DA ILY FROM: AHMEDABAD , CHAND IGARH , DELH I , JA IPUR , KOLKATA , LUCKNOW, MUMBAI , NAGPUR , PUNE , VADODARA

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES `6.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMJOURNALISM OF COURAGE

SINCE 1932

New Delhi

2

I arrive at a conclusionnot an assumption.Inform your opinionwithdetailed analysis.

indianexpress.com

The Indian Express.For the Indian Intelligent.

AIR FORCE SCHOOL,PRAHLADPUR 27ED:

LIMITED TENDER ENQUIRYOn behalf of Air Force SchoolPrahladpur, bids in sealed cover areinvited for installation of 20KWP SolarPanel. The firms registered with SECImay quote for technical bid as well asCommercial bid sealed separately insingle envelope. The firms interestedare to visit the school for assessmentand obtaining RFP before submittingbids. The last date for submission ofbid is 25 Sep 21. The bids are to bedropped in the tender box kept at themain gate of Air Force StationPrahladpur, 27ED. Date of opening oftechnical bid is 27 Sep 21 andCommercial bid is 29 Sep 21. Thebids are to be addressed toChairman, Air Force Prahladpur27ED. For any query kindly contacton: 8826889490. Address: 27Equipment Depot Air Force Palam,Delhi Cantt New Delhi 110010.loZlk/kkj.k dks lwfpr fd;k tkrk gS fd dk;kZy; j{kk lEink vf/kdkjh]

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loZlk/kkj.k dks lwfpr fd;k tkrk gS fd dk;kZy; j{kk lEinkvf/kdkjh vkxjk e.Myvkxjk Nkouh }kjk feysVªh LVs'ku rkycsgV]yfyriqj fLFkr fofHkUu çtkfr dh tykÅ ydM+h tksfd yxHkx120 dqary gS] ds fuLrkj.k gsrq bPNqd O;fä;ksa@QeZ vkfn fufonkvkWQykbu (Offline Tender) vkeaf=r dh tkrh gSA o`{kks dksfn[kkus dh frfFk 21-09-2021 le; çkr% 11%00 cts feysVªh LVs'kurkycsgV] yfyriqj esa fu/kkZfjr dh x;h gSA uhykeh dk LFkku j{kklEink dk;kZy; vkxjk Nkouh] fnukad 22-09-2021 le; çkr%11%00 cts fu/kkZfjr dh x;h gSA

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National Book Trust, India (NBT, India), anautonomous organization under Ministry ofEducation, Govt. of India invites Tender to engagereputed Chartered Accountant Firms for seekingtheir services. The C.A. firm should be empanelledwith C&AG & Reserve Bank of India. For ApplicationForm and detailed terms and conditions, pleaserefer to our website i.e. www.nbtindia.gov.in. Lastdate for submitting applications is 4 October 2021,11.00 am.

davp 21103/11/0016/2122

NATIONAL BOOK TRUST, INDIAMinistry of Education, Government of IndiaNehru Bhawan, 5 Institutional Area,Phase-II, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi-110070Tel: 011-26707700, 26707721

Email: office.nbt@nic.in Website: www.nbtindia.gov.in

TENDER FOR ENGAGEMENT OFCHARTERED ACCOUNTANT FIRM

MMAARRTTYYRRDDOOMM OOnn 1133tthh SSEEPPTTEEMMBBEERRSSEEPPOOYY GGOOKKAALL SSIINNGGHH,, VVrrCC

((HHeerroo ooff NNaatthhuullaa OOppeerraattiioonnss -- 11996677))We salute and pay homage to our beloved andgallant soldier Sepoy Gokal Singh, VrC, whodisplayed exemplary valour and couragewhile defending the nation against Chineseaggression during the Nathula operations on 13

Sep 1967. We, the Akhaura Tigers are proud of his bravery andhis act of heroism will always inspire the paltan to emulate theexample set by him. May the soul of this brave martyr rest inpeace.

CCoommmmaannddiinngg OOffffiicceerr && AAllll RRaannkkss,,1133 MMEECCHH IINNFF ((1188 RRAAJJPPUUTT)) AAKKHHAAUURRAA TTIIGGEERRSS

E-TenderingLetter No. 5406/50 Yatayat(Rudr)-7/2021 Dated 10/09/2021

thSuperintending Engineer, 7 Circle, Public Works Department, Gopeshwar on behalf of"Governor of Uttarakhand" invites tender by E- tendering under Single Bid system for thefollowing works. Information regarding bid will be available from 17-09-2021 onhttp://www.uktenders.gov.in.

OFFICE OF THE SUPERINTENDING ENGINEERTH

7 CIRCLE, PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT GOPESHWAR

Sd-Superintending Engineer

th7 Circle, P.W.D. Gopeshwar

S. Name of Work Amount of Validity Cost of Completion Contractor’sN. Bid Security of Tender Period (in Category of

(Rs. Lakhs) tender Document months) Registration

1. 3.15 45 4000 + 3 Category BMonth and above

G.S.T. for RoadWork

Days 750.00SDBC work in Tehri GhansaliTilwara Motor Road Km 90, 93andMayali Jakholi MotorRoad Km 2 to 6 in DistrictRudraprayag under AR(Renewal).

Bid will be submitted online at website www.uktenders.gov.in.Before opening of bid following documents to be submitted physically to this office or in office ofExecutive Engineer, P.D. P.W.D. Rudraprayag before 3 p.m. along with online submission-1- FDR of earnest money pledged in favour of Superintending Engineer, 7th Circle, P.W.D.,

Gopeshwar.2- Seperate DD of tender cost and GST will be Payable to Executive Engineer, PD. PWD,

Rudraprayag.3- Rs. 100.00 non-judical stamp with Rs. 1.00 Revenue ticket duly signed for bid validity.4- Required category Registration-copy.

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

II,, VanshikaGoyal D/o Jai GoyaalR/oH.No.19, RoadNo.29, EastPunjabi Bagh, NewDelhi-110026, have changedmyname toVanshikaGoyall, forall purposes. 0040584230-2

II,, Sunil Kumar, father ofOjasChawla, R/o 752, Sector-16,Faridabad-121002want tochangemyname inmychild’sschool record from“SunilChawla” to “Sunil Kumar”

0040584205-1

II,, Jai Goyaal s/oTarachandGoyal R/oH.No.19, RoadNo.29,East Punjabi Bagh, NewDelhi-110026, have changedmyminor son’s name fromSuryanshGoyal to SuryaanshGoyal, for all purposes.

0040584230-3

II,, Jai BhagwanGoyal s/oTarachandGoyal R/oH.No.19,RoadNo.29, East Punjabi Bagh,NewDelhi-110026, havechangedmyname to JaiGoyaal, for all purposes.

0040584230-1

II,, AnjuBala,mother ofOjasChawla, R/o 752, Sector-16,Faridabad-121002want tochangemyname inmychild’sschool record from“AnjuChawla” to “AnjuBala”

0040584205-2

II Sangita Pant (DOB7thFeb.1966),W/oRajiv Pant,HouseNo.511, ShreeKrishnaApartment, Sector 6,Vasunhdara, GhaziabadbeknownasSangeetaPantwhichwouldbeinconsistencieswith the samenameas indicated in aadhaarcardetc. 0040584225-1

ClassifiedsPPEERRSSOONNAALL

II,,Sandeep r/oG-80 Officersenclave, Gblock, Sector 14,Gurugram 122001havechanged the nameofmyminorson aged7 years fromSameerKumar to Sameer Soni.

0070753638-1

II,,MickyGupta, S/oAjayGupta,R/oHouseNo- 2102/3, NaiBasti, AnajMandi, Narela,Delhi-110040, have changedmyname toAkshit Gupta.

0070753649-1

II,,MandiraHaldarD/oSh. PabitraKumarHaldar R/o 141-A,JalvayuVihar, Sector-21,NOIDA, Uttar Pradesh-201301have changed thenameofmyminor son fromDattatreyaBudhraja toDattatreyaHaldarfor all purposes.

0040584179-6

IIMithuGuptaS/oRajesh GuptaR/oD-52, Arawali Kunj, Sector-13, Rohini, Raja PurKalan,Delhi-110085, have changedmyname toArpit Gupta.

0070753647-1

IIMadhubalaVermaW/o SureshKumarVermaR/o Bhader,Kheri,Muda Sawaran, UttarPradesh- 262802, have changedmy name toVimlaDevi.

0070753652-1

II,,VVaarruuuunnADeshpande,S/oSh.Amit PrabhatDeshpande,R/o-E-76,Second-Floor, Lajpat-Nagar-1,NewDelhi-110024,declare thatVarunAmitDeshpandeandVaruunADeshpandeareoneand thesameperson. 0040584236-5

II,,SShhaahhaannaawwaajj S/oBabuR/o.H.No-904, Rataul Baghpat, UPhavechangedmyname toShahnawaj. 0040584236-6

II,,RRAAKKEESSHH SHARMA,S/O-MANGATRAMR/OWZ-1000A,3rd-FLOOR,RANI-BAGH,DELHI-110034.DECLARETHATRAKESHSHARMAANDRAKESHKUMARBOTHARESAMEANDONEPERSON. 0040584236-4

II,,RRAAJJEESSHHKUMARGROVERS/OBALDEVRAJR/OHNO.267,TAGORE-PARK,NR.TAGORE-PARKGOLCHAKKAR,DR.MUKHERJEE-NAGAR,DELHI-110009.CHANGEDMYNAMETORAJESHGROVER. 0040584236-3

II,,RRAAJJEENNDDRRAAPRASADS/O,LateJagdishModi,R/O,DHAMNINAWADA, BIHAR-805125,HaveChangemyname,fromRAJESHDRAPRASADTORAJENDRAPRASAD,for allfuturepurpose.Vide-AffidavitNo.IN-DL21117092793015T,Dated:08/09/2021.

0040584246-4

II,,RR..S. RanaaliasRajinder SinghRana,S/o-BhagwanSingh,R/o-Plot.No.503,Ranaji Enclave,M.S.Block,Part-3,Najafgarh,Delhi-110043,have changedmynametoRajinder Singh for all futurepurposes. R. S. Rana, RajinderSinghRanaandRajinder Singhare the sameandoneperson.

0040584246-5

II,,PPrraavveeeennKumarNagpal,S/oNanakChandNagpal, R/o.H.No.C-36 2nd-Floor Preet-ViharLaxmi-NagarDelhi-92, havebeenchangedmyname toPraveenNagpal. 0040584246-2

II,,PPHHOOOOLLWWAATTII,,WW//OODINESHKUMAR,ADD-H-308, NEWRAJINDER-NAGAR,NEWDELHI-110060,Changedmyname toMANJUGOSAINWAL, for all,futurepurposes.

0040584246-1

II,,NNeeeerraa Lohia,W/oSudhir KumarR/oE-5/11A,Shatabdi Vihar,Sector-52,Noida-201301,havechangedmyname,fromNeeratoNeera Lohia,for all,futurepurposes. 0040584236-8

II,,JJaattiinnddeerrPal Singh,S/o-LateShri.BaghSinghR/o-C-32,FF,SouthCity-1, Sector-29,Chakkarpur, Gurgaon,Haryana,Have changedmy,name to Jatinder SinghArora for all,futurepurposesandBothare sameperson.

0040584246-3

II,,JJAAYYNNAARRAAYYAANNYADAV,S/OGANGEYADAV,R/O-WARD-15,KACHHUACHAKAUTI,DARBHANGA,BIHAR-847307,InformThat JAYNARAYANYADAVAND JASNARAYANYADAV oneare the sameperson. 0040584236-1

II,,GGUURRSIMARKAURD/OPARKASHSINGHSANDHUR/OA-622-623,DDA-COLONY,CHOUKHANDI,TILAK-NAGAR,DELHI-110018.CHANGEDMYNAMETOGURSIMARKAURSANDHU. 0040584236-2

II,,BBaakkuull Ghosh,W/oKanai LalGhoshR/o-20,KrishanKunjExtension-Part-2, Laxmi-Nagar,Delhi-110092,havechangedmyname toMithaliGhosh. 0040584236-7

II,, Shiv PrasadS/oSh. Kanhai R/oD-3/3159, Vasantkunj, NewDelhi-110070havedeclare thatthebothnameShiv PrasadandRahul Verma ismineandsameperson. In future Iwill beknownasShiv Prasad for allpurposes. 0070753655-1

II,, ShilpaKhetarpal,W/o- RajatKhetarpal, R/o: C-32, GroundFloor, Vikaspuri, NewDelhi-18,have changedmyminorDaughter’s name fromKhushiKhetarpal to SaishaKhetarpal.

0070753654-1

II,, Sandeep, R/oG-80,Officer’sEnclave, GBlock, Sector 14,Gurgaon-122001, have changedthenameofmyminorDaughter aged 12 years fromMannat toMannat Soni.

0070753641-1

''IMPORTANT''Whilst care is taken prior toacceptance of advertisingcopy, it isnotpossible toverifyits contents. The IndianExpress (P) Limited cannot beheld responsible for suchcontents, nor for any loss ordamage incurredasaresultoftransactions with companies,associations or individualsadvertising in its newspapersor Publications. We thereforerecommend that readersmake necessary inquiriesbefore sending any monies orentering into any agreementswith advertisers or otherwiseacting on an advertisement inany manner whatsoever.

New Delhi

PARIMALDABHIGANDHINAGAR,SEPTEMBER12

ADAYaftertheabruptresignationof Vijay Rupani asGujarat ChiefMinister,with just 14months togo for the state polls, the BJPSunday sprang another surpriseby picking first-time MLABhupendraPatelforthetopjob.Party leaders told The Indian

Express that 59-year-old Patel’snamewas proposed by RupaniattheBJPlegislaturepartymeet-ing and seconded by outgoingDeputy Chief Minister NitinPatel.BhupendraPatel,whorep-resentsAhmedabad’sGhatlodiaconstituency, will take the oathofofficeMondayandisexpectedtoannounce thenewCouncil ofMinisters “inadayor two”.FollowingSunday’sdecision,

Patel staked claim to form thestategovernmentaftermeetingGovernor Acharya Devavrata inthe evening. An official releasestated that theGovernorhas in-vitedPatel to theRaj Bhavan forthe swearing-inMonday after-

noon. A BJP release said UnionHomeMinister Amit Shahwillattend theceremony.Patel belongs to the Kadva

sub-group of the influentialPatidar community, and is thefirstChiefMinisterfromthisseg-ment. Party leaders said he

CONTINUEDONPAGE4

BUSINESS AS USUAL

BYUNNY

DA ILY FROM: AHMEDABAD , CHAND IGARH , DELH I , JA IPUR , KOLKATA , LUCKNOW, MUMBAI , NAGPUR , PUNE , VADODARA

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021, NEW DELHI, LATE CITY, 18 PAGES `6.00 (`8 BIHAR & RAIPUR, `12 SRINAGAR) WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

NewGujaratCMBhupendraPatel (second fromright) isgreetedbyoutgoingCMVijayRupani inGandhi-nagarSunday.NirmalHarindran

AISHWARYAMOHANTYKORAPUT,SEPTEMBER12

ONAWednesdayafternoon, it’sallquietattheprimaryschoolinPhattuseneri village in Kotiagrampanchayat inKoraputdis-trict. The school, with amap ofOdishaononeof itswalls, isshut—itisopenonlytwodaysaweekowingtothepandemic—butthestudentsareaway,atthenearbyTelugu-medium MandalParishadprimaryschool.The Telugu-medium school,

propped up by bamboo polesand an asbestos roof, came up

fivemonths ago. All around thetemporarystructurearebannersand posters announcingschemes of the Andhra Pradeshgovernment. As a group of chil-dren recite numbers in Telugu,the teacher, A Ganesha, says,“There are seven students en-rolledinClass1inthisschool.ThesamestudentsareenrolledintheOdia-mediumschoolaswell.”Phattuseneri isoneof 21vil-

lages in Kotia gram panchayatthat lie at the centre of a long-standing border conflict be-tween Odisha and AndhraPradesh.On August 31, the Supreme

Courtadvisedboththestategov-ernments to resolve the borderdispute after Odisha filed a caseof contempt in the apex court

overAndhra’sdecisiontoconductruralelectionsinsixvillagesintheregion.Thebenchof JusticesAM

Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khannagrantedboth states sixweeks tohold political discussions to re-

solvethedispute.But on the ground, little has

changed,withthestatesonlyin-tensifying their interventionsthrough social schemes. Twoweeksago, a teamfromAndhraPradesh arrived here and con-ductedbhumipuja foranangan-wadi centre, an arogya centre, afarmers’hallandapanchayatof-fice,besidescarryingoutaplan-tation drive. That prompted ateamfromOdishatorushtothespotaday later.It’s this tug of war that has

dominated the lives of peopleandofficials in theseparts.In Phattuseneri, while elec-

tricityisprovidedbytheAndhraPradesh, both the governmentsprovide drinking water and

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PAGE1ANCHOR

AtPhattuseneri, thereareschemesannouncedbyboththeOdishaandAndhragovernments.AishwaryaMohanty

Six weeks to end tussle, but Andhra and Odishacontinue their tug of war over villages on border

JOURNALISM OF COURAGESINCE 1932

Teen immigrant’s dreamride: from Pune title 2 yrsago to US Open crownSHAHIDJUDGEMUMBAI, SEPTEMBER12

THE SMILE on EmmaRaducanu’s face only got biggeras the chorus of Sweet Carolineblared across the Arthur AsheStadiuminNewYork.Shejoinedin singing Britain’s enduringsporting anthemasUnion Jack-clad fans on the upper tiersswayed to the soundtrack re-servedfortheirreveredchampi-onsacrosssport. ItwasthemostBritish celebration you couldimagine tomark Raducanu’s 6-4,6-3winoverCanadianLeylahFernandez in theUSOpen final.

It also ended a 44-year titledrought.NoEnglishwomanhadwon a tennis Major sinceVirginia Wade toppedWimbledon in 1977. It wouldtake something spectacular,someone beyond anybody’swildest imagination, to breakthat streak. Raducanu, an 18-year-oldwithbarelyanyexperi-ence on theWTA Tour, fit thatbilling. Her biggest title untilnowhadcomeataFutureseventattheDeccanGymkhanacourtsof Pune in 2019 — she spentthreeweeks in India, evenplay-ing an ITF tournament inSolapur. The Cinderella story,

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BASHAARATMASOODSRINAGAR,SEPTEMBER12

APOLICEofficer diedof injuriesshortly after he was shot atpoint-blank rangebysuspectedmilitants in Srinagar on Sundayafternoon.MeerArshadwasarecentre-

cruit in J&KPoliceandwasserv-ing his probation as a Sub-Inspector. His killing evokedstrong criticism from themain-stream political parties in theKashmirValley.Militantsshotatandwounded

MeeratKhanyarneighbourhoodofoldSrinagarcity.CCTVcamerafootageof the incident showeda

suspected militant appearingfrombehindMirandopeningfireathimfrompoint-blankrangeus-ing a pistol. AsMeer falls down,

CONTINUEDONPAGE4

Earlier, rationfor poor wentto those whosaid ‘abbajaan’: YogiEXPRESSNEWSSERVICELUCKNOW,SEPTEMBER12

SLAMMINGPREVIOUSstategov-ernments forwhat he saidwastheir “casteist and dynastmen-tality” and “politics of appease-ment”, UP Chief Minister YogiAdityanath Sunday said that be-fore 2017, those saying “abbajaan” used to “digest” rationmeantforpoorbutnoweveryonebenefittedequallyfromdevelop-mentunderhisadministration.Speakingatevents to lay the

foundationstoneandinauguratedevelopment projects inKushi-nagar, the Chief Minister saidthat construction of the RamtempleatRamJanmabhoomiinAyodhya started onlywhen theBJPcametopowerat theCentreand in the state — and asked ifthe SP, BSP or Congress wouldhavebuilt the temple.Praising Prime Minister

NarendraModi,Adityanathsaidhe has changed the country’s“political agenda”, which wasearlier limited tocaste, faith, re-ligion,place, languageand fam-ily. “As a result, people fromeveryclassaregettingthebene-fitsofdevelopment.Today,thereisdevelopmentofeveryoneandappeasement of none. Earlier,when there was politics of ap-peasement, therewasn’t devel-opmentbutriots,corruption,an-archy,terrorism,oppressionandinjustice,”hesaid.“Today,youaregettingration.

Wereyougetting this rationbe-fore 2017? Because back then,those saying ‘abba jaan’ used todigest the ration.Back then, the

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THEASSOCIATEDPRESSBEIRUT,SEPTEMBER12

AL QAEDA leader Ayman al-Zawahiri appeared in a newvideomarkingthe20thanniver-saryoftheSeptember11attacks,months after rumours spreadthathewasdead.The SITE Intelligence Group

thatmonitors jihadistwebsitessaid the video was releasedSaturday. In it, al-Zawahiri said“Jerusalemwill never be Judai-zed” and praised al-Qaeda at-tacks,includingonethattargetedRussiantroopsinSyriainJanuary.SITE said al-Zawahiri noted

theUSmilitary’swithdrawalfromCONTINUEDONPAGE4

SHUBHAJITROYNEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

INITSfirstclearandofficialrefer-ence to theTalibanasa stateac-tor,IndiaacknowledgedinajointstatementwithAustraliaSundaythat the group holds “positionsof power and authority acrossAfghanistan”.This reference is a step for-

wardforthediplomaticestablish-ment, but falls short of officiallyrecognisingtheTalibanadminis-tration as the government ofAfghanistan. Sources told TheIndian Express that Sunday’s for-mulation was arrived at after“muchdebate anddeliberation”over the last week after theTalibanannounceditsCabinet.OnSaturday,ExternalAffairs

Minister S Jaishankar had de-scribed the Taliban as the “dis-pensation” in Kabul during hisremarksafterthe2+2talkswithAustralia involving Foreign andDefenceministers.Sunday’sjointstatementsaid:

“(The)Ministers also expresseddeepconcernaboutthesituationin Afghanistan.Ministers calledfor the Taliban to guarantee safepassageforforeignnationalsandAfghans wanting to leave thecountry.”

It said: “They reiteratedcallson those in positions of powerandauthorityacrossAfghanistanto adhere to counterterrorismcommitments and human

CONTINUEDONPAGE4

TOPVACANCYFILLED INADAY

KadvaPatidarleaderwill takeoathtoday;thanksModi,AmitShahandAnandibenPatel

Engineer, corporator, MLA in 2017to CM: Swift rise for Patidar leaderRITUSHARMAAHMEDABAD,SEPTEMBER12

AMONGtheearliestcongratula-tory messages for BhupendraPatel,whowasnamedGujarat’snew Chief Minister on Sunday,was from the Vishwa UmiyaFoundation, a body of KadvaPatidars. Patel’s elevation to thetop job—he is the first fromthePatidar sub-group to be Chief

Minister— is crucial to theBJP’splans to woo the communitythat has over the years driftedaway fromtheparty.In fact, Patel, 59, is oneof the

trusteesofSardardham,thePati-darcommunityorganisationthathosted the programmewherePrimeMinister NarendraModiwaschiefguestonSaturday,afterwhichVijayRupaniquithis job.Patel,underwhoseleadership

the2022assemblyelectionswill

befought,contestedhisfirstma-jorelectionin2010ascorporatorfromtheAhmedabadMunicipalCorporation(AMC).Theretoo,hehadaswift rise to the toppost—he became standing committeechairpersonintheAMCinhisfirststintascorporator.Patelisafirst-timeMLAfrom

Ghatlodia, the Assembly con-stituency vacated by formerchiefministerAnandibenPatel

CONTINUEDONPAGE4

First-timeMLABhupendra Patel isBJP’s surprise pick as Gujarat CM

Al-Zawahiri appears in9/11 video; no mentionof takeover by Taliban

EmmaRaducanu ofBritaindefeatedLeylahFernandezofCanadatowinthewomen’ssingles finalonSaturday.AP

RUMOURSofAl-Zawa-hiri’sdeathhavecircu-latedsincelate lastyear.Thevideodoesnotneces-sarilysuggestarecentrecording—eventhoughitappearedonlineontheanniversaryof the9/11at-tacks, itmadenomentionof theTaliban’sreturntopowerinKabul.Hemen-tionedtheUSwithdrawal,butthatwasdecidedbackinFebruary2020itself.

NotproofthatheisstillaliveE●EX

PLAINED

THEEDITORIALPAGE

THESHRINKINGCMBJP leadershipreplacesonemorechiefminister, trendofoverweeninghighcommandtakeshold PAGE8

920YEARSLATER

India acknowledges:Taliban hold positionsof power, authority

‘InUP, Brahmins,Dalits facemanyissues. Thewaymurders are

happening... Ifsomeone complains,they face inquiry’

SATISHCHANDRAMISRANATIONALGENERALSECRETARY,

BSP; RAJYASABHAMP

PAGE14

Thespotwhere J&KPoliceS-IMeerArshadwasshotatonSunday. ShuaibMasoodi

Daylight killing of S-Iby militant is caught onSrinagar CCTV camera

Haryana govt panel suggests redefiningAravallis, will shrink protected areaSUKHBIRSIWACHCHANDIGARH,SEPTEMBER12

INSISTINGTHATrevenuerecordsonlyidentify‘GairMumkinPahar(uncultivable hilly areas)' andmake nomention of ‘Aravalli', ahigh-level committee of theHaryana government has askedofficials to identify theareasun-

derAravallionthebasisofa1992notificationoftheUnionMinistryof Environment, Forest andClimate Change (MoEF&CC),which only covers the areas ofthe old Gurgaon district (cur-rentlyGurgaonandNuh).Environmentalists say that

by thatdefinition, theprovisionof the National ConservationZone(NCZ),whichplacesrestric-

tions on construction activity,willnotbeapplicabletoAravalliareas inFaridabad.A state-level committee led

by Haryana Principal Secretary(TownandCountry Planning)AKSinghhadmetonAugust9“forground-truthing of NCZ inHaryanaSub-RegionofNationalCapitalRegion”.

CONTINUEDONPAGE4

EXPERTEXPLAINS

MKNarayanan

FromThe IndianExpresspanelof specialists, exclusive insight

THE THREATTHAT PERSISTSEXPLAINEDPAGE13

WORLD

TALIBANSAYWOMENCANSTUDY INUNIVBUTCLASSESMUSTBESEGREGATEDPAGE15

New Delhi

THESECONDPAGE4 WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

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IndianExpress★★★★★■4.6

Talibanrights,inaccordancewithUNSCR2593.”The UN Security Council

Resolution 2593 -- issued onAugust 30under India’smonth-long presidency -- emphasisedthatAfghanistanmustnot allowits soil to beused for terrorism-linkedactivities.In another unusualmoveby

India,thejointstatementoutlinedreports of violations of humanrights.“They(theMinisters)notedreports of a rapid roll-back onwomenandgirls’rightsandaccessto services andpublic spaces, aswell as targetedviolenceagainstwomen’srightsdefenders.Inthisregard, theMinisters reiteratedtheircallforprotectionofrightsofwomenandchildrenandtheirfullparticipationinpubliclife,”itsaid.The statement sought “a

broad-based and inclusive gov-ernment” for “long termpeaceandstabilityinAfghanistan”.Flagging concernson terror-

ism,itsaidthatbothsides“agreedto remain alert to the broaderrepercussions of the develop-ments inAfghanistan for theon-goingterroristthreatsaroundtheworld,andinourregion”.Apart from Jaishankar and

AustralianForeignMinisterMarisePayne, the 2+2 talks involvedDefenceMinister Rajnath Singh

andhiscounterpartPeterDutton.

Al-ZawahiriAfghanistanafter20yearsofwar,butadded thathis commentsdonotnecessarily indicate a recentrecording, as thewithdrawal ag-reementwith the TalibanwassignedinFebruary2020.Al-Zawahiri also made no

mentionoftheTaliban’stakeoverof Afghanistan and the capitalKabullastmonth,SITEadded.Rumours have spread since

late 2020 that al-Zawahiri haddiedfromillness.Sincethen,the-rehadbeennovideoorproof ofhisbeingalive—untilSaturday.“Hecouldstillbedead,though

if so, itwouldhavebeenat somepointinorafterJan2021,”tweetedRitaKatz,SITE’sdirector.Al-Zawahiri’s speech was

recorded ina61-minute,37-sec-ond video produced by thegroup’s as-Sahab MediaFoundation.In recent years, al-Qaedahas

facedcompetitioninjihadicirclesfrom its rival, the Islamic Stategroup.

AravallisThe Indian Expresshas learnt

that at themeeting, someof thedistricts,while identifying areasunder NCZ, considered areasrecordedas ‘GairMumkinPahar’inrevenuerecordsasAravalli.TheFaridabad District Level SubCommittee (DLSC) proposed9,357 hectares,Mahendragarh22,607hectaresandPalwal3,369hectaresasNCZ.While asking districts to re-

view their recommendationskeepinginviewthe1992notifica-tion by theUnionEnvironmentMinistry, the committee said, “ItwasobservedthattheMoFF&CC,beingtheonly legallycompetentauthority, has rightly, in itswis-dom issued notification (in1992)…forthethenGurgaonandAlwardistrictsonly.Moreover, incase,thesaidMinistryatanystage

considersitappropriatetoincludeotherdistrictsalsounderAravallinotification, then the samemaybedonebysaidauthority…”Amemberof thecommittee,

however,claimedthat“itsobser-vationsarenotfinalyet”.“Asmanyas 2-3moremeetingswill takeplaceon the issue,” themembertoldTheIndianExpressSunday.Environmentalists have

stronglyobjectedtothecommit-tee's findings, saying itwill onlyopenup the region for construc-tion activity. The Aravallis arespread across seven districts --Gurugram,Mewat, Faridabad,Palwal,Mahendragarh, RewariandBhiwani.“If there arenoAravallis out-

sideGurgaon,were theordersoftheSupremeCourtforprotectionof Aravallis in 2002, 2004 and2009 implemented inFaridabadbymistake?”wonderedChetanAgarwal,anenvironmentalist.Another environmentalist

who spoke on condition ofanonymitysaid, “Asof now,con-struction canbeallowedonly inhalfpercentofanarea(0.5acreina100-acrearea)intheAravallisbutif these areas arebrought out ofthepurviewoftheNCZ,therewillbenosuchrestrictions."Terming as “faulty” the

method of demarcation ofAravallis on thebasis of revenuerecords,RPBalwan, a former IFSofficer,said,“Revenuerecordper-tains to cultivation of land anddoesn'tmentionphysicalfeatures.WhennocultivationtookplaceintheAravallisever,howwill it findmentioninrevenuerecords?HowcantheydenytheexistenceofthehighesthillofAravallis,DoshiHill(Mahendragarh), on thebasis ofsucharecord?”

YogirationmeantforKushinagarusedto reachNepal andBangladesh.Today,ifsomeonetriestoswallowrationforthepoor,hewillendupin jail.Weareworkingwith thiscommitment,"Adityanathsaid."Earlier, those saying ‘abba

jaan’ used to loot jobsmeant forthepoor... Inthelast4.5years,wehavegivenjobsto4.5lakhyouth.Thesewomenconstables stand-ing here got their appointmentduring this time. None of themhadtobringanyrecommendationor pay any bribe. But they defi-nitelyteachalessontotheRomeossaying'abbajaan',”hesaid.The ChiefMinister said that

unlike previous governments,where people from the “jungleparty” used to enter SP andBSPandcommitdacoity, lawandor-der is strengthened today. “Thejungle party is nomore today.Criminalsandriotershavedisap-peared.Every time JanmashtamiusedtobecelebratedinPadrauna,thereused toberiots. The riotersknowwhatwillhappentothem.Theirentirehouseholdwillbeonsale,”hesaid.SlammingtheBSPfordeclar-

ingthattheywouldnotbuildanynewparkormemorialaftercom-ingtopower,Adityanathsaidtheygot “scared”as they realised thattheRamtemplewouldbe“grand”and“mostbeautiful”.“Doyouthinkthatthosewho

openfireonRamdevoteeswouldhavebuilt theRamtemple?Thatthoseopening fire andconduct-ingriotswouldhaveremovedsec-tion 370 from Kashmir? Thatthose supporting the Talibanwouldhaveabolishedtripletalaq?Peopleof this state shouldneveraccept this casteist and dynastmentality.Remember,ascorpionwill stingnomatterwhere it is,”hesaid.At events organised in

KaptanganjandSevrahi,theChiefMinister inaugurated projectsworthRs420crore.InKaptanganj,helaidthefoundationstonefor96projectsworthRs310croreandin-augurated11projectsworthRs14crore.InSevrahi,helaidthefoun-dationand inaugurated30proj-ectsworthRs96crore.“This is just a trailer for

Kushinagar. A very important

workispending.Onthenextvisit,I have tocometo lay the founda-tion stone for amedical college.Kushinagarwillgetitsownmed-ical college.Nowflightswill alsostart fromKushinagarandIwantthe first flight fromhere tobe in-ternational,”hesaid.Earlier,AdityanathvisitedSant

KabirNagardistrictwherehe in-auguratedandlaidthefoundationstone for122developmentproj-ectsworthRs245crore,includingthebuildingofadistrictprisonforRs126crore.Addressing a gathering, he

said:“Wehaveconvertedthejailsof the state into reformhomeswhere the criminals are beinggiven anopportunity to reform.ThejailsofUParenomoreplacesof fun for criminals. Therewas atimewhenthepowersusedtobeslavesofvariousmafia.Today,thebulldozerofourgovernmentrunsovertheirhouses.”

J&K S-Ithe suspectedmilitant escapesfromthescene.Meerwascriticallywounded

in the shooting incidentandwasimmediately taken to SheriKashmir Institute of MedicalSciences(SKIMS)Srinagarwherehediedofhisinjuries.Policesaidtheyhaveidentified

themilitants responsible for theattackbutrefusedtodisclosetheiridentitiesoraffiliation.

“He [Meer]was deputed tohospital for check-up of an ac-cusedperson.Whenhewascom-ingoutofthehospital,hewasshotat.Hewasimmediatelyrushedtohospitalbutunfortunatelyhesuc-cumbedtoinjuries.Itisverytragiclossforus, tragic lossforthefam-ily,” DGPDilbagh Singh told re-porters on the sidelines of thewreath-layingceremonyofMeer.Mainstreampolitical parties

condemned thekilling, calling ittragicanddastardly.“Sorrytohearaboutthedeathinthelineofdutyof Sub Inspector ArshadMir of@JmuKmrPoliceinadastardlyat-tackintheheartofSrinagarcity.Ayounglifewithsomuchpromise,another grieving family...,”tweeted National Conferencevice-presidentOmarAbdullah.PDP president Mehbooba

Muftitweeted:“Saddenedtohearaboutthedeathof J&KPoliceSubInspectorArshidAhmadkilledbymilitants atKhanyar today.Mayhis soul rest inpeaceandcondo-lencestohisfamily.”PeoplesConferencechairman

SajadLonesaid:“SIArshidAhmedmartyred.MayAllah grant himJannat. The terrorists have yetagainmade an addition to thearmyoforphans.”

US Openthough,was realised in theearlyhoursonSundayattennis'grand-est23,000-seater.

AtatimewhenBrexitpoliciesare being polished, and in theweekwhen theUKgovernmentthreatenedtoturnmigrantboatsback toFrance, it tooka teenagerborninCanadatoaRomanianfa-therandaChinesemothertoplaceEngland on the sporting centrestage.Raducanu'sparentsweren’tin

NewYorktowitnesstheunprece-dented title rundue toCovid-re-latedvisarestrictions.Butthatal-lowedhermother to collect the‘KentPlayerof theYearAward’atBromley's local Sundridge Parktennis clubonher behalf,whilethe youngster pickedupher ca-reer’sbiggestprize.Both her parentswork in fi-

nance, and her father is said tohaveoncewantedtohireadiffer-entcoachtohelpherpracticeeachshot.Heevenpractisedwithheron the street outside theirhomeduringthelockdownlastyear.Thesoutheast London resident’s im-migrant background thoughdoesn’tdoanyjusticetotheoddssheovercametowintheUSOpen.Raducanuiscurrentlyranked

150intheworld,whichwillnowgoupto23whentherankingsareupdatedMonday.She’sbarelyhadanyexperienceontheWTATour,havingwonjustfourof thesevenmatcheson the regular tour. Shefirst introducedherself as aWildCard entrant in theWimbledonmaindrawinJune.

