21

Sunday
April
2019

`3.00 Ÿ Pages 14
AHMEDABAD
www.dnaindia.com
epaper.dnaindia.com
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facebook.com/dnaindia
 21
Sunday
April
2019
`3.00 Ÿ Pages 14
AHMEDABAD
www.dnaindia.com
epaper.dnaindia.com
twitter.com/dna
facebook.com/dnaindia
23°C - 40°C AQI 112
‘Just 2 rounds in,
didi has lost sleep’
Campaigning in West Bengal,
PM Narendra Modi on Saturday
said that ‘speed-breaker didi’
has lost her sleep after two
rounds of polling in the state.
almost become a
one-horse race: FM
Commenting on the first two
phases of polling for the gener-
al elections, Jaitley said the
momentum was clearly with the
BJP and PM Modi.
‘Never seen such
a weak govt, pm’
Congress leader Priyanka Gan-
dhi Vadra on Saturday lashed
out and said there has never
been a “weaker government”
than the incumbent one.  P4
Mayawati has gotten
frustrated. She is
desperate and ready to do or
say anything. The people of
UP have rejected caste-based
politics. This is an unethical
alliance and the two parties
are working against
each other’s interests.
—Piyush Goyal,
Union Minister
inside 
Opinion
Sale of counterfeit and
pirated goods grows as
global trade becomes
sluggish, writes
G Srinivasan  P6
world
Clare Bronfman, heiress to
the Seagram liquor fortune,
pleaded guilty to her role
in a secret society of
women sex slaves P5
Afterhrs 
Take a cue from your favourite
Bollywood stars to make heads
turn, as our two
celebrity make-up
experts tell you
how you can
ace them too
Nation faces uphill task of tackling
mounting cases of elephantiasis
New Delhi: Elephantiasis
may have been ranked by the
World Health Organisation
as the second most common
cause of long-term disability
after mental illness, but India
seems to be lagging behind in
its efforts to tackle the tropi-
cal disease.
Nearly 65 crore Indians,
nearly half the country’s
population, are at risk of con-
tracting elephantiasis, also
known as lymphatic filariasis
or filaria, which is spread by
mosquitoes and is marked by
painful swelling in the arms,
legs, breasts, or genitals.
Once contracted, elephan-
tiasis is not curable though it
Snap POLL
Q. Is a Rs 20 lakh fine for
Pandya and Rahul a fair
end to the Koffee With
Karan controversy?
Yes No Can’t say
Go to our Twitter handle
@dna, look for #DNAPoll
and vote.
‘Wild charges undermine
independence of judiciary’
CJI Gogoi rejects
harassment claim
by ex-SC staffer
Abraham Thomas
abraham.thomas@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Six months into
his tenure as the Chief Justice
of India, Justice Ranjan Gogoi
faced his most uncomfortable
moment on Saturday — head-
ing a bench on a non-working
day to refute allegations of
serious sexual misconduct lev-
elled against him by a 35-year-
old former Supreme Court
staffer, dismissed last year af-
ter a disciplinary enquiry.
With the allegations of the
woman and the CJI’s rebuttal
arriving on a single day with-
in a few hours’ gap, the media
— in an order passed by two
of the three judges (CJI ex-
cluded) — were asked to
“show restraint and act re-
sponsibly”, reminding them
that “wild and scandalous
allegations undermine and
irreparably damage reputa-
tion and negate independ-
ence of judiciary”.
No committee has been con-
stituted so far to enquire the
allegations, but the CJI clari-
fied that he will continue to
decide cases “fearlessly”, re-
gardless of what happens and
that nobody can stop him from
completing the remaining
seven months of his tenure.
The allegations pertained
to events in October 2018 when
the woman in question was ap-
pointed as junior court assis-
tant (JCA) at the residence of
mumbai’s march halted
Mumbai Indians batsman Suryakumar Yadav (L) is dejected after his dismissal as Rajasthan Royals’ Stuart Binny
celebrates after taking his wicket in Jaipur on Saturday. Rajasthan, who sacked Ajinkya Rahane as captain before
the match and replaced him with former Australia captain Steve Smith, beat in-form Mumbai by 5 wickets.
Smith led from the front with an unbeaten 59 off 48 deliveries —AP 
Nearly 65 crore Indians are at risk
of contracting elephantiasis
can be prevented or curtailed.
But India has been miss-
ing all targets it set to contain
the disease. The earliest was
to eradicate it by 2015, which
was pushed to 2017, even
though the global goal was
YESTERDAY’S POLL RESULT:
Should women of all religions
have access to the sanctum
sanctorum at places of
worship?
Yes  80%
No 20%
Gogoi blames ‘bigger force’
Nobody can catch me on money.
So people have to find
something and they have found this...
there has to be a bigger force behind
this. They want to destabilise the office
of CJI, considering the important cases
I am going to hear next week
n Contempt peti- n CBI contempt
tion against Con- petition against
gress President former West Ben-
Rahul Gandhi on gal Commissioner
his Rafale remark Rajeev Kumar in
on Tuesday Sarada scam
CJI. Justice Gogoi took
oath as CJI on October
3. In her written com-
plaint on affidavit, sent #metoo
to 22 judges of the Su- at sc
preme Court, the woman
narrated her ordeal of sexu- complex on October 22, fol-
al harassment and how on lowing which she was trans-
2020. With a large number of
fresh cases springing up eve-
ry year, the revised target too
seems unachievable.
The disease can be elimi-
nated through preventive
mass drug administration
programmes. While the gov-
ernment provides medicines
for free to the at-risk popula-
tion, it has not be very suc-
cessful so far.
In January this year, the
government launched a pilot
project for a triple-drug ther-
apy. The project was first
tried in one district each
from Maharashtra, Uttar
Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand,
and Karnataka.Report, P8
CJI’s rebuttal
Independence of
judiciary is under a very
serious threat... I have taken
this unusual and extraordinary
step because things have gone
too far. The judiciary cannot
be made a scapegoat
Cases Next Week
n EC sealed cover
on whether to
allow release of
biopic ‘PM Naren-
dra Modi’ despite
the EC ban
more occasions than one,
the CJI made explicit
advances, which she
objected to. She was
later transferred to the
main Supreme Court
Report, P7
Koffee spill: Pandya, Rahul fined `20L each
Chander Shekhar Luthra
shekhar.luthra@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: The Board of
Control for Cricket in India’s
(BCCI) newly-appointed Om-
budsman, Justice (retd) DK
Jain, has pronounced his
first verdict. And, it has come
as a big relief for Team India
before the upcoming ICC
World Cup in England.
In a report published on
the BCCI website, Justice
Jain has directed India all-
rounder Hardik Pandya and
batsman KL Rahul to pay a
fine of Rs 20 lakh each for
their sexist remarks on TV
chat show Koffee with Karan
earlier this year.
Allegations
n CJI Ranjan Gogoi made sexual
advances at his residence office
on 2 occasions in October 2018
n Dismissed from service for
objecting, husband and brother-
in-law suspended from Delhi
Police, disabled brother-in-law
employed with SC removed
n Made to apologise to CJI’s
wife by rubbing nose at her feet.
Now faces allegation of cheating;
after arrest, subjected to physical
and verbal abuse. Delhi Police is
seeking cancellation of her bail
Regardless of what
happens, I will
decide cases in my seven
month tenure. Nobody
can stop me from
discharging my judicial
functions without any fear
n EC response n Assam’s
on Tamil Nadu National Register
elections over of Citizens (NRC)
large scale cash work in wake of
recovery targeted State and Centre’s
to purchase votes non-cooperation
ferred. A disciplinary enquiry
against her found her guilty of
insubordination, following
which she was dismissed. So
on Saturday, with Justice
Arun Mishra and Sanjiv
Khanna he attempted to dis-
miss the charges.  Turn to P4
Poll body pulls
plug on Modi
biopic series
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: The Election
Commission of India on Sat-
urday directed producers at
Eros Now to stop streaming
and remove all connected
content to the web-series ti-
tled Modi: Journey Of A Com-
mon Man with immediate
effect till further orders.
The web series — directed
by Umesh Shukla and star-
ring Mahesh Thakur — was
released on April 3. So far, five
episodes have been released.
The EC’s order comes in
the wake of a report submit-
ted last week by the Delhi
Chief Electoral Officer,
which said that the web se-
ries was streaming without
any certification from the
Media Certification and Mon-
itoring Committee.
what Ombudsman said
The Ombudsman
noted that “since the
players had already
apologised for their
conduct on the show
and also missed out
on their earnings after
being sent home from
Australia”, the fine
would suffice.
The duo has been asked to
donate Rs 1 lakh each to “the
most deserving widows of 10
constables in para-military
forces who have lost their
lives while on duty”, while
BJP demands Rahul come
clean on citizenship, assets
Complaint says Congress president hid key info in poll affidavit
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: The Bharatiya
Janata Party has trained its
guns on Rahul Gandhi over
his citizenship and educa-
tional qualifications follow-
ing a complaint against the
Congress president. The com-
plaint has been made by
Dhruv Lal, who is fighting as
an independent from the Am-
ethi in Uttar Pradesh.
The returning officer Ram
Manohar Mishra has decided
to postpone scrutiny of Gan-
dhi’s papers to Monday.
Dhruv Lal’s complaint said
that the Rahul Gandhi’s elec-
tion affidavit made no men-
tion of his assets and proper-
ties in UK that he may have
owned between 2003 and 2009.
BJP spokesperson GVL
Narasimha Rao said that the
allegations against Gandhi
are serious and asked the
Congress president to come
clean on them. Rao also said
Thakur gets EC notice
over Karkare remarks
Bhopal: The Election Com-
mission on Saturday issued a
show-cause notice to Male-
gaon blast accused and BJP
candidate from Bhopal Prag-
ya Singh Thakur over her
remark about Hemant Karka-
re, the Maharashtra ATS
chief who was killed in the
26/11 terror attack, an offi-
cial said here.
Addressing BJP workers
on Thursday night, Thakur
had claimed that Karkare
died during the attack as she
had “cursed” him for tortur-
ing her when he probed the
blast case as chief of the
Anti-Terrorism Squad.
However, after her re-
marks kicked up a row, she
tendered an apology on Fri-
day. “We took suo motu cogni-
sance of the statement and
sought a report from the as-
sistant returning officer
(ARO) on the matter. We got
the report this morning and
we have issued notice, which
is returnable within 24
Abhinandan put up for ‘Vir Chakra’
New Delhi: The India Air
Force is recommending Wing
Commander Abhinandan
Varthaman for the wartime
gallantry medal ‘Vir Chakra’
for shooting down an F-16
during an aerial dogfight.
While Abhinandan has
been recommended for the
Vir Chakra, the 12 Mirage
2000 pilots who bombed tar-
gets in Pakistan are also be-
However, Justice Jain also
wrote that “cricketers are
role models for the
youth in this country
where the sport itself is
treated like a religion
and need to conduct
themselves in the
manner befitting of
that stature”.
also giving Rs 10 lakh each in
the fund created for the pro-
motion Cricket Association
for the blind.
Both the players were sent
back home from a series in
R.N.I. No. : GUJENG/2007/22424
Allegations against Gandhi
„„Citing documents of a
UK-based firm, independent
candidate from Amethi says
Gandhi has been shown as a
British citizen
„„He has alleged that there
are also discrepancies in
educational qualification of
Gandhi in his poll documents.
EC scrutiny on Monday
it was stunning that Gandhi’s a British citizen. “We will like
lawyer sought time to re- to know if Rahul Gandhi goes
spond on the complaint. by multiple names in differ-
“These are serious allega- ent countries,” Rao added.
tions. Is Rahul Gandhi an In- BJP’s allegations and at-
dian citizen or not? Did he tack on Rahul Gandhi came
ever become a British citizen? in the backdrop of a petition
He should come out with the that was filed before the Su-
real story,” he said. Rao preme Court earlier on Mon-
claimed that in 2004 Gandhi day that sought an investiga-
had invested in a British com- tion into non-disclosure of
pany and in official papers assets by Prime Minister
submitted to British authori- Narendra Modi in his elec-
ties he had stated that he was tion affidavits.
Clashes erupt
at Hardik rally
in Ahmedabad
DNA Correspondent
bjp distances correspondent@dnaindia.net
Ahmedabad: Clashes broke
out during a public address of
Congress leader Hardik Patel
at Nikol on Saturday evening,
as he campaigned for Geeta
Patel, his party candidate
from Ahmedabad East.
Sources said some support-
„„The BJP distanced ers of jailed PAAS leader Al-
itself, stating that her pesh Kathiriya allegedly held
comments were personal. banners protesting against
„„The remarks were
probably due to the
Hardik, prompting the latter’s
men to attack the former.
“mental and physical
torture” she underwent,
PAAS convener Dharmik
Malaviya told Zee 24 Kalak
that there was no way Alpesh
the party said.
could have been involved in
the skirmish. “It appears to
hours,” said District Election
Officer and Bhopal Collector
be an effort to create a rift
between Alpesh and Hardik
Sudam Khade. to weaken the Patidar com-
Asked about the point of munity,” said Malaviya.
serving the notice to her as Hardik told the media that
she has already tendered he did not see how the vio-
apology, Khade said, “Let the lence erupted, but called it an
reply come, then we will de- attempt by the BJP to disrupt
cide.” —PTI his meetings.  More on P3
ing recommended for the officer has been issued and he
Vayu Sena Medal for gallant- would soon be moving out of
ry for their acts of bravery, the Srinagar air base to his
government sources said. new place of posting,” said the
Meanwhile, amid con- government sources. The new
cerns over Abhinandan’s se- posting (name of the airbase
curity, IAF has posted out the being withheld due to security
ace fighter pilot from Srina- reasons) is also a fighter base
gar to another important air and if the officer is cleared for
base in the western sector flying, he would be able to con-
along the Pakistan border. tinue his flying duties, the
“The posting order of the sources added. —ANI
have we set for our future
generation?” a senior BCCI
office-bearer said. “It’s a joke
that a player who earns Rs 3
crore as just annual contract
(2018-19 Grade B contract for
both) from the Board has
been fined a mere Rs 20 lakh.
It’s not even a wrap on their
knuckles,” added the official.
Pandya, in
particular, was
slammed on social
media for his sexist
remarks on the show,
Australia after the show which has been removed
aired in January. from all the platforms.
The Ombudsman’s deci- The final verdict means
sion, however, has surprised that the two can now shift
many within the BCCI. their focus on preparing for
“What kind of a precedent the World Cup next month.
 02 
daily news & analysis I Ahmedabad I Sunday, April 21, 2019
The Story
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Illustration:
Ganesh gamare

