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16 women in Cong.’s
second list for 41 seats
in Uttar Pradesh
page 9
P r i n t e d at . C he nnai . C oimbatore . B en ga luru . H ydera ba d . M adurai . N oi da . V i s akhapatnam . Thi ruvananthapuram . Kochi . V i jayawada . M angaluru . Tiruchirapalli . Kolkata . H ubballi . M ohali . M alappuram . M umbai . Tirupati . lucknow . c ut tack . patna
SC upholds OBC quota in NEET
‘Open exam only ensures formal equality, does not end ingrained inequalities’
Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI
The Supreme Court on
Thursday upheld the consti-
tutional validity of reserva-
tion for Other Backward
Classes (OBC) candidates in
the All India Quota seats for
the National Eligibility-cum-
Entrance Test (NEET) for un-
dergraduate and postgrad-
uate medical and dental
courses, noting that “reser-
vation is not at odds with
merit” in open competitive
examinations.
“If open examinations
present equality of oppor-
tunity to candidates to com-
pete, reservations ensure
that the opportunities are
distributed in such a way
that backward classes are
equally able to benefit from
such opportunities which
typically evade them be-
cause of structural barriers.
This is the only manner in
which merit can be a demo-
cratising force that equalises
inherited disadvantages and
privileges. Otherwise claims
of individual merit are noth-
ing but tools of obscuring in-
heritances that underlie
achievements,” a Bench of
Justices D.Y. Chandrachud
and A.S. Bopanna observed
in a 106-page judgment.
IN BRIEF
Assam, Meghalaya
CMs meet Amit Shah
NEW DELHI
The Chief Ministers of
Assam and Meghalaya met
Union Home Minister Amit
Shah in Delhi to apprise him
of the agreement reached
between the two States
regarding the decades-old
boundary dispute and the
reports of the regional
committee on the border.
NEWS ! PAGE 8
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Delhi riots case: convict
gets 5-year jail term
NEW DELHI
In the first sentencing in a
case related to the February
2020 north-east Delhi riots,
a city court on Thursday
awarded a 5-year jail term
to a man for “being a member
of an unlawful assembly,
rioting and arson”.
CITY ! PAGE 2
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Parrikar’s son not on BJP’s Goa list
Party names 34
candidates for
Assembly polls
Shoumojit Banerjee
Pune
The BJP parliamentary
board on Thursday an-
nounced the party’s first list
of 34 candidates for the 40-
seat Goa Assembly election.
The party has denied Ut-
pal Parrikar, son of the late
Manohar Parrikar, former
Chief Minister, ticket from
Panaji, deciding instead to
stick with incumbent MLA
Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monser-
rate. Barring a gap of two
years, the seat had been held
by Manohar Parrikar from
1994 till his untimely demise
in March 2019.
“We have given Utpal two
other options to contest, one
of which he has already re-
CM
YK
The court said an open
competitive exam only en-
sures formal equality and
does not end widespread in-
grained inequalities in the
availability of, and access to,
educational facilities to cer-
tain classes of people, in-
cluding the OBC.
Multiple privileges
The privileges that accrue to
forward classes are not limit-
ed to having access to quality
schooling and access to tuto-
rials and coaching centres to
prepare for a competitive ex-
amination but also includes
their social networks and
cultural capital (communica-
tion skills, accent, books or
academic accomplishments)
that they inherit from their
family, Justice Chandrachud
Vaccines preventing
many deaths: govt.
‘5 States top contributors to third wave’
Bindu Shajan Perappadan
NEW DELHI
India is seeing relatively low
mortality in the ongoing CO-
VID-19 surge because of en-
hanced vaccination cover,
said V.K. Paul, Member
(Health), NITI Aayog, ad-
ding that 6.5 crore persons
who were due for their se-
cond dose of the COVID-19
vaccine had not taken it so
far.
“They should take it to
ensure that they don’t prove
to be the weak link in the
fight against the pandemic,”
Dr. Paul said at the weekly
Health Ministry press confe-
rence on Thursday.
For the first time, the
Health Ministry termed the
Gearing up: BJP leader Arun Singh and the party’s Goa
election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis (right) with the
first list of candidates in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI
fused earlier. All of us feel
that he should accept the se-
cond one,” the BJP’s Goa
election in-charge, Devendra
Fadnavis, said in Delhi.
He said the BJP “has al-
ways respected Manohar
friday, january 21, 2022
Environment Ministry
plan to rank States on
clearances draws ire
page 10
said. The cultural capital en-
sures that a child from the
forward classes is trained
unconsciously by the fami-
lial environment to take up
higher education or high
posts commensurate with
their family‘s standing. This
works to the disadvantage of
individuals from social back-
ward classes who are first-
generation learners and
come from communities
whose traditional occupa-
tions do not result in the
transmission of necessary
skills required to perform
well in open examination.
Thus, merit is not solely of
one’s own making.
“The rhetoric surround-
ing merit obscures the way
in which family, schooling,
fortune and a gift of talents
present surge “the third
wave” of the pandemic, ad-
ding that Maharashtra, Kar-
nataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala,
Uttar Pradesh and Delhi are
among the top contributors
to the COVID-19 surge. In
the week ending on January
19, 515 districts reported a
weekly case positivity of
more than 5%.
At the meet, Health Se-
cretary Rajesh Bhushan ex-
plained that on April 30,
2021 there were 3,86,452
new cases, 3,059 deaths and
31,70,228 active cases. The
proportion of fully vaccinat-
ed people then was 2%.
CONTINUED ON ! PAGE 8
OVER 19.7 LAKH CASES ! PAGE 10
*
Parrikar’s family”.
Mr. Utpal has been partic-
ularly piqued that the party
leadership preferred Mr.
Monserrate — a three-time
MLA and former Minister.
Mr. Monserrate, an ex-Con-
Delhi
14 pages " ₹10.00
Cornet stuns Muguruza; India in must-win
Raducanu ousted, situation in second ODI
Medvedev advances against South Africa
page 13 page 13
that the society currently va-
lues aids in one’s advance-
ment. Thus, the exclusion-
ary standard of merit serves
to denigrate the dignity of
those who face barriers in
their advancement which
are not of their own mak-
ing,” Justice Chandrachud
explained.
‘Not the best gauge’
The court said the “idea of
merit” based on scores in an
exam requires “deeper
scrutiny”.
“While examinations are a
necessary and convenient
method of distributing edu-
cational opportunities,
marks may not always be the
best gauge of individual me-
rit. If a high-scoring candi-
date does not use their talent
to perform good actions, it
would be difficult to call
them meritorious merely be-
cause they scored high
marks,” Justice Chandra-
chud reasoned.
The fortitude and resi-
lience required to uplift one-
self from conditions of de-
privation are equally
reflective of individual ca-
libre and merit, the court
said.
CONTINUED ON ! PAGE 8
Focus on
rights made
India weak,
says PM
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi on Thursday said the
focus on talking about, and
fighting for, rights in the 75
years since Independence
had kept the country
“weak” and the next 25
years would be dedicated
to hard work, sacrifice and
“tapasya” or penance.
Mr. Modi was virtually
addressing the launch of
the Brahma Kumaris’ year-
long programme of events
as part of the government’s
celebration of 75 years of
Independence, Azadi ka
Amrit Mahotsav.
He said it should be ack-
nowledged that the evil of
ignoring duties had be-
come part of the national
life. “In the last 75 years,
we only kept talking about
rights, fighting for rights
and wasting time. The talk
of rights to some extent,
for some time, may be
right in a particular cir-
cumstance, but forgetting
one’s duties completely
has played a huge role in
keeping India weak.”
CONTINUED ON ! PAGE 8
gressman, was one of the key
players who engineered the
defection of 10 Congress
MLAs to the BJP in July 2019.
The BJP is contesting all
40 seats for the first time in
the coastal State. The list was
decided on after hectic de-
liberations that dragged
through Wednesday and ex-
tended into the night.
Spouses given tickets
Spouses of BJP leaders have
also been given tickets, nota-
bly in the case of Mr. Monser-
rate and Health Minister Vis-
wajit Rane, who will be
contesting from Valpoi — the
bastion of the Rane clan. Mr.
Rane’s wife, Divya Rane, has
been given ticket from Po-
riem, which is held by her
father-in-law and Congress-
man, Pratapsingh Rane.
CONTINUED ON ! PAGE 8
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2 CITY
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In first sentencing in Delhi riots
case, man gets 5-year jail term
Dinesh Yadav found guilty of being part of a mob involved in vandalism, arson
Staff Reporter
New Delhi
In the first sentencing in a
case related to the February
2020 north-east Delhi riots, a
city court on Thursday
awarded a 5-year jail term to
a man for “being a member
of an unlawful assembly, riot-
ing and arson”.
The convict, Dinesh Yadav,
had on December 6, 2021,
been found guilty of being a
member of a riotous mob
which had burnt down and
vandalised the house of a 73-
year-old woman, Manori, in
Bhagirathi Vihar.
Additional Sessions Judge
Virender Bhat also ordered
Yadav, represented by Advo-
cate Shikha Garg, to pay a
fine of ₹12,000. While sen-
tencing Yadav, ASJ Bhat not-
ed that it cannot be gainsaid
‘Sense of unease’ overrides relief of justice
Manori worried
about Yadav’s
release from jail
Hemani Bhandari
NEW DELHI
Dinesh Yadav was sentenced
to a five-year jail term by a
Delhi court on Thursday for
being part of a mob that
burnt down 73-year-old Ma-
nori’s house. But instead of
feeling relieved, Ms. Manori
and her family felt a sense of
unease as they worried
about Yadav’s eventual re-
lease from jail.
“We don’t know the man
who has been punished. We
have never seen him but it
appears that he burnt down
our house with others. Now
CM
YK
that the offence committed
by the convict was a “very se-
rious one”. “However, no evi-
dence had been led by the
prosecution to prove that the
unlawful assembly of which
the convict was a member,
had been formed in pur-
suance to some conspiracy,”
the court said.
The court further said that
Yadav had been held guilty
only by the virtue of Section
The victim, Manori, at her
house. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
*
we feel a little scared because
maybe when he comes out,
he will blame us for sending
him to jail in our case,” Ms.
Manori said.
The 75-year-old has been
living with her daughter Sha-
hida, 48, and two sons — Ash-
iq, 23, and Asif, 21, — at their
residence in Bhagirathi Vihar
149 of IPC, pertaining to un-
lawful assembly, and there
was no evidence that he had
directly committed the
offences.
‘Common object’
While convicting Yadav last
month, the court had ob-
served: “ ...he is to be held
guilty of all those offences
which have been committed
by the members of the unlaw-
since 1990. It took them a
year to repair the house after
it was looted and burnt dur-
ing the riots.
Mr. Ashiq wondered what
would happen if the suppor-
ters of Yadav tried to harm
them. “Hamein to darr hi
lagta hai… hamari to koi
madad bhi nahi karega (We
are scared… nobody will help
us also),” he said. Mr. Ashiq
added that he lives in a local-
ity dominated by Hindus and
he and his family had a
healthy relationship with
their neighbours till the riots
broke out in February 2020.
“When the riots broke out,
we thought we wouldn’t be
harmed because we had such
a healthy relationship with all
our neighbours. But when
ful assembly for the reason
that he shared the common
object of other members of
the assembly and knew that
these offences are likely to be
committed in prosecution of
the common object of the
assembly.”
In the 13-page order, a total
of 13 witnesses deposed be-
fore the court, including two
head constables present on
duty during the riots. The
complainant, Manori, was
declared hostile by the pro-
secutor after she deposed
that she cannot identify any
of the rioters as she and her
family fled when the incident
happened.
According to the case re-
cords, 150-200 rioters barged
into Manori’s house on Febru-
ary 25, 2020, robbed all va-
luable items and set it on fire.
our house was being burnt
and looted, nobody came for-
ward to help us,” he said.
Mr. Ashiq had a buffalo
and the family sold its milk
for a living. The buffalo was
nowhere to be found when
the family returned after the
riots. “These neighbours are
the same people to whom we
offered milk and curd whe-
never we had extra. If they
didn’t help us then, why
would they help us now if so-
mebody were to harm us?
They don’t even bother to
check how we are managing
to survive,” he said.
His mother Shahida has
been in trauma since the
riots. “She doesn’t get out of
bed. She barely talks to
anyone,” said Mr. Ashiq.
HC asks what if
exception to
rape law was
gender-neutral
Press Trust of India
New Delhi
The Delhi High Court on
Thursday deliberated upon
the challenge raised to the
exception under the rape
law that protects a husband
from prosecution for a non-
consensual sexual act with
his wife and asked whether
the same could be unconsti-
tutional if the law was
gender-neutral.
The court’s query came
while hearing a batch of
pleas seeking to criminalise
marital rape.
“Suppose Section 375
(definition of rape) of the
IPC was gender-neutral and
this exception said that
when the two parties are
married… according to you,
will the exception be un-
constitutional even then?”
Justice C. Hari Shankar
asked the amicus curiae.
Senior advocate Rebecca
John, appointed as amicus
curiae, said she will endea-
vour to answer it on Friday.
Playing ping-pong over evidence
In the last part of our series on the 2020 north-east Delhi riots, we look at how
Section 207 of the CrPC is prolonging the jail stay of UAPA accused
ARNABJIT SUR
New Delhi
Section 207 of the Criminal
Procedure Code (CrPC)
states that an accused should
be supplied free of cost all
documents used as evidence
against him by the prosecu-
tion. The documents can in-
clude FIRs, copies of police
reports, electronic evidence
or confessional statements
that may help to prepare a
defence during the trial.
But this legal provision has
become a bone of contention
in the Delhi riots ‘larger con-
spiracy’ case. The accused
have moved applications
seeking evidence, that they
claim, has not been provided
to them but relied upon by
the prosecution in the char-
gesheet. The majority of
these applications are pend-
ing disposal.
The prosecution has, ho-
wever, submitted that it has
provided all evidence but the
accused are seeking material
over and above the chargesh-
eet. The court has also been
informed that the evidence
such as the seized phones,
contain “private material” of
the accused and, therefore,
cannot be provided to a co-
accused without distinction.
In April last year, Pinjra
Tod activist Devangana Kalita
had moved a plea seeking the
electronic evidence against
her. In September, her la-
wyer informed the court that
they were still awaiting the
prosecution’s response.
“Five months have passed.
Where is the scope of Section
207 application if there is no
speedy redressal,” argued
Kalita’s advocate Aditya
Pujari.
‘Voluminous data’
Special Public Prosecutor
(SPP) Amit Prasad submitted
that the data collected during
the investigation was huge
and needed further analysis
for distribution.
“It contains personal data
of people whose equipment
have been seized. If I supply
data without any distinction,
it amounts to infringing on
their privacy. I need to ana-
lyse and conclude which data
is to be given,” Mr. Prasad
told the court, which had al-
so raised concerns regarding
‘Remove illegal vendors from Chandni Chowk’
HC directs police, North body to conduct drives and file action-taken report
Staff Reporter
New Delhi
The Delhi High Court on
Thursday ordered the city
police and the North Delhi
Municipal Corporation to
conduct drives for removing
all unauthorised hawkers and
vendors from no-hawking
zones of Chandni Chowk and
Subhash Marg.
It asked the SHO of Kotwali
Police conduct a flag march in riot-affected north-east Delhi.
the supply of private material
to co-accused.
Mr. Pujari cited an April
2021 Supreme Court order
that said every accused shall
be supplied with statements
of witnesses recorded under
Sections 161 and 164 of CrPC
and a list of objects, material
objects and exhibits seized
during investigation and re-
lied upon by the Investigat-
ing Officer (IO) in accordance
with Section 207 of CrPC.
Nine months on, the appli-
cation, along with several
others, awaits disposal. Last
March, when Jamia Millia Is-
lamia student Asif Iqbal Tan-
ha’s lawyer sought a cloned
copy of his seized mobile
phone, the prosecution told
the court that “midway into
investigations, it cannot keep
distributing material against
the accused”.
Advocate Sowjhanya
Shankaran for Tanha had
submitted that it is the prose-
cution’s bounden duty to
provide him his phone’s da-
ta. “These are data, What-
sApp chats, alleged speeches
already relied on by them but
I need to know the entire
content. It’s not the job of the
prosecution to pick and
choose what to rely upon,”
the lawyer told the court. It
took Tanha seven months to
get the cloned copy of his
cellphone.
‘Hard or soft copy?’
The provision posed a deter-
rent when the court directed
the prosecution to supply
hard copies of the chargesh-
eet to the accused, in addi-
tion to the soft copies already
police station and the Deputy
Commissioner of the North
body to conduct the drives
and file an action-taken re-
port within a week.
The order came on a plea
by Chandni Chowk Sarv Vya-
par Mandal seeking direction
to the authorities to remove
illegal hawkers and vendors
from the no-hawking and no-
squatting areas in Chandni
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
* FILE PHOTO: SANDEEP SAXENA
given. The prosecution chal-
lenged the order before the
Delhi High Court, stating that
Section 207 of CrPC man-
dates supplying a copy of
each of the reports, state-
ments or documents, subject
to reasonable exception.
The plea said, “The law
does not specify supply of a
‘hard copy’ or ‘soft copy’,
nor does it draw any distinc-
tion between the two.” It ad-
ded that the provision did
not cast any duty upon the
investigating officer or agen-
cy to bear the cost of the ac-
cused’s copy.
The High Court stayed the
trial for five months and va-
cated it after the prosecution
informed that the chargesh-
eet hard copies were ready to
be provided to the accused.
A defence lawyer, request-
ing anonymity, said the pro-
secution has been denying
them the complete set of
documents as it might “ruin
their case”. “If they provide
us with the electronic evi-
dence, it might have some
content in our favour, which
will help us during the trial
but work against the prose-
cution,” the lawyer told The
Hindu.
Another lawyer said: “We
are only asking for the mate-
rial that the prosecution is
obliged to provide us; not
anyone’s private content. But
if they have relied on specific
data and are calling it a con-
spiracy then we are bound to
get access to it.”
SPP Prasad said that the
material sought is part of an
ongoing police probe, which
cannot be supplied to the ac-
Chowk, which has recently
undergone redevelopment.
Earlier, the court had di-
rected the Delhi police to
take steps to install CCTV
cameras in the area to check
encroachment on pavements
and walkways. “Regulated
hawking and vending can ad-
dress issues of pedestrian
walkways being encroached,
lack of hygiene, law and or-
Man arrested for raping
minor girl in Shahdara
Case lodged under POCSO Act
Staff Reporter
New Delhi
A 30-year-old man was ar-
rested for allegedly raping a
minor girl in Shahdara’s
Geeta Colony, the police
said on Thursday.
The police received a call
at 3.30 p.m. that a few peo-
ple were beating up a man
in Safeda Jhuggi for alleged-
ly raping a minor girl. The
DELHI THE HINDU
cused whose case is pending
investigation. “We are clear
on relied evidence and have
already supplied it to the ac-
cused, but the lawyers are
asking for data not relied
upon like certain audio files
and recordings that have sub-
sequently come to the know-
ledge of the police. They
wrongly claim that docu-
ments provided are illegible
and seek bail citing delay in
trial,” he said.
“How can I provide con-
tent which will be the subject
matter of further investiga-
tion? It will be filed in court
as supplementary chargesh-
eet and copies will be provid-
ed to them,” Mr. Prasad said.
Legal experts said the pro-
secution often provides “il-
legible” and “piecemeal” ma-
terial to the accused, which
invariably leads to delay in
the trial. “The prosecution
gives imperfect copies of evi-
dence such as a missing page
and that drags the matter,”
advocate Sarim Naved said.
“Lawyers might want the
evidence to confront the pro-
secution witnesses during
trial, so often applications
are filed to keep it in safe cus-
tody so that they can’t claim
later that the evidence is
lost,” Mr. Naved said.
Advocate M.R. Shamshad
said: “When the prosecution
delays the process by claim-
ing that it will file supplemen-
tary chargesheets after furth-
er probe, in such cases the
accused should get a default
bail under Section 167 of
CrPC if the investigation has
not been completed within
60 to 90 days of arrest.”
der, among others,” the HC
had earlier said, directing the
municipal corporation to pre-
pare a street vending plan.
“A large population is un-
employed and find it an easy
and convenient way of earn-
ing their livelihood by under-
taking hawking and vending
activities and making their
ends meet,” the court had
said.
accused was identified as
Nasarul who used to work as
a tailor.
The police team took him
into custody and the minor
girl was sent for medical ex-
amination.
A case under the POCSO
Act has been lodged at the
Geeta Colony police station
on the complaint of the
mother of the girl.
A ND-NDE
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THE HINDU
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
DELHI

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CITY 3

Govt. caps RT-PCR test at ₹300

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Timings
DELHI
FRIDAY, JAN. 21
Revision time
RISE 07:14 SET 17:52
RISE 21:01 SET 09:33
SATURDAY, JAN. 22
Test positivity rate drops; Jain says peak of current wave seems to have passed
RISE 07:14 SET 17:53
RISE 21:58 SET 10:05 Staff Reporter zone as positivity is still
SUNDAY, JAN. 23
New Delhi above 20%. “Peak has
RISE 07:14 SET 17:53 The Delhi government has passed, but COVID is not ov-
RISE 22:57 SET 10:36 capped the rate of COVID-19 er. Earlier, we used to get on-
tests at private labs and hos- ly 50 cases a day and it went
pitals. up to 28,000 cases a day.
“The rates for conven- Numbers are still high.
tional RT-PCR and RAT test When cases go down, we
for COVID-19 in Delhi by will ease restrictions,” he
private labs has been re- said.
duced. The price cap for RT- The test positivity rate
PCR test has been set at (TPR) of COVID-19 in the city
₹300 and the price for home reduced to 21.48% on Thurs-
collection of samples have day from 23.86% a day ear-
been set at ₹500. Price for lier, according to a Delhi go-
Rapid Antigen Test has been vernment bulletin.
set at ₹100,” Health Minister The TPR had peaked on
Satyendar Jain tweeted on Friday at 30.64%; it re- United move: The Daredevil team of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police rehearsing at Rajpath on
Thursday. mained at that level on Sa- Thursday morning for the Republic Day parade. SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR *

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
turday and started decreas-
Decline in cases A health worker taking a swab sample at MCD Colony, Ring ing since then.
The Minister also said that Road, on Thursday. SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
*
On Thursday, the number
the peak of the current wave
seems to have passed. reported can be considered more according to the popu-
of new COVID-19 cases over
24 hours fell to 12,306 from EDMC recruits private agency
New website “Delhi was witnessing up
to 28,000 cases a day and
as Delhi’s peak,” the Minis-
ter said.
lation. We are testing 10
times more than U.P. We are
13,785 on Wednesday. Forty-
three new deaths were re- Staff Reporter facility will be available in re- tain a record of the scrap
to push EV now it has reduced to half of
it. Positivity rate too had Fewer tests
testing more than ICMR re-
commendations. We are not
ported, taking the toll to
25,503, according to the bul-
New Delhi

The East Delhi Municipal

sidential, commercial, insti-
tutional and industrial areas
material collected — of
which the civic body has no
adoption gone beyond 30% and it is
now 22%-23%. It seems that
When asked about the fall in
the number of tests, he said,
denying tests to anyone.”
About easing restrictions,
letin. Of the total 15,589 hos-
pital beds for COVID-19 pa-
Corporation (EDMC) on
Thursday said it has empa-
of east Delhi, where the civic
body will act as the facilita-
estimate till date.
He added that the civic
the peak has passed and the “Compared to other States, he said it cannot be said that tients, 82.69% were vacant nelled a private agency for tor and will receive royalty body was also open to wel-
Special Correspondent day when 28,000 cases were we are testing three times Delhi is out of the danger on Thursday. the collection, disposal and charges on a monthly basis. coming informal waste col-
NEW DELHI recycling of scrap material A senior EDMC official lectors — who have wider ac-
To encourage people of in areas under its jurisdic- said the purpose of empa- cess to the waste — by
Delhi to switch to electric
vehicles (EV), the Delhi go-
vernment on Thursday
DU employees demand solution to fund crunch tion for three years.
Under the initiative, the
nelling a private agency was
also to monitor and main-
integrating their services
with the private agency.

launched a one-stop web-

site providing information They seek L-G’s intervention after teachers, staff report delay in salary payment
on the promotion and
adoption of electric vehi- Special Correspondent said it had released ₹53.39 ed in salaries and other tion by the colleges. “The
cles in the city. NEW DELHI crore for these colleges in Oc- allowances getting delayed committee will find details
Delhi’s Transport Minis- Over 6,000 employees of tober-November last year by two to six months. that have already been fur-
ter Kailash Gahlot at the Delhi University have sent a and instead blamed the indi- “Fund cuts have not only nished by the colleges
launch said the website will petition to Lieutenant-Go- vidual colleges for not paying made payment of full salar- through their budgets that
provide all required infor- vernor Anil Baijal, urging their employees. ies and other allowances and are approved by the govern-
mation to potential EV con- him to find a permanent so- The Delhi University arrears impossible in these ing bodies, which have elect-
sumers and keep them up- lution to funding issue of the Teachers’ Association (DU- colleges, it also has made the ed members from AAP.”
dated with sales and the 12 DU colleges that are fully TA) in a press conference on general maintenance and DUTA president A.K. Bha-
growing charging infras- funded by the Delhi Thursday said the money re- growth of these colleges dif- gi said financial audits con-
tructure data. government. leased by the government ficult,” DUTA members said, ducted by the government
On the website, visitors The teachers and staff of had been utilised in paying while announcing that they had not found any serious
can explore the 377 public these 12 colleges said they salaries for the two years were going to intensify their shortcomings. He added that
charging stations currently have not been paid their sal- when the government had agitation demanding the re- teachers had sent several re-
active in Delhi across 170 aries on time leading to finan- not released funds, which lease of funds. presentations to the CM and
locations.The EV Search cial distress, and violation of had caused a deficit of ₹4 The DUTA also ques- Deputy CM and have also
function will allow them to human and constitutional crore to ₹34 crore in diffe- tioned the formation of a gone to court and the NHRC,
explore the available EV rights of the employees. The rent colleges. The delay, DU- committee by the govern- but have received only tem-
model variants. Delhi government had earlier TA members said, had result- ment to analyse fund utilisa- porary solutions so far.

