The Hindu by Shashi Thakur

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Delhi, tuesday, may 24, 2016

Printed at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubballi, Mohali, Allahabad, M alappuram and Mumbai

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www.thehindu.in ● Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 ● RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 6 ● No. 123 ● CITYEDITION ● 20 Pages ● Rs. 8.00

NEW DELHI: A dust storm fol-lowed by rains brought res-pite from the unrelentingand oppressive heat forDelhiites on Monday. Theweatherman has forecastmore thunder showers ac-companied by rain on Tues-day evening and night.

The relief, however,brought in its wake majordisruptions at the IndiraGandhi International Air-port, where more than 200flights were delayed and 14had to be diverted. The dust

storm also led to some mis-haps in Noida and Delhi,apart from leading to slowtraffic movement on theroads.

An overcast sky in the af-ternoon brought the mer-cury down, which was fol-lowed by a strong duststorm and then rain. TheSafdarjung observatory re-corded a healthy rainfall of 6.2 mm by 8.30 pm on Mon-day.

“The temperature at 2.30pm was recorded at 40.8 de-gree Celsius but after therain the temperatureplunged to 23.6 degree Cel-sius,” said a senior officialof the MeT department.

COOLING OFF A dust storm followed by rains in New Delhi on Monday brought much-neededrelief from the heat spell. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA ( SEE ALSO PAGES 2 & 3)

Finally some relief from the heatS TAFFR EPORTER

NEW DELHI: Commonly con-sumed bread manufacturedby leading Indian compa-nies were found to containpotassium bromate and po-tassium iodate, both cancer-causing chemicals, accord-ing to a study released by theCentre for Science and Envi-ronment (CSE).

The CSE said it tested 38commonly available brand-ed varieties of pre-packagedbreads, pav and buns, ready-to-eat burger bread andready-to-eat pizza bread of popular fast food outlets inDelhi.

Reacting to the study,Union Health Minister J.P.Nadda ordered a probe butassured the public that therewas no need to panic.

“We are seized of the mat-ter. I have told my officials toreport to me on an urgentbasis. There is no need topanic. Very soon we willcome out with the (probe)report,” the Minister said.

Later in the day, the FoodSafety and Standards Au-thority of India (FSSAI) saidit had decided to remove po-tassium bromate from thelist of permitted additiveswhile it was examining evi-dence against potassium io-date before restricting itsuse.

“A scientific panel hadrecommended removal of potassium bromate from thelist of additives. So we havealready decided to take it outfrom the list. Soon it will benotified,” FSSAI CEO PawanKumar Agarwal said.

Cancer-causingchemicals in bread, says CSE

BINDU SHAJANPERAPPADAN

India successfully testsindigenous reusablelaunch vehicle

Page 9

Kamal Nath: As politicshas changed, Congresstoo needs to change

1

Barack Obama liftsembargo on armssales to Vietnam

Page 14

Ace cueist Pankaj Advanicreates history, winsAsian 6-Red Snooker

Page 19

NEW DELHI: The Centre owesover Rs. 81,000 crore to theStates in tax shares of the last10 years, according to a findingby the CAG.

Centre owes States taxarrears of Rs. 81,000 cr.

NEWS | PAGE 13

BEIRUT: Over 148 people werekilled on Monday in a wave of bombings claimed by theIslamic State in northwesternSyria, the deadliest attacks yetin President Bashar al-Assad’scoastal heartland.

IS blasts kill over 148 in

Syria regime heartland

WORLD | PAGE 14

BRIEFLY

LONDON: The former MaldivesPresident Mohamad Nash-eed, who was allowed to trav-el to London for medicaltreatment by the governmentof President Abdulla Yameenin January this year, has beengranted refugee status by theUnited Kingdom.

The first democraticallyelected head of state of thetroubled island nation, Mr.Nasheed was convicted andjailed in the Maldives in 2015after a trial that attracted in-ternational criticism, includ-

ing from the United NationsGroup on ArbitraryDetention.

“President Yameen hasjailed every opposition lead-

er and cracked down on any-one who dares to oppose orcriticise him. In the past year,freedom of the press, expres-sion and assembly have allbeen lost. Given the slide to-wards authoritarianism in theMaldives, myself and otheropposition politicians feel wehave no choice but to workfrom exile — for now,” Mr.Nasheed said in a statement.

Coalition in exile

In a telephone interviewwith The Hindu from his resi-dence in London, Mr. Nash-eed spoke of his plans for

building a coalition of Maldi-vian opposition forces in ex-ile in Britain, and of pressingtheir case in international fo-rums. “The advice that I havereceived is that it would bebest to stay away from jail,and then see what can bedone while being outside,”the former President said.

Asked if his refugee statuswould indirectly serve thepurposes of the Yameen re-gime, Mr. Nasheed said itwould not.

U.K. grants refugee status to NasheedP ARVATHIMENON

OPPOSITION IS STRONGERNOW, SAYS NASHEED | PAGE 14

Mohamad Nasheed

SRINAGAR: Three policemenwere killed in twin shootoutsin Srinagar, considered theValley’s zero-militancy dis-trict, on Monday. In the firstattack, militants struck in theold city’s Zadibal area, justmetres away from a local po-lice station, and fired fromclose range at two police per-sonnel on duty.

“The attackers were ridinga two-wheeler. Three bulletswere fired at one cop and twoat another. One policemanwas hit in the head and anoth-er in the neck. The assailantssped away into the city,” sub-divisional police officer, Haz-ratbal, Syed Sajjad Bukhartold The Hindu.

Assistant sub-inspectorNazeer Ahmad and constableBasheer Ahmad were de-

clared brought dead at a near-by hospital. Around noon,two militants, again riding abike, emerged on the Srina-gar-Baramulla Highway nearTengpora, 13 km from the firstspot, and shot dead anotherpoliceman, Muhammad Ab-dullah, personal security offi-cer of local politician Mu-hammad Abdullah Chatwal.

PEERZADA A SHIQ

Three policemen killed inSrinagar twin attacks

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Courtwill hear a plea by SalvatoreGirone, one of the two Italianmarines accused of killingtwo fishermen off Kerala, toreturn to Italy.

Mr. Girone's compatriotand co-accused in the case,Massimiliano Latorre, is al-ready in Italy after being al-lowed by the Supreme Courtin September 2014 to returnto recuperate from a stroke.Recently, the court extendedhis stay there till September30 this year.

Mr Girone’s plea comeseven as Italy requested theSupreme Court to urgently

agreed to hear the plea onMay 26.

In his plea, Mr. Gironesought the court's leeway togo back to his country till anInternational ArbitrationTribunal decides a jurisdic-tional dispute between Indiaand Italy on where the duoshould be tried.

Mr Girone is one of twoItalian marines — on boardship ’Enrica Lexie’ — accusedof killing two of fishermen off the Kerala coast in 2012. Hehas not been able to leave In-dia, aside from a few brief permits, since the incident.

(With inputs from PTI)

The Hague Court of Arbitra-tion ... enabling Italian ma-rine Salvatore Girone toquickly return to Italy,” theItalian Foreign Ministry saidin a statement in Rome onMonday.

According to the Court of Arbitration decision, Italyand India are called on tocooperate in defining theconditions and the ways withwhich to regulate Mr. Gi-rone’s return and perma-nence in Italy while awaitingthe decision of the arbitra-tion proceeding on the dis-pute over the jurisdiction onthe Enrica Lexie case.

The matter came up in theSupreme Court, which

enforce a United Nations ar-bitration tribunal’s decisionenabling him to quickly re-turn from India.

“Italy submitted a requestto the summer recess Su-preme Court of India to ur-gently enforce the decision of

LEGALCORRESPONDENT

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

SC to hear Italian marine’s plea to go home

Salvatore Girone

NEW DELHI: A domestic flight forLucknow made an emergencylanding at the Indira GandhiInternational Airport here onMonday afternoon after apassenger developed medicalcomplications.

Flight makesemergency landing

CITY PAGE 2

NEW DELHI: India and Iran

signed a series of agreementson Monday that will allowNew Delhi to use the port of Chahbahar to access CentralAsia and Afghanistan.

Two terminals

The first agreement, a bi-lateral, signed during PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sMay 22-23 visit, will provideIndia the right to develop andoperate two terminals andfive berths with multipur-pose cargo handling capaci-ties in the port of Chahbaharfor 10 years. Following the bi-lateral, Prime Minister Modiand Iranian President Dr.Hassan Rouhani were joinedby Dr. Ashraf Ghani, Presi-dent of Afghanistan, whosealed the agreement for Tri-lateral Transport and Transit

Corridor connecting Chah-bahar with Afghan road andrail network.

The two countries alsosealed 11 other agreements,covering culture, finance andconservation, during Mr. Mo-di’s official meetings with theIranian President.

Mr. Modi’s visit was pre-ceded by those of ExternalAffairs Minister SushmaSwaraj and Minister of Petro-leum and Natural Gas Dhar-mendra Pradhan, when thecontracts were finalised.“The agreement to develop

the Chahbahar port and relat-ed infrastructure, and availa-bility of about $500 millionfrom India for this purpose, isan important milestone. Thismajor effort would boost eco-nomic growth in the region,”Mr. Modi said in his state-ment, following the signingof the agreement between In-dia Ports Global Private Lim-ited and Arya Banader of Iran.

(With inputs from PTI )

Trilateral pactwith Iran,Afghanistangives it broaderaccessSPECIALCORRESPONDENT

India to developChahbahar port

JOINING HANDS: PM Narendra Modi greets President HassanRouhani at a press conference in Tehran on Monday.— PHOTO: PTI


CHENNAI: Shortly after beingsworn in Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on Monday, Ms. Jayalalithaa got down tobusiness, ordering the waiv-er of cooperative farm loansworth Rs. 5,780 crore, theshutdown of 500 state-runliquor outlets and granting100 units of free electricityto every household.

Ms. Jayalalithaa was ad-ministered the oath of officeby Governor K. Rosaiah at aceremony here. Twenty-eight Ministers took theiroaths in two batches, but lat-er in the day, she inductedfour more Ministers. In thefirst few files she signed atthe Secretariat, Ms. Jayala-lithaa gave a clear indicationthat implementing her pre-election promises was hertop priority.

As she had promised

phased prohibition, shesigned papers to reduce the

state-run liquor outlets runby the Tamil Nadu StateMarketing Corporation(TASMAC) by 500. Theworking hours of these out-lets too will come down bytwo hours. These shops,which used to be open for 12hours from 10 a.m., will nowopen only at noon.

100 units of free electricityFulfilling another prom-

ise, she signed a file to pro-vide 100 units of free elec-tricity for all householdswith immediate effect. “Thiswould cost the exchequerRs. 1,607 crore annually,” agovernment release said. Inaddition, 200 units of powerwould be given free of costfor handloom mills in theState and up to 750 units of

power would be given freeto spinning mills.

Ms. Jayalalithaa alsocleared a scheme to gift aone-sovereign (eight gm.)gold mangalsutra for poorwomen. Previously, theywere given mangalsutraswith four gm. of gold.

Later, S. Semmalai, ap-pointed Speaker pro tem bythe Governor, took oath asthe member of the 15th Leg-islative Assembly in RajBhavan, an official releasestated.

Four other Ministers — G.Baskaran (Khadi and VillageIndustries Board), SevvoorS. Ramachandran (HinduReligious & Charitable En-dowments), Nilofer Kafeel(Labour) and P. BalakrishnaReddy (Animal Husbandry)—would be sworn in onWednesday.

The first session of thenew Assembly will be heldon May 25. The Speaker andDeputy Speaker will be

elected on June 3, officialsources said.

Jayalalithaa orders 500 liquor outlets closedSPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

ROUSING START: Governor K. Rosaiah with CM Jayalalithaa at theswearing-in ceremony in Chennai on Monday. — PHOTO: R. RAGU

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12 CONTINUED ON PAGE 12


SEE ALSO PAGE 2



CMYK

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CITY 2 | THE HINDU TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

NOIDA/DELHI

Rs. 1 crore in dust pollution finesIn the past six months, 67 big construction projects around the Capital havebeen fined a total of Rs.1.18 crore for flouting dust-control norms by the DPCB,which issued 139 notices to these sites. >>Page 4

No case of violence on Shab-e-BaratThis year’s Shab-e-Barat was the first in at least three years where not a singleincident of violence or accident was reported, according to senior Delhi Policeofficers. >>Page 7

NEW DELHI: From the upcom-ing academic session, DelhiUniversity’s Christian mi-nority colleges such as StStephen’s and Jesus and Ma-ry College will join the cen-tralised admission processrather than have separateregistrations.

The decision was taken ata meeting of the university’s24-member admission com-mittee on Monday. These in-stitutions, however, willcontinue to have their ownadmission policies.

Old demand

The admission committeehad been recommendingthat all colleges under thevarsity participate in thecentralised online registra-

tion process.“St. Stephen’s and Jesusand Mary College will be apart of the centralised regis-tration process from thisyear. Once students registeron the DU portal, the colleg-es can follow their own ad-mission processes,” said amember of the admissioncommittee.

Students will have to usethe registration number pro-vided by DU to proceed withthe admission process.

Students to benefit

A.K Bhagi, who is a part of the admission committee,said: “The decision has beentaken for the convenience of

students. It is not necessarythat only students belongingto the minority status willapply to these colleges. Gen-eral category studentswould also want to apply.Making the process central-ised makes it easier forthem.”

The Sikh minority colleg-es of Delhi University-- SriGuru Nanak Dev Khalsa Col-lege, Sri Guru Gobind SinghCollege of Commerce, Mata

Sundari College have al-ready been participating inthe centralised admissionprocess.

The admission committeecomprising deans from fac-ulties of science, commerceand arts, nine college princi-pals, and members from theexecutive and academiccouncils is working on an ad-mission policy, which will benotified by end of thismonth.

The institutions will no longer have separate registrations

Stephen’s, JMC to participate incentralised admission processS TAFFR EPORTER

The two colleges,however, willcontinue to havetheir ownadmission policies

TO ADVANTAGE: Delhi University authorities maintain that the decision has been taken for theconvenience of students.—FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High

Court on Mondaydirected Delhi University(DU) to apprise it of theprocedure followed bythe varsity in theadmission process of students applying underthe sports quota.

A bench of Chief JusticeG. Rohini and Justice

Jayant Nath said thiswhile hearing a petitionseeking a direction to DUto centralise the

aforementioned

admission process andalso for devising amechanism forcoordination betweencolleges in this regard.

“You (DU) file anaffidavit and tell us aboutthe procedure followedby DU as on today. Wewill consider it,” thebench told the lawyerappearing for theuniversity.

The counsel sought

time to file an affidavit

after which the benchposted the matter forhearing on August 17.

The petition, filed byNGO Child HealthOrganisation, sought adirection to the varsity to“make the admissionprocess through sportsquota more streamlinedand centralised so that allapplicants get an equalopportunity” of gettingadmission. — PTI

What is the procedure for admissionunder sports quota: High Court to DU

NEW DELHI: Your daily bread

could contain cancer-caus-ing chemicals, including po-tassium bromate and potassi-um iodate — substances thatare banned in many coun-tries, but not in India due toslack food regulations, warnsa new report released by theCentre for Science and Envi-ronment (CSE) here onMonday.

The CSE’s study testedbread sold in Delhi and foundresidues of potassium bro-mate/iodate in commonlyconsumed varieties of thefood item.

The use of potassium bro-mate — classified as a cate-gory 2B carcinogen (possiblycarcinogenic to humans) —is banned in most countries.Potassium iodate contrib-utes to thyroid-related dis-eases. The CSE has now rec-ommended the immediateban of these two chemicals toprevent their routine expo-sure to the Indian popula-tion. Hours after the reportwas released, Union HealthMinister J.P. Nadda said,however, there was “no needto panic”. Directing officialsto look into the report and in-vestigate the matter, the Min-ister said: “We will have a de-tailed report.’’

Treatment of flour

The study, conducted bythe CSE’s Pollution Monitor-ing Laboratory (PML), saysIndian bread manufacturersuse potassium bromate andpotassium iodate to treatflour while making bread.

The PML tested 38 com-monly available branded va-rieties of pre-packaged

breads, pav and buns, ready-to-eat burger bread andready-to-eat pizza breads of popular fast food outlets inDelhi.

“We found 84 per centsamples positive with potas-sium bromate/iodate. We re-confirmed the presence of potassium bromate/iodate ina few samples through an ex-ternal third-party laboratory.We checked labels and talkedto industry officials and sci-entists. Our study confirmsthe widespread use of potas-sium bromate/iodate as wellas the presence of bromate/iodate residues in the finalproduct,” said ChandraBhushan, deputy directorgeneral, CSE and head of theCSE lab.

What has the worlddone on potassium

bromate/iodate?

In 1999, the InternationalAgency for Research on Can-cer (IARC) classified potas-sium bromate as possiblycarcinogenic (cancer-caus-ing) to humans. It was foundto cause tumour of the kid-ney and thyroid, and cancerof the abdominal lining inlaboratory animals.

Banned in many countries

Considering potassiumbromate as a ‘genotoxic car-cinogen’, the Joint ExpertCommittee on Food Addi-tives in 1992 said “use of po-tassium bromate as a flourtreatment agent was not ap-propriate”. The EU had al-ready banned its use in 1990and so did the U.K. Subse-quently, Canada, Australia,New Zealand, China, Sri Lan-ka, Brazil, Nigeria, Peru andColumbia also decided

against its use.“Globally, potassium bro-

mate was allowed to be usedon the assumption that thebromate residues would notbe present in the end prod-uct. This assumption failedacross the world. Residueswere being detected even af-ter reducing the allowed lim-its of use and, therefore,countries started banning it.Our study confirms that re-sidues of potassium bromateare present in bread sold inIndia,” Mr. Bhushan said.

However, food safety regu-lations in the country allowfor use of potassium bromateas flour treatment agent inbread and other bakery prod-ucts.

Potassium bromate is apowerful oxidising agent, useof which makes bread fluffy,soft and gives it a good finish.

Under ideal baking condi-tions, bromate converts intobromide, which is harmless.However, this does not seemto happen in practice. Whilethere is not much labellingrequired on non-packagedfast foods, pre-packagedproducts have to disclose theflour treatment agent used.

“Industry members andexperts told us that potassi-um bromate is widely used asit is allowed by the law andoffers high-quality finish tothe final product. When theCSE contacted companieswhose products were foundto contain potassium bro-mate or potassium iodate, sixout of 12 came forward to de-ny the use of these chem-icals,” says Amit Khurana,programme manager, FoodSafety and Toxins team atCSE.

Is your sandwich safe enough?BINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN

NEW DELHI: Starting this year,three Sikh minority colleges

in Delhi University willcome up with their own cut-off lists for admissions.

Till last year, two Chris-tian minority institutions—St. Stephen’s College and Je-sus and Mary College—were the only colleges in thevarsity to follow such apractice.

The decision was taken ata meeting of the admission’scommittee last week. Amember of the committeesaid: “Four colleges includ-ing Sri Guru Nanak Dev

Khalsa College, Sri Guru Go-bind Singh College of Com-merce, Mata Sundari Collegefor Women and Shri Guru

Teg Bahadur Khalsa Collegehad applied for a separatemerit list provision. Howev-er, an approval has been giv-en to the first three," said anofficial.

While the colleges will de-cide their own merit criteria,there will be no separate ad-mission forms for these col-leges, the official added. Thecolleges, which are fundedby the Delhi Sikh GurdwaraManagement Committee,were given minority statuswith 50 per cent quota in

2011.Officials say permission

was not accorded to Shri Gu-ru Teg Bahadur Khalsa Col-

lege as one of its teachers ob-jected to a minority statusfor the institution. The mat-ter is pending in court.

Meanwhile, the varsity hasalso decided to come up withonly five cut-off lists thisyear. Last year, there were 10lists, and the admission proc-ess had continued till Au-gust. Admissions to under-graduate courses are goingto begin on May 28, and theregistration process will becompletely online this yearto avoid “duplication”.

Sikh minority colleges to comeup with own cut-off listsK RITIKA SHARMA SEBASTIANNEW DELHI: Residents of Delhi

University’s Undergradu-ate Hostel for Girls(UGHG) have approached

the Delhi Commission forWomen (DCW) after thevarsity sent letters to theirparents for staging an agita-tion against water crisis inthe hostel.

Terming the move as“witch-hunt” by the admin-istration, the students onMonday met officials at theCommission and submit-ted a letter to them.

Over 200 students of UGHG had held a proteston April 23 which went ontill around 2.30 a.m. DelhiWater Minister and Delhi Jal Board (DJB) ChairmanKapil Mishra had met theprotesters around mid-night, and water supply wasrestored on April 25.

A month after the inci-dent happened, parents of some of the students in-volved in the protest re-

ceived a letter sent by thehostel administration say-ing the act was in violationof rules and could have abad impact on otherresidents.

In a series of tweets sentout on Monday, Mr. Mishraalso objected to the letters.

“This is intolerable. I willraise it with V-C. Studentshighlighted the failure of DU admin. DU shd bethankful,” he said in atweet.

Hostel studentsapproach DCW S TAFFR EPORTER

NEW DELHI: The industry, re-acting to the CSE report onbreads containing cancerand thyroid-causing chem-icals, has called it “base-less”.

Vikram Ogale, director,National Supply Chain andQuality Assurance, McDo-nald’s India, said in a state-ment that they denied theclaims made in the report.

“We do not use potassi-um bromate or potassiumiodate in flour. The claimsmade by CSE are complete-ly baseless,’’ he said.

A spokesperson of Dom-ino’s said in an e-mail thatat Jubilant FoodWorksLimited, “we believe in,

and adhere to, the highestquality standards and Indi-an food laws. We follow all

processes to maintain thehighest level of food safetyacross all our restaurants.We only use additives/in-gredients duly approvedunder the Food Safety andStandards Authority of In-dia Act (FSSAI) in all ourpreparations (across all ourrestaurants)..”

KFC too in a writtenstatement maintained thatthey do not use flour treat-ed with potassium bromateor potassium iodate tomanufacture theirproducts.

“The safety and health of our customers are our pri-orities, and we are commit-ted to following the best in-ternational standardswhile serving customers,”it said.

Britannia too said that itdid not use potassium bro-mate or iodate as an ingre-

dient in any of its bread rec-ipes.

“Britannia has studiedthe report released by CSE,and it states that no tracesof potassium bromate oriodate were found in Bri-tannia bread samples,” thecompany said in anemailed statement.

CSE, however, said thatthey stood by their report-and that a detailed copy of the same had been put upfor the public and industryalike.

“We had informed the in-dustry about the resultsand sought their opinion.While Domino’s did not re-ply, the others denied thepresence of the two chem-icals. We, however, standby our study,’’ said Chandra

Bhushan, deputy directorgeneral, CSE and head of the CSE lab.

Industry calls CSE report baselessBINDU SHAJANPERAPPADAN

Y UTHIKA BHARGAVA

NEW DELHI: The Food Safety andStandards Authority of India(FSSAI) has decided to removepotassium bromate from thelist of permitted additiveswhile it examines evidenceagainst its use.

This follows the latest studyreleased by the Centre forScience and Environment,which found cancer-causingchemicals in nearly 84 per centof 38 commonly availablebrands of pre-packaged breads,including pav and buns.

The chemicals are listed as“hazardous” to health. FSSAICEO Pawan Kumar Agarwalsaid: “A scientific panel hadrecommended removal of

potassium bromate from thelist of additives. So, we have

decided to take it out.”Potassium bromate typically

increases dough strength,leads to higher rising anduniform finish to bakedproducts, while potassiumiodate is a flour treatmentagent.

In its report, CSE hasclaimed that while one of thechemicals is a category 2Bcarcinogen (possiblycarcinogenic to humans), theother could trigger thyroiddisorders but India has notbanned their use.

Quoting Food Safety andStandards (Food ProductStandards and Additives)Regulations, 2011, CSE said themaximum level of use of potassium bromate and/or

iodate in bread was set at 50ppm.

FSSAI steps in; potassium bromate under the lensS TAFFR EPORTER

Capital drenched

WELCOME CHANGE: A dust storm followed by a spell of rain provided the much-needed relieffrom the scorching heat in New Delhi on Monday. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

NEW DELHI: Even as Delhiheaved a sigh of relief asshowers following a duststorm brought reprieve fromthe scorching heat, theweather resulted in the IndiraGandhi International Airporthere plunging into utterchaos.

More than 200 flights were

delayed on Monday. While 14flights had to be diverted dur-ing the afternoon when thedust storm hit the airport,eight more flights were di-verted by 9.30 p.m. Theflights were mostly divertedto nearby Jaipur and Luck-now, while some were divert-ed to Amritsar andAhmedabad.

The dust storm accompa-nied with strong winds madelanding a difficult proposi-tion. “The dust storm contin-ued between 3.15 p.m. and 3.45p.m., when we witnessed awind speed of 60-70 kmph.While the visibility at the air-port was around 4 km, itdropped to 600 metres afterthe dust storm,” said Dr. R.K. Jenamani, Director-in-Charge, IGIA MeT unit.

Even though the duststorm subsided by 4 p.m., the

wind speed remained around40-50 kmph, hamperingsmooth flight movement.

“We are still witnessing ve-ry strong and dusty winds atthe airport,” Dr. Jenamanisaid at 9.30 pm.

The delayed flights led tomassive crowding at the air-port terminals as passengerskept pouring in to catch theirflights. Delays ranged fromone hour to even six hours.

While the spacious Termi-nal 3 was not much affected,domestic Terminal 1D, whichhandles all budget carriers,was teeming with passengers.

“There is absolute mayhemat the airport and forget seats,even finding a comfortableplace to stand at the terminalis getting difficult,” said a pas-senger.

The ongoing construction

work for a Delhi Metro tunneloutside the domestic termi-nal also lead to traffic chaos.

Dust storm throwsIGIA into chaosS TAFFR EPORTER

PASSENGERS SUFFER: More than200 flights were delayed onMonday. —FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI:On a day that sawchaos at the Delhi airportdue to inclement weather,some tense momentswere witnessed when adomestic flight had tomake an emergency land-ing after a passenger on-board developed medicalcomplications.

The flight, which had

taken off for Lucknowfrom the Indira Gandhi In-ternational Airport hereon Monday afternoon, hadto return soon after a pas-senger complained of health problems.

“It is not clear what ex-act medical emergencywas faced onboard theflight but the pilot re-quested for a prioritylanding from the Delhi airtraffic control. Permissionwas granted, followingwhich the aircraft landedback safely at the airport,”said an airport official whodidn’t wish to be named.

A medical team alongwith an ambulance wasrushed to the tarmac tohelp the passenger in dis-tress.

Sources at the airportsaid that the passenger

was provided medicalcare soon after the aircraftlanded.

Flight makesemergency landing in Delhi

S TAFFR EPORTER



CMYK

ND-ND

| 3THE HINDU TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

NOIDA/DELHI

CITY

Published by N. Ram at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S. Ramanujam at HT Media Ltd. Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. 201306, on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

D E L H I

May 24,Tue May 25,Wed May 26,Thu

RISE 05 27 SET 19 11 RISE 05 26 SET 19 11 RISE 05 26 SET 19 12

RISE 21 16 SET 07 23 RISE 22 05 SET 08 13 RISE 22 51 SET 09 12

Lecture: “Trading in Stories” by Su-medha Verma Ojha. The lecture willbring alive oral and literary traditionswhich have for millennia flown acrossland and sea with the monsoons,which carried ships, traders and theirstories at Indira Gandhi National Cen-tre for the Arts (IGNCA) 11 Man SinghRoad, 4:30 p.m.

Book discussion: As If Women Mat-ter: The Essential Gloria Steinem Read-er, edited by Ruchira Gupta; River ofFlesh and Other Stories: The Prostitut-

ed Woman in Indian Short Fiction, ed-ited by Ruchira Gupta; and PremNagar: Town of Love by Anne Ch. Ost-

by; translated by Marie Ostby. Panel-ists: Prof. Vidhu Verma from JNU; Prof.Baran Farooqi from Jamia Millia Isla-mia; and Dr. Kusha Tiwari from Uni-versity of Delhi. Chair: Prof. InduAgnihotri, Director, Centre for Wom-en’s Development Studies, Main Build-ing, IIC, 6:30 p.m.

Music: Hindustani vocal recital byNishi Gupta from Varanasi at C.D.Deshmukh Auditorium, IIC, 6:30 p.m.

Music: “Niranand” vocal recital byCarmen Silvia Dumitrescu from Roma-

nia. Sitar recital by Sahana Banerjee.Accompanist: Durjay Bhaumik (Tabla)followed by Kathak recital by Sangita

Chatterjee Accompanist: Ustad Ak-hram Khan (Tabla) at IHC, 7 p.m.

Music: Malhar Sangeet Kala Kendrapresents “Filmi Songs” at India IslamicCultural Centre (IICC), 6 p.m.

Exhibition: “Transformation throughArt”, a group show of Warli paintingsby students of Nutan Madhyamik Vi-dyalaya, Cantonment Board School,Ahmednagar Cantonment, Maharash-tra at Art Gallery, IIC, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

General: ‘We Love Summer 2016’Kids carnival at Ambience Mall, Vasant

Kunj, 10 a.m. - 7 p.m.(Mail your listings for this column at [email protected])

DELHI TODAY

NEW DELHI: Three personsfrom a family were injuredafter a wall from the neigh-bouring building collapsedon them during the thunder-storm that hit the Capital onMonday afternoon.

The incident took place inEast Delhi’s Jagatpuri areaaround 3.45 pm.

According to the fire de-partment, the wall of a flaton the third floor had col-lapsed in the rain.

“The injured personswere living in the adjacentbuilding. Two women and aman were inside at the timeof the collapse. They wererescued and then rushed toLBS Hospital,” said a fireofficial.

Three injured in wall collapse

S TAFF R EPORTER

GURGAON: In what may possiblybe a daring robbery attempt atone of the country’s biggest

hospitals, three men wearingburqas and armed with country-made pistols walked intoMedanta Hospital here duringthe early hours of Monday. Thetrio managed to escape after theguards raised an alarm.

According to the police, thetrio entered the hospital throughan emergency gate around 3 a.m.and sat near the cash counter.Security guards at the hospitalgrew suspicious after theynoticed that one of them waswearing pants.

Probe initiated“The guards accosted them

and asked questions. One of thethree then took out a country-made pistol and aimed at theguards. When the guards raisedan alarm, other people who were

there came to help. The trio,however, managed to flee,” saidAssistant Commissioner of PoliceHawa Singh, spokesperson forthe Gurgaon Police.

The unidentified trio has beenbooked under section 451(house-trespassing) and section506 (punishment for criminalintimidation) of the Indian PenalCode at the Sadar Police Station.The police said that it wasdifficult to guess the ages of thethree as they were wearingburqas. The role of an insider hasbeen ruled out as of now.

The Gurgaon Police, haveinitiated a probe into the matter.“We have recovered CCTVfootage of the incident from thehospital, which might help in theinvestigation. Teams at both thepolice and CIA levels have beenformed to investigate thematter,” said Suresh Chand, SHOat Sadar Police Station.

When contacted, the hospitalauthorities refused to comment.

Armed burqa-clad men ringalarm bells at MedantaS TAFFR EPORTER

NEW DELHI: As many as 17 motor-cycles were gutted in a fire re-ported from a commercialbuilding in South-West Delhi’s

Bijwasan on Sunday night.It took 13 fire tenders more

than four hours to control theflames, which were reportedjust after midnight. No casual-ties was reported, primarily be-cause there was just one guardin the building at that time.

The motorcycles wereparked in the basement, whichis where the fire started. Sincethe basement stored paper ma-terial, the flames spread quick-ly. However, it was controlledbefore it could spread to theupper floors.

Though the source of the firecould not be ascertained im-mediately, fire officials suspectthat a short circuit could havesparked it.

17 bikes gutted in

fire at BijwasanS TAFFR EPORTER

NEW DELHI: A shocking videoclip of a 60-year-old womanassaulting her 85-year-old

mother at her residence inSouth-East Delhi’s Kalkajiwent viral on social mediaon Monday.

While the police have notregistered a case yet, thetwo senior citizens werecounselled and thedaughter was advised not torepeat the incident.

The assault was reportedby a neighbour whorecorded the incident onher mobile phone.

After receiving the PCR call, a team from the Kalkajipolice station visited theelderly woman’s house andasked her to file a complaintagainst her daughter. She,

however, refused to do sosaying it was a family issueand that she did not wantaction against her daughter,said a police officer.

The one minute, 25second-long clip wasviewed by more than 9 lakhpeople on Facebook till 8p.m., as many as 21 hoursafter it was uploaded by acommunity channel on itssocial networking site page.It shows the octogenarianbeing dragged into a roomnext to the balcony whereshe is standing. When sheresists, she is slapped onher face. Later, she sits on achair weeping.

The mother lives alone inher fourth floor apartmentin Kalkaji. The daughter is aregular visitor, neighbourstold the police.

Video of woman assaulting85-yr-old mother goes viralSHUBHOMOY SIKDAR

NEW DELHI: A 24-year-old mandied after being electrocutedwhile working on his laptop onSunday, leading to the suspi-cion that he may have receiveda fatal shock from the gadget.