PoliticALLY
CORRECT
With the elections upon us, we take a look at the trend of politically
tailored content flooding the market and its possible repercussions

Dyuti Basu Plays of

dyuti.basu@dnaindia.net Find voices that Politically protest

W
resonate with you, that tailored
hile the battle still wages entertainment Whirlpool:
are trustworthy and

How
on to get PM Narendra Mumbai: April
With politically
Modi a release before elec- have no agenda. charged content
14, Delhi: We ask
tions end, it is hardly the April 19-21
only politically charged
Meghna Pant, author flooding the people what
market, the Taking references
film that has released in they think of the

convinced
question that
the past few months. From Acciden- Films can help shape from George
tal Prime Minister to No Fathers in an idea but it cannot
arises is: how
impactful is this
Orwell’s life and aggressive
works, this play
Kashmir, films have thrown light on
different aspects of the govern- create an idea. deluge? And by The Company
advertising tactics
how much of it
by political

ment, political parties and even
conspiracy theories like Vivek Ag-
nihotri’s The Tashkent Files. While
critics have repeatedly called some
of these films “propaganda”, others
claim that it is simply good market-
ing strategy, since the content is
topical. And it’s not just films. Books
and theatre also have a lot to say
about the political scenario of the
country. From oblique references in
Puja Mehra’s The Lost Decade (2008-
18) to more direct views in Ruchir
Sharma’s Democracy on the Road.
Whirlpool, which was staged at Prith-
vi Theatre, Mumbai, on April 14, is a
reinterpretation on George Orwell’s
dystopian novel 1984, and a satire on
present governance. Eidgah Ke Jin-
nat, a play that reflects on the Kash-
mir issue was even interrupted in
Jaipur where an FIR was filed
against it. QTP production’s A Peas-
ant of El Salvador takes a look at the
country pre-civil war and draws par-
allels to India’s current situation.
With politically charged content
flooding the market, the question
that arises is: how impactful is this
deluge? And how much of it is a
clever way of marketing?
Political analyst Surendra Jond-
hale believes that much of the con-
tent that is currently being circu-
lated is actually propaganda in in-
novative forms. While out-and-out
propaganda is both banned by the
Election Commission (EC) and off-
putting to the public, these sugges-
tive ideas work better. “Just as in
the last elections, BJP made use of
social media to create their cam-
paign, now more mediums are be-
ing explored,” he says.
Marketing no crime
“When it comes to marketing con-
Vivek Agnihotri,
film director
ever, the filmmaker is quick to de-
fend against the question: why now?
“Why not now?” he counters, add-
ing, “It is relevant now. Without
marketing, your life will come to an
end. Films can help shape an idea
but it cannot create an idea. It can
start a debate, since filmmakers
pick up topics that are anyway rel-
evant to society. Cinema has a role
in shaping the mainstream narra-
tive. Art has always been instru-
mental in creating a narrative.”
Art with a message
Quasar Padamsee’s Peasant of El
Salvador may be called a prime
example of this. The director says
that the elections were exactly the
reason for them to revive the play
after years it was last staged.
“When we had last staged the play,
it was just a cautionary play about
what had happened in El Salva-
dor,” he elaborates. “Today, how-
ever, more and more of the things
that led to civil war are coming to
pass in India… You have farmer’s
unrest and persecution of the in-
tellectual classes, which are typi-
cal signs of a totalitarian system
similar to what prevailed in the
Central American country. So,
now more than ever, the relevance
of the play comes to the fore.”
The play, in which three actors
swap the roles of a narrator, a mis-
cellany of other characters and the
lead character of the peasant.
Through the course of the play, the
connect that Padamsee speaks of
becomes abundantly clear, since the
are you?
Theatre looks at the
is a clever way of power dynamics of
marketing? governments. parties
A Peasant of
Publishing game El Salvador:
Mumbai: April 14
Author and journalist Puja Mehra’s DNA Correspondent
The Lost Decade (2008-18), published
Drawing parallels
between the current correspondent@dnaindia.net Google transparency
on April 1, throws light on the con-
political scenario in report on Ad spends
M
tinuing neglect of economic re- uch talk over election campaign spends
India and pre-Civil
forms across the two governments
War El Salvador, have been spoken of in the weeks past. Statewise
in office in this period. “The book Political parties have splurged on getting
this play cautions Andhra Pradesh `5,43,00,700
looks at the last 10 years of govern- noticed in this crucial Lok Sabha election as
citizens against the
ance and how economic policies
spreading politics of 900 million eligible voters take to the polling Maharashtra `53,16,100
were driven mostly by political cal- booths. While most concur the increased elec- Delhi `40,54,000
hate and ignorance.
culus. Even during the tenure of tion campaign budgets are a tactic to woo first
Manmohan Singh’s government, Eidgah Ke time voters, it begs the question: how much
when an economist was the prime Jinnat are you convinced? Political Party
minister, the economists in the gov-
ernment and RBI were given a free Staged in Jaipur at
While catching the last showing of a mov-
ie in a theatre, Ekta Bhula, finance profes-
BJP INC
hand only during the 2008 global fi- the Navras Festival, sional, admits, “I don’t like watching them 1,754 ads 275 ads
nancial crisis. The average Indian the play, which [ads]. Earlier ads had information now it feels `4,10,12,500 `38,33,100
hardly remembers that crisis, since takes a neutral view like brain washing.” Shreya Lobo, 24, owner
it was handled so smoothly. How- on the militant- Nineteen95 Patisserie, says, “It might have
ever, once the immediate response army tensions in been better to show me why I should vote for phone during those ads.”
measures had been administered, Kashmir had a a political party rather than why I shouldn’t Barring these, there are a plethora of ad
economists were sidelined once successful first vote for the other [party].” campaigns in the form of rap songs like BJP’s
again,” she explains. The timing of show on February Others like Pranay Dharnidharka, a stock Congress Se Azadi or Congress’ rebuttal with
the book’s publication, the author 18. However, the broker is not too fond of the ads that come with Dar ke aage azadi. Both songs mimicking the
adds, was set by the publishing second show was a movie experience these days. “I’d rather watch tonality of the recently released Gully Boy that
house in line with its calendar for cancelled due to movie trailers instead,” he laughs. Ojas Desh- shows the plight of the poor. Google’s ad trans-
the election season when more peo- protests by fringe pande asserts, “I don’t fall prey to these gim- parency report (see the box above) revealed
ple tend to pick up books about per- groups. micks.” While teenagers like 16-year-old Soham 3,789 total political ads on its platform with ad
formance of governments. Shah, (who can’t cast his vote in this election,) spends at `13.92 crore as od April 2019. But are
Communications lead at Pen- prefers to tune out the ads. “I generally use my these roaring efforts falling on deaf ears?
guin Random House, Pallavi FOR THE
Narayan, concurs, adding that con- NATION
sumers are seeking “content that is
thought-through, accurate and has Ae Watan from
verifiable points of view.” She Raazi bagged two
adds, “The analytics of politics Filmfare awards,
may interest some, the impact of one for best lyrics
elections on economics may inter- (Gulzar) and one
est others or the stories that are for best singer
born out of election rallies may
interest a third sub-set. If market-
(Sunidhi Chauhan).
The song, which is
ing and communication is targeted a wish for the coun-
Salman Ansari; Hemant Padalkar/DNA

tent like books or movies, one would
obviously want to be topical,” ex-
plains Vinil Mathew, filmmaker.
“So, with the elections coming up,
of course there is a deluge of this
kind of content. You always cater to
the demand and there is an obvious
demand for it. This is also why ad-
vertisement steers away from po-
litical content. You don’t want to
step on any toes.”
Agnihotri, whose film also raised
a couple of eyebrows as it looks into
the alleged assassination of prime
minister Lal Bahadur Shastri. How-
play centres around farmers’ ex-
ploitation and unrest, given a per-
sonal touch through the eyes of an
old man.
At the end of the play, the audi-
ence members, which include noted
thespians as well as screenwriter
Atul Tiwari, murmur about its rel-
evance in today’s time – its caution-
ary message has clearly been con-
veyed. “I have been quite active in
the farmer’s cause myself and can
therefore attest to the aptness of
this play being staged in today’s
time,” says actor Tarun Kumar.
at these differentiators, the book try’s prosperity and
will definitely stand out.” spreads positive
Author of How to Get Published, patriotism through
Meghna Pant adds that since we its rendition. The
have now arrived at one of the most context in the film
important elections of all time, the (sung by students
need for opinion-makers is higher during Annual Day
than ever. “India wants to know,” she celebrations in
says, with a shrug. But what opinion Pakistan, yet taught
does one follow? With so many op- by Indian spy
posing views, who does one believe? Sehmat, played
Pant has a simple solution: by Alia Bhatt)
“Find voices that resonate with also shows the
you, that are trustworthy and universality of the
have no agenda.” nationalistic spirit. Hoardings along the Western Express Highway (left) and in Sion area (right) in Mumbai

n The Verdict n Democracy n How to n The Great n The Lost n The Great
by Prannoy Roy On The Road by Win an Indian Disappointment Decade (2008- March of
and Dorab R. Ruchir Sharma Election by Salman 18) by Puja Democracy by
Sopariwala by Shivam Anees Soz Mehra S.Y. Quraishi
Popular in Shankar Singh

Literature
 ah edabad
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
03
Ahmedabad I Sunday, April 21, 2019 I daily news & analysis

Cong to get 10+ seats: Ahmed Patel

in brief
Bhanushali case:
Railway police
files charge sheet
The Railway police on
Saturday filed a charge
sheet against six people
in connection with the
Jayanti Bhanushali
case. The six have been
accused of being in-
volved in the killing ei-
ther as conspirators or
Those who have defected have done it for their personal interests, says party treasurer
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net Fact file ‘BJP raising
Congress will get at least 10-
„„The party had
bagged 77 seats in
Pak issues to
hide failures’
15 seats in Gujarat during Gujarat Vidhan Sabha
Lok Sabha elections, Con- elections of 2017. This
gress treasurer and Rajya roughly translates into CM Vijay Rupani addressing a public meeting at Porbandar on Saturday
Sabha member Ahmed Patel DNA Correspondent

BJP will win all

those who executed the
crime. Bhanushali, a
BJP leader was shot
dead on the Bhuj-Dadar
11 Lok Sabha seats
said in Rajkot on Saturday. correspondent@dnaindia.net
This would be a signifi- „„Of the total 47
cant improvement over 2014 Assembly seats in The BJP is raising issues of
Lok Sabha election results Saurashtra region, the Pakistan and security of the

express between
Bhachau and Samkhiya-
li stations in Kutch dis-
trict. Earlier the cops
seats in state:
when the party failed to get party had bagged 27 country to hide its own failure
even a single seat from the seats during the state during the campaign for Lok
state. elections, translating Sabha elections, Gujarat Con-
“Our performance will be into about four Lok gress president Amit Chavda

had arrested two arrest-
ed sharpshooters Sha-
shikant Kamble and
Ashraf Sheikh in con-
nection with the murder.
AMC deploys 16
med teams for polls
The Ahmedabad Munici-
pal Corporation (AMC)
has deployed 16 teams of
medical staff and ex-
perts for the election
duty. The teams will be
posted at the main cen-
tre and will be working
on Monday and Tuesday,
a day before polling and
on the polling day. Peo-
ple of Gujarat will cast
their votes on April 23,
2019. “Besides the 16
medical teams, we have
arranged for 1,100 first
aid kits and 300 wheel-
Rahul is like a puppy,
Vijay Rupani
better than results of legisla- Sabha seats in the said on Saturday. He was re-
tive assembly elections of region acting to the statements by
2017. We will get between 10- Congress treasurer Ahmed Patel during a press conference on Saturday Gujarat CM Vijay Rupani.
15 seats in the state. Of these, Lashing out at BJP, Chavda
four or five will be from Sau- which the country was gov- monetization and premature will have to do more due dili- said that farmers in the state
rashtra region,” he said. erned in the past five years. rollout of Goods and Servic- gence in future while nomi- are not getting enough electric-
The party had bagged 77 Moreover, the Narendra es Tax (GST), Patel said that nating candidates for elec- ity or water and when they DNA Correspondent For ten years,
seats in Vidhan Sabha elec- Modi-led government did not these have caused hardships tions. produce crops, they are not get- correspondent@dnaindia.net
tions of 2017. This roughly implement any of the prom- for businessmen and the “Those who have left the ting remunerative prices in the
Manmohan
translates into 11 Lok Sabha ises made during the cam- common man. party is because of their per- market. Moreover, while UPA-1 Retaliating to Congress lead- Singh was the
seats. paign during the 2014 Gen- Demonetization has re- sonal interest. We will have and UPA-2 governments creat- er Ahmed Patel’s claim that PM. Congress should tell
Of the 47 seats in Saurash- eral elections, according to sulted in widespread jobless- to be more careful while ed jobs in rural and urban ar- Congress party will cross
tra region, the party had the Congress leader. “But ness, which will reflect in nominating candidates,” he eas, the BJP-led NDA govern- ‘double digits’ in the state,
people about the steps
then bagged 27 seats, trans- instead of giving its report election results, according to said. Voting in Gujarat is ment has failed to create jobs, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay they have taken against
lating into about four Lok card on what it did during Patel. scheduled in the third phase creating resentment among Rupani on Saturday said the terrorism
Sabha seats. five years, the BJP is seeking Regarding a series of de- on April 23 of seven-phase the youth. “BJP government is Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Patel alleged that all the a report card from Congress fections from Congress in exercise. trying to hide its shortcomings will repeat its performance Vijay Rupani,
sections of the society, across just to hide their misgovern- Gujarat in the past few Campaign for polls will by raising issues of security to of 2014 polls by bagging all Gujarat Chief Minister
the country, are suffering be- ance,” he said. weeks, veteran Congress end on Sunday evening, 48 divert the attention of the vot- the 26 Lok Sabha seats in the
cause of the manner in Criticizing steps like de- leader said that the party hours ahead of polling date. ers from real issues,” he said. state. He also said that Naren-
dra Modi is a Gujarati and it Rajkot got All India Institute
would be advantageous for of Medical Science (AIIMS),
election drama the state to have such a per-
son as the prime minister.
“We will get all the 26 seats.
Vadodara got a university for
railways and Surat got an in-
ternational airport. Moreo-