Published by N. Ravi at Kasturi Buildings, 859 & 860, Anna Salai, Chennai-600002 and Printed by S. Ramanujam at HT Media Ltd. Plot No. 8, Udyog Vihar, Greater Noida Distt. Gautam Budh Nagar, U.P. 201306, on behalf of THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD., Chennai-600002. Editor: Suresh Nambath (Responsible for selection of news under the PRB Act).
Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. UPENG/2012/49940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 12 No. 17
● ● ● ●

CM A ND-NDE
YK
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4 STATES
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Uddhav calls meeting to discuss quota issue
Move comes in the backdrop of SC asking for an interim report on OBC data
Sonam Saigal
Mumbai
Maharashtra Chief Minister
Uddhav Thackeray has
called for a meeting on Janu-
ary 24 with his Ministers to
discuss the issue of Other
Backward Classes (OBC) re-
servation for the upcoming
elections.
The meeting is expected
to be attended by Deputy
Chief Minister Ajit Pawar;
former Chief Minister of
Maharashtra and current
PWD Minister Ashok Cha-
van; Cabinet Minister of food
and civil supply Chhagan
Bhujbal; Minister of Water
Resources Department,
Jayant Patil; transport Minis-
ter Anil Parab, Minister for
Tourism and Environment
Aaditya Thackeray; Revenue
Minister Balasaheb Thorat
and Minister for Urban Deve-
lopment, Eknath Shinde.
NCP Lok Sabha MP, who played Godse, under fire
Amol Kolhe’s party colleague Jitendra Awhad warns of protest over film
Staff Reporter
Mumbai
Playing Nathuram Godse in a
movie called ‘Why I killed
Gandhi’ has landed National-
ist Congress Party’s (NCP)
Lok Sabha MP and actor
Amol Kolhe in trouble after
his party colleague and Mah-
arashtra Minister Jitendra
Awhad has warned of protest
against the film.
Mr. Kolhe, who is best
known for playing the cha-
racter of Chhatrapati Shivaji
Maharaj in a Marathi televi-
sion serial has portrayed
Godse in a movie that is set to
release on January 30 on an
OBITUARY & REMEMBRANCE
DEATH ANNIVERSARIES
DEATH
CM
YK
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.
The meeting is labelled as
“important” with the back-
drop of the Supreme Court’s
ruling on January 19, grant-
ing two weeks time to the
State Backward Classes Com-
mission to submit an interim
report to the State on the da-
ta collected by its agencies.
The State government had
informed the apex court that
Amol Kolhe
OTT platform. The trailer of
the film was released
recently.
“It is clear that Amol Kolhe
has played Nathuram Godse
in the movie. Even though he
is an actor, the film is nothing
DEATH
* FILE PHOTO
it has collected some data on
the basis of which reserva-
tion can be sustained.
The court then directed
the State to share its data
with the Commission and in-
turn directed the Commis-
sion to submit an interim re-
port on the same in two
weeks.
The State had moved an
but glorification of Godse.
One cannot support the mur-
der of Mahatma Gandhi un-
der the garb of being an ac-
tor,” said Mr. Awhad.
The Minister was in the fo-
refront of Statewide protests
against the Marathi plays
glorifying Godse a decade
ago. Godse’s character was
played by senior actors late
Vinay Apte, Sharad Ponkshe
who had come under severe
criticism then. “Maharash-
tra’s progressive citizens op-
posed then, and even today I
stand with a similar position.
I will oppose this anti-Gandhi
film,” said Mr. Awhad.
EDUCATIONAL
application before the court
to recall its order of notifying
27% of OBC seats to general
category. To which justice
A.M. Khanwilkar had said,
“There is no question of re-
calling the order, it can be
modified at best. There can
be no reservation for OBC
without the ‘triple test’ and a
dedicated Commission has
to decide that..”
The bench however clari-
fied that the data collected
by the State on the socially
and educationally backward
classes would be indepen-
dent of the census carried
out by the Centre.
The Supreme Court on
December 6, 2021, had di-
rected the Election Commis-
sion to treat OBC category as
nullified and on December
15, the apex court had direct-
ed the EC to consider OBC
seats as open category.
Mr. Kolhe, however,
claimed that the shooting of
the film took place in 2017
when he was neither the
member of the NCP nor an
elected representative.
“I think linking my pre-
sent political affiliation to my
acting choices in 2017 is un-
justified. I am an actor and
have played the part as re-
quired on screen. In reel life,
an actor gets to play a charac-
ter with whom you do not
agree but it challenges you.
But in real life, I have no love
for Godse nor I have hate
against Mahatma Gandhi,”
he said.
PUBLIC NOTICE
Heartbreak, tears before the
game of ballots in Uttar Pradesh
Several aspirants get emotional after being denied ticket by their parties
Anuj Kumar
Ghaziabad
Like all battles, elections are
also all about blood, sweat,
and tears. The first two might
not be required this time be-
cause of the stringent COVID
protocol imposed by the
Election Commission. But,
tears are being copiously
shed by candidates who have
been denied the party ticket.
On Thursday, Mehraj Ja-
han, an aspirant for the Con-
gress ticket from Muzaffarna-
gar cried in public after her
hopes were dashed. “I have
been holding the Congress
flag for years but today I feel
cheated. As per the 40 % for-
mula, the party should have
cleared at least two female
candidates for the six seats in
the district but it has chosen
only one and that too a wo-
man who has joined the par-
ty a day before the nomina-
tion,” she charged
Javed Raeen, another
prospective candidate from
Barhapur seat in Bijnor,
broke down as he shared the
news of him being denied the
party ticket. “I was present
for the party even at mid-
night and nursed the consti-
tuency but have not been
found eligible to serve you,”
he said in a social media
post. Wiping his tears, he
said, he respected the deci-
sion of the party president.
However, Thakur Aditya, a
claimant for the SP ticket
from Chharra constituency
was not so gracious. After
pouring some inflammable
Sri Lankan naval ship rams
and sinks fishing boat
S. Sundar
Ramanathapuram
A Sri Lankan naval ship re-
portedly rammed a fishing
boat from Tamil Nadu and
let it sink near Katchatheevu
island late on Wednesday
night.
The boat had seven fisher-
men from Ramanathapuram
on board. However, after
they raised a distress alarm,
0
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any manner whatsoever for any claims
and/or damages for advertisements in
this newspaper.
U.P. Power Minister and BJP candidate Shrikant Sharma performs ‘Yamuna pujan’ before filing
his nomination papers in Mathura. PTI
substance on himself, he al-
leged that the party robbed
him off an opportunity he
deserved. He tried to self im-
molate himself in front of the
party headquarters in Luck-
now but was saved by the
police and bystanders.
A party spokesperson, ho-
wever, denied his charge and
said he was planted by the
ruling party to malign the
party’s image.
The biggest draw in the
election tearjerker so far has
been Arshad Rana, a Bahujan
Samaj Party worker from
Muzaffarnagar. Last week, he
went to the Kotwali police
station to lodge a complaint
against the party for taking
money from him in lieu of
the ticket. “Mera tamasha
bana diya hai (They have
turned me into a joke). I have
another fishing boat rescued
them.
Condemning the inci-
dent, Ramanathapuram MP
K. Nawaz Kani said the
Centre, which was giving aid
on humanitarian grounds to
Sri Lanka, should advise the
neighbouring country’s go-
vernment to reciprocate
while dealing with fisher-
men from Tamil Nadu.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
*
put posters and banners
across the constituency and
now they have rejected my
claim,’ said Mr. Rana, crying
copiously. He said he had
served the party for 24 years
and was promised a ticket
from the Charthawal consti-
tuency way back in 2018. Per-
haps, he has forgotten that
BSP was known to change
the ticket at the last minute
and often prefers turncoats
over the party cadre.
Last-minute changes
On Wednesday, the party
changed candidates from se-
ven seats. In Charthwal, it
picked Salman Sayeed, son
of former Union Minister
Saeeduzzaman who quit
Congress to join hands with
the BSP last week.
Heartbreak is a common
Former T.N. Minister
Anbalagan booked
‘Unaccounted cash, valuables detected’
P.V. Srividya
DHARMAPURI
Alleging that former Higher
Education Minister K.P. An-
balagan and his family mem-
bers amassed wealth to the
tune of ₹11.32 crore dispro-
portionate to the known
sources of their income bet-
ween May 2016 and March
2021, sleuths of the Directo-
rate of Vigilance and Anti
Corruption (DVAC) on Thurs-
day conducted searches on
multiple premises belonging
to them. The agency claimed
it had detected unaccount-
ed-for cash of ₹2.82 crore,
valuables and other incrimi-
nating documents.
The searches followed an
FIR registered by the DVAC
against Mr. Anbalagan, his
wife A. Malliga, 55, sons A.
Sasimohan, 29, A. Chandra
Mohan, 32, and Chandra Mo-
han’s wife S. Vaishnavee, 32.
While the AIADMK leader
was booked under various
Sections of the Prevention of
Corruption Act, 1988, his fa-
mily members were booked
on charges of aiding and
abetting in the corruption of
his public office.
According to the FIR,
there was intentional, illicit
personal enrichment, acqui-
sition of properties and pe-
cuniary resources in his
name and in the names of re-
latives during the period
DELHI
THE HINDU
theme in the ruling party as
well. Senior BJP leader S.K.
Sharma cried after being de-
nied a ticket from Mathura’s
Maant.
“The BJP is no longer the
party it once used to be. Ded-
icated and honest workers
are being ignored and rob-
bers are getting everything,”
he told the media, wiping off
tears. The BSP was quick to
field him from Mathura
against minister Shrikant
Sharma.
In Aligarh, many in the
cadre were hopeful that they
would get the ticket after the
sitting BJP MLA Sanjeev Raja
was convicted for assaulting
a police constable. However,
when the party picked his
wife Mukta for the Aligarh
seat, it dashed the dreams of
many.
overlapping with his ministe-
rial tenure. The DVAC had ar-
rived at the quantum of dis-
proportionate acquisition of
assets based on the affidavits
filed by Mr. Anbalagan in the
run-up to the 2016 and 2021
Assembly elections, and also
based on “information re-
ceived from credible sourc-
es”. His affidavit in 2016 re-
ported a consolidated asset
ownership of ₹1.60 crore. In
April 2021, his affidavit re-
ported a manifold jump in
asset ownership to ₹23.03
crore.
The DVAC, with the de-
clared information, comput-
ed the quantum of acquisi-
tions vis-à-vis known sources
of income, savings, and ex-
penditure, and “likely sav-
ings” during the ‘check pe-
riod’ of its enquiry, namely
April 2016 to March 2021,
and arrived at a dispropor-
tionate asset acquisition of
over ₹11.32 crore by Mr.
Anbalagan.
This aside, the DVAC’s en-
quiry revealed Mr. Anbala-
gan’s other undisclosed pro-
perties/businesses run
under various names. These
include various stone quar-
ries in Dharmapuri in the
names of his son-in-law, a
brother-in-law, and a close
associate; and a granite firm
located at Avvai Shanmugam
Road, Gopalapuram.
A ND-NDE
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THE HINDU
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
DELHI

STATES 5
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Girl’s death exposes
govt. system failure
The 18-year-old was repeatedly raped
Abdul Latheef Naha
MALAPPURAM
The death of an 18-year-old
girl, extensively abused by
different men in Kozhikode
and Malappuram districts in
the last couple of years, has
exposed the failure of the
government system in pro-
viding care and shelter to
rape survivors.
The girl was found dead
at her house at Tenhipalam
on Thursday. Her mother
said the girl had attempted
Railway Board’s nod for K-Rail Rajasthan govt. stops
auction of farmers’ land
after examining DPR: Centre Banks were sending notices to defaulters
Mohammed Iqbal
SO) Act. The rape had taken Defer survey of petitioners’ land; land acquisition Act steps can continue: HC JAIPUR
place when they lived in Facing a difficult situation
Kozhikode. Another case for Special Correspondent the DPR was prepared based on the waiver of farmers’
sexual abuse was also regis- Kochi on an aerial survey. It was debts, the Congress govern-
tered at the Kondotty police The Union government on conducted through the go- ment in Rajasthan on Thurs-
station. The girl had lived Thursday informed the Kera- vernment agency Kerala Re- day stopped the auction of
with her mother and youn- la High Court that the Rail- mote Sensing and Environ- agricultural land belonging
ger brother at different plac- way Board would take a final mental Centre for to farmers who failed to re-
es. She had been abused by decision on the SilverLine identifying land for the pro- pay the loans obtained from
several people, including project submitted by Kerala ject. In fact, the project had commercial banks function-
her cousins, over a long pe- Rail Development Corpora- been given in-principle ap- ing under the control of Re-
riod of time. tion Ltd, (KRDCL), a joint proval by the Railway Board. serve Bank of India (RBI). Toiling hard: A farmer
The police said they had venture between the Rail- The court wondered how The issue had taken a politi- ploughing his field in Kovia
mentioned the vulnerability ways and the State govern- could the DPR be prepared cal turn after the banks start- village of Udaipur district in
of the girl’s family in char- ment, only after completing based on an aerial survey. ed serving notices on the de- Rajasthan. FILE PHOTO
*

suicide many times before
and that her requests to the
authorities to give treatment
and counselling to the girl
had fallen on deaf ears.
“None cared for my daught-
er,” she sobbed.
The girl had been raped
by several men and three
cases were registered at the
Feroke police station under
the Protection of Children
from Sexual Offences (POC-
gesheets. They said they the examination of the De- Youth Congress workers protesting at a meeting organised to The court ordered that faulting farmers.
had recommended treat- tailed Project Report (DPR). clear doubts on the SilverLine project in Kannur. S.K. MOHAN * the steps for the survey of Though the State govern- ₹6,000 crore announced by
ment and counselling to the The submission was made properties of the petitioners ment had offered to get the the previous BJP regime, by
girl. Authorities responsible by S. Manu, Assistant Solici- technical documents such as ble once the examination of in the cases before the court loans disbursed by national- which over 20.56 lakh farm-
for the protection of chil- tor General of India (ASG), alignment plan, particulars the DPR was over and its re- be deferred till the next post- ised and commercial banks ers had benefited. The waiv-
dren in Kozhikode said they when a few writ petitions of railway land and private sults were firmed up, includ- ing date. However, the steps waived through a one-time er was enforced for the loans
were not alerted to the need against the survey being con- land, cross over of the exist- ing the financial viability of under the Right to Fair Com- scheme, the banks initiated obtained by cultivators from
for giving counselling to the ducted for the project came ing railway network, and af- the project and its appraisal pensation and Transparency action for land attachment the cooperative banks func-
girl. up for hearing before Justice fected railway assets for the by the NITI Aayog and the in Land Acquisition, Rehabil- and auction under the Rajas- tioning under the State
(Suicide prevention hel- Devan Ramachandran. detailed examination of the Ministry of Finance, he itation and Resettlement than Agricultural Credit Op- government.
plines: Maithri — 0484- The ASG further submit- project. added. Act, 2013 could be continued erations (Removal of Diffi- Chief Minister Ashok Geh-
2540530, DISHA — 1056, ted that the KRDCL had been In fact, further considera- Senior government plead- by the competent authori- culties) Act, 1974. A large lot said the government of-
State health helpline — 104). advised to provide detailed tion of the project was possi- er T.B. Hood submitted that ties. number of defaulting farm- ficers had been instructed to
ers in several districts have stop the process of attach-
received notices, besides ment and auction of land.

SIT seeks more time in actor assault case International drug peddler facing pressure to make set-
tlement with banks.
In a recent instance, a
“We have urged the Centre
to waive the farmers’ loans
from nationalised, commer-

‘Detailed probe
needed after
filmmaker’s
revelations’
Special Correspondent
Kochi
The Special Investigation
Team (SIT) probing the new
revelations in the actor rape
case has sought more time
for completing the investiga-
tion in the case.
When the special court
trying the case took up the
matter on Thursday, the pro-
secution submitted that a de-
tailed investigation was
needed following the revela-
tion made by a filmmaker.
The prosecution also submit-
ted that its petition seeking
more time to complete the
Though the prosecution the case, to secure digital arrested in Hyderabad farmer, Kajod Meena, died
in Dausa with an outstand-
cial and land development
banks through one-time set-
sought to postpone the ex- evidence of the alleged sex- ing Kisan Credit Card loan of tlement. The State govern-
amination of the witnesses ual assault. The actor had Staff Reporter The police said that David ₹7 lakh. The bank auctioned ment is ready to bear the
by at least one week, as the
witness was staying in Tamil
approached the trial court
with a plea that the investiga-
HYDERABAD
The North Zone Task Force
began consuming drugs and
became aware that some pe-
his 15-bigha land for ₹46 lakh
earlier this week when his
farmers’ share in the waiver
scheme,” Mr. Gehlot
Nadu, the trial court refused tion officer be asked to depo- on Thursday apprehended a ople from African countries family failed to repay loan tweeted.
to accede to it. sit the evidence with the “most wanted international were dealing with drugs in amount. The district admi-
Declining the plea of Addi- court as he apprehended drug peddler” Chukwu Og- metropolitan cities, and de- nistration has since can- Awaiting nod
tional Public Prosecutor K.B. that the prosecution may use bonna David, and seized the cided to get into this busi- celled the auction process. Mr. Gehlot said the State go-
Sunilkumar, Special Judge it to implicate him. contact numbers of his cus- ness. David then allegedly The Opposition BJP has vernment had passed a Bill
Honey M. Varghese pointed The plea of ‘Pulsar’ Suni, tomers and 10 g of cocaine. developed contacts with accused the ruling Congress in the Assembly for banning
out that the Kerala High the first accused in the case, According to the police, drug users in places such as of failure to protect farmers’ the land auction of farmers
Dileep Court had instructed the to approach a lawyer and David alias Tony Abia Mar- Goa, Mumbai and Hydera- interests despite the loan having agricultural land up
trial court to complete the another request to seek sha is from Nigeria and bad. He then established a waiver promise made in its to 5 acres, but the Governor
investigation was likely to examination of the witness- medical aid for mental dis- known in Mumbai by the network of local agents. manifesto for the 2018 State has not yet given his nod.
come up before the Supreme es in 10 days of the receipt of tress were posted for Janu- name of Tony. In 2013, he The police said that David Assembly election. Congress “This situation has arisen
Court on Monday. its order. The judge also read ary 25. moved from his country to bought the narcotics from leader Rahul Gandhi had an- because the Bill could not
The special court posted out the relevant portions of The contempt of court Mumbai, and has been alleg- an international drug ped- nounced that all loans of become an Act in the ab-
the examination of four wit- the High Court order regard- case filed by actor Dileep edly illegally living in the dler Star Boy through ships. farmers would be waived sence of the Governor’s as-
nesses, which was permitted ing the time frame for the against a television channel country. His runners allegedly tran- within 10 days of assuming sent,” he said.
by the Kerala High Court the completion of the witnesses’ for airing programmes, He began eking out a liv- sport drugs from Mumbai to power. The Bill had sought to
other day, to January 22, and examination. which he alleged to have in- ing by dealing in garments Hyderabad and deliver Shortly after being elect- amend the Civil Procedure
the examination of an official The court posted for Janu- terfered with the dispensa- and wigs. them to his customers. Tony ed to power, the Congress Code for protecting the agri-
of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam ary 25 the plea of actor Di- tion of justice, was also post- The police also arrested has as many as 20 custom- had rolled out a loan waiver culturists’ land measuring
Ltd. (BSNL) on January 25. leep, the eighth accused in ed for January 25. nine alleged drug users. ers in Hyderabad. of ₹14,000 crore, including up to 5 acres.

‘Work on one Journalists’ bodies join hands

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district, one
airport idea’
Staff Reporter
VIJAYAWADA
Andhra Pradesh Chief Mi-
nister Y.S. Jagan Mohan
Reddy directed the officials
to work on a ‘one district -
one airport’ concept in or-
der to boost infrastructure
in the districts. Develop-
ment of airports in each of
the 13 districts would give a
fillip to all-round growth,
he said and wanted the
construction of Bhogapu-
ram and Dagadarthi air-
ports in Vizianagaram and
Nellore districts respec-
tively to be expedited.
At a review meeting on
sea and airports, at his
camp office near here on
Thursday, Mr. Jagan Mohan
Reddy said the runways
should be capable of han-
dling wide-body aircraft
like Boeing. He told the of-
ficials to lay special empha-
sis on the development
and expansion works at the
six existing airports and
two new ones.
Tug of war
to fight for Kashmir Press Club
PCI asks Lt. Governor ‘to restore the land and registration’
Peerzada Ashiq
SRINAGAR
Ten journalists’ bodies
joined hands in Kashmir on
Thursday to fight for the res-
toration of the Kashmir
Press Club (KPC), which was
de-registered and the pro-
perty sealed by the J&K go-
vernment recently.
Meanwhile, the Press
Club of India (PCI) has urged
the Lieutenant Governor (L-
G) “to ensure that the club
[KPC] be allowed elections
in the interest of transparen-
cy and democratic
functioning”.
In a joint statement is-
sued by ten organisations
registered with the KPC,
Kashmir-based journalists
demanded the restoration
of the KPC’s status quo as on
January 13, 2022. “The jour-
nalists resolved to seek an
Strong force: The police trying to stop teachers protesting against the new Pay Revision Commission of the Andhra Pradesh explanation from the regis-
government in Visakhapatnam on Thursday. K.R. DEEPAK * tering authority on the
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC grounds on which the KPC’s
re-registration was placed
‘in abeyance’ and the club
shut down in an arbitrary
manner,” a spokesperson
said.
The journalist bodies re-
solved to explore all avenues
for the restoration of the
KPC at the earliest. “It also
gave a week’s time to the last
elected 11-member body to
brief the journalist bodies
on the developments with
regard to restoration of the
KPC. It also condemned the
attempted forcible takeover
by a tiny group of journalists
and subsequent shutting
down of the KPC by the J&K
administration,” the spokes-
person said.
Naming the umbrella bo-
dy as the Kashmir Media
Coalition, the journalists ex-
pressed gratitude to the va-
rious prominent journalist
bodies — including the Edi-
tors Guild of India, the Press
Council of India, the Indian
Union of Journalists, the Fo-
reign Correspondents Club,
the Chennai Press Club, the
Kolkata Press Club, the
Press Club of India, the
Mumbai Press Club and the
Delhi Union of Journalists;
and international media
watchdogs Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ) and
Reporters Without Borders
(RSF) — for their support
and solidarity.
‘Extremely unfortunate’
The Press Club of India
(PCI), in a letter to J&K L-G
Manoj Sinha on Thursday
termed the armed takeover
of the KPC on January 14,
2022 as “extremely
unfortunate”.
The PCI demanded early
elections at the press club.
The PCI sought the Lieu-
tenant-Governor’s urgent in-
tervention “to restore the
land and registration of the
Club”.

ED arrests alleged mastermind of Spinning a new magic with photography

‘Power Bank’ case, gets custody Former Andhra sively toured Lahaul and Spi- minded photographer-
ti in Himachal Pradesh and friends, have to be on your
Anas Ahmed collected about ₹84 cr. by promising high returns Ranji player loves the northern part of Sikkim. own in these places,” he

Devesh K Pandey
NEW DELHI
The Enforcement Directorate
(ED) has arrested a partner in
two private firms in connec-
tion with a fraud allegedly
committed through some
mobile applications on the
promise of phenomenal re-
turns against the investments
made by users. The agency
has got his six-day custody
from the court concerned.
The accused, Anas
Ahmed, is a partner in H & S
Ventures Inc and Clifford
Ventures that allegedly col-
lected about ₹84 crore from
the victims. “Anas Ahmed
has Chinese links and is sus-
pected of being the master-
mind of the whole racket,”
CM
YK
to capture the Mr. Prasad took to photog- said. “Definitely, digital pho-
said the ED. The fraud was corrupt and illegal activities raphy since he was a child, tography made things a lot
committed through applica- through his partnership Himalayas thanks to his father (Madana easier. But, at the same time,
tions like “Power Bank”. firms by deviating from the V.V. Subrahmanyam Gopal Yachendra), who was the urge to be the best, as
declared line of business/ac- HYDERABAD a lensman himself. many now-a-days are armed
In Chennai prison tivity of gaming and has col- Former Andhra Ranji left- “Somehow, the mere with all sorts of latest camera
Ahmed was earlier lodged in lected money from public in arm spinner and chairman thought of Ladakh Valley equipment, could well in-
the Puzhal Central Prison, the guise of investment of ACA selection panel Satya- spurs me to plan a visit at spire you to come up with
Chennai, in a case registered schemes...the proceeds gen- prasad Yachendra, 59, is any given point of the year. truly standout pictures,” he
by the CB-CID there. It is al- erated through criminal ac- spinning magic with his pic- Such is the fascination I have said.
leged that he, along with his tivities have been layered tures, exploring the scenic for the picturesque locales And, right now, the nature
associates, promised to remit through a number of shell en- splendour of Ladakh Valley there,” Mr. Prasad said in a lover-cum-photographer is
interests on a daily or weekly tities for sending the funds for close to 15 years. chat with The Hindu. coming out with a coffee ta-
basis on investments made abroad and also investing “Every time you visit La- “Photography in the Val- ble book depicting his jour-
through “Power Bank” and them in crypto currencies,” dakh, you feel as if you are ley itself can be one of the neys to ‘Great Ranges’.
other such fraudulent appli- an official said. going there for the first time. biggest challenges for any “I must say the Telangana
cations. However, the enti- The Chennai Police, in Such is the beauty of the Val- photographer given the kind government has been encou-
ties were shut down after col- June 2021, registered a case ley with the imposing Hima- of conditions, with virtually raging photography a lot by
lecting huge sums of money on the basis of multiple com- layan Ranges in the back- no villages in sight and appa- organising the India Photo
from gullible public, follow- plaints alleging that investors drop,” Mr. Prasad said. rently no possible scope for Festival every year, where
ing which the accused per- were cheated via “Power “For me, it is like a spiri- help in case of any emergen- world-renowned lensmen
sons went underground. Bank” and “Tesla Power tual home,” said city-based cy,” he said. come and share their expe- Scenic splendour: A file photo of former Ranji player
“Anas Ahmed indulged in Bank” mobile applications. Mr. Prasad, who also exten- “You, along with like- riences,” he said. Satyaprasad Yachendra during his visit to the Ladakh Valley.
A ND-NDE
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6 EDITORIAL DELHI

FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022

THE HINDU
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Drop the IAS cadre rules amendments

States are right in perceiving the planned amendments to Rule 6(1) to be an infringement of their rights
own will. Every year, the States sons for the shortage of IAS offic- Services to handle as many posts
would prepare an “offer list” of of- ers, which the Centre should as possible. In course of time, the

Court and compensation ficers who had opted for central

deputation without arbitrarily
address. With the Government of
India itself enthusiastically pro-
IAS will lose its sheen, and the best
and the brightest candidates will
The Supreme Court has done much to grant withholding any names. The moting lateral entry to posts in the no longer opt for the IAS as a ca-
Centre would choose officers only Centre and providing an increased reer. Short-sighted decisions can
some succour to the kin of COVID-19 victims K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty & from among those “on offer” from share of central deputation posts do long-term damage to the polity.