The police, who have ruledout foul play, said that prima fa-cie it appeared that the victimwas electrocuted while plug-

ging in the laptop charger. The

laptop and charger have beensent for examination. The fam-ily too hinted that the deceaseddid not receive a shock fromthe laptop. The victim, BrajeshKumar, worked with a Farida-bad-based exports company. Anative of Bihar, he lived with hisparents and wife Vinita inTughlaqabad Extension. Thecouple got married last year.

The incident took place

around 9 a.m. on Sunday whenVinita heard Brajesh let out acry. Seeing him motionless, sheraised an alarm. Her neighbourSatender, said he arrived to findBrajesh unconscious.

“There were blisters on hisleft hand. He was breathing, sowe rushed him to MajeediaHospital, but he was declaredbrought dead,” said Satender.

Man electrocuted while working on laptopS TAFFR EPORTER

NOIDA: A 27-year-old man diedwhile another was seriouslyinjured after a road signagein Sector 18 here collapsedduring the thunderstorm onMonday evening. The inci-dent damaged two othervehicles.

The deceased, Munna Ku-mar was waiting near thegantry near DLF Mall whenthe signage came down onhim.

“Munna died on the spot.A resident of Faridabad, hehailed from Gopalganj in Bi-har. He was on his Bajaj Plati-na with another person,Pushpender, who is from Ut-tar Pradesh’s Etah. Pushpen-der is critically injured and isundergoing treatment at theMax hospital,” said Vant Na-

rayan Rai, incharge of theDLF Mall police post.

Narrow escape

It was a close shave for twoothers in a car.

The Maruti Alto car, regis-tration number DL 3C BL4491, was reduced to a man-gled heap, but the passengersescaped unhurt.

“We have informed the

family members of the de-ceased. The family of the in-jured has not been traced ashis phone is locked. An FIR will be registered after inves-tigation. The hoarding wasinstalled by the Noida au-thority,” said Mr. Rai.

Eyewitnesses said thatmany others were standingnear the hoarding to take

shelter under the trees dur-

ing the storm. A crane waslater used to lift the signage,which had been drilled intothe road. It is suspected thatthe nuts and bolts had al-ready come loose, and thatthe storm did the rest.

The accident led to a mas-sive jam as part of the roadremained blocked, while therain added to it.

GALE FORCE

S TAFF R EPORTER

1 killed after hoardingcollapses in Noida

SORRY SIGHT: While one person was killed and another injured,it was a close shave for two others who were seated in th eAlto. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT



CMYK

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CITY 4 | THE HINDU TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW DELHI: In the past six months, 67big construction projects around

the Capital have been fined a totalof Rs.1.18 crore for flouting dust-control norms by the Delhi Pollu-tion Control Board (DPCB), whichissued 139 notices to these sites.

The projects, which include 14sites of the Delhi Metro, are allabove 20,000 sqm in size and havebeen the focus of the DPCB’scrackdown on dust pollution.

Delhi Environment and ForestMinister Imran Hussain, who onMonday held a meeting to reviewthe pollution-control actions, how-ever, was unhappy with the pro-gress made by the municipal cor-porations.

Hefty fines allowed

As per orders of the NationalGreen Tribunal, the municipal cor-porations are supposed to issueRs.50,000 fines against construc-tion sites causing dust pollutionand Rs.5,000 challans against theburning of garbage/leaves.

The East Delhi Municipal Cor-poration has issued a total of 533challans, the South Delhi Munici-pal Corporation issued 745 chal-lans and the North Delhi Munici-pal Corporation has issued 253challans against construction sitesfor dust pollution.

The Delhi government’s Public

Works Department, which is em-powered to take action againstconstruction sites with built-up ar-

ea between 400 to 20,000 squaremetres, has issued 67 challans andcollected Rs.8.65 lakh.

Mr. Hussain said that he was nothappy with the action taken by thecorporations with regard to bothconstruction sites and garbage/leaf burning.

He ordered the representatives

of the civic bodies to give presenta-tions with photos of inspectionsconducted at the sites at the nextreview meeting.

Stringent action

The corporations had been earli-er asked to make sure that every-one that had got a building plansanctioned in the past two yearswas made aware of the dust control

norms. The SDMC has written to1,445 such people/agencies,NDMC to 2,072 and EDMC to 449.

The Traffic Police said that theyahve initiated 206 prosecutionsagainst vehicles carrying uncov-ered building material as per sec-tions of the Motor Vehicles Actfrom January till May.

BIG POLLUTERS: Among the 67 projects fined in the past six months, 14belong to the Delhi Metro. FILE PHOTO

Rs. 1 crore in dust pollution finesS TAFFR EPORTER

Civic bodies can issueRs.50,000 finesagainst constructionsites caught causingdust pollution

NEW DELHI: Clusters of thermalpower plants in Northern In-dia were the sources of growthin emissions of highly toxicand reactive gases in the pastfew years, a report released

here on Monday found.The report titled “Out of

Sight: How coal burning ad-vances India’s air pollution cri-sis” by Greenpeace India usedsatellite imagery from 2009 to2015 to find that areas that hadthermal power plants in Mad-hya Pradesh’s Singrauli,Chhattisgarh’s Korba and Rai-garh, Odisha’s Angul, Maha-rashtra’s Chandrapur, Guja-rat’s Mundra and the NationalCapital Region were behindthe growth in emissions of sul-phur dioxide and nitrogendioxide.

Rise in emissions

As per the report, emissionsof the toxic sulphur dioxidegas increased by 31 per centfrom 2009 to 2015.

The emissions of nitrogendioxide, which is highly reac-tive, increased by 20 per cent

during the same period.Both these gases react in theair to form secondary parti-cles, which account for a majorchunk of Delhi’s pollution.

The Greenpeace reportshowed that the concentrationof fine particulate matter(PM2.5) rose by 13 per cent in

the past five years.Sunil Dahiya, one of the au-

thors of the report and a cam-paigner with Greenpeace, saidthat many studies had earlierfound that 30 to 34 per cent of the total PM2.5 concentrationin the country was due to sec-

ondary particles.“Most of these secondaryparticles are formed fromburning of fossil fuels, like inthermal power plant. It is nocoincidence that the hot spotsof sulphur dioxide and nitro-gen dioxide overlap with theareas with highest coal con-

sumption,” said Mr. Dahiya.In Delhi, Mr. Dahiya said

that though the power genera-tion was limited, emissionfrom thermal plants in the Na-tional Capital Region was af-fecting air quality in the city.

‘Clear link’In fact, a recent report byIIT-Kanpur had said that a planto reduce pollution in Delhimust include a radius of 300kilometres around the Capital.

“We have established a clearlink between thermal powerplants and rise in pollution in

the region. There is an urgentneed to get emissions fromthese plants under control,”said Mr. Dahiya.

Emission norms

The government had noti-fied norms for sulphur dioxide

and nitrogen dioxide emis-sions in December 2015, butthese have not been imple-mented till now, said Mr. Dahi-ya.

He added that these normsshould be in place within twoyears from the notification tohave an impact on air quality.

The govt. notified norms for sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide emissions in December 2015, but these have not been implemented, says expert

Thermal power plants leading to spike in SO2, NO2: studyD AMININ ATH

SOURCE: GREENPEACE

NEW DELHI: Despite heavyshowers, the Capital’spower demand on Mondayremained high at 5740 MW.

Several outages were al-so reported.

This time, it was a 400KVA line in Bamnauli runby Power Grid Corpora-tion that tripped leading toload-shedding in many ar-eas across Delhi.

Reports of outages start-ed flowing in after a mas-sive dust storm and rains.

Power minister Satyen-dar Jain said, “A 400 KVAtower in Bamnauli fell onSunday, which has beenthe main cause for outages.We have written to theCentre to probe the inci-dent as the tower is underPower Grid. Repair work isgoing to take two moredays.” Alternative arrange-ments have been made tobypass the shortfall, headded.

‘Local Faults’Though the showers

brought down temper-ature to 27.2 degrees Celsi-us, outages left residentsirritated in the very humidconditions.

“The power situationhas never been so bad as itis now. In last 24 hours,there has been no electrici-ty for at least six to 12hours. Now also, powerwent at 2 pm and hasn’tcome till 9 pm,” said NitinKumar, a resident of Kish-angarh village, near theposh Vasant Kunj area.

The minister attributedthe unscheduled outagesto “local faults” and sin-gled out BSES for the situa-tion. The discoms did notinvest in improving infras-

tructure since the privati-sation of Delhi's powersector 15 years ago, he said.

Giving details on Sun-day’s power situation, Jainsaid peak power demandwas 5,634 MW.

Flood of complaints

Tata Power received 752complaints, while BSESYamuna (BYPL) and BSESRajdhani (BRPL) received2,938 and 3,195 complaintsrespectively. “Amongthem, 1,022 complaintswere resolved within onehour while 1,541 took twohours. There’s no shortageof power and no scheduledpower cuts,” he said.

Delhi’s power demandhit an all-time peak of 6,188MW on May 20, which offi-cials said may rise furtherin June.

Tripping of 400 KVA line in Bamnauli leads to load-shedding in several areas across Delhi

LIFELINE: Repair work of the 400 KVA tower will take two more days.FILE PHOTO

Rain brings relief from heat, but not power cuts

S TAFFR EPORTER

Delhi PowerMinister attributesunscheduledoutages to ‘localfaults’

NEW DELHI: After lying inabeyance for nearly a year,the regulations enablingconsumers to get paid forunscheduled power cuts islikely to be notified nextweek. Once implemented,households will be reim-bursed from Rs. 25 to Rs.100 per hour if the author-ities fail to take correctiveaction against complaintsrelated to power outages.

Almost complete

According to the DelhiElectricity RegulatoryCommission (DERC), workon the guidelines is in thefinal stages and could easilybe notified in the first weekof June. Speaking to The

Hindu, DERC chief KrishnaSaini said, “We are firmingup the modalities.”

A meeting to finalise thenuances of the regulationshas been called on Tuesdayby Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal. Named as the Del-hi Electricity Supply Codeand Performance Standards(Second Amendment) Reg-ulations, 2015, the rulesspecify types of problem inelectricity supply, the maxi-mum time for resolution of the issue by discoms andthe penalty to be imposedon failure to do so.

Details of the policy

The draft rules furtherstate that in case powersupply is snapped due totripping of the MCB or thefuse blowing, the maximumtime for a discom to restoreit would be three hours,

failure to do so would meana penalty of Rs 100 per hour.

Similarly, in case morethan 50 households faceload shedding for morethan an hour, each house-hold will get Rs. 50 per hourfor the first two hours andRs. 100 per hour thereafter.

The regulations also in-clude penalty for metercomplaints. If a case of me-ter testing is not addressedwithin 15 days of receipt of complaint then Rs.25 foreach day of default will begiven to the consumer.

Rs 100 shall be give to theconsumer in case a burntmeter is not replaced with-in three days and so on.

On Monday, power min-ister Satyendar Jain alsosaid that the regulations,proposed by the Delhi gov-ernment and in-principle

accepted by the DERC in June last year, will be outsoon.

Compensationfor outages may

start next week S WETA GOSWAMI

NEW DELHI: The Aam AadmiParty (AAP) government onMonday notified its policy

for app-based Premium BusService, which aims at gradu-ally weaning the average caruser away from private vehi-cles and onto publictransportation.

Transport Minister GopalRai had, on April 22, an-nounced that the governmentintended to play the “role of an enabler” for private play-ers willing to provide air con-ditioned, wi-fi enabled buseswith CCTVs — through a mo-bile app — to citizens in a“concerted effort” to improvepublic transport.

Registration to begin June 1

Registration of service pro-viders under the scheme bythe Transport Departmentwill begin on June 1. The Hin-

du was the first to report onthe government’s efforts inthis direction in a report on

March 11.According to the notifica-tion, air pollution levels in thecity have “reached levels thatpose a serious threat to thehealth and well-being” of Delhiites. It asserted that ve-hicular emissions “contrib-ute significantly to the pre-vailing air pollution in Delhi”,and that the move is an effortto “reduce the use of privatemotor cars in Delhi in thelarger public interest”.

Govt. admits shortcomings

The notification also in-cluded an admission that “theprevailing quality and relia-bility” of bus services, whichpredominantly consist of itsown fleet being operated by

the Delhi Transport Corpora-

tion, “discourages privatemotor car owners from com-muting by buses”.

Policy in detail

As per the policy, bus ag-gregators will have individualapps — like Ola, Uber — andwill be allowed to decidetheir fares, determine theroutes and schedule of trips,which will be uploaded ontheir app; operators will haveto freeze bookings and dis-play a list of passengers fiveminutes before departure oneach trip.

Only AC buses will ply un-der the scheme and a bus ag-gregator will have to run atlease 50 vehicles to get a li-cence from the Transport de-

partment. Despite the libertyallowed in relation to fares,the department will retainthe authority to prescribe up-per limit or take steps tocheck predatory pricing.

After accepting a booking,operators cannot cancel theservice except if the bus

breaks-down or force ma-jeure. If the service is can-celled, the company will haveto refund passengers doublethe booking amount.

App-based vehicle aggre-gation service Ola said it wel-comed the efforts of the Delhigovernment for app-basedPremium Bus Services.

“We look forward to work-ing with the government inextending a world-class dailycommute solution from OlaShuttle, to citizens across theState...We are confident thatthis will go a long way in solv-ing for key issues like conges-tion, pollution and parkingthat we are faced with today,”the company said in astatement.

App-based premium busservices get green light J ATIN A NAND

NEW DELHI: Power generation inDelhi has been much below theinstalled capacity since May 15and the government-run plantsand transmission companiesare to be blamed, the DelhiCongress said on Monday.

At a presser here, DelhiPradesh Congress Committeepresident Ajay Maken said thatthe Centre and the Delhigovernment could not beabsolved of responsibility forthe frequent power outages.

Centre also responsible“The AAP government in

Delhi and the BJP governmentat the Centre are responsiblefor the acute power and watershortage in the city. The Delhigovernment has not made anyarrangements while Delhiitessuffer in the harsh summer,”said Mr. Maken.

He said that while powerdiscoms were responsible forsupplying uninterruptedelectricity, the role of government-run generation and

transmission companies shouldalso be investigated.

As per the Congress, theaverage power demand in Delhilast week was 5,655 MW whilethe installed generationcapacity in the city is 2,917 MW.

“The generation was only898 MW last week, whichmeans just 30 per cent of thecapacity was used. Thegeneration companies underthe Delhi government and theCentre have not made anyefforts to use the installedcapacity,” said Mr. Maken.

He added that since Delhi’sgeneration capacity was low,the only way to meet demandwas to transmit power fromother States, but the maximumcapacity of transmission lineswas 4,500 MW.

Crisis is AAP’s fault: CongS TAFFR EPORTER Party says govt.

is not fully usingthe installedpower generation

capacity of Delhi

GURGAON: After frequent andprolonged power outages,now the water supply hasalso been hit in severalparts of Gurgaon.

The water supply in DLFareas has been badly hit forthe past one week.

“The local councillor haspressed two water tankersin service and one has beenprovided by the DLF aswell, but still people are notgetting water. We have metthe Deputy Commissioner,the Haryana Urban Devel-opment Authority Admin-istrator and officials of theDakshin Haryana Bijli Vit-ran Nigam, but they are

shifting blame on each oth-er. No one has the solutionto the problem,” said R.S.

Rathee, president, DLF Qu-tab Enclave.

“Despite being a poshcolony, the residents are

deprived of basic necessi-ties such as water and pow-er. The entire area is de-

pendent on water tankers,”said a DLF Phase-I residentGaurav.

Besides DLF areas, watersupply has also been affect-ed in Nirvana Country,Sushant Lok-I, South City-II and in Sectors 49 and 50.

No supply

“The water supply fromHUDA has reduced to half over the past few weeks.Earlier we received 10 lakhlitres of water, now the sup-ply stands at a little overfour lakh litres,” said SanuKapila, president, NirvanaRWA.

Zile Singh, president of Sarawati Vihar RWA, saidthat the water supply to the

area was hit more than amonth ago.

“We are totally depend-

ent on water tankers. A wa-ter tanker costs Rs.1,500per day. We complained tothe DC office on May 5, butthere is no respite,” saidMr. Singh.

Erratic power supply towater treatment plants

A senior HUDA officialclaimed that the water sup-ply was hit due to erraticpower supply at watertreatment plants and in theresidential areas.

“There is no scarcity of water. The water supply isaffected due to erratic pow-er supply at water treat-ment plants and residentialareas. We have written tothe DHBVN to improve

power supply at watertreatment plants,” said theofficial.

Many residents say theyare entirely depending onwater tankers. FILE PHOTO

After power, water woes hit GurgaonS TAFFR EPORTER

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Courton Monday sought the Centre’sresponse on a petition seeking adirection to the government toprovide a citizen’s charter in ev-ery department to ensure time-bound delivery of goods, ser-vices and redressal of citizen’sgrievances.

A bench of Chief Justice GRohini and Justice Jayant Nathasked the counsel appearing forthe Centre to seek instructionon the issues raised in the pet-ition and posted the matter forfurther hearing on August 10.

A citizen charter is issued forimproving the quality of publicservices and this is done by let-ting people know the mandateof ministry or department con-cerned and how to seek a reme-dy of their grievances.

The petitioner, advocateAshwini Kumar Upadhyay, hasalso sought a direction to the

Centre to implement UnitedNations Convention AgainstCorruption (CAC) of October2003 and ‘Sense of the House’resolution of August 27, 2011.

‘Sense of the House’

Referring to the ‘Sense of theHouse’ resolution, the plea said“This House agrees in principleon following issues: (i) CitizenCharter (ii) Lower bureaucracyunder Lokpal through an appro-priate mechanism and (iii) Es-tablishment of Lokayukta in the

states and further resolves toforward the proceedings of theHouse to the standing commit-

tee on Law and Justice while fi-nalizing its report.”

It said that on October 31,2003, the UNCAC was adoptedby the General Assembly and atotal of 178 countries, includingIndia, had signed it.

“A citizen’s charter in everydepartment will send a clearmessage that the government isdetermined to prevent and con-trol corruption,” the plea said.

“Petitioner firmly believesthat implementation of theUnited Nations ConventionAgainst Corruption and ‘Senseof the House’ Resolution datedAugust 27, 2011 is essential tocurb the corruption,” it said.

The petition claimed that inabsence of an independent andimpartial Lokapal at the Centre,Lokayuktas in the States and a

citizen charter bill, “prevailingcorruption cannot be con-trolled...” — PTI

HC seeks Centre’s reply on citizen’s charterA citizen’s charteris issued forimproving thequality of publicservices

Bus aggregatorswill be allowedto decide thefare, routes andschedule of trips

BLACKOUTS

LUXURY: The AC buses will have Wi-Fi and CCTVs. FILE PHOTO



CMYK

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NOIDA/DELHI



CMYK

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6 | THE HINDU TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

NOIDA/DELHI

I Savita W/o Sanjay Kumar R/oCB129 Ring road Naraina New Delhi−28 have changed my name from Savi-ta to Babita Devi for all futurepurposes

EDUCATIONAL EDUCATIONAL

PERSONAL

CHANGE OF NAME

LEGAL NOTICE

LOST & FOUND

TENDERS

EDUCATIONAL

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

EDUCATIONAL

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CMYK

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STATE | 7THE HINDU TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

NOIDA/DELHI

PUBLIC NOTICESPUBLIC NOTICES

TENDERS

011- 43579738, 43579797

DEATH

ANNIVERSARIES

NEW DELHI: This year’s Shab-e-Barat was the first in at leastthree years where not a sin-gle incident of violence oraccident was reported, ac-cording to senior Delhi Po-lice officers.

The number of traffic vio-

lations also came down thisyear with 5,530 drivers beingprosecuted compared withthe 6,700-odd challaned lastyear.

While 2,412 people werechallaned on the spot,around 3,130 got challanssent to their homes.

Stunt biking

Denying that there waseven a single incident of stunt biking, Joint Commis-sioner of Police (Traffic)Sharad Aggarwal said the of-fences included rash andnegligent driving, drunkendriving, triple pillion, ridingwithout helmets or seat beltand even red light jumping.

Among these, the per-centage of red light violatorsis less said Mr. Aggarwal butthese are the ones who maylose their licences for three

months as per the guide-

lines of a Supreme CourtCommittee on Road Safety.

The maximum number of violations was reported inEast, Central and South Del-hi such as Bahadur Shah Za-

far Marg, ITO junction, Gee-

ta Colony and Lodhi Road.What particularly worked

for the police in keeping atab on stunt biking was plac-ing a network of barricadesin the vulnerable areas and

also the presence of elderly

people from the Muslimcommunity appealing themto stay away from perform-ing stunts.

Over 100 pickets wereplaced and special arrange-

ments were made in areas

such as Chandni Chowk, La-hori Gate and Idgah wherelarge crowds gathered.

The police vigil startedaround 10 p.m. on Sundayand lasted for nearly eight

hours.

Number of traffic violations less with 5,530 drivers being prosecuted compared to 6,700 last year

IN NUMBERS: While 2,412 people were challaned on the spot, around 3,130 got challans sent to their homes.—PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

No case of violence on Shab-e-BaratS TAFFR EPORTER

NEW DELHI: A court has saidthat Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal had notused the derogatory term‘thulla’ against the policeas a class but only meantthose officers who wereinefficient and squeezedmoney from street

vendors.Metropolitan

Magistrate Arun KumarGarg of the Saket courtsmade this remark, whiledismissing a criminaldefamation case againstthe Chief Minister lastweek. The case was filedby a constable of the citypolice.

Word impact

Reproducing thestatement made by theChief Minister in reply toa question on a TVchannel last year that“Delhi Police ka agar kothulla rehdi patri walon se

paise mangta hai, uskekhilaf bhi case nahin honachahiye, ye manjoor nahihai,” the court said: “Useof word ‘koi’ before‘thulla’ [by Mr. Kejriwal]

clearly shows that thesaid imputation is neitherdirected towards thecomplainant… nor thesame is directed towardswhole of Delhi police butthe same has beendirected towards anindeterminate andunidentifiable class of police officers of theDelhi police who arehaving lowerproductivity rate than theother reasonableofficers.”

“To be more precise

the said word appears tohave been made withreference to those Delhipolice officers who lackin efficiency and whotake money from rehri

patri walas[streetvendors],” Mr. Garg said.

The constable in hiscomplaint had said thathe was hurt by the Chief Minister’s remark.

Another defamationcase filed by anotherconstable against theremark is still pending ina different court.

Thulla remark: court dismisseslibel case against KejriwalSPECIALCORRESPONDENT

IN FAVOUR: The court said Kejriwal had used the word ‘thulla’ against those inefficient police officers who squeezedmoney from street vendors. —FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI: An eco-friendlyprocess used to clean astream in Punjab would beused to restore the Yamunain the Capital, Delhi JalBoard (DJB) chairpersonKapil Mishra said on Mon-day.

Mr. Mishra and a team of officials from the DJB werein Kapurthala to meet BabaBalbir Singh Seechewal,who spearheaded a cam-paign to clear rivers in Pun-jab. The Kali Bein rivulet inPunjab had become pollutedover the years, but wascleaned using natural proc-esses after the campaign.

Mr. Mishra said the de-centralised natural treat-ment system, oxidationpond, settling tanks andprocesses used to removefloating material were stud-ied. The DJB team also sawhow flow was maintained inthe river, which helped inself-cleaning. The DJB pre-

pared a comprehensive ‘Ya-muna Turnaround Plan’ lastweek and will be presentingit to Union Water ResourcesMinister Uma Bharti onTuesday.

“We will ensure that theYamuna is cleaned on a warfooting and will ensure thatPunjab’s Seechewal modelof river cleaning is imple-mented in Delhi,” said Mr.Mishra.

‘Punjab model’ for YamunaS TAFFR EPORTER

NEW APPROACH: Two boys take adip in the polluted Yamuna.—FILE PHOTO

NEW DELHI: Prakash, one of thethree accused in the murder of 29-year-old Congolese nationalMasonda Ketada Olivier, seemedunaware of Olivier’s death andhad gone to Mussoorie after theincident, said the police.

The Delhi Police arrestedPrakash early on Monday fromhis sister’s residence inGhaziabad, where he wasstaying since Sunday.

With co-accused Mobin AzadSaifi (23) already in policecustody, this takes the totalnumber of arrests to two. Thethird accused, Mukesh, is still on

the run. According to the police,Prakash landed in Ghaziabadafter his Mussoorie visit. In fact,two police teams had been tohis sister’s house, but returnedempty-handed on May 21.

“Prakash had plans to visitMussoorie and was scheduled toleave for Himachal Pradesh on

May 21, hours after the incident.He, Mukesh and Saifi went inseparate directions after injuringOlivier. The incident did little toupset Prakash’s plans of visitingMussoorie,” said a police officerclose to the investigations.

Phone switched off It was around 9.30 p.m. on

May 21 that the group reachedMussoorie, which is whenPrakash learnt from a TVchannel that Olivier had died,Mobin had been arrested andthat the police were looking forhim, said the officer.

Prakash’s phone wasswitched on until he saw thenews, which is why his last

location showed as Mussoorie.The police also suspect thatPrakash may have been toodrunk to remember anythinguntil then. “His friends, too, wereunaware till then. Once theyknew, they advised him to leaveMussoorie,” said the officer.

Prakash headed to Ghaziabad,from where he was arrested.

“Post his arrest, Prakash wasproduced at the Patiala HouseCourts, from where he wasremanded to 14 days in judicialcustody. We did not seek hiscustody as there are norecoveries to be made. Ourteams are looking for the thirdaccused, Mukesh, who was last

traced to a neighbouring State,”said Nupur Prasad, AdditionalDeputy Commissioner of Police–I (South).

She added that Prakash, whois a driver by profession, is aresident of Mehrauli. His motheris a maid, while his father worksas a watchman.

Second arrest in Congolese murdercase; third accused still on the runSHUBHOMOY SIKDAR Prakash seemed

unaware ofOlivier’s deathand had gone toMussoorie

NEW DELHI: The proportion of ailing persons (PAP) wasfound to be the highestamong the age group of 60-plus, followed by persons inthe age group of 45-59 years,according to a report.

The report on “Social Con-sumption on Health in Delhi”was brought out by the Delhigovernment’s Directorate of Economics and Statistics.

It is based on the results of the National Sample Survey71st Round on Health andMorbidity. The report was re-

leased by Deputy Chief Min-ister Manish Sisodia.

According to the report, 48people per 1,000 fell ill in ru-ral areas, while the number inurban areas was 50 in Delhiduring January-June 2014 ascompared to 89 in rural and118 in urban at the nationallevel. The comparative figure

in the urban areas of Punjabwas 170, Haryana 75, Hima-chal Pradesh 51, Jammu &Kashmir 41, Rajasthan 83, Ut-tar Pradesh 91 and Gujarat103. The report also statedthat of the total estimatedbirths, 5.02 per cent were re-ported in rural areas and94.98 per cent in urban areas.

The maximum number of child births — 33.95 per cent— was reported amongmothers in the age group of 20-24 years, closely followedby mothers in the age groupof 25-29 years. The averageduration of hospital stay of mothers per child birth wasabout three days.

Most ailing personsare in 60-plus groupBINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN A report has been

brought out bythe Directorateof Economicsand Statistics

NEW DELHI: The owner of aneatery in Lajpat Nagar wasshot at by unidentified assai-lants on Monday night. Hewas reported to be in a criti-cal state. Additional DeputyCommissioner of Police(South East) Vijay Kumarconfirmed the incident.

Another police officer said

the victim was the owner of Pappu Dhaba, which is locat-ed near a police picket in Laj-pat Nagar III.

—Staff Reporter

Man shot at; critical

NEW DELHI: App-based vehicleaggregator Ola aims to makethousands of female driversavailable on its platform bythe end of this year, a compa-ny representative said.

According to the represen-tative, Delhi and Mumbaiwould see the maximumstrengthening of their infras-tructure in terms of the avail-ability of female drivers and amajority of them would be-long to various underprivi-leged categories.

The company had, lastweek, signed an MoU with

National Safai KaramcharisFinance and DevelopmentCorporation (NSKFDC) inwhat the company said wasan attempt aimed at buildinga sustainable framework bysupporting entrepreneur-ship, skill-development train-ing and self-defence coursesfor women.

Ola goes big on

women driversS TAFFR EPORTER

Disclaimer:Readers are requested to verify &make appropriate enquiries to satisfythemselves about the veracity of an adver-tisement before responding to any published inthis newspaper. Kasturi & Sons Limited, thePublisher & Owner of this newspaper, does notvouch for the authenticity of any advertisementor advertiser or for any of the advertiser’s pro-ducts and/or services. In no event can theOwner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Director/s,Employees of this newspaper/company be heldresponsible/liable in any manner whatsoever forany claims and/or damages for advertisementsin this newspaper.



CMYK

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NATION

KOCHI: In an order with far- re-aching implications, the Ko-chi Circuit Bench of the Na-tional Green Tribunal (NGT)

on Monday ordered light andheavy diesel vehicles of morethan 2000 cc which are olderthan 10 years off the streets of six major cities of Kerala.

The ban, which will covervehicles in Thiruvananthap-uram, Kollam, Kochi, Thris-sur, Kozhikode and Kannur,will come into effect in 30days.

Rs. 5000 fine

Each detected violationthereafter will entail a Rs.5,000 fine as environmentalcompensation. The fineshould be collected by thetraffic police or the PollutionControl Board, the Tribunalsaid.

This means that over twolakh diesel vehicles regis-tered in the State will bephased out.

Of the over 96 lakh vehicles

registered with the Motor Ve-hicle Department, 98,400light motor vehicles are be-yond the 2000 cc and 10-year-old criteria comprising of 44,524 medium motor vehi-cles, 41,121 heavy motor vehi-

cles and 3700 private stagecarriers.

In addition, the NGTBench, comprising NGTchairperson Swatanter Ku-mar and expert member Bik-ram Singh Sajwan, has direct-ed the State government notto register any more dieselvehicles of 2000 cc andabove, except Public Trans-port and Local Authority ve-

hicles.CNG availability

The State government hasbeen asked to inform the Tri-bunal as to the availability of compressed natural gas

(CNG) for running of vehi-cles in the entire State.

The order was passed on awrit petition filed by the Law-yers’ Environmental Aware-ness Forum (LEAF), a greenwing of the Kerala HighCourt Advocates Associ-ation.

The petition sought a banon all diesel operated trucks,lorries, autos, taxis which are

more than 10 years.Kerala has a vehicle pop-ulation touching nine crore.The petition said Kochi, thecommercial hub of the State,ranks 25 among the criticallypolluted areas in the country.

Older trucks were mainly re-sponsible for increasing airpollutant levels, the petitionheld, adding that the use of diesel vehicles was increas-ing in the State.

Pollution checks

The petitioner maintainedthat the Motor Vehicle De-partment (MVD) had refusedto subject diesel buses andtrucks to pollution checks.The department was only in-terested in penalising twowheeler riders and reluctantto ensure that buses andtrucks were complying withpollution norms. The inac-tion of the department wasagainst public interest, itargued.

State Transport Commis-sioner Tomin J. Thachankary,however, said the MVD willappeal the NGT order oncethe new State governmenttakes over. “There are practi-cal difficulties and publictransport sector will be hit bythis [order],” he added.

Those owning these vehi-

cles and make a living out of them will be the worst hit if the directive is executed. Therestrictions are seen as posi-tive to reduce the congestionin the roads as already vehiclepopulation is nearing 1 crore.

Vehicles with engines above 2000 cc over 10 years old to go off the roads

STRICT MEASURES: Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kochi, Thrissur,Kozhikode and Kannur will come under the ban. — FILE PHOTO

Green Tribunal bans old diesel vehicles in six Kerala citiesSPECIALCORRESPONDENT

CHENNAI: Women domestic workersfrom southern Andhra Pradesh arelanguishing in jails in Gulf statesafter attempting to flee abusiveemployers or overstaying their vi-sas, said a Minister from AndhraPradesh, urging the Government of India to help them.

Letter to Sushma

In a letter to External AffairsMinister Sushma Swaraj, AndhraPradesh’s Minister for Non-Resi-dent Indian Welfare, Palle Raghu-natha Reddy, called for action tobring back the women.

“Necessary steps should be initi-ated to bring them to their nativeareas safely by providing free trav-el and necessary visa documents atthe earliest possible [opportuni-ty],” he wrote.

“Instructions should be issuedto Indian embassy officials in Gulf

countries to interfere in the matterand provide necessary help interms of food, clothing andshelter.”

Government figures show thereare an estimated six million Indianmigrants in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar,Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emir-ates and Oman.

Petty offences

Some of the migrants overstayon tourist visas and are unable topay the fines required to returnhome. In some cases, they do nothave exit visas. Many others have

been jailed on petty offences wait-ing for their case to be heard, ac-cording to the Andhra Pradeshgovernment.

