€¦ · region of Madhya Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Saturday. Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh,...

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T he high-pitched cam- paigning for the fifth phase in 51 Lok Sabha constituencies spread across seven States ended on Saturday with the BJP trying hard to keep the steam on and repeat 2014 magic and the rival Congress seeking to retrieve ground it had lost in the last general elections. In 2014, BJP had consoli- dated on its gains from the fifth phase onwards to single-hand- edly cross the majority mark. For the Congress, its president Rahul Gandhi would be in the fray against BJP’s Smriti Irani from his pocket-borough Amethi but where the contest seems to be tougher this time given the BJP’s focus on the seat for the last five years. Rae Bareli, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s constituency, would also be one of the 12 Lok Sabha seats which would go to polls in Uttar Pradesh on Monday. The other seats in the elec- torally important UP are Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj (SC), Lucknow, Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi (SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad, Bahraich (SC), Kaiserganj and Gonda. SP-BSP-RLD has emerged in UP as the main rival of the BJP and banking on its combined vote bank share which was divided in last Lok Sabha poll, yielding a duck for the BSP and only six seats for the SP. The BSP is contesting on five seats - Dhaurahra, Sitapur, Mohanlalganj, Fatehpur and Kaisarganj. Its ally Samajwadi Party is fighting for seven seats Lucknow, Banda, Kaushambi, Barabanki, Faizabad, Bahraich and Gonda. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh is seeking re- election from key Lucknow constituency which has been represented in the past by the BJP patriarch Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Rajnath Singh is fac- ing Samjawadi Party’s nominee Poonam Sinha, wife of actor- politician Shatrughan Sinha. Former Union Minister and Congress candidate Jitin Prasada is contesting from Dhaurahra against former Chambal dacoit Malkhan Singh of Pragati Sheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia). In the Faizabad parliamentary con- stituency, under which the temple town of Ayodhya falls, sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh is taking on Nirmal Khatri of the Congress. Khatri is a former Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee chief. In 2014 elections, 12 of 14 seats of this phase in UP were won by the BJP while National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had swept all five seats of Bihar. Congress could win only the Rae Bareli and Amethi — out of the 80 seats in the entire State. State-wise distribution of Lok Sahba seats in this poll round is: UP (14 constituen- cies), Rajasthan (12), Madhya Pradesh (7), West Bengal (7), Bihar (5), Jharkhand (4) and Jammu & Kashmir (2). The phase would see conclusion of voting in all 29 seats of Rajasthan which were won by the BJP in 2014. In contrast to previous rounds, poll campaigning in this phase has been peaceful even as electioneering during the last couple of days was marred by the panic over Fani, which caused large-scale destruction in neighbouring Odisha. A high-decibel campaign for seven Lok Sabha con- stituencies in the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Saturday. Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, Hoshangabad and Betul seats, all held by the BJP currently, will take place on May 6. This will be the second phase of polling in Madhya Pradesh, the first phase having been held on April 29. Union Minister Virendra Kumar Khatik is the BJP candidate from Tikamgarh while former Union Minister and sitting MP Prahlad Patel is the party’s Damoh candidate. Turn to Page 4 P eople of West Bengal heaved a sigh of relief as severe cyclonic storm Fani weakened on Saturday morn- ing which wreaked havoc in Odisha leaving 12 persons dead. However, Fani killed at least 14 people in Bangladesh as it barrelled into the nation on Saturday. North-East States — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura — have witnessed intermittent rain since Friday due to the impact of Fani. As many as 79 flights were cancelled at dif- ferent airports in the Northeast region due to bad weather. According to the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC), headed by Cabinet Secretary PK Sinha, the cyclone has caused extensive damage to telecommunications and power infrastructure in Puri, Bhubaneswar and some other areas of Odisha while the West Bengal Government has reported mild impact of the cyclone. The Andhra Pradesh Government informed about heavy rainfall and some dam- age to crops and roads in Srikakulam district. In Bengal, the storm lashed Digha, Haldia, Tajpur, Mandarmani, Sandehskhali, Contai, Diamond Harbour, Bankura, Sriniketan, Asansol, Dumdum and Alipore, Kharagpur, Kolkata, and Burdwan. Trees were uprooted, power and telecom lines snapped, metal hoardings blown away as the storm swept through Bengal. However, no loss of life was reported from the State. According to Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the entire administration was awake the whole night. “We were very worried about the cyclone Fani. There were not much damage in the State. At least 850 mud houses in the districts were partially dam- aged while 12 were complete- ly destroyed,” she said. The Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) also resumed its routine operation on Saturday morning at both Haldia and Kolkata docks. As Fani has moved away, flight operations resumed at Kolkata and Bhubaneswar air- ports on Saturday. “Flight oper- ations to and from Bhubaneswar airport has resumed. Alliance Air flight from Ranchi is the first flight to land,” tweeted the Ministry of Civil Aviation. The Eastern Naval Command has launched a massive rescue and rehabilita- tion effort in Odisha. Turn to Page 4 A bus ferrying 42 female employees of a private company overturned after it was hit by a speeding truck, resulting in injuries to passen- gers in Noida Sector 93 on Saturday around 6 am. “The bus had 42 passen- gers, all women employees of a private firm, who were on their way to work when their vehi- cle overturned after being hit by a truck,” Phase 2 SHO Farmood Ali Pundir said. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital, while those critically wounded were taken to Kailash Hospital, he said. “The truck involved in the incident has been impounded and its driver detained,” the SHO said. He scotched rumour of the law and order situation at the accident site, and said probe is underway. T he last day of the Lok Sabha poll campaigning in Amethi turned interesting with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Smriti Irani locking horns on several issues. Sitting MP and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi is seeking to defend his turf for the fourth time against Union Minister Smriti Irani, who had brought down Rahul’s victory margin to just over a lakh in 2014. Charges have been flying thick and fast with the Congress accusing the BJP of trying to bribe voters and the BJP slamming the Congress for taking the segment for granted with dynasty politics. Campaigning for her brother, Priyanka said, “Smriti Irani comes here and distrib- utes shoes and sarees. She should come and beg for votes rather than distribute you shoes. I also want to ask if the BJP is so concerned about Amethi, why did they wind up projects which Rahul Gandhi initiated.” On the other hand, Smriti mocked Rahul in a rally, say- ing, “Absentee MP has already given up on you and run away to Kerala.” Turn to Page 4 The UN agency for disaster reduction has commended the India Meteorological Department’s “almost pinpoint accuracy” of early warnings that helped authorities conduct a well-targeted evacuation plan and minimise the loss of life. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday discussed the sit- uation with Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and assured all support from the Central Government. Modi will visit Odisha on Monday to take stock of the situation.

Transcript of €¦ · region of Madhya Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Saturday. Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh,...

Page 1: €¦ · region of Madhya Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Saturday. Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, ... utes shoes and sarees. She should come and beg for votes rather

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The high-pitched cam-paigning for the fifth phase

in 51 Lok Sabha constituenciesspread across seven Statesended on Saturday with the BJPtrying hard to keep the steamon and repeat 2014 magic andthe rival Congress seeking toretrieve ground it had lost inthe last general elections.

In 2014, BJP had consoli-dated on its gains from the fifthphase onwards to single-hand-edly cross the majority mark.For the Congress, its presidentRahul Gandhi would be in thefray against BJP’s Smriti Iranifrom his pocket-boroughAmethi but where the contestseems to be tougher this timegiven the BJP’s focus on the seatfor the last five years. RaeBareli, Congress leader SoniaGandhi’s constituency, wouldalso be one of the 12 Lok Sabhaseats which would go to pollsin Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

The other seats in the elec-torally important UP areDhaurahra, Sitapur,Mohanlalganj (SC), Lucknow,Banda, Fatehpur, Kaushambi(SC), Barabanki (SC), Faizabad,Bahraich (SC), Kaiserganj andGonda. SP-BSP-RLD hasemerged in UP as the mainrival of the BJP and banking onits combined vote bank sharewhich was divided in last Lok

Sabha poll, yielding a duck forthe BSP and only six seats forthe SP.

The BSP is contesting onfive seats - Dhaurahra, Sitapur,Mohanlalganj, Fatehpur andKaisarganj. Its ally SamajwadiParty is fighting for seven seats— Lucknow, Banda,Kaushambi, Barabanki,Faizabad, Bahraich and Gonda.

Union Home MinisterRajnath Singh is seeking re-

election from key Lucknowconstituency which has beenrepresented in the past by theBJP patriarch Atal BihariVajpayee. Rajnath Singh is fac-ing Samjawadi Party’s nomineePoonam Sinha, wife of actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha.

Former Union Ministerand Congress candidate JitinPrasada is contesting fromDhaurahra against formerChambal dacoit Malkhan

Singh of Pragati SheelSamajwadi Party (Lohia). In theFaizabad parliamentary con-stituency, under which thetemple town of Ayodhya falls,sitting BJP MP Lallu Singh istaking on Nirmal Khatri of theCongress. Khatri is a formerUttar Pradesh CongressCommittee chief.

In 2014 elections, 12 of 14seats of this phase in UP werewon by the BJP while National

Democratic Alliance (NDA)had swept all five seats ofBihar. Congress could win onlythe Rae Bareli and Amethi —out of the 80 seats in the entireState.

State-wise distribution ofLok Sahba seats in this pollround is: UP (14 constituen-cies), Rajasthan (12), MadhyaPradesh (7), West Bengal (7),Bihar (5), Jharkhand (4) andJammu & Kashmir (2). Thephase would see conclusion ofvoting in all 29 seats ofRajasthan which were won bythe BJP in 2014.

In contrast to previousrounds, poll campaigning inthis phase has been peacefuleven as electioneering duringthe last couple of days wasmarred by the panic over Fani,

which caused large-scaledestruction in neighbouringOdisha.

A high-decibel campaignfor seven Lok Sabha con-stituencies in the Bundelkhandregion of Madhya Pradeshended at 5 pm on Saturday.Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh,Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa,Hoshangabad and Betul seats,all held by the BJP currently,will take place on May 6. Thiswill be the second phase ofpolling in Madhya Pradesh, thefirst phase having been held onApril 29. Union MinisterVirendra Kumar Khatik is theBJP candidate from Tikamgarhwhile former Union Ministerand sitting MP Prahlad Patel isthe party’s Damoh candidate.

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People of West Bengalheaved a sigh of relief as

severe cyclonic storm Faniweakened on Saturday morn-ing which wreaked havoc inOdisha leaving 12 personsdead. However, Fani killed atleast 14 people in Bangladeshas it barrelled into the nation onSaturday.

North-East States —Arunachal Pradesh, Assam,Meghalaya, Nagaland,Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura— have witnessed intermittentrain since Friday due to theimpact of Fani. As many as 79flights were cancelled at dif-ferent airports in the Northeastregion due to bad weather.

According to the NationalCrisis Management Committee(NCMC), headed by CabinetSecretary PK Sinha, the cyclonehas caused extensive damage totelecommunications and powerinfrastructure in Puri,Bhubaneswar and some otherareas of Odisha while the WestBengal Government hasreported mild impact of thecyclone. The Andhra Pradesh

Government informed aboutheavy rainfall and some dam-age to crops and roads inSrikakulam district.

In Bengal, the storm lashedDigha, Haldia, Tajpur,Mandarmani, Sandehskhali,Contai, Diamond Harbour,Bankura, Sriniketan, Asansol,Dumdum and Alipore,Kharagpur, Kolkata, andBurdwan. Trees were uprooted,power and telecom linessnapped, metal hoardingsblown away as the storm sweptthrough Bengal. However, noloss of life was reported fromthe State.

According to Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee, theentire administration wasawake the whole night. “Wewere very worried about thecyclone Fani. There were notmuch damage in the State. Atleast 850 mud houses in thedistricts were partially dam-aged while 12 were complete-ly destroyed,” she said. TheKolkata Port Trust (KoPT) alsoresumed its routine operationon Saturday morning at bothHaldia and Kolkata docks.

As Fani has moved away,

flight operations resumed atKolkata and Bhubaneswar air-ports on Saturday. “Flight oper-ations to and fromBhubaneswar airport hasresumed. Alliance Air flightfrom Ranchi is the first flightto land,” tweeted the Ministryof Civil Aviation.

The Eastern NavalCommand has launched amassive rescue and rehabilita-tion effort in Odisha.

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Abus ferrying 42 femaleemployees of a private

company overturned after itwas hit by a speeding truck,resulting in injuries to passen-gers in Noida Sector 93 onSaturday around 6 am.

“The bus had 42 passen-gers, all women employees of aprivate firm, who were on theirway to work when their vehi-cle overturned after being hitby a truck,” Phase 2 SHOFarmood Ali Pundir said.

The injured were rushed toa nearby hospital, while thosecritically wounded were takento Kailash Hospital, he said.

“The truck involved in theincident has been impoundedand its driver detained,” theSHO said.

He scotched rumour ofthe law and order situation atthe accident site, and saidprobe is underway.

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The last day of the LokSabha poll campaigning

in Amethi turned interestingwith Priyanka Gandhi Vadraand Smriti Irani locking hornson several issues.

Sitting MP and Congresschief Rahul Gandhi is seekingto defend his turf for thefourth time against UnionMinister Smriti Irani, whohad brought down Rahul’svictory margin to just over alakh in 2014.

Charges have been flyingthick and fast with theCongress accusing the BJP oftrying to bribe voters and the

BJP slamming the Congressfor taking the segment forgranted with dynasty politics.

Campaigning for herbrother, Priyanka said, “SmritiIrani comes here and distrib-utes shoes and sarees. Sheshould come and beg for votesrather than distribute youshoes. I also want to ask if theBJP is so concerned aboutAmethi, why did they wind upprojects which Rahul Gandhiinitiated.”

On the other hand, Smritimocked Rahul in a rally, say-ing, “Absentee MP has alreadygiven up on you and run awayto Kerala.”

Turn to Page 4

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The UN agency for disasterreduction has commended theIndia MeteorologicalDepartment’s “almost pinpointaccuracy” of early warningsthat helped authorities conducta well-targeted evacuation planand minimise the loss of life.

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�#�#�������������%�������������Prime Minister Narendra Modion Saturday discussed the sit-uation with Odisha ChiefMinister Naveen Patnaik andassured all support from theCentral Government. Modiwill visit Odisha on Monday totake stock of the situation.

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Page 2: €¦ · region of Madhya Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Saturday. Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, ... utes shoes and sarees. She should come and beg for votes rather

�How have things changedafter playing AngooriBhabhi?

A lot has changed. I tooka break of two years in mycareer and was waiting for agood project where I get toplay a good character. PlayingAngoori was the right choice.It is important for an actor toget to play a good role aftercoming back from a break.Angoori has become thebiggest role of my life. Playingher is a treat for me and Ihave enjoyed playing it. Thisrole has offered me a lot offame, Angoori has nowbecome an household nameand it feels good. I have alsowon many awards for therole.�Did you ever think thatthis character will becomeso popular?

I never imagined it.When I got to play thischaracter, I was replacingsomeone else for the role. Itcame with a lot ofresponsibility. I decided togive my 100 per cent to thecharacter. I didn’t think that

I will get this much love andappreciation from theaudience. I believe in onething agar hum pooriimaandari ke sath koi kaamkartey hain toh uska resultzaroor milta hai.�Does it mean that youhave to work harder?

Yes. I would not call itchallenging but it came as ahuge responsibility on me atthat time. I knew that I wasreplacing a big character. Itwas important that I wasable to do justice to thecharacter. It wasn’t easy. I hadto work on my language andaccent. I come from MadhyaPradesh, so Bhojpuri wasalien to me. Initially, I faceda lot of difficulties to get intothe skin of the character andget everything right.Eventually, it all worked outwell for me.�What is that one thing that

you like and dislike aboutyour character?

I like the innocence ofthe character. It is a beautifulcharacter to play. I get toexperiment a lot with thecharacter. The thing that Idislike about my character iswearing a heavy wig andheavy sarees. I get a lot ofheadache after wearing it fora long time.�Did you want to be anactor?

Yes. Being an actor wasmy childhood dream. Jab semujhe hosh hai, tab se mujheactor hi banna tha. I becamean actor a long time ago — abathroom actor. Thengradually, with everyone’sblessing and because maineitni shiddat se yeh maanga kiI got into this field. It was along journey, full of ups anddowns but I made it heresomehow.

�What kind of roles wouldyou like to experiment with?

There are so many. I loveearthy characters and wouldalso love to be a part of artfilms. After Bhabhi Ji GharPar Hain, I would love to playthose characters which noone will ever imagine meplaying. I am looking forwardto some bold stuff too.�Where did you get yourinspiration from?

There are so many actorsthat inspire me in a way orother. Whenever I seesomeone doing a brilliantjob and I get inspired by themand I think that why can’t I domy work in such a way thatinspires others. There is somuch of talent around us thatI believe in getting inspiredfrom everything andeveryone around me.�Apart from acting whatelse keeps you busy?

I love travelling. Andvery soon I will come up withmy own travel show for theaudience.�What does fame mean toyou?

Fame is momentary. It isfor a short duration. If you arehit then people rememberyou aur phir kuch time baadbhool bhi jatey hain. Oneshould not take fame tooseriously. I believe in doinggood work, imaadari ke sath.This is what matters at theend.�How was the experiencebeing a part of KitchenChampion?

It was an amazing andfun-filled experience. Thewhole team is brilliant. Thisis the first time that I haveworked with my husband(Piyush Poorey) in any show,so I enjoyed it a lot. I got tocook, dance and do mimicrytoo. It was a wonderfulexperience. I got to spendsome time out from my usualroutine. I would like to thankArjun Bijlani (host of theshow) and the makers forhaving me there. I hope thatthis association will be therein future too.

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Over the years therehave been so manymovies made on

terrorism and sleeper cellsand how to end it all. Blankjust gets added to the list ofthe manys.

What we have is a man— an accident victim —brought to a hospital wherethey find a bomb tickingthat too that is linked to hisheart beat no less. He dies,the bomb explodes. Thesituation is explosive thefilm is not.

This is where theproblem lies. Blank which isBehzab Khambata’sdirectorial venture is unableto cash in on the pace atwhich the story should

progress. Given the urgencyof the situation, the pace isslow. The characters moveas if they have tons of timeat their hands, it is just theopposite. There are 25 livebombs that are about to gooff in various parts of thecountry.

The reasons for creatingterror are the same. Wordslike jannat, Inshaallah and itis just business are thrownaround. Money makes theworld go round is themantra.

