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Visakhapatnam

City Edition

20 pages � ₹5.00

The mortal remains ofNandyal MLA Bhuma NagiReddy were on Mondayevening consigned to the-flames with official honoursat Shobha Nagi Reddy Ghathere, named after his wifewhose last rites were per-formed in 2014.

Police personnel carriedrifles by lowering themwhile Nagi Reddy’s body wastaken in a cortege deckedatop a flower-bedeckedtruck amidst drum beats asthousands of party activists,his followers and a largenumber of people followed itfrom his residence atAllagadda. The body waswrapped in a national flagand police personnel gave agun salute and blew thebugle as his son JagatVikhyat Reddy lit the pyre.

Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu, his sonand TDP national secretary

Lokesh, Union Minister Y.Sujana Chowdary, DeputyChief Ministers N. Chinara-jappa and K.E. Krish-namurthy, Legislative Coun-cil Chairman A. Chakrapani,Assembly Speaker KodelaSivaprasada Rao, KurnoolMP Butta Renuka, MinistersK. Atchannaidu, DevineniUmamaheswara Rao, Prath-ipati Pulla Rao, ParitalaSunitha, Peethala Sujatha, K.Mrunalini, Palle Raghunatha

Reddy and Kollu Ravindra,TDP State president K. KalaVenkata Rao, several MLAs,former Ministers, formerMLAs, and a host of partyleaders took part in the lastjourney.

Cabinet berth forAkhila soughtPeople of all ages made abeeline for the residence ofNagi Reddy to pay last re-spects to the departed

leader. All the shops and es-tablishments, hotels, educa-tional institutions and officeswere closed in the town. Su-perintendent of Police A.Ravikrishna and police per-sonnel made elaborate ban-dobust arrangements andbarricaded the road leadingto Bhuma Nagi Reddy’s res-idence. The vehicles of VIPswere alone permitted intothe road and all others hadto go on foot.

Tearful farewell to Bhuma Nagi ReddyA host of leaders, including CM, attend the cremationM.V. Subramanyam

ALLAGADDA (KURNOOL DT.)

Final journey: The funeral procession of Bhuma Nagi Reddy at Allagadda inKurnool districtonMonday. U. SUBRAMANYAM

The National Green Tribunal(NGT) will monitor measurestaken to prevent air pollu-tion caused due to spread ofcoal dust to Old City andother areas of the city anddirected AP Pollution Con-trol Board and Visakhapat-nam Port Trust to submit itstatus reports once in aquarter.

In response to a PIL filedby Chaitanya Sravanthi, anNGO, NGT in its order re-cently sought quarterlystatus reports on air ambientquality in different areas andmark a copy to thepetitioner.

Stating that the authorit-ies should stick to the dead-line (December, 2018) set tocontrol the pollution, itthreatened to step in withserious action if the respond-ents failed to controlpollution.

NGT said: “We make itclear that if we find any

slackness in implementingthe plan and neglecting thepollution control measures(as per permissible limits)and if there is no perceptiblereduction of dust emissionand improvement of the airquality, we will be con-

strained to invoke ‘PolluterPays’ principle and even re-straining the respondentport trust from handling coalcargo.

The order was issued byJustice Dr. P. Jyothimani, ju-dicial member and P.S. Rao,

expert member.

Order hailedDescribing the order as ‘his-toric in coming to the rescueof pollution sufferers,’former IAS officer E.A.S.Sarma, Chaitanya Sravanthi

founder Shirin Rehman andvice-president Vijay Shankarsaid now the onus lies on AP-PCB and VPT to bringeverything within permiss-ible limits failing which itshould shutdown coal hand-ling operations.

Making it very clear thatthey were not advocating theclosure of the port, Dr.Shirin Rehman said sustain-able development should beensured with stringent meas-ures to keep pollution undercheck. Mr. Sarma, a socialactivist, said as part of ‘Pol-luter Payer’ principle thegovernment as well as theport should pay compensa-tion for respiratory and der-matological ailments beingcaused to the residents ofOld Town and other areas inthe city due to coal dust.

Coal is brought in largequantity to the port to sup-ply to Rashtriya Ispat NigamLimited, NTPC SimhadriThermal Power Plant andsome other companies.

NGT tomonitor coal dust pollution in Vizag portThreatens drastic action if emissions exceed permissible limits

Special Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM

Burning issue: Chaitanya Sravanti chairperson Shirin Rehman speaking on National GreenTribunal order in Visakhapatnam onMonday. Former IAS oicer and social activist E.A.S. Sarmalooks on. PHOTO: C.V.SUBRAHMANYAM

Panic-stricken peoplerushed out of their housesin Pammidipadu,Ravinuthala and other vil-lages in Korisapadu man-dal of the Addanki-Ongoleregion after household art-icles changed their placesin the early hours ofMonday.

The earthquake of 3.5magnitude was recorded 19km southeast of the Ad-danki Seismic Station at2.43 a.m., National Geo-physical Research Institute(NGRI) officials said. Its epi-centre was located 15.721Nlatitude and 80.090E lon-gitude. It occurred at adepth of 3 km, they added.

Some houses in the vil-lages in the mandal de-veloped cracks. However,people in other areas didnot feel the impact of thetemblor.

TemblorrattlesAddankiSpecial Correspondent

ONGOLE

The Ninth Additional Ses-sions Court on Monday ac-quitted all the 13 accused ina 2007 case of attempt tomurder on the former Chit-toor MLA C.K. JayachandraReddy alias C.K. Babu, aftera decade-long trial.

On February 9, 2007around 9 a.m., a gang carry-ing lethal weapons bargedinto a club beside the Pala-maner Road in Chittoortown, allegedly to kill Mr.Babu.

After gunning down hisgunman, the gang membersentered a room in the club,where Mr. Babu and his fol-lowers were having break-fast. When the gang openedfire, another gunman of theformer MLA returned thefire, killing one of theassailants.

While Mr. Babu escapedunhurt, the shoot-out resul-ted in the death a municipalofficial, who was reportedlythere to meet Mr. Babu. An-other attacker, identified asRaja, who was injured in theleg, fled.

Taking the episode as abacklash to the 2005 at-tempt to murder on KatariMohan, the police then re-gistered criminal casesagainst Katari Mohan, hisnephew Chandrasekharalias Chintu (now prime ac-cused in the double murderof mayor Anuradha and herspouse Katari Mohan), and13 others, including KatariPraveen (slain Kataricouple’s son).

As the prosecution didnot succeed in provingcharges against the accused,the court on Monday acquit-ted them of the charges.

Bid on ex-MLA: Allaccused acquitted

A gang tried to kill C.K. Babu in 2007

Staff Reporter

CHITTOOR

K. Narendra (22) was hackedto death and his mother, K.Padmavathi, suffered injur-ies when a person attackedthem with a sickle at Ke-dareswaripet on Monday.

They are residents of NewRajarajeswaripet in the city.

According to the police,Ms. Padmavathi, who wasdeserted by her husband,was working in the fruit mar-ket at Kedareswaripet andwas friends with the accusedG. Shiva. She borrowedmoney from him but failedto repay. Shiva raised the is-sue with her many timesleading to arguments.

Recently, Narendrawarned Shiva not to visit hishouse and harass hismother.

Police examineCCTV footageUpset at the turn of events,Shiva attacked them at thefruit market when Narendra

brought lunch to his mother.Narendra died on the spotand the locals shifted Ms.Padmavathi to a hospitalwhere her condition was

stated to be stable.The Satyanarayanapuram

police have registered a caseand examined the CCTVfootage.

Youth killed, mother hurt in attack

Woman’s failure to repay debt the trigger

Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA

Looking for clues: A policeman observing the place whereone person wasmurdered at Kedareswaripet in VijayawadaonMonday. CH. VIJAYA BHASKAR

Justice A. Shankarnarayanaof the Hyderabad HighCourt reserved orders incases filed seeking quash-ing of criminal cases re-gistered against YSRCPleaders who visited Gov-ernment hospital to see theinjured after the road acci-dent near Penuganchiproluin Krishna district, on Feb-ruary 28.

The judge heard argu-ments on behalf of Y.S.Jagan Mohan Reddy andJogi Ramesh and othersseeking to quash the crim-inal proceedings registeredagainst them by the Nandi-gama police.

They said they went toconsole the families andsought details from doctorsas people’s representat-ives. Allegations weremade against District Col-lector, doctors and policewho registered false cases.

Cases againstJagan: OrdersreservedLegal Correspondent

Hyderabad

Printed at . Chennai . Coimbatore . Bengaluru . Hyderabad . Madurai . Noida . Visakhapatnam . Thiruvananthapuram . Kochi . Vijayawada . Mangaluru . Tiruchirapalli . Kolkata . Hubballi . Mohali . Allahabad . Malappuram . Mumbai

The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) on Monday put forwardthe name of N. Biren Singhas the next Chief Minister ofManipur. The decision wastaken at a meeting of BJP le-gislators in the presence oftwo Central ministers, Piy-ush Goyal and PrakashJavadekar, at a hotel inImphal.

The journalist-turned-politician and MLA from theHeingang constituency isconsidered one of the mostprominent faces of the BJP inManipur. He had left theCongress in October 2016and joined the BJP.

Meets GovernorImmediately after being elec-ted as the leader of the BJPlegislature party, Mr. BirenSingh met Governor NajmaHeptulla, staking his claim toform the first BJP govern-ment in Manipur.

“This is a huge challenge.I left the Congress because ofmisgovernance. I assure thepeople that our team willbring good governance tothe people of Manipur,” theBJP leader said.

Within hours of the devel-opments at the BJP camp,Chief Minister Okram IbobiSingh visited Raj Bhavan andtendered his resignation.

Manipur, which gave afractured mandate in the re-

cent Assembly poll, has wit-nessed high political dramain the past two days. Whilethe Congress has emerged asthe single largest party with28 MLAs in the 60-memberAssembly, three short of ma-jority, the BJP got 21 seats.The BJP has the support of 4MLAs each from the NagaPeople’s Front (NPF) and theNational People’s Party(NPP) and one from the LokJanshakti Party (LJP). How-ever, the disappearance of

the lone Independent MLAAshad Uddin and the switch-ing of sides by Congress MLAT. Shyamkumar has tilted thebalance in favour of the BJP.

The only Trinamool Con-gress MLA T. Robindro hasalso offered to support theBJP. After the BJP leadershipmet the Governor, alongwith representatives of otherparties, Mr. Ibobi Singh metthe Governor late on Sundaynight and staked claim toform the government.

On Monday also, the sus-pense continued with re-ports that Mr. Ibobi Singhwas not resigning. EarlierMs. Heptulla said: “I told theCM that first you resign thenonly I can start the processof government formation.”Mr. Ibobi Singh even held apress conference stating thathe had ample time andwould resign in a day or two.

BJP’s Biren Singh stakes claimto form govt. in ManipurIbobi Singh inally quits after keeping everyone in suspense through the day

Prominent face:N. Biren Singh, left, is greeted by UnionMinister and BJP’s Manipur in-chargePrakash Javadekar in Imphal onMonday. RITU RAJ KONWAR

Shiv Sahay Singh

Imphal

CONTINUED ON � PAGE 10

U.P. AND AWAY � EDITORIAL

Congress plea toPresidentVIJAYAWADA

The Andhra Pradesh CongressCommittee (APCC) hasappealed to President PranabMukherjee to intervene andensure that the Congress isinvited to form governmentsin Manipur and Goa. APCCpresident N. RaghuveeraReddy said that as pertradition the single largestparty should be invited by theGovernor.ANDHRA PRADESH

� PAGE 4DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

‘Drop aqua food park’VIJAYAWADA

Leaders of the YSR Congress,Congress and the Left partieshave, in a letter to GovernorE.S.L. Narasimhan and ChiefMinister N. ChandrababuNaidu, sought the GodavariMega Aqua Food Park inWestGodavari district be stalled inthe interest of the farmersand the general public.

ANDHRA PRADESH

� PAGE 4DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Trump backer Shalabh

Kumar says Indians

have nothing to fear

page 10

Irom Sharmila to

arrive in Kerala for

month-long solitude

page 11

Pakistan will start

its irst census in 19

years this week

page 12

Scotland’s leader Nicola

Sturgeon seeks new

independence referendum

page 12

Fun and frolic: Youngsters at a rain dance event held as part of the Holi celebrations ata hotel in Visakhapatnam onMonday. K.R. DEEPAK (REPORT ON PAGE 2)

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A splash of colour

Bharatiya Janata Partyleader Manohar Parrikar,who on Monday morningresigned as Defence Minis-ter, will be sworn in ChiefMinister of Goa at 5.15 p.m.on Tuesday.

Mr. Parrikar, along withmembers of his Cabinet, willbe sworn in by GovernorMridula Sinha at the RajBhavan, said sources in theGoa government here.

According to a Raj Bhavancommuniqué issued herelate on Sunday evening, Mr.Parrikar had been asked toprove his majority by con-vening a session of the As-sembly within 15 days of tak-ing oath.

BJP sources reiteratedhere that a majority of theCabinet berths are expectedto be offered to the coalitionpartners.

“The details are still beingworked out. We will retain

Finance and Home portfo-lios. Preliminary talks aboutportfolio allocation with ourpartners were conducted byNitin Gadkariji. The finer de-tails are being worked out byMr. Parrikar himself in con-sultation with other partyleaders,” a senior leader saidon Monday.

Parrikar to be sworn inGoa Chief Minister todayCoalition partners may get most of the Cabinet berths

Prakash Kamat

Panaji

‘IT’S A POWER GRAB’ � PAGE 10

JAITLEY TO LOOK AFTER

DEFENCE; CONGRESS MOVES

SUPREME COURT � PAGE 10

Yeleru canal repairworks apaceVISAKHAPATNAM

Work on repairs to YeleruLeft Main Canal, one of themajor sources of watersupply to the city, is going onbriskly with about half thetime of the scheduledmonth’s closure over.

VISAKHAPATNAM � PAGE 3DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

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VISAKHAPATNAM THE HINDU

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VISAKHAPATNAM

Drenched in multi-colouredhues, revellers celebratedHoli with traditional fervouron Monday. The Beach Roadwas the favourite spot ofpeople who came there withtheir families and friends tojoin in the mirthful revelry ofthe festival of colours.

This time, several touristsand travellers from theNorth arrived in the city tomake the most of the exten-ded weekend and enjoy thefestival at the same timesqueeze in a quick vacation.Arvind Agarwal, IT profes-sional, came from Delhi tocelebrate the festival with hiscollege buddies in the cityand also enjoy the beauty ofVisakhapatnam’s beaches.

“This has been my bestHoli so far. The spirit of thecity is so infectious. Everyone was on beach roadgreeting each other. I mademany new friends duringthis visit,” he said. Interest-ingly, many foreigners joinedin the festive fun and dancedto the beats of traditionalsongs.

Most of the foreign tour-ists expressed their excite-ment to participate in thisfestival of colours, which

was something new forthem. “We are so excited tosee all colours used in Holicelebrations. It looks so niceand is a lot of fun,” saidMaria, tourist from Europe.

Social media

At The Park, it rained col-ours with revellers soakingin the festive fervour withfoot-tapping music and some

delicious food spread. Here,faces went beyond recogni-tion with sprayed colours.Youngsters were seen takingselfies and were quick on up-load on family groups onWhatsApp, which were over-flowing with colourful GIFsand Holi greetings through-out the day. With #Happy-Holi being the top trend onTwitter in India for most of

the day, the colour-smearedselfies were shared alongwith festive greetings. Therewere similar scenes at MGMGrounds which was buzzingwith loud music of the DJsmaking music lovers sway tothe beats. The little onesjumped about with waterguns and colour-filled bal-loons, joining the fun andrevelry.

With tourists joining in, Holifestivities reach crescendoRevellers dance to the tunes of traditional songs

Fun time: Children enjoying during Holi celebrations in Visakhapatnam onMonday. K.R. DEEPAK

Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM

The first visit of the newGeneral Manager of

the East Coast RailwayUmesh Singh to Duvvadalast week has evokedcriticism on Twitter byvarious groups. TheTweets were critical of his‘lack of patience’ and notinteracting with thepublic.

“The GM came in hisspecial train to Duvvadaaround 7 a.m. on March10. The train stopped onPlatform-4 side. Heremained in thecompartment for about30 minutes. Later, healighted and saw thebooking counter, thewaiting hall and toilet,which were locked beforehis visit, and then planteda few saplings beforeboarding the train and

bidding adieu to thepublic,” says DuvvadaRailway Users’ Associationpresident K. Eswar.

“He accepted ourrepresentation but theonly word he uttered was‘Dekhenge’, meaning hewill look into it. Thelocked hall and toilet onPF-4 side are ‘just ashowpiece’ and aregenerally opened onlyduring VIP visits. This wasdone before the visit ofVisakhapatnam MP K.Haribabu in the past,” Mr.Eswar said.

“The Secunderabad –Visakhapatnam GaribRath was held up forabout 30 minutes beforeDuvvada as the GM’sSpecial train was parkedon PF-4. It was finallyallowed on PF-3 around

7.30 a.m. Some of thepassengers, who had to gotowards the PF-4 exitwalked across the trackand climbed the platformwith their luggage even asthe GM was on theplatform”.

“He did not inspect thepending ‘loop lineextension’ work on PF-4side or visit PF-1 side ofthe station,” he added.

★ ★ ★

Acouple, who went tothe Gnanapuram

entry of theVisakhapatnam RailwayStation, to board theJanmabhoomi Expressalong with a senior citizenwere shocked to be toldby a porter that therewere no wheel chairs onPF-8 (Gnanapuram-side).

Luckily, the elderly

woman was in a positionto walk and they had noproblem. “Imagine theplight of someone who isnot in a position to walk.They cannot wait or getthe wheel chair from PF-1and face the prospect ofmissing their train. BothPF-1 and PF-8 are entrypoints into the station andwheel chairs should bemade available at least onboth sides, if not on allthe platforms,” says thepassenger.

Signboards should beprovided at the entrypoints and on theplatforms, indicating theplace of availability of thewheel chairs for theconvenience ofpassengers, who needthem.(REPORTING BY B. MADHU GOPAL)

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\ ON THE MOVE \

New ECoR GM’s maiden visit draws criticism

He hardly interacted with public, says Railway Users Association

This summer, TheLaunch Pad, a trainingcentre, will organise a15-day workshop on‘Creative writing withthe short story project’from Wednesday, ac-

cording to a releasehere. Participants willget a chance to weavetheir own stories andshare it at the workshop.

Further details can behad by dialling the train-ers 9490417053 or8500636198.

Workshop on creative writing

Staff Reporter

VISAKHAPATNAM


THE HINDU VISAKHAPATNAM

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CMYK

M VZ-VZ

VISAKHAPATNAM

0DISCLAIMER: Readers are requested toverify and make appropriate enquiries tosatisfy themselves about the veracity ofan advertisement before responding toany published in this newspaper. Kasturi& Sons Limited, the Publisher & Owner ofthis newspaper, does not vouch for theauthenticity of any advertisement or ad-vertiser or for any of the advertiser’sproducts and/or services. In no event canthe Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Dir-ector/s, Employees of this newspaper/company be held responsible/liable inany manner whatsoever for any claimsand/or damages for advertisements inthis newspaper.

VISAKHAPATNAM Timings

Tuesday, March 14

RISE 06:06 SET 18:07

RISE 19:41 SET 07:12

Wednesday, March 15

RISE 06:05 SET 18:07

RISE 20:31 SET 07:51

Thursday, March 16

RISE 06:04 SET 18:07

RISE 21:20 SET 08:30

Dharna staged

Girjan Kalaseela WelfareSociety, owing allegiance toAITUC, went on a dharna atthe GCC Office on the BeachRoad here on Mondaydemanding increased ratesfor work, arrears, two pairs ofclothes and holiday onSunday. Union president M.Manmadha Rao and AITUCdistrict vice-president Sk.Rahaman led the protest.

IN BRIEF

Special yoga camp

The Department of Yoga andConsciousness, AndhraUniversity is organising aspecial yoga camp for weightreduction from March 16. Thecamp will continue for amonth and the classes will beheld from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m.and from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m.every day at Yoga Village.Interested candidates cancontact 0891-2566640 or9490536733 for registration.

Elected

Associate NCC officer of Mrs.A.V.N. College N.Ramakrishna has beenelected vice-president ofAndhra Pradesh AssociateNCC Officers’ Association onSunday at the annualconference held inVijayawada. Dr. Ramakrishnawill continue in his new rolefor a period of two years.

Award for art teacher

Odisha-based art teacherSheik Meera John waspresented with State-levelPratibha Ratna Award ofAkhila Bharata TeluguSamskrutika Samakhya at aprogramme here on Monday.It was presented to him inrecognition of hiscontribution to the art scene.

Published by N. Ram at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S.D.T. Rao at 199/1 & 199/2, Industrial Park, IDA, Block D, Chinagantyada Village, Gajuwaka Mandal, Visakhapatnam-530012 on behalf of KASTURI & SONS LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Mukund Padmanabhan (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).

Regd. VSP/90/2015-2017 ● RNI No. TNENG/1990/49947 ● ISSN 0971 - 751X ● Vol. 28 ● No. 62

The 100th birthday of free-dom fighter Raavuri ArjunaRao and his 70th wedding an-niversary with Manorama,are being celebrated by theLok Nayak Foundation at theDr. B.R. Ambedkar AssemblyHall of Andhra Universityhere on Tuesday. Announ-

cing this at a media confer-ence here on Monday, LokNayak Foundation chairmanYarlagadda Lakshmi Prasadrecalled the contribution ofMr. Arjuna Rao to the causeof promoting an egalitariansociety, freedom movementand his commitment toGandhian principles.

“He was influenced by

Thota Narasaiah, who hadresponded to Gandhiji’s callto boycott foreign cloth, andhad been wearing only khadifor the past 100 years,”hesaid.

Mr. Arjuna Rao was bornin a poor family to Garatayyaand Venkamma at Vanapam-ula near Gudivada in Krishnadistrict in 1917. He completed

his III Form and HigherGrade Examinations in 1940.His association with Gora,who founded the Atheist So-ciety in 1940, attracted himtowards atheism and thefreedommovement.

Gora asked Arjuna Rao tomarry his eldest daughterManorama. Gandhiji wantedArjuna Rao to stay at Sevag-

ram and Manorama at theKasturi Ba Training Centre atBobbili for two years separ-ately.

The wedding was per-formed in the presence ofthe then Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru, AcharyaVinobha Bhave, and othersat Sevagram on March 13,1948.

100th birthday of tyagi to be celebrated todaySpecial Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM

Work on repairs to YeleruLeft Main Canal, one of themajor sources of water sup-ply to the city, is going onbriskly with about half thetime of the scheduledmonth’s closure over.

About 30 to 40 per cent ofthe repair work has beencompleted with 1000 menand 14 earth-moving ma-chines deployed, it waslearnt. Simultaneously, workon the incomplete water sup-ply canal is also being takenup by the IrrigationDepartment.

The repairs, de-silting aswell as supply canal work isbeing taken up ahead of thePurushottapuram Lift Irriga-tion Scheme completion soas to receive more waterfrom the Yeleru reservoirthrough the canal. A total of31 works are being taken upby VIWSCO in variousstretches of the 156-km canalthat passes through East Go-davari and Visakhapatnamfor repairs and de-silting.

In the first reach up to 48km 12 structures are beingcovered with drains eithergoing below the canal orabove it.

In the second reach from48 to 99 km, before and afterthe tunnel the silt is being re-moved sometimes going upthe depth 28 meters to 30meters. “It is a difficult

stretch with rocky terrainwhere taking machines andremoving silt is particularlydifficult,” say sources.

The repairs also deal withthe aqueducts on the Varaha

and the Serpa rivers wherethe embankments are leak-ing. Cross-bunds are erectedwherever it is necessary so asto drain water and take upwork. The 31 works are being

carried out in five agree-ments with a cost of Rs.3.08crore.

Supply canalThe supply canal runs for

32.6 km from 118 km and lin-ing for a part of it- up to 24.2km- has been completedearlier. The Irrigation De-partment has taken up fur-ther work on it.

Yeleru canal repair work apace1,000 men, 14 earth-moving machines deployed for the purpose

Gigantic task: Silt being removed by workers as a part of repairs andmaintenance work of Yeleru Left Main Canal.

G.V. Prasada Sarma

VISAKHAPATNAM

Owing to repairs to the 914mm diameter pipeline fromMeghadrigedda Reservoir toNatayyapalem nearSheelanagar several residen-tial areas and industrialunits will go without wateron Tuesday and Wednesday.Supply will be stopped from9 a.m. on Tuesday to 9 a.m.on Thursday.

The following residentialareas will be affected:

Zone VGajuwaka: VUDA Colony,

Samatanagar, Gudivada Ap-panna Colony, Ramnagarand Mindi.

Zone IVWard 45: Mulagada Colony,Himachalnagar, Ganapatin-agar, New Ex ServicemenColony, Santigiri Colony, Na-kkavanipalem, Santinagar,Srinivasnagar, Chilukavanip-alem and Eduruvanipalem.

Ward 46: Srihariipuram,Ramnagar, Jawaharnagarand Indra Colony.Ward 47:Janata Colony, IndustrialColony, Prakash Colony,TDP Colony. Ward 48:Prakashnagar, Malkapuram,Gudivada Appanna Colony,Alluri Sitaramaraju Colony,Durga Colony, Durganagar,Trinadhapuram, Kakar-lalova, Krantinagar, JaiAndhra Colony and Chint-allova.

Ward 49: A.K.C. Colony.Ward 50: Mulagada and In-dira Colony.

IndustriesCoromandel, HPCL, BHEL-HPVP, Hindustan Shipyard,Visakha Dairy, INS Eksila,VSEZ, Ommineni Mineral,SRMT, Visakha Wire Ropes,IMU, Naval Dockyard,MES-104 area, GAIL India,Ushodaya Enterprises,APCL, Novus Infra, SardarProjects and BharatDynamics.

Nowater supplyfor two daysRepairs to Meghadrigedda pipeline


VISAKHAPATNAM

S.K. Mahati of Kozhikode presenting a Carnatic vocal recital ata programme organised by Sri Vijaya Tyagaraja SangeetaSabha in Visakhapatnam onMonday. C.V.SUBRAHMANYAM

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Striking a chord

Former MP Yarlagadda Lak-shmi Prasad has appealed toChief Minister N. Chandrab-abu Naidu to ensure present-ation of the first budget,from the new Assemblybuilding in Amaravathi, inTelugu. Mr. Lakshmi Prasad,who is chairman of LokNayak Foundation, recalledthat in the past TelanganaMinister Eetela Rajender hadintroduced the State budgetof Telangana in Telugu lastyear but the A.P. FinanceMinister had presented it inEnglish last year.

Addressing a media con-ference here on Monday,hesaid at least this year the Fin-ance Minister would intro-

duce the budget in Telugu.He said Governor E.S.L.Narasimhan during his ad-dress from the new As-sembly building had donewell to begin and end hisspeech in Telugu. Com-

mending the State for ensur-ing that the buildings in Am-aravati reflected Andhraheritage and culture, he saidit would have little meaningwhen Telugu language wasneglected.

Present A.P. Budget inTelugu, FM urgedYLP asks Minister to emulate his Telangana counterpart


VISAKHAPATNAM

Lok Nayak Foundation chairman Y. Lakshmi Prasad addressingthemedia in Visakhapatnam onMonday. C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM

The Department of Meteor-ology and Oceanography,Andhra University, will beembarking on a major pro-ject on climate change.

Department of Scienceand Technology (DST), Gov-ernment of India, has awar-ded the department a pro-ject under National Missionon Strategic Knowledge forClimate Change (NMSKCC)to make a detailed study onclimate change and its effecton agriculture.

Speaking to The Hindu,Prof. SSVS Ramakrishna,senior professor from thedepartment, said DST hassanctioned about ₹1.76 croreto study climate changeacross the country with spe-cial focus of its impact onagriculture in Andhra Pra-desh.

The Department of Met-eorology and Oceano-graphy, Andhra University,was the first of its kind inSouth East Asia to have initi-ated teaching and researchprogrammes in Meteorologyand Oceanography. It wasestablished in 1948 to im-part knowledge on oceanicand atmospheric sciences.

Giving details of the pro-ject, Prof. Ramakrishna,said of the ₹ 1.76 crore,about Rs. 70 lakh will be in-vested in infrastructure in-cluding the setting up ofprobably the biggest com-puter in the university. “Thecapacity would be in tera-bytes, as we need to collectinformation on climatechange in the last 20 to 30years and collate them anddraw inferences to projectthe climate changes for thenext 100 years,” he said.

AU department tostudy climate changeSpecial correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM

Lok Nayak Foundation: 100th birth-day celebration of freedom ighterRavuri Arjuna Rao, Dr. B. R. AmbedkarAssembly Hall, 10 a.m.

“Perini” Chanakya MemorialTrust: Discourse by Swami Paripoor-nanda Swami, ilm songs by Tewari,Saideva Harsha and VinjamuriAnuhya, Kalabharati Auditorium, 6p.m.

Department of Instrument Tech-nology: Inaugural of one-day work-shop on ‘Recent trends in medicalinstruments’, AU College of Engineer-ing, 9.30 a.m.

VISAKHAPATNAM TODAY

Joint Collector G. Srijanahas asked tahsildars toclear 2000 applications ofthe National Family BenefitScheme pending withthem. She asked the offi-cials to sanction the benefitto the eligible and rejectthe other by assigning validreasons. A total of 7000 ap-plications on variousgrounds are pending withtahsildars.

Tehsildars toldto clear NFBSapplications


VISAKHAPATNAM

Dredging Corporation of In-dia Officers’ Association hasappealed to the authoritiesconcerned to refrain fromgoing ahead with the pro-posed sale of stake in DCI.

The officers took out arally to the GVMC Gandhistatue here on Monday andlater sent the representationto the authorities concernednot to go for further disin-vestment in the category-Imini ratna company. DCIhas its head office in

Visakhapatnam.The employees and of-

ficers are on a warpath forthe last few days followingreports that the Centre hasdecided to go for furtherdisinvestment of 51%.

DCI set up in 1976 has allalong stood the competitionand secured internationalcontracts against tough bid-ding the latest one being theMongla Port in Bangladesh.The employees were of theopinion that disinvestmentof majority stake would leadto privatisation of the profitmaking company.

Drop disinvestmentmove: DCI oicersSpecial Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM

Four persons were arrestedby the police while theywere transporting 585 kgdry ganja in a truck at Ped-dapeta junction under Rolu-gunta police station limits inthe district on Monday.

