WEEKEND EDITION • Delhi, sunday, march 13, 2016

www.thehindu.in Weekly Edition Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49939 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 6 No. 11 CITY EDITION 28 Pages Rs. 8.00 ●

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HITTING OUT AT CHINA

India won’t exploit exchange rate as trade tool, says Modi ‘We do not follow macro-economic policies that hurt our neighbours’ NEW DELHI: Taking a swipe at

BRIEFLY KAKRAPAR N-PLANT AERB begins probe into coolant leak AHMEDABAD/CHENNAI: A day after a rupture in the coolant system in one of the reactors at the Kakrapar atomic power station in Gujarat, experts of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) launched a probe to identify the cause and nature of the leakage which forced the authorities to shut down the plant on Friday. NEWS | PAGE 14

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AZAD KICKS UP ROW Draws a parallel between RSS and IS NEW DELHI: Congress leader

Ghulam Nabi Azad kicked up a row on Saturday after he sought to draw a parallel between the RSS and the terror outfit Islamic State, evoking sharp responses from the BJP.

쐍 NEWS | PAGE 14 YOGA GURUS No bar on Muslims, says Govt. NEW DELHI: The AYUSH Ministry

has denied following a discriminatory policy in recruiting Muslims as yoga practitioners even as the Milli Gazette, an influential community web fortnightly, put out a series of documents claiming the exact opposite

쐍 NEWS PAGE 14 HARASSMENT CHARGE Dean of U.S. law school resigns NEW YORK: A 45-year-old Indianorigin dean of a U.S. law school has resigned after a lawsuit was filed against him by his executive assistant alleging that he had sexually harassed her over several months. Sujit Choudhry of the Berkeley Law School had initially taken an indefinite leave of absence. WORLD | PAGE 16

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SUNDAY MAGAZINE — 6 Pages

CLASSIFIEDS — On Page 6, 7 & 8 CM YK

Move follows Reserve Bank regulations on bank safeguards ASHISH RUKHAIYAR

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

China, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that India’s growth rate of over seven per cent was being achieved in a country that is also a vibrant democracy. Speaking at the Advancing Asia conference here, he said India dispelled the myth that democracy and rapid economic growth could not go together. India’s rapid economic growth, he said, was also very distinct in Asia, as the country had never tried to gain in trade at the expense of partners, never undervalued its exchange rate; it rather added to the world and Asian demand by running current account deficits. “We do not follow beggar-thy-neighbour macro-economic policies... We are good Asian and good global economic citizens, and a source of demand to our trading partners,” he said, without naming China, at the

SEBI bans wilful defaulters from tapping capital market for funds

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with IMF managing director Christine Lagarde (left) and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at the conference in New Delhi on Saturday. — PHOTO: PTI

three-day conference organised by India and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The IMF recently included China’s Yuan into its reserve currency basket. Amid global problems, Mr. Modi said, India was a haven of macro-economic stability. In a diicult external environment and despite a second successive year of weak rainfall, “we have increased

our growth rate to 7.6 per cent, the highest among major economies in the world... We have improved our economic governance... Corruption and interference in the decisions of banks and regulators are now behind us.” He said he laid his dream of a ‘Transformed India’ alongside the common dream of an Advanced Asia, an Asia where more than half of the

global population can live with happiness and fulfilment. India and the IMF also announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding for establishing the South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Centre (SARTTAC).

쐍 CONTINUED ON PAGE 14 쐍 LAGARDE BACKS FISCAL,

MONETARY POLICIES | PAGE 17

RSS presses govt. for higher allocation for education VIKAS PATHAK NAGAUR (RAJASTHAN): BJP president Amit Shah spoke at the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the RSS’s highest decisionmaking body, on Saturday. The conclave passed resolutions on afordable education and health care. Till Sunday morning, various ailiated bodies of the RSS, including the BJP and the ABVP, will make presentations on what they have achieved in the last one year and what they have planned for the coming year. Mr. Shah is believed to have listed the achievements of the BJP government and called this year’s budget as poor-friendly

that “focused” on agriculture. On Sunday, there is likely to be a discussion on whether the RSS’s uniform (gana vesh) needs a change. While there is a strong buzz that the Khaki shorts will be replaced, an insider cautioned that the proposal might get rejected. “This

proposal was discussed in 2010 too, but rejected,” he said. The meeting passed resolutions on afordable education, with suggestions for more budgetary allocation for education and a greater community participation. CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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After the abuses, Modi-Nitish chemistry sets tongues wagging AMARNATH TEWARY PATNA: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to Bihar on Saturday, his first after the bitterly-fought State Assembly elections in November, all eyes were on the body language between him and his political rival, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. If political observers were expecting cold vibes between the two, they were mistaken. Mr Modi and Kumar appeared at ease with each other as they shook hands, exchanged smiles and praised each other, setting of a buzz in power circles. At the first function in Patna, the closing ceremony of the Patna High Court’s centenary celebrations, both leaders appeared formal and kept a distance. They made their speeches in sarkari style, largely focussing on the improvement of the judiciary and its infrastructural facilities. But the chemistry between them appeared to change dramatically after they flew together in a helicopter for the next function at Hajipur, the flagging of several railway projects. They sat next to each other, talked animatedly, flashed

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at the inauguration of railway projects at Hajipur in Vaishali district of Bihar on Saturday. — PHOTO: RANJEET KUMAR

smiles and praised each other in public. It was Mr Kumar who set the ball rolling when he addressed the crowd. “After the State Assembly poll you have come to Bihar for the first time but I’ll request you to visit the state again and again for its development,” he said. Besides thanking the Centre for the railway projects, the Bihar CM said he was happy that the Central Government had also taken up the dilapidated condition of the Mahatma Gandhi Setu bridge over the river Ganga. While Mr Kumar was addressing the audience, a sec-

tion of the crowd kept chanting “Modi, Modi, Modi.” The Prime Minister suddenly got up and gestured towards the crowd to sit down and be silent. Mr Modi returned the compliment when he rose to speak. He said Bihar had been neglected for 10 years but things had started moving in the last 18months. “This project was initiated when Nitish Kumar was the Railway Minister and Atalji was the Prime Minister. The project of Nitish Kumar has borne fruit today,” Mr Modi said.

쐍 RJD WELCOMES PAGE 14

MUMBAI: In an attempt to tighten the regulatory framework, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has barred ‘wilful defaulters’ from accessing the capital market or acquiring another listed entity. The capital and commodity market regulator has decided that if a listed entity or its promoter has been declared a wilful defaulter, it will not be allowed to make a public issue of equity shares, debt or any other convertible securities. The decision was taken by the SEBI board that met in New Delhi on Saturday, based on Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regulations which lays down safeguards to be exercised by banks to contain the financial activities of a wilful defaulter.

The RBI defines a wilful defaulter as an entity that defaults on its payment obligations even if it has the financial capacity to pay back debts. The SEBI’s move has come at a time when banks have moved the Supreme Court against industrialist Vijay Mallya, who has been declared a wilful defaulter. Meanwhile, The SEBI has also decided that a wilful defaulter will not be allowed to acquire any other listed com-

pany, and the guidelines for determining ‘fit and proper person’ will also be amended to keep such wilful defaulters out of its ambit. “Any company or its promoter or its director categorised as wilful defaulter may not be allowed to take control of other listed entity. However, if a listed company or its promoter or its director is categorised as wilful defaulter, and there is a take-over offer in respect of the listed

company, they may be allowed to make a competing ofer,” said a SEBI statement. Abizer Diwanji, partner and national leader, financial services at consulting firm EY, says the SEBI’s strictures on wilful defaulters, though conceptually correct, have serious limitations as it prerequisites banks to be judicious in their call on such entities. “The RBI guidelines state that funds diversion by a defaulter classifies as wilful. Given that our bad debt problem has been built over years of successive CDRs [corporate debt restructuring] and restructurings where additional debt raised for growth was used for interest payments to protect NPAs [nonperforming assets], pricing diversion is easy not realising that some of these may be conscious. Also, one bank can declare a defaulter wilful when the fact that such diversion was known or not at the time of sanction can never be proven,” he explains.

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CONTINUED ON | PAGE 14

Air passengers to get higher compensation for accidents, flight delays and baggage loss NATIONAL BUREAU NEW DELHI: Air passengers will

get a higher compensation in case of death, injury, lost baggage or inordinate delay in flights as the Carriage by Air (Amendment) Bill was passed by Parliament on Friday. Once the Bill gets the approval of the President, the domestic airlines will be required to pay compensation equivalent to that paid by airlines abroad. The compensation for death in an air accident or injury will go up to Rs. 1.05 crore, up from Rs. 93 lakh now. This amount will be com-

puted on the basis of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs). The currency value of the SDR is based on the market exchange rates of a

basket of major currencies — the U.S. dollar, euro, Japanese yen and pound sterling. One SDR is equivalent to Rs. 93. The liability for flight de-

lays will increase to Rs. 4.36 lakh from Rs. 3.86 lakh. In case of destruction, loss or inordinate delays in cargo carriage, the liability amount has been raised from Rs. 1,581 to Rs. 1,767. For destruction, loss, damage or delay of baggage, the domestic airlines will have to pay Rs. 1.05 lakh, up from the present Rs. 93,000. This will be in line with the Montreal Convention, which was acceded to by India in May 2009. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will increase the liability limit once every five years.

Pak. team reaches Kolkata amid tight security KOLKATA: Cleared by their government after days of uncertainty over their participation, the Pakistani team arrived in India from Abu Dhabi to take part in the World Twenty20 cricket tournament. The contingent, comprising 15 players and 12 oicials and support staf, reached the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at 7.55 p.m. as personnel of the CISF and black commandos maintained a vigil. Hundreds of fans gathered at the airport to welcome the team as Shahid Afridi and his players came out of the airport. The Pakistani skipper waved at the crowd before leading his teammates into two buses that took them to the team hotel. The Pakistan contingent includes manager Intikhab Alam, the experienced former Test captain and a high profile security manager. Pakistan High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit welcomed the team. The Pakistan women’s team landed in Chennai on Saturday to the take part in the Women’s World T20. — PTI

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Jai Hind, Pakistan Zindabad: Sri Sri’s mantra for peace

No action yet against JNU professor

Peace within the sub-continent was the mantra of religious leaders who had come together at the World Culture Festival on Saturday; with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar saying “Jai Hind and Pakistan Zindabad should go together” >> Page 4

Taking cognisance of professor Amita Singh’s remarks against Dalit and Muslim teachers, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes had written to the varsity Vice-Chancellor, but nothing has been done in this regard so far >> Page 5

Spiritual conmen

Guts and glory

Despite the film’s rough edges, a well-timed, biting look at the deadly mix of crime, politics and religion

A gripping war of words between cop Jacob (Ravi Kishan) and criminal Pehelwan (Abhimanyu Singh) sets the movie off to a promising start.

★★★★★ NAMRATA JOSHI

N

ever judge a film by its title. The opening sequence of Global Baba, involving a gripping war of words between a cop Jacob (Ravi Kishan) and criminal Pehelwan (Abhimanyu Singh) sets of a promising start to the film despite the apprehensions one may have had about it. Pehelwan escapes from the police encounter strategised by politician, and his own patron, Bhanumati, but he gets shot and lands up in the shelter of the Aghoris. An encounter with Damru aka Mauni Baba (Pankaj Tripathi) makes Pehelwan don a new baba garb to begin con-

ning the gullible, vulnerable masses. It’s the tale of a convict’s new birth into babadom. Global Baba is a biting re-creation of the world of godmen, perfectly welltimed considering the goings-on around us these days. How easy it is to perform miracles and build cults overnight, how the babas are emerging as the alternate power centres. These are the babas who are so cash-rich that they could even ofer loans to Swiss banks. Instead of teaching scriptures they ensure a short cut to heaven to their beleaguered followers. Of late, there have been several Hindi films dealing with godmen, super-

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

FILM REVIEWS blind faith stition and blind faith. Global Baba takes the narrative a step forward, to look at the more sinister side of it: the deadly mix of crime, politics and religion and how it is ruining the country. In the midst of it, the media also gets co-opted and becomes a conduit needlessly, also at times voluntarily. There are some obvious farcical touches, some pat representations like Bhanumati, but the film nails down the

Global Baba Director: Manoj Tewari Starring: Ravi Kishan, Abhimanyu Singh, Pankaj Tripathi, Sanjay Mishra, Akhilendra Mishra, Sandeepa Dhar Runtime: 120 mins Hindi heartland politics rather well. The killings interspersed with the frenzy of Ganga arti at the Dashashwamedh Ghat in Varanasi hits a strong point home. The dialogue is punchy and

catches the nuance of life in and around Varanasi and a dependable set of actors, led by Pankaj Tripathi, adds to the punch. Watch out for the take on alpasankhyak tushtikaran (appeasement of the minorities) and bahusankhyakon ka mel (Coming together of the majoritarians) and you know the film is of, by and for the grassroots. It is made by someone who has seen the world up close and personal. Yes, it is visibly rough in its story-telling, technique and texture. There might be a lack of cinematic sophistication and craft and far too many issues, including land encroachment, tribal rights, grappling for space topped with a rather preachy speech from the logical, practical Bhola Pandit (Sanjay Mishra). However, the chaos on screen is an apt reflection of the anarchy that is the reality. Despite the shrillness and breathlessness of action it deals with a significant issue in all seriousness. The film might be loud in treatment but talks sense. P.S. Global Baba will also go down as a rare Hindi film showing the humble, homely food of Bihar — the litti chokha — in all its yummy glory. I was left craving for some.

Jesse Owens’s famous Nazidefying wins at the Berlin Olympics get a staid treatment in the occasionally heart-warming Race SANKHAYAN GHOSH

Most sports dramas have an athlete overcoming obstacles on the field. However, Race’s protagonist Jesse Owens (Stephan James) faces them outside. Owens’s conflict is not the struggle with his own physicality, as we see in the week’s other release The Program, a biopic of Lance Armstrong. Owens is a natural runner, we learn, as Coach Larry Snyder (Jason Sudeikis) lets him know that ‘naturals’ don’t equate to winners. But Owens proves himself as one in every trial at the Ohio State University, gliding down the track with ease as if winning is his birthright. Owens’s conflicts are therefore emotional. His dilemma is whether he should participate in the Summer Olympics of 1936 in Berlin or instead send a strong political message against Nazi oppression as a representative of the Afro-American people of the USA. But what if he wins at the greatest sporting event of the time and gets a chance to publicly destroy Hitler’s Aryan Supremacy theory? Race may be a biopic, but its centrepiece is the Olympic Games that turned Owens into a living legend where he won four gold medals, setting new world records. It does a neat job of taking us through the emotional intensity and pressure of an athlete when he is put in a historic situation like this. And the film ticks all the boxes of an underdog sports movie: the tough-but-ultimatelywell-wishing coach, the supporting wife (Shanice Banton) and history pitted against our hero. The build-up is not as engaging as the Olympics though. The period hues of the 1930s America are a little stagey and predictable. The film is more efective once Owens sets foot in Berlin. The scenes inside the Olympic stadium are particularly charged with an energy that is infectious. And then, there is the pleasure of watching nuggets of history recreated: the US Olympic Committee’s last-minute sus-

The centrepiece of Race is the Olympic Games that turned Owens into a living legend. — PHOTOS: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

★★★★★ Race Director: Stephen Hopkins Starring: Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Eli Goree, Shanice Banton, Carice van Houten Duration: 134 minutes pension of their Jewish athletes after succumbing to pressure from the German committee, Hitler’s alleged refusal to shake hands with Owens and the unexpected generosity of Owens’ German competitor Luz Long. Race also shows us, in flashes, the mini-triumph of early cinema with Leni Riefenstal (Carice van Houten), the legendary Nazi propaganda filmmaker on the sidelines. Her documenting of the Olympic Games proved groundbreaking to the future of sports photography. Where Race fumbles is its uni-dimensional portrayal of characters: while Owens comes across as a sincere, hard-working man with a good heart, Snyder is given the coaching clichés such as one with a promising but failed past. Race is an occasionally enjoyable traditional Hollywood biopic without the complexities of its subject.

CINEMA ENGLISH: MAD MAX: FURY ROAD (3-D) PVR (Plaza, Rivoli, Saket, Priya), DT (Saket, Shalimar Bagh, Vasant Kunj).

HINDI: TERAA SURROOR-2: (New Release: Himesh Reshammiya, Farah Karimi, Naseeruddin Shah, Shekhar Kapur): Golcha, Shiela, Delite, Abhshek Cineplex, Aakash, Suraj, Gagan, Supreme, Amba, Lokesh, Seble, Samrat, Liberty, Milan, G3S (Rohini), Cinemax, M Cinemas, Eros One, Batra Reel, PVR (Plaza. Rivoli, Priya, Saket, Citywalk, Naraina, Vikaspuri, Prashant Vihar, EDM, Mahagun, Opulent), M2K (Rohini, Pitampura), Movie Time (Raja Garden, Pitampura), DT (Saket, Shalimar Bagh, Vasant Kunj), FUN (Moti Nagar, Pitampura, Laxmi Nagar, Karkardooma), Satyam (Patel Nagar, Janakpuri, Nehru Place), BIG (Odeon, Vaishali, Kaushambi, Noida), Wave (Raja Garden, Noida, Kaushambi), Star X (Vaishali), SRS Cinemas, JAM Shipra, Galaxie, Spice (Noida), M4U, Movie Palace, Movie Magic, Chaudhary (Ghaziabad), Movie World and Silvercity (Ghaziabad), Inox and Silvercity (Faridabad). GLOBAL BABA: (New Release: Ravi Kishan, Pankaj Tripathy, Abhimanyu Singh, Sandeepa Dhar): G3S (Rohini), PVR (Plaza, Rivoli, Priya, Saket, Citywalk, Naraina, Vikaspuri, Prashant Vihar, EDM), Wave (Raja Garden,

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Noida, Kaushambi), BIG (Odeon, Vaishali, Kaushambi, Noida), Star X (Vaishali), Movie Palace, Movie Magic, Movie World and Silvercity (Ghaziabad), Inox (Faridabad). JAI GANGAAJAL: (Priyanka Chopra, Prakash Jha, Manav Kaul, Rahul Bhat): Eros One, Cinemax, M Cinemas, G3S (Rohini), PVR (Plaza, Rivoli, Saket, Citywalk, Naraina, Vikaspuri, Prashant Vihar, EDM, Mahagun, Opulent), M2K (Rohini, Pitampura), FUN (Moti Nagar, Pitampura, Laxmi Nagar, Karkardooma), Movie Time (Raja Garden, Pitampura), DT (Saket, Shalimar Bagh, Vasant Kunj), Satyam (Patel Nagar, Janakpuri, Nehru Place), BIG (Odeon, Vaishali, Kaushambi, Noida), Wave (Raja Garden, Noida, Kaushambi), SRS Cinemas, Spice (Noida), JAM Shipra, Galaxie, Star X (Vaishali), M4U, SM World, Movie Palace, Movie Magic, Chaudhary (Ghaziabad), Movie World and Silvercity (Ghaziabad), Inox and Silvercity (Faridabad). NEERJA: (Sonam Kapoor, Shabana Azmi, Shekhar Ravjiani): G3S (Rohini), PVR (Saket, Citywalk, Naraina, Vikaspuri, Prashant Vihar), M2K (Rohini, Pitampura), DT (Saket, Shalimar Bagh, Vasant Kunj). (BOOKING ENQUIRIES: PVR 51513391; Spice Gold 012043890000; Satyam Cinemas 25797385; Delite 23272903; Wave 51832222) ND-ND

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Two PSOs shot dead at Krishan Pehalwan’s oice One arrested; Pehalwan was at the crime spot and is being questioned SHIV SUNNY NEW DELHI: Two ex-service-

men serving as PSOs for financers and property dealers were shot dead at former councillor and strongman Krishan Pehalwan’s oice in Najafgarh on Friday night. A drunken argument over caste system, reservation issue and the recent Jat agitation resulted in the killings, the police said based on their probe so far. They have not ruled out other motives. Police said they have so far established the role of one person in the murder and arrested him. The accused Joginder alias Pollard works for Pehalwan in diferent capacities, said the police. There could be as many as three to five more persons involved in the double murder, the police suspected, adding that they were probing if Pehalwan too was present at the crime spot when the shooting took place. At least three other persons have been detained and it is also being investigated if Pehalwan had any role in the murders. “Pehalwan was found at the crime spot when a police team reached the spot. He is being questioned,” said a senior police oicer. Eforts were also made to obliterate blood spots from the floor, said police. Police have vehemently denied that the killings had anything to do with gang war that has over the last two decades taken several lives. Bharat Singh, Pehalwan’s brother and ex-MLA from Najafgarh was gunned down in March last year, leading to the arrest of several suspects and a crackdown on the big

Boy hacked to death by stepfather STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: A 12-year-old boy, Vishwajeet, was hacked to death by his stepfather. According to the police, the man killed the boy after his mother, Vidya, turned down her husband’s proposal of paying a family visit to their native village in Shahjahanpur, Uttar Pradesh. She wanted to stay at home as her son's exams were going on. Vidya suggested that they visit around Holi. This left her husband Sewa Ram seething with anger. The assault took place in West Del-

The boy’s mother had turned down her husband’s proposal of visiting their village hi’s Nihal Vihar. Vidya was not at home at the time of the incident. Vishwajeet lived with his mother Vidya, stepfather and the couple’s three other children. Ram had married Vidya around nine years ago. Ram worked odd jobs while his wife worked as a housemaid. The

murder came to light on Thursday afternoon when Vidya returned home to find Ram holding a chopper knife with blood stains. “He told me he had eliminated the only sign of my first husband. When I went inside, I saw Vishwajeet lying in a pool of blood,” Vidya told police. The boy was rushed to a hospital. He was later referred to Safdarjung Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries. A murder case has been registered at Nihal Vihar police station and a hunt is on for the suspect, the police said.

DELHI TODAY Talk: “Palestine in India: A Writer’s Colloquium” - a unique exchange between writers from Palestine and India on memory, imagination, writing and more. The colloquium will focus on three themes – Memory & Imagination; Counterfacts on the Ground; and “Stuck in Historical Amber?” Participants: Susan Abulhawa, Suad Amiry, Mounid Barghouti, Sharif Elmusa, Adania Shibli at C.D. Deshmukh Auditorium & Seminar Rooms II & III, IIC, 4 pm Talk: “Birds of Western Himalaya” by Birdwatcher Kanwar B. Singh at Habitat World, IHC, 7 pm Music: Pt. Devender Verma (Classical Vocal recital), Accompanying artists: Pt. Ram Swaroop Ratonia (Tabla), Dr. Kanwaljit Singh (Harmonium); Pt. Ram Ji Mishra (Classical Vocal recital), Accompanying artists:

Pt. Harish Chandra Pati (Pakhawaj), Pt. Chandan Mazumdar (Tabla), Pt. Devender Verma (Harmonium), Ustad Rauf Mohd. (Sarangi); Taal Kacheri: Pt. Ram Swaroop Ratonia (Tabla), Shri Sajuddin (Dholak), Dr. Ishwar Singh Kheechi (Nagara), Pt. Harish Chandra Pati (Pakhawaj), Dr. Kanwaljit Singh (Harmonium) at Vasuki Auditorium, Lok Kala Manch, 20, Lodhi Institutional Area, Lodhi Road, 6 pm Music: “Ethno India in Concert” Orchestra of 40+ world musicians from 14 countries at IHC, 7:30 pm Music: Hindustani vocal by Pandit Madhup Mudgal at IHC, 10:30 am Screening: “The Milk of Sorrow” Spanish film with English subtitles at Instituto Cervantes, 4:30 pm (Mail your listings for this column at [email protected])

The farmhouse of former councillor and strongman Krishan Pehalwan in Najafgarh, where the crime was committed

and small gangs operating from the South-Western region of the city. Police received a call from a local private hospital around 11.30 p.m. on Friday about two men admitted with gunshot wounds by unknown persons in a Fortuner car. “One person was brought dead while the other was in critical condition and succumbed to his injuries sometime later,” said RA Sanjeev, DCP (South-West). Subsequent probe led to the identification of the deceased as Ashok Kumar, 40, and another 42-year-old man popular as Fauzi. Both had taken voluntary retirement from Border Security Force and were working as private security guards (PSAs) for local financers. Since their bosses’ oices are located close to Pehalwan’s farmhouse-cum-oice on the Najafgarh-Nangloi Road, police said the duo

would often land up at the farmhouse in the evenings to share drinks with Pehalwan’s staf. Two rooms located on the first floor of the farmhouse served as their meeting point. Otherwise, the rooms served as a guesthouse for Pehalwan’s PSOs, associates and others. While Ashok and Fauzi belonged to one caste, the others were from another caste. So far, Joginder has told his interrogators that he was drunk when the deceased duo made some unsavoury comment against his caste, causing him to draw out his weapons and shoot at them. At least four rounds were fired, but police said they would await the post-mortem report before coming to a conclusion. They are not taking Joginder’s claims at face value as they suspect he could be trying to shield his associates or concealing a broader motive.

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

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Experts cry foul on Day 2 of World Culture Fest T DAMINI NATH

he controversy around the Art of Living’s World Culture Festival being held on the Yamuna floodplains refuses to die down. Environmentalists say that on Saturday – the second day of the mega festival – the organisers violated the orders of the National Green Tribunal once again. With heavy rain on Friday and Saturday, the venue — which is located on the ecologically sensitive floodplains — was reduced to a slushy field with wet carpets and planks of wood greeting visitors. In fact, on Friday, many elderly visitors to the festival slipped in the mud. On Saturday evening, the organisers tried to alleviate the problem by bringing in coarse sand that was to be put on top of the wet mud. The muddy POMP AND patches were first ploughed, after SHOW which fresh sand Art of Living was put on top using excavators. Though this was done to improve access to the stage, experts say it was a violation of the NGT’s order against construction on the floodplains. “This is in gross violation of the NGT’s order that imposes a Rs.50,000 fine on dumping of construction material on the floodplains,” said Manoj Misra, an environmentalist who had moved the NGT, unsuccessfully, to get the venue of the festival shifted. An NGT order of January 13, 2015, had said: “There shall be complete prohibition on dumping of any material in and around river Yamuna.” While hearing the case against the festival being held at the floodplains, the NGT had said that the area had been disturbed. The tribunal also imposed an initial fine of Rs.5 crore on the Art of Living Foundation. Further, the green panel set up a committee including members from the Union Environment and Forest Ministry, the Central Pollution Control Board and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee. Ashwani Kumar, chairperson

Organisers have violated the NGT orders once again, say environmentalists

Coarse sand poured over wet and muddy patches despite green panel instructions against dumping debris

Jai Hind, Pakistan Zindabad: Sri Sri’s mantra for peace

of the DPCC, said that the committee had given directions as per the Water Act, Air Act and the Environment Protection Act to the organisers. Issues of waste disposal and ambient air quality, however, remain to be addressed. With dozens of large dieselbased generators at the site, the pollution due to emissions is also being studied. The ambient air quality of the area will be studied during and after the festival to gauge any possible impact. Meanwhile, the Art of Living Foundation and its founder, who goes by the moniker Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, denied allegations of environmental damage to the area. Mr. Shankar said on Saturday that the farmers who live in the vicinity did not have access to electricity, but on Thursday evening they had been given solar lamps by the Foundation.

DAMINI NATH NEW DELHI: Peace within the sub-continent was the mantra of religious leaders from India and Pakistan who had come together at the World Culture Festival on Saturday; with Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar saying “Jai Hind and Pakistan Zindabad should go together”. Mr. Shankar was speaking at the three-day mega event that is being held on the Yamuna floodplains. On the second day of the festival, thousands of religious leaders gathered here, with many of them — including Pakistan’s Mufti Muhammad Saeed Khan — talking about the importance of tolerance. After the Islamic scholar finished his speech, Mr. Shankar said that Pakistan too has been hit by terrorism, and that India and Pakistan should progress together. “Jai Hind and Pakistan Zindabad should go together. It should be a win-win situation for both sides. We should focus on winning and making the other also win,” said Mr. Shankar. His statement comes at a time when India is seeing a debate on nationalism, which was triggered by an event at Jawaharlal Nehru University in February where students allegedly raised proPakistan slogans. Sherry Rehman, a member of the Senate of Pakistan, also spoke about the need for South Asia to work together in order to realise its potential.

Rain did not dampen the enthusiasm of the artistes who performed with great gusto. Among the cultural highlights on the second day were 350 dancers from Sikkim performing a ‘Maruni’ routine, 150 singers from the Middle East performing a song on the theme of unity, and 34 artistes playing the alpine horn from Switzerland.

Meanwhile, the cultural festival was more of a religious and political affair on Saturday. Apart from leaders of the Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Jewish and Hindu faiths addressing the gathering, leaders from the Union and various State governments were also present. Home Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj also addressed the crowd, as did Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia. Mr. Sisodia, who is the MLA from Patparganj, welcomed the crowd to his constituency. “We all should thank the farmers who have kept this area protected, otherwise it would have been home to unauthorised colonies by now,” said Mr. Sisodia, referring to the floodplains that have been encroached upon. While the speeches by religious and political leaders took up a lot of time, artistes who had come from across the world did not let their enthusiasm dip despite the heavy rain. A part of the Bhangra dance routine, Jasveer Singh from Bathinda in Punjab, said: “We are artistes and we love our art. We aren’t bothered by the rain. This is the biggest stage we have ever seen.” Among the cultural highlights of the day were 350 dancers from Sikkim performing a ‘Maruni’ routine, 150 singers from the Middle East performing a song on the theme of unity, and 34 artistes playing the alpine horn from Switzerland.

Wind and rain help Delhi breathe easy

PHOTOS : R. V. MOORTHY

STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: Delhiites woke up to cleaner

air on Saturday, with the wind and rain that hit the Capital on Friday continuing overnight and washing away pollutants. According to the Ministry of Earth Science's SAFAR-India index, the levels of both PM2.5 and PM10 were moderate. The level of PM2.5 was 78.1 micrograms per cubic metre. Though that is still above the standard of 60, it is a lot better than the dangerously high levels recorded all through winter. PM10 concentration was 120.5 micrograms per cubic metre, which is also above the standard of 100 but not as bad as the winter levels . According to SAFAR, the levels of PM2.5 and PM10 are expected to be

PHONE CHARGERS AND SELFIE STICKS SELL LIKE HOT CAKES

Kejriwal likely Businesses make an extra buck to attend today SHIV SUNNY

lower on Sunday. Apart from rains at many places and an overcast sky during most of the day, Delhiites enjoyed a pleasant and breezy Saturday. The maximum temperature at 31 degree Celsius on Saturday was one notch above normal for this time of the year, while the minimum temperature at 18.5 degree Celsius was three degrees above normal. The MeT Department has forecast a generally cloudy sky with rain and thunder. Hailstorm is likely to occur on Sunday. The morning will witness mist or haze, the weatherman said. The maximum and minimum temperatures on Sunday are likely to hover around 27 and 17 degree Celsius, respectively. The rainfall is being caused by an active western disturbance, which is expected to weaken from Sunday.

Mega event saw over six lakh visitors on Day 1 STAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: Twenty-two year-old Ra-

JATIN ANAND NEW DELHI: Despite his support for the World Culture Festival raising eyebrows, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal is likely to be present on the last day of the Art of Living Foundation’s three-day event on Sunday. However, sources close to Mr. Kejriwal chose not to comment on the speech he is scheduled to make at the event’s closing ceremony, given what they termed was the Chief Minister’s “proclivity for impromptu public addresses”. It is also likely that Mr. Kejriwal may seize the opportunity to subtly grant his government’s approval for such cultural extravaganzas in the Capital in the future — with an appeal that these be ‘in line with requisite clearances’. Incidentally, the Aam Aadmi Party has sought to strengthen Delhi’s credentials as a “welcoming” destination for a variety of cultural events on several occasions during its maiden year at the helm of governance in the Capital. The Chief Minister is also expected to take a dig

at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who spoke at the event’s inauguration, over the issue of “tolerance” in terms of India’s cultural diversity and the seemingly conflicting political points of view with regard to the recent Jawaharlal Nehru University controversy. In fact, on the eve of the mega event’s inauguration earlier this week, Mr. Kejriwal had taken to Twitter asking for ‘politics and controversies’ surrounding the AOL festival to be laid to rest. “Now that NGT has given its verdict, all politics n controversies around AOL event shud be put to rest...Its a huge cultural event wherein people from 155 countries are coming. Delhi welcomes all guests (sic),” the Chief Minister had said. Speaking during an event at the Indian Women’s Press Corps (IWPC) here a day later, Mr. Kejriwal had said that his government “would have suggested some environmentally suitable” venue for the event “if the organisers had approached it earlier.”

nu*, a Delhi University student, was selling selfie sticks at the World Culture Festival on Friday. While his product is among the most popular devices when it comes to taking photographs, Ranu himself looked away whenever a prospective customers tested the stick. Ranu was among the many who tried to use the festival to make some extra money. However, selling selfie sticks is not what he usually does and he was concerned that getting clicked may reveal his ‘secret’ job to his friends. From tea sellers to real estate establishments, many individuals and established businesses are using the gathering to the utmost. With the venue located far away from the markets, most of them found enough customers. One among these was Raja, who had set up a mobile phone accessories shop on the way to the venue. “My brother is among the organisers. He arranged for the permission,” he said. Raja had on ofer portable chargers for mobile phones and ear phones. “With no arrangement for charging phones inside, the portable chargers will sell,” he said. Bigger businesses, located inside the venue, tried to find customers for real estate properties, special varieties of tea, and other such products. In fact, the Art of Living Foundation had made arrangements to sell its own food products here. Since these were being sold inside the venue, they were among the most purchased products.

While the three-kilometre-long route that led to the venue gave many people a chance to earn extra money, some locals lost out after allegedly being told that no stalls would be allowed to come up without permission. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

From tea sellers to real estate establishments, many thronged the venue with commercial interests Locals and others from nearby East Delhi, besides some from as far as Faridabad and Ghaziabad, also tried to make money at the festival by selling food items along the three-kilometrelong route that led to the venue. Among them was Ram Kumar, who was selling coconuts. “I have been compensated for my land that was taken for the event. But that is too little and I will end up los-

Rajiv Chowk metro station hosts photo exhibition

ing money this year,” he said. However, having never sold coconuts before, he struggled while chopping them. Now, with the rain bringing the temperature down, he plans to deal in a more in-demand product on Saturday and Sunday. Incidentally, many locals lost out after allegedly being told that no stalls would be allowed to come up without permission. Ganesh*, a local farmer, said had he known that the police would deal leniently with the stall owners, he would have stocked up products to sell. “Tomorrow (Saturday) I will find a spot and sell tea,” he said. (*Names changed)

NEW DELHI: The Rajiv Chowk

metro station is showcasing an exhibition, “Mexico Is”, which is a collection of 30 photographs of all corners of the Latin American country. “These photographs attempt to transport the Indian commuter to these magical locations in Mexico for a moment, but have the greater objective of encouraging Indian CM YK

tourists,” said a Delhi Metro Rail Corporation spokesperson. “Mexico is becoming an attractive destination for the rapidly growing market of outbound Indian travellers,” said the Minister of Foreign Afairs of Mexico, Claudia Ruíz Massieu, who inaugurated the exhibition on Saturday. Ms. Massieu took a ride on the Delhi Metro from Udyog Bhawan metro station

to arrive at Rajiv Chowk metro station. She was accompanied by Dr. Mangu Singh, Managing Director of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, on the Metro. “DMRC has always endeavoured to promote art and culture– be it Indian or foreign. In fact, Rajiv Chowk metro station has become a hub for showcasing international art,” said Dr. Singh.

In the past, Swedish and French embassies have also put up exhibitions at the same venue. The exhibition will be on for 10 days. The DMRC spokesperson said that the Minister was impressed by the Delhi Metro system and highlighted the importance of public transportation, especially in the context of growing urban areas in developing countries like India and Mexico.

Touted as the biggest cultural show ever, the Art of Living Foundation had been saying that it expected 35 lakh visitors. PHOTO : R. V. MOORTHY

Khan said 80 more people had joined him at the event from Pakistan. Bulgaria's Konstantine Dragov said he found it “amazing” that “so many” people had come together to show respect to each other’s culture. “This is for the first time that I am attending such a big event,” said Dragov. The latter and his troop of 200 artistes from his country performed Bulgarian folk dance at the event. Taiwan national Julie Tseng said she was here to enjoy a “journey of love and joy”. Xu Chin, who was a part of the Chinese delegation, said she had come there for her belief in Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. — With PTI inputs

Medical bodies for larger pictorial warnings on tobacco products BINDU SHAJAN PERAPPADAN

STAFF REPORTER

NEW DELHI: About six to seven lakh people attended the World Culture Festival on the first day, the organisers of the event, Art of Living, said on Saturday. Touted as the biggest such show ever, the Art of Living had been saying that it expected 35 lakh visitors. Its website also said that 3.5 million people were expected to attend. But, lawyers for the organisation told the National Green Tribunal, which was hearing a case against the venue of the event, that about 5 lakh visitors were expected. On Saturday, a spokesperson for Art of Living said: “We had about 6 to 7 lakh visitors on Friday, and expect the same on Sunday.” The event, which will end on Sunday, will see almost 37,000 artistes perform on a stage spread over 7 acres. Apart from people from Delhi and nearby places, the festival drew people from across the world, including over 80 people from Pakistan, who sought to “spread peace and love”. The foreigners said the cultural extravaganza could promote peace and harmony. “This event is a bond between us (India and Pakistan). If there are a few steps which take us back, then there are a few steps like this (the event) which take us forward,” Zafar Ullah Khan, a Peshawar resident, said.

NEW DELHI: On account of the April 1 implementation date for pictorial health warnings covering 85 per cent of the front and back of tobacco packages in India, the Indian Academy of Pediatrics, Indian Dental Association, The Association of Physicians of India, and Commonwealth Medical Association Trust have written to Union Health

Minister J.P. Nadda to stand ground on timely implementation of the largesized, graphic warnings. The medical bodies have been convened under the aegis of Doctors For Tobacco Control in India. Each of the associations, representing thousands of medical professionals, has highlighted the terrible and diverse consequences of tobacco use on human health and the urgent need

to protect children and young people from the habit. “Pictorial warnings are particularly efective to communicate health information to populations with low literacy rates and clearly warn about the health risks of tobacco. The efectiveness of graphic pictorial health warnings have been documented in countries all around the world. Any further delay in the im-

plementation or any dilution in terms of reducing the size of the warnings or restricting display only on one side will result in a major setback in India’s tobacco control commitments,’’ the Associations have noted in their letters. The Union Health Minister has confirmed in Parliament that the notification dated October 15, 2014, will be implemented from April 1. ND-ND

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No action yet against professor who called Dalits, Muslims ‘anti-national’ NCSC wrote to V-C against faculty who made alleged comment during interview STAFF REPORTER aking cognisance of JNU professor Amita Singh’s remarks against Dalit and Muslim teachers, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes had on March 8 sent a letter to the varsity Vice-Chancellor asking him to take action against the teacher, but nothing has been done in this regard so far. The professor who is the head of JNU’s Centre for Law and Governance had kicked up a storm by allegedly calling “Dalit and Muslim teachers” in the campus “anti-nationals”. The alleged comments of the professor were made in an interview published by a website. According to sources, Ms. Singh is a part of the committee that will analyse the recommendations of the high-level panel that looked into the February 9 incident, and decide the punishment. “A petition/complaint has been received by the NCSC from UP Patrika.com dated March 4 and the commission has decided to investigate the matter in pursuance of the powers conferred upon it by the Constituof India under ArtiCAMPS ON tion cle 338. You are hereby CAMPUS requested to submit the facts and information JNU politics and the action taken on allegations/matter within five days of this notice,” the letter sent to Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar read. The university administration was unavailable for comments. A letter was also sent to the Delhi Police Commissioner, asking him to take action against the professor. The letter stated that “it is a very serious matter and the Delhi Police may register a criminal complaint”. However, no action has been taken by the Delhi Police as well. “I have not received the copy of the letter. Once I receive it, we will examine the legalities and take action accordingly,” a police oicer said. Ms. Singh, during the interview was asked, “How many teachers and students in JNU are anti-national?” She allegedly replied, “Teachers are hardly 10 but they portray as if everybody is with them. You think a teacher in an institution like JNU would be so stupid as to back anti-national slogans? These are just five or six persons and they are Dalits and Muslims. They have their grudges.”