Yelling and screamingno longer works and nordoes beating the terrorist toa pulp. There are far moreadvanced ways to get themtalking. Bollywood appearsto have forgotten that.References to the RAW andIB are cliched. if all thework has to be done bythese Intelligence Agencies,the police might as well shut

shop and put up theiruniforms.

Newbie Karan Kapadia(brother-in-law of AkshayKumar) does manage toleave his mark even thoughthere are many instanceswhere he just appears toamble along. But he is talland fights well. This shouldgo in his favour. Sunny Deolhas yet to lose the perpetualfrown as is the fact thatshouting no longer gets thework done. The parts wherehe yells grate on nerves.Good that these are few.

The 111-minute filmshould have been fraughtwith tension and speedunfortunately time is spentin showing sleeper cellschecking their text andwalking. But not all is losthere. It is good to see close-ups of hand-to-handpunches thrown in.

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MasterChef Australia has been one of themost loved international shows in India

since it first aired over 10 years ago. Australia’sfavourite judges Gary Mehigan, GeorgeCalombaris, and Matt Preston have becomehousehold names in our country too.MasterChef is no longer just a TV show, it’s acultural phenomenon and this time, withHotstar Premium, you will not need to wait formonths to watch the latest season of one of thebiggest reality shows in India. Season 11 ofMasterChef Australia will be available in Indiaexclusively on Hotstar Premium from the May4 2019, soon after the show’s premiere inAustralia.

Twenty-four talented and passionate homecooks have earned the privilege of wearing thecoveted white apron. With differentbackgrounds, different experiences, skills andcultural influences, there is one thing that unitesour Top 24 — their passion for food. Will JessHall, a New South Wales travel agent who wearsher heart on her sleeve, succeed in winning thehearts of the judges? Will Tim Bone, who sharesan uncanny resemblance to Prince Harry, findhis crowning achievement in the kitchen? WillSandeep Pandit, a Victorian IT project managerfrom Kashmir, tip the judges spice meter overthe edge with his traditional feast? The stakesare high as aspiring MasterChef ’s contend forculinary glory with shocks, surprises andbundles of fun at every step of the way.

Last year, Sashi Cheliah, an Indian-Singaporean origin Australian cook stoodvictorious. With more talented home cookscompeting this year, who will the nextMasterChef be? Only time will tell! HotstarPremium is the first and onlydestination for you to watchthis show just days after theinternational premiere.

Sashi Cheliah, Indian-Singaporean born Australiantelevision cook, prison officerand winner of MasterChefAustralia 2018 said: “It’s beena year now and I am stillenjoying the euphoria thatsurrounds MasterChefAustralia . It is truly anincredible experience lacedwith both delight andexcitement. MasterChefAustralia enjoys a massive fanfollowing in India and the factthat Indian audiences do nothave to wait for months tocatch up on the latesthappenings of the show isquite wonderful. With Indiabeing such a culturally vibrantcountry, food plays a verycentral role among Indianfamilies and with this show,they now have yet anotherreason to connect with whatthey love most — food. I wishall the new contestants forseason 11 the best of luck as thecompetition progresses.”

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Page 3: €¦ · region of Madhya Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Saturday. Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, ... utes shoes and sarees. She should come and beg for votes rather

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The UttarakhandGovernment’s decision to

revoke the suspension of IndianAdministrative Services ( IAS)officer Pankaj Kumar Pandey inthe infamous National Highway( NH)- 74 land acquisition andcompensation disbursal scamhas stirred a hornet’s nest withthe Opposition Congressdemanding a CBI enquiry onthe issue. Pandey was reinstated on Friday afterremaining suspended for seven months.

Talking to the mediaper-sons at Rajiv Bhawan, the Stateoffice of the Congress party,vice-president Surya KantDhasmana on Saturday said thesuspension and then reinstat-ing two IAS officers in the NH-74 scam has exposedthe ‘Zero tolerance on corrup-tion’ rhetoric of the TrivendraSingh Rawat-led BJPGovernment.

“The IAS officers were sus-pended and then reinstatedby the orders of the chief min-ister. At the time of their sus-pension it was claimed thatenough evidences are thereagainst these officers. Withtheir reinstatement one thing isclear, either the suspension ofofficers was wrong or now the

government is at fault by revok-ing the suspension. The CMshould explain things now. Wedemand a CBI enquiry in thecase,’’ he said.

Continuing his diatribe onthe Government, the Congressleader said it appears that thewhole issue was enacted to getelectoral benefit in the elections

of urban local bodies and thejust concluded parliamentaryelections.

Dhasmana added the CMhad declared at a place not less

than the floor of the StateAssembly that CBI would startan inquiry in the case within 15 days but later he back-tracked on it.

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The religious fraternity ofHaridwar has strongly dis-

approved the statement madeby General Secretary ofCommunist Party of India,Marxist (CPM), SitaramYechury in which he termedHindus as ‘violent’. Yog GuruBaba Ramdev lodged a writtencomplaint with SeniorSuperintendent of Police (SSP),Haridwar in which he hastermed the statement of theCPM leader as national insult.

In a recent statement, CPMleader Yechury said Indian epicsRamayana and Mahabharataare full of violent episodes.

Addressing mediapersonsat Bharat Mata Mandir trust inHaripur Kalan, along withsaints of different Akhadas,on Saturday Ramdev saidHindu dharma believes in non-violence.

Challenging Yechury toissue similar statements againstChristianity, Islam andCommunists, Ramdev Baba saidthat Sitaram must change hisname and replace it with Babar.

He added that it is provenin the history that the Marxists

are responsible for killing peo-ple brutally.

In the complaint with thepolice, the Saints have demand-ed that legal action should beinitiated against Yechury andhe should be arrested.

Ramdev claimed that firstFIR has been lodged againstYechury in Haridwar and thesaints across the country wouldfile complaints against him. Hesaid, Communists had killedfollowers of Dalai Lama to

extend their ‘empire’ in China.Ramdev said, “Sikh Gurus

sacrificed for saving theHindus, may be tomorrow,Sitaram would call Sikh gurusas violent too which cannot betolerated.’’ When contacted,the SSP Haridwar, JanmeyjayKhanduri said that saints havesubmitted a complaint thattheir religious sentiments arehurt for which a probe wouldbe initiated and necessaryaction would be taken.

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After functioning on belowcapacity from last two

days, the Magnetic ResonanceImaging (MRI) machine ofthe Government Doon MedicalCollege (GDMC) hospitalbecame completely dysfunc-tional on Saturday.

The Deputy MedicalSuperintendent (MS) of thehospital, Dr NS Khatri con-firmed that the machine hasdeveloped some snag due towhich it became dysfunction-al on Saturday.

He informed that the prob-lem has occurred in UPS dueto which required power is not being transmitted to the machine.

Earlier on Friday, thedepartment of radiology of thehospital had claimed that dueto continuous power fluctua-tions the phase of the machinewas needed to be changed reg-ularly which was taking time.

Dr Khatri said the compa-ny responsible for maintenanceof the machine has beeninformed about the snag andthe machine is expected to berepaired by Monday.

The 1.5 Tesla MRI machine

was installed at the biggesthospital of the State in the year2009 at cost of Rs 7 crore.

The doctors of the hospi-tal admit that the machine hasnow become obsolete andneeds to be replaced.

The malfunctioning of the

MRI machine has created a sit-uation in the GDMC Hospitalwhere both the important radio-diagnostic machines, the MRIand CT scan have gone truant.

The lone CT scan machineof the hospital is not function-ing from last week of February.

As this machine has becomevery old, the hospital adminis-tration has decided to replaceit with a new CT machine.

Meanwhile in absence ofMRI and CT scan facility thepatients visiting the hospital arefacing the problems. Morethan 30 MRIs are done by themachine in a day.

The fee of an MRI in thehospital is Rs 3,500 only. On theother hand the private centrescharge about Rs 7,000 to 10,000for an MRI scan.

The associated hospital ofthe GDMC is only facility inDehradun and nearby districtswhere facility of MRI is avail-able in a Government centre.Curiously enough, this impor-tant machine has a habit of get-ting broken down regularly.

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Awritten complaint has beenlodged against a child spe-

cialist of the GDMC hospitalwith the chief medical officer(CMO) of Dehradun.

In the complaint, oneShubash Tyagi has alleged that

while treating his daughterwho remained admitted in thehospital for five days, the childspecialist always insisted toget the pathology tests donefrom a particular privatepathology centre (RanuPathology lab).

In his complaint, Tyagi has

alleged that the lab owner andthe doctor work in collusion duewhich the patients are forced togo private pathology labs evenas hospital lab has all facilities.

The CMO, Dr SK Guptahas taken a serious note of thecomplaint and assured neces-sary action.

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The Municipal Corporationof Dehradun (MCD) has

failed to cope up with the per-sistent problem of stray cattlein the city.

The menace is particularlysevere in the newly added 40wards into the MCD. Despiteregular complaints of the coun-cillors and local people no majorinitiative has been taken by theMCD to address the very impor-tant issue concerned with gen-eral public. The lack of resourcesand staff in the MCD work as adeterrent to tackle the menaceof the stray cattle head -on.

It is learnt that the seniorofficials of the MCD have moreor less overlooked theVeterinary section due towhich the task of handlingstray cattle is becoming difficultwith each passing day.

The veterinary section ofMCD has an approved staffstrength of 30, which includeshelpers, drivers, project headsand others. This section requiresa minimum of ten vehicles in aproper condition to carry out itsfunction properly.

However, this section atpresent has only two vehicles inworking condition along with

two drivers and two helpers.Senior veterinary officer of

MCD, Dr VK Sati said, ‘’Thewards in city are 100 now whichmakes it very tough for us tohandle every ward properlywith limited resources and staffat our disposal. We have two dri-vers and two helpers to addresscomplaints of the city. Nearly,300 stray cattle are present in theonly Kanji house which has acapacity of only 70 cattle.’’

Interestingly, the MCD hasno record of the number ofdairies and cattle in the city.The MCD had done the lastsurvey in the year 2016 whenthere were 60 wards in the city.

‘’We are having the data ofthe dairies and their cattle of old60 wards. It was a great help aswe had an idea of the numberof cattle specifically in thedairies. Now the wards are 100and with such a resource crunch

we cannot conduct the surveyagain,’’ said an officer of MCD.

When contacted, theMunicipal Commissioner,Vinay Shankar Pandey said,‘’the issue is in our knowledgewe are adding more space inthe Kanji house in which thework has started. It willincrease the capacity of theKanji house more. We also havea plan to construct anotherKanji house in the city soon.’’

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Aceremony held to markend of post commissioning

training of 14 officers ofTerritorial Army (TA) wasorganized at Indian MilitaryAcademy (IMA) on Saturday.

The ceremony waspresided over by the officiatingCommandant of the IMA,Major General GS Rawat. Onthe occasion, he presentedawards to the meritorious offi-cers in different categories.

The 13 week TerritorialArmy Post Commissioningcommenced on February 4.The course is held under theaegis of Army Cadet College

(ACC) Wing, at IMA. Thecourse comprises of basic mil-itary training and includes PT,Drill, Weapon Training andBattle Physical Endurance.

The Territorial Army is anintegral part of Regular Armyand its present role is to relievethe Regular Army from static

duties and assist civil adminis-tration in dealing with naturalcalamities and maintenance ofessential services in situationswhere life of communities isaffected or the security of thecountry is threatened as well asprovide units for Regular Armyas and when required.

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Although many notices havebeen served to various pri-

vate schools in the Dehradundistrict by EducationDepartment and StateCommission for Protection ofChild Rights (SCPCR) for notfollowing regulations underthe right to education (RTE)and different orders of gov-ernment, the private schoolsare continuing to flay themwith contempt.

It is observed that apartfrom serving notices both theeducation department andSCPCR do nothing to solve the problems of parentsand students.

A total of 27 notices haveso far been served to the privateschools by the Educationdepartment in Dehradun this year.

These notices are beingserved under heads like unau-thorised affiliation from a reg-istered board, charging unwar-ranted fees, refusing to provideTransfer Certificates (TC) tostudents and others.

Sharing his views on thecurrent status and hegemony ofprivate schools, the President ofthe National Association forParents and Students Rights(NAPSR), Arif Khan said, “Wemeet such parents every daywho are made to run from pil-lar to post just to get the TC oftheir wards. All parents want toprovide best education to theirchildren but they are virtually

buried under the huge load ofarbitrary fees of the privateschools. We have repeatedlycomplained to the EducationDepartment and SCPCR butnothing more than a notice hasbeen given to these schools. Asa result, these private schoolsdo not follow the mandatoryrules and work arbitrarily”.

The Chairperson ofSCPCR, Usha Negi said,“Commission gives direction,however, we cross-check thedetail given to us by theEducation Department espe-cially in cases related to schools.We have been receiving com-plaints regarding many privateschools operating in the cityand keeping this in the knowl-edge we are planning to con-duct a meeting with educationofficials this month. Further,directions will be given to theofficials to take necessary stepsregarding any private schoolwhich is failing to follow themandatory rules.”

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The two day long interschool badminton tourna-

ment being held at Delhi Publicschool (DPS) ended onSaturday.

The students from 15schools of the city took part inthe event.

In the under- 12 category,Vedans Negi of Universalschool emerged as victoriouswhile in the doubles, the teamof Shaurya and Sarthak of DPSwon the gold medal.

In the under-14 boys cat-egory, Aysuh Bisht of SaintKabir school stood first whileKirshna and Aditya of DISwon the doubles event.

In the under- 17 singlesevent of boys, Aysuh Bisht ofSaint Kabir School emergedvictorious.

In the girls category (under-17) Anya of DIS annexed title.In the award giving ceremonythe Principal of the DPS school,BK Singh congratulated thewinners and expressed bestwishes for future.

Dehradun: Two accidentsshook the Dehradun city onSaturday. In an accident on lateFriday night two students losttheir life as their car collidedwith a Dumper near GaneshpurPetrol Pump, in Patel Nagarpolice station area. Both the stu-dents were declared dead afterthey were rushed to the hospi-tal by the police. In another acci-dent, a three-year-old girl wascrushed to death near Maldevtaby a truck on Saturday.

In first accident, studentsidentified as Mohit Rawat aresident Sai Lok Colony andShreya Butola, residentNayagaon were coming from acollege event. An observer stat-ed that the car they were in wastravelling at very high speed andcollided with the dumper com-ing from the opposite direction.On being informed, Patel Nagarpolice force reached accident siteand the students were taken tohospital where they weredeclared dead by the doctors.The driver of the dumperabsconded after the accident.

In another accident near aconstruction area, a three-year-old girl lost her life after beingcrushed by a truck. As per theinformation by the police, thegirl was a daughter of labourerworking on a construction sitenear Maldevta in Raipur. In anattempt to protect her from thescorching sun, her parents hadput her under the standingtruck. The toddler was sleepingwhen the driver of the truckwho had no idea of the babysleeping under his vehicle,crushed her to death. Raipurpolice which arrived on the spotarrested the driver. PNS

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Page 4: €¦ · region of Madhya Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Saturday. Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, ... utes shoes and sarees. She should come and beg for votes rather

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In the ongoing drive to removeencroachments done by unau-

thorised vendors in differentparts of the city, the MunicipalCorporation of Dehradun(MCD) undertook a drive infour areas of city on Saturday.

A team from MCDremoved encroachment fromDilaram Chowk area to Jakhanon the day.

Similar drives were under-taken in Hathibadkala andDharampur localities of the

city. Nearly six trucks loads ofcarts and things sold by thevendors were seized by the offi-cials. Municipal commissionerof Dehradun, Vinay ShankarPandey said that the drive willcontinue with similar mannerin the city regularly.

The drive to removeencroachments from the citystarted from April 27 is con-tinuing unabated.

The drive is slated to endon May 10. The seized itemswill be released by the officialsafter the end of the drive.

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The State Meteorological Centre has predicted a dry weatherfor the State on Sunday. The sky is likely to remain mainly

clear to partly cloudy in majority of areas of the state.The maximum and minimum temperatures for the Dehradun

city are likely to be around 35 degree Celsius and 18 degree Celsiusrespectively.

Meanwhile the maximum and minimum temperaturerecorded at the various places of the city on Saturday were 35degree Celsius and 17.5 degree Celsius in Dehradun, 36.2 degreeCelsius and 22 degree Celsius in Pantnagar, 24.1 degree Celsiusand 11 degree Celsius in Mukteshwar and 24.6 degree Celsiusand 12.8 degree Celsius in New Tehri respectively.

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In a rare and complex surgery,the doctors of the Mahant

Indiresh Hospital here haveclaimed to resurrect the jaws ofa patient who was unable toclose his mouth.

The operation lasted for 10hours during which the mouthof the patient was broughtback to the normal condition.

The patient is perfectlyhealthy after the operation andhas been discharged from thehospital.

The MedicalSuperintendent of Hospital,Dr Vinay Rai that Northo (40years), a resident ofBhagwanpur, Haridwar wassuffering from ChronicBilateral Temporomandibularjoint dislocation.

In this disease, the joints ofthe lower jaw become dislo-cated and cannot go back on their own in their normalposition.

Such patients are not ableto bring their teeth in a normal bite and their mouth

gets jammed in one singleposition.

He said the patient wastreated by a team of doctorsand a surgery was performedby Dr Bhawna Malik Gothi(Oral and MaxillofacialSurgeon), Dr Sanjay Sadhu(Plastic Surgeon), Dentist DrDharna Sharma andAnaesthetist Dr Hariom.

The operation lasted for 10hours after which the mouth of the patient wasbrought back to normal position.

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Amethi, on Saturday, was thefocus of election activity in

Uttar Pradesh. With barely afew hours left for polling in theconstituency, leaders of boththe Bharatiya Janata Party andCongress were seen cam-paigning here fiercely.

BJP president Amit Shaharrived in Amethi on Saturdayevening and held a road showfor Union Minister Smriti Irani.As the roadshow wound its waythrough the district, chants of“Jai Shri Ram” rent the air.Several state Ministers andsenior party leaders partici-pated in the event.

Shah said Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi, who isseeking a re-election from theLok Sabha seat here, had failedto ensure development of theconstituency and asked peopleto let the lotus (BJP symbol)bloom in Amethi.

Smriti Irani recalled theabsenteeism of Rahul from hisconstituency.

Congress GeneralSecretary Priyanka GandhiVadra was also in Amethiwhere she addressed a series ofmeetings during the day.