The police also seized the

lorry in which the ganja wasloaded. The arrested per-sons were identified asRadha Mohan Yadav of Bi-har, Pangi Balaram ofGangavaram area underG.K. Veedhi mandal,Avataar Singh (owner of thevehicle) and Jaspal Singh,both from Punjab.

Ganja seized, 4 heldSpecial Correspondent

VISAKHAPATNAM




ANDHRA PRADESH

CMYK

VZ-VZCMYK

M VZ-VZ

Weather WatchRainfall, temperature & air quality in select metros yesterday

Temperature Data: IMD, Pollution Data: CPCB, Map: Skymet

Forecast for Tuesday: Thunderstorm accompanied with squalllikely at isolated places over interior Tamil Nadu and Keralacity rain max min city rain max min

Agartala ....... .....—.....28.3.....16.8 Kozhikode ..... .....—.....36.0.....24.2

Ahmedabad .. .....—.....32.7.....12.8 Kurnool ......... .....—.....38.8.....23.0

Aizawl.......... .....—.....26.7 .....7.3 Lucknow ....... .....—.....26.8 .....9.2

Allahabad ..... .....—.....28.3.....10.1 Madurai......... .....0.6.....35.3.....24.6

Bengaluru..... .....—.....34.0.....22.2 Mangaluru..... .....—.....33.9.....21.6

Bhopal ......... .....—.....29.2.....12.6 Mumbai......... .....—.....32.4.....15.2

Bhubaneswar .....—.....30.6.....22.1 Mysuru.......... .....—.....34.9.....18.2

Chandigarh... .....—.....22.0 .....9.1 New Delhi ..... .....—.....24.2 .....9.0

Chennai........ .....—.....33.1.....27.6 Patna ............ .....—.....27.4.....11.7

Coimbatore .. .....—.....35.7.....22.5 Port Blair ...... .....—.....32.6.....24.2

Dehradun ..... .....—.....23.7 .....6.9 Puducherry.... .....—.....33.0.....25.6

Gangtok ....... .....—.....15.5 .....5.3 Pune ............. .....—.....34.4.....10.9

Goa.............. .....—.....32.4.....19.3 Raipur ........... .....—.....32.2.....17.7

Guwahati...... .....—.....28.8.....12.4 Ranchi........... .....—.....27.0.....13.8

Hubballi ....... .....—.....34.0.....17.0 Shillong ........ .....0.2.....18.9 .....6.4

Hyderabad.... .....—.....35.3.....18.2 Shimla .......... .....—.....13.4 .....3.0

Imphal ......... .....4.6.....25.7.....14.0 Srinagar ........ .....—.....12.4 .....-0.2

Jaipur .......... .....—.....26.7.....11.1 Trivandrum ... .....—.....34.5.....25.4

Kochi ........... .....—.....33.0.....25.0 Tiruchi .......... .....—.....38.9.....24.8

Kohima ........ .....2.2.....22.2 .....9.0 Vijayawada.... .....—.....36.0.....25.2

Kolkata ........ .....—.....29.1.....18.6 Visakhapatnam .....—.....32.6.....24.3

Particulate matter in the air you are breathing Yesterday

CITIES SO2 NO2 CO PM2.5 PM10 CODE

In observation made at 4.00

p.m., Nagpur, Maharashtra,

recorded an overall air

quality index (AQI) score of

304 indicating an unhealthy

level of pollution.

In contrast, Durgapur,

West Bengal, recorded a

healthy AQI score of 55

Ahmedabad ......... ..59...76 ..12....228.......—.....*

Bengaluru............ ....7...29 ..45....... — .....50.....*

Chennai............... ..11...24 ..21....144.......—.....*

Delhi ................... ..33...36 ..40....151 ...152.....*

Hyderabad........... ..47...24 ..37......92 ...123.....*

Kolkata ............... ..15...35 ..41....... — .....68.....*

Lucknow ............. ..23...39 ..76....262.......—.....*

Mumbai............... ..43...57 ..53....... — ...250.....*

Pune ................... ..21...29 ....4....211 ...142.....*

Vishakhapatnam .. ..11.....5 ..28......79 .....91.....*

Air Quality Code: * Poor * Moderate * Good

SO2: Sulphur Dioxide. Short-term exposure can harm the respiratory system, making

breathing difficult. It can affect visibility by reacting with other air particles to form

haze and stain culturally important objects such as statues and monuments.

NO2: Nitrogen Dioxide. Aggravates respiratory illness, causes haze to form by

reacting with other air particles, causes acid rain, pollutes coastal waters.

CO: Carbon monoxide. High concentration in air reduces oxygen supply to critical

organs like the heart and brain. At very high levels, it can cause dizziness, confusion,

unconsciousness and even death.

PM2.5 & PM10: Particulate matter pollution can cause irritation of the eyes, nose

and throat, coughing, chest tightness and shortness of breath, reduced lung function,

irregular heartbeat, asthma attacks, heart attacks and premature death in people

with heart or lung disease

(Individual pollutant data for various cities are averages for the previous day)

MLA’s assurance topaper mill workersRAJAMAHENDRAVARAM

City MLA AkulaSatyanarayana on Mondayassured the workers of APPaper Mill of getting solvedtheir issues. He was speakingto the workers belonging toBMS union, who representedto the MLA about differenttheir issues includingsuspension of 31 workers inthe past.

IN BRIEF

Panchayat chamber tomove High CourtVIZIANAGARAM

Andhra Pradesh PanchayatRaj Chamber (APPRC) hasdecided to fight legally ondelegation of powers tosarpanches in the State.At its meeting at AmbedkarBhavan here on Monday,chamber State vice-presidentMamidi Appala Naidu, districtsarpanches’ associationpresident K. Satyanarayana,and sarpanchs from all overthe district resolved to filewrit plea in the High Court onMarch 23 with 18 demands.

Two IPS officerstransferredVIJAYAWADA

The State government onMonday transferred two IPSofficers, P. Hari Kumar andVineet Brijlal. Mr. Kumar,working as JointCommissioner of Police inVijayawada Commissionerate,has been posted as AdditionalDirector, Anti CorruptionBureau. Mr. Brijlal, DeputyInspector General of Police,who was waiting for posting,is posted as DIG, Greyhounds.The transfers will come intoimmediate effect.

Chief Minister N. Chandrab-abu Naidu asserted onMonday that he would standby Nandyal MLA Bhuma NagiReddy’s family and assuredTelugu Desam Party’s sup-port to his daughter andAllagadda MLA BhumaAkhilapriya.

Speaking to the mediaafter placing a wreath onNagi Reddy’s body at his res-idence at Allagadda, Mr.Naidu said it was unfortu-nate that Nagi Reddy passedaway within hours of meet-ing him. Terming his abruptdemise a grave loss to theTDP, which cannot be filled,the Chief Minister describedhim as a leader with dynam-ism and commitment to theparty and the people.

Mr. Naidu said Nagi Reddyurged him to develop roads,public amenities and infra-structure in the Nandyal andAllagadda constituencies. Hepromised to develop the twoconstituencies as desired byNagi Reddy.

‘Lost a family member’Recalling that he directed of-ficials to keep an air ambu-lance ready to fly Nagi Reddyto Hyderabad if needed, Mr.Naidu said all human effortswere made to save him, but

God’s will was otherwise.“Some incidents occur bey-ond one’s comprehension,”he remarked. The TDP lost afamily member and theparty would extend all co-operation to his next of kin,he added. The Chief Ministerrecalled his four-day stay atAllagadda when Nagi Reddycontested in the bye-electionafter his brother and MLA

Sekhar Reddy’s demise.When the TDP leadershipasked him to contest againstthen Prime Minister P.V.Narasimha Rao, he did sowithout any hesitation orasking any questions.

When Nagi Reddy waselected MP, the TDP fieldedhis wife Sobha Nagi Reddyfor the Allagadda Assemblyseat and she won, he said

and recalled her tragic deathin a road accident in 2014.Their son Jagat VikhyatReddy was studying Interme-diate and two daughtersAkhilapriya, Allagadda MLA,and Nagamounika would begiven all support, he said.

Mr. Naidu, who arrived atAllagadda by helicopter at2.15 p.m., paid homage toNagi Reddy and held discus-

sions with Akhilapriya, hersister and brother and heruncle and Kurnool MLA S.V.Mohan Reddy in the depar-ted leader’s residence atAllagadda for nearly half anhour. He later attended thelast rites of Nagi Reddy, whowas laid to rest with officialhonours beside his wifeSobha Nagi Reddy’s samadhiat Allagadda.

Will stand by Bhuma’s family: NaiduPromises to develop Nandyal, Allagadda constituencies as desired by the departed leader

Ofering condolences: Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu with AllagaddaMLA Bhuma Akhilapriya and her sisterNagamounika at Bhuma Nagi Reddy’s residence in Allagadda onMonday. U. SUBRAMANYAM


KURNOOL

Leaders of the YSR Con-gress, Congress and the Leftparties have, in a letter toGovernor E.S.L. Narasimhanand Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu, soughtthe Godavari Mega AquaFood Park in West Godavaridistrict be stalled in the in-terest of the farmers and thegeneral public. K. Parthas-arathy of the YSRC, A.P. Con-gress Committee presidentN. Raghuveera Reddy andCPI (M) and CPI State secret-aries P. Madhu and K. Ra-makrishna among otherssaid the land acquisition forthe facility which could yield16,000 tonnes of marineproduce per annum wasfraudulent. Besides, therewere environmental con-cerns which the State gov-ernment had so far not ad-dressed.

The farmers and the resid-ents of nearly 30 villageshave been protesting againstthe food park for the lastthree years but to no avail asthe government dismissedtheir fears as ill-founded.

The landowners weremade to believe that the ac-

quisition of their holdingswas for agriculture–relatedactivities and land conver-sion was made after obtain-ing their signatures on blankpapers.

ResolutionsSixteen village panchayats inthe Mogaltur mandal havepassed resolutions againstthe project, basically on theground that it was highly pol-luting in nature and sent thesame to the government,which just kept quiet. Rep-resentations to MPs, MLAsand officials of the Revenueand Police Departmentswent unheeded.

The Opposition parties’leaders further observedthat the project would con-sume several lakh litres ofwater available in its vicinitythereby causing a majorcrisis for the people.

They expressed regretthat prohibitory orders wereimposed under Sec. 144 topre-empt any protest thatmight bring the project to ahalt and demanded that ifthe government was sin-cerely committed to the wel-fare of the people, it shouldshelve the food park.

Opposition parties make a pleato Governor, Chief Minister

Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA

‘Shelve Godavarifood park’

The people will support onlyperforming governmentsand it is evident from the re-cently held elections to fiveState Assemblies, said ChiefMinister N. ChandrababuNaidu.

Speaking to District Col-lectors, elected representat-ives and Heads of Depart-ments throughteleconference on Monday,Mr. Naidu said the electionresults mirrored the people’sconcern for future. They re-flected the faith the peoplereposed in Prime MinisterNarendra Modi. The peoplegave an opportunity to servethem and solve their prob-

lems. Make the best use ofthe opportunity, he told theelected representatives andofficials.

Mr. Naidu said one shouldunderstand that villageswould develop because of us

and people would be happy.Any negligence wouldhamper the developmentprocess and people wouldbe ultimate sufferers. Thegovernment would be ableto achieve its set targets onlyif everyone discharged theirduties in the desired fashion.There was no differencebetween temporary and per-manent employees as far asresponsibility was con-cerned, he said.

Mr. Naidu recalled thatNandyal MLA Bhuma NagiReddy, who passed away onSunday, had discussed withhim about development andlaying of roads in theNandyal and Allagadda con-stituencies. The MLA reques-

ted him to focus on creationof infrastructure facilities,drinking and irrigation waterfacilities, he said, adding,“lay emphasis on creation ofbasic amenities in Kurnooldistrict.”

Stating that only 15 dayswere left for this financialyear to end, the Chief Minis-ter asked the officials to com-plete construction of fourlakh farm ponds. So far only2.66 lakh farm ponds havebeen constructed. Set a tar-get of completing 500 farmponds a day to reach the tar-get. The Water ResourcesDepartment and the NREGSwould have to work in tan-dem with regard to soak pitsand farm ponds.

People support performing govts: CMMake best use of the opportunity, he tells elected representativesStaff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA

N. Chandrababu Naidu

AgriGold Customers andAgents’ Welfare Associationpresident MuppallaNageswara Rao on Mondaysaid that as many as 105 vic-tims, including Kadapa’sAhmed Basha (who commit-ted suicide on Sundaynight), took the extremestep of ending their lives ow-ing to financial constraintsfaced by the wrong doings ofthe AgriGold management.

The government was re-acting to farmers’ suicideand victims of road acci-

dents, but it was notbothered about the victimsof the huge financial scam,which shattered the lives ofover 30 lakh people acrossthe country, he pointed outand announced: “FromTuesday, we are resorting tofast-unto-death.”

Call to partiesMr. Rao gave a call to allpolitical parties to discussthe issue in the ongoingBudget session of the As-sembly and help the haplesscustomers and agents whowere literally on the roads

owing to the misdeeds of themanagement. “It is unfortu-nate the gullible customersare suffering, while thewrong-doers are left scotfree. This is not fair,” he felt.

He said the State govern-ment did not allow them tocarry out protests in apeaceful manner. “They dis-turbed us at Dharna Chowkand at Hanumatayya Grand-halayam and at DasariBhavan. It appears that bothAgriGold management andState government are inhand and glove,” hebemoaned.

‘Government remains insensitive despite suicide by many’


VIJAYAWADA

AgriGold victims to goon fast from today

In the backdrop of reports ofa possible shifting of the air-port project, the district ad-ministration has allayed thefears stating that there havebeen no hurdles for the im-plementation of Dagadarthiairport project near Kavalitown in Nellore district. Dis-trict Collector R. MutyalaRaju said there were noplans to shift the entire air-port project from Dagadarthiregardless of the fact that de-mands came up for locationof the same nearer to theKrishnapatnam industrial

area considering the poten-tial for cargo traffic.

Speaking to mediapersons

here on Monday, Mr. Rajusaid that all the procedureswith regard to the

Dagadarthi project were be-ing taken forward and therewas no scope for any appre-hensions. The airport wouldbe advantageous for thepeople from Nellore andPrakasam districts and tosome extent for the peoplein the border areas, headded.

Referring to the prestigi-ous project of declaring theNellore district 100% opendefecation free (ODF), Mr.Mutyala Raju said that workswere going on at a fasterpace and all care was beingtaken to ensure that the in-tended results would be fully

achieved under the ‘At-magauravam’ programme.As of now, 27 out of the total46 mandals were declaredODF and the remaining 19mandals would be broughtto this status by the end ofMarch. Of the total 5.67 lakhhouseholds in the Nelloredistrict, 2.67 lakh werealready having individual toi-lets prior to the programme.In the past few months,nearly 2.47 lakh toilets werecompleted and works wereunder progress regardingover 42,000 units. Another6,838 toilets would be takenup in the next few days.

Collector seeks to allay fears over airport project‘It will come up at Dagadarthi only and proposals are being taken forward’Staff Reporter

NELLORE

District Collector R. Mutyala Raju addressing a pressconference in Nellore onMonday. K. RAVIKUMAR

Days after announcing anew software developmentcentre in the capital re-gion, management of theU.S. and Hyderabad-basedVSoft Technologies Pvt.Ltd has laid the foundationstone for a six-storiedbuilding in the Andhra Pra-desh Industrial Infrastruc-ture Corporation (APIIC) ITpark at Mangalagiri onMonday.

The software develop-ment centre will come upin a plot of 1886 squaremeters allotted by theAPIIC as per the industrialpolicies of A.P.

Speaking on the occa-sion, chairman and CEO ofthe company Mr. MurthyVeeraghant said, “We areexcited to be moving for-ward towards creatingmore than 400 job oppor-tunities in the region in linewith the commitmentsmade to the State govern-ment as well as the talentin the region.”

VSoft director Ms. Lak-shmi Veeraghanta laid thefoundation stone.

Stone laid forVSoft centreat Mangalagiri

Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA

The Andhra Pradesh Con-gress Committee (APCC) hasappealed to PresidentPranab Mukherjee to inter-vene and ensure that theCongress is invited to formgovernments in Manipurand Goa.

Addressing a media con-ference, APCC president N.Raghuveera Reddy said thatas per tradition the singlelargest party should be in-vited by the Governor of therespective State to form gov-ernment after an election.The Congress was the singlelargest party in Manipur andGoa, but the Governorswere dilly-dallying for someunknown reasons, the PCCchief alleged.

Claims condemnedCondemning the claims ofthe BJP leaders to form thegovernments in these twostates, PCC chief urged the

President to “save demo-cracy and uphold the Con-stitution by ensuring thatthe single largest party is in-vited to form the govern-ment.”

“The Governors werewelcome to give otherparties a chance if the singlelargest party failed to formgovernment, but the Con-gress party should be in-vited to form governmentfirst, ” Mr. Reddy said.

The BJP-TDP combinewhich was always talkingabout what was correct andwhat was not should also dowhat was correct even inthis situation, he said.

Death mournedMr. Reddy expressed con-dolences to the family ofMLA Bhuma Nagireddy whodied on Sunday.

The fact that his wifeSobha died over two yearsago in a road accident wasalso sad, he recalled.

APCC asks Presidentto save democracyPranab’s invervention soughtin Manipur and Goa


Vijayawada Fourteen-year-old Harish isbusy putting back a youngbird which fell off the nestfrom a tamarind tree. Suchspectacles are replete in theremote village ofVelamavaripalem in theBallikurava mandal ofPrakasam district as thevillagers take pride inproviding a safe and secureenvironment for the wingedvisitors.

Borewell sunkPainted storks and otherbirds make it a point to visitthe village in the first weekof January for nesting, andreturn in July along withtheir young ones.

“'We don’t harm them.We don’t allow others to doso either,” says villagesarpanch M. Praveen Kumar,who has taken the initiativeto sink a borewell in the drypond, mobilising ₹4 lakh toensure water for the aviansduring this summer as the

district faces severe droughtfor the third consecutiveyear.

“Our village is more like amother’s home for thesebirds which come forbreeding and return in Julyonly when the young onesare in a position to fly,” adds65-year-old Pitchaiah.

These birds have beenbreeding at the village sincetime immemorial. They used

to come in thousands till thedevastating 1977 Diviseemasuper cyclone whichuprooted several big trees inthe village, laments villagerV. Rosaiah.

Their number had comedown in recent years as theirrigation canals fed by riverKrishna had been receivingdwindling inflows, followingthe construction ofreservoirs by the upper

riparian States of Karnatakaand Maharashtra, points outV. Venkateswarlu with atinge of sadness.

Fast-growing trees“We planned to raise fast-growing tree saplings in twoacres behind the villageschool this year to improvethe birds’ natural habitat,”says the sarpanch in aconversation with The

Hindu.Repairs are being carried

out to the Mylavaram LiftIrrigation scheme at a cost of₹1 crore to bring underirrigation 1,800 acres, headds.

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An avian paradise thrives amidPeople of this village in Prakasam district do everything they can to provide safety to

Winged visitors:: Avians ind a safe haven in Velamavaripalemnear Ballikurava in Prakasam district. KOMMURI SRINIVAS

S. Murali

ONGOLE

CMYK






SOUTH

Malayalam film directorDiphan deadKOCHI

Filmmaker Diphan, whobecame popular throughaction-based movies such asPuthiya Mugham and Gangsof Vadakkumnathan, diedhere on Monday. He was 47.Diphan was admitted to aprivate hospital here twoweeks ago with kidney-related ailments. Diphan issurvived by his wife Deepa,and sons Madhavan andMahadevan.

IN BRIEF

Puttingal tragedy: HCposer to Kerala policeKOCHI

A Division Bench of the KeralaHigh Court on Mondaydirected the State police chiefto file a report on whether itwas necessary to hand overthe probe in a case relating tothe fireworks tragedy at thePuttingal temple to any otheragency. Or was it necessary toregulate the present probethrough the supervision ofhigher level officers.

Sabarimala to becomenational pilgrim centreTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM

The Travancore DevaswomBoard is awaiting the nod ofthe Union government todeclare the SabarimalaAyyappa temple a nationalpilgrim centre, Boardpresident PrayarGopalakrishnan said here onMonday. The TDB hadapproached Prime MinisterNarendra Modi to make thedeclaration, he said.

6 held with scrappedbanknotes of ₹1.2 croreHYDERABAD

Six persons were arrestedfrom a Tollywood director’soffice in Banjara Hills areahere on Monday withdemonetised currencies tothe tune of ₹1.2 crore, thepolice said. The policesuspect film director K.Ramakrishna as part of aracket, which is allegedlyinvolved in exchangingscrapped notes. PTI

Notwithstanding stiff opposi-tion from Tamil Nadu, theKerala Irrigation Departmenthas completed work on thefirst of the half-a-dozencheck dams proposed acrossthe inter-State river Bhavanito address drinking and irrig-ation water shortage in At-tappady. The check dam atThekkuvatta under the Pu-dur grama panchayat will becommissioned soon.

According to officials, the77-metre long and one-and-a-half metre high check damwas constructed at a cost of₹95 lakh. A ₹134.5-lakh liftproject to irrigate 36 ha ofland owned by a local tribalcommunity will be imple-mented using the water.

The check dam is the firstmajor initiative on the partof the State to utilise 6 TMC

water awarded from theBhavani basin by theCauvery Tribunal 10 yearsago. The Supreme Court hasratified the verdict and al-lowed the State to moveahead with its check damproposals. However, stiff res-

istance from Tamil Nadu haddelayed the work.

Cauvery awardThe Irrigation Department isnow planning to utilise 1.57tmc water from the award.Work on another check dam

at Manjikandi will be com-pleted within one month.

Following acute drinkingand irrigation water crisis inall 192 tribal hamlets of theAttappady block, the Stategovernment began efforts toconstruct the check dams todraw water from the riverthat flows east before enter-ing Coimbatore.

T.N.’s oppositionThe check dams are minorand will not affect the drink-ing water needs of westernTamil Nadu, officials said.

On Monday, major Oppos-ition political parties inTamil Nadu blocked the roadnear Madukkarai, nearCoimbatore, saying theBhavani was a tributary ofthe Cauvery, and any diver-sion from it should be de-cided on the basis of inter-State conciliatory talks.

Kerala completes work on irstcheck dam across the Bhavani‘Move is meant to address drinking water and irrigation needs of Attappady’

Contentious issue: The check dam at Attappady acrossBhavani river. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

K.A. Shaji

Palakkad

Telangana Finance MinisterEtala Rajender on Mondaypresented the budget for2017-18 in the Assembly withan estimated total expendit-ure of ₹1.49 lakh crore —₹19,000 crore more than the2016-17 estimates.

A number of pro-grammes, including twobedroom houses for thepoor, were envisaged for im-plementation through extra-budgetary resources. Thus,the expenditure in 2017-18would be significantlyhigher than the budgetedamount, Mr. Rajender said.

The budget size was ₹1lakh crore in 2014-15, ₹1.15lakh crore in 2015-16 and₹1.30 lakh crore last year.However, the revised estim-ates for last year showed theexpenditure at only ₹1.12

lakh crore and revenue sur-plus of ₹199 crore.

Revised estimatesHe attributed the reductionin revised estimates up to₹1.12 lakh crore to smallergrants from the Centre, saleof lands not materialisingdue to court cases, and fail-ure to recover arrears ofcommercial taxes on ac-

count of litigation and de-monetisation.

The Finance Ministerflagged off many schemes,including sheep-rearing,promotion of fisheries, wel-fare of handloom weavers,women, employees, journal-ists, SCs, STs, BCs andminorities, the implementa-tion of Kalyana Lakshmi andfee reimbursement.

Welfare schemes introduced for weavers, women, scribes

N. Rahul

HYDERABAD

All smiles: FinanceMinister Etela Rajender before presentingthe budget in Telangana Assembly. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

₹19,000-crore jumpin Telangana budget

Kerala Chief Minister Pin-arayi Vijayan on Mondayannounced a probe by aSpecial Investigation Teamof the Crime Branch intothe death of 18-year-oldMichelle Shaji Varghese inErnakulam. The inquirywill also look into whetherthe police erred in not re-sponding immediatelyafter the parents reportedthe girl missing on March5. The girl, who was stay-ing at a convent at Kacheri-pady, was reported missingon March 5 evening.

Her body was foundnear the Ernakulam wharfon March 6. Mr. Vijayansaid the post-mortem re-port indicated that the girlhad drowned.

SIT to probeteen’s deathin KeralaSpecial Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Two persons, said to bemembers of the HinduJagaran Vedike, have beenarrested in connection withthe episode of smearingblack oil on the face of pro-gressive writer Yogesh Mas-ter in Davangere on Sunday.

The arrests were made onMonday by four separateteams of police formed to in-quire into the attack.

Search for others onThe arrested have beenidentified as Chetan andShivaprasad, both residentsof Davangere town.

According to police

sources, the motive behindthe attack was to humiliateand demoralise the authorfor his writings againstHindu gods. The teams con-tinue their search for others

accused in the case.Davangere Superintend-

ent of Police BhimashankarGuled told The Hindu thatthe police had intensifiedthe search operations basedon the information providedby the two arrested persons.He expressed the confidencethat the others would be ar-rested soon.

Controversial novelMr. Yogesh Master, author ofthe controversial Kannadanovel Dundhi, was attackedwhen he was having tea at ahotel after participating in aprogramme organised in thememory of journalist P.Lankesh.

Motive was to insult and demoralise Yogesh Master: police

Staff Reporter

DAVANGERE

YogeshMaster

Hindutva activists held forattack on Kannada writer

Alleging police brutality, theAfrican community inBengaluru has demanded aprobe into the death of abusinessman who, accord-ing to the police, died in anaccident while fleeing fromthem in Kothanur in theearly hours of Monday.

The Nigeria Communityof Students’ Association,Bengaluru, has identifiedthe deceased as Ife Anyi, abusinessman in his late 30swho hailed from Nigeria.

‘Renewed fears’Various groups of peoplefrom nations in Africa livingin the city have alleged po-

lice brutality. They say fearsof discrimination, which hadpeaked after an attack onTanzanian students lastyear, have resurfaced.

The city police, however,have denied the allegation.Officials said it was the po-lice that tried to rescue himafter he fell from the bikewhile trying to flee themduring an alleged drug bust.

In a statement to the me-dia, the police said a teamfrom the Central CrimeBranch, which was acting ona tip-off, was waiting on theKothanur-Avalahalli Road tocatch a drug-peddler. Twopersons on a scooter, includ-ing Anyi, are alleged to havespotted the policemen and

attempted to flee. “As theyfled, the vehicle skid. Whenthe police rushed to thespot, they saw the pillionrider lying in a pool of bloodwhile the driver of thescooter escaped from thescene,” the police claimed.He was declared dead by thetime he was sent to the hos-pital on Monday morning.

Members of the Africancommunity have demandedan independent inquiry.“The circumstances leadingto the death are suspicious.We are not ready to acceptthe accident theory. It is amurder,” said BoscoKaweesi, legal advisor to AllAfrica Students Association,Bengaluru.

Probe sought into deathof Nigerian in BengaluruPolice deny they killed him, say he died while leeing them

Staff Reporter

Bengaluru




CMYK

NATION

‘Pinarayi quip on Sainiksnot to be expunged’THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Kerala Speaker P.Sreeramakrishnan on Mondayruled out expunging ChiefMinister Pinarayi Vijayan’sMarch 9 remarks in which hehad wondered if the ShivSainiks, indulging in moralpolicing in Kochi, had beenhired by the Opposition UDF.The Speaker said it wasmerely the CM’s “politicalopinion” and was not liable tobe dropped. PTI

IN BRIEF

Driver held for deathof Bengali singerKOLKATA

The driver of the vehicle thatmet with an accident lastweek killing popular Bengalifolk singer KalikaprasadBhattacharya was arrested,police said. Arnab Rout, whohas been absconding sincethe police booked him underthe IPC Section 304(punishment for culpablehomicide not amounting tomurder), was arrested fromKasba on Sunday night.

Fourminor girls charredto death in GujaratGUJARAT

A ire allegedly caused by agas cylinder leak killed fourminor girls, all sisters, in a hutat Mulad near Surat inGujarat. The incidentoccurred when their fatherRamesh Patel, a vegetablevendor, was away, the policesaid. The deceased wereidentiied as Darshana,10,Mansi, 9, Tejashree, 8, andRajashree, 8.

Mild tremors in GujaratAHMEDABAD

Mild tremors measuring 4.4on the Richter scale shookparts of north Gujarat onMonday. There were,however, no reports of anydamage. According to theInstitute of Seismology inGandhinagar, the tremorswere recorded at 3.52 p.m.and the epicentre was 32 kmnorthwest of Deesa in thedistrict.

Five men have been arrestedfor allegedly raping a 26-year-old woman in east Del-hi’s Pandav Nagar area. Theaccused allegedly locked upthe victim in a flat and rapedher in turns till early onMonday and she jumped offfrom the balcony to escape,said a senior police officer.

Based on the woman’scomplaint, a case had beenregistered at the PandavNagar police station. Thefive accused work in differ-ent private call centres. Thefive — Lakshay Bhalla, VikasKumar, Naveen, Swarit andPrateek — have beenarrested.

While four of the accusedwork in call centres inNoida, Swarit works as anengineer in Tech Mahindra.

Police said the woman, amother of two kids, was al-legedly taken to the PandavNagar flat by Vikas.

Vikas allegedly left the flatafter telling the woman thathe had some work and hewould pick her up in themorning after finishing thework, police said.

The woman lives with hertwo children in south Delhi’sMunirka area.

In her statement, she toldthe police that she hadknown Vikas for the past fewmonths. On Sunday night,Vikas met her in Munirkaand asked her to accompanyhim to his friend’s house fora party. “The woman leftwith him and on the waymet two of his friends. Thethree brought her to the flatwhere their other friendswere already present. The

woman protested about thepresence of others,” he said.

‘Forced to drink’Vikas later returned to the flat.The woman told the policethat the five forced her to con-sume alcohol. When she gotdrunk, they allegedly lockedher in the flat and took turnsto rape her. They allegedlythreatened her of dire con-sequences if she raised analarm or attempted to escapefrom the flat. Around 5.30a.m. the woman managed toreach the balcony andjumped. She alerted somepassersby about the sexual as-sault. One of them informedthe police.

“The woman was admittedto the Lal Bahadur ShastriHospital. She has sustainedminor injuries in the legs,”said the officer.