Ranked338intheworldatthetime,shewonthreeroundscom-fortably -- claiming the scalpsofformer World No. 21 SoranaCirsteaand2019FrenchOpen fi-nalistMarketaVondrousova. Sheretired from the match in thefourthroundaftersufferingfrombreathingproblems.Atthatpoint,the thenBritishwomen'sNo. 10player’s run promised to be nomore than a storm-in-a-teacupepisode.Andshe,too,wasrealisticofherchancesattheUSOpen.So much so that she pre-

bookedareturnflighttoEnglandonce the qualification roundswere over. As it turned out, sheoverstayedbytwoweeks,becom-ingthefirsteverqualifiertowinaGrandSlamtitle,doingitwithoutdropping a set. She alsobecamethelowestrankedplayersincetheunrankedKimClijsters (2009USOpen on comeback) towin theAmericanSlam.With it, Raducanu earned a

chequeofUSD2.5million.This,foraplayerwhohadtilldatewonjustUSD 303,376, and the FutureseventatPunein2019.Andif ithadn’tbeenclearbe-

fore, the teenager’s attentionhasnowsolelyshiftedtowardstennis.Asa child,Raducanuhad for-

aysingo-karting,motocross,bal-let,horseriding, tapdancing,andeventabletennisduringthosean-nualtripstohermother’shomeinChina's Shenyang. Buthermain

priority -- according to peoplewhoknewher--wasacademics.“Everyone thinks I'm ab-

solutely fanatic aboutmyschoolresults,” the straight-A studentsaidduringWimbledon, accord-ingtoanAFPreport.“TheythinkIhavesuchaninflatedegoaboutit.Actually, Iwould say I havehighstandardsofmyself.That'shelpedmeget towhere I amin termsoftennisandalsointermsofschoolresults.”This focusof academics kept

herfromemergingasabignameonthejuniortour,withatoprank-ingof20.Infact,itwasonthejun-ior tour that she came acrossFernandezoncebefore their all-teenage title clash Sunday. Theduohadplayed a second roundmatch at the 2018 Junior Girlsevent at Wimbledon, withRaducanupickingupthewin.At theUSOpenover thepast

threeweeks, Raducanu turnedquite a fewheads, and left col-leaguesandfansimpressed--in-cludinghergreatestcritic.“Mydadsaidtome‘you'reevenbetterthanIthought,’sothatwasreassuring.Mydad'sdefinitelyverytoughtopleasebut Imanagedtodothat,”shesaid.

Andhra, Odishamake it a point to advertise thesamethroughbannersandhoard-ingsonwatertanks.Around 5 km from

Phattuseneri are twovillages --calledUpra (Upper) Sembi andTala (Lower) Sembi inOdia andYeguva (Upper) Sembi andTakkuva(Lower)SembiinTelugu-- where some people haveAadharcardsfromOdishaandtheothersfromAP."Both the states have been

fightingoverthisregion.Attheendoftheday,weareokaybeingpartofwhichever state thatprovidesusbetteropportunities,"saysPilkuTadingi,27,ofUpraSembivillage,speakinginOdia.HisAadhaarcardidntifieshimasbeing fromUpraSembivillage,Koraput,Odisha.Three houses away, in the

samevillage,isTadankiSriram,26,whoseAadhaar card sayshe is aresidentof YeguvaSembi, Sariki,Vizianagramdistrict,AP.Officials say contradictions

alsoarisewhileidentifyingbene-ficiariesforgovernmentschemes.For instance, theRana andDoracommunitieshavetribalstatusinAndhraPradesh,whiletheyareintheOBCcategoryinOdisha.Apart fromlaying foundation

stonesforvariousprojects,theAPgovernment has also been con-ductingcitizenredressalandvet-erinary camps, distributing landpattas and extending welfareschemes.TheKoraputdistrictad-ministrationhasoftenresortedtobarricading theborderareasanddeployingpoliceofficials topro-hibit"unwarrantedentries".In 2018, theAPgovernment

had provided Aadhaar cardsandinitiatedtheconstructionofroads in the region. In retalia-tion, the same year, Odisha de-clared a Rs 150-crore develop-mentpackage for the region. Inmid-2019, for the first time, allthe villages in the disputed re-gionbecameaccessiblebyroad.In January, the first evermobiletowerwas setupby theOdishastate government in the area,followed by an announcementthe followingmonth that Kotiawould be developed into amodelpanchayat."Our claim is that we have

beenexercisingjurisdictionintheregion sinceOdishawas formedandourruleisclearthatinallthesevillages, our schemes, develop-ment activities, and additionalsupportintermsofinfrastructureandlivelihoodwillbeextendedtoKotia residents,"KoraputDistrictCollectorAbdaalMAkhtarsaid.AP revenue officials, on the

otherhand,maintainedthatthedisputed villages are adminis-teredby their stategovernmentand the villagers also receivebenefits of various schemes bytheAPgovernment.

FROMPAGEONE

First-time MLA Bhupendra Patelis BJP’s surprise pick as Guj CMtickedmostof theboxes for theBJPaheadofthe2022Assemblyelections forwhich statepartychiefCRPaatilhassetanambi-tious target ofwinning all 182seats.Most importantly, said a

leader, Patel's elevation “bearsthe clear stamp of PrimeMinisterNarendraModi”. “ThepartyobservershadcomewiththenameofBhupendraPatelasthe next Chief Minister,” theleader,whoattendedSunday'smeeting,said.Overthelasttwoyears,Modi

wasthechiefguestattwomajorevents held by the biggestPatidarorganisations:afounda-tionceremony in2019 fora so-cio-religious complexbyVishvUmiya Foundation of KadvaPatidars, and the inaugurationSaturdayofacommunitybuild-ingofSardardham,whichisrunbyVishwaPatidarSamajthatin-cludesLeuvaandKadvaPatidars.Bhupendra Patel is a key

memberofboththeseorganisa-tions.

Incidentally, PatelwonhisfirstAssembly election in2017fromtheseatthathadbeenrep-resentedearlierbyUPGovernorAnandiben Patelwhowas re-placed by Rupani as ChiefMinister.ThenewChiefMinisteris believed to be a close confi-danteofAnandibenPatel.Speaking to reporters later,

BhupendraPatelthankedModi,ShahandBJPchiefJPNadda“forputtingtheirfaithinme”.“Ialsothank(Gujarat)partypresidentCRPaatil andhis teamandVijayRupaniandhisteamforputtingtheir faith inme.Andthebless-ingsof honourableAnandibenhavealwaysbeenwithmeandwillremainso,”hesaid.Patelsaidhedidnothaveany

inklingabouthisnamebeingincontention for the CM's post.AskedabouttheAssemblyelec-tionsnext year, he said: “BJP isnotapartythatis inthehabitofonly doing election-orientedwork. Everyworkerworks forthe people every day andwillcontinuetodoso.”

Stateparty chief Paatil saidtherewas“nodiscussion”onthepostofDeputyCM.Hesaid thepartywill decideonnewrolesforRupaniandNitinPatel.FollowingRupani’s resigna-

tion Saturday, theBJP's centralparliamentary board had ap-pointedUnionministers andsenior leadersNarendra SinghTomarandPralhad Joshi asob-serverstooverseetheelectionofthenewCM.Tomar and Joshi arrived in

GujaratearlySundayalongwithBJP national general secretaryTarun Chugh, a day after theparty's national general secre-tary(organisation)BLSanthoshand state in-charge andUnionMinisterBhupenderYadavhadreachedthestate.Sunday'smeetingwas at-

tendedbyRupani, Nitin Patel,partyMLAs,MPsandtopoffice-bearersof thestateunit includ-ingPaatil. Earlier, thenamesofPaatil,UnionMinisterMansukhMandaviya, Gordhan ZadafiaandLakhshadweepadministra-

tor Praful Patelwere floatedastopcontenders.MandaviyaandZadafiaareLeuvaPatidars fromtheSaurashtraregion,whichhasalready been represented byseveralchiefministers.“Noneof ushadany inkling

aboutBhupendraPatelbeingthenextCM.Itwasasurprise.Thisisa move to pacify the Patidarcommunity,”saidaBJPMLA.Thepartyalsohopes towin

back votes it lost toAAP, espe-cially in Surat where ArvindKejriwal'spartysecuredsizeablesupportfromtheLeuvaPatidars.UP Governor Anandiben

PateltooktoTwittertocongrat-ulate Patel and expressed thewishthat“Gujaratachievesnewheights of developmentunderhisexperiencedleadership”.AmitShahpostedamessage

forthenewCMonsocialmediaandexpressedconfidence that,“undertheguidanceofNarendraModi andyour (Patel’s) leader-ship,Gujarat’scontinuousjour-neyofdevelopmentwillgetnewenergyandmomentum”.

Engineer, first-time MLA in 2017 toCM: Swift rise for Patidar leaderafter she was appointedMadhya Pradesh Governor.Patelwas campaign in-chargeforAnandibeninthe2012elec-tion. In 2017, Patel defeatedCongress’sShashikantPatelbyoveronelakhvotes,amongthehighestwinningmargins.Patelbeganhispoliticalca-

reer from MemnagarNagarpalika in Ahmedabad inthe1990s and servedaspresi-dent of the city civic body in1999-2000and2004-06.Following the delimitation

of Ahmedabad, he fought theAMC election in 2010 fromThaltejward.Beforecontestingthe corporation election, healso served as AMC schoolboard vice chairman from2008-10.Patel'spositionsofpowerin

Ahmedabad city covered thechief ministerial terms of

Narendra Modi, AnandibenPatelandVijayRupani.Patel was chairman of

AUDA (Ahmedabad UrbanDevelopment Authority) in2015andclearedmajordevel-opment projects in the Bopal-Ghumaarea,whichwasunderAUDAbeforeitsmergerintotheAMCin2020.Thefast-develop-ing area on the outskirts ofAhmedabad is part of AmitShah’sconstituency.Colleagues who have

workedwith Patel in theAMCandAUDAtalkofhimas"asim-ple, grounded person with anon-controversial image"."Heisverystraightforward.

Hisabilitytolistenandgiveoth-ers the chance to speak showshe does not have any bias to-wards anyone," saidoneof hiscloseassociatesfromtheAMC.Sardardhamvice-president

TrikambhaiZalavadiya,whore-tiredasdeputymunicipalcom-missioner fromAMC in 2008,told The Indian Express,“Despite holding such impor-tantpositions,hesat inthelastrow during Saturday’s eventwhere the PMwas the guest.Gujarat has got a low-profile,honestandhard-workingCM."RPPatel,presidentofVishv

Umiya Foundation, said,“During Vishv Umiyadham’sfoundation-stone-laying pro-gramme by the PM in 2019,Bhupendrabhai, despite beingafounder-trusteeandMLA,un-dertook the responsibility ofmanagingtheparking.”A civil engineer andmem-

ber of the Gujarat Institute ofCivil Engineers andArchitects,Patelhasbeeninthereal-estatebusiness for25years."His real-estate business,

VihanAssociates,haslargelyre-mained confined toAhmedabad. Over the last 10years,hehasnotbeenactiveinthe construction business dueto his involvement in politicsand AMC and AUDA," said aleadingreal-estatedeveloper.AresidentofShilaj,aneigh-

bourhoodwhere Anandibentoo has her residence, Patel'sson and son-in-law too are intheconstructionbusiness.ItwasduringPatel'stermas

chairmanof theAMCstandingcommitteethatamajorpartofthe Sabarmati riverfront proj-ect and the Bus Rapid TransitSystem (BRTS) were com-pleted,alongwithclearanceforSVP Hospital, whichwas thesecondlargestCovidhospitalinthecityat thepeakof thepan-demic.—WITH INPUTSFROM

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CORRECTIONAwrongimagewasinadvertently included inthecovercollageoftheadvertorialonUttarPradesh,whichappearedon12.09.21,producedbythemarketingdepartmentofthenewspaper .

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New Delhi

5WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

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LAST DATE30TH SEPTEMBER 2021

CALL FOR NOMINATIONSWELL PERFORMING PROJECTS ACROSS

AREAS OF GOVERNANCE FROMCITIES, DISTRICTS AND DEPARTMENTS

ARE INVITED TO PARTICIPATEIN THE ASSESSMENT AWARD.SKOCH.IN

ODISHA’S LESSONS IN GOVERNANCE

www.caii.in

If you love yourpeople, you don’t

fight for elections, youfight for change andtransformation. If youwork for the people, youwill continue to live inthe hearts of people likeMahatma Gandhi andBiju Babu. If you keeppeople at the forefront,it is not a political

journey, it is a spiritualexperience.

NAVEEN PATNAIKChief Minister

Empowermentof women is theempowermentof nation. Nohousehold, nosociety, no state,no country hasever moved

forward withoutempowering its

women.

NAVEEN PATNAIKChief Minister

AMAR PATNAIKgovernment came to power in thestate in 2000 post the devastatingsuper-cyclone of 1999 whichhad ravaged the entire State. Thenewly elected government rose tothe occasion and thus began thetransformation of the State frombeing referred to as the ‘disastercapital’ of thecountry togetting twocoastal villages as being ‘TsunamiReady’ from the UNESCO-Intergovernmental OceanographicCommission, making India thefirst country in the Indian Oceanregion to demonstrate such highlevelsofdisasterpreparednessat thecommunity level. Today, Odisha, astate which has faced more thantwo dozen severe natural disastersduring the last two decades, isknown as the leader in naturaldisaster management by virtueof its immaculate preparedness,mitigation and reconstructionmeasures. It has also beenapplauded by the United Nationsyear after year for “strengtheningdisaster risk governance, investingin preparedness and scenarioplanning while spreading greaterunderstanding of disaster risk.” In2018, Odisha became the first statein India to set up the sophisticatedEarly Warning Disaster DisposeSystem.

Women powerThe Mission Shakti movementof Odisha, launched in 2001involving seven million ruralwomen has been organized intoa formidable network of aboutsix lakh women Self Help Groups(SHGs) who are provided financialassistance through soft bank loansto encourage them to take upvarious self-employment worksand micro-projects. Since 2019,Odisha has promised to dedicateRs 5000 crore of market linkageto SHGs in the coming five yearsthrough government procurementsystems such as PDS, mid-daymeals and other nutrition supportprogrammes besides medicalsupplies and infrastructuremaintenance works. Women fromthese self-help groups also led fromthe front in Covid managementand food distribution during thepandemic. Naveen Patnaik hasvehemently fought for politicalrepresentation to women bylending his might to the issue

Odisha had for longsuffered the humiliationof being showcased asone of the poorest in the

country. But today it has taken thecenterstage in leading the nationby example, be it being the firstcity in the country to achieve cleandrinking water from tap in thecity of Puri or achieving hundredpercent vaccination coverageagainstCovid-19 inBhubaneshwar.Needless to mention, it won full-some praise for its astute handlingof both the first and the secondwaves of the Covid 19 by theinternationally acclaimed Lancetjournal. Adding to these championacts, it recently garnered nation-wide appreciation for sponsoringthe Indianmenandwomenhockeyteamswhose sterling performancesat the Tokyo Olympics 2021made every Indian proud. It isthe first state in the country thathas officially sponsored a game/sport since 2018. What is evenmore laudable is the fact that whenthe national government or bigcorporates failed to sponsor them,Naveen Patnaik, heading a stategovernment, stepped in. It wasan eye-opener as to what genuinecommitment and dedication cando to Indian sports.

TRAJECTORYOF ODISHA’STRANSFORMATIONDisaster managementThe Naveen Patnaik led

EducationOdisha has begun work towardstransformation of existing HighSchools by introduction ofSMART classrooms, advancedlearning aid, laboratories, andrevamped teachers’ trainingprogrammes. Another efforttowards holistic development ofschools and colleges is the launchof the Mo School and Mo CollegeAbhiyaan, whereby alumni arebeing encouraged to have a fairsay in the infrastructure andextra-curricular developmentof their alma mater. Under this,the government has committedto contribute double the amountcontributed by the alumni.Odisha Adarsh Vidyalaya, thebrainchild of Naveen Patnaik, isanother initiative to ensure accessto quality education to everyonein the state, particularly the poorand remotely located.

Investment DestinationOdisha is also aiming towards

making the state a haven for safeinvestments. In a major boostto the state’s flagship “Make-in-Odisha,” since November 2017,195 industrial projects rangingacross metal, renewable energy,textiles and food processingsectors etc. with an investmentvalue of Rs 92,460.84 crore havebeen inaugurated. More than60% of projects under Make-in-Odisha are in various stages ofimplementation. With growthenabled by these projects, Odishais emerging as the manufacturinghub of Eastern India. This hascreated more avenues for jobs.

of women reservation time andagain besides taking the first stepin nominating one-third womencandidates in the last parliamentaryelections.

Food for all & PovertyReductionThe State has been successfulin dropping its poverty levelsby 25% over the past 20 yearsever since Naveen Patnaik cameinto power. The State enactedthe State Food Security Scheme(SFSS) to cover more than 34lakh people left out from thecentral National Food SecurityAct (NFSA) which covered only70% of the State’s 2011 censuspopulation, thus covering morethan 90% of the households in afood safety-net.

AgricultureThe State has several schemesin place for the upliftment ofits farmers. While prioritizing

the small and marginal farmers,the KALIA Scheme, thoughintroduced earlier than the PM-KISAN Nidhi scheme, went onestep better to ensure income andlivelihood support to agriculturelandless households, agriculturallabourers, share-croppers and theelderly who cannot till their landsanymore. The State also providesloans to its landless farmers via anew institutional mechanism ofjoint liability groups (JLG). Forits total food grain production,Odisha has bagged the nationally-acclaimed Krishi Karman Award5 times indicating the significant

outcome of growth in itsagriculture sector.

Health for All in truesenseThe State depicted truecommitment of CM’s ‘everylife is important’ promise inthe tactful handling of boththe waves of the Covid-19pandemic by deft execution ofmicro-containment and limitedlockdown strategies coupled witherection of temporary medicalfacilities at Gram panchayat levelwith delegation of Collector’spower to Sarpanches, etc.Odisha’s prodigious commitmenttowards health assurance andequity is also reflected in the BijuSwasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY)first introduced in 2018 and nowstrengthenedanditsambitwidenedto provide a smart Health Card tomore than 90%of all households ofthe State which is 30% more thanthe PM-JAY. Odisha is the onlystate in the country to implement

Urban GovernanceOdisha is also a pioneer in urbangovernance. This is reflected ininnovative and revolutionaryschemes such as Jaga Mission.In a first in the country, thismission is aimed at givingproperty rights to slum-dwellersas a first step towards improvingtheir living conditions. So far,it has benefitted 1.8 millionpeople living in 3000 slums. Forits outstanding performanceunder this scheme, the state wonUnited Nations’ World HabitatAward 2019. State’s achievementin urban governance is alsovisible in other areas such asthe unique community-basedsolid waste management, amodel urban wage employmentprogramme now adopted bythe Centre, water management,affordable housing, etc. Odishawon the fastest moving State inthe Swachh Survekshan Awards2020. In the latest India SmartCity awards, Bhubaneshwar wontwo awards for its innovation ingovernance and citizen centricprojects.

Financial DisciplineThe economy of Odisha hasregistered tremendous growthtrajectory since the year 2000.Theaverage rate of growth in Odishahas been 7.5% which is higherthan the national GDP averagesince 2012-13. In addition tothat, the State has successfullymaintained revenue surplus since2015-16. Per Capita income ofOdisha increased by 115.60% ascompared to national per capitaincome which increased by111.51% from 2011-12 to 2019-20 (RE).

How did Odisha achievethis feat?The Naveen Patnaik ledgovernment ensured that thebasic needs of its people werecatered through a plethora ofsocio-economic welfare schemeswhich led to enhancement oftheir capabilities that went on toinstill the desire of moving upthe Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ladder and thereby looking fornewer opportunities. Odisha’sstyle of governance is also drivenby John Rawls’s idea of justice

Odisha has been a consistent performer in SKOCH Awards and State Rankings

wherein the state institutionsensure fair opportunityirrespective of social classes.Moreover, the policies are alignedto ensure maximum benefit ofthe marginalized groups basedon the ‘Empowerment Model’.As Prof Amartya Sen wouldsay that growth happens whenthe capabilities of people areenhanced. The focus on achievinghigher order aspirations is slowlybut certainly leading to unleashingthe true potential of the state andits people.

Governance in Odishahas been characterized byan extremely innovative 5Tframework which includestechnological leveraging,transparency in governance,teamwork from the variousstakeholders involved andmeeting targets in a time-boundmanner thereby leading totransformation. This nuancedapproach of the Naveen Patnaikled government is the reasonfor the various accolades thatthe State so far has achieved.Corruption has also beenspecifically targeted under hisgovernance with the mandateddisclosure of assets right from thelowest officer in the governmenthierarchy to the Chief Ministerhimself.

ConclusionOnce a beleaguered backwardState, Odisha now boastsof effective governance inpartnership with Panchayati RajInstitutions and community-based response strategies, thelatter being the hallmark of aninclusive growthmodel underwayin the state. While rising to thehighest tradition of cooperativefederalism by supplying 19,000MT of the much sought-afterliquid oxygen to 19 states of thecountry during the second waveof the pandemic, there is littledoubt that Naveen Patnaik willbe long acknowledged as thepremier leader in the makingof modern Odisha even by hismost vehement critics. Indiamust learn from Odisha how tomake the most of its availableresources and dare to achieve theimpossible. As the CM himselfsays, “speak less, work more.”

AMAR PATNAIKMember of Parliament, RajyaSabha fromOdisha; a former CAGbureaucrat, an academicwith a PhDinmanagement and an advocateViews are personal

@Amar4Odisha

such a universal assurance-basedhealth scheme which guaranteedfree healthcare services (bothoutdoor and in-patient facilities) toall, at all public health institutions,irrespective of their income,status or residence and even inempaneled private hospitals. Theannual cashless coverage of `5 lakhper family and`10 lakhperwomanis a big step forward to bridging theexisting health inequities in genderand economically weaker sectionsand way better than the centralcounterpart where the bulk of thefinancial benefit accrues to theinsurance companies.

Advertorial

New Delhi

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

AAMAADMI Party chief ArvindKejriwalwaselectedasthepartynational convener for the thirdtime during the NationalExecutivemeetingonSunday.This is Kejriwal’s third term

as theconvener.Earlier this year, the party’s

constitutionwasamendedtoal-lowforthesamepersontobeof-fice bearers in the party morethantwice.Theconstitutionear-lier said, “Nomemberwill holdthesamepostasanoffice-bearerformore than two consecutivetermsof threeyearseach.”Aftertheamendment,which

wasmade in January 2021, theduration of the term has beenincreased to five years and thebar on the number of terms forofficer bearers has been lifted,sources said.“The meeting reinforced

their belief in the fact that he(Kejriwal) is themost popularleader of the party, considering

that he has won the public’smandate thrice as the ChiefMinisterofDelhi,”thepartysaidinastatementonSunday.Kejriwal’ssecondtermasna-

tional convener was to end inApril 2019 but it was extendedfor a year in 2018 in viewof theLok Sabha and Delhi Assemblyelections. The meeting of thecouncil was then postponed in2020becauseof thepandemic.Thenextmeetingwasheldin

January 2021, where the partyconstitutionwasamended.On Sunday, national secre-

taryPankajGupta,whohasalsoserved two terms as an officebearer, was also re-elected tothepost.MPNDGupta has also been

reelectedasthepartyTreasurer.Theparty’sNationalCouncil

had met on Saturday where anew National Executive waselected. This has 34members,including Kejriwal, ManishSisodia, Satyendar Jain, ImranHussain, Rajendra Pal Gautam,Raghav Chadha, Atishi andRakhiBirla.

6THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

THECITYWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

ASHNABUTANINEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

A FOUR-YEAR-OLD learning tocycle on a road free of vehicles,no overhead wires danglingacross buildings, a clear viewofthe Red Fort — visitors toChandniChowkenjoyedastrollacross the 1.4-km revampedstretch thatwas inauguratedbyChief Minister Arvind KejriwalonSundayevening.Withrestorationworkfinally

complete,shopkeepersandven-dors who struggled during thelockdown in 2020 and 2021hopedthetideswill finally turnintheirfavour.Abangleselleronthe stretch said, “Aaj itne dinbaadcustomersdikhrahehai(weareseeingcustomersaftermanydays today).”Signageshavebeensetup in

the area declaring it a non-mo-torisedvehicle(NMV)zonefrom9 am to 9 pm, and amap of thestretch has been installed nearthe entrance. The main gateswere shut to vehicles and onlypedestrians couldwalk in. Fiveeight-seater golf carts had alsobeenassignedespecially for theday andwere being tried out asa ‘sample’.The central verge which

marks thesegregationbetweenthe pedestrian zone and NMVlanes is adornedwith planters,bollards, and sandstone seats.Thecoloursandtexturesusedforthe redeveloped stretchmirrorthoseoftheRedFort.Thescram-ble crossing between ChandniChowkandRedForttooprovidescontinuity incolourandtheme.Unveiling the name plaque

near Gurdwara Sis Ganj,Kejriwal said Chandni Chowkwas earlier associatedwith im-ages of broken roads, electricalwires, and traffic snarls: “In thelast three years, the Delhi gov-ernmenthas carriedout the re-developmentandbeautificationproject in Chandni Chowk andithasbeeninauguratedtoday. Itgoes without saying that thepeople are loving it.”Urban Development

Minister Satyendar Jain, Foodand Civil Supplies MinisterImran Hussain, MLA ParladSingh Sawhney and senior offi-cials of PWDwere also presentat the inauguration.Kejriwal added that the

stretch from Red Fort toFatehpuri Mosque has beenbeautified, the traffic problemhas been resolved, CCTVs havebeen installed, and electricalwires takenunderground.“Wehavemore plans to de-

velop Chandni Chowk as atourist spot. In the comingmonths, these plans will be fi-nalised and we’ll keep imple-menting them. This beautifica-tion project has been a greatsuccess, and I congratulate thepeople of Delhi for witnessingthis development.Wehaveno-ticed that pedestrians comehere at night to experience thedeep-rooted legacy of thesestreets. We plan on further ex-tending services of street food

stalls to develop the area into anight tourism spot. People willbeabletoenjoythemselveshereeven after themarkets shut tillaround12am,”he said.“Whereverpeoplefaceprob-

lems in the area, we will takenote and fix them locally. As forwaterlogging,wehavesaidear-lieraswellthatthedrainagesys-tem throughout Delhi needs tobe fixed. We got this idiosyn-cratic drainage system as a giftfrom the previous govern-

ments...ButIcanassureyouaftersome years, youwon’t see wa-terlogging anywhere in Delhi,”theCMadded.Almost all the vendors and

workersintheareasaidtheyfacedlossesbecauseoftheconstructionwork in frontof their shops, cou-pled with the lockdowns, andhoped businesswill improve inthecomingdays.Others,however,believedtheirbusinessisfullyde-pendent onwhen internationaltravel resumes and if there is athirdCovidwaveornot.Meanwhile, 108 revamped

rickshaws—with specially de-signed seats and painted red—have been given permission toplyintheareafornow.Numbershave been assigned to each ofthemandtheywereaskedtogetlicences fromtheNorthMCD.AshokKumar(40)gothisre-

vampedrickshawjustyesterday.During the lockdown this year,he had to go back to his home-town in Lucknow. “Now I thinkwewill finally be able to attractmorecustomers,”hesaid.However, uncertainties pre-

vailed among those rickshawpullerswhoareyetbeenallowedto ply in the area. According tothem, there are around 2,000rickshawdrivers andonlya fewareable tocontinueworking.ShivrajBisht (35)saidhehas

a licencebuthasnotbeengivena number: “Those who havebeen plying their old rickshawsare getting fined Rs 200 each.Howare the rest of us expectedto run our families if we are leftwithouta job?”A fight also broke out be-

tween a rickshaw driver andsomeone whowas driving theelectric golf cart. Someone inthe area said, “They have beenfighting since last night as therickshawdriversareafraidtheywill be left unemployed be-causeof thenewrules and reg-ulations.”The transport department

had recently been asked to fi-nalisetheprocurementandde-sign of electric golf carts to dis-courage private vehicles in thearea.

AAP elects Kejriwalas national convenerfor a third term

Call from FB officialsin Ireland helpscops avert suicideat Signature BridgeEXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

AN ALERT from Facebook offi-cials from Ireland on Fridayeveningonapossiblesuicidebidby a 27-year-old man atSignature Bridge had the DelhiPolice Cyber Cell and policeteams from three districts ontheirtoesfortwohours—beforethey found the man near thebridgeandsavedhim.On Friday around 3 pm, the

man,whorecentlydroppedoutofanMBAdegree,postedanoteonFacebooksayinghewants toend his life because of a failedrelationship and studies. Themanmentionedinthepostthathe couldn't study after thebreakup and dropped out ofcollege,andthatheisupsetovernot having a job.Since the post had suicidal

content, Facebook officialsat Ireland detected it andflaggedit totheIndianEmbassywhich alerted the Delhi PoliceCyber Cell.Anyesh Roy, DCP (Cyber

Cell), said, “We received the in-formationfromIrelandandim-mediately started tracing theman’s location using his socialmediaaccounts.Wefoundthathe was near Signature Bridgeand alerted police teams fromTimarpur, Dayalpur, andSeelampur police stations.Meanwhile, our team alsofound the man’s brother andcontactedhim.”It was suspected that the

manmight jumpoff the bridge.Hisbrotherjoinedthesearchop-eration with police and triedcalling themanonhisphone.Personnelfromthethreepo-

licestationsalsostartedsearch-ing for themannear thebridge.Around5pm,theyfoundhimatKhajoori Chowk, metres awayfromthebridge.Theman told police that he

was“disappointed”afterthere-lationshipendedandwantedtoendhislife.Heliveswithhisfam-ilyinSeelampurandisalsolook-ingforajob.Policesaidtheycon-soled him and asked him to gohomewith his brother. Hewasalsocounselledbydoctors.

The1.4-kmstretchfromRedFort toFatehpuriMasjid isanon-motorisedvehiclezonefrom9amto9pm. Photos:AbhinavSaha

KEJRIWAL INAUGURATES1.4-KMSTRETCH

Extortion: Police setto invoke MCOCAagainst 2 jail officials

Supplementary chargesheets pending inriot cases, NE district police seek help

ANEWLOOK

FATEHPURIMASJID

GurdwaraSisGanjSahib

GauriShankarMandir

TownHall

SyamaPrasadMukherjeeMarg

REDFORT

4toilets

124CCTVs

160stonebenches

5,000bollards

A5.4-metre-widefootpath,next to ita5.5-metre-widecarriagewayforcyclerickshaws,followedbya3.5-metre-widecentralvergewithplantersandbollards.Next tothis, is thesecond5.5-metre-widecarriagewayandthena5.4-metre-widefootpathagain.

150 (approx)AmaltasandMaulsari trees

160planterswithbougainvilleaplants

ChandniChowkRoad

394 street lamps(twooneachelectricpole)

5.4-metre

3.5-metre

5.5-metreChandniChowkMetroStation

FountainChowk

1.4km

Now open: Chandni Chowk 2.0

InfantdiesinhousecollapseNew Delhi: A nine-month-old infant diedwhilehismotherandsis-ter sustained severe in-juries after a portion oftheterraceof theirhousecollapsedonthem.Policesaid the incident tookplace Sunday in OuterDelhi’s Swaroop Nagar.Police said they receiveda call and sent teams tothe spot. A casewas reg-istered against the land-lord Ranbir Singh Rana(56) and police arrestedhim from his house. Hehas been booked underIPCsections337(causinghurt by act endangeringlife) and 304A (causingdeathbynegligence).

TwoinmatesinjuredinfightatTihar jailNewDelhi :Two inmateswere injured after agroup of inmates al-legedly attacked themwith knives and sharpweaponsinsideTiharjaillate Saturday. Tihar jailofficials said the inmatesgot into a heated argu-ment over ‘old enmity’whichturnedintoafight.Policeareyettoascertainthe reason behind thefight and are conductinganinvestigation.SandeepGoel,DG (Delhi prisons),saidthetwoinjuredmenwere sent to a hospitalandhavecomebackaftertreatment.PoliceSundaysaidtheyhaveregisteredacaseagainstallthosein-mates involvedinthe in-cident under sections ofattempt to murder andcausing hurt by danger-ousweapons.Theinjuredinmateswere identifiedas Naresh Dutt andBrijesh alias Kalu.Prashant Priya Gautam,Additional DCP (West),saiddoctorsatDDUhos-pitaltoldpoliceabouttheincidentat10pm.

ManheldforstealingSUVsNewDelhi:Amanwhoal-legedly stole SUVs andotherexpensivecars,dis-mantled them, and soldthe spare parts in DelhiwasarrestedfromKalindiKunj on Sunday. Policesaid the accused,Harmeet Singh, is in-volved in half a dozencases of auto theft. Fivestolen carswere also re-covered fromhisposses-sion. Police said theirteamswere looking forauto lifters in the areawhen informers toldthemaboutSingh.AteamleadbyACP (Operations)Umesh Barthwal foundSinghwasdrivingastolenInnova SUV in SaritaVihar. R P Meena, DCP(Southeast), said, “Ourstaff overpowered thedriver and caught him.When he was askedaboutthecar,hecouldn’tgiveanydetails.”ENS

BRIEFLY

Nephew killed womanat Chandni Mahal: Cops

Total VacantHOSPITAL BEDS 16,340 16,055ICU BEDS 3,516 3,431

Cases Recoveries Deaths TestsSept11 35 44 0 74,540Sept12 22 44 0 61,968Total 390* 14,12,760 25,083 2,64,89,794

CORONAVIRUSIN THECAPITAL *T

otalactivecases

TOTAL CASES

14,38,233VACCINATIONS INLAST24HOURS1,30,180

CMKejriwalat the inauguarationof therestoredChandniChowkstretch,Sunday.AbhinavSaha

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

THE DELHI Police are likelyto invoke the stringentMaharashtra Control ofOrganisedCrimeAct (MCOCA)against two jail officials whoallegedly helped SukeshChandrashekharextortmoneyfrom former Fortis Healthcarepromoter Shivinder Singh’swife Aditi Singh.The two— deputy superin-

tendent Subhash Batra andassistant jail superintendentDharam Singh Meena —are accused of helpingChandrashekhar run the extor-tion racket fromjail.Chandrashekhar,his lawyer

B Mohan Raj, actress LeenaPaul, her manager Joel JoseMatthews, Kamlesh Kothari,whohelpedSukeshbuyabun-galow in Chennai, and ArunMuthu, who helped him buyluxury cars, are already facingMCOCA.Sources said that during

questioning,Sukeshclaimedhedid financial transactions withjail officials and that theyhelpedhimstayonestepaheadof investigators on whethercallshemadefromjailwerebe-ing intercepted.Aditi Singh had filed a com-

plaint alleging shewas cheatedofRs200crorebyamanposingas a law secretary and promis-ing to help with her husband’slegal cases.

MAHENDERSINGHMANRALNEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

WITH SUPPLEMENTARYchargesheets pending in casesrelated to the February 2020 ri-ots, theNortheastdistrictpolicehas asked four districts —Central, North, Shahdara andEast — to send two sub-inspec-torseachtoassistwiththework.Thedecisionwas takendays

afteraDelhicourtrappedthepo-lice.OnSeptember6,upsetoverthe delay in trial, the court, intwo separate orders related tothe riots, had pulled up the po-lice for “lackadaisical attitude”,failure in “supervisory duties”,and trying to avoid “taking re-sponsibility”.ChiefMetropolitanMagistrate Arun Kumar Garg

had directed the Delhi PoliceCommissionertotakeappropri-atemeasurestoexpeditethein-vestigationinthesecases.Inbothcases,thehousesof twopersonsweredestroyedbyamob.Sources told The Indian

Express thatafterthis,ameeting

washeldbyseniorofficersattheDelhiPoliceheadquarterstodis-cuss riots cases. “It was high-lightedthatof the694casesreg-istered inseveralpolicestationsin Northeast Delhi, 390 havebeensolvedandchargesframedin39.Thedistrictpolicealsosaidchargesheets in 311 cases havebeen filed,” saidasource.During themeeting, senior

officers were also informed bytheNortheastdistrictpolicethatthey have filed supplementarychargesheets in over 100 casesand found some shortcomingsin themainchargesheets.“Following a discussion, the

districtpolicehasbeenaskedtoread all chargesheets again andidentifyshortcomingswithhelpfromthepublicprosecutor.Theyhave been asked to try and col-lectevidenceagainandfilesup-

plementary chargesheets,” aseniorpoliceofficersaid,addingthattheDCP(Northeast)alsore-quested senior officers to givehimtwoSIsfromfourdistrictstoexpeditework.An officer said investigation

officershavebeenasked tovisitall crime scenes, meet callers,lookformoreeyewitnesses,andcheckCCTVcameras.Duringtheannualpresscon-

ference, former Delhi PoliceCommissioner S N Shrivastavahad said technology was usedextensively to investigate over750casesrelatedtotheriotsandhisforceensureda“freeandfair”investigation.Hehadsaidthein-vestigationteamusedvideoan-alytics and FRS to analyse CCTVfootage to identify the accused,andretrieveddeleteddata fromelectronicdevices.

Ameetingwasheldrecentlytodiscussriotcases.Archive

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

DAYSAFTERabodyofa55-year-oldwomanwasfoundinsideherhouseinCentralDelhi’sChandniMahal, police arrested hernephewforallegedlykillingher.Thevictim,MumtazParveen,

hadbeenarrestedbytheSpecialCell in2000alongwithherhus-band,asuspectedISIagentfromPakistan. While her husbandwas deported to Pakistan, shestayed in India.Police said the accused has

been identifiedasFarman(22).On September 3, Parveen’s

bodywas found insideherbed-roomafterneighboursinformedpolicethatafoulsmellwascom-ingfromherhouse.Policefoundher decomposing body withdeepcutmarksontheneck.AsParveenwasawidowand

livedalone,police said theyhadto contact her distant familymember. Police also scannedCCTVs in Chandni Mahal andfoundonesuspect.JasmeetSingh,DCP(Central),

said, “The man (suspect) wasseennearthewoman’shouseonAugust 30 and again on the dayof theincidentaround8pm.Hisface was covered and footageshowed him leaving in an auto.We analysed call detail recordsandmounted technical surveil-lanceonsuspects.Familymem-berswerealsoquestioned.”On Sunday, Singh’s team

found that Parveen’s nephewwas involved and arrested himfromMeerut. During question-ing, he confessed to the crimeand said Parveen had allegedlyframedhim in the doublemur-der case in connectionwith thedeaths of twopassersby at BaraHinduRao in July.

