$ %ˇ ˚ ˆˇ - The Pioneer...2019/03/27 · Samajwadi Party’s Muslim face Azam Khan in Rampur, while Maneka Gandhi and her son, Varun Gandhi, swapped their seats of Pilibhit and

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Noted film actor of yester-year and former MP Jaya

Prada joined the BJP onTuesday and will take onSamajwadi Party’s Muslim faceAzam Khan in Rampur, whileManeka Gandhi and her son,Varun Gandhi, swapped theirseats of Pilibhit and Sultanpuras per the ninth list of the BJPreleased on Tuesday.

Union Minister ManojSinha has been fielded fromGhazipur, Rita Bahuguna fromAllahabad, State BJP presidentMahendra Nath Pandey fromChandauli, and JagdambikaPal from Doomariyaganj.

BJP’s ninth list which has 29candidates from Uttar Pradesh(and 10 from West Bengal)repeats many of the currentMPs, including BJP’s KisanMorcha head Virendra SinghMast (Ballia), Harish Dwivedi(Basti), Kirtwardhan Singh(Gonda), Pankaj Choudhary(Maharganj), Vijay Dube(Kushinagar), KamleshwarPaswan (Bansgaon SC),Ravindra Kushwaha(Salempur), Sadhvi NiranjanJyoti (Fatehpur), Lallu Singh(Faizabad), Daddan Mishra(Shawasti), and BrijbhushanSharan Singh (Kaiserganj).

The Rampur contest hasthe potential to be bitter andintense since both Jaya Pradaand Azam Khan arch rivals.Jaya Prada had at one timeaccused Khan of circulatingscurrilous video purportedlyfeaturing her in Rampur.

Rampur has the highestconcentration of Muslims inentire UP. Muslims are over 50per cent of the total voters inthe constituency. Riding theModi wave, BJP’s Nepal Singhhad won from there in 2014.

A two-term Lok Sabhamember from the SP, JayaPrada is a close associate of

Rajya Sabha member AmarSingh, who was expelled fromthe SP and has since come closeto the BJP.

Lauding Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, Jaya Pradadescribed him as a “brave”leader in whose hands the coun-try is “safe”.

Noting that she started her

political journey with the TDPand was its Rajya Sabha mem-ber before joining the SP andbeing elected to Lok Sabhafrom Rampur, Jaya Prada toldreporters that joining the BJP isa “significant” moment in herlife and she would now workdedicatedly for the saffron party.

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On his first visit to the cityafter being declared the

BJP candidate from PatnaSahib, Union Minister RaviShankar Prasad was onTuesday shown black flags bysupporters of RK Sinha, a RajyaSabha MP, leading to a clashwith party workers who hadgathered at the airport to wel-come Prasad.

RK Sinha was hopeful ofBJP ticket for the seat. Prasaddrove away while telling themedia, “I thank my party forconsidering me for this greatresponsibility. I will be giving my best shot. Goodgovernance will help Narendra Modi return to power.”

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With an attempt to counterthe influence of the BJP,

the Samajawadi Party onTuesday inducted three moreOBC-dominated political out-fits in the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.The three OBC political partiesare Janwadi Party (Socialist),Rashtriya Samanta Dal and theNishad Party. These small par-ties have pockets of influenceamong their respective com-munities in eastern UP.

“I congratulate the threeparties on joining the alliance,”said Akhilesh Yadav at a Pressconference here on Tuesday toannounce the expansion of thealliance that had started with atie-up between SamajwadiParty and Bahujan Samaj Partyand later included Ajit Singh’sRashtriya Lok Dal.

Akhilesh’s effort appears tobe aimed at stitching a castearithmetic under the SP-BSPcombination — Nishad, Dalit,Muslim, Yadav and non-Yadav

backward communities. Headed by Sanjay Singh

Chauhan, the Janwadi PartySocialist Party has a strong holdamong the Chauhan commu-nity, an extremely backwardcaste of the OBC category,which has a considerable pres-ence across eastern UP.

The Nishad Party hadplayed a key role in theOpposition’s success in theGorakhpur by-elections inMarch 2018 which became thetemplate for Opposition unityand eventually persuaded tworivals, Akhilesh Yadav andMayawati, to team up.

Praveen Kumar Nishad,the Opposition candidate whodefeated the BJP in Gorakhpur,is the son of Nishad Partychief.

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In its bid to have a directinteraction with the voters in

national Capital for Lok Sabhapolls, Delhi Congress headedby Sheila Dikshit has plannedto launch “Aay Pe Charcha”(discussion on income) fromApril 1 to generate awarenessamong people about benefits ofthe “historic” minimumincome guarantee scheme’announced by party presidentRahul Gandhi on Monday.

Terming the Nyuntam AayYojana (Nyay) announcementas an “extraordinary step”, Sheilasaid this is the biggest schemeannounced ever for the poorafter the highly successfulMGNREGA (Mahatma GandhiNational Rural EmploymentGuarantee Act).

“This stupendous schemewill benefit the people belowthe poverty line in the country.It is the first time that such astep has been taken in theworld,” said Sheila, adding thatit will empower the poorest inthe country.

Hitting out at the BharatiyaJanta Party (BJP), Sheila said itis strange that the BJP

Government which has coined“hollow” slogans such as“Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas”and “Achchhe Din” seems to berattled by the announcement.

Sheila said the Congresswill implement the scheme forfive crore poor families in thecountry after it forms the next

Government in the country.“The formalities (of thescheme) will be worked outafter Congress forms theGovernment and implementsit,” she said.

Brushing aside accusationsof the BJP that the scheme willput a heavy burden on the

economy of the country and itwould not be practical toimplement the scheme, Sheilasaid, “The party has taken allpossibilities into considerationfor the successful implementa-tion of the scheme, it would be implemented withoutdelay”.

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Chowkidar chor nahi, chowki-dar pure hai. Chowkidar ka

dobara PM banna sure hai.Desh ki samasyaon ka wo hi curehai. (Watchman is not a thief,but he is pure. Watchman is allset to become PM again. He iscure to country’s problems),said Union Home Minister RajNath Singh while addressing anelection rally titled “VijaySankalp Sabha” in Delhi’sYamuna Vihar on Tuesday.

Singh’s response was aimedat blunting the often repeatedallegations of Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi“Chowkidar chor hai” to hit outat the Prime Minister overalleged corruption in the Rafaledeal. Attacking the Congressfor levelling false allegations ofcorruption on Modi regardingthe Rafale deal, Singh asked,“For whom will our PrimeMinister take money?”

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Veteran BJP leader MurliManohar Joshi on Tuesday

said he has been asked by theparty not to contest the polls.Within hours, BJP nominatedKhadi and GramodyogMinister in Yogi GovernmentSatyadeo Pachauri from Joshi’sKanpur seat.

In a statement, Joshi saidthe party general secretary(organisation) Ram Lal hasasked him not to contest the LSpoll. The statement wasreleased for the voters ofKanpur, from where Joshi hadwon in 2014 by getting 57 percent of the vote.

Joshi heads Parliament’sEstimates Committee andsome of its observations,including on jobs, the GDP andnon-performing assets, recent-

ly embarrassed the UnionGovernment.

Earlier, another seniorparty leader from UP KalrajMishra had announced not tocontest the elections from hisDeoria seat.

Later in the day, the BJPreleased the list declaringPachauri as party’s candidatefrom Kanpur

Defending the party’s deci-sion of denying ticket to Joshi,UP Minister SidharthanathSingh said, “He is our foundermember and the party respectshim in the team of mardarshakmandal. It is an internal mat-ter of the party.”

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The poll panel on Tuesdayordered a probe into the alle-

gation that Congress candidatefrom Raipur Lok Sabha seatPramod Dubey purportedlyoffered money to a group ofwomen to set up self-help groups.

Chhattisgarh Chief ElectoralOfficer Subrat Sahoo said a com-plaint against Dubey was receivedand it was forwarded to Raipur dis-trict electoral officer for a probe.

Dubey, who is also Raipurmayor, posted some pictures of hiscampaign in the Facebbok onTuesday. In the posts, he wasallegedly seen offering �10,000 toyoung women voters to set upSHGs.

The BJP promptly picked upthe issue and made a complaint tothe CEO and also to the ElectionCommission of India.

Dubey, meanwhile, deletedthe post from his Facebookaccount.

The Congress so far has notreacted to the allegation.

In another allegation against aCongress candidate, the BJPclaimed that the ruling party’s can-didate from Korba Lok Sabhaconstituency Jyotsna Mahantaddressed a press conference at theofficial residence of her husbandCharandas Mahant.

Jyotsna Mahant isthe wife ofChhattisgarh stateassembly SpeakerCharandas Mahant.

Briefing media,the CEO, however,denied receiving anyofficial complaint inthe matter.

“We have notreceived any com-plaint over the reported pressconference addressed by Congresscandidate Jyotsna Mahant atSpeaker’s residence. Necessaryaction will be initiated if we receivethe complaint,” the CEO said.

He said, “During scrutiny forthe first phase of polling in Bastar,nomination papers of one candi-date Jaisingh Kawde have been

rejected, leaving only seven con-testants in the electoral fray now.

The last date for withdrawal ofnomination papers for the LokSabha seat is March 28, afterwhich the election symbols will beallocated to the candidates, headded.

“The notification forthird phase of pollingfor seven Lok Sabha seatsof Surguja, Raigarh,Janjgir-Champa, Korba,Bilaspur, Durg andRaipur will be issued onMarch 28. The last datefor filing of nominationfor these seats is April 4and last date for with-drawal of nomination is

April 8 till 3.00 pm,” Sahoo said.For the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,

the state will have 406 ‘Sangwari’(women) polling centres, 464model polling centres and 56polling centres for differently-abled persons. The State has23,727 polling centres out ofwhich 5,625 polling centres havebeen marked as “critical.”

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In a clear case of deterio-rating law and order in

Chhattisgarh’s state capital, abusinessman was shot-deadon Tuesday from a pointblank range by a police con-stable at his office located atbusy Pachpedhi Naka local-ity.

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel while terming theincident unfortunate offeredhis condolence to thebereaved family. Accordingto police, the deceased iden-tified as Sanjay Agrawal whoused to deal in used cars.

Agrawal was at his office‘Sai Motors’ located inPachpedhi Naka localitywhen the accused identifiedas constable Manoj Sen ofDistrict Force reached hisoffice at noon and openedfire at Agrawal. State gov-ernment has dismissed thecop from service.

“The accused constablehad paid around Rs 3 lakh toAgrawal on March 4, to pur-chase a car, but the latterreportedly delivered him ashabby vehicle. Unsatisfiedwith the deal, the constabledemanded his money back.But Agrawal promised torepair the vehicle, but kepton postponing the date ofdelivery of the vehicle”, citysuperintendent of police(CSP) Purani Basti KrishnaPatel said.

Enraged over the dilly-dallying tactics of Agarwal,Sen reached his office andhad a heated argument afterwhich he shot at Agrawalwith an INSAS rifle he wascarrying.

The assault rifle is issuedto Manoj’s relative, who is inCAF and presently posted atMana battalion,” CSP Pateladded.

Agrawal was later rushedto a private hospital nearby

where doctors declared himbrought dead, police said.

Sen was arrested laterand has been booked underSection 302 (murder) andArms Act.

Meanwhile, former statecabinet minister and BJPleader Rajesh Munat reactingover the incident said, lawand order has completely

collapsed in the state afterthe Congress governmentcame to power in Decemberlast.

“Congress is politicisingthe police force. A SP is notallowed to stay in office forless than two months. Insuch a scenario, how can hecontrol the law-and-ordersituation? he questioned.

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New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Tuesday dashed thehopes of a faction led by formerAIADMK leader TTVDhinakaran for getting the‘pressure cooker’ symbol exclu-sively for the upcoming LokSabha and Assembly by-elec-tions, but asked the ElectionCommission to allot a commonfree symbol to it.

The top court said to“ensure a level playing field”among the contesting politicalparties in Lok Sabha polls andby-election in Tamil Nadu andPuducherry, it has directed thepoll panel to allot a commonfree symbol to the group.

A Bench of Chief JusticeRanjan Gogoi and JusticesDeepak Gupta and SanjivKhanna also made it clear thatif candidates fielded byDhinakaran-led group win theelections, “they will be treatedas Independent candidates”.

“The claim of the appellantto the symbol of ‘pressurecooker’ in an exclusive mannercannot be acknowledged inview of the provisions ofSection 29A of theRepresentation of the PeopleAct, 1951 and the guidelines

issued by the ElectionCommission of India thereunder, which the appellant orhis group has concededly notfollowed.

“We are, therefore, notinclined to grant any recogni-tion to the appellant or hisgroup to the symbol of ‘pres-sure cooker’,” the Bench said.

It took on record the list ofnames of 59 candidates,marked as ‘X’, to be fielded byDhinakaran led group in theupcoming Lok Sabha elections

and assembly by-elections inTamil Nadu and Puducherry.

“The EC on due and prop-er satisfaction that the candi-dates named in the documentmarked with the letter ‘X’ (listof names) want to contest theelection under any one com-mon symbol, will make allendeavour to ensure that in theforthcoming elections..., theaforesaid candidates be allottedany one particular free symbol,”the Bench said.

The court, clarified, that itspresent order will not amountto recognition of the group orits any part as a political partywhether “registered” or “unreg-istered” and only electioncommission can take a decisionin that regard as and whenrequired.

It added, “We also make itclear that in the event any of thecandidates mentioned in thelist marked with the letter ‘X’is to be elected, such candidatewill be counted as an indepen-dent candidate and not belong-ing to any political party for allpurposes including for the pur-poses of the Tenth Schedule ofthe Constitution”.

The court’s order came onthe last day of filing of nomi-nation papers for the upcom-ing Lok Sabha elections in 40seats and assembly by-elec-tions on 19 seats in TamilNadu and Puducherry to beheld on April 18. PTI

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Adelegation of the Left par-ties on Tuesday met

Election Commission (EC)officials and demanded thatrelease of the film based on thelife of Prime Minister NarendraModi be deferred, claiming itto be a “propaganda material”.The delegation led by CPInational secretary D Raja andCPI(M) Polit Bureau memberNilotpal Basu, pointed out seri-ous law and order situations inTripura and West Bengal.

“The delegation had adetailed discussion with the ECon the release of the biopic onNarendra Modi. The delegationpointed out that there are well-established precedents on with-holding the release of such pro-paganda materials during thependency of the elections. Thepoll body, however, was non-committal,” a statement fromthe two Left parties said onTuesday.

The delegation also reiter-ated the demand of matchingthe VVPAT records with thoseof the EVM for randomly cho-sen 50 per cent of the booths.The EC pointed out that as perthe Supreme Court direction,the Commission will be sub-mitting an affidavit on March28 on this subject.

“The delegation also point-ed out the serious law andorder situation in Tripura andWest Bengal, where the ruling

party goons are particularly tar-geting the Left Front and itscandidates,” the statement said.

They also raised theKolkata airport incident involv-ing the wife of AbhishekBanerjee, MP and TrinamoolCongress candidate inDiamond Harbour and thenephew of West Bengal ChiefMinister Mamata Banerjee.

The delegation urged thatthere should be a probe by theCommission to ascertain thetruth as this has financial impli-cations and a possible impacton free and fair polls.

The Congress too hadmoved the poll body to get therelease of the biopic, withBollywood actor Vivek Oberoiplaying Modi, deferred till thefinal phase voting in the LokSabha polls on May 19. Earlier,the DMK, NCP and the NDAally RPI(A) have approachedthe poll body seeking defer-ment of the Modi’s biopic tillthe Lok Sabha polls is over.

New Delhi: All eight newlyappointed members of anti-corruption ombudsman Lokpalwill take oath of office onWednesday, officials said onTuesday.

President Ram NathKovind had on Saturdayadministered the oath of officeto Justice Pinaki ChandraGhose as the country’s firstLokpal. Former Chief Justicesof different High Courts —Justices Dilip B Bhosale, Pradip Kumar Mohanty,Abhilasha Kumari — besidessitting Chief Justice ofChhattisgarh High Court AjayKumar Tripathi were appoint-ed as judicial members in the Lokpal.

Former first woman chiefof Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB)Archana Ramasundaram, ex-Maharashtra chief secretaryDinesh Kumar Jain, formerIRS officer Mahender Singhand Gujarat cadre ex-IAS offi-cer Indrajeet Prasad Gautamare the Lokpal’s non-judicialmembers.

All these eight memberswill be administered the oathof office on Wednesday, theofficials said. PTI

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Aday after Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi

announced his ambitious min-imum income guaranteescheme, the party on Tuesdaysaid the beneficiary of thescheme’s financial assistancewill directly go to the womanmember of the family.

The party sought to clear“confusion” over the schemewith party chief spokespersonRandeep Surjewala saying thatthe scheme will directly bene-fit 20 per cent beneficiary families and that scheme is“women centric”.

Surjewala said theNyunatam Aay Yojana (Nyay) isnot a “top-up scheme” and is awomen-centric scheme where-by the money will go directlyinto the bank accounts of thewoman member of a family.

At the same time, Congressasked Prime Minister NarendraModi and the BJP to clearlyspell out whether they supportits proposal to give �72,000annually to five crore poor fam-ilies under a minimum incomeguarantee scheme, claimingmany BJP Ministers wereopposing the idea.

Party general secretaryPriyanka Gandhi took to Twitterto applaud Rahul Gandhi’sannouncement and said thebest aspect of the Nyay is it willprovide women with steadymoney. “What’s making me

most happy is that the NYAYscheme will add �72,000 everyyear in the bank accounts ofwomen,” she tweeted

“The Congress will get thisamount credited to the bankaccounts of the women of ben-eficiary families. This schemewill be implemented withoutany discrimination betweenthe urban and rural areas. Itwill be implemented acrossthe country uniformly,”Surjewala said.

Rahul on Mondayannounced that �72,000 peryear will be given as minimumincome to poor families if hisparty is voted to power in LokSabha polls. Asserting that it willbe the final assault on poverty,he said the scheme would ben-efit around 25 crore people.

Congress also attackedFinance Minister Arun Jaitleyfor dubbing the scheme as a“bluff announcement”, sayingno other political party has“betrayed” India for more thanseven decades in the name ofpoverty. Surjewala also attackedGovernment think tank NITIAayog vice chairman RajivKumar dubbing the body heheaded as “Rajneeti Ayog” andasked him to run the organi-sation from the BJP office andcontest elections instead.

A c t o r - p o l i t i c i a nShatrughan Sinha — who is allset to quit the BJP will join theCongress in Bihar on Thursday,showered praise on RahulGandhi, calling him the “mas-ter of situation” and his pro-posed scheme a “masterstroke”.

New Delhi: The SupremeCourt on Tuesday termed as“very very serious” the revela-tions made by CBI in its statusreport relating to the recentinterrogation of the thenKolkata Police CommissionerRajeev Kumar in connectionwith the Saradha chit fundscam case.