says Ganpat Vasava

chairs for the disabled
and elderly,” said a sen-
ior AMC official.
Hundreds take part
in ‘walk for vote’
A ‘walk for vote’ rally
was organised by the
Ahmedabad district ad-
ministration to create
awareness among voters
about the need to go and
vote in the upcoming
Lok Sabha elections.
The walk which was
flagged off by
Ahmedabad collector
Vikrant Pande was also
attended by several em-
ployees of the district
administration who are
also involved in poll du-
ties.
DNA Correspondent But if Rahul Gandhi stands up
correspondent@dnaindia.net it seems as if a puppy has stood
up, who will wage his tail if
Rahul Gandhi is like a puppy, Pakistan throws a chapati or if
who will wag his tail at dole China throws a chapati,” said
outs from Pakistan and China, Vasava. Meanwhile, CM Vijay
Gujarat’s tourism minister Rupani too disapproved of
Ganpat Vasava said Dediapada Vasava’s remarks. “In the elec-
in Narmada district. His state- tion, in the heated environ-
ment met with criticism both ment, one should show re-
from Congress and BJP. straint. Words should be used
While campaigning for with firmness, but one should
Mansukh Vasava, BJP’s candi- not use unsavoury personal
date for Bharuch Lok Sabha language,” Rupani told report-
constituency, Ganpat Vasava ers in Rajkot.
said that even a child knows Gujarat Congress in charge
who deserves to be a prime Rajeev Satav, said, “This is the
minister. “If our Narendrab- BJP’s style of functioning, but
hai stands up from the chair, the people have decided that
you feel like a lion has risen. they will stand with Congress.”
Gujaratis believe Modi Ji will
do well for the country. Con-
gress will not get even a single
seat (in Gujarat),” said the
chief minister while talking
to media persons. He urged
the people of Gujarat to come
out in heavy numbers on the
polling day to ensure the vic-
tory of BJP, saying that hav-
ing a person like Narendra
Modi is beneficial to Gujarat.
Earlier chief ministers
had to wait for weeks to get an
appointment of PM. With PM
in Delhi, we get the work done
over the phone,” said Rupani.
Highlighting what Gujarat
gained in the last five years,
the chief minister said that
the issue of the royalty of
Violence erupted between two groups at a public meeting at Nikol, where Patidar and Congress leader Hardik Patel crude oil and gas was pend-
was addressing a gathering. Five persons are reportedly injured in the violence on Saturday —Pravin Indrekar/DNA ing for years together. PM
Modi released Rs 10,000 crore.
ver, it is Gujarat (along with
Maharashtra) which got the
Bullet Train.
When asked to comment
on Congress’ claim that the
BJP is raising nationalism to
deflect from the main issues,
Rupani said: “For ten years,
Manmohan Singh was the
Prime Minister. Congress
should tell people about the
steps they have taken against
terrorism. They have not
taken any single step, they
did not have the courage. Af-
ter Pulwama and Uri, Modi ji
did surgical strikes.” “In the
past five years, there has
been no incident of bomb at-
tack inside the country. In
their rule, there have been
many attacks in many parts
of the country,” he added.
 With inputs from ANI

60% of candidates Have courage to stand up and disagree: Former CJI

in Guj have studied DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Maturity of a
society has to be
judged in terms of
establishment of a society of
flexibility that proceeds on
the path of progression
ness of the young genera-
tion towards their obliga-
tions and duties towards

between class 5-12

Urging graduating students where each one is part of the society. Everyone must
of Nirma University to have consciousness of young cohesive whole in spite of the carry forward the idea of
the courage to stand up, For- differences. That is the sign national integration and
mer Chief Justice of India
generation towards their of maturity.” idea of fraternity which
Dipak Misra on Saturday told obligations and duties He asked the students to formed principal ideals of
Pravin Indrekar/DNA

the students not to hesitate in
doing so.
“Courage is the mother of
all virtues. Not to fight
against ‘Adharma’ at the rel-
evant time shows lack of
courage. Similarly, when it is
not required to show bravery,
but one reflects so, it exhibits
lack of intellect”, he said
while addressing students at
its 27th convocation ceremo-
Convocation ceremony was held at Nirma University on Saturday
ny where he felicitated 567
students.
He further added, “Be
makers of history, not losers
of history. You will come
across a lot of people who
towards society
Dipak Misra,
Former Chief Justice of India
will discourage you and ask “We need peace, positivity
you to conform to the present and humility in the world to-
norms. Have the courage to day. A discordant view of an-
disagree.” other does not make someone
He also urged students to an alien. A fair amount of
engage with the outer world. discussion leads you to the
cultivate universal rational-
ism by immersing in ‘Swad-
hyaya’.
Speaking about the im-
portance of educational in-
stitutions, he said, “Educa-
tional institutions have an
important role in igniting
the minds of our future
generations. The maturity
of a society has to be judged
in terms of the conscious-
Ambedkarian philosophy.”
Learn to romance with
education. Maintain respect
for our ancient culture and
social traditions and to help
in the social and economic
progress of the country. Nev-
er let down three mothers in
your lives. Biological mother,
your alma mater as the foster
mother and lastly Mother In-
dia, Misra said.

Supporters of BJP’s A’bad West candidate Kirit Solanki during a rally in city

DNA Correspondent While eight of the 10 candi-

‘If you have will, you 4 held from UP for duping Surat BJP furls its
flag on AMTS,
don’t need slogans’ Range IG’s wife of `1.37 lakh
correspondent@dnaindia.net dates of Congress have seri-

An analysis carried out by
the Association for Demo-
cratic Reforms shows that of
the 371 candidates contesting
elections in Gujarat, 19% of
them have studied only till
class 8. In all, 72 candidates
have mentioned their educa-
tional qualifications as up to
class 8. Overall 60% of all the
total candidates have studied
between Class 5 and 12. Total
59 candidates have studied up
to class 10 while 27 have a
postgraduate degree. Merely
three have a PhD while seven
are illiterate and 19 are just
literate.
If education details paint
a grim picture then voters
can take heart in the fact that
the highest number of candi-
dates contesting the polls are
in the 31-40 age group (120)
violates MCC
ous criminal offences against
them all four of BJP’s candi-
dates have serious criminal
cases registered against DNA Correspondent I proposed to then Prime DNA Correspondent Greater Noida in Uttar DNA Correspondent
them. In all, 58 candidates correspondent@dnaindia.net Minister Atal Bihar Vajpayee correspondent@dnaindia.net Pradesh. The call records of correspondent@dnaindia.net
have criminal offences regis- that we needed more AIIMS. the numbers from which the
tered against them of which Taking a dig at Prime Minis- Soon, a decision was taken to Four people were arrested by victim received calls led the Amidst political campaigning,
only two are women. ter Narendra Modi, Congress set up six new AIIMS. We the Cyber Crime sleuths on cops to a call centre in Greater the Bharatiya Janta Party was
BJP is the party with the leader and former Union made it possible,” he said tar- Saturday for allegedly duping Noida. Investigations revealed found using bus stand of
highest number of crorepati minister Shatrughan Sinha geting PM’s slogan that ‘Modi a woman of Rs1.37 lakh online. that the accused operated from Ahmedabad Municipal Trans-
candidates (24) while Con- on Saturday said you don’t Hai To Mumkeen Hai’. The victim is the wife of Surat a rented premises as property port Service (AMTS) some tree
gress comes second with 23 need slogans if you have the Sinha also said that Con- Range IG. dealers. First, they would col- guards and electric poles in
such candidates. Majority of will to implement promises. gress president Rahul Gandhi Dr Shalini Rajkumar Pan- lect the phone numbers and Science city road locality on
crorepati candidates are in Sinha was addressing an has matured now. “The fact dian, the wife of IG Rajkumar email ids of those who lodged Saturday, while some commer-
Central Gujarat (23) followed election rally in Vadodara. that Congress is able to form Pandian, lost the money after only refund her money but also complaints on www.consumer- cial complexes and buildings
by Saurashtra (20). “When I was the Union governments in Madhya she clicked on a link to lodge a compensate her Rs10,000. complaints.in. Later, they were draped with party flags.
The average wealth of a Health Minister, I found that Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Ra- complaint about the poor ser- A release said that the cops would approach them and offer As per the Model Code of
BJP candidate is Rs 11 crore AIIMS, New Delhi, was over- jasthan within one year of him vice of a salon. She was con- arrested Shraddhanand, refunds. They used to dupe Conduct not a single political
while it is Rs 8 crore for Con- crowded and 80 per cent pa- coming at the helm in the party, vinced to share her OTP by one Vikrant Bhargav, Naman Shar- them by collecting details party is allowed to use govern-
gress. Among the top 10 can- tients were from other states. speaks volumes,” said Sinha. Rohan, who promised to not ma and Vivek Juyal from about their bank accounts. ment premises and properties
didates in the state with the for political campaign. “We
highest income, eight of have received a complaint re-
them belong to the ruling
BJP while the rest are with In a first administration offers waiting rooms for those who come to vote garding the Science city road
and we’ve sent a team to re-
the Congress. Ramesh move it,” said Vikrant Pandey,

Your polling station will have a waiting room too

while the second highest
number of candidates (87)
are in the age group of 41-50.
Independent candidates
are those with the highest
Dhaduk of BJP who is con- Ahmedabad collector.
testing from Porbandar is the “No political party is al-
one with the highest liability lowed to use government prem-
amounting to Rs 21 crore. ises for the political campaign.
As far as liabilities are DNA Correspondent across the district will be man- of sorts registering 7500 voters They can use private proper-
Pravin Indrekar/DNA

number of criminal offences concerned, BJP has three correspondent@dnaindia.net aged by women. He said spe- at one location in one day. “We ties, for which we keep a tab on
against them while Congress candidates who figure into cial facilities have been made also created another record by it. Everything is under our
comes second in fielding list of top 10 candidates with A waiting area is among the for the 16,375 electors who putting up 3.5 lakh stickers in scanner and this also counts in
those with criminal cases liabilities while all the rest new additions to the facilities have disabilities. a day on vehicles. The idea was their election expense,” said
against them. Total 34 inde- belong to Congress. Of the being offered by the adminis- “Of this 716 are those with to ensure that the stickers on the collector. Such flags were
pendent candidates have top 10 candidates with liabili- tration for voters in polling locomotive disability and the vehicles will act as a mes- also found in the Jodhpur lo-
criminal offences registered ties, BJP has just three while booths this election. wheelchairs will be provided sage to encourage people to cality. While the team of AMC
against them while 10 in Con- Congress has the rest. Total Ahmedabad collector Vikrant to them on polling day,” said vote,” said Pandey. has paused the work of poster
gress and 4 candidates of BJP 32 candidates have not men- Pandey said that assured min- Pandey. 21 polling stations will Meanwhile, the cash sei- removal and sealing drive for
also figure in this category. tioned their pan numbers. imum facilities have been pro- be manned by people with dis- zure has so far touched over the property defacement. Ac-
vided at all the 1,921 polling abilities. The administration Rs2.88 core including those cording to sources, this was
Speaking numbers station locations and 5,627 has also put in place medical seized by the IT department because of under the influence
polling stations in the district. teams that will be made avail- and the GST commissioner- of a political party and a ward
An analysis carried out by the Association for Democratic These include ramps, drinking A voter awareness being carried out by kids on skates in the city able at booths. ate. The cops have so far seized level estate officer had con-
Reforms shows that of the 371 candidates contesting water, toilets and shades. He added that this election Rs 1.35 crore in cash while fessed the same. The civic body
elections in Gujarat, 19% of them have studied only up till “Since it is summer we polling stations. For the first ing for their turn to cast their 1.01 lakh new voters had been 46,367 litres of alcohol and had removed more than 37,000
class eight have made arrangements for time there will be a waiting vote,” said Pandey. registered and in fact, the ad- 40,546 IMFL bottles have also political banners since the an-
mandaps (shades) too at the room for those who are wait- In all 105 polling stations ministration created a record been seized. nouncement of polls.

