DELHI, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 5 No. 77 CITY EDITION 18 Pages Rs. 8.00 www.thehindu.in

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

INSIDE
BUFFALO SLAUGHTER

Maharashtra traders to
end self-imposed ban
MUMBAI: Buffalo slaughter
will resume in Maharashtra on
Wednesday, after a month-long
self-imposed ban by traders
protesting the State
governments ban on the
slaughter of bulls and bullocks.

NATIONAL | PAGE 13

WOMAN GANG-RAPED

Former sarpanch, three

others booked
PUNE: A 45-year-old woman
was gang-raped at gunpoint for
allegedly refusing to donate
to a Hindu ritual at Sonai
village in Ahmednagar district
of Maharashtra. The police
have booked a case against a
former sarpanch and three
others for the incident that
came to light on Tuesday.

NATIONAL | PAGE 13

OUSTER AFTERMATH

New party in offing ?

NEW DELHI: Even as the
mudslinging within the Aam
Aadmi Party refuses to die
down, its two leaders Yogendra
Yadav and Prashant Bhushan,
ousted from the national
executive, appear to be laying
the ground for the formation of
a new political party.

NEWS | PAGE 12

BABRI MASJID CASE Plea seeks trial on conspiracy charges

SC notice puts Advani,

top BJP leaders in a fix
It could revive
questions on
their role in the
demolition

larised it.
A Bench led by Chief Justice H.L. Dattu issued notice
to BJP veterans Mr. Advani,
Murli Manohar Joshi, Union
Minister Uma Bharti and
Himachal Pradesh Governor
Kalyan Singh.
The Supreme Court also
asked the CBI to explain why
it unduly delayed the appeal

against the HC order.

The agency has been given
four weeks to le its reply.
Mr. Ahmads petition contends that the trial court bifurcated
the
actual
demolition and instigation
into separate cases.

RESPONDENTS MAY INFLUENCE

CBI, SAYS PLEA | PAGE 12

MAJOR FIRE

Shops gutted, 3 hurt

NEW DELHI: A major fire broke
out in the famous cloth market
of Gandhi Nagar. Three suffered
burn injuries while three shops
were gutted.

CITY | PAGE 3

EMPOWER
On Page 8

Two sentenced
to 30 years
for gang-rape

DGCA probes near miss over Mumbai

NEW DELHI: A possible mishap
involving aircraft of two Gulf
carriers over Indian airspace
early on Monday was averted
when the Mumbai air traffic
control alerted one of the
commanders, aviation sources said on Tuesday.
The incident involving the
Emirates and Etihad Airways
was reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation,
which started an investigation, they said. While Emirates conrmed the incident in
a statement from Dubai, Etihad said it would respond
soon.
The incident occurred on
the intervening night of
March 29-30, when Emirates
ight EK-706 was heading to

Previous versions
were rejected by
President twice

Its TADA in
another form

Rahi Gaikwad

NEW DELHI: Several

provisions of the Gujarat
Control of Terrorism
and Organised Crime
Bill, which was passed
again by the Gujarat
Assembly on Tuesday,
are a replay of draconian
anti-terror laws, starting
with the Terrorist and
Disruptive Activities
(Prevention) Act
(TADA) enacted in 1985.
The Gujarat law
allows a suspect to be
kept in custody for 30
days.
It also gives the police
180 days to le a charge
sheet, double the time
under the Criminal
Procedure Code.

GANDHINAGAR: Revisiting the

disputed anti-terror legislation brought in by former
Chief Minister Narendra
Modi , the Gujarat Assembly
on Tuesday passed the landmark Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime
Bill 2015.
The new Bill is a reworked version of the Gujarat Control of Organised
Crime Bill (GUJCOC), 2003,
which was earlier rejected
twice by the President due to
some of its contentious
provisions.
The State government
passed the Bill amid strong
opposition from Congress
members, who staged a walk
out.
Citing past terror attacks

Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI: The Supreme
Court on Tuesday sought
the responses of BJP leader
L.K. Advani and 19 others on
a petition that sought their
trial on charges of conspiracy to demolish the Babri
Masjid in 1992.
The Central Bureau of Investigation that investigated
the case had accused them
all, but a trial court discharged them in a decision
upheld by the Allahabad
High Court in 2010.
The apex court intervention following a petition by
Haji Mahboob Ahmad, a petitioner in the mosque demolition case, could revive the
latent but inconclusive
questions about the role of
the senior leaders of the ruling party in the demolition
that triggered violence
across the country and po-

Gujarat anti-terror Bill passed finally

Aircraft belonging to
Emirates and Etihad
were involved.
Dubai from Seychelles while
Etihad ight EY-622 was on
way to Seychelles from Abu
Dhabi. Noticing that the two
aircraft were perilously close
to each other, the Mumbai
ATC alerted one of the commanders by giving a resolution advisory (RA), the
sources said. An RA is given to

the pilot if the distance reduces to the extent that the risk of
collision gets to 25 seconds. It
is an indication recommending a manoeuvre to provide
separation from all threats or
a manoeuvre restriction intended to maintain existing
separation. This is also an instruction to climb, descend or
level out. The pilot is required
to comply in 6 seconds; the
instruction has priority over
other ATC instructions.
Emirates can conrm that
ight EK 706 on March 29
from Seychelles to Dubai was
involved in an Air Traffic Control incident in Mumbai airspace,
an
Emirates
spokesperson said in the
statement. PTI

China ready
to work on
trilateral
cooperation
Srinivasan Ramani
CHENNAI: China would like to
address the issue of trade imbalance and is willing to provide
greater opportunities to India for
exports, its Ambassador in New
Delhi Le Yucheng said here.
China takes the Indian
concern of trade imbalance very
seriously, he said in a written
interview with The Hindu, which
was followed by an interaction.
Asserting that Beijing was willing to work with India to conduct
trilateral cooperation involving
other South Asian nations, Mr. Le
said there was no
basis to the
fear that India
would be
encircled by
China.
EXCERPTS
FROM
INTERVIEW |

Jayant Sriram

in Gujarat, Rajnikant Patel, ing in the State and thus,

Minister of State Home, there is immediate need to
raised concerns over Pakis- curb their activities, the
tans attempts at cross-bor- government has stated in the
der terrorism, Gujarats new Bill. Among the controvulnerable coastline and the versial provisions of the Bill
proliferation of criminal is Clause 16, which makes
gangs, while underscoring confessions before police ofthe need for a strong law.
cers admissible in court.
It is noticed that the orgaGUJCOC was respectively
nised criminal syndicates returned twice to the State
make a common cause with legislature in 2004 and 2008
terrorist gangs and foster by then Presidents A.P.J. Abmacro terrorism which ex- dul Kalam and Pratibha Patends beyond the national til.
boundaries. There is reason
to believe that organised
UNDECLARED EMERGENCY, SAY
crime syndicates are operat- ACTIVISTS | PAGE 12

Land ordinance on track

Gargi Parsai
NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet

on Tuesday discussed re-promulgation of the Land Acquisition Ordinance but refrained

from making an official announcement on the decision
taken.
Senior Cabinet sources told
The Hindu that the government
is determined to re-issue the
ordinance in its changed form
following amendments to the
Bill introduced in the Lower
House.
A senior government source
emphasised that the process to
promulgate an ordinance that
will include the amendments
passed by the Lok Sabha is under way.
Constitutional process will
take its course, a senior minister said after the Cabinet
meeting.
The Rajya Sabha has been
prorogued by President Pranab
Mukherjee, setting in motion
the process for re-promulgation of the ordinance which will
lapse by April 5.
A new ordinance will have to

A new ordinance will

have to be issued
before Parliament
re-convenes after
recess on April 20
be issued before Parliament reconvenes after recess on April
20.
Getting the Bill passed in the
Rajya Sabha, where the NDA is
in a minority, has become a challenge for the government. In the
Lower House, the Congress,
Trinamool Congress, Janata
Dal (United), DMK and the Left
parties had joined hands to
block the Bill when it came up
for passage. They are demanding that the provisions for consent before acquisition and
social impact assessment be reintroduced in the Bill.
The Congress is demanding
that the NDA drop its amendments to the UPAs 2013 Act and
retain the previous legislation.

BJP TO ADDRESS FARMERS

MISGIVINGS | PAGE 12

ECHO OF POTA

PROVISIONS | PAGE 12

1,650 colonies to
be regularised
Jatin Anand & Damini Nath
NEW DELHI: In a move that
spells relief for an estimated
40 lakh residents staying in
unauthorised colonies and also that would deliver on a
promise made by successive
governments, but ever fullled, residents of 1,650 such
colonies can apply for the registration of their respective
properties soon.
DETAILS | PAGE 5

Death row
Rukmini S
NEW DELHI: Indian courts handed down at least 64 death sentences last year but no
executions took place, largely as
a result of court rulings, new data from Amnesty International
shows. Globally, executions fell
by a fth, and two-thirds of the
world has abolished it.

DETAILS | PAGE 13

COMMENT

Govt. backtracks on pictorial warnings

Smriti Kak Ramachandran

have Prime Minister Narendra vironment and Forest MinisModi tweeting that by saying ter Prakash Javadekar said:
NEW DELHI: The Union Health
no to tobacco, we lay the foun- Do not listen to these things.
Special Correspondent
Ministry on Tuesday asserted
dation of a healthy India, and Science is science. You cannot
that there was no change in
then you have a party MP ask- compromise on science.
NEW DELHI: A Delhi court has the commitment to curb the
ing for evidence of cancer-toWhile the social media was
sentenced two persons to consumption of tobacco in all
bacco link, Mr. Trivedi said.
abuzz with criticism, Monica
30-years imprisonment for possible forms, even as it put in
Congress leaders also criti- Arora of the Voluntary Health
gang-raping a foreign na- abeyance its earlier noticacised the Ministry's decision, Association of India said an
tional, observing that the tion increasing the pictorial
with Milind Deora tweeting: earlier committee on suborditwo convicts were on the warnings from 40 per cent to A pictorial warning on a Sad day for Indias anti-tobac- nate legislation of the Rajya
prowl like hungry wolves 85 per cent on the packages of cigarette packet.- PHOTO:
co crusaders (including my late Sabha had recommended that
and their eyes shone bright- tobacco products from April 1. SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
father, whose PIL led to the pictorial warnings and rules
ly
on
seeing
the
The Congress and the Trinasmoking ban in public places) against tobacco advertisement
prosecutrix.
mool Congress (TMC) have de- not been consulted has also & cancer survivors. Party spo- should be made stronger. The
The convicts are sen- scribed the Ministrys decision been dismissed. TMC leader kesperson Abhishek Manu committee, in 2013, observed
tenced to rigorous imprison- following a recommendation Dinesh Trivedi told The Hindu Singhvi alleged that the NDA that the pictorial warning
ment for a period of 30 years by a committee on subordinate that the committee does not government seemed to be needs to be 90 per cent. So all
each with a ne of Rs.40,000 legislation as appeasement have the power to make the openly
lobbying
for those earlier reports have not
each for the offence under of corporate lobbies.
government change the noti- corporates.
been reviewed when this comSection376D (gang-rape),
The Ministrys explanation cation. The committee has
On the back foot over party mittee made its recommendaAdditional Sessions Judge that it is merely following the no power and no business to MP Dilipbhai Gandhis re- tions, Dr. Arora pointed out.
Virender Bhat announced.
committees recommendation meddle in this. The govern- mark, asking for research to
SHOCKING, SAYS SUPRIYA SULE
The police had charge- to put the notication in abey- ment is bluffing, it shows their prove the correlation between | PAGE 13
sheeted the two accused, Raj ance as all stakeholders have weakness. On the one hand, we cancer and tobacco, Union EnKumar and Dinesh Sharma,
with abducting the prosecutrix, an Ugandan national,
on the intervening night of
June 18 and 19 last year, takYuthika Bhargava
the nancial implications of the more than 1.3 paise per minute. fee and spectrum usage charge.
ing her to the house of Raj
[spectrum] auction indicates
Seeking a clarication on
While we wait for the anKumar's sister in a car, rapNEW DELHI: In deance of the an increase of more than 12-15 these calculations, COAI said swers from the government, we
ing her there and then
governments dismissal of re- per cent on the present tariffs, the government seemed to have maintain that owing to the indumping her near a Metro
ports of rate increases last to make up for the cash out- failed to factor in ination and creased nancial burden, the
pillar on the Najafgarh Road.
week, the Cellular Operators ows of the operators, COAI the interest on debt the oper- industrys cost structure will
The prosecutrix stood on
Association of India (COAI) said in a statement. Last week, ators would have to pay for change drastically and the opher statements recorded by
said on Tuesday that mobile Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar funds raised to acquire spec- erators will not be left with
the investigating officer and
phone tariffs could go up by 12- Prasad said a simple calcula- trum in the auction that ended much choice but to increase the
later by a Metropolitan Ma15 per cent because of high tion, based on TRAI data, last week. It said the operators tariffs to meet the nancial
gistrate.
spectrum prices.
showed that if at all required, would have to pay 13-14 per commitments to the governShe also identied the two
the industrys analysis of tariffs would not increase by cent of their revenues as licence ment, it said.
accused during the trial of
the case.

12-15% mobile tariff hike likely, say operators

CM
YK

ND-ND

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

CITY

18-hour-old baby undergoes open heart surgery

Govt. wants to take over sick EDMC

Doctors at the Fortis Escorts Heart Institute in New Delhi

have successfully conducted an emergency open heart
surgery on an 18-hour-old baby: Page 4

Even as the stand-off between the government and BJP-led

civic bodies continues, the Delhi Chief Minister is
contemplating taking over nancially sick EDMC: Page 5

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

National Museum selected AISA demands

transport
for GMLC in New York

The joy in little things

Theatre today needs to

come out of bechara mode

Staff Reporter

An exhibition that reminds you to unwind, relax

Rana Siddiqui Zaman

NEW DELHI: The National Museum has been selected to participate in the Second Global
Museum Leaders Colloquium
(GMLC) to be held in New
York next month.
The museum will be among
15 others selected for the colloquium, to be hosted by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York. The event will
have representatives from
these museums deliberate on
measures to broaden international dialogue about museum
management.
National Museum DirectorGeneral Venu V, who will be
visiting New York, was instrumental in launching a series of
initiatives to reinvigorate the
65-year-old institution.
Other institutes attending
the event are from the U.K.,

China, Colombia, New Zealand, Benin, Cameroon, Iran,

Nigeria, Peru, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, the Philippines and Vietnam. This years
GMLC participants include directors of national, private and
academic museums, which together account for an annual
attendance of more than ve
million visitors and collections
of nearly six million objects.
The 11-day GMLC is expected to provide a 360-degree
view of current museum practices worldwide, placing a
strong emphasis on institutional leadership and strategic
problem solving.
The challenge for the museologists and museum administrators is to hammer out new
strategies that will increase
footfalls and make museums a
focal point in the spectrum of
culture and art, said Mr. Venu.

facilities for
DU students

Jaideep Deo Bhanj

Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: Lost in the daily
NEW DELHI: The All-India Stu-

dents Association (AISA) on

Tuesday held a demonstration
in front of the Delhi Secretariat demanding that the government make good on its
promises to provide better
transport facilities for Delhi
University students.
A delegation also met Parliamentary Secretary (Transport) Sanjeev Jha. This is the
third time the students have
met a representative of the
Transport Ministry over the
same issue. Last time when
an AISA delegation met a Minister on February 28, he requested us to undertake a
comprehensive audit of transport-related issues of DU students.
Since
then,
a
month-long audit was conducted by the AISA in more
than 30 of Delhi University, in
which more than 13,000 students gave their feedback,
said Sunny Kumar of the AISA.
Among other things, the
students have been demanding metro feeder services connecting all colleges to the
nearest metro stations, buspass counters in all colleges
and special buses for girls from
all campuses and evening
colleges.

grind, many people do not

take the time to just sit back,
relax, have fun or introspect.
The joys of engaging in a
hobby are sometimes lost.
It is these joys that have
been captured in a photography-art exhibition by Ravi
Dhingra, Moushumee K.
Jha, Shoba Jolly and Ahmed
Firoz, who invite the viewer
to take the time and enjoy
the real essence of small
things in life.
The exhibition, titled
Time Out, features the
four artistes interpretation
of the title. It has resulted in
a collection of images that
hopes to inspire people to
indulge in some leisure and
travel, for a while, to a place
outside the monotony of
day-to-day life.
From candid expressions
of people on the street captured by Firoz to a dancer
completely immersed in her
performance captured by
Jolly, the photographs portray a variety of emotions.
Looking into the eyes of
an elderly woman smoking a
beedi, or a man wearing a
turban caught in a pensive
mood captured by Firoz
makes the viewer wonder

The photography-art exhibition, titled Time Out,

hopes to inspire people to indulge in some leisure
and travel, for a while, to a place outside the
monotony of day-to-day life. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
what thoughts are running
in the minds of these people.
Jha says they came up
with the idea because they
did not want to depict conict or sadness in the images.
Her photograph of meatsellers of Jama Masjid playing carom in their crisp
white kurtas or the widows
of Vrindavan on a trip to the
Taj Mahal are examples of
how she has managed to
capture the way various people and communities unwind.
Dhingra says he tried to

capture time in his photographs, as many objects that

are there today may not exist in the same state tomorrow. He has shown scenes
from a haveli about to get
renovated and frames that
will not exist in times to
come. His series of photographs of a corridor with
swings is another image that
captures the concept of time
and movement beautifully.
The exhibition is on at the
Arpana Caur Academy of
Fine Art and Literature at
Siri Fort Institutional Area
till April 7.

NEW DELHI: From the waiter,

driver, cleaner to the rest staff
at the Taj Mahal hotel, all want a
photograph with pot-bellied
Saurabh Shukla, who loves the
way he looks. It fetches me
roles, you know, says the actorplaywright-director with a
laugh, admitting he is an impulsive foodie.
Popularly known as Kallu
mama for his role in Satya and
the indomitable judge in Jolly
LLB, for which he won a National Award last year, Saurabh was
here as jury member for the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre
Awards (META). I always
wanted to be rich. My idea of
being rich was someone transporting me for free, feeding me,
accommodating me and showing me plays day and night. This
is what happened at META. But
I soon realised there is nothing
like a free lunch. I had to watch
plays day and night, and judge
them too. They made me work
really hard, he said in speech at
the event, prompting laughter
and applause from the audience.
Saurabh, who entered lms
because plays didnt earn
enough for him to live a better
life, spoke to The Hindu about
his struggle. For 18 years, I
stayed away from theatre because I wanted to live a dignied
life; lms, therefore, were the
only option for me. But for past
two years, I have returned to
theatre and dedicated my time

to my play Two to Tango, Three

to Jab. We are now celebrating
its golden jubilee.
Saurabh, who won hearts as
the policeman in Bar, asserts
theatre is no longer a bechara
thing. If it is, then the theatre
groups too must be blamed for
it. After I saw 10 plays as the
jury member, I was pleasantly
surprised to see how small
groups across the nation are
putting their heart and soul into theatre. It made me realise
that if theatre groups pull up
their socks, work hard, and stop
bickering about lack of commercial gains, there is no looking back. Just look at Gujarati
and Marathi plays. The groups
that stage these plays have
bought their own ats in a city
like Mumbai. But theatre in
Delhi has not reached that position yet.
Endorsing the idea of corporate groups entering creative
spaces, the 52-year-old says: I
remember Anand Mahindra
saying: The relationship between theatre and business is
very deep. When we sell a product, we dont sell an object only,
but a story behind it too. I agree
with him. However, he said,
corporate groups should employ creative-businessmen
who are able to strike a balance.
In Europe, there are courses
in theatre, lm and production
marketing. If a few Indians do
them, we will reach the zenith
fast. Theatre cannot be popularised by activism and seminars alone.

Actor-director Saurabh Shukla with actor Lillete

Dubey. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

DUTA public
meeting held
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: The Delhi University Teachers Association on
Tuesday continued its public
meeting outside the Arts Faculty to create awareness
about maladministration by
the varsity administration.
Witnesses included teachers and students who were
forced to le RTIs or take recourse to litigation against DU
in order to secure justice. Professor Hany Babu and Hans
Raj Suman outlined details behind DUs repeated attempts
to deny due reservations to
students in admissions and
teachers in permanent appointments, said DUTA president Nandita Narain.

Disclaimer: Readers are requested to verify &

make appropriate enquiries to satisfy
themselves about the veracity of an advertisement before responding to any published in
this newspaper. Kasturi & Sons Limited, the
Publisher & Owner of this newspaper, does not
vouch for the authenticity of any advertisement
or advertiser or for any of the advertisers products and/or services. In no event can the
Owner, Publisher, Printer, Editor, Director/s,
Employees of this newspaper/company be held
responsible/liable in any manner whatsoever for
any claims and/or damages for advertisements
in this newspaper.

CM
YK

ND-ND

CITY

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

DELHI TODAY
RISE
Apr

01
WED

Two contract
killers arrested
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police
Crime Branch has arrested
two contract killers, who
were involved in attempt to
murder cases in Delhi and
Ghaziabad. According to the
police, they were hired by a
businessman, who wanted to
settle financial disputes. The
businessman has also been
arrested.
We have busted a nexus
involving a businessman and
his hired shooters, who fired
upon two persons - Delhi resident Sanjay Mehta and Ghaziabad resident Sandeep
Kheda. Those who were arrested are Nitin Arora (33),
the businessman, and the
shooters, Dhanesh Kallu (26)
and Muninder Chauhan
(34), a senior police officer
said.
The attack on Sanjay Mehta took place when he was sitting in his office in Krishna
Nagar.
The other businessman,
Sandeep Kheda, used to be a
cloth merchant in Gandhi Nagar. In last September, the
contract killers fired on Mr.
Khedas car in which the driver sustained injuries.

06 12

SET 18 39
RISE 16 06
SET 04 14

Apr

RISE 06 11

Apr

RISE 06 10

02

SET 18 39
RISE 16 57
SET 04 48

03

SET 18 40
RISE 17 48
SET 05 23

THU

FRI

Drunk driver like

a suicide bomber
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Observing that a
drunk driver is like a suicide
bomber and deserves a stern
punishment, a Delhi court has
dismissed an appeal by an auto-driver seeking waiver of his
20-day sentence in a drunken
driving case.
The driver, Pawan kumar,
had pleaded guilty in the trial
of the case by a Metropolitan
Magistrate under different
Sections of the Motor Vehicles
Act. The Magistrate had sentenced him to 20-day imprisonment and imposed a fine of
Rs. 10,000. He has already deposited the fine amount. The
breath analysis report of the
appellant had revealed that
the alcohol content in his
blood was found to be 539.7
mg/100 ml, the permissible
limit of which is 30 mg/100
ml, the court noted in its
order.
Additional Sessions Judge
Virender Bhat said, I am of
the opinion that the sentence
of imprisonment of 20 days
imposed upon the appellant is

FIR against
immigration
officer
Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police

have registered an FIR
against an immigration officer, who had allegedly verbally sexually harassed a
woman passenger at the Indira Gandhi International
Airport on March 19. We
in no way, harsh or unwar- have registered an FIR after
ranted. The appeal is sans any we received the womans
merit. Hence the same is here- complaint through email,
by dismissed.
said a senior police official.
The fact that the appellant,
As per the complaint, imin the instant case, was driving migration officer Vinod Kua commercial vehicle in the mar had allegedly asked the
peak hours, after heavy intake woman some sexually explicit
of alcohol, makes the offence questions while checking her
committed by him more se- passport and other travel
vere. There would have cer- documents after she reached
tainly been a horrible tragedy, Delhi from Bengaluru on her
if he was not stopped by traffic way to Hong Kong. The Home
police officials, Mr. Bhat said. Ministry has placed the offiHence it wont be inappro- cer under suspension.
priate to say that a drunk driver is like a suicide bomber,
who has set out to kill himself
as well as the other road users
and thus deserves a very stern
sentence which should have a
deterrent effect and discourage everyone from driving after alcohol intake, Mr. Bhat
said.