5 held for rape in DelhiThe woman jumped of the balcony of a lat to escape

Press Trust of India

New Delhi

In another instance of mem-bers of the security forcesresorting to social media toexpress frustrations aboutworking conditions, a sol-dier from Maharashtra’sKolhapur district has up-loaded a short video sayingthat should he be killed inaction or during active ser-vice, his body should not betouched by corrupt politi-cians and graspingbureaucrats.

In a direct and dignifiedmessage, Lance HavildarRanjeet Gawade, fromChandgad taluk, is seen say-ing that his wish should beregarded as his “final will.”

“In the past year, reports[have surfaced] of jawansbeing mistreated, which hassaddened me and others likeme. Hence, it is my wish thatin the event I ammartyred, Iwould not like corrupt politi-cians and self-serving bur-eaucrats to touch my body.Not only me, but I’m surethis is the wish of severalother ordinary soldiers,”Lance Havildar Gawadesays.

Lance Havildar Gawadehad earlier put up a hoard-ing in his native Mahalungevillage with a poem titledMiKon (Who am I?), in which

he enumerates the selfless-ness and the single-mindeddedication of the ordinaryIndian jawan towards hiscountry while serving on thefront.

Not towards superiorsSpeaking to The Hindu,Lance Havildar Gawade, cur-rently serving in Jammu andKashmir, clarified that hisstatements were not direc-ted towards military superi-ors or even the political orbureaucratic class as awhole. “I am an ordinarysoldier and I want to put iton record that there is no

comparable institution likethe Indian Army when itcomes to taking care of itssoldiers.

“My purpose of the hoard-ing and the video was tospeak out against the mis-treatment of jawans that hascome to light recently, and isnot directed against everypolitician and bureaucrat,but merely the corrupt onesin their lot,” he said. Refer-ring to BSF constable Tej Ba-hadur Yadav’s case, LanceHavildar Gawade emphasisedthat such particular incidentsof poor quality food beingserved were “isolated” ones.

Maharashtra jawan’s videoslams corrupt politicians‘I would not like them to touch my body’

Shoumojit Banerjee

Pune

Lance Havildar Ranjeet Gawade put up a hoarding in his nativeMahalunge village with a poem titledMi Kon (Who am I?).

J. Muthukrishnan, a 27-year-old Ph.D student of Jawa-harlal Nehru University al-legedly committed suicide insouth Delhi's Munirka Viharon Monday evening. The stu-dent from Tamil Nadu wasfound hanging from a ceilingfan inside his friend's house.

“He had come to hisfriend's house this afternoonto have food. He said hewanted to sleep and went in-side the room where helocked himself in. Later hisfriends called him and ongetting no response, calledpolice," said ADCP (South)Chinmoy Biswas. The policesaid they have not found anysuicide note so far.

Muthukrishnan belongedto a very poor family fromSalem city. His father

Jeevanantham is employedas a watchman in a privateconcern and his mother isdaily wage labourer.Muthukrishnan has an eldersister and two younger sis-ters. The family was in-formed of the tragedy overthe phone by JNU authorities

late on Monday.An inconsolable Mr.

Jeevanantham told pressper-sons that Muthukrishnanhad always been very boldand took part in various agit-ations while doing his M.Philin Hyderabad.

Father demands probeVoicing suspicion over the

alleged suicide by his son,Mr. Jeevanantham said he[Muthukrishnan] was not acoward to end his life in sucha manner. He demanded aproper enquiry to bring thetrue facts to light.

Mr. Jeevanantham andtwo of his friends left forBengaluru by road to catchan early morning flight toNew Delhi.

According to his familysources, Muthukrishnanfrom a Dalit community,

completed his Bachelors andMasters in History from theGovernment Arts College inthe city and later did hisB.Ed at a private college inCoimbatore. He earned anM. Phil from the Universityof Hyderabad and joined JNUthree years ago for a Ph.D inModern History.

VCK cadre protestFollowing the alleged sui-cide, cadre of the ViduthalaiChiruthaigal Katchi (VCK)and the members of theDemocratic Youth Federa-tion of India (DYFI) and Un-touchability EradicationFront affiliated to the CPI (M)organised a road roko agita-tion on the Leigh Bazar Roadin Salem late on Mondaynight, demanding a thor-ough probe into the suspi-cious death.

JNU student from TN ends lifeMuthukrishnan from Salem was pursuing a Ph.D in Modern History


New Delhi/ Salem

J. Muthukrishnan

India cannot achieve eco-nomic growth in the long-term if it excluded the minor-ities and marginalised sec-tions from the politicalprocess, cautioned veteranCongress leader and formerUnion Minister P. Chidam-baram.

Delivering the first annuallecture of The Hindu Centrefor Politics and Public Policyhere on Monday, Mr. Chidam-baram in his speech, ‘Will In-dia Script an UninterruptedGrowth Story?’ pointed outthat the BJP had not fielded asingle Muslim candidate in thejust concluded Assembly elec-tions in Uttar Pradesh, despitethe community constituting19.3 % of the population in theState.

“Is it possible to ensurelong-term economic growthby excluding from the polit-ical process the largest com-

munity or women or theScheduled Castes or theScheduled Tribes,” he asked.

Fault lines deepenedAccording to the former Min-ister, under the BJP-led gov-ernment, throughout lastyear, the social fault lines hadmultiplied and conflicts be-came the order of the day. If

the social fault lines multiplyand deepen, the governmentcannot keep its eyes on theeconomy, and that is whathappened in 2016, he said.

Mr. Chidambaram felt theModi government had failedto seize the opportunity todrive economic growth des-pite favourable conditionswhen it came to power in

2014. In March 2014, thoughthere were clear signs of re-covery and the growth ratehad climbed back to 6.54%,the new (BJP) governmentdidn’t have a coherent planfor the way forward. CitingSwachh Bharat, InternationalYoga Day, Make in India,Stand Up India and similarprogrammes, Mr. Chidam-baram alleged there was a lotof activity but none of themcontributed to boosting eco-nomic growth.

Religious conversions, gharwapsi, the ban on cowslaughter, ban on sale andconsumption of beef, love ji-had, moral policing and otherissues were the other distrac-tions, he pointed out.

“The obvious measures ofreform were not taken up.The recommendations of theFinance Sector Legislative Re-forms Commission were neg-lected. The Direct Taxes Codewas put on the back burner.

Having opposed the GSTwhen the BJP was in the Op-position, the governmentseemed reluctant to push theidea. Disinvestment was acrawl,” he alleged.

The Congress leader addedthat the NPA scare, the standoff between the governmentand the RBI during the lastyear of the term of RaghuramRajan, and demonetisation,which he described as the‘most calamitous disruption,had all impacted growth.

“None of the stated object-ives of demonetisation wasachieved or are they likely tobe achieved,” Mr. Chidam-baram said, pointing to slow-ing economic growth rate,which slipped further in Q3 of2016-17.

Bold reforms neededMaking it clear that uninter-rupted economic growth wasnot a given, the former Fin-ance Minister said the govern-

ment was required to takebold and structural reformsand these cannot be accom-plished by a few legislative oradministrative changes. Ac-cording to him there haveonly been 11 true economic re-forms since 1991 and after2014, he considered only theGST a true reform.

Moderating an open ses-sion, Kasturi & Sons LimitedChairman N. Ram describedMr. Chidambaram’s lecture asthought provoking, nuancedand interesting.

In his introductory re-marks, Kasturi & Sons LimitedDirector N. Ravi said TheHindu Centre for Politics andPublic Policy in its four yearsof existence has supported 24short term public policyscholars who have focussedtheir research on varied sub-jects including parliamentarydemocracy, financial inclu-sion and voting preferences,among others.

Excluding minorities will hurt growth: ChidambaramModi govt. failed to drive economic growth despite favourable conditions, former Finance Minister says


CHENNAI:

Former Union FinanceMinister P. Chidambaram beingpresented The Hindu's irst editorial by N. Ram, Chairman,Kasturi & Sons Limited, in Chennai onMonday. N. Ravi, Director,KSL, is also in the picture. B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM

Clothes were dyed withvaried hues and a spirit ofjoy reigned supreme as thecountry on Monday playedHoli.

Revellers thronged thor-oughfares smearing faceswith coloured powder andchildren hurled water-filledballoons from rooftops tocelebrate the festival of col-ours which heralds the ad-vent of spring.

President PranabMukherjee, Vice-PresidentHamid Ansari and PrimeMinister Narendra Modi ex-tended Holi greetings tothe people, saying the fest-ival symbolises the spirit ofharmony and prosperity.

Tribute to CRPFmenThe paramilitary forcespersonnel did not celeb-rate Holi as a mark of trib-ute to the 12 CRPF person-nel who were killed in aNaxal ambush in Sukmadistrict of Chhattisgarh.

The CRPF issued ordersthat no “regimental func-tion related to Holi celebra-tions” will be observed atany field formation. It saidthe gesture was to express“solidarity” with the familymembers of the slain menand that the directions areto be followed by the “en-tire force in letter and inspirit.”

Revellersbring alivespirit of HoliPress Trust of India

New Delhi

A district vice-president ofthe Shiromani Akali Dal wasshot dead allegedly by a re-tired Colonel at Pheochichivillage on Monday night, po-lice said.

SAD leader GurbachanSingh (80) was returninghome after getting fodderfor cattle when Surjit SinghPherochichi, a retired Col-

onel, allegedly shot himdead with his licensed pis-tol, they said.

The accused managed toescape after committing thecrime.

The reason for the shoot-ing is being investigated.Col. Pherochichi is said tobe a Congress worker andhad earlier worked for thePeople’s Party of Punjab be-fore its merger, police said.

SAD leader shot deadin Gurdaspur

Accused is said to be a Cong. worker


Gurdaspur (Punjab)

Union Minister of State forHome Kiren Rijiju onMonday described the at-tack on a student from Ar-unachal Pradesh inBengaluru as “saddening”and said the Home Min-istry was also pursuing thematter besides the police.

The Minister said policewere investigating the caseand his office was also pur-suing it for action againstthose guilty in the incident.

Higio Guntey, who hailsfrom Arunachal Pradeshand is a fourth-semesterstudent of Christ Univer-sity, was allegedly beatenand forced to lick his houseowner’s shoes for using ex-cessive water in Bengaluruon March 6. Following Mr.Guntey’s complaint, a casewas registered against thehouse owner Hemanth Ku-mar on March 9.

‘Attack onstudent willbe probed’Press Trust of India

New Delhi




CMYK

M VZ-VZ

EDITORIAL

In the post-Mandal era, Uttar Pradesh, the country’s

most populous State that is made up of diverse re-

gions, has rarely witnessed a landslide, leave alone

of such dimensions, in an Assembly election. As the

State went to the polls, there was a clutch of arguments

marshalled by sundry political commentators on why

the BJP could not repeat its huge sweep in the 2014 Lok

Sabha election — themagnitude ofwhich had surprised

the party itself as much as its rivals. It was pointed out,

for instance, that this was a State election, the implica-

tion being that a totally diferent political dynamic

would be at play. Other factors such as the efect of de-

monetisation, the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance,

and the fading appeal of PrimeMinister NarendraModi

were thrown into themix. As it turned out, none of this

seemed to matter much as the results of the two elec-

tions were eerily similar — both in terms of the geo-

graphical spread of the victory and vote percentages.

The BJP managed to efectively tap into segments

among the Other Backward Classes and Dalits, besides

its upper-caste vote base. The popularity of Mr. Modi

contributed in no small measure to the election result,

but the party succeeded by also feeding into the dis-

gruntlement over the narrow social alliances forged by

the SP and the BSP.

The SP and the BSP, following their 2014 debacle,

chose tomake two tactical changes. By revolting against

his father andparty patriarchMulayamSinghYadav, in-

cumbent Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav presented him-

self and his party as agents of development. But he was

unable to convince the electorate that the party had

moved away from caste and, more speciically, Yadav-

led patronage. Despite the alliance with a weak Con-

gress party, the SP’s support remained limited to its

core traditional vote. The BSP tried a newer tactic, an

abstract Dalit-Muslim alliance, and ran on thehope that

ielding candidates based on identity would break the

coalition of forces that had supported the BJP in 2014.

But the expediency of this strategy based on caste and

community failed, partly because of perceptions that

BSP leader Mayawati was ambivalent about who she

would join hands with in the event of a hung Assembly.

U.P. is a communally sensitive State and theBJP—which

failed to ield a single Muslim candidate — must not in-

terpret the scale of the victory as an endorsement of

majoritarianism or an excuse to raise the political pitch

on divisive issues such as the Ram temple in Ayodhya.

Going into the 2019 general election, Mr. Modi and his

party will be closely monitored on how much they ad-

here to his promise of taking everyone along. The last

thing that a “new India” needs is an escalation of de-

nominational politics that raises unnecessary passions

and subverts the developmental agenda.

U.P. and awayThe BJP’s landslide must not be interpreted as

an endorsement of denominational politics

The removal of a sitting President in South Korea

brings to a close one phase in the months-long

popular mobilisation to enforce accountability

among the high and mighty. This verdict by South

Korea’s highest court, upholding Parliament’s vote to

impeach Park Geun-hye, could well herald a new era in

a land where it has for long been unthinkable to get the

powerful to face justice even for serious crimes. Signi-

icantly, Parliament’s move in December to unseat Ms.

Parkbyanoverwhelmingvotehadbeenbackedevenby

legislators from her conservative Saenuri party.

Stripped of presidential immunity, Ms. Park could now

face criminal proceedings on allegations that she was

complicit in nefarious activities involving her close con-

idante. The chief accusation is that they solicited con-

tributions to promote dodgy non-proit organisations

in return for clearingquestionable corporate deals. The

protests last year byhundreds of thousandswho sought

action in the inluence-peddling scandal, aswell as viol-

ent clashes that followed Friday’s judicial verdict, are

an indication of how polarising a igure Ms. Park has

been through her tenure since 2013. Her autocratic and

whimsical rule was marked by ierce attacks on labour

unions, smear campaigns against critics, and eforts to

rewrite history textbooks. The most provocative for-

eign policy move was the deployment of the Terminal

High Altitude Area Defence, an American missile de-

fence system, escalating regional tensions. China retali-

atedwith calls for the boycott of South Korean imports.

Thedivisions amongher followers anddetractors are

as much ideological as they are intergenerational. A

number of Ms. Park’s party supporters continue to har-

bour sympathies for the daughter of South Korea’s

moderniser, the military dictator Park Chung-hee. But

younger generations see the severing of all links with

this authoritarian past as a necessary guarantee for the

consolidation of democracy, three decades after return

to civilian rule. The chaebols — South Korea’s highly in-

luential family-owned conglomerates — may have had

economic motivations to lean heavily on political pat-

ronage during the country’s industrial ascendency and

integration into the global market. But such cosy ar-

rangements are proving to be untenable when excep-

tions of the past are sought to be institutionalised. The

task of public cleansing in South Korea is far from over,

as is evident from the ongoing criminal proceedings in-

volving tycoons from its best-known corporations. The

recent assertion of the independence of the judiciary

from political interference and the capacity of legislat-

ors touphold their authority arenotable. Itwouldbeno

surprise, therefore, if South Korea’s example becomes

a model worthy of emulation elsewhere in the region.

South Koreans are due to elect their next President by

May — and by all indications, they are seeking to

strengthen the country’s democratic institutions.

End of a chapterThe President’s removal from oice deepens

South Korea’s democratic evolution

The State elections of 2017clearly demonstrate that theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

has replaced the Congress as theprincipal national party in thecountry. It wonmassive victories inUttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand,and emerged as a big player in Ma-nipur. In Goa it remained the singlelargest party in terms of vote sharedespite a hugely unpopular outgo-ing Chief Minister. The only disap-pointment is Punjab where theparty was routed with its seniorpartner Shiromani Akali Dal afterruling the State for 10 years.

The spectacular performance ofthe BJP in U.P. should not detractfrom its formidable achievementsin the recently concluded localelections, where it made hugestrides in previously uncharted ter-ritory. In Odisha’s Zilla Parishadelections, the party expanded itsfootprint from 36 seats in 2012 to306 in 2017, snatching secondplaceaway from the Congress to becomea formidable contender to the longincumbent Biju Janata Dal. In Ma-harashtra, the BJP won eight of 10municipal corporations with itstotal number of seats nearly equalto that of all other partiescombined.

Explaining the riseThe electoral success of the BJPraises an important question.Without being able to meet expect-ations built up in 2014, in the ab-sence of a surging economy, andwith the poor decision on demon-etisation, how is the party achiev-ing so much success? There is oneobvious reason: Prime MinisterNarendraModi remains very popu-lar while the Congress party’s lead-ership no longer resonates withvoters. However, leadership is notthe only factor. The BJP is acquiringhegemonic status in the Indianpolity owing largely to ideologicalconsolidation and its creation of anunparalleled electionmachine.

The BJP’s ideology has more

takers than before because theparty frames the main issues forthe elections. Its long-standingideological associationwith nation-alism renders nationalism an issueon which it has a huge advantageover all other parties. Parties thatare able to successfully shape elec-tion campaigns around their ownissues ultimately succeed in win-ning elections. By placing a largeemphasis onnationalism, thepartyhas cleverly tailored its ideologicalmessage to be able to capture theimagination of a larger section ofthe public. It has opened ideolo-gical battlefronts in many diferentspheres — from universities tomovie theatres — and promotedconlicts across the board. It hasalso placed a large emphasis onother issues that it has traditionallybeen associated with, such as na-tional security and terrorism,patri-otism and more recently,corruption.

For a very long time the JanSangh and then the BJP relied al-most exclusively on the hard-lineHindu nationalists who reside withits ideological parent, theRashtriyaSwayamsevak Sangh (RSS). This isno longer the case.Hindu tradition-alists, those who are drawn to aconservative Hindu way of life butare largely opposed to the hard-lineHindutva world view and its intol-erance towards other religions,have now shifted their supportfrom the Congress to the BJP. Thisallows the BJP to win elections

without nominating a singleMuslim, as it did recently in U.P.

Forgingmulti-caste coalitionsThe party has also revamped itselectoral strategy, one focussed onwidening its appeal by stitching to-gether multi-caste coalitions. As iswidely known, the BJP’s traditionalsocial base is predominantly uppercaste. To increase its support base,it has been building an electoralmachine of its own at the local levelin the form of caste-based coali-tions. Fully aware that the partywould not receive much supportfrom the Muslims and perhapseven the Jatavs, the former tradi-tionally associated with the Sama-jwadi Party (SP) and the latter withthe Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), itsleaders targeted the smaller groupsthat don’t have adequate repres-entation in anyof the largerparties.For instance, the BJP tied up withparties like the Apna Dal andSuheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party,giving it the support of a large sec-tion of the Kurmi and Rajbhar pop-ulations, respectively. It also in-creased its ticket allocations tonon-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav Dal-its. Its campaignwas led by a galaxyof local and national leaders, to-gether covering an eclectic set ofcaste groups — almost a Congress-style coalition — but without theMuslims and some Dalitcommunities.

The BJP’s active use of state pat-ronage has also played a big role in

strengthening its national footing.In States where the party has cometo power, and even at the nationallevel, it has actively worked tobreak down the existing patronagemachinery and replace it with oneof its own. For instance, in Maha-rashtra, a State ruled by the Con-gress-Nationalist Congress Party(NCP) for more than a decade be-fore theDevendraFadnavis govern-ment assumed oice, the BJP hasbeen steadily dismantling the pat-ronage structures put inplace by itspredecessors. Through ordinancesand amendments, the governmenthas managed to severely weakenthe hold of NCP and Congress lead-ers on the powerful cooperativebodies in the State, including thecooperative sugar factories whichhave been under the tight grip ofNCP leader Sharad Pawar for dec-ades. The government not only cre-ated a provision whereby it couldappoint independent members tothe boards of these bodies, but alsoimposed restrictions on the exist-ing board members, hailing largelyfrom the Congress or NCP, fromcontesting elections to particularcooperative banks. At the nationallevel, the Modi government re-moved scores of previous UnitedProgressive Alliance-era politicalappointees, particularly those no-torious for their role in creating thelarge NPA (non-performing assets)problem facing the public sectorbanks today, and replaced themwith its own people.

Risks of rapid expansionOn the electoral front, this hastranslated into the BJP aggressivelyco-opting individuals and units ofother parties to strengthen its lead-ership. From Rita Bahuguna Joshiin U.P. to Himanta Biswa Sarma inAssam, the BJP has taken in manyrival leaders into its fold beforeelections. This resembles thestrategy followed by the Congressin the 1970s, at the peak of IndiraGandhi’s rule. While in the shortterm, this strategy is giving theparty immense electoral success

and helping it expand its footprint,just as it had done for the Congressback then, in the medium to longterm it poses grave risks. Manypoliticians and smaller parties havejoined the BJP bandwagon as itlooks the most lucrative optionelectorally, and they may desert itat next chance. In addition, as theBJP continues to bring into its foldleaders and parties from outside itsideological umbrella, it risks dilut-ing the content of its ideology overtime. If uninhibited, this could alsolead to tensions between the BJPand the RSS.

The BJP has undoubtedly re-placed the Congress as the domin-ant national party and the corner-stone of India’s political andelectoral system. This develop-ment has squeezed the space forcentre-left forces in India’s polityandhas givenpopular legitimacy tothe centre-right narrative on issuesof nationalism, secularism and so-cial justice. As Yogendra Yadav hasrightly pointed out, the centre-leftneeds a new vocabulary on the is-sue of social justice as the BJP hasmanaged to convince a large sec-tion of society that the left’s lan-guage on the issue reeks of biasesbased on caste and religion.

However, in order for the BJP toremain the dominant nationalparty for a sustained period oftime, it too needs to introspect toensure it isn’t compromising long-term success for short-term re-wards. Going forward, it shouldcontinue to widen its social basewhile ensuring it doesn’t lose itsideological identity. Otherwise, itwill only remain dominant as longas a Mr. Modi remains at the helm.As when individuals acquire largersalience over ideology and organ-isation in parties, it leads to theirdecline down the road. That is ex-actly what happened to theCongress.

Pradeep Chhibber and Rahul Verma arewith the University of California,Berkeley. Harsh Shah is an alumnus of theUniversity of California, Berkeley

The art of building majoritiesThe BJP’s ideology has more takers than before because it is framing the main issues for electionspradeep chhibber, rahul verma

& harsh shah

GETTYIM

AGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

True to forecasts of what mighthappen in the event of a splitverdict for the 11th Manipur

Legislative Assembly, the advantageseems now to be with the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP). Although the lastword is still to be said, the BJP, usingits clout as the party in power at theCentre, has managed to cobble to-gether a slim majority even thoughit won less seats than the Congress.In an informal show of strength, theparty’s representatives met StateGovernor Najma Heptulla andclaimed the support of 32 MLAs,with a rider that more would bejoining its camp — a hint that itwould split theCongress andabsorba part of it.

The luid situation has comeabout because in the House of 60,the Congress won 28 seats, justthree short to return to power for arecord fourth term, while the BJPcould manage 21 seats, 10 short ofthemagic number.

Of the remaining 11, four werewon by the National People’s Party(NPP), founded by the former LokSabha Speaker from Meghalaya,Purno A. Sangma, and now led byhis politician son Conrad Sangma,four by the Nagaland-based NagaPeople’s Front (NPF), one each byRam Vilas Paswan’s Lok JanshaktiParty, Mamata Banerjee’s Trin-amool Congress, and an independ-ent candidate.

By constitutional norms, theGovernor would most likely invitethe single largest party, the Con-gress, irst to prove its majority. Itshould have been relatively easy forthe Congress to get three more sup-porters to qualify to form the gov-ernment, but there is more to thismixedmandate thanmeets the eye.

WheelswithinwheelsThe NPF, which won its four seatson the campaign plank of carvingout Naga-dominated areas of Ma-nipur to become part of a GreaterNagaland, would not support theCongress which has been vehe-mently opposed to the idea. TheLJPis an ally of the BJP at the Centre.This leaves the NPP, TrinamoolCongress and the independent can-didate, six MLAs in all, for the Con-gress to look for support.

However, there is a hitch. Underthe stewardship of Assam MinisterHimanta Biswa Sarma, a formerCongress leader who defected totheBJP toultimately play an import-ant role in pulling down the TarunGogoi government in the 2016 As-sam Assembly elections, a groupcalled the North-East DemocraticAlliance had been formed last yearwhich pledges allegiance to theNDA government. The NPP is a partof this group.

The questionwas:Would theMa-nipur unit of this Meghalaya partyfeel obligated enough to honourthis pledge in seeking alliances toform the government in the State? Itseems the BJP has managed to con-vince the party they should. TheCongress had the Trinamool whichis opposed to the BJP and the inde-

pendentMLAs towin over, but heretoo the BJP seems to have sabotagedthe prospect. The independentMLA, from the Jiribamconstituencyon the Assam border, was re-portedly abducted by the BJP fromImphal airport after he arrivedwitha Congress leader. The TrinamoolMLA too has reportedly decided tojoin the BJP. However, even if theCongress got their support, the co-alition’s number would be 30, leav-ing the Assembly in a hopeless tie.

The Congress may be trying tostrike a deal with the NPP as asigned letter of support by the NPPproduced by theCongress does sug-gest it did intend to gowith the Con-gress. The NPP is new as it is, butvery new in Manipur. Most of itsleaders are disgruntled politiciansfrom other established parties.

Speed bumps aheadEven if a BJP-led coalition does be-come a reality, it will not bewithoutproblems. The NPF has agreed tosupport the BJP but could also with-draw support if and when the ques-tion of a Greater Nagaland returnsto the fore. It is also a foregone con-clusion that such a scenario wouldcome about sooner than later in thebackdrop of the much-hyped butlittle knownFrameworkAgreement

being negotiated between theUnion government and the Nagamilitant organisation, the NationalSocialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah). This is especially so asPrimeMinister NarendraModi him-self pledged during the electioncampaign that no agreement withthe NSCN(IM) would be allowed toafect Manipur territory. Probablythis is also why the BJP is looking tosplinter and absorb a portion of theCongress so that if it does form thenext government, it will not be leftat themercy of the NPF.

Again, under the anti-defectionlaw, there is a ceiling on the size ofState cabinets. ForManipur this is 12including theChiefMinister, and ac-commodating party hopefuls andallies alike will be tough. Therefore,plenty of loyalty auctions, hope-fully not toougly, are to be expectedin thenext fewdaysbefore a govern-ment is formed.

Since the Congress can onlymake the majority mark with theNPP support, and the BJP keen toprevent this from happening, theNPP’s price tags as kingmakerswould have already soared.

Pradip Phanjoubam is editor, Imphal FreePress and author, ‘The NortheastQuestion: Conlicts and frontiers’

Competing to make up the numbersThere is more to the Manipur mandate than irst meets the eye

Pradip Phanjoubam

PTI

Stooping to conquerDespite being the runners-up in the Assemblyelections held in Goa andManipur, it is unethical thatthe BJP is now trying tocobble up the requisitenumbers by enticingregional parties andindependents with thecarrot of ministerial posts(“InManipur, BJP cobblesup numbers” and “It’soicial: Parrikar to return asGoa CM”, bothMarch 13).The respective Governorstoo appear to be playing apolitical game by notinviting the Congress, thelargest elected politicalparty, irst. It appears thatthey are in a hurry to swearin a leader who claims tohave the numbers with theletters of support andphysical presence of theelected representatives. “Allis fair in love andwar,” andwe could include politics inthis too. Such is the hungerfor power that politicalparties are bidding goodbyeto ethics and norms.D.B.N. Murthy,

Bengaluru

Standing tallThere is a positive angleevenwhen losing, for ithelps one to iron out one’slaws. However, despite thehumiliating defeat in theLok Sabha elections in 2014,most of the parties thatwere defeated this timeround have still not learntany lessons.One needs to complimentthe BJP for going fromstrength to strength bysweeping elections, be itcivic or Assembly. The partyhas worked extremely hardto reach this position and itis evident that its eforts arepaying of.What the nationlacks now is the presence ofa strong Opposition, whichis a necessity.Balasubramaniam Pavani,

Secunderabad

■ The resounding victoryfor the Indian NationalCongress in Punjab is amuch-needed one for thetroubledmainstream party(“The Congress’s Punjablifeline”, March 13). Anti-incumbency against theBadal family, the drug

menace, failing law andorder, and farmer suicidesall worked against the SAD-BJP alliance. The Congressled by Amarinder Singh hadmany issues to exploit to thehilt.The absence of credibleleaders in the AAPwas whatmade it falter on theelectoral trail. Perhaps theBJP could have tested thewaters in Punjab bycontesting separately toknow its strengths.H.P. Murali,

Bengaluru

■ The success of the BJP canbe attributed to the specialinterest PrimeMinisterNarendraModi took whilecampaigning. Othermattersbecameminor. The increasein vote percentage inManipur relects thepopularity of the BJP. TheCongress needs to pull upits socks and reinvent itselfin the changing politicalenvironment.D. Kishan Prasad Rao,

Karimnagar, Telangana

■ While we are all busy

consumed by the victoriesof the BJP and the Congress,we seem to bemissing thejolly good performance ofthe AAP. The AamAadmiParty is at themost a ive-year-old party whencompared to giants such asthe Congress and the BJP. Itfought in two out of iveStates and did reasonablywell. I think they have everygood reason to celebrate forhavingmade amark inPunjab. The Congress’s winis only on account of theanti-incumbency factor.If we look at the vote sharein all the ive States, there isa good division of votesamong the parties, whichaccording tomemarks thetriumph of the Indianpolitical system.C.A. Gopal Nathani,

Gurugram

Venkaiah Naidu’s claimUnionMinister M. VenkaiahNaidu’s claim that his partyis now a “national party” isone which is unsustainable(“Message in the verdict”,March 13). It is a nationalparty based onwhat the

Election Commission ofIndia says.Which party or parties arenot nationalist in ourcountry? At the same time,nationalism should not beequated with chauvinismand jingoism, twocharacteristics that the BJPinherently possesses. Aparty which has given upthe goal of self-reliance inthe economy hardlyqualiies for thenomenclature of being anationalist party.The BJP is a party whichswears by foreign directinvestment in every area ofeconomic activity in thecountry, while on thecultural front, it is bound byobscurantism andrevivalism of the worst kind.It has nurtured stormtroopers to attackindividuals and groupswhich beg to difer from theBJP’s obscurantist views.Happenings in Kerala andMangaluru are examples ofthis. The long and short of itis that the BJP is a politicalparty like any other in thecountry. The narcissist

views of Mr. Naidu about hisparty have no substance.G. Ramakrishna,

Bengaluru

Of-ield referralIt is a disturbing sight everytime the umpiremakes adecision to have thebatsman or the ielding sidegrouping to discuss thedecision. As a sports fanwho has beenwatching Testcricket for over threedecades, I feel that thecurrent systems of the gamedeprive a viewer of the realmoments of a Test match.The rules are so lopsidedthat we seem to bemovingfrommatch tomatchofering only what sells. TheDRS episodes are so uglythat if things continue thisway, we are likely to seetechnologymaking acomplete takeover of thegame.Wemust not forgetthat umpiring is judgmentbased on one’s cricketingskills.Pandithar Sivakumar Perumal,

Pune

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

more letters online:

www.hindu.com/opinion/letters/

CMYK

M VZ-VZ

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DATA POINT

A nineteen-member Cabinet headed by Mrs. Indira Gandhiwas sworn in this morning [March 13, New Delhi]. FourteenMinisters of State were also sworn in. The President Dr. S.Radhakrishnan administered the oath of allegiance to the Con-stitution and of secrecy to them. An announcement about theDeputy Ministers is expected to be made later. Five of the Cab-inet Ministers are new additions and they are Dr. Triguna Sen,Vice-Chancellor of the Banaras University (Minister of Educa-tion), Dr. Karan Singh, Jammu and Kashmir Governor (Minis-ter of Tourism and Civil Aviation), Dr. V.K.R.V. Rao (Minister ofTransport and Shipping), Mr. K.K. Shah (Minister of Informa-tion and Broadcasting) and Dr. M. Chenna Reddy, Andhra Pra-desh Minister (Minister of Steel, Mines and Metals).

