and Roohi Johar, Tusshar Kapoor ’sson Laksshya and Sameera Reddy’s children Hans Verdeand Nyra Verde, were among the star kids clicked at thecelebrations. Celebrities like Rekha, Vaani Kapoor andSiddhant Chaturvedi also made their presence felt at thepar ty. Adira was born to Rani and Aditya in 2015, a yearafter their hush-hush wedding. Unlike many other star kids,she has been kept away from the media glare.On BFFs With Vogue, Rani explained why she and her hus-band do not want her pictures splashed all over socialmedia. “I want Adira to grow up normally. [Otherwise] youget unwanted and undeserved attention without havingachieved anything in life. I want Adira to be treated likeany other child in school. Aditya and I don’t want her to bephotographed constantly,” she said.A year after Adira was born, Rani shared her first picture alongwith a heartfelt note on Twitter. “I love my baby Adira...Can’t live orbreathe without her..My life has changed but for the better... But havinga baby is so scary because you suddenly stop living foryourself , you live for your child as she has given birth toyou...A mother!” she wrote. “I can’t sleep at night. I can’tget sleep in the day...I often think about all the zillion moth-ers, who have given bir th. Do they all go through the sameanxiety… or is it only me?” she added.

Shah Rukh Khan holds train of GauriKhan’s gown at awards night, fans say

‘always a gentleman’Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan made a grand entry at anawards show on Monday night to honour Vogue X NykaaFashion: The Power List 2019. While they made heads turnwith their stunning colour-coordinated outfits, what stolethe show was the actor’s sweet gesture for his wife.In a video shared on Instagram, Shah Rukh is seen pickingup the train of Gauri’s gown, so that he doesn’t end up stepping onit. His thoughtful act has won the hear ts of netizens, with severalcompliments pouring in from fans. “Always a gentleman,” one fanwrote. “King for a reason,” another commented. The clip has alreadygarnered over 3,50,000 views and more than 500 comments so far.Shah Rukh and Gauri were honoured at the awards show. Theyreceived the Most Stylish Couple Of The Year award.On the work front, Shah Rukh recently announced his next productionventure, Bob Biswas starring Abhishek Bachchan in the titular role.He will produce the film, which is a spin-off of the 2012 hit Kahaani,under his banner Red Chillies Entertainment.Bob Biswas will be directed by Sujoy Ghosh’s daughter DiyaAnnapurna Ghosh. The film will trace the origin story ofBob Biswas, the contract killer from Sujoy’s Kahaani. It isscheduled to go on floors early next year.

b o l l y w o o d

MidWeek 19MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2012

MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2019 b o l l y w o o d

hollywood

A complete package of spice and humour!

M O V I E R E V I E W

CAST: KARTIK AARYAN, ANANYA PANDAY,

BHUMI PEDNEKAR, APARSHAKTI

KHURANA

DIRECTION: MUDASSAR AZIZ

RATING - 3.5/5

'WONDER WOMAN 84' TRAILER:A NEW ERA OF WONDER BEGINS!

Chintu aka Abhinav Tyagi (Kar tik Aaryan) is a government employeefrom Kanpur. His parents are looking for a bride to tie his knot andsoon he meets Vedika Tripathi (Bhumi Pednekar) and is smitten byher. They like each other and tie the knot.Af ter a brief blissful period in his mar riage, Chintu Tyagi's life be-comes boring and star ts to revolve between his home and office withno spice lef t until one day he meets Tapasya Singh (Ananya) whocomes to Kanpur looking for a plot to set up a workshop for her Delhiboutique. She puts the spice back into Chintu Tyagi's monotonous life,he likes her a lot and wants to spend as much time with her aspossible as he star ts to feel happy once again because of her. Chintufeels that she is hesitant to befriend him as he is married so hecomes up with a twisty solution that ends up causing a lot of confu-sion & madness and his best friend and aide Fahim Rizvi (AparshaktiKhurrana) adds to this madness.Kar tik Aaryan delivers a charming per formance as Chintu Tyagi whois stuck in his boring routine life with a dull marriage and grabs thefirst oppor tunity he gets to break away from this routine.Kar tik's chocolate-boy charm works like magic once again and what-ever gap is left is filled by what has become his trademark now 'amonologue' which is hilarious by the way and relatable especially ifyou are mar ried. Bhumi Pednekar also delivers a decent per formanceas the gorgeous Vedika, a teacher and Chintu's wife who enjoys agood fan following among her students at school. She por trays Vedikaon-screen naturally and with ease.