She went from village tovillage but refused to climb onto the dais. She stood aroundthe people and asked who theywould vote for.

She said, “Kyun pade hochakkar mein” and the peopleresponded with ‘Koi nahin haitakkar mein”, and “Apna netakaisa ho” completed with

“Rahul Gandhi jaisa ho”.Priyanka then listed the

projects that had been with-drawn from Amethi after theModi Government came topower and rebutted the allega-tions levelled by Irani thatRahul Gandhi does not visit hisconstituency.

“She (Irani) has come here16 times in the past four yearsand that too, for four hours each.Rahulji has come almost doublethe time and has spent moretime with you,” Priyanka said.

The Congress in-chargefor eastern Uttar Pradesh andyounger sibling of the partychief also said while RahulGandhi had sent a letter to thepeople of Amethi but the BJPwas sending Rs 20,000 inenvelopes.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhialso visited his constituencyand held a meeting withwomen’s groups. He told medi-apersons that he had no ani-mosity towards Prime MinisterNarendra Modi.

“I will fight with him onissues and not at a personallevel. I believe that you can winwith love and not hatred. I tellmy party men also not to useharsh words but when thingsgo beyond limits, I even takeaction,” he said.

Rahul Gandhi said a goodleader should own up to hismistakes and try to rectifythem. Talking about terroristAzhar Masood, Rahul Gandhiasked: “Who had sent AzharMasood to Pakistan? TheCongress did not do this.”

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Prime Minister NarendraModi on Saturday accused

the Samajwadi Party of goingsoft on the Congress, saying thetwo parties are playing a “biggame” against Bahujan SamajParty chief Mayawati.

Addressing BJP rallies inPratapgarh and Basti, Modisaid the SP-BSP alliance part-ners will be at each other’sthroats when the results are outon May 23. He said whileMayawati is openly targetingthe Congress and its policies, aCongress leader is sharing thestage with the SP.

The apparent reference wasto Congress general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi Vadra’s pres-ence at an SP meeting in RaeBareli on Thursday.

“The SP is going soft on theCongress, but its alliance part-ner BSP chief Mayawati isattacking the Congress,” Modisaid in Pratapgarh. He claimedthe SP had derived advantageout of the alliance, talkingabout “respect” towards her.

“It was said you (Mayawati)will be made the prime minis-ter, but now ‘Behenji’ hasunderstood that the SP and theCongress are playing a biggame with her,” he said.

Modi said the Congress hasbeen reduced to the status of a

‘vote katwa’ party, suggesting itsonly relevance now is to queerthe pitch for other parties.

Accusing the Congress andits president Rahul Gandhi ofharping on the acquisition ofRafale aircraft only to tarnishhis image, Modi took a swipeat former PM Rajiv Gandhi.

“Your father was termed‘Mr Clean’ by his courtiers, buthis life ended as ‘BhrashtachariNo 1’ (corrupt number 1),”Modi said. He claimed that theCongress chief had admitted inan interview that his only aimis to tarnish Modi’s image.

“By hurling abuses, youcannot turn the 50 long yearsof Modi’s tapasya (struggle)into dust,” Modi said. “By tar-nishing my image and by mak-ing me look small, these peo-ple want to form an unstableand a weak Government in the

country,” he said.“The naamdaar must clear-

ly listen that this Modi was notborn with a golden spoon, norwas he born in any royal fam-ily,” he said, referring to Gandhi.Modi claimed that the Congressis known for dividing the coun-try, and charged it with bring-ing down coalitionGovernments in the past.

Referring to the UN listingof Jaish-e-Mohammed chiefMasood Azhar as a global ter-rorist, he said it was a “major vic-tory in India’s fight against ter-ror”. He attacked the Congressover its own record in tacklingterrorism. “These people hadcreated the hype of Hindu ter-rorism. Today, the terrorists andtheir masters are praying thatModi should not come to power,but the country is saying ‘Phir ekbaar, Modi sarkaar’,” he said.

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Epicentre of home grownmilitancy — Pulwama and

Shopian — two South Kashmirdistricts are set to witness lowvoter turnout, in the last leg ofthree phase polling for theAnantnag Lok Sabha seat dur-ing fifth phase of polling inJammu & Kashmir on May 6.

In the run up to the 2019Lok Sabha polls, dastardlyattack on a CRPF convoy inPulwama, leading to martyr-dom of 44 jawans, had changedthe political discourse acrossthe country. But on groundzero, as the entire Governmentmachinery is gearing up to holdpeaceful polls, the commonvoter remains elusive.

In the absence of high-octave electioneering in thearea even the ‘passionate’ vot-ers are showing little or no

interest in reaching out to thepolling booths to cast theirvotes. Despite huge presence ofsecurity forces, fear is still lurk-ing in the minds of commonpeople over the outcome ofparticipating in the ongoingpoll process.

It is the young brigade of‘home grown’ militants who arestill ruling the roost and settingthe agenda. They had pastedposters and issued diktatsagainst participation in theongoing poll process.

At last count, around 100local militants were still activein the area. The current crop oftop militant commanders,active in Kashmir Valley, allcome from Pulwama district.

Hizbul Mujahideen’s posterboy Burhan Wani, followed byhis successor Sabzar Bhat bothwere natives of Tral area inPulwama. Riyaz Naikoo andZakir Musa,active militantcommanders, also hail fromPulwama.

Compared to first tworounds of polling in Anantnagand Kulgam, which witnessed13.6 and 10.42 per cent polling,Pulwama, Shopian — hot bedsof militancy — are set to wit-ness sharp decline in the voterturnout. Pulwama district com-prises four Assembly segmentsof Tral, Pampore, Pulwamaand Rajpora, while Shopian

district has two Assembly seg-ments of Shopian and Wachi.These two districts alwaysplayed a pivotal role in electingPDP representatives duringAssembly polls as it remainedPDP’s strong hold.

Mehbooba Mufti’s fate toois hanging in balance due topoor voter turnout in first twophases. Poor turn out in thesetwo pockets does not augurwell for her political survival inthe State politics.

In the aftermath of killingof HM Commander BurhanWani in July 2016, the equationchanged on ground zero dras-tically. Unrest in the area pre-vented the Election commis-sion of India from holding by-polls to the Anantnag LokSabha seat after the same wasvacated by Mehbooba Muftibefore occupying ChiefMinisters chair in the state.

Political observers inKashmir claimed the votingmay not touch double digit fig-ure in these pockets. Theyattribute large-scale militancyrelated violence and crackdown by the security forces inthe aftermath of killing ofHizbul Mujahideen poster boy,Burhan Wani as the main rea-son behind disenchantmentwith the poll process.

Meanwhile, in order torepose faith of the voter in the

election process, the Electioncommission of India hadrecently rushed around 300additional companies of paramilitary forces to ensure inci-dent free polling in the area.

Barring few election meet-ings, organised in the partyoffices or residences of sup-porters/officer bearers of thesepolitical parties no other sig-nificant political assembly hasbeen reported in the area.

The local politicians in thearea too have failed to changethe narrative. This is evidentfrom the participation of sup-porters during campaign meet-ings of rival political parties.

PDP Chief MehboobaMufti, stayed away from theseareas fearing backlash fromcommon people, angry with herover her decision to align withthe BJP after the death of PDPPatron Mufti Mohd Sayeed.She had joined protest demon-stration in support of Jamat-e-Islami in Pulwama. NC topbrass, including FarooqAbdullah and former CM OmarAbdullah held closed doormeetings in secure zones toensure safety of political work-ers. Similarly Congress candi-date GA Mir focused on door-to-door campaign and avoidedbig election meetings due topresence of foot prints of localmilitants in the area.

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National Conference leaderOmar Abdullah on

Saturday said Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was harping onthe Pulwama terror attack andsubsequent air strikes inPakistan’s Balakot to hide hisfailures on economic front,job creation and alleviatingagrarian distress.

The former CM said whileKashmir was no more an elec-tion issue in Pakistan, it wasPrime Minister Modi whofocussed his election campaignon the situation in the Valley.

“There was a time whenJ&K used to dominate electionsin Pakistan but now it is PMModi who is going to townwith J&K in the election cam-paign. The PM is raking upBalakot and Pulwama terrorattack to hide his Government’sfailures on economic front,employment generation andthe agrarian distress in thecountry,” Abdullah said.

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From Page 1I am sending the Congress

manifesto in an envelope to thepeople. They are sending you�20,000 each. They think theycan buy you with votes. Theyare mistaken. I have learnt somuch from you.”

Earlier Priyanka said, “Theway my father was dedicated tothe welfare of people ofAmethi, my brother too iscommitted.”

Priyanka’s canvassing forher brother centred on emotionas she went around greetinglocals, addressing them as“family members” and recallingthe old days when her father,the late Rajiv Gandhi, used torepresent Amethi.

“I used to come here withmy father as a 12 year old. Ihave seen this arid land turngreen after my father camehere. The way my father wasdedicated to the people ofAmethi, my brother is alsocommitted,” Priyanka told thepeople. The BJP, on the otherhand, flagged Congress’s dynas-tic politics as the bane ofAmethi and sought to woolocals with development.

“Where was the absenteeMP when 10 Amethi villagescaught fire recently? He aban-doned you even after winningthe seat in 2014 whereas Istood by you even after losing,”

Irani told people as she exud-ed confidence that they will“teach the absentee MP a les-son for ignoring his con-stituency for 15 years”.

To the women of Amethi,Smriti has promised sugar at�13 a kg and to voters she haspledged development callingout the slogan ‘Phir ek baarModi sarkar’.

As titans clash in this large-ly underdeveloped area, somelocals see Amethi and theGandhis as inseparable, whileothers are willing to shun oldloyalties and seek new hori-zons.

Amethi is still awaitingfruits of development so muchso that a cluster of local villagesis considering to boycott elec-tions over an old unfulfilledpromise of a rail under bridgein the Amethi town.

“We have been demandinga rail under bridge at anunmanned rail crossing fordecades. Even in the last elec-tion we had threatened a boy-cott but Rahul Gandhi told ushe will help. Nothing hasmoved. We feel betrayed,” saidSurinder Singh of villageBirahimpur, where locals haveresolved to boycott the May 6poll.

According to MumtazKhan, an ex-village head ofRaydepur, the fight for anunder bridge started in 1987and people are dejected enoughto consider a boycott.

“We are a VIP segment yesbut we are fed up now,” he ruedas the segment wears a desolatelook bereft of finesse thatshould have been attached with

such a seat.That said, generational loy-

alty for the Gandhis remains afactor here with some localsindicating that despite lack ofdevelopment, Rahul Gandhiwas likely to be voted back.

For Uma Shankar Pathak,an old timer, “The Nehru fam-ily gave this place its identitythough there has not beenadequate development.”

According to another localBhola Nath, “For the sake of theGandhi family’s legacy, peoplemay still vote for Rahul Gandhihere.”

A section of people dis-agree and feel the competitionthis year is cut throat and any-thing can happen.

“It is a very close contestand nothing can be said. Thistime the Gandhis are cam-paigning much harder thanbefore and their anxiety is vis-ible,” said Mahesh Jaiswal ofAmethi.

Chhattisgarh ChiefMinister Bhupesh Baghel andOBC leader Tamradhwaj Sahu,besides Ghulam Nabi Azadand others also campaigned forRahul.

The BJP also gave a finalpush to its campaign withAmit Shah holding a roadshow for Smriti on Saturdayand Yogi Adityanath holdingrallies earlier.

Another local Shiv Kumarsaid, “Earlier, the Gandhiswould only come to file thenomination. This time they arespending much more time inAmethi because they knowSmriti Irani is a tough chal-lenger.”

From Page 1“The cyclonic story crossed

Kharagpur and is likely to con-tinue further in north-eastdirection with a wind speed of90 kilometres per hour. Theextremely severe cyclonicstorm relatively weakened afterentering coastal Odisha andtransformed into “very severe”as it approached West Bengal.Analysis and numerical modelguidance suggested widespreadrainfall activity acrossNortheastern States and wide-spread rainfall activity over

Arunachal on May 4 and 5,” theIMD said.

Heavy rain along with awind speed of 175 kilometresper hour battered Odisha ascyclone Fani made landfallclose to the temple town of Purion Friday morning, leaving atrail of destruction in the State.Life remained paralysed onSaturday, a day after the‘extremely severe’ cyclonicstorm in Odisha.

As communication net-works are not in place, theextent of damage could not be

ascertained. Energy infrastructure has

suffered a massive damage inthe region. Failure of mobileconnectivity has added to thechaos.

The National DisasterResponse Force (NDRF) hasmoved 16 additional teams,comprising about 45 personnel in each, for rescueand relief work in Odisha andhas removed fallen trees andother obstacles on most of the roads.

In Andhra Pradesh,

Fani triggered heavy rain incoastal districts of AndhraPradesh besides uprooting10,000 coconut trees anddestroying agriculture and hor-ticulture crops.

The JharkhandGovernment issued an adviso-ry on May 3, asking all districtdeputy commissioners to set upcontrol rooms to meet anyexigency in the wake of Fani.

Two maritime reconnais-sance sorties were undertakenby the Dornier aircraft of theNavy revealing widespread

destruction localised aroundthe temple town of Puri,according to an official state-ment.

Based on the aerial surveys,the Eastern Naval Command isundertaking a three-prongedrescue and rehabilitation effortcentred around Puri and itssuburbs in coordination withthe State Government and thedistrict administration.

Meanwhile, the examina-tion authority, National TestingAgency (NTA) has cancelledNEET UG 2019 for candidates

appearing in Odisha in wake of Fani.

The notification has beenissued a day before the scheduled exam date onMay 5. According to the noti-fication,

“NEET exam scheduledfor May 5 in Odisha has beenpostponed as per the request ofthe State Government workingon relief and rehabilitationwork in the wake of Fani.Revised dates for the exam inOdisha will be announcedsoon.”

From Page 1In 2014, the BJP had won 27 of 29 seats in

the State. The Congress later increased its tallyto three after wresting Ratlam seat from the BJPin a bypoll. The Congress, which came to powerin the State in December last year after 15 years,hopes to carry forward the winning momentumwhile the BJP hopes to repeat its 2014 magic.

The five seats of Bihar which would go topoll are Muzaffarpur, Saran, Sitamarhi, Vaishaliand Hajipur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi ledthe campaigning from the front, holding a rallyat Muzaffarpur where he canvassed in favour ofthe local BJP candidate as also nominees field-ed by alliance partners the JD(U) and the LJP.

Congress president whose party is notcontesting any of the five seats going to the pollson Monday, did not hold an election meetingin these constituencies which are, however, beingcontested by alliance partners in theMahagathbandhan.

BJP chief Amit Shah addressed rallies atSaran and Sitamarhi and spoke about thePrime Minister’s commitment to his workwhich is evident from his having not taken a dayoff in 20 years.

Bollywood actor and BJP MP Hema Maliniheld a rally at Sitamarhi where she expresseddelight over the improved infrastructure in Biharand recalled with amusement the 1990s whenthen Chief Minister Lalu Prasad reportedpromise of making the potholed roads of the State as smooth as her cheeks had madeheadlines.

BJP MPs Ajay Nishad and Rajiv Pratap Rudyare seeking re-election from their respective seatsof Muzaffarpur and Saran respectively. Rudyfaces Chandrika Rai of RJD, father-in-law of LaluPrasads elder son, Tej Pratap Yadav.

LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan, who hasannounced that he would no longer contestdirect elections, has fielded his younger broth-er and State Minister Pashupati Kumar Parasfrom his pocket borough of Hajipur.

In Bengal, the fear over Fani cyclone led allpolitical parties to cancel their election meet-ings in last two days. On the last day of campaigning the BJP candidate of Bongaon

(SC) seat, Shantanu Thakur was injured in a roadaccident.

Seats in which elections will be held onMonday are Bongaon (SC), Barrackpur, Howrah,Uluberia, Serampore, Hooghly and Arambagh (SC) where 1,16,91,889 electorate willdecide the fate of 83 candidates, the ElectionCommission said.

The EC will deploy a total 578 companiesof Central forces, which will cover almost 100per cent polling booths in the seven con-stituencies to ensure free and fair polling, offi-cials in the poll body said.

The campaign saw poll meetings by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, BJP president AmitShah and West Bengal Chief Minister andTrinamool Congres supremo Mamata Banerjee.Mamata also participated in a number of road-shows. In Bongaon (SC) seat, which is on theIndo-Bangla border and has a large number ofvoters from the Matua community, TMC hasfielded Mamata Thakur against the BJP candi-date Shantanu Thakur. The Left Front constituentCPI(M) has nominated Alakesh Das, while theCongress has nominated Sourav Prosad.

In Barrackpore, the TMC has fielded its sit-ting MP Dinesh Trivedi against BJP’s ArjunSingh, who had defected from MamataBanerjee’s party ahead of the poll. The Congresshas nominated Md Alam and CPI(M) GargiChatterjee.

Howrah Lok Sabha seat will see TMC’sPrasun Banerjee, a footballer-turned politicianlocking horns with BJP’s Rantidev Sengupta.Congress has nominated Suvra Ghosh and theCPI(M) Sumitro Adhikary.

Kalyan Banerjee is the TMC candidate fromSreerampur seat against BJP’s Debjit Sarkar. TheCongress has nominated Debabrata Biswas andCPI(M) has fielded Tirthankar Ray for the seat.

In Hooghly seat Ratna De Nag of TMC willcontest against BJP’s celebrity candidate LocketChatterjee. The CPI(M) has nominated PradipSaha and the Congress Pratul Chandra Saha forthe seat. Braving inclement weather due toCyclone Fani, the polling personnel havealready left for the 13,290 booths in the sevenconstituencies.

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Page 5: €¦ · region of Madhya Pradesh ended at 5 pm on Saturday. Polling for Tikamgarh, Damoh, Khajuraho, Satna, Rewa, ... utes shoes and sarees. She should come and beg for votes rather

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Congress president RahulGandhi on Saturday minced

no words in accusing theElection Commission (EC) ofbeing "completely biased" whenit comes to matters related to theOpposition. His remarks comein the wake of clean chits givenby the EC to Prime MinisterNarendra Modi and BJP chiefAmit Shah on various com-plaints of Model Code ofConduct violations.

Rahul also said Congress'sinternal assessment after fourphases of polling shows that theBJP will lose in the Lok Sabhaelections and he sees a "scaredPrime Minister" unable to facethe onslaught of the Opposition.