T

Hostel room defaced, student ‘traumatised’ KRITIKA SHARMA SEBASTIAN NEW DELHI: An independent councillor from JNU’s School of International Studies has alleged that his hostel room’s door was defaced and the national flag sticker pasted on it was torn. The student, Arnab Chakraborty, a resident of Mahi-Mandvi hostel, has registered a complaint with the warden. “I regret to inform you that door of my room in MahiMandvi hostel was defaced with abusive slogans and a national flag sticker was torn. Though the perpetrators are unidentified, I am scared and under trauma over this incident,” he said in his complaint. Messages like – Dog Pig RSS and F*** ABVP were written on Chakraborty’s hostel room door. He is pursuing his PhD in Latin American studies. The warden confirmed that a complaint has been received. “The student approached the senior warden in the morning and he (warden) was very angry over the incident. The senior warden suggested that the students resolve the issues through a general body meeting.” “We have also suggested to the student that since we will not be able to ascertain who did the mischief, he can approach the authorities outside the hostel as well,” hostel warden Gautam Jha said. This is the second such incident in the last two weeks. On March 2, a female student residing in the dormitory of

Lok Adalats settle over 2,000 cases NIRNIMESH KUMAR NEW DELHI: National Lok Adalats held at the Capital’s six district courts and the Consumer Forums on Saturday settled 2,023 cases and disbursed Rs. 7.73 crore. As many as 54 Benches settled these cases at this year’s second monthly National Lok Adalat, the Delhi State Legal Services Authority said in a release. According to Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA), the year’s second monthly National Lok Adalat was organised in all the district courts here in which a total 54 benches were constituted and 1910 cases were disposed. Lok Adalats were also organised at all the three Debt Recovery Tribunals where 10 cases were settled and about Rs. 1.18 crore was repaid. Lok Adalats organised at the District Consumer Forums settled 65 cases and Rs. 81.22 lakh was awarded. Cases at the pre-litigative stage and pending in district courts were also disposed of, the release said.

|5 Man killed over sarcasm SHIV SUNNY NEW DELHI: Determined to avenge

his father’s insult, a 24-year-old killed a businessman for calling his father a ‘dog’. The prime suspect Vikram Rana and his associate Shri Krishan were arrested on Thursday and Friday respectively, almost one-and-a-half months after they killed 60-year-old Gulshan Rai Thakkar. Thakkar had a detergent manufacturing unit in Outer Delhi’s Samaypur Badli area and lived with his family. Rana was his neighbour. The police said a quarrel over parking almost a year ago, had led to the confrontation between the two families. According to the police, Thakkar had parked his car outside Rana’s house, blocking the latter’s vehicle. “That led to an altercation between Rana’s father and Thakkar. The deceased slapped Thakkar during the quarrel, which soon led to the involvement of the two families,” said Vikramjit Singh, DCP (Outer), on Saturday. In the subsequent fight between the families, Rana’s father had allegedly bit Thakkar’s arm. “Later, pointing to Rana’s

father, Thakkar had sarcastically told the police that he had been bitten by a dog,” said Mr. Singh. Rana harboured a “deep grudge” against Thakkar. So, he first built contacts with members of the Kartar Mandothi gang accused of several murders in Bahadurgarh. On December 19 last year, Rana went ‘missing’ after telling his family he was going to Manali. When he was untraceable, his family got a missing complaint registered. Police said that during this period, he stayed with members of the gang in Haryana and procured a pistol and a motorcycle through the other accused Krishan. “He kept hiding for a month so that nobody could sense his involvement in the crime,” said the DCP. On January 27, Rana and one of his associates Sandeep barged into Thakkar’s detergentmanufacturing unit and pumped several bullets into his body, said the police. The Outer Delhi’s special staff received a tip-off on Thursday about his arrival on the GTK Road. A trap was laid and Rana was arrested. At his instance, Krishan was nabbed on Friday.

Govt. to scrap recruitment drive STAFF REPORTER NEW DELHI: The Delhi government has decided to cancel a recruitment drive conducted by the Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board (DSSSB), on the basis of alleged irregularities. The drive was conducted in 2014 to fill up 293 posts. Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, according to a senior government oicial, decided to scrap the exam a day after leader of opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta met Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung demanding the same in addition to the cancellation of the recruitments made on the basis of it. In fact, the anti-corruption branch (ACB) had filed an FIR in connection with the alleged scam under Sections 5 and 16 of the Prevention of Corruption Act against some DSSSB oicials on the basis of which a raid was also conducted at the Board’s oice.

“Though the perpetrators are unidentified, I am scared and under trauma over this incident,” said the student

Koyna hostel alleged that her belongings were thrown out and a poster “Reject ABVP” was pasted on her bed. While this student is an ABVP activist, Chakraborty has no direct links with any of the students’ groups on the campus. He was elected councillor as an independent candidate in the 2015 elections. Students’ union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is locked in an ideological battle with ABVP members on campus, said: “I condemn this kind of abusive activity with any student. Any ideological diferences can be resolved with debate and discussion and such kind of violent activities are condemnable.”

HC seeks probe details into Ryan student’s death DEATH MOHAMMED IQBAL NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has sought details of investigation into the death of a six-year-old student at Ryan International School in Vasant Kunj recently. The Deputy Commissioner of Police (South) will appear in person in the court next week to submit a detailed status report. Justice Siddharth Mridul of the High Court, hearing a writ petition moved by the boy’s father, asked the senior police oicer to remain present in the court on March 18, when arguments will be heard on the petitioner’s allegation that the police oicers probing the boy’s death were acting in connivance with the school management. Petitioner Ramhet Meena said the police, to protect the school management, had intentionally registered the FIR under Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) instead of Section 302 (murder) of Indian Penal Code. The petitioner’s counsel Aditya Aggarwal submitted that the court may order incorporation of Section 302 in the case and hand over the investigation to an independent body, such as the CBI. Divyansh, a student of Class I at Ryan International School, Vasant Kunj, was found dead on January 30 in the water tank on the school campus. The court issued notices to the Delhi government and the police on the petition in which Mr. Meena alleged the police had arrested the school’s principal and other accused persons only on February 4, five days after the incident.

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MUDALIAR, MBBS 27/165cms Wheatish, Thiruvonam, rich seeks Doctor, Engineer, MBA, Business from affluent family Ct: 9790975130, 044− 24345860 Viswakarma / K.Karthika/ ME(CS)/ Rishabam/Karthikai/ Age:24/ Job/ A.Krishnamurthi, 2/7, 1st St, Velayutham Colony, Chennai − 600 093. YADAVA 36 MA, MPhil Divorcee own flat bank Clerk Sal 30000 seeks PG job Chennai Ct: Murugan 9486322683 PILLAI, PURE Veg. Revathi 27, 153cm, Beautiful Wheatish BE, MBA, 5L PA seeks suitable Professionals/ Private/ Govt. Veg, Below 31, Brahmins Welcome. 9894362004 Tamil Yadava Anusham 33/158 M.Sc seeks suitable groom. Email:guna195 [email protected] / 9597341940 MUDALIAR/PILLAI, 31,155 MSIB working in UK As Bank Manager seeks Groom Willing to goto London: 9710972780

Tamil Yadava 5’6"/ 24 BTech, MBA RC DKV 28,BE,MBA 20000PM Fair & IIM consultant MNC seeks suitable Well Settled.Seeks Suitable RC groom. Email.bagavathkrish@ EZHAVA GIRL 31/162 fair Uthradam Boy. Ct:09176260510, carulandu@ yahoo.com wkg− Blr Accenture, settled−Thris- yahoo.in sur. Ct:9003208902/ viji4shan@ HINDU OBC 33/150 Thiruvonam PG, in gmail.com CSI DKV Parents seek alliance for Kerala seek employed groom,Caste their daughter 30/162 MBA Bank em- no bar 2nd marriage accept. NAIR GIRL 28/157 Thiruvonam BA LLB ployed, Chennai from religious 7034598139 Christians. (Hons) Gold medalist. Worked two broadminded years in London now in Trivandrum. Ct:09442532552/ danielebenezer1951@ HINDU REVATY Rich family 28/165 Brought up outside kerala. Propos- yahoo.co.in MSc Teacher Play School Partner als invited from parents of profesFair & Good Looking Well Settled sionally qualified and well em- SEEKING SUITABLE Groom CSI/ AG, Parents seeks Qualified Doctor or ployed boys preferably brought up pref in B’lore, for 31/153 MBA Class One Officer Caste No Bar. outside Kerala.9020506290 Tamil girl working in MNC. Ct: 8124974633. saravanasecurity@ [email protected] Ct:09663395059 hotmail.com

Kannur Nambiar Girl 37/165 Fair, COSMOPOLITAN Chithra, MDS Doctor, working abroad seeks suitable alliance. MUSLIM QUALIFIED groom required 9495545852 FOR 34/5ft. MUSLIM PRETTY HOMELY B.E. MBA WORKING GIRL. 91− HOROSCOPE FROM Welltodo MNC Bank 8474063376 Pure Nair for Nair Girl Fair SWE Ngr MNC 25/163 Pooram/Chevai 29 years, MBA, Tamilian,12 LPA, 9444210442 Cosmopolitan Outlook,, Broad Minded Girl with socially Liberal Val- ALLIANCE INVITED from parents of ues, seeks similar minded groom. boys from aristocratic Hindu famiCaste / Language / Religion / Na- lies for a beautiful Menon girl tionality No bar Contact from Ernakulam 33 makam 168 cms BA :9843274328. BSC(IT) MBA part of the European Sales Team of a reputed IT Company CNI CHRISTIAN parents (Father SBI in India now in Amsterdam. Can reOfficer, Mother Govt. Doc) invite locate to a different country with employer contact: alliance for their daughter (only same child) 25y, 153cm, beautiful, re- [email protected] search scholar Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, looking for NRI MALAYALI Viswakarma G.S inhighly educated Christian boy (IAS/ vites proposal for their daughter IFS/Govt. Officer/Researcher/NRI born & brought up in Dubai LLB & preferred). Contact: LLM from England, fair, good [email protected] ing, financially sound, Bharani 23/ 159 cm presently working in Dubai, ANGLO−INDIAN, UNMARRIED, aged 40, seeking alliance from parents of Catholic, seeking educated & well professionally qualified , finansettled Groom. Contact: 9629506941 cially sound from same category. Born & brought up outside Kerala or outside India boys only M − Mal.Ezhava F − Telugu Naidu 24/ preferred.Proposals from boys par162. Fair. Thiruvonam Msc IT MNC ents only write to grjmhn@ Caste no Bar. Chennai. Rahudosam gmail.com Preferred. 9444036075 / [email protected] HINDU MALAYALI Girl, Post graduate, 34/164, working in a promiBANGALORE BASED Tamil Brahmin 32 nent newspaper in Kochi looking YRS Dental Surgeon seeks profes- for well qualified, well placed insionally well qualified Groom dividuals below 40. Ph:09447618296 9663045513. PROPOSALS INVITED from IAS/IPS officers, caste no bar, P.G. ProfesDOCTOR sionals for Keralite, Hindu Ezhava girl IPS, Kerala cadre. DOB 24.11. HINDU ADI Dravida, 25Y, MBBS, 1983, 5.12 p.m. at Delhi. Visakam, Thulam, Dr.Parents, Pre- 09494725423, 09873255423 fer Drs, Civil Services, Chennai Based. Ct: 09444206804 MALAYALEE VANIKA Vysya Innocent Divorcee 41/151 PG Employed Chennai MARUTHUVAR 26/167 Anusham MBBS do- seeks well Educated, Employed pref ing MS(OG) seeks fair & goodlook- Chennai Groom below 48yrs. ing alliance from MBBS/PG. 9841073157, 9841059731, Ct:9444958720 [email protected] F / 23 / 168 cms / Hindu / SC − AD / Dentist / Pvt. Practice / Seeks Bride Grooms from a Good Respectable Family. Contact : 98403 03312.

Palakkad Nair Girl 30, Magam, M.Sc TCS Chennai seek’s Qualified groom. Ct Parents: 9790989967/ 9003155223

VILAKKITHALA NAIR affluent family, MD Doctor, 29/167, Pooruruttathi, seeks Malayali Hindu Doctor. Caste no bar. Ph: 09061133955

Nadar Christian girl, 31, B.Tech, Manager, SBT seeking suitable alliance from Christians and Nadar Hindus. Ph: 09961866849, 09656435311

CM YK

RC CHRISTIAN Issueless Divorcee Ilathu Pillai Fair 29/163 BE PGDM NZ Well settled Decent Family Emp MNC Ch.Seeks suitable issueless Empyd Groom from decent family 9486105416.

SC−AD Propertd family sks qualfd Empld groom for unmarried daughter 42/150/M.A CNB. Box No.HA−38150, THE HINDU, Chennai−600002.

TELUGU

NRI

ELITE RICH Vanniakulashatriayar, BE MBA Fair very Good Looking ,Senior Business Analyst Girl’s − Patrents seeks boy from Elite Rich equally Qualified SWE/Business Analyst 30−33 Yrs age good Boy , Only Bangalore Residing .Ct [email protected] . 8884593969

KAMMA NAIDU, 24/175, Fair, B.E, Eng, Accenture, Ch, 5 LakhsPA,25Cr Prop.Seeks Job/Business,044− 43483316

MUDALIAR ASVINI Fair 29/157 MA MEd (phD)State Govt BT Teacher 41K seeks alliance from similar EducaHindu Sozhia Vellalar, B.Tech, 25/ tion with Govt.Employment Subcaste 156 Asst Manager, Nationalised nobar Bank, Punarpoosam−4th. Seeks suit- Ct:9840136141/[email protected] able bridegroom. 96596 96791/96596 HINDU VISWAKARMA 24/155/M.Com 96792 Poosam Kadagam Seeks Educated EmPILLAI, 34/162 Maham Lean Looking ployed Groom Good Family Ct : Fair BE, SWE, TCS Chennai 80000/− 9791385583 pm Seeks ME/ BE/ MCA/ BDS−Professors / SWE employed Groom. Accepts VAISHNAVA, GARGEYA, Pooradam, 83 FC/BC Send BHP: sundar.sundar@ Born, Divorcee Girl, seeks Iyengar, Iyer, Brahmin Boys. Apply gmail.com with Horoscope to: mathruga@ MUDALIAR, SWATHI, 33/165, BE MBA gmail.com working in TCS, 16LPA, Pref. Professional qual Caste No Bar Ct: ADIDRAVIDAR, 24,B.E,PVT, Salary 22, 000. Fair Wellsettled, Wants [email protected] able Groom 044−24347949 / SENGUNTHAR FAIR Beautiful 25/163 08122289871 Uthratadhi BE, Seeks Edu well empld groom from decent family MUDALIAR, 25/160, Slim, B.E, CTS, Swe, Chennai, 25000PM, Decent pay, 09176202751 Seeks India/USA, 044−43483333 HINDU SAIVA Pillai 27/167/Uthiradam/Fair/ Doctor−MD.Seeks MD/MS/ ADIDRAVIDAR, 26/168, B.E, MBA, MBA/BE/ME/PG from Thanjavur Saiva Swe, MNC, Chennai, 30000PM, Seeks Pillai. Only Veg. preferred Mail Doctor/Engineer, 044−43483318 BHP to : [email protected] / PILLAI, Fair, 22/155, B.E, MNC, 9500031375 Swe, Chennai, Decent Pay, Seeks InSC AD Pooratadhi 27yrs Fair BE dia/USA, 044−43483336 MBA, Employed @ Chennai seeks Well Qulaified Groom. 9952038733, VISWAKARMA, 22/155, PG doing, Business family, 50Cr Property, Seeks 9710119942 Job / Business, 044−43483316 21−35yrs, Naidu Girls seeks Edu (Prof/Deg/PG) Grooms wanted Jayalakshmi 02/01/1974 M.A, LLM, Phd, Aathreya, Vadakalai, Revathi. 8680081144 Professor Law. Ph: 09481874762 HINDU SC AD BE Computer 34 MNC 70, 000 PM. Seeks Suitable Profession- VADAKALAI SRIVATSAM Rohini(4) 33/ al Grooms Ct: 9841829200, 165 BE (CS) Associate Consultant TCS Bengaluru, 12 LPA seeks well 9444934495. placed groom with BE. MBA or MS/ SC 22/162 MBA Marketing Interna- M.Tech/ ME/ CA. Age diff. Max. tional, Poosam, wheatish, settled 5yrs. Send BHP to kamalisundar1947@ in France seeks groom, France em- gmail.com, Ct: 09480339732 ployed also ok. Should have learned French. Chandrake- Iyer Bharadwaja, Mrigashira, Unmarried 47/170, ICWAI, Senior Managsan:8754579759/9444200147 er, MNC Bangalore, Ct: rama138@ HINDU SC/AD Fair 31yrs BSc Chennai rediffmail.com Rishabam/Karthigai.Seeks Govt/Well Reputed Pvt.Ltd Employed Groom in IYER SRIVATSA Thiruvonam 30 Bank Chennai.Ct:044−26176318/09445024561 employed divorcee No Issue suitable Brahmin Groom less than 35. BEAUTIFUL FAIR 52/165 young look- Contact: 9487849060 snshankaran@ ing, smart ,M.A.B.L, B.Ed Govt. gmail.com Teacher Divorcee seeks professional well settled/ good job Single, IYER KRITHIGAI athreyam ashtasahasDivorcee w/o children. Caste no ram fair 23/165 BE Seeks Prof Well Person Abroad India bar. Ct: 9842714016. Send BHP to Qulfd Box No−MA−336,THE HINDU,Madurai− 9445183702 625020. vadama kausika 38 164 mirugasira−2 Tamil Viswakarma (Veg) 29/157 MBA BE MS US H1B seeks suitable Qulfd MNC−Chennai,Pooradam No−Dosham Emplyd Groom Cnt 02225176363 Seeks Suitable Employd Boy− [email protected] 9790976034 IYER BHARATHWAJAM Vadmal UthiraVISWAKARMA, TAMIL Chennai 26, MBA dathi 26/169 fair BBA, MBA Chennai, Dhanushu, 3patham Moolam, Same seeks qualified & well settled IyCaste Well Educated Employee. er vadama Groom 28− 32yrs Ht above 175 in India/abroad Horoscope with 9841460730 Raghu or ketu in 7 or 8 place from 33/164 Group I Officer/SC AD Uthi- lagnam is must. Ct:9444381689, radam / Makaram. Seeks qualified 9940147689 groom. Ct:9566344334 / 9486848384 IYER GARGA Hastham 35/173 MCA SWE HINDU MOOPPANAR (Parkavakulam− No USA H1B Issueless Divorcee. Seeks bar sub−caste) 26/155 M.B.B.S. Brahmin Groom 35−40 USA/India. Ct: Good Looking Girl working as Medi- 09445673337, [email protected] cal Officer, P H C, Dindigul seeks alliance from the same Medical Pro- 21−37years, Iyer / Iyengar Girls fession. Ct : 0451− 2436409, seeks Suitable Educated (Profes9994260850 sional / Deg/PG) Grooms wanted 8939960074 Saiva Pillai veg gud lukng girl 27yr/5 4’/MNC Blr/11 LPA/karthigai/ ✔ VADAKALAI SRIVATSAM Uthiratathi rishabam PH:+919980047800 1976/MBBS Doctor PG−Radio Diagnosis seeks Chennai−settled Groom. M−Mudaliyar F−SC 28/165 BSc,BEd Send: Bio/Horo/Photo thhisg@ Fair seeks suitable settled groom. gmail.com Box No−HB−3228,THE HIN09944948860 [email protected] DU Chennai−600002

BALIJA NAIDU, 25/167, Fair, MBBS, Doctor, Malar Hospital, Chennai, Decent Pay, Well to do, 044− 43483303

Suitable proposals are invited from girls in the age group 28 to 32 for our son in USA aged 33. He is a non−IT engineer and expects the bride , who should also be qualified, also to work after marriage. Our son has to travel a lot on job almost on weekly basis. We speak Tamil and Hindi at home. Kindly respond to: boyswithplans@ gmail.com

TAMIL

27, Kanni,Chitrai B.Tech, MBA, TCS Seeks Chennai, Educated Groomsonly Caste no Bar 9962950491/ 9789080481

TAMIL

FATHER IYER Mother Mudaliyar Fair26/158/MSc Pooram suitable Groom similar parantage or Brahmin 9444147605

PILLAI THULUVAVellalar 25Y Avittam Kumbam suddha Jathagam Fair 163cm Engr Non IT MNC Bangalore 7.5L p/a seeks a well Educated groom from decent family BE/MTech/MS Bangalore/Hyderabad/Abroad Subsects no bar 9344243496, a.vijayakumar2014@ gmail.com

Tamil Iyer Vadamal Bharadwaj Sadhayam Oct 87 height 5.5 Master of Finance and Prof Accounting (Australia) Employed in Sydney good looking, very fair, seeks well educated / well settled groom preferably abroad. Parents at the moment in Sydney. Contact : geethravi@ Hindu Nadar (Madurai) Makaram Avit- hotmail.com tam 24 yrs.175 cm ME (mechanical KERALA BRAHMIN Iyer 24/159 PostPSG) wheatish working at Coimbat- graduate Employed MNC,TVM.Ph ore. Seeks suitable groom. Con- 08129462642 Email aparnamoorthy00@ tact: [email protected] / gmail.com 9087679923. SRIVATSAM,Bharani 33/164 BE,MS AGAMUDAYAR 34/164 Fair MCA SW 12L/ IYER Green Card issue A Moolam / Dhanush Mukkalathore / (USA)California less,divorcee.Seeks suitable groom CNB. CT: 98404 93875 Ct: [email protected] SC 28 MBA Mpil AsstProfr 25000 At- −9445342602 tractv girl seek any profl IYENGAR B’WAJAM Vadakalai Fair 26/ Email:[email protected] 167 Revathi BE/MS Wrkng in US 9962310205/07 Seeks− Groom CA/DR Wrkng US HINDU VANNIYAR(Arasu) 25/160 Ct:9710932407 B.Tech/ SWE Cbe Avittam Maharam (Sevvai 4th place) well settled IYENGAR/ IYER Groom for tall beaubride seeks well settled qualified tiful girl from affluent family 32 goodlooking groom ct: 09944936319, yrs, having international conference business. Grooms from USA, Eu09442621118. rope, India pref. Ct: 09940166933 HINDU RICH & Well settled parents MSc 29/167 Revathy fair shortly di- IYENGAR FAIR 46 MS−HR, Issueless vorced seek qualified Groom.Caste Divorcee US Citizen,employed NewNobar.9940115625 chennaisss7@ Jersey Seek Qualified Brahmin/ Vegetarian Groom in US. Subsect No gmail.com Bar. Mail: raghvankamla@ SC AD 27 ME Asst Professor Engg rediffmail.com College Parents Retd Govt. Official, Seeks well settled TELUGU Groom. 09940063021 Gavara, 31/155, Pooradam, M.Sc., MUDALIAR 38 looks young B.Sc SWE, working in California, seeks suitChennai seeks settled any Hindu able groom,subcaste no bar. ct [email protected],9940644626 groom. 8939656344/ 044−43527071

RC Christian Naidu Trichy girl MUDALIAR 32/152 Ayiliyam B.E/ fair 24 B.Tech employed seeks suit- Branch manager SBI,Chennai.Fair diable RC boy FC/ BC. Ct: vorcee in a month seeks Upper middle class professionally qualified, 09360342498 well settled groom subsect no bar CSI CHRISTIAN Nadar Girl Fair, 9940370228 Email: rameshkumarfeb28@ Good Looking, 03−04−1986 born / gmail.com 152cm / M.Sc M.Phil , working as Assistant Professor in a Reputed SUITABLE ALLIANCE for Akkarai SubWomen’s College, Mount Road, Chen- halakshmi Aged 32/162Cm renowned nai. Both Parents Doctors (Private) Carnatic Musician seeks Chennai , Suitable Alliance, Employed / based Hindu Groom below 35 Yrs. Settled in Chennai / With Clean with Clean Habits & Supportive of Habits from Same Community. Con- her Musical Journey. Send BHP: [email protected] OR tact: 9841182514 Ct: 00971504268592 RC AD 32 /162 / Fair/ BCA working in wipro caste No Bar RC only NADAR GRAMANI Tiruvonam, Magara Seeks Well Employed Groom. Ct− Rasi 29/165 very fair seeks well employed groom. Ph:9840925333/ 08939201515 9025250505 CHRISTIAN CNB 40 Divorcee No Issues M.Com BEd Govt.30K Seeks WELL QLFD Understandng groom withBridegroom including Pastors.Ct:0 out any demands frm decent family, CNB for girl T.V Mudaliar 27/170 8056002128 half vision can see upto 3 Mtrs MS− CONVERTED CHRISTIAN Tamil Vish- Intl Business,UK 9962333967/044− wakarma 25/160/BE/MNC/Chennai/5L 23745529 per annum. Seeks educated employed groom. Caste no Bar. Contact SAIVA PILLAI 29/160 MBA employed Private, issueless divorcee seeks 8939628767 groom divorcee / widower Ct 9884623072 NADAR Christian Girl, B.Tech, MBA, 31/162, fair, TCS Chennai, now SC AD 32/ IRS, Central Govt. Job, USA. Suitable Boys BE / MCA / IT Assistant Commissioner (Central ExField. Contact: 04652279894, cise & Customs) 70,000/pm seeks 09443131892, email: Groom Mrs.Jayasree, Chennai. VANNIAR 30/165, Fair ,Thiruvadirai [email protected] 9962445259 − I, doing MD, seeks MS/MD/MBBS RC NADAR Religious Girl MCA work- VANNIYAKULA SHATHRIYA 32/ IRS, Cen- Groom. Send BHP to mylidepeacock@ ing 27/148 Caste no bar.No Dowry tral Govt. Job, Assistant Commis- gmail.com Ct−09486271078. demand.God Fearing clean habits sioner (Income Tax) 70,000/pm fair groom. [email protected] seeks Groom. Caste No Bar. Mrs. F.VISWAKARMA M.JHETTY(Vastad/ Raju− Telugu) Both Govt service BE/ ,8056589540 Revathi 8939165060 27 /160 / Fair Uthradam SWE CTS SC AD 31 Christian MBA emplyd Cen- PROFESSIONALLY QUALIFIED Girl 31/ Chennai 5.5 LPA. Seeks BE / ME tral Govt Seeks well settled State 164 issueless Divorcee, working IT SWE/ Govt/ Bank Employed from eicommunity 9629601127 / Central Govt. Groom Ct Sector in abroad seeks Veg., well− ther [email protected] 09094948086 educated, employed Boy below 33− 37. Overseas nobar. Ct: +91− MUDALIYAR STAR Pooratathi 24/162cm CSI−AD/ 32/ B.Tech/5.2/ Wheatish/ 9940345229 BE,CS CTS Fair Seeks BE/ME Work Upper middleclass/ Seeks Groom/32− @IT Companies mohan.civiladv@ 36/BE/Caste−nobar/India/ SC AD PR Hindu Uthradam/Makaram 26/ gmail.com Ct:8754571771 160, BE(ECE), MBA, MNC Chennai Employed seeks suitable Chennai VANNIAR, UTHRATADHI Meena Rasi, VALLUVAN−NAYANAR ERODE 29/157 MBA based Groom. 9952919466, csoraju@ 31yrs/155cms, Doctor working in Simmam Maham Sevvaithosam Seeks PG− gmail.com Chennai seeks suitable Groom. Qualified Boy from Same Caste. Ct: 09380744710 8903580477, Email: alogu37@ MUKKULATHUR AGAMUDAIYAR Girl 30/ gmail.com 153/Rohini emp.MNC (BPT) seeks PILLAI(TRICHY)beautiful 23/167 MS Groom from same Caste. Ct: (IT)/Test Engg/CTS/Ch seeks India/ CASTE NO Bar. Vanniyakula Ksha- [email protected] abroad groom 044−26160040/0431− triya Bride Born 03−08−1989 164 Cm 9842315273 / 9841611921 4024022 B.Com Wheatish Pvt.Company seeks Groom from Good Family Well−Educat- SC 29/150CM fair MBA Spiglobal CHETTIAR (CASTENOBAR Telugu/Tamil) ed Employed & Settled. Send BHP: ITES 21K Anagaputhur, Chennai−70. 20Crs v.beautiful 24/162 B.Arch [email protected] OR Ct: [email protected] seeks groom 044−42136666/0416− 044−22316399 / 9444894827 9841154858 2256257

GAJULA BALIJA, 29, PG,Manager−Architect, divorcee−unconsummated short marriage seeks PG professionals,b/w30−35yrs. Ct.9444071955/ 04424852123

TELUGU

NAIDU, 27/168, Fair & Slim, B.E, MS (USA), Seeks Single/Divorcee also accepted,USA Groom, 044− 43483315

ALLIANCE INVITED for Doctor 43, BC / UK, from India or Abroad & well educated Groom. Pl Cont: 09441666587 Padma Velama /Moola/26yrs/5’3"/ Fair/Studying MD in US seeks well settled NRI Doctor groom only below 30 years Contact: 07760840029 VISWABRAMIN / VISWAKARAMA 27/163 MBA (CA−Inter) Fair Good−looking girl Well Educated−Family @ Coimbatore. Seeks PG / Professional− Qualified, Well−Settled Smart−Boy from Good Family. Ct:09442380173, 09487349068 GAVARA 27/155, BE, SWE MNC Pooratathi Kumbam seeks 29−31 from good fmly Prefd BE/MCA/MBA/MS SWE in Ch−[email protected]/9 445683332 NAIDU AYILYAM 38/160 BES,MBA Mgr, Wheatish divorcee (No issues) seeks below 45 well placed clean Habits from Bangalore Ct:9841127149 only on Sundays.

BALIJA NAIDU 29/170 Fair Slim Dhanusu BSC MBA Manager seeks Decent Fmly Good Salary Any Naidu 09789865228

KAMMA 1984 born Maham B.E. Empld looking for prof.qlfd groom contact 9886491800/[email protected] PADMAVELAMA NAIDU Rohini (Raghu/ Kethu in 7th place) 24/168, MCA, MNC Chennai seeks Groom. Subsect NoBar. 09884933659, suren.maha16@ gmail.com

SUNNY MUSLIM parents invite alliance for very fair daughter 27/ 165 MBBS MD UK PR holder working as Asst Prof. Medical College/Chennai, from MD/MS Doctors below 30yrs Ct 8148094975 Email: [email protected]

COSMOPOLITAN

DIVORCEE NAIDU 41/175 Rs 50,000 seeks goodlooking widow. Caste No Bar. Contact 09840731113 / 09498133365

FAIR SMART Jain Boy Goyal 26 yrs 170 cm wrkng in Govt Bank as Asst Mngr seeks Teacher/lecturer/ Govt Employee Girl 23−26 yrs Ct 9008150667 , ravinderkumarj0@ gmail.com.

✔ MBA, 167 cm, 35, lean and handsome, brahmin, working in MNC, own HINDI house. Seeks well educated girl with amiable disposition. Caste, SMARTHA Brahmin Devorcee 32 yrs Language no bar. email: [email protected] / 72999 fair MBA HR working as HR Manager salary 60K PM languages known Hin47234 di, English, Kannada, Telugu reWIDOW DIVORCEE unmarried and sepa- quired bride any graduate below 30 rated seeking life partner ct: devorcee shall be preferred ct 07094467366 mail:rosisunder123@ 08861125494 gmail.com I am Rtd Army Officer 60 Malayalee well settled no bars. MALAYALAM MBA 45+, Straightforward Seeks Affluent Partner Longing for Personal and Professional Care. 7092993920.

CHRISTIAN PENTECOSTAL Vellalar 28/ 171 M.Tech Engr Working QATAR Seeks Bornagain FC/BC below 26yrs Professional Educated Family. 9362941609. CSI/CHRISTIAN 29/172, MBA Fair Handsome Karnataka Bank@Chennai, Sports person seeking suitable alliance from Educated,employed/ unemployed/Slim, Fair,Good looking Girl, Caste No Bar. Cell− 9894091081. RC VELLALAR 38 MBA CAIIB Sr. Manager, Govt. Bank, Physically Challenged Polio in left leg but self−supportive seeks broad−minded God fearing Christian girl. Ct:9840166013 CHRISTIAN / 31/ 5.11/ Masters/ Divorcee/ Professional/ 14Lpa/ Fair & Handsome seeking a suitable Bride. Ct: 8695516367

ILLATHUPILLAI 31/175 MBA(HR) Manager Bangalore 65000 PM seeks bride Ragu Kethu BE MCA from same commuMUSLIM GIRL 21/162 very fair, BTech nity. 9842192276 (IT) Selected Infosys Chennai, well to do family Chennai PILLAI NV, 1974/180, Karthigai/ Rishabam, MPT USA Citizen seeks Ph:9445556810 slim tall good looking below 35 SMU 28/165/GRADUATE Seek Well Qual- bride with degree or PG. Same/ caste. ct:09842163882, ified Groom from Decent Family Ct: Equal 9841411249 Mail:mahfuz5786@ 7200276376. gmail.com HINDU BC Saliyar 29/170 Uthiram Kanni B.Sc Visual comm. Cinematographer in Film Industry well settled own house in Chennai, Caste no bar,seek educated & broad minded bride. Ct:9176448706 [email protected] ENGINEER

Slim yng looking malayali hindu en- T.Velala Boy 32 BE Astham affluent gr 53y,Chennai seeks partner upto family Dubai(US Based MNC) seek qualified beautiful girl gatu28@ 46 yrs [email protected] gmail.com 9962282044 HINDU/ 32/6.1/ MBA/currently in California USA,Finance professionENGLISH al,Smart &Handsome Guy with handsome salary.Looking for Bride CNB ANGLO − Indian RC parents looking from Good Family & Educated Girl. Email: [email protected] for an Anglo Indian bride for their son 27 years / height 180cm Ct:8695799653 HR in IT, contact with details. E.mail: [email protected] HINDU / 25 / Engineer / Naidu / Own Business / VP / PA 30 Lakhs + CNB / seeking a suitable Bride. FINANCE / BANKING Ct: 9025127385 / jaikrish.1948@ gmail.com FAIR SMART Jain Boy Goyal 26 yrs 170 cm wrkng in Govt Bank as Asst 31 YRS/ 5’ 11"/ Scorpio/ Hindu Mngr seeks Teacher/lecturer/ Govt Tamil / Kongu Vellala Gounder/ Mas- Employee Girl 23−26 yrs Ct ters/ Engineering/ Technology/ 9008150667 , ravinderkumarj0@ Software Professional/ Lives in gmail.com. Boston, USA seeking a suitable Bride CNB Ct: 8695558963 / GOVT / QUASI GOVT [email protected]

VANNIYAKULA SHATRIYAR Astham−1 30/ 162 BE. ECE, Shipping Engg. Chennai, seeks suitable bride. Ct: 9841339363/ kumaran142003@ gmail.com HINDU NADAR 38/173 chennai BE swe Business affluent no dosham clean habits seeks homely bride send BHP [email protected] VANNIYAR 32/180 B.Sc B.H.M Salem now in USA seeks educated bride from decent family. Ct: 09443367911. NAIDU 27 Dr. M.D (Genl. Medi.) Fair Chennai looking Brides. Contact: 9884238770 Mail: [email protected] M.Vijay, B.E, 27−03−1985,CTS,USA,Ro hini,Rishabam,swapnakirubaharan@gma il.com 9884118369 MUDALIAR 28/177 Visakam Fair BE IT, Chennai, well settled Family seek Fair Good looking Girl. 9444648193 SAIVA PILLAI (Thanjavur) Issueless Innocent Divorcee 33/165 Mirugasirisham B.Sc, MBA employed well to do. No expectations Seeks suitable Vegetarian Bride CNB Ct : 9500091179 PILLAI 29/170 Ph.D settled US seeks suitable hindu girl settled in US 9176346202/natesan_kannan@yah oo.com F−BRAMIN M−VANNAR 31/167 MCA SWE Rs.75000/PM,Seeks any suitable bride.9600066807/vinothkannadba@gma il.com

CSI NADAR BOY 30/170 MBBS,MS,Asst.P rofessor−Medical College.Well to do family.Seek any Christian fair doctor proposals.09495970147. [email protected]

DIVORCEE NAIR BOY 27/195Cm Karthika ME MNC REDDY 47/156 Sadayam,Kumbam, (Bengaluru) Non−IT Dosha Jathakam. M.Com, ACS,FCA(IND),FCA(BOT) seeks Ct: 09444525016. unnikrsna@ 32−38 yrs Graduate Bride. Ct− gmail.com 09443104812. KANNUR BASED, Chennai Settled TELUGU DEVANGA, 37,Vishakam,Tula Nair, Magam, 27/180 , B.TECH, MNC, rasi, Divorcee, no issue,Asst. Chennai, Seeks Suitable Bride. Professor Chennai, seeks suitable 9043203747 , sankaranvaaykeel @ bride, caste no bar.contact gmail . com 9884258462. EmailID:saropadmavathy1 [email protected] BANGALORE Settled Nair boy, handsome, 33/180, Bharani no Dosha, ADVOCATE 41 SEPERATED, Looking In- B.E MBA, Senior Position in MNC, dependent Female Widow / Divorcee seeks Beaitiful Nair Girl includwith Kids also OK. 07217518295 ing Doctor contact 09448085192/ 09449031192 IYER ISSUELESS divorcee MA 45yrs Video/Graphics Bangalore seeks bride Ct.9591904754 rkmandy@ NAIR BOY 30/177,BTech,MBA,MNC Trivandrum Pooram, Sudhajathakam, gmail.com clean habits,reputed family Trivandrum.Dr Unnikrishnan DOCTOR 9447461912/04712317766

PADMASALI 25/159 MSC(Cs). Moolam MUSLIM, 30/158 cm MS Ortho seeks 2nd Padam. Parents Seeks well Edu- MD, MS Looking fair Bride cated Groom. Ct: 098841 49006 9094008907,09888471619 [email protected] NAIDU 31/165, Visagam Chartered Accountant & Cost Accountant,Contact7502228177, [email protected] HINDU, NADAR 30/165 cm Simmam, Utthiram M.B.B.S., Doctor, only son NAIDU 26/168 Visakam PG.Govt Bank seeks suitable Doctor bride from Clerk Chennai Suit Groom−9965717104 same caste Father Doctor Ct: /9791892020/[email protected] 9842156196 HINDU MALA 33/170 B.Com Emp Seeks Suit Emp Groom of a well−settled Hindu family . 09445456676

MUSLIM URDU/Tamil 26 fair M.Sc. Bio Tech employed Chennai 25000 p.m. seeks suitable groom. Ct: 9444161561

REPUTED NAIDU Family Seeks Alliance for their Daughter B.Tech Employed 23/165 Looking for a Well Qlfd Doctor/Engineer&Settled Good Looking Fair Handsome Tall. Ct:09003153493/ ravindranathvenkata 34, SMU, Divorce/No issues, M. [email protected] Tech, well−to−do family, seeks decent well settled groom from ChenHINDU FAMILY 26/165 Settled in US nai. [email protected] / 044− Well Educated Seeks ME MS Quali- 22349441 fied, Good Looking Groom Fair Tall & Handsome Caste No Bar. SMU PARENTS Daughter Fair Beatiful Ct:09003153493 / ravindranathvenkat 22/165 B.E. I.T Cognizant Chennai Seek Professional Groom.0 [email protected] 9841729132 BALIJANAIDU BEAUTIFUL 23/160/B. Tech/Manager ICICI, Ch/33Kp.m. SMU 29/154, BE(CSE), MNC, Chenseeks groom 044−26162030/0452− nai, well settled seeks Engg Groom. Ct:9445230749 / hafianazeer@ 4394949 gmail.com KAMMA V.BEAUTIFUL only child 23/ 167 MTech 30Cr above seeks job/ business groom. 044−28345090/0422− 2243343

TAMIL

Tamil Muslim divorced Boy 38 yrs KAMMA 25/163 B.Tech SWE TCS CHN 5L business.Looking for divorcee Girl pa,seeks: MBA MCA BE.044−28150776,9 age 35 same caste. Cont: 381058244,0422−6547744, 09884733137 09379480490 TAMIL MUSLIM Parents Require very Fair Bride Below 27, BE/ B.Tech URDU Software Professional, Hijab, ReadSMU 23/165 MBBS fair from educated ing Quaraan Prayers 5 Times for family seeks suitable Doctor their Son BE/ IT Professional workGroom. CV, photo: morningmist19@ ing at USA. E.mail: sydhabegam@ gmail.com gmail.com / [email protected]. Ph: 9790804047. URDU SUNNI MUSLIM parents seek Bridegroom for their daughter TM 32/163 B.Sc, MNC, Chennai, 24,160cm,B.E from a well−settled seeks graduate employed girl family. Doctor/ Engineer preferred. preferably Chennai/abroad. Ct:07338935590,email: Ct:9489966531 [email protected] BORNAGAIN CHRISTIAN AD (PR) 27/169 SMU FAMILY invites alliance for MSc Media Tech. from Palayamkottheir Good Looking, Fair, Beauti- tai. Doing own projects in Chenful Daughter 23/153, B.Tech, from nai. Seeks goodlooking bornagain well settled Engineer Groom. Con- graduate girl, No Expectations. tact−09500958098 or mail to Ct: 9042894366, acjohn1012@ [email protected]. yahoo.com

HINDU M−30/175 MBA doing Hotel Management. F−Rajsthan M−Malayali, Ezhva preference for Malayali Girl. Star: Uttartadhi −Middle Class.Karnataka. M: 8277135121

TALL, HANDSOME, Keralite Hindu Boy, Bharani, 28, MBA, SAP certified, Rich. Running own Online Business.Inviting alliances from settled kerala families. 27/178 MBBS − MS Caste No Bar. well Abroad preferred. Mob: 9847736065 Seeks Veg / MBBS Ct : 99947 47626 mail: [email protected] VISWAKARMA 28 /180cm. Doctor, MS, Mch (Surgical gastroenterology) NAIR BOY(Chennai settled) 28/179cm Looking for Suitable Alliance BE,MTech(CS)IIT,SR S/W Engineer Preferably a doctor Email: MNC,High annual income Call / 8939617555 [email protected] 9444081821 / 9566127667 NAIR BOY 29/178 Thiruvonam MBA HR MBBS GOVT Doctor Hindu Scheduled Officer L&T seeks Qlfyd Good lookCaste 28/171 Simmam, Pooram Seeks ing Girls willing to settle in Doctor/ Well settled brides Chennai. 09043684004, mani592010@ 7401516899 gmail.com

HINDU SC/AD/PR 27/172 BE MBA Mesam/ Bharani Axis Bank Asst. Manager, seeks suitable bride 9487805771 CHATADA SRIVAISHNAVA Thiruvonam 38/ 172 M.A. Clerk, Govt of Puducherry 35K pm. Seeks Same Caste/Naidu/Yadava Educated Bride. Ct:9487436836 Well settled, well educated, Hindu/ Naidu boy, 35yrs, Never Married, seeks bride. Caste No bar. Ct:[email protected] / 9442787805 MUDALIAR Boy 33/183Cm Fair SWE Seeks Beautiful Bride Working In Bank/Lecturer/Doctor, SWE Caste No Bar. Ct :09176011484 / spm2618@ gmail.com VANNAR, SALEM, 30, M−Tech MBA R&D Manager Mumbai 13Lakh/Year Thiruvonam, Maharam, 9443371255, 9842771421 SENGUNDAR Aswini (Mesham) 30/178 B.Tech, SWE Bangalore 30L pa, seeks eqly qualifed bride. Ct:9944337007 HINDU PILLAI 37/179 Fair MBA 80 K MNC (RM) seeks Slim Tamil Girl. 09704484825 mail2rc.kumaresh@ gmail.com VANNIAR 40/ 170 ENGINEER Central Govt/ good looking bride CNB Ct− 7598270929, [email protected] ND-ND

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SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

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THE HINDU SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

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Rain will hit wheat crop: Farm experts CHANDIGARH: Untimely rains accompanied by hailstorm and strong winds in Punjab and Haryana will hit wheat crop which was to be harvested next month, feared farm experts, saying showers at this stage were “unfortunate” for growers who were hoping for bumper yield. “Rains along with strong winds at this point of time are not beneficial especially for wheat crop. It will adversely impact crop yield of early sown varieties,” Hisar based Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agricultural University, Director of Research, S. S. Siwach said on Saturday. He said because of strong winds and hailstorm, there will be lodging of wheat crop which has witnessed grain formation. Lodging refers to the term used to describe crop falling flat on the ground due to heavy rain and winds which causes yield loss in crop. “Due to high velocity winds, crop can flatten and there can be root injury in wheat crop,” said Punjab Agriculture Department, Director, Gudial Singh said adding: “Heavy

A farmer examining his wheat crop in Amritsar on Saturday that was damaged due to heavy rainfall. – PHOTO: PTI Farm experts have also damage from disease. rains are not desirable at this Punjab and Haryana, two warned of attack of fungal disstage.” “It is quite unfortunate that ease stripe rust or yellow rust major foodgrain growing rains are lashing at this stage as on wheat crop because of con- States, sown wheat crop at 35 it can shatter the hopes of grow- ducive weather conditions and lakh hectares and 25 lakh hecers for bumper yield,” said Mr. advised farmers to monitor the tares respectively during Rabi crop regularly to prevent any season 2015-16. Both the States Siwach.

are major contributors of wheat to the Central pool. Wheat harvesting starts in April month in Punjab and Haryana. Punjab and Haryana on Friday witnessed widespread rains in almost all parts of the two States. “Rains have been widespread in Punjab and Haryana because of western disturbances on Saturday. On Sunday also, the showers will continue but intensity may be lesser,” said Chandigarh Meteorological Department, Director, Surinder Pal said on Saturday. He further said as per reports, hailstorm also hit areas like Bathinda, Kapurthala, Jalandhar in Punjab and Fatehabad and Bhiwani areas in Haryana. Experts advised growers to drain out excess water from fields as it will damage plants. Experts further said that rains could also damage vegetable and some other crops. Notably, Punjab and Haryana last year had witnessed unseasonal rains and hailstorm in the month of March which led to damage to wheat crop in both the States. - PTI

Magisterial probe Haryana parties oppose ordered into SP Punjab Bill on SYL Canal MLA’s death case BADAUN: Days after SP MLA

Haji Irfan died following a road accident, a magisterial inquiry was ordered on Saturday into alleged negligence in providing him treatment. Irfan, who represented Bilari Assembly seat, was on his way to attend the marriage of son of senior State Cabinet minister Shivpal Singh Yadav in Saifai in Etawah district when his vehicle overturned and fell into a ditch on Thursday. The legislator later succumbed to his injuries while SP leader K.P. Singh and driver Farzad Ali were killed on the spot, police had said. District Magistrate Shambhunath, who conducted a preliminary inquiry into alleged lapses, directed ADM Ashok Kumar Srivastava to submit his probe report within 15 days. Surprise inspection The DM said that after a complaint was received in connection with death of the MLA in Moradabad, he conducted a surprise inspection

of the hospital and inquired about the process of admission of critical patients. Shambhunath said he received complaints that the MLA was administered “injections containing steroid, which led to internal bleeding”. He said the cylinder present in the ambulance allegedly did not have oxygen and life-saving drugs were missing. The DM said the inquiry against the hospital administration will cover 30 points. Meanwhile, the Opposition BJP attacked Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, saying his “tall claims” of better health and ambulance services in the State have been exposed by the incident. “The ambulance, which carried the injured MLA, lacked proper kit. Haji Irfan’s relatives have claimed that if oxygen had been available, the MLA’s life could have been saved,” BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said. PTI

No trace of eight missing trekkers SHIMLA: Two days after eight

trackers went missing on their way to Chanderkhani peak in Himachal Pradesh, a helicopter was deployed on Saturday to locate them, an oicial said. The rescue team sent earlier failed to locate them as it was snowing there, the oicial said, adding the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is expected to join the eforts. “One chopper was deployed this (Saturday) morning to locate them but failed to reach the peak as it was too foggy and there was continuous snowfall,” an oicial, who is monitoring the rescue operation, said. Eight trekkers, mostly students from a private engineering college in Punjab’s Sangrur town, were on their way to Chanderkhani peak in the Kullu region. Revenue Minister Kaul Singh said here the deputy commissioner concerned has

been asked to summon the NDRF to start the rescue operation. “The NDRF is likely to be deployed on Sunday.” The missing people, including a resident, left for trekking on Thursday from Naggar near Manali. One of them established contact with the police and sought help. Beyond the Chanderkhani peak at an elevation of 3,600 metres lies Malana village, which earned notoriety for cultivating Malana Cream, a prized hashish. An oicial of the State-run Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports in Manali said that it was very challenging to locate the trekkers without the chopper as most of the area was devoid of human activity. He said trekkers, comprising police parties and members of the institute, managed to reach the Chanderkhani peak but there was no trace of the missing people. - IANS

CHANDIGARH: All political parties, except the Congress in Haryana, on Saturday met Governor Kaptan Singh Solanki urging him not to give his assent to a Bill being brought by Punjab to de-notify the land for construction of Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal. An all-party meeting was called by the Haryana government to discuss the SYL and the Jat reservation issues here which was attended among others by the representatives of the ruling BJP, the Opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), Haryana Janhit Congress-BL and Shiromani Akali

Dal (SAD). The Congress boycotted the meet.

