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Experts analyse the causesand possible solutions tohuman-wildlife conflicts

SUNDAY AGE | Cover

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TABLOID

Congress to embark on 6-month-long trainingprogramme for workers

NATION | Politics

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THE ASIAN AGENEW DELHI SUNDAY 8 SEPTEMBER 2019

Ileana D’Cruz chooses self-love

Max: 35OCMin: 27OCRH: 98%Rainfall: Nil

Forecast: Rainfall

WINDOWS

WEATHER

ASTROGUIDE

Guwahati: In what has inten-sified the demand for re-

verification of the National Register of Citizens, more

than 15,000 Bhojpuri speak-ing people having their

roots in Bihar and UP butsettled in Assam since

1950s are found to havebeen left out of the final

NRC list. The migrants werebrought to Assam mainlyfor agricultural activities

when Rajendra Prasad wasthe President of India.Full report on Page 2

Actress Dakota Johnsonarrives for the premiere ofThe Friend during the TorontoInternational Film Festival onFriday. — AFP

Vikari: DakshinayanaTithi: Bhadrapada Shudda

Dasami till 10.43 pm Star: Moola till 6.28 am

Varjyam: Sesha Varjyamtill 6.28 am, 4.55 pm to

6.40 pm Durmuhurtam: 4.43 pm to

5.32 pmRahukalam: 4.30 pm to 6 pm

SUNSET TODAY 6.36 PMSUNRISE TOMORROW 6.02 AMMOONRISE TOMORROW 2.03 PM

MOONSET TODAY 12.42 AM

Assam: Over 15KBhojpuri speakers

excluded from NRC

New Delhi: Indian Navy willcommission its second

Scorpene-class, diesel-elec-tric attack submarine INS

Khanderi by the end ofSeptember giving a boostto its fire-power. The sub-marine was launched into

water in 2017 and had beenundergoing tough tests.

Full report on Page 4

New sub Khanderito boost Navy power

Paris: US defence secretaryMark Esper said Saturday

he was “not surprised” Iranhad turned on advanced

centrifuges to increase ura-nium stockpiles, a breach ofthe 2015 nuclear deal which

Washington pulled out oflast year. — AFP

US ‘not surprised’with Iran decision

COUNTERPOINT

RNI No. 57290/94, Regd No: DL-SW-05/4189/15-17 Vol. 26 No. 203 | 48 PAGES | `5.00

19

B.R. SRIKANTHBENGALURU, SEPT. 7

Indian space scientistscame breathtakingly closeto scripting history andlanding a probe on theMoon but lost the commu-nication link with lander“Vikram,” marking anunexpected end to theirplans to secure pride ofplace in lunar sciences aswell as meet the highexpectations of more thana billion Indians, onSaturday.

It was an excruciatingmoment for the space sci-entists as the lander,which was gliding on itsown towards the lunarsurface, encountered asnag when it was a mere2.1 km from the landingsite. They were lookingforward to their place inthe sun by attempting toland a probe close to theSouth Pole but as the des-ignated hour of landing, 1:55 am, drew closer, theygrew anxious andscanned their consoles forsome semblance of signalsfrom “Vikram.”

A few minutes past 2am, a distraught Dr K.Sivan, chairman, Isro,made his way to the VIP

viewing gallery atISTRAC’s MissionOperations Complex(MOX), to give PrimeMinister Narendra Modithe bad news. Dr Sivan

broke down while seeingoff Mr Modi but was com-forted by the PrimeMinister: “There are upsand downs in life. This is■ Turn to Page 4

Moon touchdown missionfaces last-minute setback

■ You have done a big service to nation, PM tells scientists

AGE CORRESPONDENTwith agency inputsNEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD,SEPT. 7

India on Saturday criti-cised Pakistan for deny-ing permission toPresident Ram NathKovind’s aircraft to flyover it during an officialtrip to Iceland, and askedIslamabad to recognisethe “futility” of such uni-lateral actions.

India’s reaction camehours after Pakistan for-eign minister ShahMehmood Qureshi saidthat Pakistan has refusedIndia’s request to allowPresident Kovind to useits airspace for his flightto Iceland. President

Kovind will undertake anofficial visit to Iceland,Switzerland and Sloveniafrom September 9 to 17.

The decision to turndown India’s request wasapproved by PakistanPrime Minister ImranKhan in view of the“tense” situation inKashmir, Mr Qureshi toldPakistan state broadcast-er PTV, according to newsagency reports fromIslamabad. The Pakistangovernment was underpressure from the coun-try’s Opposition and someministers there to imposerestrictions at least onVVIP flights from Indiaregarding use ofPakistani airspace after■ Turn to Page 4

Pak refuses to let Prezjet fly over its airspace

Srinagar, Sept. 7: Fourmembers of a family,including a two-and-a-half-year-old girl, wereinjured when terroristsattacked a house in NorthKashmir’s Baramulla dis-trict, officials said onSaturday.

Unidentified terroristsbarged into a house atDangerpora village lateFriday and fired indis-criminately at theinmates, causing injuries

to four persons includingthe girl, the officials said.

They said the attackersfled the scene immediate-ly after the attack and ahunt has been launched tonab them.

Earlier, a policespokesperson termed theattack as “merciless act ofterrorism” and said theterrorists fired andinjured four personsincluding a baby, UsmaJan. — PTI

Baby girl among four injuredin Kashmir terrorist attack

AGE CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI, SEPT. 7

At least six Pakistanicivilians on Fridayprotested 150 metres fromthe Line of Control (LoC)at Nowshera sector, forc-ing the Army to fire ingaps to disperse them.

“Loud noises of protestwere heard from behindPakistani military postsin Lam area of Nowsherasector yesterday. Aftersometime, six persons inpathani suit came aheadof the post and reachedapproximately 150 metresfrom the Line of Control,”said a senior Army offi-cial.

“Pakistan posts areactively abetting andinstigating civilians toviolate Line of Control,”said the official. He saidthat Indian Army has tillnow shown restraint toavoid civilian casualties.

The Pakistan arm of sep-aratist organisationJammu and KashmirLiberation Front (JKLF)■ Turn to Page 4

Pak civilians protest nearLoC, Army disperses them

NITIN MAHAJANTOHANA (HARYANA),SEPT. 7

Securing aticket for rela-tives won’t byeasy for eventhe tallest BJPleaders inHaryana aschief ministerManohar Lal Khattarhas sent out a clear mes-sage of no dynasty poli-tics in the state. Aheadof finalisation of candi-dates for the forthcom-ing Assembly polls inHaryana, Mr Khattarhas stated that dynasticpolitics doesn’t have aplace in the BJP andonly committed and ded-icated candidates to theparty’s ideology andcause will be fielded inthe polls.

Speaking to this news-paper, CM Khattar said,“Our party standsagainst dynastic politicsand don’t promote it.Only candidates whohave a belief in party’spolicies ideology will geta priority.” The com-ments assume signifi-cance as several sittingMPs are reportedly bat-ting for their kin to befielded in the state polls.

■ More on Page 3

No place fordynastic politics inBJP: Khattar


Trouble seems to bebrewing for P.Chidambaram as theEnforcement Direc-torate (ED) is prepar-ing to seek permissionfrom the competentcourt to examine theformer finance minis-ter in connection witha money launderingprobe related to lossessuffered by Air India aspart of an allegedmulti-crore aviationscam.

According to sources,since MrChidambaram is injudicial custody in theINX Media case, the EDcannot examine him ina different case withouttaking permissionfrom the competentcourt. “Prior to his (theformer finance minis-ter) arrest in the INXMedia case, the ED hadsummoned MrChidambaram forquestioning in connec-tion with aviationscam. But he could notbe examined by the EDin this case as he wasarrested by the CBI in

the INX Media case.Now, the ED is prepar-ing to seek permissionfrom the trial court forhis questioning in theaviation scam”,sources said.

The case pertains tothe purchase of 48 air-craft from Airbus and68 from Boeing foraround `70,000 crore in2007. In December 2005,the then ManmohanSingh Cabinet hadapproved the deal for68 aircraft from BoeingCo by Air India. A yearlater, Indian Airlinessigned up to buy 43planes from Airbus.The two national carri-ers were later mergedin 2007 to operateunder the brand AirIndia — that too isbeing probed by the ED■ Turn to Page 4

ED may lookinto PC role inaviation scam

FIACHRA GIBBONSVENICE, SEPT. 7

Rock legend MickJagger attacked USPresident DonaldTrump for his rudenessand lies Saturday andfor “tearing apart” envi-ronment controls whenAmerica should be set-ting the standard for theworld.

The Rolling Stonessinger said he was“absolutely behind”young climate changeactivists who had earli-er occupied the red car-pet at the Venice film

festival, where he wasstarring in the thriller,The Burnt OrangeHeresy. Jagger said hedeplored how politicshas descended intoname-calling, “includ-ing in my own countrythis week” — a refer-ence to British PrimeMinister Boris Johnson

comparing OppositionLabour leader JeremyCorbyn to a “big girlsblouse” and a “chlori-nated chicken.”

Meanwhile, PinkFloyd legend RogerWaters also branded MrJohnson a dangerous“sociopath” on Friday.

The singer said MrJohnson and other pop-ulist leaders like DonaldTrump are hell-bent ondestroying the planet.

British-born Watersadded that Mr Johnson“fits all the fascist para-digms.” — AFP

■ More on 1

Mick Jagger blasts Trumpfor bad manners and lies

AGE CORRESPONDENT BENGALURU, SEPT. 7

Evidently moved by aninconsolable Isro chair-man Dr K. Sivan, PrimeMinister Narendra Modion Saturday told spacescientists not to be sad-dened by the setback forlander ‘Vikram’ but lookforward to a “new dawnand brighter tomorrow.”

Mr Modi, who comfortedDr Sivan and hugged himwhen the latter brokedown, said in his addressat ISTRAC that the nationis proud of them andstands with them. “Wecame very close but weneed to cover moreground in the times tocome. Learning fromtoday will make usstronger and better. Thenation is proud of ourspace programme and sci-entists,” Mr Modi said.

■ More on Page 2

Modi: There’llbe new dawn and brightertomorrow

Mick Jagger

Prime Minister Narendra Modi consoles Isro chairmanK. Sivan in Bengaluru on Saturday. — PTI

P. Chidambaram

Khattar

Lauding effortWe owe a great debt to ISRO andthe brilliant men and women whostaff it: Sonia Gandhi

PAGE

2SpecialTHE ASIAN AGE SUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHI

‘I AM WITH YOU, NATION ISWITH YOU’, PM TO SCIENTISTS

Only half of the lunar missions involving landing on moon surface have succeededin the last six decades, according to NASA. There have been 109 lunar missions from1958, out of which 61 were successful, says the US space agency’s ‘Moon Fact Sheet’

The Department of Posts, West Bengal, on Saturday released a commemorativeSpecial Cover on the Chandrayaan-2 mission. “It is to pay tribute to our scientistswho took India’s space research so far,” Post-Master General Amitabh Singh said

B.R. SRIKANTH BENGALURU, SEPT. 7

Evidently moved by an inconsolableDr K Sivan, Chairman, ISRO, PrimeMinister Narendra Modi on Saturdaytold space scientists not to be sad-dened by the setback for lander'Vikram' but look forward to a "newdawn and brighter tomorrow."

Mr Modi, who comforted Dr Sivanand hugged him when the latterbroke down over loss of communica-tion with 'Vikram', said in his addressat ISTRAC that the nation is proud ofthem and stands with them. "We camevery close but we need to cover moreground in the times to come.Learning from today will make usstronger and better. The nation isproud of our space programme andscientists. The best is yet to come inour space programme. There are newfrontiers to discover and new placesto go. India is with you," Modi said.

"Effort was worth it and so was thejourney. It will make us stronger andbetter. There will be a new dawn andbrighter tomorrow... I am with you,the nation is with you," he added.

Mr Modi said the Moon has beenromanticised in poems and literatureto such an extent that thatChandrayaan-2, in its last steps, ran toembrace it, a reference to 'Vikram's'failure to lower its speed as plannedduring its descent to the lunar sur-

face. "This is how poets woulddescribe it", he said, adding that thewill to reach the Moon has becomestronger and more intense.

The Prime Minister commenced his

speech, delivered in a mix of Hindiand English, with "Bharat mata ki jai"(Hail Mother India) slogan, said hecould understand the feelings of sci-entists a few hours earlier when it

became clear that Chandrayaan-2'sfinal journey did not go as per plan."Your eyes said a lot and I could readthe sadness on your face. I have livedthose moments with you," he said,adding that this was why he did notstay for long with them in the earlyhours and came back in the morning,not to preach to them but "be inspiredby them."

Mr Modi remarked "When the mes-sage of communication cut-off withthe mission was received, you were allshaken," as he sought to lift theirmorale, asserting that it wouldtrengthen their resolve for future suc-cesses. He recalled a number ofISRO's successful missions, includingthe one to Mars and described ISROas an "encyclopedia of successes."

TWEETS

There is nothing todespair. ISRO only lostcommunication with theLander & not the hopes of1.3 billion Indians

M. Venkaiah Naidu

India is proud of our scien-tists! They’ve given theirbest and have always madeIndia proud. These aremoments to be courageous,and courageous we will be!

Narendra Modi

Lost Communication butnot hope. We are proud ofyou ISRO.. #Chandrayaan2

Sunny Deol

Proud of @isro... Southpolar region of moon isunexplored for all the riskyreasons involved. India'sbrave attempt not only willguide our future spaceprograms, but also theother space powers

Sudheer Babu

June 12: ISRO Chairman K Sivan announcesIndia’s second sojourn to the moon,Chandrayaan-2,would be launchedon July 15June 29: Vikramlander (assembledwith PragyanRover) integratedwith OrbiterJuly 22: GSLV MkIII-M1 successfullylaunchesChandrayaan-2 spacecraftAugust 20: Lunar Orbit Insertion. Chandrayaan-2successfully inserted into Lunar orbitSeptember 1: Fifth and final lunar orbit manoeu-vre performedSeptember 3: First de-orbiting manoeuvre per-formed to bring Vikram closer to moonSeptember 4: Second de-orbiting manoeuvre per-formedSeptember 7: Vikram lander begins its powereddescent, normal performance was observed up toan altitude of 2.1 km, but loses contact withground stations minutes before the crucial touch-down on the lunar surface

TIMELINE

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with ISRO Chairman KailasavadivooSivan after connection with the Vikram lander was lost during soft landing ofChandrayaan 2 on lunar surface, in Bengaluru on Saturday —PTI

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) employees look tense after the Vikram module of Chandrayaan 2 lost the communication during landing on lunar surface at ISTRAC, Bengaluru — PTI The men who nearly made it happen Prime Minister Narendra Modi receiving updates about the mission

Effort was worth itand so was thejourney. It will make

us stronger andbetter. There will be anew dawn and brightertomorrow... I am withyou, the nation is withyou

— NARENDRA MODIPRIME MINISTER


A few foreign leaders inIndia's immediate andextended neighbourhoodsought to console India onthe ultimate outcome of itsChandrayaan 2 moon-land-ing mission, saying thatwith all the technologicalprogress that India hasmade in Space, it was "anincredibly proud momentfor all of South Asia". Thecomments were re-tweetedby the Ministry of ExternalAffairs (MEA).

Former Sri Lankan presi-dent and Opposition leaderMahinda Rajapaksa tweet-ed, "Congratulations to@isro, PM @narendramodiand the people of #India on#Chandrayaan2. This mis-sion was not a failure but asuccessful step towardsreaching the ultimate goal.This is an incredibly proudmoment for all of SouthAsia. We are certain youwill soon succeed."

Bhutan PM Dr. LotayTshering tweeted, "We are

proud of India and its sci-entists today. Chandrayaan-2 saw some challenges lastminute but the courage andhard work you have shownare historical. KnowingPrime Minister @naren-dramodi, I have no doubthe and his ISRO team willmake it happen one day."

Mauritius PM PravindJugnauth tweeted, "I wishto congratulate the govern-ment of India and the ISRO

team for their attempt atlanding the Vikram landerand the Pragyaan rover onthe lunar South Pole.Although it was not a suc-cessful landing this time,the world would recognisethe major technologicaladvancement of the IndianSpecial Programme. Welook forward to collabora-tive efforts betweenMauritius and the ISROteam in the future."

Incredibly proud moment,say South Asian leaders

DENZIL RITHESH D’SOUZA BENGALURU/CHENNAI, SEPT. 7

While the reasons for the failure ofIndia's Chandrayaan- 2 programmeare still being studied, some bizarretheories on what could have led to itare already making the rounds - extraterrestrials interfering with themoon landing!

Mr Sabir Hussain, a Chennai basedindependent researcher on UFOsightings and director of the IndianSociety for UFO Studies (INSUFOS)believes the loss of communicationthat Isro scientists suffered with theVikram lander just before it was toland on the moon's surface was noaccident but a warning from extraterrestrials.

" You will not be allowed to land onthe moon unless 'they' decide to allowyou. The Unidentified Flying Objects(UFO) researchers around the worldbelieve that the extra terrestrialshave sent a message to the Indiangovernment to 'get rid of your nukes

before you explore other worlds'," hesaid.

"As a researcher studying the UFO-Nuclear Weapons, the failure ofChandrayaan 2 is not at all surpris-ing to me," Mr Hussain added in achat with the Deccan Chronicle.

"Recently some Indian ministershave been making very irresponsibleand dangerous statements on the use

of nuclear weapons. If we had takenthe warnings on UFO activity seri-ously, this situation could have beenaverted. Why do you think theAmericans refused to go to the Moonafter 1973?" he asked.

"Both India and Pakistan have beenopenly threatening each other withnuclear attacks. But what the leader-ship of both these nations do notrealise is that they can use theirnuclear weapons only if the UFOsdecide to allow them. In my opinion,this Vikram episode is just a warningto the Indian leadership from UFOs,that if you can't take care of yourown world then don't come to ours.More messages are likely to follow.US Air Force Missile Launch Officer,Robert Salas, who witnessed an UFOswitching off 10 nuclear missilesunder his command in 1967, also con-curs with this," he claimed. MrHussain cited numerous instancesand statements to support his claimof alien interference in the world 'snuclear affairs.

"Astronaut Dr. Edgar Mitchell, thesixth man to walk on the moon, hasopenly stated that aliens have alreadyvisited earth. US astronaut, GordonCooper in his 1978 letter to the UN hasacknowledged it. Mercury Sevenastronaut, Donald Slayton, hasdescribed seeing a three feet wideUFO from his P-51 fighter jet at analtitude of 10,000 feet in 1951," he said.

Soviet cosmonaut and Soyuz-5spacecraft pilot, Yevegni Khrunov,cosmonaut, Vladimir Kovalyonokand cosmonaut, major general PavelPopovich too have acknowledgedUFO sightings, one of them being onMay 5, 1981 from the Salyut-6 spacestation, according to him.

In conclusion , the UFO enthusiastsaid, "UFOs are very concernedabout humans playing with nuclearweapons. In 2014-15, they were toyingwith American nuclear aircraft car-riers, Theodore Roosevelt and Nimitzas recounted by some AmericanNaval officers to the New York Timesin May 2019."

‘UFOs responsible for Chandrayaan failure’

A huge dish antenna scans the skies in the back drop ofthe moon at ISTRAC centre of ISRO in Peenya, Bengaluru

— R. SAMUEL/DC

Student stumps PM

AGE CORRESPONDENT BENGALURU, SEPT 7

Prime Minister NarendraModi was amused when ahigh school boy askedhim how he could occupythe office of Presidentwhen he grew up.

"Why not the PrimeMinister?" was Mr Modi'ssmiling counter as hethrew his arm around theboy's shoulder. The PrimeMinister spent a couple ofminutes chatting withsome 50 high schoolchild-

ren, all winners of a quizon space, at ISTRAC, afterwatching an unsuccessfulattempt to land 'Vikram'on the Moon, early onSaturday morning.

The boy next thrust hisbook and requested MrModi for his autograph.

Officials declined toidentify the boy or sharedetails about him.

Mr Modi advised schoolchildren not to ruminateabout poor performancein academics but aimhigher in future.


India's first lunar lander'Vikram' veered away fromthe designated path and tum-bled before snapping thecommunication link withground stations because of asudden burst in speed duringits descent owing to a mal-functioning system, sayIndian space scientists.

Minutes before loss of com-munication, ‘Vikram’ digre-ssed from its path because ofacceleration instead of decel-eration owing to a malfunc-tioning mini rocket engine orthe effect of scorching heaton the gyro and accelerome-ter. Four thrusters were fit-ted on board the lander tosupport the descent opera-tion, and decrease the speedfrom 1.6 km a second toalmost zilch, and were pro-grammed to function in syncwith one another. Perhaps,one of them malfunctioned,

resulting in loss of trajectory,scientists added.

The lander performed toperfection during the firsttwo of four phases-roughbreaking phase, fine break-ing phase, hovering phaseand parabolic descent-prompting space scientists tobreak into applause as thespeed during descentdecreased from 1.6 km a sec-ond to 60 meters a second. It,however, started swervewhen at a distance of about 5km from the landing spot.This was noticed on thetelemetry screen at ISTRAC,Bengaluru, but as it was onautomated descent, no actioncould be initiated fromground stations.

Scientists also pointed outthat the communication linksnapped as the lander collid-ed with a large mound afterdeviating from its path.

They did not rule out acombination of factors —malfunctioning thrusters,gyro and accelerometer-forthe setback. The gyro andaccelerometer, perhaps, wereaffected by soaring tempera-ture of the spacecraft duringthe glide.

On Saturday morning, Dr KSivan, Chairman, ISRO, cou-ple of his predecessors, andmembers of TeamChandrayaan-2 pored overdata from all systems formore than five hours butcould not arrive at a conclu-sion on the cause for lander'sfailure. Though Dr Sivan andothers took a break from theprobe, others continued tosift through data to find outthe rogue component whichcaused the setback, scien-tists added.

Vikram: What thwarted asmooth landing on the moon?


Downplaying the setback tolander 'Vikram,' Indian spacescientists said 90 to 95 percent of the mission objec-tives of Chandrayaan-2 wereaccomplished till date.

In a statement releasedthrough ISRO's official web-site, they said Chandrayaan-2, a highly complex mission,represents significant tech-nological leap when com-pared with previous mis-sions of the space agency.

It involves a unique combi-nation of an orbiter, landerand rover, to explore theuncharted south pole of theMoon. "Since the launch ofChandrayaan-2 on July 22,

2019, not only India but thewhole world watched itsprogress from one phase tothe next with great expecta-tions and excitement," itadded.

The statement pointed outthat this unique missionaims at studying not just onearea of the Moon but allareas including the exos-phere, surface as well as thesub-surface of the Moon. TheOrbiter has been placed in itsintended orbit around theMoon and will enrich anunderstanding of the Moon'sevolution and mapping ofthe minerals and water mole-cules in the Polar Regions,using its eight state-of-the-artscientific instruments. TheOrbiter's camera is the high-

est resolution camera (0.3m)in any lunar mission so farand shall provide high reso-lution images which will beimmensely useful to the glob-al scientific community. Theprecise launch and missionmanagement has ensured along life of almost sevenyears instead of the plannedone year.

It said the lander, 'Vikram',followed the planned descenttrajectory from its orbit of35 km to just below 2 kmabove the surface. All thesystems and sensors of thelander functioned excellent-ly until this point andproved many new technolo-gies such as variable thrustpropulsion technology usedin the lander.

90 TO 95% OF MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

● They did not rule outa combination of factors— malfunctioningthrusters, gyro andaccelerometer-for thesetback

Sabir Hussain

NAYEAR AZADPATNA, SEPT. 7

Bihar chief minister NitishKumar was in Ranchi on

Saturday to review the party’spreparedness for the assem-

bly elections scheduled to beheld in November-December

this year. Addressing the gath-ering of over 4000 party

workers and office bearers onthe occasion, Mr. Kumar said

that, the focus of his partywas the overall development

of Jharkhand as other politicalparties who ruled earlier did-n’t do much for the people ofthe state. “It’s been nineteenyears since the formation of

Jharkhand but there has beenno significant change in thestate. People want to know

why the state has not yetdeveloped the way it should

have been,” Bihar chief minis-ter Nitish Kumar said while

addressing party workers inRanchi on Saturday. Mr Kumar

also spoke on the issue ofwomen empowerment and

tried to propagate the party’sliquor prohibition agenda dur-

ing his visit to Ranchi onSaturday. Bihar CM and his

Jharkhand counterpartRaghubar Das has never been

on the same page on the issueof liquor prohibition. JD(U)

leaders who attended theevent in Ranchi said that

Nitish model of governancewill be implemented in

Jharkhand if the party is elect-ed to power. Jharkhand JD(U)chief Salkhan Murmu said that

“Under the leadership ofNitish Kumar Bihar has been

walking on the path of devel-opment since 2005”.

IN BRIEF

PAGE

3NationSUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

Lucknow: In a late nightdevelopment, the Bahujan

Samaj Party (BSP) called offits agreement with Dushyant

Chautala’s Jannayak JanataParty for the upcoming

Haryana Assembly election and decided to field candi-

dates on all seats in thestate. According to the BSP,the agreement reached with

Dushyant Chautala for theupcoming Assembly elec-

tions in Haryana is inappro-priate in terms of the pro-

posed seat-sharing formula,BSP president Mayawati said in a tweet in Hindi,

adding that the tie-up iscalled off.

— PTI

Chandigarh: Punjab chief min-ister Amarinder Singh

on Saturday ordered immedi-ate ban on the telecast of the

controversial TV serial Ram-Siya Ke Luv-Kush, which has

sparked protests by theValmiki community. Mr Singh

also warned against anyattempt to disturb the state'speace and communal harmo-ny. Acting on the chief minis-ter's orders, deputy commis-sioners across Punjab started

issuing the notification ban-ning the telecast of the serial

by cable operators in theirrespective districts, according

to an official release. — PTI

Bhopal: Former chief minis-ter Ajit Jogi’s son, Amit, whohas been jailed on charges of

submitting wrong informa-tion to Election Commissionregarding his place of birth,late on Friday night fell sickand admitted to a local hos-

pital in Bilashpur district inChhattisgarh. According to a

senior Bilashpur districtpolice officer, the Jogi Junior

who has been lodged inGaurela sub-jail in Bilashpur

district since September 3had complained of uneasi-

ness on Friday night and wasimmediately shifted to a

local hospital. He was foundto be suffering from high

blood pressure.

Amit Jogi falls sickin jail, hospitalised

NITISH REVIEWSJ’KHAND POLLSPREPAREDNESS

BSP ends alliancewith Haryana party

Where are 40L immigrants?Where are 40 lakh illegal immigrants,Congress leader Digvijaya Singh askshome minister Amit Shah, BJP leaders

Previous govtsdivided society,

amassed wealth— Yogi Adityanath,

UP chief minister


After the bad drubbing inthe recent Lok Sabhapolls, which many blamedon the bad organisationalstrength of the party, theCongress will nowembark on a six monthlong training programmefor its workers. The train-ing would be imparted toCongress workers atbooth, district and statelevel.

The programme wouldbe conducted by the AICCtraining department head-ed by Sachin Rao.

While contours of thetraining exercise havealready been discussed attwo meetings of state in-charges and party generalsecretaries, the finalprogamme would be decid-ed at a meeting onSeptember 12 which wouldbe chaired by Conrgesspresident Sonia Gandhiand attended by generalsecretaries, PCC chiefsand CLP leaders.

“The programme wouldbe directed at MPs, MLAs,municipal corporators aswell as booth-level work-ers,” a senior leader toldthis newspaper.

This is the first majorworkers outreach pro-gramme being organised

since Mrs Gandhi tookover as the interimPresident of the partyafter Rahul Gandhi quithis post taking responsi-bility for the Lok Sabhadefeat.

Another leader said thatthe programme was beingorganised in a bid to galva-nize the party cadredemoralised by successiveelectoral setbacks. It is

aimed at teaching thecadre how to propagate theCongress ideology, values,commitments and achieve-ments among the peopleright from the grassrootslevel. On September 3, aday-long workshop washeld in Delhi “train thetrainers” in various train-ing modules with an aimto strengthening theorganisation.