ball
ballet
lok sabha election 2019-20
www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia
Never seen such a
weak govt, weak
PM, says Priyanka
Kalpetta (Wayanad): Con-
gress leader Priyanka Gan-
dhi Vadra Saturday lashed
out at the BJP and Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, say-
ing there has never been a
“weaker government” and
“weaker Prime Minister”
than the incumbent ones.
Priyanka, who is in Way-
anad where her brother and
party chief Rahul Gandhi is
contesting besides in Amethi
in Uttar Pradesh, sought to
know whether suppressing
the voice of those who criti-
cise the government’s poli-
cies amounts to nationalism.
Addressing a massive rally
of farmers in Pulpally, she
questioned the nationalism of
those who refused to listen to
thousands of farmers who had
“marched barefoot” to Delhi to
highlight their problems.
Priyanka said people de-
serve a Prime Minister who
respects them and does not
dismiss his own promises
casually. “Sisters and broth-
ers of Wayanad, I have never
seen a weaker government,
than the government that has
t
NO MORE TEARS: Priyanka Gandhi
Vadra interacts with Nadhan, the boy
who wept over missing a chance to
meet Rahul, in Kannur Saturday —PTI
been in power for last five
years. I have never seen a
weaker PM than the present
PM. My sisters and brothers...I
think you deserve a govt that
speaks for you,” she said.
Priyanka said the BJP
leaders never speak of what
they were going to do for the
people of the country.
Alleging that the BJP gov-
ernment had “betrayed” the
faith of people, she said, “This
is my country, these hills are
my country, the wheat fields in
UP are my country, Tamil
Nadu is my country... But all
BJP did in last five years was
just to divide the nation.”—PTI
tenders & Notices
Odisha’s cash-rich
`117-cr
Assets declared by Pinaki Mishra,
seeking re-election from Puri LS
seat. He is the richest of 417 in
fray for phase-3 polling in Odisha
You better ask this question to the Patna Sahib MP. He has been an
MP for 22 years. He has now gone to a new party (Congress). He
should tell you what is the yardstick for commitment in the new party.
—Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP (on Shatrughan Sinha favouring Akhilesh Yadav as PM)
UP CM Yogi Adityanath says BSP chief Mayawati is seeking votes for those who insulted Dr Ambedkar
‘Just two rounds of polls over, but
speed-breaker didi has lost sleep’
PM Modi, at his 5th rally in Bengal this month, says he too mistook Mamata for a simple woman
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Kolkata: Campaigning in
West Bengal for the fifth time
this month, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Saturday
said he misunderstood Chief
Minister Mamata Banerjee to
be a woman with simple val-
ues when she had in fact un-
leashed “anti-people” poli-
cies on Bengal people. The
Prime Minister also said that
‘speed-breaker didi’ has lost
her sleep after two rounds of
polling in the state.
“Mamata wants the West
Bengal model to be replicated
in the entire country. No
work can be done in Bengal
without paying extortion
money; no Durga Puja can be
celebrated... Mamata brings
in people from other coun-
tries to campaign for her can-
didates, which too is unprec-
edented. She has been filling
her own coffers and is only
worried about her vote bank.
Let alone the entire country,
this model should not exist in
Bengal itself,” said PM Modi.
The prime minister was
speaking at a BJP rally at Bu-
niadpur in Dakshin Dinajpur
district ahead of the third
phase of polling on April 23.
PM Modi reiterated that
‘speed-breaker didi’ had been
posing impediments to the
development and welfare of
Bengal, but would realise her
‘Wild charges undermine independence of judiciary’ Now, Maya canvasses
From p1
At about 9 am, the allegations
came into public domain and
simultaneously, the office of
CJI had a word with the top
law officers — Attorney Gen-
`106 cr
Assets declared by Bobby Mo-
hanty, the Congress candidate
from Baramba assembly seat in
Cuttack seat, says ADR report
PM Modi also attended an election rally in Araria in Bihar on Saturday—PTI
‘failed employees’
„„Mamata can pay goons,
not govt staff, PM said.
„„“She is unable to pay
them DA as per Seventh
Pay Commission.”
„„“While other BJP-ruled
states have implemented
Seventh Pay Commission
report, Bengal couldn’t
implement even Sixth Pay
panel report,” Modi said.
folly once the results were
out on May 23. “You had put
your trust in Mamata, but
she betrayed it. Not just you,
I too had believed that Mama-
ta was a simple lady. She had
fought the Left Front and
ousted them. If I can be mis-
eral KK Venugopal and Solici-
tor General Tushar Mehta.
Then at around 10 am, a notice
was issued for a special sit-
ting at 10.30 am. The matter
got listed as the first suo moto
27%
Nominees for LS poll candidates
in phase-3 have assets worth
more than Rs 1 crore. There are
61 candidates for six LS seats.
led, what about the common
people?” he asked.
Training his guns at both
Mamata and her nephew Ab-
hishek Banerjee, Modi said
the ‘bua-bhatija’ pair had
shamed the culture of Bengal.
PM Modi also played to the
crowd, raising slogans in
Bengali. He asked the crowd
to cheer ‘Ghore ghore chowk-
idar’ (a chowkidar in every
house) after his every slogan,
and went on to shout ten slo-
gans in Bengali such as ‘Dur-
nitibaaz ra hushiyar’ (cor-
rupt beware), ‘Polatok der
ainer maar’ (absconders will
be brought to book, ‘Deshdro-
hira pabey na paar’ (anti-na-
tionals will not escape) and
‘Anuprobeshkari ke korbo
seema paar’ (infiltrators will
be sent back).
(civil) writ petition of 2019 un-
der the case title: “Matter of
Great Public Importance
Touching upon the Independ-
ence of Judiciary — Men-
tioned by S-G Tushar Mehta.”
During the hearing, the CJI
dropped a bombshell by say-
ing that the allegations are a
design by a “bigger force” to
deactivate the CJI considering
the important cases to be
heard by him next week. Nota-
bly, one of the big cases listed
next week pertains to a con-
tempt petition against Con-
gress President Rahul Gan-
dhi.
CJI put the record straight
by stating that on October 11,
he received inappropriate
messages on his mobile phone
from the victim. A day later, he
asked his office to transfer her
and a decision to this effect
was taken on October 22, but
she refused to join work. A de-
partmental enquiry found her
guilty of insubordination, fol-
lowing which she got dis-
missed on December 21, 2018.
Staking his reputation as
high as the reputation of judi-
ciary in the country, the CJI
said that the “Independence
of judiciary is under a very
serious threat.”
‘Sonia has
no real love
for India’
Dr S Krishna Kumar,
former Union Minis-
ter and a three-time
Congress MP from
Kollam Lok Sabha
seat of Kerala, quit
Congress for BJP on
Saturday, and said
Sonia Gandhi has no
real love for India.
Ahmedabad I Sunday, April 21, 2019 I daily news & analysis
It’s almost become a
one-horse race: FM
New Delhi: Finance Minis-
ter Arun Jaitley Saturday
said the “present generation
of dynast” has become a lia-
bility for the Congress and
expressed hope that aspira-
tional India would reject
caste-based and dynastic par-
ties during the ongoing gen-
eral elections.
Jaitley said with the socio-
economic profile of the coun-
try moving up on account of
growth, it would be difficult
for people to accept dynas-
ties. “If the Congress’s dy-
nast has only an ability to
deliver 44 seats or 60 seats in
Parliament, what then is the
incentive for conventional
Congressmen to bear humili-
ation of subjecting them-
selves to a dynast? Ultimately,
in dynastic parties one has to
accept political slavery,” Jait-
ley said in a blog titled, ‘Will
2019 Witness the Dynasty as
a Liability on the Congress
Party?’ The grand old party
is led by Rahul Gandhi,
grandson of Indira Gandhi
and son of Rajiv Gandhi, and
is assisted by his sister Pri-
yanka Gandhi Vadra.
Jaitley said the two Prime
He drew parallels of the of-
fice of CJI with Prime Minis-
ter have to be independent and
said, “Reputation is the only
thing which a judge has...if
such things happen, no judge
will be able to decide matters.
Why will any sane person
want to become a judge?” CJI
told A-G, S-G and Supreme
Court Bar Association Presi-
dent Rakesh K Khanna.
CJI disclosed that after 20
years as a judge, all he had in
his bank account was Rs 6.8
lakh and Rs 40 lakh in provi-
dent fund and saving schemes.
“These are my total assets.
When I started my career I
had much more...Nobody can
catch me on money. So people
have to find something and
they have found this.”
On the allegations per se,
CJI said, “I do not think I
should stoop low to even deny
these allegations,” CJI said,
wondering how “unbelieva-
ble” it is coming from a wom-
an who is facing criminal
prosecution in two cases.
Taking responsibility for
constituting the special bench,
CJI said that this “unusual
and extraordinary step” was
taken as things had gone too
far. The online news portals
gave him less than 12 hours to
respond and he felt that this
needs to be told from the high-
est seat of this institution that
“judiciary cannot be made a
scapegoat.”
Present generati-
on of ‘dynast’ has
become a liability
for Congress...hope
aspirational India reject
caste-based and dynastic
parties
Arun Jaitley,
Finance Min
Ministers that BJP gave to
the nation -- AB Vajpayee and
Narendra Modi -- were by a
mile the “tallest politicians
of their generation”, adding
that this could happen only
in merit-based parties and
not dynastic ones.
Commenting on the first
two phases of polling for the
general elections, Jaitley said
the momentum was clearly
with the BJP and PM Modi.
“In terms of national leader-
ship contest for a Prime Min-
isterial election, it is almost
becoming a one horse race.
There is nobody else measur-
ing up to PM Modi’s level of
capacity and acceptability,”
he added.—PTI
for SP’s Azam Khan
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: A day after BSP
supremo Mayawati buried the
hatchet with SP patron Mu-
layam Singh Yadav by sharing
dais at Mainpuri, she took the
newfound solidarity forward
at Rampur on Saturday. The
former Uttar Pradesh chief
minister held a joint rally
with SP chief and Mulayam’s
son Akhilesh Yadav, seeking
votes for senior SP leader Mo-
hammed Azam Khan, who
recently courted controversy
for derogatory remarks
against BJP’s Jaya Prada.
Mayawati and junior Yadav
appeared together at Mahatma
Gandhi Stadium in Rampur on
Saturday. They later held an-
other rally together at Banti-
garh Chauraha in Firozabad to
take on the estranged brother
of Mulayam and rebel Shivpal
Yadav who broke away from
Samajwadi Party and formed
his own faction. The duo lent
support to Khan who made
public appearance after the
three-day ban imposed by the
Election Commission on Mon-
day for making misogynistic
comments against Jaya Prada
ended. The SP had vehemently
defended Khan for his com-
ments that caused a political
04
Chowkidar rap,
from Devang of
Patelscope fame
New Delhi: With the festival
of democracy at its peak in
India, singer Devang Patel of
Patelscope fame, has dropped
a peppy Lok Sabha election-
themed song.
The song titled ‘Chowkidaar
Rap’, first appeared on the web-
site deshgujarat.com and later
tweeted by BJP, features issues
that have made way to the cur-
rent political discourse in the
country. The song, more of a
spoof, opens with Devang Patel
dressed as a watchman
(Chowkidar) and sporting
Wing Commander Abhinan-
dan-styled moustache.
Taking a dig at Congress
President Rahul Gandhi, the
song begins with his voice say-
ing, ‘Jo desh ke chowkidar bane
hain vo chor hain (watchman
of the country is a thief),’ a
phrase often used by Gandhi to
target PM Modi on Rafale deal.
The rap takes a dig at every-
thing from the controversy
raked up in the Rafale deal, to
the Kashmir issue, as Devang
keeps on repeating ‘Aayega to
Modi he’ (Modi will continue
as the prime minister)’
throughout the song.
In one of the verses, De-
vang takes a jibe at Mahagath-
bandhan, a grand alliance
which has been formed
against the BJP. The rap song
is 2.59-minute long. —Agencies
Mayawati with Azam Khan
storm. Running to his defence,
Akhilesh had said, “He was
talking about someone else. We
are Samajwadis, we never use
foul language for women.”
The SP leader who is notori-
ous for taking impolite jibes at
rivals, however, pleaded inno-
cence at the rally, claiming that
he was being hounded like a
terrorist.
“They are treating me as if
I am the biggest terrorist in
this world. Had it been within
the limits of their power, the
administration would have
openly killed me by firing a
shot at me,” he said.
The BSP chief and the SP
patriarch Mulayam Singh
were seen in one frame on
Saturday at joint SP-BSP
rally, ending decades of po-
litical acrimony and person-
al bitterness.
 w rld
05
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Suicide bombers
attack Afghan
ministry in Kabul
Two were killed, six injured & over
2,000 staff rescued from building
Kabul: Suicide bombers and
gunmen attacked the commu-
nications ministry in central
Kabul on Saturday, officials
said, in an hours-long assault
that destroyed weeks of rela-
Reuters
tive calm in the capital.
The Taliban said it had
“nothing to do” with the at-
tack, which left some 2,000 peo-
ple stranded in the tall office
building for hours at the start
of the Afghan work week.
No other group claimed im-
mediate responsibility, but the
Afghan branch of the Islamic
State group has previously car-
ried out multiple deadly at-
tacks in the capital.
“As a result of today’s explo-
sion/attack in Kabul city, two
people have been martyred
(killed) and 6 others are
wounded,” the health ministry
spokesman wrote in a tweet,
adding three of the injured
were women. AFP journalists
heard one big blast around
11:40 am, followed by sporadic
gunfire for hours afterwards.
“The information that we
have is four attackers have
placed themselves near the
communication ministry and
are engaged in gun battles with
the Afghan security forces,”
Amanduddin Shariati, a secu-
rity official in Kabul said.
By about 5:00 pm, the inte-
rior ministry declared the as-
Mitsuhiro Iwamoto, with his
navigator Doug Smith —Reuters
Blind Japanese
sailor finishes
Pacific voyage
without a stop
Tokyo: A blind Japanese
sailor completed his non-stop
Pacific voyage on Saturday,
local media reported, becom-
ing the first sightless person
on record to navigate a vessel
across the vast ocean.
Mitsuhiro Iwamoto arrived
at port in Fukushima in his
12-metre sailboat on Saturday
morning, around two months
after he left California.
Iwamoto, a 52-year-old San
Diego resident, sailed from
the US city on February 24
with Doug Smith, an Ameri-
can navigator who verbally
helped him by offering infor-
mation such as wind direc-
tions.
This was his second at-
tempt after his initial voyage
was cut short six years ago
when his yacht hit a whale
and sank. “I’m home. Thank
you,” Iwamoto told the wel-
coming party after his yacht
sailed into Fukushima, end-
ing a journey of some 14,000
kilometres. —AFP
Liquor heiress pleads
guilty in sex cult case
New York: Clare Bronfman,
heiress to the Seagram liquor
fortune, pleaded guilty Fri-
day to her role in a secretive
society of women sex slaves.
The guilty plea on two
counts -- conspiracy to con-
ceal and harbour illegal al-
iens for financial gain and
fraudulent use of identifica-
tion -- allows Bronfman’s to
avoid a trial in the case set to
open May 7.
Keith Raniere, 58, the
founder of the purported self-
help group Nxivm who has
already been charged with
sex trafficking and forced la-
bor conspiracy, now stands
alone as a defendant in a case.
Raniere, who was arrested
in Mexico last year, is ac-
cused of creating a secret
society called “DOS,” a pyra-
mid scheme of more than a
dozen women “slaves” and
“masters” with him -- the sole
man -- at the top.
Bronfman now faces up to
25 years in prison but the gov-
ernment’s sentencing guide-
lines would see her incarcer-
ated for up to just 27 months.
daily news & analysis
Ahmedabad I Sunday,
April 21, 2019
Rescued children being carried
away from the building in Kabul
children rescued
A woman, who had been
in a group of about 30
people on the 10th floor
when the assault started,
was told to move up to
the 18th floor as gunfire
increased. They were all
eventually rescued by
commandos “Women were
screaming and children of
the kindergarten were the
first to be evacuated,” a
woman, who did not want
to be named, said
sault over. “Operations fin-
ished. All suicide bombers
killed & more than 2000 civil-
ians staff rescued,” the minis-
try said on Twitter.
Panicked workers inside
the 18-storey building, believed
to be Kabul’s tallest, moved up
to the top floor as gunmen and
Afghan security officials bat-
tled lower down. —AFP
Iran-based
group attacked
army, says Pak
Islamabad: A group of mili-
tants crossed the border from
neighbouring Iran earlier this
week and carried out a deadly
attack against Pakistan armed
forces in southwestern Balo-
chistan province, killing 14,
the Foreign Ministry said Sat-
urday.
The ministry said in a letter
to the Iranian government that
the assailants were from a
newly formed Baloch separa-
tist group, Raji Aajoi Sangar,
and that they were based in
Iran’s adjacent Balochistan
province. It urged Iran to act
against the attackers who had
fled back across the border.
Groups operating within
Pakistan’s and Iran’s Balo-
chistan provinces, which share
a long border, seek independ-
ence from both countries.
The ministry said the “kill-
ing of 14 innocent Pakistanis
by terrorist groups based in
Iran is a very serious incident
that Pakistan protests strong-
ly.” The announcement came a
day before Prime Minister Im-
ran Khan’s visit to Iran.
Despite lodging a protest
with Tehran over the attack,
Pakistan Foreign Minister
Shah Mahmood Qureshi told
reporters that the planned two-
day visit, beginning Sunday,
was intact and that Khan will
take up the matter of Thurs-
day’s killings with Iranian au-
thorities. —AP
Clare Bronfman outside the
Brooklyn Federal Courthouse in
New York —Reuters
Her sentencing hearing is set
to take place July 25.
The 40-year-old philan-
thropist and former eques-
trian showjumper is the
daughter of Edgar Bronf-
man, the late Canadian chair-
man of liquor giant Seagram
whose net worth was esti-
mated at $2.6 billion.
Bronfman was accused of
using her wealth to fund Nx-
ivm to the tune of more than
$100 million. She was a mem-
ber of the executive board of
the group, which shot to noto-
riety for its initiation rites
including the branding of its
members with the founder’s
initials.—AFP