GETTY IMAGES
I
t took much persuasion by the Supreme Court and V. Ramani the States. The States would re- to the central services, there is no
all its assertiveness to get the Union government to lieve the officers picked up by the need to push unwilling IAS officers Think cooperative federalism
Centre at the earliest. on central deputation. In the words of jurist Nani Palkhiv-
agree last year to pay a token compensation of

I
t was Sardar Patel who had The other is a proviso that re- ala, “A national consensus should
₹50,000 to the families of each of those who were championed the creation of the When politics intruded proposed four amendments to quires the State government to re- clearly remind the Centre that it
claimed by COVID-19. The time has now come for the Indian Administrative Service Unfortunately, both the Centre Rule 6(1) of the IAS (Cadre) Rules, lease such officers whose services has not inherited the Viceroy’s
Court to assert its authority once again to ensure that (IAS) and the Indian Police Service and the States have at times flout- 1954 dealing with deputation, and may be sought by the Central Go- mantle of paramountcy... The
neither tardiness on the part of the States nor incorrect (IPS) as “All India Services” (AIS) ed these healthy conventions for has sought the views of State go- vernment in specific situations. Centre would have no moral auth-
rejection of claims deprives genuine victims of their whose members would be recruit- political considerations. In July vernments before January 25, Based on experiences of the re- ority to govern unless it displays a
right to the ex gratia amount. In the latest hearing, the ed and appointed by the Centre 2001, the Centre unilaterally 2022. The existing Rule 6(1) states cent past, State governments have sense of constitutional morality,
and allotted to various States, and “placed at its disposal” the servic- that a cadre officer may be deput- a justified apprehension that this particularly a sense of justice and
Court had to pull up a couple of States for not disburs-
who could serve both under the es of three IPS officers of Tamil Na- ed to the Central Government (or proviso may be misused for politi- fairness towards the States”. In
ing the amount fast enough and express concern about State and the Centre. He consi- du cadre. In December 2020, the to another State or a PSU) only cal considerations. What if the S.R. Bommai vs Union of India
the high number of rejected claims. In the backdrop of dered the AIS essential to knit the Centre did the same in respect of with the concurrence of the State Centre unilaterally places at its dis- (1994), the Supreme Court held
reports that there has been significant under-reporting administrative framework of a vast three IPS officers of West Bengal Government concerned. However, posal the services of the Chief Se- that “States have an independent
of deaths due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the and diverse country into an inte- cadre. In May 2021, the Centre un- it has a proviso which states that in cretary, Principal Secretary to the constitutional existence and they
Bench had passed orders some months ago to the effect grated whole and to provide a con- ilaterally issued orders for the cen- case of any disagreement, the mat- Chief Minister and other key offic- have as important a role to play in
that no person’s family shall be denied the benefit on necting link between implementa- tral deputation of the Chief Secre- ter shall be decided by the Central ers of a State ruled by a rival party the political, social, educational
the ground that the death certificate did not specify the tion at the field level and tary of West Bengal just before his Government. or deputes them to other States? and cultural life of the people as
policymaking at the top. Speaking last day in service. In all these cas- Two of the four proposed the Union. They are neither satel-
cause of death as due to COVID-19. Early experience
to the Constituent Assembly on es, the States concerned refused to amendments are disconcerting. Long-term damage lites nor agents of the Centre”.
since the outbreak showed that many deaths were attri- October 10, 1949, Patel said, “The relieve the officers. One is a new proviso making it States are right in perceiving the We hope that the Centre will
buted to co-morbidities rather than to the infection it- Union will go, you will not have a Some States used to vindictively mandatory for the State govern- proposed amendments as a se- heed Sardar Patel’s sage advice
self. Also, many died after testing negative during hos- united India if you have not a good withhold the names of some of the ment to provide a certain fixed rious infringement of their rights and drop the proposed amend-
pitalisation or after their discharge. To address this All India Service which has the in- officers who had opted for central number of IAS officers for central to deploy IAS officers as they deem ments. In a federal setup, it is inev-
situation, the Court directed that any death occurring dependence to speak out its mind, deputation or delay their relief af- deputation every year. The pro- best, especially when the cutting itable that differences and dis-
within 30 days of a person testing positive, or being which has a sense of security....” ter they were picked up by the posed amendment more or less edge of policy implementation is putes would arise between the
Centre. An egregious example was compels a State government to off- mostly at the State level. The con- Centre and the States. But all such
clinically determined to suffer from the infection, will
Healthy conventions earlier that of a senior IPS officer who was er IAS officers for central deputa- templated changes have grave im- quarrels should be resolved in the
be eligible for the ex gratia payment. In addition, the AIS officers are made available for not allowed to join the Central Bu- tion even when these officers plications for the independence, spirit of cooperative federalism
Court devised an appeal mechanism in the form of grie- central deputation through a con- reau of Investigation despite ear- themselves may not wish to go on security and morale of IAS offic- and keeping the larger national in-
vance redress committees at the district level. sultative process involving the lier clearance and was suspended central deputation. Poor working ers. If States begin to doubt the terest in mind.
In the latest order, the Bench, comprising Justice Centre, the States and the officers by the Government of Tamil Nadu conditions in junior-level posts, an loyalty of IAS officers, they are
M.R. Shah and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, has directed that concerned. In the past, certain in May 2014 when she relieved her- opaque and arbitrary system of likely to reduce the number of IAS K. Ashok Vardhan Shetty is a former IAS
if a claim has been rejected due to defects in applica- healthy conventions were general- self from the State pursuant to the empanelment for senior-level cadre posts and also their annual officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre. V. Ramani
ly followed. No officer was sent on Centre’s direction. posts, and lack of security of te- intake of IAS officers. They may is a former IAS officer of the Maharashtra
tion, the family must be given an opportunity to rectify
central deputation against his/her The Central Government has nure at all levels are the real rea- prefer officers of the State Civil cadre
the shortcoming and then be paid the compensation.
Noting that in some cases, the number of claims is low-
er than the number of registered deaths, the Court has
directed that officials reach out to the families on their
own. It has extracted assurances from some States that
The gentleman spymaster who had India enthralled
claims that had been cleared but yet to be disbursed Those serving the R&AW would do well to note the principles that Rameshwar Nath Kao practised with aplomb
would be cleared as early as possible. Significantly, it
course, factors central to Kao’s The third was Kao’s uncommon nation of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
has also mandated the disclosure of the reasons for re- meteoric rise. But what were some ability to see the big picture while, in August 1975. The criticism
jection to the applicants so that they could either rectify of the other ingredients of the Kao at the same time, paying what can pained him, especially since he
errors or go on appeal to the committee to redress such formula for success as the Head of only be described as extreme at- had personally warned the Bangla-
grievances. In yet another bid to ensure that eligible fa- R&AW (1968-77)? tention to detail. Be it the libera- deshi leader more than once about
milies are not denied the benefit, the Court has roped in tion war of Bangladesh or the de- the threat to his life. It was in this
the legal services authority in each State and district to Ramanathan Kumar There was a line nouement in Sikkim in the 1970s context that he propounded the
The first was the scrupulous dis- or the historic opening to the Unit- dictum that those engaged in the
ascertain whether compensation has been paid to the
tinction that he maintained bet- ed States in the early 1980s during profession of intelligence must
kin of everyone recorded as dead due to the pandemic

J
anuary 20, 2022 marked the
in official records, and facilitate the payment if it is yet 20th anniversary of the pass-
to be made. The Supreme Court has done much to ing of Rameshwar Nath Kao,
grant some succour, low though the quantum may be in founding Head of the Research &
ween external and internal intelli- his second coming (1981-84) as Se- never expect to be rewarded for
gence. In recent decades, nior Adviser in the Cabinet Secre- their successes but must always be
following the rise of international tariat, Kao kept his sights firmly on prepared to be punished for their
terrorism as a major intelligence the big picture, effectively translat- failures.
ANI

the light of the staggering impact the pandemic has had Analysis Wing (R&AW) and, argua-
on lives and livelihoods, to millions of people. bly, one of the most accomplished
and influential intelligence chiefs
of all time.
Yemen’s tragedy From 2007 till 2019, the R&AW
used to hold the annual Kao Me-
Iran, Saudi Arabia and the UAE must rein in morial Lecture at its headquarters
proxies and work towards rebuilding Yemen in the last week of January but the
outbreak of the novel coronavirus
concern worldwide, it became so- ing the broad vision of the political
mewhat fashionable to say that the bility, viz. intelligence collection leadership into concrete reality on Old world
dividing line between external and on developments within the the ground. Equally, the R&AW’s Added to these ingredients were
internal threats had blurred and it country. sober and balanced assessments an exquisite old-world courtesy,
was no longer possible to treat the
two as separate phenomena. The Emergency and after
shaped the making of policy, help-
ing to ensure that it was grounded
refinement and innate humane-
ness that shone through his deal-
There may be some merit in this The second ingredient — a corol- in reality and not based on idealis- ings with all, from the mightiest in
contention in as much as threats lary of the first — was Kao’s saga- tic preferences or wishful the land to the lowest. Such, in
from without become relevant on- cious policy of insulating the thinking. fact, was the generosity of spirit

T
he Saudi-led coalition, in which the UAE was a pandemic meant that the event ly insofar as they have an impact R&AW from the vicissitudes of The fourth was his ability to that characterised Kao’s dealings
part, started bombing Yemen in 2015, hoping to has had to be kept on hold since within. But the distinction is fun- domestic politics. Despite his un- spur his officers to greater heights with his subordinates that, at
swiftly dislodge the Houthi rebels from Sana’a then. This tribute is a modest at- damental and none was more con- trammeled access to the highest without being overbearing or mi- times, it made him blind to the fail-
and reinstate the government of Abdrabbuh Mansur tempt to give expression to the col- scious of this fact than Kao. This levels of the political leadership, cromanaging tasks best left to ings of some of them.
Hadi in the capital. Almost seven years later, the Iran- lective sense of excitement and was, perhaps, understandable and Kao studiously avoided the temp- ground-level operatives. As the In the years ahead, India’s ex-
backed Houthis, who were holed up in northern Yemen pride that members of India’s in- inevitable considering the raison tation of getting involved in inter- head of R&AW, Kao was ably assist- ternal intelligence agency will
telligence community experience d’etre of the formation of the nal political matters. Never was ed by a fine band of lieutenants, have to grapple with a complex ar-
and began counter-attacks with missiles and drones in-
when the lecture is held. R&AW as an organisation responsi- the sagacity of Kao’s approach several of whom, like him, had ray of challenges; from correctly
to Saudi Arabia, have expanded the war all the way to Encomiums aplenty have been ble for the collection of intelli- more evident than during the been handpicked to man the Intel- anticipating the moves of an asser-
the Gulf coast of the UAE. Monday’s drone attacks on showered — and rightly so — on gence pertaining to developments Emergency. The Janata Party go- ligence Bureau before being draft- tive China to countering the ever-
Abu Dhabi by the Houthis, in which two Indians and a Kao for his unparalleled contribu- abroad. vernment that came to power fol- ed into the external intelligence mutating threats from the forces of
Pakistani were killed, were a message to the Emiratis on tions to Indian intelligence. In- On Kao’s watch, the R&AW lowing the elections of 1977 was set-up. Without them, Kao would radicalism and terrorism embol-
what they are capable of. It may not be a coincidence stead of repeating what has alrea- steered conspicuously clear of suspicious of the role played by not have been half as successful as dened by developments in our im-
that the attacks were carried out at a time when the dy been said, I propose to dabbling in domestic intelligence Kao and R&AW during the Emer- he was and he knew it. He gave mediate neighbourhood to safe-
highlight some of the qualities that collection. Whenever inquiries gency and there was an attempt to them his full trust and backing and guarding the expanding digital
UAE-backed forces have been making slow gains in Ye-
made him such a formidable and needed to be conducted on some cut the organisation down to size, they, in turn, delivered the results infrastructure that is likely to in-
men’s conflict against the Houthis. But the UAE’s invol- successful intelligence chief. That matter or the other within the but no inquiry or investigation that made the R&AW the formida- creasingly underpin our security
vement in Yemen has had many turns. It quit the Saudi- he was a Kashmiri Pandit like sev- country, Kao invariably turned to could unearth any evidence of the ble machine that it was to become and prosperity. To be able to rise
led coalition in 2020 as the war had hit a stalemate. eral of former Prime Minister Indi- the Intelligence Bureau for assis- R&AW being even remotely in- so early in its existence. to the occasion, those serving the
Since then, the Emiratis have provided tactical support ra Gandhi’s closest advisers, that tance. The benefits were twofold: volved in any of the excesses com- The fifth was his disinclination, R&AW will do well to hew to the
to the Southern Transitional Council, a separatist body she knew him from the time that the R&AW focused its energies, mitted during the Emergency. The bordering on abhorrence, to en- first principles that the organisa-
in southern Yemen that drove the Saudi-backed forces he began looking after the arran- without any distraction, on the result was that, after some tempor- gage in any form of self-projection. tion’s founding father laid down
gements for her father Jawaharlal collection of intelligence about In- ary setbacks, the organisation re- This attitude was best brought out and practised with such aplomb.
loyal to President Hadi out of Aden. The dynamics
Nehru’s security as a young assis- dia’s external adversaries and the covered its self-confidence and by his response to the ill-informed
changed again when the Houthis began pushing into tant director in the Intelligence Intelligence Bureau could not went back to playing its designated criticism directed against the Ramanathan Kumar retired as Special
territories outside their stronghold, especially Marib; if Bureau and that he enjoyed her complain about being bypassed in role in upholding national R&AW, and against him personal- Secretary in the R&AW. The views
they take Marib, they would be a step ahead to push in- complete confidence were, of the discharge of its core responsi- security. ly, for failing to prevent the assassi- expressed are personal
to the south. Faced with the prospects of further Houthi
territorial gains, UAE-backed forces such as Giants Bri-
gades (a militia from the south) have joined hands with
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

the government. Then came the Abu Dhabi attacks. To read more letters
Cadre rules plan case of the Chief Secretary of the third COVID-19 wave development is not good for make people know what they online, scan the QR code
These could escalate the conflict. The immediate res-
The proposed changes by West Bengal State is bound to showing no sign of ebbing as an India once known to be in do not know. This is what the
ponse from the Saudi-led coalition has been to carry the Centre to Rule 6 manifest itself in the days yet, any undue delay in possession of an enviable beauty of history is all about. nations nudge the Taliban to
out a massive air strike on the partly destroyed Sana’a. (deputation of cadre ahead. The Centre should making ex gratia payment virtue — ‘unity in diversity’. The perception now is that restore full human rights.
The UAE has also vowed retaliation. A Houthi strike to officers) of the Indian drop the ill-conceived and would hurt families. Tharcius S. Fernando, States said to be out of favour This must be a precondition
Administrative Service regressive move in the Chennai with the Central to any sort of recognition.
scare away the Emiratis from Yemen could trigger the S. Sanjeevi Rao,

opposite reaction from Abu Dhabi, which now has po- (Cadre) Rules 1954 are overall interest of seamless Puducherry government, viz., Tamil Shujaath Ahmed V.,

werful proxies in the south. The cycle of violence spells ill-advised (Page 1, January administration and uphold ■ The process of selection of Nadu, Kerala and West Chennai

20) These would not only
tragic news for Yemen’s 30 million people for whom the
be against the principle of
country has been turned into what UNICEF has called federalism but also
“a living hell”. Yemen, one of the poorest countries in encroach upon the plans of
the Arab world, is facing a three-way crisis — thousands States to utilise the
have been killed in the conflict, many more abandoned specialised services of IAS
or suffering by the collapse of the government and so- officers for various key
cial services; and mass hunger. The first step to address departments or projects.
G.V.N. Murthy,
this tragedy is to end the fighting. But, unfortunately, Hyderabad
the parties in the conflict and their regional backers are
keen on escalating the conflict further rather than find- ■ There is already a situation
ing a solution. If the fighting over the last seven years where there has been a
significant usurpation of
holds any lesson, it is that there can be no military solu-
tion to Yemen’s problems. To dial down tensions, there State powers by the Centre.
have to be talks, not only between the rebels, separa- The planned move will be a
constitutional propriety and
federal polity.
V. Johan Dhanakumar,
Chennai
Court and payments
The Supreme Court of India’s
proposed order to marshal
efforts to pay the promised
solatium to the next of kin of
those died of COVID-19 and
children “orphaned,
abandoned or left with one
parent” in the mayhem will
be a great judicial
intervention (Page 1, January
Unity in disarray tableaux for the Republic Bengal, have been penalised,
It is a matter of regret that Day parade appears to be while BJP-ruled States or Retirement
the so-called ‘expert controversial. It would be in proxies have had no trouble There is no doubt that Sania
committee’ to select the the fitness of things to at all. Mirza (‘Sport’ page, “Sania to
tableaux for the Republic provide representation to T. Anand Raj, quit at the end of the
Day parade appears to be every State in a parade of Chennai season”, January 20) is
ignorant of the names of extreme national importance India’s superstar in women’s
freedom fighters, — to highlight and celebrate Q uest for recognition tennis who redefined the
particularly from the South. our federal concept of The Taliban Prime Minister’s game in India. Her decision
Some of the alleged remarks governance. Shortcomings, if move to seek recognition to step back, citing personal
made by the members of the any, can be corrected from Muslim nations (‘World’ reasons that are at the fore,
committee can be said to be without such penalties. page, January 20) is strange. is dignified.
shocking. Ayyasseri Raveendranath, Does the Taliban have any Jayashree Thampi,
The entire episode looks Aranmula, Kerala locus standi to do this when Thiruvananthapuram
murky and politicised in it has curtailed the freedom
order to keep certain non ■ The very purpose of rolling of women and even deprived ■ Ms. Mirza has been a

blatant encroachment onto
tists and the government but also between their back-
the administrative domain of
ers — Iran, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. If these regional the States. It is clear that the
powers agree to rein in their proxies and work towards Centre wants unbridled
rebuilding Yemen, that would also help them restore powers to keep States on a
stability and security in the Arabian peninsula. tight leash .
The mess that arose in the
20). The ombudsman will
definitely be a saviour to
many an aggrieved family of
the victim in case of a
dispute over the selection
and the sanction of the
financial compensation. With
BJP-ruled States out of the out a tableau is to showcase them of their basic rights? wonderful player with an
national parade, making one India’s culture and history. The suffering of women in incredible zeal toward the
wonder whether we are And the reason why there is Taliban-ruled Afghanistan game of tennis She has been
living in a democratic a (foreign) chief guest is to now is no different from the a source of inspiration for
country or under a make him or her aware of earlier occasion when the many a junior player.
dictatorship. This this greatness. In general, Taliban held sway. Instead, it Kirti Wadhawan,
undemocratic and divisive efforts should be made to is imperative that Muslim Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

CM A ND-NDE
YK
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THE HINDU
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
DELHI

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OPED 7

Should the government loosen its purse strings?

PARLEY As inflation is driven by supply-side factors, tax
policy can be used to cushion its impact
With the Union Budget 10 days
away, many economic observers are
now focused on what support the
Centre can offer the economy, which
is still struggling to recover from the
pandemic. Some analysts believe
that the government must keep its
nowhere near stagflation. In fact,
for the next financial year, my own
prediction for GDP growth is so-
mewhere close to 6.5%-7%. And if
and retail market prices diverging we look at exports, there is a very
for a very long time. We generally substantial rise in exports, so the re-
expect the transmission between covery seems to be very, very sharp.
the wholesale market and the retail If we can continue with the kind of
market to not be more than one or fiscal framework that was adopted
two months. But what we see now is in the last Budget, I think we should
a very prolonged divergence. We be looking at close to 7% GDP
driven by the supply side?
N.R. Bhanumurthy: I’m not really
sure whether fiscal policy can di-
rectly address inflation driven by
supply-side factors, except maybe
by reviving growth. But to go back to
an earlier point, if we look at the ad-
vance estimates of GDP, they sug-
gest that the investment rate is so-
mewhere close to 36%, which is

SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

spending in check to prevent price
rise from getting out of control. Re-
tail inflation is hovering close to 6%,
while the wholesale inflation rate is
in double digits. Other analysts, ho-
wever, believe that the current rise
in prices is a temporary phenome-
non, and that the government must
ignore the fiscal deficit and ramp up
spending to support the ailing eco-
nomy. In a conversation moderated
by Prashanth Perumal J., N.R.
Bhanumurthy and Himanshu dis-
cuss the way forward. Edited
excerpts:
What is your view on the
current trend in price inflation?
N.R. Bhanumurthy: First of all,
when it comes to retail inflation, the
latest reading says it is somewhere
N.R. close to 5.6%. The Reserve Bank of
Bhanumurthy is India (RBI) has already predicted
Vice Chancellor of that it will remain below 6% by the
Dr. B.R. Ambedkar end of March. However, many of us
School of believe there are some upside risks
Economics when it comes to inflation and infla-
University tion expectations. This is for a cou-
ple of reasons. One, international
oil prices have gone up to $87 per
barrel this week. We also see that in-
flation pressure is building up
across the world, especially in coun-
tries where there was a large fiscal
stimulus. So, there could be the risk
of transmission of international in-
flation to the domestic economy.
Himanshu But at the same time, one needs to
is Associate really understand what drives this
Professor at inflation. At least in the Indian con-
Jawaharlal Nehru text, supply-side constraints play a
University major role and this needs a different
policy prescription. And I’m very
sure that the RBI has many instru-
ments to contain this inflation pres-
sure. For the past three quarters,
the RBI has been hitting bull’s eye
when it comes to inflation forecasts,
so I think when it says that retail in-
flation will be less than 6%, it’s likely
to come true. With regard to Whole-
Scan the QR code to sale Price Index (WPI), I’ve been a
listen to the full little wary of this reading. You can-
interview online not have wholesale market prices
need to look at a little more in detail
in terms of the coverage and com-
modities and all those things. We
need to focus more on Consumer
Price Index (CPI) and less on whole-
sale prices.
Himanshu: We have to be very
cautious in not just looking at infla-
tion numbers in aggregate, but also
what is driving inflation. I think that
most of the inflation is basically dri-
ven by supply. Also, it not driven as
much by domestic factors as it is by
international factors. But domestic
factors have added to the problem.
The most obvious factor is that tax-
es on petroleum goods and services
have increased. So, domestic fac-
tors have contributed to inflation,
but the inflation is predominantly
driven by the supply side. But I
would also be a bit hesitant in saying
that there is only little that can be
done using fiscal policy.
Second, I think the gap between
WPI and CPI is quite a big one and it
has been so for a long time. Some of
the inflation in wholesale prices will
be passed on to consumer prices, so
inflation is a cause of concern not
just for fiscal policy or monetary
policy, but also for the overall
health of the economy because in-
flation is going to impinge on the
basic economics of households.
How do you see the role of fiscal
policy in supporting the
economy in a high-inflation
environment?
N.R. Bhanumurthy: With regard
to the fiscal policy, the current year
is turning out to be a very good year
in terms of tax revenues. If you look
at the last Budget, the government
was focused on the medium-term
perspective, while leaving short-
term issues to the central bank. I’m
hoping that the same macro frame-
work will continue in the coming
Budget. But at the same time, mea-
sures that were brought in to help
the poor in terms of providing safe-
growth for the next year. And as we very close to the investment rate
already discussed, the inflation during the high growth period that
pressure is definitely there. It may we saw in the last decade. This is
be somewhere close to 6%. So, I one of the major indicators for me
would not really support the argu- when I say we are going to see 7%
ment that we are anywhere close to GDP growth.
ty nets continue. Right now, the go-
vernment has fiscal room and will <
> The government will have
to open its purse, not just in
stagflation.
Himanshu: There’s not much that
want to focus on the social sector as terms of improving the Himanshu: Stagflation may be too the government can do. But what it
well as medium-term growth pros- incomes of people in cases strong a word, but I think there are certainly can do is protect demand,
pects. Ultimately, the biggest stimu- where it can directly do so, certainly pressure points. Inflation the economy, the middle class, and
lus would be any measure that pro- such as using social and low growth persisting for a long particularly the poor and the vul-
vides more employment time is something that I don’t think nerable from the impact of high in-
security schemes, but also
opportunities. Economic recovery we can rule out completely. Where I flation. That, I think, is the role of
has to be on a more sustainable ba- by increasing the transfers disagree with Bhanu is with his opti- the government. Taxation of petro-
sis rather than in the form of short- to States. mism as far as growth prospects are leum products, for instance, is so-
term spikes in growth. Himanshu concerned. At least when it comes mething that is part of fiscal policy.
cause once growth picks up, then a to the economic numbers that I can So, that is something that the go-
Himanshu: I think it should spend lot of the fiscal issues can be taken see, it’s not something that is going vernment can influence. When it
more. If there’s any time that the go- care of. But if the economic engines to be very easy to deal with. A lot of comes to fertilizer prices, which are
vernment should be spending are not firing up, you are getting in- the inflation right now is still com- rising very fast, the government can
more, it is now. One has to go to a vicious cycle, and then I don’t ing from the supply side. But if the increase its contribution and thus
beyond this obsession with manag- think any kind of fiscal manage- economy does bounce back once reduce the prices that the farmers
ing the fiscal framework. If fiscal ment, either in the short or in the the pandemic is over, it’s not going are paying. Remember, the cost of
prudence leads to growth slowing medium term, is going to be sustain- to lead to the softening of inflation; inflation is not just a direct cost, it
down, I don’t think that is someth- able. So, I think we need the govern- it may actually aggravate the infla- can also be passed on indirectly to
ing sustainable. The reason I say this ment to play the important role of tion situation. other prices and this can have a ve-
is because there are enough of the reviving the economy. Second, as far as the growth num- ry debilitating impact on the econo-
government’s own economic indica- bers are concerned, again, I’m not my. The industry, such as the auto-
tors that show that there is excess How would you answer people so optimistic. I’m not going to make mobile sector, can start passing on
capacity in the economy. Aggregate who talk about the risk of a prediction on the growth numbers its high input cost to the retail sec-
consumption, which is a big part of stagflation? for next year because in this crisis tor, that is to consumers. That’s
GDP, is slowing down and has been situation, most of these numbers where I think the government can
for quite some time now. I think at N.R. Bhanumurthy: I think they are affected by the base chosen to actually step in and cushion the im-
this point of time the focus should are being alarmist for a simple rea- calculate these numbers. I think it pact that high inflation has on in-
be on reviving the economy and son. We, at least in India, have a will be some time before we come dustry as well as on consumers by
that is best done using fiscal poli- consensus that the right inflation back to a normal situation. Unless lowering direct and indirect taxes.
cies. The government will have to number which is relevant for the we are back in a normal situation, I That’s something that will have an
open its purse, not just in terms of household is the retail inflation think all these numbers don’t have impact on what happens overall to
improving the incomes of people in number. The WPI is a very segment- much meaning; they are just bounc- the demand side and to the revival
cases where it can directly do so, ed indicator that doesn’t include ing up and down. In the broadest of the economy. So, I don't think
such as using social security services and other things. So, let’s sense, the threat of high inflation that the government’s hands are
schemes, but also by increasing the be clear that if we are to look at one and low growth persisting for at completely tied; it certainly has a
transfers to States. We are actually number to gauge inflation, it is CPI least some time is real. A lot de- role to play. The government should
getting into a situation where the inflation. And the CPI inflation is pends on how the government res- be looking at the long-term picture
public debt to GDP ratio is going to well within the RBI’s targeted range ponds to the situation, both in rather than the short-term picture
increase because if growth is going of 2% to 6%. When it comes to the terms of reviving demand in the of generating revenues by taxing
to slow down, it would basically faltering Index of Industrial Produc- economy, but also in terms of ma- more. It should rather allow people
mean that government revenues tion (IIP) numbers, it should be not- naging inflation. These are issues to have a larger disposable income
will also slow down. So, I don’t see ed that the IIP covers a very small for which we still have no conclusive so that consumption in the econo-
how it is going to be good fiscal pol- component of the industry. The IIP answers. my increases. And one way to do it,
icy if growth is going to be affected is a very crude leading indicator. So, other than through income transf-
by fiscal prudence. I would recom- I don’t think we need to make a Is there something the Budget ers, is to reduce taxes on goods and
mend that we not worry about the judgment based on IIP numbers. My can do in terms of structural services that are witnessing high in-
fiscal deficit at this point of time be- own assessment is that we are reforms to address inflation flation.