Delhi court dismisses

appeal by auto-driver
seeking waiver of his
20-day sentence in a
drunken driving case

Fire in Gandhi Nagar cloth market

Three suffer burns; 30 fire tenders work for 4 hours to douse blaze
Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: A major fire broke
out in the famous cloth market of Gandhi Nagar. According to fire officials, three
persons suffered minor burn
injuries while three shops
were gutted. Valuables worth
lakhs of rupees were destroyed.
A call was received at 3:15
p.m. Around 30 fire tenders
were pressed into service and
it took four hours to douse the
blaze, said an official of the
Delhi Fire Service .
According to the police, the
fire started at a kerosene depot on the ground floor of a
three-storey building located
at Pratap Gali, which houses a
garment warehouse on the
first and second floor. People
present inside the building
were evacuated, the official
added. The oil depot made it

Satyarthi seeks
complete ban
on child labour
Bindu Shajan Perappadan

Fire broke out at a kerosene depot on the ground

floor of a three-storey building, which houses a
garment warehouse on the first and second floor.
PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
difficult for the fire officials to
douse the blaze and garments
lying on the first floor added
to their woes.
The police have filed a case
under relevant sections. The
entire area was cordoned off
as the fire spread and the ex-

act cause of the fire is being

investigated. The injured persons were admitted to Guru
Teg Bahadur Hospital. Their
conditions were stated to be
out of danger. Three shops located close to the building
were also gutted.

NEW DELHI: Immediate and

safe passage of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Amendment Bill in
both the Houses should be the
moral responsibility of every
parliamentarian, said Nobel
Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi at The Dialogue between Civil Society and Policy
Makers for the Elimination of
Child Labour, conference
recently.
Mr. Satyarthi said, A child
in need of care and protection,
but trapped in labour, cannot
afford to wait for a single day.
I urge Parliament to pass the
child labour Bill. I demand a
complete ban on all forms of
child labour bringing the law
in sync with the Right to Education Act, he said.

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

CM
YK

ND-ND

CITY/NCR

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Sanitation workers strike partly called off

Staff Reporter
NEW DELHI: The strike by East Delhi san-

itation workers was partly called off on

Tuesday, with some unions agreeing to
resume work, while others continued
to dump garbage on the streets as a
sign of protest against delayed salaries.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation did not pay salary to safai karamcharis for February, but claimed to
have released it on March 28.
On Tuesday, after meeting EDMC
commissioner Amit Yadav, representatives of about half of the 11 unions

decided to call off their strike. However, rival unions claimed that the corporation had dangled the carrot of
promotions and raises to break the
strike.
Rajendra Mewati, the president of
the Akhil Bharatiya Safai Mazdoor
Congress, said two unions of sanitation
workers as well as a united front of
teachers and hospital staff would continue the stir. However, Mukesh Gahlot, who is the president of the Purvi
Dilli Morcha, said many workers decided to go back to work as their demands had been met.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

Cash-strapped NDMC postpones purchases

Decides not to buy shoes for 4.5 lakh primary school students
Damini Nath
NEW DELHI: Students of North Delhis municipal schools wont be
getting shoes to match their new
uniforms when the upcoming academic session starts as the local
civic body just cant afford them.
Hit by nancial crisis, the
North Delhi Municipal Corporation has decided to postpone buying shoes for the 4.5 lakh students
that attend its primary schools.
The Rs.4.2-crore proposal to procure shoes for the students came
up in the Standing Committee on
Monday.

Students of the
corporations 581
schools will be given
uniforms and text books
on time as these were
ordered last year
Officials in the BJP-led corporation were asking for approval to
allot the contract to company that
had quoted Rs. 3.12 crore. BJP
councillors decided to postpone
the proposal. Standing Committee chairperson Mohan Bhardwaj,

however, said it was put off due to

technical reasons.
The officials asked for nancial approval for the proposal and
then asked for administrative approval. We have asked them to
club the proposals and present
them next time, said Mr.
Bhardwaj.
We wont let the children suffer, he added. However, officials
said that since the corporation
has been unable to pay salaries
last month, the purchase doesnt
seem likely in the near future.
Mayor Yogender Chandolia
said the students of the corpora-

Delhi govt. will have to act on pollution

NEW DELHI: In the wake of the alarming
poor quality of air and mounting piles of
garbage in Delhi, Environment Minister
Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday said the
State government will have to work in this
regard and assured his Ministrys complete support.
He also announced that the National

Air Quality Index will be launched in ten

cities, including Delhi to enhance public
awareness and its involvement in air quality improvement.
On pollution in the Capital, the Minister said he had held three meetings with
the State government to discuss the issue.
PTI

PUBLIC NOTICES

PUBLIC NOTICES

tions 581 schools will be given

uniforms and text books on time
as these were ordered last year.
Meanwhile, another proposal
to allot a Rs.43.40-lakh contract
for buying a surgical microscope
for Bara Hindu Rao Hospital was
also postponed. A Rs.39.90-lakh
contract for a laser used in eye
surgery and a Rs.60-lakh proposal
for purchasing debrillators for
Hindu Rao Hospital were also
postponed.
Mr. Bhardwaj said the delay in
procuring these items wouldnt
affect services as some of the proposals had been pending for years.

Sisodia in Centres
guest speakers list
NEW DELHI: Delhi Deputy Chief
Minister Manish Sisodia is
among over 130 individuals included in a pool of eminent
persons and guest speakers
formed by the Centre for imparting training to employees.
Besides him, Bihars Super
30 coaching fame Anand Kumar and Sulabhs chief Bindeshwar Pathak gure in the
list prepared by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
All central training institutes are requested to utilise
their services as guest faculty
for the appropriate training
programme as per their requirement, DoPT said. PTI

Doctors conduct open heart

surgery on 18-hour-old baby
Bindu Shajan Perappadan
NEW DELHI: Doctors at the Fortis Escorts

Heart Institute here have successfully conducted an emergency open heart surgery on
an 18-hour-old baby, the youngestto have
undergone such a surgery in the country till
date, according to the operating physicians.
Dr. K.S. Iyer, executive director, paediatric and congenital heart diseases at FEHI,
and his team carried out the operation.
The baby was born in Mathura and within
minutes of his birth was declared to have
severe breathing difficulty. When two local
hospitals there were unable to pinpoint the
cause, the child was rushed to a multi-super
specialty hospital here that refused to admit
him. Mayank was subsequently referred to

Within minutes of his birth,

baby Mayank was declared to
have severe breathing difficulty
Dr. Iyer.
A decision to perform an open heart surgery was taken, which involved cutting the
chest open and performing the surgery on
the muscles, valves, arteries of the heart,
Dr. Iyer said.
Advances in diagnosis and treatment of
paediatric congenital heart defects over the
last few decades mean that over 75 per cent
of infants born with heart diseases can survive beyond the rst year of life and many
can lead near normal lives thereafter.

Haryana private schools

to reserve 10% EWS quota
Ashok Kumar

SITUATIONS
VACANT
TECHNICAL
CNC/VMC/VTL Programmer / Setter /
Operator, 35 Yrs. experience Ambattur, Chennai. Ct : 9443733311

CM
YK

GURGAON: The Haryana School Education Department has asked all private recognised
schools to reserve 10 per cent seats for students
belonging to the economically weaker sections
(EWS) and below poverty line (BPL) category
from Classes I to XII.
The decision comes in compliance with the
Punjab and Haryana High Court order with regard to the implementation of Rule 134-A of the
Haryana School Education Rules, 2003.
Stating this, an official spokesman said that in
case of schools built or situated on HUDA land,
this reservation for students belonging to EWS
and BPL category would be up to 20 per cent.
He said that all institutions concerned have
been directed to display information relating to
availability of seats, admissions, etc., of their
respective schools on their school website and
also place the same on the school notice boards
for public view byApril 1, 2015.

ND-ND

10

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

The West and its flawed anti-IS strategy

Suhasini Haidar

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

Fearing
extinction
he history of Indias socialist parties from
which the various Janata Parivar entities
emerged is one of splits and mergers. If in
the past its leaders, opinionated, fractious,
colourful and intensely political as they are, lined up
behind Congress rebels to form Central governments
in 1977 and 1989, some of them also boosted the numbers of BJP-led NDA governments in 1999 and 2014. In
1996, when the minority H.D. Deve Gowda-led United
Front government came into being, it was ideologically
more cohesive, but the Congress that had backed it
soon withdrew support. Over the years, the Janata
Parivar parties drifted from their ideological moorings
in socialism to seek identity politics.They stayed afloat,
especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, capturing the
space vacated by the Congress, and addressing the
aspirations of the numerically substantial backward
castes. In last years general election, the BJP (that had
been quicker off the mark than the Congress in taking
note of the aspirational OBCs back in the early 1990s,
launching its social engineering experiment) wiped
out the Janata Parivar parties in both the Hindi-belt
States, taking away a major chunk of the OBC and Dalit
votes that had sustained them for over two decades.
The trigger for the current moves towards a merger
of six Janata Parivar parties, especially the Janata Dal
(United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal located in Bihar
and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, is the fear of
extinction. Assembly elections are due this year in
JD(U)-ruled Bihar and in 2017 in Uttar Pradesh where
the SP is in power. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the
three parties touched their lowest mark in two decades:
the JD(U) and the RJD together won just six of Bihars
40 seats, and the SP a paltry five of Uttar Pradeshs 80
seats. The other three parties are the Indian National
Lok Dal, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Samajwadi
Janata Party. Today, as they move to merge under the
leadership of the SPs Mulayam Singh Yadav, having set
themselves the task of doing so by April 20 when the
second half of Parliaments budget session commences,
their first electoral test ahead will be in Bihar. If the
merger takes place, the impact will be felt first on the
streets with the anti-Land Bill agitation and then inside
Parliament: the party will start with 15 MPs in the Lok
Sabha and 30 in the Rajya Sabha. But though Nitish
Kumar retains some appeal, the rest of its leadership,
especially Mr. Mulayam Singh, Mr. Deve Gowda, the
RJDs Lalu Prasad and the INLDs Om Prakash Chautala are jaded practitioners of dynastic politics. To remain relevant and grow, these parties, an important
part of Indias political history, need to adapt to the
times for there is more to politics than mere
arithmetic.

f there are any doubts about a global

double standard when it comes to West
Asia, then the reaction to the bombing
of Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its partners will put them to rest. Here is a situation,
where fighter jets of a Saudi-led coalition are
pounding the capital of another country, Sana'a, without seeking any international
mandate, and there is absolute silence from
those who should object.
Leaders in Washington, London, Paris and
Berlin have not appealed to the United Nations nor have they asked for an end to the
bombing of civilians in an effort to stop the
advance of rebels. Despite the question of
sovereignty of more than 100 air raids in
which dozens of civilians have died in the
capital, human rights violations and even the
basic worry of these raids helping al-Qaeda
and the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) in
Yemen there has been not one word of
censure from them. In fact, Washington is
backing the strikes, France and the United
Kingdom are giving them all possible technical help, and Egypt, Turkey and even Pakistan plan to help with the ground
offensive to back the Yemeni President,
Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, against Houthi
rebels.

For Western introspection

For those who say this is a justified attack
to support a legitimate ruler, stop, think and
rewind to 2012-2013, when the Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, faced the most difficult pressure from armed Free Syrian Army
fighters and Jabhat Al-Nasrah rebels (IS
took control later). What would have been
the Western reaction had Iran sent jets into
Aleppo, Homs and Hama to back its ally, Mr.
Assad? Wouldnt these countries have set up
a counter-attack within 24 hours, or at least
convened the UN Security Council for a
Right to Protect (R2P) mandate to do so?
The rank duality in dealing with the situation in Yemen is not just the subject of
some hand-wringing; it is the single largest
reason why the war against IS and even its
successor organisations will be unwinnable
for these countries. Despite 3,000 air strikes
by a United States-led coalition of 62 countries that began operations last August to
counter IS, IS continues to control more
than an estimated 55,000 square kilometres
of area in Iraq and Syria. That IS is an evil
terror group displaying unprecedented brutality is undoubtable. That it is a threat to
every country in the world should be obvious
from the way the group has targeted every
nationality: beheading American, British,

If the West genuinely wants to fight terror and

promote a peaceful future in the troubled West
Asia region, it will have to confront its selective
silence and dual standard on the serious
challenges that threaten the region today; talks
will only solve part of the problem
Japanese and Egyptian citizens alike, burning alive a Jordanian national, and broadcasting its terror worldwide in the most
bestial way. It poses the biggest threat to the
next generation as well, recruiting a record
number of child soldiers, and training children as young as five to kill. If the coalition,
which represents nearly a third of the world,
which has the resolve, the firepower, and the
experience of fighting terror groups in every
part of the world, is unable to counter such a
group, deep and searching questions must be
asked about why that is.

Down to logistics

the groups that opposed him since 2011 led

to complete surprise at the rapidity with
which IS fighters have taken over Syrian and
Iraqi towns. In October last year, U.S. President Barack Obama finally conceded that
underestimating ISs rise had been a major
intelligence failure. But it was more than
that. It was the determined effort to ensure
that Assad must go that led the Western
and West Asian countries ranged against Mr.
Assad to ignore his warnings about the nature of the fighters his army was battling. As
a result, and in another example of the double standard, the 62-member coalition now
routinely bombs areas that it wanted to stop
Mr. Assads forces from bombing.

To begin with, there is a basic problem of

logistics. Despite the most sophisticated
drones and surveillance of the region, an air Misreading the Arab Spring
The other flaw with the Wests strategy is
strike on an IS target is ineffective without
an accompanying ground force in place. the pursuance of regime change, focussed on
Even if the U.S. and its coalition are able to one leader as the single purpose of its wars in

The West missed the most significant point of the Arab

Spring: all the countries that saw their leadership change were
republics, whereas none of the monarchies were destabilised.
strengthen Iraqi armed forces to conduct
ground operations, it is meaningless until
they are also able to enlist Syrian armed
forces to launch a pincer-like action on the
group that straddles both countries. Without
the ground forces, all victories over IS territory are, essentially, pyrrhic. This was evident in the Syrian town of Kobane along the
Turkish border where the U.S. Alliance
drove IS out in September 2014 after two
weeks of sustained bombing and 600 strikes.
As journalists were allowed into the city,
their cameras bore out the tragic truth: all
that was left of IS-controlled areas was a vast
wasteland. The reason that the U.S. coalition
has been unable to engage the Syrian regime
for help on the ground is of course the reason
why it ignored the rise of IS in the first place.
The Wests preoccupation with the removal
of Mr. Assad and the funding and arming of

West Asia. Recent history should have

taught the U.S., the U.K. and others that the
removal of Saddam Hussein and Muammar
Qadhafi havent been the end of the conflict;
they have merely marked the beginning of a
more diabolical and deadly version of the
conflict. Hanging Saddam and lynching Qadhafi hasnt led to peace in Iraq and Libya, nor
would the possible ouster of Mr. Assad do
that. Instead, it has led to an erosion of what
were once secular regimes, where minorities and women enjoyed a higher position
than they do in other countries of the Arab
world.
Another blunder has been the misreading
of the Arab Spring by the West. While
many of the crowds that poured into Arab
capitals, from Tunis to Damascus and Sana'a, demanded democracy and positive
change, many just wanted regime change.

CARTOONSCAPE

Numero
Uno
or a country starved of successes at the individual level in world sport, Saina Nehwals
feat of becoming the first Indian woman shuttler to reach the No.1 position in the world is a
stupendous achievement. The 25-year-old Nehwal a
resident of Hyderabad achieved this mark during the
course of the 2015 India Open Super Series badminton
tournament, after defeating the reigning world champion, the Spaniard Carolina Marin, in the semi-finals.
Nehwal eventually won, defeating former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Indonesia. Amidst the collective disappointment in the cricket-mad country
following Indias loss to Australia in the World Cup,
Nehwals mark has offered a moment of immense pride
and delight for Indian sports-lovers. Very few Indians
have reached the pinnacle of individual sports. In badminton, only Prakash Padukone had reached the No.1
mark, more than three decades ago. Nehwal now occupies a distinguished position in Indian sport along with
achievers such as chess grandmaster Viswanathan
Anand and boxer Mary Kom, both of whom reached the
top positions in the respective individual sports.
Nehwals ascent was aided by the fact that the reigning Olympic badminton champion, Li Xuerui from China, sustained an injury and has played sparingly in the
past few months. It is Nehwals persistent competitiveness that has allowed her to remain in the top echelons
of her sport, and helped her reach the summit at an
opportune time. She had won five major tournaments
since 2014 the Indian Open Grand Prix twice, the
Australian Super Series and the China Open in 2014,
and the India Super Series in 2015. Credit must also go
to Nehwals coaches over the years, who include Dronacharya award winner Syed Arif, badminton legend
Pullela Gopichand and the present coach Vimal Kumar, who is also a former Indian champion. As with
other Indian sportspersons Viswanathan Anand in
particular Nehwals success could spur other Indians
to take a liking to that sport and inspire them to seek
competitive pursuits. The lack of adequate sporting
infrastructure, the general absence of a sporting culture, and the domination of cricket in media coverage
of sports in the country have meant that Indian
achievements in individual sports are few and far between. Here is hoping that such triumphs as Nehwals
are not flashes in the pan but the start of a trend of
strong competitiveness among individual sportspersons, at least in badminton. The victory of male shuttler K. Srikanth in the same tournament which lifted
his world ranking to No.4 suggests there is indeed
something strong brewing in Indian badminton.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Reviving the Congress
The report, Rally against land Bill
to be Rahuls comeback show
(March 31), shows the Congresss
plan to bank on populist resistance
to land acquisition in order to gain
political mileage. The party aims to
address the issue of consent in the
Bill, but nowhere is it supporting
legislation that prevents the
indiscriminate acquisition of land
or envisaging a solution to equitable
development in the nation.The
consent clause is itself contentious
given that the common man does
not have the commercial or the
social acumen to make a decision.
Vikram Sundaramurthy,
Chennai
It is time the top leadership of the
Congress took a call on whether it
needs a reluctant leader at its helm
at a time when the party is at the
most critical juncture in its history.
Despite its worst performance,
electorally, in May 2014, no one can
write off the relevance of the grand
old party in Indian polity. Its
history shows numerous instances
of electoral defeats and comebacks.
But this time round, it has not yet
shown any indication of a revival
and is wasting an opportunity to
have the government on the mat on
issues that the Opposition and
social groups both within and
outside Parliament are resisting.
The government of the day has
shown that in its mind, only
corporates and big businesses
matter and that the impact on the
environment, the rural economy

and a coexistence of all social and

economic groups are irrelevant.
One only hopes that in this
instance, the Congress vicepresident stays the course.
C.K. Saseendran,
Bengaluru

Search for Saraswati

The report, Excavation to begin in
search of Saraswati, (March 31), is
welcome as it could help resolve
problems of water scarcity and also
flooding in the region. There is also
potential to sustain and improve life
along the banks of this river if it is
revived. Now for the pertinent
question. Is the finding and
excavation based on any scientific
theory or is it just hypothetical?
Article 51A(h) talks about the need
to develop the scientific temper,
humanism and the spirit of inquiry
and reform. Has this been applied
in this instance? One needs more
evidence in favour of such a river
especially
as
the
Haryana
government is planning it as among
the biggest projects to be
undertaken in the area.
Faiyyaz Shaikh,
Pune

Only in India
What American Peace Corps
Volunteer Donald Camp has
described in his article, It happens
only in India (May 31), is
something that has been happening
in India and still continues. It
reminded me of my days in a small
town in central Travancore, as a
student, and as a Hindu. A group of
us, schoolmates, used to halt before

Democracy is better effected through the

ballot box than it is through the crowding of
main squares, which is a powerful image, but
a misleading representation of the peoples
will. We no longer refer to it as the Arab
Spring, admitted a senior NATO military
official at the Brussels Forum conference
last week, where trans-Atlantic discussions
on IS were held. It is now seen as the Arab
uprising instead, he concluded. Interestingly, the countries in the West that rejoiced at
the thought of democracy in the countries of
the so-called Spring missed the most significant point: all the countries that saw their
leadership change Egypt, Syria, Libya, Yemen were republics, whereas none of the
eight monarchies Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,
Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, the Emirates, Jordan
and Morocco were destabilised.
This skew, particularly towards the Sunni
monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan, who are more focussed on fighting the
Shia crescent of Iranian influence in the
region, has led to another problem. The West
has turned a blind eye, and even assisted
these countries in the funding, training and
arming of Sunni extremist groups to carry
out attacks in Syria. They have been doing
this by trying to draw a fine line between the
groups they support including the Free
Syrian Army and Jabhat Al-Nasrah and
with IS. Anyone who sees the distinctions
between the groups has to only read the
account of the American journalist, Theo
Padnos (now Peter Theo Curtis), who was
taken hostage in Syria in 2012 and finally
released by al-Qaeda in August 2014 in a deal
brokered by Qatar. Padnos was handed over
from one group to another in Syria, and
found few differences between them. When
he asked why his well-armed captors trained
in Jordan by U.S. marines were holding an
American hostage despite promises they
would only target Assads regime, they answered: Yes, we lied. If it is naivety that
allows the U.S., France, and the U.K. to continue to enlist their Arab allies in the war on
terror and hope they will cut off finances and
oil revenues to al-Qaeda and IS, despite evidence that they play both sides of the war, it
is a very costly innocence that the world has
paid for.