A Bench headed by ChiefJustice Ranjan Gogoi said itcannot “close its eyes” if some“very very serious facts” are dis-closed to it and directed CBI tofile an application seekingappropriate relief againstKumar, who had earlier head-ed the state SIT to probe thechit fund scam.

The Bench, which alsocomprised Justices DeepakGupta and Sanjiv Khanna,granted 10 days to the probeagency for filing the applica-tion. Kumar and others canrespond to the plea seven daysthereafter.

The top court refused todrop the contempt proceedingsagainst the West Bengal DGP,the chief secretary and Kumar.

It was hearing the CBI’scontempt application againstvarious senior officials of theWest Bengal Government onthe ground of non-cooperationin its probe and alleged tam-pering of evidence includingcall data records (CDRs) of keyaccused and Sardha groupCMD Sudipta Sen and DebjaniMukherjee. The court, whichhad earlier directed CBIDirector to file an affidavit giv-ing details about the allegedcontempt committed by WestBengal cops and others in thecase, perused the reply of theCBI chief and the fresh statusreport, pertaining to quizzingof Kumar.

“We have gone throughyour (CBI’s) status report.There are something very veryserious,” the Bench said.

The Bench asked AttorneyGeneral KK Venugopal, repre-senting CBI, to file an appro-priate application as it cannotpass any order on the prayersas they were part of the sealedcover report to which the otherside has no access.

“File an application or anaffidavit, if you want to pressfor your reliefs. We cannot actunilaterally and the other sidehas to be heard,” the bench said.“We are not passing any order.File an application and give theother side an opportunity toreply,” the Bench said. Senioradvocate AM Singhvi, appear-ing for West Bengal officials,opposed the liberty beinggranted to CBI to file an appli-cation against Kumar.

“While considering thecontempt matter, suppose somevery very serious things cometo our notice then, should weclose our eyes to that,” theBench said while asking CBI tofile the fresh plea.

At the outset, Venugopalreferred to the reply of the CBIDirector and alleged that theWest Bengal police has notbeen cooperating with theprobe, providing incompleteand tampered with details tothe probe agency.

He said the CDRs, provid-ed by the state police, of the keyaccused to the CBI werematched with those providedby the mobile service providersand various discrepancies werefound in them.

Solicitor General TusharMehta, also appearing for CBI,said that there has been seriousbreach of the apex court orderasking State police to cooper-ate in the investigation. PTI

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The Ministry of Personnelhas directed the Union

Home and Railway Ministriesto move separate proposals togrant “organised service” statusto the Central paramilitaryforces and Railway ProtectionForces respectively.

The move comes followinga directive from the SupremeCourt for granting organisedservice status to these forces.The organised service statuswill enable the cadre officers tobe eligible for certain servicebenefits like Non-FunctionalUpgradation (financial benefitsafter certain number of years ofservice if promotion to the nextpost is not possible).

Department of Personneland Training (DoPT) under theMinistry of Personnel in a let-ter issued on Monday to theJoint Secretary (Police-I) ofHome Ministry AmitabhKharkwal and Joint Director(Estt/GC), Railway Board,Amitabh Joshi said,“….MHA/Ministry of Railwaysrequested to move a proposalfor grant of organised status forimplementation of the order of

the Supreme Court immedi-ately. The directions of thecourt regarding deputation ofIPS officers to CAPFs and RPFmay also be kept in view whileformulating the proposal.”

The procedure for granti-ng organised status to a serviceis similar to that of a cadrereview. Such a proposal, ini-tially moved by CadreControlling Authority (CCA) isexamined by DoPT andDepartment of Expenditure,and subsequently, their rec-ommendations are placedbefore the Cadre ReviewCommittee chaired by theCabinet Secretary.

The proposal is then sentfor final approval of theCabinet. Necessary notifica-tions in this regard are to beissued by the CCA like MHAfor Central Armed Police Forceand Ministry of Railways forRPF (Railway Protection Force,reads the DoPT order issued byMS Subramanya Rao, Directorof Cadre Review Division.

VPS Panwar, Chairman,National CoordinationCommittee for Ex CPMFsWelfare Associations, said thereis no need at all for a proposal

for granting organised servicestatus to the paramilitary forcesas the Supreme Court had saidthat the forces are already in thecategory and the Governmentwas directed to simply issue anotification to the effect.

Panwar said a contempt

petition is pending before theDelhi High Court and the nextdate of hearing is March 28. Thecontempt petition was movedby the National CoordinationCommittee as the Governmenthas sought proposals for grant-ing organised service status

instead of declaring them asorganised service as directed bythe court.

The grant of organised ser-vice to Group A cadre officerswill entitle them to timely pro-motion and enhanced paypackages. This will also enable

them to form associations onthe lines of the All IndiaServices and represent proper-ly before the Central PayCommission besides givingthem a collective bargainingpower for better service con-ditions, Panwar added.

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Foreign Minister SushmaSwaraj on Tuesday asked

Pakistan to ensure the imme-diate release of the two Hindugirls who were allegedly kid-napped and forcefully con-verted to Islam in Sindhprovince last week.

“Justice demands that boththese girls should be restored totheir family immediately,” shetweeted.

Reena and Raveena, hailingfrom village Hafiz Salman nearthe town of Daharki in Sindh,were allegedly kidnapped andforced to convert fromHinduism to Islam on March20, before being married toMuslim men.

“Forced conversion of

Hindu girls in Pakistan: Theage of the girls is not disputed.Raveena is only 13 and Reena is 15 years old,” theMinister said.

“Even the Prime Ministeron Naya Pakistan will notbelieve that girls of this tenderage can voluntarily decideabout their conversion toanother religion and marriage,”

she said. A Pakistani high court on

Tuesday ordered official pro-tection for the two girls due toconcern about their safety asauthorities widened a probe toascertain if the teenage sisterswere abducted, forcibly con-verted and married.

On Sunday, Swaraj tweet-ed that she asked the Indian

envoy in Islamabad to send areport on the incident.

Hours later, India issued anote verbale to Pakistan on theissue, sharing its concerns overthe incident and called for suit-able remedial action to protectand promote safety, security andwelfare of people from theminority communities.Subsequently, Pakistan PrimeMinister Imran Khan orderedan investigation into the inci-dent. The Islamabad HighCourt issued the order Tuesdayafter the petition was filed by thegirls and their husbands to seekprotection from adverse action.

On March 20, the girls’family lodged a FirstInformation Report againsttheir alleged forced conversionto Islam.

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chhattisgarh 03RAIPUR | WEDNESDAY | MARCH 27, 2019

STAFF REPORTER nRAIPUR

To create public awarenesson voting, a ‘SVEEP

Phag,’ a Holi Milan forwoman electors was organ-ised under ‘Mor Raipur-VoteRaipur’ at Marine Drive,Telibandha on Tuesday.

Women and ChildWelfare department con-ducted the programme.

A ‘Holi’ depicting pollingmalpractices was burnt onthe occasion.

Making an appeal tomake history by recordinghighest voting percentage inRaipur division, Raipur divi-sion commissioner G RChurendra urged the angan-badi workers and membersof women self help groups tocast their vote on April 23and also motivate others tovote.

Raipur district electoralofficer Dr Basavaraju Spointed out that urban resi-dents generally keep awayfrom polling, for which theawareness drive is vital.

The role of everyone isvital and women can play a

key role in it, he added.SVEEP nodal officer

Gaurav Singh said fordemocracy each vote isimportant as it can help builda nation. A bicycle andscooty rally was also organ-ised on the occasion.

‘Phag’ and patrioticsongs were played andwomen played ‘Holi’ withcolours. A signature cam-paign and a selfie point madefor the visitors were the otherhighlights of the awarenessdrive.

‘SVEEP Holi’ organised to createawareness among electors

STAFF REPORTER n RAIPUR

Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel on Tuesday said

his government would pre-pare a comprehensive workplan to bring back peoplewho were diplaced by SalwaJudum movement frominsurgency-hit Bastar regionof the state.

Salwa Judum was startedin 2005 as a state sponsoredvigilante movement as part ofanti-insurgency operations inthe state.

The militia, consisting oflocal tribal youth, was out-lawed and banned by the

Supreme Court, and was dis-armed.

After the banning, a largenumber of local youth ranaway to neighbouring stateslike Andhra Pradesh andTelangana. A large number ofthem are at present residingin Khammam district ofTelangana.

Baghel in a press confer-ence held at party’s stateheadquarters Rajiv Bhawanhere said that the state gov-ernment would conduct astudy over the issue beforeexecuting its work plan fortheir home coming.

Traditionally, SalwaJudum means "Peace March"or "Purification Hunt" in‘Gondi’ dialect.

The chief minister’sannouncement is seen as amajor development as itcomes close on the heels of

his earlier announcementthat his government would

seek political solution to theMaoist problem.

STAFF REPORTER nSUKMA

CRPF troopers onTuesday shot dead four

Maoists in Sukma district ofChhattisgarh.

The Central ReservePolice Force (CRPF) said thefour were killed in a gunfightwith Commando Battalionfor Resolute Action(CoBRA) unit that was on asearch mission in the forest-ed areas aroundBhimapuram village underChintalnar police station ofSukma district around 400km south of Raipur, early inthe morning.

"Four bodies of Maoists

in uniform, one Insas rifleand two 303 rifle were recov-ered," said a CRPF official.

The CRPF's specialisedunit, proficient in guerrillatactics and jungle warfare,continued with its anti-Maoist operations, the offi-cial added.

Meanwhile, in a separateincident in Kondagaon dis-trict, a Naxal camp was bust-ed by security forces andlocally-made grenades andother explosives were seized,police said.

The operation on thecamp, located in the denseforest near Tuswal villageunder Mardapal police sta-tion limits, was carried out

Monday by a joint team ofDistrict Reserve Guard(DRG), Special Task Force(STF) and district force per-sonnel, an official said.

"The Naxals fled whenthe security forces enteredthe camp. We have recovered30 locally-made grenades,one pipe bomb, four bundlesof wire, a packet of splintersused in air guns, Maoist lit-erature and pamphlets,English, Hindi and Telugudictionaries, stationery,mobile chargers amongother things," he said.

It appears that theMaoists had assembled thereto carry out some operation,he added.

CRPF troopers gun downfour Naxals in Sukma

Chhattisgarh government to bring backdisplaced ‘Salwa Judum’ members


Chhattisgarh BJP has released alist of its star campaigners

who would be canvassing for theparty in the state.

Among the 40names, the partyannounced onTuesday, includePrime MinisterNarendra Modi,BJP national pres-ident Amit Shah,Union ministersRajnath Singh,Nitin Gadkari, Arun Jaitely,Sushma Swaraj, UP ChiefMinister Yogi Aditya Nath, BJPnational vice president and for-mer Madhya Pradesh CM ShivrajSingh Chouhan, Jharkhand CMRaghuvar Das among others.

BJP sources said Modi willaddress three public meetings in

the state so also Amit Shah.The programmes of other star

campaigners will be announced asper their schedule of arrival.

The state-based start cam-paigners of the party are itsnational vice president RamanSingh, Leader of the OppositionDharamlal Kaushik, BJP statepresident Vikram Usendi. Theyhave already started poll cam-paign in the state, said partysources.

Modi, Shah among BJP’s 40star campaigners for C’garh

STAFF REPORTER n KORBA

Congress candidate fromKorba Lok Sabha constituen-

cy Jyotsna Mahant has expressedconfidence that she would cer-tainly win the seat with the sup-port of her husband, Speaker ofChhattisgarh state assemblyCharandas Mahant.

Talking to media persons, shehowever conceded that therewould be a tough fight as one ofthe political heavyweight and for-mer chief minister Ajit Jogi of theJCC-J is also in the fray. The othercontestant in the triangular fightis BJP’s Jyotinand Dubey.

Stating that Jogi was like herelder brother, Jyotsna Mahantsaid her husband’s support wouldensure her victory.

Jyotsna also admitted that shewas given the Congress ticketfrom the Korba constituency after

her husband refused to contestthe polls.

He didn’t want to betray thepeople of Sakti from where he wassent to the state assembly, sheadded.

She further expressed hergratitude towards Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi, formerCongress president SoniaGandhi, Chief Minister BhupeshBaghel and Panchayat and HealthMinister T.S. Singhdeo forextending their support in allo-cating the party ticket to her.

I will win from Korba with myhusband’s support: Jyotsna

Rahul Gandhi’s basic income schemeto be a game changer: Baghel

Terming the Minimum Income Guarantee scheme,announced by the Congress, a mile stone in ensuring an allround development of poor, Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghelsaid it would be a game changer in the upcoming elections.“The benefit of the announcement will also be seen in all the11 Lok Sabha seats in the state,” he said. He further claimedthat the Congress is going to form government at the centreon May 23. Congress president Rahul Gandhi announcedthat if his party was voted to power, the new governmentwould make a direct cash transfer of Rs 72,000 per annum onthe accounts of poorest of the poor.


Chhattisgarh BJP presidentVikram Usendi claimed that

the Congress lacked a clear cutpolicy on participation of womenin the party politics as it was yetto come out of its dynastic mind-set.

The BJP leader was reactingto the Congress’s decision to fieldtwo woman candidates inChhattisgarh for the upcomingLok Sabha elections.

Usendi said his party unlikethe Congress keeps total trans-parency on the political partici-pation of women within theparty.

He said this clarity in hisparty’s policy was reflected in thenaming of women candidates inthe party’s first list. He said the

women candidates having politi-cal background and mass appealhave been picked as candidatesfor the Lok Sabha polls.

“The BJP is committed toempower women by giving equalopportunities to them in allaspects. Announcing their namesin the first list, the party gavethem due respect,” he went on toclaim.

He further stated that the

Congress fielded women candi-dates only under pressure fromthe BJP.

The Congress gave tickets toformer MLA PratimaChandrakar from Durg LokSabha seat and Jyotsna Mahant,wife of Assembly SpeakerCharandas Mahant, from Korba.

Usendi said Congress’s selec-tion of woman candidatessmacked of its “dynastic mindset.”

“Instead of selecting candi-dates from among dedicated andmass-base leaders, the party gavepriority to family and dynasty inallocating the tickets,” the BJPstate president alleged.

“Due to this character of theparty, the Congress’s strength inthe Lok Sabha will come down to4 from 44,” he said.

Congress yet to come out ofits dynastic mindset: Usendi

STAFF REPORTER n RAJNANDGAON

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister onTuesday cautioned party workers

not to be “over confident and overenthusiastic” about the party’s pollprospect as their rivals have masteredthe art of “hatching conspiracies.”

The chief minister addressing anelection rally here also made scathing

attacks on the BJP-led Union govern-ment and also the saffron party’s previ-ous governments in the state.

Directly attacking former chief min-ister Raman Singh, Baghel said in his(Raman) definition, the Chhattisgarhmeant only his daughter, son-in-law andin laws.

He further reiterated that if Ajit

Jogi’s party had not supported the BJP inthe 2018 assembly elections, it mighthave been restricted to only three sets.

On Raman Singh and BJP’s chargesthat his government was on a loan-bor-rowing spree, Baghel said they were tak-ing loans in public interest.

“We have taken loan to waive offfarm loan, curtail power tariff andprocuring paddy at Rs 2500 MSP andnot for distributing mobiles andindulging in corruption like them”, theCM said.

He also flayed the Centre for notcooperating in the probe over Jheeramincident. “Raman as well as UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singh andPrime Minister Narendra Modi shouldclarify why they are not handing overthe case to the state government,”Baghel said. Without naming anyleader, he further alleged that a personwho does not even spares ‘Bapu’(Mahatma Gandhi) from slanderingand never miss a chance to defame for-mer prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehruand Indira Gandhi could also beinvolved in political assassination.

Baghel urges Cong workersnot to be overconfident

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Mandi Lok Sabha seat inHimacha Pradesh is

turning out to be a battle ofprestige for three Rams of theState—Chief Minister Jai RamThakur, former UnionMinister who has now againjoined Congress—Sukhramand the sitting BJP MP RamSwaroop Sharma.

Mandi will go to pollsalong with three other parlia-mentary seats of the hill stateon May 19.

The BJP has alreadyrenominated its sitting MP

Ramswaroop Sharma, whosecandidature was openly sup-ported by the chief ministerdespite Sukh Ram's grandsonAashray Sharma too vying forthe BJP ticket from Mandi.

With Sukh Ram joiningCongress with his grand sonon Monday, the Congress willmost probably give its ticket toAashray Sharma.

Mandi being the chiefminister's home district, ensur-ing Ramswaroop Sharma's vic-tory there will be a matter ofpersonal prestige for Thakur.

On the other hand, SukhRam too will leave no stone

unturned to get his grandsonwin this seat. Ninty-one-year-old Sukh Ram, the formerUnion telecom minister in P VNarasimha Rao-led Congressgovernment, has representedMandi thrice in Lok Sabha - in1984, 1991 and 1996.

Sukh Ram's grandsonAashray has already been elec-tioneering in Mandi for weeks,even before joining theCongress.

Interestingly, Sukh Ram'sson and Aashray's father AnilSharma is currently the powerminister in Jai Ram Thakur-ledBJP government in Himachal.

Sukh Ram joining theCongress along with his grand-son has left his son AnilSharma's political career as aminister in Himachal's BJPgovernment in quandary. Hemay soon face the dilemmawhether to leave the Cabinetand campaign for his sonAshray Sharma, or stay putwith the BJP and cheer for theparty's Mandi candidateRamswaroop Sharma.

Anil Sharma has beenelected as MLA for four timesso far and was also a ministerduring Virbhadra Singh-ledCongress government in the

state from 1993 to 1996 andfrom 2013 to 2017.

Sitting BJP MPRamswaroop Sharma had wonthe seat by a margin of nearly40,000 votes in 2014. He hadsecured 3,62,824 votes in 2014,defeating Congress candidateand Virbhadra Singh's wifePratibha Singh, who had got3,22,968 votes.

Meanwhile, Chief MinisterJai Ram Thakur claimed thatthe entry of Sukh Ram inCongress would not make dif-ference in the victory. "BJPwould win with a bigger mar-gin," he said.

Whe contacted, state BJPchief Satpal Satti said Congressticket to grandson of SukhRam would have no impact onBJP.

Sukh Ram had changedloyalties with Congress four times during the past 20years.

In reply to a volley ofquestions at a news confer-ence, Jai Ram Thakur made noadverse comments againstSukh Ram or his members offamily and added that thecharacter, credibility and patri-otism of BJP workers wasbeyond question.

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Indian National Lok Dal sec-retary general Abhay

Chautala has lost the Leader ofOpposition (LoP) post in theHaryana Assembly.

The State Assembly SpeakerKanwar Pal Gujjar on Tuesdayremoved Abhay Singh Chautalafrom the position of LoP

The move comes three daysafter Chautala had announcedthat he had sent his resignationto the Speaker and urged him toaccept it after the disqualifica-tion of five party MLAs, who areinvolved in anti-party activities.