New Delhi

THECITY 7WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

ABHINAYAHARIGOVINDNEWDELHI,SEPTEMBER12

WHAT IS to be done with thepervasive vilayati kikar trees inthe Delhi Ridge? The question,which isat theheartof aprojectto ‘restore’ parts of the CentralRidge, long known as the capi-tal’sgreenlungs,appearstohavecreatedariftamongexpertsandforest department officials,bringing the project to a stand-still.Earlierthisyear,theDelhicab-

inetapprovedaprojecttorestorethe biodiversity of around 423hectaresoftheCentralRidge,allo-catingRs12.21crore for thefive-yearimplementationperiod.Thegovernment constituted a six-memberprogressreviewandad-visorycommittee for theprojectearlierthisyear.Yet,noworkhasstartedonthe

ground—members of the com-mitteeareatoddsoverhowtoim-plementtheproject,raisingques-tions about the ecologicalrestorationof thevast tractof re-serveforestinthecity’smidst.Vilayati kikar or Prosopis

julifloraisa non-native, invasivetree species in the Ridge. Thehardy tree, said to have beenplanted by British administra-tors,requireslittlemoistureandsuppressesotherplants.Thena-tive vegetation of the Ridge is“highly degraded and com-posedofsmallpatchesof thornyscrub,” going by theproject de-scription for the Central Ridge.“The dry, deciduous forests arealmost on the verge of extinc-tion,” it explains. The project,therefore, seeks to restore thenaturalecosystemsthatexistedbeforedegradation.“Thisinvolvesrestoringthelo-

calflorabysuppressingthevilay-ati kikar,” said Ishwar Singh,Principal Chief Conservator ofForests (PCCF). Lantana, a shruband another ubiquitous invasivespecies,willbeuprooted,butthekikar, a tree, cannot be removedbytheroots,hesaid.“We cannot fell such a large

numberofkikartrees.Theplanistoprunethebranchesofthekikartoopenup thecanopyandallowlocalfloratogrow,andeventuallyreducetheshareofthekikarinthelocalregion,”hesaid.Butmembersoftheadvisory

committeedonotagree.“It’scru-cialthatrestorationisdoneintherightway. Itmeans that vilayatikikar has to be grubbedout, notby using JCBs or heavy earth-movingmachines—becausethatwill destroy the habitat — butmanually. This will take a longtime andwill be expensive, butthat can’t be helped. Then, wewill have to plant up thewholeof the Ridge with native trees,shrubs and grasses that areadapted to grow on thin, rockysoil,”saidPradipKrishen,amem-berof theadvisorycommittee.“The vilayati kikarmakes up

90oreven95%of thetreesintheRidge. It out-competes mostotherkindsoftreesbecauseofitsreproductivesuccessandthefactthatitsecretesanalkaloidthatin-hibitsotherplants fromgrowingnearit.That’swhywe’velostmostof our native vegetation on theRidge,”hesaid.Another point of difference

was the trees that should beplanted. Prof C R Babu of theCentre for EnvironmentalManagement of DegradedEcosystemshadsuggestedalistoftrees, but around fiveor six treesoutof10donotgrowinDelhianddonotbelonghere,Krishensaid.

These includeHaldina cordifolia(adeciduoustree),Albiziaprocera(whitesiris)andDalbergia latifo-lia (IndianRosewood). Theproj-ect proposal had suggested thatProfBabuwouldbetheprojectin-charge.Therewasathirdpointofcon-

flict. “Prof Babu announced thatpart of his project involved dig-gingditchesandwater-bodiesonthe Ridge. But there is no goodreason to change themoistureregime on the Ridge. All theRidge-like lands nearDelhi thatsupport natural forests, likeMangar Bani, don’t have peoplediggingpoolsandditchestostorewater.There’ssimplynoneed.It’sa completelywasteful expense,”Krishensaid.“When anyone embarks

upon ecological restoration,theyneed to findwhat is calleda ‘reference site’, which is a sitethathasthesamesetofsoilcon-ditions,minerals, climate, rain-fall, etc. The job of the restora-tion team is to strive to imitatethe reference site, and thewayinwhichplantcommunitiesoc-cur, howtreesare spacedapart,and so on. Prof Babu, whenasked, says he has no referencesite,”Krishensaid.Prof Babu refused to com-

mentonthematteroftheCentralRidge.However,asimilarprojectwas initiated for the AravalliBiodiversity Park in 2004. ProfBabu said that the AravalliBiodiversityPark, of around692acres, was also dominated byProsopis juliflora.

“Wehave removed Prosopisjuliflora inaphasedmannerandhavebroughtback1,200 speciesofplants,developingtheareaintoaround50 to 75biological com-munities,” he said. Forest com-munitiescanbedevelopedfromany degraded landscapewithinfiveyears,butdevelopmentofthecanopywould take at least 10 to12years,headded.Faiyaz Khudsar, scientist at

the Centre for EnvironmentManagement of DegradedEcosystems at the University ofDelhi, said that two methodswereusedtorestoretheAravalliBiodiversityPark’s natural ecol-ogy. Prosopis juliflora waspruned to bring sunlight to theground andweeds like lantanawere removed by cutting therootstock. This allowed nativetrees to grow, and once the na-tive species grow tall, the kikartrees die since they are notshade-loving,hesaid.Vilayatikikar isa largecom-

ponent of our green cover and‘invasive’ is a harsh term usedfora tree, saidarchitectSudityaSinha, another member of theadvisory committee.“Resources can be deployed toensurenonewgrowthof vilay-ati kikar rather than trying toget rid of all the kikar, many ofwhich are large trees. Cuttingdown a particular species toplantaso-called ‘better’ speciesissomethingIdon’tagreewith,”he said.“Therearedifferencesamong

committeemembers about theimplementation of the project.Butwearesortingouttheissue,”Singhsaid.“Theprojectandthescopeof

workhas been approvedby theRidgeManagement Board andtheDelhiCabinet.Wecannotgo

beyondwhat has already beenapproved,”headded.The scope of work involves

opening up of the canopy andnot theuprootingof kikar trees,hesaid.Byhisestimates,aroundone-thirdofDelhi’s greencovercomprisesProsopisjuliflora.Theadvisory committee has mettwice, thePCCFsaid. InadditiontothePCCF,PradipKrishenandCR Babu, the committee com-prises Reena Gupta andSuditya Sinha. It is headedby the Principal Secretary(EnvironmentandForest).Krishenmaintainsthatvilay-

ati kikar has few other virtues.“Birdsdon’t nest in it. The leavesarenotgoodfodder.Onlyitsseed-podsareedible,andthatishowitspreads—inthedungofcattleorgoats. Even its timber is nogoodexceptasafirewoodandformak-ingcharcoal,”hesaid.Sinha,how-ever, pointed out that one of themost important environmentaleffects of the tree is its ability toprovide shade and thereby re-duce the heat island effect, par-ticularly incities.“I’m all for restoring the

Ridge.Butitmustbedoneintherightway,withtherightspecies.Maybewewill need towaitun-tilwehave the rightmixof eco-logical expertise, ForestDepartment and design skills.We certainly don’t have thatcombinationinplacerightnow,”Krishensaid.Sinha added, “The proposal

lacksaholisticscientificbaseandneeds meticulous study, anddataassimilationof theexistingecology.Atreeaudit isverynec-essary, including a completespecies and tree count. There isa lack of information on howmuch we have of this speciesandnumberof treesingeneral.”

HARDLOOK

The tree stalling a projectPlantedbyBritishadministrators longago, thevilayati kikarhasnowsplitexperts trying torestoreDelhiRidge.

Theburningquestion:Should thetreesbeuprootedorkept?

THEPLANRestorationof423hectaresoutof864hectaresof theCentralRidge

COST

`12.21 crTIME:5years

WHY?Thenativevegetation ishighlydegraded.Ridgeecosystemshelpcombatdesertificationandhelp rechargegroundwater, therebynecessitating that thenatural ecosystemthatexistedbeforedegradationberestored

HOW?■Biodiversityenrichmentanderadication/managementof invasivespecies(Prosopis julifloraandLantana). Lantanawillberemovedbycuttingtherootstock,Prosopisjuliflorawillbemanagedbycanopyopening■DevelopgreenwayswithnativeAravallivegetation,includingnativetrees,shrubsandherbsofdrydeciduous forestcommunities,andcreaterecreational spotsalonggreenways■Deepdepressionswillbedevelopedintowaterbodiesbyraisingsmallearthenbunds

THEPROJECT

DDAmootspolicy to sellsurrendered,rejected flatsABHINAVRAJPUTNEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

THE DELHI DevelopmentAuthority is likely to bring in a‘first come first served’policy tosellflatsthatwereeithersurren-dered,rejected,orremainedun-allotted in previous housingschemes.DDA commissioner (hous-

ing)VSYadav said theproposalhas been sent to theMinistry ofHousing and Urban Affairs toconsider giving people flats forthose inventories thatarenot indemand. “Whenwe say ‘not indemand’,itmeanssectorswhere50%houseshavebeeneitherbe-ingcancelled,surrendered,orre-mainedun-allotted,”hesaid.The decisionwas prompted

by the fact that past schemessawflatsbeingsurrenderedonalargescaleduetoissueslikelast-mile connectivity, water, trans-portation, and steep prices. Inthe 2021 scheme launched inJanuary too, 51% flats—694outof1,354units,asperDDAdata—at locationssuchasDwarkaandJasola have been surrendered,forcingtheland-owningagencytoconducta freshdrawof lots.If the policy is approved,

most of these surrendered flats— 175 out of 215 HIG flats in

Jasola, and 295 out of 352MIGflats in Dwarka Sector 19 —wouldbeonofferona‘firstcomefirstserved’basis.“Allotherrulesthat are applicablewhen a per-sonbuysaflatunderdrawof lotsto be eligible would be fol-lowed,” saidYadav.A senior DDA official said it

was found thatduring thedrawof lots,severalseriousbuyersdonotgetflats.“This ledtotheflatsbeingsurrendered,especiallyinthecurrentsituationwhererealestate prices as well as incomehavedippedduetoCovid.Thereis no point holding on to theseflats for thenextdrawwhenwereceive requests from peoplewhowanttopurchasetheseflatsasitsuitstheirrequirements.So,we have asked the MoHUA toconsider theproposal,”hesaid.“Holding on to flats also

means investing in their up-keep... whenwe can'tmaintainthem, it leads to wear and tearand creates a bad perception…So after the draw, we can goaheadwith this system if min-istry gives us permission,” saidtheofficial.As per rules, the DDA can

conduct a drawof lots followedbyaminidraw.Inthelatter,onlyaround20%of thoseonthewaitlistduringthefirstdrawcanpar-ticipate.

NewDel hi: A 29-year-oldmandiedafterheslippedonawater-loggedroadandgotsweptintoadrain nearby in Outer Delhi’sNarelaonSaturdaymorning.Police said the rain had

caused heavy waterlogging inthe area and theman got stuckin the drain and drowned.The

victimwas identified as SaleshMehto, who worked as a con-tractual labourer at the DelhiState Industrial andInfrastructure DevelopmentCorporation Ltd (DSIDC). Policeand a team from the Delhi FireServiceshadtouseacranetopullhisbodyoutfromthedrain.ENS

Man slips on waterloggedroad, falls into drain, dies

‘FIRSTCOMEFIRSTSERVED’BASIS

New Delhi

8WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

SHRINKING THE CMBJPcentralleadershipreplacesonemorechiefminister,trendof

overweeninghighcommandtakeshold

THEBJPHAS replaced yet another oneof its chiefministers— the third in twomonths—beforetheendofhistenure, forreasonsthatarenotofficiallystatedbutostensiblyhave todowithbalancingcasteequationsandcontaininganti-incumbency. The party has chosen Bhupendra Patel, a low-profile legislator

withnopreviousexperience ingovernment,as thenewGujaratCM,seemingly inabidtoassuage thepolitically powerful Patel community aheadof assembly polls in 2022. VijayRupani’s poor record in Covidmanagement— theGujaratHighCourt had censured thegovernment’sfunctioning—andhisinabilitytowinoverpowerfulsocialgroups,mayhavegoneagainsthim.Buthisexit,incircumstancesthatarestrikinglysimilartohiselevationtochiefministerialoffice in2016,speaksofa largertrendintheBJP.PoliticalpartiesarepronetoreplacingMLAsinelectionstodentanti-incumbency,but

achangeatthetopisusuallymadewhenthereisathreatofrevoltbylegislators.However,the BJP has visibly downsized the office of the chiefminister in stateswhere it runs thegovernment—evenassemblyelectionsarefoughtinthenameoftheprimeminister.Thepresidentialmodeof campaigninthegeneralelection,whichhascoincidedwiththeriseofNarendraModiinnationalpoliticsin2014,haspercolateddowntoassemblyelections.Gujarat, whereModi has also been the chief minister, is the best example of this trend:Votesaresought forModi inelectionsatall levels—RupaniandthenewCM,BhupendraPatel,werenotprominentinstatepoliticsuntiltheirelevationtothestate’stopoffice.Afterhis ouster fromoffice, Rupani compared the change of chiefministers to a relay race: “Iwas running. Now Iwill give the flag to someone else. (Now) hewill run,” he said. InUttarakhand andKarnataka,where the BJP also recently replaced CMs, it similarly pre-ferred legislatorswith limited influence to party veterans: For instance, in Karnataka, itoptedforBasavarajBommai,whohadjoinedtheBJPonlyin2008.InUttarPradesh,Haryana,Uttarakhand,WestBengal,thepartydidnothighlightanystateleaderduringassemblyelec-tionsandsoughtvotesbyprojectingModi’s leadership.Ironically,thisriseofapowerfulpartycentre,reminiscentoftheCongresshighcommand

underIndiraandRajivGandhi,isatvariancewiththefederalapproachtheBJPhadcultivatedandnurturedunderAtalBihariVajpayeeandLKAdvani.Thathadenabledthepartytocre-ateasecondlineofleadershipofcharismaticpoliticiansinthestates.Manyofthem—ShivrajSinghChouhan,UmaBharti, VasundharaRaje, RamanSingh, Yediyurappa, Kalyan Singhamongothers—ledthepartytosuccessintheirrespectivestates,whichcanbesaidtohavelaid theground for theBJP’s spectacular growthunderModi andAmit Shah. Thedenial ofautonomytostateunitsandagencytostateleaders, thepreferenceforfacelessrunnersinarelay raceover influential politicians, and thedependenceon thehigh command for elec-toraloutreach,aresignificantchangesintheformandcharacterof thenewBJP.

IIT-PLUSTheirsuccessasB-schools isasignofamoreexpansive

educationvisiontakingrootatpremierengineeringinstitutions

SIXIITSAREnowamongthetop20managementinstitutionsinthecountry,someevenoutpacingreputedbusinessschools suchas IIM-Indoreand IIM-Lucknow—proof that India’spremierengineeringschoolsarenotcontent toremain justthat.Thesignsofamoreexpansivevisionofeducation,thatlooksbeyondtechto

embrace theworldofhumanitiesand law,artsandarchitecture,havebeenevidentat theIITs for awhilenow. IIT-Kharagpur, for example, openedamedical college in2018;overadecadeearlier, it had setupa school of law focussedon intellectual property. Thehighestranked IITon theNational InstituteRankingFramework in themanagementcategory, IITDelhi,startedofferingMBAprogrammesinthelate1990s.Overtheyears,severalIITshavegoneontooffercoursesinhumanities,socialscienceandliteratureaswell,arguablyinre-sponsetoagrowingrealisationthatanexclusivelytechnicaleducationcanbecomeastuntedone.Thetransformationhasbeenslowandsteady,atapacedecidedbytheIITsandontheirownterms.Butitsignalsanimportant,welcomechange—itisincreasinglyhardtoconceiveofeducation,evenprofessionaleducation,insilos.Indeed,theIITshavebeenchippingawayataworkingmodelofinterdisciplinaryeducation,muchinthemouldofwhattheNationalEducationPolicyenvisagesafutureuniversityoughttobe.This success offers a lesson:Given adequate financial resources and the autonomy to

decidetheirowntrajectory,highereducationinstitutionscanbuildontheiruniquestrengthsto liveuptotheambitiousblueprintsofpolicymakers.Forexample,what isgivingtheIITsmomentuminchallengingthebestbusinessschools isafocusonresearch.WheretheIITsfalter is anold,deep-rooteddeficiency—genderdiversity.Despite the introductionof su-pernumeraryquotastoincreasetheintakeofwomen,theIITsremainalargelymalepreserve—here, theyarelosingouttotheIIMs,whichdomuchbetteronthecountof inclusivity.For decades now, the IITs have defined success for lakhs of students barely out of

school, ready to hurl themselves into rigorous hyper-competitive training to procure aseat at the elite institutions. Some of the features of this regime have been called intoquestion, fromthesocial bias thatmakesan IIT classroompredominantlymaleandup-per-caste to the rigidwalls between science and arts education. Not all of those ques-tions, especially on gender and caste inclusion, have found satisfactory answers. But awideningof the IITcanvasbodeswell— for the largereducationecosystem.

AshokGulati andRitika Juneja

Movetopromoteoilpalmiswelcome,but incentivestructurethat favoursrice,wheatmustchange

LASTWEEK,THEgovernmentannouncedtheminimumsupportprices(MSP)ofrabicropsfor themarketing season2022-23. TheMSPfor wheat is up by 2 per cent while that ofrapeseed-mustard isupby8.6percent,per-haps indicating that the governmentwantstofocusmoreonedibleoils/oilseedsthanonwheat.Thisistherightapproachgiven,ontheone hand, the bulging stocks of wheat athomeandthemassive importsof edibleoilsontheother.ButtheprofitabilityofMSPovertheprojectedcost(A2+FL)is100percentbothincaseofwheataswellasrapeseed-mustard.Giventhatthegovernmenthasamassivepro-curement programme forwheat, but a verymeagre one for rapeseed-mustard evenwhenthepricesrulebelowMSP,therelativeincentive structure remains in favour ofwheat. So, we doubt if farmerswill switchfromwheat tomustard in anymeaningfulmannertobridgetheedibleoildeficit.Inthiscontext,itisimportanttonotethat

PrimeMinister NarendraModi recently an-nouncedaRs11,000-croreNationalEdibleOilMission-OilPalm(NEOM-OP),asapartoftheAatmanirbharBharatAbhiyan.This isaboldsteptoaugmentdomesticedibleoilsupplies,given that 60 per cent of the edible oil con-sumed in the country is imported—morethanhalf of this is palmoil followedby soy-beanandsunflower.InFY2020-21,edibleoilimports touched $ 11 billion or about Rs80,000crore(for13.5milliontonnes).Despitetheseimports,edibleoilinflationinJuly2021(onayear-on-yearbasis)was32.5percent.In this backdrop, themove to promote

oil palm is a step in the right direction. It istheonlycropthatcangiveuptofourtonnesof oil productivity per hectare under goodfarm practices. But it is a water-guzzlingcrop, loveshumidity(requires150mmrain-fall everymonth) and thrives best in areaswith temperature between 20 and 33 de-grees Celsius. The National Re-assessmentCommittee (2020) has identified 28 lakhhectares suitable for oil palm cultivation inthecountry—theactualareaunderoilpalmcultivation, as of 2020, is only 3.5 lakh

hectares.Alargepotential is thuswaitingtobe tapped. Much of this (34 per cent) is inthe Northeastern states, including Assam,followed by Andhra Pradesh (19 per cent)andTelangana (16per cent).NEOM-OPaimstobringanadditional6.5

lakhhectares under oil palmby2025-26, ofwhich 3.25 lakh hectares will be in theNortheast and the remaining in other partsof thecountry,mostprominently in the irri-gated tracts of Telangana. Thus, by2025-26,the government hopes to cover an area of amillionhectaresunderoil palm.We feel thegovernmentcouldhavebeenbolderandat-temptedtocover2millionhectaresby2025-26,giventhehugedeficitinedibleoilproduc-tioninthecountry.Achievingself-sufficiencyin edible oil production through the otheroilseedscomplexwouldrequireaddingabout45millionhectaresunderoilseedcultivation.This is not possiblewithout drastically cut-ting down the area under cereal crops. Thebestalternativeis,therefore,toensurepropercare of palmoil crop, provide goodplantingmaterial,better irrigationmanagement, fer-tilisersandotherinputstoraiseproductivityto four tonnesofoil/hectare.The NEOM-OP intends to focus on pro-

ductivity and area expansion by supportingthe farmers in the followingways: An inputassistanceof Rs20,000-29000/ha forplant-ing material, additional assistance of Rs12,500/ha for four years to covermainte-nance/opportunitycostsof farmers,withnolimits on acreage, a Rs 5-crore assistance toindustries that plan to set up a fivetonnes/hourprocessingunit,assistanceofRs100lakhtoseedgardensintheNortheastfor15hectares(uptoRs80lakhinrestof India);andsupport forvermiculture, irrigationandfarmmechanisation.Thiscomprehensiveas-sistancepackagewill,hopefully,attractfarm-ersaswellasincentivisetheindustrytoworkwith agriculturists and augment edible oilproductioninagloballycompetitivemanner,therebyreducingthe importbill.A critical element of the strategy is the

pricing formula for fresh fruitbunches (FFB)

ofoilpalm.TherewillbenoMSP,buttheFFBprice for farmerswould be fixed at 14.3 percentof average landedCPOpriceof thepastfiveyears,adjustedwiththewholesalepriceindex.Thisisthemostcriticalpartofthepric-ingpolicyand the formulaneeds tobecare-fully calibrated. However, the litmus test ofpricingwillbedovetailingitwiththeimporttariff policy to protect the farmers in caselanded prices fall below the cost of produc-tion. Recently, the effective duty on crudepalm oil imports has been slashed againsthighglobalpricesto30.25percent(includingagri-cess at 17.5 per cent and socialwelfarecess at10per cent).Theeffectivedutyon re-finedpalmhasbeenslashedto41.25percent.Duties on other edible oils, soya and sun-flower,areinthesamerange.However,effec-tive duty for rapeseed and cottonseed oilsrangesfrom38.5percent forcrudeand49.5per cent for refinedoils. It’s thishigh importduty, at a timewhenglobal edible oil priceshave goneupby almost 70 per cent (y-o-y),thathascausedhighdomesticinflation(32.5percent) inedibleoils.In its 2012 report, “Oil Palm: Pricing for

Growth, Efficiency & Equity”, theCommissionforAgriculturalCostsandPricesrecommendedthatIndiashouldkeepanim-portduty trigger at $800/tonne— if the im-portpricefallsbelow$800/tonne,theimporttariffneedstogoupincountercyclicalman-ner. Thus, import duty needs to be in syncwithrationaldomesticpricepolicy.Itisanec-essaryconditiontogiveafilliptoaatmanirb-harta inedibleoils. But thesufficient condi-tion would be revisiting the existingincentivestructurethatundulyfavoursrice,wheatandsugarcanethroughheavysubsidi-sation of power, fertilisers and open-endedprocurement. The need is to devise a crop-neutral incentive structurewhere croppingpatternsarealignedwithdemandpatterns,andthecropsareproducedinagloballycom-petitivemanner.

Gulati is InfosysChairprofessorandJuneja isConsultantat ICRIER

Achieving self-sufficiency inedible oil productionthrough the other oilseedscomplex would requireabout adding about 45million hectares underoilseed cultivation. This isnot possible withoutdrastically cutting down thearea under cereal crops. Thebest alternative is, therefore,to ensure proper care of palmoil crop, provide goodplanting material, betterirrigation management,fertilisers and other inputsto raise productivity to fourtonnes of oil/hectare.

FOUNDED BY

RAMNATH GOENKA

B E C A U S E T H E T R U T H I N V O L V E S U S A L L

§ §

THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021WORDLYWISE

Engineeringwithout imaginationsinks to a trade.— HerbertHooverTHEEDITORIALPAGE

TAMIL NADU BANDHTHE STATE GOVERNMENT-sponsoredbandh in Tamil Nadu against the atroci-ties onTamils in Sri Lankawas almost to-tal and peaceful, barring a few incidentsof stone throwing and obstruction oftrains in some parts of the state. Exceptfor somecentral services likepostoffices,ports, railways and IndianAirlines flightsandsomeessential services likehospitals,chemists, milk supply and the press, allactivity was paralysed in the state. Stategovernment offices, banks, shops, hospi-tals were closed. The roads wore a de-serted look, except for a few private carsand taxis. A skeleton suburban servicewas,however,maintained.ChiefMinisterM G Ramachandran in a statement

thanked the people and parties in thestate formaking the bandh a success.

ANTULAY’S SUCCESSOREFFORTSAREBEINGMADEbytheCongress(I)highcommandtosettletheMaharashtraissue before the PrimeMinister leaves forher tour abroad. Sources close to thepartysay that there are no two opinions in theparty thatARAntulayhas to go. Thedelayin the final decision is only because of theselectionof his successor.

JAGAT NARAIN MURDERTHEPUNJABGOVERNMENTsuspectsSantJarnailSinghBhindranwaletobetheagent

provocateurbehindthemurderofLalaJagatNarain.Thechief secretary,ParamjitSingh,gaveenoughindicationaboutBhindrawalewithoutnaminghimatanewsconference.He, however, neither accepted nor denieddirectquestionsabouthis role.He saidev-idencenowconfirmedthatthemurderwasoneof thefewplannedby“someelementswhowereplanningtheeliminationofsomepersonswith serious differenceswith theviews theywereexpressing”.

CHINA DENIESACHINESEgovernmentspokesman deniedall knowledge of a reported intrusion byChinese troops into India’s remote north-westernLadakhterritory.

SEPTEMBER 13, 1981, FORTYYEARSAGO

An aatmanirbharta challenge

RamuRamanathan

THE SONGS OF SONALBENThrough librariesandclassrooms, Sonal Shuklaopenednewworlds forwomen

WHEN I SPOTTED Sonal Shukla for the firsttimeinthe1980s, I thoughtshewasthebestsinger in the world. A feisty woman allpumped up and hollering at the top of hervoiceduringaprotestinMumbai.Aroundherwerearagtagarmyofwomenmarchers.Herfinestmomentwas theForumAgainstRapemovement— spontaneously formed by 49womenwho connected over an open lettersigned by Upendra Baxi and three othersabout the injustice in theMathura rapecasejudgmentbytheSupremeCourt.SonalbenwasourOdetta(thevoice—and

what a voice—of the civil rightsmovementintheUSA).Musicwas inhergenes.ShewasthedaughterofNinuMazumdar,themusicalmaestrowhocomposedhundredsofGujaratisongsandditties.Sheoncetoldme,“Wehavetruly no roots in the family’s feudal past. Nocaste, no ‘native place’ to visit, no assets inGujarat anywhere, no idols at home, no vratandfasts,noritualsof anykindathome.Ourfather createdmusicals based on Sita,wrotestutis to Shiv and garbas of devis, but treatedthosesourcesas literatureandnotreligion.”Unlikehersiblings,Shuklainheritedvery

littleofthemusicalnotesfromherfather.Butthat never deterred her. Sonalben sang herprotestsongs.Futureactivists likemejoinedthechorus.Wewereshapedbyher.A committed feminist, Shukla’s focus in

life — like Savitribai Phule —was “the em-powerment of girls fromdeprived commu-nities.” Her favourite childwas Vacha. Bornin1987,Vacha isa tiny library inamunicipal

school in Santacruzwhichhouseswomen'smagazinesandwritingbywomen.TheVachaidea was simple. Ordinary young girls inbastis could accesswords and indeed ideas— particularlywork songs andwork anec-dotes—becausetheyshapetheirlivesbetterthanhigh theory. Shukla andher teampub-lished books in which a girl asks: “IsChyavanprashonlyforboys?”or“Whymustboysnotwashutensils?”Today, three decades later, Vacha has an

outreach inmore than 16 bastis in the city.Publishing books inwhich the bal-kishorisdocument their lives, the centres borrowheavily fromShukla’swork inher formativeyears. The emphasis is on basic stuff: “Therighttofood;righttopee;righttocomplain;the right to walk or cycle on the streets ofMumbaiwithheadsheldhigh;and,therightto laugh.”When I had asked herwhat thatmeant,

she said, “Wehadmotherswho told us ourdaughtersarehappyatyourcentre,butpleaseinstruct them not to laugh somuchwhentheystepout.Somemanwillthenstopthemfromgoingthere.”During the pandemic, herwork carried

on. She reported that the situation in thebastiswas“frightening”,withjoblossesandmountinginflation.Vacharanclassesforsix-year-olds in2020asschoolsshutdown,andthen forClass II students this year.Her fore-cast for this groupof childrenwas dire: “Allover the country, millions of children be-tween fiveandsevenare likely to remain il-

literateor semi-literate.”Besidesdialecticsanddaaruwiththebest

mindsof ourgeneration (fromAngelaDavisand Tariq Ali and Praful Bidwai to FlaviaAgnes),Shukla’sweeklycolumninaGujaratinewspaper commanded respect fromread-ers at a timewhen her Left politics had insomewaysbeeneclipsedbyright-winggob-bledygook.BeithertributestoDhirubenPatelandIlaPathakorheranalysisofwomenchar-acters in Gujarati novelist GovardhanramTripathi’sworks, shesangthesongof sanity.SheanalysedVileParle, thepartof thecityinwhichshestayedmostofher life. In fact, shehadinsightsoneverything, fromsecretnon-vegetarianjointstorareharmoniumplayers.FromMarxtoGandhi.Shecorrectedmewhen Imentionedher

fondness forGandhi inapublicprogramme.“Gandhian education, though not alwaysGandhi,hasbeendeartome.Eventoday,Iamtrying to balance both in Vacha’s scheme ofsocialeducation inthebastisofBombay.”By somestandards, theplanet hasmade

progresswhenitcomestorightsforwomen.Andyet,fourdecadesaftertheMathuracase,thequestiontoaskis, if anAdivasiminorgirlwould be raped today, will we find the en-ergy, forceandcommitmenttoraiseourcol-lectivevoices?If onlywehadtimeforonemorerousing

song,Sonalben.

Thewriter isaplaywrightandeditorofPrintWeek

Her favourite child wasVacha. Born in 1987, Vacha isa tiny library in a municipalschool in Santacruz whichhouses women's magazinesand writing by women. TheVacha idea was simple.Ordinary young girls inbastis could access wordsand indeed ideas —particularly work songs andwork anecdotes — becausethey shape their lives betterthan high theory. Shukla andher team published books inwhich a girl asks: ‘IsChyavanprash only forboys?’ or ‘Why must boysnot wash utensils?’

Freeze Frame E P Unny

New Delhi

9THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021 WHATTHEOTHERSSAY

“The establishment of a Taliban government in Kabul has underscored that farfrom reasserting its global supremacy, the US looks more vulnerable today; andthat the echoes of 9/11 are still reverberating across the region — but will notstay there. ” —THEGUARDIANTHE IDEASPAGE

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

The redevelopment ofGandhiji’s birthplace inPorbandar destroyed itssimple elegance. A fewdecades back, a narrow roadled to his three-storied brick-and-stone house. There waspeace on each floor. You satthere, happy at the journeyyou had made. Now the galiis widened. The shops aregone. The house has been‘redeveloped’. It’s sickening ifyou compare it with theearlier ambience.

THEDISTORTEDBASEof lastyear’srestric-tivenationwidelockdownhasexpectedlyobscured the challenges wrought by thesecond wave of Covid-19 in India in thefirst quarter of the current financial year.India’srealGDPhasexpandedbyarecord-high 20.1 per cent (year-on-year) in thefirst quarter on the low base. However, amore appropriate assessment of the realrecovery can be achieved by lookingthrough a pre-Covid lens — that is, com-paring the first quarter of 2021-22 withthe first quarter of 2019-20.The impact of the secondwavewas a

considerable9.2per cent compression inthe real GDP relative to the pre-Covidlevel. Incidentally, the correspondingchange displayed by other largeeconomies over the same period rangedfrom a moderate contraction of 3.9 percent for Italy toastellargrowthof11.5percent forChina. TheUS reporteda riseof 2percent,benefitting fromtheearliercov-erageof vaccinesovera largerproportionof its population.Coming back to the drivers of aggre-

gate demand in India, both private con-sumption and investment trailed theirpre-Covid levels in the first quarterof theongoing year by 12 per cent and 17 percent, respectively.While farmdemandre-mained resilient after a series of healthyharvests, the loss of employment and in-comes in swathes of the non-farm ruraland urban economy as well as highermedicalandfuelexpenses,contributedtothe overall squeeze in private consump-tion. Investment plans were put on holdby the private sector amidst the secondwave, even though government capitalspending, especially that of the centralgovernment, put up ahealthier perform-ance even as government consumptionspendingexceededthepre-Covid levelbyahealthy7.4per cent in the first quarter.To examine this further, we analysed

the performance of Centre and state fi-nances in the first quarter, relative to thatof the first quarter in 2019-20.Let’s first look at the fiscal metrics of

thecentralgovernment.TheCentre’s rev-enueexpenditureroseby7.8percent, ledby non-subsidy spending. Moreover, itscapital expenditure nearly doubled to Rs1.1 trillion, from themuted Rs 0.6 trillionthathadbeenrecordedamidst theparlia-mentaryelectionsandimplementationofthemodel codeof conduct.Despite this, the Centre’s fiscal deficit

declined to a modest Rs 2.7 trillion fromthepre-CovidlevelofRs4.3trillion.This isdue to an increase in its revenue receipts,benefitting from the upfronting of theReserve Bank of India’s (RBI) surplus of

around Rs 1 trillion to the first quarter ofthisyear, fromthesecondquarterof2019-20, followingarealignment in itsaccount-ing year to April-March in line with thatof the Government of India. But, theCentre’s overall gross tax revenues havealso grown, with rises seen across theboard—corporationtax,personal incometax, andexcise duty collections.The considerable rise of 47 per cent in

thedirecttaxcollectionsisatoddswiththedeclineintheGDPinQ1FY2022relativetoQ1 FY2020. A likely conclusion is that theformal/tax-payingportionof thenon-agrieconomyhasgainedat thecostof therest.Forthe19majorstateswhosedatahas

been published by the Comptroller andAuditorGeneral (CAG),weobserveasub-stantial increase in their revenue spend-ing— Rs 4.9 trillion in the first quarter of2021-22, relative tothepre-Covid levelofRs4.3trillion.Thispossiblyreflectshighersocial sector spending amid the secondwave of the pandemic. These states havealso seen their capital spending exceedtheir pre-pandemic levels.However, in contrast to the compres-

sion observed in the Centre’s finances,these19stateshaveseentheir fiscaldeficitnearlydoubletoRs1.1trillionthisyear,upfromRs0.6 trillion theyearbefore. This isbecausethestates’ combinedrevenuere-ceipts inthequarterwereonlymarginallyhigher than the pre-Covid level. This canbetracedtolowertaxdevolutionfromtheCentre (relative to pre-Covid levels) andthe subdued taxes of the states.Thedecline instates’owntaxes,which

are predominantly indirect in nature,broadlyresonateswiththecontraction inprivate consumption this year as com-pared to its pre-Covid level. In particular,despite attractive home loan rates andcuts in stamp duty rates by some of thestates, collections thisyearweresubstan-tially lower thanpre-Covid levels, reveal-ingthecontinuedimpactof thepandemiconstates’ finances.Ontheotherhand, thelower tax devolution in the first quarter,inourview,onlyrepresentsatimingmis-match, with the budgeted target for thecurrentfiscalmodestlyhigherthantheac-tual devolution in2019-20.Lookingahead,GDPwillhave togrow

by 8 per cent (year-on-year) in the ongo-ing quarter to equalise to the pre-Covidlevel.Ourcurrent forecasts suggest thatacontinued lag in demand for contact-in-tensive services may narrowly preventthis frombeing achieved.However, the pace of Covid-19 vacci-

nations has been ramped up since mid-August— this offers the best conceivableinsurance to dampen the potency of an-other wave. If the seven-daymoving av-erage of 7.3 million doses/day as ofSeptember5canbesustained,64percentof adults will have received their secondshotbefore theyeardraws toaclose. Thiscould impartapositivemomentumtotheeconomy,pushing it above thepre-Covidlevel in the secondhalf of the year.

Thewriter is chief economist, ICRA

washed away in the next monsoon flood.During this briefing, I alsomuttered some-thingaboutmy friend, thearchitectCharlesCorrea, and that he had not spoiled theAshramwhileredoingit. Ishudderatthere-developmentnow.At JNU, the stones speak to you in your

morningwalk.TheAravalli ranges thereareshortofwater.TheRohillasranawaybecauseof thirst. Iwasn’t going to runaway. So, I gotsatellite imagery tohelpus todecidewhereto dig forwater.While planning the SardarSarovardam,wehad todig the foundationstowithstanda thousand-year flood.And now they want to turn the room

where Nehru stood up on themidnight ofAugust14, 1947andaddressed theworld—“Whentheworldsleeps, Indiawillawaketolife and freedom”— into amuseum. Thereare such rooms in other countries. Nationstreasure their heritage.We are the descen-dants of Pataliputra. My ancestors includeRaja Porus, Prithviraj Chauhan, the perse-cutedBahadurShahZafar.TheDandiMarchismyheritage.The redevelopment of Gandhiji’s birth-

place inPorbandardestroyeditssimpleele-gance.Afewdecadesago,anarrowroadledto his three-storied brick-and-stone house.Therewaspeaceoneachfloor.Yousatthere,happyatthejourneyyouhadmade.Nowthegali is widened. The shops are gone. Thehousehasbeen“redeveloped”. It’ssickeningif youcompare itwiththeearlierambience.Wemust learn to treasure the stones,

each one of which will remind us oftheir “memory”.