Joining IS
Finally, there is a need for introspection
inside Europe, the U.S., and even Australia,
which have seen growing numbers of their
citizens get through Turkey to join IS. While
the brutality of the Assad regime and economic distress in the region have been
blamed for the thousands of Arab youth taking up arms for IS, what explains the hundreds of citizens joining it from the U.K.,
France and the U.S.? According to the U.S.
National Counterterrorism Center, 3,400 of
the 20,000 IS foreign fighters are from Western countries. Why are British and French
girls becoming jihadi brides, schoolboys and
young doctors learning to kill, and teenage
Americans travelling all the way just to join
IS ranks? Could it be that in the early years of
a push for regime change and sanctions
against Syria, Western governments themselves promoted the propaganda against Mr.
Assads government, allowing many of their
Muslim citizens to think they had not just
religious but national sanction to join the
war?
Significantly, some of the Wests actions
are now being rethought. While concluding
another round of P5+1 talks with Iran in the
Swiss town of Lausanne last week, the U.S.
Secretary of State, John Kerry, suggested
that the U.S. is now open to talks with Mr.
Assad if need be. If he is ready to have a
serious negotiation about the implementation of Geneva I (2012 agreement), of
course, he said. What were pushing for is
to get him to come and do that, he added, in
an interview to CBS.
But talks will only solve part of the problem in West Asia. If the West genuinely
wants to fight terror and promote a peaceful
future for the region, it will also have to
confront its selective silence and dual standard on the serious challenges that threaten
the region today.
suhasini.h@thehindu.co.in

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
the icon of Virgin Mary in front of a
chapel on the way to the exam hall
to pray and sometimes to light a
candle. In the school run by a
Christian missionary, students used
to attend the prayer session before
class began and even participate in
festivals at the chapel.
It must be said that some
churches have adopted some of the
symbolism from Hinduism. The
Hindu-style nilavilakku or bronze
oil lamps, temple-style golden
flagstaffs and sandalwood paste are
examples. People lived in perfect
harmony. Things have changed so
much since then.
K.R. Unnithan,
Chennai

Safer skies
It is unfortunate that the co-pilot of
the Germanwings flight was allowed
to fly given his condition (Editorial,
March 30). In this connection,
mention must be made of the tough,
initial and periodic, physical and
psychological tests administered by
the Indian Railways to all its
locopilots. A physical examination
once a year (in some cases, once in
six months), a rigid eye test and a
psychometric test are a must. There
is also a breathalyser test before
the journey. No driver can consume
alcohol within eight hours prior to
work. When the railways are so
careful, aviation experts should
design a better system to improve
safety standards.
J. Eden Alexander,
Thanjavur
The problems the co-pilot is said to

have had (Alps crash: co-pilot was

classified
as
suicidal,
International page, March 31)
reminds me an incident in my
professional
life,
as
an
ophthalmologist. Years ago, my
patient, a State road transport bus
driver, came to me with a complaint
of extreme vision problems. I found
an eye to be totally defective, and
with no cure. Given the nature of his
job, I was in dilemma whether or
not to inform the transport
authorities
or
honour
the
understanding of confidentiality
between patient and doctor. I knew
some of the higher-ups in the
transport department was able to
ensure that the patient was
transferred to another department
and without affecting his salary. In
the case of the German airline, one
wishes that there had been a
psychiatrist who could have
informed the management of the
problems
the
pilot
was
experiencing. The tragedy could
have been avoided.
Dr. S.V. Malghan,
Vijayapura, Karnataka

On Amaravathi
I am a citizen of Andhra Pradesh
and pained that the new capital of
Andhra Pradesh might be located in
the highly fertile and agricultural
area of Guntur district (Andhras
capital to be named Amaravathi,
March 24).
Land here yields three to four
food crops in a year. These include
rice, cotton, chilli and tobacco. It is
no exaggeration to say that farmers
cultivate gold here. The area is in a

stabilised ayacut of the Krishna. It

is said that 35,000 acres of
agricultural land will be acquired
for the capital which is bound to
claim very fertile agricultural land.
In the quest to create an artificial
asset, the new capital, why should a
natural asset be destroyed? The
case is an example why fertile land
anywhere in this country must be
protected at all costs. Besides this,
there are thousands of migrant
workers making a livelihood in the
area. One would also like to
question the wisdom of tapping
Singapores expertise in developing
a capital as it is a country where
agriculture
is
alien.
The
development is a gross violation of
environmental laws.
K. Venkateswarlu,
Chennai

Weather watch
The reintroduction of the weather
report column is a welcome
development. Ever since I came to
Chennai 25 years ago, the feature
has been useful. I used to send data,
on forecasts and the monthly
rainfall average to my father, back
in Gujarat, to help him plan his
farming activities. One wishes that
the data on rainfall is also restored.
R.G. Patel,
Chennai
It is a happy moment that the
weather report has come back as
Weather Watch. My long wait is
over and The Hindu is now
complete.
Kumar Pal G.,
Coonoor, The Nilgiris
ND-ND

COMMENT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

WORLD VIEW

How democracy took

roots in Bhutan
I

n March 2008, the kingdom of Bhutan, an often

invisible Shangri-La tucked away strategically in
the Himalayas between India and China, became the
worlds youngest democracy. An absolute monarchy
gave way to a constitutional monarchy, a new
Constitution mandating a parliamentary democracy
was adopted, and, for the first time, the people of
Bhutan voted, on the basis of universal suffrage, to
elect a new Parliament consisting of a National
Council or Upper House with 25 members, and a
National Assembly or Lower House with 47 members.
Jigme Thinley became the countrys first
PAVAN K. VARMA
democratically elected Prime Minister. In the second
elections in 2013, his Peace and Prosperity Party was
defeated by the Peoples Democratic Party. Its leader, Tshering Tobgay, a
young Harvard educated man in his mid-forties, is today the Prime Minister
of Bhutan.
When I went as Ambassador of India to Bhutan in 2009, many foreign
observers believed that the adoption of parliamentary democracy was more
a cosmetic exercise which essentially left untouched the unfettered sway of
the monarchy. It is true, of course, that the monarchy continues to enjoy a
very high degree of reverence and popularity. But it would be wrong to
believe that democracy in this once absolutist kingdom is only symbolic,
and has not altered the powers hitherto exercised exclusively by the King.
To understand what has really happened in Bhutan, it is essential to go a
little back into history. The Wangchuck
dynasty came to power in 1907 by uniting a Jigme Wangchuck
bunch of warring chieftains. The fourth
knew that sooner or
king in this dynasty, Jigme Singye
Wangchuck, assumed power in July 1972 at later there would be
the young age of 17 following the untimely
a democratic
death of his father. Jigme Wangchuck
brought to the throne a wisdom and
challenge to an
sagacity that belied his youthfulness and
absolute monarchy
lack of experience. Having laid the
foundations of peaceful economic
development and political stability with full support from India, he applied
his mind seriously to the future course of his kingdom. Until the 1980s,
Bhutan had sought to zealously preserve its geographical isolation,
preferring to let the world go by.
But this began to gradually change under the fourth king. First, he
transferred most of his powers to a nominated Council of Ministers, thereby
volitionally diluting the concentration of power in the throne. Then, in
1999, he allowed both television and Internet to make their entry into
Bhutan.
Finally, and most dramatically, in December 2005, when he was only 50
years of age, he announced his decision to abdicate from the throne in 2008
in favour of his eldest son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. This
announcement was accompanied by a royal command that work on a new
Constitution must begin immediately with the express purpose of
converting Bhutan into a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional
monarchy.
Why did Jigme Singye Wangchuck, whom I had the great privilege of
coming to know very well, take these momentous decisions which would
curtail his own absolute powers, especially since there was no political
restlessness seeking a change of the polity? In fact, most people in this
sparsely populated kingdom (population 0.8 million) were happy with their
king, and actually had to be persuaded to embrace democracy. The answer
quite simply is that Jigme Wangchuck had the political incisiveness, rarely
seen in monarchs, to pre-empt history. He knew that in a rapidly globalising
world, Bhutan could not sustain its isolationist path; he also knew, looking
at developments in neighbouring Nepal, that sooner or later there would be
a democratic challenge to an absolute monarchy. In view of this, he chose to
anticipate the inevitable by initiating change himself. In doing so he also
created the most sustainable milieu for the perpetuation of his own dynasty.
Today, democracy is taking roots in Bhutan. The young fifth king, Jigme
Namgyel Wangchuck, wise beyond his years, and Queen Jetsun Pema, are
loved by the Bhutanese. Prime Minister Tobgay, whose smooth transition
from Opposition leader to Prime Minister I have been personally witness to,
is an able leader. The National Assembly still functions especially
compared to our raucous standards with monotonous decorum.
Legislators rarely speak out of turn. There is no din in the House. But issues
are debated with vigour and conviction. The king addresses the House at the
beginning of a session if he chooses to do so.
Otherwise his presence suffices. He remains above the democratic fray,
but is very much bound by the Constitution. Although the process is
cumbersome, the king can actually be impeached under the Constitution by
Parliament. Moreover, the Constitution also mandates that a monarch must
compulsorily retire at the age of 65. Democracy, albeit with a strong
Bhutanese flavour, has come to stay in the Forbidden Kingdom, and India,
as the worlds largest democracy, can only welcome it.
(Pavan K. Varma is a member of the Rajya Sabha representing the Janata
Dal (United).)

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Mr. T.T. Krishnamachari, Union

Finance Minister, told Mr. Bhupesh
Gupta in the Rajya Sabha on March
31 that he did not propose to accept
his suggestion for modifying the
Company Law in order to ban
donations by companies to political
parties.
Mr. Gupta had pointed out that in
the Lok Sabha the Minister had
recently said that out of donations of
companies to political parties
amounting to Rs. 115 lakhs, the
major share of Rs. 98 lakhs had gone
to the Congress Party. He wanted to
know whether the Minister would
consider the question of modifying

the Company Law in order to ban or

end such donations.
The Minister replied: I am an old
man and not capable of being brutal.
I am a meek person... All I would say
in reply is I do not propose to accept
the suggestion of the member.
Earlier, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee (Jan
Sangh) said that all the Opposition
parties were in favour of putting a
ban on donations of companies to
political parties. He asked whether
the Government was not prepared
to do this because the ruling party
got a lions share of such donations.
The Finance Minister said that
the question contained insinuations.
Hence, he said, there could be no
answer.

CORRECTIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS

> The United Kingdom goes to the poll on May 7 and not March 7 as
mentioned in the second paragraph of a report, The choice is between
economic security and chaos, says Cameron (International page, March 31,
2015).
>> The total number of Padma Awards announced this year is 104 and not
109 as stated in a PTI report, Salve, Dasgupta bestowed Padma Bhushans
(March 31, 2015).
>> The fifth paragraph of a report, Glimpses of Guruvayurs glory (Variety page, March 28, 2015) said, In 1846, Tipu Sultans armies plundered the
temple and set it afire, The year should have been 1789.
>> The fifth paragraph of a report, Verdasco has the measure of Nadal
again (Sport, March 31, 2015) said: Nadal saved a match point in the eighth
game of the second set trailing 5-2, but Verdasco closed out the shocker a
game later with a return winner. It was the third set and not second.
It is the policy of The Hindu to correct significant errors as soon as possible.
Please specify the edition (place of publication), date and page.
The Readers Editors office can be contacted by
Telephone: +91-44-28418297/28576300 (11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to
Friday); E-mail: readerseditor@thehindu.co.in
The Terms of Reference for the Readers Editor are on www.thehindu.com
CM
YK

Building ties for the 21st century

Interview with Le Yucheng, Chinese Ambassador to India, who emphasises
a new type of relationship with New Delhi that is based on win-win cooperation
On the eve of the 65th anniversary of the
establishment of diplomatic relations
between China and India on April 1,
1950, the Chinese Ambassador to India,
Le Yucheng, in written answers provided to a set of questions posed by
Srinivasan Ramani, emphasised the
need for a renewal of China-India ties in
tune with the realities of the 21st century. Excerpts follow. Later, in an interaction in Chennai, the Ambassador
identified several areas, which he suggested present new avenues for cooperation between India and China. These
include infrastructure development and
regional security apart from already
expanding ties.
At what stage are the two countries
after the 18th round of talks on
boundary negotiations held recently?
Can we expect a substantive
breakthrough since the start of fresh
talks?
On March 23, 2015, the 18th Meeting
of the Special Representatives on the
China-India boundary question was
held in New Delhi. Yang Jiechi, State
Councilor and Special Representative
on the Chinese side, and Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor and the Special
Representative on the Indian side, exchanged in-depth views on the boundary
question and had strategic communications on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of common
concern. This is the first boundary question talk since the new Indian government took office, and after the
appointment of the new Indian Special
Representative. The meeting was in a
friendly and candid atmosphere.
The two sides reviewed the positive
progress achieved at the previous Special Representatives Meetings over the
past years, and stressed the progress of
the framework negotiation along the
right track on the basis of the realised
results and consensus, while taking the
big picture of bilateral relations and the
long-term interests of the two peoples
into consideration. Both sides reaffirmed the need to properly manage and
control conflicts and join efforts to
maintain peace and tranquility in the
boundary area before the boundary
question is finally settled.
As Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi
said in the press conference held by the
Third Session of the Twelfth National
Peoples Congress recently, the ChinaIndia boundary question is a legacy of
history. At the moment, the boundary
negotiation is in the process of building
up small positive developments. It is like
climbing a mountain. The going is tough
and that is only because we are on the
way up. This is all the more reason that
we should do more to strengthen ChinaIndia cooperation, so that we can facilitate the settlement of the boundary
question.
The Chinese government has
announced the Maritime Silk Route and
Silk Road initiatives (also called Belt
and Road) recently. Can you explain
these initiatives and how they pertain
to China-India relations?

China takes the

Indian concern
over trade imbalance
very seriously.
The Belt and Road initiatives put forward by China aims at achieving development and prosperity for the various
countries along the Silk Road Economic
Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk
Road by linking the past with the present, landmass with seas, and development strategies of various countries.
The Vision and Action plans of the initiative have just been issued by the Chinese government.
The initiative will forge four billion
people from more than 60 countries in
Asia, Europe and Africa into a community of common destiny and interests. If I
may use a musical metaphor, it is not
Chinas solo, but a symphony performed
by all these countries. The Belt and
Road initiatives will observe the principles of discussing, building and sharing
together, through policy coordination,
road connectivity, unimpeded trade,
monetary circulation, and mutual understanding. These initiatives have been
put forward to promote economic cooperation, and are not driven by geopolitics, or an attempt to seek spheres of
influence.
Since the launch of these initiatives,
significant headway has been made in
building new mechanisms and laying
down new policy frameworks. More
than 50 countries along the Belt and
Road have expressed support; China
has either already signed or is in the
process of signing agreements with several countries. A set of programmes involving building infrastructure, setting
up of industries and boosting people-topeople contacts have already been started. The first Central Asia International
Freight Train from Lianyungang (Jiangsu Province), China to Almaty, Kazakhstan, began operation on February 25.
The construction of Line D of the ChinaCentral Asia natural gas pipeline project
has already begun. The eastern route of
the China-Russia natural gas pipeline
project will be constructed very soon
and the agreement on the western route
will be signed shortly. All the above projects mark the early harvest of the initiatives. The founding of the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank has not
only been welcomed by the Asian countries, but developed countries, including
France, Germany, Britain, Canada have
also expressed willingness to join it. The
bank currently has 41 prospective
founding member countries.
India enjoys a unique geographical location, was a significant country along
the ancient silk roads and spice route,
and is situated at the crossing point of
the contemporary Belt and Road. India
is Chinas natural and significant partner in promoting the Belt and Road
initiatives. Last year, India became one
of the first prospective founding mem-

Ambassador Le Yucheng.

bers of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and hosted its second chief
negotiators meeting in Mumbai in late
January this year. In the second half of
this year, India will also host the third
meeting of BCIM Economic Corridor
Joint Working Group. All these reflect
the cooperative attitude of India to the
Belt and Road initiatives. China is willing to strengthen communication and
coordination with India, to link the Belt
and Road initiatives with Indias Spice
Route and Mausam projects, and bring
tangible benefits to the peoples in our
two countries and throughout the
region.
There is a trade imbalance between
India and China, with Indias trade
deficit being around $37.8 billion in
2014. At the same time, bilateral trade
in 2014 topped $70.6 billion. How do
you think the imbalance can be
corrected?
The Chinese side does not like trade
surplus and prefers balanced trade. China takes the Indian concern of trade
imbalance very seriously. Although the
main reason for our trade imbalance lies
in objective factors such as the differences in industrial structures of our two
countries, we are willing to provide opportunities to increase Indias exports to
China.
Since 2008, the Ministry of Commerce of China has sent six trade delegations to boost imports from India.
China warmly welcomes the Indian side
to expand trade through various trading
platforms, such as China-South Asia Expo and China Import and Export Fair
(Canton Fair), and the Import
Promotion Centres recently built in Shanghai, Tianjin and other
cities. In order to increase the popularity
of Indian products,
China also welcomes
Indian Chambers of
Commerce to conduct
promotion events in
China. Besides, China
hopes that India would
ease restrictions on ex-

porting its competitive products such as

iron ore, etc. to China, reduce tariffs, and
encourage Indian companies to export
more agricultural products. To encourage Chinese enterprises to invest in India and participate in the Make in India
campaign, the key is to reduce restrictions and streamline procedures on
business visas. More Chinese businessmen will bring more investment, which
will help improve trade balance.
There is a sense among Indian strategic
thinkers and in the media that Chinas
cooperation with other South Asian
countries is part of a policy of
encirclement. How would you answer
these concerns?
China adheres to peaceful development. China does not have any tradition
of expansion, or any intention to expand. India suffered invasion and occupation by other major powers in history,
while China as the largest neighbour always kept friendly relations with India,
kept up communication and exchange
between civilisations, and has never
conspired against India or other neighbouring countries.
The cooperation between China and
other South Asian countries is based on
the foundation of common development. South Asian countries are willing
to cooperate with China, and ride the
Chinese express train of rapid development. China is also willing to share development opportunities with South
Asian countries. Cooperation between
China and South Asian countries is
open, transparent, and beneficial to all
the concerned countries. There are no
ulterior motives and there is no need for
India to worry. China is also willing to work with India to conduct trilateral cooperation
and multilateral cooperation
in the region, to achieve winwin cooperation and common development.
srinivasan.vr
@thehindu.co.in
(For full text of the interview:
http://thne.ws/Leyucheng)

PHOTO: R. RAVINDRAN.

Ban hits wild cats too

(dated April 1, 1965)

Donations to parties

11

As the beef traders strike continues, lions, tigers and other carnivores in Mumbai zoos
now get chicken as their primary feed. Keepers worry about the animals losing strength
Neha Thirani Bagri and Nida Najar

It is the members of the

Qureshi community,
traditional butchers, who
have been severely hit
by the ban

alash, the largest tiger at the Sanjay

Gandhi National Park in Mumbai,
still paces his cage for the hour leading
up to dinner and still pounces on his
meal when his handlers lift the gate to
his feeding room. But lately what the
440-pound feline finds is not his usual
15 pounds of raw beef, fresh from the
slaughter. Instead, he and the parks
eight other Bengal tigers, three lions, 14
leopards and three vultures are subsisting almost exclusively on decidedly
lighter fare: chicken.
The change in diet has nothing to do
with health, and everything to do with
Indias particular mix of politics and
religion.
The Maharashtra State Government,
led by the countrys governing Hindu
nationalist party, recently banned the
possession and sale of beef, imposing
religious dietary restrictions on Hindus
and non-Hindus alike. Violators can be
punished by up to five years in prison.
The law has been sought by Hindu
right-wingers, who helped bring Prime
Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party come to power last
year. Their ability to get the ban passed
is seen by many as a sign of their growing power in the BJP-led governments
in important States.

Fear of losing business

The new rules caused grumbling from
Mumbais cosmopolitan, sometimes
beef-eating, elite a group that includes some Hindus who were sore over
the sudden disappearance of steaks in
restaurants. Others were unsettled by
the rising culture wars between the
Hindu right and those who oppose its
agenda, including minorities. In this
case, that group includes the States
mostly Muslim cattle traders and meat
retailers, who fear the ban will damage

ILLUSTRATION: SATWIK GADE

their businesses.
The beef traders are now weeks into a
strike over the ban, refusing to supply
shops with even buffalo meat, which is
still legal.
And that is where the animals at the
national park come in.
Until recently, the animals at the park
had feasted on a mixed diet of fresh beef,
water buffalo, and chicken. But the ban
pulled beef from the menu, and the
strike, at least for now, has put fresh
buffalo out of reach for these wild cats.
The animal handlers, who seem baffled by the attention in the Indian news
media since the ban, give mixed reviews
on the switch to white meat. Babu Vishnukote, one of the feeders at the zoo,
says the animals are devouring the
chicken, which he sees as a good sign.

seemed to indicate a kind of quid pro

quo between Mr. Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, or RSS, a Hindu
nationalist organisation that backed his
recent attempts at land reform despite
its reservations over them.
Mr. Modi is walking a tightrope because he himself is trying to come
across as somebody who is pursuing inclusive politics, Ms. Chowdhury added.
The general is taking one view, but the
foot soldiers are taking a different view.
The protection of cows is a volatile
subject in India, where the animals are
revered by the majority-Hindu population. In a recent interview, activist
Noorjehan Safia Niaz railed against the
law, which she says unfairly affects
poorer members of the countrys ChrisBut Shailesh Bhagwan Deore, who over- tian, Muslim and Dalit communities
sees the care of the animals kept in who are reliant on beef because it is
captivity at the park, fears the leaner generally cheaper than chicken (and
diet might eventually deplete the ani- mutton). The decision to ban beef is a
mals strength. In fresh beef, the ani- communal one targeted at the marginmals get the taste of blood, Mr. Deore alised Muslims and Dalits, said Ms.
said. They enjoy that.
Niaz, adding that the decision was tantamount to the government entering
Growing power of the right?
our kitchens and asking us what to eat.
The fight, of course, is not over what It is an extremely personal attack, she
the parks animals are eating; they will said.
be able to tear into freshly slaughtered
It is the members of the Qureshi combuffalo meat as soon as the striking munity, traditional butchers, who have
traders begin supplying it again. Under- been severely hit by the ban. Others
lying the debate is unease among some affected even more in the short-run are
liberal Indians who are worried that the the workers engaged with the beef busiban shows the growing power of the ness. These workers, labourers and asHindu right in the country. Neerja sistants work on a hand-to-mouth basis,
Chowdhury, a journalist and political earning Rs. 350-400 per day. New
analyst, said the passage of the ban York Times News Service
ND-ND

12

NEWS

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

FROM PAGE ONE

ALARM IN KASHMIR

Babri case: respondents may

influence CBI, says plea
Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI: Haji Mahboob
Ahmad, a petitioner in the
mosque demolition case,
has moved the Supreme
Court seeking the trial of
BJP leader L.K. Advani and
19 others on charges of conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid in 1992.
Mr. Ahmad told the court
that several respondents
were holding powerful positions in the current government and might influence
the CBI.
It is further material to
submit that in the last one
year there has been a change
of Central government
wherein the leaders of the
same political party [BJP]
have become the government ... The CBI may not
seriously ... uphold the rule
of law, the petitioner
alleged.
The discharge of these
leaders [by a trial court]
who were accused in the
case was a historical injustice. We sincerely hope that
the apex court intervention
will undo that injustice,
said Congress spokesperson

The discharge of
leaders by a trial
court is a historical
injustice
Randeep Surjewala. [To
give notice] is a normal
practice. [But] the Congress, which is embroiled in
several scams and has a former Prime Minister [Manmohan Singh] who has been
summoned as an accused by
court is now trying to do
politics through courts,
said BJP national secretary
Shrikant Sharma.
Mr. Ahmads petition argued: It is submitted that
the bifurcation attempted
by the trial court, which has
found favour with the High
Court is completely erroneous in law. The acts of instigation, facilitation, the
actual demolition of the
Masjid, the continuous assault on the media persons,
thus form a single connected transaction and can well
be a concerted conspiracy
under Section 120B of the
IPC.

Gujarat Bill an undeclared

Emergency: activists

Fear of floods looms large as Met predicts more rain

Government, people hope for the best but prepare for the worst
Zahid Rafiq
SRINAGAR: A dry Tuesday
brought some relief to the
residents of Srinagar as the
water in the Jhelum receded
below the flood alarm levels.
But with the Meteorological
Department predicting moderate to heavy rainfall on
Wednesday, the fear of floods
hung over the city like dark
clouds.
The situation has improved a lot with the dry spell.
While the water level in south
Kashmir has gone down
much below the danger level
in Srinagar it has receded
just below the flood level,
Javed Jaffer, Chief Engineer
of Irrigation and Flood Control Department, told The
Hindu.
A 42-hour-long dry spell
has given ample time to the
government to prepare for
the floods. At the same time, it
has given hope to the people
that the situation this time
might not be as bad as it was
in September last year. Mr.
Jaffer said there were no
breaches in either the Jhelum
or any of its streams and the

Leader of the Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly

Shankersinh Vaghela addresses the media in
Gandhinagar on Tuesday. PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

AHMEDABAD: Activists and

members of civil society
have flagged the draconian
provisions of the Gujarat
Control of Terrorism and
Organised Crime Bill 2015
which was passed by the
State Assembly on Tuesday.
This is an undeclared
Emergency intended to
muzzle dissent in the State.
The government wants to
spread fear and terror
among activists, NGO workers and civil society persons
with its stringent provisions.
If there is no bail and period
of probe is lengthened, it effectively means that a person can be detained for 180
days merely on the basis of
phone records, Gautam
Thaker, general secretary,
Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, told
The Hindu.
The draconian provisions
of the Bill include Clause 16
that stipulates that a confession made by a person before a police officer not
below the rank of Superintendent of Policeshall be
admissible in the trial of
such accused, co-accused,
abettor or conspirator.
The Bill also provides for
extension of the period of investigation from the stipulated 90 days to 180 days.