At the same time, theCongress president lashed outModi saying the Indian Army isnot the Prime Minister's "per-sonal property". And seeking tocounter the BJP's zero-toler-ance policy against terrorism, hesaid the Congress will deal withit "more sternly" than Modi.

On the EC, Rahul said,"When it comes to issues of theBJP, the EC is absolutely on thestraight line, when it comes tothe Opposition's issues, it iscompletely biased."

"The working style of Modi,the ruling BJP and the RSS is toput pressure on institutions.This is evident everywhere —SC, EC, Planning Commission,RBI. That is their approach. Wedo not expect that the EC willnot be affected by that pressure,"Rahul said. However, he assert-ed that the EC has to commit to

its responsibility and carry it out. "All this institutional capture

that is taking place and all thenegative effects of it will haveconsequences in the future. Weare not going to allow Indianinstitutions to be disturbed,controlled, crushed and anybodywho colludes, anybody whofalls to this pressure, is com-mitting a crime," the Congresschief said.

Addressing a press confer-ence at the Congress headquar-ters in Delhi, he launched anoth-er attack on Modi for "insulting"India's armed forces. TheCongress does not politicise thearmy, Rahul said, and it is notanyone's property as PM Modiquestioned the Congress' claimsthat the UPA government hadcarried out six surgical strikesduring its tenure. "The army, airforce or navy are not the per-sonal property of NarendraModi ji like he thinks," he said.

Referring to the six surgicalstrikes the Congress had listed

as carried out under the UPArule, he said those were not con-ducted by his party, but by theArmy. "When he (Modi) says theIndian Army's surgical strikeswere video games, he does notinsult the Congress, but theIndian Army. "The Army haddone this (surgical strikes). It istheir job. We do not politicise theArmy," Rahul said.

He also took a swipe at theBJP on the release of Pakistan-based terrorist Masood Azharback in 1999. "Who sentMasood Azhar to Pakistan? DidCongress send him to Pakistan?Which Government negotiatedwith terrorism? Congress didn'tsend him there. The reality isthat BJP compromises with ter-rorism," Rahul said.

The Congress chief alsodeclared that it was clear the BJPwas losing the Lok Sabha polls".He said it was the "assessment"of the Congress that the BJP waslosing. Rahul also said he willstand by his "Chowkidar Chor

Hai" jibe as it is a reality and con-tinue using the slogan againPrime Minister Narendra Modi.Rahul said he apologised to theSupreme Court as he felt he hadmade a mistake.

"There is a process is goingon in the Supreme Court and Imade a comment attributed toSC so I apologised. I did notapologise to the BJP or Modi ji.'Chowkidar Chor Hai' willremain our slogan," he said."More than half of the electionsare over and there is clear cutfeeling that Modiji is losing …Our general assessment is clear-ly saying that BJP is losing theelections," Rahul said.

"The reality is that Modiji islosing the elections and it's vis-ible on his face," he said.

The main issues facing thecountry, he said, were unem-ployment and the crisis facingthe farmers of the country butthe Prime Minister said nothingabout the concerns of the com-mon people.

Hitting out at the PrimeMinister, Rahul said: "Modiji'sentire strategy is to distract. Wehave fought four to five electionswith him. We have foughtagainst him in Gujarat,Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh. As soon as herealises that he is not going towin then he brings somethingnew like he brought seaplane inGujarat." The Congress chief 'sremarks come a day after thePM said during a public meet-ing in Rajasthan's Sikar that theparty which questioned the sur-gical strikes is now saying "metoo, me too".

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Virtually describing Congress PresidentRahul Gandhi a defence deal pusher

or facilitator of defence offset contracts, BJPon Saturday sought to counter Congresson the Rafale controversy by alleging thatRahul was instrumental in getting anScorpene submarine offset contracts to hiscompany's partner in a deal which Indiahad with France during the UPA regime.

In a counter-offensive on the eve of the5th phase of polling, BJP rejected Rahul'sclaim that BJP was losing as per Congressparty's "internal assessment" and stated thateven Congress president was set to loseAmethi, his home constituency in UttarPradesh.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley soughtto draw Rahul's attention to the chargesagainst him that his American associatewho was a partner in his now-defunctLondon-based company had got an offsetsubmarine contract and demanded an"structured response" from him and hisparty.

" How come the company throughvicarious ways get the offset contract ?" ,he asked addressing a press conference andposed a counter to what he called CongressPresident's wild and baseless allegation ona private Indian company getting Rafaleoffset contract signed between the BJP andthe French Government. He said it was aserious charge.

Finance Minister cited a media reportand gave more information that he said he

had found out to take a swipe at Gandhi,saying it is story of a man who aspired tobe a defence deal pusher and is now aspir-ing to be prime minister.

Detailing the allegations Jaitley saidRahul and his sister Priyanka GandhiVadra were directors in Backops ServicesPvt. Ltd. Registered in India in 2002 andthen a firm of a similar name was regis-tered in the UK in which Rahul Gandhiand Ulrik Mcknight were directors.

It was an "influence for cash" company,Jaitley alleged, adding that Mcknight wasmarried to a Congress leader's daughterand was part of Rahul Gandhi's "socialgang".

Rahul and Mcknight registered thesame London address, which Jaitley saidwas owned by Ajitabh Bachchan, brotherof actor Amitabh Bachchan. In 2009Rahul Gandhi left the UK firm and theIndian company wound up in 2010 but hispartner remained associated with differ-ent firms, he said. Mcknight won an off-set contract with a French firm awardedan Indian Navy deal to build submarines,he said.

Jaitley asked, "The question is how willyou like now to be judged. You are judg-ing others when there is no evidence. Youdistance yourself from a shady companylaunched by

you and then your partner gets an off-set contract."

"What was his (Rahul) own role? Didhe want to start off as a defence dealer. Itis a very serious subject and we will want

top Congress leadership to respond at theearliest," he said. Taking a dig at theCongress president, he wondered if itwould have been better had he remain inthe defence business and not joined poli-tics.

In another pincer attack by BJPspokesperson G V L Narasimha Raotermed Congress president's attacks onPrime Minister, outcome of frustration asthe party is not only losing elections acrossthe country in a big way but its "so-calledbastion Amethi is also crumbling."

Addressing a press conference, Raosaid the remarks by the Congress chiefindicate "desperation because the party isseeing not only its fortunes crumble all overIndia but also seeing its so called bastionsin Amethi and Rae Bareli crumbling".

"People of the country want Modijiback. Rahul Gandhi knows the reality andis scared of losing Amethi, and out of des-peration is making such claims which arefactually incorrect," he added.

"Congress is facing extinction in thiselection. Despite a series of lies uttered byGandhi over the last several months, hesimply has not been able to bring the partyback to life and is literally on the death-bed in this election," Rao said.

Responding to questions by theCongress leaders as to why national secu-rity was an issue, he said it is the top issuefor the BJP and dominant issue for thecountry unlike the Congress, duringwhose regime there have been several ter-ror attacks.

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In another clean chit to PrimeMinister Narendra Modi,

the Election Commission (EC)on Saturday said PM did notviolate the mode code of con-duct at his speech in which hesaid he had kept Pak on toesfor safe release of IAF pilot

Wing CommanderAbhinandan at Patan inGujarat on April 21.

"The matter has beenexamined in detail in accor-dance with the extant advi-sories, provisions of the ModelCode of Conduct. After exam-ination, the Commission is ofthe view that in this matter no

such violation of the extantadvisories/provisions is attract-ed," EC says.

Sources in EC said thatChief Electoral Officer ofGujarat had sent a detailedreport on the alleged violationsof advisories of theCommission and Model Codeof Conduct in a speech deliv-

ered by PM Narendra Modi atPatan.

PM Modi had in his Patanspeech took on Pakistan anddescribed how his governmenthad kept the Pakistan govern-ment on its toes to ensure thesafety of Wing CommanderAbhinandan in the aftermath ofBalakot air strikes.

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Following the ElectionCommission's notice, BJP

candidate Kirron Kher onSaturday apologised and saidthat it was done "unintention-ally", acknowledging that itwas "wrong". "Some partyworker sent it and my socialmedia team sharedit...Sometimes because of rushof work and enthusiasm, peo-ple do it and which is wrong.Children should not be usedfor this at all. I agree with thatand it was not done uninten-tionally...So it was very bad, notgood and it should not havebeen done," Kher said in herreply to Election Commission(EC).

Earlier, the EC issued anotice, seeking reply of BJP'sChandigarh candidate Kirron

Kher after she shared a videoon twitter in which childrenwere seen campaigning forher. The poll panel has askedthe actor-turned-politician toreply within 24 hours.

"You have shared a videoon your twitter account whichshows that children are beingused for election campaign inyour favour through slogan'Vote for Kirron Kher' and 'AbKi Baar Modi Sarkar'," thenotice, issued on May 3, said.

In the notice, it was men-tioned that the National

Commission for Protection ofChild Rights in January 2017had requested the EC to ensurethat children are not involvedin any form with election-related activities, by either elec-tions officials or political par-ties.

The EC had subsequentlyinstructed that it should beensured by all political partiesand election officials that chil-dren are not involved in anyelection-related activity, as perthe notice.

Kher is seeking re-elec-tion from the Chandigarh LokSabha seat and is pitted againstfour-time MP and Congresscandidate Pawan Kumar Bansaland AAP's HarmohanDhawan.

Chandigarh will vote in thelast phase of Lok Sabha elec-tions on May 19.

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With assets worth over�374 crores, Congress

candidate from GunaJyotiraditya Scindia is the rich-est candidate contesting in LokSabha sixth phase electionswhile BJP's cricketer-turned-politician Gautam Gambhir isthe second in the list with assetsover �147 crore. IndianNational Lok Dals (INLD) can-didate Virender Rana is thethird richest candidate withassets worth over �102 crore.

In its latest report on can-didates contesting 6th phase ofthe Lok Sabha polls, theAssociation for DemocraticReforms (ADR) said Scindia,who is also in-charge of theCongress in western UttarPradesh, topped the list of 967candidates. The Harvard andStandford alumnus declaredmovable assets of �45,58,00,245and immovable assets of�3,28,98,18,500.

The ADR has analysed theself-sworn affidavits of 967 outof 979 candidates, who arecontesting in the sixth phasethat goes to polls on May 12.Second on the list is Gambhirwith assets over �147 crore,including �1,19,15,87,789 mov-able assets and �28,00,00,000immovable assets. The formernational-level cricketer alsohas the highest liabilities of over�34 crore and highest annualincome of over �12 crore forfinancial year 2017-18 asdeclared in the ITR amongcandidates contesting in LokSabha sixth phase elections.

With total assets worthover �102 crore, IndianNational Lok Dals (INLDs)Virender Rana is the thirdrichest candidate in sixth phase

Lok Sabha poll.There are 12 candidates

who have not been analyseddue to unavailability of theirproperly scanned and completeaffidavits, at the time of mak-ing this report," it said. Amongthe major parties 46 out of 54candidates from BJP, 37 out of46 candidates from Congress,31 out of 49 candidates fromBSP, six out of 12 candidatesfrom AAP and 71 out of 307Independents have declaredassets worth more than Rs 1crore.The average asset percandidate contesting in sixthphase is �3.41 crores," it said.

It also said Shiv Sena'scandidate Rajib Mahato fromWest Bengal's Purulia con-stituency has declared zeroassets. The ADR said 395 can-didates have declared theireducational qualification to bebetween Class 5 and 12, while509 candidates have declaredthey are graduate or hold a bet-ter degree. A total of 35 candi-dates have declared just thatthey are literate while 10 saidthey are illiterate. In the sixthphase there 83 female candi-dates when 59 constituenciesfrom seven States.

In the 6th phase polls, as

many as 189(20%) out of 967candidates analysed havedeclared criminal cases againstthemselves. Nearly 146(15%)out of 967 candidates analysedhave declared serious criminalcases against themselves.Among the major parties,18(33%) out of 54 candidatesfrom BJP, 12 (26%) out of 46candidates from INC, 17(35%)out of 49 candidates from BSP,5(31%) out of 16 candidatesanalysed from SHS, and 27(9%)out of 307 independent candi-dates have declared seriouscriminal cases against them-selves.

New Delhi: Former UnionMinister MJ Akbar, whorecorded his statement beforea Delhi court on Saturday in adefamation case filed by himagainst journalist PriyaRamani, replied that he doesnot remember their meetingand other details after he wascross-examined by Ramani’scounsel.

Appearing beforeAdditional Chief MetropolitanMagistrate Samar Vishal,Akbar said that his defamationcomplaint against Ramani,who has accused him of sexu-al misconduct 20 years ago,was “correct” as his public lifehas been “adversely affected”and “lifetime’s good reputa-tion” damaged by her “offen-sive words”. PTI

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New Delhi: The Centre hastold the Supreme Court that"categorical and emphatic"findings recorded by the topcourt in its December 14 lastyear verdict in the Rafale dealcase has no apparent errorwarranting its review.

It said the petitioners, inthe garb of seeking review ofthe verdict and placingreliance on some press reportsand some incomplete internalfile notings procured unau-thorisedly and illegally, cannotseek to re-open the wholematter since the scope ofreview petition is "extremelylimited".

The Centre's reply cameon pleas filed by former UnionMinisters Yashwant Sinha,Arun Shourie and activist-advocate Prashant Bhushanseeking review of theDecember 14 verdict by whichtheir plea seeking probe intoalleged irregularities in themulti-crore Rafale fighter jetdeal was dismissed.

Two other review peti-tions have been filed by AAPleader Sanjay Singh and advo-cate Vineet Dhandha.

All the review petitionsare scheduled to be taken upfor hearing next week by abench headed by Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi.

"The review petition...Isan attempt to get a fishing and roving inquiry ordered,which this court has specifically declined to gointo based on perception ofindividuals. A non-existentdistinction is sought to be cre-ated between an inquiry bythe CBI and the court byplaying on words," theCentre's affidavit said. PTI

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New Delhi: The Indian Air Force on Saturdaysent three C-130J Super Hercules aircraft toBhubaneswar from Hindan Air Base forhumanitarian aid and disaster relief, an IAFspokesperson said.

The aircraft are carrying approximate 45tonnes of relief material including medicinesfor the locations affected by Cyclone Fani.

"The IAF had remained on hot standbyfor a launch ever since the first warning aboutthe cyclone was received. The aircraft werepositioned at Hindan for a short notice takeoff, waiting for the restoration of landingfacilities at cyclone affected airfields," he said.

The Indian Air Force Mi-17 helicopterlanded at Bhubaneswar for humanitarianassistance and disaster relief operations.

The helicopter, launched from Guwahatiairbase, is one of many IAF aircraft beingdeployed to the cyclone affected areas, hesaid.

"Air operations began after the restora-tion of landing facilities at cyclone affectedairfields and are going to continue with fullforce in the coming days.

"The Indian Air Force is committed toproviding dedicated efforts to bring succourand relief to the affected populace and helpin restoring normalcy in the region," thespokesperson said. PTI

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New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturdaygranted bail to Ritu Khaitan, wife ofAgustaWest land chopper scamaccused Gautam Khaitan, in a blackmoney and laundering case.

Special Judge Arvind Kumargranted relief to Ritu Khaitan after sheappeared before the court in pur-suance to summons issued after filingof charge sheet.

In the same case, the court had onApril 16 granted bail to GautamKhaitan and had put various condi-tions on him, including that he will

not tamper with the evidence or try tocontact or influence the witnesses andjoin the investigation as and whencalled.

The fresh criminal case under thePrevention of Money Laundering Act(PMLA) was filed by the EnforcementDirectorate against Gautam Khaitanand his wife on the basis of a caselodged by the Income Tax Departmentagainst him under the provisions ofthe Black Money (Undisclosed ForeignIncome and Assets) and Imposition ofTax Act, 2015. PTI

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New Delhi: A Delhi court on Saturdayreserved its order for May 13 onSubramanian Swamy's plea seeking to bepart of the trial in the death of SunandaPushkar, wife of Congress MP ShashiTharoor. Special judge Arun Bhardwajpassed the order after hearing all the par-ties. Swamy's plea has also sought to bringon record the Delhi Police's vigilancereport on tampering of evidence in thecase and claimed that it might lead to

framing of additional charges.Pushkar was found dead in a suite of

a luxury hotel in the city on the night ofJanuary 17, 2014. The couple were stay-ing in the hotel as the official bungalowof Tharoor was being renovated at thattime. The former Union minister hasbeen charged under sections 498-A (hus-band or his relative subjecting a womanto cruelty) and 306 (abetment of suicide)of the IPC. PTI

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Gaza terrorists on Saturdayfired dozens of rockets at

Israel, which responded withstrikes that killed a Palestinian,officials said, as another esca-lation between them threateneda fragile ceasefire.

The latest flare-up camewith Hamas, the Islamist move-ment that rules the blockadedGaza Strip, seeking furtherconcessions from Israel underthe ceasefire.

Israel said around 150rockets were fired from thePalestinian enclave by lateSaturday afternoon and its airdefences intercepted dozens ofthem. One woman was seri-ously injured in a rocket strikeon the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat,some 20 kilometres from theGaza border, police said.

Police said a man was alsohospitalised in the city of

Ashkelon and spoke of otherinjuries without providingdetails.

A house near Ashkelonwas damaged, while otherrockets hit open areas.

The Israeli army said it hadtargeted two rocket launchersin Gaza with an air strike in animmediate response and itstanks and planes later hit some30 military targets for Hamasand its ally Islamic Jihad.

A Gazan security sourcesaid a series of Israeli strikestargeted at least three separateareas of the Gaza Strip and thatthree “resistance fighters” werewounded. The Gaza healthministry reported one personkilled and seven wounded.

Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu was hold-ing consultations with securi-ty chiefs. A statement fromIslamic Jihad claimed respon-sibility for at least some of therocket fire and said it was pre-

pared for more if necessary.Its armed wing distributed

a video showing militants han-

dling rockets and threateningkey Israeli sites, including Ben-Gurion international airport

near Tel Aviv.A source in the group said

Egypt was engaged in discus-

sions to calm the situation, asit has done repeatedly in thepast. Israel announced onSaturday afternoon that it wasclosing its people and goodscrossings with Gaza as well asthe zone it allows for fishermenoff the enclave until furthernotice due to the rocket fire.

The escalation follows themost violent clashes along theGaza border in weeks onFriday.

Four Palestinians, includ-ing two Hamas militants, werekilled after two Israeli soldierswere wounded in a shootingduring weekly protests on theborder.