Attacking the govern-ment on its first 100 daysin office, Congress leaderPriyanka Gandhi Vadraon Saturday said sectorssuch as automobile,transport and miningwill see it as a celebrationof their ruin.

Ms Gandhi Vadrashared a media report onTwitter on problemsbeing faced by the autoindustry to buttress herpoint. “The BJP govern-ment is going to celebrate100 days in office. But theauto sector, transport sec-tor, mining sector willlook at it as a celebrationof their ruin,” theCongress GeneralSecretary in-charge ofUttar Pradesh said.

Ms Gandhi Vadra saidthat from every sector,there was news of clos-ing down of plants andjob losses. TheCongress’s officialTwitter handle alsoshared another mediareport about minister ofstate for finance AnuragThakur being attacked atan auto industry event onFriday after he asked theindustry players whysales had not picked updespite the measurestaken by the government.

“The government muststop spinning tales ofpeople choosing cabsinstead of purchasingcars to explain automo-bile sector collapse. Factis the slowdown is due toDemonetisation andpoorly implemented GST— they must accept it &remedy it,” the partysaid. Recently theCongress has tried tokeep up its attack on thegovernment over eco-nomic issues.

Priyankaflays Modigovt over eco slump


As part of the outreach forthe golden jubilee editionof International FilmFestival of India (Iffi), theIndian delegation atToronto InternationalFilm Festival (Tiff) 2019met with a number of keystakeholders from theinternational film-makingindustry and apprisedthem of the proposed festi-val scheduled forNovember 20 to 28 in Goa.

The golden jubilee yearof this prestigious filmevent is expected to be oneof the biggest ever celebra-tion of films in India withthe Academy and various

foreign nation’s help alsobeing sought to procurethe best of cinema fromacross the world for dis-play during the festival.

The meetings were heldin the India Pavilion set upby ministry of informa-tion & broadcasting. MsLisa Macleod, minister oftourism, culture andsports, Toronto, Ontariowas amongst the promi-nent personalities to visitthe India Pavilion. Theminister was apprised ofthe activities of Iffi 2019 &India celebrating its 50thanniversary, a statementissued by the ministrystated.

The Indian delegationmet Ms Viviana A. Dirolli,

executive director, & MrDiego Marambio Avaria,international affairs coor-dinator, INCAA (InstitutoNacional de Cine y ArtesAudiovisuales) — theNational Institute ofCinema and AudiovisualArts, Argentina. The objec-tive of the meeting was toseek out INCAA’s help toreach out to Argentina gov-ernment for Iffi 2019,

potential of exchangebetween the countries andpossibility of co-produc-tion treaty between India &Argentina. Indian delega-tion apprised them aboutall the policy initiatives &framework of Indian gov-ernment, ease of shootingand launch of the web por-tal — www.ffo.gov.in — foronline application forshooting at a single point.Further they were notifiedof the preparations thatwere undertaken by theGovernment for the 50tha n n i v e r s a r yof the Iffi.

INCAA expressed thatIndia should participate inthe premiere film festivalof Argentina - Mar del

Plata International FilmFestival 2019 and also inVentana Sur 2019, which isattended by the entireLatin American communi-ty, with a possible IndianDelegation to Argentina toinitiate dialogue on co-pro-duction between the twocountries, the statementadded. The president ofthe Academy John Baileyis likely to attend thisyear’s edition and expertsfrom the Oscars holdingmaster Classes at theevent. Iffi will also cele-brate Mahatma Gandhi’s150th birth anniversaryand a business exhibitionto showcase “latest filmtechnologies” and anexhibit on Gandhi.

Indian delegates promote Iffi golden jubilee at Tiff

Sonia upset with infighting inMP unit, warns strong actionAGE CORRESPONDENTBHOPAL, SEPT. 7:

Congress high commandhas taken strong excep-tion to running feud in theparty’s Madhya Pradeshunit and given go aheadsignal to initiate actionagainst the erring leaders.

This was indicated byAICC general secretaryin-charge of MadhyaPradesh Deepak Babaria.

Mr Babaria who has sub-mitted his report on theongoing internecine warin Congress in MP overthe post of PradeshCongress Committee(PCC) president toCongress interim presi-dent Sonia Gandhi, onSaturday said he has

apprised the situation toher. “She (Ms Gandhi) wasvery upset over the devel-opments in the party inMP. She said that indisci-pline in the party wouldnot be tolerated andstrong action would betaken against leaders, bigor small, who flouted dis-cipline”, Mr Babaria toldreporters.

He indicated that theparty might take sternaction against the leadersfound to be indulging ininfighting in violation ofparty discipline.

Chief minister KamalNath who met Ms Gandhiin Delhi on Saturday saidhe had detailed her on thecurrent state of affairs inthe party.

◗ The golden jubileeyear of this presti-gious film event isexpected to be oneof the biggest ever celebration of filmsin India

Capt. bans TV serialfearing violence

Cong to conduct 6-monthtraining for party workers

■ MPs, MLAs will also attend programme

MANOJ ANANDGUWAHATI, SEPT. 7

In what has intensified thedemand for re-verificationof the National Register ofCitizens, more than 15,000Bhojpuri speaking peoplehaving their roots in Biharand Uttar Pradesh but set-tled in Assam since 1950sare found to have been leftout of the final NRC list.

Informing that a largenumber of people of suchfamilies settled on northbank of Brahamaputra inDarrang and Udalguri dis-tricts failed to incorporatedtheir names in the NRC, theleaders of All AssamBhojpuri Yuva-ChatraParishad and All AssamBhojpuri Sammelan said,“Despite submitting therequisite documents, thou-sands of Bhojpuri-speakingpeople living in Assamprior to 1971 and theirdescendants have beenexcluded from the NRC. It’snot only unfortunate, butalso humiliating.”

The president of Bhojpurispeaking people NarendraPrakash Chouhan said thatmore than 4,000 people fromBhojpuri speaking familieshave been left out of thefinal NRC in Udalguri dis-trict alone. Mr Chouhansaid that the ancestors ofthese NRC excludes werebrought to Assam mainlyfor agricultural activitieswhen Mr Rajendra Prasadwas the President of India.

He cited specific caseslike of Kanai Lal Chouhan,a 42-year-old farmer whohails from UttarBarpukhuri village inUdalguri district. He hasbeen left out of the NRCalong with his three daugh-ters, one son and two sis-ters. The names of Kanai’sgrandfather SukhanandanChouhan and father DudhNath Chouhan was there ina court order relating to aland dispute passed onSeptember 11, 1970 by thesub- divisional magistrateof Mangaldoi. This gave astrong reason to his familymembers to claim thattheir forefathers were set-tled in Assam before March25, 1971 — the cutoff datefor updating the NRC. Buttheir hopes shattered whenthe final NRC was pub-lished on August 31.

“My mother and wife areIndians as they were includ-ed in the second draft andthe final NRC list respective-

ly. But our future hangs inthe balance,” he said.

In another nine-memberfamily, settled in Gerimarivillage near Mangaldoitown in Darrang district,six people made it to theNRC. But Madan ChandraDas head of the familyalong with his sistersMamoni Das and SumitraDas, have failed to make itto the final NRC publishedon August 31.

“Two of my brothers —Babul Das and Bipul Das —figured in the second draftof NRC last year. But wethree failed despite furnish-ing the same legacy data ofour grandfather Lal SinghRabidas and other requisitedocuments,” said MadanChandra Das, a governmentschool teacher.

Similar was the fate of MrMadan’s neighbour andadvocate Ram KrishnaChouhan who failed toinclude the names of hisbrother Narayan Chouhanand sister Jolawa Devi.“Our family migrated toAssam in 1950s after the1951 NRC was prepared.That’s why our familymembers applied for inclu-sion in the updated NRC.Government land recordsof 1947 and 1961 issued toour ancestor’s in UP wasused for the purpose. Five ofmy brothers and two sistersgot a place in the updatedNRC, but Narayan andJowala failed,” said advo-cate Ram Krishna.

Over 15K Bhojpuri speakersnot included in Assam NRCMost of excluded families settled in Darrang and Udalguri for 50 years

Social worker Shakuntala Choudhury being felicitatedwith ‘Naam Patra’ by senior Congress leader BhumidharBarman (left) at Kasturba Gandhi National MemorialTrust, in Guwahati, on Saturday. — PTI

Shah to chair 2-dayNEC plenary todayAGE CORRESPONDENTGUWAHATI, SEPT. 7

Union home ministerAmit Shah, who is arriv-ing here on Sunday, will beinaugurating two-dayslong 68th plenary sessionof the North EasternCouncil (NEC) and mayreview the situation afterthe publication of theNational Register ofCitizens.

Mr Shah will chair ameeting of the NEC, to beattended by chief minis-ters and governors ofeight northeastern states.

He will review theprogress of various devel-opment projects at theNEC meeting.

Mr Shah is also expectedto have a separate meetingto take stock of the securi-ty situation in the north-eastern region, securitysources said.

The NEC is the apexadvisory body for secur-ing balanced and coordi-nated development, andfor facilitating effectivecoordination among themember states of theregion.

Indicating that Mr Shahis also likely to have sepa-

rate meet-ings withchief minis-t e rSarbanandaS o n o w a land topfunctionar-ies of theAssam gov-

ernment and the state BJPleadership, securitysources said that Mr Shahwho is visiting the statefor the first time after thepublication of NRC isexpected to clarify thestand of the party on NRCin view of state leadershipindicating some legisla-tive option to protect therights of genuine Indiancitizens.

After the publication of the NRC list, Assamfinance minister HimantaBiswa Sarma and stateBJP chief Ranjit KumarDass said that they wereunhappy with the NRC asnames of many genuineIndian citizens were notincluded.

Both Mr Sarma and MrDass said there is a possi-bility of government tak-ing some legislativeoptions to protect therights of genuine Indians.

Jaipur, Sept. 7: Rajasthandeputy chief ministerSachin Pilot’s birthdaycelebrations on Saturdayturned into Congress’sshow of strength as work-ers and leaders throngedthe party headquartershere, while various pro-grammes were organisedacross the state, signify-ing a re-galvanising ofthe party cadre.

Significantly, the mas-sive outpouring of sup-port on Mr Pilot’s 42ndbirthday comes at a timewhen the party is goingthrough a rough phasenationally after the LokSabha poll debacle.

Amid slogan chantingand flag-waving, Pilot metthousands of workers andleaders standing outsidethe party office as theygreeted him on the occa-sion.

Mr Pilotbegan hisday withprayers atGovind Deva n dTadkeshwartemples inthe city and

also received several peo-ple at his residence whocame to wish him.

“Wish you a very happyBirthday @SachinPilot ji.May you be blessed withgood health and happi-ness always,” chief minis-ter Ashok Gehlot tweeted.

Apart from the majorityof party MLAs, legisla-tors from the BahujanSamaj Party and theBharatiya Tribal Party, aswell as Independent lawmakers called on Pilotto greet him at his homeand party office on theoccasion. — PTI

AGE CORRESPONDENTCHANDIGARH, SEPT. 7

In a major Jolt toHaryana Congress itsstate Mahila Congresspresident SumitraChauhan today JoinedBJP , just a day before PMModi is to address a rallyin Haryana to virtuallykickstart the electioncampaign for BJP.Elections are due inHaryana in October andthere is very high proba-bility that election code ofconduct could come intoplace next week.

Haryana MahilaCongress chief SumitraChauhan resigned fromher post and also from theprimary membership ofthe party. She said shewas resigning becauseshe was not convincedwith the Congress’s standon Article 370 and tripletalaq.

In her resignation letteraddressed to SushmitaDev, president of AllIndia Mahila Congress,Ms Chauhan said that shewas deeply concerned atthe turn of events thatthe nation had seen overthe past few months, andthe party’s views onimportant issues facingthe nation.

She alleged that theparty had given a go-by toits principles when itchose to oppose the law oftriple talaq, a progressive,well-meaning and coura-geous law for addressingthe issue of Muslimwomen, who had sufferedextreme misery.

“Today, I find myselftotally disheartened and

utterly devastated by thestand taken by the partyon these issues of nation-al importance. I findmyself unable to acceptand go along with theseviews,” she said in herresignation letter.

Later, in the day, shejoined the BJP at Rohtakin the presence of stateBJP president SubhashBarala.

Ms Chauhan, who hadopenly supported abroga-tion of Article 370 inJammu and Kashmir,said she had to go againsther conscience to supportthe Congress’ stand ontriple talaq.

Ms Chauhan said shehad now realised thatthere is no use of being inpolitics if one could notstand with what is right.

NITIN MAHAJANTOHANA (HARYANA), SEPT. 7

Securing a ticket for rela-tives won’t be easy for eventhe tallest BJP leaders inHaryana as chief ministerManohar Lal Khattar hassent out a clear message ofno dynasty politics in thestate. Ahead of finalisationof candidates for the forth-coming Assembly polls inHaryana, Mr Khattar hasstated that dynastic politicsdoesn’t have a place in theBJP and only committedand dedicated candidates tothe party’s ideology andcause will be fielded in thepolls.

Speaking to this newspa-per, Mr Khattar said, “Ourparty stands against dynas-tic politics and don’t pro-mote it. Only candidateswho have a belief in party’spolicies ideology will get apriority. We won’t just take

winnability as a factor todecide candidates. Not justwinnability, faith in partyand commitment to takeforward our party pro-grams. We have to take alook at these things.” Thecomments assume signifi-cance as several sittingMPs are reportedly battingfor their kin to be fieldedin the state polls.

Sources stated that atleast seven of the 10 sittingMPs from the party havedemanded a nomination fortheir close relatives for the

forthcoming Aseemblypolls. This deapite the factthat Prime Minister andHaryana chief ministerhave both repeatedly tar-geted other parties in thestates including theCongress, the INLD andJJP for supporting dynasticpolitics.

The BJP feels that pro-moting dynastic politicswould send a wrond mes-sage to its cadre ahead ofthe crucial Assembly polls.“The party doesn’t want todisrespect workers who put

in a lot of effort and com-mitment for its cause byoffering tickets to kin ofleaders who may be per-ceived as outsiders,”sources added.

After winning anunprecedented 10 seats inHaryana in the recentlyconcluded Lok Sabha polls,the state unit has now beentasked with securing a twothird majority in the 90member legislature. TheBJP is also hoping that itwould gain in the forthcom-ing assembly polls andimprove upon its 2014Assembly show in which ithad secured 49 seats.

While the party wouldcontinue to seek votes inthe name of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,just like the Lok Sabhapolls, in Haryana the BJPwould would also bankupon the clean image of MrKhattar.

Congress womenwing chief joinsBJP in Haryana

Cong showcases cadrestrength on Pilot b’day

Khattar rules out tickets to dynasts■ ‘Our party stands against dynastic politics, discourage it’

◗ Sources statedthat at least sevenof the 10 sittingMPs from the partyhave demanded anomination for theirclose relatives forthe forthcomingAseembly polls

◗ She alleged thatthe party had givena go-by to its prin-ciples when itchose to opposethe law of tripletalaq, a progressive,well-meaning andcourageous law foraddressing theissue of Muslimwomen

Manohar Lal Khattar

Sumitra Chauhan

Guwahati: After review-ing the prevailing law andorder situation of thestate, the Assam govern-ment on Saturday extend-ed the Armed Forces(Special Power) Act forsix months in state witheffect from August 28.

The state governmentin a written press state-ment said, “Consequentupon review of law andorder situation in Assam,in the past six months,the state governmentvide a notification and asper Section 3 of theAFSPA, has declared theentire state of Assam as“Disturbed Area” fromAugust 28, 2019 up to sixmonths unless with-drawn earlier.”

AFSPA gets sixmonth extension

Amit Shah

SachinPilot

NationSUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

MilitancyUnion minister Jitendra Singh on Saturday said Article370 facilitated militancy and around 42,000 innocentlives were lost in that state in the past three decades.

IN BRIEF

New Delhi: States will haveto become key agents of

growth to help achieveIndia’s target of becoming aUSD 5 trillion economy, Niti

Aayog chief executive officerAmitabh Kant said on

Saturday. Speaking at anevent organised here by

industry chamber PHDCCI,Mr Kant said states have to

work together and learnfrom each other to radically

transform India. Mr Kant saidone of the things whichPrime Minister Narendra

Modi has been focusing on inrecent times is the target of

becoming a USD 5 trillioneconomy by 2024 and sub-sequently a USD 10 trillion

economy by 2030. “...there-fore, our challenge really isthat it will not be possiblefor India to achieve this till

states do not aim to doubleand triple their GDPs. And

this would require majorstructural reforms and struc-

tural reforms over a vastrange of sectors,” he said. He

underlined sectors like agri-culture and labour where

structural reforms arerequired. The current size of

the Indian economy is esti-mated at USD 2.7 trillion. The

central government hasannounced and initiated sev-

eral steps to make India aUSD 5 trillion economy over

the next few years.

States key to makeIndia USD 5 trillioneconomy: Niti CEO

New Delhi: On the last day ofhis trip to South Korea,

defence minister RajnathSingh on Saturday visited

the demilitarised zone whereNorth Korean leader Kim

jong-un met South KoreanPresident Moon Jae-in in

April last year, endingdecades-long hostilities

between the two neighbours.The defence minister held

extensive talks with the topmilitary brass of South Koreaduring his three-day visit. Mr

Singh held talks with hisSouth Korean counterpart

Jeong Kyeong-doo on Fridayto boost bilateral defence

ties, particularly on enhanc-ing cooperation betweendefence firms of the twocountries and extending

logistical support to eachother’s navies. “Visited the

historic site where SouthKorean President Moon Jae-

in and the North Koreanleader Kim Jong Un attend-

ed tree planting ceremonyduring the inter-Korean sum-

mit at Panmunjom on April27, 2018,” Mr Singh said in a

tweet.

Rajnath holds talkswith top militarybrass in S. Korea

Bhubaneswar: Several per-sons were injured in a clashbetween a group of people

and police in the city overimposition of heavy fines on

violators of traffic rules underthe new motor vehicles act.

The incident occurred at RajMahal square when com-

muters gheraoed on-dutytraffic policemen and protest-ed against collection of fines

which they termed “hefty”,police said. When the trafficpolice asked commuters tofurnish documents of their

vehicles, several of them, inturn, started demanding

paper of a police vehicle fromthe traffic officers, police said.

The crowd allegedly recov-ered two liquor bottles fromthe police vehicle, though a

senior police officer claimedthese were seized during a

search on Friday. Police reso-rted to batton charge to dis-

perse the crowd after they st-arted pelting stones on trafficguards, the officer said, addi-

ng that “several people andpolicemen were injured” inthe incident. A drunk auto-

rickshaw driver was penalised`47,500 on Wednesday and`5,000 each was collected

from two for speaking onmobile phones while driving.

People clash withpolice over hefty

traffic fines

Forestry goalsachievable if planting

trees becomes part ofchildren's value system

— Prakash Javadekar,

Union minister


National Security AdviserAjit Doval on Saturdaysaid he is fully convincedthat a majority ofKashmiris support theabrogation of Article 370,which was a “special dis-crimination” and not aspecial status.

“Article 370 was not aspecial status. It was aspecial discrimination.With its abrogation wehave brought Kashmirison par with Indians,” saidMr Doval.

While talking to mediapersons, the NSA said, “Iam fully convinced that amajority of Kashmiristotally support the abro-gation of Article 370. Inthe removal of Article 370,announced on August 5,they (Kashmiris) seegreater opportunities, abetter future, more jobsfor youths.” There is avocal minority that oppos-es it, he added.

On the political deten-tions, he said they are pre-ventive in nature and verymuch allowed under thelaw, which means the gov-ernment is answerable tocourts and will have topay a heavy penalty if ithas done anything extra-judicial.

Mr Doval justified therestrictions imposed onmobile phone and

Internet services, sayingthey can easily be used byPakistan and terroristsfor subversive activities,but the denial of theseservices should not pre-vent people from goingabout their lives.

He said Pakistan is benton creating trouble inKashmir and would verymuch like to see unrest inthe valley, which wouldadd grist to its anti-Indiapropaganda.

In a bid to achieve thataim, Pakistan has sentmany terrorists intoKashmir with the intentof causing trouble, and toensure that normalcy isnot restored.

Mr Doval said restric-tions have anyway beeneased progressively, andonly 10 of the 199 policedistricts in Kashmir,Jammu and Ladakh nowstill have prohibitoryorders, while landlinetelephones have beenrestored fully in all three

areas.“We will not allow peo-

ple to become victims ofPakistan's machinationsand its bullets sent acrossthe border. We will doeverything in power toprotect the people,” saidthe NSA.

When asked about thealleged human rightsabuses by the Army, theNSA pointed out that it isonly the local police andcentral paramilitaryforces that are deployed tomaintain law and order.So, there is no question ofatrocities by the Army,whose job is only to fightterrorists. He said accord-ing to intelligence reportssome 230 terrorists wererecorded in PakistanOccupied Kashmir, someof whom have sneakedacross the border to createtrouble, which includesintimidating traders andlocal populace to preventthem from going abouttheir business.

Doval says Kashmiris back removal of Article 370

Art 370 discrimination,not special status: NSA

New Delhi, Sept. 7:Journalist Priya Ramanion Saturday told a Delhicourt that through hertweet, which formerUnion minister M.J.Akbar has termed “defam-atory”, she was trying tohighlight his “sexually-coloured behaviour” thatshe faced in 1993 fromhim.

Ms Ramani made thesubmission while depos-ing as a witness in herdefence in the criminaldefamation complaintfiled by Mr Akbar againsther.

“Seeing all these women(who accused Akbar ofsexual harassment), I felt

compelled to speak upabout my experience withAkbar in 1993 and so Iremoved the anonymitythat I had given to Akbarin my Vogue article andnamed him as the editorwho had sexuallyharassed me,” deposed MrRamani.

“I said I never namedhim because he didn’t ‘do’anything. I used invertedcommas to denote sar-casm. Sexual harassmentcan take any form. It canbe physical or verbal. Bysaying that he didn’t ‘do’anything, I was honestlydisclosing that there wasno overt act but that didn’texcuse Mr Akbar’s sexual-

ly coloured behaviour,”she added.

She said she used theword “predator” in herpersonal experience withMr Akbar and sharedexperiences with manyother women.

“I used the word ‘preda-tor’ to emphasize andhighlight the difference inage, influence and power

between Mr Akbar andmyself. I was a young jour-nalist, he was a famouseditor, 20 years older thanme, who called me to hisbedroom in a hotel for ajob interview. A predatoris more powerful than hisprey,” she said.

The court will furtherhear the matter onSeptember 9. Ms Ramaniworked at The Asian Agefrom January to October1994.

Ms Ramani accused MrAkbar of sexual miscon-duct around 20 years agowhen he was a journalist.

The former Union minis-ter has denied the accusa-tions. — PTI

AGE CORRESPONDENTMUMBAI, SEPT. 7

Recalling the saffronalliance’s Lok Sabha elec-tion victory, Shiv Senachief Uddhav Thackerayon Saturday said — in thepresence of PrimeMinister Narendra Modiat the Bandra KurlaComplex business district— that his party and theBharatiya Janata Party(BJP) would fight theupcoming Assembly polltogether.

The Shiv Sena chiefstarted his speech recall-ing how he greeted MrModi when they met earli-er in the day. “I askedModiji: ‘How many timesshould I congratulate onyour bold decisions’,” hesaid. The Sena chief addedthat he was proud that thePrime Minister had madethe dreams of lakhs ofHindus come true.

“PM Modi has providedleadership and directionto the country, which hasan immense capacity toprogress and develop. Ithanked Modi for abrogat-ing Article 370 (whichgave special status to Jam-mu and Kashmir) and theChandrayaan-2 mission...Now the nation awaits theconstruction of a RamMandir in Ayodhya and(introduction of) UniformCivil Code,” he said.

Mr Thackeray furthersaid that Kashmir is anintegral part of India andit would remain so. “Modihas proved this in deedsand not just in words,” headded.

The Sena chief also saidthe nation was now await-ing the constr-uction of aRam Mandir in Ayodhyaand Uniform Civil Code.

Admitting that his partysought power, MrThackeray dispelled alltalk of the Sena contesting

independently. “The alliance is ‘atal’

(inevitable). We wantpower.. No doubt about it,but we need it for develop-ing the state. The ‘yuti’(NDA alliance) wouldreturn to power in thestate once again afterpolls. I am glad that PM is

providing facilities for thegrowing population in thestate,” he said. However, atthe same time, he did notaddress the thorny issueof who would be the chiefministerial candidate.

“Whatever we will do itwill be done open-hearted-ly,” he said.

Uddhav lauds Modi, sayssaffron alliance inevitable

■ Used ‘predator’ to signify difference in age: Ramani

‘Tweet was aimed at exposing Akbar’◗ A predator is morepowerful than hisprey,” Ms Ramanisaid.◗ The court will fur-ther hear the matteron September 9.


Indian Navy will commis-sion second Scorpene-class, diesel-electricattack submarine INSKhanderi, by the end ofSeptember giving a boostto its fire-power.

“The submarine will becommissioned onSeptember 28,” saidsources.

The submarine waslaunched into water inJanuary 2017 and hadbeen undergoing toughtests to ensure that it isbattle ready.

The submarine has theability to launch a crip-pling attack on enemywith torpedoes as well astube-launched anti-shipmissiles whilst underwa-ter or on surface.

This will give the sub-marine an invulnerabili-ty, unmatched by manysubmarines.

Khanderi is designed tooperate in all theatres,

including the tropics. It has the ability to

carry out multifariousmissions typically under-taken by any modern sub-marine, which includeanti-surface warfare,anti-submarine warfare,intelligence gathering,mine laying and area sur-veillance.

The commissioning ofthe submarine will give asignificant boost to theIndian Navy when mar-itime security is becom-ing crucial with changinggeopolitical environment.

Six Scorpene sub-marines was to be manu-factured by MazagonDock Limited (MDL),Mumbai under a $3 bil-lion contract.

These submarines arebeing manufacturedunder a technology trans-fer from Naval Group ofFrance.

The first submarine ofthe class — Kalvari —was commissioned intoservice in December 2017.

2nd INS Khanderiinduction Sept. 28

New Delhi, Sept. 7: Thegovernment on Saturdaysaid it has constituted ahigh-level task force toidentify infrastructureprojects for `100 lakhcrore investment by2024-25 as India aims tobecome a USD 5 trillioneconomy.

The task force, headedby the economic affairssecretary, will draw up a‘National InfrastructurePipeline’ of `100 lakhcrore, the finance min-istry said in a statement.This would includegreenfield and brown-field projects costingabove `100 crore each.

The task force willcomprise secretariesfrom different min-istries, other senior offi-cials and Niti AayogCEO.

It will identify techni-cally feasible and finan-cially/ economicallyviable infrastructureprojects that can be initi-ated in 2019-20.

Further, it has beenasked to list the projectsthat can be included inthe pipeline for each ofthe remaining five yearsbetween fiscals 2021-25.

The task force, consti-tuted by finance minis-ter Nirmala Sitharam-an, will submit its reporton the pipeline for 2019-20 by October 31, 2019and on the indicativepipeline for 2021-25 byDecember-end, the min-istry said.

To achieve the target ofscaling India's GDP toUSD 5 trillion by 2024-25,the country needs tospend about USD 1.4 tril-lion (`100 lakh crore)from the fiscal 2019-20 to2024-25 on infrastruc-ture, it added. — PTI


The Supreme Court hassought response fromthe Centre on a pleaseeking enactment oflaw for creating a sepa-rate offence to curb vio-lence and punish thoseinvolved in attack on thedoctors, medical profes-sions and damage toclinical facilities.

A bench of Justice N.V.Ramana and JusticeAjay Rastogi issuednotice to the Centre on aplea by the Tamil Naduchapter of Association ofHealthcare Providers(India) (AHPI) which hascontended that thoughmedical profession rem-ains one of the most res-pected of all professions,yet more than 75 per centof the doctors across thecountry have faced vio-lence in some form orthe other.

Saying that the rise inviolence against doctorsis a worldwide phenome-non, the petitionerorganisation has saidthat it was unique toIndia because of meagregovernment spending onthe health care and therelated poor infrastruc-ture and the humanresource crunch.