No bail
Furthermore, the legislation makes offences under
the Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime
Act, 2015, non-bailable.
Clause 20 (4) of the Bill
states,
Notwithstanding
anything contained in the
Code of Criminal Procedure,
no person accused of an offence punishable under this

Act shall, if in custody, be

released on bail or on his
own bond.
The Bill makes evidence
collected through the interception of wire, electronic or
oral communication admissible in the court.
It provides immunity to
the State government from
legal action. Clause 25 of the
Bill states, No suit, prosecution or other legal proceeding shall lie against the
State government or any officer or authority of the State
government for anything
which is in good faith done
or intended to be done in
pursuance of this Act.

Congress opposes
Strongly criticising the
new Bill, Congress MLA
Shaktisinh Gohil said the
legislation went against nationally applicable criminal
laws such as the National Security Act, CrPC and the Indian Evidence Act. He said
the State government was
not empowered to bring a
law that contradicted national laws.
President Kalam had returned the Bill recommending the deletion of the
clauses pertaining to confession in police custody, tapping phone and online
communication, period of
investigation and non-grant
of bail.
However, Gujarat again
passed the same Bill in 2009
for the third time, which is
now pending with the President. The new Bill of 2015
retains the same provisions
of GUJCOC.
The intention of the government is only to play politics in the name of
terrorism, Mr. Gohil told
The Hindu.

RSBY to be implemented by
Health Ministry from April 1
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Starting April 1, the

Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) of the Labour and

Employment Ministry will
now be implemented by the
Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare.
The RSBY, the health insurance scheme for BPL (below
poverty line) families provides
for IT-enabled and smartcard-based cashless health insurance, including maternity
benefit cover up to Rs. 30,000
per annum on a family floater
basis.
Ministry of Labour said in a
statement that the scheme
had benefited 3,85,15,411 famCM
YK

RSBY provides for

IT-enabled and
smart-card-based
cashless health
insurance
ilies up to March 31, 2014 and
as many as 10,311 hospitals are
rendering services to the insured persons which include
6,093 private hospitals and
4,218 Government hospitals.
In India, of the estimated
workforce of 47 crore, only
eight crore are organised
workers and thirty nine crore
are workers in the unorganised sector.

A view of river Jhelum after water started receding near Amirakadal bridge in
Srinagar on Tuesday. PHOTO: NISSAR AHMAD
river was holding up very
well.
At 8 p.m., the water level at
the Sangam gauge in south
Kashmir was recorded at 13.9

Govt. to revive Gorakhpur,

Barauni fertiliser units
NEW DELHI: The Union Cabi-

Rahi Gaikwad

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

net on Tuesday approved

revival of two shut fertiliser
plants in Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar at an investment of up
to Rs. 12,000 crore and by
making use of the proposed
2,000-km gas pipeline from
Jagdishpur to Haldia.
The urea plants at Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh
and Barauni in Bihar will
get the feedstock gas
through the Rs. 10,000
crore Jagdishpur-Haldia
pipeline that is being targeted for completion by 2019.
Besides feeding the two
urea plants, the pipeline
would also provide the fuel
to power stations as well as
to
feed
city
gas
requirements.
The pipeline, which was
originally proposed by
state-owned Gas Authority
of India Limited about a
decade back but was on cold

storage for lack of base demand, would also feed to

the gas requirement of CNG
for automobiles and piped
cooking gas for households
in cities along the route.
Telecom & IT Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad said
the pipeline would provide
gas to one crore households
in eastern India. The decision on gas pooling can help
the government save Rs.
1,550 crore subsidy, will improve operational efficiency, there will be uniform gas
distribution and provide relief to farmers who face
problems of urea supply,
he said. The two fertiliser
plants would be revived
with an estimated investment of about Rs. 12,000
crore and this will increase
the countrys urea capacity
by 2.6 million tonnes, Fertiliser Minsiter Ananth Kumar said. --PTI

feet, dropping seven feet below the flood level of 21 feet.

In Srinagar, the Jhelum was
at 16.95 feet, a foot below the
flood level of 18 feet. On Mon-

day afternoon, at its peak, the

river rumbled at 22.5 feet in
Sangam and 19.7 feet in
Srinagar.
The Jhelum flows quickly

Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Even as the mud-

slinging within the Aam Aadmi Party refuses to die down,

its two leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan,
ousted from the national executive, appear to be laying the
ground for the formation of a
new political party.
However, they indicated
that a meeting of volunteers
would be convened first before any announcement is
made.
Mr. Yadav, in a message on
his Facebook page, said he and
Mr. Bhushan had received
hundreds of messages of support and solidarity that have
erased any insult that we may
have suffered on the 28th.
We must therefore keep
the spirit of the movement going at this difficult juncture.
The questions are: how? what
next? Some of the friends who
met over the last two days felt
that there should be a dialogue
with like minded friends to
answer these questions. Ten-

Prashant Bhushan has indicated that he and

Yogendra Yadav will not take legal action against
their expulsion from the AAPs national executive.
tatively, the dialogue is scheduled for Ambedkar Jayanti,
14th of April 2015 somewhere
close to Delhi, his message
said.
Mr. Bhushan indicated that
the duo will not take legal action, either in the High Court
or the Election Commission
against their expulsion from
the national executive but
would rather focus now on
channelling the positive energy of the partys volunteers.
Whether that is done through

BJP to address farmers misgivings

Jayant Sriram

NEW DELHI: Removing misgivings on farmers issues, especially the misinformation

on the NDAs Land Acquisition Bill will be the focus area
at the BJPs national executive to be held at Bengaluru
on April 2 and 3. Other than WTO on food security, harthe Land Bill, farmers are nessing inflation and higher
faced with damage to the GDP growth are the economstanding rabi crop and ic achievements that the
mounting arrears payable to party chief will flag.
sugarcane growers.
Resolution on
Hum dene aye hai, lene
nahi, (we have come to give, foreign policy
There will a separate resonot take away) will be the
message of party chief Amit lution on Prime Minister NaShah to farmers in his presi- rendra Modis foreign policy
dential address, said a party successes with SAARC, Euleader. The Bill ensures ropean countries and the
compensation, rehabilita- United States. His efforts to
tion and jobs for farmers give India a presence on the
stage
will
be
whose land will be acquired world
unlike during the Congress highlighted.
The meeting, being held in
regime when farmers were
given nothing, he said. The Congress-ruled Karnataka,
Bill is hanging fire in the Ra- will also signal the partys
jya Sabha where the NDA is agenda to increase its
in a minority and the Opposi- strength and presence in the
tion has united against the southern States of Andhra
Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and
proposed legislation.
The provisions of the Land Kerala.
Besides becoming the
Bill are part of the NDAs
larger economic reforms worlds largest organisation
agenda, which includes, with a membership of 9.05
among other aspects, the am- crore, the party claims to
bitious Make in India pro- have gained in raising its
gramme. Indias stand at the membership by five to six per

NEW DELHI: Under the Gujarat

Control of Terrorism and Organised Crime Bill, the power

given to investigating agencies to hold the suspect in
custody for 30 days, among
other things, is a faithful echo
of provisions of the earlier
laws like the Prevention of
Terrorism Act (POTA), which
was repealed in 2004 by the
UPA government.
However, near identical
provisions are found in the
Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA),
which is still in force and
which has also been in force
in the national capital since
2002.
In fact, the existence and
use of the MCOCA had always
been a point of contention between Narendra Modi and
the UPA government, which
thwarted his earlier attempts
to pass a similar legislation
for Gujarat when he was
Chief Minister. In 2009, the
Union Cabinet returned the
Gujarat Control of Organised
Crime Act Bill, passed by the
Gujarat Assembly for the second time, seeking amendments to three harsh and
draconian provisions.

Devesh K. Pandey
NEW DELHI: Eight search
and rescue teams of the
National Disaster
Response Force (NDRF)
have been made available
to the Jammu and
Kashmir government in
the event of a flood.
Two fully-equipped
NDRF teams have been
deployed at the Anantnag
police station and
Humhama in Srinagar.
Three more teams were
airlifted from NDRF base
at Ghaziabad and Bhatinda
on Tuesday morning. Two
teams are being sent to
north and south Kashmir
and four being deployed in
central Kashmir, an MHA
official said.
Union Minister
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on
Tuesday submitted a
report on the ground
situation to Prime
Minister Narendra Modi.

AAP rebels may form new party

Echo of POTA
provisions

Gargi Parsai

from south Kashmir to Srinagar but takes much longer to

flow out from Srinagar towards north Kashmir. This
puts Srinagar at the risk of
floods, Mr. Jaffer said. He
said if it rained heavily on
Wednesday, things could
turn grim yet again in
Srinagar.
The government, the administration and the people
are hoping for the best and
preparing for the worst.
Wednesday will be a day of
rainfall. We are expecting
moderate rainfall although in
some places it could be
heavy, said Sonam Lotus, director of the Meteorological
Department.
The government said it
was prepared to meet the inclement weather challenge
and was working hard to
avoid any flooding in Srinagar. We are prepared for any
eventuality and have been
working
round-the-clock
with various functionaries of
the State to face the predicted fresh spell of rainfall, Imran Ansari, senior PDP
leader and Cabinet Minister,
said.

Eight disaster
relief teams
rushed to J&K

We have come to
give, not take away
will be the message at
national executive
meeting

cent in the seven States

where the organisation is
weak and which are the new
thrust areas, including Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Assam,
Tripura and Odisha. Bolstered by the successes, the
membership drive has been
extended by a month till
April 30.

To discuss strategy
for Assembly polls
The meeting will also discuss strategies for Assembly
elections in Bihar and Uttar
Pradesh where the BJP will
have to reckon with the
emerging Janata Parivar.
Zero tolerance for corruption, development and
good governance, will remain the mantra for the party, the BJP leader said.
What the government has
done so far in economic reforms, creation of jobs, provision of roads, power,
irrigation and infrastructure
are laying the foundation for
future. Our successes in BJPruled States and the Gujarat
model of governance are before the nation for us to be
confident that we will deliver. The work has started.
The Prime Minister will
also address a rally on the
occasion.

a political party or any other

organisation remains to be
seen. The meeting on April 14
is expected to include activist
Medha Patkar, who quit the
AAP in a show of solidarity
with Mr. Yadav and Mr.
Bhushan, and Admiral L.
Ramdas, who was removed as
the partys Lokpal.
Meanwhile, in yet another
attack on Delhi Chief Minister
Arvind Kejriwal, former party
MLA Rajesh Garg, whom the
party had recently suspended,

on Tuesday alleged that Mr.

Kejriwal would make people
impersonate office staff of
BJP leaders Nitin Gadkari and
Arun Jaitley and call MLAs to
offer money for supporting
the BJP.
During the initial phase of
government formation I got
calls from someone who
claimed to be calling from
Arun Jaitleys office offering
Rs. 10 crore to support the
BJP, Mr. Garg claimed.
I took a screen shot of the
number and lodged a complaint with the police who arrested one person. Then I got a
call from [AAP leader] Sanjay
Singh asking me to withdraw
the complaint. I didnt withdraw it but they managed to
get him released, he alleged.

Yadav sacked as
spokesperson
Meanwhile, AAP on Tuesday sacked Mr. Yadav as chief
spokesperson of the party and
Mr. Bhushan, Atishi Marlena
and Anand Kumar as spokespersons.

AERB should get regulatory

independence by law
Alok Deshpande
MUMBAI: The draft report submitted by the Integrated Regulatory
Review
Service
(IRRS) of the International
Atomic
Energy
Agency
(IAEA) after reviewing legal
and regulatory framework related to the safety of nuclear
power plants and projects
within India, has recommended regulatory independence to the Atomic
Energy Regulatory Board
(AERB) by law.
The previous United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had introduced a
Bill in the Lok Sabha to grant
regulatory independence to
the AERB following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in
Japan. However, following
the general election and constitution of new the Lok Sabha, the Bill lapsed and needs
to be introduced again.
The Board is functionally
independent from the Department of Atomic energy
(DAE) as well as from the influence of licensees, but
theres scope for strengthening that independence by enacting an Act, said S. S. Bajaj,
Chairman, AERB, while addressing a press conference at

Anushakti
Bhavan
in
Mumbai.
Among other recommendations, the report has asked
the Central government to
promulgate a national policy
and strategy for safety and radioactive waste management
strategy.
The AERB is working on a
strategy to segregate highlevel radioactive waste to
make it benign sooner.
In India, we recycle the
spent fuel and process the
plutonium and other material
and reuse them. The remaining radioactive waste, mainly
the actinides, is vitrified and
stored at safe storage. We are
now working on further segregating these minor actinides, mainly responsible for
the long shelf life of the radioactive waste, so that the remaining waste will become
benign in three hundred
years, making storage easy,
explained Mr. Bajaj.
The report, while acknowledging Indias comprehensive and well-established
national educational and
training system that supports
competence-building for its
nuclear programme, has also
suggested a number of vital
initiatives to the AERB.

Previous board denied certificate to film on homosexuality, says CBFC chief

Omar Rashid
MUMBAI: Under fire for banning a film that explores homosexuality, Censor Board
of Film Certification chairman Pahlaj Nihalani on
Tuesday clarified that the
film, Blemished Light, was
refused a certificate during
the previous regime and that
he was unnecessarily being
pulled into controversies
due to some malafide
interests.
While the filmmakers have
expressed outrage over the
ban, saying it took away
basic human rights, Mr. Nihalani said it was not correct

to say that the Board had

banned the film.
The directorial debut of
Florida-based director Raj
Amit Kumar, starring actors
Adil Hussain and Victor Banerjee in key roles, is a thriller based in New York and
New Delhi. It espouses homosexuality and also touches on Islamist terrorism.
The film was refused a certificate by the Examining
Committee (EC) in November 2014, as it contained a
controversial theme, full
frontal nudity, nude lesbian
love scenes and violence,
sources in the CBFC said.
The filmmakers then re-

ferred it to the Revising

Committee (RC). The RC,
which included board member Nandini Sardesai, passed
the film with an A certificate but with a few cuts. The
filmmakers, however, approached the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal
(FCAT) which upheld the
ECs decision. Insiders who
have watched the film said it Pahlaj Nihalani says he
dealt with certain problem- is being pulled into
atic representations.
controversies. FILE PHOTO:
Where is the Boards role
in it? Why are people ques- VIVEK BENDRE
tioning me for it? The appli- ni told The Hindu. Mr
cant was given the certificate Kumar was not available for
with a few cuts but they re- comment.
When your film is not dofused to take it, Mr. Nihala-

ing well, you create a controversy saying the Board

banned your film just to seek
mileage for it to do well, Mr.
Nihalani said, while coming
down heavily on the media
for misreporting details.
They have got even the
films name wrong. The movie is not Unfreedom [as reported by most sections of
the media] but Blemished
Light, he pointed out.
He claims that since assuming office, he has cleared
200 films, of which 12 were
sent to the RC and only two
films he actually watched
himself NH10 and Focus;
both films were released. Mr.

Nihalani clarified that stories

about his style of functioning
were misconstrued by the
media. As a chairperson I
have the first right to watch
these films, but I give this
chance to the board members. I spend time in my office clearing files, not to
watch films and deliver cuts.
It is my duty to clear the files
and watch every file carefully, he said. Mr. Nihalani said
he guaranteed tatkal services to filmmakers in securing
certificates. Show us your
promos and in 24 hours, I
guarantee that you will get a
certificate, is his message to
filmmakers.
ND-ND

NATIONAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

STRIFE IN YEMEN

India begins evacuating citizens

Operation Raahat launched; INS Sumitra enters Aden
Dinakar Peri and
Renuka Phadnis
NEW DELHI/BENGALURU: After a
delay in beginning the evacuation of Indians stranded in
Yemen owing to intensified
fighting in Aden, India on
Tuesday night received permission to dock its vessel at
the port of Aden to evacuate
nearly 400 stranded Indians
to Djibouti.
Since reports last came in,
passengers were boarding a
commercial liner at Aden
which will reach Djibouti on
Wednesday morning. Naval
Ship INS Sumitra which was
diverted from anti-piracy duty in the Gulf of Aden and
anchored just off the Yemen
coast has entered Aden to assist the evacuation operation
that has been officially
named Operation Raahat.
There has been increased urgency for evacuation with
mounting fears of a ground
invasion by Saudi-led forces
into Yemen to fight back the
Houthi rebels in control.
Two more ships, the destroyer INS Mumbai and the
frigate INS Tarkash have set
sail from India, and would reach the Yemen coast by April
2, and are equipped to deal
with several contingencies,
officials said. Efforts to bring
the Indians, mostly stranded
in Sanaa and Aden, to safety
are expected to be ramped up
when Minister of State for
Overseas Indian Affairs Gen.

Stranded Kerala
nurses begin
homeward journey
Renuka Phadnis

As the situation escalates in Yemen, Indians are

desperate to be evacuated. This picture of a Saudi
air strike was taken by a stranded expatriate.
PHOTO: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

(Retd) V.K. Singh reaches

neighbouring Djibouti on
Wednesday. We are in touch
with the various (government and rebel) groups in
Yemen. The problem is road
travel is curtailed because
they are fighting, he told
The Hindu. The other problem was that the Saudi forces
were not extending bigger
airflight windows to allow
the evacuation flights to operate from Sanaa.
Officials say the Op. Raahat plan is to deploy all naval
ships and four aircraft, including two IAF C-17 Globemasters and two Air India
flights stationed in Muscat
all together to launch a composite evacuation effort.
However, the relatives of
Indians in Yemen say the
government should have act-

ed before the Saudi air campaign against rebels began on

March 26.
I would blame the government for its tardy response to the crisis, said
Bengaluru-based Shiva Kumar, whose brother Ravi Kumar had flown to Sanaa on
March 12 on business when
fighting broke out. Speaking
over the telephone to The
Hindu, he said that in addition to the approximately
4,000 Indian labourers, businessmen and nurses registered with the Indian
embassy, there are at least
5,000 illegal workers as
well, who need to be evacuated.
Officials said they were
aware of the difficulties being faced by Indians who had
chosen to remain in Yemen.

BENGALURU: A group of 22
nurses from Kerala working at the Al Gamhuria
Government Hospital in
Aden, Yemen, have boarded a ship in Aden to reach
Djibouti, from where they
will take a flight to India.
Speaking over phone
from Aden, Renya, one of
the nurses, said, We are
boarding a ship to Djibouti. They are calling out our
names. From Djibouti, we
will take a flight to India.
For the nurses, the last
week has been a rollercoaster of emotions. They
had been waiting for information from the Indian
Embassy on how they
would be evacuated. The
Indian Embassy had not
communicated much with
the Indians in Aden and
had wanted them to get an
exit stamp on their visas. But going to the passport office was impossible.
On Monday, their home
came crashing down as at
night, their hostel was destroyed in an air strike.
The same night, the nurses shifted to a hotel returning the following
morning to their hostel.

Move shocking, says Supriya Sule

Smriti Kak Ramachandran
NEW DELHI: When she talks of

the consequences of tobacco

consumption, Supriya Sule,
Member of Parliament from
Baramati, does not cite figures or quote studies; she
slips into the shoes of a
daughter to tell the story of
her father Sharad Pawars 15year-old battle with cancer.
I have watched my father
struggle with cancer. Hes
been cancer free for years
now, but every time we go for
a review (health check-up),
there is an uneasy feeling in
my stomach, said Ms. Sule,
who has in the recent past
been part of delegations that
have called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and
Health Minister J.P. Nadda
to push for legislation to control the use of tobacco.
Along with her Lok Sabha
colleague Jay Panda (Biju Janata Dal), Ms. Sule has been
in the forefront of the campaign to control tobacco use.
On Tuesday, she described
the governments decision to
put on hold its earlier notification to increase pictorial
warnings on tobacco packs
from 40 per cent to 85 per
cent from April 1 as both
shocking and unfortunate.
Tobacco control and cancer is way above politics, she
said, adding that political
parties and governments
cannot yield to pressure
from tobacco lobbies.
On the need for increasing

Devesh K. Pandey
NEW DELHI: Keeping up
with the March 31
deadline, the Central
Board of Direct Taxes
(CBDT) has completed
assessment of the HSBC
Bank (Geneva) accountholders whose details
were shared by the
French government in
2011.
While the Income-Tax
Department had earlier
launched prosecution
proceedings in 60 cases,
is learnt that the agency
has sought legal opinion
to ascertain whether it
can initiate prosecution
in other cases. Penalty
proceedings were also
initiated against 350
account-holders.
Over 250 of the 628
account-holders have
admitted to having
accounts abroad.
However, legal action
will not be taken against
those who enjoyed NRI
status when the accounts
were opened, unless any
criminality is involved,
said an official.
The Income-Tax
Department also plans to
open investigations in
cases pertaining to the
accounts opened before
2005-06, taking recourse
to assessment/
reassessment provisions
under the Income-Tax
Act.

Too close for comfort

Renuka Phadnis
BENGALURU: Indians stranded
at a hotel in Sanaa are feeling
cornered as the strife in Yemen is coming closer. They
are getting increasingly anxious about their evacuation
as the air strikes have become more frequent, and are
occurring during daylight,
and are much nearer to
where they stay.
Till Sunday, air strikes had
been taking place in Sanaa
after dusk and continuing till
dawn.
Indians are now hoping

SC rejects Jat students plea

Legal Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Standing firm on its

March 17 judgment removing

the Jat community from the
Central list of Other Backward
Classes, the Supreme Court on
Tuesday refused to give relief
to a group of medical students
caught between the examination and the admission
process.
On March 17, a Bench led by
Justice Ranjan Gogoi quashed
a March 4, 2014, notification
issued by the UPA government
including the Jat community
in the Central OBC list.
The students had moved the
Supreme Court last week
seeking clarification on the
fate of those who had already
applied for admission under
the OBC category prior to the
judgment.
They contended that the future of students like them,
who appeared in the All-India
Post Graduate Dental Entrance Examination (AIPG-

Woman gang-raped for

refusing ritual donation
Shoumojit Banerjee
PUNE: A 45-year-old woman
was gang-raped at gunpoint
for allegedly refusing to donate for a traditional Hindu
ritual in Sonai village in Ahmednagar
district
of
Maharashtra.
The district police have
booked a case against a former sarpanch and three others for the incident that has
sent shockwaves throughout
the district.
The incident came to light
only on Tuesday after vernacular channels highlighted the
plight of the victim.
The womans crime was
refusing to offer a donation
for Harinam Saptah a Hindu ritual involving mass worship of a deity or a patron
saint during a seven-day
period.
According to the womans
daughter, the former sarpanch, Laxman Ghule, along
with his wife and his men,
CM
YK

that the Indian government

will act as soon as possible to
help them leave the striferidden country. What is worrying is that other than the
air strikes, there could be
combat on ground too.
Ravi Kumar T, an engineer
from Bengaluru, one among
150 Indians stranded at the
hotel, said that while there
were bombings before dusk
on Monday, any moment
ground forces could attack
from Saudi Arabia.
He said, After that, it will
be very difficult to escape.
With no newspapers and

stormed into the victims

house early on Friday last
week.

None ventured to help

They beat up my father
with shovels and sharp weapons, badly damaging his legs.
My brother too was assaulted.
They then set upon my mother with a pistol to her head
and brutally assaulted her. No
one in the mob of 150-odd
people who had gathered ventured to help.
The thugs then vandalised
the house and destroyed a
motorbike belonging to the
victims family.
We have nabbed one of the
culprits and registered cases
under Section 376 (G) of the
Indian Penal Code and relevant Sections of the Arms Act.
The hunt is on for the former
sarpanch Ghule and 10 others. We hope to nab him
soon, Lakhmi Gautam, Ahmednagar Superintendent of
Police, told The Hindu.