‘Bill is not right’ The meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar unanimously adopted a resolution which was submitted to the Governor as a memorandum. Mr. Solanki is the Governor of Haryana and is also holding additional charge of Punjab. “The Bill which has been brought by Punjab, is not right. Entire Haryana is upset about it. The Bill is an attack on the Constitution,” Haryana Agriculture Minister O.P.

Dhankar said after the meeting. “A similar law was brought by Punjab in 2004 which hit Haryana’s interest. Haryana is fighting its battle in the Supreme Court...We are meeting Governor on SYL issue and will convey him that the Bill which is to be brought by Punjab government in Vidhan Sabha was against article 356 of the Constitution,” he said. Mr. Khattar said the Governor had assured that since the SYL Canal was an issue between Punjab and Haryana the matter would be discussed. — PTI

More than 90 % seats will have straight fight: Adhir KOLKATA: Lauding the ‘positive’

role of the CPI(M) in forging an alliance with his party, Bengal Congress president Adhir Chowdhury on Saturday said more than 90 per cent Assembly seats in the State would have one-on-one fight with the Trinamool Congress. All 32 seats, which have sitting MLAs of Congress, will fight the poll except Debi Pra-

sad Roy of Alipurduar who had earlier expressed his desire not to contest in case of a Congress-CPI(M) alliance. Diferences sorted out Mr. Chowdhury told reporters that most of the diferences over seat adjustment had been sorted out. “The role of the CPI(M) in forging the alliance is very

positive, cordial and transparent. Both of us are very flexible on forming the alliance,” he said. He, however, pointed out that there might be four to five seats which would witness friendly fights. “The CPI(M) is willing to make sacrifices, but they have alliance partners who also have their say,” he said. - PTI

One more associate of ‘mafia dons’ held CORRESPONDENT CUTTACK: Continuing its drive against the alleged criminal links of Dhalasamanta brothers, the Commissionerate police have arrested one more associate. The Chauliaganj police have arrested one Nibash Behera alias Mantu of Kalyani Nagar here, informed the city DCP Sanjeev Arrora adding that the accused was arrested late on Friday and was produced in the court on Saturday. Having criminal antecedents, Mantu was earlier booked in at least eight cases

registered in several police stations of the city. Police said Mantu was allegedly assisting them in procuring arms and ammunition. With this arrest, the Commissionerate police have already arrested 21 associates of the brothers — Sushil and Sushant -- ever since they were arrested on January 29 last. On the other hand, the city police have stepped up investigations to gather more evidence against the brothers by examining more persons, who are believed to be acquainted with facts and cir-

cumstances pertaining to the activities of the brothers. On the day, one Sambit Behera, an executive member of the BJD’s students’ wing of Cuttack and a former executive member of the now-defunct Kataka Nagar Yuvak Sangha was questioned by a team of senior police oicers of the city. The Sangha was floated by Sushil Dhalasamanta for participating in social activities. Meanwhile, the local SDJM court has allowed a petition of the city police to lodge both the brothers in two separate jails.

President to visit Allahabad today NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee will visit Allahabad on Sunday when he will inaugurate the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Allahabad High Court. A Rashtrapati Bhavan statement said the High Court of Judicature for the North-Western Provinces came into existence in Agra under a Letters Patent of March 17, 1866. The seat of the High Court was shifted from Agra to Allahabad in 1869 and its designation was altered to the High Court of Judicature in Allahabad by a supplementary Letters Patent issued on March 11, 1919. The programme will be attended among others by CJI T. S. Thakur, Union Law Minister D. V. Sadananda Gowda, among other dignitaries. - PTI

CM YK

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NATION

MIXED REACTIONS

Preparations on to make Karnataka plastic-free STAFF REPORTER BENGALURU: It’s the calm before the storm as the Karnataka government machinery prepares to impose the plastic ban in the coming week. With the issuing of the notification, the plastic ban has been technically in force since Friday — making even the sale of common use items such as plastic forks, spoons, cups and plates illegal. Traders who talked to The Hindu said the enforcement should not begin until their stocks, bought over the past few months, are exhausted. “Unfortunately, with the notification, it is becoming diicult to sell the plastic products … the raids by civic authorities began even as the draft notification was made public,” said a trader. However, the “strict” enforcement of the rule is expected to commence from Monday. “We will start doing random checks on traders and industries from Monday itself. Since the ban is in force, there is no leniency — because plastic manufacturers have known about the rules over the past few months,” said Lakshman, Chairman of

the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board. Similarly, Anil Kumar T.K., Secretary (Urban Development and Municipal Administration), said as oicials across the State had been trained to crack down on plastic lesser than 40 microns thickness, it should “not be diicult” to enforce a broader ban. “As soon as the notification is studied, instructions will be passed on to all urban local bodies.” Shopkeepers happy The ban is in principle supported by shop-keepers. For instance, at the busy Russel Market, where thousands are given plastic bags for vegetables, dry fruits and meats, the local association — which represents more than 480 shops in the iconic complex — has started the process of doing away with plastics in the complex. “This is the right time to impose the ban. We have told the traders to do away with plastics to reduce the piling garbage close to our market. Now, with the ban, we will ensure all shopkeepers use cloth or paper bags within a fortnight,” said Mohammad Idres, general secretary of the

Traders said the ban on plastic should not begin until their stocks, bought over a few months, are exhausted.

Russel Market Traders’ Association. Similarly, traders at K.R. Market, where 1,300 shops see vendors giving out more than 200 kg of plastic bags daily, believe penalties can ensure strict implementation of the ban. Plastic assn. to move court Suresh Sagar, honorary secretary of the Karnataka State Plastic Association, has said there was no option but to go to the court. “The draft plastic rules of

the Central Government proposes to ban plastic bags of 50 micron thickness or lesser. Why can’t the State government follow this instead of a blanket ban?” he said, adding that the expectation of reductions in solid waste was “unrealistic”. He believed more than 350 plastic industries would be directly afected — particularly those manufacturing plastic bags and cling wraps. A majority of these are smallscale industries.

THE HINDU

ANURADHA RAMAN

MAHESH LANGA

NEW DELHI: Thousands of wom-

After spending several years in the Landhi jail in Karachi, 86 fishermen of Gujarat, freed by Pakistan reached home on Saturday. They hail from various parts of Saurashtra, which has a long coastline. Over 500 fishermen are still languishing in Pakistani jails. They were held by the Pakistan Marine Security Agency while fishing along the International Maritime Boundary Line. The PMSA patrols the coastline in Pakistan. “Besides the fishermen, 891 boats of Gujarati fishermen are in the custody of Pakistan,” said Manish Lodhari, secretary of an advocacy group working for the welfare of fishermen in the State. Each boat cost Rs. 40-45 lakh and fishermen suffered as the boats and trawlers were not returned. Earlier, the government used to ofer financial assistance to those whose boats were seized by the PMSA. “Between 2003 and 2007, 326 boats were seized by Pakistan. The then government ofered Rs. 11 lakh each to 200 owners who boats were seized. But that scheme is no long operating,” Mr. Lodhari said. Recently, Gujarat oicials visited Pakistan to inspect 22 boats that Pakistan agreed to release.

en’s self-help groups (SHGs) in Maharashtra woke up to a rude surprise on March 8, the International Women’s Day, when they found what Women and Child Development Minister Pankaja Munde had in store for them. Posted online on the Ministry’s website was the announcement of a new tender, with serious implications for scores of women SHGs who supply nutritious food under the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to malnourished children. The stipulations set in the Multi-Item contract for supply of Ready-to-Cook Food Mix, the women say, will allow access only to big manufacturers, violating the Supreme Court orders. Though the tender clearly follows the spirit of Supreme Court orders efectively barring contractors, traders, middlemen, distributors, dealers, nontrading companies, agents and any other individual and/ or legal entity who are not from Women’s Cooperative Groups, the conditions spelt out for eligibility put a question mark on the participation of women in the scheme. Maharashtra has nearly 36 per cent of children under five who are underweight and malnourished, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) survey.

Harmonica returns to Kannada films

Fountain of panic

Pankaja Munde made the announcement of the fresh tender on the ministry’s website.

Last year, Ms. Munde had come under fire for awarding Rs. 206-crore contract for the supply of chikkis (groundnut candy) to schools run by the State administration without due processes. The latest tender document, which has been examined by The Hindu, takes its cue from the Ministry of Women and Child Development under Maneka Gandhi, which, in the past has displayed ambivalence in addressing the issue of supplying nutritious food to malnourished children. Any outsider can bid Among the conditions stipulated in the tender are requirement of a Permanence Certificate that should mention the total value and quantity of Ready-to-Cook Food Mixes manufactured and value equal to 25 per cent of the required turnover of applied sector. Also required

PAVAN DAHAT RAIPUR: Two Border Security Force

BENGALURU: In the right

A sudden gush of water from an agricultural bore-well at Proddutur, near Kankipadu in Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, on Saturday created a scare. Rumours that natural gas leaked along with the water stream, which reached a height of at least 50 feet, attracted a large number of people from the surrounding areas. — PHOTO: CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR

A taste of family for these children of Kozhikode

Magistrate stops child marriages in Tripura

AABHA ANOOP

AGARTALA: A civil magistrate on Saturday rescued two minor girls before their marriage were solemnised at two diferent locations in north Tripura. The magistrate even facilitated registration of complaints with the police against those who arranged the illegal alliances. Nantu Ranjan Das, Sub Divisional Magistrate of Kanchanpur Sub Division, turned champion for preventing unlawful wedding of minors aged 13 and 15. Alliance of girls below the age of 18 is prohibited in India and is also a punishable ofence. Mr. Das rushed to Dasda area of Kanchanpur to halt the marriage of a 13-year-old girl whose wedding was slated for 5 p.m. on Saturday. A local resident, Jitendra Nath, forced her family to get her married with him. The SDM facilitated registration of FIRs against five people, including the ‘groom’. The accused persons had gone into hiding before police could detain them. In the second instance, the SDM prevented marriage of a 15-year-old girl who was to marry a man from the neighbouring subdivision. Police complaints were lodged against some who organised the marriage. Marriage of minor girls in rural parts of Tripura is common. However, awareness programmes and welfare initiatives taken by Women's Commision have yielded some positive results.

KOZHIKODE: When the District Child Protection Unit and Child Welfare Committee of Kozhikode invited applications from families to adopt a child for the two summer months, little did it expect the overwhelming response it got from all strata of society. “We have received more than 200 applications. We have enough choice,” Sheeba Mumtaz, District Child Protection Oicer told The Hindu. The summer foster care programme is being implemented in Kozhikode with an aim to familiarise children of the Government Children’s Home with a family atmosphere. “There are a lot of things that a child needs to learn from a family,” Ms. Mumtaz said adding that similar programmes had been successfully implemented in Kollam and Malappuram districts.

Selection of parents The parents are selected on the basis of interviews and background analyses. They should be settled in Kozhikode district. Couples with children are given preference because of their experience in handling children, and the atmosphere they can provide. Ms. Mumtaz said famCM YK

Parents adopt kids for two months from government home as part of a foster care programme ilies settled outside India are not encouraged to join the programme, as it would be impossible for the oice to conduct a follow-up on the child’s whereabouts. Flip side The possibility of a child undergoing emotional trauma while being returned to the Children’s Home is a cause of concern. “Children and parents will be emotionally afected, but it will not last long. The children know they have to return after two months. Families are given the option of extending the period of foster care. They can visit the children during holidays. We have a team of psychologists and counsellors who handle such situations well,” said Ms. Mumtaz. Twenty-five children from the children’s home, in the age group of 5 to 18, have been short-listed for the programme. Some level of confidentiality is maintained on where each child is sent.

More youth are rediscovering the twangy depths of the instrument. — PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K

ground due to contemporary entrants like the keyboard and guitar,” says Mr. Seelin whose passion for the mouth organ can be traced to his childhood. “I grew up appreciating the ingenuity of the renowned Naushad, Hamsalekha, Rajan Nagendra and Upendra Kumar, and the way they creatively merged the harmonica in their compositions. I believe in live orchestras with diferent time-honoured instruments, not in keyboard simulations,” said Mr. Seelin who has 16 films to his credit. One of the reasons for the resurgence is: increasing number of

youth in Bengaluru is rediscovering the twangy depths of the mouth organ. The city is home to nearly 500 amateurs and professionals who experiment with the mouth organ in diferent genres as rock, blues, jazz, gospel and Carnatic. Riding on this wave of popularity, Carnatic musician Saitejas Chandrashekar and professional organist Avinash Kulkarni recently published a book, The Joy of Harmonica Playing, to guide young musicians. “The intention was to see people getting lessons in Indian swaras, so that the harmonica gets a push,” said Saitejas.

are copies of the balance sheets and profit-and-loss accounts for the last three years, certified by a chartered accountant. The biggest fear, the women said, was that there were no restrictions on outsiders who could bid, effectively rendering the women jobless. As reported in The Hindu, circulars from the Ministry advise State government/ Union Territories to get the nutritious food prepared/ manufactured by only competent and capable groups or entities, who comply with and strictly adhere to the stipulations, irrespective of whether these are self-help groups, mahila mandals, village community or a manufacturer. This, according to several activists, is a result of poor reading of the Shagun Mahila Judgment of 2011 that stipulated stringent conditions for the supply of healthy food to vulnerable children and women. In sharp contrast are the practices put in place in Odisha and Kerala, which according to Rajkishor Mishra, the State adviser to Supreme Court Food Commissioners, have given equal importance to the quality of food as well as participation of women SHGs. All that is required is a joint bank account by the SHGs and the school or anganwadi centre where they supply food.

Two BSF men killed in Chhattisgarh encounter

RANJANI GOVIND

hands, the twang of the mouth organ can be transformed into a riveting melody. But by the 1980s, the harmonica, as it is also called, started losing ground to guitars and keyboards in local popular culture. Now, the instrument is once again being heard across Sandalwood, the Kannada film industry. In the last five years, nearly 50 songs in more than a dozen films have relied on the mouth organ for its distinctive sound. The latest film to join the ranks is Jessie — expected to be released later this month — in which music director Anoop Seelin has generously relied on the harmonica for the song ‘Male Bantu’. Some music directors like Sameer Kulkarni have used the harmonica not just in individual compositions, but also in the background score to convey a range of emotions. “The harmonica, like the santoor, sarangi and the shehnai, lost

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

New food tender favours big firms: Maharashtra SHGs

More than 500 fishermen from Gujarat still in Pakistani jails AHMEDABAD:

Though the ban came into force on Friday, strict enforcement is expected to begin from Monday

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(BSF) jawans were killed and four other critically wounded in an encounter with alleged Maoists in Kanker district of Chhattisgarh early on Saturday. The encounter took place in the Becha forests. A special operation was launched from Chotibetia BSF camp at 11.45 p.m. on Friday by the parties of the 170, 122 and 165 battalions of the BSF. The BSF parties had an exchange of fire with the Maoists at around 2.25 a.m. on Saturday near Becha village. Six BSF men were injured in the encounter. They were evacuated to Raipur by a chopper. Of the six injured, two later succumbed while the other four — BSF constable Ma-

Six jawans were injured in the encounter in Kanker district, and were taken to Raipur in a chopper noj Singh, Stipten Thomson , Jagdish Kumar and Bappa Devnath — are being treated at Ramkrishna Care hospital in Raipur, said a statement circulated by the police. Constables injured The deceased BSF men have been identified as Vijay Kumar and Rakesh. BSF constable Manoj Singh, Stipten Thomson, Jagdish Kumar and Bappa Devnath were critically injured in the shootout.

SYED SAJJAD ALI

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NATION

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SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

Leopard, trapped in a well in Guwahati, rescued by oicials

HUNGRY CAT LANDS IN TROUBLE: Officials use ropes to pull out a leopard which fell into a well in the heart of Guwahati on Saturday. The full grown leopard was later tranquillised and taken to the Guwahati Zoo. A forest official taking a look at the wild animal (Extreme right) . Villagers believe the big cat might have fallen into the well at night when it entered the city in search of prey. Due to illegal encroachment and rapid destruction of forests, wild animals enter human dwellings owing to the loss of habitat. Some NGOs allege that the Assam Forest Department is not taking steps to protect wild animals. — PHOTOS: RITU RAJ KONWAR

‘Eco nod for 943 projects in 21 months’ SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT MUMBAI: Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Saturday claimed that in the 21 months of the NDA government at the Centre, his Ministry has given environmental clearances to 943 projects, unlocking investments of up to about Rs 6.72 lakh crore. Mr. Javadekar said the NDA government focussed on three key principles — make new sustainable development policies, making the process of clearance simpler and more transparent, and decentralising power to the States. “During the last 10 years (of the UPA government), environment clearances took an average of 600 days. But the new strategy has helped my Ministry cut down the time for various clearances to an average of 190 days. We intend to further improve this to 100 days in the next one year,” Mr. Javadekar said at a press conference at the BJP headquarters here.

CPI(M) to field Pinarayi and Achuthanandan in Kerala Final decision to be taken at party State committee meeting today C. GOURIDASAN NAIR THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has overcome what used to be described as a major obstacle to its smooth progress in the upcoming electoral battle by deciding to field both Leader of the Opposition V.S. Achuthanandan and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Pinarayi Vijayan. The party State secretariat, which concluded its two-day meeting here on Saturday, is understood to have formally decided to field both the leaders in the Assembly elections. The final decision would be taken by the party State committee meeting here on Sunday. Mr. Achuthanandan would

IN THE FRAY CPI(M) averts row over VS’ candidature Yechury’s persuasive skills prove decisive Only six secretariat members to contest VS in Malampuzha, Pinarayi in Dharmadam contest in Malampuzha in Palakkad district and Mr. Vijayan in Dharmadam in Kannur district. The decision is a victory of sorts for the CPI(M) national leadership, particularly party general secretary Sitaram Yechury. He and his Polit Bureau colleagues Prakash Karat and S.

Ramachandran Pillai were present throughout the two days' of deliberations by the State secretariat on the tactics to be adopted by the CPI(M) and the LDF in the elections and the question of choosing candidates. Mr. Yechury had, during his visit to the State a fortnight ago, a one-on-one interaction

with Mr. Achuthanandan. The subsequent Polit Bureau meeting in New Delhi had decided to field both the leaders. Mr. Yechury had spoken to Mr. Achuthanandan over phone on Friday night. Apart from Mr. Vijayan, only five other members of the State secretariat would take to the fray. They are T.M. Thomas Isaac (Alappuzha), E.P. Jayarajan (Mattannur), A.K. Balan (Tharoor), T.P. Ramakrishnan (Perambra) and M.M. Mani (Udumbanchola). Central committee member K.K. Shylaja would also be in the fray. The leadership has decided to leave out oice-bearers of class and mass organisations among the State secretariat members out of the fray.

Kerala, T.N. secure top ranks in governance NAGESH PRABHU BENGALURU: Kerala and Tamil

Nadu have acquired the first and second rank in the public afairs index (PAI) of governance in States, while Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha lag behind, a latest survey by a thinktank, Public Afairs Centre (PAC), Bengaluru, has revealed. Karnataka secured the third position, while Gujarat stood fifth. Karnataka secured the top position among all States in the category of providing adequate and efective social protection to its citizens. West Bengal and Kerala secured the second and third positions. The survey, which was based on 10 themes, 25 focus subjects and 68 indicators, said Mizoram, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi secured top three ranks among the small States (less than two crore population). Karnataka, which ranked

had stood at 12th position in the World Bank’s report. Former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah released the report in the presence of a few State Chief Secretaries of States. The survey authored by C.K. Mathew, The State performed above Athreya Mukunthan and Vivek average with respect to wom- Divekar of PAC, was conducten and children, crime, law and ed on the basis of the latest daprovided by State order. “Education and health ta are said to be the pillars of de- governments. Punjab, which secured overvelopment and it is worth mentioning that the State has all 6th rank, bagged top spot on performed well and has the infrastructure front, folbagged the second rank,” the lowed by Haryana and Gujarat. survey said. Kerala secured the Among small States, Delhi led, 18th rank in the ease of doing followed by Goa and Himachal business report. “This latest Pradesh. In maintenance of law and ranking in governance will give a breath of fresh air to order, Tamil Nadu topped the Chief Minister Oommen list followed by Gujarat and Chandy in the run-up to the Kerala. Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha elections,” said Kerala Chief are ranked low in social proSecretary Jiji Thomson. The ranking will also help tection, economic freedom, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister delivery of justice, women and Jayalalithaa in the run-up to child development and essenthe poll campaign. Tamil Nadu tial infrastructure indicators.

Karnataka comes third, while Gujarat ranks fifth; Delhi leads in small States category

ninth in the ease of doing business in the World Bank report released last year, was placed at an overall rank three in the PAC survey. The State stood

second in both transparency and public accountability and environment. However, it lagged behind in delivery of justice, with a rank of 13.

Staf of tuition centre booked for making students stand naked on road SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT MUMBAI: The Mumbai police

on Saturday registered a case under the amended Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015 against the management of a tuition centre in Malwani for allegedly punishing two students by making them stand naked outside the centre in the middle of a busy street. The action was taken by the police after a video of the two boys, aged six and seven, standing naked outside the tuition centre and crying went viral on social media, followed by widespread public outrage. According to police sources, the video was posted on messaging application WhatsApp by a Malwani resident, who was passing by the Shree Tutorials in Malad on Friday. The video showed one boy completely naked and the other with only a shirt on his body crying incessantly and trying to cover their private parts with their hands. The video, which was shared widely, reached some police oicials, and the Malwani police were instructed

The video of the two boys, aged six and seven, crying outside the tuition centre, went viral on social media.

Mumbai police registered FIR against the manager and the teacher to look into the matter. Inquiries in the area helped the police trace the boys, and the police spoke to their families. However, their parents were unwilling to register an FIR, as they feared a backlash from the tuition centre manage-

ment, said sources. Finally, after consultation with senior police oicials, the Malwani police on Saturday registered an FIR against the manager of the tuition centre as well as the teacher who had “punished” the boys, with one of their own oicials acting as the complainant in the case. “We have registered a case under various Sections of the Juvenile Justice Act,” said Senior Police Inspector Milind Khetle, Malwani police station.

17th century cannon unearthed in Hyderabad SERISH NANISETTI HYDERABAD: The unearthing of a

17th century cannon early on Saturday in the Hussaini Alam area of the city created a buzz about the treasure that might be lying buried. “The cannon was unearthed when we were digging in the area at a house. At 2 a.m. I got a call. I immediately rushed and asked them to remove it carefully and keep it aside and I alerted the police about it,” said Mohammed Hanif. But unlike the cannon that was discovered last year only a few yards away in Naya Pul which was cast in bronze, this one is cast iron. The sevenfoot iron cannon with encrustations caused by time has not yet been inspected by the State Department of Archaeology and Museum. “As the police have taken custody of the cannon, we are not worried about its safety and we Locals stand near the cannon found under the surface of a will inspect and take custody building during demolition in Hyderabad on Saturday. — PHOTO: PTI on Monday,” said an ASI oicial. Probably mounted on the mount it on a carriage. Unlike Through the day, visitors old wall that girdled Hydera- the Qutb Shahi and Mughal thronged the area as the news bad, the spot of the cannon is cannons with their tapering spread about the cannon be- also closer to Petla Burj, one form, the cannon unearthed ing unearthed in the open ar- of the bastions of the old city. on Saturday is a straight piece ea behind the AD 1762 era What lends credence to this is with serrations all around it, Masjid e Buland Haji Moula- the cannon’s small pivot, un- and an elemental design in like what would be needed to the front. na. CM YK

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WEEKEND BEING

THE HINDU

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

RESEARCH AND NEONATOLOGY

HEALTH AND TECH

Big data and big hope for preterm babies

Does an App a day keep the doctor away?

An ongoing project hopes to kick-start a data collection system that would arm doctors in their fight against neonatal mortality for preterm babies, of which India has the highest number globally

F

inding relationships among large data sets to tease out predictions — or ‘big data’ analysis — is the hottest trend among e-commerce and biotechnology companies. New research seeks to extend it to neonatology and the fight against preterm baby mortality. Since January, Oxyent Medical — a company run by Harpreet Singh and his wife Ravneet Kaur— has been collecting data from about 300 children tracking their progress over their months in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in Delhi hospitals. “We’ve made an app out of it and now parents can track the progress and the weight gain. Going ahead, it can also serve as a vaccination record,” says Mr. Singh. The hope is that over time, long-term medical records of a range of Indian preterm babies will be available and researchers can then begin to see if there are correlations between, say, the weight and heart rate at 25 weeks and if that in turn can reveal patterns and predict if a child is progressing to sepsis. That’s shorthand for an array of bacterial infections that do not afect infants who’re born at 32 weeks or afJacob Koshy ter but almost always kill those born even three-four weeks shy. Mr. Singh’s interest in this stems from personal tragedy. Life in 2010 was nearperfect for the then 31-year-old. Two advanced degrees in biomedical science from the University of Wisconsin and a publication in Science, the world’s top research journal. A software for improving brain scans that EGI, an American biomedical company, bought. Relocation thereafter with his wife to India, followed by the couple launching their own company. Soon they were in the family way, Ms. Kaur expecting twins. Then, they lost one of them. She had gone into preterm labour after 26 weeks of gestation, instead of the normal 34-38 weeks. Though one of the children survived, the doctor said that the deceased infant — barely bigger than the palm of an adult — had succumbed to sepsis. Keeping a constant vigil Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah of Fortis La Femme Hospital in Delhi, who specialises in tending to preterm children, says that the challenge in treating such babies is in being able to identify the onset of infection early enough and begin appropriate antibiotic treatment. “The class of bacterial infections that we see in India are frequently diferent from that in the West,” says Dr. Mallaiah, who’s worked in England for a decade, “and that complicates treatment.” A general distinction between bacteria is whether they are ‘gram positive’ or ‘gram negative’ and medical literature finds the latter to be more resilient to antibiotic treatment. “Gram-negative infections are far more common in India and we barely get a 24-48-hour window to treat them,” he adds. Moreover, in such fragile babies weighing barely 1.5 kilos, the dosage of the administered antibiotics matters greatly because too much could mean further weakening them. Medicine apart, all other vital nutrition for such babies is also calculated based on their weight and so it’s one of the parameters that’s obsessively monitored for preterm babies. “Many times there are too many babies and too few nurses and they have to keep scanning other vitals such as urine, heart rate, lung function on the several monitors… errors happen,” says Dr. Mallaiah. Mistakes then mean that that the attending doctors too don’t have the right numbers to suggest subtle changes in dosage or nutrition specific to each child.

Experts recommend that users opt for health apps with clear privacy rules, and only after discussing it with doctors  Afshan Yasmeen

P

ills with ingestible sensors to monitor your health. Contact lenses to measure glucose levels in your tears and transmit that data to your smartphone… this is the future of health apps that are already redefining the way patients and doctors are approaching health care. Apps and wearable gadgets that measure physical activity, nutrition levels and calorie counts are popular in India, and, for the most part, doctors have given their blessing, but with a few caveats.

TOWARDS PRECISION MEDICINE: “Parameters such as the head circumference, length, weight, blood oxygen level from a small pool of infants at Fortis and AIIMS are part of an initial tranche of data collected so far.” (Above) The children’s ICU at Fortis Le Femme, New Delhi. (Below) From left: Ravneet Kaur, Harpreet Singh and Dr. Raghuram Mallaiah. — PHOTOS: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

To take a shot at minimising such errors Dr. Mallaiah and Mr. Singh, who’d spent nearly two months amidst the grim beeping machines that marked the progress of his twins, decided to combine their skills. As part of their ongoing project, Mr. Singh used his experience as a biomedical engineer to integrate the several machines monitoring each child such that the latest vitals — especially weight — were automatically updated and available to doctors. The importance of scale Parameters such as the head circumference, length, weight, blood oxygen level from a small pool of infants at Fortis and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences are part of an initial tranche of data that has so far been collected, which will serve to ‘teach’ Oxyent’s systems to find correlations among these numbers to predict serious contingencies. “Every day, every baby generates about 1 gigabyte of data,” says Mr. Singh. Implementing such a data collection system is feasible even in government hospitals provided it can be integrated within a cloud-like enterprise. The duo’s ongoing research has a global precedent. In 2011, researchers at the University of Virginia developed a

A data collection system is feasible even in government hospitals provided it can be integrated within a cloud-like enterprise system called HeRO (Heart Rate Observation) that measures subtle fluctuations in the heartbeat of infants and gives them a score from 1-5 to calculate the odds — the higher the number, the greater the odds — of them going into sepsis. There haven’t been many trials but reviews suggest that the system has had some success. For instance a study in Research And Reports In Neonatology records the case of an infant born at 25 weeks’ gestation. When she was four

weeks old, doctors saw a slight increase in the infant’s temperature and heart rate, and initially attributed it to overheating by the incubator. But with her HeRO score increasing from 0.8 to 2.0 in six hours, blood and urine cultures were obtained and antibiotics administered. In 24 hours, the doctors found that she was infected by the Klebsiella pneumoniae bacterium and put her on a full course of antibiotics. Big data, if it ultimately yields results for neonatology, can make a big diference in India. The World Health Organisation says that globally 1 in 10 live births are preterm, with India registering the highest number of them at 3.5 million. Even accounting for India’s high population, it’s still thrice that of China — the world’s most populous country — which has 1.1 million such births. Nearly a tenth of those children die due to complications and again, among 199 countries studied by Save The Children foundation in 2012, India has the highest number of deaths. But it is early days still. “The system isn’t developed enough to be deployed in hospitals,” says Dr. Mallaiah, “but we still need data from Indian babies to even hope to use them.” [email protected]

Ensure quality Users should always ensure the quality of the app used. Dr. Sudarshan H. Ballal, nephrologist and chairman of Manipal Hospitals, Bengaluru, says health apps certainly sensitise and motivate users to attain certain goals in terms of fitness and calorie consumption levels. “However, many of the apps and devices may not be accurate and could overestimate the activities. This has also been my personal experience where the app overestimated my activity level by as much as 10,000 steps in a given day, where a bumpy jeep ride was mistaken for a marathon,” he says. Another setback is that popular apps are still in a nascent stage of development. Most are geared towards American and European lifestyles. According to Sheela Krishnaswamy, a Bengaluru-based diet, nutrition and wellness consultant, users may find it diicult to measure portion sizes or input accurate measures. “Inaccurate data entry by the user will lead to inaccurate information output by the app. Many of the apps give information only about calories. However, calories are only a part of the entire nutrition picture. An app cannot [be a] substitute [for] a nutritionist,” she says. Some doctors do have a bank of tried and tested apps that they recommend to patients. “We make our patients aware of the various options available, but the final choice is left to them,” says Dr. Naresh Bhat, chief of liver and gastroenterology at Aster CMI Hospital, Bengaluru. “There are some apps for medical professionals, too, and my younger colleagues who use them find them beneficial.” Gynaecologist Dr. Hema Divakar often asks her patients who have issues with high blood pressure or sugar during pregnancy, to send the readings through an app. “Patients find it very reassuring

Patients find it very reassuring that they have a virtual connect with me.... Dr. Hema Divakar Gynaecologist

KEEPING TRACK: “Apps and gadgets

can serve as motivational tools and help those who want to adhere to a healthy lifestyle.” — PHOTO: REUTERS

Many of the apps and devices may not be accurate and could overestimate one's activities... Dr. Sudarshan H. Ballal Nephrologist

that they have a virtual connect with me and will receive alert messages when such [a] situation arises. This avoids anxiety and minimises visits to the hospital. Considering the traic jams and logistics, this is a real relief,” says Dr. Divakar, who represents the Federation of Obstetric and Gynaecological Societies of India (FOGSI) at the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO). ‘Get up, work out’ Dr. Rebecca Kuriyan-Raj, associate professor who also heads the Nutrition and Lifestyle Clinic at St John’s Medical College Hospital, Bengaluru, adds that fitness gadgets actually help people realise how sedentary their lifestyles are. “This could further motivate them to increase their physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour. Any of these devices and apps needs to be validated against a criterion method. So, while buying or asking for a fitness gadget, it is always good to ask for accuracy,” she says. Dr. Anil Kapur, Chairman of the World Diabetes Foundation, also feels that apps and gadgets serve as motivational tools and can help those who want to adhere to a healthy lifestyle. “They also serve to improve understanding of the consequence of actions related to eating and exercise and, therefore, are good tools for behaviour change,” he says. There’s no going back to a world without apps. Experts recommend that users opt for apps with clear privacy rules, and only after discussing it with their doctors. After all, at its best, a health app should improve a person’s quality of life yasmeen.afshan @thehindu.co.in

GROUNDBREAKING U.S. STUDY

Kidney transplants breach the incompatibility wall Known as ‘desensitisation’ of the immune system, new method has the potential to save many lives and could mean a crucial difference between receiving a transplant and spending the rest of one’s life on dialysis

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n the anguishing wait for a new kidney, tens of thousands of patients on waiting lists may never find a match because their immune systems will reject almost any transplanted organ. Now, in a large study in the United States that experts are calling revolutionary, researchers have found a way to get them the desperately needed procedure. In the new study, published on Wednesday (March 9) in The New England Journal of Medicine, doctors successfully altered patients’ immune sys-

Gina Kolata

tems to allow them to accept kidneys from incompatible donors. Significantly more of those patients were still alive after eight years than patients who had remained on waiting lists or received a kidney transplanted from a deceased donor. The method, known as desensitisation, “has the potential to save many lives,” said Dr. Jefery Berns, a kidney specialist at the University of Pennsylvania’s PerelCM YK

man School of Medicine and the president of the National Kidney Foundation. It could slash the wait times for thousands of people and for some, like Clint Smith, a 56-year-old lawyer in New Orleans, mean the diference between receiving a transplant and spending the rest of their lives on dialysis. The procedure, Mr. Smith said, “changed my life.” Researchers estimate about half of the 100,000 people in the United States on waiting lists for a kidney transplant have antibodies that will attack a transplanted organ, and about 20 per cent are so sensitive that finding a compatible organ is all but impossible. In addition, said Dr. Dorry Segev, the lead author of the new study and a transplant surgeon at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, an unknown number of people with kidney failure simply give up on the waiting lists after learning that their bodies would reject just about any organ. Instead, they resign themselves to dialysis, a diicult and draining procedure that can pretty much take over a person’s life. The process Desensitisation involves first filtering

NEW HOPE: “Kidney specialists argue that desensitisation is cheaper in the long run

than dialysis.” Picture shows a patient undergoing dialysis at a facility in Hyderabad. — PHOTO: MOHAMMED YOUSUF

the antibodies out of a patient’s blood. The patient is then given an infusion of other antibodies to provide some protection while the immune system regenerates its own antibodies. For some reason — exactly why is not known — the person’s regenerated antibodies are less likely to attack the new organ, Dr. Segev said. But if the person’s regenerated natural antibodies are still a concern, the patient is treated with drugs that destroy any white blood cells that might make antibodies that would attack the new kidney. The process is expensive, costing $30,000, and uses drugs not approved for

this purpose. The transplant costs about $100,000. But kidney specialists argue that desensitisation is cheaper in the long run than dialysis, which costs $70,000 a year for life. Other possibilities Although by far the biggest use of desensitisation would be for kidney transplants, the process might be suitable for living donor transplants of livers and lungs, researchers said. The liver is less sensitive to antibodies so there is less need for desensitisation, “but it’s certainly possible if there are known incompati-

bilities,” Dr. Segev said. With lungs, he said, desensitisation “is theoretically possible,” although he said he was not aware of anyone doing it yet. In the new study, 1,025 patients at 22 medical centres who had an incompatible donor were compared to an equal number of patients who remained on waiting lists for an organ or who had an organ from a deceased but compatible donor. After eight years, 76.5 per cent of those who received an incompatible kidney were still alive, compared with 62.9 per cent who remained on the waiting list or received a deceased donor kidney and 43.9 per cent who remained on the waiting list but never got a transplant. The desensitisation procedure takes

An unknown number of people with kidney failure simply give up on the waiting list after learning that their bodies would reject just about any organ... Dr. Dorry Segev Transplant Surgeon, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

time — for some patients as long as two weeks — and is performed before the transplant operation, so patients must have a living donor. It is not known how many have someone willing to donate a kidney, but doctors say they often see situations in which a relative or even a friend is willing to donate but is incompatible. “Often patients are told that their living donor is incompatible, so they are stuck on waiting lists,” for a deceased donor, Dr. Segev said. In recent years, an option called a kidney exchange has helped some in this situation. Patients who have incompatible living donors can swap donors with someone whose donor may be compatible with them. Often, there are chains of patient donor pairs leading to a compatible organ swap. Dr. Jefrey Campsen, a transplant surgeon at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center who also was not a study investigator, said his group focussed on exchanges and had been fairly successful. But he also comes across patients whose donors do not want to participate. “There is a hurdle if the donor and patient have an emotional bond,” he said. The new data showing the success of desensitisation “lets people get behind it,” Dr. Campsen said, adding, “I do think it is something we would consider.” — New York Times News Service ND-ND

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WEEKEND READING

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

INTERVIEW

SHELF

‘The counter-revolution is triumphant’ Egyptian novelist-activist Ahdaf Soueif explains the aftermath of the Tahrir Square uprising and the politics and concerns that fuel her writing

A

This is a big question. Basically, now we are at a stage where the counter-revolution is overall triumphant, and the two huge institutions which were designed to be checks on the power of the government have decided that their interests lie with the government. So, there is this really ugly coalition. It’s very active in lots of ways. It has many arms. One arm is attacking human rights, NGOs, students in universi-

It was, in fact, your first visit to Palestine in 2000 which first saw you get caught up in cultural activism. Your involvement with Palestine also resulted in the Palestine Festival of Literature. How has PalFest’s journey been so far?