Thewriter isaneconomistanda formerUnionminister

ILLEGITIMATE GOVTTHIS REFERS TO the article, ‘The gov-ernmentof theTaliban’ (IE, September10). A government that was installedthrough the forceof violence is, ab ini-tio, illegitimate and cannot acquire le-gitimacythroughtheband-aidsolutionof includingwomenandevenHazaras.Therefore, governments across theglobeoughtnottokeepbarkingupthewrongtreeandinstead,unitedlycallfordemocraticelectionsinAfghanistan,tobe supervised by external agencies ofhigh integrity.

SurendraSundararajan,Baroda

NOTHING NEWTHISREFERSTOthearticle ‘Dealwiththe new Kabul ’(IE, September 10).We should avoid taking the Talibanat their words. Rather we need tojudge them by their past heinousrecord. There seems to be nothingnew in their world view. They canchange their coat but not their theo-logical beliefs. If our demonising theTaliban goesagainstour so-calledna-tional interests, our canonising themclashes squarely with our own con-ceptof aplural and liberal societyweare defending back home againstmany odds.

TarsemSingh,Mahilpur

CLIMATE PLANTHIS REFERS TO the article, ‘The othersharedcrisis’(IE,September10).Indiaishome to 1.3 billion people, with theworld’s largestyouthpopulationandahuge section of aspirational middle-class that isdrivingtheeconomy. Indiastillhasasizablepopulationunderab-ject poverty. Its developmental needsareparamount,andcannotbecompro-mised.TheUNSDGsarealreadyinsync

with India’s developmental priorities.The country’s National Mission onStrategic Knowledge for ClimateChangehasbeentaskedtoworkonde-velopingindigenoussolutionstotheis-sue of climate change, considering re-gional and local priorities andchallenges.Theglobalcommunityisex-pectedtoacknowledgeandsupportthe“Indiansolutions”totheproblemofcli-matechange.

SudipKumarDey,Barasat

A COVER-UPTHISREFERSTOthereport, ‘Eightyearson, probe finds those killedwere un-armed,notMaoists’(IE,Sept10). JusticeVKAgarwal,whoinquiredintothe“en-counter” in Bijapur district ofChhattisgarh concluded that none ofthe eight people killed, including fourminors, wereMaoists. The report saysthat the security personnel “mayhaveopenedfireinpanic”,anditwas“amis-take”.Thisisplausible.Butplantingev-idence to cover up the botched opera-tionisdeliberate.Andthiscan’thappenwithouttheinvolvementofhigher-ups.Sadly, this facetof theeventonly com-pounds the tragedy.

LRMurmu,Delhi

LETTERS TO THEEDITOR

IN THEAFTERMATHof the recent USwith-drawal from Afghanistan, Fariba Nawa, anAfghan-Americanjournalist,saidinatweet,“Congrats that you wrote a book and youhave a few Afghan friends on the ground.Andnowyou’reasuperstarbecauseyouem-beddedwiththeTB[theTaliban]orgovern-ment forces. Youwere super brave. But youdon’t representus. Youdon’t haveanything[to] lose.We do.” Nawawas responding towriting on Afghanistan by non-Afghans, ofscholarly or journalistic expertise fromaroundtheworld.Thisdamningindictmentcompels us to ask:What are the ethics ofwritingaboutAfghanistanfromNewDelhi?Ofcourse, IuseNewDelhiasasignifiertermratherthantoindicateitspreciselocation,toindicate writing sympathetic to an Indianpointofview,reflectiveof theworldsofpol-icymakingandtheacademethatofteninter-sect, andhaveasharedreadership.Due to its longstanding imagery in

Indianwritingasa frontierstate, Indianpo-liticalwriting on Afghanistan to a large ex-tent has always beenwriting onwar. Thistendencywasdeepenedbytheworldwars,whichoccasionedacloselyentwinedtheo-risation of war and empire by South Asianthinkers. The non-violent politics of KhanAbdul Ghaffar Khan, and his KhilafatMovementinthe1920s,embodiedthatcon-sciousness. Afghanistanwas a central con-cerninanexcitingtraditionofanti-colonialthought and anti-imperial agitation,eclipsed in public memory by populistmovements ledbyGandhi,but, inactuality,

enacted throughwriting across the BritishRaj. If thedistancebetweenDelhiandKabulinthe1920sand’30sisthedistancebetweenGandhi and Bacha Khan, then that historyof the takedownof empire should be a fer-tile source forwriting.Where is thathistorynowandwhatrole

does it play in interpreting a contemporarywar?AndhowisitthatsomuchIndianwrit-ingdisjoinsthecurrentpoliticallandscapeofAfghanistan from thewider context of em-pire, in its British, Soviet or American itera-tions?Projectsaimedatdecolonisingpoliti-cal writing have escaped their confines inacademiaandhavegainedconsiderableholdinpopularwriting.Yet,thispresentmomentisperplexingbecauseitseemsthatnewcrit-ical approaches towar are being neglectedpreciselywhentheycouldbe tools toevalu-ate the failureof andsuddenabdicationbyagreatpowerinIndia’simmediateneighbour-hood.Howis itpossible thatmid-20th-cen-tury subcontinental writers mounted ex-traordinarily unforgiving critiques of theimperial project, but despite long strides inthestateof thetheoretical field, Indianwrit-ersnowareslidingbackintowaysofthinkingaboutwarthatareresolutely imperialist?Therearetwooverlappingexplanations

for this reversal— first, thesubcontinentalanti-imperial tradition has now been lostto the trickle-down, ironically from theWest, of Eurocentric ideas about war andempire. The radical vocabulary ofmodernIndian anti-imperialist thought is es-chewed in favourof dominantwesternso-

cial and political thought, especially onwritings concerning war. Eurocentrism isrampant, in what the critical theorist ofempire, TarakBarkawi, calls “theunreflec-tiveassumptionof thecentralityof Europe,and latterly the West in human affairs”.This sort of Eurocentric analysis ismateri-alised in an enchantmentwith the conse-quences of the US occupation ofAfghanistan for the occupying power.Second, foreign policy analysis has be-

comeaweaksubstitute forresponsestotheimperialist, fascist and ultimately capitalistaspects of world order. There is no critiquetobemadeifweremainshackledtothelan-guageof strategy,which isultimatelyamil-itaristic language. Indeed, the urge to re-spondpragmaticallygoesagainstthenotionthatIndiaandAfghanistanshareanimperialpast andare impaledby it in our statehood,even if not in equalmeasure. Profound in-sightshaveemergedonhumanitarianproj-ects in Afghanistan, and on themoral forti-tude India should have shown once the USwithdrew,butweneedmorethinkingontherelationship betweenwhat is happening inAfghanistannowandtheneoliberalismIndiahasembraced for itself.To say that there is an intimate relation

between21st-centuryneoliberalismof thestripenowseenglobally,but rather starklyin India, and America going towar, is pos-siblynowblasé.WhentheAfghanNationalArmyfell soquickly to theTalibanthispastmonth, it remindedmeof thewords of anAmerican soldier in Iraq, 2002: “America

is not at war; the Marine Corps is at war.America is at the mall.” The frailty ofAfghan institutions and their impendingfatemustprovoke inusadeeperconsider-ation of howa SouthAsian state has had adisastrous decolonisation forced upon it,with those in power now an unmitigatedconsequence of the very imperial projectthat has been displaced.Afterthe1960s, Indianshavewrittenlit-

tle aboutwars thatwerenot India’s to fight.From the 1920s to the 1960s, in a longmo-ment of dense internationalism, writingaboutAsia,Africa,LatinAmericameantwrit-ingaboutwarsandempire.Warwritinghassinceslidintothedomainofmilitaryhistory,which is important in its place. Butwe alsoneedtodisentangletheneoliberalmilitarismthat makes war possible but also that be-comes validated throughwar. If we are towrite aboutwar as a fieldwhere contesta-tion between unequal powers escapes thecivilityofpolitics, theninIndiaweonlyhaveto look back to our own not-so-distant en-counters with empire that remainwith usandareunceasing in the social andpoliticaleffects they produce. Reengaging India’scolonial past in service of the presentmo-mentmay help uswrite the history of thiswar as that of Afghanistan’s war, waged onAfghansoilandonthebodiesofAfghanmen,women, children.

Thewriterworkson India’s internationalrelationsandpolitical thoughtatHarvard

UniversityAsiaCenter

PointofviewofIndianwritersmirrorsEurocentricideasofwarandempire

Thewaywewrite on AfghanistanIDEASONLINE

ONLY IN THE EXPRESS

●●LAWYERSANDTHELAW :EKAKSHRAMAHAJAN

MANDHAR

www.indianexpress.comSwapnaKonaNayudu

Gandhi’sAshramisanabodeofpeace,apieceofhistorytobetreasured.Thenationmustrespect itsheritage,allowit tospeak

It’s still uphillGDPisunlikelytoreachpre-Covidlevelin

ongoingquarter.Butuptickinvaccinationscouldbridgethegapinsecondhalfof theyear

Aditi Nayar

Stones of Sabarmati

STONES SPEAK TO you, unless you are theTaliban destroying the Bamiyan Buddhaswith barbaric vengeance. The recent deci-siontobuildnewstructuresintheIIM-A,be-cause the corridors are dark and cold, tookmebacktothemid-SixtieswhenIwasteach-ingandfinishingmythesisattheUniversityof Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. One day,LouisKahncalledallofus—Indianstudentsandteachers—totheSchoolofArchitecture.In his dramatic style, he stood in front of asilk curtain behind which we could see alight.Hedramaticallypartedthecurtainandwe saw themodel of the IIM-A. He asked:“First impression?”Iwasinthefirstrowandheaskedme:“Do

youknowAhmedabad?” I said: “Yes sir”.Hesaid:“So?”Iblurtedout:“Itisveryun-Indian.”Hewas infuriated. “Whatdoyoumean?”heasked. I knewIwas ina soup. I said, “Mine isapoorcountry.Thesegiveasenseofpower.”He looked atme, stammered and said: “No.It’samonastery.” I retiredhurt.InAhmedabad, the Sabarmatiwasonce

a river. Bapu’s ashram was on its banks.WhenIhadaheadacheonaccountofallmyworldly care— running institutions from arelatively youngage— Iwould go toHridayKunj,sitforafewminutes,seehisspectacles,writingdeskandslippers, feelhewasmock-

ingmefortrivialisinglife(“Lookatmyprob-lems youngman,” his twinkling eyes said).I went to the river bank, sat for awhile, felthappy again, walked back, ate puri/shak atthecafeteriaandwentback.ThenthereweretheriotsinMarch2002.

Chuni Kaka (the Gandhian, Chuni Vaidya)called up to say that he andNarayan Desaiwere going on a silentmarch, with a blackgag on their mouth, from the KochrabAshram to the Sabarmati Ashram, carryingaposter,“Ahmedabadwantspeace”.“Wouldyou like to join?”Of course, Iwill, I said.Myson joined too.Wewere around 40 peopletobeginwith.Ahmedabadwasstillburning.Wedidn’thavepoliceprotection.Butpeoplekept on joining andhalf way, at theGujaratVidyapith set up by Bapu, therewere hun-dredsmarching.Logsaathaategayeaurcar-vaanbantagaya.Attheashram,amessageofpeacewasreadout, inspiteofmyprotest, inmyname—andnotVaidya’sorDesai’s. Itwasreported theworldover.Manyyears later, IwastoleadtheIndian

delegation to the first Indo-Pak PlanningCommissionmeeting.AtTakshila,thestonesspeaktoyou,althoughtheofficialguidegaveitan“Islamic”twist, ignoringmydiplomaticdemurring, which he dismissed as anti-Islamic propaganda. Later at Nalanda, thestoneswhispered thesamestories.Meanwhile, Bimal Patel,whose teacher,

the American planner of Spanish origin,ManuelCastells,hadonceinvitedmetoase-lectmeetingofexpertstobriefthefirstPrimeMinister of Spain after the fall of the Francoregime,gavemealowdownonhisplans forredevelopment of the riverfront. I told himnot toplanwitha10-year floodhistory, andsure enough, crores of rupees ofworkwere

CRSasikumar

YoginderKAlagh

New Delhi

10THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

GOVT&POLITICSWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

SANTOSHSINGHPATNA,SEPTEMBER12

LOK JANSHAKTI Party leaderChirag Paswan Sunday sharedspacewithRashtriyaJanataDal‘sTejashwi Prasad Yadav and es-trangedunclePashupatiKumarParas at his eventmarking thefirstdeathanniversaryof his fa-ther Ram Vilas Paswan. At theevent, Chirag Paswan also readout a letter by PrimeMinisterNarendraModipraisingthefor-mer Unionminister’s contribu-tions to Indianpolity.Bihar Chief Minister Nitish

Kumarskippedtheevent.It was a family reunion of

sorts for the younger Paswanwith almost all themembers oftheextendedfamilygatheringattheSKPuri residence.Chirag Paswan also spent

time with Opposition leaderYadav,whobrought several RJDmembersalongwithhim.Yadavhas written to the Bihar ChiefMinister seeking a life-sizestatueof Paswan inPatna.The JamuiMP expressed his

gratitudetoPrimeMinisterModifor the letter and said he ex-pected the same love andaffec-tion fromhimin the future.The letter, written in Hindi,

says:"Thepoliticalhistoryof in-dependent India will alwayshave a place for (Ram Vilas)

Paswan ji. He rose from a veryhumble background andreached the top. But he alwaysstayed rooted to the ground.Whenever Imet him, hewouldshare his experiences and ex-press concern for the poor andthedeprived.”The PM praised Paswan's

contributiontowardsimprovingrailway infrastructure and tele-phoneconnectivityandingivingmomentum to reforms inmin-ing and fertiliser sectors.“Paswan ji's life can teachmanyalessontoyouthandthosewhowanttounderstandpoliticsandserve the country by taking topolitics,” said the PM, recallinghowPaswanwasalwaysaccessi-

ble to partyworkers andwouldmeetpeoplewithasmile.An overwhelmed Chirag

Paswan said: “PM has put thegist of my father's life in hiswords and has shown great re-spectforhim.ThePM'sletterhasgiven us a lot of strength in thishourof sorrow.”Meanwhile, sources said

Unionminister Parasmay alsoorganise a separate function inthe future tocommemorate theseniorPaswan.Among thosewho attended

Sunday's event were BiharGovernorPhaguChouhan,BiharDeputy CMRenuDevi, SpeakerVijay Kumar Sinha, and BiharCongresschiefMMJha.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

AWEEKafterextendingsupporttotheagitatingfarmerswithhistweet,BJPMPVarunGandhihaswritten to Uttar Pradesh ChiefMinister Yogi Adityanath seek-ing various relief measures forfarmers in the state and soughtsubstantialincreaseinsugarcaneprices, bonus on wheat andpaddy, doubling the amount ofPM-KISAN scheme and subsidyondiesel.Inhis letter,whichheposted

on his Twitter handle, Gandhisuggested that the sugarcanesellingpriceshouldbeincreasedto Rs 400 per quintal, from thecurrent Rs 315 per quintal inUttar Pradesh. Farmers, whohavebeen indistress, shouldbegiven an additional bonus of Rs200perquintal above themini-mum support price (MSP) ofwheatandpaddy,Gandhi said.Sugarcaneismainlygrownin

westernUttarPradesh,which isthe epicentre of the farmers'protest in the state against theCentre’s farmlaws.In the two-page letter to

Adityanath,thePilibhitMPlistedout the problems anddemandsof the farmers and also sug-gestedthesolutions.Taggingtheletter, the three-term MPtweeted: “I hope issues of thesonsof thesoilwill beheard.”WhiletheBJPgovernmentin

the statehas claimed that it hasclearedmorethan80percentofdues to about 4.5million sugarcane farmers, Gandhi pointedoutthatsomedueswerestillun-

paid. The state government hasclaimed that Rs 1,42,650 crorehasbeengivento the farmers inthepast fouryears.On the day of the farmers'

protest rally last week, Gandhihad tweeted: “Lakhs of farmershave gathered in protest today,inMuzaffarnagar. They are ourownfleshandblood.Weneedtostartre-engagingwiththeminarespectfulmanner: understandtheir pain, their point of viewandworkwiththeminreachingcommonground.”TheBJPMPalsosoughtdou-

bling of the PM-KISAN schemeto Rs 12,000 per annum forfarmers, with the state govern-mentcontributingRs6,000fromits own funds. The scheme is aninitiative of the Centre throughwhich all farmers get up to Rs6,000 per year asminimum in-comesupport.In his letter, Gandhi shared

theconcernsof thefarmersoverthe high charges of electricityand diesel price. He urged theChiefMinister toprovide a sub-sidyofRs20perlitreondieseltofarmers and reduce the powerpriceswith immediateeffect.

LIZMATHEW&LAMANIVERMANEWDELHI, DEHRADUN,SEPTEMBER12

THE BJP received a shot in thearminpoll-boundUttarakhandafteraCongressMLA joined thesaffronpartyatitsnationalhead-quarters inNewDelhiSunday.CongresslegislatorRajkumar,

elected from Purola Uttarkashidistrict — an SC seat—waswel-comed at the BJP office in thepresence of Union ministerDharmendra Pradhan,Uttarakhand Chief MinisterPushkarSinghDhami,statepartychief Madan Kaushik and partymediaheadandRajyaSabhaMPAnil Baluni. This comes days af-ter Independent MLA PritamSinghPanwar joinedBJP.Rajkumarwas elected as an

MLA for the first time as a BJPcandidate from the Sahaspurseat in Dehradun district whenthat constituencywas reservedforSCs. In2012,whenSahaspurseatwasdeclaredunreserved,hemoved toPurolabut theBJPde-niedhimaticket.Rajkumarthenturnedrebelandcontestedasan

Independentcandidate,butwasunable towin theseat.In 2013, he returned to the

BJP,butafterhewasagaindenieda ticket in 2017, he joined theCongress andwas fielded fromPurola,wherehedefeatedtheBJPcandidate — one of only 11Congressnomineestobeelectedinthe70-memberHouse.OnSunday,Rajkumarsaidhe

was returning to the BJP as hehas seen the party’s work inUttarakhand.The Congress asked the

Speaker to cancel Rajkumar’sHousemembershiplawandde-mandedthathebebannedfromcontesting thepolls.

In election-boundUttarakhand, CongMLA joins BJP

Estranged uncle, Tejashwi in attendance at Chirag event tomark father Paswan’s death anniversary; PM sends letter

DELHICONFIDENTIAL

ON SONGMINORITYAFFAIRSMinisterMukhtarAbbasNaqvi'swritingskillsarebeingputtogooduse.Theministerhaspennedlyricsfor a new jingle for theWomen and Child DevelopmentMinistry's Poshan Abhiyan campaign. Theministry runs aspecialcampaignforawholemonthinSeptembereachyearcalledPoshanMaahormonth.Forthecampaign,Naqvi'ssonghasbeen sungbyplayback singer SudeshBhonsle. The songbegins with the lyrics: “Nutrition pe karo attention, sahiposhansedehkoroshan”,andhasseveralcatchylinestocon-vey themessage.

THE DIVIDECPIGENERALsecretaryDRaja’ssupporttoAnnieRajaforherremarksagainstKeralaPolice– that itwas theRSSelementsin the state policewhich caused the incidents of atrocitiesagainstwomen in the Left-ruled state – has deeply dividedthepartywithcentralandstateleadershipsintwosides.Partystate secretaryKanamRajendranhasgonepublic, sayinghedoesnotagreewiththeRajasonthis.AccordingtoRajendran,even if Raja is the general secretary, he should follow partylines.WomenleadersinKeralaCPIwenttotheextentof say-ingthatRajaforgotforawhilethathewasthepartychiefandbehaved like just being Annie’s husband. The controversyoverAnnieRaja’scommentisnothingbutinternalfrictiononcaste lines in theCPI, a section in theparty said.

YOGA BREAKTHE GOVERNMENTwants to promote five-minute yogabreaks among its employees in offices. AYUSHMinistry hasdevelopedamodule,endorsedbyexperts,torefresh,de-stressand refocus employees atworkplaces and to enhance theirproductivityandefficiency.Theministryhasdevelopedamo-bile app called “Y Break”. Now it has requested all govern-mentministries and departments to issue necessary direc-tions so thatgovernmentemployeesdownload theappandenjoy the fruitsof 10-minuteyogabreaksatwork.

DAYAFTER:VijayRupani’sresidenceinRajkotonSunday,adayafterhequitasCM.ChiragChotaliya

BJPMPVarunGandhiandUP ChiefMinisterYogiAdityanath

Increase sugarcaneprices, doublePM-KISAN funds,Varun tells UP CM

MANOJCGNEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

INAsetback for theG23group-ing in the Congress, former lawministerMVeerappaMoily,whowas a signatory to the letter theleaders had written to partychief Sonia Gandhi last year, onSundaysaidhe“hates”thewordG23nowandarguedthatsomeoftheleadersare“misusing”theG 23 by “keeping it alive”throughmeetings and remarksin themedia.Moily also favoured the in-

duction of poll strategistPrashant Kishor into theCongress and said his entry ispartof thereformmeasuresthatGandhi is slowlyunveiling.Moilysaidthe23seniorlead-

ers, including him, hadwrittento Gandhi to reform the partyandnot toweakentheparty.HesaidtheexercisehasfructifiedasGandhi has begun initiating re-forms in the party and theG 23should now be a “closed chap-ter”andnot “institutionalised”.TheIndianExpresscontacted

manyG23 leaders, but they re-fused to react. One leader said:

“Therehasneverbeenanyinsti-tutionalarrangement.G23wasanamegivenbythemedia...be-cause there were 23 signato-ries....Youcanonlydissolveanddismantlesomethingwhichex-isted.”Moilysaidthereisnosuchin-

stitution likeG23.“That time it [the letter]was

[written] to initiate certain re-form measures by SoniaGandhi... and she is now takingthat step. She has also held dis-cussionswith Prashant Kishor.Shehasreorganisedthepartyinmany places. She has taken de-cisions. So she ismarching for-ward.Whatdoyouwant?It[theletter] was not intended tochangetheleadershipatthecen-

tre. No. She is a dynamic leaderandledthepartyfor18-19years.Sheiswellexperiencedandnowtheinterestsheistakingwilldef-initelyleadtoreformswhichwedesire.”“Thenwhy shouldwe again

and again pitch that idea. Let usstopitandallowhertotakema-jordecisions.Evenforreformingthe party, consulting PrashantKishor...,”hesaid.Askedwhatreformmeasures

Gandhi has taken, he said, “Shehas taken a number of meas-ures...through AICC appointedsome observers, appointed sec-retariesandalsosheisdiscussingwithPrashantKishortoreorgan-ise thepartyandbringback reallifeintotheparty.Thatiswhyal-low her... this is the time tostrengthenherhands.”Remindedthatdemandslike

the constitution of a CentralParliamentaryBoardfor“collec-tivethinking”andelectiontothecentralelectioncommitteehavenot beenmet, he said, “What isimportant is to initiate steps toreorganisetheparty.Idon’twantto pick up one by one... pointsand sayminus-plus. She is tak-inginitiativeandIthinkit istak-

ing good shape... I don’twant toanalyseeachpoint. Iknowwhatit is. Definitely in a couple ofmonthsyouwillseetheresults.”Whenpointedoutthatthere

were reports that someof theG23leaderswerenothappyattheprospect of Kishor joining theparty and given some key elec-tion and campaign related re-sponsibility, he said, “I am nothappy with always picking upthatG23,G23. Ihate thatword.There is no such G 23. All of usare anxious to strengthen thehands of Sonia Gandhi. WeshouldstoptalkingaboutG23.”On Kishor’s induction, he

said, “Iwelcome. It is agood ini-tiative. It is oneof themajor ini-tiatives.Thepartyneedsreforms,thepartyneedssomechangesatthe grassroots level and Kishorhas proved that he is capable ofreorganising the party for suc-cess. That is enough forus.“G 23 should be a closed

chapter... I don’t think it wasmeant to attack the leadership.It wasmeant to strengthen theleadership. That is the differ-ence,”hesaid.

FULLREPORTONwww.indianexpress.com

MVeerappaMoily

VAIBHAVJHAAHMEDABAD,SEPTEMBER12

SOONAFTERtheBJP announcedfirst-timeMLABhupendra Patelas the next Chief Minister ofGujaratonSunday,Congressstateunit claimed that the “remotecontrol [for power]” has beengiventoAnandibenPatelbyUnionHomeMinisterAmitShah.Former chief minister

AnandibenPatel had to resign in2016ina similarwayVijayRupanididonSaturday.SpeakingtoTheIndianExpress,

Congress leaderPareshDhanani,leaderofoppositioninAssembly,said, “Thegovernment inGujaratwillberemote-controlledlikebe-fore... only thepower centrehasshifted.Now the remote iswithAnandibenPatelafteritwastakenfromAmitShah.Onlythefacehaschangedbuttheproblempersists.”“We initially thought Amit

Shahmighthimselftakethecom-mandof Gujarat but the kind ofwoundBJP gave to thepeople ofGujarat throughyearsofmisruleand Covidmismanagement inwhich three lakh people died,even Shah was scared to takecharge. That iswhyhe has nowgiven the remote control toAnandiben,”headded.Whenaskedwhether choos-

ing59-year-oldBhupendraPatel,aPatidarfromKadvacommunity,as the Chief Minister is seen asBJP’s efforts towoo the Patidarvoters ahead of 2022 state elec-tions, he said, “TheBJPhasmadeGujarat hollow from withinthrough years of misrule. Nowthey aredependent on commu-nalism and casteism to sustaintheirpoliticalpower.”“TheBJP thinks Patidar com-

munitycanbeusedasavotebank.But now the public has seenthroughtheirtactics,”headded.

RJDleaderTejashwiYadavwithLJPMPChiragPaswanandhis familyduringtheevent tomarkthedeathanniversaryofRamVilasPaswan, inPatnaonSunday

MLARajkumar(left)withUnionministerDharmendraPradhanattheBJPoffice inNewDelhi,Sunday.Express

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICECHANDIGARH,SEPTEMBER12

PUNJABCONGRESS chief NavjotSinghSidhuonSundaywrote toChiefMinisterCaptainAmarinderSinghhighlighting 32demandsputforthbyprotestingfarmersofthestate.Themovecomestwodaysaf-

ter a Congress panel led by thePPCC chief held ameetingwiththe Samyukta Kisan Morcha(SKM), an umbrella body of 32farmerunions.In the letter, Sidhu wrote:

“They[thefarmers]demandcan-cellationofunjustandunfairFIRsregisteredagainsttheunionsduetocasesofviolenceduringtheag-itation in thestate.TheCongresshas supported farmers in everyendeavoursincethebeginningofthe agitation, and our govern-ment has facilitated theprotest-ing farmers by providingmaxi-mum support to their protestsagainst the three black laws andfor the legalisation of MSP. Yet,some FIRs have been registereddue to untoward incidents andthe government could set up amechanismtoconsidereachcaseon compassionate grounds andcancelallunfaircases.“Punjab Police had registered

two FIRs recently — one atMachhiwara and the other atMoga—againstprotesting farm-ers ahead of visits of formerdeputyCMSukhbir SinghBadal.Inbothcases,policeclaimedthatunrulyelements indulgedinvio-lence during the protests. In theMoga FIR, some farmer union

leaders,includingthosefromKirtiKisanUnionandBKU(Krantikari),havebeennamed. Farmershavebeendemandingthecancellationof theseFIRs.Secondly,thefarmersfearthat

the demand for land records—Fard— to demarcate details oflandownership before procure-ment,asorderedbytheCentre,isunjust,theletterstated.“Ipersonallybelieveitisunfair

andagainsttheinterestsofalargenumberoffarmerswhoaresow-ingcropsbytaking landonlease.Dueto‘SanjhaMushtarkhaKhata’,withnoclear landownership fordecades,thepartitionof landhasnot happened inmany parts ofourstate.Manyownersoflandarenowlivingabroad.This isalsoanattack on the resilient systemofprocurement byMSP througharhtiyas and topush the farmersawayfromAPMCmandistowardsprivatemarketswhere no suchrecords are being demanded.Thus,IstronglyfeelthattheCentreis actually propagating 'OneNation,TwoMarkets'withdiffer-ent rules for APMC and privatemarkets. This injusticewemustfightagainst,"Sidhuwrote.“Iwritetoyouwithconsider-

ation for the work PunjabCongress has already done foragricultureandourcommitmenttodomuchmore,”hewrote.

AMITSHARMAMEERUT,SEPTEMBER12

A 44-YEAR-OLD son of the for-mer village head of Kanhad vil-lageinBaghpatdistrictwasshotdead at his house late Saturdaynight, saidpolice.SehdevSinghwasshotinhis

sleep, the said, adding that hewas alone in the house as hiswife had gone to her parents’homefourdaysago.According to the family’s

complainttothepolice,Sehdev’s

neighbour, Rupak, had threat-ened tokill himduringanalter-cationonSeptember10.“Weareconductingraids tonabRupak,”saidASPAnandKumarMishra.Meanwhile, police have ar-

rested twopersons for allegedlygivingsheltertothemainaccusedin the murder of BJP leaderAtmaramTomar.“Theyhavecon-fessed togivingshelter to theac-cused assailants—Praveen andBalram—foradayafterthemur-deronSeptember9,”aseniorof-ficersaid,addingthatpolicehaverecoveredthecaroftheBJPleader.

Shah has givenremote controlto Anandiben,says Cong

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEAHMEDABAD,SEPTEMBER12

OUTGOING DEPUTY ChiefMinister Nitin Patel on Sundaysaid that as long as he receivestheloveofthepeople,hewillnotbe“ousted”.Speaking at an event in

Mehsana after the BharatiyaJanata Party (BJP) announcedBhupendraPatelasGujarat’snewchiefminister,PatelcongratulatedthesuccessorofVijayRupanianddismissedmedia reports onhimbeingconsideredfortheCMpost.In 2016, too, when

Anandiben Patel resigned fromthe top post, Nitin Patel wasamongthefrontrunnertobetheCM, but then party presidentAmit Shah had his way go getVijayRupanias theCM.In2017,whenRupaniwasre-

electedasthechiefminister,Nitin

Patel expressed his displeasureopenlyovertheallocationofport-folios and refused to take chargeof the ones allotted to him. Hetookchargeofthemonlyaftertheinterventionofthetoppartylead-ership and allocation of financeportfolio tohim.OnSunday, too,therewas speculation thatNitin

Patel was unhappy after beingoverlookedfortheCMjob.“The new chief minister

BhupendraPatelisourfriend,heisamongus andhe is a karyakartalikeallofus.Wehaveworkedto-gether in the past andhis namehasbeenchosenastheCMbytheparty.Heismyfriend,Ihaveinau-guratedhisoffice,letanyonethinkanythingaboutus,”saidPatel.“I sawmedia stories about

whether I will be ousted now. Iwant to state that till the time Iam in the hearts of the public,karyakartas and voters, nobodycanoustme. Ihaveservedintheopposition for a long time andhaveworkedforthepartyfor30years,”Patel added.Asked about his role in the

new cabinet, he said, “I can’tcomment on that as the chiefminister will decide the newcabinet under the guidance ofnational leadership.”

GUJARATCHANGEOFGUARD

Favours inductionof PrashantKishor inCong, sayshisentry ispartof reforms

‘G23’ should be closed chapter,Sonia is taking initiatives:Moily

Won’t be ousted as long aspeople love me: Nitin Patel

UP: Village ex-pradhan’sson shot dead in his sleep

DeputyCMNitinPatelleaves theBJPheadquartersinGandhinagaronSunday.

NirmalHarindran

PunjabCongchiefNavjotSinghSidhu

Must do more: Sidhuwrites to CM listingdemands of farmers

New Delhi

11THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

EXPRESSNETWORK

LIZMATHEWNEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

WITHAKeralaCatholicbishop’sclaim of “narcotics jihad” be-comingapoliticalflashpoint,theBJPonSundaysaidtheallegationechoedthevoiceoftheChristiancommunity in the state andsought the intervention of theCentre to bring in a law to dealwith “narco-terrorism and lovejihad”.Meanwhile,theKeralaunitof

the BJP has written to HomeMinister Amit Shah, seekingCentral intervention“topreventjihadiactivitiesandprotectiontoPalaibishopJosephKallarangattandChristiancommunity”.Inastatement,BJPspokesper-

sonTomVadakkan said, “The in-tervention byBishop, His excel-lencyJosephKallarangattofPala,Kerala during sacredworship isnot justawakeupcall forhisdio-ceses,itisthevoiceofthecommu-nitywhoarevictimsof lovejihadandthefalloutofnarco-terrorism.The cases of love jihad anddrugabusevictimsarerampingup.”Vadakkan alleged that the

Keralagovernmenthasnottakencognizance of narco-terrorismandlovejihaddespiteinputsfrominvestigativeagencies.Heclaimedthatthebishopcouncilhasraisedthe issue following inputs from

devoteesofdifferentchurches,al-leging that younggirls are beingluredandfallprey to“love jihad”and“laterendupinforeignjails”.Hesaid:“Thishastobeaccountedashumantrafficking.”“Therisingdrugabuseindif-

ferentcommunitieshasaffectedpeace within families and hascreatedsocio-economicdisorderof disastrous levels,” Vadakkanclaimed. “My appeal to theCentral government is to bringcentral legislation to book suchelements,andbring infast trackcourtstodealwithnarco-terror-ismand love jihad.”Kerala BJP general secretary

George Kurian, who is a formervice-chairman for the nationalcommission for minorities,wrote to ShahSunday, claimingthat “jihadi elements” in Keralagetwhole-heartedsupportfromtheCPI(M)andCongress.“Manyof the jihadielementsareactive

workersofCPI(M)andCongress.This has rendered the situationvolatile. I request you to inter-vene in the issue and take stepsto protect the bishop and theChristiancommunityinKerala,”his letter said.Kurianalsoclaimed the reac-

tiontothebishop’sstatementisareflection of the "insecurity"amongChristiansandHindus.Bishop Kallarangatt had on

Thursday triggered a contro-versy,sayingChristiangirlswerelargely falling prey to “love andnarcotic jihad” in Kerala, andwherever arms cannot be used,extremists were using suchmethodstodestroytheyouthbe-longingtootherreligions.The statement triggered a

controversy in the state, withpublicdemonstrationsfromboththe Christian andMuslim com-munities. The rulingCPI(M)andthemain opposition Congresshaveexpressedtheirdispleasureovertheremark —ChiefMinisterPinarayiVijayanmaintainedthattherewasnoneed to give a reli-gious colour to narcotics, whileLeader of the Opposition V DSatheesan criticised the SanghParivar, accusing it of trying tospark communal tension overthebishop’scomments.Extending support to the

bishop, Minister of State forExternal Affairs and senior BJP

leaderVMuraleedharanhadear-lier said that he had raised theconcerns of the community inKeralaandhecannotbesilencedbyattackinghim.In a statement, the Kerala

Catholic BishopsCouncil (KCBC)hassaidthatKallarangatt’swordswere not aimed at any commu-nityandhewassharingthecom-munity’s concerns. It shouldnotbemadecontroversialandshouldinsteadbedebatedwithserious-ness,thestatementsaid.TheBJPhasbeentryingtowoo

theChristiancommunityinKerala—which constitutes around 19percentof thestate'spopulation—inorder toexpand itselectoralbaseinthesouthernstate.AheadoftheAssemblypollsinKerala,theBJPhad takenup the issue of al-leged “love-jihad” in Christian-dominated areas after somechurch leaders had expressedtheirconcernoverit.AddressingBJPgeneralsecre-

taries in June, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, according tosources, had advisedparty lead-erstoshed“rigidity”informingal-liances, andhadadvised that theBJP should try andwin over theChristian community in Kerala.The Prime Minister also hadmeetingswith Church leadersfromthestateearlierthisyear.

--WITHINPUTSFROMENS,THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

KERALABISHOPALLEGATIONSOFNARCOTICSJIHAD

CPM ally KeralaCong (M)extends supportto bishop

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICENEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA advo-cated secularism, “analysed thedangers posed bymeaninglessandsectarianconflicts”and“be-lievedthatthetrueessenceofre-ligionwas the common good”,Chief Justiceof IndiaNVRamanasaidSunday.Addressinganeventtomark

the 22nd Foundation DayCelebration of VivekanandaInstitute of Human Excellence,Hyderabad, the CJI said SwamiVivekananda’s teachings havegreat relevance for all times tocome. “Swami Vivekananda, inhisaddress(totheWorldParlia-ment of Religions, Chicago, in1893),propagatedtheideaoftol-eranceanduniversalacceptance.He analysed the dangers posedby themeaningless and sectar-

ianconflicts insocietytothena-tions and civilisations,” the CJIsaid.Pointing out that “there is

greater need today, in contem-porary India, to pay heed to thewords spoken by SwamiVivekanandaasearlyasin1893”,CJI Ramana said the “he wasprophetic. Long before thepainfulchurningthattookplacein the subcontinent during thefreedom struggle, resulting in

framing of an egalitarianConstitution of India, he advo-catedsecularismasifheforesawthe events to unfold. He firmlybelievedthatthetrueessenceofreligionwas the commongood,andtolerance.Religionshouldbeabove superstitions andrigidities”.SwamiVivekananda’spartic-

ipation in theWorldParliamentof Religions “gave a respectablerecognition to India which, atthattime,wasmerelyidentifiedas one of the colonies. His ad-dressdrewtheworld’sattentiontotheancientIndianphilosophyof Vedanta. He popularisedPracticalVedantaas itpreachedlove, compassion, and equal re-spect forall”, said theCJI.Saying the ideals of

Vivekanandashouldbeinstilledin today’s youth, the CJI said,“Young minds are usually themost reflective. Young hearts,

themost reactive. These emo-tions can be oftenmoulded toachieve greatness, but thegreater challenge in this path isthe ability to differentiate be-tweenrightandwrongchoices.”History, he said, iswitness to

thepowerwieldedbytheyouth.Recalling the role of youth lead-ers suchasBirsaMunda, the trioof Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev andRajguruandAlluriSitaramaRajuin the freedom struggle, the CJIsaid that “the democratic rightsthatwetaketodayforgrantedarea result of the struggles of thou-sandsofyoungpeoplewhotooktothestreetsfightingauthoritar-ianfigureseitherduringthefree-domstruggleor thedarkdaysofEmergency.Manylosttheirlives,sacrificedlucrativecareers,allforthegreatergoodofthenationandsociety. Trust the youth to checkthedeviationsinasociety’s jour-neytowardspeaceandprogress”.

