· Making it clear that the Ayodhya issue would be one of the main campaign agenda in the Lok...

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M aking it clear that the Ayodhya issue would be one of the main campaign agenda in the Lok Sabha poll, BJP president Amit Shah on Friday said the party was com- mitted for a “Bhavya Mandir” and declared that the “2019 battle” between Narendra Modi and his “desperate opponents” would be a decisive one and with a massive impact on com- ing times. Addressing thou- sands of delegates attending the two-day National Council meet here, Shah asked party workers to ensure that Modi returns to power with full majority and continues the “nation building” without a break. The tag line of the Council was “Abki baar phir Modi Sarkar” and the meeting venue reverberated with a loud roar when Shah mentioned Ram Mandir in his speech. The meet was attended by almost all top party leaders, including Modi, LK Advani, MM Joshi, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, JP Nadda, Chief Ministers of BJP- ruled States, including UP’s Yogi Adityanath, and former Chief Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Raman Singh. Yogi was greeted with loud cheers by the BJP Council members when he arrived at the stage. The backdrop of the dais had Modi and Shah on the two sides along with Swami Vivekananda and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In his speech, Shah praised the leadership of Atal-Advani which established and con- tributed to the rise of the party at the national level, he said. Shah said the BJP is com- mitted for a “grand temple” at the disputed site in Ayodhya and it would be accomplished “at the earliest”. He accused the Congress of trying to delay the temple and gave reference of its leader Kapil Sibal, who, he said, sought that the SC’s hear- ing on the Ram temple issue be fixed after the Lok Sabha polls. Attaching huge signifi- cance to the result of 2019 gen- eral elections, Shah said it would be a battle between Modi, who has brought “glory” to India, and his desperate rivals having contrasting ide- ologies glued together with the sole “oust Modi” agenda. “Opposition parties know that alone they cannot defeat Modi,” he said. Interestingly, the BJP pres- ident while pointing to the sig- nificance of “2019 LS battle” made a reference to the third battle of Panipat between Afghan ruler Ahmad Shah Abdali and Marathas where the defeat of the latter led to “gula- mi” (slavery) for 200 years. “Lok Sabha polls are battle of two ideologies: BJP stands for cultural nationalism, poor, while rivals together merely for power,” said the BJP president. Shah also threw punches on the “one family rule” and its alleged rein of corruption. He said the Congress was leveling charges in the Rafale jet fight- er purchase as it was “frustrat- ed” that there was no blemish on Modi during his full tenure. The election result would impact the future of India, he claimed and went on to say that National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would come back to power with a thumping major- ity and in UP “the party would increase its tally from 71 to 74”. Shah said in last one week, the Modi Government took two major decisions of giving reservation to economically weaker sections in the general category and providing Goods and Services Tax (GST) relief. The Modi Government has “fulfilled” the dreams of crores of youths with 10 per cent reservation in jobs and educa- tion for the general category poor, Shah said and described the Constitution Amendment Bill as one of the most impor- tant Bills passed by Parliament. Shah hailed the GST Council’s decision to double the limit for exemption from pay- ment of GST to 40 lakh and announced that the higher turnover cap of 1.5 crore for availing composition scheme of paying 1 per cent tax will be effective from April 1. Modi would deliver the concluding session of the coun- cil on Saturday. I n a major blow to CBI Special Director Rakesh Asthana, the Delhi High Court on Friday ruled that he will be investi- gated in the ongoing bribery case and no prior sanction was required to prosecute him, implying he enjoys no protec- tion against a possible arrest. Justice Najmi Waziri said that the allegation of “mala fide” raised against then CBI Director Alok Verma has not been made out. Rejecting a clutch of peti- tions for quashing of the FIR filed against Asthana, CBI DSP Devender Kumar and alleged middleman Manoj Prasad, the HC set a 10-week deadline to complete the investigations in the case. The court held that per- mission for prior sanction to prosecute Asthana was not required considering the facts of the case. Asthana is likely to challenge the HC verdict before the Supreme Court. The HC gave its verdict while dismissing the petitions filed by Asthana, Kumar and Prasad challenging the FIR lodged against them. Asthana was booked on charges of criminal conspiracy, corruption and criminal mis- conduct under the relevant sections of Prevention of Corruption Act. Verma and Asthana were embroiled in bitter feud for sev- eral months and had levelled charges of corruption against each other. Both were divested of their power and sent on leave on the night of October 23. Continued on Page 4 W ith the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) all set to announce the composition of the Uttar Pradesh political alliance on Saturday, the Congress is ready with its plan to walk alone. AICC sources said the party chief Rahul Gandhi, after due consultation with the State unit leaders, is prepared to go it alone in the politically cru- cial State. Amid talks of seat sharing for Lok Sabha polls from which the Congress seems to be out, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati will address a joint Press meet at Lucknow on Saturday. The top leadership of both the parties had met in New Delhi last week to discuss broad parameters of an alliance to take on the BJP unitedly in the Lok Sabha elections. Sources said both the SP and the BSP are planning to contest on 37 seats each out of 80 in Uttar Pradesh and plan to leave just two, Rae Bareli and Amethi, the bastions of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, for the Congress. Smaller par- ties like the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the Nishad Party are also likely to be in the alliance. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elec- tions, the BJP and its allies had won 73 of the 80 seats in UP. Akhilesh and Mayawati decided to bury their hatchet and pool in their resources to contest three bypolls and won all raising their hopes that if they team up, they can pull vot- ers away from the BJP. The mahagathbandhan arithmetic had worked in the bypolls as a consolidation of OBC, Dalit and Muslim votes powered joint Opposition candidates to victory in Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana last year. A senior Congress leader said talk on a UP “mahagath- bandhan” had been going on for a while but Congress mem- bers in the State are of the opin- ion that the party should go it alone as it has an independent identity among the people. Rahul in an interview to an international newspaper on Thursday said the Congress idea is very powerful in Uttar Pradesh. “So, we are very confident of our ability in Uttar Pradesh and we will surprise people,” he was quoted as saying. The Gandhi scion’s com- ments were the first indication of the party’s Plan B after the regional players seemed to have deserted it. Rahul is expected to meet UPCC pres- ident Raj Babbar and AICC in- charge of party affairs in the State Ghulam Nabi Azad to deliberate on the matter on Sunday evening. “A decision on who to join hands with always rests with the party high command, but we have already shared that workers and supporters want the Congress to go it alone in UP where it still has its own identity which is different from these parties,” said the leader. He recalled that in 2009 Lok Sabha polls, when the sit- uation was apparently against the Congress, the party got 21 seats in the State, paving the way for the return of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre. The more indicative of the Congress mind is the fact that Rahul had made it clear that the Congress cannot be underesti- mated. Continued on Page 4 T wo Armymen, including one Major rank officer and an Army porter, were martyred in two separate incidents along the line of control (LoC) in frontier Rajouri district of Jammu division on Friday. In another attack on Friday, ter- rorists hurling a grenade on CRPF bunker in Jammu, but there were no reports of loss of life, police said. According to ground reports, a Major rank officer, along with a soldier, received grievous injuries in an impro- vised explosive device explo- sion and later succumbed while another Army porter was killed in separate incident of ‘unpro- voked’ ceasefire violation by Pakistan Army in Sunderbani sector. Unofficial reports, howev- er, claimed a Border Action Team (BAT) of the Pakistan Army may have targeted an Indian patrol in the forward area taking advantage of the inclement weather conditions and undulating terrain. It was suspected that members of the BAT team may have planted an IED in the forward area before retreating towards Pakistani side of the line of control. Continued on Page 4 T he much awaited extension of the existing Ashram fly- over till the Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) Flyway to ease Ring Road traffic was approved by Empowered Finance Committee (EFC) under the chairmanship of Deputy Chief Minister Mansih Sisodia on Friday. The project of Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning and Engineering) Centre is worth 125 crore. Incidentally, the Delhi Government’s infrastructure wing Public Works Development (PWD) had pro- posed this extension in 2017. At that time, PWD officials had said the project was stuck due to procedural delay. The flyover extension plan was sent for financial clearance in 2016 and was finally cleared on Friday. It would take least one and half years to complete the extension. The extension is pivotal in context of infra and growing traffic on Delhi-Noida and vice versa as more than 3,00,000 vehicles cross the intersection everyday as per the traffic police data. Vehicular traffic in the area shot up after the DND Flyway was made toll-free in 2016 and with the widening of National Highway-24 in June this year. South Delhi-bound traffic from East Delhi and Noida uses this stretch. According to PWD offi- cials, this project will eradicate the congestion problem on Ring Road. The project plan extension of the existing flyover by six-lane elevated 1.2 km road which will touch down at the start of DND Flyway. The elevated road will split into two near DND, with one road going towards DND and the other towards Sarai Kale Khan. Apart from this, the EFC approved redevelopment of Chandni Chowk from Jain Mandir to Fatehpuri Mosque, construction of 12,000 addi- tional classrooms in schools and construction of integrated campus of GB Pant Engineering College and poly- technic at Okhla. A lok Verma, who was removed as CBI Director by the PM-led Selection Panel on Thursday, has resigned from the service and claimed that he was transferred on the basis of “false, unsubstantiated and friv- olous allegations” made by only one person, who was inimical to him. Verma was shifted as DG Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guards after oust- ing as CBI Director. “Natural justice was scut- tled and the entire process was turned upside down in ensur- ing that the undersigned (Verma) is removed from the post of the Director CBI. The Selection Committee did not consider the fact that the entire CVC report is premised on charges alluded by a com- plainant who is presently under investigation by the CBI,” Verma said in his resignation letter to the Secretary of Department of Personnel and Training. Meanwhile on Friday, CBI spokesman Abhishek Dayal was shunted as Director of Publication Division. His tenure was till August 20, 2020. New appointee Nitin Wakankar will take charge on Saturday. Continued on Page 4 D era Sacha Sauda sect head Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh was on Friday convicted for the murder of journalist Ram Chander Chhatrapati. A CBI court in Panchkula on Friday convicted Ram Rahim Singh and three others for the murder of Chhatrapati, 16 years ago. The quantum of sentence for the four convicts will be pronounced by Judge Jagdeep Singh on January 17. The same court had con- victed the Sirsa-based dera chief on two counts of rape on August 25, 2017 and sentenced him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. Sirsa-based journalist Chhatrapati was shot in October 2002 after a newspa- per owned by him published an anonymous letter narrating how women were being sexu- ally exploited by the sect head at the Dera headquarters. The 51-year- old dera chief appeared before the CBI court through video conferencing from the Sunaria prison near Rohtak, where he is serving the 20-year sentence.

Transcript of  · Making it clear that the Ayodhya issue would be one of the main campaign agenda in the Lok...

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Making it clear that theAyodhya issue would be

one of the main campaignagenda in the Lok Sabha poll,BJP president Amit Shah onFriday said the party was com-mitted for a “Bhavya Mandir”and declared that the “2019battle” between Narendra Modiand his “desperate opponents”would be a decisive one andwith a massive impact on com-ing times. Addressing thou-sands of delegates attending thetwo-day National Council meethere, Shah asked party workersto ensure that Modi returns topower with full majority andcontinues the “nation building”without a break.

The tag line of the Councilwas “Abki baar phir ModiSarkar” and the meeting venuereverberated with a loud roarwhen Shah mentioned RamMandir in his speech.

The meet was attended byalmost all top party leaders,including Modi, LK Advani,MM Joshi, Rajnath Singh,Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, JPNadda, Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States, including UP’sYogi Adityanath, and formerChief Ministers Shivraj SinghChouhan and Raman Singh.

Yogi was greeted with loudcheers by the BJP Councilmembers when he arrived atthe stage.

The backdrop of the daishad Modi and Shah on the twosides along with SwamiVivekananda and Atal BihariVajpayee.

In his speech, Shah praisedthe leadership of Atal-Advaniwhich established and con-tributed to the rise of the partyat the national level, he said.

Shah said the BJP is com-mitted for a “grand temple” atthe disputed site in Ayodhyaand it would be accomplished“at the earliest”. He accused theCongress of trying to delay the

temple and gave reference of itsleader Kapil Sibal, who, hesaid, sought that the SC’s hear-ing on the Ram temple issue befixed after the Lok Sabha polls.

Attaching huge signifi-cance to the result of 2019 gen-eral elections, Shah said itwould be a battle betweenModi, who has brought “glory”to India, and his desperate

rivals having contrasting ide-ologies glued together withthe sole “oust Modi” agenda.“Opposition parties know thatalone they cannot defeatModi,” he said.

Interestingly, the BJP pres-ident while pointing to the sig-nificance of “2019 LS battle”made a reference to the thirdbattle of Panipat between

Afghan ruler Ahmad ShahAbdali and Marathas where thedefeat of the latter led to “gula-mi” (slavery) for 200 years.

“Lok Sabha polls are battleof two ideologies: BJP standsfor cultural nationalism, poor,while rivals together merely forpower,” said the BJP president.

Shah also threw puncheson the “one family rule” and its

alleged rein of corruption. Hesaid the Congress was levelingcharges in the Rafale jet fight-er purchase as it was “frustrat-ed” that there was no blemishon Modi during his full tenure.

The election result wouldimpact the future of India, heclaimed and went on to say thatNational Democratic Alliance(NDA) would come back topower with a thumping major-ity and in UP “the party wouldincrease its tally from 71 to 74”.

Shah said in last one week,the Modi Government tooktwo major decisions of givingreservation to economicallyweaker sections in the generalcategory and providing Goodsand Services Tax (GST) relief.

The Modi Government has“fulfilled” the dreams of croresof youths with 10 per centreservation in jobs and educa-tion for the general categorypoor, Shah said and describedthe Constitution AmendmentBill as one of the most impor-tant Bills passed by Parliament.

Shah hailed the GSTCouncil’s decision to double thelimit for exemption from pay-ment of GST to �40 lakh andannounced that the higherturnover cap of �1.5 crore foravailing composition scheme ofpaying 1 per cent tax will beeffective from April 1.

Modi would deliver theconcluding session of the coun-cil on Saturday.

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In a major blow to CBI SpecialDirector Rakesh Asthana,

the Delhi High Court on Fridayruled that he will be investi-gated in the ongoing briberycase and no prior sanctionwas required to prosecute him,implying he enjoys no protec-tion against a possible arrest.

Justice Najmi Waziri saidthat the allegation of “malafide” raised against then CBIDirector Alok Verma has notbeen made out.

Rejecting a clutch of peti-tions for quashing of the FIRfiled against Asthana, CBI DSPDevender Kumar and allegedmiddleman Manoj Prasad, theHC set a 10-week deadline tocomplete the investigations inthe case.

The court held that per-mission for prior sanction toprosecute Asthana was notrequired considering the factsof the case. Asthana is likely tochallenge the HC verdict beforethe Supreme Court.

The HC gave its verdictwhile dismissing the petitions

filed by Asthana, Kumar andPrasad challenging the FIRlodged against them.

Asthana was booked oncharges of criminal conspiracy,corruption and criminal mis-conduct under the relevantsections of Prevention ofCorruption Act.

Verma and Asthana wereembroiled in bitter feud for sev-eral months and had levelledcharges of corruption againsteach other. Both were divestedof their power and sent on leaveon the night of October 23.

Continued on Page 4

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With the Samajwadi Party(SP) and the Bahujan

Samaj Party (BSP) all set toannounce the composition ofthe Uttar Pradesh politicalalliance on Saturday, theCongress is ready with its planto walk alone.

AICC sources said theparty chief Rahul Gandhi, afterdue consultation with the Stateunit leaders, is prepared to goit alone in the politically cru-cial State. Amid talks of seatsharing for Lok Sabha pollsfrom which the Congressseems to be out, SamajwadiParty president Akhilesh Yadavand BSP chief Mayawati willaddress a joint Press meet atLucknow on Saturday.

The top leadership of boththe parties had met in NewDelhi last week to discussbroad parameters of an allianceto take on the BJP unitedly inthe Lok Sabha elections.

Sources said both the SPand the BSP are planning tocontest on 37 seats each out of80 in Uttar Pradesh and plan toleave just two, Rae Bareli andAmethi, the bastions of SoniaGandhi and Rahul Gandhi,for the Congress. Smaller par-

ties like the Rashtriya Lok Dal(RLD) and the Nishad Party arealso likely to be in the alliance.In the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tions, the BJP and its allies hadwon 73 of the 80 seats in UP.

Akhilesh and Mayawatidecided to bury their hatchetand pool in their resources tocontest three bypolls and wonall raising their hopes that ifthey team up, they can pull vot-ers away from the BJP. Themahagathbandhan arithmetichad worked in the bypolls as aconsolidation of OBC, Dalitand Muslim votes powered

joint Opposition candidates tovictory in Gorakhpur, Phulpurand Kairana last year.

A senior Congress leadersaid talk on a UP “mahagath-bandhan” had been going onfor a while but Congress mem-bers in the State are of the opin-ion that the party should go italone as it has an independentidentity among the people.

Rahul in an interview to aninternational newspaper onThursday said the Congressidea is very powerful in UttarPradesh.

“So, we are very confident of

our ability in Uttar Pradeshand we will surprise people,” hewas quoted as saying.

The Gandhi scion’s com-ments were the first indicationof the party’s Plan B after theregional players seemed tohave deserted it. Rahul isexpected to meet UPCC pres-ident Raj Babbar and AICC in-charge of party affairs in theState Ghulam Nabi Azad todeliberate on the matter onSunday evening.

“A decision on who to joinhands with always rests withthe party high command, butwe have already shared thatworkers and supporters wantthe Congress to go it alone inUP where it still has its ownidentity which is different fromthese parties,” said the leader.

He recalled that in 2009Lok Sabha polls, when the sit-uation was apparently againstthe Congress, the party got 21seats in the State, paving theway for the return of theCongress-led UPAGovernment at the Centre.

The more indicative of theCongress mind is the fact thatRahul had made it clear that theCongress cannot be underesti-mated.

Continued on Page 4

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Two Armymen, includingone Major rank officer and

an Army porter, were martyredin two separate incidents alongthe line of control (LoC) infrontier Rajouri district ofJammu division on Friday. Inanother attack on Friday, ter-rorists hurling a grenade onCRPF bunker in Jammu, butthere were no reports of loss oflife, police said.

According to groundreports, a Major rank officer,along with a soldier, receivedgrievous injuries in an impro-vised explosive device explo-sion and later succumbed whileanother Army porter was killedin separate incident of ‘unpro-voked’ ceasefire violation byPakistan Army in Sunderbanisector.

Unofficial reports, howev-er, claimed a Border Action

Team (BAT) of the PakistanArmy may have targeted anIndian patrol in the forwardarea taking advantage of theinclement weather conditionsand undulating terrain. It was

suspected that members of theBAT team may have planted anIED in the forward area beforeretreating towards Pakistaniside of the line of control.

Continued on Page 4

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The much awaited extensionof the existing Ashram fly-

over till the Delhi-Noida-Direct(DND) Flyway to ease RingRoad traffic was approved byEmpowered FinanceCommittee (EFC) under thechairmanship of Deputy ChiefMinister Mansih Sisodia onFriday. The project of UnifiedTraffic and TransportationInfrastructure (Planning andEngineering) Centre is worth�125 crore.

Incidentally, the DelhiGovernment’s infrastructurewing Public WorksDevelopment (PWD) had pro-posed this extension in 2017.At that time, PWD officials hadsaid the project was stuck dueto procedural delay. The flyoverextension plan was sent forfinancial clearance in 2016 and

was finally cleared on Friday. Itwould take least one and halfyears to complete the extension.

The extension is pivotal incontext of infra and growingtraffic on Delhi-Noida andvice versa as more than3,00,000 vehicles cross theintersection everyday as per thetraffic police data.

Vehicular traffic in thearea shot up after the DNDFlyway was made toll-free in2016 and with the widening of

National Highway-24 in Junethis year. South Delhi-boundtraffic from East Delhi andNoida uses this stretch.

According to PWD offi-cials, this project will eradicatethe congestion problem onRing Road. The project planextension of the existing flyoverby six-lane elevated 1.2 kmroad which will touch down atthe start of DND Flyway. Theelevated road will split into twonear DND, with one road goingtowards DND and the othertowards Sarai Kale Khan.

Apart from this, the EFCapproved redevelopment ofChandni Chowk from JainMandir to Fatehpuri Mosque,construction of 12,000 addi-tional classrooms in schoolsand construction of integratedcampus of GB PantEngineering College and poly-technic at Okhla.

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Alok Verma, who wasremoved as CBI Director

by the PM-led Selection Panelon Thursday, has resigned fromthe service and claimed that hewas transferred on the basis of“false, unsubstantiated and friv-olous allegations” made byonly one person, who wasinimical to him.

Verma was shifted as DGFire Services, Civil Defenceand Home Guards after oust-ing as CBI Director.

“Natural justice was scut-tled and the entire process wasturned upside down in ensur-ing that the undersigned(Verma) is removed from thepost of the Director CBI. TheSelection Committee did notconsider the fact that the entireCVC report is premised on

charges alluded by a com-plainant who is presently underinvestigation by the CBI,”Verma said in his resignationletter to the Secretary ofDepartment of Personnel andTraining.

Meanwhile on Friday, CBIspokesman Abhishek Dayalwas shunted as Director ofPublication Division. Histenure was till August 20, 2020.New appointee Nitin Wakankarwill take charge on Saturday.

Continued on Page 4

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Dera Sacha Sauda sect headGurmeet Ram Rahim

Singh was on Friday convictedfor the murder of journalistRam Chander Chhatrapati.

A CBI court in Panchkulaon Friday convicted RamRahim Singh and three othersfor the murder of Chhatrapati,16 years ago. The quantum ofsentence for the four convictswill be pronounced by JudgeJagdeep Singh on January 17.

The same court had con-victed the Sirsa-based derachief on two counts of rape onAugust 25, 2017 and sentencedhim to 20 years of rigorousimprisonment.

Sirsa-based journalistChhatrapati was shot inOctober 2002 after a newspa-per owned by him published ananonymous letter narratinghow women were being sexu-

ally exploited by the sect headat the Dera headquarters.

The 51-year- old dera chiefappeared before the CBI courtthrough video conferencingfrom the Sunaria prison nearRohtak, where he is serving the20-year sentence.

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In yet another incident of hit-and-run in the Capital, a 59-

year-old civic worker died andhis co-worker severely injured,after they were allegedly hit bya speeding private bus onFriday at Prithviraj Road, whilethey were riding a bicycle ontheir way to work.

Police said the accused busdriver abandoned the bus andfled the spot. The bus hasbeen impounded a hunt hasbeen launched to arrested theaccused driver.

According to police,Rajender Prasad (59) and hisco-worker Rajender Kumar(35) were posted as gardenerswith New Delhi MunicipalCorporation (NDMC)’sEnquiry Office in KhanMarket.

“A police control room(PCR) call was received ataround 11.16 am regarding anaccident at the roundabout

near the cemetery in KhanMarket in which, two personssustained injuries at round-about, near the cemetery inKhan Market,” said DeputyCommissioner of Police (NewDelhi) Madhur Verma.

On reaching the spot,police found a private busbearing an Uttar Pradesh reg-istration and a broken bicycle.Investigations revealed thattwo persons were injured in theincident.

The private bus bearing anUttar Pradesh registration was

reportedly taken on rent bySurvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya inBurari, to take their students ona trip to Lotus Temple. Policerevealed that the accused busdriver was absconding.

“One of the victims, Prasadwas taken to AIIMS TraumaCentre, by a passerby but wasdeclared brought dead onarrival while, the other injuredperson Rajender Kumar wastaken to Ram Manohar LohiaHospital by police officials. Hesustained severe head injuriesand is unfit for statement,”DCP said.

Since there were no CCTVcameras in and around thearea, police are yet to ascertainthe sequence of events.

“A criminal case has beenregistered at Tughlak Road police station, New Delhifor rash and negligent driving, and efforts are beingmade to trace and arrest theaccused bus driver,” the DCPsaid.

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The Delhi Police on Fridayclaimed to have arrested 27

year-old Afghan national and30-year-old Ivory Coast nation-al on the charges of supplyingheroin in the national Capitaland Northern India. Policehave recovered 8 kg heroinfrom the possession of theaccused, estimated to bearound �32 crore in the inter-national market.

The accused have beenidentified as Asadullah (27), anAfghan national, presentlyresiding at Hauz Rani, Delhiand Moussa Zie (30) and anIvory Coast national, present-ly residing in Nihal Vihar,Delhi.

According to PramodSingh Kushwaha, DeputyCommissioner of Police(DCP), Special Cell, in view todeal with the smugglers indulgein smuggling drugs suspectsindulge in supply of heroin inDelhi and north India wereidentified when specific inputswere received regarding one ofthe accused Asadullah whowould be coming nearGeetanjali Bus Stop in Malviya

Nagar area to supply consign-ment to a person.

“A police team laid trap andthe accused was apprehendedwith 6 kg of heroin in his pos-session.

On his instance, a receiver Moussa Zie was alsonabbed by police with 2 kg ofheroin in his possession,” saidthe DCP.

“During interrogation theaccused Asadullah disclosedthat he used to visit India onmedical visa and smuggledconsignments of heroin inDelhi from Afghanistan andhanded over the same to manyAfrican nationals, one of whomis Moussa Zie. He further dis-

closed that many other Afghansare also involved in smugglingof heroin in India by swallow-ing heroin filled capsules. In thepast, many Afghan nationalswith this modus operandi werearrested by the various lawenforcement agencies,” said theDCP.

“During interrogation,Moussa Zie has disclosed thathe arrived in India in July2017 on a tourist visa for a period of 6 months but did not return even after the expiryof visa.

He was lured by a Nigeriannational for smuggling heroinand he acted as carrier of hero-in for him for 6 months.

Thereafter he developed hisown network and since then has been smuggling ofheroin independently,” said theDCP.

“He also disclosed thatvarious persons of North Indiawere involved in supplyingdrugs and frequented Delhi toreceive supplies from him.

He also further revealed tohave supplied the heroin toother countries includingCanada, England, France and South Africa throughcourier companies,” said theDCP adding that further effortsare being made to identifyother persons involved in thisracket.

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In a major reshuffle, theMinistry of Home Affairs

(MHA) on Friday ordered thetransfer of nine senior policeofficers from Delhi toArunachal, Goa, Mizoram andthe Union Territories(AGMUT). The MHA has alsoordered the transfer of sevensenior officials from AGMUTcadre to Delhi, with immediateeffect.

Those transferred onMHA’s orders include AjayChoudhary, the JointCommissioner of Police (NewDelhi Range) who has beentransferred to Mizoram while Ishwar Singh, AdditionalCommissioner of Police (Traffic) goes toPuducherry and Omvir SinghAdditional CP (Vigilance) toChandigarh.

Deputy Commissioner ofPolice (Rohini) Rajneesh Guptahas been transferred toMizoram, while Esha Pandey,and Rajiv Ranjan Singh DCP(Traffic) have been sent toArunachal Pradesh.

Aslam Khan, DCP (North West) and PankajSingh, DCP (East) have beensent to Goa.

The officers transferred toDelhi are Neeraj Thakur of1994 batch, L H Shanliana of1998 batch and Shivaji Sinha of2001 batch, Brijendra KumarYadav of 2010 batch, AbhishekDhania of 2012 batch fromMizoram.