Israel and Palestinian mil-itants in the Gaza Strip havefought three wars since 2008and fears remain of a fourth.

A ceasefire between Israeland Hamas brokered by Egyptand the United Nations had ledto relative calm around Israel’sApril 9 general election.

But on Tuesday, Israelreduced the offshore fishinglimit it imposes for vesselsoperating out of Gaza after a

rocket was fired from the ter-ritory. Israel’s Army blamedIslamic Jehad for the rocket,which fell into theMediterranean.

On Thursday, Israel said itsaircraft struck a Hamas militarycompound after balloons car-rying firebombs and explo-sives were launched across theborder.

Palestinians in Gaza havefrequently fitted balloons withfirebombs in a bid to damageIsraeli property and have in thepast succeeded in setting fire tolarge areas of farmland.Following that air strike, Israelsaid two rockets were launchedfrom Gaza.

With the ceasefire at risk,a Hamas delegation led by itsGaza head Yahya Sinwar leftthe enclave for Cairo onThursday for talks withEgyptian officials.

The ceasefire has seenIsrael allow Qatar to providemillions of dollars in aid toGaza to pay salaries and tofinance fuel purchases to easea severe electricity shortage.

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King Maha Vajiralongkorn,Rama X of Thailand, was

crowned on Saturday in a daz-zling show of pageantry, lacedwith Hindu and Buddhist rit-ual, vowing to reign “withrighteousness” on behalf ofthe Thai people.

Starting at the auspicioustime of 10:09 am (0309 GMT),the public was granted a rarewindow into the cloisteredhalls of Thai power as the keyrituals of the three-day coro-nation began. KingVajiralongkorn is the tenthmonarch of the Chakri dynasty,which has reigned since 1782.

He ascended the throneover two years ago followingthe death of his beloved father,but waited until after a longmourning period before settinghis coronation date.

Saturday’s sombre cere-mony opened with the white-gowned king — the folds of hisrobe leaving one shoulderbared — receiving sacred waterfrom across Thailand and dab-bing it gently across his face ata shrine inside the GrandPalace complex.

A cannon salute markedthe moment as pipes playedand Buddhist monks chanted.

Several grey-haired Hindu

Brahmins were also in atten-dance at the syncretic ceremo-ny, which symbolises RamaX’s transformation from ahuman to divine figure.

He later took his seat underthe umbrella of state and washanded the Great Crown of

Victory, a tiered gold 7.3-kilo-gram (16-pound) headpiecetopped by a diamond fromIndia.

Uttering his first, briefroyal command he vowed toreign “with righteousness” forthe benefit of the Thai people.

His fourth wife, Suthida —married in a surprise ceremo-ny days before the coronation— was invested as Queen,kneeling in respect in front ofher husband who sat on athrone.

For most Thais, it is thefirst time they have witnessedthe pomp and grandeur of acoronation — the last was in1950 for the king’s belovedfather Bhumibol Adulyadej.

“I’m excited to have achance to be a part of this... I’mhere to capture people’s emo-tions,” said Jakarin Kerdchok,16, a volunteer student takingphotos near the palace.

Hundreds of state officialsin immaculate white uniformslined the streets around theGrand Palace. But only a mod-est number of civilians bravedthe hot sun for the royal con-voy.

“I’m really happy andproud because as citizens, wehave the best king and queen inThailand or even the world,”said Pornthip Pongsai, a resi-dent of Ang Thong provincewho travelled hours to catch aglimpse.

The king held a grandaudience with members of theroyal family, the privy counciland senior officials later in theafternoon at the Grand Palace.

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North Korea fired severalunidentified short-range

projectiles into the sea off itseastern coast on Saturday, theSouth Korean Joint Chiefs ofStaff said, a likely sign ofPyongyang’s growing frustra-tion at stalled diplomatic talkswith Washington meant toprovide coveted sanctions reliefin return for nuclear disarma-ment.

South Korea’s military hasbolstered its surveillance incase there are additionalweapons launches, and South Korean and U.S.Authorities are analysing thedetails.

Dhaka: At least 14 people werekilled and 63 others injured ascyclonic storm ‘Fani’ barrelledinto Bangladesh on Saturday, aday after leaving a trail ofdestruction in eastern Indiancoastlines, media reports said.

However, BangladeshDisaster Management Ministryofficially confirmed four deaths— two in Barguna and oneeach in Bhola and Noakhali —on the basis of “initial reports”from the three coastal districtsand said it was yet to compilethe details of the casualties anddamages caused by the cyclone.

“The detailed informationfrom all the affected districts isyet to reach us,” State Ministersaid. PTI

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Police in Sri Lanka onSaturday asked members

of the public to hand overswords or other large knives tothe nearest police station aftera haul of such blades wererecovered from mosques andhomes during searches follow-ing the Easter Sunday suicidebomb attacks.

Announcing the amnestyscheme, police spokesmanRuwan Gunasekara that theknives which are used for day-to-day “domestic” and “justifi-able” purposes were notrequired to be handed over topolice.

Apart from large blades,

Gunasekara said that policeand army uniforms or suchcamouflaged materials, whichare in possession with thecommon people should also behand over to the police.

“This will be in effect fromtoday until tomorrow”, he said,adding, “If you are havingpolice or camouflaged militaryuniforms, please hand themover to the nearest police sta-tion”.

The move came after policerecovered a large haul ofweapons, including swords,and camouflaged materialsduring searches of mosquesand houses following the EasterSunday’s suicide attacks, whichclaimed 250 lives.

Islamabad: The Taliban onSaturday said the gap is nar-rowing in talks withWashington’s special peaceenvoy over a timetable for thewithdrawal of U.S. Troops fromAfghanistan. The two sides arecontinuing to meet in Qatar,where the insurgent movementmaintains a political office.

In a voice message to AP,the Taliban spokesman inDoha, Suhail Shaheen, saidboth sides have offered newproposals for drawing downU.S. And NATO forces.

This would be a significantinitial step toward a deal to endnearly 18 years of war andAmerica’s longest militaryengagement.

“There are proposals tolower the gap between the twosides, but (it) still needs nego-tiation to reach a final agree-ment,” he said. AP

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Acharter plane carrying 143people and travelling from

Cuba to north Florida endedup in a river at the end of a run-way Friday night, though nocritical injuries or deaths werereported, officials said.

A Boeing 737 arriving atNaval Air Station Jacksonvillefrom Naval StationGuantanamo Bay, Cuba, with136 passengers and seven air-crew slid off the runway intothe St. Johns River, a NASJacksonville news release said.

The Jacksonville Sheriff ’sOffice posted on Twitter that amarine unit responded toassist. The plane was in shallowwater and not submerged.Everyone on the plane was aliveand accounted for, the agencyposted, with 21 adults trans-

ported to local hospitals ingood condition.

A photo posted by deputiesshows a Miami AirInternational logo on the plane.

The company didn’t imme-diately respond to messages

from The Associated Press.Capt. Michael Connor, the

commanding officer of NASJacksonville, said during a newsconference that passengerswere a mix of civilian and mil-itary personnel.

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Turkish President RecepTayyip Erdogan on

Saturday called for the oppo-sition’s local election victory inIstanbul to be declared invalidand the vote re-run, increasingthe pressure on the country’selectoral authorities.

“Clearly, there were irreg-ularities and corruption,”Erdogan said in a speech at abusiness leaders’ meeting.

“If the Supreme ElectoralCouncil could dissipate all this,that would ease the conscienceof our fellow citizens,” headded.

The electoral body, theYSK, is due to meet on Mondayto examine a request byErdogan’s AKP party to cancelthe result of the March 31 localelections which the party lostin Istanbul, where the mainopposition candidate EkremImamoglu won the mayoral

race by a tight margin.Several partial recounts

have so far supported the ini-tial results in both Ankara andIstanbul, with the main oppo-sition CHP party callingErdogan a “bad loser” willingto do anything to hold on topower in the country’s eco-

nomic capital.Observers attribute the

electoral setbacks to the rulingJustice and Development Party(AKP) to voter discontent overTurkey’s ongoing economictroubles.

Refusing to concede theIstanbul result, Erdogan

denounced “massive irregu-larities”, and his party accusedvoting officials of under-reporting votes cast in favourof its candidate.

“My fellow citizens say tome: ‘My president, there mustbe a re-run of this election’,”Erdogan said. “Come and let’sgo before the people and wewill accept what the people’swish dictates.”

Istanbul prosecutors onThursday said they had openedaround 30 probes into thevote, and over 100 voting boothmanagers had been summonedfor questioning.

In comments laterSaturday Imamoglu urged theelectoral council to “take adecision based on the law andjustice,”.

CHP spokesman FaikOztrak told Erdogan to “stopputting pressure on the YSK”.

“There were no irregular-ities, no abuse,” he insisted.

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President Donald Trumpsaid he held “very positive”

talks on Friday with his Russiancounterpart Vladimir Putinon the crisis in oil-richVenezuela, where Washingtonis pushing to oust the Moscow-backed president.

The US leader adopted astrikingly conciliatory tone fol-lowing a more than hour-longconversation with Putin, com-ing days after an abortive mil-itary uprising in support ofJuan Guaido, the oppositionleader seeking to driveVenezuelan President NicolasMaduro from power.

“It was a very positive con-versation,” Trump said. “He isnot looking at all to getinvolved in Venezuela otherthan he’d like to see somethingpositive happen for Venezuela.”

“And I feel the same way.We want to get some human-itarian aid. Right now peopleare starving.”

Trump’s tone came in starkcontrast to that of his top advi-sors, in particular Secretary ofState Mike Pompeo whocharged this week that the

socialist Maduro had beenpoised to flee to Cuba, but wastalked out of it by the Russians.

Recognized as interimleader by more than 50 coun-tries including the UnitedStates, Guaido has vowed tokeep the pressure up onMaduro, urging his supportersto stage peaceful demonstrations at militarybases on Saturday in a fresh bidto rally the armed forcesbehind him.

US-Russian tensions havespiked over the months-longstandoff in Venezuela, and theKremlin’s assessment of theTrump-Putin call differed sub-stantially from that comingfrom the White House.

“Interference in internalaffairs, attempts to change theleadership in Caracas throughforce, undermine the prospectsfor a peaceful settlement of theconflict,” said a Russian state-ment.

“Vladimir Putin stated thatonly the Venezuelan peoplehave the right to decide thefuture of their country,” itadded.

The United States hasimposed tough sanctions and

Trump has refused to take thethreat of military action off thetable, in an intensifying cam-paign to drive Maduro frompower.

Washington is insistingMaduro’s days are numbered -- but experts say US options forbreaking the stalemate are lim-ited, and that Washington mayhave overestimated the oppo-sition leader’s strength.

Acting Defense SecretaryPatrick Shanahan hostedPompeo at the Pentagon Fridayalong with National SecurityAdvisor John Bolton andAdmiral Craig Faller, com-mander of the US SouthernCommand.

Reiterating Trump’s posi-tion -- that “all options” are onthe table -- Shanahan declinedto provide any details on a pos-sible military intervention.

“I’m trying to avoid walk-ing into ‘We could do this or wecould do that,’” he said.

“What people should feelconfident about is we have...There’s depth to these plans.”

“We have a comprehensiveset of options tailored to certainconditions and I’m just goingto leave it at that.”

Tokyo: Japan’s EmperorNaruhito greeted the publicSaturday for the first timesince his succession, expressinghope for Japan to keep pursu-ing peace.

Naruhito ascended theChrysanthemum Throne onWednesday, a day after his 85-year-old father, Akihito, abdi-cated. From a balcony over-looking the palace ground,Naruhito thanked throngs ofwell-wishers for congratulatinghim.

“I am deeply grateful andpleased that I am receiving cel-ebration from you all today,”said Naruhito, wearing a formalsuit and standing next to hiswife, Empress Masako.

“I wish for your health and

happiness, and sincerely hopethat our country pursues worldpeace hand in hand with othercountries and will develop fur-ther.”

As he waved from the bal-cony, where he was accompa-nied by other members of hisroyal family, the spectatorscheered, took photos andwaved Japanese flags.

Akihito, who became theemperor emeritus, and his wifeMichiko, were not present toavoid concerns about interfer-ence with the serving emperor.

Naruhito was scheduledto make balcony appearancesseveral more times through theevening to greet many morepeople still waiting in longlines outside the palace. AP

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There will be no negativerepercussions of UN’s des-

ignation of Jaish-e-Mohammedchief Masood Azhar as a “glob-al terrorist”, Pakistan’s ambas-sador to the US has said, assert-ing that the move only rein-forces Islamabad’s commit-ment with the internationalcommunity to fight terrorism.

The United Nations onWednesday designatedPakistan-based Azhar as a“global terrorist” after Chinalifted its hold on a proposal toblacklist him.

China removed its hold onthe proposal, which was movedby France, the UK and the USin the Security Council’s 1267Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee

in February just days after theFebruary 14 Pulwama terrorattack carried out by thePakistan-based terror outfitJaish-e-Mohammed (JeM).

Ambassador Asad MajeedKhan, who is on a rare visit toHouston this week, noted thatthe United States also appreci-ated Pakistan’s commitment inits first reaction to the desig-nation on Thursday, the Dawnreported.

Before the adoption, Chinaand Pakistan worked jointly todelink the designation from theKashmiri struggle for freedomand the Pulwama terroristattack, it said.

The delinking allowsPakistan to continue to supportthe Kashmiri movement, itadded.

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More than 1,000 peoplehave now died of Ebola in

the Democratic Republic ofCongo, authorities said, as aidworkers warned that the high-ly contagious virus combined with insecurity inthe restive region was creating a “deeply worrying sit-uation”.

The current outbreak is thesecond deadliest on record,after an epidemic killed morethan 11,300 people in WestAfrica in 2014-2016.

Efforts to roll back theoutbreak of the haemorrhagicfever have been hampered byfighting but also by resistancewithin communities to pre-ventative measures, care facil-ities and safe burials.

“In total, there have been1,008 deaths (942 confirmedand 66 probable),” the healthministry said in a daily updatelate Friday.

The central African coun-try declared a 10th outbreak ofEbola in 40 years last Augustcentred in the city of Beni inNorth Kivu province before thevirus spread into the neigh-bouring Ituri region.

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After a section of employeesfloated the proposal to

take over management controlof the grounded Jet Airwaysand arrange up to �3,000 crorefrom external investors, a groupof frequent flyers of the cash-strapped airline has approachedthe key lenders, including

State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and PunjabNational Bank, to submit the ‘Revival of Jet AirwaysPlan’ or ‘Roja’.

Claiming to be reputed

professionals and minorityshareholders in Jet Airways aswell as nine banks that havelent money to Jet, the group hasproposed a leveraged buy-outplan (LBO) to revive thegrounded airline.

The group of professionals,led by Sankaran PRaghunathan, has given a presentation on the airline’srevival plan to various stake-holders, including pilots, engi-neers, employee unions andbankers.

As per the plan, theemployees of Jet Airways would

first take control of the com-pany. They will take loan fromexisting lenders and invest inthe company, eventuallybecoming part-owners.

“The banks can give �1,500crore loan to the employees.This is six months’ salary ofeach employee as personalloan. The employees will usethis money to buy out 51 percent stake in the companyfrom SBI and 12.5 per centfrom Etihad. The balance �200crore would be given to thecompany for new shares. Thisway the employees will control

Jet Airways,” said the presen-tation reviewed by IANS.

In the next step, the plan isto raise money involving thefrequent flyers.

Accordingly, the banks canbe persuaded to give a person-al loan to all those who want tobuy four tickets each for�10,000 which would be validfor two years. By pre-sellingthese tickets, as much as �8,000crore could be raised.

The employees, already incontrolling position, wouldpass a resolution to authorisethe additional issue of shares on

a preferential basis to all thosewho buy the ticket packets —100 shares each for �150 each— and thus raise �12,000 crore.

“The �20,000 crore raisedwill now be used for opera-tional working capital and forrepayment to creditors over fiveyears,” the presentation said.

Facing severe financial cri-sis, Jet Airways had on April 17announced to temporarily sus-pend its flight operations. Theairline continues to be ground-ed and its revival dependsupon fresh fund infusion by theinvestors.

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At $70 per tonne of carbondioxide, a carbon tax will be

most efficient means of cuttinggreenhouse gas emissions,according to an InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) reportpublished on Friday.

But for the moment, car-bon taxes remain unpopular,particularly in France, whereplans to increase it to 55 euros(or USD 61.60) from 44.60euros recently ignited theYellow Vest protest movement.

The French Governmentwas forced to suspend the planin the face of popular revolt.

The Paris Agreement,adopted in 2015 by more than200 countries, aims to capoverall increases in global temperatures at two degreescentigrade above the pre-indus-trial era.

“The 2C target wouldrequire cutting emissions by

roughly a third by 2030 and aglobal carbon price of around$70 per ton,” IMF ManagingDirector Christine Lagarde andVitor Gaspar, the fund’s head of fiscal affairs, said in ajoint blog post.

“There is a growing con-sensus that carbon pricing... Is the single most effective mitigation instrument,” they said.

It allows for a reduction inenergy consumption, favourscleaner energies and mobilis-es private financing, accordingto the IMF. “It also providesmuch needed revenues,” theysaid, adding that countriescould use that income tofinance sustainable and moreinclusive growth.

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Asserting that Asia contin-ues to be the growth

engine of the world, EconomicAffairs Secretary SubhashChandra Garg on Saturdaysaid the ADB must expand itsprivate sector operations toboost economic development.

Addressing the Board ofGovernors of the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB)here, he said there is a risingneed for the agency to focus onstrengthening human capitaland develop socialsafety nets.

“Therefore, we urge theADB management to expand itsocial sector engagements incountries like India, while atthe same time, continuing withthe focus on making citiessmart, providing 24x7 waterand power supply, enhancingconnectivity, and mitigatingthe risk of climate change. Ourregional cooperation initiatives must aim to integratethe countries of the regionwith the global value chains,” he said.

“While ADB should con-tinue helping the membercountries harness their growthpotential by providing largerfinancial resources, it mustexpand its private sector oper-ations across the region. Byinvesting more through equi-

ty and infrastructure trusts,ADB can play a meaningfulrole in development of privatesector initiatives,” Garg, India’sAlternate Governor on ADB’sBoard of Governors, said.

ADB’s private sector oper-ations reached USD 3.14 billionin 2018, a 37 per cent increasefrom the previous fiscal, andstood at 14.5 per cent of itsoverall commitment.