The petitioner organi-sation has contended th-at against the requiredexpenditure of 4 percent of the GDP as perthe Universal Health Co-verage 2017, the spend-ing by the governmentwas just 1.3 per cent ofthe GDP. This meagrespending, the petitionerAssociat-ion ofHealthcare Provider hassaid shows that thehealthcare is not a prior-ity of the government.

Task force toimplement`100L croreinfra projects

SC seeksCentre replyon violenceagainst docs

■ Continued from Page 1media reports surfaced lastmonth that the aircraft carry-ing Prime Minister NarendraModi to France had usedPakistani airspace. A hue andcry had subsequently ensued inPakistan. Sources in New Delhiindicated that request for per-mission to allow flights carry-ing the country’s high-rankingdignitaries is part of the stan-dard protocol and that it is up toIslamabad to approve or rejectthe request. But this also meansthat the VVIP flight carryingPresident Kovind will have totake an alternate route over theArabian Sea that will meanmore hours of flying time toEurope. This may also meanminor changes in the departuretime or schedule.

Air India One aircraft carriesthe country’s three VVIPs —President, Vice-President andPrime Minister — on overseasofficial visits.

Pakistan had fully closed itsairspace in late February afteran Indian Air Force (IAF) strikeon a terror camp in Balakot inPakistan’s KhyberPakhtunkhwa province onFebruary 26. But Islamabad hadreportedly fully opened its air-space for all civilian traffic onJuly 16.

The latest round of tensionscame after India last monthbifurcated Jammu and Kashmirand revoked Article 370 that hadgranted special status to thestate. While India said it was aninternal matter there was a furi-ous reaction from Pakistan.

Pak refuses to let Kovindhas also announced that itsworkers will cross LoC onOctober 4. In the past, JKLFhas made three attempts tocross the LoC but have beenunsuccessful.

Pakistan has been trying towhip up passion and send ter-rorists after India abolishedArticle 370. According tosources, 14-15 launch padsacross the LoC are full of ter-rorists who are trying to crossover into the Kashmir Valleyto carry out terrorist activi-ties.

“Almost everyday, we arefoiling attempts by Pakistanisupported terrorists to crossinto Jammu and Kashmir.Some may have even been suc-cessful,” said sources. Themaximum concentration of

the terrorists is at launchpads opposite Tangdhar sec-tor.

Pakistan is planning toreplace the local commandersof LeT and Jaish with Afghanterrorists to increase terroractivities in Jammu andKashmir. “In the past fewyears, Pakistan had been try-ing to show that the terrorismin Kashmir was indigenouslycarried out by locals. But localterrorists are not battle-hard-ened and have not been able tosustain operations against thesecurity forces. The longevityof local terrorists is short,around 4-5 months,” saidsources. This has forcedPakistan to change strategyand once again depend on for-eign terrorists.

Pak civilians protest■ Continued from Page 1and CBI. It is suspected thatthe contract to buy 43 aircraftfrom Airbus was finalised bya panel of ministers headedby P. Chidambaram in 2009.Former aviation ministerPraful Patel was earliergrilled by the ED on threeoccasions in connection withthe deal.

Sources said MrChidambaram will be askedspecific questions pertainingto the decision taken by theEmpowered Group ofMinisters (EGoM) to purchase111 aircraft. “The aircraft pur-chase order was reportedlycleared by an EGoM headedby P. Chidambaram and themerger was cleared by anEGoM (group of ministers)

headed by another seniorCabinet member of theManmohan Singh govern-ment. Both decisions were rat-ified by the Cabinet”, sourcessaid. The then aviation minis-ter Praful Patel had alreadyclaimed (during his recentquestionings) that all deci-sions were multi-tiered andcollective, sources claimed.

In May 2017, following aSupreme Court order, the CBIregistered three cases and apreliminary inquiry into thealleged irregularities. The EDregistered a money launderingcase on the basis of CBI’s FIR.The CAG had in 2011 ques-tioned the rationale behind thedecision to order 111 aircraftfor AI and Indian Airlines forabout `70,000 crore.

More trouble for PC

■ Continued from Page 1not a small achievement.

The nation is proud ofyou. You all have done abig service to the nation,science and mankind. I amwith you all the way, moveforward bravely.”

Mr Modi also tweetedimmediately after headingout of ISTRAC: “These aremoments to be courageous,and courageous we willbe.” As originally planned,the lander commenced thedescent at 1: 38 am from itsorbit 100 km away from thelunar surface. The onboard computer was pro-grammed to control theglide through a four-phaseoperation: rough breakingphase, fine breaking phase,

hovering phase, and para-bolic descent, graduallydecreasing the speed ofVikram from 1.6 km a sec-ond to almost zero metersahead of landing at 1: 55am. The lander movedflawlessly as four onboardengines functioned likebrakes, and brought itdown, 60 meters a second atthe end of the first and sec-ond phase of operations.

Just as it entered the hov-ering and landing phases,however, tension mountedin the Mission OperationsComplex with Dr Sivan andhis team frantically check-ing their consoles for somepositive signals. As the sec-onds ticked away, Dr Sivanconferred with senior col-

leagues, and slowly madehis way to the VIP viewinggallery to break the badnews to Mr Modi. Soon, MrModi left the gallery andthe wait for a word on thelander got longer.

A few minutes later, anannouncement was madethat the lander has estab-lished communicationwith the orbiter, but theexcitement was short-livedas a crest-fallen Dr Sivanmade the announcement:“Lander ‘Vikram’s’ descentwas as planned and normalperformance was observedup to an altitude of 2.1 km.Subsequently communica-tion from the lander to theground stations was lost.Data is being analysed.”

‘Vikram’ was scheduled totouch down between twocraters, Manzinus C andSimpelius N near the lunarSouth Pole. With the set-back, the six-wheeled rover‘Pragyan’, programmed toleave footprints of Isro andAshoka Chakra on lunarsoil after rolling out of‘Vikram’ between 5:30 amand 6:30 am, was lost. Both‘Vikram’ and ‘Pragyan’were programmed to car-ryout studies of the lunarsurface during a one lunarday mission (14 Earthdays). ‘Pragyan’ wasexpected to explore cratersfor clues on the origin andevolution of the Moon, andalso for evidence on howmuch water is held in the

polar region. ‘Vikram’ wasprogrammed to beam dataand signals to the IndianDeep Space Network atByalalu, near Bengaluru,as well as the mothership,Chandrayaan-2 based ontheir tests.

Former chairman ofIsro, G. Madhavan Nair,however, said the loss of‘Vikram’ and ‘Pragyan’will have little impact onthe overall contribution ofChandrayaan-2 missionthough the setback washighly disappointing.“The orbiter is in the rightorbit and will do an excel-lent job with the payloads(instruments) on board.The 2, 379 kg orbiter, witha designed mission life of

one year, has been fittedwith eight instruments tomap the lunar surface aswell as study the chemicalcomposition of the exos-phere (outer atmosphere)on the Moon.” Indianspace scientists are confi-dent that Chandrayaan-2will last beyond its mis-sion life of one year andtherefore provide a treas-ure of scientific data onminerals, chemicals andwater ice. Their confi-dence stems from the factthat some fuel on boardwas saved during itslaunch by GSLV MkIII asthe rocket propelled theorbiter-lander-rover 6,000km deeper than expectedin space on July 22.

Setback for Moon mission as link with ‘Vikram’ snaps

In the removalof Article 370,announced on

August 5, Kashmirissee greater oppor-tunities, a betterfuture, more jobsfor youths

— Ajit Doval, NSA

Aurangabad, Sept. 7:Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday said `3.5lakh crore will be spent inthe next five years underthe newly formed JalJeevan Mission, whichaims to provide pipedwater (Har Ghar Jal) to allrural households by 2024.

He said the move wasaimed at fulfilling leg-endary socialist late RamManohar Lohia’s dream ofproviding water, and toi-lets, to mitigate the hard-ships faced by women.

“In the 70s, RamManohar Lohia had saidwomen faced two prob-lems — toilets and water.Governments have comeand gone. But, we decidedto fulfil Lohia’s dream. Weworked on providing toi-lets to women and ensur-

ing water supply,” Modisaid.

He also praised theMaharashtra govern-ment’s water grid initia-tive in the aridMarathwada region,claiming that availabilityof water will increase inevery house once thescheme is completed.

The PM was addressing astate-level ‘Mahila Saksh-am Melava’ or EmpoweredWomens Meet of Self HelpGroups, organised by theMaharashtra State RuralLivelihood Mission. Healso inaugurated the10,000-acre AurangabadIndustrial City (AURIC),the country’s first green-field industrial smart cityand part of the upcomingDelhi-Mumbai industrialcorridor. — PTI

Govt to spend `3.5L cr onwater scheme in 5 yrs: PM

Prime Minister Narendra Modi offers prayers at theLokmanya Sewa Sangh in Mumbai on Saturday. — PTI

The screening of a national award-winningdocumentary film is forcibly stopped by arightwing student organisation. Teachers

are prosecuted for exercising their right toprotest. Universities are asked by the Ministryconcerned to mandatorily celebrate certain daysand provide visual evidence to this effect.Colleges and universities receive a circular toappoint “social media champions” and ensurethat their students are “voluntarily” connectedon social media with their institutions and theMinistry of Human Resource Development.These may seem like disparate events, but theyadd up to a single overwhelming logic: freedomof expression within the system of higher edu-cation is under threat more than ever.

The Indian public sphere has never rankedhigh on freedom of expression. The prevalentcensorious response to dissent and difference isto ban any literary, artistic or media forms that“offend” sentiments. Hindu supremacist socialgroups disrupt and vandalise with impunity.But within academia and civil society, there didexist circumscribed (though precarious) spacesfor critical thinking, fearless listening andresponding to marginal voices; spaces where itwas possible to reflect on operations of powerand to resist these in various ways. These spaceshave shrunk drastically as a hard, jingoisticnationalism informed by the politics of hate andexclusion has begun to enter the University sys-tem.

Over the past few years, particularly in publiceducational institutions, the state has changedthe leadership, making it easier for Universityadministrations to crack down on students andteachers who exercise their right to question.Many students in JNU have been slapped withsedition cases. The series of events that led tothe tragic death of scholar Rohit Vemula at theCentral University of Hyderabad and the conse-quent repression is another such episode. Allthis has deepened processes of self-censorshipby both teachers and students, afraid of endan-gering their careers and future prospects byspeaking out. The price to pay for freedom ofexpression appears to be too high for most.Emboldened by the regime in power, rightwingstudent organisations call the shots in manyuniversities and colleges. They take upon them-selves the mission of deciding what should bescreened, who should be invited to speak atevents, what banners and posters are permittedand who get dubbed as ‘anti-national’.

As a result, many universities have becomearenas for toxic masculinist posturing and

intimidatory tactics. In this polarised environ-ment, students from Dalit and Muslim minori-ties are targeted in everyday normalised ways,including bullying, ostracism, and derogatoryremarks. The silencing of these marginalisedstudents and the growing number of suicidesare testimony to the rising intolerance to diver-sity within the university.

Perhaps never before have we had a govern-ment that is so anti-intellectual. The list of far-fetched and unscientific pronouncements madeby those in power, from plastic surgery on godsto ancient aeroplanes, from climate change toevolution, is too long and too well-known to cat-alogue. Rigorous research, critical thinking andscientific temper are casualties of a narrow,authoritarian and insecure world view thatasserts that ancient India was a Hindu kingdomand the source of all knowledge, past, presentand future.

History is the first discipline to be attacked, ashistorical research does not conform to precon-ceived notions of a monolithic and mono-cultur-al history. The pulping of books, indoctrinationof students by rewriting textbooks and thehumiliation of noted scholars have becomebusiness as usual.

A university that can ask a renowned histori-an Romila Thapar to furnish her curriculumvitae in order to justify her continuance asProfessor Emerita has truly lost the plot.Professor Thapar’s contribution to our under-standing of ancient India has been seminal andchallenges the ongoing reinvention of history astriumphalist rightwing propaganda. The cur-rent developments in JNU and elsewhere amplydemonstrate how the very basis of academiclife, which is the spirit of inquiry, is beingendangered by bigoted mediocrity.

There are other insidious processes inimicalto freedom of expression. The first is the rapidgrowth of education in commerce, manage-ment, technology, engineering and medicine atthe expense of liberal arts education. Today,higher education in humanities and social sci-ences, which potentially exposed students toideas of social justice and equity, is a secondchoice for those who cannot make it to more‘hard’ disciplines. This turn to an instrumental,pragmatic, skill and career-oriented educationat the expense of an education that teaches stu-dents to understand their social, political andhistorical spaces, does little to nurture inde-pendent thinking and expression.

There is a mechanistic ritualisation of teach-ing-learning and research, a shift towards meet-

ing targets (publications, projects, patents, stu-dent strength, marks, placements), as universi-ties compete with each other on institutionalmechanisms for accreditation and rating.Education becomes more about showcasingone’s institutional worth and less aboutcreating thinking citizens.

The shift towards a market-drivenmodel of higher education, which goeshand-in-hand with an instrumentalisteducation, has further constricted freethought and expression. Education atmarket rates, with no state subsidy,excludes students from certain class-caste locations. It also curtails the pos-sibility of bringing in a diversity oflived experiences into the classroom,making the institution an elite bubble.

Student-teacher relationshipbecomes one of consumer and serviceprovider, aimed at maximisingreturns on educational investment interms of employability and skill devel-opment. What this does to freedom ofexpression and association is demon-strated by the plethora of private uni-versities all over the country, offeringengineering and management educa-tion, where there are no teacher or stu-dent unions and where placements takepriority over everything else.

Today, the public university, set upwith the objective of nurturing stu-dents from all social locations, whichhas a space, however imperfect, thatallowed both teachers and students theright to organise, debate and discuss, isslowly withering away under theonslaught of three forces: saffronisa-tion, instrumentalisation, and pri-vatisation of education.

It is up to those who are com-mitted to freedom of thoughtand expression to resist thesechanges and affirm the idea ofan education that inculcatescritical thinking and com-mitment to social justiceand equity.

Borrowing from PinkFloyd: “We don’t need nothought control!”

(Authors are documentary filmmakers

and academics)

PAGE

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AN

ALY

SIS FEATURES

OPINIONREVIEWS

INTERVIEWS STORY BEHIND THE NEWS

The new regime in JNU doesn’t understand thevalue of having such an illustrious figure associat-ed with them. They don’t understand the first thingabout education. —Shashi Tharoor, Congress MP

Conferring emeritus professorship on scholars of impeccable academic standards isan honour to both the university and the academic. But latter day governors at the

premier Jawaharlal Nehru University, who asked Professor Romila Thapar toresubmit her CV, seem to be naïve to basic courtesies in academia

FUSS OVER EMERITUS

SUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

Imagine a Nobel Prize winner inphysics who, in his later years,comes up with seriously racist and

scientifically unproven theories, sug-gests that blacks are genetically proneto low intelligence, and wants low-IQpeople to be paid to undergo steriliza-tion. He loses his emeritus professorposition at Stanford, and retires in1975 at the age of 65.

Imagine a Nobel Prize winner inmedicine, with similarly unprovenviews about race and intelligence. In2019, at the age of 90, he is stripped ofhis honors and roles (he had beenchancellor) by the Cold Spring Harbor(New York) laboratory he led for manyyears.

They are not imaginary. The firstwas William Shockley, co-inventor ofthe transistor.

The second is James Watson, who co-discovered the structure of DNA.These were the two greatest scientificadvances of the 20th century, andthese men are absolute legends. Yet,they were not allowed to rest on theirlaurels, and when they began in theirdotage to bring disrepute to theirinstitutions, they were removed.

Thus, Axiom 1: There is a limit tohow far you can get with your earlywork, however extraordinary it was.Your most recent work counts more.

Corollary 1: If you propagate theo-

ries for which there is little or no sci-entific proof, your reputation will bein tatters, no matter who you are.

Let us apply this to the case of JNUProfessor Romila Thapar.

Of course, no analogy is perfect.These men worked in the hard sci-ences, where results are verifiable.Thapar works in the humanities,where opinion rules, and ‘truth byrepeated assertion’ is a well-knowntactic.

These two men were masters in theirfields of solid-state physics and genet-ics. Shockley had a direct hand in thegrowth of Silicon Valley and the tril-lion-dollar computing industry.Watson had a direct hand in thehuman genome project, the trillion-dollar pharma industry, and theemerging field of personalised medi-cine.

In contrast, Thapar, a Professor(Emerita) of ancient Indian history, isallegedly innocent of all classical lan-guages of India-Sanskrit, Pali andTamil. Then her entire opus must bebased on translations of primarytexts, usually the work of biased ormotivated European scholars, asViswa Adluri demonstrates. That

makes it a little hard to take Thapar atface value.

Her major claim to fame was theearly championing of the ‘Aryan’ inva-sion theory, and when it became clearthat it was indefensible, a pivot to the‘Aryan’ migration theory.

The peddling of these theories is per-haps a trillion-dollar industry,because it has convinced generationsof Indians that they are inferior towhites. There is a direct linear rela-tionship from here to Bernie Sanders’vicious outburst against India regard-ing Kashmir.

Shockley and Watson’s IQ theories

also relate well to Thapar’s invasion-migration hypotheses.

Current race-IQ mavens such asStefan Molyneux have argued thatIndians as a ‘race’ have an average IQof 82, whereas whites have an IQ of100.

Thus, smarter whites must havedefeated less-smart Indians in battle,after, as Thapar said, they “thundereddown the Khyber pass in their horse-drawn chariots”. Thus the ‘Aryan’Invasion. Quod erat demonstrandum(that which was to be demonstrated)

In fact, the ‘Aryan’ hypothesis ishighly questionable. The latest ‘Aryan’

candidates are the fierce Yamnaya ofthe European steppe, who allegedlyleft their footprints in the genes ofIndians. But important new researchpublished on September 5th in Celljournal regarding DNA analysis fromRakhigarhi, a major Sarasvati Valleycity, finds no evidence of non-indige-nous genes, specifically none from“steppe pastoralists or Iranian farm-ers”.

Apart from certain dubious paleo-geneticists and their journalistacolytes, nobody really believes in the‘Aryan’ hypothesis any more. EvenMax Mueller, who proposed it, recant-ed it in his later days.

According to Stephen Oppenheimer,the last migration of homo sapiensinto India was from Africa circa 60,000years ago, far earlier than the so-called ‘Aryans’ of 5000 years ago.

Thus, Thapar’s life’s work has been,or is in the process of being, repudiat-ed. She is in the same boat as thescholars of the church were, withtheir theory of the earth being thecentre of the universe, when it wasdemolished by Galileo Galilei andheliocentrism. Tragic, yes, and mysympathies.

But that is not the point. The point isAxiom 1 and Corollary 1 above: exact-ly what have you done lately todeserve a cushy sinecure like anEmeritus Professorship? Besides, areyou hurting the reputation of theinstitution? My answers would be thatshe’s done nothing lately for a lifetimesinecure, and that she’s making JNUlook silly.

But wait, there’s more. It turns outthat JNU was just following Rule 32(g)of the Academic Rules andRegulations regarding all emeritusprofessors at the age of 75 which is to“consider her/his health status, will-ingness, availability, university needsetc. so that more positions will beavailable to other potential candi-dates… examine each case… includ-ing by interaction, inviting latest CV,peer group views etc.”.

Professors H.S. Gill, C.K. Varshney,S.D. Muni, Ashok Sanjay Guha, AsisDatta, R. Rajaraman, Romila Thapar,Yogendra Singh, D. Banerji, T.K.Oommen, Amit Bhaduri and ShielaBhalla were all asked to submit theirCVs. Thapar, 87, was not singled out.

Therefore, the fuss must be becausethis SOP was deemed an affront toThapar’s hereditary entitlement.There are highly entitled people, usu-ally associates of the ancient regime,who, when confronted, ask the wither-ing question: “Do you know who Iam?” The insinuation is obvious, andthe officials meekly withdraw.

Not any more, madam (or whoever isshilling for her). Not any more.

(The author has taught strategy andinnovation at several IIMs)

Who is shilling for Thapar?

We don’t need no thought control

■ THAPAR, A PROFESSOR (EMERITA)OF ANCIENT INDIAN HISTORY, ISALLEGEDLY INNOCENT OF ALL CLASSI-CAL LANGUAGES OF INDIA-SANSKRIT,PALI AND TAMIL. THEN HER ENTIREOPUS MUST BE BASED ON TRANSLA-

TIONS OF PRIMARY TEXTS, USUALLYTHE WORK OF BIASED OR MOTIVATEDEUROPEAN SCHOLARS, AS VISWAADLURI DEMONSTRATES. THATMAKES IT A LITTLE HARD TO TAKETHAPAR AT FACE VALUE.

THE TROUBLE WITH HER CREDENTIALS

RajeevSrinivasan

Anjali Monteiroand K.P.

Jayasankar

Just another case of that entitled Delhi elite question that makes grown men quiver,“Do you know who I am?”

Institutions of higher education are meant tofoster free thinking. But skewed market-orientededucation churns out plenty of industry-specific

employees than erudite scholars

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chairman Dr K. Sivan’s “15minutes of terror” came true in horrifying detail early Saturdaymorning when, with the world — and Prime Minister Narendra Modi— watching, the nation’s much vaunted space programme faced a set-

back as its unmanned spacecraft Chandrayaan-2’s two probes, “Vikram”and “Pragyan”, failed to make a soft landing on the far side of the moon.

The razor-thin margin between success and failure when it comes to thelaunch of rockets, satellites or interplanetary probes came back to hauntIndia, which came this close to joining an exclusive club that has so farbeen the preserve of the United States, Russia, and China.

India can take comfort from the fact that Nasa’s (National Aeronauticsand Space Administration) “Moon Fact Sheet”, that lists the success rateof lunar missions in the last six decades, states that of the 109 lunar expe-ditions during this period, 61 were successful while 48 failed.

Clearly, Saturday’s setback, when the communication link with groundstations was lost a mere 2.1 km away from its lunar landing site, cannot bewritten off as a complete failure. Much science is expected fromChandrayaan-2, the mother ship, which will continue to circle the moon at

a distance of 100 km.Chandrayaan-1, the first in the series of

Made in India lunar probes, had providedpath-breaking results — the discovery ofwater ice being one of them. It also ensuredthat a probe planted the Indian tricolour onlunar soil!

At this juncture, it’s unclear why the lan-der-rover proved a case of “so near yet sofar”. First reports point at two potential fac-tors: one of the four mini-rocket enginesonboard “Vikram”, meant to decelerate thedescent, malfunctioned, which resulted in asudden spurt in the speed of the lander min-utes before the anticipated touchdown,pushing “Vikram” away from its designat-ed path of downward glide; and two, the

damage caused to electronic sensors onboard, by the scorching heat of themini-rocket engines could have also affected the glide.

Either way, with their vast experience in cracking problems related tosatellites, scientific probes and rockets, space scientists will have little dif-ficulty in identifying the rogue component which triggered the snag, andinitiate corrective steps during their upcoming expedition to the moon, acollaborative venture with JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency),the Japanese space agency in two years’ time.

As PM Modi stepped up to comfort the distraught Dr Sivan and the otherscientists as well as a stunned nation, saying India was still proud of them,a host of celebrities came out in support of the scientists. Isro must demon-strate it can live up to India’s self-given tag of “space power” — as the PMdescribed it when it shot down a low orbiting satellite last March. Only thefourth nation to put a satellite into orbit around Mars, it must look beyondthis setback and keep its eye focussed on the biggest prize of all —Gaganyaan, India’s first manned space mission.

8 SEPTEMBER 2019

There’s nothing like failure in science, we experiment & we gain,”tweeted Team India captain Virat Kohli on Chandrayaan-2 losingcontact with its lander-rover. The cricket world is somewhat differ-

ent and one in which success and failure is common enough. The build-upthat Kohli’s team got before the World Cup may have been matched onlyby that of the moon mission in which success seemed to have beenassumed by India’s trusting one billion-plus only for a bit of disappoint-ment to ensue. The pursuit of sport, much like science, is also a continu-ous process in which Kohli’s men redeemed themselves in crushing theWest Indies in the Caribbean in an impressive manner to vault into thelead in the all-new world Test championship. It might have made newshad Team India not won in the Caribbean where they romped through inwhite and red ball cricket. The remarkable aspect of the Test series tri-umph was the fact that it was engineered by the pace bowling segment ofthe team, led by the able Jasprit Bumrah.

The fact that Team India has a full complement of quick bowlers to drawfrom is a grand achievement by itself. Besides Bumrah, who ran throughthe West Indies batting even more quickly as he discovered hisoutswinger, Ishant Sharma, now the stalwart in this line-up andMohammed Shami, resourceful operator, India also has the likes ofBhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and a host of young quicks ready towear the colours or the flannels for India. Back in 1987, Australian legendDennis Lillee helped set up the first full-fledged programme that produceda number of fast bowlers. After Zaheer’s retirement, Team India has onlynow got together a full contingent of fast bowlers capable of bringingabout Test triumphs in Australia as well. This is a sea change for Indiancricket post retirement of its first modern fast bowling great, Kapil Dev.

Fast and furious contingent

Let Chandrayaan-2 missnot mar future missions

THE ASIAN AGET. VENKATRAM REDDY

Editor in Chief

Printer & Publisher: T. VENKATESWARLU

THE ASIAN AGE offices are located at:New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi-110002. Phone: (011) 23211124.Mumbai: Sigma House, # 43, Ground Floor, R. A. Kidwai Marg, Near Wadala Rly Station, Wadala (West), Mumbai -400 031 Phone (022) 24195301 Fax (022) 24195347Kolkata: 4th Floor, Chowdhury Building, 8/1A Little Russel Street, Kolkata 700 071.Phone: (033) 2289 0676/77 Fax (033) 2289 0686Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office in the United KingdomAir surcharge for Kathmandu and J&K `1Published and Printed on behalf of and for◗ Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited, Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi 110 002 at BFL Infotech Ltd., C-9, Sector-III, Noida -201301.◗ Mumbai: Dangat Media Pvt Ltd, Plot No 22, Digha MIDC, TTC Industrial Estate Area, Vishnu Nagar, Digha, Navi Mumbai-400708.◗ Kolkata: Satyajug Employees Cooperative Industrial Society Ltd, 13/A, Prafulla Sarkar Street, Kolkata 700 072. ◗ London: Quickmarsh Ltd, 8th Floor, Block 2, Elizabeth House, 39 York Road, London, SE1 7NQ.RNI Registration number: 57290/94Postal registration numbers: DL(S)-05/4189/15-17

With their vast experience, space

scientists will havelittle difficulty in

identifying the roguecomponent which

triggered the snag,and initiate correc-

tive steps duringtheir upcoming expe-

dition to the moon

c m y k c m y k

People do not decide to become extraordinary. Theydecide to accomplish extraordinary things.

The trouble with having an open mind is that peoplewill insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

EDMUND HILLARYMIND POWER

TERRY PRATCHETT PAGE

6EditSUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

For the Congress, the formerfinance minister’s incarcera-tion at Tihar could not havecome at a worse time. Just

when the ongoing economic slow-down handed the party explosiveammunition to fire at the NarendraModi government, it was denied theopportunity to use one of its mostknowledgeable economic experts toquestion the ruling dispensation. Astaunch critic of the current state ofthe economy, P. Chidambaram’ssearing writings on the issue havenot gone down well with the govern-ment. If the former finance ministerhad not been in judicial custody, theCongress would have fielded himextensively to put the governmenton the mat on its handling of theeconomy. Realising it needed some-one who has the required domainexpertise to speak out, the partyapproached former Prime MinisterManmohan Singh to issue a state-ment given that he is the most trust-ed and credible leader to commenton the economy. Apparently, MrSingh was initially hesitant to gopublic with a critique of the govern-ment’s economic policies but heeventually agreed after some persua-

sion. Mr Singh first said he wouldread out a statement but when toldthat it would not be very effective, acompromise was reached whereinhe glanced at his own statement ashe spoke on the subject. TheCongress strategy paid off as MrSingh’s comments got good play inthe press while the government andthe BJP scurried around to come upwith an appropriate response.