FIFTY YEARS AGO MARCH 14, 1967

19-member Union Cabinet sworn in

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FROM ARCHIVES

At to-day’s meeting (March 13, Calcutta) of the Bengal Legislat-ive Council, the Hon’ble Mr. Kerr, Chief Secretary replying tothe question of the Hon’ble Mr. Bhabendra Chandra Roy saidthat Mr. Lionel Curtis spent some days during November lastin Calcutta. He was the guest of Lord Carmichael during a partof his visit. Mr. Curtis discussed many matters of public in-terest with some of the principal European and Indian resid-ents. So far as the Government were aware there were noRound Table groups in Bengal and should any such be formed,Government servants, under recent orders of the Governmentof India would not be permitted to become members. In replyto another question by the same member regarding newspa-pers under Government patronage it was stated that the Hon-’ble Mr. Hornell, Director of Public Instruction, subscribed for125 copies of the “Dacca Review” and 241 copies of “SikshaSamachar” at a cost of Rs. 670 and Rs. 600 respectively.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO MARCH 14, 1917

The Bengal Legislative Council: Interpellations

In an interesting study, theimmune system of mon-keys was found capable ofcontrolling HIV-like virus(Simian-Human Immun-odeficiency Virus or SHIV)when treatment with acombination of two anti-HIV antibodies was star-ted three days after infec-tion. The immune systemof the animals was foundto control the virus evenafter the anti-HIV antibod-ies were no longer presentin the monkeys.

In a paper titled ‘Earlyantibody therapy can in-duce long-lasting im-munity to SHIV’ publishedon March 13 in the journalNature, researchers fromthe National Institutes ofHealth and other insti-tutes infected 13 macaquemonkeys with the SHIVvirus. Unlike earlier stud-ies where interventionbegan late, the research-ers started treating themonkeys with two broadlyneutralising HIV antibod-ies from the third day of

infection. The monkeyswere infused with the twodrugs three times over atwo-week period.

Compared with con-trols, six monkeys wereable to suppress the virusfor 56 days to even sixmonths; in one monkey,the virus was below de-tectable level for 150 days.Once the antibodies leveldropped to a “very low” inthe animals, the virus re-surfaced. The time takento rebound was directlyrelated to the concentra-tion of the neutralising an-tibodies in the plasma.

Five to 22 months afterthe virus resurfaced, theimmune system of the sixmonkeys spontaneouslyregained control of thevirus and brought it downto undetectable levels foranother five to 13 months.Four other monkeys couldnever fully regain com-plete control of the virus,but the viral load was at a“very low level” for morethan two years. Of the 13monkeys studied, 10 wereable to benefit from two

neutralising antibodies ad-ministered. A particularkind of immune cellscalled CD8+ T cells werefound to be higher in allthe animals that were in-fected with the SHIV virus.To ascertain if CD8+ T cellswere responsible for me-diating sustained suppres-sion of virus replication,the researchers purposelydepleted the CD8+ T cellsin the six monkeys. Whatfollowed was a sharp in-crease in the viral load inall the animals. Thishelped the researchersconclude that the CD8+ Tcells controlled the virusmultiplication followingadministration of theneutralising antibodies.

Though SHIV infectionin macaque monkeys dif-fers from HIV-1 infection inhumans, the researcherssuggest that immunother-apy should be explored tocontrol the spread ofvirus, contain the damageto CD8+ T cells, mobilise arobust immune response,and control HIV infectionin humans.

Controlling HIV-like virus in monkeys

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ABSTRACT

Two anti-HIV antibodies together show positive resultsR. Prasad

80%of newU.P.MLAs are

crorepatishttp://bit.ly/2mjBBW3

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MORE

ON THE WEB

Yin and Yang /PhilosophyYin and yang are the twoopposing but equal forcesthat drive the universe inTaoist belief. They are notconsidered inherentlygood or evil, but comple-mentary aspects of reality.Yin represents earth, dark-ness, femininity, passivityand reception; yang rep-resents heaven, light, mas-culinity, activity and cre-ation. There are othervalues and elements as-signed to each, but theseare the core tenets. Thetwo parts as a whole formthe Tao. Rather than workas opposites, they comple-ment and exist in relationto each other. It is this du-ality that lies at the originsof many branches of clas-sical Chinese science andphilosophy.

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CONCEPTUAL

In the recent battle between cabaggregators and their drivers, theconsumer seems tohavebeen for-gotten. Should the governmentintervene? But beforewe ask that,does it make sense to ban cabaggregators?Uber andOla, the top players in

India, have about 32,000 cabsplying in Chennai, according to aunion member who participatedin the recent drivers’ strike. As-

suming a low average of six trips a day, as not all cabs ply daily,the city’s commuters make close to 2 lakh trips a day withthem. Given the kind of presence cab operators have acrossthe country — Uber has about 2.4 lakh drivers at any point — itmay not be a great idea to ban such services.Should the government then regulate prices so that drivers

earn better? Protesting driver unions in Chennai have deman-ded that the government ix a minimum of ₹100 for the irst 4km in a standard ride.However, if two competing ride services help bring prices

down for the commuter,whymeddlewith thatmodel? Yes, fordriverswhohave spent savings or taken loans to buy a new carhoping that earnings will remain high, it is a let-down.

‘This is business’One argument in favour of the drivers is that they may not beinformed enough that the terms of business constantlychange. Signing up with cab aggregators means entering abusiness partnership. The drivers bought, and continue tobuy, new vehicles even as the terms of engagement have beenchanging over the last few months. For drivers across operat-ors, the terms have changed from aminimumnumber of tripsper day to aminimum fare amount per day and nowoperatorshave ixed a certain number of trips aweek for drivers to enjoyincentives or ‘boosts’. One Uber driver said: “This is business.No one is forcingme to drive. If I don’t, someone else will.”

In an ideal world, the cab aggregator would ensure thateveryone got a good deal. But if that does not happen, the gov-ernment has no business intervening as long as players actwithin the limits of law.

After all, regulators don’t prevent a player from reducingprices just to protect revenues of other players. However,when serviceproviders collude to ixprices above competitivelevels, thus harming the consumer, the government shouldstep in to break the cartel.

Otherwise, let the market decide. If Ola does not change itsterms of engagementwith drivers, Ubermay lure drivers awaywith better terms. If Uber refuses to drop its commission forevery trip, as drivers now demand of it, its drivers may leave.

On the lip side, even if commuter prices in a competitiveenvironment charged by cab operators go up to astronomicallevels, the government should not enter the picture. Themar-ket will ind its way.

Market will ind its way

Government must not intervene in thebattle between cab aggregators anddrivers as long as the law is not broken

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SINGLE FILE

K. Bharat Kumar

SHANKERCHAKRAVARTY

We’d be lying if we said we saw thiscoming. The Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) and its allies won 325 out of 403seats in the 2017 U.P. Assembly elec-tion, a strike rate of 81%. This is thelargest number of seats won by anyparty/coalition in U.P. since theJanata Party in 1977. In retrospect,the analysis of this extraordinary featis remarkably straightforward. It isalmost a repeat of the national elec-tion in 2014, when U.P. was in thegrip of the ‘Modi wave’.

The aggregate vote share of BJPand its allies was 41.4% in this elec-tion, a hair less than the 43.6% it re-ceived in 2014. Even their perform-ance over the seven phases of thiselection closely mirrors their per-formance in 2014. They had a strikerate of 90% in phase 1 (93% in 2014),75% in phase 2 (73%), 80% in phase 3(75%), 83% in phase 4 (77%), 85% inphase 5 (85%), 67% in phase 6 (88%),and 80% in phase 7 (100%). Curi-ously, the BJP and its allies onlyslipped, in comparison to theirgaudy 2014 performance, in the finaltwo phases of the election whereYogi Adityanath and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi himself were expec-ted to deliver sweeps for their party.

Of course, the BJP’s Hindutvastrategy and the Prime Minister’spopularity are a large part of thestory here. But Mr. Modi’s popularitywas present in Bihar and Delhi aswell, even though the BJP got routedin those elections. The real questionis: why was the BJP so successful inU.P. as opposed to, say, Bihar?

The winning narrativeIt goes without saying that the elect-orate was most convinced by whatthe BJP had to offer. As a young manfrom the Rajbhar community outsideBabina told us, “We need someonelike Narendra Modi, who is with allcastes.” The popular view of BJP inour travels was that of a caste-blindparty, unlike the Bahujan SamajParty (BSP) or the Samajwadi Party(SP), which are each broadly associ-ated with one caste group ( Jatavs orYadavs). The form of particularisticpolitics associated with the BSP andSP left a large swathe of the popula-tion disaffected and without a (polit-ical) home. The newest avatar of theBJP, in which it has sought to dis-tance itself from purely upper-castepolitics, was able to consolidate andmobilise these groups against boththe BSP and the SP.

In the three previous State elec-tions since 2000, the aggregate voteshare of the four major parties — BJP,SP, BSP, and Congress — along withtheir allies, never rose above 84%.This means that in the State election,a significant proportion of voters (al-most one in six) felt so unattached tothe major players that they voted forindependent candidates or smallparties. In this election, 91.6% of allvoters voted for one of the four ma-jor parties and their allies, most ofthis new vote likely going to the BJP(much like 2014 where the aggregatevote share was 93.2%). In short, theBJP effectively cannibalised the voteof the independent candidates andunaligned parties that were drawingvoters who felt unattached to any ofthe major players. Five years ago, a29.1% vote share was enough to givethe SP a majority (224 out of 403) ofseats; this time, the 28% vote share ofthe SP-Congress alliance was onlygood enough for 54 seats. The BJPhas raised the bar; the particularisticpolitics of the past — and the voteshares associated with it — is unlikelyto suffice in the future.

Critics point to the role of religiouspolarisation in increasing vote sharefor the BJP and its allies; this is some-thing that can be checked empiric-

ally. If results are driven by religiouspolarisation, the strike rate and thevote share of the BJP and its alliesshould be particularly large when theMuslim population is large (but not amajority), as Hindus rally against theMuslim community. In the 38 As-sembly constituencies in districtsthat had at least 40% Muslim popula-tion, but not a majority, the strikerate for BJP and its allies dropped to69% from 81% across U.P. Similarly,their average vote share in these con-stituencies dropped to 37.8% from41.3% across U.P. Note further thatthe average Muslim population hereis greater than the BJP’s vote share.Either the Muslim community is notas strategic as it is purported to be inkeeping the BJP out of power, orsome proportion of Muslims votedfor the BJP this time. In short, whilereligious polarisation is certainly partof the BJP’s appeal, simplistic notionsof polarisation or strategic voting byMuslims do not explain the results inthe election. Rather, this electionshould be understood in terms ofcaste consolidation against particu-laristic politics.

A new politics in U.P.Unlike Bihar, where Nitish Kumarwas seen as more than just a leader

of the Kurmi community, AkhileshYadav could never distance himselffrom the burden of local Yadav dom-ination across U.P. Thus, the BJP’scaste consolidation largely failed inBihar while producing a sweep inU.P. The SP’s alliance with the Con-gress never worked well either.There were 22 “friendly fights” inwhich both parties put up candidatesin the same constituency. While theSP had a poor strike rate of 15% on anaverage vote share of 28.4% in seatscontested, even these votes didn’ttransfer to the Congress. The Con-gress’ strike rate was just 6% on anaverage vote share of 22.6% in seatscontested. Mayawati’s BSP had astrike rate of just 5% and an averagevote share of 22.2% in seats con-tested. No doubt each of theseparties will have to reinvent itself andmove beyond the particularisticpolitics with which it is associated ifit wants to survive.

Given the scale of this victory forthe BJP, this is almost certainly thebeginning of a new chapter in thestoried history of the politics of UttarPradesh.

Neelanjan Sircar, Bhanu Joshi and AshishRanjan are ailiated with the Centre forPolicy Research in Delhi

The election results are better understood in terms of caste consolidation, not religious polarisation

Safron sweep: “This is almost certainly the beginning of a new chapter in the storied history of the politics of UttarPradesh.” BJP workers celebrate in Varanasi, U.P., the party's win in the Assembly election. PTI

Rewriting the U.P. equation

Neelanjan Sircar, Bhanu Joshi

& Ashish Ranjan

The strategic choices before us today aresimilar to the ones U.S. President DonaldTrump and Chinese President Xi Jinping arefacing: in a fast-changing world, national in-terest is not served by avoiding problems leftover by a previous order. Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi needs to challenge long-estab-lished convictions on whether the elementsof power in the next world order will revolvearound diplomacy, force, or trade as theprimary tool.

Moving to a multipolar worldIn the last 20 years, incomes of 80% of thepopulation in the West stagnated while percapita income in China quadrupled, and In-dia’s more than doubled. Society is ageing;technology is disrupting labour markets andbusiness models. The digital economy is ex-pected to provide one-quarter of global pro-ductivity by 2025 and will have the U.S.,China and India reinforcing the multipolarorder.

The functioning of the global economyhas affected the economic and political rela-tionship between the large and small eco-nomies, reducing and increasing the lever-age exercised by the U.S. and China,respectively. The China-led Asian Infrastruc-ture Investment Bank, which former U.S.President Barack Obama failed to weaken,and the New Development Bank of theBRICS could provide the required $8-15 tril-lion, marginalising the World Bank. China isprojecting the One Belt, One Road (OBOR)initiative as a replacement for the U.S.-ledpost-1950 multilateral institutions.

Mr. Trump is understandably questioningthe relevance of the United Nations for theU.S., favouring bilateral deals and forcingothers to rethink the nature and role of inter-national cooperation. He is resetting priorit-ies away from peacekeeping, environmentand human rights to trade.

His ‘America First’ strategy has broad sup-port within the U.S. Other rich countries likeJapan and the U.K. are likely to adopt thisnew template doing away with concessionsto others. There will be consequences for theWorld Trade Organisation, in particular ifthe WTO dispute resolution panels ruleagainst the U.S., leading to a questioning ofthe rule-based system itself.

Mr. Trump recognises that he cannot stopglobal trends and the diminishing returnsfrom a reliance on diplomacy and force, ex-emplified by the failure of the U.S. ‘pivot’ in

containing China. Mr. Obama’s response tothe entry of three billion Asians into theglobal economy was to attempt setting newtrade rules outside the WTO. Mr. Trump hasrejected this approach, favouring an employ-ment-oriented deal around specific sectorsmuch like the Obama-Xi understanding onclimate change. The difference is that Mr.Trump is prepared to limit imports andboost exports even at the cost of upsettinglong-standing agreements and allies.

Mr. Trump is “willing to find new friendsand to forge new partnerships where sharedinterests align”, rejecting the Cold War logicof containment, reliance on foreign basesand alliances. He sees China as the greatestthreat, as the combination of military andeconomic strength creates a strategic situ-ation where, like in the Cold War, the U.S.will need to seek a “constructive relation-ship” in Asia rather than dominance andmay join the OBOR.

Asian connectivity and IndiaMr. Trump is moving for a political deal withRussia and a trade deal with China. Chineseexports to the U.S. are already declining, theshift to a consumption-driven economy willopen markets for U.S. goods, and the RMB isnow a global reserve currency. India is morevulnerable with two-thirds of the exports ofthe $150-billion IT industry to the U.S. andthe ‘Make in India’ strategy colliding with Mr.Trump’s priorities, requiring India to makestrategic choices.

As the multilateral order fragments intospheres of influence, we first need a bold vis-ion on Kashmir and must not just seek toisolate Pakistan. We should join the OBOR,while maintaining our reservations on itsbranch passing through Kashmir, and be-come part of the growing Asian market.

The nature of conflict is changing fromdirect clashes to disruption of critical infra-structure through remote attacks. Withworld-class cyber-space-biotech capability,we should reconsider large-scale purchasesfrom abroad for massive investment in cy-bersecurity and the related digital economythat will make the ‘Digital India’ initiativeinto a ‘Digital Asia’ one.

India expects nothing less from Mr. Modi.

Mukul Sanwal is a former UN diplomat and currentlyVisiting Professor at the Tsinghua University, Beijing,China

For a bold foreign policyNational interest is not served by avoiding problems leftover by a previous global order

Mukul Sanwal

PTI

CMYK

M VZ-VZ




NEWS

FROM PAGE ONE

According to senior officialsin the Manipur administra-tion, the Election Commis-sion of India will issue a no-tification for constitution ofa fresh Assembly in all fiveStates on Tuesday, followingwhich the Governor cansummon any party to formthe government.

With both parties stakingclaim to form the govern-ment all eyes are now onwho the Governor will callfor proving majority on thefloor of the House.

The BJP claims that it hasthe numbers to form thegovernment. The Congress,however, insists that beingthe single largest party itshould be allowed to go for a

floor test. “As per the de-cision of the Supreme Courtwho has the numbers in theHouse cannot be decided bythe Governor. It has to bedecided on the floor of theHouse,” senior Congressleader C.P. Joshi, who is inImphal, said.

Outgoing Deputy ChiefMinister Gaikhangam alsosaid the Congress, being thesingle largest party, must beallowed first to form the gov-ernment.

Mr. Gaikhangam de-scribed as “completely base-less” the reports that severalCongress legislators were intouch with the BJP and ex-pressed a desire to supporta BJP government.

BJP leader stakesclaim in Manipur

President Pranab Mukherjeeon Monday accepted theresignation of Defence Minis-ter Manohar Parrikar, who isset to take oath as Chief Min-ister of Goa on Tuesday, andallotted the Defence portfo-lio as additional charge toUnion Finance Minister ArunJaitley.

This was conveyed in anofficial communiqué fromthe Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The departure of Mr. Par-rikar from New Delhi and hisMinistry has increased thechances of a larger Cabinetreshuffle after the secondpart of the Budget sessionwhich is currently underway and ends on April 12.

Top sources in the govern-ment say that it’s quite pos-sible that there will bechanges in the Cabinet, andthat at least one Chief Minis-ter of a BJP-ruled State in

North India, could be movedto Delhi. A senior generalsecretary from the Centralteam of the BJP may be sentas a replacement Chief Min-ister there.

“Once the Parliament ses-sion is done, a larger Cabinetreshuffle is possible. There isa serious evaluation of cer-tain BJP-ruled States andhow they are being run. Forexample Rajasthan ChiefMinister Vasundhara Rajecould be considered for aCentral tenure. She had beenMinister for Personnel in theVajpayee government andparty general secretary OmMathur, who hails from thatState, could be moved there.On the other hand, if anyonefrom Delhi is moved to Uttar

Pradesh or Uttarakhand,then too vacancies will becreated in the Union Cab-inet,” said the source.

PM’s grip unassailable“With the victory in U.P.,Prime Minister Modi’s gripover both the party and thegovernment is unassailableand we don’t anticipate anykind of protest even ifpowerful chief ministers arecalled to Delhi,” said a senioroffice-bearer in the BJP privyto these developments.

The next national execut-ive of the party is to be inApril, right after the Parlia-ment session is over. Muchwill be decided by then onthe post-Assembly pollsshake-up.

Major Cabinet rejig on cardsWith Parrikar’s exit, Prime Minister may go in for a reshule after Budget session

Manohar Parrikar

Nistula Hebbar

New Delhi

There is anxiety and uncer-tainty among Indian-Americ-ans following violenceagainst the community in dif-ferent parts of the countrybut U.S. President DonaldTrump is committed tobuilding good relations withthem, said Shalabh Kumar,founder of the RepublicanHindu Coalition and a megadonor to the President’s elec-tion campaign.

Mr. Kumar, who is re-portedly a front-runner forthe post of U.S. Ambassadorto India, refused to commenton his chances. “I have noth-ing to say on that,” he said.

“What I can say is thatPresident Trump and PrimeMinister Modi will take co-operation between India andthe U.S. in the fight againstterrorism to an unpreceden-

ted level.” Asked what couldbe the elements of such newcooperation, Mr. Kumar saidthe President believed in do-ing things discreetly. Mr. Ku-mar’s Twitter handle identi-fies him as the “bridgebetween Trump and Modi”.

“The President has re-acted to the murder of In-dian engineer SrinivasKuchibhotla in Kansas at the

right time, in an appropriatemanner, and said there is noplace for racism in America.That is reassuring for Hindu-Americans and Indian-Amer-icans,” Mr. Kumar told TheHindu.

‘Visa fears unfounded’According to Mr. Kumar, In-dian community has noreason to be concerned at allunder the Trump presidencyand all reports about restrict-ing H-1B visas are unfoundedor exaggerated. “There willbe all types of Bills and de-bates. But the fact is that theU.S economy will grow rap-idly under President Trumpand this will require largenumber of IT professionals.Indians are going to benefitfrom this new wave of Amer-ican economic growth,” hesaid.

Meanwhile, a shop owned

by an Indian-American wasthe target of an arson at-tempt in Port St. Lucie inFlorida in the latest incidentof suspected hate crime inAmerica. Richard Lloyd, 64,tried to set the shop on fireand wanted to “run Arabsout of our country,” accord-ing to the local police. Theshop was closed when the in-cident happened on Fridaymorning and the man sur-rendered when the policearrived.

A study by the SouthAsian American Leading To-gether linked more than 90%of the recent hate crimes toMr. Trump’s rhetoric but Mr.Kumar said such a correla-tion was baseless.

‘Trump isn’t racist’“Donald Trump does nothave an iota of racism inhim. He and his advisers

have great love and admira-tion for India andHinduism,” Mr. Kumar said.He said the anxiety amongthe Indian-American com-munity was the result of“biased media coverage anda Left-wing campaign to tar-get the President.” “There isgreed also at work. Activistsand lawyers are trying tomake a business out of this,”Mr. Kumar said.

Mr. Kumar said the Presid-ent’s chief strategist,Stephen Bannon, would playan “important role” in theU.S relations with India. Mr.Bannon is an avid reader ofthe Bhagavad Gita and Hinduand Buddhist philosophy, ac-cording to Mr. Kumar, whokeeps in regular touch withhim. “He really appreciateswhat is happening in Indiaunder Mr. Modi’sleadership.”

‘Indians have no reason to fear under Trump’They will beneit from the new wave of American economic growth, says Shalabh Kumar

Varghese K. George

Washington

Shalabh Kumar

The Supreme Court onMonday agreed to hear anurgent petition filed by theCongress challenging the“blatantly unconstitutionalaction” of Goa GovernorMridula Sinha to invite GoaBJP Legislature Party leaderManohar Parrikar as ChiefMinister.

The writ petition accusedthe Centre of using its polit-ical clout to defeat the man-date of the people and grabpower by misusing the officeof the Governor, who turneda Nelson’s eye to the fact thatthe Congress was voted the“single largest party in theState Legislature.” The ac-tions of the Centre and theGovernor sound the “deathknell for democracy,” the pe-tition said.

Special BenchChief Justice of India J.S.Khehar agreed to set up aSpecial Bench and hear the

petition filed byChandrakant Kavlekar, theelected leader of the GoaCongress Legislature Party,on Tuesday at 10.30 a.m. Mr.Parrikar is scheduled to besworn in as Chief Minister onthe same morning.

“Assembly elections wereheld on 04.02.2017 and theresults were declared on11.03.2017. The BJP was votedout by the electorate exer-cising their democratic rightto vote in favour of the In-dian National Congress (INC)as the single largest party in

the State Legislature. It wasimperative and incumbentfor the Governor to havecalled the INC and ask itsleader to prove its majorityon the Floor of the House,”the petition said.

‘Shocking attempt’Instead, the petition, filed byadvocate Devadatt Kamatand settled by senior advoc-ate Abhishek Manu Singhvi,submitted that political man-oeuvring by the Centre usingthe Governor’s constitutionaloffice between March 11 and12 shows a “shocking and abrazen attempt to grabpower violating the sac-rosanct constitutionalnorms, conventions andprinciples guiding the discre-tionary powers of the Gov-ernor in a hung House”.

“The respondents [Unionof India and the State of Goa]virtually sought to strangu-late the will of the peopleand have used the office ofthe Governor to suit their

political needs... the Gov-ernor of Goa could not haveignored the single largestparty (INC) with 17 seats andinvited the BJP, which is asmaller party with 13 seats,to form the government,” thepetition said.

The total strength of theAssembly is 40 seats.

The petition said the Su-preme Court as the “sen-tinel” of constitutionalnorms and values should in-tervene and strike down thedecisions taken by a Gov-ernor in her discretionarycapacity if they were foundto be arbitrary.

The petition contendedthat the BJP had no pre-pollalliance with any of the otherparties which now tow theirline.

It was the central BJP lead-ership which used its polit-ical clout to rope in the smal-ler parties and Independentsin Goa to cobble together therequisite majority in theState.

Congress knocks on SC’s doorParty challenges Goa Governor’s ‘unconstitutional action’ of inviting Parrikar

Krishnadas Rajagopal

NEW DELHI

The BJP on Monday hintedthat it might pick a relativegreenhorn, rather than aparty stalwart, for the ChiefMinister’s post in Ut-tarakhand where it recor-ded a landslide victory win-ning 56 of the 70 Assemblyseats.

Battling the problem ofplenty with as many as fourformer chief ministers in theparty’s ranks besides a cropof young and promisingleaders, making a choice forthe top job in Uttarakhand isindeed a daunting task forthe BJP.

BJP leaders here indic-ated that the choice will bemade by the party’s Parlia-mentary Board absolutelyon the basis of the person’sability to deliver on thepromises made by PrimeMinister Narendra Modi tothe people of the State inthe run-up to the Assemblyelections.

“As a strong Modi wave isbelieved to have swept the

party to an absolute major-ity in the State, whoever isfinally chosen as the ChiefMinister will have to deliveron the promise of clean andefficient governance madeby the Prime Minister to thepeople of the State,” asenior party leader said, re-questing anonymity.

The names of CM prob-ables now doing the roundsinclude those of former CMsBhuvan Chandra Khanduri,Bhagat Singh Koshiyari,Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishankand Vijay Bahuguna, be-sides Satpal Maharaj, Triv-endra Singh Rawat andPrakash Pant.

In Uttarakhand, BJPmay try a new face‘Ability to deliver will be the criterion’Press Trust of India

Dehradun

B.C. Khanduri

Jammu and Kashmir author-ities placed top separatistleaders under house arrestin Kashmir on Monday to foila sit-in called to highlight theplight of prisoners in the Val-ley.

Senior separatist leadersMirwaiz Umer Farooq,Muhammad Yasin Malik andAsiya Andrabi were placedunder preventive detention.While the Mirwaiz and Ms.Andrabi were placed underhouse arrest, Mr. Malik wasshifted to the Central Jail.

“Adequate deploymentsof police and Central Re-serve Police Force have beenmade to maintain law andorder in the city,” policesaid.

The sit-in was called in theMaisuma area adjacent tothe Lal Chowk was to high-light the plight of prisonersin different jails of the State.

In another development,two persons, who had es-caped from Himachal Pra-desh police custody, were ar-rested in Jammu district,police said.

Ex-sarpanch killedA former sarpanch waskilled by gunmen in Pul-wama district on Monday.

The victim identified asFayaz Ahmad Dar, a residentof Kakapora, was kidnappedfrom his house early onMonday morning. “He waslater shot dead,” the policesaid. Sources said the armedmen asked Dar to accom-pany him and was bundledinto a car. The bullet-riddenbody was recovered fromthe Chew Kalan area. Thepolice said the gunmen hadbeen identified. “The effortsare on to nab the killers,”said the police.

Dar was a formersarpanch of the rulingPeoples Democratic Party.The killing comes at a timewhen the State was prepar-ing for the Parliament andpanchayat polls.

“The mindless killings ofinnocent people like that ofDar will benefit nobody andwill lead us nowhere exceptto self-destruction,” said Ab-dul Haq, Minister for RuralDevelopment.

(With inputs from Peerz-ada Ashiq)

Protest against condition of prisoners in jails foiled

Indo-Asian News Service

Srinagar

Up in arms: An activist of the All Parties Hurriyat Conferencebeing detained during a protest in Srinagar onMonday. AFP

Police detain separatistleaders in Srinagar

The Goa Suraksha Manch(GSM) on Monday accusedGovernor Mridula Sinha ofviolating the spirit of theConstitution by allowing theBJP to ‘grab power’ througha cobbled-up majority, whenit was not even the singlelargest party in the recentAssembly election.

Addressing a press confer-ence here, GSM presidentAnand Shirodkar questionedthe ‘undue hurry’ shown bythe Governor in appointingex-Defence Minister Mano-har Parrikar as Chief Minis-ter.

Later party mentorSubhash Velingkar deman-ded that the Governor beshifted out of Goa before sheindulges in “more such con-stitutional improprieties.”

Simultaneously, the GSMleaders accused Mr. Parrikar

of indulging in manipulationto capture power in theState.

Mr. Shirodkar said: “Theex-Defence Minister hasflouted the spirit of Parlia-mentary democracy by try-ing to promote a govern-ment of BJP without it beingthe single largest party andby reportedly indulging inhorse trading.”