daily news & analysis
Alternate Histories
Deccani, Dehlavi
and Persian
Three divergent trajectories of languages in India
In the previous
part on the his-
tory of the evo-
lution of Hin-
davi, we had
mentioned
that the lan-
guage had trav-
elled to the
Sohail Hashmi Deccan and the
rulers of Bi-
japur and Golconda, had discarded
Persian as the court language and
had replaced it with Hindavi. It was
here, at Golconda, Bijapur and at
Gulbarga, that Hindavi or Dehlavi
or Zaban-e-Dehli found a new home
and it was here that it evolved into
Deccani over the next 300 years.
While Dehlavi was slowly getting
transformed into Deccani, through
the induction of words from Guja-
rati, Marathi and Telugu in the Dec-
can, a new transformation was hap-
pening in the region of the birth of
Dehlavi or Hindavi after the sacking
of Delhi by Taimur in 1398.
Delhi was ruled for 30 odd years
by the Saiyad kings who were fol-
lowed by the Lodis, the second Lodi
Sultan Sikandar, moved the capital
to Agra in 1504, his successor Ibra-
him lost to Babar. Humayun
brought the capital back to Delhi,
while Humayun’s son Akbar took it
back to Agra in 1556.
So you can say that things around
Delhi were a little unsettled from
the time of the departure of Taimur
and when they eventually began to
settle down almost 150 years later
they did so in Agra. The official lan-
guage of the court at Agra was Per-
sian while the language of the
streets in Agra was Braj and Akbar
patronised Braj. Several of his no-
bles, engaged in Akbar’s project of
helping interfaith dialogue through
translating religious texts both
ways, were scholars of Braj and of
Persian and Arabic.
One of his senior most nobles,
Abdul Rahim Khan-e-Khana, known
to us as the poet Rahim, is recog-
nised as one of the tallest poets of
Braj Bhasha. Akbar’s sons and
grandsons were taught Braj and
strange as it may sound, given the
colonial portrayal that paints him
more as a caricature than a human
being, Aurangzeb wrote poetry, he
wrote love poetry and he wrote it in
Braj. Delhi was not the capital from
1504 and regained the status of be-
ing the capital only in 1648, in the
interregnum. Except for the chaotic
26 years of the reign of Humayun,
Sher Shah Suri, Islam Shah and Hu-
mayun, from 1530 to 1556 when
Delhi was capital, the rest of the
time it was Agra.
So after the sack of Delhi in the
very late 14th century, things are not
going well for Delhi and the lan-
There was Persian at the Mughal Court in Delhi, rivalling the scholarship of the language in Iran
and then there was Hindavi or Zaban-e-Dehli which was the language of the streets —Istock
send your feedback to editor@dnaindia.net
Can the simple act of walking recharge your soul?
Every one of us
has a fondness for
certain words,
picked at random
— with whimsy,
not logic. My list
would include
“solitude”. You
may be alone or
Gowri Ramnarayan lonely due to cir-
cumstances. But
solitude is a state you choose for
many reasons – to be stress-free, to
take a break, contemplate, or simply
to chill out. With solitude goes a sim-
ple monosyllabic word - “walk”.
The Romans say solvitur ambulan-
do – “it is solved by walking”. Of
course, ambulando also implies am-
bling, happy hours of aimless wan-
dering, without haste or any set pur-
pose. The phrase suggests that walk-
ing can turn into meditation. But only
in solitude. As we walk, the mind
slips into a different level of con-
sciousness where tangled issues are
unravelled and new significations dis-
Vol 12 n Issue No. 166 RNI: GUJENG/2007/22424. Printed and Published by Rajendra Bathula on behalf of Diligent Media Corporation ltd. Printed at Bhaskar Printing Press, Survey No.148 P, Nagdevta Mandir, Changodar, Bavla Highway, Sanand, Ahmedabad (Gujarat) and Published at Diligent Media Corporation
Limited, Venus Atlantis Building, Unit No. 201 to 208, 2nd Floor, 100 Feet Road, Prahladnagar, Satellite, Ahmedabad 380015. Phone: 079 4060 2000. Editor: Deepak Lokhande Responsible for selection of news under PRB Act.
guage of Delhi, in any case, has no
royal patronage. It continues to
grow and develop, largely on its own
steam in the scattered urban settle-
ments that have survived the depre-
dations of Taimur and in those
semi-urban clusters that cling to the
shrines of the numerous Sufis of
Delhi. From the time of Akbar, Del-
hi begins to be treated like the sec-
ond capital and things start to look
up somewhat.
The capital returned to Delhi in
1648 with the building of the Quila-
e-Mu’alla or the Red Fort and Shah-
jahanabad. The Mughal Empire was
at its peak, India’s share of Global
GDP was about 25% (http://think-
ingaloud.aberdeen-asset.com/en/
thinkingaloud/the-bigger-picture/
india-the-giant-awakens) and Delhi
was the destination of choice for
soldiers of fortune, merchants of
pearls and precious stones, calligra-
phers, jewellers, men of science and
medicine, philosophers and schol-
ars of religion, writers, poets, musi-
cians and artists.
The language of intellectual dis-
course was Persian and so gradu-
ally some of the finest Persian po-
etry were written in Delhi. This is a
fact now recognised by Iranian
scholars of the history of Persian
language and they call it ‘Sabk-e-
Hindi’ - Indian school of Persian
writing.
Girdhar Das, a Persian poet from
Delhi and a contemporary of Shaja-
han wrote an abridged version of
the Ramayan in Persian, Chandra
Bhan ‘Brahman’ a clerk in the court
of Shahjahan authored a complete
anthology in Persian, Banwali Das
‘Wali’ and Mathura Das’ Hendu’, the
latter closely associated with Dara
Shukoh were some other Persian
Poets of repute who were contribut-
ing to the compendium of Persian
writing in India from Delhi (http://
www.iranicaonline.org/articles/
hindu-persian-poets)
So there were these three diver-
gent trajectories. There was Hinda-
vi developing into Deccani, as the
rulers of Golconda and Bijapur re-
placed it with Persian in their pub-
lic dealings. There was Persian at
the Mughal Court in Delhi, rivalling
the scholarship of the language in
Iran and then there was Hindavi or
Zaban-e-Dehli, which came into its
own in the streets of the new city
built by Shahjahan.
The stage was set for the lan-
guage of the people, long denied its
place due to the ongoing upheavals
at Delhi and the constant shifting of
the Capital. We will talk about the
rise of Rekhta and Hindi in part IV
of this mini-series.
The author is a historian, and
organises the Delhi Heritage Walk
for children and adults
covered. To Rainer Maria Rilke this is
almost an intuitive process. As the
poet walks on, even if he feels only
the wind on his face, and does not
reach the sunny hill ahead, he is still
charged by an inner light.
Many poets have shared their
walks with us, some epiphanic, a few
mysterious, others wondrous. An in-
defatigable walker in life, William
Wordsworth wanders among a “host
of golden daffodils fluttering and
dancing in the breeze”. On a high-
land trek he passes by a “solitary
highland lass reaping and singing by
herself ”. And discovers how a casual
walk on hill and dale can spark joyful
insights.
Can a walk trigger angst and de-
spair? Walt Whitman knew heart-
break, he saw one of his children die,
another commit suicide, a third suffer
mental illness. Walking became his
metaphor for life’s journey through
shock, grief and urban alienation: “I
have walked out in rain—and back in
rain./ I have outwalked the furthest
06 
Ahmedabad I Sunday, April 21, 2019
Going through the roof
As global trade becomes sluggish, the sale of counterfeit and pirated goods grew very significantly
The sale of fake or
counterfeit goods
the world over
has seldom been as
brisk as today, with
the proliferation
of digital plat-
forms through
e-commerce.
G Srinivasan It has made
transactions easier
and free from the clutches of customs,
crossing borders without any difficulty.
It is no surprise that the US President
signed a memo earlier this month seeing
details on how the country could better
track the growth of spurious goods across
the world. According to estimates, the
value of counterfeit goods may touch the
$500-billion-a-year mark with about 20 per
cent of this trade violating US intellec-
tual property. Although no precise fig-
ures about the sale of such trade in fake
goods exist, Paris-based intergovernmen-
tal think tank, the Organization for Eco-
nomic Cooperation and Development
Istock
(OECD), undertakes a periodic study in
concert with the European Union Intel-
lectual Property Organization (EU-IPO)
to arrive at credible numbers.
Based on 2016 data, an updated report
jointly released in the third week of
March, estimated that the volume of
global trade in counterfeit and pirated
products could amount to as much as a
whopping $509 billion. Even as this con-
stitutes up to 3.3 per cent of world trade,
it excludes domestically produced and
consumed counterfeit and pirated prod-
ucts or pirated digital products being dis-
tributed via the Internet. The previous
OECD/EU-IPO study estimated that in
2013, up to 2.5 per cent of global trade
worth $461 billion was in counterfeit and
pirated goods. The point to note is that
between 2013 and 2016, the share of global
trade in counterfeit and pirated goods
grew very significantly, even when world
trade logged a relative slowdown!
The joint study warns about the rise in
the intensity of counterfeiting and piracy,
“with significant and potential risk for
intellectual property (IP) in the knowl-
edge-based open and globalised econo-
my”. Interestingly, the study traces the
dramatic sale of counterfeit and pirated
goods from virtually all economies in all
continents, with China and Hong Kong as
the biggest conduits.
In addition, several Asian economies,
including India are also important suppli-
ers of counterfeit products, despite a role
that is significantly lesser than China’s.
oddit
A blurry mugshot of a dense cosmic sucker
For the first time ever, humanity saw a supermassive black hole in a nearby galaxy, and said, ‘Is that all?’
Manavi Deopura
Many eyes squinted instead of becoming
goggle-eyed with awe when they first
rested upon an image of a mammoth cos-
mic blackness into which all light and
matter disappear, never to be heard from
again.
Is that what a black hole looks like, a
misshapen bagel on fire? That’s literally
nothing to write home about. Over 200 ge-
nii working to fructify an idea conceived
over a quarter century ago, eight perfectly
synced telescopes positioned at the most
exotic vacation spots on the planet gazing,
unblinking, into space for 10 days, and
together they end up snapping the cosmic
backwater for a picture so... out of focus!
And it’s not even our black hole, lodged
as it is in the centre of the nearby galaxy,
Messier 87. Forty million pounds of hard-
fought earth money down an extraterres-
trial drain, and for what? For a shot of the
neighbour’s black hole. Frankly, Musk’s
Starman cut a better figure coasting in a
Tesla against the radiant blue horizon of
the Earth.
The anthropoid response to this other-
world entity was akin to the collective
hoot of a disappointed fan base when a
city light. / I have looked down the
saddest city lane. /… I have been one
acquainted with the night.”
At the other end of the spectrum
Australian aboriginals see going
The existing legal provisions from the Trademark Act and Copyrights Act in India are not sufficient deterrent to the band of organised counterfeit racketeers
The key transit points for ten main sec-
tors that are particularly vulnerable to
counterfeit, span a wide range of IP-in-
tense, tradable items - from fast-moving
consumer goods such as foodstuff or cos-
metics to business-to-business products
such as spare parts and computer chips.
Sadly, fake products such as contact
lenses, pharmaceuticals or baby formu-
las are continuously being fed to markets
through multiple channels, including
digital platform vendors at a volume un-
matched by offline outfits. It is equally
sad that the degree of consumer decep-
tion is still the highest for these classes of
products, posing a peril to the personal
health and safety of consumers. Fake
goods are dispatched in large quantities
in containers and in small parcels by post
or courier services. The report listed sev-
eral West Asian economies - Saudi Ara-
bia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen
— as important transit points for sending
counterfeit goods to Africa.
Four other transit points — Albania,
Egypt, Morocco and Ukraine — are of
particular significance for redistributing
fake goods in the EU, while Panama is a
vital conduit for fakes to the USA.
Highlighting the shortcomings, OECD
said lamentable gaps in governance, es-
pecially high levels of corruption and
lacunae in IP rights enforcement, boosts
sci-fi thriller contains averagely impres-
sive visual effects and much bathos.
For many reasons, however, critics are