PN Khirmey of 2004 batchhas been transferred fromArunachal Pradesh and IngitPratab Singh of 2011 batchfrom Andaman and NicobarIslands to Delhi.

New Delhi: The Commissionerof South Delhi MunicipalCorporation (SDMC) PuneetKumar Goel has been trans-ferred to Goa as per the orderissued by the Ministry of HomeAffairs (MHA) on Thursday.

Goel, a 1991-batch officer(AGMUT Cadre) was appoint-ed as Commissioner of SDMCon 24th December, 2014.Before that he had worked asTransport Commissioner(GNCTD); Director (Finance),Delhi Jal Board (DJB); Secretary

(Power) and AdditionalGeneral Manager (AGM) oferstwhile Delhi Vidyut Board(DVB). He has gained wideexperience in Urban WaterSupply, Urban Transport andUrban Electric Supply. BeingCommissioner of SDMC, heintroduced several measuresto improve the financial healthof the civic body besides pro-viding online facilities for build-ing permit, trade license andconstructing pink toilets espe-cially for women. SR

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A38-year-old grieving father who wentto offer prayer at her daughter’s

grave in Welcome area graveyard in Northeast Delhi was allegedly shot dead by threeunidentified persons.

The chilling murder took place onFriday afternoon. The deceased has beenidentified as Mehfuz a resident of Welcomearea. According to Atul Kumar Thakur,Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP),North east district, the incident occurred

around 3.30 pm in Welcome area of Delhion Friday when Mehfuz after offeringFriday namaj went to qabristan (graveyard)to pray at his daughter’s grave.

While he was praying, three unidenti-fied assailants came there and after a scuf-fle they shot him multiple times at point-blank range.

“He had six bullet injury marks on his

body. Police was informed by the locals and after reaching the spot Mehfuz was rushed to nearby hospital where doctors declared him brought dead,” saidthe DCP.

“A case has been registered under sec-tions 302 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) atWelcome Police Station. Police teams arescanning CCTV cameras in the area toidentify the assailants. Two cases under sec-tion 302, 307 of IPC are registered againstaccused. Police is probing the case with allangles including personal enmity. Furtherinvestigation underway,” the DCP added.

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Summary removal of theDirector of Central Bureau

of Investigation (CBI) AlokVerma on Thursday evokedsharp reactions from DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kejriwalwho alleged that Prime MinisterNarendra Modi had been mak-ing “all efforts” to remove Vermafrom the post for the past twomonths, sensing that he was toorder an investigation into theRafale fighter jet deal.

Verma was removed as CBI

Director by a high-poweredcommittee headed by the PrimeMinister on charges of corrup-tion and dereliction of duty onThursday, barely two days afterthe Supreme Court reinstatedhim. Earlier, Verma had beensent on forced leave by theGovernment in a late-night con-troversial order on October 23,2018 in the wake of a feudbetween him and his deputySpecial Director Rakesh Asthana.

Talking to reporters here, Kejriwal said, “If the PrimeMinister had done no wrong,what was the problem in lettingthe Rafale probe go on?” “PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadmade all efforts to remove AlokVerma from the CBI for the pasttwo months, which is not right,”Kejriwal alleged. Kejriwal’s AamAadmi Party (AAP) and manyother Opposition parties havealleged irregularities in the Rafalefighter aircraft deal with France,

a charge denied by theGovernment. He alleged thatthe BJP Government had want-ed to purchase 36 Rafale fighteraircraft at a very high price.

“The cost of one fighter aircraft is around �600crore and they (Government)want to purchase it at �1,600crore per aircraft...An addi-tional burden of �36,000 croreto the exchequer,” he alsoalleged. The Chief Ministersaid the BJP-led Government“unleashed” the CBI and DelhiPolice on him “so many times”during the past four years.“I was subjected to raids andinquiries...More than 400 filesof Delhi Government wereillegally seized by the ModiGovernment. I was not afraidat all of these raids and so-called probes since I had not indulged in any wrongdo-ing, even of a single paisa,”Kejriwal said.

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Delhi Deputy Chief MinisterManish Sisodia on Friday

announced six new World ClassCentres in Delhi. According toDelhi Government, the pro-gramme is a part of WorldClass Skill Centres (WCSC)expansion plan.

The admission will start for720 new seats in different pro-fessional courses, These six newWCSCs are a part of the DelhiGovernment’s comprehensiveskill centres expansion pro-gramme across the city, in whicha total of 25 world class skill cen-tres will be opened in Delhi19 ofwhich will be made functionalin August.

“The admission process isbeing started in six new worldclass skill centres (WCSC) for atotal of 720 seats in different pro-fessional courses to prepare stu-dents to acquire professionalskills in different fields. As soonas the admission process is over,they will be started formally,”

Sisodia said.He said skill is the future of

education and it is important toimpart skill education.

“The Central Governmenthas also been taking about skillsbut what they did was that theymade Sachin Tendulkar standwith a plumber in an advertise-ment. Plumbing is a skill buthospitality, banking also haveopportunities for skills. Havinga skill means a youth is stand-ing on his feet with a profes-sional approach,” the ministeradded. He also said that entre-preneurship be also included asa skill so that the skill centres cangive rise to job givers rather thanjob seekers.

The Institute of BasicBusiness Studies will be begin-ning admissions to courses inretail services, hospitality oper-ations and finance executive.The Integrated Institute OfTechnology, Dwarka will bebeginning admissions for thecourses of beauty and wellnessconsultant, computer system

operator and hospitality opera-tions.

The Delhi PharmaceuticalSciences and ResearchUniversity will be beginningadmissions to courses of beau-ty and wellness consultant,sports fitness and yoga applica-tion and sports digitisation andperformance management.

The skill institute inWazirpur will be beginningadmissions to courses on foodproduction and finance execu-tive, while the centre inJhandewalan will offer admis-sion on courses in retail servicesand food production.

The RIT Rajokri will beoffering a course to train com-puter system operators. The re-maining 19 WCSCs at Am-bedkar Institute of Technology,Shakarpur, Aryabhatt InstituteOf Technology, Ashok Vihar,Bhai Parmanand Institute, Sha-karpur, ITI Narela, Netaji Sub-hash University of Technology,Dwarka will also be made func-tional by August this year.

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With eyes firmly set on theupcoming general elec-

tions, the Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) is all set to blow the pollbugle this fortnight with itsconvener and Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwalembarking upon constituency-wise meetings of party workerstill January 16.

Addressing the gatheringof party workers from SouthDelhi Lok Sabha seat, Kejriwalasserted his party will “fulfil itsduty” of defeating the rulingparty at the Centre on all sevenparliamentary seats in Delhi.

The Chief Minister alsosaid that a vote for Congress inthe upcoming Lok Sabha elec-tion will mean victory ofBharatiya Janta Party (BJP).Kejriwal’s assertion has come

amid a speculation that theAam Aadmi Party may ally withthe Congress to challenge theBJP in Parliamentary polls duethis year. Kejriwal asked theworkers to explain the arith-metic of coming polls to voters.

In the last Lok Sabha elec-tion, (in Delhi) BJP got 46 percent votes and AAP obtained33 per cent and Congress 15per cent votes, he said.

“The surveys reveal BJP isgoing to lose 10 per cent of itsvote share this time and youneed to tell people that if thesevotes are polled by AAP, it willwin all seven seats in Delhi byscoring 43 per cent votes. Youhave to explain to people thatvoting for Congress means vic-tory of BJP,” Kejriwal told AAPworkers.

He asserted Congress faceddefeat in 2014 because of the

unity of all and now is the timeto remove the “autocracy” ofPrime Minister Narendra Modiand BJP chief Amit Shah fromthe country.

Convener of Delhi AAPGopal Rai said the office-bear-ers will be given responsibilityof polling booths. For every 10households, a ‘Vijay Pramukh’will be appointed for directconnect with voters. The AAPhas already announced partyin-charges for all the seven LokSabha constituencies. The issueof alliance remains unsettled sofar with both AAP andCongress not officially reject-ing its possibility.

Rai had said the PoliticalAffairs Committee of AAP willtake a decision on it later.

Speculations over analliance between these twoparties intensified after Delhi

Pradesh Congress Committee(DPCC) former Presidentresigned citing ill health.Former three times Delhi Chief

Minister Sheila Dikshit whohas been appointed as newpresident of the grand oldparty’s Delhi unit, had earlier

said that she will accept the Congress high command’s decision on a tie-upwith the AAP.

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Those who seek votes in thename of cows should also

provide fodder to them, ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal saidFriday after he was told duringhis visit to Bawana that the BJP-led MCD has not released fundsto a gaushala for two years in thearea. Accompanied byDevelopment Minister GopalRai, Kejriwal visited ‘ShreeKrishna Gaushala’ funded by theDelhi Government and North Delhi municipal corpo-ration in Bawana town in NorthWest district.

Talking to reporters after hisvisit, Kejriwal said the AamAadmi Party does not seekvotes in the name of cows.Representatives of gaushala toldthe Chief Minister that MCD,ruled by the BJP, has not releasedits share of funds for two yearsdue to which they have to faceproblems.

Kejriwal claimed that theDelhi Government has releasedits share of funds to gaushala, butMCD has not given its share yet.“Those who seek votes in thename of cows should also givefodder to cows.

“They get votes in the nameof cows, but they refuse to givefodder to cows, which is notright. There should not be pol-itics over cows,” he told reporterswithout taking name of anyone.

In response to a questionfrom reporters, Kejriwal said hewill visit gaushalas in Haryananext week. The AAP is gearingup to contest Lok Sabha polls inthe neighbouring state.

Minister Rai said the AAPGovernment recently intro-duced a policy for birds and ani-mals. A gaushala in GhumanHera area will be “modernised”,he added. Shree KrishnaGaushala is spread over 36 acres.It has 7,552 cattle against thecapacity of 7,740.

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Delhi Chief Minister ArvindKejriwal on Friday

reviewed meeting on wateraugment projects with Delhi JalBoard. Jal board submitingaction plan on the projects to solve water problems insummers. Kejriwal who is alsoa chairman DJB asked officialto complete all projects byMarch 31.

These projects are relatedto six locations (identified byCGWB) in Yamuna flood planewith an aim to escalate watercapacity by 383 MLD andrestarting of non - functionalranney wells and borewells .“Our aim is that the people ofDelhi should not face the prob-

lem of water in the comingsummer season. We must exe-cute all these projects of wateraugmentation before summersets in,” said the ChiefMinister.The four projects which were reviewedwere water extraction from 6-locations between Palla andOkhla, extraction of water from freshwater pockets identified in Dwarka,restarting the closed RanneyWells and Bore wells and addi-tional bores in areas with highwater table.

Earlier, the Central GroundWater Board (CGWB) hadidentified 6-locations on theYamuna flood plain betweenPalla and Okhla with a poten-tial of 383 MLD water.

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Patna: Union Minister RamVilas Paswan on Friday assert-ed that the Narendra ModiGovernment has takenAdequate precaution by amend-ing the Constitution for pro-viding 10 per cent reservation tothe economically backward inunreserved category so that itstands the judicial scrutiny.

Addressing a Press confer-ence here, he said when the VPSingh Government providedreservation to the OBCs, quo-tas to the poor among theupper castes was also contem-plated, but the then AttorneyGeneral Soli Sorabjee was ofthe view that since theConstitution did not providefor reservation on an econom-ic basis, it would not be upheld.

However, the NarasimhaRao Government still sought togive the poor a lollipop by pro-viding reservation through anotification which was, expect-

edly, struck down, he said.Since the Modi Governmenthas taken adequate precautionthrough a constitutionalamendment, Opposition par-ties like the Congress and RJDhad been jolted out of theirsleep. They will know the real-ity when they go to voters inthe coming Lok Sabha elec-tions, Paswan said. PTI

Bhuj: The Border SecurityForce (BSF) on Friday seized aPakistani fishing boat in theIndian territory at VyanvariCreek in Kutch district near theIndia-Pakistan border, an offi-cial said. The fishermen on theboat fled to the Pak side afterspotting BSF patrol boats, saidofficials. Several Pak fishermenhave been caught while fishingin the Indian side of the creekin the past.

Given sensitive nature ofthe area, even Indian fishermenare barred from catching fish inthe creek. However, Pakistanifishermen often venture intoIndian waters to catch fish andprawns the official said. PTI

Jammu: Five hundred and sixty seven bunkers are nearing com-pletion while work has been allotted for 731 bunkers along theInternational Border and LoC in three districts of Jammu &Kashmir, officials said Friday. Out of the total 4,257 bunkersplanned to be built in three border districts of Kathua, Poonchand Rajouri, work on 644 bunkers has started, 567 bunkers arenearing completing and work of 731 bunkers have been allotted,they said. This was revealed at a meeting chaired by DivisionalCommissioner Sanjeev Verma Friday as he reviewed the progressof construction of bunkers along the IB at a meeting of deputycommissioners of border districts of Jammu. PTI

New Delhi/Lahore: India haswritten to Pakistan proposinga visit by its experts to inspecttwo hydroelectricity projects onthe Chenab river in Jammu &Kashmir from January 27 toFebruary 1, which is manda-tory under the Indus WatersTreaty (IWT)between the twocountries, sources said Friday.

The invitation was extend-ed on Wednesday by India’sIndus Commissioner underthe IWT to his Pakistani coun-terpart, sources in New Delhisaid. India is yet to receive anofficial confirmation about theacceptance of the invitationfrom Pakistan, a senior officialsaid. After the trip by Pakistaniexperts, Indian officials willalso make a reciprocatory tripto Pakistan under the treaty.

Pakistan’s Federal Ministerfor Water Resources FaisalVawda termed this as a “majorbreakthrough” and said thatIndia had “agreed” to allow theinspection of its two hydropow-er projects on the Chenab riverin J&K by Pakistani experts laterthis month. PTI

New Delhi: Two lawyers haveseparately urged the SupremeCourt to ensure live streamingof its proceedings in politicallysensitive cases of Ayodhya landdispute and Sabarimala issue,saying justice should be made“accessible” to common man.BJP leader and lawyer AshwiniUpadhyay has written to ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi and fourother judges seeking live stream-ing of Ayodhya case scheduledfor hearing on January 29.

The National AyyappaDevotees’ Association, repre-sented by lawyer Mathews JNedumpara, has also soughtvideo recording and live stream-ing of hearing on the petitionsseeking review of top court’sSeptember 22 verdict allowing

all women inside Sabarimalatemple, on January 22.

On Thursday, former RSSideologue KN Govindacharyahad written a letter to the Centreseeking live streaming of the topcourt proceedings in theAyodhya land dispute case. Hehad asked to make arrangementsbefore the next date of hearingin the case to ensure that citizensget the opportunity to witnessthe proceedings in the “nation’soldest litigation having a lot ofconfusion and peculiarities”.

Petition filed by Upadhyaysought directions to ministriesof law and information andbroadcasting to take appropriatesteps for live streaming of theAyodhya case by Doordarshan,which is available on all plat-

forms throughout the country.Upadhyay’s plea also said pro-ceedings are often misquoted bypanelists during debates onnews channels and since theAyodhya matter was politicallysensitive, a wrong quote maycreate turbulence in the society.

“Therefore, until a full-fledged module and mechanismfor live streaming of the courtproceedings is evolved in spir-it of the above stated judgment,my Lord may direct theMinistry of Law and Ministry ofInformation and Broadcastingto take appropriate steps for livestreaming of the Ayodhya caseby Doordarshan, which is freeto air and available on all plat-forms throughout the country,”the plea said. PTI

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Ignoring the Congress inUttar Pradesh can be a “very

dangerous mistake”, the partyasserted on Friday, a day beforethe Samajwadi Party and theBahujan Samaj Party are like-ly to announce their alliance forLok Sabha elections in thepolitically crucial State.

Congress spokespersonAbhishek Singhvi said theobjective of all Opposition par-ties should be to defeat the rul-ing BJP and eliminate “autoc-racy, misgovernance” at theCentre. He, however, acceptedthat the Congress has “fallen ondifficult times”. Singhvi’s state-ments came ahead of SP pres-

ident Akhilesh Yadav’s andBSP chief Mayawati’s joint pressmeet in Lucknow Saturday.The presser will be the firstafter the two parties gave broadcontours of an electoral allianceahead of the 2019 Lok Sabhaelection.

“I don’t think anybodyshould underestimate thestrength, extent and reach andvote share, presence and sup-port of the Congress in a statelike Uttar Pradesh.

“We may have fallen ondifficult times. But I think toignore us can prove to be a verydangerous mistake. Sinceeverybody realises that, I thinkwe will have a happy and har-monious solution sometime

in the near future,” he toldreporters when asked about thepossible SP-BSP alliance.

“Those who - in any man-ner - do not do it will beblamed ultimately by the pub-lic, which knows everything.Therefore, it is an obligation oneach one of the parties to do so(defeat the BJP),” Singhviasserted.

Asked about KarnatakaChief Minister HDKumaraswamy saying he wasmerely a “clerk” and did nothave a say in running the stategovernment, Singhvi said theremark might have been madein the heat of the moment andthat the two parties were “hap-pily married”.

On BJP chief Amit Shah’sremarks of winning theupcoming Lok Sabha election,the Congress leader said,“These jumlas have become sostereotyped and so repetitivethat the party president speaksin almost auto-pilot and no onebelieves them (rhetoric).”

On Shah’s remarks aboutformation of “unholy alliances”,Singhvi said it was reflective ofthe “very grave frustration andfear and absolute chaos” in theranks of the BJP.

He also took a dig at UnionMinister Piyush Goyal overhis remarks against MallikarjunKharge, alleging the leader ofOpposition is habitual to giv-ing dissents.

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New Delhi: The Supreme CourtCollegium has recommendedthe names of Justice DineshMaheshwari, the chief justice ofthe Karnataka High Court, andJustice Sanjiv Khanna of theDelhi High Court for elevationas judges of the apex court.

The five-memberCollegium headed by ChiefJustice of India Ranjan Gogoitook the decision in its meetingon January 10 to recommendthe names of justicesMaheshwari and Khanna fortheir elevation to the SupremeCourt. The decision of theCollegium, comprising justicesAK Sikri, SA Bobde, NVRamana and Arun Mishra, wasmade public on the apex court’swebsite on Friday.

The apex court, which hasa sanctioned strength of 31judges, is presently functioningwith 26 judges. The decision puton the website noted the issueof elevation of judges was delib-erated on December 12, 2018,when Justice MB Lokur was alsoa member of the Collegium.

PTI

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India has granted consularaccess to Christian Michel, a

British national who wasbrought here from the UAE lastmonth in connection with the�3,600-crore AgustaWestlandchopper deal.

The British HighCommission had sought con-sular access to Michel after hewas arrested in the first week ofDecember.

“He has been granted con-sular access. A second secretary-level officer from the BritishHigh Commission has metChristian Michel based on therequest we received last month,”External Affairs MinistrySpokesperson Raveesh Kumarsaid at a media briefing. Theconsular access to Michel wasgiven on Thursday, he said.

Asked about Michel’s pleain the Delhi court Thursdayseeking permission to makecalls to his family members andhis lawyers abroad, Kumarsaid, “We have shared in thepast that he has been allowedto communicate with his fam-ily members. I have not seenthe plea which he has enteredon this matter (now).”

Sources, however, said thatif the British High Commissionrequests that he be allowedmore communication, it maybe considered.

Michel, 57, was brought toIndia following his extradi-tion by the United ArabEmirates in connection with

the chopper deal case. At pre-sent, he is lodged in the Tiharjail here.

Michel is one of the threemiddlemen — the two othersGuido Haschke and CarloGerosa — being probed by theCBI and the EnforcementDirectorate in the case.

Michel has denied thecharges. The ED, in its chargesheet filed against Michel in

June 2016, had alleged that hehad received 30 million euros(about �225 crore) fromAgustaWestland.

The CBI, in its chargesheet, has alleged an estimatedloss of 398.21 million euros(about �2,666 crore) to theexchequer in the deal that wassigned on February 8, 2010 forthe supply of VVIP choppersworth 556.262 million euros.

New Delhi: India slammed Pakistan on Friday for its statementthat New Delhi was not responding to its peace overtures, say-ing there was “no seriousness” in Islamabad’s offer for talks asit continued to extend “explicit support” to terror organisationsand was now trying to mainstream them. India’s sharp reactioncomes days after Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan accusedit of not responding to his peace overtures. Responding to Khan’scomments, Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson RaveeshKumar said, “I don’t understand these statements. Even beforeImran Khan became Prime Minister, our Prime Minister hadcalled and congratulated him on his election win.” PNS

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New Delhi: A day after Army Chief General Bipin Rawat stat-ed India cannot be left out of the “bandwagon” when a numberof countries are reaching out to the Taliban, the External AffairsMinistry on Friday said there is no change in the position onAfghanistan and New Delhi supports the process which is “inclu-sive” towards achieving peace. External Affairs Ministryspokesperson Raveesh Kumar also said that India has made it“very clear” to the US that the peace and reconciliation inAfghanistan should be Afghan-owned, Afghan-led and Afghan-controlled. PNS

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From Page 1“Institutions are one of the

strongest and most visible sym-bols of our democracy and it isno exaggeration that the CBI isone of the most importantorganisations in India today.The decisions made yesterday(of ousting Verma) will not justbe a reflection on my func-tioning but will become a tes-timony on how the CBI as an institution will be treat-ed by any Government throughthe CVC, who is appointed bymajority members of the rulingGovernment. This is a moment for collective intro-spection, to state the least,” he said.

Verma further said “…itmay be noted that the under-signed (Verma) would havealready supernnauted as on July31, 2017 and was only serving

the Government as Director,CBI till January 31, 2019, as thesame was affixed tenure role.The undersigned is no longerDirector, CBI and has alreadycrossed his superannuation agefor DG Fore Services, CivilDefence & Home Guards.Accordingly, the undersignedmay be deemed as superannu-ated with effect from today.”

Meanwhile, Interim CBIDirector M Nageshwar Raocancelled all transfer decisionstaken by his ousted predeces-sor Alok Verma during theperiod of two days afterbeing reinstated by theSupreme Court. The positionof officials has been restored ason January 8.

Verma, after being rein-stated by the Supreme Court onJanuary 8, had undone all thetransfers done by Rao throughseparate orders from January 9-10. Verma had also appointeda new investigation officer toprobe the case against Special

Director Rakesh Asthana.A high-powered selection

committee headed by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi andcomprising Justice AK Sikriand Leader of Opposition inthe Lok Sabha MallikarjunKharge had transferred Vermaout of the CBI in a split verdicton Thursday.

Following this, theGovernment assigned thecharge of the agency toAdditional Director NageshwarRao who was also in charge for77 days when Verma and hisdeputy Asthana were on forcedleave.

While Rao was barredfrom taking any major policydecision during the 77-dayperiod when Verma was onforced leave, no such conditionapplies on his present tenure asinterim director.

Rao had taken charge ofthe agency at 9 pm onThursday, a CBI spokespersonsaid in a statement on Friday.

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Verma, who was ousted asCBI Director by a three-mem-ber high powered committeeheaded by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in a 2-1 deci-sion on Thursday, asked theGovernment to treat him“deemed superannuated” withimmediate effect. Verma’s two-year tenure as CBI chief was toend on January 31.

Hyderabad-based busi-nessman Sathish Babu Sana, onwhose complaint the FIRagainst Asthana and otherswas lodged, had alleged havingpaid bribe to get relief in theMoin Qureshi case.

Justice Waziri had reservedthe judgment on December 20,2018 on various petitions afterhearing submissions of thecounsel for CBI, the Centre,Asthana, Kumar, Verma andJoint Director AK Sharma.

Kumar, arrested onOctober 22, was given bail onOctober 31. Kumar, earlier theinvestigating officer in a caseinvolving meat exporter MoinQureshi, was arrested on theallegations of forgery in record-ing the statement of Sana.

Prasad was arrested onOctober 17, 2018 and he wasgranted bail on December 18 asthe CBI could not file thechargesheet against him with-in the stipulated 60 days.

Verma had in an affidavitsaid that there were sufficientincriminating documents andevidence against all the accused— Asthana, Kumar and Prasad— with the CBI, and the FIRhad been lodged after thePreliminary Enquiry (PE) dis-closed cognisable offences.

He had claimed thatAsthana’s plea is misconceived,premature and not maintain-able as investigation in thematter is at a nascent stage.

From Page 1“Congress has 45 seats in the present Lok Sabha

which is more than any regional players. A‘mahagathbandhan’ in the Lok Sabha electionsneed to be built around the party having a nation-al face. We are still open to take along likemind-ed parties and they can come together with us,”said AICC leader.

He said the party is over century old and hasan intact organisation that could be revived bygoing alone in the polls. However, sources said theAkhilesh-Mayawtai combine could field “weak”candidates on nine Parliamentary seats where max-imum number of the Congress contestants can sailthrough while on rest of the 80 Lok Sabha seatsthe grand old party will field candidates who couldcut into the BJP vote bank. .

The Congress returned to power in MadhyaPradesh and Rajasthan seeking support from BSPand SP after the party fell short of majority andlater both Akhilesh and Mayawati expressedreservations in the Congress’ “attitude” by ignor-ing their legislators. Both the former UP CMs hadquestioned the “attitude” of Congress when theywere looking forward for an alliance in MP,Rajasthan and Chhatisgarh were assembly electionsconcluded last month.

From Page 1Defence PRO in Jammu Lt-Col Devendra

Anand later clarified, “An ImprovisedExplosive Device explosion took place nearLoC in Naushera Sector (J&K) around 3.00pm in which an Army Officer and a soldiergot grievously injured. Immediate resuscita-tion and medical aid was provided, howev-er, they succumbed to the injuries.”

Defence PRO said, “In another incidentof unprovoked ceasefire violation by Pakistantroops in Sunderbani Sector, an Army Porter Hemraj was shot at and griev-ously injured. The individual was providedimmediate resuscitation and medical aid,however, he later succumbed to the gunshotwounds.”

The Army authorities have promised allpossible assistance to the family of martyredArmy Porter, he added.

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Washington: US President Donald Trump onFriday assured H-1B visa holders, an over-whelming majority of whom are Indian IT pro-fessionals, that his administration will soon bringchanges that will give them certainty to stay inAmerica and a “potential path to citizenship”.

Trump on Friday tweeted that his admin-istration is planning an overhaul of US policieson H-1B visa and will encourage talented andhighly-skilled people to pursue career optionsin the US. “H1-B holders in the US can restassured that changes are soon coming which willbring both simplicity and certainty to your stay,including a potential path to citizenship. Wewant to encourage talented and highly skilled

people to pursue career options in the US,”Trump tweeted on Friday.

Trump’s tweet comes as a good news forIndian professionals, especially in the IT sector,who currently have to wait for nearly a decadeto get a Green Card or permanent legal resi-dency. In the first two years of his presidency,Trump administration made it tough for the H-1B visa holders over their overstay, extension andissuing of new visa to them.

The H-1B visa, most sought-after amongIndian IT professionals, is a non-immigrant visathat allows US companies to employ foreignworkers in speciality occupations that requiretheoretical or technical expertise. PTI

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The Centre has granted sanc-tion to prosecute five offi-

cers including former bureau-crats, who are co-accused withformer Finance Minister PChidambaram in the Aircel-Maxis probe, the CBI on Fridayinformed the 2G court. TheCBI also filed chargesheet in aKolkata court againstChidambaram’s wife Nalini inSaradha scam for acceptingbribes of �1.40 crore from thechit fund owner Sudipto Sen.