Women from Andhra Pradeshand Telangana “are being sold likeproducts in a retail shop,” Mr. Red-dy wrote in the letter sent lastweek. He said at least 25 womenjailed in Gulf states had sought theState government’s help recently.

In response to a query in Parlia-ment in March, the Foreign Minis-try said their diplomatic missionsin all six Gulf states had registeredcomplaints of physical abuse, mal-treatment, non-payment of salary,and other grievances.

Requesting anonymity, a seniorofficial in the Andhra Pradesh gov-ernment said a group of Ministerswould visit the Gulf next month tolook into the plight of migrantsfrom their region. — Reuters

They have eitherattempted to fleeabusive employersor overstayedtheir visas

A.P. women domestic workers heldin Gulf prisons need help: Minister

NAGPUR: A Maoist com-mander was killed in an en-counter in Chhattisgarh onMonday.

Inspector-General of Po-lice (Bastar range) SRP Kal-luri said a joint team of theDRG (District ReserveGuard), the District Force

and the ChhattisgarhArmed Force was involvedin the encounter withMaoists on Monday morn-ing in the Modenar forestarea of Dantewada district.Later the security forces re-covered the body of Suk-hram, deputy commanderof the Maoists’ KatekalyanLocal Operating Squad.

According to the IG, Suk-hram had 18 police casesregistered against him of which four related to da-maging railway track.

12 Maoists surrender

Meanwhile, 9 Maoistssurrendered in Kondagaondistrict of Chhattisgarh andthree surrendered in Gad-chiroli district of Maha-rashtra on Monday, the po-lice said. A statement bythe Kondagaon district po-

lice said 8 members of theMaoist militia and onemember of the Maoists’cultural wing, Natya Chet-na Mandali, surrenderedbefore district Superin-tendent of Police J. S. Watti.

Maoist killedin Chhattisgarhencounter

P AVAND AHAT

NEW DELHI: Environment Min-ister Prakash Javadekar hassaid the use of geneticallymodified (GM) technologyfor seeds is important for im-proving agricultural produc-

tivity and food security. Hesaid 18 field trials, testing var-ious kinds of GM seeds, wereunder way but the govern-ment would take a consid-ered view on releasing genet-ically modified mustard.

GM mustard, likely to bethe first food-related trans-genic crop and developed aspart of a research collabora-tion involving scientists atDelhi University, sits at an in-flexion point with critics al-leging that such technologiesare unfit for human con-sumption and proponents ar-guing that such technology is

critical for India’s future.“India’s agricultural pro-

ductivity is among the low-est [among nations] … sci-ence and technology has tobe encouraged for this,” Mr. Javadekar said at a pressevent organised to mark two

years of the National Demo-cratic Alliance regime.

Committee set up

The Environment Minis-try had constituted a GeneticEngineering Appraisal Com-mittee comprising biotech-nologists, ecologists and so-ciologists to take a call onGM mustard.

Mr. Javadekar said the gov-ernment was mooting a newBill to impose strict fines andeven jail terms for those vio-lating industrial pollutionnorms.

A senior official in the

Ministry told The Hindu thatthe Civil Penalties Bill was inthe process of being re-viewed after a round of com-ments and would soon bepresented to the Union Cabi-net for approval. The Billwould also have a provision

to impose heavy penalties ongovernment agencies, localbodies and state-run institu-tions.

5 municipalities sued

Last week, Mr. Javadekarsaid his Ministry — whichhad a system of electronical-ly monitoring industrialunits along the Ganga andnoting those that exceededprescribed norms — hadsued five municipalities inUttar Pradesh in the Nation-al Green Tribunal for not im-plementing sewage treat-ment measures.

Panel set up by Environment Ministry to take a call on GM mustard

GM seeds key to foodsecurity: Javadekar

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

HYDERABAD: Terming the rout of the Left in West Bengal a “big

setback”, CPI general secreta-ry S. Sudhakar Reddy saidhere on Monday that the Leftparties needed to look fornew ideas and strategy to gainthe lost ground and expandtheir influence.

Mr. Reddy, however, saidthey were not worried about

the future as losing and win-ning elections were “inevita-ble”, but it was important tothink about methods to reor-ganise themselves. The Lefthad lost ground in differentStates in recent years follow-

ing the emergence of regionaloutfits and “neoliberal eco-

nomic policies”, which creat-ed a “different type of eco-nomic situation”.

After the West Bengal re-sults, Mr. Reddy said, the Leftparties needed to go for an in-trospection. — PTI

Left needs to introspect: CPI



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NATION

PALAKKAD: On Mondaymorning, passers-bygawked in disbelief as apetite woman in her lateforties expertlymanoeuvred a massive14-wheeler truck with its 30tonne-cargo throughPalakkad’s busy English

Church Road.She had driven a liquor

consignment all the wayfrom Bhopal to a KeralaState BeveragesCorporation godown.

Yogita Raguvanshi is farfrom the archetypal inter-State trucker. She alsohappens to be a qualifiedlawyer, who preferred thetough and risky life on thehighways to look after herfamily, instead of thepittance she would haveearned as a beginner in theblack robe.

She and her huge truckhave been criss-crossingthe country through allkinds of terrain since 2000.

'Not from another world'

“I certainly am not doingthis job because of aresolve to break

stereotypes. I am behindthis wheel owing to my

circumstances. So pleasedon’t make out as if I amfrom another world,” shesaid, leaning on thesteering wheel. This is hersecond visit to Kerala —sheand her truck were inKochi last year.

Shuttling between citiesacross the country with hertruck had its inevitable loadof problems when shestarted out — snidecomments, hostile staresand more — but Ms.

Raghuvanshi says she soongot tuned to the

challenging, all male worldof truck drivers.

South safer

The job, anyhow, comeswith its understandableperils, but she brushesthose off. “Relatively, southIndian highways are saferthan those in north India,”she says.

Driving the big truckshas enabled her to lookafter her children, Yashikaand Yashwin — both

undergrad students. .Ms Raghuvanshi grew up

in Nandurbar inMaharashtra with foursiblings, earning degrees inCommerce and Law.

Her days and nightsbehind the wheel on thehighways were theconsequence of anunhappy arrangedmarriage in 1991 — she wasmarried off to a Bhopal

man who claimed to be alawyer.

“His family had claimedthat he was a lawyerpractising in the BhopalHigh Court. But of course,that was not the case,” Ms.Raghuvanshi recallsimpassively. Her husbanddied in a road accident 16years ago.

It was after his death thatshe decided to work as atruck driver to look afterher kids.

“If I had opted to be ajunior to some lawyer andenter the legal profession, Iwould have got only apittance for the manyinitial years. But I learntthat driving trucks meantinstant wages.”

“Perhaps, I am the mostacademically qualifiedtruck driver in the

country,” she says with asmile.

Highways no bar for this pioneer Yogita Raghuvanshi is probably the most qualified truck driver in the country

RISKY JOB: Yogita Raguvanshi, a lawyer by training and truckdriver by profession. — PHOTO: K. K. MUSTAFAH

K.A. SHAJI

CHENNAI: Taking baby steps to-wards developing a reusablelaunch vehicle capable of sending spacecraft into orbitand returning to the earth’s

surface, the Indian Space Re-search Organisation onMonday successfully testedthe country’s first winged-body aerospace vehicle.

The technology, when de-veloped completely, wouldlaunch spacecraft, includingsatellites, into space and re-enter the earth’s atmospherewithstanding extreme pres-sure and heat conditions andland in an intended spot,helping to cut costs on lau-nch vehicles substantially.

“We had three objectivesfor Monday’s launch: To testthe characterisation of theaero-thermo dynamics of hy-personic flights; to test theautonomous mission man-agement of hypersonic vehi-cles; and to test the neces-sary re-entry technology forthe vehicles,” K. Sivan, Di-rector of the Thiruvanan-

thapuram-based Vikram Sa-rabhai Space Centre, said.A booster rocket, carrying

a winged-body aerospace ve-hicle (RLV-TD), took off from the spaceport at Sriha-rikota, some 100 km fromChennai, at 7 a.m. It climbedfor about 90 seconds beforeits burnout. Coasting to analtitude of 56 km, where itwas separated from thebooster, RLV-TD inclinedfurther to 65 km, an ISRO re-lease said. From an altitudeof 65 km, the vehicle made are-entry into the earth’s at-mosphere at Mach 5 (fivetimes the speed of sound)and steered by its navigation,guidance and control systemfor safe descent, it glideddown to the defined landingspot in the Bay of Bengal, 450km from Sriharikota.

The total flight durationwas about 12.8 minutes.

Technology willhelp slashlaunch costs

ANOTHER MILESTONE: (Above)The Indian SpaceResearch Organisation’sspace shuttle prototypereusable launch vehicle(RLV-TD) taking off fromthe launch centre inSriharikota on Monday;and (right) the vehiclebeing transported to thelaunch pad. —P HOTOS:

V. GANESAN & AFP

India tests native reusable vehicle

DENNIS S. JESUDASAN

CHENNAI: The successful Re-usable Launch Vehicle-Technology Demonstrator(RLV-TD) mission on Mon-day was “the first step to-wards India achieving alow-cost access to space,”according to K. Sivan, Di-rector, Vikram SarabhaiSpace Centre (VSSC), Thi-ruvananthapuram.

“We have demonstrated alot of new technologies inthis mission. We have to de-velop a lot more new tech-nologies” to make it a reallyreusable launch system andenable it to put satellites inorbit,” he said. “We will beconcentrating on develop-ing these new technologiesfrom now,” Dr. Sivan said.

An air-breathing propul-sion test is planned at Sriha-

rikota in June/July 2016 withthe RLV ultimately flying ina hypersonic regime of Mach 25.

‘Fantastic success’

The mission was “a fan-tastic success, which met allits objectives,” Dr. Sivansaid. The winged spaceplane’s ability to fly at hy-personic speed was demon-strated. The mission man-agement of its re-entry intothe atmosphere at a hyper-sonic speed of Mach 4.9 wasproven. The vehicle with-stood the fiery re-entry,proving the re-usable ther-mal protection systemswrapped around it. Then ittouched down in the pre-dicted area in the Bay of Bengal, 425 km east of Sriha-rikota. “A space plane flyingat hypersonic speed is a new

venture for the ISRO. Tillnow, we were only doingrockets,” Dr. Sivan said.

N. Shyam Mohan, ProjectDirector, RLV-TD, called it“a clean flight.” The separa-tion of the RLV/space planefrom the booster rocket atan altitude of 56 km was“smooth” and “all controlsworked as specified.”

The hypersonic re-entrywas perfect. Dr. Shyam Mo-han said the mission’s com-plexity came from the factthat the space plane, whichsat on top of the boosterrocket, had to be separatedfrom the rocket at a speci-fied altitude.

“We are really excitedabout the mission’s suc-cess,” Dr. Shyam Mohansaid. “We are now confidentof developing a winged, re-usable launch system.”

T.S. SUBRAMANIAN

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Thetest flight of the RLV-TDon Monday representedthe first step towards theISRO programme to mas-

ter the reusable launch ve-hicle technology.Termed the Hypersonic

Flight Experiment, it wasthe first of a sequence of four test flights to validatevarious technologies. De-signed and developed byVikram Sarabhai SpaceCentre (VSSC) at a cost of Rs. 95 crore, the RLV-TDweighing 1.75 tonnes useda thermal protection sys-tem (TPS) including 600heat-resistant silica tilesand a Carbon-Carbon nosecap to withstand the hightemperature during atmo-spheric re-entry.

The first Indian aircraftstructure to fly up to Mach5, the double delta wingRLV posed a challenge forVSSC engineers to managethe high instability of awinged body mounted on

a booster rocket duringlaunch. The design of theair frame, development of mono propellant thrustersfor guidance and controland advanced avionics formission managementwere other challenges.

The new developmentsfor RLV-TD include thecomposite movable fin,flush air data system tomeasure the surface pres-sure on the aircraft, on-board computer, high reso-lution data acquisitionsystem, lithium ion bat-tery, patch antennas andradar altimeter.

As many as 600 engi-neers from ISRO centres,National Aerospace Labo-ratories, IITs and IndianInstitute of Science wereinvolved in the develop-ment of the RLV-TD over aperiod of eight years.

ISRO’s quest fora space shuttle

SPECIALCORRESPONDENTKOLAR: In yet another case of “honour killing”, a 17-year-oldgirl was killed allegedly by herfather on Sunday night at Ta-matampalli in Srinivasapurtaluk of Kolar district for be-ing in love with a boy of “low-er” caste.

Byra Reddy, a resident of Tamatampalli under Gowni-palli police limits, allegedlystrangled his daughter PriyaReddy (17). He was angry asPriya was in love with 20-year-old Harish, belonging toGaniga (backward class), andsuspected that they wereplanning to elope on Sunday.This was the first incident of killing in the name of “pro-tecting caste honour” report-ed from Kolar district.

Earlier case

It comes within twomonths of a case reported

from Mandya district, whereMonica (19) from Vokkaliga

community was killed alleg-edly by her father for trying toelope with a Dalit boy.

It was said that Byra Reddyand his wife were opposed tothe daughter’s relationshipwith the boy of the “lower”caste, but she was firm on herstand.

A student of a private pre-university college in Sriniva-sapur, Priya had been promot-ed to II PU. Harish was an illit-erate and was working at theAPMC yard in Srinivasapur.

Byra Reddy took Priya onsome pretext to a farm onSunday night and strangled

her with a rope. His minor sonwas said to have helped the fa-ther in killing Priya, Srinivasa-pur Circle Inspector of PoliceH.N. Chandrappa told The

Hindu.The police took Byra Reddy

into custody and, during in-terrogation, he confessed tothe crime, Mr. Chandrappa

said. “It was established in themedical examination that thecrime was committed using arope,” he said.

The body was handed overto the relatives of the girl afterpost-mortem and a case un-der Section 302 wasregistered.

Protection sought

The All-India DemocraticWomen’s Association (AID-WA) has demanded that Hari-sh be given protection. AID-WA State unit president V.Geetha said the accusedshould not be given bail.

Another murder in nameof ‘honour’ in Karnataka

V ISHWA K UNDAPURA Seventeen-year-oldkilled allegedly byher father for beingin love with ‘lowercaste’ boy in Kolar

MYSURU: The Centre has setMay 31 deadline for the Statesand Union Territories towithdraw from the market to-bacco products whose 85 percent packaging space is notcovered with pictorialwarning.

A communiqué from theTobacco Control Division of Union Ministry of Health andFamily Welfare, New Delhi,dated May 20, 2015, has re-quested the Chief Secretariesof all States and Union Terri-tories to take steps for strictenforcement of the new ruleson pictorial warnings.

The Pictorial WarningRules under Cigarettes andOther Tobacco Products(Prohibition of Advertise-ment and Regulation of Tradeand Commerce, Production,Supply and Distribution) Act(COTPA) 2003 had come into

force from April 1, 2016. Thecommuniqué said that pack-ages not compliant with thenew rules be allowed for sale“only by printing, pasting oraffixing the new warningsthereon covering 85 per centof the principal display area.”

‘Misleading the public’

Referring to continued saleof cigarette packets bearing apictorial warning only on 40per cent of the display area,U.S. Vishal Rao, member of Karnataka Government’sHigh Power Committee on

Tobacco Control, told The Hindu that cigarette manu-facturers were “misleadingthe public”.

Restricted warning

Though the Union HealthMinistry’s notification on thelarger size of pictorial warn-ing was issued in Septemberlast year to come into forcefrom April 1, the cigarettemanufacturers continued tomislead the public by restrict-ing the warning to 40 per centof the display space on oneside. “The rest of the space, 60per cent on one side and 100per cent on the other, contin-ues to be an advertisement,”he said.

Most cigarettes packs avail-able in Mysuru not only bore apictorial warning that was re-stricted to just 40 per cent of the display area on one side,but also a packaging date thatwas prior to April 1.

States told to withdraw tobacco packs without 85 p.c. pictorial warning

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

KATIHAR: A woman axed herhusband to death when thelatter allegedly tried to out-rage the modesty of theirteenage daughter in Kumrarvillage of Bihar’s Katihar dis-trict, police said on Monday.

The incident took place onSunday night when SunilRishi (42) allegedly tried tooutrage the modesty of his 14-year-old daughter by gaggingher mouth, ignoring the pro-tests by his wife Ghuro Deviand son Suman, police said.

Ghuro Devi then hit on the

neck and face of her husbandwith the axe several times,which led to his death on thespot. She later surrendered atthe Kadwa police station andconfessed to her crime, policesaid. — PTI

Bihar woman kills

husband to save

daughter’s honour

‘New technologies proven’

NEW DELHI: Pakistan-born Bolly-wood singer and actor SalmaAgha has applied for Over-seas Citizen of India (OCI)card and her request is beingexamined by the HomeMinistry.

Ms. Agha has applied forthe card that gives multiple

entry, multi-purpose life-longvisa to visit India and exemp-tion from reporting to policeauthorities for any length of stay in the country, officialsources said on Monday.

The Pakistan-born artist isa U.K. citizen. She had givenher voice to few Bollywoodfilms and acted in some of them.

Won award in 1982

Ms. Agha had won Filmfarebest female playback award in1982 for her rendition “ Dil Kearmaan aansuon me beh

gaye” in the movie ‘Nikaah.’ “The Home Ministry is ex-

amining her request. A deci-sion will be taken soon,” asource said.

The OCI card gives parityto an individual with Non-Resident Indians in financial,economic and educational

fields except in the acquisi-tion of agricultural or planta-tion properties. — PTI

Pakistan-born

singer Salma Agha

seeks OCI cardMUMBAI: A police officer hasbeen caught on camera alleg-edly thrashing a woman in-side the Kandivali police sta-tion here, following which aninquiry has been ordered intothe incident.

According to Rakesh Shet-ty, who captured the episodeon his mobile phone camera,

the incident took place onMay 11 when the woman andher husband reached the po-lice station to register a com-plaint but the accused Sub-In-spector, Riyaz Mulani,refused to lend them an ear.

Though the couple has notsought any action against theofficer, Mr. Shetty went aheadand complained about the al-leged assault on the woman tothe Kandivali Police.

The video grab shows thepolice officer hitting the ladywith a wooden stick insidethe police station premises.

Mr. Shetty, a real estate pro-fessional, happened to be atthe police station at that timefor lodging a complaint.

No case yet

Mr. Shetty said he apprisedhigher officials in the depart-ment of the incident, includ-

ing the city police chief, butno case has been f iled againstMr. Mulani yet. — PTI

Mumbai policeman

caught thrashing

woman on camera

MOGA: A two-member Belgianpolice team has questioned rul-ing Shiromani Akali Dal MLARajwinder Kaur in connectionwith the alleged murder of awoman who was reported mis-sing in 2012.

The team recorded state-ments of at least nine people re-lated to each other on Sunday,police said Monday.

Jagwinder, who hails fromMullanpur Dhakha in Ludhia-na, was married to Kewal Singh,a resident of Bhagike village.

Kewal had been living in Bel-gium for over 20 years.

In Februray 2012, Kewalcame to his ancestral village toattend a marriage, police said,adding that a few days after hisarrival, he got a phone call fromBelgium that his wife has gonemissing from the house. Belgi-um police suspects it to be acase of honour killing.- PTI

Belgian policequiz Akali MLA

NEW DELHI: A large number of political parties are spendingmore than the total moneycollected during elections,says a report released by theAssociation of DemocraticReforms (ADR) on Monday.

The ADR analysed fundscollected and expenditureincurred by political parties— money spent by candi-dates is not included in theanalysis — inthe 71 Assemb-ly elections and three LokSabha polls between January2004 and December 2015.

‘No transparency’

Twenty of the 49 regionalparties that contested theLok Sabha elections and 19 of the 37 regional parties thatfought it out in the Assemblypolls declared that theyspent more money than the

funds collected during theelection period. “India is theleast transparent countrywhen it comes to politicalparty finances,” said Prof.Trilochan Sastry, founder-member of the ADR’s Na-tional Election Watch.

The total amount receivedby political parties duringthe three general electionswas Rs. 2,355 crore (44% of itin cash) while Rs. 3,368 crorewas collected (63% in cash)during the Assembly polls.

But surprisingly, very littleof the amount was spent incash, which constituted just10 per cent of the expendi-ture during Lok Sabha elec-tions, and 12 per cent of thespending during Assemblypolls. “Two [former] Chief Election Commissionerspublicly admitted thataround Rs. 10,000 crore arelikely to be spent during

elections in Uttar Pradeshand Tamil Nadu alone,” saidProf. Shastry. This is morethan the entireamount spentby parties during the elec-tions analysed. This, he said,reflected the scale of unac-counted for money being cir-culated in the electioneconomy.

Loophole in guidelines

The political parties aretaking advantage of loop-holes in transparency guide-lines issued by the ElectionCommission (EC) to ensurethat they spend more thanthe amount of money they le-gally receive. While the pollpanel’s norms state that par-ties should not spend morethan Rs. 20,000 in cash, thereis no provision in the expen-diture format for parties todeclare expenses exceedingor less than Rs. 20,000.

Also, as per guidelines,po-litical parties are required tosubmit a statement ofexpen-diture to the EC within 75days of Assembly electionsand 90 days of general polls.ADR’s analysis of Assemblyelections between 2011 and2015 shows that the JD(U)’sstatements are unavailablefor 15 State electionsand theSP’s for 11 Assembly polls.

In the case of the NCP andthe CPI, expenditure state-ments are not available fortwo Assembly elections. Un-fortunately, there is a limit towhat the EC can do, saidProf. Jagdeep Chhokar, foun-der-member of the NationalElection Watch. “There is nopenalty on political parties if guidelines are not followed.A ruling by Supreme Courtsaid that while the EC canregister political parties, itcannot deregister them.”

‘Many parties spend more than funds raised’S AMARTHB ANSAL

SRINAGAR: The reported moveby the Ministry of Human Re-source Development (MHRD)to constitute a National Coun-cil for Promotion of KashmiriLanguage with Devanagari andSharda as its scripts promptedvehement opposition fromKashmiri writers and poets forignoring Nastaliq, the tradi-tional Perso-Arabic script.

The Valley’s well-known cul-tural body Adbee Markaz Kam-raz (AMK), comprising localwriters, poets, artists, academi-cians, activists and business-men, opposed the idea of intro-ducing the Devanagari script,even as it welcomed the moveto promote Kashmiri.

“The move is politically mo-tivated aimed at dividing theKashmiri community in the

name of the script. It is aimed atdemolishing our cultural iden-tity as the existing script [Nas-taliq] has been in vogue for thepast five centuries and entireKashmiri literature is availablein this script. There is no needto have an alternative scriptthat will not only divide theplace but also lead to confu-sion,” said a joint statement is-sued by writers and poets inSrinagar.

The AMK called upon theState government to stop themove. Interestingly, a Panditwriter Deepak Kanwal de-scribed the proposal “unac-ceptable to the Kashmiri Panditcommunity”. “Kashmiri Panditwriters had been writing in thePerso-Arabic script and theyare comfortable in it as it doesnot violate their religious obli-gations,” said Mr. Kanwal.

J&K writers oppose moveto sideline Nastaliq scriptPEERZADA A SHIQ



10 | THE HINDU TUESDAY,MAY24,2016

NOIDA/DELHI

CMYK

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

tuesday, may 24, 2016

CARTOONSCAPE

Three major developmentsduring the last 10 days are like-ly to have significant implica-tions on the future of the Af-ghan peace process — theunsuccessful conclusion of theAfghan Quadrilateral Coordi-nation Group’s (QCG) talks inIslamabad, the U.S. Congress’s

conditions on Pakistan to do more on Afghan-istan to receive any further American aid, andthe killing of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah

Akhtar Mansour in Balochistan by an Ameri-can drone.

Did one development cause the other? Ordid they take place simultaneously, and is thesequencing just a coincidence? Either way,they have serious implications for the Afghanpeace process. A fourth development, thoughnot totally outside the above three, is a formalunderstanding between the Afghan govern-ment and Hezb-e-Islami Gulbuddin of Gul-buddin Hekmatyar. This agreement, thoughmore likely to strengthen the internal peaceprocess within Afghanistan, would have itsown repercussions on the QCG dialogue.

The floundering Afghan talks

The fifth meeting of the QCG, comprisingAfghanistan, Pakistan, China and the U.S.,and held on May 18 in Islamabad, was a disas-ter before it could even begin. It took place ina difficult environment with developments inKabul and Washington setting a tough tone.The earlier Taliban suicide attack in Kabul inApril killing more than 28 people vitiated theatmosphere; Afghan President Ashraf Ghanitook a tough posture vis-à-vis Pakistan. In

Washington meanwhile, a development inApril further strained U.S.-Pakistan relations.U.S. lawmakers made it clear that they wouldnot sanction the administration’s attempt tooffer Pakistan a loan under the Foreign Mili-tary Financing programme to buy eight F-16fighter aircraft from the U.S. Foreign MilitaryFund unless Pakistan did more on Afghanis-tan, Taliban and the Haqqani Network. Im-mediately, there were a series of responses inPakistani media informing the Americansabout “Pakistani sacrifices” in the War onTerrorism, and the need for F-16s. The debatealso revived the animosity over “Americantreachery” and getting influenced by IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modi. Leaders inIslamabad even issued a warning that if theAmericans didn’t subsidise the sale, theywould look elsewhere (meaning Russia).

The QCG meeting on May 18 took place

against this background. Though the discus-sions inside have not been made public, thejoint press release at the end highlighted whatwas achieved. It merely stated: “The QCG re-

iterated that violence serves no purpose andthat peace negotiations remain the only op-tion for a political settlement. In this respect,QCG countries reaffirmed to use their re-spective leverages and influences.” Nothingmore could be achieved than concluding “toadvance the goal of an Afghan-led, Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process” andthat “the next QCG meeting will be convenedas mutually agreed”. Clearly, the meeting wasa failure.

For the QCG to succeed and make any mea-ningful contribution to the Afghan peaceprocess there has to be success at the follow-ing four segments: U.S.-Pakistan, Pakistan-

Afghanistan, Pakistan-Taliban and intra-Af-

ghan. There is a “Great Dirty Game” withinall four segments, impacting each other.Nothing is what it appears.

American pressure

If the refusal to subsidise the sale of eightF-16 fighter aircrafts by the Congress set thetone in April 2016, another U.S. Congress Billpassed immediately after the Islamabad QCGmeeting further tightened the noose on Pa-kistan. The new National Defense Authoriza-tion Act categorically asked for the Secretaryof Defense to certify on three issues beforedisbursing the $450 million aid that “(1) Pa-kistan continues to conduct military oper-ations in North Waziristan that are contribut-ing to significantly disrupting the safe havenand freedom of movement of the HaqqaniNetwork in Pakistan; (2) Pakistan has takensteps to demonstrate its commitment to pre-

vent the Haqqani Network from using NorthWaziristan as a safe haven; and (3) the Gov-ernment of Pakistan actively coordinateswith the Government of Afghanistan to re-

strict the movement of militants, such as theHaqqani Network, along the Afghanistan-Pa-kistan border.”

Pakistan needs both the F-16s and the largerAmerican aid. Outside these two, there is alarger dialogue on the nuclear front as well;Pakistan has also formally applied for mem-bership into the Nuclear Suppliers Group(NSG). The eighth round of U.S.-Pakistandialogue (held recently) on Security, Strate-gic Stability, and Non-proliferation shouldhave made it clear that the latter is not likelyto get a nuclear deal from the former similarto the India-U.S. deal. While Pakistan cancount on Chinese support, it cannot become a

member of the NSG without the American

push.The killing of Mullah Mansour by anAmerican drone attack in Balochistan has tobe viewed in this context. If it is an independ-ent development, then it should have been acurious coincidence. Most of the Americandrone attacks have been focussed on the Fed-erally Administered Tribal Areas, and theyhad hardly spilled over into the Pakistanimainland — either in Khyber Pakhtunkhwaor in Balochistan.

ISI-Taliban matrix

Whether there was collusion between theU.S.’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) andPakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence that ledto the killing of Mullah Mansour is still con-jecture, with no sufficient literature in thepublic domain. However, like that of its rela-tionship with the CIA, the ISI’s links (wheth-

er “control” or “influence”) with the AfghanTaliban have been extremely nebulous in re-cent years.

Pakistan-Taliban relations are nuanced. It iswidely believed that the Afghan Taliban lead-ership, especially its Qatar office, has beensuspicious of the ISI as well. It is also believedthat the Afghan Taliban would want to holdan independent dialogue (with Kabul and theU.S.) outside the Pakistani frame. While theAfghan Taliban were apprehensive about Pa-kistan, they needed the latter’s safe haven, es-

pecially in Balochistan, to fight in Afghanis-tan. Without that support, they would not beable to keep their surge in the Afghan soil thatwould keep them relevant, perhaps give theman upper hand in the dialogue.

Pakistan should be well aware of the Af-ghan Taliban’s apprehension as well. Thoughit has been fighting the Pakistani Taliban andacting against al-Qaeda remnants, it wouldstill want to provide space to the Afghan Tali-ban in Balochistan. That is the only way theISI could exert influence.

Now the killing of Mullah Mansour shouldchange the basic equation at the ground level.Will there be another war of succession with-in the Afghan Taliban? Mullah Mansour didhave competition when he took over. Will Pa-kistan be able to find a replacement for him,or will the new Afghan Taliban chief be out-side its hands? Whatever the outcome, it isgoing to undermine the Afghan peace proc-ess further.

Ghani’s U-turn against Pakistan

One of the biggest problems for the peaceprocess has been Mr. Ghani’s U-turn against

Pakistan. Initially after his election and be-coming the President in 2014, he did try topursue a balanced approach with Pakistan.His predecessor Hamid Karzai had a rockyrelationship with Pakistan’s political and mil-itary leadership.

Mr. Ghani seemed to be making inroadsduring the initial phase. There were a seriesof bilateral (with Pakistan) and trilateral(with Pakistan and China) meetings at Track Iand Track II levels during 2015, successfullyleading to the formation of the QCG in early2016. However, somewhere along the line,Ghani seemed to have run out of trust vis-à-vis Pakistan.

Whatever may be the reasons, the Ghani-Pakistan relationship is strained today. On theother hand Pakistan has been accusing Kabulof not doing enough to curb th e Tehreek-i-Ta-liban’s Pakistan bases and activities withinAfghanistan.

The quadrilateral process would go no-where unless there is positive movement inPakistan-Afghanistan ties. The latter, in turn,would shape the intra-Afghan dialogue andinternal peace process within Afghanistan.Pakistan is thus in the middle of both the Af-ghan peace processes.

What next after Mullah Mansour?Much will depend on what happens to the

Afghan Taliban. Will there be a power strug-gle again, following the killing of MullahMansour? And will the new leader want toprove he is the right choice by unleashing an-other wave of suicide attacks? Or will the Af-ghan Taliban collapse from within?

Much will also depend on Pakistan. Will itpush hard to have another “friendly” leader atthe helm of the Taliban? Or will it try to pushthe Haqqani Network harder and ensure theytake over the entire Taliban leadership? Willthe Haqqanis be willing to do what MullahOmar did in the 1990s for Pakistan?

The “Afghan-led and Afghan-owned”peace process will not achieve much withoutpositive movement on the aforementionedtwo factors. Unless the Americans push suffi-cient carrots backed by sticks and the Pakista-ni military leadership sees every Taliban withthe same eyes, the peace process unfortu-nately will remain an Afghan chimera.

D. Suba Chandran is a Professor at the NationalInstitute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru.

With Mullah Mansour’s killing, much will nowdepend on the contours of the new Talibanleadership, and the extent of control Pakistanexerts over it

The quadrilateral process would go nowhere unless there is

movement in Pakistan-Afghan ties. The latter, in turn, would

shape the intra-Afghan dialogue and peace process in Afghanistan.

Pakistan is thus in the middle of both peace processes.

The shifting sands in Afghanistan

The death of Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Man-sour, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, hasthrown the insurgency into its second leader-ship crisis within a year. Mansour, who took

over command of the Taliban after its founder MullahOmar’s death was announced in July 2015, had a chaoticyear. His attempts to capture more territory from Afghantroops were thwarted, and his plans to unify the groupunder his leadership never succeeded. Now, after a yearof bloodshed and internal power struggles, he has beenkilled in an American drone strike in Pakistan’s Balochis-tan province, miles away from the actual battleground.Whether this development weakens the insurgency willdepend on three main factors. First, today’s Taliban arenot a cohesive force. Mansour never enjoyed the author-ity that his predecessor had. Omar’s family had chal-lenged him, and a breakaway faction under commanderMullah Mohammad Rasool may have even cooperatedwith Afghan intelligence against him. If Mansour, a long-time associate of Omar, failed to unify the Taliban, it isdoubtful if his successor would succeed in doing so.Mansour’s deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani, who was practi-cally in charge of the Taliban’s attacks over the past fewmonths, is tipped to become its next leader, but havingbeen brought into the Taliban network only last year hecould face resistance within the group.