BJP urges Centre to bring law to dealwith ‘love jihad’, ‘narco-terrorism’

SHAJUPHILIPTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM,SEPTEMBER12

DAYS AFTER the CPI(M) de-nounced a Catholic bishop’sclaimof“narcoticsjihad”, itsLDFally Kerala Congress (M) onSundayextendedsupporttothebishop, saying that he was ex-horting people to be vigilantagainst social evils.Palai bishop Joseph

Kallarangatt’s remark has po-larised Kerala, with the CPI(M),Congress and various Muslimoutfitsprotestingthestatement.However, in an embarrass-

ment for the CPI(M), KeralaCongress (M) chairman Jose KMani said, “There is some spe-cific agenda behindmaking thestatement a controversy. Thebishop was telling the peoplethat narcotics are a social evil.Don’t distort his statement,”Mani said.Incidentally, Palai is the

hometown of the KeralaCongressaswell asMani.

TomVadakkan

Vivekananda advocated secularism,religion for common good, says CJI

CJINVRamana

JAYPRAKASHSNAIDUMUMBAI, SEPTEMBER12

TWO SEPARATE delegationsfrom the National CommissionforWomen(NCW)andNationalCommission for ScheduledCastes(NCSC)onSundayvisitedthe family of the 32-year-oldwomanwhodiedafterbeingas-saultedandraped in thecity.The victim’s two daughters

will get around Rs 18.5 lakh ascompensation,andrecommen-dations have beenmade by theNCW for their relocation to acompletely different environ-mentandfortheirrehabilitation,whichincludessponsoringtheireducation. NCW memberChandramukhi Devi told TheIndianExpress, “Wewillbemen-tioning all these recommenda-tions in our report that will besubmitted to theCentre.”NCSC vice-chairman Arun

Haldar toldmediapersons thatsenior Mumbai Police officialstold him they would file thechargesheetwithinamonth,andthattheyhaveconcreteevidenceagainst the accused and willpush fordeathpenalty.Police, meanwhile, have

added appropriate sections un-der theSC/STAct in theFIR.

NCW, NCSCteams visitMumbai rapevictim kin

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

DIVYAGOYALGOPALLUDHIANA,SEPTEMBER12

GOVERNMENTPRIMARYschoolteachers in Punjab have beensent questionpapers for Class 5students, which carry a hugestategovernmentadvertisementonhikingsocialsecuritypension,belowwhich are questions re-lated to theadvertisement.A practice Punjabi question

paper,whichteachershavebeendirectedtodistributetostudentstopreparethemfortheNationalAchievementSurvey(NAS),wassent to them on WhatsAppgroups of the EducationDepartmentonSunday.Manmeet Grewal, assistant

project coordinator, PadhoPunjab, Ludhiana district, saidNAS practice papers have beenreceived from the state headof-ficeinMohaliandthesameques-tion paper has been sent to allteachersacross thestate. “Thesequestionpapers are prepared atheadoffice inMohali, notatdis-trictlevel.Wesentthemtoteach-ersasreceived,”hesaid.In the question paper, ques-

tion no. 2 has an advertisementasareferencepicturewhichsaysthatthePunjabgovernmenthasdoubled thesocial securitypen-sionforoldage,widowsanddes-titutewomen, orphan children

anddisabled.Thisisfollowedbyamultiple choice questions: “Theaboveadvertisementisregardingwhat?”and“Whenwasthehikedsocial security pensiondistribu-tionstarted?”Teacherssaidtheyhavebeen

directed to takeprintouts of thisquestionpapertogivetostudentsonMonday,whenClasses 3 to 5will sit for their Septembermid-termexams.“TopreparechildrenforNationalAchievementSurveywhichisinNovember,theseNASpracticepapersof40markseachwill be distributed for mid-terms,”saidateacher.A senior teacher from the

DemocraticTeachersFront(DTF)said:“ElectionsarehereandnowPunjab government is publicis-ing its schemesvia questionpa-pers...Questionpapersofschool-children are notmeant for pollcampaigning... The advertise-mentisjustapublicitymeasure.”AssemblyelectionsinPunjab

areslated tobeheldnextyear.

Bengal post-pollviolence probe:CBI arrests 11in two cases

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEKOLKATA,SEPTEMBER12

THE CBI on Sunday arrestedsevenpeopleinconnectionwitha case of alleged post-poll vio-lenceinWestBengal.Thearrestscame a day after the centralagencyheldfourpeopleinasep-aratecase, saidofficials.Thelatestarrestsweremade

in connectionwith the investi-gation into themurder of a BJPworker in Cooch Behar districtonMay3,adayaftertheelectionresultsweredeclared.The four people arrested on

Saturday were taken into cus-tody for the allegedmurder ofTMC supporter Sahinur AhmadinCoochBehar’sTufanganjarea.Ahmad and his friendwere al-legedly assaulted by BJP sup-portersfollowingthedeclarationof the election results, and latersuccumbedtohiswounds.SincetheCalcuttaHighCourt

lastmonthorderedtheCBItoin-vestigatecasesofheinouscrimesreported during the allegedpost-poll violence, the agencyhas registered 34 FIRs and fourchargesheets.

KIRANPARASHARMYSURU,SEPTEMBER12

AMAN inMysuruwhose streetlibrarywas burnt down inAprilundermysteriouscircumstanceshasreceivedthousandsofbooksfromallovertheworldtorestartthefacilitybutcontinuestowaitfor a formal site or building forthelibrary–promisedtohimbycivicofficials.“I have received books from

as far as 12,000 km away but Iam unable to get a library builtby civic agencies who are lessthan8kmawayfrommyhome,”

said 63-year-old Syed Isaaq,whose public library— createdwithhisowncollectionofbooks—wasburntdowninApril.Over 8,000 books have al-

readyarrivedforthelibraryfromtheUS, Canada, England,Dubai,Kolkata,Delhi andMumbai.Officials told The Indian

Express funding for the new fa-cility was held up because oftransfers.Isaaqranhislibraryfornearly

a decade in a civic amenity siteowned by the Mysore UrbanDevelopmentAuthority(MUDA)before it was burnt down onApril 8.Hehadmanaged to col-

lect about 11,000 books beforethe firedestroyed the library.Isaaqkeepsaboutabout750

books in his 15x20 ft house butcan’t storeanymore.“The last time I met library

department officials, they as-sured me that the foundationstone for the library buildingwouldbe laidonAugust12–onnationallibraryday–butnoonehasgotback tome,”hesaid.The chairman of University

ofMysore'spolitical sciencede-partment,MuzaffarAssadi,whoalsocollectedbooksforIsaaqviacrowdfundingsaysthatevenhischamber is filled with about

5,000books.“Evennow,peoplearesend-

ing books. I wish the buildingconstructionwillbedonebeforemy chamber gets full,” Assadisaid.A group of techies, many

workinginMysuru'sInfosys,hadraised an amount of Rs 35 lakhtoconstruct thelibrarybutaftercivic authorities promised tobuild instead, they returned themoney todonors, saidAssadi.MuzammilMadani, a techie

atInfosyssaidthatif thegovern-menthadnotgivenanassuranceto construct the building, theywouldhavestarted thework.

Manjunath B, DeputyDirectoratDepartmentofPublicLibraries, toldTheIndianExpressthat initially itwasdecidedthatMUDA, Mysuru CityCorporation(MCC)andlibrariesdepartment would equallyshare thecostof building the li-brary but later, the MCC com-missioner and DeputyCommissionerweretransferred.MUDA said that as they havehanded over land, they wouldnotbehelping financially.MCC commissioner

Lakshmikanth Reddy said thathe did not have informationabout thespecific issue.

SyedIsaaqhadbeenrunninghis library fornearlyadecadebeforemiscreantsburnt itdownonApril8.Express

After books burnt, Mysuru man gets new collection but library still a dream

MAHARASHTRA

TwokilledasbuildingslabcollapsesMumbai: Two personsdiedandtwootherswereinjured after a slab of afour-storey residentialbuilding collapsed inThane's Rabodi area onSunday. The deceasedwereidentifiedasRameezShaikh, 32, and GausBabulal Tamboli, 40.According to the ThaneRegional DisasterManagementCell(RDMC),the incident took placearound 6 am at KhatriApartmentinRabodiareaofThanewest,whenaslabof the third floor camecrashingdownonthesec-ondfloorandcausedotherslabs to collapse. Threepersonsweretrappedun-der the debris. The firebrigadeandRDMCteamsrescued all three but twoof themdied. ENS

BRIEFLY

J&K

MilitantkilledinencounteratRajouri:PoliceJammu: A militant waskilledonSundayinanen-counter with securityforcesandpolice inupperreaches of Jammu andKashmir’s border Rajouridistrict, police said. Theysaidmilitantswere spot-tedduringjointsearchop-eration in the forests ofDoriMaal inManjakotearea following specific in-puts.Accordingto thepo-lice, themilitants openedfire on the search partyforcing security forces tofireback. ENS

WESTBENGAL

MigrantworkerlynchedbygroupinMaldaMalda: A24-year-oldmi-grantworker,whohadre-turnedhometoMaldadis-trict from Nagpur, wasbeaten todeathbyamobsuspecting him to be athief, police said onSunday.Agroupofpeopleof Pipultala village underHarishchandrapur policestation caught PratapMandal,tiedhishandsandlegsandassaultedhimonFriday night, police said.Mondalwas first taken toalocalhospitalfromwherehewasreferredtoasuperspeciality hospital andhesuccumbedtoinjuries onSaturdaynight. PTI

MAHARASHTRA

Minorhitwithhammer, rapedinThane,1heldMumbai: A 30-year-oldman was arrested onSaturday for allegedly at-tacking a 15-year-old girlwith ahammer and thenraping her on railwaypremisesinThane.Theac-cusedallegedlykidnappedherfromtheskywalknexttoUlhasnagarrailwaysta-tionFriday,threatenedherwith a hammer and tookher inside a room,whereshewas raped. “The ac-cused was produced incourtandremandedinpo-licecustodytillSeptember14,”saidKalyanGRP. ENS

NEET aspirant dies by suicide; Stalinvows Bill to exempt state from exam

TEST TIMECandidateswhosat for theNEETexitanexaminationcentre inChandigarhonSunday.Officials saidover95percentregisteredcandidatesappearedfor themedicalentranceexamatover3,800centresacross thecountry.KamleshwarSingh

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICELUCKNOW,SEPTEMBER12

A40-YEAR-OLDmaninMahobadistricthasbeenarrestedunderthe state’s anti-conversion lawfor allegedlyattempting to con-verthisneighbourtoChristianityby promising him monetaryhelp, thepolice saidonSunday.InvestigatorssaidAshishJohn,

whoisfromBalliadistrict,wasar-rested on Saturday based on acomplaint from his neighbourSachinDwivedi.Theaccusedwasproducedbeforealocalcourtthatsent him to judicial custody onSaturday, said AdditionalSuperintendent of Police RKGautam.Inhiscomplaint,Dwivedial-

leged that aroundamonthbackJohn gave him a drink after hetold him about a persistentheadache.Recently, theaccused

reportedly asked the com-plainant again about his pain.WhenDwivedisaidthedrinkdidnothelp, JohnallegedlytoldhimtoadoptChristianitytomakethisproblem go away. The accusedalsoallegedlytoldhisneighbourthathewould receiveRs12,000for starting a business, and gavehimsomebooks,saidthepolice.A few days later, John al-

legedlyaskedDwiveditoaccom-panyhimtoachurch.Whenthecomplainant refused, John toldhim that the headache wouldcontinue, thepoliceadded.The police acted after

Dwivedi filed a complaint, andseveral Hindu outfits held ademonstrationoutsidePanwadipolice station demanding strictaction against the accused. Johnwasbookedundersections3and5oftheUttarPradeshProhibitionofUnlawfulReligiousConversionLaw,2020,saidthepolice.

UP man held for attemptto convert neighbour toChristianity, say police

PRESSTRUSTOFINDIASALEM,CHENNAI, SEPT 12

HOURSBEFOREhewastoappearfor theNational Eligibility-cum-EntranceTestforathirdtime,a19-year-oldmanbelonging to a vil-lagenearMettur diedby suicideonSunday,fearingtheoutcomeofthetesthewastotake.Thedeathled to a blame game with theAIADMKholdingtheDMKregimeresponsibleandthestategovern-menttargetingtheCentre.Expressing shock and grief,

Chief Minister M K Stalin saidthattheaspirant,Dhanush,diedby suicide as he was dejectedthathecouldnotcleartheexamdespite appearing twice earlierand due to the adverse effectscausedbyNEETtopoorstudentsof urbanandrural regions.

While themain oppositionAIADMK squarely blamed theDMKregimeforhisdeath,Stalintargeted the Centre for being“obstinate”onthematterandas-sured passing a Bill in theAssembly on September 13 to“permanently exempt” TamilNadu fromtheambitofNEET.The Centre does not under-

stand the huge difficultiescausedbyNEETtostudentsandits“negligence”and“obstinacy”continues to be responsible forthedeathofstudentsbysuicide,theChiefMinisteralleged.Condoling the death, Stalin

said, “Our legal struggle againstNEET starts now after takingover the reins of the govern-ment.” The state governmenthas the duty to build a good fu-ture for students and realisingthis, “our strugglewill continue

till the Union government re-scindsNEET”,hesaid.He said his government

would drum up support of allother states on this issue byreaching out to all ChiefMinisters, adding, “I have theconfidence thatwewillwin.”AMettur rangepoliceofficer

told PTI that the aspirant wasfound hanging in his house andthefamilyinformedthem.Askedifanysuicidenotewasfound,theofficerdeclinedtospecify.Hesaidthestudentwastoappearforthetestforthethirdtimeafterhavingfailedtoclearthetestintwopre-viousattempts.The body of Dhanush was

handed over to the family afterpost-mortem.Alargenumberofpeople gathered near his houseand his death led to tensemo-ments in thevillage,police said.

In Punjab, Class 5question paper testsstudents about govt’swelfare schemes

Teachershavebeendirectedtodistributethesequestionpaperstostudents topreparethemfortheNationalAchievementSurvey

New Delhi

12THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

EXPRESSNETWORKWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

ABHISHEKANGADRANCHI, SEPTEMBER12

ACLOSEaideofBJPleaderBabulalMarandiwasarrestedonSundaymorningforallegedlyrapinga20-year-old domestic help, topsources inJharkhandPolicesaid.Days after hewasbookedon

August16 for committing theal-leged crime at his residence inMarch2020,SunilTiwary,politicaladviser to former chiefministerMarandi, had told The IndianExpress thathefearedforhis life,and that theFIRagainsthimwas“politicallymotivated”.RanchiSeniorSuperintendent

ofPoliceSurendraJhadeclinedtocommentonSunday.Tiwary's arrest is the latest

episodeinthemessyongoingpo-litical feud between the rulingJharkhandMuktiMorcha (JMM)andoppositionBJP.TheCBI has submitted apre-

liminaryenquiry report inacaseofallegeddisproportionateassetsagainst Chief Minister Hemant

Soren that has been takenupbytheLokpal.Acaseof rapeagainstthe chiefminister is pending inBombayHighCourt, andTiwaryhas filed a plea in the SupremeCourtseekingacourt-monitoredprobeinthematter.The Soren government also

cameunder criticismby theBJPrecentlyafter itdecided toallot aroomfornamaazintheAssembly.Protesting BJP leaders includingMarandi and Rajya Sabha MPDeepak Prakash were lath-ichargedbypolice.Tiwary, who handled

Marandi'ssocialmediaoutreach,cametothelimelightafterthefor-mer chief ministermerged hisJharkhand Vikas Morcha(Prajatantrik) partywith theBJP,andwaschosenleaderoftheleg-islatureparty.Tiwaryhad said earlier: “I do

whatBabulaljiasksmetodo.Iamhispoliticaladviser,andIfiledtheplea(intheSupremeCourt)athisinstance. TheCMthinks that thecomplaint to the Lokpal of Indiaon the allegeddisproportionate

assets of the Soren family ismydoing,whichisnotthecase.”The Jharkhand Speaker had

refused to give Leader ofOppositionstatustoMarandi,andproceedingswereinitiatedonthealleged violation of the 10thScheduleof theConstitution(theso-called anti-defection law) byMarandiafterhemergedhispartywiththeBJP.OnMay3 this year, awoman

policeofficer,RupaTirkey,diedal-legedly by suicide in Sahebganjdistrict. Tirkeyhadbeen investi-gatingacaseagainstapersonwithlinkstoonePankajMishra,whoisseen as being close to ChiefMinisterSoren.SupportedbytheBJP, Tirkey’s family petitionedJharkhandHighCourt seeking aCBI investigation into the case—and on September 2, the BJPhailedthecourt'sdecisiongrant-ingtheplea.Dayslater,onSeptember9,the

governmentdecreedthatMayorsof Jharkhand's ninemunicipalcorporations cannot convene orsettheagendaofmeetings. Inre-

sponse, Asha Lakra, the BJP'sRanchiMayor,calledapresscon-ference to allege that theJharkhandMunicipalRules,2011,werebeingviolated.Alltheseincidentsareseenas

partofalargerpoliticaltusslebe-tweentheBJPandJMM.However,thearrestofTiwaryhasescalatedthe issue to a new level, sourcesonbothsidessaid.After the FIR against Tiwary

was registered last month,Marandi told reporters that thegovernmentwas“actinginacon-spiracy,withmaliciousintentandirresponsibly…andthepolicehasbecomeatoolofthegovernment”.On the allegation of rape

against Soren,he toldThe IndianExpress: “Therewasavideopur-portedlyshotbythevictimof therape inwhich she allegedly saidthatherlifemaybeindanger,andifsomethinghappenedtoherthenI,Tiwary,andotherswouldbere-sponsible.Idon’thaveanythingtodowiththewoman,stillmynamewasdragged intothis... So IaskedmyadviserTiwary tobecomean

intervenerintheongoingcaseintotherapeallegationagainsttheCMintheBombayHighCourt.”However,sincethecaseinthe

BombayHighCourtwasmovingslowly, hehadadvisedTiwary tofile a petition in the SupremeCourtseekingacourt-monitoredprobe by the CBI, Marandi hadsaid. He alleged that the Sorengovernmentwas “intolerant toanycriticism”,andthatwas“oneofthereasonsfortheescalationoftheproblem”.JMMspokesperson Supriyo

BhattacharyarejectedallegationsthattheactionagainstTiwarywaspoliticallymotivated. “Thepolicearedoingtheirjob.Thereisacaseagainst Tiwary and it is for thecourt to decide on it. There is nopoliticalmotivation or suppres-sionofanydissent,”hesaid.Thechiefminister'smediaad-

viserAbhishekPrasadaliasPintusaid: “There is an allegation andpolice are investigating... Let thelaw decide; not BabulalMarandiji...Whyistheresomuchfear?”

Jharkhand political feud getsmessier:Marandi adviser is arrested for rape

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEMUMBAI, SEPTEMBER12

THE BRIHANMUMBAIMunicipal Corporation (BMC),which is trying to become self-sufficient in providingmedicaloxygentopatients,hassaidthatthe16oxygengenerationplantsatninehospitalsthatwillgener-ate 41-42metric tonnes of oxy-gen are ready and can be com-missioned if theneedarises.Astheconstructionofplants

wasmired in controversy overthedelay,BMCsaidthatthecon-tractorwill bepenalised.“Therewere some delays in

theconstructionof theseplants.But now, all 16plants are ready.Asperourplanstobecomeself-sufficient,moreoxygengenera-tion plants are in the pipeline,”saidPVelarasu,additionalcom-missioner of BMC who is incharge of the project depart-ment.In addition to the 16 plants,

BMC through Corporate SocialResponsibility fundinghasbuiltseven PSA (Pressure SwingAdsorption) plants at civic-runKasturba, Bhabha, Cooper andNehru Centre inWorli, that to-gether generate 6.93 metrictonnesof oxygen.To be better prepared for a

possiblethirdwaveofCovid-19,BMChadplannedtoincreaseitsoxygen production capacity,whichwas 3.3metric tonnes aday.Thecityhadjust twoplants— HBT Trauma Hospital atJogeshwari (2.26 MT) andKasturbaHospital (1.04MT).

SANTOSHSINGHSHAHZADAPUR(SAMASTIPUR),SEPTEMBER12

“NOONEcancallusidlersnow,”saysVimalKishoreThakurasheproudly shows off his pondwherehefarmsfish.Inhisvillageof 60 households, discussionsusuallyrevolvearoundfish— beitthenewfast-breedingvarietiessuch as the Amur fromBhubaneswar or the favouriteslikeRohuandKatla.It was in this village,

Shahzadpur in Samastipur dis-trict, that theNitishKumargov-ernment started a pilot projectfor fisheries back over a decadeago. Now, it has turned into anursery for prospective fishfarmers.Thakurisoneof fourfarmers

whoinitiallyhelpedsparkedthefisheryfrenzyintheupper-casteBhumihar village, also breakinga caste barrier along theway—theprofessionisassociatedwithExtremely Backward Classessuch as the Mallah or Nishadcommunities.Thakur, along with Sunil

Kumar, KaushalKishoreThakurandChandrakantThakur,dugup19 ponds in a part of a vaststretchof low-lyingfloodedlandin2010.Underwaterformostofthe year, the 120-acre areawould remain unirrigated, onlyoccasionallyyieldingpaddy.Thestategovernmentstarted

giving a 30 per cent subsidy(now 50 per cent) for diggingonepond.MorevillagersduguppondsandShahzadapurbecamea pilot project of the state gov-ernment.

For a villageonce stuckwithunproductive land and accusedof having “idlers”, the turn-around has been stunning.Residents now cumulativelyearn an average yearly profit ofRs3crore, saidThakur.Atpresent,40residentsown

60 ponds spread over the 100acres. Tenotherpondsarecom-ing up. "We did not know thisland could give us any return.Theminimumprofit per acre isRs2lakh.Thevillagefarmerscu-mulativelyearnaprofitofabout

Rs3crore", saidThakur.TheBiharChiefMinisterhas

long spoken about self-reliancein fish breeding. He visited thevillage in 2012 and spoke aboutthe potential for fisheries in thestate.Kumar, another one of the

four residentswho first tookupthe profession, said the realboost camewhen some villageresidents met Sushil KumarModi, the then Deputy ChiefMinister and FisheriesMinister.Modi agreed to send four

Shahzadapurfarmersalongwith36others toAndhraPradesh fortraining in fisheries."The Bihar government had

alreadysent26batchesof farm-ers for training in AndhraPradesh. We were the 27thbatch,” saidKumar.Healsoremembersajibefrom

a senior officer in theBihar fish-eries departmentwho said theyweresimplygoingtoidleaboutinposh hotels. “This hurt us im-mensely.We returned to thevil-lagewith a resolve to do some-thing,” says Kumar as he showsthis correspondent around hisvastpond,teemingwithfish.Thefarmersgettwofishvari-

eties a year— Rohu and Katla.Localfishsellerswhousedtode-pend on Andhra Pradesh till afewyearsagonowonlybuyfromthevillage.The fish breeders of

Shahzadpur are now helpingstart fish farmingother areas aswell — 85 acres in Jhanjharpur(Madhubani), 15 acres inHasanpur, 12 acres inSarairanjan,15acresinVidyapatiNagar(Samastipur)and15acresinSiwan.

Jaipur: Jaipur on Sunday re-ported zero new coronaviruscases inthe last24hours,asperthe daily bulletin issued by theHealthdepartment.Across thestate too,onlysix

new cases were reported till 6pm on Sunday, with two fromSawaiMadhopur and one eachfromAjmer,Alwar,BarmerandUdaipur. So far, 9.54 lakh testshave returned positive in the

state,outofwhichonly89casesare still active. Of these, 30 arein Jaipur.For Jaipur, thiswas only the

second time since the coron-avirus pandemic began whenzero new cases were reported.On August 31 too, Jaipur –which has had the highestCovid-19 caseload in thestate – had reported zero newcases. ENS

SHIVNARAYANRAJPUROHITNEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

MORE THAN twomonths aftertheGoa government issued the‘GoaMineralOrePermanentFundTrust Scheme’ notification, aSupremeCourt-appointedmoni-toringcommitteehascriticisedthestateforpublishingitwithoutob-tainingtheapexcourt’sapproval.The schemeaims to set aside

10per cent of the e-auction sale

proceedsand10percentofthefu-ture sale/export price of ironorefor thewelfare of communitiesand restorationof areas affectedbymining.“ItisseenthattheStateofGoa

have formally notified the GoaMineral Ore Permanent FundTrust Scheme in Gazatte dated01.07.2021. This shouldnot havebeendonewithoutfirstobtainingtheapprovalofthisHon’bleCourtto the Scheme,” read theCentralEmpoweredCommittee’s (CEC)reportdatedSeptember8.

However, theCEC,which as-sists the SupremeCourt inmat-tersrelatedtowildlifeandforests,suggestedthatthecourtmayap-prove the “draft of the GoaMineral Ore Permanent FundTrustScheme”.“Hon’bleCourtmayconsider

granting approval to thedraft ofthe ‘GoaMineralOrePermanentFundTrustScheme’subjecttothecondition that as andwhen anychanges in the Schemebecomenecessary prior approval of thisHon’ble Courtwill be obtained,”

readthereport.TheCECsaidthestategovern-

menthadsubmittedthenotifica-tion through an affidavit in theSupremeCourt.“TheCECisinagreementwith

this revisedDraft Scheme ‘GoaMineral ore Permanent FundTrust Scheme’. The said schemehasbeenfiledbeforethisHon’bleCourt throughanaffidavitby theStateofGoa,”In2016,theCEChadinformed

theSupremeCourtthatanearlierdraftnotificationwasatvariance

with thepanel’s views and sug-gestedthatthefundshouldbeper-manent insteadfor20yearswithanextensionofanother20years;shouldbeusedforonlyforaffectedpeopleandecologicalrestoration;andshouldnotbeinvestedinstockmarkets nor bedeposited in theConsolidatedFundormixedwiththe CAMPA (CompensatoryAfforestationFundManagementandPlanningAuthority)corpus.After thepanel’s suggestions,

theGoagovernment revised thenotificationdraft.

Panaji:Goagovernment Sundayorderedmandatory institutionalquarantine of five days for stu-dents andemployees of firms inGoaarriving fromKerala.Theor-dersissuedbythedistrictadmin-istrationofbothNorthandSouthGoastatedthatanRTPCRnegativereportwillhavetobeproducedbythosearrivingfromKerala.In the orders extending the

Covid-19restrictionsinthestatetillSeptember20, theCollectorsof both districts said thatarrangements for the institu-tional quarantine of studentswill have to bemade by educa-tional institutions and that foremployeeswillhavetobemadeby their respectiveoffices.At the end of the five-day

quarantine, these persons willhavetotakeanotherRTPCRtest,theorders state.Arrivals of those other than

students or employees fromKerala, theorderssaid,willbeal-lowedwithnegative RTPCR testreports and theywill have to re-maininhomequarantineforfivedays.Constitutionalfunctionaries,healthcareworkers,theirspouses,children under two, those inemergencysituationsandtransitpassengerswillbeexemptedfrombeinginquarantine. ENS

SUKRITABARUAHNEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

ATLEAST61,257familieshavelosttheirhomessinceMarch2020inat least 245 incidents of forcedeviction drives across the coun-tryduringthepandemic,accord-ingtoareportbytheHousingandLandRightsNetwork.Thereport‘ForcedEvictionsin

India in 2020: A Grave HumanRights Crisis During thePandemic’ records that 126 ofthese evictions took place fromMarch2020toJuly2021,and119from January 1 to July 21 2021.Some of themajor evictions in2021ithasrecordedarethedem-olitionofatleast12,000homesinFaridabad’s Khori Gaon by theMunicipal Corporation ofFaridabad,300housesinRameshPark by theDelhi DevelopmentAuthority in Delhi in July, 450homes in Mumbai’s ChhedaNagar by theMangrove conser-vation Cell in February, 200houses in Mysuru by theKarnataka SlumDevelopmentBoardinApril,and130housesin

ArumbakkaminJulybytheTamilNaduSlumClearanceBoard.Among the reasons for these

have been encroachment clear-ance and city beautificationdrives,infrastructureprojects,en-vironment projects and forestprotection.“Almost all incidents of evic-

tiondocumentedbyHLRNfrom1January to 31 July 202138 haverenderedlow-incomecommuni-ties homeless at thepeakof the

pandemic. Thewidespreaddev-astationcausedby thesedemoli-tions during this public healthemergencyhasresultedinthebla-tant violationof humanrightsofaffectedpersons, including theirright to life guaranteed by theConstitutionofIndia.Thedestruc-tion of people’s housing at thistime needs to be strongly de-nounced,withanimmediatesus-pensionofallplanneddemolitionsandevictions,”statesthereport.

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEKOLKATA,SEPTEMBER12

THE PAEDIATRIC ward ofJalpaiguri district hospital hasbeen admitting 40-50 childrendaily for the past four days, ahealth official said on Sunday.According to the official, 80%-90% of the sick children weretested for Covid and one wasfound positive. The child hasbeenadmittedtoaspecialnew-borncareunitandisinisolation.The rest, aged between one tofour, are said to have influenza-like illness with symptoms likefever, cough and shortness ofbreath.“Malariaanddenguescreen-

inghasbeendone…Asmanyas45newbedshavebeenaddedtoaccommodatemorechildren.Todealthesituationinabetterway,a new ward was opened onFriday.Regularvisitsweremadebytheadministrationtoidentifyif any outbreak has occurred.Thesecasesarenotverycompli-cated, and the discharge rate is

high. Today, 48 patients weredischarged.Paediatriciansarein-vestigating these cases. So far,this seems tobe thecaseof sea-sonalinfluenza-likeillness,”saidaseniorhealthofficial.Meanwhile, state’s Covid-19

tallyonSundayroseto15,56,908with an addition of 751. TheCovidtollreached18,577after10morepatientssuccumbedtothevirus.Activecasesdroppedby16to8,187.Nadia recorded highest the

number of deaths at four, fol-lowed by two each in HooghlyandNorth24Parganas.As many as 757 Covid pa-

tientsweredischargedinthelast24 hours, taking the total to1,53,014. The recovery ratestandsat98.28percent.The state has tested

1,74,78,452 samples for Covid-19,including41,379inthelast24hours.In terms of vaccination,

4,70,73,973Coviddoses, includ-ing 5,68,364 on Sunday, havebeen administered to people inthestate.

Over 60,000 families evicted fromhomes during pandemic: report

Goa pulled up for mining notification without SC nod

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEBENGALURU,SEPTEMBER12

IN A suspected case of gang ri-valry, a 27-year-old manwithcriminal antecedents, who alsomanaged a football team, washacked to death in a Bengalurufootball stadiumonSunday.Accordingtopolice, the inci-

dent took place around 4 pmwhen four or five assailantsbarged inside the footballground and chased AravindKumar before killing him in achanging room for referees inthestadium.Deputy Commissioner of

Police (central) M N AnuchethsaidAravindwasmanagingalo-cal football teamand had cometo play in a six-a-side footballtournament at a BBMP groundlocated opposite KSFABengaluruFootbalStadium.“At about 4 pm, four or five

persons surrounded and as-saulted him. He then fled fromthe spot and entered themainKSFA Football Stadium located

opposite the BBMP ground. Hewentinsidearefereesroomandlockedhimself.Theaccusedper-sons then broke the door andhacked him to death usingdeadlyweapons,”thepolicesaid.A case of murderwas regis-

tered at the AshokNagar policestationandtwoteamshavebeenformed to identify and nab theaccused.The police said gang rivalry

wasthecauseofthemurderandAravindwasarowdy-sheeter inBharathiNagar police station ineastBengaluru.

Dive into fishery helps Bihar village net gains

Thefloodedlowlandthathasbeenrepurposed intoathrivingfisheryhub;and(above) theresidentsofShahzadpurvillage

120-150 kids admittedto Jalpaiguri hospital,official says influenza

Man hacked to deathin Bengaluru stadium

Mumbai civicbody says 16oxygen plants at9 hospitals ready

Goa orders 5-dayquarantine forstudents comingfrom Kerala

PRESSTRUSTOFINDIANEWDELHI, SEPTEMBER12

ALLADULTSinSikkim,DadraandNagarHaveli,Himachal Pradesh,Goa, Ladakh and LakshadweephavereceivedatleastonedoseofCovid vaccine as the cumulativejabsadministered in thecountrycrossed 74 crore on Sunday, theUnionHealthMinistrysaid.Over 52 lakhdoseswere ad-

ministeredonSunday,accordingtodatafromtheCoWINportal.“Congratulations to these

statesandUnionTerritoriesforad-ministeringthefirstCovid-19vac-cine dose to 100 per cent of theadultpopulation.Specialappreci-ation for the healthworkers inthese regions for their diligenceand commitment,” the office ofUnionHealthMinisterMansukhMandaviyatweeted.Alongwith the tweet, theof-

ficeof theUnionHealthMinisterput up a chartwhich stated thatDadra and Nagar Haveli andDamanandDiu(6.26lakhdoses),Goa(11.83lakhdoses),Himachal

Pradesh (55.74 lakh doses),Ladakh (1.97 lakh doses),Lakshadweep(53,499doses),andSikkim (5.10 lakhdoses) are thestates andUTswith100per centeligible population vaccinatedwiththefirstdoseof thevaccine.Thecountrywidevaccination

drivewasrolledoutonJanuary16

withhealthcareworkers gettinginoculatedinthefirstphase.The vaccination exercise as a

tooltoprotectthemostvulnerablepopulationgroupsinthecountryfromCOVID-19 continues to beregularly reviewed andmoni-toredatthehighestlevel,themin-istrysaid.

All adults in 6 states, UTs havegot first dose of vaccine: Govt

ACovid-19vaccinationdrive forseniorcitizens, teachersandthoseabove45ataThanenursinghome,Sunday.Deepak Joshi

PolicesaidgangrivalrywasbehindthekillingofAravindKumar

Aslumdemolition inDelhi thisyear.At least245 incidentsofforcedevictionhappenedamidthepandemic.

GajendraYadav/File

JAIPURREPORTSZERONEWCOVIDCASES IN24HOURS

560DAYSSINCEPANDEMICBEGAN

TRACKING THE SECOND SURGE

NEWCASES: 30,799ACTIVE CASES:3,75,865TOTAL VACCINATION: 73,82,07,378

DAILY DEATHS220

TOTALDEATHS4,42,875

WEEKLY CFR0.74%

OVERALL CFR1.35%

TESTS TODAY: 15,60,937 | TOTAL TESTS: 54,33,66,766

WEEKLY POSITIVITY: 2.02% | OVERALL POSITIVITY: 6.12%

STATESREPORTINGMOSTCASES

STATE NEW ACTIVE WEEKLY TOTALCASES CASES POSITIVITY VACCINATION

■Kerala 20,240 2,22,736 16.59% 3,16,76,317

■Maharashtra 3,623 50,400 1.04% 6,76,90,046

■TamilNadu 1,608 16,473 1.01% 3,70,34,195

■AndhraPradesh 1,190 15,110 2.24% 3,31,82,565

■Mizoram 1,089 12,060 12.07% 9,75,763

STATESREPORTINGMOSTDEATHS

STATE TODAY’S TOTAL WEEKLY OVERALLDEATHS DEATHS CFR CFR

■Kerala 67 22,630 0.55% 0.56%

■Maharashtra 47 1,41,689 1.17% 2.19%

■TamilNadu 22 35,168 1.37% 1.35%

■Karnataka 17 37,504 1.10% 1.27%

■AndhraPradesh 11 13,998 0.89% 0.70%

Note:DataasonSept12;vaccinationnumbersasofSept11.Deathsincludethosecausedbycomorbidities.

New Delhi

HISTORY IS relevant andmost importantwhen it comes to ensuring a proper under-standingof threatssuchasterrorism,whichhave a long-term impact. Hence, eventhoughbySeptember2001Indiahadalreadybeen a victim of cross-border terrorism foryears,9/11diddenoteaparadigmaticchangeinthepracticeofviolence.Moretothepoint,India’s security establishment recognisedearlyonthattheattackhadprofoundstrate-gic implications.