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CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

A watchdog silenced
The Kashmir Press Club, which has been shut
down, provided a sense of security to journalists
Peerzada Ashiq
It took the efforts of more than three
generations of journalists in Kashmir
to make the government of the day in
2018 realise the importance of having
a Press Club here — a sign of a vibrant
society and, above all, a norm in any
other part of the country.
In spite of opposition from both
the political and bureaucratic class in
Jammu and Kashmir ( J&K), the Kash-
mir Press Club, with around 300
members, emerged as a collective ad-
dress of the media fraternity in a re-
gion reeling under a violent conflict
for the past three decades, that too in
a very short span of time.
Kashmir remains prone to security
and communication restrictions,
which leaves everyone immobilised.
The Club emerged as a postal address
for local and visiting journalists, in-
cluding foreign correspondents.
From swift tip-offs about happenings
in the Valley to easy Internet access
to availability of food, it was the only
thriving place whenever offices were
shut due to security reasons or vola-
tile situations outside.
Kashmir saw a communication
blackout and unprecedented securi-
ty measures on August 5, 2019, when
the Centre ended J&K's special consti-
tutional status. Like my other col-
leagues, I lost touch with my seniors
at the office in New Delhi. Restricted
to home for almost three days and
left incommunicado, reaching the
Club to resume my job as a reporter
was my first concern. It was in the
Club that I met my colleague who
had flown from Delhi to Srinagar be-
cause of the office's inability to reach
me. The Club was where we would
leave paper notes for each other and
also pen drives with reports, which
my colleague also took to ensure that
our ground reports were published.
This was not true earlier. Kashmir
media was an orphan; it had little
communication with the rest of the
media fraternity. Kashmir has seen
the worst times over the past three
decades, with at least 18 journalists
killed. All these deaths remained un-
documented because of the lack of a
Press Club. When it was formed, the
Club provided a sense of security and
CM
YK
DATA POINT
FROM THE ARCHIVES
FIFTY YEARS AGO JANUARY 21, 1972
Yahya tried to arrest Bhutto
acted as a watchdog in the wake of Karachi, Jan. 19: A Karachi newspaper al-
any eventuality facing journalists. leged to-day that Pakistan’s former Presi-
Kashmir has seen growing cases of dent Gen. Yahya Khan, planned to have the
harassment of journalists in the past civilian leader Mr. Bhutto, now President, ar-
two years, including summons, rested on his return from the United Nations
bookings under stringent sections in December. The Sun, in a despatch from its
and detentions, and the Club proved Rawalpindi correspondent, said Mr. Bhutto
to be a vanguard. It reacted sharply, was to have been charged with conspiracy to
arguing for free and fair journalism, overthrow the military government of Presi-
besides documenting the cases of ha- dent Yahya by violent means. President Ya-
rassment, which also slowed down hya planned to replace Mr. Bhutto as Vice-
the crackdown on the fraternity. Premier and the Foreign Minister designate
With the two-year-old Club becom- by Mr. Abdul Qayum Khan of the United Coa-
ing history now, fear is again per- lition Party, the newspapers said. The report
meating the media community. added that the Peshawar Police had orders
The Club also kept young and free- to arrest Mr. Bhutto as soon as he crossed
lance journalists abreast of the latest the Afghanistan border on his expected re-
advancements. It provided hands-on turn to Pakistan by road. Meantime, howev-
training through workshops to young er, Mr. Bhutto flew back to Pakistan from
and old reporters, whether it was on New York, stopping over in London and
data journalism or techniques of in- Rome and by the time he arrived, Dacca had
vestigative reporting. It was the only fallen to Indian troops.
place where female journalists, a rare
species just a few years ago in Kash- A HUNDRED YEARS AGO JANUARY 21, 1922
mir, grew in numbers and earned a
good reputation for their work. They Empire Exhibition
started providing a fresh perspective
on issues, thereby enriching the re- London, Jan. 18: A large and distinguished
portage from Kashmir. All that has company which included Lieut-Colonel Leo-
come to a halt now. pold Amery and High Commissioners of Do-
On January 14, the J&K govern- minions was present at a luncheon today gi-
ment put in abeyance the re-registra- ven by the Colonial Institute to members of
tion of the Club, granted on Decem- the British Empire Exhibition Mission,
ber 29, 2021, citing a police report. It which is to make an eight months tour of Do-
was followed by a takeover by a minions. The tour’s object is to provide an
group of journalists on January 15, opportunity for the Mission to confer with
which was used as a reason by the go- the various Governments and coordinate ex-
vernment to withdraw and de-regis- hibits. The Mission will leave for Cape Town
ter the institution, both in terms of on January 20th and spend six weeks in
the building as well as the title. The South Africa. From that country the Mission
government was swift to even shut will go to Ceylon where it is due on April 6th.
down the website of the Club. Later, the tour extends to Australia and Ca-
Being a member of the election nada, the Mission returning to London at the
commission, which supervised the beginning of October. Sir Godfrey Lagden
first-ever elections of the Club in presided at the luncheon. Major Belcher
2019, I have reason to take pride in who heads the Mission, replying to the toast
contributing to the making of the in- to the Mission’s health, referred to the prac-
stitution. I am now worried for both tical interest displayed in the British Empire
young reporters and the fraternity in Exhibition by the King and Royal Family. He
general. Who will take the cause of said that his Majesty had received him last
free and fair journalism and provide night and asked him to say that he attached
an umbrella to the numerous organi- very great importance to the success of the
sations representing different shades exhibition and the results which it would ob-
of the media in Kashmir? Is the wind- tain. His Majesty added that he was sure that
ing down of the Club the beginning of the full co-operation of the Dominion-
a major challenge to scribes in Kash- s would be forthcoming, and that the latter
mir? This question haunts me. would do their best to see that the exhibition
was worthy of the great objects it had in
peerzada.ashiq@thehindu.co.in view.
A ND-NDE
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8 NEWS
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FROM PAGE ONE
SC upholds OBC quota
in NEET admissions
The apex court held it was
the Centre’s prerogative to
provide reservation in All
India Quota (AIQ) seats.
Granting reservation in the
AIQ seats was a policy deci-
sion of the government,
though subject to the con-
tours of judicial review. si-
milar to every reservation
policy; .
Justice Chandrachud said
the power of the govern-
ment to provide reserva-
tions under Article 15 (4)
and (5) of the Constitution is
not an “exception” to Arti-
cle 15 (1), which enshrines
the mandate that “the State
shall not discriminate
against any citizen on
grounds only of religion,
race, caste, sex, place of
birth or any of them”.
The court held that the
power of the government to
craft reservation for the
OBC amplified the principle
of “substantive equality”
manifested through Article
15 (1).
Parliament support
The Parliament had backed
the cause by enacting the
Central Educational Institu-
tions (Reservation in Admis-
sion) Act 2006 to enable 15%
reservation for Scheduled
Castes, 7.5% for the Sche-
Vaccines preventing
many deaths now: govt.
On January 20, 2022 there
are 3,17,532 new cases, 380
deaths and 19,24,051 active
cases, while the proportion
of fully vaccinated people
stands at 72%. “This clearly
shows that vaccines have a
huge protective cover
against deaths,’’ he said.
Speaking of the sharp rise
in the use of home testing
kits, Indian Council of Medi-
cal Research (ICMR) head
Balram Bhargava, who also
participated in the briefing,
said that two lakh home
tests had been used in last
20 days as against 3,000 in
the whole of 2021. He added
that India had adequate
Focus on rights has kept
India weak, says PM
Addressing the gathering,
Mr. Modi called for preserv-
ing Indian culture, civilisa-
tion, values and promoting
spirituality and diversity,
while continuously moder-
nising technology, infras-
tructure, education and
health.
He said the coming 25
years, which will end with
the celebration of 100 years
of Independence in 2047,
was not a time for dreaming
but for fulfilling resolutions.
“The coming 25 years are
the period of utmost hard
work, sacrifice, and tapa-
sya. This is a period of 25
years to get back what our
society has lost in hundreds
of years of slavery,” Mr. Mo-
Parrikar’s son not on Urdu varsity chancellor
BJP’s Goa candidates list moves Supreme Court
Mr. Monserrate’s wife, Jen-
nifer Monserrate, has been
given ticket from Taleigao,
where she is MLA now.
Defending the party’s de-
cision to award tickets to
members of the same family,
Mr. Fadnavis said: “We have
something called ‘occupa-
tional hazard’ in politics as
well… both Babush Monser-
rate and his wife came into
the BJP [from the Congress]
when they were already sit-
ting MLAs. Besides, Ms. Jen-
nifer Monserrate has her
own identity and is a Cabinet
Minister in the current BJP
government,” he stated.
On Ms. Divya Rane being
given ticket, he observed
that he had requested Mr.
Pratapsingh Rane to either
join the BJP and contest from
Poriem or give the ticket to
the saffron party as the Con-
CM
YK
duled Tribes, and 27% for
the OBC category. The Con-
stitution Bench in Ashoka
Kumar Thakur v. Union of
India had also upheld the
constitutional validity of
27% reservation for the OBC
category provided under
the 2006 Act.
“Though the Act of 2006
would not be applicable to
the seats earmarked for AIQ
in State-run institutions
since it would not fall within
the definition of a Central
educational institution un-
der the Act, the Union, in
view of Article 15(5), has the
power to provide reserva-
tions for OBCs in the AIQ
seats. It is not tenable for
the States to provide reser-
vation in the AIQ seats since
these seats have been ‘sur-
rendered‘ to the Centre,”
Justice Chandrachud noted.
The judgment was based
on petitions filed by doctors
in August 2021 against a July
29, 2021, notification issued
by the Directorate General
of Health Services of the Mi-
nistry of Health implement-
ing 27% and 10% reservation
for OBC and Economically
Weaker Sections (EWS), res-
pectively, while filling up
15% undergraduate and 50%
postgraduate AIQ seats un-
der NEET.
amount of testing material.
Asked about the percen-
tage of children affected by
the current third surge, Mr.
Bhushan said that in 2020,
10% of the total cases and
0.96% of the deaths were re-
ported in the 0-19 years age
group, and in 2021, 11% cas-
es of the total cases and
0.70% of the deaths were re-
ported in the 0-19 years age
group.
He added that of the adult
patients coming in, current-
ly, around 99% had com-
mon symptoms of fever,
cough, and irritation in
throat, which usually settled
down after the fifth day.
di said. He called on eve-
ryone to walk “on the path
of duty”, which he said
would lead the country
reach new heights.
Mr. Modi also called on
organisations like the Brah-
ma Kumaris that have inter-
national presence to en-
courage people to visit the
country.
He said there had been a
tendency to tarnish India’s
image on the international
stage but if people visited
the country they would get
to know it. He asked the
Brahma Kumaris to send
500 people each from the
locations of their interna-
tional centres to India every
year.
gress’s fortunes were alleg-
edly on the wane.
“At the time, Pratapsingh
Rane, owing to his age, had
expressed his reluctance to
contest from Poriem and
said that Divya Rane would
contest in his stead,” Mr.
Fadnavis noted.
He denied that there was
an ‘understanding’ between
the Congress and the BJP ov-
er the Poriem seat. While the
Congress would definitely
field a candidate from there,
the BJP would defeat him, he
said.
Chief Minister Pramod Sa-
want will be contesting from
his turf, Sanquelim, seeking
re-election for the third time.
In a bid to rebuff reports
that the saffron party was ‘si-
delining’ Christian minori-
ties, the party has included
nine Catholic candidates.
Assam, Meghalaya CMs meet
Amit Shah on boundary issues
Home Ministry to examine regional committee reports before further talks
Special Correspondent
New Delhi
The Chief Ministers of Assam
and Meghalaya met Union
Home Minister Amit Shah in
Delhi to apprise him of the
agreement reached between
the two States regarding the
decades-old boundary
dispute.
Both the Chief Ministers
from Assam and Meghalaya
met the Union Home Minis-
ter in Delhi and apprised
him of the reports of the re-
gional committee on border.
Assam CM Himanta Biswa
Sarma said in a tweet that he
and his Meghalaya counter-
part Conrad Sangma “ap-
prised Hon HM on the out-
comes of discussions held
between Assam & Meghalaya
governments to resolve the
border disputes amicably.
We’re grateful for his gui-
Seven die in Bihar in
suspected hooch tragedy
District officials say no evidence
Amarnath Tewary
Patna
Seven persons died in Saran
district of Bihar late on Wed-
nesday in a suspected case
of illict liquor consumption.
Though the district adminis-
tration said the deceased
might have died of severe
cold, family members said
the victims had consumed
spurious liquor and died af-
ter complaining of severe
headache, blurred vision
and burning sensation in
the stomach.
All the victims belonged
to villages under Maker and
Amnour police stations of
Saran district.
The dead have been iden-
tified as Krishna Mahto of
Parmanandpur village,
Mohd. Isha of Basantpur vil-
lage, Ramnath Rai of Nars-
ingh-Bhanpur village - all
under Amnour Police Sta-
tion; Bihari Rai of Nandan
Former Pak.
Minister calls
for dialogue
Kallol Bhattacherjee
New Delhi
Speeches calling for geno-
cide of Muslims have a po-
tential to disturb the South
Asian region, said former
Foreign Minister of Pakis-
tan Khurshid Mahmud Ka-
suri. In an address at the
launch of a book edited by
veteran peace activist O.P.
Shah, Mr. Kasuri called for
dialogue between India
and Pakistan.
“Things have really nose-
dived. I was aghast... when
in Haridwar there were
speeches made — that were
unbelievable — asking for
genocide of Muslims. All
these have an impact on
the region,” said Mr Kasuri.
Plea for panel on uniform civil code
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi
Chancellor of Maulana Azad
National Urdu University in
Hyderbad Firoz Ahmed
Bakht has moved the Su-
preme Court seeking a di-
rection to the government
to constitute a judicial com-
mission or a high-level exp-
ert committee to prepare a
draft of the uniform civil
code (UCC).
Mr. Ahmed, who is also
the grandnephew of inde-
pendent India’s first Educa-
tion Minister Maulana Abul
Kalam Azad, said the draft
should be drawn in keeping
with the constitutional
rights and international con-
ventions to secure gender
justice, equality and dignity
of women.
UCC calls for formulation
For a settlement: Home Minister Amit Shah with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma
and Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI
dance”. Mr. Sangma tweeted
that the Home Minister was
apprised of the regional
committee reports. He ad-
ded that the Ministry of
Home Affairs will examine
the reports and both the
Chief Ministers will meet Mr.
Shah again after January 26.
Assam and Meghalaya
have agreed to resolve diffe-
village, Bharat Rai of Nav-
kadha village, Pappu Singh
of Tara-Amnour village - all
under Maker Police station
of Saran district and Anil
Mistri of Siwan district.
“No one has died because
of consuming spurious liqu-
or,” said Saran district ma-
gistrate Rajesh Meena. A se-
nior police official Indrajit
Baitha, who visited the vil-
lages, said, “None died due
to spurious liquor; they
might have died due to sev-
ere cold.... Someone might
have spread rumours over
the deaths.” The officials
said there was no evidence.
Communist Party of India
(Marxist-Leninist) MLA from
Darauli in Siwan district Sa-
tyadeo Ram, who visited
victims’ families, said, the
relatives had confirmed that
their kin had consumed
hooch and developed
complications.
Cong. urges Shah to act on hate speech
‘States must be
sensitised to deal
with such events’
Sandeep Phukan
New Delhi
Congress’ Deputy Leader in
the Rajya Sabha Anand Shar-
ma has written to Union
Home Minister Amit Shah
stating that an “atmosphere
of insecurity and distrust” is
being created through hate
speeches and “the image of
the world’s largest democra-
cy has been tarnished”.
The Congress leader, who
heads the Parliamentary
Standing Committee panel
on Home Affairs, has asked
Mr. Shah to advise the Union
Home Secretary about sensi-
tising the State governments
and suggested legislative
of one law to be made ap-
plicable to all religious com-
munities in matters such as
marriage, divorce, inheri-
tance and adoption.
“The PIL has been filed to
weed out anomalies in mini-
mum age of marriage,
grounds of divorce, mainte-
nance-aliminy, adoption,
guardianship, succession,
inheritance based patriar-
chal stereotypes which per-
petrate inequality against
women and go against glo-
bal trends,” the petition
stated.
rences at six places along
their border that covers 36
villages.
The boundary dispute
between the two States has
lingered for more than five
decades.
Mr. Sangma had earlier
told reporters in Shillong on
Wednesday that “the willing-
ness of the people in specific
Fall in deputations to Centre in 2021
Only 10% mid-level IAS officers were posted with Union govt., DoPT figures say
Vijaita Singh
New Delhi
Only 10% mid-level IAS offic-
ers were posted with the Un-
ion government in 2021, a
sharp fall from 19% in 2014.
The decrease in central dep-
utation of IAS officers be-
comes even more stark as
the total pool of such officers
at this level expanded from
621 in 2014 to 1130 in 2021, an
increase of around 80%.
According to data availa-
ble with the Department of
Personnel and Training
(DoPT), the number of cen-
tral deputation reserve of
IAS officers has gone down
from 309 in 2011 to 223.
A senior government offi-
cial said on Thursday that
DoPT’s proposal to amend
Rule 6 (deputation of cadre
officers) of the Indian Admi-
nistrative Service (Cadre)
Rules 1954 was necessitated
as the number of officers
available under Central Dep-
changes to the Indian Penal
Code (IPC) and Criminal Pro-
cedure Code (CrPC) to more
effectively deal with such
speeches.
Mr. Sharma’s letter, dated
January 19, comes exactly a
month after a dharam san-
sad [religious congregation]
was held in Haridwar in poll-
bound Uttarakhand in which
Modi and
Jugnauth
launch projects
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and his Mauritian
counterpart Pravind Ku-
mar Jugnauth on Thursday
jointly inaugurated a social
housing project in the is-
land nation.
In the virtual ceremony,
both leaders also laid the
foundation stone for two
other projects including
the construction of a col-
lege for training of civil ser-
vants and a solar power
project.
The Civil Service College
project, located in Reduit,
is funded through a grant
support of $4.74 million
under a bilateral MoU
signed in 2017. The facility
will enable civil servants of
Mauritius to undertake
training programmes.
*
areas has been one of the
main driving forces or the
principles on the basis of
which we have reached most
of the conclusion in most of
the areas”.
“We have also considered
ethnicity as something very
important,” the Press Trust
of India quoted him on Wed-
nesday.
utation is not sufficient to
meet the requirement of Go-
vernment of India (GoI).
Four amendments
The Hindu reported on Janu-
ary 19 that four amendments
are proposed that will ena-
ble the Union government to
seek the services of an In-
dian Administrative Service
(IAS), Indian Police Service
(IPS) and Indian Forest Ser-
vice (IFoS) officer posted in a
State even without the State
government’s consent. The
Centre can depute the offic-
er if the State does not de-
cide on time.
The official stated that the
existing rules did not have
specific provisions to cater to
situations when services of
an All India Service (AIS) of-
ficer may be warranted in
the Centre to meet specific
situations such as a major
disaster or national security.
“Similarly, services of an AIS
the Muslim community was
targeted by several speakers.
“The actions of certain or-
ganisations and individuals
in different parts of the
country aimed at minorities
and women are a matter of
serious concern. The exhor-
tations made inflame pas-
sions and create an environ-
ment of insecurity and
Presence at R-Day event
must, J&K tells officials
Notice to all departments, PSUs in UT
Special Correspondent
Srinagar
The J&K government on
Thursday directed all go-
vernment officers and offi-
cials of public sector under-
takings stationed at Jammu
to attend the January 26 Re-
public Day function “as a
part of their official duty”.
A government circular
asked all the heads of the
departments and Chief Ex-
ecutives of Public Sector Un-
dertakings “to ensure their
own participation and also
of the employees subordi-
nate to them in the
function.”
L-G to preside
The main function of the Re-
public Day is being held at
Maulana Azad Stadium,
Jammu, where the Lieute-
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
Army contacts PLA for
return of Arunachal teen
Special Correspondent
GUWAHATI
The Indian Army has con-
tacted the People’s Libera-
tion Army (PLA) of China
through a hotline and
sought the return of an Aru-
nachal Pradesh teenager al-
legedly abducted on Janu-
ary 18 from near the Line of
Actual Control (LAC) divid-
ing the two countries.
Miram Taron of Zido, 17,
was reportedly captured by
the PLA across the LAC. On
receipt of info, the Indian
Army contacted the PLA
through a hotline. Assis-
tance from the PLA has
been sought to locate and
return him, the Army tweet-
ed on Thursday.
Arunachal Pradesh Chief
Minister Pema Khandu said
the Defence Ministry had ta-
ken up the matter with the
Chinese authorities. “I am
hopeful that the youth will
be released soon,” he told
presspersons.
Tapir Gao, a BJP MP from
officer with a specific do-
main expertise may be re-
quired for any important
time-bound flagship pro-
gramme or project. The ex-
tant Cadre Rules do not have
specific provisions to cater to
such situations, which have
now been proposed through
these amendments,” the offi-
cial explained.
AIS officers are recruited
by the Union Government
and their services are placed
under various State Cadres,
and it is incumbent upon the
members of service to serve
both under the State and the
Centre, said the official.
The total strength of any
cadre is calculated by includ-
ing central deputation re-
serve (CDR), which is around
40% of the sanctioned posts.
CDR obligations
“However, a trend of de-
creasing representation of
IAS officers up to joint-secre-
distrust,” Mr. Sharma said.
“Free speech, though
quintessence of democracy
and enshrined in the Consti-
tution, cannot be allowed to
be misused to advocate, in-
cite, promote or justify
hatred and violence against
a person or community...It is
requested that Home Secre-
tary be advised to sensitise
the Chief Secretaries and the
DGPs to take prompt and
firm action to enforce the
law and secure order,” he
wrote. “Further, the govern-
ment may consider legisla-
tive action including amend-
ments in the Indian Penal
Code and the Code of Crimi-
nal Procedure to effectively
counter all manifestations of
hate speech in the larger na-
tional interest,” Mr. Sharma
said.
nant Governor will preside
over the function and take
the salute.
Meanwhile, the Division-
al Commissioner, Kashmir,
Pandurang K Pole on Thurs-
day visited the Sher-i-Kash-
mir Cricket Stadium, Sona-
war to review the
preparations for the cele-
bration of the Republic Day.
The officers were direct-
ed to keep an emergency
plan for snow clearance rea-
dy in view of snowfall ahead
of January 26.
“Health officers were
asked to establish COVID-19
testing desk at the venue to
conduct regular tests of par-
ticipants during parade
practice and monitor their
body temperature,” a go-
vernment spokesman told
reporters.
DELHI
THE HINDU
Rahul questions Modi’s
silence on ‘abduction’
New Delhi
Former Congress president
Rahul Gandhi on Thursday
targeted Prime Minister
Narendra Modi over the
reported abduction of a
17-year-old boy from
Arunachal Pradesh. In a
tweet, Mr. Gandhi said, “A
few days before Republic
Day, an Indian has been
kidnapped by China. We
are with the family of
Miram Taron and will not
give up. PM’s cowardly
silence is his statement — he
does not care.”
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Arunachal, on Wednesday
tweeted about the alleged
abduction. He cited local
people as saying that Mr. Ta-
ron and his friend Jhonny
Yaying had gone hunting
and it was almost dark when
the Chinese soldiers sur-
rounded them. Mr. Yaying
was able to escape.
tary level has been noticed
as most of the States are not
meeting their CDR obliga-
tions and the number of of-
ficers sponsored by the
States to serve the Union go-
vernment are much less than
the reserve,” said the official.
The CDR utilisation has
gone down from 25% in 2011
to 18% presently.
“In spite of increase of IAS
officers at Deputy Secretary/
Director level in IAS from 621
in 2014 to 1130 in 2021, the
number of such officers on
central deputation has gone
down from 117 to 114 during
the period,” said the official.
The official asserted that
the requirement from the
States is only to sponsor
adequate number of officers
to be posted with the Centre.
“The actual number of offic-
ers to be deputed here is to
be decided only in consulta-
tion with the State govern-
ment,” the official said.
IN BRIEF
Thane police arrest
Kalicharan from Raipur
THANE
Police from Thane in
Maharashtra have arrested
Hindu religious leader
Kalicharan Maharaj in Raipur
in connection with a case
registered against him here
for alleged derogatory
remarks against Mahatma
Gandhi, an official said on
Thursday. He has been facing
multiple cases in parts of
Maharashtra in connection
with the comments he had
made against Mahatma
Gandhi during an event held
in Raipur last year.PTI
One more arrested in
offensive app case
MUMBAI
The Mumbai police on
Thursday arrested another
accused in the case linked to
the offensive app ‘Bulli Bai’.
An MBA graduate, Neeraj
Singh, 28, was arrested from
Odisha by the Mumbai police
cyber cell. Other accused,
Neeraj Bishnoi, alleged to be
the main conspirator in the
case, and Aumkareshwar
Thakur, were remanded in
police custody till January 27.
Mr. Thakur is alleged to be an
accused in the case of ‘Sulli
Deals’, a similar app that
posted pictures of Muslim
women.
Boeing plane cleared
for U.S. flight: Air India
Air India on Thursday said
Boeing had cleared its B777
aircraft for flights to the U.S.
following concerns that the
5G roll-out there could
interfere with critical aircraft
functions. Later in the day, Air
India said “normal flight
operations will recommence
to and from USA” from Friday.
Telecom companies in the
U.S. on Wednesday launched
the 5G service that uses
frequencies in a radio
spectrum called the C-band.
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THE HINDU
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
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IN BRIEF
AAP’s Mann to contest
from Dhuri constituency
CHANDIGARH
The Aam Aadmi Party on
Thursday said its Punjab
president and MP Bhagwant
Mann, who is the CM
candidate for the Assembly
elections, will contest from
the Dhuri constituency. The
AAP’s in-charge of Punjab
affairs, Raghav Chadha, said
he would win from Dhuri with
a record-breaking margin. He
said party national convener
Arvind Kejriwal and Mr. Mann
would prove to be a dynamic
duo in Punjab. “
Another Congress list
with 5 names for Goa
NEW DELHI
Late on Thursday evening,
the Congress released one
more list of 5 names for the
upcoming Goa Assembly
election and fielded Elvis
Gomes for the Panaji seat.
Earlier, Shiv Sena MP Sanjay
Raut had appealed to
Opposition parties not to
field anyone against Utpal
Parrikar, son ofthe late
Manohar Parrikar, if he
decides to contest as an
independent candidate.
‘ED raids in Punjab
politically motivated’
NEW DELHI
A Congress delegation
virtually met Chief Election
Commissioner Sushil Chandra
on Thursday to register a
complaint against “politically
motivated” searches carried
out by the Enforcement
Directorate on relatives of
Punjab CM Charanjit Singh
Channi ahead of the polls.
Calling it a ‘brazen misuse of
power’, the Congress
delegation sought the
immediate intervention of the
Election Commission for
taking stern action against
the ED officials.
Plea in SC seeks to defer
Assembly elections
NEW DELHI
A petition has been filed in
the Supreme Court for a
direction to defer the
Assembly polls, due from
February, in five States in
light of the public health
crisis posed by the pandemic.
The plea said the elections
should be postponed by
invoking the Disaster
Management Act of 2005.It
said the past waves of the
pandemic has gravely
affected the lives of those in
the poll-bound states.
CM
YK
Congress releases second list
for 41 seats in Uttar Pradesh
Party keeps promise, fields 16 women candidates, including international shooter
Sandeep Phukan
New Delhi
The Congress on Thursday
released its second list of 41
candidates, including 16 wo-
men, for the seven-phase Ut-
tar Pradesh Assembly elec-
tion that will begin on
February 10.
The list includes Poonam
Pandit, an international
shooter, who shot to promi-
nence during the year-long
farmers’ protests against the
three farm laws that were re-
pealed during the winter ses-
sion of Parliament.
In keeping with the Con-
gress’s promise of reserving
40% seats for women candi-
dates in U.P., the second list
of 16 women candidates also
Punjab all set to witness
a multi-cornered fight
Nail-biting contests expected in Assembly polls
Vikas Vasudeva
CHANDIGARH
With Punjab all set to wit-
ness a multi-cornered elec-
toral battle in the 2022 As-
sembly election, many
constituencies could see a
nail-biting contest and the
margins of victory could be
narrow.
The electoral battle was
expected to be a three-cor-
nered fight among the ruling
Congress, the Shiromani
Akali Dal (SAD) and the Aam
Aadmi Party (AAP). Howev-
er, the entry of the Bharatiya
Janta Party (BJP)-Punjab Lok
Congress-Shiromani Akali
Dal (Sankyukt) alliance, be-
sides the debut of farmer un-
ions under the banner of the
Samyukt Samaj Morcha
(SSM) — an amalgam of 22
Punjab-based farmer outfits
that actively participated
against the Centre’s contro-
versial farm laws, has left the
political battle arena wide
open.
Triangular fight
The 2017 Assembly election
largely saw a triangular fight
among the Congress, the
SAD and the AAP. At that
time, 26 of the 117 consti-
Better representation: Congress candidate Supriya Aron in
Bareilly. PTI *
include Sangeeta Tyagi, wife
of Rajiv Tyagi, a former spo-
kesperson who suffered a
heart attack while doing a
live TV debate. She will be
contesting the Shahibabad
Hues of election: Campaign material displayed for sale ahead
of the Assembly polls. PTI
tuencies saw the winning
*
margins of fewer than 5,000
votes. In at least 16 consti-
tuencies, the margin was
fewer than 3,000 votes.
Data from the Institute for
Development and Commu-
nication (IDC) in Chandigarh
showed that the Bahujan Sa-
maj Party (BSP) played the
role of spoiler for key politi-
cal parties in at least 12 con-
stituencies. The IDC’s analy-
sis showed that the BSP
played spoilsport for the
Congress in five constituen-
cies, for the SAD in two, for
the BJP in one and for the
seat.
The list also includes Si-
kander Valmiki from Agra
Cantonment, a reserved seat
for the Scheduled Castes.
The Congress nominee is the
AAP in four Assembly seg-
ments.
As more parties are con-
testing this election, votes
are bound to be divided. The
AAP has been asking the vo-
ters to give it “a chance”
against the “traditional” par-
ties. But the SSM, which is
not a “traditional” party and
is also seeking votes against
“traditional” parties such as
the Congress, SAD and BJP,
could split votes. Even the
AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal has
admitted that his party
could lose some votes with
the presence of SSM.
district president of the Ak-
hil Bhartiya Valmiki Maha-
sabha as well as the State
president of Karmchari
Sangh of the Uttar Pradesh
Nagar Nigam water depart-
ment.
An employee of the water
department, he quit govern-
ment service after he was
suspended for taking out a
candle march in solidarity
with the family of the rape
and murder victim of Hath-
ras.
With Thursday’s list, the
Congress has so far an-
nounced 166 candidates for
the 403-seat U.P. election
that is being led by Congress
general secretary Priyanka
Gandhi Vadra.
Akhilesh tries to win OBC, Dalit votes
Outsourcing and privatisation being used to finish off reservations, says SP chief
Special Correspondent
LUCKNOW
If the Samajwadi Party is vot-
ed back to power, it would
restore the old pension sys-
tem for government em-
ployees and teachers, party
president Akhilesh Yadav
said on Thursday.
In a bid to woo the Dalits
and the OBCs, Mr. Yadav also
spoke out against outsourc-
ing of government jobs and
privatisation, saying these
were being used to finish off
reservations. The promise to
restore the pension system
to the pre-2005 era system
Cong. misleading Goa’s voters: Abhishek
Special Correspondent
Pune
The sabre-rattling between
the Congress and Trinamool
Congress continued unabat-
ed with Trinamool MP and
party general secretary Abh-
ishek Banerjee accusing the
Congress on Thursday of
misleading the people that
there was no concrete offer
from the Trinamool to form
an alliance to take on the rul-
ing BJP in Goa.
Speaking to reporters in
the poll-bound State, Mr. Ba-
BJP announces first list of
candidates for Uttarakhand
List includes six women, along with former Congress MLA
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI
The Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) on Thursday an-
nounced candidates for 59
of the 70 Uttarakhand As-
sembly seats, which includ-
ed Chief Minister Pushkar
Singh Dhami from the Khati-
ma constituency.
The list included six wo-
men candidates, including
former Congress MLA Sarita
Arya who joined the BJP this
week from Nainital. The par-
ty dropped 10 of its sitting
MLAs, including Ritu Khan-
duri Bhushan, the daughter
of former Chief Minister B.C.
Khanduri, from Yamkesh-
war constituency.
The list of candidates in-
cluded Ramsharan Nautiyal,
Akhilesh Yadav
would be included in the
SP’s official manifesto. Over
13 lakh people are expected
to benefit from it, the party
nerjee accused the Congress
of creating “a misleading
narrative” that the Trina-
mool was trying to weaken
it.
Moral grounds
Lashing out at senior Con-
gress leader P. Chidamba-
ram for his statement that
there had been no concrete
alliance offer from the Trina-
mool, Mr. Banerjee said if
the Congress, which consi-
dered itself self-sufficient to
defeat the Bharatiya Janata
Pushkar Singh Dhami
the father of singer Jubin
Nautiyal, from Chakrata con-
stituency. State BJP presi-
dent Madan Kaushik re-
tained his ticket from
Haridwar.
After the announcement
of the list, Mr. Dhami said in
a series of tweets that he was
confident of the party win-
said. Mr. Yadav said he had
consulted financial experts
on how a corpus fund could
be created for the new pen-
sion scheme.
Snatching rights
He also said he was consider-
ing steps to do away with
outsourcing of jobs. He said
outsourcing was being used
to “snatch” the rights and
honour given through the
Constitution provided by B.
R Ambedkar.
“Outsource is not a good
practice. There is nothing
other than exploitation in it,”
Party (BJP) failed to do so in
the upcoming election, then
Mr. Chidambaram (the Con-
gress’ senior election obser-
ver for the Goa election)
should resign on moral
grounds.
Mr. Banerjee said Trina-
mool’s national vice-presi-
dent Pavan K. Varma had put
on record today that he had
gone to Mr. Chidambaram
on December 24 last year for
talks about a possible al-
liance to defeat the BJP in
Goa.
NEWS 9
ning more than 60 seats in
the February 14 elections.
While announcing the list
at the party headquarters
here, Union Minister and
party leader Prahlad Joshi
said the “caste-wise” split
among the candidates
named were “three Banias”
and “15 Brahmins”.
He said the BJP would go
into the elections with the vi-
sion of Prime Minister Na-
rendra Modi to make this de-
cade the decade of
Uttarakhand.
Mr. Joshi said the NDA go-
vernment in the Centre and
the BJP government in Utta-
rakhand from 2017 had car-
ried out development works
that had been pending for
years.
said Mr. Yadav, stating that
outsourcing and privitisa-
tion were means of finishing
off reservations. “The BJP
does not want to give the de-
prived and poor their
rights,” he said at a press
conference.
The SP chief also said he
would restore the Yash Bhar-
ti awards for people excell-
ing in their respective fields.
A similar award Nagar Bharti
would be introduced at the
district level, he said. The
BJP government had stopped
the award after it came to
power.
Eighty per cent of the
Congress MLAs have defect-
ed to the BJP in 2019 and the
party failed to form the go-
vernment despite emerging
as the single-largest after the
2017 Assembly election, said
the Trinamool leader.
Mr. Banerjee said even the
BJP’s Goa in-charge Deven-
dra Fadnavis had made pu-
blic on Wednesday that the
saffron party had approach-
ing Congress leader Prataps-
ingh Rane to give the Poriem
seat to the BJP.
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10 NEWS DELHI

FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022

THE HINDU
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Active cases breach 19.7 lakh mark Environment Ministry plan

Country sees 3.43 lakh new cases, 682 deaths were recorded; positivity rate stands at 17.7%
The Hindu Data Team
to rank States draws ire
have been administered saw 4,072 cases against the
Chennai
across India. Jammu region's 1,920 cases.
India recorded 3,43,535 new Andhra Pradesh reported Seven persons had died due
It doesn’t intend to hasten green clearances: officials
COVID-19 cases on Thursday, its highest ever daily CO- to COVID-induced complica-
Jacob Koshy
a 30% increase from a week VID-19 test positivity rate of tions, with five reported NEW DELHI
ago. The total number of in- 26.6% as 47,420 samples from the Jammu region and
fections has reached 3.84 were tested during the past two from the Kashmir A proposal by the Union En-
crore, and the number of ac- day. In the 24 hours ending region. vironment Ministry to
tive cases has crossed the Thursday morning, the State “rank” and “incentivise”
19.7 lakh mark. reported five deaths and Unabated rise States on how quickly they
The figures are based on 12,615 fresh cases, the high- Gujarat continues to see un- could give environmental
the State bulletins released est in the past 232 days. abated rise in cases with clearances to proposed in-
until 9.30 p.m. on Thursday. The cumulative tally in- 24,485 new cases and 13 frastructure projects has
However, Ladakh, Tripura, creased to 21,40,056 and the deaths, pushing the active drawn fire from environ-
Jharkhand and Lakshad- death toll reached 14,527. cases to 1,04,888 out of mentalists on the grounds
weep had not yet released As many as 3,475 new cas- which 156 patients are on that it contravenes basic Projects have to receive approval from the Environment
data for the day. es of COVID-19 were found in ventilator support. principles of environmental Ministry if forest land is used for construction. FILE PHOTO *

Karnataka recorded
47,754 infections on Thurs-
day, followed by Kerala
(46,387) and Maharashtra
(46,197).
On Thursday, 682 deaths
were recorded in India, dou-
ble the average levels record-
ed in the last week. The total
number of recorded fatali-
ties has reached 4,88,280
Kerala reported the most
deaths with 341 fatalities
Saab wins
AT4 weapon
contract
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI
Swedish defence major
Saab’s AT4 anti-armour
weapon had been selected
by the Indian Army and the
Indian Air Force through a
competitive programme
for a single-shot weapon,
the company said on
Wednesday.
“The Indian armed forc-
es are a new customer for
AT4. This order includes
the AT4CS AST, which can
be fired from confined
spaces such as from inside
buildings, bunkers and
other urban environ-
ments,” Saab said in a
statement. It weighs
around 9 kg and has an ef-
fective range of 200 m.
“The AT4 systems are
A doctor attending to a patient at a hall being used as an
isolation centre in New Delhi. SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
*
(309 of them are due to a
backlog), followed by Delhi
(43) and Tamil Nadu record-
ed 39 deaths.
On Wednesday, 19.3 lakh
tests were conducted, the
highest on a single day in the
ongoing wave. The test posi-
tivity rate was 17.7%.
As of Thursday, 90.6% of
Revised COVID norms for children
Use of antivirals or monoclonal antibodies not recommended, says govt.
Bindu Shajan Perappadan
NEW DELHI
Use of antivirals or monoclo-
nal antibodies is not recom-
mended for children less
than 18 years of age, irres-
pective of the severity of in-
fection, the Union Health Mi-
nistry said on Thursday,
while releasing the revised
‘Comprehensive Guidelines
for Management of CO-
VID-19’ in children and
adolescents.
Adding the cohort of ado-
lescents to the guidelines,
the Ministry said that for
diagnosing multi-system in-
flammatory syndrome in
children (MIS-C), caution
should be exercised while in-
terpreting an isolated in-
the eligible population has
been vaccinated with at least
one dose, while 66.1% has re-
ceived both doses. In the 15-
17 age cohort, 53.4% of the
population have received
their first dose. Altogether,
92,34,10,212 first doses,
67,37,89,883 second doses,
and 65,97,565 booster doses
New guidelines given for
COVID-19 management in
children, adolescents.
crease in COVID-19 antibo-
dies. “If steroids are used,
they should be tapered over
10-14 days, subject to clinical
improvement,” it said, also
revising the use of anticoagu-
Bihar taking the number of
active cases to 26,673. Patna
district registered the high-
est number of new cases
(745). No death due to CO-
VID-19 was reported in the
State in last 24 hours.
J&K recorded 5,992 cases
of COVID-19 in the past 24
hours. The Kashmir region
lants and adding a new sec-
tion on post-COVID-19 care.
The guidelines have noted
that anticoagulants are not
indicated routinely and that
all hospitalised children
should be evaluated for risk
of developing thrombosis
and monitored for develop-
ment of thrombosis.
Post-COVID care
On post-COVID-19 care, the
seven-page document says
children with asymptomatic
infection or mild disease
should receive routine child-
care, appropriate vaccina-
tion (if eligible), and nutri-
tion counselling and
psychological support on fol-
low up. In addition, for chil-
COVID-19 cases in Telan- regulation.
gana increased by 650 infec- A note to States by the Un-
tions. While 3,557 infections ion Environment Ministry
were recorded on Wednes- on January 17 spells out se-
day, the number was 4,207 ven criteria to rate State En-
on Thursday. vironmental Impact Assess-
The daily case load is in- ment Agencies (SEIAA) on
creasing by 500-700 from “transparency, efficiency
the past three days. and accountability”. On a
A total of 688 ICU beds scale of seven, a SEIAA, for
and 1,187 oxygen beds were instance, gets two marks for
occupied till Thursday granting a clearance in less
evening. than 80 days, one mark for
within 105 days and no
marks for more. If less than
10% of the projects for scru-
tiny prompted a site visit by
committee members, to exa-
mine ground conditions, a
SEIAA would get one mark.
More than 20%, on the other
hand, would be a demerit or
dren with moderate to sev- zero marks. SEIAA with a
ere COVID-19, upon score of seven or more
discharge from hospital, pa- would be rated ‘five star.’
rents/caregivers should be
counselled on monitoring ‘Violative proposal’
for persistence/worsening The Legal Initiative for For-
respiratory difficulty, and est on Environment (LIFE), a
provided the indications for prominent environment or-
bringing the child back to ganisation, described the
the facility. proposal as “violative” of the
“Children who develop Environment (Protection)
any organ specific dysfunc- Act. “A perusal of the criteria
tion during hospital stay or reveals that greater weight-
subsequently should receive age is given for projects
appropriate care,” state the where due diligence is less-
guidelines. ....SEIAA members should
Cautioning that self-medi- sit in the confines of confe-
cation of steroids should be rence rooms and take deci-
avoided, it says steroids are sions and earn high marks....
not indicated and are harm- The process ensures that the
ful in asymptomatic and aim will be to clear projects
mild cases of COVID-19. at the shortest possible time.
The task of the SEIAA is un-
dertake a ‘detailed scrutiny’
whereas this notification
makes them rubber stamp
authorities,” a statement
noted.
Ministry officials told The
Hindu that the ranking crite-
ria was not intended to ac-
celerate the speed with
which clearances were ac-
corded but to encourage the
SEIAA to take quicker deci-
sions on approving or reject-
ing a project, and adhere to
timelines already specified
by the provisions of the Act.
“This system isn’t to reduce
the time taken to decide on a
project. If a SEIAA demands
clarification, the time taken
to respond won’t be deduct-
ed,” Leena Nandan, Secre-
tary, Ministry of Environ-
ment and Forests, told The
Hindu, “But SEIAA have
been told earlier too that
whatever clarifications they
need must be compiled rath-
er than repeatedly demand-
ing them.”
Sujit Bajpayee, Joint Se-
cretary, Environment Minis-
try, wrote in responses to
The Hindu’s queries that the
SEIAA “had complete free-
dom” to complete all the ne-
cessary due diligence “with-
out worrying about the time
line” and that States would
not be negatively marked for
not meeting ranking criteria.
All proposed infrastruc-
ture projects above a certain
size with a potential to signif-
icantly alter the natural envi-
ronment must be first ap-
proved by an SEIAA, that
consists of State officers and
independent experts. Pro-
jects that are even bigger or
involve forest land — called
category A —– must be
cleared by a committee of
experts constituted by the
Centre. SEIAA projects are
category B and relatively
smaller though they make
up the bulk of projects that
are presented for approval.
‘B’ category projects include
the bulk of building and con-
struction, small mining, and
small industry projects and
are considered to be ‘less
polluting.’
Online process
The project appraisal pro-
cess is an online process
where aspirant companies
must upload documents on
a portal called Parivesh.
Kanchi Kohli, an expert
on environment law and go-
vernance matters noted that
the rating system “seriously
limited SEIAA members
from exercising their scien-
tific, legal and administra-
tive knowledge.” By stress-
ing “quick and efficient
clearance” the process un-
dermined scientific rigour in
the decision making pro-
cess.

Former Supreme Court judge Extended range BrahMos tested

combat-proven across the
world. They are light-
weight, single-shot, fully
disposable and truly cha-
racterised by its ease of use
and handling. This selec-
tion of the system through
a competitive process un-
derscores Saab’s commit-
ment to bringing to Indian
forces the latest systems,”
said Ola Rignell, Chairman
and MD, Saab India.
The AT4CS AST offered a
tandem warhead with a
breach or blast mode,
which was optimised to de-
feat enemies within build-
ings and to destroy struc-
tures, which could create a
point of access into them,
the statement noted.
Operated by a single sol-
dier, this single-shot sys-
tem had proven efficacy
against structures, landing
craft, helicopters, ar-
moured vehicles and per-
sonnel , the statement ad-
ded.
S. Ranganathan passes away
He retired from judicial service in 1992; was Sanskrit scholar
Legal Correspondent
CHENNAI
Former Supreme Court
judge S. Ranganathan died
at his residence in Chennai
on Thursday. He was 94.
Born in Chennai on Oc-
tober 31, 1927, he had pur-
sued his education at P.S.
High School followed by
higher education at the Pre-
sidency College and the Go-
vernment Law College in
Chennai.
He enrolled with the Bar
Council in 1952 and com-
menced his legal practice
before joining the Income
Tax Appellate Tribunal
(ITAT) as its judicial member
S. Ranganathan
in 1964. In due time, he be-
came the president of ITAT
and got elevated as a judge
of Delhi High Court in 1977.
Mr. Ranganathan became
a Supreme Court judge in
1987 and retired from ser-
vice in 1992.
After retirement, he was a
member of the Law Com-
mission of India and then
chairman of the Authority of
Advance Rulings till 1997. He
was the revising editor of
two editions of Sampath
Iyengar Law of Income Tax.
His interests were also in
the field of Sanskrit and he
worked on ‘Meghadutam
and Sri Hamsa Sandesam,’ a
parallel study and also on
Sundara Kandam of Srimad
Valmiki Ramayanam.
Mr. Ranganathan is sur-
vived by his wife R. Hema-
latha and two daughters R.
Rupakala and R. Deepamala.
Launch conducted by BrahMos Aerospace in coordination with DRDO teams
Special Correspondent
New Delhi
The supersonic cruise mis-
sile BrahMos with increased
indigenous content and im-
proved performance was
successfully flight-tested
from the Integrated Test
Range, Chandipur off the
coast of Odisha, on Thursday
morning.
“The missile was
equipped with the advanced
indigenous technologies and
followed a modified optimal
trajectory for enhanced effi-
ciency and improved perfor-
mance. The missile with the
modified control system has
been fine tuned to achieve
an enhanced capability,” a
statement from the Defence
Research and Development
Lift off: The BrahMos supersonic missile was successfully
test-fired from Integrated Test Range in Chandipur. PTI
Organisation (DRDO) said.
The highly-manoeuvrable
missile cruised at supersonic
speed for its maximum
range and all mission objec-
tives were met, it noted.
The launch was conduct-
*
ed by Brahmos Aerospace in
close coordination with
DRDO teams. The flight test
was monitored by all the
sensors of the range instru-
mentation, including telem-
etry, radar and the electro-
optical tracking systems de-
ployed across the eastern
coast and the down range
ships, the statement said.
Earlier this month, an ex-
tended range ship to ship
variant was flight-tested
from indigenous guided
stealth missile destroyer INS
Visakhapatnam.
BrahMos Aerospace has
been continuously upgrad-
ing the BrahMos to increase
its effectiveness and lethality
against sea and land targets,
the statement said.
The missile is capable of
being launched from land,
sea, sub-sea and air against
surface and sea-based tar-
gets and has been long in-
ducted by the Indian armed
forces.

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Wordplay is a FUNdamental right.

SCAN TO PLAY SUDOKU FAITH

(set by WrdPlougher)
+ 13459 Exercise it on our interactive site.
@ https://qrgo.page.link/jjpTn The prized possession
13 Fortnight of eleventh month not applicable for ancient Christian The exclusive quality of the Divya Prabandha hymns is the
Navratri? (6) forceful way in which we are shaken out of our ignorance ov-
15 Reject skimpy incentive (4) er many issues pertaining to our own welfare. In a dis-
17 Rope length hard to measure, not quite easy (5) course, Koil Sri Devarajan Swami drew attention to Tiru-
18 Ten in ten returning, and coming up (4) mangai Azhwar’s life and works that are symbolic of God’s
19 Program, interrupted by commercial, to follow (6) all pervading grace which is extended to all, regardless of in-
20 Elaborate chase in action (8) dividual merit. It is very natural for us to be swayed by
23 Unfinished BBQ boxes in cooler (Kelvin), vessel returned again to cold worldly attractions and wealth. These and our attainments
storage? (4,6)
tend to make us filled with pride and ahamkara.
26 Yugoslav Marshal adapted to it (4)
This was the state of Tirumangai Azhwar when he ruled
27 Putin unusually gives piece of advice (5)
over a small territory for a brief period. Azhwar confesses
28 Save organ, donate heart away in advance (7)
that by sheer God’s grace, he was not only made to realise
■ DOWN his folly but also blessed to receive directly from Him the
1 I was a heroine memorising lines — pathetic (3-7) most prized asset, the Tirumantram. He cries out ecstatical-
2 Fresh limes you finally squeezed for breakfast? (6) ly, “I have now found that the ‘Divya Narayana Nama’ holds
3 Sweetheart heard fiddle (4) the key to eternal happiness that is sought by all.” Azhwar
4 Satisfy queen missing man without grand advances — to get royal seat (8) becomes a votary of God and his hymns convey his expe-
5 Israeli movement — specialist Portal to begin leveraging icon (4) riences of God’s grace as manifest in the archa, vibhava and
6 Tendulkar, basically failing to keep chin up, blunders in tough situation antaryami forms. He realises the value of this wealth in com-
(5) Solution to puzzle 13458 Solution to yesterday’s Sudoku parison to all other kinds of worldly possessions. Since it is
8 Flustered TT quits, not quite active on the 10th, Mar 21 or Sep 23? (7)
well secured and stored in the cave of one’s heart as stated
12 Great Russian-born American novelist dies, having just begun epic (5)
in the Upanishads, it cannot be stolen. It is always available
14 Roughly evict Vin Diesel prematurely, throwing out modified lease
■ ACROSS heartlessly — cruel! (10)
to the devout and can be used at any time.
6 Damage ozone layer? Cut back emissions firstly, crave less — small 16 Iranian dynasty VIP doubtfully taking my word with penultimate pinch of
But at times, like material wealth which can become a
input (7) salt (7) burden, this wealth can also be a cause of worry or anxiety
7 Submit book released for new theory of behavioral science? (5) 17 Gangster returning with models, holding up court proceedings (8) when one gets distracted or distanced from God owing to
9 Wayward son taking up some responsibility (4) 21 When upset, one turns this? (6) the compulsions of samsara. A common sentiment ex-
10 Vulgar rascal — immature lout — to get small punishment aboard 22 Register before writing NEET, doctor (5) pressed by the Azhwars is one of extreme regret when they
ship (10) 24 Observed movement of pet chasing tail of buck (4) do not think of God. They feel sad if they do not remember
11 Secretary has staff at home in Singapore to prepare statement (8) 25 Knot undone? Done (4) Him even for a moment. Is not Bharata distraught when he
is separated from Rama?
CM A ND-NDE
YK
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
THE HINDU
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
DELHI
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
U.S. warns Russia on invading Ukraine
Any incursion would be met with a ‘severe’ response from the U.S. and its allies, says White House
Sriram Lakshman
The White House clarified
U.S. President Joe Biden’s op-
position to Russian aggres-
sion on Ukraine after Mr. Bi-
den appeared to suggest
during a press conference
that a small incursion by Rus-
sia would be tolerated. In a
statement released after the
press conference, White
House Press Secretary Jen
Psaki said that any incursion
would be met with a “ sev-
ere” response from the U.S.
and its allies.
“President Biden has been
clear with the Russian Presi-
dent: If any Russian military
forces move across the Uk-
rainian border, that’s a re-
newed invasion, and it will
be met with a swift, severe,
and united response from
the United States and our Al-
lies,” Ms. Psaki said. She ad-
ded that paramilitary and
cyber attacks by Russia
would also be met with reci-
procal action.
Tensions between the
West and Moscow have
soared as Russia has massed
an estimated 100,000 troops
along Ukraine’s borders.
Earlier on Wednesday, Mr.
Biden had told reporters
during a press conference to
mark his first anniversary in
office that the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO),
a military alliance of the
West, was united in its oppo-
sition to the idea of Russia in-
‘China satellite in close encounter with Russian debris’
Agence France-Presse
Beijing
A Chinese satellite had a near
collision with one of the ma-
ny chunks of debris left by
the fallout of a recent Rus-
sian anti-satellite missile test,
state media reported.
Moscow blew up one of its
old satellites in November in
a missile test that sparked in-
U.S. warship’s South China ‘Havana Syndrome’ not a
Sea passage sparks row foreign campaign: report
PLA says forces deployed to drive it away
Agence France-Presse
Beijing
A U.S. warship sailed
through the South China
Sea on Thursday, sparking a
warning from China’s mili-
tary as tensions between the
superpowers remain high.
The American Navy said
the USS Benfold “asserted
navigational rights and free-
doms in the vicinity of the
Paracel Islands, consistent
with international law”.
The Southern Theatre
Command of the People’s
Liberation Army said the
U.S. ship had “illegally” en-
tered what Beijing regards
as its waters.
The PLA “organised naval
and air forces to engage in
tracking and monitoring as
well as to warn and drive
(the destroyer) away,” its
statement added.
China claims almost all of
the South China Sea,
through which trillions of
dollars in trade passes an-
Senate sinks
Biden push for
voting reforms
Agence France-Presse
Washington
U.S. Senators dealt a death
blow on Wednesday to Pre-
sident Joe Biden’s push to
defend voting rights
against what Democrats
frame as an all-out assault
by conservative States tar-
geting racial minorities.
Senate Republicans
complained of federal
overreach as they blocked
the Freedom to Vote Act
and John Lewis Voting
Rights Advancement Act
passed by the House of Re-
presentatives last week.
Democrats and activists
call the measures a neces-
sary response to Republi-
can bid to restrict voting,
especially among Black
and Latino Americans.
CM
YK
Tactical readiness: Ukrainian Armed Forces during a military
exercise in the Kherson region on Wednesday. REUTERS
vading Ukraine, but qualified
it to say the response would
depend on the size of the
incursion.
“It’s one thing if it’s a mi-
nor incursion, and then we [
NATO allies] end up having a
fight about what to do and
not do, etc., “ Mr. Biden said.
“ But if they actually do what
they’re capable of doing... it
is going to be a disaster for
Russia, if they further invade
Ukraine and that our allies
and partners are ready to im-
pose severe cost and signifi-
cant harm on Russia and the
Russian economy,” he said.
Mr. Biden said he had con-
veyed to Mr. Putin (the two
held a telephone call in De-
cember) that he would forti-
fy NATO’s eastern flank if
Russia went into Ukraine. He
also said Russia would pre-
ternational anger because of
the space debris it scattered
around the Earth’s orbit.
U.S. officials accused Mos-
cow of carrying out a
“dangerous and irresponsi-
ble” strike that had created a
cloud of debris and forced
the International Space Sta-
tion’s crew to take evasive
action.
USS Benfold during its
voyage in the South China
Sea. REUTERS
*
nually, with competing
claims from Brunei, Malay-
sia, the Philippines, Taiwan
and Vietnam.
Beijing has ignored a 2016
ruling by The Hague-based
Permanent Court of Arbitra-
tion that its historical claim
is without basis.
Led by the United States,
multiple Western navies
conduct “freedom of navi-
gation operations”, known
in military circles as FO-
NOPs, to assert the idea that
the South China Sea is an in-
ternational waterway.
*
vail in the long run over Uk-
raine, if it invaded the coun-
try, but there would be a
heavy cost. He said econom-
ic sanctions would involve a
ban on transactions in dollar
denominated assets.
Stop expansion
In a draft security agreement
Moscow sent to Western
countries in December, it
had proposed that NATO not
expand to include Ukraine.
Another Russian demand
was that NATO not deploy
weapons or forces in coun-
tries that became NATO
members after May 1997.
Asked later during the
press interaction if he had ef-
fectively given Mr. Putin “
permission” to make a small
incursion into Ukraine, Mr.
Biden said, “ …It’s very im-
Russia dismissed those
concerns and denied that
the space debris posed any
danger but a new incident
with a Chinese satellite sug-
gests otherwise.
In the latest encounter,
China’s Tsinghua Science Sa-
tellite came as close as 14.5 m
from a piece of debris, the
state-run Global Times re-
Agence France-presse
Washington
The CIA has concluded that
U.S. diplomats suffering
mysterious headaches and
nausea in what has been
dubbed “Havana Syn-
drome” were not targeted in
a global campaign by a fo-
reign power, reports said on
Wednesday.
WORLD 11
Houthis used drones, missiles
in Abu Dhabi attack, says UAE
Kremlin denounces ‘Weapons targeted civilian sites and some were intercepted’
Biden’s Ukraine remarks Reuters
DUBAI
siles at an oil refinery in Mu-
saffah district and the air-
Al Otaiba told an online pa-
nel hosted by the Jewish In-
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi port in Abu Dhabi, a Zulfiqar stitute for National Security
Agence France-Presse tense situation.” movement used cruise mis- ballistic missile at Dubai air- of America.
Moscow At the same time Mr. siles and ballistic missiles port and several drones at A person briefed on the
The Kremlin on Thursday Peskov did not rule out new alongside drones in Mon- those and other sites. attack, speaking on condi-
denounced U.S. President security talks between day’s deadly strike on the tion of anonymity, said an
Joe Biden for saying a Russian President Vladimir United Arab Emirates, which Fuel depot hit under construction passen-
“disaster” awaited Russia if Putin and Mr. Biden. intercepted part of the at- The UAE said the attack hit a ger terminal at Abu Dhabi
it attacked Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State tack, the Gulf state’s Ambas- fuel depot of state oil firm airport was hit by missiles,
Statements like that, said Antony Blinken will meet sador to the U.S. said. ADNOC in Musaffah and a injuring workers.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Russia’s Foreign Minister It is the first time the UAE, construction site near Abu The individual said some
Peskov, “can facilitate the Sergei Lavrov for security which rarely discusses its se- Dhabi airport. Abu Dhabi drones crashed in desert
destabilisation of an already talks in Geneva on Friday. curity in public, has said police said they found parts areas in Abu Dhabi and Du-
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD missiles were used in the as- of small planes that could bai, adding that the missiles
sault that killed three civi- possibly be drones. and drones were believed to
portant that we keep eve- has decided to invade Uk- lians in Abu Dhabi, and the “Several attacks — a com- have been launched from
ryone in NATO on the same raine, Mr. Biden said Mr. Pu- first time it has claimed to bination of cruise missiles, Yemen and flew at a low alti-
page. And that’s what I’m tin has not yet, he believed, have intercepted some of ballistic missiles and drones tude to avoid detection.
spending a lot of time do- made the decision and that the weapons. — targeted civilian sites in The UAE is part of a Saudi-
ing.” There are differences he is calculating the short The Houthis said they the UAE. Several were inter- led coalition fighting the
within NATO on what coun- and long-term consequences fired four Quds cruise mis- cepted,” Ambassador Yousef Houthis in Yemen.
tries are willing to do de- for Russia.
pending on what scenario On Wednesday, Russian
plays out, Mr. Biden said. In
terms of calibrating a res-
Deputy Foreign Minister Ser-
gei Ryabkov reiterated the 3 killed, 28 injured in Ex-Pope failed
ponse, he cited the example Russian position that it is not
to act in abuse
of cyber ops being countered
with similar tactics.
planning to invade Ukraine,
according to a report in the blast at Lahore market cases: report
Mr. Biden said the eco- Associated Press. U.S. Secre-
nomic sanctions on Russia tary of State Antony Blinken, Shops here sold Indian commodities
would have “devastating” who was in Kiev on Wednes- Agence France-Presse
consequences on it but day, will meet with his Rus- Press Trust of India sioner Umer Sher Chattha Berlin
would also have a negative sian counterpart, Sergei Lav- Lahore said that the explosive mate- Former Pope Benedict XVI
impact on the U.S. and Euro- rov, on Friday in Geneva, in A powerful blast on Thurs- rial was planted in a motor- knowingly failed to take ac-
pean countries and so the al- an attempt to reduce ten- day ripped through a crowd- cycle which was parked out- tion to stop four priests ac-
lies would have to be on the sions, which remain high, af- ed market where Indian side a bank in the area. cused of child sex abuse in
same page about a response ter rounds of inconclusive commodities are sold in Pa- Prime Minister Imran Munich in the 1980s, ac-
to any Russian incursion. talks between the two coun- kistan’s cultural capital Khan condemned the blast cording to an independent
Asked if he has made a de- tries and European allies of here, killing at least three and urged authorities to report published on
termination that Mr. Putin the U.S. persons and wounding 28 provide the best medical fa- Thursday.
others, police said. cilities to the injured. He al- The report by law firm
Lahore police spokesper- so sought a report from the Westpfahl Spilker Wastl
son Rana Arif confirmed the
death of three persons in
the blast that shattered win-
Punjab government.
Punjab Chief Minister Us-
man Buzdar has directed
was commissioned by the
archdiocese of Munich and
Freising to examine abuse
dows of nearby shops and the Inspector General of cases between 1945 and
ported on Wednesday. dozen metres apart, adding buildings, Dawn newspaper Police to submit a report on 2019.
The “extremely danger- that the probability of colli- reported. the incident. He also direct- Ex-pope Benedict —
ous” event happened on sion this time was “very According to police, the ed officials to provide the in- whose civilian name is Jo-
Tuesday, the report added, high”. blast took place near the jured with the best possible sef Ratzinger — was the
citing a social media post by Last year there were close Paan Mandi in the famous medical facilities. archbishop of Munich from
Chinese space authorities encounters between the Chi- Anarkali market, where In- “This incident is aimed at 1977 to 1982. In 2013, he be-
that has since been removed. nese space station and satel- dian commodities are sold. sabotaging the atmosphere came the first Pope to step
Space debris expert Liu lites operated by Elon Musk’s No group has claimed res- of law and order. Those res- down from the role in 600
Jing told the Global Times SpaceX, which led to Beijing ponsibility for the blast so ponsible for the blast will years and now lives a se-
that it was rare for debris accusing the U.S. of unsafe far. not be able to escape the cluded life in a former con-
and spacecraft to be just a conduct in space. Lahore Deputy Commis- clutches of the law,” he said. vent in the Vatican.
The New York Times and
Politico cited multiple offi-
cials briefed on a CIA assess-
ment on the incidents that
first surfaced among diplo-
mats in 2016 in Havana, in
which U.S. and Canadian of-
ficials complained of hea-
daches, and possible brain
damage after hearing high-
pitched sounds.
A ND-NDE
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12 BUSINESS DELHI

FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022

THE HINDU
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market watch
20-01-2022
Sensex dddddddddddddddddddddd 59,465 ddddddddddddd -1.06
US Dollar dddddddddddddddddddd 74.51 ddddddddddddd -0.09
% CHANGE
HUL Q3 net rises 17% to ₹2,243 cr. States to get
₹47,541 cr. via
India Ratings pegs FY23
GDP growth at 7.6%
Gold ddddddddddddddddddddddddddd 48,327 ddddddddddddd -0.93
Brent oil ddddddddddddddddddddd 88.68 ddddddddddddd -0.49 High inflation, raw material prices may pressure margins in near term, says CMD tax devolution
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Agency expects fiscal deficit at 5.8-6%
NIFTY 50
Special Correspondent more than a decade.”
Mumbai Mr. Mehta said in the NEW DELHI Press Trust of India
<
> Households
PRICE CHANGE
Adani Ports . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 738.00. . . . . . . . -6.20 Hindustan Unilever Ltd. near-term, the operating en- The Centre will on Thurs- Mumbai
Asian Paints. . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 3306.40. . . . . . . 26.00 (HUL), India's largest con- vironment would continue day release an advance in- India Ratings and Research savings have
Axis Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 728.90. . . . . . . . -0.70
sumer goods maker, report- to remain challenging. HUL stalment of tax devolution on Thursday said the coun- declined and their
Bajaj Auto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 3308.75. . . -128.05
Bajaj Finserv. . . . . . . . . . .. 17258.95. . . -818.35 ed standalone third-quarter said it would continue cali- to the States amounting to try’s economy is likely to leverage has gone
Bajaj Finance . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 7530.25. . . . . . -41.55 net profit grew 17% to ₹2,243 brated price increases, in ₹47,541 crore, the Finance grow by 7.6% in 2022-23. up significantly
Bharti Airtel . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 715.40. . . . . . . 11.70
BPCL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 393.05. . . . . . . . -1.30 crore aided by strong all- line with moves at consumer Ministry said. The agency said the eco-
Britannia Ind . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 3605.15. . . . . . . 29.50 round performance but goods peers. “Finance Minister Nir- nomy will show a meaning- Highlighting the risks to
Cipla . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 882.35. . . . . . -13.30
warned that high raw mate- mala Sitharaman has auth- ful expansion, after a gap of the ongoing recovery, the
Coal India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 165.05. . . . . . . . . 1.15
Divis Lab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 4329.75. . . -151.75 rial costs and inflation could ‘Rural demand weak’ orised the release of an ad- two years, as the real GDP in agency said NSO’s advance
Dr Reddys Lab . . . . . . . .. . . . 4591.55. . . . . . -93.40 hit margins in the near term. Observing that demand from vance instalment of tax 2022-23 is expected to be estimate for FY22 shows
Eicher Motors. . . . . . . . .. . . . 2733.80. . . . . . . 15.10
Grasim Ind . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1831.00. . . . . . . 24.50
EBITDA margin at 25.4% rural India had lulled, HUL devolution to State govern- 9.1% higher than that in that private final consump-
HCL Tech. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1175.35. . . . . . -23.85 improved 100 basis points urged the government to ments amounting to 2019-20 (pre-COVID level). tion expenditure (PFCE),
HDFC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 2569.30. . . . . . -50.95 year-on-year. Challenging times: HUL urged the government to continue continue some support mea- ₹47,541 crore, here today. “However, the size of the grew only 6.9% in FY22, des-
HDFC Bank. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1509.00. . . . . . . . -9.45
HDFC Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 649.45. . . . . . . . -6.60 support measures as rural demand had lulled. REUTERS
* sures it had extended at the This is in addition to the Indian economy in FY23 will pite a low base and sales da-
Hero MotoCorp . . . . . .. . . . 2709.45. . . . . . . . . 9.65 Sales climbs onset of the pandemic. regular devolution for the be 10.2% lower than the ta of many consumer dura-
Hindalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 503.40. . . . . . . . -1.40 Sales revenue increased “In the context of unpre- “We have delivered a Consumer goods makers month of January , also be- FY23 GDP trend value,” In- bles showing robust growth.
Hind Unilever . . . . . . . . .. . . . 2261.80. . . . . . -48.10
ICICI Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 810.25. . . . . . . . . 1.65
10.4% to ₹12,900 crore. cedented inflation, we conti- strong and resilient perfor- had expected buying to pick ing released today,” the Mi- dia Ratings said. “A conti- “This indicates that the
IndusInd Bank . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 877.20. . . . . . -16.05 While the performance nue to manage our business mance in the quarter despite up as pandemic restrictions nistry said in a statement. nued weakness in private consumption demand is still
Infosys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1823.70. . . . . . -43.35 comes in the backdrop of dynamically driving savings moderation in market eased, but high inflation has Thus, States would re- consumption and invest- weak and not broad-based.
Indian OilCorp . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 125.50. . . . . . . . . 0.40
ITC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 218.75. . . . . . . . -1.60
high inflation and slack in ru- harder across all lines of P&L growth and significant levels limited consumers' spending ceive a total of ₹95,082 ment demand is estimated In fact, the slowdown in
JSW Steel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 682.50. . . . . . . . . 7.85 ral demand, HUL said sales and taking calibrated pricing of commodity inflation,” power and piled pressure on crore or double their res- to contribute 43.4% and PFCE had begun even be-
Kotak Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1892.60. . . . . . -13.05 in its business segments that actions using the principles said CMD Sanjiv Mehta. companies already grap- pective entitlement during 21%, respectively, to this fore the COVID-19 pandemic
L&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 2003.50. . . . . . -17.40
M&M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 880.50. . . . . . -13.90 make ice creams and beauty of net revenue manage- “The growth is extremely pling with rising raw mate- the month of January, the shortfall,” it added. had hit the Indian econo-
Maruti Suzuki . . . . . . . . .. . . . 8036.35. . . . . . . 20.65 products returned to pre- ment,” the company said in a competitive with our market rial and shipping costs. Finance Ministry said in The agency said if the im- my,” the agency said.
Nestle India Ltd. . . . .. 18734.10. . . -202.90 pandemic levels. filing with stock exchanges. share gains being highest in (With Reuters inputs) the statement. pact of Omicron on fourth The RBI’s Consumer Con-
NTPC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 134.90. . . . . . . . . 0.10
ONGC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 166.85. . . . . . . . -3.40 quarter growth turns out to fidence Survey shows that
PowerGrid Corp . . . . .. . . . . . 214.65. . . . . . . 10.00 be greater than its estimate, consumer sentiment, which

Institutional realty stake ‘Vedanta mulls $10-bn fund

Reliance Ind . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 2477.45. . . . . . -44.15 then there could be some had collapsed May 2019 on-
SBI Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1238.70. . . . . . . . -9.40
State Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 511.40. . . . . . . . -4.40 upside to FY23 growth origi- wards, have not yet reco-
Shree Cement . . . . . . . .. 26072.35. . . -329.90 nating from the base effect. vered to pre-COVID levels.
Sun Pharma . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 820.00. . . . . . -18.50
Tata Consumer
Products Ltd. . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 723.45. . . . . . . . . 5.80
dropped 14% in 2021: JLL to bid for BPCL, other assets’
Earlier this month, the
NSO in its first advance esti- ‘Structural weakness’
Tata Motors . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 515.70. . . . . . . . -5.15 mate said gross domestic Wage growth both in the ru-
Tata Steel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 1206.70. . . . . . . . -2.90
TCS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 3826.55. . . . . . -88.10 ‘Second wave impacted investments’ product (GDP) is expected ral and urban areas is facing
Tech Mahindra . . . . . . .. . . . 1666.90. . . . . . . . -3.20 to grow at 9.2% in 2021-22. significant headwinds and
Titan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . 2564.30. . . . . . -24.60 Special Correspondent Money will never be a problem, says chairman Agarwal The economy had contract- has been declining since
UltraTech Cement . .. . . . 7465.50. . . . . . . 31.10
UPL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 808.45. . . . . . . . -4.80
New Delhi ed 7.3% in FY21. mid-2020. More important-
Wipro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . 615.20. . . . . . . . -5.95 Institutional investments in Reuters firm up and work out on India Ratings’ Principal ly, real (inflation-adjusted)
real estate in 2021 closed at DUBAI how we take the money and Economist and Director Pu- wages are indicating an ero-
$4.3 billion, a decline of 14% Mining firm Vedanta Re- go about it.” blic Finance Sunil Kumar sion of households’ pur-
EXCHANGE RATES over the pandemic year sources Ltd. plans to create a “There is no large fund Sinha said the government chasing power, it said.
Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit 2020, according to a new re- $10 billion fund to bid for as- which does not want to asso- and RBI are expected to sup- Another factor that has
except yen at 4 p.m. on January 20
port by JLL. sets including the Indian go- ciate with us in general. Mo- port the growth recovery. impaired the consumption
CURRENCY TT BUY TT SELL
US Dollar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 74.30. . . . . . . 74.62
According to JLL’s ‘Capi- vernment’s stake in Bharat ney will never be a pro- He said the government demand lately is an abrupt
Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 84.32. . . . . . . 84.69 tal Markets Update Q4 2021,’ Petroleum Corp Ltd. (BPCL), blem,” he added. will not be in a hurry to rise in the health expendi-
British Pound . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101.22. . . . 101.66 the year 2020 saw a sharp its chairman told Reuters. London-headquartered move towards fiscal consoli- ture of households.
Japanese Yen (100) . .. . 64.99. . . . . . . 65.29
Chinese Yuan . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 11.71. . . . . . . 11.76
recovery in investments on The Indian government is Vedanta Resources has dation, which means there These trends may be cy-
Swiss Franc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 81.17. . . . . . . 81.55 account of two large portfo- the intermittent breakdown seeking to privatise state- grown its annual revenue will be a significant amount clical, but the picture even
Singapore Dollar . . . . . . .. . 55.19. . . . . . . 55.43 lio deals amounting to $3.2 in the investment process runrefiner BPCL by selling from $1 million to over $15 of fiscal deficit even in the at the structural level is not
Canadian Dollar . . . . . . . . .. . 59.53. . . . . . . 59.78
Malaysian Ringitt . . . . . .. . 17.74. . . . . . . 17.83
billion announced in the last due to the severe impact of its almost 53% stake in the companies also.” billion in the past decade. FY23 Budget, essentially to healthy for households.
Australian Dollar . . . . . . .. . 53.79. . . . . . . 54.02 quarter of the year. the second Covid wave dur- firm, worth just more than The fund will be made up As well as its operations in support growth. “Households savings
Source:Indian Bank On the other hand, in- ing the first half of 2021,” JLL $6billion, to private entities. of its own resources and out- India, the group has mining The agency expects the have declined and their lev-
vestments in 2021 have been said. “Though the invest- “We are in the process of side investment, Mr. Agar- interests in South Africa and fiscal deficit to come in at erage has gone up signifi-
much broad-based with the ment climate showed signs creating a fund of $10 bil- wal said, adding that it may a precious metal refinery 5.8-6% of GDP in 2022-23. cantly since FY12, suggest-
IN BRIEF first three quarters report-
ing improvement compared
of recovery during the third
quarter of the year, the on-
lion,” Mr. Anil Agarwal said
in an interview in Dubai. “It
also finance the BPCL acqui-
sition through debt.
andcopper rod plant in the
United Arab Emirates’ Fujai-
Mr. Sinha said as inflation
trajectory is on the higher
ing that a large part of the
consumption demand in the
with the year-earlier period. set of a new variant and the will not only look at (BPCL) “We will work out a struc- rah FreeZone. It is also ex- side and economic recovery past has been financed
“One of the major rea- uncertainty about its impact but there are other compa- ture, we are doing the due ploring opportunities for is still fragile, RBI will desist through either reduced sav-
sons for the decline in in- disrupted deal closures in nies being privatised. It will diligence,” he said. “As soon new zinc, gold and magnesi- from raising the policy rate ings and a higher debt or
vestment volume has been Q4, 2021,” it said. look at the potential of those as the date comes, we will um mines in Saudi Arabia. in the near future. both,” India Ratings noted.

Walmart invites Indian

Videocon Toyota unveils lifestyle ‘Share plan of Natco, 9 others chosen Apollo Tyres
sellers to serve U.S lenders invite resolution with invests in solar
BENGALURU
Walmart has started inviting fresh EoIs utility vehicle Hilux Jet workmen’ to supply COVID-19 drug energy firm
applications from select
sellers in India to join
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
Price to be announced in March Press trust of india
UN-backed MPP signs sublicence pacts N. Anand
Walmart Marketplace, a
New Delhi new delhi Special Correspondent CHENNAI
curated sellers’ community Special Correspondent
that serves 120 million U.S. The consortium of lenders Bengaluru The National Company HYDERABAD Leading tyre manufacturer
shoppers every month. The of Videocon Industries has Toyota Kirloskar Motor Law Appellate Tribunal United Nations (UN)-backed Apollo Tyres Ltd. (ATL) has
chosen Indian sellers would invited fresh expressions of (TKM) on Thursday officially (NCLAT) on Thursday di- public health organisation picked up a 27.2% stake in
be able to take advantage of interest (EoIs) for the debt- introduced its maiden lifes- rected the Kalrock-Jalan Medicines Patent Pool CSE Deccan Solar, a subsi-
Walmart Fulfillment Services, ridden group after the in- tyle utility vehicle (LUV), Hi- consortium, the winning (MPP) has signed sublicence diary of Cleantech Solar, to
the company said. solvency appellate tribunal lux, for the Indian market. bidder for bankrupt Jet Air- agreements with 10 generic get a guaranteed supply of
rejected the approval of The auto major said book- ways, to share portions of drugmakers in India for the 40 million units of solar
Zydus’ anticonvulsant ₹2,692-crore bid by Vedan- ings for Toyota Hilux were the resolution plan per- manufacture of COVID-19 power per annum for its
pill gets U.S. FDA nod ta chairman Anil Agarwal- open, however, ex-show- taining to claims of em- antiviral oral drug molnupi- Oragadam plant.
HYDERABAD
promoted Twin Star Tech- room prices would be an- Masakazu Yoshimura ployees with the airline’s ravir and its supply to 105 ATL has invested ₹9.3
Zydus has received the final nologies earlier this nounced only in March workmen. low- and middle-income crore and the supply is like-
approval from the U.S. FDA
month. while deliveries would com- nues to make larger eco- The Association of Ag- countries (LMICs). nufacturers to produce the ly to begin from July.
to market anticonvulsant
Pursuant to the order of mence from April. nomic strides, many cus- grieved Workmen of Jet Natco, Strides, Biophore, raw ingredients for molnu- Considering that solar
drug Vigabatrin Tablets 500
the National Company Law Masakazu Yoshimura, tomers are seeking a Airways (India) Ltd. had SMS Pharmaceuticals, Lau- piravir and/or the finished power gets produced only
mg. The product will be
manufactured at the
Appellate Tribunal, the managing director, TKM, sophisticated lifestyle vehi- sought a copy of the ap- rus, Lupin, MSN, Arene Li- drug itself. for few hours every day,
formulation manufacturing consolidated Committee of said, the introduction of Hi- cle that delivers exceptional proved resolution plan and fesciences, BDR and Opti- Neither MSD, Ridgeback and there is no storage fa-
facility in Ahmedabad, Cadila Creditors of Videocon In- lux was part of Toyota’s on and off-road prowess and the latest direction has mus are the 10 Indian firms Biotherapeutics nor Emory cility available, ATL opted
Healthcare said. Vigabatrin dustries and 12 other group ‘customer first’ philosophy fulfils their daily urban mo- come on a plea filed by the in a list of 27 generic drug- University, which disco- for an offtake of an opti-
decreases seizures in adults companies has “decided to and the company’s res- bility needs be it work or association. makers from 11 countries vered the drug, will receive mum quantity, which is
and children who have not re-invite fresh expressions ponse to the ever-evolving pleasure,” he added. The development comes with whom MPP said it had royalties from sales of mol- about 20% of the total re-
been able to control their of interest for submission expectations of various cus- According to TKM, the almost seven months after signed agreements. nupiravir from the sublicen- quirements in Chennai, the
seizures with other of resolution plan,” the tomer demographics. vehicle comes with a heavy- the NCLT approved the re- The non-exclusive subli- cees, MPP said in a commu- company said in a state-
treatment, the company said. debt-ridden firm said. “Today, as India conti- duty turbo engine. solution plan. censes allow the generic ma- nication on its website. ment on Thursday.

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SPORT
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No immediate plan to halt ISL: AIFF One Wish clinches the