Second, Pakistan will continue to play a major role inAfghanistan. President Ashraf Ghani’s initial plan was topersuade the Taliban to come for talks through Pakistan,and he reached out to Islamabad. But this did not go far asthe Taliban under Mansour continued to stage attacks onsecurity personnel and civilians. Even the circumstancesof his death raise serious questions. Mansour was killednot in Pakistan’s restive north-west, where the Talibanoperate from, but in Balochistan. This raises questionsabout how Mansour managed to travel so freely in Pakis-tan. The U.S. airstrike, the first in Balochistan, also indi-cates its willingness to widen the drone war in Pakistan,putting more pressure on the government. The third fac-tor is the state-of-play of the peace process. WhenOmar’s death was made public, the Taliban had alreadybegun talks with the government, though a section with-in the organisation, mostly field commanders, continuedto oppose negotiations. Mansour had a choice betweenpeace and war. He chose the latter, perhaps in a bid to win

over the rank and file of the Taliban and to present him-self as a hard-nosed militant. The war helped him winneither more territory nor control over the organisation.What he managed to do was to unleash widespread deathand destruction, eventually prompting the U.S. to targethis life. Kabul has to keep in mind these three factorswhen it makes the next move. It’s in an advantageous po-sition now — the Taliban are leaderless and divided, andPakistan stands exposed. Whoever the group’s next lead-er is, Kabul should press ahead with the plan for talks, ei-ther directly or through Pakistan, without being compla-cent on security. The U.S. must continue to put pressureon Islamabad to use its influence on the militant group.

Death of

a terrorist

A pple Inc. CEO Tim Cook’s visit to India thismonth marks a definite change of course forthe technology giant. Unlike its peers, till now

it hasn’t worried much about making or sell-ing its wares in the country — and the course correctionis timely. Mr. Cook’s visit, the first to India by an AppleCEO in the company’s 40-year history, comes barely amonth after its first quarterly revenue fall in 13 years. Thelong period of heady sales growth, making Apple theworld’s most valuable company by market capitalisation,seems to have ended. Even as critics debate whether thisis due to the innovations pipeline at Apple drying up or aglobal slowdown, the Cupertino-based company is nowfinding that customers in its two main markets — the U.S.and China — are not as eager as before for its premiumphones and tablets. In the last six months, the Appleshare has lost about a fifth of its value. Last month, ma-verick billionaire-investor Carl Icahn sold his stake inApple, citing concerns about “China’s attitude”, the trig-ger being Beijing’s decision to shut down Apple iTunesmovies and iBooks stores. This is far more serious than itmay appear, as Apple offers not just hardware but a wholemarketplace. It is clearly time for Apple to nurture a big,promising market. India is that market.

Mr. Cook has taken the task of engaging with India se-riously. He has ticked all the boxes — including visiting

the Siddhivinayak temple, meeting Bollywood stars,watching an IPL cricket match, and calling on the PrimeMinister. But he would know that India can be no matchfor China in the scheme of things for Apple immediately.True, India proved to be a rare high-growth region for thecompany in the last quarter. But that growth came from avery small base. Not only is China a key manufacturingbase for Apple, it also accounts for about a fourth of itssales. As Mr. Cook pointed out, India is now where Chinawas seven to 10 years ago. It is poised to become the sec-ond-largest smartphone market in the world but itsbuyers are extremely price-sensitive. Apple is premium.There is little doubt amongst analysts that there is im-mense potential for Apple in India in the long run. But tillit gets there, Apple would want to see how much of themarket it can tap for its products and its marketplace. Itsplan to sell pre-owned phones, which was overruled bythe government recently, was an attempt in this direc-tion. Two announcements made by Apple during Mr.Cook’s visit — regarding the opening of its first develop-ment centre in India and the establishment of a designand development accelerator in Bengaluru — show howApple is now looking at India not only as a market. But

the big news that the Centre would have liked to hear —Apple manufacturing in India — has proved to be elusive.For now.

iForays in theIndian market

Taking stock

Any neutral observer has to concurwith the points cited by the writeron the progress and achievementsof the Narendra Modi government(“Taking stock, two years on”, May23). To add to this, governance hasbeen largely corruption-free. Onthe debit side of the balance sheetare Mr. Modi’s coveted “Make inIndia” and other developmentprogrammes that have still togather momentum. There is alsothe unfulfilled promise of bringingback black money stashed abroad.

R. Badri Narayanan, Bengaluru

The initiatives in different sectorsare mediocre. Aadhaar may have

curtailed leakages but the writerhas failed to mention how it alsocompromises the privacy andsecurity of an individual. He hasalso ignored the lack of job creationin the organised sector, the fall inexports, manufacturing, curbing of social expenditure and lessinvestment in human capitalformation.

Yash Gupta,Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

The biggest achievement is that thegovernment has curbed corruptionin almost all sectors of theeconomy. In 2015, India was ranked76 out of 168 countries inTransparency International’s‘Corruption Perceptions Index’.The causes for corruption includeexcessive regulation, complicatedtaxes and licensing systems, anopaque bureaucracy and a lack of transparent laws and processes. If corruption levels in India are

reduced to the levels of those indeveloped economies such asSingapore or the United Kingdom,

India’s GDP growth rate couldincrease substantially.

K.M.K. Murthy,Secunderabad

The point about much having beendone to reform higher educationand the social sectorsappears to bean overstatement of reality. Thestatus of women in highereducation may be a little better butreforms in general are a setback forthose of us in higher education. APhD is not allowed under guideswho have retired from thegovernment or aided sectors,which deprives several aspiringscholars of valuable experience.How can this be allowed whenthere are private universities thatare able to grant doctoral degrees?

In this digital age, what is sosacrosanct about guides beingresident or full-time on a campus?The University GrantsCommission has not been releasinggrants on a regular basis citing afunding shortage. The much-acclaimed RUSA (RashtriyaUchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan orNational Higher EducationMission) has yet to deliver thegoods. The National Assessmentand Accreditation Council worksin an unsatisfactory way as theaccreditation process worksslowly and colleges suffer. InKerala, MGNREGA could havebeen utilised in food productionand the cleaning of waterbodies.The article appears to be skewedand partisan.

J. Prasant Palakkappillil,Thevara, Kerala

There has been little or no actionon the price increase in essential

commodities, the economy is in astate of flux and the middle class ishaving a difficult time. The

working class feels emaciated withthe draconian amendments tolabour laws and increasing attackson job safety. The cut in socialsector allocation — clear in theBudget — is another attack on themarginalised sections. It issurprising that the writer mentionsMGNREGA as it was disliked bythe Bharatiya Janata Party despitehaving been introduced andsuccessfully implemented by theUnited Progressive Allianceregime. The Jan-Dhan Yojana andinsurance schemes hardly impartthe soothing touch. In the absenceof entitlement, any talk of empowerment is meaningless.

J. Anantha Padmanabhan,Tiruchi

Notes for the CongressThe Congress party should ignorethe media and all its other critics.The main problem lies with itssenior and very experiencedleaders, many of whom wereMinisters in the UPA. They havefailed to nurture their State units,unite them, aggressively fightperception and insinuations andeducate the public about the Modigovernment’s many failures —prices, the drought, rural distress,jobs and industrial sluggishness.After having lost power in 2014,these veterans should have beeneverywhere and confronting thisgovernment word for word,minute by minute, on its so-calledachievements. We have never seena senior lot that is so withdrawnand disinterested about the party’sfuture than this group. For the sakeof the country and the party whichhas made them what they are, theymust charge up and start the

defence.M. Balakrishnan,

Bengaluru

The Congress party seems to be instate of deep slumber. Thesuggestion of a “surgical”operation is unnecessary as it’s theGandhis who should accept moralresponsibility for the debacle. Isthe party drawing some comfortfrom the fact that it won as many as115 seats against the BJP’s 64? Evenin Assam, where the Congress lost,its vote share was 31 per centagainst the BJP’s 29.5. Elsewheretoo, the Congress’s vote share hasbeen higher than that of the BJP. Itsspread across the States that wentto polls is much more than that of the BJP.

S.K. Choudhury, Bengaluru

The strongman

One feels rather sad that V.S.Achuthanandan was not chosen asthe new leader of the LeftDemocratic Front government(Editorial, May 23). Withoutmeaning disrespect to the newincumbent, it must be said, in allfairness, that it was the robustcampaign of the nonagenarianleader against rampant corruptionunder the United DemocraticFront and his energetic leadershipin the poll campaign that fetchedthe Left combine its thumpingmajority. He should have beenallowed to take his fight againstcorruption to a logical end. Onemust recollect that Jyoti Basu wasChief Minister of West Bengal for23 years and at a comparably ripeold age. The reasoning of old ageand poor health does not apply to‘VS’.

K.P. Prabhakaran Nair, Kozhikode

Kiran Bedi as GovernorNo one can question the eligibility,qualification or the suitability of

Kiran Bedi, the first woman IndianPolice Service officer, who hasbeen appointed as the LieutenantGovernor of Puducherry (May 23).She is a role model for manywomen. But in appointing her tothe post, the Bharatiya Janata Partygovernment is only following thepractice of the United ProgressiveAlliance — of using the post toreward its loyalists. As long as thepost of Governor continues to beone with political overtones, it isabsurd to expect the “chosen one”to be faithful to the Constitution ashe or she will only try to serve theinterests of his or her party.

S. Nallasivan,Tirunelveli

Day of the book

April 23 has come and gone and theEducation Ministry, the media andthe publishing fraternity seem tohave simply ignored this importantday like any other day — UNESCOcelebrates April 23 as World BookDay to promote reading,publishing and copyright. Eversince the new government hascome to power, it seems to be goingout of its way to direct educationalinstitutions to observe variousdays, ‘World No Tobacco Day’ onMay 31 is one example. So why t hemiss? When there is so much of afuss about Valentine’s Day onFebruary 14, and aninconsequential day, why wasApril 23 ignored? It was IrinaBokova of UNESCO who said:“Books help weave humanitytogether as a single family, holdinga past in common, a history andheritage, to craft a destiny that isshared, where all voices are heardin the great chorus of human

aspiration.”N. Nagarajan,Secunderabad

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to [email protected] carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

D. SUBACHANDRAN



CMYK

ND-ND

PERSPECTIVE | 11THE HINDU TUESDAY,MAY24,2016

NOIDA/DELHI

It is the policy of The Hindu to correct significant errors as soon aspossible.

Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page.The Readers’ Editor’s office can be contacted byTelephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to

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Rebel force in Da Nangsurrenders

The main rebel force of about400 troops in Da Nang’s Tinh Hoipagoda surrendered without a

fight to-day [May 23] to troopsloyal to the South Viet NamesePrime Minister, Air Marshal Ky.The troops and Buddhist civilianswho had sought to bring down theKy Government walked out of thepagoda and gave up hundreds of weapons which they stacked alonga roadside. After the rebels gaveup, the pagoda grounds werenearly deserted.

Inside were the bodies of 26rebels killed during the week’sfighting. The bodies, onstretchers, were draped withBuddhist flags. South Viet NameseMarines, flown by Air Marshal Kyto Da Nang a week ago to putdown the rebellion, stood outsidethe pagoda as the rebels gave up. Acrowd of curious civilians alsowatched the surrender.

Government troops hadsurrounded the pagoda last night[May 22] with 13 armouredpersonnel carriers. Government

headquarters had claimed earlierthat 600 rebels were takenprisoner or had surrenderedduring the fight in the past week.

Meanwhile, violent anti-U.S.rioting broke out in Saigon to-day.Mobs of screaming, rock hurlingyouths attacked American cars

and set two afire — one a U.S.military jeep — outside theBuddhist centre. Their occupantswere believed to have fled

unharmed.

One-man border bodyrecommended

The Congress WorkingCommittee to-night [May 23]decided to recommend to theUnion Government to appoint aone-man Commission to settleborder disputes between Mysoreand Maharashtra and Mysore andKerala. The Commission would beappointed by the UnionGovernment shortly in terms of the Bangalore resolution of theAICC on inter-State harmony. Thedecision was announced by Mr. T.Manaen, the Congress GeneralSecretary, at the end of an hour-long special session of theCommittee.

The Working Committee whichhad a 45-minute discussionadopted the resolutionunanimously. Mr. Manean, toldyour correspondent that theadoption of the resolution was in

pursuance of the AICC’sresolution at Bangalore in July1965. The Bangalore resolutionsaid that in case of any inter-Statedispute like river, border, theconcerned State should come to asettlement by mutual negotiationsbacked by sincere efforts.

(dated May 24, 1966)

FROM THE ARCHIVES

>>A sentence in the front-page report, “Women in State head 16 per cent of households” (some southern editions, May 23, 2016), read: “In Tamil Nadu, 29lakh of the 18.47 crore households are headed by women.” The figure shouldhave been 1.84 crorehouseholds. The error had also crept into the graphic thataccompanied the report.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

Exactly a century agoaround this time, VladimirLenin was in Zurich com-pleting a manuscript thatwould go on to become per-haps the most consequen-

tial book of the twentieth century. Impe-

rialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalismmay not be the most widely read of Le-nin’s works, but it is certainly the mostimportant.

It argued that an era of revolutions hadarrived, since capitalism had entered astage where wars for re-partitioning analready partitioned world among rivalmonopoly combines, each aligned to apowerful state, would thenceforth leaveworkers with the option of either killingfellow workers across trenches or turn-ing the imperialist war into a c ivil war foroverthrowing the system. And since itsaw imperialism as a chain of exploitationacross the entire world, a chain that couldbe broken at its weakest link, it concep-tually incorporated third world liberationstruggles into the process of a worldrevolution.

Decline of communism

Imperialism brought world revolutionon the agenda, and it developed Marxisminto a theory of world revolution from be-ing merely a European philosophy. It pro-

vided the conceptual basis for a new In-ternational, the like of which the worldhad never seen, where German, French,Russian, and Italian delegates rubbedshoulders with those from China, India,Vietnam and Mexico.

Subsequent events confirmed theprognosis of Imperialism to a remarkabledegree. The Firs t World War, the RussianRevolution, the post-war revolutionaryuprisings across Europe, the rise of fas-cism, the Spanish Civil War, the rise of Ja-panese militarism, Japan’s attack on Chi-na, the Second World War, the RedArmy’s march across Europe to set upcommunist regimes, and the post-warrevolutionary upsurge in Asia were allpart of a scenario that was in conformitywith what Lenin had sketched. But al-ready at the end of the Second World War,the world had started moving away fromwhat one can call the “Leninist conjunc-ture”. The moment of dazzling success of communism was also ironically the startof its decline.

Capitalism made three major “conces-sions” to ward off the communist threat:decolonisation, the institution of democ-racy based on universal adult suffrage,and state intervention in “demand man-agement” to maintain high levels of em-ployment (which in Europe meant “wel-fare state” measures under SocialDemocracy). The fact that democracybased on universal adult suffrage is apost-war phenomenon is often not appre-ciated. True, it arrived in Britain in 1928when women got the vote (notwithstand-ing some residual property-based restric-tions); but in France the first electionbased on universal adult suffrage oc-curred only in 1945.

State intervention in “demand manage-ment” kept up aggregate demand and em-ployment in advanced capitalist econo-mies, and thereby facilitated high levelsof investment, output growth, and labourproductivity growth. High productivitygrowth in turn led to rapid increases in

real wages since employment rates werehigh and trade unions consequentlystrong. Such intervention underlay inshort what has been called the “GoldenAge” of capitalism, the period from theearly fifties to the early seventies. Ironi-cally, the “Golden Age” of capitalism oc-curred not because of capitalism, but de-

spite it, within a regime that was erectedagainst its wishes (for it had opposed “de-mand management” by the state earlier,and is again doing so today), and as a con-cession it had to make to ward off thecommunist threat.

In addition, the post-war period alsosaw the emergence of the U.S. as the un-questioned leader of the capitalist world,and a muting of inter-imperialist rival-ries, initially because the Second WorldWar had weakened all the protagonistsother than the U.S., and later because of the emergence of globalised or inter-national finance cap-ital which saw allpartitioning of theworld as standing inthe way of its free-dom to move global-ly. The era of strug-gles for repartitioning the world amongrival nation-based monopoly combineswas over, since such combines no longerheld centre stage. In short, the Leninistconjuncture had been superseded; warsof course continued, but they did not ex-press inter-imperialist rivalry, not evenby proxy.

The oft-repeated question, why didcommunism collapse so suddenly, has, Ibelieve, a simple answer: because thepremise upon which it was founded nolonger held, the premise of an imminentworld revolution. As this imminence re-ceded, communism had to reinvent andrestructure itself, to come to terms with apost-Leninist conjuncture, in order to re-main viable. This was difficult enough; itwas made more difficult by a common butundesirable tendency among revolution-aries to place moral purity above practi-cal politics and deny the non-imminenceof revolution.

Though the Leninist conjuncture hadended with the war, this fact had not beenimmediately apparent. Besides, the pres-tige and affection earned by communism

(even among many who found it other-wise unacceptable) because of its intensefight against fascism, camouflaged forquite some time the fact of its losingground. (Professor Joan Robinson of Cambridge, when someone was very crit-ical of the Soviet Union, used to say:“Don’t forget that but for the Soviet

Union we would not be sitting here likethis”, referring to the Soviet Union’s rolein Hitler’s defeat.) This had a paradoxicaleffect: during the “Golden Age” yearswhen one would have expected the ap-peal of communism to diminish, it didnot, while in the era of globalisation whenthe miseries of the working people aremounting everywhere and capitalism isattenuating democracy and the welfarestate, communism, far from gainingground, seems to be at a loss.

Communism’s incapacity to deal with apost-Leninist con-juncture springsabove all from itsambivalence to-wards globalisation.This is true of theEuropean Left ingeneral, and exhibit-ed most recently by

Syriza in Greece: no matter how objec-tionable it finds the hegemony of financecapital which characterises globalisation,it cannot contemplate shaking off this he-gemony through a delinking from global-isation, because it sees any such delin-king as a revival of “nationalism” which itabhors. Communist parties no doubt areless hamstrung by such considerationsand more forthright in advocating delin-king. But even though this may nominallybe the case, they too lack any concretestrategy of countering globalisation. TheGreek Communist Party (KKE) wasstrongly opposed to Syriza and bitterlycriticised its capitulation to German fi-nance; but it hardly had a credible con-crete alternative of its own.

Communism’s incapacity to remainviable in a post-Leninist conjuncture alsohas roots in an ambivalence it traditional-ly had towards democracy. From G.V.Plekhanov’s dictum, accepted by Lenin,that in any situation of conflict betweenthe proletarian revolution and existingdemocratic institutions, a revolutionarymust choose the former, communism

tended to see democratic institutions, farstronger in the post-war world, as beingsecondary to the revolution that they be-lieved was imminent. Thanks to this lega-cy it has ceded ground to a (non-Blairite)segment of social democracy as the pri-mary defenders of democratic institu-tions which are under attack from finance

capital in the era of globalisation.The case of the Indian Left

In countries where communists haveshed their ambivalence both towards op-posing globalisation and towards defend-ing democracy, they have remained a for-midable force; and India is one suchcountry. Some would contest this, citingthe Communist Party of India’s supportfor the Emergency, the Communist Partyof India (Marxist) preventing Jyoti Basufrom becoming Prime Minister, and bothparties’ withdrawal of support from theUnited Progressive Alliance governmentover the nuclear deal with the U.S. Eachof these episodes, they would argue,strengthened the Hindu Right and consti-tutes evidence of the communists not tak-ing the strengthening of democratic insti-tutions seriously. But the communists’culpability on these issues can scarcelybe held against them. The CPI has beenself-critical about its role during theEmergency; the CPI(M) did support theformation of the United Front govern-ment without Jyoti Basu; and on the nu-clear deal the more persuasive argumentis that the Left’s mistake was to allow theUPA to go to the International AtomicEnergy Agency in the first place.

What is true, however, is that even theIndian communists, despite being op-posed to globalisation and associatedneo-liberal policies, have not charted aconcrete alternative development strate-gy. Their opposition has taken the form of identifying particular parties as neo-lib-eral and having no truck with them,which has hampered united struggles forthe defence of secularism and democra-cy. But uniting with others in struggles,on platforms, and even in government,against the Hindutva and semi-fascistforces and on the basis of a concrete alter-native agenda to neo-liberalism, willserve the people better.

Prabhat Patnaik is Professor Emeritus, Centre forEconomic Studies and Planning, JNU, New Delhi.

Things the Left needs to do rightCommunism’s slide worldwide is due to its ambivalence towards globalisation and democracy. The Indian Left has shed that ambivalence, but it has no concrete alternative development strategy

WAY FORWARD: "Uniting with others against semi-fascist forces and on the basis of a concrete alternative agenda to neo-liberalismwill help Indian communists serve the people better." Graffiti of Lenin in Thrippunithura, Kerala.— PHOTO: THULASI KAKKAT

PRABHAT P ATNAIK

The Left’s opposition toglobalisation has taken theform of having no truckwith particular parties itidentifies as neo-liberal

Sitting beneath the por-traits of Indira Gandhi, Ra-

jiv Gandhi, and SanjayGandhi, 69-year-old Con-

gress veteran Kamal Nath— the senior-most memberof the current Lok Sabha

who has been elected to the Lower Housenine times — talks to Smita Guptaabout the urgent need for organisationalchange as well as style of functioning inthe party. Excerpts from the interview:

After the Congress was routed in the 2014Lok Sabha elections, it set up a committeeto introspect on the loss and heldbrainstorming sessions, but no revivalplan emerged. Now the party is againtalking of introspection.

First, let me address these election re-

sults. In Assam, the Congress was disad-vantaged by incumbency of 15 years and akind of a split in the party six months be-fore the elections. Look at the BJP: in2014, it won in 69 Assembly segments;this time it won in 60 seats. In the threeother States [and Puducherry], the BJPhas got four seats. In Kerala, where thePrime Minister had six public meetingsand where ten ministers went, the BJPwon one seat. Overall, the Congress won115 seats; the BJP won 64 seats. The mediahas slanted this to see a major victory of the BJP. The reality is that the Congressgot more seats and more votes.

Isn’t this the time for action rather thanintrospection?

I agree this is the time for action. Weneed to revamp the party structure. Thecurrent lot [of general secretaries] haveserved many years, probably the largestnumber of years that any set of peoplehas served. We have to realise that poli-tics has changed. The Congress must

change with this changed politics.There’s a new generation of voters withnew aspirations. The Congress can’t only

trumpet the ideological issue. It has tobecome a party for the youth, and weakersections and farmers. The ideologicalbandwidth is limited because everybodytakes for granted the Congress’s ideologyof secularism. We don’t have to sell it.

Each time there’s an electoral setback, theelevation of Rahul Gandhi is postponed onthe grounds that it isn’t the right time.Some in the party even say he isn’t up tothe job.

The Congress made Rahul Gandhivice-president. It is for Rahul Gandhi todecide when he wants to take over thepresidentship.

That’s not very democratic.

No, it is. When he was made vice-pres-ident, it was with the objective of his tak-ing over as president.

In which other party do people have theluxury of deciding the timing of their own

elevation?

It isn’t that he has the luxury. He has tochoose his own timing because Mrs.Gandhi is still president. She hasn’t re-tired. Mrs. Gandhi and Rahul Gandhimust decide when he’ll take over. Mrs.Gandhi has the credibility of leading theparty to victory in 2004 and 2009, partic-ularly in 2004 against [Atal Bihari] Vaj-payee when everybody ridiculed her as aforeigner. You must recognise this.

Are you saying Mrs. Gandhi shouldcontinue?

Mrs. Gandhi has successfully led theparty. We can’t say that she be sidelinedin any way; at the same time, the day-to-day affairs of the party must be handledby Rahul Gandhi.

Do you think Mr. Gandhi is up to the job?

Rahul is being tested in the most tryingand difficult times. And it is not that he

has made a good situation bad; I believehe has made a bad situation better.

In what way?

We had incumbency in 2014, and in As-sam and Kerala. Our alliance with theLeft in West Bengal was in conflict withKerala. In West Bengal it hurt the Left; inKerala it hurt the Congress. We’ve donebetter in West Bengal; we’ll form a gov-ernment in Puducherry.

There is a sense that Rahul Gandhi is not a24x7 politician.

He is. Rahul works very hard. He hasbeen a 24x7 politician for the last 11months.

In Assam, couldn’t Himanta Biswa Sarma’s

exit have been avoided?

He had a one-point agenda to removethe Chief Minister. Six months before theelections, that wasn’t possible. He wasn’twilling for anything else.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea to change theChief Minister a year or so before theelections? Tarun Gogoi was in power forthree terms.

Yes, it could be said that a Chief Minis-ter who’s done such a long time… changehim. But there was a decision that heshould continue.

Isn’t there a need to build leadership inthe States?

Politics has changed: you need to buildleadership in the States, have a face tochallenge the BJP. Those days when youcould decide later are all over. Peoplelook at who the contesting leader is. Con-gress needs to define in every State who

the leader is.

[email protected]

‘We need to define in every State who the leader is’ As politics has changed, the Congress needs to change, says Kamal Nath

VETERAN: Former Union Minister Kamal Nath.— PHOTO: KAMAL NARANG

The French Open 2016 began on May 22 with a notable omis-sion. Roger Federer, for the first time this millennium, with-drew from the main draw in singles in a Grand Slam, endinghis streak of 65 consecutive appearances at the majors. Withthe sentimental favourite gone, the attention will quickly shiftto the remaining contenders. But let’s stop for a moment andthink about what a major without Federer means to tennis,

and to his supporters.

A closing chapter

It’s been 17 years since his streak began, and his absence will make manyof us inexplicably sad. Not because he could have won the French Open thisyear; he almost certainly could not have. The sadness stems from the jar-ring reality that the Roger era is fast coming to a close. His fitness has beenan issue all year, and his first ever injury-related surgery was this February.Federer is playing on borrowed time. Honestly, he has tricked history, prec-edent, and the odds by maintaining a level of excellence that only extendshis place as the presumptive tennis’s greatest of all time (‘GOAT’). In themiddle of a radically dominant run by Novak Djokovic, and the once unlike-ly resurgence of Rafael Nadal on clay, proclaiming Federer as the greatestever is more than likely to be contested. But Federer’s greatness goes be-yond his record 17 majors, a Davis Cup title, and Olympic medals — silver insingles and gold in doubles.

His greatness has transcended his records or his revenues, categories inwhich he is peerless as it is. Federer is the presumptive GOAT because heexemplifies continuity and transcends divisiveness. He has his critics — infact, quite a significant segment of theyounger generation probably doesn’t ap-preciate Federer as much as it empathiseswith the more physical and gritty Nadal orthe aggressive and efficient Djokovic. ButFederer’s uniqueness is of a different varie-ty. His aura, his personality, and his playing

style are vintage and pedigree. One couldimagine him as a fixture on the circuit fromthe 1960s onwards, as much at home as heastonishingly is in the 2000s. They sayonce-in-a-generation sportspersons arethose who are born to play the sport blessedwith skill and strength, and more importantly, a natural understanding andfeel of the game. Federer is that transcendent athlete who has played withthe greatest tennis players of the last 25 years, including Pete Sampras,Andre Agassi, Nadal, Djokovic, and a bevy of others. The generation shift-ed, and Federer shifted with it. With a game that would have won him aes-thetics awards from purists across genres and generations, Federer alonehas played the beautiful game in an era where he could have easily becomeextinct.

Towards No.18

Federer won’t be that player who plays into his forties like Jimmy Con-nors. So unaccustomed to injury or the mortality levellers of elite players,Federer is likely to suddenly phase out the minute he feels he cannot com-pete at the level of his peers . And that, sadly, could be sooner than we think.It gets harder to recover from injuries and perform at one’s best after havingplayed professionally for almost 20 years. The game is also changing, andthe fitness levels are so far advanced that an absence or niggle could set thereturn to the top back irreversibly.

Is Federer done? No, at least not until the end of 2017. He sits comfortablyat world number 3, and for the foreseeable future will be seeded to go far inmajors. Can he win another major? Yes, but with difficulty. He, in all likeli-hood, will have four decent shots at a major — Wimbledon and the U.S.Open in 2016 and 2017. A student and expert of the game as he is, he will un-derstand that he needs to fit his schedule to ensure he is seeded highenough to go far, and he is fit enough to make a deep run towards number 18.He will need luck, and overwhelming support. The latter is a sure thing, theformer a lottery. The French Open without Roger Federer today feels likean exception. In a few years it will be the norm. And that by itself is ex-tremely sad.

Desh Gaurav Sekhri is a sports lawyer and the author of the book Not Out!The Incredible Story of the Indian Premier League.

What a Grand Slamwithout Roger means

SPORTS WATCH

Roger Federer isthat transcendentathlete who hasplayed with thegreatest tennisplayers of the last25 years

DESHG AURAV SEKHRI



CMYK

ND-ND

NEWS12 | THE HINDU TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

NOIDA/DELHI

The matter came up in the Su-preme Court, which agreed tohear the plea on May 26.

In his plea, Mr. Gironesought the court's leeway togo back to his country till anInternational Arbitration Tri-bunal decides a jurisdictionaldispute between India and Ita-ly on where the duo should be

tried.Mr Girone is one of two Ital-ian marines — on board ship’Enrica Lexie’ — accused of killing two of fishermen off

the Kerala coast in 2012. Hehas not been able to leave In-dia, aside from a few brief per-mits, since the incident.

The Tribunal is adjudicat-ing only on the limited ques-tion of whether India or Italyhas the jurisdiction to try thetwo Marines for the killing of two innocent Indian

fishermen.The two countries haveagreed to arbitration by theUN court.

The Supreme Court had

suspended court proceedingsin August 2015 when Italymoved the International Tri-bunal for the Law of the Sea(ITLOS) challenging India'sright to try the marines. Italyhad opted for international ar-bitration proceedings againstIndia under the United Na-tions Convention on the Law

of the Sea (UNCLOS), 1982 on June 26, 2015.Meanwhile, all court pro-

ceedings in India against themarines continue to be stayed.

Italy urges India to send marines home

The main contract onChahbahar port was supple-mented by a contract be-tween the Ex-Im Bank of In-dia and Iran’s Ports andMaritime Organisation witha capital back-up of $150 mil-lion for developing the port.

Speaking at the event tolaunch the Trilateral Trans-port and Transit Corridor,Mr. Modi said, “The arc of ec-

onomic benefit from thisagreement could extend tothe depths of the CentralAsian countries. When link-ed with the InternationalNorth South Transport Cor-ridor, it would touch SouthAsia at one end and Europe atanother.”

Pakistan circumvented

The agreement on Chah-bahar will open a new routeof commerce between India,Iran, Afghanistan and Russia,feels Maharaja Krishna Ras-gotra, former Foreign Secre-tary and one of the first Indi-an diplomats to have joinedforeign services in post-1947India.

“Soon after 1947, Pakistan

became an obstacle betweenIndia and Central Asia andthat is why we tried repeat-edly in the past to befriendIran and open an alternativeroute to Central Asia. Wetried to have warm ties withIran but our attempts werenot always successful. Butthe agreement on Chahbaharwill finally convince Pakis-tan that it cannot continue toplay the role of an obstaclefor India’s plans for CentralAsia,” Mr. Rasgotra told The

Hindu.

The agreement is a tangi-ble sign of India-Iran cooper-ation, say West Asian expertswho also feel that India willhave to draw benefits fromthe newly opened Iranianeconomy without gettingdrawn into the regional rival-ries. “India will have to en-sure that its engagement isnot taken as an approval forregional power politics byany of the regional big play-ers,” said Prof. Ashwini Ma-hapatra of the Centre forWest Asian Studies of JNU.

India to develop Chahbahar

CREATING HISTORY: PM Narendra Modi with I ranian PresidentHassan Rouhani and Ashraf Ghani, President of Afghanistan,at the Saadabad Palace in Tehran on Monday. — PHOTO: PTI

“In both the incidents, pis-tols were used. The ammuni-tion seems the same. Howev-er, it is yet to be determined if the same two were involved,”said SDPO Bukhari.

Police sources said therehad been alerts of militants’presence in and around Sri-nagar city. However, therewas no specific input on thetargets, they added. Around100 militants are suspectedto be active in the Valley, withmajor concentration in northand south Kashmir.

A security alert wassounded after the twin at-tacks, with checkpoints andrandom frisking carried outon major roads leading to thecity centre Lal Chowk.

The attacks come just twodays ahead of the first As-sembly session being held inSrinagar. Militant outfit Hiz-bul Mujhadeen spokesmanBurhanuddin, while claimingresponsibility, said: “Themilitants have also de-camped with the rifle of aslain cop. Operation FieldCommander of the HizbulMujhadeen has been direct-ed to intensify attacks on [thepolice’s] Special OperationsGroup.”

The Hizb spokesman,quoted by a local news agen-cy CNS, threatened that “theattacks on the security estab-lishments will continue.”

Inhuman: Mehbooba

Chief Minister MehboobaMufti, while expressingshock over the killings, said:“Such dastardly acts areagainst the basic tenets of hu-manity and should be con-demned. I hope that the per-petrators will be brought tobook soon.” She said these

were attempts by vested in-terests to derail the peaceand reconciliation processstarted by the State govern-ment. “Such attacks will alsoimpact the economy at a timewhen tourism had startedpicking up in the State,” sheadded.