After making her debut earlier this year with 'SOTY 2' Ananya Pandaystrikes again as the hot-shot Delhi girl 'Tapasya'. She has improvedher skills a lot here which is impressive but she still needs to work onher dialogue delivery and word stress.Aparshakti Khurana has an impressive comic timing and uses thatper fectly to steal the show in his scenes. He has become a greatasset as the 'Hero Ka Dost' of Bollywood and after 'Luka Chuppi' hisand Kar tik's camaraderie in a delight on-screen.On the direction front, after 'Happy Bhaag Jayegi' (2016) and 'HappyPhirr Bhaag Jayegi' (2018), Mudassar Aziz once again proves hismettle in the rom-com genre. The film takes time to hook you up butonce it is set it doesn't wander off from the path.The screenplay has enough comic and emotional elements to keepyour eyes glued to the screen and the director treats the story of the1978 film in such a way that it doesn't look outdated and seemsrelevant to the viewer in today's scenario too.Although the script of the film could have been a tighter making thefilm increase its pace. The music is nice and the songs there are, feelrelevant and don't spoil everything by suddenly popping up like manycringewor thy masala films.It also packs some amazing cameos and references to the originalwhich is nostalgic and delightful.Overall Pati Patni aur Woh is a complete package that has enoughspice and humor to keep you hooked. So if you are looking for pureenter tainment this weekend then go for it without any second thoughts.

BIGG BOSS 13: RASHAMI DESAI, BHAU DISCUSS WHETHERSIDHARTH SHUKLA SPENT 2 YEARS IN REHAB

TV actor Sidhar th Shukla may have spent two years in a rehabili-tation centre, according to a conversation between Rashami Desaiand Hindustani Bhau in the ongoing reality show Bigg Boss 13.According to a Spotboye repor t, Rashami and Bhau discussedrepor ts of Sidhar th spending time in a rehab. Speaking withRashami, Bhau said, “I do not like Sidhar th Shukla. I have heardhe spent two years in a rehab.” Rashami neither confirmed notdenied it and said, “Even I have heard the same.” The two thendiscussed how Sidhar th is too aggressive and it will not do anygood for his image once he is out of the show.When Rashami claimed to have had a tough time working withSidhar th, Bhau quipped, “What weird attitude is this? How will ithelp him in his career?”

This is not the first time discussions about rehab have cropped up.Speaking about the Dil Se DIl Tak co-star, actor Kunal Verma hadtold the Times of India in 2018: “He is an unprofessional maniacand a psycho. I think he needs psychiatric treatment again. I heardhe had gone to a rehab once and I think he needs to visit it again.”Paras Chhabra, who was not on good terms with Sidhar th whenthey began their Bigg Boss journey, had told Devoleena that Sidharthwas in rehab for a year. Paras also claimed that Sidhar th tooksteroids to lose weight that he had gained during his stay at therehab.Currently, Sidharth is inside the secret room, while the housematesbelieve he is out of the house, getting treated. They also believeParas is getting treated outside the house but he is also inside thesecret room, keeping a close watch on the housemates.

DEEPIKA PADUKONE BREAKS INTO TEARSAT CHHAPAAK TRAILER LAUNCH; SAYS 'I'M

LOST FOR WORDS'While Deepika has already spoken about the film being specialto her in her previous interviews, the 'Padmaavat' star had anemotional moment at the trailer launch event in Mumbai. Whilespeaking about the movie, the actress couldn't hold back hertears and broke down. She said, "This will be my most specialfilm. I'm lost for words." Revealing why she chose this film, the actresssaid, "People need to treat survivors well. You shouldn't call them scary ordisabled. That is the whole point of telling the story."When asked about Laxmi Aggarwal's reaction on whom the filmis based on, Deepika revealed, "Lakshmi had come and shelooked at me and felt she was looking at herself." Speakingabout the film, director Meghna Gulzar said, "This film is relevant intoday's times given the situation of women in the country right now. I'mhappy that Deepika Padukone has given her face for Malti and completelylet Malti take over her." Post the trailer launch, Deepika took to herInstagram page to share the trailer and wrote,"Rarely do youcome across a story where you do not need an entire narrationto decide if you want to be a par t of a film or not.