The bubble in Goa has been hit by COVID cases, forcing postponement of many matches R.M. Reddy Memorial Cup
HYDERABAD: Trainer S.K. Sun- aid Ali Khan. Trainer: N. Ravinder Chuckit (A.A. Vikrant) 2, Amyra
Aashin Prasad the I-League was suspended tice,” Col. Samaddar said. derji’s One Wish (R. Ajinkya up) Singh. (Afroz Khan) 3 and Beauty On
CHENNAI after just one round of fix- Chennaiyin FC’s Hungar- claimed the R.M. Reddy Me- 3. A.S. KRISHNA MEMORIAL CUP Parade (Akshay Kumar) 4. Nk, 2-
The Indian Super League tures as cases mounted. ian boss Bozidar Bandovic, morial Cup, the main event of (1,200m), (Terms) Maiden, 3-y-o 1/2 and Sh. 1m, 5.11s. ₹515 (w), 131,
Thursday’s ( Jan. 20) races here. only (Cat. II): ARTHUR (Ashad As- 20 and 48 (p). SHP: 69, THP: 102,
season will chug along des- “We have a strong medi- however, doesn’t want the The winner is owned by Mr. Jatin bar) 1, Bellagio (Nikhil Naidu) 2, FP: 9,398, Q: 4,098, Tanala:
pite a COVID -19 outbreak in cal team. It [decision] can’t league to pause. “We don’t L. Trivedi & Mr. Nitin H. Jain. Pleroma (Akshay Kumar) 3 and 91,540 (c/o). Favourite: Chuckit.
the bubble in Goa that has be based on sporting merit, have cases. We’ve been fol- 1. TWIN STAR PLATE (1,200m), Lady Di (R. Ajinkya) 4. Not run: Owner: Mr. Syed Abul Hasan
rated up to 25 (Cat. III): SOUL Mysterious Angel. 2-1/2, 2-1/4 and Razvi. Trainer: Mir Faiyaz Ali
brought the postponement but on medical advice,” said lowing all the rules and pro- EMPRESS (Mukesh Kumar) 1, 3/4. 1m, 13.52s. ₹25 (w), 10, 14 and Khan.
of six matches, including Fri- Das. “There have been a few tocols. What other teams do Fatuma (Gaurav Singh) 2, Silver 10 (p). SHP: 30, THP: 40, SHW: 10
and 15, FP: 72, Q: 35, Tanala: 158. 6. MULUGU PLATE (DIV. II)
day’s game between Jam- cases here and there. ISL and how they’ve got cases, Set (Akshay Kumar) 3 and N R I
(1,600m), 5-y-o & upward, rated
Gift (Rafique Sk.) 4. Not run: Favourite: Bellagio. Owners: Mr.
shedpur FC and Mumbai Ci- was nearly 45 days into the that’s a question for others. Elmira. 3-1/4, 2 and 1/2. 1m, Ram H. Shroff & Mr. Raj H. Shroff 20 to 45 (Cat. III): NIGHTMARE
ty FC at Bambolim. competition before we start- For us, there is no question 13.82s. ₹27 (w), 18, 14 and 10 (p). rep. Stride Livestock Private Lim- (Santosh Raj) 1, Sorry Darling
SHP: 42, THP: 41, SHW: 19 and 14, ited & Mr. Chetan Shantilal Shah. (Afroz Khan) 2, Dunkirk (Nakhat
All India Football Federa- ed having cases. With I- of a break,” he said. Singh) 3 and Royal Grace (Nikhil
FP: 120, Q: 63, Tanala: 312. Fa- Trainer: M. Srinivas Reddy.
tion general secretary Kush- League, it was reported in Bengaluru FC coach Mar- vourite: Soul Empress. Owner: Naidu) 4. Not run: Star Babe,
4. R.M. REDDY MEMORIAL CUP Dillon and Blickfang. 1/2, 3/4 and
al Das said that ISL will not the first round.” co Pezzaiuoli doesn’t favour Mr. T. Amarender Reddy. Trainer: (1,400m), rated 40 to 65 (Cat. II):
S. Sreekant. 1-1/4. 1m, 40.00s. ₹34 (w), 14, 17
take an immediate break Only Chennaiyin FC and a break too. “If the League ONE WISH (R. Ajinkya) 1, Akido and 25 (p). SHP: 69, THP: 57, FP:
despite several players, Mumbai City FC have not re- takes a break and has to be 2. MULUGU PLATE (DIV. I) (Nakhat Singh) 2, Intense Ap- 335, Q: 205, Tanala: 4,036. Fa-
(1,600m), 5-y-o & upward, rated proach (Ajeeth Kumar) 3 and By vourite: Lightning Fairy. Owner:
coaching staff, family mem- ported any cases while ATK Business as usual: Chennaiyin is one of the teams, apart from finished within the same ti- 20 to 45 (Cat. III): ROYAL GIRL (B. The Bay (S.J. Sunil) 4. 3, Hd and Mr. Maddali Sai Kumar. Trainer:
bers, and hotel staff inside MB is the worst-hit, with Mumbai City, not to be affected by the virus so far. meframe, then it means an Nikhil) 1, Grand Finale (A.A. 1/2. 1m, 25.77s. ₹41 (w), 13, 15 and G. Shashikanth.
Vikrant) 2, Rhythm Selection 13 (p). SHP: 45, THP: 39, SHW: 17
the ISL bubble testing posi- three of its matches already already tight schedule has to and 28, FP: 212, Q: 108, Tanala:
(Md. Ismail) 3 and Sun Dancer Jackpot: 70%: ₹3,11,131 (1 tkt.) &
tive. called off. around 10 -12 days is quite ting in stricter SOPs and con- be made tighter," he said. (Akshay Kumar) 4. Nk, Hd and 812. Favourite: Soloist. Owners: 30%: 1,33,342 (1 tkt.).
The affected teams have SC East Bengal CEO Shiva- necessary. A lot of clubs be- tinuing. They have made the "Players stand a big risk of Nk. 1m, 40.75s. ₹312 (w), 37, 25 Mr. Jatin L. Trivedi & Mr. Nitin H.
and 48 (p). SHP: 58, THP: 127, Jain. Trainer: S.K. Sunderji. Treble: (i) 12, 190 (4 tkts.), (ii) 16,
been barred from training ji Samaddar has called for a lieve a break will sort things gymnasiums out of bounds injuries or burn out.”
SHW, 114 and 25, FP: 3, 469, Q: 5. SHRAVAN KUMAR MEMORIAL 416 (5 tkts.).
and have struggled to field circuit breaker to help stabil- out. Instead, the ISL man- and made tests mandatory (With inputs from Ami- 709, Tanala: 72,149. Favourite: CUP (1,100m), rated 40 to 65 (Cat.
competitive XIs. In contrast, ise the situation. “A break of agement spoke about put- every day even to go to prac- tabha Das Sharma) Sun Dancer. Owner: Mr. Md. Jun- II): UNSUNG HERO (Rafique Sk.) 1, Mini jackpot: 72, 211 (2 tkts.).
CM A ND-NDE
YK
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
THE HINDU
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
DELHI
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
India looks to arrest middle-order slump
Focus will also be on Rahul’s tactics as skipper as Men in Blue try to ground high-flying South Africa
INDIA IN SA
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA
PAARL
K.L. Rahul’s men will have to
improve drastically against a
buoyant South African side
in the second ODI on Friday
in order to keep the series
alive.
The middle-order, which
has been a problem area,
continued to bother the Men
in Blue.
In the first ODI, it was
once again a case of one of
the openers — Shikhar Dha-
wan this time — coming
good. Virat Kohli then held
fort before the middle-order
caved in on a slow pitch
where there was turn and
the ball gripped.
South Africa proved too
good for India, both in skill
and strategy, raising ques-
tions about the way Rahul
led the side.
The big question
What exactly was allrounder
Venkatesh Iyer doing in the
team if he was not going to
deliver four or five overs as
the sixth bowler when a few
specialists, particularly
seamer Shardul Thakur,
Three Indians in ICC
Test Team-of-the-Year
Rohit, Pant and Ashwin find a place
Press Trust of India
Dubai
Rohit Sharma features as
opener, Rishabh Pant as
wicketkeeper and R. Ashwin
as the lone specialist spin-
ner in the ICC men’s Test
Team-of-the-Year, but no In-
dian is included in the men’s
ODI XI.
However, Mithali Raj and
Jhulan Goswami feature in
the women’s ODI XI.
The ICC teams of 2021:
Test: Dimuth Karunaratne (SL),
Rohit Sharma, Marnus Labus-
chagne (Aus), Joe Root (Eng),
Kane Williamson (Capt. NZ),
Fawad Alam (Pak), Rishabh
Pant (wk), R. Ashwin, Kyle Ja-
mison (NZ), Hasan Ali (Pak)
and Shaheen Afridi (Pak).
Women’s ODI: Lizelle Lee (SA),
Alyssa Healy (Aus), Tammy
Beaumont (Eng), Mithali Raj,
Heather Knight (Capt., Eng),
Medvedev
slams
‘low IQ’ fans
Medvedev. *
REUTERS
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
MELBOURNE
Daniil Medvedev took
aim at sections of the
raucous Australian
Open crowd following
his victory over home
hero Nick Kyrgios on
Thursday, saying “they
probably have a low
IQ.”
“I came to win this
match and I am happy
that I was able to do,"
he said on court after
the win. “It’s not your
choice when you get
booed between first and
second serves, it's not
easy, I just had to stay
calm.”
Expanding on the
theme, he told
Eurosport: “It's not
everybody doing it, but
people who are doing it
probably have a low
IQ.”
Medvedev was more
impressed by Kyrgios.
“It's a tough match-up
against Nick. I know he
can serve big and that's
already really tough,”
Medvedev, the reigning
US Open champion,
said.
CM
YK
Desperate: India would be pondering ways to stop van der Dussen on Friday.
were proving costly?
There was also no in-
spired bowling change like
the one South Africa captain
Temba Bavuma did when he
tossed the new ball to off-
spinner Aiden Markram, a
part-time bowler. Markram
removed Rahul, justifying
Jhulan and Mithali.
* FILE PHOTO: VIVEK BENDRE
Hayley Matthews (WI), Mari-
zanne Kapp (SA), Shabnim Is-
mail (SA), Fatima Sana (Pak),
Jhulan Goswami and Anisa Mo-
hammed (WI).
Men’s ODI: Babar Azam
(Capt.,) and Fakhar Zaman
(Pak), Janneman Malan and
Rassie van der Dussen (SA),
Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Ra-
him (wk) and Mustafizur Raha-
man (Ban), Wanindu Hasaran-
ga and Dishmantha Chameera
(SL), Paul Stirling and Simi
Singh (Irl).
Muguruza, Raducanu among high-profile casualties India and Iran fail to
Medvedev tames showman Kyrgios; Murray and Kontaveit also bow out; Stosur bids adieu
AUS OPEN
Agence France-Presse
Melbourne
Daniil Medvedev tamed Nick
Kyrgios to surge into the Aus-
tralian Open third round on
Thursday and avoid joining
Garbine Muguruza and Em-
ma Raducanu on the list of
high-profile casualties.
Also out on a day of
shocks was former World
No. 1 Andy Murray, losing to
Japanese qualifier Taro Da-
niel in straight sets.
Second seed Medvedev is
the highest seed left in the
men’s draw and the favourite
after the deportation of
reigning champion Novak
Djokovic.
Stern test
But the 25-year-old Russian
faced a stern test of his title
credentials, and tempera-
ment, in the face of an un-
predictable but talented Kyr-
gios, who revved up the
home crowd in their prime-
time evening showdown.
The 26-year-old Australian
beat Medvedev, the reigning
US Open champion and last
year’s losing finalist in Mel-
bourne, in their only two
previous clashes.
It was a madhouse inside
Rod Laver Arena with show-
man Kyrgios dealing out all
his assortment of unplayable
serves and tweeners before a
partisan home crowd, while
embroiled in a running bat-
tle with the chair umpire.
But calculating Medvedev
dealt with it all to ease
through 7-6(1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
and will now face Dutchman
Botic van de Zandschulp.
Greek fourth seed Stefa-
nos Tsitsipas, chasing a mai-
den Major, also fought his
the faith Bavuma had in him.
The game was lost at the
halfway stage once Dhawan
and Kohli were out in quick
succession following their
90-plus stand. Suddenly, the
strip where batting looked
easy became difficult and In-
dia fell apart.
Ranji set to be cancelled
Amol Karhadkar
MUMBAI
The Ranji Trophy is set to be
cancelled for the second
successive season due to the
nationwide surge in CO-
VID-19 cases resulting in
lack of a window ahead of
the Indian Premier League’s
15th edition. However, the
BCCI is optimistic about
staging the other major
domestic tournaments.
The Hindu understands
that considering the expo-
nential rise in COVID-19 cas-
es and the countdown for
IPL, likely to begin on April
2, having already begun, it’s
“all but curtains” for the
premier domestic First Class
tournament.
“The IPL bubble will start
around March 20 and at the
moment, there seems to be
no clarity over when the lat-
est COVID-19 wave will start
subsiding, so we will be
stretched for time to organ-
ise the Ranji Trophy,” a BCCI
way past former junior
World No. 1 Sebastian Baez of
Argentina 7-6(1), 6-7(5), 6-3,
6-4.
There was to be no fairy-
tale run for Britain’s three-
time Major champion Mur-
ray, going down 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
to 120th-ranked Daniel, who
moves into the third round
of a Slam for the first time.
Australian wild-card Chris
O’Connell pulled off an upset
with a straight-set win over
13th seed Diego Schwartz-
man of Argentina.
In the women’s draw,
third seed Muguruza, US
Open champion Raducanu
AP
*
The difference between
the two sides was how the
spinners fared — Ashwin and
Chahal in their combined 20
overs gave away 106 runs for
a single wicket while Mark-
ram, Tabraiz Shamsi and
Keshav Maharaj bowled 26
overs between them for 124
insider said on Thursday.
The Ranji Trophy was set
to begin on January 13 but
the third wave resulted in
BCCI announcing on Janu-
ary 4 the “postponement”
of the Ranji Trophy, Col. C.
K. Nayudu Trophy (U-25
men’s) and Senior Women’s
T20 League.
It is understood that to
stage the league stage of the
Ranji Trophy, the BCCI will
require 35 days. However,
the BCCI authorities have in-
formally started sounding
off the associations to shelve
their Ranji preparatory
camps.
The BCCI, though, is con-
fident that the other tourna-
ments, including the Cooch
Behar (U-19 boys’) Trophy
that had to suspended
ahead of quarterfinals, can
be held. “The other tourna-
ments can even clash with
the IPL and we will make ev-
ery effort to host as much as
possible,” added the source.
and sixth seed Anett Konta-
veit suffered upsets.
Kovinic, Tauson shine
The 19-year-old Raducanu,
the 17th seed but making her
debut in Melbourne, strug-
gled with blisters on her
serving hand as Montene-
gro’s Danka Kovinic won 6-4,
4-6, 6-3.
WTA Finals winner Mugu-
ruza is also out, losing 6-3,
6-3 to 61st-ranked veteran Al-
ize Cornet.
Kontaveit, seen by many
as a serious title contender
after a breakout 2021, com-
mitted 27 unforced errors as
runs and snared four bet-
ween them.
On the slow Paarl track,
where rotating the strike
pays dividends, Rishabh
Pant and the two Iyers —
Shreyas and Venkatesh —
have a bigger role to play if
India is to hit back and take
the series to the decider at
Cape Town.
The teams (from):
India: K.L. Rahul (Capt.), Jasprit
Bumrah (Vice-capt.), Shikhar
Dhawan, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat
Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav,
Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer,
Rishabh Pant (wicket-keeper),
Ishan Kishan (wicket-keeper),
Yuzvendra Chahal, R. Ashwin,
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak
Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shar-
dul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj,
Jayant Yadav, and Navdeep
Saini.
South Africa: Temba Bavuma
(Capt.), Keshav Maharaj (Vice-
capt.) Quinton de Kock (wk),
Zubayr Hamza, Marco Jansen,
Janneman Malan, Sisanda Ma-
gala, Aiden Markram, David
Miller, Lungi Ngidi, Wayne Par-
nell, Andile Phehlukwayo,
Dwaine Pretorius, George
Linde, Tabraiz Shamsi, Rassie
van der Dussen, and Kyle
Verreynne.
Match starts at 2 p.m. IST.
‘Difficult to play in these bubbles’
Pietersen says he’s not surprised Kohli quit captaincy
LEGENDS LEAGUE
P.K. Ajith Kumar
MUSCAT
Virat Kohli’s decision to quit
the Test captaincy may have
come as a surprise to many,
but not to Kevin Pietersen
(KP).
“I am not surprised Virat
decided to take that extra
pressure off, it is difficult to
play in these bubbles,” Pie-
tersen, who is here to play
for World Giants in the Le-
gends League Cricket, said
on Thursday. “I have got
close friends in golf, football
and other sports and they
are some of the best players
in the world. They say it is
very difficult to play under
the conditions of the last
couple of years.”
Pietersen said it wasn’t
right to judge a sportsper-
son’s performance during
she was stunned 6-2, 6-4 by
fast-rising Danish teenager
Clara Tauson.
But second seed Aryna Sa-
balenka lives to fight another
day, just, after coming from a
set down for the second suc-
cessive match to beat China’s
World No. 100 Wang Xinyu.
Emotional farewell
Former US Open champion
Samantha Stosur bid an
emotional farewell to singles
tennis after her 2-6, 2-6 loss
to 10th seed Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova.
While the 37-year-old will
continue to play through
COVID cannot halt Indian march
Boys in Blue make it to the quarterfinals drubbing Ireland
U-19 WORLD CUP
Press Trust of India
Tarouba (Trinidad)
Four-time champion and
strong title contender India
stormed into the Super
League quarterfinals of the
Under-19 World Cup thrash-
ing minnows Ireland by 174
runs on Wednesday.
India had just 11 players
available after six members
were forced into isolation,
four for testing COVID posi-
tive and two who showed
symptoms.
Put in, India rode on Har-
noor Singh’s brisk 88 and a
run-a-ball 79 by opening
partner Angkrish Raghuvan-
shi to post 307 for five.
The Hrishikesh Kanitkar-
coached side then bundled
out the opposition for 133 in
39 overs.
Chasing 308, Ireland was
teetering at 17 for three. Me-
dium-pacer Garv Sangwan
(2/23) sent back skipper Tim
Tector (15) in the 15th over to
leave the side reeling at 36
for four. Joshua Cox (28,
46b) tried to take the game
deep, but it was too little too
late. Sangwan struck again,
this time removing Cox, who
was caught by Dinesh Bana
Pietersen. *
P.K. AJITH KUMAR
the pandemic. “It is very un-
fair, too harsh and too criti-
cal,” he said. “Kohli needs
crowds for his juice to get go-
ing. He is an entertainer. Pe-
ople who are critical of mod-
ern sportsmen (under these
circumstances) are foolish.
These bubbles are very hard
to play in and I have been in
a couple of them for the
broadcast. It is incredibly
difficult.”
THE RESULTS
Men: Second round: 32-De Mi-
naur (Aus) bt Majchrzak (Pol)
6-4, 6-4, 6-2; Daniel (Jpn) bt
Murray (Sco) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4; 15-
Agut (Esp) bt Kohlschreiber
(Ger) 6-1, 6-0, 6-3; 20-Fritz
(USA) bt Tiafoe (USA) 6-4, 6-3,
7-6(5); Paire (Fra) bt 26-Dimi-
trov (Bul) 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(4), 7-6
(2); 4-Tsitsipas (Gre) bt Baez
(Arg) 7-6(1), 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4; 5-
Rublev (Rus) bt Berankis (Ltu)
6-4, 6-2, 6-0; 27-Cilic (Cro) bt
Gombos (Svk) 6-2, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6
(6); 24-Evans (GBr) w/o Rin-
derknech (Fra); 9-Auger-Alias-
sime (Can) bt Davidovich (Esp)
7-6(4), 6-7(4), 7-6(5), 7-6(4);
O’Connell (Aus) bt 13-
Schwartzman (Arg) 7-6(6), 6-4,
6-4; 2-Medvedev (Rus) bt Kyr-
gios (Aus) 7-6(1), 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.
Women: Second round: Tauson
(Den) bt 6-Kontaveit (Est) 6-2,
6-4; 27-Collins (USA) bt Konjuh
(Cro) 6-4, 6-3; 19-Mertens
(Bel) bt Begu (Rom) 6-3, 6-2;
Zhang (Chn) bt 12-Rybakina
(Kaz) 6-4, 1-0 (retd.); 29-Zi-
dansek (Slo) bt Watson (GBR) 7-
6(4), 6-4; Cornet (Fra) bt 3-Mu-
guruza (Esp) 6-3, 6-3; 7-Swia-
tek (Pol) bt Peterson (Swe) 6-2,
6-2; 25-Kasatkina (Rus) bt Li-
nette (Pol) 6-2, 6-3; 10-Pavlyu-
chenkova (Rus) bt Stosur (Aus)
6-2, 6-2; 31-Vondrousova (Cze)
bt Samsonova (Rus) 6-2, 7-5; 2-
Sabalenka (Blr) bt Wang (Chn)
1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
2022 on the doubles circuit
with Chinese partner Zhang
Shuai, she announced in De-
cember her home Grand
Slam would be her final fling
in singles.
Stosur said she had "done
more than I ever thought
was possible".
"I couldn't have asked for
more. I've had many great
moments here in Australia
and around the world. It's
been amazing," she said.
SPORT 13
All hands on deck: Every available player was on the field
contributing to India’s big win. TWITTER#U19CWC
*
<
> Tremendous
show
of character and
maturity from the U-19
team. With just 11 players
available, to go out and
express themselves the
way they did was
phenomenal
V.V.S. Laxman
NCA head
in the 21st over as Ireland
lost half its side for 66.
Scott Macbeth (32) only
delayed the inevitable. Left-
arm spinner Aneeshwar
KP is looking forward to
Rahul Dravid’s progress as
India’s coach. “He is a good
friend,” said Pietersen. “He
has done wonders for India’s
youngsters and I am looking
forward to his progress with
the senior players.”
As for the captaincy, he
feels India is spoilt for
choice. “You have got Rohit
Sharma, K.L. Rahul,” he
said. “I have always loved
the Hitman. He is a fabulous
player. His captaincy has
been great for Mumbai In-
dians. (As for) Rishabh Pant,
not yet, but maybe one day.”
He said it was stupid to
blame the IPL for the poor
performance of England’s
Test team. “Very few of
them play in the IPL,” the
former England batter said.
(The writer is in Muscat at
the invitation of Legends
League Cricket).
break the deadlock
The visitors put up a gallant show
Shayan Acharya
Navi Mumbai
The Indian players sitting in
the dugout waited with bat-
ed breath as Manisha Kalyan
advanced on the left-wing
and put in a cross for Pyari
Xaxa. The striker made an
attempt, but toe-poked the
ball just wide of the post.
It was the 52nd minute of
the game and India had a
good opportunity to take
the lead against Iran. But
missed chances cost the
home team dear as it was
held to a goalless draw in
the AFC Women’s Asian Cup
opener at the DY Patil Stadi-
um on Thursday.
India enjoyed better ball
possession and also created
several chances, but failed
to find the target.
After it was unable to
handle Iran’s technical abili-
ty and direct approach in
the first half, India con-
trolled the match in the se-
cond half. The hosts could
have also gone ahead in the
opening 45 minutes itself if
they had been sharper.
After the half-hour mark,
Thwarted: The Indian players just couldn’t find a way past
the Iranians. EMMANUAL YOGINI
*
Gautam (2/11) and off-spin-
ner Kaushal Tambe (2/8)
cleaned up the lower-order.
In another match, Austra-
lia, riding on Teague Wyllie’s
unbeaten 101, defeated Scot-
land by seven wickets.
The scores: India 307/5 in 50
overs (Angkrish Raghuvanshi
79, Harnoor Singh 88, Raja Ba-
wa 42, Nishant Sindhu 36, Ra-
jyavardhan Hangargekar 39;
Muzamil Sherzad 3/79) bt Ire-
land 133 in 39 overs (Joshua
Cox 28, Scott MacBeth 32,
Joshua Cox 28).
IN BRIEF
Abdelmonem’s goal
helps Egypt qualify
YAOUNDE (CAMEROON)
Egypt defeated Sudan 1-0 and
qualified for the knockout
stage at the African Cup of
Nations on Wednesday.
Mohamed Abdelmonem
headed home in the 35th.
The results: Egypt 1
(Abdelmonem 35) bt Sudan
0; Guinea-Bissau 0 lost to
Nigeria 2 (Sadiq 56,
Troost-Ekong 75). AP
Giants and Warriors
win thrillers
BENGALURU
Gujarat Giants registered a
thrilling 37-35 win over Tamil
Thalaivas in the ProKabaddi
League here on Thursday. In
the other match, Bengal
Warriors pipped Bengaluru
Bulls 40-39. PTI
an unmarked Manisha head-
ed over the bar from close
range. Three minutes later,
Pyari miscued a shot from
the edge of the box. Indu-
mathi ran in and took pos-
session, but blazed the ball
wide and high.
Coach Thomas Denner-
by’s pep talk during the
break seemed to worked
wonders as the Indians put
up a disciplined show in the
second period. They pro-
duced a wave of attacks, but
could not break down the
Iran defence.
Stunning save
Substitute Grace Dangmei
could have put India ahead
in the 77th minute, but her
header from close range
was stunningly saved by
Iran goalkeeper Zohreh
Koudaei.
The Iranians, who had
qualified for the first time,
stood out despite facing a
higher-ranked India. Even
though a goal eluded them,
they left the pitch with a
smile and a lot of satisfac-
tion.
A ND-NDE
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14 SPORT
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
TV PICKS
South Africa vs India: 2nd
ODI, Star Sports 1 (SD & HD),
2 p.m.
U-19 World Cup: SS Select 2
(SD & HD), 6.30 p.m.
Pro Kabaddi: Star Sports 2
(SD & HD), 7.30 p.m. onwards
Legends League Cricket:
Sony Ten 1 (SD & HD), 8 p.m.
Bundesliga: Sony Ten 2 (SD
& HD), 1 a.m. (Saturday)
Premier League: SS Select 1
(SD & HD), 1.30 a.m.
(Saturday)
Australian Open: Sony Ten
2 & Sony Six (SD & HD), 5.30
a.m. onwards (Saturday)
IN BRIEF
Nuggets pip Clippers
LOS ANGELES
Nikola Jokic had 49 points, 14
rebounds and 10 assists as
host Denver Nuggets beat
Los Angeles Clippers 130-128
in overtime on Wednesday.
The results: Washington 118
lost to Brooklyn 119;
Philadelphia 123 bt Orlando
110; Boston 102 lost to
Charlotte 111; Atlanta 134 bt
Minnesota 122; Miami 104 bt
Portland 92; Chicago 117 bt
Cleveland 104; Milwaukee
126 bt Memphis 114; Dallas
102 bt Toronto 98; San
Antonio 118 bt Oklahoma City
96; Utah 111 lost to Houston
116; Denver 130 bt Clippers
128 (OT); Sacramento 131 lost
to Detroit 133; LA Lakers 104
lost to Indiana 111. REUTERS
Deepika and Atanu
dropped from TOPS
NEW DELHI
Star archer Deepika Kumari
and her husband Atanu Das
were on Thursday dropped
from the Sports Ministry’s
Target Olympic Podium
Scheme (TOPS) due to their
below-par performances in
the National-ranking
tournament.
Balaji and Kadhe lose
in doubles pre-quarters
FORLI (ITALY)
Sriram Balaji, seeded fourth
with Karol Drzewiecki of
Poland, lost 1-6, 6-4, [10-7]
to Italians Franco Agamenone
and Andrea Pellegrino in the
doubles pre-quarterfinals of
the €45,730 Challenger
tennis here. Arjun Kadhe and
Vladyslav Manafov of Ukraine
lost to second seeds Sadio
Doumbia and Fabien Reboul
of France 7-6(6), 6-4.
CM
YK
Priyanshu runs Prannoy close
Mithun impresses; Sindhu, four other Indians in women’s quarterfinals
MODI BADMINTON
Rakesh Rao
LUCKNOW
H.S. Prannoy just about sur-
vived a serious threat from
Priyanshu Rajawat in the
men’s pre-quarterfinals af-
ter P.V. Sindhu led five In-
dians into the women’s last-
eight stage of the $150,000
Syed Modi India Interna-
tional badminton tourna-
ment here on Thursday.
On a day when out of 15
matches featuring Indians
taking on overseas rivals,
only three produced home
winners, Prannoy and Sind-
hu won in contrasting
manner.
Priyanshu, ranked 127,
raised visions of making the
men’s quarterfinals when he
led 16-13 in the decider. In
fact, he led until 18-17 before
Prannoy, ranked 24th,
reeled off four straight
points to end the 64-minute
contest.
Match points saved
Mithun Manjunath was the
only other Indian to match
Prannoy’s efforts. Mithun,
ranked 121, saved two
match-points to outlast
65th-ranked Malaysian
Soong Joo Ven 16-21, 21-16,
23-21 in 80 minutes.
Meanwhile, all women
quarterfinalists from the
Discipline will be key, says new women’s coach Jitender Yadav
WRESTLING
Yajnabalkya Sarangi
KOLKATA
Discipline will be the watch-
word for Jitender Yadav, who
is all set to take over as the
Indian women’s wrestling
team’s chief coach from Kul-
deep Malik.
The 48-year-old Indian Air
Force coach has worked as a
chief coach with junior
Brooking no challenge: Sindhu defeated Malaysia’s Lam in just 33 minutes.
bottom half of the draw are
Indians while Sindhu is the
only home interest left in
the top half.
Sindhu defeated Malay-
sia’s Lauren Lam 21-16, 21-13
in 33 minutes to set up a
clash with sixth-seeded Thai
Supanida Katethong, a 21-11,
teams on international as-
signments and as a coach
with three Pro Wrestling
League (PWL) sides.
“I have worked with
Sakshi Malik, Pooja Dhanda
and Ritu Phogat at the PWL. I
know how to work with pro-
minent wrestlers.
“They will be put through
individual and group train-
ing as per their need,” Jiten-
der told The Hindu on
Wednesday.
21-7 winner over Kriti Bha-
radwaj. Having lost to Supa-
nida last week in the India
Open, Sindhu will be look-
ing to settle a score.
Malvika Bansod plays fa-
vourite Aakarshi Kashyap
and Anupama Upadhyaya
faces Samiya Imad Farooqui
Jitender said he would
look to maintain discipline at
the National camp.
“One of the main reasons
why we did not do well in the
(Tokyo) Olympics was (the
lack of ) discipline. If there is
discipline, performance will
come.”
Jitender stressed careful
selection of overseas training
venues. “Suppose if we
camp in the USA, China or Ja-
pan, where women’s wres-
* FILE PHOTO
for the two assured semifi-
nal spots for Indians.
Covid cases
Meanwhile, Covid positive
cases sent out three Indian
pairs. After Malaysia’s dou-
bles player Valeree Siow
complained of vertigo and
tling is better, we can gain
from that experience. What’s
the use of going to a country
where the standard is not so
good? I have already had a
word on this with the federa-
tion top brass.”
Mat-side support
Jitender said mat-side sup-
port to the wrestlers during
bouts would be important.
“I can read the body lan-
guage of a referee and know
DELHI
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
THE HINDU
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\ SNAPSHOTS \
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CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
Unseeded Aryan ousts and Ishaan Dodhiwala, both
Aayush, makes semifinals driving Volkswagen Polo.
KOLKATA: Unseeded Aryan
Bengaluru’s Varun Anekar
Shah of India outlasted (Race Concepts) and
eighth-seeded Aayush P. Performance Racing’s
Bhat of USA 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 in
Deepak Ravikumar of
the boys’ quarterfinals of Chennai, set the fastest laps
the Central Excise & CGST
in the Indian Junior Touring
ITF Juniors tennis Cars and Super Stock
tournament at the BTA categories respectively.
Complex here on Thursday.
Earlier, two teenagers from
The girls’ singles
Bengaluru, Tijil Rao
quarterfinals saw top seed
(Momentum Motorsport)
Shruti Ahlawat of India
and Ruhaan Alva (MSport),
bettering sixth-ranked
topped the two practice
Vlada Mincheva of Russia in
sessions in the Formula
a contest that stretched till
LGB 1300 category.
the decider.
The results (quarterfinals): Haryana’s Justin Singh put
Boys: Ruslan Tiukaev (Rus) bt in the quickest lap of the
Zach Stephens (GBr) 6-3, 6-4; day in the MRF Saloon Cars
Saheb Sodhi bt Amir Milushev (Toyota Etios) with an effort
(Uzb) 6-3, 6-2; Aryan Shah bt of 02:03.391.
Aayush P. Bhat (USA) 5-7, 6-2, Bergwijn inspires Spurs’
6-1; Aman Dahiya bt Dmitry comeback win
Dolzhenkov (Rus) 7-5, 6-4. LONDON: Steven Bergwijn
Girls: Shruti Ahlawat bt Vlada scored two goals deep into
Mincheva (Rus) 4-6, 6-4, 6-2;
stoppage time to snatch
Lanlana Tararurudee (Tha) bt
Tottenham a dramatic 3-2
Sanjana Sirimalla 6-2, 3-0 win at Leicester in the
(retd); Suhitha Maruri bt Premier League on
Tejasvi Dabas 6-2, 6-1; Daria Wednesday.
Shadchneva (Rus) bt Vaishnavi The Netherlands forward
Adkar 6-2, 6-3. looked to have earned a
Chirag and Balu light up draw for Spurs by driving
free practice home from close range in
pulled out, Venkat Gaurav CHENNAI: Chirag Ghorpade,
the fifth minute of
Prasad tested positive to be the schoolboy from added-on time, yet there
out of men’s doubles (with Bengaluru, and Coimbatore was more drama to come.
Ayush Makhija) and mixed veteran Arjun Balu lit up
the free practice sessions Soon after the restart,
doubles (with Juhi Dewan-
with some serious pace to Leicester lost possession,
gan). Vighnesh Devlekar al-
kickstart the third round of Harry Kane played a
so tested positive and with-
the MRF MMSC FMSCI perfectly weighted ball
drew with doubles partner
Indian National Car Racing behind the Leicester
Deep Rambhiya.
Championship 2021 at the defence and Bergwijn ran
MMRT, here on Thursday. onto it, rounded goalkeeper
Kasper Schmeichel and
Ghorpade, who heads the
championship table, converted his shot off the
topped the two sessions in post from an acute angle.
why he has given a particular the premier MRF F1600 The results:
decision. A coach should be category with a best lap of Premier League: Leicester 2
prompt to seek a video refer- one minute, 39.950. (Daka 24, Maddison 76) lost to
ral to either get a deserving On the other hand, veteran Tottenham 3 (Kane 38,
point or give some rest to his Balu, piloting the Race Bergwijn 90+5, 90+7);
wrestler (as a tactical Concepts-prepared Honda Brentford 1 (Toney 85) lost to
move).” VTec, was in a league of his Manchester United 3 (Elanga
The Wrestling Federation own in the Indian Touring 55, Greenwood 62, Rashford
of India (WFI) has also re- Cars category. 77).
placed Rajeev Tomar and He was about a couple of La Liga: Celta Vigo 2 (Hugo
Anil Maan, who worked with seconds quicker than his Mallo 29, Lorenzo 38) bt
the men’s freestyle team, nearest rivals, the Rayo Osasuna 0; Valencia 1 (Guedes
with Army man Balwant and Racing pair from 44) drew with Sevilla 1
Railways’ Sujeet Maan. Hyderabad Jeet Jhabakh (Diakhaby 7-og).
A ND-NDE