The Sanction Prosecutionrequest of CBI was pending inthe Finance Ministry for thepast six months. The co-accused officers withChidambaram and son Kartiare former Finance SecretariesAshok Jha and Ashok Chawlaand two serving IAS officersKumar Sanjay Krishnan(Assam Cadre), Deepak KumarSingh (Bihar Cadre) and retiredUnder Secretary Ram Saran.

Ashok Chawla hasresigned. The CBI in thechargesheet accused these offi-cers, then working in theForeign Investment PromotionBoard (FIPB), of illegally

approving the foreign invest-ment clearance to Malaysianfirm Maxis to acquire mobilephone operator Aircel. AshokChawla is currently Chairmanof National Stock Exchange(NSE). Chidambaram’s lawyersKapil Sibal and AbhisehkSinghvi argued against theCBI’s demand for custodialinterrogation of Chidambaram.The Special Public ProsecutorTushar Mehta said that theagency needed custodial inter-rogation of the former FinanceMinister in the light of new evi-dences procured.

The submissions weremade before Special Judge OPSaini who extended tillFebruary 1 the interim protec-tion from arrest granted toChidambaram and Karti inthe Aircel-Maxis cases filed bythe CBI and the ED.

Meanwhile, in the eveningin another embarrassment toChidambaram, wife Nalini waschargesheeted by the CBI in the

Saradha chit fund case, foraccepting a bribe of �1.40 crore.

The chargesheet, whichwas filed in the special CBIcourt in the Barasat court inKolkata, has alleged that “sheentered into a criminal con-spiracy with Sudipta Sen, theproprietor of the Saradhagroup, and other accused per-sons with an intention of cheat-ing and misappropriation offunds of the Saradha group ofcompanies,” a CBI spokesper-son in New Delhi said.

The CBI alleged thatManoranjana Sinh, estrangedwife of former Union MinisterMatang Sinh, introduced Sen toNalini Chidambaram to man-age probes by various agencieslike Sebi and RoC against himfor which she allegedly received�1.4 crore during 2010-12through his companies. Thechargesheet, the sixth in theSaradha scam, was filed in aspecial court in Kolkata.

The Saradha group hadraised �2,500 crore from peo-ple by luring them with attrac-tive interest rates and the bor-rowed money was not repaid.Sen had closed operations ofthe company in 2013 after fail-ing to pay returns.

In this chargesheet,Anubhuti Printers andPublications Private Limitedand Sen are co-accused alongwith Nalini Chidambaram,who could not be reached fora comment.

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After a delay of several years,Chief Ministers of six

north Indian States —Haryana, Himachal Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthanand Uttar Pradesh — signed anagreement for Renukaji Multi-Purpose Dam project onFriday, in the presence ofUnion Minister Nitin Gadkari.Besides supplying 275 milliongallons of water to Delhi everyday, the dam will generate 40mega watt of electricity forHimachal Pradesh.

The projects were con-ceived in 2008. The dam is con-ceptualised as a three-way pro-ject to be constructed along theYamuna and two of its tribu-taries, the Tons and Giri inUttarakhand and HimachalPradesh. The project has beenconceived as a drinking watersupply scheme for the nation-al capital and envisages theconstruction of 148 m highrock fill dam on river Giri atDadahu in Sirmaur districtand a powerhouse at toe of thedam.

According to the Ministry,the total cost of the project esti-mated on price Level 2015 is �4,596.76 crore out of which thecost of irrigation/drinkingwater component is �4,325.43crore and the power compo-nent �277.33 crore. The shareof water among the States willbe: Haryana-47.8 per cent;Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand-33.65 per cent; Himachal-3.15per cent; Rajasthan-9.3 percent and NCT of Delhi: 6.04

per cent.The agreement was signed

by Arvind Kejriwal, AshokGehlot, Yogi Adityanath,Manohar Lal Khattar, Jai RamThakur and Trivendra SinghRawat — the Chief Ministers ofDelhi, Rajasthan, UttarPradesh, Haryana, HimachalPradesh, and Uttarakhand,respectively.

The projects includeLakhwar project on theYamuna in Uttarakhand, Kisauon the Tons in Uttarakhandand Himachal, and Renukaji onthe Giri in Himachal.

“After construction of thedam, the flow of river Giri willincrease by about 110 per centwhich will meet the drinking

water needs of Delhi and otherbasin States up to some extentin the lean period,” Gadkarisaid.

The States had alreadysigned an agreement in respectof sharing of cost and benefitsof Lakhwar project in August2018. Renukaji Dam projecthas been conceived as a storageproject on the Giri river (trib-utary of the Yamuna) inSirmour district of Himachal.It envisages construction if 148m-high rock-filled dam forsupply of 23 cumec water toDelhi and other basin States.“After the construction of thedam, the flow of river Giri willincrease by about 110 per centwhich will meet the drinking

water needs of Delhi and otherbasin states up to some extentin the lean period,” officialsadded.

The power project is pro-posed to be executed byHimachal Pradesh PowerCorporation Ltd (HPPCL).The live storage of Renukajiproject is 0.404 MAF and totalsubmergence area is about1,508 hectares in the territoryof Himachal. Stored water ofRenukaji Dam will be used bythe signatory states.

The Centre will bear 90 percent of cost of irrigation/drink-ing water component, and thebalance cost will be borne bythe states as per the MoUinked by them in 1994.

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The Supreme Court onFriday gave its nod to ongo-

ing projects under theGovernment’s ambitiousChardham development plan,which proposes to provide all-weather connectivity to thefour holy towns ofUttarakhand.

The top court, however,said the stay on stalled projectsunder the plan would contin-ue till further orders. A Benchof justices RF Nariman andVineet Saran asked the Centreto file its affidavit on a pleaseeking a stay on the order theNational Green Tribunal(NGT), which had cleared theprojects and set up a commit-tee to oversee it.

The Chardham projectintends to connect four townsof the hilly state — Yamunotri,Gangotri, Kedarnath andBadrinath — by all-weatherroads.

The top court had onNovember 26 sought the

Centre’s response on why itshould not stay the NGT orderclearing the project.

Advocate Sanjay Parekh,appearing for the petitioner,NGO Citizens for Green Doon,had said that if the project wasallowed to go on, an irre-versible damage would be doneto the ecology which would beequal to damage done by 10hydro power projects.

He had added that moun-tains in Uttarakhand were veryfragile and if environment con-cerns were not taken care of, atragedy like the Kedarnathflash flood of 2013 can happenagain.

The Kedarnath area in theState had received unprece-

dented rainfall between June14-17 in 2013 and theChorabari lake there had col-lapsed due to cloudburst result-ing in a major flash flood.

Several roads, buildingsand other structures werewashed away and, according tothe State Government, the esti-mated death toll was around10,000, with over 3,000 personsmissing.

On September 26, thegreen tribunal had constituteda committee to monitor theambitious road project whilegiving its nod with some safe-guards in view of larger publicinterest and the country’s secu-rity. The committee headed byformer Uttarakhand HighCourt Judge Justice UC Dhyaniwill oversee the implementa-tion of the EnvironmentManagement Plan (EMP) ofthe project.

The petitioner NGO hadsaid that the environmentclearance was must for theproject and the ongoing workwas “blatantly illegal”.

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The Meghalaya Governmentinformed the Supreme

Court on Friday that the IndianNavy has deployed five remote-ly-operated vehicles (ROVs)in the operation to rescue 15miners trapped inside an ille-gal coal mine in East JaintiaHills district since December 13.

The State Government tolda bench of Justices AK Sikriand S Abdul Nazeer that onecrore litres of water had beenpumped out from the illegalmine, but seepage from near-by rivers was creating hurdlesin the rescue operation.

The Bench sought to knowfrom the State’s counsel as towhether any action had been taken against thoseindulging in illegal miningactivities.

The counsel told the courtthat the person running theillegal mine where the incidenttook place had been arrested.

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The Supreme Court onFriday sought response

from the Centre and the TamilNadu Government on a pleaseeking to restrain politicalparties from erecting digitalbanners on roadside acrossthe State.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi sought theresponse within six weeks onthe petition filed by a charita-ble trust ‘In Defence ofEnvironment and Animals’ andasked as to why the plea shouldnot be kept open, enabling theMadras High Court to monitorthe developments in the case.

“Issue notice, fixing areturnable date within sixweeks, to show cause as to whythe writ petition should not bekept open to enable the HighCourt to monitor the develop-ments that may take place inthe subject matter from time totime,” the Bench, also com-

prising Justice SK Kaul, said.The plea had sought pre-

venting encroachments via reli-gious symbols and politicalgraffiti, advertisements by pri-vate parties on naturalresources like mountains, hills,hillocks, avenue trees and onnational and State highways.

The Madras High Courthad on December 19 last issuedan interim order restrainingpolitical parties from puttingup digital banners on roadsideunless the State Governmentand local bodies came out witha clear undertaking that therules and various orders passedby the court would be strictlyimplemented and no violationwould take place.

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The Supreme Court onFriday closed the case seek-

ing action against US-basedpharma major Johnson andJohnson for allegedly fittingfaulty hip implants, and saidthat steps have been taken bythe Centre to provide com-pensation of up to �1.22 croreto patients who have beenimpacted.

A Bench comprising ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi andJustice SK Kaul took note of thesteps taken by the UnionMinistry of Health and FamilyWelfare on award of compen-sation to the aggrieved personsand said that there was “no jus-tification” to keep the petitionpending.

The apex court wasinformed by Solicitor GeneralTushar Mehta, representingthe Centre, that certain modi-fications were suggested bytwo panels, headed by doctorsArun Kumar Aggarwal and RK

Arya respectively, on determi-nation of quantum of com-pensation payable to the vic-tims of faulty hip implantsand the Government hasaccepted them.

The committee “recom-mended that compensation upto the extent of �1.22 croreapproximately can be grantedand also the principles/formu-la for grant of compensationhave/has been recommended,which recommendations havebeen accepted by the Ministryof Health and Family Welfare,”the bench noted in the order.

The apex court was hear-ing the PIL of Arun KumarGoenka alleging that “faulty”and “deadly” hip implants havebeen fitted into the bodies of4,525 Indian patients who hadundergone the replacementsurgeries since 2005.

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The Justice HS Bedi com-mittee, which investigated

several cases of alleged fakeencounter in Gujarat from2002 to 2006, has recom-mended prosecution of policeofficials in three out of the 17cases probed by it.

In its final report filed inthe apex court, Justice Bedi hassaid three persons — SameerKhan, Kasam Jafar and HajiHaji Ismail — were prime faciekilled in fake encounters by theGujarat Police officials.

The committee has indict-ed a total of nine police offi-cials, including three inspectorrank officer.

It has however not recom-mended prosecution of anyIPS officer in these cases.

The court had appointedJustice Bedi, ex-Supreme Courtjudge, as chairman of the mon-itoring committee probing 17encounter cases from 2002 to2006 in Gujarat and the panelhad submitted its report to thetop court in a sealed cover inFebruary last year.

On January 9, a benchheaded by Chief Justice RanjanGogoi had rejected the Gujaratgovernment’s plea to maintainconfidentiality of the finalreport of committee andordered that it be given to peti-tioners, including poet andlyricist Javed Akhtar.

Dealing with the case ofSameer Khan, the committeehas recommended prosecu-tion of two inspectors KMVaghela and TA Barot for theoffence of murder and otherrelevant offences.

According to the police,Sameer along with his cousinhad stabbed a police constable,who had died on the spot inMay 1996. While his cousinwas arrested, he had fled fromspot. The police had allegedthat later he went to Pakistanand took training from terrororganisation Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and re-entered India via Nepal.

The report noted that asper police, after the 2002Akshardham Mandir attack,Sameer was directed by aPakistan-based JeM operativeto go to Ahmedabad and killthe then Chief MinisterNarendra Modi.

It noted that Sameer wasarrested by the Crime Branchin a case related to waging waragainst the country and whenhe was taken at the spot wherethe constable was stabbed in1996, he snatched the loadedrevolver of inspector Vaghelaand fired at him and ran away.

As per police, the other twoinspectors — Tarun Barot andAA Chauhan (since dead) —fired at him and he was latertaken to a hospital but wasdeclared dead.

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Describing his resignationfrom the elite Indian

Administrative Service (IAS) as‘small act of defiance’, ShahFaesal on Friday announced tojoin the electoral politics totransform the system of gov-ernance in the embattledJammu & Kashmir. Contrary toperception that he was joiningthe National Conference (NC),he said he would meet withstakeholders before taking afinal decision.

Faesal, 35, topper of the2009 IAS batch, resigned ear-lier this week shortly aftercompleting a fellowship ongovernance in US basedHarvard University. He said hewould always take pride in hisnine-year association with theelite service.

Addressing his maidenPress conference Faesal saidthat he resigned to remind theCentral Government of itsduties towards Kashmiris. “Iam protesting against lack ofcredible political initiative bythe Centre. It is important thatright to life of Kashmiri peopleis respected,” he said.

He said that he will not joinseparatist Hurriyat Conferencebecause they do not believe inthe electoral system and theirpublic support is unproven. “Iam a man from the system andI would be happy to changethings by being in the system.Hurriyat doesn’t give me that

opportunity as they don’tbelieve in electoral politics,” hesaid. He said he was enoughqualified to become a legislatoror a Parliament member.

He said he was inspired byImran Khan and ArvindKejriwal but differentiated hisspace on the basis of being in aconflict zone. “I wish if young-sters give me support then I willbe very happy to do a retake ofImran Khan and Kejriwal,” hesaid. He said his motive was tomake people believe that elec-toral politics was credible insti-tution. “We want to destroy pol-itics the way it has been hap-pening,” he added.

Faesal also criticised theBJP Government’s attacks onthe State’s “special position andidentity”, and said it was

indulging in such activities forelectoral gains in rest of thecountry. “The rise in lynchmob nationalism in our coun-try also dejects me. There arealso attempts to play one regionof the Jammu & Kashmiragainst another,” he said.

He said his protest wasagainst failure of the CentralGovernment in facilitating thehomecoming of Pandits. “Youneed to create favourable envi-ronment for the return ofPandits who are inalienablepart of Kashmiri society,” hesaid adding that he was alsopained over the loss of life oflimb of border residents, espe-cially in Jammu region.

He said the Centre under-mined the national institu-tions and attacked personal,religious and ideological liber-ties. “The culture of under-mining the institutions likeCBI, NIA are part of the provo-cations that have resulted in mydecision to resign from theIAS,” he said.

He rued over the constantattacks on the identity of J&Kduring the present dispensa-tion. “The Article 370 and35A must be guarded tostrengthen the bond betweenIndia and J&K,” he said.

He said he would approachthe people of India to come tothe rescue of Kashmir. He saidhe would try to build consen-sus in the entire state and dis-courage the politics of pitchingone region against the other.

Bengaluru: Declaring thatIndia’s second Moon mission isplanned for mid-April thisyear, ISRO on Friday said it wasalso gearing up for its maidenhuman spaceflight programme‘Gaganyaan’ by 2021-end thatis likely to include a womanastronaut.

The space agency had ear-lier said Chandrayaan-2 will belaunched in a window fromJanuary-February 16, 2019.

“Right now Chandrayaan isscheduled from March 25 toApril end. Most probably, thenormal targeted date is Aprilmiddle,” ISRO Chairman KSivan said.

The space agency had ear-

lier planned to launch thespacecraft sometime betweenJanuary and February but itcould not materialise becausecertain tests could not be con-ducted, Sivan told reporters ashe laid out ISRO’s programmes.

“If we miss April, it will goto June,” he said in response toa question about the nextlaunch window available,adding that “but, we will be tar-geting April”.

Chandrayaan-2 mission,costing nearly Rs 800 crore, is anadvanced version of the previ-ous Chandrayaan-1 missionabout 10 years ago. It is a total-ly indigenous venture and com-prises an orbiter, a lander and a

rover. After a controlled descent,the lander will soft-land on thelunar surface at a specified siteand deploy a rover, according tothe Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO).

The six-wheeled rover willmove around the landing siteon the lunar surface in a semi-autonomous mode as decidedby the ground commands.

The instruments on therover will observe the lunarsurface and send back data,which will be useful for analy-sis of the lunar soil.

The 3,290-kgChandrayaan-2 will orbit theMoon and perform the objec-tives of remote sensing it.

The payloads will collectscientific information on lunartopography, mineralogy, ele-mental abundance, lunar exos-phere and signatures of hydrox-yl and water-ice, the space

agency said.It might take 35 to 45 days

to reach the Moon after thelaunch, as ISRO plans six-stage orbit raising manoeu-vres, Sivan said. PTI

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Shillong: A bus carrying ateam of rescuers from Odisha,headed to aid the operations totrace 15 miners trapped in a rat-hole coal mine in Meghalaya,was attacked in East Jaintia Hillsdistrict allegedly by peopleprotesting against the citizen-ship bill, police said on Friday.

District Superintendent of

Police Sylvester Nongtyngersaid while there was no injuriesto any personnel when the buswas targeted on Thursday nighton the National Highway in theKhasi-Jaintia Hills region, thevehicle was partially damaged.

Protests have been report-ed from several places in thenortheast region against the

Citizenship (Amendment) Billthat seeks to accord Indian cit-izenship on non-Muslims fromAfghanistan, Bangladesh andPakistan. On Thursday night,a group of 14 NGO sponsoreda night blockade on highwaysand hence traffic movementon the National Highway wasdisrupted, police said. PTI

Imphal: The BJP-ledGovernment in Manipur hasdecided to urge the Centre toexempt the State from the juris-diction of the Citizenship(Amendment) Bill, the latestvoice from the North-Eastagainst the proposed legislation.

Protesters hit the streetsagainst the bill on Friday. Threepersons, including a womanand a police officer, wereinjured in a clash between stu-dents, women vendors and thepolice at the KhwairambanBazaar, the main market here,during a mass rally against the

Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016.

Police had to fire teargasshells to disperse the agitators,who joined the mass rally joint-ly organised by six students’organisations and the womenvendors of the KhwairambanBazaar. A police officer, whodid not want to be quoted, saidsome unidentified student agi-tators threw mineral water bot-tles at the police personnel, inwhich a sub-divisional policeofficer (SDPO) got injured onhis face and he was hospi-talised. PTI

Mumbai: The Sharad Pawar-led NCP on Friday saidMaharashtra Chief MinisterDevendra Fadnavis ‘spied on’the party’s rally by video-graphing it through police,and accused the BJP-led gov-ernment of imposing ‘emer-gency’ through back door.

State NCP president JayantPatil said the party would on itsown send videos of its rallies tothe government, which healleged was “misusing” policemachinery.

The NCP has been holdingrallies as part of its public out-reach programme called the

‘Parivartan Yatra’ to highlightalleged failures of the BJP-ledCentral and State Governmentsahead of the 2019 general polls.

“Fadnavis instructed policeto record videos of our#ParivartanYatra to keep an eyeon us! Instead of such hiddenspying, we will personally send

you videos. Hope you will alsonotice the public anger towardsyour Government in thesevideos. Don’t misuse the PoliceForce!” Patil tweeted.

He shared on the micro-blogging site the photo of apoliceman filming the NCP’srally at Khed in coastal

Ratnagiri district.Speaking at the rally, NCP

leader Ajit Pawar said policehave been filming the party’spublic meetings at a time whenneither elections were beingheld nor the model code ofconduct was in force.

PTI

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Kannauj: A day before his joint Pressconference with Bahujan Samaj Party chiefMayawati, Samajwadi Party presidentAkhilesh Yadav on Friday said the alliancewill get the math right in the upcoming LokSabha election and the BJP will face defeat.

The two parties have agreed to an in-principle alliance ahead of the parliamentary elections, SP’s nationalspokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary hadsaid last week.

“Last time we had come together in theLok Sabha by-elections and BJP had lostthe seats (earlier held by) Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath and Deputy ChiefMinister Keshav Prasad Maurya. This timetoo our math will be right and the BJP willface defeat,” Yadav said at a chaupal here.

A formal announcement on thealliance between the two Uttar Pradesh-based parties will be made at Saturday’sjoint press conference with BSP, he said.Responding to a question, the former UttarPradesh Chief Minister said the BJP had

strengthened because it joined handswith regional parties and his party was alsogaining strength by forming a coalition.

“Our (BSP and SP) coming togetherhas not only created fear in the BJP but alsoin the Congress,” Yadav added.

The BSP and SP alliance has virtual-ly shut its doors to Congress in the State.

However, Chaudhary had said thealliance will not field candidates in Amethiand Raebareli, leaving the two Lok Sabhaconstituencies for Congress presidentRahul Gandhi and United ProgressAlliance (UPA) chief Sonia Gandhi. Yadavgave a slogan for the upcoming polls:“Humara kaam bolta hai, BJP ka dhokhabolta hai” (Our work speaks for itself, BJP’sbetrayal speaks).

He also took a dig at the BJP-led StateGovernment’s decision to levy an addi-tional 0.5 per cent cess on excise items to fund cow shelters, saying peoplewill have to drink more liquor now for cow safety. PTI

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In a gratis display of courtesyand political civility — a

rare species in today’s politics— Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on Fridaystood out and stood by ageingformer Prime MinisterManmohan Singh vehementlyquestioning the vile taste thatwent into the making of theAccidental Prime Minister.

Without referring directlyto Prime Minister NarendraModi for inspiring the movie,Mamata advised the makersand viewers to also see “TheDisastrous Prime Minister.”

Even as a group ofCongress men protested thelaunch of the movie at a NorthKolkata multiplex, Banerjee

thundered before a cheeringcrowd at Barasat “look whatthey are doing in the name ofthe Accidental Prime Minister,”expressing the hurt she felt inhearing how Dr Singh wasbeing lampooned.

“You know I am from a dif-ferent party. I came out of theCongress and formed theTrinamool Congress with yourblessings because I had differ-ences with them. But that is adifferent issue. Now I thinkwhat they are doing is a dis-tortion (of facts) which iswrong” Banerjee said askingthe people to see another “film”the story of which had startedunfolding already — “TheDisastrous Prime Minister.”

She would not howevername Dr Singh’s successor.

“Those who are doing adrama before the elections overAccidental Prime Minister,should also see another film —‘The Disastrous PM’,” she said,

adding the film would soon beshown in coming days.

“No one will be spared.Today you are misrepresentingsomeone. Tomorrow thingswill be reflected back on you,”she warned.

Though she would notname the senior BJP leader, shecompared him with the villainof a super hit film of 1970s, say-ing “he can’t even talk andsmile properly” and people arescared of his appearance.

Attacking the ModiGovernment for making a“drama” out of reservationsfor upper castes Banerjee won-dered “where is the job that youwill give o the people” addingthe whole reservation gim-mick was a drama enacted towin votes before the elections.

Mathura: Rashtriya Lok Dalpresident Ajit Singh hasreferred to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Uttar PradeshChief Minister Yogi Adityanathand Union Minister SmritiIrani as “bull, calf and cow”,triggering a row.

Calling the remarks“undignified”, a BJP leaderdemanded an apology from theRLD chief. During his ‘Kisanonse Samvad’ (dialogue withfarmers) event at Kosi Kalanhere, Singh said it is the virtueof democracy that the peoplehave the right to change aPrime Minister after five yearsif they get a “wrong” one.

“I read in newspapers thesedays that your cows, bulls andcalves (gai-bail-bachhde) areroaming around a lot,” he saidin an apparent reference to thestray cattle menace.

“You are locking them upin schools and colleges. Peoplecall them Modi-Yogi. Is thatright?” he added.

“Some people also say thata ‘hatti-katti gai’ (well-builtcow) has come. Smriti Irani isalso moving around,” Singhsaid. PTI

Jammu: Jammu & KashmirGovernor Satya Pal Malik onFriday said the administrationwas ready for Assembly elec-tions in the State and a call inthis direction should be takenby the Election Commissionand New Delhi.

“Whenever, they (EC) tellus, we are ready for the polls (toassembly),” he told reportershere after the oath-taking cer-emony of sarpanch of Jammuregion. On IAS officer ShahFaesal’s resignation, Malik saidhe himself was a Governmentemployee and did not wish tocomment on the matter.

The EC had in Novemberlast said fresh elections in J&Kwill be held within the next sixmonths, even as the body didnot rule out the possibility ofholding the State polls beforethe Lok Sabha polls due thisyear. PTI

Thiruvananthapuram: Amidmedia reports that the LDFGovernment in Kerala plannedto remove the Sabarimalatantri, Travancore DevaswomBoard (TDB), the apex templebody, on Friday said it had noteven discussed the matter andthe controversy was to createtrouble in the coming‘Makaravilakku’ festival.

TDB president APadmakumar said there wereseveral court verdicts on theappointment and powers of thetantri (head priest) of Hindushrines and the Board couldnot take a decision without tak-ing into account all these.

However, the Kerala TantriSamajam, an umbrella organ-isation of head priests of tem-ples in the State, on Thursdaysaid they would approach theSupreme Court and the union government if theCPI(M)-led LDF Governmenttakes any decision to removeKandararu Rajeevaru as theSabarimala tantri.

Senior Kerala minister GSudhakaran had even calledhim a “Brahmin monster” forconducting the ‘purification’.

PTI

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DMK president MK Stalinon Friday declared that his

party will never forge any kindof alliance with the “NarendraModi-led National DemocraticAlliance” in the upcoming LokSabha elections and shut thedoors on the Prime Ministerfor his ‘invitation to old friendsto join the NDA’.

Stalin’s statement was inresponse to a comment made byPrime Minister Narendra Modiduring an interaction with BJP’sbooth level workers from fivedistricts in Tamil Nadu throughvideo-conferencing. “Twentyyears ago the visionary leaderAtal Bihari Vajpayee had ush-ered in a new culture in Indianpolitics, that of successful coali-tion politics,” Modi had told oneof the booth level worker whoasked the Prime Ministerwhether the BJP would haveelectoral alliance with theAIADMK, DMK or other polit-ical entities in the State.

Modi replied that the BJPalways cherished its old friends.“Our doors are always open forparties,” he had said onThursday. It may be remem-

bered that the DMK was aconstituent of the BJP-led NDAduring 1999 to 2003 and theparty’s representatives like lateMurasoli Maran, T R Baalu, ARaja were members of the coun-cil of ministers led by Vajpayee.It was after the announcementof the 2004 Lok Sabha electionthe DMK quit the NDA andjoined the Congress-led UPA.

In a scathing rebuff, Stalinsaid that Narendra Modi wasnot Atal Bihari Vajpayee andthere was no possibility of theDMK joining hands with the“Narendra Modi-led NationalDemocratic Alliance”.

“In the last four and halfyears Modi has been onlyspeaking and has not taken anysteps to strengthen India’sintegrity… I categorically statethat the DMK will not ally withthe Narendra Modi-led BJPwhich has been governing thecountry without giving cre-dentials to the core ideas likesecularism, social justice, equal-ity, alliance dharma and feder-al rights. It should be noted thatthe DMK was part of the NDAduring the 1999 Lok SabhaElections and supported theAtal Bihari Vajpayee govern-ment until 2003,” said Stalin.

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Tamil Nadu Chief MinisterK Palaniswami on Friday

said the ruling AIADMK willsupport only a party that doesgood to the State. Speaking ata function where members ofvarious parties joined hisAIADMK, Palaniswami said:“We will not accept those whobetray the interests of TamilNadu’s people.”