a bit out of place, and time, to malign the
mugshot of the cosmic sucker. Though it
should be said, black holes don’t suction,
nor are they empty as the name suggests,
and the mugshot is the most sophisticated
composite portrait ever assembled (Don’t
they tell it like it is in astrophysics!). Some
wonder, then, can be drawn back out of
this space-time mess.
What was unveiled on April 10 was the
result of an attempt to photograph Sagit-
tarius A*, the black hole at the centre of
our own galaxy. And the neighbour’s black
hole photo-bombed it. No, let’s just say Mr
Bagel was more photogenic.
Mr Bagel sits slurping light and what-
ever stuff there is at the inhuman dis-
tance of 500 million trillion km, in the
north of constellation Virgo (in case you
were planning to drive, which might be
difficult as M87 does not have spiral dust
lanes like our prettier Milky Way). To see
it, you really have to strain, with eyes as
large as the Earth. This was made possible
by the array of telescopes — set up atop
volcanoes, mountains and deserts —
which together functioned as a giant
“walkabout” in the wilderness as the
highest adventure, a rite of passage
for youth. The youngster journeys for
months in solitude, to achieve physi-
cal and spiritual transition/transfor-
mation. Later, the term came to be
used derogatorily by white people
who damned the aboriginals as lazy,
capable of merely short spurts of ac-
tion. But for the aboriginal, walka-
bout remains the act of linking sa-
cred spaces, finding cultural roots
and spiritual light.
Even in our postmodern world, eve-
ry single continent has herder, trader
or hunter-gatherer communities -
Romani gypsies in East Europe, Afri-
can Fulani, Inuit in the Arctic re-
gions, Gujjar, Rebari or Kuruba in In-
dia - following the trails of their an-
cestors. Nomads feel suffocated by the
very thought of settling in a single
place. Migration is a primeval act
binding them to the mountains,
plains, forests, and to the creatures
who inhabit them.
This week, going on a long walk on
opini n
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trade in counterfeits. It singles out the
existence and proliferation of free trade
zones (FTZs) or special economic zones
(SEZs), which give a strong impetus to
this parallel trade in economies with
weak governance, high corruption levels
and a lack of intellectual property rights
enforcement. China and India have
plumped for such exclusive enclaves in
recent years! Though these special zones
are designed to benefit trade in general,
such as good logistics facilities, it is the
misuse of these amenities that could re-
sult in higher flows of trade in fake goods.
Rightly, the study cautioned that as the
lightly regulated zones are lucrative for
parties in illegal and criminal activities,
the continued growth of such zones
makes an important context and an alibi
for such nefarious activities. As for India,
the study mentions it is also emerging
along with other Asian neighbours, as an
global eye stalking Mr Bagel.
In plain speak, Mr Bagel is old, ex-
tremely tiny for how fat he is, and quite
radioactive. He has been around for more
than 13 billion years, has a mass of 6.5 bil-
lion of our suns, yet is so small he has no
known height or girth. Also, he is dark.
Imagine these stunning circumstances
as a sharp pencil dot on this broadsheet
page. The dot is the black hole, the page is
the Torrey Pines State Reserve, 1500
acres of wilderness bang in the mid-
dle of San Diego city, was to feel the
throb of those primordial instincts. I
saw the gnarled roots of the endan-
gered Torrey pines cling to the fragile
sandstone cliffs. The cliffs loomed
over the beach below, where the Pacif-
ic ocean flings its spray.
After unusually heavy rains, the
slopes blazed in spectacular super
bloom bursts of golden poppies, yel-
low dahlias, purple nightshade, pink
aster and magenta verbena. I learnt
that once the indigenous Kumeyaay
people (the name means “those who
face water from the cliffs”) lived here,
depending on local flora and fauna for
food, medicine and shelter. Hunters
rubbed their bodies with sage flowers
to hide their human smell from the
deer, women wearing tree bark skirts
wove grass baskets, beside homes
made of brush and deerweed. The
versatile yucca plant provided food,
lather for washing, fibrous thread,
and needles from its pointed leaf.
important producer of counterfeit goods.
Trouble is such a dubious reputation
affects domestic consumers too. A per-
functory click of the mouse shows that
metro cities including Delhi, Mumbai,
Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai throb
with spurious goods, where replicas of
luxury goods are available at one-fourth
of the price! For the hapless consumers,
counterfeit is dangerous to health, safety
and privacy, besides lowering consumer
satisfaction, particularly when low grade
fake goods are purchased unknowingly.
For right-holders and their authorised
vendors, rising fakes aggravates revenue
losses, while trademark infringements
continuously erode brand values. For
governments, counterfeiting entails a
loss of tax revenues, higher unemploy-
ment and greater expenditure incurred
— both to ensure compliance with anti-
counterfeiting legislation and to react to
public safety threats and labour market
distortions. The existing legal provisions
from the Trademark Act and Copyrights
Act in India are not sufficient deterrent
to the band of organised counterfeit rack-
eteers. The punishment for contravention
of the rules of the game ought to be cog-
nizable and non-bailable, as enshrined in
the provisions of the Indian Penal Code.
Author is a freelance economic commentator
based in New Delhi
the event horizon — the photo’s shadowy
region — and the room the sloppy halo of
fire around it. Now imagine taking a pic-
ture of the dot from your friend’s house
who lives in the next city. At night, with-
out flash. (Apocryphal parallels, but they
will do for perspective.)
Thankfully, the dot emits radio waves.
And the genii figured out a way to create
an eyeball big enough to peer at the shad-
ow of the lightless pinprick.
To get this one look, data equivalent to
the lifetime selfie collections of 40,000 peo-
ple was generated and crunched. Too vast
to be transferred online, it was transport-
ed physically, in hard drives, from the tel-
escopic sites, one of which was Antarctica
from where it took six months to get to
civilisation. So ten days from the black
hole to Earth and 180 days from a pole of
the earth to the centre. The portrait of Mr
Bagel was thus assembled. And when it
was unveiled, the black hole, true to the
legend, sucked in all earthly attention.
Cosmic irony. So, forgive him for not being
as sharp as an Instagram selfie. If there
could be a repartee from him, it should
read, ‘Don’t judge me with your short-
sighted glasses, rock dwellers. There is
more to me than meets the eye.”
Kumeyaay people walked long dis-
tances back and forth, foraging for
seasonal fruit, nuts and fish.
Walking in the land where once
the Kumeyaay roamed was to remem-
ber an ancient culture that never
wasted a single seed, plant, animal or
insect life, never indulged in sense-
less slaughter, a community that be-
lieved that coyote and cougar, squirrel
and quail, were not parasites or immi-
grants but rightful inhabitants of the
land on which they lived.
Breathing the salty air blowing
through Torrey pine and chaparral
bush, you realise that strolling dis-
solves skepticism, ambling connects
you to the earth, roaming makes you
see how interconnected we are with
all life forms.
Solvitur ambulando gains a new
meaning: “You may not make it to the
sunny hill ahead, but feeling the
wind on your face you are charged
with light”. Walking makes you free.
The author is a playwright, theatre director,
musician and journalist
21
Sunday
April
2019
Ahmedabad
www.dnaindia.com
athletics
BALL GAME
BCCI supports
Ganguly in DC
conflict case
BCCI Ombudsman Jus-
tice DK Jain has sought
a written submission
from Sourav Ganguly af-
ter Saturday’s hearing,
even as the Board put its
weight firmly behind
the former India skipper
in the alleged conflict of
interest case. The BCCI
termed that the former
India captain’s alleged
conflict of interest
comes under the ‘tracta-
ble category’ which
could be sorted without
much fuss and with “full
disclosure”.
Atletico extend
lead over Real
Atletico Madrid needed
Thomas Lemar to come
off the bench and score
an 85th-minute winner
against Eibar on Satur-
day as they stretched
their lead over Real Ma-
drid to seven points in
La Liga. Real play at
home to in-form Athletic
Bilbao on Sunday but
Atletico took another
step towards finishing
above their city rivals
for a second consecutive
year by squeezing past
Eibar 1-0 at Ipurua.
Depleted India
hope for medals
A depleted Indian con-
tingent is unlikely to re-
peat its unprecedented
top-of-the-table finish in
the last edition but is
still expected to win a
substantial number of
medals when the Asian
Athletics Champion-
ships begins in Doha on
Sunday. India had fin-
ished on top of the table
with a record-breaking
haul of 29 medals (12
gold, 5 silver, 12 bronze)
in the 2017 Champion-
ships in Bhubaneswar.
Punjab take on
Services in final
After 12 rigorous days,
Punjab and Services are
set to lock horns in the
final of the national
football championship
for the Santosh Trophy
in Ludhiana on Sunday.
Being the home side,
Punjab have enjoyed
support of the local fans,
something that pro-
pelled them to gain the
last-gasp win in their
previous two games
against Karnataka and
Goa in the semifinal.
on the tube
(All Live)
Cricket Star Sports
Network: 16:00 IPL: SRH
vs KKR, 20:00 IPL: RCB
vs CSK
Football Sony Ten 2:
17:30 LaLiga: Getafe vs
Sevilla
Sony Ten 2: 19:45 LaLiga:
Real Madrid vs Athletic
Star Sports Select 2:
17:50, 20:20 Premier
League
Tennis Sony ESPN: 18:00
Monte Carlo Masters
1 PLAYING TODAY: Manchester
2 (Antonio 38, Perez 82) drew
3 City returned to the top of the
Send in your answers to
sportsdna@gmail.com. Names
of the first 10 winners will be
published tomorrow
BASKETBALL Russell Westbrook
notches up 33 points and 11 assists and the
Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Portland Trail
Blazers 120-108 in a thrilling NBA match on to
cut their series deficit to 2-1
Kenya’s former 1500m Olympic champion Asbel Kiprop has been suspended for taking blood-booster EPO
Change in
leader, result
Steve Smith (R), who replaced Ajinkya Rahane as RR captain, plays a shot during his match winning knock of 59* against MI in Jaipur on Saturday —BCCI
Asked to captain, Smith gets RR back to winning ways with win over MI
Match No. 36
DNA Correspondent
sports@dnaindia.net
Mumbai: There was a sense
of calmness sprinkled with
confidence in the body lan-
guage of Rajasthan Royals
players in their game against
Mumbai Indians in Jaipur on
Saturday.
They looked in total con-
trol of the situation from Ball
One to the winning shot by
Stuart Binny off MI veteran
Lasith Malinga.
That was possibly due to
their new leader, Steve Smith.
On the day when Ajinkya
Rahane was sacked as cap-
tain of RR, their new skipper
Smith steered his team to a
five-wicket win over MI for
their third win this season.
Iyer, Dhawan lead Delhi to rare home victory
Shikhar Dhawan smacks one during
his knock on Saturday —AFP
City exact Spurs revenge, return to top Nadal knocked out
City 1 (Foden 5) bt Tottenham
Hotspur 0, Bournemouth 0
lost to Fulham 1 (Mitrovic
53-pen), Huddersfield 1
(Grant 90+3) lost to Watford 2
(Deulofeu 5, 80), West Ham 2
with Leicester 2 (Vardy 67,
Barnes 90+2)
Manchester: Manchester
Premier League with a fifth-
minute Phil Foden goal giv-
ing them a nervy 1-0 win over
Tottenham Hotspur at the
Etihad stadium on Saturday.
The victory for Pep Guar-
diola’s side, three days after
Spurs eliminated City from
the Champions League, puts
the pressure back on title ri-
vals Liverpool who are at Car-
diff City on Sunday and trail
by a point with both teams
having played 34 games.
But City’s 10th Premier
League win in a row came at
who was named in their provisional squad for
the Cricket World Cup, has taken an indefinite
break from the game due to personal reasons,
club Nottinghamshire have said
Smith not just stole the
limelight with his fresh strat-
egies but also led by example
with the bat by hitting an un-
beaten 48-ball 59 (5x4, 1x6)
which saw the hosts chased
down MI’s total of 161/5.
Even as a resurgent MI
were on a mission to avenge
their defeat against RR in
Mumbai, Smith & Co’s aim
was to get their house back in
order to stay in the league.
And he did just that.
“Ajinkya has done a ter-
rific job over the last year and
a half,” Smith said during the
toss. “(But) the owners and
management thought there
should be a change in the
leadership.”
From bowling leg-spinner
Shreyas Gopal in the power-