Attacks onUS,MumbaiAlready by the late 1980s, the broad

sweep acquiredby radical Islamhadbegunto be felt across the globe. Thewar againsttheSovietsinAfghanistanduringthisperiodgaveitanewimpetus,apartfromproducingnewpattersofterrorismderivedfromamix-tureofreligiousfervourandfundamentalistaims. TheAfghan Jihadof the ’80s attractedvolunteers from across the Islamic world,and among the volunteers was Osama binLaden, forwhomAfghanistanwas a forma-tive experience. It broughthim into contactwith Islamists fromEgyptandSyria, includ-ing Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of theEgyptianIslamicJihad. Thethoughtprocessofthenewbreedofterroristswasinfluencedbytheteachingsof theEgyptianSyedQutuband the Palestinian Abdullah Azzam, to-gether with the practical theology ofJalaluddin Haqqani. Two decades on, thebroad shape of Islamist terrorism remainsmuchthesame,thoughtherearemanymorevariants today inexistence.September 11, 2001 alerted security ex-

perts and agencies to ‘new-age terrorism’.Thoughittookmanymoreyearsforthemtounderstandthattheseterroristsbelongtoanaltogether different genre of terrorism, dif-fering both in structure andmorphologyfrom those of the past, the lessons had hithome. ‘New-ageterrorists’had,forinstance,far greater transnational reach. The attackthat took place in the United States had itsultimate command and control inAfghanistan,while theattackerscamefromseveralArabstates.In the case of the 26/11 attacks in

Mumbai, the ultimate command and con-trol was in Pakistan; the controllers reliedheavily on technology to manage everyphase of the operation; the terrorists weretrainedbyofficial agencies inPakistan;andanAmericannationalwasusedtocarryoutreconnaissance of targets to be attacked.FromIndia’sviewpoint,employingviolenceindiscriminately as well as the concept ofexternal sponsorship and support to non-

stateactors,revealedanewcognitivemapofterrorism.While September11, 2001helped to fo-

cus global attention on the reach and ex-panse of global jihad, November 26, 2008was a direct wake-up call for India’s secu-rity agencies. Al-Qaeda and Osama binLaden emerged as the symbols of the newgenusof terrorismfollowingSeptember11,2001, but what India realised withNovember 26, 2008,was that Pakistan hadthrowndown the gauntlet andwould stopto nothing to achieve its ends. It had to,hence, gear up its efforts further to protectthe Indianmainland.Meanwhile, al-Qaeda continued towax

andwane,butofspecialinteresttotheIndiansecurity establishmentwas al-Qaeda in theIndiansubcontinent (AQIS).Of evengreaterinterest to India’s securityplannerswas theimpetus all this gave to al-Qaeda acolytessuchas theLashkar-e-Taibaandthe Jaish-e-Mohammad, both of which operated fromPakistan and had been responsible for sev-eral large-scale terrorattacks in India.

Continuing ISIS threatFollowing theeliminationofOsamabin

Laden in 2011, and as the al-Qaeda coreweakened, theworld and India confronteda new threat, ISIS. The theology of the neworganisation was not very different fromthatofal-Qaeda,butit leanedmoretowardsthenihilismof SyedQutub. It alsoofferedavisionof anewandexclusivebrandofpuri-tanical Islam. The ISIS idea of a newCaliphate also ignited the imagination ofMuslim youth across the globe, and itproved to be a powerful magnet to attractvolunteers to thecause.TheabilitytoproselytiseovertheInternet

becameakeypropagandaweaponinthear-mouryoftheISIS,withseveralthousandsbe-

ingrecruitedinthismanner.AlthoughIndiaremainedinthecrosshairsof ISIS,andatvar-ious times ISIS claimed that parts of Indiawere incorporatedwithin the Islamic StateofKhorasan, theactivitiesof ISIS in India re-mained rather limited. It would not, how-ever,bewisetounderestimatetheinfluenceof the IslamicState in the regionasawhole.Clearevidenceof thiswasseenintheEasterSunday bombings in Sri Lanka in 2015, forwhichtheIslamicStatehasclaimedrespon-sibility,evenasitwasfacingsetbacksinSyriaand Iraq.Notwithstanding theabove, both theal-

QaedaandIslamicState,aswellasterrorout-fits suchas theLashkar-e-Taibaand Jaish-e-Mohammad, continue to be active eventhough the numbers of violent incidentshave come down as compared to the past.Afghanistanhasbeenthemainareaofoper-ation for the IslamicState following theset-backsinSyriaandIraq.TheemergenceoftheTaliban as the de facto rulers of Afghanistanmayseeattemptson their part to check theactivitiesof theISIS,buttowhatextentistooearly tosurmise.

26/11: one of a kindThe 26/11 attackwas oneof a kind, and

whileprior tothisPakistanhadbeencarry-ingoutaseriesof terrorstrikes, somebytheLashkar, some by Jaish, and some by otherterror groups almost all of which weresponsored by Pakistan, the magnitude oftheMumbai terror attack shook the secu-rity establishment.26/11provideddirectevidenceof thein-

volvementof thePakistanistateinterrorac-tivities.Thechoiceof targets inMumbaihadbeenmadeaftercarefulreconnaissancecar-ried out under the aegis of the ISI, and im-plementedbyagroupof10handpickedLeTterroristswhohadbeen trained for several

weeksinLahoreandKarachi.Theentireop-eration wasmasterminded by the ISI andthe Pakistani establishment, with eventelecommunicationsbeingcontrolledbyanofficial of the establishment. Details of theplanformulatedbythePakistanideepstate,whichemergedfromthecomputerofZararShah, indicated that theLeT terroristswereto proceed by amother ship from Karachion the high seas, shift to a smaller sailingship, andontodinghiescloser to land.Afterlanding, the 10 terrorists were to split andproceed to their predetermined andprevi-ouslyreconnoitredtargets.Seldom,ifever, inthe annals of terrorismhave there been in-stances of a government sponsoring an at-tackof this kind.

Lessons India learntThe intelligence availablewasundoubt-

edly sketchy, and proper anticipation too,wasmissing.Bothhavesincebeenaddressedtoa largeextent.The first responders reacted gallantly.

Arrival of the elite National Security Guard(NSG)was, however, delayed due to lack oftransport and other administrative pitfalls.Several stepshavesincebeentakentoover-cometheselacunae.TheCoastGuardmech-anism to police India’s long coastline hasbeenstrengthenedandenergised.AdditionshavebeenmadetothenumberofNSGhubs.Better transport facilities for the NSG havebeen introduced. Intelligence coordinationbetweenthestatesandthecentralagencieshasbeenstrengthened.While the good news is there has not

beenanattackanywhereonthescaleof9/11intheUSor26/11inIndia, thegrimrealityisthat the ideologyandtheconceptof nihilis-tic violence has not been eradicated.ConfirmedfiguresaboutthenumberofSalafijihadist fighters, worldwide and in our re-

gion,arenotavailablebut theyrunintosev-eral thousands including in our immediateneighbourhood.TheIslamicStateremainsapotential threat. All this indicates that eventhoughtheterroristthreatmayebbandflowat times, terrorismremainsanever-presentreality.

An uncertain coalitionHowever tempting it might be to think

thattheGlobal“WaronTerror’’andtheinter-national response to Islamist terrorismgreatly helped shape India’s strategic rela-tionshipsaroundtheworld,thisishardlythecase. Indiaoftenplaysalonehandinmakingtheworldunderstandtheseriousnessof theterrorist threat, and has had even less suc-cessinhavingindividualterroristslikeHafizSaeed designated as terrorists of interna-tional concern.Whilemanyof the currentTaliban lead-

ers, including the acting primeminister,MullahMohammad Hassan Akhund, andsomeministerslikeSirajuddinHaqqani,havebeenincludedintheUnitedNationsSecurityCouncilTerrorismList, Indiahashadtowagea lone and uphill battle to include othernames on the same terror list, despite pro-vidingenoughevidenceof theirperfidyandterror links. The India-US nuclear deal of2008 in fact, did far more to shape andstrengthenIndia’snewstrategicrelationshipwith theUS. Thedeteriorating relationsbe-tweentheUSandChina,andIndiaandChina,have furthercontributed to thestrengthen-ingof India-USstrategic relations.

What lies aheadThereturnof theTalibaninAfghanistan,

and the generally unsettled conditions inthatcountry,aremattersofdeepconcerntoIndia for a variety of reasons. Importantamong them is that the current Taliban in-terim government includes quite a few in-ternationally listed terrorists. This couldpossiblymakeiteasier for forces inimical toIndia, such as Pakistan, to use Afghanistanasabasetowagemajorterroristoperationsdirectedatkeytargets inIndia.Oneobvioustarget is Kashmir, which has been in thecrosshairsofPakistaniterrorgroupsforoverthreedecades. It isnowpossibletoenvisagePakistanasexploitingtheopportunitytoen-large itsareasof operationandtheambitofitstargetswellbeyondKashmir,givenitsre-lationship with the Taliban regime inAfghanistan. India’s ‘terror watch’ will as aresult, need tobegreatly enhanced.The prognosis about a reduction in ter-

rorism in the near future is distinctly un-favourable. The United Nations has a poorrecord in dealing with terrorism in anyform,anddoesnotgivehighpriority tothissubject. Any number of sponsored resolu-tionsare likelytomakelittledifference,anddespite the PrimeMinister seeking a uni-versal definition of terrorism, it would ap-pear that the fight against terrorism willlargely continue tobe fought by individualcountries who are victims of such attacks.India must not lower its guard under anycircumstances.

13WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

E EXPLAINEDTHEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

Why Battle of Saragarhi continuesto inspire India & world, 124 yrs onMANRAJGREWALSHARMACHANDIGARH,SEPTEMBER12

SEPTEMBER12marksthe124thanniversaryof theBattleofSaragarhi,whichhasinspiredaarmies, booksand filmsbothathomeandabroad.Alookathowitunfolded,andwhyitis consideredoneof the finest last stands inthemilitaryhistoryof theworld:

The battleSaragarhiwasthecommunicationtower

between Fort Lockhart and Fort Gulistan inNorth West Frontier Province, now inPakistan. The forts were built byMaharajaRanjit Singhbut renamedbytheBritish.AlthoughSaragarhiwasusuallymanned

byaplatoonof40soldiers,onSeptember12,1897 it was being held by only 21 soldiersfrom36thSikh(now4Sikh)andanon-com-batant called Daad, a Pashtunwho did oddjobsforthetroops.Theywerepittedagainstover 8,000 Afridi and Orakzai tribals, butmanaged to hold the fort for seven hours.They fought till their last breath, killing200tribals and injuring600.In his book The 36th Sikhs in the Tirah

Campaign 1897-98 — Saragarhi and theDefence of the Samana Forts, Punjab ChiefMinister Amarinder Singhwrites that thesesoldiers knew theywere looking at certaindeath.“Theycouldhavesurrendered,yettheydidn’tanddisplayedunparalleledbravery.”

The attack& the isolationAround 9 am that day, the sentry saw a

large army of tribalsmarching towards thefort. He estimated their number between8,000and15,000.Thetribalswantedtoiso-late the two forts by cutting off the lines ofcommunicationbetweenthem.Sepoy Gurmukh Singh, 23, sent ames-

sage to commanding officer Lt Col JohnHaughton: “Enemy approaching themain

gate…needreinforcement.”ButthePathanshad cut off the supply route between FortLockhart and Saragarhi. Haughton radioedback, “Unable to break through, hold posi-tion”. SepoyGurmukhSinghconveyed thismessage to platoon commander HavildarIsharSingh.Fullyawareoftheconsequences,he responded: “Understood.”CaptJaySingh-Sohal,aBritishofficerwho

madethefilmSaragarhi:TheTrueStory,says:“The soldiers were not only outnumbered,they also had limited ammunition witharound400roundsperman,onereasonwhyLtColHaughtonurgedthemtousetheirfire-powercarefully. “

Themen& the resistanceHavildar Ishar Singh,who led the troops,

wasinhisearly40swhenhewasgiveninde-pendent command of the Saragarhi post.Amarinder Singhwrites about him: “WhilehewillalwaysberememberedforhisgallantconductatSaragarhi,withintheregimenttheywill alsoruethe lossof theirbest illicit liquorproducer,andamanwho‘borrowed’meaton

hoof forhismen,whenshortof rations, fromaneighbouringunitwithoutaskingthem.”NaikGurmukhSingh,thesignaller,wasthe

youngest andNaikLal Singh, 47, theoldestofthe 22 men at Saragarhi. In his book,Amarinder Singhwrites: “Naik Lal Singh,thoughseverelyinjured,waslyingonhisbed.Althoughunable tomove, hewas consciousandabletofirehisweapon,andisreportedtohavekeptupasteadyfire,killingmorepathans,asdidGurmukhSinghandSep/SwprDaad.”Gurmukhcontinued to report thebattle

as itunfolded.Andthenfindingthesoldiersfalling one by one, sent one final message:“Permission to join the battle, Sir.” The re-sponsewas in theaffirmative.In his book, Capt Amarinder calls Daad

the 22nd soldier. He was fromNowshera,nowinPakistan.Hewasdeniedanyhonouralthough he too fought bravely, killing fivemenbeforebeingstabbedtodeath.

Remembering the fallenIn a departure from the tradition of not

giving gallantry medals posthumously,Queen Victoria awarded the 21 soldiers —leavingoutthenon-combatant— theIndianOrderofMerit(comparablewiththeVictoriaCross)alongwithtwomarabas(50acres)andRs500each.In2017, thePunjabgovernmentdecided

to observe Saragarhi Day on September 12asaholiday.EventodaytheKhyberScoutsregimentof

thePakistaniarmymountsaguardandsalutestheSaragarhimemorialclosetoFortLockhart.TheBritish,whoregainedcontrolofthefort

afterafewdays,usedburntbricksofSaragarhitobuildanobelisk to themartyrs. Theycom-missioned gurdwaras at Amritsar andFerozepurintheirhonour.Now,theShiromaniGurudwara ParbandhakCommittee (SGPC)hasnamedahallafterSaragarhi.Actor Akshay Kumar’s film Kesariwas

based looselyon thebattle.

920YEARSLATER

EXPERTEXPLAINSMKNARAYANANFromThe IndianExpresspanelof specialists, exclusive insight

THEEXPERTMKNARAYANANwasIndia’sNationalSecurityAdvisor from2005to2010,aperiodduringwhich IndiasawtheJuly11,2006andNovember26,2008terroristattacksonMumbai,aswellas thespateof jihadistbombings intownsandcitiesacross India from2006-10.Earlier inhiscareer,NarayananservedasDirector, IntelligenceBureau,andSpecialAdvisoronInternalSecurity tothePrimeMinister. Fewothershaveseentheevolutionof thesecuritythreat to Indiaandthecountry’snational responseto itascloselyasNarayanan.HealsoservedasGovernorofWestBengal from2010-14.

CORONAVIRUSDASHBOARD

ActorRandeepHoodadressedasHav.IsharSinghposeswithSingh’spictureonthecoverofPuniabCMAmarinderSingh’sbook in2017.ExpressArchive

TOTALVACCINATED IN INDIA (at least one dose)

56,11,01,965

DOSESONSEPT 1176,17,690SEPT10:68,05,102 (1st doses: 46,98,307 ; 2nd: 21,06,795)

■Firstdose ■Seconddose

COVISHIELD88.2%

COVAXIN11.7%

TOTALDOSES73,82,07,378(Sputnik V’s 8,38,474dosesnot represented in pie)

Sep2 Sept11

1,20,00,000

60,00,000

0LAST 10 DAYS (daily)

45,60,53857,31,712

21,90,922

PART 2NEXT:

9/11andIndianpolitics

Thebeginningandtheendof thewar.ThetickerunderABCstudiosonTimesSquare (left)broadcastsnewsabout theUSattackonAfghanistan in2001;aTalibancheckpoint (right) in frontofwhatusedtobetheUSEmbassy inKabulonSeptember4,2021. TheNewYorkTimes

T E R R O R ’ S N E W A G E

The threat that persists

Note: TheSept11 figures in thesegraphsarebasedon thegovernmentupdatesonSept12

30,57,152

LEVERAGING advancements inCRISPR-basedgeneticengineering,re-searchers have created a system thatrestrains populations of mosquitoesthatinfectmillionseachyearwithde-bilitating diseases. The “precision-guided sterile insect technique”(pgSIT),altersgeneslinkedtomalefer-tility—creating sterile offspring—andfemaleflightinAedesaegypti,themos-

quito speciesresponsibleforspreading dis-eases includ-ing denguefever, chikun-gunya andZika, theUniversity ofCalifornia, SanDiego said inapress release.

Details of the pgSIT have been de-scribedinNatureCommunications.The pgSIT uses CRISPR to sterilise

malemosquitoes and render femalemosquitoes (which spread disease)flightless. The system is self-limitingandisnotpredictedtopersistorspreadintheenvironment,twosafetyfeaturesthat shouldenableacceptance for thistechnology,thereleasesaid.ThescientistssaypgSITeggscanbe

shipped to a location threatened bymosquito-bornediseaseordevelopedatanon-sitefacilitythatcouldproducetheeggsfornearbydeployment.OncethepgSITeggsarereleasedinthewild,sterile pgSITmaleswill emerge andeventuallymatewithfemales,drivingdownthewildpopulationasneeded.

Source:UCSanDiego

New tech basedon CRISPR tocontrol growthof mosquitoes

PAPERCLIP

NEWRESEARCH

3,84,9213,89,583

Sep2 Sept11LAST 10 DAYS

INDIAACTIVECASES 3,84,9214,50,000

2,25,000

0

New Delhi

RAVISHTIWARI:Aftera longperiodof inactivity, theBSPhassoundedthepollbugle inUttarPradeshwithaseriesof publicmeetings.Whatprompted it?It’snotentirely correct to say thatwe

started doing this suddenly. For the pastone-and-a-half years, public meetingshave not been possible because of thepandemic. Despite that, wemanaged tohave 62meetings in different districts,withat least200personseach.WhiletheBrahmins came to my office, similarmeetings were held at Behenji’s (partychief Mayawati) place. Themoment theCovid-19 casesdropped inUP,webegan(our meetings). It’s not that we weresilent, the party has beenworking rightup to the booth level, andwe are deter-mined to throwout theBJP governmentin the state.

RAVISHTIWARI:Butyoucanbeaccusedof launchingyourcampaignwithcaste-basedevents?We called it ‘Prabuddha Sammelan

(intellectuals’meetings)’.Nodoubt, inallmymeetings,90percentof theattendeeswere Brahmins, but there were otherstoo.Therewereadvocates,doctors,engi-neers... So itwasn’t a ‘jaativaad’ event. InUP, Brahmins andDalits are facingmax-imum issues. The way encounters andmurders are happening... If someonecomplains,hefacesinquiry.Allthesepeo-plewhoweresufferingurgedmetocomeout... Theywant 2007 to comeback [thelast timeBSP cametopower], theywantthebrotherhoodof theBrahminandDalitcommunities to return. The social engi-neering... no one ever thought the com-munities could come together. Weformedamajoritygovernment.

RAVISHTIWARI:What issueswill youraise in the2022polls?Law and order, development, atroci-

tiesonwomen,atrocitiesoncaste lines...People are again talking aboutMayawati’sdevelopmentwork,howshehandled lawandorder anddid not evenspareherownMP... Todayonebarelyseesanydevelopment,weonlyseepagesandpages of advertisements. (Mayawati)gaveemploymenttopeoplefromallsec-tions.Work on the first Delhi-Noida ex-presswaywasstartedinhertime.Anen-quirywasplacedonitafterourterm,andthen the samegovernment inauguratedit!TheCongress,SamajwadiParty,every-one protested against the Jewar airport,andtodaytheyareallbattingforit...Workon LucknowMetro was started in ourtime.Weensuredtheall-rounddevelop-mentof29,500Ambedkarvillages.About29,000 new primary schools wereopened; seven international-level uni-versities were set up... She opened 23new districts, which came with newroads,hospitals,colleges...SheimprovedtheelectricitysituationinUP... Inourfive-yearterm,therewasonerapecase.Today,wehearofonerapeeverytwohours... Sothat isthedifference. (Mayawati)hasputthe agenda on the table, and has prom-isedtotakeUPwhereitshouldbe...Todaywe are seeing Rs 300 crore being spentby people to propagate themselves. It isa sin. Teachers are goingwithout salary,peoplearenotgettingpensions,andthenyou are mocking everyone by puttingsignboardssayingthatwearegiving5kggraineachto15crorepeople.Butthecostof thebagwithphotographsof BJP lead-ers is more than the foodgrains. Is thatjustified?

LIZMATHEW:TheBJPhasalsobeenfocussingonDalitvotes inUP,andtheparty’s casteformulahasworkedso far.Howwill youconsolidateyourvotebase in thefaceof suchstiffcompetition fromtherulingparty?Also,whatdoyoumakeof theBhimArmy’s influenceamongDalits inUP?All these people and parties are

proppedupby theBJP,whether it is him(BhimArmychiefChandrashekharAzad)or(AIMIMchiefAsaduddin)Owaisi.Theyarehardly going todoanydamage tous.Theywill lose theirownseat if theycon-test an election there. The ScheduledCastes and Scheduled Tribes are behindBehenji like a rock, which ensured thatwe got 2.62 crore votes in the Lok Sabhaelectionsin2014.Wegotnoseatsbutwewere the third largest party even thenandnowtoo.Sopeoplefromthesecastesknowwho hasworked for them. If theyarebeingspokenaboutnow,it isonlyandonly because of her (Mayawati). It is notthatshehasbuilt theKanshiramSmarakin Noida, but she has done tremendouswork for them... When BJP leaders visit

(Dalit) homes, their food is taken fromtheir own homes, they are just showneatingwith themorwashing their feet...But these people vote for Behenji.Why?It’s because she doesn’t indulge in thesephoto-ops. Shehas taken themout fromtheirhutsandgiventhempuccahomes...Now, once againwe are trying to revivethebrotherhoodbetweenBrahminsandDalits.Weareasarvsamaajparty.Wearereaching out to the neglected, whetherBrahminorDalit.

BHUPENDRAPANDEY:Whyhavetherebeensomanysuspensionsandexpulsions in theBSPrecently,includingof senior leaders suchasLaljiVermaandRamAchalRajbhar?Wedon’t follow the philosophy that

just because someone is a senior leader,oranMPorMLA,theyshouldnotfaceac-tion for anti-party activity. We fieldedRamji Gautam for the Rajya Sabha polls.In the last minute, some of our party’sMLAssupported theSPcandidate.Whatcanbeabigger anti-party activity?Whohasmade them big leaders? The party.

And so the party ismost important. Ifyou look at the ca-reers of peoplewhose names youare taking, you willsee that they havebeenmade zero-to-hero by Mayawati.Over the years,many such peoplehavecomeandgonein the BSP, and thistimetoo,alotofnew

faces are coming.

SHUBHAJITROY:ThemonthsofAprilandMaysawacuteshortageof bedsandoxygenandevenpolitical leaderslikeyourself couldn’thold thegovernmentaccountable.Whyshouldpeople trustyouwith theirvote then?Covidhasput us all to shame. Letme

tellyoumyownexperience.Ihavehelpedat least 2,500 patients in getting treat-ment. For thoseone-and-a-halfmonths,I literallydidnot sleep, trying tomanageoxygen etc. We opened a campus forabout 2,500-3,000 labourerswho couldnottravel,andarrangedfortheirfood.Butyes,wewerenotgivingsoundbitesonTVabout it; we were just doing our work.That’showourpartyis.ThelevelofCovid

mismanagement inUP is unimaginable.They(thegovernment)startedtakingac-tion against those who pointed out themismanagement. We visited the ghats,the cremation areas, and wereshocked to see that nearly 100 bodieswere being burnt in a line. We evenhelped in arranging wood for some...Bodies were being washed away in theGanga... Where did all themoney allot-ted forCovidgo?Theywereblamingthemedia for showing the bodies. Butwhatthe media was showing was less. Wewereseeingthescenesathospitals.Manypatientsdiedof hunger.

VANDITAMISHRA:Wehavehadmanyagitations intherecentpast—studentprotests,anti-CAAprotests, thefarmeragitation,Dalitprotests.However, theBSPhasnotbeenvisibleinanyof these.Peoplewhoare in jailtoday, facingseditioncharges,UAPA,theyareactivistswhodonotbelongtoanyparty.Forapartythatspeaksfor themostmarginalised, isn’t thisafailure?Our people have always been agitat-

ing, but in a differentmanner.We don’tbelieve in tod-phod. During theDalit agi-tations,wewerepresentalloverthecoun-try. Two of our people died in firing inMadhyaPradesh. InUP,MadhyaPradeshandMaharashtra, over100of ourpeoplewereput in jail...When it comes to casesof sedition, UAPA,wehavebeen fightingfor them in court, trying to ensure theirrelease. We don’t do danga-fasaad onstreets.We don’t stop trains, buses, de-stroygovernmentproperty.WeprotestedinParliamentforfarmers.Ourownmem-bers are farmers and theyareprotesting.Whenwe form the government,wewilllook at all issues. Tomorrow if youwritesomething, even youwill not be spared.It’s anundeclaredEmergency.

MANOJCG:There ismuchtalkofOppositionunityat thenational level.SharadPawartalksabout it,MamataBanerjeetoo.SoniaGandhiheldameeting.But theBSPisnotveryenthusiasticabouttheseefforts.EveninParliament, sometimesyouattendjointOppositionmeetings,sometimesyoudon’t.TheBSPremainsabsentwhensomecrucialBillsareputtovote.Weare alwayswith theOpposition, I

havemyselfattendedmeetings.Whetherit was the Congress government earlier,

evenwhenwewere offering them out-side support, or theBJPnow, youcan seethat.Butourparty takes itsowndecisiononmatters,whether something is in na-tional or public interest, onwhat to op-poseandwhatnot.SowhentheCongressasks us to stand with them in theOpposition, wemight oppose the samethingsandstillnotstandwiththem.Therearereasonsforthis,thereisabackground.Wesupportedthemwhenwehad40-41MPs altogether, but what did they do?Earlier, when Ashok Gehlot became theChief Minister in Rajasthan, they tookawaysixofourMLAsevenwhenweweregivingthemoutsidesupport.Theydidthesamethistime...Thepartyalsodidthis inHimachalandafewotherplaces...Ontheonehand,youdoallthesethingstobreakthe BSP, hurt it, and on the other you saythat the BSP should standwith you at alltimes.Sowewillbackthemonissues,buton our terms... We are also a nationalparty, one among five national politicalparties.We have to decide based on ourthinking on amatter... You spoke aboutBengal... (in the Assembly election) theywereallfightingeachother. Who was to-gether? So we haveto fight you elec-torally,youpoachourMPsandMLAs,sameastheBJP...wearenotdouble-faced.Weareclearaboutourstand.

MANOJCG: If theOppositioncomestogetherandtheCongress isnot theone leading it,will theBSP join it?We have not once but several times

been part of such unity bids, whetherKarnatakaorBengal...Butifyouthinkthatwewillcomewithyoueverytimeyousayso,wecan’t do that, either inParliamentor outside. We have an independentidentity of own...We have several timesraised our voice against the BJP... To saythat we have supported the BJP, say onArticle370 (abrogation)...Wesupporteditafteraproperdecision, that thiswas inlinewith Dr Ambedkar’s thinking. EventheBJPwassurprised, itdidnotknowwewere going to support the move. Thethinking was very reasonable — thatwhileJ&KhasasmallnumberofMuslimscomparedtotherestof thecountry,thereare restrictionswhen it comestomarry-ing people from outside, owning prop-

ertythere...DrAmbedkar’s thinkingwassimple, thathowcantherebetwosetsofrules in a country, hewanted thewholecountry to be one. He did not supportArticle370even then.

HARIKISHANSHARMA: In the2019LokSabhaelections, youhadalignedwith theSamajwadiParty totakeontheBJP.TheBSPremainsweak inUttarPradesh. In thecomingpolls, areyouconsideringanyalliance?Inthiselection,whateverpartyitmay

be, local or national, we are not going toalignwithanybody.Wehavelearntfromour experience, we had a bitter experi-ence... No doubt we have a coalition inPunjab, with the Shiromani Akali Dal,which is going very strong. There is nodoubtthatwewill formthegovernmentthere.But inUP,wearenotgoingtohave

a coalition with anybody... Our party isNo.1inUPrightnow,theBJPisNo.1onlyon paper, in propaganda, because theyhavethemoney,themuscle.Therealityisthat the BJPMLAs are scared to even goto their areas, they even call their familymembers tomeet them outside. If theyvisit, people gherao them, demand an-swers... Thewaypeople are suffering, beitduetoCovid,orthefarmerswhoaresit-tingonstreets, dying...

DEEPTIMANTIWARY: In thepast fewyears, as theBJPhasgained instrength, it seemsallpartiesarenowlooking foronly theHinduvote.Yourpartychief toowasseenwitha trishulrecently. TheBJPhasbeendoing thesameforyears.Whywouldpeoplecometoyoufor this?Andsecondly,whowill talk for theMuslimsnow,raise their issues?TheBSP’sleaderintheVidhanSabhais

aMuslim, our party president for threeyearswasaMuslim.Heislookingafterthepartyasacoordinator forelections inthestate.We have at least threeMuslims as

seniorcoordinators...Our party does notdifferentiate be-tween Hindus,Muslims. It acts inthe interest of sarva-jan.Ourpartyalwaysgives tickets toMuslims,more thanother parties... TheMuslims know thisvery well. It is onlyunder the BSP gov-ernment thatUPdid

notseeasingleriot,nordidcommunitiesfight each other, or any community liveunder dehshat (fear). People lived to-gether, there was bhaichara (brother-hood). Sopeopleknowwhichparty theyshouldgowith... EvenintheRajyaSabha,our leader is a Muslim, in the VidhanParishad,theleaderisfromtheScheduledCaste...Asforyousayingwehaveadoptedthe trishul,orstartedwearingmalas (reli-gious threads),wehave alwaysbeendo-ing it... it’s in-built. We don’t do dhong(pretence).Whetherit isGoddessParvati,Devi,Durga,orLordShivorRam...whenIwent to visit the Ram lalla (in Ayodhya),they askedwhat has Ram lalla got to dowith the BSP? I have been there tens oftimes... Theymay talkHindu, Hindu.Webelieve in takingeveryonealong... Left tothem,theywill finishSanatanDharmain

UP. Of the 1,500 Sanskrit colleges in thestate, only 50% are left, because theyneverpaid the funds... ThebhoomipujanwasdoneinAyodhyawithmuchfanfare,spending Rs 200-250 crore onAugust 5,

2020. A year later,there is nothingthere. I asked thesadhus there aboutit, they said, ‘Didn’tyou see, 5 brickswere kept andprayerswereofferedto them.Thesewerelater immersed inthe Saryu’... ComeDiwali, they willclaim a record inlighting diyas. Why

not spend the samemoney on the poor,give to teachers?

DEEPTIMANTIWARY:Butwill youmakeconcernsofMuslimsapollissue?The concerns that they have are also

ourconcerns.AsIalreadysaid,whetheritisMuslims,Dalits,anycaste,wearework-ing for everybody.

AVANEESHMISHRA:At theBSP’sSeptember7event (marking theendof the firstphaseof itsBrahminoutreach), a lotof things thathappenedareusually seenonBJPplatforms.TheBJPsees it asanachievementof itspolitics.You know that two days before our

event, the BJP also organised a‘Prabuddha Sammelan (targeted atBrahmins)’.Beforethat,theywereattack-ing us, saying one shouldn’t hold eventslikethis, it iswrong...EventheSamajwadiParty is holding such sammelans now...It’s anothermatter that nobody is com-ing for those. Sowho is copyingwhom?They even kept the same name. And asforyourclaimthattheSeptember7eventshowedachangedBSP, rewindto June9,2005, when we had gone before theBrahmin samaj, the upper caste samaj,and brought the Dalits and them to-gether.Mayawatijiwasthechief guestatthateventand itattractedclose to5 lakhpeople. Conch shells were blown eventhen, shewaspresentedwith a statueofGanesha(likeonSeptember7).Everyoneknowswhatshesaid,holdingthatstatue,‘HaathinahinGaneshhai,Brahma,Vishnu,Maheshhai (Haathiorelephantisthepollsymbol of the BSP)’... In our Prabuddhameetings across 75 districts, we haveworked to remove their (BJP’s) masksand, showtheir real faces.

BHUPENDRAPANDEY:Mayawatihassaid that theBSPwillnotgive ticketstoanybahubalior leadersconvictedincases (in thecontextofMukhtarAnsari). Shehasalwaysbeenseriousabout issuesconcerningwomen.YourMauMPAtulRai is in jailonrapecharges, andrecently,both thevictimandawitness immolated themselvesbefore theSupremeCourt. Therehasbeennoreaction fromtheBSP,norhas theparty takenanyactionagainstRai....Maybetherearesomedetailsyoudo

not know. There is a trial on in the court,whereevidenceemergedinpoliceinves-tigationthatthetwoof themhadtriedtoblackmailRaiusingfraudulentmeans, in-cluding the falseproof theyhad submit-ted. Police then filed an FIR against thetwo, andwhile the investigationwas onand they were summoned before thecourt, theydisappeared... Thecourt thensaid thatwehaveanaccused(Rai) in jail,and evidence has now come that thecharge against himmight be fabricated,so theywouldhave to appear... Then thetwo of them appeared before theSupreme Court and took that action. It’snotliketherewasanypressure(fromRai),he continues tobe in jail.

RAVISHTIWARI:Won’t a triangularcontest inUP,with theBSPnotaligningwithanyone,help theBJP?Secondly,whowillbeyourmaintarget:NarendraModiorYogiAdityanath?ThisisanelectionforUP,notthecoun-

try. On one side is Behenji and on theothersideYogiji.Wearefightingthiselec-tion to defeat the BJP. As for what otherparties are doing, we are not concernedabout that.Weknowwewilluproot thisgovernment, likeweremovedtheSPgov-ernment in 2007. They had the outsidesupport of the BJP. Everyone knows thiswell... as to who helped the SP form thegovernment in 2003... The SupremeCourt later ruled in our favour on thismatter.SoourfightatthistimeisagainsttheBJP... I don’t see anyadvantage to theBJP from a triangular contest. The BJPwould earlier win 40-45 seats, it wouldagainbereducedtothesame...Whateverthenumber,theywilldefinitelynotmakeanygains.

‘

In UP, Brahmins, Dalits face many issues. The waymurdersare happening... If someone complains, they face inquiry

SATISHCHANDRAMISRA,NATIONALGENERALSECRETARY,BSP;RAJYASABHAMP

‘‘

‘We are not going to alignwith anybody in UP. We

have learnt from experience;it was bitter... Our party isNo. 1 in UP right now, theBJP is No. 1 only on paper

14THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

IDEAEXCHANGE Newsmakers in theNewsroom

WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

‘

‘You are mocking peoplewith signboards that say we

gave 5 kg grain to 15 crpeople. But cost of the bagwith photos of BJP leaders

is more than the grains! ‘

‘Our party always givestickets to Muslims; theyknow it... Under BSP, UPdid not see riots, nor did

any community live in fear.People know whom to back

WHYSATISHCHANDRAMISRA

With months to go forthe crucial UPelections, the BSP has

been holding a series of publicmeetings for Brahmins, hoping torevive the social engineeringstrategy that propelled Mayawati topower in 2007. Misra, a keystrategist and aide for Mayawati, iscrucial to the BSP’s gameplan as theparty hopes to make a comeback

Illustration: SuvajitDey

MisradefendsBSP’sBrahminoutreachandsayspartystandsforsarvsamaaj; insistsBSPhasbeenactiveandraisingissuesinParliamentandcourts;andsaysthatwhilethepartyisreadytobacktheCongonissues, itwilldosoonitsterms.ThesessionwasmoderatedbyChiefofBureau&PoliticalEditorRavishTiwari

New Delhi

15THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

THEWORLDWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

SPAIN

VILLAGERS FLEEAMIDWILDFIREPeoplefledtheirhomesinsixmoreAndalusiantownsandvillagesonSundayasSpainsentinamilitaryunittohelptackleblazesragingclosetoaCostadelSolresort.Awildfirefannedbystrongwindshasnowdrivenoutcloseto2,000peopleandkilledoneemergencyworkersinceiteruptedonWednesdayinthemountainousSierraBermejaaboveEstepona,apopulartouristspot.