Ahdaf Soueif’s most recently published Cairo: My City, Our Revolution is on the Tahrir uprising. Picture shows anti-Mubarak protesters in Egypt in early 2011. (Below) The novelist. — PHOTOS: AP/ SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

ties, making people disappear from the streets. Another arm is handing down ridiculous prison sentences; another is implicating the country in more and more foreign debt, selling of bits of the country, giving franchises and rights to mammoth international corporations. So you have an extremely active counter-revolution. And on the side of the revolution, a lot of the energy and efort goes into all the issues around the people who have disappeared, have been detained and killed. There is also the discourse on how to learn from our past mistakes, so as to be at a better place when the next wave comes. The certain thing is that nobody believes this system is sustainable. Something is bound to give.

The artist played a huge role in the revolution — the the graffiti, the posters. What happens to the artist now? What role does he or she play in answer to this counter-revolution?

I continue to believe that art is integral to a revolutionary movement. It is born of it, it feeds it, and it expresses it. At this moment, it would be insane to go out and try to draw something on the wall. However, for example, there was an amazing wall, the famous Mohamed Mahmoud Street graiti wall at the American University in Cairo [AUC] building. Suddenly, AUC decided that the wall needed to be broken down, not because of anything political but because they had to put up a building. So they took it down. Just before I came, I saw notes on Twitter saying that anybody who wanted a bit of that wall better go and get it, because it’s gone. Then what happened was that some of the artists who had created that graffiti went to take a look and they found themselves entering a process of searching through the mound of pieces and rubble to locate bits of the artwork. Later, they made an arrangement with the AUC, which would leave everything in place for a day. The

Now we are at a stage where the two huge institutions which were designed to be checks on the power of the government have decided that their interests lie with the government. So, there is this really ugly coalition. THE BOOK

artists went through a selection process and put the pieces in a truck. These will be recycled one day into a new installation. Not a recreation of the old work, but something completely new. This is what art can do, build something new from the rubble of the old.

You’ve spoken before on how governments fear students. This idea finds echo in India. Traditionally, what regimes fear is students and workers getting together. This is a rather old style of thinking because now the workers are also diferent from what they used to be fifty years ago. But it still holds that these are the populations that governments most fear. Students were a tremendous part of 2011 in Egypt. And when it became clear that the revolution was not going to take power in the country, then came the idea of revolutionising your space, whatever it was, and so a lot of stuf happened with the student unions in universities, etc. At the end of 2013, when this regime was tightening its hold, there was tremendous confrontation in the universities, and we went back to a situation where students were detained and killed inside the classrooms. Recently, what’s been interesting is that

Art is integral to a revolutionary movement. It is born of it, it feeds it, and it expresses it. we’ve had elections for general students’ union. When the results came out, the president and the vice president made short speeches where they both declared themselves children of the January 25 revolution. After this, the Ministry of Education decided that the elections were faulty and would have to be redone.

There was a move you made too, in 2000, when you turned from fiction to non-fiction and political essays. As a writer, was this move, which entrenched you deeper in your country’s political context and situation, inevitable? For me it was inevitable. I don’t regard it as a move forever, though. I have spent enough time sort of fretting over when I was going to write the next novel. There is a tug, simply because there are a limited number of hours in a day and one has limited energy. What happened was that after 2000, after I published

IN MY HAND

WORD COUNT

Harinder Sidhu

A quest for texts from every country is as disturbing as it is affirming  

I’ve just finished reading all four of the Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novels. I am currently reading Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian and Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi. This is my introduction to India reading. I always read three or four books at a time. I’m lacking a fiction book at the moment — I usually have something on the go. I am planning to read the new Geraldine Brooks book, The Secret Chord. I love Geraldine Brooks, she is a wonderful writer. The three things I look for in a good book are stories that inspire, characters that inspire, and really good quality writing. (Harinder Sidhu is Australian High Commissioner-designate.)

Anuja Chauhan I just read Jerry Pinto’s Em and the Big Hoom. It’s a lovely book. I just attended a bunch of lit fests, so I picked up a lot of Indian authors to read. I’ve realised I’m the kind who rereads books and happily giggles while reading them just the way I used to when I was young rather than picking up something new. It’s like the comfort of old friends; sometimes you just don’t want new friends. But I’ve decided I need some new friends now, and I plan to read Lunatic in My Head by Anjum Hasan next. (Anuja Chauhan is a writer and has worked in advertising.) CM YK

HELP

The humanist’s playbook

the first two big pieces in The Guardian, it was like I had a platform, and there was a new discourse emerging. I would be asked to speak here and write there, and it seemed to me that it was a duty. Then of course, if you are a novelist, you can’t say that I am going to leave all this for three days while I write my novel, and then come back to it. A novel is a big project, and all these other things are also very defined. You think, okay well, the novel can wait for two days while I write this article, or while I go to this festival, and suddenly two days and three days and the weekend and the year have passed.

hdaf Soueif is a leading Egyptian writer and activist. With novels such as In the Eye of the Sun and The Map of Love, she marked out her space in Arab literature early, bringing a uniquely political clarity to both her contemporary and historical fiction. The latter was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1999, but thereafter she turned away from fiction and has focussed on cultural activism and commentary. She translated into English the iconic memoir I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti, and most recently published Swati Daftuar Cairo: My City, Our Revolution on the Tahrir uprising. On a visit to Delhi this month, she spoke at length on politics, culture and much more. Excerpts from the interview:

In a recent piece in The Guardian, looking back on Egypt five years after the 18-dayrevolution in 2011, you speak of how the next eruption will be “born of despair rather than hope”. Where does Egypt stand today, and what has become of the hope that the January 25 revolution fanned?

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It has its audiences and has become more and more young as it’s gone on. It’s also become more inclusive of music and other art forms. People who have come for the PalFest have said that it’s a life-changing experience. Basically this has a lot to do with the idea that while you attend it, you live like Palestinians. So you can only go to the places where the Palestinians are allowed to go, you have no privileges, you can only go through the checkpoints, the bombed roads and so on. And the festival travels, so that every day it’s in a new city. That way, people live through this experience, and they also see the diferent manifestations of the occupation in diferent cities. By the end of the week they tell us that they understand; they can see how it is.

And for Palestinians, the festival is a way of accessing literature from around the world... Yes, at the festival, we almost don’t discuss Palestine at all… Actually, people in Palestine are sick and tired of listening to their own situation. What they want is for writers to come and read a passage from their book which has nothing to do with them. Palestinians really go for the people who make them laugh. If it’s something funny, they love it. They just want something to lift them out of their context. I must say there is a very active art scene in Palestine; there are writers, there are debates, there is fantastic art, music, there is everything, but just having somebody come from outside, someone diferent, is interesting. [email protected]

Sir Terry Pratchett may be widely known as a fantasy writer whose world rests on the back of four elephants standing on the carapace of a giant turtle. Humans, trolls, dragons, werewolves, dwarves, witches, goblins, the undead, and even an occasional orangutan populate Discworld. But Pratchett’s books, with doses of satire, mystery and action, also commit to realism. While the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Philip Pullman, J.K. Rowling and George R.R. Martin are anchored on the grand theme of good versus evil, Pratchett’s gift lies in spinning everyday struggles into literary gold. This is best seen in the City Watch books, a subset of his Discworld novels. Pratchett fans are split into those who enjoy the Watch books and the Witches books, but most recommend the former. Samuel Vimes, the protagonist of the Watch novels, exemplifies the down-toearth approach that Pratchett takes in creating his make-believe world. Pratchett himself noted: “There is possibly more of me in Sir Samuel than in any other player on my pages.” The transformation of Sam Vimes from a rookie night policeman in Ankh-Morpokh to Commander of the City Watch is similar to the growth of Pratchett’s oeuvre. Vimes’s motley group of policemen fight a magical dragon in the first Watch book Guards! Guards! and, by the last book Snuf, Vimes has made a strong case for the embracing of diversity, a familiar topic of today. Pratchett uses Vimes to take on heavy subjects: corruption in business and politics (Feet of Clay), land rights (Jingo), diplomacy and foreign policy (Fifth Elephant), and intolerance and war (Thud!). But far from becoming a superhero, Vimes becomes increasingly aware of his flaws. In Thud!, for example, Vimes struggles to be master of the ‘Summoning Dark’, a creature of dwarfish lore that is a metaphor for the policeman’s desire for vengeance. In Discworld, Vimes is one of the many characters who strives to do good. In Men At Arms, he gives away his monthly savings to the widows and children of personnel killed in duty. His emphasis on human values earns him the loyalty of all kinds of people — werewolves, trolls, even a zombie — in the night watch. Vimes is Discworld’s greatest humanist just like the stellar humanist that Pratchett was in his fight for freedom of choice, his ethics classes for schools, and his support for critical thinking and scientific enquiry. In Pratchett’s last few years, he advocated for wildlife conservation, made donations for research into Alzheimer’s treatment, and campaigned for the right to assisted death. When he died at 66 last year on March 12, Pratchett left behind a legacy of work that will never cease to delight and edify. — KANNAL ACHUTAN

Finding the centre in 197 books Mini Kapoor

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nce Ann Morgan, a London-based writer, had decided she’d spend an entire year reading “a book-length prose narrative, written or translated into English,” from each and every country in the world, she inevitably came up against the question, how many countries are there? When she contacted the Foreign and Commonwealth Oice to inquire which countries the U.K. recognised, she was told that the list could not be shared as it was a “very political” subject. Left to her own devices, she listed every country that the United Nations recognises or has previously recognised — and added Kurdistan, to make it 196 plus one. The UN in fact serendipitously helped along her wish list, giving oicial cover, as it were, for her to include Palestine. Morgan’s chosen year in question was 2012, and she had crafted all kinds of excuses to get Palestine on the list. But on November 29, the UN declared Palestine a “non-member state”. That was also the year of the London Summer Games, and Morgan could well have chosen “countries” that participated. It would have taken the number of territories from which to grab a book to 205. It still would not have given her space to bring in separate books for, say, England and Scotland, as they are represented together in both forums. For that, she’d have had to take

the categorisation of international teams in a cricket or football tournament. The point is that categorisation is a very subjective call, and having made hers, Morgan’s analysis of her 2012 reading list just out as a book, Reading the World: Confessions of a Literary Explorer (Harvill Secker), remains very political in trying to understand how literature is produced, and read. Thankfully eschewing the impulse, if any, to have a cutesy book-by-book summary of her reading, she instead draws from her reading to list the issues in-

ILLUSTRATION: SATWIK GADE

volved in coming to grips with, and collectively owning, world literature. Publishing of course remains very AngloAmerican dominated, and Morgan’s survey is especially enlightening when she talks about the smallest outposts, which have little publishing activity and which also draw very feeble interest from publishers elsewhere. There is no commercially obtainable translation of a Malagasy novel, she informs us. When all eforts to find a book from San Marino failed, she contacted their Ministry of Culture, and finally had to make do with a pamphlet about

the microstate’s history. It’s not just the distance from the publishing metropolises of the world that inhibits writers, it is also a legacy of assumptions about who can best tell the stories. Burundian Marie-Terese Toyi’s Weep Not, Refugee too is not commercially available, and reading Morgan’s synopsis of the novel you have to wonder why not. Toyi’s studies were cut short by genocide and war, and when she moved to Nigeria to continue her university education, people there would ask her to write for publication. Toyi explained the import of this encouragement: “I have discovered we don’t trust ourselves. Some writers, like Joseph Conrad, were not born English speakers but they produce something good… We believe that those who write are particularly gifted people, European people, not a typical Burundi.” Self-publishing has played a significant role in enriching world literature. Derek Walcott self-published long before his Nobel — and at the other end of the literary spectrum, Samoan Lani Wendt Young has achieved commercial success with the self-published Telesa series about an 18-year-old American Samoan’s adjustment in her mother’s homeland. Remaking identities How do you identify a writer to be from a particular country? What do you say about the Honduran on Morgan’s list, Guillermo Yuscaran. When the Californian first visited Honduras, his name was William Lewis. Sitting in a mountain town once, he finally resolved how to end a short story that he had been struggling for a long time. He

It’s not just the distance from the publishing metropolises of the world that inhibits writers, it is also a legacy of assumptions about who can best tell the stories. sent the story to Ms. magazine with a woman’s name, Francisca Luis Yuscaran, thinking it’d then have a better chance of acceptance. It was accepted, but eventually with the name Guillermo Yuscaran. But no recce of world literature is complete without a tribute to those tireless translators who give stories such portability across languages. Morgan goes to Edith Grossman, who says of her celebrated translation of Don Quixote, “My concern as a literary translator was to create a piece of writing in English that perhaps could be called literature too.” Moragn cites an experiment that essentially shows that a story translated by nine diferent people could yield nine diferent texts. In essence, then, the firm listdriven exercise to read the world yields a profile of global literature that is as disturbing as it is airming — and that is a timely nudge to humbly break out of our set ways and discover new ways of knowing more about the human condition. For isn’t that what literature is all about? And isn’t reading about others, about elsewhere the best way to know our individual selves? [email protected] ND-ND

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14 | FROM PAGE ONE

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and IMF MD Christine Lagarde exchange MoU documents at a conference in New Delhi on Saturday. — PHOTO: PTI

ond term and complimented her on successfully persuading all IMF members to ratify the long-pending quota revisions (agreed in 2010) that have come into efect. “The quotas of emerging countries will now better reflect their weight in the world economy... This will give them more say in collective decisions at the IMF,” Mr. Modi said. Reforms an on-going process, says Modi Reform of global institu-

courage delisting of suspended companies, strengthen its surveillance mechanism, enhance the functioning of credit-rating agencies and encourage the use of technology to streamline ‘know your customer’ procedure In another move that would help investors take a better informed decision, the capital market watchdog has said companies will have to

tions should be an on-going process, he said, which must reflect changes in the global economy, and the rising share of emerging economies. “Even now, IMF quotas do not reflect the global economic realities.” The change in quotas was not an issue of increasing the “power” of certain countries. It was an issue of fairness and legitimacy. He also welcomed the IMF's decision to finalise the next round of quota changes by October 2017.

disclose the impact of all remarks — qualifications in accounting parlance — in a separate statement along with the annual financial statements. While the new mechanism will be applicable from the financial year ending March 31, 2016, the management of a company will have the right to give its views on the qualifications along with the impact.

RSS presses for more allocation for education

Official says no cause for worry as radiation level has not gone up at the plant or in its vicinity

AHMEDABAD/CHENNAI: A day after a rupture in the coolant system in one of the reactors at the Kakrapar atomic power station in Gujarat, experts of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) launched an inquiry to identify the cause and nature of the leakage which forced the authorities to shut down the reactor on Friday EMERGENCY DECLARED: A view of the Kakrapar Atomic Power morning. “We have carried out a thor- Station in Gujarat on Friday, after it was shut down following a ough radiation survey and heavy water leak. — PHOTO: AFP there is no change in the radiation level at the plant as well ture in a feeder pipe in the Plant authorities as outside. There is no in- heavy water system, which led say all safety crease in radiation level,” Lalit to the spilling of heavy water Kumar Jain, Director of the on the floor of the reactor systems kicked in plant, said on Saturday. He said building on Friday. Following soon after the leak two experts from the AERB the incident, a plant emergenwas detected had arrived at the plant to take cy was declared. The plant stock of the situation and help emergency signifies a heightplant engineers in the normal- ened state of alert for the plant “This is a failure of one comisation process. ponent. We will investigate personnel and management. According to Mr. Jain, the “These feeder pipes, which how it happened,” he said. radiation level is being con- carry heavy water, are made of The NPCIL is tasked with stantly monitored. high-grade carbon steel. We building, operating and de“The probe is to identify the will do a metallurgical exam- commissioning nuclear reaccause of the leakage in the pri- ination [of what led to the rup- tors. There are two indigemary heat transport system ture in one of the pipes]. It is nously built Pressurised [PHTS],” he said.The leakage not a phenomenon which is Heavy Water Reactors occurred in one of the oper- frequent ... But the fact that all (PHWRs), each of 220 MWe ation units at the plant as an- the safety systems came into capacity, operating at Kakraother unit has been shut for operation immediately after par in Vyara district of Gujarat, maintenance since July 2015. the leak of the heavy water and about 80 km from Surat. These the reactor was shut down au- PHWRS use natural uranium NPCIL probe tomatically proves the robust- as the fuel. Heavy water acts Nuclear Power Corporation ness of the system,” said N. Na- both as a coolant and moderaDirector (Human tor in the reactor. of India Limited (NPCIL) will gaich, investigate what led to the rup- Resources), NPCIL. Mr. Nagaich said there was

tary Suresh (Bhaiyyaji) Joshi on Friday. RSS Akhil Bharatiya Sampark Pramukh Aniruddha Deshpande refused to discuss the issue at his press conference. The resolution, however, did call for value-based, nationalistic, employment-oriented and skill-based education for each child. The health resolution called for medical facilities

in small towns and villages and made out a case for more philanthropic health care efforts. It also called for medicines to be brought within the reach of the people. While there was much emphasis on social justice and a call to end caste discrimination, an insider said he had not yet seen the draft of any resolution on the issue.

Number of ‘shakhas’ goes up SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NAGAUR: Even as the BJP has seen its political fortunes rise dramatically in the two years — apart from two serious setbacks in Delhi and Bihar elections — its ideological mentor RSS also seems to have registered a quantum jump in the number of its ‘shakhas’ or branches. RSS joint general secretary Krishna Gopal said here on Friday that the number of daily shakhas in the last one year had jumped by 5,524. He said the number of branches — where RSS

volunteers gather daily in the neighbourhood for morning exercises and ideological discourses in parks — at present is 56,859. Last year at the same time this number was 51,335. The annual number of shakhas is reported at this time of each year when the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, the highest decision making body of the Sangh, meets in some city of India. The number of shakhas had increased by 10,413 between 2012 and 2015, and the acceleration has quickened in the last one year. This also happens to

be a time when there has been considerable debate on tolerance in India and core Hindutva issues such as conversions, Ram temple, ‘love jihad’, etc. Mr. Gopal also claimed that the largest number of shakhas were those attended by youngsters, seeking to dispel the impression that the young were not enamoured of the Sangh. The number of shakhas of the Sangh was declining in the last decade but has picked up in recent years and is at a new high in recent years.

NEW DELHI: Leader of the Oppo-

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for the first time after the NDA’s defeat in the Assembly polls last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Saturday that India “cannot make progress without the development of eastern States like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.” He said the use of technology and the release of an annual bulletin to highlight the oldest cases in courts would help to improve the functioning of the judiciary and “create sensitivity to the pendency of cases in the country.” Speaking at the closing ceremony of the centenary celebrations of the Patna High Court, Mr. Modi suggested that the court, the Bar and the Bench should become technosavvy “to improve the quality of judgments and arguments.” “Now we’ve something which we had not earlier — the power of technology. We’ve to see how much techno-savvy we can make the Bar, the Bench and the courts by using digital technology in their functioning and help work towards improving the quality of judgments.” “Earlier, a lot of time was

RJD welcomes

dition,” he explained. While the case went to the Privy Council at the time, which upheld the earlier views of the High Courts that merely saying anything against the British government amounted to sedition, Mr. Srikrishna said a case regarding sedition came up before the Supreme Court soon after independence. “The Supreme Court read down the law and said that the decision of the federal court was right,” he said.

Govt. denies barring Muslims as yoga gurus SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT NEW DELHI: The AYUSH Ministry has denied following a discriminatory policy in recruiting Muslims as yoga practitioners even as the Milli Gazette, an influential community web fortnightly, put out a series of documents claiming the exact opposite. At the time of going to press, editor Zafurul Islam Khan said his paper stood by the story

CM YK

filed by freelance journalist Pushp Sharma, and was in the process of putting out more documents in the public domain. Mr Sharma was unavailable for comments. The findings of the RTI application, as reported in the Mili Gazette, set of a storm on social media with the claim that under the oicial government policy, despite 3,841 Muslim candidates having ap-

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

sition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad on Saturday sparked of a controversy when he drew an equivalence between the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) the ideological mentors of the ruling BJP and the terror outfit Islamic State (IS). He was speaking at an event organised by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind and his rePrime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Justice of India marks prompted a furious reJustice T. S. Thakur, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Law action from both the RSS, Minister Sadanand Gowda at the Closing Ceremony of the which threatened legal acCentenary Year Celebrations of the Patna High Court on tion, and the BJP, which deSaturday. manded an apology from Mr. spent doing research in the le- States develop.” He also Azad. gal field, but today Google is a thanked Mr. Kumar for extend“So, we oppose organisabar member which digs out ing support to the Centre for tions like IS, the way we opwhat you need for your cases,” Bihar’s development. While pose the RSS. If those among Mr. Modi said. listing the priorities of projects us in Islam too do wrong of his government for Bihar like things, they are no way less PM flags of rail projects providing gas connectivity and than the RSS,” Mr. Azad had In another programme in electricity to every household, said in his speech. During his Chhaukia village in Hajipur of Mr. Modi said that in the past 18 speech, Mr. Azad made a Vaishali district, Mr. Modi months, his government had strong case for fighting comflagged of railway projects completed 34 per cent of unful- munalism of “all types,” and said India could not be a filled projects in Bihar. whether indulged in by HinWhen Mr. Kumar thanked dus, Muslims or Sikhs, as developed country unless its eastern States made progress. Mr. Modi for visiting Bihar and they are a “threat to the world “We’re committed to the de- hoping that he would keep and the country.” velopment of the eastern coming to the State for its de“They create distances beStates…The nerve centre of In- velopment, some people kept tween a man and another. Let dia’s development lies in east- chanting Modi…Modi…Modi. them be of any religion, we ern India… For India’s sustain- The Prime Minister himself will have to fight them. able development, it is had to get up from his chair and Hence, all the secularist important that the eastern asked them to sit down. forces need to come together

Ghulam Nabi Azad made a strong case for fighting communalism of all kinds.

to eliminate these forces. The fight is between communalism and secularism; let’s see whether communalism wins or the secularism,” he said. “India belongs to all religions, which means majority is with us,” he added. BJP demands apology The RSS, whose top leadership is meeting at a conclave in Nagaur in Rajasthan said “Azad comparing the IS with the RSS exhibits the intellectual bankruptcy of the Congress and its unwillingness to deal with fundamentalist and cruel forces like the IS.” The BJP demanded an apology from Mr. Azad for defaming the RSS which it termed a “nationalist” organisation.

Ex-CFOs of Mallya firms quizzed again

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

Be a nationalist as long as you do not hurt somebody: Srikrishna MUMBAI: Explaining the evolution of the law on sedition in India at an event here, former Supreme Court judge B.N. Srikrishna said that it had been challenged on several occasions even before it had become the subject of recent controversy. Speaking at an event organised at IIT Bombay, and in response to a question about whether the law on sedition in-

Automatic shutdown What was significant, he said, was that the reactor shut down automatically, all the safety systems came into operation and there was no radiological consequence. As part of laid-down procedures, the management and plant personnel were alerted. A plant emergency was declared and the staf members were asked to be available at the plant site. Anil Kakodkar, former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, said what was important was that after the heavy water leak occurred, “the safety systems of the reactor took over and acted according to design.”

AMARNATH TEWARY

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

terferes with the right to free speech, he said the courts in India had adopted a British era federal court stand on the issue. “When the British introduced the law on sedition their version was that anybody who said anything that generated disafection with the elected government was guilty of sedition. The High Courts upheld this, but the federal court took a diferent view, saying that unless people were incited toward an act of violence it was not se-

power of 220 MWe, one of the feeder pipes ruptured, which led to the leak of heavy water, and its spilling on the floor of the reactor building. The reactor tripped immediately. Several safety systems kicked in and the reactor shut down automatically. The safety systems performed according to design. Cooling systems sprayed water on the fuel core, to ward of any possibility of the fuel core from melting. Asked how many tonnes of heavy water leaked into the reactor building, Mr. Nagaich said: “We will estimate it now. The first priority was the safe shutdown of the reactor. All safety systems are under close watch.”

Azad draws a parallel between IS and RSS

PATNA: “Nitish is cooperat-

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

“no cause for worry” and it had been “established” that there was no release of radiation into the atmosphere. Several samples had been taken from the environment and “they indicated that there is no rise in the radioactivity levels either in the plant site or outside,” he said. “Today, the situation is that the reactor is under cold shutdown. The [natural uranium] fuel core has been cooled. The coolant temperature has come down. It is around 30 degrees centigrade. It has come to normal temperature,” Mr. Nagaich said on Saturday. About 2,500 tonnes of ordinary/light water was used for long-term cooling of the natural uranium fuel core. This had led to the temperature of the fuel core coming down. When contacted, S. Harikumar, Secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), which keeps a watch on safety in nuclear establishments in the country, said on Saturday that “things are close to normal” at Kakrapar-1. The situation was under control and “plant parameters are almost normal”. There are 306 small feeder pipes in the reactor system and they carry heavy water. Each feeder pipe has a diameter of about an inch and a half. Around 9 a.m. on Friday (March 11, 2016), when the reactor was generating its full

Judiciary should turn tech-savvy, says Modi PATNA: Sharing the stage with

“Inadequate allocation for education and lack of priority for education in the government policy during the preceding years have left open this field to institutions aiming for profits,” the resolution said. It made no reference to “anti-national” activities on campuses, a key RSS theme that also figured in the report of Sangh general secre-

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

AERB probing leak at nuclear plant MAHESH LANGA & T.S. SUBRAMANIAN

SEBI crackdown on wilful defaulters The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has decided to significantly increase its activities related to investor education and awareness, and plans to appoint at least one ‘resource person’ in each district for conducting such programmes on a regular basis in all areas. In the financial year 201617, the SEBI also plans to en-

THE HINDU

KAKRAPAR MISHAP

India won’t exploit exchange rate as trade tool, says PM It is expected to become the focal point for planning, coordinating, and implementing the IMF’s capacity-development activities in the region. This will include macroeconomic and fiscal management, monetary operations, financial sector regulation and supervision, and macroeconomic statistics. The centre will help to address the existing training needs and respond to the demand for IMF training in India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, while bringing the region’s training volume on a par with those of other regions. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said: “I would like to thank Prime Minister Modi, Finance Minister [Arun] Jaitley and the Indian government for ofering to host the centre and for their substantial financial commitment.” This will be the first centre that would fully integrate training and technical assistance and would be a model for future capacity development work. Mr. Modi congratulated Ms. Lagarde on being appointed as Managing Director for a sec-

NOIDA/DELHI

plied for the post of yoga instructor, none was invited, selected or sent abroad. While Minister with independent charge Sripad Naik dismissed the RTI query as bogus and promised an inquiry, Anil Ganeriwala, joint secretary, said the ministry simply cannot have a recruitment policy based on religion. “We have an open recruitment and selection processs like all government jobs.”

ing with the Central Government in its developmental projects in the State. If the Centre and the Bihar Government work closely, the State will make progress and India can progress,” PM Modi said. BJP leaders from Bihar who are in the Modi Cabinet, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Ravi Shankar Prasad, told journalists that “we all should work together for the development of Bihar and if Nitish Kumar is cooperating with the Central Government we must welcome it.” The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Mr Kumar’s coalition partner, welcomed the personal chemistry. RJD leader and Finance Minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui said: “The Prime Minister should be impartial to everyone and that is what I found in him today.” His party, however, struck a discordant note and was unhappy at party chief Lalu Prasad not being invited for the Hajipur function. The Congress also was not impressed. “The Prime Minister’s speech was more political in nature,” party leader Sadanand Singh said.

Airline staff seek PM’s help

MUMBAI: The Enforcement Di-

rectorate (ED) on Saturday questioned former Kingfisher Chief Financial Oicer (CFO) A Raghunathan and former United Breweries CFO Ravi Nedungadi for the second consecutive day in connection with the alleged money laundering case that the agency is investigating. Mr Raghunathan and Mr Nedungadi reached the ED office in Mumbai at around 11:00 am on Saturday for inquiries and left at around 7:00 pm. The duo was also quizzed by the ED for around eight hours on Friday. Sources said that the duo, having held the top posts in the financial section of businessman Vijay Mallya’s companies, were questioned at length about the financial transactions of the companies and the loans that were taken from the IDBI bank as well as various other financial institutions. The ED’s case looks at the Rs 900 crore loan that Kingfisher Airlines took from the IDBI bank despite having a poor credit rating. According to sources, inquiries are currently underway to find out whether any part of the loan amount was routed through the UB group before being sent abroad, or

NEW DELHI: Hundreds of unpaid

employees of the defunct Kingfisher Airlines have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his intervention in the recovery of their dues which was estimated to be around Rs. 300 crore. “On behalf of all the employees of erstwhile Kingfisher Airlines, we request you for your immediate intervention in helping us recover our hard earned dues,” the employees said in the letter sent to the Prime Minister on Saturday. Kingfisher Airlines had started its operations in 2005. Two years later it acquired the then low-cost Air Deccan. It was grounded in October 2012 by its chairman Vijay Mallya due to nonavailability of funds. It lost the flying permit in December 2012.

According to the letter, there were about 7,000 direct as well as indirect employees who were affected by the closure of Kingfisher Airlines and a majority of them cannot even afford to fight it out in courts. — PTI

whether it was transferred to UB group accounts after being routed through of shore accounts. Oicials said that the inquiries were not only limited to the transactions between IDBI and Kingfisher Airlines, although this aspect is the most significant one. “We have also obtained records of financial transactions of several other financial institutions that Kingfisher Airlines has had dealings with in the past, and

some more such documents are also being obtained so that clear trails of money can be established as well as a clear picture of the company’s finances be obtained,” said a source. The agency had on Friday issued a summons to Mr Mallya, asking him to come to the Mumbai oice for inquires on March 18. Oicials declined to comment on whether there had been any response to the summons from Mr. Mallya.

Deve Gowda backs him SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Kingfisher Airlines was grounded in 2012 by its chairman Vijay Mallya due to non-availability of funds.

BENGALURU: Defending Vijay Mallya, Janata Dal (secular) chief H.D. Deve Gowda on Saturday said: “He [Mallya] is born in Karnataka, not in London. It is not a sin to be born in Karnataka His father Vittal Mallya was a big businessman and was close to many Congress leaders in Karnataka, Mr. Gowda told the media. Mr. Mallya was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2002 from Karnataka with the support of the Congress and the JD(S). Again in 2010 he entered the Upper House with the backing of the BJP and the JD (S). When asked, whether he repents for supporting him, Mr. Gowda said “no”, adding that, ups and downs in the business was natural thing, there was nothing unusual about that. ND-ND

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NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

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‘A vote for AAP is a vote for Akalis’

Left Front, Congress to avoid direct fight in West Bengal

Ambika Soni says Congress will focus on deliverables in its election campaign in Punjab

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

POLL PERSPECTIVE

NISTULA HEBBAR & VIKAS VASUDEVA NEW DELHI: Veteran Congress leader Ambika Soni, heading the campaign committee for the party for Punjab, says the party’s aim through the run up to the polls would be to establish its credibility vis-a-vis political rivals in the State and drive home the point that a vote for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) there would be akin to voting back the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). Speaking exclusively to The Hindu, she said, “Without a doubt the Akalis are unpopular but there is a vote base that they command. To prevent the popular vote against them from splitting we have to drive home the fact that a vote for AAP is in a way a vote for the Akalis. The State cannot aford another five years of misrule,” she said. “I personally feel that that

Modi to hold 10 rallies in Bengal SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT KOLKATA: In an attempt to boost

the prospects of the Bharatiya Janta Party in the West Bengal Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to address at least 10 public meetings across the State. State BJP president Dilip Ghosh said here on Saturday that as per the State leadership’s request, Mr. Modi would hold 10 rallies in the State. “In one day he will have three rallies so he will have to come for three to four days,” Mr. Ghosh said. Among the constituencies where the Prime Minister is expected to campaign are Siliguri in North Bengal, Kharagpur in Paschim Mednipur district, Asansol in Bardhaman district and Malda. Mr. Modi is likely to make his first visit to West Bengal in the last week of March.

when we talk of the new, young voter, it’s very diferent to what it was 15 years ago, before an 18 year old of today was enfranchised. People took you for what you said, they forgot some of the things you may have promised and may be did not deliver, and voted you back hoping against hope,” she said. “Nowadays youngsters really feel that they should verify whether the political party making the promises is prepared to bring a systemic change or whether it is a hollow promise to get into oice. We are bringing out 10 pamphlets to be distributed widely; these are on promises and specific steps that are going to be taken to realise them. The credibility of a promise should be as much as possible, because that is what we are all (the political parties) lacking,” Ms Soni said. As an example she cited the promise made by the party’s

When we talk of the new, young voter, it’s very different from what it was 15 years ago, says Ambika Soni.

Punjab chief Captain Amarinder Singh of hiking senior citizens pension from Rs. 250 per month to Rs. 1,000. “He has formed a committee of experts and we are going to put together the systemic way this will be done, who will get what, how much etc,

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee took out a procession in the minority-dominated Khidderpore area on the outskirts of the city on Saturday. Thousands of sloganshouting people cheered her when she walked from Mominpur to Khidderpore. “We seek the blessings of the people of Bengal. We all have to work and fight unitedly”, she said as slogans of “Maa Mati Manush Zindabad” and “Mamata Banerjee zindabad” rent the air. Ms. Mamata, walking the entire stretch, interacted with people who had gathered on both sides of the road as her die-hard supporters and common people tried to break the police cordon. She herself broke the security cordon on several occasions to reach out to them. —PTI

LEADING FROM THE FRONT: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee participates in a roadshow as a part of her election campaign in Kolkata on Saturday. - PHOTO: PTI

NEW DELHI: Technodinamika, a holding company of Rostec State Corporation of Russia, will set up a service centre in India to boost support to the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) aircraft fleet of Russian origin. The company has recently won a contract to supply Auxillary Power Units (APU) to the IL-76 transport aircraft of the IAF. “In the very near future we are going to open a service centre in India. It will be arranged in compliance with According to the tender, Technodinamika will supply nine the principles of the ‘Make in Auxillary Power Units for the IL-76 aircraft. - FILE PHOTO: RAJEEV BHATT India’ program, under which aircraft repair and mainte- contract. Currently, the IAF of Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar’s visit to Russia, the nance will be localised in In- uses 28 aircraft of this type. This contract follows an Defence Acquisition Council dia. In this case, the IAF will be assured of guaranteed earlier deal by the company (DAC) cleared engine and deadlines and a high quality in overhauling the existing avionic upgrades for the Air of performed works,” Maxim APU’s. Convinced of the Force’s fleet of IL-76 transKuzyuk, CEO of Technodina- holding’s competence in port and IL-78 mid-air reAPU production and repair, fuelling aircraft to cost about mika said. It will improve availability the IAF representation re- Rs. 4300 crore, Spares and support has of spares for aircraft and in- cently approved the first two crease the operational availa- auxiliary power units over- been an issue of concern for hauled by Technodinamika, the Indian military with rebility of aircraft. spect to Russian military According to the terms of the statement added. The company had earlier hardware. Faced with inthe tender for APU’s, Technodinamika will supply nine won an IAF bid in June 2015 to creasing competition from APUs for the IL-76 aircraft overhaul 11 APUs for the IL-76 the U.S. and Israel in the defence sector, Russian firms and its modifications owned and its derivatives. A bigger upgrade of the are moving to localise spares by the Indian Air Force, the IL-76 fleet is also under dis- and supply issues to maintain company said. their position in the Indian However the company has cussion with Russia. In October last year, ahead defence sector. not disclosed the value of the

11 killed as tractor trolley falls into well

CM YK

Chief Minister Anandiben Patel declared Rs. 4 lakh compensation to the families of those who were killed in the accident. 'Extremely disturbing' “Road mishap in Mahisagar district is extremely disturbing. My condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and prayers for the injured. I have declared Rs. 4 lakh financial aid to the families of deceased and also announced total medical support for the injured,” Chief Minister tweeted while announcing the financial aid.

KOLKATA: A day after State Con-

gress leaders held a meeting with the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) State secretary, senior Congress leader Abdul Mannan said on Saturday that the discussions were “on track” and the meeting was held on a positive note. Apart from Mr. Mannan, senior State Congress leaders such as Pradip Bhattacharya and Somendra Nath Mitra were present. “The disagreements over some seats have been resolved and others are being discussed. It is an ongoing process and more such discussions will be held”, Mr. Mannan told The Hindu. The meeting was held late on Friday evening at the oice of Ganashakti, the media organ of the CPI(M). Congress sources said that both sides had “agreed that one of them will withdraw its candidates”, if a situation occurs where the Trinamool

Woman abducted from train, gang-raped DEOGHAR (JHARKHAND): A 25-year-old woman was allegedly abducted from a train and gang-raped by a group of six persons near Madhupur in Deoghar district, the Railway police said on Saturday. The woman was abducted from the Giridih-Madhupur passenger train at Madhupur railway station by six persons, who gang-raped her in a nearby area on Thursday night, Superintendent of Police (Railway) Asim Vikrant Minz said. The woman’s father, who was accompanying her, was asleep when she was abducted. Later, on not finding her in the train, he raised an alarm and informed the Railway police, who conducted a raid in the nearby Dangalpara locality, where the woman was found, Mr. Minz said. The victim had been sent for medical examination. Three of the suspects had been arrested, while search was on for the rest, he said. — PTI

NEW DELHI: Boosting the nation’s rapid airlift capability for forward operations and troop deployment, the Indian Air Force re-activated two upgraded Advanced Landing Grounds (ALG) at Ziro and Along in Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday. “The ALGs will further enhance our existing operational capabilities in Eastern Air Command,” Air Marshal C. Hari Kumar, Air Oicer Commanding-in-Chief, Eastern Air Command said during the inauguration of ALG at Ziro. He later inaugurated the ALG at Along. Further underscoring the significance he said that “the capacity buildup will enable operations by some of our new inductions including the C-130J Super Hercules transport aircraft”. This will give the ability to

ALGs are expected to enhance the capabilities of the Eastern Air Command rapidly airlift troops in case of hostilities or a standof. India has belatedly embarked on a major drive to operationalise the ALGs which have not been in use for decades. In the mid-eighties Vayudoot Airlines had operated from Ziro airfield and the IAF too had operated a flying detachment from for air maintenance. Subsequently the airfield fell out of use. Following an approval from the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in June 2009, the IAF began an ambitious plan to upgrade and operationalise the existing eight ALGs.

ELLEN BARRY

The IAF took over the Ziro airfield from Airport Authority of India (AAI) in August 2010. The ALGs for upgradation include Tuting, Mechuka, Along, Tawang, Ziro, Pasighat, Walong and Vijaynagar in Arunachal Pradesh. The outlay plan for the upgradation of ALGs alone is nearly Rs. 1,000 crore. Oicials said that three more ALGs — Mechuka, Pasighat, Tuting — are scheduled to be inaugurated in the next three months. The ALG at Tawang, which was taken up in 2014, is ongoing and is expected to be ready by September this year. With the inauguration of the ALGs at Ziro and Along, altogether three ALGs have since got upgraded with paved runway surfaces and other facilities, oicials added.

Bid to counter China’s efforts to expand its maritime reach into the Indian Ocean

PORT BLAIR: India and Japan are

in talks to collaborate on upgrading civilian infrastructure in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an Indian archipelago seen as a critical asset to counter China’s efforts to expand its maritime reach into the Indian Ocean. The first project being discussed is a modest one — a 15megawatt diesel power plant on South Andaman Island, as described in a proposal submitted late last month to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Afairs. But the collaboration signals a significant policy shift for India, which has not previously accepted ofers of foreign investment on the archipelago. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are northwest of the Strait of Malacca, ofering control of a so-called choke point that is one of China’s greatest marine vulnerabilities. It is also testimony to the unfolding relationship between India and Japan, which is also funding a $744 million road building project in the northeastern Indian border regions of Mizoram, Assam and Meghalaya. Like the Andaman and Nicobar chain, the northeastern region is a strategic area that has remained relatively undeveloped because of its separation from the mainland.