DEE) 2015 and the All-India

Post Graduate Medical Entrance Examination (AIPGMEE) 2015 and secured ranks
under the OBC category has
now become uncertain.
The students pointed out
that different institutions, including Delhi University, had
drawn up fresh lists of candidates following the March 17
verdict and were now being
considered under the general
category.
The candidates are bound
to suffer heavy losses in the
form of an academic year, time
and resources, if the said judgment is allowed to apply to candidates who are in a transitory
phase in the process of completing admission and enrolment, their application said.
However, a Bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Rohinton
Fali Nariman, dismissed their
contentions, while observing
that no vested rights could be
created in their favour post
the judgment.

Second suspect
held in sex
video clip cases
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: The Central Bu-

reau of Investigation has arrested the second suspect in

sex video clip cases registered on the Supreme Court
directions.
Debashis Dev, accused of
shooting and circulating the
sex video of a girl without
her consent, was arrested in
Cuttack. He has been
charged with various offences under the Indian Penal
Code
and
the
Information Technology
Act.
About a week ago, the
agency had arrested Bhubaneswar-based
property
dealer Subrat Sahu for his
alleged involvement in preparing and circulating the
sex video clip on the Internet. The video clips have
been sent to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory
for analysis.

no power most of the time,

they do not know how to sift
information from rumour.
While an announcement was
made last Friday that a ship
had set out, there was no update on the vessel. Most disappointing to them was
hearing that a plane had
come to Sanaa but had to return to Muscat, Oman, as it
was not allowed to land in
Sanaa airport. Indians went
back from the airport, he
said.
Another
businessman
from Bhatkal, Karnataka, did
not respond to phone calls.

KOCHI: In a momentous judg-

ment, a Division Bench of

the Kerala High Court on
Tuesday upheld the liquor
policy of the United Democratic Front (UDF) government that permitted bars to
function only in hotels of
five-star
and
above
categories.
The High Court decision
resulted in 300 bars in two,
three, and four-star hotels
being shut down at 10.30
p.m. on Tuesday, leaving
just 24 bars in five-star hotels functioning in Kerala.
Beer and wine parlours
would also continue to
function.
The government has

Five flee Nagpur jail

Pavan Dahat
RAIPUR: Five inmates ac-

cused of serious criminal offences escaped from the

Nagpur Central Jail on
Tuesday.
Mohhamad
Shaoib Salim Khan, Bishan
Singh Phuke and Satendra
Gupta, all three accused of
murder, escaped with Akash
Thakur and Prem Nepali,
charged with dacoity and
robbery.
Khan, Phuke and Gupta
belong to the Raja Gous
gang which was involved in
the murder of Roshan Samrit, a student, in April last
year.
All three have more than
20 criminal offences registered against them in different police stations of
Nagpur. They have also
been booked under the
Maharashtra Control of Organized
Crime
Act
(MCOCA).

pictorial warnings on tobacco packs, she said: There is

a need to create awareness
because everyone thinks it
wont happen to me.
On the speculation that
the government has succumbed to pressure from tobacco lobbies, she said:
There are lobbies the world
over, but I dont believe
pressure exists. There was a
lot of pressure from gutka
lobbies too, but it was
banned in States like Maharashtra and Rajasthan.
Responding to how the

ban on tobacco use will affect the farmers and women

engaged in the sector, she
said the government must
consider skill development
programmes to help them
find gainful employment.
We are not looking at a
complete ban overnight, we
should have alternative crop
grown in phases. The Prime

Teams formed to nab

them; jail
superintendent
suspended
They escaped from jail
probably by cutting the
iron rods of a window.
Three of them were booked
under MCOCA. Police
teams have been formed to
nab them. Jail Superintendent Vaibav Kamble has
been suspended. The government has acted swiftly
in the case, said Chandrashekhar
Bawankule,
Guardian Minister of Nagpur district.
According to some police
sources, no tunnel was discovered in the jail.
The authorities suspect
that the inmates might
have used blankets to scale
the security wall.

Rukmini S

early 2013 after a gap of eight

years, several executions
scheduled for 2014 were put
on hold.
In January, a landmark
Supreme Court ruling laid
down guidelines for death
sentences, including classifying delay in the disposal of
mercy petitions as grounds

Minister speaks of skill development, we should think

of creating alternative jobs,
she said.
In response to BJP MP
Dilipkumar Gandhis comment on whether India has
done its own survey to ascertain the link between
cancer and tobacco, she referred to the death of former
Maharashtra Minister R.R.
Patil.
He [Patil] was like an
elder brother to me. We lost
him to cancer. We lost a
family [member].

Centre had tobacco growers concern in mind

Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: There are no alternative crops for bidi/tobacco farmers ... The new
rule that 85 per cent of the
bidi wrapper should contain horrific warnings, etc.,
will cause the bidi industry
to collapse. These are
among the many concerns
submitted to the committee
on subordinate legislation
(Lok Sabha) against increase in pictorial warnings
on tobacco products.
In its report submitted to
Parliament on the Cigarettes and other Tobacco
Products (Prohibition of
Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Com-

hailed the verdict as a vindication of its policy to bring

about prohibition in stages.
However, bar owners said
they would go in appeal
against the High Court order
on Wednesday. Closure of
the two, three, and four-star
bars might see a few thousand workers losing their
employment.
The Division Bench, comprising Justice K.T. Sankaran and Justice Babu
Mathew P. Joseph, gave its
verdict while allowing appeals by the State government against a single bench
judgment directing it to allow bars to function fourstar and heritage hotels. The
Bench had also simultaneously considered appeals fil-

merce, Production, Supply

and Distribution) Act,
2003, the committee has
said it received representations from MPs, organisations and stakeholders
involved in bidi/tobacco/
cigarette trade against the
proposed notification.
Serious apprehensions
have been expressed about
the adverse impact of the
modified rules on the livelihood of a large number of
people directly or indirectly involved in bidi and tobacco
trade,
the
committee says in the
report.
Shyama Charan Gupta,
MP, in his letter to the committee, has submitted that

ed by three-star hotel
owners who had sought permission to run three-star
bars.
The Division Bench observed that the liquor policy
of the government for the
year 2014-15 could not be
termed arbitrary or unreasonable. Nor did it violate
Article 14 of the Constitution, which guaranteed
equality before law. In fact,
it was for the State government to evolve a policy, taking into account various
factors, including the welfare of the public.
The court was of the view
that the government had
taken into account all relevant material while evolving
the liquor policy.

bidis are natural products.

They are very small as compared to cigarettes and
there is very little tobacco
in each bidi, hence the
harmful effects are nil as
compared to cigarettes and
chewing tobacco. There is
no medical evidence that
bidis cause cancer.
The All India Bidi Industry Federation told the
committee that bidis are
packed in bundles of 10-25
and if 85 per cent of the
area is to be earmarked for
health warning, there
would be no space for
printing the brand logo or
name. Without brand/logo
it is not possible to sell bidis, it said.

Traders to
resume buffalo
slaughter
Omar Rashid
MUMBAI: Buffalo slaughter will
resume in Maharashtra from
Wednesday, after almost a
month-long self-imposed ban
by traders protesting against
the States ban on slaughter of
bulls and bullocks.
Cow slaughter has been
banned in the State since 1976.
As a mark of solidarity towards their associates who sell
bull meat violation of the
ban is punishable by five years
imprisonment by a newly
amended law traders selling
buffalo meat, which is permissible under law, boycotted activities across Maharashtra.

Gautam Kundu
remanded in
judicial custody

In Karnataka, learn
in Kannada

Staff Reporter

B.S. Satish Kumar

KOLKATA: A city court on

Tuesday rejected the bail
petition of Rose Valley
Group of Companies
chairman Gautam Kundu
for the second time and remanded him in judicial
custody till April 9. Earlier
this week, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Kundu and had him
in its custody for five days.
We opposed Mr. Kundus bail petition on the
grounds of a larger conspiracy and the way he had
illegally raised money, an
offence under the Prevention of Money Laundering
Act, ED lawyer Bhaskar
Banerjee told The Hindu.
The ED did not ask for
Mr. Kundus custody since
there was no need for his
immediate interrogation.

BENGALURU: Moving a step

ahead with respect to enforcing teaching of Kannada in
schools, the Assembly on
Tuesday adopted two Bills,
including the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory
Education
(Karnataka
Amendment) Bill 2015, which
seeks to provide primary education (standard I to V) in the
childs mother tongue or in
Kannada.
However, the Bill needs
Presidential assent to become law. Both the Bills were
adopted unanimously after
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah
assured the House of taking a
delegation of floor leaders
from all parties in the State
legislature to Delhi to meet
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi to impress upon him
the need to effect a constitutional amendment to enforce
Kannada as medium of instruction
for
primary
education.
I will raise the issue at the
meeting of the National Development Council to be convened
by
the
Prime
Minister, he said, adding
that he had written to all
Chief Ministers seeking their

270 on death row in India, 64

sentenced last year: Amnesty
NEW DELHI: Indian courts
handed down at least 64
death sentences last year,
but no executions took place,
largely as a result of court
rulings, new data from Amnesty International shows.
Globally, executions fell by a
fifth, and two-thirds of the
world has abolished the
death penalty.
China continues to execute the most people globally
thousands every year, the
human rights group said in a
new report published early
on Wednesday but does
not publish any data. Iran,
Iraq and Saudi Arabia accounted for nearly threequarters of the rest of the
worlds executions in 2014.
The United States of
America executed 35 people,
its fewest in 20 years.
In India, which saw the execution of Ajmal Kasab in
late 2012 and Afzal Guru in

Recalls father
Sharad Pawars
battle with cancer

HC upholds Keralas liquor policy

K.C. Gopakumar

Probe into
628 HSBC
accounts
completed

13

for commutation, as also

mental disability. Information reported by the Death
Penalty Research Project of
the National Law University
in Delhi indicated that 270
people were on death row in
various Indian prisons, and
eight mercy petitions were
rejected in 2014.
Pakistan lifted a six-year
moratorium on executions
after the Peshawar school
massacre. Seven people were
executed in 2014. As of Tuesday, 66 people have been
hanged since the lifting of
the moratorium, and Amnesty estimated that 8,000 more
persons were on death row.
Governments using the
death penalty to tackle crime
are deluding themselves.
There is no evidence that
shows the threat of execution is more of a deterrent
than any other punishment,
said Salil Shetty, Amnesty
Internationals
Secretary
General, in a statement.

co-operation in the matter.

Earlier, members urged
Mr. Siddaramaiah to take a
lead in building consensus
among the Chief Ministers of
all States to take the issue
forward.
Piloting the Bill, Minister
of State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane
Ratnakar said the Bill was
brought in the wake of the
States language policy being
turned down by the Constitutional bench of the Supreme
Court. The Minister maintained that the policy had
been turned down as it had
been brought through a government notification instead
of legislation.
The Assembly also adopted
the
Kannada
Language
Learning Bill 2015 that seeks
to make it mandatory for students in classes 1 to 10 in all
schools in the State to be
taught Kannada as one of the
compulsory languages, in a
phased
manner
from
2015-16.
Mr. Ratnakar clarified that
the government was leaving
the schools affiliated to CBSE
and ICSE out of the ambit of
this Bill at present. However,
there are only 700 such
schools, he said.

Bihar may seek NIA help

Amarnath Tewary &
Devesh K. Pandey
PATNA/NEW DELHI: Central
agencies are keeping a close
watch on the developments in
the wake of a low intensity
blast, which was followed by
seizure of two improvised explosive devices at a residential
flat in Patna on Monday night.
The police may seek assistance
from the National Investigation Agency (NIA).
The State government
would like to have a thorough
investigation into the incident
to know whether it was a terror
act, criminal handiwork or
something else, said Chief
Minister Nitish Kumar on
Tuesday, adding that the police

may seek help from the NIA if

necessary.
Additional Director-General of Police (Headquarters)
Gupteshwar Pandey said one
of the bombs had exploded
inside the flat, whereas the
other two were defused by the
police.
The bombs had the same
Lotus brand timer device
which was used in the [2013]
blasts in Bodh Gaya and at
Patnas Gandhi Maidan [during the then prime ministerial
candidate Narendra Modi's
rally], he said.
The blast took place on the
third floor of a building in the
Bahadurpur Housing Colony,
creating terror among the area
residents.
ND-ND

14

INTERNATIONAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

DESCENT INTO CHAOS

Japan could join AIIB by June

Atul Aneja
BEIJING: Bowing to pressure
from its powerful business
groups, Japan could join the
China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in the next few months,
deserting the United States
Tokyos foremost postwar ally, says a media report.
The Financial Times, quoting Japans Ambassador
to China, Masato Kitera, reported that Tokyo would
sign up to the AIIB by June,
missing the March 31 deadline for applying as a founder-member of the lender.
The business community woke up late, but now
they have mounted a big
campaign for the AIIB
which appears to be very effective, Mr. Kitera was
quoted as saying.
But in Tokyo, the FT report evoked an ambivalent
response. Japans Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday
that the Ambassador had

not made any such comment

and Japans position on the
AIIB was unchanged.
I have been informed
that it is not true that Ambassador Kitera made such
remarks forecasting [Japans] participation, Mr.
Suga told a news conference.
But he added that, I think
its impossible for Japan to
take part today, not ruling
out a reversal of position
later.
Reuters quoted an unnamed Japanese government source as saying, We
have not ruled out the possibility of either joining or
staying out.
In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson,
Hua Chunying, said on
Tuesday that Japan was welcome to join the bank, but
Tokyo would have to take
the call.
As for whether or not Japan is willing to participate,
we have previously said that
we welcome all countries to
proactively participate, she

Thai junta to lift martial law

BANGKOK: Thailands junta

chief and Prime Minister Prayut
Chan-O-Cha said on Tuesday he
would lift martial law but only
after replacing it with a new

order retaining sweeping

powers for the military in a
move critics warned would
deepen dictatorship in the
kingdom.
Speaking to reporters on
Tuesday, Prayut said a new
order to replace martial law
would be issued very soon.
He clearly indicated that the
military would retain significant
powers. AFP

Govt. HQ in Tikrit retaken: Iraq

KIRKUK: Iraqi forces have
retaken the Salaheddin
provincial government
headquarters in Tikrit from the
Islamic State (IS) a significant
advance in the battle to
recapture the city, officials
said Tuesday. Prime Minister
Haider al-Abadi said security
forces and Popular Mobilisation
units pro-government
paramilitary forces dominated

British royals
face industrial
action
Parvathi Menon
LONDON: The British royal
family faces industrial action
by staff at the Windsor Castle,
the Public and Commercial
Services Union, which represents 120 out of its 200 staff,
announced on Monday. The
union will be balloted for
strike action between March
21 and April 14.
The rst such action specific to the Royal Households, it
comes after years of pay restraint have left loyal workers
paid below the widely-recognised living wage, with new
recruits starting on as little as
14,400 a year, the union
stated.
The staff is expected to perform unpaid duties in addition, like giving tours of the
castle even though visitors
must pay for this and acting
as interpreters and helping in
medical emergencies.
Short of a strike, the union
will withdraw these goodwill services the union has
said.
The union claim that it accepted an unsatisfactory
pay offer for 2014, only on the
understanding that additional allowances would be considered this year. However,
the management has refused
to pay allowances for additional duties this year too.
PCS general secretary
Mark Serwotka said: These
workers are loyal to their employer and absolutely committed to ensuring visitors
are given the royal treatment.
It is scandalous that staff
are so appallingly paid and
expected to do work for free
that brings in money for the
royal family.
Windsor Castle lays claim
to being a working castle
and the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world. It
is an official residence of the
Queen, who spends most of
her private weekends there,
and takes up official residence for a month over Easter
(March to April).
Run by the Royal Collection Trust, it attracts 1.1 million visitors each year, who
spend more than 17 million,
which is used by the Royal
Collection Trust charity for
the upkeep of the royal
palaces.
CM
YK

by Iran-backed Shia militias

took part in the fighting, after
some of those groups said they
froze offensive operations in
response to U.S.-led air strikes.
It is the most significant
advance in Tikrit since progovernment forces launched an
operation to retake the city on
March 2, their largest since the
IS-led offensive last June.
AFP

be at the heart of building

infrastructure in the region,
offering substantial business opportunities. Besides,
collaboration with the Chinese could help mend frayed
ties between Beijing and Tokyo, highlighted by a dispute
observed.
She added China would on a group of islands in the
respect the wishes of any East China Sea.
Analysts say that over
country whether or not
they join or when they de- time, the U.S. could change
its position towards the new
cide to join.
bank. However,on Monday,
Mitsubishis support
visiting U.S. Treasury SecreAccording to FT, a group tary, Jack Lew, said in Beijof Mitsubishi Group execu- ing that Washington still
tives based in China have of- had its concerns about the
fered support during their standards that the AIIB
meeting this month with Jin would maintain.
Liqun, who has been desigWe very much welcome
nated to run the infrastruc- Chinas increased participature bank.
tion in infrastructure inThe Japanese nd Mr. Jin vestment, and the concerns
a familiar face because of his weve raised about the needs
position as a senior official for standards continue, Mr.
at the U.S. and Japan- Lew said. He added: The
backed Asian Development initial decisions of what
Bank (ADB).
kinds of projects are investThe Japanese industrial ed in will obviously be a very
houses see participation as important signal as to how
benecial, as the AIIB will theyll proceed.

FT quotes Japans
Ambassador to China
as reporting
Tokyos willingness

Suspected racist attack: Sikh

man assaulted in Birmingham
LONDON: A Sikh man was beaten up in a suspected racist
attack in the British city of
Birmingham and police have
launched an investigation after the video of the assault
emerged on the Internet.
In the video, the victim can
be seen desperately trying to
cover his face, as a man
punches and kicks him during
the brutal attack on Sunday in
Broad Street, Birmingham.
A crowd is gathered around
the man, but no one tries to
help him, Birmingham Mail
reported.
A spokesperson for West
Midlands Police said: We are
aware of a video posted on the
Internet which appears to
show a man being assaulted.
It has been suggested the attack was religiously motivated.
We would like to reassure
people we take such reports
seriously and the matter will

Police have launched

an investigation after
video of the assault
emerged on the net
be fully investigated. We are
currently making inquiries to
establish exactly what has
happened but at this stage,
nobody has come forward to
tell us theyve been assaulted, the spokesperson said.
Police have asked the victim to come forward.
I would encourage the
man who appears to be the
victim in the video to contact
us, along with anyone else
who was there at the time and
can give us any details, the
spokesperson said.
Facebook users have questioned why the watching
crowd did not try to help.
PTI

Progress on n-deal: Iran

LAUSANNE (SWITZERLAND): With
a deadline hours away, Iran
and six world powers ramped
up the pace on Tuesday in negotiations over a preliminary
deal on Tehrans nuclear programme, while officials cautioned that any agreement
would likely be fragile and
incomplete.
For nearly a week, the
United
States,
Britain,
France, Germany, Russia and
China have been trying to
break an impasse in the talks,
which are aimed at stopping
Iran from gaining the capacity to develop a nuclear bomb
in exchange for easing international sanctions that are
crippling its economy.
But disagreements on enrichment research and the
pace of lifting sanctions
threatened to scupper a deal

The two sticking

points are the
duration and the
lifting of sanctions
that could end a 12-year
standoff between Iran and
the West over Tehrans nuclear ambitions and reduce
the risk of another Middle
East war. The two sticking
points are the duration and
the lifting of sanctions, an
Iranian official said. The two
sides are arguing about the
content of the text. Generally
progress has been made.
Officials played down expectations for the talks in the
Swiss city of Lausanne. For
days they have been trying to
agree on a brief document of

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

several pages outlining key

headline numbers to form the
basis of a future agreement.
Officials said they hoped to be
able to announce something,
though one Western diplomat said it would be incomplete and kick some issues
down the road.
Negotiations among the
parties on sticking points
went into the night and continued on Tuesday. They
were expected to run late and
possibly into Wednesday. Ofcials said they were hoping
to agree on some kind of declaration, while any actual preliminary understanding that
is agreed might remain
condential.
The real deadline in the
talks, Western and Iranian ofcials said, is not Tuesday but
June 30. Reuters

36 dead as rebels attack Hadi loyalists

Yemeni Foreign Minister calls for ground intervention
ADEN: Saudi troops clashed
with Yemeni Huthi ghters
on Tuesday in the heaviest
exchange of cross-border re
since the start of a Saudi-led
air offensive last week, while
Yemens Foreign Minister
called for a rapid Arab intervention on the ground.
Saudi Arabia is leading a
coalition of Arab states in a
six-day-old air campaign
against the Shia Huthis, who
emerged as the most powerful force in the Arabian Peninsulas poorest country
when they seized Yemens
capital last year.
The Saudis say their aim is
to restore President AbdRabbu Mansour Hadi who
left the country last week.
The Huthis are allied with Yemenis pack their belongings into the back of a truck
Saudi Arabias regional foe as they flee the capital. PHOTO: AFP
Iran, and backed by army
units loyal to long-term ruler Mr. Hadi, trying to capture he sought an Arab ground inAli Abdullah Saleh, who was the last remaining major tervention, Yemeni Foreign
toppled three years ago after stronghold of the absent Minister Riyadh Yasseen reArab
Spring president's forces.
sponded: Yes, we are asking
demonstrations.
At least 36 people were for that, and as soon as posResidents and tribal sourc- killed when Huthi forces sible, in order to save our ines in north Yemen reported shelled Hadi loyalists in frastructure
and
save
artillery and rocket ex- Aden. Jets from the Saudi-led Yemenis under siege in many
changes
along
several coalition bombed Huthi posi- cities.
stretches of the Saudi border. tions near the airport.
Saudi authorities say they
Explosions and heavy gunre
Mr. Hadis rump govern- have gathered troops along
were heard and Saudi heli- ment, now based in Saudi the border in preparation for
copters ew overhead, they Arabia, is calling for Riyadh to any possible ground offensaid.
escalate the air war into an sive, but have given no timeIn the southern port of invasion.
table to send them in.
Aden, Huthi ghters and alAsked by an interviewer on Pakistan has also said it is
lied army units pressed an of- pan-Arab television channel sending troops to support
fensive against forces loyal to al-Arabiya Hadath whether Saudi Arabia. Reuters

in Sanaa on Tuesday

Refugees in
Somalia
MOGADISHU: Dozens of
Yemeni refugees have
arrived in the northern
parts of Somalia, local
officials and the U.N. said
on Tuesday. At least 32
Yemenis arrived by sea in
the northern breakaway
area of Somaliland and
the semiautonomous
Puntland region on
Saturday, according to the
U.N. refugee agency. AP

Nigeria polls: Opposition claims victory

KANO (NIGERIA): Thousands of
people spilled into the streets
in northern Nigeria in celebration on Tuesday after Opposition candidate Muhammadu
Buhari claimed victory in the
presidential election.
A cavalcade of motorbikes
and cars with their headlights
on and horns blaring paraded
through the streets of Kano,
northern Nigerias biggest city
and an ancient seat of learning.
Drivers performed stunts,
lling the air with thick smoke,
as veiled women and the
crowds shouted Sai Buhari
(Only Buhari) in celebration.
Many brandished the wicker
broom, symbol of Mr. Buharis
All Progressives Congress
(APC) which claims it will
sweep Africas most populous
country clean years of government mismanagement and

total ballots against incumbent

President Goodluck Jonathan.