FRANCE

SocialistParismayorentersraceforFrenchpresidencyPARISMAYORAnneHidalgosaid Sunday shewould runfor president in 2022 on aSocialist ticket, thoughpollsindicateshehaslittlechanceofmounting a serious chal-lengeunlessshecanunitethefragmented left. Hidalgo,whobecamethefirstwomanto run the French capital in2014 and is among the fewseniorleft-wingpoliticianstoemerge from PresidentEmmanuelMacron’s 2017redrawing of the politicallandscape unscathed, ispollingatabout8%inApril’sfirst round.Macronand far-right leaderMarine Le Penarepolling at between20%and24%. “Knowingtheseri-ousnessof our timesand togivehope toour lives, I havedecided tobe candidate forthe Frenchpresidency,” shesaid. REUTERS

AnneHidalgo

TOPOFTHEWORLD

NORWAY

NorwegiansbeginvotinginelectioncentredonoilNORWEGIANSWENTtothepollsonSundayforthefirstoftwodaysofvotinginaparlia-mentaryelectiondominatedby the widening gap be-tweenrichandpoor,climatechangeandhowtheoil-pro-ducingnation should adaptto the energy transition.Opinionpollsshowtheoppo-sitionLabourpartyoncourseto replace theConservative-led coalition of PrimeMinister Erna Solberg. ThemanprojectedtobecomePMafter the Sept. 12-13ballot,Labour leader Jonas GahrStoere, has pledged to ad-dress inequality byofferingtaxreliefforlow-andmiddle-income families andhikingratesfortherich. REUTERS

PHILIPPINES

Strongtyphooncutspower,causesfloodingSEVERALCOMMUNITIESre-main flooded andwithoutpowerafterastrongtyphoonbattered the Philippines’northernmostislands,theau-thoritiessaidonSunday,dis-placingthousandsofpeople.TyphoonChanthu,whichatonepointwascategorisedbythe Philippineweather bu-reau as a category 5 storm,hasweakenedafterpower-ingintothenorthernmostre-gion,includingtheBatanesis-landgroup,onSaturday, theweatherbureausaid.“It’soneofthestrongesttyphoonsI’vefelt,” saidDennisBallesterosValdez,aresidentofSabtang.

REUTERS

MELISSAEDDYFRANKFURTANDERODER,SEPTEMBER12

HIS PARTY is the biggest inGermany. Ithaswonallbutthreeelectionssince1950,includingthepastfour. Itsdepartingchancellorismorepopularthananypoliticianin the country.AndGermanvot-erscravestabilityandcontinuity.Armin Laschet, the conser-

vative Christian DemocraticUnion party’s candidate forchancellor, should be ridinghigh.TheracetoreplaceAngelaMerkelwashis to lose.Sofar,heappearstobedoing

just that.

WeeksbeforeGermansvoteonSept.26 intheirmost impor-tant election in a generation —onethatwillproduceachancel-lorwhoisnotMerkelforthefirsttime in 16 years — Laschet issinking, and he is pulling hispartydownwithhim.Therace is still closeenough,

andGermany’scoalitionpoliticssounpredictable,thatitwouldbedangeroustodismisstheconser-vativecandidate.Butafterrecentpolls showed Laschet’s partydropping to record lows—of 20percentto22percentsupport—his position is so dire that evensomeChristianDemocrats havewondered aloudwhether theypickedthewrongcandidate.

Morebroadly,Laschet’scam-paignhaspromptedqueasinessamong conservatives who feartheycouldbeseeingaweaknessin the party’s appeal that hasbeen disguised for years byMerkel’s own popularity and isnow exacerbated by her inabil-ity togroomareplacement.In 2018, she announced her

personally chosen successor,AnnegretKramp-Karrenbauer,amoderatecentrist.ButevenwithMerkel’s support, Kramp-Karrenbauer had trouble step-ping out of the chancellor’sshadow and building her ownbase. She quit in 2020 as leaderof theconservatives, leavingthedooropen forLaschet.

Laschet had long boastedthat if he could run Germany’smost populous state, NorthRhine-Westphalia,wherehehas

been governor since 2017, hecould run the country. But thenextraordinaryfloodingthissum-mer called even that credential

into question, exposing flaws inhis environmental policies anddisastermanagement.“The biggest problem for

Laschet is that he has not beenabletoconvincevotersthathecando the job likeMerkel,” said JuliaReuschenbach,apoliticalscientistattheUniversityofBonn.Shecitedimagesofhimlaugh-

ing as the German president,Frank-WalterSteinmeier,madeasomber speechafter devastatingflashfloodsthatkilled180people,and posing before amound oftrash tomakea statement of hisown.“Hecomesacrossasuncer-tain,flippantandunprofessional,”Reuschenbachsaid.In recentweeks, Laschet has

seen his individual popularitydrop below that of his SocialDemocratic rival, Olaf Scholz,while support forLaschet’spartyhasbeeninafreefallsincelateJuly.The situation is so dire that

Merkel, who had said shewantedtostayoutof therace, isnow intervening and trying torallyvoters forLaschet.“Let’s be honest: It is tight. It

will be very tight in the comingweeks,”MarkusSöder,theheadofthe conservatives’ Bavarianbranch,theChristianSocialUnion,andaformalrival,saidatarallyonAug20 thatwasmeant topropelLaschet’scampaignintoafinal,in-tense stretch. “It is no longer aquestionofhowwecouldgovern,

butpossiblyofwhether.”Söder openly challenged

Laschetthisyearforthechancetosucceedthechancellor,andhestillenjoysahigherpopularity ratingamongGermansthanLaschet’s.Germans elect parties, not a

chancellorcandidate.ButoverthecourseofMerkel’sfourtermsinof-fice,herpartyhasenjoyedtheso-calledchancellorbonus,meaningthewillingnessof voters toeffec-tivelycastaballotforconsistency.Although Merkel remains

Germany’smost popular politi-cian,herrecentattemptstodrumupsupportforLaschethavefailedtoturnhisfortunesaround,partlybecausetheyhaveappearedlast-minuteandhalfhearted. NYT

ARMIN LASCHET, MERKEL’S PARTY’S CANDIDATE FOR CHANCELLOR, SEEMS TO BE DRAGGING THE PARTY DOWN WITH HIM

Germany’s election was his to lose, and he might just do that

ArminLaschetatapartymeetinginNuremberg.Reuters

KATHYGANNONKABUL,SEPTEMBER12

WOMEN IN Afghanistan cancontinuetostudyinuniversities,including at post-graduate lev-els, but classroomswill be gen-der-segregatedandIslamicdressiscompulsory,thehighereduca-tionminister inthenewTalibangovernment saidSunday.The minister, Abdul Baqi

Haqqani,laidoutthenewpoliciesatanewsconference,severaldaysafter Afghanistan’s new rulersformedanall-malegovernment.On Saturday, the Taliban hadraisedtheirflagoverthepresiden-tial palace, signaling the start oftheworkofthenewgovernment.Theworld has beenwatch-

ingclosely toseetowhatextenttheTalibanmightactdifferentlyfromtheir first timeinpower, inthe late 1990s. During that era,girlsandwomenweredeniedaneducation, andwere excludedfrompublic life.The Taliban have suggested

theyhavechanged, including intheir attitudes towardwomen.However, women have beenbanned from sports and theTalibanhaveusedviolenceinre-cent days against women pro-testersdemandingequal rights.Haqqani said theTalibandid

notwant to turn the clock back20years. “Wewill startbuildingonwhatexists today,”hesaid.However, female university

students will face restrictions,including a compulsory dresscode.Haqqanisaidhijabswillbemandatorybutdidnotspecifyifthis meant compulsory facecoverings. Gender segregationwill also be enforced, he said.“Wewillnotallowboysandgirlsto study together,” he said. “Wewillnotallowco-education.”Haqqanisaidthesubjectsbe-

ing taught would also be re-viewed.Whilehedidnotelabo-rate, he said he wantedgraduates of Afghanistan’s uni-versities to be competitivewithuniversity graduates in the re-gionandtherestof theworld.Talibanbannedmusicandart

during their previous time inpower.Thistime,TVhasremainedand news channels still showwomenpresenters,buttheTalibanmessaginghasbeenerratic. AP

Talibansaywomencanstudy ingender-segregateduniversities

Afghanswait in frontof abankinKabulonSundayas theytry towithdrawmoney.AP

RICKGLADSTONESEPTEMBER12

MYANMAR’S BRUTALmilitarycoupandtheTaliban’striumphalreturn to power in Afghanistanareamongthecrisesconfrontingthe United Nations as it con-venes its annual GeneralAssembly this comingweek.But Myanmar and

Afghanistanpresentafurtherco-nundrumfortheworld’sbiggestdiplomatic gathering: Who isthe rightful representative ofeachcountry?TheMyanmar junta, which

seizedpowerinFebruaryandhasbeenwidely condemned for adeadlycrackdownonopponents,hassoughttoreplacetheUNam-bassadorofthedeposedgovern-mentwitha junta loyalist.The Taliban, the violent, ex-

tremist Islamicmovement thatretook power last month afterthe American-backed Afghangovernmentcollapsed,isalsoex-pectedtoseekdiplomaticrepre-sentation,replacinganambassa-dorappointedjustafewmonthsearlierwithoneof itsown.The idea that a Myanmar

putschistoraTalibanmilitanton

a terrorismwatch list could be-come a credentialed UN envoymay sound dumbfounding. Buttheoreticallyitispossible—ifthegovernment that person repre-sentsisdeemedlegitimateintheeyesof theUnitedNations.Envoys from all kinds of po-

litical systems, fromparliamen-tarydemocraciestomonarchiesto dictatorships, have longworked at the 193-memberUnitedNations, theoneplace intheworldwhere even govern-ments that reject each other’sideologies enjoy somemeasureof equal standing. Still, there arestandardstoverifythelegitimacyof both the envoy and the gov-ernmentheorsherepresents.Verifying who represents

each country at the UnitedNations falls to the Credentials

Committee, a nine-membergroup appointed at the begin-ning of each year’s GeneralAssembly. Its work is normallyroutine, checking each envoy’sbonafidestoensurecompliancewithprocedural rules.The process getsmore com-

plicatedwhen the legitimacyoftheenvoy’s government is at is-sue,anddisputessometimesarereferred to the GeneralAssembly.“It seems this year’s

Credentials Committee will becalled upon to consider not justone, but two, questions of gov-ernment legitimacy,” RebeccaBarber, an Australian researchfellow at the University ofQueensland,wroteintheBlogofthe European Journal ofInternational Law. NYT

MARKMAZZETTI&MICHAELSSCHMIDTWASHINGTON,SEPTEMBER12

THEFBIreleasedanewlydeclas-sified document late Saturdaydescribing connections that theagency examined between thehijackers and the Saudi govern-mentintheyearssincetheSept.11,2001,attacks,althoughitcon-tained no conclusive evidenceabout whether the kingdomplayedarole in theattacks.The16-pagereport,whichwas

issuedhours after President JoeBidenarrivedat theWorldTradeCentermemorial inNewYork, isthe firstdocument tobereleasedsince the President last weekmovedtodeclassifymaterialsthatforyearshaveremainedsecret.FamiliesoftheSept.11victims

havelongpushedforadeeperin-

vestigation intoanypossible roletheSaudigovernmenthad in theattacks. Biden instructed theJusticeDepartment and federalagencies inrecentdays toreleasedeclassifieddocumentsover thenext sixmonths after a groupofhundredsofaffectedpeople—in-cluding survivors, emergencymedicalworkersandvictims’rel-

atives—toldhimtoskip theme-morial event at groundzero thisyearifhedidnotmovetodisclosesomeofthosedocuments.The document, which was

heavilyredacted,describesanin-terviewconducted inNovember2015withaSaudiman,identifiedonlyasPII,whowasapplying forAmericancitizenship.Hedetailedhis work at the country’s con-sulate in LosAngeles and sharedanecdotes abouthis personal in-teractionswith embassy leader-ship. The document also sum-marises his contactwith peoplewho investigators said hadpro-vided“significantlogisticsupport”totwoofthehijackers.Somemembers of the com-

mission that investigated the2001attacksbelievedthat if theSaudi government had any rolein the plot, it was likely to haveinvolvedconsularofficials.

But the document releasedon Saturday provided no newconclusive evidence about theSaudigovernment’s role.Speculationaroundthepos-

sible Saudi role increased overtheyearsbecauseof thegovern-ment’s refusal to declassify 28pagesofa2002congressionalin-quiry into the Sept. 11 attacksthatspecificallyaddressedpossi-ble connections between thekingdomandthe terroristplot.Thedocumentwasfinallyre-

leased in 2016, and it detailednumerous suspiciousmeetingsbetween Saudi officials and theSept. 11 hijackers, and checksfrom Saudi royals to operativesin contact with the hijackers. Itwas also anunflatteringpictureof the kingdom’s efforts tothwart American operationsagainstAlQaedaintheyearsbe-fore theattacks. NYT

BANGLADESH SCHOOLS REOPENTeacherswelcomestudentswithrosesataschoolinDhakaonSunday.Bangladeshhasreopenedschoolsandothereducationalinstitutionsafter543daysofclosureasitsvirussituationeasesandmorepeoplearevaccinated.Almost97%ofthecountry’steachersandstaffhavebeenvaccinated,thegovernmentsaid.Wearingmasks,studentsarrivedSundaymorningatschoolsthatweredecoratedwithballoonsandribbons.Reuters

ASSOCIATEDPRESSTOKYO,SEPTEMBER12

JAPAN’S GOVERNMENT saysmorethan50%ofthepopulationhasbeen fullyvaccinated.Japan’svaccinerolloutsbegan

inmid-February,monthsbehindmanywealthycountriesduetoitslengthy clinical testing require-ment and approval process.Inoculations for elderlypatients,which started inApril,were alsoslowedbysupplyshortagesofim-ported vaccines, but the pacepickedupinlateMayandhassinceachieved1milliondosesperday.EconomyMinister Yasutoshi

Nishimura, who is in charge ofCovidmeasures, toldNHKpublicTV’s weekly talk show Sundaythatabout60%of thepopulationisexpectedtobefullyvaccinatedby the endof September, onparwithcurrentlevelsinEurope.Thegovernmentisstudyinga

roadmap for easing restrictionsaroundNovemberwhena largemajorityof thepopulationisex-pected tobe fullyvaccinated.Theprogress of vaccinations

has helped reduce serious casesanddeaths amongolder people,butinfectionsfromvirusvariantsspread explosively in Augustamongyounger generations stilllargely unvaccinated, severelystraininghealthcaresystems.

REUTERSDUBAI, SEPTEMBER12

IRAN IS to allow theUNnuclearwatchdogtoservicemonitoringcameras at Iraniannuclear sitesafter talks onSundaywith IAEAheadRafaelGrossi, according totheheadof Iran’satomicenergybodyanda joint statement.The talkswith International

Atomic Energy Agency chiefGrossi were aimed at easing astandoffbetweenTehranandtheWest just as it threatens to esca-lateandscuppernegotiationsonrevivingtheIrannucleardeal.The IAEA said thisweek that

there had been no progress ontwo key issues: explaining ura-nium traces found at old, unde-claredsitesandgettingurgentac-

cesstomonitoringequipmentsothe agency can continue tokeeptrackofpartsofIran’snuclearpro-grammeasperthe2015deal.“Weagreedoverthereplace-

ment of the memory cards ofthe agency’s cameras,”

MohammadEslami,whoheadstheAtomicEnergyOrganisationof Iran (AEOI), was quoted assayingby statemedia.“IAEA’s inspectors are per-

mitted to service the identifiedequipment and replace theirstoragemediawhichwillbekeptunder the joint IAEA and AEOIseals in the Islamic Republic ofIran,”thenuclearbodiessaidinajoint statement.TheIAEAtoldmemberstates

in reports this week that therehad been no progress on twocentral issues: explaining ura-niumtracesfoundatseveralold,undeclaredsitesandgettingur-gentaccess tosomemonitoringequipment so the agency cancontinuetokeeptrackofpartsofIran’s nuclear programme asprovided forby the2015deal.

Quandary at UN: Who speaksfor Myanmar and Afghanistan?

GhulamMIsaczaiwasappointedUNenvoybythepreviousAfghangovernment.Reuters

FBI releases declassified documentrelated to September 11 attacks

ThedocumentwasdisclosedhoursafterBidenvisitedtheSept11memorialinNewYorkonSaturday.NYT

Japan passes 50%vaccination rate,may ease limitsin November

Iran to let IAEA service nuclearmonitoring cameras following talks

IAEAchiefRafaelGrossimeets Iran’sAtomicEnergyOrganisationheadMohammadEslami, inTehranonSunday.Reuters

ASSOCIATEDPRESSLONDON,SEPTEMBER12

AUTHORITIESINBritainhavede-cidednottorequirevaccinepass-ports for entry into nightclubsand other crowded events inEngland,Britain’shealthsecretarysaid Sunday, reversing courseamid opposition from some ofthe Conservative government’ssupporters inParliament.Health Minister Sajid Javid

saidthegovernmenthasshelvedtheideaofvaccinepassports fornow but could reconsider thedecisionifCovid-19casesriseex-ponentiallyonceagain.“We’ve looked at it properly

andwhilstweshouldkeepitinre-serve as a potential option, I’mpleasedtosaythatwewillnotbegoingaheadwithplansforvaccinepassports,” JavidtoldtheBBC.TheU-turncamejustdaysaf-

ter both the government’s vac-cines minister and the culturesecretarysuggestedthatvaccinepassports would still be neces-sary,despitegrowingoppositionfromlawmakers.Other European nations are

usingsimilardocumentsshowingpeoples’ vaccination status as away to re-open society — al-thoughtherulesvarywidely.EachofGermany’s16stateshasslightlydifferentrulesonwhatisrequired,

butingeneral,peoplearerequiredtoshowanegativetest,vaccineorrecovery certificate beforebeingallowed to participate in indoordining,drinkingordancing.Passes are required in France

when frequenting bars, cafes,restaurants,museumsandotherplaceswhere thepublic gathersand for long-distance travel onbuses,trainsandplanes.

UK ditches plan forvaccine passports

THEUKgovernment’splantorequireavaccinepassporthascomeunderseverecriticismfrommanywithintherulingConservativepartyitself,aswellasfromtheOppositionandfromtradeassociations.PeopleintheUKaregenerallynotrequiredcarryaroundidentificationdocuments,andtherequirementforavaccinepassporttoenterpubsorothercrowdedven-ueshasbeenseenbycriticsasaviolationofrights,aswellasamovethatcouldfurtherhurtperformersandthenightlifeindustrywhichhavealreadysufferedgreatlossesamidthepandemic.

CriticismfromallquartersE●EX

PLAINED

New Delhi

16THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

ECONOMYWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

Market WatchFPIS PUMP IN`7,605CR INSEPSOFARNew Delhi: Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have pumped in a net ofRs 7,605 crore in September so far. As per data from depositories,overseas investors invested Rs 4,385 crore into equities andRs 3,220 crore in the debt segment during September 1-9.PTI

KARUNJITSINGHNEWDELHI,SEPTEMBER12

THEGOVERNMENTisintalkswith exporters to help themdealwithaninternationalcon-tainershortagethathasledtofreightratesrisingbyover300percentinthepastyearforkeyshippingroutes.

Whyisthereaninternationalcontainershortage?Expertssaidthereduction

in the number ofshippingvesselsop-eratingasaresultofthepandemichaveled to fewer emptycontainers beingpicked up, leavingmany cases in in-landdepotsandstuckatportsfor longdurations. Longwait-ingtimesatkeyports, suchasthoseintheUSduetoconges-tion, are also contributing tolengtheningturnaroundtimefor containers. A sustainedglobaleconomicrecoveryhasaddedtotheimpetustotrade.The lackof availabilityof con-tainersandthefaster-than-ex-pected recovery in interna-tional trade has pushed upfreightrates.

HowisthecontainershortageimpactingIndianexporters?Indianexportersarefacing

major delays in their ship-mentsandconsequentliquid-ity issuesas theyhave towait

longer to receivepayment forexported goods. Exportersnoted that shipments that

usedtotake45daysarenowtaking75-90days, leading to2-3monthsofdelayin payments thatarecausingliquiditycrunch,particularlyforsmallexporters.

Howcanthegovernmenthelpaddressthisissue?Exporters are calling on

the government to regulatetheexportofemptycontain-ers.Expertssaidsomecoun-tries were willing to pay apremiumforemptycontain-ers and that thiswas furtheradding to the containershortage. They have askedthe government to curb theexport of empty containersatall IndianportsinlinewithamovebytheKolkataporttorestrictthenumberofemptycases permitted to be ex-portedto100pervessel forathree-monthperiod.

Full report onwww.indianexpress.com

SECTORWATCHGLOBAL SHIPPING

COSTRANSFORMINGTRADITIONALPRODUCTS INTOCONNECTIVITYTOOLS

Vaccination is the medicineto boost economy, says FMENSECONOMICBUREAUNEWDELHI,SEPTEMBER12

FINANCE MINISTER NirmalaSitharamanonSundaysaidvacci-nationwas theonlymedicine toboost the economy as it allowspeopletoconductbusinessesreg-ularlyorfarmerstocarryoutfarm-ingactivity.“Vaccinationprogrammehas

been going on smoothly in thecountryandsofar73crorepeoplehavealreadyreceived jabs freeofcharge.Today,throughvaccinationprogramme,peoplewereable toconduct business, traderswereable to procure products to runbusinesses, (thereby) boostingeconomy,orfarmerswereabletodofarming...So,vaccinationis the

only medicine (to combat thevirus, to boost economy)...,” shesaid.Sitharamanmadethosecom-mentswhiledeliveringanaddressat the centenary celebrations ofTamilnadMercantileBankSunday.“All our prayers are not for a

thirdwave(oftheCovid-19virus).Suppose,if itoccurs,thenonehas

to think about the availability ofhospitals,evenifthereisanhospi-tal,doesithaveanICUandevenifthereisanICU,doesithaveanoxy-gen support? For all theseques-tions, theMinistry announcedascheme allowing hospitals torampupexpansionwhen therewashuge impact in the countrycaused by the secondwave (ofCovid-19),”shesaid.Sitharamansaidhospitals lo-

cated in rural areaswere able totakeupexpansionworkbyavail-ingtheschemesannouncedbytheMinistry, including the “viabilitygapfunding”scheme.Shealsosaidbanks, including

private sector, should embracedigitisationtowardsensuringthatgovernment schemes reach thepoor.WITHPTI

‘GDP to expand 10% thisfiscal; sustaining 7-8%growth key challenge’

Zomato to pullplug on grocerydelivery servicefrom Sept 17ENSECONOMICBUREAUNEWDELHI,SEPTEMBER12

ZOMATOHASdecided to stop itsgrocery delivery service fromSeptember17onaccountof gapsinorderfulfillmentleadingtopoorcustomerexperience,markingitsexitfromthesegmentforthesec-ondtimesincelastyear.Thecompanyalso said that it

believes that its investment inGroferswill generatebetter out-comesforitsshareholdersthanin-housegroceryefforts.AZomato spokesperson said,

“Wehavedecided to shutdownour grocery pilot ... Grofers hasfoundhighqualityproductmar-ketfitin10minutegroceryandwebelieveourinvestmentinthefirmwillgeneratebetteroutcomes.”

NewDelhi: The economy is ex-pectedtogrowaround10percentduring the current financial yearonthe likelihoodof fewerCovid-linked supply disruptions andbuoyancyintheglobaleconomy,saidPoonamGupta,directorgen-eralof think-tankNCAER.The real challenge, however,

wouldbetosustainagrowthrateof 7-8per cent in years to come,shesaid.“Wecouldseeannualgrowth

in theballpark rangeof about10percent.Thereasonsforthisper-ceivedoptimismare: fewersup-ply disruptions; increasedpent-updemandinthetraditionalandcontact-intensiveservices;andabuoyantglobaleconomy.“Even so, if two pandemic

years are taken together, therewouldbeaverysmallnetgrowth.

In otherwords, the economy attheendof2021-22wouldbeonlyslightly larger than at the endof2019-20,”Guptasaid.Gupta is the firstwomandi-

rector general of NCAER. Beforejoining the think-tank, shewasthe leadeconomist at theWorldBank. Shewas also the ReserveBank of India Chair Professor atNIPFP, and a Professor ofMacroeconomicsat ICRIER.On the challenges being

faced by the Indian economy,she said the first one is to re-cover from the impact of Covidand the second is to sustainpost-Covid growth rates of atleast 7-8per cent.India has done rather well

during theCovid pandemic, pri-marilybecauseof therapidpaceofvaccination,Guptasaid.PTI

JACKNICAS&KELLENBROWNINGSANFRANCISCO,SEPT12

APPLE HAS taken to calling itsiPhoneAppStore an “economicmiracle,”andithaspointedtode-velopers like Zach Shakked asproof.ShakkedcreatedaniPhoneapp that helps companies findtrendinghashtagsonsocialmedia.Overthepast12months,hissaleshavetopped$5million.But one of Shakked’s largest

expenses is paying a cut to theworld’s richest company. In hiscase,Apple tooknearly $1.5mil-lion—itsfeeforlettinghimrunhisapponitsdevices.

Now, Shakkedhashope thathecouldsoonkeepatleastsomeofthatmoney.On Friday, a federaljudgeorderedApple toallowde-velopers to steer their customersoff their iPhone apps to pay fortheir goods or services, whichApple had banned. That is bignewsfordeveloperslikeShakked,because sales completedoutsideApple’spaymentsystemsarenotsubjecttoitscommissionofupto30percent.“It finally feels like the small

guysgotawin,”Shakked,25,said.“There’sasenseof justice.”TherulinginApple’syearlong

legalfightwithEpicGames,makerof the popular video gameFortnite, set off celebrations

amongappdevelopers.Fromone-person startups to Fortune 500companies, theyhave longcom-plainedaboutpayingheftycutsoftheirbusinessestoApple.Theimpactofthedecisionwill

bemostfeltbythesmallestdevel-

operslikeShakked.“It’saverybigdeal,”saidDenys

Zhadanov, a board member atReaddle.Thecourtfighthasoftenbeen framedasabattlebetweenindustry heavyweights: Apple,whichisworth$2.5trillion,versus

Epic,afarsmallercompanybutstilloneof the fewappmakers capa-bleof takingontheSiliconValleytitan. Friday’s verdict is not ex-pected to be a big hit to Apple’sbottomline. In fact, thecompanydeclared victory, since JudgeYvonneGonzalez Rogers, of USDistrict Court for theNorthernDistrict of California, ruled thatEpichadfailedtoprovethatApplehad amonopoly in themobilegamingmarket—whichwouldhave had amuchmore seriousconsequence.There could be a number of

barriers to the mandated AppStorechanges.Applecouldaskan-other judge to temporarilyblocktheorder,which is set to takeef-

fect in90days.Andbothcompa-nies could appeal the ruling, aprocess that could take severalyears. Apple could also restricthowdevelopersdirectcustomersofftheirappstocompletetransac-tions, includingbymaking themlistApple’spaymentsystemasanoptionandbarringthemfromof-fering discounts for customerswhodon’tpayviaApple.Suchdis-countsmaybenecessary toper-suadecustomerstotaketheextrasteps toopenawebbrowserandentertheircreditcardinformation,versus simply tapping a buttonandpayingviaApple.Nevertheless,thetidemaybe

starting to turn against Apple’stight control over its App Store.

Regulators in Japan and SouthKoreahaveforcedAppletotweakhow itmanages the store, andregulators and lawmakersaroundtheworldarealsoconsid-eringmeasurestocurbthecom-pany’s influence.MatchGroup,makerofdating

appsTinderandHinge,isontracktopayAppleandGoogle—whichcontrols a similar app store forphones that run itsAndroid soft-ware—morethan$500millionincommissions this year, the com-pany’ssinglelargestexpense,saidGary Swidler, Match’s financechief. The companywas alreadyconsideringways touse Friday’sruling to cut down that bill asmuchaspossible,hesaid.NYT

PRANAVMUKULNEWDELHI,SEPTEMBER12

WHILE LAUNCHING Ray-BanStories—smartglasses forwhichFacebookpartneredwiththeeye-wearbrand—thesocialnetwork-inggiant’sCEOMarkZuckerbergalluded to the product being an“important step” towards a timewhen“phonesarenolongeracen-tral part of our lives”. As compa-niesbothintheinternetandcon-sumerelectronics spaceattempttoharnessthewearablestechnol-ogy, the next port of call couldseeminglybeaugmented realityandvirtualreality.In itself, Ray-Ban Stories is a

pairofnormalwayfarersequippedwithacamera,microphone,asetof speakers,andstorageandcon-nectivitymodules, theproduct isapartof Facebook’s largerplanofbuildingglassesthataugmenttheworld visually and aurally. InSeptemberlastyear,thecompanyhad unveiled Project Aria, a re-searchproject to help Facebookbuildthe“firstgenerationofwear-able augmented realitydevices”.Facebook is alsoworkingonpro-totypeof neuralwristbands thatwouldwork alongwith the ARglasses to translate subtleneuralsignals into actions using elec-tromyography.

Evenasthesemodernisedren-ditionsoftraditionalproductsholdthepromisetochangehowinter-netisused,theycomewithahugeset of privacy concerns. Someofthe initial reviews of Ray-BanStorieshave shownotherpeoplefailingtorealisethattheglassesarerecording,despiteafeaturebeingbuiltintospecificallypreventthis.As theuseof theseproductspro-liferate,itbecomesevenmoreim-perative to have a data privacyframeworkinplace,whichiscur-rentlyabsentinIndia.Thisneedwasalsomadeevi-

dent when just a day after itslaunchthenewFacebook-Ray-Banproductinvitedattentionfromthedataprotectionauthority in Italy,whichhassoughtclarificationstoassesswhetherthesmart-glassesare compliantwithprivacy laws.TheItalianauthoritysaiditwantedto be informed on measuresFacebookhasput inplace topro-tectpeopleoccasionallyfilmed,inparticular children, aswell as onsystemsadoptedtomakedatacol-lectedanonymousandfeaturesofthe voice assistant connected totheglasses,Reutersreported.But Facebook is not the only

companyworkinginthisdirection.Augmented realityper se in lim-ited spaceshasonly limiteduse-cases.Forexample,howMicrosofthas introduced a “together

mode”as an addition to Teams,whichdisplaysalltheparticipantsinacalltogetherinavirtualspaceinstead of the grid of boxes thatTeamsandZoomoffer currently.However, when clubbed withwearables,adigital,three-dimen-sionallayeroftheworldiscreatedonthesedevicesthatwouldlettheusersinteractwiththevariousas-pectsof theworlddigitallyasonedoestodaywithasmartphone.Techcompanies,foryearsnow,

havebeenworkingonintegratingtheconnectingdeviceascloselyaspossiblewith the humanbody.And the ideas for this havebeencomingfromthefashionindustry.The storyofmostpopularwear-ableconnectivitydevice—smart-watches—showstheappetiteforadaptationtosuchdevices.“India’ssmartwatchmarket is inaboomphaseasmoreandmorepeopleare tryingout smartwatchesbe-

cause of the affordability factor.Smartwatchesarenowreplacingtraditionalwatchesandcomple-menting smartphone usage aswell,”saidCounterpointResearchSeniorResearchAnalystAnshikaJain. In 2016, when GooglelauncheditsVRheadsetsDaydre-amView, it specificallyobservedtheneedforwearabledevicestobefashionorientedratherthanbeingbulky electronic itemsand con-structed itsproductsusing light-weightclothandfoammaterial.In2017,NokiaBellLabsannouncedapartnership with BelgianFashionTech designer JasnaRokegemtodesign sentientgar-ments thatwould“actasasmartfashionableaugmentedskin”.In the eyewear technology

space, too, a number of playershaveattemptedand tried togainsomegroundbuildingupontheirexistingproducts.Googlewasthefirstbig-techcompanytobringoutGoogleGlass—afuturisticlookingpairofeyeglassespromisedtogiveitsusersanimmersiveconnectedexperience. Google Glass wasavailableforretailpurchasein2014but was shortly discontinued.Among the reasons for its failurewasa$1500-pricetag(Facebook’sRay-Ban Storieswill be sold at$299), andarangeof privacyandhackingconcernsfromusers.Amazonhaslaunchedapairof

smart-glassesunder itsEcho lineofproductscalledEchoFramesin2019. The company launched asecond-generationof the smartaudio glasses equippedwith itsdigital assistantAlexaearlier thisyear. Florida-basedMagic Leap, astartupbackedbyGoogle, AT&Tand NTT DoCoMo, released aheadset in2018 that cost $2,300,butwhichbasicallyfailedtoliveupto the pre-release functionalityclaims,withtheresult thatonlyafewthousandunitsbeingupbe-ing sold, according to tech-newswebsiteTheInformation.Ina2019report,PwCpredicted

thatARandVRhavethepotentialto add $1.5 trillion to theworldeconomyby2030, by catalysingproductivitygainsinareasinclud-inghealthcare,engineering,prod-uctdevelopment, logistics, retailand entertainment whileGoldmanSachsforecaststhatthemarket for such technology tobeworth$95billionby2025.Last year, India’s largest tele-

comfirmRelianceJioannouncedanewMixedRealitysolution,calledJioGlass.ThecompanystatedthatthenewJioGlasswasdesignedforteachersandstudentstoenable3Dvirtual roomsandconductholo-graphic classes via the JioMixedRealityserviceinreal-time.Apartfromthis,theycanalsobeusedtoperformvirtualmeetings.

■Astheuseof theseproductsproliferate, itbecomesevenmoreimperativetohaveadataprivacyframeworkinplace,whichiscurrentlyabsent in India.

NEEDFORPRIVACYLAW

BigTechrecasts‘wearables’:Privacyconcernsmaydrawregulatoryglare

ENSECONOMICBUREAUNEWDELHI,SEPTEMBER12

THE GOVERNMENT has ex-emptedtaxesontransferofassetsbyAirIndiatoSPVAirIndiaAssetsHoldingLtd,amoveaimedat fa-cilitatingstrategicdisinvestmentof thenationalcarrier.As a precursor to Air India

sale, the government in 2019hadsetupaspecialpurposeve-hicle, Air India Assets HoldingLtd (AIAHL), for transfer of debtand non-core assets of the AirIndiagroup.In a set of notifications, the

Central Board of Direct Taxes(CBDT)hassaidthatnoTDSshallbedeductedundersection194QincaseoftransferofgoodsbyAirIndiaLtdtoAIAHL.Also, no TDS shall be de-

ductedundersection194-IAofI-T Act on paymentsmade to AirIndia for transfer of immovablepropertytoAIAHL.The CBDT also said that Air

Indiawouldnotbeconsideredas‘seller’forthepurposesofdeduc-tion of TCS for with regard totransferof goodsby it toAIAHL.It said that transferof capital

asset under plan approved bycentral government from Air

India Ltd toAIAHLwouldnotberegardedas transfer for thepur-poseof incometax.Lastweek, the CBDT had al-

lowednewowners of erstwhilepublicsectorcompaniestocarryforward losses and set it offagainst futureprofits.Thisisanefforttowardsmak-

ingdisinvestmentdealsofailingstate-owned firmsmore attrac-tive forstrategic investors.Thegovernmentisseekingto

sell100percentofitsstakeinthestate-ownednationalairline, in-cluding Air India’s 100 per centshareholding in AI Express Ltdand50percent inAir IndiaSATSAirportServicesPvtLtd.Thestrategicsalehasreached

the crucial phase with theSeptember15beingthelastdateforputtinginfinancialbidsbypo-tentialbuyers.WITHPTI

“Today,throughvaccinationprogramme,peoplewereabletoconductbusiness,traderswereabletoprocureproductstorunbusinesses,(thereby)boostingeconomy”

NIRMALASITHARAMANFINANCEMINISTER

JNPT inMumbai. File

How is containercrunch sinkinginternational trade?

ENSECONOMICBUREAUNEWDELHI,SEPTEMBER12

THE GOVERNMENT has ap-pointed 31 members to theBenchesoftheNationalCompanyLaw Tribunal (NCLT) and theIncome Tax Appellate Tribunal(ITAT) after the SupremeCourturged the government to fill va-canciesimmediately.TheAppointmentsCommittee

of theCabinet approved the ap-pointmentofeightjudicialand10technicalmemberstotheNCLTaswell as six judicialmembersandsevenaccountantmemberstotheITAT, according toacommunica-tion by the Department ofPersonnel and Training onSaturday.TheBenchnotedthatitdidnot

wantaconfrontationwiththegov-ernment on this issue. The ap-pointmentstotheNCLTareforfiveyearsoruntilthememberreachestheageof65whileappointmentsto the ITATare for4yearsoruntilthemembersreachtheageof67.TheSupremeCourthadcalled

out the government lastweek,saying the government had“emasculated” tribunals, suchastheNCLT,bynotappointingmem-bers.Thecourtnotedthata“criti-calsituationhasarisen”duetothevacancies at the NCLT and theNationalCompanyLawAppellateTribunal (NCLAT)with respect tothecompletionofcorporatebank-ruptcyproceedings.Seventy five per cent of the

4,541corporate insolvencycasesthatwere ongoing at the endofJune had crossed the 270-daythreshold.Thebankruptcylawre-quires that corporate insolvencyproceedingsbecompletedwithin330days, including a 60day al-lowance for litigation. Cases thatdonotyieldasuccessfulresolutionarerequiredtobesentforliquida-tionbarringexceptionalcases.TheBenchhadsaiditexpected

appointments bySeptember13,thenextdateofhearing.BenchesoftheNCLTdealwith

matters pertaining to companylawaswellasbankruptcyresolu-tionwhiletheITATdealswithap-peals related to income taxmat-ters. The industry has flaggedconcernsabout longpendingva-canciesattheNCLTasakeyreasonbehinddelays inbankruptcy res-olutionundertheInsolvencyandBankruptcyCode.The Standing Committee on

Finance had also called out thegovernmentontheimpactofva-canciesattheNCLT,whichisalsooperating without a full-timepresident,andtheNCLAT,which

is operatingwithout a full-timeChairperson.“There is no respect for the

judgments of this court, that iswhatwearefeeling.Thereistest-ing thepatienceof the court…,”Chief JusticeofIndiaNVRamana,headingathree-judgeBenchwithJusticesLNageswaraRaoandDYChandrachud, told SolicitorGeneralTusharMehta.