SRINAGAR: Intermittent snow-

Rain resulted in a considerable drop in temperature in Srinagar on Saturday. - PHOTO: NISSAR AHMAD

shrine and ‘Peer Ki Gali’ in south, Sonamarg and Zojilla Pass in central, and adjoining areas, the oicials said. The maximum temperature in Srinagar was 10.8 degrees Celsius, a drop of almost 10 degrees since Friday.

Following the Left’s announcement of candidates in the Congress bastion, Mr Bhattacharya earlier told The Hindu that the decision was “unfortunate.” However, things started changing from Friday as senior leaders of the Left Front indicated that a fresh round of negotiations was possible. The CPI(M)’s Central Committee member Shyamal Chakraborty said that if it was evident that the Trinamool Congress would gain from the “friendly fight” between the Congress and the Left in a few seats, then the candidates may “withdraw the nomination”.

India collaborates with Japan on Andamans project

Japan’s marshalling of oicial development assistance in the region has drawn less attention than the efort that China calls “One Belt, One Road,” a network of roads, railways and ports intended to link China to the rest of Asia and to Europe. But it fits logically into the web of strategic projects taking shape as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi enters into closer relationships with Japan, Australia and the United States, as well as regional powers like Vietnam, to counter China’s growing influence. A senior Indian oicial,

Snowfall, rain leave passengers stranded in J&K fall in the higher reaches of Kashmir and light rain in the plains, including in Srinagar, resulted in a considerable drop in mercury across the State. The ski resort Gulmarg received about 10 inches of snow on Saturday afternoon, the MeT department said. Heavy snowfall blocked the Tangdhar-Nasta Chhun road in Kupwara district of north Kashmir, leaving over 70 passengers stranded on the route. They were later rescued by Army personnel. Reports of moderate snowfall were also received from other high altitude areas, including the Amarnath cave

Congress (TMC) may benefit from a “friendly fight” of the Left and the Congress. State Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, however, indicated that the party would put up candidates in 31 of 32 seats that it had won in 2011. On Thursday, the Left Front put up candidates in over 12 seats where the Congress had decided to contest earlier. At this point, the Left Front and the Congress are negotiating on 20 seats where both sides are keen on putting up candidates. They are, however, trying to avoid a direct fight.

IAF reactivates two landing grounds in Arunachal Pradesh SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

DINAKAR PERI

AHMEDABAD: At least 11 people were killed and over 20 others injured when a tractor trolley fell into a 50 ft deep well near Godhara in Gujarat on Saturday. The injured were taken to Godhara civil hospital. The incident took place when people were proceeding on a tractor to perform the last rites of their relative. Suddenly, the driver of the tractor tried to reverse, but because of the high speed, it overturned and fell into the well.

Enthusiasm for AAP She admitted that the AAP also scores in terms of worker enthusiasm, but that this time

the Congress was aggressively working on mobilisation. “We are holding meetings with Congress workers in all 117 seats. State level leadership has been divided into six or seven sections and have been given specific constituencies to work on. The worker must be enthused. That is where AAP scores, nobody knows their workers, or recognises them, they go in like “ghun” (weevil) into a chawal dibba (box storing rice). There is no point in criticising Kejriwal or making it personal, but the people of Punjab must see what happened to their four MPs. They didn’t take long to split up. What happened to the two-three lakh votes they polled in each constituency? Some of our teams will go abroad and speak to NRI groups and reason it out,” she said. Ms Soni said her aim was to make the campaigns as participative as possible.

Join our fight, Mamata tells people

Russian firm to set up service centre for IAF aircraft fleet

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

and disseminate this to the ground level,” she said. She admitted that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was a challenge that the Congress needed to address, but mostly because the party had failed to anticipate it. “It’s a fact that we first realised the extent of the damage the AAP could do in the 2014 General Elections. We lost by margins of 1800020,000 in seats that were shoo-ins for us. We never thought that these people, whom we never saw a poster of, had seeped into the vitals of the electoral system. A very big role was played by the NRI population, and you know Punjab has a huge NRI population. People were supporting them through finance and other means. Even now they are there,” she said.

The night temperature also dropped to 4.4 degrees Celsius from 8.5 degrees Celsius on Friday. Rescue mission An Army team launched a rescue mission on Friday

night in Tangdhar at Nasta Chhun Pass after it received information about stranded vehicles full of passengers including women, children and the elderly, and an ambulance with a critically-ill heart patient, an Army spokesman said on Friday. Incessant rain and heavy snowfall in higher reaches of Tangdhar triggered avalanches on Tangdhar-Nasta Chhun road, causing road blocks at various places, the spokesman said. “The Army’s avalanche rescue team of Nasta Chhun Pass immediately sprang into action in the wake of harsh weather conditions, snow blizzard and zero visibility ”, the spokesman said. — PTI

who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, said China’s project would be answered by “a more decentralised, local but organic response.” The oicial described proposed infrastructure projects in the Andamans as “not of a big scale, and not of a big value,” but added that New Delhi was intent on developing its “frontier” regions. “The idea that the frontier should be left undeveloped, I think people have rejected that approach,” the oicial said. “There is a realisation that it doesn’t help to leave part of

any part of India undeveloped.” Japan’s vision for contributions in the island chain goes far beyond the proposed power plant. The plan was submitted in Tokyo more than a year after Japan’s Ambassador made a visit to Port Blair on South Andaman Island and, in a meeting with the territory’s top oicial, ofered financing for “bridges and ports.” Akio Isomata, Minister for Economic Afairs in the Japanese Embassy, said the country’s aid agency, Japan International Cooperation Agency, could only respond to “formal requests” from the Indian government. He said Japan would consider “any other requests” on the Andaman and Nicobar chain or elsewhere and was eager to use oicial development assistance to enhance India’s “connectivity” with countries that were members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. “We usually start with small projects and go bigger,” he said. — New York Times News Service

Newborn declared dead, readmitted for treatment KRISHNAGAR (WB): In a serious

lapse, a State-run district hospital in Nadia on Saturday allegedly issued a death certificate for a newborn but had to re-admit it after the baby showed signs of life. A district health oicial, confirming the incident, said a high-level committee had been formed to investigate the matter, which allegedly took place at the Krishnanagar Sadar Hospital. Relatives of the newborn’s father, Bulbul Mondal, claimed that as they took away the baby boy after the hospital issued a death certifi-

cate, it suddenly showed signs of life on reaching home. The newborn was taken back to the same hospital which then readmitted it. The baby was later taken to the SNCU department of Krishnagar Sadar hospital, and is now kept under observation, a hospital spokesman said. District Chief Medical Oicer Tapas Roy said: “We have formed a six-member committee to investigate the case.” Bulbul’s family said no complaint had been lodged with the police. — PTI ND-ND

WORLD

16 |

Trump blames Bernie for Chicago melee GOP front runner cancels rally after scuffles break out between protesters and his supporters epublican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Saturday blamed supporters of Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders for protests that shut down his Chicago rally, calling the U.S.Senator from Vermont “our communist friend.” Mr. Trump’s Republican rivals, meanwhile, hurled scorn at the New York billionaire, saying he helped create the increasingly tense atmosphere that is now sweeping the race for the White House with his fiery rhetoric. Mr. Trump, who has rallies in Ohio and Missouri on Saturday, cancelled the Chicago event on Friday after it turned chaotic, with scules breaking out between protesters and backers of the real estate magnate. The clashes follow a slew of recent incidents of violence at Trump rallies, in which protesters and journalists have been punched, tackled U.S. and hustled out of ELECTIONS venues, raising concerns about degradprotests ing security leading into the November 8 election. “All of a sudden a planned attack just came out of nowhere,” Mr. Trump said at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, on Saturday morning, calling the protest leaders “professional people.” He said his own fans “were taunted, they were harassed by these other people, these other people by the way, some represented Bernie, our communist friend.” “Now really Bernie should tell his people...he should really get up and say to his people ‘stop, stop,’” he said. A spokesman for Mr. Sanders, a self-described Democratic socialist, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier on Saturday, Mr. Trump called the protesters thugs. “The organized group of people, many of them thugs, who shut down our First Amendment rights in Chicago, have totally energized America!” he tweeted. The Chicago rally came ahead of five primary elections on Tuesday, including contests in Ohio and Illinois. Mr. Trump has drawn fervent support as well as criticism for his calls to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and to impose a temporary entry ban on Muslims. — Reuters

Demonstrators exult after learning that a rally to be addressed by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Friday at the University of Illinois, Chicago, was postponed. The Trump campaign took the decision, citing safety concerns, after they realised that hundreds of demonstrators had been given tickets. This happened on a day the GOP front runner urged the party to unite behind him.— PHOTO: AFP

Indian-origin journalist heckled, detained CHICAGO: An Indian-origin

journalist with a major U.S. television network was heckled by Donald Trump’s supporters and briefly detained by police during a protest at the Republican presidential front runner’s campaign rally here, media reports said. CBS News reporter Sopan Deb was detained by police while covering the protest that broke out Friday night following the cancellation of Mr. Trump’s rally. Mr. Deb was covering the clash between protesters and the Republican front runner’s supporters when he was detained, the news organisation said. “Deb was filming video of a man whose face was bloody and laying on the ground near police at the time of his arrest,” according to a ‘CBS This Morning’ report. Mr. Deb alleged that he was thrown to the ground and handcufed without notice or warning, the CBS news reported. Illinois State Police charged

Another reporter files criminal complaint against Trump’s campaign manager Mr. Deb with resisting arrest though the network reported that neither his video, nor that of a nearby film crew, showed any sign of resistance. “I have never seen anything like what I am witnessing in my life,” the journalist tweeted after the incident. Mr. Deb, who has been covering Trump’s campaign ever since he announced his presidential run last June, said “A Trump supporter just asked me at Reno event if I was taking pictures for ISIS. When I looked shocked, he said, ‘yeah, I am talking to you.’” The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to questions. Of late journalists have been at receiving end at the Trump campaign. Foreign journalists

Port project gears up for early re-launch COLOMBO: Decks are being cleared for the early relaunch of the controversial $1.4-billion Colombo Port City Project, with the Sri Lankan and Chinese governments inching closer to a resolution of outstanding issues. The proposed visit of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to China during April 6-8 is expected to throw greater clarity on the project. Conceived during the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa regime, the project was launched when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Colombo in September 2014. The visit became a major election issue during the campaign for the presidential polls in January last year. Mr. Wickremesinghe, who was then in the Opposition and backed the candidature

THE HINDU

Pyongyang warns of pre-emptive strike to ‘liberate’ South Korea

Sri Lanka, China close to resolving outstanding issues in the $1.4-billion project of Maithripala Sirisena, had even declared that the project would be scrapped. A month after Mr. Sirisena defeated Mr. Rajapaksa, the project was suspended in February and the new government decided to have a “comprehensive environmental impact assessment.” Though there had been reports of concerns expressed by India about the project from the beginning, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Afairs Ministry in mid-2015 categorically denied such reports. A few days back, the Sri Lankan Cabinet gave a formal approval for the recommencement of the project

and extension of the validity of the current agreement between the government and the project company CHEC Port City Colombo (Pvt.) Ltd. to another six months. The firm is a subsidiary of the China Communications Construction Company, an entity listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Malik Samarawickrama, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade, who recently visited China as part of preparations for the Prime Minister’s visit, told The Hindu on Saturday morning that it had been decided to float a joint-venture firm for taking up development of reclaimed land. The company would undertake the task of land-filling as well. Mr. Samarawickrama pointed out that the revised study on the project’s environmental impact had been completed.

have been made totally out of bound while the domestic media are put inside an enclosure at all his rallies and are not allowed to move out. Meanwhile, a reporter for the conservative website ‘Breitbart News’ filed a criminal complaint on Friday against Republican presidential election front runner Donald Trump’s campaign manager, saying he grabbed her arm with such force that he left bruises. A police report released on Friday showed that the reporter, Michelle Fields, said she was the victim of battery on Tuesday night at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Florida, where Mr. Trump spoke after that day’s contests in the race to nominate the party’s candidate for the presidential election. The accusation prompted a flurry of exchanges between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Ms. Fields. The campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, and Mr. Trump have denied the accusation. — PTI & Reuters

SEOUL: North Korea said on Saturday its military is ready to pre-emptively attack and “liberate” the South in its latest outburst against the annual joint military drills by the United States and South Korea. In a statement carried through state media, the General Staf of the North’s Korean People’s Army said its frontline units are prepared to strike first if they see signs that American and South Korean troops involved in the drills were attempting to invade the North. The KPA said it will counter the drills by the United States and South Korea it says are aimed at advancing into Pyongyang with plans to “liberate the whole of South Korea including Seoul” and also that it is capable of executing “ultra-precision blitzkrieg” strikes against enemy targets. At the start of the drills on Monday, the North warned of an indiscriminate “pre-emp-

U.S. and South Korean Marines take positions during a military exercise in Pohang, South Korea, on Saturday. — PHOTO: AP

tive nuclear strike of justice” on Washington and Seoul. In response to North’s statement, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staf called for North Korea to stop its threats and “rash behaviour” and warned that a provocation from the North would result in the destruction of its highest leadership. North Korea has con-

‘No concessions on rights, visas to Turkey’ PARIS: French President Francois Hollande said on Saturday that the EU must not grant Turkey any concessions on human rights or visas in exchange for guarantees to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. “There cannot be any concessions on the matter of human rights or the criteria for visa liberalisation,” Mr. Hollande told reporters ahead of the resumption next week of tough negotiations between Turkey and the EU in Brussels. Under a controversial draft deal reached this week, Turkey would take back all migrants landing in Greece in a bid to reduce their incentive to pay people smugglers for dangerous crossings to the Greek islands in rickety boats.

In return for every Syrian sent back from Greece, the EU would resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey — which is hosting about 2.7 million people who have fled the conflict across the border. Turkey is also demanding €6 billion in aid, visa-free access for its nationals within Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone and for swifter action to process its bid to join the EU. International criticism The plan to expel migrants en masse from Greece has sparked international criticism, with the United Nation’s top oicials on refugees and human rights questioning whether the deal would be legal. — AFP

Obama backs FBI in Apple encryption debate AUSTIN (TEXAS): U.S. President

Barack Obama sided with law enforcement Friday in the debate pitting encryption and personal privacy against national security, arguing that authorities need access to data on electronic devices because the “dangers are real.” Appearing at an annual tech festival in the Texas capital, Mr. Obama delivered his most extensive comments to date on an issue being played out in federal court. Apple, one of the world’s largest technology companies, is challenging the government’s request that it help the FBI access data on a cellphone that was used in the San Bernardino, California, attack that killed 14 people. The issue has roiled the tech industry and divided Mr. Obama’s advisers, but the President seemed to side on Friday with law enforcement despite also saying the matter

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday argued that authorities need access to data on electronic devices because the “dangers are real.” — PHOTO: REUTERS

would not be settled by adopting an “absolutist view.” Mr. Obama restated his commitment to strong encryption but also raised the question of how would authorities catch child pornographers or disrupt terrorist

plots if smartphones and other electronic devices are designed in ways that keep the data on them locked away forever. “My conclusion so far is that you cannot take an absolutist view on this,” Mr. Obama said. “So if your argument is strong encryption, no matter what, and we can and should, in fact, create black boxes, then that I think does not strike the kind of balance that we have lived with for 200, 300 years. And it’s fetishising our phones above every other value. And that can’t be the right answer,” he said. Mr. Obama said government shouldn’t be able to “just willy nilly” access smartphones that are full of very personal data. But at the same time, while asserting that he’s “way on the civil liberties side,” he said “there has to be some concession” to be able to get

Once hopeful of harmony, a French philosopher voices discord

the information in certain cases. Rep. Darrell Issa, who has sharply questioned FBI Director James Comey during congressional hearings on the matter, released a statement in which he said Mr. Obama’s comments showed his “fundamental lack of understanding of the tech community, the complexities of encryption and the importance of privacy to our safety in an increasingly digital world.” Mr. Issa said the solution, or key, that the government wants Apple to create could eventually compromised. “There’s just no way to create a special key for government that couldn’t also be taken advantage of by the Russians, the Chinese or others who want access to the sensitive information we all carry in our pockets every day.” — AP

PARIS: He is the intellectual

much of the French left loves to hate, the writer whose rumpled look has racked up multiple magazine covers, the bookish essayist turned omnipresent media star and boogeyman for proselytisers of painless multiculturalism. Alain Finkielkraut’s mere presence in a television studio raises temperatures and sends accusations of racism flying. “For the good of France, shut up, Mr. Finkielkraut!” a young Muslim woman, a teacher from the suburbs, said recently on live television, throwing back to him his own words, after a televised harangue aimed at him several years earlier in a similar confrontation. After several dozen books, an influential weekly radio show, frequent interview requests and his induction in January into one of French civilization’s holiest — albeit most conservative — shrines, the Académie Française, Mr. Finkielkraut has no intention CM YK

of shutting up. A former philosophy professor at France’s elite École Polytechnique, he is arguably the most visible of France’s public intellectuals. “We have seen only you, we have heard only you, we have read only you,” historian Pierre Nora said, as Mr. Finkielkraut listened under the academy’s ornate dome, during the traditional induction speech. The national audience for Mr. Finkielkraut’s themes, returned to obsessively and buttressed by a seamless web of references, is now larger than ever in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 2015. Before and after the attacks, Philosopher Alain Finkielkraut laments the declining standards in those themes have not varied: French schools, the oppression of women under Islam, and the much of Islam is radically in- pernicious effects of multiculturalism. — PHOTO: THE NEW YORK TIMES compatible with French culture and society; Muslim im- France is present in France,” after the November attacks. migrants represent a threat; Mr. Finkielkraut said in a re- Its expression by Mr. FinFrench schools are crumbling cent interview. “What the at- kielkraut has been delivered, under a mistaken multicultu- tacks proved is that we have a over many years, with all the ral outreach; the inherited redoubtable and determined fervour of the immigrants’ corpus of French culture is in enemy.” son who has succeeded. But He has caught a national in Mr. Finkielkraut’s pessimisdanger; and anti-Semitism is on the rise again, this time by mood, bridging unease over tic vision this fusion is relations with the country’s dark-robed. way of Islam. His last substantial book, Many of the 2015 attackers Muslim minority with a naswere French. “Hatred of cent renewal of national pride The Unhappy Identity, was a

best-seller in France — a compact lament over declining standards in schools, the pernicious efects of multiculturalism, the oppression of women under Islam and France’s self-alienation from its own heritage. The book’s protest over neighbourhoods where “the French feel they have become strangers on their own turf” under the weight of Muslim immigration led critics to put him in the camp of the farright National Front — a charge he rejects. “France is on its way to disintegration,” Mr. Finkielkraut said in the interview in his Left Bank apartment, every book-lined inch underscoring his distrust of the Internet. The prosperous, pleasant and largely white-populated streets outside are far from the troubled multiracial suburbs that are his preoccupation. “Until recently, France was successful in integrating its immigrants — that was even its pride,” he said. “Today, it is disintegrating in front of our eyes.” The French model of

integration “doesn’t work anymore,” he said. “Where one could have hoped for a certain harmony, it is hatred that prevails.” “Today, when some, like me, speak of the problem of Islam, we are denounced as the successors of Maurras and Barrès,” said Mr. Finkielkraut, naming two influential far-right thinkers of preWorld War II France. “There is a refusal to think about this era on its own terms.” For Mr. Finkielkraut, the problem is with Muslims, not with France. “We’ve got to fix very clear rules,” he said in the interview. “Secularism has got to prevail. And we can’t compromise on the status of women.” He is adamant about that last point. “Everything plays out there,” he says. “People are telling us that problem comes from all sorts of oppression by the West. No. The problem comes from the oppression by Islam of women. We’ve got to help the Muslims resolve this question.” — New York Times News Service

demned the annual military drills staged by Seoul and Washington in South Korea, calling them preparations for an invasion. The allies say the drills, which this year are described as the biggest ever and follow the North’s recent nuclear test and long—range rocket launch, are defensive and routine. — AP

PIO dean resigns after sexual harassment charge

Berkeley Law School dean Sujit Choudhry is facing a lawsuit from his executive assistant. — PHOTO: UC BERKELEY NEW YORK: A 45-year-old Indian-origin dean of a prestigious U.S. law school has resigned from his post, days after a lawsuit was filed against him by his executive assistant alleging that he sexually harassed her over a period of several months. Sujit Choudhry had initially taken an indefinite leave of absence after the lawsuit was filed earlier this week but the Berkeley Law School announced that he had resigned from his post, and that his resignation was accepted on Thursday. Mr. Choudhry had also “admitted” in a campus investigative report, dated July 2015, that he had hugged and kissed his executive assistant but there was no “sexual intent” to his conduct towards her. The school admitted that criticism against it for not removing Mr. Choudhry from his post immediately after the allegations had surfaced is legitimate. The victim filed the lawsuit this week, suing him for sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, retaliation, infliction of emotional distress and assault. The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Choudhry hugged and kissed her almost daily and the harassment began in September 2014 until March 2015. — PTI

UN to probe South Sudan attack

The most visible of France’s public intellectuals, Alain Finkielkraut thinks the root of the country’s current problems lies with Muslims ADAM NOSSITER

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

North Korea says it will attack if U.S., S. Korean troops attempt invasion

R

T. RAMAKRISHNAN

NOIDA/DELHI

UNITED NATIONS: A high-level

board of inquiry will investigate how United Nations peacekeepers responded to an attack at their camp in South Sudan where tens of thousands of civilians were sheltering, a UN spokesman said Friday. Gunmen in army uniforms

stormed the camp in the northeastern town of Malakal on February 17 and 18, firing on civilians and torching shelters. At least 25 people were killed and 160 were wounded. UN said the independent panel will “conduct an indepth investigation into the UN mission's response to clashes that broke out.” The UN mission in South Sudan is also reviewing security at the eight “protection of civilians” sites. — AFP

‘Assad ouster not on talks agenda’ BEIRUT: The Syrian government

on Saturday ruled out discussion of presidential elections or the position of the presidency at peace talks due to begin on Monday, saying the Opposition was deluded if it thought it could take power in Geneva. Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem confirmed his government’s participation in UN-led talks but said they would fail if the Opposition had “delusions that they will take power in Geneva that they failed to take in battle.”

The government delegation would reject any attempt to include presidential elections on the agenda, he said. “I advise them that if this is their thinking, they shouldn’t come to the talks. They must abandon these delusions,” Mr. Moualem said at a press conference in damascus. The Syrian Opposition wants the talks to focus on the establishment of a transitional governing body with full executive powers. — Reuters ND-ND

THE HINDU

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BUSINESS

NOIDA/DELHI

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

Rupa & Company to raise Rs. 180 crore

Trent declares interim dividend of Rs. 9/share

Apollo completes Assam Hospitals acquisition

Knitwear brand Rupa & Company plans to raise up to Rs. 180 crore from issuance of commercial papers, the company said in a regulatory filing. — PTI

Tata Group retail firm Trent Ltd. declared an interim dividend of Rs. 9 per equity share for the current financial year, the company said in a regulatory filing.— PTI

Apollo Hospitals has completed acquisition of majority stake in Guwahati-based Assam Hospitals. “We have now completed the acquisition of a 51 per cent majority stake,” the company said. — PTI

Do not overstate bad loans crisis: FM Overemphasising the issue of bad loans at banks and wilful defaulters could hamper growth

Lagarde backs fiscal, monetary policies for growth

ONGC plans to invest $5 bn on KG basin block PIYUSH PANDEY

NEW DELHI: International Mone-

NATIONAL BUREAU

F

inance Minister Arun Jaitley and Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan have cautioned against overemphasising the issue of bad loans at banks and wilful defaulters as this could hamper growth. “We don't want to create a situation where we overstate the crisis and in the process the whole activity of lending for growth itself starts sufering because people become extraordinarily defensive,” Mr. Jaitley said while briefing reporters after a meeting with the RBI Board on Saturday. “We don't want to reach that situation,” he said. Mr. Rajan said the economy was recovering and that he was satisfied with the quantum of capital infusion promised to banks by the finance minister in his budget speech. “We have to be careful that we penalise criminal acbut at the CAUTIONARY tion same time we CALL don't indulge in a broad fishing exnpas pedition which then becomes a reason for banks to get worried about making loans which then hamper the recovery as well as hamper the absolutely important investments in infrastructure that have to take place,” Mr. Rajan said. The amount of Rs.25,000 crore, earmarked for capital infusion for public sector banks, was “reasonable.” “The combination of the capital put in by the government and the capital put in by the RBI should be enough,” the RBI Governor said. The gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of the public sector banks increased from 5.43 per cent, or Rs 2,67,065 lakh crore at the end of March 2015 to 7.30 per cent or Rs 3,61,731 lakh crore in December

Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley along with Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha (right) and RBI's Governor, Dr. Raghuram Rajan (left) after the RBI Board meeting at Reserve Bank of India, in New Delhi on Saturday. — PHIOTO: Shanker Chakravarty

2015, according to a Press Trust of India report. Mr. Jaitley expressed hope that the NPA situation, which has been created on account of an overall economic environment and slowdown in certain sectors, would see improvement. “As the revival of those sectors takes place, you will certainly find cleaning up of balance sheets, which also takes place because over the next few quarters they would probably have a possibility of reviving,” he said. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) numbers for January, at -1.5 per cent, represented the third consecutive month of contraction in industrial activity. “We are in recovery. This is something we have said before. It is still volatile, however. It is not the strong and sustained growth that we need. Not all the indicators

We are in recovery. It is not the strong and sustained growth that we need, Rajan says are moving in the same direction. The IIP numbers, for example, were disappointing. But there is a recovery taking place,” Mr. Rajan said. On the issue of wilful defaulters, in the wake of Vijay Mallya’s massive default on loans and subsequent departure from the country, Mr. Jaitely said: “So it’s that limited category where there is some kind of a prima facie misconduct or misdemeanour, which has taken place by the individual. It’s those areas which will be looked into diferently.” Minister of State for Finance

Jayant Sinha said the central bank “has done a commendable job in defining the diferent types of accounts. Banks have been emboldened to take stronger penal action against wilful defaulters. These defaulters cannot access the financial system any more, once they have been classified as wilful defaulters,” Finance Minister Jaitley said that the RBI Board had many suggestions and questions regarding the budget, one of them being for the extension of the Direct Benefit Transfer-Aadhaar platform to the interest subvention benefits offered by the government. “We had a lively discussion. There were a substantial number of compliments on the budget and the focus of fiscal responsibility as well as the number of reform measures,” Mr. Rajan said.

‘Write-ofs may be a remedy for growth slowdown’ NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of In-

dia Governor Raghuram Rajan said structural reforms can help achieve potential growth, suggesting that writedowns may be a remedy to growth slowdown. At the same time he admitted that large-scale write-ofs were politically diicult. Speaking at Advancing Asia Conference, he said financial boom preceding the Great Recession left industrial countries with an overhang of debt, which was holding back growth. “While the remedy may be to write-down debt so as to revive demand from the indebted, it is debatable whether additional debtfuelled demand is sustainable. At any rate, large-scale debt write-ofs seem politically diicult even if they are economically warranted,” he said. Structural reforms that increase competition, foster innovation and drive institutional change are the way to raise potential growth, Mr. Rajan said. While monetary policy cannot substitute structural reforms and elevate growth

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potential, the central banker said “no central banker can claim they are out of tools.” Stating that all monetary policies have external spill-over efects, he said if interest rates are reduced, exchange rate also typically depreciates, helping exports. Mr. Rajan said there are few areas of robust growth around the world, with the International Monetary Fund repeatedly reducing its growth forecasts in recent quarters. “This period of slow growth is particularly dangerous because both industrial countries and a number of emerging markets need high growth to quell rising domestic political tensions.” Mr. Ra-

jan said given the importance of spill-over from monetary policies, especially in the face of globally low inflation, it was important to build a global consensus on how to get better outcomes for the world. He, however, cautioned that there may not be an international agreement on the issue as a number of country authorities like central banks have explicit domestic mandates. He suggested a period of focused discussion, first outside international meetings, then within international meetings. Such a discussion need not take place in an environment of finger pointing

and defensiveness, but as an attempt to understand what can be reasonable, and not overly intrusive, rules of conduct, he said. Once consensus is built on the rules of conduct, the next step of codifying th rules can be contemplated. “The international community has a choice. We can pretend all is well with the global financial non-system and hope that nothing goes spectacularly wrong. Or we can start building a system for the integrated world of the twenty first century. I do hope we can consider some initial steps,” he said. Mr. Rajan said IMF’s Articles of Agreement calls for members to avoid manipulating exchange rates or the international monetary system in order to prevent efective balance of payments adjustment to gain unfair competitive advantage. In practice, it may be diicult to determine if a policy is targeted at attaining a level of exchange rate. Direct policy actions such as intervention in the foreign exchange market or indirect policies such as monetary, fis-

cal, and trade policies or regulations of capital movements, regardless of the intent or purpose, can afect the level of the exchange rate, and can be interpreted as “manipulation”, he said. Moreover, although broader surveillance by IMF of its members’ exchange rate policies, and other policies with significant financial sector spillovers, and perhaps public statements about such policies can have signaling effects, countries are not obligated to follow its advice unless in a program, he said. “The more pertinent question, therefore, might be what can the Fund really do once its Executive Board determines that a particular country is in violation of its obligations under the new rules of the game? “Hopefully, the clear focus on the downsides of the particular country’s actions for the rest of the world will lead to political and economic pressures from around the world that make the country cease and desist. The clearer the eventual rules of the game, the more likely this outcome,” he said. — PTI

tary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde on Saturday urged Asian nations to employ growthfriendly monetary and fiscal policies to counter challenges posed by a fragile global economy. The call comes as policymakers the world over are struggling to revive their economies, which have been bufeted by slowing productivity and high debt. Central banks in Europe and Japan have resorted to negative interest rates to stimulate consumer demand and perk up worryingly low inflation. But the strategy has added to the volatility in the financial markets and raised the specter of competitive currency devaluation. The multilateral lender earlier this week warned of a further downgrade to the global growth outlook on increasing risks of economic derailment. "What should be Asia's response?...It is safe to say that structural reforms are key — to boost competitiveness, growth, and jobs," Lagarde told a conference jointly hosted by the IMF in New Delhi. In January, the IMF projected global growth of 3.4 percent and 3.6 percent in 2016 and 2017, respectively, having revised down its October forecast for both years by 0.2 of a percentage point.

MUMBAI: State-owned ONGC

may invest about $5 billion in its KG basin block KG DWN 98/2 to produce 17 million cubic meters per day (mcmd) of gas and 75,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil by 2019 fiscal, a top oicial said. “With the new gas pricing model, the discovery had become more viable for production. The investment decision will be taken in next couple of weeks,” ONGC Chairman Dinesh Sarraf said on Saturday.

The announcement comes within days of the government freeing up natural gas pricing. This fresh investment in developing the KG DWN 98/2, with reserves of 70 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas and 23 million tonnes of oil will be over and above the capital expenditure of Rs. 30,000 crore for FY17. KG DWN 98/2 is next to the famous KG D6 block, owned by Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), which reportedly China’s economy pumped $1.4 billion worth of The third downgrade in gas from ONGC’s field. ONGC has taken the deciless than a year was triggered by China's worst slowdown in sion to develop the block it25 years that has exposed vul- self without any foreign nerabilities in the country's partners. When asked if ONGC will corporate and financial sector. Ms. Lagarde said Beijing partner any global major in should improve credit alloca- developing the deepwater tion to rebalance the econo- block, Mr.Saraf told The Hinmy away from debt-fuelled in- du: “Going by the confidence vestment. — Reuters shown by the ONGC team, we

ONGC has taken the decision to develop the block itself without any foreign partners have decided to develop the block on our own. All the technical expertise and project management consultants (PMC) are available in the market.” Earlier, ONGC partnered global oil majors of the likes of Norway’s StatOil, Brazil’s Petrobras and Chevron Corp. of U.S. to develop the block but they all walked away due to delays and bureaucratic hurdles. While ONGC has announced its investment plans to develop its deepwater block in KG basin, other players like (RIL), Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation (GSPC) and Cairn India are likely to follow the suit as government’s reform decisions in the hydrocarbon sector to move towards a transparent market economy are expected to unlock significant investments of close to $30-$40 billion in the exploration sector alone, according to industry body CII. “This is amongst the most important structural reforms in the sector as a policy of marketing and pricing freedom will expedite investments in the sector leading to the immediate development of discovered gas resources thereby resulting in a sharp increase in domestic gas production in next few years. PSC extension policy announced for discovered fields also bring clarity and will lead to considerable investment in these matured fields,” said Sashi Mukundan, country head for BP India and Chairman, CII National Committee on Hydrocarbons.

‘Very happy’ with policy panel: Rajan NEW DELHI:RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Saturday said he is “very happy” with the composition of the proposed six—member monetary policy committee that will set benchmark interest rates. In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said the RBI Act will be amended to set up the committee consisting of six members and headed by RBI Gov-

ernor. Out of the six members, three will be nominated by the government while three others will be from the Reserve Bank, including the governor. “We are very happy with the monetary policy committee composition. It was discussed at length with the government. And it has been settled for some time... it’s for the gov-

ernment to reveal the composition and it has done so in the Budget,” Dr.Rajan said. “I think it’s a very reasonable step forward. The monetary process will benefit from this structure. So, I am absolutely on board and happy with it.” He was speaking to reporters after Finance Minister Mr.Arun Jaitley addressed the RBI board meeting. —PTI

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BUSINESS

PF benefits may reach all contract employees

Expedite FTAs to double textile exports: Verma

MUMBAI: The government has decided to get tough with large employers who increasingly rely on contract workers often without paying them their statutory dues such as employees’ provident fund contribution. As part of the plan, the Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EFPO) has asked all the public sector firms to upload on their websites the details of project contracts awarded to various agencies in a bid to ensure contract workers get provident fund benefits. Central PF Commissioner V.P. Joy, who recently took charge of the Rs. 10 lakh crore retirement fund body, is expected to send a similar directive to 4,700 private companies employing over 1,000 workers each. The move comes amid fresh instances of industrial strife in recent weeks which were triggered due to pay disparity between contract staf and regular employees. The Contract Labour Act requires employers to pay equal pay and benefits for

work done by contract employees that is similar to regular employees’ role. But its implementation has been weak and attempts to bring in a stronger law have been thwarted as government agencies and public sector units also deploy a large number of contract employees and are reluctant to pay them more. EPFO is looking to make public as well as private sector companies, which are the principal employers of contract workers, accountable for providing PF benefits. “It is often observed that the contractors claim huge amount towards EPF of contract workers from the principal employer but either do not deposit it at all or deposit it partly thus depriving these workers of provident fund, pension and insurances benefits,” Mr.Joy said in a missive to 90 Maharatna, Navaratna and Mini Ratna PSUs last week. The letter was also sent to other public sector companies such as National Buildings Construction Corporation, National Highways Authority of India and Cen-

THE HINDU

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

AT&T, Starwood, Marriott working on Cuba deals ahead of Obama visit

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT WASHINGTON: At least three maCHENNAI: The Textile Ministry

has urged the government to expedite Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the U.S. and European Union to help double exports, said its SecreEPFO may make tary Rashmi Verma. public as well as Talking to The Hindu, she said “As India does not have private sector FTAs with U.S., Canada and firms accountable Europe, our sector is at big for PF benefits disadvantage compared to Bangladesh and Vietnam. As least developed countries, tral Public Works Depart- they are exporting at zero dument (CPWD), among others. ty. Our exports are subject to The public sector compa- 10 to 14 per cent duty.” nies will have to register the “It is on labour and wages details of all contract employ- cost that were are not able to ers of each project on EPFO’s compete with Bangladesh website. and Vietnam. Quality and “It is the responsibility of branding, we are on par with the PSUs to see if provident them. We want to have balfund is paid by their contrac- anced duty structure. FTAs tors to its workers. They can will give a big boost,” she said. upload contracts on EPFO’s Currently, exports stand at website which will enable Rs.2.5 lakh crore and the vithem to check if they are mak- sion is to double it in the next ing PF payments regularly. In 10 years. But there are few this way, all the contract bills challenges that put India at will be paid only after ensur- competitive disadvantage, ing PF is given to workers,” Ms. Verma said. The target for 2015-16 is pegged at $47.5 bilsaid a senior EPFO oicial. “The entire information lion. “We are hopeful of can be viewed and updated by achieving the target as most principal employer at any of the export happens in the time. The regional and sub- last four-five months. During regional oice (of EPFO) will the current fiscal, we might also take steps to secure com- be one of the few sectors to hit pliance of employees engaged the target,” said Union DevelCommissioner by the contractor towards opment (Handlooms), Alok Kumar. EPF,” the letter said.

State-owned firms must register details on EPFO website SOMESH JHA

NOIDA/DELHI

jor U.S. companies, AT&T Inc, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc and Marriott International Inc, are seeking to complete deals in Cuba as President Barack Obama prepares to visit Havana, a person familiar with the discussions said on Friday. The flurry of deal-making could help Obama use his historic March 20-22 trip to showcase what he sees as the benefits of Washington’s diplomatic opening with the former Cold War foe after decades of hostility. It will be the first visit to Cuba by a U.S. president in nearly 90 years. But even as Obama prepares to unveil further measures next week to chip away at decades-old restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba, the longstanding U.S. economic embargo strictly limits eforts by American companies to do business on the communistruled island. AT&T is trying to complete a mobile communications agreement with Cuba's state telecoms monopoly Etecsa, while Starwood is also weighing an announcement, according to the source, who was briefed by administration and company oicials. ATT declined comment. A source familiar with AT&T's negotiations said:

A&T is trying to complete a mobile communications pact with Cuba's Etecsa

People walk past the AT&T store in New York's Times Square. — FILE PHOTO: REUTERS

"While there are discussions with Etecsa, there is no agreement in place." Starwood said it “has applied for authorization from the U.S. Treasury Department to operate hotels in Cuba.” “We see many opportunities for the expansion of our brands into Cuba at this inflection point, and look forward to building long-term relationships and welcoming travelers into our hotels in this dynamic market.” Marriott spokesman Thomas Marder said: “We are optimistic that we are going to get a green light soon from the U.S. government to have hotels under the Marriott flag in Cuba.” The three compa-

nies were first identified by the Wall Street Journal. Other deals may also be in the works timed for Obama’s visit. Major League Baseball is considering an announcement, according to the person familiar with the discussions. No details were immediately available. MLB has had discussions with the U.S. and Cuban governments looking for ways to allow big-league teams to sign Cuban players without them having to defect. White House oicials were not immediately available for comment. While many U.S. companies are interested in the Cuban market, most have been

slow to take advantage of the U.S. opening to Havana. They remain hemmed in by the more than half-century old embargo and wary of the Cuban government’s failure to enact significant economic reforms. U.S. airlines have rushed to apply for routes to the island but the embargo still bans general tourism as well as many other kinds of business dealings. Obama has called for lifting the embargo but that can only be done by Congress, and Republicans who control both chambers have made clear they will not act. Obama's Republican critics have accused him of giving up too much for too little from the Cuban government and of playing down human rights concerns to pursue rapprochement with Cuba, which began in December 2014 and is now seen as a major piece of his foreign policy legacy. White House oicials have countered that the outreach to Cuba is aimed at helping ordinary Cubans while opening up commercial opportunities for Americans. — Reuters

India’s trade likely to be muted for some time, says RBI Governor Rajan NATIONAL BUREAU NEW DELHI: Reserve Bank of In-

dia Governor Raghuram Rajan sought to allay fears about India’s weak exchange rate saying that it is broadly in the right place and the country’s trade is likely to be muted for some time. “Don't worry about the exchange rate. It’s broadly in the right place. An ideal exchange rate is neither strong nor

weak, but just right,” Mr. Rajan said while delivering the First Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture organised by the Indian Express. “Indian trade is likely to be muted for some time. But we are not alone in this. Global trade is weak.” Apart from the exchange rate and the weak global economy, Mr. Rajan pointed to several other reasons that could be leading to this decline in

global trade. The first, he said, is that as countries get more developed, they begin to consume services more, which are not generally traded. The second reason was that the trade in capital goods has seen a decline. And the third reason was that countries are increasingly pulling inwards. That is, their supply chains are increasingly being geared towards their own needs rather

Chennai Port starts refuelling service for ships at anchorage N. ANAND CHENNAI: Chennai Port Trust on Friday commenced supplying bunker fuel to ships at anchorage, an oicial said. Till recently, international vessels that were passing various Indian sea ports had to go either to Singapore or Colombo for bunker fuel. Chennai Port has started supplying bunker fuel through barge to vessel berthed at five nautical miles from the port. “The supply of bunker fuel to ships at anchorage is a business which international ports such as Singapore and Colombo have excelled in. We started this facility with the aim of converting Chennai Port into a bunker hub in the

East Coast,” said Chennai Port Traic Manager B.Vimal. “It also makes sense for international vessels to use the new bunkering facility as they need not have to come inside the port for fuelling alone. It also saves them from paying pilotage, berthing and wharfage charges and time,” he said. According to a statement , Indian Oil Corporation supplied 1,430 tonnes of IFO 380 CST grade bunker to MT Jag Lakshita belonging to GE Shipping. HPCL is planning to commence its bunker services soon. Mr.Cyril C. George, Chairman, Chennai Port, stated that this initiative was taken under the ease-of-doing business campaign and would

benefit the trade and the port since many vessels, which used to call ports at Singapore or Colombo would now come to Chennai for the service. Mr.Y. Leeladharan, Chairman of Chennai and Ennore Ports Steamer Agents’ Association, said: “The commencement of this facility will cover various types of vessels which carry dry and liquid cargoes to India and overseas. For instance, Panamx, Capesize, Handimax, VLCC and other types of vessels, which are on their way to nearby ports, needing fuel can call on Chennai Port to avail the bunker facility. This is going to benefit oil firms as it would fetch them foreign exchange.”