The sequel to DC Comics superhero movie 'WonderWoman' titled 'Wonder Woman 84' is one of the mostawaited Hollywood films of 2020. The fans are eagerlywaiting for the film and to fuel the excitement fur ther thetrailer of the Gal Gadot starrer has finally been releasedand it gets really interesting in this one. This film is set inthe year 1984, almost 40 years after its prequel and along time before DC's Justice League. Diana Prince/Won-der Woman's love interest 'Steve' (Chris Pine) returns inthis one although his return is not explained the trailerand that we'll get to see in the film only. The trailer isexcellent and full of great action and thrill.'Wonder Woman 84' will be released in 4 languages inIndia, English, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu and the trailer ofthe film in all the four languages is out now too. This timethe character of Wonder Woman will be seen taking onher arch-enemy and villain 'Cheetah'.The film is directed by Patty Jenkins and along with GalGadot, the film also stars Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, PedroPascal, Robin Wright, and Connie Nielsen. 'WonderWoman 84' will be released on June 3rd, 2020.

DANIEL CRAIG CONFIRMS HISTIME AS JAMES BOND IS ENDINGHollywood actor Daniel Craig, who has been playing the fictionalspy James Bond in the popular film franchise since 2005, is "done"essaying the role. The actor confirmed it during an appearance onThe Late Show with Stephen Colber t on Friday, repor ts people.com."Are you done with Bond," asked host Stephen Colber t, to whichCraig, 51, replied, "Yes." "It's done," he added. Earlier in the week,Craig also opened up about moving on. "Someone else needs tohave a go," he told German outlet Express, according to Esquire.Craig's last outing as Bond will be in the forthcoming movie NoTime to Die, which is set to release in April 2020. No Time to Die isthe 25th Bond film. Daniel Craig first starred as Bond in 2005 filmCasino Royale, which was followed by Quantum of Solace (2008),Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015).

20 MidWeek MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2019

MidWeek 21MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2012

MIDWEEK NEWS WEEKLY

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2019

10songsO SAKI SAKI BATLA HOUSE

THE WAKHRA SONG JUDGEMENTAL HAI KYA

KOKA KHANDANI SHAFAKAHANA

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TUJHE KITNA CHAHNE LAGE KABIR SINGH

ENNI SONI SAAHO

SLOW MOTION BHARAT

CHASHNI BHARAT

KAISE HUA KABIR SINGH

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KHANDAANI SHAFAKHANA FLOP

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Ranveer Singh, Katrina Kaif, Kriti Sanon, Janhvi Kapoor:Best and worst dressed celebrities this week

RANVEER SINGHAlways the fashionista, Ranveer Singh once again managed to im-press us with his quirky style. Dressed in Sabyasachi Mukherji fromhead to toe, the actor’s look was inspiring. From the big hair, the retrosunnies and the vintage vibe of the outfit. We loved it all!

KATRINA KAIFKatrina’s beauty is quite something, and she looks even more stun-ning in traditional wear in hues of pink and red. So we were abso-lutely delighted when Katrina donned this gorgeous light pink TarunTahiliani saree, the actor had her hair in loose waves and spor tedminimal make-up with the heavily embroidered saree.

MALAIKA ARORAWhile many celebrities managed to impress us with their outfits atthe recent Fashion and Glamour awards, it was Malaika’s outfit thatwas just unforgettable for us. The high-necked shimmery Atelier Zuhraoutfit was a complete winner, and Malaika was styled to per fect aswell. We are absolutely loving that Malaika is channelling her innerJennifer Lopez/Beyonce these days with all her uber glam outfits.