Aam Aadmi Party’s Goaconvenor Elvis Gomes on

Monday said the ElectionCommission of India (ECI)should henceforth just “auc-tion” every seat to thehighest bidder instead ofconducting an election pro-cess where the role ofmoney continues unabated.

In his first press confer-ence, after the AAP failed towin a single seat, Mr. Gomesclaimed that the AAP hadbeen confused about the ex-pectations of the Goanelectorate.

He said the party hadstriven to offer an alternativeto the Goan voters, includingnew faces, giving ticket tocandidates without criminalantecedents and bypassingthe communal and caste-based formulas.

“Beyond this what peoplewant, we cannot under-stand. We will try to under-stand the people better,” Mr.Gomes added.

It’s a power grab byBJP in Goa, says GSMAccuses Governor of louting spirit of Constitution

Prakash Kamat

Panaji

Mridula Sinha

Restrictions on cash with-drawals, which came into ef-fect from November 9, 2016,following the ban on high-value currency notes, werelifted on Monday. The RBIannounced the easing ofcurbs during its bimonthlymonetary policy review onFebruary 8.

While the limits on cur-rent accounts were liftedearlier, restrictions on sav-ings account deposits werelifted from Monday. Thoughthere will be no limit oncash withdrawals, currencyin circulation is still far be-low the pre-November 8,2016, levels.

Following the decision towithdraw the legal tenderstatus of ₹500 and ₹1,000notes, 86.9% of the cur-rency in circulation wasrendered invalid, amount-ing ₹15.4 lakh crore.

According to RBI data,

the currency in circulationtill the week ended March 3was ₹11,984.1 billion which is67% of the currency in cir-culation, pre-demonetisa-tion.

The decision to withdrawhigh value notes was aimedat eliminating corruption,black money, counterfeitcurrency and terrorfunding.

According to a recentstudy by the Reserve Bankof India staff in the monet-ary policy department,about 78% of all consumerpayments in India are ef-fected in cash.

“It was, therefore, obvi-ous that currency squeezeduring the demonetisationperiod would have hadsome adverse impact oneconomic activity, althoughsuch impact was expectedto be transient,” the studyobserved.

Curbs on withdrawalof cash lifted

RBI had announced move on Feb. 8

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Mumbai

�

STILL CATCHING UP � PAGE 14

With the BJP staking claimto form governments in Goaand Manipur, Finance Min-ister Arun Jaitley on Mondaysaid the Governor is consti-tutionally right in case of ahung verdict in inviting theleader of the majoritycoalition.

“In a hung Assembly, ifmajority of the electedMLAs form a coalition, theGovernor would be consti-tutionally right in invitingthe leader of the majoritycoalition to form the govern-ment and prove their major-ity within a short period,”Mr. Jaitley tweeted.

The Congress had won 28seats in Manipur, followedby the BJP with 21.

‘Stolen’ electionsSenior Congress leader P.Chidambaram accused the

BJP of “stealing” elections inGoa and Manipur, saying aparty which comes secondhas “no right” to form thegovernment.

Another Congress leader,Digvijaya Singh, said it wasthe victory of money powerover people’s power. “Aparty that comes second hasno right to form govern-ment. BJP stealing electionsin Goa and Manipur (sic),”Mr. Chidambaram said in atweet.

The Congress would con-tinue to fight against com-munal forces of “moneypower politics” in Goa, hesaid. The comment of theMinisters came after the BJPstaked claim to form thegovernment in Goa and Ma-nipur — where it failed toemerge as the single largestparty — with the support ofsmaller parties and someIndependents.

Jaitley supportsGovernor’s actionCong. says it’s victory of money powerPress Trust of India

New Delhi

China on Monday hoped theadmission of India andPakistan into the Beijing-ledShanghai Cooperation Or-ganisation (SCO) securitygrouping will contribute tosecurity and stability in theregion.

Currently, all sides are go-ing through relevant legalprocedures in accordancewith the Memorandum ofObligations signed at lastyear’s SCO summit at

Tashkent to admit India andPakistan, Chinese ForeignMinistry spokesperson HuaChunying said here.

She was responding to aquestion about reports thatboth the countries may beadmitted to the six-memberbloc at this year’s summit inJune. “China looks forwardto the early accession of In-dia and Pakistan to the SCOas full members, so that theywill work with the existentmembers to contribute to se-curity, stability, common de-

velopment and commonprosperity of the region,”Ms. Hua said.

“Both India and Pakistanare China’s important neigh-bours and important coun-tries in South Asia. Chinahopes that India andPakistan can enhance mu-tual trust and improve rela-tions through more dia-logues. This is conducive tonot only the two countriesthemselves, but also to re-gional prosperity and devel-opment,” she added.


Beijing

India, Pak. in SCO will ensuresecurity of region, says China

Owning moral responsibilityfor the dismal performanceof the Congress in electionsto the zilla parishads inOdisha, B.K. Hariprasad onMonday resigned from thepost of general secretary ofthe All India Congress Com-mittee and also as a memberof the AICC WorkingCommittee.

Mr. Hariprasad told TheHindu that the Congress hadperformed very badly in thezilla parishad elections.

The BJP had shunted outthe Congress from the posi-tion of the principal Opposi-tion party.

The ruling Biju Janata Dalhad emerged as the singlelargest party winning 473zilla parishad seats, whilethe BJP secured 297 seats.The Congress won only 60seats.

Leader blamedThe Congress leaders ofOdisha had blamed Mr.Hariprasad, who is in chargeof the State, for the party’sperformance in the zilla par-ishad polls.

Asked whether he wouldleave the Congress, Mr.Hariprasad said, “I am aloyal party worker. Even inmy wildest dream, I will notthink of quitting the party.”

Hariprasad quits CWCover Odisha poll routSpecial Correspondent

Bengaluru

CMYK

M VZ-VZ




NEWS

Modi felicitated by worldleaders for poll victoriesNEW DELHI

After the BJP’s impressiveperformance in the Assemblyelections, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi has receivedfelicitations from notedpersonalities and foreignleaders, including the CrownPrince of Abu Dhabi andCanadian Prime MinisterStephen Harper. Mr. Modithanked them in tweets. PTI

TCS staff memberdrownedAHMEDABAD

A 30-year-old employee ofTata Consultancy Servicesdrowned in a swimming poolat Infocity near Gandhinagaron Monday, the police said.Shaishav Chauhan, who couldnot swim, entered the poolafter a Holi bash. He mayhave misjudged the depth ofthe pool as he had removedhis glasses, the police said. PTI

‘Glad over new record ofwomen in U.P. Assembly’NEW DELHI

Prime Minister NarendraModi on Monday expressedhappiness over the recordnumber of women elected tothe new Uttar PradeshAssembly. “Glad that a newrecord has been set ofhighest women MLAs electedin the U.P. Assembly.Congratulations to all womenMLAs,” he tweeted. IANS

IN BRIEF

After her disastrous debutin politics, Irom Sharmila,activist, will arrive in the tri-bal region of Attappady inKerala on Tuesday in searchof “peace, tranquillity andsolitude”.

Ms. Sharmila will reachAgali in Attappady from theCoimbatore airport tospend a couple of days withher close friend of over 11years, Basheer Madala, ajournalist-turned-activist.

After spending a coupleof days with Mr. Madala andhis family, she will move toa rehabilitation centre nearthe Vattalakki tribal hamlet.Ms. Sharmila is expected tospend a month at thecentre, which is maintainedby Uma Preman.

Call for privacy“It all depends on the com-fort level she would feelafter reaching here. Thoughwe tried our best to keepher visit a low-key affair, inview of her preference forsolitude, the informationwas leaked and created ahuge public response notjust in Attappady but acrossKerala,” Sabira, Mr.Madala’s wife, said.

In the Manipur Assemblyelection, the “Iron Lady”,who won international at-tention for her years-long

hunger strike seeking therepeal of the Armed Forces(Special Powers) Act in thenorth-eastern State, wasable to secure hardly 90votes against Chief MinisterOkram Ibobi Singh in theThoubal constituency. The44-year-old activist hassince announced quittingpolitics.

“The news that she wasable to secure only 90votes, even fewer than thenumber for NOTA, hasevoked strong sympathetic

responses from Keralites,especially those active onsocial media. We are under-taking a difficult task of en-suring her privacy andsolitude in a State whereshe has more fans than inher home State,” Ms. Pre-man said.

A long tripIt was as an office-bearer ofa journalists’ union that Mr.Madala first travelled to Ma-nipur 11 years ago and metMs. Sharmila.

“It is her first major longjourney outside Manipur,except for the Delhi trips aspart of the hunger strike. Ifelt honoured when she ac-cepted our invitation to behere in Attappady for onemonth to ponder her futurecourse of action,” he said.

“Keralites are aware ofher 16-year-old fast for therepeal of the AFSPA. So wehope people would cooper-ate by not creating discom-fort to her by attempting tomeet her here,” he said.

Sharmila in search of solitudeActivist to arrive in Attappady today, expected to remain there for a month

K.A. Shaji

Attappady (Palakkad)

Going back a longway: Iron Sharmila with her friend Basheer Madala, a journalist-turned-activist from Attappady. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Ready to ride: Shikaras wait for customers in the Dal Lake against the backdrop of snow-cappedmountains in Srinagar onMonday.The sun came out much to the respite of people, though nights continued to remain cold in the Valley. NISSAR AHMAD

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The sun also rises

For candidates with a polit-ical pedigree, the Uttar Pra-desh Assembly electionswere a mixed bag, with onlyfive out of the eight winning.

Seven who contestedhave direct ties with the out-going Chief Minister,Akhilesh Yadav, or thosewho had occupied the postbefore him.

From the BJP, RitaBahuguna Joshi from Luc-know Cantonment, SandeepKumar Singh from Atrauli,Pankaj Singh from Noida,Siddhartha Nath Singh fromAllahabad West and SwatiSingh from Sarojini Nagarwon.

Shivpal’s successFrom the Samajwadi Party,only Shivpal Yadav, Mr.Akhilesh’s uncle and brotherof former Chief Minister Mu-layam Singh, won, retaininghis long-time seat of Jaswant-nagar.

Aparna Yadav, theyounger daughter-in-law ofMr. Mulayam Singh, was de-feated in Lucknow Canton-ment, and Anurag Yadav, hisnephew, in Sarojini Nagar onthe outskirts of Lucknow.

Lalitesh Pati Tripathi, thegreat grandson of formerChief Minister Kamlapati Tri-pathi, contested on the Con-gress ticket from Mariharan.He lost to Rama ShankarSingh of the BJP.

Ms. Joshi, daughter of

former Chief Minister andCongress stalwart H.N.Bahuguna, defeated Ms.Aparna, whomade her elect-oral debut.

A former U.P. Congresschief, Ms. Joshi contested onthe BJP ticket.

In Atrauli, the bastion offormer Chief Minister KalyanSingh, his grandson SandeepKumar Singh defeatedViresh Yadav of the SP.

Noida fightPankaj Singh, son of UnionHome Minister and formerChief Minister RajnathSingh, defeated Sunil Choud-hary of the SP by a hugemargin of 1,04,016 votes in

Noida. Siddhartha NathSingh, senior BJP leader andgrandson of former PrimeMinister Lal BahadurShastri, defeated Pooja Pal, asitting MLA of the BSP.

The Jaswantnagar seat ofMr. Shivpal is synonymouswith Mr. Mulayam Singh, SPfounder, who won the seatfor the first time in 1967.Winning it eight times andlosing twice, Mr. MulayamSingh later vacated it for Mr.Shivpal, who has won theseat continuously since1996.

Ms. Swati Singh defeatedMr. Anurag by a margin of34,179 votes.

Relatives of former Chief Ministers face defeat


Lucknow

In happier times: SP leader Mulayam Singh with his daughter-in-law Aparna Yadav at an election rally in Lucknow. AparnaYadav was routed in Lucknow Cantonment.

Dynasty doesn’t alwaysguarantee a win in U.P.

Prime Minister NarendraModi may have taken thepolitical route to become an“adopted son” of Varanasiand Uttar Pradesh, but a“son of the soil” plays hostto politics every day here,nurturing debate and dis-cussion, careers and critics.While his given name —Vishwanath Singh — willevoke little recognition, justa mention of his popularnickname “Pappu” elicits in-stant recall: “Oh, Assi kaPappu, chai dukan? [youmean Pappu of Assi, the teashop?].”

Pappu’s tea shop has nosign board, nor propertables and chairs — a yellowtungsten bulb hangs from asoot-layered wire. But old-timers will tell you that vet-eran socialist leader GeorgeFernandes held a press con-ference for two hours at thetea shop over four cups of

lemon tea when V.P. Singhwas the Prime Minister. BJPleaders Kalraj Mishra andSambit Patra too are patronsand more recently, the en-tire crew of a popular Bolly-

wood film, Mohalla Assi,were sipping tea at Pappu’s.

Rumour has it that whenPrime Minister NarendraModi had to file his nomina-tion papers from Varanasi in

2014, Pappu’s name wassuggested as a proposer.

Politicians apart, manyeminent Hindi writers andlitterateurs, mostly fromBenaras Hindu University,which is nearly two km fromthe shop, have been regularvisitors. For local politiciansand student leaders, Pap-pu’s tea shop is an import-ant step in their careers.Hours are spent over a cupof lemon or milk tea, dis-cussing politics.

Standing room onlyThe room itself boasts justtwo wooden benches byformica-topped tables. Twomore benches stand outsideon the road. Regular visitorsmatter-of-factly squeezethemselves on the benchesand get engaged in politicaldebate. Some wait for hoursfor a chance to sit while oth-ers stand around.

Noted Hindi writer Kash-inath Singh’s popular novel

Kashi ka Assi is based on theeveryday political discourseat Pappu’s. “KashinathSingh, along with othergreat Hindi writers likeBalraj Pandey and Chow-kiram Yadav, has been regu-lar visitors at my shop…” 67-year-old Vishwanath Singh‘Pappu’ told The Hindu onSunday morning, a day afterthe Assembly poll result.

“I graduated in politicslistening to their everydaydiscussion and debate …I’ve been enjoying it andnever mind their long sittingat the shop over just a cup oftea,” added Mr. Singh. “I’vebeen voting for the BJPwhen it was the Jan Sangh in1967 … ideologically I’vebeen closer to the BJP muchbefore Narendra Modi cameon the mainstream politicalscene,” he said. In 2012, Mr.Modi’s flagship “Chai peCharcha” television showheld at this tea shop was oneof the most popular.

At Pappu’s, a cup of tea and a platter of politicsThe shop in Varanasi is home to lively debate and is a stepping stone to many political careers

Amarnath Tewary

Assi Chowk (Varanasi)

Favourite haunt: Politicians, student leaders and litterateursare regulars at Pappu’s tea shop in Varanasi. AMARNATH TEWARY

As Pakistani shelling contin-ues in Poonch in the Pir Pan-chal Valley in violation of theceasefire, the bus serviceacross the Line of Control re-mains suspended.

Since Sunday, Pakistanhas been firing mortar shellsinto Indian territory. TheTrade Facilitation Centre atChakan da Bagh was dam-aged on Monday, leading tothe suspension of the busservice. An official spokes-man said schools near theLoC had been closed as a“precautionary measure”.

“There was unprovokedfiring by the Pakistani Armyin the Poonch sector from6.40 a.m. on Monday with 82mm mortars and automaticweapons,” he said.

No casualties“The Army took positionand responded befittinglyand intermittent firing is onat present. There has beenno casualty on our side.”Monday’s ceasefire breach isthe second in 20 hours andthe third in four days.

The Pakistani troops star-ted shelling in the Krish-nagati sector along the LoCon Sunday. On March 9, ajawan, Deepak Jagannath

Ghadge, was killed whenPakistan fired at Indianposts.

Minister’s assuranceReplying to questions onceasefire violations, UnionMinister Jitendra Singh said:“The agencies concernedwill take into cognisance thechain of events, and youshould trust the Modi gov-ernment to give a befittingresponse.”

“Indian government andsecurity agencies are cap-able of meeting any kind ofchallenge and you will seethe results in days to come,”

Mr. Singh, Minister of Statein the Prime Minister’s Of-fice, told presspersons.

He did not answer ques-tions on the handing over oftwo boys from PoK toPakistani authorities afterthe NIA dropped charges ofconspiracy against them inthe Uri terror strike. “I amnot able to reply to suchsensitive issues,” he said. Un-der detention for nearly sixmonths, they were freedafter the NIA came to a con-clusion that they had strayedinto India after a tiff withtheir parents.

(With inputs from PTI)

Pakistani shellingcontinues in PoonchJitendra Singh says India will give a beitting response

Breach of promise: The Trade Facilitation Centre at ChakkanDa Bagh near the Line of Control in J&K that was damaged inshelling by Pakistan onMonday. PTI


Srinagar

The White House press sec-retary, Sean Spicer, has beenaccused of racism after be-ing confronted by a womanduring a shopping trip to anApple store in WashingtonDC.

“How does it feel to workfor a fascist?” asked ShreeChauhan, a 33-year-old wo-man who works at a non-profit in DC, while usingPeriscope to record theencounter.

“Have you helped withthe Russia stuff? Are you acriminal as well? Have youcommitted treason, just likethe president?” she deman-ded of Spicer.

Spicer replied: “Such agreat country that allowsyou to be here.”

Chauhan, who was bornin New York and is of Indianorigin, said she believedSpicer’s response was a ref-erence to her skin colour.

“That is racism and it isan implied threat,” wroteChauhan in a Medium post

about the incident.“I am still stunned by the

boldness of having my cit-izenship threatened on cam-era,” she added.

She continued: I havespent enough time with on-line [sic] to encounter rabidTrump supporters. Many ofthese folks see my brownskin and question my cit-izenship. They questionwhether I am here legally.They tell me to leave thecountry. They have told meto go back to where I camefrom. To which my snarkyreply is often, “Go backwhere? New York?” It’s onething to have a Twitter eggtell say you do not belong inAmerica, it is quite anotherto have the Press Secretaryof the United States of Amer-ica do so. THE GUARDIAN

Sean Spicer accused ofracism by Indian-American“Such a great country that allows you to be here,” he said.

Amber Jamieson

Washington

Sean Spicer

Several persons, even po-licemen, were injured asTrinamool Congress andBJP supporters clashed inAgartala on Monday even-ing.

Subal Bhowmik, BJP’svice-president in Tripura,was injured, and hisvehicle smashed near theWest Agartala police sta-tion. Prohibitory orderswere imposed in the city.

Trouble broke out afterBJP supporters blocked theroad outside the police sta-tion, demanding the arrestof the elder brother of aTrinamool leader, SudipRoy Barman, who had al-legedly roughed up a BJPleader. Mr. Bhowmik, whowas leading the protest,was injured as BJP and Tri-namool workers attackedeach other.

Trinamool,BJP workersclashSyed Sajjad Ali

Agartala

RSS bigwigs will take part ina crucial three-day meethere from March 19 to chalkout the future plans of theSangh and its allied outfits,in the wake of the BJP’s im-pressive show in the As-sembly polls.

Sangh SarasanghachalakMohan Bhagwat, who ar-

rived here on Sunday night,immediately left for AmritaUniversity, the venue of theAkhil Bharatiya PratinidhiSabha meet, RSS sourcessaid here on Monday.

The Sangh chief will bejoined by RSS general sec-retary Suresh Bhaiyya jiJoshi and joint general sec-retaries DattatreyaHosabale, Krishna Gopal,

Suresh Soni and Bhaigaih.The annual meeting of

the ABPS, the highest de-cision-making body, willstart fromMarch 19 and de-tails of activities of all or-ganisations, including theABVP, the Sevabharati, theSamskrita Bharati, theVidya Bharati and the BMSwould be submitted beforeit, an RSS release said.

The outcome of the dis-cussions, in which electedrepresentatives of the RSSand State leaders will takepart, will be put in theform of resolutions for rati-fication at the Sabha, to beattended by 1,500 mem-bers, the sources said.

The ABPSmeet, which isbeing held for the first timein Tamil Nadu in its 92-

year-old history, will bejointly chaired by Mr. Bhag-wat and Mr. Joshi.

Various issues facing thecountry will be discussed.

BJP national presidentAmit Shah and Union Min-ister Nitin Gadkari areamong the top party lead-ers expected to attend themeeting on the last day —March 21, the sources said.

RSS meet in TN to chalk out future plansPress Trust of India

Coimbatore

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WORLD

Talks under way withN. Korea: MalaysiaKUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia said talks wereunder way on Monday for therelease of nine citizensstranded in North Korea by atravel ban. “The negotiationswith the North Koreans areongoing,” Deputy-PrimeMinister Ahmad Zahid Hamiditold reporters. “Our mainpriority is the safety of thenine Malaysians who are inPyongyang,” he said. REUTERS

Sufi leader killed inBangladeshDHAKA

Unidentified attackers shotdead a Sufi leader and hismaid late on Monday, policesaid, the latest attacktargeting religious minoritieshere. Police said FarhadHossain Chowdhury (55) andhis maid were found in a poolof blood at his home atBochaganj, around 350 kmnorth of Dhaka. AFP

Merkel’s U.S. trippostponedBERLIN

German Chancellor AngelaMerkel told reporters that hertrip to Washington to meetU.S. President Donald Trump,scheduled for Tuesday, hadbeen postponed due to awinter storm expected to hitthe U.S. She said Mr. Trumphad called her to explain theseverity of the storm. TheWhite House said the meetinghad been postponed untilMarch 17. REUTERS

Scottish First Minister NicolaSturgeon will ask the ScottishParliament for authority nextweek for a second referen-dum on Scottish independ-ence. Criticising the “brickwall of intransigence” thather government had faced asit sought to find a deal thatprotected Scotland’s interestsas Britain prepared to leavethe EU, Ms. Sturgeon, leaderof the Scottish National Party,said that Scotland needed tobe given the choice about the“kind of country we want tobe”, between the autumn of2018 and the spring of 2019.

“Brexit has made changeinevitable… the choice I be-lieve Scotland should haveshould be what kind ofchange we want,” she said inEdinburgh on Monday.

While the 2014 referen-dum on independence waspegged as a “once in a gener-ation” vote by former SNPleader Alex Salmond, the is-sue of independence resur-faced in the wake of lastJune’s referendum, whenScotland voted overwhelm-ingly (62%) to remain in theEU. In December, the Scottishgovernment published awhite paper “Scotland’s Placein Europe” calling for theU.K. to either remain in thesingle market or commit toan outcome that would en-able Scotland to remainwithin it, which Ms. Sturgeonsaid represented a “signific-ant compromise” on the partof her government.

“U.K. membership of thesingle market was ruled outwith no prior consultationwith the Scottish govern-ment, or indeed with otherdevolved administrations —leaving us facing not justBrexit, but a hard Brexit,” shesaid on Monday.

Ms. Sturgeon’s announce-ment comes sooner than ex-pected, marking a dramatictwist of events as the govern-ment prepares to trigger

Brexit as early as Tuesday.The bill that would authorisethe government to triggertalks on leaving the EU hasreturned to the House ofCommons and was set to bevoted on Monday evening.

Debating the detailsMs. Sturgeon said that shewould be calling for the votein the devolved legislaturenext week that would enableher government to agree de-tails of the procedure withWestminster, which wouldenable the Scottish Parlia-ment to legislate for an inde-pendence referendum. Shesaid the precise question tobe put to the people shouldbe up to the ScottishParliament.

She added that the sugges-ted timetable — between 2018and 2019 — was to ensure that

voters were able to make asinformed a choice as pos-sible, as the shape of theBrexit deal became clear.Leaving it to after Britain leftthe EU would make it difficultfor Scotland that could face alengthy period outside theEU. Any effort by Westmin-ster to block it from takingplace would be like the gov-ernment attempting to at-tempts to “puncture Scot-land’s life-boat”, having sunkthe ship.

While the WestminsterParliament could scupperthose plans for a referendum,Ms. Sturgeon has previouslywarned that that would be“disastrous”. On Monday, shenoted the government’s pre-vious stance, which was thatthe referendum should be“made in Scotland, by thepeople of Scotland”. A

second referendum would be“divisive and cause huge eco-nomic uncertainty at theworst possible time”, the U.K.government said in a state-ment on Monday.

While Labour would notblock a move to hold the ref-erendum should it get the ap-proval of the Scottish Parlia-ment, “Labour will opposeindependence because it’snot in the interest of any partof the country to break upthe U.K.,” said Labour LeaderJeremy Corbyn.

While 55.3% of Scottishvoters opted to remain in theU.K. in the 2014 independ-ence referendum, recentpolls have suggested that gaphas narrowed. One poll byIpsos-Mori published earlierthis month found that 50%said they would supportindependence.

Scotland seeks to exit U.K.First Minister Sturgeon to ask Parliament next week to approve referendum

Freedommarch: A pro-independencemarch in Edinburgh in2013; (right) the two lags; and Nicola Sturgeon. AFP

Vidya Ram

London

U.S. President DonaldTrump will be more sym-pathetic to the demand onwhether or not to declarePakistan as a state sponsorof terrorism, U.S. Congress-man Ted Poe said onMonday.

Mr. Poe has introduced aBill in the U.S. House of Rep-resentatives seeking a re-view of U.S. ties withPakistan, given its supportfor terrorism. “I cannotspeak for the White House,but I do think the PresidentTrump will be sympatheticto this demand,” he said.

“Not only is Pakistan anuntrustworthy ally, Is-lamabad has also aided andabetted enemies of the U.S.for years. From harbouringOsama bin Laden to its cosyrelationship with theHaqqani network, there ismore than enough evidenceto determine whose sidePakistan is on in the war onterror. And it’s not Amer-ica’s. It is time we stop pay-ing Pakistan for its betrayaland designate it for what itis: a State Sponsor of Terror-ism,” Mr. Poe told reporterson a conference call.

Terror funding“Pakistan is taking moneyfrom the U.S. and at leastpart of that money is goingto terrorists who seek to at-tack America,” the Congress-man said. Mr. Poe had co-sponsored a similar Bill inSeptember 2016, whichlapsed.

The Congressman fromTexas said if Pakistan doesnot support terrorist groupsas it claims, it should sup-port the ‘Pakistan StateSponsor of Terrorism Act of2017,’ since the review wouldgive Pakistan an opportunityto come clean. If it is not

supporting terrorism, thiswill be its opportunity toprove it, he said.

“The Bill does not desig-nate Pakistan a state spon-sor of terrorism. It requiresthe President and the ad-ministration to make a de-termination one way or theother, based on a review of

evidence. Pakistan shouldwelcome such a review,” hesaid.

“Pakistan claims to be avictim of terrorism as terror-ists carry out attacks inPakistan too. This is the con-sequence of government har-bouring terrorists,” Mr. Poesaid.

According to a U.S. StateDepartment document,there are four main categor-ies of sanctions that will fol-low a state sponsor of terror-ism designation —“restrictions on U.S. foreignassistance; a ban on defenceexports and sales; certaincontrols over exports of dualuse items; and miscel-laneous financial and otherrestrictions.”

Due to various certifica-tion requirements that havebeen mandated for Pakistanin recent years, U.S. civil andmilitary aid to Pakistan hasseen a sharp decline in re-cent years — from $3.5 billionin 2011 to less than $1 billionin 2016.

Congressman Ted Poe has introduced Bill in this regard

Varghese K. George

Washington

Ted Poe, Congressman fromTexas. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

‘Pak. should be declaredstate sponsor of terror’

China is set to rapidly ex-pand its marine corps andthe Navy in anticipation ofthe development of its Mari-time Silk Road (MSR), whichcovers the Pakistani port ofGwadar, and Djibouti in theHorn of Africa.

The Hong Kong basedSouth China Morning Post(SCMP) quoting “military in-siders and experts” repor-ted that China is planning afive-fold increase in its mar-ine force — from 20,000 to100,000 personnel.

Guarding CPECSome of the Chinese mar-ines would be stationed atDjibouti in the Horn ofAfrica, and the Pakistaniport of Gwadar, the startingpoint of the China-PakistanEconomic Corridor.

“Besides its original mis-sions of a possible war withTaiwan, maritime defence

in the East and South Chinaseas, it’s also foreseeablethat the PLA Navy’s missionwill expand overseas, in-cluding protection of Chi-na’s national security in theKorean peninsula, the coun-try’s maritime lifelines, aswell as offshore supply de-ports like in Djibouti andGwadar port in Pakistan,”the daily quoted Li Jie, aBeijing based naval expertas saying.

The SCMP write-up didnot clarify whether Chinawas considering a limiteddeployment of its marines,or had a larger plan of estab-lishing a de facto naval basein Gwadar.

Last week, the Pakistanidaily, Dawn quoted PakistanArmy chief Gen. Qamar Ba-jwa as saying that the coun-try’s security forces were“fully prepared” to meet allsecurity challenges to pro-jects of the CPEC andChinese nationals living in

the country.

Collaboration with Pak.He made these remarks onSaturday during a visit to theheadquarters of the 15,000strong Special Security Divi-sion (SSD), charged with the“security of Chinese onCPEC and non-CPECprojects”.

The daily said that theSSD, formed after ChinesePresident Xi Jinping’s visit toIslamabad in 2015, willprovide security to Chinesepersonnel and projectsthroughout the country. Thedivision has been estab-lished in close collaborationwith China and the twosides are also cooperating toimplement a multi-layeredsecurity plan.

The SCMP report saidthat two brigades of specialcombat soldiers had alreadybeen moved to the marines,nearly doubling its size to20,000.

China planning ive-foldincrease in marine forceSome of them will be stationed at Gwadar and Djibouti

Atul Aneja

Beijing

Lost innocence: Iraqi children in Mosul’s Nablus neighbourhood, in front of an Islamic Statebillboard, during an ofensive by security forces to retake the western parts of the city. AFP

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No safe zone

In Syria, last year was theworst yet for the country’srising generation, with atleast 652 children killed in2016, the United Nations’child relief agency said onMonday.

UNICEF said at least 255children were killed in ornear schools last year and1.7 million youngsters areout of school. One of everythree schools in Syria is un-usable, some becausearmed groups occupy them.An additional 2.3 millionSyrian children are refugeeselsewhere in the region.

The figures came in aUNICEF report releasedahead of the sixth an-niversary later this week ofthe 2011 popular uprisingagainst President Bashar Al-Assad’s rule.

The UNICEF report warnsthat for Syria’s young gener-ation, coping mechanismsand medical care are erod-

ing quickly, driving childreninto child labour, early mar-riage and combat. Dozens ofchildren are also dying frompreventable diseases.