While Mr Chidambaram’sjudicial custody deprivedthe Congress of an expert

commentator on the country’s econ-omy at this critical juncture, theBharatiya Janata Party also founditself floundering in the absence ofits ace troubleshooter Arun Jaitley.The saffron party was remindedabout Mr Jaitley’s immense skills inmedia management when it wasunable to keep out reports on theeconomic slowdown from hitting thefront pages. As long as Mr Jaitleywas active, his excellent networkwith media barons and editors,ensured that any report whichreflected poorly on the Modi govern-ment was buried or played down.Alternatively, Mr Jaitley would

write a blog on the subject, givingthe government’s viewpoint, whichobviously took precedence overother news related to the same issue.It may be a coincidence but the cur-rent economic slowdown suddenlyhit the headlines and was a topic ofdiscussion on television news chan-nels when Mr Jaitley was not thereto come to the Modi government’sdefense. In fact, the government wasunable to field anyone to respond toformer Prime Minister ManmohanSingh’s critical statement on thecountry’s economy. Finance minis-ter Nirmala Sitharaman had anopportunity to do so but instead ofcoming up with a measuredresponse, she preferred to answerwith an angry one-liner. Her juniorminister Anurag Thakur and BJPspokesperson Sambit Patra weresubsequently fielded to retaliate buttheir personalised attacks did notserve any purpose. The two leaderslack the maturity and necessarygravitas to be taken seriously.

The Modi government may beon the back foot with regard tothe current economic situation

but the BJP is convinced it will not

impact its electoral prospects in thecoming Assembly polls inMaharashtra, Haryana andJharkhand. The BJP’s confidence isbased on the feedback it is gettingfrom the poll-bound states wheremembers of Opposition parties,especially the Congress and theNationalist Congress Party, arequeuing up to join the saffron party.Inundated with applicants, the stateBJP units are turning them away asthe induction of newcomers fromother parties has led to rumblingswithin its ranks. When approachedby a self-proclaimed “middleman”who wanted to know if he shouldcontact some Congress leaders whowere ready to cross over,Maharashtra chief ministerDevendra Fadnavis told him theirparty could not accommodate anymore outsiders. “In any case, whowill they defeat,” he added.Similarly, his Haryana counterpartManohar Lal Khattar is also beingpressed by members from theOpposition camp who wish to switchsides. Their plea, “please take us orelse we will be forced to fight elections”, speaks volumesabout the state of Opposition

parties in these states.

Former Congress chief minis-ters and senior leaders are a jit-tery lot these days after Mr

Chidambaram was arrested in theINX Media case which was followedswiftly by Karnataka leader D.K.Shivakumar being taken into cus-tody for questioning by theEnforcement Directorate. Also, for-mer Haryana chief ministerBhupinder Singh Hooda is alreadyembroiled in a land deal lawsuit. Notonly are they worried about theirimage after being slapped withcases, but the Congress leaders arealso nervous about the legal battlesbeing an expensive affair. To makematters worse, the battery of legaleagles in the Congress are loath toforgo their fees for their party col-leagues. Congress leaders com-plained that these lawyers expected-ly put themselves out for the Gandhifamily and for some senior party col-leagues but they do not necessarilyextend the same generosity to theother party members.

Anita Katyal is a Delhi-based journalist

Slowdown!Hard to fill

Chidambaram,Jaitley shoes

Taming Pawan Jaiswal:Journalism’s dark hour

Pawan Jaiswal,the journalistwho some daysago shot a videoon his phone of

children in SiyurPrimary School ofJamalpur block inMirzapur district, eatinga midday meal consistingof rotis and salt, is not agood reporter. Accordingto Mr Anurag Patel, thedistrict magistrate (DM)of the area, he shouldhave taken a photo of thisevent as “befitting” aprint journalist. The factthat he used his phone toshoot a video proves thathe was hatching a “crimi-nal conspiracy” againstthe state. Mr Jaiswal hasnow been slapped withseveral cases under theIndian Penal Code (IPC),Section 120B for criminalconspiracy, Section 186for obstructing a publicservant from discharginghis duty, Section 193 forfalse evidence andSection 420 for cheating.

The worthy DM hassome high level politicalsupport. The deputy chiefminister of UttarPradesh, Dinesh Sharma,has proclaimed that “ifsomeone tries to defamethe government, therewill be action”. So nowwe have a new “normal”for journalistic responsi-bility: don’t report any-thing that shows govern-ment in a poor light,because even if what youreport is true, it is tanta-mount to defaming thegovernment, and, there-fore, the government hasthe right to use its mightypowers and come downon you like a tonne ofbricks for violating sever-al provisions of theIndian Penal Code.

A free media is sup-posed to be fourth pillarof a democracy. But obvi-ously there are some peo-ple in government whowould like this to be partof theory. In practice,what they want is a con-forming media, a media

that has the parapherna-lia to carry on its profes-sion, but whose outputmust never be critical —or “defamatory” — of thegovernment. In otherwords, the media mustunderstand its “responsi-bilities”, and never trans-gress the standards of“correct” reporting asdecided by the govern-ment. If it does so, it isindulging in a dangerous“criminal conspiracy”,fabricating “false evi-dence”, and generallybehaving in a mannerinimical to the well-beingof the state.

The hapless PawanJaiswal did not realisethis new “normal”. Hethought — erroneously itwould appear — that it isthe duty of a journalist toreport truthfully what ishappening, and to collectas much evidence as hecan to support his point ofview. He did not under-stand that in so doing heis committing the unpar-donable crime of goingagainst the interests ofthe infallible state. A newcode of procedure hasbeen promulgated that totake a video in support ofyour story is tantamountto “criminal conspiracy”.The messenger mustlearn to behave, and if hedoes not, the state hasevery right to shoot him.

What is happening toour country? If this kindof action by the govern-ment is not a sign of anOrwellian state in themaking, I don’t knowwhat else is. The signs ofa totalitarian state appa-ratus, arrogantly right-eous, insensitive to criti-cism, forever ready to bevengeful, is visible. If youinterrogate a governmentpoint of view, you areanti-national; if you cri-tique the government,you are seditious; if youask an inconvenientquestion, howsoeverwell-intentioned, you areaiding Pakistan; if you donot unreservedly praise

every government action,you are not an ideal citi-zen; if you exercise yourright to dissent, you areworking against theavowed interests of thestate.

The brick and mortar ofan absolute state arebeing put in place rightbefore our eyes. Theamendment to theUnlawful ActivitiesPrevention Act (UAPA)allows the government todeclare an individual aterrorist, an “urbanNaxal” and to proceedagainst him with the dra-conian might of the state.The dilution of the Rightto Information Act (RTI)makes information com-missioners vulnerable tostate pressure, therebyeffecting the democraticright of every citizen toget information abouthow the governmentfunctions. A brute major-ity in the Lok Sabha, anda managed majority inthe Rajya Sabha, makes itpossible to pass any lawwithout taking intoaccount legitimate criti-cism or suggestions of theOpposition.

The situation inKashmir is the newbogey. We are expectedto unquestioninglybelieve whatever the gov-ernment says about therestoration of normalcyin that troubled state —or Union Territory now— without demur or dis-sent. To posit an alternative set of facts as deserving the consid-eration of the govern-ment is not a helpfulinput, but an act of sedi-tion. The worst part isthat large sections of themedia — both print andelectronic — are collud-ers in this corrosion ofdemocratic rights. Theyhound the inconvenientinterrogator as though heis a born enemy of the

state, as though theyalone have a monopolyon what is good for thestate. I am reminded of acouplet in this context:Yun dikhata hai aankhenmujhe baaghbaan, jaisegulshan pe kuchh haqhamara nahin: the care-taker looks at us withunconcealed anger, asthough we have no claimto this beautiful garden.

I am worried, butremain an optimist. ThePress Council of Indiatook suo motu cognisanceof what happened to MrJaiswal, and asked theUP government to submita report. The EditorsGuild of India issued astatement in support ofthe journalist and con-demned the actionagainst him. TheNational Human RightsCommission has alsoissued a notice to the UPgovernment and soughtdetails regarding the sta-tus of midday mealsacross the state.

But while all of this stillprovides a reason tohope, what is really wor-rying is the attitude ofthose in power and theirsupporters. This is bestsummed up in the UPdeputy CM’s remark: “Ifsomeone tries to defamethe government therewill be action.” It is thisattitude which is at theheart of every undemoc-ratic response of the gov-ernment. It looks at criti-cism not as an aspect ofconstructive interactionwithin a democracy, butas something to be “dealtwith”, if possible withpunitive action.

Meanwhile, even as wedebate larger issues relat-ing to the Republic, ShriPawan Jaiswal is left tofend for himself. He hasto fight a legal battleagainst the many seriouscases filed against him bythe UP government. Itwill be a pity if he beginsto think — amidst the tra-vails he faces — why hetook the trouble to reporton what children in UPare eating in the name ofmidday meals. That iswhen democracy willreally be in danger.

The writer, an authorand former diplomat, is a

member of the JD(U).The views expressed

are personal.

The brick and mor-tar of an absolute

state are being putin place right before

our eyes. Theamendment to the

UAPA allows thegovernment to

declare an individualan ‘urban Naxal’ andproceed against him.

ALMOST MAGNIFICENTIT WAS A case of “so near, yet so far”as the Chandrayaan-2 lander,Vikram, lost contact moments beforeits touchdown. The mission, deferredby a week following the timelydetection of a technical snag in one ofthe fuel tanks of the GSLV Mk III M1launcher and watched by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, wouldhave made India the only country inthe world to land a rover near thesouth pole of the Moon. One can takeheart that the Chandrayaan-2 orbiteris alive and kicking and most of themission’s experiments are on course.

N.J. Ravi ChanderBengaluru

OVERGOVERNANCE THE BRIHANMUMBAI MunicipalCorporation is planning to buildartificial ponds so that the excesswater from Mithi river is collected inthem. This, it hopes, will relieve thethousands living along its banks ofthe distress caused by annualflooding. This is highly ironical! Onone hand, we are bent upondestroying natural sinks like AareyMilk Colony which absorbs a lot ofoverflow water, and releases itgradually throughout the year, whileon the other, we waste taxpayermoney to recreate them in areaswhere they will prove dysfunctional.

Anil BagarkaMumbai

LETTERSGOODBYE, QADIRIn the sudden demise ofAbdul Qadir, who suc-cumbed to a massivecardiac arrest aged 63,the cricketing world haslost a genius leg-spinnerand a fine human being.Qadir brought to thePakistan team a rare mixof competitiveness andhumour, proving to bethe right counterweightto Imran Khan's sterncaptaincy. His talent waslegendary. His successorslike Shane Warne lookedup to him for inspiration.Qadir retired from Testcricket in 1990 but con-tinued to be a householdname among subconti-nental cricket lovers. Wewill miss him.

Siddhartha RobinNew Delhi

Every Monday the best letter ofthe week wins `500. Email:

[email protected] Else, sendto Jawaharlal Nehru NationalYouth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal

Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi 110002

Subhani

Pavan K. Varma

Chanakya’s View

Anita Katyal Political Gup-Shup

OpedSUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

VUCA CREDIT COOKIEWord SPY

Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous

An extra movie scene played during the closing credits

‘Distortion of democracy is evident.Is its dismantling on the way?’

The Modi government hascompleted 100 days in office.Former external affairs min-ister and senior Congressleader SALMAN KHURSHIDspoke with ASHHAR KHANon the performance of thecurrent government andabout his party.

How do you look at the past100 days of this government?

Hundred days of creepingdistress! The distortion ofdemocracy is evident — is itsdismantling on the way? It isin front of us to see the waythe government is goingabout its business. We willsee a media juggernautunleashed on the nationabout the achievements ofthis government in the 100days of this government,though most of them, theachievements, will either bein the air or half baked. Weare yet to see the fruition ofprograms that were startedby this government in its firstavatar in 2014. That time toothere was a lot of buzz createdby the government that thenation is on the move. Butnow, in almost five-and-a-halfyears of this government, thegains to the nation have beennegligible and the list ofmissed opportunities contin-ues to grow at a rapid speed.In a parliamentary democra-cy the government shouldhave its way and theOpposition should have itssay. But in this government,in its second term, it hasbecome brazen and has scantrespect for the other point ofview. It is evident in manyways, like how the govern-ment runs Parliament andhow it responds to the ques-tions raised by theOpposition.

Do you foresee a major eco-

nomic slowdown in the coun-try in the coming days?

The slowdown is herealready. The question is ofhow worse will it get? Butthere seems to be no slow-down in the arrogance of theministers of the government.They keep travelling andaddressing press conferencesrather than addressing thecore issues that need to beaddressed. Perhaps this gov-ernment confuses activitywith achievement. There is alot of activity happeningwithin the government butnothing is coming out of it.They have neither the band-width nor the resources to setright what has gone wrong.The irony of it all is that theyare ignoring good advice com-ing their way. Instead ofimplementing it they are ridi-culing the person giving it.Such is the functioning of thisgovernment.

But the government claimsotherwise.

It is a government of claims.The challenge is to reclaimwhat is lost. In the last coupleof weeks certain sectors havestarted giving advertisementsin newspapers enunciatingthe kind of economic sham-bles their sectors are in. Thisalso shows that the media isnot presenting the correct pic-ture of the economy, especial-ly when industry has to buyspace in newspapers to putforward their concerns. Thisgovernment came to power onthe promise of lower prices.Please compare their fuelprices with that of the UPAera and also the crude oilprices. Then compare thevalue of the rupee. Several keycompanies have started noproduction days. The financeminister in her Budget speech

came out with several propos-als and then within a monthshe went back on many ofthem. There is no clarity ofthought and vision in the gov-ernment on how to get theeconomy back on track.

There have been severalstatements made by yourparty on the abrogation ofArticle 370.

People have over the yearsnot given Article 370 seriousthought. Knee-jerk reactionsconfounded by the govern-ment’s penchant for distort-ing reality have caused confu-sion. But our party is clearabout fundamentals. TheCongress, soon after the newscame, had a working commit-tee meeting on the issue ofArticle 370 and put forwardour stand. After that wecalled in our state unit chiefsto put forth our views on theissue to the public at large. AsI said earlier, knee-jerk reac-tions are uncalled for in suchsituations.

You have been the foreignminister and now Pakistan istrying to internationalise theKashmir issue after the abro-gation of Article 370. Yourcomments?

Sadly, the government hasas usual not thought things

through. Pakistan is on aweak wicket but we cannotafford to let our diplomaticguard down. Let me onceagain state for the record thatKashmir is an integral part ofIndia and there is no questionof any third party interven-tion on the issue. This hasbeen the principled stand ofthe Indian National Congress.But yes, we have to ensurethat our guard is not down.

What are your views on the

NRC that came out on August31 in Assam?

Thus far, the inevitable hasbeen accomplished. But thereis much yet to do. Some gen-uine corrections are to bemade and we need to find asolution to stateless citizensas a nation committed tohuman rights and a sharedhumanity. But the truth isout for all to see: A number ofpeople have been left out.Some of them have served in

our defence forces while oth-ers have been prominent inpublic life.

What is the roadmap aheadfor the Congress? It is beingsaid that the party is in com-plete disarray.

Give us a breather. We areexperiencing the birth pangsof a new avatar. Lakhs ofdevoted and committedCongress workers willbreathe new life into theparty we cherish. Severalchanges have been made inthe party while many othersare in the offing.

We are also seeing factionalfights in the Congress inMadhya Pradesh, Haryanaand Rajasthan.

All this is jostling for thenew order after the dramaticjolt of the 2019 elections.Change always comes withsome discomfort and adjust-ment.

Corruption has become a keyissue. Your comments on thearrests of P. Chidambaramand D.K. Shivakumar?

Nothing but vendetta. Allthis will ultimately be seen asan undeclared assault on lib-erty. As said by MrChidambaram, all the allega-tions are baseless and politi-cally motivated.

How well prepared is theCongress for the upcomingstate elections?

We are in sure and steadymode. You have seen that inall these states changes havebeen made. The party istogether, the party is one andunited in our resolve to pre-sent what we stand for to thepeople.

By any standard, it ranks asa landmark in the recenttravails of India’s democra-cy. The long open letter to

the three election commissioners ofIndia, authored by 64 retired seniordiplomats and civil servants, alsocarried endorsements by senior vet-erans of the armed forces, acade-mics and concerned citizens. Threeother features add to its unique-ness. One is the letter’s subject. Itconcerns the independence and pro-bity of the Election Commission ofIndia (ECI) and the fairness of thelast general election. The other isits able, exhaustive marshalling offacts and cogency of reasoning. Thelast is the rarity of such protests inthe present Modi era in which per-secution of dissent is rife.

The signatories point out: “The2019 general elections appear tohave been one of the least free andfair elections that the country hashad in the past three decades or so.In the past, despite the efforts ofcriminal elements, musclemen andunscrupulous politicians, the per-sons who graced the ECI did theirbest to ensure that elections wereconducted as freely and fairly aspossible. In these general elections,however, an impression has gath-ered ground that our democraticprocess is being subverted andundermined by the very constitu-tional authority empowered to safe-

guard its sanctity. It was rare in thepast for any serious doubts to beraised about the impartiality,integrity and competence of theECI. Unfortunately, the same can-not be said about the present ECIand the way it has conducted thegeneral elections of 2019. So blatanthave been the acts of omission andcommission by the ECI that evenformer election commissioners andCECs have been compelled, albeitreluctantly, to question the deci-sions of their successors in office.”

There was reasonable doubt theECI deliberately delayed theannouncement to enable PrimeMinister Narendra Modi to com-plete the inauguration blitz of aslew of projects (157 of them) thathe had scheduled.

The media reported large-scalevoter exclusion, with someaccounts suggesting that votersfrom certain minority groups werethe most affected. “It was incum-bent upon the ECI to investigatethem and respond promptly. Manyvoters who had exercised theirmandates in earlier electionsfound their names missing. TheECI’s failure to effectively answerthese allegations further tarnishedits reputation.” The Model Code ofConduct was flouted with impuni-ty. PM Modi freely exploited theArmy’s recent operations inKashmir for electoral gains, with-

out earning a rebuke from the ECI.Consider this one charge alone.“The bias of the ECI was glaringlyapparent in the case relating to MrMohammed Mohsin, the IAS offi-cer who was sent to Odisha as aspecial election observer. MrMohsin was suspended for check-ing the PM’s helicopter for anynon-permissible cargo. Accordingto the ECI, the official had notacted in conformity with the ECI’sinstructions of not checking SPGprotected persons. Constitutionalobligations were trumped byadministrative instructions.”

The Niti Aayog, successor to thePlanning Commission, wrote to alland sundry for information on thedistricts Modi was to cover in hiselection campaigns. This blatantlyillegal misuse of official machin-ery, for which Indira Gandhi’selection was declared void in 1975,is conveniently overlooked.

The signatories rightly remarkedthat the ECI used to be the envy ofthe world for its ability to conductfree and fair elections despite thehuge logistical challenges and thehundreds of millions of voters. “Itis indeed saddening to witness theprocess of the demise of that lega-cy. If it continues, it is bound tostrike at the very heart of thatfounding document the people ofIndia proudly gave themselves —the Constitution of India — and the

democratic ethos that is the verybasis of the Indian republic.Viewed in totality, there is nodoubt that the mandate of 2019 hasbeen thrown into serious doubt.”

Bar NDTV, the electronic media isrepulsive in its chauvinism andsubmissiveness. Only two Englishdailies dare consistently to speaktruth to power. The atmosphere waswell captured by the Economist’saptly-titled report “Fawning fren-zy”. Its subtitle was “When India’sgovernment abuses power, themedia don’t roll over. They cheer”.It said: “Today, far from crawling,India’s press and television chan-nels are jumping up and down andcheering. Talking heads vie to outdoone another in celebration.”

“In truth, the press’ current syco-phancy rises from a hinterland ofintimidation, trimming and curry-ing favour dating back to MrModi’s rise to national power in2014. Government ads are pulled inretaliation against newspapers thathave been critical of the BJP, suchas the Hindu and the Telegraph.Meanwhile, businessmen are shyerof voicing criticism in public.”

In such an atmosphere, no praisecan be too high for the signatoriesof that letter. One hopes it willencourage similar protests in thetrying days that lie ahead.

By arrangement with Dawn

We must praisesignatories to

the open letterto India’s 3 ECs

ARTICLE 370 NIXESMEA MEET

The removal of Article 370by the Modi sarkar isbeing felt intensely by the

ministry of external affairs.With Indian diplomats busydealing with the aftermath, theministry has reportedly can-celled its annual conference ofheads of missions slated to beheld next week in Gujarat.

The decision to call off themeeting was reportedly taken acouple of weeks after Article370 was nullified. Since then,MEA mandarins have theirhands full, explaining India’sdecision on the article to therest of the world.

Almost all ambassadors andhigh commissioners are at pre-sent involved in an intensediplomatic outreach in variousbilateral and multilateralforums on the issue.

Also, it said that minister ofexternal affairs Subrah-manyam Jaishankar andPrime Minister NarendraModi, who was to inauguratethe conference, will be travel-ling at the time.

It is not clear yet whether theconference will be rescheduledfor a later date or has been can-celled altogether.

MYSTERY ABOUTTENURE

The recent high-levelappointments of a newcabinet secretary,

defence secretary, secretaryfor defence production and sec-retary to the Lokpal have setoff speculation in the corridorsof power.

The notification on theappointment of 1982-batch IASofficer and home secretaryRajiv Gauba as the new cabinetsecretary mentions a two-yeartenure but is silent on thetenure of appointments of thedefence secretary, defence pro-duction secretary and secre-tary to the Lokpal.

Babu watchers are wonder-ing if there is any significancein it. Mr Gauba’s appointment,observers say, was expectedand is seen by some as areward for executing the gov-ernment’s plans on Article 370flawlessly.

The new defence secretaryAjay Kumar’s appointmentseems to be along the lines ofhis predecessor.

Sanjay Mitra too was given afixed two years’ term asdefence secretary but it did nothelp him much in terms of theretirement-tenure gap.However, Mr Kumar is due toretire only in October 2022.Babus wonder whether he willremain defence secretary formore than three years, untilhis retirement.

By not defining the tenure ofthese officials, the governmenthas given room to speculation.Subhash Chandra, who is thenew secretary, department ofdefence production, is just fourmonths away from retirement.Here too, babus are puzzledwhether the government willkeep him on reappointmentbasis beyond December 2019?

The abrupt and unceremo-nious transfer ofSouthern Railways’ chief

mechanical engineerShubhranshu to Bihar is prob-ably the outcome of the babuearning the ire of his superiorsfor acting “independently” onan administrative issue.

Before the transfer, MrShubhranshu was lauded asthe man behind the design anddevelopment of “Train 18”,India’s first semi-high-speedtrain, later rechristened VandeBharat Express. But when heordered the suspension ofonboard housekeeping ser-vices in several trains due tolack of funds, it did not godown well with the authorities.

Sources say that though high-lighting the lack of funds to payrail contractors did push therail ministry to release somefunds immediately, the nega-tive publicity was counter-pro-ductive for the babu.Interestingly, MrShubhranshu’s stance was alsobacked by the SouthernRailways general managerRahul Jain, who not only sentan SOS to the ministry buteven warned that passengeramenities may have to be with-drawn if adequate funds werenot allotted on time. Observersalso point out that the sanctionof funds and MrShubhranshu’s transfer ordercame almost immediately!

PUNISHMENTTRANSFER

A.G.Noorani

Congress leader Salman Khurshid

DilipCherianDilli KaBabu

The Congress isexperiencing the birthpangs of a newavatar. Lakhs ofdevoted and commit-ted Congress workerswill breathe new lifeinto the party wecherish. Severalchanges have beenmade in the party.

SUNDAY INTERVIEW

If we view life on the evolutionaryscale, what are the importantmilestones? They would be thefirst appearance of life, in singlecells, over 3.5 billion years ago

(meaning 350 crore years). The nextstep would be multicellular life, thenthe development of mammals andother more complex creatures. Thenthe movement of life from the oceansto land, and then the development ofconsciousness. This would bring us tothe present time.

What would the next step on such ascale be? It becomes clear that thingslike art and culture and language areirrelevant when we look at life on ourplanet through the evolutionary lens.All the wars that mankind has foughtand all of our history in the way that itis taught and understood is notsignificant any more. All the great

men and women of history alsobecome irrelevant.

The next step in such a scale wouldbe to make life and consciousnessmulti-planetary. Meaning to take itbeyond earth and develop humancivilisation on other planets in oursolar system and then the galaxy andthen even beyond. When we view his-tory and evolution and ambition inthis way, many things will cease tohave meaning. Our current problemswith one another and our differencesover nations and religions seem pettyand meaningless.

We should view the failure ofChandrayaan-2 from this angle. It wasmeant to see how much water in iceform existed on the moon. A base onthe moon for humans — which will bethe first step for multi-planetary life —will require being able to find and usethe moon’s water.

The earth’s gravity well is too strongfor us to take everything we will needon long space journeys. Less than 10per cent of the weight of a rocket canbe finally lifted into orbit. The other 90per cent is expensed as fuel and con-tainers in the first few minutes. Thisis because going into orbit meansachieving a speed of 28,000 km perhour. If an object in space is travelling

at less than that speed, it will be pulledback into earth by gravity.

If we are to make journeys of fouryears or more (the minimum it willtake for man to go to Mars and comeback) then the food and water and fuelcannot all be taken with us. They willhave to be taken or grown or madesomewhere else.

Many of us are not fans of govern-ment expenditure in poor nations onvanity projects, but there are otherthings to be considered here.

I have written before about how theexploring of space is also a way for allof us to have more open minds. Andthinking about evolution and its scaleand how space travel fits into that willdefinitely change the perspective ofmany of us on the current issues.

A failed attempt is a failure and aloss only if we learn nothing from it.Space is dangerous and there will bemany failed attempts as we try to usemankind’s ingenuity to take the nextevolutionary step. The first time everthat such a step will be taken deliber-ately and not by an accident of nature.

The world’s largest space companySpaceX was the first private entity toput a rocket into orbit a little over 10years ago. It failed in its first threeattempts and only had enough money

to make a fourth and final attempt,which succeeded. Today, only adecade later, the company is on theabsolute cutting edge of what is hap-pening in the field and is preparinggiant rockets to take man to Mars.

In the modern world, technologiesare improving at an exponential ratebecause of the power of computers.Great things will be achieved in ourlifetimes, and in fact only in a fewyears, that at this moment we cannoteven comprehend or imagine.

Eventually, earth will not be capableof supporting life, and this is a fact. Anextinction event, whether an asteroidcollision or some other natural disas-ter will end life on earth. If nothingelse, we can be assured that in a fewbillion years, the sun will lose its ener-gy and expand to become a red giant,destroying earth.

The only way for humans and con-scious life to survive will be to go outinto the universe. We must see theattempts by Isro and Nasa and theChinese space agency (the world’s mostactive one in 2019) and SpaceX togetherjointly as the efforts of mankind.

Aakar Patel is a writer, columnist and executive director of

Amnesty International (India)

Exploring space: Our next evolutionary step

The next step in theevolutionary scalewould be to makelife multi-planetary.Meaning to take itbeyond earth anddevelop civilisationon other planets inour solar system andthen the galaxy andthen even beyond.

Aakar Patel

WorldSUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

Trump and Johnsonare hell-bent on

destroying the planet— Roger Waters

Musician

IN BRIEFPIO with bump

stock indicted in USHouston: An Indian-

American man was indictedin the US for possessing a

bump stock attached to hisrifle, the first known case

since the device was bannedby the Trump administration

earlier this year. AjayDhingra, 43, is facing up to

10 years in jail and a$250,000 fine if convicted

and is set to appear in courton September 12. The bumpstocks are the attachmentsthat enable semiautomatic

rifles to fire in sustained,rapid bursts. The rifle-toting

Dhingra is charged on fourcounts of firearms violations,

including possession of amachine gun, two counts of

false statements to acquire afirearm, and possession of a

firearm, according to theDepartment of Justice.

Russia’s humanoidrobot leaves ISS

Moscow: A lifesize Russianrobot known as ‘Fedor’ suc-

cessfully departed theInternational Space Stationon Friday, two weeks after

an aborted docking attemptdelayed its arrival. A livetranslation from Russian

space agency Roscosmosshowed a Soyuz MS-14

spacecraft leaving the ISS.Roscosmos said the ship

would land in Kazakhstanovernight. Fedor — short for

Final ExperimentalDemonstration Object

Research — was Russia’s firsthumanoid robot to be sentinto space, though similar

technology has been sent byJapan and Nasa.