Chautala, an MLA fromEllenabad in his resignationletter to the Speaker had soughtthe disqualification of fiveMLAs including RanbirGangwa who had joined the BJPand INLD MLAs- NainaChautala (Dabwali), RajdeepPhogat (Dadri), Prithi SinghNamberdar (Narwana) andAnoop Dhanak (Uklana) whohad joined Dushyant Chautala’sJanata Jananayak Party (JJP).

Another INLD MLA,Kehar Singh Rawat had joinedthe BJP a day before.

Speaker Kanwar Pal Gujjar,while talking to the mediaper-sons on Tuesday said that AbhayChautala has been removedfrom the post of LoP in HaryanaAssembly as the INLD is nolonger the second largest partyin the State Assembly.

All facilities given to AbhayChautala as LoP stands with-drawn from today onwards, hesaid.

A Leader of Opposition inthe Assembly enjoys all facilitiesthat are given to a CabinetMinister.

Gujjar also confirmed thathe has accepted the resigna-tions of INLD MLAs RanbirSingh Gangwa and KeharSingh Rawat who had recent-ly joined the BJP.

Ranbir Gangwa had sub-mitted his resignation on March20 while Kehar Singh had sub-mitted it on March 24, he said.

Although it remains to beseen if the four INLD MLAs willbe disqualified, Abhay Chautalawas removed from the positiondue to INLD’s numbers reduc-ing from 19 to 15 in the StateAssembly.

In the 90-member State

Assembly, while the ruling BJPhas 48 MLAs after the recentJind bypoll win, Congress has17members and INLD now has15 members including thosefour MLAs who have joined JJP.One each member belongs tothe SAD and BSP, five are inde-pendents while one seat fellvacant after demise of INLDMLA Jaswinder Singh Sandhu.Two INLD MLAs have resignedfrom the State Assembly afterjoining the BJP.

The new LoP will now befrom Congress party and CLPleader Kiran Choudhry is like-ly to be appointed on this post.

The Speaker said, “We willwrite to Congress state chief andwhosoever they nominate forthe post, we will appointhim/her as LoP.”

“Regarding the four INLDMLAs who have joined the JJP,Gujjar said that the decisionwould be taken after followingthe laid down procedure. As perthe procedure, notices will beissued to them and personalhearing will be conducted todecide on their membership.Till now, these four MLAs havenot submitted anything in writ-ten about leaving the INLD, hesaid.

The INLD won 19 seats in2014 assembly elections, but theparty’s strength is just 11 now.On the other hand, theCongress won 15 seats in 2014,but its strength in the Assemblyhad increased to 17 afterKuldeep Bishnoi merged hisHJC with the party and he aswell as his wife Renuka Bishnoi,MLA from Hansi, joined theparty.

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Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) onTuesday slammed the Capt

Amarinder Singh Governmentfor sleeping over the rising inci-dents of drug addiction, espe-cially among the youth in thestate, leading to deaths due toover doze.

“Post the incident of 13-year-old girl from Rama Mandiallegedly into drugs, more caseshave come to light from theborder districts of Gurdaspur,Ferozepur and Tarn Taran,where three youths have diedof drug over doze,” said party’sPunjab core committee chair-man and MLA PrincipalBudhram and state youth wingpresident Manjinder SinghSidhu, in a joint statement.

They said that on the onehand, farmers were subjected tocommit suicides, youths wereshoved into drugs on the otherdue to the anti-people policiesof the government in the sad-dle.

AAP leader said that likehis predecessors - the Badals,Capt Amarinder was followingin their footsteps when it cameto stamping out the menace ofdrugs from the state eating outthe vitals of the state.

Budhram said that CaptAmarinder and the entireCongress leadership in thestate should appear before theTakht Damdama Sahib atTalwandi Sabo and apologise tothe people of Punjab and thepanth for reneging on thepromise of stamping out the

menace of drugs and send thedrug lords behind the barswithin four weeks after assum-ing power.

He said that instead ofcontaining the menace ram-pant in the state, it had aggra-vated and touched a new high,if the upswing in the cases ofdeaths due to drug over dozewere any indications, he said.

Sidhu appealed to the peo-ple of the state, especially theyounger and educated lot, tocorner those who backtrackedon the promises on taming thedrug lords, addressing unem-ployment and other issues,when they come to them forvotes.

AAP asks govt to orderimmediate resumption of int’lf lights from Amritsar toBirmingham

Chandigarh: Expressingdeep shock and anguish overthe decision on part of the AirIndia for diverting the Delhi-Amritsar International airflights from Delhi InternationalAir Port, AAP on Tuesday

demanded immediate restora-tion of the flights to save thepassengers from unmeritedharassment meted out to themdue to laxity of the government.

The government shouldmull over introducing interna-tional flights from Amritsarand Chandigarh to the coun-tries like America, Canada,Australia, Dubai, Singapore,Malaysia, South Arabia, andother European countries of theworld,” said AAP MLA JairKishan Rori.

He said that the beneficia-ries had to suffer under thepulls and pressure of a strongAirport mafia due to which theAmritsar-Birmingham flightsfrom Amritsar InternationalAirport from Amritsar had tostay inoperative for almosteight years in spite of the factthat the flights were runningsuccessfully and without anyhindrance.

Rori, also the party’s NRIwing chief, accused theNarendra Modi-ledGovernment at the Centre ofcolluding with the high-profileAirport and other mafia oper-ators.

“While the AirportAuthority of India has admit-ted that the air flights betweenAmritsar and Birminghamhad proved to be a boon forthe passengers, the flights arediscontinued on March 27 inthe aftermath of the airstrikeat Balakot. Even as the situa-tion has normalized, the flighthas not resumed by far,” healleged.

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The Congress kicked off itssix-day long ‘Parivartan

Yatra’ in Haryana on Tuesday,to reach out to the voters andsend across a message that “allis well” in the faction-riddenstate party unit.

Ghulam Nabi Azad, whois the Congress general secre-tary in charge of Haryanaflagged off the yatra whichwill see all senior party lead-ers travelling in a bus togeth-er for electioneering in view ofLok Sabha polls.

On the first day of theyatra, former Chief MinisterBhupinder Singh Hooda andstate Congress chief AshokTanwar set aside their differ-ences and were seen sittingtogether in the bus during‘Parivartan Yatra’ which beganfrom Gurugram.

Congress legislature partyleader Kiran Choudhr y,Rohtak MP Deepender SinghHooda, Rajya Sabha MP SeljaKumari, former minister AjayYadav, former assemblySpeaker Kuldeep Sharma wereamong the leaders who wereon the bus.

Kuldeep Bishnoi againgave a miss to the party’sevent amid speculations thathe is likely to join the BJP.

Adampur MLA Bishnoi hadlast week stayed away from themeeting of coordination com-mittee of the Congress andparty’s workers meeting inNew Delhi.

While the party leadershave kept mum on his absencefrom the events, Bishnoi hadearlier denied the reports ofjoining the BJP.

On the other hand,Kuldeep’s elder brother andformer Haryana deputy ChiefMinister Chander Mohan hadlast week attended party’s

workers meeting in New Delhiand has been actively partic-ipating in various party eventssince past few months.

Bishnoi, the son of formerChief Minister Bhajan Lalhad merged his party HJC inthe Congress in 2016. He hadin the past served as Hisar MPand is seen as a frontrunnerfor a Congress’ ticket from theparliamentary seat.

His brother ChanderMohan has reportedly alsostaked his claim on party’sticket from Hisar seat.

All India CongressCommittee’s (AICC) commu-nication wing in-chargeRandeep Surjewala was alsonot present during the firstday of the yatra due to otherparty’s engagements.

The ‘Parivartan Yatra’halted at various points alongthe route that includedBadshahpur (Gurugram),Dharuhera (Rewari), KasolaChowk (Bawal) and MandiAteli (Mahendragarh) amongother places addressing pub-lic gatherings and interacting

with the media.The yatra reached

Narnual for a night halt on thefirst day. It will conclude atPalwal in Faridabad onSunday.

Notably, the voting to 10Lok Sabha seats of Haryana isscheduled to be held on May12.

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Senior Congress leaderGhulam Nabi Azad appealedto the people to strengthen theCongress' hands and bring thegrand old party to power atthe Centre and in Haryana.

“People are fed up withthe Modi and Khattar gov-ernments. They want 'pari-vartan' (change)," the leader ofOpposition in the Rajya Sabhasaid while addressing the pub-lic.

Azad dubbed ChiefMinister Manohar Lal Khattar,who is a first-time MLA, as an"inexperienced" leader.

He also alleged that theBJP had destroyed the lives ofthe farmers, duped the youthin name of jobs, adding thatthe Beti Bachao, Beti Padhaoscheme had become an emptyslogan.

Hitting out at the Khattarregime, two-time former

Chief Minister BhupinderSingh Hooda said the BJP haddone nothing in the past four-and-a-half years.

He said, “All they did wasevent management about non-existing achievements. Peopleare waiting for polls to throwout both the Modi govern-ment, which has failed on allfronts, and the non-perform-ing Khattar dispensation.”

Pointing out to the loan-waivers in Madhya Pradesh,Rajasthan and Chhattisgarhafter the Congress came topower last year, Hooda saidthe party would implementthe Swaminathan report inletter and spirit.

When the bus was passingthrough Gurugram, partystate chief Ashok Tanwarraised the issue of the attackon a Muslim family inBhondsi.

He claimed, “The attackwas carried out by goonsowing allegiance to the BJP. Itis shocking that the victimfamily kept dialing the police control room numberfor 32 times, but the policefailed to respond to their dis-tress calls.”

Hooda also alleged thatthe Gurugram incidentshowed the real and scary faceof the BJP's poor governance.

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Rebel BJP MP Raj Kumar Saini,who had last year floated his own

political outfit—Loktantra SurakshaParty—is gearing up to take onmainstream parties—BJP andCongress—from Kurukshetra par-liamentary seat in the ensuing LokSabha polls.

Saini’s LSP had last monthstitched ties with Mayawati’s BahujanSamaj Party (BSP) to contest on 10Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. Whileeight seats were allotted to BSP, twoseats went to LSP.

In 2014 parliamentary polls, RajKumar Saini had won from

Kurukshetra Lok Sabha seat on aBJP’s ticket.

After an alliance with the BSP,Saini’s LSP was allotted parliamentaryseats of Sonepat and Bhiwani-Mahendragarh while other eightseats including Kurukshetra, tworeserved constituencies of Sirsa andAmbala among others had gone toBSP’s kitty.

However, after BSP’s insistenceand party workers demand, Saini isnow keen to contest fromKurukshetra seat again.

Confirming the same, LSP chiefRaj Kumar Saini, while talking to ThePioneer said, “I will contest LokSabha polls and have already begun

my campaign in Kurukshetra.”Saini said, “The party workers

have been demanding that I shouldcontest from Kurukshetra seat. Wehad given the Kurukshetra seat toBSP during our seat-sharing pact, butafter the demand of party workersand their feedback, we have decidedto reconsider it. An announcementin this regard will be made soon.”

LSP had joined hands with BSP,which in turn had broken its 10-month old alliance with the IndianNational Lok Dal in Haryana.

If the BSP-LSP combine goesahead with Saini’s nomination fromKurushetra seat, he is likely to createtrouble for the BJP and Congress in

the polls.Industrialist-turned-politician

Naveen Jindal, who had won the LokSabha elections in 2004 and 2009with a comfortable margin inKurukshetra, is the frontrunner fora Congress’ ticket on this seat again.On the other hand, the BJP has short-listed names of the Minister of Statefor Mines and Geology, Nayab Sainiand MLA Pawan Saini forKurukshetra seat.

Notably, riding high on a Modiwave, Raj Kumar Saini had won theKurukshetra parliamentary seat,trouncing INLD’s Balbir Singh Sainiby around 1.29 lakh votes in 2014polls. The BJP wanting to tap into the

OBC community of Saini had field-ed him in Kurukshetra last time.There is a mixed population of var-ious communities in the parliamen-tary constituency, with the Jats hav-ing more than 2 lakh voters while noJat candidate has always won theKurukshetra seat.

Known for his strong anti-Jatstatements, Saini had distanced him-self from the ruling BJP after the vio-lent Jat quota agitation 2016 whichhad resulted in bitterly dividedHaryana on caste lines. Saini has timeand again spoken against Jat reser-vation under the OBC category, andhas been projecting himself as aprominent OBC leader in Haryana.

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The saffron party wants Sunny Deol’s ‘DhaiKilo Ka Haath’ to beat the “hand” in

Punjab. Already in talks with the Bollywoodactress Poonam Dhillon and Indian cricketerHarbhajan Singh for Amritsar Lok Sabha seat,the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) is consideringanother Bollywood superstar for Gurdaspurto give a tough fight to its rivals.

The party has all along been playing aminor role in the Punjab politics with justabout one protagonist in the Lok Sabha, andthree in Vidhan Sabha, it is now trying to graba bigger and better role by signing in SunnyDeol.

Gurdaspur has always been the Congress’citadel, winning 11 elections out of 12 till 1996,including a by-poll. It was only in 1998, whenthe BJP decided to field Bollywood’s yester-year’s superstar Vinod Khanna, who broke theCongress’ winning spree.

Khanna scored a hat-trick by winningthree consecutive elections in 1998, 1999, and2004. His victory campaign was halted by theCongress’ Partap Singh Bajwa in 2009 elec-tions, which Khanna revenged in 2014 polls.

But following Khanna’s death due to pro-longed illness, the Congress managed to winthe seat during 2017 by-election.

Congress’ Sunil Jakhar had defeatedMumbai-based businessman-cum-politicianSwaran Salaria, whom the BJP fielded asKhanna’s replacement while ignoring hiswidow, Kavita Khanna’s claim for the partyticket.

After failed attempts to persuade Khanna’sactor son, Akshey Khanna, to contest fromGurdaspur who had campaigned for hisfather during 2009 and 2004 elections, the BJPis considering to take on board anothersuperstar.

However, Kavita Khanna is still a fron-trunner for the ticket, as the party leaders

believed that she may succeed in getting sym-pathy votes. Among other claimants for theparty’s tocket from Gurdaspur include BJP’sformer state president Ashwani Sharma, for-mer Minister Master Mohan Lal, and MLADinesh Babbu are also in the race.

“BJP wanted to field a strong candidateagainst sitting MP Jakhar. Many leaders havestaked their claims for the ticket, but there isa view that the party’s candidate fromGurdaspur should match up to VinodKhanna’s stature,” a senior BJP leader told ThePioneer, while confirming the developmentsaying that nothing is final as of now.

“Sunny Deol’s name has just been dis-cussed. There’s nothing final. We have got toknow that party leaders in Maharashtra havebeen asked to get in touch with him and con-vince him as his father has been MP on BJPticket from Bikaner in Rajasthan,” said theleader.

Notably, Sunny Deol’s father and yester-years’ superstar Dharmendra had been BJPMP from Bikaner, while Dharmendra’s wifeand Sunny’s step-mother, actress Hema Maliniis sitting BJP MP from Mathura.

It is believed that the saffron party isapprehending a wipe out from the state con-sidering its negligible presence in the state asof now.

And by giving a star power to its electioncampaign, the party is making an apparent attempt to make a comeback in thestate.

At the time when the nation was swept byModi wave in 2014 polls, BJP won two seatsin Punjab, out of the total three it contestedin alliance with the SAD. However, the num-ber came down to just one after it lost 2017by-election.

During 2017 elections, the party couldsecure just three seats, out of total 23 it con-tests in alliance with SAD registering a dip of12 percent votes in its share in previous assem-bly elections.

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Holding a roadshow inPanipat, Haryana Chief

Minister Manohar Lal onTuesday cautioned the peopleinto getting trapped in the 48years old Garibi Hatao dreambeing propagated this time bythe third generation of theGandhi family.

“People will not get trappedin the illusionary programmeof the opposition Congresssince this time Watchman inthe form of Prime MinisterNarendar Modi is strongenough to thwart all suchattempts to mislead the mass-e s , ”Manohar Lal said during his 4-km road show in the city whichcommenced from Shiv Chowkin front of Sanoli RoadVegetable Market under the‘Connect to People pro-gramme.

Terming CongressPresident Rahul Gandhi’s planfor eradication of povertyannounced ahead of the LokSabha election as an electiondream, the Chief Minister said that the Gandhifamily has been promisingeradication of poverty sincelong commencing with IndiraGandhi in 1971, when she firstgave the Garibi Hatao slogan.

But three generations ofGandhi family (Indira Gandhi,Rajiv Gandhi and now RahulGandhi, the Congress had notbeen able to eradicate poverty from the country, ManoharLal said.

“The Garibi Hatao sloganis just to befool the people tocome to power,” the ChiefMinister added.

Manohar Lal said that in2019 the interests of the poorare well protected by PrimeMinister Narendar Modi who has become a strongwatchman for the countrymen.

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British MPs have inflicted afresh humiliating defeat on

Prime Minister Theresa May,after voting to temporarily seizecontrol of the Brexit process,allowing back-benchers to holda series of votes on alternativesto her deal.

An amendment tabled byformer Conservative MinisterOliver Letwin was passed by329 votes to 302 on Monday asMPs expressed exasperationat the government’s failure toset out a fresh approach for theUK to exit the European Union(EU), reports the Guardian.

After the amendment, thegovernment in a statementwarned that it “upends thebalance between our democ-ratic institutions and sets a dan-gerous, unpredictable prece-dent for the future”.

Three ministers -- ForeignAffairs Minister Alistair Burt,Health Minister Steve Brineand Business Minister RichardHarrington -- resigned to backthe Letwin amendment. ThirtyConservative MPs rebelled tovote for the amendment.

Harrington accused the

government of “playing roulettewith the lives and livelihoods ofthe vast majority of people inthis country” in his resignationletter.

In a series of so-calledindicative votes, MPs will beable to vote on a number ofoptions -- likely to include a“softer Brexit”, a Customs unionwith the EU and another ref-erendum -- designed to test thewill of Parliament to see what,if anything, commands amajority, the BBC said.

But the precise format ofvotes and how they will workwas not set out in the amend-ment.

Parliament is also expect-ed to pass a law this week post-poning the Brexit date fromMarch 29.

Speaking after Monday’svotes, opposition Labour Partyleader Jeremy Corbyn con-gratulated Parliament for “tak-ing control” of the Brexitprocess, CNN reported. “Thegovernment’s approach hasbeen an abject failure and thisHouse must now find a solu-tion,” Corbyn said.

May, still hoping of gettingher twice-rejected Brexit dealpassed, told the House ofCommons earlier in the daythere was not enough supportfor her deal to bring it back fora third meaningful vote.

The Prime Minister alsosaid she could not “commit thegovernment to delivering theoutcome of any votes held bythis House. But I do commit toengaging constructively withthis process”.

Britain is scheduled tocrash out of the EU on April 12if May’s withdrawal deal is notpassed and the UK governmentfails to provide new proposalsfor a way out of the impasse.