A report released a weekago by the internationalcharity Save the Childrensaid Syrian youngsters areshowing signs of “toxicstress” that can lead tolifelong health problems,struggles with addiction andmental disorders lastinginto adulthood.

‘2016 was the worstyear for Syrian children’UNICEF says 652 of them were killed

Associated Press

Beirut

A Syrian child in a damagedclassroom in Idlib. AP

Pakistan will this week em-bark on the enormous taskof conducting its firstcensus in almost two dec-ades, after years of bicker-ing between politiciansconcerned about powerbases and federal funding.

Pakistan is the sixthmost populous country inthe world, with an estim-ated 200 million people,but has not held a censussince 1998, despite a con-stitutional requirement forone every decade. It startson Wednesday and will de-ploy a team of more than3,00,000 people and in-volve 55 million forms.

It will be the basis for re-vising political boundariesand parliamentary seat al-locations, while also givinga clearer picture about reli-gious minority numbers.

Pak. to beginirst censusin 19 yearsAgence France-Presse

Islamabad

Japan plans to dispatch itslargest warship on a three-month tour through theSouth China Sea beginningin May, three sources said,in its biggest show of navalforce since Second WorldWar. The Izumo helicoptercarrier, commissionedonly two years ago, willmake stops in Singapore,Indonesia, the Philippinesand Sri Lanka before join-ing the Malabar joint navalexercise with Indian andU.S. naval vessels in the In-dian Ocean in July. It willreturn to Japan in August,the sources said.

“The aim is to test thecapability of the Izumo bysending it out on an exten-ded mission,” said one ofthe sources, adding “It willtrain with the U.S. Navy inthe South China Sea.”

‘Japan to sendwarship toS. China Sea’Reuters

Tokyo

obstacle. “In the foundationof our religion, we believe inChristianity and Judaism, webelieve in the prophets Musa[Moses] and Issa [ Jesus], sowe have no problem makingthe head-wear even if theyare for Jews or Christians.”

Mr. Abu Shanab (61) ad-ded a new production line tocater to the increased de-mand, even as the pace re-mains slow and exportinggoods from the blockadedterritory is rife withbureaucracy.

Israel imposes strict ex-port procedures which

It’s not easy doing businessfrom Gaza but tailor Mo-hammad Abu Shanab hasfound a demand he can sup-ply — his sewing factory ischurning out religious skullcaps, for devout Jewish men.

Since Israel resumed im-porting clothing from Gazain 2015, Mr. Abu Shanab hasrenewed commercial con-tacts to sell merchandise toneighbouring Israel. Withsalaries in Gaza much lower,Mr. Abu Shanab’s costs arevery competitive.

Worn by rabbis“We make all kinds ofclothes and recently beganmaking the skull caps thatare worn by Israeli rabbisand Christian priests,” saidMr. Abu Shanab, adding thatas far as Gazans were con-cerned, religion was not an

greatly increase transportcosts. Every shipment, nomatter how small, must besent separately.

Design specificationsSo far, Mr. Abu Shanab

has sent 400 skull caps, alsoknown as ‘kippot’ or ‘yar-mulkes’, and 1,000 bow tiesto his Israeli client.

Gaza factories also makegoods according to designspecifications of Israeli com-panies who send them thefabric.

Mr. Abu Shanab said he isalso in talks with an Israelibuyer to produce the longcoats worn by ultra-Ortho-dox Jews.

Before Hamas seized con-trol of Gaza in 2007, after de-feating forces loyal to theparty of President MahmoudAbbas, the territory’s sewingsector was one the largestemployers with over 900

factories employing around40,000 people.

But in the past decade, Is-rael and Egypt have imposeda blockade on Gaza and itstwo million people. Unem-ployment stands at 43% and80% of the population is de-pendent on aid, according tothe United Nations.

Risk of violence“Before [2007] I used to em-ploy 70 workers but later Icould keep only 10 to 15 ofthem,” said Hassan Shehada,another factory owner.

“Today I have 50 workersand I can increase it to 100,”he said.

But there’s still some wayto go. Mr. Shehada said Is-raeli clients are afraid totrade with Gaza out of fearthat another violent flare-upwould force crossings toclose and lead to financiallosses.

The Gaza tailor whomakes prayer caps for JewsAbu Shanab’s sewing factory has churned out 400 skull caps and 1,000 bow ties for devout worshippers in Israel

Reuters

Gaza

Cross-border trade: Bow ties and skull caps, also known as‘kippot’ or ‘yarmulke’, at a sewing factory in Gaza City. REUTERS

ELSEWHERE

EUwarns Erdoganfollowing remarks

The European Union (EU) onMonday warned PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdogan toavoid inlammatory rhetoricas a diplomatic crisis betweenTurkey and the Netherlandsdeepened over the blockingof Turkish Ministers fromholding rallies. Mr. Erdoganhad twice accusedNetherlands of acting like the

Nazis, sparking outrage. AFP

A veteran Iowa Repub-lican Congressman saidAmerica can’t restore“our civilisation withsomebody else’s babies”and warned of a liberaleffort to break downWestern civilisation.

Rep. Steve King, in atweet on Sunday, paidtribute to Geert Wilders,a Dutch politician whoopposes immigration andhas spoken against Islam.It came as the Dutch pre-pare for an election on

Wednesday. Mr. King,who has served in theU.S. House since 2003,said Mr. Wilders “under-stands that culture anddemographics are ourdestiny. We can’t restoreour civilisation withsomebody else’s babies”.

In an interviewMonday on CNN, Mr. Kingsaid he stood by his re-marks. Mr. King said, “Imeant exactly what Isaid,” and noted that hedelivers the same mes-sage to countries inEurope.

Western civilisationunder threat: LawmakerAssociated Press

Washington

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BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



The finances of three of theseven coal-producing subsi-diaries of listed MaharatnaPSU Coal India Ltd. maynosedive this fiscal due topoor production and sales.

Available information sug-gested that the firms mayeither report a loss or a mar-ginal profit this fiscal.

The companies are theNagpur-based WesternCoalfields Ltd. (WCL), As-ansol-based EasternCoalfields Ltd. (ECL) andDhanbad-based Bharat Cok-ing Coal Ltd. (BCCL). Theirfinancial trend became ap-parent during the thirdquarter when they reportedlosses.

At least two of these com-panies — BCCL and ECL—came out of the BIFR foldabout three years ago andwhile they still carry accu-mulated losses, they havebeen making operationalprofit for close to six yearsnow and their net worth ispositive after a financial re-cast by parent company CIL.

Between April and Febru-ary this fiscal, WCL , whichseems to be the worst off,saw its output drop by 5.3%and its offtake decrease by8.7%. BCCL’s output rose2.6% but coal sales droppedby 3.2%. ECL’s output rose2.3% and despatch, 12.6%.

All the three companieswere lagging behind theirtargets by a margin ofbetween 3% and 14% in out-put and 6% and 19% in off-take.

Sources said that poorcoal demand was the mainreason for this. Moreover,the fortunes of CIL and itsarms were affected by theclose to 50% drop in the e-auction price in the last

quarter. Lower demand bythe power sector was thefactor here, too.

Poor performance of itssubsidiaries and provision-ing for higher wages (due toongoing wage negotiations)dented CIL’s third quarterperformance.

CIL reported a 20% dropin net profit to ₹2,884 crorein the October-December2016 quarter.

Share buy-backAs a result of the mutedphysical and financial per-formance, these three subsi-diaries have not participatedin the recent programme ofsubsidiaries buying backtheir shares from CIL.

The boards of other threesubsidiaries have already

given their nod for the buy-back following which theCIL Board, on March 11, ap-proved the tender of theshares held by the companyin three subsidiaries – MCL,NCL and SECL for about₹4,000 crore.

Interim dividendThus Coal India Ltd. wouldbe paying ₹9,208 crore tothe government this fiscal asinterim dividend. It wouldpay another ₹2,369 crore onaccount of dividend distri-bution tax and ₹2,641 croreon account of its share buy-back which was concludedin October last year (whichamount has already beenpaid).

The government nowholds 79.1% of CIL’s equity.

Finances of 3 Coal Indiaarms may be hit this iscalLower demand dampens performance of subsidiaries


KOLKATA

Fluctuating fortunes: Coal india and its arms were hit by a50%drop in e-auction prices in the last quarter. AFP

In view of the consistentlosses arising from largeclaim settlements and othernegatives like falling interestrates that will crimp their in-vestment income, non-life in-surers are planning to in-crease premium rates by10-15% in certain segments toprotect their bottomline.

In fact, the insurance reg-ulator, IRDAI, has also hintedat a premium hike especiallyin third-party motorpremium and group healthinsurance from April 1 whenmost of the renewals takeplace in the domestic generalinsurance market.

“I won’t be surprised if thepremia go up as the pricinghas already reached rockbottom,” IRDAI member(non-life insurance) P.J.Joseph told PTI.

Insurers have zeroed in onover 10 such segments in-cluding pharma, power andcement under property andeven group health insurancewhere they are planning toincrease the premia goingforward. Premia may go upin the range of 10-15% inthese segments next finan-cial year.

“The market is so compet-itive that it gives us very littlescope for increasing premia.Still, we are working veryclosely with GIC Re to in-crease the pricing of over 10large loss-making portfolios,”National Insurance chairmanand managing directorSanath Kumar said.

“The floor price of over 10segments are on our scannerfor premium hike, which in-clude pharma, power and ce-ment. We may also see someprice revision in grouphealth insurance,” he said,adding, “however, increasewill take place in the next fin-ancial year only, that too 10-15%.”

The largest non-life in-

surer New India is also set tohike premium in certainsegments.

“At New India Assurance,the premium hike may hap-pen under segments like fireand group health in the newfiscal,” New India Assurancechairman and managing dir-ector G.Srinivasan said.

“Premium rates havefallen much below the re-quired rates and hence therates will have to be readjus-ted,” he added.

New strategyPrivate sector non-life in-surer SBI General is workingon a three-pronged strategy.

“The challenge today isthat you have to maintainprofitability at a time wheninvestment yields are com-ing down,” SBI General man-

aging director and chief ex-ecutive Pushan Mahapatrasaid.

“So, in our bid to main-tain profitability, we areworking on a three-prongedstrategy — better efficiency,better expense control andbetter selection — and pri-cing of risk being underwrit-ten,” he added.

As of end December, thecompany had an investmentincome of ₹251 crore, whichrose from ₹192 crore a yearearlier. But in a falling in-terest rate regime it is notcertain whether the bottomline can be protected.

However, SBI General’schief financial officer RikhilK. Shah said, “we do not seea fall in investment incomethis fiscal year from the pre-vious one as we have locked

in some of the gains duringthe year. However, we mightsee an impact on our yieldnext fiscal.”

‘Substantial pricing’Bajaj Allianz said it had al-ways looked at sustainablepricing.

“We have always lookedat sustainable pricing. Theportfolios and policies un-derwritten have always beenat a price that is commen-surate with the risk,” TapanSinghel, MD and CEO, BajajAllianz General Insurance,said.

“The company has nevercontested on pricing andwill continue with its busi-ness model of prudent un-derwriting, efficient claimsservicing, and risk based pri-cing,” he added.

Non-life premia set to increaseConsistent losses, falling interest rates may force insurers to go in for hike

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

MUMBAI

Delicate balance: Insurance companies have tomaintain proitability at a timewhen investmentyields are coming down. GETTYIMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

IN BRIEF

Despite fuel price rise,airlines to thrive in FY17MUMBAI

Airlines are likely to close theoutgoing inancial year with22-23% traic growth,making it one of the best forthe sector, even though thepressure on their bottomlineis increasing as oil prices areon a northward trend, said anICRA report. “Airlines aremaintaining healthy loadfactors backed by low fares.But since oil prices are on anuptrend, impact onproitability in Q4 isinevitable,” said ICRA. PTI

Digital mediums willlead in 5 years: EY IndiaMUMBAI

Digital mediums are likely tosurpass traditional ones by2021-22, when smartphonepenetration becomes 50%of the population, which willhappen in 2019-20. Thesecond contributing factor iswhen broadband equalsone-third of the reach,which will happen by 2021-22. The third factor is paritybetween cost of the twoservices, EY India mediaadvisory leader AshishPherwani said. PTI

U. Chowdhary to headCII Eastern RegionKOLKATA

Umesh Chowdhary, vice-chairman and managingdirector, Titagarh WagonsLtd., has been elected thenew chairman of CII, EasternRegion for the year 2017-18.Jagi Mangat Panda,managing director of OrtelCommunications Ltd., is thenew deputy chairperson ofCII, Eastern Region for thesame year, it was decided atat the irst meeting of thereconstituted EasternRegional Council hererecently, CII sources said. PTI

Airtel Payments Bank,offered by telecom majorBharti Airtel, on Mondayannounced that more thanone lakh savings accountswere opened in 100 vil-lages across the state ofTamil Nadu.

Through the initiative,these villages in the south-ern state would have ac-cess to banking servicesalong with the option ofmaking digital payments, acompany statement saidhere.

“We are delighted tohave taken formal bankingservices to these remoterural pockets of TamilNadu,” MD and CEO of Air-tel Payments Bank, ShashiArora said.

“We are fully committedto the vision of Digital Indiaand financial inclusion,”Mr. Shashi said.

A network of more than16,000 neighbourhood Air-tel stores offer banking ser-vices to consumers.

By introducing the ser-vice, Airtel Payments Bankwill not charge any pro-cessing fee from its cus-tomers and merchant part-ners for digitaltransactions. The pay-ments bank, which was thefirst such bank to go live,has committed an invest-ment of ₹3,000 crore andplans to build digital pay-ments with more than fivemillion merchants.

Payment Banks can ac-cept deposits from indi-viduals and small busi-nesses up to a maximum of₹1 lakh per account.

In T.N., Airtelopens 1 lakhSB accountsPRESS TRUST of INDIA

CHENNAI

The two-wheeler industry,which was on a fast trackwith high double-digitgrowth till October, is likelyto shrug off the shocks fromdemonetisation and closethe current financial yearwith a 7-8% growth, accord-ing to a report.

The note ban–induced li-quidity crisis has resulted insales falling 11.3% betweenNovember and January. Theconversion to BS-IV emis-sion norms, which will comeinto effect from April, alsoresulted in some inventorycorrection taking placeacross original equipmentmakers from February.

Overall, the industryclosed the first 10 months offiscal 2017 with a growth of8.3%, which, although betterthan the industry growthrates over the past four fiscalyears, remains a far cry fromthe double-digit growthprior to November 2016.

“The impact of [the]noteban appears to have moder-ated with the industry limp-ing back to normalcy as re-flected by smaller volumecontraction in January andexpectations of flattish Feb-ruary and March. For thefiscal 2017, we expect the in-dustry to grow 7-8%,” ICRAsaid in a report.

Deferred purchasesThe agency also expectssome deferred purchasesduring Q3 and Q4 to result inbetter sales in fiscal 2018leading to 8-10% growth dur-ing the year. “While the gap

in growth rates will narrow,scooters will continue to out-pace motorcycles sales infiscal 2018,” the report said.

During the note banperiod, only moped saleshave remained relatively in-sulated andmaintained theirdouble–digit growth, albeiton a low base, growing26.8%.

On the other hand, scoot-ers, while continuing to out-pace industry growth, havegrown so far by 12.5% whichis much lower than the24.7% growth till September.

Motorcycles, which hadbeen on the path of revivalfrom the contraction and flatsales reported since fiscal2013, again returned to lowgrowth levels of 5.1% in theaftermath of demonetisa-tion, the report said.

Overall, the agency reiter-ated its stable outlook for

the industry and over themedium term, the industryis expected to report avolume CAGR of 8–9% withdemand expected to bedriven by structural factorslike favourable demographicprofile, growing middle-class and urbanisation, be-sides moderate penetrationlevels.

Organised financeIn the medium–term, ICRAexpects increasing penetra-tion of organised financeinto smaller towns and ruralcentres supported by favour-able interest rates to supportdemand.

“We expect exports to clipat a CAGR of 8–10% over thenext three years with agradual pickup from nextsecond half as key marketsare showing signs of a recov-ery,” it said.

Two-wheeler sales may shrugof demonetisation impactIndustry to grow by 7–8% in iscal FY17, says ICRA

PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

MUMBAI

Packing a punch: The conversion to BS-IV emission norms alsoresulted in inventory correction. GETTYIMAGES/ISTOCKPHOTO

Coimbatore-based automot-ive components manufac-turer Pricol recently com-missioned a greenfield plantin Pune, set up at an invest-ment of ₹15 crore.

The new facility, spreadover 6.58 acres, aims to gen-erate ₹220 crore annual rev-enue in two years’ time.

Pricol currently has sixmanufacturing plants in the

country, including three inCoimbatore, and one each atManesar, Pune andRudrapur. It also has manu-facturing facilities in Jakarta,Indonesia and Sao Paulo.The investment in the newplant in Pune is only in plantand machinery. The buildinghas been taken on lease, ac-cording to G. Sundararaman,president of Pricol Limited.

The new plant will catermainly to the domestic mar-

ket. It will also look at exportof high-end products such astelematics. Mr. Sundarara-man said India continued toemerge as a global auto hub.The facility has new techno-logy pump production linescatering to domestic and ex-port markets. Further, in-vestments in electronicsmanufacturing will also con-tribute to the growing bodycontrol module and telemat-ics business. Investments in

manufacturing lines for sur-face-mount technology-prin-ted circuit boards will caterto the growing electroniccluster business in the twowheeler, commercialvehicle, off-road and tractorsegments.

According to Vikram Mo-han, managing director,Pricol, the company is plan-ning a total investment of₹350-₹400 crore till 2020 tosupport its growth targets.

Pricol commissions new plant in PuneSpecial Correspondent

COIMBATORE

Adani Enterprises has ap-plied for financing from anAustralian infrastructurefund to build a rail line thatis part of a $16 billion coalproject in Queensland, Aus-tralia’s Resources Ministersaid on Monday.

Financing from the A$5billion Northern AustralianInfrastructure Facility (NAIF)would offer a boost to Adani

after some major banks saidthey would not participate inthe controversial coal pro-ject. Since starting work onthe Carmichael developmentover five years ago, Adanihas battled opposition fromgreen groups who say it willcontribute to global warm-ing. “(NAIF) is consideringAdani’s proposal at the mo-ment,” Matthew Canavantold Reuters in Tokyo onMonday, when asked if the

Indian company had ap-proached the infrastructurefund.

Mr. Canavan, visitingTokyo to meet with buyers ofAustralian commodities, saidAdani had not yet asked forfinancing for parts of theproject other than the railline. He did not disclose howmuch funding Adani had re-quested. Adani’s Australianunit was not immediatelyavailable for comment.

NAIF was set up by theAustralian government lastyear to promote the eco-nomic development of Aus-tralia’s north by offeringloans for infrastructure pro-jects including airports,ports and railroads.

Adani, which has securedthe major state and federalgovernment approvals itneeds for Carmichael, hasstill to announce funding forthe project.

REUTERS

TOKYO

Adani seeks coal mine railway inancing

India Ratings (Ind-Ra) hasmaintained a stable out-look for cotton textiles forthe next financial year fol-lowing steady input prices,healthy capacity utilisationand healthy domestic de-mand.

The agency has revisedits cotton outlook to stablefor fiscal year 2017-18 fromnegative for the fiscal year2016-17.

The status will stemfrom fiscal incentives andimplementation of theGoods and Services Tax(GST) that will improve theindustry’s export competit-iveness, Ind-Ra said.

Favourable trade agree-ments with the U.S. andEurope will also lead to asignificant increase in In-dia’s exports and a higher-than-expected domesticdemand would be positivefor the sector, it added.

Moreover, Ind-Ra said,the U.S.’ exit from theTrans-Pacific Partnership islikely to realign textiletrade and investments,which were diverted to Vi-etnam over FY16-FY17, to-wards the Indiansubcontinent.

The stable cotton out-look is in view of an in-crease in acreage, a rise insupply in the first quarterof FY18 (due to demonet-isation) and a decline inglobal inventory assistingwith a balanced supply,Ind-Ra said. It also expectsoperating profitabilitylevels of Indian cotton gin-ners and exporters to mod-erate in FY18.

Cotton looksstable inFY18: Ind-RaPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

MUMBAI

BUSINESSEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE



IN BRIEF

Amazon Pantryunveiled in ChennaiCHENNAI

E-commerce major Amazonintroduced its grocery andhousehold facility ‘AmazonPantry’ in Chennai, taking thetotal number of cities thatofer such service to 29across the country. AmazonPantry customers in Chennaican shop for over 4,000everyday essentials fromover 250 brands of groceriesand household products,according to a companystatement. PTI

‘Indian companies leastconident worldwide’NEW DELHI

Indian companies are leastconident worldwide when itcomes to business optimismas just 16% of irms expectoverall output to expandover the next year, says asurvey. According to theMarkit India BusinessOutlook, the level ofconidence of Indian privatecompanies signiicantlydeclined in February fromthat of four months ago. InOctober 2016, 25% irmswere optimistic aboutbusiness output. PTI

Urbanpod opens irsthotel in MumbaiMUMBAI

New-age travellers visitingthe metropolis can now enjoytheir stay in a Pod hotel atafordable rates withUrbanpod, which has openedits irst facility here insuburban Andheri with 140units. Pod hotels featuresmall, pod-style rooms. Theinitial investment was doneby promoters, and forexpansion, the irm is opento investments. “We arelooking at an average of₹10-20 crore investmentover the next three years,”Urbanpod co-founder HirenGandhi said. PTI

RBI had given in-principle approval for 10 institutions to startsmall finance banks (SFBs) in the country. Among them wasESAF Microfinance, which was set to begin operations as abank from March 17. In an interview, K. Paul Thomas,founder and chairman, ESAF Microfinance dwelt on the spacethat SFBs needed to fill. Edited excerpts:

What is the significance of asmall financebank in India?

■ The financial inclusionagenda was first mootedabout the year 2005. TheSwabhimaan campaign wasthe first such initiative tocover villages with bankingfacilities.

The initiative proved to bea failure due to lack of finan-cial literacy and technology-related issues. A few yearsago, Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi furthered theagenda by launching Pra-dhan-Mantri Jandhan Yojanaand later by sanctioning li-cences to launch Small Fin-ance Banks and PaymentsBank. The recent digitalpush that we witnessed canalso be considered as part ofthe overall agenda. The fact,that 8 microfinance institu-tions were selected from atotal of 10 SFB licences, wasa great acknowledgment tothe contributions made bythe microfinance sector inthe field of financial inclu-sion. Universal banks are notin a position to understandthe needs of small-value cus-tomers.

But, MFIs have been prac-tising financial inclusion fora long time and hence are ina better position to serve theunderserved. The credit re-quirements of these custom-ers are really low. In a coun-try where a majority of thepopulation comes under thelow-to-middle income group,this is absolutely important.

Many banks have startedin Indiawith the objective

of inclusiveness. Howdoyou justify yourimportance?

■ Universal banks havefound it difficult to deliverthe last-mile connectivitymainly due to issues like lackof proper understanding ofthe rural population, short-age of appropriate human re-sources and cost issues. MFIshave employees who under-stand rural customers andthey are always willing toslog it out to reach out to thepoor.

At ESAF, we give emphasisto client convenience andfinancial literacy. We deliverdoor-step service accordingto the convenience of the cli-ents. Unlike universal banks,we have proved to be thetrue agents of financial inclu-sion.

As we understand variouslifecycle needs of rural cus-tomers better, we can de-velop products and servicesthat aptly serve the assetsand liability requirements ofthe customer.

For decades, we havebeen catering to the small-value loan needs of the ruralcustomer.

Now, we have an oppor-tunity to deliver the full bou-quet of banking services torural folk, as they were badlymissing it for quite sometime.

As an MFI, we have set so-cial targets for each branchapart from financial targets.We are bent on taking thesame values forward and dif-ferentiating ourselves in amore meaningful manner inthe banking space.

In India, co-operativebanks havemajorpresence andparticipation frompeople. You are likely tocompetewith them. Howdo you gather support toget business?

■ We are here to deliver apromise — the promise of of-fering personalised attentionthat has been missing fromthe entire banking scenariofor a long time.

This is important whenbanking is getting moretransactional in nature. Weknow that the scenario iscompetitive. Hence, we giveemphasis to branding andhave adequate plans to buildbrand ‘ESAF’ through mul-tiple platforms.

As we communicatedthrough an earlier campaign‘we build the nation from theroots’, we will focus more onbuilding the brand throughcommunity development.The proof of the pudding isalways in the eating. Somerely communicatingwithout displaying the es-sence will only hamper ouraspirations. So far we havegrown mainly through wordof mouth.

The community initiativeswe have envisaged for thebank will hopefully help usin delivering the same res-ults. We have an interestingand innovative socialproduct in the offing that candisturb the market dynam-ics. Co-operative banks arepermitted to function only ina smaller geography andcannot offer banking ser-vices on a wide scale.

On the technology sidealso they are lagging behind.We come with technologic-ally advanced products andstate-of-the art digital solu-tions.

We combine the virtues ofboth co-operative banks anduniversal banks: the local

connect of cooperativebanks and technologicalmight of universal banks willreflect in SFBs.

We don’t consider co-op-erative banks alone as ourcompetitors. Maybe for ashort time it may count. Inthe long term, we will con-sider competition on a widerhorizon and will stay relev-ant to all categories ofcustomers.

In that context, RRBs andLocal Area Banks have notreally succeeded inpicking up...

■ Failure of RRBs and LABsled to the formation of thesenew categories of banks. As Isaid earlier, the last-mile con-nectivity can well be ex-ecuted by the SFBs, whowere the leaders in the mi-crofinance domain in vari-ous markets. In a countrywith more than 130-crorepopulation, financial inclu-sion cannot be achievedthrough a single stroke. It’san evolution. SFBs wereborn out of that evolutionand hopefully, I believe thistime the authorities havestruck the right cord with

their objective. The RRBsand LABs were functioningunder regulatory restric-tions. Thankfully, all thoseconstraints were removedfor SFBs.

Will you continue yourmicro-finance business?

■ Yes. Instead of microfin-ance we are moving in to mi-cro banking. ESAF Microfin-ance and Investments (P)Ltd., the current company,will continue to be a core in-vestment company. Thebiggest advantage of becom-ing a bank is that we can givehigher loans and can encour-age the savings habit amongthem. Going forward, ESAFSmall Finance Bank will bethe flagship brand of ESAF.

Howmany brancheswillyou open in the initialstage?What are yourexpansion plans?

■ In the initial stage, we willopen 85 flagship retailbranches and 300 customertouch points through theyear. In the long term, wehave plans to reach around500 branches by 2020.

‘MFIs understand rural customers’‘Small inance banks with microinance experience can bring about inancial inclusion’

Oommen A. Ninan

Thiruvananthapuram

<> Universal banks have found it diicult to deliver

last-mile connectivity

INTERVIEW | K. PAUL THOMAS

The promoters of CavinKarePvt. Ltd., a fast-moving con-sumer goods company, havebought out the entire hold-ing that ChrysCapital — ahome-grown private equityfirm — held in the company,for an undisclosed sum.

ChrysCapital had inves-ted ₹250 crore in CavinKarein 2013.

The investment, sourcessaid, had delivered a returnof a little more than twotimes in less than four yearsfor ChrysCapital.

With this, CavinKare willbe fully owned by its pro-moters led by its chairmanand managing director C.K.Ranganathan.

“By providing ChrysCap-ital the exit option, I have ef-fectively consolidated myownership to 100% in thecompany,” he said.

Mr. Ranganathan said thebuy-out would give the pro-moters a lot of leeway andoptions to restructure theorganisation, which cur-rently produced personalcare and food products.

He, however, made itclear that any revamp couldbe considered only after acareful study of various pos-sibilities. To a question, hesaid that CavinKare wouldconsider assorted fundingoptions going forward oncethe reorganisation was car-ried out.

Focus on results

To a question, he merelysaid ChrysCapital was giventhe option at the time of itsentry to go up to a max-imum of 14% equity holdingin the company.

CavinKare roped inChrysCapital in 2013 tobring in a greater degree ofdynamism and progressive-ness into the company. Theinvestment came at a timewhen the company was

looking to furtherstrengthen its focus on thestrategic direction and res-ults.

The buy-out by CavinK-are’s promoter marksChrysCapital’s first full exitfor its sixth Fund, whichentered its harvestingphase. The ₹1,350-croreFMCG company started itsjourney with the iconic ChikShampoo brand in the1980s. Occupying the topthird position in the hairwash and hair colour mar-ket, the company has sev-eral ₹100 crore brands inthe hair care space, includ-ing household names suchas Chik, Indica and Meera.

“At a time when growthin the personal care spacehas been muted for mostcompanies, CavinKare hasenjoyed a strong growth of15% during the last few quar-ters,” said a statement fromthe company. “During thelast decade, CavinKare hassuccessfully transformed it-self from a pure personalcare player to a FMCG con-glomerate with interests inthe dairy, snacks, food andbeverages businesses,” itsaid.

ChrysCapital, it may berecalled, has raised its sev-enth fund accumulating$600 million from investorssuch as Government ofSingapore Investment Cor-poration (GIC) and HarvardManagement Company.

ChrysCapital sellsCavinKare stakePromoter consolidates ownership

K.T. Jagannathan

CHENNAI

C.K. Ranganathan

CMYK

M VZ-VZ




SPORT

Cech leaps to the defenceof Alexis SanchezLONDON

Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cechhas dismissed media reportsthat striker Alexis Sanchezwas laughing at the side’scollapse in the ChampionsLeague match against BayernMunich last week. “I found itvery disrespectful to theplayer. But obviously you cantake a picture and you caninterpret it the way you want,unfortunately. But we theplayers, we know exactlywhat he said and we knowhow he was hurting and hewas as disappointed asanybody else.” REUTERS

Klopp has no problemswinning ‘ugly’LIVERPOOL

Liverpool manager JurgenKlopp says he is happy for histeam to win “ugly” during theremainder of the PremierLeague season if it bringsresults. “I would say youneed to be ready for both.You cannot plan an uglygame. But yes, if we want tostay where we are, then weneed to win football gamesand we can’t make the choiceand say ‘yes or no we want toplay this way’,” the Germanadded. AFP

IN BRIEF

Mahmudullah droppedfor second TestDHAKA

Bangladesh has droppedbatsman Mahmudullah Riyadfrom its squad for the secondTest against Sri Lanka inColombo, a senior cricketofficial said on Monday.“Mahmudullah is coming backhome before the second Testas he is struggling with form,”chief selector of theBangladesh Cricket BoardMinhajul Abedin said. AFP

Champions League: TEN 2& TEN 1 HD, 12.30 a.m.(Wednesday)NBA: Sony Six & Sony Six HD,5.30 a.m. (Wednesday)

TV PICKS

Australia’s leading spinnerNathan Lyon on Monday saidthe “pressure is right on In-dia” in the ongoing four-match Test series and pattedhis team for its fighting dis-play in the last two games.