First transition

Kaduna residents celebrate the anticipated victory

of Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday. PHOTO: AP
corruption.
In a neighbourhood of Kaduna, another northern city, the
crowds chanted change,
change as hundreds of people
climbed onto rooftops to watch

the celebrations.
Mr. Buhari won a landslide
victory in Kano, Nigerias second most-populous State, securing more than 1.9 million
votes and 89 per cent of the

If Mr. Buharis win is conrmed, it would be the rst

democratic change of power in
the history of Africas most
populous country and cap a remarkable return for the 72year-old who headed a military
regime in the 1980s.
The Opposition leader, making his fourth run at the presidency, has been buoyed by
frustration over endemic corruption, criticism over Mr. Jonathans handling of the
deadly Boko Haram uprising
and a stronger opposition.
The vote has been the closest election contest ever in
Africas biggest economy
which has a population of 173
million. AFP

Turkey hostage drama: 2

killed, prosecutor injured
ISTANBUL: Two hostagetakers were killed and the
prosecutor they were holding badly wounded on Tuesday after security forces
launched an operation to
end a six-hour standoff in
Istanbul, a top security official said.
Istanbul
prosecutor
Mehmet Selim Kiraz was
hospitalised after being severely wounded but both
men who had held him hostage were killed, Istanbul
security director Selami Altinok told reporters outside
the courthouse.
Earlier, an armed leftist Prosecutor Mehmet Selim Kiraz being taken
group took hostage Mr. Ki- hostage in Istanbul on Tuesday. PHOTO: REUTERS
raz, who is probing the politically sensitive death of by Turkish media, the hos- then Premier. He was aged
an anti-government protes- tage-taking was claimed by 15 at the time of his death,
ter, threatening to kill him if the radical Marxist Revolu- which was followed by mass
their demands were not tionary Peoples Liberation nationwide protests that
Party-Front
(DHKP-C), were also largely put down
met.
which has been behind a by the police.
Killing of youngster
string of attacks over the
Despite the investigation,
Mr. Kiraz was investigat- last years.
no police officer has been
ing the killing of Berkin ElElvan succumbed to in- brought to trial over the his
van, who died in March last juries sustained when he death, to the fury of Elvans
year after spending 269 was hit by a tear gas canister supporters.
days in a coma due to in- red by police in the mass
The DHKP-C is considjuries inicted by police in protests of early summer ered a terrorist group by
the mass protests of early 2013 against the govern- Turkey, the European
summer 2013.
ment of President Recep Union and the United
In a statement published Tayyip Erdogan who was States. AFP
ND-ND

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

15

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

BUSINESS
BRIEFLY
SEBI DIRECTIVE

Year-end rush to
balance the books

Core sector reports

marginal growth

GoAir
CEO quits

Production in five industries shrinks

Puja Mehra

This time around, the final day

of the financial year has been
witness to hyper activity.
Listed corporates rush in to
quickly fill their boards with
women directors to meet the
deadline set by the Securities
and Exchange Board of India
(SEBI). The Government, too,
does every trick up its sleeves
to show a healthy balance
sheet. The successful bidders in
the recently-concluded
spectrum auction have time till
April 8 to make part-payment.
Why not advance these partpayments? That is what New
Delhi has asked them to do.
Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and
Vodafone have done it. How
many had obliged the
Government's request?
Perhaps, we will know on the
first day of the new financial
year.

CALL MONEY

Rates soar as banks

cover up fund needs

It is not just the government.

Banks, too, need to balance its
accounts. While some have
rushed to raise funds to meet
their last day needs of the
financial year, still others have
resisted lending in the call
money market. As a
consequence, rates have
soared. The six-day cash rate
has gone up to a two-year high
of 15 per cent on Tuesday. At 15
per cent opening, the six-day
cash rate is the highest since
March 28, 2013.

SERVICE TAX

The road to happy

vocation

Want to enjoy the summer

vocation? Why not go to
museums, zoo and tiger
reserves? Thanks to service tax
exemption in the latest budget,
a visit to these places will be
cheaper from today. (i.e. April
1). If you want to take a flight,
however, think twice. For, you
may have to shell out more
now. The reason is simple. The
Centre has now decided to
collect service tax on 60 per
cent of the value of air ticket.
Hitherto, it was collecting the
tax on only 40 per cent of the
ticket value. Well, it is better to
understand the ground realities
and keep a control over your
valet!

SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE

Simply a
special job

How to make things easy for

businesses to function in
Special Economic Zones
(SEZs)? The easiest way to do it
is to reduce paper works? And,
that is also less sacrifice from
the Government's financial
point of view.
A move is under way to
empower the DCs (development
commissioners) of SEZs. Why
not let the unit approval
committee to decide? This will
obviate the need for SEZs to
approach the Board of
Approvals for even minor
clearances. Will that make life
easier for them?
CM
YK

NEW DELHI: Reflecting stagnation in the infrastructure

space, the eight core sectors
showed a marginal growth of
1.4 per cent in February.
There has been a continuous decline in this growth
rate since December. Contraction in the output of five
of the eight industries steel,
fertilizers and refinery products dragged down the
growth in February, according to official data released on
Tuesday.
The growth in January was
1.8 per cent, and in February,
2014, it was 6.1 per cent.
The core infrastructure industries of coal, crude oil, oil
refining, natural gas, steel, cement, electricity and fertilisers account for 37.9 per cent
of the industrial output.
Five of the eight sectors
have shown negative growth
rates, which is worrisome as
four of them also had low or
negative numbers last year.

...These numbers are reflective of stagnation in the infra

spaceQuite clearly there has
been limited traction here,
said Care Ratings Chief Economist Madan Sabnavis in a
report.

Coal, cement and

electricity output up
Natural gas, steel and crude
production shrunk 8.1 per
cent, 4.4 per cent and 1.9 per
cent, respectively. Only coal,
cement and electricity increased by 11.6 per cent, 2.7
per cent and 5.2 per cent, respectively, during the month.
On a cumulative basis,
growth during April-February 2014-15 was 3.8 per cent
against 4.2 per cent in the
same 11-month period in the
previous financial year.
Of the eight industries,
production of natural gas fell
the most during the 11-month
period by 5.5 per cent
followed by crude oil, the outThe oil and gas sector has put of which contracted 1.1
been downbeat in particular- per cent.

NEW DELHI: Weeks after the

passage of insurance legislation, State Bank of India, on
Tuesday, decided to divest up
to 10 per cent stake in its life
insurance arm SBI Life, giving the first right of refusal to
foreign partner BNP Paribas
Cardif of France.
The executive committee
of the central board has today

authorised divestment of
SBIs stake in SBI Life Insurance by up to 10 per cent, SBI
said in a statement.
We are continuing discussion with Cardif as it has the
first right of refusal as per the
agreement. The stake dilution process would progress
only after getting clear signal
from the foreign partner,

Philips sells 80 % of
lighting components unit
AMSTERDAM: Philips has agreed

to sell 80.1 per cent stake in

its lighting components division for $2.8 billion to Go
Scale Capital, a technology
fund that will seek to expand
the company's automotive
and LED businesses.
The deal announced on
Tuesday is a prelude to an
even bigger strategic move for
Philips: spinning off its main
lighting division, the world's
largest lighting maker, via a
stock market flotation, as the
Dutch group focuses on medical technology and selected
consumer products.
Philips said the deal values
the components business,
which comprises an automotive lighting unit and the 'Lumileds' LED manufacturing
business, at $3.3 billion including debt.
Go Scale, which beat off

competition from private equity firms to seal the deal, has

previously invested in Boston
Power, a U.S.-based manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries, and Xin Da Yang, a
Eco-EV company in China.
It said it plans to expand
the business, building on Philips' customer base which includes
the
likes
of
Volkswagen , BMW and Audi.
"We expect to see significant growth and unparalleled
inroads
into
new
opportunities such as electric
vehicles," Go Scale Chairman
Sonny Wu said.
"There were other bidders,
also good bidders, perhaps
with fewer connections in the
industry of semiconductors
and the ability to help in
building out scale," Philips
CEO Frans van Houten told
reporters. Reuters

Cotton output
estimate revised
M. Soundariya Preetha
COIMBATORE: Cotton production this year (October 2014
to September 2015) is expected to be 390 lakh bales, which
is 10 lakh bales less than the
earlier estimate of 400 lakh
bales.
The Consultative Committee of the Cotton Advisory
Board, which met in Mumbai
on Tuesday, has revised the
cotton balance sheet estimates for this season. It has
estimated cotton production
this year to be 390 lakh bales,
consumption by textile mills
to be 278.5 lakh bales, exports
to be 70 lakh bales (as against
the earlier estimate of 90 lakh
bales) and imports to be eight
lakh bales. The board had met
earlier in October last when
the season just commenced.
Industry sources said that
domestic consumption of
cotton by textile mills was increasing though exports were
not high. Garment exports
had improved and, hence, the
demand was up across the
value chain.
In the case of cotton exports, a decline was expected
since for a specific period,
prices of Indian cotton were
higher than international
prices. Now, the prices are

competitive and, hence, exports were expected to revive,

the sources added.
The price of Shankar 6 variety of cotton on Tuesday
was Rs.32,600 a candy. In the
second week of October last
year it was Rs.34,000 a candy.
The sources said that the cotton price had slumped to
about 30,500 a candy and had
moved up and stabilised during the last few weeks.
About 80 to 85 lakh bales of
the expected production were
yet to arrive to the market
this year. So far this season,
the Cotton Corporation of India had purchased about 85
lakh bales of cotton. The CCI
should ensure that cotton is
available for sales till the end
of the season and the small
and medium-scale mills benefit from its sales, the sources
said.
BULLION RATES
March 31 rates in rupees with
previous rates in brackets

Chennai
Bar Silver (1 kg)
Retail (1 g)
24 ct gold (10 g)
22 ct gold (1 g)
Delhi
Silver
Standard gold
Sovereign

37,390
40.00
26,540
2,481

(38,065)
(40.70)
(26,680)
(2,495)

37,200 (38,000)
26,575 (26,690)
23,700 (23,700)

NEW DELHI: The Chief Executive Officer of Wadia grouppromoted budget carrier
GoAir, Giorgio De Roni, has
quit the carrier, citing health
reasons, sources said.
Mr. De Roni, an Italian national, had joined GoAir in
2011.
De Roni has quit GoAir.
He had requested the management to relieve him on
health grounds. Today was
his last day at the airline,
sources close to the development told PTI.
When contacted, a GoAir
spokesperson did not comment on the issue.
De Roni had taken over the
post from Kaushik Khona,
who was instrumental in getting back the no-frills airline
on its feet. PTI

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet on

Tuesday approved a proposal
to pool or average out prices
of domestic natural gas and
imported LNG used by fertilizer plants to make the cost of
fuel uniform and affordable.
Fertiliser plants consume
about 42.25 million standard
cubic metres a day (mscmd)
of gas for manufacture of subsidised urea. Out of this,
26.50 mscmd comes from domestic fields and the balance
15.75 mmscmd is imported
liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The $5.18 per million British thermal unit price of domestic gas is about half the
cost of LNG.
Briefing reporters about
the decisions taken by the

RBI relaxes foreign

investment norms
for exchange-traded
forex derivatives

RIL signs production

sharing contracts for two
offshore blocks in Myanmar

MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank of

India on Tuesday relaxed
rules for foreign investors in
exchange-traded
currency
derivatives by increasing the
trading limits allowed without an underlying exposure
for the dollar/rupee pair to
$15 million per exchange
from $10 million earlier.
The RBI also said that foreign portfolio investors can
take long or short positions of
up to $5 million in euro/ruSBI Life Insurance Managing pee, pound sterling/rupee,
Director and CEO Arijit Basu yen/rupee pairs in exchange
told PTI. SBI Life Insurance traded derivatives.
is a 74:26 per cent joint venture between SBI and BNP Hedging
The central bank also perParibas Cardif of France. At
present, SBI owns 74 per cent mitted importers to hedge up
of the total capital and BNP to 100 per cent of their eligiParibas Cardif has the re- ble limit in the exchangemaining 26 per cent in the traded market compared with
50 per cent earlier. Reuters
joint venture. PTI

SBI to divest up to 10 % stake

in life insurance venture

Cabinet approves gas pooling

for fertilizer sector

Special Correspondent
MUMBAI: Reliance Industries

Ltd (RIL) has signed production sharing contracts (PSC)

with Myanma Oil & Gas Enterprise (MOGE), the Government
of
Myanmar
enterprise, for two offshore
blocks (M17 and M18) in
Myanmar. In 2013, RIL had
won the offshore blocks
through bidding. RIL will be
the operator of the blocks
with a 96 per cent participating interest while United National
Resources
Development Services Co.
Ltd. (UNRD), a Myanmar
company, will hold the remaining interest in the block.
Both blocks are located offshore in the Tanintharyi basin of Myanmar in water
depths up to 3,000 ft. and to-

Cabinet, headed by Prime

Minister Narendra Modi,
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said gas pooling
would help save Rs.1,550
crore in subsidy, and would
benefit 30 urea plants.
The cost of gas, which is the
most important component
for production of urea, varies
from plant to plant owing to
differential rates at which imported LNG is contracted as
well as the cost of
transportation.
The Cabinet Committee on
Economic Affairs (CCEA) has
approved averaging of different rates of domestic and imported gas to ensure supply of
fuel to all urea plants at a uniform delivery cost.

Both blocks are

located offshore in
the Tanintharyi basin
of Myanmar in water
depths up to 3,000 ft.
and together
encompass total area
of 27,600 sq. km.
gether encompass total area
of 27,600 sq. km. RILs participation is in line with its
strategy to expand its international asset base by investing
in
internationally
attractive oil and gas destinations. The company in this
way will leverage its organizational capabilities and expertise to create value for the
E&P segment, RIL said in a
statement.

This would help in focusing

on improving plant efficiency
and might help in price advantage in sourcing of LNG,
he said. The move would help
bring down the cost of fuel
and help save subsidy.
Sources said the Oil Ministry in its proposal to the
CCEA had proposed making
state-owned gas utility GAIL
India as the pool operator.
The Department of Fertilisers will determine the total
requirement of natural gas
and draw plant-wide requirement, which would then be
informed to the pool operator, GAIL.
The pooling mechanism
will be effective from next
month. PTI

Microsoft
unveils low-cost
Surface 3 tablet
WASHINGTON: Microsoft on
Tuesday unveiled a low-cost
version of its Surface tablet
computer, cutting the screen
size of the device which starts
at $499. The new Surface 3
will cost less than the $799
starting price for the Surface
Pro 3 introduced last year,
but will also have a less powerful processor and lack some
other features.
The new device comes with
a screen of 10.8 inches, making it smaller than the earlier
12-inch screen versions of
Surface, and gives Microsoft a
new tablet that aims to compete with Apple's iPad Air.
"Surface 3 brings what customers love about Surface
Pro 3 to more people, delivering the premium design and
productivity of Surface in a
more affordable device," said
Panos Panay, who heads the
Surface division. AFP

Videocon d2h
gets listed on
NASDAQ
Special Correspondent
MUMBAI: Videocon d2h has
closed its initial public offer
(IPO) process, and is getting
listed on NASDAQ in the U.S.,
joining a select band of Indian
companies that are listed on
the U.S. bourses.

Raises $325 million

The company is getting
listed on NASDAQ late Tuesday night by issuing ADR
(American Depository Receipts) worth $325 million to
the public with a current market capitalisation of $1.15
billion.
"We had plans to have a simultaneous listing on the
NASDAQ, the BSE and the
National Stock Exchange
(NSE),Venugopal
Dhoot,
Chairman, Videocon Group,
told this correspondent.
"However, the NASDAQ
authorities have responded
very fast, and we chose to go
ahead and list there first. We
will list on the BSE and the
NSE within the next three
months, he said.
Videocon d2h is the first
Indian media company to list
overseas and the largest Indian IPO in the US in over eight
years.
The funds raised will be
used for growth opportunities and to strengthen the financial
position
by
deleveraging the balance
sheet of the company, Mr.
Dhoot, said adding that the
company had a debt of
around Rs.1,200 crore, which
would be brought down.
EXCHANGE RATES
Indicative direct rates in rupees a unit
except yen at 4 p.m on March 31

Currencies

TT
Buying

TT
Selling

U.S. Dollar
Euro
Pound Sterling
Jap Yen (100 Units)
Chinese Yuan
Swiss Franc
Singapore Dollar
Australian Dollar
Canadian Dollar
Swedish Kroner
Danish Kroner
New Zealand Dollar
Hongkong Dollar
Malaysian Ringitt
Kuwaiti Dinar
UAE Dirham
Bahraini Dinar
Qatari Riyal
Saudi Riyal
Omani Riyal

62.30
66.88
92.05
51.92
10.05
63.96
45.32
47.32
48.76
7.20
8.95
46.53
8.03
16.81
206.71
16.96
165.12
17.16
16.66
161.76

62.62
67.23
92.54
52.19
10.10
64.29
45.56
47.57
49.01
7.24
9.00
46.77
8.08
16.91
208.29
17.05
166.18
17.17
16.66
162.68

Source: Indian Bank

ND-ND

16

BUSINESS

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Sensex down
18 points
MUMBAI: The BSE Sensex set-

tled in the red after giving up

early gains to end the fiscal
year marginally down by
18.37 points at 27957.49.
The broader market sentiment remained strong as
small-cap and mid-cap counters outshined the Sensex by
0.31 per cent and 0.88 per
cent, respectively.
However the Sensex registered a hefty rise of 25 per
cent in 2014-15, its best show
in six fiscal years mainly driven by surge in foreign inflows after the Narendra
Modi-led government took
charge.
The broad-based 50-share
NSE Nifty eased by 1.30
points or 0.02 per cent to
close at 8491.
On similar lines, the NSEs
Nifty zoomed by 1786.80
points, or 26.65 per cent, to
settle the fiscal at 8491 after
scaling lifetime high of
9119.20 on March 4 this year.
HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank,
Axis Bank, SBI, L&T, BHEL,
ONGC, ITC, Infosys, TCS,
M&M, and Hindalco suffered
losses. RIL, Tata Motors Sun
Pharma, Dr Reddys, Maruti
Suzuki, Bharti Airtel and Tata
Power notched noticeable
gains.

Rupee gains 18 paise

The rupee ended the fiscal
on a positive note by rising 18
paise to 62.49 against the
American currency on Tuesday on selling of dollars by
banks and exporters on expectation of resumption of
foreign capital inflows into
equity market.
The Indian currency had
ended the last fiscal year at
59.91 against the dollar.
Sustained capital outflows
amid firm dollar in Asian
trade capped the rupee rise
on Tuesday, a dealer said.
At the inter-bank foreign
exchange market, the rupee
commenced better at 62.62
against previous close of
62.67. It moved in a limited
range of 62.67 and 62.48 before ending at 62.49, showing
a gain 18 paise or 0.29 per
cent. On Monday it depreciated by 26 paise or 0.42 per
cent. PTI

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

Snapdeal acquires majority

stake in RupeePower
Yuthika Bhargava
NEW DELHI:E-commerce giant
Snapdeal on Tuesday made a
foray into the financial services sector by acquiring a
majority stake in digital financial products platform,
RupeePower, for an undisclosed amount.
The deal is aimed at helping consumers who face difficulty while deciding and
purchasing financial products/services.
We
have
brought RupeePower into our
family to help solve distribution challenges of the financial services ecosystem and
make it more inclusive,
Snapdeal co-founder and
CEO Kunal Bahl told
reporters.
The company, however, did
not disclose the financial details of the deal.
The domestic online financial services market is pegged
at about Rs.4,500 crore.

The deal is aimed at helping consumers who

face difficulty while deciding and purchasing
financial products/services, says Kunal Bahl (left),
Co-Founder and CEO, Snapdeal.com. Tejasvi
Mohanram, Founder and CEO, RupeePower,
is also seen. - PHOTO: KAMAL NARANG
Founded in 2011, RupeePower offers a digital distribution
platform for loans, credit
cards and other personal finance products. The compa-

Flipkart in talks to raise

about $600 million
NEW DELHI: Online
marketplace Flipkart is
believed to be in talks to
raise around $600 million
(about Rs.3,750 crore) from
a group of investors.
The ecommerce firm,
now being valued at around
$11.5-12 billion was also
looking at a higher
valuation, people in know

of the development said.

When contacted,
Flipkart did not offer any
comments. Tiger Global is
the Flipkarts largest
shareholder followed by
Accel Partners. Cofounders Sachin Bansal and
Binny Bansal hold a little
over 8 per cent stake in the
company. PTI

ny at present employs 40
people.
It planned to increase the
headcount to about 200 people over the next one year, its
founder and CEO Tejasvi Mohanram said.
RupeePower counts State
Bank of India, ICICI Bank
and Bajaj Finserv, among its
partners.
Mr. Bahl said the platform
enabled credit disbursal
worth Rs.1,500 crore in 201415. In the next 24 months, we
expect this number to grow to
about Rs.6,000 crore ($1 billion), he added. Asked about
companys plans to raise
funds, Mr. Bahl said the firm
was well capitalised for the
next couple of years, and
would not raise money just
because it was 'fashionable'.

Ferrero eyes big pie in domestic market

G.Balachandar
CHENNAI: Italian chocolate and
confectionary brand Ferrero
seeks to position itself in the
Indian chocolate market as a
brand that satisfies the taste
buds of all ages, not just kids.
Riding on the success of its
Kinder Joy, the popular eggshaped chocolate among kids
in the country, Ferrero has

now expanded its portfolio in

the premium chocolate market with the launch of its fifth
product Kinder Schoko-Bons
Crispy, which is a combination of delicate milky and cocoa filling covered by a crispy
wafer. It comes in two packs
-- Rs.35 for a pack of four and
Rs.75 for a pack of 9 pieces.
The new product has been
made with high quality ingre-

dients and has good nutritional values. We want to

make our Kinder brand appeal to all mothers so that
they prefer it to satisfy their
childrens desires.
Also, our products are palatable to all age groups, not
just children, Emanuele
Fiordalisi,
Vice-President,
Marketing, Ferrero India,
told The Hindu.

SPORT
RWITC to
introduce
day-night racing
MUMBAI: The Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) will be
introducing day-night racing
on a trial basis on April 18 and
19 during the ongoing season.
Mr. K.N. Dhunjibhoy, Chairman, RWITC, said that We
needed some innovative idea to
increase the falling attendance
and make this sport more popular.
We have called for tenders
from the lighting equipment
manufacturers and suppliers
which have to be finalised.
Bajaj Electricals has agreed
to assist us in arranging the infrastructure needed for the two
days racing (April 18 & 19) on a
trial basis.

The budget
He also said that the budget
for the lighting project would
be around Rs. 9 crore.
The races will begin around
4.30 p.m. and will end by 8 p.m.,
mostly the last three races
would be held under lights.

Prashant and
Shiva sparkle
NEW DELHI: Prashant Bhandaris
unbeaten 93 and left-arm spinner Shiva Singhs five-for
helped Telefunken Club beat
Sadar Bazar Youth Club by six
wickets and reach the quarterfinals of the 27th Sandeep Suri
memorial cricket tournament
at the Satyawati College ground
here on Tuesday.
The scores: Sadar Bazar Youth
Club 228 in 39 overs (Japjet Singh
Randhwa 135, Prateek Bhardwaj 52,
Shiva Singh five for 23) lost to Telefunken Club 230 for four in 33.1 overs
(Prashant Bhandari 93 n.o., Ankit Dabas 47, Sagar Sehrawat 46).

DEATH
Mrs. INDRA (79) W/o Late Madhava
Rao of Mayiladuthurai, expired on
28th March in Madras. Dasasthu on
6th April @ Mulubhal Mutt Srirangam. M.B. Moorthy Brindha, Chandra, Nagarajan Radha guru Rajagopal, Kiruthika, GET HQ, Sethu
Madhavan, Latha & Ravi.mbm
9282113501, Gopu, 9443936337.