In response to the devel-opment, the EuropeanCommission said it has pre-pared for an “increasingly like-ly” no-deal scenario.

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Chinese President Xi Jinpingsaid on Tuesday that China

and Europe were “advancingtogether” but that the two trad-ing blocs needed to overcome“suspicions”.

“Of course there are differ-ences and competition, but it’spositive competition,” Xi told apress conference in Paris withthe leaders of France, Germanyand the European Commission.

“We are advancing togeth-er. We shouldn’t let suspicionslead us to be constantly lookingbackwards.”

Xi was speaking on thethird day of a France visit dom-inated by concerns over China’smassive investments on thecontinent, which are being builtup through a series of bilateraldeals.

French PresidentEmmanuel Macron urged hisChinese counterpart to “respectthe unity of the EuropeanUnion” and called for an “exem-plary relationship” betweenEurope and China during thejoint press conference.

“No one is naive but we

respect China,” Macron said,while adding that EU leaders“naturally expect our majorpartners to respect the unity ofthe European Union and thevalues that it has and carries inthe world.”

Macron, GermanChancellor Angela Merkel andEU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker all labelledChina a “rival”, and Merkel andJuncker urged the Asian giant togive the EU the same marketaccess as it afforded Chinesecompanies.

Referring to China’s vast“New Silk Road” infrastruc-ture project connecting thecountry with Europe, which hassparked unease in the EU,Merkel said: “We Europeanswant to play a role.”

But, she added, “there has tobe a bit of reciprocity on eitherside and we have a bit of diffi-culty in finding it.” Juncker saidthat labelling China a rival wasmeant as a “compliment” to thecountry.

Speaking ahead of a EU-China summit on April 12, healso called for a more balancedrelationship.

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APakistani court on Tuesdayordered the Government

to remove Pakistan MuslimLeague-Nawaz chief ShehbazSharif ’s name from the no-flylist.

Shehbaz, who is also the Leader of the Opposition inthe National Assembly, hadfiled a petition in the LahoreHigh Court last month to havehis name removed from theExit Control List, Geo TVreported.

The 67-year-old leader hasbeen indicted along with nineothers in the Ashiana IqbalHousing scam case.

His name was placed onthe travel blacklist on February22 for allegedly possessingassets beyond his declaredsources of income.

His counsel earlier toldthe court that the PML-Nleader had been appearingbefore the NationalAccountability Bureau (NAB)in every inquiry and cooperat-ing with the anti-corruptionwatchdog in every way.

Sharif was arrested by the

NAB in the probe on October5, 2018. He was released on bailon February 14.

He had approached theLahore High Court seekingdeclaration of theGovernment’s decision to placehis name on the no-fly list asnull and void.

In his petition, he had con-tended that as the leader of theOpposition as well as of one ofthe country’s largest politicalparties, his name should not beon the ECL.

Sharif served as the chiefminister of the politically cru-cial Punjab province from 2013to 2018. He became PML-Npresident after his elder broth-er Nawaz Sharif was barredfrom holding the top partyposition and public posts.

Federal InformationMinister Fawad ChaurdhyTuesday said that theGovernment would be chal-lenging the Lahore HighCourt’s decision in the SupremeCourt.

“There is a record of Shariffamily members leaving thecountry and not coming back,”said Chaudhry.

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Prime Minister Imran Khanhas said Indo-Pak relations

would remain tense till the gen-eral elections in India are over,adding he feared “another mis-adventure” by Pakistan’s easternneighbour.

Tensions between Indiaand Pakistan escalated after theFebruary 14 attack by Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed inPulwama.

Amid mounting outrage,the Indian Air Force carriedout a counter-terror opera-

tion, hitting what it said was aJeM training camp in Balakot,deep inside Pakistan onFebruary 26.

The next day, Pakistan AirForce retaliated and downed aMiG-21 in an aerial combatand captured an Indian pilot,who was handed over to Indialater.

Khan said shadows of warwere still hovering overPakistan and India as PrimeMinister Narendra Modi’sadministration could go for“another misadventure” beforethe general elections.

“The danger is not over.The situation will remain tensetill forthcoming general elec-tions in India. We are alreadyprepared to avert any aggres-sion from India,” Dawn quot-ed Khan as saying.

Khan also claimed that hecancelled his scheduled meet-ing with the Taliban inIslamabad due to “concerns”expressed by the Afghan gov-ernment. The Taliban lastmonth said that its representa-tives would visit Islamabad tomeet Prime Minister Khan onFebruary 18.

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Iranian President HassanRouhani on Tuesday accused

his US counterpart DonaldTrump of “colonialism” forrecognising Israeli sovereigntyover the disputed Golan Heights,a border area seized by Israelfrom Syria in 1967. “In a pointof time when colonialism ruled,some colonialist powers didsuch things and bestowed partsof one country to another, butthis is unprecedented in the pre-sent century,” Rouhani said,according to the official gov-ernment website.

“Nobody could have

believed that a man would comein America and unilaterally andagainst all international laws andregulations give away a landbelonging to one country to anaggressor,” Rouhani said in ameeting with advisors and min-isters. Trump on Monday signeda proclamation recognisingIsraeli sovereignty over theGolan Heights, which Syriadenounced as a blatant attack onits sovereignty. US recognitionfor Israeli control over the ter-ritory breaks with decades ofinternational consensus and hasbeen criticised by most Islamicnations, and other countriessuch as Russia.

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ASingapore Airlines flightfrom Mumbai to Singapore

with 263 passengers on boardTuesday received a bombthreat, prompting SingaporeAir Force to send two F-16s toescort the aircraft.

The flight landed safely atSingapore’s ChangiInternational Airport onTuesday around 8 am (localtime), the airline added.

“Singapore Airlines con-firms there was a bomb threatconcerning SQ423 operatingfrom Mumbai to Singapore.

The aircraft arrived in Singapore on March 26,2019, at about 0800hrs (localtime).

“There were 263 passen-gers on board. We are assistingthe authorities with their inves-tigations and regret that we areunable to provide furtherdetails,” a statement issued bythe airline said.

The Republic of SingaporeAir Force said two F16C/Dsescorted the SIA aeroplane.

The RSAF said in aFacebook post that two F-16C/Ds were scrambled tointercept the SIA flight.

“Our fighters escorted theairliner till it landed safely atChangi Airport,” it said.

All passengers, except for awoman and a child, disem-barked safely and had to under-go screening.

The woman and the childwere held back for questioningby the police, who are investi-gating the incident.

Preliminary checks showedthat the airline received a callafter the plane left Mumbai’sairport on Monday at about11.35pm local time. The callerclaimed that there was a bombon the plane.

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China has destroyed 30,000world maps printed in the

country for export for notmentioning Arunachal Pradeshand Taiwan as part of Chineseterritory, the officla mediareported on Tuesday.

China claims the north-eastern Indian state of

Arunachal Pradesh as part ofSouth Tibet. China routinelyobjects to Indian leaders visit-ing Arunachal Pradesh to high-light its stand.

India says the State ofArunachal Pradesh is its inte-gral and inalienable part andIndian leaders visit ArunachalPradesh from time to time, asthey visit other parts of thecountry.

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The Islamic State group onTuesday claimed an attack

on US-backed forces in thenorthern Syrian city of Manbij,days after their “caliphate” wasdeclared defeated.

Manbij is a former ISstronghold that is now ruled bya military council affiliatedwith the Syrian DemocraticForces (SDF), the US-backedKurdish-led alliance thatdeclared victory over IS in itslast redoubt in eastern Syria onSaturday.

At around midnight (2200GMT) on Monday, gunmenopened fire at fighters manninga checkpoint at the entrance tothe city, killing seven, the coun-cil said. IS claimed responsi-bility for the attack in a state-ment published on its socialmedia channels on Tuesday.

“The caliphate’s soldiersattacked a checkpoint... West ofManbij city last night,” it said.

A spokesman for theManbij Military Council,Sherfan Darwish, said it couldbe a revenge attack.

“After the victory over IS,we have entered the phase ofsleeper cells,” Darwish toldAFP.

“These sleeper cells arebeing activated and carryingout attacks but we will foil theiroperations.” The SyrianObservatory for HumanRights, a Britain-based moni-tor of the war, said it is “the firstattack of its kind” since the SDFdeclared the defeat of the“caliphate” last week.

Observatory head RamiAbdel Rahman said it was alsothe bloodiest attack in Manbijsince January 16, when 19people -- including four USservice personnel -- were killedin a suicide bombing claimedby IS.

IS has vowed to carry out revenge attacks against the SDF over the six-monthoffensive against it that culminated in the jihadists’defeat in the village of Baghouz,close to the Iraqi border, onSaturday.

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If the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP) returns to power two monthsfrom now, piggybacking the armedforces, one central fact will beeminently clear: The optics of a

powerful military with high moralebelies the ground reality. TheGovernment has misled the country ondefence modernisation and preparednessthrough high-decibel claims and self-praise for its devotion to the soldier.Never before has any Government milkedthe success of military operations forpolitical and electoral gains as the pre-sent one and successfully politicised thearmed forces. The creation by it ofnationalist sentiment and allied jingoismthrough coopting sections of the printand electronic media and their armies ofsupporters and cheerleaders has divert-ed the focus of elections from Achche Dinand Sabka Saath, SabkaVikas to nation-al security and taking the mickey out ofPakistan.

Last Sunday, the BJP launched a blitzof victory rallies in Uttar Pradesh, pitch-ing the forthcoming elections as a meansof rooting out terrorism and defeatingPakistan. Citing Balakot air strikes as theGovernment’s “befitting reply forPulwama”, its leaders said that only aGovernment led by the charismatic anddecisive leader, Narendra Modi, couldguarantee the country’s defence andsecurity. Part II of this self-congratula-tory boast is the caustic criticism ofOpposition parties, mainly the RahulGandhi-led Congress, for questioning theGovernment and the Indian armed forceson their claims of targetting, damageassessment and casualties. Balakot hasbecome the magic wand for winning theLok Sabha polls.

In 2016, following the Uri terroriststrike, modest ground surgical strikeswere magnified to being the silver bul-let for ending cross-border terrorism and,therefore, employed liberally to show-case the Government’s determination toteach Pakistan a lesson. They were citedextravagantly to win the Assembly elec-tions in Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka, toname just a few. Banners and postersusing serving Army officers’ picturesalongside Government leaders politicisedthe military. Surgical strikes were liber-ally replayed to deify the BJP leadership,principally Prime Minister Modi. TheArmy’s resolute stand at Doklam was alsoappropriated by the Government as itsown dogged action of thwarting Chinain its attempt to present Bhutan and Indiawith a fait accompli. In all the three mil-itary operations — Operation SurgicalStrikes, Operation Juniper and OperationBalakot — the Army and IAF came outas winners but it was the Governmentwhich super-imposed the “lotus” onthem.

This is the great irony as the ModiGovernment apparently attaches minus-cule importance to the Defence portfo-lio, posting four Ministers in five years.The last of these, Nirmala Sitharaman, isa first-time MP, who has spent herprime-time defending Modi on Rafale inand outside Parliament, whereas tradi-tionally, the Defence Minister is invari-ably a political heavyweight. UnionFinance Minister Arun Jaitley was twicea part-time Defence Minister and is notknown to be terribly sympathetic towardsthe military. The most effective and com-mitted was the late Manohar Parrikarwhose pledge to appoint the Chief ofDefence Staff (CDS) was unfortunatelykilled by the Prime Minister’s Office. Thiscoupled with the musical chairs in theDefence Ministry allowed NationalSecurity Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval tobecome de facto CDS and also interferein key issues of the Ministry like Rafale.Policeman Doval is the first NSA tobecome directly involved in planning andconduct of operations, notably Pathankot,which is in the remit of a military pro-fessional. His appointment as Chairmanof Defence Planning Committee is anoth-er first and needless padding to planning.The Doval empire is enviable.

Under Jaitley, defence funding etchedan interesting trajectory. After his secondbudget, his reasoning for limited capitalfunding for modernisation was that themilitary is unable to spend even what lit-tle is allotted. The following year, Jaitleychanged tack, saying that actually, he didnot have the money to increase the cap-

ital account. The interim budget present-ed this year by acting Finance MinisterPiyush Goyal earmarked the lowestamount in memory for modernisationwith the staple byline, “more funds willbe provided if required.” At a nationalsecurity conclave last month, Jaitley saidthat hike in modernisation funding willdepend on paying off committed liabil-ities and that any increase would be con-tingent on income from widening the taxnet. This year’s allocation may fall shortof even accounting for committed liabil-ities. Still, BJP president Amit Shahraved about the current defence budgetas a milestone having crossed the �3 lakhcrore mark, more than 70 per cent ofwhich is revenue expenditure.

The true reflection of the state ofdefence funding and operational readi-ness was provided by the BJP’s own chair-man of the parliamentary standing com-mittee on defence, Maj Gen BCKhanduri, who rated defence allocationof 1.5 per cent of GDP as “disabling warpreparedness.” His blunt inference led tohis removal and replacement by partyveteran Kalraj Mishra. Just as well thatBalakot did not escalate into a short andintense conventional war as ammunition,tank, artillery and night-fighting equip-ment inventories are critically hollow, notto mention the plummeting decline in AirForce squadrons from the authorised 42to below 30 squadrons, actually around26 squadrons (Air Chief Marshal AYTipnis at last month’s security conclave).No Service Chief should have to say “wewill fight with what we have” as Air Chief

Marshal BS Dhanoa had to.The armed forces have been succes-

sively short-changed by the once in 10years Pay Commissions. The last SeventhPay Commission was no exception evenas roll-on anomalies have piled up.Service Chiefs were denied a meetingwith Modi on Seventh Pay Commissionand on One Rank One Pension earlier.The then Defence Secretary MohanKumar did not endorse the military’srequest to reconsider their case for NonFunctional Upgrade (NFU), which about60 A group services receive. Now theCentral Government has opposed in theSupreme Court an Armed ForcesTribunal order, asking it to include thearmed forces in NFU. This has seriousimplications for status, parity and paygrade and is one issue hurting the moraleof the military. So much for Balakot’ssurge in nationalism and the Government putting the soldier on apedestal. India’s military is overly obedi-ent with high tolerance threshold in civil-military relations. Service chiefs have nottaken an issue-based stand individuallyor collectively.

A professional, secular and apoliticalmilitary is being progressively politicisedand utilised for advancing electoralprospects of the ruling establishment inthe guise of promoting nationalism.Questioning the military and theGovernment on this is kosher.

(The writer is a retired Major Generalof the Indian Army and founder memberof the Defence Planning Staff, currently therevamped Integrated Defence Staff)

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Flying with a broken wing” (March26) by Kushan Mitra. Undoubtedly,Jet Airways was in a better condi-tion than Air India. While the lat-ter’s net loss stood at �5,765 crorein 2017, the former’s net profit was�438 crore during the same period.Besides, Jet was also ahead of AirIndia in operational indices andcould fly more passengers than thenational carrier despite having asmaller fleet size of 124 aircraft ascompared to 163 of the latter. If theGovernment has been patient withAir India, taking care of the gaps inits operational funding, it can at leastbe pragmatic with other airlines.

Given a nascent market for TierII and III connectivity under Udan,uncertain fuel pricing and unsteadyglobal economy, airlines had to nec-essarily negotiate turbulence, whichought to have been factored inwhile dealing with their loandefaults. Surely, the Government’sintention is not to take the scrapdealer route to the likes of IBC butto facilitate a speedy restoration ofa vital sector poised to be the thirdlargest after the US and China.

R Narayanan Navi Mumbai

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Sir — It is unfortunate that theDravida Munnetra Kazhagam(DMK) is destined to carry theCongress as an albatross aroundits neck every time there is anelection in the State or at theCentre. The Congress demandsseats disproportionate to its eli-gibility in terms of the party’s

vote share or potential to win theseats. It is unfortunate that in theforthcoming crucial electionsto the Lok Sabha, too, the grandold party has taken 10 seats fromthe DMK, representing 25 percent of the total constituencies.

There are reports that thereis a lot of resentment in theselection of Karti Chidambaram,against whom many criminalcases are pending, as the

Congress candidate to contestthe Sivaganga constituency.

Sudarshana Nachiappan,one of the most deserving can-didates who was assured of hiscandidacy by the high com-mand till late last night, hasaccused P Chidambaram forthis last minute change in favourof his son.

Anna Mary YvonneChennai

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Sir — This refers to the article,“Flying with a broken wing”(March 26) by Kushan Mitra.Lenders don’t seem to havelearnt from the Kingfisher fias-co and infused �1,500 croreinto Jet Airways. Ideally, NareshGoyal should have allowed a bet-ter and financially sound man-agement to run his companyrather than playing with thecareer of the more than 23,000employees.

Lenders seem to believe thatit’s better to explore revival of thecompany than take theInsolvency and BankruptcyCode (IBC) route. Though theIBC may not be the perfect andonly solution, in the current cir-cumstances, it is the best alter-native for the lenders.

The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) has been sensitive in itsapproach to ensure lenders gettheir money back on time andany promoter with bad inten-tions get the stick.

Bal GovindNoida

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The ongoing attempt by L& T Infotech, to buya controlling stake in Mindtree, has been metwith stiff resistance by its founders and

employees. L&T has already bought 20.3 per centstake in Mindtree by paying over its long-terminvestor, VG Siddhartha of Café Coffee Day. Asrequired by the SEBI (Substantial Acquisition ofShares and Takeover) Regulations, the infrastruc-ture giant has already announced an open offer tobuy 31 per cent stake, in addition to picking up 15per cent of the shares through an open market pur-chase, making a stake of 66.32 per cent in Mindtree.

A ‘hostile takeover’ is the acquisition of onecompany, known as the target firm, by another,which is called the ‘acquirer’ and the acquisition isaccomplished by going directly to the company’sshareholders or fighting to replace management toget the acquisition approved. This is different froma friendly takeover, which is a proposal where a tar-get company’s management and board of directorsagree to a merger or acquisition by another firm.Since liberalisation, India has seen numerousfriendly takeovers but hostile acquisitions have beenfew and far between.

In the 1980s, London-based NRI, Swaraj Paul,sought to control the management of two Indiancompanies, Escorts Limited and DCM (Delhi ClothMills) Limited, by picking up their shares from thestock market. Though Paul failed to fulfill his dreamof controlling Escorts and DCM, he was success-ful in highlighting how particular families were exer-cising managerial control over large corporate enti-ties despite holding a minuscule proportion of theconcerned company’s shares. Paul finally retractedhis bid. While he was ultimately unsuccessful, Paul’shostile threat sent shockwaves through the other-wise complacent Indian business world.