The series is poised at 1-1with two more matchesscheduled in Ranchi andDharamshala.

Written off“There’s a lot of belief.There’s a lot of people whowrote us off, before we evengot on a plane and landed inDubai, let alone coming overhere,” Lyon said.

The off-spinner wasquoted as saying in theSydney Morning Herald,“We’re one win away fromretaining the trophy andthat’s what we are here to do.

“The pressure is right onIndia — there’s no pressureon us. Everyone said ‘wewere going to lose 4-0,they’re no good, they’re ayoung cricket team learning,’but we believe we can beatthe best teams anywhere inthe world.

“We proved that in the

first Test, we came close inthe second Test and eventhat hurt — that’s probablythe best thing about thatgame.

“I think they’re feeling thepressure a little bit to be hon-est. And it’s good.”

The Australians have leftBengaluru for Ranchi. Lyon,who India flummoxed withhis off-spin in the first inningsof the second Test, brieflyspoke about the importanceof reverse swing.

“With our air speed andability to get the ball revers-ing, and the earlier we can dothat the better,” Lyon said.

Hurt, but likely to playLyon, who suffered crackedskin on his right index fingerduring the second Test, isconfident he will be in theplaying eleven for the thirdTest.

Off-spinners historicallydevelop significant calluses(thickened and hardenedparts of skin) on the topknuckle of their spinning fin-ger, and Lyon said one suchcallus was sliced open on theinside of his right index fin-ger during the second in-nings of the Bengaluru Test.

He’s confident his fingerailment will be healed in timefor the third Test.

“I have bowled a lot ofballs over the summer and itusually happens once ortwice a year. It just split. Itwas pretty painful there for abit,” Lyon said.

“And you can’t bowl on(adhesive) tape — there arerules and laws, that you can’tbowl on tape so I wasn’t evenconsidering that,” he wasquoted as saying on theCricket Australia website.

“The last time I was here(in India, in 2013), the samething happened in the thirdTest and I was able to playthree days later. So I’m more

than confident of turning outfor the next Test.”

The ailment restricted himto fitness work and otherdrills and Lyon said he stillhad a bit of pain while bowl-ing variations.

“I’m able to bowl cross-seam and stuff, so I can stilltry to spin it. But for vari-ations and trying to get driftand drop and stuff — to go atthe back of the ball — the wayI bowl, (the finger injury)does impede it a little bit.”

StrategyLyon has bowled quite a bitover the wicket to India’s pre-ponderance of right-handedbatters.

In Australia where bounceis more of a weapon thanspin, Lyon often operatesaround the wicket to use theincreased angle he creates tobring the bat-pad catchersinto play.

“It depends on the pitch.The last two pitches I’ve beenable to get good bounce,sharp bounce and fast spinoff the wicket as well.

“If the wicket wasn’t doingthat as much, then I’d look atthe option of coming aroundthe wicket.”

Pressure is on India: Lyon‘We believe we can beat the best teams anywhere in the world’


Ranchi

Exceeding expectations:Nathan Lyon says ‘the young and inexperienced’ Australia has efectivelysilenced all critics. AP

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

� Off-spinners develop

signiicant calluses on the

top knuckle of their

spinning inger.

� One such callus was sliced

open on the inside of

Lyon’s right index inger

during the second innings

of the Bengaluru Test.

� He’s conident his inger

ailment will be healed in

time for the third Test.

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

India captain Virat Kohlislipped one place to fourthwhile R. Ashwin was back asthe top all-rounder andmaintained his number oneplace among bowlers in theICC Test rankings releasedon Monday.

Kohli (847 points) has hadan ordinary Test seriesagainst Australia.

New Zealand skipperKaneWilliamson gained twoplaces to reach second spotin the ICC Player Rankingsfor Test Batsmen.

The latest rankings,which took into accountperformances in the firstTest between Sri Lanka andBangladesh in Galle whichthe home side won by 259runs, saw Williamsonleapfrog Joe Root and Kohliafter his fine knock of 130.

Williamson, who wasnumber-one ranked for abrief while in November-December 2015, is now on869 points, 21 points aheadof third-placed Root (848)but a good 67 points adriftof table leader Steve Smithof Australia, who’s on 936points.

Another Indian Chetesh-war Pujara is unchanged onsixth.

Meanwhile, Ashwin alsodethroned Bangladesh’sShakib Al Hasan from thetop spot for all-rounders.Ashwin is now on 434points, 31 ahead of Shakib(403).

Ashwin back astop all-rounderPRESS TRUST OF INDIA

DUBAI

R. Ashwin.

The Champions Trophy, tobe held in three months’time, would decide the fateof India’s most successfulcricket captain MahendraSingh Dhoni, his childhoodcoach Keshav Banerjee saidhere on Monday.

“At the moment, his solefocus is on the ChampionsTrophy. If he’s successfulthere, I think he would go ontill the 2019 World Cup,”Banerjee said at the launchof an under-14 crickettournament.

One of the best finishersin the world, Dhoni still has asharp brain despite the dropin success rate, Banerjee felt.

“It’s natural that with age,you would not hit the samestrike rate. But his will-power and game-analysingsense are the two qualitiesthat make him special. He’sout there playing domesticone-dayers (Vijay HazareTrophy) to keep himself inshape ahead of the Champi-ons Trophy.”

Having surprised every-

one by calling it quits fromTests Down Under in late2014, Dhoni stepped downfrom limited overs captaincyin January.

“He never liked to bepushed so he called it quitsbefore any one could pointfingers at him in the Testformat,” Banerjee said.

“He never kept anyone in

the loop, even his best friendor parents did not knowwhen he quit Tests.”

Banerjee seemed un-happy with the way Dhoniwas removed as skipper ofRising Pune Supergiants forthe Indian Premier Leagueseason 10.

“It appeared to me a de-cision by the team owners as

Dhoni did not have anychoice now but to play thisseason (with Chennai SuperKings being suspended),” hesaid.

Banerjee’s role in shapingDhoni’s early days as a crick-eter was documented in thebiopic MS Dhoni: The UntoldStory. A cricket coach atDhoni’s alma mater, JawaharVidya Mandir at Shyamali inRanchi, Banerjee persuadeda then Class VI football goal-keeper to become a wicket-keeper. The rest, as they say,is history.

“He was known for hispunctuality, discipline andhe’s still the same, has notchanged a bit,” he said.

Having seen Dhoni risefrom the school level, Baner-jee urged the BCCI to en-courage cricketers in un-der-14 age group.

“I know they have a big fa-cility (National CricketAcademy) in Bengaluru butwe must look after U-14 kids.They need to be nurturedproperly. They need somerecognition and motivation,”he said.

Champions Trophy may decideDhoni’s fate: childhood coachStumper’s sharpness unafected despite drop in success rate, says Banerjee


Kolkata

Still relevant: Keshav Banerjee feels that if Dhoni succeeds atthe Champions Trophy, he could continue till the 2019WC. PTI

Australian all-rounderMitchell Marsh requires re-constructive surgery on hisshoulder injury which willsideline him for up to ninemonths and end his hopesof participating in thisyear’s Ashes series, localmedia reported onMonday.

Marsh, a pace-bowlingall-rounder, struggled withthe shoulder injurythroughout Australia’shome summer and wasruled out of Australia’s re-maining two Tests in Indialast week.

Surgery, which theWest-ern Australian newspapersaid was “vital” if he wasever to bowl at full paceagain, would effectivelyput the 25-year-old out ofcontention for the homeAshes series, which startsin Brisbane in lateNovember.

Marsh was hailed as thesolution to Australia’s lackof a quality all-rounderwhen he made his Test de-but in late 2014 but hasbeen widely criticised forhis contributions in thelonger format with returnsof 674 runs and 29 wicketsin 21 matches.

During the first twoTests against India at Puneand Bengaluru, the west-ern Australian scored 48runs in four innings andbowled just five overs.

Mitch MarshmaymissAshes seriesReuters

MELBOURNE

The Saurashtra Cricket Asso-ciation (SCA) has com-plained to BCCI joint secret-ary Amitabh Chaudhary that“audit firm Deloitte shouldhave discussed and soughtclarification from the re-spective associations ontheir observation andcomments.

“The audit report was tobe kept in total privacy andcustody of Cyril AmarchandMangaldas (BCCI attorney).We are aghast that this re-port has reached mediaorganisations.”

In a letter addressed toChaudhary, SCA joint secret-ary Madhukar Worah saidthe Deloitte report leaked to

the media “without theknowledge of the partywhose audit has been donewith purpose to malign thereputation of Stateassociations.

“The ulterior motive ofthis leak seems to be to dentthe prestige and reputationof the State associations andto create biased opinionsagainst them.”

Inexperienced teamThe letter further says: “Wefeel sorry to state that theteam appointed by Deloittefor auditing the SCA wasquite inexperienced abouthow cricket associationsfunction.

“And for this reason, theSCA had repeatedly com-

plained to the notice of theBCCI. Also, we wish to in-form that simultaneouslySCA was audited by Pricewa-terCoopers (PwC) India andhence the SCA seeks to re-ceive copies of both auditreports.”

The SCA has sent copiesof its letter to the Committeeof Administrators, AnirudhChaudhry (BCCI treasurer),Rahul Johri (BCCI CEO) andProf. Ratnakar Shetty (gen-eral manager, Administra-tion & Game, BCCI) and toall State associations.

Most associations are up-set that Deloitte did not con-duct “exit meetings” withthem before submitting thereport to BCCI.

In another development,

the SCA has urged Johri toclear overdue payments sothat it could make paymentsto players who representedthe State in BCCItournaments.

Worah has pointed outthat BCCI pays the matchfees of cricketers who play indomestic tournaments andhence it has to remit moneyto all State associations sothat they may pay the play-ers’ fees.

The SCA has also re-minded Johri that he has toensure payment of Rs. 30lakh per IPL match as perthe agreement with BCCI.

“We sincerely hope thatthe pending matter is re-solved and funds are re-leased,” said Worah.

Saurashtra CA seeks audit reportsIt says media leak has dented the prestige of State associations

G. Viswanath

Mumbai

The Court of Arbitration forSport (CAS) said on Mondayit had issued a life ban againstdoctor Sergei Portugalov, anallegedmastermind of State-sponsored doping in Russiantrack and field.

TheLausanne-based courtsaid in a statement it hadslapped Portugalov with a“lifetime period of ineligibil-ity” beginning March 10,2017, for having supplied ath-letes with banned sub-stances.

CAS said that Portugalov,who had served as the headof theRussian athletics feder-ation’smedical commission,had been found to have viol-

ated several articles of theIAAF anti-doping regula-tions, including the posses-sion, trafficking and adminis-tration of prohibitedsubstances.

The World Anti-DopingAgency (WADA) had recom-mended in a 2015 report thatPortugalov take no part inany State sports programmeafter it foundhehadbeenkey

to rampant doping amongRussian track and field ath-letes.

WADAsaidPortugalovwas“very active in the conspir-acy to cover up athletes’ pos-itive tests in exchange for apercentage of their win-nings.” The agency said thatPortugalov administered thedoping programmes and“even injected athleteshimself.”

Russia has been barredfrom international track andfield competition, includingthe Rio Olympics, sinceNovember 2015 following thedamning WADA reportpresenting evidence of State-sponsored doping in thesport.

CAS slaps life ban on doping‘mastermind’ PortugalovAgence France-Presse

LAUSANNE

Sergei Portugalov FILE PHOTO

Real Madrid’s irrepressibleSergio Ramos headed it to a2-1 come-from-behind winover Real Betis on Sunday asZinedine Zidane’s side capit-alised on Barcelona’s earlierdefeat by Deportivo La Co-runa to top the La Ligastandings.

A calamitous own goalfrom Real goalkeeper KeylorNavas had given Betis thelead in the 25th minute, justafter the Costa Rican es-caped a possible red card, al-though Cristiano Ronaldo

pulled the home side level inthe 41st with a diving header.

Betis had defender Cristi-ano Piccini sent off for asecond booking in the 78thand three minutes laterRamos nodded in his 10thgoal in all competitions thisseason, adding to his headerin the 3-1 win at Napoli in theChampions League onTuesday.

Navas luckyHowever, Madrid's win wasmired in controversy as goal-keeper Navas was extremelylucky to avoid an early red

card before making a bril-liant stoppage time save todeny Antonio Sanabria.

Navas clearly cleaned outDarko Brasanac on the edgeof the Madrid area as heraced from his goal after just20 minutes, but referee Ant-onio Mateu Lahoz inexplic-ably waived play on.

Real Madrid leads thestandings on 62 points, Bar-celona is second with 60after suffering a 2-1 loss at De-portivo, and Sevilla is thirdon 57 following a 1-1 draw athome to Leganes on Sat-urday, while Real has a game

in hand on its title rival.“I would be happier if we

scored two or three goals atthe start,” said Real coach Zi-nedine Zidane. “But we re-main calm because we knowwe can score at any moment

“The opposition played intheir own half, they defen-ded well and caused us prob-lems on the counter-attack.We’re happy with the resultand we must congratulatethe players because it wasn’teasy.

“The pressure is there, itdoesn’t end here, there’s stilla lot to play for and we know

that,” Zidane told his club’swebsite.

The results:

La Liga: Real Madrid 2 (Ronaldo40, Ramos 81) bt Real Betis 1(Navas 25-og); Celta Vigo 0 lostto Villarreal 1 (Soldado 45); RealSociedad 0 lost to Athletic Bil-bao 2 (Raul Garcia 28-pen, Wil-liams 56).

Serie A: Palermo 0 lost to Roma3 (El Shaarawy 22, Dzeko 76,Peres 90+1)

Bundesliga: Hamburg 2 (Kostic36, Wood 80) bt BorussiaMonchengladbach 1(Christensen 23).

Real Madrid hufs and pufs its way back to the topRamos heads winner against Real Betis as the side rallies to win

Leading light: Skipper Sergio Ramos bailed out Real Madrid yet again. AFP

AGENCIES

MADRID

The 2022 CommonwealthGames will no longer takeplace in Durban, SouthAfrica, the BBC and otherBritish media reported onMonday.

South Africa sports min-ister Fikile Mbalula indic-ated that the governmentmight withdraw its finan-cial support because of thecost of staging the multi-sport event.

Durbanstripped of2022 CWGAgence France-Presse

LONDON




SPORT

SUDOKU

O L O U R S T A S H I N G

A A S T R T D A

N A N D A D E V I E J E C T

N G G A U M A I

A Z U R E S E M I C O L O N

B I E P E S G

I N S I P I D H O L I

S H A L F E

P Y R E C I S T E R N

S C I X A S T

P A L A N Q U I N W A T E R

R O G R N H I A

I N T R O B R O K E E V E N

N H U A T R A C

G R E E T I N G M A L I E

C

E

Solution to puzzle 11953 Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Poet Nakkeerar’s poem — Thirumurugatrupadai — was sospiritually powerful, that it helped save lives, said M.A. Man-ickavelu, in a discourse. A demon once captured Nakkeerarand imprisoned him in a cave. There were already 999people in the cave. The demon’s plan was that when thenumber of prisoners touched 1000, it would kill all of themand eat them up. So Nakkeerar’s entry into the cave wasviewed with alarm by the already imprisoned people, forwith his coming, the number of prisoners touched one thou-sand. But Nakkeerar remained unperturbed. He knew thathis faith in Lord Shanmukha would see him through anycrisis. So he composed Thirumurugatrupadai in praise ofLord Shanmukha, and the cave broke into many pieces.Lord Shanmukha killed the demon and all the demon’s pris-oners were saved. Such is the power of the Lord’s name.

The Tamil prefix ‘Thiru’ indicates auspiciousness. Mur-uga, the name by which Lord Shanmukha is popular inTamil Nadu, means beauty and youthfulness. Atrupadai is atype of poetry, where the poet guides one to a generous pat-ron. In Thirumurugatrupadai, Nakkeerar guides devotees tothe six holy abodes of Lord Shanmukha in Tamil Nadu,which are known as arupadaiveedu. Thirumurugatrupadaibegins with a description of Lord Shanmukha of the sacredshrine of Tiruparankundram. There are descriptions of theLord’s handsomeness.

It then goes on to say that when the demon Soorapadmanassumed the form of a human being with the face of a horse,Lord Shanmukha took six different forms to kill him. The de-mon had hidden in a mango tree, which the Lord split withHis spear, and killed the demon. The poet Nakkeerar in hisThirumurugatrupadai says that moksha is to be sought atthe feet of the Lord, and that devotees should work for thewelfare of others, selflessly.

FAITH

Nakkeerar’s powerful poem8 Oversized copper gets long-

overdue kiss (8)

11 Starts treating underage

mother — identiies

diaphragm being swollen (5)

15 Movement that can rip pants?

(8)

16 Sort out mail (8)

17 Article on Spain's model-actor

(8)

19 Thug mostly gave returns with

a guarantee (8)

20 There you go! Empty space

inally given away to the

Spanish (5)

22 Sly criminal took vehicle to

ind one who frequents

woods (6)

24 Chieftain to retire if a riot

becomes national (6)

27 What model wife traded to

become warmer (4)

28 Brute king wearing accessory

for the audience (4)

14 Spy has one American dish (5)

15 Half the battalion killed by weird

fragment (7)

18 Turn clipped gun (7)

21 Eastern sea’s waves get calmer

(5)

23 Lively Frenchman about to win

one hundred (9)

25 Food discount request to be

considered (7)

26 Practice at home (7)

29 Test without class toppers' score?

Not happening! (11,4)

■ DOWN

1 Editor at Germany extremely

nervous (4)

2 Skewer to crackle (4)

3 I'm about to enter accommodating

homeland (8)

4 Ordinary person when put down?

(6)

5 Round folder (8)

6 Clear one rotten pastry (6)

7 Unfettered desire for

independence (8)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

9

10 11 12

13 14

15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28

29

(set by Aspartame)

■ ACROSS

9 Politico camps with doctor

protesting for administrative

body (10,5)

10 Y-young teetotaller’s drink

with setter (7)

12 Beverages you inally brought

home (7)

13 Heartbreaking movie 'Motion'

allegedly smuggled (9)

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 11954

Real coach Zidanedefends NavasMADRID

Real Madrid coach ZinedineZidane has hailed goalkeeperKeylor Navas’ contributiondespite the latest in a seriesof blunders this season fromthe Costa Rican on Sunday.“The most important thingfor me is the support Keylorreceived from his teammates.They know how important heis and in the end he made agreat save to get us the threepoints,” he said. AFP

IN BRIEF

Wigan Athelticsacks managerLONDON

Wigan Athletic became thelatest club in Englishfootball’s second-tierChampionship to sack itsmanager as Warren Joyceexited on Monday after justfour months in charge.Former Manchester Unitedreserve-team manager Joycewon just six out of 24matches in charge of WiganAthletic. AFP

Novak Djokovic launched hisbid for a sixth ATP IndianWells Masters crown with atwo-set triumph over KyleEdmund as the stars shoneon Sunday in the Californiadesert.

The 46th-ranked Edmundserved for the second set at5-3, but world No. 2 Djokovicbroke him en route to a 6-4,7-6(5) triumph.

Tough clashHis reward is a tough third-round clash with former USOpen champion Juan Martindel Potro, a 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 win-ner over fellow Argentine Fe-derico del Bonis.

“I think I played very wellin the first set,” Djokovicsaid. “Second set was obvi-ously up and down. Butcredit to Kyle for playingsome really aggressivetennis.

“He made a lot of winnersin the beginning and midwaythrough the second. Therewas not much wrong I did. Idid miss some forehands.But other than that, it was avery solid match. Good,quality tennis, a good test.”

Roger Federer and RafaelNadal also reached the thirdround, Federer flyingthrough with a 6-2, 6-1 vic-tory over France's StephaneRobert in just 51 minutes.

Nadal opened his account

with a steady 6-3, 6-2 victoryover Argentina's Guido Pella.

The three stars are packedtogether in a remarkable bot-tom quarter of the draw.

But Djokovic said he can'tafford to think about a pos-sible quarterfinal clash witheither of his longtime rivalswith del Potro coming up.

While Djokovic has won 12of their 16 career meetings,the Argentine handed him acrushing two-tiebreak defeatin the first round of the RioOlympics — a defeat Djokovicavenged in Acapulco this

month. “Big guy, big serve,big forehand,” Djokovic saidof del Potro.

“Definitely not the drawthat you like early in thetournament and that youwish for, but it is what it is,”added Djokovic, who is try-ing to get back to the win-ner's circle after a shocksecond-round exit at the Aus-tralian Open and a quarterfi-nal loss to Nick Kyrgios inAcapulco.

Ninth-seeded Federer, re-surgent after a 2016 seasonmarred by injury, downed

Nadal in an epic AustralianOpen final to secure his 18thGrand Slam title.

Speed bumpHe hit a speed bump inDubai this month, failing toconvert three match pointsin a third-round loss to Ev-geny Donskoy — but he wasfiring on all cylinders againstthe 81st-ranked Robert.

“Very happy,” said Fe-derer, who missed IndianWells last year with a knee in-jury that required surgery.

“Knee is a thing of the

“That's sport, no?” Nadalsaid. “Yesterday probablyAndy didn't play his bestmatch and Vasek served verywell.”

The results: Men: Secondround: Taylor Fritz bt Marin Cilic4-6, 7-5, 6-4; Malek Jaziri btMarcel Granollers 7-5, 6-3; JackSock bt Henri Laaksonen 6-3,0-6, 6-4; Grigor Dimitrov btMikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-0; Lu-cas Pouille bt Jan-LennardStruff 6-3, 6-2; Donald Youngbt Sam Querrey 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Gilles Muller bt Jiri Veseli 7-6(1), 6-1; Kei Nishikori bt DanielEvans 6-3, 6-4; Rafael Nadal btGuido Pella 6-3, 6-2; FernandoVerdasco bt Pierre-Hugues Her-bert 7-6(5), 6-1; Steve Johnsonbt Kevin Anderson 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(4); Roger Federer bt StşphaneRobert 6-2, 6-1; Nick Kyrgios btHoracio Zeballos 6-3, 6-4; Alex-ander Zverev bt Facundo Bagnis7-6(10), 6-3; Juan Martin delPotro bt Federico Del Bonis 7-6(5), 6-3; Novak Djokovic bt KyleEdmund 6-4, 7-6(5).

Women: Third round: DominikaCibulkova bt Kristyna Pliskova2-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4); Elina Svito-lina bt Daria Gavrilova 6-2, 6-1;Svetlana Kuznetsova bt RobertaVinci 6-2, 2-6, 6-1; Timea Bac-sinszky bt Kiki Bertens 6-3, 5-7,7-6(8); Caroline Garcia bt Jo-hanna Konta 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(1);Karolina Pliskova bt Irina Begu6-4, 7-6(2).

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova btBarbora Strycova 6-3, 6-2; Gar-bine Muguruza bt Kayla Day3-6, 7-5. 6-2.

past, which is great. I don'teven have to think or talkabout it.”

Nadal was pleased with a“solid” opening effortagainst Pella, made trickierby the oven-like mid-daytemperatures and the factthat Pella, like Nadal, is a left-hander.

Playing solid“I didn't try to do amazingthings. I tried to play solid,”the fifth-seeded Spaniardsaid. “For moments I playedwell. For moments I played alittle bit less well. Importantthing, I won, and I won instraight sets.”

Nadal knows he'll have toturn up the intensity if hewants to end a hard courttitle drought stretching backto 2014.

The bottom half of thedraw also features fourth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Ja-pan, who eased past Britain'sDaniel Evans 6-3, 6-4.

But sixth-seeded MarinCilic, who beat Nishikori inthe 2014 US Open final, wasan early casualty, beaten 4-6,7-5, 6-4 by 19-year-old Amer-ican Taylor Fritz.

The jam-packed half of thedraw is a contrast to thewide-open top half, whichlost a lot of its lustre on Sat-urday when world No. 1Andy Murray was stunned by129th-ranked Canadian quali-fier Vasek Pospisil.

Djokovic and Federer advanceNadal scores a steady win over Pella; Nishikori eases past Evans

Easy outing:Novak Djokovic breezed past Kyle Edmund to set up a third roundmatch againstJuanMartin del Potro. AFP

Agencies

Indian Wells

Host India was delivered ashock 2-1 defeat by HongKong in the opening leaguematch in Group D in theAsia-Oceania Junior DavisCup under-16 tennis tour-nament at the DLTA Com-plex on Sunday.

Sacchitt Sharma had lev-elled the scores afterShashank Theertha hadlost the first singles. How-ever, Hong Kong clinchedthe decisive doublesthrough Ki Lung Roger Ngand Sheung Yin Wong 6-4,6-1. Sacchitt partneredRithvik Chaudhary Bollip-alli, late into the night onSunday, after the twosingles matches had lastednearly six hours.

After Monday’s rest day,action will resume onTuesday with India playingNew Zealand. Japan will bethe third opponent for In-dia, in its bid to be amongthe top two in the pool tomake the knockouts.

The top four teams fromthe tournament will qualifyfor the World Group finalsin Budapest in September.The results (league): HongKong bt India 2-1 (Wai Yu Kaibt Shashank Theertha 6-3,4-6, 7-5; Ki Lung Roger Nglost to Sacchitt Sharma 7-6(4), 4-6, 2-6; Ki Lung RogerNg & Sheung Yin Wong btRithvik Chaudary Bollipalli &Sacchitt 6-4, 6-1).

India goesdown toHong KongSports Bureau

NEW DELHI

Bangladesh will look to over-come its recent dismal formas the perennial minnowtries to make its 100th Testappearance an occasion tocelebrate against Sri Lankahere.

Test cricket’s newestentrant has showed occa-sional promise since it wasdrafted into the elite cricketcompetition in 2000 but hasmostly embarrassed its loyalfans with a series of below-par performances in thegame’s most enduringformat.

Bangladesh goes intoWednesday’s Test at the P.Saravanamuttu Stadiumtrailing the two-match series1-0 after last week’s crushing259-run loss at Galle — its76th defeat and the fourth ina row in 99 Tests.

No other Test-playingcountry has lost so manytimes in its first 100 Testmatches and the dubioushonour highlightsBangladesh’s struggle in thefive-day format over the past17 years.

So far it has won onlyeight Test matches, onemore than New Zealand,which had only seven winsin its first 100 Tests, thoughthe Kiwis managed to ekeout 47 draws againstBangladesh’s 15.

Five of Bangladesh’s eightwins came at home includ-

ing four against fellow strug-gler Zimbabwe.

And it won just three of its46 games abroad — twoagainst an under-strengthWest Indies and one againstZimbabwe.

The Tigers, as they are af-fectionately called by theirfans, lost 21 consecutive Testmatches between 2001 and2004, the worst-ever losingrun by a team which noother side has even comeclose to emulating.

It has improved in recentmatches, drawing the homeseries against England be-fore dragging its last fourTests into the fifth day,which many saw as a mark ofsuccess.

“We are doing the rightthing, that’s why we havebeen competitive in all these

games,” coach Chandika Ha-thurusinghe told reportershere on Sunday.

“Why have you raisedyour expectations? Becausewe are doing well, am Iright? That’s what we all ex-pect, and we are asking toomuch of a team that is stillfinding its feet in Testcricket. It is a fact,” he said.

While Sri Lanka Cricketplans to help Bangladesh cel-ebrate its 100th Test match,including hosting a dinner inits honour, the visitors wantto focus on the game.

“We’re trying to keepthings simple because apartfrom the 100th Test, this isalso an important game forus,” Bangladesh CricketBoard spokesman JalalYunus said in Dhaka.

Former captain Habibul

Bashar, who playedBangladesh’s inaugural Testagainst India in 2000, saidthe team must win moregames to prove their detract-ors, including former Eng-land player Geoffrey Boy-cott, wrong.

“The best way to celebratethe (100th Test) occasion willbe winning this game.Bangladesh needs this winmore than anything else,”Bashar said.

“We are now a strong sidein limited over matches. Butin Test cricket wemust trans-late our potential into match-winning feats.”The teams (from):Sri Lanka: Rangana Herath(Capt.), Dimuth Karunaratne,Niroshan Dickwella, Upul Thar-anga, Dhananjaya de Silva,Kusal Mendis, Asela Gunaratne,Dinesh Chandimal, SurangaLakmal, Lahiru Kumara, NuwanPradeep, Vikum SanjayaBandara, Dilruwan Perera, Lak-shan Sandakan, and MalindaPushpakumara.Bangladesh: Mushfiqur Rahim(Capt.), Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das,Imrul Kayes, Soumya Sarkar,Mominul Haque, Shakib AlHasan, Sabbir Rahman,Mustafizur Rahman, Taijul Is-lam, Mehedi Hasan, TaskinAhmed, Mosaddek Hossain,Kamrul Islam Rabbi, SubashisRoy, and Rubel Hossain.

Bangladesh hopes for a memorable 100th

It has struggled in the ive-day format, losing 76 of its 99 matches

Agence France Presse

Colombo

Landmarkmatch: Bangladesh, led byMushiqur Rahim, centre,will hope to come good in the second Test againstSri Lanka. AFP

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

B Bangladesh trails thetwo-Test series 1-0

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Zothan Puia stars in

AOC Centre’s big win

HYDERABAD:Winger ZothanPuia scored a hat-trick tohelp AOC Centre score anemphatic, 7-0 win over StateBank of India in the A-Division Rahim Leaguefootball championship atAOC Ground here onMonday.

Zothan struck in the 43rd,65th and 67th minutes.

Later, A.K. Singha, AmithTamang, K. Sajith andLalvenchhunga scored onegoal each to complete thetally for the winners.

State junior athletics

The third Telangana StateOpen junior athleticschampionships will be heldat JN Stadium(Hanumakonda) in Warangalon April 2 and 3, accordingto Prof. K. Ranga Rao,general secretary of

Telangana AthleticsAssociation.

The meet assumessignificance as the Stateteams will be picked to takepart in the National Youthchampionship to be held inHyderabad from April 21 to23, the National FederationCup championship forseniors to be held in Delhifrom May 11 to 14 and alsothe Federation Cup forjuniors to be held inLucknow from June 10 to 12.