KRITI SANONKriti Sanon’s saree game is going pretty strong, the actor wore agorgeous bright yellow Manish Malhotra piece which completely blewus over. While her saree was beautiful, it was the unique blouse withits billowy sleeves that did a number on us.

NUPUR SANONWhile Kriti has really upped her style game of late, and we are abso-lutely in love with all the sarees and traditional looks she has beenspor ting, we wish sister Nupur would also put her fashionable footforward. This highly ruffled gown by Rudraksh Dwivedi is a total sin, thecolour, the pattern, just everything falls flat for Nupur. And we have seen designs byRudraksh Dwivedi, so we know just how great his designs can be.

JANHVI KAPOORJanhvi who is usually spotted in simple clothes and minimal make-up gave us a bit of surprise when she joined the Manish Malhotrasequinned saree bandwagon, following Kareena Kapoor Khan, Karisma Kapoor,Kriti Sanon, Bhumi Pednekar, and many others. Janhvi opted for a lilacish- pinkcoloured version of the saree, wearing a bikini blouse, her hair in big curls, theyoung actor flashed her pearly whites for the camera.

AKSHARA HASSANAnother look that fell flat at the Glamour awards was Kamal Hassanand Sarika’s daughter, and also Shruti Hassan’s sister, Akshara! Fromthe gown to the styling, there were just too many things wrong withher outfit, and it takes a whole boat load of bad styling to make abeautiful girl not look like herself.

ALIA BHATT TRIES TO CALM DOWN DADMAHESH AS HE LOSES COOL AT

DAUGHTER’S BOOK LAUNCHFilmmaker Mahesh Bhatt lost his cool at the book launch ofhis daughter Shaheen Bhatt at a recent event where the entirefamily was present. Shaheen has written about her strugglewith depression titled I’ve Never Been (Un)Happier and herparents Mahesh and Soni Razdan, sisters Pooja and Alia wereall present for the launch.A the event, a journalist asked about “fitting in the society”,triggering Mahesh’s anger. “There are no answers, there arepretenders who claim to have answers, there are no answers.They institutionalise all those answers and impose those or makeit a religion. There are no answers,” he said in anger even as thefeeble voice of Alia can be heard asking him to calm down:“Pappa!” However, when Mahesh continued his speech ignoringAlia, she said, “I told you this would happen.”At the launch event of the book, Alia was in tears recallingShaheen’s struggle with depression. “I felt terrible as a sister. Ididn’t put myself out there enough to understand her. I have onlybelieved that she is the most brilliant person in my family. Tosome extent, she has never believed that about her own self butthat always broke my hear t. I was sensitive but I feel guilty fornot understanding as much as I should have,” she said.Speaking at the launch, Pooja had said, “I think we should never asksomebody why they are depressed. There is a fallacy that it’s a richpeople’s disease and people often say that you have the luxury of beingdepressed. The misconception needs to be erased.”

SOHA ALI KHAN SAYS SHE WENT FROMHOUSE TO HOUSE THIS DIWALI, WARNINGPEOPLE NOT TO BURST CRACKERS AND

WAKE INAAYASoha Ali Khan says watching her two-year-old daughter InaayaNaumi Kemmu grow is scary as well as exciting, adding thatshe is at an age where she is absorbing everything and re-peating things. "I want her to learn and grow all the time. Youknow, this is the age where you can see that she is absorbingeverything, she is repeating things. It is a scary time as wellas an exciting time because she is exposed to so much. Sheis not just exposed to me and I would like to think that I am thebest influencer on her but I am sure that I am not perfect, so,you know, school, other children, other parents, staff, otherfamily members, everyone is contributing to her developmentat this point," Soha told IANS. "So this is the time where ev-erything you say or do can expose her to matters because it'sall being absorbed and forming who she is which is why Ithink what she sees on a screen whether it's a tablet, whetherit's a TV, whether it's a phone, matters because I want her tosee what is appropriate and what is responsible and what isright and what will help her grow as opposed to not engageher," added the actress, who became par t of the launch ofedutainment app VOOT Kids recently.