This was followed by India Cements Limited(ICL) in its hostile bid for Raasi CementsLimited (RCL) in 1988, where ICL made an openoffer for RCL shares at �300 per share at the timewhen the share price on the stock exchange,Mumbai (BSE), was around �100. The Indian FIs,that were protecting the promoters, felt cheatedas they sold their stakes, leaving the FIs high anddry till they were bought out by ICL in an openoffer. The effort by ICL to buy out Raasi was forits crown jewel, Shri Vishnu Cement. Raju, thepromoter of Raasi, transferred 39.5 per cent ofShri Vishnu Cement to a group of nine invest-ment companies, in violation of the takeover codeand the transfer was considered invalid. Finally,ICL sold the shares of Shri Vishnu Cement by theassociate companies of Raju.

In a third example, in October 2000, AbhishekDalmia made an open offer to acquire 45 per centof the share capital in Gesco Corporation at �23 pershare. This transaction entered into a drama of hos-tile takeover until the promoters of Gesco corpo-ration and the Dalmia group announced they hadreached an amicable settlement in the battle forGesco, with the former buying out Dalmias’ 10.5per cent stake at �54 per share for a total consider-ation of �16 crore. The Gesco Corporation takeoverdrama showed that a bidder, with admittedly poorfinancial resources, could talk up a share only to exitlater with a huge profit via a negotiated deal. In 2008,Emami acquired 23.6 per cent stake from Vaidyas,who are the co-founders of Zandu, at �6,900 pershare. The Parikhs, who have been managing the

company’s operations for years, also part-ed with 20 per cent stake after trying tosave the firm for four months. Emami paid�750 crore to acquire 72 per cent stake inthe firm.

There are numerous ways which arefollowed by the acquiring companies fora hostile takeover: Toehold acquisition,which is a purchase of the target’s shareson an open market; tender offer, wherean acquirer offers the target’s sharehold-ers a buyout option at a premium over themarket price; and proxy fight, a solicita-tion of the shareholders’ proxies to votefor insurgent directors. Having decided toacquire a target, the acquire usually dealswith either of the two main corporate con-stituencies of the target: Management orshareholders.A possibility or threat of ahostile takeover causes the target’s boardto adopt and implement anti-takeoverdefences.

Stock re-purchase is a transaction bythe target of its own-issued shares fromits shareholders. This is an effectivedefence strategy that has registers success.

Poison pill is a distribution to the tar-get’s shareholders of the rights to purchaseshares of the target or the mergingacquire at a substantially reduced price.What triggers an execution of theserights is an acquisition by an acquirer ofa certain percentage of the target’s share-holding. If exercised, these rights can con-siderably dilute the acquirer’s sharehold-ing in the target and can thus deter atakeover. The poison pill is one of the mostpowerful defences against hostiletakeovers.

Shark repellents are certain provi-sions in the target’s charter or by-lawsdeterring an acquirer’s desirability of a hos-tile takeover. This defence typicallyinvolves a supermajority vote requirementregarding a merger of the target with itsmajority shareholder. This defence alsoincludes other takeover deterrent provi-

sions in the target’s certificate of incorpo-ration or bylaws.

Golden parachutes are additionalcompensation to the target’s top manage-ment in case of termination of its employ-ment following a successful hostile acqui-sition. Since these reimbursementsdecrease the target’s assets, this defencereduces the amount the acquirer is will-ing to pay for the target’s shares. Thisdefence may thus harm shareholders. It,however, effectively deters hostiletakeovers.

Staggered board is a board in whichonly a certain number of directors, usu-ally one-third, is re-elected annually. It isa powerful anti-takeover defence, whichmight be stronger than is commonlyrecognised. For the reason of being toostrong and reducing returns to the target’sshareholders, the latter happened to resistthis type of defence.

Greenmail is a buyout by the targetof its own shares from the hostile acquirewith a premium over the market price,which results in the acquire's agreementnot to pursue obtaining control of the tar-get in the near future.

Standstill agreement is an undertak-ing by the acquirer not to grab any moreshares of the target within certain periodof time. A standstill agreement is an addi-tional defence that usually accompaniesthe greenmail described above.

Leveraged recapitalisation is a seriesof transactions designed to affect the equi-ty and debt structure of a corporation.Recapitalisation usually involves suchtransactions as sale of assets, issuance ofdebt and distribution of dividends.

Leveraged buyout is a purchase of thetarget by the management with the use ofdebt financing. This defence burdens thetarget with the debt. In such a case, themanagement becomes a bidder and com-petes with a hostile acquire for control overthe target.

Crown jewels are options underwhich a favoured party can buy a key partof the target at a price that may be less thanits market value.

White knight is a strategic mergerthat does not involve a change of controland relieves the target’s management ofthe responsibility to seek best price.

White squire is given by the target toa friendly party of a certain ownership inthe target. This defence is effective againstacquisition by the hostile party of the tar-get by “freezing out” minority sharehold-ers.

Scorched earth is a self-tender offerby the target that burdens the target withdebt.

Lockups are defensive mechanismsin friendly mergers and acquisitionsdesigned to deter hostile bids.

Pacman is a target’s tender offer forthe acquire’s shares.

Change of control provisions is thetarget’s contractual arrangement withthird parties that burden the target in thecase of a change in its control.

Finally, ‘Just say no’ is a simpleapproach that enables the board simplyto reject a proposal of any potential acquir-er who would fail to prove that his acqui-sition strategy matches that of the target.Like all strategies, some defence strategiesare more effective than others and not allare successful all the time. A golden para-chute may decrease the price that theacquirer would be willing to pay for thetarget but it may not necessarily stop thehostile acquisition.

On the other hand, a poison pill caneasily lose its effect if the acquire wins aproxy fight for the target and thenredeems the pill. Therefore, it is prudentthat a company should consider devisingrelevant anti-takeover defences from thevery incorporation of business.

(The writer is Assistant Professor,Amity University)

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With elections round the corner,the Opposition still seems tobe groping for a solid and

cohesive poll narrative against theModi Government, while the rulingBJP has identified terror and national-ism as its main theme. The Oppositionhad been concentrating on a basicplank, essentially on livelihood issues.It was confident of taking on theGovernment with issues like jobs,agrarian crisis and demonetisation —all of which determine the outcome ofthe polls as it affects the common man.

However, this was the scenario tillthe Pulwama and Balakot incidentshappened last month. Also, until then,the Opposition was in an advantageousposition after the BJP lost three States

to the Congress in the Hindi heartland— Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh andChhattisgarh in December last year.Momentum was gradually shiftingfrom the BJP to the Opposition. Anupbeat Congress began its campaignwith high spirit during the New Year.

West Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee and her Delhi coun-terpart, Arvind Kejriwal, organised twoimpressive rallies to show offOpposition unity in Kolkata and Delhirespectively. The Opposition becameaggressive and the BJP, until six weeksago, seemed to be the only respond-ing to its campaign on Rafale dealrather than setting the agenda. There’sno doubt that last month’s unprece-dented events — Pulwama terrorattack, the retaliatory Balakot airstrikes, the capture and release of WingCommander Abhinandan Varthamanby Pakistan — have made ‘security’ and‘terrorism’ the key poll issues, thusbringing nationalism to the forefront.

The Opposition lost the momen-tum it briefly acquired to put the BJPon the defensive. The saffron partyquickly snatched the advantage andbegan to build its poll campaign on

the twin planks of ‘nationalism’ and‘terrorism’. All earlier issues like thebuilding of the Ram temple inAyodhya and triple talaq were pushedto the backburner.

Obviously, the BJP has regained thepolitical narrative for the electoral bat-tle while the Opposition is still twid-dling its thumbs as to how to bring backthe livelihood issues to the forefront asthey cannot criticise the Governmenton intelligence failure beyond a limit.

The Opposition is also not doinga united campaign at the national level.The BJP is taking full advantage of itsdisunity and appears to have success-

fully projected itself as the party bestsuited to guard the country against ter-rorism, sponsored by Pakistan. On theground, each Opposition party hasbeen doing its own campaign. TheOpposition claims that though there isnot one single narrative at the nation-al level, individual parties will campaignon the common theme that the BJPmust be removed because of its failureon various fronts, including unemploy-ment and farmers’ issues. “Every partyhas to stick to its own platform,”claimed a Left leader.

As for the Congress, the princi-pal Opposition party, its president,

Rahul Gandhi, is running a sustainedcampaign on the Rafale deal for thepast few months but it is not catch-ing up. Also, the Congress fell into theBJP’s trap when it changed the pollnarrative to Pulwama and‘Chowkidar’ baits instead of focus-ing on bringing the real issues back.

The BJP is happy to dwell onthese issues as it diverts attention fromother subjects like jobs and agrariancrisis where the Modi Governmenthas really not lived up to the expec-tations. The BJP is going all out withits latest mass campaign — ‘Main BhiChowkidar’ and ‘Namumkin abMumkin Hai’, slogans showing Modias the supreme leader who can solveIndia’s problems. The BJP hopes towin the elections mainly on theweakness of the Opposition, whosemuch-touted ‘Mahagathbandhan’ atthe national level still remains an ideaand not a reality; although there areState-specific coalitions.

The second is Modi’s presiden-tial style of campaigning. It is Modiversus no Opposition face, which canlimit the Opposition’s chances. Third,it is the failure of the Opposition to

come up with a credible and effec-tive narrative, capitalising on theGovernment’s weaknesses. On theother hand, the BJP has been able todetermine its agenda by gettingaway with its diversionary tactics.Fourth, the BJP has stitched alliancesin various States, even ceding spaceto the allies; whereas the Congress isstill dilly-dallying.

However, the BJP also knowsthat it will be difficult to sustain thePulwama and Balakot themes forthe next two months; though it gota big boost to its campaign in thepast few weeks. As time passes, itwould get further diluted. Therefore,the BJP needs a winning narrative.The Opposition, too, needs an effec-tive counter-narrative. All these inan electoral background where thereis no ‘hawa’ for or against any party,no highly emotional issues, notmuch of anti incumbency againstModi and unlike 2014 no ‘Modiwave’. The results will show who hasthe right narrative this time — theNDA or the UPA.

(The writer is a senior political com-mentator and syndicated columnist)

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Bengaluru: Conceding thatthe ruling Congress-JD(S)alliance is facing dissidence insome Lok Sabha constituencies,the Congress' Karnataka uniton Tuesday expressed confi-dence about resolving differ-ences by making both partyworkers understand the need todefeat "communal BJP."

With transfer of votesbetween the Congress and theJD(S) crucial for them to out-perform the BJP, there is worryin both parties that the dissi-dence may hamper theirprospects.

Agreeing that there wasdisgruntlement in two to threeplaces like Mandya, Tumkurand Hassan, coalition coordi-nation chief and Congressleader Siddaramaaih said itwas common in an alliance andwhen there were aspirants fromboth parties.

"There is some amount ofdisgruntlement in Tumkur asthe sitting MP did not get theticket from the Congress,because the seat went to theJD(S)," he said at a twitter inter-

action organised by theKarnataka PCC.

"We are talking to workersthere, also disgruntled leadersthere. I have confidence that wewill be able to pacify them," hesaid.

"Coalition Governmentand alliance was inevitabletoday. We will make workersand leaders of both partiesunderstand about the situationand the need for an alliance todefeat the communal BJP.

I'm confident that they toowill agree and there won't beany problem," he added.

Defying the electoralarrangement under whichTumkur was allotted to theJD(S), sitting Congress MP S PMuddahanumegowda filed hispapers on Monday, even asJD(S) patriarch and formerPrime Minister HD Deve

Gowda filed his nomination asthe joint candidate of the rul-ing alliance.

Another Congress leaderand former MLA, K NRajanna, also filed his nomi-nation on Monday fromTumkur as an independentcandidate, opposing Gowda.

KPCC chief Dinesh GunduRao on Tuesday said he hasspoken to bothMuddahanumegowda andRajanna and the party wouldresolve the issue "amicably."

"We have spoken to him(Muddahanumegowda), wehave spoken to Rajanna...Wewill again speak to them andwill solveit amicably," Rao toldreporters in response to a ques-tion about action on rebel can-didates in Tumkur.

If Muddahanumegowdacontests from Tumkur as a

rebel candidate, it will add tothe Congress-JD(S) coalitionworries as the alliance is facingbacklash at several placesincluding Mandya and Hassan,with party workers unhappywith the seat arrangements.

Both parties that hadfought bitterly against eachother ahead of May 2018Assembly polls joined hands toform an alliance as the electionthrew up a hung verdict.

Though Congress-JD(S)leaders have decided to go topolls together, it is not some-thing that the workers of bothparties at the booth level, whohave been fighting each other,agree with.

Deve Gowda's grandsons,Prajaval Revanna and NikhilKumaraswamy, are the alliancecandidates from Hassan andMandyarespectively.

Responding to a question,Siddaramaiah agreed thatTumkur was conceded to theJD(S) as he was against givingaway Mysore seat to the region-al party, which had asked foroneamong the two seats.

"We had to concedeMandya because sitting MPthere was from JD(S), so nat-urally they asked for theseat.They also asked for a seat-either Mysore or Tumkur, I saidwe cannot concede Mysorebecause there is more oppor-tunity for Congress there." PTI

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Jaipur: Congress presidentRahul Gandhi on Tuesdaytermed his party’s promise ofminimum guaranteed incometo the poorest 20 per centhouseholds a "surgical strikeon poverty" and said nobodyshould be poor in 21st centu-ry India.

Addressing a rally inSuratgarh town of Ganganagardistrict, a day after declaringhis party would roll out thescheme if voted to power,Gandhi alleged that PrimeMinster Narendra Modi gavemoney to the rich and topindustrialists of the country,but the Congress would servethe poor.

He said the promised min-imum income scheme was a"big bang".

"Dhamaka hai ye...Bombfatega (It's a big bang...A bombwill set off ). This is aCongress's surgical strike onpoverty. They (the BJP)worked to eliminate the poorwe will eliminate poverty,"Gandhi said.

On helping the poor, hesaid, "We thought how itshould be done. After discus-sion and brainstorming, wethought that there should be aminimum income line of�12,000 per month. Soon afterformation of the CongressGovernment in 2019, the min-imum income line in India will

be �12,000 per month."The name of the proposed

scheme is 'Nyuntam AayYojana' or Nyay. The word'Nyay' stands for justice inHindi.

He alleged that povertyand unemployment increasedunder the Modi Government.While the Congress-led UPAGovernment lifted 14 crorepeople out of poverty, "Modimade them poor again", heclaimed.

On Monday, Gandhiannounced in New Delhi that�72,000 per year will be givenas minimum income to poorfamilies, benefiting around 25crore people, if his party isvoted to power in Lok Sabhapolls.

"Nobody should be poor in the country in 21st century,"he told the Suratgarh rallyTuesday.

Finance Minister Arun

Jaitley Monday dismissed theCongress promise of mini-mum guaranteed income, say-ing the party has a history of"cheating" the poor and mis-leading the country in thename of removing poverty.

In 1971, Rahul Gandhi'sgrandmother and then PrimeMinister Indira Gandhi hadalso given 'Garibi Hatao, DeshBachao' (remove poverty, savethe nation) slogan during thegeneral election campaign.Years later, PM Modi, during aspeech in 2018, termed the'Garibi Hatao' slogan a "falsepromise".

Rahul Gandhi Tuesdayalso alleged the ModiGovernment weakened theschemes and programmes suchas MGNREGA and food secu-rity introduced by the UPAdispensation.

"Whatever was done underthe MGRENGA, food securi-ty and loan waiver by the UPAGovernment, that all were fin-ished by Narendra Modi.Poverty and unemploymentincreased in his rule," he said.

He said that top industri-alists were helped by theGovernment in "looting" thepublic money and their debt of�3.5 lakh were written off, butfarm loans were not.

The Congress chief con-tinued his "chowkidar" barb atthe PM. PTI

Patna: Bollywoodactor-turned-politician Shatrughan Sinha,who has been associated withBJP for about three decades,will join Congress at New Delhion March 28, a senior partyleader said here on Tuesday.

"Shatrughan Sinha will joinCongress in New Delhi onMarch 28 at 11.30 am ... He willbe our candidate from PatnaSahib", chairman for the stateCongress election campaigncommittee Akhilesh PrasadSingh told newsmen here.

Sinha is a two-term BJPLok Sabha member from PatnaSahib Singh but has beendropped by the saffron partywhich has chosen to field unionminister Ravi Shankar Prasadfrom the seat.

Sinha has been openly crit-ical of Prime Minister NarendraModi and BJP president AmitShah. Speculation had beenrife for some time that hewould join the Congress, whichis an ally of the'Mahagathbandhan' which alsoconsists of the RJD and otherlocal parties.

Asked whether Sinhawould be induced in the partyin the presence of AICC pres-ident Rahul Gandhi, as wasbeing speculated in the media,Singh said Top leaders will bepresent on the occasion". PTI

Patna: The Darbhanga LokSabha seat, represented by for-mer test cricketer Kirti Azad,who recently quit the BJP andjoined the Congress, onTuesday emerged as a newbone of contention in theOpposition Grand Alliance inBihar, with the RJD stating thatit wished to field its veteranleader Abdul Bari Siddiquifrom the seat.

The Lalu Prasad-led partycontended that its candidatehad lost the seat to the BJP bya thin margin in 2014.

"Darbhanga is our tradi-tional seat. We have won itmany times. Even in the 2014polls, which were swept by theBJP-led NDA, our candidatelost the battle by a thin margin.

"We would therefore like tocontest the seat again and fieldAbdul Bari Siddiqui this time.A formal announcement wouldbe made shortly," RJD MLA

and chief state spokesman BhaiVirendra said here.

Notably, senior RJD leaderMohd Ali Ashraf Fatmi wonthe seat in all Lok Sabha pollssince 1991 except on threeoccasions — 1999, 2009 and2014.

The party's decision tofield Siddiqui — a senior leaderwho has formerly been theleader of the Opposition in theAssembly and served as theFinance Minister — is seen asa move to placate the veteran,who is said to have been sulk-ing over being sidelined fol-lowing the entry of LaluPrasad's sons Tejashwi Yadavand Tej Pratap Yadav intoactive politics.

When asked about BhaiVirendra's statement, Siddiquisaid, "I am a disciplined partyworker. If the party asks me tocontest from Darbhanga, I willput my heart, mind and soul

into the fight."Siddiqui had fought the

2014 election from Madhubaniand lost to Hukum DeoNarayan Yadav of the BJP.

State Congress presidentMadan Mohan Jha, whenapproached with queries aboutthe RJD's claim, saidDarbhanga was an "importantseat", but a final call will betaken by the party's high com-mand.

The Congress had last wonthe seat way back in 1980.

Elaborating further on theparty's dilemma, Congressleader Rishi Mishra — whosegrandfather Lalit NarayanMishra was a minister in IndiraGandhi's cabinet and is said tobe the tallest leader in theMithila region whereDarbhanga falls — claimedthat Maithil Brahmins in theconstituency are traditionalsupporters of his party. PTI

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Carrying eleven non-bailablecharges on his head, Nishit

Pramanik, the BJP candidate forthe Coochbehar Lok Sabha seat,seems to have become aheadache for the saffron party.