“The existing districtsshould conduct theselections as per the olddistrict area. After formationof the new districts nodistrict athletic associationswere formed yet and even ifthey are formed noaffiliations have beengranted so far.

“Hence, the athletes of thevarious mandals which wereseparated from the original

Karnataka 107 for seven in 20overs (Kenchappa 24, Tirupathithree for 22) lost to Hyderabad108 for two in 13.1 overs (Riyaz34, Sankar 33).Tamil Nadu 170 for eight in 20overs (Arun 56 n.o.,Shanmugham 30, Sai three for28) bt Pondicherry 111 for six in20 overs (Vinod 35,Shanmugham two for seven,Sugunesh two for 18).

10 districts have toparticipate in the selectiontrials or the meetsconducted by the districts inexistence prior to formationof new districts,” Prof. Raosaid.

Entries close on March 28and for details call Prof. Raoon 94412 54615.

Andhra, Hyderabadpost winsANANTAPUR: Karnatakasuffered heavy defeats inboth matches it played in theSouth Zone T20 crickettournament for physicallychallenged at RuralDevelopment Trust groundshere on Monday.

While it lost by 10 wickets toAndhra, Hyderabad scoredan eight-wicket win.

The scores: Karnataka 115 fornine in 20 overs (Siva Kumar33, Subhani four for 11) lost toAndhra 121 for no loss in 9.4overs (Noorul Huda 91 n.o).

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\ REGIONAL ROUND-UP \

At Hyderabad

Basketball: Nawab ShujathAhmed Khan memorialtournament, City CollegeGround, 4.30 p.m.

Football: A-Division RahimLeague championship, DMRLvs CCOB, GoshamahalGround, 3.30 p.m.

At Anantapur

Cricket: South Zone T20tournament for physicallychallenged, RuralDevelopment Trust grounds,8 a.m.

ENGAGEMENTS

Atletico Madrid has reachedan agreement to buy the LaPeineta Stadium from cityauthorities for €30 million,Madrid Town Hall an-nounced on Monday.

The Spanish giant willmove from the Vicente Cal-deron, its home for 50 years,

to the new stadium to be re-named Wanda Metropolit-ano after its sponsor Chineseproperty company DalianWanda Group. Wanda hashad ties with Atletico sinceJanuary 2015.

La Peineta — also knownas the Madrid Olympic Sta-dium — was originally builtto host athletics, and was

renovated with a view toMadrid’s failed bids to hostthe Olympic Games in 2012and 2016.

Built in 1904 its capacitywill be increased from20,000 to 73,000 places.

The new ground’s name isalso a reference to the club’sfirst real stadium, the Metro-politano, where it played its

first La Liga games beforemoving to the Vicente Cal-deron in the south of the cityin 1966.

The Vicente Calderon,which hosts the Copa delRey final on May 27, will bedestroyed after the La Ligaside has vacated thepremises at the end of theseason.

Atletico Madrid to buy new stadiumThe Spanish giant will move from the Vicente Calderon, its home for 50 years

Agence France-Presse

MADRID

CMYK

M VZ-VZ




SPORT

CMYK

M VZ-VZ




SPORT

Remember Claudio Ranieri?The man who penned themost romantic story in foot-ball annals by makingLeicester City English cham-pion and who walked awayfrom Sevilla’s stadium lastmonth believing he couldwrite another in the Champi-ons League.

Well, if a week is a longtime in football, three weeksbetween last-16 legs inEurope’s elite competition isa positive eternity withRanieri already fondly con-signed to history.

It is to the chagrin ofmany in Leicester that itsItalian folk hero has gone,denied the opportunity totry to guide it into thequarterfinals at the KingPower Stadium on Tuesday.

Instead, in his old assist-ant Craig Shakespeare, whoon Sunday was handed themanager’s job until the endof the season, a city — and animpatient club board — nowtrusts.

Turning pointAt 2-1 down and with JamieVardy’s away goal offering araft to cling to on a nightwhen Leicester was out-played, Ranieri had not un-reasonably felt the resultmight be the turning point ina woeful season.

Alas for the Italian he wasright.

The next day Leicester’sThai owners ditched Ranieri

and from that moment theentire complexion of thisknockout tie wastransformed.

After the ‘Shakespearean’

age dawned, Leicester man-aged to find fresh belief tochisel out two crucialPremier League wins thathas eased it away from the

relegation zone.At the same time, Sevilla’s

refreshing drive for the Ligatitle hit alarming roadblockswith two draws so undistin-

guished that its demandingfans booed it off the pitchon Saturday after the homematch against lowly Leg-anes finished 1-1.

The setback promptedhand-wringing from coachJorge Sampaoli, whowarned that if it did not re-discover its fluidity in ahurry it would exit theChampions League.

In Leicester’s revival,with 3-1 wins over Liver-pool and Hull City, Sam-paoli has noted with con-cern how it appears to havereverted to its disciplined,title-winning best.

“We have a group of ana-lysts who have produced aclear report of whathappened in the Ranieriera, and what’s happeningnow with the completeabout-turn in morale,” hetold reporters.

“The team (Leicester) isnow back to being as dan-gerous as they were lastyear. Leicester havedemonstrated that they’llplay this game as if it were aWorld Cup final and weknow that by not winningby the margin we deservedin the first match, we’re go-ing to be under a lot ofpressure,” Sampaoli added.

However, it is also achance for Sampaoli’s ownfive-time Europa Leaguechampion to move closer tothe long-cherished goal ofproving it is good enough toannex a rather more signi-ficant continental trophy.

Sampaoli’s Sevilla fears ‘Shakespearean’ tragedyPost Ranieri, Leicester City has managed to ind fresh belief under the Italian folk hero’s old assistant and could prove dangerous at home

Diferencemaker: Jamie Vardy’s away goal could prove crucial for Leicester City when it hostsSevilla on Tuesday. AFP

Reuters

LEICESTER

Porto must follow in Bar-celona’s footsteps andachieve a ChampionsLeague first on Tuesday ifit is to overcome Juventusand reach thequarterfinals.

The Portuguese leagueleader will have to claw itsway back from a 2-0home defeat in the firstleg, something which hasnever been done in theknock-out stage sinceEurope’s top club com-petition was reformed in1992.

Juve’s recent home re-cord makes the task evenmore daunting.

The Serie A titleholderhas not lost in its own sta-dium since a 1-0 defeat toUdinese in August 2015, arun of 45 games in allcompetitions.

In European competi-tion, it is unbeaten in thelast 20 home games sincelosing 2-0 to Bayern Mu-nich in the ChampionsLeague in April 2013.

Porto, which has wonits last nine league gamesand not conceded a goalin the last five, will not go

quietly, however.“We know it’s going to

be difficult for us after theresult in the first leg.

“But a lot of things hap-pen in football — we’veseen it all,” said goal-keeper Iker Casillas onFacebook.

Porto could also looknearer to home for inspir-ation, having itself them-selves won 3-0 away to ASRoma at the start of thisseason.

That win, its fourth in13 visits to Italy, took itinto the ChampionsLeague group stageagainst the odds afterRoma had held it to a 1-1draw in the first leg of theplayoff tie.

It remains to be seenhow Porto coach NunoEspirito Santo, a firm be-liever in the idea a team isbuilt from the back, willapproach a game wherehis side will need to takethe initiative.

“Everyone has to de-fend, from the centre for-ward to the goalkeeper, sothat we can get convin-cing wins. It demands alot of work and a lot ofconcentration.”

Porto faces aHerculean taskReuters

MILAN

Rockets down CavaliersLOS ANGELES

James Harden exploded for38 points as the HoustonRockets jolted LeBron Jamesand the Cleveland Cavalierswith a 117-112 victory onSunday. Harden led thescoring and completed his16th triple-double of theseason with 10 rebounds and11 assists. Other results:Celtics 100 bt Bulls 80,Pacers 102 bt Heat 98, Nets120 bt Knicks 112, TrailBlazers 110 bt Suns 101, 76ers118 bt Lakers 116. Agencies

No grudges with Ranieri,says ShakespeareLEICESTER

Craig Shakespeare said therewere “no grudges” betweenhimself and Claudio Ranierion Monday after hesucceeded the Italian asLeicester City manager. “Ibear no grudges, Claudiobears no grudges. We have totry and move on as a footballclub. As I said last week,when we spoke he wished meluck. We’ll probably be incontact and I have noproblem with that.” AFP

IN BRIEF

Veron named inEstudiantes squadRIO DE JANEIRO

Former Manchester Unitedand Argentina midfielderJuan Sebastian Veron hasbeen named in Estudiantes’football squad for its openingCopa Libertadores clashagainst Botafogo here onTuesday.The 42-year-old announced inDecember that he wouldcome out of retirement anddonate his salary back toEstudiantes, where he is alsoclub president. Veron wasnamed in Estudiantes squadon Saturday, reports Xinhua.Veron, who won the CopaLibertadores with Estudiantesin 2009, retired from footballin 2014.But he agreed to play againafter supporters bought 65per cent of viewing boxes atthe club’s new stadium. IANS

Mizoram overcame lastyear’s runner-up Maha-rashtra 3-1 in a Group Bmatch of the 71st Nationalfootball championship, forthe Santosh Trophy, at theGMC Stadium, Bambolim onMonday.

From the time it concededa soft opening goal early inthe first half, Maharashtrawas forced to play secondfiddle to the 2013 championwhich punished its rival for

an erratic and wastefulgame. Lal Chhuanawma (6thminute), Lal Fakuzula (43rd)and Lal Sangbera (51st)scored for Mizoram, whileRahul Das netted for Maha-rashtra in the 12th minute.

In another match in thesame group, Punjab defeatedRailways 2-1 at Navelim.

Goalie’s gaffeMizoram went ahead due toMaharashtra goalkeeper Har-shad Deepak Meher’s mis-take. Defender Sebin Var-

ghese intercepted a long ballfrom the middle and back-headed towards Harshad.But the latter, who hadstrayed away from his line,was hopelessly strandedwhen the ball reached him.The goalkeeper managed topalm the ball over his headonly for the lurking Lalch-huanawma to rush in and tapthe ball home.

Maharashtra regroupedand cancelled the strikequickly. A threatening movefrom the right flank saw the

ball being relayed into theMizoram goalmouth.

The defence failed to clearand the loose ball came to anunmarked Rahul Das whosepowerful right footer fromtop of the box was bang ontarget.

Abhishek’s lapsesMaharashtra had an oppor-tunity to go ahead in the32nd minute when Shravan

Shetty tore down the leftflank and send in a precisecross but AbhishekAmbedkar failed to connect.

Abhishek again was theculprit in the 42nd minutewhen he ballooned the ballover the bar from close rangeafter being fed by AaronD’costa from the right flank.

Mizoram again wentahead in the 43rd minutewhen Lalfakzuala volleyedhome from inside the boxwith a first timer as Lalrin-puia hooked it into the box

from a thrown in.Any notion of a Maha-

rashtra fightback quicklyevaporated when Mizoramwent ahead in the sixthminute of the second half.

The hard-working La Fak-uzula did the spadework ashe cut through the defencefrom the right flank andsquared the ball from nearthe touchline for Lal Sang-bera to tap in.

Mizoram thereafter playedpercentage football and con-centrated more on pre-

serving its lead, while theMaharashtra attack lackedideas or teeth to trouble thedefence.

On Tuesday, defendingchampion Services begins itscampaign against WestBengal while Chandigarhtakes on Meghalaya.The results: Mizoram 3 (Lal Ch-huanawma 6, Lal Fakuzula 43,Lal Sangbera 51) bt Maharashtra1 (Rahul Das 12); Punjab 2 (Man-vir Singh 16, Rajbir Singh 60) btRailways 1 (RajeshSoosanayakan 59).

Mizoram has it easy over MaharashtraM.R. Praveen Chandran

Panaji SANTOSH TROPHY

Bengaluru FC (BFC) and Mo-hun Bagan will lock horns forthe second time in four days,with the focus now shifting toan international competition.

The two sides get theirAFC Cup Group E campaignsunderway, at the SreeKanteerava Stadium here onTuesday. This follows an I-League encounter held at thesame venue recently, whichresulted in a goalless draw.BFC had lost in the final ofthe AFC Cup last year.

A good start in these groupstages will go a long way indetermining which club pro-gresses to the knockoutrounds. Unlike last year,where the top two unitsmade the cut from the four-team pool, only the singleoutfit will qualify this timearound. Mohun Baganshowed that it was content tosit back and hit on the

counter, which frustratedBFC no end during their I-League fixture.

Even with the visitor downto 10 men in the 70th minute,

BFC could not breach theBagan defence, led byEduardo Soares and AnasEdathodika. The BFC, attack-ers have their task cut out

once again. “Bagan defendedwell on Saturday, and I ex-pect them to do the same.We are lacking when it comesto finishing our attacking

moves. “We have to keepworking on that. If we canscore and win tomorrow, itwill change the entire dy-namic of the side,” BFC coach

Albert Roca said.BFC striker Sunil Chhetri —

he put on a glum face at themedia interaction — wasblunt in his assessment of amediocre season so far. Themost important reason whywe have not been doing wellis that we are not getting thegoals. “In every match, wehave at least three shots ongoals and 10 attempts. But wehave not been able to con-vert. If we don’t convert, wewon’t win. Simple as that. Itis important to get a freshstart in a new tournament,”Chhetri said.

A confident Bagan forwardDarryl Duffy stated, “We cre-ated chances in the previousmatch, and we hit the targetfrequently. “I hope we can domore of the same again, butperhaps move the ball fasterin the final third. If we can ex-ecute that, we can take a oneor two goal lead intohalf-time.”

BFC and Mohun Bagan clash, this time in AFC CupA good start in the group stages will go a long way in determining which club progresses to the knockout rounds

Gearing up: The Bengaluru FC team at a practice session at Kanteerava Stadium. G.P. SAMPATH KUMAR

Ashwin Achal

Bengaluru

The Indian national teamgot down to business as theplayers had their first train-ing session ahead of an in-ternational friendly and theAFC Asian Cup Qualifier.

The team went throughthe paces under the watch-ful eyes of head coachStephen Constantine at theAndheri Sports Complex.

Reflecting on the session,Constantine said, “For methese are the best momentswhen you are able to trainwith the national team.

“It’s the thing which I dobest.

“The national team obvi-ously is the mirror of a na-tion’s football and I think inthese last two years we have

managed to make the nationproud. We still have a longway to go but our objectivewill be to qualify for the AFCAsian Cup UAE 2019.”

15 players have joined thenational camp and the In-dian players selected from I-League clubs Mohun Baganand JSW Bengaluru FC willbe joining their teammateson Wednesday after theirAFC Cup encounter.

“It will be the same what Iexpect from them everytime they come to the camp.At the camp its hard work,professionalism, and enthu-siasm,” Constantine added.

The team is currentlygearing up for its interna-tional friendly against Cam-bodia in Phnom Penh onMarch 22.

Constantineleads IndiatrainingPress Trust of India

Mumbai

Indian Grandmaster MusunuriLalith Babu’s mission to Mo-scow was not a memorable oneas he finished the AeroflotOpen, considered one of theworld’s toughest chess tourna-ments, with just three pointsout of a possible nine.

Grey areasAbhijeet Gupta and Vidit Gujar-ati were the only Indian GMswho were able to muster 5.5points from the tournamentwhich saw Moscow’s GM Vladi-mir Fedoseev emerging victori-ous with seven points and thusLalith is eager to iron out greyareas that he identified duringthe gruelling sojourn.

“Interestingly, my grey areasare not technical, but more todo with the mind. My poor

mind management took medown,” admitted the GM, whonow has a FIDE rating of 2593.

The 24-year-old agreed that

he was preoccupied with theurge to cross the 2,600 markthat has been eluding him formore than three years.

“Somehow I let the rating is-sue overshadow my game plan.For the past three years, I wasaiming to cross the milestoneand that impacted my perform-ance,” he said.

The Indian Oil Corporationofficer said the obsession tocross the 2,600 barrier hadcaused him more disaster andthe lacklustre show in Moscowhad brought him down the rat-ing ladder by around 20 points.

“I am going to keep the2,600 issue aside and concen-trate on playing mistake-free,quality chess,” said a confidentLalith.

MindmanagementLalith, a Commonwealth goldmedallist, said it was time heconcentrated on effective mindmanagement and his interac-tion with senior players, sports

administrators, coaches andcolleagues had helped himidentify solutions.

“Just like the body, the mindalso needs rest and relaxation.A rehabilitated and rejuvenatedmind enhances your perform-ance and helps you achievequick decision-making on theboard.

“I was just doing the reverse— giving more work to mymind,” he said. “I am takingyoga and meditation a bitseriously.”

For the dejected GM, the re-cent Chessbase online blitzchess tournament has come asa boon. In less than threehours, he emerged the cham-pion getting full points out ninerounds against some top GMs.

“This victory is significant asit has boosted my sagging con-fidence,” said Lalith.

Wavering mind let Lalith Babu downObsession to cross the 2,600 barrier in FIDE ratings proved detrimental

Rectiication work:M. Lalith Babu, who has been in indiferent formof late, is working on improving his mental fortitude. FILE PHOTO

J.R. SHRIDHARAN

VIJAYAWADA

CMYK

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Retirees knit sweatersfor chilly chickensMILTON (MASSACHUSETTS)

Sweaters for chickens? Itsounds like a joke, but aplucky group of retirees insuburban Boston is keepingpoultry warm during thewinter. The chickens seem tolike their sweaters as “eggproduction has jumpednoticeably since the birdsbegan wearing them.” AP

IN BRIEF

Thai turtle that gulped1,000 coins on the mendBANKOK:

A sea turtle in Thailanddubbed 'Piggy Bank' forswallowing nearly 1,000coins took swimming lessonson Monday as she embarkedon a rehabilitationprogramme following theremoval of the treasure trove.The coins, weighing 5 kg,were taken from her stomachin a seven-hour operation. AFP

Paris Mayor declares€1.5 million ‘war on rats’PARIS

The Mayor of Paris, AnneHidalgo, has said the citywould spend €1.5 million torid the French capital of rats.Under Ms. Hidalgo 10-pointplan aimed at keeping thecity’s streets clean, additionalpublic ashtrays would beinstalled and new rat trapswould be placed near garbagecollection points. AFP

The three-tonne torso of amassive statue that may beof one of Egypt’s most fam-ous pharaohs was lifted onMonday from mud andgroundwater where it wasrecently discovered in aCairo suburb.

The torso was pulled by acrane as dozens of workerssupported it while beingmoved to land where it wascovered by a white fabric.The first part of the colossusa large portion of the headwas pulled up Thursday.

The Ministry of Antiquit-ies said the statue’s partswould be assembled at theEgyptian museum in centralCairo, where they would bepieced together and restoredbefore being moved to theyet-to-open Grand EgyptianMuseum near the Giza Pyr-amids.

The statue is likely ofRamses II, who took thethrone in his early 20s andruled Egypt for 60 years

more than 3,000 years ago.He is credited with expand-ing ancient Egypt’s reach asfar as modern Syria to the

east and modern Sudan tothe south. The expansionearned him the title “Ramsesthe Great.” The statue was

discovered last week by aGerman-Egyptian archaeolo-gical team in the Cairo dis-trict of Matariya.

Bringing up a pharaohSecond part of ancient Egyptian statue, believed to be of Ramses, lifted from siteAssociated Press

Cairo

Colossal task: Egyptian workers raise the statue, recently discovered by a team of German-Egyptian archeologists, in Cairo. AFP

Actor Rajinikanth’s ₹350crore film, 2.0, directed byfilmmaker Shankar andscheduled for release onDeepavali this year, hasjoined the ₹100-crore clubeven before the release ofthe film’s official teaser.

On Monday, Lyca Produc-tions’ creative head, RajuMahalingam, confirmed thatthe Tamil, Hindi and Telugusatellite rights have beensold for ₹110 crore to ZeeTelevision. “The ₹110 croredeal is only for the film’ssatellite rights. We are intalks with Amazon Primeand Netflix for the film’s di-gital rights,” said Raju Ma-halingam.

Despite the huge pricetag, what is also interestingis that Zee Television hasbeen given the rights only

for a period of 15 years.“Usually films are sold out-right. We were able to sell itat such a price for 15 years,”he said.

While the theatrical rightsof the film are yet to be sold,it is believed that the Hindirights alone could be soldfor over ₹ 100 crore. “Thenegotiation for Tamil theat-rical rights hasn’t even star-

ted yet. Post-production is infull swing. The Japanese andthe Chinese rights will besold separately,” he said.Filming was wrapped up lastyear with the exception ofminor shots.

“Shankar and team willgo to the U.S. to join theteam that is working onpost-production,” Mr. Ma-halingam said.

Talks on with Amazon Prime and Netlix for digital rights

Udhav Naig

Chennai

Excitement builds: A promotional poster for 2.0

Zee TV bags satellite rightsto 2.0 for ₹110 crore

Safe space: A baby elephant stands close to its mother during Thailand’s national elephant day celebration in the ancient city ofAyutthaya onMonday. The elephants were given a bufet of bananas, pineapples andmelons on the occasion. REUTERS

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Home is where mom is

Russia put a blogger ontrial on Monday on chargesof offending religious be-lievers and fomentinghatred by posting a videoonline that showed himhunting Pokémon in achurch.

Ruslan Sokolovsky, 22,faces up to seven years inprison over the YouTubevideo of him zappingPokémon on a smartphonein a Russian Orthodoxchurch in the Urals city ofYekaterinburg. The videowhich Mr. Sokolovsky pos-ted in August 2016 hasbeen viewed more than 1.6million times on YouTube.

He has pleaded notguilty in the case which hasbeen compared to that ofthe Pussy Riot punk artgroup, whose 2012 “punkprayer” in a Moscowcathedral led to two-yearprison terms.

No offence meant“I didn’t aim to offend any-one,” Mr. Sokolovsky saidin court, adding that hewas ready to apologise ifanyone was offended. Hesaid he created the videos“with critical and polem-ical aims”. The Russian Or-thodox Church has ac-cused him of blasphemyover the stunt in a churchbuilt on the spot where theBolsheviks shot Russia’slast tsar and his family in1918. “I didn’t ask thesepeople to watch my videoclips,” Mr. Sokolovsky toldjournalists. “Who is theRussian Orthodox Churchthat I have to publicly re-pent in front of them?”

Mr. Sokolovsky spentseveral months in prisonahead of the trial, thoughhe is now under house ar-rest. Amnesty Interna-tional has condemned thecharges against him as “far-cical” and called him aprisoner of conscience.

He also faces a separatecharge of illegally possess-ing a “spy pen” with a re-cording function. In court,he said that the pen iswidely available and un-suitable for covertrecording.

Pokémonhunter landsin courtAgence France-Presse

Moscow

An archaeological treasuretrove on the site of a plannedmetro station in central Algi-ers is set to become a mu-seum, opening a window on2,000 years of history.

The site, close to the Al-gerian capital’s UNESCO-lis-ted casbah, has yielded re-mains from the city’s Roman,Byzantine, Ottoman andFrench periods.

Spectacular view“It was spectacular,” said ar-chaeologist Kamel Stiti, co-director of the excavations.“In one look, you could seetwo millennia of Algiers’history.”

The remains, on the loca-tion of a Roman port towncalled Icosium, were dis-covered in 2009 when theMinistry of Culture orderedsurveys along the plannedmetro line.

Archaeologists have sincediscovered coins, weapons, apublic building paved with5th century mosaics and alarge 7th century Byzantinenecropolis containing sev-

eral dozen graves.They also found parts of

the Ottoman-era Es Sayidamosque, which French au-thorities flattened in 1831,shortly after their conquest

of the North African country.The colonial government

put a public square in itsplace and called it King’sSquare and later, Govern-ment Square. It was re-

ated in October 2011. Themuseum will open shortly af-terwards, covering 1,200sq.m. and organised chrono-logically. Some of the re-mains will be exposed to adepth of over seven metres.

“In Rome or Athens, mu-seums present particularperiods, whereas here thevisitor can embrace thewhole history of Algiers over2,000 years,” Mr. Stiti said.

He said the projectshowed that archaeology isnot incompatible withdevelopment.

“It gives added value. Oneaccompanies the otherwithout slowing it down,” hesaid.

“So as not to delay thework, which would add coststo the subway project, ar-chaeologists have workedhard, including on publicholidays.”

The National Archaeolo-gical Research Centre

(CNRA) and France’s Na-tional Institute for PreventiveArchaeological Research (IN-RAP) have been working onthe dig since 2013.

More than 150 people ofdifferent nationalities andspecialities have taken part,giving young Algerian ar-chaeologists valuable oppor-tunities to work on an im-portant excavation.

Aicha, 70, who lives nearthe site, said she is lookingforward to seeing the mu-seum open.

“There will be no morehassle because of the build-ing work, and I’ll be able totravel by subway and visit themuseum with my two grand-daughters,” she said.

Said, a 50-year-old highschool history teacher, saidhe hopes there will beguided visits for youngpeople “so they can takeownership of our city’s sev-eral millennia of history.”

named Martyrs Square afterthe country’s hard-won inde-pendence in 1962.

Experts had believed thatfew pre-colonial artefacts re-mained on the site, but manyof the ruins turned out to besurprisingly well-preserved,Mr. Stiti said.

Where there is a willThe 3,000-sq.m. site wasdeemed so important thatthe municipality adapted itsplans for the metro station, amove Mr. Stiti said was a firstin Algeria.

The site will now becomea museum incorporated intothe station, which, in turn,will take up less than half itsplanned 8,000 sq.m. Thetunnel will go as deep as 35metres in order to workaround the remains.

The Martyrs Square sta-tion is set to open in Novem-ber, part of an extension tothe main metro line inaugur-

Archaeological ind turns metro station site into museum2,000 years of history unearthed in central Algiers, where authorities have shown that development and history can go hand-in-hand

Agence France-Presse

Algiers

Set in stone:Material found at an archaeological site in Martyrs Square in Algiers. AFP

It would seem all but im-possible to sum up one ofthe most distinguished ca-reers in photojournalism inonly four words, but that’sjust what Nick Ut does whenhe says, “From hell to Holly-wood.”

And the Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer, whois retiring this month after 51years with The AssociatedPress, has the pictures toprove it, the most famous be-ing a stunning black-and-white image from the Viet-nam War that’s come to beknown simply as “NapalmGirl”.

It’s the photo of a terrifiedchild running naked down acountry road, her body liter-

ally burning from the nap-alm bombs dropped on hervillage just moments before

Mr. Ut captured the iconicimage.

Mr. Ut was only 21 whenhe took that photo on June 8,1972, then set his cameraaside to rush 9-year-old KimPhuc to a hospital, wheredoctors saved her life. Hewould go on to take literallytens of thousands more overthe next 44 years, includingimages of practically every A-list celebrity who walked aHollywood red carpet orentered a courtroom on thewrong side of the law.

Warren Beatty once calledUt aside at a Hollywood Walkof Fame ceremony to spend30 minutes talking about the“Napalm Girl” photo. After

learning he was the one whotook it, actor Joan Collinsopened a bottle of cham-pagne for Ut during a shootat her home.

“That picture changed mylife. It changed Kim’s life,” hesays of the pair’s chancemeeting in a dusty Viet-namese village called TrangBang.

“I cried when I saw herrunning,” Mr. Ut once told anAP reporter. “If I don’t helpher if something happenedand she died I think I’d killmyself after that.” Now a 53-year-old wife and mother oftwo who lives in Canada,Kim Phuc remains Mr. Ut’sclose friend.

‘Napalm Girl’ photographer Nick Ut to retireThe Pulitzer Prize-winner was only 21 when he clicked the iconic image in a Vietnamese village

Associated Press

Los Angeles

Fine lens:Nick Ut with the ‘Napalm Girl’ photograph in a framein the background. AP

An Indian-origin woman,who lost her 12-year-old sonin a car crash in Britainnearly two years ago, haslaunched a ‘seat belt cam-paign’ in his memory tohighlight the importance ofwearing seat belt whiledriving.

Ms. Sukhi Atwal has re-leased CCTV footage of thecrash in May 2015 to showthe moment her son, Amar,was hit by a speeding taxiand flung because he wasnot wearing a seat belt. Hedied in a Birmingham hos-pital days later.

“We will never get overthe loss of Amar. He was

such a bright, intelligent,fun-loving boy. He was aninnocent victim of the crashand there is now a huge holewhich can never be filled inour lives,” his mother toldthe ‘Birmingham Mail.’

“Wearing a seatbelt couldhave saved his life, at thevery least it would havegiven him a better chance ofsurvival. We can never getAmar back, but I just hopeby encouraging both youngand old to try and be as safeas possible, they won’t haveto go through the heart-break we have,” she said.

Police have made a videofeaturing images of Amarand Ms. Sukhi that will beused during school talks.

Bereavedmother startsa seat-belt campaignPress Trust of India

London

The newest tool for interna-tionally acclaimed organ-ising guru Marie Kondo inher global battle againstmessy rooms is an app.

“My goal is to have asmany people as possiblewho can get the job done intidying up,” she said in an in-terview after speaking at arecent technology confer-ence in Austin, Texas.

“To achieve that, I’m im-plementing various meas-ures, one of which is the appto support decluttering,”said the woman whosename has been turned into averb by followers who cleanout clutter at home and saythat they have “Kondoed”their closets.

Ms. Kondo is known toglobal audiences for herbest-selling books, includingThe Life-Changing Magic of

Tidying Up: The Japanese Artof Decluttering and Organiz-ing, which has been trans-lated from Japanese to morethan 40 languages, withmore than 7 million copiessold worldwide.

The app called “KonMari”was launched a few monthsago and gives out organisingtips, allows people to sharebefore and after pictures,and provides a platform forher followers to socialise.

Ms. Kondo’s who earneda spot on Time magazine’s‘100 Most Influential People’list in 2015 call themselvesKonverts. But her critics seeher as an irritating presencewith a cult-like following,harping on the glaringly ob-vious need to be betterorganised.

Ms. Kondo has made anart of folding clothes intooptimal shapes for storageand her KonMari disciplessee her words as a philo-sophy about seeking a hap-pier life by putting theirhomes in order.

Ms. Kondo spends 80% ofher time outside of Japan,but with the help of techno-logy, she wants to knock onthe doors of more homesaround the world.

“Tidying up is a broadtheme that is relevant toanyone in any country,” saidMs. Kondo.

Kondo wants to knock on more doors around the worldReuters

Austin (Texas)

Marie Kondo. REUTERS

Japan’s decluttering guruhas an app for tidying up

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