play which resulted in the
wicket of MI captain Rohit
Sharma in the third over to
forging a stand with Sanju
Samson and asking a 17-year-
old bat Riyan Parag to bat at
No. 5, Smith came up with
some out of the box ideas
from the past conservative
Match No. 37
DNA Correspondent
sports@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Usually teams
are more comfortable playing
at home. However, for Delhi
Capitals it has not been the
case this season. Ferozeshah
Kotla has not been a happy
hunting ground, with Delhi
having won just one off their
four games till Friday.
But things turned around
on Saturday as the hosts got
back to winning ways at
their home ground when
in ‘worst clay match’
City midfielder Phil Foden (C) celebrates after scoring on Saturday —AFP
a price with key mid-
fielder Kevin De
Bruyne forced off
with what looked like
another knee injury
in the 38th minute.
It remains to be
seen how serious that
injury is but it will surely put
him in doubt for Wednesday’s
crucial Manchester derby at
CRICKET England batsman Alex Hales,
decisions by the previous
Royals captain.
India U-19 World Cupper
Parag (43 off 29 balls) showed
good temperament as he
matched his skipper stroke
for stroke during their 70-run
stand in 9.4 overs that paved
the way for an easy victory.
RR, who were in a must-
win situation, raced to 39 in
3.3 overs but Rahane (12 off
12 balls) departed as Suryaku-
mar Yadav took a diving
catch at covers off leg-spin-
ner Rahul Chahar, who was
the pick of the bowlers with
figures of 3/29.
Credit should also be given
to Samson for his whirlwind
35 off 19 balls that set the
pace and enabled Smith to
anchor the innings in the
manner only he can.
Riyan’s composure also
helped even though Chahar
and the seasoned Jasprit
Bumrah (1/21 in 4 overs)
bowled well at the back end
but the home team showed
enough firepower.
Earlier, Quinton de Kock
they beat Kings XI Punjab by
five wickets here.
Chasing KXIP’s 163/7, sen-
ior pro Shikhar Dhawan and
captain Shreyas Iyer starred
in Delhi’s sixth win of the
season which took them to
No. 3 spot in the points table
with 15 points.
Both the senior members
of the team struck half-cen-
turies, with Iyer staying
right till the end to take his
team over the line with two
balls to spare.
Earlier, Chris Gayle
smashed five gargantuan
sixes into the night sky be-
fore Delhi Capitals put the
25
Old Trafford -- the last
game City face against
top-six opponents.
With the result in
the balance until the
end and Manchester
City desperate to cling
on to all three points, the
final stages were as nervous
as Wednesday’s were thrill-
ing. —Reuters
his
HOW THEY STAND
TEAM M W L T P NRR
CSK 9 7 2 0 14 0.101
MI 10 6 4 0 12 0.357
DC 10 6 4 0 12 0.160
KXIP 10 5 5 0 10 -0.044
SRH 8 4 4 0 8 0.549
KKR 9 4 5 0 8 0.256
RR 9 3 6 0 6 -0.474
RCB 9 2 7 0 4 -0.938
Six meter
14 6 1
continued his impressive run
with another solid half-centu-
ry as Mumbai Indians put up
a decent 161 for 5 batting first.
De Kock smashed 65 off 47
balls with six fours and two
sixes, adding 97 runs off 68
balls for the second wicket
with Suryakumar Yadav (34
off 33 balls). —with PTI inputs
brakes and restricted Punjab
to 163 for seven.
Gayle top-scored with 69
off 37 balls, reaching the half
century in 25 balls and hit-
ting six boundaries besides
the towering sixes.
Coming back into the
team, young leg-spinner
Sandeep Lamichhane re-
turned figures of 3/40, play-
ing an influential role in
helping DC rally after Gayle’s
blitzkrieg.
Considering the dew fac-
tor in mind, Delhi Capitals
skipper Shreyas Iyer invited
the visitors to bat first.
And the hosts, seeking to
n zone
No. of home matches
Manchester City have
won in all competitions
this season, the most they’ve ever
won in a single campaign and the
most by a top-flight club since
United in 2010-11 (26)
did you know?
Phil Foden is the first player
born in the 2000s to score
a Premier League goal for
Manchester City, and at 18
years and 327 days, is their
third youngest scorer in the
competition overall
PLAYING TODAY
Everton vs Manchester
United (6pm), Cardiff
vs Liverpool (8.30pm),
Arsenal vs Crystal Palace
(8.30pm)
Live on Star Sports
Select 2
07
SRH VS KKR
Match No. 38, Venue: Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium, Hyderabad; 4pm
Russell questions KKR
for not promoting him
Kolkata: Describing their
narrow loss to RCB as a sweet
and sour feeling, KKR’s An-
dre Russell has questioned
his team’s decision to send
have batted at No 4, Russell
made a ‘no-comment’ gesture
putting his finger on the lips
but went on to explain that
the team should have been
him lower down the order. “more flexible”.
Chasing an imposing 214, “I believe that (I should
KKR did not have the perfect have batted at No 4)... Hon-
start with 33/3 inside five estly, I think sometimes you
overs. When Russell came have to flexible as a team.
into bat, 135 runs were need- Looking at the make-up of
ed off 49 balls but the West our team, I would not mind
Indies big-hitter kept them in going to bat at No. 4.
the hunt right till the last “When I am at the crease,
over, smashing nine sixes and Virat Kohli is going to bowl
two fours in a 25-ball 65. his best bowlers to get me out.
“To lose by 10 runs, it’s just And those best bowlers will
two hits away. In the middle have less overs remaining in
period, if we scored a bit the back end.
faster we would definitely get “I think me going to bat
the runs with even balls the early would definitely be a
spare,” a disappointed Rus- good thing for KKR,” the
sell said on Friday. hard-hitting batsman added
Asked whether he should on Friday. —PTI
rcb VS CSK
Match No. 39, Venue: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru
Live on Star Sports Network, 8pm
SCOREBOARD rcb hope ab returns, csk fret over dhoni
RR vs MI Match No. 36, Venue: SMS
RCB: They’ll be in a bet- CSK: They are fretting over
Stadium, Jaipur Toss: RR elect to field Team the fitness of their captian
ter headspace having
tasted a rare win. An News MS Dhoni, who sat out of
MI R B 4/6 SR
Q de Kock c Stokes b Gopal 65 47 6/2 138.29
unwell AB de Villiers sat their previous loss due to
R Sharma c & b Gopal 5 7 1/0 71.42 out of their last tie, and as- back spasms. Stand-in captain
suming he has recovered, Raina had said he will “prob-
S Yadav c Kulkarni b Binny 34 33 1/1 103.03
H Pandya lbw b Archer 23 15 2/1 153.33 should be back in place of ably” play, but it remains to be
K Pollard b Unadkat 10 7 0/1 142.85 Heinrich Klaasen. seen if he does.
B Cutting not out 13 9 1/1 144.44
K Pandya not out 2 2 0/0 100.00
Extras (LB5, W4) 9
TOTAL (for 5 wkts, 20 Ov) 161 (8.05 runs per over)
Virat
Kohli
Key
contest
Imran
Tahir
Fall of wickets: 1-11 (Sharma, 2.3 ov), 2-108 (Yadav,
13.5 ov), 3-111 (de Kock, 14.3 ov), 4-124 (Pollard, 16.5 ov), Kohli will be pumped up both as captain and batsman, scoring his
5-152 (Pandya, 19.1 ov) first ton of this season in their last game. CSK will be temped to give
Bowling: S Binny 3-0-19-1, D Kulkarni 3-0-31-0 (W1), the ball to their highest wicket-taker Tahir first up to get Kohli.
S Gopal 4-0-21-2, J Archer 4-0-22-1, J Unadkat 4-0-46-1
(W3), R Parag 2-0-17-0 Head to head: Played: 23, RCB: 7, CSK: 15, NR: 1
RR (tgt: 162) R B 4/6 SR
A Rahane c Yadav b Chahar 12 12 2/0 100.00
S Samson c Pollard b Chahar 35 19 6/1 184.21
Pitch report: Bengaluru
track is always true, and
Weather report: It rained on
Saturday, but no showers are
runs should flow here. predicted for Sunday.
S Smith not out 59 48 5/1 122.91
9
B Stokes b Chahar 0 2 0/0 0.00 Punter point: Watchability quotient: (1-3: Forget it;
R Parag run out (Cutting/Pandya) 43 29 5/1 148.27 RCB: 11/10, 4-7: If there is nothing else to watch;
A Turner lbw b Bumrah 0 1 0/0 0.00 CSK: 10/11 8 and above: try not to miss it)
S Binny not out 7 4 1/0 175.00
Extras (B4, LB2) 6
TOTAL (for 5 wkts, 19.1 Ov) 162 (8.45 runs per over) Orange cap Purple cap
Fall of wickets: 1-39 (Rahane, 3.4 ov), 2-76 (Samson, 7.2
ov), 3-77 (Stokes, 7.6 ov), 4-147 (Parag, 17.4 ov), 5-153 David Warner Kagiso Rabada
(Turner, 18.1 ov) (SRH) (DC)
450 21 wickets
H Pandya 4-0-31-0, K Pandya 2-0-24-0, L Malinga
3.1-0-27-0, R Chahar 4-0-29-3, J Bumrah 4-0-21-1, M
Markande 2-0-24-0
runs
Result: RR win by 5 wickets Chris Gayle (KXIP)  421 Imran Tahir (CSK) 15
Man of the match: Steve Smith KL Rahul (KXIP)  399 Yuzvendra Chahal (RCB) 13
SCOREBOARD
DC vs KXIP Match No. 37
Venue: Ferozeshah Kotla, New Delhi; Toss: DC, elect to field
end their run of woes at the KXIP R B 4/6 SR 3-0-22-2, S Rutherford 1-0-5-0
Ferozeshah Kotla, enjoyed KL Rahul st Pant b Lamichhane 12 9 1/1 133.33 DC (target: 164) R B 4/6 SR
early success when Lamich- C Gayle c Patel b Lamichhane 69 37 6/5 186.48 P Shaw run out (Mandeep) 13 11 1/1 118.18
hane tossed the ball up and M Agarwal c Rutherford b Rabada 2 9 0/0 S Dhawan c R Ashwin b Viljoen 56 41 7/1 136.58
had KL Rahul stumped with 22.22 S Iyer not out 58 49 5/1 118.36
one that turned sharply in D Miller c Shaw b Patel 7 5 1/0 140.00 R Pant c Curran b Viljoen 6 7 1/0 85.71
the second over. M Singh st Pant b Patel 30 27 1/1 111.11 C Ingram b Shami 19 9 4/0 211.11
The Universe Boss, enter- S Curran c & b Lamichhane 0 4 0/0 0.00 A Patel run out (Agarwal) 1 1 0/0 100.00
R Ashwin c Iyer b Rabada 16 14 2/0 114.28
ing the game with 421 runs S Rutherford not out 2 2 0/0 100.00
H Brar not out 20 12 2/1 166.66 Extras (B3, W2) 5
from nine matches this sea-
G Viljoen not out 2 3 0/0 66.66 TOTAL (for 5 wkts, 20 Ov) 166 (8.44 runs per over)
son, started his onslaught by
Extras (B3, W2) 5 Fall of wickets: 1-24 (Shaw, 3.1 ov), 2-116 (Dhawan,
smashing Ishant Sharma’s TOTAL (for 7 wkts, 20 Ov) 163 (8.15 runs per over)
knuckle ball over long on for 13.3 ov), 3-128 (Pant, 15.1 ov), 4-155 (Ingram, 18.3 ov),
Fall of wickets: 1-13 (Rahul, 1.4 ov), 2-42 (Agarwal, 5-156 (Patel, 18.4 ov)
one of the biggest sixes the 4.5 ov), 3-61 (Miller, 7.1 ov), 4-106 (Gayle, 12.2 ov), Bowling: M Shami 4-0-21-1, S Curran 3.4-0-34-0 (W1,
stadium has ever witnessed, 5-106 (Curran, 12.6 ov), 6-129 (Singh, 16.3 ov), 7-151 NB1), G Viljoen 4-0-39-2 (W1), H Brar 2-0-24-0, R Ashwin
the 101m maximum threat- (Ashwin, 19.1 ov) 3-0-26-0 (W2), M Ashwin 3-0-20-0 (W2, NB1)
ening to break the windows Bowling: I Sharma 4-0-29-0 (W2), S Lamichhane
of The Willingdon Pavilion. 4-0-40-3, K Rabada 4-0-23-2, A Mishra 4-0-41-0, A Patel Result: DC win by 5 wickets
—with PTI inputs
Thapa makes
winning start
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Monte Carlo: Rafael Nadal
crashed out to Fabio Fognini in Mumbai: Shiva Thapa made a
the Monte Carlo Masters semi- winning start to his Asian Box-
finals on Saturday with the ing Championships campaign
Spanish star admitting his 6-4 by entering the pre-quarter-fi-
6-2 loss was his “worst clay nals even as 2018 World Cham-
court match in 14 years”. pionships bronze medallist
The shock result leaves Ital- Lovlina Borgohain led six In-
ian 13th seed Fognini facing dian boxers into the quarterfi-
unseeded Serb Dusan Lajovic nals in Bangkok on Saturday.
in Sunday’s unscripted final. Thapa secured a 4-1 win over
“I played one of my worst Rafael Nadal reacts —Reuters Korea’s Kim Wonho and is now
matches on clay in 14 years,” a couple of wins away from a
said Nadal. “It’s difficult to find tough day. I’m coming from low medal to add to his three from
any positives. I deserved to lose.” moments in terms of injuries, the event. The Assam pugilist
Fognini, who beat Nadal and in terms of the mental side will next take on Kyrgyzstan’s
twice on clay in 2015, stopped a it has not been easy to accept all Seitbek Uulu M on Sunday.
25-set win streak in the princi- the things that have been going Lovlina began her medal
pality for the world No. 2. on during recent weeks. quest in thunderous fashion by
“The vision is clear,” added “Everything was wrong. I outpunching Vietnam’s Tran
Nadal who was playing his first always expect the best. But you Thi Linh 5-0 to advance to the
tournament in a month after have to be ready to accept the quarterfinals.
opting to rest his troublesome negative things and today was National champion Deepak
knees. “I played a very bad a negative day.” —AFP continued his good form with
match against a good player. In Results (SF): 13-F Fognini bt yet another commanding 5-0
that situation, you have to lose. 2-R Nadal 6-4 6-2, D Lajovic bt win over Sri Lanka’s Mutuna-
“I had a bad feeling, it was a 10-D Medvedev 7-5 6-1 ka Pedi Gedara.
 I am being treated as if I am an anti-national or a
traitor. They are treating me as if I am the biggest second
front
terrorist in this world. Had it been within the
limits of their power, the administration would
have openly killed me by firing a shot at me
—Azam Khan, Samajwadi Party leader
page
08 www.dnaindia.com I twitter.com/dna I epaper.dnaindia.com I facebook.com/dnaindia Ahmedabad I Sunday, April 21, 2019 I daily news & analysis