Trump officials todiscuss refugee cap

PAF ready to protectPak skies: PCAS

Washington: Trump adminis-tration officials will meet

next week to discusswhether to further restrict

the number of refugeesaccepted into the US eachyear, according to a senior

administration official. Someadministration officials

believe that the cap shouldbe reduced because of the

number of asylum seekers atthe US-Mexico border andother protections afforded

to migrants who live in war-torn countries or those dev-astated by natural disasters.

Islamabad: Pakistan Chief ofthe Air Staff Air Chief Marshal

Mujahid Anwar Khan said onSaturday that the Pakistan AirForce (PAF) was ready to pro-

tect the skies of Pakistan.Addressing Martyrs’ Day cere-

mony at Air Headquarters inIslamabad, he said the PAF’s

glaring victory against theenemy during the operation

‘Swift Retort’ had representedcapability of shaheens to theworld. The air chief said thatsacrifices of “our forefathersdemanded unity and patriot-ism amongst us.” About the

Kashmir dispute, he said: “Weare standing shoulder to

shoulder with our Kashmiribrethren.”

Hong Kong supportGerman chancellor Angela Merkel says the rights and freedom of peoplein Hong Kong must be guaranteed

Iran centrifugesfired, N-deal hitLatest scaling back in country’s obligationsTehran, Sept. 7: Iran saidon Saturday it has fired upadvanced centrifuges toboost its enriched urani-um stockpiles, in the lat-est scaling back of com-mitments un-der a crum-bling 2015 nuclear deal.

The country’s AtomicEnergy Organisation sa-id, however, that it wouldhonour commitments togive UN inspectors accessto monitor its nuclearsites.

Three European coun-tries — Britain, Franceand Germany — havebeen engaged in talks totry to rescue the 2015 dealthat gave Iran relief fromsanctions in return forcurbs on its nuclear pro-gramme.

On Saturday, Iran’sAtomic Energy Organi-sation said it had activat-ed 20 IR-4 and 20 IR-6 cen-trifuges as its latest stepback in rolling back itscommitments.

“The centrifuge mach-ines, as they are engagedin research and develop-ment, will help withincreasing the stockpile,”said the agency’s spok-esman, Behrouz Kam-alvandi.

“The capacity of thesemachines is many timesmore than the previousmachines. This started asof yesterday (Friday),” hetold a news conference inTehran.

Under the 2015 JointComprehensive Plan ofAction (JCPOA), Iran wasallowed to enrich urani-um using only first gener-ation — or IR-1 — cen-trifuges. US defence secre-tary Mark Esper said hewas “not surprised thatIran has announced thatit's going to violate theJCPOA”. — AP

“It's no surprise that the

Russia, Ukraine exchange35 ‘high-profile’ prisoners

Vaping-related lung disease kills 5 in USWashington, Sept. 7: Atleast five people have diedin the United States aftervaping, officials saidFriday, in an outbreak thathas sickened hundredswith severe pulmonarydisease and left severalteens in induced comas.

Federal officials saidthat no single substancehas been found to be pres-ent in all the laboratorysamples being examined,however investigators inNew York said they werenow focusing on blackmarket cannabis e-ciga-rette products containingvitamin E oil.

On Friday, local healthauthorities in Californiaand Minnesota announcedthe vaping-related deathsof two individuals, botholder and in relatively

poor health, at least one ofwhom had used productscontaining THC, the prin-cipal psychoactive com-pound in cannabis.

There are now more than450 possible cases of pul-monary illness associatedwith vaping, more thandouble the figure reportedlast week, according toIleana Arias, actingdeputy director for non-infectious diseases at theCentres for Disease Con-trol and Prevention (CDC).

Daniel Fox, a pulmonolo-gist in North Carolina,said that patients he hadexamined had a non-infec-tious pneumonia knownas lipoid pneumonia,which can occur “wheneither oils or lipid-con-taining substances enterthe lungs.”

New York’s healthdepartment said laborato-ry test results showed veryhigh levels of vitamin E

oil in cannabis cartridgesused by all 34 people in thestate who had fallen illafter using e-cigarettes,

and as a result was focus-ing its investigation inthat direction. Vitamin Eacetate is a commonlyavailable nutritional sup-plement taken orally orapplied to the skin, but isharmful when inhaled.

The Food and DrugAdministration’s actingadministrator Ned Sharp-less said his agency wasaware of the reports, “butno one substance, includ-ing Vitamin E acetate, hasbeen identified in all ofthe samples tested” at anationwide level.

Many patients reportedvaping cannabis, but somesaid they had only inhalednicotine products.

The first death wasreported in Illinois in lateAugust.

— AFP

DORIAN TOLL 43,NO FURTHER RISE,OPINE OFFICIALSMarsh Harbour (Bah-amas), Sept. 7: The deathtoll from HurricaneDorian’s devastatingrampage across theBahamas rose to 43Friday, a numberauthorities said is likelyto climb “significantly,”even as rescuersplucked desperate sur-vivors from the debris.

More than 260 resi-dents of brutally dam-aged Abaco Islandarrived in the capitalcity of Nassau afterspending more thanseven hours on a gov-e r n m e n t - c h a r t e r e dferry, a second of whichwas expected to arriveovernight.

Those who made it tosafety awaited news ofloved ones such as DianeForbes, who had notheard from her two sonssince Tuesday and wassearching for themamong some 200 evac-uees sheltering at agymnasium on Fridaynight in Nassau. — AFP

Kiev, Sept. 7: A long-awaited swap of prisonersbetween Russia and Ukr-aine was underway onSaturday, sources andstate media said, with 70people involved in thelandmark exchange.

A Ukrainian govern-ment source said the swapwas proceeding and that35 people on each sidewould be exchanged. Anumber of high-profileprisoners are expected tobe part of the exchange.

Earlier on Saturday inMoscow two buses withtinted windows left thehigh-security Lefortovojail escorted by a policeconvoy. Russia’s state-runnews channel Rossiya 24said the convoy haddeparted “within the fra-mework of preparationsfor a prisoner exchange”.

The channel said thebuses had arrived at Mos-cow’s Vnukovo terminalfor government flights,and that a Russian gov-ernment plane had landedat Kiev’s Boryspil airport.

Anticipation has beenbuilding in recent days forthe swap, which would bethe first major exchangeof prisoners betweenRussia and Ukraine sincethe conflict over easternUkraine erupted in 2014.

It could be a crucial stepin easing tensionsbetween the ex-Soviet

neighbours over Russia’sannexation of Crimea andthe war with Moscow-backed separatists thathas left over 13,000 dead.

The head of the defenceteam for 24 Ukrainiansailors captured by Russialast year said they wouldbe part of the swap.

“According to my infor-mation, they were put ona bus. All 24 of them,”Nikolai Polozov said,adding that he expectedthem to arrive in Ukraine“in the next few hours”.

Moscow has been hold-ing the sailors since seiz-ing three vessels lastNovember in the mostdangerous direct clash

between Russia andUkraine in years.

Among other prisonerswho could be released byRussia is film directorand activist Oleg Sentsov,43, who has becomeUkraine's most famouspolitical prisoner.

He was arrested in 2014and has been serving a 20-year sentence in a Arcticpenal colony for planning“terrorist attacks” inCrimea. Reports emergedlast week that Sentsovhad been moved toMoscow. Ukraine couldhand over KyryloVyshynsky, a journalist atRussia’s RIA Novostinews agency. — AFP

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomes for-mer prisoners as they disembark from a plane atBoryspil airport in Kiev on Saturday. — AFP

A vaping store before Los Angeles County Departmentof Public Health press conference to announce a probeon deaths associated with the use of e-cigarettes.— AFP

A vehicle is damaged by fallen signboard from a building as Typhoon Lingling brings strong wind and rain in Seoul,South Korea on Saturday. The typhoon passed along South Korea’s coast on Saturday, toppling trees, groundingplanes and causing at least two deaths before the storm system made landfall in North Korea. — AP

Typhoon Lingling pounds South Korea

Iran oil tanker Adrian Darya-1 off the coast of Tartus, Syria, amid US efforts to seizethe vessel. That’s after Gibraltar earlier seized and held it for weeks, later releasingit after authorities there said Iran promised the oil wouldn’t go to Syria. — AP

Iran seizes boat withfuel and 12 FilipinosTehran, Sept. 7: Iranseized a boat and arrested12 Filipinos as it busted a“fuel-smuggling ring” inthe Strait of Hormuz onSaturday, the semi-officialnews agency ISNA report-ed. “A foreign tugboat wasconfiscated as well as283,900 litres of petrolworth about $2 million,”ISNA said, citing the coastguard chief in theprovince of Hormozgan.

“Twelve Philippinenationals were arrestedand the relevant judiciaryofficials are currently tak-ing the required legalmeasures,” Major HosseinDehaki was quoted as say-ing.

Dehaki said the groupwas suspected of operat-ing a fuel-smuggling ringand the confiscated ship-ment had been intercept-ed close to Sirik county inthe Strait of Hormuz.

“The vessel was en routeto deliver contraband fuelreceived from Iranianboats to foreign ships,”the Guards said at thetime.

Maritime tracking serv-ice TankerTrackers repo-rted the Panamanian-flagged MT Riah, used inthe strait for fuellingother vessels, had crossedinto Iranian waters, andat that point its automaticidentification systemstopped sending signals.

— AFP

SATELLITE IMAGES SHOW IRANTANKER OFF SYRIAN PORTDubai, Sept. 7: Satelliteimages appear to showthe once-detained Iran-ian oil tanker AdrianDarya-1 near the Syrianport of Tartus, despiteUS efforts to seize it.

Images obtained fromMaxar Technologiesshowed the vessel there.

Iranian officials hav-en’t acknowledged theship went to Syria. Theship turned off itsAutomatic Identification

System late on Monday.The new images matcheda black-and-white imageearlier tweeted by JohnBolton, the US nationalsecurity adviser.

Bolton tweeted: “Any-one who said the AdrianDarya-1 wasn’t headed to#Syria is in denial.”Authorities in Gibraltarhad seized the ship inJuly over concerns itwould break EU sanc-tions on Syria. — AP

Canberra, Sept. 7: A climatecrisis is playing out acrossmuch of Australia whichremains in the grip of one ofthe most severe droughts onrecord.

A different year, similarstory. Most places are drierand warmer than usual. Thesummer of 2018 broughtrecord-breaking heat forAustralia. It’s too early tosay whether this summerwill bring such extremes.

But early outlooks forspring and December areagain pointing to aboveaverage temperatures. Andwith the exception of parts

of Western Australia andthe west of Tasmania, theoutlook is for below averagerainfall. The prolonged dryand warm conditions havemeant authorities havealready issued warnings forthe spring and into summer.

Fire services have toldcommunities to be ready fora challenging bushfire sea-son and to prepare theirhomes, properties and evac-uation plans early.

The Bushfire and NaturalHazards CooperativeResearch Centre publishedits seasonal outlook lastweek, which warned parts

of Queensland, New SouthWales, Victoria, Tasmania,and parts of WesternAustralia and SouthAustralia, face an above nor-mal potential fire threat.

On Friday, the authoritiesissued total fire bans in

Queensland and parts ofNew South Wales, withextreme, and potentially cat-astrophic, conditionsexpected in some areas.

Out in the MacquarieMarshes, large inland wet-lands have become a placefor the dead and dying.

“We went out last nightand there was a little patchof water with dead anddying European carp,”Richard Kingsford, thedirector of the Centre forEcosystem Science at theUniversity of NSW, says.“There’s dead and dyingthings everywhere. Kanga-

roos dying and even foxesare dying. “We were tryingto trap for turtles but theredoesn’t seem to be enoughwater for turtles. I’m notsure where they’ve gone to.”

There are large parts ofthe Macquarie River thathave dried up completely asthe state remains in the gripof one of the most severedroughts on record.

Valley water storages inthe Macquarie are sitting at11 per cent. In the Namoi, innorth-west NSW wherewater shortages have beenacute, they’re at 1.5 percent.The Border Rivers, in the

region between the NSWand Queensland border, areat 6 per cent. In Sydney, damstorages have droppedbelow 50 per cent for thefirst time in over a decade.

“For most of Australia it’sthis consistent dry story forthe remainder of the year,”Jonathan Pollock, a clima-tologist at the Bureau ofMeteorology, says. “It’sgoing to be hotter thanusual and drier than usual.”

For the first eight monthsof the year, the country’smean temperature was thesecond warmest on record.

— Agencies

Australia in grip of most severe drought■ Early outlooks for spring, December again point to above average temperaturesRECORD | HEAT

■ ■ IRAN SAID thegroup was suspectedof operating a fuel-smuggling ring andthe confiscated ship-ment was intercept-ed close to Sirikcounty in the Straitof Hormuz.

■ ■ MORE THAN 260residents of Abacoarrived in Nassauafter spendingmore than sevenhours on a govern-ment-charteredferry

■ ■ FIRE SERVICES havetold communities tobe ready for a chal-lenging bushfire sea-son and to preparetheir homes, proper-ties and evacuationplans early

Leticia, Colombia, Sept. 7:Leaders of several SouthAmerican nations thatshare the Amazon gath-ered on Friday inColombia to boost protec-tion of the world's largestrainforest.

But the one-day summitin Leticia — a town onthe Amazon River wherethe borders of Colombia,Peru and Brazil meet —ended with little concreteaction and exposed deepideological and politicalrifts over sustainabledevelopment of theworld’s largest absorberof carbon emissions.

While Ecuador’s Pre-sident Lenin Moreno,who was born in theAmazon, offered an emo-tional, song-filed homageto the diverse plant andanimal life with which hewas raised, his Braziliancounterpart, Jair Bolso-naro, launched into anattack on first world lead-ers for allegedly conspir-ing against the nations’sovereignty over theregion.

“We are killing theearth,” said Moreno, whowas on the edge of tearsas he recounted flyingover the Amazon River,which he compared to agiant, dead Anacondasnake, “and all of us areresponsible.”

Host Ivan Duque and hisPeruvian counterpartMartin Vizcarra con-voked the one-day sum-mit following global out-rage over a surge in thenumber of fires in theAmazon this year, which

triggered a wave ofprotests at Braziliandiplomatic missionsworldwide this week overBolsonaro’s alleged indif-ference to environmentalconcerns. Since the startof the year, there havebeen more than 95,500fires in Brazil, up 59 percent from the same periodin 2018, according to gov-ernment data.

Neighbouring Boliviahas also been ravaged bywildfires.

Efforts to jointly protectthe Amazon began withthe 1978 signing of atreaty by eight Amazonnations. All of them wererepresented at the sum-mit with the exception ofsocialist-run Venezuela,whose exclusion was crit-icised by BolivianPresident Evo Morales, aclose ally of the embat-tled Venezuelan leaderNicolas Maduro.

But cooperation amongthe countries has stalledeven as threats from cli-mate change, uncheckeddevelopment as well asillegal mining and drugtrafficking have incr-eased in the region. —AP

No breakthroughon Amazon fires

■ ■ THE ONE-DAYsummit of leaders ofseveral SouthAmerican nationsthat share theAmazon ended withlittle concrete actionand exposed deeprifts over region’sdevelopment

Science+HealthSUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

IN BRIEF

Washington, Sept. 7:Researchers have identi-fied the neural processesthat make some memoriesfade rapidly while othermemories persist overtime.

Using mouse models,Caltech researchers deter-mined that strong, stablememories are encoded by"teams" of neurons all fir-ing in synchrony, provid-ing redundancy thatenables these memories topersist over time.

The research has impli-cations for understandinghow memory might beaffected after brain dam-age, such as by strokes orAlzheimer's disease,reported the study pub-lished in journal, Science.

Led by postdoctoralscholar Walter Gonzalez,the team developed a testto examine mice's neuralactivity as they learnabout and remember anew place.

In the test, a mouse wasplaced in a straight enclo-sure, about 5 feet longwith white walls. Uniquesymbols marked differentlocations along the walls— for example, a bold plus

sign near the right-mostend and an angled slashnear the center.

Sugar water (a treat formice) was placed at eitherend of the track. Whilethe mouse explored, theresearchers measured theactivity of specific neu-rons in the mouse hip-pocampus (the region ofthe brain where newmemories are formed)that are known to encodefor places.

When an animal was ini-tially placed in the track,it was unsure of what todo and wandered left andright until it came acrossthe sugar water. In thesecases, single neurons

were activated when themouse took notice of asymbol on the wall.

But over multiple expe-riences with the track, themouse became familiarwith it and rememberedthe locations of the sugar.As the mouse becamemore familiar, more andmore neurons were acti-vated in synchrony by see-ing each symbol on thewall. Essentially, themouse was recognisingwhere it was with respectto each unique symbol.

To study how memoriesfade over time, theresearchers then withheldthe mice from the trackfor up to 20 days.

Upon returning to thetrack after this break,mice that had formedstrong memories encodedby higher numbers ofneurons remembered thetask quickly.

Even though some neu-rons showed differentactivity, the mouse's mem-ory of the track was clear-ly identifiable when ana-lyzing the activity of largegroups of neurons.

In other words, usinggroups of neurons enablethe brain to have redun-dancy and still recallmemories even if some ofthe original neurons fallsilent or are damaged.

"Imagine you have a longand complicated story totell. In order to preservethe story, you could tell itto five of your friends andthen occasionally gettogether with all of themto re-tell the story andhelp each other fill in anygaps that an individualhad forgotten.Additionally, each timeyou re-tell the story, youcould bring new friends tolearn and therefore helppreserve it and strengthenthe memory. — ANI

Washington: Researchersfrom Japan have unearthed

a new species of dinosaurwhich measured eight-

metres long and weighedclose to five tons.

After studying around 350bones and 70 taxa,

researchers from HokkaidoUniversity found out that

the skeleton once belongedto a herbivorous dinosaur

known as 'hadrosaurid'.Initially, in the year 2013,

they found a tail in northernJapan and thereafter exca-

vated the whole skeleton,which was underneath 72

million-year-old marinedeposits in the town of

Mukawa. Researchers namedthe dinosaur as

'Kamuysaurus japonicus,'which comes from "kamuy,"the language of the indige-

nous people of northernJapan; "saurus," meaning

reptile in Latin; and "japoni-cus" for Japan, reported

CNN. The duck-billeddinosaur, that weighed

almost as much as an Asianelephant, is believed to be a

nine-year-old adult wholived in coastal areas, known

to be a rare habitat forthose diverse groups of rep-tiles. The recent discovery is

published in the journal,Scientific Reports. It also

sheds light on the origin ofthis new dinosaur's clade,

the Edmontosaurini.These were spread across

both Asia and NorthAmerica. During the

Cretaceous period, theywere connected by what we

currently recognise asAlaska. It allowed them to

travel back and forthbetween the two continents.

The study also suggestedthat the early species of

dinosaur preferred to roamin the areas near the ocean.

— ANI

Japanese scientistsunearth largestdinosaur fossils

Washington: We are wellacquainted with the popularEnglish idiom “don't judge abook by its cover”, but peo-

ple do judge chocolate byits packaging, a study hasfound. And what's more?People tend to express a

strong emotional associa-tion with the cover of the

chocolate than they didfrom the tasting.

The study concluded thatwhile the taste is the pre-dominant factor in deter-

mining subsequent purchas-es, perception of taste is

influenced by emotionsevoked by packaging.

"There's a difference in howconsumers perceive intrinsic

product cues — like flavor,aroma, and texture — whichare associated with sensory

and perceptual systems, andhow they perceive external

cues — like packaging mate-rials, information, brand

name, and price — which areassociated with cognitive

and psychological mecha-nisms," explained co-lead

investigator Frank R.Dunshea, PhD, School of

Agriculture and Food, VIC,Australia. For the study, sev-enty-five participants (aged25-55 years old, 59 per centfemale) were asked to eval-uate chocolates under threeconditions: a blind taste test

of chocolate; packagingconcepts only; and choco-

late plus packaging.The same chocolate waswrapped in six different

packaging designs repre-senting bold, fun, every day,special, healthy, and premi-

um concepts.The investigators found thatthere was a moderate posi-

tive correlation between lik-ing the packaging and the

taste of the chocolate whenit was wrapped in packaging

described with positiveterms such as happy,

healthy, fun, bright. — ANI

People judgechocolate by

its cover

How memories form, fade,persist over time decoded

Washington, Sept. 7:Allergies are one of themost common chronicdiseases which canincrease the risk of asth-ma in an individual ifserving severely, foundresearchers.

The number of allergicdiseases increases therisk of adult-onset asth-ma especially in individu-als born after 1940,according to a study pub-lished in the Allergy jour-nal.

Approximately one inten Finns suffer fromasthma. It is one of themost common chronic ill-nesses in Western coun-tries.

Allergy is a risk factorin childhood asthma butits significance to adult-onset asthma is not pre-cisely known.

A collaborative popula-

tion-based study of theuniversities of Helsinkiand Tampere interviewed1,205 recently diagnosedasthmatics and 2,050matched controls.

The subjects werebetween 31 and 71 years ofage. They were ques-tioned about the occur-rence of allergic rhinitisand conjunctivitis as wellas atopic dermatitis.

Individuals with asth-ma had significantlymore symptoms of aller-gic diseases than those inthe control group. Thenumber of allergic dis-eases was an independentrisk factor for adult-onsetasthma. One allergic dis-ease approximately dou-bled the asthma risk.Correspondingly, two dis-eases tripled and threediseases quadrupled theasthma risk. — ANI

Washington, Sept. 7:Shedding that extra kiloof fat will not be a diffi-cult task anymore.Earlier reducing fatmeant spending hourshitting the gym or lipo-suction and still theresults were not satisfac-tory. But with the newnon-invasive body con-touring treatments withzero recovery time, youcan witness better resultsin just a few days.

Dr. Dendy Engelman, aNew York City dermatolo-gist who practice theoffers the brand new cel-lulite-blasting Emtone,said, "We have enteredthe 'Brave New World' of

medicine. You can literal-ly sculpt your body with-out any effort or down-time. The technology istruly amazing."

Not only the procedureis quick and painless, butthere are no restrictionspertaining to Body MassIndex (BMI), body type orskin color. The procedureuses radiofrequency andtargeted pressure energyto spur skin-tighteningcollagen and elastin andeven out fat deposits thatcause dimpling, reportedNew York Post.

The treatment requiresat least 20- to 30-minutesessions over a two-weekperiod. — ANI

ALLERGIC DISEASES INCREASERISK OF ADULT-ONSET ASTHMA

YOU CAN SHED EXTRA KILOSWITHOUT ANY SURGERY

Washington, Sept. 7:Researchers suggesthigh levels of a satietyhormone that reducesappetite could decreasea person's likelihood ofdeveloping Alzheimer'sdisease.

For individuals whohave higher levels of thehormone, their chanceof having mild cognitiveimpairment orAlzheimer's diseasedecreased by 65 per cent,reported the study pub-lished in the journal,Neurobiology of Aging.

Using data from theAlzheimer's DiseaseNeuroimaging Initiative(ADNI), the researcherslooked at the satiety hor-mone, Cholecystokinin(CCK), in 287 people.

CCK is found in boththe small intestines andthe brain. In the smallintestines, CCK allowsfor the absorption offats and proteins. In thebrain, CCK is located inthe hippocampus, whichis the memory-formingregion of the brain,Willette said.

The researchers foundfor individuals who havehigher CCK levels, theirchance of having a mildcognitive impairment, aprecursor state toAlzheimer's disease, orAlzheimer's diseasedecreased by 65 per cent.

"It will hopefully helpto shed further light onhow satiety hormones inthe blood and brainaffect brain function,"said Auriel Willette,assistant professor, andhis team of researchersin Iowa StateUniversity's Departmentof Food Science andHuman Nutrition.

Alexandra Plagman,lead author, said theychose to focus on CCKbecause it is highlyexpressed in memoryformation.

The researchers want-ed to see if there wasany significancebetween levels of CCKand levels of memoryand gray matter in thehippocampus and otherimportant areas. — ANI

What you eatcould impactyour brainand memory

Four genetic regions havebeen discovered whichmay cause left-handed-

ness, and they could also be thereason lefties have superior lan-guage skills.

The study of left-handed folkfailed to identify any precise“left-handed genes” but wasable to narrow it down withinthe human genome to certainareas.

Researchers then found thatleft-handedness may be abyproduct of how the braindevelops in the womb as well asthe body's microtubules.

These form the cells cytoskele-ton, the internal scaffoldingthat does most of the heavy lift-ing within human cells.

Researchers then found thatleft-handedness may be abyproduct of how the brain

develops in the womb as well asthe body's microtubules. Theseform the cells cytoskeleton, theinternal scaffolding that doesmost of the heavy lifting withinthe human body.

Dr Akira Wiberg, a MedicalResearch Council fellow at theUniversity of Oxford, who car-ried out the analyses, said: “Wediscovered that, in left-handedparticipants, the languageareas of the left and right sidesof the brain communicate witheach other in a more coordinat-ed way.

“This raises the intriguingpossibility for future researchthat left-handers might have anadvantage when it comes to per-forming verbal tasks, but itmust be remembered that thesedifferences were only seen asaverages over very large num-

bers of people and not all left-handers will be similar.”

Around one in ten people areleft-handed with genes respon-sible for a quarter of cases,according to previous studies.

Dr Wiberg said: “Around 90per cent of people are right-handed, and this has been thecase for at least 10,000 years.

“Many researchers have stud-ied the biological basis of hand-edness, but using large datasetsfrom UK Biobank has allowedus to shed considerably morelight on the processes leading to

left-handedness.'The findings were based on an

analysis of the genes of 400,000participants from the UKBiobank, including 38,332 whowere left-handed. ProfessorDominic Furniss, joint seniorauthor on the study, said:“Throughout history, left-hand-edness has been consideredunlucky, or even malicious.

“Indeed, this is reflected in thewords for left and right in manylanguages. For example, inEnglish ‘right’ also means cor-rect or proper; in French‘gauche’ means both left andclumsy. Here we have demon-strated that left-handedness is aconsequence of the develop-mental biology of the brain, inpart driven by the complexinterplay of many genes.

— Agencies

Lefties have superior language skills!

Children who arebadly behaved aremore likely to suf-

fer from insomnia whenthey are adults, researchsuggests.

Scientists at FlindersUniversity in Australiaanalysed data from 25,000children, all of whomwere tracked until theyturned 42.

Results showed theyoungsters who hadsevere behaviouralissues aged five werealmost 40 per cent morelikely to have insomnialater in life.

The experts found therewas a similar risk, either

28 or 67 per cent, if theydisplayed poor behaviouraged 16, depending on itsseverity.

Bad behaviour includedlying, disobedience, bul-lying, stealing, destroy-ing belongings, fightingand restlessness.

It is believed behaviour-al issues in childhoodcould lead to similar

problems in adults orpoor mental health, ifthey are not addressedearly on.

And living with a men-tal health problem canaffect how well you sleep,according to the charityMind.

The results of the study— carried out over 37years — were publishedin the Journal of theAmerican MedicalAssociation's NetworkOpen. Parents of all theparticipants were askedabout behavioural prob-lems when the young-sters were five, 10 and 16.

— Agencies

Washington, Sept. 7:Intelligent children maybe more likely to be veg-etarian as they growand become adults, sug-gest researchers.

Vegetarianism may belinked to lower choles-terol levels and areduced risk of obesityand heart disease. Thismight help to explainwhy children who scorehigher on intelligencetests tend to have alower risk of coronaryheart disease in laterlife.

The study involved8179 men and womenaged 30 years whose IQwas tested at age 10years.

Twenty years later, 366(4.5%) of participantssaid they were vegetari-an. Of these, 9 (2.5%)were vegan and 123(33.6%) stated they werevegetarian but reportedeating fish or chicken.

Vegetarians weremore likely to be female,to be of higher occupa-tional social class and tohave higher academicor vocational qualifica-tions than non-vegetari-ans, although these dif-ferences were notreflected in their annualincome, which was sim-ilar to that of non-vege-tarians.