Worrying, says Omar

National Conferenceworking president Omar Ab-dullah described the attacksas “a worryingdevelopment.”

GRUESOME INCIDENT: Policemen wash away blood of cops whowere killed in Srinagar on Monday.— PHOTO: NISSAR AHMAD

3 policemen shot dead in Srinagar

FROM PAGE ONE

NEW DELHI: The National Dem-ocratic Alliance governmenthas pulled out all the stops tomark its second anniversary,with public meetings byPrime Minister Modi in thefour corners of the countryand a marathon five-hour tel-

evision show starring himand his Cabinet, along withsuperstar Amitabh Bachchanat India Gate on May 28.

Rally in Saharanpur

Officials dealing with thepreparations told The Hinduthat Mr. Modi would addressa rally in Saharanpur in west-ern Uttar Pradesh on May 26— the day he took the oath of office in 2014.

The Prime Minister willtravel to Balasore in Odishafor a farmers’ rally on June 2.Two more rallies are planned— one in Karnataka in thesouth and another in westernIndia, though the locationshave not been decided.

The big-ticket celebrationwill, however, be on May 28,when the Prime Minister andmembers of the Cabinet willspeak about the govern-

ment’s achievements live ontelevision from India Gate.The programme, scheduledfrom 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., will bebroadcast by Doordarshan

with an audience drawn fromthe public, including benefi-ciaries of government pro-grammes such as the Ujjwalacooking gas scheme and theMudra bank scheme.

“The theme song for thesecond anniversary celebra-tions speaks of ‘ Desh badalraha hai’ (the country is

changing) and therefore, wehave shot with people on theground who have actuallybenefited from the govern-ment programmes,” an offi-cial said.

“The Prime Minister is alsoscheduled to speak duringthe event. Ministers will begrouped in batches for theprogramme,” said a senior of-ficial involved with the prep-arations.

Celebrities on board

“A cultural programme hasbeen organised to interspersewith the ministerial aspect;several celebrities includingMr. Bachchan have con-firmed their participation,”

said an official. Five otherDoordarshan centres —Mumbai, Bengaluru, Vijay-wada, Jaipur and Shillong —will participate in the liveevent.

NFDC roped in

The National Film Devel-opment Corporation

(NFDC) has been roped in tohandle the production andVani Tripathi Tikoo, CentralBoard of Film Certificationmember, actor and BJP lead-er, is the creative director.

Two days ago, Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi releasedthe theme song produced bythe advertising agency Ogil-vy and Mather.

“These celebrations will befocussed and calibrated, withthe same hashtag (#Transfor-mingIndia) on Twitter beingmandated for use by the en-tire Council of Ministers. Ev-eryone has to be on message,seamlessly,” said a senio r offi-cial in the Information andBroadcasting Ministry.

Saturday night live: Big B and ModiWhole Cabinet will be in attendance at five-hour show on DD to mark second anniversary of govt.

NISTULA HEBBAR

ALL OUT EFFORT: Prime Minister Narendra Modi with actorAmitabh Bachchan at a meeting in New Delhi. —FILE PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: The new propagan-da video of Islamic State (IS)that was circulated onlinelast week features at least 11Indians, including two of Ta-mil origin, a senior govern-ment official said.

The 22-minute Arabic-subtitled video, The Land of

Hind: Between Pain and Hope, was distributed onWeb-based applicationssuch as Telegram and micro-blogging site Twitter on May19. The video was first re-leased by IS’ al-BarakahProvince, its division for al-Hasakah in Homs, Syria onMay 15.

One of the men who fea-ture in the video has beenidentified as Haja Fakkrud-din Usman Ali from Cudda-lore in Tamil Nadu.

Haja and his family be-came citizens of Singaporeabout six years ago.

In November 2013, Haja

along with his wife and threechildren went to Syria toparticipate in jihad but re-turned to India as he couldnot establish any contactwith IS operatives there.

In Syria, he is reported tohave stayed with some Che-chen Mujahideen. On Janu-ary 22, 2014, Haja left fromChennai for Syria and en-tered Turkey. He is said tohave been active since then.

Another person in the vid-eo has been identified as GulMohamed Maracachi Marai-car also from Cuddalore.Heis said to be the chief recrui-ter of IS and was deportedfrom Singapore on February27, 2014 on charges of radica-lising Fakruddin. He later

went off the radar in Febru-ary 2015.

Earlier recording

A senior government offi-cial said the video was madeat least 10 months ago.

The Hindu had earliersaid that four persons in thevideo had been identified asSajid alias Bada Sajid andAbu Rashid alias Sheikh,both former Indian Mujahi-deen members from Azam-garh in Uttar Pradesh andFahad Sheikh and AmandTandel from Kalyan in Mah-arashtra.

Sajid was one of the six In-dians who had been declareddead by Indian agencies inSeptember 2015.

He had fled the flat in Bat-la House in Jamia Nagar inDelhi, minutes before it wasraided by Special Cell of Del-hi Police in 2008 during acrackdown on IM members.The identities have not beenestablished conclusively.

IS video has 11 Indians,two from Tamil Nadu V IJAITA SINGH One of the two

Cuddalore men issaid to be chiefrecruiter of theterror outfit

PATNA: Senior BJP leaderSushil Kumar Modi is likelyto be the party’s unanimouschoice for the upcomingelections to five Rajya Sabhaseats from Bihar as there wasno opposition to his candida-ture when its state electioncommittee met in Patna onMonday.

Of the five seats falling va-cant, polling for which willbe held in the second week of

June, the BJP is set to clinchone while the ruling alliancepartners, the Janata Dal(United) and the Rashtriya

Janata Dal, will get two each.

List sent to Delhi

Out of the total 243 seats inthe state Assembly, the BJPhas 53 legislators and willtherefore win one RS seatcomfortably. “A list of nameshas been prepared to be sent

to the central leadership, butthere was no dissension onthe candidature of Sushil Ku-mar Modi,” a senior state BJPleader told The Hindu.

Earlier, several namesfrom the BJP were doingrounds for the Rajya Sabhaseat, with the name of UnionCommerce Minister Nirma-la Sitharaman also beingmentioned during the pastfew days.

The two-year term of Ms.

Sitharaman is set to expireon June 21.

However, Sushil KumarModi, a former Deputy Chief Minister, is considered thefrontrunner among otherpossible candidates like SyedShahnawaz Hussain and ex-state BJP chief Gopal Na-rayan Singh.

A party leader told The Hindu, “Since the BJP in Bi-

har is today a divided housewith pro- and anti-SushilModi camps, the party maywant to move him out of Bi-har to the Centre (by givinghim the Rajya Sabha seat).Many in the party believethat BJP suffered a humiliat-ing defeat in the 2015 elec-tions because of his personalinterference in ticket distri-bution.”

Another leader, however,said that with the JD(U)-RJDalliance set to rule Bihar till2020, Mr. Modi himself

wanted to move to the Cen-tre. Of the remaining fourseats, the JD(U) and RJD areset to win two each. The RJDhas 80 members in the As-sembly while the JD(U) has72: the support of 36 MLAs isrequired to win one RajyaSabha seat.

Rabri in the fray

From the RJD, names of

Rabri Devi, Misa Bharti (el-der daughter of RJD chief La-lu Prasad) and RaghuvanshPrasad Singh are doingrounds whereas from the JD(U), the probable candidatesinclude R.C.P. Sinha, a closeconfidante of Chief MinisterNitish Kumar and formerparty president Sharad Ya-dav. Besides, seven StateCouncil seats too are fallingvacant and the BJP is likely toget a couple of seats, if it getssupport from some inde-pendent MLAs.

BJP to send Sushil Modi to Rajya Sabha A MARNATH TEWARY

Sushil Kumar Modi

NEW DELHI: In the wake of itselectoral losses in the recentassembly elections, severalsenior Congress leadershave spoken out in the lastfew days on the urgent needfor change that encompassesa total revamp of the organi-sation, a new way of address-ing the aspirations of theyouth to remaining in a stateof preparedness for polls.

‘No gag order’

But unlike in the past,when such a public airing of views publicly would be offi-cially disapproved of, onMonday, senior Congressspokesperson AbhishekManu Singhvi, responding toa question at the party’s offi-cial briefing, said, “There isno gag order — if the sug-gestions made are construc-tive, solution-based and theremarks are not personal.”

Mr. Singhvi, of course, hasused social media to makehis views public. On May 21,he tweeted: “1/2 Surgery nev-er abt unifocal look at lder-ship. Includes specifics-3 & 6mth prior declaration of MLA/MP candidates; newyounger state faces” and“2/2(eg pilot in raj); new Gensecys; new cwc; micro mgmt;50% pure merit & 50% re-gion, caste etc; shunt usualfaces/ names to advisoryroles”.

In short, Dr Singhvi is sug-gesting, among other things,a new set of general secretar-ies, a revamped CongressWorking Committee and

saying the senior leadersmust now play only advisoryroles.

Defending ‘surgery’

On Friday, another seniorparty spokesperson P.C.Chacko, responding to aquestion on party generalsecretary Digvijaya Singh’scall for “surgery”, defendedthe latter, saying he wasspeaking for the “welfare of the party” while adding thatmaybe, he should have said itin a party forum.

Cong. welcomes‘constructivesuggestions’SMITA GUPTA

NEW DELHI/IMPHAL: A day aftersix Assam Rifles personnelwere killed in an ambush bysuspected militants in Chan-del district of Manipur, offi-cials said no group had so farclaimed responsibility forthe attack.

Security agencies believethe attack was carried out byCorCom (Coordination

Committee), the umbrellagroup of six banned under-ground organisations.

Officials said the reasonfor no one coming forwardwas to avoid retaliation fromthe security forces as hap-pened after the attack by theNationalist Socialist Councilof Nagaland-Khaplang(NSCN-K) last year.

On June 4 last year, 18 sol-diers from 6 Dogra regimentwere killed in an ambush be-lieved to have been orches-trated by the NSCN(K) fol-lowing which the Army

carried out a covert oper-ation on insurgent camps in-side Myanmar.

Meanwhile, securityforces are carrying outcombing operations to nabthe insurgents involved inSunday’s attack.

Officials said the area hadbeen cordoned off to preventthem from crossing over toneighbouring Myanmar.

The attackers are said tohave taken away six automat-ic rifles — four AK series ri-fles, one INSAS rifle and aLight Machine Gun — maga-

zines and live rounds of am-munition from the personnelof 29 Assam Rifles.

Manipur ambush: Combing drive onDINAKAR PERI

IBOYAIMA L AITHANGBAM

WASHINGTON: Ravi Parmar, a

38-year-old financial pro-fessional from New Jersey,headed to India last week tosee his seven-year-old son.

After a series of petitionsin Indian courts, Mr. Par-mar has been granted athree-week temporary cus-tody of his son, who liveswith his ex-wife in Pune.Following martial discordin 2012, his wife had takenhis infant son and left for In-dia, and won a divorce pet-ition in India. Dozens of parents whose childrenhave been taken from theU.S. to India are seeking abilateral agreement to dealwith a humanitarian issue.

Bring Our Kids Home, orBOKH — a coalition of suchparents in the U.S. — has re-quested Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi and PresidentBarack Obama to expedite a

bilateral agreement on theissue. In 92 cases, more than

100 children have been tak-en to India from the U.S. bya parent, following marital

discord.The U.S. Department of

State formally sought In-dia’s help in December 2015in returning these children.India has not respondedyet.

The Hague Conventionon the Civil Aspects of In-ternational Child Abduc-tion of 1980 requires childcustody cases to be adjudi-cated in the country of her“habitual residence”.

India has not signed theconvention, but the U.N.Convention on ChildRights, which India hassigned, says that “child ab-duction” in any form mustbe prevented.

India’s apprehension

India fears that signingThe Hague Convention willforce women who are vic-

tims of marital abuse to suf-fer rather than flee.

In a handful of cases, fa-thers took children from theU.S. to India, but many

cases are about women flee-ing from abusive husbandsor in-laws. Several suchmothers, who reached theU.S. on dependent visas,cannot fight divorce or cus-tody cases in the U.S. andgoing to India is an escapefor them.

“If India does not want tosign the Hague Convention,it must come up with a solu-tion of its own. Incidentsare on the rise,” said Mr.Parmar.

Ruchika Abbi, whosedaughter was taken to Indiain 2014, said: “Majority of left-behind parents are notonly burdened by inter-country legal battles, butthey are also dealing withan extreme case of parentalalienation. The ultimatevictims, however, are theabducted children who

have lost their identities.They are scarred for life.”

Complicated processIn India, unlike in the

U.S., parental abduction isnot recognised by the law asa crime and this compli-cates the legal processspread over two countries.

In Mr. Parmar’s case, aNew Jersey court has giventhe custody of the child tohim. The parents and thechild are U.S. citizens, butIndian courts ruled him as a‘domicile’ of India legally,and gave the custody to themother. Developing a legalframework to deal with thiswill take more years, but inthe meantime, BOKH isurging Mr. Modi to do twothings.

First, set a 12-month timeframe to negotiate an agree-ment with the U.S. Second-ly, India could take a posi-tion in courts that theparent who lost the custodybe allowed access to the

child even as the case is be-ing decided.

Pact with U.S. against parental abduction? V ARGHESEK. GEORGE

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kash-mir BJP Minister Choud-hary Lal Singh on Mondaydenied making any remarksregarding the 1947 massacreof Muslims in Jammu, say-ing he referred to the “47degrees Celsiustemperature.”

“I was speaking to myGujjar brothers in Dogriabout the increasing tem-perature in Jammu. I hadsaid that ‘the mercurywould reach 47 degreesCentigrade in Jammu’. For-ty-seven degrees Centi-grade should not be con-fused with the tragedies of 1947,” said the Minister forForest, Environment andEcology.

Draws flakThe Minister is facing a

public and political outcryafter sarpanch MohammedMumtaz accused him of re-ferring to the 1947 Muslimmassacre during a meetingin Jammu last week.

J&K Minister

in a verbal soupSPECIALCORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: An Indian film com-

peting for the Oscars may getaround Rs. 1 crore while thosegoing to the Cannes or Venicefestivals may get around Rs. 50lakh, as the I&B Ministry is plan-ning to create a fund to supportIndian filmmakers’ bid to gainrecognition abroad.

In another move to promoteIndia as a film shooting destina-tion, the Ministry has ap-proached the Home and Exter-nal Affairs Ministries, seeking aspecial category visa for foreignfilmmakers who want to scoutfor locales in the country.

Minister of State for Informa-tion and Broadcasting Rajya-vardhan Rathore told reporters:“A proposal has been readied tosupport film-makers as they tryto win awards in major interna-tional film festivals.” He said thatas per the proposal, the Centremay provide assistance to suchfilm-makers for travelling, exhib-

iting their movies, hiring of hallsand so on in different countries.once it gets the Cabinet nod.

Oscar, Cannesentries to getgovt. support

Delhi recorded a maxi-mum temperature of 40.9degree Celsius on Monday.which was a notch higherthan the average temper-ature at this time of theyear but still lower than thetemperatures recorded inthe preceding week. Theminimum temperature,however, was four degreeshigher than the season'saverage at 30.5 degree Cel-sius.

The humidity level os-cillated between 68 percent and 37 per cent.

The MeT departmenthas forecast a similarweather on Tuesday. “Weare expecting a partly clou-dy sky with thunder stormor dust storm, followed byrains towards the evening

and night,” the official said.In Delhi, the thunder-

shower led to the collapseof the wall of the third floorof a building, leaving threepersons injured. The in-jured included two womenand a man, all from onefamily, when the wall fromthe neighbouring buildingcollapsed on their house in

Jagatpuri area.

Man killed in Noida

In Noida, a 27-year-oldman died while anotherwas seriously injured after

a bulky signage in Sector 18fell on them. The incidentalso damaged two vehicles.

The deceased, MunnaKumar, was waiting nearthe gantry near DLF mallwhen it fell on him.

Delhi records 40.9 degrees“As far as potassium iodate isconcerned, we are examiningthe evidence and soon a decisionwill be taken,” he added.

CSE deputy director generalChandra Bhushan said: “Wefound 84 per cent samples posi-tive with potassium bromate/io-date. We reconfirmed the pres-ence of potassiumbromate/iodate in a few samplesthrough an external third-partylaboratory.”

The study found that 84 percent (32/38) samples were foundwith potassium bromate or io-date in the range of 1.15-22.54

parts per million (ppm).Several makers of the popularbread brands said they adheredto food quality standards ap-proved by the government anddenied using the harmfulchemicals.

CSE report



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NEWS | 13THE HINDU TUESDAY, MAY 24, 2016

NOIDA/DELHI

NEW DELHI: The Centre owesover Rs. 81,000 crore to Statesas tax shares of last 10 years,according to a finding by theComptroller and Auditor-General of India.

According to details of communication between theCAG and the Finance Minis-try, between 1996-97 and2014-15, the Centre has failedto devolve to States Rs.

81,647.70 crore. Just in 2006-07 the Centre did not dis-burse Rs. 10,022.89 crorewhile in 2014-15 it went up toRs. 17,322.14 crore. Almost ev-ery year has shown suchshortages in disbursements.

The difference was discov-ered during an audit and cer-tification process by the CAGof the net proceeds of taxes

and duties for the period. Un-der Article 279 (1) of the Con-stitution, the CAG has to as-certain and certify the detailsof net proceeds of the Centreand its distribution to States.

The 80th amendment to theConstitution in 1996 madedramatic changes to the waytaxes were shared by theCentre with the States. Priorto the amendment, taxes on

income other than agricultu-ral income and a part of unionexcise duties were only re-quired to be shared with theStates. However, the 80th

amendment made it manda-tory to share proceeds fromother taxes and duties, suchas corporate tax, customs,service tax and some aspectsof union excise duties.

But the process of verifica-tion and certification stop-ped several years ago be-

cause of doubts overspecifics of the new amend-ment.

The CAG did not issue anycertificates after 2009, now itturns out. Auditors havefound that certificates havenot been issued for excise du-ties and custom duties from1996-97, for indirect taxesfrom 1999-2000 and for direct

taxes from 2005-06.In a letter written by Bal-

vinder Singh, Deputy CAG,to the Secretary, Departmentof Economic Affairs, on Feb-ruary 19, “The total amount tobe further devolved to theStates comes out to Rs.81,647.70 crore.”

According to details at-tached to his communica-tion, the percentage of share,of the Centre’s tax and dutycollections, to be given to

States in 1996-97 was 29 percent, while it has now goneup to 32 per cent in 2014-15.According to sources, of thisamount, a large State like Ut-tar Pradesh could end up get-ting around Rs. 7,000 crore.Other big States would alsoget significant amounts inthat region. Even for smallerStates, it could be a windfall.

Centre owes over Rs. 81,000 cr. to StatesSPECIALCORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI: Officers of the Na-tional Investigation Agen-cy (NIA) thought they

could extract informationfrom a key operative of theIndian Mujahideen (IM),who was deported from theUAE last week, on how theterror outfit functionedabroad. The IM is accusedof carrying out severalbomb blasts in India from2007 to 2011.

Chronic diabetes

But their hopes weredashed because Abdul Wa-hid Siddibapa, 35, haschronic diabetes and re-quires close medical atten-tion. Since he was taken in-to custody on May 20, NIAofficials have not been ableto question him.

Medical experts fromgovernment hospitals areattending on him round theclock. A city court remand-ed him in seven-day custo-dy.

When he was first de-tained by the UAE author-ities in Abu Dhabi in 2014,Wahid was running a per-fume business. “It never

occurred to him that hecould be arrested. Whenthe crackdown on the IMapparatus began in India,Wahid was roaming freelyin the UAE and he gaveshelter to a couple of IMoperatives who had fled toDubai in 2008. It was on thebasis of a red corner noticeissued by India that he wasarrested at the Abu Dhabiairport then,” a senior gov-ernment official said.

Wahid had been underdetention for six monthsbefore being released. Buthe was kept under watch.

Related to IM founder

He is a close relative of IM founder Riyaz Bhatkaland was providing tactical,material and financial sup-port to IM members in or-ganising terrorist activ-ities.

After his release, hestarted selling shoes in Du-

bai. Wahid’s deportationbecame possible afterPrime Minister NarendraModi visited the UAE inSeptember 2015. Then, In-

dia had handed over a list of individuals wanted for ter-ror activities.

Medical attention

“We have kept him undermedical attention. Hisblood glucose level was 380mg/dl on Monday morn-ing. We cannot afford any-thing adverse happening tohim in our custody,” saidthe official.

This is not the first timewhen an ailing accused hascome back to India.

In 2013, when the SpecialCell of the Delhi Police ar-rested Abdul Karim Tunda,74, an alleged bomb makerof the Lashkar-e-Taiba, oneof his kidneys had failed.While in the custody of theSpecial Cell, Tunda under-went a surgery.

In March this year, a Del-hi court cleared him of in-volvement in four cases inwhich the Delhi police hadfiled a charge sheet. TheDelhi police had registered22 cases against him.

Deported IM suspect ill;NIA unable to grill him V IJAITA SINGH Wahid Siddibapa is

accused of carryingout several bombblasts in India

from 2007 to 2011

KOLKATA: Putting an end tospeculations that the Leftsecular democratic alliancewith the Congress as a key

partner would cease to existafter the humiliating defeatin the West Bengal Assemb-ly elections, senior leadersof both the Communist Par-ty of India (Marxist) and theCongress said on Mondaythe tie-up would continueto work together in theState.

In a rare show of unity,CPI(M) State SecretarySurjya Kanta Mishra andBengal Congress presidentAdhir Ranjan Chowdhuryjointly submitted a memo-randum to West BengalGovernor Keshari Nath Tri-pathi on post-poll violence.

Fight to continue: Mishra

While Dr. Mishra, whohas been using the term‘People’s Alliance’ to de-scribe the tie-up, said “wewill continue with the Peo-ple’s Alliance”, Mr. Chowd-hury was more vocal in as-serting that the alliance wasforged not just for theelections.

“We all have to fight unit-

ed against terror unleashedby the Trinamool. It is try-ing to eliminate the Opposi-tion in Bengal and we allhave to fight unite againstit,” Mr. Chowdhury said. Dr.Mishra too felt the need toput up a “joint resistance”.

The show of unity comesamid criticism that peoplehad rejected the alliance.While the combine got 77seats, with the Left Front re-duced to 32 and the Con-gress 44, while one inde-pendent candidatesupported by the alliancewon in the 294-member As-sembly; Trinamool tri-umphed with 211 seats.

‘Left-Cong. tie-up tostay in West Bengal’SPECIALCORRESPONDENT

Surjya Kanta Mishra

BEIJING: On the eve of Presi-dent Pranab Mukherjee’svisit, China on Mondaystruck a positive note, say-ing both the countries have

been taking positive steps tomanage the border disputeand that it is ready to “accel-erate” talks to resolve thevexed issue “at an earlydate”.

“China is ready to workwith India to accelerate ne-gotiations and resolve thishistoric issue at an early dateto move forward bilateral re-lations,” Foreign Ministryspokesperson Hua Chuny-ing said, responding to Mr.Mukherjee’s remark that In-dia wants a fair, reasonableand mutually acceptable set-tlement to solve the borderissue.

“We will extend warmwelcome to President Muk-herjee,” on his first visit toChina, Ms. Hua toldpresspersons.

“Committed to resolve

territorial disputes”“China and India are com-mitted to resolving territo-rial disputes through nego-tiations seeking a fair andreasonable settlement,which is acceptable to all,”she said.

“In the past three decadesand more, the two sides havebeen taking positive steps toproperly manage disputesand safeguard peace and

tranquillity of the border ar-ea, creating favourable con-ditions for sound and sus-tainable development of bilateral ties,” Ms. Hua said,responding to a question onMr. Mukherjee’s commentsto Chinese media on theissue.

Four-day visit begins today

Mr. Mukherjee, who ar-rives in the Chinese indus-

trial city of Guangzhou on afour-day visit to China onTuesday, has told the Chi-nese media that India seeksa “fair, reasonable and mu-tually acceptable settlementof the (border) question.”

He will reach Beijing onWednesday and is sched-uled to hold talks with Presi-dent Xi Jinping and otherChinese leaders.

Outlining the steps taken

by India and China to re-solve the dispute, Ms. Huasaid so far the two countrieshad established a series of working mechanisms, in-

cluding talks at the level of Special Representatives toresolve the issue, besides re-aching political guidelinesand a three-step road map.

The two sides held 19thSpecial Representative talkshere last month.

Increasing influence

“China and India areemerging markets with in-creasing influence on the in-ternational stage. Both thecountries are major forcesbehind world peace and de-velopment. We are glad tosee that in the past few yearsChina and India have beenmoving forward on bilateralrelations in a sound and sta-ble way,” she said.

Recalling Mr. Xi’s 2014visit to India, which was fol-lowed with Prime MinisterNarendra Modi’s visit to

China last year, Ms. Hua saidbilateral ties had entered aperiod of fast development.

“We can take that Presi-dent Mukherjee’s visit thistime will lead to the imple-mentation of important out-comes during the previousvisits of practical coopera-tion and also forging of closepartnership for develop-ment,” Ms. Hua said.

—PTI

Ready to accelerate border talks: China

Pranab had called for a fair and reasonable settlement

Pranab Mukherjee

NEW DELHI: India has banned itsnationals from travelling toLibya, irrespective of the pur-pose of the visit, in view of the prevailing security situa-tion in that country.

Announcing this on Mon-day, the External Affairs Min-istry said the decision hadbeen notified to all immigra-tion authorities.

“In view of the prevailingsecurity situation in Libya,

security threats and challeng-es to the lives of Indian na-tionals in Libya, the govern-ment has decided to imposetravel ban on Indian nationalsplanning to travel to Libya ir-respective of the purpose,”the MEA travel advisory said.

Ex-Minister killed

Asking Indian nationals forcompliance, the Ministrysaid the travel ban was effec-

tive from May 3 till furtherorders.

The Ministry’s announce-ment came a day after reportsof a Libyan former Ministerbeing killed in clashes be-tween unity governmentforces and fighters of the Is-lamic State jihadist group inSirte.Libya is witnessing in-creased violence due toclashes between them.

—PTI

Indians asked to keep off Libya



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NOIDA/DELHI

WORLD

DUSHANBE: People in theCentral Asian nation of Tajikistan have votedoverwhelmingly to approvechanges to the Constitutionallowing President EmomaliRakhmon (63), head of thestate since 1992, to ruleindefinitely. Elections officialssaid on Monday that an initialcount showed 94.5 per centof voters had supportedamendments that included aprovision to scrap presidential

term limits. Sunday’sreferendum came amid anintense onslaught againstfundamental political

freedoms in the former Sovietstate. — AP

Tajik President can rule indefinitely

TOKYO: A manhunt is underway for criminals who lootedmillions from Japan’s cashmachines nationwide in anhours-long heist, officials andreports said on Monday.Armed with fake credit card

details from South Africa’sStandard Bank, the thieves hit1,400 convenience store

ATMs in a coordinated attackearlier this month. The gangmembers, numbering around100 people, each reportedlymade a series of withdrawalsin less than three hour. Theirhaul totalled 1.4 billion yen($13 million), according to thereports, with machines inTokyo and Osaka amongthose targeted.— AFP

$13 million stolen in Japan heist

HANOI: The U.S. announced anend to its embargo on sales of lethal arms to Vietnam onMonday, a historic step thatdraws a line under the twocountries’ old enmity and un-derscores their shared con-cerns about Beijing’s growingmilitary clout.

The move came duringPresident Barack Obama’s

first visit to Hanoi, which hiswelcoming hosts described asthe arrival of a warm springand a new chapter in relationsbetween two countries thatwere at war four decades ago.

Mr. Obama, the third U.S.President to visit Vietnamsince diplomatic relationswere restored in 1995, hasmade a strategic ‘rebalance’towards Asia a centrepiece of his foreign policy.

Vietnam, a neighbour of China, is a key part of thatstrategy amid worries aboutBeijing’s assertiveness andsovereignty claims to 80 percent of the South China Sea.

The decision to lift thearms trade ban, which fol-lowed intense debate withinthe Obama administration,suggested such concerns out-weighed arguments that Viet-nam had not done enough to

improve its human rights re-cord and Washington wouldlose leverage for reforms.

Lengthy process

Mr. Obama told a jointnews conference with Viet-namese President Tran DaiQuang that disputes in theSouth China Sea should be re-solved peacefully and not bywhoever “throws their weightaround”. But he insisted thearms embargo move was notlinked to China.

“The decision to lift the banwas not based on China or anyother considerations. It wasbased on our desire to com-plete what has been a lengthyprocess of moving towardsnormalisation with Vietnam,”he said. Mr. Obama later add-ed his visit to a former foeshowed “hearts can changeand peace is possible”.

The sale of arms, Mr. Oba-ma said, would depend onVietnam’s human rights com-

mitments, and would be madeon a case-by-case basis.

Human Rights Watch reac-ted with dismay to Washing-ton’s decision to toss away acritical lever it might havehad to spur political reform inthe Communist party-ruled

state.Rights concerns

Phil Robertson, the watch-dog’s Asia director, said in astatement that even as Obamawas lifting the arms embargoVietnamese authorities werearresting a journalist, humanrights activists and bloggerson the street and in theirhouses. Mr. Obama told thenews conference with Presi-dent Quang that Washingtonwould continue to speak outfor human rights, includingcitizens’ right to organisethrough civil society. Mr.Obama is scheduled to meetwith a group of activists onTuesday.

Mr. Quang, who actuallyannounced the lifting of theU.S. embargo before Mr. Oba-ma could do so, was until re-cently Minister of Public Se-curity, which activists sayharasses and arrests disside-nts. — Reuters

Move underscores the nations’ shared concerns about Beijing’s military clout

NEW PARADIGM: U.S. President Barack Obama with his Vietnamese counterpart Tran Dai Quang inHanoi on Monday. Mr. Obama is on his first visit to the Southeast Asian nation. —PHOTO: REUTERS

U.S. lifts arms ban on Vietnam

TOKYO: Barack Obama will notapologise for the atomicbombing of Hiroshima when hethis week becomes the firstsitting U.S. President to visit the

city, he told Japanese television.The comments are theclearest yet from hisadministration over an issue thatraises hackles in the UnitedStates and has been the subjectof heated debate for decades.

Asked if an apology would beincluded in remarks he plans tomake, he said: “No, because Ithink that it’s important torecognise that in the midst of war, leaders make all kinds of decisions.”

‘Difficult war decisions’

“It’s a job of historians to askquestions and examine them, butI know as somebody who hasnow sat in this position for thelast seven and a half years, thatevery leader makes very difficultdecisions, particularly during wartime.”

American airmen launched theworld’s first atomic strike onHiroshima on August 6, 1945,causing the deaths of about1,40,000 people. Tens of

thousands were killed by the fireballthat the powerful nuclear blastgenerated, with many moresuccumbing to injuries or illnessescaused by radiation in the weeks,months and years afterwards.

The southern city of Nagasakiwas hit by a second bomb threedays later, killing 74,000 people, inone of the final acts of World War-II.

Mr. Obama will visit Hiroshimaafter attending the Group of S evensummit hosted by Japan.

U.S. officials have consistentlysaid in the weeks leading up to thevisit that there would be noapology. — AFP

‘No apology for Hiroshima’

Atom bomb ‘Little Boy’ in aloading pit, before it wasdropped over Hiroshima.

LONDON: Maldives’s formerPresident Mohamad Nash-eed said he did not think hisphysical absence would re-sult in the weakening of theopposition to President Ab-dulla Yameen.

“I don’t think the resolve of the people of the Maldivesfor freedom and democracy,and good governance, is thatweak,” he told The Hindu in a

telephone interview from hisresidence in London.

The former President, whois still under treatment herefor spinal injuries sufferedduring detention, said thathis position was far strongerthan it had been when hesought and was granted asy-lum in Britain in 2004.

“In 2004 we were able toorganise ourselves into a po-litical entity, as a politicalparty. We were able to gal-vanise the people into politi-cal activism, amend the Con-stitution and get back home,get the party going and then

have our first free and fairelections,” said Mr. Nasheed.

Today, the unity of the op-position is “far, far stronger”than it was in 2004. “Todaywe have a wider platform orcoalition that we think willcome to a definite under-standing in exile,” he said,adding that he and his party,the Maldivian DemocraticParty (MDP), are “in conver-sation” with other parties likethe Jumhooree Party and

people like former Vice-President Mohamed JameelAhmed.

Forming coalition in exile

There are many Maldivianopposition leaders in exile inthe U.K., he said. “They allhave supporters back home,and so if we can group our-selves as an entity in exilethat would assist the peoplein the Maldives struggling fordemocracy.”

He disclosed that Mr. Ja-meel Ahmed is willing to leadsuch an entity. “We can comeup with a very strong and

credible organisation abroadand must explore all the ave-nues and options that wehave.”

Mr. Nasheed also spoke of his resolve to take the Maldi-

ves’s case to “multinationalinstitutions like the UnitedNations and other interna-tional judicial forums”, whilelobbying with individual gov-ernments, particularly thosein the Indian Ocean region,for recognition of the new en-tity in exile.