Trinamool Congress hasalready approached the ElectionCommission of India drawing itsattention towards the affidavitfiled by Pramanik. “The BJP hasfielded a person who has elevennon-bailable charges againsthim to serve the people ofCoochbehar. We have alreadybrought it to the notice of theECI,” North BengalDevelopment MinisterRabindranath Ghosh said onTuesday.

Pramanik has been bookedfor murder, attempt to murder,dacoity, human trafficking,Ghosh said quoting the affidavitfiled by Pramanik before theECI. Out of the eleven non-bail-able cases two have been filed inother States.

“He is charged with lootinga bank and a jewellry shop atAlipurduar,” Ghosh said won-dering “how a party whichclaims to give good governancecan nominate a person who hassuch grievous charges againsthim dismissing the BJP allega-tion that the charges were theresult of the TMC’s vendetta pol-itics against the Oppositionleaders. “If such was the casethen how could he have beenbooked in other States where theTrinamool is not in power,”Ghosh said adding “even theHigh Court has rejected bailapplications filed by him in twocases.”

Yet another political turn-coat to be fielded by the Bengalsaffron outfit, Pramanik had ear-lier left the Trinamool Congressto join the BJP.

His organsational capabili-ties apart, Pramanik’s allegedcriminal records could pose his

party some problem inCoochbehar constituency bor-dering Assam and Bangladesh.This, notwithstanding the factthat the BJP has fast come up togain the second position dis-placing the Left Front in this dis-trict. In the last Assembly elec-tions the BJP had taken a leadover the TMC in the urban areaswhereas the latter had posted alead in the rural belt.Considering the recent elec-toral patterns a slight shift in thevote base could affect either par-ties much, experts said.

Controversies hit the BJP inanother constituency, this timeBasirhat in south Bengal whereparty candidate Sayantan Basuwas reported against by theTMC for telling a crowd that “wewill ask the CRPF through ourcentral leadership not to shootat the legs but directly throughthe chest if the mischief mongerscome to capture booths. Thistime round no Sahjehan orAurangzeb will come to save theTMC’s goon.”

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Kolkata: The BJP on Tuesdaydeclared the list of 10 morecandidates for Bengal. Amongthese are: Humayun Kabirfrom Murshidabad, KrishnaJoardar from Behrampore,Mukut Mani Adhikary fromRanaghat, Nilanjan Roy fromRaiganj, Rantideb Senguptafrom Howrah, Subhas Sarkarfrom Bankura, Joy Banerjeefrom Uluberia, ShantanuThakur from Bongaon andDebashis Samanta fromContai.

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Moradabad (UP): BJP presi-dent Amit Shah on Tuesdaysaid Narendra Modi was the"only" Prime Minister who hadresponded strongly to terroractivities in Pakistan, likeningthe Centre's response to the USaction against terrorism.

"We attacked on Pakistanwithout any delay after thePulwama attack, while theOpposition leaders were insist-ing for negotiation, Shah saidat a 'Vijay Sankalp' rally in UttarPradesh's Moradabad district.

The Bharatiya Janata Partychief alleged that theOpposition was insulting thesoldiers who died in thePulwama attack by askingquestions on the number ofcasualties in the Balakotairstrike.

"When the country wascelebrating after air strikes atterrorist camp, the Opposition

here was grieving likePakistan," he said in an appar-ent reference to the Balakotairstrike.

He asserted that the BJP-led NDA would win 74 of thestate's 80 Lok Sabha seats. Ithad won 73 in 2014.

Pointing out thatSamajwadi Party chief AkhileshYadav and Bahujan Samaj Partysupremo Mayawati were "ene-mies" earlier, Shah said theyhad come together now due to

"fear" of Modi.He predicted that the SP-

BSP-RLD alliance would failbecause "our Government isvery much popular due to ourpositive works".

Shah hit out at Yadav, alleg-ing that all miscreants werethere in the former ChiefMinister's Government andcrime was on the rise.

But during the present BJPGovernment, he claimed, allmiscreants were either in jail orfled the state.

Shah said communal vio-lence and land-grabbing inci-dents, which he said were nor-mal during the previous dis-pensation, had become a thingof the past and there was peace.

Listing out the Modi dis-pensation's welfare schemes,Shah claimed that for the firsttime since Independence, thefarmers, poor, Dalits and the

deprived sections had beenfeeling that they have their owngovernment at the Centre.

BJP media head AnilBaluni said in a statement thatthe party organised over 250'Vijay Sankalp' (pledge for vic-tory) rallies across the countryon Tuesday with its tops lead-ers addressing them.

While Shah spoke inMoradabad, Union MinistersRajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj,Nirmala Sitharaman, PiyushGoyal and Uma Bharti spoke inNew Delhi, Ghaziabad, Udupi,Vijaywada and Sonipat respec-tively, he said.

Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath spokein Varanasi, Gujarat CM VijayRupani in Porbandar, HaryanaCM Manohar Lal Khattar inPanipat and former MadhyaPradesh CM Shivraj SinghChouhan in Puri.

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Varanasi: Hitting out atCongress president RahulGandhi over his minimumincome scheme announcement,Uttar Pradesh Chief MinisterYogi Adityanath on Tuesdayasked why the party didn't doanything to uplift the poor dur-ing the 10 years when it was inpower.

In a big-bang poll promise,Gandhi had on Mondayannounced that �72,000 peryear will be given as minimumincome to poor families, bene-fiting around 25 crore people, ifhis party is voted to power in theLok Sabha polls beginning nextmonth.

Addressing a 'Vijay SankalpSabha' (victory pledge meeting)here, Adityanath asked Gandhiwhy the Congress-led UPA

Government had not done any-thing to bring happiness into thelives of poor people during its10-year term from 2004 to2014.

He also heaped praises onPrime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government at the Centrefor introducing various welfareschemes to benefit the poor.

He claimed that Modi,unlike the Congress, is sensitivetowards the needs of the poor.

Adityanath accusedCongress leaders of siphoningoff Government funds meantfor the poor.

"Your father Rajiv Gandhi'shelplessness was clearly visiblewhen he had said that of �100that his Government sent to thepoor, only �10 reached them,"the Chief Minister said.

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Mumbai: Vice PresidentVenkaiah Naidu on Tuesdaysaid knowledge is going to be thedriver of the Indian economyand will play a vital role inimproving the living conditionsof people.

India must rise to the occa-sion and reorient its highereducation system, in order to beglobally competitive, Naidu said,addressing the 16th convocationceremony of Indira GandhiInstitute of DevelopmentResearch here.

Eight PhD, six M.Phil and29 M.Sc degrees were awardedby the Vice President on theoccasion. "The education systemshould be reoriented by movingaway from the colonial mindset;it must teach history in anobjective manner as it actually

unfolded," he said."Education is not only for

employment. It should empow-er the individual with knowledgeand wisdom to sift the wheatfrom the chaff. Access to qual-ity education for all and at all lev-els is equally essential to ensureinclusive growth and preventany kind of discrimination," hesaid. Time has come for India toonce again emerge as the glob-al knowledge hub, he said. "Forthat to happen, the seats of learn-ing, especially the universities,must reinvent themselves ashubs of vibrant intellectual pur-suit," he said. While it accountsfor less than a fifth of the GDP,agriculture still remains themain source of employment fornearly half of Indias labourforce, he said. PTI

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Bengal Chief MinisterMamata Banerjee on

Tuesday questioned the presentculture inside the BJP whichwas far different from what waspreached by its foundingfathers.

In reference to the waysome of its senior leaders likeLK Advani and MM Joshi wereignored in distribution of tick-ets, Banerjee said “BJP is aparty that does not respect itsveterans,” wondering thosewho did not pay adequaterespect to the veterans werewell bred.

Hitting out at the BJP forignoring Advani who made theBJP what it was today she said“Advani was the actual mentorfor BJP. They have forgotten olddays because of the new cropof leaders. But old is gold. It isan insult to him.”

She remembered how “Ihave worked under Vajpayeeand Advani,” when the formerwas the Prime Minister ofIndia.

She however said that itwas her personal feeling andthat “they may not agree to it.”Neither Advani nor Joshi weregiven nominations by the BJPand it is alleged that they werenot even taken into confidencebefore distributing the tickets.

On whether the partypatriarch should quit the partyBanerjee said, it would not looknice. “He is a leader respectedin the party and has been therefrom the beginning.”

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Chennai: Six people, includingthree of a family, died ofasphyxiation at Sriperumbudurnear here Tuesday while theywere cleaning a septic tank,police said.

Krishnamurthy (53) andhis two sons Kannan (23) andKarthik (21) were cleaning thetank in their apartment whenthe incident occurred, thepolice said.

The other three victims -Paramasivam and Suradhawere living in the same apart-ment while Lakshmikanth wasa member of the public whooffered his help and also lost hislife, police told PTI.

The bodies have beentaken to the general hospital,Sriperumbudur, for an autop-sy, they said.

According to a senior Fireand Rescue Services officialwho was involved in the rescueoperation, Krishnamurthy andhis two sons were cleaning thetank and shortly afterwardsthere was no response fromthem.

Then, Paramasivam,Suradha and Lakshmikanthwent into the tank and they toodied after inhaling the poiso-nous gas, the official said.

A case has been registeredand an investigation on. PTI

Lucknow: Former ChiefMinister of the UP andSamajwadi Party chief,Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesdaysaid he hopes the MinimumIncome Plan by Congress partywon’t be like the ‘�15 lakhpromise’ to the poor by the BJP.

Speaking to the media atthe Samajwadi Party office inLucknow, the party presidentexpressed his doubts overCongress’s scheme for thepoorest 20% people of India.

However, Yadav alsobanked on the opportunity toboast about the pro-poorschemes launched by hisGovernment.

Akhilesh said, “It was ourSamajwadi Party Governmentwhich had for the first timeannounced a package for thepoor people of Bundelkhandwherein they were given grains,milk, oil, etc.”

He added that the SPGovernment used to give theLohia Awas worth �3.05 lakh tothe poor and the Samajwadipension to females of the fam-ily.

“We always lead by exam-ple,” Akhilesh said.

The SP party presidentinformed the media that theirteam will assess the details ofthe scheme and then decide theparty’s stand.

The Congress party chiefRahul Gandhi in an electionsop on Monday announcedthat �72,000 per year will begiven as minimum income topoor families if his party isvoted to power in the LokSabha polls. Asserting that itwill be the final assault onpoverty, he said the schemewould benefit around 25 crorepeople. AGENCIES

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Kolkata: West Bengal ChiefMinister and TMC supremoMamata Banerjee will visitAndhra Pradesh on March 31to campaign for the rulingTelugu Desam Party in theState as a mark of Oppositionunity.

Several other oppositionleaders will also be going toAndhra Pradesh to campaignfor Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N ChandrababuNaidu and the TDP, sourcessaid.

"By the end of this monthshe will visit Andhra Pradesh

for a day or two to campaignfor N Chandrababu Naidu. It ispart of of Opposition unity thatwe all have worked for in thelast few months," said a seniorTMC leader.

Banerjee will be cam-paigning for Naidu in someconstituencies of AndhraPradesh, he said.

Naidu and Banerjee sharea cordial relationship and theAndhra Pradesh Chief Ministerhad taken part in the January19 mega Opposition rally orga-nized by TMC at the Brigadeparade grounds. PTI

Kolkata: Senior West BengalBJP leader Sayantan Basu onTuesday courted controversy byasking party cadres to shootthose who would try to capturebooths during the coming LokSabha polls.

"If you notice goons tryingto capture booths, shoot them.Don't aim at their legs, shootthem in the chest," Basu saidwhile addressing a rally atBasirhat.

Basu, state BJP general sec-retary, is the party candidatefrom Basirhat Lok Sabha con-stituency.

Referring to the violenceduring last year's panchayatpolls in West Bengal, Basusaid the Trinamool Congressshould not think of rigging thepolls, as elections will be heldunder the supervision of theElection Commission with cen-tral forces patrolling the streets.

Reacting to Basu's state-ment, senior TMC leader andminister Jyotipriyo Mullicksaid the party would inform theElection Commission and urgeit to take steps against him.

"The BJP is trying to viti-ate the poll atmosphere bymaking such provocative state-ments. The EC should takeaction against him," Mullicksaid. PTI

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Targetting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi over Rafale

scam, NCP chief Sharad Pawaron Tuesday wondered as to howcould one expect Modi to pro-tect the country when he couldnot keep classified documentsin the Government “safe”.

Addressing an electionrally at Parbhani inMarathwada region, Pawarsaid: “Here’s a Prime Ministerwho cannot keep the classifiedinformation safe in hisGovernment. How can youexpect Modi to defend or pro-tect the country?”.

Pawar was referring to thesubmission about the theft ofclassified documents relating tothe Rafale aircraft purchasemade by Attorney General KKVenugopal before the Supreme

Court during the hearing on areview petition in Rafale air-craft purchase case. (It may berecalled that three days aftermaking submission before theSupreme Court about the theftof Rafale papers, Venugopalhad reneged on his earlierclaim and said that the peti-tioners had used “photocopiesof the original” papers, deemedsecret by the Government).

Pawar also charged PrimeMinister Narendra Modi hadpurchased Rafale aircraft worth�550 each at �1660 crore just tohelp his industrialist friendAnil Ambani. “We have threegovernment companies thatare involved in the aircraftmanufacture. Why did theModi government ensure thatRafale-related contract wasgiven to the Anil Ambani-owned company which has

absolutely no experience inthe manufacture of aircraft?,”the NCP chief asked.

Coming down heavily onthe Modi Government for“politicising” Pulwama terrorattack and subsequent IAF airstrikes on terror camps inPakistan, Pawar said: “All polit-ical parties supported theGovernment over the standtaken by it in the wake ofPulwama terror attack.Following international pres-sure, Pakistan released WingCommander Abhinandan.When India could seek andobtain the release WingCommander Abhinandan, whydid 56-inch chest make a sim-ilar attempt to seek the releaseof Kulbhushan Jadhav?”

Slamming the Modi gov-ernment for its failure on var-ious fronts, Pawar said that

after demonetisation, 15 lakhpeople lost their jobs. “After thedemonetisation, only Modiknows where has the blackmoney gone. We know thatmore than 15 lakh people losttheir jobs. After the introduc-tion of GST, lakhs of traderssuffered. ... The Modi govern-ment promised adequate pricefor agriculture produce.Neither did the Governmentgive increased MSP to farmersnor did it waive the farm loans”

Alluding severe droughtprevailing in the State, Pawarsaid: “There is acute shortageof water in drought-hit areas.There are no fodder sheds forcattle. The farmers have beenneglected totally. We will notallow this government toremain in power. Let’s throwthis BJP government out in theLok Sabha polls”.

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At 83 years of age, NationalConference president and

former Member of Parliament,Dr Farooq Abdullah, is 'appar-ently' taking ElectionCommission of India (ECI) fora ride by repeatedly doing 'cut,copy, paste job and getting awayeasily too while hiding factualdetails of movable/immovableassets of his wife.

On Monday, when DrAbdullah filed his nominationpapers ahead of contestingS r i n a g a r - B u d g a mParliamentary seat, fourth timein a row, he once again declaredin his affidavit, "since my spouseis in London from April 1990,I have no knowledge about herassets in London (U.K).However, she has no property inJ&K (India)".

Dr Abdullah is contesting

from Srinagar Lok Sabha seatsince 2009.

Since it is mandatory forevery contesting candidate todeclare details of movable andimmovable assets and cash inhand against the name of spouseand dependants at the time offiling nomination papers DrAbdullah is also religiously fol-lowing the practice.

In his latest affidavit, DrAbdullah declared, " he ownsmovable assets to the tune of�10.6 crore and total worth ofhis immovable assets is �10.68crore. According to the affidavit,"charges in the case related tocriminal conspiracy for misap-propriation of JKCA funds areyet to be framed".

But close scrutiny of affi-davits submitted by him since2008 clearly reveals he is'apparently' misleading theelection commission of Indiaby giving a standard reply thathis wife is away in Londonfrom April 1990. I have noknowledge about her assets inLondon (U.K).

Panaji: The MaharashtrawadiGomantak Party, support ofwhose three MLAs is crucial forthe stability of BJP-led dispen-sation in Goa, on Tuesday saida "conspiracy" was beinghatched by "our rivals" thatmight force it to move out andalign with the Congress toform a new Government.

The party has three MLAsin the 40-Member GoaAssembly and its senior leaderand Marcaim legislator SudinDhavalikar is the Deputy ChiefMinister in the Pramod SawantGovernment.

Speaking to PTI, MGPpresident Dipak Dhavalikaralleged one of his party's offi-cer-bearers was "made to issuea letter" to the Governor andspeaker declaring authorityover entire legislative affairs ofthe outfit.

Dhavalikar said the MGPcentral committee would meeton Wednesday to chalk out itsfuture course of action, which,he claimed, can decide the fateof the State Government.

"There is a larger conspir-acy under which one of oursenior officer bearers, generalsecretary Lavoo Mamlatdar,was made to issue a letter to theGovernor and speaker, inwhich he stated that he was tak-ing over the entire authority on

legislative affairs of the party,"Dhavalikar said.

He said his party was thestate's oldest regional outfitbut some sections wereopposed to its growth.

Mamlatdar had last weekwritten a letter to the governorand Assembly speaker statinghe was the sole authority in theMGP to communicate partydecisions to them.

Following the letter, theMGP had expelled Mamlatdar.

Talking about Wednesday'sparty meeting to discuss thisissue, Dhavalikar said, "Wemight take certain resolutionsin the central committee meet-ing which can have bearing onthe stability of the Governmentled by Pramod Sawant."

He alleged moves wereafoot by his rivals to wean awayMGP MLAs ManoharAjgaonkar and DipakPawaskar, and in the processisolate Deputy Chief Minister

Sudin Dhavalikar."Any attempt to disturb our

MLAs will be viewed seriouslyand we won't mind pulling outof the Government," he said.

On being queried aboutwhether the option of thealigning with the oppositionCongress was open to theMGP, Dhavalikar replied in theaffirmative.

After the demise ofManohar Parrikar, BJP'sPramod Sawant took over asChief Minister. He heads acoalition Government com-prising the MGP, the GoaForward Party (GFP) and threeIndependent MLAs

Sawant faced vote of con-fidence during which his gov-ernment garnered the supportof 20 MLAs: 11 from the BJP,three each from MGP andGFP, three independents.Fifteen MLAs — 14 from con-gress and one from NCP —voted against his Government.

The support of three MGPMLAs is crucial as withoutthem the strength of the coali-tion government will reduce to17 in the house. The magic fig-ure in the 40-member assem-bly, the strength of which hasbeen reduced to 36 followingresignations of two MLAs anddemise of two includingParrikar, is 18 as of now. PTI

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Purnea (Bihar): A candidatewho appeared to file nomina-tions for Purnea Lok Sabha seaton Tuesday ended up behindbars as he was found to bedrunk, in violation of the ban onsale and consumption of alco-hol in Bihar.