Higher IQ at the age of10 years was associatedwith an increased likeli-hood of being vegetari-an at the age of 30. Thisrelation was partlyaccounted for by bettereducation and higheroccupational socialclass, but it remainedstatistically significantafter adjusting for thesefactors.

There was no differ-ence in IQ scorebetween strict vegetari-ans and those who saidthey were vegetarianbut who reported eatingfish or chicken. — ANI

Intelligentchildrenlikely to turnvegetarian

Kids who behave badly maysuffer insomnia in later life

What is chronic pain? What is the relation-ship between chronic pain and physicalinactivity? Whether chronic pain causes

inactivity or physical inactivity causes chronicpain?

According to the International Association forthe Study of Pain, chronic pain is a pathologicalcondition characterised by a long-lasting pain usu-ally taken to be 3 months or more, beyond the timedamaged tissue has healed. Scientific studies donein the European populationreport that existence ofchronic pain goes up to 20per cent in the adults andthis percentage increases asthe population ages that is 32per cent in the age group of25 to 34 years and drasticallyincreasing to 62 per cent overthe age of 75 years (Abdulla2013; Elliott 1999).

Chronic pain brings aboutdisability, anxiety, depres-sion, sleep disturbances,poor quality of life and alsoadds a lot to the health carecost.

Chronic pain and physicalinactivity share a viciouscycle with one leading to theother. Chronic pain condi-tions lead to a tendency todevelop sedentary life habitsand thus increase physicalinactivity. In scientific litera-ture, many factors have beenassociated with chronic pain, including nutrition,smoking, alcohol intake and obesity. However,physical inactivity has also been listed as oneimportant factor contributing to chronic pain.Extensive medical studies have found that evenmaintaining medium levels of physical activity,patients experience noticeable reduction in pain.

Many musculoskeletal conditions and/or dis-eases can give rise to chronic pain which had last-ed more than 3 months now, like osteoarthritis ofjoints (knee, hip, ankle and shoulder), rheumatoidarthritis, fibromyalgia etc.

According to the National Institute for Healthand Care Excellence (NICE) osteoarthritis guide-lines 2014, exercise should be a core treatment,irrespective of age, co-morbidity, disability andpain severity. Also, the Scottish IntercollegiateGuideline Network guidelines from 2013 stronglyrecommend the use of exercise in the manage-ment of patients with chronic pain based on med-ical literature evidence.

Evidence suggests that non specific or simplygiving advice to start exercising and keep active isinadequate, what would benefit more would be astructured supervised exercise program. To allevi-ate chronic pain an exercise program should con-sist of all the components of physical conditioningincluding strength or resistance training,endurance or aerobic training exercises, balanceand agility exercises.

Studies report that a consistent resistance train-ing program, 2 to 3 times a week would bring aboutimprovement in muscle strength and stabilizationthereby the capacity of an individual to supporthis/her bone and cartilage around a joint whichrelieves stiffness and thus pain. Aerobic activitieslike running, jogging, cycling are strongly con-nected to induce weight loss further offloading theweight bearing joints thus chronic pain.

The writer is a sports andmedicine consultant,

AktivHealth

Link betweenchronic pain and inactivity

Dr Mrinal Dhawan

Chronic pain◗ Chronic painand physicalinactivity share avicious cyclewith one leadingto the other.Chronic pain con-ditions lead tosedentary lifehabits and thusincrease physicalinactivity.

Washington, Sept. 7: Oralhealth is an importanthealthcare ritual thateveryone needs to followevery day. But poor oralhealth is linked to adecreased quality of life,along with depression,hypertension, and cogni-tive decline, researchershave found.

The studies published inthe Journal of theAmerican GeriatricsSociety had researchersinterview over 2700Chinese Americans ofand above the age of 60.

They found that nearly50 per cent of the partici-pants reported experienc-ing tooth symptoms, 25.5per cent reported drymouth.

In the first study, thosewho reported tooth symp-toms experienced declinein cognition and episodicmemory, often precursorsto dementia.

In the second study, the

researchers found thatstress increased symp-toms of dry mouth, lead-ing to poorer overall oralhealth.

"Racial and ethnicminorities are particular-ly vulnerable to the nega-tive consequences of poororal health," said XinQiDong, director of RutgersUniversity's Institute forHealth, Health Care Policyand Aging Research.

"Minorities have lessaccess to preventive den-

tal care that is furtherexacerbated by languagebarriers and low socioeco-nomic status.

“Older ChineseAmericans are at particu-lar risk for experiencingoral health symptoms dueto lack of dental insur-ance or not visiting a den-tal clinic regularly," addedDong.

Among the key findingsput forth by this study wasthe fact that 47.8 per centof older Chinese

Americans reported hav-ing teeth symptoms; par-ticipants who reportedteeth symptoms at base-line experienced theirglobal cognition andepisodic memory decline.

Another 18.9 per centolder Chinese Americansreported gum symptoms.15.6 per cent of themreported teeth and gumsymptoms with 25.5 percent reporting dry mouth.

More perceived stresswas associated with high-er odds of dry mouth.

"In our study, the preva-lence rate of dry mouth isfollowed by diabetes andheart disease.

“Our findings demon-strate the importance ofstudying the linkagebetween stress and drymouth in this vulnerablepopulation." said authorWeiyu Mao, assistant pro-fessor, School of SocialWork, University ofNevada, Reno. — ANI

Studies find association betweenpoor oral health, cognitive decline

◗ 35-year study of25,000 youngstersfinds that thosewho behaved badlyaged five were40% more likely toget insomnia

No euphemisms, pleaseParents should stop using euphemisms like'flower' and 'fairy' with their daughters,gynaecological charity urges

◗ Researchers foundthat left-handednessmay be a byproduct ofhow the brain developsin the womb as well asthe body’s microtubules

The rise and fall ofRanbaxy is an engross-ing, yet deeply disturb-ing, narrative that con-firms our worst fears

about the drug industry. It illus-trates the ends to which a much-celebrated blue-chip pharma com-pany, which once fancied itself asa challenger to Pfizer, can go whenfuelled by sheer greed. It alsobrings out the eventual falloutwhen jugaad — the Indianapproach of taking dubious andoften unscrupulous shortcuts —is confronted by a functional regu-latory authority.

New York-based investigativejournalist Katherine Eban’s 482-page book is an eye-opener. It is awell-researched account that tookfour years in the making andincluded extensive ground report-ing from India, China, Ghana,England, Ireland, Mexico and theUnited States. The result is a chill-ingly dark exposé that you wishwere not true and merely a workof fiction.

The principal focus of the bookis Ranbaxy. And the protagonist isDinesh Thakur — the whistle-blower who alerted the US FederalDrug Administration (FDA) aboutthe goings-on in the company andhow it was selling a wide range ofsubstandard medicines in Amer-ica. His is a courageous effort and stand.

It is through Thakur’s eyes thatEban threads the story. It allbegan when he gave up his securejob in New Jersey with Bristol-Meyers-Squibb to join Ranbaxy in2002. It was a tectonic career shiftfor the 33-year-old information sci-entist. He had quit a reputed, suc-cessful and award-winningAmerican pharma major thatdeveloped branded formulationsto join an emerging Indian gener-ic medicine company with thestated objective of disrupting thepharma industry worldwide byproducing affordable alternativesto expensive medicines.

Thakur knew that though both

companies manufactured pharmaproducts, the primary goal of thebranded and generic drug manu-facturer was markedly different.The former innovated to producethe best cures for the highest prof-it margin. The latter provided aff-ordable replicas. Much attentionwas devoted to R&D in BMS. Thefocus at Ranbaxy was on reverseengineering and duplication.

When he took charge as globalhead of research information andportfolio management at Ran-baxy’s headquarters in Guru-gram, outside Delhi, Thakur wasunaware that he had walked into acompany where disarray reigned.He took it upon himself to bringsome order and for a start begancreating an archive for the compa-ny’s data and records. Theseincluded day-to-day details of themanufacturing process of eachdrug, quality checks, laboratorytests and clinical trials.

But as Thakur began the processof digitalising records, he facedstiff resistance. He soon realisedthat transparency was the lastthing that anyone wanted in acompany that backdated andmanipulated records. He first gotan inkling that something wasseriously wrong when he learntthat a WHO study conducted onbehalf of the South African gov-ernment — which was buying ananti-retroviral (ARV) drug fromRanbaxy to treat AIDS patients —revealed that the clinical trials ofthe drug in question were con-

ducted on non-existent patientsand that all the data submittedhad been fabricated.

Thakur was left wondering ifthe ARV (antiretroviral) drug wasthe only instance in which datahad been fabricated. He recalledan incident the previous yearinvolving his son Ishan. Thethree-year-old had an ear infec-tion and was prescribed a genericversion of a strong antibioticmanufactured by Ranbaxy. Itfailed to provide any relief. Butresults were almost immediatewhen the physician changed theprescription to the same drugmade by another pharma compa-ny. His investigations in themonths that followed revealed ashocking case of deception. Fiftyper cent of the data Ranbaxy wassubmitting to the US FDA wasfudged. Ditto EU countries. As forLatin American countries andthe poorer African states, the lesssaid the better. For example, virtually all the 163 drugsapproved by Brazil were backedby fake data.

At Ranbaxy’s manufacturingunits the promised due diligencewas not being followed. Lowergrade ingredients were beingused to cut costs. Tests and clini-cal trials were manipulated toshow the efficacy of formulations.Top executives acted as couriersto ferry suitcase loads of brandedmedicines from abroad whichwere then passed off as the com-pany’s own to generate fakeresults. In countries where regula-tors were lax, fake data was bla-tantly generated without evengoing through the charade of con-ducting tests.

In April 2005, Thakur quitRanbaxy. And on IndianIndependence Day the same year,he decided he would expose thecompany he had worked for. Heopened an email account posingas Malvinder Singh, a low-levelscientist in Ranbaxy, and startedwriting to international agencies,including the WHO and US FDA.

The pseudonym he chose wassymbolic — it was the name of theheir apparent and future CEO ofRanbaxy.

Over the next few years theinformation that Thakur passedon to the FDA and other authori-ties led to Ranbaxy being investi-gated and taken to court. In 2011the company, cornered by a moun-tain of evidence, agreed to pay$500 million to settle the casesagainst it in the US. Then camethe downslide. In April 2014, thecompany was finally sold to SunPharma, another generic drugcompany.

But was Ranbaxy the onlyIndian company guilty of manip-ulation? Eban’s book also looks atWockhardt, Mylan, GVK Bio-sciences, Zydus and Dr Reddy'sLab which ran into trouble withUS drug regulators. However, therevelation by a Ranbaxy officialthat data submitted to the Indianregulator — Drug ControllerGeneral of India — was “100 percent fake since no regulators everlooked at data” is cause for con-cern. Can we trust the quality ofthe drugs in our market?

If there is one flaw in Eban’sbook it is her sweeping presump-tion that branded drug manufac-turers in the West are above boardwhile those producing genericmedicines in India and China arevillains. This is far from true. AnOklahoma court recently holdingJohnson and Johnson guilty ofmarketing its opioid painkillerswhile downplaying the risk ofaddiction is a case in point. TheUS company was asked to pay $572million in damages for fuelling anopioid epidemic.

The moral of the story is per-haps this: drugs — whetherbranded or generic — must bemonitored. And regulators mustconstantly guard against pharmacompanies who put profit overpeople’s lives.

The writer is a senior Delhi-based journalist and author

Czech writer Milan Kundera first introduced the world to litost,the word for a one-upmanship that takes the form of deliberateincompetence or moral failure, in his masterful The Book ofLaughter and Forgetting

PAGE

10BooksSUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

The fifties were spent withEdwina caught betweenher husband and the manshe had given her heart

to. Each spring she would go toIndia, where she would stay atthe Prime Minister’s house, andmost years Nehru would come toBritain. At first, they had writtento each other every day, but with-in a year it was weekly and by1954, it was fortnightly.

But the bond remained strong.It was a bond that Dickie accept-ed, not least because it kept rela-tions harmonious, but whichunsettled Edwina. Throughoutthe early and mid-fifties she oftendiscussed divorce. ‘I’ve neverattempted to stop you or hold youand I never shall,’ he told her. ‘Idon’t want you to stay againstyour will. I am not that selfish.’But she stayed. She stayedbecause of children and grand-children, because she liked thelife that Dickie gave her, becausehe loved and needed her andbecause, in her confused state ofmind, she also continued to lovehim.

Shortly after George VI’s death,Edwina, hospitalised with a

haemorrhage and worried shemight die, passed Nehru’s lettersto her husband for safekeeping.Dickie, nervous of what theymight contain, asked Pamela ifshe would look at them first.Edwina’s confessional letterread:

You will realise that they are amixture of typical Jawaharlal let-ters full of interest and facts andreally historic documents. Someof them have no ‘personal’remarks at all. Others are love let-ters in a sense, though you your-self well realise the strange rela-tionship — most of it spiritual —which exists between us. J hasobviously meant a great deal inmy life, in these last years, and Ithink I in his too. Our meetingshave been rare and always fleet-ing, but I think I understand him,and perhaps he me, as well as anyhuman beings can ever under-stand each other... It is ratherwonderful that my affection andrespect and gratitude and love foryou are really so great that I feel Iwould rather you had these let-ters than anyone else, and I feelyou would understand and not inany way be hurt – rather the con-

trary. We understand each otherso well although so often we seemto differ and to be miles apart.You have been very sweet andgood to me, and we have had agreat partnership. My admira-tion and my devotion to you arevery great. I think you know that.I have had a very full and a veryhappy life on the whole — allthanks to you! Bless you and withmy lasting love.

Dickie waited a year to answer:I’m glad you realise that I know

and have always understood thevery special relationshipbetween Jawaharlal and you,made the easier by my fondnessand admiration for him, and bythe remarkably lucky fact thatamong my many defects God didnot add jealousy in any shape orform. I honestly don’t believe I’veever known what jealousy means— universal as it seems to be —and if it concerns the happinessof anyone I’m as fond of as you,then only my desire foryour hap-piness exists. That is why I’vealways made your visits to eachother easy and been faintly hurtwhen at times (such as in 1951)you didn’t take me into your con-

fidence right away. Consideringhow deeply fond we are of eachother and how proud and admir-ing I certainly am of all yourwonderful achievements, I can-not but be sad and worried thatwe should have had so many dif-ferences... I know I’m selfish anddifficult but that doesn’t changemy deep and profound love foryou... You have been my main-stay, my inspiration and my truecompanion for far more than halfmy life.

What was the nature of therelationship with Nehru?Edwina’s authorised biogra-pher, Janet Morgan, hasclaimed, having talked to ‘thosewho knew them well’, that it waspurer than a physical relation-ship, that Nehru respectedDickie and would not haveabused that trust. ‘To all herlovers she had given only theshell of herself. In exposing herdoubts and hopes, she hadexhausted herself to Nehru in away that was more profoundthan a mere physical embrace.Nothing must be allowed todegrade the precious relationship.’

She argues that the correspon-dence ‘was rhapsodic but chaste,alluding only in general termsto the physical passion theydenied themselves.’ Accordingto Andrew Wilson, ‘The highlycharged, brittle and almostmanic relationship which bothMountbattens had with Nehruseems to the eyes of hindsight tobe much more explicable interms of a non-consummated,sexual-emotional passion.’ LadyPamela Hicks, interviewed forthe publication of her memoirIndia Remembered, said it wasplatonic. Philip Ziegler passesover it quickly: ‘If there was anyphysical element it can onlyhave been of minor importanceto either party.’ Mountbatten’sgrandson, Ashley Hicks, claimsNehru’s sister revealed that hewas impotent and thereforethere could not have been aphysical relationship withEdwina.

Richard Hough, the author ofseveral books on theMountbattens, and who

interviewed Edwina’s sister, laterwrote, ‘Mountbatten himself

knew that they were lovers. Hewas proud of the fact, unlikeEdwina’s sister who deploredthe relationship and hatedNehru for the rest of his life as a result.’ Marie Seton, afriend and biographer ofEdwina, agreed: ‘I really don’tknow about the physical side oftheir affair — I’d think probably yes.’

Nehru was deeply attractive towomen and had many lovers,including: the politicianPadmaja Naidu, who threatenedto commit suicide over the affairand whom he later appointedGovernor of West Bengal; theactress Devika Rani; andMridula Sarabhai, the GeneralSecretary of the CongressWorking Committee. In May1949, he supposedly fathered ason with a scholar of Indianscripture and mythology, in herearly thirties, called ShardhaMata. The boy was brought upin a Christian Missionaryboarding school.

Excerpted with permissionfrom the publishers,HarperCollins India

Witty historical fantasysadly loses the plot

THE MOUNTBATTENSby Andrew LownieHarperCollins, `699

BOTTLE OF LIES: RANBAXYAND THE DARK SIDE OF

INDIA PHARMAby Katherine EbanJuggernaut, `699

The year is 1673,Aurangzeb is on thethrone (no, do not

shudder — he’s not the vil-lain of this piece), and thereare hushed whispers of arebellion in Narnaul.

This rebellion is different.A sulking, muscle-flexingzamindar isn’t responsible

for it, but a bunch of poorpeople called ganwaars/mundas/menials/unseeables/untouch-ables who want a better world. People regarded as scum by uppercaste Hindus have dared to speak up against backbreaking taxes,and created their very own utopia. They are said to be followers ofKabir, with no affection for any organised religion. Incredible sto-ries are spun around them. Their women are warriors too, “car-rying guns, giving orders, strutting around like men! The work ofthe chudail, of course... Theyate their prisoners, it seems,and children too — eventheir own”!

An amir in Shahjahanabaddecides to get more informa-tion on the rebellion andsends his son Shamsher toconvey a secret message toan important person in Nar-naul. As Shamsher and hisentourage clip-clop down theroyal highway, Shamsherdiscovers to his horror thathis half-sister Zeenat hassneakily joined him. Zeenatrefuses to go back — she’s ona top secret mission of herown. As they travel, bicker-ing like siblings do, they firstsmell and then see signs ofthe crushed rebellion: “Itwas a set of gallows, rightnext to the road. Strung withtwisted figures. Two more sets stood a merciful distance away. Tenbodies on each, long dead, missing limbs and most of their faces.”

That’s it. No spoilers. Read the book to unravel the mystery ofthe rebellion — that’s the main plot, but it’s all over the place.What is riveting though, are the historical asides the author gen-erously throws in. Facts like these: It seems that the seths ofAhmedabad had generously funded the alleged bigot Aurangzeb’sbattle for the throne. The war preparations by the two sides areengaging. It is interesting to note that Naga Sadhus were never tobe trusted, just like today’s politicians: “They were withAurangzeb first, since he was expected to win. Then they changedtheir mind — because Dara Shukoh offered double whateverAurangzeb had. Of course, Aurangzeb was likely to increase hisrates too... The rates would go higher and higher, right till the eveof the battle.” The description of the battle itself is marvellous,and witty in parts. It ends like everything in India seems to endthese days: “Those left on the field were all on the winning side,irrespective of where they had been originally.” This book is defi-nitely worth reading, but mainly for the history, not the mystery.

Rupa Gulab is a freelance writer and the author of Girl Alone,Chip of the Old Blockhead and The Great Depression of the 40s

Whistle-blower vs Ranbaxy saga asks

disturbing questions

FEAR OF LIONSby Amita Kanekar

Hachette India, `399

New York-based journalistEban’s 482-page book istruly an eye-opener. It is a well-researchedaccount that took fouryears in the making. Theresult is a hard-hittingand chillingly dark expose that you wishwere not true and merelya work of fiction.

BESTSELLERS’ CORNER

1 10 MINUTES AND 38 SECONDS IN THIS STRANGE WORLDby Elif ShafakPenguin Viking, `399

2 THE NEW GIRLby Daniel Silva, HarperCollins, `399

FICTION

NON-FICTION

Platonic or corporeal? What Nehru shared with Edwina

Ajith Pillai

RupaGulab

AndrewLownie

extract

review

review

Gowhar Geelanicalls himself “astoryteller from aplace where funer-

als of the young are politi-cal events, mourning is per-manent politics and thepeople are in a constant bat-tle between memory andforgetfulness”.

He sets the tone by start-ing — dramatically — withthe funeral of BurhanWani, a young, media-savvy commander of theHizbul Mujahedeen (HM)in July 2016 in Tral.Between 100,000 and 300,000people are said to havemourned the “martyr”. Incomparison, the author

cites that there were just3,000 mourners for thefuneral of Mufti Moham-mad Sayeed — the People’sDemocratic Party’s leader,six months earlier inSrinagar in January 2016.

He uses this data to illus-trate the fifth transition inKashmir’s politics — thefirst being the late SheikhAbdullahsahib’s “QuitKashmir” movement in the1946 against the HinduDogra Maharaja whoseancestor bought his right torule Kashmir from theBritish in 1846.

Burhan Wani’s crop ofyoung militants adopt theoutward vestiges of the

ISIS, like masks to hidetheir faces, and yet willing-ly circulate their photo-graphs armed to the teethon social media. ISIS flagsare said to have firstappeared in the Valley afterthe 2014 floods in Srinagar.A “tiny” group claims alle-giance to the Islamic Stateof Kashmir and AnsarGhazawat-ul-Hind. Butmost, says the author, havelittle or no idea of the ISISideology or of global jihad.They do not target civilianpopulations unlike ISIS, Al-Qaeda or the Taliban. Theirphilosophy is straightfor-ward — fight the govern-ment — the “oppressor” —a sentiment borne out by personal or family experience.

So resonant is the mes-sage of these young“Mujahedeen” that SyedAli Shah Geelani, head ofthe All Parties HurriyatConference (Geelani), whotill now occupied the ultra“radical” space which

backed merger withPakistan, was pressured toguard his turf by denounc-ing the Daesh andTehreek-e-Pakistan as ter-rorist and un-Islamic

organisations.The author asserts, based

on a 2010 ChathamHouseReport — “Kashmir,paths to peace”, that mostKashmiris Muslims wantindependence, as do (appar-ently) 28 per cent of theHindus, with the rest opt-ing for being part of India.

Those preferring mergerwith Pakistan are few. Butaffection for Pakistan iswidespread because it isseen as an anti-India sup-port platform to be used toretaliate against govern-ment excesses. The bondsof Islam and the pull ofKashmir’s historical – cul-tural and commercial –links with Lahore alsohelps cement this nostalgicaffection.

The author’s preferred“solution” is to roll back allthe micro steps taken since1952 in collaboration withthe discredited, quislingmainstream parties – todilute Kashmir’s autono-my. Doing so, he feels,

would create the positivityneeded to allow the newarrangements to reflect thespirit of the people ofKashmir.

This is a highly readableaccount of the genesis andthe tragedy of modernKashmir. It helps that theauthor is a child of thetroubled and bloody 1990sin Kashmir with a fund ofstories, anecdotes andvignettes interwoven withcold hard data.

Sadly, the book was pub-lished just months prior tothe tectonic shifts institut-ed by the Narendra Modigovernment in Kashmir’spolitical architecture inAugust 2019, which disruptall prior thinking for bring-ing peace to Kashmir.Happily, this could also bethe starting point for a sec-ond insightful book byGowhar Geelani.

The writer is adviser,Observer Research

Foundation

Kashmir’s still waters run deepSanjeev Ahluwalia

review

KASHMIR – RAGE ANDREASON

by Gowhar GeelaniRupa, `394

1 ARTICLE 370: ACONSTITUTIONALHISTORY OF JAMMU AND KASHMIRby A.G. NooraniOxford India, `595

2 SAVARKAR ECHOESFROM A FORGOTTEN PAST 1883-1924by Vikram Sampath, Penguin, `999

— Bahrisons, New Delhi

Hannah Davis (from left), Delilah Belle Hamlin,Lisa Rinna, Amelia Gray and Normani attend theHarper’s Bazaar ICONS By Carine Roitfeld gala atPlaza Hotel presented in New York on Friday. — AP

SHORT TAKES

Los Angeles: Hollywood starRobert Dowey Jr has

revealed that his Instagramaccount had been hacked

and has now been restored.The Iron Man star on Fridayhad asked his fans to steerclear from any posts beingmade on his page

for a time being.“I’m sorry to say myInstagram has been

compromised...Please steer

clear for the timebeing until it’s sort-ed. Thank you all. I

love you 3,000,”Downey Jr had

posted on Twitter.The 54-year-old actor’saccount was hacked on

Friday and the posts sharedincluded ads for free

iPhones, Playstation, andAmazon gift cards. On

Saturday, Downey Jrannounced that he has

regained access to his Instagram page. The

actor shared a picture of thetitular villain of Avengers: Age of Ultron, which read

“Pardon my interruption...” Downey Jr cap-

tioned the photo, “We areback! #hackers gonna #hac-

kno #bueno !#boo #fbf#flashbackfriday #ageoful-

tron.”— PTI

London: British actor GillianAnderson is set to essay the

role of former prime ministerof the UK, Margaret Thatcher,

in the season four of TheCrown. The Netflix originalseries is currently awaiting

the premiere of its third sea-son, featuring Olivia Colmanas Queen Elizabeth II, TobiasMenzies as Prince Philip and

Helena Bonham Carter asPrincess Margaret.

Anderson’s casting wasannounced on the official

Twitter page of the critically-acclaimed

series. — PTI

Los Angeles: Will Smith isset to headline Paramount Pictures new sci-fi drama

Brilliance. The 50-year-oldactor will also produce theproject which is an official

adaptation of Marcus Sakey’sdystopian trilogy of the same

name, reported Deadline.The film mark Smith’s

reunion with producer-writerAkiva Goldsman, who is setto pen the script. They havepreviously worked together on the movies — I, Robot, I

Am Legend and Hancock.Brilliance is set in a futurewhere one per cent of the

world has developed uniquegifts. — PTI

Los Angeles: Actor ZooeyDeschanel has announced separation from husband

Jacob Pechenik after fouryears of marriage. In a state-

ment to the HollywoodReporter, the couple’s repre-

sentative said the two willcontinue to remain

“friends,business partners” and “co-parents” to their two

children — daughter ElsieOtter and son Charlie Wolf.

“After much discussion and along period of contemplationwe have decided we are bet-

ter off as friends, businesspartners and co-parents

rather than life partners,”they said. — PTI

Zooey Deschanelsplits from hubby

Published by T. Venkateswarlu for and on behalf of Deccan Chronicle Holdings Limited at Jawaharlal Nehru National Youth Centre, 219 Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg, New Delhi 110 002. and Printed by him at BFL Infotech Limited, C – 9, Sector – III, Noida – 201301. Editor – T. Venkatram Reddy,RNI Registration number 57290/94, Price in Nepal - Nep. Rs. 20.00 per copy.

Will Smith to starin sci-fi drama

ROBERTDOWNEY JR’S

INSTA HACKED

Gillian to playMargaret Thatcher

PAGE

11NewsmakersSUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

Mick blasts Don for rudeness, lies

Busting stressMeghan Markle takes ayoga class shortly afterlanding in New York City

Stormi (daughter) issuch a good baby

and she comes withme everywhere

— Kylie Jenner,

American model

RobertDowney Jr

London: Actor JessicaChastain has praisedher It: Chapter Two co-star James McAvoy forsupporting equal payeven before it became araging topic of discus-sion post #MeToo andTime’s Up movements.

The 42-year-old actor,who has been a vocaladvocate of genderequality, said McAvoy

endorsed the ideaeven before it became“cool”. “I’m going tosay something nice

about James McAvoyhere. Before the#MeToo movement,

before Time’s Up, beforeanything like that,James was always a pro-ponent of equal pay.Even when we did TheDisappearance ofEleanor Rigby (2013), heand I were doing thesame amount of work,the same everything,and we got equal pay forthat movie.”

“He’s always been aproponent of that. He’sposted about it on hisInstagram before it wasthe cool thing to do. He’san incredible humanbeing,” Chastain toldOK! magazine.

The actor said she ishappy that finally peopleare talking about genderequality in Hollywoodand it has given her‘’hope’’ for the future.

“I’ve been talkingabout it for a very longtime, since 2012, when Idid Zero Dark Thirty.I’m pretty sure certainpeople think I don’t talkabout anything else, butit’s very exciting to seethat other people arereally interested in itnow. It doesn’t really feellike it’s a taboo subjectany more.

It: Chapter Two, direct-ed by Andy Muschietti,released this Friday.