His reference to an elec-toral alliance comes a day afterPrime Minister Narendra Modi

declared that the party’s doorswere open for alliances and itcherished old friends. But Modidid not name any party.

Most Tamil Nadu parties,be it AIADMK, DMK, PMKand MDMK, had aligned withthe BJP in the past. But the BJPhas no ally in Tamil Nadu now.

Tamil Nadu parties arenow opposed to the centralgovernment’s permission toKarnataka to prepare a detailedproject report (DPR) for con-struction of a dam across theCauvery river at Mekadatu.

Yavatmal: In a first, farm widowVaishali S Yede on Friday inau-gurated the controversy-ridden92nd Akhil Bharatiya MarathiSahitya Sammelan, amid aprotest by a section of invitees.

“This is first time that a non-literary personality who repre-sents the peasantry of this regionhas been invited to inauguratethe 92nd ABMSS,” VidarbhaSahitya Sangh PresidentManohar Mhaisalkar said short-ly before the inaugural.

All eyes were on the ABMSS

event since last Sunday when theparent body, Akhil BharatiyaMarathi Sahitya Mahamandalabruptly withdrew its invitationto renowned English writerNayantara Sahgal to inauguratethe 92nd conference.

The raging row resulted intop Marathi literary figuresdeclining invites to replaceSahgal for the inaugural, otherinvitees boycotting the ABMSS,culminating in the resignationof ABMSM president ShripadJoshi three days ago. IANS

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The first thing that 93-year-oldMahathir Mohamad said whenvoted back as Malaysian PrimeMinister was, “Yes I am alive…andthe country’s youth voted for me.”

The grand patriarch’s return by an electorate,40 per cent of which is young, was anendorsement of his past experience as arobust builder who had made modernMalaysia as the world knew it, enough tooverlook the ghosts from his past. Voters maynot have forgiven his autocratic and mono-lithic ways of functioning but realised he wasstill worth placing a bet on for the greatergood. This analogy perfectly fits the returnof former Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshitas president of the state Congress to steer itin mission mode for the general elections.

Yes, she is 80, in good health havingrecovered from her heart condition, and isback in the familiar saddle. Of course, she hasthe “Mahathir” advantage if one may call itthat. Having been the Delhi Chief Ministerfor 15 years, winning three rounds of elec-tions between 1998 and 2008, she is undoubt-edly responsible for reshaping Delhi as aworld capital with her brand of developmentpolitics. In fact, much of the template ofDelhi’s governance has frankly been reset byher. Whether it is road safety, which she pio-neered with the “wear the seat belt” campaign,clean air, which she committed to by chang-ing the city’s traffic fleet to CNG, theengagement and stakeholdership with locals,which she started with the Bhaagidarischeme, prioritising education in governmentschools and improving their performance,cleaning up the city and taking advantage ofthe Delhi Metro’s progress, she did give thecity a reloaded version of the post-Asiadmakeover. Her grandmotherly image cutacross sections of society. To the lesser priv-ileged, she appeared as one they could com-miserate and share their burdens with, to theupper crust, she was the erudite thinker whocould rationalise her priorities and to theyoung, she was the aunt who could be trust-ed to address their concerns and more impor-tantly, had the farsightedness to factor in theirfuture. And despite the faction fights andcompetitive voices in her party unit, she didmanage to hold it all together. Even earn atacit acknowledgement from the Oppositionparties then. Whatever the shortcomings inher last term, it is this legacy that has heldher in good stead, enough to be called backto the only political turf that worked for her.

Track record shows she could do it withelan. While current AAP Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal laments how his hands aretied in executing his vision and his publicspats with the LG are common knowledge,Dikshit wrapped her head around partialstatehood issues with equanimity. She con-ducted herself without making a public spec-tacle of her problems but working within lim-itations. As she writes in her memoirs, “Thiscumbersome process of requiring so manylevels of approval was unique to Delhi. But

the bottomline was that fullstatehood or not, to the peopleof Delhi, the Chief Minister sig-nified the face of governance.They would not have muchpatience for a chief minister try-ing to explain an underwhelm-ing ‘report card’ by enumerat-ing all the areas that fell outsideher jurisdiction. There are twoways of dealing with such situ-ations. One can throw up one’shands and say it is impossible toperform under these circum-stances or negotiate one’s waythrough innumerable mine-fields in the belief that the pri-mary aim is to deliver on thepromise of governance.”

True, Dikshit had not seensuccess as a politician in UP,where she was aided by herillustrious father-in-law andveteran Congress leader UmaShankar Dikshit. But the auranever worked for her electoral-ly. Till she sought to rescue it in1998 with Delhi. Within thestate unit, she had to do a toughbalancing act with several aspi-rant leaders. Many claimed thatshe survived because she hadthe party high command’sendorsement and never quiteheeded the grassroots cadre. Buteven that relationship, thoughsome might have taken forgranted, has had a rocky runwith highs and lows. Yet Dikshitwas able to get beyond hergubernatorial assignments post-defeat and find her way back torelevance, with the party nam-

ing her as chief ministerial can-didate for the Uttar Pradeshpolls. But sensing she could bea scapegoat here given theCongress’ dismal voteshare andsaffron tide, she was wiseenough to bow out of the race.This time she has the tradewinds in her favour. The recentvictories of the Congress in theAssembly elections in the threecrucial heartland States haveproved again that leaders witha depth of grassroots experience,deft political management andreadiness to plunge deep candeliver the goods. Even makethe Young Turks sit up and takenotice. Besides, Dikshit has anadded advantage. Delhi voters,tormented by the endless powertussle between the AAP govern-ment and the Centre, are nowtired of the stasis when it comesto civic issues plaguing the city.Many neutral voices have evencompared the present scenariowith the better times of Dikshit’sDelhi. So she has an edge in per-ception, something that shehad worked on in the early yearswith deft media management.

This time, Dikshit too refus-es to be a foregone conclusionand is itching to claim her rele-vance. But there is the shadowof corruption charges over theconduct of the CommonwealthGames during her regime. Andhad it not been for the scale ofthe scam, where Central partyleaders like Suresh Kalmadiwere directly implicated while

she managed to stay inside thering of fire without singing her-self too much, Kejriwal wouldnot have spiralled to legitimacythe way he did. Little wonderthen that soon after theannouncement of her anoint-ment as Delhi Congress chief,Kejriwal raked up her taintedpast, saying the party clearly hada “leadership deficit.”

However, Dikshit is up forthe challenge. Yes, there’s theKejriwal barrage, his claims ofslum development and reduc-ing power bills, but the moreimportant one is tying up theparty together. Present partypresident Ajay Maken may havebowed out citing ill-health andpublicly given her the vote ofconfidence but Dikshit’s jobwill be to keep him in thescheme of things, consideringhe did helm the party duringtroubling times and solidify ananti-AAP narrative. She needshim and other stalwarts to pullup the Congress votebase, makean electoral difference and atleast get a bargaining advantage.

There is a lot of talk in thepower corridors about Congressand AAP having a broaderunderstanding to defeat theBJP in the Lok Sabha polls.Maken has been a known oppo-nent of this formula for short-term gain and hates risking along-term revival of the party.And though many predict thatDikshit has been brought in toease this arrangement, consid-

ering the combined voteshare ofboth parties can indeed squelchthe BJP for Lok Sabha, she her-self has been blowing hot andcold over AAP given her owntumultuous history with it.However, she is known to fall inline with the high commandand given the AAP’s irrele-vance outside Delhi and theresurgent Congress in states, thismay not yet be a priority.

Dikshit’s big challenge willbe consolidation of votes. Canshe break into the larger com-munity of businessmen, tradersand Poorvanchalis, which isstrongly in the BJP’s grip? Canshe, most importantly, win backthe crucial Dalit and Muslimvotes, which have happilymigrated to the AAP? Can she“broom” them back andbecome the mohalla queen? Ifwe go by the 2017 municipalpolls, AAP’s vote share is downto 26 per cent while theCongress is up to about 22 percent. But elections are alsomuch about chemistry thanarithmetic. And Dikshit certain-ly has a past history of workingmagic with Delhi.

Besides, she is not alone insurviving and winning.Octogenarians around theworld, from politics to perform-ing arts, are delivering and stillgoing strong. So much so thattrend forecasters are wonderingif 80s are the new 40s for 2019.

(The writer is AssociateEditor, The Pioneer)

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Sir — This refers to the editori-al, “Career suicide” (January 11).Cricket all-rounder HardikPandya and his team buddy KLRahul, more known for theirexploits on the field, are nowdrawing infamy off it. And whereis Karan Johar, who started allthis? Since this was not a liveshow, he could have surely edit-ed them. Questions raised by himwere heavily sexist, making itmandatory for those replying toanswer in the same vein. Butentertainment being the leitmo-tif of the idiot box, both cricketersand Bollywood stars now come inthe same bracket.

Hardik Pandya’s commentswere crude. As role models,cricketers need to be far morerespectful. But while Pandya isbeing punished for it, questionnow is: How can we ensure thatall of this doesn’t happen in thefuture? For, young athletes, deal-ing with stardom isn’t easy.Money, glamour and fame aren’teasy to handle and there aremany who aren’t ready to dealwith it all. Pandya is a classicexample. In the course of the lasttwo years, he has become a

multi-millionaire with an incred-ible number of fans looking upto him as a role model. Peopleseek him out for autographs,want to pose for pictures withhim and share the same socialspace with him. He is an Indiannational team cricketer, whichalmost literally is one in a billion.It is a heady world.

Our cricketers need to bementored. They need to be

taught how to deal with themedia and conduct themselvesin the public, even on TV shows.They need to understand whereto draw the line. For some, likeSachin Tendulkar or RahulDravid, things came naturally.For others, like Pandya, we needto make them more sensitive topeople’s sentiments.

J Akshobhya Mysuru

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Sir — It is indeed welcome thatArmy Chief Gen Bipin Rawat didnot mince words while giving astern warning to his Armymen.Nobody in the Army is permit-ted to indulge in gay sex or adul-tery as the conduct of personnelis governed by the Army Act,1950. The Army finds the act of

‘adultery’ as “stealing the affectionof a brother officer’s wife.” This isquite a convincing definition thatcan deter our Armymen fromperpetrating the crime.

But at the same time, theArmy Chief, while respectingthe country’s law, said, “ We arenot above the country’s law. Butwhen one joins the Indian Army,some of the rights and privilegesone enjoys must be forfeited as atrue Indian soldier.” So consider-ing the entirety of the gay sexissue in the Army, Rawat has sethis own strict code of conductwith lofty ideals that can hold theArmy in high esteem.

TK Nandanan Chennai

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Sir — Reservations cannot erad-icate poverty, solve agrarian cri-sis or generate employment. At atime when systemic responses tothese problems are warranted,choosing the easy way of reserva-tion amounts to escapism.

RatnaVia email

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The Director of the Pak Instituteof Peace Studies (PIPS), AmirRana, wrote in his December 30,

2018 article for daily Dawn that theState’s romance with radical Barelvigroups was short-lived because itfailed to build a counter-narrative tothat of the Deobandi militant groups.This is an accurate observation. ButRana only explores it in the context ofthe swift rise and equally rapid collapseof a nexus between the State and theTehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP).

Rana is correct in seeing the aboveas an experiment that was initiated tocounter the militant narrative of themore dogmatic Deobandi groups. Thenecessity in this context arose when,between 2015 and 2017, the State waslargely successful in overcoming themore belligerent expressions of thesegroups, but struggled to counter theimpact of the radical mindset fostered

by these groups in the past.The irony is that the same radical

Deobandi segments were created by theState itself from the 1980s onwards tofacilitate some of its rather imaginative‘strategic’ ambitions rooted in thepost-1979 civil wars in Afghanistan. Inhindsight, most political historiansand analysts had lamented that thewhole process of forming and fundingradical religious groups to fight aninsurgency against the Soviet-backedregime in Afghanistan was a disaster.It was perhaps at par with the mannerin which the rise of fascism in Germanyand Italy in the 1920s and 1930s wasinitially ignored by the US and the UK.

Some lessons were learned byWestern powers after the end of WorldWar II. Consequently, much was doneto limit and erase any lingering impactof Nazism and fascism. But the narra-tive built during the anti-Soviet insur-gency in the 1980s was allowed to runamok and permeate both the States andsocieties of many Muslim countries.From the 1990s onwards, Muslim-majority realms such as Pakistan,Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia,Sudan, Algeria, Egypt and Nigeria wereravaged by militant religious insurgen-cies that now saw the States and soci-

eties in Muslim countries to be as god-less as the Soviet soldiers that they hadfaced in Afghanistan. One of the worsthit was Pakistan, the country that hadbecome a willing broker-state betweenthe US/Saudi funding and the insur-gents. The home-grown sectarian andinsurgent groups raised by the PakistaniState for this purpose turned inwards.And as the militant mindset formulat-ed to inspire ‘jihad’ in Afghanistanflooded society, the militants foundapologists and supporters within thebody politic of the country. Faced bythis dilemma and also the fact that, bythe late 1980s, the country’sConstitution had lost much of itscivic-nationalist dimension, the Stateattempted to enhance the country’s his-torical link with Sufism to underminethe onset of the more intransigentstrands of faith.

But this was not the first time. Theonly difference is that, this time, theState tried to tap into the more con-frontational aspects of ‘Sufism’ througha populist Barelvi outfit (TLP), where-as in the past the State had banked moreon the concept of Sufism that it hadformed with the help of progressiveintelligentsia and urban middle-classenthusiasts. During her in-depth study

of modern-day Sufism in Pakistan,Katherine Ewing, a professor of religionat Columbia University, wrote inArguing Sainthood that in the 1960s,intellectuals close to the regimedescribed the ancient Sufi saints of theregion as men who held an enlightenedoutlook of Islam and were teachers ofprogress. She explained that the person-alities of the saints were shaped accord-ing to the ‘modernist’ ideas of the Ayubregime. According to her study, duringthe ‘left-leaning’ ZA Bhutto regime, thesame saints were given a more populistdisposition. They became men whohad stood up against economicexploitation and the dogmatic clergy.

Ewing wrote that the saints thenbecame “learned ulema” during theconservative Zia dictatorship. But, asthe French cultural anthropologistAlix Philippon noted in the antholo-gy State and Nation-Building inPakistan, there was never one versionof Sufism in Pakistan. As mentioned,there is the Sufism, which was formu-lated by the State and mainly appealsto the urban middle classes. It describesSufi saints as people who were enlight-ened and had spread Islam through tol-erant means. Then there is the versionof Sufism which was formulated in the

mid-1960s by Sindhi and Punjabinationalists. They, too, described thesaints as enlightened and tolerant butgave them indigenous ethnic identities.Phillipon’s study mentioned anotherbrand of Sufism, but one which oppos-es the version formulated by the State.

This brand of Sufism has been for-mulated by Barelvi religious partiessuch as the Jamiat Ulema-i-Pakistan(JUP) and, more recently, by the SunniTehreek (ST) and the TLP. It rejects theidea that Sufi saints were entirelypeaceful and views Sufism as a militantstrand of faith which was embroiled ina theological, doctrinal and political warwith ‘deviant sects’. It champions theimposition and continuation of the1974 Second Amendment and 1986’sBlasphemy Laws in the country’sConstitution. It is willing to use violenceagainst even the thought of introduc-ing minor reforms to these laws.

Goethe University’s TK Gugler inFaith-Based Violence in Pakistan wrotethat even though the Zia regime bol-stered Deobandi militant outfits, theJUP, too, was given a free hand to rad-icalise Pakistan’s Barelvi majority. Butthis saw JUP split into various factionsand a manifold increase in the incidentsof violence between Deobandi and

Barelvi groups. According to Gugler,after 9/11, when the Musharraf regimewas once again flexing the state-backed and urban version of Sufism tocounter rising incidents of ‘Islamist’ vio-lence, the influential think-tank, theRAND Corporation — in a paper titled“Civic-Democratic Islam” — suggest-ed that the traditionalist Barelvi shouldbe facilitated to counter the militantDeobandi narrative. According to theJanuary 12, 2012 issue of ExpressTribune, the US gave the Barelvi SunniIttehad Council $36,607 in 2009 toorganise anti-Taliban rallies.

The move backfired when a radi-cal Barelvi shot dead former PunjabGovernor Salman Taseer for criticisingthe country’s blasphemy laws. Yet, sixyears later, the State decided to bypassits own version of Sufism and use a rad-ical Barelvi outfit to aggressively counterthe more severe non-Barelvi groups.This experiment, too, crashed whenthis group began lashing out againststate institutions. But as Rana notes, theState now wants to move forward witha new and more ‘controllable’ religiousnarrative. This is yet to be fully under-stood. But it does need to be clearlyarticulated and discussed.

(Courtesy: Dawn)

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The song, Chah Barbaad KaregiHemen...’ from KL Saigal’s film,Shahjehan (1946) and ‘Papa kehtehain...’ from Qayamat Se QayamatTak (1989) happen to be among the

most popular songs of the era in which theyappeared. Separated by more than fourdecades, one is full of expectations and hopebesides uncertainties of future, while theother reflects a mood of despondency andbeing on the abyss of a deep depression. Boththe songs stand in complete contrast to eachother in style as well as meter. But despite theobvious generational gap, they have an organ-ic commonality and that is the genius ofMajrooh Sultanpuri.

Even as a student at Lucknow, Majrooh’stalent had become well-recognised on theMushaira circuit. Inspired by poet JigarMoradabadi and under the guidance of RashidAhmad Siddiqui of the Aligarh MuslimUniversity, he was able to hone his skills as aghazal writer and had almost become acelebrity at a very young age with invitationsfrom all over the country.

It was his lucky break that during one suchmushaira in Mumbai, the famous film produc-er of the 1940s, Abdur Rashid Kardar, was pre-sent. Kadar could immediately sense MajroohSultanpuri’s potential as a superbly talentedpoet and offered him the lyrics of Shah Jehan(1946). This was virtually a dream debut forMajrooh Sultanpuri beyond imagination as itwas a Kardar film with music by Naushad. Theicing on the cake, however, was that his lyricswere to be given the voice on-screen by noneother than KL Saigal himself.

Majrooh Sultanpuri’s lyrics for Shah Jehanwas not only able to capture the mood of thecharacter but also reflected the overall atmos-pherics of the film. Saigal became so obsessedwith the song, ‘Jab dil hi toot gaya toh ji karkya karenge’ that as willed by him, this songwas played at the time of his cremation.

Majrooh’s language skills sharpened overa six-year period at Lucknow. This coupledwith his natural talent as a poet helped himfine-tune his knack for penning down situa-tional lyrics, bef itt ing the character on screen and in line with the meter of themusic and tune. He, in a way, became the pio-neer in the field of writing lyrics to analready prepared tune, a trend which has con-tinued ever since.

It was this felicity of Majrooh that enduredhim for over five decades and a few thousandlyrics to give us some memorable ghazals,songs on foot-tapping beats as well as pureclassicals. Getting under the skin of a charac-ter, visualising the situation in context of thestoryline and then writing lyrics on a tune canbe a formidable challenge. Nevertheless,Majrooh not only handled it all with aplombbut went on to perfect this art as was seen inMehboob’s works like Andaz, Bimal Roy’sSujata, Suchitra Sen starrer Mamta, NassirHussain’s Yaadon Ki Baaraat, and TeesriManzil and Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Abhimaan.

He was very well-equipped even to han-dle the inimitable yodelling of Kishore as in

Jewel Thief (1967) with his song, ‘Yeh dil nahota bechara’, becoming a chartbuster orPanch rupaiya barah aana from Chalti KaNaam Gaadi (1958), both composed by SDBurman. Incidentally, Dada (as everybodycalled SD lovingly) and Majrooh shared a com-mon date of birth and made a hit pair in films like Solva Saal, KalaPani, Baat Ek Raat Ki, Teen Devian and manymore.

After Dada, it was RD Burman who ush-ered a new wave in film music. Undaunted,Majrooh fitted into the new paradigm. It wasas if they were made for each other. After Dadaand RD, Majrooh had the distinction of transiting and working with the new genera-tion wth effortless ease. For instance, heworked with Rajesh Roshan after Roshan andAnand Milind after Chitragupta. This signi-f ied his strength as well as flexibility to meet this youthful change with-out compromising on the core philosophy ofhis poetry.

Like all youngsters, Majrooh of the late1940s was a firebrand poet and soon came atthe forefront of the Leftist movement. In fact,the Bombay film world and the Indian People’sTheatre Association (IPTA) of the 1940s andthe early 1950s had several towering person-alities like Balraj Sahni, Chetan Anand, KaifiAzmi and KA Abbas, who keept the Leftistmovement alive. However, Majrooh was a stepahead of them in activities and had to evenspend a brief period in Byculla jail.

In an illustrious career spanning a fewdecades, there was no dearth of awards for himbut the real reward was the adulation of the

public which kept Majrooh going even till aripe old age. The usual Bombay film politicsmade sure that he got just one Filmfare awardfor Dosti (1964) but his crowning glory wasthe official recognition and the very first DadaSaheb Phalke Award (1993) as a lyricist. Later,a postage stamp was also issued by theGovernment in his honour.

Some of his Majrooh’s breezy hits includeJab Dil Hi Toot Gaya from Shah Jehan (1946);Kahe Agar Jeevan Bhar from Andaz (1949);Chand Phir Nikla, Magar Tum Na Aaye from Paying Guest (1957); Jalte Hain JiskeLiye from Sujata (1959); Chahunga MainTujhe Saanjh Savere from Dosti 1964 for whichhe got the best lyrisist award; Rahe na rahe hummehka karenge from Mamta (1966); Yaadon Ki Baaraat from Yaadon Ki Baaraat(1973); Ek Din Bik Jaayega Mati Ke Mol from Dharam Karam (1975); Kala PaniHum Bekhudi Mein Tumko Pukare Kala Pani (1958); and Papa Kehte Hain Bada Naam Karega from Qayamat Se QayamatTak (1989).

Having led the famous celebrated quartetof Shakeel Badayuni, Kaifi Azmi and QamarJalalabadi (unfortunately Sahir passed awayvery young, way back in 1980) Majrooh wasone of those Urdu poets who not only enter-tained but enriched the Indian cinema and itsculture. In the current scenario, except forGulzar and Javed Akhtar, who are carrying thetorch forward, this rich legacy appears to beclearly in danger of being lost.

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

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Infosys on Friday said it willbuyback shares worth up to

�8,260 crore and offer share-holders a special dividend of �4per share as part of the com-pany’s �13,000 crore-capitalallocation policy.

The board has alsoapproved the re-appointmentof Kiran Mazumdar Shaw asthe Lead IndependentDirector for the second termfrom April 1, 2019 to March22, 2023.

Infosys, in a regulatory fil-ing, said its Board has approvedbuyback of up to 10,32,50,000equity shares, comprisingapproximately 2.36 per cent ofthe paid-up capital of the com-pany as of December 31, 2018for up to �8,260 crore.

The shares, which will bepurchased through the openmarket route via Indian stockexchanges, will be bought for aprice not exceeding �800 pershare, it added.

Also, ADS (Americandepositary share) holders arepermitted to convert their ADSinto equity shares, and, subse-quently opt to sell such equityshares on the Indian stockexchanges during the buybackperiod, the filing said.

Infosys had completed itsmaiden buyback of �13,000crore in December 2017, com-prising 11.3-crore equity sharesat a price of �1,150 per share.The buyback scheme — a firstin the company’s over threedecade history — had seen par-ticipation from SudhaGopalakrishnan, Rohan Murtyand LIC among others.

Infosys, in its Friday filing,said the Board has constituteda buyback committee “com-prising the Chief OperatingOfficer, the Chief FinancialOfficer, the Deputy ChiefFinancial Officer, the GeneralCounsel and the CompanySecretary of the company”.

The buyback is subject tothe approval of the members ofthe company by way of a spe-

cial resolution through postalballot and all other applicablestatutory/regulatory approvals.

Infosys said it willannounce the process, time-lines and other statutory detailsof the buyback in due course.

Besides, it has fixed January25, 2019 as record date andJanuary 28 as the paymentdate for the special dividend ofRs 4 per share.

“After the execution of theabove, along with the specialdividend (including dividenddistribution tax) of �2,633crore ($386 million) alreadypaid in June 2018, the compa-ny would complete the distri-bution of �13,000 crore, whichwas announced as part of itscapital allocation policy inApril 2018,” it added.

As of January 9, 2019, pro-moter and promoter groupheld 12.82 per cent share inInfosys, while Indian financialinstitutions, banks and mutu-al funds held 12.88 per centshares.

Over 52 per cent shareswere held byFII/FPI/ADRs/foreign nation-als and OCB, while the remain-ing 22.21 per cent was held byIndian public, corporates andothers.

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Surrendering early gains,benchmark Sensex on

Friday dropped 96 points toend at 36,009.84 as investorsbooked profits even as globalequities rose.

The 30-share index openedon a strong note at 36,191.87,but failed to hold on its gainsand settled 96.66 points, or 0.27per cent, lower at 36,009.84.Intra-day, the gauge swungbetween 36,214.26 and35,840.60.

The NSE Nifty too slippedby 26.65 points to close at10,794.95.

The major losers on theSensex included IndusindBank, Tata Motors, TCS, YesBank and L&T.

Among the gainers wereITC, ONGC, Vedanta Ltd,Infosys, Axis Bank andHDFC.

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The announcement byAmazon founder Jeff

Bezos, the world’s wealthiestman, and his wife that they willdivorce has captivated theimagination — how will theysplit his giant fortune, esti-mated at $136 billion?

And what will happen tothe Internet retail giant - willhis soon-to-be ex get a signif-icant stake, and how would thataffect his control of the com-pany? The former MacKenzieTuttle knew the 54-year-oldBezos before fame and wealthcame calling.

The couple met in 1992when he was a hedge fundmanager on Wall Street, beforehe became an entrepreneurwho changed the way hun-dreds of millions of people live.They married less than a yearlater.

She was by his side for theentire Amazon adventure, fromthe company’s humble begin-nings in his Seattle garage in 1994to its mammoth success today.They have four children — threesons and an adopted daughter —aged up to their late teens.

As of Wednesday, whenthe couple formally announcedthey would divorce after a

long separation, the 48-year-old MacKenzie, a novelist, islikely to become the richestwoman in the world.

According to celebritynews outlet TMZ, the Bezosesdid not have a prenuptialagreement — which couldmean an even split of assets.

They were married inFlorida in September 1993,according to documents seenby AFP. But their last place ofresidence would be the decid-ing factor in any divorce pro-ceedings.

The couple has numerousresidences: in Seattle, whereAmazon is based, but also inWashington DC, Texas andBeverly Hills, California.

According to RandallKessler, a founding partner atAtlanta family law firm Kesslerand Solomiany, the locationwill not matter so much.

“Some states have com-munity property, some stateshave equitable division whichmeans fair division, but even inthose states, it usually comesout 50-50. That’s the startingpoint,” he said.

Bezos, who was onceAmazon’s primary stakehold-er, now owns about 16 per centof the company — the bulk ofhis net worth.

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State-owned power giantNTPC on Friday said it has

raised �4,000 crore via bondsissued through private place-ment basis.

Bidding for the bond issueopened on Friday and itreceived an overwhelmingresponse, the company said ina statement.