INDIAN SKIPPER VIRAT KOHLI WITH TEAMMATES CELEBRATES THE DISMISSAL OF WEST INDIES. (PTI)

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India vs West Indies: ShikharDhawan likely to miss ODIseries against WI: Report

After missing the T20I series due to injury, opener ShikharDhawan is repor tedly set to miss the ODI series againstWest Indies as well. Dhawan was initially picked up for bothT20Is and ODIs against West Indies, however, the southpawwas ruled out of the three-match T20I series due to a kneeinjury which he sustained during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Tro-phy against Maharashtra.The BCCI release before the star t of T20I series read: “TheBCCI Medical Team assessed him to review the healing ofhis wound. The BCCI Medical Team has suggested thatDhawan needs some more time for his stitches to come offand his wound to heal completely.”According to a repor t in Bangalore Mirror, Dhawan needsmore time to recover from the injury and the selection committee islikely to name a replacement before the first ODI on December 15.Earlier, Sanju Samson was called in as replacement for injured Dhawanin the T20I?squad. However, the young wicket-keeper-batsman hasn’tplayed in the first two T20Is against Windies as RishabhPant continues to keep wickets for the team.

There’s time for World T20s,let’s focus on winning this

series: Rohit SharmaRohit Sharma doesn’t want to lose his sleep over World T20which is still some distance away and thereby lose his gripon the present where come Wednesday, India have a seriesto win against a competitive West Indies side.India will lock horns with two-time World T20 champions inseries-deciding third match here even as the preparations tofind the right combinations for the marquee event continues.“See, I don’t want to keep saying that we are trying to build asquad for the (T20)World Cup. It is still a long-long way ahead.We just need to focus on winning the series and that willkeep us in good state, moving forward,” Rohit said on Tues-day ahead of the series finale. “If we keep winning games,keep doing the right things on the field, the composition ofthe team will take care (by itself),” Rohit added.

Love him or hate him, you cannot ignore the fact that Indiaall-rounder Hardik Pandya is one of the most selfless crick-eters in the circuit today. It isn’t easy for a spor tsperson totake the call of going under the knife. But then, for Hardik,there was no other solution as delaying the inevitable couldhave seen his team miss his services in the all-impor tantWorld T20 slated to be held in less than an year in Australia.As he undergoes rehabilitation after a successful back sur-gery, Hardik wants to stay mentally healthy and patient as hefeels cricket is in his blood and won’t take him long to put onhis A-game on the pitch.Hardik gives an insight into the thought that saw him decid-ing to go under the knife, the road to recovery as it looks himin the face, the World T20 that awaits and more impor tantly,the need to stay patient even as he itches to bat and bowlevery single day. “I was managing the back, tried everythingpossible not to get into surgery or anything. After trying ev-erything, we came to the conclusion that it wasn’t working. Inoticed that I was not able to give my 100 per cent and thatmeant I was not doing justice to myself and the team. That iswhen I decided to go for the surgery. “To be honest, right nowI feel very good. We are working very properly. Af ter surgeryit is not easy, so we are trying to ensure that we cover all theareas. But everything said and done, injuries aren’t something you cancontrol. I have noticed this after playing for 4-5 years that even if I don’twish to get injured and take the necessary precautions, injuries issomething which is a par t and parcel of a sportsperson’s life. Youcannot say I will not get injured and have to take it how it comes. So rightnow, I am trying to come back strong,” he smiled.

‘It is important that you don’t rush’- Hardik Pandya reveals comeback

date after back surgery

India sealed the T20I series against West Indies 2-1 after an emphatic67-run win in the deciding game at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai onWednesday. With a spectacular batting show from the top-order, Indiaposted a mammoth total of 240/3 in 20 overs. In reply, the visitors

could only muster 173/8, losing the match by 67 runs.The Indian seamers led the onslaught when Windies stepped out to chase.Evin?Lewis, who was stretchered off the field after suffering an injurywhile fielding in the match, did not come out to open the innings. LendlSimmons was joined by Brandon King up front, but both the batsmen fellcheaply to Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, respectively.Nicholas Pooran was the next one to go, as he gave away a catch toShivam Dube at third man in Deepak?Chahar ’s over.?Shimron Hetmyerand Kieron Pollard led the counter-attack for Windies before the formerwas dismissed by Kuldeep for 41. Pollard carried and went on to smash68 runs in 39 runs, but it was not enough to save the match for hisside.?He was dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the 14th over, whichsealed Windies’ fate.