Emphasising that ADB hashelped the developing coun-tries in building infrastructureand reducing extreme povertyfor the past 52 years, Garg saidinnovation in financing will bethe key to success of long-termgrowth strategy.

“This will require carefulfine-tuning of both public andprivate sector financing.Private financing has to becarefully shepherded to theright sectors like manufactur-ing, services and new digitaleconomy industries with activesupport of equity financingfrom ADB and other multi-lateral agencies,” he said.

Private investment in moredifficult sectors like infra-structure and human capitalimprovement, however, willnot flow unless these projectsare sufficiently de-risked for theprivate sector with both directinvestment as well as provisionof guarantees and other struc-tured support, he said.

New Delhi: Committees ofCreditors (CoCs) should pro-vide all relevant informationand share their vision for com-panies under the insolvencyprocess, a senior official said onSaturday as he asserted that itwill be dangerous to let viablefirms to close down.

Amid rising number ofstressed assets being referred forresolution under the Insolvencyand Bankruptcy Code (IBC),IBBI chief MS Sahoo said thelaw also gives opportunities torectify the mistakes during theinsolvency process.

The objective of the law isto rescue viable companies and

close down unviable ones, hesaid. “If due to incompetence (ofmarket participants) the reversehappens, then it is dangerous,”Sahoo said.

The Insolvency andBankruptcy Board of India(IBBI) Chairperson also notedthat CoCs must provide all rel-evant information to resolutionapplicants so that they findinterest in the companies.

He was speaking on thesidelines of a conference organ-ised by industry bodyAssocham.

The IBC provides for mar-ket-driven and time-bound res-olution of stressed assets. PTI

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The Government of France isplanning to organise an

investment conclave in Goa in October this year, toencourage French companiesto invest in various sectors inthe coastal State.

A proposal to this effectwould be submitted to theGoa government soon, ConsulGeneral of France in MumbaiSonia Barbry said here onFriday. The first such conclavewas held at Nagpur last year, inwhich Maharashtra ChiefMinister Devendra Fadanavishad participated, she said.

“During that conclave, anumber of memorandum ofunderstanding (MoUs) andletters of intent (LOI) weresigned between French andIndian companies. Now, wewill try to bring in Frenchinvestment into Goa,” she said.

The ‘Franco GoaInvestment Conclave’ will lookat investment in the field ofgreen marinas, health, medicalequipment and waste man-agement besides others, Barbrysaid. “We have some companiesin France that know how tomake sustainable marinaswithout disturbing the envi-ronment,” she said.

Barbry, who was in Goa tooversee Indo-French NavalExercise ‘Varuna’, met GoaChief Secretary Parimal Rai onThursday and discussed economic interests of Francein Goa.

She said some French companies were inter-ested in investing in Goa indifferent fields.

During her visit, theConsul General also met GoaUniversity Vice ChancellorVarun Sahani to discuss aboutpreparations for the upcomingworkshop for French teachers to be held from May20-25 at Goa University.

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Vodafone Idea saidon Saturday it

will seek its share-holders’ approval onJune 6 to transferoptical fibre assets toa wholly-owned sub-sidiary, VodafoneTowers Limited.

The company has pro-posed to hive off its telecomfibre infrastructure toVodafone Towers before mon-etising it and approached theNational Company LawTribunal Ahmedabad on April11, 2019, for its approval.

“NCLT has directed ameeting to be held of the equi-ty shareholders of the ApplicantCompany... Notice is herebygiven that a meeting of theequity shareholders of theApplicant Company will beheld...On Thursday, the 6thday of June 2019,” Vodafone Idea said in a regu-latory filing.

According to an industrysource, Vodafone Idea (VIL)has received valuation ofaround �15,000 crore for its

around 1.56 lakh kilometrelong telecom fibre assets.

“ The Transferor Company(VIL) believes that it would bebeneficial to restructure itsbusiness by divesting the FibreInfrastructure Undertakinginto a separate legal entity withsharper and dedicated focus onthe fibre infrastructure businessso as to achieve greater infra-structure sharing, operationalefficiencies and cost optimisa-tion resulting in more afford-able and reliable telecommuni-cations services to its con-sumers,” the filing said.

VIL in the filing said thatthere would be neither anychange in its the capital struc-ture nor in the VodafoneTowers pursuant to the sanc-tioning of the scheme.

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Hyundai Motor India Ltd(HMIL) said on Saturday

it has stationed a dedicatedemergency road service team tosupport the Fani cyclone affect-ed customers or vehicles in thestates of Odisha and WestBengal. The ‘Hyundai Relieftask Force’ would enhance ser-vices for vehicle-owners affect-ed by Cyclone Fani.

“Hyundai has stationed adedicated emergency road ser-vice team to support the FaniCyclone affected customers/vehicles along with 26 flatbedtrucks and 21 Towing Trucks toassist the customers,” HMILsaid in a statement.

In order to ensure theavailability of services in everypart of the city, Hyundai hasactivated a toll free number(0124- 4343937 ) for towing thevehicles and over 40 techni-cians will assist the vehicleowners by offering timely deliv-ery. Special discounts on partsare being offered on repairs/restorations of cyclone-affect-ed vehicles along with 50 percent discount on depreciationon insurance claims.

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Infrastructure investmenttrust India Grid Trust

(IndiGrid) on Saturdayannounced closing of its pref-erence issue of units after rais-ing �2,514 crore (USD 363 mil-lion) from eligible investors.

As part of the transaction,global investment firm KKRand GIC have invested �1,084crore (USD 157 million) and�980 crore (USD 142 million),respectively, the trust said in arelease.

KKR has also applied tobecome a Sponsor of IndiGridand plans to acquire an addi-tional 15 per cent of IndiGrid’stotal units from Sterlite Power,

the release said. Following the closing of

transactions, KKR and GIC willcollectively own approximate-ly 57 per cent of IndiGrid’s out-standing units.

The preferential issue ofunits had opened on April 30.IndiGrid, sponsored by SterlitePower, in a regulatory filingsaid that the allotment com-mittee of the board in a meet-ing on Saturday approved theclosure of the issue followingreceipt of applications from eli-gible bidders.

The committee also deter-mined and approved the issueprice of �83.89 per unit for theunits to be allotted to eligiblebidders in the preferential

issue, the filing said. The unithad closed at �83.99 on BSEFriday.

In a separate transaction,KKR will additionally acquirea majority shareholding inSterlite Investment ManagersLimited, the investment man-ager owned by Sterlite Power.Sterlite Power establishedIndiGrid in 2016 and willremain a Sponsor and ProjectManager of IndiGrid, the trustsaid in the statement.

With the capital infusionprovided by the new unitissuance, IndiGrid will pur-chase five electricity transmis-sion assets worth �11,500 crore($1.66 billion) from SterlitePower.

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Already assured of a playoff berth, tabletoppers Chennai Super Kings will aim

to maintain their pole position with a vic-tory over a struggling Kings XI Punjab intheir last IPL group league encounter hereon Sunday.

After a defeat against Mumbai Indiansin an earlier match, Mahendra SinghDhoni-led CSK bounced back with a mas-sive 80-run win over Delhi Capitals intheir last game, to once again capture theNo.1 spot.

Heavy loss against Mumbai Indianssaw their net run-ratefalling and now with justa game left in the leaguestage, the defendingchampions need a win tomaintain their dominanceand cement their positionat the top.

With 18 points from13 games, a win will givethem 20 points, which is unlikely to beachieved by any other team.

In their previous match against DelhiCapitals, skipper Dhoni and Suresh Rainaguided the team to a challenging 179/4and then restricted the opponent to just99.

Imran Tahir and Ravindra Jadejashared seven scalps between them as theywrecked havoc.

Dhoni, Raina, Ambati Rayudu, ShaneWatson and Faf du Plessis will look toscore big runs in Mohali, while Tahir andHarbhajan will aim to flummox the Kings

XI batsmen with their spin magic.In contrast, Kings XI Punjab, who are

already out of the play-offs race, would beplaying only for pride. With 10 pointsfrom 13 games, they are at seventh spot,a rung above bottom-placed RoyalChallengers Bangalore.

Inconsistent KXIP's hopes of makingit to the playoffs were dashed in a seven-wicket loss to Kolkata Knight Riders intheir last match here.

Not being in the reckoning for play-offs will be a disappointment for the homecrowd in Sunday's match but they willhope that KXIP finish on a high.

In the previous gameagainst KKR, despite post-ing a challenging 183/6,visitors' openers ShubmanGill (65 not out) and ChrisLynn (46) took the matchaway from the KXIP.

After the match, KXIPskipper RavichandranAshwin admitted that

powerplay has been one of his team's"massive problems".

Ashwin summed up his team's cam-paign this season as not up the mark.

Their in-form openers Chris Gayleand K L Rahul, who have been amongruns, would be keen to come good againstCSK.

The likes of Sam Curran, MayankAgarwal and Nicholas Pooran will have toshoulder more responsibility in the mid-dle-order.

Their bowling largely depends onskipper Ashwin and Shami.

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Delhi Capitals crushedRajasthan Royals' play-offhopes with a convincing five-

wicket victory to finish off theleague campaign in the ongoing IPLon a high note here on Saturday.

Already through to the play-offs,Delhi Capitals first rode on veteransIshant Sharma and Amit Mishra'ssuperb efforts with the bowl torestrict Rajasthan Royals to 115 fornine and then chased down the tar-get in 16.1 overs, with Rishabh Pantremaining unbeaten on a 38-ball 53.

The win lifted Delhi to the sec-ond spot in the standings with 18points from 14 games but to finishas second best side, the Capitalswould need Mumbai Indians tolose against Kolkata Knight Riderson Sunday.

A win for Mumbai would auto-matically drop Delhi to the third spotas they have an inferior net run-rate.

Rajasthan are out of the tourna-

ment, finishing with just 11 pointsfrom 14 games.

Chasing a modest target, Delhimade a quick start through ShikharDhawan (16) and Prithvi Shaw (8)before Ish Sodhi (3/26) removedboth the openers in consecutiveballs to give himself a hat-trickchance.

Sodhi first got rid off Dhawan,in the second ball of the fourth over,holed out by Riyan Parag and thenShaw played on the next delivery.

Skipper Shreyas Iyer (15 off 9)and Rishabh then added 33 runs off25 balls for the third wicket beforethe former was holed out by LiamLivingstone off Shreyas Gopal.

While Delhi lost two morewickets in the form of Colin Ingram(12) and Sherfane Rutherford (11),Rishabh carried on his bat and fin-ished off the chase by hitting Sodhifor a big six over long-leg off and inthe process also notched up his fifty.

Rishabh's unbeaten knock wasstudded with two fours and five hits

over the fence.Earlier, Ishant (3/38) did the

early damage before leg-spinnerMishra (3/17) came to the party torock Rajasthan's innings.

Young Parag (50 off 49, 4x4s,2x6s) was the lone bright spot forRajasthan as he held on to one fortand notched up his maiden IPL fiftyto take the visitors close to the 120-run mark.

Rajasthan had a disastrous startto their innings after opting to batas they were reduced to 30 for fourat the end of the first six overs ofpowerplay with Ishant doing bulk ofthe damage.

Ishant struck in the secondover, removing Rajasthan skipperAjinkya Rahane (2) and then cameback an over later to clean upLivingstone (14).

To make matters worse for thevisitors, in-form Sanju Samson (5)fell victim to an unnecessary mix upwith Mahipal Lomror in the nextover.

Lomror (8) didn't help his causeeither as he handed Ishant his thirdwicket of the day, nicking one toRishabh behind the stumps.

Parag and Gopal tried to sta-bilise the innings with a 27-runfifth-wicket stand before Mishrascalped two wickets in consecutivedeliveries in the 12th over to disturbRajasthan's resistance.

Mishra first foxed Gopal (12) tobe stumped by Rishabh and theninduced a faint edge from new manStuart Binny, which again Rishabhobliged. This gave Mishra a chancefor registering a hat-trick.

The leg-spinner was well oncourse of scalping a hat-trick butTrent Boult dropped a sitter atlong-off to hand KrishnappaGowtham life.

However, Mishra got his man anover later as Gowatham gave astraight forward catch to Ishant atlong-off and Rajasthan slumped to65 for seven.

Parag opened up late andsmacked Ishant for two fours to pickup 18 runs off the 17th over andthen smashed Boult for two sixes inthe final over before perishing in thelast ball of the innings.

���■ 7(��)$-8-

Captain Kane Williamson dealt infours and sixes as Sunrisers

Hyderabad plundered 28 runs in thefinal over to reach a challenging 175for seven in their IPL game againstRoyal Challengers Bangalore hereSaturday.

SRH were 147 for seven at theend of the 19th over but Williamsoncut loose after that, smashing UmeshYadav for two sixes and as manyfours to finish the innings on a high.

Williamson remained not outon 70 off 43 balls, hitting four sixesand five fours at the MChinnaswami Stadium.

To make matters worse forYadav, he was wrongly no-balled byumpire Nigel Llong.

Sent into bat, SRH were off toa brisk start with Martin Guptill andWriddhiman Saha (20) putting on46 runs for the opening wicket in 4.3overs, but the keeper-batsman failedto clear pacer Navdeep Saini as thevisitors lost their first wicket.

After addition of another 14runs to the team total, SRH losttheir second wicket when Guptillwas dismissed by WashingtonSundar for a 23-ball 30.

Manish Pandey, who stretchedMumbai Indians with his brave halfcentury in their last game, fellcheaply, for nine, leaving the visi-tors in some trouble at 61 for threein the eighth over.

Picked in the World Cup boundIndian team for his 'three-dimen-sional' abilities, Vijay Shankar racedto 27 with the help of three sixes, butagain failed to translate the start intoa big score.

Shankar was Sundar's thirdscalp of the evening and YuzvendraChahal picked up his 100th wicketin IPL when he lured Yusuf Pathaninto playing an irresponsible shot toleave Sunrisers at 127 for five in thefinal ball of 16th over.

Even as wickets fell at regularintervals, Williamson looked torotate the strike and also go for thebig hits.

Barring the opening stand, theonly partnership that flourished abit was the one between Williamsonand Shankar, who ended up giving

a catch while going for a slogsweep.

Williamson brought up his fifty

in style, hoicking Yadav over long offfor a six and followed that with somemore lusty hits.

���■ -7�*

Their play-off chances hangingin balance, Kolkata Knight

Riders will keep no stoneunturned as they take on MumbaiIndians with a prayer on their lipsin a must-win Indian PremierLeague game on Sunday.

KKR defeated Kings XIPunjab to keep their play-offhopes alive till the last leagegame but if Sunrisers Hyderabadmanage to sneak past RCB onSaturday, it might take aHerculean effort in terms ofimproving the net run-rate.

Placed fourth, SRH have a netrun-rate of +0.653, which is com-paratively better than fifth placedKKR's +0.173. In case, SRH loseto RCB, it will be like a quarter-final for KKR as a win will do thejob.

However MI would like to

carry on the winning momentumas 18 points and a better net run-rate than both first placed CSKand third placed Delhi Capitalswill give them two shots at qual-ifying for the final.

With Chris Lynn andShubhman Gill coming goodand the marauding Andre Russellto follow at No 4, skipper DineshKarthik would fancy his chancesat the batting-friendly Wankhede.

If the likes of seasoned LasithMalinga, Jasprit Bumrah, KrunalPandya and leggie Rahul Chaharhave to be taken to task, thenKKR batsman will have to put upa special show.

Russell, who has been consis-tently delivering for his team, willhave to showcase his prowess andmettle once again.

For KKR, their bowling hasbeen the biggest concern as theirbowlers have been ripped apart by

their opponents both in thePowerplay as well as at the death.

Pacers Harry Gurney,Sandeep Warrier, Narine andPiyush Chawla will have to bowla tight line and length to restrictthe famed Mumbai batters.

Meanwhile, Mumbai Indians,

who have already qualified for theplayoffs will eye revenge afterKKR after they had suffered a 34-run defeat in Kolkata.

Also the result of the matchwhich finalise on which positionMumbai finish and who will betheir opponent in the play-off.

For the hosts, apart fromHardik (380 runs from 13 match-es), South African Quinton DeKock (462 from 13) has beenamong the runs. But othersincluding Rohit Sharma (331runs from 12), Suryakumar Yadav(292 runs from 13), KrunalPandya ( 176 runs from 13) andKieron Pollard (240 runs from 13)need to shoulder responsibility.

However an area of concernfor head-coach MahelaJayawardene would be the fre-quent middle-order collapse andhe would like to strengthen beforethe knockouts.

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Kolkata Knight Riders skipperDinesh Karthik is not known to

lose his cool for on-field lapses buthe doesn't mind letting it rip occa-sionally if it can bring the best outof his players.

During Friday's must-win awaymatch against Kings XI Punjab,Karthik lost his cool at the inningsbreak as his bowlers and fielders

didn't execute his plans properly.When asked about his frayed

temper, the KKR skipper admittedthat he wasn't happy with hisbowlers and fielders.

"It's been a hard few days. I was-n't too happy with the what thebowlers and the fielders were doing,so I thought I should let the boysknow what I felt at that time. It israre, not many people have seen meangry. If I feel I need to be angry toget the best out of the boys, thenmaybe," Karthik said after histeam's seven wicket win over KXIP.

KKR fast bowler SandeepWarrier said that the skipper wasurging his men to be on toes dur-ing crunch situations.

"He (Karthik) was telling us tobe on our toes as it was a must-wingame for us. He was telling us tofocus on every ball," said Warrier,who got the wickets of KL Rahuland Chris Gayle.

The skipper however was allpraise for young Shubman Gill, whoscored an unbeaten 65 off 49 ballsto anchor the chase of 184.

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Not known to pull backpunches, Gautam

Gambhir hit back at ShahidAfridi, offering to take him toa session with "a psychiatrist"after the former Pakistan cap-tain wrote a few uncharitablethings about the Indian open-er.

Afridi in his just-releasedautobiography 'Game Changer'had sarcastically referred toGambhir as someone who"behaves like a cross betweenDon Bradman and JamesBond," and has a "lot of attitudeand no great records"

Gambhir respondedthrough his official twitter han-dle tagging Afridi.

"...You are a hilariousman!!! Anyway, we are stillgranting visas to Pakistanis formedical tourism. I will person-ally take you to a psychiatrist,"

Gambhir tweeted.The duo never shared a

great rapport on and off-the-field and it was reflected inAfridi's take on Gambhir.