Against an issue size of�500 crore, with green shoeoption to retain over-sub-

scription up to �3,500 crore,bids of �12,520 crore werereceived, it said.

“The NTPC’s series 67 BondIssue through private place-ment, for which bidding tookplace today, has received over-whelming response from theinvestors,” the statement said.

The issue generated lot ofinterest among investors, there-by pulling down the yield for10-year bonds to attractivelevels of 8.30 per cent annu-alised.

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Tokyo prosecutors on Fridayfiled two new charges of

financial misconduct againstformer Nissan chief CarlosGhosn, meaning the autotycoon is unlikely to be leavinghis jail cell soon.

Lawyers for the former jet-setting executive filed a bailapplication hours later, buthave acknowledged that hewill probably be detained untila trial.

Ghosn denies any wrong-doing and argued in a dramat-ic first court appearance onTuesday that he has been“wrongly accused and unfair-ly detained.”

He was already facing a firstcharge for allegedly under-reporting his compensation overfive years to the tune of five bil-lion yen ($46 million) in officialdocuments to shareholders. Thecharges filed today allege that theunder-reporting continued foranother three years.

And they include a chargeof “aggravated breach of trust”

over a complex alleged schemein which Ghosn is said to havetried to transfer losses on for-eign exchange contracts toNissan’s books.

As part of the scheme, heis accused of also using com-pany funds to repay a Saudiacquaintance who put up col-lateral for the contracts.

Prosecutors also filedcharges Friday against Nissanand Ghosn aide Greg Kelly overthe additional three years ofunder-reporting pay.

“We took these steps todaybecause we believed that theyare cases worthy of indictmentand going to trial,” said deputychief prosecutor ShinKukimoto.

A prosecutor’s office spokes-woman said charges againstGhosn carry a maximum prisonsentence of 15 years.

The breach of trust chargeis regarded as particularly seri-ous, and Ghosn’s lawyerMotonari Otsuru admittedTuesday it would be “very dif-ficult” to secure bail for hisclient.

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GViswanathan, Founder andChancellor of Vellore

Institute of Technology, hasbeen bestowed with the JeevanGaurav Puraskar — LifetimeAward for remaining an inspir-ing teacher throughout andfor Teaching, Research andInstitution Building by theNational Teachers’ Congressand MIT World PeaceUniversity, Pune.

The award ceremony tookplace at the 3rd Global NationalTeachers’ Congress held at MITWorld Peace University,Kothrud, Pune on Sunday,January 6.

The Lifetime award is thelatest feather in the cap ofnoted educationist, formerParliamentarian and formerMinister in the Tamil NaduGovernment, Dr.G.Viswanathan, who has beeninstrumental in creating andnurturing Vellore Institute ofTechnology as one of India’sfinest higher educational insti-

tution providing engineering,management, legal, agricul-ture and arts and science edu-cation to young women andmen, especially economicallyweaker sections from all overIndia.

A citation, signed by AnilKakodkar, renowned AtomicEnergy Scientist and FoundingPatron of National Teachers’Congress, R.A.Mashelkar,President of the Congress andNational Research Professorand Eminent Scientist and Dr.VishwanathKarad , Founderof MIT World PeaceUniversityrecognised Dr.Viswanathan’s recognition andappreciation of his momentouscontribution as a VisionaryAcademic Leader.

The citation listed out theexemplary career, political, aca-demic and public life of Dr.Viswanathan and also noted:“You are an academic leaderwith an unending thirst forknowledge that makes youstrive harder and achieve var-ious milestones.”

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Industry lobby AssochamFriday met Reserve Bank

governor Shaktikanta Das anddiscussed the liquidity issuesbeing faced by non-bankingfinancial companies and hous-ing finance players, and sug-gested some steps to ease thecrisis.

Since taking charge onDecember 12, Das has metbanks, both public and privatesector and also NBFCs andMSMEs. This is the first meet-

ing the governor has had withan industry lobby, though.

The delegation, which metthe governor in New Delhi,told him that over-regulation ofthe sector is hampering thegrowth of the NBFC model oflending.

The players requested thegovernor to maintain the exist-ing asset liability mismatch(ALM) norms till the normal-cy is restored.

The industry body saidNBFCs need the regulator toalso play the role of facilitator.

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India has emerged as thefastest growing paper market

amongst large economies inthe world. In the last 10 years,the domestic demand hasalmost doubled from around 9million tonnes in FY 2007-08to over 17 million tonnes in2017-18.

The Industry estimates theoverall paper demand to growat a compounded annualgrowth rate of 6-7%, reachingto about 20 million tonnes byFY 2019-20, this was stated byMr Saurabh Bangur, PresidentIndian Paper ManufacturersAssociation (IPMA) at 19thAnnual Session of IndianPaper ManufacturersAssociation (IPMA),

According to IPMA, Makein India in paper is threatenedin view of comparatively high-er cost of raw material espe-cially wood and cheaperimports which have beengrowing at a pace faster thangrowth in domestic produc-

tion.Even as the industry is

grappling with the issue of pro-ducing paper and paperboardat competitive cost, the prob-lem has been exacerbated bythe Government’s policy ofextending preferential tarifftreatment to import of paperand paperboard under the dif-ferent free trade agreements(FTAs) and other bilateral andmultilateral trade agreementsand pacts.

“Paper is a key segment ofIndian industry andGovernment is committed toensure domestic manufactur-ing. Government will consultthe industry before embarkingupon any further Free TradeAgreements (FTAs). Domesticplayers need to get priority tomeet the demand. One of themain objectives of the tradepolicy has to be promotion ofdomestic manufacturing”, saidMr Suresh Prabhu, Minister ofCommerce & Industry andCivil Aviation and Chief Gueston the occasion.

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New Delhi (PTI): Industrial outputgrowth dropped to a 17-month low of 0.5%in November on account of contraction inmanufacturing sector, particularly con-sumer and capital goods. Factory output asmeasured in terms of the Index of IndustrialProduction (IIP) had grown by 8.5% inNovember 2017, as per data released by theCentral Statistics Office on Friday. The pre-vious low was in June 2017, when IIP growthcontracted by 0.3%.

The growth for October 2018 wasrevised upwards to 8.4% from 8.1%.

During the April-November period,industrial output grew 5% as compared to3.2% in the same period of the previous fis-cal. The manufacturing sector, which con-stitutes 77.63% of the index, recorded a con-traction of 0.4% in November as against agrowth of 10.4% a year ago. The mining sec-tor posted 2.7% growth during the monthas against 1.4% in November 2017. Power

sector output also grew by 5.1% from 3.9%a year ago. Capital goods output declined by3.4% compared to 3.7% growth a year ago.Consumer durables output also dipped by0.9% as against a growth of 3.1% a year ear-lier. Consumer non-durable goods also sawa contraction of 0.6% as compared to 23.7%growth a year ago. In terms of industries, 10out of 23 industry groups in the manufac-turing sector showed positive growth dur-ing November 2018.

New Delhi (PTI): TataMotors on Friday reported 13.9per cent decline in group glob-al wholesales, including that ofJaguar Land Rover (JLR), at1,00,551 units in December2018.

Tata Motors’ group globalwholesales in December 2017stood at 1,16,677 units. Globalwholesales of all Tata passengervehicles last month stood at59,898 units, lower by 14 percent from the year-ago period,Tata Motors said in a statement.JLR sales were at 45,474 units.While Jaguar wholesales for themonth were 14,088 vehicles,that of Land Rover stood at31,386 units. The company fur-ther said its global wholesales ofall Tata Motors commercialvehicles and Tata Daewoo rangestood at 40,653 units last month,down 14 per cent fromDecember 2017.

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The BSE Sensex retreatedfor the second straightday on Friday, led by

index heavyweight TCS whichskidded following lower-than-expected margins for the thirdquarter.

The markets opened high-er but failed to sustain themomentum as investors wereskittish about corporate earn-ings season and preferred totake money off the table,traders said.

The 30-share Sensexopened on a strong note at36,191.87 but succumbed torobust selling in afternoontrade. It finally settled 96.66points, or 0.27%, lower at36,009.84.

The broader NSE Nifty

too slipped by 26.65 points toclose at 10,794.95.

On a weekly basis, theSensex gained 314.74 points,while the Nifty rose by 67.60points.

IT bellwether TCS slipped2.45% after it reported 24.1 percent growth in net profit forthe December quarter but dis-appointed on the marginsfront. The results were declaredpost market hours onThursday.

Other losers in the Sensexpack included IndusInd Bank,Tata Motors, TCS, Yes Bankand L&T, falling up to 3.26%.

Among the gainers wereITC, ONGC, Vedanta Ltd,Infosys, Axis Bank and HDFC,spurting up to 2.02%.

“TCS delivered a mixedbag for 3QFY19, with inline

revenues, but tepid EBIT mar-gin. Higher other incomehelped PAT, which was in linewith estimates,” CentrumBroking said in a note.

On the macro front, rupeeon Friday weakened by 8 paiseto close at 70.49 against the USdollar on rise in demand for theAmerican currency fromexporters coupled with unabat-ed rise in global crude oilprices.

Brent crude futures weretrading 1.10% higher at USD62.36 per barrel.

Meanwhile, foreign port-folio investors (FPIs) sold sharesworth a net �344.58 crore onThursday, while domestic insti-tutional investors (DIIs) werenet buyers to the tune of �10.98crore, provisional data availablewith BSE showed.

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Script Open High Low LTPRCOM 13.95 13.97 13.61 13.70TCS 1875.00 1876.05 1836.10 1841.95YESBANK 188.40 190.00 182.90 183.95INFY 683.90 686.00 672.80 683.70JPASSOCIAT 7.42 7.45 7.26 7.32TATAMOTORS 186.30 187.55 179.45 180.30LINDEINDIA 738.00 795.00 735.75 789.95RELIANCE 1109.30 1114.00 1089.50 1097.90SUZLON 5.44 5.45 5.31 5.34JETAIRWAYS 247.20 257.00 243.70 253.50INDUSINDBK 1567.00 1576.00 1508.35 1515.40TATASTEEL 483.00 486.00 472.50 474.70GRUH 238.25 243.90 236.50 241.65SBIN 305.50 306.00 301.10 302.55AXISBANK 665.00 669.60 658.20 666.50EVEREADY 192.00 214.00 192.00 205.20BANDHANBNK 472.00 472.00 451.05 454.15LT 1390.95 1392.45 1361.80 1370.20M&M 737.50 737.50 721.10 728.70ITC 292.00 296.00 291.20 295.40DHFL 225.80 226.60 220.00 221.65WABAG 320.00 321.50 306.10 313.05ICICIBANK 380.80 381.00 375.25 378.55JINDALSTEL 150.30 152.50 147.90 148.75HFCL 23.85 25.00 23.75 24.80AUROPHARMA 775.00 775.65 764.00 769.80ASHOKLEY 95.40 95.50 93.75 94.25KTKBANK 116.00 117.60 114.15 115.95NCC 93.20 94.10 91.40 92.15BOMDYEING 116.40 120.85 115.35 118.50KRBL 298.65 330.30 298.65 325.55SUNPHARMA 444.95 449.80 441.00 443.20IBULHSGFIN 815.00 820.00 808.10 814.60MARUTI 7395.00 7395.50 7288.65 7319.80L&TFH 145.70 145.70 139.75 141.60GAIL 344.30 344.30 337.70 339.10WESTLIFE 394.00 402.00 382.10 385.25VEDL 195.25 198.30 194.75 196.55UPL 777.80 787.00 773.05 783.60BANKBARODA 123.80 123.80 119.70 120.95DELTACORP 258.95 263.00 257.15 259.20DMART 1593.25 1596.60 1553.55 1568.95BAJFINANCE 2537.05 2537.10 2487.60 2511.00ISEC 268.55 286.00 266.25 279.75UNIONBANK 92.75 94.70 92.15 93.60RELCAPITAL 217.80 219.50 214.00 215.75ICICIPRULI 347.80 358.50 345.85 355.55TITAN 966.90 969.30 955.35 957.55TATAELXSI 966.80 972.00 949.00 961.65IOC 130.10 131.45 130.10 130.95ADANITRANS 218.70 231.25 213.80 220.80BHARATFIN 994.15 996.85 962.00 965.70PCJEWELLER 80.65 81.40 79.40 80.05

ESCORTS 749.00 754.90 741.45 753.65MINDTREE 811.00 836.40 794.50 831.90BANKINDIA 106.25 106.65 102.50 103.10IDFCBANK 46.70 47.20 46.35 46.60HINDUNILVR 1795.00 1795.00 1755.00 1768.35BHARTIARTL 337.25 338.85 329.50 334.05SPICEJET 80.65 81.55 79.55 79.85HDFC 1978.00 2006.85 1973.95 1987.65BIOCON 633.00 642.40 627.90 640.90RELINFRA 306.00 309.60 302.30 307.10GNFC 360.90 366.80 357.45 365.35PETRONET 213.45 216.80 213.00 216.10PNB 81.60 81.60 80.40 80.70BHEL 69.05 69.30 68.10 68.60HINDALCO 205.00 207.95 204.30 205.65HEXAWARE 320.30 326.35 312.00 324.75KOTAKBANK 1228.00 1229.00 1215.00 1221.25CAPPL 383.60 430.45 383.00 414.25BEML 909.00 911.25 888.00 892.25PIDILITIND 1116.90 1132.25 1104.05 1108.25HDFCBANK 2114.00 2124.00 2107.00 2112.15JAICORPLTD 112.40 113.15 110.20 110.70HCLTECH 938.00 941.65 920.15 940.50JSWSTEEL 289.65 294.05 286.70 289.35CHAMBLFERT 163.50 170.55 161.55 168.35NBCC 61.50 62.25 60.80 61.05EICHERMOT 20560.00 20750.00 20372.65 20487.35RADICO 411.45 418.00 407.05 414.10DLF 184.70 184.70 179.00 182.05FRETAIL 454.00 454.00 436.10 441.75IDFC 43.15 43.15 41.55 42.05HINDPETRO 232.90 235.40 231.45 233.65JUBLFOOD 1239.00 1251.75 1230.05 1236.95SOUTHBANK 15.85 15.95 15.60 15.70RCF 66.95 66.95 65.00 65.50COALINDIA 233.05 233.70 231.50 232.30DIVISLAB 1527.00 1533.50 1497.60 1504.35

STRTECH 291.00 294.65 291.00 292.50IBREALEST 88.55 88.65 87.00 87.40JSWENERGY 70.00 70.45 69.20 70.10IGL 268.60 272.00 265.50 270.60JUSTDIAL 489.95 490.70 475.00 477.40TATAPOWER 74.90 75.25 73.80 75.00NAVKARCORP 50.25 54.75 50.25 53.00ENGINERSIN 125.65 125.65 122.05 123.55FSL 47.70 49.05 46.90 48.55DCBBANK 177.45 180.30 177.10 178.50TVSMOTOR 539.95 544.50 534.60 539.95ONGC 143.65 145.65 143.65 144.70MUTHOOTFIN 523.75 543.05 522.45 536.70RECLTD 122.70 124.60 122.20 124.25INDIACEM 88.30 88.35 86.50 87.05BAJAJ-AUTO 2725.10 2735.00 2700.00 2713.80HDFCLIFE 409.90 409.90 404.55 406.75ASIANPAINT 1397.00 1406.60 1394.00 1402.20ABFRL 211.65 213.85 206.25 208.05NMDC 91.10 92.65 90.90 92.25INFIBEAM 43.70 44.05 43.10 43.60CANBK 282.30 282.30 276.15 278.10SAIL 52.50 52.95 51.95 52.20HEROMOTOCO 2930.10 2934.30 2889.05 2900.35UJJIVAN 286.00 291.25 284.00 288.95TATAMTRDVR 98.90 98.90 95.15 95.75ORIENTBANK 99.80 99.80 97.05 97.60CIPLA 512.45 519.15 509.50 511.05MOTHERSUMI 161.70 163.40 159.50 160.95HEG 3661.50 3694.90 3645.60 3660.90SUNTECK 340.35 342.75 334.25 337.35LTI 1787.00 1797.15 1716.15 1729.90INDIGO 1092.75 1094.15 1055.00 1056.95KSCL 555.15 564.30 555.15 557.40GRAPHITE 730.00 730.00 719.00 720.15WELSPUNIND 61.60 64.90 61.25 62.05NAUKRI 1599.95 1639.90 1584.00 1590.00TECHM 695.00 699.95 687.00 698.35PEL 2310.00 2333.40 2276.40 2295.90BPCL 337.50 339.65 335.00 337.20WOCKPHARMA 519.80 522.50 511.35 514.65COLPAL 1339.00 1349.00 1312.55 1322.65GLENMARK 668.10 674.75 648.10 651.90MPHASIS 900.00 904.80 886.10 897.55PERSISTENT 566.95 567.00 537.00 546.55VIPIND 508.90 508.90 495.95 502.80ABB 1302.35 1359.00 1302.35 1346.65PFC 108.00 108.60 107.00 107.65NIITTECH 1151.25 1165.10 1135.15 1162.00FEDERALBNK 96.00 96.00 95.00 95.40ULTRACEMCO 3821.10 3847.25 3750.75 3768.10LALPATHLAB 975.00 1006.50 973.10 985.75BATAINDIA 1168.95 1168.95 1152.10 1154.85LICHSGFIN 484.90 485.45 476.00 483.15

KPIT 205.65 213.90 202.20 211.05SPARC 187.75 189.90 182.50 183.80MCX 752.45 758.00 739.15 754.60FCONSUMER 43.45 44.45 42.50 44.05REPCOHOME 421.95 436.10 421.95 433.85AMARAJABAT 762.85 767.15 755.00 756.10M&MFIN 460.80 460.80 447.80 453.20BRITANNIA 3091.80 3110.00 3078.90 3099.15MFSL 461.75 464.10 451.85 454.35NTPC 148.70 150.10 146.90 147.55TRIDENT 71.00 71.90 70.50 71.00TORNTPOWER 262.00 262.40 256.40 257.50PAGEIND 23250.00 23390.05 22790.00 23262.25BEL 92.90 92.90 91.75 91.95STAR 478.00 482.20 473.25 480.55MANAPPURAM 98.80 99.25 98.00 98.80JISLJALEQS 67.90 67.90 66.45 66.75BHARATFORG 485.80 485.90 478.00 481.00WELCORP 135.30 140.40 134.10 137.20SOBHA 474.50 474.50 452.50 456.60ALBK 46.20 46.20 44.25 44.60JINDALSAW 80.55 81.50 80.15 80.60TORNTPHARM 1860.00 1889.95 1860.00 1880.90TIINDIA 325.80 336.00 323.90 328.45EMAMILTD 422.60 437.15 422.00 432.50OMAXE 213.70 213.90 212.30 212.65BAJAJFINSV 6368.60 6385.95 6292.35 6369.40SIEMENS 1078.80 1078.80 1050.05 1057.75ZEEL 453.50 455.20 449.40 451.10VOLTAS 539.25 543.05 535.00 541.20LEMONTREE 72.00 72.80 71.00 71.65MANPASAND 85.00 86.15 84.45 84.55IDBI 63.50 63.55 61.35 63.25INFRATEL 285.15 286.00 276.00 277.45AMBUJACEM 213.65 214.60 211.70 212.70CGPOWER 45.30 45.50 44.25 44.70SRTRANSFIN 1193.10 1199.90 1172.65 1190.10

WIPRO 327.00 329.10 323.65 328.10ADANIPOWER 50.95 50.95 49.80 50.20SUNTV 594.55 595.00 584.65 589.15ACC 1450.05 1466.20 1450.05 1458.70SUPREMEIND 1079.60 1114.95 1079.55 1109.20AVANTI 379.15 382.80 370.05 376.20MMTC 29.90 30.05 29.25 29.40IDEA 37.15 37.30 36.50 36.85GSFC 112.50 113.00 110.65 111.70LUPIN 838.20 839.95 829.00 837.85ABCAPITAL 97.60 97.60 96.30 96.65DRREDDY 2609.00 2609.00 2574.00 2589.80NILKAMAL 1444.75 1452.70 1390.35 1410.05DISHTV 39.40 40.20 38.70 39.95JKTYRE 102.00 102.00 100.40 100.80TATACOFFEE 99.50 101.00 98.60 99.15JUBILANT 719.35 732.80 716.00 729.85CADILAHC 351.00 352.55 347.55 349.20CENTURYTEX 891.15 898.85 881.75 893.60GRASIM 822.95 831.90 812.20 815.30ZENSARTECH 231.10 241.55 229.00 237.70NESTLEIND 11400.05 11446.65 11175.60 11265.05SBILIFE 635.00 641.55 630.45 637.30EQUITAS 122.05 122.60 119.80 120.70EDELWEISS 178.65 180.00 176.30 177.30IBULISL 339.00 353.65 330.15 336.45BLISSGVS 169.25 169.95 165.25 167.75CYIENT 607.05 607.50 592.45 596.00ASTRAZEN 1588.00 1660.00 1574.90 1642.75SHANKARA 523.00 524.75 511.00 514.60HAVELLS 688.30 690.00 675.00 687.95NOCIL 167.50 167.50 163.30 164.55INDIANB 251.65 253.90 250.10 253.05SYNDIBANK 40.25 40.90 39.35 39.70SREINFRA 36.00 36.05 34.30 34.65ADANIPORTS 381.40 381.95 375.15 377.00FORCEMOT 1623.05 1638.00 1611.30 1614.60PARAGMILK 243.45 243.90 240.00 240.95RPOWER 29.55 29.95 29.15 29.40AARTIIND 1554.40 1560.00 1535.30 1551.70JSL 33.00 33.65 33.00 33.10ALLCARGO 110.40 110.75 108.90 109.90DABUR 422.05 422.45 419.00 421.85CANFINHOME 276.15 277.65 271.10 272.95APOLLOHOSP 1282.70 1299.00 1270.00 1294.65TATAGLOBAL 213.85 215.20 211.40 212.20BALKRISIND 887.30 896.25 882.10 886.35BBTC 1289.75 1310.55 1281.05 1285.35RAIN 118.00 118.00 116.20 116.75KAJARIACER 522.25 531.00 518.00 525.10INDHOTEL 141.00 142.70 139.65 140.20MARICO 387.60 389.90 380.30 381.50APLAPOLLO 1110.15 1131.00 1050.00 1112.15ICICIGI 888.05 896.80 880.00 884.75IBVENTURES 381.50 388.00 381.50 383.85DBL 395.00 395.65 387.95 392.05CENTURYPLY 185.90 186.30 180.60 184.50POWERGRID 195.70 195.90 193.55 194.25ITI 93.80 93.80 91.55 92.10HINDCOPPER 49.80 50.25 49.30 49.40NATIONALUM 62.70 63.40 62.50 63.15LTTS 1651.95 1657.00 1630.15 1632.35TEJASNET 221.10 223.95 215.00 219.65GMRINFRA 16.70 16.85 16.50 16.70EXIDEIND 262.15 263.75 259.00 259.75IPCALAB 779.25 789.00 775.40 780.90RAYMOND 810.30 819.00 808.15 816.40GODFRYPHLP 895.75 912.95 893.00 908.00SCI 46.45 46.75 45.50 46.30AUBANK 652.95 656.30 640.00 649.45NHPC 25.45 25.55 25.30 25.50GREAVESCOT 122.25 122.55 119.25 120.55ADANIGREEN 40.25 41.60 39.60 39.90SRF 2056.05 2069.90 2038.30 2046.80CHOLAFIN 1195.00 1198.30 1175.00 1183.10IRB 156.80 158.00 154.50 157.15CASTROLIND 150.95 152.35 150.75 151.80TRENT 351.00 359.40 349.00 356.90J&KBANK 36.65 37.40 36.15 36.30RAJESHEXPO 570.50 573.70 568.00 570.90TATACHEM 698.75 700.50 694.00 697.80MRPL 71.25 71.60 70.15 70.50SUVEN 229.10 229.15 223.30 224.40CEATLTD 1266.00 1272.00 1254.25 1268.05GODREJPROP 742.05 742.05 722.00 727.75GSPL 169.85 172.50 169.30 170.85TATACOMM 521.25 523.20 508.80 516.95PVR 1644.00 1648.35 1635.35 1642.90MGL 900.25 900.35 888.50 893.55RALLIS 168.80 169.25 167.10 168.00BAJAJCORP 390.90 390.90 381.55 386.35JAMNAAUTO 62.75 62.75 61.50 61.65SHK 181.25 185.05 178.00 179.45HUDCO 44.00 44.00 43.20 43.40LUXIND 1150.00 1157.95 1112.65 1136.05DENABANK 13.85 13.90 13.60 13.65VIJAYABANK 49.05 49.50 48.75 49.00MERCK 3352.80 3360.00 3260.00 3284.45CHENNPETRO 266.55 268.00 260.50 261.70JMFINANCIL 87.45 91.45 87.45 90.70RBLBANK 577.50 578.25 570.90 575.45JSLHISAR 84.85 84.85 83.15 83.60PNBHOUSING 902.30 912.85 888.05 901.40UCOBANK 20.75 21.15 20.55 20.70AJANTPHARM 1170.00 1170.65 1153.65 1159.60SHARDACROP 297.55 318.00 297.15 303.40CARERATING 1025.10 1039.60 1010.00 1017.35VENKYS 2340.00 2356.05 2317.70 2324.75INTELLECT 223.10 223.10 218.45 219.90MEGH 55.75 56.95 55.75 56.50GODREJCP 777.75 781.80 771.20 779.75TATAINVEST 854.30 858.00 836.05 839.95HSCL 133.00 133.00 130.00 130.30APOLLOTYRE 227.35 227.35 224.75 226.15