The monetary reforms of this govt. will stand out as one of its major achievements than the needs of other countries, Mr. Rajan explained, giving the example of how China’s begun to increasingly look inward. “While the RBI Governor

will no longer be able to set monetary policy unilaterally, I believe shifting the decision to a committee is in the economy’s interest. It will provide more continuity in the event of a change of Governor and will also protect against the various pressures that afect the RBI,” Mr. Rajan said. “I believe the monetary reforms of this government will stand out as one of its major achievements.”

The Monetary Policy Committee, the composition of which was laid out in the Finance Bill 2016, will be in charge of keeping inflation within specified targets, failing which it will be answerable to the government. Economic stability While emphasising the need for macroeconomic stability, the Governor lauded the government on its adher-

ence to its fiscal targets and in focussing on structural reforms. “Importantly, when global growth is uncertain, we should make sure that our domestic environment promotes strong, sustainable, and stable growth. This requires a firm platform of macroeconomic stability,” he said. “Economists will say we need structural reforms. But such moves tend to upset constituencies. The problem is

that the costs are immediate and well-defined. But it is an ill-defined group which doesn’t know if it will benefit from the changes later on.” The Governor also pointed out that the cumulative FDI in this financial year till January at $38.7 billion was just $3 billion short of the highest FDI ever recorded in India, of $41.7 billion in 2008-09, and there were two months still to be completed.

China’s central bank flags stimulus restraint BEIJING: China's central bank won't resort to excessive stimulus to bolster growth but will keep a flexible stance in the event of an economic shock - domestic or global, Governor Zhou Xiaochuan said while reiterating the authority's prudent monetary policy. Under the banner of prudent policy, the Chinese central bank has cut interest rates six times since November 2014 and has also reduced the amount of cash that commercial lenders must hold as reserves. The last policy easing was on Feb. 29 when the People's Bank of China (PBOC) lowered the reserve requirement ratio. The central bank is trying to keep liquidity flush to support an economy undergoing

Zhou Xiaochuan, Governor of the People's Bank of China, addresses reporters during a news conference in Beijing, on Saturday. — PHOTO: Reuters

the most significant structural reforms in two decades. But oicials, including Zhou, have warned against excessive policy loosening that could intensify downward pressure

on the yuan and spur capital outflows. "The current monetary policy is prudent with a slight loosening bias," Zhou told to reporters at a scheduled news conference in Beij-

ing on Saturday on the sidelines of the annual parliament session. "We also want to stress that monetary policy should be adjusted dynamically depending on the judgment towards the economic situation," he added. Zhou outlined the PBOC's five monetary policy stances as "loose", "appropriately loose", "prudent", "appropriately tight" and "tight", with flexibility on either side of each. China adopted an "appropriately loose" policy after the 2008 global crisis before shifting to a "prudent" stance in 2011. "We would adjust our monetary policy on a real-time basis. If there are big changes in the domestic and global environment, we will keep the flexibility in monetary policy

to counter shocks," Zhou said. Central banks in Europe and Japan have resorted to negative interest rates in attempts to stimulate consumer demand and stoke worryingly low inflation. But the strategy has increased volatility in the financial markets and raised the specter of competitive currency devaluation. Zhou said China does not need to use currency policy to boost trade, reairming Beijing's stance that it will not rely on yuan depreciation to drive exports. Jin Zhongxia, executive director for China on the International Monetary Fund's policymaking board, said at a conference in New Delhi on Saturday he did not expect a "very dramatic" depreciation of yuan. — Reuters

BSE expects initial public ofering in nine months NEW DELHI: Leading stock exchange BSE today said it plans to come out with its much-awaited initial public ofering (IPO) in the next six to nine months after receiving in-principle approval from markets regulator SEBI. BSE has already appointed Edelweiss Financial Services lead merchant banker and AZB & Partners and Nishith Desai Associates legal advisors to the issue. “The current time—frame is expected to be in the range of 6—9 months. BSE has already appointed merchant bankers for this process,” the exchange spokesperson said. He further said the exchange plans to follow all Sebi regulations and is looking to list on another exchange as per the regulator’s norms. Earlier, Chairman U K Sinha said Sebi has given in—principle approval to BSE for listing. BSE, in January, had sought approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) for launching the IPO, saying it is in compliance with all the requirements for listing. The exchange has been seeking nod to get listed for a long time, but necessary clearances have not been

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The exchange, in January, had sought approval from SEBI for the initial public offer forthcoming on one issue or the other. While BSE has always been open to cross-listing — that is, listing its shares on a rival exchange platform — its competitor National Stock Exchange (NSE) has been against cross—listing on a rival. In a letter written to Sebi in January, BSE had said it is in full compliance with the requirements of the new SECC (Stock Exchanges and Clearing Corporations) Regulations and therefore, it can proceed with its IPO plans. The exchange had requested SEBI to provide approval . SEBI, in January, had amended the existing SECC regulations to make it easier for stock exchanges to list their shares through an IPO. The move follows demand from investors in stock exchanges for listing of the bourses which can provide them an opportunity to unlock the value of their investments. — PTI ND-ND

SPORT

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We know how to play the game, says Smith

Devine, the double international

AMITABHA DAS SHARMA

open the bowling, is an accomplished hockey player and even manages a day job. And if two-time runner-up New Zealand is to clinch the title, Sophie Devine will have a crucial role to play. The hard-hitting batswoman has the fastest fifty in T20s: of 18 balls against India last year. In the two warm-up games against England here on Friday and Saturday, she was her side’s

KOLKATA: Australia captain Steve

Smith said on Saturday his country’s prospects were as bright as any other contender for the World Twenty20 title. Acknowledging that Australia had slackened on the eagerness to adopt the new format of cricket compared to some other nations, Smith said that did not mean his team lacked the skills to be the best in the tournament. “I would not say that is the case. We have pretty packed schedules. We play a lot of cricket. Sometimes you do not see a lot of Test and ODI players in this format. We certainly play a lot of T20 cricket. We know how to play the game and if we do to the best of our ability we will be a tough side to beat,” Smith said. “It is the one trophy (T20 World Cup) that has eluded us. We want to win every tournament and series that we play in. There is certainly a lot of time and efort put together by Cricket Australia. We are in a good place and, hopefully, we can contribute and do well in this tournament,” he said. Smith hoped his players would be able to play to their potential. “We have got a good squad together. We know what to expect. It is about going out there and making sure we execute our plans. If we do that well we will win a lot of games,” he said. The captain took heart from the way his side outmanoeuvred the strong South African team in CM YK

S. DIPAK RAGAV CHENNAI: She bats at the top, can

top-scorer, albeit in losing causes. Earlier in the week, The Hindu caught up with the double international. Talking about playing both cricket and hockey at the highest level, Devine said, “The benefit of cricket not being a professional sport in New Zealand has allowed me to play both sports. “I have been really fortunate to have some great coaches and support staf around me who have allowed me to play both

sports. Even today, playing both hockey and cricket keeps me fresh, mentally and physically.” So does playing hockey help her cricket? “A lot of people talk about hockey and cricket and the obvious similarity is the hand-eye coordination. I do get told by the cricket coaches when I try to do a big hockey swing. Hockey has certainly helped in the long-range fitness and it is crucial especially in T20 cricket where it is so explosive and dynamic.” Just before the London

Olympics, Devine took a break from cricket to prepare for hockey but failed to make the cut. And that turned out to be a boost for the White Ferns as she was part of the first batch of women cricketers to be ofered a contract by her board. Speaking about the decision to focus on cricket, “I trained for the London Olympics, but missed out on the final squad. Around that time the first set of contracts came out for New Zealand cricket and it was too good to give up. That was defi-

nitely a reason to focus on cricket.” Player without helmet Devine is also an exception in not choosing to wear a helmet while batting though she puts it down to comfort. “Some people might call me stupid, but I have never worn one, even when I played boys’ cricket. It is about the comfort and being able to move. In hockey you stand exposed during drag-flicks near the net without much protection.”

Apart from juggling sports, Devine also has had to cope with a type-1 diabetic condition for more than a decade now. However, she says sports has helped her tackle her condition. “It is a bit of a challenge sometimes, especially when you come to countries like India, where the weather plays a bit of factor on me personally with the diabetes. “But, sport has played a massive part in controlling my diabetes, helped me regulate my blood sugar level.”

I am a frustrated fast bowler: Alyssa Colour orange binds them together Steven Smith. — PHOTO: PTI

S. PRASANNA VENKATESAN

the last match to win the recent bilateral series 2-1. “It was nice to score a few in the last game there and get the team home. I think it is the kind of win we needed. Hope we will be able to take that form into the World T20,” he said.

CHENNAI: Alyssa Healy is a wicket-

IPL experience Smith said regularly playing in the Indian Premier League would come in handy. “The IPL has been great in the development of a lot of players from all around the world. The experience will hold us in good stead for this tournament. A lot of us know what to expect from the conditions from each ground and what it is like playing in front of great crowds,” the Australia captain said. When asked about the relative inexperience of the spinners in the squad, Smith it did not mean that they lacked the skill.

keeper like uncle Ian and engaged to fast-bowler Mitchell Starc; although both have had an influence on her career, such a portrayal is unfair and limiting. Alyssa has won three World Twenty20 titles, a World Cup and an Ashes series with Australia, and is a pivotal member of the side that has travelled to India. She speaks candidly about herself and other things, as evidenced by her interaction with the media at Guru Nanak College on Saturday. “Uncle [Ian Healy] helps me whenever he can,” she says of the 51-year-old former glovesman. But it was Australia’s World Cup-winning captains, a couple of them, who inspired her the most. “I used to love watching Steve Waugh. I guess a lot of my batting comes from watching Ricky Ponting over and over again.”

Fast-bowling was her first love. “I’m a frustrated fast bowler; always wanted to be a fast bowler. But I didn’t groom myself to be one and accidentally fell into the wicketkeeper’s role. I still bowl in the nets whenever I can, though.” Asked playfully whether that’s the reason she’s engaged to a fast-bowler, she’s quick to blush and quip, “Yeah, maybe. I’m living vicariously through him.” She then speaks about the complementary nature of their relationship. “There’s not too much cricket spoken at home. But we’re in a lucky position where we both know exactly what one another’s going through. He’s always been a big support at home.” Harking back to the time they used to play together, she says, “We actually grew up playing together. We used to share wicketkeeping when we started playing. He obviously grew up to become 6’5” (chuckles).

“In the recent past, I’ve kept wickets to him when he wanted to get started with the ball after returning from an injury; but not when he’s fully fit and bowling at full pace. It’s a bit scary for me.” Shifting her focus to the purpose of her visit (it’s her fourth time at the World T20), she says, “I had a discussion with him (Starc) about a few grounds and how it is like to play here. He’s only had a little bit of experience here, but it’s nice coming from a bowler’s point of view.” On the growth of women’s cricket, she says, “From the time I’ve been involved playing international cricket, I can say that it’s grown exponentially. With the start of all these leagues around the world — the Women’s Big Bash League (in Australia) was a major success and the advent of Women’s Super League (in England) — there’s potential for girls to earn more money playing cricket and have it as a full-time career. It only keeps growing.”

Y.B. SARANGI DHARAMSHALA: ‘Oranje’ may be

broadly synonymous with the Netherlands football and hockey teams but a bunch of players from diferent countries have got together to overcome the odds and give the orange shirts a respectable identity in cricket. Even though the Netherlands could not make it to the main round of the World Twenty20 following a narrow loss and a washout match in the qualifiers at the HPCA Stadium here, there is no let up in its passion for the game. “Lots of guys have ethnic background including South Africa, Pakistan, New Zealand and Australia. But what unites us is the colour orange. “And obviously the game of cricket. They not only represent Holland but also represent the heritage they come from,” said Netherlands coach Anton

Anton Roux. — PHOTO: AKHILESH KUMAR

Roux, who played first class cricket in South Africa. Roux admitted that it was tough to be a professional cricketer in the Netherlands. “It is extremely tough. We have a lot of guys who have to juggle studying and playing cricket. It is extremely tough for me to demand so much from the players. “But it is not about money —

the Dutch cricket is about people who love playing cricket. They love coming to tournaments like this.” The Netherlands coach said even though the club structure was strong in the country and the National side had been performing reasonably well, the game was not able to make any big impact due to the lack of television coverage. However, Roux said the International Cricket Council (ICC) should treat the associate countries better and provide them more support and exposure. “We are representing Holland. But we are also representing the bigger cause — trying to show the ICC that everyone belongs to the game. You cannot separate people. It is unfair.” Netherlands captain Peter Borren advocated a better revenue sharing method to help smaller nations get more exposure. ND-ND

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SPORT

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THE HINDU

SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

Afghanistan sails through Shambolic batting and undisciplined bowling costs Zimbabwe dear V.V. SUBRAHMANYAM NAGPUR: It was a flop show by

Zimbabwe on a day when it mattered most for them while Afghanistan recorded a fifth straight win over its opponent in a T20 International and more importantly made it to the Super 10s from Group B of the World Cup T20 cricket qualifiers. The emphatic, 59-run victory at the VCA Stadium here on Saturday, saw the Asians join England, South Africa, Sri Lanka and West Indies in Group B of the main draw. Wily leg-spinner Rashid Khan was the star performer with an impressive analysis of 4-0-11-3. Chasing 187 for victory Zimbabwe was never in the hunt. The dismissal of the big-hitting captain Hamilton Masakadza (11) was perhaps symbolic of the pathetic batting — completely

missing a full-length ball from medium-pacer Hamid Hassan to be bowled. To the delight of their coach and former Pakistan great Inzamam-ul-Haq, the Afghans ensured that the opposition had no chance to come back into the

game with a disciplined bowling performance. Earlier, opener Mohammad Shahzad’s belligerence (40, 23b, 7x4, 1x6) and No. 6 Mohammad Nabi’s flamboyance (52, 32b,

Easy for Indian women N. SUDARSHAN

4x4, 2x6) helped Afghanistan post a challenging 186 for six in 20 overs. Left-arm spinner Sean Williams, after being hit for a six by Shahzad, induced a reverse sweep straight to the point fielder in the fifth over. Later, medium-pacer Tinashe Panyangara picked up three quick wickets — he forced Afghan captain Asghar Stanikzai (0) to pull straight to the fielder in the deep, saw Gulbadin Nabi (7) drag one on to the stumps and dismissed Noor Ali Zadran (10) cheaply. Afghanistan looked in trouble at 63 for four before a 98-run stand for the fifth wicket of 64 balls between Samiullah Shenwari (43, 37b, 4x4, 1 x6) and the 31-year-old Nabi pushed Zimbabwe on the backfoot. Zimbabwe paid dearly when wicketkeeper Richmond Mutumbami, who had a forgetful

match, missed an easy stumping chance when Nabi was on 20 of left-arm spinner Wellington Masakadza. Zimbabwe’s bowling also lacked discipline, evident by the 17 wides and four no-balls bowled. Meanwhile, Scotland recorded its maiden win in the T20 World Cup when it successfully chased a revised target of 76 from 10 overs against Hong Kong in the final Group B match late on Saturday night. The scores: Afghanistan 186 for six in 20 overs (Mohammad Shahzad 40, Samiullah Shenwari 43, Mohammad Nabi 52, Tinashe Panyangara three for 32) bt Zimbabwe 127 in 19.4 overs (Hamid Hassan two for 11, Rashid Khan three for 11). Hong Kong 127 for seven in 20 overs (Mark Chapman 40, Matt Machan two for 26) lost to Scotland 78 for two in eight overs. (Revised target of 76 in 10 overs as per D\L Method).

India falls just short in tall chase AMOL KARHADKAR

BENGALURU: India’s women made

sure that they had the best possible preparation for the ICC Women’s World T20 by scampering to an eight-wicket win over Sri Lanka in their second and last warm-up game at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium here on Saturday. Set 126 to win, India won with 13 balls to spare as Smriti Mandhana, who made a 52-ball 73 against Ireland, came good again, scoring an unbeaten 42 of 28 balls. Opener V. Vanitha also accounted for a brisk 37. India was of to a sedate start. Of the first nine overs only 45 runs came. Mithali Raj tried to force the issue but was stumped on 23. But the 11th over opened the flood gates. Eighteen came of Nilakshi de Silva’s bowling including two wides that fetched 10 runs in all. From there on, the Indian women scored at close to nine an over to finish things of. For Sri Lanka, more than the result, its captain Shashikala Siriwardene’s fitness would be of concern as she couldn’t take the

Smriti Mandhana. — PHOTO: ROBERT CIANFLONE/GETTY IMAGES field after she was stretchered of following a hamstring pull while being stumped out. The scores: Sri Lanka 125 for four in 20 overs (Dilani Surangika 43 n.o.) lost to India 128 for two in 17.5 overs (V. Vanitha 37, Smriti Mandhana 42 n.o.) Ireland 74 for nine in 20 overs (Rumana Ahmed four for 12) lost to Bangladesh 79 for two in 12.3 overs (Sharmin Akhter 36 n.o.).

MUMBAI: The calendar has changed. So has the format and India’s bowling attack after being pounded for 400-plus total in an ODI last October. Still, South Africa continued its merrymaking at Wankhede Stadium by warming up to the World Twenty20 by piling on a huge total on Saturday. The India batsmen eventually ended up four runs short of the Proteas’ 196 for nine but India’s middle order gave lot of reasons to smile about not just for the dressing room (the dug outs are still not in place at the Wankhede) but even for a near-capacity fans who thronged the stadium. The stupendous turnout was understandable since India will feature in the marquee event in Mumbai only if it makes the knockouts. It turned out to be a left-handers’ night. First it was the turn of Quinton de Kock and Jean-Paul Duminy, who added 77 runs in 49 balls for the third wicket before the former retired after scoring a stylish fifty to give the lower order batsmen a look in. Later in the night, it was the turn of India’s lefty duo of Shikhar Dhawan and Suresh Raina. The duo restored India’s innings after Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane failed to make an impact. Their 94-run association of 59 balls ended when both the batsmen retired at the end of the 16th over to let Mahendra Singh Dhoni

and Yuvraj Singh wage their handle for four overs. With 55 runs required to win, the old warhorses revived the memories of the 2011 World Cup final at the same time during their blitzkrieg 24-ball 51 association. Dhoni, who sent Dale Steyn packing with a pull that landed in the second tier over fine leg in the 18th over, had an opportunity to

seal the game with a six of the last over. But Chris Morris held his nerves to get South Africa’s campaign of to a good start. The scores: South Africa 196 for nine in 20 overs (Jean-Paul Duminy 67, Quinton de Kock 56 retd., Hardik Pandya three for 36, Mohammed Shami two for 37, Jasprit Bumrah two for 51) bt India 192 for five in 20 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 73 retd., Suresh Raina 41 retd., Mahendra Singh Dhoni 31 not out).

Shikhar Dhawan managed some time in the middle on Saturday. — PHOTO: VIVEK BENDRE

Do-or-die game for Oman, Bangladesh

READY TO COMPETE

Y.B. SARANGI DHARAMSHALA: Confidence will

Pakistan coach Waqar Younis leads the team, which arrived in India for the World T20, out of the NSCBI Airport in Kolkata. — PHOTO: PTI

VARIETY

WE DID IT! The Afghanistan players celebrate after ensuring their team's berth in the main draw of the World T20. — PHOTO: K.R. DEEPAK

be the watchword for favourite Bangladesh and underdog Oman when they lock horns in a do-or-die World T20 qualifier at the HPCA Stadium here on Sunday, where the treat of rain looms. Bangladesh may be the highest-ranked team in the pool but at present — with two of its bowlers, pacer Taskin Ahmed and of-spinner Arafat Sunny, reported for suspect bowling action — it is trying to cope with the crisis. The unavailability of injured left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman has increased Bangladesh’s concern for Taskin. Even as Sunny went to Chennai on Saturday for testing and was expected to join the squad on Sunday, Taskin stayed on with the team. Bowling coach Heath Streak and other support staf made Taskin watch the video footage of his action and gave the young bowler some confidence ahead of the crucial fixture.

“He (Taskin) and I are 100 per cent confident that he will be cleared. I have looked at the footage from when I had started till now and there is no change in his action...I honestly believe he is fine and is going to play an important part for us in the World Cup,” asserted Streak. Bangladesh should be happy with its strong batting line-up and overall balance. However, the lack of enough inputs about a lesser-known Oman may pose a few problems. Oman, which has a disciplined attack and some explosive batsmen, is full of self-belief after its thrilling victory over Ireland. It is keen to replicate its courageous performance here the other night to script history of sorts. “Bangladesh is a strong side but we are confident of giving our best,” said Oman captain Sultan Ahmed.In the other match, Netherlands and Ireland will seek to secure a victory and close their campaign on a high.

City hopes hit by Norwich stalemate

SU | DO | KU

LONDON: A resolute Norwich City

placed a significant dent in Manchester City’s Premier League title aspirations with a hardfought 0-0 draw at Carrow Road on Saturday. Manchester City enjoyed plenty of possession, but aside from a Sergio Aguero efort that was superbly saved by John Ruddy in the first half, it created precious little. Norwich remains in the bottom three, below fourth-bottom Sunderland on goal diference, while Manchester City is now nine points behind leader Leicester City.

A mind game and a puzzle that you solve with reasoning and logic. Fill in the grid with digits in such a manner that every row, every column and every 3x3 box accommodates the digits 1 to 9, without repeating any. The solution to yesterday’s puzzle is at left. CM YK

Bufon’s milestone Beaten finalist Juventus warmed up for a crucial Champions League date at Bayern Munich with a precious 1-0 win over Sassuolo that saw veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Bufon and striker Paulo Dybala star in Turin. The win moved Juventus six points clear of Napoli and kept the Old Lady unbeaten for 19 games and a clean sheet for a new league record of 10 consecutive games. Bufon overtook the legendary Dino Zof’s 903-minute unbeaten tally in the league at the 67th minute mark. Bufon is now unbeaten in Serie A for 926 minutes of football, and is just four away from overtaking Sebastia-

Spinners call the shots DEREK ABRAHAM MUMBAI: Spinners picked up eight of the 12 wickets as England and New Zealand enjoyed a fruitful afternoon at the Wankhede on Saturday. For the record, England won the warmup match by six wickets. Kane Williamson collected 42 of his 63 runs through 4s and 6s. No other batsman made even 20 as the Kiwis finished with 169 for eight. With the 100 up in the 10th over, New Zealand was well on its way to a rollicking finish, but leg-spinner Adil Rashid (4-015-3) and of-spinner Moeen Ali (4-0-30-1) applied the brakes. England’s reply was as good, Jason Roy blazing away to a 36ball 55. Alex Hales (44) and Jos Buttler (24 n.o.) also chipped in. The teams also took part in a Super Over contest, which England won quite easily. The scores: New Zealand 169 for seven in 20 overs (Kane Williamson 63, Reece Topley two for 39, Adil Rashid three for 15) lost to England 170 for four in 19.2 overs (Jason Roy 55, Alex Hales 44, Mitchell Santner two for 24, Nathan McCullum two for 25).

Anand, Karjakin share lead Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin shared the lead at the end of the second round of the World Candidates chess tournament in Moscow on Saturday. Anand drew with Levon Aronian in the second round, with black pieces. The results (second round): Sergey Karjakin (Rus) 1.5 bt Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 0.5; Levon Aronian (Arm) 1 drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 1.5; Peter Svidler (Rus) 1 drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul) 0.5; Fabiano Caruana (USA) 1 drew with Anish Giri (Ned) 1.

KOZHIKODE:

FIGHTING FOR POSSESSION: Norwich City's Patrick Bamford, who had the only real chance to score, battles with Manchester City's Vincent Kompany and Jesus Navas. — PHOTO: AP

no Rossi’s all-time record of 929 minutes for AC Milan in 1994. The results: EPL: Norwich 0 drew with Manchester City 0. Bournemouth 3 (Gradel 37, King 50, Cook 78) bt Swansea 2 (Barrow 39, Sigurdsson 62); Stoke 1 (Arnautovic 52) lost to Southampton 2 (Pelle 11, 30) FA Cup: Reading 0 lost to Crystal Palace 2 (Cabaye 86-pen, Campbell 90+4). Serie A: Juventus 1 (Dybala 36) bt Sassuolo 0. Bundesliga: Saturday: Borussia Monchengladbach 3 (Stindl 36, Raffael 53, Dahoud 79) bt Eintracht Frankfurt

0; Hanover 96 0 lost to Cologne 2 (Bittencourt 43, 61); Hoffenheim 1 (Kramaric 3) bt Wolfsburg 0; Ingolstadt 3 (Hartmann 4, Leckie 56, Lezcano 61) drew with VfB Stuttgart 3 (Kostic 9, Rupp 79, Didavi 84-pen); Darmstadt 2 (Vrancic 12, Wagner 40) drew with Augsburg 2 (Feulner 63, Finnbogason 90-pen). Friday: Hertha Berlin 2 (Ibisevic 42, Stark 65) bt Schalke 04 0. La Liga: Barcelona 6 (Rodriguez 8og, El Haddadi 19, Neymar 32, 51, Messi 40, Turan 57) bt Getafe 0; Malaga 1 (Juanpi 25) bt Sporting 0. — Agencies

Sania-Hingis pair moves up INDIAN WELLS: Sania Mirza and

Martina Hingis defeated the Australian team of Casey Dellacqua and Samantha Stosur 6-3, 7-5 to enter the second round of the BNP Paribas Open here on Friday. They next face U.S.’s Vania King and Russia’s Alla Kudryavtseva, who beat Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova 4-6, 6-3, [10-5]. — PTI

Beaumont stars for England S. DIPAK RAGAV CHENNAI: Riding on opener Tam-

sin Beaumont’s half-century and medium-pacer Jenny Gunn’s four-wicket haul, England women beat New Zealand by 20 runs in the second warm-up match played here on Saturday. Beaumont made 56 in just 52 balls which included seven boundaries before England was bowled out for 126. In response, New Zealand started of slowly and was looking good with a 43-run partnership between Sophie Devine and Sara McGlashan for the fourth wicket. But once Devine was dismissed for 31 trapped leg-before, the chase fizzled out with 48 required of seven overs. For New Zealand of-spinner Leigh Kasperek was the pick of the bowlers with four wickets and Sara McGlashan was brilliant in the field taking three catches and efecting a run-out. Nine-wicket defeat Later in the night, the South

African women sufered a ninewicket defeat to a team of Tamil Nadu Cricket Association under-17 boys. The TNCA City Juniors openers S. Abhishek and P. Praveen Kumar made short work of the South African bowling chasing 105, with both smashing half-centuries. The youngsters enjoyed the chance of playing under lights at the iconic stadium playing some glorious shots. Earlier, opener Marizanne Kapp led South Africa’s recovery with an unbeaten half-century and struck a crucial 54-run partnership with Trisha Chetty for the third wicket. The scores: South Africa 104 for five in 20 overs (Marizanne Kapp 53 n.o., Nidish Rajgopal two for seven) lost to TNCA City Juniors 108 for one in 15.1 overs (S. Abhishek 50 n.o., Praveen Kumar 50). England 126 in 19.2 overs (Tamsin Beaumont 52, Leigh Kasperek four for 12, Felicity Leydon-Davis three for 19) bt New Zealand 106 in 19.1 overs (Sophie Devine 31, Jenny Gunn four for 12, Heather Knight three for 13,  Danielle Hazell two for 16).

Mumbai tournament structure has to be modified MAKARAND WAINGANKAR The current cricket structure of the domestic level has many loopholes. It does not throw the same challenges that the players face at the international level and it will give them false confidence. Not all teams plan meticulously as Mumbai teams do. There is hardly any change in the strategy management of Mumbai teams but the method of execution changes all the time. An era dominated by the Mumbai players followed a simple mantra: When you bat, grind the bowlers and while bowling, test the patience of batsmen. This strategy has earned Mumbai 41 Ranji Trophies which is a clear indication that this successful mantra will be followed by the future teams. Apart from the growing success, the Mumbai players are known for their ‘Khadoos’ (never- say-die) attitude. But one can’t win with this strategy all the time. The Irani Cup completely exposed the negativity part in the strategy management. First, in 20 wickets that Mumbai lost there were only two bowled and one lbw which meant that famous ‘Khadoos’ attitude was missing especially in the second innings. They were seen bowling negative line obviously under instructions from the team management. This season, the winning streak continued as the Mumbai team bagged the Ranji Trophy and Under-23 C. K. Nayudu Trophy, following their timetested strategy. It worked. Incidentally, the MCA collaborated with IDBI Federal Life Insurance Bowling Foundation under Jef Thomson. Here, the practice sessions were conducted such that the batsmen got a variety to bat against which gave the bowlers time to recover. Meticulous planning was carried out during the ofseason tournaments so that the various combinations were tried out in low humidity places in the southern part of India. As the players followed their set strategy, one could assess the player’s ability to perform if he was made to change his style. A player has to adapt to the strategy of the Mumbai team. Shreyas Iyer with his ag-

Excellence is the gradual result of intelligent planning and focused effort gressive play is changing the philosophy. With multiple tournaments played in domestic cricket on docile pitches, the batsmen tend to take chances against mediocre attack without realising that he has been perfecting the imperfect way. But the same is not possible in international cricket and they struggle when exposed. New talent Among the emerging players, Jay Bista and Armaan Jafer are hugely talented. The former being a hand-eye coordination player; spanks on both the side of the wicket and cuts ferociously. His brand of cricket doesn’t fit into ‘grinding the bowler’ principle of the Mumbai school of batting though he is an opener. On the other hand, Armaan Jafer is a risk-free player and it’s a delight to watch him. He gets into position early and bisects the field placing without any risk. If Bista is a hard hitter, Armaan caresses the ball to the boundary. There is Suryakumar Yadav too, who is becoming consistent by getting rid of the Twenty20 shots which always curtailed his knocks earlier. The pacers, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur and Balwinder Singh Sandhu (Jr) are also working in tandem — each one sticking to his strength. It’s only the spin bowling that has been the worry of Mumbai. Never in the history of Mumbai cricket have so many spinners been reported for illegitimate actions. It is very crucial to look into the same as spinners play a vital role in these tournaments. Therefore, if Mumbai has to dominate domestic cricket and produce quality players for the country, there has to be a rethink on the tournament structure. The Mumbai tournament structure has to be modified so that the players are thrown into diferent routines and challenges. Excellence is the gradual result of intelligent planning and focused efort with never-saydie attitude being the key. ND-ND

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SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016

Mahesh stuns Kandra CHENNAI: Mahesh Mangaonkar

upset second seed Raphael Kandra of Germany 11-7, 11-13, 11-9, 11-6 to move into the semifinals of the Sekisui squash Open, a PSA world tour event at Kriens, Switzerland. He will now face unseeded Geofrey Demont of France. At Calgary (Canada), in the women’s squash week event Sachika Ingale lost 6-11, 5-11, 1012 to wild card Danielle Letourneau of Canada.

BASKETBALL

RACING

Army Red in semis

Colombiana runs with a good chance

ASHWIN ACHAL

Arafat in Chennai for tests SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT CHENNAI: Bangladesh left-arm

spinner Arafat Sunny was here on Saturday to undergo tests on his bowling action. Sunny and teammate Taskin Ahmed were asked by match oicials to get their action scrutinised after Bangladesh’s game against the Netherlands at Dharamshala last Wednesday in the ICC World Twenty20. Although they were permitted to continue bowling in the competition, the two were asked to get their action checked within a week. Sunny was here amid much secrecy at the bio-mechanical facility of the Sri Ramachandra Sports Medicine Centre and Taskin is likely to get his action analysed soon. The bio-mechanical test report could take anywhere between a week to a fortnight to come out. The ICC’s next move on the issue will depend on the results.

Ranti Martins scores hat-trick AIZAWL: Ranti Martins struck a

hat-trick as East Bengal made a late rally from a two-goal deficit to beat a 10-man Aizawl FC 3-2 in an I-League football match here on Saturday. Brandon Valpuia (19th minute) and Yuta Kinowaki (58th) scored for the home side before Ranti Martins struck in the 69th, 85th and 88th minutes to secure all three points for East Bengal. Aizawl was done in by a direct red card for Nigerian defender Emmanuel Chigozie in the 67th minute, and East Bengal, trailing 0-2 then, grabbed the opportunity. With this strike, Ranti has gone atop the scoring chart with 11 goals. East Bengal now has 20 points from 11 matches, two points adrift of Mohun Bagan and Bengaluru FC. The result: Aizawl FC 2 (Brandon Valpuia 19, Yuta Kinowaki, 58) lost to Eat Bengal 3 (Ranti Martins 69, 85, 88).

North Zone school snooker in May NEW DELHI: The Delhi Billiards

and Snooker Association will organise the fourth North Zone school boys’ six-red snooker championship at the Megapool Academy, Dwarka, here from May 20 to 27. Players from all Delhi, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Chandigarh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand will participate in the event, carrying a total prize money of Rs. 1 lakh.

Yuki Bhambri loses in semifinals NEW DELHI: Top seed Yuki Bham-

bri’s fine run came to an end as he lost 6-3, 6-3 to fourth seed Thomas Fabbiano of Italy in the semifinals of the $50,000 Challenger tennis tournament in Zhuhai, China, on Saturday. “He moved very well. He was definitely the better player today,” conceded Yuki. The results: $50,000 Challenger, Zhuhai, China: Semifinals: Thomas Fabbiano (Ita) bt Yuki Bhambri 6-3, 6-3.

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GOOD SHOW: Army Red’s Ramesh Kumar (right) goes for a basket against North Western Railway in the Federation Cup basketball tournament at Panjim on Saturday.

PANJIM: Army Red posted a scrappy 68-50 win over North Western Railway to enter the men’s semifinals of the Federation Cup basketball tournament here on Saturday. Both sides failed to get going on the ofensive end. NWR converted just 16 of 74 attempts, while Army Red was only marginally better. Vijaya Bank (Bengaluru) — the most entertaining unit in the fray — took out Ludhiana Basketball Academy 72-43. The Bengaluru players jumped high to finish the lay-ups, threw down a few slam dunks, and collected the assists with no-look passes. In the women’s section, Kerala sailed past Maharashtra 8163. P.S. Jeena (26 points, 10 rebounds), G. Rojamol (15 pts) and Stephy Nixon (14 pts, 8 rebounds) ensured that the favourite notched up a third straight victory. The results (league): Men: IOB (Chennai) 63 (Arvind Annadurai 14, Mihir Pandey 12, K. Satheesh 11) bt Don Bosco Oratory (Goa) 38 (Dillano Marchon 9); Army Red 68 (Ramesh Kumar 20, Jayram Jat 18) bt North Western Railway 50 (Prashant Singh 27, Patel Jainesh 13); Vijaya Bank (Bengaluru) 72 (B.K. Anil Kumar 19, S. Karthickeyan 13, Arvind Arumugam 10) bt Ludhiana Basketball Academy 43 (Arshpreet Singh Bhullar 18). Women: Kerala 81 (P.S. Jeena 26, G. Rojamol 15, Stephy Nixon 14) bt Maharashtra 63 (Manisha Dange 21, Shruthi Menon 20, Sangeeta Mandal 14); Karnataka 74 (C.R. Kavana 25, Ranjitha 20, P. Priyanka 11) bt Delhi 63 (Sahiba 20, Princy 15, Monika Vats 12). Semifinal line-up: Men: Vijaya Bank vs IOB; ONGC vs Army Red. Women: Kerala vs Telangana; Chhattisgarh vs South East Central Railway (Bilaspur).

FOOTBALL

Oliveira nets Salgaocar winner VASCO: Salgaocar held on to its first half strike by Gilbert Oliveira to beat Shillong Lajong 1-0 and came out of the relegation in the Hero I-League here on Saturday. With this victory, Salgaocar has now moved up to sixth position in the points table. The solitary goal of the match by Olivera, whose pile driver from top of the box beat leaping goalkeeper Vishal Keith to find the roof of the net, earned him the man of the match award. Salgaocar, which is unbeaten in the last three matches, took its points tally to 12 points, the same as Mumbai FC. Shillong Lajong is on 11 points from 11 matches.

Both the teams played attacking game throughout the match. Although the Lajong enjoyed a slight edge, especially in the second half, and also managed to move the ball deep down into the Salgaocar half, it lacked ideas once near the box and the moves fizzled out with Eder Monteiro standing firm in the defence. The visitors had the first chance to take the lead in the early part of the match but Penn Orje directed his shot of the target. Salgaocar took the lead after a couple of close chances, scoring in the 31st minute. Following a corner by Brian Mascarnehas that saw defender Konsham heading the ball

away, Oliveira, who was on top of the box, sent a pile driver beating the rival keeper. Shillong Lajong coach made second change soon after the break, bringing in Boithang Haokip in place of Konsham Chinglensana Singh to give more thrust in the attack. But Salgaocar defence held well. The visitors had a couple of close chances but they failed to direct the ball on target. Salgaocar came with a few counter moves and had a good chance to increase its lead but Brian Mascarnehas failed to direct his shot on target when well placed inside the box of Cavin pass. The result: Salgaocar 1 (Gilbert Oliveira 31) bt Shillong Lajong 0. — PTI

MUMBAI: The four-year-old colt Colombiana, who is in good form, may score over his rivals in the C.N. Wadia Gold Cup, the main event of Sunday’s (March 13) evening races. An amount of Rs. 5,00,000 will be added to the Super Jackpot Pool Collection. 1 NADIA MARY HOMI WADIA TROPHY (1,000m), Maiden, 3-y-o only – 3.15 p.m.: 1. El Tycoon (3) Sameer 55, 2. Galtero (2) R.Vaibhav 55, 3. Kingston Heath (1) Dashrath 55, 4. Amicus Curiae (5) Yash Narredu 53.5, 5. Eternal Dancer (6) Mosin 53.5, 6. Negara (4) C.S.Jodha 53.5 and 7. Riot Of Colours (7) Trevor 53.5. 1. Kingston Heath, 2. Negara 2 R.J.KOLAH TROPHY (1,400m), Maiden 3-y-o only – 3.45: 1. Artificial (2) Suraj Narredu 55, 2. Imperial Heritage (1) Trevor 55, 3. Kings Baron (5) Sandesh 55, 4. Minstrel Heights (4) Bhawani 55, 5. Pugnacious (6) Dashrath 55, 6. Shivalik Warrior (3) J.Chinoy 55 and 7. Temerity (7) Neeraj 53.5. 1. Temerity, 2. Pugnacious 3 INDIAN NAVY TROPHY, DIV.II (1,200m), Cl. III, rated 40 to 66 – 4.15: 1. Eternal Royalty (4)

Sandesh 59, 2. Abigail (9) P.S.Chouhan 58.5, 3. Magnum Opus (6) Dashrath 58.5, 4. Rock The Turf (1) Yash Narredu 58.5, 5. Via Amoris (8) Trevor 58.5, 6. Excelonce (2) Neeraj 58, 7. Logano (5) Kuldeep 58, 8. Flying Show (7) Nazil 57.5 and 9. Ainra (3) K.Kadam 55.5. 1. Eternal Royalty, 2. Via Amoris, 3. Abigail 4 INDIAN NAVY TROPHY, DIV.I (1,200m), Cl. III, rated 40 to 66 – 5.00: 1. Jimbo (4) Joseph 60.5, 2. Vasco Da Gama (10) P.S.Chouhan 59.5, 3. Dramarama (3) Santosh 59, 4. Final Encounter (7) Trevor 58.5, 5. Phoenix Cat (9) Dashrath 58.5, 6. Joleene (6) C.S.Jodha 57.5, 7. Umarkot (8) R.S.Deora 55.5, 8. Beach Game (1) Kuldeep 55, 9. Stormy Princess (5) Kiran Naidu 55 and 10. Few Dollars More (2) Sandesh 53.5. 1. Few Dollars More, 2. Final Encounter, 3. Vasco Da Gama 5 JAYARAMDAS PATEL GOLD TROPHY (2,000m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to 46 – 5.40: 1. His Highness (1) C.S.Jodha 60, 2. Severus (6) Sandesh 60, 3. Joss (3) Santosh 59.5, 4. Uncle Scrooge (7) P.S.Chouhan 59.5, 5. Danse Debonaire (5) Yash Narredu 57.5, 6. Sans Peur (8) Trevor 53.5, 7. Argonautica (2) J.Chi-

noy 51.5 and 8. Argyle Pink (4) K.Kadam 50.5. 1. Sans Peur, 2. Joss, 3. Severus 6 C.N.WADIA GOLD CUP (Gr.2) (2,400m), 4-y-o & over – 6.15: 1. An Acquired Taste (4) R.Vaibhav 59, 2. Colombiana (2) Suraj Narredu 56.5, 3. Azzuro (5) Trevor 53, 4. Booker Jones (3) Sandesh 53 and 5. The Unicorn (1) P.S.Chouhan 53. 1. Colombiana, 2. The Unicorn 7 MULRAJ GOCULDAS TROPHY (1,200m), Cl. I, rated 80 and upward – 7.00: 1. Zander (3) Yash Narredu 59, 2. Rule Downunder (4) Sandesh 57, 3. Visionist (8) R.Vaibhav 57, 4. Mountbatten (2) T.S.Jodha 54.5, 5. The Big Bull (6) J.Chinoy 53.5, 6. Ageless (1) Trevor 52.5, 7. Simply Sweet (5) C.S.Jodha 51.5 and 8. Maleficent (7) P.S.Chouhan 51. 1. Maleficent, 2. Ageless, 3. Rule Downunder 8 PRITHVI FEST TROPHY DIV.I (1,000m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to 46 – 7.30: 1. Phoenix Knight (13) Trevor 61, 2. Spear Of Trium (2) Dashrath 60, 3. Aliboxer (7) Sandesh 59, 4. Hidden Soul (10) Zeeshan 59, 5. Blitzkrieg (6) S.Amit 58.5, 6. Star One (11) Neeraj 57.5, 7. Evidence (4)

M.R. PRAVEEN CHANDRAN NAGPUR: The youthful brigade from Maharashtra is just a step away from glory. But in the final of the 70th Santosh Trophy football championship, the host faces a formidable opponent in Services which has won the cup three times in the last four years. Fearlessness combined with technical finesse has been Maharashtra’s trait in this championship. Maharashtra ended Tamil Nadu’s dream run in the tournament to enter the final for the first time in 11 years. The one-touch play and quick attack has seen this side win over fans. But the young side will face a test of character against Services which is known for its perseverance. Without being flashy, Services has been efective in this tournament. The team has managed to soak pressure and has stunned opponents with late goals. Services coach Shaji pointed

out that Maharashtra’s strength is its midfield and the former Santosh Trophy player wants his side to dominate that key area. “It will be a match between two teams which have similar strengths. We also have a strong midfield and we will be looking to dominate them in that area. We will be playing our hard pressing game which has upset our rivals in the previous games and we will be hoping to rein in Raynier Fernandez who has been their key player in the midfield,” said the coach. Revelation Augusto D’silva’s boys have been a revelation in this tournament. Apart from individual brilliance, Maharashtra has played well as a unit. Except for the reverse against Services in the league match, the team has been dominant in other matches including the semifinal against Tamil Nadu. Coach D’silva said the defeat in the league phase would not

have a bearing on the final. “We are not overawed by our opponents. I must say the final will be between our technical finesse and their tactical ability. In the league match we were weakened by absence of two key players. They are back in the squad. The boys are motivated and keen to go out and perform. We will be playing our trademark attacking style in the final,’’ said the confident coach. With an average age of 23, Maharashtra is probably the youngest side in this tournament. Aaron D’Costa on the right and Raynier on left have been shouldering the responsibility of feeding the strikers through both wings. Mohammed Shabaz, Vijit Shetty all had their moments in the tournament. It was often individual brilliance of its players that has helped Maharashtra to wriggle out of a tight situation. But against the hard tackling Services side, Maharashtra has its task cut out.