"Some rivalries were per-sonal, some professional. Firstthe curious case of Gambhir.Oh poor Gautam. He & his atti-tude problem. He who has nopersonality. He who is barely acharacter in the great scheme ofcricket. He who has no greatrecords just a lot of attitude,"Afridi wrote.

"Gambhir behaves like he'sa cross between Don Bradman& James Bond. In Karachi, wecall guys like him saryal(grumpy). It's simple, I likehappy, positive people. Doesn'tmatter if they are aggressive orcompetitive, but you have to bepositive & Gambhir wasn't," hefurther wrote.

The two had an angry bustup during a bilateral seriesODI in Kanpur back in 2007(wrongly referred in Afridi'sbook as Asia Cup game).

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Iused to hate golf. I absolutelydespised it being shown on thetelly. I couldn’t imagine why peo-ple take something so boring soseriously and call it a sport. I

don’t even know why I got clicked withTiger Woods at Madame Tussaudswhen I clearly didn’t know enough toadmire him or the legacy he was creat-ing at that time. Then I grew up. Lastmonth was pivotal in the history ofgolf, in more ways than one. TigerWoods winning his fifth Masters, 14years after he last put on the GreenJacket, 11 years after last winning aMajor is nothing short of extraordi-nary, poetic, superlative, and a touchredemptive. Let’s put this into perspec-tive. Since 2009, he has seen his repu-tation severely tarnished amidst aninfidelity scandal followed by divorcewith his Swedish wife, Elin Nordegren,had four back and two knee surgeries,been addicted to painkillers causinghis arrest for suspected driving underinfluence, dropped out of the world’stop 1,000 golfers, amongst many otherobstacles that makes this comeback allthe more awe-inspiring. When we talkof huge comebacks in the history ofsport — not just golf — this will rankas one of, if not the best.

Peyton Manning is talked about inthe great comebacks conversation afterhe endured multiple neck surgeries andwas dumped by the Colts but had a latecareer revival in Denver; an MVPaward in 2013 and a Super Bowl title in2015. Monica Seles was the youngestFrench Open champion at 16 years ofage and the youngest Number 1 inworld rankings at that time. She hadalready won eight Grand Slams beforeher 20th birthday. Then when she wasat her peak, she was stabbed in abizarre incident on court by a derangedSteffi Graf fan, narrowly missing herspinal cord and organs. But the damagewas done psychologically. Seles had tobattle depression and eating disorderbefore returning to the court after twoyears. She was never the same playeragain but to even come that far, win-ning the Canadian Open in 1995 andthe Australian Open in 1996, was alaudable achievement.

Niki Lauda had already won oneWorld Championship Title in FormulaOne racing in 1975. In his second in1976, his Ferrari swerved off track, hitan embankment, burst into flames andmade contact with Brett Lunger’s Ford.Unlike Lunger, Lauda was trapped in thewreckage and suffered severe degreeburns to his head and inhaled hot toxicgases, damaging his lungs and blood.

Although he was conscious in theimmediate aftermath, he later slippedinto a coma. Six weeks later, he wasbehind the wheel at the Italian GrandPrix. Lauda would go on to win twomore championship titles before retiring.

Muhammad Ali, widely regarded asthe “greatest of all time”, was stripped ofhis title and suspended for three yearsafter he refused to serve in the US Armyduring the Vietnam War. His comebackagainst the undefeated Joe Frazier in thematch dubbed as “the fight of the centu-ry” ended in his first ever professionalloss. He would go on to beat Frazier in arematch. Then came the much awaitedThrilla in Manila in 1975. Frazier andAli were both geared up for this, Frazierdesperately needing a win for his come-back but Ali would not be denied byhim a second time. Ali went on to winthat dramatic 14 round fight (the 15thwas stopped as Frazier’s eyes wereswollen shut and he was badly beaten)and Ali kept fighting till 1981.

Woods, though, was reluctant toclaim it was even the best comeback inhis own sport. He points to BenHogan, who won the US Open a yearand a half after nearly dying in a carcrash. He does have a point. But thecomparisons of comebacks in differentsports across different eras is not todiminish one’s significance or impactfrom the other. It is only to laud themost recent one keeping the others inmind. What separates the story ofTiger Woods from others is that he notonly suffered physically but mentally.Of course, any physical injury has itspsychological repercussions. But thegrit and determination to come out ofso many and emerge a winner yet againcannot be understated.

In a multicultural consumerist soci-ety like the US that the whole world stillpretty much aspires to model itself on, awin like this is monumental keeping inmind the brand value of Tiger Woodsbefore he was stripped of all endorse-ments following his promiscuity revela-tions. A win like this changes every-thing. It’s a literal game changer in everysense of the term. From the way peoplelook at golf to golf as a brand equityitself. In a time when majority of theAmerican intelligentsia is debating andregretting the election results while stillreminiscing about the last President,who was incidentally black, TigerWoods has given them another reasonto be proud by coming up “trumps”.

A win like this is astronomicalbecause a win like this transcendssport. With all due respect to the othergolfers devoid of such ups and downs

in life, a win for any of them wouldnever have generated this kind ofhoopla. The fact that we know all aboutTiger Woods without knowing the dif-ference between a birdie and a bogey iswhat makes us sit up and take notice.It’s what instantly puts him and thewhole of golf right back on the map.

The news of Tiger Woods winninganother Masters hit me in three stages.First was that of shock. I was (and I’msure many of you were too) genuinelysurprised to see him not only competingamongst the best but beating everyoneagain to be the best. After all, that’soccurred. After all that’s passed. After allthat he must’ve faced. After all thosenights he must’ve spent waiting for thisfine day. I cannot even fathom the tur-moil that must’ve gone through thatmind of his. Just like I couldn’t fathomhearing what all he had done to puthimself in that position. But I came to arealisation that people like him aren’tmere mortals. And maybe, just maybe,that’s the reason they don’t have flawslike the rest of us; something akin to aGreek tragedy. Their flaws are tragic andfatal. They’re capable of extraordinarythings in their field of specialty. Theyalways have that extra mile in them,whatever the circumstances. And likeany other Greek tragedy, their story hasthe element of fate centred around them.

Speaking of fate and the role it hasto play in the making or breaking of agenius, Malcolm Gladwell reiteratesover and over in his book, The Outliers,that there are no geniuses in this world,just people who happened to be in theright place at the right time. In hiswords, “No one — not rock stars, notprofessional athletes, not software bil-lionaires, and not even geniuses — evermakes it alone.” Steve Jobs, Bill Gates,the Beatles etc all had vision and talent,but they were successful only becauseof a certain turn of events that went intheir favour. Gladwell notes that suc-cess “is not exceptional or mysterious.It is grounded in a web of advantagesand inheritances, some deserved, somenot, some earned, some just plainlucky”. But for that rub of the green(the phrase ironically originating fromgolf) to even work, you have to havethe building blocks in place first —namely talent, hard work, and anundying will to succeed.

Tiger Woods had everything as domost champions in any sport. But whatmakes his story unique is that he wasbrutally brought down from hispedestal when the scandal broke out.He wasn’t the god of golf anymore. Hewas the proverbial Greek god.

Suddenly, he had everything to loseagain and had to start from scratch. Todo that at this age is what makes hiscomeback all the more commendable.

At the end, it all comes down toman’s inherent drive to be the best. Tobe better than the rest. And you can’tinculcate that drive. Another thing Iwas shocked about (albeit pleasantly)was the kind of reaction he is receiving.It’s almost as if everyone has forgivenhim for doing the wrongs he did. Hehas paid the price. He has spent histime in hell. And now it’s his time toshine. But why was I surprised thatpeople reacted so positively in the firstplace? Which brings me to the secondthing that hit me: Happiness.

Everyone wants to identify withyour success but never your failure. I’veseen that all too well from close quar-ters. Failure is an integral part of thesuccess equation. By identifying in thephenomenon of a successful comeback,we are in some way relating it to ourown journey. His victory is somehowour victory. His win is somehow ourhope. And his story is somehow oursource of happiness. People want toidentify with your story because thatmakes it more real, more tangible. Andthere’s nothing more relatable than theraw emotion of a comeback. There’s areason why the Manchester Unitedgathered an extraordinary fan followingin terms of numbers in the Ninetiesand Noughties. It’s because their goldenperiod of comebacks coincided with thestratospheric rise in TV coverage andPremier League revenues. More thenumber of exploits from the undisput-ed “comeback kings” (Liverpool fanswould argue otherwise), more the view-ers developed an affinity for the cluband hence more the fan following. It’snot as if comebacks weren’t beingaccomplished before or after that era.It’s just that in this case, they happenedto be the ‘outlier’, the club at the rightplace at the right time.

But all that is okay. The real ques-tion is how do these individualsmuster up the courage, the determina-tion, the same intensity and mindset tobe able to compete at the same leveland win against all odds? The answeragain lies with the Gladwell school ofthought. They always had it. This wasalways part of the script. The fallingdown wasn’t. Once that was dealt with,coming back up was no doubt difficultbut the most natural thing to do. Itgave him hope. It gave him purpose. Itgave him his raison d’être.

In the words of Gladwell himself:“There is something profoundly wrong

with the way we look at success. Wecling to the idea that success is a sim-ple function of individual merit andthat the world in which we grow upand the rules we choose to write as asociety don’t matter at all.”

Eldrick Tont Woods, nicknamedTiger, was always the outlier from thevery start: A child prodigy who wasintroduced to golf before the age of twoby his athletic father, Earl Woods. Healready had the proverbial ‘10,000hours’ under his belt way before hestarted competing professionally. Andalthough the 10,000-hour rule is morefiction than fact, it does hold signifi-cance. It does give you pointers. It doesgive you the extra edge before anyoneelse. He was an outlier not only interms of being an early starter and hav-ing the kind of resources and golfcourses only few could afford, he wasalso the outlier in terms of when hewas born. Augusta barred AfricanAmerican players from the Mastersuntil 1975. Augusta National had noblack members until 1990. TigerWoods’ birth year? Yep, 1975. He didn’thave to deal with the racial barriers,the death threats, the prejudice. Hestarted his career when all of that hadbeen a thing of the past and golf wasready to usher in the era of the greatestAfrican American to ever grace thesport. Was all this a coincidence? Fate.The rub of the green. Outlier.

The third and last emotion that hitme was that of belief and inspiration.His story gave me the motivation to getup from the tangles of misfortune I findmyself in. Every comeback victory has acertain human element attached to it.Everyone loves a rags to riches story, acome from behind victory, an underdogturnaround, an inspiring feat to talkabout. In more ways than one, TigerWoods was all of them. His reputationwas in tatters, his health was nowherenear the previous standards, he wasalready being tagged a “former golfer”,his comeback attempt was written offbefore he even started, no one gave hima chance of competing in the Mastersagain. But did it matter though? Andmore importantly, should it matter?What the world thinks of you shouldn’tcome in the way of your “personal leg-end”, as Paulo Coelho calls it. Becauseif it does, you’ll never achieve it. Andthen the world will have one lessinspiring thing to talk about. “Younever give up,” says Woods. “That’s agiven. You always fight. Just giving upis never in the equation.”

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All day every day, even whilethey sleep, tens of millionsof children in South Asia are

being seriously harmed by toxicair. South Asia is leading theworld and not in a good way. Here,air pollution now kills an estimat-ed 130,000 children under fiveevery single year. It is a staggeringfact that 12 million babies inSouth Asia are breathing air thatis six times more polluted than theinternational limits set by theWorld Health Organization. Thismeans that South Asia has three-quarters of the global total.

The full impact of breathingharmful air is not visible to thenaked eye, but the Air QualityIndex measures how toxic the airis. A measurement of 0-50 is‘good’, 50-100 is ‘moderate’, 100-150 is ‘unhealthy for sensitivegroups’ (including children), 151-200 is ‘unhealthy’, 201-300 is‘very unhealthy’, and 301-500 is‘hazardous’. In the four-day peri-od between January 8 and 11, thenumber reached 417 in NewDelhi (hazardous), 310 inKathmandu (hazardous), 328 inDhaka (hazardous), 510 in Kabul(hazardous), and 234 in Karachi(very unhealthy). These num-

bers mean deaths, and they meanserious, lasting harm.

In India, nearly 1.3 millionpremature deaths occurred just in2017 due to indoor and outdoorair pollution. Ten of the world’stop 20 most polluted cities are inIndia. Around 77 per cent of thecountry’s population is exposed tooutdoor air pollution levels abovethe National Ambient Air QualityStandards safe limit. The averagelife expectancy in India wouldhave been 1.7 years higher if theair pollution levels were less thanthe minimal level.

A cough, sore throat or soreeyes are the common things thatwe notice. But the real damage isfar more serious. The most danger-ous air pollutants of all are thesmallest particles. They reach deepdown into the lungs. From thelungs, they pass into the blood-stream. In the bloodstream, theycirculate around the body.

Air pollution is a severe andgrowing threat to people of all ages,but it is particularly bad for chil-

dren’s health and development. A2018 World Health Organizationstudy reveals that over one lakhchildren under the age of five diedin 2016 because of air pollution inIndia. There are three main rea-sons why children are particular-ly at risk. First, children breathefaster than adults. A typical adulttakes between 12 and 18 breaths aminute. A three-year-old childtakes 20 to 30 breaths a minute,and a newborn takes 30 to 40. Soyoung children are breathing in thepolluted air two to three times asmuch as adults.

Second, children’s lungs andother organs are developing. Thismakes them particularly vulnera-ble to damage. This can have bothimmediate effects, such as asthma,and long-term effects, such asreducing their lung volume for life.

Third, the youngest childrenare also in danger because thebarrier between the bloodstreamand brain is not yet fully formed.The air pollutants can cross fromthe lungs to the bloodstream, and

from the bloodstream to thebrain. There, they actually causebrain cells to inflame. This dam-ages the brain cells and affects thechild’s cognitive and intellectualdevelopment. Today’s generationof children will be affected for lifeand as adults, we have a pressingand serious duty to reverse thishorrendous trend.

The high exposure of India’schildren and their vulnerability toair pollution make this an issue tobe addressed with urgency. Weneed to see cleaner, renewablesources of energy and we needbetter waste management to pre-vent open burning of harmfulchemicals, but of course the pre-cise solutions vary across theregion. We cannot let childrenbreath toxic air. Speaking up forone’s children is a first step.

The Government of India’sefforts towards launching aNational Clean Air Programmewith an aim to cover 104 cities iscommendable. However, with atarget to reduce air population by

only about 30 per cent by 2024,there is need for further urgent andpro-active action to protect theyoung generation. Stringent lawenforcement regarding pollutingindustries, burning of solidwaste/residues, among others, isnon-negotiable. Policy shifts, suchas the switch from pollution fueloptions like diesel or petrol toCNG or electrical cars, increasedinvestment in public transport etcare noteworthy efforts by theGovernment. However, furtherinvestment and incentives to adoptclean energy, especially in small-er towns, are crucial. Incentivisingthe use of LPG in rural areas asagainst highly polluting fossil fuelis another critical need.

Reducing indoor and out-door air pollution must be inte-grated in all major Governmentprogrammes, such as SmartCities, rather than institutingstand-alone interventions. Thiscould go a long way in promot-ing positive behaviours, big andsmall, among all citizens andcreate a drive towards a pollution-free India for us and for the gen-erations to come.

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As young as age four,children begin polic-ing each other toadhere to strict genderrules — attentive to

point out “you can’t wear that, it’sa girl’s colour,” or “you can’t playwith that, it’s a boy’s toy.” As socialbeings dependent on adults, chil-dren carefully absorb and attune tosocial norms given their survivalrequires continued inclusion with-in their families. It is this desire tobe accepted that causes a boy tosuppress his perfectly naturalhuman inclination to cry and beheld as he becomes indoctrinatedinto the idea that these healthybehaviours are unacceptable andweak for boys and men.

When we do not prioritiseproviding counter messaging torestrictive gender rules, the silencereinforces the subconscious ideathat a child must sacrifice theirfreedom of expression and whole-some development in order toconform. The absence of thought-ful and consistent dialogue aroundgender in homes and schools is avacuum that, luckily, we can worktogether to fill.

� ����8$ ��#����� �� �Whether at home or in school, theimportant first step is to becomeaware of double standards and notaccidentally enforce them. Holdgirls and boys to the same standardsof what it means to be a “good per-son”, instead of teaching them dif-ferent values of a “good boy” and“good girl.” For example, it isimportant that all children learnhow to be responsible by helpingmake food, not just girls. Similarly,it is important for all children to feelempowered that they can fix thingsby learning to use constructiontools, not just boys.

Girls and women are oftenlabelled bossy or a tomboy whenthey are physically active andassertive. The conservative stan-dard of a “nice girl,” where a girlis not supposed to stand up forherself, can discourage her fromthe proactive, authentic, and hard-working qualities we value inboys. It’s important to encouragea girl’s curiosity, determination,and grit, not simply her ability toplease and serve others.

It’s also crucial to encourage aboy’s empathy and capacity to col-laborate and communicate thought-fully, not simply his ability to com-mand attention and compete.When we celebrate boys from anearly age for their capacity to be vul-nerable, emotional, and ask for help— that these are signs of strengthand courage — we create betterpeople who are less likely to resortto violence when experiencingemotional turmoil and are morelikely to thrive in their profession-al and personal relationships.

�8 �"��������� ��As adults in their lives, you are a liv-ing role model who can purposelylook for ways to step outside thetypical box of gender expectations.By doing so, you will inspire thechildren in your life to dreambeyond these restrictions and dis-cover what their own authenticexpression looks like. As a parent,one place to start is by having con-versations with your partner abouthow your self-expressions andresponsibilities divide based ontraditional gender roles and wherecould be opportunities to experi-ment with new forms of expressionand distribution of responsibilities.

For example, maybe Dadmakes breakfast and Mom makesdinner, or both Mom and Dad readbedtime stories and snuggle beforebed. As a father, you can make a

conscious effort to share your feel-ings, tell your kids you love them,and make it safe for your kids to dothe same. Show your children thatresponsibilities — whether it’s car-ing for the house or earning income— are not assigned based on some-thing as arbitrary as what bodyparts one has, but instead get divid-ed based on thoughtful conversa-tions and mutual understanding.