OBEROIRLTY 457.90 457.90 449.40 451.75QUESS 732.00 733.85 715.00 721.30CUMMINSIND 853.60 859.20 840.15 841.35PHILIPCARB 208.00 208.00 205.05 206.25SWANENERGY 100.00 101.40 99.80 100.45GESHIP 324.00 328.00 318.60 319.70KNRCON 218.20 221.15 211.90 214.45COCHINSHIP 369.10 375.70 367.00 373.90DEEPAKFERT 145.35 146.20 143.00 144.00GUJALKALI 530.00 532.45 520.00 522.45MOTILALOFS 687.05 698.00 685.90 691.45SHREECEM 16475.00 16475.00 15850.10 15885.25JKLAKSHMI 295.45 296.80 283.55 287.85PTC 91.75 92.25 89.95 91.20OIL 174.10 175.55 174.10 174.60EIDPARRY 225.15 227.20 222.10 223.85HSIL 247.95 247.95 244.00 245.50PRSMJOHNSN 88.40 88.40 85.00 86.00CONCOR 693.85 693.85 675.00 678.50WHIRLPOOL 1468.00 1488.20 1462.40 1483.10PIIND 856.15 864.65 833.00 840.05DEEPAKNI 221.65 221.65 215.00 215.45VGUARD 208.05 208.85 205.45 206.70ENDURANCE 1212.25 1219.00 1188.40 1201.85VBL 821.00 822.00 803.15 811.00NATCOPHARM* 693.80 695.95 682.70 687.35GPPL 94.15 94.60 91.25 91.75GODREJIND 540.55 542.90 535.00 537.15MAXINDIA 85.15 85.90 84.10 85.00UBL 1380.00 1389.00 1371.70 1376.90ITDC 318.90 322.50 313.70 315.50CENTRALBK 36.00 36.45 35.95 36.30VINATIORGA 1625.00 1625.00 1561.00 1571.80CUB 191.05 192.75 189.50 190.05SYNGENE 545.00 547.00 541.00 543.50TV18BRDCST 38.30 38.30 37.75 37.90MAHINDCIE 239.00 242.30 238.10 238.70GICRE 262.25 264.10 260.45 261.25KEI 358.10 358.50 355.05 356.80JYOTHYLAB 202.00 203.20 198.00 199.35MAHABANK 15.29 15.30 14.95 14.99IFCI 14.60 14.75 14.45 14.53KEC 288.15 288.15 282.95 284.10MAHLIFE 392.65 392.65 375.70 379.90BERGEPAINT 323.35 326.45 323.35 324.80NAVINFLUOR 683.70 684.75 671.25 673.80ASHOKA 132.95 133.05 128.35 129.65GLAXO 1479.40 1488.90 1455.00 1473.70DBCORP 176.75 176.75 173.10 174.45SOMANYCERA 365.00 369.20 361.00 365.20BAJAJELEC 486.45 488.75 480.75 483.45SONATSOFTW 301.00 301.00 296.60 297.65TATAMETALI 650.00 655.95 647.15 649.85SUNDRMFAST 522.25 522.25 511.00 513.90GET&D 315.00 315.75 308.45 309.80REDINGTON 83.00 84.15 81.00 83.65HEIDELBERG 149.85 149.85 146.05 146.60AIAENG 1661.00 1681.00 1642.00 1653.70MHRIL 212.00 215.20 211.85 213.10SKFINDIA 1925.25 1950.00 1920.00 1941.40KANSAINER 447.70 456.50 445.10 449.65GUJGAS 674.65 675.00 663.05 665.90GRANULES 90.00 90.55 89.40 89.85HAL 775.00 782.35 774.00 774.90DCAL 238.00 238.00 230.00 232.90SADBHAV 227.00 227.00 221.40 222.15HATSUN 672.40 685.00 668.10 680.75MRF 67199.00 67333.00 66300.00 66938.70OFSS 3640.00 3659.95 3613.20 3643.05CRISIL 1653.10 1670.00 1637.00 1641.05LAXMIMACH 5724.65 5750.55 5705.15 5740.95LAOPALA 217.05 223.90 215.05 216.50FORTIS 140.35 140.35 138.70 139.35UFLEX 269.75 271.25 266.10 267.70ABBOTINDIA 8116.75 8170.00 8052.75 8087.05RAMCOCEM 627.35 635.00 622.55 629.50COROMANDEL 460.60 468.00 458.00 462.90GHCL 252.00 252.00 244.15 246.65MOIL 166.45 168.95 166.45 167.70CERA 2575.20 2599.00 2500.00 2528.90GUJFLUORO 950.00 957.75 939.60 946.70MINDAIND 318.60 319.40 312.00 313.65HINDZINC 276.05 276.05 272.05 273.85NBVENTURES 115.95 116.50 113.50 115.15ASTERDM 160.15 165.50 160.00 163.80VMART 2360.00 2380.00 2334.65 2361.35ADVENZYMES 178.80 178.80 168.70 170.40GICHSGFIN 265.10 266.00 261.60 263.15SJVN 25.10 25.45 25.00 25.35RNAM 156.60 156.75 153.50 154.30ASTRAL 1183.25 1183.25 1169.60 1177.60

PFIZER 2755.00 2770.60 2732.55 2761.10PRESTIGE 219.35 220.85 214.25 217.20AEGISLOG 210.40 212.00 207.55 209.90CROMPTON 229.00 230.00 227.35 228.25GODREJAGRO 497.75 500.00 496.00 498.40BASF 1522.25 1530.00 1503.50 1505.90BDL 287.70 290.40 283.50 284.85THOMASCOOK 233.90 234.75 229.25 233.40GREENPLY 143.35 143.35 137.00 138.25KPRMILL 527.50 534.00 522.00 523.35APARINDS 624.00 624.95 607.15 615.80MINDACORP 150.75 151.70 149.40 150.10LAKSHVILAS 79.75 79.75 77.90 79.05THYROCARE 549.30 550.00 535.30 550.00IEX 162.05 162.30 160.00 161.05JAGRAN 115.60 116.00 114.15 114.75FINCABLES 449.00 450.00 446.90 449.05SUPPETRO 196.65 197.80 188.75 189.90BOSCHLTD 19680.00 19718.65 19443.55 19514.05KALPATPOWR 380.80 387.75 377.40 381.15ELGIEQUIP 251.00 262.50 251.00 260.20ITDCEM 117.05 117.75 115.85 116.90NETWORK18 40.20 40.25 39.60 39.90INOXWIND 74.60 74.95 74.10 74.80TIMETECHNO 100.35 101.35 99.50 99.70AKZOINDIA 1732.00 1732.00 1725.00 1725.15JBCHEPHARM 300.00 304.70 299.00 301.55CENTRUM 35.60 35.60 34.75 35.05BALMLAWRIE 197.65 197.90 195.10 196.65TEAMLEASE 2846.35 2846.35 2740.55 2757.00SUDARSCHEM 348.95 348.95 342.10 343.40TAKE 148.25 148.85 147.00 148.00THERMAX 1152.35 1152.70 1140.45 1144.95ERIS 668.45 678.65 664.90 675.95TNPL 239.00 239.00 232.10 233.15INDOSTAR 350.00 359.00 350.00 353.70ANDHRABANK 29.50 29.95 29.30 29.50JKCEMENT 700.00 702.90 699.25 700.00INOXLEISUR 254.20 254.20 247.85 249.55TIMKEN 587.00 599.75 587.00 592.80ZYDUSWELL 1334.15 1358.00 1316.25 1338.05BIRLACORPN 565.00 568.90 555.10 560.25PHOENIXLTD 566.90 567.65 554.00 559.35SANOFI 6267.50 6285.00 6201.05 6228.70STARCEMENT 102.00 102.40 96.00 97.60SHOPERSTOP 515.50 527.40 511.55 516.85NESCO 489.10 489.10 468.80 471.10DCMSHRIRAM 353.45 354.50 350.60 351.85NLCINDIA 68.25 68.25 67.10 67.35CORPBANK 29.00 29.00 28.65 28.803MINDIA 20600.00 20974.00 20600.00 20834.10EIHOTEL 187.00 187.00 183.90 184.75FLFL 390.00 392.40 381.95 390.60FINOLEXIND 535.00 537.35 530.00 532.15FDC 173.50 174.00 172.00 172.40DHANUKA 428.00 435.00 428.00 431.15SYMPHONY 1129.45 1137.95 1113.90 1117.05IOB 14.58 14.78 14.40 14.53HERITGFOOD 528.90 528.90 517.95 520.80NH 205.00 209.90 200.20 204.40BAJAJHLDNG 2967.00 3018.95 2951.30 3002.95APLLTD 592.00 595.00 589.00 590.90BLUEDART 3254.25 3315.25 3212.00 3242.10GMDCLTD 87.90 88.00 86.75 87.10ECLERX 1076.70 1082.50 1060.00 1068.65WABCOINDIA 6487.20 6500.00 6382.00 6384.25ORIENTCEM 79.00 79.50 76.00 77.00GDL 117.00 117.00 115.25 115.75SUPRAJIT 220.30 220.30 212.45 216.20ISGEC 5050.00 5050.00 4999.95 5001.10GSKCONS 7474.45 7545.00 7451.10 7476.00BLUESTARCO 611.35 614.85 605.20 610.75PGHH 9960.00 10038.95 9954.40 10011.95CARBORUNIV 365.00 366.50 359.15 360.15TRITURBINE 115.95 115.95 112.00 112.90SCHNEIDER 98.85 99.70 98.85 99.15LAURUSLABS 374.25 380.00 370.00 377.75SHRIRAMCIT 1602.00 1646.15 1602.00 1639.95GRINDWELL 555.00 563.00 547.10 550.90NIACL 180.00 180.00 178.05 179.50GEPIL 812.25 824.95 810.00 823.95RELAXO 749.60 759.95 748.55 756.00MAGMA 108.35 108.45 106.05 107.70ASAHIINDIA 255.10 256.50 255.00 255.00ATUL 3471.25 3471.25 3431.10 3436.65FORBESCO 2200.05 2249.70 2191.20 2225.60TTKPRESTIG 7565.00 7574.00 7512.80 7559.70KIOCL 150.15 151.95 146.00 147.25HIMATSEIDE 211.70 215.50 211.70 214.95BAYERCROP 4220.00 4239.20 4200.00 4208.65SHILPAMED 381.65 390.00 381.05 387.05ALKEM 1962.65 1975.00 1950.00 1953.85COFFEEDAY 267.40 268.50 265.10 266.10GALAXYSURF 1196.00 1197.55 1179.20 1185.60GULFOILLUB 825.45 836.75 825.45 831.05SCHAEFFLER 5671.05 5699.00 5650.00 5678.05MONSANTO 2581.05 2608.80 2580.00 2590.60CCL 268.95 274.50 267.00 268.90PNCINFRA 148.50 149.15 147.75 148.50IFBIND 840.80 845.00 835.00 842.60TIFHL 467.05 467.05 459.95 460.90MAHLOG 508.70 509.50 501.55 505.30TVSSRICHAK 2461.55 2461.55 2418.00 2424.50ESSELPRO 107.00 107.75 106.45 107.05SOLARINDS 1042.25 1061.70 1042.25 1057.30GILLETTE 6460.05 6500.00 6460.05 6499.95VTL 1087.45 1097.90 1076.00 1076.15SUNCLAYLTD 3498.00 3524.90 3350.00 3353.30SIS 760.45 764.70 755.00 758.05NAVNETEDUL 109.00 109.00 108.20 108.65TVTODAY 369.65 373.00 368.95 370.95RATNAMANI 900.05 910.00 900.05 910.00HONAUT 21809.05 21894.00 21803.00 21803.05JCHAC 1774.00 1774.00 1740.00 1740.00

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY 50 10834.75 10850.15 10739.40 10794.95 -26.65ITC 291.90 296.00 291.50 294.70 5.10UPL 775.00 787.00 773.00 781.60 8.50WIPRO 325.60 329.90 323.50 329.25 3.50IOC 130.50 131.55 130.35 131.05 1.15HINDALCO 204.00 207.95 204.00 205.60 1.60ONGC 144.00 145.50 143.65 144.30 1.05ASIANPAINT 1399.75 1406.20 1392.40 1406.00 9.65INFY 680.20 685.50 672.50 684.35 4.65VEDL 195.50 198.30 195.00 196.70 1.25HDFC 1978.00 2007.70 1972.40 1990.25 10.15TECHM 694.00 701.25 687.00 697.85 3.30AXISBANK 665.00 668.50 658.20 666.00 2.75HCLTECH 935.00 941.00 920.00 939.55 3.70HDFCBANK 2113.80 2124.00 2108.00 2115.00 6.50BAJAJFINSV 6355.00 6389.90 6291.00 6388.90 16.95BPCL 336.00 339.70 334.55 336.00 0.40BAJFINANCE 2516.00 2530.00 2488.00 2514.00 -0.65KOTAKBANK 1225.00 1229.20 1213.20 1218.50 -1.05HINDPETRO 232.00 235.30 231.30 232.50 -0.40NTPC 148.00 150.30 147.20 147.85 -0.25IBULHSGFIN 817.00 820.25 808.00 812.40 -1.85EICHERMOT 20600.00 20767.30 20387.00 20500.00 -56.10JSWSTEEL 289.75 294.15 286.45 288.45 -0.85SUNPHARMA 445.05 449.75 441.60 443.05 -1.55ZEEL 452.90 455.25 449.25 449.75 -1.60COALINDIA 233.70 233.75 231.50 232.00 -1.00CIPLA 513.40 519.00 508.25 510.95 -2.30ICICIBANK 380.60 381.20 375.25 377.55 -1.95DRREDDY 2610.80 2610.80 2580.00 2585.35 -15.05GRASIM 822.50 832.65 811.80 815.00 -5.20HEROMOTOCO 2923.00 2940.95 2885.00 2899.30 -20.20BAJAJ-AUTO 2728.00 2738.70 2700.85 2703.10 -22.20TITAN 965.25 969.50 956.80 958.80 -7.90POWERGRID 194.90 195.90 193.25 194.00 -1.65HINDUNILVR 1795.00 1795.40 1758.55 1770.00 -16.20BHARTIARTL 337.15 337.30 329.00 333.80 -3.50M&M 735.00 735.00 721.25 725.40 -7.80RELIANCE 1107.60 1113.80 1088.60 1095.50 -12.00ULTRACEMCO 3818.20 3851.55 3751.10 3775.00 -43.20MARUTI 7382.70 7400.00 7282.00 7307.00 -84.60ADANIPORTS 380.30 381.00 375.10 375.60 -4.65SBIN 305.40 306.20 300.95 301.65 -3.90TATASTEEL 483.95 484.25 472.00 473.30 -7.10LT 1393.00 1393.90 1361.05 1370.00 -22.60GAIL 343.60 344.80 337.20 337.70 -6.20YESBANK 188.70 189.90 182.75 183.40 -3.50TCS 1870.00 1875.00 1835.00 1843.45 -45.10INFRATEL 285.10 286.10 276.15 276.60 -8.45TATAMOTORS 186.55 187.75 179.40 179.80 -5.95INDUSINDBK 1570.00 1574.00 1508.30 1511.85 -54.05

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SCRIP OPEN HIgh LOW LTP CHANGENIFTY NEXT 50 27816.90 27842.00 27592.10 27707.55 -90.65ABB 1305.00 1358.00 1304.95 1348.00 47.40ICICIPRULI 347.50 359.65 345.60 356.50 8.00BIOCON 630.85 643.65 628.10 642.10 11.65SBILIFE 635.00 643.00 630.00 643.00 8.25NMDC 91.40 92.65 91.25 92.20 1.10PETRONET 214.00 217.45 212.80 216.20 2.15ACC 1455.00 1467.00 1450.40 1457.30 9.50MCDOWELL-N 586.00 594.55 583.25 589.55 3.00NIACL 180.85 180.85 178.95 179.95 0.90MRF 66898.90 67000.00 66300.00 66980.00 279.30AMBUJACEM 213.85 214.15 211.50 213.85 0.70GODREJCP 776.10 782.00 770.50 782.00 2.50HAVELLS 688.00 690.80 681.15 689.55 1.50SRTRANSFIN 1197.70 1197.70 1171.10 1187.50 1.15PGHH 10019.90 10020.45 9925.25 10000.00 4.35BRITANNIA 3090.00 3116.75 3079.60 3090.10 1.15DABUR 422.45 422.75 418.65 421.20 0.05OIL 174.60 175.60 173.75 173.75 0.00OFSS 3648.50 3650.00 3606.50 3635.00 -0.60LICHSGFIN 483.95 486.15 475.45 483.00 -0.45LUPIN 838.50 842.00 828.10 837.00 -1.00HDFCLIFE 408.60 409.40 404.00 406.00 -0.70SUNTV 592.00 594.50 584.00 589.00 -1.05NHPC 25.50 25.60 25.30 25.50 -0.05GICRE 261.50 264.90 260.10 261.60 -1.05BEL 92.60 92.90 91.75 92.00 -0.40PEL 2315.70 2334.15 2275.05 2295.00 -10.05MOTHERSUMI 162.00 163.45 159.50 161.10 -0.85ABCAPITAL 97.20 97.40 96.10 96.45 -0.50SAIL 52.50 52.90 51.90 52.15 -0.30IDEA 37.05 37.30 36.55 36.85 -0.25DLF 182.50 183.60 179.00 182.30 -1.25CADILAHC 348.30 352.70 347.25 347.60 -2.40PIDILITIND 1116.00 1133.00 1103.60 1107.30 -7.85COLPAL 1327.95 1332.60 1312.30 1315.80 -10.10BHEL 69.35 69.35 68.10 68.30 -0.55ASHOKLEY 95.15 95.45 93.70 94.15 -0.85AUROPHARMA 775.50 775.50 763.50 769.95 -7.00ICICIGI 890.00 898.00 880.00 881.75 -8.65BOSCHLTD 19603.10 19700.00 19450.00 19500.00 -204.00HINDZINC 275.90 275.95 272.40 272.90 -3.05MARICO 387.15 390.00 380.05 381.40 -5.70CONCOR 691.75 691.85 673.70 677.10 -11.95SIEMENS 1074.10 1075.00 1051.85 1052.15 -18.90BANKBARODA 123.80 123.90 119.65 121.00 -2.45L&TFH 144.50 145.00 139.60 141.10 -3.20DMART 1593.40 1597.80 1552.00 1552.50 -35.30SHREECEM 16331.20 16359.50 15820.00 15999.90 -496.25INDIGO 1095.00 1095.00 1054.20 1058.00 -39.00BANDHANBNK 468.80 468.80 452.00 452.45 -19.10

12JAN2019 12

36,009.84 -96.66 10,794.95 -26.65

KRBL 11.19HFCL 7.13LINDEINDIA 5.94NAVKARCORP 5.68VAKRANGEE 4.88

TATASTEELPP -9.98SOBHA -4.05HDIL -3.91IL&FSTRANS -3.68INDIGO -3.66

ITC 1.76UPL 1.10WIPRO 1.07IOC 131.05HINDALCO 0.78

INDUSINDBK -3.45TATAMOTORS -3.20INFRATEL -2.96TCS -2.39YESBANK -1.87

JAN2019

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Young Army platformlaunched digitally for the

youth who plays a prominentrole in the Society. The primeobjective of Young Army is -Future of Youth & Equality inSociety. Anyone interestedin joining Young Army canvisit our website www.youn-garmy.org Or give a Missedcall to 9989566666. You canalso submit your member-ship through google docs.Young Army is a digital plat-form for the people acrossthe globe, who are seekingand who are willing to helpwith different ideas.

This great initiative start-ed at K L University Gunturand the army of f ic ia l lylaunched its digital platformon Jan 9th 2019 with 4000Soldiers of Young Army byits side. Many soldiers areworking on the ground levelto launch this InspirationalArmy and within 2 Monthsthey aim to reach all the dis-tricts across Andhra Pradeshin the 1st Phase. The armytargets to get together morethan 10 Lakh members mak-ing it one of the biggestyouth organization in thecountry.

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After days of back and forthover US President Donald

Trump’s decision to pulloutAmerican troops from Syria, aUS military official said onFriday the process of with-drawal has begun, declining tocomment on specific timetablesor movements.

Col Sean Ryan, spokesmanfor the US-led coalition fight-ing the Islamic State group, said“the process of our deliberatewithdrawal from Syria” hasstarted.

“Out of concern for oper-ational security, we will not dis-cuss specific timelines, loca-tions or troops movements,”the Baghdad-based official saidin a statement emailed to TheAssociated Press.

There were no otherdetails, and it was not imme-diately clear how many vehiclesor whether any troop units hadwithdrawn.

The Britain-based SyrianObservatory for HumanRights, which monitors theconflict in Syria through anetwork of activists on theground, said the withdrawalbegan Thursday night. It saida convoy of about 10 armoredvehicles, in addition to some

trucks, pulled out from Syria’snortheastern town of Rmeilaninto Iraq.

Confirmation of the firstwithdrawals comes amid con-fusion over plans to implementTrump’s pullout order andthreats from Turkey to attackthe Kurds, who have beenAmerica’s partners on theground in the war against theIslamic State group in Syria.

There are 2,000 Americantroops in Syria. Trump’s abruptdecision in December to pullthem, declaring in a tweet thedefeat of IS, sent shockwavesacross the region and a flurryof criticism from some of hisgenerals and national securityadvisers, and led to the resig-nation of US Defense MinisterJames Mattis and the top USenvoy to the anti-IS coalition.It also led to major criticismthat the US was abandoning itslocal Kurdish allies amidTurkish threats of an imminentattack.

On Sunday, US nationalsecurity adviser John Boltonsaid American troops will notleave northeastern Syria until ISis defeated and American-allied Kurdish fighters are pro-tected, signaling a slow-downin Trump’s initial order for arapid withdrawal. Secretary

of State Mike Pompeo, who ison a tour of the region, has alsosought to reassure the Kurdsthat they will be safe after U.S.Troops withdraw from thecountry.

“These have been folksthat have fought with us and it’simportant that we do every-thing we can to ensure thatthose folks that fought with usare protected,” Pompeo said ofthe Kurds while visiting Irbil,the capital of Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdistan region,after talks in Baghdad.

After initially tweetingabout the decision to bringback US troops “now,” Trumpthis week said “we will be leav-ing at a proper pace while at thesame time continuing to fightISIS and doing all else that isprudent and necessary!”Kurdish officials, meanwhile,have demanded clarificationsfrom the US over its intentions.

A US troop pullout leavesthe Kurds exposed to Turkishattacks from one side, andSyrian government troops onthe other. The withdrawal ben-efits Syrian President BasharAssad and his internationalbackers, Russia and Iran, whoare primed to move into theregion to fill a vacuum leftbehind by the Americans.

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An estimated 25,000 peoplehave fled escalating vio-

lence over the last six monthsin eastern Syria, where die-hardjihadists are defending their lastbastions, the UN said on Friday.

Much of the unrest hasbeen centred around Hajin inDeir Ezzor province, whichhad been the last town of notecontrolled by the Islamic Stategroup in the area until it wastaken in December by the US-backed Syrian DemocraticForces (SDF).

The United Nationsrefugee agency said that clash-es and air strikes have forced25,000 people to run and seekshelter in camps or informalsettlements, sometimes afterspending several nights in thedesert exposed to harsh weath-er and without access to foodor water.

The agency also warnedover “mounting civilian casu-alties” in the area, withoutproviding figures. An estimat-ed 2,000 civilians remaintrapped in Hajin, where con-flict continues, the UN said.

The SDF is currently flush-ing out the very last pockets ofland controlled by the jihadistsin the Euphrates River valley.

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US President Donald Trumpon Friday appeared to be

inching closer to imposing anational emergency that couldallow him to bypass Congress tofund a controversial wall alongthe US-Mexico border that hasled to a bitter political impasseand a 21-day government shut-down.

Trump has asked for USD5.6 billion from Congress to con-struct the border wall, which hesaid is crucial to stop the flow ofillegal immigrants and smug-gling of drugs into the country.

The Democrats have repeat-edly refused to approve anylegislation to fund the wall. Thestandoff led to the partial gov-ernment shutdown.

During his visit to the

southern border state Texas onThursday to push for the wallplan, Trump was asked if he iscloser to declaring an emergency-- an action that would likelyface legal challenges.

“We are. I would like to lookit broader. I think we could dothis quickly, because this iscommon sense and it’s notexpensive. We will save the costof the wall every year but muchmore than that,” the presidentsaid.

Trump had on Wednesdaysaid that imposing a nationalemergency is the last option andthreatened to use it if theDemocrats did not allocate USD5.7 billion funding for the wall.

The president’s inclinationtowards declaring a nationalemergency has gained momen-tum after he walked out of a

meeting with top Democraticleaders -- House Speaker NancyPelosi and Senate MinorityLeader Senator Chuck Schumer-- on Wednesday following theirrefusal to allocate funding.

During an interaction withmedia personnel in Texas onThursday, Trump said, “I wouldlike to do a much broader formof immigration, and we can doimmigration reform. It’ll takelonger. It’s been complex. It’s

been going on for 30-35 years,they’ve been talking aboutimmigration reform. But beforewe do that, we have to create abarrier. That we could do veryquickly.”

Contending strongly forconstruction of a barrier, con-crete or steel, along the southernborder with Mexico, the presi-dent has been claiming that ille-gal immigrants cause USD 250billion drain on the Americaneconomy. Republican leadersinsist the party stands behind thepresident, although someRepublican lawmakers have spo-ken out in favour of ending theshutdown.

The opposition Democrats,who are now in majority in theHouse of Representatives haverefused to support such a movearguing that building the wall isa waste of taxpayers’ money.

Referring to his meetingwith Reggie Singh, the brotherof Indian-origin policemanRonil Singh killed in Californiarecently allegedly by an illegalimmigrant during a borderpatro, Trump said, “Reggie, I gotto know him today a little bit.This shouldn’t be happening inour country.”

“This shouldn’t be happen-ing. And what you see of theborder, that’s not as much of aproblem as they (illegal immi-grants) come through the bor-der and they go out throughoutour nation,” Trump said.

“As hard as we work, and aswell as we’re doing nationwideon crime, a lot of it is caused bypeople that come in through thesouthern border. So, and youknow, if we had the barrier, itwouldn’t happen,” he toldreporters.

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European CommissionPresident Jean-Claude

Juncker said on Friday that “everyeffort” must be made to find away through the Brexit condun-drum ahead of a crucial vote nextweek by British lawmakers.

Prime Minister TheresaMay is facing defeat when MPsvote Tuesday on her draftdivorce deal, which has arousedfierce opposition from EU sup-porters and Brexit enthusiastsalike.

Brussels and London are in“constant” contact to see whatassurances the EU can give topersuade British MPs to backthe deal, Juncker said, but hereiterated the oft-repeated warn-ing that the deal struck inNovember is not up for rene-gotiation.

“We are in constant contact- the commission and myself -with 10 Downing Street and wewill see on Tuesday what con-clusions the British parliamentreaches on the texts that havebeen proposed,” Juncker said ata press conference in Bucharestto mark the start of Romania’sstint at the helm of the rotatingEU presidency.

“No deal would be a cata-strophe both for our Britishfriends and for continentalEuropeans, so every effort mustbe made between now andTuesday to bring this importantissue to a good conclusion.”May, under increasing pres-sure to rule out a “no-deal”Brexit, in which Britain crash-es out without an agreementwith the EU to ensure a smooth,orderly departure, on Thursdayrepeated her warning that theonly way to ensure this was toback her deal.

B r e x i t - s u p p o r t i n gConservative MPs are opposedto the deal, arguing it leaves thecountry too closely tied toEurope, and May has alreadypulled the vote once with defeatlooming. Asked about reports ofa letter to London offering assur-ances about the controversialIrish “backstop” arrangement,which has inflamed BrexiteerMPs, Juncker said he would notget into “speculation and guess-ing games”.

“We have said - both theEuropean Council and the com-mission in full harmony -- thatthere can be no renegotiation,but there can be clarifications,”Juncker said.

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Germany recognises its his-torical responsibility for

crimes committed by the Nazisin Greece, Chancellor AngelaMerkel said on Friday on herfirst visit to Athens since 2014.

“We recognise our histor-ical responsibility. We knowhow much suffering we, asGermany in the time ofNazism, have brought toGreece,” she said.

“That is why it’s a lesson forus to do everything to havegood relations with Greece,and to lend each other supportfor the prosperity of both coun-tries.” Tensions linger overwartime reparations for theWorld War II Nazi occupationof Greece, with Berlin arguing

the issue was settled in 1960 ina deal with several Europeangovernments.

In talks with PrimeMinister Alexis Tsipras afterher arrival on Thursday, Merkellauded the sacrifices Greeksmade during the country’s eco-nomic crisis of 2010-2014.

During her first visit to

Greece in 2014, Merkel facedmajor protests and sought toease tensions with Athenswhere Berlin was often blamedfor biting austerity and bailouts.