9 PRITHVI FEST TROPHY, DIV.II (1,000m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to 46 – 8.00: 1. Speed Of Sound (12) Dashrath 59, 2. Dancing Dae’mon (7) Zeeshan 54, 3. Oriental Rule (8) Parbat 54, 4. Rare Silver (10) Raghuveer 54, 5. Winds Of Change (6) V.Jodha 54, 6. Fast Future (1) Yash Narredu 53.5, 7. Khaleefa (4) K.Kadam 52.5, 8. Merabella (11) C.S.Jodha 52.5, 9. Pricelessgirl (5) Hanumant 52.5, 10. The Giver (2) Sandeep Jadhav 52.5, 11. Way Ahead (9) Neeraj 52.5 and 12. Pretty In Patpong (3) Nadeem 50.5. 1. Speed Of Sound, 2. Merabella, 3. Way Ahead Day’s best: Few Dollars More Double: Maleficent – Evidence Jackpot (i): 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7; (ii): 5, 6, 7, 8 &9 Treble (i): 2, 3 & 4; (ii): 6, 7 & 8; (iii): 7, 8 & 9 Tanala: All races Super Jackpot: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 & 9.

van Niekerk makes sprint history Whomakestherules

wins main event

PARIS: South African Wayde van

Niekerk has become the first runner to break 10s barrier for 100m, 20s for 200m and 44s for 400m, the world governing body IAAF said on Saturday. The world 400m champion had previously broken the marks on the two longer distances before running 9.98sec over 100m in Bloemfontein on Saturday. van Niekerk was helped by a legal 1.5m/s tailwind and the 1300m altitude at the track. Before that, the 23-year-old’s 100m personal best was 10.45s, although that was back in 2011. His 200m personal best is 19.94s while he ran 43.48s in winning the world title in Beijing last year. He will, however, be running only the 400m at the Rio Olympics later this year. “Wow!!! Truly grateful and humbled by the opportunity and talents the Lord has blessed me with. Finally reaching my childhood dream of sub 10,” wrote van Niekerk

alongside a video on his Instagram account. “Truly so blessed thank you to everyone supporting me with in my career. And all that’s contributed to where I am today!!!” — AFP

Mendoza to play in MLS CHENNAI: Chennaiyin FC striker John Stiven Mendoza, the top-scorer in

the Indian Super League Season-2, will play for New York City FC in the Major League Soccer (MLS), NYCFC confirmed on Saturday. The Colombian striker has received his P1 visa and is eligible for selection for the club’s opening home game against Toronto FC, at the Yankee Stadium on Sunday. “Everyone kept telling me it’s a team that is forming and coming together really well.” Mendoza told NYCFC.com. “Patrick Vieira (the head coach of NYCFC) is someone who wants to win. I’ve talked with the head coach and I am very excited by the confidence he has in me.” — Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: Whomakestherules ridden by Suraj Narredu won the Audi MultiMillion, the feature event of Saturday’s (March12) races here. The winner is owned by M/s. Janak Ram Jethmalani, Tariq D. Vaidya, Mohit Lalvani and Farokh D. Pandole. M. Narredu trains the winner. There was a mishap in this race. One Aim (A. Sandesh up) while negotiating the turn clipped the heels of front running horse Serenita and fell down. The other two horses Sparkling Eyes (C.S. Jodha up) and Good Thing (S. John astride) who were racing behind One Aim also had a fall dislodging their riders. However all three jockeys were out of danger. 1. RONALDO PLATE (1,600m), Cl. III, rated 40 to 66: Batman (Neeraj) 1, Magnificence (Sandesh) 2, Charging Tigress (J. Chinoy) 3 and Sawgrass (Santosh) 4. Nk, 2-3/4, Nk. 1m 43.36s. Rs. 34 (w), 14 and 11 (p), SHP: Rs. 43, FP: Rs. 48, Q: Rs. 14, Tanala: Rs. 95 and Rs. 55. Favourite: Magnificence. Owners: M/s. Kapil Bahl & Vikram D. Shah. Trainer: Faisal Abbas. 2. FLAREON PLATE (1,400m), Cl. V, rated 1 to 26: Squash (S. Amit) 1, Bay Of Love (Ranjane) 2, Nigella (T.S. Jodha) 3 and Diablo (Kharadi) 4. 3-1/2, 2-1/4, Nk. 1m 24.12s. Rs. 31 (w), 14, 29 ad 32 (p), SHP: Rs. 91, FP: Rs. 169, Q: Rs. 233, Tanala: Rs. 2,029 and Rs. 1,118. Favourite: Squash. Owners: Mr. Haresh N. Mehta and Mr. Manav H. Mehta rep. Rohan Bloodstock Pvt. Ltd. Trainer: Mansoor Shah. 3. RADHA SIGTIA TROPHY (2,400m), Cl. II, rated 60 to 86: Phenomenal Memory (Sandesh) 1, Jigsaw (Yash Narredu) 2, Chef D’Oeuvre (Neeraj) 3 and Starry Brook (Dashrath) 4. Hd, 1-1/2, 1-1/2. 2m 36.17s. Rs. 40 (w), 17 and 15 (p), SHP: Rs. 25, FP: Rs. 82, Q: Rs. 61, Tanala: Rs. 97 and Rs. 38. Favourite: Chef D’Oeuvre. Owners: Mr. Cyrus S. Poonawalla, Mr. Adar C. Poonawalla & Mrs. Natasha A. Poonawalla rep. Villoo Poonawalla Racing & Breeding Pvt. Ltd. Trainer: Dallas Todywalla. 4. A HOYT PLATE (1,000m), Cl. V, rated 1 to 26: Mizilla Gold (Sandesh) 1, Speedo (Dashrath) 2, Ame (Neeraj) 3 and Big Bro (Nadeem) 4. 3/4, 2-1/4, 1-1/2. 59.71s. Rs. 21 (w), 11, 14 and 32 (p), SHP: Rs. 37, FP: Rs. 34, Q: Rs. 21, Tanala: Rs. 212 and Rs. 141. Favourite: Mizilla Gold. Owner & trainer: Mr. Altaf Hussain. 5. KEUKENHOF PLATE (Div. II), (1,200m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to 46: Bulldozer (C.S. Jodha) 1, Commtiment (K. Kadam) 2, Lucky Strike (T.S. Jodha) 3 and Shivalik Rose (D.A. Naik) 4. 1-1/2, Nk, 5-3/4. 1m 11.74s. Rs. 26 (w), 10, 16 and 81 (p), SHP: Rs. 43, FP: Rs. 63, Q: Rs. 26, Tanala: Rs. 2,815 and Rs. 2,011. Favourite: Frankest. Owners: M/s. J.R. Mehra, R. Rashid, Narendra Kumar Ambwani, Faisal A. Abbas. Trainer: Faisal Abbas. 6. AUDI MULTI-MILLION (1,200m), 3-y-o only: Whomakestherules (Suraj Narredu) 1 and Serenita (Dashrath) 2. Nk. 1m 10.63s. Rs. 21 (w), 14 and 14 (p), SHP: Rs. 27, FP: Rs. 70, Q: Rs. 14. Favourite: Whomakestherules. Owners: M/s. Janak Ram Jethmalani, Tariq D. Vaidya, Mohit Lalvani, Farokh D. Pandole. Trainer: M. Narredu. 7. COMMANCHE DOUBLE STAKES (1,400m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to 46: Exodus (Santosh) 1, Pink Panther (Merchant) 2, Streetjammer (J. Chinoy) 3 and Sensex (K. Kadam) 4. Sh, 3/4, 1-1/2. 1m 23.70s. Rs. 37 (w), 21, 60 and 24 (p), SHP: Rs. 801, FP: Rs. 2,569, Q: Rs. 1,476, Tanala: Rs. 5,938 and Rs. 1,454. Favourite: Exodus. Owners: Mr. Jaydev M. Mody rep. J.M. Livestock Pvt. Ltd. Trainer: C.D. Katrak. 8. KEUKENHOF PLATE (Div. I), (1,200m), Cl. IV, rated 20 to 46: Ancient Glory (Suraj Narredu) 1, Turf Dancer (T.S. Jodha) 2, Almost Magical (Merchant) 3 and Relentless Pursuit (Dashrath) 4. 2, 7-3/4, Sh. 1m 10.83s. Rs. 20 (w), 11, 14 and 52 (p), SHP: Rs. 35, FP: Rs. 34, Q: Rs. 16, Tanala: Rs. 400 and Rs. 415. Favourite: Ancient Glory. Owners: Mr. Haresh N. Mehta and Mr. Manav H. Mehta rep. Rohan Bloodstock Pvt. Ltd. Trainer: Mansoor Shah. Jackpot: (70 per cent): Rs. 1,702 (306 tkts.); (30 per cent): Rs. 351 (636 tkts.). Treble: (i): Rs. 316 (21 tkts.), (ii): Rs. 183 (109 tkts.). Super jackpot: (70 per cent): Rs. 3,144 (22 tkts.), (30 per cent): Rs. 801 (37 tkts.).

CRICKET

Length, variation the key for quicks: Hastings AMITABHA DAS SHARMA

A Services’ test for young Maharashtra

P.S.Chouhan 57, 8. Ice Afair (3) Merchant 55.5, 9. Blackbean (1) C.S.Jodha 54.5, 10. Cut Diamond (9) Sameer 54.5, 11. Seacacus (12) Kiran Naidu 54.5, 12. Name Of The Game (5) Vishal 52 and 13. Porto Banus (8) Raghuveer 52. 1. Evidence, 2. Spear Of Trium, 3. Name Of The Game

KOLKATA: Much like the men

from the sub-continent trying to adapt to the swing and pace down under, the Australians talked about the slow wickets in India and about setting a plan to vary their bowling according to the conditions. “It will be a lot diferent from bowling in Australia where there is a lot more carry. The length will have to be diferent and we will have to bowl a lot more at the stumps,” said John Hastings, who opens the bowling for Australia. Adaptability to the conditions is what the Australians are giving top priority especially as the team has not played much T20 lately. “I think we could really play more T20 matches leading up to big tournaments like these, if we really want to win them,” said Josh Hazlewood as he backed the view of his senior new ball partner. “What we are ofered here are diferent conditions in different grounds. And we have to pick our eleven based on the conditions. In these conditions we pacers will probably have to play a defensive role while the spinners attack,” Hazlewood said about his role.

BREAK TIME: Australian players Josh Hazlewood, Glenn Maxwell

and Shane Watson seen at their hotel in Kolkata on Saturday. — PHOTO: PTI

The Australian pacer said that the spin department has really gained from the addition of

a bowler of the calibre of the leg-spinner Adam Zamba. “Our spinners particularly Zamba

was unbelievable in the way he made his debut in South Africa [earlier this month[. The way he was bowling against batsmen like [David] Miller and [A.B.] de Villiers showed a great lot of his confidence and skills,” said Hazlewood as he tried to draw strength from Zamba’s ability. Hastings said the main challenge for the pacers will be limiting the shot-playing ability of the big-hitters like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and M.S. Dhoni. “They are such fantastic players and can hit the ball to any part of the ground they want. As a bowler, the hardest thing is to eliminate some of those shots. “So, I try to keep it simple — hit a particular area on the pitch and make subtle variations,” said Hastings. Mitchell Marsh, who generally follows Hastings and Hazlewood in the bowling attack, said, “variations in bowling are very important and you need to mix things up and bowl slower deliveries. As a bowler I will look to work on that area of my game and hope to contribute with the ball. “The great thing about our side is we have got so many options with seven guys who can bowl,” added Marsh.

Dzeko should beg for Roma shirt, says coach Spalletti

CRACKING THE WHIP: AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti has given

the ultimatum to his squad to shape up or be ready to be shipped out. — PHOTO: GONZALO ARROYO MORENO / GETTY IMAGES CM YK

MILAN: Roma coach Luciano Spalletti has told misfiring striker Edin Dzeko he should beg for a shirt for Sunday’s trip to Udinese as he cracked the whip days after seeing his side limp out of the Champions League to Real Madrid. Dzeko was one of several players slated for a poor performance in the second leg of their last 16 tie at the Santiago Bernabeu in midweek where Roma succumbed to a 2-0 reverse and a 4-0 aggregate defeat to the 10-time champion. Roma, which sits third in Serie A in the last Champions League qualifying place with a three-point cushion on Fiorentina, will now focus on making

sure it drops no further in the league as it looks to qualify for next season’s competition. But Dzeko, and the rest of Roma’s players, have been warned there can be no room for complacency over the 10 final games of the season. “Everything that happens from here until the end of the season will be taken into account when we start making decisions in May,” Spalletti told media on Saturday. “Nobody can aford to rest on their laurels. I am referring to our mental attitude, not just to the players who missed goalscoring opportunities. “I’m talking about the defenders who let them [Real]

score and the midfielders who forgot to dig in and lend a hand.” Bosnian Dzeko was singled out, although Spalletti said he would at least keep his place in the starting line-up. “With his attitude and behaviour... he better be begging me he gets a shirt for tomorrow at Udinese,” added the 57-yearold coach, now in his second spell at Roma after replacing sacked Frenchman Rudi Garcia two months ago. “I can do him the favour of gifting him a shirt, but then it’s up to him.” Champion Juventus stretched its lead over titlechasing Napoli to six points

with a 1-0 win over Sassuolo on Friday, although Napoli can reduce the gap to three again with a win at Palermo on Sunday. While Juve and Napoli are widely expected to duel for the title, Roma faces competition from Fiorentina, Inter Milan and AC Milan for third in what should be a thrilling run-in. Last week’s 4-1 home win over Fiorentina saw Roma stretch its winning streak to seven consecutive league games for the first time this season. But Spalletti says it’s not enough. “We need results so we can see what the future holds for myself, for the club and the players. — AFP ND-ND

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WHO OWNS ART? As across the globe, globe countries and ethnic groups ask for indigenous artworks housed in the West st to be returned, questions are being raised around cultural patrimony. patrimon It is important now to ind ways to “share” a global heritage more widely and fairly

The Benin bronzes (above) were looted from Nigeria in the British imperial siege of the 19th century, and most are now in the British Museum. The magnificent copper Buddha from Sultanganj (below) is now housed in Birmingham Museum. PHOTO: WIKI COMMONS

tories about contested art objects in global circulation have been around for a millennium, but now there is a sense of urgency around the topic, with a larger diversity of voices asking for return of art works for a multitude of reasons. On the one hand, there are Nigerian students demanding the return of the Benin bronzes looted from Nigeria at the time of the British imperial siege of the country in the late 19th century. This story of non-governmental actors — students resident in the U.K. — getting into the discussion around national cultural patrimony is new and distinct from the traditional demands of governments for the return (repatriation) of objects taken from their countries under colonial or imperial rules. The Elgin or Parthenon marbles taken

from Greece and now resident in the British Museum, or the 6th century Buddha taken from Sultanganj in India and now in the Birmingham Museum, are among the notable examples of the traditional demands of nation-states to right colonial wrongs. The argument of righting the wrongs of the past is also at the heart of the art looted by Nazis from Jewish families in Europe during World War II. The issue came to the fore when descendants of Jewish families began to lay claims to major works by modern European masters that they saw in exhibitions and in permanent collections of museums in Europe and the U.S. It led to the establishment of a registry of Nazi-looted art and a serious attempt by all art museums to deal with the issue. The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD), a prestigious organisation representing all major and mid-size art museums (an organisation I had the honour of being the President of, in 2000-2001), adopted a series of protocols to ensure that any work of art proven to be taken forcibly from a Jewish family during the Nazi regime should be reCM YK

cover

Vishakha N. Desai

turned to the rightful heirs, even if that meant a loss of the huge amounts spent on the acquisition of the work by the museum or its benefactor, who may have donated the work to the museum. An elaborate procedure was developed to research the provenance of the artwork (its origin and collection history). In 2006, AAMD claimed that out of more than 18 million objects in American art museums, 25,000 objects, “though not necessarily stolen by the Nazis, require further study into their ownership history.” Between 1998 and 2006, 26 works in American museums were identified as being looted by the Nazis and were, in each case, restituted to the heirs. There was little debate about the return of Nazi-looted art: a group of well-to-do Jewish families had been wronged and had faced the horrors of the Holocaust. It was only right that some kind of restitution policy (the return of objects) was adopted by all parties. This was strikingly different from the debates around the return of objects from previously-colonised countries such as India, Egypt, Greece or Nigeria, or countries such as China that were weakened by the overt presence of Western powers. Thus, in 1970 and again in 1978, the “source” countries (countries where the art work originated) pushed UNESCO to adopt a major resolution for the protection of cultural property and restitution of stolen works, “to facilitate bilateral negotiations for the restitution of any cultural property which has a fundamental significance… and which has been lost as a result of colonial and foreign occupation.” The U.S. didn’t sign the ruling, and finally adopted a similar rule only in 1982. AAMD didn’t take action on this issue until almost two decades later.   For much of the 1990s, and even during the first decade of the 21st century, a strong argument against the repatriation of works was posited by some art museum directors in the West. It went something like this: the encyclopaedic museums of Europe and the U.S. are repositories of world art under one roof. They take care of our global heritage, as art knows no boundaries, and it is important to show in one place great art works from all over the world to promote the dissemination of knowledge, tolerance, and broad cultural understanding. Another argument was

that the objects were taken from countries such as Egypt, China, or India because none of these countries had the resources or the inclination to protect their own treasures. After all, in a place like India, it was British officials who discovered, excavated or restored great sites such as Sanchi or Ajanta. As there was no indigenous interest in preserving or interpreting such magnificent objects or archaeological sites of the country, wasn’t it better that such objects were at least preserved for future generations, even if that meant they were taken out of the country?   Similar arguments are still being made by some in the museum community in the context of destroyed sites such as Palmyra in Syria and Iraq. When the monuments are being destroyed locally (IS in Syria or the Taliban in Afghanistan), aren’t we better off taking moveable objects out and protecting them for the sake of the whole world? As a former museum director and curator, I must admit this

argument is very powerful when you see great Sumerian objects being hacked with hammers and the amazing Buddhas of Bamiyan being blasted out of the cliff where they had survived for centuries (even after British soldiers used the Bamiyan site for target practice). However, it does not obviate the question of who gets to decide when objects leave countries, how they leave, and who gets to keep them. In the current crisis, art museums in the U.S. and Europe have come up with a solution of creating a temporary home for looted objects, which can be returned to the “source” countries when the conflict ends. It seems that both in the case of Nazi-looted art and art from current war-torn zones in the Middle East, there is a much greater acceptance of the principle of returning the objects to the original owners or the country of origin. Why is there then a much greater resistance to return objects taken out of previously-coloContinued on page 2

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sundaymagazine

THE HINDU. SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016 NOIDA/DELHI

쮿 THE COSMOPOLITANS

02

쮿 KICK START

Daffodils in Gaya Small towns are associated with provincialism, a charge that’s undoubtedly true. Yet change affects them more than it does metropolises

Participation in football games helps to bring about a qualitative difference in children’s academic involvement and their emotional well-being too. PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN

Best ffoott forward The strange mix that marks small-town bookshops. It was only when I started teaching literature in bigger cities, especially in the West, that I realised I had grown up as a cosmopolitan in a provincial town in what was then called — and probably still is — the ‘most backward and crime-ridden state of India’. Wordsworth’s daffodils never presented a problem to me (and my classmates) though I had never seen a daffodil (there was no TV, let alone Internet, in my town in the 1970s) and I even managed, as I graduated to (local) college, to read the Russian classics without bothering to decipher a samovar. As such, when metropolitan kids in London or Copenhagen complain about the difficulty of encountering a Hindi word in an Indian-English novel, I have to hide my surprise. Small towns are associated with provincialism, and the charge is undoubtedly true. V.S. Naipaul sees the colonial peripheries as largely inauthentic and mimic; Aravind Adiga’s narrator in the booker-winning novel, The White Tiger, calls small towns in postcolonial India (including the exact one where I was born and spent the first 24 years of my life) ‘halfbaked’, and the big city narrator-protagonist of Upamanyu Chatterjee’s cult-classic English, August can only survive his posting to a small town in a haze of weed smoke. The list is long. And it is not incorrect. Gaya, the town in Bihar where I grew up and taught myself the rudiments of writing, was a place set in its ways. Once when a high school friend and I got an ancient rickshaw-puller to sit in his rickshaw while we took turns pulling it, the news of this breach of decorum reached my parents’ house before the rickshaw got there. The mothers and grandmothers of Gaya were industrious pickle-makers, and I often commiserated with all those bits of lemon or mango in glass jars out on sunny verandas: we were just as thoroughly pickled in traditions. Around the age of 24, when I wrote one of those

A new legion of youngsters is spearheading a football revolution in education. Because, they say, the Beautiful Game equips children with vital life skills

PHOTO: NAGARA GOPAL

tropolises: for what is cosmopolitanism but openness to the other? I grew up looking outwards. It was difficult. Books were almost the only option for me, as my parents disliked travelling. It was hard to find new books. There were no bookshops where one could browse freely. There was just a kiosk at the railway station and Sahitya Sadan, the shop in town that stocked textbooks but also had a selection of ‘classics’. The books were a strange mix (which is in keeping with the provincial’s character). Dale Carnegie jostled with Charles Dickens; a glossy Robert Ludlum sat cheek by jowl with a dog-eared Robert Lowell. The provincial bookshop is not exclusive, and hence the small-town reader has to scramble from Archie comics and Reader’s Digests to Victor Hugo and Pushkin, and suddenly, in some cobwebbed corner, he can discover, as I did in my grandfather’s library, a complete set of Nikolai Gogol and Franz Kafka. Kafka I had heard of; Gogol never. When I think of Gogol, I also recall Gagan. I had been sent to Nazareth Academy, the best (and only) ‘English-medium convent’ in town; only kids from middle-class families attended it. But after school, I went to the local Gaya College, which taught in Hindi and attracted a wider selection of students, many from neighbouring villages. Gagan was one of them. A small pock-marked man, he had, for some reason, decided to study English. He loved to practise his English on me. I was frightened of being forced to converse with him, as I could not understand most of it; so thick was his rustic accent. But I discovered the reason he was reading English: he knew entire scenes from Shakespeare by heart! Where in his village had Gagan picked up his love for Shakespeare? And I now wonder whether all those lines that he recited were not the only English conversation he could have had in his village? Gagan had grown up speaking English to Shakespeare only. Typically, Gagan disdained Urdu poetry (though his Urdu was much easier to understand) and so did I in those days. My ability to read Urdu was limited; the ‘convent school’ taught only English and Hindi. Urdu was associated, also in my mind, with religious Muslims. I wanted to keep both at an arm’s length. But my ears were opened to the possibilities of Urdu poetry in my college years, during a train trip to Patna. The train was packed and running late. As there was no elbow room to read, all one could do was talk — and overhear conversations — as soot settled on our clothes and faces. On that trip, I overheard an argument over Asadullah Khan Ghalib, the early 19th century Delhi poet. Someone quoted a ‘sher’ (couplet) by him: Khuda ke waaste parda na kaabe se uthaa zaalim Kaheen aisa na ho yahan bhi wahi kaafir sanam nikle (For God’s sake, do not lift the veil of the Kaaba, O Cruel One; There too may lie hidden the same unbelieving Beloved.) His interlocutor, both were dressed in provincial garb, objected to the last word of the first line. It is not ‘zaalim’ (cruel one); it is ‘vaiz’ (preacher), he said. I realised with shock that the difference revealed another and far more radical interpretation of the couplet. If you switch ‘zaalim’ to ‘vaiz’, the dominant interpretation would become this: “For God’s sake, Preacher, leave the veil on the Kaaba alone. There too may lie hidden an infidel idol of stone.” In other words: sacrilege, from the early 19th century! Were the debaters in that crowded, smelly, slow train aware that they were discussing a sacrilegious verse? Were they aware that their slight difference over a word collected in itself centuries of debate about faith? Were they aware of the cosmopolitan provenance of the verses and the thought — for cosmopolitanism is also an ability to live with differences and nuances. I could not tell. But that is also the point about the cosmopolitanism of provincial places: you can never really tell. Which is why it is so easy for metropolises to tag and claim cosmopolitanism in their own image. Tabish Khair is a poet, novelist and critic based in Denmark.

mising on fun. The programme was thrown open to interested students, girls and boys, and teams were formed. Soon, attendance improved, and within a year, there was a qualitative difference in the children’s academic involvement and emotional well-being. Today, the programme is being implemented in more than 125 schools in Pune. The recent partnership with Mumbai City FC and the increasing fandom for ISL has spiked interest and boosted motivation. Plakkot says football hones critical thinking; the ability to judge oneself and differentiate between what went right and wrong. “It teaches you to cope with stress and emotion.” “They learn that victory and loss are part of the game. When they fail an exam, they realise that it’s not the end of the world,” says Chennai-based Vikram Menon, a Junior National Tennis champion and the brain behind Phenomenon Sports League in the city. A chance encounter at a local orphanage where he went to donate used football equipment altered his life forever. “I saw how much happiness a ball brought to the lives of the boys,” he smiles. He went on to start Life is a Ball, an NGO that seeks to improve the lives of under-privileged children through football. Since 2010, the NGO has grown exponentially, offering free sports education in government schools in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Hyderabad. Here, too, the basic premise was to use football as the impetus to Shakti Swaminathan make children attend school. It’s half-time and the boys in Chandrashekaran’s class in Bengaluru huddle under the army of defenders shadowing him. Gokul can shade of a mango tree. Some crack jokes. Some either tackle and take a shot at the goal himself animatedly discuss the previous night’s Arsenal or pass the ball. Gokul kicks it to Varun. The ball Vs. Manchester United game. Michael wipes a comes back to Gokul. The defender who is tail- trickle of blood down his knee and shares his ing him slips for a second and Gokul slides the juice with the defender who just sent him ball past his leg and down the goalpost in one hurtling on the pitch. Chandrashekaran waves slick manoeuvre. The crowd cheers, as he darts across to his teammates and disappears into a group hug. Football builds confidence. “But to do well, one needs the support of others,” says Vikas Plakkot, one of the founders of Just for Kicks, an exclusive football programme for children. “As children, everyone craves for flamboyance, to be a striker. My role is to tell them that defending is equally important,” he adds. A new legion of spirited youngsters is spearheading a football revolution in India. Turning football coaches, they teach the sport not to increase its popularity, but to extend its positive influence on children. Life skills the lesson and football the tool. Good friends Vikas and Neha Sahu were looking for a way to take education beyond the walls of a classroom and help boost attendance. After some soul-searching, they concluded that sports may be the answer. Just for Kicks kicked off in Pune in 2010. Plakkot and Sahu chalked out a curriculum that drew on the game’s strengths without comprounday morning, 6.00 a.m. Eight-year-old Gokul chugs down his milk and tears out of the house, cradling a football in his arm and a bottle of lime juice to go. He pedals away furiously and joins three other cyclists waiting for him at the end of the road. It may be the most accessible sport but what makes football the most popular one? “It teaches you life,” says Karthik Chandrashekaran, a corporate slogger on weekdays and football coach on weekends for Gokul and a bunch of boys in Bengaluru. “I was a professional tennis player, until I realised that football was my calling. It brought out the best in me,” he says, arranging plastic cones for the kids to dribble around. The boys are done with their warm-up and gather in the middle of the ground. Chandrashekaran kicks the ball in the air; a shrill whistle signals the start of play. Much cacophony ensues. The ball bounces off Gokul’s chest, dropping down to his leg. He halts for a second, jiggling it under his foot. To his right stands Varun, a rookie, and to his left is Michael, the star of the team, trying to sneak through the

It is also in the very nature of provincial towns to look outwards — to other places.

world-changing articles that young people write at too-frequent intervals, and a mob of religious Muslims descended on my father’s clinic, I felt the full brunt of the provincialism of my community. My father refused to call the police — he was afraid Hindu policemen and Muslim mob would equal a riot — and, a believing Muslim himself, spoke to the protesters for three or four hours. They went away, muttering. But I was also sent away. I caught the first flight of my life and went to Delhi, where I started working as a journalist. Despite my ignorance and apprehension of the outside world, I was relieved to be out of Gaya. If I had stayed there, I might never have seen Gaya as anything but provincial and backward. Having been forced to leave, I came to see other stories, which I had taken for granted. I suspect, now, that it is in the nature of small towns to be resistant to change, just as it is in the nature of the vulnerable to be conservative. The latter is something that metropolitan Marxists never seem to understand, surprised as they always are by the European working classes letting them down and the non-European ‘religious classes’ following suit. It does not seem to strike them that change is always easier to contemplate when you have something to fall back upon. The people of Gaya did not like change, and yet they lived with change. They lived with change more than the people of metropolises like New Delhi, London, Copenhagen or Tokyo. Just as change affects the poor differently from the way it affects the affluent, it also affects small towns differently from big cities. A small town can be choked by a single change. Or it can blossom. One new highway or a closed factory can mean life or death to it. In metropolises, however, change is less momentous: a bank is turned into a mall, a department store becomes a theatre. The essential selfhood of the metropolis survives such changes — survives anything short of war, actually. Gaya feared change. And yet, change lay in its heart — more so, in some ways, than in most metropolises. It is also in the very nature of provincial towns to look outwards — to other places. In this sense, too, they are more cosmopolitan than self-contained meCM YK

Who owns art? Continued from page 1

slice of life

Tabish Khair

It’s hard to forget the image of a group of little girls, clad in saris and sneakers, going up to claim their trophy in the Gasteiz Cup 2013 in Spain.

at the boys. The teams regroup. Life is a Ball included another skill in its curriculum this year: gender equality. “We’ve been making mixed teams, and we found the kids bonding really well, and respect for the opponent also developed,” a value that teachers struggle to teach in a classroom. The biggest moment for Vikram this year was when a group of Class 8 and 9 girls staged a protest outside school, refusing to study unless they were allowed to play on par with the boys. It’s hard to forget the image of a group of little girls, clad in red-and-white saris and sneakers, plastic flowers adorning their hair, going up on stage to claim their trophy in the Gasteiz Cup 2013 in Victoria Gasteiz, Spain. The all-girls team, which contested in the U-14 tournament and won third place, comprises students from Yuwa, a non-profit organisation in Ranchi. In Jharkhand, six out of 10 girls drop out of school and become child brides; thousands are trafficked each year. Yuwa was started in 2009 by Franz Gastler, who believed that team sport could help combat these issues. “In 95 per cent of the cases, parents don’t send their daughters to Yuwa. It’s the girls who choose (and often fight) to come,” says Rose Thomson, Education Director, Yuwa. For girls, especially from rural India, the obstacles are greater, the stakes are higher, and Yuwa’s challenges go beyond encouraging just school attendance. Dissuading parents who want to marry off their teenage daughters, addressing instances of domestic abuse, malnutrition, health problems, ensuring the safety of girls as they walk to and from practice, are some of the issues that the organisation confronts. But why football? “That’s what the girls wanted,” says Thomson. “And when we ask how often they want to practise, they say everyday!” Yuwa’s Child Development Officer, Neha Baxla, talks about how the game fosters independent thinking. “The girls realised that in their families they are taught that their role, as a girl, as a woman, is to never think about themselves.” Thomson remembers the time she met the parents of a girl who were planning to marry her off at 13. When she quizzed them, the mother said that she was a child bride herself and such was the norm. “I asked the mother how she had felt then. She said that she was scared and that it was a very bad time. I asked if she wanted the same for her daughter. She had tears in her eyes and asked what she could do. I explained that her daughter wanted to be a teacher and that she could earn money and help them when they grew old. The girl continues to play football and going to school. She was also on a Yuwa team which went to the U.S. to compete in the USA Cup.” Indeed, the Beautiful Game can take children places. Shakti Swaminathan is a freelance journalist based in Bengaluru.

nised countries by Western colonial powers? Several plausible answers come to mind. First, in the case of Nazi-looted art and the current destruction of monuments, the perpetrators are enemies of the Euro-American world, either in World War II (as in the case of Nazi Germany) or IS (the sworn Islamist enemy of the West). It is easy to condemn their ghastly behaviour as the acts of an enemy. If one were to make a similar argument for the objects taken by the colonial powers, then the now-independent nations of the global South should have an equal right to reclaim the objects taken from their soil without their permission. But this would mean that the former colonisers would have to acknowledge the wrongs perpetrated by them on the colonies they ruled. It would also mean that many of the biggest museums, especially the Louvre, the British Museum, and even some major American museums would get hollowed out of their collections. While academics such as the late Edward Said have powerfully critiqued the legacy of colonialism, cultural institutions have yet to acknowledge the full negative legacy of the colonial rulers. To be fair, the questions surrounding the restitution of objects acquired during the colonial rule of the West in the countries of the global South are not simple. It is true that the great Stupa at Sanchi, for example, would not have survived if John Marshall, a British civil servant and an amateur archaeologist in the

ing of our global heritage. I have often thought that if we pursue the idea of sharing the global cultural heritage, perhaps the large encyclopaedic museums of the Euro-American world could create a long-term loan programme of objects from around the world for formerlycolonised countries. One could argue that the need of the hour is not so much to return indigenous objects to the “source” country where they already have a rich inventory of national art, but to share our global cultural heritage more widely. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the National Museum in New Delhi were to receive a long-term loan of Egyptian objects or 19th century American landscape paintings so that the National Museum too could begin to resemble an encyclopaedic museum of the West? Similarly, what if the labels in Western museums actually acknowledged the colonial past of the pieces on display and the history of the removal of objects by colonial powers, thus returning the ownership of objects back to the “source” countries and simply recognising A centuries-old Buddha statue at their role as protectors of, and not owners of, Bamiyan in Afghanistan before it global heritage? One can come up with many was destroyed by the Taliban. more possibilities to move forward with the PHOTO: THE HINDU ARCHIVES idea of truly sharing global cultural heritage, early 20th century, had not restored it. but it must be done with a greater sense of As we acknowledge the positive as well as parity and a deeper commitment to recognegative consequences of colonial rule for the nising the historical wrongs of the colonial cultural heritage of countries such as India, experience. Vishakha N. Desai is Senior Advisor and recognise the importance of the preservafor Global Affairs, Office of the President, tion of culture for the benefit of human kind, it Columbia University. is useful to imagine new possibilities for sharND-X

sundaymagazine

THE HINDU. SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016 NOIDA/DELHI

03

쮿 BATTLE CRY

Kurukshetra minimised Peter Brook, at 90, returns to the Mahabharata. But was it theatre that we’d been invited to participate in or a meditation on death and destruction? nce more to the barricades, my friends! In the age of Kali, theatre is dead! Long live theatre! Peter Brook may have dealt theatre a coup de grace with his Mahabharata Lite version titled Battlefield that premiered in India at Mumbai’s National Centre for Performing Arts on March 5. The nonagenarian director, who created the dazzling interpretation of the Mahabharata in the 1980s, with a multi-ethnic cast of actors and musicians, has shrunk a nine-hour epic to 65 minutes.

Geeta Doctor

There were just four actors and one musician. The stage was bare, except for a few props. The colours provided the drama. The ground, a muted orange-red, signalled the ravaged earth. A semi-circular dull orange light hung over the black backdrop, while scattered bamboo sticks and poles, a hank of cloth, a low rectangular box seat serving as throne, a pillow and headstone, all suggested the scars of war. The audience of nearly a thousand, mostly worshipful, people sat in silence till the end. Indeed, so comatose had we become, so used to clapping on command, that we sat unmoving. The four actors remained frozen as if turned into stone by a nuclear winter. The frenetic drumbeats of Toshi Tsuchitori, the composer-

musician who sat on the stage next to them, faded into silence. The flutter of his pale fingers, etched like butterflies on the circular face of the drum. We were in the valley of the dead. We stole glances at our neighbours. We twitched. Finally, the back rows began to applaud. The rest of the audience followed. One by one, people started to stand up and clap. The spell was broken. Was it theatre that we had been invited to participate in or a meditation on death and destruction? Or an old man’s vanity that everything he had learnt had come to nothing? If the stagecraft gloried in the minimalism of means that has been a hallmark of Brook’s method, the pervading mood was of nihilism. There was an end-of-the-world weariness, the finality of a yuga that had spent its life force, which was disquieting. In his landmark production at the Theatre des Bouffes du Nord, Paris, we had walked out after nine hours in a state of heightened ardour. Brook in those days was the director as Magus, divining the secrets of the human condition and presenting it to us in an exotic package. Just as Bhishma lying on his bed of arrows had painted an image of a human being trapped in a forest of wild animals, who could still forget the dangers if a few drops of honey fell upon his parched lips, Brook favoured us then with the honey of his inspiration. This time, however, there was only the taste of burnt offerings. Brook himself was not there. His gaze appeared to be on the far shore. In interviews regarding his latest production, Brook has shared some of his concerns on the dogs of war howling at the gates. If the war in Vietnam was the catchphrase of the mid-20th century, he cites the crisis in Syria as

The stage was bare, and the colours provided the drama. The muted orange-red signalled the ravaged earth. the elixir of Bhishma’s honey. Worms lack taste buds. These vignettes beautifully mimicked by the actors did lighten the mood. And, yes, it must be said, we laughed. As though replying to the critics who had accused him of “appropriating the Mahabharata” and making the ancient Indian epic into an exotic product, Brook may have tried to unstitch his earlier version. Certainly, what made it so stunning visually was the way that he had wrapped the Mahabharata in the beguiling robes of Indian textile traditions, soft peddling, if not completely side-stepping, the more harrowing aspects of caste, community and bloodlust, justifying the actions of its upper-caste protagonists, the magnificent warrior princes of the Pandavas and Kauravas. In this version, they are all broken men and one woman searching for answers. We shall not ask whether, without the benefit of a fairly good knowledge of the dramatis personae of the epic, an audience might bond with the despair of the blind King Dritharashtra who wanders onto the stage and asks himself the question: “Could I have averted this war?” He blames it on his son, Duryodhana. “He had only one word on his lips. War. War. War.” Kunti seeks solace for not

being the need for action on the part of all right-thinking people today. Brook also warns us that he is not here to preach salvation, even if in our infantile need to find Band-Aid solutions, we might expect him to do just that. He and his collaborator Marie Helene Estienne as playwright have pulled out threads and pieces from the original and created a new garment for their thoughts. They have added a few fresh baubles in the form of parables, small stories that grandmothers might tell their charges in the dark. Bhishma in his role as a traditional elder tells his stories while instructing poor Yudhisthira, who is as confused as a commuter stuck on a platform without a ticket to ride. One imagines him wearing a T-shirt with the slogan ‘Dharma is Destiny’. The actors take on multiple roles. There is the arrogant snake that suggests that it is his destiny, or dharma, as a member of the reptilian race to attack small boys and kill them if they happen to be in its path. The golden mongoose lectures his audience on compassion. A wounded pigeon tests the resolution of the King’s willingness to sacrifice himself for the sake of justice; a worm complains that being a worm, its only duty is to avoid the chariot wheels of fate; it cannot taste

PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

having acknowledged her first-born Karna. Vidura, totally ignored in the earlier version, appears here at the moment of his death. In a salute to Iravati Karve’s tentative reading of Vidura being the real father to Yudhishthira, he appears here to merge his spirit into that of Yudhisthira before he dies. Needless to say, you have to be really familiar with the text and not ask, for instance, whether Vidura was sidelined because his mother was a servant girl. Caste does not raise its fanged tongue in this benign reprise of the epic. Speaking of tongues, does the real drama of one person wishing to cut off the powerful tongue of a young man, revelling in his role as a latter day Ekalavya at JNU, represent a sharp rebuke to the Peter Brook enterprise? Has the individual creating his or her destiny in easily exchanged sound bytes and selfies appropriated the space that once belonged to the sagas of kings and queens, not to mention sages trailing ancient wisdom? Or do we take heart from Brook who tells us: “Theatre is a phoenix that has to be constantly brought back to life” and rejoice that the phoenix has risen once again. Geeta Doctor is a Chennai-based writer and critic.