CM
YK

TENNIS

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

Robust start to French Open

junior wild card initiative

Neesham, Lynn ruled out

Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Rendezvous a Roland Garros, an initiative to
put talented players on the
path to a French Open junior
wild card, was given a robust
start with the 1979 French
Open junior champion, Ramesh Krishnan, inspiring the
players at an impressive function here on Tuesday.
The event, featuring the top
16 juniors of the country in
the boys and girls sections,
who may not get a direct entry
into the French Open junior
event with their international
rank, will be played at the
Gymkhana Club here from
April 1 to 4.
The champions of the Indian leg will fly to Paris to compete with the champions from
China and Brazil. The eventual champions in Paris will be
awarded the French Open junior wild card.
The 53-year-old Ramesh
recalled playing the boys final
on the centre court in Paris in
1979, after the mens final between Bjorn Borg and Victor
Pecci.
Asked about tennis making
an impact in the country despite cricket enjoying a dominant place, Ramesh said it
was unfair to compare tennis

AITA president Anil Khanna, former India tennis

player Ramesh Krishnan, French Ambassador to
India, Francois Richier, and French Tennis
Federation vice-president, Jean Pierre Dartevelle, at
a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
PHOTO: V. SUDERSHAN

with cricket and opined that

tennis needed to be popularised in the heartland more
than the cities, for better
growth.
Welcoming the French initiative, All India Tennis Association (AITA) president Anil
Khanna remembered how India had mastered clay and how
Ramesh himself was the architect of the Indian Davis
Cup triumph in 1993 in
Frejus.

Acknowledging that France

was playing a significant role
in the world of tennis, Khanna
said that a study by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) had predicted 6.6
million tennis players in India, and that it would be second only to the US.
Khanna signed a Memorandum of Understanding with
the French Tennis Federation
for junior tennis, coaches education, etc.

Pranjala gets past Snehadevi

Special Correspondent
DEHRADUN: Wild-card entrant
Y. Pranjala beat former Asian
junior champion Snehadevi
Reddy 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the first
round of the $10,000 ITF women's tennis tournament at the
Shanti Academy courts here on
Tuesday.
The 16-year-old also made
the doubles quarterfinals with
Vanshika Sawhney.
Eetee Maheta survived a
match-point in the second set
tie-break against second seed
Ching Wen Hsu of Chinese Taipei but ran out of steam after
winning the first game of the
decider.

She, however, combined well

with Rashmi Teltummbde to
beat fourth seeds Sowjanya Bavisetti and Nidhi Chilumula
10-7 in the super tie-break.
The results: First round: Vaniya
Dangwal bt Kirandeep Kaur Kotade
6-1, 6-0; Shivika Burman bt Sachi Belwal (US) 6-2, 6-0; Nungnadda Wannasuk (Tha) bt Rashmi Teltummbde 6-1,
3-6, 6-2; Prarthana Thombare bt Moulika Ram 6-3, 6-2; Nandini Sharma bt
Akshara Iska 6-3, 6-3; Nidhi Chilumula
bt Riya Bhatia 7-5, 7-6(3); Keren Shlomo (Isr) bt Shweta Rana 6-0, 6-4;
Lavinia Tananta (Ina) bt Tanya Amala
Burgula 6-0, 6-0; Rishika Sunkara bt
Vasanti Shinde 6-3, 6-3; Sri Vaishnavi
Peddi Reddy bt Sarah Pang (Sin) 6-1,
6-1; Y. Pranjala bt Snehadevi Reddy

3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Prerna Bhammbri bt

Sneha Padamata 6-3, 6-0; Ching Wen
Hsu (Tpe) bt Eetee Maheta 6-3, 6-7
(7), 6-1.
Doubles: Pre-quarterfinals: Vanshika Sawhney & Y. Pranjala bt Keren
Shlomo (Isr) & Arantxa Andrady 6-0,
2-6, 10-8; Snehadevi Reddy & Dhruthi
Venugopal bt Sarah Pang (Sin) & Saha Shetty 6-0, 6-1; Shweta Rana &
Vasanti Shinde bt Varunya Chanrashekar & Moulika Ram 6-4, 6-4; Riya
Bhatia & Sharon Sanchana Paul bt Sri
Vaishnavi Peddi Reddy & Tanisha Rohira 6-0, 6-3; Eetee Maheta & Rashmi
Teltumbde bt Sowjanya Bavisetti &
Nidhi Chilumula 1-6, 6-2, 10-7; AyuFani Damayanti & Lavinia Tananta
(Ina) bt Vaniya Dangwal & Sneha Padamata 6-3, 6-2.

Expressing deep gratitude to Anil Khanna, French

Federation
vice-president
Jean Pierre Dartevelle declared that it was just the beginning of a long series of
initiatives between the two
countries.
India has the potential to
train future Grand Slam
champions, said Dartevelle,
through an interpreter. He
pointed out that clay court
tennis, aesthetic and artistic,
was quite demanding both
physically and mentally.
He was elated about the
French Open trophies touring
the country to historic places
Taj Mahal, Qutub Minar
and Red Fort.
French Ambassador Francois Richier observed that the
venture was a prelude to
Prime Minister Narendra Modis French visit, expected to
strengthen the relations between the two countries, including sports.
He assured visas within 48
hours for people visiting
France, particularly for Grand
Slam tennis, which opened a
lot of avenues.
Referee Lalit Mohan Singh
said that it would be a knockout event, and a third place
match would also be played to
identify the reserve players.

Junior Natl.
hockey
from today
MYSURU: As many as 37 teams
will vie for the honours in Hockey Indias fifth Junior National
hockey championships for men,
which gets underway here from
April 1.
The teams have been divided
into A and B divisions. A division will comprise 21 teams, further divided into four pools.
Mumbai Hockey Association
and Goan HC will play the division B opener on Wednesday.
The division B final is slated for
April 12. The division A matches will commence from April 14
and conclude on April 22.

KOLKATA: All-rounder Jimmy

Neesham of New Zealand and
Australian batsman Chris Lynn
have been ruled out of Pepsi
IPL-8 owing to injuries. Lynn
was retained by Kolkata Knight
Riders from last year while
Neesham was this years
acquisition.
KKR has opted to replace the
injured with Azhar Mahmood,
former Pakistan Test Cricketer
who is currently based in England, and Johan Botha, former
South Africa captain and currently playing for Adelaide
Strikers in the Big Bash.

Changes in schedule
There has been a change in
the match-schedule of the tournament as well owing to Kolkata Municipal Corporation
elections on April 18. The
changes were made following a
request from Kolkata Police.
KKR will not play its home
matches at the Eden Gardens
from April 12 to 25 as per the
revised schedule. The match

between KKR and Chennai Super Kings has been shifted from
April 14 to April 30. And the
CSK v KKR match at the M.A.
Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, has also been advanced by
two days to April 28.
The match between KKR and
Delhi Daredevils has been
shifted to May 7 from April 28.
The April 14 game between
Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai
Indians at Ahmedabads Sardar
Patel Stadium will now be
played at 8 p.m. instead of 4
p.m.
The tie between RR and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Brabourne Stadium, Mumbai, on
May 7 will now be played at 4
p.m.
IPL-8 opens at the Eden Gardens, with defending champion
KKR taking on former champion MI on April 8.
The inaugural ceremony will
be held at the Salt Lake Stadium on April 7. Special
Correspondent

SQUASH

The game has become

more competitive
Special Correspondent
MUMBAI: Gregory Gaultier, the
world No. 2 in mens pro
squash, is of the view that Egyptian presence in the sport at the
very top has made a difference.
Egypts Mohammed El Shorbagy is the current Professional
Squash Associations number
one ranked player while two
others from his nation are also
in the top five.
I have to work harder and be
better prepared. Squash also
has changed and now fitness
alone cannot win matches, unlike before. It has also made the
game more interesting, said
Gaultier after playing an exhibition match with Saurav Ghosal at the Cricket Club of India.
Two-time British Open and
two-time US Open winner,
Gaultiers stopover in Mumbai
is part of the PSA Exhibition
Series, aimed at popularising
the game via clinics with kids,
and exhibition matches between pros.
Ghosal is world No. 21 but
can beat anyone. Squash is so
competitive that even I cannot

be sure of winning against

him, he added.
Ritwik Bhattacharya, one of
Indias leading pros at one
time, gave an insight into the
depth in squash in Egypt and
hopes to attract more kids to
the sport here through visits of
top pros like the Frenchman.
A squash tournament in
Egypt will have 120 entries in
the U-9 category. That gives
you an idea of how popular
squash is there, he said. For
the kids, watching Gaultier
train and play with Saurav can
fire their imagination.
Ritwik offered a personal insight into how pros can make a
difference. Gregory is the
highest ranked world pro we
have got to see after a long time.
I am talking about the time
Jansher Khan used to play in
India. In 2009, the PSA Masters was held here and watching some of the worlds best
pros train and play motivated
me to dream big. More PSA and
WSA competitions here will
help our younger players, boys
and girls, get points and enter
bigger events.

Bhupender
knocks out
Harshit
CHANDIGARH: Bhupender Dahiya knocked out top seed Harshit Yadav 6-1, 6-3 in the boys
under-14 pre-quarterfinals of
the AITA Championship series
junior tennis tournament at
the CLTA Complex here on
Tuesday.
The results (pre-quarterfinals):
Boys:
Under-16: Rishabh Sharda bt Ritvij
6-1, 6-1; Neeraj Yashpaul bt Sammar
Raina 6-4, 6-1; Rhythm Malhotra bt
Harshit Yadav 6-1, 6-1; Vatsal Chauhan bt Anmol Rattan Kamboj 7-6(2),
6-4; Ashutosh Tiwari bt Shashikant
Rajput 5-7, 6-4, 7-5; Pranjay Kukreti bt
Jaskaran Singh 6-3, 6-4; Sahishnu
Sharma bt Asav Kumar 6-2, 6-2; Calvin Golmei bt Naresh Badgujar 6-1,
6-2.
Under-14: Bhupender Dahiya bt
Harshit Yadav 6-1, 6-3; Sammar Raina bt Shrut Mohan Nargeta 6-4, 6-4;
Shashikant Rajput bt Asav Kumar 6-1,
6-1; Sarthak Sudan bt Shubham Saini
6-1, 3-6, 6-0; Nishant Dabas bt Aditya
Saraswat 6-2, 6-4; Naresh Badgujar bt
Ishaan Sethi 6-3, 6-2; Anand Gupta bt
Vikramaditya Singh 6-3, 6-2; Krishan
Hooda bt Aditya Sriram 7-6(6), 6-0.
Girls: Under-16: Muskan Gupta bt
Princy Panchal 6-1, 6-1; Dnyanada
Prasad Patil bt Arti Nayan 6-1, 6-1;
Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Alisha Menon
6-2, 6-2; Rupkatha Mukherjee bt
Tushita Singh 6-3, 6-1; Shambhavi
Tiwari bt Akshita Sharma 6-0, 7-6(4);
Lenien Jamir bt Shrishti Dhir 6-0, 6-4;
Ashpreet Kaur Bajwa bt Tanya Batra
4-6, 6-1, 6-1; Vanshika Chaudhary bt
Nandini Singh 6-3, 7-6(4).
Under-14: Ashpreet Kaur Bajwa bt
Kirti Arya 6-1, 6-1; Anushka Sharma bt
Himadri Kashyap 6-2, 3-6, 6-3; Sandeepti Singh Rao bt Dnyanada Prasad
Patil 6-3, 6-1; Akshita Sharma bt Nikita
Kharangra 6-4, 6-3; Shambhavi Tiwari
bt Priyanka Jakhar 6-3, 6-2; Vanshika
Chaudhary bt Princy Panchal 6-2, 7-6
(3); Simran Pritam bt Srishti Dhir 6-2,
6-1; Alisha Menon bt Lenien Jamir 6-2,
3-6, 6-4.

McCullum
signs deal
with Bears
LONDON: New Zealand cricket
captain Brendon McCullum
confirmed Tuesday he has
signed for the Birmingham
Bears for the defence of their
T20 Blast title.
McCullum joins the Bears
Warwickshires T20 name on
a seven-match deal. AFP
ND-ND

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

17

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

Clubs get bigger say

Rosberg scared

European clubs will get a greater say in UEFAs decisionmaking as well as extra cash from European tournaments
under an accord announced on Tuesday

I really didnt expect that much from Sebastian [Vettel] and Ferrari. That was a total
surprise. The Ferrari handled much better in the heat with those tyres and that scared me.
Nico Rosberg, after Ferraris victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix

India held
goalless by
Bangladesh
DHAKA: The Indian football
team was held to a goalless
draw by Bangladesh in its last
group match of the AFC under-23 championship qualifying round, which was marred
by 40 minutes of power blackout during half-time here on
Tuesday.
The Group E match at the
Bangabandhu National Stadium was reduced almost to a
farce as the two teams had to
wait for 40 minutes for resumption. When power was restored, the players looked jaded
and they lost momentum and it
was clearly visible on the field.
India ended its campaign
with just one point from three
matches and ended third in the
four-team group, failing to advance to the next stage.
Ten group winners and five
best second-placed teams from
all groups will join host Qatar at
the AFC U-23 championship in
2016. PTI

Vettori retires from

one-dayers too

Falcao equals
Colombias
scoring
landmark
ABU DHABI: Radamel Falcaos
second-half penalty in Mondays
3-1 international friendly win
over Kuwait saw him move
alongside Arnoldo Iguaran as
Colombias all-time joint topscorer with 24 goals.
Iguaran had run up his tally
for the national side between
1979 and 1993.
Cameroon managed a 3-2 win
over Thailand a team World
Cup legend Roger Milla dismissed as football nonentities.
It took an 88th-minute
match-winner from defender
Ngweni Ndassi Kadiang to salvage the pride of the four-time
African champion in Bangkok
after it trailed by two goals.
Although 93 places below
Cameroon in the world rankings, the Thai War Elephants
rocked the Indomitable Lions
when Prakit Deeprom scored
and Aurelien Chedjou conceded
an own-goal.
Benjamin Moukandjo pulled
one goal back before half-time
and Clinton NJie equalised
from a penalty with 13 minutes
left.
The results:
At Abu Dhabi: Kuwait 1 (Al Enzi
45+1) lost to Colombia 3 (Aguilar 21,
Cardona 68, Falcao 73-pen).
At Doha: Algeria 4 (Belfodil 2, 62,
Feghouli 24, 61) bt Oman 1 (Al Busaidi
74).
At Bangkok: Thailand 2 (Deeprom
15, Chedjou 31-og) lost to Cameroon
3 (Moukandjo 42, NJie 77-pen, Kadiang 88).
At Doha: Algeria 4 (Belfodil 2, 62,
Feghouli 24, 61) bt Oman 1 (Al Busaidi
74). Agencies

THATS IT! Daniel Vettori announced his ODI retirement soon after the
New Zealand team landed in Auckland from Australia, signalling the end of
his international career. PHOTO: HANNAH PETERS/GETTY IMAGES
AUCKLAND: Veteran left-arm
spinner Daniel Vettori, the most
capped ODI player for New
Zealand, on Tuesday bid adieu
to the 50-over format, completely ending an 18-year career
in the game during which he
won plaudits for being an inspiring leader.
The 36-year-old, whose ODI
future was a subject of speculation at the end of New Zealands
superb World Cup campaign
during which the team made the
final, said it was time to call it a
day. Vettori has already retired
from Tests and Twenty20
cricket.
He made the announcement
of his ODI retirement soon after
the New Zealand team landed
here from Australia following a
seven-wicket loss to Australia in
the mega events final in Melbourne on Sunday.
It was my last game for New

Zealand, in the final, so it was a

lovely way to finish. It would
have been great to win, but Im
pretty proud of everyone, the
way weve gone about things the
last six weeks, the affable bowling allrounder told reporters.
To be able to finish in the
final, albeit without a win, Im
just very grateful for the amount
of support I had particularly
from Brendon (McCullum) and
Mike (Hesson). To be able to get
back from a number of injuries
and to be here and to be part of
it... is something Ill always treasure, he added.
After making his ODI debut in
1997 at the age of 18, Vettori
went on to become not just the
most capped Kiwi player but also the teams leading wickettaker with 305 scalps at an average of 31.71 from 295 games.
He also had the distinction of
being part of five World Cup

BFC took the lead through a

header from Joshua Walker,
who timed his jump just right
to receive a free-kick from Eugeneson Lyngdoh.
Early in the second-half,
BFC captain Sunil Chhetris
long-ball released Sean Rooney
on the flank. The Australian
rushed forward and took the
defender with him, all the while
awaiting support up front.
Help came from Rino Anto,
and a layoff pass from Rooney
was slotted in.
A defensive lapse from Velito
da Cruz gave BFC its third goal,
before Beikhokhei Bengaichhos strike put the match to
bed.
Sporting Clubes Victorino
Fernandes found the net seven
minutes to full-time, but this
did little to affect the final
result.
The result: Bengaluru FC 4 (Joshua Walker 33, Rino Anto 51, Thoi
Singh 60, Beikhokhei Bengaichho 80)
bt Sporting Clube de Goa 1 (Victorino
Fernandes 83).
At Shillong: Royal Wahingdoh 1
(Godwin Franco 30) bt East Bengal 0.

Gill to lead
Team MRFs
charge
CHENNAI: Six-time Asia Pacific
Rally Championship winner
Team MRF will, for the first
time, have three cars competing
in the series this season.
Leading Team MRFs charge
will be Gaurav Gill, the 2013
champion, while Swedish young
gun Pontus Tidemand will make
his debut for the team.
The pair will be joined by New
Caledonian driver, Jean-Louis
Leyraud, in a third Team MRF
Skoda Fabia 2000 in the Pacific
Cup section of the championship.
Team MRF has won the championship three times in a row,
with Australian Chris Atkinson
winning in 2012, Gill in 2013, and
Czech Jan Kopecky in 2014.
The season schedule:
New Zealand: April 17-19; New
Caledonia: May 15-17, Australia:
June 19-21.
Malaysia: August 14-16; Japan:
September 18-20; China: Oct. 30Nov. 1; India: Dec. 11-13.

Harika loses in
semifinals
KOZHIKODE: Dronavalli Harika
bowed out in the semifinals of
the womens world chess
championship, losing to Ukraines Mariya Muzychuk in
the tie-break, at Sochi (Russia)
on Tuesday.
The Indian lost 2.5-3.5.
In the final, which will be
held from April 2 to 6, Muzychuk will meet Russias Natalia
Pogonina, who defeated Pia
Cramling of Sweden 2.5-1.5, also in the tie-break.

OPPORTUNISTIC STRIKE: Thoi Singh (extreme right)

made Sporting Clube pay for a defensive lapse,
slotting in BFC's third goal in the 60th minute.
PHOTO: K. MURALI KUMAR

CM
YK

squads, picking up 36 wickets in

32 matches, including 15 in the
recent edition.
In his 113 Test appearances,
Vettori took 362 wickets to be
New Zealands highest wickettaker and be only the third
cricketer after Kapil Dev and
Ian Botham to take more than
300 wickets and score 4,000
runs. Vettoris tally of Test runs
stands at 4,531 runs.
The veteran has been hampered by injuries in the recent
past but has been a key figure
nonetheless for the Black Caps.
The bespectacled spinner, in
fact, found a place in the ICCs
Team of the World Cup for his
performance in this edition.
After succeeding Stephen
Fleming as captain, Vettori led
New Zealand in 32 Tests and 82
ODIs till 2011. He also played 34
T20 Internationals, grabbing 38
wickets. PTI

He is the most capped Kiwi player and the teams leading wicket-taker

Bengaluru FC coasts
to an easy win
BENGALURU: Bengaluru FC
(BFC) emerged a deserving 4-1
winner over a stuttering Sporting Clube de Goa in an I-League
encounter at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium here on Tuesday.
The home teams superior
eye for goal made all the difference.
Sporting Clube, on the other
hand, panicked nearly every
time it was presented with a
chance to score. The Goans
made numerous forays deep into the BFC box, but seemed oddly reluctant to pull the trigger.
The visiting attackers led
by the imposing Odafa Okolie
found holes in the BFC defence,
but the final touch lacked
conviction.
With this win, BFC sits in
second-place with 20 points
from 11 matches. Royal Wahingdoh is tied on points, but
BFC holds the edge through a
better head-to-head record.
Mohun Bagan stays on top of
the ladder with 21 points after
nine fixtures.

Kohli remains in fourth place

DUBAI: A lacklustre World Cup
performance notwithstanding,
Virat Kohli remained the highest-placed Indian batsman at
fourth even as Shikhar Dhawan
rose a rung to sixth in the latest
ICC ODI rankings issued on
Tuesday.
Apart from Kohli and Dhawan,
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh
Dhoni is the other Indian batsman to be inside the top-10,
hanging on to the eighth spot.
Opener Rohit Sharma made
significant strides up the order as
he jumped seven places to be
joint 12th with Australian
swashbuckler Steve Smith and
Pakistans Misbah-ul-Haq. Rohit
scored 330 runs in the
tournament.
Australia retained the ODI
Shield and won $175,000 after
finishing as the No.1 ranked side
on the cut-off date. India collected $75,000 for finishing second
in the team rankings.
Among the bowlers, Australias Mitchell Starc has surged to
the top for the first time in his
career following a stellar performance in the World Cup that
also fetched him the player of the
tournament award.
Starc had entered the World
Cup in seventh position and during the course of the tournament, he gained 147 ratings
points. He currently sits on 783
rating points, which is also his
career-best rating and was
achieved during the final played
in front of over 93,000
spectators.
Australias James Faulkner,
who was adjudged the player of
the final, has also made an up-

A.B. de Villiers.

Mitchell Starc.

ward movement along with Indias Umesh Yadav.

Yadav has broken into the top
20 for the first time following his
15 wickets in the series, including four for 72 in the semifinal
against Australia. Yadav has
rocketed 16 places to join Englands James Tredwell in 18th
position.
In the rankings for ODI batsmen, South Africa captain A.B.
de Villiers continued to lead the
charts and has also become the
11th batsman overall, and second
South African after Hashim Amla, to break the 900-point mark.
In ranking terms, 900 points
marks out a player as truly great.
de Villiers achieved the milestone during the semifinal
against New Zealand when he
scored 65 not out. He is now
eighth on the list behind Viv Richards (935), Zaheer Abbas
(931), Greg Chappell (921), David
Gower (919), Dean Jones (918),

Javed Miandad (910) and Brian

Lara (908). Desmond Haynes
(900) completes the tally of 11
batsmen.
There is no change in the top
five batters but the biggest movers in the latest rankings are
Smith and Martin Guptill, who
were named in the Team of the
World Cup.
The rankings: Team: 1. Australia,
2. India, 3. South Africa, 4. Sri Lanka,
5. New Zealand, 6. England, 7. Pakistan, 8. West Indies, 9. Bangladesh, 10.
Zimbabwe.
Batsmen: 1. A.B. de Villiers, 2. Kumar Sangakkara, 3. Hashim Amla, 4.
Virat Kohli, 5. Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6.
Shikhar Dhawan, 7. Kane Williamson,
8. Mahendra Singh Dhoni, 9. Glenn
Maxwell, 10. George Bailey.
Bowlers: 1. Mitchell Starc, 2. Imran
Tahir, 3. Saeed Ajmal, 4. Dale Steyn,
5. Sunil Narine, 6. Trent Boult, 7.
Mitchell Johnson, 8. James Anderson,
9. Morne Morkel, 10. Shakib al Hasan.