Also in 2014, ex-presidentJoachim Gauck sought publicforgiveness in the name ofGermany from relatives ofthose murdered by the Nazis inthe mountains of northernGreece.

Merkel was to hold talkswith conservative oppositionNew Democracy party leaderKyriakos Mitsotakis, an EUparliament ally of her ChristianDemocrats, and meet PresidentProkopis Pavlopoulos.

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Two Reuters journalists jailedfor seven years while inves-

tigating atrocities committedagainst the Rohingya inMyanmar had their appeal dis-missed on Friday, dismaying col-leagues and tearful family mem-bers who had held slim hopesthey would walk free.

Reporters Wa Lone, 32, andKyaw Soe Oo, 28, were arrestedin Yangon in December 2017and later jailed for violating thestate secrets act, a charge Reuterssaid was trumped up to muzzletheir reporting.

Prosecutors say the two hadclassified information regardingsecurity operations in Rakhinestate, from where hundreds ofthousands of Rohingya Muslimsfled during an army-led crack-down the United Nations hasdescribed as “ethnic cleansing”.

Aung Naing, a judge at theYangon Regional High Court,said the original verdict was a“reasonable decision” deliveredin line with the law. “The courtdecides to dismiss the appeal,” hesaid. The reporters’ wives criedafter the decision, which con-demns the pair to continuetheir incarceration at Yangon’snotorious Insein prison, wherethey have been held for the last13 months.

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So working after Season One,what’s your experience likeworking on a very important

show? Did you learn anything dif-ferent? Do you feel any more pres-sure for the second season?Yeah, definitely, I feel like when youstart a project, when you start a show,there’s no way to know how it’s goingto be received. There’s no way toknow what it’s going to look like whenyou put it all together. It’s like you’rein a bubble, meaning that everyonethat’s working on the show thinks it’sgreat, but who knows how it’s goingto be received.

We knew we were doing some-thing important. We knew that wewanted to make something with a lotof integrity. But to have it released tothe world, and have them receive itin the way that they have, to haveeveryone talk about how timely theshow is... we definitely didn’t see allof that coming. I think for SeasonTwo, there’s a sense, at least for me,of a new-found responsibility to getthe story right. To make sure thatwe’re giving, you know, our audiencewhat they have come to know andlove about the show. And stay con-sistent with that.

And yeah, it does feel like a lit-tle more pressure, especially with allthe awards the show has received. It’slike guys, we got to do that again.

What do you think is the worstaspect of what Moira has to gothrough in Gilead? To be honest, I think coming from theperspective of my character, one ofthe things that is obviously horribleis the rape. But I think for Moira, andfor people, women who are gay, it isan affront that is indescribable andjust the worst thing that could everhappen to you. To be violated in thatway. Any woman, but of course, awomen who doesn’t even have inter-course with men by choice, I think it’sindescribably horrible. That’s what Ifeel is the most horrible thing for

Moira to go through.

Moira still picks Jezebels over thecolonies at some point. What areyour thoughts on that decision?I think that it’s this dichotomy ofwhat’s the lesser evil? And Moiraknows for a fact that if she goes to thecolonies she will die. She’s weighinggoing to the colonies, and you know,doing drugs every day, and drinkingalcohol and making herself complete-ly numb to it all.

In that moment she had to makea decision and, thank God she didbecause now she’s in Toronto.

Can we expect Moira to be inCanada in Season Two? Yes, Moira’s going to be there inSeason Two. I’ll tell you that much.She’s reunited with Luke. And theyhave to kind of form this makeshiftfamily, and move to a place inCanada called Little America.

She gets a job at the embassybecause she was so affected by thatmoment when she first got intoCanada and how much the embassyhelped her.

So she has in turn taken that andis helping refugees in the refugee cen-ter.

And when you think aboutMoira being a refugee, you thinkabout how wonderful that is. She’sescaped, and she’s in this new place.But, as a refugee, it’s also terriblebecause you don’t know the land.You’re not with your people. And it’sthis rollercoaster that I think we’regoing to see with her, the good andthe bad of being a refugee.

From misogyny to refugees, thisshow has a never ending list ofimportant topics. You’ve been inanother show that was also packedwith very important subjects. Thechoices you make as an actress, arethey politically motivated? You know, I wish that I could sit hereand tell you yes. But I think for meas an actor, the thing that pulls metoward projects is the heart of thecharacter. First and foremost, beforethe project, and of course the projectis very important itself. But for me,

in terms of what attracts me tosomething, is the heart of the char-acter. And what their essence is, whatthey’re fighting for. And just fromreading something, I say to myself, doI feel I can bring that person to life?

And if the answer is no, it’s goingto be too hard of a challenge then Idon’t want to do that because I feellike it’s a disservice to the actress coulddo a really good job. But I’ve beenreally, really lucky in terms of the pro-jects that I’ve been involved in, thatas you say, have been on the forefront

of people’s conscientiousness.

A major theme of the show is sur-vival. What do you think drivesMoira? How does she find thestrength to go, to escape? And howdo you bring life to the character? We always talk about nature versusnurture. And I think Moira’s natureis a person that’s just a bull dog. Likeshe’s a tough person, she’s got thatingrained in her.

In the scene, where she’s atJezebel’s and she’s been broken and

has the conversation with June, Ithink she comes back to herself in thatmoment, in that conversation withher best friend. June is able to say,basically where are you, where haveyou gone? This is not you. Don’t letthe bad people grind you down.

And I think in that moment shecomes back to herself and she realis-es, oh, I’m not a victim, or I don’t haveto be a victim.

I can be proactive and I can fig-ure out how to get out of here.

For me, in terms of bringing lifeto the character, I think a lot of thathas to do with all the things that makeher a minority. She’s black, she’s gay,she’s a woman. Me being all of thosethings in my life as Samira, I can tellyou that definitely influences the waythat I move through the world. So Ithink that’s one of the things that I canpoint to.

This is a very dark show but thetheme of empowerment is alsovery present. Do you feel that thereis a lot of hope in this story? Honestly, in the last episode of thefirst season, doing the escape scenewe had drones following me. I waslike, this is awesome. It’s was amoment of almost too much joy toeven take because Moira’s escaped toCanada. It is a story of survival. It isa story of perseverance. And I thinkthat a lot of times people focus onhow dark the show is but the messagethat we want to keep beating, theunder beat of the whole show, is thismessage of hope.

Were you proud or surprised when

you saw the pictures of peoplewearing Handmaid’s costumes atthe Women’s March? What wasyour feeling when you saw that? It was definitely surprising, in the bestway possible. You know when you’reworking on something, whatever it is,you always hope that it impactswhoever’s going to watch it. Whetherthat’s one person or a bunch of peo-ple. You want them to have a conver-sation they wouldn’t have had other-wise. I want people to think aboutsomething they wouldn’t havethought about without seeing the pro-ject.

So to see that, and to see how theshow has impacted the whole world,and also Hillary Clinton quoted theshow... all of those things are veryoverwhelming and also very hum-bling to know that something thatyou’re doing is out there in people’sconsciousness.

You’ve been in shows that arevery female-driven. Do you thinkplacing women behind the cameraas well as in front of the cameramakes television more relevant andactually more interesting? Yes, I’ve been really blessed to be onThe Handmaid’s Tale and Orange isthe New Black, to be surrounded byso many women in power... thewomen in the cast, the directors. Evenin The Handmaid’s Tale last season,every single director we had was awoman, except for one.

I do feel really naive and lucky tobe in this position because I haven’tbeen surrounded by a bunch ofmen. And I do think that is complete-ly a reflection of the time that I amworking in. You know, thank Godthat I am working in this time. I thinkit’s our job really as artists to reflectthe time that we are living in so thatpeople can look back and say that wasgoing on.

(Watch Handmaid’s Tale Season 2 every Monday at 10 pm

on AXN.)

Idid cheat in myEconomics exams. I hadan invigilator who letthe entire class cheat. Iam not proud of that,”

says actor Emraan Hashmiwith great candour. He is inthe capital to promote hisfilm, Why Cheat India,and unlike many from thefraternity who prefer to bepolitically correct, the 39-year-old’s no-holds-barreddiscussion is certainly wel-

come. Nothing is off limits,whether it is nepotism or his

child’s battle with illness oreven a political gaffe (deliber-

ate or otherwise about one‘Modi’ being the biggest cheater,

which he later clarified as beingNirav) that he made at a recent

press conference. “I don’t mince words. Over the

course of the year, I have learnt somuch about what is wrong witheducation in the country that itenrages me. So much can be doneand should have been done but isnot being attended to,” he says andgoes on to talk about how only aminuscule amount of the GDP,about 2-3 per cent, is beingploughed back into education as

compared to other countries whereit is as high as 25 per cent. He elabo-

rates, “When you do not have enoughmoney to pump into the education sector,

you don’t get qualified teachers or goodschools. Then at the University level, thereare not enough seats and the justification thatis given is that unless you get a 98 per centyou cannot get a seat in college. Even if youare a 90 per cent holder, you will still be a fail-ure. But the reason is that there are notenough seats,” he says. It was while research-ing for the movie that he learnt how the cheat-ing mafia in different states is eroding andeating the system. “As it is, there is 60 per centreservation — 50 per cent for the lower casteand 10 per cent for the economically weakupper caste. Of the minuscule per cent left,the cheating mafia is spreading its net overthat too. So where do the deserving studentsgo? The systems promises that you can be

what you want to be. If you work hard, youwill get dividends. But you see jobless peo-ple and kids committing suicide,” says theactor.

It is not as if he is just critical. Emraandoes have ideas on a system that could bemore holistic and inclusive and enable a childto develop to his full potential. “Universitiesmight move out of the brick and mortarbuilding. They are now in the internet as onecan get more information there rather thansitting for eight hours in the class where youare told facts that are of no use. Everythingis a click away. In the school and college ofthe future, you can learn from the comfortof your home. And at the physical building,there can be case studies, projects and dis-cussions rather than sitting like a robot in aclassroom. Children need to learn things thathave real world application — communica-tion skills, emotions, responsibility, discipline,managing your mind that comes in thedomain of spirituality. Do you know the aver-age depression age is 15? It is alarming,” saysthe actor.

There is no hint of the swagger that wascommon in his earlier movies. Emraan comesacross as an ordinary person who just hap-pens to work on the big screen. Talking abouthis course of action, he elaborates further andsays, “It is not necessary that I will only dosocially-relevant films. But there is essential-ly a departure from the kind of things thatI was doing. I have changed as an actor dur-ing the past 18 years that I have been in theindustry because of life experiences, matu-rity and the evolution of my craft. From 10kisses in a film, I am down to one and thatis some progress,” he laughs hinting at themoniker of ‘kissing star” on account of thecontent of his films like Murder, AashiqBanaya Aapne and more.

But there has been an attempt to breakout of that image, he believes, successfully.“Once you do another genre, it is a step inthe right direction. I couldn’t do that for therest of my life. A 45-year-old snogging witha 20 something. How sick is that? Of course,I couldn’t do it overnight for it is a gradualprocess,” says the actor dressed in a tan jack-et and matching shoes paired with jeans andblack-rimmed glasses.

Dibakar Banerjee’s Shanghai was one ofthe seminal movies that set him on the paththat he is trying to chart out. “It gave me what

10 blockbusters couldn’t even though it wasnot a hit. It gave me a perspective that I couldplay a characters in films rather than the star,”which was a revelation to him as at that point.He goes on to explain the difference betweenthe two. “A star means that you change andadapt the script to suit your star quotient butan actor is someone who adapts to fit intothe script. That is what the film did and itpaid huge dividends. A huge section of thecinema-going audience, which was slightlymore evolved, felt that he can act.”

The winds of change had started blow-ing and have come to a head. “There is achange in content which is helping everyoneas one can engage with a lot more creativematerial than was done 10 years ago. Youcouldn’t have made Why Cheat India 10 yearsback because either it would not have beenmade or it would not be a box office success,”he says.

He feels that the film is like starting afresheven if it does not make big money. “I knowthat it will build on the fresh different per-sona of myself,” he says.

Not just in himself, he also wants achange in the way films are classified. “I firm-ly believe that films should not be slotted onthe basis of budget but on the basis of the idea.The big films should be the ones which havethe bigger ideas. This year a lot of big bud-get films did not do well,” he says, drivinghome the point.

The change is also evident in him turn-ing producer with the film. “I have seen theprocess from its infancy, starting with thestory, script, screenplay right to marketing.While it does not help in the craft of acting,it does give you a bird’s eye view of where thefilm is going. If it starts raining then we need

to figure out how to finish the shoot withina given time. You are a part of the entire deci-sion-making process and you are not limit-ed to your performance on screen,” he says.

Having started the process, he hasdecided to start producing more films. Nextone up is Father’s Day, which is starting inMay, and another by the end of this year. Hewill also be seen in Body, directed by JeethuJoseph, the director of Malyalam Drishyam,which co stars Rishi Kapoor and two freshfaces. He will also be seen in Bard of Blood,a Netflix show which should be out in August.It is based on on a book of the same name.“It is about an English literature teacher whoteaches Shakespeare and is an ex spy. He isthrown back into the battlefield and goes toBalochistan to rescue agents,” he divulges.

Talking of web content, he agrees,“There is better content as the audience hasevolved because of the many diverse influ-ences. This keeps us on our toes and makesus test our creativity because we cannot takethe audience for granted. There are a lot moreoptions including cinema, OTT platforms,TV and YouTube. It has become a con-sumers’ market now. Films with stars crashedlast year as mediocre content and shoddy sto-ries don’t work,” he says.

For making better content and charac-ters that are more evolved involves a lot moreresearch than goes into playing a lover boyor an action hero. For Why Cheat India, heresearched a lot as it factually based on a sys-tem. “I spoke on the phone to a lot of peo-ple who are a part of the cheating mafia tounderstand how it works and is organised.They refused to identify themselves but I triedto understand their take on education andif they are looking for a justification for doingwhat they were doing. I had to completelyimmerse myself,” he says.

He goes on to add that the tonality of thefilm is very realistic. “In that sense, it is adeparture from my earlier work. It is like youhave placed a camera in a home in Lucknowor in a college where you see these charac-ters come alive. We will pull you into thisworld and hopefully teach you how cheat-ing works,” he says.

Coming back to the film, it ran into trou-ble with its initial name of Cheat India. “Idon’t look for logic. The Censor Board looksat the negative connotation without lookingat the overall context of the movie and the

perspective it has on scams and cheating. Itis in a pathetic state. I often call it the ‘sense-less censor board’”, he says.

Arguing his case further, he points to afilm like Simmba which had a UA certifica-tion. “Children can watch this film whichtalks about rape and putting cocaine in aschool child’s bag with parental supervision.A 13-year-old might understand it but aseven-year-old might not. Why can’t theymake it more elaborate and change it withmore grades,” he says, shrugs and adds, “ButI don’t know if it is effective because what isPG 13 or PG 15 by their logic might notwork.”

Talking about children, one can’t help buttalk about Emraan’s boy who battled and suc-cessfully overcame cancer. “It is very tough.It is more palatable to hear that you have anillness but when you hear that a three year10 month-old-kid has that illness, it shattersyou,” he says. While they battled cancer as afamily, there was learning involved. “It is closeto five years. We lied to him as we had to takehim to the hospital. We realised only whenwe took him for treatment to Canada that weshould have told him that there is a mon-ster in his body and that we need to fight it.We could have used that narrative and addeda philosophical aspect to it,” he says. Emraanwrote a book, Kiss of Life about how to fightthe disease effectively which he hopes wouldhelp anyone fighting cancer.

Talking of his child also brings us to thequestion of nepotism in the industry. Heagrees that he would not have been in theindustry had he not been related to MaheshBhatt. “On the flip side, you still have to workhard. The family can’t make you work as onlythe audience can. It is their acceptance thatgoverns if you will be a star or you will bechucked out. It is that which makes or breaksyou. On the other hand people expect a lotfrom actors who have successful fathers andif they can’t match up, they are overshadowedby legacy,” he says.

Emraan acted in about 20-25 advertise-ments as a child for brands like GoodnightRasna, Bournvita and more in the eighties.“I was trying to get hold of the material toput on my website but it was all damaged. Igot pushed into acing later and took it as asummer job and things happened. I was anaccidental actor!” he says with a laugh andwalks off. (The film releases on January 18.)

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Why did you only choose ErichKästner’s Emil and the Detectivesfor your direction?

This production is Slingsby’s seventh.Previously, we have adapted a GrimmBrother story (The Mouse, The Bird and theSausage), an Oscar Wilde story (The YoungKing) and created four completely originalworks including an opera. I was first attract-ed to the story of Emil and the Detectivesbecause it is often referenced by great con-temporary children’s authors like PhilipPullman as a real point of inspiration forthem. The story is a great adventure forchildren and families but it also has somedark, truthful moments about the world welive in. The story is very honest for childrenabout the wonder and strangeness of life.This mirrors Slingsby’s approach to mak-ing theatre for an audience that includeschildren and adults.

Slingsby is particularly interested inbringing ‘coming of age’ or ‘getting wise’ sto-ries to the stage. We find that these storiesoften have the power of being immediate-ly relatable to our multi-generational audi-ence (aged eight+ including adults attend-ing on their own and in groups) as well asbeing philosophical enough to be open toinfinite interpretation.

When I read Erich Kästner’s Emil andthe Detectives, I was excited by the wayKästner presents a world filled with goodas well as flawed people. Even though thisis a story for children, he had presented acomplex world where happiness and sad-ness co-exist. This really struck a chord withwhat we are trying to explore with Slingsby’swork. To show that there is darkness in theworld — but that it serves to make the lightmoments even brighter and more wonder-ful.

What was the challenge in setting up andcreating an atmosphere of the late 1920sfor the stage? How have you transformedthe play to suit to the current generation?The design of our production is inspiredby several leading Australian visual artistsof the 1930s, including John Brack andCharles Blackman. These artistes emigrat-ed from Europe to Australia — in much thesame way the story did. Using theseartistes as inspiration gives the productiona distinctly Australian look and feel witha European heritage.

What goes into transforming a writtenplay into a stage performance?Each new show has its own discoveries —we continue to explore new ways to workas a team and to refine our theatre mak-ing process. The starting point for a newSlingsby show is an image, an idea or a storythat moves me. Something that I feel is epicenough to have a universal appeal acrossa wide age range. We need to find a storyor an idea that has enough at risk for us toreally care about and identify with the char-acter in a high stakes way. Theatre is a com-pressed moment in time. For us to really

engage with a story, it must in some wayaddress an anxiety deep within us. This iswhy coming-of-age stories are so potent forus. As humans we are constantly evolvinginto a new phase of our lives, leaving partof our old selves behind and forging newgrounds.

Once I have selected a book, an imageor an idea to adapt to the stage, we bringtogether a team of artists to forge a looseidea into a new theatre production. Theprocess for each of our seven productionshas varied but for the last two shows (TheYoung King and Emil and the Detectives) wehave commenced our development with aprocess we call ‘Paths Less Travelled’.This ‘theatre laboratory’ brings together ourcore team, Quincy Grant, Geoff Cobhamand Wendy Todd along with one or moreactors and sometimes a writer and otherdesign collaborators. Through this two-week-long process, we experiment with thetheatrical possibilities of the story orimage. We really try to discover a new wayto share this with an audience and dig intothe philosophy of the piece. Through this,we hope to find failure as well as success.This is where we can take real risks. Theaim of this process is to push theatricalform and find new ways to share time and

space with our audience.In the final stages of this process, we

will often invite our ‘critical appraisalgroup’ to see the very early period of thiswork in development. It is a small groupof peers and individuals that we respect andare confident in their ability to provide anoutside eye to the development of each newshow. This group will generally include aBoard Director of Slingsby, a theatremaker, an educator and from time to timea young audience member. This group willsee showings at various stages of the mak-ing of a new work and the final production— meeting with me at each stage to offerinsights and feedback and to ask questionsof me and for me to ask questions of them.

The next phase of development willoften include commissioning a playwrightto write a script informed by the initial idea,image or story along with the discoveriesfrom the ‘Paths Less Travelled’ process.

Following the first few drafts of thescript, we will undertake a second creativedevelopment with the cast — often involv-ing a reading of the script to a young audi-ence — to gauge their interest in the storyand the language of the piece. This secondstage development will always includeQuincy Grant as composer, joining us in

the room to contribute ideas and music asthe piece develops. The scoring is forgedas the piece is being blocked. There is thena constant dance and conversation betweentext, music and image as we make the work.This second stage of development can varyin duration between three days to twoweeks — depending on budget, artistavailability and how ambitious we are beingwith the form of the piece. Geoff Cobhamand Wendy Todd (and other design cre-atives) are always welcome in the room dur-ing this phase and collaborate equally in avery open and integrated way. As a teamwe are all trying to find the best and mostimpactful and interesting way to stage eachmoment.

Where possible, we try to bring pro-duction and design elements into theroom as early as possible – with ideas beinggenerated and refined throughout theprocess. This differs from some otherprocesses where the design may be setbefore rehearsals begin.

The final rehearsal phase for our pro-ductions is when all of the elements cometogether, final design and Geoff Cobham’slighting are the culminating pieces to thepuzzle. It is in this final process that QuincyGrant will coordinate the recording of his

score and the integration of that into showcontrol. The final stage is balancing all ofthese elements. Meticulous attention isgiven to balancing sound, image, text andlive performance. This is when a newSlingsby show is born. The audience is thefinal and most important ingredient. Witheach successive one our understanding ofthe show grows and we continue to refinethe production after each performance.Even with The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy,which we have performed, well over 250times we still refine moments followingevery performance. Perfection is ephemer-al if not an illusion.

Emil’s character is very young. How didyou script the role in such a way that peo-ple find it relatable?As soon as I decided to adapt Kästner’sstory, I decided I wanted to cast ElizabethHay. It was because I feel that the charac-ter of Emil is a hero and that the genderof the character is not relevant. This is achild’s story of discovery and not a boy’s ora girl’s — simply a child’s. Emil’s gender isnever mentioned. I hope this allows bothboys and girls to identify with the charac-ter. Elizabeth is a wonderful actor and hasthe ability to convey the wide-eyed inno-

cence wonderfully. She is an adult (we area touring company so it is very difficult totour with child artists) but is able toembody that discovery of the world with-out overplaying it. And it is more aboutplaying the character and not the age.

Are there any particular additions thatyou have made in your script to suit theIndian audience? We keep our focus on the audience. Wehave not adapted anything specifically forIndia. I believe that the audience is simi-lar across the world. We have toured 11other countries and have had similarresponses wherever we tour. We are veryexcited to be in India for the first time.

The play is a funny as well as a smart storyabout how a group of children finds theirway. Given its universality, how did youend up choosing costumes and craftingdialogues? Often is it the action and the fun of a sit-uation that makes an audience laugh, ratherthan just the dialogues or jokes. The showhas a lot of physical action — children andadults often find this to be a lot of fun. Wehave not modernised the story at all, we stillrefer to and use rotary telephones and thedesign is inspired by the 1930s. We find thatthe young audience really enjoy being invit-ed into a world that is strange, mysteriousand new to them but full of details. If thestory is relevant to their emotional lives, itholds their attention.

Are there any particular literary plays orplaywrights that you take inspirationfrom? For this production, I have been veryinspired by Hitchcock and Buster Keaton.We began by trying to tell this story with-out any words, but we discovered that westill needed narration and some dialoguesto drive the story forward. However, muchof it is non-verbal.

Anything that you ideally look for in aplay and try to incorporate in yours aswell? It’s great to see the audience moved emo-tionally by our performances. I also try tomake that happen. I want Emil and theDetectives to be fun and full of laughs butat the same time want the people to pos-sibly relate to the sadness and perhaps sheda small tear. If something like that happensthrough a theatre performance, it surelyimplies that we are watching somethingimportant.

I want to give the people a surprisingand delightful experience, and somethingthat moves them. And through this, I wantthem to feel connected to each other, to ourproduction and to have developed a greaterempathy for each other. The play is all aboutmeeting people, becoming a community,and being there to support each other.

(The play will be staged on January 13at Siri Fort Auditorium.)

Even though music is some-thing that doesn’t need an ini-tial push, it just comes from

within. For British-Indian singer-songwriter, Reshrich, the greatIndian heritage plays a huge role inproviding him the right inspirationfor his music. The singer, whosefather originally hails from India,hopes to capitalise on the trendamong Indian composers to exper-iment with the Western culture andsonics.

The singer, who has had two hitreleases previous year and is readywith a third offering, believes thatIndia is at a point where music sce-nario is really diverse and people areslowly moving away from the tra-ditional sounds and are experiment-ing more with the Western culture.

So, is the current youth driftingmore towards rap and pop music?Has the traditional music lost itscharm over the years? He says, “Idon’t believe that it has lost itscharm, classical music inBollywood, or music from the 80s,90s will always be an inspiration fortoday’s music industry, in bothWestern and Indian society.However, if viewed from the busi-ness perspective, the demand forclassical music has declined over theyears, especially among the youth,due to which there is an increase indemand for pop and rap musicamong the youth.”

He believes that this causes con-tent creators like producers, song-writers and artists to want to caterto that kind of market and make rapor pop music more than other clas-sical forms.

For Reshrich, the journey of

making his way to the global musicindustry wasn’t an easy one. Hebelieves that it takes “a lot of dedi-cation and patience” to learn andgrow as an artist and for other peo-ple to recognise and notice thepotential.

He feels that it is important forevery artist to connect with thewider audience to grow.“Commercial music is a great wayfor artists to get their name into thepublic. Constantly being in a nicheas an artist will not allow someoneto grow and connect with a wideraudience. It’s also a great way forthem to experiment with bringingtheir niche sound to the public andby doing so develop better versionsof themselves and their sounds.”

The singer says that he isquite open to accepting offersfrom Bollywood. He says, “I’veloved the industry since my child-hood. I have always seen my

grandparents listening to it in thehouse.”

The “mostly self-taught” artistsays that his recently-releasedtracks have been inspired fromthe “sounds that I like and vibewith when I’m in the studio withthe producers. I don’t like tocopy other artists or rip off a tune,I just make music that I enjoybecause I know, originality iswhat makes it the best. I believeit will also my listeners enjoy it.”

He adds, “Music is a trial anderror journey that an artist has togo through.”

When his forthcoming work,Gasoline, is released, he believes, itwill make people realise the direc-tion he his headed towards.

He says, “It’s going to be matur-er than before , both in terms ofmusic and visual. So when it comesout next year, people will be sur-prised.” He explains that the songshows how in a fruitful and truerelationship, there’s no need to goanywhere else or seek for otherthings for inspiration.

The singer, who was featured inBBC Asian for his previous hits —Buy Me love and Moonlight — feelsthat making his first two singles hasbeen a very different and an inspir-ing journey for him.

He says that while makingBuy Me Love, he wanted to createsong that would combine andexperiment with tablas and theIndian vocals to give a “tradition-al touch.”

He says that he has beeninspired by musicians like EdSheeran, Arijit Singh, Enrique andDrake the most.

For decades, India-Pakistan rela-tion has followed a set patternof diplomacy. After every major

terror strike, both the countries startthe blame game. Almost two yearsago the moment of reckoningarrived when special commandos ofIndian Army crossed the Line ofControl (LoC) to hit targets inPakistan-occupied Kashmir.