Schools and families can also bemore intentional about providingrole models through books andfilms to help expand children’simagination for what is possible forthem and show a diversity of waysto express themselves. You canprovide more female role models forgirls who don’t fit the typical box —pioneers in science, chemistry, ath-letics, diplomats, journalists,philosophers. Provide male role

models who don’t fit the tradition-al man box — men who speak upas peacemakers, homemakers, nurs-es, teachers, and feminist activists.

��"�����%��"���������When your kids see music videos,films, commercials, and sexistmedia, engage in discussions aboutwhat they’re seeing and how whatthey’re watching makes them feel.At home and in your classrooms,show sexist memes and havedebates about the differencebetween free speech and hatespeech, objectification and how weare taught to primarily valuewomen for their bodies as lovers ormothers and value men for theircapacities to obtain wealth andwomen. Discuss unrealistic andracist beauty standards and the waymarketing uses the female body as

a means to sell products. Help kidsbe critical thinkers, questioners, anddiscern for themselves what makesthese mindsets problematic.

Even with little children, whenyou hear of a child labelling some-thing based on gender, “those areboy’s sunglasses,” use it as a learn-ing opportunity to question thatidea. Ask them what makes some-thing a boy’s sunglasses and what’sthe point of such categories? Whyis it that the blue Kinder egg is onlymeant for boys? Does this make anysense? Then show them counter-examples to these “rules”.

�������������%�����Nursery is a great time to beginteaching children about bound-aries and consent. By doing so,parents and schools can take pre-ventative measures against unnec-

essary traumas, embarrassment,body shaming, or bullying ratherthan simply reacting after the fact.

Share with children that theyget to choose whether someone cantouch their bodies and that they areallowed to choose whether or notthey want to hug or kiss someone.Saying “no” when someone pinch-es their cheeks or makes them feeluncomfortable is an important firststep to ensure that they feel reas-sured to speak up if someone doessomething inappropriate. Teachingchildren they have a right to theirbodies and should always come telltheir parents if something happensto them, is an essential part to keep-ing them safe and empoweringthem into the future. Equallyimportant is keeping your childreninformed with the proper vocabu-lary for their body parts and as theygrow, stay ahead of the game byinforming them about the changessoon to come with puberty. Whenadults withhold the scientificallyproper names for private parts, chil-dren begin to internalise that thesebody parts are shameful and secre-tive. This in turn can prevent a childfrom sharing with a trusted adultif they are touched inappropriate-ly on these private parts.

Especially ensure all children —boys and girls — learn about men-struation in order to diminish thestigma, shame, and bullying thatgirls experience. When adults keepmenstruation a secret, childrenexperience it as a bad thing and canbegin believing women’s bodiesare dirty or impure. Far too manywomen think they are dying withthe onset of their first period,given they were provided no priorwarning that one day blood wouldstart flowing from their bodies. Oneway we start creating equality is byteaching kids when they are youngthat the bodies of girls and boyshave some differences, lots of sim-ilarities, and are all worthy of equalcelebration and pride.

�������"���#�#����The great news is that there areexperts from around the world whohave developed credible child-friendly books and curriculums forteachers and parents to learn fromand use. Some curriculums wedraw inspiration from in ourschool is ‘Live Respect’ by A Callto Men, ‘Very Young Adolescence2.0’ by Promundo, ‘The Mask YouLive In’ by the RepresentationProject, and Advocacy for Youth’ssexuality education curriculum.These resources provide teachersand parents age appropriate infor-mation on relationships, gender,and sexuality that can be altered tomeet our cultural context.� ��,������� ��2�������%�����;#�������

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The multiple bombings,including suicide blasts,

targeting the mass congregationat Catholic churches, hotelsand other public places in SriLanka have once again drawnthe concern of the internation-al community over the dangerof Islamist terrorism and radi-calisation of a section ofMuslim youths across the globe.The civilised world, includingthe Muslim religious and sec-ular intelligentsia, was swift tocondemn the abhorrent attacks,which took more than 250lives, and expressed concernedabout the failure of Sri Lankanstate to the repeated warningsfrom India and its local intelli-gent units as well as the abilityof the ISIS and other interna-tional Islamist terrorist organ-isations to wreak havoc.

While such incidents haveroutinely brought into the ques-tion the role of Wahhabi-Salafisation in raising a radi-calised generation of Muslimyouths with conception of“enemy other” to commit geno-cide, the contribution of Turkeyunder Islamist leadership ofRecep Tayyip Erdogan to theprocess of radicalisation of asection of global Sunni Muslimyouth has hardly been focussedupon. If one aspect of Islamistbombing in Sri Lanka, asclaimed by the perpetrators,was to avenge the killing ofMuslims in New Zealand bywhite supremacists, one is con-strained to bring into focus thestatement of President Erdogan,which may have implication infurther motivating the radi-calised Islamist elements tocommit barbaric acts.

During the campaign ofmunicipal election in Turkeylast month, President Erdoganlambasted the politics ofIslamophobia in the West,showed a video clipping of theChristchurch mosque shoot-ings, and stated: “Turkey wouldmake the attackers pay for hisact if New Zealand did not.”Calling upon New Zealand

authority to restore deathpenalty, Erdogan further stat-ed on March 19 in an electionrally, “You (Brenton Tarrant,the Australian attacker inChristchurch) heinously killed50 of our siblings. You will payfor this. If New Zealand does-n’t make you, we know how tomake you pay one way oranother.”

If one looks at the rhetoricand tone of these statements ofPresident Erdogan, one wouldfind that it is not different fromthe rhetoric and semantic ofnon-state Islamist radicals andterrorists. It is another matterthat statements and terroristactions of non-state Islamistactors are routinely con-demned, but world leadershardly condemn the statementand action of state actors. Ithappens because, first, terror-ism has been understoodessentially as “non-state phe-nomenon”, and second, thestate practice of political prag-matism, which tolerates suchstate figures for the consider-ation of wider economic andpolitical interest.

Such alarmist Islamist pol-itics on the part of the Erdoganregime is not difficult to under-stand. It is likely to increase innear future for three importantreasons. First, the Islamist pol-itics is centrally linked withErdogan’s personal ambition ofresurrecting the institution ofCaliphate in 1924 — the 100thyear of abolition of Caliphateby the Kemalist state of Turkey.Second, the deteriorating con-dition of Turkish economy isalso pushing Erdogan toembrace Islamist politics.Third, Erdogan is losingdomestic political ground asevident from his failure to winover mayorship in some of thelargest cities like Istanbul,Ankara, Izmir and other citiesin March 2019 local elections.The AKP defeat in Istanbul isvery symbolic for its survival.While the loss of its formerPrime Minister and Speaker —

Binali Yildirim — in Istanbulis a severe jolt to AKP’s hege-mony, rubbing salt to theirwounds is that the winnerfrom CHP has a credibleMuslim face. This explainswhy the Erdogan regime hasdecided to demand the re-election of Istanbul mayoralelection despite twice recount-ing of the ballots and even for-mally lodged the complaint toSupreme Election Board (SYK)to derecognise approximately13,500 votes, which belongedto dismissed, imprisoned offi-cials alleged to be FETO(Gulen movement) members.Interestingly the AKP candi-date, Yeldrim, lost to the CHPcandidate in Istanbul with themargin of 13,500 votes. Theprosecutors of Turkish state hasnow launched more than 32investigations into the allegedirregularities in Istanbul may-oral election held last monthand summoned more than 100polling station officials forquestioning as suspects, muchafter declaration of result !

The success of Islamist,Caliphal politics of PresidentErdogan depends upon fulfil-ment of certain conditions.One, President Erdogan mustemerge and be recognised asthe leader of Muslim world.This has pushed Erdogan toembrace aggressive, authori-tarian style of politics withforemost anti-Israel, anti-westMuslim face who is also cham-pioning the cause of Muslimminorities living into non-Muslim majority countries.With physical liquidation of AlQaeda and ISIS and the nearabsence of other anti-west,anti-Israel Muslim political fig-ure, a good section of Muslimworld looks into Erdogan amodern day Saladin. Thisauthoritarian Islamist brand ofpolitics of Erdogan demands ade-democratisation of Turkeyand freedom from any demo-cratic constraint in his gover-nance. This brought him intoconflict with the Gulen move-

ment internally, which refusedto cater to the demand ofErdogan to promote him asglobal Muslim political leaderthrough its global network ofschools and dialogue centres, atdomestic level and in theEuropean Union.

Second, the Caliphal poli-tics of Erdogan requires a thor-ough de-legitimisation, rathercriminalisation, of Arab stateactors, principally Saudi Arabiaand the UAE, with a view toremove them as legitimateleader of global Sunni Muslimcommunity. As a result, theErdogan regime has closeteditself to Islamist allay, primar-ily Iran, Qatar and Hamas, andincreased its physical inter-vention in neighbouring Syriaand Iraq to bolster it neo-Ottoman image on the onehand and leave no stoneunturned in criminalising anddiplomatically isolating SaudiArabia and the UAE.

The increase in anti- Saudi,anti-UAE rhetoric on the partof the Erdogan regime hasanother aspect also: to show tothe Muslim world that therecent embrace of pluralismand diversity by the UAE andSaudi Arabia is a weakness ofIslamic tradition and projecthis brand of Islamist authori-tarian anti-pluralism politics asreal Islamic and in line withCaliphatic tradition.

Two recent examplesexpose this mischief of theErdogan regime. The first con-cerned the Jamal Khashoggiincident, which was badlyexploited by Turkish state toexpose the Saudi state in baddiplomatic taste and deprivethe Kingdom of its Islamiclegitimacy to rule and claim therightful custodian of Meccaand Medina and leadership ofSunni Muslim world. The otheris the attempt of Turkish stateto criminalise the UAE byarresting two Palestinians forspying for the UAE in Istanbul,one of which is alleged to havecommitted suicide in jail while

in solitary confinement. Thereis a strong indication of foulplay by the Erdogan regime inthis case, which was commit-ted to defame the UAE, for thefact of the matter is that dur-ing last three years Turkey haswitnessed 51 cases of suicideinside Turkish jails, includingthe suicide cases in solitaryconfinement. In none of thesecases, the Turkish authority hasever carried out autopsy toascertain the reason of death.

Today Turkey has becomea rogue state, with its hobnob-bing with ISIS and otherIslamist terrorist elementsbeing widely reported.President Erdogan hasemerged as one of the princi-ple sources of radicalisation ofthe Muslim youth across theworld, particularly in Indiansubcontinent where the secondlargest Muslim community ofthe world is living as religiousminority with historical senseof discrimination and legacy ofKh?lafat movement. There arealready reports that publica-tions regarding Kashmir hastremendously increased inTurkey during last three years.The Government of India mustbe cautious in dealing with theErdogan regime and must denyhim the opportunity to radi-calise the Indian Muslims.

(The writer is Senior Fellowwith Policy PerspectivesFoundations. Views expressedare of the author and in no waysrepresents the view of PPF)

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The Easter Sunday fidayeenattacks in Sri Lanka are

unique for three reasons. First,the island nation — unlike itsneighbours: India, Pakistan,and Bangladesh — had notseen till then any terror act byproclaimed Islamist forces.Second, the perpetrator ISIS,despite being badly batteredand ousted from the land of itsCaliphate just a month before,has told the world loud andclear that it still has potentialto surprise new territories withits lethal action.

Third, the curious selec-tion of the island nation for thesuicide blasts by ISIS, in con-nivance with Lankan-basedNational Thowheeth Jamaath,raises a pertinent question:Whether the erstwhile ethnicdivide in Sri Lanka was rebornin religious radicalisation?

However as there has neverbeen any systemic discrimina-tion against Muslims in the SriLanka — an essential ingredi-ent for the breeding of religiousradicals — this question war-rants special attention, alsobecause experience shows thatIslamist forces, particularlyISIS, have flourished only inthose regions which are afflict-ed with pre-existing conflicts -sectarian, ethnic, or religious.

Despite local and globalIntelligence reports suggestingthat National ThowheethJamaath and its south Indiancohorts have been in touchwith ISIS for long, the choiceof Sri Lanka for the revoltingattacks is more to do with thepeaceful island nation being asafe target for ISIS, which isdesperate to stay in the reck-oning for global Islamist terrorleadership. ISIS, which wield-ed enormous control over hugearea stretching from easternIraq to western Syria till Marchthis year, is straining everynerve to peddle a global nar-rative that its loss of 88,000kmterritory doesn’t mean thatISIS has lost its Islamist appeal

for global jehad. And here itneeded a solid platform toannounce the same.

Seen in this context, thereclusive ISIS chief Abu Bakral-Baghdadi made the firstappearance in five years, beforethe global media in a videomessage to readily claim theresponsibility for the Lankanterror attacks. He used theoccasion to outline the crum-bling outfit’s vision, calling forjehad via war of attrition, andinsisting on its propaganda ofrobust presence in South-eastAsia, including the Philippines.

Baghdadi also exhortedthe “believers” for hijrah(migration) to theAfghanistan-Pakistan regionfor recruitment of jehadis. Theramifications can be found inSri Lanka Army CommanderLieutenant General MaheshSenanayake’s interview to theBBC in which he claimed thatsome of the “suicide bombersvisited Kashmir and Keralafor some sorts of training or tomake some more links withother foreign outfits”. Maybethis explains why Sri Lankabecame the sure-shot target forhomeless Baghdadi, who haslost his last redoubt in Syria.

Although Baghdadi claimscaliphate is not bound by thegeography, he is raring to gainlost ground in Iraq and Syria.ISIS already has a covert net-work in Iraq. Therefore, it isessential that the coalitionforces should maintain its holdin the areas of ISIS caliphate tillit destroys the outfit’s raisond’être.

As for Sri Lanka, the islandnation needs to ensure ISISdoesn’t succeed in having localfranchises there. Consideringthe sophistication of the high-ly coordinated attacks all byLankan nationals, the biggerriddle for Colombo is to unrav-el whether any of its citizenever fought for ISIS outside thecountry, and, more specifical-ly, to ensure, if they did, they

land in prison. Although Sri Lankan

Muslims have supported theGovernment’s crackdownmethods against the Islamistsin the wake of the Easterbombings, the success of theefforts hinges on the narrativethe Government is able toconstruct. Any ostentatiousaction against religious-cul-tural symbol is fraught with thedanger of spawning more rad-icals born out of the narrativeof the State operation.Therefore, the burqa (face veil)ban may be a pragmatic deci-sion — considering the factsthat some of women accom-plices of the suicide bombershad fled the scene in burqa —for the time being till the raidsand investigation are over, theban should be lifted as soon aspossible before Islamist outfitscan exploit the situation withnewfound purpose and energy.

(The writer is AssociateEditor & News Editor, ThePioneer)

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The recent annual Gallup Poll sug-gests that 55 per cent of Americansare subject to stress, anger, and

worry, compared to the global average of35 per cent, following negative experi-ences they undergo on various counts. Inanother study, Cigna, a wellness organisa-tion, suggests that 82 per cent of Indianssuffer from stress. These figures, based ona very small sample size, may not presenta true picture. Be that as it may, but thereis no denying the fact that general stresslevel is quite high, deserving attention.And this mental malaise is growing dayby day. In America, I observed that thosesuffering from stress and anxiety unhesi-tatingly seek expert’s help. In India, on thecontrary, majority of people try to evadeany medical help, as if that would be asocial stigma. People feel that once mentalimbalance in a person, temporary though,becomes public, they will not be takenkindly. Instead, they prefer going forbelief-driven puja.

Stress, as it stands, is a mentalpredicament. Can a pundit’s prayers enterthe victim’s mind for necessary correc-tion? It is really difficult to digest. The factremains that once a person comes understress, the first casualty is hormonal

imbalance, which in turn further com-pounds the stress. This way, a person getscaught up in a circuitous web, whenhe/she often loses sense of reason anddirection. Under such a situation, coun-selling doesn’t work, as any fresh educa-tive input doesn’t get registered in theirmind. But when hormonal balance getsrestored through medication, the personbecomes receptive, and therefore, couldrespond to counselling.

But why stress? Given a situation, realor assumed, when a person is not able tocope up, he/she comes under pressure. Itcould be because of not being able to meetaspirational urges; when met with unfore-seen circumstances and challenges forwhich one may not be prepared; unpalat-able societal atmosphere; or even assumednegative thoughts. For someone with aninflated ego, it becomes difficult to digestthings happenings beyond their prede-fined parameters. Such a situation couldlead to tremendous emotional upsurge, inturn leading to acute stress. The questionnow is: How to lead a stress-free life?That, however, is simply inconceivable.The universe is in continued motion.Human life, too, is always in action. Andno movement is possible without being

met with resistance. Even while apparent-ly idling, a person’s mind keeps flirtingwith uninterrupted streams of thoughts(some of them assumed). The mind initself is potent enough to successivelybreed contrarian thoughts. Not to men-tion being confronted with challengesthrown by competing interests andunforeseen circumstantial constraintswhile pursuing the tasks in hand.

What, however, really matters is howwe deal with the challenges. Some of usmay take it in our stride and deal withthem intelligently. Those unable to copemay stretch the problems beyond theirdue. Caught up in its melee, such peoplefail to perceive issues in hand in perspec-tive. They often come under mental, emo-tional, or physical pressure leading tomental fatigue, exhaustion, and a sense ofincapacitation. This may result in a senseof fear and insecurity. If left uncared forlong, stress may assume serious propor-tions, calling for medical intervention.The question now is in a given situation,why do individuals respond in variedways? The unique character of a being,according to one’s mind, is preconditioned— virtues and attributes; likes and dis-likes; prejudices and obsessions; habitsand attitudes — hold the key to how oneresponds to a situation. A positively ori-

ented mind can handle the usual trialsand tribulations of life logically. A nega-tively charged person may unmindfullyfall into the stress trap and start playingthe victim card. What’s the way out?

The answer lies in awareness. First,look within — the core strengths andweaknesses. Identify, acknowledge, andaddress the fault lines and optimise thestrengths. Explore the hard realities of lifeand accordingly equip oneself throughsuitable educative inputs. Many a times,one’s egotistical mind fails to acknowledgeone’s fault lines. In such a situation, astrol-ogy may prove handy, as it knows no bias.Here is a case study: Lagna and Moonsigns are both owned by Mercury, whichis conjunct headless Ketu and also oppo-site Mars. That, in the first place, impliesthat he wishes to live on his own exclusiveterms. Second, if ever faced with contrari-an views, he becomes overcritical, and in astate of anger, passes caustic remarks,often offending those around. Stress, thus,has become a regular feature of his life.

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