India, he hoped, wouldview his efforts “in a favoura-ble light and engage withsuch a grouping, whichwould be in the best interestsof the people of the Maldivesand the Indian Ocean atlarge”. He also expressed hisdisappointment at the weak

resolve of the Common-wealth Secretariat in sup-porting the cause of the Mal-dives. He felt that it has“failed to impress upon thegovernment of Maldives theneed for reform”. He addedthat “they refuse to say if theMaldives issue is in the for-mal agenda, even while theCommonwealth MinisterialAction Group says it is”.

Male expresses concern

The government of Maldiveshas expressed concern overthe development. Its ForeignAffairs Ministry said MrNasheed was “granted medi-cal leave exceptionally” bythe appropriate authoritiesafter which he was expectedto return to serve the remain-der of his 13-year sentence.

The extension of Mr Nash-eed’s leave expired on May 19.

Male also expressed disap-pointment over the U.K. gov-ernment “allowing itself tobe part of this charade”.

(With inputs from T. Ra-makrishnan in Colombo.)

Opposition is stronger now: NasheedP ARVATHIMENON ‘If we are able to

group ourselves, wecan help Maldivianswho are strugglingfor democracy’

VIENNA: Austria narrowlyavoided becoming the firstEuropean Union (EU) coun-try to elect a far-right candi-date as head of state, as postalballots decided a knife-edgepresidential run-off vote in fa-vour of his environmentalistrival.

After an election that hadbeen too close to call on Sun-day, a count of the absenteevotes on Monday thrust Alex-ander van der Bellen (72) pastanti-immigration FreedomParty rival Norbert Hofer andinto the largely ceremonialpost of President.

Opinion polls regularlysuggest the Freedom Partywould win parliamentaryelections if held now. The cur-rent government’s term runsuntil 2018. The Interior Minis-try count gave Mr. Van derBellen 50.3 per cent of thevote, compared to 49.7 percent for Mr. Hofer. — Reuters

Far-right narrowly defeated in Austria polls

DAMASCUS: More than 148people were killed on Mon-day in bombings claimed bythe Islamic State (IS) groupin northwestern Syria, thedeadliest attacks yet in theregime’s coastal heartland.

Seven near-simultaneousexplosions targeted bus sta-tions, hospitals and other ci-vilian sites in the seaside ci-ties of Jableh and Tartus,which until now had beenrelatively insulated from Sy-ria’s five-year civil war.

Alawites targeted

The unprecedented at-tacks on strongholds of President Bashar Al-Assad’sregime came as IS facesmounting pressure in bothSyria and Iraq, where Bagh-dad’s forces on Mondaylaunched a major offensiveto retake the jihadist-heldcity of Fallujah.

A hundred people were

killed in Jableh and another48 in Tartus to the south, atleast eight of them children,according to the Syrian Ob-servatory for Human Rightsmonitoring group.

IS claimed the blasts viaits Amaq news agency, say-ing its fighters had attacked“Alawite gatherings” in Ja-bleh and Tartus, referring tothe minority sect from

which Assad hails. IS is notknown to have a presence inSyria’s coastal provinces,where its jihadist rival andal-Qaeda’s local branch Al-Nusra Front is much moreprominent.

41 killed in Yemen

Meanwhile, twin bomb-ings claimed by the IS hit Ye-meni forces in Aden onMonday, killing at least 41people in the latest of a spateof attacks in the southerncity. In the first attack, a sui-cide bomber killed 34 peo-ple queuing to enlist at arecruitment centre near theBadr base in Aden’s Khor-maksar district, said Briga-dier General Nasser al-Sa-rei, the commander of Yemen’s special securityforces.

A subsequent explosioninside the base killed sevensoldiers, he said.— AFP

A burning car at the site of asuicide bombing in Tartus.

Islamic State blasts in Syrianregime’s heartland kill 148

Fostering dialogue

REACHING OUT: Pope Francis on Monday met Sheik Ahmed el-Tayyib, the grand Imam ofEgypt’s highest Islamic authority, Al-Azhar, looking to heal Vatican’s relations with thecentre of Sunni Muslim learning after dialogue was frozen five years ago. —PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON: The word ‘Orien-tal’ to describe the people of Asian origin will no longer beused in U.S statute books. Be-fore taking off for his Asiantour, President Barack Obamasigned a law that removed theword from two places it exist-ed in the country’s laws. Theamendments signed by thePresident also discontinuesthe use of the ‘n’ word.

The word ‘Oriental’ has de-rogatory connotations,though it has acquired theabusive tone that the ‘n’ wordhas. Due to its Eurocentric na-ture and its association withthe period of colonialism andracial segregation, the wordevokes unpleasant memoriesfor the people of Asian origin,particularly those from EastAsia, in America.

Offensive term

Grace Meng, Democraticmember of the U.S. House of Representatives who cameacross the existence of theword during her routine legis-lative research moved theamendments.

“The term ‘Oriental’ has noplace in federal law and atlong last this insulting andoutdated term will be gone forgood… No longer will any lawof the United States refer to

Asian-Americans in such anoffensive way, ” Ms. Meng,who is of Chinese origin andwas elected from Queens inNew York, said.

“Many Americans may notbe aware that the word ‘Ori-ental’ is derogatory. But it isan insulting term that neededto be removed from thebooks, and I am extremelypleased that my legislation todo that is now the law of theland,” she added.

Ms. Meng’s legislation wasunanimously passed by theHouse in February and by theSenate in May. All 51 membersof the Congressional AsianPacific American Caucus hadco-signed the bill.

The word existed in the lawthat established the Depart-ment of Energy, and in the Lo-cal Public Works Capital De-velopment and Investment

Act, both made in the 1970s.The Terms will now be “mod-ernised” in both.

Asian-Americansin the U.S. not to be called ‘oriental’ V ARGHESEK. GEORGE

COLOMBO: Finding suitable lo-cations for shelter for theflood-hit people in the den-sely populated Colomboand Gampaha is a “challeng-ing” task, according to a UNagency.

In its first “situation re-port”, which covered eventsup to May 22, the UN Officefor the Coordination of Hu-manitarian Affairs (OCHA)mentioned that “a sizeablesegment of the flood affect-ed population are squattersliving in vulnerable areasprone to frequent flooding.Therefore transitional shel-ter arrangements maybe re-quired until suitable land isidentified for relocation.”

According to the Sri Lan-ka government’s DisasterManagement Centre, 506houses were fully damagedand 4,005 partially dam-aged. Colombo and Gampa-ha accounted for 32 fullydamaged houses and 117 par-tially damaged ones. In Col-ombo, there are still about

1.23 lakh people at relief camps and in Gampaha,nearly 46,000 persons.

As for people in landslide-hit areas, the OCHA pointedout that people would not beable return to their places of origin because of “ongoingthreat from further land-slides. There is therefore aneed for longer term alter-native shelter options.”

In Aranayaka, hit by a ma-jor landslide a week ago,

seven more bodies were re-covered, taking the toll to 39and that of the Kegalle dis-trict to 57. As of now, 92 per-sons died all over the coun-try due to the latest round of natural disaster, and 109people are missing. .

Sri Lanka’s Finance Min-ister Ravi Karunanayakewas quoted in a local daily assaying that the previousweek’s storm cost the coun-try $2 billion.

Finding shelter for Sri Lankan victims a challenging task: UN

WADING THROUGH: Victims pushing an auto throughfloodwaters in a suburb of Colombo. — PHOTO: AFP

T. R AMAKRISHNAN WASHINGTON: The U.S. SupremeCourt on Monday ruled in fa-vour of a black Georgia deathrow inmate convicted in 1987of murdering an elderly whitewoman, finding that prosecu-tors unlawfully excludedblack potential jurors in se-lecting an all-white jury.

In a 7-1 ruling, the courthanded a victory to inmateTimothy Foster (48), who as-serted prosecutorial miscon-duct after he was convictedand sentenced to death in the1986 murder of Queen White,a 79-year-old retired school-teacher. The justices threwout Foster’s conviction afterdecades on death row. Hecould still potentially face aretrial.

During jury selection, allfour black members of thepool of potential jurors wereremoved by prosecutors, whogave reasons not related torace for their decision to ex-clude them. A 1986 U.S. Su-preme Court ruling made itunlawful to take race into ac-count when excluding poten-tial jurors. — Reuters

U.S. court rules infavour of black death row inmate

DUNHUANG (NORTHWESTERN CHINA):Chinese authorities are en-gaged in a major internation-al effort to digitally accumu-late information on thepriceless cultural treasuresof the Buddhist caves in Dun-huang — murals, statues andmanuscripts — that were tak-en away by Western expedi-tions and ended up mostly inmuseums of Europe, Asiaand the U.S.

Most of the artworks, con-troversially removed fromthe iconic Mogao caves,hewn out of the imposingsandstone cliffs, found theirway in the British Museum inLondon, the National Mu-seum in New Delhi and TheHermitage Museum in St. Pe-tersburg.

In different museums

Part of the collection,

sometimes after a change of hands, also found its way toThe Tokyo National Mu-

seum and The National Mu-seum of Korea.

Dunhuang Buddhist caves,housing 2,000 painted sculp-tures and half a millionsquare feet of wall paintings,are in the Gobi desert, at amajor junction of the ancientSilk Road.

The Silk Road snaked be-tween Xian in China, andRome, passing through

treacherous terrain of de-serts and mountains. Luredby the promise of large com-mercial fortunes, or spiritualsolace, countless perished onthis route as victims either tothe calamities of nature or at-tacks by armed brigands.

The Chinese accuse five

“treasure hunters” of Serin-dian art — the Hungarianborn Aurel Stein who later

took British nationality; PaulPelliot of France; Otani Kozui

of Japan; Russia’s Sergei Ol-denburg and Langdon War-ner from the United States —as mainly responsible for the“great steal” from the Dun-huang caves.

Three expeditions

Stein’s role was pivotal inthis controversial chapter,which soon acquired a sharpemotive edge in the backdropof nationalistic stirrings inChina against imperial pow-ers. In three expeditions,mounted between 1900 and1916, the former principal of Oriental College, Lahore,whose prime interest was inexploration of Central Asia,China, India and West Asia,removed 24 trunks of ancientBuddhist scriptures and fiveboxes of paintings, embroi-deries, and other artworksfrom the Mogao caves, all for

a princely sum of £130.The artworks brought by

Stein have been deposited in

the British Museum, but animpressive collection has al-

so been exhibited at the Na-tional Museum at New Delhi.In fact, Stein’s 1913-16 expedi-tion was funded by the gov-ernment of India, with theunderstanding that majorityof the finds of this excursionwould lay the foundation of anew museum in Delhi.

More than a century afterStein’s arrival in Dunhuangin 1907, a major collaborativeeffort to ‘reunite’ informationon the treasures of the Dun-huang caves has com-menced. The Dunhuang A-cademy is a major fulcrum of the International DunhuangProject (IDP).

This enterprise aims tounite information on “allthese artefacts through thehighest quality digital pho-tography by coordinating in-ternational teams of conser-vators, cataloguers and

researchers”. The NationalMuseum in New Delhi is afounding member of the IDP.

SILK ROAD TREASURE: A Bodhisattva identified as ‘Maitreya fromMogao cave 275’ at an exhibit at the Getty Center inLos Angeles earlier in the month. — PHOTO: AFP

Digitising data on ‘stolen’ Buddhist relics A TUL A NEJA



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BUSINESS

BRIEFLY

MUMBAI: Country’s third-largestprivate sector lender Axis Bankhas hit the international debt

markets with its maiden greenbond issue to raise $500 million,market sources said on Monday.The unsecured senior bonds issueis rated by all the threeinternational ratings agencies.Axis Bank is the fifth domesticinstitution to sell green bonds withthe first being Yes Bank inFebruary last year, that garneredRs.1,000 crore through rupee-denominated green bondsfollowed by IDBI Bank and EximBank. — PTI

Axis Bank hits globaldebt market with$500 mn green bonds

NEW DELHI: Software servicesmajor Infosys today said it hasbagged a five-year contract fromCommerzbank, the second largestbank in Germany. The financialdetails of the deal were notdisclosed. As part of the

agreement, Infosys will remodelthe bank’s investment banking ITarchitecture, optimise ITprocesses and evaluate a potentialPost-Trade Processing Utility,Infosys said in a statement. TheUtility would then focus on theclustering of trade processingplatforms across various producttypes, it added. — PTI

Infosys bags5-year deal fromCommerzbank

NEW DELHI: L&T Infotech, an armof engineering giant Larsen andToubro (L&T), has received capitalmarkets regulator the Securitiesand Exchange Board of India’s(SEBI) approval for its proposedinitial public offering (IPO). Thecompany had filed its draft redherring prospectus (DRHP) withSEBI in April. The regulator issuedits final ‘observations’ on the draftoffer documents on May 20, whichis necessary for any company tolaunch a public offer. Thecompany’s IPO comprises anoffer-for-sale of up to 17,500,000equity shares of the subsidiary byL&T Ltd. — PTI

L&T Infotech gets SEBIclearance for initialpublic offering

SENSEX GOLD RUPEE BRENT OIL

23-05-16 25,23072POINTS

23-05-16 29,6500.00₨/10gm

23-05-16 67.490.05

₨/$

23-05-16 47.831.07$/bbl20-05-16 25,302 21-05-16 29,650 20-05-16 67.44 20-05-16 48.90

Goods and Services Tax (GST) is alandmark reform which will straightaway add upto 1.5 per cent to the GDPADI GODREJ, Chairman, Godrej Group

CHENNAI: City Union Bank hasreported a 12.6 per cent in-crease in its net profit to Rs.444.69 crore for the yearended March 31, 2016, fromRs. 395.02 crore in 2014-15.Net interest income rose by21.5 per cent to Rs. 981.03crore from Rs.807.37 crore.

Addressing presspersonshere on Monday, N. Kamako-di, MD and CEO said, thebank continued to avoid ex-posure to large ticket corpo-rate loans, or consortiumlending. .

Total business of the bankregistered a growth of 15 percent to Rs. 48,411 crore fromRs. 42,164 crore, with depos-its accounting for Rs. 27,158

crore (Rs.24,075 crore) andadvances Rs. 21,253 crore(Rs.18,089 crore).

CUB Q4 profitrises by 13 %S. V ARADHARAJAN

FRANKFURT: German drugs andcrop chemicals group Bayerhas offered to buy U.S. seedscompany Monsanto for $62billion in cash, defying criti-cism from some of its ownshareholders in a bid to grabthe top spot in a fast-consoli-dating farm supplies indus-try.

The unsolicited proposal,which includes debt, wouldbe the largest foreign take-over by a German company if accepted.

The move, which wouldeclipse a planned combina-tion of Dow Chemical andDuPont’s agriculture units,comes just three weeks afterWerner Baumann took overas Bayer CEO and was con-demned by a major sharehol-der as “arrogant empire-building” when news of the

proposal emerged last week.Giving details for the first

time, Bayer said on Monday

it would offer $122 per share,a 37 per cent premium toMonsanto’s stock price be-fore rumours of a bid sur-faced. “We fully expect a pos-itive answer of the Monsanto

board of directors,” Mr.Bau-mann told reporters on aconference call, describing

criticism from some inves-tors as “an uneducated reac-tion in the media” when dealterms were not yet known.

Monsanto, which saidlast week it had a received an

approach from Bayer, hasyet to comment on theoffer. — Reuters

MEGA DEAL: Bayer also forecast synergies from the deal wouldboost annual earnings by around $1.5 billi on.— FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

Bayer offers $62 bn for Monsanto

MUMBAI: Raising concerns that Jan Dhan accounts can bemisused by ‘money mules’,the RBI today warned theyare “very vulnerable” tofrauds and asked banks to beon guard against such activ-ities. Reserve Bank deputygovernor S.S. Mundra saidbanks should have a propermechanism to monitor trans-actions in these accounts.

“The newly opened ac-counts under the PMJDY(Pradhan Mantri Jan DhanYojana) could be very vulner-able to fraud practises,” Mr.Mundra said at an event heretoday. He said third-partiescan be used to launder theproceeds of fraud schemes(such as phishing and identi-ty theft) by criminals whogain illegal access to depositaccounts by recruiting them

as ‘money mules’. Mr. Mun-dra highlighted a recent casewhere an idle account wasused for receiving and trans-ferring large funds withoutthe knowledge of the accountholder. “It was a basic ac-count of a daily labourer inPunjab. The transactionamount was Rs 1 crore,” hesaid. The case came to lightwhen the income tax author-ity served the notice to the ac-count holder.

“Failure to guard againstmisuse of customer accounts,might result in banks incur-ring supervisory sanctions

and enforcement action fromthe RBI,” he said. — PTI

Payments bank licencesOur Correspondent adds:He also expressed displea-

sure with entities surrender-ing their payments bank li-cences and said the RBIwould explore the possibilityof a levying processing fee onthe applicants. “We certainlyfeel a little aggrieved becausea lot of effort goes in process-ing these applications,” hesaid during an event orga-nised by Banking Codes andStandards Board of India. InAugust, the RBI granted in-principle licences to 11 enti-ties. While CholamandalamInvestment dropped out inMarch, last weekSun Pharmapromoter, Dilip Shanghvi,surrendered the licence.

Jan Dhan accounts more vulnerable tofraud by ‘money mules’: RBI’s Mundra

An idle accountwas used to route

funds without theknowledge of theaccount holder

NEW DELHI: Technology holds

the key to achieving the gov-ernment’s goals of reducingcarbon dioxide emissionsand oil imports by 10 per centand introducing BS-VI-com-pliant fuel across the country,according to DharmendraPradhan, Oil Minister.

“To reduce carbon dioxideemissions and oil imports, tobe more energy efficient andto introduce BS-VI fuel, tech-nology is a major way to doit,” Mr.Pradhan said inaugu-rating Honeywell UOP’s Re-cycle Hydrocracker PilotPlant at Gurugram onMonday.

New facility

The facility is used to mim-ic a full-scale refinery’s func-tioning on a smaller scale,thus allowing tests and newmethods to be developed at alower cost. “This pilot plant

emulates a refinery unit,”Anant Maheshwari, Presi-dent, Honeywell India told

The Hindu. “A refinery plantcan be anywhere betweentens to hundreds of millionsof dollars of investment. Thepilot plant that we are doinghere, with the same amountof precision, is about a $5 mil-lion investment.”

The plant could prove par-ticularly useful at a timewhen the country is lookingto transition to less pollutingfuel. The country has beenrunning on BS-III fuel since2010 with BS-IV currently be-ing used inmajor cities.

BS-VI deadline

The Ministry of Petroleumand Natural Gas has set adeadline of 2017 by whichtime all the vehicles in thecountry must be BS-IV-com-pliant and 2020 for the rolloutof BS-VI fuel.

“If we were looking at a

new process or catalyst forBS-VI and low-sulphur die-sel, we can do the testinghere,” Steven Gimre, Manag-ing Director, UOP India said.“We can partner with compa-nies here and they can pro-vide us feedstock. So, if theywant to know if their feed-

stock can meet product spec-ifications, then they can sendit to us and we can test it.”

Key clients

“IOCL, BPCL, HPCL areour key clients,” Mr. Gimresaid.

“IOCL is one of our biggest

customers as a company andis one of the biggest refinersin the country.”

Regarding the direct tran-sition to BS-VI and the leap-frogging of BS-V — some-thing car companies havepointed out as being a signifi-cant jump and difficult to im-plement — Mr. Gimre saidthe technology was availablesince it had already been im-plemented in Europe.

“From a technology stand-point, the (BS-VI) solutionsare there,” he said.

“For our customers, it is amatter of them deciding whatto do in each refinery, how toapply the technology in eachspecific case.”

Growing usage

Hydrocarbon usage in thecountry is growing rapidlyand it is imperative that tech-nology moves apace to en-sure the damage to the envi-ronment is limited, he said.

Honeywell’s latest facility in Gurugram will replicate a full-scale refinery’s functioning

NOT GREEN: Hydrocarbon usage in the country is growingrapidly. — FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

‘Improved tech can cut emissions’ TCA SHARADR AGHAVAN

NEW DELHI: Credit growth in thecountry is unlikely to revive“materially” in the near termas demand conditions are stillacting as a laggard, said an SBIreport.

The report noted that it is“too early and premature” tosay about the credit growthpicking up in the country.

In the 2015-16 fiscal, thecredit off-take showed somesigns of improvement andwas at 11.3 per cent as onMarch 18, 2016. However, ason April 29 this year, creditgrowth has again declined to9.2 per cent.

“Given that demand is stilla laggard, we are sceptical of credit growth picking up evenas the banks are in the midstof balance-sheet cleaning,”SBI said in a research note.

According to the report, thesupposed correlation be-tween balance-sheet cleaningand credit growth picking upwill only happen once thegrowth cycle picks up signifi-cantly. — PTI

Credit growthunlikely to revive‘materially’ innear term: SBI

MUMBAI: The government’sdecision to leapfrog the Bha-rat Stage (BS)-V EmissionStandards and implementthe BS-VI norms by April2020, four years ahead of theearlier schedule, will makediesel vehicles costlier byRs.70,000 to Rs.1,50,000, ac-cording to a statement issuedby ICRA Ratings.

The diesel segment is like-ly to witness a sizeable priceincrease due to introductionof additional components,the note said. This will makediesel passenger vehiclescostlier (vis-à-vis petrol vari-ants) and may deter demandfor diesel vehicles, it added.

“The cost of petrol passen-ger vehicles may increase by20,000-30,000 per vehicle,while the increase for dieselpassenger vehicles could bein the range of Rs.75,000-100,000 per vehicle. For me-dium and heavy commercialvehicles, the cost differentialis expected to be Rs.100,000-150,000 (or 10 per cent of cur-

rent vehicle cost),” saidSubrata Ray, Senior GroupV-P, ICRA ratings.

As diesel vehicles wouldrequire significant technolo-gy changes, the cost differen-tial between petrol and die-sel passenger vehicles wouldexpand further. “This willwiden the payback period fordiesel vehicles,” Mr. Ray said.

Price gap

The narrowing price gapbetween petrol and diesel,the recent ban on registra-tion of diesel vehicles in theNational Capital Region,

along with the potential riskof restricting diesel-poweredtaxis could have significantimplications for diesel in-vestments by Original Equip-ment Manufacturers(OEMs), he said. ICRA Rat-ings said while availability of technology would not be anissue, the key challenge forOEMs would be adapting theavailable solutions to Indianmarket conditions in a shorttime-frame, in a cost-effec-tive manner. Availability of BS-VI compliant fuel on na-tionwide basis by 2020 maybe a challenge, it said.

PRICEY AFFAIR: The diesel segment is likely to see a sizeable costrise due to introduction of additional components. —F ILE PHOTO

SPECIALCORRESPONDENT

‘Adopting BS-VI norms willmake diesel vehicles costlier’

NEW DELHI: The governmentsaid domestic shipping firmswill have to pay only a one-time licence fee of Rs.20,000

to own foreign flag vessels, ina bid to give a boost to themaritime sector.

“Vessels of Indian Con-trolled Tonnage will now berequired to pay only a one-time processing fee of Rs.20,000 towards issue of li-cence. Till now, they were be-ing charged Rs. 20,000 on amonthly basis by the Directo-rate General of Shipping asprocessing fee for issue of li-cence under Section 406 of Merchant Shipping Act, 1958,”according to the Union Ship-ping Ministry on Monday.

Big boost

The government said themove wouldboost the IndianControlled Tonnage Schemeand be a step towards promot-ing ‘ease of doing business’ inthe maritime sector. “Payinglicense fees every month is a

tedious process as you have togo through the red tape againand again,” said VishwapatiTrivedi, Former ShippingSecretary. “Although the li-cence feewas small, the proc-ess of submitting the fees wasso long. It’s a very positivestep that will boost businessfor the Indian shipping com-panies.”

“This might seem like asmall amount, but every mea-sure to expedite and simplifythe process counts in the tar-get of reducing transactioncosts for trade,” ShankarShinde, Vice Chairman, Fed-eration of Freight ForwardersAssociations of India, toldThe Hindu. “With globaltrade slowing down, thiscomes as a minor relief for theshipping industry,” he said.

Govt. relaxes licence feesfor India-controlled shipsSPECIALCORRESPONDENT

Paying monthlyfees is a tediousprocess as one hasto repeatedly

encounter red tape

MUMBAI:India needs to tightensecurity and regulatorynorms to deal with thethreats that cybercrime, ter-rorism, fire and corporate es-pionage will pose to busi-nesses in the coming years,according to a recent study.

Control possible

“While we have very littlecontrol over occurrencessuch as floods, earthquakesand terror attacks, we dohave control over the wayswe can safeguard our busi-nesses and people againstthem,” said Dinesh Anand,Partner and Leader, Forensic

Services, PwC India. “It’shigh time that we pay atten-tion to the potential physicalsecurity risks and do some-thing about them.” The re-port highlights the fact thatwhile awareness about secu-rity issues is on the rise, thereis a need to overhaul securitystandards and the regulatoryframework.

Besides, there is also a lackof confidence in facing natu-

ral disasters like earthquakesand floods.

Urgent need

The ‘Physical Security En-vironment Survey 2016’found that as many as 96 percent of the respondents saidthere was an urgent need formost organisations to take arelook their business strate-gy to effectively respond tonatural disasters while 73 percent opined that the numberof security incidents had in-creased in the past two years.

The report added that In-dia ranked 143 on the globalpeace index, lagging behindBhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka andBangladesh.

India Inc faces threats fromcybercrime, terror: study SPECIALCORRESPONDENT

Respondents saythere is a majorshift in leadershipperspective onsecurity risks

Bullion RatesMay 23 rates in rupees withprevious rates in brackets

Chennai

Bar Silver (1 kg) 39,780 (40,135)

Retail (1 g) 42.60 (42.90)

24 ct gold (10 g) 30,120 (30,150)

22 ct gol d ( 1 g ) 2, 81 6 ( 2,8 19)

Delhi

Silver 39,580 (39,900)

Standard gold 29,650 (29,650)

Sovereign 23,100 (23,100)

Exchange RatesIndicative direct rates in rupees a unitexcept yen at 4 p.m on May 23

TT TT

C ur re nc ie s B uy in g S el li ng

U.S. Dollar 67.29 67.61

Euro 75.37 75.75

Pound Sterling 97.33 97.82

Jap Yen (100 Uni ts) 61.46 61.75

Chinese Yuan 10.25 10.33

Swiss Franc 67.89 68.24

S in ga po re Do ll ar 4 8.7 5 4 9. 00

A us tr al ia n D ol la r 4 8. 49 4 8.7 3

C an adia n D olla r 51 .1 2 5 1.39

Swedish Kroner 8.07 8.11

Danish Kroner 10.13 10.19

New Zealand Dol lar 45.55 45.77

Hongkong Dollar 8.66 8.70

M al ay si an Ri ng it t 1 6. 44 1 6. 54Ku wa it i Di na r 22 2. 35 224.1 5

UAE Dirham 18.32 18.41

B ahra in i D in ar 177. 25 1 80.64

Qatari Riyal 18.52 18.55

Saudi Riyal 17.99 18.00

Omani Riyal 174.14 176.19

Source: Indian Bank



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OPEN PAGE

Contributions to this page may be e-mailed to [email protected] to a length of up to 700 words. Please provide the postal address and a brief description of the writer. An e-mail id that is providedcould be considered for publication. Certify in writing that it is original material; The Hindu views plagiarism as a serious issue. Also confirm that the submission is exclusive to this page. Taking intoaccount the volume of material being received, we regret our inability to acknowledge receipt, or to entertain telephonic or other queries on the status of a submission. If a submission is not publishedwithin eight weeks, consider it to be out of the reckoning — in most cases owing to dearth of space. The publication of an article is not to be seen as The Hindu endorsing the viewpoint in any way.

O

n May 20, Canadian

Prime Minister JustinTrudeau apologised in Parlia-ment for the Komagata Maruincident. “Today, I rise in thisHouse to offer an apology onbehalf of the government of Canada for our role in the Ko-magata Maru incident,” hesaid. “More than a centuryago a great injustice tookplace.”

This was the second time aCanadian Prime Minister isapologising for the blackmark in the history of Indo-Canadian immigration. Overthe past many years, the gov-ernment of Canada had takensteps to right the wrongscommitted during the Koma- gata Maru fiasco.

The ship Komagata Marulanded on the shores of Brit-ish Columbia (Canada) in1914. It carried a group of ad-venturous people who want-

ed to seek a better life in theNew World, halfway acrossthe globe. The story illustrat-ed the trials and tribulationsof people who came from Cal-cutta to Canada’s Pacificcoast.

A long voyage

To conform to the Cana-dian government’s newly en-acted Continuous PassageAct, which required all poten-tial immigrants to make a con-

tinuous journey to Canada,Gurdit Singh, an Indo-Cana-dian immigration pioneer,had chartered the Japanesesteamship S.S. Komagata Ma-ru to take people from India toCanada. It set sail from HongKong on April 4, 1914, with 165

passengers; more passengersjoined in Shanghai and Yoko-hama. The ship continued itsjourney to the western coastof Canada with 376 passen-gers. After about 40 days, onMay 23, it arrived on theshores of British Columbia.

But the Canadian author-ities refused permission todock and the passengers weredetained on board. After atwo-month stalemate, nego-tiations, and political mano-euvring, on July 23 the shipwas forced to turn back, mi-

nus 20 people who were al-lowed to stay in Canada. Thedreams of the rest of the asy-lum-seekers were shattered;they were rejected under thelaws of the land that excludedEast Indians from settling inCanada.

Upon its arrival back in Cal-cutta on September 27, Britishgunboats blocked the ship’sentry into the port. The pas-sengers were treated as law-breakers and political agita-tors. A general riot ensued asthe police entered the ship to

capture the leaders. In themelee, 19 passengers wereshot and killed, and the rest

were incarcerated. Komagata Maru was an in-

cident that shaped Indianemigration. Indian emigra-tion has a long history, goingback to over a thousand years.It has been known that Indianemigration of Romani Gyp-sies started around AD 1100and continued through thetime of Asoka, Samudra Gup-ta and the Chola emperors.The very first Indian inden-tured trade started with theFrench government in 1826.

During British Raj, inden-tured labourers were sent tomany British and French col-onies. The first batch to WestIndies went on two ships,Whitby and Hesperus, over 175years ago. Both set sail fromCalcutta on January 13, 1838,with 249 labourers. After a112-day voyage, they arrivedin Guyana (then British Guia-

na) on May 5, 1838. Thus be-gan the Indian indentureship.From 1838 until the practicewas abolished in 1917, about aquarter of a million Indian la-bourers arrived in Guyana towork in sugarcane planta-tions. Indian labourers were acheap source of labour forBritish plantation owners.

In modern days, Indianémigrés started moving inlarger numbers to many othercountries in search of em-

ployment or permanent resi-dency. Many events small,big, and tragic, shaped the

flow of immigrants and theirsurvival in distant lands.Their tales of survival in partsunknown, their hardships andagonies, are part of the historyof Indian immigration. Allsuch events slowly and stead-ily reshaped the lives of mod-ern-day Indian immigrants.We should be mindful of thehistory of early expatriate In-dians, and their struggles, suf-fering and dedication.

Indian emigrants areknown by many names, in-cluding a few infamous nick-names accorded by others outof ignorance and prejudice.No matter how we are calledor known, we all have a com-mon link and are identified bycertain innate qualities thatcame from the motherland.We have come a long wayfrom the days of sugarcaneplantations and rubber es-

tates. Today the Indian dias-pora is 25-million strong andgrowing, according to 2013statistics compiled by theMinistry of Overseas IndianAffairs. Expatriate Indians aredoing well and leading theway in many fields: today theyeven lead nations, giant inter-national conglomerates andeducational institutions. In-deed, Indians have much to beproud of.

[email protected]

A disaster that shaped Indian emigration, in search of better prospects in distant lands that still continues far and wide, building a robust diaspora

Saga of Indian immigration, and Komagata Maru S ASIK UMAR

SAD EPISODE OF HISTORY: Passengers stand aboard the S.S. Komagata Maru at the port of Vancouver. —PHOTO: REUTERS/SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

The biology taught inschool and college, espe-

cially in relation to the proc-ess of human evolution, doesnot match my observations of human beings and their ill-nesses as a doctor for overhalf a century.

The new evolutionary biol-ogy and the systems biologyin it make a lot of good sensewith the background of thenew quantum worldview.

A judicious combination of those two, in conjunctionwith Indian wisdom of eons,explains a lot of things inmedicine and reaffirms myfaith in our indigenous wis-dom even in diseasemanagement.

Western science that we

believe as gospel truth did notcome from God. It was verymuch a human creation. I

now believe those creators,people of science who arevenerated by us, went terriblywrong in treating this uni-verse as a separate non-livingentity where man has a rightto exploit nature for his bene-fit.

The truth seems to be thatnature is a living and steadilyevolving system, and man isjust a part of the whole. Con-sequently, the health of thisplanet is so much connectedwith our own health andwell-being.