Virat Kohli & co. seal serieswith emphatic win at Wankhede

Earlier, Windies had won the toss and asked India to bat. Rohit Sharma,KL Rahul and skipper Virat Kohli combined to hit 16 sixes as India reached240 for three. Sharma (71) and Rahul (91) put on 135 runs for the openingwicket to lay the platform for India’s imposing total in Mumbai after thehosts were put into bat first with the three-match series tied at 1-1. Kohlisoon joined the party to flay the West Indies attack as he completed hisfifty in 21 deliveries and finished on an unbeaten 70 with four fours andseven sixes.“Hitman” Sharma led the onslaught with an attacking fifty that was broughtabout with two sixes and a boundary to raise the roof. He finally fell whileattempting another big heave to be caught by Hayden Walsh Jr off pacemanKesrick Williams.Four balls later, skipper Kieron Pollard got wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant trudging back to the pavilion for nought to checkIndia’s surge but Rahul remained firm.Rahul, who completed his third fifty in the last four T20 innings and hitfour sixes in his 56-ball knock, then put on 95 runs with Kohli beforegetting out in the last over.

IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST INNINGS I HAVE EVER PLAYED’- VIRAT KOHLIIndia captain Virat Kohli hammered 70 runs in 29 balls as he helped his side to a comfor table 67-run win in the 3rd T20I against WestIndies at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. With the win, the hosts clinched the series 2-1. Kohli, who was named the man of the seriesfor his per formance, described it as one of his best innings after the match, and said that now he feels motivated for the upcoming T20IWorld Cup next year.Speaking at the post-match presentation ceremony, the 31-year-old said: “We had spoken a lot (about batting first and winning). It wasabout going out there and executing. I was in the zone and I car ried on. Told KL, he needs to bat long and hold one end. It was a prettyspecial innings and also being our second wedding anniversary, it was a special gif t. It was a special night and one of the best inningsI have played. And batting first we won, feels really good.”Kohli added that now he knows the role he can play for the team in all the three formats. “Now with the World Cup coming up there ismotivation. My par t becomes crucial as I have to play two roles. When you are not playing T20s for a while and come back and play likethis, it feels good. There is one thing about talking about the plans but it is about executing them on the field.”He fur ther praised Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul for their per formance in the decider. “I think two guys in the middle with clarity and theway Rahul and Rohit played today was the key today. Batting first, we have been too tight and hesitant, but this pitch allowed us to playfreely. It was a good lesson for us and now we need to remember it.”

ROHIT SHARMA JOINS AFRIDI AND GAYLE IN ELITE LIST OF SIX HITTERSRohit Sharma is no stranger to creating massive records in international cricket. He added another feat to his already illustrious careerin the 3rd T20I against West Indies at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Wednesday. The India opener needed just one six to join the elitelist of players who have struck 400-sixes in international cricket. In the third over of the match, Sharma hammered Sheldon Cottrell atlong-on for a massive six, to reach the milestone. Doing so, the 32-year became the first Indian to register 400 sixes in internationalcricket. He is only the third player to cross the milestone with former Pakistan batsman Shahid Afridi (476 sixes) and West Indiesinternational Chris Gayle (534 sixes) being the other two. Rohit had a chance to clinch this record earlier in the series,?but he ended upgif ting his wicket for 8 and 15, in the 1st and 2nd T20I, respectively. In the first T20I, skipper Virat Kohli was more than up for thechallenge of chasing down 208, despite Rohit’s early fall. Kohli hammered an unbeaten 94 in 50 balls as India chased down the totalwith six wickets in hand and eight balls to spare. In the 2nd T20I, Shivam Dube smashed 54 runs in 26 balls to help his side to a totalof 170/8 in 20 overs. But an insipid show with the ball and on the field saw the hosts losing the match by eight wickets. With the serieslevelled at 1-1, the final T20I in Mumbai on Wednesday will decide who takes away the trophy.

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