PTIaddsAndhra High Court judge

JusticeTelaproluRajani, BombayHigh Court Retired (Rtd) JudgeJustice Pradeep Narhari Desh-mukh,MadrasHigh Court RetdJudgeJusticeSRamathilagamandDistrictCourtJudgeDeepChandraJoshi areamongthoseappointedjudicialmemberstotheNCLT.Thenewly-appointedtechnicalmem-bers include Principal Commi-ssioner of Income Tax Ajai DasMehrotra,RetdNHPCCMDBalrajJoshi,RetdMinistryofPanchayatiRaj Secretary Rahul PrasadBhatnagar,RetdPrincipalDirectorGeneral of Income Tax SubrataKumarDash,RetdDepartmentofConsumer Affairs SecretaryAvinashKSrivastavaandRetdSBIChief General Manager ShreePrakashSingh.Six judicial members have

beennamedtoITAT.Theyaread-vocates Sonjoy Sarma, S Seetha-lakshmi and TR Senthil Kumar,Additional District & SessionsJudgesShatinGoyalandAnubhavSharma, and LawOfficer in SBIManomohanDas,PTIreported.

‘Manufacturing outlook in Q2improves; cost of doing biz rises’Theoutlook for increasedmanufacturingactivities in thesecondquarter of this fiscal hasbeen significantly improved,thoughcost of doingbusiness is rising, according toa surveybyFederationof IndianChambers of Commerce& Industry

Methodology Responses have been drawn from over 300manufacturing units from both large and SME segmentswith a combined annual turnover of over 2.7 lakh crore

Source:Ficci/PTI

Hike in production costs,industry respondentsattributed to, primarily highfixed costs, higher overheadcosts for ensuring safetyprotocols, and a drasticreduction in volumes due tolockdown, as per Ficci’s latestquarterly survey (Q2) onmanufacturing

Lower capacity utilisation,high freight charges and other

logistic costs, increased costof rawmaterials, power cost,and high-interest rates alsofactors for the hike

After experiencing subduedQ1, the outlook seems to haveimproved significantly inQ2

Highpercentageofrespondents experiencing therising cost of doing businessand production

Around58% of participantsare expecting a rise in theiroutbound shipments duringthe second quarter

68%MENTIONEDTHAT THEY

ARE NOT LIKELY TOHIRE ADDITIONALWORKFORCE IN THENEXT THREEMONTHS

THERECOULDbeanumberofbarriers to themandatedAppStorechanges.Applecouldaskanother judgetotemporarilyblocktheorder,which is set totakeeffect in90days.

POSSIBLE BARRIERS

A nick to Apple’s profits could be windfall for app developers

Applestore,NewYork. Reuters

BRIEFLYI-Trefundsof`70,120crNewDelhi:The IncomeTaxDepartmentonSundaysaidithas issuedrefundsof overRs70,120croretillSeptember6thisyear.

‘ReleaseofDA,DRarrears’NewDelhi:BharatiyaPensi-oners Manch (BMS) hassought interventionof thePrimeMinisterforreleaseofDAandDRarrearsforcentralgovernment staff andpen-sionersattheearliest.PTI

Air India transfer of assets toSPV to be TDS, TCS exempt

Air India flightatMumbaiairport. File

Post SC nudge, govt appoints31 members to NCLT, ITAT

TheappointmentstotheNCLTarefor5yearsoruntil thememberreaches65while that totheITATarefor4yearsoruntil themembersreachtheageof67

New Delhi

SPORT/CALENDAR 17WWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COMTHEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

CROSSWORD4533

ACROSS1 Loseone’sgripanddecide totakenofurtheraction(4,3,4)

9 Hurriedsocurry is spoilt(7)

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11 It flowsoutof line (4)12Anevent forwinepeople(4,4)

14 Declinewith littlehesitation(6)

16 ImpressionistRenoirreproduction?(6)

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DOWN2 Countryriver -aRussianriver(5)

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13He likes tomakethingsbetterforananagrammatist(8)

15 Disportaroundthephotographer’sequipment(7)

17 Someinsultangers theruler(6)

20Seatof learning?(5)21 I’ma leaderofMuslims(4)

ARIES (Mar21 -Apr20)Don't be slow incoming forward, foryoudeserve tobenumberone.And

neither is there anyneed topursuea conventional course.If you followahunch thenyoumight find that you reachyourdestinationbyaverydifferentandmuchquicker route.

TAURUS (Apr21 -May21)Youcanafford tobequite laidbacktoday, but if you’reright in themiddle

of aprofessionalwrangle oranydisputewith authority,checkupon the legal angle,andaskwhateverquestionsarenecessary toget to the rightanswer.Don’tworry aboutwhat otherpeople think, that’stheir business.

GEMINI (May22 - June21)Youmightbelievethatmoney is themost importantthing in theworld,

but you’dbewrong. It’s the lawthatmattersmost, andyouneed tobeabsolutely andperfectly sureof your rights assoonaspossible. And thenthere’s a little questionofjustice and that’s yourreal goal.

CANCER (June22 - July23)When thecircumstancesdemand, youcanalways call onyour

legendary compassion, and it’sextremely likely thatotherswill look for yoursympathy today.However, inspite of first appearances, thebest remedymaybenomoretaxing thananice chatwith aclose friend.

LEO (July24 -Aug23)There is anarrowline tobedrawnbetweenkeepingyour emotional

defencesup,which isdesirable, andcuttingotherpeopleout,which is not. It’s allamatter of beingkind toyourself, butmaintainingaproperbalanceall round,acknowledgingpartners’ veryreal concerns.

VIRGO(Aug24 - Sept. 23)It looks as if thismightbe averybusyweek,which is onegood reason to take

things slowly andconserveyour energy today. But, then, itcouldbe the case that,whileyourplans change frequently,youdon’t actually achieve agreat deal. A child or youngerrelation requires reassurance.

LIBRA (Sept24 -Oct23)If you sense thatyou’re about tohitanemotionalturning-point,

you’re right,which iswhy thisparticular time is sovital formaking sure that youremotional foundations arefirm.Youmust convinceotherpeople that youknowwhatyou’redoing and that youcan succeed.

SCORPIO (Oct24 -Nov22)Somepeoplesaythatlife iswhathappenswhenwearebusymakingplans.And

rightnowit’sdifficulttosaywhat’saroundthenextcorner.Yourbestpolicyistoreadyforlastminutechangesandwelcomeanyopportunitytotryoutsomethingtotallynewanddifferent.

SAGITTARIUS(Nov23-Dec22)Youmay lookbackonpreviousfinancial blundersandwonderhow

youwereever sonaive.However, according tooneofthose strange lawsof fate, themomentyoudwell on thepast,someonewill take advantageof youagain. Focusoneverything that’s goodandthingsmust get better.

CAPRICORN(Dec23 - Jan20)TheMoon ismakingits presence feltagain, so takeadvantageof every

single opportunity to exertemotional control, especiallyat home.Alwaysbe flexible, forthemomentyou lapse intooldhabits, your actionswillreboundonyou.And thatwouldneverdo.

AQUARIUS (Jan21 -Feb19)Everything thathappenedover thelast twoweeks, andevenover the last

sixmonths, canbe seenas arehearsal for the comingupheavals andopportunities.Make sureyouhaveall plotsand schemes thoroughlyworkedout in yourownmindbefore goingpublic.

PISCES (Feb20 -Mar20)Youare still living aninner life that fewpeople canglimpseand fewer still can

understand, but thecumulative result ofeverything that takesplace thisweek shouldbe togiveyouasort of inwardglow.Youshouldbelieve inyourself,evenwhenotherpeople can’tgraspwhat you’redoing.

SUDOKU4593

DifficultyLevel5sInstructionsTosolveaSudokupuzzle,everydigitfrom1to9mustappear ineachofthenineverticalcolumns, ineachoftheninehorizontalrowsandineachofthenineboxes.

DifficultyLevel1s=Veryeasy;2s=Easy;3s=Medium;4s=Hard;5s=VeryHard;6s=Genius S

OLU

TIONSUDOKU4592

Givenbelowarefour jumbledwords.Solvethejumblestomakeproperwordsandmovethemtotherespectivesquaresbelow.Selecttheletters intheshadedsquaresandjumblethemtogettheanswerforthegivenquip.Thefirstmangetsthe___,thesecondmangetsthe___.-AndrewCarnegie(6.,5)

SOLUTION:CREEL,SLOPS,TELLER,CHOPPYAnswer:Thefirstmangetstheoyster,thesecondmangetstheshell.-AndrewCarnegie

CLEER RETELL

LPOSS COPPHY

SolutionsCrossword4532:Across:1Bumper,4Crossbow,9Rarest,10Wayfarer,12Nuts,13Relay,14Race,17Shortcircuit,20Postedabroad,23Ache,24Faint,25Skye,28Appendix,29Humane,30Indigent,31Zealot.Down:1Baroness,2Marathon,3Easy,5Roadaccident,6Soft,7Barsac,8Warren,11Registration,15Stood,16Limbo,18Cocktail,19Adherent,21Salami,22Shaped,26Snug,27Ruse.

JUMBLEDWORDS

OVERTHEHEDGE byMichael Fry&TLewis

CALVIN&HOBBES byBillWatterson

MARVIN byTomArmstrong

DAYTODAY BYPETERVIDAL

MIHIRVASAVDASEPTEMBER12

ASIA AND Africa on one side. Europe andSouthAmericaon theother.Someof thegame’s legendsononeside.

A fewcurrent starson theother.At the centre of the incoming storm is

FIFA.Feelingthethreatofbeingsweptasideis UEFA, the body that controls the game inEurope, thenervecentreofworld football.When coaching great ArseneWenger

proposed the idea of having aWorld Cupeverytwoyears,onewondersifhehadimag-ined that itwouldsplit the footballworld insuchadramaticfashion.Onthefaceof it,thisseems like a straightforward debate. Butscratch the surface and multiple layersemerge,themostcrucialbeingtheenduringpowerstrugglebetweenFIFAandUEFA.

MoneymattersFIFA andWenger, while proposing this

idea,saidthefanswouldbemoreinterestedin watching ‘meaningful’ matches, whichmightbetruegiventhatmorethanabillionpeoplewatchedthe2018WorldCupfinalbe-tween France and Croatia. They’ve alsoclaimedthattheplayerswouldlikemore chances to play in aWorld Cup. Critics, however,have constantly pointed at athird element, which they al-lege is themainmotivebehindthismove. “All aboutmoney,”Liverpool manager JurgenKloppsaidrecently.FIFAraisedapproximately$6billioninrev-enue fromthe2018WorldCup.Thismoneywas generated by selling broadcast rights,tickets andsponsorship. FIFAhopes that in-stead of having just oneWorld Cup in fouryears, conducting two during the same pe-riodwoulddouble its income.

Power struggleThisiswheretheclashofpowerbetween

FIFA and UEFA takes place. FIFA, as theFinancial Times noted, is ‘challenging clubsand leagues’ for a larger share of profits asthe sport continues to grow. The worldbody’s president, Gianni Infantino, is tryingto do soby increasing thenumber of teamsin theWorldCup from32to48andalsoex-panding theClubWorldCup.TheUEFA,tryingtoprotectitsownfinan-

cial interests, sees this as a threat to its owncompetitionsforthesimplereasonthatmoreinternationalmatcheswill directly eat intoEuropean club competitions – continentalanddomestic–thusimpactingtheirrevenue.AWorldCupevery twoyearswouldalso

have a cascading effect on the continental

championships like the Euros,which is cur-rently held between two World Cups.According toWenger’s proposal, the Euroswill have to change the yearwhen it is heldand thus, each seasonwill concludewith abig-ticketeventinJune.AsReutersexplained:‘Forexample,in2028therewouldbeaWorld

Cup. In 2029, therewould be aEuropean Championship (andsimilar continental competi-tionsaroundtheworld)thenin2030 therewould be the nextWorldCup.”

Domino effectThiswould, in turn, have an

impactonallothercompetitions.FIFAhasnotyetmadeclearwhathappensinanOlympic year, orwhat happens if theWorldCup is tobeheld inacountrywhere theonlyoption is toplaythetournament inwinter,asis thecasewithQatar2022. Not just football,amajorfootballtournamenteverysummer–andaWorldCupeverytwoyears–wouldeatinto themarket for other summer sports,somethingwhichWorldAthletics presidentSebastianCoeunderlinedlastweek.“Icanseenogoodreasonforit.Theremaybevestedin-terestsherebutthesummersportsareprotec-tiveaboutthelandscapeasit’shardenoughforthemasit istograbspaceinthetraditionalordigitalmedia. A biennialWorld Cupwill in-evitablystartclashingwiththeOlympicGamestoo,”CoewasquotedassayingbyTheGuardian.

European boycott?Amidst all this lackof clarity,UEFApres-

ident Aleksander Ceferin has threatened aboycott. “We can decide not to play in it. AsfarasIknow,theSouthAmericansareonthesame page. So good luckwith aWorld Cuplike that,”Ceferin toldTheTimes.

TheSouthAmerican confederationhas-n’t publicly spoken about a boycott yet, buthas also opposed the idea. However, ifEurope does as Ceferin has threatened – afar-fetchedscenarioatthemomentbutasit-uationthatcouldescalateanytime–itwouldtakeallthesheenawayfromtheWorldCup,giventhatEuropeanteamshavewonallbutone edition since 1998 and also have thehighest representation in thesemifinals.Sofar,onlyAsiaandAfrica–thetwocon-

federations that relyheavilyonFIFAmoney–haveopenlybackedthe idea.Or tobepre-cise,justahandfulofAsiancountries–Nepal,Bangladesh, Sri Lanka andMaldives – thathave not come close to qualifying for theWorldCup.SaudiArabiasettheballrollinginthisdebatebyformallyputtingforwardthisproposal ataFIFACongress thisyear.

Divided opinionThere’s a split among players andman-

agersaswell.Lastweek,severalofthegame’slegends gathered in Qatar and backed theidea.“IfyouaskMessiorCristianoRonaldoiftheywouldlovetohavemoreopportunitiesto win theWorld Cup, I'm sure they'd sayyes,” BrazilianWorld Cupwinner RonaldosaidatapressconferenceonFriday.MessiandCristianohaven’tspokenonthe

issue.ButGarethBale,oneof thestarsof thisgeneration, did not seem too enthused. “Idon’tlikeeverytwoyears.Ifeelitlosesthatbitofhistory.Thefactit’soverfouryears,andit’salongtimeuntilthenextone,makesitthatbitmoreprestigious,”Balewasquotedassayingby Reuters. Eventually, itwon’tmatterwhatplayers,managers,administrators,fansorthemedia feel about this. The final decisionwillbe taken by the 211 FIFAmember nations.Infantino, it is reported, iskeentoholdavoteinDecemberthisyear.Andthesplitinthefoot-ballworldmightnotbegoodnews for thosewhoaren’t fansof thebiennialWorldCup.EuropeandSouthAmerica,theonlycon-

federationswhohavebeenvocalagainsttheidea,havea totalof 65votesbetweenthem.IfAsia,AfricaandtheAmericasvoteinfavouroftheidea,noneofthevoicesagainstthepro-posalwouldmatter.

E●EXPLAINED

BiennialWC:Wenger’s proposalthat has split the football world

ArseneWengerbelievesaWorldCupeverytwoyearswillgivemoreplayersachancetoplay in it.Reuters

EuropeandSouthAmerica, theonlyconfederationswhohavebeenvocalagainst the idea,haveatotalof 65votesbetweenthem. IfAsia,AfricaandtheAmericasvote infavourof theidea,noneof thevoicesagainsttheproposalwouldmatter

Football teammanager hackedto death insideBengaluru stadium

EXPRESSNEWSSERVICEBENGALURU,SEPTEMBER12

A 27-YEAR-OLD history-sheeter, who alsomanaged a football team, was hacked to

death at the Bengalurufootball stadium onSundayevening.The deceased has

been identified asAravindKumar(inpic).According to the police,the incident took placeat around 4 pm when

four or five assailants barged into theground and chased Aravind before killinghim insidea changing roomfor referees inthemain stadium.Players and spectatorswere shocked to

see aman being chased by armedmen ontheground.TheincidenttookplaceminutesbeforethestartofanADivisionfootballgameforwomen in themainstadium.DeputyCommissionerofPolice(Central)

MNAnucheth said Aravindwasmanaginga local teamand had come to play in a 6-a-sidetournamentattheBBMPgroundoppo-siteKSFABengaluru football stadium.“At about 4pm, four to fivepersons sur-

rounded and assaulted him. He then fledfrom the spot and entered themain KSFAfootballstadiumlocatedoppositetheBBMPground.Hewentinsideareferee’sroomandlockedhimself in.Theaccusedpersonsthenbrokethedoorandhackedhimtodeathus-ingdeadlyweapons,”police said.A case of murder has been registered at

the Ashok Nagar police station and twoteamshavebeenformedtoidentifyandnabtheaccused.Police said gang rivalrywas themotive

behind themurder and Aravindwas a his-tory-sheeterattheBharathiNagarpolicesta-tion ineastBengaluru.

ArmyRed hold GokulamKalyani:DefendingchampionsGokulam

Keralawereheldtoa2-2drawbyArmyRedin their openingmatch of the Durand Cupfootball tournamenthereonSunday.Gokulam scored through Rahim

Osumanu (9th minute) and SharifMohammad (70th)while P Jain (30th) andBikash Thapa (43rd) found the target forArmyRed.The Malabarians started on a positive

note, courtesy a spectacular long-rangegoal from Ghanaian Rahim Osumanu butfailed to capitalize in the later stages.GokulamKeralagoalkeeperRakshitDagargot injured after a collision with ArmyRed'sMukeshKumar andhewas replacedby PAAjmal. PTI

ASSOCIATEDPRESSMONZA,SEPTEMBER12

CHAMPIONSHIPLEADERMaxVerstappenanddefendingchampionLewisHamiltoncrashedoutoftheItalianGrandPrix,whichwaswonbyMcLaren'sDanielRicciardoonSunday.ItwasMcLaren's firstwin innearly nine

years, since Jenson Button took the che-quered flag in Brazil in 2012. It was alsoRicciardo's first win sinceMonaco in 2018.He finished 1.747 seconds ahead of team-mate Lando Norris and 4.921 ahead ofValtteri Bottas, who turned in a strong per-formanceafterstarting fromthebackof thegridafterapenalty for takinganewengine.But the biggest talking point of the race

came on lap 26. Hamilton had pitted fromtheleadandreturnedtothetrackjustinfrontof Verstappen. The Red Bull driver tried tocome up the inside on a turn as the seven-timechampiondefendedhisposition.As the twomade contact, Verstappen's

car catapulted on to the top of theMercedes as both slid into the gravel. Theprotective halo ring at the front of F1 carcockpitsmayhavesavedHamiltonfromse-rious injury. "That'swhatyougetwhenyoudon't leave the space," said a furiousVerstappen over team radio.Bothdriverswereabletowalkawayfrom

theircarsthoughHamiltontookalongtimegettingout of his, only clamberingout afterVerstappenhad longgone.Thestewardswillinvestigatetheincident

after therace.Ricciardowontheraceafterabrilliant start allowed the Australian driverto pass Verstappenwho started from polepositionat turnone.Behind them Hamilton, who started

fourth, managed to pass Lando Norris. Buthethenattemptedtotryandgetaroundtheoutsideof Verstappenheading into the sec-ondchicaneandwasinsteadforcedoffacrossthegrass,allowingNorristoregainhisplace."He (Verstappen) pushed me wide!"Hamiltonexclaimedover teamradio.HamiltonwasthenheldupbyNorrisand

could onlywatch in frustration as RicciardoandVerstappenstretchedtheiradvantagelapbylap.Ricciardowasfirsttopit,onlap23,andcameoutseventh.Verstappenwasstrugglingwithhistiresandstoppedonthefollowinglap.Butabotchedpitstopthatlasted11.1sec-

ondssawhimcomeoutin10thand,tomakemattersworsefortheDutchdriver,Hamiltonhad in themeantime passed Norris to takethe lead.Butdisaster struck forbothdriversshortlyafterward.

Daruvala finishes 5thIndia's Jehan Daruvala missed out on

podium,settlingforafifthplacefinishintheFeature Race of Formula 2 here on Sunday.Daruvala, who had sealed his secondFormula 2winwith a dominating drive inthesecondsprintraceonSaturday,wasslug-gish fromsecondandclocked56:41.936.Oscar Piastri clinched a dominant first

Feature Racewin, beating Guanyu Zhou toextend his Championship lead. Piastri hadbeenunable to convert pole in thepreviousroundatSilverstone,losingouttoZhouwhenthe lights went out but looked to havelearnedfromtheexperienceandcompletedtheopening lapat the front.Jumping from third to second off the

line,Zhoukept thepressureonthroughoutthe race butwas unable to find away pasthis title rival.

Ricciardo wins Italian GP asVerstappen, Hamilton crash

RedBull’sMaxVerstappenandMercedes’LewisHamiltoncrashout.Reuters

ONTHEPODIUM1.Ricciardo(McLaren) 1:21:54.3652.Norris (McLaren) +1.747seconds3.Bottas (Mercedes) +4.921

DRIVERS’ STANDINGS: 1. MaxVerstappen (Red Bull Racing) 226.5points,2.LewisHamilton(Mercedes)221.5, 3. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)126,4.LandoNorris(McLaren)114,5.SergioPerez (RedBullRacing)108

New Delhi

VolLXXXIXNo.262Regd.No.DL-21046/03-05R.N.I.No.506/57. PrintedandPublishedbyR.C.Malhotraonbehalf of The IndianExpress (P) LimitedandPrintedatThe IndianExpress (P) LimitedPress,A-8, Sector-7,Noida -201301andDBCorpLtd,DainikBhaskarVillageUnanTola,NearDanapurCantt, ShivylyaRoad,Post

Khagaul, Shahpur, Patna (Bihar) andPublishedatThe IndianExpress (P) Limited,MezzanineFloor, ExpressBuilding,9&10,BahadurShahZafarMarg,NewDelhi110002.Editorial office:The IndianExpress (P) Limited,MezzanineFloor, ExpressBuilding,9&10,BahadurShahZafarMarg,NewDelhi-110002.Phone:0120-6651500.Advertisingoffice:The IndianExpress (P) Limited,B1/B, Sector-10,Noida-201301.Phone:01206651291.Chairmanof theBoard:ViveckGoenka,Chief Editor:RajKamal Jha, Editor:UnniRajenShanker, Editor (Delhi):RakeshSinha**

**Responsible for selectionofNewsunder thePRBAct.Copyright:The IndianExpress (P) Limited.All rights reserved.Reproduction inanymanner, electronicorotherwise, inwholeor inpart,withoutpriorwrittenpermission isprohibited.The IndianExpress®

CHRISTOPHERCLAREYNEWYORK,SEPTEMBER12

WEADAPTquickly.It'spartofthehumanspirit,whetherwe are teenage tennis stars or thepeoplewho lineupand take a seat towatchthemintheworld'sbiggesttennisstadium.Twoweeksago,thevastmajorityofushad

never heard of Leylah Fernandez or EmmaRaducanu.Fernandezhadneverbeenpastthethird round in amajor tournament andhadstruggledtofindherbestforminrecentweeks.Raducanujoinedthetour inearnestonlythissummerandhad tomake it through theoff-Broadwayqualifying tournament to secure aspotintheU.S.Open.ButbySaturday,whenFernandez,19,and

Raducanu,18, tookto thecourt foroneof themost unlikelyGrandSlam finals,we alreadyhad a connection. They had boldlyworkedthroughthewomen'sdrawduringthisspecialU.S.Open,whichwas full of communionbe-tween theplayers and thepublic after all thedistancingof thelastyearandahalf.By Saturday, thosewhohadbeen follow-

ing their unexpectedprogress alreadyknewabouttheirstrengths,theirmulticulturalback-groundsandeventheirquirks:Fernandez'sjigbehindthebaselinebeforewalkingforwardtoserve,Raducanu'shabitofblowingonherfin-gersbetweenpointsasif tocooloffaveryhothand.ButwhatwasmoststrikingSaturdaywas

howquicklybothunseededplayersadjustedtothisgrandoccasion, calmlygiving thoughtfulprematchtelevision interviews,walkingpastBillie Jean King's quote on the tunnelwall,which says that "pressure is aprivilege," andthenwalkingpastKingherselfastheyemergedintothelate-afternoonsunshineforthebiggestopportunity of their short careers.Itwas allnew, but youwouldnot have known it oncethe ball was in play, as both attacked theirgroundstrokes anddid their best to seize theoccasionevenafterhavingnearlytwofulldaystothinkabouttheoccasiononcetheyhadwontheirsemifinals.Aftertheintroductions,Fernandezripped

abackhandcrosscourtwinnerontheopeningpoint. Raducanu later pounded a backhandwinnerof herowntohold serveandwin theopeninggame.RaducanuandFernandezbothheld firm, extending rallieswith their quick-nessanddefensiveskillsonthemove,smartlysending lobshigh intotheatmospherewhencornered.Butjustasimpressively,theyfinishedpointswithauthoritywhentheyhadcreatedthespacetogoforwinners.Theirstylescontrastinsomeways.Theleft-

handedFernandezusesmorespinandenjoysdeployingthedropshot.Hertechniqueismoreartisanalthantextbook,withherhandsoftenfar apart on the grip on a two-handedback-handassheimprovisesonthefly.The right-handedRaducanu favorsmore

directpowerandhas fabulous fundamentalsthat allowher to control the ball evenwhileswingingferociously. Shehasaknackformak-ingthetrickyshot looksmoothandanabilitytorunaroundherbackhandinaflashandripan inside-out forehand that Roger Federer

couldrelateto.Someof theirextendedrallieswerespectacularSaturdayastheyexchangedbackhandboltswithnaryagrunt,theirsneak-erssqueakingonthehardcourt.OnlyRaducanuwouldgetthatgreatsatis-

faction,andalthoughthescoreof6-4,6-3willlook fairly lopsided in thehistorybooks, any-onewhowatchedwill knowthat thematchwasmuchmoretenuousthanthat."Thesetwoyoungwomenareagifttoten-

nis,anabsolutegift,"AndyRoddick, the2003U.S.Openmen'schampion,wroteinapostonTwitter. Roddickwas right to shine a light onbothplayersonSaturday.FernandezisnotyetaGrand Slamchampion, but she is aworld-class fighterwhowalksbetweenpointswiththe steely determinationof someoneonherwaytobreakupabarbrawl.She andher familyhave sacrificedplenty

for her tennis career, andafter losing aback-and-forth first set, Fernandezhadevery rea-son to still believe in her chances. Sheupsetthree players ranked in the top five -NaomiOsaka, Elina Svitolina andArynaSabalenka -aswellasAngeliqueKerber, a formerNo.1 inresurgent form. Fernandezhadbeaten themallinthreesets,sowhenRaducanutooka5-2lead in thesecondsetbutwasunable tocon-vertherfirsttwomatchpointsonFernandez'sserve,Fernandezgrinnedasifsheknewsome-thingthatnobodyelseyetsuspected.Why should shenothavebelieved in an-

other comeback? Butwhen she got a breakpointinthenextgame,shehadtowaittoplayitasRaducanu,whohadscrapedherleftkneewhileslidingforashot,tookaninjurytimeouttocleanuptricklingbloodandhavethewoundbandaged.Thestoppagewaswellwithintherules,but

inthisthinker'ssportofebbsandflows,itmayhavemadethedifference.Raducanusaidshewas concerned about losing her rhythm, aswell.ButitwasFernandezwhoexpresseddis-pleasureaboutthe longpausetoofficialsandthenpushedaforehandlong.Raducanuthensavedasecondbreakpointwithaleapingtapofanoverhead.Shewasback todeucewithArthurAshe

StadiumabuzzandpresumablymostofBritainwide awake, as thematchwas broadcast inprimetimeinRaducanu'shomecountry.This time, she did not flinch, surprising

Fernandezwith a fine servedown theT thatgaveher commandof the rally andbroughtherathirdmatchpoint.Shemulledheroptions,tossedtheballhigh

andsmackedanacetobecomethefirstqual-ifierinthelonghistoryoftennistowinaGrandSlamsinglestitle.In10matches,sheneverlostaset."Inever

thought Iwould see it, so I'm in shock," saidKing, who watched from the stands asRaducanu felltothecourt,herhandscoveringherface. NYT

18THEINDIANEXPRESS,MONDAY,SEPTEMBER13,2021

SPORTWWW.INDIANEXPRESS.COM

Cinderella story

Beforethefinal,Raducanu’sreturnpointswinpercentagewas52percent,whichwassecondamongallplayersattheUSOpen.AP

SHAHIDJUDGESEPTEMBER12

THEFIRSTall-teenageGrandSlamfinal since1999 showcased carefree, risk-taking strokesmixedwith graceful technique, impressivecomposure, andwith EmmaRaducanu andLeylah Fernandez involved, a whole lot ofsmiles.Eventually, itwas 18-year-oldRaducanu

whoprevailed 6-4, 6-3 over the 19-year-oldCanadianinwhathadbeenanimprobable,butnot undeserved, US Open run forbothplayers.TheBritbecamethefirstwoman fromher country towin aGrandSlamtitlesinceVirginiaWadetook the 1977Wimbledon crown.Shebecamethefirst-everqualifiertoreachaMajorfinal,letalonewinningit.AndtheWorldNo.150becamethelowest-ever rankedUSOpenchampion - theunrankedKimClijsterswonin2009.RaducanuisprojectedtoclimbtotheWorldNo.23rankonMonday.Shewentfrombeingaqualifiertoa championwithout dropping a set. But thelongestmatchsheplayed in the tournament,thefinallastinganhourand51minutes,was-n’t just aboutmindless ball-striking. Here’showthefinalwaswon.

Targetingbackhand,thenforehand,thenbothIntheopeningexchanges,itwasclearthat

Raducanuhadcomewithaplantotarget theleft-handedFernandez’s backhand. Even if it

meanttakingrisksoverthehigherpartof thenet, Raducanu would whack the ball toFernandez’srightwheneverpossible.TheployworkedforawhileasFernandezcouldnotun-leashherangled forehandstrokesasoftenasshewouldhaveliked.By the sixth game though, the Canadian

hadstartedtoanticipateRaducanu’sshots.So,theBrit changed tactics andbeganhitting tothe Fernandez forehand. As thematch pro-gressed, she’d vary thedirectionof her shotsandkeeptheCanadianguessing.

TheRightyServeLeft-handerstendtohaveanad-

vantage against right-handersnotused to facing southpaws– that’sarguablywhat helped Fernandezbeat defending championNaomiOsakainthethirdround.The‘lefty’serve–anangleddeliveryfromthe

ad-courtdeepintothebackhandsideofaright-hander-drawstheopponentoutofposition.However,Raducanuprovedthattheright-

handerservingwithaheavyangleintoalefty’sbackhandcouldalsobeadvantageous.Raducanu’searlystrategyinthematchwas

toaimatFernandez’sbackhand.Itwassome-thingthatcontinuedtobotherFernandez.TheBritwouldoften servewide fromthedeuce-court,andthendowntheTfromthead-court.But shewould still throw in a fewserves

theotherway.Crucially,twopointsawayfromthetitle,withRaducanuservingforthematchat 5-3, deuce, she serveddown theT, andonmatchpoint,hithersecondacewide.

BigreturnsofserveBefore the final,Raducanu’s returnpoints

win percentage was 52 per cent, secondamongallplayersattheUSOpen.Shecontin-uedtoreturnwithrelishagainstFernandezaswell.Shewon38of78receivingpoints (49per

cent)inthematch(22of46inthefirstsetand16of32inthesecond).Themost important returns shemade,

though,cameinthesixthgameofthesecondset. Shestarted thegameoffwithapowerfulbackhanddownthelinereturnwinner,andhitanotherbigreturntosetupthepointthatwaskilled offwith a forehandwinner to go0-30up.At30-40,therewasanelementof luckin-volved. Fernandez got hold of a strong firstserve that drewaweak and short return. Asthe Canadian stepped up to slot home,Raducanu guessed right andhit a forehandwinner togo4-2up– thebreak thatdecidedthematch.

BetternumbersRaducanufinishedthematchwith22win-

nersand25unforcederrors.Fernandezscored18 winners but had 26 unforced errors.CruciallyforFernandez,herfirstservepercent-agewas low– shehit only 45 of her 78 firstservesin(58percent),andcouldwinjust25ofthem(56percent).Comparatively,Raducanumade48of70firstservesin(69percent),andwon32pointsonthefirstserve(67percent).TheCanadianfaced18breakpoints,saving

14ofthem.Raducanufacedninebreakpointsbutwasbrokenonlytwice.

Method to Raducanu’s glorious madness

MaindrawqualifierEmmaRaducanuwinstheUSOpenfinal6-4,6-3beatingfellowteenLeylahFernandez

Raducanu's firstGrandSlamtitlehascomeinhersecondappearance inthemaindraw.Noother

womanintheOpenerahasplayedfewermajorsbeforewinningone.

2

Intermakes1stmisstepintitledefencewithdrawRome: InterMilanmade the firstmis-stepofitsSerieAtitledefensewitha2-2drawatSampdoriaonSunday.There-sult left the Nerazzurri two pointsbehindNapoli,whichextendeditsper-fectstartwitha2-1winover Juventuson Saturday. With nine goals in itsopening threematches, Inter has nothad trouble scoring after RomeluLukaku'sdeparturetoChelsea.Barella,a keymember of the Italy squad thatwontheEuropeanChampionship,hasprovided assists in all three of Inter'smatches this season. But the teammissedreliablecenterbackAlessandroBastoni,whowasoutwitha left thighinjury that he picked up on interna-tionaldutywithItaly.Itremainsunclearif Bastoniwill return intimefor Inter'sChampionsLeagueopeneragainstRealMadridattheSanSiro. AP

AsgharAfghanslamsPaineinletteroverT20WCcommentsKabul: Former Afghanistan captainAsgharAfghanhasslammedAustraliaTest skipper Tim Paine for his com-mentsthatthewar-torncountrylooksimpossibletoplayintheupcomingT20WorldCup, askinghimnot to "deliveraggressivestatementswithoutknow-ingthecircumstances".InanopenlettertoPaine,Afghansaidthathiscountry'steamhas the right to playnot only intheupcomingT20WorldCupbutinallICCorganized tournaments/events inaccordancewith therulesandregula-tions. Soon after forming the interimgovernment, the Taliban bannedwomenfromplayingcricketoranyoth-ers sports, casting doubts overAfghanistanmen's Test status. As perICCrules,allTestplayingnationsmusthaveawomen'steamaswell. PTI

WinnerdisqualifiedforwearingwrongshoesformarathonVienna: Ethiopia's DeraraHurisawasdisqualified for wearing thewrongshoes after winning the ViennaMarathononSunday.The24-year-oldHurisacrossedthelinefirstbythreesec-ondsbutwaslatertoldhehadbeendis-qualifiedbecausethesolesofhisshoeswere1centimeter (0.4 inches) thickerthan themaximum4centimeters al-lowed.OrganizerssaidHurisahadreg-isteredanothershoethatmetracerules,butswitchedtotheshoeshehadusedintrainingtoruntheactualmarathon.“Ican'tsayatthemomentwhyhedid-n'trunintheshoesthatwerespecifiedintheform,"racecoordinatorJohannesLanger said. LeonardLangatof Kenya,whohadoriginally finishedsecond, in2hours,9minutes,25seconds,wasde-claredthewinner. AP

BRIEFLY

HOCKEY INDIA ANNOUNCES SQUAD FOR CAMPHockey India on Sunday named 25 players, including the members of nationalteam that secured a historic fourth place at the Tokyo Olympics, for the seniorwomen's national coaching Camp scheduled to begin in Bengaluru from Monday.PTI

Harvey Elliott's injurysours Liverpool winREUTERSSEPTEMBER12

MOHAMED SALAH's 100th Premier League goal helpedLiverpool cruise to a 3-0 victory at 10-man Leeds United onSundayinamatchthatwasmarredbyanastyinjurytoteenagerHarveyElliott.After a lightning-fast start to the game, Salah became the

30th player to join the Premier League's 100-goal club in the20th minute, tapping home from close range from a TrentAlexander-Arnold cross.

The visitors missed a host of chancesto make it two in the first half, beforeFabinhomadeonecount early in the sec-ondperiod toput JuergenKlopp's sideoncourse for threepoints inWestYorkshire.Therewasaworryingsight later inthe

half as Elliott needed lengthy treatmentonthepitchfollowingatacklefromLeeds'Pascal Struijk, with the hosts' substitute

shownastraight red card for the challengeby the referee.Elliottwastakenoffonastretcherwithwhatappearedtobe

a serious leg injury, receiving applause from Leeds fans as hewas takendownthe touchlineLiverpool regainedtheircomposuretoaddastoppage-time

third through Sadio Mane to put the seal on a victory thatmoved them above Manchester City into third in the stand-ings, while Leeds sit 17th without a win from four leaguematches this season.Meanwhile, Chelsea beat Aston Villa 3-0 on Saturday for

their 600th Premier League victory to move joint top of thestandings alongsideManchesterUnited after Romelu LukakuandMateoKovacic scored for the first timeatStamfordBridgethis season.

LEEDSUNITED 0-3 LIVERPOOLMohamedSalah20’

Fabinho50’

SadioMane90+2’

IJUSTWANTTOSAYTHATIHOPEICANBEASSTRONGANDASRESILIENTASNEWYORKHASBEENTHELAST20YEARSLEYLAHFERNANDEZ,after losingtheUS Openfinal toEmmaRaducanuonSeptember11

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