Total reinvention

Human physiology needstotal reinvention. The reduc-tionist ideas of milieu interi-or, where the internal envi-ronment of the human body ismaintained by keeping all the

parameters of the knownbody systems under control,looks childish with the pre-

sent knowledge. What we for-get is that this human system,which has developed from

consciousness to begin with,is a living system as an inte-gral part of nature with the

built-in capacity to correctmost, if not all, changes thatthe system is heir to. It has gotsuch sophisticated technolo-gy that can shred proteins in-to small parts and reconvertthem into new proteins oreven, if needed, destroy theprotein itself. When we teachphysiology in medical school,we never stress the inherentcapacity of the human body tocorrect itself without outsidehelp. It is only in an unlikelyevent that an outside help(doctor) gets to help the sys-tem.

Unfortunately, the mindsetthat the student develops inthe present culture is that “ev-ery ill has to have a pill or sur-gical manipulation to putthings back into shape”. Thisis the bane of modern western

medicine.The truth, however, is that

“while there is no pill for ev-

ery ill, there is an ill followingevery pill”, as the latter is aforeign invader in the holisticsystem that is built to mend it-self in need.

This brings to mind the per-maculture of ancient Indialong before the British taughtus their bad agricultural hab-its that would deplete theearth of all its nutritive valuein some decades. We need tohave this permaculture styleof management in humanphysiology that will preservethe body’s own immunesystem.

Living world model

Eastern philosophies, Indi-an Ayurveda and yoga sys-tems are built to fit into thisliving world model proposedby evolutionary biologists

even in the West these days.The students’ mindset shouldbe moulded in such a way that

human physiology is a self-correcting system that doesnot tolerate outside interven-tions in minor illness syn-dromes. With this change inthe mindset, the curse of ad-verse drug reactions (ADR)and iatrogenic diseases couldbe reduced.

Today, the equivalent num-ber of the seating capacity of four Boeing 747s are dying ev-ery week due to ADR and ia-trogenic problems in the U.S.alone. Viewed through thiswholeness looking glass, can-cer does not become a dis-ease. It is the body’s own cellthat got mutated to survive ahostile environment createdby the present lifestyle andthe greed of man to exploitnature to make money. Re-ductionist ideas of killing can-

cer cells using chemical poi-sons looks equally foolish.

[email protected]

While there is no pill for every ill, there is an ill following every pillB.M. HEGDE

W hen it comes to seniorcitizens, the crew of

Bangalore MetropolitanTransport Corporation busesfollow a policy: “The conduc-

tor is always right.”The younger drivers think

senior citizens are always in ahurry. Hence, they apply adifferential accelerator tech-nique the moment a seniorcitizen sets foot on the foot-board. And lo, the bus picksup such speed that the oldman or woman is tossedaround. On board, the elderlyare made to walk as if on atreadmill. The conductor, asusual, will be busy issuingtickets, oblivious to the trou-bles faced by the old people.

Fortunately, one day theconductor was standing rightat the door, and as a perfecthost, extended a warm wel-come to a frail elder. He notonly held the hand of the 80-plus man firmly but also es-corted him to a nearby seat.But the problem started themoment the conductor asked

the senior to show his identi-ty card. The senior was notcarrying one. After all, whichis the one? The one issued bythe bus company, the IncomeTax Department or the PoliceDepartment or whatever, be-cause each conductor has hisown rule of acceptance,though the cards are issuedby one State department orthe other?

Rules for whom?

The Good Samaritan of alittle while ago flew into suchrage that our old friend waslooking at his old self as if hewas being spanked by ateacher in primary school.When I intervened to tell theconductor that after all, rules

are made for the people andnot otherwise and that hehimself had assisted the se-nior to board and sit on thebus, pat came the reply: “Rule

is rule. If the squad comesand detects, who will pay thefine?” To cut the long storyshort, I think the old manpaid the normal fare andbought his peace.

I do not know why theseats reserved for seniors aresought after by everyone,particularly young Romeos.Is it because it is at a hoppingdistance from the door or be-cause it is right behind the la-dies’ seats? If it is already oc-cupied by a young man, asenior who enters the bus hasto deploy all the strategies hehad learnt in his heyday. Henot only studies the body lan-guage of the young man, es-pecially the sleeping pose,musculature and looks, but

also the location of the con-ductor, supposed to be theman of the last resort.

But luck was not always onmy side. Once the bus I

boarded had the seats meantfor seniors unmarked. Thebus was full and young menwere occupying those seats. Iinvoked the mercy of theconductor, who was veryphilosophical in saying:“Look for your senior seatsomewhere and occupy it.”

Unwritten code

The crew have a certainunwritten code of conductfor senior citizens. First, be-ing a concessional commu-ter, they should always carrysmall change. Otherwise, itwould invite the wrath of theconductor, who will spoil themood of the driver, who, inturn, will spoil the mood of the passengers by using his

accelerator and brake testilyon bumpy stretches, which isplenty in Bangalore.

Secondly, never make aconductor an ally in fightingwith young men occupying aseniors’ seat, because the

conductor will always be bu-sy. Sometimes, the conductorand the driver may be dis-cussing something serious,such as how to make the busoperations profitable, andmay not like to be disturbed.

Thirdly, never question thewisdom of a conductor in de-ciding which identity card isacceptable to him to ascer-tain senior citizenship, evenif you happen to be the issu-ing authority of such ID cardstill the previous day. For, theconductor is always right.

Fourthly, while buying theticket, be careful to use ahigh-pitch tone against thesound of the hoarse bus en-gine to say you are a senior ci-tizen first and then the desti-nation, lest you invite thewrath of the conductor forhis having cut the ticket forthe normal fare. He will give

you a stern admonition fornot having mentioned yourstatus first.

Sometimes there are goodconductors, notably women,who at least say, “ Ejamanarekooth kolli (sir, please sitdown),” and issue a ticket af-ter ascertaining the availabil-ity of the identity card, smallchange and so on. This tribeis rare. God bless them.

In the evening of senior ci-tizens’ life, our buses offer avariety of experiences wor-thy enough to relate to ourgrandchildren.

After all, variety is thespice of life. Long live con-ductors and drivers.

[email protected]

Seniors, the conductor is always rightSUNDARAM S ADAGOPAN

Of late, names of more and more

roads are beingchanged. Aurang-zeb Road in Delhibecoming Dr. A .P.J.Abdul Kalam Roadis one instance.More such changesare on the anvil,something that hasmore to do with thepresent mindset thanhistory.

The change of nameshas widened the rift be-tween the government andthe Opposition, with oneside talking of why thechange is required and theother why it is not.

I feel that the governmentand the Opposition shouldnot be at loggerheads, atleast on account of this issue,as I have a solution to thisvexatious problem.

Let me give you a simpleexample.

If a road is named, say, af-ter A, the road humps can benamed after B and the pot-holes after C. That way, noone is left behind. In case of multiple humps, they can benamed B Hump 1, B Hump 2,and so on. There is no dearthof humps and they will onlygrow in size and number,keeping the person happyfor a long time. So is the casewith potholes.

Giving directions will be-come easy. Please take ARoad, jump over B Hump 4,take the left turn into X Roadand the shop opposite C pot-hole 7 is your destination.

Knowing what we Indiansare capable of fighting over, I

am sure this will stoke thefire further. Many names arebound to be left out. I thinkthere is a simple solution forthat too.

I suggest that we startnaming the dustbins afterwhoever feels left out. Allone has to do is to apply tothe local municipality. Of course, the decision shall betaken after due deliberationsin the Lok Sabha. And wehave a dual benefit here. If there are more names com-ing up, the government isforced to add more dustbins.While the naming problemsare solved, roadsides getmore dustbins.

If naming the dustbins are

demeaning to the stature of the person, entire garbage

dumps can be named af-ter the person. With

the garbage volumesgrowing by the day,the splendour of thename shall remainfor years to come.In fact, they canstake claim to thefame of the dumps

being visible fromspace when they catch

fire.In a television pro-

gramme, one of the panel-lists suggested that each sideof a road can be named dif-ferently so that both sidesare happy. You go by a roadwith one name and comeback by the same road with adifferent name. It is a shamethat no one thought of thiseven after 68 years of Inde-pendence. We have to takethis brilliant idea further.

No abbreviationsRecently, during a name-

changing ceremony (soonthere could be a ministry forthat), a Chief Minister insist-ed that the changed nameshould not be abbreviated.

Along with the names,there should be a narration,right below the name board,explaining why that placedeserved to be named afterthat person. Let us hope thegovernment does not forgetto include the criminal cases,the scam amounts (nearestto hundred crores shoulddo) and the deeds of the nearand dear ones of thosememorialised.

[email protected]

GOVINDA R AJANP.

A naming convention thatleaves no stone unturned

Honoraryaunts anduncles

R EKHA R. A CHYUTUNI

“Hello, aunty,” said theyoung woman, with a

smile. We encountered her as wetook a walk around theneighbourhood — my motherand I.

“Hello, aunty,” seems to bethe Indian way of greetingsomeone that means “Hi, I don’tknow what else to call you.”

There is a certain blurring of boundaries that happens withthis generic use of the wordsaunty and uncle. My mother andI have been instantlytransformed into twins.

Who is the aunty here? Theyoung woman in question couldperhaps just say, “Hello, aunty,and hello, grand aunty!”

Role reversal

When I left India, everybodywas aunty or uncle to me, andwhen I came back after a decadeand a half, I find college girls andworking women calling me

aunty.I have been elevated in

status, of course, and I feel wisein years and experiencecompared with my former self,but the first time a twenty-something (who looked andsounded authoritative enough tobe my aunt) said, “Can youmove, aunty?”

I looked around to be sure shewas addressing me. She wasaddressing me, this person that I

just met, this dear niece of fiveminutes.

An age range

I have many nieces andnephews — they are all thoseassorted kids from the age of two (presumably when theystart saying words like aunty) to32.

I run into them anywhere andeverywhere, and they are myfamily, for the few brief

moments that they speak to me.Every relative, and every

stranger, is called either an uncleor an aunty. My daughter speaksof these mysterious “Vanenkles”that seem to show up withsurprising regularity at herpre-school. It turns out that theyare the van drivers who come topick up the kids – or the “VanUncles”.

A certain freedom

Being a kid, of course, givesyou a certain freedom. You couldsay the words uncle and auntyto just about anybody who isover five feet tall. It reminds meof the time when we were sittingin this nice restaurant, only to beinterrupted by my child shrieking“Uncle”.

We looked all around andfinally understood whom shewas calling — the waiter.

rekharachyutuni

@ gmail.com

ILLUSTRATION:

SREEJITH R. KUMAR



CMYK

ND-ND

18 | THE HINDU TUESDAY,MAY24,2016

NOIDA/DELHI

SPORT

Bhagavata Purana shows us the path to reach the feet of theSupreme One, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. But why is itcalled ‘Bhagavata’? It is a work that is for Bhagavatas,

devotees of the Lord, and hence the name. Anotherinterpretation is that it is a work that speaks of the SupremeOne — Bhagavan — and so belongs to Him.

But what does Bhagavan mean? The following attributesare called bhoga: wealth, dharma, fame, Lakshmi, jnana andvairagya. He who has all these six attributes is Bhagavan.Vishnu Purana says that Bhagavan refers to Lord Narayana. Itargues that He who possesses these six qualities, and bywhom all lives are sustained, is called Bhagavan. VishnuPurana further says that these six qualities belong to Vishnuand so He is Bhagavan.

Vishnu Purana gives yet another meaning for the wordBhagavan. He who does the following is Bhagavan: creatingof lives; determining where jivas should be born according tokarma; and determining when they should depart from thisworld. He should also be One who knows about vidya(intelligence) and avidya (ignorance). One who performs allthese acts and also has knowledge of vidya and avidya isBhagavan. The Bhagavata Purana also lists these reasons tocome to a conclusion about who Bhagavan is.

There is a third meaning for the word Bhagavan. He whohas jnana (knowledge), sakti (power), aiswarya (wealth),bala (strength), veerya (courage) and tejas (effulgence) isBhagavan. Bhagavata Purana says that the word Bhagavanmeans Lord Vishnu and if studied, this Purana will help usreach His feet. The Bhagavata Purana has been translated

into many languages.

The title

FAITH

A mind game and a

puzzle that you solve

with reasoning and

logic. Fill in the grid with

digits in such a manner

that every row, every

column and every 3x3

box accommodates the

digits 1 to 9, without

repeating any. The

solution to yesterday’s

puzzle is at left.

SU | DO | KU

VARIETY

Across

1 Mammal's diseased organfound inside rolled-overtimber (8)

5 Mascara, black, helps toconceal a beetle (6)

9 Crushes in the large ring forthe Utah game (8)

10 Slips on the auditor's metalspikes (6)

11 Ben's lace Ganesh untied to

12 I ask for a bun to be cookedin the country (7,4)

13 In a ski, Arun gets disturbedby some people from Kiev(10)

15 Unlimited ridicule attached to

a former South Africanprovince before birth (9)18 Computer programs using

leading algorithms toreplace superior ship officers(7)

19 Strategy to hold party inretreat with a mammal (7)

21 Relative in French city on theradio (5)

22 Large vase abandoned invoyage with the younganimal (4)

grain? It is a question of location (5)

20 Amorphous nylon larcenistput straight (14)

23 Part of a flower found inletters from Murugan, the

runner (6)24 Jamaican friend returns withnumber from the east forAmerican pepper (8)

25 Paddle display (6)26 Lexical ambiguity in 25 Ac.

and 2 Dn. (8)

Down

1 Turn up to hit a ball hard for atie (4)

2 Nick's in a narrow pass (5)3 City in a legendary island is

overrun by the Arabianleader (7)

4 Airplane passengers mightprefer these to remainunused (6,5)

6 Poet Geoffrey ingests drink(not this French recipe) in animpressive country house(7)

7 I have a note on the Britishpower cord on top that'sself-referent (9)

8 One treasured by shopowners? (4,6)

1 2 3

4 5 6 7

8

9 10

11

12

13

14 15

16

17 18 19

20 21

22

23

24

25

26

S A S E A A

S T A N D S I N M A R K E T

O T H O M T R

O C E A N O L O G Y I C O N

K R R K F L

S C O T E X P L I C I T

B T R U C T

P E L I C A N S T R I P E D

A C R O A S

D U T C H C A P B U L L

T I T L H C

B E A R L A I D E Y E S O N

O C O O A A V

M U S L I N N O T A R I E SS E G S T R

Neyartha

Solution to puzzle 11707

show inconstancy (14)

14 Mammal found with a knightat the wrong place in a treeby the French (5)

16 Disguised manipulators notmissed by the animal in apouch (9)

17 Italian starters with winespread around North

America carries a clue (9)19 About to get rid of Austrian

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11708

PARIS: Stan Wawrinka avoidedbecoming the first defendingchampion to lose in the firstround at the French Open when

he battled past combative LukasRosol in five tough sets onMonday.

Third seed Wawrinka fired56 winners but committed 46unforced errors and saved eightbreak points to book a secondround clash against Japan’s Ta-ro Daniel.

Wawrinka, 31, had defeated59th-ranked Rosol in the semifi-nals of the Geneva clay-courttournament just last Friday.

But Rosol went into thematch on a chilly Court Phi-lippe Chatrier with the pedigreeof having famously stunned Ra-fael Nadal at Wimbledon in2012.

That free-swinging master-class almost paid dividendsagain on Monday but once hehad let slip two break points at2-2 in the fourth set, his hopesslowly slipped away.

Meanwhile, Japan’s fifth seedKei Nishikori reached the sec-

ond round

with a 6-1, 7-5,6-3 win overSimone Bolel-li of Italy.

Nishikorigoes on toface Russia’s

Andrey Kuznetsov after finish-ing off a first-round tie whichhad been suspended overnightwith him leading 2-1 in the thirdset. It was a 50th career GrandSlam match win for Nishikoriwho made the quarterfinals inParis in 2015.

Raonic advances

Canadian eighth seed MilosRaonic, a 2014 quarterfinalist,defeated Serbia’s Janko Tipsa-revic 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(5). Tipsarevic,ranked at 686, was playing hisfirst Roland Garros since 2013after being treated for a benigntumour on his left foot.

Women’s fourth seed Gar-bine Muguruza also struggled

on Court Suzanne Lenglen,coming back from a set down todefeat Slovakia’s Anna KarolinaSchmiedlova 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Muguruza, who has made thequarterfinals for the last twoyears, will take on French wild-card Myrtille Georges, theWorld No. 203, for a place in thelast 32.

But the 22-year-old Wimble-don runner-up was far from im-pressive in the two-and-a-half hour encounter.

After dropping the first set,Muguruza had to save ninebreak points just in the openinggame of the second set.

She then allowed her 37th-ranked opponent, who has wonjust one match all year, to clawher way back from 0-4 down to3-4 in the decider before theSpaniard settled herself to seeout the win.

Muguruza fired 44 winnersbut hit 53 unforced errors andhad to save 17 of 21 break points.

Play started two-and-a-half hours late because of more rainwith 12 of the 66 scheduledmatches pushed back toTuesday.

Many firsts

However, there was plenty of time for notable firsts.

Qualifier Cagla Buyukakcaybeat Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-2 to be-come the first Turkish womanin the Open era to reach the sec-

ond round of a Grand Slam.The 26-year-old Buyukakcay,

ranked at 83, had earlier thisclay-court season become thefirst Turk to win a WTA titlewhen she triumphed in Istan-bul. Japan’s Naomi Osaka wonher first match at Roland Garros

with a 6-4, 7-5 triumph over Lat-vian 32nd seed Jelena Ostapen-ko. Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetso-

va, the 2009 champion, won herresumed match against Yaros-lava Shvedova of Kazakhstan4-6, 6-1, 6-4. There was also awin Monday for Croatia’s Mir-jana Lucic Baroni who firstplayed the main draw in Paris in1999.

The 34-year-old knocked out33-year-old Daniela Hantucho-va of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2. — AFP

Wawrinka escapeshistoric blowMuguruza struggles into second round; Buyukakcaybecomes Turkish delight

FIGHTING BACK: Stan Wawrinka survived a scare against LukasRosol in the men’s first round at Roland Garros on Monday.— PHOTO: AFP

MADRID: Jordi Alba and Ney-mar struck in extra-time asBarcelona completed a leagueand Cup double by lifting theCopa del Rey for a 28th timeafter a 2-0 win over Sevilla in afiery game that saw three redcards on Sunday.

Javier Mascherano’s dis-

missal just before half-timefor pulling down Kevin Ga-meiro put Barca on the backfoot and it was further deplet-ed when 59-goal top scorerLuis Suarez limped off early inthe second period.

However, they resisted Se-villa’s pressure after the breakand Barca’s numerical disad-vantage was cancelled out instoppage time when Ever Ba-nega saw red for choppingdown Neymar.

Barca dominated the extra30 minutes, but needed justsix to finally make the break-through when Lionel Messi’ssumptuous pass picked outAlba to volley into the farcorner.

Neymar then slotted homea second in the dying secondsfrom another brilliant Messiassist after Daniel Carrico hadalso been dismissed for twobookable offences.

“It was a great intense and

exciting final,” said Barcelonacaptain Andres Iniesta.

“It was a last push for theclub to complete a magnifi-cent season.”

“The team has known howto compete marvellously de-spite the difficulties we have

faced this season.”And Sevilla coach Unai Em-

ery believes his side’s exer-tions in midweek robbedthem of the energy needed tomake their numerical advan-tage count.

“We lacked freshness. If wehad have been fresher wewould have been able to cre-

ate more chances,” saidEmery.

The game appeared toswing Sevilla’s way nine min-utes before half-time whenMascherano hauled down Ga-meiro just outside the box ashe bore down on goal.

Banega nearly doubled Bar-ca’s punishment as his sweetstrike from the resulting free-kick was brilliantly tippedover the bar by Marc-Andreter Stegen.

Sevilla roared back from agoal down at the break to out-class Liverpool in midweekand started the second-half

with intent once more as Ba-nega’s low drive came back off the post.

Barca was then dealt anoth-er huge blow just before thehour mark when Suarezpulled up with a muscle injurybefore leaving the field in

tears with his chances of rep-resenting Uruguay at the Co-pa America next month nowin jeopardy.

Sevilla was camped in theBarca half for much of the sec-ond half, but struggled to cre-ate clear-cut chances.

Grzegorz Krychowiak saw

a deflected effort flash justwide, whilst Vicente Iborra’sappeals for a penalty after heclashed with Dani Alves werewaived away.

Parity was restored in num-bers on each side in stoppagetime when Banega saw red fortripping Neymar on the edgeof the area, but Sergio Ricotipped over Messi’s resultingfree-kick to take the game intoextra-time.

However, the Spanish in-ternational was left flat-foot-ed when Alba latched ontoMessi’s ball over the top sixminutes into extra-time andvolleyed across goal into thefar corner.

Rico kept Sevilla in thegame with brilliant saves fromPique and Sergio Busquets,whilst Dani Alves also hit thepost from distance as Barcathreatened a second.

Sevilla’s hopes of an equal-iser ended when Daniel Carri-

co was also sent-off for a sec-ond bookable offence.

And Messi promptly teedup Neymar to round off Bar-ca’s fourth Cup triumph ineight years in stoppage time.

The result: Barcelona 2 (Alba 96,Neymar 120+2) bt Sevilla 0. — AFP

BREAKTHROUGH:Barcelona celebrates the opening goal of theCopa del Rey final. — PHOTO: AP

FOOTBALL

Barcelona edges out Sevillain bad-tempered final

SHARM EL SHEIKH (EGYPT): A profes-sional title continued to eludeher grasp as Sri Vaishnavi wasbeaten 7-6(5), 6-4 by Theo Gra-vouil of France in the final of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennistournament here on Sunday.

In fact, in the first set bothplayers did not drop serve, andTheo recovered from 2-4 in thetie-break to clinch it.

In the second set, Theo con-verted two of eight breakpointsto press home the advantage.

The results:$10,000 ITF women, Sharm El

Sheikh, Egypt: Singles (final): TheoGravouil (Fra) bt Sri Vaishnavi PeddiReddy 7-6(5), 6-4.

$25,000 ITF men, Andijan, Uzbe-kistan: Qualifying singles (first

round): Shahbaaz Khan bt Odil Akra-mov (Uzb) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5). — SportsBureau

Sri Vaishnaviloses final

RABAT: Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayanacame close to breaking Tiru-nesh Dibaba’s 5000m Worldrecord and world best times of the year were set as Moroccohosted its first DiamondLeague meeting here on awindy Sunday.

Also, seven-time Worldchampion American LaShawnMerritt never looked in anydanger as he tore round thetrack in 44.66sec in the 400m.

But in the very last race of the inaugural night, World5000m champion Ayanablamed the wind after shecame over five seconds short of Dibaba’s 2008 record of 14min11.15sec set in Oslo with a pacesetter.

Despite blazing to victory in14min 16.31sec ahead of Kenya’sViola Kibiwot, who was some13 seconds adrift with anotherEthiopian Senbere Teferi inthird, Ayana was clearly

disappointed.The results: Men: 200m: 1. Alon-

so Edward (Pan) 20.07, 2. Hua Wilf-ried Koffi (Civ) 20.35, 3. Bruno Horte-lano (Esp) 20.36; 400m: 1. LaShawnMerritt (USA) 44.66, 2. Kevin Borle(Bel) 45.26, 3. Isaac Makwala (Bot)45.38; 800m: 1. Pierre-AmbroiseBosse (Fra) 1:44.51, 2. Taoufik Mak-hloufi (Alg) 1:44.91, 3. Amel Tuka (Bih)1:45.41; 1500m: 1. Timothy Cheruiyot(Ken) 3:33.61, 2. Silas Kiplagat (Ken)3:33.68, 3. Ryan Gregson (Aus)

3:34.43.3000m: 1. Abdalaati Iguider (Mar)

7:36.85 MPM, 2. Hayle Ibrahimov(Aze) 7:37.76, 3. Adel Mechaal (Esp)7:39.51; 110m hurdles: 1. David Ol-iver (USA) 13.12, 2. Orlando Ortega(Cub) 13.13, 3. Antonio Alkana (Rsa)13.28; 3000m steeplechase: 1. Con-seslus Kipruto (Ken) 8:02.77 MPM, 2.Jairus Kipchoge (Ken) 8:03.90, 3. PaulKipsiele Koech (Ken) 8:12.33; High jump: 1. Bohdan Bondarenko (Ukr)2.31m, 2. Erik Kynard (USA) 2.28, 3.Edgar Rivera (Mex) 2.25; Long jump:

1. Rushwal Samaai (Rsa) 8.38m, 2.Fabrice Lapierre (Aus) 8.36, 3. Mar-quise Goodwin (USA) 8.11; Discus: 1.Piotr Malachowski (Pol) 67.45m, 2.Robert Urbanek (Pol) 65.04, 3. Zoltan

Kovago (Hun) 64.42.Women: 100m (wind: -1.3 m/

sec): 1. Elaine Thompson (Jam) 11.02,2. Blessing Okagbare (Ngr) 11.11, 3.Kerron Stewart (Jam) 11.19; 800m: 1.

Caster Semenya (Rsa) 1:56.64, 2.Francine Niyonsaba (Bdi) 1:57.74, 3.Renelle Lamote (Fra) 1:58.84;5000m: 1. Almaz Ayana (Eth)14:16.31m, 2. Viola Jelagat Kibiwot(Ken) 14:29.50, 3. Senbere Teferi(Eth) 14:35.09.

400m hurdles: 1. Janieve Russell(Jam) 54.16, 2. Cassandra Tate (USA)54.69, 3. Wenda Theron Nel (Rsa)54.88; 3000m steeplechase: 1. Ete-nesh Diro (Eth) 9:16.87, 2. Gladys Je-rotich Kipkemoi (Ken) 9:26.36, 3. Car-

oline Chepkurui Tuigong (Ken)9:28.81; Triple jump: 1. Caterine Ibar-gyen (Col) 14.51m, 2. Paraskevi Pa-pahrpstou (Gre) 14.28, 3. Patricia Ma-mona (Por) 14.13; Pole vault: 1.Ekaterpni Stefanpdi (Gre) 4.75m, 2.Nicole Bychler (Sui) 4.70, 3. YarisleySilva (Cub) 4.50; Shot put: 1. ValerieAdams (Nzl) 19.68m, 2. Anita Marton(Hun) 18.51, 3. Brittany Smith (USA)17.84; Javelin: 1. Madara Palameika(Lat) 64.76m, 2. Liina Laasma (Est)63.65, 3. Kathryn Mitchell (Aus)60.68. — AFP

ATHLETICS

Ayana comes close to breaking Dibaba’s record

SOARING HIGH: USA's David Oliver won the men’s 110m hurdles atthe Morocco Diamond League. — PHOTO: AFP

MUNICH:Gurpreet Singh shot 573and placed 26th in men’s rapidfire pistol event in the shootingWorld Cup here on Monday.

Harpreet Singh finished 36thwith a total of 568, in a field of 58shooters. Akshay Suhas Ashta-putre was below par and placed52nd with a score of 545.

In men’s 50-metre rifleprone, Chain Singh shot 624.3for 29th place.

In women’s rifle 3-positionevent, Lajja Gauswami (576)and Anjum Moudgil (574) madethe cut through the eliminationstage in an overall field of 115shooters.

The results:Men: 50m rifle prone: 1. Torben

Grimmel (Den) 210.6 (632.0); 2. HenriJunghaenel (Ger) 209.6 (628.8); 3.Matthew Emmons (US) 187.2 (631.8);29. Chain Singh 624.3; 52. Gagan Na-rang 620.6. — Sports Bureau

Indian shooters below their best

MANCHESTER: Louis van Gaal hasbeen sacked as manager of Manchester United, with for-mer Chelsea boss Jose Mourin-ho set to be named as his re-placement, according to BBC.

van Gaal, 64, leaves after twoyears of a three-year contractand is currently discussing sev-erance terms.

The former Netherlandsboss is believed to earn around£6.4m a year. Mourinho’s ap-pointment is expected to beconfirmed after he meets withsenior United officials on Tues-

day. — Agencies

van Gaal sacked

First round

Men: 16-Gilles Simon (Fra) bt Ro-gerio Dutra Silva (Bra) 7-6(5), 6-4, 6-2;30-Jeremy Chardy (Fra) bt LeonardoMayer (Arg) 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2; 8-MilosRaonic (Can) bt Janko Tipsarevic (Ser)6-3, 6-2, 7-6(5); 23-Jack Sock (USA) btRobin Haase (Ned) 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-7(3), 6-2; 22-Viktor Troicki (Ser) bt Gri-gor Dimitrov (Bul) 2-6, 6-3, 5-7, 7-5,6-3; Taro Daniel (Jpn) bt Martin Klizan(Svk) 3-6, 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, 3-0 (retired);Adam Pavlasek (Cze) bt Roberto Car-balles (Esp) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 1-6, 6-1;Adrian Mannarino (Fra) bt Mikhail Ku-kushkin (Kaz) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4; Jor-dan Thompson (Aus) bt Laslo Djere(Ser) 6-3, 6-4, 7-5; Dusan Lajovic (Ser)bt Denis Kudla (USA) 6-4, 6-3, 6-3;Dustin Brown (Ger) bt Dudi Sela (Isr)6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4; FernandoVerdasco (Esp) bt 33-Steve Johnson(USA) 7-5, 6-4, 7-5; Ivan Dodig (Cro)bt Mikhail Youzhny (Rus) 6-4, 5-7, 7-5,2-6, 6-3; 27-Ivo Karlovic (Cro) bt Al-bert Montanes (Esp) 6-2, 7-6(7), 7-6(5); Guido Pella (Arg) bt DiegoSchwartzman (Arg) 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

3-Stan Wawrinka (Sui) bt LukasRosol (Cze) 4-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4;5-Kei Nishikori (Jpn) bt Simone Bolelli(Ita) 6-1, 7-5, 6-3.

Women: Johanna Larsson (Swe) btMagda Linette (Pol) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5; Zari-na Diyas (Kaz) bt Carina Witthoeft

(Ger) 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

2-Agnieszka Radwanska (Pol) btBojana Jovanovski (Ser) 6-0, 6-2; Car-oline Garcia (Fra) bt Lesia Tsurenko(Ukr) 6-3, 7-5; 6-Simona Halep (Rom)bt Nao Hibino (Jpn) 6-2, 6-0; HeatherWatson (GBr) bt Nicole Gibbs (USA)5-7, 6-2, 6-2; Kateryna Bondarenko(Ukr) bt 7-Roberta Vinci (Ita) 6-1, 6-3;Annika Beck (Ger) bt Maryna Zanev-ska (Ukr) 6-1, 6-2; Elena Vesnina (Rus)bt Madison Brengle (USA) 6-2, 6-3;Shelby Rogers (USA) bt 17-KarolinaPliskova (Cze) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3; TsvetanaPironkova (Bul) bt 16-Sara Errani (Ita)6-3, 6-2; Myrtille Georges (Fra) btChristina McHale (USA) 6-7(7), 6-0,6-3; Yanina Wickmayer (Bel) bt Alex-andra Dulgheru (Rom) 6-1, 6-3.

4-Garbine Muguruza (Esp) bt AnnaKarolina Schmiedlova (Slo) 3-6, 6-3,

6-3; Cagla Buyukakcay (Tur) bt Aliak-sandra Sasnovich (Blr) 5-7, 7-6(2),6-2; Mirjana Lucic Baroni (Cro) bt Da-niela Hantuchova (Slo) 6-1, 6-2; Svet-lana Kuznetsova (Rus) bt YaroslavaShvedova (Kaz) 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; NaomiOsaka (Jpn) bt 32-Jelena Ostapenko(Lat) 6-4, 7-5; Veronica Cepede (Par)bt Sabine Lisicki (Ger) 6-2, 6-2; 19-Sloane Stephens (USA) bt MargaritaGasparyan (Rus) 6-4, 6-3; 30-BarboraStrycova (Cze) bt Lucie Hradecka(Cze) 6-4, 7-5; Polona Hercog (Slo) btLourdes Dominguez (Esp) 6-4, 7-6(4).

THE RESULTS

GUWAHATI: Mohun Bagan willbe counting the damages of the Federation Cup triumphwhen it steps out againstTampines Rovers of Singa-pore in the pre-quarterfinalencounter of the AFC Cuphere at the Indira Gandhi Sta-dium on Tuesday.

The damages come in theform of injuries which will put

the host under pressure.The club will be missingthree of its key players – Hai-tian Sony Norde (he has gonehome for national duty) and

Japanese Katsumi Yusa inmidfield and Pritam Kotal in

defence through injuries.Mohun Bagan coach Sanjoy

Sen said: “We want to win thisgame and finish the season ina nice way.”

Long break

The coach was also refer-ring to the long break the teamwill have after this round.

If Bagan ensures its qualifi-cation, it will be playing thenext round in the new season.

Another midfielder, PronoyHalder, is also nursing an in-jured ankle.

“It is not possible to have allthe players after a long sea-son. We have to mentally ad-just to that and it will be a

good challenge for the playerswho will be replacing them,”Sen said.