Surgical strikes require not justdetailed and exhaustive planning butneed to be carried out with absoluteprecision to achieve the objective oftaking down targets. The film Uri:The Surgical Strike starring YamiGautam as an intelligence officerdepicts the Uri attack that had ledto widespread anger against terror.

The film follows the one carriedby the Indian army against Pakistanafter the latter attacked the IndianArmy camp at Uri.

The surgical strike stunnedPakistan and before it could evenunderstand what happened in itsown backyard, the Indian Army’sspecial commandos had come backto their side of the LoC.

So when asked Yami, How didshe manage to get in the characterof the skin as this the first time sheportrays something like this on

screen, she says, “I asked Aditya(Dhar), what should I do to get com-pletely into the role? Should I watchsomething? He said, you just have tobe real Yami, you have to find thecharacter within you. So it’s betterif you rely on your own instincts.Intelligence officers are absolutelyreal and unpretentious. You won’teven get a single hint if an intelli-gence officer is sitting next you, theyare that real. Their identities are clas-sified. My excitement was onaccount of the subject of the filmwhich was reasonable and sensible.Another thing that attracted me wasthat Aditya told me that he wanted

to make a movie which not onlyinterests the audience but also ofwhich the Indian Army is proud of.”She also says that as an intelligenceofficer, it’s her job, to foresee theunseen. It was an interestingapproach for Yami as an actor,because she had to be natural whenit came to expressions and dialoguedelivery. She says, “The whole ideawas to keep it as real as possible.”

Yami shares that this is the filmvery close to her heart, not just asan actor, but also as the citizen ofIndia. She says, “I absolutely love mycharacter, I play a pivotal role in theentire operation. And the surgical

strikes are definitely one of the mostimportant events in the history ofthe Indian Army. Because it is thefirst time we took such an initiativeand it is also one of the most bril-liantly planned and coordinatedattacks and that is why I think it’svital for every individual be it achild, to know what actually hap-pened.”

The film shows what it means tostep into the army men’s shoes, whoare ready to take a bullet for us. Yamiinterestingly shares an incident ofwhich she’s proud of, “When wescreened the film for the IndianArmy, an officer came to me andsaid ‘we really loved the film, the wayit’s written as well as executed it’sreally commendable.’ He praised meby saying that my acting matchedthat of an intelligence officer’sdemeanour. And that it appeared tobe exactly the way they are in reallife. Getting a compliment from suchdignitaries meant the world to me.”

The Indian Armed Forces areselflessly guarding the borders andmake so many sacrifices for us. Shesees Uri as a very small and hum-ble way to pay tribute to the IndianArmy.

Ask Yami, how did she under-stand the incident better after doingthe film, she says, “When the Uriattack happened, I was just aware asas any layperson. Back then I did-n’t even know the meaning of sur-gical strikes properly. So when Iread the script, it gave me an insideout of what actually happened andwhat our soldiers have gonethrough. I remember that there wasonly one sentiment that everybodywas angry, everybody was hurt as anIndian. The way this attack was car-ried out on our soldiers, who weresleeping at that time was really verybad.”

“Patriotism cannot be shownonly on two particular dates; itneeds to go beyond that. I feel cin-ema, in that way, is a very power-ful tool and can successfully influ-ence young minds,” adds she.

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Stressing that India hasthe potential to win and

enter the knockouts, footballcoach Stephen Constantineon Friday said the teamneeds to get its act togetherahead of the clash withBahrain in the AFC AsianCup.

India went down tohosts United Arab Emirates0-2 in their second groupstage match after they haddefeated Thailand in theiropening game.

"We have to pick our-selves up and get ready forthe next game. We need toaim for a win and get some-thing from that game.Hopefully, we can get theresult to qualify,"Constantine said.

India face Bahrain onMonday in their final groupstage match and a victory

will ensure the Blue Tigers aspot in the Round of 16.

Talismanic striker SunilChhetri also echoedConstantine's words.

"We are still in the run-ning. We are ready to faceBahrain. As a team, we areunited. We are ready to fight.That's our game plan againstBahrain," Chhetri said.

Against UAE, theIndians missed severalopportunities, hitting thebar twice and eventuallygoing down 0-2.

Referring to the lastmatch, Constantineexplained: "I said to theboys you did not lose thisgame. You have shown what

you are capableof. Even they(UAE players)were surprisedand did notbelieve that we

were this good.""We are only going to get

better with these kinds ofgames. The team has anaverage age of 25. The play-ers will get only better fromhere. We had four clearchances to score but UAEscored with the half chancethey had," he said.

Skipper Chhetri added:"It was a tight game. If wecould have taken ourchances it could have beendifferent. UAE are a goodside, and they convertedtheir chances."

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Barcelona could not overcomethe absence of Lionel Messi

and other regular starters onThursday, losing 2-1 at Levante inthe first leg of the Copa del Rey'sround of 16.

Barcelona's second-stringersstruggled from the start inValencia, escaping an even greaterdefeat only because Levante'sforwards squandered some clearscoring chances.

The return game is next Thursday atCamp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, when thefour-time defending champion is expected tohave some of its starters back in action afterthey were rested this week.

Levante took the lead early with a close-range header by Uruguayan defender ErickCabaco in the third minute, and striker Borja

Mayoral scored the second goalwith a low cross shot in the 18th.

The hosts kept threateningthroughout the match, takingadvantage of a Barcelona defensethat was without Gerard Piqueand Jordi Alba. Newly signedColombian player Jeison Murillowas making his club debut incentral defense.

Without Messi and LuisSuarez in attack, the Catalan clubhad difficulties creating scoringopportunities. The trio of

Philippe Coutinho, Ousmane Dembele andMalcom was largely ineffective, and theteam's lone goal came late with a penalty kickconverted by Coutinho in the 85th after sub-stitute Denis Suarez got past a defender andwas fouled inside the area.

"In the second leg hopefully we will takeadvantage of Coutinho's goal," Murillo said.

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Atearful Andy Murray onFriday announced hewould likely retire this

year due to severe pain from ahip injury, saying next week'sAustralian Open could be thelast tournament of a glitteringcareer.

The former world numberone and three-time Grand Slamwinner broke down at a pressconference in Melbourne as hesaid the pain had becomealmost unbearable.

"I can play with limita-tions. But having the limitationsand the pain is not allowing meto enjoy competing or training,"the emotional Scot said.

Thirty-one-year-old "SirAndy" said he would like to fin-ish at his home Grand Slam inWimbledon, but ruefully admit-ted he might not make it that far.

He will be remembered asthe first British man to win

Wimbledon in 77 years and asa player who battled his way tothe top in a golden era for thegame alongside Roger Federer,Novak Djokovic and RafaelNadal.

"Wimbledon is where Iwould like to stop playing, butI am not certain I am able to dothat," he said.

"I've been struggling for along time. I'm not sure I canplay through the pain for anoth-er four or five months.

"Pretty much done every-thing that I could to try and getmy hip feeling better and it has-n't helped loads." He pulled outof last year's Australian Open tohave hip surgery and onlyreturned in June at Queen'sClub in London.

He ended the season atShenzhen in September afteronly a handful of appearancesto concentrate on working hisway back to full fitness.

But he was knocked out in

the second round on his returnat Brisbane last week and calledit quits on Thursday after lessthan an hour of a practicematch in Melbourne againstDjokovic, with his movementclearly hampered.

"I think there is a chance theAustralian Open is my lasttournament," he said. While heintends to begin his opening-round match against 22nd seedRoberto Bautista Agut nextweek, how his body withstandspotentially gruelling five-setclashes in energy-sapping heatremains to be seen.

"I'm going to play. I can stillplay to a level, not a level I'mhappy playing at," he said.

%������������ ��$�IOne of the so-called Big

Four, along with Federer,Djokovic and Nadal, who havedominated the game for years,Murray's ranking has slumpedto 230.

He hasn't reached a GrandSlam final since winning his sec-ond Wimbledon title in 2016,but has nevertheless enjoyed aglittering career since turningprofessional in 2005, with notonly three Grand Slam titles, buttwo Olympic Gold medals and45 ATP crowns.

Notably, in 2013 Murraybecame the first British man towin Wimbledon for 77 years,ending the nation's obsessionwith finding a champion to fol-low in the footsteps of FredPerry.

Top Australian coachDarren Cahill, who untilrecently was mentoring worldnumber one Simona Halep,said Murray was an example ofthe never-say-die attitude thatseparated the best from theaverage.

"When you search forexamples of 'emptied the buck-

et to be as good as they couldbe' there should be a picture ofAndy Murray sitting underthat quote," he tweeted.

"Remarkable discipline fortraining, competition, sacrifice,perfection, a little crazy but alegend of a bloke." Former starAndy Roddick also paid trib-ute on Twitter.

"I tip my cap to@andy_murray! Absolute leg-end. Short list of best tacticiansin history. Unreal results in abrutal era. Nothing but respecthere. I hope he can finishstrong and healthy," he said.

Murray said he had anoption of another operation onhis troublesome hip, but itwas more about his quality oflife after hanging up his rac-quet.

"That's something I'm seri-ously considering right now,"he said.

��� ������Outlining his growth as a play-er, a consistent Prajnesh Gunneswaransealed his maiden appearance in the maindraw of a Grand Slam by qualifyingfor the Australian Open men's singlesevent here on Friday.

The 29-year-old from Chennaicame from behind to beat Japan'sYosuke Watanuki 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 in the thirdand final qualifying round.

Prajnesh is only third Indian in five yearsto feature in the men's singles main draw ofa Grand Slam, the other being SomdevDevvarman and Yuki Bhambri.

While Yuki played in all four GrandSlams in 2018 before a knee injury cut shorthis season, Somdev, who is now retired, last

played at the 2013 US Open."It's obviously huge for me. First

time ever in a Grand Slam main draw,something I have always dreamt of. Iam really happy, don't have words to

describe it but it's big deal for sure," Prajneshsaid.

"I am very proud that I stuck to it andput in all this work. I got here much laterthan most people do. I had the tennis toreach here, now just need to rest and recov-

er for the main draw," Prajneshadded.

Prajnesh will open his campaignAmerican world number 39 FrancesTiafoe and if he crosses the openinghurdle, he is likely to face fifth seedand Wimbledon finalist KevinAnderson. PTI

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Australia's Ashleigh Bartyclaimed another top 10

scalp to power into the SydneyInternational final on Friday,while veteran Andreas Seppiupset third seed DiegoSchwartzman to reach themen's decider.

The 22-year-old Barty ison a hot run, stretching herunbeaten streak to sevenmatches dating back to hercareer's biggest title at theWTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai.

She is one of the formplayers heading into theAustralian Open next week,but had to dig deep to scram-ble past world number nineand seventh seed Kiki Bertens(6-7 (4/7), 6-4, 7-5).

Her reward is a clash witheither 2015 champion PetraKvitova, who beat Belarusianqualifier AliaksandraSasnovich 6-1, 6-2 in theother semifinal.

Barty had alreadyaccounted for world numberone Simona Halep and formerFrench Open champion JelenaOstapenko before beating10th seeded Belgian EliseMertens in the quarter-finals.

She came into the matchwith the advantage of havingtwice beaten Dutch starBertens previously, includingas recently as last August inMontreal.

Seppi edged pastSchwartzman 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, aday after derailing the hopesof top seed Stefanos Tsitsipas,proving he still has what ittakes at age 34.

The Italian, seeded eight,had made three previoussemi-finals in Sydney — thefirst way back in 2006. But hehad never gone further andwas delighted to get a crack atanother ATP title to add tothree he already owns.

"It was never easy, he is agreat fighter and makes youplay a lot of balls and youhave to run a lot," said Seppiof the Argentinian. "But Iplayed a good match todayand was happy to close it out.

"I'm trying to keep work-ing hard and I always playwell in Australia. My lastfinal was in 2015, so excitedto be on another one," headded.

Australia has been ahappy hunting ground forSeppi.

As well as his deep runsin Sydney, he has a trio ofround-of-16 appearances atthe Australian Open, when hepulled off upsets againstMarin Cilic in 2013, RogerFederer in 2015 and NickKyrgios in 2017

He will play either excit-ing young Australian Alex deMinaur or veteran Frenchstar Gilles Simon in the final.

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Hit hard by an unexpected con-troversy after the high of theTest triumph, India will look

to fine tune their World Cup prepa-rations in the three-match ODI seriesagainst an under-fire Australia, begin-ning here on Saturday.

On the eve of the opening game,the BCCI suspended Hardik Pandyaand K L Rahul pending an inquiry fortheir unsavoury remarks on womenduring a TV show, effectively rulingthem out of the series.

While Pandya was a certainty inthe playing XI, an out-of-form Rahulwas not in contention to play onSaturday.

Pandya's presence as the all-rounder provides crucial balance tothe ODI side with his ability to bowl10 overs as well as bat in the middleorder.

Pandya's absence means that Indiawill have to rejig their attack. JaspritBumrah has already been rested forthis series, as well as the tour of NewZealand, and this allows the think-tank to conduct one final experimentwith their bowling attack.Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a shoe-in, andthereafter it depends if Kohli wants togo in with a three-man pace attack tocompensate for Pandya's loss.

In such a scenario, MohammedShami and Khaleel Ahmed are expect-ed to get the nod, as India continuezeroing on the pace quartet for theWorld Cup squad. There is a sprin-kling of grass on the SCG pitch andit could push the Indian skipper to optfor a three-pacer and two-spinnercombination.

Kohli also stated that, in Pandya'sabsence, Ravindra Jadeja would stepup as the all-rounder. He would part-ner up with left-arm wrist spinnerKuldeep Yadav as India's five-prongedattack, with Kedar Jadhav fulfilling anypart-time bowling duties if needed.

With the two openers, and Kohliat number three, the remaining bat-ting line-up picks itself. Jadhav, MSDhoni and Ambati Rayudu will formthe middle order, and there will bekeen interest in the latter duo's formhere.

Dhoni had an off-colour 2018,managing 275 runs in 20 ODIs ataverage 25 without a half-century.While this is a meagre return for abatsman of his stature, the worryingaspect is Dhoni's strike-rate of 71.42,which is remarkably lower than hisODI career strike-rate of 87.89.

India brought in Rayudu for theall-important number four role, andsince the Asia Cup last September,have given him a long run in the mid-dle order. In this interim, Rayuduscored 392 runs in 11 ODIs in the AsiaCup and against West Indies at aver-age 56 including a hundred and threehalf-centuries.

While he put in a more consistentshowing than any of the other previ-ously tried contenders, this run camein conditions different from those inEngland. As such, how Rayudu fareson this twin tour of Australia and NewZealand will be a closer representationof whether the Indian team has final-ly cracked the number four quandary.

India's ODI record in Australia isquite poor. Apart from the 1985

World Championship and 2008 CBSeries wins, they have lost 35 out of48 ODIs played against Australia ontheir home soil.

The absence of David Warner(220 runs in three matches in 2016)and Steve Smith (315 runs in fivematches in 2016) might help themagain though, as also the absence ofMitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and JoshHazlewood, with the trio rested fromthis series.

Australia have named their play-ing eleven ahead of the first ODI, withNathan Lyon featuring as the lonespinner and Peter Siddle returning tothis format for the first time since2010. Keeper-batsman Alex Careywill open in ODI cricket for the firsttime, and will pair up with skipperAaron Finch, while Usman Khawaja,Shaun Marsh and Peter Handscombwill form the middle order.

The hosts bat deep with Marcus

Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell lined upat numbers six and seven, albeittheir pace attack seems weak onpaper. With Siddle returning to theformat after eight years, left-armpacer Jason Behrendorff will make hisODI debut on Saturday.

F��� India: Virat Kohli (c), Rohit

Sharma, KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan,Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik,Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni (wk), HardikPandya, Kuldeep Yadav, YuzvendraChahal, Ravindra Jadeja,Bhuvneshwar Kumar, KhaleelAhmed, Mohammed Shami,Mohammed Siraj.

Australia (playing XI): AaronFinch (c), Alex Carey (wk), UsmanKhawaja, Shaun Marsh, PeterHandscomb, Marcus Stoinis, GlennMaxwell, Nathan Lyon, Peter Siddle,Jhye Richardson, Jason Behrendorff.

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The recalled Doug Bracewell anddebutant Scott Kuggeleijn starred

with bat and ball for New Zealand tobeat Sri Lanka by 35 runs in the one-off Twenty20 match in Auckland onFriday.

It ended a dismal tour for the SriLankans with the drawn first Test fol-lowed by a succession of losses in thesecond Test, three one-dayers and theTwenty20.

New Zealand, sent into bat, recov-ered from 55 for five to finish on 179

for seven with Bracewell (44) andKuggeleijn (35 not out) as the keycontributors.

Although the target was notdaunting and Sri Lanka easily kept upwith the required run rate to be fourfor 118 after 12 overs.

But their last six wickets fell forthe addition of only 26 more runs andthe innings folded for 144 with 19balls remaining.

Kuggeleijn and Bracewell bothtook wickets in their opening overs.

Kusal Perera, who raced to 22 off12 deliveries was removed by

Kuggeleijn's third delivery whileNiroshan Dickwella, who smacked afour and a six from the first two ballsof the innings, went for 18 with thefirst ball from Bracewell.

Kuggeleijn and Bracewell alsotook the catches to dismiss KusalMendis (17) and Thisara Perera (43).

The first game all tour for SadeeraSamarawickrama was a short-livedaffair when he was bowled first ballby Lockie Ferguson.

Ferguson finished with figures ofthree for 21 while Ish Sodhi took threefor 30.

Sri Lanka did with the toss andput New Zealand into bat withimpressive early results.

With a more disciplined bowlingattack than was seen in the ODIs, andwith astute field placements, SriLanka ripped through the NewZealand top order to have them fourfor 27 midway through the fourthover.

But then, Bracewell clubbed 44 off26 balls including five sixes and a fourwhile Kuggeleijn only faced 15 deliv-eries to be not out 35 with four sixesand a four.

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Australian skipper Aaron Finch onFriday said Indian batting is

heavily reliant on its top-three and histeam will be looking to exploit thatweakness in the three-match ODIseries beginning here on Saturday.

Finch said his side's target will beto dismiss India's top-three batsmen— Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharmaand Virat Kohli — cheaply.

"Over the last 12 months Virat'saveraged 133, Shikhar 75, and Rohit50; so there's a lot of runs and ballsfaced from their top three. It's impor-tant to get them as early as you canbecause once they get in, they scorefast and they don't seem to get out tooeasily," said Finch on Friday.

With the success of the top-order,the middle-order comprising M SDhoni has not been tested enough.

"Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav,Dhoni these are the guys that can allplay their part as well. The top threeare very important but you can't just

look at that otherwise there's some-one else that will catch you off-guardand get the job done as well," saidFinch.

Like India, Australia will kick offtheir 2019 World Cup preparations inSydney, albeit they have a Test seriesagainst Sri Lanka in between.

The hosts announced their play-ing eleven for the series opener as pernorm, with keeper-batsman AlexCarey set to open the batting withFinch. The batting runs deep withGlenn Maxwell at number seven.

"It's just an opportunity to seeAlex play in a position he's done quitebit in Big Bash and one-day cricket.He's been shuffled around the ordera bit in the last little while... We are try-ing to search for that process and rightbalance of the side.

"We've got three games herewhich will be very tough then straightto India for five ODIs then Pakistanso that's a very tough 13 games, thena few warm-up and practice gamesagainst New Zealand."

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Hardik Pandya and K L Rahul willbe sent home on the first avail-

able flight from Australia as theBCCI suspended them on Friday fortheir outrage-evoking comments onwomen, hours after the duo's on-fieldleader Virat Kohli expressed his dis-approval.

The under-fire players have beensuspended pending an inquiry intotheir sexist comments on a TV show,ruling them out of the three-matchODI series against Australia begin-ning Saturday in Sydney.

"Both Pandya and Rahul havebeen suspended pending an inquiry,"the Committee of Administrators(CoA) chairman Vinod Rai said.

A few hours later it was con-firmed that a decision has been takento send them home from Australia.

"It's confirmed. The duo is beingsent back. If they can book ticketsthen tomorrow they will be leaving(for India) or latest by day after," asenior BCCI official said.

He added that at this point theirchances of making the squad for theNew Zealand tour are also "bleak".

The 'Koffee with Karan' episodefeaturing the cricketers has sincebeen taken down by the channel'sonline platform.

On the show, Pandya had boast-ed about hooking up with multiplewomen and being open about it withhis parents. Rahul was, however, ashade more restrained in his respons-es on relationships and women.

A source in the BCCI said the twowill be issued fresh show causenotices before a formal enquirybegins.

"Whether it will be an internalcommittee of the BCCI or an ad hocombudsman who will conduct an

inquiry, is yet to be ascertained," theofficial said.

Pandya has regretted his com-ments twice since the show went onair on Sunday — first on his officialTwitter page and then in response tothe BCCI show cause notice onWednesday.

Rahul, on the other hand, is yetto react to the controversy.

The decision to hand them sus-pensions came after Rai's CoA col-league Diana Edulji recommendedthe same till further action against thetwo. This was after the BCCI's legalteam refused to declare the com-ments a violation of the code of con-duct.

Edulji had initially suggested atwo-match suspension for the duobut referred the matter to the legalcell after Rai agreed with her and rec-ommended the same.

In Sydney, on the eve of the ODIseries, captain Kohli condemned thetwo for what he termed "inappro-priate" comments but said he was nottoo stressed about the possibility ofa ban on the all-rounder.

"...It's good that we have someonelike (Ravindra) Jadeja who can do theall-rounder's role if a scenario likethat occurs," Kohli said.

Days after their historic maidenTest series triumph, Kohli assertedthat the side does not stand by the"individual opinions", which havetriggered a social media storm.

The likes of Rishabh Pant andManish Pandey will now be in con-tention to be their replacements.While Pandya was a certainty in theplaying XI, an out-of-form Rahul wasnot in contention to play on Saturday.

It is speculated that the BCCImight bar players from appearing onentertainment shows owing to theongoing furore.

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Indian captain Virat Kohli onFriday said he is not too

stressed about ban on all-rounder Hardik Pandya for his"inappropriate" comments onwomen as the side has a readyreplacement in Ravindra Jadeja.

"We played in India againstthe West Indies with a fingerspinner and a wrist spinner. Soit's good that we have someonelike Jadeja who can do the all-rounder's role if a scenario likethat occurs," Kohli said on theeve of the first ODI.

"So we are not too stressedas a team because you'll alwayshave things that you can do interms of creating that balance forthe side. And hence, we keepplayers who can provide balancewith bat and ball as a backupanyway," he added.

Kohli has distanced theteam from the controversy bysaying that the side does notstand by the duo on the issue.

"I don't think we will havetoo much of trouble if we haveto change our combinations. Weare pretty comfortable as a sideand any combination that we goin with," he said.

Kohli said he is pleasedwith the current team's combi-nation and there isn't too muchroom for tinkering with thissquad in the build-up to the ODIWorld Cup in England startingMay 30.

"The fact we have not manygames left before the World Cupand hence we want to play theside that more or less will featurein the World Cup. The excep-tional case of Jasprit Bumrahbeing rested is purely because ofthe workload in the Test series.

"But apart from that I don'tthink combination-wise we aregoing to look to tinker toomuch," he said.

However, Kohli did admitthat form and fitness could bedecisive for a couple of spots.

"...A couple of spots whichmight need rectification will belooked at but apart from that theidea is to make that combinationand that team play together forthe whole period left before theWorld Cup," said Kohli.

Pandya and Rahul mightnot be available for the start ofthis three-match series, andcombined with Bumrah'sabsence, Kohli said this is anopportunity to experiment witha few more pacers before final-ising the preferred attack for theWorld Cup.

"What's exciting is that

Bhuvneshwar Kumar is comingback into the scenario. He'sbeen working hard during theTests. Khaleel Ahmed has donewell when given the opportuni-ties.

"Mohammed Shami has theskill to provide you break-throughs with the new ball. Sohe has the chance to establishhimself as the member of thepace quartet or how many everwill go to the World Cup.

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Pakistan's bowlers changedthe course of the third and

final Test against South Africawhen they engineered a dra-matic collapse on the first dayof the third and final Test onFriday.

From being in control on226 for three at tea, SouthAfrica were bowled out for262 at the WanderersStadium.

Vernon Philander struckback for South Africa, takingtwo wickets off successiveballs as Pakistan reached 17for two at the close.

A polished innings of 90by Aiden Markram, coupledwith some wayward bowlingby Pakistan, laid the founda-tion for some attacking bat-ting by South Africa, who col-

lectively hit 37 fours and a sixbefore tea on what looked thebest batting pitch of a seriesalready won by the hosts.

But the runs dried upafter the interval as SouthAfrica were able to add only36 for the loss of seven wick-ets in 19.4 overs, hitting onlyfour more boundaries.

Mohammad Amir andMohammad Abbas set thetone after tea, taking two andone wickets respectively. Bothbowlers gained reverse swingand tightened up their lines tomake run-scoring difficult.

Amir left the field fourballs into his 16th over afterfalling in his delivery strideand appearing to twist his left

ankle but Hasan Ali andFaheem Ashraf continued toput pressure on the batsmen.

Ashraf finished with threefor 57, while Amir, Abbas andHasan took two wickets each.

Markram hit 16 bound-aries off 124 balls in aninnings marked by crisply-struck drives and firm clips toleg. It was the third time in his15-Test career that he had

been dismissed in thenineties.

Markram, who had topass a fitness test after suffer-ing a badly bruised rightthigh while fielding in the sec-ond Test in Cape Town,looked set for his fifth Testcentury until he glanced a ballfrom the medium-pacedFaheem and wicketkeeperSarfraz Ahmed dived to hisleft to take a good catch.

Hashim Amla (41)helped Markram put on 126for the second wicket afterstand-in captain Dean Elgarwas caught behind offMohammad Abbas for five inthe second over.

Theunis de Bruyn (49)

and new cap Zubayr Hamza(41) both batted brightly in afourth wicket stand whichwas worth 72 at tea.

But De Bruyn was out inthe third over after tea andHamza, who scored 38 off 46balls before tea, could addonly three more runs off 22deliveries before he wascaught behind off Amir.

Left to negotiate a tricky40 minutes before the close,Pakistan lost Shan Masood,their top scorer in the series,for two when a successfulreview showed he had got afaint edge to a ball angledacross him.

Azhar Ali received asuperb first delivery whichseamed way from him andfound an edge for wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock totake a second catch.

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Retired cricketers plyingtheir trade in T20 leagues

might be a global trend rightnow but India captain ViratKohli says he wouldn't evenbe "seen around the scene"the day he is "totally spent" topick up the bat again.

Responding to a queryon whether he would con-sider playing in theAustralian Big Bash leagueafter retiring or if the BCCIlifts the bar on its players,Kohli said he would certain-ly not be around for such astint after retirement.

"Look I don't knowwhether that stance is goingto change in the future. As faras I am concerned, playingmore cricket when I amdone, I don't think I am inthat zone to be honest," the30-year-old said.

"I have played enoughcricket in the last five yearsand I cannot comment oneven the first thing I dowhen I retire because I don'tfeel like I am going to pick upthe bat again," he said.

"I will be spent, the dayI finish I will be totally spentand that's the reason I amgoing to stop playing cricket.So I don't see myself comingback and playing again. OnceI am done, I will be done, andI won't be seen around thescene," Kohli said.

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