Navy reassures: No AgustaWestland case: Setback

snapshot
‘Many reforms

for accused Sushen, bail rejected

needed to end

delay in INS Vikrant

malpractices’
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
who is gupta?

India’s first Indigenous Aircraft Carrier will be ready by 2021
Manan Kumar
manan.kumar@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Chief of Navy
Staff, Admiral Sunil Lanba al-
New Delhi: A Central Bu-
reau Investigation (CBI)
„„Sushen Gupta is an
alleged defence agent.
court on Saturday denied bail „„His name came up in
the game changer to alleged arms dealer and ac-
cused in the AgustaWestland
the disclosures made
by accused-turned-
India’s second aircraft carrier after INS Vikramaditya money laundering case, Su- approver Rajiv Saxena
shen Mohan Gupta. Gupta
„„Following Saxena’s

Anna Hazare — file
Large-scale electoral
19,341 cr $2.7
layed apprehensions regard- had moved court for bail on
confession, Gupta was
ing a delay in the commission- April 6, and the court had re-
ing of India’s first indige- ` Cost: billion served the order after hear-
arrested under the

1 reforms are needed in nously made aircraft carrier, ing it on April 15.
Prevention of Money
Laundering Act (PMLA)

the country to remove
poll-related malpractices and
to cleanse the system. Vot-
ers were one of the pillars of
the democracy.
40,000 10,000
the INS Vikrant, and assured The Enforcement Directo- Alleged arms dealer Sushen Mohan Gupta. — file
that it would be delivered to rate (ED) had earlier told the
the Indian Navy by 2021. INS tonnes square metres court that Gupta “tried his to desist him. He had started 2016, that he didn’t have any ta’s counsels argued that he
Vikrant will be inducted as Displacement Decks best, but could not destroy calling him when there was a knowledge of Interstellar had cooperated with the au-
the second aircraft carrier in the evidence”. During the buzz on diaries.” Technologies — a Mauritius- thorities and joined their
the service of the Indian Navy hearing, ED’s counsels also The ED had previously based company through probe as and when sum-

2
Looking at the reports
of cash seizure from
various places during
electioneering, one wonders
why voters take money to
vote. Is this the value of
our freedom fighters, who
gave us Independence? The
sanctity of Parliament and
state Assemblies have come
under threat.
after INS Vikramaditya. Once
inducted, it’s expected to add
262
metres
28
knots or 52 km per hour
accused Gupta of “influenc-
ing” Rajiv Saxena, after the
said that two diaries and a
pen drive were recovered
which money was laundered
— was “wrong”. “Later dur-
moned. “There is no scope of
apprehension regarding his
to the strength of the Indian latter was allowed to turn from Saxena’s possession, ing the investigation, it was availability,” they had said.
Length Speed
Navy and bring it at par with “approver” in the case by the and that these allegedly be- found that he was the one Gupta was arrested on
the Chinese Navy, which is court. They reportedly told longed to Gupta. While op- who gave instructions for March 26, and the court had
scheduled to get its second
aircraft carrier in 2020. 8.4
metres
8,000
kms to 15,000 kms
the court, “When one of our
witnesses wanted to be an ap-
posing Gupta’s bail plea, the
ED also argued that the
transferring funds,” the ED
had added.
sent him to judicial custody
on April 8 till April 20. He is
“IAC Vikrant is undergo- prover, Gupta went to Dubai statement Gupta gave in On the other hand, Gup- currently lodged at Tihar jail.
ing outfitting at Kochi Ship- Draught Range
yard Ltd. Harbour acceptance

3
Any individual who is
trials are in progress and sea
acceptance trial of this will 25.6
metres
196
officers, 1,449 sailors
Bhopal tragedy among century’s 2 Indians held
trying to cross
commence in the latter half
above the age of 25

worst accidents, says UN report

can contest elections.
For the last six years, I am
in correspondence with
the Election Commission
seeking removal of election
symbols. Instead of the
election symbols, names of
candidates and their photos
should be enough for voting.
The appointment of
4 Lokpal recently done
by the Centre was not
up to my expectations. But I
am confident that it will put a
break on corrupt practices.
Society does not
5 remain the focal
point in politics. The
only motto is to get money
through power and power
through money.
of this year. The aircraft car-
rier will be delivered to the
Navy by 2021,” said Admiral
Lanba on Saturday.
The Comptroller and Audi-
tor General’s (CAG) report in
July last year had raised
doubts over the commission-
ing of the aircraft carrier
soon, as it said that INS
Vikrant may not be commis-
sioned till 2023. “It is evident
from the PERT chart (Septem-
ber 2014) of Cochin Shipyard
Ltd that delivery of the car-
rier with completion of all
activities is likely to be
achieved only by 2023,” the
CAG report had pointed out.
But Saturday’s announce-
ment by Lanba must come as
a big relief for India’s mari-
time security, which was
growing uneasy at China’s
Depth
development, especially its
self-built carrier, known as
CV-17 001A, which is likely to
be commissioned in 2020.
India’s first aircraft carrier
was also called INS Vikrant. It
was a majestic class aircraft
carrier that was laid down as
HMS Hercules for the British
Crew
Royal Navy during World War
II, but its construction was
put on hold when the war
ended in 1945. India had pur-
chased an incomplete HMS
Hercules in 1957 and complet-
ed its construction on a war
footing in 1961. It was decom-
missioned in 1997.
United Nations: The 1984 Bho-
pal gas tragedy, which killed
thousands of people, is among
the world’s “major industrial
accidents” of the 20th century,
a UN report has said, warning
that 2.78 million workers die
from occupational accidents
and diseases each year.
The report released by the
the UN labour agency ILO, said
that in 1984, at least 30 tons of
methyl isocyanate gas, which
was released from the Union
Carbide pesticide plant in the
Madhya Pradesh capital, af-
fected more than 600,000 work-
ers and nearby inhabitants.
“Government figures esti-
mate there have been 15,000
Image for representation
deaths as a result of the disas-
ter over the years. Toxic mate-
rial remains and thousands of
survivors and their descend-
ants have suffered from res-
piratory diseases and from
damage to internal organs and
immune systems,” it said.
The report titled ‘The Safe-
ty and Health at the Heart of
the Future of Work — Build-
ing on 100 years of experience’
also listed other nine major
industrial disasters, including
Chernobyl and Fukushima nu-
clear disasters as well as the
Rana Plaza building collapse.
According to ILO estimates,
2.78 million die from occupa-
tional accidents and work-re-
lated diseases each year. An
additional 374 million workers
suffer from non-fatal occupa-
tional accidents. It is estimat-
ed that lost work days globally
represent almost four per cent
of the world’s GDP. — PTI
border into US
New York: Two Indian na-
tionals have been apprehend-
ed at the US-Mexico border in
Arizona after they were
stranded while trying to en-
ter America illegally, author-
ities said. The duo called for
help, following which border
patrol agents rescued them.
The two men were in good
health, and did not request
further medical assistance,
the US Customs and Border
Protection said. Checks re-
vealed they were Indians try-
ing to enter US illegally.
The US agency said crimi-
nal groups often abandon mi-
grants in the desert. — PTI

Polling over, J&K eases traffic Rohit Shekhar

death: Mother,
restrictions on national highway wife questioned
DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net
Northern Army DNA Correspondent
correspondent@dnaindia.net

Srinagar: The Jammu and commander New Delhi: The mystery

Kashmir government on Sat-
urday tweaked its controver-
sial order prohibiting the
movement of civilians on the
Jammu-Srinagar National
Highway, and said the ban
will be in place only once a
week on the 55-kilometre
stretch from Baramulla to
Srinagar. However, the
220-kilometre stretch be-
tween Jammu and Udham-
pur will continue to remain
out of bounds for civilians
for two days every week:
Wednesdays and Sundays.
The decision to relax the
restrictions was taken after
the government reviewed the
situation in the region after
Lok Sabha elections were
successfully conducted in
Baramulla, Udhampur, Jam-
mu and Srinagar seats.
“The requirement of secu-
rity forces is reducing, so the
government decided to relax
restrictions on traffic. The
ban on civilian movement
between Srinagar and Bara-
mulla will be limited to Sun-
days only,” said an official
spokesperson. “These re-
strictions will continue to be
reviewed periodically, and
relaxations will be made if
the need reduces. Even on
The ban was imposed on April 3
ban explained
Civilian traffic was banned
on the highway every
Sunday and Wednesday,
reserving the two days
for movement of security
forces’ convoys. A possible
terror attack was given as
reasons behind the order.
days of restrictions, the local
administration would facili-
tate movement of emergency
vehicles, as has been the case
over the last two weeks.”
The government also not-
ed that they are considering
the possibility of allowing
public transport buses like
the JKSRTC to ply during the
period of restriction. “A com-
plete review of restrictions
on the highway would be
done after the last phase of
elections on May 6. These re-
strictions were done keeping
the security interests of eve-
rybody in mind,” he added.
visits Kishtwar
Jammu: Northern Army
Commander Lt Gen. Ranbir
Singh on Saturday visited
Jammu and Kashmir’s Kisht-
war district and reviewed the
operational preparedness
and the prevalent security
situation. Lt Gen. Ranbir in-
teracted with police and civil
administration officials and
exhorted all for their syner-
gised efforts to defeat at-
tempts of anti-national ele-
ments to revive militancy in
the region, a defence spokes-
person said.
He, along with the White
Knight Corps Commander Lt
Gen. Paramjit Singh, visited
the hinterland bases and posts
in Kishtwar to review opera-
tional preparedness and the
prevalent security situation
in the wake of recent terror-
ists initiated incidents, a de-
fence spokesperson said.
Communally sensitive
Kishtwar, declared terror-
ism-free a decade ago, was
rattled by the killing of sen-
ior RSS leader Chanderkant
Sharma and his security
guard inside a health centre
on April 9. — PTI
into the Rohit Shekar ‘un-
natural death’ case deepened
on Saturday as the Delhi Po-
lice Crime Branch ques-
tioned the wife and the other
family members of the de-
ceased. Rohit was the son of
politician ND Tiwari. The
sleuths quizzed Shekar’s
wife, Apoorva, and mother
Ujjwala for eight hours.
Ujjwala told the sleuths
that in his last days, Shekhar
shared a strained relation-
ship with his Apoorva. “Ro-
hit was worried about his
career in politics. Often, he
used to ask me why his career
got stuck when others were
getting election tickets. Re-
cently, he also underwent a
bypass surgery. We also went
to seek blessings from Neem
Karoli Baba. We returned on
April 15. Later in the day, he
left for Defence colony. I had
gone to the Tilak Lane resi-
dence,” said Ujjwala.
The family has five land-
line phones and it is possible
that valuable evidence could
be recovered through scan-
ning of those communica-
tion, police said. Both Rohit
and Apoorva suspiciously
had illicit relationships,
sources said.

a painful miss many targets to eradicate Elephantiasis missed

Elephantine problem haunts India

Cheena Kapoor
cheena.kapoor@dnaindia.net
New Delhi: Nearly 650 mil-
lion Indians — almost half
the country’s population —
are at risk of contracting
Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) or
Elephantiasis. The situation
is especially dire in
Jharkhand, Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh. However, when it
comes to eradication of the
disease, India has been found
sleeping. The original target
to eradicate it was 2015,
which was pushed to 2017.
But given the worrisome
number of new cases spring-
ing up, this target will also
The original target to eliminate
elephantiasis was 2015
probably be missed.
Sumi Toppo is one of 22
patients from Lem village in
Jharkhand’s Ranchi district
to be afflicted with elephan-
tiasis. Having contracted the
disease at the age of 10, she
has lived with it for almost all
her life. “We visited the local
doctor in our tribal village,
but three decades ago, he
didn’t know any better. I took
all the medicines for pain and
swelling but my feet re-
mained big,” she laments.
A three-hour drive away is
Kumartuli hamlet of West
Singhbhum district, where
Putul Munda has also fallen
prey to the disease, while her
son is also displaying the
symptoms. West Singhbhum
reported the second largest
number of cases in the state
at 3,082. Both Sumi and Putul
have been working with An-
ganwadi workers to spread
awareness. “Some people
said I should avoid salt and
do yoga. For a long time, I
was given salt-less food, as
they thought it would help,
but nothing worked. The
foot kept getting bigger. Had
I known better, I would have
taken precautions,” laments
Sushila Samanth, a resident
of Mahul Sai in Jhinkpani.
The main cause of the dis-
ease is the presence of para-
sitic worms like Wuchereria
Bancrofti or Brugia Malayi,
which are transmitted to hu-
mans through bites from in-
fected mosquitoes.