Sen may not have the op-tion of selecting the best sidein the new season as a goodnumber of players moving tothe Indian Super League.

Bagan captain Jeje Lalpek-hlua, who has already scored20 goals, said the situationpresents added responsibilityfor him and others in the team.

“I am having the best seasonin my football career and hopeto keep up the belief the coachhas in me,” Jeje said.

Bagan had beaten Rovers inthe first round of qualifiers forthe AFC Champions League

early in January.“Rovers have improved

over the season and we expectthe match to be more compet-itive and challenging,” he said.

For the visitor, the additionof former Arsenal and Liver-pool player Jermaine Pennanthas changed the dynamics of the team.

“When we came here in Ja-nuary, it was our first compet-itive match of the season. It is

different now as we are mid-way through the season andwe have lot of games underour belt, so we hope to put upa better show,” Rovers coachV. Sundaram Moorthy said.

The match kicks off at 7 pm.

Depleted Bagan takes on confident Rovers A MITABHA D ASSHARMA



CMYK

ND-ND


NOIDA/DELHI

SPORT

PUNE: Sarvesh Biramane scored

a stinging 6-2, 6-1 win over sec-ond seeded Australian ArunVenkat Guruswamy while Sne-ha Ranade brought down theNo. 4 seed Tanaya Sah 6-1, 6-1 toenter the second round of theIcon group-Arun WakankarMemorial ATF Asian under-14series tennis tournament hereon Monday.

There were a couple of moreupset wins in the boy’s sectionwith the unseeded Rajeshkan-nan Subramani thrashing theNo. 5 seed Aashutosh Kulkarni6-0, 6-4 and Kanishk Pal, alsounseeded, scoring a 6-2,6-2 winover the No. 6 seed VandithMirulani Suresh 6-2, 6-2.

The results: Girls: 1st round: Ri-ya Uboveja bt Konika Sing Dhuli 6-1,6-1; Amulika Gottiparthy bt RhythmAswal 3-6, 6-2, 6-1; Bela Tamhankar btShatavisa Ghosh 6-0, 6-1; Sagrika Sonibt Mrunmai Bhagwat 6-3,6-1; SnehaRanade bt Tanaya Sah 6-1, 6-1; GargiPawar bt Renee Sharma 6-1, 6-2;Adithi Are bt Anupama Bagade 6-3,6-3; Hrudaya Shah bt Ishpreet Kaur6-3, 6-4.

Renne Singla bt Riddhi Kakartamu-di 6-1, 6-2; Mushrath Shaik bt PaavanliPaathak 7-5, 7-6(4); Mubashira Shaikbt Aditi Narayan 6-2, 6-3; Mallika Ma-rathe bt Fioni Shah 6-1, 6-1; AdithiVenkatkrishnan bt Angel Dsouza 6-1,6-0; 2-Saniya Masand bt Divija Godse6-7(4), 7-5, 6-2.

Boys: 1st round: Tim ThomasGauntlett (Hong Kong) bt LokadityaSiram 7-6(4), 6-0; Amrutajay Mohantybt Arya Mankar 6-0, 6-1; Parakram Ba-kiwala bt Aarav Sane (USA) 6-2, 6-2;Kanishk Pal bt Vandith Mirulani Sure-sh 6-2, 6-2; Rudra Kapoor bt YashAgarwal 6-0, 6-0; Rajeshkannan Sub-ramani bt Aashutosh Kulkarni 6-0,6-4; Sarvesh Biramane Arun VenkatGuruswamy (Aus ) 6-2, 6-1; Dev Patelbt Anshuman Sonawane 6-0, 6-1. —Special Correspondent

Sarvesh stuns No. 2 seed

MUMBAI: India’s ace cueist Pan-

kaj Advani created history inAbu Dhabi by clinching theAsian 6-Red snooker title.

Advani thus became the firstin the world to hold both worldand continental titles in 6-Redsnooker at the same time, ac-cording to information re-ceived here.

The double IBSF World 6-Red snooker championstamped his authority again inthe short format of the game,defeating top-seeded Malay-sian Keen Hoh Moh 7-5 onSunday night.

Advani kept his nerve in abattle of fluctuating fortunes.

With a confidence boosting6-1 semifinal victory againstcompatriot Aditya Mehta tobook his spot in the finals andcoming closer to winning hisfirst continental title, Advani

clearly walked to the table

with the utmost poise winningthe first frame 39-4.With a loss of the second

frame, 6-51 to the Malaysianwho scored a break of 51, Adva-ni won the third frame 40-14before losing the fourth frame,37-0.

The fifth and sixth frame be-longed solely to the 30-year-old Advani who cleared the ta-ble 41-7 and 44-8 respectively.

With the Indian ace leadingthe match 4-2 at the end of sixframes, Keen Hoh Moh foughtback by winning the seventhframe, 38-21 only to lose theeight frame 24-45 with Advanisecuring a 45 break.

By the ninth frame, thematch was extremely closewith Advani leading the Ma-laysian by a single frame andextended that lead to a differ-

ence of two frames by winning

the 10th frame, 45-36.The Malaysian narrowedthe lead by winning the 11thframe 38-15 before Advani wonthe next 53-24 to claim the title.

Commenting on his win, anecstatic Advani, who won hisfirst title of the year, said: “It’smy first individual Asiansnooker championship, so thefeeling is unreal.

“Having missed out on the15-Red Asian Snooker title lastmonth made this a mission forme to accomplish.

“Winning it the same year asmy world title in the 6-Redsends me over the moon,” hesaid.

Advani will now spearheadthe Indian challenge in theteam event with Aditya Mehta,Manan Chandra and KamalChawla. — PTI

ON A HIGH: Pankaj Advani became the first player in the world to hold both World andContinental titles in 6-Red snooker at the same time. — FILE PHOTO

Pankaj Advani wins Asian 6-Red snooker

CUE SPORT / Keeps his nerve in a battle of fluctuating fortunes

BENGALURU: Sushila Chanu willlead the Indian women’shockey team at the Four Na-tions Tournament in Darwin,Australia, from May 31 to June 4.

Chanu will captain the sidein the absence of Ritu Rani,while Deepika will be vice-captain as India takes onAustralia, New Zealand and Japan, as a final exercise in

fine-tuning ahead of the RioOlympics.Poonam Rani and Vanada-

na Kataria are part of thesquad, as are young playersNikki Pradhan and the 18-year-old Preeti Dubey.

“It is a huge honour to benamed captain,” Chanu said.“We have already faced Ja-pan and New Zealand earlier,at the Hawke’s Bay Cup.

“Our chief aim will be toperform well against Japanand Australia and analysetheir game at close quarters,since they are in our Pool atthe Olympics.”

The team:

Savita, Rajani Etimarpu, Deepika,Sunita Lakra, Nikki Pradhan, DeepGrace Ekka, Sushila Chanu Pukhram-bam (C), Hnialum Lal Ruat Feli, RaniRampal, Namita Toppo, Navjot Kaur,Monika, Preeti Dubey, Renuka Ya-dav, Poonam Rani, Vandana Katari-ya, Anuradha Devi Thockchom, andLilima Minz. — Principal

Correspondent

Sushila Chanu tolead Indian women’s teamJIANGSU (CHINA): Prashanth Tha-

rani had a dream debut at theVolkswagen Polo R Cup in Chi-na, winning one race and nar-rowly missing out on a podiumfinish owing to car failure in thesecond race at the Jiangsu Wan-track Circuit.

The Chennai racer made aone-off return to sprint racingthis weekend after getting alast-minute call from DreamRacing Team.

In race one, Tharani started

fourth and made up two posi-tions on the opening lap beforea brief period of safety car.

After racing resumed on lapfive, Tharani started attackingand made his move on lap sev-en, and held position to win by amargin of three seconds.

In race two, starting 11th, theIndian driver moved up toeighth by the second cornerand gained more position bythe sixth on the first lap.

After a safety car period of four laps, racing resumed fromlap six, and Tharani moved intothird by lap nine.

However on the last lap, hiscar lost drive and had to crawlto the pits and finish 12th. —Sports Bureau

Dream debutfor Tharani

HYDERABAD: At 19, she is the toastof the Indian badminton frater-nity. For, G. Ruthvika Shivaniclinched the crucial women’ssingles match against Thai-land’s Nitchaon Jindapol (21-18, 21-16) and helped Indiaclinch a second bronze in theUber Cup in Kunshan (China)last week.

“It could well be the definingmoment of my career. It was abig, big win given the circum-stances. And, I must thank Go-pi sir (chief National coach P.Gopi Chand) for the faith hehad in me,” said Shivani on ar-rival here on Monday.

In an interview withThe

Hindu, Shivani said she was abit tense before the start of thematch. “There was pressurebecause it was a crucial match.But once, I entered the court, I

just didn’t bother about my op-ponent’s ranking. Fortunately,my game fell in place, the

strokes landed in the rightplace. I just played my naturalgame freely,” said the tall shut-tler, who first learnt the nu-ances of the sport under PremSingh in Khammam.

Teammates’ reaction

The reaction of her team-mates was amazing: “Honestly,they were stunned. All of themwere cheering for me chanting‘fight, come on fight’. That wasa great motivation besides Go-pi sir’s pep talks,” said Shivani,who was playing her fourthmatch in this edition of the Ub-er Cup with two wins and aloss.

“These are the kind of winsthat give you a lot of confi-dence. For you tend to feel thatlittle bit more confident thenext time you play. I cannot becomplacent as I am in the proc-ess of learning,” Shivani said.

“I am now gunning to breakinto the top 40 in singles,” saidthe BPCL staffer.

Shivani said she had im-proved as a player after joiningthe Gopi Chand Academy four

years ago. “The kind of profes-sional training, with focus notjust on the game but also onother key areas like strength-building and stamina, is some-thing every badminton playerdreams of,” she said.

Shivani does not complainabout the lack of hype aroundher career despite winning thesenior National title last yearand the South Asian Gamessingles gold, defeating the for-midable P.V. Sindhu, early thisyear.

“I look at it this way. Onceyou score big wins which meritthe attention of the nation, au-tomatically you will get yourdue. So, this was not an issue at

all for me. I knew if I startedwinning big matches, I wouldbe talked about,” signed off Shivani, who is a huge fan of former National championAparna Popat.

Shivani — the toast of Indian badminton V.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

Ruthvika Shivani. —FILE PHOTO

Suryansh shines inTYCA’s win

NEW DELHI: Delhi under-19medium pacer SuryanshTyagi dismantled theopposition with an eight-wicket haul conceding just 17runs to help TYCA thrashThree Yes Academy by 151runs and enter the semifinalsof the all-India Jawahar LalNehru Memorial tournamentat the Nehru ground. Chasig189, TYA was dismissed forjust 37 runs for the

humiliating defeat.The scores: TYCA 188 in 32.2 overs(Sagar Gupta 40, Ankit Dabas 40,Pradeep Parashar five for 15) btTYA 37 in 11.2 overs (SuryanshTyagi eight for 17).

Sporting CC entersquarterfinalsAn unbeaten 138-runpartnership for the seventhwicket between Lalit Yadavand Shubham Dahiya sawSporting Cricket Clubadvance into the quarterfinalsof the all-India GoswamiGanesh Dutt Memorialcricket tournament with afour-wicket victory againstCentral Warehousing Corp.Electing to bat, CWC rodemainly on a 75-run knock toscore just 199 runs in thestipulated 40 overs. VisionPanchal was the pick of thebowlers for Sporting,snapping up four wickets forjust 38 runs.

In reply, Sporting appeared to

falter despite the modest total,losing their top four batsmenwith the score only on 17.Rahul Tyagi and ManishSehrawat steadied the ship toadd 44 runs before both weredismissed in quick successionto reduce the team to 62 forsix.However, Yadav and Sharmaensured no more wickets fellto steer Sporting into the lasteight with an over to spare,where it would face CollageGroup.The scores: CWC 199 for eight in

40 overs (Paras 75, Sakib Alam 35,Vision Panchal four for 38) lost toSporting CC 200 for six in 39 overs(Lalit Yadav 72 n.o., ShubhamDahiya 62, Ramesh Parsad three for21).

MRV Academyedges aheadMRV Academy beat AceAcademy by three wickets inlow-scoring game of the ACEunder-12 cricket tournamentat the Cambridge FoundationSchool ground, RajouriGarden.The scores: Ace Academy 120 in28.3 overs (Angad Singh 39,Sahahan Kumar two for 20, SahiKhan two for 26) lost to MRVAcademy 121 for seven in 20 overs(Akash Sharma 34 n.o., KrishnaDhingra two for 25, Angad Singhtwo for 25).

Rewant Academy inlast fourAn unbeaten 81-run knock by

Aditya Chaurdhary helped

Rewanta Academy beat RedRose Public School by sevenwickets and enter thesemifinals of the RL ChopraMemorial cricket tournament.The scores: RRPS 130 for six in 20overs (Lakshay Malawat 59, AakarKumar 31, Nikhil Tyagi two for 21)lost to Rewanta Academy 132 forthree in 17.2 overs (AdityaChaudhary 81 n.o., Arush Sharmathree for 11).

Yash scores ton

Yash Kumar scored anunbeaten century and

Shubham Sharma contributed46 runs as Airliner Academybeat Ganga InternationalSchool by eight wickets in theSwastik Cup crickettournament at Ghevra ground.The scores: GIS 178 for nine in 40overs (Mukul Bhardwaj 74, MawanKumar four for 30) lost to AirlinerAcademy 179 for two in 23 overs(Yash Kumar 101 n.o., ShubhamSharma 46 n.o.).

Punit posts win

Punit won the first roundmatch in the sixth NorthSchool Boys 6-Red snookertournament, coming backfrom a frame down to defeatMihir 2-41, 33-24, 30-13.In other matches of the Rs. 1lakh prize money tournament,Santosh Kumar beat Kartik29-9, 19-34, 30-1; Jayant Kumarbeat Gaurav Mehrotra 49-19,38-6; Anshul Gupta beatNitish Aneja 8-37, 35-7, 38-24and R.V. Duggal beat Shwain

41-18, 48-14.

DELHI ROUND-UP

WASHINGTON: Riding on 33 pointsfrom Kevin Durant and 30 fromRussell Westbrook, OklahomaCity Thunder humbled defend-ing NBA champion GoldenState Warriors 133-105 on Sun-day to seize the lead in the play-off series.

Thunder grabbed a 2-1 lead inthe best-of-seven WesternConference finals and capturedmomentum with the lopsidedblowout, making the fourthgame at Oklahoma City crucialfor both clubs.

Warriors, who set an NBA re-cord with 73 regular-seasonwins, has not lost two games inarow all season, but will have toquickly bounce back from anembarrassment. “WUsing ourbrains, making them compete,

moving the ball — we didn’t doany of those things and we gotwhat we deserved,” Warriorscoach Steve Kerr said.

Either Thunder, which haswon 10 best-of-seven series in arow when going up 2-1, or War-riors will face Eastern Confer-ence winner, Toronto Raptorsor Cleveland Cavaliers, in nextmonth’s NBA finals.

In addition to sparking thehighest-scoring performanceby any team in any NBA play-off game this year, Westbrookand Durant each added eightrebounds and blocked twoshots while Westbrook alsocontributed 12 assists.

“We’ve got a physical team,an athletic team and we tried touse that to the best of our abili-

ty,” Westbrook said. “Our guysdo a great job of putting in thework every day. My job is to putthe ball in their hands.”

Stephen Curry led Warriorswith 24 points and KlayThompson added 18, but Curryhit only 7-of-17 shots from thefloor, Thompson shot 8-of-19and Draymond Green was 1-of-9. Warriors were also out-re-bounded 52-38.

Green kicked Thunder bigman Steven Adams of NewZealand in the groin late in thesecond quarter and could face asuspension for game four.

The result:Western Conference finals: Ok-

lahoma City Thunder 133 bt GoldenState Warriors 105 (Oklahoma Cityleads series 2-1). — AFP

BASKETBALL

Durant and Russell help Thunder rout Warriors

Russell Westbrook.— PHOTO: AFP

GUWAHATI: Indian Nationalteam coach Stephen Constan-tine feels his side has its taskcut out when it meets Laos inthe two-leg qualifying play-off of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

India, currently ranked 162in the FIFA rankings, is in abetter position than its oppo-nent, which is ranked 176 inthe world. Constantine is notready to accept this as a pre-condition to rate his side asthe favourite ahead of thematch.

“The rankings do not countmuch in football. What kind of ranking would you have given

to Leicester City before thestart of the English PremierLeague? It is going to be a

tough match against Laos,”Constantine said, after the In-dian probables completed thefourth day of their condition-ing camp here on Monday.Constantine, who chose thevenue to have his boys prop-erly acclimatised to the condi-tions, sounded satisfied withthe training facilities.

The National teamwill startits campaign in the continen-tal competition playing Laosfirst at the latter’s home on

June 2. With a home-and-away format, India will haveits home match hereon June 7.

A win in the play-offs will

put India in the final qualifiersfor the Asian Cup. — PrincipalCorrespondent

FOOTBALL

India gearing upfor Laos challenge

KOLKATA: Future Hope Schoolpipped defending championSt. Lawrence School by abouttwo seconds in the first roundof the senior boys’ fours com-petition in the 44th K.C. Ma-hindra invitation schools re-gatta at the Rabindra Sarovaron the Lake Club campushere on Monday.

Future Hope clocked1:55.33, while St. Lawrencetimed 1:57.3.

Other results (first round):Senior: Boys: Jadavpur N.K. Pal

School (2:10.24) bt St. XaviersSchool (2:16.56).

Khalsa High School (2:10.98) bt

St. John High school (3:2.3).La Martiniere for Boys (1:53.30)bt St. Helen School (2:4.45).

Girls: La Martiniere for Girls(2:15.24) bt St. Thomas for Girls(3:11.44).

Junior: Boys: Future HopeSchool-B (2:7.29) bt Future HopeSchool-A (2:22.51).

M.P. Birla Foundation (2:15.1) btDhakuria Ram Chandra School(3:20.37).

Silver Point School-A (2:41.97) btDolna Day School (3:18.91).

Jatragachi Pranavananda Vidya-laya (2:40.46) bt St. James School(3:11.6).

Girls: Modern High School forGirls (2:34.1) bt St. Thomas GirlsSchool (3:47.17).

South Point High School

(2:35.49) bt Silver Point School(2:41.18) . — SpecialCorrespondent

SAILING

Future Hope stunsSt. Lawrence




NOIDA/DELHI

LIFE

Alia wraps up shoot of Gauri’s next

Alia Bhatt has concluded the shoot for GauriShinde’s still-to-be-titled film that also hassuperstar Shah Rukh Khan in the lead. The actor

took to Twitter to announce the wrap-up of the shoot,writing, “Aaahhhhh will miss miss miss

you it’s a wrap and how thank

youuuuuuuuu.” Gauri too posted aphoto with Alia Bhatt, saying “It’s aWRAP! With my fav girl @aliaa08will miss shooting with u doll#funtimes #girlsrock.”Not much is known about the movie,which started shooting in January

this year. It is being producedby SRK’s Red ChilliesEntertainment, KaranJohar’s DharmaProductions and Shinde’sHope Productions. Shinde,who made a promisingdirectorial debut with 2012movie English Vinglish,starring Sridevi, has saidthat the upcoming filmwould not have “typicalromance”. — PTI

Salman and Kabir Khan to team up

Superstar SalmanKhan and directorKabir Khan will come

together for a film and the

project is currently in thescripting stage. Kabir andSalman have earlierdelivered blockbusterslike Ek Tha Tiger andBajrangi Bhaijaan. It is thethird time that the two areteaming up for a film.“The film of Salman andKabir is a human drama...it’s an entertaining story.It’s a journey. It’s anoriginal story. The work on the script is on,” a sourcesaid. Names of several actors like Deepika Padukone,Katrina Kaif and others have been doing the roundsfor the female lead, but the makers are yet to make adecision.“The names that have come out in the media are notright. We will decide on the heroine soon,” the sourcesaid. Presently, Salman is busy with Sultan. AfterKabir’s film, he will start work on RajkumarSantoshi’s movie. The actor will also do a projectwith Sooraj Barjatya. — PTI

Mom talked Kim into Playboy shoot

R

eality TV star

KimKardashiansays her motherpersuaded her intoposing nude forPlayboy magazine.The 35-year-oldKeeping Up WithThe Kardashiansstar said she wasnow comfortableposing sans clothes,but was hesitantinitially, reportedFemalefirst .“Times havechanged since myfirst Playboy shoot.This sounds so bad

but I feel like my mom talked me into doing my firstPlayboy shoot, she really did. Now I’ve got morecomfortable,” Kim said. She also opened up about herworkout regime and weight loss post the birth of herkids and how she feels powerful now.“I think especially if you’re a mom. The power you feelwhen it takes you months (to lose the weight) and Iwake up every single day at 5:55 and work out for anhour before the kids gets up,” she said.

“It’s weird how your body changes for differentbabies. I wanna get to Kim 2010/11. I’m gonna focusand get there! I felt sexy again and I felt empowered,”she said. — PTI

Lil Wayne heading to reality TV

Rapper Lil Wayne is reportedly heading to realityTV with a new series about the artists signed tohis Young Money Entertainment record label.

The Lollipop hitmaker’s protégée, singer-modelStephanie Acevedo, said the show will be filmed atWayne’s mansion and follows the musicians as theybuild their careers. “It’s basically us coming togetheras artists, as a family. Wayne’s going to be ourmentor,” Acevedo said.It is not clear who else will feature onthe show, which is said to be airing onAmerica’s VH1 network. The premieredate is yet to be announced andWayne is yet to comment on thenews. The hip-hop star signedAcevedo to Young Money atthe start of 2015, joining thelikes of Nicki Minaj,Christina Milian, ChanelWest Coast and Shanell

on the label’s roster offemale artistes. — PTI

STAR TREK

CANNES: Two years ago the vet-eran British director KenLoach said he was ready tothrow in the towel. But onSunday, only weeks from his80th birthday, he won thePalme d’Or at the Cannes filmfestival.

It is the second time thatfiercely politically engagedfilmmaker has lifted the fes-tival’s top prize. “When youget very old you just getpleased to see the sun rise thenext day,” Loach told report-ers after winning.

I, Daniel Blake, his story of a carpenter injured at workand a young single motherstruggling with the absurdi-ties of the welfare system un-der Britain’s Conservativegovernment, brought tears tothe eyes of hard-bitten critics.It may also make the careers

of its two almost unknownstars, Hayley Squires andstand-up comedian Dave Johns.

“ I, Daniel Blake was madeto give voice to those whoneed it. The Palme d’Or is atriumph that makes that voiceextremely loud,” Squirestweeted after the news broke.While Loach won at Cannes adecade ago with The WindThat Shakes the Barley, a his-torical drama set during Ire-land’s war of independencefrom Britain, his new filmbrings him back to his kitch-en-sink roots.

Loach told reporters that hementioned retiring whenworking on his last film Jim-my's Hall “at a moment of maximum pressure when wehadn’t shot a foot of film andthe mountain in front of uswas quite high and I thought ‘Ican’t get through this again’.”

But he has since got his mo-

jo and his hunger back. Criticswere particularly taken by theway he showed the despera-tion of people caught in thebenefits maze, which seemsconstructed just to frustratethem. British critic PeterBradshaw of The Guardiantold AFP what moved himmost was a “scene in the foodbank when [Hayley Squires]just gulps into the can of baked beans. The expressionon her face, the sheer horror,the gut-wrenching realisationthat it has come to this...”

The world of work — or thelack of it — has long been a fa-vourite theme for the veterandirector, a stalwart of English

social realist cinema along-side directors Mike Leigh andStephen Frears. He memora-bly visited the subject in 1991with Riff-Raff , which ex-plored the lives of casualworkers in London. Bread &

Roses recounted a strike bycleaning staff at a Los Angeleshotel, and The Navigators(2001) followed five rail work-ers as their industry under-goes privatisation.

But Loach has always beenrealistic about the impact hisfilms can make. “I never saidto myself that my films couldchange things,” he told TheGuardian. “At best it can addits voice to public outrage.”

Loach’s roots are impecca-bly working class, growing upin Nuneaton, near Birming-ham, the son of an electricianand a dressmaker. He did mil-itary service with the RoyalAir Force before studying lawat Oxford, where he discov-ered the world of acting, di-recting and theatre.

Social conscience

Later at the BBC he beganto make television films al-ready marked by his left-wingpolitics.

In the tradition of social ob-servers such as Charles Dick-ens and Emile Zola, Loach be-lieves passionately thatcinema can be about “ordi-nary people and their dilem-mas” — as in his early Kes in1969, about a working-classboy caring for his pet falcon,

which won two BAFTAawards.Even Hollywood legend

Steven Spielberg — whoseown big-budget work lies atthe other end of the cinematicspectrum — admitted atCannes that he is a Loach fan,having been introduced to hiswork by the actor Daniel DayLewis who sat him down towatch Kes.

In his 19 appearances atCannes, Loach has also wonthree Jury Prizes for The An-

gels’ Share — another come-dy — in 2012, Raining Stonesin 1993, and Hidden Agendain 1990.

My Name is Joe won PeterMullan best actor at Cannesin 1998.

Loach’s political commit-ment saw him helping foundBritain’s Left Unity party in2013, which advocated stron-ger public services andwealth redistribution. — AFP

Loach’s Cannes triumph comes two years after he nearly quit

His film shows desperation of people struggling with U.K.’s welfare system

STANDING TALL: Ken Loach delivers a speech after he received thePalme d'Or for the film I, Daniel Blake at the 69th Cannes FilmFestival in France on Sunday. —PHOTO: AFP

Giant pastry to promote a good causeMaster pizza chefs and almost 100 collaborators made anempanada (a stuffed meat pastry) 80 metres long in Buenos Aireson Sunday to raise awareness about Down Syndrome.

Flying micro-robots can hitchhike on birdsHarvard scientists have developed flying micro-robots that canuse static electricity to perch on bats, birds or butterflies toconserve energy during long-duration flights.

12-year-old gets admission in two universitiesA 12-year-old Indian-American student has been accepted to twoUniversity of California campuses. He says he plans on studyingbiomedical engineering and becoming a doctor by the time he turns 18.

LONDON: Britain has a “lost gen-eration” with no gardeningskills, the Royal HorticulturalSociety warned on Monday,as its sprawling Chelsea Flow-er Show got under way withan inauguration by Queen Eli-zabeth II.

“The lost generation are theones from their mid-twentiesto forties,” RHS director-gen-eral Sue Biggs was quoted assaying in The Timesnewspaper.

“For a lot of them, their par-

ents just didn’t teach themgardening and we lost a lot of the skills,” Ms. Biggs said.

Fewer than one per cent of parents were taught garden-ing at school, compared with55 per cent of grandparentsand 40 per cent of children,according to a survey con-ducted by the RHS in 2011.

This year’s Chelsea FlowerShow in London features a“modern slavery garden” bythe show’s first black design-er, Juliet Sargeant, as well as agarden watered, lit and heatedwith a mobile phone app andan “acoustic garden”, whichplays musical notes tovisitors.

Tribute to war dead

A field of some 3,00,000knitted red poppies was alsounveiled as a tribute to Bri-tain’s war dead, along with in-

terlocking portraits of theQueen made using 10,000flowers in purples, pinks and

oranges. One of the most talk-ed-about gardens was the‘Harrods Eccentric BritishGarden’ that “puts on a per-formance with mechanicalbuzzings and whirrings, atower that erects, box ballsthat bob up and down andconical bay trees that begin totwirl,” the RHS said.

The RHS is using the Chel-sea Flower Show to promoteits ‘Greening Grey Britain’

campaign, warning that toomany gardens are being pavedover by Britons to make carparking spaces or patios forbarbecues.

The number of traditionalfront gardens that have novegetation has trebled in thepast decade to five million,the RHS observed.

“What happened to our na-tion of gardeners?” Ms. Biggsasked. — AFP

IN FULL BLOOM: A model shows off a gown of flowers at theChelsea Flower Show in London. — PHOTO: CHRIS JACKSON/GETTY IMAGES

U.K.’s top flower show bemoansa lost generation of gardeners

SANTA CRUZ (GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS): Asmall, energetic young wom-an named Africa Berdonces,who rides a beat-up bicycleand often wears flip-flops, hasbeen put in charge of manag-ing the Galápagos Islands,one of the world’s environ-mental treasures, by the gov-

Ms. Berdonces said in an in-terview. “I studied for this.I’ve been a national parkguide. I’m a dive master. I’mfrom a family in the tourismbusiness. I know the businessof the Galápagos from inside.”

Ms. Berdonces has a Mas-ter’s degree in environmentalstudies from James Cook Uni-versity in Australia. She is the

cludes nearly all the land areaof the volcanic island chainand thousands of squaremiles of the surroundingocean, is responsible for pro-tecting the park and nurtur-ing its distinctive plants andanimals. The park is home tosuch revered and threatenedspecies as the giant Galápa-gos tortoise, the flightless al-

cording to the GalápagosConservancy, an environ-mental organization in Fair-fax, Virginia. UNESCO tookthe islands off the endangeredlist in 2010, saying they weremaking progress, but tourismcontinued to grow; the Ecua-dorean government reportedthat 2,24,755 tourists landedon the islands in 2015.

marine reserve.” One prob-lem facing Ms. Berdonces isthe long-running tension overthe rising numbers of touristsvisiting the Galápagos andconcerns about the harm theymay do. The islands were des-ignated a UNESCO WorldHeritage site in 1979, and theU.N. agency declared in 2007that they were in danger, part-

lands and disturbing the eco-logical balance.

Limiting crowd

The government has alsoimposed a 36-room limit onnew hotels to limit crowds,and is bringing together themanagement of land and seaareas, which had been over-seen separately.

Galápagos and has been pub-lishing pictures of the islandsfor decades. “Which way itgoes,” Mr. De Roy said, “de-pends on human behaviour.”

As Ms. Berdonces takescharge, the Ecuadorean gov-ernment is taking steps to bet-ter protect the Galápagos. It isbanning fishing in the north-ern third of the island chain

Berdonces will be responsible for managing what is considered an environmental treasure trove of the world hosting rare species of plants and animals

Galapagos Islands get a new guardian as Ecuador moves to protect park

JOSEPHB. TREASTER

AfricaBerdonces(30)came

LOS ANGELES: From Walt Dis-ney’s hand-signed MickeyMouse doll to his animator’sdesk and chairs, a trove of the late animation entrepre-

neur’s memorabilia will goup for auction next monthand offers a glimpse into theorigins of the “mousehouse”.

The “Collecting Disney”auction, to be held by VanEaton Galleries on June 18 inLos Angeles, will offer morethan 700 lots from the Dis-ney archives, expected tofetch $2-3 million.

Among the items on sale,which are coming from thecollections of private own-ers, is one of the first dollsever made of the anthropo-morphic Mickey Mouse, onefoot signed by Disney andgiven as a gift to a woman,estimated to fetch between$50,000 and $70,000, saidgallery owner Mike VanEaton.

A doll with a dedication

“This particular doll wasgiven to woman that hedrove an ambulance with in1917 in World War One. Alifelong friend of his, he gaveher one of his most cher-ished possessions and hesigned it on the bottom inFrench dedicated to her,”Mr. Van Eaton said.

A set of furniture fromDisney’s office, designed byKem Weber, is estimated tofetch between $60,000 and$80,000, while an originalscore of the first ever songwritten about MickeyMouse is expected to fetchbetween $15,000 and$20,000.

Disney co-founded ananimation studio in 1923,which grew into a featurefilm production studio withfilms such as Snow Whiteand the Seven Dwarfs, Bam-bi and Cinderella. He died in1966 aged 65.

The Walt Disney Compa-ny is now one of Holly-wood’s top players, produc-ing live action and animatedfeature fare.

The auction is centred onthe history of the Disneystudio, Mr. Van Eaton said.The items will be exhibitedahead of the sale from May

25 through June 17 at the VanEaton Galleries.“It wasn’t the films that

made the studio so much, itwas the merchandise, themarketing of the charactersthat really made Disneywhat it is today and that’swhat we’re trying to show inthis auction,” Mr. Van Eatonsaid.

Early cartoons

Other highlights from thesale include early originaldrawings of the first twoMickey Mouse cartoons,1928’s Steamboat Willie and1929’s Plane Crazy, expect-ed to fetch upwards of $4,000.

A programme for the stu-dio’s first animated feature,1937’s Snow White, signedby Disney and more than 50staff members, is expectedto fetch upwards of $5,000,the gallery stated. — Reuters

Disney memorabiliaup for auction in June

WELL-LOVED: The iconic Mickeyand Minnie Mouse charactershave a special place in thehearts of Disney fansworldwide.—FILE PHOTO: AP

All the world’s a stage

NEW ACT: Bollywood actor Aamir Khan and British actor Ian McKellen at an event

organised by MAMI Film Club in Mumbai on Monday. Sir Ian is in India as part of a globalprogramme to mark Shakespeare’s 400th death anniversary. — PHOTO: RAJNEESH LONDHE

The Hindu by Shashi Thakur

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