— PTI

Jessica praisesJames McAvoyfor backingequal salary

Venice: Rock legend MickJagger attacked USPresident Donald Trumpfor his rudeness and liesSaturday and for “tearingapart” environment con-trols when Americashould be setting the stan-dard for the world.

The Rolling Stonessinger said he was“absolutely behind” youngclimate change activistswho had earlier occupiedthe red carpet at theVenice film festival, wherehe was starring in the psy-chological thriller, The

Burnt OrangeHeresy.

J a g g e rsaid hed e p l o r e dhow politicsh a sdescendedinto name-calling,

“includ-ing in myo w nc o u n t r yt h i sweek” —a refer-ence toBritish

P r i m eMinisterB o r i sJohnsoncompar-i n gopposi-t i o n

Labour leader JeremyCorbyn to a “big girlsblouse” and a “chlorinatedchicken”.

The icon, now 76,bewailed “the polarisationand incivility in publiclife”, although the one-time bad boy of 1960s rockadmitted he was “notalways for civility” him-self.

“But when you see itnow... In so many coun-

tries, including myown this last week,but particularly the

US, it’s a seachange.

“It is not aboutm a n n e r s , ”

J a g g e rinsisted,

saying he

was fearful about “whereall this polarisation andrudeness and lying isgoing to lead us.”

But more worrying still,said the singer, was thatwhat little environmentalsafeguards there werewere being swept awayacross the globe.

“We are in a very diffi-cult situation at themoment, especially in theUS, where all the environ-mental controls that wereput in place — that werejust about adequate —have been rolled back bythe current administra-tion so much that they arebeing wiped out,” headded.

Jagger, who rarely com-ments on politics, said

“the US shouldbe the worldleader in envi-ronmental con-trol but now ithas decided togo the otherway.

“I am soglad thatp e o p l efeel sostronglya b o u tt h a tt h a tt h e ywant

to protest,” said, referringto young activists fromGreta Thunberg’s Fridayfor Future movement whosprayed “Listen to yourchildren” and “Make thered carpet green” on thefestival’s red carpet.

His co-star DonaldSutherland echoed his callto protest, and urged peo-ple to take to the streetsand vote out Trump,Johnson and Brazil’s far-right leader JairBalsonaro. — AFP

Donald Sutherland backs rock legend, urges people to vote out Trump, Johnson

Venice: Pink Floyd leg-end Roger Waters brand-ed British prime ministerBoris Johnson a danger-ous “sociopath” Friday.

The singer saidJohnson and other pop-ulist leaders like DonaldTrump are hell-bent ondestroying the planet as amovie of his latest worldtour, “Us + Them” —which highlighted theplight of migrants — waspremiered at the Venicefilm festival.

He said that likeBrazil’s far-rightPresident Jair Bolsonaro,Johnson and Trump hadembarked on “a wilfulquest to destroy thisbeautiful planet on whichwe live.

“If we do not resist theneo-liberal and neo-fas-cist forces that are tear-ing the planet apart therewill not be anything leftfor our children and theirchildren,” the veteran

star declared.British-born Waters, a

long-time supporter ofleft-wing causes, toldAFP that Johnson “fitsall the fascist paradigms.He is a larger-than-lifebuffoon totally uninter-ested in anything beyondhow can he can get power.

“Fascism is always anunholy alliance betweenthe ruling and the corpo-rate class with the popu-lar support of the unedu-cated mass.

That is what is happen-ing in the UK at themoment,” he insisted.

Nevertheless, Waterssaid he would gladly sitdown with Trump,

Johnson or Brexit Partyleader Nigel Farage “ifsuch a meeting wouldbear fruit. I am a greatbeliever of the stonedropped in the well... Andthe ripple that might dosome good.”

But the writer of suchclassic protest songs asThe Wall said none of thewave of populist leadersacross Europe were capa-ble of feeling “for a fellowhuman being.

“You either have love inyour heart or you don’t,”he said.

“[Matteo] Salvini has nolove in his heart,” Watersadded, in a swipe atItaly’s former far-rightinterior minister.“Neither does BorisJohnson, neither doesDonald Trump,” he said.

“They are heartlesssociopaths...” — AFP

Paris: Embattled film-maker Woody Allen sayshe does not regret his 2018statement where he hadclaimed that he should bethe poster boy of #MeToomovement.

In an interview withFrench outlet France 24,Allen reiterated that inhis over 60 years longcareer, he has never beenaccused of inappropriatebehaviour by the femaleactors and he has alwaystreated them at par withtheir male counterparts.

“I should be (poster boy#MeToo movement)... I’veworked with hundreds ofactresses, not one of themhas ever complainedabout me; not a singlecomplaint. I’ve employedwomen in the top capaci-ty for years and we’vealways paid them theequal of men,” Allen said.

“I’ve done everythingthe MeToo movementwould love to achieve,” headded. Allen is currentlyin France to promote histroubled directorial ARainy in New York,which is set to premiereat the DeauvilleAmerican Film Festivalbefore hitting the Frenchtheatres on September 18.

A Rainy in New York,which features an ensem-ble cast of Timothee

Chalamet, Elle Fanning,Selena Gomez, Jude Law,Diego Luna and LievSchreiber, was earlier setto be distributed in the USby Amazon Studios.

But after Allen inter-view with Argentiniannews outlet PeriodismoPara Todos, where he saidhe should be the “posterboy” for the #MeToomovement, the studio ter-minated its four-moviecontract with the director.

“To me the movie isbeing released all over theworld. If people enjoy themovie, I think it will even-tually be released in theUS. But to me it doesn’tmatter, I have already fin-ished another movie.

‘Rainy Day... is history. Imade it a year ago andnow I’m thinking of thenext movie. I will put itout and hope for the best.I always hope people willlike it.Sometimes they do,sometimes they don’t,” hesaid. — PTI

Allen still thinks heis MeToo poster boy

San Francisco: Googlesaid Friday it was ban-ning online ads forunproven medical treat-ments including moststem cell and gene thera-py. “This new policy willprohibit ads selling treat-ments that have no estab-lished biomedical or sci-entific basis,” Google pol-icy adviser AdrienneBiddings said in a blogpost.

Biddings said Googlewill “prohibit advertisingfor unproven or experi-mental medical tech-niques such as most stemcell therapy, cellular (non-stem) therapy and genetherapy.” Google will alsoban “treatments that arerooted in basic scientificfindings and preliminaryclinical experience, butcurrently have insuffi-cient formal clinical test-ing to justify widespreadclinical use,” she added.

The online giant said itmade the decision due to“a rise in bad actorsattempting to take advan-tage of individuals byoffering untested, decep-tive treatments.” Thecompany said this wasnot an effort to diminish

the importance of med-ical discoveries butmaintained that “moni-tored, regulated clini-cal trials are the mostreliable way to test andprove important med-ical advances.”Google said it took theaction after consultingexperts in the field andthat its move wasendorsed by the presidentof the InternationalSociety for Stem CellResearch, DeepakSrivastava. In Google’sstatement, he was quotedas saying, “The prema-ture marketing and com-mercialisation ofunproven stem cell prod-ucts threatens publichealth, their confidencein biomedical research,and undermines thedevelopment of legiti-mate new therapies.”

— AFP

Google bans onlineads for ‘unproven’medical therapies

Rio De Janeiro: ABrazilian judge hasblocked the evangelicalmayor of Rio de Janeirofrom trying to ban aMarvel comic book whichshows a kiss between twomale superheroes.

The authorities must“refrain from confiscat-ing works based on theircontent, especially thosewhich deal with homosex-uality,” judge HelenoNunes ruled Friday,granting an interiminjunction after findingan apparent contradic-tion with the constitu-tional right to freedom ofexpression.

Copies of the book,Young Avengers: theChildren’s Crusade, hadsold out after the mayor

demanded it be with-drawn from Rio’s bookfair, organizers told AFP.

U l t r a - c o n s e r v a t i v emayor Marcelo Crivellasaid Thursday he orderedthe book removed fromsale because of its “sexu-al content for minors.”

“Books like this need tobe wrapped in black,sealed plastic with awarning of the contents,”Crivella wrote on Twitter.

Crivella, a former bish-op, was elected Rio’smayor in 2016, promisingto bring law and order toa city beset by crime.

Drawing that sparkedthe mayor’s ire showedthe Marvel superherocharacters Wiccan andHulkling exchanging akiss, fully dressed. — AFP

Rob Morgan arrives for the gala premiere of the filmJust Mercy at the 2019 Toronto International FilmFestival on Friday. — AP

BRAZILIAN MAYOR TRIES TO BANAVENGERS COMIC OVER GAY KISS

PINK FLOYD LEGEND WATERS LABELSPM BORIS JOHNSON A ‘SOCIOPATH’

Amodelwalks the

ramp duringthe New York’s

Fashion Week onFriday.— AP

◗ Google will pro-hibit advertising forunproven or experi-mental medicaltechniques such asmost stem cell ther-apy, cellular (non-stem) therapy

ROGER WATERS

AGE CORRESPONDENTNEW DELHI

Going beyond mainstreamart, an exhibition of theMithila paintings from theJanapada SampadaArchives of the IndiraGandhi National Centrefor the Arts is beingorganised at the IGNCApremises here. Titled,Likhiya, it brings out thefolk painting traditions ofthe Mithila region ofBihar.

The exhibition, inaugu-rated in the presence ofDr Sachchidanand Joshi,member secretary,IGNCA, on Friday, will beopen for the public tillApril 28.

The exhibition has beenjointly curated by ProfMolly Kaushal of the

Janapada Sampada wingof the IGNCA andMadhubani artistManisha Jha.

“For centuries thewomen of Mithila havedecorated the walls oftheir houses with intri-cate, linear designs on theoccasion of marriages andother ceremonies. Itbrings out India’s heritageand culture”.

“These paintings are aresult of decade longengagements of theIGNCA with the folkpainting traditions in theMithila region and itswomen artists in all threeimportant styles ofMithila paintings, includ-ing Bharni, Kachni andGoidana paintings”, saidDr Joshi.

The mythological origin

of Mithila paintings dateback to the time of theRamayana, where Mithilanagari was decorated withwall paintings for the wed-ding of Princess Sita toLord Rama, he said.

While explaining therichness of the Mithilapaintings, prof MollyKaushal said, “This paint-

ing style is one of the old-est traditions evolved,practised, and preservedby women, and passed onorally from one genera-tion to another. Mithilapainting has always beena group activity whichinvolved women of allages.”

“There are three stylesof Mithila paintingsnamely, Bharni orcoloured paintings,Kachni or line paintingsand Goidana (tattoo)paintings,” she added.

The IGNCA has beenexploring the creativeworld of women and theircontribution in the mak-ing of Indian civilisationthrough various pro-grammes and researchprojects, field studies anddocumentation.

Mithila art: From village walls to canvas◗ These paintingsare a result ofdecade longengagements withthe folk painting tra-ditions in the Mithilaregion and itswomen artists in allthree importantstyles of Mithilapaintings

Gana Bayarsaikhan at the 76thedition of the Venice FilmFestival in Italy on Friday. — AP Elizabeth

Debicki MickJagger


SHORT TAKESAfghan pile misery

on BangladeshCChhiittttaaggoonngg ((BBaannggllaaddeesshh))::

Ibrahim Zadran and AsgharAfghan hit half-centuries while

Rashid Khan played a quickcameo after claiming five wick-

ets in an innings, asAfghanistan took command in

the one-off Test againstBangladesh in Chittagong on

Saturday.The visitors — playing only their

third Test in history — reached237-8 at stumps on the third

day, setting a huge target forBangladesh by taking an overall

lead of 374 runs.Debutant Zadran hit highest 87off 208 balls for Afghanistan in

the second innings while formerskipper Afghan made 50 off

108 balls, his second fifty,adding to Bangladesh’s frustra-

tion. Rashid added 24 off 22balls which extended

Afghanistan’s lead. — AFPBBrriieeff ssccoorreess:: Afghanistan 342

(Rahmat Shah 102, AsgharAfghan 92, Rashid Khan 51;

Taijul Islam 4-116) and 237-8(Ibrahim Zadran 87, Asghar

Afgan 50; Shakib Al Hasan 3-53) vs Bangladesh 205

(Mominul Haque 52; RashidKhan 5-55, Mohammad

Nabi 3-56).

Proteas arrivefor T20 series

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: The Quinton deKock-led South Africa team set

foot on India on Saturday forthe upcoming three-match T20

series. “Excited to be back in India

and looking forward to playingcricket again,” pace spearhead

Kagiso Rabada tweeted. South Africa will start the tourwith the T20 matches, the first

of which is in Dharamsala onSeptember 15 followed by

Mohali (September 18) andBengaluru (September 22).

That will be followed by Testsin Visakhapatnam (Oct. 2-6),Pune (Oct. 10-14) and Ranchi

(Oct 19-23) as the Proteas opentheir campaign in the ICC

World Test Championship. The team is scheduled tomeet South Africa’s High

Commissioner in the capital onMonday and are expected to

touch down to Dharamsala onSeptember 9, six days before

the first T20 International. The squad will be led by

interim team director EnochNkwe, after the decision not to

renew the contract of Ottis Gibson.

— PTI

Excited to be backin India & looking

forward to playingcricket again.

— South Africa’s Kagiso Rabadaon the upcoming series

against India.

Moves upSri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga, who picked up four wicketsin four balls against New Zealand, has jumped 20places to be No. 21 on the latest ICC T20I rankings

Cricket

He was a maestro, he was magical

Abdul Qadir’s bobbing,swaying bouncingrun up was arguably

the most riveting spectaclein cricket from the mid1970s through the 1980s.

It was unusual and playedout to a distinctive rhythm.

Qadir took barely 8-9 stepsto reach the wicket, but towatch him bowl was likebeing at an opera where hewas lead performer, withfielders making up the sup-port cast and chorus.

However, it was not justhis off beat bowling stylethat marked Qadir out asextraordinary. Each deliv-ery was loaded with drama,suspense and a sense ofanticipation that wouldgrip onlookers and fill bats-men facing him with deepapprehension.

In a tweeted tribute toQadir, former captain (andcurrently Pakistan PrimeMinister) Imran Khancalled the late leg-spinner a‘genius’.

Imran also claimed thathad Qadir been playingtoday, with DRS available,he would have taken asmany wickets as ShaneWarne.

The second part of

Imran’s tribute is open tospeculation but in pro-nouncing Qadir as ‘genius’,however, Imran would findno dissent from any quar-ter. Not even Warne whoacknowledges that he wasinspired by Qadir, and alsogained valuable insightsfrom him when they met.

Statistics do not reflectQadir’s brilliance adequate-ly. Particularly those whoplayed with and againsthim aver he was special. Iwas once given a masterclass on the nuances of leg-spin by him, ironicallywhen he had been droppedfrom a match.

This was in Bangaloreduring the final Test of the1987 series. He had beensidelined and left arm spin-ner Iqbal Qasim playedinstead. On the rest day, Imet Qadir in his hotel. Hewas still grumpy that cap-tain Imran Khan hadn’ttrusted him on the dust-bowl. He then picked up acricket ball to show how hewould have bowled on thatspiteful pitch.

Gripping the ball in differ-ent ways, demonstratinghow he would cock thewrist to achieve all kinds of

trajectories and angles withthe orb, and how this wouldplay out in the middleagainst which Indian bats-men, Qadir seemed to haveplotted out Pakistan’s victo-ry thoroughly.

Except, of course, that hewasn’t playing! “Imaginekeeping me out of thismatch, on this pitch?” hefumed.

As it happened, Qasimand Tauseef Ahmed wonthe match for Pakistan, jus-tifying Imran’s decision,but that’s another story.

For the most, though,Imran not only trustedQadir’s ability, but wasinstrumental in buildinghim up into a formidableplayer, a potent warhead inan other pace-dominatedattack and which madePakistan the real chal-lengers to West Indies’shegemony in the 1980s.

Intriguingly, before Qadirarrived leg-spinners — whofeature ahead of off-spin-ners and left-arm spinnerin the list of 200+ Test wick-et takers — had gone intodecline in post-War cricket.

In 1950s, 60s, and 70s themajor practitioners of thisskill were hardly five:Sonny Ramadhin, SubhashGupte, Richie Benaud andthe high unorthodoxBhagwat Chandrashekhar.There were some others too,but hardly made a mark.

It would take a treatisewhy this decline shouldhave set in specially sinceleg-spinners have alwaysbeen known to be wicket-takers and matchwinners.

Essentially, I think it wasbecause of a defensivemindset that pervaded thesport in these decades. Legspin is a difficult skill tomaster. Without good con-

trol, such bowlers can beexpensive, and so werethought to be a liability.

This was compounded bythe fact that placid wicketsbecame commonplace, cap-tains were unwilling to takerisks, preferring draws overpossible loss.

For leg spinners to bloom,helpful pitches is only partof the incentive. The biggerissue is how much faithcaptains can repose in themand use them as attackingbowlers with the requisiteattacking field placing.

The Australians were gen-erally good at this, but legspinners were languishingDown Under too. It tookImran to transform the sce-nario by punting on Qadirin the 1980s, who in turnbreathed new life into legspin bowling.

In his wake came Warne,Kumble, McGill andKaneria — high quality legspinners — in rapid succes-sion. The revival had start-ed and cricket became thericher for it.

Leg spinners aboundtoday, even in T20 cricket,and their proliferation canbe traced back to Qadir’ssuccess in his heyday.

He made it sexy again, notjust because of his ‘hip hop’run up, but how he teasedand tormented the bestbatsmen, made them danceto his tune, as it were.

He was a maestro, he wasmagical, he will be missed.RIP.

Ayaz MemonOver The Top

India colts put itacross Pakistan

Rivals had no fearbefore 2012: ViratNNeeww DDeellhhii,, SSeepptt.. 77:: ViratKohli says it was theabsence of fear or respectfor him in the opposition’seye that has forced him tochange his work ethic andbecome the “impact play-er” that he is today.

While most aspects of hislife is well-documented, aninterview of him withEmmy winning journalistGraham Bensinger isaimed at providing a peekinto the life of India’s mostpopular and activesportsperson to a moreglobal audience.

Kohli, who is the world’spremier batsman, spokeabout how he worked onhis fitness that lifted hisgame after coming backfrom the Australian tour in2012. “(There was a time)When I walked in to bat,there wasn’t any fear orrespect in opposition cor-

ner,” Kohli said in a sportsweb-show, In Depth withGraham Bensinger.

“I didn’t want to walkinto ground thinking thatopposition feels that thisguy is a pushover, who isgoing to do no damage.Just didn’t want to beanother player as I wantedto make an impact.

“I wanted that when Iwalk in, the teams shouldthink that we need to getthis guy out or else we willlose the game. And if Idon't want to be that guy,then there is somethingwrong in my head,” theIndian captain said.

He spoke about how fit-ness has become an inte-gral part of his life andhow it helped him recoverquickly, even as the Indianteam crisscrossed the UKduring a six-week WorldCup campaign. — PTI

MMoorraattuuwwaa ((SSrrii LLaannkkaa)),,SSeepptt.. 77:: Opener Arjun Azadand No 3 batsman NT TilakVerma scored hundreds asIndia comfortably beatarch-rivals Pakistan by 60runs in an U-19 Asia Cupencounter here onSaturday.

Batting first, India scoreda challenging 305 for 9 in 50overs riding on 183-run sec-ond wicket stand betweenArjun (121 off 111 balls)and Tilak (110 off 119balls).

In reply, Pakistan werenever in contention as theywere bowled out for 245 in46.4 overs. Left-arm spin-ner Atharva Ankolekartook 3 for 36 in 10 overs.Medium pacers VidyadharPatil and Sushant Mishrachipped in with a couple ofwickets each.

The right-hander, Arjunhit eleven fours and foursixes while Tilak had 10boundaries and a six to hiscredit. None of the otherIndia batsmen could sur-pass individual score of 20as Pakistan seamersNaseem Shah (3/52) andAbbas Afridi (3/72) weretaken to task despitereturning with three wick-ets apiece.

While batting, Pakistan

captain Rohail Khan (117off 108 balls) fought a lonebattle and got some sup-port from Haris Khan (43)during their 120-run standfor the fourth wicket. OnceRohail was trapped leg-before by seamer AkashSingh at the start of 41stover, Pakistani challengeended. — PTIBBrriieeff ssccoorreess:: India 305/9in 50 overs (Arjun Azad121, NT Tilak Verma 110,Naseem Shah 3/52,Abbas Afridi 3/72) btPakistan 245 in 46.4 overs(Rohail Khan 117, HarisKhan 43, AtharvaAnkolekar 3/36).

Tilak VVerma

A file photo of Abdul Qadir.

India Red celebrate after winning the Duleep Trophy in Bengaluru on Saturday.

Akshay takes five wicketsas Red bag Duleep TrophySUMIT SSINGHBENGALURU, SEPT. 7

India Red clinched theDuleep Trophy with a com-prehensive win over IndiaGreen in the final here onSaturday. Red won by aninnings and 38 runs.

Green were bowled out for119 in their second inningswith Sidhesh Lad (42) wag-ing the lone battle. AkshayWakhare returned withimpressive figures of 5/13for Red.

Avesh Khan’s openingburst where he took wick-ets paved the way forWakhare to complete hisdemolition job.

Trailing by 157 runs,

Green had a tough taskcoming into the fourth day.

They had inauspiciousstart as their skipper FaizFazal (10 off 25balls) nickedit to ’keeper Ishan Kishanoff Jaydev Unadkat. Then,Dhruv Shorey perished inthe same fashion.

Akshath Reddy (33) wholooked comfortable initial-ly was undone by a peach ofa delivery from Avesh.

Akshdeep soon followedReddy to the pavilion afterbeing dismissed LBW byAvesh. Sidhesh andWadkar looked on course tostabilise Green’s innings,but Akshay did the trick forRed. In a span of sevenovers, he cleaned up rest of

the Green’s batting.Siddesh provided someresistance but he didn’t getsupport from the other end.

Akshay credited formerIndia spinner NarendraHirwani for his perform-ance. Wakhare also said thepitch on the fourth dayhelped bowlers with theodd deliveries keeping low.

BBRRIIEEFF SSCCOORREESSIndia Red 388 in 135 overs(Abhimanyu Easwaran153, Ishan Kishan 39, DAJadeja 3/93) bt IndiaGreen 231 in 72.1 oversand 119 in 39.5 overs(Siddhesh Lad 42, AkshayWakhare 5/13, Avesh Khan3/38)

U-19 ASIA CUP

There wasa time,

when I walked into bat, therewasn’t any fearor respect inoppositioncorner

— VIRAT KOHLI

■ Broad and Archer rock Australia, but Smith steadies ship

ROCK & ROLLMM aa nn cc hh --eesstteerr,, SSeepptt..77:: StuartBroad and

Jofra Archerr e v i v e d

England’s flag-ging hopes of vic-

tory in the fourthAshes Test on

Saturday with twowickets apiece to

reduce Australia to 63-4in their second innings

at tea on the fourth day.But Steve Smith came toAustralia’s rescue onceagain with a brilliant half-century. Aussies were 109for four in 32 overs.

Australia, who willretain the Ashes at 2-1 upwith one to play in the five-Test series if they win thismatch at Old Trafford,pushed their lead past 300.

Broad had tea figures oftwo wickets for 19 runs innine overs and Archer 2-27,also in nine.

The sixth ball ofAustralia’s second inningssaw left-handed openerDavid Warner out for histhird straight Test duckwhen Broad, the success-ful bowler on each occa-sion, had him lbw.

It was the sixth timeWarner, like Smith appear-ing in his first Test seriessince completing a 12-month ball-tampering ban,had fallen to Broad thisAshes.

The now familiar mix-ture of cheers and jeers

greeted Warner’s exit,with the rueful bats-

man not even both-ering with a review.

Fellow left-hand-ed opener MarcusHarris (six) wasalso lbw to Broad,

even though hedecided to challenge

Marais Erasmus’ deci-sion.

World Cup-winnerArcher, in only his third

Test, had been down onpace during Australia’sfirst innings total of 497-8declared.

But the express quickwas back over the 90 mphmark on Saturday and itmade a huge difference tohis fortunes.

Marnus Labuschagnefailed to reach fifty for thefirst time in four Testinnings since coming in asa substitute for Smith atLord’s when he wasbowled lbw for 11 byArcher.

Labuschagne appeared totake exception to beinggiven a ‘send-off ’ by Broadas he left the field.

Travis Head thenexchanged words withArcher after being hit by arising delivery on the leftbicep.

The next delivery sawHead drive Archerthrough the covers forfour, but the ball after-wards saw Head cleanbowled middle stump for12 by a 91.7 mph Archerdelivery that beat his for-ward defensive stroke.

England, who resumedon their overnight 200-5,avoided following-on withjust one wicket standingthanks to Jos Buttler’scover-driven four offMitchell Starc.

That boundary cameafter Australia wereunable to challenge an lbwdecision against No 11Jack Leach — whose last-man resistance in supportof century-maker BenStokes helped England winat Headingley — becausethey had used up all theirreviews.

Buttler was last man outin total of 301, bowled for41 by Pat Cummins.

All of Australia’s three-man pace attack were inthe wickets, JoshHazlewood leading the waywith 4-57. — AFP

SCORECARDAAuussttrraalliiaa ((11sstt IInnnniinnggss)):: 497EEnnggllaanndd ((11sstt IInnnniinnggss)):: R. Burns c Smith b Hazlewood81, J. Denly c Wade b Cummins 4, C. Overton c Smithb Hazlewood 5, J. Root lbw b Hazlewood 71, J. Roy bHazlewood 22, B. Stokes c Smith b Starc 26, J.Bairstow b Starc 17, J. Buttler b Cummins 41, J.Archer c Paine b Cummins 1, S. Broad b Starc 5, J.Leach (not out) 4. EExxttrraass ((bb44,, llbb1111,, ww55,, nnbb44)) 2244..TToottaall ((iinn 110077 oovveerrss)) 330011..FFooWW:: 1-10, 2-25, 3-166, 4-175, 5-196, 6-228, 7-243, 8-256, 9-283. BBoowwlliinngg:: Starc 22-7-80-3, Hazlewood 25-6-57-4,Cummins 24-6-60-3, Lyon 36-4-89-0.AAuussttrraalliiaa ((22nndd IInnnniinnggss)):: D. Warner lbw b Broad 0, M.Harris lbw b Broad 6, M. Labuschagne lbw b Archer11, S. Smith (batting) 53, T. Head b Archer 12, M.Wade (batting) 21. EExxttrraass ((bb 44,, llbb 11,, nnbb 11)) 66.. TToottaall ((ffoorrffoouurr wwiicckkeettss iinn 3322 oovveerrss)) 110099.. FFooWW:: 1-0, 2-16, 3-24, 4-44.BBoowwlliinngg:: Broad 11-4-25-2, Archer 9-2-27-2, Overton5-1-14-0, Leach 7-0-38-0.

StuartBroad bowled abrilliant openingspell, removing

Aussie openers DavidWarner and

Marcus Harris.

EEaasstt RRuutthheerrffoorrdd,, SSeepptt.. 77::Erick Gutierrez andUriel Antuna scored sec-ond-half goals as Mexicorouted the United States3-0 on Friday in arematch of the 2019Concacaf Gold Cup final.

PSV Eindhoven’sGutierrez and Antunascored just four minutesapart as Mexico postedtheir biggest win overthe US since 2009 in aregional rivalry that hasbecome one-sided of late.

Mexico, who areranked 12th in the world,

have now won five of thelast six contests betweenthe countries including a1-0 victory in their lastgame, the Gold Cup finalon July 7.

Mexico’s 31-player ros-ter included all 23 play-ers that were part of the2019 Gold Cup-winningsquad, while the US had15 players from theirrunner-up squad.

Mexico did a good job ofpressuring the USdefence, forcingturnovers and creatingscoring chances.

“We need to be smarterwith some plays wemake,” said US midfield-er Wil Trapp. “Theypress well and at timeswe were naive how weplayed the ball out. Theconnections weren’tthere.”