쮿 GROWING TOGETHER

쮿 SCREENING ROOM

The one-garden revolution

Lyrics from a laundry list

In more than 400 projects across Germany, a bunch of different nationalities put their hearts into joint gardens, fostering friendships and futures Baradwaj Rangan

Some gardens focus on environmental education while others specialise in therapeutic work with refugees. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

ombian-born Nayibe Giefers, another veteran gardener. Maintaining an appropriate proportion of members from different nationalities is an important regulation that has, for the last 20 years, helped keep up the international composition of the group. In some gardens, children have their own vegetable and flower beds. One schoolgirl remembers, “It’s like a second home.” A tool shed houses the equipment — shovels, grass-cutter, weeding tools. A simple shelter with a few chairs is the scene of much laughter and sharing with homemade couscous and hummus Shobha Menon and flavoured tea. A hand-drawn map lists the names of the ‘owners’ of different patches. A large number of students from universities concept — healing minds through gardens. Peo- across Germany have been involved with the ple who joined us were mostly from war-rav- projects for studying community service. With aged countries, immigrants who got together to the help of committed members, job opportunurture gardens and each other. Later, local nities have been facilitated. German families also began to join us. In 1997, There are four such international gardens the Anstiftung Foundation, headquartered in across Gottingen. Currently, the group has 62 Munich, began to help, initially by helping us buy seeds and later, with funding,” says Shimeles. Generally, there are no gates to the gardens. Only makeshift fences of rope or different plant species around some of the patches, which range from 10 square metres to 80. The gardens offer a welcome space where one’s experiences, cares and joys can be shared with others. Generally meeting once a week, on days the weather is good, members are found through language and computer courses, arts and crafts, sports, theatre workshops, intercultural environmental education, music or lectures. As we move along neat rows of spring onion and cabbage, tended by a Chinese gardening enthusiast, we are greeted by 70-year-old Frau Hesse who enquires when she can pick up some fresh honey. “The produce from our new beekeeping programme is very popular,” says Col-

While some gardens concentrate on environmental education work, some specialise in therapeutic work with refugees.

CM YK

members from 16 countries, individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds and across all ages. For the members, the International Gardens provide a platform for wider fields of civic engagement and a mutual integration network. It has since sparked off a series of similar initiatives called Intercultural Gardens. The Stiftung Interkultur or Intercultural Foundation is the national coordinating organisation of the Intercultural Gardens Network, which advises and lends financial support to set up gardens, provide information on the experiences of other projects, organise knowledge transfer, and organise networking meetings. Christa Muller, director of the Foundation, says, “The more recent projects have learned from the experiences of such undertakings as the International Gardens Göttingen with its grass-roots democratic organisation, but each project develops its own form independently. While some gardens concentrate on developing environmental education work, some specialise in therapeutic work with refugees, and others focus on vocational training or the development of micro-firms in the fields of horticulture and catering. ” Currently, the idea of intercultural gardens is spreading across many countries in Europe. In Berlin, the Senate has adopted measures under which district authorities may designate land and provide start-up equipment and material. Local groups, environmental associations, urban and landscape planning authorities, neighbourhood managements, even church organisations seem to have discovered the new social spaces: gardens of healing that are spreading like wildfire. Shobha Menon, a freelance journalist and editor, is one of the founders and managing trustee of Nizhal, a trust that works for sensitive greening in urban areas.

culturati

On a biting cold November afternoon, Mascha Von Oppen, a special education therapist, trudges through leafy mulch into a wild green space with a happy-coloured entrance board, in a suburb in Gottingen, Germany. An avid Masanobu Fukuoka fan, she confesses: “When I am here, I feel happiness surging within me, every time.” Her flower bed is a conglomeration of “Borretsch, Vergissmeinnicht, Blutweiderisch, Nachtkerze” (flowers like forget-me-not and primrose) and even Kanadsiche Goldrute or Canadian goldenrod, “a refugee well settled”. “One season, we planted different kinds of potatoes from different countries in adjoining patches. On the day after the harvest, we had a great feast.” We are at the Geismar International Garden, one of around 400 similar initiatives that have grown across Germany over the last 20 years. It all began in 1995, when Tassew Shimeles, an Ethiopian agrarian engineer in a German industrial agriculture firm, began to yearn for the slow, quiet farming processes of his hometown. “At Kaltenborn (which in German means  ‘a place where fresh water springs up’) a garden was created by families from six different countries: Ethiopia, Germany, Iraq, Iran, Bosnia and Afghanistan. And in 2007, it went on to be selected by the London Sustainable Development Commission (LSDC) as one of eight international projects to be studied as an inspiration for future urban policies. “As minorities, our first challenge was to request the government for space for this new

The writer is The Hindu’s cinema critic

Some part of me dies every time a film from my school or college days celebrates a major anniversary — I’m talking about Paththar Ke Phool, now 25 years old — but this isn’t a how-time-flies piece. In Paththar Ke Phool, a song comes to mind: Kabhi tu chhalia lagta hai. It became quite popular. It’s a dream duet, and the lyrics are a concatenation of film names. The heroine tells the hero that he’s sometimes a Chhalia, Deewana, Anari, Awara. He returns the favour, calling her Noorie, Julie, Chandni, Bobby. The song is modelled after the Ek Duuje Ke Liye song, Mere jeevan saathi, which was not only more rooted in the film’s context (the hero did not know Hindi and had to rely on film names to put across his feelings) but also a purer song, in the sense that it is, from start to finish, a concatenation of film names. (The Paththar Ke Phool song, on the other hand, has bridging lines that aren’t made of film titles.) But that doesn’t matter. The point is that these are “list songs” — as the name suggests, songs whose structure is that of a list, a catalogue of similar-sounding (or similar-meaning) things. I’m sure the list song has a long and storied history (devotional chants, for instance, even if you may not categorise something like the Vishnu Sahasranamam or the Hanuman Chalisa as a “song”) but as a pop-culture staple, it began in Broadway. In the 1920s and 30s, Cole Porter wrote songs like You’re the top, in which he compiled a list of people and things that represented the very best, and went on to use them to refer to the couple. You’re the Coliseum... You’re the Louvre Museum / You’re Mahatma Gandhi... You’re Napoleon Brandy / You’re the National Gallery / You’re Garbo’s salary... The most famous list song from Broadway, at least to Indian ears, may be My favourite things from The Sound of Music. Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens... This may look easy, but it’s anything but. It’s a rigid structure, and the lyricist has to transform a laundry list into something playful and loose, something that sounds like poetry. But it isn’t always about rhyming or metre. Gulzar’s Mera kuchh samaan from Ijaazat is (as composer R.D. Burman reportedly complained) filled with jagged lines, but it is very much a list song — quite literally so. It’s a list of things the woman has left

behind with her former lover and now wants back: a few monsoon days, the sound of falling leaves, her rain-soaked heart from the time they shared an umbrella and got partly wet, 116 moonlit nights, that single mole on his shoulder... Ek ladki ko dekha, from 1942: A Love Story, is a more joyous list song. As is Kannadasan’s Kaalangalil aval vasantham, from Paava Mannippu — ‘Among seasons, she is spring / among the arts, she is painting / among months, she is December / Among flowers, she is the jasmine.’ Gulzar wrote another kind of list song for Kitaab, less wistful, more exuberant: A aa e ee, Masterji ki aa gayi chitthi... Students sing about a letter from which sprang a cat, a mosquito — it’s a combination of list song and nonsense verse, another famous instance of which is Rail gaadi from Aashirwad. That film also had the delightful Nani ki naav, in which a boat is filled with all kinds of things that are taken away by a crocodile. Parts of Pettai rap, from Kaadhalan , also come under this category, the nonsense verse list song — it’s a list of realities, feelings that make Madras Madras. This film also had Kaadhalikkum pennin kaigal, a list of things that happen when the hero is with his girlfriend. Tin becomes gold, sweat turns to holy water... For a time, Vairamuthu was the foremost practitioner of the list song. Kannukku mai azhagu from Pudhiya Mugam. (The list song as romantic reverie.) Senthamizh naattu Thamizhachiye from Vandicholai Chinraasu. (The list song as misogynistic rant.) Or even something as recent as Malargal kaetten, from O Kaadhal Kanmani. (The list song as plea; you’ve given me so much, but I want more, I want you.) Can Kannadasan’s wordplay be counted under list songs? After all, what are Athikaai (from Bale Pandiya) or Athaan (Paava Mannippu) or Paarthen sirithen (Veera Abhimanyu) if not a “list” of dazzling rhymes? My favourite list song from that great composer is Kodi asainthathum, from Paarthaal Pasi Theerum. Did the flag begin to flutter after the breeze set in, or was it the other way around? Did the flower unfurl after the moon came out, or was it vice versa? It’s as existential a love duet as you’ll find, the chickenand-egg question tucked into a gorgeous list song. ND-X

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literaryreview 쮿 BARD WATCHER

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Much ado a

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The

Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction

t Shakespeare

‘The Bard matters most to those who enjoy him,’ says Paul Edmondson of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

announced its longlist on March 8. Kate Atkinson’s A God in Ruins, Anne Enright’s The Green Road and Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life are among the 20 longlisted authors for this year’s prize.

aul Edmondson, the head of research and learning at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-uponAvon, has written extensively on the bard, including Shakespeare Bites Back and, most recently, co-edited The Shakespeare Circle: An Alternative Biography. Edmondson, who is also the director of the Stratford-uponAvon Poetry Festival, talks here about why Shakespeare still matters; about conspiracy theorists and “anti-Shakespearians”; and of the events lined up to mark the bard’s 400th anniversary this year. Excerpts from an interview:

Iona Grey has been honoured with

Romantic Novelists’ Association’s The Goldsboro Books Romantic Novel of the Year for her book Letters to the Lost. The award comes with a cash prize of £5,000. Grey was the winner in the Historical Romance Novel of the Year category.

interested in Shakespeare can attend, though the main focus of the Congress is scholarly. Do you have any programmes to kick-start Shakespeare in India?

At the moment we don’t really have partners in India, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t want to. The great poet and philosopher Tagore is commemorated in the garden of Shakespeare’s birthplace and this is a cause of great pride to us. We are always seeking new ways to start creative and international conversations, and to use Shakespeare as a way of doing that. You lead the poetry festivals in Stratford... How big and popular is it becoming with each passing year?

The Stratford-upon-Avon Poetry Festival is organised by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust as a celebration of poetry in the town of the greatest poet. It started in 1953. It has evolved over time and works with different community groups. We held a special event with Amnesty UK this year. We welcomed our fourth Poet in Residence who led several creative writing workshops. It happens in the summer and we aim to make Stratford come to life with the sound of poetry.

You head Research and Learning at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. What exactly does that involve?

My work involves collaborating with different universities and scholars on Shakespearerelated projects. This year, for example, we have worked on Shakespeare and China with School of Oriental and African Studies and with an archaeological dig of New Place (Shakespeare’s home in Stratford-uponAvon).

The Orwell Prize longlist was

released on March 7 and features five women and seven men, including four titles from independent publishers. Some of the names from the longlist are Samar Yazbek, Gillian Tett and Anne-Marie Slaughter, Jason Burke, Thomas Harding and Sudhir Hazareesingh.

You are an ardent lover of Anne Hathaway’s sprawling garden. Tell me about the romance, the beauty of the place...

Paul Edmondson (left) and Stanley Wells with their latest book on the Bard. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

K.S. Vijay Elangova

of 1623. People at the time named him as by Stanley Wells and me called The Circle: An Alternative author and discussed his work. The Shakespeare communities of actors and printers and Biography. It is a gathering of new essays by Shakespeare matters most to those who audiences and publishers would not have 25 international scholars about the people in enjoy him. So, it’s really about trying to find been able to keep a conspiracy a secret. People Shakespeare’s life we know he was closest to: his family, his friends, and his colleagues. It is ways in which this enjoyment can be ignited. can find out more at a biography from the outside in: by looking at But no one is obliged to like Shakespeare. I www.shakespearebitesback.com and  the people Shakespeare loved and liked, we think that even if you don’t, he still matters www.60minuteswithshakespeare.com  because of the effect he has had on different What is the fall-out of the film Anonymous by hope to understand him more. The book is Roland Emmerich, which came out to a great hype a accompanied by a digital platform on which cultures. you will be able to listen to imaginary firstWhat does the Trust offer to students from few years ago? abroad?  The film was a failure because it couldn’t person accounts of the people written about We offer short, residential courses for make up its mind whether it was about in the book: the voices of Shakespeare’s father, mother, wife, friends, fellow actors and undergraduates and high-school students Shakespeare or Elizabeth I. from all over the world. We teach In what context do you think Shakespeare Bites playwrights. You can find out more Shakespeare through talks and practical Back has been a repartee to the film and conspiracy at www.theshakespearecircle.com workshops and fully engage with the theorists? What are your future projects? And tell me about I think that our polemical essay made the World Shakespeare Congress coming up this theatrical productions in Stratford-uponAvon and elsewhere that our groups of available in the form of a free e-book year… The World Shakespeare Congress takes www.shakespearebitesback.com has dared to students see. As an author and researcher of Shakespeare’s engage with the discussion in a much more place every five years and the next one is in works, what evidence would you submit to prove that aggressive way, which seems to have had some Stratford-upon-Avon and London from July William Shakespeare from Stratford is indeed the effect on anti-Shakespearians. I don’t tend to 31 to August 6, 2016. The Shakespeare true author of the famous works? Birthplace Trust is working with The Royal hear from them these days. Let us talk about your latest book with Stanley Shakespeare Company, King’s College, First of all, anyone who thinks he didn’t London, The Shakespeare Institute write them needs to be able to refute all the Wells...  One of the many ways in which the (University of Birmingham) and evidence to show that he did. It’s not good enough simply to say you don’t think that he Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is celebrating Shakespeare’s Globe to make it all happen on did. He is memorialised as the author of the the 400th anniversary of the death of behalf of the International Shakespeare work in Holy Trinity Church and in the Folio Shakespeare is through a new book co-edited Association. Anyone who is generally  Does Shakespeare matter still to the iPad toting modern student?

J.K. Rowling released four new

pieces of writing through her Pottermore website, telling the story of the history of magic in North America. The stories set the scene for the forthcoming film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, starring Eddie Redmayne, coming in November from Warner Bros.

Hodder Children’s Books, part of the Hachette Children’s Group, will publish a picture book in the U.K. by TV host Jimmy Fallon.

Your Baby’s First Word Will Be Dada is about a father who tries to get his daughter to say ‘dada’. It was inspired by the author’s own experience with his daughter. The book is being illustrated by Miguel Ordóñez.

The romance of remembering

Amazon

Swift’s Cinderella is called Jane Fairchild. And when she becomes a successful “modern writer,” she tells interviewers that it is a blessing to have started life with no family and no history “Once upon a time.” This is the first sentence of Graham Swift’s new novel. A couple of pages earlier, before the title page, is an almost-hidden epigraph: “You shall go to the ball!” The traditional opening to a fairytale, preceded by an exhortation from the most famous of all Western fairytales, is used here both to invoke that tradition as well as to transport the reader in time in the quickest way. We are in 1915, “when there were more horses than cars,” and the Sheringham family have just bought a racehorse, Fandango. But two pages later, there it is again: “Once upon a time,” and this time, it is March 30, 1924, but “a day like June.” The opening is itself a tale, a kind

Konkani Christian Association, Mysuru, and Akhil Bharathiya Konkani Lekhak Sanghatan, Mangaluru, recently held a one-day

Konkani Sahitik Utsav (Konkani Literary festival) at

BBC

The will broadcast adaptations of NW by Zadie Smith and Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh later this year. Mammoth Screen, the producer of And Then There Were None will adapt Smith’s novel, while Tiger Aspect and Cave Bear will produce Decline and Fall. Both productions will air on BBC Two.

CM YK

bibliophile

Konkani Bhavan, Vijayanagar, in Mysuru. The festival was presided over by Vincent Crasta. Konkani Christian Federation president Edwin D’ Souza inaugurated the programme.

Apple

‘Anyone who thinks Shakespeare didn’t write [these works] needs to be able to refute all the evidence that shows he did’

쮿 FICTION

This summer, will open its second physical bookstore. The bookshop, named Amazon Books, will come up in an open air shopping centre in San Diego, California.

The Supreme Court in America ruled that it would not take up ’s appeal of the e-book price fixing ruling, effectively bringing the case to a close. The outcome means Apple will have to pay $400 million in refunds to customers, along with $50 million in fees and legal costs.

Anne Hathaway’s garden today is presented in a way that would surprise Anne Hathaway. In her time, it would have been more like a farmyard. The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has always presented it as it used to be at the time when the last living descendent of the Hathaway family lived there (at the turn of the 20th century). That is why it looks to us like a quintessentially English cottage garden, full of beautiful flowers and herbs and trees at all times of the year. K.S. Vijay Elangova is a journalist, poet and writer based in the U.K.

Keshava Guha

of amuse-bouche for the larger story that follows. This is a book about tales, and about time; about fictional truth and the fiction-making we call memory, and about words, “an invisible skin, enwrapping the world and giving it reality.” The world would exist without words, but tales — and memory — would not. Swift’s Cinderella is called Jane Fairchild. She is an orphan, indeed a “foundling,” left outside an orphanage with neither name nor date of birth. Later, she becomes a successful writer, a “modern writer”, and she tells interviewers that for a writer it is a great blessing to have started life with no family, no history, to be free to write the narrative of your own life. Swift is very funny and knowing on this subject: the answers writers give to interviewers are fictions no less crafted than their novels. From the orphanage, like most of her kind in 1915, Jane is sent off to work as a maid. By March 30, 1924, the Mothering Sunday of the title, she has been employ-

ed for seven years by the of the one life we have lived Nivens, an affluent family that contains within it all those lost lost all three sons to World possibilities. War I. The Nivens’ neighJane never loses her fascinabours, the Sheringhams, lost tion for these possibilities, but she is just as interested in two sons. One, Paul, survived, understanding the events that and for seven years, Jane has did take place. Did Paul truly been his lover. On Mothering love her, or Emma Hobday? At Sunday — “a different thing times, and it is a beautiful from the nonsense they call thought, she fancies that in Mother’s Day now” — all truth, she has the wife’s claim, across Britain, servants are given the day off to visit their Mothering Sunday; and Emma is the mistress. But mothers. Paul is to be married Graham Swift, Simon this interest — memory as a in two weeks, to a woman of & Schuster, Rs.399. means of understanding and his own class, Emma Hobday. ....... ........ ....... ........ ........ ..... interpretation — is continually He invites Jane, who has the day off frustrated by the realisation that when but no mother to go to, for what she we look into our memory, and attempt to make a narrative of it, true fiction, assumes is one final tryst. Mothering Sunday is the story of we find that most things are unthat encounter, but also of its remem- knowable. Above all, there are words. In her bering. Although it is written in the third person, we are almost always in years as a maid, allowed by the Nivens Jane’s mind, and the tale, as we have to borrow from their library, Jane has it, is both a memory, 60 or 70 years been discovering them. The prose is later, as well as a writer’s attempt to full of repetition: sometimes incantatoreconstruct experience as if it were ry, but most often because commonhappening now. Jane is proved to be place words — “cap”, “seed”, “maid” — prescient: the tryst is indeed final, can have two meanings, can exist in although not in the way one might Jane’s life in two senses. She works as expect. But although she never sees a maid, but in a country and era where Paul again, marries a distinguished to speak was to reveal your class, her philosopher and lives to be over 90, language is her own, formed through she returns constantly to the events of listening and reading. Mothering Sunday, in this sense, is the story of how this day. Why does her affair with Paul and and why Jane Fairchild became a its culmination turn into a lifelong writer. The book’s subtitle is “A Romance”, obsession that refuses resolution, to the extent that she can never directly and undeniably, it is one, proof of the address it in her own novels? There are erotic potential of the plain style. On at least three reasons. Like many other length alone, it will be called a novella. contemporary novelists, Swift sees in Unlike the young Jane’s favourite the historical novel the lure of the books, the adventure stories of Stevencounterfactual, of each life as just one son, Henty and Ballantyne, it isn’t in a set of possible lives. But unlike really a “yarn”. By whatever name one Kate Atkinson in Life After Life or might call it, it is a masterpiece, as Jenny Erpenbeck in The End of Days, indelible as only the best tales are. Keshava Guha is a writer who gave us a woman’s many possible based in Bengaluru. lives, Swift shows us how the memory ND-X

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THE HINDU. SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016 NOIDA/DELHI

05

literaryreview 쮿 NON FICTION f the world of learning and academia operates as it should, this book should transform ways of writing and thinking about India’s tribal people that colonial anthropology moulded into a set formula consisting almost entirely of negative stereotypes — a cultural racism and dehumanising objectification that remains largely unchallenged by intellectuals, even from the Left. But Woodsmoke is written with deceptive, disarming simplicity, unfolding the social structure of a tribal people near the epicentre of today’s Maoist conflict through stories and anecdotes. The book is cheekily subtitled ‘Autobiographical footnotes to the anthropology of the The book articulates the vast struggles over land and territory that haunt Durwa’, a tribe that few of India’s reading public tribal areas. A young girl leaves her home in Parchanpal village, Bastar, to will have even heard of. There are many levels to this work, and one level is that of storytelling at collect water. PHOTO: AKHILESH KUMAR its best through true stories of a tribal people’s daily life, and the interferences and abuses of power that come from government officials, politicians, lawyers — exploiters and manipulators of every hue. The full joy of tribal life opens up in these pages without the slightest romanticisation. The violent and painful aspects are also presented unsentimentally — from internal conflicts to hunts and the killing of animals that form a thread through Adivasi culture — all manifesting through these pages with the wry, subtle humour that is intrinsic to tribal culture, and which mainstream anthropology hardly ever brings out. ‘The Department of Mysteries’, whose lower officials swagger over Adivasi landscapes like small kings, is the Forest Department. For example, “Moya was carrying his bow and arrows, considered a man’s shringar, as decoration and for protection. On the way, he was stopped by the

one’s deeper understanding of the forces at play. The backdrop of the Maoist conflict is not tackled explicitly, though Durwas live right in the heart of the civil war engulfing the Bastar region, divided between the erstwhile Bastar (South Chhattisgarh) and Malkangiri districts of Odisha. To understand what has happened in this area, it is not enough to know the history of the Naxalite/ Maoist parties and the state’s war against them. The norms of daily life, including regular interactions with government officials and other exploiters, whose outlandish abuse of power has grown over generations, need to be understood too. These pages reveal just how Adivasi villagers have experienced all this and understood it, with vast wit and discernment, over time. In terms of ‘anthropology’, this book offers what mainstream anthropology hardly ever does, for the simple reason that most anthropologists’ notion of ‘data’ is so superficial that it offers barely a clue about what is really going on. In Ramnath’s case, we read an author who has immersed himself in adapting to life in a tribal culture for 30 years. For example, the book makes clear — supporting the ethnographic tradition in this — that in this culture, there are two kinds of death, which the mainstream tradition often refers to as ‘good death’ and ‘bad death’. Of course, the culture expresses this a lot more subtly and vividly: “There are only two kinds of death: chatta chayarana and bat-thel chayarana, dying on the mat indoors, and dying outdoors…” These kinds of death are illustrated, with humour and compassion, through the passing-on of old acquaintances and in their journey into the great unknown. Along the way, and throughout the book, we get many examples of spirit possession. This is a fascinating subject. For the best part of 1,500 years, any form of shamanic possession was outlawed as witchcraft by Christian institutions in Europe, including the Inquisition, the ultimate censor. Between 1300 and 1800, many thousands of people, especially women, were burnt at the a meal of chicken, toddy to wash it down, and hot st in essence, in their egalitarian norms of beha- stake as witches. As a result, the colourful forms Felix Padel water to bathe. The bathing was always a specta- viour as well as in their forms of ownership and of social behaviour, songs, dialogues and much cle; most of these specimens who came were exchange. more that take place during spirit possession from Cuttack district, and bathed noisily in pubMany factors have combined to disturb this. represents the ultimate ‘banned knowledge’ — director of the National Park, and a few naka- lic, soaping themselves all over, including their For a start, other tribal groups have come in. The the antithesis of modern university/ academicaldars…” Moya is taken to jail and a court case is hair, gargling and spluttering all the Durwas have suffered such incur- ly ‘legitimate’ knowledge. initiated, since hunting is forbidden in the Park. while, shouting orders to the children to Spirit possession is rarely described or anasions, where leaders of incoming A post-mortem is performed on the deer he has pass the soap or fetch more water.” groups befriended Durwa youth, took lysed by anthropologists, largely because it dekilled, and finally it gets buried, rather than eat- Land questions loom large in Adivasi over hunting territories, cleared the mands huge linguistic as well as social familiarity en. But who made these rules? Who made the life, as we all know, and this book bears forests, and began to question the au- with participants before one has any chance to Forest Department? How can anyone ban hunt- witness to rarely-articulated yet vital thority of Durwa elders, who had even begin to understand what on earth is haping when it’s an intrinsic part of this culture? All aspects of the vast struggles over land managed these tracts of forest sus- pening. The drama of spirit possession is rarely too easily, in the embedded power structure that and territory that haunt tribal areas. tainably as hunting territories ‘since without huge humour, which lightens the atmohas grown up in Bastar. For one thing, Ramnath shows how the sphere in the face of the worst misfortune, intime began’. Another institution with similar powers is the traditional hunting territories of the And when ‘communist’ politicians cluding disease and death. ‘Rimni Department’ (Revenue), and it often hap- clans that make up a village constitute This is a book highly recommended for anycome on the scene, and send out a pens that a man will come to a village threat- its actual, culturally recognised territomessage that all such land claims will one who wants to journey into a deeper underening people with jail and fines for cultivating on ry, which goes far deeper than any writbe back-dated to allow cleared forest standing of tribal cultures, which currently face ‘government land’, before responding to entrea- ten records of ownership. As Marx and to be legitimised and more forest genocide in Central India. It is one of the most ties and taking money to enter names in a book Engels recognised, what differentiates Woodsmoke and lands to be taken over and cleared as vivid, down to earth, and readable books ever to rectify people’s land entitlement (supposed- ‘tribal’ from ‘modern’ societies most Leafcups; well, no force seems able to prevent written about a tribal people in India. Felix Padel is an anthropologist and writer ly!) for a few hundred rupees. Often, these men radically is the prior importance of Madhu Ramnath, this destruction. This reality is prewho has worked on tribal and environmental are total imposters. Author Madhu Ramnath has communal land over any form of private Harper Litmus, Rs.399. sented through many examples, addissues in India over many years. fun with one such. “The Rimni ‘official’ would get property. These societies are communi- .... ... .... .... .... .... .... .... .... ... .... .... . ing immensely important detail to

The Holy Sail; Abdulaziz Al-

Mahmoud, Trs Karim Traboulsi, Bloomsbury, Rs.499.

Living with the Durwas

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The full joy of tribal life opens up in these pages. As do the painful struggles under the exploitative thumb of the state

River of Flesh and other stories: The Prostituted Woman in Indian Short Fiction, Ed Ruchira Gupta,

Speaking Tiger, Rs.350. ..... ........ ........ ....... ........ ........ ........ ....... ........ .....

A Life Misspent; Suryakant Tripathi

Nirala, trs Satti Khanna, HarperCollins India, Rs.199. ... ........ ....... ........ ........ ........ ....... ........ ........ ........ ..

쮿 BOLLYWOOD DECONSTRUCTED

The awesome threesome Manmohan Desai’s 1977 film Amar Akbar Anthony, one of Hindi cinema’s most loved entertainers, can be viewed through different lenses. Most see it as pure escapism, a mix of all the ingredients that go into the best mainstream movies, with Desai’s zaniness adding a special flavour. Another way is to acknowledge the film’s subtexts while keeping the analysis fairly basic: one might, for instance, say that the story — about three brothers separated as children, brought up as Hindu, Muslim and Christian, and reunited at the end — is about national integration. But saying only this much and no more can make the “message” seem so obvious and naïve that most viewers wouldn’t even care to think about it — they would take it as a given and get on with enjoying the film as an eye-popping spectacle. But it’s possible also to go further than a surface reading, and Amar Akbar Anthony: Bollywood, Brotherhood, and the Nation —

almost no agency or personality but is given an intriguing new dimension here (and even a voice). In the framing that thusemerges, Amar (Vinod Khanna) the eldest, “Hindu brother” who grows up to be an upright policeman — the cop who doesn’t use his gun; who buries it in the ground in an early scene when he is still a child — can be seen as a benevolent patriarch of sorts, the centre of Desai’s moral universe. Akbar (Rishi Kapoor), on the other hand, is presented as a lifter of veils, and not just in the specific terms offered in the ‘Parda hai parda’ sequence. As the authors point out, he repeatedly speaks (or sings) truth to power, and plays a part in all but one of the film’s musical numbers, being the sole singer for three of the most epiphanic ones. He also — and this can come as a surprise — appears in nearly twice as many scenes as Amar does. An aside here: for many boys of my generation, the dreamy-eyed Kapoor was the third wheel in Amar Akbar Anthony, the more “manly” actors Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan being closer to our image of the Jai Arjun Singh masala-movie hero (besides being serious rivals in the 1970s superstardom race). But I think Akbar becomes more interesting co-written by academics William Elison, when you’re a grown-up viewer, and one of Christian Lee Novetzke and Andy Rotman — the things this book did for me personally is among the most in-depth books you’ll read was to convince me that he is more central about a single Hindi film. The authors’ fields to the film than my memories suggested. of specialisation include religion, anthropolOddly enough, the case for Anthony being ogy and international studies, and the real hero was the one that their knowledge of Indian culture seemed vaguest to me — or perand history is evident throughout haps all the talk about the characthis book. Most notably, here is a ter being the intermediary or scholarly work about a popular film “fixer” who contains multitudes that also tries to mimic something of (while also revealing things about the film’s controlled lunacy, winking the Christian community in Inat itself every now and again. The dia) seemed superfluous; surely, playfulness begins with the fact that all you need to do is to point out it is jointly written by three men that he was played by Bachchan, who go their own ways and (sort of) and end the argument there! unite in the end. Apart from analysing the heTheir major structural decision is Amar Akbar roes and their maa, the authors to divide the book into four long Anthony: Bollywood, examine the use of geographical chapters: each of the first three Brotherhood, and the spaces in a film where the word “Bombay” is never uttered, but makes a case for a particular brother Nation; where landmarks like the Borivali as the story’s hero — and uses the William Elison, Park and Bandra’s Koliwada are argument to suggest a worldview Christian Lee central to this narrative about contained in the film — while the Novetzke & Andy loss, diversity and reunion. They fourth hands the stage to their Rotman, Harvard look at how cinema interacts with mother, Bharati (Nirupa Roy), who University Press, is often seen as a pathetic figure with price not mentioned its audience, changing meaning as CM YK

A still from the song ‘Parda hai parda’. it moves from one demographic to another (there are references to a mass-communications professor sending students out to interview low-income groups and finding that they didn’t think Amar Akbar Anthony was “unrealistic”). They take on critics of the time who dismissed the film without engaging with its internal logic, the honee within the anhonee. And they frequently step outside the film’s diegesis too: for example, while examining the relationship between Amar and Lakshmi, the woman he “rehabilitates” and marries, the characters are looked at as stand-ins for the actors (Khanna and Shabana Azmi) who play them: “It brings a Muslim woman into a Hindu family, an icon of leftist parallel cinema into mainstream Bollywood entertainment, a social activist into a protoHindutva world…” Many readers would term this sort of thing “over-analysis” (and be warned, the next subhead in the “Amar” chapter is “The Buried Gun: Disciplined Celibacy and Muscular Hinduism”!) but it mostly worked for me, not just because the arguments — whether or not you agree with them — are well made, but also because the authors aren’t trying to provide confident “solutions” to the “riddle” of Amar Akbar Antho-

PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

ny; they are raising questions and possibilities. Each of them has approached the film with “selective blinders,” as in the fable of the blind men and the elephant: “This is not a book with a single cohesive argument; it is, we hope, a book with many cohesive arguments that also happen to be contradictory”. Needless to say, it isn’t for casual movie fans, and even serious readers are likely to encounter little spots where their eyes glaze over. (For me, it happened around the point where Bharati’s repeated ailments — from tuberculosis to blindness — are linked with goddess-possession. ) Still, I would rather a book erred in that direction — reading layers of meaning into every scene but doing it with affection and seriousness of purpose — than in the one where movies are divided into facile binaries like “meaningful” and “entertaining”, as all too often happens in our criticism. Besides, if things get too heavy, I recommend you take a breather by reading the lengthy synopsis in the appendix— a witty, 45-page delight that will also prepare you for the more detailed observations in the main text. Jai Arjun Singh is the author of the book  The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee: The Filmmaker Everyone Loves.

books & beyond

Here’s a scholarly work about a popular film that also tries to mimic something of the film’s controlled lunacy, winking at itself every now and again

Land, People and Power; Kakali Chakrabarty, Gyan Publishing House, Rs.960. ........ ........ ....... ........ ........ ........ ....... ........ ........ .....

The Idea of Ancient India; Upinder Singh, Sage Publications, Rs.1,250. ........ ........ ....... ........ ........ ....... ........ ........ ........ .....

Sadequain; Akbar Naqvi, Oxford University Press, Rs.1,750. ... ........ ........ ....... ........ ........ ....... ........ ........ ........ ..

ND-X

sundaymagazine

THE HINDU. SUNDAY, MARCH 13, 2016 NOIDA/DELHI

06

쮿 GOOD HEALTH HUNTING

Tandava-Lasya: The cosmic fusion The holistic approach of Indian classical dance may just be the new-age fitness mantra ance has always been a source of physical expression around the world. It is also a means of staying fit. India is blessed to have several styles, classical and folk, originating from various regions. This blessing is magnified many times over, given not just the quantum of styles but also the scientific genesis, structure and detailed delineation of practically every nuance and instruction. Indian classical dance forms incorporate both tandava (vigorous/ masculine) and lasya (soft/ feminine), offering a balance of cosmic energies — male/female, yin/yang — in their exposition. The tandava aspect is characterised by sharp, forceful movements that aim to capture the essence of the underlying bhava (sentiment). The lasya elements are represented by movements that are soft,

Vani B. Pahwa

fluid, and seem to merge into one another in a graceful blur with no sharp edges. Make no mistake. Both aspects place heavy physical demands upon the dancer, each exacting a different type of control, one in unleashing energy and the other in leashing it in. What that means in the physical realm is superbly exciting. The level of stamina (cardiovascular) and control (muscular) required can pose a challenge to any fitness buff and humble them. You just have to watch a full performance to know that the fitness requirements of a dancer are among the most challenging. But the beauty and strength of Indian classical dance forms is that they far transcend mere physical perfection. Movement does not exist for or by itself, to be practised as meaningless demonstration. This is borne by its classification into Nritta (rhythmic pure dance), Nritya (storytelling through hand gestures or hasta mudras and facial expressions/ mime), and Natya (the

Dancers Rukmini Vijayakumar and Parshwanath Upadhye delivering a power-packed Bharatanatyam performance full of both vigour and grace. PHOTO: A.M. FARUQUI

Feet, hands, neck, eyes, face all work in tandem to breathe life into movement and tell a story dramatic aspect). The hasta mudras help translate the sahitya (verse) into the visual language of the dance. The feet, hands, neck, eyes, face, all work in tandem with the body to breathe life into movement and tell a story, taking the energy involved to a whole new dimension. This draws the mind into the process, unleashing a meditative effect. What it is, is beautifully described by the following shloka from the Natya Shastra, the most comprehensive Indian treatise on the performing arts dating back to the period between 200 B.C.E and 200 C.E. Yato hastastato drishtihi... ‘Where the hand is, the eyes follow…’ Yato drishtistato manaha… ‘Where the eyes go, the mind follows…’ Yato manastato bhavaha… ‘Where the mind is, there is feeling…’ Yato bhavastato rasaha… ‘Where there is feeling, there is mood/ flavour’ (appreciation of art; aesthetic bliss)

Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi, Kathak, Odissi, Kathakali, Mohiniyattam and Manipuri are all offshoots of the same underlying principle. Imagine these as your sources of holistic fitness. All at once, dance caters to all aspects — physical, mental and spiritual fitness. So, how does Indian classical dance measure on the fitness scale? ● All forms are practised barefoot (barefoot training going back thousands of years is an inherent part of our culture) ● Very well-structured units, progressions, tempos (what good current fitness practices talk of) ● Mentally stimulating (remembering choreography; compositions set to challenging rhythmic, mathematical counts) ● Superb cardiovascular and muscular challenge (the body moves through various planes, speeds and loading/ unloading patterns; from explosive plyometrics to controlled fluidic swaying) ● Composite use of large and small muscle groups (all body parts used: feet, legs, arms, wrists, fingers, core, shoulder, neck, eyes…) ● Works on all pillars of fitness (endurance, strength, mobility, flexibility, power) ● Holistic (interconnection of mental, physical and spiritual realms sets it apart) ● Lends itself to fusion (among Indian styles and with international forms, including martial arts) ● Instils discipline (one cannot become a dancer without discipline. Period.) Additionally, dance imparts grace and a totally different perspective to life and living. You will come looking for physical fitness but get so much more in the process. Efforts are being made to reinvent, experiment and enhance the forms, while retaining the original vocabulary. So, we absolutely need to look at what our culture offers — practices that are so much more than just physical pursuits and which exist right here. The world is only learning now what we have known for centuries. Adopt it. Respect it. Highlight it. The writer is an exercise and rehab specialist, corporate wellness coach, and foot and gait analyst.

쮿 WORKING IT

The Sunday Crossword

Too much of a good thing If you thought a sedentary lifestyle was harmful, excessive exercise could be just as bad There’s no contesting it, the benefits of exercise to the body and brain are beyond measure. In fact, if exercise were a “patented pill”, it would be promoted as nothing short of “a miracle”, says a review published in the latest issue of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.  But, the author of the paper, sports cardiologist André La Gerche, ventures into admittedly controversial scientific territory with a contrarian hypothesis: exercise may have potentially harmful health impacts too, specifically on the heart. High levels of exercise could be “cardiotoxic”, causing structural changes in heart muscles, leading to arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat). Arrhythmias can be benign, but some could signal the risk of sudden cardiac death. Now, that isn't exactly great news for couch potatoes either. The paper does not, under any circumstance, endorse sedentary behaviour — which, it acknowledges, is a part of a growing lifestyle trend associated with morbidity. But it looks at people “at the other end of the spectrum from inactivity”, namely, athletes. 1 Optional term otherwise relating to large city (12) 9 Crush good part of orange (5) 10 Attention occupied by work in New York waterway (4,5) 11 Delicate eastern article, not fake (8) 12 Hearts captured by artist with a flower (6) 14 Exposes new troubles (5) 16 Maintain faltering debate, finally lifeless (9) 18 Source of popular fashion followed by worker? (9) 19 County’s southern dialect, not northern (5) 20 Cowboy with a cough in a bad way (6) 22 Historic event set down by gospel writer (8) 25 Repose interrupted by coach in control (9) 26 Improve condition in mixture of dye (5) 27 Film from Billy Wilder’s collection with skill seen by people time after time (3,9)

mechanic (6,6) 9 Envious, identifies growing ability (5,7) 13 Expert rates stamp poorly (4,6) 15 Cleaner in rush for additional payment (9) 17 Disturbance produced by taint Iago concocted (9) 21 Out of bed and ready for trouble (5) 23 Democrat with drive filled with energy and hope (5) 24 Drooping, walk unevenly (4)

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Divya Gandhi

wellness

Across

Intense exercise could bring about permanent changes in the “myocardial substrate” (a composition of the heart muscle) triggering these arrhythmias. And while it is not known how exactly exercise does this, the phenomenon may be related to the sustained pressure placed on the heart during exercise, causing microscopic injury and inflammation, author La Gerche explains in an email to this correspondent. While the benefits of exercise are well documented for low and moderate intensities, there is little known about the link between health benefits of intense exercise practised by competitive athletes. After all, if exercise is seen as “therapy” there must be a “dose-response relationship”, where high doses can prove risky, says the paper titled ‘The Potential Cardiotoxic Effects of Exercise’. So can we quantify “too much” exercise? Or, conversely, “optimal” exercise? While La Gerche hesitates to provide a clear quantification, it is akin, he says, to trying to establish how much sunshine it takes to get skin cancer. “As a very rough guide, most athletes that we have seen with what we think are arrhythmias related to exercise are training or racing more than 10 hours per week, some many more.”

Fitness fiends at a gym.

PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR (Image used for representation purpose only)

La Gerche’s hypothesis could potentially apply to non-athletes too — people who work out more than they should. “It is difficult to define an athlete but there are many amateur exercise enthusiasts who train very hard and these changes are not likely to discriminate according to skill level but rather the amount (duration and intensity) of exercise,” he says. “Exercise addiction,” is a condition that neurologist Ennapadam S. Krishnamoorthy comes across every now and again.  “The reason why some people find exercise so seductive is that it alters brain chemistry and promotes a feel-good factor. The typical neurotransmitters that are involved include dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine.” But then again, the line between the ‘right’ amount of exercise and ‘too much’ of it, especially in relation to degeneration of body parts, can be a fine one, he says. K. Kannan, Professor and Head of Department of Cardiology, Stanley Medical College, Chennai, observes a trend in people working out unsustainably in pursuit of an “ideal physique”. Workouts

must be tailored by a professional trainer to the person’s age, medical condition and fitness levels, he says. While exercise regimes cannot be the same for everyone, there is perhaps one form of exercise where “one size fits all”, says Kannan, and that’s a 20-minute walk. “That’s great for anyone, and it has excellent cardiac benefits.” It is likely, La Gerch says, that the risk increases with the exercise amount, “but this has not been proven by any means. Also, there are clearly people who are more susceptible and others who are protected, probably due to genetic factors that we are yet to understand.” All discussion about the risks and benefits of long-term endurance sports training “is hijacked by definitive mediagrabbing statements, which have fuelled an environment in which one might be criticised for even questioning the benefits of exercise,” says the paper. But “this is a question that affects such a large proportion of society, it is something that deserves investment,” especially in terms of research, it concludes.  ND-X