Election Observer MShailendran said Independentcandidate Rajiv Kumar Singh, aresident of Bhagalpur district,stank of liquor when he reachedthe collectorate in this northBihar district for submitting hispapers.

He was made to undergobreath analyzer tests which con-firmed that he had consumed

alcohol and, subsequently, sentto jail after being booked forviolating the prohibition law,Shailendran said.

In April, 2016 the NitishKumar government in Biharhad imposed complete ban onsale and consumption of alco-hol, a move which has met withboth adulation as well as disap-proval from different quarters.

Altogether 17 people havefiled their nominations forPurnea Lok Sabha seat wherevotes will be cast in the secondphase of elections on April 18.

Out of them, 11 had sub-mitted their papers on the lastdate on Tuesday. PTI

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Veteran Congress leader andformer Union Home

Minister Sushil Kumar Shindeon Tuesday created a stir in theMaharashtra political circles, byclaiming that the BJP had triedto “poach” him and his MLA-daughter Praniti Shinde recent-ly.

Interacting with a televi-sion channel, Shinde — whohas been re-nominated by theCongress to contest the LokSabha polls from his home con-stituency of Solapur in western

Maharashtra — said that asenior BJP leader of his staturehad “approached” his daughterPraniti first and later him withan “offer” to join the principalruling party in the State and atthe Centre.

“The BJP leader concernedapproached my daughterPraniti first with an offer to joinhis party. The same leader,who is of my seniority andstature, made a similar offer tome subsequently to join theBJP. But, both of us bluntlyrefused,” Shinde said.

A day after he filed nom-

ination to contest the Lok Sabha polls on a Congressticket, Shinde said: “There is absolutely no question of our leaving the Congress. We will not be swayed by thiskind of allurements of the BJP.We are both committedCongress workers and willcontinue to remain so till ourlast breath".

Seventy-seven-year-oldShinde, however, refused toidentify the BJP leader who had“approached” him and legisla-tor-daughter Praniti to jointhe BJP.

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Mathura: Fighting for theMathura Lok Sabha seat on aBJP ticket, the sitting MP andfilm actor Hema Malini is a bil-lonaire with the value of herassets having increased by awhopping �34.46 crore in thelast five years, discloses anaffidavit filed by her with thepoll panel.

The affidavit shows HemaMalini presently owns totalwealth including bungalows,jewelleries, cash, jewelleries,shares and term deposits worthover �101 crore, while fiveyears ago before the 2014 gen-eral elections, her total assetshad been valued at nearly �66crore.

The value of her actor-hus-band Dharmendra SinghDeol's assets grew to �12.30crore during the correspondingperiod, according to HemaMalini's affidavit, detailing herassets and liabilities along withthose of her spouse.

The affidavit was submit-ted by her to the ElectionCommission of India while

filing her nomination as LokSabha candidate from theMathura parliamentary con-stituency.

The affidavit, accompa-nied by her income tax returnsfor the last five years, revealsthat the couple earned �10crore each during the last fiveyears.

In her IT returns, HemaMalini has shown an income of�15.93 lakh in 2013-14 againstthat of over �1.19 crore in2017-18.

The affidavit shows herincome to be �3.12 crore in2014-15, �1.19 crore in 2015-16 and �4.30 crore in 2016-17.

Thus, as per the affidavit,the yesteryears' 'Dream Girl'earned over �9.87 crore, andher 'he-man' husband nearly�9.73 crore in last five years.

The affidavit disclosed thatHema Malini has two cars,including a Mercedes boughtfor �33.62 lakh in 2011. Theother car is a Toyota that, shesaid, she bought for �4.75 lakhin 2005. PTI

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Corrigendume-TENDER FOR 'Creation of Bio-safety Level-

ll & Bio-safety Level-Ill Laboratory For AvianInfluenza and Other Zoonotic pathogens atDisease investigation Section, Aundh, Pune-67on Turnkey Basis'. UNDER RASHTRIYA KRISHIVIKAS YOJANA For Commissioner of AnimalHusbandry, Maharashtra State, Pune-67 wasinvited on 01.03.2019. The corrigendum for theabove tender with context to the pre bid meetingheld on 12.03.2019 at Commissionerate of AnimalHusbandry Pune isuploaded on the site https://mahatenders.gov.in.The date of submission of tender is extended up to25th April, 2019.

Right to accept or reject any or all tenderswithout assigning any reason, vests with theundersigned.

Sd/-Professor,

PAM, Civil Engineering Dept,College of Engineering, Shivajinagar, Pune-5

Date:- 25/03/2019DGIPR 2018/2019/7691

Government of MaharashtraDepartment of Animal Husbandry

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Jet Airways’ domestic pilots body, the NationalAviators Guild (NAG), on Tuesday sought a meet-

ing with State Bank chairman Rajnish Kumar overpending salaries, a day after the lenders took over thecarrier founded by Naresh Goyal a quarter of a cen-tury ago.

The guild had last week announced that its over1,100 -odd members would stop flying from April 1of their salaries dues were not cleared and a clarity onthe revival roadmap was not provided by March 31.

After lots of dilly-dallying, founder chairmanNaresh Goyal and his board-member wife Anita, hadMonday decided to step down and also pare their staketo 25.5 percent from 50.1 percent. The changes alsosaw its foreign partner Etihad halving its stake to 12percent and ceding a board position.

Under the new deal, banks, mostly led by state-run lenders, have would infuse �1,500 crore of emer-gency liquidity to the airline and convert total debt ofover 9,700 crore (including the fresh capital infusion)into equity worth 50.1 percent at a price of �1.

With this, the public float in the airline has alsocome down 12.5 percent from 25 percent earlier.

“We humbly request to you to alleviate some ofthe hardships that we and engineers have been facing,by ensuring that the new Jet management does not fur-ther delay our pending salaries dues at the earliest,”NAG general secretary Tej Sood said in an e-mail toKumar.

Thanking SBI for putting Jet on the road to recov-ery, Sood said, “we’d also be grateful if you could spareus some time and meet us to give us an idea of therecovery roadmap,” as this would help us rebuild ourconfidence and reassure us that the uncertainty isbehind us.

The guild represents about 1,100 of the around1,600 pilots of the airline, and many of them havereportedly got offers from rival Indigo and Spicejet.

The guild members have come together and stoodbehind the airline when it was passing through its worstperiod, he claimed adding, “despite the severe finan-cial difficulties and uncertainties over our future thatwe have been facing over the past few months, we havenot wavered.”

Sood also assured the new management of its con-tinued support in reviving the once top airline.

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Shares of Jet Airways continued to risefor the second day on Tuesday and

closed 6.5 per cent higher on the boursesfollowing the exit of Chairman NareshGoyal and his wife Anita Goyal from itsboard.

The stock closed at �271, up 6.48 percent on the BSE. During the day, itzoomed 9.62 per cent to �279.

At the NSE, shares jumped 5.37 percent to close at �267.75.

On the traded volume front, 54.11 lakhshares were traded on the BSE and over 6crore shares on the NSE during the day.

Shares of Jet Airways had zoomed 15.5per cent on Monday.

Naresh Goyal and his wife will resignfrom the board of the airline, according toa regulatory filing Monday.

The decision was taken at the airline’sboard meeting held in Mumbai Monday.

In the filing to the stock exchanges, JetAirways on Monday said Naresh Goyal,Anita Goyal and one nominee of EtihadAirways PJSC would step down from theboard.

Abu Dhabi-based Etihad is a strategicpartner with 24 per cent stake in JetAirways.

Naresh Goyal would also cease to bethe chairman, the filing had said.

Further, an immediate funding of upto �1,500 crore would be provided to thecash-strapped airline by “way of issue ofappropriate debt instrument”, the filingadded.

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Former RBI GovernorRaghuram Rajan on

Tuesday expressed doubtsover Indian economy growingat 7 per cent when not enoughjobs were being created andsaid the current cloud over theGDP numbers must be clearedby appointing an impartialbody to look at the data.

Rajan, who has alsoserved as Chief Economist atthe International MonetaryFund (IMF), said he had noidea what statistics are point-ing at currently and “arevamp” was needed “to real-ly figure out what India’s truegrowth rate is”.

“I know one minister (inthe Narendra ModiGovernment) has said (that)how can we be growing at 7per cent and not have jobs.Well, one possibility is that weare not growing at 7 per cent,”he told CNBC TV18.

He did not name theMinister.

Finance Minister ArunJait ley has been stoutlydefending the growth datasaying an economy cannotbe growing at 7-8 per centwithout creating jobs. He hasalso stated that no majorsocial agitation indicates ithasn’t been jobless growth.

Rajan, who was ReserveBank of India (RBI) Governorbetween September 2013 andSeptember 2016, said astronger broad-based growthis needed that creates morejobs.

On doubts being raised bysome over economic data after

revision in growth rate, he saida clean up act is needed andan impartial body appointedto look at the numbers.

“I just think that we neednow to essentially clean up, findout what in fact is the source ofconfusion with the new GDPnumbers, with the revisions etc.I would say setting up animpartial body to look at it isan important step to resortingconfidence,” he said.

The impartial body maythrowback the same numbersbut “we absolutely need bet-ter confidence in our GDPnumbers now given the backand forth we have had”.

In November 2018, theCentral Statistics Office (CSO)lowered the GDP growth forprevious Congress-led UPA byrecalibrating nationalaccounts. After this, the fouryears of the currentGovernment showed higheraverage growth than thatachieved during the UPA.

Last month, theGovernment revised the eco-nomic growth rate upwards to7.2 per cent for 2017-18 from6.7 per cent estimated earlier.

Questions have beenraised about the Governmentnot making public the NSSOlabour survey that reportedlyput unemployment rate in2017 at a 45-year high.

Earlier this month, agroup of 108 economists andsocial scientists said that late-ly, the Indian statistics and theinstitutions associated with ithave however come under acloud for being influencedand indeed even controlled bypolitical considerations.

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MoMAGIC Technologieson Tuesday released a

report — Disrupting MobileAd Tech in India: deliveringuser experience, in which near-ly 84% respondents stated ajump in their budgets forMobile Ad spends within thespectrum of digital marketing.

“Mobile advertising inIndia is all set to take a quan-tum jump in the next twoyears with more and moreIndians, moving to consumingcontent especially videos ontheir mobile phones. Withmobile data prices in Indiabeing the lowest in the world,advertisers and marketers havechanged their strategy to getquantifiable results with deepuser insight,” Arun Gupta,CEO and Founder MoMAGICTechnologies said.

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The Centre has refused toshare details related to the

appointment of RBI GovernorShaktikanta Das citing a clausein the transparency law whichbars disclosure of information,including “records of delibera-tions of the council of ministers,secretaries and other officers”.

Replying to an RTI query,it declined to share the details,including names of short-list-ed candidates and file notingsrelated to the appointment.

Das was on December 11,2018 named as the ReserveBank of India (RBI) Governorby the AppointmentsCommittee of the Cabinetheaded by Prime MinisterNarendra Modi for three years.

The appointment cameafter Urjit Patel abruptlyresigned amid a face-off withthe Government over issuesrelated to governance andautonomy of the central bank.

The RTI application wasfiled by this correspondent withthe Department of FinancialServices (DFS) seeking detailslike copy of any advertisementor vacancy circular issued by theGovernment on appointment ofRBI Governor, names of allapplicants who had applied forthe post and those short-listedfor the top post.

The DFS was also asked toprovide details on compositionof search committee to short-list candidates and copy ofminutes of meetings held ondeciding the RBI Governor.

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The rupee appreciated by 10paise to end at 68.86 against

the US dollar on Tuesday fol-lowing a robust response toRBI’s maiden rupee-dollarswap auction.

Sustained foreign fundinflows and heavy buying indomestic equities also proppedup the local unit, forex traderssaid.

Under the rupee-dollarswap auction conductedTuesday, the Reserve Bankreceived bids for $16.31 billion,against the notified amount of$5 billion.

At the Interbank ForeignExchange (forex) market, therupee opened strong at 68.88against the greenback but sur-rendered the gains to slip to alow of 68.98.

However, it clawed back

lost ground and finally endedat 68.86, up 10 paise against itsprevious close of 68.96 perdollar.

“The success of India’sUSD 5 billion swap auction willdecide whether it will becomea popular instrument in thecentral bank’s liquidity toolbox,” said V K Sharma, HeadPCG and Capital MarketsStrategy, HDFC Securities.

“The rupee appreciatedfurther as foreign institution-al flows continue to find theirway into Indian markets,” saidSunil Sharma, ChiefInvestment Officer, SanctumWealth Management.

Foreign institutionalinvestors (FIIs) pumped in Rs150.40 crore on a net basisMonday, provisional datashowed.

The dollar index, whichgauges the greenback’s strength

against a basket of six curren-cies, fell 0.07 per cent to 96.50.

Meanwhile, global crudeprices were trading higher andthis restricted the rupee’supmove.

Brent crude futures, theglobal oil benchmark, was trad-ing 0.88 per cent up at $67.80per barrel.

Meanwhile, benchmarkSensex rebounded about 425points, or 1.12 per cent, to endat 38,233.41 Tuesday. Thebroader NSE Nifty climbed129 points, or 1.14 per cent, to11,483.25.

The Financial BenchmarkIndia Private Ltd (FBIL) set thereference rate for therupee/dollar at 68.8469 and forrupee/euro at 77.8663. Thereference rate for rupee/Britishpound was fixed at 90.7737 andfor rupee/100 Japanese yen at62.55.

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New Delhi: The FinanceMinistry has sought theElection Commission’s

approval for announcing theGovernment’s borrowing pro-gramme for the first half of the

next fiscal year beginning April1, an official said.

The Government in theBudget had proposed to bor-row a gross amount of �7.10lakh crore from the marketduring 2019-20, higher than�5.71 lakh crore in the currentfiscal.

Finance Ministry officialsand representatives of theRBI Tuesday finalised theborrowing calendar for theApril-September period ofnext fiscal, but did not makeany announcement as themodel code of conduct for theensuing general elections is inplace.

“We have sought ElectionCommission’s approval andwill announce the borrowingschedule after receiving itsnod,” the official said.

The Government bor-rows money from the marketto meet its fiscal deficit,which is the dif ferencebetween total expenditureand total receipts. PTI

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TV viewers may be able toswitch their DTH or cable

service providers withoutchanging the set top box (STB)by the end of this year, accord-ing to regulator Trai’sChairman R S Sharma.

“Since last two years wehave been trying to make STBsinteroperable. Large part ofproblem has been resolved.There are some business chal-lenges (which) remain... We arelooking at this to happen byend of this year,” Sharma toldreporters at an event hereTuesday.

He added that interoper-ability in a product should notcome as an “after thought” butshould be in place at the prod-uct planning stage itself.

“Open systems are going tobe the future. Entire back-endof Aadhaar has been developed

on open source software exceptbiometric de-duplication sys-tem,” Sharma said.

The Telecom RegulatoryAuthority of India (Trai) chair-man released a study on openecosystem for devices in India,prepared by the Indian Cellularand Electronics Association(ICEA) and consultant firmKPMG, which showed that 89per cent of mobile phones inthe country work on opensource operating systems.

Sharma cited interoper-ability as one of the key factorsbehind the success of theIndian mobile phone industrywhere no subscriber isrequired to buy a new phoneif he wants to change his ser-vice provider.

The report found thatOpen OS mobile operatingsystems have expanded thesmartphone market in India byreducing barriers to entry.

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Roger Federer admits hefaces a real battle to land the

101st title of his career with thein-form Daniel Medvedev nextup after Serbian Filip Krajinovicwas dispatched 7-5, 6-3 onMonday at the ATP and WTAMiami Open.

The Swiss superstar pro-duced an excellent all-roundperformance despite being test-ed by the world number 103who belied his lowly ranking byproducing some excellent ten-nis during an exciting first set.

Federer, however, stylishlyweathered the storm to seal thewin — the 52nd of his career inMiami — and set up an intrigu-ing last eight match with thehighly-rated Medvedev.

The Russian, who is at acareer high ranking of 15, sawoff American Reilly Opelka 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (7/0), andhas won four ATP hard-courttitles, including three since lastAugust.

Federer beat him twicelast year but is already a fan.

"He's clever how he playsthe court because he can playit up and down, and he'sunusual when he plays fromback," said the Swiss, who hit14 aces and won an impressive74% of points on his firstserve.

"It's a bit of a differentapproach.Thankfully I playedhim last year twice in Basel andShanghai and I'm veryimpressed about his progress.I must say the last year hasbeen unbelievable for him."

Krajinovic struggled withinjury last year as problems

with his ankle, left foot andhand restricted him to justseven tournaments in the firstseven months of 2018.

�� 2��-��Elsewhere, number 24

seed Grigor Dimitrov wasbeaten by world number 77

Jordan Thompson in straightsets ensuring the Australianwill meet 2018 Wimbledonfinalist Kevin Anderson whobeat Portugal's Joao Sousa 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).

Simona Halep, meanwhile,got the better of VenusWilliams once again as the

Romanian made light work ofthe 38-year-old American tobook a place in the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-3 win.

"I was pretty strong withmy serve and knew where tobother her," said the reigningFrench Open champion whowill meet China's Wang Qiangin the last eight.

"When I saw I can wineasy games with my serve, itgave me great confidence,"she added.

Bianca Andreescu, the 18-year-old Canadian sensationwho won the title in IndianWells, was forced to withdrawin the second set of her fourthround match with AnettKontaveit.

Andreescu was 1-6, 0-2down before a shoulder injuryruined her chances of anoth-er run to the finals.

The Estonian will meetTaiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei whocontinued her excellent formwith a 6-3, 6-7 (0/7), 6-2 winover Caroline Wozniacki.

Petra Kvitova, the worldnumber 3, booked her place inthe last eight, beating CarolineGarcia 6-3, 6-3 in a matchwhich was held up for onehour and 40 minutes becauseof rain in South Florida.Kvitova plays AustralianAshleigh Barty for a place inthe semi-finals.

�#�� &5 >5713��

Raheem Sterling believes UEFAshould punish alleged racistchanting aimed at England play-

ers in Monday's 5-1 win overMontenegro in Podgorica with a stadi-um closure.

Manchester City's Sterling celebrat-ed the visitors' fifth goal by cupping hisears towards the home fans on a nightwhen another impressive performanceto start Euro 2020 qualifying by theThree Lions was overshadowed.

"I just want to show them you needmore than that to upset us and stop us,"Sterling told Sky Sports.

"It's 2019 now, I keep saying it. It'sa shame to see this going on and we canonly bring awareness to the situation.

"It's now time for the people incharge to put a real stamp on it becauseyou can fine someone, but what is thatgoing to do?

"You've got to make it a bit harder,punish fans that can't come to games.

Do something that's going to makethem think twice. If their team can't playwith fans, it's going to be difficult."

Sterling also tweeted a photo of hiscelebration with the message:"Best way to silence the haters(and yeah I mean racists)."

England managerGareth Southgate said heheard racist chants aimedat Danny Rose andpromised to report the issueto UEFA.