There were so manyfans in green and redamong the throng of47,900 at MetLifeStadium that it soundedlike the game was beingplayed in Azteca insteadof the state of NewJersey. — AFP

DIAMOND || LEAGUE

BBrruusssseellss,, SSeepptt.. 77:: US sprint-er Noah Lyles will targetworld gold next month after“clenching” his way to a“chaotic” 200m victory in19.74 seconds in theBrussels Diamond Leaguefinal on Friday.

The performance cappeda remarkable end of theelite 14-meet track and fieldcircuit for the 22-year-old,who last week pippedAmerican teammate andcurrent world championJustin Gatlin to win the100m trophy.

The American went intothe 200m in the Belgian cap-ital as hot favourite, butrevealed he had to racedespite a last-minute needfor the toilet. The track atBrussels’ King Baudouinstadium is a rapid one, butLyles said the renownedfast bend all went over hishead and he concentratedon getting through the fin-ish line and a toilet.

Michael Norman claimeda degree of revenge over

compatriot Fred Kerley,who beat him to the US titlein Des Moines, winning the400m in 44.26sec. Kerleycame in second at 0.20sec.

Norman’s 43.45sec inApril made him the jointfourth fastest over the one-lap race: only South

Africa’s reigning Olympicand double world championWayde van Niekerk and theretired American duo ofMichael Johnson andButch Reynolds have gonefaster, with JeremyWariner having matchedhis time. — AFP

US’ Noah Lyles celebrates after winning the Men’s 200mduring the Diamond League in Brussels on Friday. — AP

Germany falter

PAGE

15SUNDAY | 8 SEPTEMBER 2019 | NEW DELHITHE ASIAN AGE

SHORT TAKESDivac inductedin Hall of Fame

LLooss AAnnggeelleess:: Vlade Divac, whowon Olympic basketball silverwith Yugoslavia and later with

Serbia, lauded the game’s abili-ty to bridge divides as he was

inducted into the BasketballHall of Fame on Friday. Draftedinto the NBA in 1989 by the Los

Angeles Lakers, Divac becameone of the first European play-

ers to have an impact in theleague. Mentored by Kareem

Abdul-Jabbar and MagicJohnson, he quickly adapted tothe NBA and was the first play-er born and trained outside theUnited States to play more than

1,000 games in the league.Among those he thanked in hisinduction speech on Friday was

his former Yugoslav teammateToni Kukoc, a Croatian. “The

people of the Balkans are like adysfunctional family. We may

fight and argue, but in the endwe are family,” said Divac, who

spent eight years with theLakers and played six with theSacramento Kings — where he

is now general manager.“To me basketball was always

about love.” Divac was part of a2019 Hall of Fame class induct-

ed in Springfield, Massachusets,that also included Sidney

Moncrief, Paul Westphal, JackSikma, Bobby Jones, Al Attles,

Bill Fitch and TeresaWeatherspoon. — AFP

Rojas triple leapis second best

MMaaddrriidd:: Reigning world champi-on Yulimar Rojas soared to the

second longest triple jump ofall-time by managing 15.41

metres at the Andujar athleticsmeeting on Friday. The

Venezuelan was just nine cen-timetres short of the long-

standing women’s world recordof 15.50m set by Ukrainian

Inessa Kravets in Gothenburg in1995. Her effort is also the

South American record and30cm longer than her previous

personal best of 15.11m set atthe Pan-American Games in

Lima last month, when she wongold. Rojas’ rivals, including

Colombian star CaterineIbarguen, will now be aware of

the scale of the task facingthem in the world champi-

onships in Doha which startlater this month. It was also astrong comeback for the 23-

year-old after her shock loss inthe Diamond League last week

in Zurich when she finished sec-ond to Jamaican Shanieka

Ricketts. — AFP

Twenty-two racesis non-stop.It’s

quite demanding.Let’s see... I am

getting old— Fernando Alonso on his

possible return to F1 in 2021

Return bidFormer Uefa president Michel Platini said hewill be back as his ban from football forethics violations finishes on October 7

SportLeclerc securespole for FerrariMMoonnzzaa ((IIttaallyy)),, SSeepptt.. 77::Charles Leclerc securedpole for Ferrari in theItalian Grand Prix inshambolic circumstanceson Saturday when only twocars participated in thefinal qualifying showdownlaps.

An unprecedented ‘cat-and-mouse’ procession asthe teams crawled roundthe circuit, backing eachother up to claim good slip-streaming positions,resulted in a farce that saweight cars timed out by thechequered flag.

“A big mess,” saidLeclerc, who took poleahead of defending five-time champion LewisHamilton. TheMonegasque and CarlosSainz of McLaren were theonly drivers to producefinal qualifying runs afterclocking lap-times on theirfirst runs in Q3.

The stewards immediate-ly declared that the sham-bolic failure at the end ofthe session was underinvestigation, the teamshaving failed to deliver a contest for the payingpublic.

“Today, to see so manypeople here feels amazing,”said a happy Leclerc, whoclaimed his maiden victoryat last week’s tragicBelgian Grand Prix where

he dedicated his win to thememory of his late friendAnthoine Hubert, who waskilled in the previous day’sF2 race.

Valtteri Bottas qualifiedthird in the secondMercedes ahead ofSebastian Vettel in the sec-ond Ferrari, the twoRenaults of DanielRicciardo and NicoHulkenberg and Sainz,who was seventh.

Red Bull new boy AlexAlbon was eighth ahead ofLance Stroll of RacingPoint and Kimi Raikkonenof Alfa Romeo, both ofwhom failed to clock a timein Q3 when Raikkonencrashed. He was unin-jured.

Bottas said he andMercedes had beenunlucky to be trapped inthe bunched traffic. — AFP

NNaannjjiinngg,, SSeepptt.. 77::Andrew Bogut wasbranded “the ultimateprofessional” after hewas booed in an 82-76win over theDominican Republic toput Australia on thebrink of the BasketballWorld Cup quarter-finals on Saturday.

The 34-year-old, a keymember of the GoldenState Warriors’ NBAchampionship-winningroster in 2015, has beenheckled and jeeredthroughout Australia’ssuccessful campaign byChinese fans angrywith a barbed commentabout national swim-ming hero Sun Yang.

There was more ofthe same in Nanjing,but centre Bogut is rel-ishing it and has notbeen afraid to fan theflames with sarcastictweets referring to his“Chinese fans”.

Bogut had the lastlaugh once more, fin-ishing with eight

points, eight reboundsand six assists as theBoomers made it fourwins out of four toclose on a spot in thelast eight.

Asked about theopprobrium directed atBogut while in China,Australia’s coachAndrej Lemanis said:“You’ll have to speak toAndrew about that.

“He’s the ultimateprofessional and hasthe ability to impact usin a positive manner.”

“We appreciate whathe does for this groupand are thankful tohave him.” — AFP

PPaarriiss,, SSeepptt.. 77:: Germanysuffered a surprising 4-2home defeat by theNetherlands as World Cuprunners-up Croatia ham-mered Slovakia in qualify-ing for Euro 2020 onFriday.

Joachim Low’s side lostin Hamburg after debu-tant Donyell Malen’s lateeffort for the visitors asthe home side failed topick up a point for the firsttime in the campaign.

Serge Gnabry scored forthe Germans after nineminutes before newBarcelona signingFrenkie de Jong respond-ed for the Dutch.

A Jonathan Tah owngoal with less than anhour to play gave the trav-elling Dutch fans some-thing to cheer aboutbefore Toni Kroosequalised from the spot.

PSV Eindhoven’s 20-year-old Malen then beatManuel Neuer with a vol-ley on 79 minutes andLiverpool midfielderGeorginio Wijnaldumsecured three points ininjury time.

In Trnava, Croatiaretained top spot in GroupG with a 4-0 thumping ofSlovakia as Nikola Vlasic,Ivan Perisic, BrunoPetkovic and DejanLovren all got on thescoresheet.

Also in that pool, Walessurvived a scare to beatlowly Azerbaijan 2-1thanks to Gareth Bale’s84th-minute header.

Elsewhere, Slovenia sawoff previously unbeatenPoland 2-0 in Ljubljanadespite a strike-force ofRobert Lewandowski andKrzysztof Piatek startingfor the visitors.

Belgium maintainedtheir perfect start to quali-fying, easing past SanMarino 4-0 as MichyBatshuayi netted twice,and Scotland’s hopes ofprogression took a blowwith a 2-1 loss at home toRussia despite JohnMcGinn’s 11th-minuteeffort.

On Saturday, Francehost Albania looking torespond after a defeat byTurkey, who welcomeAndorra, in June. — AFP

LLoonnddoonn:: Juan Manuel Correa isin an induced coma in a Londonhospital after suffering compli-

cations following the crash inwhich Anthoine Hubert was

killed at last weekend’s BelgianGrand Prix. The Ecuadorian-

American racing driver is in a“critical but stable” condition,his parents said in a statementon Saturday. Correa, 22, broke

his legs and suffered a spinalinjury last Saturday when he

crashed with Hubert during aFormula Two race at the Spa-

Francorchamps circuit.Frenchman Hubert, 20, died atthe circuit 90 minutes after the

race. Correa, grandson of for-mer Ecuador president Rodrigo

Borja, was moved to Londonfrom a Belgian hospital, where

he underwent four hours sur-gery last Sunday, on Tuesday.

In their statement, Juan Carlosand Maria Correa said: “New

complications have surfaced asa consequence of the massive

impact he suffered Saturday inBelgium. “On his arrival to

London, Juan Manuel was diag-nosed with Acute RespiratoryDistress Syndrome. This is aninjury considered common in

high impact accidents such asthis one.” The statement added

that he had fallen into acuterespiratory failure before being

put into an induced coma.Hubert was the first driver todie at a Grand Prix since two

deaths in 1994. — AFP

JUAN STABLEIN INDUCED

COMA STATE

Germany’s Serge Gnabry reacts disappointed during the Euro 2020 group C qualifying soccer match against theNetherlands in Hamburg on Friday. — AP

Andrew booedagain in China Lyles seals sprint double,

Norman betters Kerley

Neymar nets equaliser on return

MMoonnzzaa ((IIttaallyy)),, SSeepptt.. 77:: Fernando Alonso hinted onFriday he is considering making a return to FormulaOne following an overhaul of the rules for the 2021 sea-son. But the two-time world champion Spaniard, who‘retired’ last year after a disappointing spell withMcLaren, was enigmatic when asked if he was in con-tact with any teams.“Let’s see,” he said, during an interview with SkySports F1.“I need to figure out a couple of different challengesout of Formula One that I need to complete.“They are not yet finished — like the Indy 500 andsome other stuff. So, 2021, with the new regulations... Ithink it’s a good mix that we can find there and maybea different Formula One than what we see now.“The reasons why I left last year are still present nowwith domination of a clear team and the races a littlebit too predictable, but in 2021 these things can bechanged and maybe it's a good opportunity.”He declined to give details and, when asked if he wastalking to any teams about a comeback, smiled andsaid: “Always.” — AFP

RETIRED ALONSO HINTSAT POSSIBLE F1 RETURN

■ Lose to the Netherlands 2-4, Croatia thrash Slovakia

Noah focused on200m world goldBBrruusssseellss,, SSeepptt.. 77:: In-formAmerican sprinter NoahLyles insisted he wasfocused solely on nailingdown gold in the 200m atthe world athletics champi-onships and not chasingUsain Bolt’s elusive worldrecord.

The 22-year-old claimedvictory in a “chaotic” 200mat Friday’s DiamondLeague final in Brussels in19.74 seconds. The winensured him of a secondpayday of $50,000 and tro-phy, having won the 100mtitle last week in Zurich.

Lyles, however, will onlyrace the 200m at the worldchampionships in Doha.

“I’m very excited aboutthe win,” Lyles said afterthe Brussels victory, whichnever looked in doubtdespite him discovering adesperate need to go to thetoilet before the race —something that had to waituntil he’d crossed the fin-ish line.

“I’ve got the 100, now the

200m, so now it’s the worldchampionships.”

Lyles added he was notconcerned by a much-tout-ed potential tilt at Bolt’sworld 200m record of19.19sec set at the 2009berlin world champi-onships. “I’m not thinkingabout the world record,” heinsisted.

“If you get too caught upchasing the world record,you’re not going to get it.”

But in a broadside torivals ahead of the Dohaworlds, Lyles said his aimwas to better his personalbest. That is currently19.50sec, set in Lausannethis summer and a timewhich makes him thefourth fastest of all timeover the half-lap race.

“That’s definitely theplan,” he said.

“I have three weeks oftraining to produce thefastest time possible... Andthere’s no doubt in mymind, to come away with agold medal.” — AFP

●● Andrew Bogutof Australia wasbooed duringbasketball WC

●● The NBA starscored 8 points, 8 rebounds and 6assists in win

ITALIAN GRAND PRIX

‘War on racism going backwards’LLoonnddoonn,, SSeepptt.. 77:: Englandstriker Marcus Rashfordfears football’s strugglewith racism is “goingbackwards rather thanforwards”.

Manchester United starRashford is one of a hostof top players to have suf-fered abuse this seasonafter missing a penalty ina defeat against CrystalPalace.

Rashford’s formerUnited team-mate RomeluLukaku was subjected tomonkey chants whileplaying for Inter Milan atCagliari last weekend,while his current Unitedcolleague Paul Pogba wasattacked on social media.

Chelsea duo TammyAbraham and Kurt Zoumaalso endured racial tauntson platforms such asTwitter and Rashforddoesn't believe enough isbeing done to eradicatethe problem.

“It’s obviously disap-pointing. It seems to melike things have beengoing backwards ratherthan forwards,” he toldreporters on Friday.

“You know, it’s tough,

but like you’ve been see-ing all around the world,people have been standingtogether and I think inthis moment that’s all wecan do.

“We have to rely on the

campaigns and stuff likethat to deal with the situa-tion because our voiceonly has so much power.”

Rashford took part in theProfessional Footballers’Association’s 24-hour boy-cott of social media plat-forms back in May.

Twitter says it has“taken action” on “morethan 700 examples of hate-ful conduct” in the pasttwo weeks.

The company has alsomet “directly affected"clubs, the PFA and anti-racism campaigners Kickit Out in an attempt to“tackle the issue collec-tively”.

But Rashford, speakingahead of England’s Euro2020 qualifier againstBulgaria, insisted theauthorities must takestronger action becausenothing has changeddespite so many high-pro-file incidents. — AFP

England’s striker Marcus Rashford attends an Englandteam training session in England on Friday. — AFP

Charles LLeclerc

MMiiaammii,, SSeepptt.. 77:: Neymar did-n’t disappoint in his muchanticipated return Friday,grabbing a second-halfequalizer for Brazil in a 2-2friendly draw withColombia on Friday.

The Paris Saint-Germainstar was playing for thefirst time for club or coun-try since suffering an ankleinjury in a friendly againstQatar in June, which ruledhim out of the CopaAmerica.

Since then the Brazilianstar had been embroiled ina long-running transfersaga that ended this weekwith the Brazilian stayingat PSG — a return toBarcelona finally ruled out.

Before a sell-out crowd of65,232 at Hard RockStadium, home of the NFL’sMiami Dolphins, Neymardelivered for Brazil, scoring

the equaliser in the 58thafter setting up Casemirofor the game’s opening goalin the 20th minute.

Colombia were lacking

top stars James Rodriguezand Radamel Falcao, butthanks to Luis Muriel’sbrace they gave CopaAmerica champions Brazila fright before Neymar rodeto the rescue and Tite’s menextended their unbeatenrun.

The draw on extendedBrazil’s unbeaten run to 17matches, a streak that datesback to their 2018 WorldCup elimination byBelgium.

Neymar who had a ratherquiet start, notched his 61stinternational goal, put himone behind Ronaldo, whosits second on Brazil’s all-time list headed by Pele’s 77goals. — AFP

Brazil’s foward Neymar Jr. celebrates after scoring againstColombia in Miami, Florida on Friday. — AFP

Mexico rout USA 3-0 in rematch of GC final


SHORT TAKE

NNeeww DDeellhhii:: India’s Payas Jainlost to top seed and world

number 1 Yuanyu Chen of China0-4 to settle for the silver

medal in the 25th Asian Juniorand Cadet Table Tennis

Championships in Ulaanbaatar,Mongolia on Saturday.

Jain did show his aggressioninitially but in the face of a fineattacking play by the Chinese,

the Delhi paddler wilted andlost 11-13, 6-11, 8-11, 5-11 in less

than 20 minutes. Jain’s silver medal earned him aberth in the Asian squad which

will participate in the WorldCadet Challenge at

Wladyslawowo (Poland) inOctober. India’s campaign at

the championships ended withtwo silver medals — one by the

junior boys team and anotherby Jain. — Agencies

I don’t want to betoo down on

myself. First time insemi-final out here.Going to take a lot

of the positives.— Grigor Dimitrov, after losing

to Daniil Medvedev in the USOpen semifinals

Time to goCameroon’s four-time African Player of the Year Samuel Eto’o announces his retirement at the age of 38

Sport

MMaaddrriidd:: Barcelona presidentJosep Maria Bartomeu said onFriday the Spanish giants are

not worried about LionelMessi’s future, despite the

Argentinian star being able toleave the club at the end of the

season.The five-time Ballon d’Or win-

ner signed a new four-year dealwith Barca in 2017, but

Bartomeu says he is free to endhis contract beforehand.

“Leo Messi has a contractthrough to the 2020/21 sea-

son, but the player is able toleave Barca before the final

season,” Bartomeu toldBarcelona’s in-house television

channel.“It’s the same case as with the

final contracts that Xavi,(Carles) Puyol and (Andres)

Iniesta had. They are playerswho deserve that liberty, and

we shouldn’t worry, as they arevery committed to Barca.

“We want Messi to play forBarca through to 2021 and

beyond. We are very calm.”Messi, Barca’s record goalscor-er, is currently out injured with

a calf injury, with the teamstruggling in his absence, man-aging to collect just four points

from their opening three LaLiga matches. — AFP

‘MESSI CANLEAVE BUT

BARCA CALM’

Silver for Payasat Asian Jr TT

NNeeww DDeellhhii,, SSeepptt.. 77::Shooting’s exclusion fromthe BirminghamCommonwealth Games hasleft the Indian shooters dis-appointed but the SportsMinistry’s recent interven-tion has given them a glim-mer of hope.

For the first time since1974, shooting has beenexcluded from the 2022Birmingham Games rosterdue to logistical issues.

“I don’t know what to sayabout that. It is very upset-ting. I don’t know why theyare excluding shooting but Ibelieve whatever happens,happens for good. So letssee what happens,” saidManu Bhaker, who claimedher fourth mixed gold withSaurabh Verma at Rio deJaneiro.

Shooting has been one ofIndia’s strong points in theCommonwealth Games andthe sport’s exclusion didn’tgo down well with the

Indian OlympicAssociation, which hasthreatened to boycott thequadrennial event if thedecision is not reviewed.

Highlighting India’s con-cerns over the sport’s exclu-sion from the Games,Sports Minister KirenRijiju has recently writtena letter to UK Secretary ofState for Digital, Culture,Media and Sport NickyMorgan, seeking her inter-vention in the matter.

Yashaswini Singh Deswal,

who secured India’s ninthOlympic quota after win-ning the gold medal in thewomen’s 10m air pistol atthe World Cup in Rio deJaneiro, termed it a hugeset back for the country.

“It is a huge set back forIndian team. Shooting giveslot of medal to India all thetime. But hope for the best,”she said.

Abhishek Verma, whoclinched his second World

Cup gold last week in 10mair pistol besides claiming amixed 10m pistol silverwith Yashaswini Singh atRio, said it is disappointing.

“There is disappointmentbut the Ministry is still try-ing to get it included atCWG, they are creating thepressure. So I am still hope-ful. If it doesn’t happenthen we will look to do wellat other events such asAsian Games andOlympics.”

India won as many as 16medals in shooting at the2018 CommonwealthGames. Rijiju on Fridaysaid India will take up theissue through diplomaticchannel if they don’t get afavourable response.

“India is one of the mostimportant nations in theCommonwealth GamesFederation and excludingshooting from 2022 hasupset all of us,” he said.

— PTI

Shooters still hopeful of sport’s CWG inclusionDDoohhaa,, SSeepptt.. 77:: Indian foot-ball coach Igor Stimac onSaturday said that his teamhas nothing to fear in theirsecond World Cup qualifieragainst Asian championsQatar despite coming off apainful 1-2 defeat in thecampaign opener at home.

India let in two late goals— in the 82nd and 90thminute — after taking anearly lead against Oman inGuwahati on Thursday tobegin their campaign on alosing note.

India are playing theirsecond game on Tuesday.

The team reached here onSaturday ahead of thematch against Qatar, whohad won the Asian Cup inJanuary and are expectedto pose a tougher challengeto the visitors.

“As soon as the Oman

match ended, we shiftedour focus immediately tothe next match. Qatar arethe strongest team in thegroup and playing themwill not be easy. However,it’s a great opportunity tolearn from,” Stimac said.

“Obviously, we have tochange 4-5 players. We’llsee how everyone is feel-ing. There is no reason tofear and we shall look to

score goals and play goodfootball.”

Winger Udanta Singh,who was denied by thecrossbar against Omanearly in the match againstOman, said that the teamhas to keep its “chin up”.

“The previous match isnow history and everyoneis now focusing on thematch against Qatar. Wehave to keep our chins up.We started our prepara-tions the very next day andare now looking forward tostarting training here.

“We are expecting a toughencounter as Qatar are theAsian champions, but wehave to stick to our plans,stay compact and play as ateam. If we can do that, wecan certainly pull off afavourable result,” he said.

— PTI

QATAR STRONGEST IN OUR GROUP,BUT NOTHING TO FEAR: INDIA COACH

The previous matchis now history andeveryone is nowfocusing on thematch againstQatar. We have tokeep our chins up.

— IGOR STIMAC,Indian football

coach

There is disappoint-ment but theMinistry is still try-ing to get it includ-ed at CWG, they arecreating the pres-sure. So I am stillhopeful.

— ABHISHEKVERMA, shooter

NNeeww YYoorrkk,, SSeepptt.. 77:: Rafael Nadal willplay for his 19th Grand Slam title, oneshy of Roger Federer’s all-time men’srecord, after battling past Italy’s MatteoBerrettini on Friday and into his fifthUS Open final.

The 33-year-old Spaniard dispatchedBerrettini 7-6 (8/6), 6-4, 6-1 at ArthurAshe Stadium to reach a Sunday show-down against Russian fifth seed DaniilMedvedev, who ousted Bulgarian GrigorDimitrov 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-3.

“Very happy to be back into the final ofthe US Open,” Nadal said. “It means alot to be back where I am today aftersome tough moments at the beginning ofthe season.”

Nadal, who shook off an early seasonright hip injury to win a 12th FrenchOpen title, seeks his fourth US Opencrown — one short of the Open-erarecord of five shared by Federer, PeteSampras and Jimmy Connors — toreach the brink of Federer’s mark.

“It’s just another chance on Sunday,”Nadal said. “I want to enjoy a day off,have a good practice and Sunday is theday to play my best.”

Nadal, into his 27th Grand Slam final,beat Medvedev in last month’s Montrealfinal in their only prior meeting. But theworld number two skipped Cincinnati,where Medvedev was champion the fol-lowing week.

“He’s one of the more solid players ontour,” Nadal said of Medvedev.

“He’s making steps forward every sin-gle week.

“I need to be playing at my best.”Medvedev, in his first Grand Slam final

at 23, has gone 20-2 in the past six weekswith runner-up efforts in Washingtonand Canada, a title in Cincinnati and abreakthrough US Open run.

“I’m just happy to be in the final,”Medvedev said. “When I was going toUSA, I didn’t know it was going to bethis good. So I have to say I love USA.”

Medvedev is the first Russian in amen’s Grand Slam final since MaratSafin won the 2005 Australian Open titleand the first Russian to reach the USOpen final since Safin won the 2000crown.

Nadal has dropped only one set at theOpen but was severely tested by 24thseed Berrettini, the first Italian man inthe US Open semi-finals sinceCorrado Barazzutti in 1977.

Berrettini denied Nadal on sixbreak points inthe first set,j u m p e d

ahead 4-0 in the tie-break and seizedtwo set points at 6-4 as the Ashecrowd roared with delight.

“Winning the first set wouldhave been big,” Berrettini said.

“It’s tough to go a set down withhim after more than an hour. I wasplaying really good.”

But the Italian netted two back-hand volleys, a baseline backhandand then hit a forehand long tohand Nadal the set.

“I was lucky to win that first set,”Nadal said. “First set had been alittle bit frustrating. You don’t wantto be in a tie-breaker against a play-er like Matteo after you havemissed all those opportunities.”

Nadal, who never faced abreak point, took hisfirst break for a 4-3 leadin the second set, heldtwice to take the set,then rolled to victo-ry in two hours, 35minutes.

“I survived at themoment and finally Ihad the break in thesecond set and thematch changed,”Nadal said. “I playedcalm more and superaggressive.”

— AFP

NNeeww YYoorrkk,, SSeepptt.. 77:: RafaelNadal warns men’s ten-nis fans that the “BigThree” era is coming toan end very soon, andhe’s not all that worriedabout it.

Together with 20-timeGrand Slam winnerRoger Federer and 16-time Slam championNovak Djokovic ofSerbia, Nadal has beenpart of a historic triowhose members own 54 ofthe past 65 Grand Slammen’s singles titles —including the past 11 in arow.

Toss in Britain’s AndyMurray, a three-timeGrand Slam winner whois making a singles come-back after hip surgery,and you have a fourthstar of the times.

But, Nadal warns, it’sgetting time to close thatchapter.

“We don’t need to holdthis era anymore,” Nadalsaid. “We have been herefor 15 years almost.Hopefully, but for my per-sonal interest. At somepoint, these days, going tohappen sooner than laterthat this era going to end.

“Is arriving to the end. Iam 33. Novak is 32. Rogeris 38. Andy is 32, too. Theclock is not stopping.That’s part of the cycle oflife. “I’m not much wor-ried about this because intennis always going to begreat champions.”

There are rising stars.Fourth-ranked Austrian

Dominic Thiem, 25, lostthe past two FrenchOpen finals. Numberfive DaniilMedvedev, 23, is inhis first Slam final.Germany’s sixth-

ranked AlexanderZverev, 22, andGreece’s eight-ranked StefanosTsitsipas, 21,are chargingtoward thetop as well.

— AFP

RUSSIAN ROULETTEAWAITS NADAL■ Nadal seeks 19th Slam title against Russian 5th seed Medvedev

MEDVEDEV1st rrd: bt Prajnesh Gunneswaran (IND) 6-4, 6-1, 6-22nd rrd: bt Hugo Dellien (BOL) 6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 6-33rd rrd: by Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 7-6 (7/1), 4-6, 7-6(9/7), 6-44th rrd: Dominik Koepfer (GER) 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(7/2)QF: bt Stan Wawrinka (SUI x23) 7-6 (8/6), 6-3, 3-6,6-1SF: bt Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 7-6 (7/5), 6-4, 6-3

NADAL1st rrd: bt John Millman (AUS) 6-3,6-2, 6-22nd rrd: bt Thanasi Kokkinakis(AUS) walkover3rd rrd: bt Chung Hyeon (KOR)6-3, 6-4, 6-24th rrd: bt Marin Cilic (CROx22) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2QF: bt Diego Schwartzman(ARG x20) 6-4, 7-5, 6-2SF: bt Matteo Berrettini (ITAx24) 7-6 (8/6), 6-4, 6-1

PATH TO FINAL

Russia’s Daniil Medvedev reacts afterdefeating Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria, intheir US Open semifinal. — AP

Spain’s Rafael Nadalcelebrates his winover MatteoBerrettini of Italy inUS Open semifinalsin New York onSaturday. — AFP

‘BIG THREE’ ERA WILL ENDSOON: RAFAEL

Medvedev is the first Russian in a men’sGrand Slam final since Marat Safin won the2005 Australian Open title and the firstRussian to reach the US Open final sinceSafin won the 2000 crown

Medvedev is oneof the more solidplayers on tour.

He’s making steps for-ward every singleweek. I need to beplaying at my best.

— RAFAEL NADAL

Manu BBhaker

HE ASIANAGE · 2020-05-30 · SUNSET TODAY 6.36 PM SUNRISE TOMORROW 6.02 AM MOONRISE TOMORROW 2.03...

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