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THE GIST
B The apex court’s latest
order in Rahul Ramesh Wagh
v. State of Maharashtra
&Ors. makes it mandatory
that the principles laid
down by the Supreme Court
for providing reservation to
OBCs in local bodies shall
be followed across the
country.
B A five-judge Constitution
Bench in the K.
Krishnamurthy (Dr.) v. Union
of India (2010) judgment
said that barriers to political
participation are not the
same as barriers to
education and employment.
Though reservation to local
bodies is permissible, the
top court declared that the
same is subject to three
conditions: 1) to set up a
dedicated Commission to
conduct empirical inquiry
into the nature of the
backwardness in local
bodies, 2) to specify the
proportion of reservation
required to be provisioned
local body-wise 3) such
reservation shall not exceed
aggregate of 50% of the
total seats reserved for
SCs/STs/OBCs taken
together.
B Maharashtra had
constituted a Commission to
ascertain the backwardness
of OBCs in June 2021. But
without waiting for an
empirical report, an
ordinance was promulgated
to amend the Maharashtra
Zilla Parishads Act,
Panchayat Samitis Act and
the Maharashtra Village
Panchayat Act so as to
conduct local body elections
with OBC reservation. This
was struck down by the
Supreme court.
EXPLAINER
The shift from Jakarta to Nusantara
Why is Indonesia changing its capital city? Is it the first country to move its metropolis?
Ananth Krishnan
The story so far: On January 18,
Indonesia’s Parliament approved a bill to
relocate the country’s capital from
Jakarta to a new city to be built on the
island of Borneo, named as Nusantara.
The decision followed growing concerns
about the long-term sustainability of
Jakarta. The move to the forested
province of East Kalimantan in Borneo
has, however, triggered its own concerns
about the environmental impact there as
the massive project now kicks offT.
What is the problem with Jakarta?
In August 2019, President Joko Widodo
first announced that the capital would be
shifted from Jakarta, on the island of Java,
which has served as the national capital
since Indonesia’s independence, to a new
city to be built in East Kalimantan on the
island of Borneo, some 2,000 km
northeast of Jakarta across the Java
Sea. As visitors to Jakarta would attest,
the teeming city has suffered from a
range of urban problems from
overcrowding to pollution and possibly
one of the world’s most congested roads.
One major concern about its long-term
future was tied to the fact that the city,
CM
YK
COVID-19 tally
3.18
In lakh the number of
new COVID-19 cases
recorded in India on
January 19. This is the
first time in 249 days
that daily cases crossed the 3 lakh
mark. Previously, 3.11 lakh new
infections were registered on May 15,
2021. The country's seven-day rolling
average of test positivity rate stood at
16.2% on January 17. According to the
Health Ministry, 9,287 cases of the
Omicron variant were detected as on
Wednesday. Around 90% of the 15+
population have received at least one
dose of the vaccine. COVID19BHARAT.ORG
LETTER & SPIRIT
The question of OBC reservation in local bodies
The apex court’s latest order makes it mandatory that the principles laid down by the Supreme Court must be followed across the country
Abhilash M.R.
Reservation to Other Backward Classes
(OBCs) in local body elections sans empirical
base can no more be sustainable in law and
the apex court’s latest order in Rahul
Ramesh Wagh v. State of Maharashtra
&Ors. makes it mandatory that the principles
laid down by the Supreme Court for
providing reservation to OBCs in local bodies
shall be scrupulously followed across the
country. The latest order arises out of the
challenge made to the ordinance
promulgated on the teeth of the Supreme
Court judgments by the Governor of
Maharashtra to conduct the local body
elections by providing 27% reservation to
OBCs.
The Constitution Bench decision
The present political quandary harks back to
the five-judge Constitution Bench decision
in K. Krishnamurthy (Dr.) v. Union of India
(2010) wherein the Supreme Court had
interpreted Article 243D(6) and Article
243T(6), which permit reservation by
enactment of law for backward classes in
panchayat and municipal bodies
respectively, to hold that barriers to political
participation are not the same as that of the
barriers that limit access to education and
employment. However, for creating a level
playing field, reservation may be desirable as
mandated by the aforementioned Articles
which provide a separate constitutional basis
for reservation, as distinct from what are
conceived under Article 15 (4) and Article 16
(4) which form the basis for reservation in
education and employment. Though
reservation to local bodies is permissible,
the top court declared that the same is
subject to empirical finding of backwardness
in relation to local bodies as fulfilled through
the three tests as follows:
“1) To set up a dedicated Commission to
conduct contemporaneous rigorous
empirical inquiry into the nature and
implications of the backwardness qua local
bodies, within the State; 2) To specify the
proportion of reservation required to be
provisioned local body-wise in light of
recommendations of the Commission, so as
not to fall foul of overbreadth; 3) and in any
case such reservation shall not exceed
aggregate of 50% of the total seats reserved
in favour of SCs/STs/OBCs taken together.”
The 50% ceiling specifically relied on the
ratio of the historic Indra
Sawhney judgment (1992).
This handout shows a computer-generated design of Indonesia's future presidential
palace in East Kalimantan. It was released by Nyoman Nuarta on January 18, 2022 AFP
home to around 10 million people, stands
on a swamp on the island of Java and has
been slowly sinking. Studies have forecast
that the entire city could sink by 2050,
while flooding is a recurring problem.
What does the latest bill do?
The bill has now given the green light to
Mr. Widodo’s long-discussed move and
FRIDAY, JANUARY 21, 2022
Investments fall
26
The percentage by which
foreign direct investment
(FDI) flows in India fell in
2021 compared to 2020
according to the United
Nations trade body. Global FDI flows
showed a strong rebound in 2021,
growing 77% to an estimated $1.65
trillion, from $929 billion in 2020,
surpassing their pre-COVID-19 level.
The report said developed economies
saw the biggest rise while flows in
developing economies increased by
30%. Investments in India contracted
because large M&A deals recorded in
2020 were not repeated. PTI
Vikas Krishnarao Gawali v. State of
Maharashtra &Ors. (2021)
The Indian political class usually displays
apathy to the law declared by the courts as
contrary to the enacted law. The 2010
judgment was not acted upon and the
constitutionality of the enacted reservation
was challenged. This resulted in the 2021
judgment of a three-judge Bench of the
Supreme Court. In the above case, the
Supreme Court read down the provision of
the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and
Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961, which
mandated for 27% reservation to OBCs in
local bodies.
The court observed that the reservation
for OBCs was just a “statutory dispensation
to be provided by the State legislations” and
is different from the “constitutional”
provisions which mandate reservation to the
Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SC/ST). While
insisting on the triple test, the court
observed that the reservation in favour of
OBCs in the concerned local bodies can be
notified to the extent that it does not exceed
50% of the total seats reserved in favour of
SCs/STs/OBCs taken together. The Supreme
Court quashed notifications issued by the
Maharashtra Election Commission, which
provided more than 50% reservation to
OBCs and SC/STs in some local bodies.
However, the political decision was to take
*
outlined a plan to shift the capital in five
stages. Planning Minister Suharso
Monoarfa told Parliament the first stage,
to be completed by 2024, will focus on
basic infrastructure such as new roads to
provide access to the site. The last stage
will be finished in 2045. The project is
estimated to cost more than $30 billion. A
broader goal, President Widodo has said,
High unemployment
2.86
In lakh are the number
of Americans applying
for unemployment
benefits in January so
far. This is the highest
level reached in three months as the
fast-spreading Omicron variant
continued to disrupt the job market.
Jobless claims rose for the third week
straight — by 55,000 to 2,86,000,
highest since mid-October, the Labor
Department reported Thursday. The
four-week average of claims, which
smooths out weekly volatility, rose by
20,000 to 2,31,000 which is the
highest since late November. PTI
the usual route of ordinance to overcome an
adverse judicial decision.
The wingless ordinance
Maharashtra had constituted a Commission
to ascertain the backwardness of OBCs in
June 2021. But without waiting for an
empirical report, as mandated by the court,
an ordinance was promulgated to amend the
Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat
Samitis Act and the Maharashtra Village
Panchayat Act so as to conduct local body
elections while ensuring OBC reservation.
Though the ordinance was portrayed to be
in compliance with the order of the apex
court without breaching the 50% ceiling as
mandated by the triple test, other
parameters had been transgressed. The
ordinance failed to take off, as it was
challenged before the Bombay High Court;
but the election process was not stalled,
citing which the petitioner reached the
Supreme Court by filing appeal by special
leave and the election process qua the
reserved seats was stayed. The OBC
reservation and notification for the local
body election in Madhya Pradesh also were
deemed to fall foul of the Supreme Court
order, as was found by the apex court, on
challenge.
The Supreme Court directed the
re-notification of the reserved seats as
was to bring greater economic activity to
Kalimantan and reduce the dependence
on Jakarta as well as the island of Java,
which is at the centre of economic
activity as well as national politics.
Government offices will all be moved to
Nusantara. If the current capital is
suffering from pollution and flooding
among other problems, environmental
groups have, however, expressed
concerns that the new project may end
up bringing those problems to
Kalimantan, a region known for its forests
and biodiversity.
Why has it been named Nusantara?
The name literally means “archipelago”,
but also has a historical context referring
to the entire region, including Indonesia
and its neighbours in Southeast Asia. The
Planning Minister said Nusantara “is a
unity concept that accommodates all of
our diversity, whether in race, language,
or ethnicity” and the hope was for the
new capital to be reflective of that
aspiration. The name Nusantara dates
back to Majapahit, a Hindu empire that
was based in Java and ruled from the late
13th to the early 15th centuries. At its peak,
its reach or influence extended beyond
today’s Indonesia to much of Southeast
follow us:
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Expired doses Legend of the game
2.8 43
In million are the number The number of doubles titles
of COVID-19 vaccines won by Sania Mirza in her
donated to African career so far. The former
countries that have doubles world number 1 on
expired, the Africa Centers Wednesday said that she will
for Disease Control said Thursday, retire from tennis at the end of this
citing short shelf life as the major season with injuries taking their toll. It
reason. Donors should send them with came after the 35-year-old, regarded
a realistic shelf life of about “three as her country’s greatest women’s
months to six months” before their tennis player, bowed out of the
expiration, Africa CDC director John Australian Open in the first round with
Nkengasong told an online briefing. He her partner Nadiia Kichenok. Mirza has
also said he is unhappy to see any won six Grand Slam doubles titles and
become invalid. Just over 10% of became the first Indian to win a WTA
Africa's population of 1.3 billion are singles title in 2005. By 2007, she was
fully vaccinated. AP among the women’s top 30. AFP
compiled by the hindu data team
belonging to general category in both the
States on the basis of which the election
process may proceed.
Legislative resolve and the judicial
response
Surprisingly, on December 23, the Madhya
Pradesh Legislative Assembly passed a
resolution to keep the local body elections
without OBC reservation at abeyance. Taking
a political cue from Madhya Pradesh, the
Maharashtra Legislative Assembly also
passed a resolution to stall the local body
elections in the wake of the judicial
interference.
Interestingly, the last order of the apex
court records that “In case, the State or
Union Territory is not in a position to fulfil
the triple test requirement and the election
to any of its local body cannot be postponed
beyond the statutory period, the (State)
Election Commission (concerned) ought to
notify proportionate seats as open category
seats, and proceed with the elections of the
local bodies.”
Had the governments stuck to the law as
mandated by Article 141 of the Constitution,
this quandary wouldn’t have arisen. Rule of
law is not just a set of letters, but it has to be
followed in spirit.
Abhilash M. R. is an advocate practising
in the Supreme Court of India
Asia, including Brunei and parts of
Thailand and the Philippines. While the
official explanation is that this connotes
diversity, there has been some
head-scratching as to why President
Widodo, who chose the name from a list
THE GIST
B On January 18,
of 80 suggestions, finally decided on one Indonesia’s Parliament
that refers not only to Indonesia but to approved a bill to relocate
the entire region. the country’s capital from
Jakarta to a new city to be
built on the island of
Have other countries recently
Borneo, named as
shifted capitals? Nusantara.
States have shifted capitals for a
multitude of reasons throughout history,
B Jakarta suffers from a
from reasons to do with the weather and
range of urban problems
the military to pride projects and just such as overcrowding and
politics. Kazakhstan and Myanmar offer pollution. One major
two recent examples. concern about its long-term
In 1997, Kazakhstan shifted its capital future was tied to the fact
from Almaty to Astana, like many new that the city stands on a
capitals, a planned city. Then Astana was swamp on the island of Java
itself renamed in 2019 to Nur-Sultan, in and has been slowly sinking.
homage to long-term former President
Nursultan Nazarbayev (currently facing B Nusantara literally means
the ire of protesters amid the recent “archipelago”, but also has a
unrest). historical context referring
Myanmar in 2005 shifted its capital to the entire region,
including Indonesia and the
from Yangon to another planned city,
rest of Southeast Asia.
Naypyidaw. Strategic reasons were cited
as one possible explanation for the
military regime’s decision.
S ND-NDE
friday, january 21, 2022
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| II
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IN THE LIMELIGHT

Star-struck amidst a new wave

of Malayalam cinema
The pandering to fans is holding thespians Mammootty and Mohanlal back from letting
themselves explore uncharted territories as they once used to do

THE GIST
S.R. Praveen

Towards the fag end of the first day of December

last year, theatres across Kerala and metro cities
outside the State witnessed long winding queues
B Mammootty and Mohanlal of Mohanlal fans. The Malayalam film industry
started their careers in was just beginning to recover from a lull, induced
Malayalam cinema around by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the release of
the same time, filling the ‘Marakkar: Lion of the Arabian Sea’, one of the
void left by Prem Nazir, costliest movies ever in the industry, was
Sathyan and Jayan. They expected to give it a push. The crowd, mostly
both used to star in 15 to
20 films each year essaying
men, were all there for the special midnight show
a wide variety of exclusively for the superstar’s fans.
author-backed roles. The For all the midnight frenzy, which was preceded
played characters whose by days of never-before-seen marketing blitz, the
state of joblessness, general next day was marked by mostly silence and stray
disenchantment or even expressions of disappointment from the die-hard
justified anger appealed to fans; the film was much below their expectations.
the youth of that period. For the fans of Mammootty too, the recent years
Writers and filmmakers used
have been marked by much pre-release hype, like
their talents for characters
who were flawed and not in the case of ‘One’ last year, only to be followed FROM THE ARCHIVES
always confined to by disappointment. In the past two decades, the

Know your
conventional moral codes. number of films of either superstar, which have
either garnered critical acclaim or have scored
B After the formalisation of
high in the box office pale in comparison to the
number of duds.

English
their fan associations, they
began to play
larger-than-life roles, The good old days
wearing their This record is much in contrast to the box office
hypermasculinity on their records in the 1980s and 90s for both stars, who
sleeves. The number of began their careers and ascendancy in Malayalam “ Good evening, sir.”
critically acclaimed films in
cinema around the same time, filling the void left “Good evening.”
the past two decades for
both actors is much lower
by Prem Nazir, Sathyan and Jayan. It was a time Mohanlal and Mammootty in a still from the movie Twenty 20. *
THE HINDU “I couldn’t come earlier. There was an acci-
compared to the ones they during which both used to star in 15 to 20 films dent. A car dashed against a tree. Luckily no
both had in the past. With each year (In 1986, one of the best years for the character. much-celebrated films. one was killed. Five people were seriously in-
the rise of the OTT space, Malayalam cinema, Mohanlal starred in 34 films The aberrations to this norm were few and far jured.”
there are not many takers and Mammootty in 35, many of which turned out between post-millennium, the first decade of The rise of the OTT era “I am relieved to hear that no one was
for the old kind of films. to be super hits), essaying a wide variety of which would be marked as one of the lowest In the OTT space too, there are not many takers killed. In India, we do talk about a car dash-
While this has made the author-backed roles. points of Malayalam cinema. for the old kind of films. Although there are young ing against a tree, truck, wall. etc. In such a
superstars tone down their Those were the pre-image conscious days for both Mammootty has acted in 109 films and sets of fans for both, another large section of the context native speakers of English would say
one-man shows they still
have been unable to
of them. Mohanlal in 95 films since 2001 to the present. young generation of viewers are ripping apart, on the car crashed into a tree or ran into a tree
recapture the magic of their Mohanlal, for instance, was not reluctant to Out of these, both have only around 10 to 15 films, social media, the films that still go by the old or hit a tree. But ‘dash against’ has an Indian
heydays. play Haridas in ‘Amritham Gamaya’, a doctor who which could be called either a commercial success formulae. All these have probably made the flavour. I am not against Indian English. But
is living with the guilt of having ragged and caused or critically acclaimed, like ‘Thanmathra’ or superstars tone down their one-man shows, and you must realise that ‘dash against’ is not
the death of a junior student in college, or in the ‘Pranchiyettan and the Saint’. even include passing lines about the need to used in a similar context by native speakers.
B Despite the disappointing
record in recent years, every case of Mammootty, there were films like The number of such memorable films in the past respect women. But they have been —except in a The waves dashed against the rocks. This is
superstar movie release is ‘Vidheyan’, in which he played an oppressive two decades for both actors is much lower few movies —unable to recapture the magic of common in English. But the word ‘dash’ does
an event preceded by landlord. At the same time, they endeared compared to the ones they both had in that single their heydays. It would seem that there is not ‘clash’ with cars in the context you have
frenetic activity for their themselves to the audience with characters year in 1986, or some of the years following that. something holding them back from letting mentioned. There is no logic in this. It is
fans’ association. The fans almost everyone could identify with. Their state of It is not a surprise that many of the films from themselves go, exploring uncharted territories as merely a matter of usage.”
give their last bit to ensure joblessness, general disenchantment or even the those years are still the most preferred reruns for they once used to do. “Sir, some say that what matters is intellig-
that the film gets a grand justified anger which comes from helplessness a large section of the Malayali audience. Although Despite the rather disappointing record in ibility; we shouldn’t worry about correctness.
opening. In the social media
appealed to the youth of that period. Writers and the presence of some great screenwriters during recent years, every superstar movie release is an What do you think of this view, sir?”
era, they go back home to
post positive reviews in all
filmmakers including K.G. George, Padmarajan that period did contribute a lot to the kind of roles event preceded by frenetic activity for their fans’ “Well, you can make yourself understood
possible platforms, counter and Bharathan, who all trod the path of middle and movies both of them got in the late 1980s and associations, who are at other times involved in even through gestures. If I say ‘I wented there
negative reviews and even cinema, between mainstream and parallel early 90s, the lack of requirement to pander to welfare activities and charity work. The district yesterday’, there won’t be any difficulty
launch organised troll cinema, used their talents for their characters the needs of the fans’ associations back then, and State committees meet and chalk out the about understanding me. But you won’t think
attacks on those posting who were flawed and not always confined to seems to have informed their choices too. plans for the film promotion. In an infamous highly of my knowledge of English. There are
negative reviews. conventional moral codes. This is evident in how both these actors rarely video of a fans association meeting which different levels of attainment. Everything de-
Compare this to the characters they played in have been part of any of the exciting ventures by surfaced some years back, a star was seen telling pends on what level you want to reach. I will
the past two decades, a majority of which were the new crop of screenwriters and filmmakers in fans that their duty is to watch and make a success read out a letter that is reported to have been
unidimensional roles which did not require much the industry post-2010, which is why their films of all of his films, be it good or bad. written years ago by one of our countrymen.
of an effort from these two brilliant actors, other are mostly absent from the list of talked about There cannot be a better comment about the “Now, Reverend Sir, I am what dog say to rat,
than twirl their moustaches, deliver long-winded films in the current phase of pan-Indian true nature of fans associations and their in tight corner, for domestic troubles come in
monologues which end with punchlines, bash up popularity of Malayalam films. In the changed influence on the quality of the films of the plural and sometimes in triplicate, causing
goons, and also show self-confident and vocal Malayalam cinema, the hero is not the first among respective stars. slight earthquakes in Heavenly household
women their place. Ironically, this was also the equals, but one of the many characters of almost The fans put up giant flexes of the star well in when there is shortage of coin, and to add to
time when their respective fan clubs really equal importance. The social setting of these advance, arrange percussionists to pep up the this my wife doth bring me in annual incre-
became visible in the State’s public sphere. movies has also transformed from the 1990s, a opening days, ensure the seats are all filled up for mental successions, to the ramification of this
time noted for its feudal nostalgia, to a more the opening show, throw confetti and paper bits, generation, and by the Lord there is no end to
The price of mass fandom immediate and contemporary space, where whistle, clap, dance and give their last bit to this mischief!”
Though both their fan clubs have existed ordinariness and differences are celebrated. ensure that the film gets a grand opening. In the “The writer of this letter has an impressive
informally for long, it was only in the late 1990s In Fahadh Faazil’s ‘Maheshinte Prathikaram’ social media era, they have to go back home, post vocabulary but has no sense of appropriate-
that the fans’ associations of both stars were (Mahesh’s Revenge), directed by Dileesh Pothan, positive reviews in all possible platforms, counter ness. Let us not go into the grammatical er-
officially registered, under the names Mammooty the protagonist in his introductory scene rises up negative reviews and even launch organised troll rors. We can understand what the writer
Fans and Welfare Association International from a pond humming the theme song of attacks on those posting negative reviews. At means, but the manner of writing evokes
(MFWAI), and All Kerala Mohanlal Fans Mohanlal’s ‘Narasimham’ , reminding us of the times, they also appeal emotionally to not judge laughter as it does not fit the subject. It is not
Association (AKMFA), with the stars also bloody revenge films of the recent past that have harshly on the first day of a film, which is the enough to possess a good vocabulary: you
becoming a part of their activities. attained a cult status. But Mahesh’s revenge, sweat and blood of many. must know how to use the words appro-
It might be a coincidence, but the timing of the which is served to us wrapped in humour and Yet, all the efforts of the fans’ associations priately. If a person writes in this fashion for
formalisation of these associations is notable. This empathy, is of a gentler kind. Or, take the case of cannot paper over the fact that most of the recent humorous effect, then it is a different ques-
was around the time when both of them began to Madhu C. Narayanan’s ‘Kumbalangi Nights’, films of the stars pale in comparison to the tion altogether. So you see it is not enough to
play larger-than-life roles, wearing their where the macho Shammi, who could have been a pre-association era. They would still identify with be intelligible. You must speak and write
hypermasculinity on their sleeves. Films like hero in the 1990s, is the villain, while three flawed a T.P. Balagopalan MA or gurkha Ram Singh, or what may be called ‘educated English’.”
‘Aaram Thampuran’, ‘Ustad’, ‘Narasimham’, men, including one who bawls onscreen, are Balan Mash or Perumal, more than any of the “Sir, is the word ‘impertinent’ the opposite
‘Ravanaprabhu’ and many others were written for treated in a positive manner. The women in these perfect, larger-than-life characters both of them of “’pertinent’?
Mohanlal, while Mammootty had ‘Valiyettan’, films are also not ones who need the help of essayed in recent years. It remains to be seen ‘Impertinent’ was used in the sense of ‘not
‘Rakshasarajavu’ and others. The stars began to “strong” men, rather they stand up on their own whether their upcoming films like ‘Puzhu’ or ‘Bro pertinent’ in the past and even now it is used
be seen as bigger than their movies, and scripts and even put the macho men in their place. Daddy’ would be etched similarly in the minds of occasionally in that sense. But I’d suggest that
began to be written to project the star instead of Shows of masculinity are lampooned in these the audiences. you don’t use it in that sense. Well, ‘perti-
nent’ is a formal word meaning ‘relevant.’ Ex-
amples: He asked pertinent questions. The
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opposite of ‘pertinent’ is ‘irrelevant.’ He
asked irrelevant questions. ‘Impertinent’
THE DAILY QUIZ means ‘rude or disrespectful, especially to an
older or more important person.’ A person
On January 15, 2001, the revolutionary, online free content encyclopedia, Wikipedia, maintained by a model of may be impertinent in action or words. An
open collaboration came to being. This quiz is on open source/ open collaboration projects and products. impertinent person generally thinks too
much of himself; he is lacking in humility.”
“Is there a word ‘privatise’ in English, sir?”

1 One of the most revolutionary open source

projects started off with a message on a
Usenet newsgroup by a then 21 year old
3 Named indirectly after a member of the Italian royalty in
the 11th century , this project revolutionised the idea of
using simple, inexpensive tools for hardware development
! This is the logo of another revolutionary
collaborative project (spearheaded first by
a British entrepreneur named Steve Coast)
“Yes. there is. It is used in the sense of ‘to
make private as opposed to public, especially
of the state.’ It is the opposite of ‘nationalise.’
computer science student in 1991. Initially he by non-engineers and hobbyists. Today it is the most to create a free database that is now
sought to name the system he was building as popular example of open-source hardware. Name it. prominently used by several companies. It is also used in the sense of ‘to regard as per-
“Freax” —a portmanteau of “Free”, “Freak” and Identify this. sonal or separate.’ I will give you some exam-
X (referencing Unix) but finally landed another
name. Soon the system became chosen by
several computer programmers, built upon and
4 A version of this was originally conceived in a patented
idea by an engineer in 1904 and later published in a
Scientific American editorial in 1909 called “The Limit of
ples. Some feel that the Railways should be
privatised. I don’t think you can privatise reli-
Please send in your answers to the gion. This word is only about 13 years old and
is now being used nearly universally in web Rapid Transit”. Later, this model was renamed by Tesla and
servers, mobile devices, and also by many SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk and published in a paper in 2013, dailyquiz@thehindu.co.in you may not find it in small dictionaries. It is
computers. Name the system and the person in following which the concept was “open sourced” to entered in the Supplement vol 3 (O—Sc). to
question. encourage others to develop and make it feasible. What is Answers to the previous day’s daily quiz: 1. the Oxford English Dictionary published this
the current name of this project called? Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), 2. Renuka year. This is enough for today. Goodbye.”
2 The person in question 1 also created a
software in 2005 to track changes in files
for further development of the product 5 This project was executed by 300 plus volunteers to
keep India informed about COVID-19 by running a
Jagtiani (Landmark Group), 3. Ivan Menezes
(Diageo), 4. Indra Nooyi (ex-CEO of Pepsi), 5.
“Thank you, sir. Goodbye.”

mentioned in question 1. Later using this Telegram bot to collect data on COVID-19 on a regular basis Sanjay Mehrotra, 6. Vasant Narasimhan
software, a company created a host for software and hosted open source on a website. This website served as (Novartis) and Laxman Narasimhan (Reckitt
development and version control for largely the nodal point to understand the impact of the pandemic Benckiser), 7. Leena Nair (Chanel), 8. Punit For feedback and suggestions for
open source software projects. This company and came to a halt in October 2021 but the codebase was Renjen, the global CEO of Deloitte.
was later bought by Microsoft. Name the picked up by other volunteer-based groups to continue Text & Context, please write to
company. tracking. Name the website. letters@thehindu.co.in with the
Early Birds: Amruta| Prijin George Koshy| subject ‘Text & Context’
Ebraham Jose Jijo| S. Jean Santhosh| Dr.
Compiled by: Srinivasan Ramani Sruthi G.
CM S ND-NDE
YK