"There is no doubt inmy mind it happened.We will make sure that isreported to UEFA becauseit's not acceptable," said Southgate."We've got to make sure we support ourplayers."

�� #�- ��On the field, the World Cup semi-

finalists showed why they are amongthe favourites to be European champi-ons next year.

Southgate's trust in youth wasagain rewarded as 18-year-old CallumHudson-Odoi, who is yet to start aPremier League game for Chelsea,

shone on his full internationaldebut, while Declan Rice, 20,was also handed his firstEngland start.

"Fabulous performance,"said Southgate on Hudson-Odoi. "With young players itis always up to them. You can

see the talent, his applica-tion has been excellent.He's got to continue that."

England are not usedto falling behind these days,

but showed a resilience to bounce backafter Marko Vesovic turned insideMichael Keane and curled past JordanPickford on 17 minutes.

Keane made amends for his earli-er error with a commanding headerfrom Ross Barkley's free-kick on thehalf hour mark to settle England'snerves.

Nine minutes later, Barkley appliedthe finishing touch after Hudson-Odoi's positive run into the box andshot which his club teammate turnedin from close range.

Further goals from Barkley, HarryKane and Sterling rounded off anexcellent start to qualifying for Englandafter a 5-0 thrashing of Czech Republicon Friday.

Sterling scored a hat-trick againstthe Czechs at Wembley, but also playedprovider here as his cut-back broke per-fectly for Barkley to coolly side-foothome.

The Manchester City winger thenled a rapid counter-attack with onlyKane for company and squared for theEngland captain to tap home his 22ndinternational goal.

And after scoring just twice in hisfirst 45 caps, Sterling now has six goalsin his last four England games as heraced onto Jordan Henderson's throughball before slotting low past the goal-keeper.

�#� � 01)65�

Captain CristianoRonaldo left the field

with a thigh injury asPortugal drew 1-1 againstSerbia in an Euro 2020qualifier on Monday.

Ronaldo was replacedafter 30 minutes in Lisbonas Fernando Santos' reign-ing European championsdrew for a second time intheir opening two gamesof the campaign after theywere held by Ukraine onFriday.

There was no wordwhether the five-timeBallon d'Or winner wouldbe fit for to play for hisclub Juventus in the firstleg of their ChampionsLeague quarter-final atAjax on April 10.

William Carvalhowasted the best of theearly chances at Benfica'stwo-thirds empty Estadioda Luz.

Serbia failed to clearthe ball in the box beforeit fell to the unmarkedReal Betis midfielderwho's side-footed shotglanced past the post afterfive minutes.

Ajax playmaker Tadicopened the scoring fromthe penalty spot two min-utes later. Wolves goal-keeper Rui Patricio collid-ed with an advancingMijat Gacinovic in thebox and Tadic tucked thespot kick away with ease

to take a shock lead overthe Euro 2016 winners.

Ronaldo was deniedan equaliser two minuteslater as his effort was verywell saved MarkoDmitrovic.

The 156-time interna-tional left the field on thehalf hour mark after hepulled up chasing a ball onthe left wing.

He received quicktreatment from membersof the medical team beforereturning to action butwas replaced by Pizzi min-utes later as Pepe tookover the skipper's arm-band.

The visitors were levelwith three minutes of thefirst half to play. Porto'sDanilo Pereira hammeredhis shot from outside thebox into the top cornerpast a helpless Dmitrovic.

Carvalho should haveput his side into the lead25 minutes into the sec-ond half. Guerreirochipped a cross to theback post, Bernardo Silvathen played it into themiddle of the box butCarvalho couldn't make asolid enough contact withthe ball to challengeDmitrovic.

Fernando Santos' out-fit were denied a secondpenalty on 73 minutesafter the linesman over-ruled referee SzymonMarciniak's original deci-sion for off-side.

�#�� &�71)

Kylian Mbappe scored oneand set up two more as

France routed Iceland 4-0 at theStade de France on Mondaynight to move to the top ofGroup H in Euro 2020 qualify-ing.

The result gives France sixpoints from their first twomatches and puts them aheadTurkey, who also won 4-0 onMonday, on goal difference.

"It was our objective to takesix points but the manner wasgood as well," France managerDidier Deschamps told thepost-match press conference.

Deschamps praised histeam's "offensive efficiency"against a "dense" Icelandicdefence.

"When the opponent playsvery defensively it can be verydifficult to find a way throughso that was a good sign," saidDeschamps, although heacknowledged that Icelandicfatigue near the end played arole.

He added that he waspleased that all three strikers —Mbappe, Antoine Griezmannand Oivier Giroud — scored.

"They are the champions ofthe world and you saw thattoday," acknowledged Iceland

manager Erik Hamren."Five shots on goal and they

scored four. That's top class"From the start Mbappe's

movement mesmerised theIcelanders, though his contribu-tion to the opening goal after 11minutes was straightforward.

The visitors cleared a cor-ner only as far as BenjaminPavard. The right back switchedthe ball to Mbappe, alone onthe left. The young star hadtime to aim his cross whichSamuel Umititi met at the nearpost with a header that glancedoff the inside of the far post andinto the goal.

Four minutes later, Giroudalmost headed another, from across by Pavard, but HannesHalldorsson leapt and stretchedto palm the ball over.

For the next 45 minutes,France, who have never lost toIceland, gave the impressionthat they had slipped down acouple of gears and were con-tent to take the long-rangeshooting opportunities thepacked Iceland defence wasallowing.

Iceland meanwhile workedcourageously and managed toforce the occasional smallthreat.

After 68 minutes, Icelandwere again punished for failing

to put distance on a clearance.France moved the ball to

Pavard who swerved a cross infrom the right that luredHalldorsson into a desperatedive for a ball he could notreach.

Giroud kneed the ball intothe empty net for his 35thFrance goal. That moved himinto third on the all-time list ofFrance scorers, breaking a tiewith David Trezeguet. TheChelsea striker trails onlyMichel Platini, on 41, andThierry Henry, the all-timeleader on 51.

Mbappe added a third after78 minutes. Griezmann slippeda pass between two defendersto the advancing Mbappe whoshrugged off a timid challengeand slid the ball pastHalldorson.

Six minutes later, Mbappereturned the assist with a neatbackheel that sent Griezmannscampering through the frozenIcelandic backline to poke theball into the corner of the goal.

"We've started well withtwo nice team performances"Paul Pogba told French broad-cster M6.

"We knew what we were upagainst. They are a team thatdoesn't let in a lot of goals buttoday we did our job."

�� 1&5'

India struck four times after agoal-less first quarter to tame

hosts Malaysia 4-2, climbing tothe second spot in the SultanAzlan Shah Cup hockey tourna-ment, here Tuesday.

Sumit Kumar (17th min),Sumit Kumar junior (27th min),drag flicker Varun Kumar andMandeep Singh (58th min)found the net for India.

Razie Rahim (27th min)and Firhan Ashari (57th min)scored for the hosts.

With two wins and a draw,India moved up to the secondposition in the table with sevenpoints behind Korea (7).

India had beaten Japan 2-0in the first match before playing

a 1-1 draw against Korea.Five minutes into the game,

Malaysia won their first penal-ty corner but Krishan B Pathak,guarding India's post brilliant-ly saved it.

Varun Kumar's pass into the

top of the circle saw HardikSingh work in tandem withMandeep Singh to set up a shoton goal.

It was eventually Sumit whogot the right deflection helpingIndia take an important 1-0 lead

in the 17th minute. Later,Mandeep helped India win theirfirst PC but after several re-takesIndia could not extend theirlead.

Soon Malaysia won theirsecond PC of the match andRazie Rahim did not disappointthe home crowd as he struck lowto give Malaysia an equaliser inthe 21st minute.

The third quarter wasintense with both teams rallyingon counter attacks but Indiaremained determined. Theychallenged the Malaysiandefence with solid circle entries.Mandeep Singh worked hismagic yet again winning Indiaanother important PC.

Taken by dragflicker VarunKumar, he scored on a re-take

with a powerful flick, keepingthe ball low to the left. The 3-1lead put pressure on the hosts.

The fourth quarter, thoughsaw Malaysia score a field goalthrough Firhan Ashari in the57th minute who did well to beatSreejesh at post after he hadmade two great saves earlier inthe quarter.

In the 58th minute, a bril-liant circle entry and assist bySumit Kumar Jr to MandeepSingh helped him score India'sfourth goal ending the match on4-2.

India's defence did notmake any last-minute minute totake home three points. BirendraLakra was named the man-of-the-match for his efforts inhelping India defend their lead.

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Shikhar Dhawan scored apainstaking half-century inDelhi Capitals' sub-par 147

for 6 against Chennai Super Kingson a lifeless Kotla track in an IPLencounter here on Tuesday.

The senior opener once againplayed the role of sheet anchor inhis 51 off 47 balls that had sevenboundaries but unfortunatelyfailed to accelerate during thefinal overs. This left the hometeam at least 30 runs short of afighting score.

From a comfortable 120 for 2

with the dangerous Rishabh Pantat the crease, CSK seized themomentum, effecting a middle-order collapse. Capitals lost fourwickets for seven runs in just 1.5overs. From 118 for 2 after 15overs, the last five overs yieldedonly 29 runs.

With the ball stopping andcoming, Capitals batsmen foundDwayne Bravo's (3/33 in 4 overs)variations difficult to handle.Ravindra Jadeja (1/23 in 4 overs)also made life difficult for theCapitals in the middle overs andHarbhajan Singh (0/30 in 4 overs)also bowled as many as 10 dot

balls.Dhawan, however, contin-

ued to hold one end up and hitthe occasional boundary inbetween, even as stroke makingbecame increasingly difficult.

Pant (25 off 12 balls), duringhis 41-run stand with Dhawan,tried to negate the pitch factorbut did not last till the deathovers.

He did reach out to a shortball from Harbhajan, dispatchingit over long off for a six. In thenext over, his short arm pull offDwayne Bravo was taken byShardul Thakur at deep square

leg boundary.With Colin Ingram (2) and

Keemo Paul (0) also being dis-missed cheaply, followed byDhawan, the expectations of a175-plus total withered away.

During the start of the sec-ond innings Chennai were at 51for the loss of one wicket.

Ambati Rayadu was bowledout for just five runs.

Shane Watson was batting at28 runs in 19 balls which includ-ed four 4s and one 6s. WhileSuresh Raina was batting at 14runs in six balls which includedthree 4s.

�� 4504��

Skipper R Ashwin is in the eye of astorm after 'Mankading' a rival

player but a winning start will keepKings XI Punjab upbeat when they facehome favourites Kolkata Knight Ridersin an IPL fixture here on Wednesday.

It was Ashwin's mankading of JosButtler that had triggered a dramaticcollapse with Kings XI Punjab restrict-ing Rajasthan Royals to 170 for nine tonotch up a 14-run win.

Buttler was looking in imperioustouch with 69 from 43 balls andRajasthan well on course to overhaulthe target of 185 but following the dis-missal they went on to lose eight wick-ets for 62 runs to hand Kings XI Punjabtheir maiden win in Jaipur.

Though the dismissal was withinthe rules of the game, it sparked a hugefurore with spin legend and RajasthanRoyals brand ambassador Shane Warnelabelling it as "disgraceful" and againstthe spirt of the game.

With a debate raging over therunout, it remains to be seen howAshwin and Co. Start afresh in whatwill be their first away match of the sea-son.

Kings XI's biggest star Chris Gaylescored a 47-ball 79 and his Jamaicanrivalry with fellow mate Andre Russell,who also looked in blistering touch forKKR, will be one of the sub plots of theclash here.

The Universe Boss, who will retirefrom ODIs after the 2019 World Cup,has been in sensational form, smash-ing 39 sixes in the five-match ODIseries against England and set therecord for most sixes by a batsman in

international cricket.A typical slow starter, Gayle was 14

off 18 balls but the opener hit top gearin the 12th over hammering JaydevUnadkat for four successive boundaries.

A former KKR player, Gayle knowsEden Gardens like the back of his handas he would look to continue hisassault on the spin-oriented KKRattack.

Russell will be KKR's answer toGayle as the KKR star also fashioneda sensational win, smashing an unbeat-en 49 from 19 balls in their opening fix-ture against Sunrisers Hyderabad heretwo days ago.

The win saw their star spinner andexplosive opener, Sunil Narine, hurt hisfinger and KKR would hope he is fit intime.

KKR will embark on a crucial four-match away sojourn after this and theywould look to keep their momentumintact before they return home to faceDelhi Capitals on April 12.

�� 1&27

Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttleron Monday became the first victim

of 'Mankading' in the history of theIndian Premier League when a desper-ate Kings XI Punjab skipperRavichandran Ashwin dismissed thebatsman in the controversial mannerduring their IPL match.

With Buttler going strong at 69 off43 balls while chasing 185 runs, Ashwinmankaded the Rajasthan Royals open-er without giving him any warning.

As per the laws of the game, thethird umpire declared Buttler out butsuch a dismissal had always raised eye-brows as it is considered against thespirit of the game.

As expected Buttler seemed furi-ous and had a heated exchange withAshwin before leaving the field.

The dismissal is sure to create a bigcontroversy going into the 12th editionof the IPL.

Rajasthan were 108 for one in 12.4overs at that stage.

Among Indians, it was Kapil Devwho had mankaded Peter Kirsten ofSouth Africa during the 1992-93 seriesand in Indian domestic cricketRailways' spinner Murali Karthik hadmankaded Sandipan Das of Bengalduring a Ranji Trophy match.

�� 1&27

Unapologetic about'Mankading' Jos Buttler in an

IPL match here, senior Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwinsaid his decision was "instinctive"and cricket laws should be recon-sidered if what he did was againstthe 'spirit of the game'.

Kings Xi Punjab captainAshwin, in a match againstRajasthan Royals on Monday,'Mankaded' rival batsman JosButtler, triggering a debate on'spirit of the game'.

In a first in 12 editions of theIPL, Ashwin ran out a rampagingButtler, who was at the non-strikers' end, on his delivery stride

in the 13th over, an action popu-larly known as 'Mankading'. TVreplays showed that Ashwin hadwaited for Buttler to move out ofthe crease before removing thebails.

"Look it was very instinctive.It wasn't planned or anythinglike that. It's there within the rulesof the game. I don't know fromwhere the understanding of theSpirit of the Game comes,"Ashwin said at the post-matchpress conference.

The mode of dismissal is per-missible as per ICC Rule 41.16 ofplaying conditions, according towhich there is no need to warn thebatsman as was the case in earli-er times.

"Naturally if it's there in therules, it's there. Probably, we needto go back to the rules," India'spremier Test spinner said.

When probed further onwhether it affects the 'spirit of thegame', the irritation was palpableon his face.

"I don't understand the pointbecause it's rules. What applies forone man doesn't apply for every-one else?" he asked.

There has been a debatewhether Ashwin deliberatelydelayed while loading up on hisdelivery stride having apprehend-ed that Buttler backs up too far.

"I didn't even load and he leftthe crease. It's always been mytake on the crease, because it's my

half of the crease," he said.The Kings XI skipper lauded

his bowlers for bringing the teamback into the contest.

"We all know that after sixovers it is going to slow down.Credit to bowlers on how theybowled. I have been working ona lot of variations, pretty happythat it came out," he said.

"Sam (Curran) had a bad daywith the ball, but he came backwell. Everybody ticked theirboxes. We do have a few optionsamongst us, but if we can havegood five overs, there is nothinglike it."

Man-of-the-match ChrisGayle, who hit 79 off 47 balls, washappy with his form.

�� 6��>�0272

Impressed with his composure andcontrol Over his swing, former India

batsman Yuvraj Singh said J&K youngfast bowler Rasikh Salam is going toemerge as a special player in the nexttwo to three years.

"Rasikh swung the ball in thenets, that is why the boys wanted toplay him. He got hit for a six and fourin the last two balls. Other than that,he bowled well," Yuvraj, who scored ahalf-century on his debut match for theMumbai Indians against Delhi Capitals,said.

"I think he did fantastic for his firstmatch in terms of handling the pres-sure. Pretty much like an internation-al game. I feel he is going to be specialin the next 2-3 years," he said in aninterview with MITV.

Salam started off with a no-ballagainst Delhi Captains but respondedwith a brave bouncer on the free-hitthat was pulled towards deep midwick-et straight into the palms of a fielder.

On another day, he would have had awicket on his debut.

Mumbai Indians bowling coachShane Bond also praised Salam, sayinghe was one of better bowlers for theteam during its IPL opener againstDelhi.

"It was a challenging start but as Isaid in the pre-camp, things are goingto go wrong at times. You are going tobowl a no-ball but the easy thing forRasikh to do would have been to go topieces but he certainly didn't. I thoughthe showed great composure and wasone of our better bowlers," said thecoach.

Bond also said Salam has thehunger to learn.

Zaheer Khan, who is Mumbai'sDirector of Cricket Operations, saidSalam is an exciting young prospectwho has great temperament.

"Even Rohit Sharma is impressedwith Rasikh. He was thinking of giv-ing him an opportunity as early in theseason as possible, so exciting timesahead," said Zaheer.

�� 4504��

Watching teammate Andre Russell bulldoz-ing Sunrisers Hyderabad bowlers was a

breathtaking experience for KKR pace spearheadLockie Ferguson, who is happy that he does nothave to bowl to the West Indian this IPL.

The Jamaican single-handedly won thematch for Kolkata Knight Riderswith his unbeaten 49 off 19 ballsin their opening match.

"It's one of those I've neverseen anything like that person-ally. That was unbelievable. I'mpretty excited he's not on myside, I don't have to bowl tohim," the New Zealand quicktold reporters on the eve of theirmatch against Kings XI Punjab.

The Punjab outfit hasexplosive Chris Gayle in itsranks but Ferguson said they areprepared to tackle the Jamaican.

"Chris (Gayle) is in some pretty fine touchat the moment. He really batted well last night.It's nice to watch him. Perhaps there are someareas we can look at attacking him," he said ofGayle who starred with a 47-ball 79 to fashionKings XI Punjab's 14-run win against Rajasthan

Royals."It's important to stick to your plan and back

yourself because in T20, if you keep working onyour strengths then definitely it will come offbetter."

KKR have the reputation of being a spin-oriented attack as Ferguson said it's exciting timeto be part of the bowling unit.

"To have the spin attack wehave, and with PK (PrasidhKrishna) swinging the ball andbeing very good at the death, soby no means I think I'm lead-ing. We all do our part. AndreRussell also got the wickets."

Having added some morepace to his bowling, Ferguson ishoping to make the most of theIPL experience, ahead of theWorld Cup.

"It's high pressure in IPL. It'sone of the biggest competitions

in the world, playing in front of big crowds,against the best players in the world. Of courseall these experiences you're gaining, playing inthe IPL is going to help you going forward.

“Obviously there's a big World Cup in a fewmonths but at this stage, I'm focusing on KKRand trying to assist them, get some more wins.”

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