Agencies

Ritu Rani
at the helm
NEW DELHI: Experienced Ritu Rani will lead the Indian womens
hockey side at the upcoming
Hawkes Bay Cup in New Zealand from April 11-19. Deepika
has been named her deputy.
The eight-team competition,
featuring most of the top-ranked
sides in the world, is important
in terms of Indias preparation
for the Hockey World League
semifinals in Belgium.
This would be the only competition outing for the side ahead of
the HWL, which is also a qualifying event for the 2016 Rio
Olympics.
India will open its campaign
on April 11 against China. Besides these two teams, the tournament
features
world
champion Argentina, Australia,
Japan, Asian champion Korea,
the USA and host New Zealand.
The team has been training
here under High Performance
Director Roelant Oltmans and
coach C.R. Kumar.
The team is high on confidence after our win in the World
League Round 2. We know the
tournament will not be easy, but
the team is positive. We have
worked hard on our penalty-corner conversions and aim to stick
to our strategies, said Ritu.
The squad: Goalkeepers: Savita,
Rajni Etimarpu; Defenders: Deep
Grace Ekka, Deepika, Sunita Lakra,
Sushila Chanu, M.N. Ponnamma, Monika; Midfielders: Ritu Rani, Namita
Toppo, Lilima Minz, Lily Chanu, Navjot
Kaur, Sondarya Yendala; Forwards:
Vandana Katariya, Rani, Poonam Rani, Anuradha Thockchom. Special
Correspondent

Australia calls up Fawad Ahmed and Adam Voges

FOOTBALL

Ashwin Achal

SPORT

The results (semifinals):

Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr) bt Dronavalli Harika (Ind) 3.5-2.5; Natalia Pogonina (Rus) bt Pia Cramling (Swe)
2.5-1.5.

SYDNEY: Leg-spinner Fawad

Ahmed, batsman Adam Voges
and wicketkeeper Peter Nevill
were all called up by Australia
on Tuesday for the upcoming
tour of the West Indies and the
Ashes campaign in England.
But there was no room in the
17-man squad for allrounders
James Faulkner and Glenn
Maxwell, who were a potent
part of Australias one-day
World Cup-winning side.
Joe Burns was also overlooked, despite scoring two
half-centuries in Australias last
Test, against India in January,
while paceman James Pattinson missed out with a hamstring injury, opening the door
once again for Peter Siddle.
Australia plays two Tests in
the West Indies from June 5,
with its five-Test Ashes series
starting in England on July 8.
Pakistan-born Ahmed, who
sought asylum in Australia in
2010, got the nod ahead of Ashton Agar as the second spinner
behind Nathan Lyon after a
stellar Sheffield Shield season
in which he took 48 wickets.
Its been an amazing 2015
for me, said Ahmed, 33, who
was granted citizenship in 2013

Legends call for bat-ball

balance to be restored
SYDNEY: Cricket legends have
called for restoring the balance
between bat and ball, including
easing fielding restrictions and
regulating bat thickness, in the
ODI format.
Michael Holding, Ian Chappell, Rahul Dravid and Martin
Crowe, participating as experts
in ESPNcricinfo discussion on
the future of ODI game, in Sydney after the second World Cup
semifinal, felt these changes
would encourage imaginative
captaincy and more aggressive
cricket.
Once you get a piece of bat
on the ball, it disappears.
There are a lot of slow-motion replays where you see a
batsman hitting the ball, you
can see the bat actually twisting
in their hands.
Obviously not hitting the
ball well, and the ball disappears nonetheless.
That is one aspect that has
to be looked into. If the ICC do
nothing else, they have to look
at that, West Indies pace legend Holding said.
Australian great Chappell
said thick bats have tilted the
balance heavily in favour of the
batsmen.
Sooner or later, a bowler or
an umpire is going to getting
seriously hurt.
Because the ball is getting
back so quickly they have got no
time to react.

Field restrictions
The field restrictions that allow only four fielders outside
the circle in non-Powerplay
overs and the two new balls
have been the talking points of
this World Cup.
Chappell wanted most of the
restrictions removed and Dravid and Holding agreed with
him.
As far as restrictions are

the-Year with an average of

104.46.

Understudy

Fawad Ahmed. PHOTO:

ROBERT PREZIOSO/GETTY IMAGES

and played three One-Day Internationals and two T20 Internationals during Australias
tour of England and Scotland
later that year.
Ive bowled with a big heart
and a big chest in every
situation.
Voges won his place on the
plane for similar reasons, with
the 35-year-old Western Australian captain smashing 1,358
Shield runs to be the seasons
highest scorer and Player-of-

BACK HOME

New South Wales keeper Nevill was picked as Brad Haddins

understudy, preferred to Matthew Wade.
National selector Rod Marsh
said the Test team had performed very well in recent times, and
the big challenge was to maintain the form away from home.
We believe this squad has
sufficient depth for these important Test matches against
the West Indies and England
and will give us the best chance
of success, he said.
Marsh said selectors could
not ignore Ahmed and Voges after sensational seasons at domestic level. They thoroughly
deserve their call-up and the opportunity to be a part of this
squad. We believe that both can
play important roles in the side
if required, he said.
Fast bowler Ryan Harris was
included in the squad, but will
only play the Ashes series, remaining in Australia throughout the West Indies tour for the
birth of his first child.
While Faulkner and Maxwell

missed out, selector Marsh cast

an air of mystery over his plans
for them.
Weve got hopeful plans that
I cant reveal right now for Jimmy Faulkner. Hell be right, he
told reporters, adding of Maxwell: Its a tragedy we cant play
him in every game at the moment. But watch this space.
Ahmed and Voges were selected despite missing out on
Cricket Australia contracts for
the 2015-16 season.
CA announced on Tuesday it
had contracted 19 players, one
more than last season. Emerging fast bowlers Pat Cummins
and Josh Hazlewood and allrounder Mitchell Marsh won
contracts.
Dropping off the list were Siddle, despite being named for the
Test tours, and deceased batsman Phillip Hughes.
Australia departs for the West
Indies on May 19.
The team: Michael Clarke (capt.),
Steve Smith, Fawad Ahmed, Brad Haddin, Ryan Harris (Ashes only), Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan
Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Shaun Marsh,
Peter Nevill, Chris Rogers, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Adam Voges, David
Warner, and Shane Watson. AFP

AFTER A CAMPAIGN TO BE PROUD OF

concerned, I like as few as possible, Chappell said.

Crowe brought up the issue
of the safety of the crowds
while Dravid seemed worried
about the net bowlers.
One of the people who I really worry for is net bowlers,
Dravid said.
I have worked in the IPL.
We have young kids who bowl
in the nets. All university kids,
college kids.
All 17, 18, 19-year-olds bowling in the nets, and you have the
likes of Shane Watson and
Chris Gayle batting in the nets
and practising T20 batting. I
am amazed no one has seriously got hurt.
Coming back to the size of
bats, Holding said, I dont
know if the ICC is afraid of the
people who manufacture the
bat to say exactly what has to go
into a bat.
They have limited the width
of the bat, but they have never
limited the depth. There used
to be a sweet spot on the bat
years ago.
Actually one company I
dont want to name it used to
have a spot on the back of the
bat, which was pretty much
parallel to the one on the front
of the bat.

A sweet bat
Now that would have to cover the entire bat because there
is no sweet spot, there is a
sweet bat.
Dravid and Crowe also reiterated their opposition to ICC
trimming the 2019 World Cup
from 14 to 10 teams.
If you take away these world
events from a lot of these nations, Im afraid you actually
kill the game, Dravid said.
PTI

Brendon McCullum with his family on arrival at the Auckland Airport after leading
New Zealand to its first World Cup final. PHOTO: PHIL WALTER/GETTY IMAGES
ND-ND

18

SPORT

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

Dutee to take
part in Asian
championship
Special Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Sprinter Dutee
Chand will be able to participate in the Asian athletics
championship to be held in
Wuhan, China, from June 3 to
7. This will enable the Odisha
sprinter, a 200m bronze medallist in the 2013 Asian championship in Pune, to compete
in an international competition exactly after a gap of one
year.
Dutee, who had won two
gold medals in womens 200m
and 4x400m relay in the Asian
junior athletics championship
in Chinese Taipei in mid-June
last year, was barred from taking part in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games when she
was suspected of having a condition called hyperandrogenism following a test
conducted in June.
Dutees appeal against the
Athletics Federation of Indias
(AFI) decision to declare her
ineligible to compete in womens competitions as per the
IAAF regulations is pending in
the Court of Arbitration for
Sport (CAS). The apex court in
sports arbitration, however,
has allowed her to take part in
various competitions pending
a nal decision.
The 19-year-old, who recently got the relief from CAS,
had reason to celebrate after
an IAAF communication to
the AFI early on Tuesday conrmed her return to the international scene.
Ms Chand is eligible to
compete, pending the CAS decision, at national competitions and the Asian Athletics
Championships to be held in
China in June. She is not eligible to compete in any other
continental/international
competition pending the CAS
award,
said
an
IAAF
communication.
Under the present IAAF
regulations, the AFI would allow Dutee to compete in various events only if she lowers
her testosterone level to a certain limit.
Nevertheless, the law student who was represented
by Jim Bunting from Davies
Ward Phillips & Vineberg
LLP, Toronto, Canada, in the
CAS seeks to have the AFI
decision overturned and the
hyperandrogenism
regulations declared invalid and
void.

BCCI must make a

blueprint for next two years
Makarand Waingankar

IN FULL FLOW: Serena Williams hammered Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round of the WTA Miami Open on Monday. PHOTO: AFP

Smooth sailing for Djokovic

TENNIS / Serena eases past Kuznetsova, enters quarterfinals
MIAMI: World No. 1 Novak Djokovic moved closer to a possible
fourth Miami Open trophy on
Monday by defeating Belgiums
Steve Darcis 6-0, 7-5 to reach
the fourth round.
Defending champion Djokovic, seeking his third hardcourt double of Indian Wells
and Miami in the same year,
red ve aces and broke Darcis
ve times.

Meets Dolgopolov
Djokovic will next play Ukraines Alexandr Dolgopolov,
who defeated Brazils Thomaz
Bellucci 7-5, 6-4.
Australian Open winner Djokovic wrapped up victory with a
break in the nal game to earn
his 21st victory of the season.
Djokovic needed less than
half an hour to take the rst set

but had to come back from a

break down in the second, trailing 5-4 before rallying to make
it to the next round.

In womens play, Serena Williams advanced to the quarternals with a straight-set win.
World No. 1 Serena, seeking a

third consecutive Miami crown

and record eighth title at the
hardcourt event, hammered
Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova

Serbian favours reforms in schedule

MIAMI: Novak Djokovic has
added his voice to those
calling for a reform of the
Davis Cup format, with the
World No. 1 favouring a
more concentrated
competition for the
worldwide team event.
In addition, the Serbian
would also like to see the
Australian Open played a bit
later in the season but is
fully on board with the
addition of an extra week of

grass preparation between

the end of Roland Garros
and the beginning of
Wimbledon.
For starters, the eighttime Grand Slam winner
said that he supports a
pending proposal to add a
tiebreaker to the fth set of
any Davis Cup rubber,
which would end marathons
such as the nearly sevenhour struggle at a March
rst-round tie in Argentina.

Im more in support of a
tiebreak in the fth set in
any competition than for no
tiebreak. That would be my
answer on that, said the
27-year-old Serbian.
I support the fact to have
a certain change in the
sport, I think its the right
time. As we evolve as a
global sport, I think we
should all strongly consider
applying certain changes.
AFP

6-2, 6-3.
The results:
Men: Fourth round: Tomas Berdych bt Gael Monfils 6-3, 3-2, retd.;
Dominic Thiem bt Adrian Mannarino
7-6(5), 4-6, 7-5.
Third round: David Goffin bt Jerzy
Janowicz 6-4, 6-3; Novak Djokovic bt
Steve Darcis 6-0, 7-5; David Ferrer bt
Lukas Rosol 6-4, 7-5; Milos Raonic bt
Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 5-7, 7-6(3); Gilles
Simon bt Alejandro Falla 6-3, 6-4;
John Isner bt Grigor Dimitrov 7-6(2),
6-2.
Women: Fourth round: Serena
Williams bt Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2,
6-3; Sabine Lisicki bt Sara Errani 6-1,
6-2; Andrea Petkovic bt Ekaterina Makarova 6-1, 7-5; Karolina Pliskova bt
Daria Gavrilova 6-3, 6-2; Sloane Stephens bt Belinda Bencic 6-4, 7-6(5);
Simona Halep bt Flavia Pennetta 6-3,
7-5. AFP

CRICKET

Piloting Australia to the acme

S. Dinakar
CHENNAI: Theres a chance I
may never play again, said Michael Clarke had said in Adelaide last December.
The Australian captains
words, soon after his team had
overcome India on a captivating nal day of the rst Test of
the series, were greeted with a
stunned silence. Yet, Clarkes
visage did not reect the pain
he was in. There were no tears,
only a steely gaze.
Then, Clarke added: I hope
thats not the case, and I will be
doing everything in my power
to get back on the park but I
have to be realistic as well.
He was 33, and a chronic injury to his right hamstring necessitated surgery.
Clarke was clearly struggling
on the eld, and his rst-innings 128 was a battling effort
where he surmounted barriers
of physical discomfort. His
hamstring kept him out of that
dramatic nal session on day

ve when Brad Haddin led the

side to a rousing victory under
pressure.
It was a race against time for
Clarke in his bid to get t for the
World Cup. He opted out of the
last three Tests against India,
went under the surgeons knife
in Melbourne. The rest is history.
The skipper made a winning
difference, his strength of mind
coming to the fore. His captaincy, always attack-minded and
innovative, had lost none of its
spark.
Australias triumph also
meant four of its greatest batsmen covering different periods Allan Border, Steve
Waugh, Ricky Ponting and
Clarke had lifted the World
Cup.
Leg-spinning all-rounder Richie Benaud was an excellent
captain but his career ended in
1964, much before the rst
World Cup was held in 1975.
Then, Shane Warne, despite his
bold, pro-active ways in the few

games he led his country in,

never got a long run at the
helm. Batsmen have dominated
the Australian captaincy and
the World Cup.
Borders triumph against the
odds in the World Cup of 1987
in India and Pakistan turned
things around for Australia
during a rather turbulent rebuilding phase where the side
picked itself up from bottom.
The left-handers captaincy
was much like batting: gritty,
tenacious and looking for openings only after securing safety.
It was in keeping with the
needs of his side.
Steve Waugh, who inherited
a well-settled and tremendously talented Australian side from
the aggressive Mark Taylor,
was ruthless in his methods.
He (Waugh) wanted to crush
opponents from the rst ball,
Glenn McGrath said to The
Hindu some time back.
With the willow, the battlescarred Waugh was a famous
re-ghter in grim situations.

His monumental unbeaten 120

in a must-win game for the Aussies against South Africa in a
crucial Super Six game at Leeds
was a key factor in Australias
triumph in the 1999 edition.
His dominant captaincy
sometimes contrasted with his
style of batting.
Like Waugh, Ponting led a
world-beating side of matchwinners that relentlessly pursued excellence. His job as skipper was not easy since Australia
was expected to win every
match.
Punter was a gifted batsman
who tore into attacks with
erce pulls, drives and cuts. His
unbeaten 140 against India in
the 2003 World Cup nal at the
Wanderers was one such
innings.
During times when bats have
become heavier and strides
shorter, Clarkes immaculate
footwork pleases the eye. He
scores runs when it matters.
And, now, he has piloted the
Aussies to the acme.

Ravi Shastri defends under-fire Kohli

NEW DELHI: Defending an underre Virat Kohli, Indian cricket
Team Director Ravi Shastri on
Tuesday said the swashbuckling batsmans ordinary run in
the World Cup had nothing to
do with his actress-girlfriend
Anushka Sharmas presence
and dismissed it as utter
nonsense.
If it was so, Virat wouldnt
have got 700 runs and smashed
four centuries in Tests in Australia. His work ethic is as good
as any I have seen. His heart
beats for India. Its a pedigree
you dont see often. And to tell
you the truth, he isnt a nished
article yet, Shastri told PTI.
Shastri found much to praise
in Kohlis revival after a disastrous England tour last year
when he constantly fell to Jimmy Anderson and company.
Kohli showed that, its not
the size of the dog in the ght
that matters. Its the ght in the
dog that counts, Shastri said.
Shastri also lavished praise
on skipper Mahendra Singh
Dhoni saying that the wicketkeeper-batsman would only get
better from here on.
He will only get better now
that he has retired from Test
cricket. He will be tter and
have time to work on his batCM
YK

should interact with their

peers in the various States.

SHOWERING ENCOMIUMS: Ravi Shastri says

Virat Kohlis work ethic is as good as any
he has seen. PHOTO: MICHAEL DODGE/GETTY IMAGES
ting. He will still have a lot of
time to torture bowlers around
the world, he said.
Shastri, a former India captain, said losing the toss in the
seminal against Australia hurt
the Indian team.
While praising the eventual
champion and terming it as
the best side in the tournament, Shastri still believes
that the only team which Australia feared could beat it was
India. Steve Smith was a constant thorn in Indias esh and

Shastri had words of praise for

the young Australia batsman.
A lot of teams asked me for
weakness in his game. They
asked us as we (Indians) ought
to know since we have been
here for four months. My answer always was: let me know
his weakness in case you nd
it.
He has tremendous handeye coordination, a very sharp
cricketing brain and he invariably nds gaps in the eld,
Shastri said. One highlight of

Indias performance was its

medium-pace trio of Umesh
Yadav, Mohammad Shami and
Mohit Sharma.
I call Shami Nawab of Kolkata; Umesh the one of Vidarbha and Mohit Sharma
Haryana Express faster than
Rajdhani. They bowled like
fast bowlers, he said.
The Indian medium-pace
trio was as good as any in this
competition. How many times
have you seen a Hashim Amla
or a Younis Khan ducking into a
short ball and fending a catch to
elders inside the circle? They
bowled with the mindset of a
fast bowler, he said.
Shastri was also all praise for
Ravichandran Ashwin who was
prepared to give the ball air
even when the rules restricted
protection for him in the deep.
His variation of pace was
the key, Shastri said.
Shastri said there was immense potential in this young
Indian team and predicted that
80 per cent of this nucleus
would still be around in four
years time, in the 2019 World
Cup. People dont realise this
tour of Australia has done their
condence a world of good. It
will keep them, and India, in
good stead. PTI

ith the gruelling Australian tour now completed,

and the Indian cricket team
having no engagements in its
immediate future, the thinktank, which should have the Director Ravi Shastri and skipper
M.S. Dhoni, must meet the
BCCI office-bearers along with
the Director of the NCA, Brijesh Patel, and present a blueprint for the next two years.
Planning and implementation are the most crucial to
achieving desired goals.
India may have lost the series in Australia and the World
Cup,but this team has the ammunition to re, provided its
workload is monitored.
For too long now, we have
been concentrating on quantity rather than quality of cricket. Playing 791 matches;
counting
both junior
and senior
categories,
in
six
months,
isnt going
to produce
quality players.
Dhoni made a pertinent
point when he said that our international fast bowlers are
forced to play for their State
sides. English and Australian
international fast bowlers play
as per a plan formulated by
their respective State and National
boards
decision-makers.
State associations in their
desire to win BCCI championships inict a heavy workload
on the players. Old-timers say
that fast bowlers of their era
engaged in many matches but
the calendar itself was not as
busy, with modern players
playing professionally in three
formats for about 80 per cent
of the year.
In order to allow quality fast
bowlers to blossom, the NCA
should monitor the workload.
In fact, both Shastri and Brijesh Patel may create a system
involving all the heads of the
senior State teams, and conduct zonal meetings to monitor
progress.
Similarly, trainers and physios of the National team,

Emphasis on pacemen
An analysis of international
cricket clearly indicates that
fast bowlers have been responsible for their teams victories.
Its not that we dont have fast
bowlers who clock over
140kmph but there is no process to unearth them like the
TRDO system did a decade ago,
through former rst-class
players.
Mumbai cricket is an ideal
case study. Over 80 tournaments are played on 80
grounds and there are not even
half a dozen genuine quick
bowlers.
In fact, there are no quality
rst-class cricketers. Its because of a lack of system in the
administration. Abey Kuruvilla was the last genuine quick
bowler to
play
for
Mumbai.
At the National level,
we need to
cut down on
tournaments. Whilethe DuleepTrophymay
holdsentimental
value,playingthe tournament
is meaninglesswhen the Ranji
Trophy isnt played on a zonal
basis.
When the number of tournaments are reduced, international players will get time to
play Ranji matches. Young
players blossom only when
they get to play along with seniors.
Till such time seniors dont
get to play local and domestic
cricket, Indian cricket will always be stagnant.
There will be one group who
will be playing international
cricket andanotherlot playing
domestic cricket. How will this
help Indian cricket grow?
While fast bowlers workload needs to be balanced, international players must nd
the schedule conducive to
playing domestic cricket.
This requires meticulous
planning and execution. It is
for this reason that the BCCI
think-tank must meet now,
even though a long tour has
just concluded.

The fast
bowlers
workload needs
to be balanced

Jonty Rhodes
joins MI camp
THE LATEST IN A LINE: Australias triumph means
four of its greatest batsmen covering different
periods Allan Border, Steve Waugh, Ricky
Ponting and Michael Clarke have lifted the
World Cup. PHOTO: RYAN PIERSE/GETTY IMAGES

MUMBAI: With the arrival of

Jonty Rhodes the elding and
training sessions became sharp
and focused for Mumbai Indians on the second day of its
IPL-8 preparation at the Wankhede Stadium here on Tuesday.
As usual MI head coach

Ricky Ponting kept himself busy even as Robin Singh, Paras

Mhambrey and Kiran More
paid attention to their departments. Wicket-keepers Parthiv
Patel and Aditya Tare had a
long stint with More. Special
Correspondent

BLAST FROM THE PAST

Sainas sights were always trained on bigger targets

A. Joseph Antony
HYDERABAD: It was the closing day of
the 2001 Andhra Pradesh state mini
and sub-junior badminton
championships at Gudivada, not far
from the trading town of Vijayawada.
One sprightly shuttler, not yet 12 years
old, was punching way above her
weight in the under-16 nal.
Fatigue found her faltering in what
was her fth match of the day. Great
sobs racked her frame, for she was
unwilling to forgive herself for the
failure.
Over time, the days victor Sarada
Govardhini would fade into
obscurity, while the vanquished went
on to become World No.1 Saina
Nehwal.
Words of comfort from her scientist
father Harvir Singh alone could ease
the anguish of that defeat.
Her mother Usha Rani, a former
Haryana state player, had entrusted
her younger daughter to the tutelage of
the late Mir Mahbub Ali.
Patience was the elderly coachs
forte as he taught tiny tots, so easily
distracted and least focused on the
game, from scratch.
Saina never seems to tire in

training, even enjoying it immensely,

observed Dronacharya Awardee S.M.
Arif, a rm believer in the virtues of
hard work.
At rst apprehensive about taking a
junior when picking players for the
Sports Authority of Indias day boarder
scheme, he was bowled over by her
commitment. Enrolling her was a
decision the mentor of many would

never regret. Long after practice

partners quit, worn out with
exhaustion, Saina, under coach
Govardhan Reddys watchful eyes,
would soldier on at the Lal Bahadur
indoor stadium, her stamina stemming
perhaps from a brown belt in judo.
In competition, her game was lean
and mean, shorn of frills. A smile was
not to be squandered on the foe across
the net. A stare before her serve was
enough to unsettle an opponent if not
size her up. Smashes squashed
opposition and returns were rarely
brooked.
Saina moves pretty fast and is gifted
with lots of ghting spirit, noted
former All England champion Pullela
Gopi Chand. Not only is she serious,
she has a never say die attitude, said
the Birmingham battler.
Early success did not sway the then
class VII student of Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan (NIRD campus), nor blind her
to frailties in chops and dribbles. Her
sights were trained on targets that she
could well reach, such as the mini and
sub-junior Nationals in Ooty that
November.
To her, the prize on offer held out a
lot of promise a Yonex kit
sponsorship!

ND-ND